Interesting format, kinda like a news channel instead of the usual AAR or story style.

August 4, 2163, Rift System
The salvage effort of the destroyed Rifter and Terran ships is complete.  A total of 116 Rifter systems of various types were recovered, along with over a hundred Terran systems from the destroyed bases.  In addition, 27,000 tons of TN resources were recovered, including 5,500 tons of precious gallicite.  The salvage ships set out for Terra. 

August 24, 2163, 86 Cygni (Bob controlled Space)
Terran sensor buoys detect a barrage of nuclear explosions on the jump point to the Oct controlled system of HIP 84051, and then a new wreck appeared on the jump point. 

September 19, 2163, Terra
The fast salvage ships deliver their load of components and raw materials to Terra on this date.  The components are studied carefully, but none contain advanced tech, and although that is disappointing to the scientists and engineers on the examination teams, it is a relief to the naval high command.  The Rifters have so far not demonstrated any tech in advance of the current Imperial standard. 

 November 27, 2163, Sol
The last four warships scheduled to be refitted with the new solid-core anti-matter drives go into the yards.  The commercial yards are still working on the support fleet, in particular the troop transport squadrons, but the fleet is now in the final phase of the refitting program.  However, the Io labs recently finished development work on a new generation of laser weaponry, with upgraded capacitors.  Negotiations begin on targeted refits to upgrade some capital ships to the new standard before the fleet departs to Oct space. 

December 15, 2163, Mu Puppis, Bob Territories
Sensors left in the Bob home system of Mu Puppis detected a flurry of explosions in the outer system and the appearance of a wreck at the explosion’s location, in spite of the fact that there had been no ships on their screens before this. This information was relayed back the forward base at Upsilon Puppis, and then back to the Empire. 

The navy wasn’t ready to mount the planned Oct Pacification Campaign yet, but a squadron of newly refitted battlecruisers and carriers, supported by destroyers, was dispatched to bolster the forward base’s defenses. 

January 29, 2164, Sol System
The Empire calls a halt to the refitting program for the commercial fleet.  Stocks of gallicite are dangerously low, and stockpiles across the empire have been emptied to fuel the refit of the fleet and its support units.  Until those stockpiles can be replenished, no further refits will be authorized.  Similarly, plans to expand the fleet will have to be put on hold, at least for now. 

February 21, 2164, Sol System
Troop Transports begin loading Imperial Guard troops for transport to the forward base in Upsilon Puppis.  The first wave will consist of two corps of Imperial Guard troops, and the newly constructed 1st Super Heavy Armor Division. 

September 22, 2164, V577 Monoceri System, Shield Forward Base
At 0600 hours Shield Base Naval Operations Center received a distress call from a small civilian freighter crossing the Sigma Cephei system.  Sigma Cephei was an uninteresting system three jumps from Shield Base, on the route between Shield and the new colony in the Omega Pegasi system.  Sigma Cephei had no Terran naval presence, which meant that the small freighter was likely doomed. 

During the major refit and build up to the offensive against the Oct’s beyond Bob space, Shield Base’s squadron had been reduced, but as the attacker was likely a small group of raiders, Captain Feng wasn’t too worried.  He dispatched a strike carrier, jump cruiser, and a destroyer to investigate and hunt down any remaining raiders. 

The three Terran ships arrived in Sigma Cephei on the 27th.  During their voyage to the system the raiders had hunted down and destroyed a second small freighter.  The squadron immediately set out for the location of the wrecks. 

Just over nine hours later, as they were about half way to the wrecks, a third small freighter reported that it was under attack in-system of the previous attacks.  The Terran squadron was fifteen hours away.  It took the raiders forty-five seconds to destroy the freighter, after which they hunted down the life pods. 

At 0734 on the 28th the Terran Squadron picked up a Raider ship on their sensors.  It was immediately identified as a salvage class ship, and was at the location of the first ship to be destroyed.  Captain Feng ordered the Phobos to launch her fighters to run down the salvage ship while the squadron continued on towards the last known location of the Raider attack ship(s). 

When the fighter squadron reached its own sensor range of the salvage ship it detected two Raider class ships, and two light raiders, escorting the salvage ship.  The fighters continued closing.   

The raiders waited to the last minute to begin running, but it was far too late.  One light raider pulled away from the other four ships at full speed, while the other three armed-raiders limited their speed to that of the salvage ship they were escorting.  The fighters launched a salvo of Sparrow III ASM(L)’s at the three warships in close proximity to the salvage ship.  These were the Empire’s latest missiles, an improvement over the Sparrow IIb’s that had been used in previous engagements.  The Sparrow III’s were 10,000 km/s faster, at 52,800 km/s, had more range, and were equipped with the Empire’s latest development, laser warheads.  Eighty-eight ASM(L)’s roared away from the fighters, divided between the three warships. 

All three warships took multiple penetrating hits, and one was reduced to drifting.  Their missiles launched, the fighters turned towards the Phobos to rearm.  Captain Feng ordered his squadron to chase down the lead raider while the fighters returned to their bays.  The Jump Cruiser Destructor and destroyer Henderson took the fleeing light raider under fire at 1107 hours, scoring only one hit at extreme range.  The two warships relentlessly closed on the fleeing ship and pounded it to scrap, then turned on the group of damaged raiders still covering the salvage ship. 

The Terran squadron closed with the group of two raider warships escorting the salvager and opened fire at 380,000 kilometers range.  By the time they had closed to 200,000 kilometers the lone medium raider had been destroyed and the squadron shifted fire to the damage light raider.  It only took two salvoes to eliminate the light raider, after which the Terran squadron shifted to targeting the salvager. 

With the salvager gone, the Terran squadron set its course for the medium raider that had been crippled during the missile attack, while their fighters set out for the location of the most recent attack.  It only took two salvoes to eliminate the medium raider, after which the squadron turned to follow their fighters.  During the engagement a pair of raider ships had appeared in between the fighter’s location and the site of the last attack, a light raider and an Echo class ship, which was a suspected commercial ship of some sort. 

At 1303 hours the fighters launched twenty-four ASM(L)’s at the lone light raider escorting the Echo class ship.  The medium raider survived, but was left drifting.  The fighters left the drifting warship and the Echo class ship for the following warships and set out for the scene of the last attack.  Once there they found nothing except for lift pods containing twenty-one crew members of the civilian freighter. 

After destroying the Echo and the crippled medium raider with laser fire, the squadron set its course for the life pods, which were being watched over by the fighters.  Once the life pods were recovered the fighters had landed, the squadron set out for the inner system to determine if there were any more raiders lurking in the system.  When no more raiders were detected, the squadron set its course for Shield Base.

Back on Terra, the fleet is nearly ready to set out for Bobruisk space to confront the Octs.   

Question, why didn't any of the Earth powers go further in trying to reestablish MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) in space beyond merely developing space fleets?

Massed missile sats (500 engine less "fighter") packed with 50-55 Size 1 Box Launchers firing masses of cheap slow AMMs can defeat any beam based defense and likely any reasonable AMM based defense and project firepower across interplanetary distances across the whole of the inner solar system even with the most basic TN tech. An AMM using Nuclear Radioisotope Engines can have a speed of 3kps and a range of 700mkm+ (though admittedly at Tech 2 Warhead Strength and 0.9 Fuel Efficiency), it costs 0.33 BP to build per unit so they can be mass produced relatively easily and would threaten destruction on any inner system target. Or you could just equip them with actual AMMs and now you have both anti missile, anti warship and anti Earth/Luna firepower.

Heck if you really want to be cheeky a few stealthy FACs/Fighers loaded with a 100/50is S1 Box Launchers are basically submarines in space, capable of hiding in some dark corner of the solar system and just cruising in system to turn any Sol based shipyards/mining sites/population centers into debris clouds with swarms of very uninterceptable light munitions.

Seems like a cheap way to generate a lot of menace in system, and if you want to transport them out system a freighter with some commercial hangar decks can slip them out system, or even near their target under normal circumstances!

 

You're probably right from an Aurora-as-video-game perspective: players hate setbacks. Sid Meier's autobiography discusses this: the Civilization team considered implementing a "civil war" game mechanic, but eventually shelved it because most players hated losing their cities. Even Paradox Interactive's grand strategy games, which do feature civil wars and rebellions, tend to make them relatively minor affairs. There's probably some sort of loss-aversion psychology going on here.

On the other hand, I think that random losses are useful from the Aurora-as-storytelling perspective. The only way for the player to experience "The Glorious Liberation of Hiigara" is as the sequel to "The Hiigara Disaster".

I think that a middle ground could be for the Precursors to only launch their ships after winning the ground war (perhaps there could be an escalating series of ground awakening). That way the player can recapture their (mostly) intact colony later.

Or just use Spacemaster to kill the Precursor fleet. Aurora is a single-player game; there's no such thing as cheating.

Difference here is that resources in aurora are limited (well, besides never ending expansion, and perhaps some exploits, if they can be called that).
In Civilization and Paradox games, resources are more about territory controlled, rather than something finite. The only finite thing that player loses there is time.

You can at least prepare for the coming setbacks in PDX games though - like disasters having specific requirements to occur, and to end.
For unhappiness in Civ games, you expand to places with special resources to compensate. Or, use technology and buildings. There are ways to address losses.
But here though... I don't see any clear way to prepare for this, besides amassing a fleet "in case they wake up". And even then they get the drop on you, because they don't suffer a jump shock or it's equivalent.
Or, simply deciding to not bother going to this system to begin with. Which is... arguably questionable game design. The player should be encouraged to explore and expand. Why this should be an exception?

Basically, I would be fine with this challenge, if there were ways for player to address it. But, I don't see it, hence my concern.

EDIT:
And yeah, making fleet appear only after the ground war is won does look like a nice compromise.

EDIT:
At the very least, my suggestions about odd happenings as your excavation teams dig stuff up gives an indicator to player that something is afoot. The player can at least decide to reduce potential loses and evacuate things.
As for the excavator work - perhaps it would be better to have several different outcomes? Like, in terms of ships:
Outcome 1 - excavator team finds the precursor ship intact. They reprogram it, and get it online (if you have population on the world, you also get it crewed).
Outcome 2 - excavator finds a non-functional precursor ship. You get resources/components.
Outcome 3 - excavator team accidentally reactivates precursor ship. Luckily, it suffers a serious malfunction. Spawn a wreck in orbit.
Outcome 3.5 - excavator team accidentally reactivates precursor ship. It suffers a minor malfunction. Spawn a damaged precursor ship in orbit.
Outcome 4 - excavator team accidentally reactivates precursor ship. It is now in orbit and does what is described in this campaign.

Precursor land forces:
Outcome 1 - excavator team finds remains of a precursor army. You get some resources and maybe research points in some places.
Outcome 2 - excavator team accidentally reactivates a small group of precursor forces. Spawn a small group of hostile forces on planet.
Outcome 3 - excavator team accidentally reactivates a precursor group, which in turn reactivates their army. Spawn a large precursor ground force.
I am not sure if player should be allowed to reprogram robot armies..?

Breakthrough at the Dawn of a New Era: The Rise of Trans-Newtonian Technology

2104.09.24
Category: Research
Location: Sol System
Participants: Dr. Rosaura Bicudo and her team of scientists, Terran Science Council, Earth-based industrial conglomerates, various political leaders
Outcome: Success

On a crisp morning of September 25th, 2104, the scientific community was astir with anticipation as Dr. Rosaura Bicudo and her team prepared to unveil their latest breakthrough at the Terran Science Complex on Earth. The discovery of trans-Newtonian technology represented a monumental leap forward in human capability, promising to revolutionize industry and expand the horizons of space exploration. Delegates from major industrial conglomerates, political leaders, and representatives from the Terran Science Council gathered in the state-of-the-art auditorium, eagerly awaiting the details of this transformative technology. As Dr. Bicudo took to the stage, the room fell silent, the weight of the moment palpable. Her presentation not only highlighted the technical aspects and potential applications of trans-Newtonian materials but also painted a vision of an optimized future where humanity's reach could extend far beyond the confines of Earth. The energy in the room was electric, as those present realized they were witnessing the dawn of a new era, one that would redefine humanity's place in the universe.