[ WP ] In the near future , mankind explores the stars in search of life . Life indeed exists beyond Earth , but you , a researcher on a science ship , discover that all of the spacefaring alien civilizations died out . Curiously , their deaths seem directly linked to humanity reaching outer space .

From `` It Was n't Our Fault'' by Dr. Tamar Benzaquen, July-August 2119 issue of *Foreign Affairs* 
 
 The discovery that all spacefaring civilizations collapsed at the same time humanity reached space has troubled human researchers for decades. Numerous theories have been proposed, often with little evidence. The theory that the very act of breaching hyperspace somehow destroyed alien civilization was used to support a serious proposal to ban human spaceflight completely, including the forcible dismantling of our colonies on Mars and Jupiter. However, the evidence clearly shows that a protracted conflict brought down alien civilization. The recent discovery of the `` Tamarisk Archive'' has now given us a window into the political forces that destroyed the Galactic Concert... 
 
... the Concert was already facing severe polarization when humanity made its first spaceflight. As it happens, we were the first primitive civilization to reach space since the formation of the Concert. Some wanted to contact us and guide us into the galactic community, ensuring that our values would match theirs. Others wanted to protect human culture and opposed any interference until we contacted them. The conflict soon joined a host of other political issues, many of them familiar to our own governments, dividing Galactic society... 
 
... each milestone in human space development triggered another political crisis... 
 
... In 2063, the monitoring station orbiting Neptune was deliberately crashed into the planet by anti-interventionists. This ended alien monitoring of humanity, and also raised tensions prior to the disputed 2063 election for Overseer of the Concert... 
 
... by the time we tested our first hyperdrive, it was all over. A civil war centuries in the making had destroyed six trillion lives and obliterated millennia of civilization. We were n't the cause. We were just the trigger. It was n't our fault...
