The Pioneer Age

With Earth crumbling under the weight of the human population, JDA president Edward Dalen was desperately searching for some way to save the planet. By this time almost a million people were being expelled to Io annually. The JDA has also set up penal colonies on Callisto, Ganymede, and Neptune’s moon Triton. They swarmed the Sprawls to round up criminals with increasing regularity, delaying trials until prisoners had already arrived at the colonies.

The Tograns’ escape gave Dalen an idea. He offered penal colony residents a chance to earn their freedom by taking on the dangerous task of colonizing new planets.

Scientist identified a number of promising planets, and the new Exploratory Corps was shipped out in small squads with only enough supplies and water to last a few years. They had to create a self-sustaining ecosystem or they would die. And thousands did die. A few squads were successful, creating a handful of worlds ready for Earth settlers. But before bringing the first dome dwellers from Earth, the JDA then rounded up the Exploratory Corps and shipped them deeper into the galaxy to start again on a new planet.

With the introduction of off-world colonies, the JDA renamed themselves the Imperium, and took the role of galactic government. To maintain control over the new colonies, they set up a water rationing system to limit the availability of water on all inhabited planets.