Sovereign Skies

from the publisher:

Long ago in a time of war, the six alien planets of the Abyssi cluster worked hard to find diplomacy and eventually came to form a fragile democracy. For humankind, the discovery of this cluster could mean abundant and cheap energy in the form of the earth-rare Atlum crystal. Now several human factions are racing in to grab a share.

In Sovereign Skies, you play one of the powerful houses of Old-Earth now orbiting the six planets of the Abyssi cluster to recruit alien senators for favors and to establish occupation by constructing and activating bases for energy and influence.