The background story is simple. You are from a species living somewhere in the universe, galaxies away from us.
The species just invented a drive with which they were able to leave their home solar system and reach the neighbor one in just around 4 years.
They built a ship and manned it with around 25 people and stored enough proviant and equipment for the crew to be able to survive for around 25 years -
enough time to begin studying the new solar system and then come back home.
But no one could have expected what happened about half a year after leaving the home solar system...
It was "night", at least back on the home planet.
Because the next few thousand miles were scanned and declared safe, the auto-pilot has been activated and only a few people stayed on the bridge.
Most went to sleep or gambling and talking in the meeting room, and no one gave a thought about the big black nothing outside the ship.
And then it happened...
(http://i.imgur.com/PEygGFu.jpg)
All of a sudden, blue lights began to glow and pulse in front of the ship.
People stopped what they were doing and ran to the windows, not believing what they were seeing.
A gigantic, blue "thing" had appeared out of nowhere in front of the ship!
It was beautiful, and the crew watched it without realizing the danger.
Suddenly, the thing began to pull the ship into its core while a shock ran through the whole ship, leaving the crew unconscious.
Then there was only darkness...
After everyone fell unconscious, the blue thing transported the ship far away, to the other side of the galaxy.
It took only a few seconds, but the crew needed hours until everyone was fully awake again... well, not everyone.
Four crew members did not wake up again, the shock killed them.
The others checked the ship and realized that most system were defect and irreparable and there was only oxygen for three hours remaining.
Looking out, they saw an unknown planet. It looked habitable - there were big seas and landmasses with what looked like forests.
Since they had no other option, the crew decided to leave the ship and use the landing capsules to reach the planet's surface.
They took as much tools and provisions as possible with them, knowing they had no chance to return to the ship any time soon,
and manned the landing capsules.
Sadly, the systems were not very accurate, so they would probably land far away from each other, but it had to be...
Saying good bye to each other, they closed the capsule doors, programmed the system and entered their secure sleeping pods,
which would prevent most harm caused by concussions and the like.
The capsule eventually landed between some strange trees, fortunately without any damage taken.
After the landing process has been finished, the system automatically deactivated and opened the sleeping pods,
letting the crew awake slowly. Aktrop, the ship's first officer, instantly went to the console and checked the systems for anything unusual,
while the others spread out inside and around the ship.