This timeline tells the story of humanity's first contact with other species, including the peaceful but powerful Jinu, and their future overlords, the Outsiders.
(This timeline also describes major events from the time of the game's opening to players till its long hiatus.)
January 2297 - First contact with the Jinu. A representative named Hrahk Mununtra lands and attempts to communicate with various alliance pilots, quickly developing a rudimentary pidgin language. It is quickly apparent that the Jinu are friendly.
March 2297 - The first instance of hybrid human/Jinu technology is developed: the expedition starship Percival Lowell. The new ship leaves on a long journey toward Jinu space.
March 2297 - Fleets of unregistered ships begin appearing in large numbers and threatening alliance pilots. Analysts are at a loss to explain where their new production capacity is coming from.
April 2297 - Shipbuilders complete a new starship design based on hybrid human/Jinu technology, called the battlecruiser. Within days, before any alliance pilot has been able to fly one, an unregistered battlecruiser appears, constructed from intercepted information. Again, there is no explanation for how this was possible.
April 2297 - Jarvis Cocker makes an appearance as the leader of the unregistered fleet, which he refers to as "the Renegades." Other important figures in the Renegades also appear, including Steven Peterson and Candida Doyle. These names are almost certainly aliases.
May 2297 - With the Renegade fleet apparently unassailable, the alliances instead decide to make an assault upon their new forward base, called New Beginning. With the Renegades mysteriously resistant to stun weapons, lethal weapons are authorized for the assault, for the first time since 2246. The assault is a success and the base falls.
May 2297 - The Renegade fleet remains, with Jarvis Cocker still at large. Though the Renegades are less able to organize, the fleet must be destroyed. The alliances storm a Renegade fleet command center and detonate a fusion bomb inside its communication wormhole. With direct links to every ship in the fleet, the explosive force is immediately communicated to them all. The Renegade fleet falls.
May 2297 - Even before the debris has cleared, another alien species known simply as the Outsiders emerges. It is revealed that they hoped to control humanity through the Renegades, thus explaining the source of the latter's advances in technology. With that now impossible, the Outsiders announce that they will subjugate humanity directly. In the confusion, Jarvis Cocker escapes and is not seen again.
2297-2298 - The Outsiders institute a series of restrictions on human/Jinu activities, but their touch remains relatively light. They begin to use human and Jinu labor to augment their own production capacity.
April 2298 - The Outsiders transport a group of human and Jinu pilots to a distance area of space. They tell the pilots that this space belongs to the Interstellar Federation of Species, a group of aliens which has discovered humans and Jinu and have plans to attack. The Outsiders recommend a preemptive strike. The pilots present comply, and attack the IFS. Thus war begins.
June 2298 - With the frequency of IFS invasions growing, the Outsiders suggest a tighter alliance between humans and Jinu, with, of course, oversight from themselves. The three species form the Coalition. The Outsiders contribute a new hybrid ship design, a large starship called the juggernaut.
2298-2299 - IFS invasions continue. Unregistered ships also begin to appear in alliance space once more, but their unity is fractured and most are not hostile.
June 2299 - Human pilots undertake a long journey to the Galactic Core, and there discover a supermassive black hole, as well as hints about the origin of the alien species behind the Egalitarian Alliance of Sentients.
2299 - 2303 - The IFS and the Coalition continue to develop technology in opposition to each other. Humans specialize in combat wasps and temporary space structures, while the IFS make use of long-range lasers and small responsive fighters.
April 2303 - Humans travel to the Opposite Rim hoping to discover more hints of the EAOS, but find nothing of significance.
2303 - 2304 - The Outsiders, acting through the Coalition, continue to tighten their grip on the alliances and integrate the alliance governments into the Coalition Command's political structure. On a handful of occasions, minor incidents cause the Outsiders to declare warships forbidden, but the restriction is always lifted soon after.
