The Incident

• The Interstellar Gate which linked the Keter Borderlands to the wider galaxy has recently and explosively stopped functioning.
• Travel into or out of the system is no longer possible, leaving a large fleet of ships completely stranded.
• Mandatory maintenance of the Gate was scheduled when it closed, but the crew responsible for conducting this maintenance are presumed to have perished in the explosion.

Since the earliest days of civilisation in the Keter Borderlands, the purple light of its Interstellar Gate has been a comforting presence in the skies. Constructed by the Galactic Cooperation during the initial seeding of the system close to 1400 years ago, the Orion Gate was the primary method of transport between the Keter Borderlands and its neighbouring star systems.

Interstellar Gates are a well-established method of long-distance interstellar travel across the galaxy. Operating much like wormholes, these Gates link two points of spacetime to allow instantaneous travel between these points. The exact mechanism of this linkage is both complicated and closely guarded, being that the rights to the technology were acquired by the Aspexx Corporation several hundred years ago, but it is common knowledge that all such Gates are powered by a Ship Heart.

Since its construction, the Orion Gate has linked the Keter Borderlands with a point on the outskirts of the Fjenix system, thus providing a convenient transport route for the Cooperation ships sent to terraform the Keter Borderlands. A millennium later - during which time the Orion Gate was locked to protect the developing system - the route was opened once again for the passage of settlement, research, security and trade ships both into and out of the Keter Borderlands.

To ensure safe travel through the Orion Gate, maintenance of the Gate and the station which houses it is regularly performed—and it was during the most recent maintenance operation, held three days before game start, that the Orion Gate suddenly and explosively ceased to function.

SYSTEM ERROR - Interstellar Gate offline.  Cause of error: Unknown.  Divining cause of error... 
ERROR UNDIVINED.  SEEK MYSTICAL INTERVENTION.  ERROR CODE 8A8E9C2451FFA2445544.

At first, the automated error message from Orion Station was met with incredulity from the local fleet. As the first reports of explosions in the Keter skies were circulated by the communities closest to the Gate and as the failed attempts to reach any live individual aboard the station began to pile up, this surprise quickly turned to dread. Perhaps none felt this dread as keenly as the people of Siruta who, being furthest from the station, received news of the catastrophe several minutes before they saw the distant purple light of the Orion Gate flare brightly and then disappear.

The Keter Borderlands remain in chaos and are likely to do so for some time. Expeditions to the Orion Station have confirmed that an explosion tore through the station, killing all living beings aboard and rendering the Orion Gate inoperative - but with so much evidence destroyed, the cause of the failure is still unknown. With their connection to the wider galaxy cut off and the nearest settled system a long, long way away, the people of the Keter Borderlands have no choice but to survive without the support of the Cooperation…

After investigators made it into the Orion Station and retrieved a Solar Shielded Flight Recorder, the following information is known about the Orion Station Disaster and the aftermath:

• The Orion Gate has been destroyed beyond repair.
• All Orion Gate systems were functioning correctly until the moment of the catastrophe.
• The catastrophe was not instigated from outside the station.
• The catastrophe was not instigated from within the gate.
• The Orion Gate disaster zone is heavily decayed and new forms of Decay creature as yet properly documented have been sighted, including the possibility for living beings to decay.

Additional information that may be of interest (but with IC buy-in to choose to know) has been made available from the following Missions:

• Damage Control
• Picking Up The Pieces