It started out innocently enough by all appearances. In the year 2017, the United States announced it planned to return to the moon. This announcement by itself was received in a rather ho-hum fashion by most people on Earth.

Man on the moon? Old news, nothing to see here.

Behind the scenes, voices whispered, impassioned pleas uttered, and threats made.

Russia had weaponized space, moving much of its nuclear arsenal to satellites orbiting Earth, a fact that then U.S. President Donald Trump could not ignore. On December 20, 2019, at Trump’s direction, Congress approved the creation of a new branch of the U.S. armed forces, with the creation of the Space Force.

By 2050, the human race had moved on from Old Earth. Expanding human knowledge, developing new technologies, or exploring the solar system are all cited as reasons for the movement into space, and noble causes, each in their own right, had nothing to do with the rapidly escalating space race.

It was the age of Imperialism all over again.

Colonies provided resources, opportunity, wealth, and, most importantly, prestige. Once a new colony was established, be it on a moon, a planet, or a man-made space platform, it had to be protected from rival interests. Military bases had to be established to protect the colony in question, as well as the inevitable development of infrastructure needed to support the colony’s economy and feed the hungry machine that kept the entire empire running.

Jealousies and rivalries from Old Earth found their way into space, bringing with them the sins of envy, greed, and arrogance. The seeds of mistrust and paranoia had been sown the day the United States announced its return to the moon.

In the year 2078, the first war started.

Alliances formed quickly out of necessity in order to survive and maintain control over valued colonies and territories in the solar system. With their long-established history of “friendship and cooperation,” the United States and the United Kingdom once again formed an uneasy alliance to protect their vital interests, both on Old Earth and in the solar system, and in doing so, dusted off the old name of “the Allies” which soon changed to the Alliance. The former communist bloc of the Soviet Union banded together with communist China to form what became known as the Confederation.

Fearing being left out of the race for colonies, resources, and prestige, the assorted Islamic nations, many of which had great oil wealth, banded together to form the modern Caliphate and joined the space race. The remaining nations, distrustful of the historical power blocs that so quickly banded together, began their own fledgling space programs, touting themselves as Independents.

The First Interstellar War ended in months, not out of a desire for peace or because common sense prevailed. The combatants simply could not survive additional destruction and loss of life. The uneasy peace that was negotiated was more due to exhaustion than any genuine desire to establish a lasting peace.

Just as the First World War resolved nothing and set the stage for the Second World War and the unrest of the Modern Middle East, the Treaty of Geneva did nothing to resolve the source of conflict that launched the First Interstellar War.

Technologically more advanced than the other major alliances, the Anglo-American Alliance quickly expanded into the asteroid belt. Mining and manufacturing took place on assorted asteroids, all hidden from the searching sensors of the Confederation, the Caliphate, and the few remaining Independents.

In the short months the First Interstellar War lasted, many lessons were learned. One was that the human race would end soon if humanity did not spread to the stars.

Ten years later, the Second Interstellar War started. Unlike the first conflict, which surprised all the combatants, nobody was surprised when the fighting resumed. What did surprise the combatant nations was the speed with which the Alliance forces swarmed their enemy, a united Confederation and Caliphate who had banded together for strength in numbers.

Unseen in the depths of the asteroid belt, the Alliance had built a large fleet of warships. Through select conscription and active recruitment, significant numbers of humans had been moved off-world to Alliance colonies, asteroids, and space stations. Financial incentives were offered for families to have multiple children, further growing the Alliance population.

Nearly fifty years would pass before the next war between the Old Earth alliances broke out. This time, the war was fought between four factions: the Alliance, Confederation, Caliphate, and the Independents, who had banded together for strength of numbers. Instead of large engagements between capital fleets and wholesale bombardment of entire bases, a guerilla war was fought.

An unspoken agreement was made.

The destruction of an entire empire was costly and foolish and threatened humanity’s existence in space. Waging war along the fringes of empire, picking off a planet here, an asteroid there, or getting a space platform to switch allegiances was bloody and expensive but manageable.

For certain elites among the governing bodies, it even provided a means to utilize propaganda to sway their citizenry to the “just cause” of the empire against sworn enemies determined to wipe out their very way of life.

Wars came and went, some more hate-fueled and bloody than others. Solar systems and worlds changed hands, and, in some instances, entire populations were wiped out. As bad as the wars were, the existence of humanity was never truly threatened again.

In time, trade and diplomacy became the weapons of choice. Core worlds were spared from mass destruction, with only worlds in space far from the centers of the various empires, and Old Earth faced the threat of actual planetary war.

The War of 2502 threatened to change the established order.

Technology tipped the scales in favor of the Confederation. Loss of life was no longer an issue for the Confederation. Entire armies of human clones were thrown into battle, and the slaughter of all combatants involved was on an unprecedented scale.

In the face of defeat, technology came to the rescue of the crippled Alliance.

A virus that only affected Confederation clones was released. Within weeks the death toll had crippled the Confederation, allowing the Alliance to regain its lost colonies and make deep encroachments into Confederation space. In short order, the Confederation released a virus of its own to combat the new clones the Alliance had created to fill out its depleted ranks.

Seizing the opportunity and hoping to gain in the process, the Caliphate, who did not yet have clone troops of its own, offered to broker a peace.

The Peace of New Baghdad saw the introduction of the anti-clone laws.

Severe penalties were established to punish any individual, corporation, or empire that engaged in research regarding human cloning. Harshest of all was the penalty for being a human clone. Upon discovery, the clone was to be put to death.

Like any human law and despite the harsh penalties that all alliances strictly enforced, some felt the risk of being caught was far outweighed by the rewards human cloning promised.

Then there were those who wanted to play God, the most dangerous motivation for human cloners.

In the year 2548, Thomas Sullivan was born to human parents.