Author Topic: Terran Empire - Part Ten (January 6 2049-January 5-2050)  (Read 2938 times)

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Offline OAM47 (OP)

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Terran Empire - Part Ten (January 6 2049-January 5-2050)
« on: January 04, 2012, 03:40:38 PM »
January 25th 2049:  Kapteyn's Star is scanned for sentient life, but none is found.

March 15th 2049:  Two new jumps found in Ross 780.  Exploration of the closer of the points yields EG 453, a white dwarf with no orbiting bodies.

March 26th 2049:  The second point leads to Gliese 844, an orange star.  It has a few rocky planets and a few gas giants.  The first planet is habitable with a bit more oxygen, and  two moons of the 5th planet could be habitable with a lot of terraforming effort.  TES Henry Hudson flies in to check it out.

April 19th 2049:  Barnard's star's system is determined to be a dead end.  It is highly unlikely humans will be back for some time, due to the abundance of good colonization sites elsewhere.

April 20th 2049:  First contact!  TES Henry Hudson picks up an active sensor of comparable strength to the new designs R&D has developed.  The ship carrying it can move at least 6520 km/s and heads straight for the survey scout.  It continues on course.  The CO is the famed Duchess of Greece Stella Nicodemus, and her adventuring spirit wouldn't be in favor of turning back, though she's also quick to point out to her subordinates that there's no way to outrun the aliens anyway.

A few hours later passive sensors detect three more ships with the active contact, all the same size, though of three different classes between them.  Unfortunately, the ship's sensors are not enough to detect the inbound missiles which slam into her a few minutes later though.  They're small, 14 in total, and the armor absorbs most.  The jump drive is damaged, but still operable, though five die instantly as a plamsa conduit erupts in the engineering section.  The ship is also trailing fuel on the port side.  The Duchess orders reverse course immediately, though there's still no hope to outrun or escape the hostile aliens.  Another wave hits before they can even turn, though, five seconds later, taking out one of the six engines.  Two more waves arrive at once and break the ship up only ten seconds after the "battle" began.  Only 56 surviors, or roughly 1 in 10, make it to escape pods as the Henry Hudson disintigrates, but with no hope of rescue they know they'll suffocate soon.  Most of the survivors were those off duty and trying to rest, despite the excitement, who had barely realized they were under attack by the time the ship broke up.  None of the officers make it, as no one on the bridge was able to reach an escape pod before the bulkheads tore.

The TES Leif Ericson is now stranded in Ross 780.  Fortunately, the two ships were due back right after this probe, and thus command will soon send another ship to look for them.  While it was possible, and even advisable, to ignore the loss of the first survey ships, losing two ships at once out of range of easy communication is a much more dubious situation.

May 20th 2049:  Two Queensland Class command ships are finished.  One is assigned to the battle fleet and the other is held in reserve.   It is soon sent to Ross 780 when the scouts are listed as overdue.  It will only jump in and back out if it picks up neither in the system.

May 27th 2049:  Two Discovery IIIs are built, but with the recent incident there's a bit of trouble working them into the rotation.

June 28th 2049:  TES Leif Ericson is found waiting on the jump point.  No time is wasted in setting course back for Earth.

July 28th 2049:  A new jump point is found in Kapteyn's Star's system, complete with a jump gate!  Exploration finds 40 Eridani, a trinary system.  An orange star is orbited by a white dwarf, which is in turn circled at extreme close range by a red dwarf.  The primary has a few mars like planets, but interestingly the first such planet has a near habitable moon.  Even more interestingly, a 6900 ton wreck orbits said moon!  TES Marco Polo retreats, Captain Corey Brotzman seeing obvious danger.  Because of how news travels, he believes he's the first to discover an alien contact.

August 4th 2049:  TES Leif Ericson arrives back in Sol, and with it news of the other scout's disapearance.  With increased suspicions, and the loss of a key explorer, the militarists faction surge.  A full on expansion program is ordered for they navy with the intent to investigate this occurrence, as well as the loss of the Zheng He only one jump away.

August 15th 2049:  Two more Toronto class ships laid down.  The fleet is set to double in size by July of 2051.

August 23rd 2049:  The resource crisis is officially declared over, though as usual the official word on the economy lags behind reality.  Careful management still needed to prevent another crash, though.

September 8th 2049:  John Holmes is born to the Imperial Family.  While it's still too early to make predictions, the Emperor and Empress say they'll raise him as any other son, and not specifically to take on any role in the Empire.

September 9th 2049:  TES Marco Polo returns to Sol and transmits its findings.  While a ship was not lost in this instance, this is the first solid evidence of aliens Humanity has.  An expedition is called for right away to investigate the wreck and be a potential show of force to any aliens encountered, but will take some time to set up.

September 19th 2049:  Thanks to some clever administrative work, as well as a few cut corners, the Imperial Battle Task Force sets course for 40 Eridani.  Both Queensland class ships will depart, but one will stay on the Kapteyns Star-Lalande JP, in case the fleet is crippled, and to serve as news carrier/black box.  The jump gates can be transmitted through, allowing at least one of the very valuable ships to stay safe.

December 5th 2049:  Imperial shipyards set to expand again, with the end goal now being a total of six slipways of 10,000 tons, divided into three units of two each.  This is an ambitious project that will be done late sometime in the next decade, but the shipyard will be able to operate throughout at least present capacity.

December 13th 2049:  The Imperial Battle Task Force enters 40 Eridani at 10:24 GMT.  Commodore LaVern Vogelsberg is the commanding officer.  She decides to head for the wreck with active sensors on in case missiles are detected.


December 30th 2049:  Uneventfully, the squadron reaches the wreck and detects nothing suspicious.  Sensor readings are taken confirming it's basic shape, size, and a few other measurements, but there really isn't much they can do.  A course set for home.  TES Newfoundland stays in position for transmissions just in case there's an ambush, but also heads back when the fleet leaves the system safely in mid-January.

January 5th 2050:  Elections result in a big lead for the Militarists, as well as a final collapse for the explorers faction.

Council:        4 Militarists -       0 Industrialists -  2 Apolitical
Senate:   1268 Militarists  - 1224 Industrialists -  5 Apolitical (Mil+44)