The Hoshikaze 2250 universe splits from our own timeline in the early '80s. It includes a quick advance of mankind into space, first by colonizing the Sol system, then by venturing to exoearths orbiting around nearby stars. In the 1990s, projects of large-scale sleeper ISVs like the Bételgeuse were launched following the discovery of several exoplanets around nearby stars, some of which could be exoearths. Probes were sent to some 50 nearby stars to confirm discoveries. The first ships were to be launched circa 2020, if planets were found around 5-10 LY-distant stars. The Bételgeuse-class was intended to reach 4-8 LY stars on 10-years-missions. This included accelerating from Jupiter station to near-c speeds at 1.3 g, coasting to its destination, turning around at mid-course and braking to a halt in the target system. The projected engines were gigantic plasma accelerators directly linked to three oversized tokamak-style fusion reactors, cooled by a array of massive but surprisingly light honeycomb-textured radiators. Reactors and engines alike were stripped of all protective gear to lower the total ship mass. Therefore, the whole engine section was totally unmanned and catered to by highly shielded robotic workbees. The cargo section was towed well behind the engine section to use the simple rule of r-squared attenuation rather than heavy shielding. Directly borrowing from the successfull Fengzi designs, it included a rotating wheel for the watch crew, cryobays for the colonists and cargo bays for supplies and equipment. Both engine and cargo sections were equipped with plasma verniers to allow the ship to turn on itself at mid-course. All areas of the vessel were Whipple-shielded against incoming micrometeorite collisions, but the fine shields are not drawn on this image, as they would hide most of the ship. The Bételgeuse project was well under way, with real-size engine prototypes having undergone firing tests in LEO facilities, offering all Earthians the spectacular sight of their dual 3 km-long plasma plume. But, when broadcasts from the probes to the nearest stars came back in 2018, telling the automated vehicles found nothing interesting, the whole effort slowly dwindled. By 2023, when warp drives were invented, it was nearly forgotten by all but a handful of passionate engineers. Warp-conversion projects were drafted from the Bételgeuse blueprints, but the massive warp engines required were never built due to lack of funding. In the late 2030s, however, the probes from Tau Ceti (10.6 LY), Delta Pavoni (17.4 LY), Eta Cassiopeia (18.1 LY) and 82 Eridani (19.1 LY) actually found earthlike planets. The then-thriving Policorpos quickly unearthed the abandoned cryosleeper ship projects and resumed their conversion from plasma to warp. After several attempts, the Interstellar Venture Political Corporation Light-Years finally announced in 2043 that it was about to "lay the keel" of the Rahjiv Nadrankha, named from the PoliCorpo's founder, to colonize Tau Ceti's 2nd planet. The ship, due to launch in 2050, finally took space from Jupiter Station in late 2051 and departed for Tau Ceti in 2052. Between 2052 and 2089, 4 expeditions were launched using ships of various designs, but all inspired by the Bételguese design, and the respective worlds of Hope, Heaven, New Earth and Sora no Shikyu were dubbed "First Colonies". (Model and image made under DoGA L3, then taken to slide format on PowerPoint)