“There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again.”–President John F. Kennedy at Rice Stadium; Houston, Sept. 12, 1962.
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'As yet.'
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But then, what happens when the best of humanity has conquered those hazardous and hostile worlds, and those that followed were the common and the countless? What then, when the common and countless are those who were once ruined by war; made to be at home in strife and sent out into the void to build and colonize? What happens when those colonies grow to budding nations that crack and splinter from the main body, giving rise to new entities that spread to new frontiers and thrive?
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But then, what happens when those hazards are reduced in hostility? Made comparable to places long since conquered by humanity; a mountain peak; the isolated oceanic trenches of Earth; a city plagued with pestilence and murder? What then, when the void itself has become humanity's home; the planets and moons they look down on, their playgrounds and workplaces? What happens when fiction and fantasy become fact and function beyond our wildest dreams?
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But then, what happens when humanity has gained everything, yet maintained the will to not wilt in the winds of stagnation or drown in the depths of depravity? What then, when humanity adopted a vague aspiration in the guise of a promise, given by the one who had gifted all? Humanity, scattered though it was, sought answers.
They found those answers; scattered.
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In the Free Terrestrial Worlds, the answer was nature, industry, and the arts.
In the Saturnian Empire, the answer was the goal of technological transcendence.
In the void cities of Gelidia Corp, the answer was work, skill, and expertise.
In the Galilean Powers, the answer was Merit.
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On the Galilean Moons, the answer was Campaign.
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In the Power of Europa, the answer was a gangland beyond anyone's wildest dreams. A gangland that would birth one who would rise above all others in infamy. One who, in time, would become one of the select few who fares the stars. The Dragon of Europa. The Knight Slayer. The one who would one day be known as Toliman. But long before that, he was known only as Jordan Astros.
This is his rise to infamy.