April 14, 2020The Ganga returns to earth from its long voyage of discovery. Unfortunately, because of the secrecy the Indian government has imposed, the crew of the Ganga cannot be recognized for its achievement. The Prime Minister holds a secret awards ceremony at which the ships commander, Captain Mahabala Nehru, is awarded the newly created Medal of Discovery. The crew is also awarded a unit citation.
To preserve the secret, the Ganga is refueled and sent back to the warp point to Alpha Cephi to await the return of the survey ships.
May 9, 2020The African Confederation starts construction on two new units in their small orbital yards. The Indian Republic files a complaint because its inspectors were excluded from the slips where the construction is taking place. In response, the Confederation government states that the new units are immobile defense bases, and quotes the Treaty of New Delhi provisions authorizing Indian inspection to support their belief that the Indians can only inspect mobile units. After more negotiations, the Indians settle for an external examination part-way through the construction to verify the new unit’s immobile status.
May 12, 2020The Indian geo-survey ship in the Alpha Cephi system discovers what appears to be a destroyed Ancient outpost on Alpha Cephi V. The ship immediately lands geology and archeology teams to begin determining the extent of the find.
May, 2020Talks sponsored by the Reich and the Alliance intended to equitably divide the resources of the Moon collapse late this month. All of the nations want unlimited access to the resources on the Moon, and none want to accept any limitations. All of the nations are beginning to view the impending resource depletion of the Earth with growing fear, and the talks are a victim of this fear.
June 9, 2020The Trinkat reports that it has completed its survey of the planets and moons of the Alpha Cephi system. Captain Nehru, aboard the Ganga, orders one of the two Trinkat class grav survey units to return to Alpha Cephi V to oversee the teams working on the surface, while the other two survey units are to rendezvous with the Ganga at the warp point. They will be escorted to Procyon to begin their survey, after which the Ganga will return to Alpha Cephi to pick up the survey teams and the last survey ship.
Overall the geo survey has been a disappointment. Four of the planets were found to contain massive resource deposits; however, all were at low availability levels. While two of the three Earth-like planets have resource deposits, the Indian government was hoping for a better resource-find to alleviate the growing pressure in the home system.
September, 2020Alliance Combined Intelligence Services, the successor to the CIA and other national intelligence services, reports that the Reich, India, and Japan are all engaged in massive R&D efforts to improve their manufacturing, research, and/or shipbuilding capabilities. In particular, the reports from orbital surveillance and human assets from the Reich point to the possibility that the Reich is having a difficult time keeping up with the Raumarine’s insatiable demand for missiles, and it is likely that much of their recent R&D and construction efforts have been devoted towards alleviating this situation.
Alliance research assets are currently devoted towards improving the Navy’s active sensor capabilities, and then will be devoted towards developing advanced fire control and laser weaponry.
At this time little is known about the activities of the African R&D establishment, and the Russians seem to be focused on developing some sort of drive technology.
September 24, 2020The Ganga reaches Alpha Cephi V and relieves the grav-survey ship supporting the ground teams. So far the teams have made no major discoveries. After refueling from the Ganga, the grav-survey ship resumes its survey of the system.
The second Ganga class ship to be launched from the Indian yards is dispatched to Procyon to support the survey ships there.
October, 2020The third Ganga class jump ship, along with a newly built geo-survey ship, is dispatched to Gliese-2041 to survey the planets there for resources.
December, 2020The Alliance archeological and cybernetic teams report that, after a decade of unremitting effort, the Ancient colony on Mars has been completely exploited. The boost that this find has given the Alliance economy and technology cannot be overstated.
In mid-month, there are several instances of near-clashes between Reich and Alliance naval ships on exercises in the inner systems. While there have been numerous near-encounters in the past, both navies have been increasingly sensitive to close observation by units of other nations.
While the incidents are limited to sensor lashings and heated communications exchanges, the incidents are symptoms of a much larger issue. Several politicians on both sides propose talks with the opposing nation to defuse the issue, but neither side is really willing to talk to the other side. While the clashes die down by the end of the month, and both navies take steps to reduce close encounters, the underlying issues are not addressed.
February 26, 2021The USSR completes research and development on jump engines, and is ready to proto-type an actual working jump drive. Plans are drawn up for a jump drive large enough to handle the 6,000 ton cruisers of the People’s Navy, however, the R&D time would be prohibitive (almost a year). Therefore, the Presidium decides to go forward with a much smaller jump drive capable of transporting the smaller science ships through warp points.
March, 2021The Indian geology team on Alpha Cephi V reports that it has discovered additional deposits of mercassium, however, it does not anticipate making any further discoveries. This leaves the Indians in a difficult situation. There is growing pressure to begin establishing an interstellar colony before the other nations figure out what is going on. In addition, Russia is known to be working on their own jump drive, adding even more urgency. Given India’s industrial and technology disadvantages, it is imperative that they begin establishing a foothold now, before the other nations discover warp tech, or they will be left behind.
Because of the Ancient outpost, the Indians had been hoping that Alpha Cephi V would be a good location for their first colony. The planet is as Earth-like as any other discovered so far, but its resources are disappointing. It contains massive deposits of eight trans-newtonian minerals, but seven of those are only available at an accessibility level of 0.1 on the standard scale. Only sorium is available at a higher level (0.
, and while sorium is valuable as both a fuel and a building material for jump drives, the Indians had been hoping for a better find.
So far geological surveys are underway in two other systems, Procyon and Gliese 2041, but neither has had more promising results.
June, 2021The Indian grav survey of the Alpha Cephi system is complete, and three additional warp points are discovered. Captain Nehru decides to probe the warp points once he has transferred fuel from one of the grav survey units.
Before the Ganga departs the archeology team on Alpha Cephi V reports that the Ancient outpost was almost completely destroyed long ago, and that nothing useful remains.
June 21, 2021The Ganga jumps through the innermost jump point in Alpha Cephi. The new system is a first – a quaternary system! The central star is an F9-IV almost seven times brighter than the sun. The central star has only three heat-blasted rocky planets, and only one has a moon, meaning there is little of interest there.
The other three stars are a G1-V, G2-V, and G3-V, all of which are much like the sun. The G1 and the G2 orbit each other fairly closely, and their common orbit is 9,600 AU’s from the central star, putting them far out of reach of the Ganga. Together, the distant pair have five planets, a moon, and an asteroid belt. Two of the planets appear to be fairly Earth-like, but it would take years to reach at current speeds.
The G3 star is well within reach, its orbit averaging only 40 AU’s, and it has six planets, thirty three moons, and an asteroid belt. Two of the planets and moons are colonizable and may be of interest.
This system is not recognizable, and the astronomers speculate that the system is located far from the solar system. Captain Nehru names the system Aizwal.
June 30, 2021The Ganga jumps through the second warp point in the Alpha Cephi system. The new system has a G3-V central star with ten planets, one hundred and two moons, and two small asteroid belts. One of the planets has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere but it is very cold, and two of the moons of the gas giants could be colonized if necessary.
The astronomers identify this system as 58 Eridani, forty-three light years from Earth.
July 15, 2021The Ganga jumps through the last unexplored warp point in the Alpha Cephi system. The new system is centered on a tiny, dim M8-V star with four planets and twenty-nine moons, none of which are remotely close to being anything anyone would consider habitable. The astronomers report that there is no way to distinguish this star from the millions and millions of other dim red stars in the galaxy, and so Captain Nehru designates it the Aruppukkottai system. It is time for the survey group to return home, Captain Nehru has perhaps pushed things too far; all of the ships are very low on fuel.
July, 2021The Alliance begins transferring automated mines from their current position in the asteroid belt to Europa, as their current location is nearly mined out.
August, 2021The Venus Incident. The Raumarine detects a ship on a low-power approach to Venus. After some study of the ship’s course it becomes apparent that the ship is making a pass that will take it to within one million kilometers of the Reich colony. Three Raumarine destroyers are in orbit over Venus, and they are immediately dispatched to intercept the intruder while it is still more than ten million kilometers away. In addition, Raumarine ships in orbit over Earth are put on alert, and a squadron of cruisers is dispatched from Earth towards Venus.
Once the Raumarine ships on Venus leave orbit on an interception course the unknown contact accelerates to full speed and broadcasts its ID as the Alliance Scout Dewar. In addition, the Dewar sends a call for help to Alliance Fleet HQ.
In response, the Alliance Navy sends an alert to its ships throughout the inner system and the Alliance government sends the Reich a message stating that the Dewar is in international space and on a legitimate mission.
The Dewar is within range of the Reich ship’s missiles, and both sides know it. The Reich demands that the Dewar stop approaching Venus and that it stand to for inspection. While the Dewar has already turned away from Venus, the Alliance is not about to allow Raumarine personnel on board its premier Elint vessel and a tense standoff develops.
With the bulk of the Raumarine facing off the bulk of the Alliance Fleet in Earth orbit, and ships all over the inner system rushing back to Earth, any conflict would be extremely messy.
In the end the Reich backs down and allows the Dewar to depart, but states that it is establishing an exclusion zone of ten million kilometers around Venus. In response the Alliance counters with similar exclusion zones around Mars and Europa. Both sides begin updating their plans for a conflict with the other major power. Shortly thereafter, both the Alliance and the Reich shift the bulk of their fleets to their Mars and Venus colonies, leaving only a relatively few minor units in orbit over Earth.
September, 2021The USSR’s first grav survey ship is launched from Russia’s orbital yards. So far none of the other nation’s are concerned about the number of science ships the Indians and the Russians have launched, but that is bound to change sooner or later.
November, 2021The Indian grav survey of Procyon is completed, discovering one additional warp point.
December, 2041The Indian geo-survey of Gliese-2041 is completed. As with the other systems the results are disappointing. Two of the inner planets, Kharagpur and Gliese-2041 VI have deposits of trans-newtonian minerals, but at disappointing levels. Kharagpur has very large deposits of six different minerals, including duranium and sorium, but the duranium is present at moderate availability levels and the sorium is only available at a 0.1 availability level.
Intelligence Report, December 2021In response to a request from the Office of the President of the Alliance and the Council of Ministers, the Alliance government has prepared an unprecedented analysis of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Six Powers. Information for this analysis was drawn from nearly every branch of government, and relies heavily on orbital surveillance and other intelligence sources. The recent Venus Incident was related to the intel activities taken to complete this request, and as a result future intel operations will be reevaluated due to the increasing tension between nations.
In order to give a basis for comparison, the creators of this report developed a standard economic measure that would allow for uniformity across national boundaries. While this inevitably creates inaccuracies, the creators felt that the ease of comparison far outweighed any inevitable inaccuracies.
All holdings and territories for the Six Nations are included in the report, although it should be noted that the margin of error involved in estimating off-world facilities is larger than for Earth-bound economies.
All Reich USSR Jap India AC
Pop (Billions) 1.3 1.3 0.65 1.95 1.5 .65
Factories 1167 1299 730 675 300 300
Mines 1086 1019 662 590 250 355
Automated Mines 301 195 67 140 42 10
Ordnance Factories 201 350 100 120 50 50
Fuel Factories 318 310 200 150 50 50
Financial Centers 145 55 70 0 0 0
Research Labs 66 62 20 31 30 16
Naval Academy 4 7 3 3 1 1
Army Training 4 7 5 6 4 4
SY/Slips 4/12 4/11 2/7 2/9 3/6 2/5
