Space Rush

In the decades before the Cozine Disaster, a plan to seed the stars with humanity was born. Massive ark ships were assembled by the hundreds by corporations and governments. Several were even created with crowdsourced funding and by charitable and activist organizations. This massive project, one of hope and optimism, intended to use the data retrieved by the Cozine probes to find optimal worlds to seed, a perfect distribution for an explosively expansive but sustainable human empire. 

Cozine Search

The Cozine Probes were first created in -140. They used Fitch Tunneling technology to traverse vast distances between the stars. It was the most ambitious exploration project in human history, and the immediate results were incredible. The Cozine Probes were massive AI platforms the size of a small moon packed with sensory equipment. Humans learned more from the returning probes than they would have from visiting those distant stars in person. Most of the probes never returned, space is dangerous and accidents happened, but the 40% that did return were more than worth the cost. All of them except for Cozine-07, which nearly proved to be the end of humanity.

The Arks and Optimism

The Arks were originally designed to essentially automate the difficult beginnings of colonization and terraforming. An advanced AI operated each massive ship, which included a factorum to manufacture servitor drones which would establish gardens and construct colonial habitats. Ideally, they would begin planting tailored fungal and nanorobotic colonies to convert the soil for planting terrestrial plants, lay down gravplate avenues, and generally make things livable for the first wave of colonists. Genetics facilities were added with geneseeds to make crops and forests, with a full ecosystem of terrestrial and terrestrial-adjacent life. When everything was ready, they were to establish orbital mass transit rings linked to the Sol system. It was estimated that in just 100 years after planetfall, each would have created an Earthlike garden world ready for humans to move to. The arks were staged in orbit around Pluto, preparing to burst onto the Galactic stage.

Human Paranoia

There were, of course, humans who were worried about exposure to the galactic community, particularly in the context of having such a rapidly explosive Sol-centric empire. Some humans believed that non human entities might view this as a challenge, and began preparing accordingly. Combat drone gigafactorums were established, the Exemplar facilities were revived, and humanity prepared for the worst. 

The Cozine Disaster

Cozine-07 came back without data, its AI corrupted into the firm belief that humanity was a disease to be expunged. It first conquered Saturn, taking control of the military drone factorums there. The expansion of 07's influence from there was explosive and violent, and most of Saturn's moons were scoured of life. A few of their people survived in the extensive tunnel network, but by the time the distress calls had been processed Earth was powerless to send assistance. The Cozine AI flooded the SolarNet, destroying humanity's ability to communicate and chopping the system into individual worlds, vulnerable to the advancing hordes of combat drones. One by one, the planets fell alone and silent in space. They put up a fierce resistance, but they believed that they were doomed from the start. In the end, only the worst of humanity did more than survive; the zealots, criminals, fanatics, and lunatics fought on.

In Defiance of Extinction

The Ark Project was revived in desparation. The genetic facilities were refitted, adding humans to the geneseeds. The first generations of humans, genetically curated to give the best chance for survival, would be grown in tubes, educated in survival and human history, and filled with determination and optimism. A variety of philosophies and belief structures were instilled in the arks, with the belief that philisophical diversity would maximize humanity's chances. Finally, their instructions to build gates home were erased. Rather than informed, perfectly planned destinations, these ships were launched at ten thousand stars, some halfway across the galaxy. When the arks were launched, what was left of humanity decided to make a last stand.

New Dawning and the Year Zero

The last two leaders of the organized resistance, Gideon Voss of the Disciples of the Event Horizon of Man and Sebastian Frost, leader of a Terran nationalist movement, came up with a suicidal plan. Gideon would take all that remained of the Disciples and mount a direct attack on the Cozine-07 platform itself, using their own cybernetically-augmented minds as logic bombs to destroy the rogue AI. Sebastian, who had been fighting from Sertori Station as it generated a stream of Exemplars, was to land on Earth and join the fight there, the last real fight of the system. Gideon invaded the station, losing most of the disciples in the star battle before landing, and losing most of what he had left in the vicious corridor-to-corridor fighting against Cozine-07's combat drones. The final team, led by Gideon himself, jacked directly into the mainframe and they and the Cozine AI shredded each other. When the lights came back on, both the Disciples and the AI were gone, replaced by the Apogee of the Singularity.
Sebastian, in what the PSC textbooks insist was a stroke of brilliance, did not join the fight on Earth. He waited until the destruction of the Cozine AI had caused the combat drones to shut down across the system, then moved armies of Exemplars to 'reestablish order' and formed the Pan-Solar Consortium. He named himself the First Speaker for Mankind, and used Earth's resources to rebuild the Solar System. 

The Age of Convergence; the Space Rush

A thousand years after Year Zero, the PSC is relatively stable. The three pillars; the religions, the government, and the corporations, all have set their eyes outward. Some worry that having rogue human elements out there in space might threaten the homeworld, some see the opportunity for profit, and others have more mysterious motives. Regardless, they presented a unified front when the Age of Convergence was announced; a fund was set up, and a whole new bureaucratic agency to mete it out. The Bureau of Accounting and Convergence calculates the value of survey data, discoveries, resources, and of course contacted colonies. The offer was open to anyone; corporations, freelancers, religious movements, pirates, and even alien species. Humans exploded out of the Sol System and streamed out to go find their fortunes.