1 January 2050: After many deacdes of research and development of space travel, mankind is now ready to reach out to the planets of the Solar System to establish mining bases. The survival of a technological civilization depends on the rapid and efficient utilization of the Solar System's mineral resources to replace the rapidly diminishing supply of industrial minerals available on Earth. For this reason, the United Nations has formed a Mining Council and empowered it to grant mining concessions throughout the Solar System to anyone who can be the first to claim them. In theory, there are many groups on Earth who could try to stake claims, but only the four largest multi-national corporations have the ressources to embark on such an ambitious program. These are the four "families" of Earth, each controlling uncountable wealth and wielding enormous political power. As the day for the opening of claims arrives, each family has assembled a fleet of space craft in orbit around the Earth, ready to race to the planets when the signal is given. The Mining Council has positioned patrol ships throughout the Solar System to make sure everyone follows the rules. But, when no one is looking, who's to know what happened if one of the families sabotages a ship belonging to someone else? Thus begins a few weeks of intensive exploration and political maneuvering which will decide the course of the economic exploitation of outer space for the next hundred years...