Author’s Note:
I was originally planning on doing my standard two year post, but this one is getting longer and longer, so then I decided to do a one year post. Unfortunately, a lot of action is happening right at the year end and I don’t want to break it up, so I am going to post the two year update, 2036-2037, in two, or maybe three parts. Here is the first part:
January 20, 2036
The Alliance 3rd Survey Group enters the El Paso system, in the Procyon warp chain, and begins survey operations.
February 14, 2036, El Paso System
An Abonai survey ship detects an Alliance survey ship on passive sensors. Believing that it was not detected in return, it sends emergency messages to the other Abonai ships in the system and retreats to the warp point.
The Abonai are correct. Thanks to very advanced thermal masking systems, their thermal signature is less than a quarter of that of the Alliance ship, and in any case, the thermal sensors of the Alliance survey units aren’t as good as theirs. The Abonai make good on their escape.
A brief history of the Abonai
By 2036 the Abonai had been in space for over two centuries, and they had discovered trans-Newtonian technology and achieved interstellar flight two decades ago. The Abonai had settlements and outposts in three systems, and by 2036 they had discovered and explored ten systems outside their own. In short, the Abonai were unlike any race previously discovered by humanity in that they had independently discovered the secrets of interstellar travel. And, in fact, the Abonai were about to discover humanity.
Physically, the Abonai are shorter than humans, averaging approximately 1 meter in height. While they are shorter than humans, the Abonai have denser bodies and are physically powerful, a result of the gravity of Abon, which is rated at 1.3 that of Earth. The Abonai are bipedal and are covered in thick, heavy fur. Clothing for Abonai is optional, usually worn for decoration or utility.
The Abonai achieved a unified world-wide society prior to exploring and colonizing their system, unlike humanity, largely because their planet lacks Earth’s vast oceans which acted to separate humanity into different nations. The current Abonai society is complex and can be best characterized in human terms as a strict meritocracy. Young Abonai are rigorously tested in school, and then placed after primary training in the appropriate positions based on the tests, demonstrated aptitude, and desire. The ability of an Abonai to advance, or even to keep his current position depends largely on his or her demonstrated ability to perform in that position. This form of government has contributed a considerable amount of efficiency to the Abonai civilization, but this efficiency doesn’t come without cost. Almost all Abonai are constantly driven to prove themselves, and to find new challenges, which has caused the Abonai culture as a whole to be decidedly expansionistic.
Whether as a result of their meritocratic culture or another, deeper, reason, the Abonai are supremely arrogant and are convinced that they and they alone, deserve to explore and exploit interstellar space. In fact, they are currently convinced that they are alone in the galaxy, as evidenced by the fact that no other previously existing race has bothered to contact them first, in spite of the self-evident fact that any such race would inevitably be drawn to the Abonai (while the Abonai don’t phrase it that way, this is a fair summary of their reasoning).
The Abonai have approached the exploration and exploitation of other systems in a systematic manner, preferring to exploit the systems closest to their home system first, and to secure their position, before expanding further. By 2036 the two systems closest to their home system, Valkha and Gruzakor, have both been colonized, Abon-formed, and connected to the home system with jump gates. The Abonai have begun looking at the next set of systems out from these now-exploited systems, and they are ready to take the next step.
February 25, 2036
The Kaiser sat alone, staring at the fire blazing in the fireplace at the end. He had been there for an hour, desperately trying to think through the situation. Yet again he wished that he had listened more to his mother when she had tried to explain politics to him. He sighed bitterly when he thought about how he had always responded to her attempts to educate him. He had known better! He had known everything. Only now it was clear that he knew nothing. For all of his good intentions, all his struggles to avoid this particular destiny, here they were, on the brink of war.
Rising from his chair, he began pacing back and forth as he tried to find a way out of the trap. The Reich was running out of resources, and day after day he was barraged by his ever-so-polite aides reminding him that the corporations that made up the backbone of the Reich’s industry were growing desperate. So desperate that they were organizing to fight his latest round of tax increases, which were necessary to pay for his reforms. Reforms that were desperately needed to help the common people. His pacing took him past the room’s window and he stopped staring blankly at the snow falling outside as his mind went over his last meeting with his economic advisor. The corporations no longer believed that he could, or would, do anything about the resource situation, and it was clear that they had decided to act to force him to act. They would take away his reforms. He had thought that he was unassailable, but over the last week he had seen his support fade away like a dream in the light of day. Everyone wanted trans-Newtonian resources, and everyone feared what would happen if they began to suffer shortages.
The Kaiser rested his forehead against the cool window, wishing he had listened to his mother’s warnings back when it might have made a difference. She had warned him that the government was full of those that would use him and his power to get what they wanted, and he hadn’t listened. After all, he was using them to get what he wanted. What he hadn’t seen was that they were laying in wait to use his desires against him. They knew what he wanted, and they could take it away.
After a few minutes, he shook his head. There were too many who wanted war, and with the impending resource shortages as Earth ran out of raw trans-Newtonian materials no one would speak against it. No one who mattered, anyway. Taking a deep breath, he decided. If there was to be war, then it would be on his terms. To get what they wanted, they would have to give him what he wanted. Having made up his mind, he decided to get some sleep. There would be war, but wars took time, and he would need his sleep before meeting with everyone tomorrow.
February 30, 2036
Domination of the Abonai
The 2nd Survey Group returns with news of contact in the Alkumar system. The Abonai immediately mobilize their fleet, but it will take over two days to recall ships from their training exercises. Once the fleet returns from the exercises, cooler heads have prevailed. A task group consisting of one jump cruiser, a battleship, six cruisers, six escort cruisers, and two scouts is dispatched to learn what they can about the events in the Alkumar (El Paso) system.
March, 2036
The Reich government releases several reports highly critical of the Novaran government. The press picks this up and runs with it. Over the next several weeks numerous editorials and articles appear demonstrating how the Novarans are slowing the growth of the Reich’s economy.
April 3, 2036
The Abonai task group arrives in the Alkumar system and immediately splits up into four groups. The jump cruiser and the battleship sit on the warp point, acting as a heavy reserve, while the smaller ships, joined by the scout left in the system by the 2nd Survey Group, split up into three groups to begin searching the system for the alien ship. The Abonai warp point is six billion kilometers from the outermost planet’s orbit, so it will take the Abonai ships over twenty days to reach the planetary system.
April, 2036
Serious resource shortages hit Russia.
The Reich begins recalling ships from training exercises, and places a higher than normal number of ships into overhaul. This move is noted by the other nations, but aside from increasing surveillance none of the nations take any overt action. After all, tensions on Earth are low and nothing in particular is going on.
June 4, 2036
For two months the Abonai have searched the Alkumar system for the aliens without success. In desperation the Abonai commander orders his ships active all sensors, hoping either that the alien ships will be in range of the active sensors or that the aliens will detect the Abonai sensors and be drawn in.
June 12, 2036, 0137 hours
Least Fang Na, commanding officer of the Valkha, the pride of the Abonai fleet, shook his head ruefully. Always, always, when something happened it happened in the middle of the night. For over two months his task group had squatted in empty space as he had grown increasingly desperate. And now, in the middle of his sleep period, the alarm was screeching in his quarters, which could only mean one thing. He hit the communicator to activate it. “I’m here, Least Claw, what is going on?”
“We have a contact, Sir! The contact is thermal only, strength 480, bearing two-six-zero relative, range approximately 47 million kilometers.”
Na shook his head again, willing the remnants of sleep away. “Wait. We have a contact? Here?” That was the last thing he expected. His two ship squadron was hovering over the warp point leading back to the Domination, far out in the outer system. He had five task groups scattered about the system actively looking for the aliens, and the odds that he would stumble over them here were worse than unlikely. Unless… “Course?”
‘No data yet. They just appeared on our scanners.”
“Very well. I’ll be on the bridge momentarily. Ensure that all units are observing emissions control and that engines are at station-keeping.” He turned the comm device off and began grooming his fur, thinking furiously. The only way that the appearance of the aliens here made sense was if they were headed for the warp point, which meant that the initial guesses about the alien’s activity was correct, they were here to do a warp point survey, just as the Abonai ships had been. And if they knew where the warp point was, then they knew the route back to the Domination. That was intolerable.
Least Fang Na arrived on the Valkha’s bridge five minutes later with his fur acceptably groomed. During that time the alien ship had moved 1.44 million kilometers, demonstrating a speed of 4,800 kps. That was disturbing, given the superiority it demonstrated over Abonai fleet speeds, but the really surprising thing was their course. Enough time had passed to make it clear that the alien ship was not headed towards the warp point but rather across the sphere of space that the Valkha’s sensors covered. Na shook his head again. “Where are they going?”
Least Claw Zhen, the Valkha’s XO, had had a little more time to think about this. “Sir, I think that they are a gravitic survey vessel. See here, their course is towards this patch of space which was identified by our survey personnel as a target location during their own survey of the system. As you know, gravitic surveys must take place at locations scattered around a system at mathematically precise coordinates. They are headed towards one of them.”
The tension that had begun building up in Na began to ease, replaced by his determination to perform his duty. “Any sign that they’ve seen us?”
“Negative. They have not deviated from their course, and our thermal signature is negligible. Neither our EM sensors or those on the Kalakzon have registered active sensor emissions from the alien.”
Na’s mind raced. His duty to the race, and to the Domination, was clear. They must learn everything they could about these aliens, by whatever means necessary. The Assembly of Hetmen had already named these aliens as interlopers among the stars, as thieves of resources that properly belonged to Abonai. Such a determination was proper, of course, but dangerous. As unthinkable as it was, it was always possible that the aliens had a superior technological base or larger fleet than the Abonai. This must be determined before the subjugation effort began. “Very well. Our way forward is clear. This is what we will do…”
Shortly thereafter the Battleship Kalakzon got underway. It wasn’t headed directly towards the alien, but rather towards a point on the alien’s course. Also, the big battleship wasn’t moving at full speed but rather 1,600 kps, a speed rather carefully calculated to give the big ship the same thermal signature as the cruisers that made up the bulk of Least Fang Na’s battle group. At the same time, Na sent orders to the dispersed units of his group, ordering them to return to the vicinity of the warp point. It would take thirty days for the most distant of his units to return, but Na suspected that they would be sitting here for some time.
0452 hours
At this point the Kalakzon had reached its closest approach to the alien ship, almost 28 million kilometers, and was now falling behind. It was apparent to Least Fang Na that either the aliens were extremely canny or that they had no idea that the battleship was behind them. After considering the situation for a few seconds, Least Fang Na issued orders for the Kalakzon to increase to full speed, increasing its thermal signature by 16%. Still the aliens failed to react.
Finally, as he watched the alien ship recede, Least Fang Na gave the commander of the Kalakzon permission to activate his sensors. Within seconds information was coming in about the alien ship. The immediate result was that the alien ship was revealed to have a cross-section of 100, indicating that it likely was around 5,000 tons, or half the size of Abonai survey ships. The second result was that the alien ship came to a halt and activated its sensors, a pretty clear indication that the alien ship had EM sensors of its own.
After a few minutes during which both sides evaluated the information they had gained, the Kalakzon began moving towards the alien at 1,600 kps. The commander of the battleship had orders from Least Kang Na to see how close the aliens would let him approach. Almost immediately the Kalakzon began receiving transmissions from the alien ship. Least Fang Na ordered his scientists to begin working on deciphering the messages and ordered the Kalakzon to continue on its course.
0914 hours
The Kalakzon reaches approximately five million kilometers range from the alien ship. When it crosses the invisible line marking five million kilometers the alien ship sends an additional message to the Kalakzon and begins moving away in a clear sign that the Abonai ship is not to move any closer. Least Fang Na orders the Kalakzon to retreat to five million kilometers range and hold that position. Both sides settle in to learn the other’s language.
Shortly after that, out of sight of the Abonai, one of the two Alliance survey-jumpships assigned to the 3rd Survey Group jumped out of the system, headed back to the Solar System with word of the contact. The ship’s ETA in the Solar System is 47 days.
July, 2036
The Alliance Terraforming Group completes work on Nova Mexico, making it a colony cost 0 planet like Earth, Mars, and New Boston. The group will return to New London and pick up where they left off, but the New London job is considerably more complex and will be more time consuming than it was on any of the other planets, due to the ammonia and methane in the atmosphere.
July 12, 2036
The Alliance survey ship Milton succeeds in establishing full communications with the aliens that found them during their survey of the El Paso system in the Procyon warp chain. Acting on the orders of Commodore Owen Eischens, the commanding officer of the Group, the Milton’s CO, Commodore Enzor, begins talks with the new race. He soon learns that the race calls themselves the Abonai, and that they are very interested in humanity. To humans the Abonai look like nothing more or less than cute little teddy bears, a fact that has caused more than a little consternation amongst the Milton’s scientists.
Over the next several hours the humans and the Abonai exchange quite a bit of general-interest information about each other. Of particular interest to Commodore Enzor is the Abonai explanation for the presence of their ship in the El Paso system. From the first Enzor, and indeed all of the other Alliance officers, were somewhat put off by the fact that the Abonai had shown up in a massive 17,000 ton battleship. The Abonai commander stated that his ship was an escort for a survey group, and that it was standard practice for the Abonai government to provide military escorts for their survey units. Commodore Enzor was somewhat dubious about this explanation, after all, sending a battleship to escort survey ship seemed to be a bit of overkill to him, but in the end he accepted the explanation. The Abonai seemed to want to talk and to get to know humanity, and so even though he was not authorized to negotiate on behalf of the government Commodore Enzor agreed to spend the next several days in discussions of mutual interest, with the eventual goal of establishing plans for a future meeting of ambassadors.
Three hours and twenty minutes after full communications were established Least Fang Na finally has what he has been waiting for. The last of his detached groups has reached the assembly point and is ready. He issues orders for their deployment, and all of his units begin moving into position. By this point they have very good information on the human ship, including its detection capabilities and activity patterns. The human’s thermal sensors appeared to be poor, and likely would not be able to detect the group until they were much closer than 25 million kilometers. The human’s active sensors were better, and had a maximum range of 33.6 million kilometers. However, by prior agreement with the Abonai the Humans only activated their sensors every several hours on an irregular schedule, as did the Kalakzon, to avoid the appearance (or the reality, for that matter) of attempting to steal the other’s technology. That made their planning for what was to come fairly easy, in spite of the fact that the human ship had a substantially superior speed when compared to most of his ships.
It would take a full day for the group to get into position and then things would get interesting.
July 13, 2036, 1856 hours
Least Fang Na’s ships are finally in position, and the human ship had just activated its sensors, meaning that they had no less than 45 minutes before the humans activated their sensors again. Forty-five minutes was the shortest time interval between activations, while one hour and thirty-four minutes was the longest. Given the fact that it would take two and a half hours for his fastest ships to reach the human ship, and that at some point they would appear on the human’s passive sensors, he firmly believed that the humans would realize that they were approaching long before they were able to activate their sensors on their regular schedule again. At any rate, it was time.
“All ships, begin your run.” On the Least Fang’s orders the group moved out, each ship leaping forward at 2,357 KPS, the maximum speed of the flagship. The only ship actually going slower than that was the flagship itself, because its thermal signature was so massive that going full speed would be like sending out a flare. Of course, having the flagship go slower meant that there would be an opening in the circle surrounding the alien, but it would be a small opening, and the flagship was purposefully positioned with the battleship Kalakzon in between it and the alien.
Twenty minutes later the Abonai ships had closed to 31.2 million kilometers, and the humans still showed no signs of detecting them. The Abonai ships continued on. In fact, they were able to close for seventy minutes before the humans reacted.
2006 hours, Alliance Survey Ship Milton
“Sir, thermal contact bearing 030 relative. Thermal strength is 630. Course and speed is unknown, range 27.7 million kilometers.”
[attachment=6:1idvvn8i]Milton Detects.gif[/attachment:1idvvn8i]
Lieutenant Tyler didn’t hesitate. “Sensors, go active.” Without looking she hit the comm button. “Commodore to the bridge! Commodore to the bridge!”
“Sir, you’ll have sensors in twenty seconds. Plot shows the unknown contact, designated Bogie-1, on a course directly towards us, estimated speed 1,500 kps.”
“Time to our location?”
“ETA our location three-zero-seven point seven minutes.”
Lieutenant Tyler wished that the Commodore was here, but she knew that she needed to handle this until he showed up. “Sensors, anything out of the Kalakzon?”
“No ma’am. No activity at…wait one. Sensors powered and coming online. Pulsing. Getting returns. I’m putting them up on the board.”
[attachment=5:1idvvn8i]Milton goes active.gif[/attachment:1idvvn8i]
“Oh my god!”
Tyler didn’t know who said that, and for once she didn’t care. Just like everyone else she was gaping at the plot. The same plot that had just blossomed with blood red contacts ringing the Milton.
After a few seconds Lieutenant Rodgers got control of himself and began reading off the contacts. “Contact bearing 000 relative, designated….”
Tyler tuned him out, desperately trying to figure out what to do about this disaster when the bridge hatch opened and the Commodore walked in. Her relief was tempered by the look on his face when he saw the plot, but in any case, it would good to have him there. “Sir, we got a single contact, Bogie-1, on the thermals. I ordered the sensors activated and when they went up this is what we saw.”
“Very well. Comm, lets see what our ‘friend’ the Kalakzon has to say about this. Open a channel…”
“Sir, incoming transmission from the Kalakzon!”
Commodore Enzor nodded and the transmission was routed to the main monitor. The monitor flickered and then cleared to show the familiar bridge of the Abonai battleship. Unlike the other times they had spoken to the Abonai the bridge lights were muted and the Abonai commander, Small Claw Hu, was dressed in an atmosphere suit of some sort. “Commodore Enzor, I must inform you that you and your ship are in Domination space. Therefore, by Domination law you must surrender your ship to our control. If you do you and your crew will be returned to your nation as soon as is practical, after we ensure that you were not deliberately intruding on our sovereign territory.”
Enzor’s face seemed set in stone when he replied. “This is a mistake, Hu. You know that we did not know this was your system when we entered it. You know that we didn’t even know you were here until you let us know you were here. You have no reason to seize my ship!”
Small Claw Hu groomed his whiskers while Enzor spoke, and then waived his hand in negation. “You say that you didn’t know that we were here. You claim that, but we have no way of knowing. We have little in the way of defenses, so we must be careful. If your story is true, then we will return you as soon as we can. For myself, I believe you, but my duty to my Dominar is clear. The law is clear. You will surrender your ship or we will board you and take it away.”
Commodore Enzor made a cutting motion and the monitor went black. “Helm, take us to full speed directly away from the Kalakzon. Charge shields. Sensors, are we being targeted?”
“Negative sir, no active sensors at all.”
“Very well. Communications, send a message to Commodore Eischens updating him on our status. Send continuous updates, with everything we’ve learned so far.” Commodore Enzor studied the plot for a few seconds. The aliens appeared evenly spaced in a circle surrounding the Milton, and except for one of them they were incoming at 2357 kps. That gave him a considerable speed advantage. He was opening his mouth to speak when a chime sounded, signaling a status change on the contacts. When he looked again he saw that all of the contacts had accelerated. Three were moving at 3,882 kps, while the rest were moving substantially slower. His ship was capable of moving at 4,800 kps, so they still had an advantage, but there were a lot of ships out there. Additionally, the new alien ships were now identified as 1xDN, 6xBC, 3xCL, and 6xDD. That was a lot of metal for the Milton. “Helm, how long until we are underway?”
“Five-zero seconds until engines are up, sir.”
“Very well. I…”
“Sir, active sensors detected from the Kalakzon.”
“Targeting sensors?”
“Negative, search sensors only.”
Commodore Enzor settled back into his chair, a thoughtful look on his face. The bulk of the enemy fleet was just over 24 million kilometers out, which was within range for Alliance missiles, but barely. Assuming that the aliens were out of range of their missiles that still didn’t explain the lack of activity from the Kalakzon. Unless, of course, they didn’t have missiles. Strange. Very strange.
“Sir, the Kalakzon is moving. Course directly towards us, speed 1,913 kps.”
“Very well. Time to our engines?”
“Engines are up, sir. Course set, we are at 4,800 kps. The Kalakzon is falling back.”
And the other enemy ships are approaching. This was going to be tricky.
[attachment=4:1idvvn8i]Milton at 5 min.gif[/attachment:1idvvn8i]
Thirty minutes after setting out, Commodore Enzor ordered a course change to starboard, going for a gap in the Abonai lines.
[attachment=3:1idvvn8i]Milton course chg +5.gif[/attachment:1idvvn8i]
[attachment=2:1idvvn8i]Abonai course chg +1-.gif[/attachment:1idvvn8i]
[attachment=0:1idvvn8i]Milton course chg +26.gif[/attachment:1idvvn8i]
[attachment=1:1idvvn8i]Abonai course chg +26.gif[/attachment:1idvvn8i]
At this point the Milton is a mere 500,000 kilometers from the Abonai. That is as close as the Abonai will get. After that the Milton begins opening the range on all Abonai ships.
2141 hours
The Milton makes a hard turn to port and although the pursuing Abonai ships can cut across her course, her higher speed means that she continues to open the range, which is now up to 2.5 mkm.
2400 hours
The Milton has opened the range to the nearest Abon ship, a light cruiser, to nearly 12.7 mkm’s. Shortly thereafter it becomes clear that the Abonai have given up on the chase as all of the other ships on the Milton’s screens, aside from the closest, have turned back.
0445 hours, July 14
The Milton makes another turn to port. This turn puts the Milton on a course that takes it across the outer system. It also takes it in the same general direction as the rest of the 3rd Survey Group. At this point there is only one Abonai ship on the Milton’s scanners, 29 mkm’s away and still falling behind.
0830 hours
The Abonai ship has fallen far enough behind that it has fallen off of the Milton’s screens. Commodore Enzor orders the Milton’s active sensors shut down to reduce the ship’s emissions.
2300 hours, July 14
The Milton disappears from the screens of the last Abonai pursuer. The Abonai have lost contact with the Milton.
August 3, 2036
The Milton arrives at the warp point to the Tau Ceti system. Commodore Eischens decides to split up the three ships remaining under his command to set up a communications link with the home system. By stationing his ships at the warp links in between El Paso, Tau Ceti, San Diego, Procyon, and Earth, he will be able to keep communications open and have pickets at all critical choke points. He will have to rely on the fourth ship in his group, which was dispatched to Earth with the news of the first contact, to provide the last link to the solar system. The light speed communications link means that messages will be able to go from Earth to the El Paso system, or the other way, in eighteen hours.
August, 2036
The Japanese Empire is forced to withdraw its pickets due to severe and continuing maintenance problems, particularly on the older Kongo class cruisers. The Navy’s high command has tried to deal with this issue in the past, but they were told again and again that enhancing their current class’s cruising capabilities was extravagant and unnecessary.
August 8, 2036
Word arrives on Earth of the first contact with the Abonai. News of the ambush is still en route. Two days later the last ship in Commodore Eischens’ communication chain arrives at its appointed position. The link won’t be complete until the survey ship sent to carry news of the contact to Earth, or another ship, returns to the Procyon system. This will take five days while the Alliance Senate debates the exact nature of the welcoming message they want to send to the Abonai.
August 13, 2036
News of the attempted ambush of the Milton finally arrives on Earth, causing an uproar within the Alliance Senate, the government, and the Navy.
August 17, 2036
San Diego, California, United States
Alliance Naval HQ
Vice Admiral Carmelita Laducer stood as a group of officers entered the large briefing room. The newly arrived officers, all junior to her, came to attention and she nodded and gestured at the chairs around the central table. “Come on in, everyone. We’ve got a lot to go over.”
The four officers nodded moved to the table. They all knew each other, having been brought together earlier that morning, but for some of them it was the first time they met Vice Admiral Laducer, and none of them knew the civilian sitting at the table. They looked expectantly at the Vice Admiral, who obviously knew what was going on.
Vice Admiral Laducer smiled. “Everyone, this is Senator Thom. He used to be a Captain in the Navy and is now in the Alliance Senate representing Southern California. More importantly, he has been selected by the Senate and the President as Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Abonai. We have been selected by the Navy and the Senate to act as his escort. Senator, this is Rear Admiral Karen Reichard, CO of the 1st Battle Squadron, Commodore William Toole, CO of the 4th Cruiser Squadron, Captain Deshawn Ajello, CO of the 6th Cruiser Squadron, and Captain Fidel Gass, CO of the 2nd Destroyer Division.” They all shook hands and then Admiral Laducer gestured for them to take seats at the room’s central table.
“In a minute, Senator Thom will give us some background on the political situation behind our orders, but first I want to brief you on what exactly our orders are. This morning I was given command of the naval forces assigned to escort Ambassador Thom. Our orders are as follows: We are to secure the Tau Ceti system and prevent any Abonai further penetration into the Procyon warp chain. Secondly, we are to attempt to establish contact with the Abonai, determine what went wrong in the El Paso system, and assist Ambassador Thom in his efforts to make a peace agreement with them. The details of how we are going to go about accomplishing our mission are, of course, up to us, but I have been given fairly strict ‘guidance’ by the CNO and the Joint Chiefs. That guidance boils down to: we are not to initiate hostilities with the Abonai under any circumstances…with the sole exception being if they enter the Tau Ceti system and refuse to return to El Paso.”
“Ma’am?”
Admiral Laducer nodded to Captain Gass.
“Does this mean that we are giving up El Paso?”
“I’ll let Ambassador Thom answer that one. Ambassador?”
“Thank you, Admiral. After much debate amongst ourselves, and consultation with the administration, we’ve decided that if the Abonai want the El Paso system then we are willing to give it up. The geological survey was mostly complete by the time the Abonai contacted our survey ships, and while there were several interesting finds in El Paso, none were rich enough that any of the mining corps are going to get too upset about giving it up. The rest of the chain, though, is another matter. Although the Procyon warp chain is, as of yet, unexploited, the Senate and various major Alliance mining and colonization corporations have invested a lot of time and effort developing plans for the future exploitation of the Procyon chain, and a lot of money has been spent developing the infrastructure to exploit the chain. Allowing the Abonai to move into the chain at Tau Ceti would cut us off from the rest of the chain, and all of the really valuable systems are down chain from Tau Ceti. Worse, once they are in Tau Ceti the Abonai are only three jumps from Earth itself. The Alliance Senate is determined to prevent this from happening, even at the risk of war with the Abonai.”
Several of the officers were nodding, but Captain Ajello was frowning. “Sir, isn’t this a violation of the Interspecies Agreement of 2027?”
Ambassador Thom shook his head. “The Abonai are not signatories to that agreement, so no, it isn’t.”
Captain Ajello’s face took on a stubborn cast. “But at the very least this is a violation of the spirit of that agreement. We are, in essence, seizing the Tau Ceti system, and indeed the entire warp chain.”
“That is true, Captain. In fact, in light of the developments over the last several years with the Russians, the Senate has become convinced that it is time to revisit that particular treaty. It is my understanding that the Department of Foreign Affairs is currently feeling out the Reich as to their position on the treaty, and I anticipate that we will be negotiating a new treaty with the Reich in the near future. In any case, none of that applies to the Abonai, who, as I said, were not signatories to the treaty and have, in fact, taken hostile action towards an Alliance ship.”
“But…”
Before Captain Ajello could finish his sentence, Admiral Laducer cut him off. “Captain, lets let Ambassador Thom finish his presentation. Thank you.”
Captain Ajello nodded sharply and settled back.
“Thank you, Admiral, but I think I’ve covered the high points. It is going to be up to you and your officers to get me to a position where I can speak with the Abonai. Hopefully you can do that without all of us getting shot at.” He smiled and sat down.
Admiral Laducer nodded and smiled back. “All right. We’ll do the best we can. Now, based on the information transmitted from Commodore Eischens’ group, the Abonai had sixteen ships in El Paso. These were two very large ships, larger than our Arleigh Burke class DN’s, six cruisers approximately the same size as our BC’s, six ships approximately the same size as our DD’s, and two ships that were in between the cruisers and destroyers in size. Naval Intelligence and various analysts have been going over the Abonai attempt to capture the Milton ever since the data came in, and they all agree, it does not appear that the Abonai ships deployed in El Paso have missile based weaponry. At no time during the capture attempt did any of the Abonai ships launch any weapons, or threaten to do so. While this may indicate a hesitation on their part to open fire, I don’t think so. After all, they showed no hesitation in surrounding the Milton and ordering her to surrender. If this is so, then we have a significant advantage over the Abonai. There is also the fact that no Abonai ship exhibited a speed higher than 3,900 kps during the entire incident, and again, no one can come up with a plausible reason for them concealing their capabilities while also taking a hostile action against a newly encountered race. Now, this means that all of our ships except the DN’s have a speed advantage over all of their ships, at least the ones we’ve seen. Even our DN’s have a substantial speed advantage over most of their ships, and coupled with our apparent advantage in missile weaponry, I think we will have a significant advantage in engaging the Abonai, if it should come to that.”
Admiral Laducer broke off and activated the wall display, setting it up to show a representation of the Procyon chain. “There is, of course, one problem. Without a jump ship capable of conveying our larger ships through a warp point, our BC’s and DN’s are limited to systems connected by jump gates, which means that while the 1st BatRon and the 4th CruRon can get to Tau Ceti, they cannot enter the El Paso system. Therefore, if we are going to undertake operations in El Paso, we can only do so with the City class cruisers of the 6th CruRon and the destroyers of the 2nd DesDiv.”
The other officers in the room looked at each other. They had all known that there was a hole in the fleet’s abilities in terms of jump capacity, but none of them had actually thought about what it meant. After all, it was most likely that any combat situation that arose would come up in the solar system, so who needed a large jump-ship in that case? Admiral Laducer saw the looks and knew what they meant, as it was only recently that she herself had come to appreciate the situation they had put themselves in. “After discussing the situation with the Joint Chiefs and with Ambassador Thom, I have decided that, at least for now, we will plan on picketing both sides of the warp link between El Paso and Tau Ceti, but that we will not enter El Paso to actively search out the Abonai. Not only would finding them be difficult, with an entire system to look through, but it would allow the Abonai to engage our forces piece-meal, if they were so inclined. As our orders are first to secure the Tau Ceti system, and second to establish contact, I’ve decided that we can accomplish both by investing the warp point and waiting for the Abonai to come to us.”
“What about support, Ma’am? We are going to be a long ways out. What kind of support can we expect?” Admiral Reichard looked more than a little concerned about the question, as well he should be. The warp point to El Paso in the Tau Ceti system was just over 19 billion kilometers from Earth, meaning that it would take nearly 40% of her dreadnought’s fuel just to get there. No ship or squadron commander liked to be in that situation without tankers handy.
“Well, we are going to depart within two days, which is why you were all put on alert last week. It is going to take some time for the Navy to put together a support squadron for us, but the CNO has promised me that tankers and munitions ships will depart Earth for our location within sixty days. In the long term, the Alliance has had plans for the development of the one of the planets in the Tau Ceti system, New Phoenix, as a way-stop for the further development of systems further down-chain. I have been told that those plans have been accelerated, and that once we secure the system the Alliance will begin diverting freight and colonization capacity towards developing New Phoenix with the goal of establishing a forward base to secure the system and the warp line.” She stopped and looked at them all, taking in their attitudes. “That is all for the future, though. All of it will depend on us securing the system and the warp point. Now, I’ve decided that…” The meeting would continue for several hours, while the commanders hashed out some of the details of the upcoming mission.
August 18, 2036
The 1st Battle Squadron, 4th and 6th Cruiser Squadrons, and the 2nd Destroyer Division depart Earth for the Tau Ceti system. The Alliance government announces that the deployment is a show of strength for negotiations with a newly discovered race.
Striking while the iron is hot, the Alliance Navy draws up plans for a large jump ship based on a modified Arleigh Burke hull, however, the plan isn’t approved for construction as the Senate is now convinced that the Abonai situation will be resolved in short order. As an alternative, the Navy is developing plans for a missile armed cruiser small enough to be conveyed through a warp point by a Survey Command jump-ship.
In all of the fuss and bother, the fact that the Reich has withdrawn all of its ships from training status and has placed a large proportion of its ships into major overhauls is missed by the upper echelons of Alliance Naval Intelligence. And the Reich is not the only nation to notice the Alliance’s extra-solar deployment.
August 24, 2036
A second group of Abonai survey ships arrives at the Alkumar (El Paso) system and begins survey efforts. This increases the number of Abonai survey ships in the system to four, representing two thirds of their entire survey fleet.
Final Note:
I enjoyed setting up the Abonai attempt to capture the Milton, however, that exercise also pushed at the limits of Aurora’s capabilities and demonstrated that it isn’t really suited for what I tried to do with it. Aurora is intended to be a larger-scale game, where you issue orders as a squadron or fleet commander, and the program carries them out. It isn’t intended to let you directly handle individual ships as if you were their captain.
