Worlds Collide

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

Prelude

2058 January

Luyten 310:
Major General Alex Thornton stood motionless atop a small hill gazing up at the azure glow of Luyten 310’s now familiar setting sun. In front of him the shadows slowly lengthened against the neat rows of still fresh white grave stones. In the distance the first lights from the Tamarind Union’s principal conurbation where coming to life whilst overhead drones from the 111th Heavy Assault battalion darted to and fro, continuing their vigil against further unrest.
Finally the last of the day’s sunlight and its feeble warmth ebbed away leaving Marks as a shadowy figure in the twilight. Thornton stood for another hour, determined to commit memory the names and faces of the men and women he had lost. Finally satisfied, Thornton snapped off a last sharp salute and turned to make his way back down the hill to the divisional staging area where the fleets heavy lift shuttles stood waiting for embarkation.

After four months of heavy ground fighting and a further eight months of arduous counter-insurgency actions the three divisions of the Terran Federation All Arms forces had finally managed to restore a semblance of order on the Tamarind’s home world. Production was almost up to 60% of estimated capacity, people had starting paying their taxes again and the number and intensity of riots had fallen to such a level that the Admiralty no longer felt the need for the ongoing deployment of all three divisions. The TFAA was also close to completing the training of eight new battalions of garrison troops from the more supplicant citizens - potentially allowing for a further draw down of troops. Expectations and rumours were abound as to who else might get off the rock.

After nearly 8 months in space and having endured more than four months of intense street to street fighting Thornton was finally going home.

Commodore Emma Thorp stood to one side of the CIC watching the dawn break across the Eastern Hemisphere of Luyten A IV. To her left the tactical plot showed the ships of Carrier Group Charlie arrayed in high orbit whilst below them the troop ships of the two TFAA task groups hung almost in the atmosphere whilst they waited for the landing shuttles to return. Further out the two Salvage task groups continued their herculean task of clearing the system of the hundreds of wrecks left over from the invasion and the Tamarind Union’s apparent war with the Followers of Khom. With the wrecks being the only readily available source of Duranium in the system their work was of particular importance. Finally, sat some 2.4bn km distant were the aging frigates of strike group alpha which were sustaining the picket of the Iota Persi jump gate.

 Whilst her fleet officers busied themselves monitoring the embarkation of the troops and the refuelling of the fleet Thorp silently fumed. Despite the crushing defeat that the fleet had inflicted on the Union and the apparent superiority of their technology to the Republic, Thorp remaining unconvinced about the Federation’s hold on Luyten. The ships had expending a huge portion of their missile stockpiles both taking the system and then defending it against the Republic. Missiles were now finally being built on the planet but it would be months before they would have full bunkers again and longer still before any sort of strategic reserve was formed. Meanwhile the link to Earth remained tenuous at best. With no jump gate network in place the Federation was still heavily limited in the supplies it could send forward even before the 48bn km round trip was taken into account.

Despite all of this Thorp had now received orders to further spread out both her ships and troops in order to secure a further outpost of the Union’s. That particular colony had been discovered in Iota Persei of all places, a system just one jump from the Follower’s own home system. If there was a way to kick a hornet’s nest when your pants were down this was surely it.  Her one en-route relief group of a further six aging frigates were now going to have to be immediately deployed just to cover the troop ships. She could see that the troops were going to be mightily unhappy when they found out they weren’t actually heading home.

Administrator Laura Bolton tossed fitfully in her bed. Outside the drone the of the troop shuttle engines made sleep all but impossible, not that she was having much luck sleeping at the best of times in any case. Laura had initially been elated when she was elected to govern the Union’s home planet however it had taken a matter of days to realise she had been served a truly poisoned chalice. What really rankled was she couldn’t for the life of her figure out just who back on Earth she had upset so much to be given the job.

She had been expecting the mass civil disobedience when she set out. What she hadn’t been expecting was the Union’s disastrous economic conditions. The planet was devoid of Duranium and several other critical minerals, there had been critical under investment in research, maintenance facilities, off world mining and fuel production. Of those not conscripted into the forces some 110m were left unemployed and deeply unhappy. Laura could only imagine what kind of state the Union had run to keep a lid on it all.

The TFAAs salvagers had been a life saver. By providing a small source of minerals it had enabled the Unions industry to be restarted, new militia to be trained and the maintenance facilities at least brought to the stage where they could support the Navy’s ships. It was however a temporary patch on a far larger issue. As the army got a grip on the population and more people went back to work the demand on minerals was going to grow massively, likely causing the population to spiral back into open revolt, yet she still had no idea on how to address the situation and the clock was ticking.

Delta Pavonis
Administrator Morris slumped back on his bed, exhausted but unable to sleep. The 27 hour day continued to play havoc with his internal body clock even after more than a year on the planet.  That, combined with the gruelling pace of the development of the colony, which left him attempting to juggling an increasingly complex work load was starting to have a significant impact on his health. The local doctors had already warned him that he risking long term illness if he continued as he was.

But what choice did he have? The discovery of huge quantities of easily accessible Neutronium, easily the rarest and most sort after of all of the trans newtonium minerals, on the planet in 2024 had led to a frenzy of activity by the Federation. Adding in the fact that the planet was ripe for terraforming and that it had substantial quantities of other minerals as well had made it the number one piece of real estate outside the Sol system.
 
Ever since then there had been a steady stream of colony ships with families keen to make their fortune, freighters with mines and planetary infrastructure and the TFAA with their PDCs, deep space tracking stations and battalions of garrison troops. The population now numbered over twenty one million and showed no sign of slowing. Much more of this and Morris simply wasn’t going to be able to cope. God forbid the day when the huge terraforming ships stationed in orbit actually got the atmosphere breathable and unleashed the final constraints on the growth of the colony.

Sol
John Carter leaned back in his desk chair, a half full tumbler of scotch in his hand and a broad grin on his face. The last year had been frantic, with the on-going shortages of Neutronium, the Federation’s finances stretched to the limit and the on-going war with the Tamarind, John had had little chance to do more than just run from one crisis to another. Now however the founding of the mining colony on Delta Parvonis and the successful invasion of the Union’s home world and their subsequent surrender had brought both security of resources and a glut of wealth to the Federation. The twin boon was fuelling a surge in growth around the whole of the federation and the latest opinion polls showed that the population’s opinion of the Federation was at an all-time high.

Admittedly the Federation was now running a huge deficit to fund the growth but even at current rates it would have over twenty years to rebalance the economy – more than an age in the world of politics.
 
Meanwhile the industrial and military might of the Federation continued to grow. Advances in science meant that even the ships of the Mech’s could no longer match the Federation’s fleets and all of the other races so far encountered appeared to be similarly well behind their numerous advances.

The hard work had indeed paid off and now John felt like celebrating. Swivelling in his chair, John moved to look down on the vibrant lights of London sprawling out 30 floors below his penthouse office suite before lifting his glass in salute and downing the remainder of his drink.

A decidedly frostier atmosphere hung in Rear Admiral Shots briefing room where he sat glaring at his staff officers. The fleet had just lost yet another of its deep space survey vessels to the Mech’s. The Federation’s continued refusal to allow the formation of an appropriately armed exploration wing was costing the Navy yet more hulls and the lives of good men. It was also stretching his remaining resources.

Carrier Group Bravo was already boosting away from Sol, headed for Mu Arae, the location of the Navy’s most recent loss. Meanwhile Carrier Group Charlie remained stretched out trying to secure both Luyten and the surrounding systems. Carrier Alpha was headed back in system from the most recent encounter with the Mech’s and would surely need its bunkers and magazines refilling once more, placing yet more strain on the military’s infrastructure. A fourth carrier group was being constructed but that was months away meaning it would be well over a year before the crews were adequately trained to actually take up active service. The Navy was so far stretched it had been forced to bring its first generation, 28 year old, frigate groups back to the front lines.

Someone in government needed to start paying note to the Navy. The Federation was simply grow to fast and too far for the Navy to keep up. Shots knew it was just a matter of time before even the superhuman efforts of the fleet failed to deliver and when that happened all hell was going to break lose.

Eta Cassiopeiae
Administrator Dominic Shah stared wearily at Colonel Atkins latest set of reports. Despite the heavy presence of the 11 mobile infantry battalions the population continued to raise regular protests against the apparent indifference of the Federation to their situation. Finally however it seemed that someone back on Sol was taking note as the latest missive from back home indicated that the TFAA were now moving to mobilise and install a number of PDCs on the planet. As far as he was concerned they couldn’t get there soon enough as he had to admit she felt much the same was as many of the colonists.

Eta Cassiopere had once been the darling system of the empire. As a dead end system it was seen as highly defensible, it also benefited from excellent resources and had a number of potentially terraformable worlds. Then the discovery of Alien ruins on AII, one of those close to Earth like planets, had led to a frenzy of scientific activity which had catapulted the system to the heart of the Federations extra solar policy.

Then came what is only referred to now as “the incident”. Royal Engineers had uncovered a vault of robotic soldiers close to the same time that a clerical error had led to their supposed security detachment being delivered to the wrong planet in the system. The robotic soldiers had quickly overwhelmed the poorly armed engineers but in doing so lost control of the planets mass driver. It took the TFAA over two months to take back control of the colony and restart the mass driver by which time every last one of the 250,000 colonists and almost all of the infrastructure  that had been on the planet had perished under the bombardment of mineral packets from the outlying planets.
Despite the resulting capture of several intact Mech troop ships, which resulted in massive leaps in engine and sensor technology the system never recovered. The lure of yet unidentified technology continued to draw colonists back but from when there had been a flood of new settlers there was just a trickle and even this dried up once the last of the ruins had been uncovered.

Whilst the outer planets were asset rich, the 16bn km one way journey from the jump gate to them had severely curtailed the amount of infrastructure and mines being delivered, especially since Delta Parvonis had been opened up.

GJ 1065
Colonel Isabella Foster forced herself to take some slow deep breaths, a relatively difficult task given that she was hanging upside down in the buried circuitry of another of the Mech’s abandoned installations. After more than two years on the planet as CO of the 41st Engineer Brigade Isabella had helped to recover numerous industrial installations, mineral stock piles, ship components, several significant scientific finds and even the occasional vault of robotic soldiers, yet the thrill of actually getting one of the installations up and running never went away. Gingerly she reached forward to finish replacing the corroded terminals that would hopefully bring yet another installation back on line. Moments later and the now familiar crackle of machinery coming back to life fed through her suits microphones. With a satisfied grunt Isabella pinged her number two to haul her out of the whole.

Tonight the brigade would celebrate another successful restart but there would be little rest for them and the other five brigades on the planet. With almost three hundred potential sits still to be explored the expedition was still really only just getting started.

107 Piscium
Kai Winter stifled a yarn whilst following Commander Rhys Hodgson through the cramped hallways of the planets recently constructed anti-missile defence centre. Kai knew he should be paying more attention but he struggled when the subject matter wasn’t one of his areas of expertise in construction and ship production.
Originally tasked to help build the fledgling colony on 107 Piscium, the gateway system between Sol and the empires of the Tamarind Union, the Followers of Khom, the Democratic People’s Republic of Caleb and the Kunming Commonwealth, Kai had thrown himself into his work setting up the necessary infrastructure for the several million colonists, the TFAAs ground forces and defence bases and ostensibly the Navy’s forward operating area in this area of space needed.

The successful invasion of the Union’s home planet, just one jump away, had however brought development of 107 Piscium to a grinding halt and with it the needs of his skills. What he needed now, more than any tiresome preening by the latest Navy boy to land on the rock, was a way back to civilisation.

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2058 March

Iota Persei
Thornton inched forward in order to get a better view of the enemies’ positions. Within moments he was met with the dull hum of rounds passing overhead in the thin atmosphere whilst several more rounds kicked up dirt close by. Thornton hurriedly completed his scan then dropped behind the relative safety of the scree sloop he and his command team were lying on.

The initial invasion of A-III had gone well with the limited opposition to their landing seeming to indicate that the Int. boys had for once gotten in right in their assessment of the Union’s remaining ground forces.

Two weeks in however and it was clearly proving not to be the case. The 114th and 121st had already taken significant casualties in the advance to date and as far as Thornton could work out they were facing close to a divisional force of well equipped, motivated and well positioned defenders. What’s more those defenders had managed to suck his forces forward allowing a number of effective counter attacks to his flanks.

High in orbit above them the frigates of Striker group Bravo, with no energy weapons equipped in their aging hulls, watched on helplessly. 

Thornton knew he was going to need to make a move soon but with one Brigade tied up keeping the drop zone secure he just lacked the troops for the required push. Something needed to change and soon. Not for the first time he briefly lamented his efforts to get his men home first.

2058 April

Mu Arae
Commodore Catherine Miller on board the light cruiser Gaul watched as the ships of Carrier Group Bravo slipped past the tumbling debris of the four Mech cruisers and six FACs they had so far encountered and destroyed in the system. Some 1.2bn km ahead the black box of the wrecked Type 1102 survey corvette continued to broadcast the ship’s distress code, a bleak reminder of the continuing dangers of exploring space in unarmed vessels. 

The Mech presence in the system was higher than most recent encounters prompting Fleet to initiate a full planet by planet sweep of the system before more survey vessels were dispatched to look for more potentially salvageable remnants of the Mech society.

Iota Persei
Thornton hunkered down in a small shell scape looking out at the slumped bodies of his men. Although he couldn’t see their faces through the visors of the Mk VII’s powered armour he knew they were hurting.
Another month of heavy fighting had seen his troops make a number of significant gains against the Union’s forces but it had cost them more men and equipment then he wanted. Most were also anxious about the departure of the troop transport group and Striker Group Bravo. Much as they had ben near enough useless to date it was at least comforting that someone was up there watching.

It had taken the Int. boys more than two weeks to work out they had seriously screwed up on their estimates of the opposing force but at least they were now rushing to try and resolve the problem with a further division in Luyten being ordered to make ready for departure despite the expected lack of coverage that would leave on the Union’s still restless home planet. That had however required the measly force of Striker Group Bravo to cover the transfer back to Luyten leaving Thornton’s men without either a means of retreat or any protection. Worse yet, there were rumours spreading that the Followers of Khom had made a number of probing attacks on the ships of the recently brought forward Striker Group Alpha task group which was currently protecting the Luyten jump gate – their only eventual way out of the system.

Unbeknownst to Thornton, the rumour mill had for once gotten it entirely correct. Striker Group Alpha had already engaged and destroyed two hostiles in system and was now starting to run low on missiles.

2058 May

Iota Persei
Thornton sat in the old command post of once had once been one of the Union’s garrison troops. Strewn around him lay several data pads setting out in more detail then he cared the extent of the casualties the Division had so far taken. The 121st were nearly at one third strength, whilst three others had lost a third of their fighting strength. Very few of his units were left at full strength and at this rate the battle was going to turn into one of slow attrition as they gradually lost their ability to fight any decisive engagements. 

After another month of heavy fighting he had finally managed to move several battalions of 120 Brigade into flanking position that had allowed them to roll up several hostile units, savaging them in the process.  The assault had however run out of steam, bogged down with a stretched supply line and a lack of fresh forces to maintain the momentum.

Picking up the nearest data pad he forced the thoughts from his mind, his men were relying on him more than ever to pull them through this and he was damned if he was going to sit on his arse waiting for some Navy hot shot to come swinging back round to rescue them.

Eta Cassiopeiae
Administrator Shah watched on as the last of the PDC components were offloaded from the freighter fleet now hanging in orbit around the planet. It would still be more than six months before the first of the two anti-missile batteries would be operational and of course the Navy had not as yet deemed to actually deliver any missiles to shoot with however the air on the street was already calming. Perhaps there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel for Dominic.

2058 June

Iota Persei
The incessant beeping of a high priority incoming message finally roused Thornton from his fitful sleep. Bleary eyed, Thornton struggled to read the time stamp in the corner of his suit's HUD. On reflex he reached his hands up to rub his eyes only for them to hit the armoured visor. Cursing, he resorted to blinking rapidly to try and clear his blurred vision.  The failed attempts of his admittedly meagre engineering team to get the Union's command post environmental system to provide a tolerable atmosphere for them had meant that almost all of the troops were continuing to rely on the forward NBC decontamination units as the only facilities where they could strip down from their suits, take a shower and eat something other than the piped energy slush their suits normally provided, With mounting casualties the forward the field hospitals were also stretched and had started leaving patients in the NBC containers meaning there was a rapidly reducing amount of space in those in any case. This now left all the able troops spending weeks on end confined to their suits. Not a problem for their Mk18's which had been designed to allow the troops to fight for extended periods in inhospitable environments but it brought a new meaning to the term "dirty war".     

Finally he managed to focus, it was just past 4 am Zulu time, he had been asleep for all of 45 minutes. Thornton's eyes widened when he finally looked down to the message ping, it was coming in on a heavily encrypted carrier wave, one that had not been released for use in the system given the Follower's unknown Intel gathering capacity in the system. What's more the carrier wave had a naval identifier, the relief fleet wasn't due back in orbit for another 45 days or so even on the most optimistic basis. Thornton jabbed down on his wrist communicator set to complete the authentication codes and accept the message.

A few seconds later the authentication procedures completed and his suit received a burst data packet along with a short voice comm. " Major General Thornton, this is Commodore Alex Shaw of the temporary Task Group Cobra. Apologies for the one way comm and lack of more advanced warning, the Followers have been increasingly active in the system so we had to get in range for a focused burst transmission. We are inbound the planet, approximately 100m km out, ET full comms established 4 hours 23 mins, ET lower orbit achieved 5 hours 13 mins. Attached data pack contains handshake protocols and fire control procedures for low orbit energy weapon targeted ground bombardment missions as well as weapon packages available for deployment. Request full SITREP, insertion point co-ords and initial fire missions at 0848Z. Shaw out."

Thornton leapt from the dusty corner of the small room he had been using to sleep in, thumbing the general broadcast switch for his command group as he did so. "I want everyone in the command post and ready for an O group in two minutes. Battalion commanders are to move all reserve units to 30 minutes NTM and complete full RESUP of all forward units by 0700Z". He screamed down the mike. Judging by the closing speed the Navy boys were redlining their engines to get the ships into orbit as fast as possible and the only ships with the weapon packages on the table were the carrier groups escort destroyers. Someone had taken a mighty gamble splitting up the fleet to deliver the orbital support he so desperately needed and having waiting for nearly two months he was damned if his men were now going to be late to the fireworks.

Still tens of millions of kilometres away, Commodore Shaw paced nervously about the command centre of the light carrier Ecuador. The Cobra task group, made up of the Ecuador and the Type 312 destroyers England, Estonia, Ethiopia and Fiji hurtled towards the planet at 5500kms. As guessed by Thornton the task group was indeed pushing their engines to the limit. Commodore Thorpe had reacted immediately once she understood the extent of the plight of the troops. However she had just broken most of the rules in the book by splitting her Carrier group from its protective force of destroyers. Shaw was under strict instructions to get in, destroy the hostiles and get back to the Carriers as soon as possible. He knew therefore that the next couple of hours were going to be critical. If the ships did not deliver a significant blow to the Union’s forces over the course of the first few orbits they would likely entrench themselves further, greatly reducing the Task Group’s impact and in turn stretching the time they would have to remain in orbit.

At 0848 exactly, the watch officer reported that a secure comms link had been established with the TFAA’s ground forces and that they were receiving the requested information as well as a great slug of fire missions. Shaw’s C&C team immediately sprang into action analysing the information and allocating the fire missions to each of the destroyers.

Shaw flicked his comms line. “120 zero alpha, this is Cobra”. Nothing but light static greeted him. Shaw tried again “120 zero alpha, this is Cobra”. Another moment of static then a gravelly voice responded “Cobra, 120 zero alpha, data sent, confirm insertion time and fire control acknowledgement. 120 standing by for execution of operation Punchbag per SITREP. H-Hour set at 0923Z”. Shaw grinned, he had heard that Thornton was one tough nut professional. Looking up he got the nod from his ops team whilst at his monitor fire solution data started scrolling across his tactical display. “120 zero alpha, SITREP and fire missions acknowledged, insertion at 0919Z, fire missions will commence 0921Z, confirm operation Punchbag, out”. Clearly Shaw would need to leave the pleasantries with the Major General to some other time.

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2058 July

Luyten 1305-10
Laura Bolton watched on as the latest consignment of salvage was delivered from the orbiting reclamation group. The delivery could not come soon enough to feed the prodigious appetite of the Union’s old industrial might. In the last few months Laura had managed to raise output by over twenty per cent through careful negotiation of the civilian elders. Whilst this was working wonders to steadily improve the living conditions of millions of the civilian population it was placing a huge strain on immediately available resources.

Unfortunately, the recent departure of four further Brigades of troops in support of the Iota Persei expedition had pretty much smashed all of the gains she had fought so hard for these last few months. Levels of civil disobedience had rocked just days after their departure leaving Brigadier Charlotte Steele with too many incidents and too few troops to deal with them.

Whatever the troops were doing in Iota Persei, Laura hoped they would be back soon, otherwise things could well spiral back out of control.

Mu Arae
Commodore Miller sat back in her command chair listening to her officer of the watch. “All ships report secure and ready for jump. Carthage reports jump engines spun up and ready for warp bubble initiation.” “Carry on Commander” responded Miller, “let’s get this fleet home for some well-deserved R&R”.

Carrier Group Bravo had finally completed its extensive scan of the system, identifying a single Mech listening post as their only remaining presence in the system. With the location marked it would now just be a matter for the TFAA to decide if they wanted to launch an expedition to take the facilities and what stores they may still contain.

In the meantime Miller had 51 days before her return to Earth. A chance to finally catch up on the mountains of paper work queued in her data pad. “All systems green, initiating jump” called the officer of the watch whilst Miller mused as to why on earth it was still called paperwork.

Iota Persei
Thornton picked his way carefully through the broken remains of what looked to have been a mining facility. Ahead lay the first of the Union's habitat domes whilst all about him lay the signs of a military force in full route. Gun emplacements and munitions boxes lay abandoned along with many more personal items, a sure sign that the few remaining troops were rapidly losing the will to fight. From his Brigade commander's reports he knew that, aside from a few pockets of resistance, the situation was the same across the whole of the battle front. It was surely now just a matter of weeks and a mopping up exercise to take full control of the planet and force the surrender of the civilian population.

The arrival of Commodore Shaw's task group had been pivotal in turning the tide of the battle both in terms of the huge re-balancing of the opposing forces and the massive morale boost it had given the men. Even he had to admit that it had been a mightily impressive display of fire power. The five ships of the task group had hit the atmosphere still travelling at several hundred kilometres per second, a speed that even in the relatively low atmospheric pressure of the planet would have instantly destroyed any not TN vessel. As it was the resulting shock wave had rattled everything on the ground within several hundred kilometres whilst the ships themselves left huge glowing contrails of light as they smashed through the atmosphere.

The engagement timing had worked like clockwork with the destroyers opening up on the front lines with their 15cm lasers mere moments before his troops had begun their advance. The barrage had left the Union's troops in disarray and unable to effectively repel the assault. Subsequent passes by Cobra had smashed the Union's QRF units and their flanking positions enabling the TFAAs troops to force a number of salients deep into enemy territory, cutting many of them off from one another.

Wishing to keep collateral damage to a bare minimum, the task group had ceased firing long before the wealth of targets had dried up. Instead they had then just hung in close orbit, acting as an hugely effective deterrent to any attempts by the Union to redeploy or consolidate their remaining forces. By the time the task group departed some ten days later the tide had been well and truly turned. Subsequently, whilst the Union's forces had continued to fight for every scrap of ground, forcing the TFAA to pay for their advances, their smashed supply lines and isolation had meant those who did continue to fight were quickly destroyed.

Commodore Shaw sat re-reading the report he would soon need to send up the line, checking for any discrepancies or contradictory statements for the third time. In a few hours his temporary task force would jump back into Luyten 1305 and with it his command of the group. Then he would be left having to answer for his actions.

By all accounts the mission had been a huge success. Cobra’s new suicidal orbital insertion had allowed them to achieve near complete surprise on the hostile forces allowing Thornton’s men to surge forward. Unfortunately the lack of a full atmospheric survey and the hasty engagement had meant that destroyers had been unable to adequately compensate for the diffractive effects of the atmosphere. This was immediately corrected but not before a number of stay shots had incinerated several habitat domes and civilian facilities. Thankfully the level of casualties were very low but it would likely still lead to a formal court martial as demanded by the Federation.

Following the formation of the Federation, shortly after the end of what is now only referred to as “The Last War” one of their first acts had been to ban the military’s use of lethal weapons against civilian populations no matter where they were or what they stood for. He would undoubtedly be held to account and would surely be the scapegoat if any self-serving Politian back on Earth needed someone to fall on their sword.

Shaw’s revere was broken by the chime of his intercom. “Sir, all ships report secure and ready for jump. Our jump engines are spun up and ready for warp bubble initiation.” “Very good Lieutenant” replied Shaw, “Initiate jump and please send the data pack I’m forwarding to you now one we re-establish communications with Commodore Thorp.”

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2058 August

Sol
Administrator Carter clapped politely whilst watching the bulky forms of the latest Type 422 light cruisers, the Holland and Hungary, eased their way out of the docks. The ships would immediately begin a short shakedown cruise followed by an intensive year of training before being released to the Navy for final commissioning. Carter couldn’t quite figure out Rear Admiral Shots, one minute he was screaming for additional ships and then the next he was demanding they waste a year further refining their training. That coming after he had already dismantled the Navy academies’ previous training regime, substantially raising the bar and slowing down the through put of new recruits. By the time the next three carriers came off the line the Navy’s academies were going to be all but bare.

At least the research campuses were making good progress with recent breakthroughs in the design of fast attack engines, fire control systems and ship building techniques. Hopefully the boffins were going to be able to design some smaller vessels to provide useful in-system defence without the expense of significant maintenance facilities and ordnance.

Meanwhile he knew he was going to have to push Howl a lot harder if he was ever going to get the growth rates on Delta Pavonis up to acceptable levels. He had a lot of his own personal investments tied up in that system and there was no way he was going to let some half incompetent member of his team wreck that opportunity for him. In fact, Carter thought, now may be the ideal time to find a more competent person to take on that role.

As if on cue his pa pinged him, interrupting his thoughts. “Sir, message from Rear Admiral Shots, Carrier Group Bravo has just made the jump back into Sol. Commodore Miller reports the destruction of 4 destroyers and 6 fast attack ships. The Task Group suffered no casualties and successfully completed a full sweep of the system. One Mech outpost located, expects a listening post. Miller now making cruise speed to Earth for resupply and rearm”. Carter grinned, this was just the positive news he needed to help staunch the outcries of those calling for armed escorts for the survey corvettes and should probably earn him a few points jump in the polls.

Iota Persei
“Sir, the 141st reports all clear as well. That completes the sweep of all of the hab modules and the mining facilities. As far as we can tell all of the mines are automated and there’s not so much as a bunch of caretakers living in all these buildings”. “Ok Colonel, I want a defensive perimeter set up by 1730Z, drop zones cleared and logistics on line by 2355Z. Oh and find me someone who can hack into their computers and tell my why those crazed idiots just fought to the last to defend a virtually empty chunk of rock. Thornton out”.

Thornton turned to his naval liaison, “Captain would you please signal the fleet that we have now secured the planet and found no signs of civilians. For what it’s worth you can also send them the latest SITREPs from each of the Brigades”.

With the troops occupied, Thornton turned his attention to the finally tally of casualties his command had suffered as a result of the. The results on the readiness state of many of the units made grim reading:

111th – 82%, 112th – 89%, 113th – 70%, 114th – 70%, 120th – 84%, 121st – 39%, 123rd – 69%, 132nd – 84%, 134th – 71%, and the 143rd – 72%. In all he had lost almost three battalions of troops in the assault. Whilst he recognised that the losses could have been far worse had the Navy not intervened and the relief Division not arrived 15 days ago, the extent of the losses left him angered by both the TFAA’s poor Intel and the pointless fanaticism of the Union’s troops. 
 
Several hours later Thornton got another ping. “Sir, Captain Evans here from the 120th combat engineer support group. We’ve just managed to crack the encryptions on all of these mining facilities and thought you’d want to see the results straight away, looks like we are sat on a goldmine. No wonder those fuzz heads fought so hard for it”.

Thornton quickly flipped on his data pad to check the results and had to admit they seemed pretty impressive even for just a grunt like him.

Duranium   2,238,730   0.7
Neutronium   886,617                0.8
Corbomite   6,730,852   0.6
Tritanium   994,214                 0.7
Boronide                1,163,347   0.6
Mercasium   0      0
Vendarite   2,040,053   0.1
Sorium       2,147,791   1.0
Corundium   158,493                0.3
Gallicite                 574,418                0.7 

With that kind of mineral wealth no wonder the Union and the Followers had been fighting over the system. Trouble was that meant that the Followers were probably in no mood to give up on the find whilst the Federation desperately needed the resources to maintain the Union’s planetary economy. Thornton sat back, thinking about it, it was probably the worst find they could have made. This end of the Federation was unlikely to be getting friendly any time soon and that meant his men would likely be called upon again and soon.

2058 September

GJ 1065
Colonel Foster sat back in her desk chair re-listening to the brief transmission she had just received from one of the Union’s appropriated mineral survey vessels. It appeared that someone back on Earth had finally taken note of the number of finds her engineers had been finding and were now looking to capitalise on her efforts.

A gate construction ship was due in system in the next ten days or so. Once complete the gate would connect GJ 1065 to the wider Federation network enabling far more rapid communication and more importantly an easy means to send the bulk freights of the merchant navy through to collect the precious installations.

Worryingly the message also contained orders for her to divert one the engineer brigades to re-configured the huge swaths of habs on the planet to sustain a population of Union civilians. Quite how she was going to manage the security of both the dig sites and the habs going forwards was beyond her at the moment.

Finally she realised that her quiet corner of space was about to get a whole lot busier as the Navy had now ordered all of the three unexplored warp points to explored by a two jumps out in order to ensure there were no surprised lurking round the figurative corner.

Luyten 1305-10
Commodore Shaw was feeling decidedly better than he had for quite a few weeks. The latest reports back from Major General Thornton had confirmed that Iota Persei A-III had contained nothing but automated mines and empty hab modules when he attacked the planet’s defensive forces. Whilst still not off the hook yet, the fact that there had been no actual loss of civilian life would go a huge way to mitigating any findings of the court and would hopefully save his career. His chance for a fleet command of his own might not yet be over.

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2058 October

Luyten 1305-10
Commodore Shaw stood stiffly to attention, waiting for the holo-imager to connect. The air conditioning units of the TFS Gaul’s wardroom were struggling to cope with the combined heat of the packed room and the various comms equipment that had been hastily installed for the court-martial. Shaw could feel sweat starting to bead on his forehead but wasn't sure if it was the heat or the looming camera drone that was causing it. The fact that it was three in the morning local time was not helping either but that was just one of the challenges of the trial. Whatever the verdict, he just wanted it over with now.

With no senior ranking officer in the system the Navy had decided to make use of the recently completed jump gate network to facilitate a remote trial back from back on Earth. Despite the wonders of FTL comms and the relay networks of the jump gates it still took over 8 hours for messages to travel one way between the two. This had resulted in a painfully long trial which was now in its second month. Ordinarily it should have taken no more than a few days for the judge to reach a verdict.

Shaw had no idea which way it was going to go, the Earth based prosecutor had argued vehemently that he should stand trial for crimes against humanity despite the complete lack of casualties given that civilians were expected to be present when he performed his attacks on the planet. They had picked apart every order he had given and decision made in the run to the planet and the subsequent attack. The defence had done a similarly excellent job in justifying his decisions, highlighting the lack of information available, the desperate position of the TFAA's own forces and the on-going threat of the Followers in the system as well. The media attention that the case was getting was not helping either and Shaw could not help but think that the decision may in some way be getting decided by public sentiment back home - fortunately or not, that was equally split in opinion.

In front of him the holo-imager buzzed into life as it down loaded the long awaited data package from Earth and with it the verdict. The room quickly hushed and many unconsciously leaned forward to listen despite the extensive PA system. Shaw dared to flick a quick look to Commodore Thorpe, she was looking equally uncomfortable and rightly so. It was her orders that had led to the attack and forced the departure from standard operating procedures. If the decision went bad for him it was more than likely to have a knock on impact for her own command.

Finally the glow from the imager coalesced into the view of an equally packed court room back in London Greenwich. Seated at the centre of the throng was Rear Admiral Shots, his usual stony expression giving nothing away. Clearly with a cue from somewhere out of the camera's field of view, [Thorn] began. "I'm not going to sum up the case again as we have all worked through too many iterations of that already. Suffice to say that this has been a difficult case that has highlighted yet again how war can bring out both the greatest and worst sides of human nature, It is precisely because of this that the Navy remains absolutely dedicated to the principals and laws laid down at the founding of our dear Federation now almost 40 years ago". Shaw swallowed hard. "It is these same laws that demand a fair and full trial for any accused, the right for justice, free from bias and external influence and the duty of those discharged with upholding the law to remain objective and impartial". Shaw grimaced, this was increasingly sounding like a political conclusion given the pains that the rear admiral was going to to say it wasn't. "Therefore, having carefully weighed up the arguments for both the prosecution and defence this court finds Commodore Shaw, on the three counts as follows". Shaw realised he was holding his breath and forced himself to start breathing slowly again. "On the count of war crimes against non-combatants, not guilty. On the count of reckless endangerment of non-combatants, not guilty. Finally, on the count of negligence in the performance of his duties the court finds Commodore Shaw guilty".

Shaw rocked back on his heels, fighting to remain calm. Just as he feared, it was the full political stich up. By finding him not guilty on the more serious charges they had absolved Commodore Shaw of any repercussions and kept who they consider to be the most capable leader in the region firmly in place. Whilst he would avoid any capital punishment the charge of negligence undoubtedly meant the end of his career.

"In setting sentence the court has taken into account both the severity of the crime and Commodore Shaw's long, distinguished and unblemished career with the Navy. The court believes that this isolated incident is one that Commodore Shaw can learn from. He is therefore stripped of his rank of commodore and all of the rights and privileges and demoted to the rank of captain. Furthermore he is stripped of his captaincy of the TFS Ecuador with immediate effective. Captain Shaw will return to Earth on the next available transport for final debriefing and reassignment. Court dismissed".

The roar of the London court echoed through the PA system as it was matched by a similar clamour in the Gaul's wardroom. Shaw grasped the edge of the table to steady himself, not quite believing the roller coaster of events. In two sentences Shots had managed to hang him out to dry, reel him in and deliver a defiant statement to the politicians of Earth. There were certainly interesting times ahead.

In the background he could just make out the sounds of Shots calling his court room to order whilst Commodore Miller attempted to do much the same on her own ship.

GJ 1065
Colonel Isabella Foster listen idly to the chatter between the ground station and the massive gate construction ship now hanging in space some 2.38bn km. The ship had arrived right on cue and had immediately set to work constructing a stable gate back into 107 Piscium. The whole process was expected to be completed before the end of the year.

In the meantime the ship’s ability to maintain a small warp tunnel back into Federation space had spurred a new lease of life for the hundreds of troops and engineers previously cut off from the wider world often for months at a time. A substantial black market in data transfer allowances had quickly developed as many sought to communicate with loved ones back home or just hear the latest news on the battle with the Followers.

Foster was however far more interested in the results of the probes of the three other jump points in the system and what they might mean.

Iota Persei
Thornton took once last look around before trudging up the ramp of the shuttle waiting to take him and his command group back up to the waiting transports which were in turn making ready for the trip back to Luyten 1305-10. Behind him the 63rd, 64th, 68th and 69th assault infantry Brigades continued to dig back in, their orders to reinforce the defences until PDCs could be manufactured and brought out. Now out of sight but still at the forefront of his mind was were the graves of the young men and women he was again leaving behind.

Sol
Rear Admiral Shots stood, a glass of champagne in his hand, making small talk with a variety of minor signatories. After the pain of the recent court martial he was glad to be able to take part in some more positive outings. In front of him the huge orbiting construction that was the Mars Shipyards panned out, dwarfing every other structure in space within the Federation. This was in many respects the true heart of the Navy and his seat of power. Even now workers continued to expand the multiple slips and update the manufacturing facilities.

Today would see the launch of the final three Project 001 ModE light carriers, the Gambier Bay, Long Island and Nassau. Despite being an old design, with the first ship laid down in March 2043, they have proven their worth on countless occasions showing that the old carrier doctrine of Earth’s past sea going navies continued to remain relevant even in the space age. Each would take a short shake out flight before heading to Earth to collect their complements of fighters and bombers before embarking on a rigorous training regime that would likely last a year. These last three carriers would bring the Navy’s total complement up to twenty and would complete the back bone of Shots’ fourth carrier group.

Now complete, the Navy’s ships would undergo a period of modernisation with the primary objective to bring all vessels up to date with the still relatively new MCF drive engines. The task was going to be significant and would require a huge amount of juggling, especially with the demands from Luyten. Those problems were for another day though, for now he was going to enjoy himself at the launch party.

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2058 November

Luyten 1305-10
Thornton stood on the shuttle ramp breathing in the atmosphere. After more than six months of life either inside his combat armour or on board a space ship it was good to be finally breathing fresh air once more, even it did have the many unfamiliar smells of an alien planet. Behind him a steady stream of wounded were being carried or helped off of the shuttle before being whisked away to the now well-developed field hospital facilities.

It was strange, thought Thornton, not a year past he and his men were fighting and dying over the very same patch of ground. Now it was their home from home and a place to rest and recuperate. Thornton was now resigned to not seeing Earth for a long time.

Meanwhile back in orbit Commodore Thorpe was intently studying a report she had just received from the planetary survey vessel Atlas 041 which was currently operating one jump out in Kappa Ceti. Apparently, whilst the crew were focused on completing their insertion burn for the survey of the inner most planet, their ship’s limited thermal and EM sensors had picked up an unidentified contact on the surface. Apparently it had taken a while for the ship’s systems to cross reference known emission patterns before confirming the presence of more Union industry, by which time the ship had achieved full orbit. Thorpe was highly dubious about the last part of the report, suspecting that the crew had grown lax in managing the sensor stations whilst performing their monotonous task.

The ship had subsequently plotted an evasive route and promptly lost any readings on the settlement before a full analysis could be performed. Thorpe made a mental note to have the crew taken through a thorough debrief when they returned. In the mean time she had the more pressing matter of working out what the hell to do about it.

Iota Persei
Commander Alice Marsden, acting CO of Strike Group Alpha was growing worried. There had been three incidents of significant failures in the Task Group’s systems in the last month alone. It was however unsurprising given that they had been out on picket duty ever since taking the long journey out from Earth. Whilst hanging in orbit above the Union’s recently liberated colony left less stress on the ship hulls the sheer time spent away from dock meant the list of deemed maintenance required was growing longer and longer. Marsden’s chief engineer was doing a great job maintaining the systems as best he could but there was a limit to even his prodigious skills.

Eta Cassiopeiae
Deep in the bowels of the recently constructed anti-missile defence centre, the Naval staff worked methodically but efficiently through the final test cycles and check lists. About him administrator Shah could hear machinery coming to life whilst the light levels in the command room gradually increased as more and more displays and tactical plots came winked into life.

Finally the PDC commander turned to Shah. “Sir, I’m pleased to report that the base is now fully operational”. “Thank you Lieutenant” responded Shah. “Now if you will excuse me I need to go and make an announcement to colony. I’m sure all of us will sleep better knowing that the Navy is here watching”.

GJ 1065
Colonel Isabella Foster read the most recent reports with approval. To date her engineers had been able to convert enough hab units to house over three million Union citizens and had also updated 21 mining platforms for their use once they turned up. Despite the gruelling schedule to get ready for the new arrivals her engineers had also managed to uncover a stockpile of over 7 million litres of fuel and another research facility.

2058 December

Sol
Standing in-front of the holo imager Rear Admiral Shots returns the salute from Commodore Miller. “Good hunting Miller, please keep me informed of any developments as soon as possible”. “Thank you Admiral” replied Miller. “I’m sure it won’t be too hard for us to work out what the Followers are up to and I’m pretty sure Commodore Thorpe will be happy to see us as well”.

High in Earth orbit Miller cut the comms line before turning to her ops officer. “Well that’s it Carl, orders are in. Prepare the Task Group for immediate departure. I want all crew back on board and umbilicals detached by 0730 Hours. Plot a course for the Epsilon Eridani jump gate. Notify me when we are ready to get under way”.

Shots had finally relented and decided to send another carrier group out to Luyten with orders to complete a recon in force of the Followers home system to assess their true level of threat. Whilst there had been no further incursions into Iota Persei for several months the Int boys were concerned that they were now holding back ships for a big push. A push that that the Navy’s currently deployed assets in Ota Persei might struggle to repel. Whilst the old frigates of Strike Group Alpha and Bravo had proven to be more than a match for the ships of the Followers in the past, they held very limited ammo stores which made them unsuitable for any sizeable engagements.

Meanwhile back in London Administrator Carter was looking at the latest reports from the fuel harvesters based in Gilese 674 with a certain level of incredulity. If the report could be believed it would appear that the harvesting group had been dragged out of orbit when the Super Jovian they were stationed above passed through one of the system’s lagrange points.  They were now stuck helpless in deep space with no immediate prospect of rescue given that the Navy’s tugs were still two hundred odd days out from Sol trying to drag three of the Unions main shipyards back to Mars.

Given the likely political fall out of this monumental cock up, not to mention the impact it was likely to have on the share price of a number of the main contractors involved in the setup of the fuel harvesters, Carter decided that this was news best kept buried. At least until he could sell down his shares in those companies without anyone noticing.

GJ1065
Colonel Foster sat in the command post. Around her most of the senior members of both the engineering teams and TFAA had congregated to watch the final moments of the jump gate becoming operational. In the background she could hear the comms chatter from the construction vessel as they ran through the final power up checks.

A few moments later there was a round of applause from all those present as the captain confirmed gate power up and field stabilisation before bidding them farewell and taking the first jump through the gate as tradition dictated. Shortly there after the data feeds sprung into life as the previous restrictions on comms bandwidth were removed.

Foster clapped along with the rest of the team but privately she couldn’t help think that part of the magic of the remote system had just been lost.

[Rastaman]

Don't you worry, Foster, there are plenty of other systems left for you ...

  This is well written, I'm sure you have the ears and eyes of all of us!

[Beersatron]

More please

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

Thanks for the comments. I'm on hold at the moment so there will be a short intermission before further updates. I've played slightly further forward and am looking forward to getting the action down.

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2059 January

GJ 1065
Just days after the completion of the jump gate Colonel Foster was back in the command post watching the transit of the old Union’s colony and transport ships. As far as the Navy could tell all of the ships were decades old, symptomatic of the Union’s focus on military might and its previous long running war with the Followers. However, what it lacked in modernisation was made up for in mass. The 33 ships of the colony group were capable of shifting 1.65 million colonists in a single run whilst the 25 ships of the freight group could load 625,000 tons.

Foster excused herself from the command post. With that many colonists arriving and the huge research facilities that the cargo vessels were here to move to Luyten she had an awful lot of work to do and not much time to do it in.

2059 February

 107 Piscium
“All ships report jump complete Commodore”. “Thank you captain” responded commodore Miller, “All ships are to lay in a course to A-IV and make ready to re-provision and re-fuel. Inform the captain of the Bushmaster that I shall be transferring across to his ship in the next 15 minutes. And captain, make sure the crew get a bit down time whilst I’m away. I have a feeling things are going to be getting pretty hectic for the next month or so and I want everyone operating at their best for this operation”. “Aye aye commodore” responded the captain, “we will have the ships and crew waiting and ready for your return”.

Some ten minutes later the 17 remaining ships of Carrier Group Bravo began the journey in system whilst the Bushmaster took a slightly different heading toward the jump gate of Luyten 1305-10.

Meanwhile, down on the planet Administrator Winter mused over the recently received comms from the carrier group. As far as he was aware the task group based in Luyten wasn’t due to be relieved for at least another year and if this carrier group was doing that why would they be making a detour for fuel and supplies from his small colony? They certainly had the legs to make the journey from Earth to Luyten. Something was up, something big. If he played his cards right this might just be the opportunity he had been waiting for to get off of the rock. Winter activated his PA system and started making calls.

2059 March

Luyten 1305-10
Commodore Thorpe was surprised to see the priority courier ship comm light winking at her from the side of her bunk. With the jump gate network now established all the way back to Earth there was very little need for courier ships in any of the Federation’s established systems. Still rubbing the sleep from her eyes she flicked the comm button.

“Commodore, this is the captain of TFS Bushmaster, apologies for the lateness of the contact. We are inbound from Earth. The bods back home have identified a number of urgent software updates that we seem to be having problems transmitting over the jump gate network. We expect to be in orbit in three days and I would appreciate it if you can organize an O group for then so that our chief software engineer can properly brief all of the ship’s captains on the proper installation of the updates”. “Thank you Captain, no apology required. We will have the captains and their chief engineers assembled for then. Please notify the Gaul when you are ready to come aboard, Thorpe out”.

Thorpe finished rubbing the sleep from her eyes before getting out of the bunk. There would be no more sleep for her tonight and likely not for a few nights to come. The rather coarse coded message indicated that someone senior was inbound on the Bushmaster and, whoever it was they were bringing plans for a significant operation. What did confuse her was the open coded message; they had swept the system in detail for any further signs of both the Union and the Followers and whilst there was still some dissent on the planet she could not fathom members of the Union siding with their previous enemies.

Luyten 1305-10: TFS Gaul
The wardroom was again full with the ranking officers of the carrier group, all of them contributing to the steady drone of hushed conversations. To the end of the room a briefing holographic projector had been set up, flanked by a pair of lecterns.

“Stand Up!” came the shout from the ensign stood by the wardroom door. Immediately all of the conversation ceased and the officers braced themselves. A few moments later Commodores Thorpe and Miller strode into the room and each took a stand next to one of the lecterns.

“Thank you ladies and gentlemen, at ease” began Commodore Thorpe. “For the past eighteen months you and your crews have performed way above the highest standards of service expected by the Navy.  Despite being stretched we have held the line against repeated incursions from the Followers and supported our troops in routing out the last of the Union’s outposts. You should all be proud of our achievement.

Regretfully our diplomatic efforts with the Followers of Khom have made no progress towards finding a peaceful solution to their continued drive for vengeance against the previous civilians of the Union. We therefore find ourselves unacceptably stretched across too many fronts to guarantee the safety of all of the Federations citizens, no matter what race they belong to. This is an unacceptable situation but, with the help of Commodore Miller, one that we plan on changing”. Thorpe turned to Miller her right hand outstretched, “Commodore Miller”.

“Thank you Commodore” replied Miller, “it has now been over five years since the last federation survey ship entered the Followers home system and first made contact with them. We have never completed a full survey of their system nor had the opportunity to scan their home world either passively or actively. Whilst we have encountered a number of their ships that appear to be technically inferior to our own we have no idea whether they are simply sending obsolete vessels to probe our defences.

In short we know very little about the strength or disposition of the Followers’ forces, their industrial capacity, colonized worlds or technological advancement. Quite simply we know too little about them to plan and execute an effective response to the current situation”. Miller paused, taking her time to look into the eyes of many of the assembled officers.

“Over the course of the next month we are going change that. Command has authorized a full recon in force of the Followers’ home system and has released Carrier Group Bravo to support your own carrier group in achieving this operation”. Miller looked down at her data pad and tapped in a few commands.

“You will all now have your individual briefing packs for Operation Columbus ready for your review. Our mission is to complete a full scan of the Followers’ home system before recovering back to Luyten and 107 Piscium. I say again, our mission is to complete a full scan of the Followers’ home system before recovering back to Luyten and 107 Piscium. Our diplomats are still hopeful that a peaceful resolution can be reached and as such our rules of engagement are not to engage the Followers’ ships unless in self-defence – we are not to fire unless fired upon”. A number of murmurs rippled through the room. Miller raised a placating hand to quiet the room. “I recognize that this is not ideal however we must remember that there is likely to be a large contingent of civilian shipping present in the system and as yet we do not have the information to identify them”.
Miller turned back to his data pad and activated the holo viewer between the two lecterns.



“Operation Columbus requires the simultaneous execution of two warp point assaults tens of light years apart. With the distances involved we will be unable to utilize normal comms to coordinate these assaults and hence the operation will be reliant on pinpoint timing. The full details of the operation are included in your briefing packs however I will provide a brief summary here before taking questions.

H-hour is set for 0600Z on 25th March. Carrier Group Charlie will depart Luyten at 0900 on 19th March and rendezvous with Strike Group Bravo in Iota Persei. Strike Group Bravo will immediately redeploy back to Luyten to provide a mobile defensive force. Once on station Carrier Group Charlie will form a temporary task group – Drake, to be commanded by Captain Sutton. Drake will consist of the following vessels:

The type 401 and 402 jump ships Czech Republic and Deutschland the type 312 destroyers England, Estonia, Ethiopia and the type 422 area defence light cruiser Ecuador.

The TFS Adder and Anaconda will also detach from the task group to form independent scout groups.

At H –3 hours Drake will proceed to the Delta Trianguli jump point and execute a transit as soon as H-hour is reached. Once through Drake will head in system at flank speed engaging any targets as required to clear the entry point. Once the jump point is cleared the TFS Deutschland will move back to the jump point in order to signal for the rest if the task group to jump through and take up position.

Drake shall then proceed in system, its’ task to draw any hostile units away from the inner planets in order to allow the Adder and Anaconda to make close in scanning passes. If resistance is significant or as soon as the scanning passes are complete to the satisfaction of Captain Sutton the entire task group will withdraw back to 107 Piscium under the cover of the fighter wings. The recombined task group will then stay on station in 107 Pisicum until relieved by Strike Group Bravo.

My own carrier group will execute a similar operation with the temporary task group ‘Marco Polo’ consisting of the ships Carthage, El Salvador, Finland, Formosa, France and Gambia, executing a transit into the system from the 107 Piscium jump point at H-hour. The Carrier group’s fighters will also support Marco Polo as soon as the jump point has been cleared.

Intel believes that Followers are likely to concentrate any mobile defensive forces they have against the first sizeable force detected. This should therefore give the other temporary task group and the scout ships ample space to manoeuvre and complete the mission.

Given the existing lack of intel on the system the situation is likely to evolve rapidly. I will therefore be assuming overall command of the operations of all Federation vessels operating within Delta Trianguli for the duration of our presence. Be prepared for rapid changes of plan.

I need not remind you that we found the Followers’ ships fighting in the Union’s home system when we conducted our own operation to liberate the Union’s citizens from the yoke of their government. We must not underestimate their capabilities.
Now any questions?”

The noise in the room rose markedly as thirty voices responded in unison and Commodore Thorpe was again required to raise her arms to quiet down her officers. “Please, please, one question at a time, I promise I will respond to all of you” shouted Commodore Miller over the on-going glamor in the room. Thorpe sighed, it looked like the boys back home had decided to stick their size tens right in the middle of it and just when things seemed have started quieting down.

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2059 March (continued)

Delta Pavonis
Administrator Howl sat in her office re-reading the latest missive from Earth. The news she had both feared and hoped for had finally come in - she was going to be replaced within the next few weeks. Apparently the decision makers back on Earth had decided to try and make Delta Pavonis more self-sufficient and that meant bringing in construction factories. Howl’s own expertise was firmly in mining alone so she could understand the logic, however it was going to be a major blow to her career. Her replacement, Conor Benson, was one of those true high flyers with skills across the board. No doubt he would be kick starting the development of the colony whilst further improving the mining yield. Well good luck to him she thought.

Howl’s thoughts turned to her next assignment, a mining outpost in the Groombridge system. The whole operation was largely automated and required only a skeleton crew to man. It was likely going to be a very quiet posting.

Sol
Carter sat back in his chair, a tumbler of Whiskey in his hand and a grin on his face. After several weeks on wrangling he had finally convinced parliament to approve the transfer of Conor Benson to Delta Pavonis. Conor had already provided him with a detailed review of the current mining operations and areas of potential operational efficiencies. If they proved in any way accurate it would be a close to 14% increase in yield from the mines. What’s more he had also convinced them to contract out the transport of 25 construction facilities to the planet – a lucrative contract which his own shipping line would inevitably win the lion’s share of.

Now all he had to do was sit back and wait for news from Delta Trianguli to come back in. Things were certainly shaping up for war and that meant more contracts and potential substantial restitution payments.

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

Operation Columbus

25th March 05:59Z   
Commodore Thorpe sat in her command chair half listening to the comms chatter between the two task groups whilst watching her tactical display. Some 50m km distant the ships of Drake hung in space around the Delta Trianguli jump point waiting for the last few seconds before H-hour.

It wasn’t long before the watch officer’s reports cut out the rest of the chatter. “Czech Republic and Deutschland report jump drives spooled up and ready to jump, all other ships report cleared for action. Jump in 4, 3, 2, 1, Jump". Thorpe watched the ships of Drake wink out from her display before flicking her comms switch. “All ships, Drake has completed its’ jump. Now we must wait and be ready to support them as needed. I’m sure I can rely on all of you. Thorpe out”.

Slowly the minutes ticked by. If all was going to plan the two temporary task forces would have completed their simultaneous jumps into the system and would now be heading to their respective waypoints. As the minutes turn into hours a hush descends on the command deck, the silence only broken by the watch office calling out the total mission time.

“T plus 3 hours thirty”, calls the watch officer. Thorpe looks down at her data pad, the ships from both Marco Polo and Drake should have now reached their stand-off positions in the system and all going well the Deutschland would be heading back to the jump gate now.

“Commodore, I’m getting an authenticated message from the Deutschland via the jump gate”. Thorpe leaned forward in her chair, “put it through ensign”.

“Commodore Thorpe, this is Captain Sutton. I’m pleased to report that both jump gates are clear of hostile forces, you are clear to proceed with phase 2. As you can hear, we’ve also been able to strip most of the encryption from the Followers’ jump gates and will start to upload the latest scans of the system as soon as we have finished purging the systems. Sutton out”.

Thorpe leaned back in her chair, thoughtful. The news was just a little too good to be true for her cynical nature. If the Deutschland had been ambushed on jump in more than enough time had passed for the Followers to have gained control of the ship and sent a fabricated message. Jumping the now largely unprotected carrier group into the system could well be suicide. She just hoped that Miller had a similar sense of caution. “Ensign, please open a second encrypted channel to the Deutschland, use one of the reserve protocols. Send the following message and request acknowledgement: Phase 1 incomplete, proceeded as ordered”. The ensign looked confused but sprung to the task nevertheless.

“Commodore, message has been acknowledged” noted the Ensign.
  
25th March 1300Z
Thorpe breathed a sigh of relief when the Deutschland re-emerged from the jump gate. Almost immediately her comm line sprung back into life. “Commodore, Sutton here, apologies for the confusion, we thought we could shave a few hours off the mission time and get a lead on Marco Polo. The jump gate is clear. We will continue with Phase 2”. “Thank you”, replied Thorpe, “I appreciate your initiative Captain but on this occasion I think we all need to stick to the plan, Thorpe out”.

Thorpe turned to his watch officer, “inform all ships that Phase 1 of the operation is complete and to prepare for jump to Delta Trianguli”.
 
25th March 1800Z
Thorpe felt the usual wave of nausea pass through her as the Gaul completed the jump through the gate. Across the bridge the lights flickered and monitors threw out static and distorted images whilst the ship’s systems struggled to clear the interference generated by the jump.
“Ensign, I want confirmation of completed jumps ASAP, let’s get our data feeds up and running and the tactical plot generated. Comms see if you can raise Commodore Miller, Drake and Marco Polo. I want to be in this system for as little time as possible”. Thorpe remained tense in her chair, despite having confirmation that the jump point was clear she still felt apprehensive whilst she waited for the ship’s systems to confirm that was the case.  

Several minutes later Thorpe got her answer. “Commodore, all stations report successful reset, scan is active, no contacts. All ships report jump successful and holding position at the gate. I’ve raised the other task groups and all have confirmed successful completion of phase 1”.
“Thank you Ensign, please ask the Anaconda and Adder to break formation and begin their runs”. “Yes Ma’am”, responded the Ensign, “Ma’am the Adder is reporting massive thermal and EM signatures from A-II. There are also quite a few Union wrecks in the system as well as a few from unidentified classes. From the looks of the plot it seems that there was some sort of battle in the orbit of A-II”.
 
Thorpe looked at the plot carefully, if Earth was any kind of benchmark then the emissions indicated a population of over a billion people and an industrial base only slightly less developed. “Ok, order the ships to continue in system”.

26th March 2312Z
 “Commodore! Adder reports four contacts at 263mkm on a bearing of 208 degrees. Contacts are on a course of 006 degrees speed 5890kms. Course shows them on an intercept with Drake. Combat system has labelled the contacts ‘Tiera’”. Thorpe clenched her fist; the Followers’ ships were moving at more than double the top speed previously observed for any of their ships and were several hundred kms faster than Drake. The fleet would not be able to avoid engaging those ships if they chose to press an attack.

Thorpe tapped her comms screen, “Commodore Miller, I assume you are getting the latest fees from the Adder?” “Indeed, let’s see if the Adder can get past those ships and move further in system. Drake is almost in active sensor range; let’s find out how large those ships are. We can then turn the Drake out system to see if they follow” replied Miller. Thorpe scowled before responding, “Ok let’s go with that but I want Drake to recover back towards my carriers to ensure we can keep them covered”. “Agreed, just remember that we are under strict instructions not to initiate hostile action”, responded Miller.

 27th March 0436Z
“Drake reports active sensor contact with the four Tieras. Cross section indicates 6450 ton hulls. Drake confirms they are on an intercept with them”, reported the watch officer. “Understood, please inform Captain Sutton that he should continue in system for the next three hours before coming about on a bearing of 350 degrees”, responded Thorpe.

For the next five hours Thorpe watches the multiple task groups advance across the system whilst the hostile contacts continue to be lured away from the main scout groups. It would be several days before either the leading scout groups made their transition across the system or the hostile contacts closed to engagement range. With the frustratingly slow pace of manoeuvre involved with such large distances involved Thorpe decided to it was time to rotate the crew and get some rest herself.

29th March 1737Z
Thorpe strode back onto the bridge. The last two days had been spent staring at the largely empty tactical plotter. So far the scout ships had failed to locate any further shipping traffic in the system and no further ships had moved to intercept the still approaching Marco Polo. Anaconda was also reporting that she had completed the initial pass and was now repositioning for a closer pass of the planets.

The four contacts had continued to trail Drake and were now 273.8mkm away. After several conferences with Miller they had decided to continue to run Drake for another two days. This would position the task group firmly under the cover of Carrier group Bravo’s fighter wings and should ensure that the Navy would be able to win any engagement if it did occur.

1st April 0849Z
“New contact reported by Adder, new vessel type, the system has classed it the Loviatar. Contact is at range 245.6mkm on a bearing of 336 degrees moving at 2790 km/s, looks like it is on an intercept course with them” reported the watch officer.

Thorpe looked down to check the tactical plot:



“That sounds a little more like what we were expecting to find in system, instruct the Adder to come to a bearing of 278 degrees and burn for A V. Make sure they retain a minimum 100mkm distance from the contact at all times and let me know of any further updates.  We need to give Marco Polo a few more days to complete their active scan of A-II. Let’s see if we can avoid any engagements between now and then”.

 2nd April 0734Z
 The officer of the watch calls out another contact “Adder reports picking up thermal readings from moon 10 of the fifth planet. Readings are very weak, suspect a listening post or similar”.

Several hours Thorpe got another call from the watch officer. “Commodore, Marco Polo reports first active scan of the home world complete. Sensors are showing a number of contacts in orbit as well as a very substantial shipyard complex. I’m sending you the current plot now. Commodore Miller has order Marco Polo to continue the approach to see if it can pick up any readings on ground forces”. “Very good”, responded Thorpe, “I will be up shortly. Let me know immediately if there is any change”.



3rd April 0917Z
“Contact contact”, shouted the junior watch officer. “Marco Polo reports nine inbound vessels at 501mkm on a bearing of 70 degrees. Speed 2789km/s. Cross sections indicate eight 6450 ton vessels and one 12,900 ton ship. They are on an intercept course with Marco Polo. Commodore Miller has ordered Bushmaster to trail the new contacts. Marco Polo is continuing with its’ close pass of the central system”.

Thorpe took another look at the tactical plot. Miller was starting to cut things fine with both Drake and Marco Polo. She would be amazed if this little stunt didn’t completely ruin any chances of a negotiated settlement with the Followers.



An hour later the still excited junior watch officer piped up again, “Commodore, it looks like that fleet has picked up the Bushmaster, they have reversed course and are now on an intercept with them instead”. Now that was a stroke of luck thought Thorpe. The Bushmaster could easily out distance the Followers in system fleet and that would now give Marco Polo more than enough time to complete its’ run.

“Commodore, message from Captain Sutton, he reports that the four Tieras are now within 100mkm of Drake”.
  
4th April 0132Z
Marco Polo reports that it has completed its runs past the inner system. Marco Polo also reports the identification of only very limited ground forces present, possibly no more than brigade strength. No further contacts have been made and no potential civilian shipping has been identified. The Marco Polo will now head out system via A VI for a final close scan before extracting back to the 54 Piscium jump gate.

Thorpe continues to read through the scan data in detail. From the information received to date it looks like the Followers were actually on the losing side of the war with the Union. Their naval power is clearly limited and it would appear that the home planet was subject to a bombardment from the Union before their ships were destroyed.

4th April 2014Z
“Commodore Thorpe, Captain Sutton is reporting that the Tiera contacts are now within 55mkm of his task group and are continuing to advance. He has issued warnings on all channels for the ships not to close past 40mkm. He is also requesting an update to the rules of engagement to allow him to fire if they cross that range”. “Understood Ensign, please contact Commodore Miller and request a conference channel with myself as soon as possible”, replied Thorpe.

Several minutes later Thorpe’s comm display indicated that the channel had been activated. “Good evening Catherine”, started Thorpe. “Judging by the dogged determination of that Followers task group I think we are going to have a fight on our hands pretty soon. I’m loathe to authorise any form of pre-emptive strike though. Can you get a couple of squadrons up to shadow the contacts, see if we can scare them off?”

Miller took a few moments to respond, “yes, I agree with you on both points, we will launch the copperheads and checkmates in five minutes. They will reach engagement range before they cross Sutton’s 40mkm line. If they do try anything we will take them out of the sky. Miller out”.
“Ensign, get me Captain Sutton”, barked Thorpe.

On the tactical plot Thorpe watched the fighters launch and hurtle towards the Followers ships.



Several hours later the watch officer gave a further update “Commodore, Captain Sutton reports that none of the Tieras have responded to his hails and they have now closed to within less than 30mkm. The Copperheads and Checkmates are holding position 20mkm astern the contacts, no sign they have been detected”.

5th April 1124Z
“Drake just reported that all of the Tieras have gone active on sensors. The Task group is going to full alert and is requesting release of safeties on all weapons”. On the other comm channel Thorpe could hear Miller ordering the fighters to close range to 15 million km and giving weapons release to Sutton.

An hour later Thorpe gets a further update from Sutton, it looks like the Followers have finally listened to our warnings and have slowed to 5500km/s. They are now keeping distance at 25.7mkm. The two fighter squadrons are also reporting low on fuel and Commodore Miller has ordered them to return to the carrier group.

8th April 1308Z
Thorpe gets a call from Miller. “Catherine, it looks like those ships are going to stay hot on the heels of Drake all the way to the Iota Persei jump gate. Recommend you jump out your carrier group before they get an active scan on main assets in the system. Please take up your stand-off position in case they try to follow you through. I think that Bravo will be able to cover Marco Polo’s withdrawal. We will send a coded message through the jump gates once clear”. “I agree”, replied Thorpe, “we will jump out in three hours once Drake is closer to the gate. I will let Captain Sutton know our intentions, Thorpe out”.
 


Three hours later Thorpe orders her Carrier group to jump back out of the system and to take up station 50mkm from the gate.  
15th April 0708Z

Thorpe is pacing her quarters when she finally gets the long awaited for message from Commodore Miller. Marco Polo has been able to avoid any further contact with the Followers and has re-joined the main task group. Carrier Group Bravo is now pulling back to 107 Piscium from where Miller will dispatch her report back to Earth and request further orders.

Thorpe finally sits back down at her desk. The last two Months have been draining for the whole crew with hours spent at high alert and widespread sleep deprivation. Despite the ordeal she is happy that they have continued to perform, reinforcing her opinion that breaking up well train crews should be a last option.

Thorpe taped her comms panel to makes a task group wide announcement, “crew, this is Commodore Thorpe, I have just received word from Commodore Miller that Carrier Group Bravo has completed its’ withdrawal from Delta Trianguli and was able to do so without further contact with the Followers. Due to your unwavering dedication and exemplary execution of your duties operation Columbus has been a complete success. Thank you all. The efficiency of our operation has meant that we have beaten Strike Group Bravo back from the docs and hence we will be staying in Iota Persei for a little while longer whilst we wait for them to replace us. In the mean time I am standing down all ships from high alert. Please take the opportunity to get some rest – you deserve it”.

[Edited to cut down the size of the maps]

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2059 April

Sol
The deep salvage group returns to Earth having spent the last 9 months collecting further surviving components from the wrecks of several Mech ships in Luyten 968. Rear Admiral Shots immediately tasks the group to return to Mu Arae where 9 further wrecks await analysis and possible salvage. The collected components continue to help Earth’s scientists make progress in a number of fields and hence the recovery of these wrecks remains a priority.
Shots is interrupted by a ping on his comms line, “Sir, I’m sorry to chase but the shuttle needs to launch in the next five minutes if you are going to make to the commissioning ceremony”. “Thank you Paula”, Shots replied to his PA, “let them know I will be out in 2 minutes”.

Shots stood up from his desk grabbing his cap and No.1 dress uniform jacket as he went. He grimaced at the thought of bidding farewell to another brave group of crew that had volunteered to man the Federation’s latest batch of survey vessels. Whilst significantly more advanced than prior marks and housing more sensitive passive sensors he still felt it was madness to continue to send armed vessels into the unknown. Parliament had however made ti very clear that that was exactly what he was going to do so at the very least he was going to personally see off every one of the crew.

Luyten 1305-10
Major General Thornton stood at the top of the temporary podium taking the salute from the latest Union troops to pass out of basic training. Command felt that this latest batch would be sufficient to help maintain control of the general population and also to start replacing the TFAA’s own troops stationed out on Iota Persei. He caught himself grinding his teeth as he thought back to the last few weeks of bitter arguments with command over their decision to start training further cadres of Union troops as assault infantry. For him he still saw the war as a raw wound in the hearts of most of the Union population. To now train and equip them as assault infantry seemed madness to him. Nevertheless command had insisted on the change of approach and thus he was forced to start the process. He just hoped to God that the Union would not have the opportunity to turn on them.

Groombridge 34
Administrator Joanna Howl flopped onto the small bunk bed in the bare room she had just been assigned by the mining caretaker crew. Having been crammed aboard the small civilian courier ship for over a month following her abrupt departure from Delta Pavonis the confines of the room were, in that moment, lost on her. She was asleep before she had even thought to get changed or make up the bunk.

Eta Cassiopeia
Dominic Shah stood before a large congregation of the local population. About him banners fluttered in the blustery breeze of the planet whilst somewhere distant a fairly poorly practiced brass band attempted to play various up-lifting anthems. Behind him the imposing ceramic composite hanger doors of the newly completed fighter base stood ajar whilst to his side stood Commander Leon Buckley, the head of the local Navy detachment.

Shah raised his hands to quiet the crowd before speaking into the microphone floating just next to him. “Good people of Eta Eta Cassiopeiae, you have worked for many years through good times and bad times to make this world your own, a world the Federation can be proud of and one that can lead the way in pushing out the boundaries of human development. I can tell you now that the Federation is indeed proud of all that you have achieved and that, despite the billions of kilometres that separate us, they remain concerned and focused on all of our wellbeing. It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare the completion of Fort Windsor and to formally hand it over to our brave men and women of the Navy who will undoubtedly continue to watch over and protect all that we have built”.

With a flourish Shah turned to cut the garish red ribbon draped across the hanger door with the oversized scissors in his hand. The crowd roared their approval. Still smiling Shah turned back to wave at them all, amazed he was managing to keep a straight face. The latest missive from command was that the fighter factories were full out producing new starfurys for Luyten. It would be some time before any fighters actually found their way to the new base. He just hoped it took the civilians a while to figure that one out.

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2029 May

Sol
Carter was angry, really angry and his office had just borne the brunt of his frustrations. Spread around him on the floor was the remains of most of the objects that had, until recently, been neatly arranged on his desk. In one corner of the room a growing red stain spread across the beige carpet where a rather expensive bottle of pre-war Brunello di Montalcino lay shattered. Directly across from him the glass door to his office was cracked and below it laid the dented data pad upon which sat the half read operation Columbus report from Commodore Miller.

Outside his office Carter was dimly aware of his PA hurriedly packing up for the evening. Good he thought, that left him space to rant in private.

Carter paced back and forth, his shoes crunching on the bits of broken crystal decanter scattered on the floor. For the third time he ran through his crumbling plan wondering how he had gotten it so wrong. With the previous belligerence of the Followers, combined with the lack of any tangible diplomatic progress, he had been sure they would respond aggressively to the fleet's intrusion into their home system. Sure, he had had to give on the terms of engagement to get Parliament's buy in for the mission but they had practically buzzed the home world for goddess sake. What more provocation did they need? It would have only taken one stay shot from an itchy fingered junior to spark the shooting and force the Federation into seizing control of the planet.

He had only had to read the executive summary of Miller's report, which indicated the Followers were very little threat, to know she had firmly put the nail in the coffin for his plans. He was certainly going to have to put the brakes on the careers of both Miller and Thorpe going forwards. Thinking about it, what he really needed was a more senior voice in the Navy making sure his point of view was appropriately reflected. That was something he would need to set in motion soon.

Carter finally stopped pacing, his anger replaced with deep musing. The opportunity to gain control of another large population just two jumps from the Union and the resultant levels of trade income that would bring was just too good an opportunity to just let slip through his fingers. Half absently he scanned the floor until he spotted an intact tumbler before stooping before a cupboard to retrieve a decanter of scotch.

Pouring himself a large measure, Carter sat down to think some more. Perhaps there was in fact some way for him to rescue the situation, he just needed to spend some quality time thinking about it. Before long Carter was smiling again.

Not far from Carter, Shots sat back from his own desk scratching his head. The logistical challenges of refitting most of the Navy's ships to the new ModE2 engine standard was proving to be a lot more substantial than originally thought. The latest headache was with the 1 series of destroyers that formed the backbone of support for both Alpha and Bravo carrier groups. Whilst subsequent updates to the 2 series had made limited changes to the weapon systems and fire controls, a redesign of the engine bays meant that the shipyards could no longer refit the 1s to the new standard without digging the old tooling equipment back out of storage and reinstalling it. Latest estimates put the process at several months and would have a knock on impact on efforts to upgrade the three shipyards concerned, not to mention the cost. He was already cringing at the thought of having to explain that one to another parliamentary committee. Similar problems were likely to be had with the more venerable Project 001 aircraft carriers which probably meant two rounds of retooling and a significant delay in expanding the slips ready to take the new 101 and 111 designs.

His ops team had run the numbers on a variety of different options from doing nothing and living with what they had all the way to just scrapping the existing fleet and starting again. None of it made much sense to him given the existing operational demands on the fleet and in any case they would be unable to commence the refits for several months in any case until Carrier Group Delta's various vessels completed their run up training. No, the only thing for it was to go back to the more basic designs for a period and bear the inevitable backlash from Parliament in the process.

His mind made up Shots starting issuing orders through his data pad. With the decision made there was no point wasting further time and once done he could finish writing up his official citations for Commodores Miller and Thorpe. As far as Shots was concerned the two of them had done an incredible job of completing Parliament's barmy request for a recon in force of the home system whilst avoiding the whole exercise descending into outright war with the Followers. What's more they had clearly shown that the Followers were no real threat to the Federation. That gave him the chance to release Miller's task group and get some of the carriers into refit as soon as she was back.

GJ1065
Colonel Foster sat reading the latest reports from her command group. Work on restoring the many installations continued at a remarkable pace. In fact the engineering units were starting them far faster rate than the slow commercial ships of the old Union could hope to move them off planet. At present she had four research facilities sat waiting to go, not to mention the numerous ordnance factories, mass drivers and fuel refineries all waiting to be either manned or moved.

The Union colony had grown to over 3.4m whilst the largely completed conversion of infrastructure meant that there was now capacity for upwards of 5.7m civilians. Foster had also taken the decision to transfer to them the two uncovered terraformers so they could immediately start to improve conditions further.

Whilst Foster was still somewhat reminiscent of the earlier days on the planet when then had more of a struggle to get the basics working she could see how the colony was now flourishing and was happy to be part of it.

Iota Persei
With the excitement and stress of operation Columbus now over and the Followers true weakness uncovered Thorpe was spending more of her spare time thinking through the wider security situation in region. The identified Union settlement in Kappa Ceti remained unresolved but with the more limited threat from the Followers and the continued presence of carrier group Bravo in 107 Piscium it seemed that she now had the ideal opportunity to deal with the situation.

All the evidence pointed to a small undefended settlement in the system which meant the fleet should be able to safely secure the system for the TFAA with the minimum of ships allowing the swift capture of what she hoped was the last of the Union’s planets.

After several days of further planning Thorpe was happy with the details and the drafted orders and shortly afterwards the temporary task group Minotaur consisting of Deutschland, England, Estonia and Adder streaked away towards Luyten 1305-10 with a fresh objective and new orders for Major General Thornton.

2059 June

Luyten 1305-10
Thornton carefully reread the orders pack he had recently received from Commodore Thorpe. If the int boys had finally gotten it right for once then the operation planned should go almost as smoothly as Thorpe envisaged. However, with the memories of Iota Persei still fresh in his mind, Thornton wasn’t going to leave that to chance. He would therefore take Thorpe’s suggestion of sending a Brigade as just that and ignore it entirely. No, as far as he was concerned they were going to land in Divisional strength or not at all.

Sighing, he stood up to go and find his adjutant and tell him the good news.

Sol
Rear Admiral Shots sat in the Navy's primary briefing room. Situated deep under the rolling hills of the Chilterns in the Navy's primary fighter base, the briefing room remained cool despite the bright summer sun currently baking old England above. With just six of his key command staff present in the large room and its' huge old dark oak oval table dwarfing them all the room felt eerily empty to him. It probably didn't help that no one was talking; instead all of them included Shots were sat transfixed to the developing spectacle currently playing out in front of them on a large holo display.   
On the screen was the live stream covering Parliaments debate on the Followers situation following Miller's successful completion of operation Columbus. As far as Shots had been concerned the debate should have been an open and shut case. The Follower's very limited threat meant that there was significant time for a diplomatic solution to be reached whilst the Navy's recent show of force in their home system was seen by most as surely being a huge boost to getting their negotiating team back round the table. In addition, the identification of another significant source of TN minerals just one jump out from Luyten 1305-10 in Kappa Ceti meant that Iota Persei was no longer the strategic must have for the region, giving Earth's own diplomats some more room to give ground on if absolutely necessary. Indeed, it appeared to Shots that the only thing that needed debating was just when and how to try and remake contact with the Followers.

However, judging by the exchanges in parliament over the last few hours, it appeared that he and his fellow officers had been well wide of the mark. Despite the clear evidence from Commodore Miller that the Followers posed no real current threat, Earth's politicians were continuing to treat them as a major concern. The house was now in the closing throws of debating the findings of a number of economic and military projections that had been prepared by the Joint Intelligence Committee. That was a broader concern it its' own right as neither he nor his immediate staff had been aware of any such piece of work being commissioned, let alone the inflammatory findings.

In the worst case scenarios the projections showed the Followers dedicating their substantial industrial might to rapidly rebuilding their fleet to a stage where it could successfully engage a carrier group within just three years from now whilst it would only be a matter of 18 months before they were capable of overwhelming the current defences on 107 Piscium. The report showed similar growth in the their ground forces and further expansion of the large shipyards leading to the Federation having a large aggressive military force in their back yard within five years at the outside.

These projections had been seized upon by Administrator Winter who had personally undertaken the arduous journey back from 107 Piscium to give Parliament a full update on the reality of the conditions, the level of tension in the region and the need for pre-emptive action. Whilst a number of politicians, including administrator Carter, were opposed to further military action there was a clear growing consensus from the commons that this was the only option available to the Federation if they were going to maintain long term peace in the region. It was, quite frankly, the last course of action Shots had been expecting and something that would throw all of his team's carefully laid plans into chaos.

Finally the arguments and discussions began to quiet down, Carter took the podium. "Today we have heard compelling arguments for both action and inaction in respect of the looming threat from the Followers of Khom. We must recognise that whatever decision is made here today will have consequences for our beloved Federation not just now but potentially for all time. The very way we live alongside fellow races in this galaxy and the way they view us will be irreversibly changed if we take the decision to act. However, what I have heard from our honourable members today, is that act we must if we are to avoid far more serious consequences for both ourselves and our valiant armed forces”.

Carter turned to the speaker. “Sir, it is with a heavy heart that I must therefore propose the following motions: that this house decides not to attempt further diplomatic negotiations with the Followers but instead moves to complete a quick clinical strike in the home system followed by occupation so that we can eliminate this threat once and for all”. Carter nodded to the Speaker before sitting back down, the high definition holo viewers picking up a glint of a tear in his right eye.

No sooner had Carter sat down then the administrator of 107 Piscium, Kai Winter, stood to second the motion. Less than half an hour afterwards the first votes begun to be registered.

Back in the operations room Shots sat in stony silence whilst in Parliament the whips came forward to give the results of the vote to the Speaker. Around him the rest of his command group also watched on in silence.

Having received the votes the Speaker stood, a similar hush falling over the commons “The ayes to the right 285, the no’s to the left 272. The ayes have it”. On both sides of the house MPs roared their approval and disapproval alike.

Back in the operations room Shots swore.   
 
107 Piscium
Brigadier Hayward, commanding officer of the 210th MI battalion and acting commander of the planet was sat in the claustrophobic officer’s mess enjoying some remarkably fresh boiled eggs when a young lieutenant burst into the room. All eyes swung to watch him as he strode over to Hayward.
“What is it Lieutenant?” barked Hayward, upset at having his breakfast disturbed. “Sir, we’ve just received a communication from Survey group Bravo. They just completed an exploration of one of the jump points in TZ Arietis”. “So what?” replied Hayward, “the results of survey jumps are hardly cause for concern for us grunts on this rock”. “Sorry Sir, I didn’t explain correctly, we got the report because the survey group has just jumped back into 107 Piscium from TZ through an unmapped jump point”.

Hayward did well not to inhale a spoonful of egg. “Good Lord Lieutenant, yes you were absolutely right to bring this to my attention. Let’s get straight to the ops room. Earth will want to hear about this as soon as possible. We need to inform Commodore Miller as well”. Before long Hayward was ushering the Lieutenant out of the door. If this was right it would put paid to years of assumption that you could indeed perform a full sweep of any system for relevant jump points. That would have a massive impact on the Navy’s tactical assessment and approach, not to mention that 107 now contained two potential routes through which to reach Earth.

[chrislocke2000 (OP)]

2059 July

Iota Persei
Claxons wail across the carrier task group as the long range sensors on-board TFS Czech Republic pick up the transit of a Suma Class vessel belonging to the Followers. Within moments Commodore Thorpe is on the con. “All ships, all ships, action stations. Ethiopia and Egypt will engage the hostile contact. All crews to their fighters, depressurise the launch tubes and standby”.

Seconds later 32 Harpy Mk4 ASMs launch from the two destroyers and hurtle towards the Followers’ vessel. Just twelve minutes and 30 seconds after launch the missile impact on the hull of the hostile vessel, tearing it to pieces.

“Anaconda, detach from the task group and collect the survivors from that wreck. That might be something useful we can learn from them, Thorpe out”.

Sol
Carter is sitting in his restored office smoking a cigar, in front of him sits Administrator Winter. “You realize that you will need to return to 107 in the short term, at least until the war with the Followers is over. It wouldn’t do for you to be seen as abandoning your post now action is going to be taken”.
“Of course”, replied Winter, “I appreciate all of the support you have given me these past few months and that we were able to come to a mutually acceptable solution. A couple more months on that rock will be fine just as long as I have your assurances that a reassignment back to Earth will be forthcoming and the appropriate share of returns on this venture finds their way to me”.

Carter grinned before grabbing his whisky tumbler and raising it in salute towards Winter. “You have my word on that Kai, this little venture would not have been possible without you. I fully intend to keep up my side of the bargain. Now we should spend some more time working through the logistics of the operation and the civilian shipping support that will be required”.

“Absolutely, my initial estimates are showing a requirement for almost a million extra colonists and 725,000 metric tons of cargo capacity for the initial wave alone. Here, let me take you through my figures in detail”. Winter handed Carter a data pad and started pulling up projections.

Giliese 33
Miller was busy working through maintenance rosters when the message from Rear Admiral Shots came through. “Catherine, new orders I’m afraid. Parliament has decided that the Followers need dealing with. We are currently working up a plan here and will send detailed orders shortly. In the meantime I need you to take your task force back to 1305-10 right away and begin work up training with Commodore Thorpe”.

Miller cursed under her breath before composing a short confirmatory response to Shots. Despite being that much closer to Earth the response time was still measured in hours so effective two way communications remained impossible. She then stole herself to inform the task group. She had a lot of crew who had been looking forward to some R&R time back home following their successful sortie. This was going to go down like the proverbial lead ballon.

Sol
Back in Naval HQ Shots and his command group were busy grappling with the logistics of the operation as well. The 2nd Troop transport group has only recently left from Earth, bound for Luyten 1305-10 with reinforcements. Without the lift capacity he would be exposing the invading force to several months of having to fight on their own before the transports could make the round trip to Luyten and back to Delta Trianguli. He was also conscious of the growing maintenance backlog on Carrier Group Charlie’s vessels. Whilst they were spending most of their time in orbit and able to make use of the maintenance fasciitis, the frequent sorties were starting to add up. This operation was likely to push some of the ships towards the red line of three years without overhaul. He was just glad that the opposing forces were so limited. As it was the Navy was still going to be stretched defending Luyten whilst attacking the Followers.

Iota Persei
“Commodore Thorpe, Strike Group Bravo reports in position and ready to take over picket duty”. “Thank you Lieutenant”, responded Thorpe, “Lay in a course for the Luyten gate and a standard orbit for A-IV once we have made the jump. Cruise speed and please notify me when we are ready to make the jump, Thorpe out”. Thorpe smiled; she was finally getting her task group back to their home from home.

Luyten 1305-10
Carrier group Charlie is 21 hours out from the Union home world when the fleet gets a transmission from Strike Group Bravo. “Commodore, there has been another incursion from a single Followers’ vessel. We have destroyed the ship and are remaining on station. TFS Belgium is now conducting a rescue mission to collect the Followers’ life pod. Will update once operation is complete”.

That was two incursions this month alone. Perhaps, thought Thorpe, the Navy had not gotten away with operation Columbus quite as cleanly as they had thought. She immediately began to prepare an update report for Rear Admiral Shots. Despite their lack of the resources the Followers still had the ability and clear intent to cause problems in the region.

Kappa Ceti
Thornton is busy pounding one of the treadmills down in one of Fort Spitbank’s cavernous troop transport bays when he gets a call from Commander Hodgson, the head of escort task group. Thornton takes a few minutes to wipe the sweat off his forehead and swing some water before responding. “Commander, Thornton here, how can I help you”? “Sir, we are now about two hour from orbital insertion. Our sensors have now picked up a significant contingent of ground forces on the planet, looks to be close to divisional strength”, replied Hodgson.

Thornton grimaced, this was going to be just like Iota Persei all over again. “Thank you Commander. I’d like a full active scan of the planet before we drop. I need to know if we are dealing with any civilians on the planet or if it’s another remote mining facility. I’ll need another O Group with my officers once you have the results. We will need to move H hour for the drop back two hours”.

Two hours later Thornton got his answer. “Sir, we are detecting both thermal and EM signatures coming from the surface. There is definitely a small civilian population on the planet”. Thornton cursed softly under his breath. “Ok, thank you for the update commander. Please prepare for troop drop in 90 minutes. I’ve issued orders for the troop transports to make an immediate return to Luyten to transport a further division of troops to the planet. We will secure the landing site and dig in until the reinforcements arrive”.

2059 August

GJ 1065
Colonel Foster is once more neck deep in alien machinery when her suit’s comm unit blares out a general alert across all of the local channels. It takes her a moment to register the alert before spurring herself into action. Before long both Foster and her tech team are racing back through the ruins towards Colonel Fletcher’s command post.

After fifteen minutes of hard running she finally makes it to the command post for the ten battalions on infantry tasked with the protection of the two colonies. “Colonel, what’s the situation?” asked Foster. Fletcher, a relatively young colonel, turned to face Foster. “It looks like some of your people managed to disturb a bunch of combat drones. First reports match them to the same type that destroyed the colony on Eta Cassiopeiae when we first started excavating the ruins over there. Looks to me like the previous inhabitants had a serious aversion to sharing their dirt”.

I’ve got the 23rd and 28th containing the situation at the moment. The 29th and 30th are also on their way but that means I’m going to have to take cover away from the rest of the dig as I already have the 35th and 2nd tied up with the darn Union colonists. I need you to get all of your people out of the dig asap and please tell your people not to poke around in any more bases until we have this sorted”.

Fletcher took a deep breath to avoid a sharper retort. “No problem Colonel, I’ve already issued the orders to the teams, the men will be happy to run resupply for the infantry. None of us want another EC on our hands. Let me know if we can be of help elsewhere”.

Sol
After over a month of planning and wrangling, Shots felt he finally had a workable plan for the invasion of the Followers home system. He had now set the invasion date for the 1st of October having relented on his original 1 December option in the face of intense pressure from parliament. The increased activity in Iota Persei reported by Commodore Thorpe had spurred parliament to push for faster action leaving him the bare minimum of time to get his and the TFAA's forces in place.

The recent deployment of troops to Kappa Ceti was a particular concern for him. With civilians present, he knew Thorpe had no option but to dig them out down on the ground and if things got bogged down there it could delay the whole operation. Not to mention the possibility of having to redeploy Thornton's troops before they had a chance to rest and recover from that operation. They could only hope that the delay had not given the Followers time to train significant additional troops or get many extra vessels commissioned. Shots sighed, it was a far from ideal plan but there again it had been many years since he had last been able to actually put forward one of those.

Shots decided to flick through the plan for Operation Head-Start one final time before hitting send. Knowing now how limited the enemy forces were he planned to concentrate the attack through the Iota Persei gate but commit only the full strength of Miller's carrier group plus a detachment of destroyers and light cruisers from Thorpe's own carrier group to the operation. Thorpe's carriers would have to sit this one out as they were needed to maintain protection in Luyten 1305-10.

In a mirror image to operation Columbus the destroyers and light cruisers would perform combat jumps into the system and ensure the gate remained clear before bringing in the carriers. The whole task group would then proceed in system, destroying targets as identified although primary targets would be the task group of fast movers that had been previously encountered. Planetary defence bases would also be destroyed at range although there were strict instructions to avoid damaging the shipyards if at all possible. Once the planetary orbit was cleared the main combat vessels of the group would take up position in orbit of the planer in order to engage any vessels being launched by the Followers and also protect against any attacks from previously undetected ships returning to the planet.

The two troop carrier groups would remain in Iota Persei until the system had been swept and the planetary defences cleared. Strike group Alpha would then act as escort for the ships bringing them into system and also covering their retreat. Strike group bravo would also move in system to secure the Iota Persei jump point. To minimise the impact of the limited lift capacity in the region the second wave of troops would be shipped to the colony in Iota Persei before commencement of hostilities for more rapid transit to Kapa Ceti once the initial waves of troops were dropped off.

If all went to plan the Navy would be able to destroy the hostiles in detail whilst the initial wave of troops overcame the defenders. The following wave of troops should then be enough to take full control of the main population centres and force surrender from the Followers authorities. As far as Shots could make out the later would be the real challenge and would require Thornton to strip the other colonies in the region down to the bare minimum. There was more than likely to be a loss of some control over the still unruly Union citizens.

The only positive to come out of the rush plans was parliaments concession to allocate a chunk of Earth's manufacturing capacity towards building the numerous replacement engines for the fleet. With these being pre-built he was looking at a far faster turnaround on the refits that should enable him to get Carrier group Alpha back out in space in a matter of months and that would tie nicely into Carrier group Charlie finishing off its final shake down training exercises. If that went to plan he could finally relive Thorpe from duty in Luyten and get her ships back to the yards for their much needed overhauls and refits. Satisfied that he had prepared as far as possible he finally wrapped up the orders and hit send.

Back in London administrator Carter was having a similarly tough time. After over a year in space the tug group had finally managed to haul the Unions main military shipyards back to Mars. The huge achievement was currently somewhat overshadowed by the massive strain the new docs were placing on Mars’ infrastructure and work force. Thousands of workers had urgently been diverted to the new structures to stabilize the plethora of problems and failures arising as a result of the long journey.

Consequently the existing dock yards had been left with little more than a bare minimum crew to operate. Immediate projections showed close to a 25% drop in productivity and severe delays in the refit schedule of the fleets carriers and support destroyers. Broader figures showing the impact on the stock price of the various associated civilian shipyards was looking similarly dire.

Pacing back and forth in his office as was often his way in time of stress, Carter finally hit upon an elegant short term solution that was likely to see him praised by parliament and the population whilst hiding his serious miscalculations on worker requirements on the red planet. Two of the shipyards would immediately be towed to Earth where unemployment levels remained stubbornly high. This would provide a massive injection in employment whilst relieving the strain on Mars. At the same time he would restart the Mars colonist initiative with some additional incentives for both the shipping companies and the colonist. He could then ship the yards back at a later date once they were better able to support them. The plan would mean a slight delay in resolving the fuel harvester bug but the run of the main jump tankers to Luyten meant that there was enough fuel in Sol to see them through that delay.

Carter smiled; it seemed even in complete muck ups he was able to come out smelling of roses. Looking out across the vista of London Carter decided that a celebration was in order.

Kappa Ceti
Thornton sat cleaning his rifle for the second time that day. Over the past few weeks he had urged his men to improve their temporary defences, fine-tuned the firing arcs assigned to each defensive perimeter, made detailed plans for the break out and assault of the colony and sent out increasingly aggressive patrols. To date however there had been no signs of movement from the Union troops who appeared to be content to just sit and watch the actions of the TFAA and quite frankly Thornton was now a little low on useful things to do until his reinforcements arrived.

Once more he glared at the count down on his data pad which showed that the transports were still 25 days out. Thornton went back to cleaning his rifle again. 

Back on GJ 1065
Foster sat fidgeting on the examination table whilst one of the army medics worked with a dermal knitter to close up the large gash on her left arm. Around the room several other members of her immediate command group were also receiving treatment for a range of injuries, none of which were life threatening. In front of her stood Colonel [Hodgson] with a particularly large scowl on his face.

"Colonel" started Colonel Fletcher, "I thought I had made it explicitly clear that your engineering units were to fall back to the colony structures and were not, under any circumstances, to engage with the Mechs. I'm quite frankly amazed that you got out of that skirmish with such light casualties. The infantry are of course delighted that you were able to deal with the breach but you were very fortunate this time - things could have easily turned out disastrously. I must insist that any future problems are immediately sent up the chain to the QRF reserve who I have specifically tasked to deal with instances just like this".

Foster glared back at Fletcher, "Believe me Colonel, the team and I had no intention whatsoever of getting involved in the fighting and we would have stayed well away from the area had your forces' overzealous use of close support fire not ruptured a number of the primary heat relays supporting the habitats of nearly 250,000 Union colonists. If we hadn't moved to fix the problem when we did we would have been looking at a serious loss of life. Also, if your men had managed to hit more of the mechs and less of the habitats there wouldn't have been any of their drones left to engage us once we got to the area. Ow!" Foster turned to glare at the medic. "Sorry Ma'am, but if you don't hold still this is going to hurt more and there is a good chance you will be left with more of a scar" responded the medic.   

Foster grunted assent before turning back to Fletcher. "As I was saying, we are more than happy to stay in the rear echelon whilst the fighting is continuing and I will make sure that we make use of the QRF if we do need to move forward. Can I please just ask in return that you get your men to be a little less enthusiastic with their heavy weapons. We have a lot of civilians in the area and I'm sure I don't have to remind you what happened to Commodore Shaw and his gung-ho attitude last year".

Looking slightly chastised Fletcher gave a more measured response: "Hmmn yes of course, I will clarify the rules of engagement with the men. Just please let one of my staff know before you make any more charges to the front. I hope your arm is feeling better soon". With that Fletcher wheeled about and stomped off out of the room.  Finally Foster sat back to allow the medic to do his job.