Despite the problems around Xia, colonization of new worlds continued. The terraforming of Munich II was completed in mid-2046 and the first colonists landed in August. The third planet of the Roma system, located adjacent to London, was settled by civilian colonists on September 3rd 2046. The planet had been designated as a potential future colony but no government-built ships were assigned to the task, mainly because some terraforming would be required and the terraformers were busy with Heidelberg III. Fortunately, civilian-owed freighters transported infrastructure and civilian-owed colony ships provided the colonists. Civilian freighters had also transported some infrastructure to a planet in the Newcastle system, two jumps from Sol via Prague, but as of October 1st 2046, no colonists had landed. By this time, the Commonwealth had twelve populated worlds plus mining colonies in Boston, adjacent to Washington, and Sverdlovsk, adjacent to Xia.
On October 3rd 2046, the Xiamen founded their first off-world colony when half a million settlers landed on Saratov III. This was an ideal habitable world for the Xiamen but a colony cost 0.53 world for humans due to the cold. The diversity of Xiamen and humans effectively increased the available number of ideal habitable planets, which would augment the growth rate of the Commonwealth over time. As it was human-built ships that delivered the Xiamen to Saratov III, the expedition increased the growing bonds between the two species.
The Vittorio Veneto II class jump cruiser Littorio transited into Zagorsk on October 4th and headed for the habitable world. She possessed far more sensitive passive sensors than the vanished Newton and she had moved less than a hundred million kilometres from the jump point when she detected a population on the third planet. Based on the emissions it was plainly not the same race that was encountered in Archangelsk, which was confirmation that there were now two hostile alien races in close proximity to the Xiamen home system. With an EM signature of 38,000, the population was larger than the alien population in Archangelsk, which had a signature of 35,000 and significantly larger than Sparta, with its signature of 27,800. The Fleet Admirals fervently hoped they were also hostile to each other, as a potential three-way conflict was infinitely preferable to an alien alliance against the Commonwealth. Littorio retreated to the Zagorsk - Smolensk jump point and held position, ready to warn if any alien ships attempted to enter Smolensk.
In early October, Hercules II class Tugs arrived in orbit of Xiamen-Kan with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which had one slipway with a 5000 ton capacity, and the ex-USAN Rio Shipyard, with three slipways of 2000 ton capacity. The former was tooled to build Tarawa class troop transports so it began retooling to build Arleigh Burke V class destroyers. The latter was tooled to build Molniya-s class scout corvettes. Three were laid down and then retooling began for the missile-armed Molniya class corvette.
On October 13th, the Vittorio Veneto II class jump cruiser Andrea Doria arrived at the Roma - Stevenage jump point. Roma was the site of a recently founded Commonwealth colony, one jump beyond London, while the second planet of the Stevenage system had excellent terraforming potential. It was also home to the last non-Commonwealth human colony, founded by the Union of South American Nations in 2037. When the Earth-based population of the USAN joined the Commonwealth in 2039 the colony was cut-off, along with a single small colony ship. The President of the USAN, Ferdinand Constantino, an ardent USAN nationalist who was determined that his country should not join the Commonwealth, and sixty thousand colonists were trapped on Stevenage II. In fact, it was President Constantino's absence from Earth that prompted the rest of his government to abandon his ill-judged stand on independence and join the Commonwealth while some of their population could still be evacuated from an irradiated Earth. The Commonwealth was now expanding its jump gate network and a jump gate was already in place on the Roma side of the jump point. The jump gate construction ship Stephenson was awaiting the arrival of five freighters with jump gate components before transiting into Stevenage to build a matching gate on the far side of the jump point. Andrea Doria was standing by to escort the freighters back into Roma. While she was in the neighbourhood, the Fleet Admirals had instructed her to contact the USAN colony and ask if it wanted to join the Commonwealth.
The jump cruiser arrived in Stevenage just eighty million kilometres from Stevenage II and was immediately hailed by the colony. Over the previous seven years, the colony had doubled in size and had a population of 130,000. As it was founded on the site of a small ruined alien settlement, the colony had recovered a small number of installations, including a spaceport, a shipyard and twenty assorted mines and factories. Far too many for the tiny colony to handle. It quickly became apparent that President Constantino was no longer in charge. According to the governor of the colony, after it became clear President Constantino could not return to Earth he became mentally unstable and eventually had to be restrained for his own protection. Six months after his incarceration, he feigned recovery and escaped from the colony, disappearing into the dense, humid jungles of Stevenage II with a survival kit. During the next six years there were occasional unconfirmed sightings of a half-wild humanoid creature stealing supplies and the ex-President became a late-night tale with which to frighten young children. The new governor was more than happy for his colony to become part of the Commonwealth. After seven years of isolation, there were concerns that humanity had perished completely and that the colonists on Stevenage II were all that remained of the human race. The USAN settlers were also overjoyed to learn that seven million of their ex-countrymen had been rescued from Earth and were already citizens of the Commonwealth.
In early November, the Vittorio Veneto II class jump cruiser Impero was holding position on the Xia - Saratov jump point, allowing colony ships to move between Xiamen-Kan and the new Xiamen colony on Saratov III. As the colony ships entered Xia and headed for the Xiamen home world to pick up their next load of colonists, the Fleet Admirals ordered the jump cruiser to leave her station and enter Smolensk to check on the last three unexplored jump points. Her sister ship Vittorio Veneto was located on the Smolensk - Xia jump point watching for aliens approaching from Archangelsk while a second sister ship, Littorio, was picketing the Zagorsk - Smolensk jump point, watching for any signs of the newly discovered aliens in Zagorsk. The fourth ship of the class, Andrea Doria, was still in Stevenage. With considerable trepidation on the part of her crew, given recent events, Impero probed all three jumps, discovering the systems of Irkutsk, Celabinsk and Petropavlovsk. All three were unremarkable, with no habitable planets or even potential candidates for terraforming. Impero headed back into Xia and arrived at the Xia - Saratov jump point before the colony ships returned from Xiamen-Kan.
On January 21st 2047, the Commonwealth Navy finally reached the point where every one of its major warships had a full loadout. The vast majority of the ordnance comprised the older SS-N-2 Sunburns and SA-N-1 Grails, and even the Dagger AMM on the Sentinel class bases, but these were still very capable missiles. Two hundred and seventy ordnance factories were in continuous operation on Eden and thirty more had been built on Xiamen-Kan. They would continue to produce SS-N-3 Scarabs and SA-N-2 Gauntlets, which would be loaded onto ships as they become available. As the older missiles were replaced they would form a stockpile to fall back on in emergencies. The state of affairs was still far from ideal as there were no reloads for the moment but as long as the Commonwealth Navy did not fight any major battles, the situation would continue to improve. Plans for a non-missile unit were still on hold due to a lack of a suitable weapon and the shutdown of the Mars research facilities that would have been involved in developing one.
In the Zagorsk system in mid-February, Littorio detected a strength-120 thermal contact approaching at 2264 km/s. Not as expected from the direction of the inhabited world but from the outer system. The cruiser's tactical officer speculated that it could have been a gravitational survey ship heading for the jump point after completing a survey. In any event, Littorio could not remain in position so she transited into Smolensk and headed for the Xia jump point. Littorio's situation as she retreated from Zagorsk was eerily similar to the withdrawal of Vittorio Veneto from Archangelsk seven months earlier, although on this occasion the alien ship that precipitated the withdrawal was moving much more slowly, suggested that the Zagorsk aliens were of a lower technology level than the alien race in Archangelsk. Because of her higher speed, at the time the alien ship was expected to transit Littorio was outside detection range of the jump point and an alien transit could not be confirmed.
Although Littorio could have used her active sensors to monitor the alien ship, the use of active sensors by Commonwealth vessels was generally discouraged as it gave away the ship's position to any EM sensor in the area. Unless Commonwealth ships were present in significant numbers, remaining undetected was regarded as preferable to learning more about an unknown thermal contact. However, even though the thermal and EM sensors on the Vittorio Veneto II class were the best mobile passive sensors possessed by the Commonwealth they were relatively short-ranged, especially compared to the much more powerful tracking stations that could be constructed on planets. Unfortunately, Smolensk was a planetless system so the mobile sensors were all that was available. By February 2047, six research facilities were in operation on New York IV and were dedicated to sensor and fire control research. With two hostile alien races of unknown strength close to the Xiamen home system, learning more about them was a high priority and that required better sensors. Once improved sensors became available, the Fleet Admirals intended to commission the design of a new class of scout ship.
The Fleet Admirals continued to take a cautious line in dealing with the alien races in Archangelsk and Zagorsk, partly through concern about taking losses against one race and then facing the other in a weakened state, and partly because they wanted to build up reserves of fuel and ordnance and complete new research projects. Their strategy was to picket the Smolensk - Xia jump point, maintain the four Nagatos at the Xia side of the same jump point as a tripwire defence and hold their primary combat power in Xiamen-Kan orbit in the form of four battlecruisers, six Tribals, eight Trafalgars and three older Scharnhorst class cruisers. The entire strategy was predicated on the assumption that Smolensk was the only point of contact with hostile aliens. On April 21st 2047, that assumption was proven incorrect.
At 21:26 hours on April 21st, planetary-based tracking stations on New London detected emissions from four powerful active sensors, located four point four billion kilometres from the primary on a bearing of 116 and moving at 4480 km/s. The jump point to Budapest was the only one of London's four jump points in that quadrant of the system and was one point billion kilometres further out on a bearing of 117. Almost certainly too close for coincidence. The sensors were operating with a resolution of 95, designed to detect ships of 4750 tons or greater at a maximum range of one hundred and twenty million kilometres, double that of the Commonwealth's most capable active sensor. Warnings were flashed across the jump gate network and the Commonwealth was forced to react to a totally unexpected threat.
New London had a population of twenty-three million and was home to a shipyard complex with two slipways of 14,000 ton capacity, maintenance facilities capable of handling ships of up to 10,000 tons in size and one hundred mining complexes. The forces immediately available in the London system comprised the Arleigh Burke V class destroyer Spruance with a full load of ninety-six SS-N-2 Sunburn anti-ship missiles, a Sentinel class Missile Defence Base with one thousand and ninety-six Dagger AMMs, five Molniya class corvettes and a Molniya-S class scout corvette. Unfortunately, none of the Molniyas had any missiles. New missiles had been shipped to the battle fleet units in Sparta orbit which were regarded as a higher priority. A civilian freighter was in London, en route from the Sol jump point to the Roma jump point with its cargo holds full of infrastructure. As the two jump points were in the opposite half of the system to the Budapest jump point, the freighter was five point two billion kilometres from the alien sensor emissions. As the most immediate need was for more information on the alien contacts, the Molniya-S class corvette Yaguar was dispatched on a intercept course. She had no passive sensors but carried the same Voskhod MR-800 Active Search Sensor as the Peter the Great II battlecruisers and the Arleigh Burke V. Despite being seriously outranged by the alien sensors, her small size would allow her to get within range of her own sensor without being detected. Her chances of survival after sensor activation were probably reasonable because she would able to deactivate the MR-800 and run for it at 6300 km/s.
Molniya-S class Corvette 1000 tons 85 Crew 216.8 BP TCS 20 TH 126 EM 0
6300 km/s Armour 1-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 8% IFR: 0.1% Maintenance Capacity 136 MSP Max Repair 96 MSP
NPO Energomash Supercharged Ion Drive (1) Power 126 Efficiency 8.80 Sig 126 Exp 21%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres Range 61.4 billion km (112 days at full power)
Voskhod MR-800 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 5760 Range 57.6m km Resolution 60
New London was one point seven billion kilometres from the Sol jump point and the Sol - London jump point was three billion kilometres from Sol, which made immediate reinforcement difficult. Nevertheless, the fact the aliens sensors had been detected so far out meant that Sparta was only five hundred million kilometres further away from New London than the alien ships. The Fleet Admirals made the decision to send all the available battle fleet units at 4500 km/s, leaving Sparta to be guarded by nine Arleigh Burke V destroyers and three Sentinel class missiles bases. Four Peter the Great class battlecruisers, six Tribal III class escort cruisers and eight Trafalgar III destroyer escorts raced to the rescue. Each of the four battlecruisers was loaded with one hundred and ninety SS-N-3 Scarabs. The collier Castletown followed at 3000 km/s with an extra two hundred and seventy-four SS-N-2 Sunburns.
The alien sensor contacts were on a course that would take them through the inner system but they were not on a direct course for New London. It soon became apparent they were on an intercept course for the civilian freighter en route to Roma, presumably because of its transponder emissions. While it was tempting to order the ship to disengage its transponder, if the aliens continued to track its course they would be pulled away from the centre of the system and the tempting target of New London, possibly for long enough for the task group from Sparta to arrive. For the moment, the transponder stayed active.
Twenty-five hours after the aliens were first detected in London, Fleet Headquarters was contacted by Commander Benjamin Gosselin, captain of the Arleigh Burke IV class destroyer Fitzgerald and overall commander of the small two-ship force picketing the jump point to the Tulan home system. After the Tulan asked the Commonwealth to leave their system in 2042, a force of nine older destroyers was stationed at the Sol - Vienna jump point to guard against any Tulan incursion. Over the next five years, with no sign of the Tulan, the destroyers were gradually withdrawn and scrapped until only the two Arleigh Burke IVs remained. The two Arleigh Burke IVs were laid down in 2030, before the final war on Earth, and despite delays to their construction caused by the war were eventually completed in 2033. By 2047 they were virtually obsolete. With a top speed of 2500 km/s and armed with missiles that had a maximum range of twenty-two million kilometres, they were severely outclassed by the warships of the modern Commonwealth Navy. In the near-panic after the alien contacts were reported in London, the two old ships were not even considered as a possible response force. However, as Commander Gosselin acidly pointed out to the staffers at headquarters, the Vienna jump point was only five hundred and fifty million kilometres from the London jump point and the Fitzgerald and the Cole could be there within sixty hours, compared to a week for the battle fleet units en route from Sparta. In fact, they could have been almost halfway there if an immediate order had been sent to them as soon as the aliens were detected. The communication from Commander Gosselin was passed upward to the Fleet Admirals who realised their own oversight and ordered the two destroyers to head for London.
At 12:57 on April 23rd, thirty-nine hours after initial contact, a civilian colony ship transited into London from Sol and headed for New London to deliver its cargo. The commercial shipping of the Commonwealth was outside of military control so there was little that Rear Admiral Toyota Tetsuhiko, the governor of New London and senior officer in the London system, could do except warn it of the danger. The colony ship was much closer to New London than the aliens and the civilian captain was more interested in completing his task and heading home than worrying about alien threats. The alien contacts continued to follow a course towards the civilian freighter halfway between the Sol and Roma jump points. By this time they were three point five billion kilometres from New London and four point three billion from the freighter.
Fitzgerald and Cole arrived in London at 11:14 on April 25th and set course for New London. Eight hours later, planetary sensors on New London detected a fifth alien active sensor two hundred million kilometres astern of the first four. The fifth active sensor was less powerful, with a range of eighty million kilometres, which explained why it had only been picked up several days after the initial contact. Yaguar, the Molniya-S class scout, was closing in and was six hundred and fifty million kilometres from the four larger contacts. She was ordered to try and establish contact with all five known alien ships, even if that meant staying in their general location much longer and switching her active sensor on and off as required.
Her CO was Captain Eusébio Gonçalves, a conscientious and reliable officer who had spent most of his career in missile bases and PDCs as part of the officer corps of the Union of South American Nations. He was now more interested in promoting the fast attack concept and the technical abilities of his ship then climbing the promotion ladder. In any event, at 57 he was unlikely to advance any further in rank. Captain Gonçalves used the speed advantage of his ship to guide it around the alien contacts and approached from the aliens' port quarter. His small, difficult to detect corvette slipped inside the theoretical alien sensor range without incident and continued to close. Finally, at 17:09 on the 26th, with Yaguar just fifty-five million kilometres from the group of four alien contacts and the aliens two point five billion kilometres from New London, he ordered his tactical officer to activate the Voskhod MR-800. The active sensor detected four 12,500 ton ships, larger than anything in the Commonwealth Navy. Based on the detailed scan, they were identified as ships of the alien race in Archangelsk, or the Angels as they had become commonly known, and one ship was a different class than the other three. Yaguar disengaged her sensors less than five seconds after she activated them, then changed course to intercept the fifth contact. The alien ships did not even deviate from their course so it was possible they had not even detected the scan.
The size and speed of the alien ships, plus their powerful active sensors, suggested they were at least a match for the Commonwealth in terms of technology. The battle fleet task group, still eighty hours from London, would have its hands full, even if it arrived in time. Four hours after the close approach to the first group of ships, Yaguar moved within fifty-four million kilometres of the trailing contact and engaged its sensors once more. The fifth alien vessel was a new class of 6250 tons. As before the aliens did not react to Yaguar so Captain Gonçalves ordered his tactical officer to leave the sensors active. Still there was no response. Concluding that the aliens did not have EM sensors capable of detecting the MR-800, Captain Gonçalves suggested to the Rear Admiral Toyota that his ship maintain active sensors and pursue the larger group of aliens, moving no closer than fifty-five million kilometres. The admiral concurred. An hour after Yaguar turned to chase the large group, the single trailing alien ship changed course. At first Rear Admiral Toyota thought it had spotted Yaguar but their courses diverged and it was soon clear the alien was on an intercept course for the civilian colony ship en route to New London.
