January 24th, 2091
Federation troop transports arrive over Terra Nova and begin unloading the 8th Civil Protection Group, which will take over responsibility for governing the colony once it is established. Brigadier General Shad Slowey, the CO of the 8th, was handpicked by the Council to take charge of the rebellious colony. General Slowey, a younger son of one of the richest families in the European Union, immediately orders the imprisoned leaders of the defunct Republic to be publicly executed, on orders from the Federation Council, for treason.
On Luna, the Federation Council passes the Federation Security Act of 2091. The Act gives the Federation Government broad powers to ensure the security of the Federation. The government announces the passage of the Act simultaneously with the news of what the government is calling “The Disaster at Terra Nova”. The Federation government is claiming that the colonial government on Terra Nova was infiltrated and influenced by an as yet unknown alien race. The government’s report gives few details, merely noting that the Federation Marine Corps was sent in to settle the problem, and that Terra Nova is now secure. General Yauch is singled out in the government announcement as a hero of the highest order, and this and several subsequent press releases make much of her “heroic and doomed stand against treacherous and treasonous forces”.
The Act amalgamates several security organizations under the central control of Federation Security, or FedSec. This includes the Civil Protection Groups, which will now be known as FedSec Brigades. FedSec units will now be stationed at all colonies to prevent a recurrence of the events at Terra Nova. In addition, the Act allocates money for the construction of fast couriers which will allow all colonized systems to remain in contact with each other and vastly reduce communications times, preventing an act of rebellion from going undiscovered for long periods of time.
Two days after the announcement wide scale riots break out across the Earth and Mars. These worker riots are reminiscent of the worker riots that led to the formation of the Federation, and Federation forces are needed to quell the riots in several cities. Later investigation will show that the workers were stirred up by persons claiming that there was no alien influence on Terra Nova, that the workers there had freed themselves and that the Federation crushed them. FedSec is called in to find the ringleaders.
February 2091
Two Federation freighters arrive over Terra Nova to load the badly needed resources that the rebels had withheld from their proper owners. The resources include nearly 2400 standard units of gallicite.
July 2061
The first Picket class courier ship is launched from the orbital yard over Earth. The ship immediately sets out for the jump point to Struve and the Terra Nova colony.
At the end of the month the squadron of warships escorting the Geo-Survey ship Bell in the Eta Cassiopeiae system is forced to depart for home. The squadron is low on fuel and has exceeded its crew’s endurance. The Bell is deep within the B component’s asteroid belt conducting its survey, but no threats have been detected and the Bell’s captain declines the squadron CO’s offer of an escort home.
September, 2091
The Council approves a plan to transfer all commercial yards to Ogema to reduce demands on the limited workforce available in the Solar System. The Federation’s two existing tugs would take over three years to haul the two commercial yards in Mars orbit to Ogema, so a new class of larger tugs is designed and the Walsh-Kaiser yards are retooled to build the new ships. In the meantime, the tugs are assigned to move the yards producing the new couriers to Ogema. These yards, which orbit Earth, are much smaller than the mammoth yards over Mars and will arrive over Ogema in 38 days.
October 9, 2091
The Magellan, while conducting a jump point survey of the Gliese 229 system, detects a robotic warship 1,400 mkm’s from the system primary. The contact is identified as the larger of the two robotic classes encountered to date. This class, recently designated as the Watcher class, masses 16,900 tons and has been encountered previously in the Gliese 205 and Giclas 99-49 systems. In both cases the Watcher class ships were encountered loitering in the outer system and were destroyed without incident. The Magellan’s CO orders his ship to reduce speed to reduce its thermal signature, and dispatched a contact report to the other two survey ships in the squadron. Following standard procedure, the closest ship to their entry point, the Raleigh, heads towards their entry point and will jump out as soon as it arrives, headed for Ogema to warn the squadron there. The second ship, the de Gama, will take station on the jump point and remain in contact with the Magellan, which will try to maintain contact with the Watcher.
October 24, 2091
The Raleigh arrives in the Ogema home system and sends its contact report to the defense squadron orbiting Ogema.
October 28, 2091
The patrol cruiser Moskva arrives in the Solar System and forwards its contact report to fleet command. Fleet Command dispatches a group of four warships, including the BCJ Wainwright and the BC Clifton Sprague, to deal with the robotic ship.
January 7, 2092
The Paris and the Baltimore have finally closed to within 9,000 kilometers of the automated warship that has been fleeing from them for days. They had been forced to leave behind the battle cruisers as they were too slow to catch the alien ship. Now, finally, they were within range of their laser turrets and the command to open fire was given.
After forty seconds of pumping laser blasts into the alien ship it came about and began chasing the two Federation warships. Unfortunately, by then it was too late for the robotic ship. Its speed had been reduced to 1971 kps, far too slow to catch the nimble Federation cruisers. For the next two minutes the cruisers pounded the alien warship with their lasers with little apparent effect. Finally the cruisers opened up with their AMM’s in offensive mode, and after six salvoes the alien warship finally exploded.
The two cruisers turned back and rejoined the battle cruisers, and the reassembled squadron set out for Ogema. The survey squadron began its work again, now that the system was safe.
July, 2092
There are official celebrations on Luna as Ogema is official moved to full member status of the Federation.
Sept., 2092
The Patrol Cruiser Paris arrives in orbit over Eta Cassiopeiae B-III. This planet orbits 46 mkm’s from its K-7V primary. It is remarkably Earth-like, with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere at 15% pressure and an average surface temp of 21.2 degrees. The planet possess deposits of six different TN resources, all present in large quantities, although only three have good availability levels. Indeed, the Eta Cassiopeiae system has two other planets with oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres, and four other planets that can be terraformed without too much effort. No less than thirteen planets and moons in this system have deposits of TN resources that are worth mining, making this system the prime target for Federation development now that the jump chain is complete. The Federation’s terraforming group is currently resting, refueling, and giving its crews shore leave prior to setting out for this system, and plans are being made even now to begin shipping automated mines to the system.
The Paris’ mission involves none of that. During their survey, the Geo-Survey group discovered an abandoned alien colony on the surface of B-III, and the Paris was detailed to carry a Xenology group to the planet and then stand guard while they worked. The xenologists were excited. The alien buildings they found were in near perfect condition.
October, 2092
Two new Heavy Workhorse class tugs are launched over Mars. The new tugs immediately take two civilian yards under tow for transfer to Ogema. The transfer will be slow, but the worker shortage on Mars is chronic and the Council hopes to alleviate at least some of the problem by transferring the civilian yards to Ogema. The Council isn’t confident enough of the Ogema to transfer naval yards to the alien planet, but the civilian yards are another matter and their transfer will free up over seventeen million workers.
March, 2093
Gallicite shortages continue throughout the solar system.
April, 2093
The Federation Xenology team assigned to survey the abandoned colony on Eta Cassiopeiae B III has completed its work, uncovering 404 abandoned installations. The Paris recovers the team and sets out for Ogema.
May, 2093
The heavy tugs arrive over Ogema. The large civilian yards they were towing are immediately put to work constructing the Federation’s new large freighter design.
In mid-month the Paris arrives over Ogema. The Federation Governor of Ogema, Issac Rosenberger, orders the Federation military to put together an expedition to exploit the abandoned installations. Two troop transports orbiting Ogema immediately begin loading the 5th Infantry Brigade and a construction brigade, and word is sent via the courier network to Earth asking for additional transport capacity.
June, 2093
The terraforming group has arrived over Eta Cassiopeiae B-III and started changing its environment.
November, 2093
The 118th Construction Brigade, one of the construction brigades assigned to open crypts on Eta Cassiopeiae B-III, is attacked by strange armed robots that boiled out of a crypt the unit was trying to open. The 5th Federation Infantry Brigade, the Legion Etrangere, launched a counterattack almost immediately, driving the robots away from the vulnerable construction unit. The Legion arrived too late to prevent the robots from exiting the crypt, though. Rear Admiral Albright, senior Navy officer in-system, offers the assistance of the orbiting squadron to General Baldauf, the commander of the Legion. Relations between the two have been strained to date. General Baldauf is European, and has been an outspoken proponent of European primacy, while Admiral Albright, an American, is not noted for his restraint. General Baldauf refuses to consider allowing the orbiting ships to assist in any way, and pledges that the Legion can resolve the problems on the surface.
Over the next two weeks the Legion drives the robots back at every point of contact, until the last robotic unit is harried to destruction.
