VGA Planets - The Scenario
Prologue to playing VGA Planets

After centuries of intergalactic conflicts and even full-scale wars, your troubled region of the universe at long last knew peace again. The time had come to rebuild the war-shattered economy and repopulate the many colonies your people had been forced to abandon during the last great war. However, research had shown that even with all the old colonies repopulated and the homeworld rebuilt, your people would still not be able to build a prospering society. All the wars had been too heavy a burden. High council also stretched the strategical importance of exploring new parts of the galaxy, if only to have a safe haven once conflicts would rise again in your home-region. Your people would need to explore new regions of the galaxy, in search of new resources and safety.

As a veteran of the great war, the important task of leading this search was placed on your shoulders. You were the only one deemed experienced enough to lead this all important fleet of ships on their quest for new territory. Proud to be chosen to lead this peaceful mission after proving your skills in war, you assembled a team of experienced captains and together with several thousands of brave colonists, your fleet left your home world in a quest to find new worlds to colonise. It was a glorious day for your people, for as far back as anyone could remember this was the first non-combat fleet to ever leave the homeworld.

It all started out so peaceful, so hopeful. During the first years of your journey your fleet made resupply-stops at several of the once shattered colonies, where the hard work of the returned colonists had resulted in flourishing new outposts where people lived in peace. You dropped off long-awaited supplies and parts and your ships were resupplied by the colonists. The people in the outer colonies were happy to see you on your way to unexplored worlds, the colonists in your fleet anxious to build up new homes.

After two and a half years you passed the last outer colony, prepared to enter the barren zone. You knew this part of your journey would be the toughest one. Eight straight months of travelling at full speed through a region of the galaxy, totally devoid of life. A long history of meteor showers, ion storms and enormous plasma waves had left this quadrant without a single inhabitable planet in it. This part of the journey would be boring, with no life to discover and no planets worth exploring. This would also be the most dangerous part of the journey. Although there had been no reports of cosmic activity in this area for years now, the risk was always there.

And as bad luck always comes at the worst possible moment, just as you left the last outer colony the first weak ion storms showed up on long range scanners. Surely, more were to follow and the storms would grow stronger. That would mean another period of decays in which this zone could not be passed. This was a dilemma. The choice was to either push forward, risking the life of your entire fleet, or to go back. After some consideration you decided you really had no choice but to go forward. Now that the storms were still weak you still had a chance, a chance for a better future for your people. To turn back would mean a setback of decades and a slap in the face of hope. It was now or never.

It was awful. What should have been eight months of travelling through a lifeless region of the galaxy became three full years of hell. The storms knocked your ships off their course several times, and once even scattered them around over several lightyears. It took you four months just to get the entire fleet together again in the same place, and then another month for repairs. With duststorms, meteor showers and cryonic conditions on most of the planets in this region, those offered little safety either so your ships were left to the mercy of the storms. Two freighters were lost, thousands of lives wasted.

But somehow you made it through. Many had given up hope already and frankly you weren't very optimistic either, but your fleet finally made it out of the storms, to the other side of the barren zone. People cheered, happy as they were to make it through the ordeal.

First things first, it was time for a pause and a damage report. The storms had taken their toll on your ships. Several ships reported hullbreaches and long range communication had been down since day one that the storms arrived. But the absolute biggest dismay was because of engine failure. You had left home with four very special ships that were equipped with tech 17 Bussard Ramscoops, gathering low grade matter from the interstellar medium and converting it to antimatter fuel. The Ramscoop Fuel Ships served you well so far, but they were clearly not built for use inside Ion storms. The highly charged matter inside the storms overloaded the ramscoops and their cobalt-lanthanide-boronite fractionator coils (CLBF coils) burnt out. Unless these could be repaired your fleet would be forced to make the rest of the journey burning low grade neutronic fuel.

The last refuelling base was near the outer colony you had passed on the other side of the barren zone. With the storms now at full strength and the first signs of plasma waves forming, going back was not even an option. The best scientists and technicians of your people had stayed behind at the homeworld to aid in rebuilding the empire, so it was very unlikely that you would be able to repair or build any CLBF coils on your own. Establishing contact with the homeworld for instructions became the top priority. The folks back home would also be glad to hear you had made it through the storms, as they had no way of knowing what happened to you and your fleet. After all they hadn't heard of you in years and might have given up on you. All efforts were put to getting communications back online while the ships were repaired.

After two weeks of round the clock repairing, replacing parts and swapping parts between ships, long-range communications were brought back online. You tried to contact with your homeworld, but with little success. The sound of static interference was all that answered your calls. Then slowly, you began to receive messages. Odd messages, with timestamps dating as far back as a year and a half. It took quite some unscrambling to remove the interference from the giant Ion storms in the barren zone. When the messages were unscrambled, you almost wished you hadn't. First you heard the cries for help from the outer colonies and later the final message from your homeworld....

While your people had been rebuilding their economy and sent out your colonisation fleet in search of new worlds and resources, the empires that had opposed you in the great war had decided to find another way out of their economical dismay. In search of minerals and other natural resources, they had decided to take those of your people. They formed an alliance and invaded without warning. Your people, not expecting any hostilities, were no match for the team of enemies. First the colonies fell, and within weeks your homeworld had been destroyed.

The very last message came from your homeworld, and was directed to you and your fleet. It was a desperate message. Although uncertain of your survival, high council sent a distress message. Your people were overrun by the enemy, and the enemy took no prisoners. All the colonies had been massacred, and your homeworld was about to undergo the same destiny. In the face of their doom, your leaders expressed their hope that you had made it through the storms and would be able to find yourselves a new home. Realizing your fleet is the last remaining part of your species, you had no choice but to move forward. No time to grieve, as the colonists needed a new planet to live on.

After another three months of travelling, burning what little low-grade fuel you had left, your saddened fleet made it to the small Echo Cluster. Although once charted by a long range probe, little is known about this cluster. The cluster consists of 500 unexplored planets that are all named after the stars from your home star sectors. Preliminary scans from the probe showed most planets are inhabitable, and quite a lot of them even seem to have native lifeforms on them. Your ship's long-range sensors revealed Ion storms, although not by far as strong, as big or as many as in the Barren zone.

You soon learned that you are not alone in this cluster. Your scanners show several enemy races that also seem to have chosen to colonise this star cluster. Although your databases contain information about the races you see, you don't know if they are friendly or hostile. But with this many races in such a small cluster, conflicts are bound to occur and the beginning of yet another war is just a matter of time.

When scanning several nearby planets you discovered a planet without native life with a climate type that perfectly suits your people. This planet has now become your new homeworld. Upon arrival at this planet, all your starships were landed on the planet's surface and converted into raw materials. With these materials your colonists built settlements, mineral mines, factories, some defenses and one low tech starbase. A small local system freighter and a small capital ship were built when your starbase was completed.

You and your fleet are the last remaining colony of your race, and you have to make sure you don't suffer the same fait as your homeworld. You must be prepared for anything, so you have to put every effort into building the most powerful fleet of war ships possible before you are attacked. Your best hope is to expand your territory so you have more resources at your disposal. You will need to extract minerals from planets and find native races to tax, keep an eye out on the other races in the cluster and use your diplomatic skills to help you survive in this cluster. You need to act fast because your enemies will most likely be trying to expand as well. And in the end, only time will tell if you are able to survive in the Echo Cluster.

Good luck.