The game is set in an alternate future that diverged in 1901, when U.S. President William McKinley is not assassinated. As a result, Theodore Roosevelt never succeeded him, and the great business trusts of the era were never broken up, leading to a hyper-corporate, class-centric society dominated by the power of megacorporations. In the distant future these megacorporations begin to colonize space and terraform alien planets with varying results. Thousands of Earth residents, lured by the promise of a fresh start, sign up for the chance to travel to this new frontier.

On this frontier is Halcyon, a small, six-planet star system. Traveling to Halcyon requires both the usage of advanced spacecraft with a faster-than-light skip-drive and a ten-year cryosleep for the colonists. In 2285, two colony ships were dispatched to colonize Halcyon — the Hope and the Groundbreaker. While the Groundbreaker successfully arrived in Halcyon and proceeds to colonize the planets Terra 1 (later renamed Monarch) and Terra 2, the Hope and its cargo disappeared in transit, slipping into myth among the citizens of Halcyon. The Groundbreaker, meanwhile, goes into permanent orbit near Terra 2, with the original crew and their descendants converting the ship into an independent port and armored citadel.