posted 05-21-99 10:59 PM ET        

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In 2076, the stardrive is perfected. With the perfect combination of the ionic and antimatter drives, interstellar travel is at last possible, and more importantly, practical. However, there are problems. Many nations have sent colony ships to various planets and moons, but the political situation is very unstable. You can choose to control one of the superpowers, and form an intergalactic empire, or one of the free colonies, and form a new begining for humankind.

I am the President of the Confederated Provinces of Freedom. We control the moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. In 2089, those 3 moons were colonized by the United States, but after the crash of '91 and the subsequent revolutions, we found it necesary to take matters into our own hands. We are obviously a democracy, with an economy tailored to preserving the natural state of our colonies. Our greatest emphasis is on knowledge, which allows us to have very good research. There is currently a bill in our Parliament being voted upon on whether to transfer large areas of our government over to computers, but it is expected to fail.