Introducing the Zog Race:
[attachment=0:34yop5v1]Zog 2350.gif[/attachment:34yop5v1]
Campaign Note #1: The Zog’s begin with a similar technological level to the Terran Empire, although the points are allocated differently.
Campaign Note #2: For ease of understanding, and because every known reader of this journal is a resident of Terra, all place names are in Terran Standard. This will primarily come into effect in terms of known Star names. Of course, the Zogs are not going to name a star Lacaille 8760 or Gliese 660, but the names they do give to those systems will be meaningless to anyone not born on a Zog planet, therefore, all star names will be given, where possible, in their known Terran Standard equivalents, to avoid confusion.
As of January 2350, the point at which the Empire began the second interstellar era by transiting the newly discovered warp points in the solar system, the Zog government is what amounts to a religious dictatorship. As with many Zog governments, the central focus is a near god-like individual, whether that person is known as the Prophet, the Emperor, or Dictator for Life. Many times the form of the government will change around that individual, but leave that person nominally in charge. The government may begin as a direct dictatorship with the dictator holding the power; evolve into an oligarchy with the dictator’s council holding the real power in the dictator’s name, then into a holy empire with the dictator becoming the emperor while the prophet holds the real power.
The religious dictatorship holds the belief that everything beyond the warp points, which are known to have returned some time ago, is evil and should be ignored for the health and continued well-being of the Zog race.
As of the start of the new interstellar era, Zog Prime is nearly mined out of resources, and the bulk of the Zog government’s automated mines are located on the system’s innermost planet, named Hell. Hell is a terrestrial type planet with a gravity approximately half that of Zog Prime (.42 compared to Zog Prime’s .77) and an average temperature of 667.6 degrees. Hell has moderately large resource deposits at good availability levels, however, concerns about the ultimate depletion of these resources is a primary motivator for a new expansion into interstellar space.
July 2351
Fall of the Religious Dictatorship
The Prophet is retained as the nominal head of government, but the military now wields the true power.
July 14, 2351
Zog Prime
“Your Excellency, the Heirarch is dead!”
General Vriaprinzhtlas reared up on his tentacles. “And what does the new Heirarch have to say?”
The subordinate dropped into a crouch of submission, and spread his armored claws. “Excellency, the new Heirarch has publicly stated that the warp points are the province of the military, as are anything found beyond them.”
General Vriaprinzhtlas settled his armored body onto his pedestal with extreme satisfaction. “Very well, he may live. For now. Now go and issue the orders. We will take the faith to the stars once again!”
The General watched absently as his assistant scuttled away, his mind already turning to the task at hand. In spite of its name, his world wasn’t the birth place of the Zog race. It was, instead the first colony established by the home world during the first interstellar era. Unfortunately, during that period the greatness of the Zog people was restrained by first the hated Terrans and then the Xanti, who were even worse in the General’s estimation. At least the Terrans were openly hostile, where the Xanti were always about, never opposing, just ‘suggesting’. In the General’s estimation, one of the most lucid actions ever taken by any Zog leader was the Great Roasting, where every Xanti caught in the system was cooked over open flames after the warp points fell. The accounts all agreed that they were delicious, when properly seasoned.
The General shook his armored claws. It was time to return to the stars, although the last Hierarch hadn’t agreed. General Vriaprinzhtlas had made it his life’s work to return his nation to the stars, and now they were almost there. It was a close run thing, though. Current estimates showed that they had barely a ten year supply of trans-newtonian minerals left in the entire system, and then their sources would be mined dry. They must expand now, or it would be too late.
2352 – The military begins losing its grip on the government. By the end of the year the military has lost control of the government. The nation is now run by a collection of oligarchs representing major economic interests. The Prophet continues as a figurehead.
The new government continues the expansionist policies of the previous government.
2353 – A coup early in the year brings the Prophet back into power. The new religious government supports limited expansion.
June 29, 2355
A Zog exploration ship conducting a survey of the asteroid belt in the Lacaile 8760 system detects a strength 800 thermal contact just over thirty million kilometers away. The ship has been in the system for almost a year conducting its survey, and this is the first sign of advanced technology they have seen. In fact, while the system contains no less than four planets that could harbor life, all have been surveyed and none are home to an advanced civilization, meaning that it is immediately apparent that this contact is not from this system.
Immediately after confirming the contact the Zog commander signaled the other Zog geo-survey ship in-system, which is also surveying the asteroid belt. The second ship, after receiving the message, immediately set out for the warp point to carry word of the contact back to the home system.
The first survey ship’s commander immediately ordered his ship to come to a halt and for the active sensors to begin sweeping space around the ship to determine if the new contact is alone. The active sensors show that the alien ship is 7,200 tons, and that it is currently making 5,555 kps, substantially faster than the Zog survey ship. Seconds later the alien ship activated its sensors.
On his own authority the Zog commander began communication attempts. For the next seventy minutes the Zog commander watched as the alien ship approached, then, when the alien ship broke 10 million kilometers without communicating, the Zog commander decided that it was time to leave. The Zog ship set out for the warp point at its maximum speed.
Forty minutes later the alien ship closed to point blank range, all while ignoring the Zog attempts to hail. Soon thereafter the Zog ship’s shields were hit by an energy or kinetic weapon that reduced them to sixty percent strength. Twenty seconds later the alien ship fired again, this time scoring two hits against the Zog ship, completely draining its shields and causing light armor damage. Unfortunately, the Zog ship possessed only defensive weapons and was unable to respond.
Twenty seconds later a third salvo came in, again knocking down the barely recharged shields and causing more armor damage. Two more salvoes came in before the armor was breached. Unfortunately, the alien weapon impacted square on the Zog ship’s jump drive, destroying it and killing one hundred and thirteen crew members. In the next salvo three weapons hit, destroying the Zog ship’s defensive CIWS emplacements and killing more of the crew.
Eight more salvoes came in as the desperate ship struggled to get away, but in the end their destruction was inevitable. Finally life pods spilled into space from the gutted ship as one hundred and thirty one survivors attempted to flee their disintegrating ship. Their safety was fleeting, though. The alien ship ignored the pods, leaving them drifting in space. The second Zog ship was headed directly away from them as fast as it could go. It would take over twenty days before it reached the warp point out of the system, and long before that their life pods would run out of supplies.
Before the destruction of their ship, the commander updated the second Zog survey ship of the results of the engagement.
August 17, 2355
The Zog survey ship carrying the news of the destruction of its sister ship in the Lacaile 8760 system arrives in the home system and transmits its dire news. Almost immediately the Zog High Command mobilizes a reaction force, which sets out for the Lacaile system within the hour.
While there is some debate about the composition of the force, in the end the group recommending overwhelming force wins. Two jump cruisers, three area defense cruisers, three strike cruisers, and six missile destroyers leave orbit with orders to end the threat once and for all. It will take the fleet two months to reach their target.
August, 2355
The attack on the Zog survey ship precipitates the fall of the current government and the establishment of a popular dictatorship. The new dictator advocates the conquest and subjugation of any aliens found in other systems. The Prophet is relegated to a distant monastery and no longer has a role in the government.
September 30, 2355
The Zog fleet is halfway to the location where the survey ship was destroyed deep within the outer asteroid belt of the Lacaille 8760 system when alarms begin ringing. The fleet has been running with its shields up and with all active sensors pounding away, as the fleet’s commanders have no wish to be ambushed. At 1050 hours the fleet’s sensors pick up a single contact directly ahead at 115 mkm’s, headed directly towards them. The contact exactly matches the profile of the ship that destroyed the survey ship.
Warrior Nchablblekratl orders the fleet to battle stations and begins closing with the enemy. The incoming contact is closing at 5,555 kps, and the Zog ships are moving towards it at 3,125 kps, meaning that they will close to combat range in just over 150 minutes. Warrior Nchablblekratl feels fairly confident that his fleet will prevail in the upcoming conflict as the enemy ship was forced to close to under 200,000 kilometers of the survey ship before engaging it with what were later determined to be torpedoes. His missiles would be capable of engaging the enemy at up to 37 mkm’s, far out of range of the alien ship’s weapons.
One hundred and sixty five minutes later the Zog force had come about and was running ahead of the alien ship, which was now trailing them at 25 mkm’s and slowly gaining. Warrior Nchablblekratl had tried launching at 35 mkm’s but the alien ship’s ECM had prevented that. Now, at 25 mkm’s, he was ready to try again.
He gave the order to open fire, and twenty seconds later thirty anti-ship missiles raced away from the lump cruisers and missile destroyers. The missiles flew towards the alien ship at 40,000 kps, covering the distance to the alien ship in just over nine minutes. Warrior Nchablblekratl order his ships to cease fire after the first salvo to evaluate the effect of the first before committing more missiles.
Nine minutes and twenty seconds later the salvo arrived. A single missile was destroyed by point defense fire and the remaining missiles slammed into the 7,200 ton ship. Sixteen missiles hit the ship before it began streaming plating and internal systems behind it, indicating that the armor had been breached. Two more missiles penetrated the ship’s armor but it didn’t appear to be phased and was continuing to close at 5,555 kps, so Warrior Nchablblekratl ordered a second strike. Twenty five seconds later thirty missiles roared away.
Two missiles from the second salvo were destroyed just short of the target, and then the remaining twenty eight hit the alien ship. Once again there were multiple penetrations of the alien ship’s armor, seventeen in all, but as before the tough alien ship sailed through the missile attack without apparent damage, in spite of the fact that it had taken two full salvoes of Zog missiles. Shortly after the missiles hit, though, it became apparent the alien ship had indeed been damaged. In the seconds after the missile wave hit the alien ship slowed to a mere 555 kps, 10% of its former speed. The ship was obviously heavily damaged.
Once again Warrior Nchablblekratl ordered a salvo launched against the oncoming enemy ship, but this time the salvo contained only twelve missiles. It took five missiles from the third salvo to finish off the alien ship. No life pods were detected leaving the ship, and after a careful scan of the surrounding area Warrior Nchablblekratl was forced to admit that none would be found. It appeared that the aliens were rather fanatical in their desire to avoid capture.
After scanning the area Warrior Nchablblekratl ordered his fleet to proceed to the location of the destruction of the alien ship. A close survey of the site showed that there was never any crew on board the alien ship, it was completely automated. This disturbing fact was filed away and the fleet set out for the site of the destruction of the survey ship.
October 10, 2355
While en route to the scene of the destruction of the survey ship alarms yet again sound throughout the ships of the Zog fleet. At 1035 hours three contacts appeared directly behind the Zog fleet, approaching at 5,555 kps. All three were immediately identified as matching the EM profile of the hostile alien automated warships that had destroyed the survey ship and attacked the fleet. All three ships were 7,200 tons, although it wasn’t clear yet if they were the same class or not.
Warrior Nchablblekratl ordered his fleet to come about and close on the enemy ships. Two hours and forty one minutes later, while the two groups of ships were still 34 mkm’s apart, the alien ships suddenly turned away and decelerated to match the Zog ship’s speed. Warrior Nchablblekratl found himself in a difficult position. He was unable to close and his fire control systems wouldn’t lock on to the alien ships due to their ECM. He was fairly certain that the aliens were even then launching missiles at his ships.
After considering the situation for a short time he decided that instead of vainly trying to close the range, he would instead run before the alien ships. This would force them to chase his ships to maintain the range, and would force their missiles to run longer to close, which might actually run them dry of fuel before they could close to attack range.
Eighteen minutes after the enemy ships turned, thirty missiles appeared on the Zog ship’s sensors 1.4 mkm’s out, inbound at 32,000 kps. The Zog ships were prepared and once the incoming missiles broke past 1.2 mkm’s they opened fire with anti-missile missiles. In seconds sixty AMM’s were in space and speeding towards the inbound missiles.
Twenty seconds later the two groups of missiles merged six hundred and ninety four thousand kilometers short of the fleet. Fifty five incoming missiles disappeared in explosions and five broke past the AMM’s and sped towards the fleet. Several of the Zog AMM’s lost their target lock and ended up circling, looking for new targets.
Even as the interceptions took place a second group of incoming missiles appeared on the scanners, thirty strong. The Zog ships began launching AMM’s targeting the second group even as the last remaining missiles of the first group were swatted from space by last second interceptions from the second group of AMM’s.
Even as the second group of incoming missiles was intercepted short of the fleet a third group of thirty appeared on the scanners. The Zog fleet buckled down for an ongoing battle against the incoming missiles. Anti-missile missiles flashed away from the Zog ships in a steady stream. There were always leakers from the first interception of each group, but Warrior Nchablblekratl had no wish to drain his magazines any faster than they were already being depleted, so his declined to increase the number of AMM’s launched against each incoming missile. This decision had a price, though, as the leakers came closer and closer. A single missile from the fifth wave actually managed to close to attack range, but just before it began its final run last minute point defense fire from a strike cruiser’s torpedoes took it out.
The attack lasted for nearly six minutes. Fourteen waves of missiles, four hundred and twenty in all, attacked the fleet. Only one got within attack range and that was intercepted by a cruiser’s torpedoes before it could detonate. The Zog fleet expended nearly nine hundred AMM’s to stop the missile attack. Warrior Nchablblekratl felt fairly confident. Between the ships of the fleet they still had nearly twelve hundred anti-missile missiles and could repel at least one more attack of that size, although he was fairly sure that the alien ships had already expended their missile loads. Nchablblekratl ordered the fleet to come about and pursue the aliens. Seconds later the aliens accelerated to 5,555 kps on an angle away from the Zog ships.
In desperation, Warrior Nchablblekratl ordered his strike cruisers to detach from the main group and pursue the alien ships. The strike cruisers, armed with medium range torpedoes, were designed to close with an enemy force and engage closely and thus had massive engines. They were faster than the alien ships, but had no missile defenses, relying on the area defense cruisers for that function. Unfortunately, the ADC’s would slow the strike cruisers down too much, so Nchablblekratl decided to retain them with the fleet. In his opinion the aliens had expended their missiles anyway.
Warrior Nchablblekratl’s estimation of the alien’s missile storage proved correct. Seven and a half hours later the three Zog strike cruisers had the alien ships in range of their fusion torpedoes and opened fire. The first salvo went out at 78,000 kilometers. Three out of the first fifteen torpedoes hit the target. The second salvo had four hits. At that point the CO of the strike cruiser squadron decided to close with enemy to obtain a better targeting solution. During the confusion while the Zog squadron sorted itself out the alien ships pulled out of range, but the Zog ships quickly caught up and opened fire again. The first salvo of torpedoes at the closer range got five hits, causing the targeted ship to spurt plating and the wreckage of internal systems. Ten more hits caused a massive internal explosion on the alien ship, slowing it drastically. Eight more served to finish off the alien ship. The second and third alien ships died under sustained torpedo fire, without responding in any way.
The subsequent Zog survey of the wrecks showed that they too were automated warships.
December 23, 2355
The Zog combat fleet returns to Zog Prime to a hero’s welcome.
By the end of this period, the Zogs have expanded two jumps from their home system, and have established automated mining networks in the EG 165 and the Lacaille 9352 systems.
The elimination of the threat in the Lacaille 8760 system causes the current government to lose support. Over the next six months eight governments will rise and fall.
