Explorers!/Background

Mankind has taken the step out into the great beyond. Planets found capable of supporting life were not plentiful, right now 4, but each of them were found to contain alien ruins. The ruins were meticulously picked apart, and the aliens history, culture and technology appeared. The great surprise was that the aliens used a combined ideographic and syllable-based language with some surprising likenesses to mesoamerican and indo-european languages. A short while later, the aliens were dubbed Neoatlantians. Their tech was mostly found in installations, but some artifacts (dubbed Neo-Artifacts) where recovered. Neo-Artifacts were shown to be able to interface with both humans and technology, in almost impossible ways. On Earth, de-globalization was a fact, as resources dwindled. Many nations suffered civil wars, and balkanization was common. The resources to build starships were now the domain of corps and nation conglomerates, with the help of the outer mines and the colonies on Luna and Mars. One of these corps is the North European Reconnaissance Voyager Expeditions, NERVE. This is the one you belong to. Your mission is one of long-range exploration past the limits of current human boundaries. Our new, enhanced [Cool name here]-drive allows for further travel than the old Mark 1 Drives, opening up new avenues for exploration. You have been chosen to participate on a mission out into the great beyond, to go where no man has gone before.