 The player begins the game as the latest recruit to TetraCorps mining franchise operation and is tasked with selling as much ore as possible to the Federation , which is a coalition of six of the seven known alien cultures : the Terrans , the Artemia , the Mikotaj , the Achean Gatherings , the Braccatia and the Rigellians . The Federation was inaugurated in 2439 following a coup deposing the last Terran Emperor Dramon Salaria in 2437 and was established to encourage commercial competition rather than full @-@ scale wars between its constituent parties . The authority of the Federation is constantly challenged — in part by those who helped to create it , and the further away from the Federal center a person is , the less the Federation can influence their day @-@ to @-@ day lives . The seventh alien culture — the Mauna are not members of the Federation and it is revealed in the game that they are an untrustworthy and cruel species . It is not known if the Mauna were consulted with prior to the creation of the Federation , and trading with the Mauna is frowned upon by the Federation . 
