Apologies if it appears like the second space race is rushed.
Everything that isn't mentioned in the timeline during the current era still happens unless it obviously wouldn't work with something stated in the timeline.
Going to note that all of the alien names from cannon races are from Fantasy Name Generator.
Apologies if the human names are lacking in diversity.
I'm removing antimatter as it opens to many cans of worms.
2015:
The New Horizons probe reaches Pluto only to find that Charon is not a moon but a 5 km artificial structure with a core with unique properties.
It takes until 2016 for all the data to reach Earth.
2016:
The data is fully obtained by NASA. Using the data NASA figures out a way to differentiate Element Zero (named due to the fact that even though the atoms have mass, without a current it does not have any gravitational field) from its normal counterparts. The US government tries to keep the eezo method to differentiate eezo from normal matter and the structure secret but it leaked onto the internet and the world learned it is not alone.
All around the world people, corporations, and governments all try to find deposits of eezo, finding many deposits.
Research into the applications of eezo becomes one of the main focuses of the scientific community with countless billions in corporate and government funding helping them along. All of the data from New Horizons is dissected by everyone who can get their hands on it and the UN gives NASA the funds to send another probe alongside a massive increase in funding.
This event fundamentally changes humanity, but the world still goes on.
2017:
Eezo's mass altering properties are discovered. A rough design for a modified ion engine that dramatically increases acceleration by increasing the mass of the propellant is proposed. The design is approved and the first prototype is expected to be completed in two years.
A research facility explodes in Japan during a test to see how much of a current can be sent into eezo. The explosion spreads eezo stored in the facility across a small amount of Tokyo, containing around 1 million people [There is significant backlash due to the event but I'm not talking about it]. Several more events like this occur over the years.
2018:
A concept to use eezo to decrease the mass of the atmosphere around an object during reentry to decrease friction and lower the amount of heat shielding needed is proposed. The idea is further expanded as a protection system against micrometeoroid.
The Hermes project begins. The project's goal is to launch 30 probes of various designs across the solar system within the next 15 years.
30% of the children born in the aftermath of the eezo event have negative health consequences because of it but 20% gain strange abilities. Scientists begin to research these children and eventually names these abilities biotics.
2019:
The ion engine is completed, and testing begins. The 10 kg prototype is capable of producing 15 newtons of thrust per second. This is an order of magnitude superior to any previous ion engines and without a substantial increase in power requirements.
2021:
A Starship prototype is tested with the kinetic energy reduction systems (commonly called kinetic barriers as shorthand or shields by the Internet) and a eezo core that lightens the craft to fraction its original mass launches. The test is a huge success and marks the beginning of the second space race as the cost of space travel dramatically reduces with eezo.
There is a massive resurgence in space agencies across the world with an increased amount of funding being put into existing ones and new ones being created.
2022:
The first prototype element zero enhanced weapons are tested.
A small amount of eezo tech begins to be seen outside of scientific institutions and the military.
The Starship design is scrapped and SpaceX begins to design a new vessel that takes advantage of all of eezo and all its benefits, while still using many of the starship components. In the meantime current rockets are modified with eezo, dramatically increasing their effectiveness.
2025:
Humanity reaches for the moon once more as over a dozen private and government landings are planned to occur within the next decade.
The Distrupter is invented and replaces high explosives as the premier payload for newer weapons.
2026:
Hermes 1-5 are launched and go to different locations. NASA plans to launch 5 probes per year. Hermes 1 is sent to Charon to conduct tests on the structure; it is expected to arrive in 2031.
2027:
Humanity lands on the moon once more as a ship with 4 humans on board lands on the moon.
Another five Hermes probes are launched.
The SpaceX Traveler is completed. It and the other new spacecraft coming out in the next few years are massive improvements on all previous spacecraft.
2028:
The first semi permanent outpost is constructed on the moon. It hosts several rovers that operate out of the base and recharge and repair there alongside a habitable area meant to test the moon's gravity's effects on the human body and the proposition of further colonization.
Another five Hermes probes are launched.
The first Space hotel begins operation. The hotel has room for 30 guests and is 50,000 USD a trip per person and an additional 10,000 a night. The hotel has multiple attractions, including EVA, zero g sports and an observation area that is a transparent aluminum dome looking down at the earth.
The first industrial space station is completed. It is meant for zero g manufacturing.
A ship with zero g mining equipment travels to a near earth asteroid that has been surveyed and extracted billions of dollars in rare elements. Further expeditions are planned by many different groups.
2029:
Armstrong colony is founded. Powered by a fission reactor, the colony's 200 personnel operate hundreds of robots and an automated mining, refining, and production base meant to supply resources for zero g manufacturing and further construction without dealing with the earth's gravity or atmosphere.
It takes over 100 trips to bring the materials for the colony to the moon but it is expected to earn back its cost 10 fold.
Another five Hermes probes are launched.
2030:
Unity stations comes online. A joint project of 15 countries, the station is the largest man made structure in space, 30 times the size of the ISS, and the first station with a working rotating section, creating 0.3 Gs of gravity. The station is equipped with sophisticated production facilities capable of producing parts, satellites, probes, spacecraft, and even other stations.
The stasis pod is invented. The stasis pod puts the body in a near death state, keeping just enough operational so the person inside does not die. This allows for mass transportation of people.
Another five Hermes probes are launched.
Several more lunar colonies are set up.
A spacecraft collides with an old satellite, causing both to break up and cause countless hypervelocity projectiles that hit other objects. This causes tens of billions of dollars in damage and dozens of dead but luckily doesn't create a full Kessler Syndrome event and can be relatively contained. This event shows how humanity needs a central authority on space travel to prevent another catastrophe.
The United Nations Space Administration (UNSA) is founded to control space around earth to ensure no accidents occur and promote expansion into space.
2031:
Hermes 1 reaches Charon. It does many tests including an attempt at getting samples from the structure. Unfortunately the Hermes 1 failed to get a sample and is destroyed during the attempt, luckily most of the data was already sent back to earth.
The UNSA purchases several spacecraft and equip them to remove space debris.
Another five Hermes probes are launched.
A 1.3 mt metallic asteroid is moved to the L4 point by the new company Galactic Manufacturing. Their plan is to hollow out the asteroid and tern it into a massive zero g manufacturing base while using the money from the resources to keep the operation going. The project is expected to take 20 years but the facility is expected to be partially operational by 2040 with the ability to build small items.
A manned expedition to Mars is launched.
2032:
The final 5 Hermes probes launch. Due to the rapidly advancing technology, the probes are almost obsolete.
The UNSA takes over watching for near earth asteroids.
The first space warship is launched by the US, the USS Shepard. This causes an arms race between the nations of earth to militarize space. By the end of the decade, for every 4 tons of civilian spacecraft, there is 1 ton of warship.
The Mars expedition reaches the planet early in the year and becomes the first humans to ever step foot on the red planet. They set up a colony, and more people come after them.
Expeditions are launched to Venus, Mercury, Jupiter's moons and Ceres. Ceres becomes a jumping board for colonization of the asteroid belt while the same is true for Jupiter's moons for resource extraction from the Gas Giant.
2033:
The battle of Jamestown M32 becomes the first battle on the moon. The Chinese colony of Jiàngluò and the American colony of Jamestown both find a deposit of Iridium. Both send out robots to claim the deposit and set up shop. The Americans get there first but when the Chinese robots get there the operator decides to use his robots' mining equipment to destroy the American robots. The Americans at Jamestown decide to send robots to destroy the Chinese robots.
This escalates over several days culminating in a confrontation between the American and Chinese naval forces at Luna, causing the destruction of 3 ships and the deaths of 35 naval personnel. The conflict ends with a ceasefire and an agreement between the countries that includes the Chinese robot operator being given to the US and many other things. The UNSA is given control over mineral claims from this point forward to prevent another conflict like this from occurring.
Another expedition is sent to the structure, this time including half a dozen probes for redundancy. It will arrive in 2036 due to the improved engines.
2034:
The first cost effective fusion reactor is created. Many more will be constructed in the coming years.
The first ground to orbit MACs begins to be built near the colonies to protect them in case of a war.
Tensions on earth continue to increase.
The expeditions reach their targets and set up colonies, each with a population of 1,000 people stored in stasis pods.
2037:
A new type of element is found in on an asteroid near Earth. The element is too large to be stable and is quite confusing, as it should have a half life but does not. It is learned that the element, named Tylium, is a type of eezo that, when a current is put in it, produces a lot of energy. A Tylium powered reactor can produce 85% of the power of a fusion reactor of equal size, but can be downsized far easier and the reactor is cheaper to make, even if the fuel is a order of magnatude more expensive.
Only a fraction of unstable isotopes are turned into Tylium, and it clumps up into large clusters of it.
The rarity of Tylium and the developed fusion technology leads to it not being adopted as the primary power source, but the small size the reactor can be and it low cost leads to it still being used, and thus it is still mined and searched for. It is also used for disruptors as it is easier to detonate than more stable eezo.
2040:
Humanity celebrates the human population in space reaching 25,000.
The 20 year war begins. The world devolves into conflict as a clusterfuck of revolution, rebellions, and wars commence. The nations of earth are in a stalemate as they cannot produce more sophisticated equipment in large amounts or even at all in some cases due to broken supply chains, meaning that any equipment destroyed cannot be replaced. This leads to militaries taking a conservative approach in order to minimize losses but leading to a long war where the goal is more to cripple the enemies ability to fight them, not conquering them. The war shares more similarities with the 30 years war then the world wars.
Massive amounts of civil strife rocks the world as the problems that have been building for decades all boil over. Most of the nations who entered the war would not make it out, and those who would will be heavily changed.
The colonies are mostly cut off from earth. Most of the orbital structures are destroyed but the Lagrange points stations, asteroid mines, and lunar colonies are mostly intact. Most of the warships are destroyed in the battle for earth orbit and those that remained got caught up in the Kessler syndrome cascade that was caused by the battle, leaving the colonies without any supervision and the earth unable to send anything up due to the debris.
Due to the cost of sending up things from earth, even with eezo, the colonies were designed to be mostly self-sufficient and those things they could not produce, sophisticated equipment, could be produced by the remaining manufacturing stations at the L 5, and L 4, and moon side. The colonies coordinate so they can survive, led by the UNSA in exile even after the fall of the UN in 2041.
2041:
The NASA base and communication dishes for the second Charon expedition are destroyed, leaving the probes abandoned and left to drift in space without direction.
All biotics over the age of 15 are conscripted in most militaries. Attempts begin to be made to enhance Biotic abilities.
The first child is born in space by Amelia Jones of the ZM-15 manufacturing station. She is moved to Armstrong due to it having the best medical facilities in the colonies. Both child and mother live and the baby girl is named Luna.
This event leads to the people of the colonies realizing that if the war on earth goes nuclear, the colonies would be all that is left of humanity. This revelation leads to the colonies preparing for that, in their eyes, eventuality.
2043:
The first act of piracy in space occurs when a small single man Mining Ship steals a Cargo Pod filled with food and vital equipment inbound to a mining outpost of 40 people from Ceres and tries to ransom it to the outpost for a large amount of resources.
Instead of giving in, the outpost sends out three of its own one man Mining Ships and a Cargo Shuttle to where they determined the pirate is and put the pod, causing the odd Battle of Timathe's Eye (asteroid named after the large crater in the center of the spherical asteroid and the person who first mined it).
None of the craft in the battle had actual weapons, so they had to use ttheir chemical engines as weapons by trying to hit the other ships with their exhaust. In the end, one of the outpost ships is heavily damaged, another runs out of fuel, the pirate's ship is crippled, with the pirate killed, and the Cargo Shuttle has to tug all three ships and the Cargo Pod. .
2045:
The brain-machine interface is created, allowing for humans to command machines with their minds and, more importantly, download information into their minds. This allows for training to be done insanely fast with only a minimal amount of actual training to ensure that the information took. This also revolutionized education.
2053:
Nations start covertly deploying bio weapons on the populations of other nations and even on the elderly of their own population to conserve resources.
The first Biotic Amp is created.
2060:
The war ends with a billion dead, mostly from starvation, Bio weapons and disease. The powers that remain got tiered of the fighting and made peace. The following years would be spent rebuilding what was lost.
The few ships still on earth cannot exit the atmosphere due to the debris still there from the beginning of the war that did not fall to Earth or was savaged by the colonists.
In order to allow access to space to resume, the nations ask the UNSA for help in clearing the Earth's orbit. The UNSA agrees on the conditions that the UN is reformed and the UNSA regains its power and gains more. After some deliberation, the nations agree.
The UNSA regains its authority as the ruler of space, but with more powers and more objectives. While the rest of the UN still has little power the UNSA has full authority in regards to space and unclaimed territory. The UNSA is in charge of distributing territory on planets, moons, asteroids, and all other objects in space, they are usually distributed via an auction. The UNSA is also pramited to have a small navy for patrol and police actions.
2061:
The removal of the debris is completed and space is open to the people of earth once more. The colonies begin to send materials to earth once more and humanities expansion recommences.
2070:
It is discovered how to implant eezo nodules into unborn fetuses, making them biotic.
Victor Manswell, discontent with the pace of human expansion, funds a colonization attempt to the Alpha Centauri system
Sleeper Pods now allow for the brain to continue operation while in the pod and connect to the internet with their Neural Interfaces. This allows people to spend days, weeks, months, or oven years without using their bodies, connected to the internet while their bodies are kept alive in the pods
2072:
The first Helium-3 fusion reactor is created, its aneutronic fusion allows for lighter reactors and gives more power than current reactors, making it exceptionally popular for ships.
2075:
Earth has recovered from the war, and is experiencing a golden age. The population numbers are not expected to recover for a while, but those who survived and have been born since then live far better on average than the people pre war. Human medicine has advanced to the point that, theoretically, a human can live forever with medical assistance.
The population in space has reached 1 million.
An expedition is launched to Charon. 20 probes travel to Charon over a few weeks with the superior new drives. Humanity now has the first chance to study the structure that opened space for humanity up close for the first time in decades. Countless tests are performed on the Structure, to little success.
Nothing gets results and few new discoveries are made.
The Manswell Expedition primer launches, a small number of probes, packed up mirrors, and machines meant to prepare the system and put up the deceleration system.
2080:
The Manswell Expedition launches, 12 250,000 ton ships carrying a million people in stasis pods are brought up to 15 % the speed of light and head off to Alpha Centauri.
2090:
Jump Zero is created as Earth's farthest colony in the Sol system. The mobile station is meant to be a springboard for colonization of the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt.
UNSA starts sending large swarms of probes to nearby systems at 20% of the speed of light.
2091:
The first colony is created on Pluto. It is named Acheron.
2092:
Techno-telepathy is created by directly connecting human brains using the Neural Interfaces.
2095:
Armstrong Colony (now Armstrong City) is the first location off Earth to reach a population of 1 million people.
2100:
Human population reaches 12 billion with 15 million in space
The Earth begins to overpopulate and attempts to elevate it by colonization are unsuccessful.
The economy begins to decline.
2102:
Deuterium-Deuterium Fusion is invented. While most reactors on stations and planets are switched for D-D reactors, ships keep H3 reactors due to their lower mass.
2105:
Ganymede is discovered to have large eezo deposits, leading to an eezo rush and a rapid increase in the moon's population.
2110:
The Manswell Expedition makes contact with Sol.
The Manswell Expedition has colonized a world in the Alpha Centauri system. The world is a Third class Garden World, having similar gravity to earth, a magnetic field, liquid water, a relatively thick atmosphere, and primitive life, but lacking any life bigger than a single or small collection of cells, and a sufficient amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.
It is learned that the colonists named the world Alexandria and it is a third class Garden World.
Contact is kept with the colony with trade of data occurring; autobiographies, and data sold to Sol and tech updates and new entertainment sold to the colony.
2115:
Ganymede's population has increased from 135,000 to over half a million. This increases the Jovian League's population by half and causes serious problems as the immigrants and natives fight.
2116:
The Jovian Wars begin as civil wars break out in many of the nations of the League. In the end the League breaks apart and the nations and the insurgents and paramilitary forces begin to fight each other.
There is an increase in terrorist activity on earth. Over the years, since they could not fight, the nations of earth funded insurgents, rebels, revolutionaries, and terrorists in rival states. This has begun to get out of control as some groups detach from their patrons and get more brutal while others get higher funding and do more damage.
Many nations send war materials, trainers and the occasional spec ops units to their favored factions in the Jovian Wars. Many warships begin appearing around Jupiter to protect mining facilities to lower the wars' damage to the operations and by proxy the already deteriorating economies of the nations. They also send data to their governments' favored sides.
2120:
The Jovian population has decreased by 35 % as the war gets progressively bloody.
The war reaches the rest of Sol as a incident where a JSF (Japanese Space Force) fleet attacks a Colonial Union fleet leads the rest of the fleets to believe that war had begun on earth and they had not learned about it due to the comm delay, this war exasperated when communications intercepted from the JSF Jovian flagship claim that they were ordered to attack the fleet and war had begun. In reality this was a lie created by the mentally unstable Admiral who wanted to start a war, but that was learned too late as the fleets had already started shooting each other. Ironically the fighting around Jupiter started a war in the rest of Sol.
The War of Sol begins.
Unlike the 20 years war space was not safe from the conflict as space is more developed with 18 million people compared to the 25,000 at the start of the 20 years war, 720 times the population, and there are hundreds of warships in space. Station became battleground to be fought over while ground base colonies became fortresses, their underground nature, vast resources, and confined spaces making them near impossible to invade.
The UN and UNSA dissolve.
2121:
The Colonial Union dissolves. Its cities and stations each becoming their own nations. The smaller ones are destroyed or taken over while the larger ones hold on.
Piracy begins to make a comeback as defenseless colonies are attacked by independent forces including mutinous warships.
2125:
A high eezo asteroid is redirected by a group called End of Man, a group who thinks that humanity is a blight to the universe and should not exist. The group's small but fanatical force gets a spacecraft and redirects the asteroid so that it hits Earth, hoping that the loss of Earth would be a deathblow to humanity. When the nations note the asteroid it is already near Earth. In a panic a temporary ceasefire is set up by the Admirals and all the fleets jointly attempt to stop the asteroid. It is too close to be redirected so a massive attack is launched at the asteroid to break it apart. Coilguns, missiles, fusion bombs, the combined fleets of humanity try everything and eventually secede, the asteroid is in millions to billions of tiny pieces that, while causing a massive lightshow, would kill the Earth. What they did not know of is the eezo, and it would cost them. The eezo carpets almost all of the planet. People and animals and plants all die in massive numbers. Over 600 million die from the eezo in the weeks and months to come and Earth will not recover for a long time, without humanity it would never recover at all, becoming one of the countless dead rocks that litter the galaxy. Many countries do not survive the event as their populations die out to unsustainable numbers. Improvements in medical technology, and the increase in the amount of the population living in isolated environments like archologies drastically degrees the amount of deaths caused by the event, with simulations, showing that just a century before the amount dead would reach 40% of the population.
In the face of 5% of humanity dying, the causes of the war seem small and it ends in short order as humanitarian efforts supersede the conflict.
Humanity starts to rebuild, no grand end to the conflict, no grand speeches or statements, just a horrifying number and a world in ruin.
2126:
The number of Biotics in the human population explodes.
Those governments that survived begin to rebuild and new ones fill in the places of those lost.
The Sirta Foundation is formed to help with engineering humanity to survive on the new earth. It expands into multiple other fields.
The UN and UNSA are reconstituted.
2130:
The Gia Initiative is started by the Sirta Foundation to catalog and store the DNA of all species.
2135:
Humanity finally manages to fix the ecological tailspin enough that the world starts to slowly get better. Countless species die out and those who remain show Biotic tendencies. The eezo, which is impractical to remove, makes it impossible for the old species, who the humans have the DNA of, to go back into the planet's ecosystem in their natural state as humanity genetically alters them to be more suitable for the new environment. They also do this to humans to make it easier to live on earth with the elevated eezo levels. A side effect of the modifications is a higher rate of Biotics and a high survival rate for those exposed to eezo in the womb.
2136:
The Jump Zero Facility is reperposed in order to test diferent methods of FTL.
2143:
The Internatinal Orbital Transport Project is created by the UN to greatly improve Earths ability to reach orbit and the rest of the system by creating a massive Orbital Ring for Earth. The project is expected to take 20 years.
The UN is given a permanent military force so it is not dependant on the nations to enforce its edicts and to deal with piracy. While the ground forces are made their own department, the UNSA us given control of the warships.
2149:
Humanity's first FTL capable manned ship launches from Jump Zero. Theoretically, all of the data says the ship should work, and several unmanned prototypes have been tested, but it is unknown what traveling faster than light would do to a human. The test is a success.
The system does have some limitations: It may be faster than light, but it is not instantaneous, the prototype could only go five times the speed of light and the scientist believe that, with current technology, a ship could only go 30 times the speed of light without being destroyed. This Goldstine Limit (named for the head scientist of the project) is combined with the next problem with the drive to make it unable to be used for Interstellar travel, static oveload. Ask the drive operates it will accumulate static electricity, which will destroy most sensitive components of the ship, including humans, after a significant enough time without it being discharged. The time between discharges cannot be more than a couple dozen hours.
The system is used to revolutionize interplanetary travel while work begins on circumventing its problems with Interstellar travel.
2152:
The UNSA probe swarm the went to the Epsilon Eridani System's data arrives at the Sol System. The system is discovered to have four planets and a pair of asteroid belts. The second planet from the star is found to be a first class Garden World, or atleast used to be one.
On the world the probes find dead robots, humans, and a radioactive wasteland. Having been given Instructions for what to do in situations ranging from crippling damage to first contact, the swarm follows protocol and investigates the world. The data colected shows that the planet was nuked approximately 2,000 years ago, and, at the time, the population was between 2 and 5 billion.
This discovery shocks Humanity as their is no explanation besides alien or divine intervention for how an entier civilization of Humans existed over ten light years away. This event causes a significant uptick in conspiracy theorists and a religious reawakening in a not insignificant portion of the Human population.
Rather morbidly, the UNSA decides to name all the planets after cities that have been nuked: Nagasaki, Hiroshima (the Garden World), Los Angeles (Accidents during the Second American Civil War, 2051), and London ( terrorist attack, 2083).
The UNSA begins looking into a manned expadition to the system.
First case of FTL happens in Human Space. While piracy wa still alive in Human Space, it was limited. The fact tha ships could be easily tracked meant that violent piracy was not viable, so those few pirates that existed did their crime in more subtle ways. FTL changed everything, a ship could be ambushed with minimal warning and a pirate ship could escape easily. Bases could also be made deep in the Oort Cloud, where it would take mounths or years to find them. Pirates could sell their illicit loot to colonies in the outer system, who would not have lerned of the attack yet and where many would not care. All this led to the start of a Golden Age of Piracy where ships, mining outposts, and even minor colonies are all under threat of attack.
2157:
Pirates begin to consoladate into larger groups, or the more successful groups grow to extreme size.
2160:
Void Discharging is invented, allowing for static electricity to be discharged while in deep space, making interstellar travel possible. It is very slow, though, taking about as much time as the ship was in FTL, doubling travel times.
Nevertheless, the UNSA transport Edenbera is modified to be able to Void Discharge and is sent to the Alpha Centauri System. It takes three and a half months to make it to Proxima due to needing to be discharging half the time, but it is still an order of magnitude faster than humanity could travel before.
The Edinburgh actually caused a small panic in the Alpha Centauri System as the ship arrived before the information, moving at the speed of light, about FTL travel being achieved.
The first interstellar trade route is created between the systems. Because of the currently high cost of interstellar travel, most of the goods traded are people and luxury items; Centauri Wine becoming a status symbol due to its novelty and high cost. Many people from Sol decide to travel to Alpha Centauri, either as tourists or settlers, drastically increasing the system's population and giving it a profitable revenue source.
2161:
The UNSA begins launching FTL capable probes to nearby systems. The data is not received until months or years later as, with the short rang of FTL coms, the probes have to travel back to Sol to deliver the data.
The UNSA and the Centauri goverment, called the Centauri Republic, work together to begin the creation of a FTL buoy chain conecting the two systems.
2162:
The data from Tau Ceti shows the system holds ten planets, one of which is a second-class Garden World. The system has a low metalicity but has an abundance of eezo.
The more intresting find is another alien object like the one in Sol in orbit of the fifth planet from the star. This leads to a increased interest in the Charon Object and increased funding for research into it, still with little knowledge gained. This is until the location of the Tau Object, which leads to the Object rotating towards the Object. This leads to even more research until a probe is hit by a meteroid and is damaged. The probe begins sending out a distress becon, which includes the probes mass. The Charon Object catches the transmission and launches the probe 12 light years to the Tau Object.
This is a momentous discovery and the event is able to be replicated with unmanned probes several times. Near the end of the year, a manned ship goes though the Charon Object, that people are starting to call a relay, and exits in the Tau Ceti System.
2163:
Tau Ceti becomes the third system colonized by humanity when a research outpost is constructed on the other side of the relay. This is overshadowed by the massive colonization push later in the year. By years end over 100 permanent settlements with a population over 100 have been created in the system, most of which on the fourth world, the Garden World named Arcadia. UN Peacekeeping Forces are set up at both of the relays and on Arcadia.
It is expected that, by the end of the decade, the system's population will surpass a million.
The UNSA sends a expedition to Epsilon Eridani to learn more about the dead humans in the system. The expadition is planed to create a permanent research outpost on Hiroshima.
The Internatinal Orbital Transport Project is completed, greatly decreasing the cost of transport from Earth to space.
2164:
The first independent colony fleet launches towards the Epsilon Eridani System to colonize the system. Several other fleets are also sent to nearby systems like Barnards Star snd Epsilon Indi. Some colony fleets go farther out, with some going as far as 30 light years. Between 2164 and 2200, over a hundred fleets and millions of people travel to dozens of systems near Sol, some succeed and prosper, others fail. Some colonies are not contacted for decades or even destroy any ships that enter their territory, leaving them as isolated states. Following behind these fleets are countless settlers, fleeing the overcrouded Sol System for less populated systems.
2168:
The first Discharge Station is created. Ships can discharge at these stations for a fee, and the station will deal with the Void Discharging. This almost doubles traval speeds between systems.
This is compounded by inprovments in starship technology that allow for massive inprovments in FTL speed, letting ships go up to 90 times the speed of light.
The construction of a network of Discharge Stations between Sol and Alpha Centauri begins.
The first FTL capable Fighter is created.
2170:
The first conflic in another system begins. The Cygni Wars is a conflict between the two colonies in the system 61 Cygni, the New Canidian Comonwealth and the Cygni Union. The combined populations of the two colonies is less than 100,000. The fighting starts small with armed civilian ships and infantry but escalates to the point that both colonies started making Fighters and small Warships.
The first Carrier is created. It is one of the first warships designed for interstellar travel. Light Carriers are also created for smaller nations.
The Great Diaspora truly begins. Lowering interstellar travel costs leads to a massive increase in immigration. Tens of millions leave the Sol System for other systems each year, with Tau Ceti, Arcturus, Epsilon Eridani, Alpha Centauri, Barnards Star, and Asgard Systems being the most popular. Massive multi million ton "Tome Ships" traval the stars, their Stasis Pods holding hundreds of thousands or even millions of people per ship while similar Cargo Ships turn interstellar trade from a rarity only for luxury good, into something viable for more relatively middling price density goods.
2171:
The largest battle of Cigni War occers near the begining of the year. The Battle of Mining Station 4 has a total of 9 Corvettes, 80 Fighters, and several armed Civilian Ships. The battle sees the loss of 832 lives, mostly from the station as the losing Union forces destroyed it before leaving.
Human capital warship design splits; Moniters are designed to fight in a single system, with limited FTL, and supplies but large firepower compared to Cruisers, which are of similar tonnage; Cruisers are meant to fight across systems and have less firepower than Monitors but better FTL, supplies, and limited production capabilities.
The war ends in march with four thousand people dead, a horrendous toll considering the small population of the system and the short length of the war at 11 months.
The UN sent a peacekeeping force to ensure no more conflicts occor. This is the first interstellar military action in human history. Leading the peacekeeping force is one of the UNSA's few Carriers, the UNSA Trygve Lie.
2175:
A probe sent to Arcturus discovers several relays in the system. The UNSA uses the relays to reach the system. The system is found to have six more Relays; three of them operate the same as those already found, but another three operates differently. When one of the unique relays is contacted, it sends a probe thousands of light years to the Asgard System in the Exodus Cluster. The Asgard System is rich in resources, and one of the worlds in the system is a first class Garden World, which is named Terra Nova.
The second relay goes to the Olympus Cluster. A moon in the Everest system, the Olympus Cluster relay system, is found to be a second class Garden World. The moon is named Umbra due to its thick, dark atmosphere. The gas giant planet is named Hillary. The Everest system is also found to have a Secondary Relay alongside the Primary Relay at Hillary's L5 and L4 points with Everest.
Also in Everest around the super-earth planet Norgay is a dense moon with a very think, very cold atmosphere like Titan. The moon is heavily colonized as the cold temperature allows for very efficient computing and manufacturing.
The third relay goes to the Flame Nebula. The Brand System, the relay system, is found to have second class Garden World named Sekhmet. Its relatively low gravity (0.71 G) and notably high oxygen atmosphere contribute to its second-class status, but its extremely dangerous animals are also a factor. Many are far more deadly than Earth animals, most notably is an animal that looks like a six-legged lion the size of a small elephant, hence the world's name.
2195:
A probe finds another Garden World in the Euler System. The system itself is unremarkable, but the Garden World, named Benning, leads to a large amount of interest in colonization.
2200:
The census shows the population of Human Space (recognized as all systems that can still semi-regularly contact the Sol System) is 20 billion, with 15 billion in the Sol system and 5 billion in the rest of Human Space. The majority of the extrasolar population resides in the Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eridani and Asgard Systems which have a combined population of 3 billion with both Asgard and Tau Ceti serpassing a billion while Epsilon Eridani has a population of 600 million, its lack of a Relay leading to slower development. The rest of the extrasolar population is spread across 42 other colonized systems.
FTL speed has reached 270 times the speed of light.
2206:
FTL communication is created; bulky and expensive, the system is too large and expensive to put on most ships, but stationary infrastructure allows rapid communication between systems for the first time. Carriers and some Cruiser classes are equipped with FTL comes.
2212:
The first major war between a Sol nation and an extrasolar nation begins due to the Io Commonwealth believing that the New Norway Federation in the Sirius System is harboring terrorists that nuked the Commonwealth's capital of Shepard. The UN decides not to intervene as, while the 2126 charter allows it to intervene between UN nation, and protect them from hostile outsiders, it can't intervene when the a UN nation initiates hostility on a non UN nation. The war sees the use of larger warships whose effectiveness has so far only been theoretical. The rest of the nations watch the war with great interest.
While the Commonwealth has a significantly larger force than the Federation, it lacks the logistical capability to deploy all of it to the Barnard System, making the Commonwealth's 4 to 1 tonnage advantage go to only 2.5 to 1.
The Commonwealth's primary fleet invades the Barnard System, facing relentless hit-and-run attacks from Federation forces. Nevertheless, Commonwealth forces are able to lay siege to the planet with the super majority of the federation's population, New Finland itself. They are suported by the Barnard Union and the New Neptune Republic, the two other nations who exist in the Barnard System.
The real resistance the fleet faces is on the ground. While in theory, being on a planet and being attacked from space is a bad position, in reality, the defender has endless resources and, due to not having to move through space and the airless void, can be a lot more mass and heat inefficient while still getting better results. Massive MACs built into the mountains are connected by tunnels deep (dozens of kilometers) underground to massive D-D fusion reactors, and are cooled by liquid coolant systems of colossal size feeding from the third class Garden World's oceans. The mountains are hollowed out into a cone to give the MAC better ability to adjust its firing angle, and are Reinforced with dozens of meters of hyperdense armor. The hole the mountan where the MAC is Supposed to shoot out of is covered in an extremely dense Kenetic Barrier Node Network, protecting it to a high degree.
Suporting these MACs are Distrupter Torpedo, both in Silos and submarine-launched, and Launch Bays filled with both Fighters and Drones, making a landing difficult.
The defensive network is the creation of General Oliver Virtanen, a seasoned veteran of the War of Sol who saw the failure of planetary defenses during the war and sought to fix them, creating the best planetary defense in human space. He was given approval for the initial creation of a small version of his defensive network in 2173 as a precaution against the Barnard Union and any other aggressive forces. As the nation's population grew exponentially And the New Neptune Republic came into the system, the plan's funding was gradually increased until being given top priority on funding when the Federation learned of the Commonwealth's Invasion plans in late 2211.
The siege drags on for years, the fleet smashing into the planet's defenses while the Federation Fleet strikes at their back line. It is politically unviable for the Commonwealth to strike at civilian targets from orbit, and the massive Drone Swarms make it difficult to land on the world.
2214:
A Primary Relay is found in the Vuur System of the Flame Nebula. An expedition is planned for the next year.
2215:
The Utopia System is surveyed by UNSA probes, discovering a first class Garden World named Eden Prime and 4 relays, two Secondary and two Primary Relays. The UNSA sends an expedition through one of the Primary Relays and reaches the Seraph Nebula. Exploration begins rapidly with the UNSA planning to open the other relay after the initial survey of some of the more promising systems in the Seraph Nebula.
The Seraph Nebula has a large amount of eezo alongside a first class and a second-class Garden Worlds. The first class Garden World in the Gabriel System is named Jericho. The second class Garden World, Babel, is in the Daniel System.
Multiple locations in the Seraph Nebula are found to have ruins from an alien civilization. After a rush into the Nebula by archeologists, it is discovered that the ruins are mostly from 50,000 years ago and were made by a race called the Zha. The largest amount of ruins are found on Babel, including the hundreds of toppled archologies that give the world its name. While there are some ruins on Jericho, they are less extensive than those on Babel, leading to the belief that the Zha need a lower gravity to be comfortable, supported by Zha ships which have artificial gravity set to 0.491 G.
The ruins show damage from purposeful destruction, terrifying the UNSA and the rest of humanity.
Another pair of Primary Relays and a Secondary Relay are found in the Daniel System.
It is decided not to open the Primary Relays in the Daniel System due to the clear signs of purposeful destruction on Babel and other ruins, leading to fears that the Zha were wiped out by another race and that race might still be around in the rest of Zha space.
The ruins of the Zha advance human tech to a point it would have taken centuries to reach.
It is decided to, for the time being, not open any more Primary Relays. Many nations begin major military build-ups.
The Io Commonwealth-New Norway Federation War comes to an end when a whistleblower leaks that the IC learned that the terrorists were never in Federation Space in 2214 but decided to continue the war and create evidence in order to save face.
Before getting the order to stop relay exploration, the expedition in the Flame Nebula goes through the relay, leaving them in the Ginungagap, a Cluster that, uniquely, holds both a Black Hole and a Neutron Star named Niflheim and the relay system, Ymir, a first class Garden World is discovered alongside a shocking five Primary Relays. Midgard is covered in ruins alongside the rest of the system. It is believed that the system's population may have been up to 20 billion when it was inhabited, equal to the entire human population. The species that colonized the system was named Prothean.
Reverse engineering begins immediately.
2216:
A massive Zha warship is discovered in orbit of the outermost planet of the Gabrial System. It is 3.7 million tons, over four times the mass of the largest human warship. This vessel leads to a panic and the development of planes for the creation of similar-sized warships.
A proposal is made to create a unified human defense force. It is met with some resistance, but it is created with some stipulations. The United Systems Directorate is formed. The constituent nations of the USD still get to have their own militaries, but a minimum of 1.5% of the GDP of the USD has to go into the military (the main pushers of the USD asked for 3%, wanted 2%, and settled for 1.5% ). The USD encompasses the majority of the human population, with 19 billion people.
The USD absorbs the UNSA's military and some national militaries of nations who saw the SA as an opportunity to stop paying for its military without leaving all their personnel unemployed.
2217:
The USD begins construction of a prototype Dreadnoughts called the Excalibur.
2218:
In order to show its competency, the USD begins an operation to remove pirates from Human Space. Over the next few months, the USD managed to destroy many pirate ships. Multiple pirate groups unify under one of the most successful pirates in human history, Fredric Harper. Harper begins to operate against the USD, causing many significant losses, most notably the Carrier USD Respite.
The conflict, commonly called King Harper's War, escalates after the pirates manage to destroy a USD Forward Operations Station in the Altair System and capture several ships that were docked to the station.
2219:
King Harper is killed when his Cruiser is destroyed during a raid. The pirates fracture with some ships going independent while others stay grouped up under what are called Pirate Princes, each with thousands of pirates under their command.
The War ends, but the USD continues its anti-pirate campaign for years, turning piracy from a massive threat to a rarity.
2222:
The Excalaber is completed, the 2.5 million ton ship being far larger than any warship ever built. Running down the ship's spine is a 700 m long MAC that launches a 1500 kg round at over 5000 km/s, nominally, once every 10 seconds. The MAC has some problems as the MAC is so big and has so much kinetic energy it damages itself every time it fires, leading to an effective fire rate far lower than how fast it could fire, and limiting its combat endurance. This, and its other problems, are not told to the public, and it is hailed as a huge success while the USD works to fix the problems for the next class.
2225:
The Hyades Cluster is discovered.
The USD begins construction of Defense Station to protect planets and relays. Bulwark Stations are built into asteroids and remote power mobile weapons, unmanned stations with no reactor, only a MAC, computer, and engines.
The USD begins construction of more Dreadnoughts, improved versions of the Excalaber.
Cerberus is created to protect humanity and ensure its survival.
2228:
A fleet sets out to a system over 300 light years away from Sol that had been previously idetafied to hold a first class Garden World. The fleets five million colonists choce to remove themselves from the rest of humanity
The Dreadnoughts are completed. They each include new technology obtained from reverse engineering Zha and Prothian tech, including new state-of-the-art FTL drives capable of traveling 2 light years per day.
2230:
The Pleiades Cluster is discovered.
The Hermes Initiative begins. The USD attempts to create a unified, expansive FTL communication network across all human systems.
2232:
Construction of a capital space station for the Directorate begins. The Arcturus System is chosen to hold the station.
The Sol Power Array begins construction, the massive solar collection array being planned to power almost the entire Sol System once completed. Some suggest that the array is only the beginning of a full Dyson Sphere. The Array will not reach the point of being able to reach the entirety of the Sol Systems demand for decades, and it would have to constantly be increased in size to match the system's massive demand.
Similar arrays are built in other systems as well.
2255:
The Halley Space Telescope is constructed. It serves as a proof of concept for interstellar telescopes, creating a lens 12 light years in diameter. its success leads to the green lighting of several other projects similar to it.
2259:
A technique to safely discharge drive cores using stars is discovered, greatly expanding the systems that can be colonized effectively and making long-range expeditions more plausible.
Construction of the Galileo Space Telescope begins. The telescope is planned to have installations across Human Space, creating a lens thousands of light years across. Connecting the installations is a network of com buoys. The project is a massive undertaking expected to take decades. Its planned use is to study other Galaxies and Galaxy Clusters.
2260:
2267:
The Galileo Space Telescope is completed.
2275:
The Damocles Cluster is discovered, named due to its dangerous closeness to a star that will go supernova relatively soon, with the gateway system only a few dozen light years away and many systems in the cluster within the danger zone for the explosion. Nevertheless, the Cluster is still colonized as it is rich in many ores and eezo.
2280:
The Sol Power Array has reached the point it can fulfill the power needs of the Sol System.
[The plan for this timeline was for the USD to unify humanity and start a 80-150 year golden age before being destroyed in a civil war (maybe from a group of the active population deciding to kill the non-working population, seeing them as parasites as they had begun living in isolated paradises instead of helping keep the society working, but undecided). There would be a 200 year dark age before the Sol System Alliance (predecessor to the Systems Alliance) finds the Prothean Ruins on Mars. using the data from the ruins (far easier to reverse engineer and with more advanced tech to obtain from it) conquers most of humanity before starting to expand again, making first contact a couple of years after it starts exploring.]