"This was the first step. The first real step that is. The first step humanity had to work together for, the first step outside of the little bubble we call earth. That little dusty print on the moon, casted, preserved, and studied for decades: That was the true first step of humanity. And now it's time for the second." -- Mission log, Bruce Johnson, Captain of the Armstrong 19 mission (2042 AD / 73 PA). "The visionaries came first. The hopers of far-flung hopes and dreamers of improbable dreams. They were followed by the idealists, the romantics, those who wanted to move humanity forwards and ride the crest of the wave. Entrepreneurs came next, and adventurers, hardy people prepared to build lives for themselves in the empty wastelands. But they're all crazy, and they all have one name in common. Colonists. I'm proud to be one of them." --Lunar Mayor Micheal Springsteen, Tranquility base (2078 AD / 109 PA). "And now, in every crack and every crevice, in the deepest nights of the solar system and during the hottest noon, there is one common factor. Under the icy sheets of titan, and suspended in the acid clouds of Venus, spread between the mining colonies of Mercury and the machines of the moon, Humanity now rests, evermore, in space." --Harmony day speech, Chairman Hens, Eous station (2213 / 244 PA) "Expanding outwards at the speed of light, the greatest cataclysm the galaxy has ever seen spreads its organic grip. Riding in climate controlled metal bubbles, forced forwards by the power of a star's core, the explorers forge new links in a chain; a chain years long and decades in the making, a chain outward. Away from the comfort of their home system, away from the roiled politics of their solar system, 1 trillion humans climb outwards towards the stars. The universe will never be the same." --Commemorative broadcast, Travis O'Connor . (PA 388 / AD 0) (Title in progress)