Calm Before the Storm.
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In mid-April, the Admiralty of the United Nations Space Agency concedes to a degree on the points presented by Admiral Atkins regarding security concerns. The Admiralty refers the recommendation and its now notes on the matter, though more conservative than the original concerns presented to the Agency Council. The Council accepts some minor concessions on the matter of the Agency's military assets and appoints Admiral Atkins to oversee Generation 1 Designs. for vessels in the Corvette-Frigate-Destroyer range up to a limit of 20,000, or given more time time, 30,000 tons. A refit of the Atlantic Class is also recommended to bring up its experimental technologies to Generation 1 Spec. The Agency consequently receives all recently developed technologies for relevant military application in this vein.
Admiral Atkins is thus assigned several design teams to complete a provisional series of designs. Concepts for weapons up to the 15cm, or potentially 20cm focusing range in a number of applicable trans-newtonian energy or conventional fields such as Meson, Laser, Applied Microwave or even Plasma based Carronades exist and can be made reality relatively easy, though it is expect such designs will not be finalized or result in completed vessels for several years. The Agency is also cleared to utilize Gauss or Railgun weaponry of similar capacity. Several Agency design groups also present Atkins with their own theories on employing automated laser systems in a CIWS System as an anti-missile system. Such a system was suggested quite recently but given the lack of immediate threat in the face of nuclear disarmament, was pursued independently by an Agency team for potential use on military assets.
In Late June, all Survey Assets of the Survey Department are transited through their respective unexplored Jump Gates and begin surveys. The Survey Department begins collating data but will not present a finalised survey report until 2030.
Much of the Agencies resources are consequently tied up in the Martian program and investigation of the Martian ruins. Several facilities ranging from the mundane to exotic are recovered - most notably, a facility that must of provided ground training for Grunwald Freehold with training for its colonial garrison. The facilities are notably slightly more advanced in their employed methods but are relatively basic. The Facility is therefore employed by the Agency. Several other facilities such as tracking stations relatively on par with human technology are found. Of particular note is the recovery of what is understood to be a network of research laboratories. While the laboratories were clearly dealing with terraforming research and the basic underlying principles greatly advance human understanding of the concept, there is two other major elements of note found in the aged but recovered data stores within the complex.
Firstly and less notably, is the rundown the Grunwald Colonies trans-newtonian network backbone. While efforts on Earth had begun by numerous interests to employ trans-newtonian elements to greatly improve existing data infrastructure actual application has been somewhat difficult. The overview of this network backbone shows concrete examples of how something like the internet or other secure data networks could be made faster, more efficient and more resilient in a relatively short amount of time, and would greatly aid the civilian economy as well as governmental and agency networks. These discoveries are quietly passed on.
Secondly, however, is the discovery of a human genome map. While there are no signs that such a map of human DNA was made in recent history, such a discovery of alien observation in the history of the human species as a whole is concerning, whether it is benign or otherwise. It is clear that the Grunwald Freehold Colony on Earth was engaged in some level of monitoring or perhaps even experimentation on Earth based life, though examples of the latter do not exist in the laboratories recoverable data stores. The Admiralty and Council are informed.
The other major efforts involved uncover several mining complexes both automated or more conventional. These facilities are understandable, particularly with the ability to understand Grunwald language to a relative extent, but boast several dozen components that are far beyond those utilized on Earth or in Human Martian installations. Several teams eventually make the mines operational and are able to make the corresponding applicable changes to human mining efforts and increase their efficiency. With the Martian colony now, however, growing larger and requiring a greater work force - means the Agency begins to pursue more aggressive colonization efforts. The Council makes the unilateral decision to unveil the existence of the ruins on Mars to the public and suggests that the Agency begin using the ruins to bootstrap its colonial infrastructure by using the restored sections of the ruins. The Information, rather than cause a degree of panic, cause many more individuals chose to go to Mars - either temporarily or permanently, though some minor civil disturbance occurs in a number of cities around the world.
The Martian colony consequently experiences explosive growth and will be further enlarged by the recovery of further Freehold technology, installations and refined resources. An incident occurs with automated defenses and seemingly AI driven constructs, but are quietly covered up to avoid panic.
The Affairs of the Agency after such a period of advancement and growth become relatively low key even as the Sun continues to warm.
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Fleet Admiral Chernov is summoned before the Council in Febuary 2030. Recent geopolitical changes on Earth itself are forcing backroom deals and Chernov is consequently questioned by the Council for several hours over details ranging from the mundane to the somewhat relevant before the Council extends his mandate. The entire Admiralty are subject to such meetings which are seemingly testing their loyalty - to the Agency or to their individual home nations or power blocs is however, not known. Chernov consequently issues a formal protest on behalf of the Admiralty to impeding the management of the Agency and several arguments break out between the Admiralty, Member Nations and the Council itself before being quietly ended, although not resolved.
Chernov presents the Admiralty with a report on the developing situation on Earth to the Admiralty in early March and makes himself open to recommendations for the future:
Fellow Members of the Admiralty,
As you know, my own authority over the Agency is not absolute and I am merely first amongst equals here in the leadership of the admiralty itself. Recently, political changes on Earth have come into play and threaten even our independence and to some extent, question our loyalty to our duty or to ourselves. We must of course, rise above such politics given the situation presented to us and the objectives we pursue, as well as the greater goal in mind even given the circumstances of our exploration of the stars.
However, such interference or the resumption of political rhetoric on Earth cannot be ignored. For now, the Agency remains aloof and apart even if it is used as a tool in certain arenas. While some of our contributing members, sometimes the most surprising to do so, argue for our continued independence and limited oversight bound by our legislation and spirit of duty, it cannot be assumed that such voices will remain triumphant over the long term.
I am, for the moment, not prepared to act in any overt manner to secure the agencies independence but ask you all to to remain true to our goals and to our organisation rather than letting the affairs of our home nations, to which though we are friends, are no longer bound. I am requesting that the Admiralty look into the costs and necessary measures needed to, if able, move the UNSA Command Structure either offworld to the Martian colony or any potential extra-solar colony that may be established.
While I personally do not yet think such a measure is necessary, we must prepare according to the assumption that the Agency will either have its overall independence challenged at some point, or will have its purpose to ensure the survival of human civilization threatened from within. If you have your own opinions or perspectives on this manner, please, make them known. Your suggestions and recommendations continue to be invaluable.
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On Earth, power blocs continue to formulate and coalesce. These concerns are largely individual to the concerns of nations versus others. The continued civilian exploitation of the Solar System has fed economies to new heights - with the constituent expectation of influence that they hope to command. In Europe, The European Union has accepted several new member states and overhauled and reformed its leadership - leaving only Switzerland as the last "independent" state though by this point the independence is largely a fantasy - While the United Kingdom and a network of other less integration minded states form a distinct bloc, though they are not willing to break the whole. The European Union maintains its NATO links with the United States and Canada and consequently forms a portion of the largest power bloc on the planet, though some former members have re-orientated themselves. Such a bloc is now often finding itself at odds not with the Russians or Chinese - but the African Nations, The Middle East and South America.
Much of Africa not affiliated with the United Kingdom through the Commonwealth - and many that once were have taken the example of the European Union's changes - and in the face of the great change that swept the African continent both economically and in the wake of the Indian Flu pandemic have formed a reasonably coherent, if somewhat fractious federalised state that covers much of the continent. The African Union itself is hugely dependent on economic investment from other blocs, and is closest to the new "Compact" that has formed in the Middle East. While Iran has orientated fully towards China and is now a somewhat democratic state, the Middle East itself, including newly reinstated states that have been formed seemingly ad-hoc by various religious or ethnic concerns that are largely unviable alone, have formed an economic and military alliance of convenience and great benefit. Even Israel, though somewhat distant, has connections to this Compact centered around Cairo and Riyadh - which has even extended its influence as far as Morocco.
In South America, the touted UNSAR has formed its power bloc that extends as far north as Mexico. The UNSAR is no unified state by any means and, given its new founded latin influence is likely to go through a renaming scheme in short order. The UNSAR is essentially primarily economic, but resents the continued dominance of the USA and its allies in its domestic affairs especially in the trans-newtonian age. There is also anger that despite representing a collection of the largest selection of personnel, the Agency has relatively few officers from South or Latin America itself - favouring candidates from Spain's Military Schools, Academies and Universities.
In Asia, the Alliance of Convenience formed between China and Japan and merged ultimately with the Shanghai Pact has remained stable. Russia itself in the post-putin era has struggled to stabilize itself but has remained economically prosperous and has profited from the continued economic agreements with China and a rapprochement with the European Union and NATO overall following the pre-flu crises that almost irreparably damaged them. Other Pacific nations such as Australia have strengthened their relations - both economically and politically and have largely turned from former organisations as the relatively benign dominance of China in the area proved to be no better or worse than that of any other superpower. The many nations of South East Asia - forced into such partnerships with China from simply being overwhelmed by disease or refugees have continued their slow recovery with a grudging acceptance of China's contribution. India itself has aligned with NATO as a bloc, given its distrust of all its neighbors and the tremendous challenge it faces, but has largely remained separate and independent of petty squabbles.
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In May 2030, the Survey Ships present their finalised reports, albeit later than intended due to resupply and maintenance issues - though even these are preliminary and full surveys are expected to be completed where they are not yet done so by the end of 2030, or 2031 at the latest depending on supply needs or respective overhauls. The results cause a number of strategic rethinks that are presented to the Admiralty by Fleet Admiral Chernov. He Presents the report to the Council and Agency:
Further to the current progress of the Agencies surveying efforts, their report is added with minor notes and my own recommendations at the closing for your own recommendations and understanding. Please note some surveys are not fully complete, so more jump points or resources of note may be discovered in some cases.
Survey results are grouped by "Jump Chain" - primarily at the current moment in time, the Sirius Chain and the DX Cancri chain. Disregarding Jump Points into Sol, Sirius hosted 3 other jump points and DX Cancri 7. The DX Cancri Chain insofar contains a large number of varied worlds with varying numbers of trans-newtonian minerals and materials, as well as two notable candidates that would require work to be made livable. The Five new systems in this chain are described below:
AD Leonis is much like Sirius, containing a single world with a few minerals - albeit here in low accessibility. The world is classed, relatively fairly as Mercurian, and is of concern mostly likely only for future mining efforts should they be necessary. Gravitational Survey in this system is complete and there are two unexplored points, as in the past, all points insofar discovered hold jump gates. The Admiralty and Council from now on may assume all jump points do so unless explicitly stated otherwise.
YZ Canis Majoris and Wise+0146-4234 are both lone stars with no accompanying worlds. There is little else of note in these system's barring their jump points and we suggest a naming scheme is devised for such lone stars that act as routes into other systems. YZ Canis Majoris holds one unexplored jump point whilst Wise+0146-4234 holds 2.
GJ 1151 contains two Super Jovians and a single Gas Giant. The Gas Giant itself 19 Moons - the system consequently has a breadth of mineral resources in varying measures of number and accessibility and possible sorium exploitation value. None of the moons are immediate candidates for habitation. There are 3 unexplored jump points in the system revealed by survey.
Finally, in this chain, resides Gidas 99-49. The System holds four inner terrestrial worlds, two gas giants with an array of moons and an outer dwarf planet as well as a number of asteroids. Such a system has understandably contains, like GJ 1151, a wealth of minerals and resources of use in trans-newtonian industry. However, of particular note is Gidas 2 and Gidas 3, shortened for simplicity.
Gidas 2 contains a number of resources, notably easily accessible neutronium. The world itself is tidally locked and overall an arid desertified world due to a lack of water but falls into the human habitation range for gravity and am average surface temperature just below 10 Degrees Celcius. The only obstacle, ironically, to inhabitation is the presence of too much oxygen in the atmosphere. Consequently colonists would suffer from oxygen poisoning in short order. It is proposed as a reasonable candidate.
Gidas 3 contains a wealth of easily accessible minerals and more notably is neither tidally locked and possesses surface oceans. The average surface temperature rests at 20. 6 degrees and has a surface gravity within the range ascribed to human life. While it has a 44 hour day and a year nearly only one third of Earth norm, it has all the necessary elements to both support a trans-newtonian civilization and Earth-based life in general. However, despite all the conditions that make it ideal the world's atmosphere contains a concentration of methane that would prove deadly to colonists. The world has earth-like tectonics which would seem to indicate the likely source being the breaching of methane pockets during past tectonic activity. However, such a world remains a candidate for easy short-term terraforming.
In the Sirius Chain there has been a number of developments - notably due to the smaller amount of worlds and jump points which has led itself to further exploration of a portion of the chain. Sirius itself led to V557 Monoceri and Lalande 21185.
Lalande 21185 holds only a single world with a number of notable mineral resources but is overall as a colony candidate unremarkable at the current time. The system contained two unexplored jump nodes but one was found to lead to V557 Monoceri, consequently Lalande holds 1 unexplored jump node into the rest of the Sirius Chain.
V557 Monoceri is a binary star though only the primary has orbiting worlds. These worlds consist of 2 Gas Giants with their own array of moons. The 3 Inner worlds are terrestrial and combined with the Gas Giants and their moons host a reasonable bounty of minerals. V557 Monoceri III is a world similar to Mars with ice present and thus forms a long term colonial prospect. Primary concern in this system fixates on Monoceri II. Monoceri II is tidally locked with a 24. 6 hour "Day" and year. Pressingly, it provides a gravity near half of that of Earth but thus within the human range alongside its surface temperature of 17. 6 - its large surface oceans contain primordial life and most importantly, though on the low side of the ideal range, its atmosphere is perfectly suited without issue to human settlement. Consequently, Monoceri II is a instantly inhabitable world and presents a direct colonization prospect all but 2 jumps from Earth itself.
However, the V557 Monoceri system holds one perhaps concerning implication. The SS Shosuke discovered the wreck of a destroyed spacecraft in interplanetary space in the system. It resides near no orbital body or path and was sits at a tonnage of 9550 tons. It may be prudent to devise a means of salvaging the wreck which, despite from visual and sensor inspection appears to of either been destroyed or experienced a catastrophic internal malfunction, may contain information or components of note.
V557 Monoceri contained two unexplored jump points but one was found to lead to Lalande 21185. Consequent exploration of the one remaining node lead to the Luyten 961-1 system, which itself contained two worlds with reasonable mineral resources that could serve a settlement in Monoceri. Luyten 961-1 itself contained only one other jump point which lead to the GJ 1125 system. The GJ 1125 System is noted as the end of this chain as the only Jump Point in the system that was discovered leads back to Luyten 961-1.
GJ 1125, as a end-chain system is remarkable for what it offers. The System holds 9 Worlds, 3 of which are terrestrial alongside nearly 300 noted asteroids, obviously such a system has a wealth of resources to offer. The foremost planet is surprisingly, a gas giant, while the three terrestrial worlds lie beyond it. 1125-2 is another near-mars world and offers a long term colonization prospect. Its single moon too itself is notably similar to Luna and too itself offers a long term colonial prospect. 1125-3, the second terrestrial world, is Venusian but could, over the extreme long term possibly made habitable to better exploit its reserves of resources, we only note this due to the proximity of the Monoceri System but also 1125-4.
1125-4 is a world, which whilst larger then Earth retains less mass and therefore its surface gravity falls low, but safely in the gravity range ideal to humans with an average surface temperature of 6. 5 Degrees. It has large surface oceans and s not tidally locked - operating on a 32 hour day though its year is nearly four earth equivalents. Its atmosphere is a mix of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon-Dioxide that overall offers a breathable atmosphere with only a marginal increment of oxygen above Earth levels while it its tectonic activity remains low and its crust retains a large amount of easily accessible minerals. As such, 1125-4 even in the presence of Monoceri's habitable world hosts the first true fully Earth-Like world we have discovered all but two more jumps from the Monoceri System at the end of a chain, and thus consequently if needed highly defensible.
As such, with these discoveries our report concludes.
RECOMMENDATIONS - CHERNOV:
These discoveries radically change both the direction and pace of our orientation and goals. While DX Cancri was our primary concern - and perhaps even in the light of the Gidas system and the lesser limited nature of the Cancri Chain, we must now re-alter our perceptions to the reality provided by the Monoceri and 1125 Systems. Further to this matter and recommendations within, we suggest that the Admiralty and Council draw up naming schemes both for empty systems that route to other locales but provide nothing of note, while systems that possess colonial candidates receive preliminary names that are more easy to handle, remember and more importantly do not clash with similarly named systems.
As such the Agency is requesting direction and policy on its recent discoveries and further notes that Admiral Atkins concerns may warrant further attention due to the discovery of the wreck in the Monoceri System. It is also likely that by the end of this year, the Martian Colony will reach 100m inhabitants whom will press for adequate representation in the Agency as well as with their own governments - we may face a situation where the Martian colony would require recognition as a separate and individual element of human civilization, particularly given its multi-ethnic makeup and importance to research matters. We therefore face the prospect of a form of recognition of a colony on a timescale unthinkable given the ease of space travel trans-newtonian technology has given us.
However, in closing, our survey efforts will continue and the Admiralty will continue to act according to our current established goals, though we cannot ignore the presence of these two new worlds and the other prospective candidates presented in our surveying reports. Further exploration through discovered but unexplored points will continue unaffected but subject to supply and overhaul needs.
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In July the SS Pathfinder transits one of the points in the Wise 0146-4234 System but immediately returns to join the Timofeyevich who transited to the now labelled Eta Cassiopiea System to perform a full system survey before both switched back. A few days later, the SS Pathfinder detects 15 signatures in the system that have transited into the system from the Wise 005-3737 System. The onboard computer immeadiately randomly assigns a naming scheme to the ships based on their tonnage and draws from the Dutch database. The Ships are all varying design but result to the total of 9050 tons. The Pathfinder is seemingly unnoticed and it is assumed her recently upgraded sensor suite is superior to that of the unknown vessels. Within a few moments, the Pathfinder is ordered to station itself on the DX Cancri point and attempt communication.
While there is a unintelligible response indicating at least a sentiment to not instantly destroying the Pathfinder, she is advised to remain in station and withdraw to the node. As an unarmed vessel she cannot impede the passage of the aliens so Chernov notes that the Pathfinder should retreat if threatened, but continue attempts at communication. A Team is created on Earth to liase with the Pathfinder and continue communcation attempts. A few hours later the signatures disappear, presumably back into their origin system.
Pathfinder remains on station. The matter is handed to the Council and the Admiralty. Throughout June into July the signatures consistently transit and retransit the node seemingly at random. The Diplomatic Team on Earth struggles to gain a handle on the alien language.
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Start of July 2030
Earth Population: 6. 041bn
Mars Population: 95m. Earth's relatively stable growth rate is seemingly being fed into the Martian colony which has attractive prospects for many.
Civilian concerns have spread among a large amount of the inner solar system and asteroid belt, but extend into the outer system and particularly sorium harvesting.
