The backdrop is in the future when mankind is about to discover and implement faster than light travel. A expeditionary force is sent out to Alpha-Centari to create man's first jump gate. During the time that force took to get to Alpha-Centari, the Earth based governments ran out of money to pay back their loans to the Mega-Corporations that built their military infrastructure, so they decided to do a coup. It failed, and now the defense satellites that once defended earth "just in case", were now programmed as a scorched earth policy to fire ON Earth itself, wiping out millions. Those few trapped offworld decide to make a new life with the technology they have, because approaching Earth would be suicide since the defense grid would not only firing upon the approaching ship, but fire against Earth as well.

Some settle on different moons, but the player starts on Mars with other survivors. Eventually the limited resources forces the different groups and factions to interact, sometimes diplomatically, but more often than not, by force. New technology while still able to be discovered, is a long process, and simply "taking" from your neighbor has become policy for certain groups. It is up to the player to join them, lead them, or defend against such foes.

Meanwhile, the Alpha-Centari expedition has started to implement the means to get home. Their original goal was to build a jumpgate for instant travel back to Earth, however Earth's jumpgate isn't responding. They are unaware of what has happened on Earth. However, they are able to modify their gate to send very small but larger and larger masses. Just scouts at first, but they seem themselves as the successors to the legitimate government since they were sent out by them. They decide to subdue what they see as revolutionaries and traitors. They can't bring in the forces to conquer the fledgling city-states, but as time moves forward, they can bring more equipment to bare.

So it is a race to see who can finally dominate the solar system and decide it's fate.