Posted by: RedKing
« on: October 18, 2011, 11:20:40 AM »Excerpted from an classified UniCom report titled "15 Years After the Gagarin Incident", Dec 2057:
The first encounter with the lifeforms commonly referred to as "Wraiths", and colloquially known as the Gagarin Incident, has been a powerful tool for recruiting and for justifying a further militarization of resource-gathering and heavy industry. But over time, certain inaccuracies in the "public" account of the incident have begun to make their way into UniCom records. If unchecked, these distortions could affect future policy decisions and tactical decisions by field commanders. This document will discuss and dispel the most common inaccuracies and offer an analysis of future actions and recommended courses of action.
1) The Gagarin was ambushed as soon as it emerged from the warp point.
This is incorrect. While Tau Ceti is a very compact system (the more distant of the two planetary bodies, Siva/Rama, lies 0. 63 AU from the primary), telemetry data received by Survey Command indicate that the Gagarin had been under full power for nearly four standard hours before encountering the vessel provisionally named Aung Zay Ya, just as it was coming to the insertion point for an orbital path around Ravana.
2) The Aung Zay Ya was named for the aliens' response to communication.
Also incorrect. The name was taken as the first alphabetic in a standard OPFOR nomenclature list that had been generated years prior to the incident. The original Aung Zay Ya was a Burmese warship destroyed in the Great War. There was no audiovisual or data response to Gagarin's communication attempt, nor has there ever been any attempt by the Wraiths to communicate.
3) The Gagarin never tried to run.
Although the full intentions of Commander Fletcher cannot be fully known until the data recorder is recovered, telemetry data indicates that Gagarin did move briefly (about 30 seconds) away from Aung Zay Ya at full speed. Our estimates are that any attempt at evasion would have been unsuccessful. While Gagarin could significantly outrun Aung Zay Ya's top recorded speed, it could not have outrun the missiles which destroyed it. And as stated in item 1 above, Gagarin was nearly four hours from the jump point.
4) UniCom knew about the Wraiths and deliberately sent the Gagarin to be destroyed so they could justify military rule.
Obviously false, although it is acknowledged in hindsight that the total lack of defensive weaponry was a contributing factor to Gagarin's destruction. It was a logical design choice at the time given that there were no known or expected enemies to be found. Performance concerns and technological limitations stymied efforts to retrofit Phalanx modules on the remaining Explorer-class vessels.
--- Expectations and Recommendations ---
The Wraiths have been encountered in five different systems, and each encounter has been fatal for the crew involved. These encounters have been widely spaced in terms of both the jumpweb and realspace coordinates. There are serious implications from this. That the Wraiths seem to have a presence in all directions would indicate a large polity on their behalf, except that these encounters have been sporadic and most systems have been empty. Additionally, they have not been encountered in previously explored systems on subsequent voyages, suggesting a lack of jumpdrive capability. One theory is that the Wraiths are actually of extra-dimensional origin and only appear in certain systems which intersect their point of origin in an unknown geometry. This is supported somewhat by the visual and sensor "blurring" observed during the brief encounters with Wraith vessels to this point.
The Explorer class was designed for peacetime operations, and proved impossible to adequately refit with countermeasures. The Explorer program came to an end last month with the loss of Ericson in Wolf 1061 (4th Ring). The final disposition of the six Explorer-class vessels:
Gagarin, lost with all hands 11 Dec 2042, Tau Ceti
Columbus, lost with all hands 28 Apr 2046, Gliese 408
Heyerdahl, lost with all hands 2 Mar 2047, YZ Ceti (this was our only encounter with the Swarm)
Marco Polo, lost with all hands 24 Nov 2053, Gliese 1
Zheng He, lost with all hands 1 Jan 2056, Groombridge 1830
Ericson, lost with all hands 26 Nov 2057, Wolf 1061
While UniCom has directed that Survey Command be refocused on mineral exploration of the 1st and 2nd Rings for the near-term, it is strongly suggested that a 2nd-generation jumpscout be developed. Research Command indicates that they soon hope to have a workable fusion thruster design available which should give a superior thrust-to-weight ratio compared to the MilPlas 550. Any new design should take advantage of these newer propulsion technologies and advances in jumpdrive efficiency to create a smaller, more agile vessel. They should also mount two Phalanx modules. Simulations indicate that even one Phalanx module would have increased Gagarin's chance of surviving the incident by 56. 2%, and two Phalanx modules by nearly 93%.
Additionally, we must address the issue of morale, both civilian and in-service. The loss of all six vessels with no victories to counterbalance them, has been a negative influence on morale and has begun to spur some talk of the Wraiths being "invincible", when in fact we have not actually engaged them in battle to this point. The new Omaha-class missile destroyers are estimated to have a high probability of success against the Aung Zay Ya when operating in tandem and supported by the nearly complete Vanguard carriers and a flight of Comanches.
Therefore, it is our recommendation that at least two battle squadrons be dispatched to Tau Ceti as soon as operationally ready, to reconnoiter and destroy the enemy. A victory over the Wraith should be a considerable boost to morale and reduce the number of unrest incidents reported by 2nd Brigade among the Tharses Montes miners. Research Command also has high expectations that salvage could reveal a great deal about Wraith technology and capabilities.
Rear Admiral Oralia G. Seligson
Commander, NAVINTCOM
The first encounter with the lifeforms commonly referred to as "Wraiths", and colloquially known as the Gagarin Incident, has been a powerful tool for recruiting and for justifying a further militarization of resource-gathering and heavy industry. But over time, certain inaccuracies in the "public" account of the incident have begun to make their way into UniCom records. If unchecked, these distortions could affect future policy decisions and tactical decisions by field commanders. This document will discuss and dispel the most common inaccuracies and offer an analysis of future actions and recommended courses of action.
1) The Gagarin was ambushed as soon as it emerged from the warp point.
This is incorrect. While Tau Ceti is a very compact system (the more distant of the two planetary bodies, Siva/Rama, lies 0. 63 AU from the primary), telemetry data received by Survey Command indicate that the Gagarin had been under full power for nearly four standard hours before encountering the vessel provisionally named Aung Zay Ya, just as it was coming to the insertion point for an orbital path around Ravana.
2) The Aung Zay Ya was named for the aliens' response to communication.
Also incorrect. The name was taken as the first alphabetic in a standard OPFOR nomenclature list that had been generated years prior to the incident. The original Aung Zay Ya was a Burmese warship destroyed in the Great War. There was no audiovisual or data response to Gagarin's communication attempt, nor has there ever been any attempt by the Wraiths to communicate.
3) The Gagarin never tried to run.
Although the full intentions of Commander Fletcher cannot be fully known until the data recorder is recovered, telemetry data indicates that Gagarin did move briefly (about 30 seconds) away from Aung Zay Ya at full speed. Our estimates are that any attempt at evasion would have been unsuccessful. While Gagarin could significantly outrun Aung Zay Ya's top recorded speed, it could not have outrun the missiles which destroyed it. And as stated in item 1 above, Gagarin was nearly four hours from the jump point.
4) UniCom knew about the Wraiths and deliberately sent the Gagarin to be destroyed so they could justify military rule.
Obviously false, although it is acknowledged in hindsight that the total lack of defensive weaponry was a contributing factor to Gagarin's destruction. It was a logical design choice at the time given that there were no known or expected enemies to be found. Performance concerns and technological limitations stymied efforts to retrofit Phalanx modules on the remaining Explorer-class vessels.
--- Expectations and Recommendations ---
The Wraiths have been encountered in five different systems, and each encounter has been fatal for the crew involved. These encounters have been widely spaced in terms of both the jumpweb and realspace coordinates. There are serious implications from this. That the Wraiths seem to have a presence in all directions would indicate a large polity on their behalf, except that these encounters have been sporadic and most systems have been empty. Additionally, they have not been encountered in previously explored systems on subsequent voyages, suggesting a lack of jumpdrive capability. One theory is that the Wraiths are actually of extra-dimensional origin and only appear in certain systems which intersect their point of origin in an unknown geometry. This is supported somewhat by the visual and sensor "blurring" observed during the brief encounters with Wraith vessels to this point.
The Explorer class was designed for peacetime operations, and proved impossible to adequately refit with countermeasures. The Explorer program came to an end last month with the loss of Ericson in Wolf 1061 (4th Ring). The final disposition of the six Explorer-class vessels:
Gagarin, lost with all hands 11 Dec 2042, Tau Ceti
Columbus, lost with all hands 28 Apr 2046, Gliese 408
Heyerdahl, lost with all hands 2 Mar 2047, YZ Ceti (this was our only encounter with the Swarm)
Marco Polo, lost with all hands 24 Nov 2053, Gliese 1
Zheng He, lost with all hands 1 Jan 2056, Groombridge 1830
Ericson, lost with all hands 26 Nov 2057, Wolf 1061
While UniCom has directed that Survey Command be refocused on mineral exploration of the 1st and 2nd Rings for the near-term, it is strongly suggested that a 2nd-generation jumpscout be developed. Research Command indicates that they soon hope to have a workable fusion thruster design available which should give a superior thrust-to-weight ratio compared to the MilPlas 550. Any new design should take advantage of these newer propulsion technologies and advances in jumpdrive efficiency to create a smaller, more agile vessel. They should also mount two Phalanx modules. Simulations indicate that even one Phalanx module would have increased Gagarin's chance of surviving the incident by 56. 2%, and two Phalanx modules by nearly 93%.
Additionally, we must address the issue of morale, both civilian and in-service. The loss of all six vessels with no victories to counterbalance them, has been a negative influence on morale and has begun to spur some talk of the Wraiths being "invincible", when in fact we have not actually engaged them in battle to this point. The new Omaha-class missile destroyers are estimated to have a high probability of success against the Aung Zay Ya when operating in tandem and supported by the nearly complete Vanguard carriers and a flight of Comanches.
Therefore, it is our recommendation that at least two battle squadrons be dispatched to Tau Ceti as soon as operationally ready, to reconnoiter and destroy the enemy. A victory over the Wraith should be a considerable boost to morale and reduce the number of unrest incidents reported by 2nd Brigade among the Tharses Montes miners. Research Command also has high expectations that salvage could reveal a great deal about Wraith technology and capabilities.
Rear Admiral Oralia G. Seligson
Commander, NAVINTCOM