Reaching for the Stars (Chronicle)

In recent decades space has become accessible like never before. The lasting, if fragile, peace between the empires has allowed them to concentrate their energies on opening up new space lanes and create the perfect environment for exploration and colonization. New jump gates open up almost every day, giving access to uncharted, unknown world waiting to be exploited.

Most of the empires are starting to encourage, even sponsor, privately owned companies to explore and settle recently reachable worlds, in order to speed up the expansion process and garner some revenue in the process. These companies then enter into a cooperation deal with their empire, which grants them several benefits regarding access, protection and information provided by the empire they’re dealing with, but at the same time putting some responsibilities on the shoulders of the company and its members.

Already several privately owned companies are becoming prominent through their dealings with the empires and more locations, even whole systems, are getting their names from the company that is at the forefront in exploring and settling the system.