Freelancer Timeline

[Klaw117]

"Freelancer takes place 800 years after the events in the computer game Starlancer." - Wiki
"Chris Roberts: Freelancer is actually set about 800 years beyond where StarLancer is set." - Interview
"Chris Roberts: I think there's something compelling about a story and we're trying to tell an interesting story that revolves around you and the character. It's one of the reasons why we split the single player off from the multiplayer game. Basically the set-up is that 800 years in the future no one's been back to the solar system or gone back to where the solar system used to be. So 800 years in the future people think Earth is a myth. It's a fairy tale and you get to go back there at the end of the story and I think that's pretty compelling. You get to solve some of the riddles of what happened earlier." - Interview

When Chris Roberts said that Freelancer is set 800 years after Starlancer, he meant the single player campaign in 800 A.S., not the beginning of the Freelancer timeline.

On a side note, looks like Chris Roberts intended for us to return to Sol. Shame that it didn't happen, I would've loved to see that.

It had to take hundreds of years or why bother putting everyone in hypersleep? Secondly, if it took 1-9 years just to cross Sirius and land on the various planets, then it most definately woulda taken ALOT longer (about 800 years) to get here in the first place.

Ok, according to Igiss, the Sirius Sector is located 300-500 light years away from Sol (apparently, they went past Sirius to find a cluster of stars behind it. They just used the gravity of Sirius to accelerate them and activate their jump drives). Now, if there were no jump drives, THEN 800 years would be a realistic guess, since it's impossible to exceed the speed of light according to the laws of physics.

HOWEVER, Igiss AND the game itself states that the sleeper ships did indeed use jump drives, allowing them to defy the laws of physics and exceed the speed of light, thus reducing the travel time by a huge amount. If we say that the ships were traveling 10 light years per year (with a jump drive, that shouldn't be too hard), they should reach Sirius after about 50 years. Then they spend one year surveying the sector before finally landing.

As for hypersleep, think about it. Who would want to spend 51 years awake with nothing to do except watch the stars streak by? Anything more than 2 years, and I would say put them in hypersleep. Also, I highly doubt that any ship could endure 800 years of travelling nonstop. You have to consider maintenance and fuel supply. Fifty years is already a bit of a stretch. By the time the sleeper ships arrived, they would probably have been close to breaking from the stress of travelling so long. Of course, that just makes it easier for the colonists to strip it down to rebuild their civilization.

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Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams
Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction
Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid
Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space
Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits

Liberty and Nomad Backstory, Very interesting - read it!