"THE FIRST CHILDREN IN OUTER SPACE WILL NOT BE ORDINARY." For all of his excesses, it is the fundamental will of mankind to survive which drives him forward. The will of mankind would be tested many times. In early times, the simple agrarian society gave way to fiefdoms and a feudal system of existence. The need to exchange goods and services between communities called for the rise of mercantilism where, over time, individuals competed for trade routes and markets. The result of competition was the formation of the Nation State. Resources were consolidated, and mankind secured his wealth. In the middle period, industrialism was a natural consequence of the rise of the Nation State, where mankind continued to simply his toil and, for the first time, had leisure time. His excesses, using natural resources such as the streams and rivers, would challenge his ability to co-exist with the very environment that nurtured him. In the modern period, the computer age simplified man's existence temporarily, but made the toil of many irrelevant. Population continued to soar and so did unemployment. There were food riots and civil strife. In his unquenchable need to recreate his environment, he thirsted for oil and metals, and bored deeper holes into the Earth, robbing it of its underpinnings. At the same time, he stripped his natural resources the very foundations of his society were stressed to the breaking point. In his dark hour, once more, man sought a solution to his plight through technological advances, and for the first time the Moon was viewed as a reachable natural resource and tempted him as a new place to conquer. MOON COLONY ONE (2041-2049) Prisoners were promised early release if they mined for a fraction of their sentence, and Moon Colony One was begun. Simple greed made this first effort to mine the resources of the Moon, unsustainable. In the first years of open markets, freelance companies competed to dominate access to the Earth Moon shipping lanes, when harvesting the yield of Earth Moon Colony mines meant instant wealth. The setting was ripe for political corruption fed by avarice. The opportunities for the theft of ore from the Moon was so great that large numbers of conscripted inmates aligned themselves with one faction or another to be on the receiving end of payoffs. Some miners amassed small fortunes through proxy bank accounts during their sentence. Organized men, acting as mob enforcers, got themselves arrested deliberately so that they could serve short sentences on the Moon to reinforce the commitment of recruited inmates. When security forces attempted to clamp down on the thefts, these greedy men resorted to sabotage, resulting in large shipments being sent adrift into space. The initial interventions of security forces, at the time, were harsh and prisoner uprisings led to the further destruction of property and the loss of life. In his attempt to pursue free market principles, the open venue of space trade routes proved too much for mankind, as his greed continued unchecked. The use of prison labor along with unregulated shipping was a lofty ideal at best, but regulation through government might threaten innovation. After the second of two uprisings, technological improvements made use of prison labor safer but at the cost of personal freedom and civil liberties. Previously unregulated shippers were forced by governments to unify under the Tri- Star Corporation. Many refused to cooperate and continued periodic threats of piracy, the ancient peril to exploration, development and progress. Moon Colony One was closed as a result of the deaths, thefts and disorganization it represented. MOON COLONY TWO (2050-present) Strictly controlled by space station personnel, with the Tri Star Corporation, Earth Moon Colony Two was in its fourth year when a small boy began his journey.