By the fifth millennium, Earth has consumed everything its home system had to offer and turned to its distant colonies for more. The colonists—stripped of their resources to serve an empire they have never seen—reach their limit. When the Tzar of the Earth Empire personally oversees the destruction of a rebellious planet, the other colonies unite under a man known only as the Father, forming the League of Free Worlds. The turning point comes at the Battle of Bennay, where the League lures the Imperial Navy into an asteroid field and destroys the fleet. The player joins the League in the months following that victory, as the war for humanity's future fully begins.