Story thread - chronicles

[Growltigger]

RENAISSANCE

The 23rd century has been described by historians as the second renaissance of mankind. It was a period within which humanity proved that it could recover from the mistakes of the past, and could put its internecine disputes aside for survival of the race.

A commentator in orbit looking down at Earth on New Year's Day in 2300 could see that humanity was shattered. It had been reduced by devastating wars to less than a billion people, its technological base, industrial and agricultural infrastructure were all but destroyed and the compound effect of the atomic, biological and chemical munitions employed in 200 years of war had dangerously contaminated the environment of the planet.

The same commentator looking down at Earth on New Year's Day in 2400 would only have been able to recognise the planet by its topography. The human race had reversed the decline: it had finally managed to create the technological society so long hoped for. No one on Earth went hungry, and all 4 billion people now living on the planet could read and write. The world still bore the marks of unrestricted war. Humanity had spent a century injecting most of its gross industrial output into repairing the environment. Great advances had been made - Africa was now the bread basket of the world, but still much of continental North America and Asia were irradiated wastelands. The wounds of 200 years of warfare would take an eternity to heal.

The destruction of the United Nations in the terrorist attack on New York in 2287 had led to a new world order. In the thirteen years till 2300, the remaining political blocs had joined together into a unified global body. The Terran Federation was born through necessity to save the planet and what was left of humanity. Initially, the Federation was a political alliance of the regional governments of the world, the European Union, the Australasian Federation, the South Asian Prosperity Alliance, the Pacific Unity and the South American Economic League. By 2400, the Federation had become the legislative body for the whole planet and each member country had yielded its sovereign powers to it. For the first time in its history, Earth was unified under one global administration.

By 2334, the Federation had managed to stabilise the environmental situation on Earth, and had made the technological advances needed to begin the slow steady climb to global prosperity. Earth now had the time to breathe, and to take stock of its situation. Mankind had long looked to the stars, and the Federation realised that expansion into space had to given priority. The scientific and space exploration agencies of all member states of the Federation were assimilated to form Science Command, a new world government agency with responsibility for the exploration of the solar system.

The chrysalis for the formation of Science Command was the data sent back to Earth by Beagle 17, an unmanned probe which had been sent to Mars. In 2107, NASA had formulated an ambitious plan to terraform Mars. For a period of 100 years, unmanned rockets had been launched to Mars, each rocket carrying genetically modified bacteria. The bacteria were designed to transform the atmosphere of Mars to be breathable. The Sino-American war in 2206 had put an end to this project, and what was left of the United States following that war was in no shape to maintain the huge cost of the terraforming project.

Beagle 17 indicated that the bacteria had done their job only too well. Mars had an earth-like atmosphere, and was now breathable to humans. This discovery radically transformed the ambitions of the human race. A virgin world was now available for colonisation and exploitation by humans. It would provide much needed breathing room and resources. The whole technological capability of Science Command was tasked with the endeavour of how to reach Mars, and how to colonise it.

In addition to the Mars project, unmanned probes had been sent throughout the solar system. By 2380, Science Command had completed a thorough survey of the system. The survey had revealed two unusual anomalies, gravitic whirlpools which through the use of unmanned probes, appeared to be pathways to other solar systems. No probe launched through the whirlpools ever returned, but they went somewhere, as the scrambled information the probes sent back indicated that they had transited into new star systems, before the tidal stresses in the whirlpools ripped them apart. Science Command analysed all the data, and concluded that the whirlpools could be transited, but only by much larger vessels than the small probes used to date.

The confusion at Science Command was extreme. The development of colonisation technology was advanced, and humanity knew that it had the capability to settle on other planets. Data from Beagle 17 had been invaluable for this, and had helped develop a new branch of science for humanity, the development of large spaceships able to travel through space to colonise Mars. But now, Mars was only a stepping stone for the human race.

Our commentator in orbit above Earth on New Year's day in 2400 would not be able to appreciate the magnitude of the events he was about to witness.

[ February 06, 2004, 14:15: Message edited by: Growltigger ]

[Gryphin]

Nicely done. More please.
Thanks.

[Atrocities]

Very Enjoyable, more please.

[Growltigger]

Cheers guys - Oleg, this is on a normal game as I cannot get the damn data files to accept my amends, or rather, I make the amends but the game doesnt use them!

[Growltigger]

REVELATION

On 28 February 2402, Olutunde Akerujah, the scientist who discovered the potential use of warp points as fast transit routes between star systems, was awarded the Nobel Prize, as well as receiving the Federation Star, the highest civilian award that could be given by the World Senate. Science Command was stunned by the information it had gathered over the Last two years. Discovery and Endeavour had transmitted to Earth huge amounts of information, and collating and reviewing such windfalls, together with analysing the samples brought back from the other star systems, was a Herculean task in itself. In addition, the outworld colonies were establishing their own research and university facilities in order to investigate the scientific revelations their new homes would yield.

On 1 March 2402, the first Federation Stellar Summit was held in London. The purpose of the summit was to discuss the previous two years of expansion, and to agree the Federation's objectives for the next two years. The Federation now covered 5 star systems, and had colonies on 6 earth-like planets. It was expected that Discovery and Endeavour would reach the new supply bases established on Avalon and Asgard by November 2402 and those ships would be entering into the unexplored warp points by the end of the year. Given recent experience, it was most likely that the star systems on the other side of those warp points would contain more habitable planets.

Federation Command was concerned about the rate of expansion. The primary problem was the question of distance. Whilst the warp point network allowed instantaneous transit between star systems, starships still needed to travel across the stellar space between warp points, and even with the fastest ion engines Science Command could currently design, this still meant that a ship could take 4 months to traverse one star system. The colonies newly established on Hermes, Asgard and Avalon took almost 9 months to reach at full boost, and Federation Command realised that there were limitations on Earth exercising effective control over these systems. The further problem was that over a billion people on Earth had signed up to be colonists for the new systems. The promises of new lives on brave new worlds had appealed to the brightest and best of humanity, and Federation Command was eager to avoid any mass exodus to the new systems. However, this had to be countered with the environmental damage caused to Earth. Whilst Earth's atmosphere had been stabilized, it was obvious to Science Command that the planet could not comfortably support more than 4.8 billion people. The restrictions on births had been lifted by the discovery of the new colony worlds, and with so much new living space available, humanity was responding by reproducing at the highest rates known in centuries.

Federation Command was also concerned about the serious depletion of resources the recent rapid expansion into space had caused. The bulk of the gross global product had been injected into the production of spaceyards, colony and transport ships, and it was obvious to the economists that until such time as the colonies could start producing resources themselves, Earth would need to establish mining colonies to bolster its own resources. It could not continue to deplete stocks at the rate it had been.

Finally, the "Asgard Enigma" had to be discussed. Someone had once lived on Asgard, they had been technologically superior to the Federation, they had obviously been warlike, yet something or someone had destroyed every settlement on that world. The military committee of Federation Command were terrified by this prospect, and were lobbying the World Senate heavily to consolidate Federation territory, until such time as a large battlefleet had been constructed and trained.

The result of the Stellar Summit was a two year plan for the Federation. Exploration of the new warp points in Alpha Centauri and Tau Ceti would continue, but the Federation would not expand any further than its existing frontiers. The colony worlds needed to be populated, and new transport vessels would be built to carry large numbers of colonists to those worlds. In addition, new Nova class colony ships would be built on the Hephaestus and the Vulcan, and these would be used to establish mining colonies on unhospitable worlds. The economy would be given priority before any further expansion was made. Whilst military research would continue, the World Senate considered that the military were scaremongering over the "Asgard Enigma", and no further military production was planned other than the 6 light cruisers currently undergoing shake down trials in Earth orbit.

The Discovery boosted into orbit around Avalon on 11 November 2402. The Endeavour reached Asgard on 17 November 2402. After their 9 month voyages, the crews needed some rest and recuperation, as well as the chance for some sight seeing. It was decided that each vessel would depart from orbit on 1 December 2402.

In the meantime, Earth had continued implementing the 2 year plan. In addition to the Kyushu, two further transport ships had been built and commissioned. The Tierra Del Fuego and the Hainan had each embarked 200 million colonists, and were currently on route for the Asgard and Avalon systems. The Kyushu, which had been busy ferrying colonists to Mars, had embarked a further 170 million colonists and was on route to Tanith.

Hephaestus and Vulcan had each built new Nova class colony ships, and these had been used to establish mining colonies on Titan, Pluto and Mercury. Federation Command considered that the home system should be colonised in full, and the new resources flowing from these settlements was helping significantly to bolster Earth's depleted stockpiles. Further Nova class colony ships were under construction at the orbital spaceyards. In addition, researchers on Tanith had identified the wreckage of what appeared to be an alien outpost on Artemis, one of the moons orbiting Tanith. A colony ship had been sent to Artemis to investigate the ruins. This discovery had re-ignited the discussions on the "Asgard Enigma", and the military were protesting hard to re-start production of additional light cruisers.

In June 2402, Federation Command, partly in response to the demands of the military, established a new command, Battlefleet. Originally intended as a place to "park" all the military hotheads in the government, the further discovery of the existence of alien civilisations on Artemis had caused the more cautious members of the World Senate to take more account of the military's warnings. Permission was given for Battlefleet to send the 1st Cruiser Squadron comprising Agamemnon, Ajax and Achilles to Avalon, and for the 2nd Cruiser Squadron comprising Hyperion, Prometheus and Menelaus to boost to Asgard. By the time these ships reached their destinations, Avalon and Asgard would have completed the construction of shipyard facilities, and the plan was to retrofit these vessels with the new augmented phased beam weaponry currently being researched.

On 1 December 2402, Endeavour left orbit around Asgard and headed toward the first unexplored warp point. Endeavour transitted, but reappeared 2 days later. The jump had taken the ship right to the edges of a huge black hole. Whilst the astronomy teams had managed to identify the system as Cygnus X-1, the rest of the crew had been too busy trying to fight the intense gravitational forces and escape back to the warp point to care. Scans had revealed a further warp point on the other side of the black hole, but it was apparent that this warp point was unstable, and was viewed far too risky to send manned vessels through. Cygnus X-1 was written off as a "no-go" system. Two weeks later, Endeavour jumped through the second unexplored warp point in Alpha Centauri. This led to Alkazar, a system containing several mineral rich planets, none of which had breathable air. Worse of all, the system contained no other warp points than the one through which Endeavour had transitted. Endeavour returned to Asgard, and given that Alpha Centauri appeared to be a dead end, the decision was made to boost back to Earth and then onto Avalon, as that seemed to contain only avenues for exploration.

The Discovery meanwhile had jumped through the first warp point in the Tau Ceti system. It hit gold. The system was identified as Sirius, and contained not less than four habitable systems. The news of this was a panacea to the World Senate. The new Nova colony ships being constructed on Earth, Hephaestus and Vulcan were dedicated to colonising Sirius.

The Discovery jumped back to Tau Ceti, and proceeded to transit the second unexplored warp point. It returned 3 days later, badly damaged and streaming atmosphere from rents in its hull. Federation Command was shocked by the news.

On passing through the warp point, the proximity alarms on the ship had gone off, even before the crew had recovered from the jump shock. Discovery was only 50,000 kilometres from a spaceship. Initial scans showed that it was definitely not of Earth origin. It was 60,000 tons larger than Discovery, was of unknown configuration and was closing with Discovery fast, obviously heading toward the warp point. Hailing signals were sent, and something was received back, but the communication staff aboard Discovery could not interpret it. Before they had a chance to even try to, the unknown ship had closed to 40,000 kilometres and proceeded to open fire on Discovery with what appeared to be linear accelerators launching masses of depleted uranium projectiles. Discovery took hits on her engines and only the automated defence software stopped Discovery from being destroyed. Her missile battery went into automatic, and launched a nuclear missile at the alien ship. The first missile hit the alien ship, and Discovery managed to open the range so that it could no longer fire its cannon. A second missile was fired by Discovery, which missed, the alien ship being able to outrun it. The third missile hit, and obviously had done serious damage to the alien vessel, as it veered off and proceeded to head away from Discovery. In the meantime, Discovery's captain had the sense to remember his standing orders, he had met something hostile, and Earth needed to know about it. He ordered Discovery to head back to the warp point.

Discovery returned to Avalon, and an intense discussion as to the alien ship erupted throughout the Federation. They were alien, they were hostile, and Federation Command could only wonder if the Asgard Enigma had been answered?

[Alneyan]

I have read it, and definitively liked this story so far.

[ February 11, 2004, 14:32: Message edited by: Alneyan ]

[Growltigger]

COLD PEACE

Avalon was the jewel of the Federation colony worlds. The adverts run by Federation Command on all Earth media for the Avalon colony portrayed it as a veritable Garden of Eden and the epitome of the unspoiled wilderness. It truly was a beautiful planet, towering mountains, heavily forested uplands, verdant plains sweeping down to oceans which sparkled in the bright sunlight of Tau Ceti. The main settlement, Carthage, was expertly laid out, and despite being a new settlement, was a mass of leafy avenues, clean white buildings, space and room to breathe. To the economists of the Federation, it was a veritable potential powerhouse for mineral and radioactive production, and also had the possibility of producing huge amounts of foodstuffs. To a citizen of Earth, with its environmental contamination, polluted atmosphere, food shortages and industrial complexes, Avalon really was something akin to paradise.

But even paradise had its serpent, and humanity now discovered that it did not have the monopoly on terror and warfare.

Discovery had pulled into orbit around Avalon, and was in the process of transferring its wounded down to hospitals in Carthage, prior to undergoing repairs at Avalon's newly completed spaceyard facility.

The alien vessel transitted the warp point 3 days after Discovery had returned to Avalon, and headed straight for the planet. All warning signals were ignored, and the civilian administration in Carthage ordered the population to disperse. Many people did not, and this did not sit well with the captain of the Discovery, who came to the cold conclusion that his damaged vessel was the only defence Avalon had. Frantic Messages were transmitted to Earth, but the 1st Cruiser Squadron was several months away even at full speed, and the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, redirected from its voyage to Asgard, was the other side of Earth. The captain realised that he was the sole Federation military presence in the system, and who knew how many alien vessels would be lurking the other side of the warp point.

Two weeks later, the alien vessel approached Avalon. A hastily repaired Discovery speeded out to meet it. The captain of the Discovery had been frantically reviewing every tactical handbook he could find. He knew that his primary advantage lay in the fact that his missiles seemed to have better range than the linear accelerators on the alien vessel. Provided he could keep the range open, he could shell the alien ship before it could get in range to fire.

The Battle of Avalon was one sided. The alien ship, damaged from its previous encounter with Discovery, bore straight toward the planet, obviously intent on bLasting Carthage to atoms in a blaze of kinetic projectiles. It barely tried to dodge when the first missile from the Discovery smashed into it. The missile bLast fractured the alien ship, and despite a call to surrender, no signal was received from the alien wreck. The second missile from the Discovery blew it apart. Discovery proceeded to start search and rescue operations to see if any of the alien crew had survived, and also to attempt to obtain technical data on the alien vessel..

Federation Command was in an uproar. All ship production on Earth was cancelled, and new light cruisers, incorporating the latest phased beam, armour and point defence technology, were put into production. Hephaestus and Vulcan would continue to build Nova class colony ships, as Federation Command realised it needed additional mining colonies to provide the resources needed to service a war fleet.

Meanwhile, the linguistics technicians and engineers aboard on Avalon had made some important discoveries.

The alien ship did not appear to be more technically advanced than the Federation. It was the same size as the frigate designs Federation Command had contemplated building in early 2401, but it was still half the size of a Federation light cruiser. It armour was not as technically advanced as the complex composites used by Federation designers, its ion engines were less efficient than comparable Federation designs, and the linear accelerators, whilst initially quite frightening, did not have the range and punch of the phased beams being installed on Federation cruisers. In fact, the military hotheads at Battlefleet had even run analysis's and had reached the conclusion that 4 or more of these vessels would be needed to take on a single Agamemnon class light cruiser of the Terran Federation Navy with any hope of success. On this basis, Federation Command breathed a sigh of relief as whatever these aliens were, they did not appear to be the Asgard Enigma.

Although no bodies had been retrieved from the wreckage, the scientists had managed to decipher the signals received from the alien ship in its first encounter with Discovery. Both audio and visual signals had been decoded. The audio signals were decoded first. The language was unusual, but a linguistics professor at the newly founded Carthage University pointed out that it had disturbing similarities to proto-Aryan and older Earth Languages. The visual signals were decoded later, and what these showed caused massive uproar across the Federation.

It would have been better if the images showed horrible green hairy bug eyed monsters. They didn't. True, the person speaking out of the video channel was generally more slender and taller than the average human, wore strange garments and appeared to have a trenchant for face paint, but they looked undeniably human. Could it possibly be that humanity on Earth was just part of a wider human civilisation across the stars? Every lunatic and fringer on Earth went into overdrive, and political bodies demanding that Earth be reunited with its brethren across the stars appeared overnight. Every scientist on Earth and Avalon was dreaming of the chance to get its hands on some of the alien DNA.

Federation Command ignored the political upheaval. Its linguistic experts had managed to decipher the alien language, and although certain words had to extrapolated or inferred by reference, they had enough of the general meaning of the Messages to be worried. Apparently, the ship had been warning Discovery that it had entered into a star system claimed by the alien empire. Astronomy data indicated that the star system was Sigma Draconis, and that in addition to several gas giants and ice planets, it had one habitable world. In addition, it had an unexplored warp point. Data on what the alien empire was could not be interpreted, as the linguists could not determine enough information.

The 1st Cruiser Squadron had entered Tau Ceti space and was only 1 month away from reaching Avalon. The Hainan was only a month behind carrying 200 million colonists. A second alien vessel, which closely matched the first ship in design, transitted the warp point from Sigma Draconis. Unlike its predecessor, it did not charge towards Avalon all guns blazing, but sat on the warp point, not moving.

Messages were sent, and were responded to, and the linguistics and diplomatic experts finally opened the dialogue they wanted to with the aliens.

The aliens came from the Proxima Centauri star system, which was somewhere beyond Sigma Draconis. They called themselves the Centauri Republic, and were aggressive, notwithstanding the gift of minerals and foodstuffs sent to them by officials on Avalon. The Centauri would not be drawn, nor did they seem to show any interest in why they and Humans looked so alike. The offer of a non-aggression pact made by the Federation was rebuffed, with the cryptic message from the Centauri that this was not a time for alliances.

However, certain information was obtained from the Centauri. They inhabited 4 star systems, and generally had a technology level less advanced than the Federation. References to other ships however indicated that the Centauri fleet was larger than the Federation Navy. As suddenly as they had appeared, the Centauri vessel slipped back through the warp point and disappeared. The Last communication being an emphatic "no" to the Federation's request for a non-aggression treaty.

In the meantime, Venus, Ganymede and Europa had been colonised by Federation Command, and the resource stockpile was rapidly being replenished. Construction had been completed of the Federation light cruisers Theseus, Acheron, Argonaut and Bellerophon. More were in construction. These ships boosted out of Earth orbit on the long voyage to Avalon. Science Command and Battlefleet worked together to commence research on military techniques which could be used to train and increase the expertise of fleet vessels.

The military might of the Federation was to gather at Avalon. It was obvious to Federation Command that the Centauri Republic were hostile for some reason, and it was only a matter of time before the hammer fell on Avalon. How hard that hammer would fall, and whether the Federation could survive it, was the principal question.

[dogscoff]

Excellent stuff. Any chance of posting some kind of map so we can see what the layout is like?

[Growltigger]

Cheers Dogscoff, compliments on writing from you mean something, as you do have a joyful way with words (even if you do eat poo )

Dunno how I post a map, but we are only three jumps out from or two warp point starting system so there is not really much to show!

I will see what I can do.

[primitive]

Keep it comming, Kat. You got me hooked