Planetfall — After the fall of the Second Galactic Alliance, a ten-thousand-year dark age began, during which the technology of interstellar flight was lost, and many civilizations were forced to revert to burning coal and gas for energy and to growing plants in open soil. However, after the formation of the Third Galactic Alliance, Star Patrol ships began exploring the galaxy, rediscovering human civilizations that were remnants of the Second Alliance.