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In the year 2050, Physicist Jaques D'Armand proved travel through wormholes practial, giving Humanity its boost to the stars. In a shrewed move, however, a corrupt french government had him assasinated before his work could be published. For years, a secret cabal of diposed french aristocrats had schemed and plotted to return themselves to power. They had already successfully integrated several of their members into the government, and through use of blackmail, bribery, and other dirty tricks gained control of several key cabinet positions.
After taking credit for his work, this government gave the exclusive rights for the construction and operation of ships using the D'Armand drive to a French consortium made up of dummy corporations actually owned and controlled by several ex-aristocratic families and government misisters. Terra only had one wormhole access, and STAR corp colonized it and named it New France. With a stranglehold on the D'Armand drive and control of both ends of the first wormhole, France became THE world power, eventually re-establishing istelf as the First Imperial Star Technocracy, or FIST. Democracy was swept away, and all planets fell into Fist's grasp, or were cut off from contact with the stars and left to wither on the vine.
Colonies became vassal states, ruled by FIST and harvested of natural resources and raw materials. These materials moved in to the Core worlds, then back to the frontier as finished goods. To keep the colonies dependant on FIST, strict controls were established on the two way flow of goods.
Democracy was not forgotten, however, for a few American forward lookers founded the Rutgers foundation. OUtwardly a French trading corporation with aligance to FIST, Rutgers members looked for a place to re-establish democracy and the rights of free men. While their search continued, FIST aristocrats, full of their own power, began a decent into hedonism and despotism. Rutgers, however, made 2 breakthroughs. The first was the development of a practcal powered exoskeleton. Dubbed Man Enhanced Construction Harware, or MECH, this exoskeleton proved usefull as humanity expanded, both allowing one man to do the work of ten, and allowing the exploration and colonization of worlds which were hostile to an unprotected human. FIST instantly saw the value of MECH as a warmachine, and illegalized the use of armed MECH's in the inner worlds. Out on the frontier, however, armed Mech's are more common, especially on hostile worlds which could not otherwise be colonized or protected without them.
The second was the discovery of the Ruters Wormhole. Prior to this time, Wormholes tended only to have 3-4 termini, including the central terminus. Ships could travel from the central terminus to any secondary one, but could only transit from a secondary to the central terminus, making control of the central terminus critical. Then a Rutgers scoutship stumbled onto a heretofore undiscovered terminus in the New France system. Exploration of the terminus delivered the ship to the Rutgers system... and proved that the Rutgers wormhole had 7 termini; The central terminus in Rutgers, and no less than FIVE other access points other than the one leading to New France!
Exploration proved two of the termini lead back into the core worlds, to the systems of Marjapol and Wahania, but the best prizes lay beyond... The resource rich worlds of New England, Johansen, and Niaho. Other, almost as rich prizes lay beond them, yet all traffic to and from this land of promise had to funnel through the wormhole.
Moving quickly and in secrecy, the Rutgers corporation secured the rights to the Rutgers system and colonized it, moving everything it could to the system. Unlike other colonies, however, Rutgers selected colonists who were most disenchanted with life under the iron grip of FIST, and carried in secret were copies of the now banned Declaration of Independance and Constitution. Rutgers established a Mecha plant on Nuevo Terra to meet the demand that settling these new planets would produce, in defiance of FIST decrees and policy.
As the implications of this set in Louis D'Armand 14, the Emperor of FIST, decreed that the Rutgers system would now be his personal property. When Imperial troops moved in to take the planet, however, they were instead greeted with a revised Declaration of Independace and waves of destroyers and fighters. Initally thrown back, FIST has managed to secure enough of the high orbitals to land troops to pacify the planet. However, the Rutgers Mecha plant is still intact and churning out weapons to defend the newly renamed planet of New America. With their ability to produce Mecha and Fighters from hidden bases both in space and on the ground, it is too risky for merchant traffic to travel through the Rutgers wormhole until the Rutgers' mecha works have been destroyed and New America has been brought back under FIST's iron fist.
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