A short history of the isolated cluster
The distant past
Earth established a colony in the Torrin system on the planet Gaia during the golden age of the human diaspora. The colony tamed the wilderness and the fierce native lifeforms. They built many cities across the planet, growing to the point where they were self-sufficient, with a population of over a million people.
They did not have the capability to get off planet by themselves, but Torrin was advantageously positioned in the strait network, and visits by interstellar traders were common. The space station in orbit and the spaceport near their main city were owned and run by an interstellar consortium. The interstellar traders would bring in the high-technology goods, power systems, computing infrastructure, and medical devices that were needed to maintain the lifestyles to which the colony had become used accustomed.
In return, the traders ran the space-based mining operations in Torrin’s asteroid belt, the gas giants and their moons, and transported those resources to other systems where they were needed.
Then, the interstellar ships from the greater galaxy stopped coming.
There was no word as to why this had happened. Still the Gaians continued to live their lives. Their technology level slowly dropped as their imported systems broke down. Seventy-five years after the last interstellar trader visited Gaia, a plague ran through the still interconnected cities, killing off 35% of the population in less than a decade.
Infrastructure failed, high-tech skills were lost as the remaining people spent their time and energy in raising food and protecting their families instead of passing on the information about technology that they did have.
The world entered a dark age that lasted a thousand years. The population had plummeted to less than two hundred thousand souls. They were scattered across the planet in isolated enclaves. Travel was long and dangerous, as the people of the enclaves did not trust each other, and brigandage and petty conflicts were common. The wilderness returned and reclaimed the land that had been built over, but was now abandoned.
Still the people coped and survived by learning new skills to solve the problems that did not have easily available high-tech solutions.
Eventually the dark age ended, and the population surged as medical techniques were re-discovered, the wilderness was beat back again, and the scattered enclaves re-connected and learned to work together.
Two thousand years since the last interstellar trader visited Torrin, and the scattered enclaves of the people of Gaia had merged into a single world government known as the New Earth Directorate
The scientists and engineers of the Directorate discovered the slipstream drive and two strait points in the Torrin system. They established colonies on the worlds beyond those strait points.
They discovered a third strait point and Cyron, the star system beyond it. They made contact with the human civilization that was flourishing there and after some initial conflicts the Cyrons joined the New Earth Directorate.