Outrim 3

The years that followed the treaty of Io saw a vast exodus from Earth. Several of the stars near Sol yielded worlds desirable for colonization - whether for their resources or their habitability. The leash held by the Confederation was a loose one. Gaining permission to found a colony was relatively easy. Corporate and government interests, of course, gained the lions share of the best worlds, claiming those that were already hosting earthlike environments or mineral wealth.

But for hundreds of other groups, the path to the stars was thrown wide. For several million dollars, a few hundred souls could commission their own colony on an uninhabited world. For many, the lives they gained were filled with toil - mining or manufacturing - but their existence was independent. They lived under laws they themselves wrote. 

Through out this era, the Majir stood alongside humanity. Many of the aliens joined human colonization efforts. The Majiran youth, especially, took to human culture like ducks to water. Though still cautious and analytical, they found value in mankinds impulsiveness and desire for improvement. During this period, the first Human-Majir children were born. The Majir were, of course, biologically incompatible with humans (they posessed much of the same sexual traits - however, genetic incompatibilities prevented any live births), but human biotechnology allowed for fetuses to be created through the artificial combination of the parents DNA. The process was expensive, but it yielded the most tangible results of the new alliance - hybrid children.

Twenty-five years after first contact, half a hundred worlds bore a human or Majir colony. The Confederation - now simply the Confederation, as 'Sol' had been dropped when the Majir were brought on as a member state - collected a mild tax from each world. It's coffers swollen, it began several large terraforming projects on promising worlds near Sol and the Majir homeworld, building up a core of garden worlds.

Though mostly peaceful, old enmities and new rivalries flourished in the new, dispersed state of affairs. Groups that had been on the decline in the last century on Earth suddenly found themselves in control of entire worlds. Human-first movements claimed several worlds, prohibiting any Majir from setting foot on their soil. Others did the same, but for ethnicities they found abhorrent. 

It wasn't long before the tension broke. Ironically, the levee gave way on Iuch, a world colonized by extremist Majir, who wished to make the world a monastic retreat limited to their species only. Unfortunately, the world was also prime colonization territory. A human colony was approved despite protests.

One would thing that a continent and an oceans distance would be enough separation for anyone, but things came to a head when the human colony gained permission to begin terraforming. The Majir monks, led by an extremist priest, copied the old human technique of suicide bombing. Hundreds died.

So the human colonies terraforming engineers struck back. A captured comet, intended for adding water to the planets atmosphere via aerobraking, dropped straight on top of the Majir settlement. Wiped them out, ever man woman and child.

It didn't take long for the Confederate government to crack down. The requirements for colonization tightened up significantly. Colonies were no longer allowed to restrict their own membership, and several groups (including the old American KKK) were refused permission for colonization.

Though few of the groups seeking colonization rights were affected by these new rulings, the events that had brought them about put a damper on things. The rate of new worlds being settled slowed from monthly to yearly, and finally to the decade mark. Mankind and the Majir were thinly spread over nearly eighty worlds, most of them living in (relative) harmony.

Nobody thought much of it when a survey drone went silent while taking a closer look at what was thought to be a brown dwarf or rogue gas giant a few parsecs out from Callisto. Not at first, anyways.