The year was 2050.

 The earth was dying, and the Sun had disappeared.  The oceans froze. The plants stopped growing. Radiation made the world into a toxic wasteland.

 The human race, facing extinction, fled to the stars. Fleets of ships and space cruisers left our home in a mass exodus. For nearly a century, we drifted through space searching for a planet hospitable enough to call home. 

Just when all seemed lost, we found it.

 Strion 472, as the scientists call it. We just call it Strion. A planet similar in almost every way to Earth. A hospitable environment, water, breathable atmosphere. We could make a home here. 

So, the last remaining humans came down to the planet's surface and made preparations to start the very first interstellar colony. Life was hard for the colonists. Building an entire civilization from nothing was no easy feat. But we humans are resilient. We don’t know when to quit. And help sometimes comes from unexpected places. 

The Stria, indigenous to Strion, extended their support to us. They saw the sad state we were in. They saw our children starving, our people dying. They took pity on us. 

So, they helped us. They gave us knowledge, technology, and they shared their most well-protected secret. Crystis. The force that powered everything on Strion. Their civilizations, their tech, their weapons. 

In a matter of years, humans had built a sprawling city, full of advanced technology. We called it Domum. Latin for “Home”. 

For twenty five years, things were perfect.

 But, there’s another thing we humans are known for. We’re greedy. Power hungry. We take and take and take, even things that don’t belong to us. 

That’s what we did. 

We went to war with the Stria, breaking the bond of friendship forged between the two peoples. We used their own power, Crystis, against them. The battles raged on for years, showing no sign of ending. No one was safe. Homes destroyed, families torn apart. This was our reality for thirty bloody years.

Then, it stopped. Leaders on both sides had decided enough was enough. There was no victory in sight for either side. In the year 2204 an armistice was made. The armistice of Domum ushered in a new era of peace between the two races. But relations were still tense. Both side was prejudiced against the other, and old wounds never healed.

So now we arrive at the present. The year 2216. 

Humans and Stria cohabitate, if you could even call it that. Every day a new report of some form of violence comes in from the lower levels. The parts of the city people don't like to talk about. That's where I'm from.

My name is Nova, and I’m currently about 10 seconds away from being shot in the face. I'd say things are going pretty well.