Empires

[President_Elect_Shang]

I started a story once before and ended up having to abandon it due to too many changes in the mod I am working on; which provides the backdrop for the story right? So here it is round two and I am feeling very optimistic about it this time. No background into the Tal-Re Republic this time, been there done that and will answer questions as needed. If you want to know what the Republics modifiers are download my Governments Mod and look up �Republic� <gee>. A word about my writing style; I don�t have one. I will try to stick with the �third person� point of view at the strategic level but may dip into first person from time to time as I see fit. I will try for a hybrid of this approach at the tactical level and write in first person with a third person synopsis for those who aren�t interested in whether or not CPT So-and-So�s cat got sick before being atomized. Anyway here you go, for your reading pleasure; Empires!

[President_Elect_Shang]

2400.3 -- The Democratic Peoples of Opeechee are the first species to make a warp jump. By chance their home planet (6,1) lies next to one of their stars gravity wells (6,0); or warp points as they are called by laymen. The warp point leads to the Atull System and allows the Opeechee's astronomers to become the first to prove the existence of warp points and black holes. Luckily the transiting ship arrives far enough away from the event horizon that it is easily able to make its escape.

2400.9 -- The Empire of Thebes having setup a colony on one of its home systems planets finally completes the construction of a sensor system. As soon as the system comes on line they discover another warp point (-7, -3) and much to their shock there is an unknown ship sitting picket on the warp point. Since the ship has shown no indication of approaching the colony it is surmised that the aliens shipboard sensors must be no better than their own. The ruling clan, Clan Jartol, decides to postpone attempts at contact until some form of defense can be built up.

2401.0 -- The Tal-Re Republic achieves a new economic and technological level (High Tech 1) which opens the door into new avenues of research. One line is into space based construction and focus is placed into this area.

[President_Elect_Shang]

2401.2 -- This month the Republic makes its first jump through a warp point. Although two Daphnes are in position at two wp only one is allowed to go at a time. The first jump is successful and the ship sends word that they have arrived in a system with a single large blue star. The captain of the ship names the system Olontra; he is given the go ahead to begin survey operations and the second Daphne is told to make its jump. This wp leads to a tri-nary system with a large yellow, large orange, and small blue star. Survey of this system, dubbed the Roris System, commences. The Daphne Class Frigate [FG] is the standard exploration and defense ship of the Republic. It is not the largest hull which can be built with current technology; that honor goes to the destroyer [DD] hull which comes in at 300kT. Still the Daphnes 220kT FG hull is an impressive size. The Daphne class itself mounts 5 commercial grade engines which can produce a sustained thrust of 7km/s. It mounts a full and half sized cargo bay for extended exploration operations. A half sized magazine feeds two Missile Launchers each capable of spitting out a long range self guided dual fused 100Mt thermonuclear tipped missile. The crews� personal areas and supporting atmosphere (as well as less discussed but necessary biological needs) is provided by a Small Crew Quarters. This section of the ship has only 50% the capability of a dedicated Crew Quarters and 10% of that provided by a dedicated Life Support system; however, when space is at a premium there is no better choice since it is only 50% the size of the full blown systems. All of this is wrapped up in 30kT of armor. Currently the Daphne (and everything else for that matter) is constructed at Tal-Re Prime (the home world) at the rate of 1 every two months.

[President_Elect_Shang]

2401.4 -- Five months after detecting an alien ship the Empire of Thebes is forced to make its presence known when another one of the alien ships approaches to close to a Thebean colony, the same colony that first detected the aliens in fact. The aliens; the Orion Imperium, open gun ports and attack. The Thebean FG is easily able to defeat the Orion's 120kT Escort [ES] but sustains enough damage that the captain withdraws for repairs.

2401.6 -- The Democratic Peoples of Opeechee are the first species to establish a colony in another solar system. The Republic completes research into Space Yards. This component will be able to construct at over double the rate of planet side ship yards. Plans are proposed for the construction of an orbital ship yard base; work begins even before the final approvals are given.

2401.9 -- Republic scientist develop a new engine which they are calling the Military Engine. The only difference between the Military and Commercial Engine is that the Military Engine costs more but is only half the size. The lead scientist of the team explains that the name came about when one of the members jokingly said "The only people foolish enough to pay this much for something that small would be the military!"

[President_Elect_Shang]

2402.1 -- This month the engineers and researches of Alcon Defense Corp present the designs for a defensive system which they call Shields. This Shield is designed to provide protection against missiles and will be rechargeable between combat rounds. The Alcon team warns that this shield will not stop laser beams. The Department of Defense with President Shang's blessings issues a challenge for the development of a general purpose warship design. A team from AeroSpace Developers Inc. wins the contract with their Agamemnon Class DD design. This ship as proposed will utilize 7 Military Engines to generate a sustained 7km/s thrust. Crew support will be provided by 2 independent Small Crew Quarters meaning the loss of one will not completely cripple the ship by leaving the crew dependent on their Combat Suit systems. Offensive capability will be provided by 1 Laser for close in combat and 3 Missile Launchers fed by a Small Magazine which means the ship could be bleed dry of ammo in under 2 minutes of sustained combat. All of this is wrapped inside 40kT of armor and 3 of the new Shield generators. Sky Marshall Kana presents the Senate with the design and asks for the commission of 10 of these ships. While all of this is going on the Sky Marshall has a secret request issued to AeroSpace for a warp point assault design.

[President_Elect_Shang]

2402.3 -- The Berg-SIS Company presents to the DoD [Department of Defense] a prototype system which they are calling Survey Instruments. This suite of computers and sensors will double the current survey capability of any Republic ship which mounts them. Sky Marshall Kana instructs Grumman AeroSpace, the original developers of the Daphne, to produce an updated version for production. The resulting design doubles the passive defenses, increases mission longevity by some 140%, and incorporates the new survey instruments package. Although ammo storage is reduced the Senate and President overwhelmingly approve of the new design; the Daphne II, and Sky Marshall Kana issues an immediate recall to all survey assists for immediate upgrade. In other news the colony on Beta Cassiopeia III (Beta Cassiopeia is the home system for the Republic) completes construction of a ship yard facility becoming the second site in the Republic which is capable of producing ships. Since this colony is on the other habitable planet in the Republic�s home system there are still plenty of other facilities to be produced. Steady production from this yard will have to wait until then. The only reason this yard was rushed to completion was for the single purpose of producing a colony ship. A colony ship which will be sent to setup a new colony on another habitable world in the Roris System.

[President_Elect_Shang]

2402.6 -- Wyoming 001 Yard is completed in orbit of Tal-Re Prime. The Senate declines Sky Marshall Kana's request for the Agamemnon DD and instead orders the production of 6 Daphne II's. The old Daphne class FG's were scrapped when engineers announced that the old hull construction could not be made compatible with the new design. The Daphne II's will be produced at a rate of 1 every 2 months. This is much faster than ground based construction which would have only been able to produce 1 every 4 months. The Senate assures the Sky Marshall that after the production run has been completed the Agamemnon will be given top priority. This does nothing to assuage the Sky Marshall who points out, rather noisily, that the Republic is ripe for invasion. Senator Young of Tal-Re Prime: "And tell us Sky Marshall, where are these invading hordes of yours? In your little war mongering mind I think. Be happy with the bone we have thrown you, now go gnaw on it and get off the porch." Kana slowly turns and without a word walks away. Aid: "Sky Marshall I thought you were going to kill him back there." Kana: "A confrontation with a Senator, even one as arrogant and small minded as Young would kill my future. I may want to wrap my hands around his scrawny little bird neck right now but that wouldn't help the Republic at all. My successor may be just like him."

[President_Elect_Shang]

2402.7 � In the Delta Trianguli System a survey ship from the Arachnid Oligarchy crosses paths with a survey ship from the Imperial Council of Terra. Attempts at communication go awry and the Arachnid captain resorts to weapons. In the Republic developers at SAAB Aeronautics develop two small craft and boat bays for launching these craft. The first small craft; the Cutter, is a limited utility vehicle with a few ammo storage racks for remote re-arming operations. The Shuttle is a slightly larger small craft but is capable of transporting a larger quantity of ammo. Neither of these small craft are wp capable or able to outrun a starship in or out of combat. Although SAAB promises weapons will be available for them there are none at present. The boat bays for housing, care, and launch of these small craft come in a verity of sizes from tiny to large. Although Sky Marshall Kana finds these small craft to be pretty useless the Chairman for the Department of Exploration sees the potential for speeding up system surveys. He requests and receives funding for testing and design proposals of this new system. The resulting design; the Quasar (not attached), is a modified Daphne II platform with 10kT of Armor removed to make room for a Small Boat Bay. A Senate committee agrees to fund the modification of one of the Daphne II�s as soon as SAAB can gear up a plant to produce 2 of the accompanying Cutter designs.

2402.9 � The Republic emplaces its first extra-solar colony in the Roris System. Although the planet is habitable the conditions are less than perfect. Despite the challenges the colonists waste little time setting up a temporary seat of government. They appoint their first planetary governor and Senator so they may have representation in the Senate of the Republic. In a grand ceremony (grand for a newly formed colony anyway) the colonies governor presents the Planetary Charter and in honor of the home world names the planet New Tal-Re.

2403.2 � In the Narcisston System (0, 9) exploration ships of the Imperial Council of Terra and the Archanid Oligarchy make contact. Again the Archanid captain resorts to weapons and once again the Terran captain retreats. Now there are two points of contact for these empires which are clearly on a crash course for war.

[Phoenix-D]

"resorts to weapons"

..do they ever resort to anything else?

[President_Elect_Shang]

2403.3 � Boeing IDS announces they have developed a system to assist in the flow and processing of combat information. This new Combat Information Center [CIC] will aid ship captains to extract only the information they specify from a combat situation. More importantly though it will assist a ships tactical computers in calculating targeting solutions and aid the engineering computers in drive field distortion calculations making the mounting ship a more difficult target to resolve. Unfortunately the space needed for this system is on par with a weapons system. Sky Marshal Kana dismisses the CIC in an interview with Military Times: �It is a beneficial system, there is no arguing that. However; at this time, I just can�t consent to giving that much space up to a non-weapons system.� The Chairman for DoD does not agree and orders a military team to research the systems practical applications. And after an exhaustive study Kana�s predications prove accurate.

2403.6 � The Wyoming 002 ship yard base is completed in orbit around Tal-Re Prime. This time Sky Marshal Kana�s request is granted and 6 Agamemnon Class DD are funded. Furthermore Kana is promised funding for 6 more following the launch of the Quasar Class prototype; SAAB having held up its end of the agreement. In a surprise move Kana gives his staff the rest of the day off. At the same time Kana�s buoyant mood is lifting the spirits of his personnel another section of the quadrant is witness to sullen depression. The leader of the Empire of Thebes watches helplessly as Orion invaders make planet fall on one of the home systems colonies. Having had its ships smashed by the Orion onslaught the Thebeans hatch a radical plan. They take a group of their finest and load them on a colony ship in cold sleep. Their last warship is assigned escort duty and �Salvation Fleet� is launched. Its mission is to run far, as far as its supplies can take it, in hopes that a new empire can be founded and revenge extracted.