2135/44 – The Beaudry Democratic Era and the Alien ThreatThe completion of the gravitational survey in Luhman 16 showed that 4 further Jump Points were present in the system besides the one leading to Sol while HH Andromedae showed 3 more. This news was already enough to understand how our 4 gravitational survey ships were not enough to keep expanding the Democracy’s domain over the nearby systems.
There were now only 2 possible roads: use the Geological Fleet to help to observe new systems following the Midnight protocol or to build More Gravitational Survey Vessels and increase our scouting capability.
It was also noted that scout ships, cheaper and smaller, could have been a far better solution. Unfortunately, such a project would have ended in the Military Branch of the Government based on previous agreements during the Ertegün Era. As winning a Military Resolution was a coin flip with 288 possible in favor and 273 against, the president decided to keep playing safe just for the time being and wait for more results coming from other systems.
As years go by, the president wasn’t intervening much, if not at all, in any of the activities of the government. All policies were going ahead and were being completed as per the original schedule set by Zorlu’s administration. With all productions terminated it was time to introduce some ideas into the mix. President Beaudry knew that to keep expanding mining operations there was more need for Mass Drivers to replicate the strategy already in place in Alpha Centauri so she ordered 10 more to be constructed. As this wouldn’t be enough to arrive at the end of the mandate, the president decided to allow an extension to the Sector Command building so that it could be ready to accommodate the extra staff required to manage the potential new systems out of the HH Andromedae and Luhman 16 Jump Points.
Thanks to the discovery of a few new techs, it would have been possible to build new more efficient commercial engines. As all the new designs were still into the design stage this would have resulted in an overall increase of the operational range or in less fuel to have been carried by the ships.
Without any real downside, the President decided to allow the project to be concluded.
Furthermore, considering that from what seen not all new planets discovered were habitable, the government pushed for researches towards a more suitable colonizing effort. The idea was to have orbital colonies in worlds of particular interest but that for any reason they couldn’t allow any terraforming effort to succeed, such as Venus for instance.
The new technology would make it possible to still grant some human presence without too much effort in pretty much all the systems if required. To also facilitate logistic operations a new orbital Hub was to be researched to allow multiple ships to be refueled at once.
On the 30th of January 2139, due to the lack of workers, it was decided to halt any new production until further notice. Even if it was possible to move some jobs on other colonies, perhaps Mars, the President opted in keeping her low profile hoping of being able to run for a second and more active mandate. Such a passive approach was appreciated by all parties but it resulted in a considerate loss of prestige by the President as many were thinking that she wasn’t just brave enough to lead the Democracy through the intricate bureaucratic web.
Despite that, the election of 2140 ended up with another uncontested win from Constance Beaudry and the Democratic Party. The only difference was that the Mercantile and Industrialists party became again the majority party in the parliament. It goes without saying that it was the pacifists which were trying to rig the elections in 2135 to ensure they could become again the pivot of the government.
Free from the fraud stain and without the pacifist strict control, President Beaudry could have finally be allowed to push more on the reform so needed by the old Democracy. With only 6 resolutions in 5 years, her government was the least productive ever, focused more on doing than planning.
Obviously, after 5 years of no planning, in January 2140 the Democracy was left without any plan for the future and massive work had to be done to catch up with all the time wasted.
2140 Election ResultsWithout the need to worry about any administration posts, the president's attention went all into production, research, and expansion.
The production plan relied on the completion of terraforming on both Mars and Luna. As Mars was almost completed and with Luna only a few years away, the amount of infrastructure that could have been relocated was massive. With the President not happy in wasting minerals to produce more mines to mine such minerals, the plan was to relocate all Earth mines, the Lunar infrastructure, and the Martians one to Mercury. With one stone the President was hitting the proverbial 2 birds. First, she would have been able to relocate the Auto Mines on Mercury to Alpha Centauri increasing the overall productivity of the system. Second, the shortage of workers on Earth will be sorted with new human resources possible to be reinvested elsewhere.
The production efforts were then diverted to some Fuel Refineries and Deep Space Tracking Stations. The refineries were to increase the fuel production before levels dropped too much while the Deep Space Tracking Stations were to be used around other systems to keep monitor and securing the areas around Sol.
With the production in place, it was time to look at the Research plan. Increasing the number of refineries alone, unfortunately, would have not been enough. A method to increase the annual output and production of fuel was also ordered to be researched along with other modules ordered before the election.
Regarding the expansion, the President informed the parliament that the matter should have been seen and divided into two groups: one was security and the other was logistic.
Point number two was already widely discussed and all criticisms tackled in all their forms. All that was left was to increase the operations.
However, on point number one nothing was ever been done or discussed. In particular, it was noted that while all civilian mining colonies were guarded by some sort of garrisons, democracy’s ones were entirely unprotected.
The President proposed the formation of a “Colonial Garrison” with the intent of protecting all the small logistics or mining compounds around the galaxy. As such corp would have been used only for security purposes, she managed to get approval to produce a few under the commercial branch and not a military one. The condition was that the units would have not been trained for combat. Also, a new National Police would have been required on Mercury and the ones stationed on Luna and Mars would soon need to be expanded due to the increase in population. To tackle this issue two new National Police Brigades were ordered to be trained on Earth.
Eventually, a new Troop Transport design, the Sparrow, was designed and produced as a smaller Raven Class option to accommodate the faster and smaller transport needs.
UNEC Sparrow-I class Troop Transport 9,000 tons 65 Crew 300.3 BP TCS 180 TH 313 EM 0
1736 km/s Armour 1-38 Shields 0-0 HTK 31 Sensors 6/6/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 20 Max Repair 80 MSP
Troop Capacity 5,000 tons Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Commercial Ion Drive (Low Fuel) (2) Power 312.5 Fuel Use 7.83% Signature 156.25 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 414,000 Litres Range 105.8 billion km (705 days at full power)
Commercial GPS (1) GPS 1000 Range 18.5m km Resolution 100
Commercial EM (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km
Commercial TH (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 19.4m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Both Research and Production were the building blocks for the expansion project. The President firmly believed that every ship, to perform her duty at the best of its ability, should have been focused on one job and one job only. For this reason to having Geological of Gravitational Survey Ships to be tasked with the exploration of new systems along with their Survey was simply slowing down our expansion.
A new class of Exploration Ships was needed. With a swift Military Resolution the UNER00197, the President ordered 4 of the new Discovery-IJ Class Scout, designed just for this purpose. The motion was discussed, voted, and approved the same day. Furthermore, with exploration and survey ship displacement being set at 7,000 tons, the Takenouchi Drydock Survey Company 5,000 tons capability was obviously not enough and expansion to 7,000 tons was ordered, approved, and started as well.
Humanity was finally moving fast towards becoming a galactic force.
Discovery-IJ class Scout 7,000 tons 105 Crew 447.3 BP TCS 140 TH 313 EM 0
2232 km/s JR 1-25(C) Armour 1-32 Shields 0-0 HTK 29 Sensors 30/30/0/0 DCR 5 PPV 0
Maint Life 9.07 Years MSP 999 AFR 78% IFR 1.1% 1YR 22 5YR 328 Max Repair 100 MSP
Commander Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Morale Check Required
Gianotti Commercial Jump Drive (7.5k) mk2 Max Ship Size 7500 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 1
Commercial Ion Drive (Low Fuel) (2) Power 312.5 Fuel Use 7.83% Signature 156.25 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 281,000 Litres Range 92.3 billion km (478 days at full power)
Area Search Sensor AS58-R100 (1) GPS 10000 Range 58.6m km Resolution 100
Short Range EM Sensor EM5-30 (1) Sensitivity 30 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 43.3m km
Short Range TH Sensor TH5-30 (1) Sensitivity 30 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 43.3m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
In February, Melisa Zorlu announced her intention to retire from politics and to consequentially abandon her Sol Secor Governorship due to medical reasons. Having fulfilled and achieved more than any other Civilian Administrator in Human History, she would now be able to enjoy what was left of her life on her beloved Mars which just a few months later, on the 18th of July 2140, could have been officially declared completed all terraforming efforts.
Mars's physiognomy was drastically changed from what the former president experienced more than 30 years ago. There was vegetation now composed of broad-leaved evergreen shrubs, bushes, and small trees usually less than 2.5 m (about 8 feet) tall; together they often form dense thickets. The climate, similar to that of the Mediterranean area, was characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
With all stations on Mars' orbit now moved to Luna, it was also possible to enjoy a clear blue sky similar to the one on Earth.
The New Sol Sector Administrator would have been former Federalists President Abba’s best friend: Batu Agar. A controversial appointment but still in line with the meritocracy policy of the president.
Batu Agar ProfileMeanwhile, on the 29th of January 2141, all the new scouts were finally completed.
The President ordered immediate dispatch to the Luhman 16 system which had exactly 4 unexplored jump points with all ships ordered to starting to explore following Midnight Protocol but without the need to stay in the system for a certain amount of time. Orders were to explore any system of interests and leave immediately any empty system. The ships returning back from respective jumps could then move into HH Andromedae and perform the same action prior to reporting back to Earth.
The new systems of Struve 2398, WISE 1506+7027, Proxima Centauri, Giclas 99-49, LHS 288, WD 1142-645, and V1581 Cygni were explored in a ranging distance between 4.6 LY and 8.1 LY from Sol System. A total of 28 planets (3 of which Level 2 Habitable Worlds), 219 Moons, 222 Asteroids, and 9 Comets were discovered. The Majority of them were located in the Cygni System which was by far the only one worth noticing of the lot.
As our knowledge of nearby systems started to grow soon it would have been necessary to find more suitable names for such systems otherwise too hard to remember. The government put something understudy while waiting for more Jump Point to be explored revealing the exact composition of all the systems within at least 2 jumps.
On the 29th of October 2141, the exploration of the Altair System 6.1 LY right out of Sirius and 11.9 LY far from Sol, revealed a system with 5 Level 2 Habitable Worlds out of 9 Planets and 96 Moons. The discovery was of great interest as prior to that it was believed that Habitable Worlds were a rarity.
As the UNEN Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, captained by Commander Xiong Cai Wen, approached Altair-A IV for a closer look, the unexpected happened.
On the 30th of December 2141, after a month without any report from the UNEN Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, the President ordered the UNEN Abel Tasman to jump into the Altair system in search of the lost scout. As soon as in the system, Commander Shikitei Naomi picked up a distress signal playing in a loop just not too far from the Altair-A IV Planet. The Beacon contained some recordings and appeared to have been originating from the Nordenskiöld. Some wrecks were also visible from the scanners and they appeared to be approximately in the same position as the beacon. It was fair to assume that the wrecks were in fact from the missing scout.
Without the intention of investigating further and having already obtained the recordings, the Tasman headed back to Earth.
The President, along with the security commission, started the recording. Everything sounded normal until the last log played:
Start of the Ship Log
Saturday 2nd of December 2141 4:01am Earth Time (ET)
Tactical: Commander, I am reading unusual signals coming from the planet Sir
Commander: What do you mean by unusual officer?
Tactical: The signals appear to be coming from the planet’s orbit Sir and are interfering with our surface scan. It looks like something is there Sir.
Commander: Officer, I need you to be a more specific son, unusual and something doesn’t really cut it.
Tactical: I understand Sir. Let me caliber sensors for orbital scanning and I will be able to...oh smeg! CONTACT, Sir, CONTACT! GSP signal strength of 14,868 sitting right above the planet. New contact registered XX Pairy 001 and transmitted to all navy frequencies, Sir.
Commander: Gentelmen, red alert. Halt the engines.
XO: Red Alert, Halt Engines.
Commander: Distance from Contact?
Tactical: 147 Million Kilometers, Sir.
Commander: Did it see us?
Tactical: I don’t know Sir, It hasn’t moved so far.
Commander: Set a waypoint within Scanning Range and move in half speed.
XO: 55 Million Kilometers Waypoint 1 Bearing 045 from Contact set, advance half speed.
Tactical: Sir, multiple contacts! 2 new contacts GSP signal strenght of 14,868 registered XX Mosegi 001 and XX Mosegi 002 sitting on Planet’s Orbit. 1 contact in intercepting course, speed 4,957 kms, GSP signal strenght of 22,302 registered XX Sekhemkare 001.
Commander: Cancel all operations and Abort Mission. Set course for Sirius Jump Points. Open Channel and Transmit to all frequencies: Multiple contacts Altair-A IV, possibly hostile, do not approach.
XO: Abort and set course to Sirius Jump Point, open channel and transmit the commander message on all frequencies.
Tactical: Sir, another Pairy contact, and it appears to be moving fast towards us. 4,956 kms. They are fast!
Commander: Tactical I understood the situation and thanks for the update. Please inform me only if something changes either for good or worse. Start recording and analyze all data as soon as in Sensor Range.
Tactical: Roger Sir! New class contact GSP signal strength of 22,302 registered XX Akil 001 and XX Akil 002. Oh no, I cannot believe it…
Commander: Officer, what’s going on?
Tactical: Thermal contact Sir, 4 of them. Speed 30,733 kms.
Commander: Fighters?
Tactical: No Sir, Missiles.
Commander: Well, it’s the end then. Thanks, gentlemen, it was a pleasure flying with you all.
Tactical: But sir…
Commander: It’s okay son, we all knew it was a risky job. Please seal the records and beacon them out. Once done reach the life pods and abandon ship.
XO: Seal the record and beacon them out. Abandon Ship. Good Luck Sir and God bless us all!
End of the Ship LogThe biggest fear of the Military Party was finally revealed to be true. We were not alone in the universe and we were not prepared to defend ourselves properly against this new threat.
The President knew that it would have been hard to pass a more militaristic line in the parliament at this stage and she needed to focus the efforts on early scan and detection along with defensive capabilities.
So far our intel reported that the enemies were faster than us and heavily armed with strength 6 missiles going as fast as 30,000 kms, well above our AMM capabilities. Assuming their Anti Missiles defenses to be at least matching their offensive capabilities our 7,000 kms Sting missiles had no chance of getting through the enemy AMM barrier and reach the target. This was already a massive issue that required a complete rethink of our navy.
The discovery of alien threats would have also impacted the Midnight Protocol. Such procedure was in fact wrote and tested assuming the systems were either empty or with no other life forms. Obviously, having the reality been proved otherwise, a new cautious approach should have now been studied.
As keeping the news from the population was virtually impossible, it was decided to release smaller news over the following months, hiding the most disturbing information until the people were prepared to heaving the big bad one delivered. It goes without saying that this would have impacted the electorate in a very unpredictable way and a more militaristic swing would have been expected in the years to come.
A strategy meeting was called a week later with the intent of addressing the Human position and situation. The most important system now would have been Sirius. The gravitational survey there was still underway and if new Jump Points would have been found they could potentially lead to new alien-controlled systems. Furthermore, Sirius was only one jump from Sol and was imperative to defend and militarize it. The President asked why, if the aliens were hostile, they did not leave their system yet to pursue our other scout or to simply explore the nearby systems. The analysts weren’t sure but the most plausible answers were that they either did not have the capacity to jump, highly unlikely considering the higher technology shown, or they had a limited range of operations. The latter would also indicate that such a base would have been just a small outpost than an actual colony.
With that assumption, to reinforce our borders as planned would have probably been the best strategy in the long run. A Jump Tender on the Sirius Earth Jump point would have been required for all the logistic efforts in the systems, therefore, the President ordered one to be built immediately.
Finally, we would have required more intel on the enemy ships and a solution was already under study.
With no apparent imminent threat, President Beaudry ordered to keep surveying all the new systems except for the Altair one which was marked as Alien Controlled and to be avoided at all costs.
On the 9th of January 2142 due to a grave accident on the way to the Parliament, The President died. The Government took power as expected by the constitution. Democracy was running without a president for many years and as far as it was better to have one, the government could still function for a short period without it. With so much going on, it was a risky decision but new elections would have just been a further distraction, therefore, to keep the status quo, was the only possible outcome of the emergency session scheduled right immediately after the news reached the parliament.
The Government agreed on not passing any resolution but to carry only the orders already agreed to prepare the Sirius system and also complete all the outstanding policies.
