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The 'Enterprise' arrived in the Alpha Centauri system in 2261 AD, and the colonists were awoken from their cryogenic sleep. Only then were they to learn what had befallen Earth.
Over the next 99 years, up to 2360 AD, most of the dozens of colonising vessels arrived at their destinations. The later vessels had as much as a five fold increase in acceleration over the earlier ones, and had often made their much longer journeys in comparable time scales. By way of comparison, the 'Enterprise' had managed a steady .0005 G, taking 137 years to travel the 5 light years to Alpha Centauri. The 'Mayflower', launched in 2130, accelerated at .001 G, and managed the 10.5 light year journey to Epsilon Eridani in 200 years. The 'Wayfarer', launched in 2180, leapt out of the solar system at .0026 G, and reached Iota Pegasus, over four times as distant, in a mere 180 years!
In many cases they found dream planets, everything they had hoped for, and rapidly established and expanded their settlements. Populations expanded rapidly, and flourishing new civilisations were born.
Elsewhere, things were not always so idyllic. Years of backbreaking toil, fighting against the local environment, flora and fauna were necessary before a stable colony emerged. Loss of life was often heavy.
On occasion the colonists simply tried and died, alone, light years from the nearest help
And what of the vessels which were unaccounted for? Who can tell.
For all the colonising vessels, news of the intervening years between their launch and the Impact was sporadic, certainly no attempt had been made to maintain a continuous data feed to all the colonising vessels. In many cases the owning governments had simply sent occasional data bursts of major news items and scientific discoveries. Over the years of the collapse, many stopped even doing that. In some cases the governments simply no longer existed to send messages to their vessels, having been swallowed up in the bush wars of the end of the 2200's, and the colonists found the messages had just stopped during their voyage.
Communication between colonies, where it happened, was sporadic. In most cases the effort required to attempt it was way down the list of priorities for a new settlement. There were far more pressing activities for a new colony than waiting years or decades for a reply from another colony which might not even be there.
So, that's how it was up until 171 years ago. Individual colonies grew, establishing themselves on their main worlds, and then started to explore their new star systems in more detail.
Then, in 2342 AD, 126 years After Impact (AI), and 12 years after the establishment of their colony, an observatory on Epsilon Eridani 2 noticed something rather peculiar......
Read what was discovered in chapter 3.