The Abyss

The Abyss is a natural barrier to human exploration of the Orion Arm. A star desert, 1000 light-years across, between the Orion-Cygnus Arm, and the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. And the fastest, longest-ranged Explorer Ships reached it a little over 1000 years ago, in AD 4400.   Multiple squadrons of ships pushing the bleeding edge of human expansion into the galaxy returned with the news that though there were sparse systems that lay beyond for a few parsecs, all of them were too widely separated to make travel to Spinward possible, due to lack of planets (and thus Hydrogen to be used for fuel) in the gaps between galactic spiral arms.   As the first long-range explorers reached the outer limit of potential star systems to colonize, the leaders of Interstellar society finally realized, that after a time, once the Sectors toward the edge of the Arm to Spinward were reached, there would be no more worlds to conquer.   But to those leaders, a millennia ago, it seemed a problem so far off, so remote, that day to day, and month to month, even yearly concerns were more pressing.   And so, time passed.   The resources of the Orion Arm on Agroworlds, Mineral worlds, Water Worlds were harvested for centuries, with all of the products manufactured going to the Rich and Industrial Worlds, toward the core, teeming with ever-growing population, with colonists pushing ever outward, to Spinward, and Rimward.   During the migration away from the Solar System, so many Garden worlds were settled, and so much time had passed, that Terra was largely considered (by those without an appreciation of history) to be "just another overpopulated world" in the Terran Interstellar Astrographic Agency's Consolidated Star Catalog.   But still, colonists came, seeking their fortunes, on multiple thousands of worlds.   And with them, came the first Plague, which started the engine of what was later called The Collapse.   The central government of the Terran Empire administering the Sectors of Known Space was already too far from the farthest colonies to control them effectively (One-way journeys from the Core worlds along the Naka Corridor to The Frontier took an average of almost a year).   The leadership of the Sectors near the Abyss had long ago defaulted to the Sector Dukes and local planetary nobility to manage the resources they had available to them locally in each Sector and individual Subsectors.   Without the Ability of a central Navy to respond from the Core, individual Sectors were on their own to defend themselves against outlaws, or rebellious military units led by upstart Admirals that were now writing their own orders.   Centuries of this decline were compounded by Raids from Coreward, alien races that defied description from near the limit of the Abyss that had escaped notice on worlds that from a distance, seemed resource-poor, and left as barely charted by Explorer ships as they passed by, multiple parsecs away.   But eventually, the crumbling, yet still the technologically superior weight of the remnants of the Aurin Cluster Sector Fleets drove the aliens back, and made peace with them, or incinerated their worlds, and opened up most of the Rift Subsectors along the Abyss for exploration and further colonization, under strong rulership.   The year 5,000 AD was marked by the establishment of the Aurin Republic in the Aurin Cluster.   Over a few more centuries of skirmishes, most of the Subsectors to Coreward were completely charted, and many worlds surveyed. Now that peace with the alien races had been established, trade and prosperity of a sort grew.   The old Terran Battlefleets were thus left unused, their Tauspace drives long silent due to lack of enemies and funding for active operations.   About 100 years ago, the Subsector militaries of the Aurin Republic slowly fell off in recruiting, and military traditions slowly eroded, except among the Nobility, and those serving in the Space Navies of their own worlds, or Subsector Fleets   50 years ago, a sporadic series of Wars of Succession began, in and between different Sectors across charted space, as what had long ago been the Terran Empire continued its inexorable, painfully slow decline, due to Internal political struggles, intrigue, palace revolts, planetary rebellions, interstellar trade wars, and House on House rivalries.   It is now the Year 5440, and this is life at the Edge of the Abyss.   After exploring the Galaxy for centuries, The Abyss is as far as Humanity can go, to Spinward. Now facing their own eventual limitations to expansion, there is a slow but steady concern among the different Interstellar nations that exist, regarding the development of the remaining worlds and resources, with an eye to future survival.