Humanity has entered a new golden age: their fleets are the envy of at least half of the older races, they are opening colonies daily and are expanding into almost all the untapped regions of world. Strong alliances with the Deqa have protected them from other jealous species. Yet for all their success, no human has ever faced a challenge like the war with the Yu. Humans had the highest casualties of the war as it was their first foray into interstellar war. Established military doctrines just did not suffice when the Yu were taking every colony and defeating them in every engagement. Humanity's flame is not so easily extinguished and never has been. Rallying with the Deqa, they turned the tide, pushed back the Yu and eventually triumphed. Though hatred and fear run deep, when the Yu homeworlds finally collapsed in front of them the humans returned violence with violence, shocking the rest of the galaxy and is still a black smear on all their diplomatic relations. After the war, humans made the wise decision to back the Max Impulse Circuit and greatly increased its importance and popularity. It helped draw peoples' minds away from the war. For now it seemed to work, as people needed anything to forget about the hundreds of derelict ships floating through space, their sons and daughters aboard them. Now the call was heard for marvelous racers instead of marvelous soldiers.