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The Lacuna Expanse or just the Expanse is a region of space on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy that is unlike any other. Stars are spaced relatively close together, and most importantly, habitable life sustaining planets are abundant and available in nearly every star system.

"Lacuna Expanse" means void space. It was once thought to be populated with no or very few planets at all. This is because the traditional methods for detecting planets on distant stars didn't work on the Expanse. It was too far away from Earth, and most of the habitable planets are far too small to be detected by these means. A Russian born astronomer named Kirjj Rasvoor developed a method to detect planets in the Expanse.

As it turned out Rasvoor's discovery came not a moment too soon. Earth's human population had been falling sharply for the past century. The planet was no longer able to sustain the food required to keep all of us alive. Between the various plagues, floods, famines, and wars there wasn't a lot of hope for humanity, and then a meteor impacted on the east coast of North America and nearly wiped us out for good. Luckily due to Rasvoor's discovery we had been preparing a colony ship for the past year and it was finally ready to launch the day of the meteor shower.

Humans left Earth for the first time without the intention of ever returning. We travelled almost 10,000 years before reaching the outermost part of the Expanse. We lived on the colony ship generation after generation, growing meager sustenance in the hydroponics bays and telling each other the stories of a planet that was once our home.

By the time we reached the Expanse, no one really had any idea what it was like to not live on the ship. There hadn't been a true Earthling on the ship for thousands of years. So when we finally came upon our new home world, we nearly decided not to disembark. Luckily a wise few convinced the majority of us that there must be more to life on a planet's surface. There must be a reason we travelled all this way.

We landed the ship, and founded our first colony. That first year it was hell, but gradually, crops began to grow, buildings began to rise, and life got better. The Expanse had become our home. Little did we know the perils that awaited us both within our ranks, and lurking out in the Expanse.