[@Liotrent]

Sure! You might want to write first about the Gateway reopening, and your people's reaction to it. Here's some descriptions of what that looks like:

[quote]In the depths of space, ancient machines whir to life. A signal has been received, written in a language of code that only the Gateways know, that says: Come back. And they do. From one end of the Galaxy to the other, overlooking worlds of hostile deserts or sunken marshes, they come back. First with a spark, a wavering in space- and then a flash of blinding light and heat, a storm in the void, a celestial crescendo like a sun being born. And then only a steady light. Billions of lifeforms witness it. They wonder for a moment, perhaps, but then they go back to their lives, not knowing that over their heads now sits a portal to countless other worlds.[/quote]

[quote]A spark started in the Collective's processing. It was lit on a small scientific space station, hanging in orbit above Zeta's sandy surface, gazing out at the universe around the small, yellow dot. The spark, once lit, blossomed immediately. It grew from an ember to a conflagration in only a few moments, a flame racing across the minds of the Consciousness. On the moons of Z and 3, workers moved to see through the translucent hab-domes, on the surface of Zeta, they stared upwards, organic and biomechanical eyes adjusting to the brightness, and deep beneath the planet's surface, those that could not afford to rapidly emerge instead stared through the eyes of their friends, out onto a second sun, burning bright in the sky.

The flames said only one thing- just one short sentence. The Gateways are back.[/quote]

Those are written by me and Irr, who were both waxing poetic, but you could always go with something simpler. The agreed upon traits is that the Gateway is bright, and that it wavers and "sparks" before it opens.

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Now, with your Gate up and running, it's fully up to you where you go. The Gateway automatically "links up" to incoming ships (don't ask me how, it's a plot device :lol) and presents them with a list of star systems with active Gateways. In practice, that means your people can now reach any other nation. You could pop over to visit the One or the Undefeated or the Xandalians or whoever.

Buuuuut the Meeting Place is recommended because that's where all nations gather and conduct diplomacy. Going there allows your people to be seen and received by the whole galactic community, without us having to write our your meeting everyone individually. It's in orbit of Earth, so following are descriptions of what Earth and the Meeting Place have been said to look like:

[quote]But it's all ashes now, gray and still. Sorrowful.[/quote]

[quote]Earth, that defeated lump of clay outside[/quote]

[quote]Earth, the blue planet that was depicted in old pieces of art, in various media back home, and from tales passed down from generation after generation. It was...dead, a world covered in gray and muck, no life to be seen. "Oh no.." Julian uttered to himself. Small droplets of tears running down his cheek.[/quote]

[quote]When he emerged, he wasn't entirely certain what he was going to find, but it certainly wasn't this. A swarm of vessels, of many and varied designs shuffled to and fro through the gateway, all heading towards a lump of steel...[/quote]

You'll notice we haven't actually described the exterior of the Meeting Place a ton. But hey, maybe you'll be the one to fill in the gaps ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Either way, your colony can easily get started in the RP by going there and reaching out (with a message, or sending a diplomat, or whatevs) to the Meeting Place. Then we'll have our nations reach out back to them, starting the diplomacy and interaction [s]and war [/s]and so on.