The year is 2404. Although World War Three is not quite yet out of living memory, humanity is in an era of global peace and international cooperation.
Nothing exemplifies the spirit of the era more than the Galaxy Garrison. The modern-day successor to national space programs of centuries past, it is a multi-national military organization dedicated to training, equipping, and sending out new generations of astro-explorers.
For centuries, humanity has been expanding its reach through space, slowly but surely pushing the limits of human exploration outward to the edges of its native solar system. Every advancement in fuel efficiency, every leap and bound of technology, broadens their horizons.
The first manned mission to Jupiter's moons, more than 40 years ago, took 3 years each way. Since then, humans have travelled further and faster: Saturn, Uranus, Neptune—all reached and conquered in their turn.
Today marks the launch of a mission that will expand those horizons once more. Its destination is Kerberos, a moon of Pluto, further away from Earth than any human has ever been. The trip is planned to take no more than a handful of months each way.
The Kerberos mission has a purpose beyond simple record-breaking, however. The crew has been instructed to collect samples of ice from the moon's surface and bring them back for analysis, with the hope of finding signs that might point to extraterrestrial microbial life. What they find could shape the future of humanity for centuries to come.
Accordingly, the Garrison has selected its best and brightest for the task.