I told myself I'd only do fiction and not after action reports and I've done a good job of that, but I've never really had a full scale battle of this magnitude. I have absolutely no idea how to capture it as a story. What you are seeing here is the largest battle, by far, that the concordance of worlds has ever participated in, involving two separate fleets, rescue craft, and about three real-life days of coordination. Because time-critical events, sometimes down to the minute took place on both sides of the jump gate, significant portions of the battle actually had to be played out without the spacetime bubble. This is by far the most fun I've had with aurora and very nearly the most fun I've had with any video game. I used
This as a consistent soundtrack throughout.
Okay.
Fun comments end now. Time for serious stuff.
Background:By 2139, the Concordance of Worlds had established itself as the sole, legitimate power in human space. For the first time, humanity had been at last been united as never before. Earthbound control of the nine worlds had been totally abolished, with each world left to govern and develop itself as it saw fit. A different sort of power had been consolodated in the hands of one man, Leopoldo Franca, who through the Articles of Concordance, effectively gained a monopoly on space-based weaponry. While a few militant pirate and anarchist factions continued to make trouble, this transfer of power averted an interstellar military crisis which could have easily eradicated mankind. With a large fleet of
nearly indomitable warships , Franca wielded absolute power for nearly a decade following his election in 2127...until at last a threat emerged that challenged even the mighty concordance.
Lords and EldersThe advent of fusion technology spurred a new era of exploration, leading to scientific expeditions to
dozens of nearby systems and the discovery of astounding and strange new life forms, primarily the "Lords" or "Regents" of Ophiuchi, a militant aquatic race controlled by astonishingly ancient "lords" the precise nature of which is still a mystery, though the leading theory is some form of superadvanced AI. While the lords of Ophiuchi presented clearly hostile intentions early on, they made no attempt to invade and terran and Ophiuchi territory remains peacefully demarcated along the Kuiper 75 System. As of 2139, their military capabilities remain totally unknown. By 2137 explorers at the edge of known space, lead by Taylor Storey, made contact with another race in the EZ Aquarii system, Large Spaceborn Lifeforms which made no attempt to identify themselves...and every attempt to simply annihilate science corps vessels sent to investigate them on the spot. Storey's expedition returned safely, but the Concordance Science Corps correctly deduced that these "Elders", alluded to in the ancient texts of the Commune of Achird, possessed capabilities far in excess of any known spacecraft, and could very easily have followed the discharge signature trails of science corps spacecraft back to inhabited space. The Elders, who posed a nigh-existential threat to mankind, had to be eliminated.
An advance mission lead by the science corps and involving military science vessels and support craft from the first fleet was deployed to Lacaille 9352 in the summer of 2138, with orders to engage and destroy any elders detected in the system. One 60,000 ton creature and a swarm of smaller tentacled young were destroyed with minimal casualties. However, this creature turned out to be the first of many, leading to two more engagements in Alpha centauri in the fall and winter of 2138. The four million soles on Mediterranea lived in a state of constant terror, as the battle raged a few billion miles away from them. While initial predictions on the outcome of the war for alpha centauri were dire, Concordance ships won both engagements while losing only one ship, the Destroyer Escort
Martinique, whose wreckage disappeared without a trace shortly after the battle. While the battle was being waged successfully, Leopoldo Franca gave the order in the winter of 2138 for commercial craft to avoid the system until it could be declared safe, following extensive military patrols.
Late March, 2139 The concordant was never popular on Mediterranea, and many of the powerful corporations of earth considered his decision to be a reprisal for the population's lack of support. Most abided his rules, but the Dlamani corporation, which profited extensively off Mediterranean space construction manufacturing, decided to run two large freighters through the Earthward Bound gate, from Proxima Centauri to Alpha Centauri, in late march of 2139, the first commercial space traffic isolated Mediterranea had seen since the battle for Alpha Centauri.
The lead freighter had travelled about a billion kilometers into Mediterranean space when it detected aberrant heat signatures astern, and had virtually no time to react before meson fire begin tearing the ship's internals apart. 94 survivors managed to reach life pods before the hostile space squids shredded their freighter, The other freighter, operate by the Patel corporation but carrying Dlamani hardware, was destroyed a few days later, after failing to evacuate the system in time.
Initial distress signals reached Mediterranea in minutes, and ground station analysts were horrified at the sheer number of assailants, anywhere from 70 to 100 alien life forms, far more than had ever been encountered before. Fleets were scrambled from Epsilon Eridani and Mars, but both were relatively untrained and ill equipped, the primary spacecraft of the concordance being either overhauled from previous battles or too far away to respond in time. 14 days remained until life support ran out.
Rescue: 3rd June, 2139 The first craft to arrive on the scene were the main line battlecraft of the forth fleet, usually stationed at mars, as well as colonial defense craft scrambled from the nearby world of Euphrates, including the light carrier "Accord". Command operations began under admiral Taylor Thompson, a political insider with aspirations to assume the Concordancy when Franca resigned (if ever). Rescue operations at this point were deemed exceedingly risky, as a jump through the Earthward Bound gate could provoke the lifeforms beyond to jump to proximate centauri, and easily overwhelm the gate's defenders. Perhaps unwisely, Thompson ordered the fourth fleet to postpone rescue operations to the last possible second. By 5:36 that day, the fleet's operations commander concluded that the rescue operations to recover the first destroyed craft would have to begin at that point, or never. The life pods had recently ceased transmitting, and less than 12 hours of power remained...within a day, chances of survival were next to none. An EWC and two escort fighters, all loaded down with excess power packs, fuel, life support systems, and medical gear, was launched through the Earthward Bound gate minutes later, though reinforcements from the second fleet were days away.
The view on june 3rd, from Proxima Centaurithe view on june 3rd, moments later, from Alpha Centauri. Note that 1 day and a few hours remains on the life pods, with rescue craft still a billion kilometers away.