The ASR fighters needed four more minutes to close to point blank range of the Axon corvettes. The Axons had passed beyond the ASR missile-ship?s range long before, and they were totally focused on the fighters pursuing them. During this period the Axon strike group had only managed to close the range to 6.75 light seconds, and that was after they dropped most of their external ordinance. Each ASR fighter was equipped with two internal lasers and had three advanced anti-matter close attack missiles on their external racks. The corvette-carriers had no active defenses, no weapons, and no hope. The swarm scattered as the fighters approached to attack range, but it was too late. Each fighter carried enough weapons to kill a corvette all on its own, and it took just over a minute for the ASR fighters to destroy the last hope of the Axon Hierate.
After the last corvette was destroyed the ASR fighter force turned and ran for their carriers, which had turned northwest to put as much space between themselves and the Axon fighter force as possible. Gwynxa turned his attention to the Axon fighter force, which by now knew that their carriers had been destroyed. The Axons still had a formidable force. They had 1,764 fighters and 243 armed pinnaces, which would be more than enough to destroy the ASR fleet if they could only see it.
By now all of the ASR fleets were running away from the Axon fighters. The decoy fleet was the most vulnerable, but it had started running first, and the Axon fighters had been moving directly away from them. In addition, the decoy fleet was running its engines at maximum, risking burnout to put even more distance between itself and the Axon fighters. To further confuse the matter the decoy fleet had turned to the southeast, ensuring that Axon fighters moving on a direct line along its last course couldn?t find it.
The cloaking fleet had slipped back into cloak and was heading off directly north, making occasional course alterations to confuse the issue. The cloaked carriers were headed north as well, gradually turning to rendezvous with the cloaking fleet. After a short time the cloaked ASR units turned to the southwest, gradually changing their course to intersect that of the non-cloaked ASR units. The Axon fighters would have to come very close to the cloaked ships to detect them with their limited sensors.
The Axon fighter force huddled together in deep space for two minutes as Gwynxa watched. They were in a very bad position. Their carriers were gone and they were over eighteen light minutes from their home planet. The armed pinnaces had enough range to reach the planet, but the fighters did not. Even if the armed pinnaces reach the planet, of course, they would be unable to rearm or refuel, and even launching again might be a problem with no dedicated facilities. Their options were limited. They could use up their remaining life support looking for the ASR fleet, or they could turn and run for the planet. Gwynxa had no real doubt about their probable choice, but he was interested to see how long it would take them to decide. Finally, after another minute passed, the Axon force split up into four groups that headed towards the four points of the compass, obviously searching for the ASR fleet. For three minutes the four groups headed outwards at full speed, then they split again. Each of the four groups split into four sub-groups that spread out and began searching. They were all headed generally outward.
The next ten minutes was grueling for both sides. The Axons knew that they had lost, and that all they could do now was make the ASR pay for their victory. They hunted in increasingly smaller groups as time went on, blind to everything beyond medium range. They could communicate with the other fighter groups, and even coordinate their search to a certain extent, but after a very short time they were out of sight of each other, alone in the night.
For the ASR it was different. They could see everything. Every group of Axon fighters was tracked, and the three ASR fleets did their best to slip in between the gaps in the search pattern. Three times the Axon fighter groups passed close enough to the cloaked ASR fleets to detect them, but each time the ASR?s cloaking technology shielded them. Once the decoy fleet was forced to deactivate its drives to hide its presence from a group of Axon fighters that passed close enough to detect its drive fields. The ASR crews were filled with elation at the victory they had already won, but they were experienced enough to know that if the Axons found them they could still do significant damage.
Through it all Gwynxa sat radiating calmness and contentment. The other officers and crew took note of Gwynxa?s confidence and took heart from it. If the architect of this great victory wasn?t worried, they thought, then maybe there was nothing to be worried about.
After fifteen minutes the searching Axon fighter groups had spread out to the point that there were huge gaps in between the groups for the ASR ships to hide in. By this point all of the ASR groups had merged into one group, which was heading off to the east, away from the bulk of the searching fighter groups. Avoiding the few fighter groups in their area was child?s play. Forty minutes after the death of the Axon fleet the entire Axon fighter force turned and began racing to the east, where they began spreading out to search again. Gwynxa had anticipated this move and had ordered a change in course to the south five minutes earlier. The fighters were now receiving tracking information from the ground stations on Axon Prime, but the information was eighteen minutes out of date and it would do them little good.
The fighters searched until their life support ran out, at which point they abandoned their fighters and were picked up by the armed pinnaces that were all that was left of the assault force. The pinnaces then turned for home. The battle was over.
The ASR had won an astounding victory against the Axons, destroying over four hundred corvettes and two thousand small craft for no losses of their own. In fact, the only losses the ASR forces involved in the battle suffered was when a rookie human fighter pilot fell down a flight of stairs on his carrier before the battle and broke his neck. The news was released throughout the ASR immediately, as part of the new government?s program of openness, and the public rejoiced. Gwynxa?s reputation, already sky-high, rose to legendary heights with this latest victory. One by one he had dealt with all of their enemies, destroying the Eater incursion, humbling the Xanti, and now destroying the Axon fleet and occupying the Axon home planet. The ASR public, Gorandan and other races alike, elevated Front Administrator Gwynxa to the level of adulation and admiration that hadn?t been seen on Gorand since the pre-history of Gorandan civilization.
The news of the defeat of the Axons was observed with interest by the Terran observers within the ASR. The fact that the ASR had managed to defeat the main force of the Axon fleet with no losses The Terrans became alarmed when the method that the ASR Navy used to defeat the Axons became clear when the ASR government inadvertently released a little bit more information than they had intended. Now the Terrans faced a much larger neighbor that possessed the cloaking device, something that Imperial researchers had been striving to duplicate, so fare without success.
The magnitude of the disaster that had befallen the Axon Hierate could not be over estimated. The recent loss to the ASR in the UCS-001 system, and the even more recent loss to the Chosen in Elftan were minor irritants, and the forces involved were either minor ?road-block? forces or recent construction. The assembled Legions were the Hierate?s striking arm, the core of its power. Losses were to be expected, but among the fighters, not the carriers. Fighters could be easily replaced, carriers, even corvette-carriers, were much more difficult to replace, especially with the loss of the home system?s shipyards.
The loss of the home system, along with the threatened loss of both the Breen and Andalon systems, meant that the Hierate had lost its three most productive systems, and now it had no navy to oppose the inexorable advance of its enemies. On his way out of the home system aboard the flagship of the Prophet?s Own, the Prophet himself made a stirring speech that was sent to every planet still linked to the Hierate?s ICN. The speech called for total resistance to the invaders, and directed every Axon to fight to the death before submitting. The Prophet vowed to return at the head of a great avenging fleet, to throw the invaders out of sacred Axon space. While the Prophet was speaking, the Prophet?s Voice (essentially his Prime Minister) was issuing orders. Two Wings of corvette-carriers were to remain to defend the system adjacent to the home system against ASR advances. Each Legion was composed of three Wings, each of which contained nine corvette-carriers and a command ship. One of the Wings would remain at the warp point to destroy the first ASR ship to transit, in the hopes of delaying their advance. The other would remain hidden in the system to ambush and destroy ASR exploration ships to delay their expansion.
The Prophet?s Voice also sent orders to every other military unit left to the Hierate, ordering them to retreat to the fallback system. From there they would consolidate their position and plot their return. After examining the warp charts, the Prophet?s Voice decided that their main focus would be the Chosen, as they were closest to the fallback point. Given the layout of the Hierate?s warp lines the Terrans and the ASR would run into each other before long, and it was even possible that they would fight each other, which would be a very good thing. Finally, the Prophet?s Voice sent orders to the units left guarding the Breen and Andalon systems. It was obvious that the Hierate could no longer hold those systems, and he would not relinquish the two alien races to the Terrans. Those races belonged to the Prophet and through him to god, and they could not be allowed to fall to the apostate Terrans. The orders were to destroy the races rather than let them fall into sin and despair. The Axon commanders carried out those orders without hesitation, as the Terrans found out later in the month.
Author?s Note: I have fiddled with the cloaking rules somewhat. The biggest change was to add a negative modifier to the chance to detect a cloaked force if the detecting side does not know about cloaking technology. This makes it difficult but not impossible for races that have never used or seen cloaking tech to detect cloaked units, which is the way I think it should be.
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In the meantime, on the fringe of the 2nd Empire?s Pax Sector:
Month 139, Week 2
The Imperial Terran force guarding the warp point was originally composed of the four heavy cruisers of the 8th Survey Group. Several weeks ago the first reinforcements had arrived, and now the ad hoc defense force had grown to include the four exploration cruisers and two strike carriers, three escort carriers, the light cruisers and four scout corvettes.
Many more ships were on their way, and in fact, the 3rd Fleet under Admiral Hideoshi was in the system and en route to the warp point. They weren?t going to arrive in time, though. The alien invaders had been detected closing on the far side of the warp point several days ago and the defense force was expecting an attack at any moment.
The attack began with the emergence of three SD?s followed by two CV?s. One of the Terran strike carriers was at general quarters when the enemy transited in, and its fighters and gunboats were on the warp point. The crack Terran pilots swarmed the incoming ships, launching salvo after salvo of anti-matter tipped close attack missiles into the big ships on the warp point. The carriers couldn?t take the punishment and disintegrated under the intense fire. The superdreadnoughts were made of sterner stuff and all three survived the incredible pounding the Terran CSP gave them, but all three were crippled. Point defense fire from the attacking ships was wildly inaccurate, and none of the Terran fighters or gunboats was damaged.
Three more SD?s entered followed by three carriers. Commodore Rostenkowski, commander of the 7th Fleet squadrons that had so recently arrived to reinforce the 8th Survey Squadron, recalled his CSP before the attacking ships could launch their fighters. A single carrier would be able to launch enough fighters to destroy the CSP, and the Terran fighters on the warp point weren?t numerous enough to destroy all of the attacking carriers now that their close attack missiles were expended.
The flow of attacking ships stopped after the third carrier appeared on the warp point. With the withdrawal of the Terran CSP a lull fell on the warp point as no other Terran units were within firing range of the enemy.
For two minutes the two groups of ships sat and watched each other. Commodore Rostenkowski?s ships were ready to attack or retreat, depending on the situation, as was the 8th?s cruisers. Finally the cyborgs moved. The three damaged superdreadnoughts turned and transited out while the remaining three superdreadnoughts and the three carriers set out at 5,000 KPS for the inner system.
Commodore Rostenkowski detached three of his scout corvettes to watch the warp point and then began shadowing the cyborg force as it moved in-system. Under different circumstances he would be preparing his force for an attack on the enemy ships that would probably be suicidal, but fortunately that wouldn?t be necessary. The one hundred and two ships of the 3rd Imperial Fleet were just 72 light minutes away and approaching fast. If the enemy ships continued in-system they would never be able to escape the fast battlecruisers and carriers of the 3rd Fleet. Messages were already speeding towards the 3rd to warn them of the attack.
Thirty six hours later the 3rd Fleet overtook the cyborg ships, which had never deviated from their course in spite of the fact that they couldn?t have missed the approaching Terran Fleet. Admiral Hideoshi didn?t risk any of his ships against the cyborgs, and instead launched a massive fighter strike as his fleet passed the cyborg ships. Over seven hundred fighters overran the enemy force, and after they passed nothing was left. The enemy carriers had launched their fighters, but it did them little good. They were outnumbered five to one. Sixty brave Terran pilots died taking the alien fighters down, but their deaths cleared the way for the rest of the Terran fighters to take out the enemy ships.
The 3rd Fleet, now bolstered by Commodore Rostenkowski?s squadron and the 8th Survey Group, continued its run towards the warp point. Twelve hours later they arrived. Immediately after arriving Admiral Hideoshi sent his gunboats through the warp point to clear the way. The gunboats arrived on the far side to find that the warp point was undefended. In a matter of minutes the 3rd Fleet was transiting into the system.
The first ships into the system were Rostenkowski?s scouts, and their long-range scanners immediately detected drive fields forty-eight light minutes from the warp point and running away at 5,000 KPS. Once the 3rd Fleet was assembled in the Kitakyushu system Admiral Hideoshi dispatched his scouts to probe the area around the warp point and in pursuit of the fleeing alien force. Extensive scouting of the area around the warp point revealed no ambushes, and the retreating cyborg ships turned out to be the three damaged SD?s that had retreated from the Sapporo system.
Admiral Hideoshi dispatched Commodore Rostenkowski?s squadron to deal with the damaged cyborg ships. The 3rd Fleet, less a few ships detailed off to watch the warp point, set out for the inner system.
It didn?t take long for Rostenkowski?s ships to catch up with the crippled alien superdreadnoughts. After giving the aliens a chance to surrender Rostenkowski sent in his fighters. The crippled capital ships didn?t stand a chance, and in a matter of seconds they had been reduced to expanding clouds of hot plasma.
Month 139, Week 4, Kitakyushu System (ground zero for the cyborg incursion)
The 3rd Fleet had arrived in the inner system to find total and utter devastation. The alien cyborgs had stripped both colony worlds completely. Nothing was left. While there were undoubtedly a few people left in the wilds of the planets, every city was destroyed. Orbital surveys showed that entire industrial complexes had been stripped down to the ground, apparently scavenged by the cyborgs. Literally nothing was left.
Admiral Hideoshi had no doubt that they would find the same thing at the colonies circling Kitakyushu-B. He left a trio of battlecruisers behind to begin rescue work, and dispatched another three to Kitakyushu-B. The rest of the 3rd Fleet set out for the warp point to the CS-194 system. CS-194 was one of the four unexplored systems beyond Kitakyushu, and when first detected the alien ships were on a direct line with the warp point to CS-194.
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Note: The Antarans are a minor race situated in the ASR?s Colmar Sector. They have a long and bloody history with humans, who discovered them during the time of the old Empire. Since their rediscovery during the current era, the Antarans operated under the protection of the ASR, right up to the beginning of the ASR-Unified Races war. The Antarans decided to back the Unified Races, and betrayed an ASR fleet led by Gwynxa, resulting in its destruction. When the Unified Races? war effort collapsed after the Eater?s launched their incursion into the Colmar Sector, the Antarans were forced to retreat to their home system, abandoning their fledgling colonial empire and their conquests.
The ASR was eager to resolve the Antaran situation after it regained control of the Colmar Sector, but it also didn?t want to divert ships and resources away from the Eater front. Gwynxa, who was by that time back in command of ASR forces in Colmar, allowed the Antarans their independence, at least until the Eater situation could be resolved. The Antarans knew their time was short, and so they invited the other major power they had contact with, the 2nd Empire of Man, into their system as part of a mutual defense treaty. They hoped that the Empire?s presence in their system would at least cause the ASR to think twice about annihilating them. The Empire, which had been growing increasingly uneasy about the chaos in the ASR?s Colmar Sector, quickly agreed to the treaty and eventually sent heavy forces into the Antaran system, where they would either be able to defend the Empire from a forward position or launch a counter-offensive against the Eaters if they broke through the ASR?s defenses. Which brings us to the current turn?
Month 139, Week 2, Antaran Capital System
For four months a significant portion of the 4th Imperial Fleet, bolstered by heavy battle-line units dispatched form the 1st Fleet, had stood guard at the Antaran warp point that connected to the ASR?s Colmar Sector. These battle squadrons, which included no less than eighteen monitors, far outweighed the entire Antaran navy many times over. In spite of this disparity the Antarans felt fairly secure, given their knowledge that the Empire was not interested in including alien races within its structure. Perhaps they also thought that the Empire might be concerned about the ASR?s reaction should they annex Antara. Certainly the ASR would not care one way or the other about the fate of Antara, but they could be counted on to be concerned about aggressive Imperial expansion that created another direct Imperial ? ASR link.
During this time the Antaran Emperor had never ceased to agitate for the return of the Antaran colonies seized by the ASR. Unfortunately for the Antarans the only warp points in their system led either to the Empire or the ASR, so their opportunities for expansion had been limited. As part of their program to rehabilitate the Antarans the ASR had granted them transit rights through the adjacent ASR system and access to one of its warp points and all of the systems beyond. The Antarans had made good use of this prior to the war, and had colonized several worlds in their small but growing territory. The Antarans had made a bad decision, though, and had chosen to support the wrong side in the recent war. So far they had managed to avoid letting the ASR occupy their home system by allowing the Terran Empire to assist in their defense, but they had been unable to defend their colonies and the ASR had seized them shortly after the Unified Races? offensive into the Colmar Sector had collapsed.
Since the Terrans had agreed to help defend Antara, the Antaran Empire had repeatedly demanded that they negotiate with the ASR for the return of the colonies. After several half-hearted attempts to open talks had been rebuffed, rudely, by the ASR the Empire had stopped trying. The ASR was obviously not happy about the Imperial presence in Antara, but as long as the Empire prevented the Antarans from doing anything stupid while the ASR dealt with the Eaters then they seemed to be content to let the situation stand. The Imperial officers in command of the squadrons defending the Antaran system had no intention of prodding the ASR into anything precipitous over some mangy Antaran colony worlds that the ASR would never give up anyway. The fact that the return of the colonies was about as likely as the Terran Emperor signing over the Empire to the Antarans never seemed to bother the Antaran rulers, who wanted the colonies back and were bound and determined to annoy everyone until something changed.
That change came sooner than the Antarans had anticipated. An ASR CD transited into Antara and began broadcasting the codes agreed upon by the Terrans and the ASR if communications should be necessary. Once the CD received the proper recognition code it broadcast its message to the Terran command ship and then self-destructed. The Antaran fleet commanders were excluded from this communications process, something that frustrated them even though they had required that a communications process be set up between the Terrans and the ASR to facilitate delivering their demands. The Antaran demands to be included in the resulting communications loop had been politely refused by the Terran commander, who had long ago decided that she would honor the treaty requirements but in every other manner would ensure that the Antarans knew that they were the junior partner in the agreement. It was clear to her that if she allowed them to, the Antarans would run roughshod over the Terrans in their system, and she didn?t intend to allow that to happen.
Ten minutes after the CD had appeared in the system a Terran CD was launched from the command ship through the warp point. The Antarans were able to observe the CD transiting, of course, but they were not able to read the message the Terran Fleet Commander sent back through the chain of communications ships stationed in the Antaran system.
Two hours later another ASR CD appeared and another Terran CD was launched through the warp point in response. Shortly thereafter a Terran battlecruiser moved out of its position and approached the warp point. The Antaran Admiral in command of the Antaran units around the warp point demanded to know what the Terran ship was doing, but had to settle for the minimal response he got. He was in no position to make demands on the Terrans and he knew it. If his command got frisky with the Imperial fleet that hovered around the warp point the Terrans would turn them into dust and gas in about thirty seconds, and both sides knew it.
The Imperial battlecruiser transited out, leaving a disturbed Antaran Admiral to wonder what was going on. Two hours later the battlecruiser returned. The Antarans had been warned by the Imperials that either the cruiser or a drone was going to transit, and that it would be very bad if they responded in any way. Needless to say, the Antarans made no move to interfere with the return of the BC, aside from making repeated requests for information about just what was going on. All of the requests, demands really, were summarily denied.
In the aftermath of the unplanned and unexpected meeting between the Imperial everything returned to normal, as far as the Antarans could tell. By then the action had moved to the capital of the New Territories Sector, and ultimately to the Imperial Capital on New Chicago.
Ten days later a reply arrived for Fleet Admiral Angela Howard, commander of the 7th Fleet and the senior officer present in the Antaran system. The reply was fairly short, and very clear about the action that Admiral Howard was required to take. Shortly thereafter Admiral Howard arranged for a communications link to the Antaran Flagship. The subsequent conversation was not pretty.
?Admiral Howard, this is not the scheduled weekly meeting. Why are you disturbing my meal??
The Terran Admiral smiled. This had not been an easy assignment. The alliance between the Terran Empire and the Antaran Empire was an alliance of necessity, not of friendship or trust. The Antarans were difficult, arrogant, and paranoid. And that was when they were being friendly. She had long wondered about how they treated their enemies, if this was how they treated their friends, and recent events had given her the answer. ?Admiral Chowlisj, I have been instructed by my government to inform you that as of 0800 hours, Terran standard, on the last day of this month, the 2nd Empire of Man will declare the mutual defense treaty between the Antaran Empire and 2nd Empire to be null and void, based on information provided to Imperial forces by the ASR.?
?But what?this is impossible! You can?t possibly mean this. You cowards, what did they say to you??
Admiral Howard ignored the rambling incoherencies coming from the Antaran and continued over him. ?This information includes incontrovertible evidence of the commission of gross and extreme war crimes by Antaran forces occupying Colmar Prime, including and not limited to the murder of in excess of 50 million Gorandans by the Antaran Occupation Forces.?
?Lies, all lies! The ASR is trying to drive a wedge between us, to separate allies that stand against them! You must not fall prey to this petty attempt to divide us!?
?Sir, this evidence has been reviewed by myself, and additional evidence has been made available by the ASR?s Embassy on New Chicago. I find it more than convincing. In point of fact I find it to be damning. Therefore, at the direction of my government I am informing you that per section 10.4 of the Treaty of Antara, the Empire has concluded that the Antaran Empire did commit gross and offensive acts against the ASR, thus providing them with a justifiable cause of action not covered by the Treaty. Therefore, the Government of the Empire of Man has determined that it will not act to defend the Antaran Empire against any action the ASR chooses to take as a result of the aforementioned Antaran crimes. In addition, the 2nd Empire of Man finds that due to the extreme nature of the crimes alleged by the ASR, and the convincing nature of the evidence, the Mutual Defense Treaty will be dissolved and considered null and void as of the last day of this month. Imperial naval forces will vacate the Antaran system by that date, or by any reasonable time prior to that date, as required by the Antaran government. That is all.?
The communications channel went dark, leaving the Antaran Admiral to sputter and rage at a dark screen and the Imperial Admiral with a deep sense of satisfaction.
By the end of the month Terran forces were well on their way to the warp point back to Terran territory, leaving the Antarans behind. The Antarans sent repeated messages to the departing Terran forces, some were entreaties to stay, some were demands, and some were threats. Some were all three at once in a feat of linguistic and emotional prowess that the Terrans might have admired if they hadn?t detested the Antarans so much. None of the Antaran messages so much as delayed the Terran fleet by a second, and the Antarans couldn?t do anything but talk, and they knew it. As much as they wanted to punish the faithless Terrans, they had to save their strength for what was to come. Finally, at long last, the ASR was coming.
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Author?s Note: After the Quern conquered the Valnak, I turned to other events taking place in the known universe and didn?t spend that much time on the Quern/Valnak situation as the fighting was over and it was just a matter of consolidation at that point. This was a mistake, as I realized while working on this turn, because the Valnak and the Quern have connections to the two largest nations in the game, the Empire and the ASR, and those nations would definitely react to the to conquest of the Valnak once the news got to them. That being the case, I?ve decided to go back and look at the events and figure out what should have happened?
Month 134: The Quern conquer the Valnak home system. The Valnak have no out-system shipyards or fleets, so it is just a matter of time before their colonies fall as well.
Month 135: The Quern reduce their fleet holding the Valnak system. Some of the ships are sent home for refit and/or repair. Many of the rest are sent to begin the pacification of the Valnak colonies. A skeleton force is left in the Valnak system.
Month 136: A Valnak freighter makes a run for one of the two warp points in the system that connects with the ASR. The freighter is filled with refugees and little else. The Quern naval force in-system makes a token attempt to pursue them, but the partial battle group of monitors cannot catch the more nimble freighter. The freighter escapes into ASR space, where it is stopped by ASR fortifications on the warp point. The refugees tell their story to ASR officials, who agree to grant them asylum.
Month 137: The story told by the Valnak refugees causes consternation within the Free Republic, the ASR member state in control of the warp points that connect to the Valnak home system. The Free Republic sends the information to the ASR central government, where it is viewed with concern, but there is little motivation to take action at this time. The ASR as a whole is still focused on the events transpiring within the Colmar Sector, and the news that a standoffish, isolationist race was conquered by another race doesn?t even make a splash in the public awareness. The ASR Assembly debates the situation, then agrees to let the Free Republic handle the situation, within certain guidelines. The Free Republic decides to send a diplomatic mission to the Valnak system to make contact with the new race. Heavy naval units will escort the mission.
Imperial political observers within the ASR Assembly pick up the news about the fall of the Valnak home system. Armed with this information, Imperial Naval Intelligence operatives ferret out the original information sent by the Free Republic. Imperial Naval Intelligence immediately recognizes the unknown alien race as the Quern, and an emergency message is sent back to the Empire.
The conquest of the Valnak by the Quern caused a much higher level of concern within the Imperial government than it had within the ASR. The Imperial Ministry of Foreign Relations, which negotiated the peace agreement with the Quern, did much to convince the rest of the Imperial government that the Quern were isolationist and had decided to turn away from conquest. The details of the conquest of the Valnak showed that not only were the Quern not isolationist, but that they had done a lot of thinking about the uses to which their cloaking devices could be put to in scouting other races and penetrating their territory. Although the exact extent of the Valnak territories were unknown, the Empire was now faced with a renewed threat to its flank at a time when it could least afford it, given the cyborg incursion and the war with the Axons. The thought of the technologically advanced Quern turning expansionist, and with access to an expanded economy, was very disturbing.
The Imperial government?s preferred method of dealing with a threat was the application of massive firepower in the form of the Imperial Navy. Unfortunately, this was not an option in this case, as too much of the fleet was concentrated on the far side of the Pax Sector dealing with the cyborgs and the Axons, and much of the rest was on the border of the New Territories Sector guarding the Empire?s border with the ASR?s Colmar Sector. Any expedition against the Quern fleet would require a truly massive force, given the Quern?s possession of the cloaking device and other advanced technologies. With the military option ruled out, that left diplomacy. The Imperial government tended not to trust diplomacy to secure its borders, though. It was difficult for most high Imperial officials to see why another nation would limit its actions because of a piece of paper, if acting aggressively were truly in its self-interest.
With both diplomacy and military action ruled out, the Empire was forced to look at alternatives. The only viable alternative seemed to be to bolster the defenses of the border with the Quern. Once the Imperial Council of Ministers looked at this option, the problems represented by the Denebian Republic came to the forefront. The Denebian Republic was a human successor state to the old Republic, and was the last to retain independence from either the Empire or the ASR. It was fiercely independent, located in close proximity to the contact point with the Quern, and possessed a fleet that, while it wasn?t the match of an Imperial Fleet, was significant in size. The Denebians had long been a concern for the Empire, especially since the Atong Union had absorbed the Nix. The Nix had been a favored alien ally of the Empire, and when they abandoned the Empire to join the Union it had rocked the upper reaches of the Imperial government. After that, the Ministers had paid much more attention to the minor governments in contact with the Empire. If the Denebians should make contact with the ASR or the Union, it was quite possible that they would join either of those governments, leaving the Empire with yet another border to guard. And now, with the Quern on the warpath, the possibility that the Denebians might be gobbled up by a hostile, expansionist alien race couldn?t be ignored either. If the Denebians could be convinced to join the Empire, though, it would be exactly what the Imperial government needed to bolster the defenses in that area.
At first glance, the possibility that the Denebians might be persuaded to join the Empire by anything short of a nuclear barrage aimed at their main planets seemed fantastic, but much had changed over the last several years. Imperial diplomats assigned to the Republic had reported over the last several months that the upper reaches of the Denebian government had seemed more open to the possibility of a closer relationship with the Empire. After some debate the Council of Ministers decided to brief the Emperor and recommend sending a diplomatic mission to the Denebians that was empowered to negotiate their entry into the Empire. The Emperor agreed to the plan and gave the negotiating team the authority to make significant concessions to the Denebians if it would bring them into the Empire. The plan was initiated when the Imperial government sent a warning to the Denebians about the Quern conquest of the Valnak.
Month 138: The Denebian government agreed to meet with the Imperial delegation. In truth, the Denebian Senate had been debating this very situation for quite some time. In spite of an extensive colonization and industrial investment programs, it had become clear in the last few months that Deneb would never be anything more than a minor power. Given the current state of known space, even before the Quern began their program of conquest, minor powers had much to fear and nothing to gain from their status. It appeared that the only hope that the Denebians had was to voluntarily join one of the major powers. Obviously, the ASR was probably their best hope. The ASR possessed a liberal and advanced government, and guaranteed home rule and a significant amount of sovereignty to governments that joined it. The Atong Union appeared also to be a good choice, although it had no human members. Unfortunately, the Denebian Republic did not have a connection with either of those governments, and no one could tell if such a connection would be found at any point in the future. That only left the Empire, which the Denebians were in contact with at the current time. While the Empire appeared to have matured since the Republic war, there were disadvantages to joining it over the ASR. For one thing the Empire was relentlessly expansionistic, which would bring it into conflict with other races sooner or later. For another, unlike the ASR, the Empire would not let a formerly independent government retain sovereignty within its former borders. Within the Empire, the Imperial Government was the only inter-systemic government. On the plus side, though, there was the fact that the Empire was fiercely defensive of its possessions, and no one could conceive of the Empire willingly allowing any of its territories to be conquered by another nation.
The debate within the Denebian Senate had been going on for several months when the Imperial delegation arrived, and until the notification of the Quern?s activities arrived the debate had shown no signs of resolution. The threat from the Quern gave the pro-Imperial faction more clout, enough that they were able to convince the others to at least see what kind of deal they could get from the Empire. Intensive negotiations began by the end of the month.
Month 139, Week 4
The Imperial Government announces that the Denebian Republic has agreed to join the Empire. The Denebians were given quite generous terms. A new Imperial Sector will be created with Deneb as its capital. The new Sector will include most of the old Republic?s Western District, and the new Imperial Governor will be the current Denebian Prime Minister. There are numerous other conditions, including trade concessions, which mostly favor the Denebians.
That's it for now.
Kurt
