OmegaTech claimed the Colonial Contract to the new world by holding back the fact that the world already had a natural eco-system. The matters were discussed in secret at the highest level in the Federal Empire, and OmegaTech got an ultimatum: colonization had to begin within ten years, or the contract would be nullified and passed on to the next corporation in line.

OmegaTech launched the Exodus project. The Exodus research station would be launched to Calypso using the largest jump rail ever built, loaded with settlers, personnel and equipment to build a space gate at Calypso, linking the new world to the frontier. Media watched the Exodus project as it grew slowly. It took three years for the Exodus to be completed, and after launch, it would take another two years before the ship was heard from again. This was the last mega-scale construction project, and it wouldn’t be possible without federal aid. Even with federal aid, OmegaTech took an enormous financial risk.

With the construction of the Exodus, there was also the matter of picking settlers. As Calypso had gravity near Earth’s, only the genetically un-altered Terrans were chosen. Other colonists were rejected, on the basis of not being able to cope with Calypso’s greater gravity, or being contracted to settle on other worlds. This fed the rumors of Calypso being a resort for Earth’s and OmegaTech’s chosen elite.

The few protests that were raised silenced quickly after the Federal Empire and OmegaTech promised to open the new colony for all once the world was secured. That, and the fact that the altered humans were still few in comparison – Earth alone had a population of 18 billion, and Mars, the single largest colony, maintained just over 9 million people – made the protests rather irrelevant.

After their two year journey, the new colonists arrived to Calypso to find the cities and infrastructure that the base matrix’s robots had built for them ready for settling. The Exodus was converted into a space station in orbit around Calypso to be used as a base camp for colonization. The robots had tweaked the ecosystem of Calypso to fit humans, and the settlers had to do very little further adjustments to their new home. Gradually, the world was settled, and as the space gate was near completion, the rate of settlement was expected to rise.

That was not to be.