2nd October 2339 The first alien installations are recovered on ES – 16 KH4 II by the Commne, including a research facility with details of basic shields.
5th July 2340 Fifty thousand Commune colonists arrive in a privately owned colony ship and begin to make themselves home in recovered alien habitats on ES – 16 KH4 II making it the fourth inhabited planet outside Baltic. While this is inconvenient for the government, the Commune interferes as little as possible with the lives of it's citizens. They do however make it obvious that the support for the colony will be very limited and in fact the existing installations will be moved to other planets.
11th July 2340 Seine is now habitable for unprotected humans creating a conflict within the Republic. As the temperature is high, right at the edge of human tolerance, and oxygen content is equally low, the national government wants to keep the installations to improve the planet. The Federal government on the other hand wants to move them to the next colony on the list, Servii.
While the opposition is very loud, there is little doubt about the outcome, for all TN installations are property of the Federal government and most regional ones side with it, as they will want to receive the installations for their own planets as soon as possible. The transfer will begin within the next couple of months.
This is the third human friendly planet in the system.
28th July 2340 All the alien installations on ES – 16 KH4 II has been recovered. The next target of the Commune recovery teams is ES – 21 FH3 II, the planet in the nebula.
2nd December 2340 The Commune designs three new warships as well as their first anti-missile, completing the upgrade project begun over a year and a half ago by the development of the internal confinement fusion engines.
The first warship is the Stockholm II, a straight up engine upgrade of the preceding class. Three such ships are currently in service with three more under construction. For the foreseeable future they will be the backbone of the CDF alongside gunboats as the economy and industry is still not large enough to support larger, missile armed vessels.
Stockholm II class Frigate 10 000 tons 301 Crew 2145 BP TCS 200 TH 1232 EM 0
6160 km/s Armour 7-41 Shields 0-0 Sensors 11/11/0/0 Damage Control Rating 6 PPV 48
Maint Life 2.6 Years MSP 804 AFR 133% IFR 1.9% 1YR 167 5YR 2512 Max Repair 308 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 0
Ungureanu-Tudor Medium Internal Fusion Drive (2) Power 616 Fuel Use 54.83% Signature 616 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 1 000 000 Litres Range 32.8 billion km (61 days at full power)
Markowicz -Barczak Aerospace Industries 100 mm Railgun (8x4) Range 40 000km TS: 6160 km/s Power 3-4 RM 4 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Markowicz -Barczak Aerospace Industries 250 mm Railgun (3x4) Range 200 000km TS: 6160 km/s Power 15-4 RM 4 ROF 20 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 2 2 2
Stanciu Orbital Systems Railgun Fire Control (2) Max Range: 256 000 km TS: 6000 km/s 96 92 88 84 80 77 73 69 65 61
Sastrowardoyo-Sudiro Advanced Nuclear Reactor (8) Total Power Output 48 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Sandberg Heavy Industries Small Missile Detection System (1) GPS 21 Range 2.3m km MCR 252k km Resolution 1
Urena Orbital Systems Small Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 11m km
Urena Orbital Systems Small EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 11m km
Compact ECCM-3 (2) ECM 20
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
The Vistuala class corvette is a dedicated anti-missile escort. While the ship carries what is believed to be a reasonable number of launchers, her small size means she has only a single fire control and extremely limited sensors relying on larger ships for targeting data. On the other hand the class will be reasonably numerous which should compensate for individual inferiority.
Vistula class Corvette 5 000 tons 117 Crew 900 BP TCS 100 TH 616 EM 0
6160 km/s Armour 4-26 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 16
Maint Life 2.53 Years MSP 338 AFR 66% IFR 0.9% 1YR 74 5YR 1107 Max Repair 308 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 0
Magazine 376
Ungureanu-Tudor Medium Internal Fusion Drive (1) Power 616 Fuel Use 54.83% Signature 616 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 500 000 Litres Range 32.8 billion km (61 days at full power)
Jurga -Bakowski Anti-Missile Launcher (16) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
Laksono-Hadisapoetro Anti-Missile Fire Control (1) Range 13.9m km Resolution 1
Spear (376) Speed: 52 000 km/s End: 7.4m Range: 23.2m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 277/166/83
Sandberg Heavy Industries Small Missile Detection System (1) GPS 21 Range 2.3m km MCR 252k km Resolution 1
Compact ECCM-3 (1) Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes The Maasvlakte class frigate leader has been designed to provide proper mid range sensor coverage for groups of frigates and corvettes, particularly for missile detection and defense. She is also equipped with jump drive which, while useful for traveling, is too limited to allow proper jump point assaults.
The vessel is also equipped with experimental close in weapon defense, a relatively compact point blank defense system, which can defend only the vessel it is installed on.
Maasvlakte class Frigate Leader 10 000 tons 234 Crew 1753 BP TCS 200 TH 1232 EM 0
6160 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 6-41 Shields 0-0 Sensors 44/44/0/0 Damage Control Rating 7 PPV 0
Maint Life 2.54 Years MSP 767 AFR 114% IFR 1.6% 1YR 166 5YR 2497 Max Repair 308 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 0
Nutiu Engines Limited Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 10200 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Ungureanu-Tudor Medium Internal Fusion Drive (2) Power 616 Fuel Use 54.83% Signature 616 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 1 250 000 Litres Range 41.0 billion km (77 days at full power)
Olsson-Nordin Palisade CIWS (2x6) Range 1000 km TS: 16000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Laksono-Hadisapoetro Missile Detection System (1) GPS 126 Range 13.9m km MCR 1.5m km Resolution 1
Saleh-Basuki Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 16800 Range 146.1m km Resolution 160
Rael Technology Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 44 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 44m km
Rael Technology Medium EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 44 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 44m km
ECM 20
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes The Spear is the first anti-missile designed by the Commune and raised some controversy. The Administrator has a long term plan of developing a ground based installation that could be put on the inner moon of Valhalla and defend all six habitats around it. As the furthest one is orbiting at only one and a half million kilometers it is quite doable. However, the sensor and fire control systems necessary for that would be very expensive to develop and so far other projects have taken priority. Even so, in anticipation of that future development, Spear has range of over twenty million kilometers, which was bought by lowering interception chances by about fifteen percent. While significant, as the Administrator and the Oversight Committee point out, this will make logistics much easier. Besides, if sufficiently large stockpile of Spears is established, a new, shorter ranged anti-missile may always be developed later.
Spear
Missile Size: 1 MSP (0.05 HS) Warhead: 1 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 16
Speed: 52000 km/s Engine Endurance: 7 minutes Range: 23.2m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.028
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 832% 3k km/s 272% 5k km/s 166.4% 10k km/s 83.2%
Materials Required: 0.25x Tritanium 0.778x Gallicite Fuel x125
20th December 2340
A civilian mining operation is established on Hera (Sanctuary A III) by a Hegemony corporation. The planet barely deserves the name as it is smaller than even Ceres, but it possesses all eleven TN elements in good accessibility but quantities somewhat smaller than those found on Ares.
Despite the initial slow growth of Hegemony private mining sector, the situation has stabilized. By now mining colonies have been established on a total of nine different bodies with a total output of over five hundred mining complexes. Over four hundred and fifty government owned ones are on Ares and the stockpiles of every element exceed forty thousand tonnes all of which allows the Hegemony to concentrate on their economy, industry and military facilities. They are in fact already constructing ordnance and fighter factories, but their technology is not yet on a level where the government believes it's worthwhile to actually build a navy, preferring to spend the budget elsewhere.
The colonies have also grown rapidly, thanks to fifty two privately owned ships. Ares has population of one hundred eleven million and Poseidon is home to fifty five million people.
21st December 2340 A jump gate in completed on Dandanelles – ES – 15 KU4 jump point, allowing easy communication. The construction ship jumps briefly into the system to update geological survey ship of the situation, finding only wreck. The vessel retreats immediately and raises the alarm.
The Commune government adds the system to the list of what to avoid, but otherwise is doing nothing due to their previous failure of clearing enemy bases in ES – 35 GH5. They currently want to upgrade their forces to ensure success against the enemy, especially since ADS is content to stay in their systems.
23rd February 2341 While travelling through Dardanelles a Commune privately owned colony ship detects active sensors from an ADS ship. The system has been surveyed, scouted and transited through numerous times over the years, but despite the existence of two wrecks there was never any sign of active aliens. First Gunboat Flotilla is immediately dispatched to clear the system, but they can't save the hapless vessel. Fortunately it was returning from the colony and had no civilians on board, not counting the crew. The system is declared off limits for now, which means the colony in ES 16 – KH4 will have to fend for themselves for the time being.
3rd March 2341 First Gunboat Flotilla recovers life pods of the destroyed colony ship and sets course back for the Commune colony of Wieliczka. There was no sign of the alien warship.
8th March 2341 All survivors has been unloaded and the Commune ships will now return to Dandanelles to patrol the system. Other flotillas are unavailable as they are in the home system, having their scouts upgraded. As such they will be unavailable for several months.
Once they are available however, the Commune plans to launch full scale offensive on known ADS systems and continue until they are cleared. Up until this point the aliens have been considered a limited threat, but now they have destroyed a ship that could have carried fifty thousand people, and it was one of the smaller colony vessels. That could not be permitted.
There is also the question of how this have happened, but the intelligence community has no clear answer. The two possibilities are the enemy always being there, but in deep space and not seeing the Commune activity until civilian vessels with transponders begun arriving – which would make them visible to anyone – with the other option being ADS arriving from the ES – 15 KU4 system, in clear violation of their known operating procedures. In fact, most of the community favors the first explanation, pointing out to two wrecks of eighty three hundred tonnes that were present in Dandanelles. While their class has never been positively identified, they had the same mass as every other known ADS vessel massing below ten thousand tonnes.
The public is also becoming more interested in the aliens, but the various scientists have little to offer them. Aside from the fact that they are automated, non-sentient machines, little is known about them. Even their function is a mystery. Almost every known system where they were present had alien ruins, but there were also archaeological sites with no other alien presence known. Even so most take connection between the ADS and the various ruin sites for granted, but it is not know if those aliens are responsible for the destruction of the old civilizations. Some believe the ADS is advanced pacification force, destroying opposition and then guarding new acquisitions for the following race. Others believe those ships are remnants of fleets that once protected the destroyed planets, but failed to do so. Either explanation can be correct, but there is not enough evidence to tip the balance.
That will change of course. So far there are no new aliens claiming the systems under ADS control, and the longer this continues, the more likely will the second explanation be. Which is just as good as the Commune is not yet ready to fight a full scale war against an industrialized, highly advanced alien nation.
17th March 2341 The Hegemony designs their first two government space ships, a fuel harvester and a troop transport, designated X – 201 Alaska and X – 202 Patton. The X – 0xx and X- 1xx designations have been used for various ground combat vehicles and aircraft.
Other ships will be designed but the government wants to wait until ion engines, as they still have few military technologies and freighters and colony ships are a low priority as civilian operations are working very well so far.
X-201 Alaska class Fuel Harvester 50 000 tons 230 Crew 863.6 BP TCS 1000 TH 480 EM 0
480 km/s Armour 1-120 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 11 Max Repair 32 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 2
Fuel Harvester: 16 modules producing 512000 litres per annum
Althaus Corporation Commercial Nuclear Pulse Engine (3) Power 160 Fuel Use 4.05% Signature 160 Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 1 050 000 Litres Range 93.3 billion km (2250 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposesX-202 Patton class Troop Transport 39 750 tons 230 Crew 860.8 BP TCS 795 TH 800 EM 0
1006 km/s Armour 1-103 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 14 Max Repair 40 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 2
Troop Capacity: 10 Battalions Cargo Handling Multiplier 10
Althaus Corporation Commercial Nuclear Pulse Engine (5) Power 160 Fuel Use 4.05% Signature 160 Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 750 000 Litres Range 83.8 billion km (964 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes20th March 2341 First Gunboat Flotilla failed to either find, or attract attention of, the alien ship in the Dandanelles system. They transited to ES – 15 KU4 and shorty after they detect active sensors emission from a new class of alien ship. The Commune forces move to intercept.
21st March 2341 As the Commune ships move into their own active sensor range a total of three warships are been detected. All are of the same class and mass sixteen thousand six hundred tonnes.
This presents a problem for the flotilla, as they may have firepower to take all the enemies down, but they may also end up damaging them having to retreat to re-arm, which will give the ADS time to make repairs, making the strike effectively useless. After some thought the CO decides to play things safe and he targets only two enemies, assigning six gunboats to each.
Only one is destroyed, but the other is heavily damaged. A single Piranha fires another salvo, which is enough to finish the cripple.
With that the First Gunboat Flotilla can safely retreat, as the enemy is much slower.
15th April 2341 The Commune First Gunboat Flotilla is back in system, with the last enemy in sight. Six gunboats open fire destroying it outright. The humans vessels set course for the inner system, but after four days of scouting they find nothing.
As Wieliczka is currently unprotected, not counting static defenses, the ships head back to their base.
29th April 2341 Despite warning a Commune private colony vessel carrying fifty thousand colonists, travels through Dardanelles into ES – 16 KH4 and is ambushed by two warships belonging to ADS including the one that destroyed the other colony ships in Dardanelles. Only sixty people make it to the life pods.
11th May 2341 The First Gunboat Flotilla jumps into ES – 16 KH4 and detects two thermal signatures right on top of them. They begin to open the range, waiting for their systems to recover.
Two minutes later the human ships are ready. As there may be enemy missiles incoming, and cutting off fire control links will cause ordnance to self destruct, the Commune commander orders six of his vessels to fire at each enemy ships, despite them being only eighty three hundred tonnes. He also orders them to fire individually as soon as possible as he doesn't know how many of his ships recovered.
It takes ten seconds for the first ship to fire but it also takes it takes over a minute for all of them to launch their ordnance. In the end this has proven to be a massive overkill, but the human forces were extremely lucky. The enemy was armed with anti-ship missiles and it is unknown why he did not fire, but if he did he could have destroyed a lot of gunboats before the Piranhas could respond.
The Flotilla recovers survivors from the colony ship, which includes her captain. It's likely he'll face charges after his return.
22nd July 2341 A serious problem within the Commune Defense Force that remained unnoticed until the recent events is the lack of proper, powerful detection systems within the navy. Up until now a Copernicus class ships, which is small and difficult to detect, would scout a system, identify targets and summon gunboats who would either know where to look, or would use their active sensors to goad the enemies into entering their range.
But it was obvious that if the enemy doesn't want to be found, or if the gunboats don't know where to look, it is entirely possible for the enemy to evade detection and deal possibly massive damage to the Commune economy.
Unfortunately the frigate leaders, of which the first one is under construction, won't solve that problem. Their role is not to find the enemy, but rather to detect other ships if they try to approach Commune vessels. The Administrator does have long term plan for a large vessel equipped with powerful and sensitive sensors, but the yard is not yet large enough and even if the projects begun right away, it would take years to develop the large components needed for the ship. Even then the size and cost meant the still theoretical design was supposed to built in relatively small numbers and used to lead offensive actions against a multi-stellar enemies, not sit on the defensive.
Fortunately there is a quick, if somewhat costly, solution to the problem. Two of the new fast freighters, escorted by trio of Stockholm class frigates, have just delivered two tracking stations to the small colony on ES – 16 KH4. Such stations will be put in any inhabited system, any system that has to be transited in order to reach a colony and around several other stars placed in strategic locations. Using jump gate network for communication, it will give the government a great deal of sensor coverage within the Commune itself even thought it's not expected to be fool-proof.
17th August 2341 While working on alien ruins on ES – 21 FH3 II Commune engineers find a new kind of mine that improves the output of existing ones by twenty percent.
2nd September 2341 A good potential mining location has been found by the Commune. The planet ES – 22 GU3 I, located a dead end system in the same region of space as the F class protostar surrounded by a nebula, possesses large amounts of easily accessible TN elements of several kinds. In particular it possesses duranium, which is always in short supply as well as tritanium, uridium and gallicite which are necessary for missiles and engines. As an added bonus the unusual stellar radiation of the central star would improve research into energy weapons. And while this particular area of research is generally underfunded and ignored within the Commune, which developed good railguns, it could still come in handy.
Unfortunately, the planet, while having gravity good enough for habitation, is far too close to the star. In order to terraforming it, installations would have to be built elsewhere, transported in pieces and assembled by construction brigades. The industrial costs would be enormous and the process would be slow, but there are currently very few locations within the Commune that can be mined using manned complexes and those which exist usually possess only two or three elements. As such the government may very well decide to settle the planet, despite the drawbacks.
ES - 22 GU3-A I geological survey data
Duranium 2 822 688 Acc: 0.8
Corbomite 1 542 564 Acc: 0.2
Tritanium 1 679 616 Acc: 1
Boronide 1 127 844 Acc: 0.9
Mercassium 2 452 356 Acc: 0.5
Uridium 3 175 524 Acc: 0.4
Corundium 54 756 Acc: 0.7
Gallicite 2 509 056 Acc: 0.8
29th December 2341 The First and Second Gunboat Flotillas are back in ES – 35 GH5 system, the only one with known enemy bases present. Previously a single Commune flotilla failed to destroy them due to their point defense engaging much sooner than usually and while new missiles are not available yet – they are being stockpiled and the government wants to use the old munitions whenever those are still effective – having two full flotillas should overwhelm the opponent.
Twenty Piranhas are assigned to the anti-missile base with twelve assigned to the other one. Despite the lack of joint exercises the well trained and experienced ships manage to fire at the exact same time sending a total of seven hundred and sixty eight missiles at the enemy constructs.
Two hundred and fifty two shipkillers are destroyed by anti-missiles, but the enemy fire ceases while the Arrows are still five hundred thousand kilometers away. The enemy most likely run out of ammunition. A couple of dozen others have been destroyed by point blank defenses, but the rest, hundreds of Arrows, slam into their targets, resulting in a massive overkill.
The system appears clear but it will be some time before it can be surveyed as both Hawkwing class vessels and their smaller survey craft are in overhauls.
30th February 2342 All alien installations on ES – 21 FH3 II has been recovered. There are two more ruin sites known to the Commune, one on ES – 17 GH4 III and on ES – 34 GH3 I. The first ones haven't yet been properly surveyed and cataloged despite ongoing efforts, due to difficult terrain. The letter on the other hand is located near unknown alien species.
So far there has been no further contact with the aliens in ES – 38 KH3. A Copernicus class ship is in the system, picketing the jump point, but it detected nothing, no active sensors nor thermal signatures. Survey ships and even construction vessels have been operating in the region without any trouble whatsoever. There is some talk about sending a first contact expedition, but the CDF is arguing against it. If the aliens are friendly all will be well and good, but with the ADS still being a problem especially recently and the ongoing refits, the military does not want to risk having to fight on two fronts. In fact, if possible, they would like to establish a military base in ES – 10 FH2, an important junction connecting to the aliens, before any expedition is sent. Others argue this may be seen as an aggressive move.
In the end, while the Commune is still trying to decide what to do with the aliens, the important thing is the potential danger they would pose to any recovery operations. The recent events around Dardanelles have shown the dangers of moving around unsecured systems and as such the government is unwilling to take the risk. The recovery teams will stand by on ES – 17 GH4 III, waiting for the archaeologists to finish their work.
6th August 2342 Fifty thousand Commune colonists disembark from privately owned freighters on ES – 21 FH3 II, making it the fifth colonized planet outside Baltic.
20th August 2342 Servii becomes habitable for unprotected humans. The next target for the Republican terrarofming is Albion.
27th March 2343 The Commune forms the First Frigate Squadron above Courland. Unlike gunboat flotillas, which are entirely offensive minded, the frigate squadrons will be equipped mostly with anti-missile systems, which means that CDF formations working together should have a good balance of offensive and defensive weapons, including short range anti-ship railguns.
The new squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Romero Gonzalez consist of eleven vessels: the frigate leader Maasvlakte, frigates Stockholm, Oslo, Prague and Bratislava and corvettes Vistula, Sventoji, Salaca, Narva, Kemijoki and Motala Strom. However, the ship companies are still green and there haven't been enough anti-missiles to fully equip the corvettes, which means that despite being combat ready on paper the formation will spend most of the next few years in training and away from any action, unless absolutely necessary.
28th March 2343 Two Commune fast cargo vessels, now operating alone, has delivered two tracking stations to the ES – 21 FH3 II colony. After manning them and setting up proper data feeds, a single ship of ADS is noted in deep space.
As the missiles will not work in the nebula, the First Frigate Squadron is tasked with clearing the system. The corvettes will likely stay behind to guard the jump point, while the Stockholm class ships will close in and use their railguns to destroy the enemy.
Even with the high speed of the Commune vessels, the trip will take nearly four weeks.
1st May 2343 Five Commune frigates begun to close on the alien vessel, which was of a new class. Strangely, in a stark contrast with previous ADS behavior, the alien begun to run away. The human frigates had almost two thousand kps speed advantage, but it was the beginning of a long stern chase.
2nd May 2343 The Commune archaeologists complete the initial survey and cataloging of alien ruins on ES – 17 GH4 III. Only ten installations are waiting to be recovered.
3rd May 2343 The Commune frigates close to sixty thousand kilometers, just in case the enemy has point defense weapons he could use in offensive mode, and begin to fire their two hundred fifty millimeters railguns, dealing equivalent of two megatons of damage per hit from that range. After nearly two minutes of continuous barrage, the enemy ship is destroyed.
1st August 2343 Small alien ruins are discovered on ES – 35 GH5 II by the Commune, the planet recently protected by alien bases. There is also a large alien installation which would help any research into logistic and ground combat technologies performed on the planet.
2nd September 2343 The Commune recovery operations on ES – 17 GH4 III are now complete. Several mining complexes have been found but little more than that. The engineers will now be transported to ES – 35 GH5 II, but they'll have to wait until the archaeologists finish their work. Unfortunately the ruins are quite small so few installations are expected.
27th September 2343 Fifty thousand Commune colonists disembark from a privately owned vessel and begin to make themselves home in the abandoned domed areas on ES – 17 GH4 III planet, a site of already exploited alien ruins. It's the third planet colonized in such circumstances and the sixth Commune inhabited planet outside the Baltic system overall. As with the previous two cases, the Administrator outright states that the planet may not receive any government support.
The planet itself is unlikely to be developed. It is a fairly important junction, but not critically so and it's adjacent to Sudetes and close to Athens. The mineral deposits are large and ten out of eleven TN elements are present, but most of them have low accessibility with the only exceptions being duranium and mercassium, both of which can be obtained elsewhere, with Wieliczka being the current biggest supplier. The only thing that may attract development is a massive alien factory that would significantly assist with any research into missile and kinetic weapons, but there are already several other similar planets that have priority and the large population requirement means no research facilities would be transported any time soon anyway.
25th November 2343 The Commune scientists complete their initial survey and cataloging of alien ruins on ES – 35 GH5 II, but only six installations have been found.
3rd September 2344 All installations have been recovered from ES – 35 GH5 II which means the only ruins are near alien space. As such the Commune engineers will now move home.
29th September 2344 A Commune geological survey team found a number of new deposits as well as several mistakes made by orbital sensors due to presence of alien artifacts. This significantly increased amount of minerals present, in particularly duranium, the amount of which has risen from twenty five thousand to twenty five million, as well as their accessibility, making ES – 35 GH5 II one of the best prospects for mining.
The planet is still not ideal though as there is no corbomite while neutronium and uridium have very low accessibility making those deposits basically useless. Mercassium is also hard to access but it can be found on other worlds.
The planet itself is very good candidate for colonization, requiring only thirty percent as much infrastructure per person as Wieliczka or Peles. The day-night cycle is thirty hours, the atmosphere is breathable with pressure and gravity only slightly lower than Earth's. Two issues that can be resolves are a low temperature and relatively low, although still tolerable, oxygen content. A long term problem is ice coverage of ninety eight percent, which means there is little land to settle and the land that exists is mostly mountainous, but even then it's enough for hundreds of million of people.
However, despite all those perks, the planet will not be settled any time soon. Just recently it has been protected by two enemy bases and a system adjacent to it, ES – 16 KH4, which was considered safe, became a battleground with over fifty thousand dead. Until the system is fully explored, and those around it (if there are any) considered safe, the planet will remain off limits. The large distance form Valhalla will also make colonization difficult.
ES - 35 GH5-A II mineral survey
Duranium 25 034 890 Acc: 0.8
Neutronium 6 880 128 Acc: 0.1
Tritanium 4 822 404 Acc: 0.7
Boronide 28 815 420 Acc: 0.6
Mercassium 31 494 540 Acc: 0.3
Vendarite 20 376 200 Acc: 0.6
Sorium 2 515 382 Acc: 0.8
Uridium 2 712 607 Acc: 0.1
Corundium 22 061 810 Acc: 0.7
Gallicite 6 563 844 Acc: 0.8
16th October 2344 Exploring new jump point in the vicinity of the Commune colony of Athens one of the Copernicus class ships arrives in a new system, of which the second planet – a reasonable candidate for colonization – is orbited by four wrecks, one of which is certainly belonging to ADS. In addition there were jump gates already present on both ends of the jump point. Unfortunately the system is so far away it would be a one way trip for gunboats. A large tanker is being dispatched, but it will be several months before it arrives.
Meanwhile the small exploration vessel will take a cautious look at the system.
21st October 2344 Active sensors from a new alien class is detected. TheCommune vessel turns about and heads home.
15th November 2344 The Commune survey of the ES – 46 FH4 system is complete finding no new jump points, which means two of the four jump points in Baltic leads to dead end systems or chains.
13th January 2345 Two tracking stations have been delivered to the Commune colony of ES – 35 GH II revealing a single alien ship in deep space. It's of the same class that has been found in the nebula, and appeared to have no weapons. While some want to send frigates again, to conserve ammunition, Commune has enough ordnance to not worry about it for the time being. First Gunboat Flotilla is sent instead, although it will take them time to arrive back as a tanker will have to be sent.
2nd February 2345 Six Commune gunboats open fire at the enemy vessel. This is more than enough to destroy the alien.
20th May 2345 Republican recovery operations on Albion have been completed. The next target is Seine, which has one hundred and nineteen installations waiting to be recovered.
26th June 2345 Exploring a newly found jump point in ES – 35 GH5 a Copernicus class ship arrives in a system already known to the Commune, ES – 01 MU1, the very first system ever discovered which is adjacent to Baltic and was previously thought to be the first in a dead-end chain of four stars.
This presents both danger and opportunity. So far all combat has taken place beyond the Sudetes system, which served as both base of offensive operations and a stronghold protecting the home system from the ADS threat. Now there is another avenue open to the enemy and while it seems like it was never used, it could have been used by whoever build the ADS.
From economic point of view the planet ES – 35 GH5 II, which will almost certainly become a significant mining location in the future, is now located two jumps from Valhalla rather than five. The presented opportunity is obvious and the CDF is confident in its ability to hold the system, but they also want to build a full scale naval base there to protect both the planet itself and the capital. The government will certainly not authorize this soon however, due to the ongoing economic difficulties.
2nd July 2345 The Commune completes retrofit of their gunboat flotillas. New ones could be built now, but the government is unwilling to authorize it due to monetary problems.
7th July 2345 The Commune First and Second Gunboat flotillas are on the jump point to ES – 52 KH5. They will attempt to clear the system of the ADS, who seem concentrated around the second planet.
Less than two hours after entrance they detect active sensors of an enemy ship moving towards them at over eight thousand kps. It is believed to be a fast scout.
8th July 2345 A second alien ship is detected through its active sensors, the same class as before and moving at the same speed.
Three and a half hours later another ship is detected, moving at the standard forty three hundred kps. It's well behind others and is of the previously unseen class. Another new ship is detected a couple of hours later.
Early evening the two fast ships, massing eighty three hundred tonnes, enter weapon range of the flotillas. Three Piranhas are assigned to each enemy. The hits start a cascade of secondary explosions that tear the alien vessels apart. The gunboats haven't even slowed down, bearing down on the next group of enemies.
9th July 2345 The second alien group enters the Commune sensor range. It's lead by a twenty four thousand nine hundred tonne ship, the largest seen so far. It's escorted by three frigates with another one being several million kilometers behind, moving away from the human force.
The Commune commander decides to take no chances and orders his Piranhas to open fire at the extreme missile range of sixty two and half million kilometers. Ten gunboats are assigned to the largest vessel and three to each smaller one.
Two small nuclear detonations blossom among the wave of Arrows while they are still over half a million kilometers from the enemies. For the first time Commune is fighting enemy deep space force equipped with long range anti-missile defenses, although so far those seem less effective than those encountered on enemy bases.
That assumption is proven false five seconds later as fourteen Arrows are destroyed by anti-missiles.
Fortunately it seems like the enemy begun to engage too late as overall only thirty four Arrows were destroyed by enemy ordnance. A couple of dozen more were destroyed by point blank fire, but over a hundred and fifty hit annihilating three enemies outright and leaving only one of the frigates as a crippled hulk. A single gunboat fires a finishing salvo.
Only one known alien ship is left, the one staying behind and running away from the human forces, which is in conflict with observed prior behavior of the ADS. The First Flotilla is retreating, as it's out of ammo. The Second gives chase.
Half an hour later five enemy missiles strike the flotilla, destroying one Piranha and disabling another, forcing the crew to abandon. Forty seconds later another gunboat is disabled.
With no anti-missile defenses the humans decide to retreat.
Fourth gunboat is hit by a single missile, wiping out armor, but the internal systems remained undamaged, which is quickly followed by the destruction of an Eel class scout. The force decides to slow down to recover the survivors, despite the risks and loses another gunboat several seconds later. This time the flotilla does not slow down.
I makes little difference. Two more gunboats are destroyed in quick succession, followed by a short break, after which another one is damaged, but can keep with the rest of the formation. Unfortunately the next gunboat wasn't so lucky and had to be abandoned.
Finally, the destruction ceased. The Second Flotilla decides to take the risk and recover all the life pods in the vicinity. This turns out to be the wrong decision as another gunboat explodes. The survivors turn about and head home and maximum speed. There is no hope left for the survivors and two more gunboats are destroyed before the flotilla gets out of range of the enemy again.
Meanwhile the First Flotilla, which so far managed to avoid being attacked, gets hits themselves, losing their scout. This is followed by a non-critical hit on two of the Piranhas, but other ships are not so lucky. Two has been destroyed, before luck returned and a third Piranha suffered non-critical hit. Three more were destroyed before the fire ceased.
After it finally seams like the human ships are in the clear, some propose returning for the life pods, but the surviving senior officer does not want to risk even more people. He is proven right as after five minutes, the Second Gunboat Flotilla is hit again, albeit by only a single missile that fails to do much damage. Six minutes later the First Flotilla is hit, but it is again only a single, somewhat ineffective hit.
But even as the Commune crews begin to hope the enemy run out of steam, another gunboat in the First Flotilla explodes. But after that the alien fire ceases.
After over twenty minutes of no hits, the Second Gunboat Flotilla breaks orders and heads back for the life pods. They don't get far before another of their Piranhas explodes. This convinces the formation to retreat at their best speed, leaving dozens of people behind.
Reports and sensor logs are sent ahead, but while jump gates allow communication between systems, any signal within system travels at the speed of light, so it will be nearly a day before the government hears of the battle.
Two more ships are destroyed and another one damaged before the human forces can retreat.
10th July 2345 The Commune force jump out of the system.
11th July 2345 The Commune receives news of the battle at the ES – 52 KH5 system, shaking both the government and the public. In fact many wanted to conceal the news, but the Commune has strong traditions of free speech and access to information, making this unthinkable.
While the CDF tries to point out how much more the enemy has lost, the public sees only the first combat loses in the history of their nation. Even the death of fifty thousand frozen colonists, while tragic and enraging, was seen as an ambush. But now two scouts and a total of nineteen gunboats have been destroyed, leaving Wieliczka with no effective military force. Athens are also threatened.
But what really scares the average person is the human cost. While “only” three hundred and ten spacers have died, many of those will perish simply because no rescue is possible. The thought of being left alone to die a slow death, against an enemy who does not care at all for prisoners, is terrifying. In fact many demand to put the surviving officers to court martial for their abandonment of fellow crewmen.
The CDF, while in shock, is also fast to react. First Frigate Squadron together with Third and fourth Flotillas is sent to the system to clear it of enemies. This will leave Fifth Flotilla and half a dozen unassigned corvettes for defense, not counting orbital weapon platforms orbiting Courland.
The First and Second Flotillas will have to return to Baltic. Many of their vessels require repair, and the formations themselves will need their loses replaced, which will be followed by extensive training to make them combat ready again. For now the Second Fleet is reduced to orbital defenses around Wieliczka and for all instances and purposes ceases to exist.
While the various Commune fleet elements are being repositioned, the Intelligence is working hard to understand what have happened. No small active sensor emissions have ever been detected, which implies the enemy missiles mounted none. This leads to the conclusion they had to be launched and controlled by a warship that was undamaged when the gunboats begun to take hits. The only known such vessel was massing eighty three hundred tonnes and its sensor emissions indicated a possibility of it detecting the small Commune craft, but not from such a range.
A careful examination of the records, showed very short flickers of thermal emissions. Gunboat thermal sensors, even those mounted on the scouts, were extremely limited, so even this detection was very lucky. According to those emissions, the enemy missiles were extremely slow, moving at only fourteen thousand and four hundred kps, but more importantly they were not arriving from the direction of the known alien vessel. While they were moving too fast for detailed course plotting, they were always appearing – although there were only very few instances of them being captured on sensors – to the port side of the ship.
There is however an immediate problem with this analysis, for an enemy sensor emission should have been detected or, if the sensor wasn't powerful enough, the enemy ships should have entered Commune sensor range. As is pointed out however, entering sensor range does not guarantee detection – that is why gunboats are so good at their job, as they are too small to be detected. This leads the Intelligence to the conclusion that the enemy had their own gunboats equipped with low power, high resolution sensors.
There is however no way to test that theory and many are still convinced that the enemy vessel was actually launching, pointing out to the inherent inaccuracies of trying to determine enemy sensor coverage, as well as sketchiness of available data. But whoever is right, the First Squadron should have missile defenses more than powerful enough for the task.
27th August 2345 The First and Second Gunboat flotilla arrive back on the Commune habitat of Courland. Five Piranhas are placed in yards for repairs so it will be some time before production can hit its stride to replace loses.
6th September 2345 The Commune task group centered around the First Frigate Squadron is in the ES – 20 GH4 system approaching the jump point to enemy stronghold when they detect two frigates picketing the gate. This is a surprise for the human crews as so far an ADS ship traveled outside their systems exactly once.
While some on his staff begin to wonder whether or not there are more enemies in the system, possibly waiting in ambush, Rear Admiral Romero Gonzales, the senior officer in the force, doesn't even consider retreating or stalling. His ships are here specifically to protect the gunboats from missile attacks and he believes his missile defenses are strong enough for any attack ADS may mount.
His force closes to sixty million kilometers from the enemy and opens fire. Three gunboats are assigned to each enemy. Both ships are annihilated instantly.
Fortunately there are no enemies on the other side of the jump point, allowing the Commune forces to enter the system and organize without any problems. They set course for the second planet.
8th September 2345 The human force closes on the second planet without any incident. Two bases are guarding it, which is within expectations. At sixty million kilometers they open fire, with twelve gunboats targeting the base equipped with anti-missiles and eight Piranhas targeting the other one.
Three hundred and sixty missiles are destroyed by anti-missiles with thirty eight destroyed by point blank defenses. Eighty six manage to hit, but both bases survive. Only six gunboats have any ammunition remaining, but Gonzales decides to fire anyway, with all targeting the base equipped with anti-missiles.
There were no interceptors this time and the strike turned out to be massive overkill. The human forces move forward, with the intention of destroying the last construct with railgun fire. They halt at a hundred thousand kilometers, which allow them to safely smash the enemy.
This clears all the known enemies but there is still the question of the suspected gunboats. Unfortunately the Commune vessels aren't really good at finding them due to poor resolution and short range of their active sensors. As such the two flotillas will retreat, while the squadron will move back to the tanker waiting two systems back, refuel and wait for arrival of two fast transports with tracking stations. Hopefully those will prove sensitive enough to find the enemy. The trip will take several months.
26th October 2345 The Second Frigate Squadron is officially activated on Courland. As such the Commune Space Defense Force decides to reorganize. The First Frigate Squadron together with Third and Fourth Gunboat Flotillas become the new Second Fleet.
The Oversight Committee is somewhat unhappy about this, as this leaves the capital with only Fifth Gunboat Flotilla as an effective strike force. On the other hand Baltic has never been threatened and it has heavy defenses, as aside from orbital installations there are also several unassigned corvettes and frigates on station. As such they do not intervene.
22nd December 2345 Wieliczka becomes habitable for unprotected humans. The colony has population of fifty four million and it's most well known for being a fleet base from which the war against ADS is waged, but it also has numerous factories, mines and financial centers. The planet is so well industrialized in fact that there is a significant manpower shortage, but the colony should now grow quickly.
The only other habitable planet in the Commune, Eden, has population sixteen million manning rather small manufacturing and mining industries.
