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New Cold War / Cold War: Closing Notes, Part I
« Last post by Kurt on May 17, 2023, 07:13:47 AM »Author’s Notes on the last several years of trouble in the Alliance
I did not plan this, exactly, it sort-of just came together. It all started with the D’Bringi coup. I had designed many of my races with flaws that I intended to exploit as the story went on, in one way or another. The nuclear war that nearly destroyed Earth is one example, as is the Torqual civil war. The D’Bringi coup is another example of this.
The D’Bringi coup was born out of instabilities within the D’Bringi society, largely exacerbated by their success. The D’Bringi were a nomadic and warlike people who were assisted by the Benefactors and thus achieved world domination not because of their superior culture or economy, but because the Benefactors gave them superior weaponry. Of course, the D’Bringi convinced themselves that they were inherently superior, because, why not? They won; they united their world. Given their success, they faced no pressure to change their old ways. The old ways were marked by clan domination of their civil society, economy, and military. The clans held the majority of their own members in a status that was little better than chattel slavery, and the clan-less were treated even worse. The D’Bringi took this system to the stars with them, because, again, given the assistance of the Benefactors, they felt no pressure to change or evolve. Thus, the D’Bringi society that went to the stars was primitive and warlike, bent on conquest of everything in sight, for all that they were traveling in starships and establishing colonies on other planets.
For all of this, though, there were those within D’Bringi society who believed it had to change. Among those were the highest clan leaders, who saw firsthand the inefficiency of their economy and society compared to the Rehorish and the other races. Many of the middle class saw this too, but had little recourse within the Clan system. Even as the conquest of the Doraz and the Torqual fueled the D’Bringi economy and their desire for more conquests, the great clan chiefs were questioning if their way actually worked. After all, was the goal of the D’Bringi to continue conquering every race they encountered, until they met a race they couldn’t conquer or fight to a standstill, like the humans? Compared to a vital, growing society like the Rehorish, the D’Bringi economy was anemic, its only bright spot provided by the resources looted from conquered races.
Even as the D’Bringi home world grew rich on loot, the D’Bringi leadership knew that they had to change. The lower orders were growing restive. As they saw how the various aliens lived, when they realized that conquered aliens like the Torqual had more freedoms within their own society than they did, discontent grew and spread. And so, the great clan leaders embraced change. They caused the conquered races to be freed and bound them to the D’Bringi with economic and military treaties. This had become possible largely because of the service of the T’Pau during the war with the humans. It was their bravery and service that convinced so many in the D’Bringi leadership that aliens acting in concert with the D’Bringi could be an asset and not a threat, or an object to be exploited. The D’Bringi leadership used this growing awareness as a wedge to gain enough approval to force through the treaties that created the Alliance. In this, the great clan chiefs stole a march on their opponents who wished to keep everything the same in D’Bringi society. The treaties of alliance opened the D’Bringi economy to integration with that of the Rehorish, and, basically, forced change upon the D’Bringi people. If the D’Bringi hadn’t been ready for this change it could have been immediately disastrous, however, there was a large and growing movement within D’Bringi society pushing for just this kind of change, and they jumped into the opening of the D’Bringi economy with both feet. New colonies sprang up everywhere, settled mostly by those who wanted a new start away from the old clan system. In spite of some cultural unrest, the D’Bringi economy flourished as the formerly oppressed lower orders took advantage of their new-found freedoms to better their lives. All of this activity buoyed the D’Bringi economy as it integrated with the Rehorish economy, and all seemed to be going well for the D’Bringi. Behind the scenes, though, there were those who resented the changes. Who felt like they had lost that which society owed them. There always is, no matter how objectively good change might be.
The coup built up for quite a while, behind the scenes, as other events unfolded. The plotters raised money by skimming the take from several outer colonies, which they used to convert several old freighters into Q ships that could be used to pirate regular freighters, particularly if you had their schedules, which the plotters did. As that money started rolling in, they used it to suborn or convince D’Bringi officers to come to their side, particularly officers commanding corvette-carriers. Once they had enough under their control, they used their penetration of the Alliance and D’Bringi governments to contact the newly discovered Khozun, and convince them to launch an offensive in exchange for help building up their technology, industry, and orbital shipyards. The plotters raked off all of the loot from the conquest of Chirq Prime, instead of just a percentage, by turning on the Khozuni and destroying first their fleet, and then their capital city to cover their tracks. That money was used to fund widespread social influence events across selected D’Bringi colonies, calling for a return to the old ways. This movement underlay the eventual coup, and was used as a justification for the violent overthrow of the old government.
All of the money taken by the plotters was relatively small, in terms of the major governments in the campaign. However, in real terms, they stole tens of billions of dollars (equivalent), which was plenty to fund a movement and corrupt corporate and government officials. However, once they moved on the Chirq the clock was ticking. The Alliance would find out, and as they were in the Rehorish area of control, the Rehorish would investigate, and once the investigation started it was only a matter of time before they figured out enough to begin connecting the dots.
Now, most of this would not have been possible without control and/or corruption of the Alliance ICN. Just simple piracy is difficult in the Starfire universe, where the all-seeing long-range sensors can see every drive field in range, and sensor buoy/comms buoy combinations at every warp point ensure the central government can back track every ship that enters and leaves a system. Certainly, the movements of military warships would be tracked, and any ship that deviated from its assignments would be quickly identified and queried by the ICN. Therefore, I decided that something like that was well within the capabilities of the Benefactors, and thus the coup was born.
It is important to realize that the plotter’s plan was never to fight the Alliance. The plotters knew that if it came to a standup fight between the D’Bringi and the rest of the Alliance, they’d lose. Instead, they relied on misdirection to distract the Alliance to allow them enough time to consolidate their hold on the D’Bringi people, presenting the Alliance with a situation that would be too difficult to resolve given their increased tensions with the other races. The plotters made several miscalculations, though.
Firstly, they underestimated how mad the Rehorish and T’Pau would be about the corruption of the ICN. Indeed, the plotters seriously underestimated the Rehorish response to the corrupted ICN. They believed that the Rehorish would continue to use the corrupted ICN until they could present a ‘fix’, thus making themselves the heroes that fixed the problem. Instead, the Rehorish and the T’Pau completely cut themselves off from the ICN, believing that the corruption might be the first step to a campaign of conquest by an unknown threat.
The second big miscalculation was the T’Pau. The plotter’s movement was based entirely on D’Bringi chauvinism, and the old-style D’Bringi disdained the T’Pau as a client species that had risen above its station. The plotters believed that the T’Pau would be too afraid to make a move against the D’Bringi, even with Rehorish support, thus splitting the Council and giving the plotters time they needed to consolidate their power. In fact, the T’Pau over the years since the establishment of the Alliance had matured and come to appreciate their independence and position within the Alliance. They did not want war with the D’Bringi, but were also unwilling to overlook D’Bringi misdeeds. This meant that a rump-Council could be formed by two of the three full members of the Alliance, allowing them to act effectively against the plotters when the evidence of their wrong-doing became clear.
The final major miscalculation was the plotter’s belief that they would have the support of the general D’Bringi population. In fact, they did not. This was randomly determined by a roll against the D’Bringi racial outlook, minus one half their racial determination. If the plotters succeeded in their roll, they would have been right, and would have had the support of the majority of the population. However, they lost their roll, indicating that the population did not support them. Therefore, while they were able to gain the support of most of the critical colonies, that support was grudging in many cases, and they could not count on that support without an infusion of troops loyal to the plotters. Worse, they could not count on the enthusiastic support of D’Bringi crewed Alliance naval units. As the new, and apparently legitimate, government, the Empire could call upon their loyalty, but their obedience was not guaranteed and the more they knew about the Imperials the less loyal they would be as time moved forward.
All of this meant that while the plotters had great initial success, time was against them. Ultimately this was their ruin. The nascent D’Bringi Empire fell when the Emperor disappeared and the D’Bringi home system remained cut off from the D’Bringi colonies.
I did not plan this, exactly, it sort-of just came together. It all started with the D’Bringi coup. I had designed many of my races with flaws that I intended to exploit as the story went on, in one way or another. The nuclear war that nearly destroyed Earth is one example, as is the Torqual civil war. The D’Bringi coup is another example of this.
The D’Bringi coup was born out of instabilities within the D’Bringi society, largely exacerbated by their success. The D’Bringi were a nomadic and warlike people who were assisted by the Benefactors and thus achieved world domination not because of their superior culture or economy, but because the Benefactors gave them superior weaponry. Of course, the D’Bringi convinced themselves that they were inherently superior, because, why not? They won; they united their world. Given their success, they faced no pressure to change their old ways. The old ways were marked by clan domination of their civil society, economy, and military. The clans held the majority of their own members in a status that was little better than chattel slavery, and the clan-less were treated even worse. The D’Bringi took this system to the stars with them, because, again, given the assistance of the Benefactors, they felt no pressure to change or evolve. Thus, the D’Bringi society that went to the stars was primitive and warlike, bent on conquest of everything in sight, for all that they were traveling in starships and establishing colonies on other planets.
For all of this, though, there were those within D’Bringi society who believed it had to change. Among those were the highest clan leaders, who saw firsthand the inefficiency of their economy and society compared to the Rehorish and the other races. Many of the middle class saw this too, but had little recourse within the Clan system. Even as the conquest of the Doraz and the Torqual fueled the D’Bringi economy and their desire for more conquests, the great clan chiefs were questioning if their way actually worked. After all, was the goal of the D’Bringi to continue conquering every race they encountered, until they met a race they couldn’t conquer or fight to a standstill, like the humans? Compared to a vital, growing society like the Rehorish, the D’Bringi economy was anemic, its only bright spot provided by the resources looted from conquered races.
Even as the D’Bringi home world grew rich on loot, the D’Bringi leadership knew that they had to change. The lower orders were growing restive. As they saw how the various aliens lived, when they realized that conquered aliens like the Torqual had more freedoms within their own society than they did, discontent grew and spread. And so, the great clan leaders embraced change. They caused the conquered races to be freed and bound them to the D’Bringi with economic and military treaties. This had become possible largely because of the service of the T’Pau during the war with the humans. It was their bravery and service that convinced so many in the D’Bringi leadership that aliens acting in concert with the D’Bringi could be an asset and not a threat, or an object to be exploited. The D’Bringi leadership used this growing awareness as a wedge to gain enough approval to force through the treaties that created the Alliance. In this, the great clan chiefs stole a march on their opponents who wished to keep everything the same in D’Bringi society. The treaties of alliance opened the D’Bringi economy to integration with that of the Rehorish, and, basically, forced change upon the D’Bringi people. If the D’Bringi hadn’t been ready for this change it could have been immediately disastrous, however, there was a large and growing movement within D’Bringi society pushing for just this kind of change, and they jumped into the opening of the D’Bringi economy with both feet. New colonies sprang up everywhere, settled mostly by those who wanted a new start away from the old clan system. In spite of some cultural unrest, the D’Bringi economy flourished as the formerly oppressed lower orders took advantage of their new-found freedoms to better their lives. All of this activity buoyed the D’Bringi economy as it integrated with the Rehorish economy, and all seemed to be going well for the D’Bringi. Behind the scenes, though, there were those who resented the changes. Who felt like they had lost that which society owed them. There always is, no matter how objectively good change might be.
The coup built up for quite a while, behind the scenes, as other events unfolded. The plotters raised money by skimming the take from several outer colonies, which they used to convert several old freighters into Q ships that could be used to pirate regular freighters, particularly if you had their schedules, which the plotters did. As that money started rolling in, they used it to suborn or convince D’Bringi officers to come to their side, particularly officers commanding corvette-carriers. Once they had enough under their control, they used their penetration of the Alliance and D’Bringi governments to contact the newly discovered Khozun, and convince them to launch an offensive in exchange for help building up their technology, industry, and orbital shipyards. The plotters raked off all of the loot from the conquest of Chirq Prime, instead of just a percentage, by turning on the Khozuni and destroying first their fleet, and then their capital city to cover their tracks. That money was used to fund widespread social influence events across selected D’Bringi colonies, calling for a return to the old ways. This movement underlay the eventual coup, and was used as a justification for the violent overthrow of the old government.
All of the money taken by the plotters was relatively small, in terms of the major governments in the campaign. However, in real terms, they stole tens of billions of dollars (equivalent), which was plenty to fund a movement and corrupt corporate and government officials. However, once they moved on the Chirq the clock was ticking. The Alliance would find out, and as they were in the Rehorish area of control, the Rehorish would investigate, and once the investigation started it was only a matter of time before they figured out enough to begin connecting the dots.
Now, most of this would not have been possible without control and/or corruption of the Alliance ICN. Just simple piracy is difficult in the Starfire universe, where the all-seeing long-range sensors can see every drive field in range, and sensor buoy/comms buoy combinations at every warp point ensure the central government can back track every ship that enters and leaves a system. Certainly, the movements of military warships would be tracked, and any ship that deviated from its assignments would be quickly identified and queried by the ICN. Therefore, I decided that something like that was well within the capabilities of the Benefactors, and thus the coup was born.
It is important to realize that the plotter’s plan was never to fight the Alliance. The plotters knew that if it came to a standup fight between the D’Bringi and the rest of the Alliance, they’d lose. Instead, they relied on misdirection to distract the Alliance to allow them enough time to consolidate their hold on the D’Bringi people, presenting the Alliance with a situation that would be too difficult to resolve given their increased tensions with the other races. The plotters made several miscalculations, though.
Firstly, they underestimated how mad the Rehorish and T’Pau would be about the corruption of the ICN. Indeed, the plotters seriously underestimated the Rehorish response to the corrupted ICN. They believed that the Rehorish would continue to use the corrupted ICN until they could present a ‘fix’, thus making themselves the heroes that fixed the problem. Instead, the Rehorish and the T’Pau completely cut themselves off from the ICN, believing that the corruption might be the first step to a campaign of conquest by an unknown threat.
The second big miscalculation was the T’Pau. The plotter’s movement was based entirely on D’Bringi chauvinism, and the old-style D’Bringi disdained the T’Pau as a client species that had risen above its station. The plotters believed that the T’Pau would be too afraid to make a move against the D’Bringi, even with Rehorish support, thus splitting the Council and giving the plotters time they needed to consolidate their power. In fact, the T’Pau over the years since the establishment of the Alliance had matured and come to appreciate their independence and position within the Alliance. They did not want war with the D’Bringi, but were also unwilling to overlook D’Bringi misdeeds. This meant that a rump-Council could be formed by two of the three full members of the Alliance, allowing them to act effectively against the plotters when the evidence of their wrong-doing became clear.
The final major miscalculation was the plotter’s belief that they would have the support of the general D’Bringi population. In fact, they did not. This was randomly determined by a roll against the D’Bringi racial outlook, minus one half their racial determination. If the plotters succeeded in their roll, they would have been right, and would have had the support of the majority of the population. However, they lost their roll, indicating that the population did not support them. Therefore, while they were able to gain the support of most of the critical colonies, that support was grudging in many cases, and they could not count on that support without an infusion of troops loyal to the plotters. Worse, they could not count on the enthusiastic support of D’Bringi crewed Alliance naval units. As the new, and apparently legitimate, government, the Empire could call upon their loyalty, but their obedience was not guaranteed and the more they knew about the Imperials the less loyal they would be as time moved forward.
All of this meant that while the plotters had great initial success, time was against them. Ultimately this was their ruin. The nascent D’Bringi Empire fell when the Emperor disappeared and the D’Bringi home system remained cut off from the D’Bringi colonies.
I also look forward to seeing you put to test the supposition that a long-running campaign with 100s of systems is not doable in Aurora, mind you I am not expecting you to disprove the notion, just to test it very thoroughly. 
