I don't know why, but this update reminded me of the time when another race backed by some unknown power, invaded one of the Alliance associate races (I think it was Doraz, but I'm not sure). By the way, do you plan for us to hear about this power (I assume that this is the same power as the imperial D'Bringi backer) anytime soon?

The was just before the start of the D'Bringi civil war.  It was actually part of the plot.  The plotters needed resources, and they needed to divert Alliance attention.  To this end, they infiltrated the D'Bringi contingent of the Alliance team to the Chirq Cooperative and influenced them away from establishing contact with a race that they had just discovered, the Khozun.  The plotters then established contact themselves, using one of the three D'Bringi corvette-carriers assigned to the Chirq Patrol Group.  They promised the Khozun, a backward race even lower tech than the Chirq, a rich reward if they raided or conquered the Chirq.  And then they funneled resources they had pirated from Alliance frontier freighters that had 'disappeared', along with tech, to help the Khozun prepare. 

The Khozun obligingly sent off their entire fleet to attack the Chirq home world, which they conquered and looted.  The D'Bringi plotters then intercepted the loot-laden freighters on their way back to Khozun, destroyed their escorts, and pirated the proceeds of the conquest.  They then visited the Khozun home world, destroyed the infrastructure they helped build, and dropped a nuke on the Khozuni capital to eliminate any evidence they were there.  The proceeds of the conquest of the Chirq home world, while not large on the scale of the Alliance budget, were immense on the scale of a band of plotters intent on suborning individual officers in the D'Bringi fleet, or in the home world government. 

The success of the Chirq-Khozun operation funded the plotter's successful takeover of the D'Bringi government.  However, it did not entirely work out as they would have wanted.  The Alliance sent a small squadron of ships to investigate once they figured something was going on, not a large fleet, as the plotters had hoped.  The Rehorish were already on alert that something was going on, and although they didn't immediately link this to the plot, it increased their uneasiness with the deteriorating situation in the Alliance and prompted them to react decisively when it became clear that the plotters were behind much or all of what had been happening. 

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. 

So basically, it fully guarantees a destructive civil war that invites the other major players to step in and take over the adjacent human systems to them.

Ah humanity, never change...

Humanity has not faired well in this playthrough.  I guess that's what happens when you nuke your home world. 

Ah, Humanity keeps on shooting itself in the foot over and over.

So if Sligo goes ahead and succeeds, how much of the Fleet goes with them, and how much of the Union's budget does it lose? Also most importantly, do they threaten the Union's access to El Dorado?

The Sligo District represents almost half of the Union's income, as although it is not as populous, it has been the Union's primary expansion and colonization site for some time.  Right now it is unclear how the fleet would shake out.  The Humanity First group has risen to replace the New Dawn Party, and Sligo and the other systems in the District are more or less solidly Humanity First.
 The Union Assault Corps was solidly pro-New Dawnist, and is now pro-Humanity Firsters in Sligo, in spite of attempts by the fleet to dilute this.  The rest of the fleet is more or less evenly balanced, however, the Union Fleet has been successful in ensuring that no one planet's population dominates any of the crews of the larger vessels. 

El Dorado is solidly in the Sol District, however, there are several other potential trouble spots.  Earth was a New Dawn stronghold, and remains solidly in the Humanity First camp, but lies within the Sol Sector, obviously.  And the Tlatelolco, who are very nearly members of the Union themselves, are in the Sligo District.  They know what the Sligo-led Humanity First party would do to them, as they had a taste of it during the New Dawn rule.  They are solidly Reform-Progressives, like the bulk of the Sol District. 

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.