January 1, 2350
The IDSS Magellan begins its survey of the Solar System.
January 7, 2350
The IDSS Magellan discovers a new warp point just outside the orbit of Saturn. This warp point is not located anywhere near the known locations of the old warp points.
The Regent orders the Imperial Guard to probe the warp point. The Imperial Guard is composed of old-tech Imperial Navy ships that have survived from the last interstellar era. Most of these ships were scrapped after the Collapse or were destroyed during the rebellion, but a few have survived and have been formed into a unit which reports directly to the Emperor and his Regent.
The Imperial Navy is put on alert while three ships from the Imperial Guard, the Victory, a missile destroyer, the Far Eye, a scout, and the Agincourt, a light carrier, set out for the newly discovered warp point. These three ships represent an incredible resource, as they mount sensors, fire control systems, and defenses far beyond anything that could be built by the current Empire. Unfortunately, they are forced to rely on modern missiles, since all of the old-tech missiles have long since been used or lost.
January 10, 2350
The Imperial Guard detachment jumps out of the Solar System. It finds itself in a single-star system with an M4-V primary. The primary is soon identified as Barnard’s Star. The system has three rocky planets and one gas giant with twenty five moons, three of which are sizeable and have substantial atmospheres. None of the planets or moons has a breathable atmosphere. The Guard detachment arrives just sixty-five million kilometers from the primary, and in between the primary and the massive gas giant. Every system body is well within range of the detachment’s incredible sensors. After a short period of time the CO of the detachment verifies that the system is currently unoccupied and orders his ships back to the solar system.
The announcement that another system has been found, even one without habitable planets, causes jubilation on Terra, Venus, and Titan. Even on Mars, where the occupation is in place, there is hope that the opening of other systems will lead to a better life for all.
The IGSS Drake is dispatched to Barnard’s Star to begin surveying the system for resources.
January 13, 2350
A second warp point is found in the Solar System. This one is four hundred million kilometers outward from the first, in between the orbit of Saturn and Uranus. Once again the Imperial Guard is dispatched to probe the warp point.
January 17, 2350
The Guard detachment jumps through to a binary system with an M5-V primary and an M6-V secondary star. The stars are quickly identified as Luyten 726-8 A & B. The primary is orbited by four rocky planets and a gas giant with an incredible thirty five moons, two of which have their own atmosphere. The secondary star, which orbits the primary closely at 5.5 AU’s, is orbited by four rocky planets and two gas giants with a total of twenty eight moons. One of the rocky planets orbiting the primary and one orbiting the secondary star have oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres, but the planet orbiting the secondary star possesses gravity of over twice that of Terra, making it uninhabitable. In addition, the primary is orbited by a massive asteroid belt that starts 8.5 billion kilometers out, and ranges as far as 13 billion kilometers out.
The detachment appears over 2.5 billion kilometers from the primary, out of range of even their stupendous sensors, so the guard commander orders his small fleet in towards the inner system.
February 10, 2350
The Imperial Guard probe group jumps back into the Solar System. The Guard detachment’s CO immediately sends an emergency alert message to the Imperial Fleet and to the Imperial Palace. The message to Prince Victor is terse, merely stating that the Guard detachment was attacked by an alien race during its probe mission. The information sent by the Guard CO showed that after ignoring the Guard’s repeated attempts to contact it, a single alien ship made what appeared to be an attack run on the detachment and was destroyed. Later, while attempting to withdraw from the system, the Guard ships were attacked a second time by a group of gunboats. The Guard CO’s message emphasized the fact that at no time did the aliens attempt to communicate.
Admiral Tannenbaum is ordered to prepare plans to deploy the Navy to the warp point to the Luyten system to defend against possible attack while the Guard re-supplies and reloads its magazines. Admiral Tannenbaum is furious that work on the Navy’s jump engine, which would have been able to carry its CL’s through the warp point, has been delayed yet again. Because the Navy does not have jump capable ships, the Guard is the only force capable of projecting power, something that Admiral Tannenbaum intends to make very clear to his supporters within the Senate.
February 12, 2350
Admiral Tannenbaum stepped into a richly appointed drawing room deep within the Imperial Senate building and came to an abrupt halt upon seeing just who it was that was waiting. “Duke Savage, I didn’t know you would be here today. To what do I owe this honor?”
The planetary governor of Terra, under the Emperor, stood and came across the room to where Admiral Tannenbaum had come to a halt. With a broad smile he took the Admiral’s hand. “Good to see I can still surprise you, young man! Come, you shouldn’t be surprised when an old friend of your father’s takes an interest in matters such as these. Come, let’s talk.” The Duke drew Admiral Tannenbaum into the room and shut the doors behind him.
Inside, Admiral Tannenbaum could see those he had thought to meet with, Senators Reed and Said, the senior members of the Military Oversight Committee. Those two august Senators nodded to Admiral Tannenbaum and gestured for him to sit next to them, while Duke Savage took a seat on the far side of the room. Once Admiral Tannenbaum sat, Senator Reed leaned forward. “Victor, Duke Savage asked to be present for this discussion, which, as you no doubt have realized, is not just about your budgetary requests. Please indulge us in this, as we all think this is very important.”
Victor looked around the room at the three other men. “Of course. What can I do for you today?” Victor had been raised in a noble family under near constant assault, both physically and politically, and he had been trained from an early age to assess and deal with political situations such as these. Of course, people being what they were he had long since come to the conclusion that you could never become truly comfortable with your ability to deal with politics and politicians, but still, he was no babe in the woods. And these men were his family’s allies, and had been their staunch supporters since before the rebellion.
The two Senators and the Governor looked at each other for a second, then, at some unspoken cue, Senator Said stood and walked over to the fireplace and the roaring fire that was doing so much to warm the room. “Admiral, what do you make of the current situation in the Luyten system?”
Admiral Tannenbaum frowned. The question was innocent enough, but there was much hidden behind the apparently simple question. After a second he decided to draw them out. “A threat so close to home should concern us all. I’ve had people working on our defense plans since the threat was discovered by the Guard.” The three other men in the room shared a quick look at his mention of the Guard. Interesting, Victor thought.
Senator Said continued quickly, as if nothing had happened. “Have you and your staff reviewed the data provided by the Guard?”
“Extensively.” In fact, Naval Intelligence was still analyzing the data, and his staff had made some very interesting observations based on INI’s initial assessments.
Again the three men shared a look, although this time they did nothing to hide it. Again, Said acted as their spokesman. “And what is your assessment? The Guard fired first, did they provoke this war?”
There it is, Victor thought as he settled back into the soft chair and considered the three men. “The Guard’s data seems consistent. At no time did the aliens acknowledge Guard attempts to communicate. By the time the first ship was engaged they were well within range of the Guard’s launchers, and had been warned off several times. If any potentially hostile ships had behaved thus within missile range of Imperial Navy ships any of my captains would have done the exact same thing.” Victor watched the faces of the three men as they digested his statement, wondering if they would catch what he hadn’t said, and if they did, if they would call him on it. INI’s analysis showed that there appeared to be no data inconsistencies to the combat logs provided by the Guard, however, there were many ways in which such logs could be spoofed, particularly by someone who had prepared such a deception in advance. For instance, INI’s analysts had pointed out that while the Guard’s data-logs clearly showed repeated attempts to warn the aliens off, there was no independent way to verify whether or not the messages were actually transmitted, as opposed to merely inputting the transmission orders and receiving computer generated conformation that the message had been sent.
Once again the three men looked at each other for a few seconds, and then finally Duke Savage nodded and stood. “Victor, you know exactly what is going on, as do we, so why don’t we all stop dancing around this. We’ve all be very uncomfortable about the expanding role of the Guard. The Senate has oversight over the Navy and the other branches of the military, but no one has oversight of the Guard. You can see how that would cause more than a little concern, especially given the leading position they’ve taken on first contact situations.”
Victor thought fast. He had no desire to be caught in between his family and the Senate, but it seemed he shared at least some of their concerns. “My family has oversight over the Guard, and last I checked my father is still the head of the family. And Emperor. Are you saying you don’t trust him, ‘uncle’ Kai?”
Duke Savage winced at the reminder of his close relationship with the Emperor’s family, going back to before Victor and his siblings were born. “You know how I feel about your father, boy. He’s not the one in control these days, title or no.”
While he had his own doubts, Victor wasn’t going to air them outside the family. At least, not yet. “Are you accusing Edward of something, Duke?” Victor’s voice was mild, but the formality came across loud and clear.
Duke Savage shook his head. “No, we aren’t, as you damned well know. We’re merely concerned about the precedents set by the expanding role of the Guard.” The unspoken ‘so far’ hung in the air between them.
Victor stood and faced the three men. “There is an easy way to resolve this. We need to turn the Imperial Navy into a true interstellar force. The Navy needs jump ships and scout designs of its own, as well as troop transports. As long as the Guard retains a monopoly on those areas, the Empire will be forced to rely on them and they will consequently gain power and influence. My budgetary requests reflect this reality.” One by one he looked them in the eyes. “Give me what I ask, and the Navy will regain its position at the forefront of Imperial expansion.”
This time the three men didn’t need to look at each other. Prince Victor’s statement was self-evident, and matched what the three men had been discussing before he arrived. As one the three men nodded, and Victor knew that he would get what he needed to expand the Navy.
February 14, 2350
The Imperial Guard detachment dispatched to the Luyten system returns to Terran orbit. The returning ships are met by a non-descript shuttle which docks with the DDG Victory.
On board the IGS Victory, in orbit over Terra…
The small room became even more crowded when Crown Prince Tannenbaum entered the room. The officers in the room, Guardsmen all, gave the Guard salute with fist clenched over their hearts to the Regent, then at his nod they sat down. Prince Edward moved to the head of the table and took his seat, then nodded to Commander Power to begin.
Commander Power, CO of the most powerful ship in the Home System, called up a holo display over the table they all sat around. The display showed an angular ship with multiple projecting booms with nacelles and saucers all connecting to a central cylinder. The alien ship was about as different from Imperial naval architecture as it was possible to be. Imperial ships all tended to be wedge shaped in one form or another, usually with large swept wings that acted as cooling structures and sensor deployment booms. After letting the alien ship rotate over the table for a short period Commander Power got down to business. “We encountered two groups of alien ships. The first was a single 7,200 ton ship with a maximum speed of 5,555 kps, while the second group was composed of four gunboat sized ships with a maximum speed of 8,000 kps. The larger ship was lightly armored, and exhibited ECM capabilities on par with the best that the old Empire could field.” There was a stir around the room at this, and even Edward was taken aback. The old Empire was legendary nowadays, and seeing an alien race match their capabilities was bothersome. “As ordered, we destroyed both groups of alien ships. No colonies or other ships were detected before we left the system.”
Edward Tannenbaum settled back into his chair with a frown on his face. “No planetary populations were detected?”
“No, and the Far Eye was close enough that any sizeable population would have been detected.”
“So we may be dealing with a multi-system polity. This could be bad.”
Commander Power glanced at his fellow Guardsmen, and then looked back at the Regent. “Sir, we may not have had a choice. The aliens never once attempted to communicate with us, and both groups were making what appeared to be attack runs when we destroyed them. Even stranger, we detected no life pods after destroying any of the ships.”
Edward Tannenbaum looked at the assembled officers for a few seconds and then chuckled. “That’s rich! That’s perfect.” The Regent began chuckling, and other officers looked at each other and then joined in when their commander began laughing with the Regent.
After a few seconds the laughter died out and Edward looked pensive again. “We are going to have to clear the Luyten system, and your ships are the best equipped to do so. I’m going to ask Victor to deploy the Navy to cover the warp point back here, to defend against attack, while you go through the Luyten system with a fine tooth comb. I want to know if there are any more aliens there, and if there are, I want them either destroyed or cowed.” Edward paused while the officers took in his orders, and then continued. “Commander Power, you are hereby promoted for your actions in Luyten. Congratulations, Captain Power. Now ready your force for space!”
The Guard would return to the Luyten system before the end of the month.
March 1, 2350
The Imperial Guard detachment under Captain Power detects an alien installation on Luyten A-IV, Moon 3. The moon is a frigid body with just over half of Terra’s gravity and a nitrogen-methane atmosphere. After some analysis it becomes clear that this is merely a listening post, and Captain Power orders a missile strike against the target. Four capital missiles from the Victory suffice to eliminate the alien installation. While he would have preferred to capture the installation, currently neither the Guard or the Navy has any way to get the Guard’s large troop transports through warp points.
March 5, 2350
The Guard’s sweep of the A & B components of Luyten is complete, and no further installations have been detected. It would take months to probe the asteroid belt that orbits beyond the B component, months that Captain Powers has not been given, but the second group that attacked the Guard detachment did appear as if it originated in the belt, so Captain Power orders his detachment to probe the area around the apparent origin of the attack group.
March 26, 2350
The Imperial Guard Detachment under Captain Power completes its sweep of the area in the asteroid belt from which the alien gunboat group might have originated, finding nothing. Captain Power orders his ships back to the warp point.
April 19, 2350
The Imperial Guard returns to the Solar System and reports the destruction of an alien listening post. Admiral Tannenbaum takes this situation very seriously, and orders the Fleet to begin a series of exercises designed to increase the combat readiness.
The Regent orders the Imperial Guard’s salvage ship to jump into the Luyten system and begin salvage operations. At the insistence of the Senate the ship departs with Navy salvage teams on board, although it remains under the command of the Guard. Although the ship has cargo holds of its own, the ship will be accompanied by several Imperial freighters. The Guard will also dispatch the scout Far Eye to watch over the ships while they work, once the scout completes its current mission of probing the third warp point to be discovered in the Solar System.
April 27, 2350
The Imperial Guard jumps into a system quickly identified as the Lalande 21185 system. The system primary is an M2-V star. The central star is orbited by three rocky planets, five gas giants, and over one hundred moons. In addition, there are two asteroid belts. Although the inner rocky planets are barren, five of the moons of the gas giants are planets in their own right, and four of the five moons have atmosphere, although they are quite toxic.
June 5, 2350
The Imperial Guard declares Lalande 2118 clear, and the bulk of the Guard returns to Terran orbit. The scout Far Eye and the Victory are detached and sent to Luyten to support the salvage operations there.
June 25, 2350
The Hard Scrabble and its Navy salvage team finishes salvaging the wreck of the larger alien ship. A magneto-plasma drive, missile fire control unit, ECM-5 system, and five size three missile launchers were salvaged from the wreck. The engine is equivalent to current Imperial tech, but the ECM unit is far beyond current tech and is in fact equivalent to old-tech Imperial systems. The Imperial Naval Intelligence team accompanying the salvage team confirms that the alien ships were completely automated, and the INI Senior Agent in Command speculates that the ships encountered in this system were automated guard ships of some sort.
July 13, 2350
After an extensive search the Far Eye is unable to locate the second group of wrecks and Captain Power decides to return to the Solar System. The failure is disappointing, but the wrecks were very small and it is assumed that they drifted since the battle. The Hard Scrabble will return to the solar system as well to unload its cargo of technology.
July 30, 2350
The Hard Scrabble unloads its cargo on Mars, igniting a debate in the Guard over what to do with the recovered systems. None of the tech is particularly valuable or advanced, except for the ECM-5 system, which is on par with old-tech Imperial systems and far beyond systems produced currently. One faction wants to disassemble the system to gain knowledge that might be used to produce advanced ECM systems, while another faction wants to install the system on a new-build warship to increase the size and capability of the Guard.
August 10, 2350
The Imperial Guard destroyer Victory, along with the Far Eye, jumps through the fourth warp point to be discovered in the Solar System. On the far side they discover a planet-less M6-V star later identified as Proxima Centauri.
September 4, 2350
The Magellan completes its gravitic survey of the solar system. The grand total of warp points for the home system is four, all of which have been probed by the Imperial Guard. The Magellan sets its course for Terra, where it will refuel and then it will set out for Barnard’s Star.
September 6, 2350
The Drake, which has been performing a geological survey of the Luyten system, passes through the Solar System on its way to the Lalande 21185 system. While en route, the Drake transmits the results of its survey, including the fact that they found what appears to be a ruined alien outpost on Luyten B-II. Luyten B-II is a heavy grav planet with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and large deposits of eight different resources, although they are present at very low availability levels.
February 3, 2351
The Magellan completes its survey of Barnard’s Star, finding two additional warp points. The Magellan sets its course for Terra, for refueling, and then for Luyten.
June 16, 2351
The Magellan completes its survey of the Luyten system, finding one additional warp point. The Magellan’s next target will be the Lalande 21185 system.
October 14, 2351
The research team led by Victoria Tannenbaum completes development work on Tokomak Fusion Reactor technology, and immediately begins research on internal confinement fusion drives for the Imperial Navy.
December 1, 2351
The first new jump gate construction ship is launched from the Terran yards. The ship is immediately dispatched to begin constructing a jump gate to the Luyten system, which has several worlds suitable for colonization, and three prime mining sites.
December 17, 2351
The gravitic survey of the Lalande 21185 system is complete and the Magellan is returning to the solar system for refueling before transiting out to Proxima Centauri to begin survey work there. The Imperial Guard has begun gearing up to probe the eight warp points discovered in the Lalande, Luyten, and Barnard’s Star systems.
Update, December 2351
As of New Year’s Day, 2352, the Empire has discovered four new systems with dozens of worlds and moons and no less than eight additional warp points. These new discoveries have given much hope to a people that have suffered much during the rebellion and who now yearn for better times. Reconstruction has begun in earnest now that the rebels have finally been crushed, and the Regent, Crown Prince Edward, has taken a very public role in the reconstruction of the large areas devastated by war on Earth and Mars. In fact, the Royal House has invested incredible sums in the reconstruction, and Edward is seen by the people as ‘their man’ in the government. There is much concern amongst the people for the health of the Emperor, as details of his infirmities have leaked out over the last several years.
Admiral Victor Tannenbaum has convinced the Senate to fund a large expansion of the Navy’s strength to counter-balance the growing influence of the Imperial Guard. A new battleship is under construction, as are a command light cruiser with jump capabilities. In addition, two light cruisers and three frigates are under construction and will be launched in 2352, bolstering the Navy’s strength.
Imperial scientists have been pouring over the data recovered from the destroyed ship in the Luyten system, but have not been able to identify the builders. The fact that the ship is apparently some sort of automated defense system is disturbing, and begs the question – where are its builders?
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