From the introduction:
It is the Year 2352. Humanity has moved far beyond its homeland of Earth into the stars, using the Monopole Coil to create one of the most grand inventions in history, one that shaped this future: The Jump Drive. With it, mankind is able to move across the stars with the ease(if not greater) than we can ride across the skies. Short Jumps allowed for intra-system transportation to be as easy as a short drive, and Long Jumps allowed for transport across systems light-years apart. However, this future is not one of perfection and peace. After all, the massive armored war machines known as Battle Modules would not have been invented if the universe were not dangerous. Humanity is still itself, as there are pirates who ply the stars and a tyranny that brews on planet earth. Not only has humanity remained its own greatest threat, but alien species are plentiful...many are peaceful, such as the traders of Worldring-3 or the pink whales of Jarzela...But some, like the robotic Berserkers, are simply bloodthirsty and ruthless. It’s a dangerous Final Frontier you’ve been flung out into, as you begin as one of the crew members of the exploration vessel known as the S.S Swordfish on that fateful event...You begin as one of the few survivors of the Space Pirate attack that beset it and sent the ship into a Jump Miss, flung out into far-off systems.