Golden Age

The Golden Age refers to the prosperous bygone era in the history of the human race during which human civilization spread far beyond the confines of Earth and expanded throughout the Solar System.

Origins
Shortly after present day, humans observed strange events occurring on Jupiter, Mercury and Venus such as drastic climate change and environmental changes, they also saw what looked like a sphere traveling between these locations. Curious humanity tracked the object to Mars and began to make preparations for an expedition to inspect the object. Sometime later a mission was prepared to go to Mars using the spacecraft Ares One. They selected the Pilots Mihaylova, Qiao and Jacob Hardy for this mission due to not just their training as astronauts but also as soldiers. After a 14 month journey to Mars armed and ready for what was to come they landed in not a cold desert devoid of life but a planet breathing the first breath of life, when they landed the event was broadcasted back to earth. When they finally saw the Sphere it was not hostile but instead it was breathing new life into Mars and the astronauts own bodies. In the brief time after this exchange the power of the Sphere also transformed humans curing aging and improving the human mind. With this new power the Golden Age began. Humanity called the being responsible for this The Traveler.

Golden Age
The Travelers arrival had brought enlightenment to humanity, and with the miracles it had created the views humanity once had about the world quickly shifted changing them forever. With the new found knowledge the Traveler had granted humanity an Age of relative peace and prosperity ripe with technological innovation on a grand scale began. Warp drives where invented allowing Humanity to easily reach out to the Planets the Traveler had Terraformed and claim them as their own building great cities on Mars and Venus, Mercury blessed by the Traveler became a garden world. Soon an age of philosophical debates and scientific advancement followed as Humanity had few problems of the mundane type that still needed solving.

The Travelers arrival had changed more than the Humans, stirring something on Venus and causing strange ruins to appear in the Ishtar Sink that appeared to be highly technologically advanced but still predate humanity by a few billion years in response to this humans established the Ishtar Collective, a research group dedicated to discovering the secrets of the region. The Collective spent many years studying the region and eventually encountered the Vex. After capturing a live Vex they experimented on it and found that the Vex are hyper-intelligent robots capable of predicted an almost infinite amount of futures.

The Collapse
At some point during the Golden Age, an ancient enemy of the Traveler called "the Darkness" arrived and drove The Traveler back to Earth. The Traveler made its last stand to defend the endangered human race and somehow sacrificed itself to save humanity. The demise of the Traveler effectively signaled the "Collapse," the end of the Golden Age. The last survivors of the terrible conflict banded together and built a City immediately beneath where the Traveler hung over the Earth.