Prequel: A little future history lesson.
In year 2025 the most important Space Agencies for the world, most notably, NASA, ESA and JAXA decided to pool their resources, their assets and their funds, allowing space exploration to take giant steps forward.
In merely 5 years the newborn ISA, managed to complete a program finalized to the colonization of the moon, and arranged a mission to reach Mars and other close planets of the solar system.
The moon mission however had the priority since it was the keystone for the others.
Earth's satellite was filled with all kinds of minerals and elements needed to make long range space exploration affordable, first of all the helium 3, a particular isotope of helium, fundamental to realize a stable nuclear fusion.
In 2030 multiple rockets carrying the so called "beginning modules" where launched in space, with also the first humans tasked with building the colonies, the foundations of what would have become the .
Each beginning module had inside the materials to build the colony's headquarters, the homes, the storages and the labs, plus a number of multi-functional robots to help with the construction.
By 2031 the first colony, named M-1, was established, with 30 people living in it.
It looked like a small white suburb on the moon's surface, with the headquarters in its center and the homes and the labs unfolding around them circularly.
Year by year M-1 grew and its sister colonies M-2 trough M-20 were built shortly after, also due to the growing interest in the moon's resources.
Mines, processing factories and shipyards started making their appearances along the labs and the homes, and more and more convoys of starships travelled back and forth between the moon and the Earth.
In 2040 the moon's population accounted 3000 humans, and thanks to the additional funds obtained trough the exportations of the rare earths present on the moon and the direct access to enough materials to built ships and equipment economically, the exploration missions aimed to the other planets finally became a reality.
The following times saw the humanity landing on Mars and orbiting around Venus, while the moon's community kept growing quickly, until in year 2045 reached the first million of people, as the colonies merged into the first lunar city, which was then called Luna-1.
However the successes the humanity achieved and the many wonders they were able to accomplish, wasn't just enough, they wanted go further...
In the year 2045 at the anniversary of the colony's foundation, the ISA, now the most profitable company in the world and one of the most influent, announced they were working on a probe unlike any others, that would have traveled trough the interstellar space to Alpha Centauri's system.
Billions of dollars were expended on the project, and finally in 2050 the probe was completed and the trajectory it was going to follow to reach Alpha Centauri was tracked, however nobody, not even the scientists could have imagined what was about to happen...
