Five great ships launched during the Exodus, each protecting precious human cargo deep within their metal wombs. They fled for the stars, away from the final spasm of war that swallowed their first home in fire and then in blackness. Somewhere out there they would make a new home. They would begin again. This time...this time they would not repeat the mistakes that had been made before.

Five great ships. One was lost en route. The names of the other four now are legend: Kusari, Rheinland, Bretonia, and Liberty....

Pre-Settlement

In the tumult of the Exodus, The Liberty launched before the other great sleeper ships. Colonists whisper, even today, that the launch date may have been intentionally moved forward against the explicit wishes of the Great Planners. Early launch would have guaranteed the Liberty free access to the worlds of the Sirius Sector before the other sleeper ships arrived, but all proof of such a betrayal of trust was lost along with Earth. Even if the Liberty did launch early, there is little that can be done about it now...but there remains a lingering feeling of resentment among the other houses: a vague feeling that, somehow, Liberty does not entirely deserve the position of superiority it enjoys eight centuries later.

When the Liberty first arrived in the Sirius Sector they found an area rich in resources but lacking in habitable planets. With a hundred systems at their fingertips, they settled on those near the center of Sirius where the highest number of main sequence stars and Earth-like planets existed and a fair number of resources could be easily obtained. Eventually they made planetfall on Manhattan, in the system they christened New York. They began the difficult task of rebuilding civilization two full years before any other sleeper ship arrived.