The Official Space Cases Bible - Backstory--Our Galaxy and Welcome To It

The Official Space Cases Bible

BACKSTORY--OUR GALAXY AND WELCOME TO IT

The following is the future history of our little environs. In no way, shape or form is it meant to be worked into every episode, or even be mentioned. After all, how often does World War II, the Korean War, or even the fairly recent Vietnam, figure into your day to day life? If a story flows naturally from the history of our galaxy, then that's fine. But let's not see any tortured expository "Wow, this is just like in the Great War ninety years ago" speeches purely for the sake of doing so. We're not out to teach our audience Galactic History 101. We just want to entertain. This section is mostly just so you understand where we came from.

A. RECENT GALACTIC HISTORY
Towards the latter part of the 21st Century, the planet Earth found itself catapulted to galactic pre-eminence. It didn't happen through strength of arms, or because we were the best, or the most worthy, or even the most clever.
We simply happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Our solar system, usually referred to as the Sol system, abruptly had visitors as a result of the Voyager probe sent out in the late 20th century. Not visitors, actually. Refugees. To be specific... War refugees.
There had been a massive war in another sector of the galaxy, more towards the center (keep in mind the Sol System is near the edge of the Milky way) . An alliance of star faring races came together against a formidable enemy, the Zillorites. The battle was epic. The victory was pyrrhic. The Zillorites had been beaten back, but at devastating cost to the allies (indeed, it's hard to tell whether they were, in fact, destroyed... or simply felt that the remains of the sector were such a mess, it wasn't worth continuing the fight.)
Their planets were flaming ruins, uninhabitable. At least one star had been destroyed altogether.
So the surviving ships formed an armada and sought a new area that could be colonized. In their travels, they came across the Voyager probe, with its directions and greetings. Using it as a guide, they found it in the Sol system, which featured an array of planets that conveniently fit the respective environmental needs of the incoming races.
They also discovered the inhabitants of Sol III, a.k.a. Earth, a.k.a. Terra. At this time the Terrans had made some advancements in space travel, but it was mostly restricted to nearby hops. A space station, a moon colony, a very small Mars colony. But that was about it.
The alliance, having no wish to infringe on the territorial rights of the Terrans, struck a deal with Earth. Earth, becoming a sort of solar system landlord, accorded leasing rights to the alliance for several planets in the solar system.
In turn, through a barter arrangement, the alliance joined forces with Earth, providing advances in technology and science.

B. THE GOVERNMENT
This tenuous, but workable, arrangement, led to the official formation of the first official governing body designed to deal with aliens: The I.N.S. (Interstellar Neighborhood Society).
As word of the I.N.S. spread through the sub-ether, other races in other star systems got word of the quantum leaps that Earth was making in star travel This sent a certain degree of concern to neighboring systems, who had visited Earth in U.F.O.s during the somewhat savage 20th century and had come to regard Earth as a rather barbaric place. Now, though, they sent out feelers about joining the I.N.S., while at the same time wanting to make assurances about their own borders.
From these meetings was developed the High Council, which sits in constant session similar in theme to the United Nations. And there is a multi-planet militia serving as the enforcement arm of the High Council called the S.T.A.R.D.O.G.S. (Several Tough Alien Races Defense-Only Guarding Space.) Not all worlds have joined the I.N.S., and their borders are to be strictly adhered to by S.T.A.R.D.O.G.S. and other I.N.S. reps.
As a result of these accommodations, there is commerce and tourism between the planets. Also, hand guns are a thing of the past. It's not a Utopia, but things are pretty good.

C. ANDROMEDA AND THE SPUNG
Roughly five years before the start of our series, the I.N.S. experienced its first contact with a race from another galaxy--the Andromedans. It was not under the best of circumstances. The Andromedans came to the Milky Way galaxy via an exploratory sleeper vessel. The vessel was discovered by a marauding race called the Spung, who pressed the superhumanly strong Andromedans into service (holding the elders and females as hostages) and used them to wage war on some of the outlying planets in the I.N.S. sphere. The war was fairly short by most standards, lasting barely a month. The Spung were the losers and fled, leaving the confused Andromedans behind to face the music.
When it was discovered that the Andromedans were unwilling participants in the entire thing, the decision was made to grant them amnesty, provisional I.N.S. membership, and a colony on a planet near Proxima Centauri. This, however, was not a uniformly popular decision. Some resentment is still held over against the odd-looking former enemies of the I.N.S.