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. 

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. 

You could always try to upload it on Imgur and share it via the [img] tag.

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. 

Weirdly enough for me my favorite thing about this story is the changing ship type nomenclature, I really like how realistic it is and how it reflects changing mindsets.