Exodus

The original cradle of humanity, Earth, has long since faded into legend. Dreamers and tale spinners glamorize Earth-That-Was. It’s become a sort of Garden of Eden, where mankind was always happy. Its relics are now priceless. Truth is, mankind sucked Earth dry. The story goes that depleted resources, overpopulation, and a compromised ecosystem forced mankind to abandon Earth-That-Was.
Some do speculate, however, that the planet wasn’t completely abandoned, that folk still survive on mankind’s original home, though there is no proof to back the notion and no easy way to conjure the truth. It is possible that Earth is not quite as drained as the old legends suggest and has been quietly regenerating ever since man left. One day, mankind may find the lost keys to Eden and return to their old home once again. That day is a long way off, though. If it even comes at all.
The wise searched the heavens and found a star system with planets and moons that could, with a little help, support human life. Mankind began the great exodus. They set out in enormous ships they called “arks,” after the tale of Noah and his crew. Lacking “faster-than-light” drives, folk found the journey to their new home long and taxing. At least one full generation was born, lived, and died without ever leaving the huge, contained ships that crawled through the black. The initial excitement of the voyage quickly faded into the monotony of keeping the ships moving, keeping the life-support systems intact, and perfecting the technologies that would give future generations good lives on new worlds. Naturally, some folk expected to encounter alien life, but the only signals on the scanner were the natural static of the stars. So far as we know, mankind is alone in the ‘Verse.
With so many different folk of all nationalities and races packed inside small ships, the old ethnic and political barriers began to blur. People learned the native tongues of their fellow ship dwellers. Subsequent generations would come to speak fluently the two dominant languages, English and Chinese, and phrases from other cultures. Not surprising, some folk lost hope along the way. There were accidents, malfunctions. If an ark lost life support, thousands died. The arks became their coffins, forever drifting in the cold. But for every person that lost hope, hundreds were there to keep it alive. Each day brought mankind closer to home.
And then, one day, there it was.