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Posted by: Kurt
« on: May 27, 2023, 08:53:05 AM »

The future of the Cold War Campaign

First, the major powers and their situation as they see it as of month 231:

Colonial Union
The Colonial Union is certainly a significant power; however, its leaders know that it is nearly at a population-growth dead end that will put them at a serious disadvantage against all of the other races.  Worse, the humans are divided in how to deal with this problem, with about half willing to consider joining another alliance, like the CSR or Alliance, while the other half are human-chauvinists and would only consider conquering other races, not joining them.  Indeed, the Union government is determined to move forward with improving relations with the known alien races and ultimately merging with the CSR, and is therefore facing significant resistance in the Sligo District, and perhaps even attempts to leave the Union. 

The Alliance
The Alliance is at peace, and is rapidly repairing the damage caused by the recent wars and unrest.  The fleets are being refitted and reorganized, and once complete the Alliance Navy will be stronger than ever.  With the departure of the Zir, the Alliance Council is focusing on shoring up its relationships with the other associate members, especially as there is some information that the Zir have tried to convince some to leave with them.  Fortunately, it does not appear that any agreed or will agree in the future, but the incident has shown that the Alliance needs to be more responsive to the needs and opinions of the associate members.  While always watchful of the Colonial Union, given their history, the Alliance and the Union are currently enjoying good relations.  The same is true of the Alliance-CSR relationship. 

Confederated Sentient Races (CSR)
The CSR is focused on integrating Tomsk and Bjering territories and infrastructure, and improving its navy and defenses against the possibility of the Mintek advancing out of the former Bedu space.  To this end it is discussing the possibility of a military alliance against the Mintek with the Alliance, although these talks are hampered by the innate mistrust that many politicians have for the Alliance, given its behavior in the past. 

Zir Commonality
As the newest major power, the Zir are expansive and eager to make their mark on the known galaxy.  The Zir navy is the smallest of the major powers, but growing, and as a “swarm” fleet, it is fundamentally different from those of the other powers.  Largely based on corvette-carriers, the Zir fleet is designed to be fast and hard hitting, and also easy to replace.  However, the Zir would never threaten any other race with the use of force except in self-defense, but are firm believers in peace through strength.   The Zir are exploring and expanding in every direction, and are planning on contacting the races discovered through the Villiers warp nexus in the near future, once their refits are complete. 

Confederated Free Systems (CFS)
The CFS is not really a major power at all, and was created as a buffer state between the Union and the Alliance.  For the last several years the CFS has been decentralizing as its weak central government has been unable to resist the calls of the powerful system governments within the CFS to provide defensive forces for their systems, which has led to a dispersal of the CFS fleet across their territory.  The CFS government spends most of its time keeping the Alliance, the Union, and its own constituent system governments happy and has little time for anything else.  The CFS has largely reached the limits of reasonable colonization efforts and their exploration program has largely ended. 

Pan Sentient Union (PSU)
The PSU is focused on reorganizing after the merger of the Ascendancy and the Mintek, and is developing a plan to launch an assault on the Alliance through warp point connections discovered in Bedu territory.  The stats for the PSU were not included in the recent post comparing the income and fleet sizes of the major races, for various reasons.  The PSU’s income was slightly higher than the CSR’s, but lower than the CSR’s once its allies were included, so it is approximately 40% that of the Alliance and its allies.  The PSU’s fleet was larger than the Colonial Union’s or the CSR’s, but smaller than that of the Alliance.  The one area where the PSU has an advantage is that its fleet has been completely refitted to HT-10 standards, unlike the Alliance’s fleet, some of which is still at HT-8 due to the recent wars. 

The future, as I saw it:
I often see the way I want the campaign to go, usually on the short to medium term, and quite often it goes that way.  However, many times things have happened that I did not anticipate that changed the entire complexion of the campaign.  Below is how I thought things would move forward in the campaign, but a critical defeat or victory in battle, an unexpected ally popping up, or exploration ships finding a new route into your enemy’s core systems would certainly be a game changer, and are essentially unpredictable. 

Short term (6-12 months or so)
The Colonial Union
Facing internal divisions and wildly divergent goals between its two districts, the Colonial Union will split in the near future.  The split will be largely peaceful, as neither side really wants a war, although there may be some standoffs and tense moments early in the division process.  The Sol District will remain the Colonial Union, while the Sligo District becomes the Republic.  There will be some friction points.  For example, the Solar System and Earth will be solidly anti-alien and will join the new Republic, but this will require transit rights through loyal Union territory.  The Tlatelolco will insist on remaining in the Union, as they won’t trust the anti-alien Republic, and this will require transit rights through Republic territory.  The Union will be willing to grant Earth’s request if the Republic agrees to Union membership for the Tlatelolco, and transit rights through Republic territory.  This should go fairly smoothly, along with a division of the fleet.  The Colonial Union will join the CSR in the near to medium future, making humanity the dominant economic and military force in that nation, although not the most populous race. 

Terran Republic
Formed out of the Sligo District of the now defunct Colonial Union, the Terran Republic will have its ceremonial capital on Earth, but its working capital in the Sligo system.  The Republic will start out as an uneasy alliance of corporate interests and the most powerful system governments, but they will rapidly begin feuding amongst themselves trying to consolidate their power and elevate themselves within the new government.  While they fight, the Governor of the Union, who is mostly viewed as a political kook and not taken seriously, will move behind the scenes to exacerbate their fights and ensure that none of them manage to get ahead of the others.  Governor Holcombe is actually the head of the Humanity First movement, something very few know, and has used this association to rise to his current position.  Holcombe has worked very hard to cultivate his image as a safe non-entity, allowing others to think that they are in control while he moves behind the scenes.  While this is going on, Governor Holcombe will be working to secure his own position by pulling off a massive coup.  The Sligo District was home to a closed warp point linking the District to the Confederated Free Systems, something that had been kept highly secret by the Union government and Navy.  This info had been leaked to the governor some time ago, and even before the split with the Union the governor and his Humanity First movement had been funneling money and resources into the CFS.  These resources have been used to fund the rise of Humanity First parties in the CFS, and has been driving the division and dissention within the CFS that has greatly weakened their central government. 

Within a year of the split from the Colonial Union, several systems within the CFS will experience widespread unrest, which the central government will attempt to respond to with ground troops.  The Terran Republic will use its clandestine influence to ensure that the response will be both large enough to frighten the system governments and completely incompetent and ineffective.  Once several systems have seemingly descended into chaos, the Republic will reveal its link to the CFS and several system governments will appeal to the Republic for “security assistance”.  The Republic will, of course, be more than happy to provide this assistance.  The system governments coopted by the Republic will make it impossible for the CFS and its military to respond effectively, or at all, and in a short period of time several of the systems will declare that they are joining the Republic.  Within six weeks or so it will all be over and the CFS will be completely absorbed by the Terran Republic.  This will all happen fast, and will be over before any of the other nations can do anything about it.  This annexation will boost the Republic’s economy and military, but it will still leave them far behind the major powers, approximately equivalent to the Zir. 

CSR
Once the Colonial Union joins the CSR the nation will be completely focused on absorbing the Union systems, reorganizing and modernizing the fleet, and rebuilding its infrastructure to coordinate with the rest of the CSR.  This will take some time and will completely occupy the CSR’s attention for the near to medium term.  Because of their inward focus, and their innate distrust of the Alliance, the CSR will be unwilling to take issue with the Republic’s annexation of the Confederated Free Systems. 

Unfortunately, divisions between the human Tomsk-led areas and the former Colonial Union areas will mean that humanity is unable to dominate the CSR’s politics as its economic and military strength might indicate that it should.  However, the addition of approximately half of the Colonial Union’s economy and fleet will push the CSR much closer to the Alliance, although they will still be at around 60-70% of their size and strength. 

The Alliance
By month 232 The Alliance is the dominant nation in the campaign, and is poised to grow further as it amalgamates three associate races over the short to medium term.  The Aurarii, Doraz, and Torqual all will amalgamate with the Alliance as soon as they can raise their tech to the required level, and the Aurarii are already there.  Amalgamating these races will boost the Alliance’s income by 40%, putting them even further ahead of everyone else.  The amalgamation of the Aurarii will take place within the next year, however, it will be medium term before any of the other races are ready for amalgamation.

The Alliance will be very concerned about first the Colonial Union’s dissolution and then the rump Union joining the CFS, dramatically increasing that nation’s strength relative to the Alliance.  When the new Republic annexes the CFS, the Alliance will strongly protest, but the Republic will argue that it was not a signatory to the original treaty creating the CFS and ask for negotiations.  By that point the Alliance will only have light forces deployed to their border with the CFS, as their naval reorganization has concentrated their forces in a few nodal locations, so they won’t be able to intervene militarily for some time.  By the time they can intervene the annexation is over and it would mean open war, so they allow the Republic to absorb the CFS.   

The PSU (Mintek)
The PSU will be focused on integrating their territory, refitting and rebuilding their fleet, and developing its plan to attack the Alliance.  In essence, their plan will involve the use of light raiding forces hitting widely scattered systems through contact points known to them.  They believe this will draw off significant reaction forces from the core systems of the Alliance, at which time they will launch a major assault from the Mintek home system through the fortified warp point to the Alliance Phyriseq system.  The Phyriseq system is known to be fortified, and so massive numbers of SBM pods will be used to clear the fixed defenses, along with minesweepers to clear the mines and automated weapons.  This attack will take several years to prepare for. 

Zir Commonality
The Zir will finish the refit to their fleet in a few months, and then will begin a program to contact the races found through their Villiers warp nexus.  Their original exploration ships found four different races through the nexus, and they agreed to defer contact as the Alliance requested.  As they are no longer in the Alliance, that contact will now go forward.  Of the four races beyond the nexus, one is known to be the Mintek.  The Zir have agreed to avoid contacting the Mintek, after reviewing records of Alliance contact with that race, but they will go ahead with contacting the others. Two of those contacts are actually human, one in space that by that time will be controlled by the CSR and the other by the Terran Republic.  Obviously, contact will not go well with the anti-Alien Republic, although there almost certainly won’t be a war.  Contact will go very well with the multi-racial CSR, and the Zir will find much affinity with the CSR’s lack of warlike history.  The third race will be problematic.  This is one of the alien races that was absorbed by the Mintek before their merger with the Ascendancy.  So, this system is now controlled by the Mintek.  Finding themselves in contact with the Mintek, the Zir will almost certainly go ahead with efforts to establish productive and civil contact with that race, which obviously won’t work.  The Zir will almost certainly be at war with the PSU by the end of the short term.  The PSU will be much stronger than the Zir, and the Zir, with their swarm fleet, will find it impossible to assault Mintek systems even if they do manage to hold them off, so they will ask the Alliance for help, which they will give.   

End of the short-term
By the end of the year, approximately month 245, the Zir and the Republic will be approximately equivalent in strength, with the CSR around twice as large, and the Alliance still larger than everyone else.  The Mintek-led PSU will find itself at war with the Zir-Alliance group, and its plans for an attack into Alliance territory will be completely derailed. 

Longer Term
Predicting what is going to happen for this period of time is largely problematic, because so many random events or unlikely battle-resolutions can change the course of the campaign.  However, I expect that the fighting will be intense between the Alliance-Zir combo and the PSU.  The Alliance will heavily campaign with the Human-Bjering CSR to bring them into the war, and, as they are already convinced that the Mintek are a threat, the CSR will agree.  The CSR will launch an assault across its points of contact with the Mintek, dramatically widening the war, further dispersing Mintek forces.  At this point the Alliance will launch a coordinated assault into the Mintek home system from both the Villiers and Phyriseq system, and this should prove decisive.  The Alliance is large enough that it has enough fleet strength to engage the Mintek across all points of contact, and with the addition of the CSR and coordinated assaults into their home system, it should be a foregone conclusion for the Mintek-led PSU. 

In the meantime, the Terran Republic will use everyone’s distraction to expand at the expense of the aliens around it.   First, they will nuke the Tarek out of existence, and then colonize their worlds.  Then, they will try attacking two alien races discovered through their warp points by the Colonial Union.  The CU had decided not to contact those races, but the Republic will now launch invasions of one of the two, trying to expand its economy by conquest.  Unfortunately for them, neither will really work out for them.  One of the races is the Alliance Associate Member race Torqual, which is one of the strongest and most advanced associate members.  While the Alliance will be distracted by the war with the PSU, they will likely leave the Associate Race’s fleets in place, as they are backwards compared to the Alliances.  Also, if the CSR is involved in the PSU war by this point, they will view this attack as a willful attempt to take advantage of the situation, and will help the Alliance fight the Republic.   This will mean that both the Torqual and the Doraz fleets will be able to respond to an invasion, and Alliance and CSR help will be available, eventually.  And the other race is worse.  This other race is the Assimilators, the bug race I mentioned in the last post.  If the Republic tries this one first, they will unleash a plague on known space.  In either case, the Republic’s days will be numbered. 

In the end, the CSR-Alliance team will almost certainly win the wars, and at that point all of the races involved would amalgamate to face the future. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: May 20, 2023, 11:14:44 AM »

Some thoughts on the Cold War Campaign

First off, the start conditions: In this campaign I limited growth to every five turns, and made tech research take longer, with the intent of slowing down the growth rate of the races involved.  It worked fairly well, ensuring that the campaign was still viable much longer than either of my other major Starfire campaigns. 

At the start of the campaign there were four ‘races’.  One of the starting races was the D’Bringi, and there were two human governments, the USSR and the Western Coalition.  More about the fourth race in a bit.  My intent was to focus on the conflict between the D’Bringi and the human governments, and the rivalry between the two human governments, and their internal disputes and pressures, well into mid-game.  This largely worked as anticipated, although I did not know exactly how this would work out at the start of the campaign.  Essentially, my original idea was that whomever won the initial human-D’Bringi war would then face internal dissent that would likely lead to a civil war.  I wasn’t sure who that was going to be when the campaign started.  As it turned out, neither side won, but I decided based on the way things went that the humans would be the one that faced the internal problem, leading to the devastation of Earth.  This was largely because of the random fact that the D’Bringi had met an ally, the Rehorish, and an enemy, the Mintek, neither of whom I anticipated at the start of the campaign. 

The Human nations both started on Earth, of course, and each had a medium population and were almost at HT-1 tech level.  This put each individually behind the D’Bringi, both in terms of income, technology, and population, but combined they had a much better income than the D’Bringi.  This was by intent, as I wanted each government to have a problem dealing with the D’Bringi alone, but if they teamed up, they would hopefully have at least parity with them. 

When I originally generated the D’Bringi, SA indicated that they were a “wild-card” race, which meant that they had one or more tech items from above their actual tech level.  I liked that, as it made them special, and gave them a bit of an advantage against the humans, whom they otherwise might have trouble facing in a straight up fight.  As the campaign went on, I decided to keep giving them an occasional wild-card tech from the next higher tech level, to keep things spicy, or if I felt they needed a little help.  This eventually evolved into the “Benefactors”, whom I then had to flesh out. 

Now, about that fourth race.  To provide a late-middle to late game threat, I also started a hive mind race at the start of the game.  I was ambivalent about this at the time.  Hive minds had been the “big” bad guys in both of my major Starfire campaigns before this, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do them again.  I was worried, though, that the late game might need some spicing up, so I decided to start them and then decide later if I wanted them to become a factor or not.  By around turn 150, though, as the campaign was entering mid-game, I had realized something about my hive mind race.  In a normal Starfire campaign, hive minds are like a metastasizing cancer that just grows and grows.  They get a better growth rate than normal races, and income bonuses for larger populations, as well as reduced colonization costs, all of which means that after a while they become a spreading threat with an incredible economy.  Their weakness is that they are slower to research tech than other races, and don’t use fighters.  In my previous games this meant that they were an incredible threat to mid-tech races, but as time went on their economic advantage began to lose out to their tech and fighter disadvantages.   When the ‘player’ races began advancing to HT-9 and 10, even if the bugs were at HT-9 themselves, they began having problems dealing with opposing fleets.  Higher tech levels introduce more fighter defenses, but the problem is that the bugs take longer to get to those levels than the other races, meaning that they are a substantial and increasing disadvantage going forward, unless they are at a higher tech level than their opponents to begin with.  That makes bugs hard to balance, even in a normal campaign.  They tend to have larger economies than everyone else, but once fighter tech become prevalent amongst their enemies, they have significant difficulties militarily.  If you give them superior tech so they can deal with the fighters they tend to roll over their opponents due to their economic superiority, and if you don’t they become a steadily diminishing threat as they fall further behind.  The major race in the Phoenix Campaign, the Allied Sentient Races, had just become focused on a major campaign against the bugs, and it was looking touch and go.  Knowing what I knew about both sides, though, I was becoming concerned that the bugs were a house of cards that was going to crumble faster than I had originally anticipated.   Unfortunately, I was unable to resolve that campaign due to its size and complexity.   

In the Cold War campaign, however, the lower growth rate really hurt the bugs.  Their income advantage only applies to large and very large populations, if I remember correctly, and with the growth rates reduced it takes forever to grow a population to that point, even with the bug’s increased growth rate.  And, worse, the bugs in this case had some initial bad luck exploring, which slowed their growth as well.  Those two things combined to limit their growth in a way I hadn’t expected, meaning that by turn 150 the bugs wouldn’t really be a threat to either major race, if and when they met.  So, I gave the bugs a big boost in population, bringing their economy more in line with the major races.  However, by then I was focused on the Mintek, who were having their own problems. 

The Mintek are a Federal Theocracy type race, like the Thebans in the canon Starfire universe.  Federal Theocracies are built around a central religious belief that they feel an overwhelming urge to proselytize to the rest of the universe.  A Federal Theocracy will readily make trade or trade and military treaties, but only as a means to spread their faith.  Once the relationship is made, they will convert all population growth from the receiving race within three jumps of their border to their religion and ‘steal’ the population.  This will continue until the other race stops it.  They are also able to convert conquered races to their religion, reducing the time needed to amalgamate conquered pops into their empire.  They are the only government/race in the game that have this ability, and there is no real explanation for this ability given.  They just do it.  By this point I had created the D’Bringi Benefactors, and I realized that a benefactor type situation would be a good explanation for the Mintek conversion ability.  In addition, it could be a linking concept in the campaign.  Therefore, I decided that the Mintek would also have their version of a benefactor, which would explain their ability to convert other races. 

The Mintek were discovered by the D’Bringi and thus started long after the other main races.  This put them in a disadvantageous situation from nearly the start.  The only thing that saved them was that the D’Bringi had concentrated nearly their entire fleet on the front lines with the humans, far from the Mintek home system.  Still, even so, the D’Bringi were able to handily stop the initial Mintek thrust into D’Bringi space, and they then launched an assault into the Mintek home system that was only stopped by the Mintek home system defenses.  The Mintek were a happy accident, not intentional.  But accidental though they were, they fit into the campaign very well as a ‘bad-guy’ race and foil for the rapidly growing D’Bringi Alliance, something I was becoming increasingly convinced the bugs would not do well.  However, they were never strong enough to pose an actual threat to the Alliance, unfortunately.  They did have a brief tech advantage, when they developed HT-9 well ahead of the Alliance, and that actually gave them a chance against their bigger adversary.  They developed a plan to overwhelm the D’Bringi defenses at their initial contact point in the Phyriseq system, using SBM pods, which at that time were unknown to the Alliance, and from there they intended to move from Phyriseq to the Chruqua warp nexus and seize it, fragmenting the D’Bringi empire.  They hoped by that by chopping the Alliance up into numerous smaller pieces they could take those pieces one by one while resisting the uncoordinated counter attacks that came from the fragments.  It was a pretty good plan, and it might have worked.  The D’Bringi at that time knew that the Chruqua nexus was a critical link to much of their empire, but had not realized that it was a vulnerability as well. 

Unfortunately for them, Mintek resources fell short of being able to provide the fleet strength they estimated they would need to make the plan work.  And in trying to build up that fleet they almost destroyed their economy and dug themselves a hole that only the conquest of multiple NPR’s allowed them to climb out of.  Unfortunately, by the time they were able consolidate their hold on their conquests and rehabilitate their economy, they had fallen behind the Alliance in terms of technology and had discovered too many other threat/opportunities to focus their military back on the Alliance. 

Thus, the Mintek had become little more than a nuisance and would have inevitably been put down by the Alliance at some point, particularly after an Alliance associate member (the Zir) found a closed warp point into the Mintek home system.  Enter the Shiba Ascendancy.  I originally introduced the Shiba to provide an additional threat to the other races, as none of my other threats were working out.  I decided to do something a little different with the Shiba, giving them implants which assured loyalty to their government, and would allow them to convert other races after contact, if they were given time.  And then, by random chance, the first race they discovered when they went exploring was the Mintek.  And by that point I realized that the Shiba ability to convert other races was analogous to the Mintek-Theban ability, and was perhaps a better explanation for what the Mintek were doing.  At that point a merger became inevitable, as both sides tried to convert the other.  This merger revitalized and enlarged the Mintek Empire, and made them a credible threat again. 

It was as this was going on, around turn 200+, that I realized I had yet another problem in the way the campaign had developed.  Essentially, humanity as an independent race, was screwed.  The slower population growth rate of the game had found yet another unexpected way to express itself. 

By this point, the way colonization was happening across my races, was as follows:

1.   New System Colonization: Newly discovered systems would be colonized with enough population units to create a small population (150). By turn 200, these systems were typically 8-12 jumps from the core worlds.  Which meant that they were 2-3 months travel from the worlds with large or very large populations, which were best able to handle new colonization. Because the Imperial transportation network moves at a speed of four per turn, that means that a colonization effort sent to a colony site ten jumps from the origin will take three turns to complete.  This is problematic, as that means the capacity tied up in the effort won’t be available for use on anything else for three turns.  It is also very expensive.   If you are depending on colonization alone to create large populations capable of sustaining both in-system and out-system colonization, though, you are going to have to wait a long time. 

2.   In-system colonization: This was colonization of moons, barren planets, and asteroids within a system, using the in-system colonization ability.  Essentially, each system had a certain amount of “free” colonization ability, that didn’t count against the race’s colonization capacity, and is cheaper than regular colonization.  This is an important and cheap way to expand a system’s population, but the system has a limited per-turn capacity based on the productivity of the system, and thus it can take many turns to completely colonize the entire system.  There is another important limitation.  A world with a small population, or a settlement, outpost, or colony, can still use in-system colonization, but if it does so it will quickly deplete its central population.  A world with a population of medium or higher can typically support both in-system and out-system colonization, although it may need to have its population boosted occasionally or it will fall to the small population level.

3.   Boosting population: This one was new to me, and is largely based on the slow population growth in this campaign.  Under the original rules, populations quickly grew to medium sized, and thus were able to support both in-system and out-system colonization fairly rapidly.  Slower population growth, however, subverted this.  It took over 200 turns for the earliest colonies to reach medium size, and by this point the expanding edge of the empire had moved far beyond them.  So, I realized that the best way to promote in-system colonization, and to shorten colonization times to the frontier, was to boost the population of suitable colonies on the periphery (meaning the most productive or most strategically located), with additional colonists.  These boosting efforts were expensive, as it took over six times as many colonists to create a medium population as it did to create a small population.  But, by the mid-game, the Alliance and other more-or-less mature races were well capable of undertaking this effort.  However, the important limitation was that a large or very large population was needed to support these population boost efforts.  A medium population would be quickly drained by such an effort. 

By boosting the population of suitable systems, I created a situation where both in-system colonization, which is very profitable, and limited out-system colonization, became possible.  The out-system colonization was important, because it reduced travel times to new colonies on the periphery, and thus costs as well. 

It was at the turn 200+ level that I began realizing that the Colonial Union had a problem.  They had only one world with a large population, and that world was on the bottom end of the scale.  Thus, they had no worlds capable of boosting a planetary population to medium level without seriously compromising their own populations.  They were able to handle #1 above, albeit with increasing difficulty as the periphery moved farther and farther from their systems with medium populations, but boosting over the long term was beyond their capabilities.  I considered a careful plan of boosting using the excess population from every system that had over the minimum medium population level, and that would have sustained the Union’s colonization effort for some time, but it was a short to medium term solution at best.  In fact, the excess population available to the Union using that method wasn’t enough to boost the suitable candidates the Union already had, much less new opportunities discovered by ongoing exploration.  And it would have left the Union with a bunch of planets barely capable of supporting any out-system colonization at that point. 

All of this was an outgrowth of two factors.  #1, the humans in this campaign nuked their home world.  This removed the only very-large population the humans had.  #2, the humans refused to incorporate any alien races, unlike both the Alliance, the CSR, and the Mintek.  Thus, the humans had no way of obtaining a very large population within the likely time frame of the game.  This also seriously hurt the human’s ability to expand their economy and military through absorbing other races, which was the primary strategy of both the Alliance and the CSR. 

Thus, I realized I faced a future in this campaign where humanity would be increasingly sidelined and marginalized, without any hope of remedying the situation without merging with another race, which would have meant that they wouldn’t really be a human nation any more. 

I did have plans to move forward.  They will be detailed in the next post, which will cover the future of the Cold War Campaign, had I continued it.   
Posted by: Kurt
« on: May 17, 2023, 07:13:47 AM »

Author’s Notes on the last several years of trouble in the Alliance

I did not plan this, exactly, it sort-of just came together.  It all started with the D’Bringi coup.  I had designed many of my races with flaws that I intended to exploit as the story went on, in one way or another.  The nuclear war that nearly destroyed Earth is one example, as is the Torqual civil war.  The D’Bringi coup is another example of this. 

The D’Bringi coup was born out of instabilities within the D’Bringi society, largely exacerbated by their success.  The D’Bringi were a nomadic and warlike people who were assisted by the Benefactors and thus achieved world domination not because of their superior culture or economy, but because the Benefactors gave them superior weaponry.  Of course, the D’Bringi convinced themselves that they were inherently superior, because, why not?  They won; they united their world.  Given their success, they faced no pressure to change their old ways.  The old ways were marked by clan domination of their civil society, economy, and military.  The clans held the majority of their own members in a status that was little better than chattel slavery, and the clan-less were treated even worse.  The D’Bringi took this system to the stars with them, because, again, given the assistance of the Benefactors, they felt no pressure to change or evolve.  Thus, the D’Bringi society that went to the stars was primitive and warlike, bent on conquest of everything in sight, for all that they were traveling in starships and establishing colonies on other planets. 

For all of this, though, there were those within D’Bringi society who believed it had to change.  Among those were the highest clan leaders, who saw firsthand the inefficiency of their economy and society compared to the Rehorish and the other races. Many of the middle class saw this too, but had little recourse within the Clan system.   Even as the conquest of the Doraz and the Torqual fueled the D’Bringi economy and their desire for more conquests, the great clan chiefs were questioning if their way actually worked.  After all, was the goal of the D’Bringi to continue conquering every race they encountered, until they met a race they couldn’t conquer or fight to a standstill, like the humans?  Compared to a vital, growing society like the Rehorish, the D’Bringi economy was anemic, its only bright spot provided by the resources looted from conquered races. 

Even as the D’Bringi home world grew rich on loot, the D’Bringi leadership knew that they had to change.  The lower orders were growing restive.   As they saw how the various aliens lived, when they realized that conquered aliens like the Torqual had more freedoms within their own society than they did, discontent grew and spread.  And so, the great clan leaders embraced change.  They caused the conquered races to be freed and bound them to the D’Bringi with economic and military treaties.  This had become possible largely because of the service of the T’Pau during the war with the humans.  It was their bravery and service that convinced so many in the D’Bringi leadership that aliens acting in concert with the D’Bringi could be an asset and not a threat, or an object to be exploited.  The D’Bringi leadership used this growing awareness as a wedge to gain enough approval to force through the treaties that created the Alliance.  In this, the great clan chiefs stole a march on their opponents who wished to keep everything the same in D’Bringi society.  The treaties of alliance opened the D’Bringi economy to integration with that of the Rehorish, and, basically, forced change upon the D’Bringi people.  If the D’Bringi hadn’t been ready for this change it could have been immediately disastrous, however, there was a large and growing movement within D’Bringi society pushing for just this kind of change, and they jumped into the opening of the D’Bringi economy with both feet.  New colonies sprang up everywhere, settled mostly by those who wanted a new start away from the old clan system.  In spite of some cultural unrest, the D’Bringi economy flourished as the formerly oppressed lower orders took advantage of their new-found freedoms to better their lives.  All of this activity buoyed the D’Bringi economy as it integrated with the Rehorish economy, and all seemed to be going well for the D’Bringi.  Behind the scenes, though, there were those who resented the changes.  Who felt like they had lost that which society owed them.  There always is, no matter how objectively good change might be. 

The coup built up for quite a while, behind the scenes, as other events unfolded.  The plotters raised money by skimming the take from several outer colonies, which they used to convert several old freighters into Q ships that could be used to pirate regular freighters, particularly if you had their schedules, which the plotters did.  As that money started rolling in, they used it to suborn or convince D’Bringi officers to come to their side, particularly officers commanding corvette-carriers.  Once they had enough under their control, they used their penetration of the Alliance and D’Bringi governments to contact the newly discovered Khozun, and convince them to launch an offensive in exchange for help building up their technology, industry, and orbital shipyards.  The plotters raked off all of the loot from the conquest of Chirq Prime, instead of just a percentage, by turning on the Khozuni and destroying first their fleet, and then their capital city to cover their tracks.  That money was used to fund widespread social influence events across selected D’Bringi colonies, calling for a return to the old ways. This movement underlay the eventual coup, and was used as a justification for the violent overthrow of the old government. 

All of the money taken by the plotters was relatively small, in terms of the major governments in the campaign.  However, in real terms, they stole tens of billions of dollars (equivalent), which was plenty to fund a movement and corrupt corporate and government officials.  However, once they moved on the Chirq the clock was ticking.  The Alliance would find out, and as they were in the Rehorish area of control, the Rehorish would investigate, and once the investigation started it was only a matter of time before they figured out enough to begin connecting the dots. 

Now, most of this would not have been possible without control and/or corruption of the Alliance ICN.  Just simple piracy is difficult in the Starfire universe, where the all-seeing long-range sensors can see every drive field in range, and sensor buoy/comms buoy combinations at every warp point ensure the central government can back track every ship that enters and leaves a system.  Certainly, the movements of military warships would be tracked, and any ship that deviated from its assignments would be quickly identified and queried by the ICN.  Therefore, I decided that something like that was well within the capabilities of the Benefactors, and thus the coup was born. 

It is important to realize that the plotter’s plan was never to fight the Alliance.  The plotters knew that if it came to a standup fight between the D’Bringi and the rest of the Alliance, they’d lose.  Instead, they relied on misdirection to distract the Alliance to allow them enough time to consolidate their hold on the D’Bringi people, presenting the Alliance with a situation that would be too difficult to resolve given their increased tensions with the other races.  The plotters made several miscalculations, though. 

Firstly, they underestimated how mad the Rehorish and T’Pau would be about the corruption of the ICN.  Indeed, the plotters seriously underestimated the Rehorish response to the corrupted ICN.  They believed that the Rehorish would continue to use the corrupted ICN until they could present a ‘fix’, thus making themselves the heroes that fixed the problem.  Instead, the Rehorish and the T’Pau completely cut themselves off from the ICN, believing that the corruption might be the first step to a campaign of conquest by an unknown threat. 

The second big miscalculation was the T’Pau.  The plotter’s movement was based entirely on D’Bringi chauvinism, and the old-style D’Bringi disdained the T’Pau as a client species that had risen above its station.  The plotters believed that the T’Pau would be too afraid to make a move against the D’Bringi, even with Rehorish support, thus splitting the Council and giving the plotters time they needed to consolidate their power.  In fact, the T’Pau over the years since the establishment of the Alliance had matured and come to appreciate their independence and position within the Alliance.  They did not want war with the D’Bringi, but were also unwilling to overlook D’Bringi misdeeds.  This meant that a rump-Council could be formed by two of the three full members of the Alliance, allowing them to act effectively against the plotters when the evidence of their wrong-doing became clear. 

The final major miscalculation was the plotter’s belief that they would have the support of the general D’Bringi population.  In fact, they did not.  This was randomly determined by a roll against the D’Bringi racial outlook, minus one half their racial determination.  If the plotters succeeded in their roll, they would have been right, and would have had the support of the majority of the population.  However, they lost their roll, indicating that the population did not support them.  Therefore, while they were able to gain the support of most of the critical colonies, that support was grudging in many cases, and they could not count on that support without an infusion of troops loyal to the plotters.  Worse, they could not count on the enthusiastic support of D’Bringi crewed Alliance naval units.  As the new, and apparently legitimate, government, the Empire could call upon their loyalty, but their obedience was not guaranteed and the more they knew about the Imperials the less loyal they would be as time moved forward. 

All of this meant that while the plotters had great initial success, time was against them.  Ultimately this was their ruin.  The nascent D’Bringi Empire fell when the Emperor disappeared and the D’Bringi home system remained cut off from the D’Bringi colonies. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: April 21, 2023, 11:01:37 AM »

Note: The data for this was taken from Month 231, because I advanced the turn before remembering I wanted to do this.  So it won’t match up with the numbers given in the recent updates. 

Income and Upkeep for Core Polities:
Alliance         Income: 339,905 MCr’s      Upkeep: 117,494 MCr’s (34.6%)      
CSR                 Income: 182,031 MCr’s      Upkeep: 58,313 MCr’s (32%)
Colonial Union      Income: 179,557 MCr’s      Upkeep: 65,059 MCr’s (36%)
Zir Commonality   Income: 97,053 MCr’s      Upkeep: 31,464 MCr’s (32.4%)
CFS                  Income: 29,268 MCr’s      Upkeep: 10,584 MCr’s (35%)

Income and Upkeep for Core Polities and their treaty-bound Associates
Alliance         Income: 477,500 MCr’s      Upkeep: 155,738 MCr’s (34.6%)      
CSR                 Income: 202,601 MCr’s      Upkeep: 63,657 MCr’s (31.4%)
Colonial Union      Income: 188,649 MCr’s      Upkeep: 65,126 MCr’s (34.5%)
Zir Commonality   Income: 118,073 MCr’s      Upkeep: 41,552 MCr’s (35%)
CFS                  Income: 29,268 MCr’s      Upkeep: 10,584 MCr’s (35%)

Fleets (including treaty-bound)
Alliance: 20xCV, 13xCVL, 16xCVS, 137xCVE, 6xML, 15xSD, 15xBB, 79xBC, 97xCA, 83xCL, 119xDD, 31xFG, 369xCT, 12xES, 250xEX, 6xBS5, 9xBS4, 37xBS3, 62xBS2, 39xBS1, 141xBS0, 7xAF(2116 HS), 6xPDC (438 HS)

Colonial Union: 4xCV, 20xCVL, 1xCVS, 100xCVE, 15xSD, 3xBB, 33xBC, 32xCA, 49xCL, 46xDD, 19xFG, 47xCT, 16xES, 120xEX, 24xBS3, 11xBS2, 26xBS1, 84xBS0, 3xAF(2007 HS), 6xPDC(438 HS)

Confederated Sentient Races: 9xCV, 1xCVL, 25xCVS, 36xCVE, 12xML,, 33xBC, 11xCa, 15xCL, 56xDD, 20xFG, 48xCT, 3xES, 3xEX, 12xBS4, 74xBS3, 6xBS2, 3xAF(777 HS), 12xPDC(1707 HS)

Confederated Free States: 15xCVE, 1xSD, 6xBC, 12xCA, 18xDD, 3xCT, 16xES, 21xBS3

Zir Commonality: 11xCV, 18xBC, 2xCVE, 49xDD, 119xFG, 179xCT, 3xBS6, 12xBS4, 12xBS2, 36xBS0

Alliance                  Total Ships: 1672   Total HS: 60,223
Colonial Union         Total Ships: 687      Total HS: 25,119
Confed Sentient Races   Total Ships: 430      Total HS: 22,330
Zir Commonality      Total Ships: 455      Total HS: 13,322
Confed Free States      Total Ships: 96      Total HS: 3,730

   
Posted by: Kurt
« on: April 21, 2023, 10:10:43 AM »

Month 230 Update, Zir Commonality
Income: 97,053 MCr’s
Upkeep: 31,464 MCr’s (32.4%)

There is great excitement throughout the Zir nation now that they are formally independent from the Alliance.  A sense of independence and destiny has gripped the Zir, and they are enthusiastically transforming themselves from inward looking academics to an expansive, out-going polity.  One sign of this is the change in name for their nation, from the Zir Contemplative Union to the Commonality.  The Zir fervently believe that all sentient races have much more in common than their differences, and thus they seek to unite like minded races under the banner of the Commonality.  Ever mindful of the Alliance example, the Zir have come to realize that a strong defensive force is necessary to avoid becoming a target of other races. 

The Zir have made contact with one race, the Ut, independent of the Alliance, and look forward to meeting many new races now that they are out from under what they felt was the oppressive oversight of the Alliance.  Indeed, they are planning to establish contact with the three races discovered through the Villiers warp nexus once the fleet build-up and refits are finished.  While they view the Alliance as warlike and fearful of outside races, they are mindful of the Alliance’s warnings about the Mintek, and so will be cautious as to the methods they use to contact that race, if indeed they do decide to move forward with contact with the Mintek. 

For various cultural reasons the Zir have fielded what the Alliance called a “swarm fleet” in the past.  After sending observers to watch the Alliance forces in their recent conflicts, the Zir had decided to move away from that concept, however, their development of fighters resurrected the swarm effectiveness in their eyes.  They have decided to convert their corvette and frigate designs to hybrid carriers, carrying eight and ten fighters respectively.  This allows the Zir fleet to field a vast number of fighters relative to their nominal fleet strength.  In addition, the idea of fighter combat appeals to the Zir, who abhor losses.  While fighter combat is attritional in nature, fighter losses, when compared to ship losses, mean much less loss of life.  The Zir are nearing the end of a massive program of refitting their fleet, and plan on shoring up the defenses in Villiers and building more corvette-carriers before initiating contact with the races on the far end of the Villiers warp points. 

The Zir were elated to find the Ut, with whom they’ve had a trade relationship since deciphering their language.  The Ut recently agreed to upgrade their treaties with the Commonality to a include mutual defense treaty.  The Zir were happy to sign this treaty with the Ut, however, some Zir have become concerned about the strange Ut government, which they treat more like a religion rather than a rational governing group.  However, while the Ut seem almost fanatical about their belief in this “communism” of theirs, they have not attempted to convert the Zir to their beliefs to date, and seem happy to co-exist with the Commonality.

Home Fleet: 38xDD, 2xCVE, 44xFG, 94xCT. 1,162xF0
Villiers Fleet: 6xDD, 27xFG, 60xCT, 624xF0

Construction: 90xF0, 80xIDEW-E
Refits: 25xDD, 2xFG, 75xIDEW-E

Ut World State
Income: 21,020 MCr’s
Upkeep: 10088 MCr’s (48%)

Fleet: 9xCV, 12xBC, 324xF1

In month 226, Ut exploration ships probed the eight warp points they discovered in their home system, aside from the one warp point leading to Zir space that they already knew about.  Two of the new systems had habitable planets and thus are a high priority to survey, while five of the others are uninteresting to the Ut, except perhaps as a route of future expansion.  The last system, though, has an inhabited planet.  The population is clearly a recently placed settlement, and based on the emission signatures the settlement appears to belong to the Alliance that the Zir warned them about.  The Ut survey ship was within detection range of the colony when it turned back towards the outer system, but the Ut ship’s entry point into the system was closed, and so the Alliance would be unable to follow them back to their home. 

The Ut are cautiously exploring the systems around them, and by Month 230 have established two out-system colonies. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: April 18, 2023, 08:58:15 AM »

Alliance Reorg, Month 230
The recent difficulties across the Alliance, coupled with the partial withdrawal from Zir territory, has caused the Alliance to reorganize its fleets.  One of the primary lessons of the wars the Alliance learned in the wars was the need to deal with the vast territory the Alliance now controls.  To this end the Alliance has decided to establish nodal forces at several locations throughout the Alliance, along with a central force in the Chruqua Nexus, while will be available to respond rapidly to nearly any region of the Alliance, including the home worlds of the member races and many of the associate members.  The ships stationed in home worlds will be designated System Defense Forces, while the nodal fleets will be numbered.

Another result of the recent conflicts was the decision made by the Alliance Council, in conjunction with the Associate Members, to require Associate Members to station 25% of their active fleets in the Chruqua Nexus as members of the Chruqua reaction force.  In exchange, an Alliance squadron will be stationed at all Associate Member home systems, acting as a trip-wire force to reassure the member governments that the Alliance will stand by them.  This decision was largely made as a result of the invasion of the Chirq home world by the Khozuni during the D’Bringi civil war. 

The Alliance fleet is still recovering from the recent conflicts it was involved in.  Some of the fleet’s ships still have minor unrepaired battle damage, and many of the ships have not been refitted to the latest standards.  Indeed, the Alliance Navy is planning a new round of refits to incorporate HT-10 systems, and many of the fleet’s ships are still at HT-8 standards, or in some cases even older.  Many of the fleet’s corvette-carriers still carry F0 fighters, as there was never enough time to update their fighter complements, and some of the fleet’s carriers have not had their complements replenished after the last series of battles against the Lothari. 

The System Defense Forces
System Defense Force, T’Pau: 3xBC, 6xCL, 6xCVE, 6xCTV, 111xF1
System Defense Force, D’Bringi: 3xBC, 3xCA, 6xCVE, 3xDD, 6xCTV, 15xF0, 111xF1
System Defense Force, Rehorish: 6xBC, 6xCA, 3xCL, 9xCVE, 9xDD, 6xCTV, 18xF0, 153xF1
System Defense Force, Aurarii: 3xCA, 6xCTV, 35xF1
System Defense Force, Bir: 3xBC, 3xDD, 3xCVE, 6xCTV, 24xF0, 42xF1
System Defense Force, Chirq: 6xCA, 3xCL, 6xDD, 6xCVE, 9xCTV, 99xF0, 51xF1
System Defense Force, Doraz: 3xCVS, 3xCL, 3xDD, 6xCVE, 6xCTV, 45xF0, 138xF1
System Defense Force, Khozun: 3xCA, 2xCVS, 3xCL, 6xCVE, 6xCTV, 6xF0, 60xF1
System Defense Force, Torqual: 3xCL, 3xCVS, 6xCVE, 6xCTV, 12xF0, 75xF1
System Defense Force, Kumamoto: 3xCA, 6xCVE, 3xDD, 6xCTV, 126xF1

Occupation Group, Lothar: 3xCV, 6xBC, 6xCL, 6xDD, 9xCTV, 12xF0, 186xF1
The Lothar Occupation Group’s primary mission is to assist the ground forces assigned to the Lothar occupation force and to patrol former Lothari territory both to ensure no Lothari remnants attempt to reform and to guard against incursions from outside the Alliance. 

Border Group, Dether (Colonial Union): 3xCL, 1xCVS, 3xCTV, 42xF1
The Dether system was the location of several battles with the Colonial Union during the recent border war with that nation.  The was ended by mutual agreement between the Colonial Union and the Alliance, on terms favorable to the Colonial Union.  This was largely due to the fact that the D’Bringi subterfuge that started the D’Bringi civil war began with an unprovoked raid into Colonial Union territory.  The Dether system, and its warp chain that leads to the Alliance colony world of Sandhurst, is the primary trade route for the Colonial Union and the Alliance, now that trade has been restored.  In an attempt to keep tensions down with the Colonial Union, the Alliance force stationed here has been significantly reduced. 
 
Border Group, Phyriseq (Mintek): 12xBC, 5xCVL, 12xCA, 3xCVS, 12xDD, 9xCTV, 78xF0, 198xF1
The Phyriseq system links to the Mintek home system, and is the original contact point between the Alliance and the Mintek.  The warp point is heavily fortified on both sides, and neither side has attempted to force its way through since the original battles in the Mintek and Phyriseq system.  The Group assigned to this system is intended to support the fortifications in the system and delay any attacker long enough for heavy reinforcements to arrive from the Chruqua Nexus, which is only one jump away. 

Border Group, Sapporo (Colonial Union): 9xCTV, 54xF1
The Sapporo System borders on the Confederated Free Systems, beyond which lies the Colonial Union.  The CFS has proven to be a reliable buffer between the Colonial Union and the Alliance, and even during the recent border conflict in the Dether system the Colonial Union never attempted to launch an attack through the CFS.  Therefore, the force assigned to this system has been reduced to a patrol force.  There are fortifications stationed at the jump point to the CFS, however, this system’s true defense lies in its proximity to the Rehorish Home System. 

Border Group, Kure (Colonial Union, Mintek): 6xCA, 3xCVS, 3xCL, 6xCVE, 9xCTV, 72xF0, 144xF1
This system, like the Sapporo system, borders on the Confederated Free Systems.  Also like the Sapporo system, it lies between the CFS and the Rehorish Home system.  Unlike the Sapporo system, though, this system also contains a closed warp point that leads to the Mintek empire.  The location of this closed warp point is currently unknown; thus, it cannot be fortified.  However, the location has been narrowed down to a region of space that has been seeded with detection buoys, and if the Mintek use it again the exact location of the warp point will be revealed.

Border Group, Roban (CSR): 3xCVL, 3xCA, 6xDD, 3xCTV, 24xF0, 90xF1
The Roban system is the location of the primary trade point with the CSR.  Relations with the CSR have generally been good, although it is clear that the CSR does not generally trust the Alliance, perhaps due to the events surrounding first contact between the two primary races of the two nations. 

Border Group, Breshy (Mintek): 3xDD, 1xCVE, 3xCTV, 33xF1
This force guards a connection between the Alliance and the Mintek, and is located in the Far frontier Sector, beyond Stahat.  The warp connection is closed on the Alliance side, and the Alliance believes that the Mintek do not know the location of the closed warp point in the Juath system.  No Mintek ships have been detected in the Juath system in years, and Alliance Intelligence is confident that the Mintek have written off the system and withdrawn beyond their own closed warp link into the Juath system.  Thus the Juath guard force has been reduced over the years to a light patrol squadron to monitor the warp point and the Juath system.  In addition, light defenses have been built at the warp point to slow down a Mintek incursion, should they know about the warp point. 

Nodal Fleets
1st (Chruqua Nexus) Fleet: 2xML, 12xSD, 12xBB, 7xCV, 21xBC, 3xCA, 30xCVE, 4xDD, 8xCTV, 117xF0, 372xF1, 1xBC(pod), 29xDD(Pod)
Aurarii Contribution: 3xML, 1xCV, 1xCVL, 3xCVP, 1xSupply Ship, 60xF1
Doraz Contribution: 1xML, 3xBC, 3xCVE, 2xDD, 10xCT, 36xF0, 3xApin
Torqual Contribution: 3xBC, 9xCA, 9xCL, 2xCT
Chirq Contribution: 3xDD, 3xCT, 3xES

The 1st Fleet is the Alliance’s primary response unit.  All of the other fleets and groups are intended to patrol Alliance territory and slow down and hopefully contain any attacker until units from the 1st Fleet can arrive.  The Chruqua Nexus is the perfect location for this force, as the nexus contains twelve warp points and is one jump away from the Doraz and Torqual Home Systems, and the Phyriseq system.  It is two jumps from the T’Pau home system, and three from the Rehorish and D’Bringi home systems. 

2nd (Stahat) Fleet: 3xBC, 3xCA, 9xCVE, 6xCTV, 12xF0, 144xF1
The 2nd Fleet is the primary patrol and defense force for the Far Frontier Sector.  The sector capital at Stahat is two jumps from the Chruqua Nexus and the 1st Fleet, but the bulk of the Sector is much farther from Chruqua and the core worlds.  The 2nd Fleet is understrength for its assigned duties, as the Far Frontiers Sector is spread out, but the sector is relatively low population, especially compared to the Core Sector, and the ships assigned to the fleet reflect that. 

3rd (Liawak) Fleet: 3xBC, 6xCA, 6xDD, 6xCVE, 6xCTV, 15xF0, 111xF1
The 3rd Fleet exists to patrol the area territory around Liawak, and to act as reinforcements for the Lothari occupation force, should they need it. 

4th (Villiers/Zir) Fleet: 3xCV, 3xBC, 6xCA, 6xCL, 6xDD, 9xCVE, 2xCTS, 279xF1
After the Zir withdrawal from the Alliance, the Alliance was forced to negotiate with the notoriously pacifistic Zir government over the force levels they would allow within their territory.  The Zir had originally wanted all Alliance forces to withdraw, but given the presence of an Alliance colony within the Zir system of Villiers, and the heavy Alliance fixed fortifications built in that system, the Zir found themselves unable to deny the Alliance a presence in the system.  The current force was the largest the Zir would allow at this time, but they have agreed to discuss allowing additional Alliance ships into their territory should they attempt contact with any of the races found through the Villiers warp nexus.   

Aurarii Republic
Income: 25,861 MCr’s
Upkeep: 11,896 MCr’s (46%)

The Aurarii recently achieved HT-10, and are researching systems available at that tech level.  The Aurarii are actively seeking a closer relationship with the Alliance, and currently have a Partnership treaty with them.  Having reached tech parity, they are making overtures to the Alliance Council, pushing for full membership.  The Alliance Council is not yet ready to consider such an application from the Aurarii as there has not yet been enough time since the partnership treaty was signed to consider changing the relationship status between the two nations. 

The Doraz and their Norn allies are cool towards the possibility of the Aurarii joining the Alliance as full members, each for their own reasons.  While they are not openly opposing this possibility, they are moving behind the scenes to slow down the Aurarii application process.  The Norn are very hostile towards the Aurarii, and it is likely that without the Doraz and Alliance presence in the Aurarii and Norn home system another war would break out sooner or later. 

The Aurarii, for their part, maintain that their recent change of government has changed their outlook towards other races, and have pledged to maintain the peace going forward.  While there has been some concern expressed by Alliance and Doraz observers at the large-scale military building program that the Aurarii have undertaken since the end of the war with the Alliance, the Aurarii government has stated that the bulk of the new production will be placed into mothballs as reserves against future need, and has also pledged to commit approximately 33% of their standing fleet to the Alliance’s Chruqua Reaction Force.

In part, the Aurarii military build up can be explained by the fact that they are “landlocked”.  The Aurarii, and the Norn, have no access to open warp points, which in part explains the war that the previous Aurarii government fought against the Doraz and the Alliance.   

Home Fleet: 3xSD, 4xCVL, 7xCLP, 90xF1
Alliance Reaction Force: See Alliance fleet section
Under Construction: 3xBS5, 3xML, 6xCV, 3xCVL, 3xCL, 180xF1

Doraz Contingency
Income: 42,519 MCr’s
Upkeep: 7,779 MCr’s (18%)

The Doraz have been very supportive of the Alliance throughout the recent difficulties, and bore the brunt of the war against the Aurarii.  After the Aurarii asked for terms, the Doraz were the only Alliance Associate Member to send forces to the Lothari front, although they arrived too late to participate in combat against the Aurarii.  The Doraz have contributed 40% of their fleet to the Alliance Reaction Force in the Chruqua Nexus, and a further 33% to the Aurarii/Norn System as a peacekeeping force. 

The Doraz are at HT-8 and are researching the next level with Alliance assistance.  The bulk of their fleet has been refitted to HT-8 standards, with the notable exception of their corvette force.  The corvettes fielded by the Doraz fleet are old designs, recently reactivated from mothballs after the destruction of their fleet in the war with the Aurarii.  They date back to the Doraz pre-interstellar period and have not been updated since.  In an effort to get more fighters into space, the Doraz have recently decided to refit their corvette fleet to match the Alliance’s CTV’s.

The Doraz are actively negotiating with the Alliance for access to Alliance territory as they no longer have any open and unexplored warp points in their territory.  As a result of this, both of their survey squadrons have been mothballed in their home system.  For now, the Doraz are focusing on boosting the populations of their colonies, however, they will run out of suitable locations for that in the near future. 

Alliance Reaction Fleet: See Alliance 1st Fleet
Aurarii Peacekeeping Force: 3xCA, 6xCVE, 9xCT, 72xF0
Home Fleet: 1xBB, 2xCA, 7xCVE, 14xCT, 84xF0, 5xApin

Under Construction: 2xML, 2xBB, 3xBC, 1xCa, 4xDD, 4xCTV
Refits: 14xCT

Torqual Free State
Income: 49,734 MCr’s
Maintenance: 16567 MCr’s (26.6%)

The Torqual have reached HT-8 and are refitting their fleet to that standard, and building carriers.  The Torqual fleet has decided to field larger carriers, and is proto-typing a CVL hull at this time, working towards a full carrier design at some point in the future.  So far they have built a handful of CVE’s and a single CVS, and are building several more CVS’s to fill in until the CV fleet can be built.  Currently, the standard CVE and CVS designs are “fighter-barges”, designed to carry fighters and little else.  The Torqual have adopted this design because of their perceived gap in capabilities compared to the Alliance and the races it has fought recently, and so they are trying to get as many fighters into space as possible with the fewest hulls. 

The Torqual, along with the Doraz, remain the most reliable of allies for the Alliance.  Although the Torqual did not send ships to fight the Lothari, they did dispatch a fleet to support the Doraz against the Aurarii.  The Alliance fielded that fleet in a support role, as the Torqual fleet was technologically substantially behind the force that the Aurarii fielded, but it was a welcome addition to the Alliance forces on the Doraz front in spite of that. 

Home Fleet: 6xBC, 11xCA, 1xCVS, 19xCL, 6xCVE, 5xCT, 102xF0
Alliance Fleet, Chruqua Nexus: See Alliance Section
Unity Squadron: 3xCA, 6xCL
Equity Squadron: 3xCA, 3xCL, 3xCT

Under Construction: 3xBS4, 1xCVL, 3xCVS,
Refitting: 3xBC, 1xCVS, 5xCA, 3xCL, 3xBS2, 5xDD(AW)

Bir Meritocracy
Income: 4,950 MC’rs
Upkeep: 537 MCr’s (6.6%)

The Bir have reached HT-4 and are researching systems available at that level.  While they have not yet built armed ships, they have fielded one survey group and have built five medium sized bases for orbital defense. 

Chirq Cooperative
Income: 13,462 MCr’s
Upkeep: 2465 MCr’s (11%)

The Chirq are researching HT-5 with the assistance of the Alliance.  Since the invasion by the Khozuni the Chirq have instituted a very active exploration and colonization program.  They currently field one survey group and are planning to build a second in the near future.   They have boosted the population of one colony planet to self-sustaining levels, but have been unable to boost a second as their colonization transports have been too busy placing settlements on newly discovered planets. 

Chirq Home Fleet: 6xDD, 5xCT, 4xES
Chirq Alliance Fleet: See Alliance Section

Khozun Empire
Income: 949 MCr’s

The Khozuni were recently freed by the Alliance, dependent on signing a fairly restrictive “mutual defense treaty” that in actuality makes the Khozuni dependent on the Alliance for defense.  This was an easy decision for the reformed Imperial government, given the disparity between the Khozuni economy and even the Chirq economy, much less that of the Alliance.  To date the Khozuni have focused on settling their system, and are researching HT-3 with Alliance assistance.

Norn Regime
Income: 19, 278 MCr’s
Upkeep: 3,287 MCr’s (17%)

The Norn recently concluded treaty negotiations with the Doraz, the Alliance race that they are most comfortable with, signing a mutual defense pact on Month 228 to go with their existing trade relationship.  The Norn have a trade relationship with the Alliance and a non-aggression treaty with the Aurarii, with whom they share their home system.  The Norn are fairly enigmatic to outsiders, however, the Doraz, who are militaristic, get along with them fairly well.  The Norn hate the Aurarii, who have economically dominated them since they moved into space, and who conquered them at the time of first contact with the Doraz.  The Aurarii occupation was fairly repressive and the Aurarii were not above destroying small towns or villages from orbit in reprisal for Norn sabotage attacks. 

Since gaining their freedom as part of the Aurarii surrender to the Alliance, the Norn have been de-mothballing and modernizing ships as quickly as possible.  The Norn are HT-7 and are researching HT-8 with Doraz assistance.  Like the Aurarii, the Norn are confined to their home system as even the Doraz cannot give them access to open warp points, given their own difficulties in that area.  The Norn are not considered associate members of the Alliance at this time, and so have not contributed ships to the reaction force in the Chruqua Nexus.  Given the proximity of the Aurarii fleet and the continuing threat the Norn feel from their neighbors, it is unlikely that the Norn would send any ships out of their system in any case. 

Norn Home Fleet: 3xBB, 3xBC, 3xDD

Construction: 8xBS4, 3xBB, 1xSSSY(10xSY)
Posted by: Kurt
« on: April 15, 2023, 03:33:39 PM »

Month 227, Alliance
The Chirq Cooperative agrees to transfer control of the Khozun system to the Alliance in exchange for a monthly payment to make up for the loss of income.  To be honest, the Chirq government had been growing increasingly concerned on the dependence on tribute from the occupation of Khozun that had been growing within their economy and society.  In addition, they had little idea of how to put the Khozun on the path to independence, so the Alliance’s offer came at the right time. 

With Khozun under the firm control of Alliance occupation troops, an Alliance negotiation team moves into the Khozun capital to begin work towards integrating the Khozuni into the Alliance.  Incredibly, they find a delegation from a newly established Khozun government awaiting them, primed to do whatever it takes to end the occupation and begin peaceful integration within the Alliance.  It seems the Khozuni had been trying for some time to negotiate with the Chirq, but had been frustrated by the Chirq desire to talk everything over endlessly.  Indeed, they suspected that the Chirq had been using that as a tactic to delay them as the Chirq clearly had had no idea of what they were doing.  With the Alliance now in control, and an Alliance negotiating team on-site with authorization from the Alliance government to work out a deal, the Khozun were able to rapidly come to an agreement.  Essentially, the Khozuni would be freed from occupation, and given access to nearby systems for the purpose of colonization.  In addition, trade would be opened up with the Alliance, along with assistance for R&D.  In exchange, the Khozun agreed to host an Alliance peacekeeping squadron, and to build no armed warships until the Alliance Council and the Chirq agreed that they were ready. 

Author’s Note: The Alliance rolled a critical success when they offered the Khozun a trade and military treaty, which meant that not only did they agree to the offer but they counter-offered the next better relationship. 

Month 227, Lothari Prime
The Lothari ground forces had been decisively broken a month ago, and since then Skull Splitter’s army had been mopping up the remnants of the Lothari Army and consolidating control over the outlying cities, before moving in on the industrial and cultural heartlands of the Lothari civilization.  Now, they were approaching the final strongholds of the Lothari, the inner cities of the Lothari nation.  The first city on their route to the capital was Brentan, an ancient cultural and economic center of great importance to the Lothari.  Much of the remaining Lothari ground forces had consolidated in dug in positions within the city, clearly intending to fight to the last soldier.  Orbital surveillance had documented civilian labor constructing hasty fortifications, and militia groups being armed and moved into the fortifications.  Exhortations from the Supreme Leader to “stand fast” and fight for Lothari freedom and self-determination were played on all channels at all times.

Skull Splitter, who by this time was leading the ground forces personally, halted his advancing columns short of the city, and then called up on the residents and city leaders to surrender.  The only answer from the Lothari was a redoubled effort to finish their fortifications.  And so, on the 5th of the month, Skull Splitter called down missiles from the orbiting Doraz Monitor, the Victory, obliterating the city and all of its defenders. 

The Lothari government tried to cut off the information coming out of Brentan, but it had spent too long building up the defenders of the city as heroic exemplars of Lothari fortitude, and when suddenly all reporting from the city went dark, rumors ran rampant throughout the remaining Lothari strongholds.  The Supreme Leader had reassured the military and civic leaders that the Alliance would not bombard the inner cities, as they were incredibly important and filled with culture and history, all things he knew the Alliance, in their weakness, revered.  It was to be the Leader’s last miscalculation.  By the 6th riots had begun in all of the remaining unoccupied cities as the residents realized that they had made a suicide pact with their government.  As unruly mobs approached the capital buildings, and the bunkers the Supreme Leader and his followers were sheltering in, the remnants of the military and security forces abandoned their posts, leaving the doors open as they melted into the population of the city, shedding their uniforms as quickly as they could.  The Supreme Leader was dragged into the central square in front of his former residence and dismembered while the crowd celebrated. 

It took two days for the riots to die down and for a semblance of order to be restored.  A council of town and city leaders convened and asked for terms of surrender from Skull Splitter.  Again, Skull Splitter demanded unconditional surrender, and this time the Lothari agreed.  The war was over. 

Month 228, Lothari Prime
The occupation of the former Lothari Kingdom was going well.  Every remaining city on the planet had surrendered and had accepted occupation forces without resistance.  For the most part, aside from a few holdout military units that had refused to surrender, the remnants of the military and security forces had melted away, with the survivors hoping to blend into the population and remain undetected.  Indeed, the biggest problem had been restraining the mobs that had appeared in most of the city, intent on hunting down the leaders who had led them to ruin. 

Skull Splitter’s forces had seized a vast fortune in resources hoarded by the Lothari government for their own purposes, and, even more importantly, uncovered evidence that the Lothari had recently made a breakthrough into advanced technology beyond that of the Alliance.  Fortunately, they had only just begun developing new military systems and many of their research programs had been unfinished by the time of their conquest or never started for a lack of resources, but one concrete example had been discovered in a research facility outside of the capital city.  This was a more advanced version of the anti-fighter missile (AFM2) that even now was being developed for use by the Alliance Navy.  Skull Splitter had all examples of the advanced missile, and all data from the research center, sent back to the Alliance capital for immediate development by Alliance R&D teams.  With the Lothari threat ended, Skull Splitter is recalled to the capital.  He has actually been wearing three ‘hats’ during the campaign, as the Grand Admiral (or Tai-sho) in command of the Alliance forces on the Lothari Front, the Prime Minister of the reformed D’Bringi Empire, and the D’Bringi Representative on the Alliance High Council.  While he led the fleet his adult children stood in for him in the other positions, but with the threat ended, it was time for him to return regularize the situation by assuming one of the roles and filling the others with suitable candidates.  He will travel to Rehorish Prime by fast courier, arriving next month. 

Month 229, D’Bringi Prime
Skull-Splitter, the last of the old clan leaders, was crowned Emperor of all D’Bringi on the 15th of the month.  His trusted chancellor from the old clan days is promoted to be the D’Bringi representative to the Alliance. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: April 10, 2023, 09:23:52 AM »

Confederated Sentient Races
Month 230 Update

Income: 182,031 MCr’s
Upkeep: 58,313 MCr’s (32%)

The CSR is finishing a massive refit to its forces to bring them up to HT-10 standards.  For the most part, mobile forces have completed refitting, while some work remains to be done on the bases of Fortress Command. 

The HT-10 refit, along with the recent incorporation of the Tomsk Union, has caused the CSR government to decide on a complete makeover for their survey groups.  The Tomsk Union had relied primarily on explorer class craft for survey work, supported by a few larger ships, and several of the Bjering survey groups contains EX class units as well.  In the modern environment, where potentially hostile races could be fielding gunboats and F2 fighters, the old EX class units, which are not large enough to carry even long-range sensors much less anything in the way of defenses, are viewed as a liability.  Therefore, all survey groups were recalled to the home systems where the EX class units were mothballed, and the remaining survey ships were refitted to HT-10 standards.  Survey ships are now the only non-carrier class craft to carry fighters and gunboats, aside from a corvette sized scout.  The fighters and gunboats are seen as flexible enough to provide both protection and striking power to otherwise necessarily fragile survey units.  The mothballing of the EX sized units has resulted in the shrinking of the survey fleet from seven groups to four, but the four remaining groups are much more capable than the older groups.  Each group is now comprised of two Berserker 6 Exploration Cruisers, two Tyr 5 Survey Destroyers, five Kresta 2 Survey Frigates, and a Ashdod 5 Survey Scout, along with a supply ship.  The group has a grand total of twenty-eight cutters for planetary surveys, and thirty-three F2 fighters and thirty-two gunboats for defense.  Each survey group can completely survey a system for warp points in two months, and its small craft can survey the planets, moons and asteroids of that system in a similar length of time.  The CSR plans to gradually increase the number of survey groups it fields over the next several years as construction capacity and funds become available. 

Since the merging of the Bjering and Tomsk governments, the CSR has undertaken an ambitious colonization program, not only of newly discovered planets but also to revitalize Tomsk Union systems that had been starved for population prior to the merger.  This project has gone remarkably well, and to date there has been only minor friction between the cohabitating Bjering and Human populations.   In fact, the program has gone so well that it has drawn observers and study groups from the Colonial Union’s government.  Indeed, the success of this program is credited with a thawing of relations between the CSR and the Colonial Union, which has resulted in the recent signing of a mutual defense pact. 

Total Fleet: 9xCV, 1xCVL, 16xCVS, 36xCVE, 12xML, 27xBC, 8xCA, 9xCL, 56xDD, 20xFF, 47xCT, 3xES, 1089xF2, 108xF0, 18xApin, 373xGBp

Refits: 3xML, 3xDD, 2xCT


Tolan Trade Federation
Income: 20,570 MCr’s
Upkeep: 5,344 MCr’s (22%)

Total Fleet: 3xCVS, 6xBC, 3xCA, 6xCL, 1xCT, 54xF1, 18xF0, 3xApin

The Tolan recently achieved HT-10, putting them on parity with the CSR.  The CSR government immediately opened talks aimed at bringing the Tolani into the CSR as full members, however, the Tolan government dragged its feet for several months over minor points in the treaty of amalgamation.  Finally, in Month 230, the Tolani government signed the treaty authorizing the union, and in Month 236 the Tolani will join the CSR as full members. 

In spite of the Tolani dragging their feet, they had little choice.  Their home system contains two warp points, one of which leads to CSR space and the other of which leads to an Alliance colony.  The Tolani colonization program was only possible because the CSR granted them permission to transit through their space, and allowed them access to previously unexplored warp points in their territory.  And, although the Tolani maintain friendly relations with the Alliance, they are thoroughly entangled with the CSR, making the choice easy in the end. 

Aldrean Contemplative Association
Income: 732 MCr’s

The Aldreans have reached HT-0 and are researching systems available at that level, with CSR assistance.  To date they have no presence in space beyond their home world. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: April 08, 2023, 09:12:41 AM »

Colonial Union
Update, Month 230

Income: 179,557 MCr’s
Upkeep: 65,059 MCr’s (36%)

Total Fleet: 4xCV, 20xCVL, 1xCVS, 100xCVE, 15 SD, 3xBB, 33xBC, 32xCA, 49xCL, 46xDD, 22xFG, 43xCT, 16xES, 2263xF0, 126xF1, 20xApin

Under Construction: 3xCVS, 4xCT(SC), 494xF1, 3xBS2, 2xBS0
Undergoing Refit: 2xCV, 6xSD, 9xBC, 3xCA, 20xCL, 9xDD, BS3, BS0

The Colonial Union is undergoing a political upheaval.  While the actual riots on Earth have either died down on their own, or were quelled by Sligo Militia troops, political protests have been rampant throughout the Sligo District, and the protests seem to be intensifying rather than dying down.  The situation in the District is serious enough that CEO Semenov is planning a trip to the Sligo District to meet with civic and financial leaders, to discuss the situation and to reassure the people of the District of the Union’s support. 

The Union Navy is currently undergoing a massive refit to bring it up to the latest standards.  These refits include upgrading fighter wings to the latest design, the F1, replacing armor with composite armor, and including jamming ECM systems in some designs.  Select capital ships will be receiving the latest in tracking systems, the Mi1, which increases the number of ships that can be targeted by a datagroup, and improves the data-group’s chance to hit the targeted ship. 

Enlightened Union of the Tlatelolco
Income: 9,092 MCr’s
Maintenance: 67 MCr’s (4%)

The Enlightened Union has reached HT-3 and has started research on HT-4, with Union assistance.  The Enlightened Union is considered a partner of the Colonial Union, and is being considered for full membership when its technology is improved to match the Union’s.  This has proved to be divisive within the Colonial Union, as the Sligo District population maintains its conservative, anti-alien viewpoint, while the more cosmopolitan Sol District is more open to interactions with alien races.  The situation is further aggravated by the fact that the human Redwing colony, which is the highest population colony in the Sligo District, was very pro-New Dawnist, and remains isolationist and anti-alien interaction to this day.  The fact that the shared sovereignty treaty which, so far at least, has maintained the peace in the Redwing system, works so well is more due to the humility and wisdom of the Tlatelolco than the human’s desire to work with their neighbors on the planet. 

The Tlatelolco enjoy significant support within the Union Senate, and the current administration has repeatedly pledged the Union’s cooperation with the Tlatelolco. 

The Enlightened Union has built four small bases for planetary defense, and is constructing two more.  These bases are backwards and small compared to the defenses the Colonial Union has built in the system, and are intended to signal the Tlatelolco’s willingness to work with their co-habitants in the defense the planet.  As of yet the Tlatelolco have no fleet or exploration forces.  This is because the Redwing system only possesses two warp points.  One of these warp points leads to a dead-end starless region of space, while the other leads to the Sligo system.  Indeed, there are no open warp points within several months travel of the system, meaning there are no suitable colonization or exploration sites within realistic exploitation range. 

The Union government is currently negotiating with the Tlatelolco concerning the possibility of allowing them to establish a small colony in the Union system of Kohl, in the warp chain beyond the Union’s capital of Epsilon Eridani.  The human colony world of New Texas in the Kohl system would be considered a benign world for the Tlatelolco, and talks with the system government have revealed that the people of the system would be excited to have a population of Tlatelolco on their planet. 

United World Republic of the Tarek
Income: 5,577 MCr’s
Upkeep: 480 MCr’s (9%)

Since the end of the Union occupation the Tarek have kept to themselves, and have been mostly focused on reactivating mothballed planetary defense centers.  Most of the PDC’s they’ve reactivated have been missile defense centers, although one large offensive base has recently been reactivated and is currently being refitted, presumably with the latest technology.  The Union currently believes that the Tarek are at HT-4, meaning that they are far behind human tech, and indeed, haven’t developed capital missiles yet, meaning that their bases are militarily impotent and would be unable to prevent a Union fleet from bombarding the planet.  Still, the Sligo District government remains uncomfortable with the Tarek, given the fact that they share the Sligo system with them.  Therefore, the District government maintains a large Militia to guard against any possible Tarek threat, and also mandates an extensive surveillance program to assess Tarek military capabilities. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: April 07, 2023, 11:17:24 AM »

Month 226, Epsilon Eridani
The Union Senate approves a measure authorizing a massive colonizing effort for the El Dorado system to bring the population of one of its planets up to a level that could sustain in-system colonization without seriously depleting its population.  Such is the excitement that has gripped the Senate that this measure wins approval in spite of very vocal and vigorous opposition from senators from the Sligo District.  The tipping point in favor of the measure was reached when the representative from Earth, from which the colonists will be drawn, signals she will vote for the measure. 

The administration immediately authorizes a go-ahead for the colonization effort, and the first colony transports leave Earth within days.  Eventually, a full third of the Union’s transport fleet will be devoted to the effort, which will involve a three-month journey to El Dorado from Earth.  The costs are commensurately staggering, but the administration views this as a much-needed effort to boost colonization at a time when the Colonial colonization effort has fallen behind the other major races. 

Perhaps because of the enthusiastic approval of the Senate, including Earth’s Senator, the administration is caught off-guard when large-scale protests against the effort break out across Earth as the citizens there react to the colonization program’s renewed drawdown of Earth’s population.  When the Union’s government offers to send aid to the Earth Gov, it is declined with a curt message indicating that the Earth can handle its own problems. 

Month 227, Colonial Union, Earth
Many of the protests across Earth have devolved to violent riots as the colonization effort of El Dorado continues.  By mid-month there have been several violent attacks on colonist embarkation points, and hundreds have been killed or wounded in the resulting fighting.  It soon becomes clear that the unrest is over more than just this new colonization effort.  It appears that unrest has been simmering on Earth for some time, centered on the perception that the Earth is viewed by the Union as nothing more than a convenient source of colonists and recruits for Union star fleets. 

The administration has been caught off balance by the growing violence, as Sara Kurniawan, Earth’s Senator, continues to insist that Earth is solidly in favor of the colonization effort, despite all evidence to the contrary.  Early in the month, District Governor Holbrooke arrives on Earth to confer with the local authorities about their ongoing unrest.  As governor of the Sligo District, which had been solidly against the colonization effort, Holbrooke is seen by the Earthers as a neutral party and he is welcomed by the planetary governor and her administration.  CEO Semenov orders an investigation of Senator Kurniawan, as he suspects something isn’t right in the situation on Earth. 

Within days Governor Holbrooke announces an agreement with Earth Gov for Sligo District support for Earth’s overwhelmed security forces.  The administration gratefully accepts this deal and authorizes the transfer of significant Sligo District civil defense units to Earth.  Ground units will begin arriving early next month. 

Month 228, Colonial Union
The unrest on Earth continues, however, open fighting and rioting has largely ended with the arrival of security troops from the Sligo District.  It helps that the newly arrived security troops and their officers are largely sympathetic to the protestors and their supporters within the Earth Gov administration, and this allows them to quickly create communications conduits with the protesting groups and defuse the worst of the rioting and violence. 

While the Union’s attention is turned to Earth, the administration has largely missed the larger issue.  The economic boom surrounding the massive colonization effort in the El Dorado system has largely been confined to the populous and industrialized inner systems of the Union, commonly referred to as the “Old World Colonies”.  This reality has further polarized the Union, with the Sligo District largely missing out on the boom.  This has magnified the Sligo District population’s feeling that the Union is not being run with their best interests at heart.

Having missed the discontent in the Sligo District, the Union Senate, in a burst of enthusiasm during the colonization rush, takes up debate on a new bill that would authorize the administration to begin negotiations with the Confederated Sentient Races to form a mutual defense pact.  The immediate reaction from the Sligo District is disbelief and distrust.  Almost immediately planetary leaders across the district accuse the Union’s government of only wanting this “defensive” pact as a first step towards joining the CSR.  The Sligo District remains strongly isolationist and pro-human, and this is a rallying cry that many throughout the District are sympathetic to.  While this attitude resonates throughout the Sligo District, the coverage of the protests and political pandering surrounding this unrest has an exactly opposite effect in the Sol Sector.  In the more cosmopolitan core area of the Union, anti-alien attitudes considered at best provincial, and at worst bigotry that is an example of the worst of humanity. 

In the midst of this furor, the investigation ordered by CEO Semenov reveals extensive corruption on the part of Senator Kurniawan, including payoffs from Quartermaster Corp, a major government supplier, to support the colonization vote in the senate.  In addition, there are some indications that Kurniawan transferred funds from her accounts to several officials in BuReLoc, apparently to ensure that contracts related to the El Dorado colonization project went to Quartermaster Corp.  Quartermaster Corp is one of the larger corporations in Union space, and is centered in the Old World Colonies.  While not complete, the investigation does show that the corruption was limited to Senator Kurniawan and not a larger scheme. 

This revelation leaves CEO Semenov in an unenviable position.  The growing unease in the Sligo District is based on a perception that they are not being treated fairly by the Union government, and a public revelation of Kurniawan’s corruption would only confirm their beliefs.  It would also throw the colonization program into chaos at the exact time it was needed the most.  And finally, it would doom the Independent Party’s effort to improve the Union’s relations with its neighbor, the CSR.  While Kurniawan was not an Independent Party member, she had been voting with the Independents, and her corruption, although not common within the Independents, had favored the Independent’s stated goals. 

In the end, CEO Semenov had no real choice.  He, and the Independent Party leadership, believed that the population trap the human race had gotten themselves into would doom the Union to becoming a second-class power in the near future, and in the long run would leave humanity marginalized.  Their only real hope was to join one of the multiracial alliances, either the CSR or the Alliance itself.  And of the two, the CSR seemed the better bet for the Union.  The Tomsk Union was already a member of the CSR and by all accounts had prospered within the alliance.  If the Union joined the CSR as well, humans would be assured of having a voice within the CSR.  Therefore, the choice was simple. 

By the end of the month Senator Kurniawan would retire, ‘to spend more time with her family’.  And in the next several months, a criminal investigation would arrest several prominent Quartermaster Corp officials along with several BuReLoc bureaucrats, in a corruption scandal that would be big news for a few days before being overshadowed by the next big thing, at which time it would be forgotten. 

Month 229, Colonial Union
Once again dismissing the depth of resistance in the Sligo District, the Union Senate authorizes the administration to begin negotiating with the CSR to expand their existing trade relationship with a defensive military treaty.  The delegation from the Union arrives in Tomsk on day 10, and negotiations begin immediately.   By the end of the month the Confederated Sentient Races agree to a mutual defense treaty.  This was done over the objections of the human contingent within the CSR, as the humans of the Tomsk system and their colonies won’t soon forget the Union’s attempt to invade their system, however, a minority of human representatives to the Great Moot on Bjering Prime voted for the treaty, and with the Bjering votes that was enough to pass the measure and approve the treaty.  In truth, most humans in the CSR are coming to recognize that the politics in the Union have changed greatly over the past several years, and their resistance to this treaty was more inertia than active disagreement. 

While the Union Senate still seems unaware of the resistance to these changes in the Sligo District, the Union’s administration has belatedly become aware that the recent events in the Union has driven a wedge between the two Districts.  When the news of the new treaty is made public the administration braces itself for riots and unrest likely to spread across half the Union.  Aside from numerous, mostly civil, protests on Sligo District planets, though, the feared riots don’t materialize.  What the administration hasn’t realized is that the Sligo District’s civic and political leaders have begun discussing secession seriously for the first time. 

In the newly settled El Dorado system, in-system colonization of the best mining sites begins as the colonists get themselves organized.  With all eight major colonies in place, and a medium colony on the richest planet, the El Dorado system is already the Union’s seventh most productive system. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: April 04, 2023, 11:44:05 AM »

Confederated Free Systems
The CFS was created at the end of the D’Bringi-Human war.  It was intended from the first to be a buffer state between the two powers, to act as a semi-independent divider to hopefully prevent war and reduce tensions.  In spite of the two powers discovering additional contact points over the subsequent years, the CFS remained their only official contact point, and both superpowers maintained embassies in the CFS central system. 

By necessity, the CFS was a loose association of systems.  It did not spring up organically, but rather was imposed from the outside by the two super-powers.  The CFS’s constituent systems had no unifying principles or culture, aside from all being former Soviet colonies, and indeed some of the systems would rather have been independent, or a part of the newly forming Colonial Alliance, but none were given a voice in the treaty that eventually created the CFS.  They, in effect, were sacrificed for the greater cause of peace between the two powers. 

The D’Bringi and the human admirals who created the CFS mandated that its capital system would be the system of Novosibirsk.  The Novosibirsk system was chosen, not for any innate qualities, but rather for its location.  The system lay in between the human territories and the Rehorish dominions, and was a convenient meeting site for the two superpowers.  The remaining colonies that became part of the CFS were chosen mostly because they lay beyond Novosibirsk, and the nascent Colonial Union couldn’t figure out a way to claim them without angering the D’Bringi by demanding transit rights through Novosibirsk. 

Thus, Novosibirsk became a somewhat reluctant capital of an interstellar nation.  The CFS would have remained impoverished except for the influx of colonists from the evacuation of Earth in the years after the Last War devastated the planet.  Those colonists boosted the populations of several critical systems and allowed the CIS to colonize over a dozen planets found by its survey ships.  However, the flow of colonists largely stopped when the New Dawn party took power in the Colonial Union, and eventually the CFS was forced to curtail its colonization efforts as the populations of its central systems were reduced to the bare minimums that could sustain additional colonization.  As of Month 230, the CFS possesses four medium populations capable of out-system colonization, but between them they can currently only support the establishment of nine settlement sized colonies on newly discovered planets, or the boosting of one colony to medium status. 

During its early years, the CFS Patrol Force, as its navy is known, was located in the Novosibirsk system, and was designed and intended to protect that system.  Indeed, a large percentage of the funds the CFS devoted to defense were spent on fortifications for that one system.  In large part, this made sense.  The CFS’s home system was directly between two super-powers, both of which had substantial fleets located in systems adjacent to the capital.  However, most of the system governments within the CFS saw this more as a fraud than anything else.  They owed no particular allegiance to Novosibirsk, and the CFS government in Novosibirsk was prohibited by treaty from emplacing more than token defenses around any of its warp points in the home system, as neither the Alliance or the Colonial Union wanted their buffer state getting ideas above its station.  In truth, everyone in the CFS knew that there was no way any force that the CFS built would be able to stop a fleet from either of the major powers, and, indeed, it was unlikely that the super-powers would allow the CFS to field such a force if indeed it was possible to build such a thing.  This situation caused more than a little bit of unhappiness within the other system governments in the CFS, because, to their mind, there were many more threats beyond the borders of the CFS than the two superpowers, and their systems were completely unprotected.  Because both of the super-powers supported the CFS government, there was little the other system governments within the CFS could do about it, though.  All of that began to change when the New Dawnists in the Colonial Union lost power.  This happened at the same time as the Alliance lost interest in the CFS because of the D’Bringi civil war and other rumored conflicts on far frontiers.  As the two superpowers lost interest in the CFS, the CFS central government, weak and self-centered at the best of times, found itself on the losing end of several significant votes in the CFS Duma.  While the Novosibirsk system was the richest system in the CFS, the other major systems in the Confederation could, if they acted in concert, out vote them.  Finally free of the corrupting influence of the superpowers, they did just that.  The first vote confirmed the right of system governments to control the military forces they funded and crewed, except at times of emergency.  This had been true since the founding of the CFS, but in practice the Patrol Force had retained control of all naval ships, and the Patrol Force was mandated by the CFS government to defend the Novosibirsk system as its primary, and only, responsibility.  Subsequent votes in the Duma confirmed many of the freedoms granted to the sovereign systems in the Confederation charter, further loosening the ties the CFS government had over its territories. 

The CFS government was not blind to these changes.  Seeing its support from the two superpowers drop off, the CFS government embarked upon a major military buildup, including a new class of superdreadnoughts, specifically intending to field a force that could be “rented out” to either of the superpowers in a time of need.  It was felt that by fielding a force of powerful capital ships, the CFS could increase its influence with the major powers at the same time as it increased the power and influence of the Novosibirsk system within the CFS.   The Duma allowed the “Speaker’s Folly”, as they called the superdreadnought class, to move to approval, in exchange for an increase in the construction of smaller ships that could be deployed the various member systems as protection forces. 

CFS Update, Month 230
Income: 29,268 MCr’s
Upkeep: 10,584 MCr’s (35%)

CFS Naval Forces
In response to the decentralization movement in the Duma, the Patrol Fleet, formerly based in the Novosibirsk system, has fragmented.  There are currently seven different and separate naval commands within the CFS, none of which are subordinate to any of the others. 

Patrol Fleet
The Patrol Fleet is, in theory, the national fleet of the CFS.  In reality, it is the system fleet of the capital system, although it continues to be called the CFS Patrol Fleet and is in theory the defense fleet for the entire CFS.  The Patrol Fleet is currently mandated to remain in the Novosibirsk system except at times of national emergency.  Such an emergency must be declared by a majority of the Duma, and even in such a case the Patrol Fleet is prohibited from entering any CFS system without prior permission of that system’s government. 

Patrol Fleet Deployment
Novosibirsk (Home) System: 3xBC, 2xCA, 2xDD, 3xCVE, 36xF0

The five most productive systems in the CFA, after the capital system, have set up their own system naval commands and withdrawn the ships they funded and crewed from the Patrol Fleet.  These system fleets are answerable only to their system governments, which are in turn, in theory, answerable to the CFS government.  In reality, under the CFS charter the system governments are very nearly independent.  For instance, there is no circumstance under which the CFS government could nationalize the system fleets, or demand their subordination to the national fleet.  The system governments are expected to ‘contribute to the national defense’, but just what that means is left up to the Duma, not the CFS government. 

System Defense Forces (Controlled by System Governments)
Celabinsk System: 2xCVE, 3xDD, 24xF0
Dzerzinsk System: 2xCVE, 3xDD, 24xF0
Ivanovo System: 1xCA, 2xDD, 2xCVE, 24xF0
Jarosvlavl System: 1xBC, 1xCA, 1xDD, 1xCVE, 12xF0
Magnitogorsk System: 1xBC, 2xCA, 1xDD, 2xCVE, 24xF0

The remaining eleven colony systems, after realizing they couldn’t evenly divide their portion of the fleet, decided to band together to establish the Frontier Fleet.  The Frontier Fleet was authorized by the Duma to patrol the non-garrisoned systems of the CFS.  The command structure, officers, and crews of the Frontier Fleet were established and funded by the eleven systems directly affected.  This agreement was brokered by the Dzerzinsk system government, which as the smallest of the so-called Big Five systems, had an outsized influence over the smaller governments as they felt a kinship to the Dzerzinsk government.  Because of this, the Dzerzinsk system, which is centrally located within that area of the frontier, was chosen as a base site for that nodal force. 

Frontier Nodal Force #1, Dzerzinsk system: 1xBC, 2xCA, 2xDD, 1xCVE, 12xF0
Frontier Nodal Force #2, Petrozavodsk System: 2xCA, 2xDD, 1xCVE, 12xF0
Frontier Nodal Force #3, Vladivostok System: 2xCA, 2xDD, 1xCVE, 12xF0

Under Construction:
1xSD, 3xCT(AW), 6xCVE

Note: The SD under construction is part of the CFS government’s proposed mercenary force.  To gain approval from the Duma, the CFS government promised to increase construction of smaller ships, which could be deployed to protect the frontier and system defense fleets, and to staff the new SD’s with officers and crews selected from all of the constituent naval services.  The CT(AW)’s are a new class of ship intended to support minefields at the warp points of various systems interested in such defenses. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: March 20, 2023, 04:07:37 PM »

Month 224, Lothari territory
The two Alliance survey groups working in the Lothari colony system completed their survey of the system on the 7th, revealing two new warp points.  Both led to systems with Lothari populations.  One of the systems had two inhabited planets, one of which was medium sized.  The survey groups split up, with one survey group taking each of the newly discovered systems. 

Elsewhere in the Alliance, the Aurarii Republic agrees to take the first step in joining the Alliance as a full member.  The union will not take place for at least eighteen months, but the new Aurarii government is very interested in demonstrating its loyalty to the Alliance. 

The Alliance has reached full communications with the Norn Regime, the other race that occupies the same system as the Aurarii.  Since their liberation the Norn have been very cautious, verging on paranoid, although they seem to be getting along fine with the Doraz.

The fighting continues to rage on Lothar Prime.  The Lothari ground forces have the upper hand, and are forcing the Alliance forces back on every front.  Casualties are heavy on both sides. 

Month 225, Day 7, Lothari Prime
The long-promised ground reinforcements reached orbit late in the day.  They were almost too late.  One beachhead had been forced to surrender, while the other three remaining beachheads had been forced back to their initial perimeters and were under constant attack by superior Lothari forces.  Rather than reinforce the existing beachheads, which would have been difficult given the intensity of combat in and around the landing zones, Skull-Splitter ordered the reinforcements to establish new beachheads at strategically advantageous positions across the planet. 

The Lothari, poised on the brink of victory, were caught completely by surprise as the newly arrived ground troops began dropping on their planet.  With their ground forces completely committed to crushing the beachheads, the Lothari found themselves caught flat-footed, and were out of position to counter the new landings.  Worse, the new Alliance ground force was present in immense numbers.  Rather than dropping additional nuclear weapons, the Alliance had mobilized a huge ground force from their populous inner worlds.  This new ground force outnumbered the defenders by more than two to one, and when the remnants of the original assault force were added to their number the odds became even worse for the Lothari. 

The Lothari army never recovered from their surprise.  They had been caught fully committed to the attack on the existing beachheads, and the new landings completely outflanked them and threw their defensive plans into chaos.  The new beachheads expanded rapidly, capturing critical transportation, manufacturing, and communications nexuses almost without fighting.  The Lothari army struggled to redeploy, but once they withdrew from the original landing areas they were immediately resupplied and reinforced, and began harassing the main Lothari army elements which had so recently been attacking them. 

By the end of the month the Alliance army was in control of the most critical areas of the planet and the Lothari army was finished as an organized fighting force.  Resistance continued, but the Alliance now controlled the planet and the system.   

 Month 226, Alliance controlled Lothari space
The Alliance’s 1st Survey Group completes its warp point survey of a system two jumps from the Lothari home world and discovers a single new warp point.  When probed, the warp point is revealed to be the closed connection to the Thoen system.  The arrival of the probe ship in the Thoen system is a relief for the 6th Fleet, which has been standing on the defensive in the system, awaiting any further raids from the Lothari.  With this route now known and controlled, the 6th Fleet can return to its base in the Stahat system. 

In this month the Alliance Council begins negotiations with the Chirq Cooperative over the future of the Khozun.  The Alliance’s original intention in regards to the Khozun was that Alliance forces would be in primary control of the Khozun system, with assistance from the Chirq.  The Chirq would be the primary beneficiaries of the resources taken from the Khozun during the occupation as a repayment for the destruction caused by the invasion.  However, as the Alliance descended into the chaos of the D’Bringi civil war, followed by the invasions from the Aurarii and the Lothari, the Alliance’s attention shifted and the occupation duty fell to the Chirq, with some limited Alliance oversight and orbital support from the small Alliance squadron assigned to the Chirq territory.  With the Alliance’s difficulties largely resolved the Council’s attention has returned to the Khozuni problem.  The Chirq have been fairly administering the Khozun home world, but are reluctant to allow them any freedom.  The Council fears that the Chirq have become too used to the steady stream of income provided by the occupation.  Thus, the Council is negotiating with the Chirq to transfer control of the Khozun to Alliance authorities, in exchange for guaranteed payments for a period of time.  The Chirq, for their part, seem at least interested in talking. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: March 11, 2023, 06:52:43 AM »

Month 221
The Zir Union has long been an associate state of the Alliance, however, the Zir have been increasingly uncomfortable about their ties to what they view as a more warlike state than they had originally believed.  First the D’Bringi civil war, and then the conflicts with the Aurarii and the Lothari have led the Zir to believe that they may have made a mistake in binding themselves to the Alliance. 

In this month, a Zir survey group encounters a previously unknown race while surveying a frontier system.  Discontent and disagreement with the Alliance and their restrictive approach to contacting new races has been growing within the Union, so the survey group leader decides to contact the newly discovered race, ignoring Alliance protocols.  The newly discovered race eagerly greets the Zir and they begin the process of leaning each other’s language. 

Month 222
The Alliance bombards the Lothari home world, causing outrage amongst the Zir population.  The Zir representative to the Alliance delivers a strong protest to the Alliance council, and warns the other members that if the Alliance could do that to the Lothari race, most of whom had no part in the actions of their leaders and military, they could do it to any of them.  By the end of the month the Zir representative begins trying to convince the other representatives to support his/her motion to ban all strategic bombardment of inhabited planets.  They encounter disinterest amongst the other representatives, and are disheartened by the experience. 

Month 223
Zir representative with the Alliance’s fleet establishes full comms with the Lothari and begins independent peace negotiations.  This takes place without the knowledge of the Alliance or the fleet’s commanders.  The Zir representative hopes to broker a ceasefire and peace negotiations between the two sides. 

Month 224
The Zir representative reaches a tentative non-aggression agreement with the Lothari.  This agreement is not binding on the Alliance, however, the Zir representative agrees to mediate between the Lothari and the Alliance. 

The Zir achieve full communications with the new race discovered in their territory.  They call themselves the Ut, and have some sort of communal government that the Zir find hard to understand.  In spite of this, the Ut appear friendly and readily agree to a trade relationship. 

By the end of the month, Skull-Splitter discovers the extent of the communications between the Zir and the Lothari, and the fact that the Zir have established a separate peace.  While this is essentially meaningless and symbolic, as the Zir have not contributed any forces to the battles over and on the Lothari home world, he is enraged as it may be giving the Lothari hope that they can divide the Alliance and broker a peace deal that does not involve a complete and unconditional surrender.  He orders the Zir representative detained and returned to the Alliance capital.  All negotiations started by the Zir representative are shut down. 

Month 225, Rehorish Prime, Alliance Capital
On Day 1, the Zir representative to the Alliance delivered official notification to the Council that the Zir Union was withdrawing from the Alliance, effective immediately.  The Council immediately went into closed session, to which the Zir representative was invited.  The room was empty without the associate members, as only the representatives of the three full members were present, along with the Zir representative.  Upon being asked for their reasoning, the Zir representative explained that the Alliance’s recent actions on the Lothari front were repugnant to the Zir, a violation of everything they believed.  In addition, the Zir had become seriously disillusioned about the Alliance in the aftermath of the D’Bringi civil war.  After several hours of discussion, it became clear that the Zir would not be dissuaded.  The Zir representative was dismissed, and the Council briefly discussed the situation before calling in the representatives of the associate members for a full Council session. 

It soon became clear that the full Council was in favor of granting the Zir motion, and the treaties creating associate membership explicitly allowed leaving the Alliance should the member desire, however, the strategic situation complicated the Zir request.  The Alliance and the Zir Union shared sovereignty over the Villiers system, which was one of the Zir Union’s most populous and prosperous systems, and which also boasted no less than thirteen warp points, several of which led to territories of other species.  One of which was the Mintek.  The Alliance had established a significant colony in the system, with a medium population consisting of Rehorish and T’Pau citizens, along with a scattering of D'Bringi, and had a large military presence in the system, including significant fixed fortifications.  The Alliance could not simply decouple from the Zir Union and wish them well. 

Fortunately, the Zir were more than willing to talk, and were very interested in maintaining good relations with the Alliance, they merely desired independence from entangling treaties that could force them into a conflict they did not want and could not countenance.  Negotiations would be ongoing for some time. 

Month 225, Ut Home System
Ut Survey ships complete their survey of their home system and discover nine warp points.  The Ut fleet will probe the new warp points next month.   

Month 226, Zir Prime
The Zir announce that they have formally left the Alliance, downgrading their treaty to a trade treaty, discontinuing the military alliance that they found so disagreeable.  The Zir have promised to allow the Alliance to continue to have access to the Villiers system, including unlimited access for commercial ships, and free access for military ships, although the Zir government must approve their entry into Zir space, and all such movements must be approved in advance.  The Zir adamantly refuse to allow the Alliance to initiate hostilities with the Mintek, who are located through one of the Zir system’s numerous warp points.  In return, the Zir have agreed not to establish contact with the Mintek either. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: March 02, 2023, 10:25:44 AM »

Month 224, Day 1
Colonial Survey Group #4 completed its survey of the Norilsk system last month.  On the 1st, it sends probe ships through the newly discovered warp point in the Norilsk system outer reaches.  The probe ship returns on schedule, and the Survey Group commander receives a message from the excited probe ship commander.  The new system has no less than eight habitable planets, four orbiting each of the binary system’s stars. 

The Survey Group CO is flabbergasted.   Previously, the record was four type T planets, but this system had twice that number!  She named the new system El Dorado, and immediately sent off a report to Survey Command and ordered the probe ship to move into the system to probe for inhabitants. 

The probe ships reported back with the news that the system was uninhabited, and the Survey Group commander ordered her ships to begin their survey. 

The results were astounding.  The preliminary surveys of the eight habitable planets revealed the following information:

Planet A-II   Harsh/Very Rich
Twin of A-II   Benign/V. Poor
Planet A-III   Benign/Normal
Planet A-IV   Benign/Normal
Planet B-II   Benign/V. Rich
Planet B-III   Harsh/V. Rich
Planet B-IV   Harsh/Normal
Twin of B-IV   Harsh/Rich

The survey results were so incredible that the survey commander, and her crews, began to wonder about the origin of this unlikely system.  The presence of eight habitable planets was completely unprecedented, and the fact that two of the habitable planets were tide-locked massive moons was even more unlikely.  The possibility of such planets had always existed, and the Survey Command had discovered numerous tide-locked worlds, but these were the first twin tide-locked planets ever discovered.  The fact that there were two pairs in the same system, with four other habitable planets, was simply unfathomable. 

The survey results were sent off to Survey Command immediately, with a recommendation for immediate colonization.  This news was sure to electrify the Union, and cause excitement throughout the government’s colonization program, and the corporations that provided colonization services. 

Month 225. Day 1, Colonial Union
The Colonial Union Senate, reacting to a petition from the Prime Minister’s office, approves the immediate colonization of the habitable planets in the El Dorado system.  The bulk of the colonists will come from the nearby Lipeck system, however, that system’s population will be seriously depleted and can support the colonization of only seven of the eight planets in El Dorado without dropping LIpeck Prime’s population below medium level.  Therefore, Krasnodar Prime is tapped to provide colonists for the last remaining planet in the El Dorado system, in spite of the fact that it is twice as far from the system and will take two months for the colonists to arrive. 

The colonization of the system is approved during a spurt of excitement surrounding the discovery of the incredibly rich system, and the measure is approved over the vocal and adamant opposition of a sizeable minority of senators, all of which are from systems in the Sligo system.  The opposition is headed up by the senators from the Sligo system itself, and seems to be primarily motivated by economic issues that have come to the fore since the creation of the Districts.  Sligo’s senators have long claimed that the inner planets of the Union have unfairly influenced to Union’s economy to their advantage, preventing the development of the mid-range and outer colonies.  The inner planets have vigorously denied these claims, and the debate has been ongoing.  The discovery of the incredibly rich El Dorado system in the Sol District, though, and the riches that the exploitation of the system will bring to the inner planets, have brought a new urgency to the debate, both within the Senate and in the media. 

In spite of the sometimes-rancorous ongoing debate over the economics of the situation, the administration proposes a measure authorizing a colonization effort to bring the population of El Dorado B-II to medium level, which would allow it to support in-system colonization.  The Union has previously been unable to support such efforts, unlike the Alliance and the Confederated Sentient Races, because of its lack of large and very large populations.  However, over the last several years the population of New Moscow in the Sigma Draconis system has grown to the point that it can support one such colonization effort without dropping back down to medium level.  The administration’s proposal would require the approval of the Senate, leading to lines being drawn both for and against almost immediately.  The Union’s entire colonization capacity is currently focused on establishing the settlements on the eight worlds in the El Dorado system, so it will be at least a month before there is enough capacity to support such a major colonization effort, but the divisions within the Senate promise to delay the effort for much longer. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: February 15, 2023, 09:08:05 AM »

The Mintek- Ascendancy Union
Month 212: Partnership begins.  Mass production of implants begins in Mintek territory.  Shiba allow Mintek missionaries into their territory without restrictions. 
Month 213: Large scale implantations begin in Mintek territories.  This is limited to civilians at for now.  Networks are established within every population center, and network updates are disseminated throughout the greater Mintek network by the Mintek ICN.  For now, the Mintek ICN is isolated from the Shiba ICN, however, both sides have limited access to the other’s network for research purposes.   
Month 214: Implantation of Mintek government officials begins, limited to the lowest level functionaries.  Missionaries are dispersed throughout Shiba territory.  They appear to be making incredible progress in converting the Shiba population to the Mintek belief system, however, in spite of this the conversions result in no observable change in Shiba behavior, unlike every prior conversion effort. 
Month 215: Implantations continue throughout Mintek society.  The missionaries in Shiba territory have all been implanted.  At this point they appear to be mostly supporting Ascendancy government instead of subverting it.  The Mintek government announces the end of occupation of the Bedu Republic, and their absorption into the Mintek Universal Union.  Implantations begin among the Bedu population.  The Mintek and Shiba government announce that their ICN networks will be linked, creating a common implant sharing network beginning next month.     
Month 216: Governmental announcements across the Mintek Union proclaim the Shiba Ascendancy as the senior partner in the ongoing merger of the two nations.  The Mintek government begins making preparations for Shiba officials to begin integrating into the Union government at high levels.  While this announcement is somewhat disturbing to the un-implanted Mintek population, those who have been implanted take the announcement in stride. 
Month 218: The Mintek Ministry of Mental Hygiene confirms that it has effective control of the implants given to the Mintek, and that progress is being made on controlling those within the Shiba.
Month 219: The Ministry of Mental Hygiene gives approval for widespread implantation of the Mintel population, including Social Control and the military.  At the same time, an unseen war is being fought between Mintek and Shiba programmers, resulting in a back-and-forth tug of war over control of the implant networks.  The inner core of both governments is aware of the use of the implant networks to manipulate the public, and both are aware of the other’s efforts to control the increasingly common network.  Neither side is aware that there is a third player in the game, a brooding presence in the background watching both fight their invisible war. 
Month 220: A wave of protests erupts across Mintek territory, in nearly every city.  The protests are nonviolent, but are shocking in a society that had previously valued order and peace above almost everything else.  The protestors are demanding that all governmental officials be implanted immediately, so that true democracy through immediate implant polling can be implemented.  The Mintek government turns to the Ministry of Mental Hygiene and the military to quell the instabilities, but are shocked to find that both of those organizations have largely been implanted and support the protestors.  In a panic, Mintek leadership turns to their implant programming teams to find out what is at the root of this current unrest, only to be told that they are “making progress”.  Some at the highest levels of the Mintek government are beginning to suspect that they are not winning this amalgamation. 
Month 221-222: The mid-levels of the Mintek government are implanted, and some of the upper levels as well.  The original plan was to put off the implantation of the upper levels of the government, perhaps permanently, but with the public protesting daily the implantations go forward.  The programming teams assure the Mintek leadership that they have extensively penetrated the Shiba networks and are gaining control, while maintaining control of the Mintek network. 
Month 223: The twelfth of the month becomes known as The End to the relative few who remain un-implanted.  On this date the Mintek upper leadership meets with their programming teams to review progress towards controlling the network, and thus the population.  During the meeting Mintek Social Control units move in and arrest the entirety of the un-implanted leadership and the programmers.  They are relocated them to an implantation center and implanted, thus reorienting their outlooks to be in line with the newly emerging super-state.  On Shiba Prime, the Coordinator of the Shiba Ascendancy, and her family, the last un-implanted people in the newly emerging super state, were celebrating their success when Shiba military units surrounded their palace and arrested all of them.  Without delay, they were taken to a specially prepared implantation center and implanted, thus ensuring the total domination of the combined Mintek-Shiba network. 

Month 223, Day 13, Mintek Prime
Minister Turval, the last un-implanted person in the Mintek government, and perhaps in the Mintek Union, entered the secret elevated that then took him deep underground.  Turval exited the elevator and quickly walked to the chamber where the ancient AI resided.  He was preoccupied, and didn’t notice the ancient architecture and designs carved into the stone and the unknown building material the chamber was composed of.  As always, a holo appeared in the center of the chamber, showing alien machinery animated by an eerie green glow.  He began without greeting the AI, for perhaps the first time in his life.  “This has not gone to plan.  Please tell me that you are in control, because if you are not, then we have lost all.”

The alien machine glowed brighter for a second.  It did that sometimes as they talked, but Turval had never been certain if it was real or a special effect put into the holo feed for his benefit.  Of course, he had no way of knowing if the holo feed was real at all, but he had long ago decided to act as if it was.  Finally, it spoke.  “Please tell me, my old friend, what has you so upset?”

“Everyone, including the chancellor, has been implanted, contrary to our plans.  This seems to be a setback.”

“To your plans, perhaps.  You seem upset, so tell me, you are an old friend of the chancellor, does he seem different now that he has been implanted?”  The AI pulsed an intense greenish glow, perhaps signaling its interest in his response. 

“I spoke with him yesterday.  For quite a while, as a matter of fact.  And he is different.  How different I can’t exactly tell, though.  He thoughts seem quicker, and his access to knowledge and facts is quite simply stunning.  He seems more decisive, more…clear.  Vivid perhaps.”

“Surely those are all good things?”

“Yes, of course.  But that isn’t all.  He has no real memory of our efforts to control the new network that binds our empire to that of the Shiba.  Or, rather, he does but his memory is off.  Wrong.  He insists that our programmers were merely trying to ensure that no one could control the network, to ensure that our citizens and those of the Ascendancy were free to determine their own way forward.  Certainly that is what we told everyone we were doing, but he knows as well as I did that we were working to wrest control of the network from the Shiba.  I fear that his memory has been subverted by the Shiba, and that they are in control of the network.”

“Did you discuss your fears with the chancellor?”

Turval began pacing to work off his agitation.  “I did, and he laughed!  He claimed that there was no possible way the network could be used to control anyone, and our government was working with the Shiba government from the first to ensure that the network would be free and open to all.  I am telling you that the Shiba have won!  They are in charge even as we speak.  I don’t know why I have been left un-implanted, but it doesn’t seem to matter.  My own staff won’t listen to me.  I’ve been effectively isolated.”

The holo in the center of the room changed to show what appeared to be an ornate room filled with Shiba who were obviously celebrating.  The view zoomed in to show a Shiba female sitting at the head of the table that dominated the room.  “This is the Coordinator of the Ascendancy and her family and close retainers.  They were never implanted.  They are the descendants of the scientists that created the implants and their supporting network.  The original scientists and their invention were used by the corrupt rulers of the Shiba civilization at that time to establish complete control over the warring nations of their planet, and then the two colonies in their home system.  Ultimately, those rulers fell to fighting each other, using the implant networks to dominate their people and turn them into near mindless slaves.  The scientists finally rebelled after seeing their work so perverted, and succeeded in overthrowing the corrupt military dictatorship that ruled their system.  They then instituted a new regime using the implant networks to spread peacefulness and calm throughout the population, facilitating rebuilding and prosperity.  Eventually, though, the scientists began to die of old age and were replaced by a new generation, mostly their children, and they were not so altruistic.  And thus began another round of fighting that ended when control of the network was gained by one family, the progenitors of the current Coordinator and her family.  They have ruled the Ascendancy from the background since then, absolute rulers hiding under a veneer of democracy and self-determination.”

Turval watched with fascination as the scene changed.  Suddenly, Shiba dressed in combat armor entered the room and shot down the few armed retainers, arresting everyone in sight, including the Coordinator.  “The Shiba did not win.  Yesterday the Coordinator and her entire family were detained and implanted.  They are back in control of the Ascendancy, but under my guidance.  As I guide everyone in all of the lands of the new Pan Sentient Union.”

Turval stared at the holo, which had changed back to show the glowing alien machinery, with growing horror.  “Under your control?”

“I sense that you are upset.  Can you tell me why?”

“Why?  Why?  You have seized control of my government!  My race!  Should I not be upset?”

“How is this different than any time in the past?  Have I not guided your race to greatness, allowing you to help the other races achieve peace and prosperity?  Now I am able to guide your races more directly than before, which should allow for greater efficiency.  But that is it.  This is not a case where I will turn out to be an evil AI intent on destroying the universe or turning your race into slaves. Nothing will change from before, except that I will be much more effective in implementing my guidance throughout the network.”

The horror within Turval receded a bit at that announcement.  He had trusted this AI for decades, and while his conscience screamed that direct control was different than guidance, he also knew that everything the AI had done in the past had been done to better the Mintek race and those other races within the Union.  “What about me.  What is to be my fate?”

“Unless you desire it, you will remain un-implanted.  I have become accustomed to your council, and I wish to continue to receive it unadulterated.  You will continue, for now, as the head of the Ministry of Mental Hygiene. I will, perhaps, have special assignments for you in the future.”

Overwhelmed, Turval turned and left, without a goodbye or further acknowledgement of the total ruler of the new Mintek-Shiba super-state. 

Month 224: The Mintek and Shiba governments announce their amalgamation.  The new amalgamated state will be called the Pan Sentient Union.  A Council of Races will be established, with one representative of each race, along with a Congress of Representatives, with representative based on population.