Its been a while since Part II so it might be worth reviewing that before reading this as it picks up immediately after a significant incident.
On June 10th, three Hospitaller class ships landed 300,000 Templar colonists on Sainte-Vaubourg II, creating Earth?s first interstellar colony. All the colonists were housed in domed settlements due to the lack of breathable air but with relatively simple environment suits to protect them from the lack of air pressure, they were able to walk outside the domes in the benign temperatures.
By June 25th the refit of Solomon was completed. Accompanied by the destroyers Exodus and Scuta and the Temple class jump cruiser Korbanot, she soon thereafter departed through the Acquebouille jump point en route to Temple Ewell. At the same time, the Clairvaux class geological ships Bernard and Cistercian were taken into the Sidon shipyard to be upgraded to the Clairvaux-B, which used Ceramic Composite Armour for the hull and gained an active sensor, an EM sensor and a 40% increase in engineering capacity. Squire Henry and the Clairvaux were dispatched on a solo mission to survey the La Couvertoirade system, two jumps from Sol.
Duke Galois Le Mire arrived in Temple Ewell on July 15th, commended Squire Aubin on his actions and took command of all Templar forces within the system. Leaving the jump tender Guisarme on the jump point, Duke Galois set a course for the G6-V binary star with his flagship Solomon, three Covenant class destroyers, two Shield class destroyers and a Temple class jump cruiser with two Dagger-B fast attack craft on board. Even at 3900 km/s, the journey was expected to take almost three months.
On October 1st 1402, the Order of St George crossed the orbit of the outermost planet of Temple Ewell-B, one point four billion kilometers from the primary, and set course for the freezing world with the breathable atmosphere. Two days later, at a distance of 411m kilometers, a EM signature of 29,300 was detected from the planet, approximately a third the EM signature of Earth. The Templar ships continued closing and soon received a hail from the planet, warning them to stay away or be fired upon. In response, the Duke demanded the immediate surrender of the Thetis, who cut off contact. No further communication took place as the Templar fleet closed in with both sides accepting that this could only be settled militarily.
At thirty-six million kilometers, the powerful search sensor on the Korbanot detected four 10,000 ton ships in orbit and two PDCs of approximate 25,000 tons. The PDCs added a significant complication as it was entirely possible they would be too well protected for the strength-3 warheads of the Halberd and Longsword missiles carried by the Covenant-B class destroyers. The Solomon also carried thirty-six Battleaxe missiles with strength-4 warheads but their range was only 288,000 kilometers and there was no guarantee their warheads would be sufficient, especially as the Order?s own PDCs had strength-4 armour. Nevertheless the fleet remained on course with the Duke deciding to cross that particular bridge if he came to it. Even with the range falling quickly, the four large Thetis ships held their position in orbit, presumably to make a stand within the protection of the planet?s fixed defences. Their shields started to come up and eventually stabilized at strength-14, much lower than the strength-50 shields of Solomon and the strength-30 shields of the Covenant-Bs
At five million kilometers, Duke Galois halted the fleet and ordered Squire Guimart de la Marre, commanding the Korbanot, to send his two Dagger-B Fast Attack Craft on a 6000 km/s run past the planet, moving within the one million kilometers range of their active sensors to detect any smaller ships. As the two ships swept toward the alien world, their Templar crews watched their holographic displays for any sign of movement from the Thetis ships. Unfortunately their sensors were limited in range and had no way to detect anything much smaller than themselves, including any hostile missile launch. As they passed the one million kilometre mark thirteen new contacts suddenly appeared in orbit, each with a cross section of strength-28, suggesting ships of approximately 1400 tons. The two Dagger-Bs broke away and headed back to the fleet with no interference from the Thetis. The Templar fleet was now outnumbered 17-9 and outmassed by 58200 tons to 51750 tons, even without the two 25,000 ton Thetis PDCs.
Based on the weak shields of the large Thetis warships and the limited technology of the Thetis scout ships recently destroyed by Squire Aubin, Duke Galois still believed his force could successfully attack the alien planet, although he could sense doubts even among his own crew. Therefore he took his own ship forward alone, with the rest of the fleet following 200,000 km astern, demonstrating his own conviction through deeds rather than words. Eight hundred thousand kilometers from the planet, Solomon glided to a halt and unleashed a salvo of twelve Halberd missiles at one of the larger Thetis ships. Fired from close to their maximum range, the Halberds took over a minute to reach their target. On the last second of their run, just 10,000 kilometers from their target, each of the four large warships fired four 10cm lasers and the smaller 1400 ton ships each fired a single 20cm plasma carronade. Eight out of twelve missiles were hit, only one of which was destroyed by the carronades, but all four survivors smashed into the Thetis ship, reducing its shields by eighty-five percent. No return fire was detected. The 20cm carronade was the first sign that the Thetis may exceed the Order in certain areas of technology as the Order could only build a 15cm plasma carronade with its contemporary technology.
With Solomon?s launchers firing every forty seconds, a second salvo was already almost half way to the planet. This time the lasers on the Thetis cruisers accounted for five missiles while the small ships held their fire, presumably because the recharge rate of their carronades was longer than forty seconds. The targeted cruiser tried to evade at 1225 km/s but the missiles were almost ten times as fast and easily homed in on the clumsily manoeuvring warship. Although two missiles were absorbed by the recharging shields five more scored internal damage. Atmosphere exploded into space and the ship slowed to 980 km/s. With a third salvo on its way and still no Thetis response, Duke Galois ordered his crew to cease fire while the other ships of the Order of St George moved up to join him.
Six missiles hit from the third salvo, causing more internal damage and a further drop in speed. Watching the aliens take the pounding without any attempt to fight back, the Duke began to realise the passive alien tactics were not as strange as they might first appear. Based on the slow speed of both the scout ships and now the Thetis cruisers, it was obvious the aliens could not bring the Templar fleet into range so they could only fight a defensive battle, hoping the Order ran out of missiles before the they ran out of ships. With enough time, the Imperium could build stronger defences, probably with a lot of anti-missile lasers. Even if all the Thetis ships were destroyed, they could absorb a lot of missiles and the PDCs would still remain. Three months from home, the supply situation for the Order of St George could prove precarious.
The rest of the fleet joined Solomon and the next Templar salvo comprised thirty Halberds, twelve from Solomon and six each from the three Covenant-B class destroyers. Unfortunately, the ships were not used to operating as a fleet and the missile launch was ragged, splitting into three separate volleys of twelve, six and twelve. Even so, the missiles continued to penetrate and the targeted cruiser?s fire began to slacken as she started to lose lasers. Suddenly three of the alien cruisers launched five missiles each and the Templar crews collectively held their breath for a moment. It quickly became apparent the 6000 km/s Thetis missiles were targeted on the next wave of incoming Templar missiles. The relatively slow Thetis missiles had an almost impossible task and only a single hostile missile was hit, although lasers and carronades accounted for the rest of the six missile group.
Duke Galois ordered a cease fire and attempted to get his ships more organised for a fresh missile volley. Twenty seconds later the final twelve missiles of the previous volley penetrated the Thetis defence, losing only three of their number. Nine missiles slammed into the wounded Thetis cruiser and it vanished in a colossal explosion. Switching their targeting to a second cruiser, the four Templar missile ships fired another thirty missiles, this time in two volleys of twelve and eighteen, launched within five seconds of each other. Although his individual crews were well trained, the Duke would make sure they were trained as a fleet before he took them into their next battle.
The Templar missiles continued pounding the Thetis fleet, overwhelming their steadily deteriorating defences with the sheer number of missiles. As more defensive lasers were taken out the Thetis fire slackened and their missile launchers had a two minute reload time, which combined with the slow moving Thetis missiles made their defensive contribution extremely limited. A second cruiser blew up and then a third. The fourth took several hits and then finally started to pull back from the planet at 1100 km/s. Almost all the next wave of missiles found their target, leaving the last cruiser burning and immobile with yet another missile volley closing fast. However, the Templar magazines were fast running out of Halberds. Solomon ceased fire with only the shorter ranged Longsword and Battleaxe missiles remaining while the three Covenants had just thirty-six Halberds between them plus their own Longswords. Each successive volley was smaller as one by one each ship ran out of the long range missiles. When the firing finally ceased, all four Thetis cruisers were gone, along with five of the smaller, carronade-armed ships. Eight of the small ships remained, two of them damaged. The Thetis PDCs remained quiescent.
Duke Galois reviewed his options. The Longsword missile had a range of 594,000 kilometers, a speed of 18,000 km/s and the same strength-3 warhead as the Halberd. Solomon had one hundred and fifty-six in her magazines and each Covenant-B destroyer carried ninety. More than enough to finish off the few small Thetis warships and inflict considerable damage to the planet. Their effectiveness against the PDCs was unknown but likely to be limited. There was also the matter of moving from a range of 800,000 kilometers to less than 600,000 in order to bring the planet within range. If the PDCs had missiles which could fire at that range then there might yet be a real battle but as the alternative was going home, there was little choice involved.
The Templar ships engaged their engines and moved closer to the planet, halting at 550,000 kilometers. Still the Thetis PDCs showed no sign of life so Duke Galois ordered his squadron to open fire. With no hope of resisting or running, the Thetis warships still stood and took the damage, occasionally and unsuccessfully trying to hit the fast moving missiles with their carronades. For the expenditure of sixty Longsword missiles, every last one was blown to pieces. Having eliminated every Thetis vessel he could find, the Duke issued a new call for the planet to surrender and avoid further loss of life. The defiant response made it clear the Thetis Imperium would not capitulate while the planetary defence centres still stood. While Duke Galois was a strong supporter of the Eradication Faction, he was far more pragmatic than some of his colleagues. Although he was quite prepared to wipe out the Thetis population from orbit, he would have preferred a surrender so that the Thetis industry could be stripped from the planet before the population was eventually eliminated.
All four Templar missile ships fired a single salvo at a PDC to determine its effect. Although all thirty missiles hit their target, when the mushroom clouds subsided it was clear the PDC had survived intact. However, while the Templar ships could not destroy the PDCs, it was equally clear the PDCs did not have weapons capable of reaching the fleet. Duke Galois was left with four choices. Target the planet?s population centres in an attempt to either force a surrender or wipe out the Thetis, continue the ineffective attack on the PDCs with the intention of creating enough radioactive fallout and atmospheric dust to affect the planet?s ecosystem and start killing off the population, advance to within 250,000 kilometers and use the more powerful Battleaxes missiles or abandon the attack. Option four was unacceptable and the Duke did not believe he had sufficient missiles remaining for option two or three so he gave the order to target the population centres.
Massive explosions wracked the surface of the Thetis homeworld as wave after wave of Templar missiles pounded their cities. Tens of millions of Imperium citizens perished and hundreds of industrial installations were obliterated. Finally, after the impact of two hundred and forty Longsword missiles, the Thetis government could take no more and broadcast their unconditional surrender. Duke Galois Le Mire immediately ordered his ships to cease fire. Seventy-two million Thetis, sixteen percent of the population, lay dead among the ruins of shattered cities. The remaining population of 368m was faced with significant background radiation and a level of atmospheric dust that reduced the worldwide surface temperature by eight degrees Celsius.
The destroyer Covenant approached the planet and Templar representatives were sent down to the surface to take control of the government. According to strict orders from Duke Galois, no members of the Imperium ruling class were harmed, although they were confined. The Thetis were informed that they would suffer no occupation but that the Templar destroyers would remain nearby to punish any transgressions and their industrial capacity would be reduced over time to ensure no further resistance was possible. Control of the two PDCs (schematic shown below) was handed over to the Templar occupiers, who immediately ordered the destruction of all missiles in the magazines and any remaining Thetis missile stocks on the planet. Fortunately for the Order of St George, the powerful Condor anti-ship missiles used by the Perseus class PDCs were slow and only had a 300,000 kilometre range.
Perseus class Planetary Defence Centre 25350 tons 2090 Crew 2527.5 BP TCS 101.4 TH 0 EM 0
Armour 5 Sensors 1/100 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 160
Troop Capacity 2 Divisions Magazine 3200
PDC Missile Launcher 16-120 (10) Missile Size 16 Rate of Fire 120
PDC Missile Fire Control S04-160 (1) Range: 1600k km
Condor ASM (200) Speed: 6,000 km/s Endurance: 50 secs Range: 300k km Warhead: 6 Size: 16
Active Sensor S50-R0.4 (1) GPS 20 Range 200k km Resolution 0.4
Active Sensor MR7500-R15 (1) GPS 750 Range 7.5m km Resolution 15
Active Sensor MR50000-R50 (1) GPS 5000 Range 50.0m km Resolution 50
In addition to the two PDCs the Thetis handed over all of their technical information, allowing the Order to gain several useful new technologies. The Imperium possessed improved versions of both gravitational and geological survey sensors, more advanced planetary sensors, Ion and Particle Torpedo technology, 20cm carronades and a stealth technology capable of reducing the thermal output of engines by up to fifty percent. They had also recently completed a gravitational survey of the Temple Ewell system, revealing three new jump points that the Thetis could not investigate due to their lack of a jump drive, and a geological survey, during which they discovered scattered ancient alien ruins on Temple Ewell-B IV. Some industry survived the bombardment of Temple Ewell-B III, although all the Thetis shipyards were destroyed, and sixteen additional automated mines were located on the second moon of Temple Ewell B-IV. The remaining installations on Temple Ewell-B III were as follows:
Construction Factories: 147
Ordnance Factories: 33
Fuel Refineries: 59
Mines: 133
Automated Mines: 9
Research Facilities: 5
Maintenance Facilities: 22
Deep Space Tracking: 1
Fuel Stockpile: 3.5m litres
Duke Galois left the three Covenant class destroyers behind, under the command of Sir Lorin de Beauvoir, to watch the conquered planet while he took Solomon and his other three ships back toward the Acquebouille jump point. A message was sent to the jump tender Guisarme, still holding position at the jump point, to head for Sol to report the victory before returning to Temple Ewell the investigate the three unexplored jump points. Duke Galois sent his own strong recommendation that freighters should be dispatched to Temple Ewell-B III as soon as possible to begin removing the Thetis industry, even taking into account the six month return voyage.
Guisarme arrived in Sol on October 14th 1402. Although her news was greeted was great celebration at the Order?s first victory over an alien species, the fate of the 368m surviving Thetis become the subject of heated and lengthy debate at all levels of the Order. The Eradication Faction was split over whether to immediately wipe them out or to remove their industry before wiping them out while the Missionary Faction wanted to use the planet to experiment with different methods of conversion. Those in favour of immediate eradication dismissed the remaining industry as ?tainted by the devil?s minions? and therefore unusable by any true Christian while the more pragmatic members of the Eradication Faction saw no point in destroying valuable resources and suggested a blessing to remove any taint of evil that might remain. Within a week the previously powerful Eradication faction had split fairly evenly into the Pragmatic Eradicators and the True Believers, leaving the Grand Master?s own Reformation Faction as the strongest faction by far. Grand Master Barbin used the disagreement among the other factions to force through the decision to leave the Thetis unharmed for the moment, to use their research facilities for low priority tasks and to use their existing industry to build a new shipyard that could eventually build freighters to transport the Thetis industry to Earth.
Guisarme returned to the Temple Ewell system on November 15th, carrying an archaeological team to investigate the ruins on Temple Ewell-B IV. Her first task though was to scout the three jump points within five billion kilometres of the primary. Over the next three weeks she discovered the systems of Santa Maria, Sergeac and Temple Bruer. Although the latter two were of little interest the third planet of the Santa Maria system had a temperature of -7C and an oxygen content half of that required to sustain human life, making it an excellent candidate for terraforming.
On December 28th, six Voulge-B early warning craft were constructed by the Caesarea shipyard, which had been temporarily retooled from building the Lance-B Fast Attack Craft. The Voulge-B was a fast attack hull built around a huge sensor array and was intended to replace the Dagger-Bs carried by Temple class jump cruisers.
Voulge-B class Early Warning Craft 1000 tons 84 Crew 237 BP TCS 20 TH 120 EM 0
6000 km/s Armour 1 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/5/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Replacement Parts 1
Le Tavernier FAC Engine (1) Power 120 Efficiency 7.00 Signature 120 Armour 0 Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 40,000 Litres Range 24.7 billion km (47 days at full power)
N2 Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 120 Range 1.2m km Resolution 15
Secondary Mode: GPS 24 Range 240k km Resolution 12
Recherche-128 Long Range Search Sensor (1) GPS 10240 Range 102.4m km Resolution 80
Secondary Mode: GPS 2048 Range 20.5m km Resolution 64
Fregnier-5 Electromagnetic Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Duke Galois Le Mire, along with his flagship Solomon, the Temple class jump cruiser Korbanot and two Shield class destroyers, returned to the Sol system on January 3rd 1403 and found himself immediately embroiled in the fallout from the factional disputes surrounding the fate of the Thetis. He assumed leadership of the Pragmatic Eradicators and set about trying to return the True Believers to the fold as well as trying to recruit allies from the other factions. However, for the moment, his powerbase was severely weakened and no longer presented a serious challenge to the authority of the Grand Master.
Guisarme arrived at Temple Ewell-B IV on February 8th 1403 to drop off an archaeological team, only to find that the Thetis team already on the planet had completed their search of the ruins without finding any new technology. A Thetis Cybernetic team had located several abandoned installations and reactivated a manned mine, an automated mine and a fuel refinery and believed two more installations might be recoverable. Although the Thetis teams were far from pleased to see the conquerors of the homeworld, they at least had a chance to see that homeworld again. Squire Math? du Vivier, commander of Guisarme, promised them passage back to Temple Ewell-B III once they restored the two remaining installations and passed all five over to Templar control.
After a year spent increasing their own productivity, Earth?s research facilities turned their attention to the creation of troop transport bays, allowing the Order to move ground forces to other worlds and provide another option beside planetary bombardment when faced with an alien population. Their development was completed in mid-March 1403 and a new Warhorse class Troop Transport was designed. The Warhorse could carry three ground units at fleet speeds but was completely unprotected and virtually blind. It would only be able to operate with a fleet or in safe areas.
Warhorse class Troop Transport 6000 tons 379 Crew 606 BP TCS 120 TH 480 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 1 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Troop Capacity 3 Divisions Replacement Parts 6
Daumont Ion Engine (8) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 102.9 billion km (297 days at full power)
By April 1403, the Thetis Cybernetic team had restored the final two alien installations on Temple Ewell-B IV; a second fuel refinery and a terraforming installation. In early May, four Templar cargo ships arrived carrying enough maintenance facilities to boost the remaining Thetis facilities to a level capable of supporting the Covenant-B class destroyers and Guisarme. While they were in the Temple Ewell-B system they transported everything but the terraforming installation to Ewell-B III.
Ship construction continued apace in the Sol system with three Covenant-B destroyers, two Shield-B destroyers and six Lance-B fast attack craft being completed in April and May 1403. Meanwhile the two Paris class Terraformers were pulled out of Sainte-Vaubourg and dispatched to Santa Maria III, which could be terraformed in years rather than decades. Two additional terraformers were under construction and were due for completion in September 1403.
In June, eight months after the bombardment, the Thetis homeworld was changed from a status of Vanquished to a new status of Subjugated. Their defeat seemed to crush the spirit of the Thetis and they offered little or no resistance after their surrender. The newly appointed Templar governor, Knight Grand Commander Pierre Philippe, decided that lifting many of the restrictions imposed immediately after the surrender would enable to Order to get much more out of the surviving Thetis industry and his decision was endorsed by Grand Master Barbin. Several missionaries had accompanied the freighters that recently visited the Thetis homeworld and the first Thetis converts to Christianity were beginning to appear, causing even more heated debate among the senior knights of the Order regarding whether aliens could ever be true members of the Church. The status of the Missionary Faction within the Order began to rise.
After an overhaul by Earth?s maintenance facilities, the Order of St Dominic, comprising the Antioch class ships Antioch, Orontes, Seleucus and Xenarius, surveyed the system of Barbera, two jumps from Sol via Temple Dinsley. Barbera, with its dim red primary, was relatively quick to survey and contained a single additional jump point which led to the Baldock system, a binary with two K type orange stars. The four ships moved into Baldock and carried out a new gravitational survey that revealed Baldock had a total of five jump points. Orontes entered the innermost jump point on August 19th and discovered two G9-IV sub-giant stars orbiting less than two billion kilometers apart, each with its own small planetary system. It took only a few minutes for the survey ship?s sensor officer to realise that the third planet of the companion star was the first ideal habitable world to be found outside the Sol system. Knight Commander Bernard La Charronne, captain of Orontes and senior knight of the Order of St Dominic, named the system Aragon then took his ship back into Baldock. He ordered Seleucus to head for the Sol system immediately to notify the Order of the momentous discovery and ordered Antioch and Xenarius to begin surveying Aragon. Orontes remained in Baldock to investigate the other three unexplored jump points.
Seleucus arrived in Sol on September 9th and reported the discovery of Aragon-B III. Active colonization of Sainte-Vaubourg II had ceased after the two Terraformers were dispatched to the Santa Maria system so all four Hospitaller class colony ships were in Earth orbit. These were quickly organised into the Order of St Christopher, along with the Temple class jump ship Moriah, and dispatched to the Aragon system to found humanity?s second extra-solar colony. Meanwhile in Baldock, Orontes had explored the systems of Miravet, Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon and Temple Meads, none of which had any notable features, before joining the rest of the Order of St Dominic in Aragon.
In early 1404, Templar scientists improved the Order?s armour technology even further with the invention of Laminate Composite Armour, twenty percent stronger than Ceramic Composite. No general update was planned to take advantage of the new armour, although it would be incorporated into any new designs.
By March 1404, the Order of St Dominic had surveyed Aragon, finding no additional jump points, and the planetless brown dwarf system of Temple Meads, where they found new jump points leading to the systems of Monsanto and Cressac-Blanzac. As the latter was a red dwarf system, the primary had a mass less than ten percent that of Sol, which meant the system would be easy to survey but would likely have very few jump points. Knight Commander Bernard La Charronne took the Order of St Dominic into the system and was astonished when the short gravitational survey revealed the system had no less than eight jump points, the highest of any of the thirty-eight known systems. Of the seven new systems connecting to Cressac-Blanzac, by far the most interesting was Jerusalem. The yellow-white F4-V primary was orbited by ten planets, the third of which was an ideal habitable world fifty percent larger than Earth with higher gravity, a dense but breathable atmosphere and a very pleasant surface temperature of 28C.
In the first half of 1404, the Order of St Elmo was dispatched from Sol along the Temple Cowton chain. Over the following six months they surveyed the known La Couvertoirade system and a new system named Ponferrada, located beyond La Couvertoirade?s second jump point. Ponferrada was also a system with only two jump points and connected to Rurka, notable because of its three enormous asteroid belts, comprising almost nine hundred asteroids, and two oxygen-nitrogen worlds. Unfortunately, although the innermost planet had a breathable atmosphere, the surface temperature was 162 Celsius, making it very difficult to terraform. Despite having an acceptable temperature of 38C, the second planet was twice Earth?s diameter with a gravity of 2.45G and a atmospheric density six times that of Earth, making it impossible to breathe and almost impossible to terraform.
On September 7th 1404, the geological survey ship Bernard discovered significant alien ruins on the second planet of the Temple Balsall system, two jumps from Earth via San Bevignate. The ruins had some architectural similarities to those found by the Thetis Imperium in their own system, four jumps from Temple Balsall along a route that included Sol, which led the Council to believe that an interstellar civilization existed in the distant past but was wiped out by some unknown catastrophe spanning multiple systems.
In late September, Templar scientists developed the technology to build Jump Gates. These could be constructed at jump points and would allow ships to transit without the need for jump-capable escorts. Specialised ships would be required to assemble the jump gates using components built in our factories and transported to the site via freighter. Therefore the Baldwin class construction ship was designed (see below). Although the ships would eventually be constructed in the Jaffa shipyard, which was building the third and fourth units of the Warhorse class, it would be June 1405 before retooling could be completed and the first Baldwin laid down.
Baldwin class Construction Ship 8000 tons 800 Crew 1024.8 BP TCS 160 TH 360 EM 0
2250 km/s Armour 1 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Replacement Parts 20
Jump Gate Construction Ship: 180 days
Daumont Ion Engine (6) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 90,000 Litres Range 69.4 billion km (357 days at full power)
The Order of St Elmo completed its survey of Rurka in October 1404 and discovered five new jump points. The third jump point from the primary led to Rosslyn, a system with ten planets, two of which had oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres. The third planet was a frozen iceball with a thin atmosphere, a temperature of -70C and a significant quantity of frozen chlorine locked in its rocky surface. However, the second planet, a desert world with occasional small lakes, was far more promising. Despite gravity a third higher than Earth and a temperature of 45C, which was slightly above the tolerance level for humans, the atmosphere was breathable, the day was exactly 24 hours and the temperature could be brought down to an acceptable level with minimal terraforming. The fifth jump point led to Bornholm, which also had a world with a breathable atmosphere, although the temperature was -40C giving it a colony cost of 1.79. However, with the possibility of a significant increase in temperature if the frozen oceans were to melt, it was also a good candidate for terraforming.
By November 1404, conversion of the Thetis to Christianity was well underway. Despite the gallant yet futile stand of the limited military forces, the Thetis civilian population completely accepted the Templar occupation, apparently blaming their own military and previous leadership for the damage caused by the bombardment. Accordingly, the planetary governor changed their status from Subjugated to Vassal. According to Templar tradition during the two centuries of conquest on Earth, this meant that the Thetis population was only one step away from becoming full members of the Order, with all the rights and privileges that entailed. For political reasons, it was inconceivable that they would be allowed to take that step in the foreseeable future as a significant number of senior knights still wished to wipe out the Thetis as a race. It was likely that only the schism within the once powerful Eradication Faction had saved them from that fate thus far.
During 1404 the strength of the Templar Navy grew significantly, especially in warships. Most of the military forces were deployed in Earth, except for three Covenant-B class Missile Destroyers in orbit of the Thetis homeworld. The terraformers continued their work in Santa Maria while the colony ships concentrated on building up the new colony on Aragon-B III. All twelve survey ships were on long range missions. On January 1st 1405, the order of battle for the Navy was as follows:
4x Solomon-B Missile Cruiser
9x Covenant-B class Missile Destroyer
6x Shield-B Escort Destroyer
3x Temple class Jump Cruiser
2x Guisarme class Jump Tender
4x Antioch class Gravitational Survey Ship
4x Antioch-B class Gravitational Survey Ship
1x Clairvaux class Geological Survey Ship
3x Clairvaux-B class Geological Survey Ship
5x Hospitaller-C class Colony Ship
5x Rhodes class Freighter
4x Paris class Terraformer
3x Warhorse class Troop Transport
24x Lance-B Fast Attack Craft
12x Dagger-B Fast Attack Craft
6x Voulge-B Early Warning Craft
The Order had eight colonies in January 1405, three of which had only automated mines. The colony details are as follows:
Earth
Grand Master Gilles Barbin (Research 30%, Mining 25%, Wealth 20%, Production 15%, Shipbuilding 10%)
Population 1108m
Wealth 51439
Shipyards: 11/32
Research Facilities: 45
Naval Academy: Level 4
Maintenance Facilities: 10,000 tons
Deep Space Tracking Station: Level 15
Commercial Freight Facility
Mass Driver Capacity: 30,000 tons
Construction Factories: 988
Ordnance Factories: 200
Fuel Refineries: 450
Mines: 800
Automated Mines: 36
Financial Centres: 20
Ground Force Training Facilities: 10
Fuel Stockpile 28m
Thetis Homeworld (Temple Ewell-B III)
Knight Grand Commander Pierre Philippe (Production 40%, Research 25%, Mining 10%)
Population 378m
Wealth 10814
Research Facilities: 5
Naval Academy: Level 1
Maintenance Facilities: 6000 tons
Deep Space Tracking Station: Level 1
Construction Factories: 180
Ordnance Factories: 33
Fuel Refineries: 61
Mines: 133
Automated Mines: 3
Ground Force Training Facilities: 1
Fuel Stockpile 4.3m
Aragon-B III
Squire Gamelet Raimboust (Pop Growth 30%)
Population 3.2m
Wealth 121
Sainte-Vaubourg-A II
Knight Grand Commander Andry La Vicontesse (Wealth 30%, Production 15%)
Population 3m
Wealth 149
Construction Factories: 18
Infrastructure: 1000 (allows 5m max pop)
Jerusalem-A V
Squire Colin de Vaudetar (Pop Growth 30%)
Population 0.5m
Wealth 19
Palamon Mining Colony (Sol)
Knight Commander Guerin de Mery (Mining 30%)
Mass Driver Capacity: 35,000 tons
Automated Mines: 234
Temple Ewell-B IV ? Moon 2 Mining Colony
Knight Lambert Pinte
Automated Mines: 16
Aragon-B II ? Moon 3 Mining Colony
Knight Philippe Le Soudoyer (Mining 30%)
Automated Mines: 10
to be continued...
Steve
