November, 2086
The 1st Gravitic Survey Group, while probing newly discovered jump points in the Epsilon Eridani system (off of the Teegarden’s Star chain), discovers the 82 Eridani system. This system is a yellow dwarf star system with six rocky planets, four gas giants, and numerous moons and asteroids. Two of the rocky planets have oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres, and so the Magellan departs without further probing the system. The Federation survey service has determined that oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere planets seemed to be linked to the strange and homicidal robotic warships in some way. A naval patrol will be requested before any further survey efforts take place.
December, 2086
The missile shortage has finally been resolved, although reserve stocks have not been established, meaning that any usage will result in another shortage. In addition, the Federation’s fuel situation has become slightly less critical, with supplies coming in from the orbital refineries in Alpha Centauri and from Ogema. Stocks are not plentiful, but limited freighter runs to bolster colonies and outposts in throughout Federation territory have been approved. The situation has improved to the point that the Council has authorized BuReLoc to begin personnel transfers to Terra Nova in the Struve system again.
April 27, 2087
A battle group sets out with orders to probe the 82 Eridani system. The battle group is composed of the following ships:
BCJ Belknap (Belknap Mod 2B - Flag) (Vice Admiral Maurais)
BCJ Josephus Daniels (Belknap 2B)
BC Clark, Duncan, George Philip (Oliver H. Perry Mod B)
BC Wadsworth (Oliver H. Perry Mod 2)
FSC John Paul Jones (Arleigh Burke Mod 2)
Flight Group: 8xForrestal GB, 1xForrestal(AMM), 1xForrestal(S)
CP Bejing, Berlin, London, Moskva, Seattle, Yorkshire (Portland Mod 2)
The day after the battle group departs Naval Security arrests thirty four officers with ranks ranging from Lieutenant Commander to Rear Admiral. The official explanation is corruption relating to naval stores, however, it is not lost on anyone in the Navy that all of the arrested officers were ethnically Russian. In addition, Rear Admiral Konev, the senior officer arrested, was known for empire building. Those in the know view this as a signal from the Council that they are growing uncomfortable with the terrestrial nations trying to build national navies within the Federation fleet.
May, 2087
A construction ship completes the jump gate pair opening up the Giclas 99-49 system. The Patrol Cruiser Paris is already en route with a xenology team to survey the ruins.
The Federation Council approves the Navy’s plan to build a PDC on Ogema’s moon. The base will be built on Earth and transported to the moon in sections, and be assembled there by the same construction regiments that assembled the PDC’s on Luna. Ostensibly, the base is intended to protect Ogema, however, the fact that it is on the human controlled moon rather than the populated planet is lost on no one.
June, 2087
The Council decides to begin population transfers to Mars again. This decision was made in part because Mars needs additional workers to man the mines recently relocated there, and also to get trouble makers off of Earth.
Coincidentally, a major riot breaks out in two major Martian cities, accompanied by numerous work stoppages. Elements of the Federation Fleet, accompanied by a troop transport carrying troops from Luna, move into Martian orbit. Local security elements, bolstered by the 3rd Council Guards Infantry Battalion put down the riots with extreme prejudice. The work stoppages are dealt with similarly, and within a week things are quiet on Mars once again.
June 5th, 2087
The 1st Battle Group of the Federation 1st Fleet jumps into the 82 Eridani system and immediately sets out for the 2nd planet.
June 10th, 2087
The 1st Battle Group has visited both the second and the third planets of 82 Eridani, and found nothing. Vice Admiral Maurais detaches three Portland class cruisers to probe the outer system for automated warships that might be hiding there.
July 3rd, 2087
The 1st Battle Group has reassembled on the jump point to Epsilon Eridani. The Portland class cruisers have circumnavigated the outer system and found nothing. Vice Admiral Maurais orders her fleet to jump out. The Battle Group will set its course for the Teegarden’s Star system, where they will rendezvous with a tanker before entering the Kruger 60 system to determine what happened to the survey ship Henry Hudson in 2078.
Later in the month the Gertrude Bell discovers another ruined outpost on the second planet of the Gliese 205 system, adjacent to the 40 Eridani system and Ogema.
August 3rd, 2087
The 1st Battle Group jumps into Kruger 60. With no way of knowing where in the system the Hudson was, Vice Admiral Maurais orders her squadron to set its course for the fifth planet of the B component as it was the closest planet to their entry point.
Just over forty six hours later alarms began screeching on all of the group’s ships. Fifty two ships appeared out of nowhere just 18.3 mkm’s ahead of the fleet. Admiral Maurais ordered the group’s ships to alert status and tried to figure out their next move. The ships were small, with a thermal signature of just 160, twice that of a Federation gunboat. The fleet’s active sensors had yet to pick them up, meaning that they couldn’t be targeted.
In a bid to reduce the closure rate Admiral Maurais ordered her fleet to reverse course away from the oncoming alien ships. Ninety five seconds later the alien ships finally appeared on the fleet’s active sensor screens. The alien ships were just 800 tons, resolving the mystery of why they hadn’t appeared on the fleet’s sensors until they were so close. The alien ships were too small for the Federation targeting systems to lock up, yet. The alien ships did not match the emission signatures for the robotic warships encountered in the past. They were something new.
Finally, twenty one minutes later with the aliens just 9.6 mkm’s behind the fleet, the targeting systems finally locked on to the oncoming alien ships. Almost immediately the veteran Federation battle cruisers began launching salvoes of missiles at the oncoming ships. Over the next twenty seconds the Federation battle cruisers launched 1,040 Phoenix Mod 2 ASM’s at the enemy gunboats, twenty for each target. This was nearly half of their entire offensive missile load out. With a combined closing speed of 35,000 kps the missiles would take just 269 seconds to close with their targets.
The first wave of missiles closed with their targets as predicted. The alien ships’ course never wavered, either suicidal or ignorant of the missiles closing with them. Sixteen out of sixteen alien gunboats targeted by the first wave were destroyed by the missiles, which performed impeccably. Fifteen seconds later it was all over. All of the alien attack craft were destroyed. None broke formation, not one attempted to flee. Admiral Maurais ordered her fleet to come about and move to the location where the fifty two alien gunboats were destroyed. As the fleet advanced the tactical team on the flagship began analyzing the data from the attack. Almost immediately they noticed a critical difference from the encounters with the robotic warships. Those devices had no living spaces on them and no atmosphere in their interiors. Therefore, unlike human ships, when their hulls were breached they did not stream atmosphere. This had confused the human crews until the wrecks had been analyzed and their true nature became apparent. These new alien ships, though, were something entire different. When their hulls were breached, they streamed not atmosphere, but a liquid.
The next oddity to be discovered was at the site of the destruction of the alien ships. Fifty two alien gunboats had been destroyed just under an hour earlier, but there were no wrecks. The only thing that the fleet’s sensors found was diffuse organic matter. Some of the members of the tactical team were theorizing that the alien ships were actually organic, although no one was ready to believe that without more proof.
Cognizant of the fact that she had expended half of her offensive missiles and that the mother ship for the gunboats had yet to make an appearance, Admiral Maurais ordered her fleet to retreat to the jump point and return to the Solar System to rearm.
August 11, 2087
The 1st Battle Group jumps back into the Solar System and Admiral Maurais sends her report and her recommendations to Fleet Command. Both are passed on to the Council with strong recommendations. Admiral Maurais’s report concludes that improved fire control systems as well as improved sensors will be necessary to deal with further attacks by enemy attack craft.
While both the Council and Fleet command agrees that something must be done, there is no clear consensus on what exactly that should be. The fleet is currently in the midst of a major refit to upgrade laser weapons systems, and disrupting the refit schedule would be problematic. In the end, after several weeks of debate, Fleet Command decides to push ahead with the scheduled refits, with minor adjustments, and address the problems revealed by the sortie into Kruger 60 in several different ways. First, a new active sensor system capable of detecting the alien gunboats at a considerable distance is ordered. This new sensor will be installed on all Portland class cruisers not yet refitted to the new standard. At the very least it will allow the fleet to detect the enemy gunboats much further away. Secondly, Fleet Command, with Council approval, decides to authorize the Planet class battleship program. The new class unit will mount heavier missiles than the battle cruisers, and, thanks to the intelligence brought back by Admiral Maurais, can be fitted with new fire control systems capable of engaging the alien attack craft at long range. Finally, the current refit program will be slightly delayed to include new fire control systems capable of targeting the alien gunboats at much longer ranges.
September, 2087
The Xenology team on Giclas 99-49-A II has completed its examination of the ruins. Eight stasis crypts have been identified in the ruins, and the team believes that a concerted effort by several of the construction brigades now assembled at Advance Base Victory in 40 Eridani will be sufficient to access the crypts and their contents.
October, 2087
Three construction brigades and an MEF have been transferred to the Giclas system ruins. Within a week the construction units recover two automated mines from the crypts.
January, 2088
The construction units in the Giclas system have finished opening the crypts. The teams have recovered two mines, two automated mines, and 9 gravitational sensors.
March, 2088
The Magellan, part of the Gravitic Survey Squadron surveying the Gliese 205 system, picks up a robotic warship on her thermal sensors. The warship is the same class as the one detected and destroyed in the Giclas 99-49 system, which means that it is approximately 16,900 tons with a maximum speed of 6656 kps. Lt. Commander Athey, the CO of the Magellan, immediately ordered his ship to reverse course away from the alien ship. Once the order was given he ordered his comm. officer to send a contact report to the two other survey ships and to the jump gate construction ship at the jump point.
The other two survey ships abandoned their survey and began moving towards a rendezvous point. There was little that the construction ship could do, though, as it was in the midst of building a gate, with 102 days to go. Its commander ordered full EmCon to reduce the chances that it would be detected.
One hour after sending the contact report the alien warship dropped off the Magellan’s sensors. The alien ship had not moved during the entire time it was under observation.
On the 25th of the month the Magellan jumps back to the 40 Eridani and sends off a contact report to the Federation squadron orbiting Ogema. The squadron CO immediately dispatches a cruiser back to Earth with the report. The Miami arrives in the Solar System on the 29th, and immediately broadcasts its report to Fleet Command. Prior to the arrival of the Miami Command was organizing a force to relieve the squadron over Ogema. A jump ship is added to the force, along with a second battle cruiser. The force will be dispatched as soon as the battle cruiser Clark finishes its overhaul.
April 27, 2088
A battle group from the 1st Fleet arrives in the Gliese 205 system. After recovering from the jump it sets out for the last known position of the alien warship. On May 2 the group confirms that the alien ship is no longer at its last known location. On May 4 the group reaches the last known location. The alien ship is not within 693 mkm’s of that location, unless it has found some way to hide from the fleet’s active sensors. Captain Sower, CO of the battle group, orders his group into the inner system, and sends orders to the jump point for the grav survey ships to continue their survey of the system. It is a risky decision, but he needs their passive sensors to help search the system.
June 22, 2088 – Gliese 205 system
The construction ship finishes work on the jump gate pair to 40 Eridani and departs. The three survey ships of the 1st Grav Survey Group are continuing their work in the system, darting about in the outer reaches of the Gliese 205 system. Nothing has been detected as of yet.
On the 27th the survey group completes its mission. Two additional jump points were discovered. Captain Sower orders the survey ships, all of which are approximately 4 billion kilometers out, to head inwards to various points spaced around the system at about the distance the robotic warship was first detected.
Two days later the Rio De Janeiro arrives to drop off a xenology team to survey the ruins found on the second planet.
July 6th, 2088 – Gliese 205 system
The Vasco de Gama detects a robotic warship at the limits of its thermal sensor’s detection capability. Commander Carbello immediately orders her ship to come to a halt and reduce its thermal signature, and sends off a contact report to the warships in the inner system. Captain Sower, upon receipt of the message, orders his ships to close on the warship. The automated warship’s position is just a billion kilometers from its prior position. It seems to be just loitering in the outer system, as there is nothing interesting even remotely close to its current position. On the tenth, with the Federation warships just 900 mkm’s from the robotic warship’s position, the alien ship disappears from the Vasco de Gama’s sensors. Captain Sower orders the de Gama to close on the alien’s last known position in an attempt to reestablish contact.
Twenty four minutes later the contact reappears on the de Gama’s screens, headed outward, away from the oncoming Federation warships at 6655 kps, or nearly twice their speed. Seven hours later the warship comes to a halt. After a short period of time the warship starts moving again, and while its course is still outward, away from the Federation warships, its course is slightly different now. Captain Sower theorizes that the robotic warship is following a randomized course through the outer system, for some unknown reason. Several hours later the alien ship comes to a halt again. Then it starts moving again. Shortly thereafter it becomes clear that the alien ship is playing with the Federation warships. It has slowed to match the Federation ships, and while it stops periodically, it always starts moving again after a short time.
Fearing that the pursuit could go on forever, Captain Sower orders the John Paul Jones to launch its gunboat group. The gunboats have nearly twice the speed of the alien warship, and will run it down whether it continues moving away or not. It will be a close run thing, though, for the gunboats to catch the alien ship before it leaves the de Gama’s sensor envelope. On the 13th, at 00:27 hours, the pursuing gunboats finally brought the alien warship within their own active sensor envelope. Five minutes later, at a range of 18.7 mkm’s, the gunboats launched 100 Phoenix Mod 2 ASM’s at the warship. It took seventeen minutes for the ASM’s to reach the alien ship. Seven of the missiles died just short of the alien ship, victims of point blank fire. Eighty three of the Federation missiles slammed into the ship, meaning just ten missed. The alien ship continued on as if nothing had happened.
The gunboats launched another 100 ASM’s at the alien warship. This time eight missiles were stopped short of the alien ship by last second fire. Fifty six Federation missiles slammed into the alien ship, causing massive internal explosions, destroying the ship and ending the threat. The gunboats turned back to their carrier. Captain Sower declares the system clear, and orders his fleet back to Ogema, to relieve the garrison group there.
On July 19th, the Magellan jumps out of the Gliese 205 system through the innermost unexplored jump point. The survey ship appears in the Pi-3 Orionis system. The system is composed of an F6-V primary star orbited by five rocky planets, two gas giants, and numerous moons. Of the rocky planets, the first is a sun-blasted cinder, the second is Venusian, and the third, fourth, and fifth are Earthlike. The third and fourth planets have oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres at low pressures (.29 and .17, respectively), while the fifth has a nitrogen-carbon dioxide atmosphere at .17 pressure. The third planet has an average temperature of 20.3 degrees, perfect for colonization, while the two outer planets are too cold without terraforming. The Magellan jumps back to Gliese 205 and immediately sends a report off to Captain Sower on board the John Paul Jones.
Captain Sower is eager to get back to Ogema, but he is also aware of the inexplicable link between the automated warships and planets with oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres. After consulting with his captains he orders his battle group to the jump point to Pi-3 Orionis.
August 5th, 2088 – Pi-3 Orionis
Their probe of the system complete, Captain Sower orders the group back to 40 Eridani. Nothing was found in the system, their fuel is growing short, and they are long overdue to relieve the forces over Ogema.
January, 2089 – Gliese 205
The xenology team completes its survey of the ruins. Fifteen crypts were found underneath the ruins.
February 25th, 2089 – Sol System
A battle group under the command of Vice Admiral Maurais departs Earth for the Kruger 60 system. The battle group is composed of the following ships:
BCJ Josephus Daniels, Wainwright (Belknap Mod 2D) (BG CO Vice Admiral Maurais – Josephus Daniels)
BC Antium, Clifton Sprague, Estocin, Fahrion, Flatley (Oliver H. Perry Mod 2B)
FSC Stout, Curtis Wilbur (Arleigh Burke Mod 2)
Flight Group: 2x(8xForrestal Mod 2, 1xForrestal(AMM), 1xForrestal(S))
CP Moskva, Paris, Portland (Portland Mod 2C)
CLE Baltimore, Marseille, Mexico City, Seattle, Tokyo, Yorkshire (City Mod 2)
Their ETA to the Kruger 60 system is just over 11 days.
The battle group arrives in the Kruger 60 system on March 6th. After recovering from transit and powering shields and active sensors, Admiral Maurais orders the fleet to the location where the alien gunboats were destroyed. At 0612 hours, on March 8th, the Raytheon SLL-1 active sensors on the Portland class patrol cruisers picked up three contacts inbound, 70 mkm’s away. The contact signatures matched those of the alien gunboats encountered in this system before. Admiral Maurais ordered the group to continue on course.
Thirty five minutes later the contacts were 41.7 mkm’s away, and Admiral Maurais ordered her fleet to engage. The new systems performed admirably and five seconds later thirty missiles flashed away from the Federation ships. Twenty minutes later the missiles hit their targets, leaving all three streaming fluid into space. Seconds later two battle cruisers launched another thirty missiles at the small ships. All three contacts were destroyed, but even as the contacts faded, a new contact appeared on the EM sensors. The sensors were picking up an active sensor centered on the secondary star, Kruger 60-B. Something was there, and its sensor, based on the readings the Federation ships were getting, had a range of 336 mkm’s. Admiral Maurais ordered her fleet to close on the contact.
Fifty four hours later the alien ship was within range of the fleet’s active sensors. The active sensors showed that the ship massed 60,000 tons, and the EM sensors revealed that the alien ship had very powerful strength 600 shields. The one comforting fact was that the alien ship was moving at 1,099 kps, much slower than the Federation fleet. Admiral Maurais gave the order to close, and ordered her tactical team to prepare a missile attack on the alien ship. This situation was a difficult one for the admiral’s tactical team. The Federation fleet had the capability to launch 2,650 Phoenix Mod 2 ASM’s in one large alpha strike, and the fleet’s gunboats carried another five hundred and sixteen ASM’s, plus reloads. Of course, if they launched the fleet’s entire ASM complement in one large strike, the fleet would have to retreat to the Solar System to reload its magazines and recharge its box launchers. Launching a smaller strike was usually prudent, but if they launched too small of a strike it would have no effect, and would allow the alien ship to recharge its shields before the next strike arrived.
The team worked for the next three hours. The only information they had about this alien race was the information gathered from the gunboats, which wasn’t very much given the fact that they didn’t leave wreckage behind. They did know that it took twenty Phoenix Mod 2 ASM’s to destroy a single alien gunboat, and merely scaling that up would mean that it would take 1500 ASM’s to destroy the large ship. Of course, the alien ship’s shields had to be factored in, as well as the fact that the heavier ship likely had more armor than the tiny attack ships. In addition, it probably had active defenses that had to be factored in, although everyone doubted that any ship, no matter how large, had enough defenses to stop a 1500 missile strike. In the end they recommended a 1,000 missile strike on the alien ship. This should be enough to overwhelm any active defenses and the ship’s shields and, depending on the ship’s armor, strip away most of the armor or even destroy it.
Four hours later three new contacts appeared in close proximity to Kruger B. The alien ships were immobile.
Thirty three hours later the Federation ships had closed to 34 mkm’s from the 60,000 ton alien ship. Admiral Maurais ordered her battlecruisers to execute fire plan alpha, and seconds later 1,000 Phoenix Mod 2 ASM’s raced away from the five BC’s. Just over twenty two minutes later the missiles approached their target. The alien ship, if it was a ship, never deviated from its course. At the last second before the missiles hit the alien ship launched twenty 800 ton attack ships, but otherwise it didn’t react to the incoming missiles. The alien ship apparently had no active defenses, as the missiles approached without being molested. The big alien ship was slow and ponderous, so the Phoenix Mod 2’s had no trouble locking on and finishing their attack runs.
Later analysis would show that 200 ASM’s were required to knock out the alien ship’s shields, as expected. Another 197 impacted the alien ship before the first cracks in its armor sheath appeared. In all, it took seven hundred and forty ASM’s to destroy the alien ship.
Seconds after the destruction of the alien mother ship, the well drilled Federation battle cruisers began launching on the alien attack ships. The first salvo of ten missiles for each of the alien ships destroyed six of the attack ships and damaged the rest. The second salvo of five missiles at each of the alien ships destroyed the rest.
With the threats neutralized, Admiral Maurais ordered her fleet to close with the three alien ships sitting quiescent over a Venus-like planet orbiting Kruger 60-B I at a distance of 390,000 kilometers.
Eighteen hours later the fleet was assembled just 10 mkm’s from the three alien ships, none of which had reacted to the fleet’s presence in any way. Admiral Maurais, not wanting to waste any more of her limited missile stocks, ordered three of her BC’s, accompanied by three CLE’s, to close on the alien ships and engage them with lasers.
Thirty five minutes later the six federation ships had closed to 190,000 kilometers, within range of the BC’s 25cm spinal lasers and 20cm main battery lasers. Captain Rizzotto on board the Estocin ordered her ships to engage the alien ships at will. The Estocin hit its target with two 20cm lasers, causing minimal damage. The 5,700 ton alien ship immediately began leaking fluids, though, indicating it had very little armor.
The 20cm lasers recharged and fired again at 82,000 km’s, and each laser that hit caused twice as much damage as the first salvo. Both the Estocin and the Flatley hit their targets with two lasers, while the Fahiron missed completely. The damage was enough to destroy the Estocin’s target, while the Flatley’s was leaking fluid from several areas of its hull. Five seconds later both the Flatley and the Fahiron fired their spinal mounts, destroying one of the alien ships and critically damaging the other. A few seconds after that the Estocin destroyed the last alien ship with its spinal mount. Captain Rizzotto ordered her ships to go into orbit of the first planet and probe its surface. The Federation ships found nothing on the surface and Captain Rizzotto ordered her ships to rejoin the fleet.
With B-I cleared, Admiral Maurais ordered her fleet to B-II, an airless rocky planet. After that the fleet would proceed to B-IV, a gas giant, and then on to the primary star.
On March 19th the Fleet made orbit of Kruger 60-A V, an airless dwarf planet. At this point the fleet had orbited most of the planets in the system and found nothing interesting. No further contacts were made, and no ruins were discovered. Admiral Maurais ordered the fleet home, but she intended to recommend that survey ships be assigned to this system ASAP, and that they be escorted by at least a squadron of warships.
On the 29th of March the reassembled fleet left the Kruger system, on a course for the sixth planet of the Teegarden’s Star system, to rendezvous with a squadron of fuel harvesters orbiting the gas giant. Once the fleet refueled they would set out for home.
