Author Topic: History of the Terran Alliance  (Read 2926 times)

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Offline RedKing (OP)

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History of the Terran Alliance
« on: October 16, 2011, 12:58:31 PM »
Excerpted from Peace Through Strength: A Pocket-sized History of the Terran Alliance, 2027:

So, given the devolving state of international relations and the collapsing economy of the late 2010's, the result was obvious in hindsight: increasing nationalism and eventually -- war.  The US and China went to war over Taiwan.  India and China went to war over Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet.  China and Russia went to war over the Amur region.  Russia and the EU went to war after Gazprom tried to force the EU to side with Russia against China by cutting off the flow of fuel during the winter of 2017.  The US and the EU went to war simply because the US needed Russia as an ally against the Chinese.  By 2024, most of the planet had been engulfed in war for several years.  The population of Earth had been reduced to a mere billion people, mostly through attrition in India and China, but also in Africa as foreign aid vanished in the face of wartime needs among the industrialized nations and from the proxy wars in East Africa.  Desperate, political leaders in several of the major powers publicly considered invoking their nuclear arsenals for offensive purposes to win the war.  The various generals realized that the civilian leaders were ready to go beyond the pale to win, and they collectively remembered their role as the protectors of their people, not as agents of genocide.  Almost simultaneously, the EuroCorps and Indian Army removed their civil leaders from power and established a temporary military council, reaching out to the other major powers to discuss peace terms.  Within days, similar coups took place in the Russian, Chinese and American forces.  The population, weary of a decade of war and of ever-more corrupt politicians, gratefully accepted the military's fair rule.  The various military commands established a cease-fire and then addressed the most pressing question: how to prevent such a war from occurring again.

It was decided that previous attempts at a united world government such as the League of Nations and the UN had failed because they were civilian entities only, with no command over troops and nothing to enforce their rules.  This time, the problem would be avoided by creating a Unified Command which would allow for multinational cooperation *and* harness the power of the world's militaries to enforce the rules.  The Terran Alliance was born, with its Central Council providing the forum for cooperation and discussion of all people to create a better new vision for the world, and Unified Command (UNICOM) providing the strength to make that vision a reality.


Excerpted from Under the Gun, a pirate video currently banned by the Alliance:

"Okay, so we've had peace for the last few years, yeah.  But at what cost? The Council is a joke.  It's a mini-UN made for putting on a show and letting us think that we still have some kind of representative government, but the real power is UNICOM.  UNICOM makes its decision, and then the Council does a dog-and-pony show that ends up with them coming to the decision that UNICOM already made.  We just traded one kind of powerlessness for another. "
 

Offline RedKing (OP)

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Re: History of the Terran Alliance
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2011, 04:16:23 PM »
Excerpted from Alliance training video NBT-013, Introduction to Jump Astrogation, 2058:

"Okay, one of the first things that most beginning navigation officers worry about is how to grasp navigating in three dimensions.   Luckily, that's not actually an issue for you.   Your tactical officer will handle the ins and outs of 3D flight.   For most intensive purposes, space is flat.   Both in terms of in-system travel and jump mapping.  

Let's start with in-system travel.   Here we see a holomap of the Solar System.   Notice as I rotate the map how most of the planets lie together on the same flat surface, like this.   This is called the plane of the ecliptic.   All the major planets' orbits are within 7 degrees of this plane, meaning that the solar system is essentially flat.   For the purposes of this course, you don't need to understand the physics involved, such as angular momentum.   If you're interested, see your training officer to obtain course NAT-017, Advanced Orbital Mechanics.   The important thing to know is that our system is not unusual in this respect.   The vast majority of star systems we've encountered have a similarly low inclination in their planetary orbits.   They're flat, too.   The one caveat is that small point targets such as asteroids may not behave the same way.   In this view, you can see the largest 300 asteroids in the Solar System.   I've removed the planets to make it easier to see, but this red disc represents the plane of the ecliptic.   While a large number of the asteroids are relatively aligned with the ecliptic, you will notice a signficant number of outliers, including some such as 136199 Eris, which orbits at a 45 degree tilt to the ecliptic.   You will receive additional training in plotting navigation strategies for these kind of targets in course NAT-004, High Eccentricity and Inclination Navigation.  

Now, as regards jump navigation.   Here is a three-dimensional representation of the nearest 20 light-years around Earth.   And here's an overlay of the known jumproutes discovered by Survey Command to this point.   As you can see, that's quite a mess.   One of the first thing scientists discovered when we first began surveying extra-Solar space was that the jumproutes didn't conform to a logical progression from near to far.   Here's Proxima Centauri, the nearest star in realspace terms.   But as you can see, you have to make three diffferent jumps to get there, going as far as twenty-two light-years away before coming back.   So we developed the Ring system of mapping.   Since each jumproute is two-way and there are a finite number of jump point per system, they can be mapped as a two-dimensional concentric series of rings, like this.   Much clearer, isn't it?

There are six systems in the First Ring: Wolf 359, Lalande 21185, Luyten 726-8, EZ Aquarii, Barnard's Star and Charybdis.   Although I encourage you to memorize the cartography of all six, you really only need to become familiar with the first four.   Barnard's Star was determined to be a dead-end, so you'll probably never travel there unless you go to work for a mining concern.   And Charybdis is a Class II singularity -- a pocket black hole.   Beyond it lies the so-called "Charybdis Pocket", two interconnected systems that create a triangle, as you see here.   There are no worlds of interest in the Charybdis Pocket, and given the hazards of skirting Charybdis' event horizon, UniCom has issued an interdiction on commercial activity and exploration in that segment of the jumpweb.  

Beyond the First Ring lies, as you would expect, the Second Ring.   You see the system names listed here.   There are thirteen all total.   These have been well-explored with the exception of Tau Ceti.  .  .  I don't think I have to explain why.  

And here, the Third Ring.   22 systems, and at this point in time most of them have been fully grav-mapped, with the obvious exceptions of YZ Ceti, and Glieses 1 and 408.   UniCom is convinced that travel in systems adjacent to the interdicted zones is safe.   Neither the Wraiths nor the Swarm have shown any indication of jump technology.  

And out here, the Fourth Ring.   29 systems in all.   This is the frontier.   If you're lucky enough to be assigned to an Explorer, it will be your job to map these systems and push the frontier further back.   Of these, note that Wolf 1061 and Groombridge 1830 are also interdicted.   And here, in SZ Ursae Majoris, you see the Bastani.   If you've taken your xenozoology courses, then you already know about them.   If not.  .  .  well, you're in for a treat.   They may look a bit.  .  .  odd, but so far they're the only ET that hasn't tried to kill us.   They seem friendly enough, but as always caution should be exercised if your orders carry you into SZ Ursae Majoris.   They have a sizable fleet and although we don't know its capabilities, it's safe to assume that they're comparable to ours.   Courses WBT-011, Bastan Empire Vessel Identification and Capabilities and DBT-02, Understanding the Bastani are strongly recommended if you are posted to the Aquarii sector.  

Now that you have the basics of how your "roadmap" is laid out, let's take a look at the mechanics of jump travel.  .  .  "
« Last Edit: October 18, 2011, 11:21:02 AM by RedKing »
 

Offline RedKing (OP)

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Re: History of the Terran Alliance
« Reply #2 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
« Last Edit: October 20, 2011, 01:41:47 PM by RedKing »