In the eighty years that followed, humanity flexed its muscles, expanding outward at a rapid pace. When a group of less powerful races was attacked by an invading army, Earth came to their aid, cementing its role as a major galactic power, if a young, brash one.
The wave of euphoria came crashing down when humanity made contact with a mysterious race called the Minbari. The Earth-Minbari War began with a misunderstanding, a human captain and a Minbari commander too quick on the trigger. Thanks to bad luck or something darker, our first meeting with the Minbari resulted in the death of their supreme religious and political leader. To the Minbari, what followed was a holy war, vengeance for the murder of their spiritual leader. Earth was no match for the technologically superior Minbari, and they easily beat us back to our home planet.
Then, without explanation, as their ships closed in on Earth and wiped out our last desperate defenses, the Minbari halted their advance and surrendered. Only an elite few knew why.
The Babylon Project was conceived in the aftermath of the war. Modeled after the United Nations, it would be a meeting place, neutral ground where the powers could meet and work out their differences peacefully.
The first three Babylon stations were sabotaged in mid-construction.
The fourth was completed, but just as it was about to go online, it vanished
without a trace. The Earth government would have stopped there, but
some of the alien governments, seeing the value of a meeting ground,
offered financial assistance for the construction of a fifth station.
Naturally, there were
strings attached.
Babylon 5 is the story of the last of the Babylon stations, the last
hope for a galaxy without war. It begins in the year 2257 with the
opening of the Babylon 5 station.