March 10th 1905
The first operation in the direction of the Eridani is mounted by the First Cruiser Squadron. The squadron comprises the three New York class cruisers New York, Brooklyn and Pennsylvania and the newly built survey cruiser Endurance. The plan is for the four ships to enter the Gliese 1061 system, which lies between Sol and the Eridani's home system of 40 Eridani, and check for any sign of an Eridani presence on the system's three planets. In 2038, Gliese 1061 was renamed Thermopylae after an epic defence by an outnumbered Earth fleet defeated the first Eridani assault toward Sol, delaying the planet's eventual fall by two years and allowing the Professor to complete his work. The League votes to abide by that decision in honour of the heroic stand of their descendants and the system is renamed accordingly on League star charts.
Thermopylae I is a Venusian world with extensive but inaccessible deposits of several trans-Newtonian minerals, while the third planet is a barren, ice-bound chunk of rock similar in size to Mercury. Thermopylae II lies midway between Earth and Mars in both size and environmental conditions. The pressure of the thin nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere is only one quarter that of Earth's and the average surface temperature is -20C, despite the planet being only seventeen million kilometers from the primary, a dim red dwarf. The most appealing characteristic of the planet is the presence of forty million tons of accessibility 0.8 Duranium, accompanied by nine million tons of accessibility 0.9 Gallicite and considerable deposits of six other minerals, although five of them are at 0.1 accessibility and the sixth is at 0.3.
[attachment=0:17i8498k]Thermopylae.GIF[/attachment:17i8498k]
March 21st 1905
The four cruisers move to a point 550m kilometers from the star and hold position. Brooklyn launches her Avro 500 Scout with orders to move to Thermopylae III, thirty-six million kilometers from the primary, and engage its active sensors. The scout carries out its mission without incident, detecting nothing in the inner system. The cruisers rendezvous with the scout at Thermopylae II and the small 250 ton spacecraft lands in Brooklyn's boat bay. After reporting the situation to the League, the three New York class cruisers return to orbit Thermopylae II while the Endurance and her sister ships begin geological surveys of the surrounding systems, with the obvious exception of 40 Eridani.
June 20th 1905
For the first time since the League Navy was formed, all six battleships, six battlecruisers and ten cruisers in service have full loads of RGM-1A Hawk anti-ship missiles. Forty-three spare missiles are in storage, which is not many compared to the three thousand, three hundred and sixty-four Hawks in the magazines of the Fleet. Military and commercial Ion engines have recently been developed by the Edison propulsion research team and they are working on a missile engine. Once that is available, an updated version of the Hawk will be designed.
June 30th 1905
The first Indiaman class Cargo Ship is built by the Yokohama Dock Company, based in Japan. As well as being the first spacecraft to be built by a Japanese shipyard, the Indiaman is the first commercial vessel to be equipped with a jump drive. The first mission of the Indiaman will be to escort freighters into Thermopylae where they will emplace planetary sensors on the second planet. As this is the only system between Sol and 40 Eridani and the Eridani jump point is just four hundred million kilometers from the primary, a sufficient number of deep space tracking stations will provide a vital early warning of any Eridani incursion into the system. Due to the recent improvements in engine technology, the Indiaman is likely to remain a unique vessel.
Indiaman class Cargo Ship 35000 tons 472 Crew 707.2 BP TCS 700 TH 1100 EM 0
1571 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 1-95 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/5/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maintenance Capacity 13 MSP Max Repair 90 MSP
Cargo 10000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 5
JC35K Commercial Jump Drive Max Ship Size 35500 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Commercial Nuclear Pulse Engine (11) Power 100 Fuel Use 9% Signature 100 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 700,000 Litres Range 399.9 billion km (2946 days at full power)
LN/SPN-8 Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 1600 Range 16.0m km Resolution 100
LN/SQR-3 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
LN/SLR-5 EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m kmJuly 22nd 1905
The survey cruiser Discovery is carrying out a solo geological survey of the Gliese 229 system, adjacent to Thermopylae, when it detects two active sensors at a distance of fifty-nine million kilometers. Both sensors outrange Discovery's own and the contacts are moving at 6153 km/s, almost three times the League cruiser's maximum speed of 2250 km/s. The immediate reaction of Discovery's captain, Commander Robert Niemeyer, is that he has encountered Eridani ships. Given their speed and sensor range, he seriously doubts that his relatively slow-moving ship with its four missile launchers will be able to put up much of a fight, so he orders his helmsmen to steer directly away from the alien ships.
At 08:29, forty-five minutes after the initial contact, the alien ships move within range of Discovery's LN/SPS-1 Active Search Sensor. Four alien ships are identified, two at 14,300 tons and two at 7150 tons, and each one appears to be of a different class. Commander Niemeyer's faint hope that such fast-moving ships might be small scouts is dashed. As his primary duty is to ensure that word of the Eridani presence is communicated to Earth, he launches his ship's Avro 500 Scout with orders to head for the jump point, despite the fact the small scout has only enough fuel for one point eight billion kilometers and the Thermopylae jump point is four billion kilometers away. Commander Niemeyer simply hopes that the scout will remain undetected due to its small size and survive long enough to pass on information to any League forces that arrives to investigate his own ship's probable loss.
Over the next two hours the aliens steadily close in, completely ignoring Niemeyer's attempts at communication. Finally, with the four ships only nineteen million kilometers away, he gives the order to open fire on one of the smaller ships. Salvos of four RGM-1A Hawks streak away from Discovery at intervals of sixty seconds. After firing half of his loadout of forty-six missiles, he changes target to the other small ship, hoping to inflict at least some damage before the Eridani close in. He also believes that his attack will provide valuable tactical intelligence that can be passed on to the Avro 500 Scout and eventually to League Navy headquarters on Earth, assuming the scout survives. Both targeted alien ships have some form of fire confusion electronics that reduce Discovery's fire control range by thirty percent. Fortunately, the aliens are well within even the reduced range of the LN/SPG-2 Missile Fire Control system.
As the missiles reach a distance of a million kilometers from the enemy fleet, Discovery detects a dozen small nuclear detonations and her missiles vanish from the tactical plot. Every successive wave is destroyed in the same manner and not even one missile gets within a million kilometers of the Eridani. Evidently, the Eridani are using some type of anti-missile to shoot down incoming League missiles. A very troubling state of affairs. Commander Niemeyer passes on the new information, along with his strong recommendation that the League develops its own equivalent as soon as possible, to the fleeing scout that is now almost forty million kilometers away from Discovery.
The alien ships continue closing in remorselessly. As they move within two million kilometers, Discovery's EM sensors detect two new active sensors, each with a range of one point seven million kilometers and a resolution of one. One sensor is for a 7150 ton ship and the other is on one of the larger 14,300 ton vessels. At one point five million kilometers, she is hit by twenty-eight small missiles, each of which has a strength-1 warhead. Several hits penetrate her armour, destroying two of her nine engines. The survey cruiser has no way to either detect or defend against the enemy fire and is battered by fresh waves of missiles every ten seconds. Thirty seconds after the initial impacts, after suffering more than one hundred hits, the battered cruiser disintegrates, killing her captain and eighty percent of her 785 crew. 159 survivors make it to the lifepods. The twenty-three crew on board the Avro 500 scout watch in dismay as their mother ship is destroyed but they are under strict orders not to attempt to rescue survivors in case they are detected. Their tiny unarmed ship must rely on stealth to avoid detection while it moves as far away as possible from the inner system in the hope that rescuers will arrive before their craft suffers any serious maintenance failures.
July 26th 1905
Discovery's scout craft runs out of fuel more than two billion kilometers from the Thermopylae jump point.
October 21st 1905
The survey cruiser Challenger arrives in Gliese 229 to investigate the apparent slow progress of Discovery in surveying the system. The scout's crew are still alive after surviving for three months on a diet of replicated emergency rations and recycled water. As soon as Captain Luc Couture of Challenger hears their transmission, he takes his ship back through the jump point into Thermopylae and relays their report to Indiaman, which is sat on the Thermopylae - Sol jump point waiting for freighters to return from a mission to emplace a listening post on Thermopylae II. Indiaman jumps into Sol and sends the message to League Navy Headquarters, causing a furore. Meanwhile, Challenger re-enters Gliese 229 and heads for the scout, Fortunately, the cruiser has not yet been assigned an Avro 500 and has an empty boat bay.
On Earth, an emergency meeting of the League of Nations is convened. The British and German ambassadors are adamant that an immediate retaliatory attack must be mounted, while the French urge caution in the face of the Eridani's obvious technological advantages. The American ambassador points out that the half of the twelve capital ships of the League Navy are in dry dock, being overhauled after extensive fleet maneuvers, and even if they weren't, there is no way to get them into Gliese 229 without a series of jump gates or a larger jump-capable ship than is currently available. Even though a design has been finalised for a jump gate construction ship, the shipyard will not be ready for three months and a large jump-capable vessel would require at least two years lead time. The British ambassador demands that the League dispatch the six New York class armoured cruisers, all of which could be escorted into the system by one of the three remaining Endeavour class survey cruisers. He suggests that between them they would be able to launch waves of thirty-six missiles, which should overwhelm the Eridani defence system.
The Japanese ambassador, who is the most technically aware of the League ambassadors and a firm believer in making the best possible use of rapidly advancing technology, agrees with the British and Germans that a retaliatory strike should be made to punish the Eridani but recommends a delay of several months in order to allow the League to build up stocks of the new RGM-1B Hawk anti-ship missile, which is fifty percent faster than its predecessor. He presents figures from League Navy Headquarters showing that the existing RGM-1A will have only a twenty-two percent chance of a successful intercept against the fast-moving alien ships, even if the Eridani defences can be penetrated, compared to thirty-three percent for the B model. Based on that data, he warns that a hasty and ill-informed decision by the League could send six cruisers and almost five thousand crewmen into a death trap.
The discussion begins to descend into a heated argument when the President of the League Council, Otto von Bismarck, bangs the table and demands the attention of the ambassadors. Bismarck is ninety years old, seven years past his historical date of death, and an ardent believer both in the League and the future unification of Earth. He commands great respect even among his adversaries and, despite his age, his formidable presence is undiminished. He cautions the ambassadors to adopt a more statesmanlike attitude and reminds them they are dealing with the future of the human race. A desire for revenge and retribution is certainly not a valid reason for a perilous military expedition based on limited information. Their discussion must be based on the reality of the situation and what can actually be achieved by the League Navy given its current strength and capabilities. Murmurings of discontent at his intervention are immediately quelled by his piercing glare.
The remit of the President is ill-defined within the League, with some members, notably those from nations with a monarch, seeing it as an administrative function while others see the role as eventually evolving into a global President. Otto von Bismarck is a controversial choice for the role and his accession was particularly opposed by the French who had suffered at his hands while he was Imperial Chancellor of the German Empire. Nevertheless, whatever their public pronouncements, no serious politician can deny his considerable talents and the effectiveness of the League has progressed significantly during his tenure.
With the ambassadors now giving him their undivided attention, Bismarck explains that he had a very disturbing conversation with the Professor prior to the Council meeting and requests that the ambassadors listen to what the Professor has to say. After a general sound of agreement, the Chancellor waves to an aide and the Professor enters the room accompanied by the Colonel, who has remained an unofficial bodyguard during their fifteen years since their voyage in the past. The Professor is in his eighties and, while he retains his faculties, his health is not as robust as Bismarck's. Supported by a stick, he walks slowly but steadily across the room and sinks gratefully into a chair next to the President. The attending ambassadors are shocked into silence when he announces that the aliens in Gliese 229 are not the Eridani.
Before they can they recover and begin to ask questions, the Professor explains that active scans of Eridani ships in the 21st Century revealed a number of tell-tale signs common to all Eridani vessels. None of those were present in the scans of the aliens in Gliese 229. In addition, the largest Eridani design was only 11,000 tons, their engine performance was significantly inferior to that of the alien ships and the range of their anti-missiles was less than one million kilometers. In fact, their victory in 2040 was primarily due to far superior numbers. It seemed highly unlikely that Eridani technology had somehow regressed during the intervening one hundred and thirty years. He states that the presence of the aliens in Gliese 229 could also answer a mystery from the future. During the first encounter with the Eridani, they were immediately hostile. When communications were established with Eridani prisoners after the Battle of Thermopylae in 2038, they were insistent that Earth had been the aggressor, massacring millions of civilians, and that the Eridani were only protecting their home world from further attack. At the time, this had been dismissed as indoctrination of Eridani crews with stories of fictional human atrocities; although there were questions about how the prisoners could believe this so completely and why they were so obviously angered by the denial of any such attack by their interrogators. The Professor expresses his belief that this new alien race could have been the catalyst for the Human-Eridani war. Earth forces only briefly probed the Gliese 229 system in the 21st century and no attempt to survey the inner system was made. It seemed likely that in the original timeline the Eridani had encountered this hostile alien race first and made the same mistake as Commander Niemeyer when they eventually met human ships, believing them to be the same hostile aliens they had fought in the past.
Looks of confusion and dismay cross the faces of many national ambassadors. Partly at the thought of a new and even more powerful threat than the Eridani and partly at the shaking foundations of their view of the universe that has sustained them for fifteen years of enormous global endeavours. Finally, the British Ambassador asks the question that several of his colleagues are struggling to put into words: "Are you telling us that that humanity was wiped out because of a case of mistaken identity?"
"Now I have seen Commander Niemeyer's report and Discovery's scan records, I do believe that is a distinct possibility. Of course, it is possible the Eridani were already an aggressive, expansionist species and the war would have begun in any event."
"For the last fifteen years", says the French ambassador, "you have been preparing us for a war against the Eridani. Now there is a possibility that we will not find a hostile species at all. Merely another victim of this new alien race."
"That would be unfortunate for them", states the German ambassador forcefully, "for we cannot risk the human race on a possibility. We will conquer the Eridani first and investigate their motives later."
The Japanese ambassador nods his head. "I agree. This uncertainty must not divert us from our task. The survival of our species must be our priority and we do not have the luxury of debating the philosophical inclination of any alien races we encounter."
"There is another factor", adds the Professor. "We have found two alien races within just two transits of Earth. This suggests that intelligent life may be quite common in the universe and as we explore and expand, we may meet further alien species. Your responsibility for the safety of your nations and for Earth as a whole will not stop with the Eridani. You must build a military organization that can defend Earth long after all of us have departed this life. How this is accomplished is up to you, but I strongly recommend that the leaders of that organization are not distracted by any national interest, nor by debates in this chamber. They must be charged solely with the protection of humanity."
President von Bismarck interrupts the stillness that follows the Professor's words by banging his gavel and announcing a recess. He suggests that all the ambassadors consult with their governments on these new developments and put forward proposals for the future of the League Navy.
to be continued...
Steve
