Note: From this point on, the recent rule changes to shipyards are included. This includes changing them to orbital structures that can be detected and attacked as if they were ships and adding the ability to tow shipyards with tractor-equipped ships
On April 8th 2037, the Commonwealth's third colony was established on Lisbon V. Four hundred thousand colonists were landed by eight colony ships. The planet was not exceptional in terms of suitability, as its thin oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere had only one fifth the density of Earth's atmosphere and the temperature was -48C, resulting in an overall colony cost of 2.08. However, the cybernetic teams exploring the ruins had restored life support to a number of buildings, creating potential living space for several million. To facilitate further colonization, a jump gate was being constructed at the Sol-Lisbon jump point.
In June, the only Commonwealth espionage team remaining on Earth, led by Vitenka Gavrilov, managed to penetrate the steadily weakening security of the USAN. The team obtained details of technical improvements to research facilities that increased their output by seventeen percent. Given the generally better technology of the Commonwealth compared to the USAN, the assumption among Commonwealth analysts was that the USAN recovered the technology during its raid on the Asian Federation.
The pair of jump gates connecting Sol to New York were completed in early July 2037, opening up the system for future colonization and terraforming. Commonwealth scientists completed research into shipbuilding improvements in late August, increasing the rate of ship construction by thirty-four percent. While this was a welcome development in terms of expanding the Commonwealth, it only further highlighted the problems caused by a lack of population and consequently a lack of wealth. The Commonwealth was still running a considerable budget deficit and using up the wealth generated during the pre-war years.
In September 2037 an alien shipyard was restored on Lisbon V. With two slipways of 9000 tons, the shipyard was the third largest in the Commonwealth, excluding the abandoned yards on Earth. By this point, the population of Lisbon was four million and was already operating a restored research facility and several construction factories. It would take some time before the shipyard and the other installations were working at full capacity. As the Commonwealth was beginning to look to the future, especially in terms of new colony sites, the shipyard was tooled to build Genesis class Terraformers, providing backup for the Utopia Planitia Shipyard on Mars.
The first Galileo class jump-capable gravitational survey ship was launched on September 30th. As there had been no contact with Copenhagen or the four old gravitational survey ships for eighteen months, she was sent to meet up with them. Their mission had been to survey the Philadelphia system, two jumps from Sparta via either the Boston system or the Chicago system, and then survey Denver and Seattle, which both connected to Chicago. Galileo set course for the Chicago jump point, intending to check out all three adjacent systems. Five days after Galileo was launched from the Olympia Shipyard on Sparta, her geological equivalent Darwin was completed by the Tharsis Montes Shipyard on Mars.
Galileo transited into Denver on November 1st and was contacted by the four gravitational survey ships still waiting at the St Petersburg jump point for Copenhagen to return. There was no way for anyone aboard the gravsurvey ships to know that Copenhagen had been destroyed but they suspected the worst. Captain Elroy Tennant of the Galileo suggested that either he take his own ship into St Petersburg to check on Copenhagen or that the four ships pull back to the Chicago jump point so he could escort them home. He was overruled by Commodore Marisa Aguilera of the Baltimore, the senior Commonwealth officer in the system. She ordered Captain Tennant to return home immediately, without waiting for the ten days required for the older ships to rendezvous, warn Commonwealth headquarters and return with backup. It was possible Copenhagen had suffered a jump engine failure in St Petersburg or was involved in lengthy negotiations with a friendly alien race but Commodore Aguilera was taking no chances. Galileo arrived in Washington nineteen days later and relayed Commodore Aguilera's report.
The three Fleet Admirals, Roberta Armenta Rentería, Tyler Morrison and Helen Belkin, formed a triumvirate that ran the Commonwealth military. In theory, overall command rotated between them on an annual basis but in practice they divided the responsibilities equally. Despite spending the vast majority of their careers in different, and sometimes competing, military organizations, they had bonded through the trials of the war and its aftermath and were now the heart and soul of the Commonwealth Navy. Their mutual respect and their desire to work as a team permeated throughout the Navy, forging a service with its own unique identity and traditions rather than a thrown together conglomeration of the old national military forces. Fleet Admiral Belkin was in her eighties and in poor health, while Tyler Morrison was seventy-one. With their work almost done both of them looked forward to retirement, making way for upcoming Admirals such as Rafaele Perti or Rolf Purdom. Before that could happen, they had a new crisis to confront.
As soon as Fleet Headquarters received news of the situation in Denver, a task force was assembled to investigate. Three of the six Scharnhorst missile cruisers formed the core of the fleet, supported in the attack role by a pair of Flight III Arleigh Burkes and escorted by two Trafalgars and two Tribals, which now had their full loadout of anti-missiles. An Audacious class scout was added for independent scouting operations while the tankers Patuxent and Susquehanna would provide additional fuel as required. Fortunately the jump gates on both sides of the Sol-Lisbon jump point were in place so the cruiser Vittorio Veneto, the only jump-capable ship large enough to escort the Scharnhorsts, was available. Galileo remained on the Washington- Chicago jump point to enable the task force to stay in contact while it traversed Chicago and Copenhagen's sister ship Oslo accompanied the task force so she could take up position at the Denver - Chicago and extend the communication chain into Denver. The entire expedition was under the command of Vice Admiral Jessica Grüssendorf on the missile cruiser Blücher
The task force arrived in Denver on December 30th and found the four old gravitational survey ships at the Denver - Chicago jump point. Oslo escorted the survey ships into Chicago and they headed for Galileo on the Washington jump point. The rest of the task force moved to the Denver - St Petersburg jump point. Because of the slow speed of the Audacious class scout, the journey took twenty-two days. Vittorio Veneto escorted the rest of the task force into St Petersburg and then, along with the two tankers, held her position at the jump point, forming the third link in the communication chain stretching back to Washington. Discovery of the ideal habitable world in St Petersburg was quickly relayed to Sparta, along with the news that there was no sign of Copenhagen. With the Audacious class scout Ajax preceding the main body by six hours, the rest of the fleet headed for the habitable world.
With almost six billion kilometres to cover at 1600 km/s, the trip took seven weeks. On March 2nd 2038, with Ajax two hundred and forty-five million kilometres from the habitable world and the warships thirty-five million kilometres astern, the small scout detected an EM signature from the planet with approximately half the strength of Sparta's EM signature. Vice Admiral Grüssendorf ordered the main body to hold position while Ajax moved in closer at half speed. Fifty-six tense hours later, with Ajax eighty-six million kilometres from the planet, she picked up a thermal signature one third that of Sparta. Given that Sparta's population was only two hundred and fourteen million, albeit heavily industrialised, the alien population was apparently quite small; although during a hasty captain's conference in the fleet, several officers speculated it could just be a colony world of a larger polity. There was still no sign of Copenhagen. Vice Admiral Grüssendorf ordered Ajax to halve her speed once more, to just 400 km/s, and attempt to get within thirty million kilometres of the planet so she could use her active sensor. The captain of the scout, Lieutenant Commander Hiraoka Hana, formerly of the Alliance Space Navy, knew his orders took his ship into extreme danger and that engaging active sensors within relatively close range of an alien world that was now assumed to be hostile could very well be the last action for himself and his 117 crew. Nevertheless, he acknowledged the orders without hesitation. His family was living comfortably on Sparta after being plucked from certain death by a Commonwealth colony ship and his devotion to his new nation knew no bounds.
At seventy-two million kilometres, Ajax detected an active sensor centred on the planet with a range of thirty-six million kilometres and a resolution of 4500 tons. As Ajax was only 1600 tons, she would still be able to creep within range of her own sensor without active detection, although any passive sensors on the planet might still detect her approach. Finally at 04:28 on March 6th, she reached a point twenty-nine point six million kilometres from St Petersburg II. The crew had all been preparing messages for their families so Lieutenant Commander Hiraoka ordered his communications officer to transmit them to Vittorio Veneto, still located at the safety of the jump point, then asked his tactical officer to engage active sensors. Seven 6000 ton contacts were detected in close orbit of the planet along with a shipyard complex of approximately 33,000 tons. Her task complete, the small scout reversed course at her maximum speed of 1600 km/s. Two of the alien ships broke orbit and gave chase, including one which mounted the previously detected active sensor, but only at 1250 km/s. As soon as Ajax moved outside active sensor range of the alien ships, Lieutenant Commander Hiraoka gave the order to disengage the sensor, seeing no reason to give the aliens the location of his ship.
Vice Admiral Grüssendorf ordered her fleet forward to meet the scout. Although she faced seven ships larger than any in her own force, she had a significant speed advantage as all of her warships had a speed of at least 2300 km/s. The slow speed of the aliens suggested they were still using nuclear thermal engines, which in turn suggested that their missiles would be slower and shorter-ranged than those of her own ships, assuming they were missile armed in the first place. Conscious that there was still no evidence that the aliens in St Petersburg had actually destroyed Copenhagen, she hailed the alien world in an attempt to open negotiations. A response arrived within thirty minutes but until it could be translated there was no way to know if it was an invitation to dinner or a threat to annihilate the human species. In the meantime, she ordered active sensors to be engaged on her own ship and on the Tribal class escort Apache. While this would give away the fleet's position, she wanted to know if any ships moved within missile range and if any missiles were fired against the fleet. Both Tribals and both Trafalgar class escorts set their weapons in automated point defence mode. If the fleet was attacked, this would be the first test of the Commonwealth's anti-missile capabilities.
As the fleet approached, the active sensor signature from one of the two ships that had been pursuing Ajax halted for a while then headed straight for the Commonwealth fleet . Vice Admiral Grüssendorf assumed that meant the other five ships had caught up and all seven were on an intercept course. That would only be confirmed once the alien ships were back within Commonwealth active sensor range. As with her own fleet, only a single alien ship was using long range active sensors to avoid providing too much information to the other side. Once the aliens reached a point thirty-five million kilometres from the Commonwealth fleet, inside their own active sensor range but outside that of the Commonwealth, they began falling back toward the planet. As the Commonwealth ships were faster, the gap slowly began to close.
At 04:16 on March 7th, almost twenty-four hours after Ajax scanned St Petersburg II, Apache detected an inbound wave of forty-two missiles at a distance of 925,000 km. Both Apache and her sister ship Zulu began launching Dagger anti-missile missiles. The missiles were moving at 8000 km/s, which reinforced Admiral Grüssendorf's belief that the St Petersburg aliens only had nuclear thermal engines, but they plainly had a range greater than that of Commonwealth missiles. Given the missiles' speed and the elapsed time, it seemed that the alien fleet had launched as soon as they had reached thirty-five million kilometres and then began their retreat toward their planet. At the time the missiles were detected, the alien fleet was still thirty-one point five million kilometres ahead of the Commonwealth fleet so no immediate retaliation was possible.
The first Daggers began intercepting the incoming missiles at 600,000 kilometres and approximately forty percent scored a hit. With the two Tribals each firing ten missiles every ten seconds, they could put a lot of anti-missiles into space in a short time. In total they launched ninety-four Daggers and destroyed thirty-nine missiles. The last three inbounds were easily picked off by the advanced railguns on the two Trafalgar class escorts. Two and a half minutes after the missiles were detected, a second wave appeared at the edge of the destroyer escorts' sensor range and they began firing again. This time one hundred and nineteen Daggers were fired and destroyed thirty-six alien missiles. The remaining six were engaged by the Trafalgars, revealing a significant design flaw in the Commonwealth escorts. The alien missiles were in seven salvos, each of six missiles. By the time the Daggers had done their work, five salvos remained; one with two missiles and four with only a single missile. Despite its impressive array of nine advanced railguns, the Trafalgar had only one fire control system, which meant it could only engage one salvo. Three alien missiles were annihilated in a blizzard of railgun fire but the other three were not even engaged. Two missed their target and the last slammed into Blücher. Fortunately the strength-4 warhead was absorbed by her armour without any internal damage.
The third wave arrived five minutes after the first, which suggested the alien warships had a 150 second reload time for their launchers. Six missiles penetrated all of the Commonwealth defences and four of those struck Blücher. Once again her armour withstood the assault but she was left with a hole in her armour that covered seven percent of her surface area and significant degradation in other areas. Thus far, Apache and Zulu had fired off over three hundred and thirty Daggers, forty-five percent of their total loadout. The fourth and fifth alien missile waves were completely wiped out short of the fleet and just one missile from the sixth inflicted further armour damage on Blücher. The seventh wave was reduced to sixteen missiles before Zulu and Apache ran out of Dagger AMMs. Trafalgar and her sister ship Nelson accounted for seven more. Blücher was hit four times and her armour was finally penetrated. She lost her active search sensor, a missile launcher and one of her seven E90 Nuclear Pulse Engines, reducing her maximum speed to 2142 km/s.
With the fleet's primary missile defence gone, her own ship damaged, no idea many more alien missile waves were inbound and the enemy fleet still 600,000 kilometres outside engagement range, Vice Admiral Grüssendorf was forced to reconsider her strategy. It would take nine more minutes for the two undamaged Scharnhorsts to reach firing range and eleven for her own ship, even if it did not suffer further damage and that appeared unlikely. She ordered the fleet to reverse course and head for the jump point. The two Tribals had a maximum speed of 2631 km/s and could add nothing to the fleet's defence so the Admiral ordered them to break formation and continue at their best speed. As her own ship could not keep up with the main body, she detached Trafalgar and Nelson to remain with Blücher while the other two Scharnhorsts and the two Arleigh Burkes continued at 2352 km/s. The Trafalgars had a top speed of 3200 km/s so they would quickly rejoin the rest of the fleet if they could not prevent Blücher's destruction. Ajax was well ahead of the rest of the fleet as they had passed the small scout en route to the planet and she was only capable of 1600 km/s. She too headed for the jump point.
With Apache and Zulu pulling away from the rest of the fleet they took their missile detection sensors with them. Fortunately Trafalgar and Nelson had their own shorter range sensors that could detect missiles at just under two hundred thousand kilometres - more than enough for their point blank range advanced railguns. The eighth missile wave arrived on schedule. The two Trafalgars killed eleven and twelve more missed. The other nineteen blasted Blücher into wreckage. Vice Admiral Grüssendorf and one hundred and forty-eight members of Blücher's crew made it to the life pods. Over four hundred more were lost. Trafalgar and Nelson quickly scooped up the pods and raced after the rest of the fleet, arriving just in time to defend Scharnhorst against the ninth wave. Ten missiles hit the Commonwealth cruiser, causing minor internal damage. Another ten missiles from the next wave struck the damaged cruiser, destroying two engines and reducing her speed to 1785 km/s. Once again the two destroyer escorts stayed behind to guard the cripple but could do nothing to prevent its destruction by the eleventh wave of alien missiles.
The remaining Scharnhorst class missile cruiser, Admiral Graf Spee, was the target of the twelfth wave and received ten hits. Several hits were concentrated on the same section of her armour and blasted through into the fragile interior, taking out two engines. Trafalgar and Nelson continued in their guardian role, staying with Admiral Graf Spee until she was overwhelmed by the thirteenth missile wave then accelerating to catch up with the two Arleigh Burke class destroyers Halsey and Mahan. In desperation, the Arleigh Burkes used their Poseidon II anti-ship missiles in an anti-missile role but they were even slower than the alien missiles and their launchers had a cycle time of thirty seconds. Only four inbound missiles from the fourteenth wave were intercepted by Poseidon IIs. Nelson suffered eight hits and her fragile armour provided little protection. She suffered massive internal damage, losing all but one of her engines, and fell out of formation at 533 km/s. Out of her life pod and realising that little more could be done, Vice Admiral Grüssendorf ordered Trafalgar to accelerate to her maximum speed of 3200 km/s in an attempt to save at least one ship. Nelson could not be saved and Trafalgar could not protect the two Arleigh Burkes alone.
Nelson was destroyed by six missiles from the fifteenth wave and this time there was no ship close enough to pick up the life pods. The rest of the fifteenth wave homed in on Trafalgar, despite her attempt to flee. Eleven missiles hit and the fragile escort exploded. This time Vice Admiral Grüssendorf did not make it to the life pods. The senior Commonwealth officer in St Petersburg was now Captain Gwendolin Delbrück on board the Tribal class escort Zulu. She could do little but watch as the remaining Commonwealth ships continued on course for the jump point and pray that the endless waves of alien missiles would end. Halsey and Mahan were closest to the alien warships with Apache and Zulu 600,000 kilometres ahead of them. No one on any of the four surviving Commonwealth warships believed they would escape. With no escorts to protect them, they were sitting ducks. The sixteenth alien salvo obliterated Mahan.
Halsey somehow survived thirteen hits from the seventeenth wave, losing only an engine and two launchers, but her good fortune only lasted until the arrival of the eighteenth. Two dozen missiles from the eighteenth wave carried on past the wreck of Halsey and steadily closed in on the fleeing Tribals. Although their active sensors tracked the missiles all the way in, their magazines were empty and the bridge crews could do nothing except watch as their doom approached. Just twenty thousand kilometres away, and less than four seconds from impact, the alien missiles suddenly vanished. A hurried rerun of the sensor logs showed the missiles had self-destructed as they reached the limit of their endurance. After the initial tide of relief swept over both crews, they realised just how close to death they had come and that seven other crews had not been so lucky. Even as they began to relax a nineteenth missile wave was detected. New born hopes faded for a few moments until that missile wave also self-destructed, this time well short of the destroyers.
As the Tribals continued heading away from the inner system, they left behind the wrecks of three Scharnhorst class missile cruisers, two Arleigh Burke III class destroyers and two Trafalgar class escorts. Even though the Trafalgars had rescued the survivors from the crews of the Scharnhorsts, those survivors had then been caught in the destruction of the rescuing ships. Captain Delbrück considered turning her ships around to pick up the remaining life pods but based on the active sensor emissions of the aliens they were still chasing the Commonwealth ships and she couldn't take the risk of running into new missile salvos.
At the St Petersburg - Denver jump point Vittorio Veneto had been monitoring the situation and occasionally jumping into Denver to send messages to Sparta via Oslo and Galileo. Even as the survivors were leaving the scene of the battle, the implications were being discussed in the Commonwealth capital. From a tactical perspective, the Tribal class escort had been proven in battle but they carried too few missiles and not enough ships had escorted the task force. The Trafalgars had worked too up to a point but their single fire control system was a significant handicap and any future design for close escorts would incorporate several fire control systems. The Scharnhorsts, which were regarded as the Commonwealth premier missile combatants had been outclassed by apparently lower tech opponents and urgent improvements were needed in missile endurance and sensor/fire control ranges. From a strategic perspective, the defeat at the hands of an unknown and hostile alien race was very worrying indeed, especially as the home system of that race was only four jumps from Sparta. The only silver lining in that particularly dark cloud was that the alien population was fairly small and they apparently had only seven ships, although Commonwealth analysts had to admit there was no concrete evidence that St Petersburg II was the alien home world and it was possible it was just an outpost of a much larger Empire.
The first order of business for the Commonwealth scientific establishment was to design new missiles and fire controls using existing technology to allow the Commonwealth to compete with the St Petersburg aliens, which, despite the best efforts of senior officers to prevent it, had quickly become known as the Peeties. The Voskhod MR-600 active search sensor had almost twice the range of the S300-50 Active Search Sensor on the Scharnhorsts, albeit with a slightly greater resolution. It was complemented by the Raytheon R600 Missile Fire Control System, which had comparable range. Existing research into improved terraforming technology was put on hold so these systems could be developed as quickly as possible.
Voskhod MR-600 Active Search Sensor
Active Sensor Strength: 96
Sensor Size: 6 Sensor HTK: 1
Primary Mode: Resolution: 60 Maximum Range: 57,600,000 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 96 Crew: 30
Development Cost for Project: 960RPRaytheon R600 Missile Fire Control System
Active Sensor Strength: 32
Sensor Size: 2 Sensor HTK: 1
Primary Mode: Resolution: 60 Maximum Range: 57,600,000 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 32 Crew: 10
Development Cost for Project: 320RPA new missile design was required to take advantage of the more capable sensors. Unfortunately a range upgrade to the Sabre missile, which already represented the latest Commonwealth technology, was not possible without significantly reducing either speed or warhead strength. The three Fleet Admirals, after considerable consultation with other senior admirals, made the decision that all future Commonwealth anti-ship missiles would be equal in size to the Russian-designed SS-N-32 Starburst, which was one third larger than the Sabre. The increased size would permit greater flexibility in design, although at the expense of fewer missiles being carried. After a request by President Vorokov the Admirals decided to adopt a new standard naming system for Commonwealth missiles, loosely based on the old NATO designations for Soviet and Russian missiles. With such a wide variety of missiles of different sizes in service, built by four different nations, the President wanted to establish the new naming system as one step to achieving a Commonwealth identity rather than continuing to remind everyone of its multitudinous origins. The SS-N-1 Shipwreck Anti-Ship Missile had a fifty million kilometre range and a strength-5 warhead. Its speed of 14,000 km/s was slightly less than the Sabre but against the slow ships seen in St Petersburg, that would be sufficient. The only existing missile launcher capable of firing the Shipwreck was the OTR-90 mounted on the Moskva class destroyers. However, its ninety second recycle time was considered too long so a new launcher was designed with a forty-five second reload time. As with the missiles, a new standard naming system was adopted, this time based on the old US designations, making it the Mk 1 Guided Missile Launching System. Once all the new systems were available, a new ship would be designed to mount them.
SS-N-1 Shipwreck
Missile Size: 4 MSP (0.2 HS) Warhead: 5 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 14000 km/s Endurance: 60 minutes Range: 50.0m km
Cost Per Missile: 2.1833
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 140% 3k km/s 40% 5k km/s 28% 10k km/s 14%
Development Cost for Project: 218RPMk 1 Guided Missile Launching System
Maximum Missile Size: 4 Rate of Fire: 60 seconds
Launcher Size: 4 Launcher HTK: 2
Cost Per Launcher: 20 Crew Per Launcher: 40
Development Cost for Project: 200RP
The Commonwealth's fourth colony was founded on March 15th 2038 when 150,000 colonists arrived on the third planet of the New York system. Only a limited amount of infrastructure was in place so the colony would remain small for the foreseeable future. President Vorokov was determined to establish as many new colonies as possible. Partly because increasing the number of human colonies improved the chance that humanity would survive a cosmic or man-made cataclysm and partly because the population growth rate of new worlds tended to be higher than established ones and the Commonwealth needed all the population it could get. Sparta and Mars were holding steady at 215m and 125m respectively because they were both providing colonists for Lisbon V, which had reached a population of eight million.
The Audacious class scout Ajax exited the St Petersburg system on April 18th, the last Commonwealth ship to do so. Apache, Zulu and the two tankers were already en route to the Denver-Chicago jump point. Vittorio Veneto had remained behind to wait for the scout. Once all the ships were safely into Chicago, Oslo would move across Denver and into St Petersburg to watch the jump point.
On May 14th, another new colony was founded, this time in the London system. 150,000 settlers were landed by civilian colony ships after Commonwealth freighters delivered enough infrastructure to the innermost planet to support almost two million. New London had a breathable atmosphere and a temperature of -11C, which gave it a colony cost of 0.49 and meant the available infrastructure would go a lot further than on Mars or New York III. Its disadvantage was that it was further away, lying beyond Sol's fifth jump point. Once the Genesis class Terraformers were finally built, New London would be one of their first destinations.
Development of all the new technical systems was completed by mid-June 2038. They were incorporated in a new missile cruiser design - the Peter the Great class, named after one of the President's greatest heroes. At first, the design was going to be restricted to 6000 tons to match the Vittorio Veneto class jump cruiser but at the President's insistence plans for a much more powerful ship were eventually created. President Vorokov stated that, if necessary, the Commonwealth would build a chain of jump gates to the St Petersburg system. The new battlecruisers mounted ten launchers and would carry almost two hundred Shipwreck missiles. Their armour belt was one third thicker than that of the Scharnhorsts and because of their greater size they actually had double the total weight of armour. Their top speed of 3000 km/s was twenty percent greater. Retooling began at the Syria Planum shipyard on Mars with the keel of the first battlecruiser scheduled to be laid down in November 2038.
Peter the Great class Battlecruiser 10000 tons 972 Crew 1185.6 BP TCS 200 TH 600 EM 0
3000 km/s Armour 4-41 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 40
Annual Failure Rate: 160% IFR: 2.2% Maintenance Capacity 370 MSP Max Repair 96 MSP
Magazine 760
E90 Nuclear Pulse Engine (15) Power 40 Efficiency 0.90 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 40.0 billion km (154 days at full power)
Mk 1 Guided Missile Launching System (10) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 60
Raytheon R600 Missile Fire Control System (2) Range 57.6m km Resolution 60
SS-N-1 Shipwreck (190) Speed: 14000 km/s End: 60m Range: 50m km Warhead: 5 MR: 10 Size: 4
Voskhod MR-800 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 5760 Range 57.6m km Resolution 60The Tribal class destroyers had proven themselves in the battle of St Petersburg, except for the fact they ran out of ammunition far too soon. A larger, updated version was designed, using the existing systems but mounting two more launchers and incorporating twice the magazine space of the original Tribal. As it was intended to operate with the new battlecruisers, the top speed was increased to 3000 km/s. The resulting ship was almost sixty percent larger than the original Tribal and was therefore designated as the Tribal II class escort cruiser. Unfortunately, there were no shipyards immediately available to build the new cruiser. The Utopia Planitia shipyard on Mars was large enough but it was halfway through the addition of a new slipway that wouldn't be completed until May 2039. The Laconia shipyard at Sparta, with a single 5000 ton slipway, was the largest at the capital. An upgrade to 6000 tons was in progress and would be finished by September 2038. Finally the Caravel Shipyard at Lisbon V, a restored alien shipyard with two slipways of 9000 tons, was building two Genesis class Terraformers that were scheduled for launch in May 2039. In Earth orbit there were several shipyards that were both large enough and empty but there was no population to man them.
One of the senior scientists working in the research facilities on Mars, Dr Valentina Cherkasova, proposed an intriguing solution to this dilemma. She believed it was possible to devise a tractor beam that would allow one ship to tow another. The use of this tractor beam could be extended to towing bases or even shipyards, although given the size of shipyards it would no doubt be a slow journey. If the tractor beam was developed and deployed on a ship with sufficient engine capacity, the shipyards in Earth orbit could be towed to Mars or even to Sparta via the jump gate on the Sol - Washington jump point. There would still be the significant problem of manning the shipyards once they arrived, as the populations of both Sparta and Mars were fully occupied, but given the likely interval before such a system was available, the Commonwealth population might have increased to a sufficient level. President Vorokov authorised research into the proposed tractor beam to begin as soon as the terraforming improvements were completed, which would require a further five weeks.
Tribal II class Escort Cruiser 6000 tons 509 Crew 759.6 BP TCS 120 TH 360 EM 0
3000 km/s Armour 1-29 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 12
Annual Failure Rate: 96% IFR: 1.3% Maintenance Capacity 237 MSP Max Repair 96 MSP
Magazine 732
E90 Nuclear Pulse Engine (9) Power 40 Efficiency 0.90 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 50.0 billion km (192 days at full power)
AML-15 Missile Launcher (12) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 15
AMF-960 Missile Fire Control (2) Range 960k km Resolution 1
Dagger AMM (732) Speed: 23700 km/s End: 1.4 minutes Range: 2m km Warhead: 1 MR: 10 Size: 1
MD960 Missile Detection Sensor (1) GPS 96 Range 960k km Resolution 1The Trafalgar II was a less radical update than the other new designs. Two additional fire controls would fix the main defect of the original Trafalgar and a doubling of the fuel storage capacity would remove the need for tanker support on long deployments. The Trafalgar II would be built at the Argos shipyard on Sparta, which was only two weeks away from completing an upgrade to its two slipways, bringing them up to 4000 ton capacity.
Trafalgar II class Destroyer Escort 4000 tons 521 Crew 333.4 BP TCS 80 TH 240 EM 0
3000 km/s Armour 1-22 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 27
Annual Failure Rate: 128% IFR: 1.8% Maintenance Capacity 52 MSP Max Repair 20 MSP
E90 Nuclear Pulse Engine (6) Power 40 Efficiency 0.90 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 50.0 billion km (192 days at full power)
10cm Advanced Railgun (9x5) Range 10,000km TS: 3000 km/s Power 3-2 RM 1 ROF 10
Railgun Tracking System (3) Max Range: 20,000 km TS: 3200 km/s
Pebble Bed Reactor (6) Total Power Output 18 Armour 0 Exp 5%
SR Missile Detection System (1) GPS 10 Range 100k km Resolution 1In July 2038, the surface temperature of Mars rose above zero degrees. Twenty-one terraforming installations were in operation on the red planet, most of which had been restored from the alien city. Since December 2022, when the first such installation was discovered, greenhouses gases had been pumped into the Martian atmosphere, gradually increasing the temperature and melting much of the ice caps. Shallow seas and lakes now dotted the landscape. The atmospheric pressure of 0.189 atm was nineteen times greater than before the terraforming operations began. Humans could still not breathe the atmosphere due to the lack of oxygen but they could walk on the surface aided by little more than an oxygen mask and a warm coat. The next phase for the terraforming of Mars was to begin adding oxygen and increasing the atmospheric pressure to the point where humans could breathe unaided. In comparison, the Earth still had a surface temperature of -36C due to the atmospheric dust and the radiation had fallen by only ten percent of the immediate post-war level. The terraforming effort was boosted in late July by research that improved the output of each installation from 0.0012 atm per annum to 0.0015 atm.
Two important admirals left the Commonwealth Navy in early August. Fleet Admiral Helen Belkin, formerly Marshal Helen Belkin, head of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, was forced to retire after a series of increasingly serious health problems. The triumvirate at the top of the Commonwealth military became a duumvirate with Fleet Admirals Roberta Armenta Rentería and Tyler Morrison sharing responsibility. Vice Admiral Marc Perryman, the planetary governor of Sparta died from a sudden heart attack. The admiral had transformed the efficiency of the planet's factories and mining complexes, boosting their output by as much as thirty percent. Fleet Admiral Morrison took over the governorship. Although he lacked expertise in the same areas as Vice Admiral Perryman, he had a great knowledge of shipbuilding, which would prove very useful as the Commonwealth geared up to defeat the St Petersburg aliens.
The first two Genesis class Terraformers were launched by the Utopia Planitia shipyard on August 5th and immediately dispatched to New York III. The planet had about sixty percent of the necessary oxygen already in its atmosphere and the two terraforming ships would add the rest. Once that was completed they would add enough greenhouse gases to raise the temperature of -5C above freezing. It was a hard decision as to whether New London or New York III would be their destination but New York had the advantage of being closer.
The problem of finding a shipyard complex to build Tribal II Escort Cruisers was solved more quickly than anticipated by the recovery of a second alien shipyard on Lisbon V. As with the existing Caravel Shipyard, the new shipyard had two slipways of 9000 ton capacity. Unfortunately, the two shipyards required a total workforce of almost six million, a problem for Lisbon with its population of 8.7m. Four million were involved in the environmental and service sectors and three-quarters of a million were operating terraforming installations. The shipyards would have to operate at a lower efficiency than normal until additional colonists could be shipped to Lisbon V. In addition, there were no supplies of Tritanium or Uridium on Lisbon, both key minerals required for the construction of the Tribal II so both would have to be shipped in from Sparta or Mars, delaying the start of construction by several weeks.
By March 2039, six months later, the population of Lisbon V had risen to 12.5m and both orbital shipyards were finally operating at full capacity. The first two Tribal IIs were scheduled for launch in October 2039 and the first two Genesis class Terraformers to be built by the Caravel Shipyard were due in June 2039. Sparta's population was edging up gradually, even after taking into consideration the exodus of colonists, and had reached 218m. Mars had a population of 130m, which was still not enough to completely man its research facilities, shipyards and terraforming installations, all of which were operating at 97% efficiency. The smaller colonies of New London and New York III had populations of 2.4m and 0.85m respectively.
On April 2nd 2039, President Vorokov was contacted by Vice President Silvano Torres of the Union of South American Nations. According to Vice President Torres, the USAN had founded a small colony in the Palmas system, which the Commonwealth referred to as Stevenage, on a planet that had once been home to some ancient ruins. Enough of the ruined alien colony had been restored to support almost two million settlers so using their radiation-affected shipyards and what little resources still remained the USAN had built a tiny colony ship, the Quntana, and had mounted two expeditions to Palmas III, delivering forty thousand colonists in total. A third expedition was underway and the Quntana had just departed the Sol system with President Constantino on board. Apparently he intended to make Palmas III the new capital of the USAN and was en route to establish his authority at the colony. Vice President Torres freely admitted that he believed President Constantino was not entirely sane and was carrying his determination to remain independent of the Commonwealth to ludicrous extremes. The USAN still maintained warships, even though their population on Earth had fallen to just seven million, and two more Quntana class colony ships were being built. Therefore, Torres asked President Vorokov if the Commonwealth would evacuate the remaining USAN population from the Earth while the President and his closest allies were out of communication. He had already been in contact with the commanders of the remaining USAN ships and they were all prepared to surrender their vessels to the Commonwealth Navy.
President Vorokov replied that no surrender would be required and that all USAN ships that wished to join the Commonwealth would be welcome along with their existing crews. The Commonwealth would begin evacuation of the Earth immediately, using all available colony ships. All six USAN ships in the Sol system immediately signalled their intention to accept the President's invitation. Two were Valdivia class cruisers, which were very limited warships compared to the latest Commonwealth designs and showed just how out of touch President Constantino had become if he believed they represented South American independence. The two Sao Paulo class cruisers were a hybrid escort/geological survey ship that mounted a triple Gauss Gun turret. Despite the general lower tech of the USAN, the turret and its associated fire control system were more advanced than anything possessed by the Commonwealth in that particular field of research and represented an alternative point blank defence to the Commonwealth's advanced railguns. Finally, the two Rosales class survey ships were the first jump-capable survey ships to be built by any Earth-based power, preceding the US-designed Virginia class by over a year. By modern standards they were slow and outdated but they could still serve a purpose as they were capable of independent operations. It would also help integrate the USAN personnel into the Commonwealth Navy if they believed their ships were taken seriously rather than being sent to the scrap yard. One of the Rosales class ships was currently holding station on the Sol - San Francisco jump point so that it could escort the Quntana back and forth. Abandoned alien jump gates were located at the San Francisco - Palmas (Stevenage) jump point so the Rosales didn't have to accompany the Quntana all the way to Palmas III. With the Rosales now part of the Commonwealth Navy and en route to Sparta, there was no way for the Quntana and President Constantino to return to the Sol system. Once the evacuation of Earth was completed, President Vorokov intended to send a ship to Palmas to explain the situation.
Valdivia class Cruiser 3300 tons 378 Crew 312.5 BP TCS 66 TH 100 EM 0
1515 km/s Armour 1-19 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 20
Annual Failure Rate: 43% IFR: 0.6% Maintenance Capacity 118 MSP Max Repair 20 MSP
Magazine 220
Nuclear Thermal Engine (4) Power 25 Efficiency 1.00 Signature 25 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 27.3 billion km (208 days at full power)
H5 Missile Launcher (4) Missile Size 5 Rate of Fire 150
Missile Fire Control (1) Range 9.0m km Resolution 30
R45-900 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 900 Range 9.0m km Resolution 45
Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m kmSao Paulo class Cruiser 2500 tons 214 Crew 365.5 BP TCS 50 TH 75 EM 0
1500 km/s Armour 1-16 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/1/0/2 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 10
Annual Failure Rate: 25% IFR: 0.3% Maintenance Capacity 183 MSP Max Repair 100 MSP
Nuclear Thermal Engine (3) Power 25 Efficiency 1.00 Signature 25 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 36.0 billion km (277 days at full power)
Triple Gauss Gun Turret (2x3) Range 10,000km TS: 6400 km/s Power 0-0 RM 1 ROF 5
Hi-Speed Fire Control (1) Max Range: 20,000 km TS: 4000 km/s
Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 400 Range 4.0m km Resolution 40
Missile Detection Sensor (1) GPS 5 Range 50k km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Geological Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points Rosales class Gravsurvey Ship 2500 tons 236 Crew 402.5 BP TCS 50 TH 50 EM 0
1000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-16 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/1/2/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 25% IFR: 0.3% Maintenance Capacity 201 MSP Max Repair 100 MSP
X255 Jump Drive Max Ship Size 2550 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Nuclear Thermal Engine (2) Power 25 Efficiency 1.00 Signature 25 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 72.0 billion km (833 days at full power)
R45-900 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 900 Range 9.0m km Resolution 45
Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points One huge benefit of the USAN joining the Commonwealth was the wealth that it had stockpiled over the previous decades, including the vast wealth of the Asian Federation taken by the USAN invasion forces in March 2035. The Commonwealth had been running at a significant budget deficit since its creation, relying on the wealth stockpiled by the founding nations. That could not be sustained indefinitely but with the new injection of wealth from the USAN it could be sustained for at least another ten years.
Complete evacuation of the USAN population from Earth to Sparta and Mars took just five weeks, although it would take considerably longer to remove the various USAN installations such as mining complexes and construction factories. As the only humans remaining on Earth were within the former territory of the Asian Federation, President Vorokov decided that they too should be evacuated. In recent years, the Asian territory had essentially been a protectorate of the USAN but with the USAN joining the Commonwealth, there was no reason to leave the Asian survivors on Earth. A hasty survey revealed that across the vast swathes of China and India, only sixteen million remained out of an original population of over three billion. Fortunately the survivors were mainly in organised groups and had retained what civilization they could. Some of the Commonwealth officers assigned to the survey had feared they would find nothing but wandering savages. It appeared that working together and remaining civilised was a positive survival trait in such a hostile environment.
After the pre-war gravitational survey ships had returned from Denver, they were scrapped in favour of the new jump-capable Galileo class. The first two units of that class, Galileo and Copernicus completed their first gravitational survey in July 2039, finding four new jump points in the Hannover system. Hannover was three jumps from Washington via Boston and Berlin and home to one of the Commonwealth's two automated mining colonies. Two of the four new systems linked to Hannover had worlds with considerable terraforming potential. Munich II was similar in size to Earth, although it had a gravity of 1.27G and an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere with a sixty percent greater density. The atmosphere actually had too much oxygen for humans but it would not take long to reduce it to a more comfortable level. With a balmy surface temperature of 27C this could be an ideal world with very little terraforming effort. Heidelberg III was colder at 3C but still well within human tolerance and the oxygen content was already eighty percent of the required level. The second planet of the Heidelberg system required a greater degree of terraforming as its oxygen content was half the required level and the temperature was -14C. It would still be well worth the effort.
On September 15th 2039, the last human was evacuated from the surface of the Earth. Apart from freighters recovering the last few intact installations on the surface, Humanity would not return to its home world until the dust had drifted down out of the atmosphere and the radiation had finally subsided. Most experts agreed that would not be until the twenty-second century. Once there were seven billion humans on the Earth. Now less than four hundred million lived on the five colonies of the Commonwealth. President Vorokov firmly believed that in terms of numbers Humanity had finally reached its nadir and it was now the start of a new age. Humanity would rise again.
On October 16th, nineteen months after the debacle in the St Petersburg system. the Tribal II class escort cruisers Cherokee and Kiowa were launched from the Lagos Shipyard in orbit of Lisbon V. A month later, the battlecruisers Peter the Great and Alexander Nevsky were launched from the Syria Planum Shipyard on Mars and a third Tribal II, Comanche, was completed at the Laconia Shipyard on Sparta. Two Trafalgars IIs had been delivered to the Fleet in May 2039 and two more were due in early December. No new warships were scheduled for completion until three more Tribal IIs in September 2040 and the second pair of Peter the Great class battlecruisers in November 2040.
While the new designs were being built, Commonwealth construction ships had built jump gates on both sides of the Washington - Chicago and Chicago - Denver jump points and a jump gate at the Denver - St Petersburg jump point was under construction. As Oslo had reported no sign of any alien ships approaching the Denver jump point in St Petersburg, Fleet Admirals Rentería and Morrison were working on a plan to secretly build a jump gate in St Petersburg to allow the battlecruisers to enter and leave the system without the need for jump cruiser support. That would take some time so they planned to wait until the second pair of battlecruisers was available before launching a new attack. The plan had a considerable element of risk as it was entirely possible the St Petersburg aliens had no knowledge of jump points and the jump gates created a highway straight from the alien system to the Commonwealth capital.
The operation commenced on January 20th 2040. The construction ship Stephenson and five Atlas II class freighters transited into St Petersburg. The freighters unloaded their jump gate components and retreated into Denver, escorted by the Vittorio Veneto. Stephenson began work while the small jump ship Oslo monitored the area with her passive sensors. In Denver, a Commonwealth task force comprising four Arleigh Burke class destroyers, all four Japanese-built Nagatos with their box launchers and the original four Tribal class destroyer escorts, waited near the jump gate, ready to transit into St Petersburg if needed. Enough missiles had been produced for all the ships in the task force but they had no reloads.
Since the decision to evacuate both the Commonwealth population and its industrial facilities from Earth, the number of workers in the manufacturing sectors of Sparta and Mars had been far to few to man all of the evacuated installations. On Mars, all the available workers had been involved in shipbuilding, terraforming and research, with all other industrial sectors shut down, while on Sparta the research facilities and mining complexes had been shut down to provide workers for the other areas of industry, particularly construction. With most urgent construction projects, such as new shipyards, completed and a Hercules class Tug, that would be able to tow additional shipyards from Earth orbit, close to launch, the need for research facilities to improve the overall technology of the Commonwealth had become more urgent than keeping the construction factories in operation. Since September 2039 the thirty-two mothballed research facilities on Sparta had been prepared for reactivation and the process was completed in mid-March 2040. Seven hundred and eighteen construction factories were shut down to free up the necessary manpower. Eighteen research facilities were already in operation on Mars.
Vice Admiral Stephanie Boner, an expert in construction and production technologies, was moved from her position as Governor of Mars to Governor of Sparta, where she could oversee the newly reactivated research facilities. Vice Admiral Aroghetto Pepe, an Italian who was the Commonwealth's foremost propulsion expert took over as Governor of Mars. Before Vice Admiral Boner assumed her new position, she ensured research on the latest update to terraforming technology was completed by Martian scientists, increasing the output of terraforming installations and modules to 0.002 atm per year.
The first Hercules task Tug was completed on March 21st 2040. With eleven E90 Nuclear Pulse Engines in a 4000 ton hull, the Hercules was the fastest ship ever built. Its intended purpose was not as a courier however. The power of its engines and its copious fuel storage made it ideal for towing large bases or shipyards, or even increasing the speed of other ships. The first task of the Hercules was to tow the largest shipyard in Earth orbit, the Bath Iron Works yard with two slipways of 12,100 ton capacity, to Sparta. Once the 48,400 ton shipyard was connected via tractor beam to the Hercules, the speed of the Tug dropped from 5500 km/s to 419 km/s
Hercules class Tug 4000 tons 361 Crew 472.4 BP TCS 80 TH 440 EM 0
5500 km/s Armour 1-22 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 64% IFR: 0.9% Maintenance Capacity 148 MSP Max Repair 100 MSP
Tractor Beam
E90 Nuclear Pulse Engine (11) Power 40 Efficiency 0.90 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 350,000 Litres Range 175.0 billion km (368 days at full power)Construction of the St Petersburg - Denver jump point was completed on June 2nd 2040 without any sign of the Peeties. Stephenson used the new gate to enter Denver and then set course for Sparta via Chicago. The fleet of thirteen destroyers remained at the Denver side of the jump point in case the aliens discovered the jump gate and tried to use it to leave their home system. They would have to hold position for at least six months until the Commonwealth Navy had enough of the new warships in service to return the inner system of St Petersburg.
On August 30th, Galileo and Copernicus completed a survey of the Zagreb system and found a total of seven jump points, including the entry point from Lisbon. The greatest number of jump points discovered in any system except for Sol. Unfortunately, no systems of note were found beyond the six new jump points
On October 7th 2040, the Commonwealth Terraforming Fleet, which by this time consisted of nine Genesis class Terraformers, completed its task of making the atmosphere of New York III breathable. As the surface temperature was still -4C, the terraforming ships began adding extra carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to increase the greenhouse effect. The leaders of the one point nine million colonists on New York III, mostly of American origin, campaigned to change the name of the planet to Eden to reflect its transformation from a hostile world to one close to ideal. In fact, once the temperature was raised above freeing no infrastructure at all would be required. President Vorokov approved and the name change became official.
