Jan 14. Comet 2 moves too close to the inner system, forcing the Miners to call cargo ships for mineral pick up and relocate. They head to Comet 4, which is on its way outsystem, but should still give a couple of years production.
March 3. Comet 2 is close enough for the Empire to take advantage of it safely, transfer of automated mines commences.
March 13, El Dorado runs out of Neutronium, stocks are good but a reliable source of the mineral is needed.
March 21. Construction of two brand new Coriolis class geo survey ships finishes on Terra
April 14. The lead ships of the Explorer class; The George Ogden Abel and the Mark Aaronson, complete construction on Titan, they are immediately sent to Jump Points 5 and 6 to see what they can find.
April 18. Empire passive sensors detect the ships as they head towards their destinations, given what was known about Federation priorities and the ships projected destinations, it is fairly easy for Empire planners to guess what they were looking at. this causes consternation and plans are made.
The currently available Eclipse class frigates are formed up and sent to picket jump point 5 in hopes of catching one of the ships upon their return, the plan is to destroy it before it can transmit its findings and then interrogate the crew to see what they know.
April 22. Jump Point 5 reveals a trinary system with massive amounts of planets, moons and asteroids, including a total of 3 that may be easily terraformable. George Ogden Able jumps back to Sol with the plan of checking out JP7.
Later that day, the Empire squadron arrives at JP5, without passive sensors they have no way of knowing if the Jump Ship is still in the other system or if it is already out of range of the small active sensor the Eclipse mounts. They will picket for a week and eventually return home unsuccessful. Plans were considered to head for the other jump points, but the Federation ships were very nearly as fast as the Eclipse, and it would be unlikely they could reach the jump points in time to do anything.
April 27. JP6 is explored by Mark Aaronson, and reveals a large planetary system with no less than 3 potential worlds for terraforming, including one with the correct oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere.The ship returns to Sol to resume its initial survey.
May 3. Federation observers have noted the mobile active sensor sources in the Empire reported by their roving civilian ships as well as the fact that they apparently spent some time picketing JP5. Task forces are dispatched to protect the Explorers while they finish their survey. And plans are made to respond in kind, after all the Empire must be nearing completion of its own jump ships
May 6. JP8 is explored, revealing a quaternary system with numerous potential worlds, but more worrying to the crew of the Mark Aaronson are the presence of two wrecked ships in the system. It is unlikely the Empire would have made it out here this early, and one of the wrecks masses of one hundred thousand tons, far more than can be easily gotten through a jump point with the current technology. It seems clear that mankind has its first solid evidence of extra-terrestrial life. The ship hurries back, not at all interested in finding what may have caused the wrecks.
May 7. JP7 reveals a system consisting of a small protostar located within a level 8 nebula. There appears to be a world with an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, but the problems inherent to nebula's mean this system will likely be ignored.
June 1. Sorium shortages are nearly critical on Terra, though sufficient fuel stocks are available, shipbuilding is being slowed until more can be brought over from Mercury.
The Federation scraps plans for a retaliatory strike, no harm actually came of the Empires antics and it was decided that anything that could produce substantive results would require far too large of a force requirement.
June 19. The jumpships Alexander and Howard Anderson launch from Terra's shipyard complex, they immediately set course for jump points one and two, a mere 16 hours later both ships jump out, Alexander locates a trinary system, the only thing of interest being the C component, with many planets and moons, unfortunately it is something like 17 billion KM away from system center, far too much distance to be practical
Howard Alexanders find is equally disappointing, a small system located with in a strong level 6 nebula, though it has a few possible mineral sources and many comets, the problems with nebula's make it fairly unsuitable for exploitation. The jump ships head for points 3 and 4
June 20. The Terran Federation completes design work on a new geo survey ship, choosing to modify the existing Discovery class grav survey vessel by swapping its sensors out.
June 21. Alexander explores JP3 to discover a quaternary system, the C and D components are too far away for easy exploration, but there is a wealth of planets and asteroids on the A and B components, she returns to Sol to pick up the Coriolis class Geo survey ships there.
June 23. JP4 is discovered to be an empty system, with only a single tiny dwarf star, the system is marked for further Grav surveying however as it is compact and has no other threats or obstacles within
July 16. Federation Grav survey ships begin exploring the system beyond JP8, the one with the alien wrecks.
August 16. A Jump point is found by the Federation, the first found outside the Sol system, the until now unnamed system is given the name Gateway
Sept. 15 retooling completes on Titan for the Discovery II, construction will take over a year however
Sept 28. A second jump point is found in Gateway.
Jan 1, 2082. The new year rings in once again, both factions are busy with exploration and had little attention to spare for each other. However negotiations throughout the year have been ongoing and by the new year an agreement is reached that each faction would claim the four jump points they already possess and not explore through the others without the express permission of the controlling empire. This suits both parties well enough, and they figure they can easily break the pact at a time of their convenience if it becomes desirable.
