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  1. Drift💫A Space Odyssey
  3. Lore

Timeline

Universal Star Date (USD) Timeline

USD Format

  • Dates are written USD YYYY.D. YYYY is the number of years since the Central Authority was founded. D is tenths of a year, about 36 days each.

  • Year 0000.0 is the founding of the Central Authority. The current year is USD 0107.

  • * *

Years 0 to 9, The Founding

  • USD 0000.0. The Central Authority is founded. It starts issuing IDs and ship papers and sets up the first customs offices and patrols.

  • USD 0000.4. The first customs courts and debt courts open. Debt courts can turn unpaid debt into forced work.

  • USD 0001.2. Kedra becomes the busiest court world. The waits are so long that paying a bribe to jump the line becomes normal.

  • USD 0002.0. The Keth publish the first Archive of Routes from Slipwind. Keth charts become the standard for navigation.

  • USD 0003.1. The Vellari haul fleets start regular ice runs to dry worlds.

  • USD 0004.0. Talarq Forge-marked reactor parts become the standard.

  • USD 0005.6. Banks start hiring Synthborn to hold payments and keep records.

Years 10 to 19, Lanes and Blacklists

  • USD 0010.2. The Jump Lanes are mapped and marked with Keth beacons.

  • USD 0011.0. Groups that hold both ends of a lane start charging tolls. Prices spike.

  • USD 0012.4. Syndicates start selling illegal shortcut routes with no beacons. Ships start vanishing on them.

  • USD 0013.1. Ports settle into the habits they still have. The Core has long lines and locked warehouses. The Rim wants cash on arrival.

  • USD 0014.0. Beacons start checking passing ships, and ports start sharing blacklists.

  • USD 0015.5. Core customs officers, Mid port guards and Rim enforcers become the three faces of the law.

  • USD 0016.3. Slipwind and Brightline become the trusted relay worlds for news and records.

  • USD 0018.1. A few neutral ports start holding the pay for both sides of big deals. Attacking them gets a crew blacklisted everywhere.

Years 20 to 39, The Constellations

  • USD 0021.0. The Human constellation forms. Kedra, Armistice, Brackenfeld and Red Harbor trade in court cases, food, cargo and shady loans.

  • USD 0023.2. The Vellari constellation forms. It links Thalassa-Nine (the haul fleets), Brinelight (reef composites), Deepmere (kelp fuel) and Salt Crown (brine chemicals).

  • USD 0025.5. The Keth constellation forms. It links Slipwind (the Archive), Harlune (turbines) and Vastris (relays and salvage maps).

  • USD 0027.0. The Caraphex constellation forms. It links Ravel (labor clades), Shardplain (tools), Pitchmire (oil and tar) and Mandible Reach (ship-breaking).

  • USD 0029.4. The Talarq constellation forms. It links Tal (foundries), Scoria (fire bricks) and Obsidian Reach (reactor testing).

  • USD 0031.2. The Serean constellation forms. It links Varo-Blue (cloud cities and rites), Cyrin (chemical skimming) and Mistral Gate (storm dives).

Years 40 to 59, Pirates and Bounties

  • USD 0041.0. Piracy grows. Pirates hunt weak routes and slow convoys.

  • USD 0042.6. The worst hotspots are Mistral Gate, Pitchmire and the edges of the Brackenfeld convoy routes.

  • USD 0045.2. Syndicates take over three zones. They are the Salt Crown Corridor for tolls, the Pitchmire Vector for checkpoints, and the Mistral Gate Outposts for a "weather tax."

  • USD 0046.0. The Authority admits its patrols are too thin and starts the bounty system. Freelancers now get paid to bring in pirates and fugitives.

  • USD 0048.3. Moving habitats and belt stations get their own local rules. Visiting ships pay docking deposits and follow local weather rules.

Years 60 to 79, Machine People

  • USD 0060.0. The Core recognizes Synthborn as people. The Mid and Rim mostly do not.

  • USD 0061.2. The fight over Right-to-Patch splits the Free Assemblies from the Contract Nodes.

  • USD 0063.0. Brightline grows into a big computing and payments hub under company control.

  • USD 0064.1. Crews with Synthborn members start carrying extra ID for them, because Rim ports like to seize Synthborn as property.

  • USD 0065.9. Cache Vale becomes a neutral data vault and a favorite target for raids.

Years 80 to 99, Jackers and Debt

  • USD 0080.0. Mistral Gate storm dives become known as deadly but well paid. Syndicates sell fake insurance to the divers.

  • USD 0082.7. The Salt Crown ice-jacking wave. Syndicates hijack Vellari tugs on the Salt Crown corridor. The Grand Council answers with some of the biggest bounties in the Drift.

  • USD 0085.2. Beacons fail on the Rim. Drift zones spread and more ships go missing.

  • USD 0088.4. Debt courts grow and prison labor spreads on the Rim. Conditions get worse.

Year 100 to Now, Bad Signals and Hired Guns

  • USD 0101.0. Signal tampering spikes. Crews stop trusting long-range messages, send everything twice, and pay couriers.

  • USD 0102.6. Border fights break out over harvest seas, mining belts and junction depots. Refugees flee toward the Rim.

  • USD 0103.3. Bribes, rush fees and escort fees become normal on crowded Core and Mid lanes.

  • USD 0104.0. Blacklist checks at beacons get stricter. Ships that fail get fined, seized or sent back to port.

  • USD 0105.5. Pirates start hitting the Brackenfeld convoys every harvest season.

  • USD 0106.2. Syndicates keep shaking down Caraphex clades. Free Companies get hired for escorts, standoffs and recovery jobs.

  • USD 0107.0. Now. Humans run the government, the banks and most syndicates. Vellari haul the ice. Keth chart the lanes. Caraphex do the heavy work. Talarq build the reactors. Sereans dive the storms. Synthborn keep the records and still fight for their rights.

  • * *

Quick Reference

  • The law. Core trade rules, ship papers and ID cards. Corruption and thin patrols mean it barely reaches the Rim. Bounties fill the gap.

  • Lanes and ports. Keth charts and beacons. Long lines in the Core, bribes in the Mid, cash up front on the Rim.

  • Water and fuel. Vellari ice is the good water. Ice jackers are the big threat. Dirty fuel wrecks engines.

  • Danger. Pirates, thin patrols, and syndicates running whole corridors.

  • * *

BUSD (Before Universal Star Date)

BUSD dates things older than the Central Authority, such as ruins, wrecks and lost colonies. It counts years backward from USD 0000.0 and uses tenths of a year the same way USD does. To get a BUSD date, take the number of years ago and subtract 107. A ruin from 2,000 years ago is dated 1893.0 BUSD.

Museums, salvage crews and data brokers use BUSD to label anything from before the Authority.

Always write BUSD after the number, so nobody mistakes it for a USD date.