Turn 57
There are now six major races in operation in the Known Galaxy; The United
Federation of Planets, The Klingon Empire, The Kzinti Hegemony, The Hydran
Kingdoms , The Gorn Confederation and one other race lurking in the depths
of far space… the Borg.
So far few actual conflicts have taken place, but the as the various races
jockey for position, conflict is waiting to spill out at any moment.
Federation. (EL4)
So far the Federation has had a peaceful few years of exploration. Since
their initial first contact over 4 years ago, the Human and Proximan races
have banded together with the denizens of Epsilon Indi to form the United
Federation of Planets. Recently there numbers have been swelled by the
inclusion of the Danzig, and the Boxar people are also slowly working
towards amalgamation.
There have however been a few events within the past six months that have
raised no small amount of concern within the Federation council.
The first of note was the Federations first contact with a race already
possessing spacefaring technology. Fortunately the peoples of the Kzinti
Hegemony appear to posses startling xenological similarities to the
Proximans (both being large humanoid races descendent from what appears to
be felines) and the two races very quickly communicated and within days had
a working trade agreement finalised. The news however from the Kzintis was
that the Federation was in fact the fourth spacefaring race besides
themselves that they were aware of, and not all of those were peaceable.
The second issue is what is now becoming known as the “Endor Situation”. The
Ewoks have reached economic levels viable to support advanced technology and
have somehow managed to cobble together the necessary systems to make
extra-atmospheric flight possible. Indeed, from the small amount of data
that can gleaned from photography that can penetrate the dense forest
foliage it would appear that at least one space going vessel is under
construction on the planetary surface.
Since “those furry nutters” have yet to make peaceful contact with any race,
the Federation council is in a quandary. Federation charter requires
resolution through non-conflict wherever possible, yet the probability that
the Ewoks are going to be coming up fighting is all too real. A faction led
by the Proximans is advocating a full scale invasion of pacification of the
Endorian forests so as to preserve Federation peace, however this has not
drawn support from all quarters.
The second solution and the one which is being tried is to come to an
amicable settlement with the Ewoks via third party mediation. Under the
“Endorian Accords”, sovereignty of their home system would pass to the Ewoks
along with the two already charted systems leading away from Federation
Space. One of these systems is believed to be a dead end but the other will
hopefully allow the Ewoks to expand beyond their current frontiers. In
return, all Federation colonists would be given free passage to relocate
back to Federation territory and a trade agreement would be held in place
for at least ten years between the two sovereign nations.
An attempt to broker this deal has been passed to both the Kzinti and the
Boxar. While it is in their own future interests for the Boxar to attempt to
solve this diplomatic impasse, the Kzinti require more tangible means of
recognition for their services. As such, if they are able to pull off a
successful agreement within the short space of time left, the Federation
will pass over to them all research data, technical blueprints and a working
model of the standrad Point Defence System.
However time is short and the projected launch time of the Ewok’s first
space vessel is drawing near. A patrol squadron is already in orbit to stop
any aggressive moves and a new fleet of planetary assault landing vessels
are undergoing shakedown trials around Jupiter in case the Proximan plans
have to be effected.
If that weren’t enough, a third occurrence two months ago poses the largest
potential threat to the Federation since its inception. Contact with a
second starfaring race was made when a lone scout-ship from the Klingon
Empire entered the partially surveyed Domwaltz system. Home of the Boxar
(Trade and Military allies of the Federation), it is also the most direct
route so far discovered between the Indi sector and the junction between the
Olwa sector and the Federation core systems.
Polite inquiries were made with the Kzinti to see if they possessed any
further information on these newcomers and the report received at the
Federation Council set alarm bells ringing. The Klingons were indeed known
to the Kzinti, and while they had not yet encountered them in person, their
own allies from the Hydran Kingdoms had been in a state of warfare with them
for over a year after a Klingon battle fleet attempted an unprovoked assault
into Hydran territory. While technologically more advanced than the Hydrans,
the assault was beaten back. The Kzinti also cautioned that as military
allies, the Kzinti would be obliged to assist if and when Hydra decided to
renew hostilities with the Klingons and have intimated that such a move may
be forthcoming within six months.
On hearing this news, the Boxar immediately called on their status as
military allies, obliging the Federation to come to their aid in light of a
known aggressive nation being present in sovereign Boxar space.
The events at Domwaltz were a splash of cold water in the face of the
Federation military (more commonly known as Starfleet). The vessels already
present in Orphicon were certainly no match for a battle fleet. The only
ships that had been assigned to the survey of what had initially been
considered a safe system well away from the frontier were a single Stargazer
II class research vessel and the cruiser Albecerque, both on detachment from
the 3rd Fleet.
Moreover, reinforcements capable of arriving within a month were equally
unimpressive. A dozen Stargazer and Stargazer IIs could be pulled from the
body of the 6th Fleet in the Indi sector, as could their flag group still
stationed at Epsilon Indi, comprising the “Grand Old Man” the cruiser USS
Nelson and her pair of Discovery II destroyer escorts. From the Olwa sector,
elements could be drawn from the 5th around Redwing and from the Endor
interdiction squadron, but that was deemed unwise considering the seemingly
imminent outbreak of hostilities with the Ewoks. In the end, a scratch force
comprising of newly built vessels destined to reinforce other fleets was
diverted to Orphicon from the Utopia Planatia yards at Mars. The crews were
still unaccustomed to their vessels and any teething problems would have to
be ironed out en-route, but this task force consisted of some of the finest
ships ever to be produced by the Federation.
Two of the new Hermes class fleet scouts would each be flanked by a pair of
Burke Z class frigates, forming the Federation’s first two operational
data-link battle groups. Each group would act as a skirmishing screen for
the accompanying pair of Ticonderoga class heavy cruisers; the largest ships
of the line in the Federation fleet. It was only to be hoped that this would
be enough until such times as the rest of the fleet could be adequately
re-deployed to provide more reinforcements.
This brought home what Starfleet had long known but the Federation Council
in its thirst for expansion had allowed to fall by the wayside. Starfleet
was in serious need of re-organisation and many of the vessels were in dire
need of upgrade. As examples, the six frontier fleets were unevenly
scattered over more than a dozen systems and the 1st fleet consisted of more
first generation vessels than it had those that had undergone refit to newer
design. As such, a number of new stratagems were hastily put into place.
1. Upgraded refit facilities for all fleets would be made available as a
priority. While most fleets had access to a mobile Fleet Repair Dock
facility, in some cases those facilities had been tied up for over a year in
helping with construction of fixed installations (**Editors notes** No such
thing as prefabrication in this universe!! If you want a base, you find some
way of getting a shipyard to the spot beforehand and then start building…).
The new FRD II units were undergoing initial trials, and these would be
capable of refitting a single Burke class frigate in less than a month. The
expected completion of Starbases 2 and 3 at Epsilon Indi and Olwa would also
help hasten the refit process.
2. In the absence of fixed base defences, all populated systems would have
at minimum a patrol squadron of armed vessels. Traditionally this role would
have fallen to frigates, destroyers or light cruisers but such an
undertaking would prove far too costly in terms of maintenance. It was also
deemed wasteful to tie up ships of the line on internal security duties when
they could be put to far greater use on the frontier. As such, a new class
of “Police Corvette” has been commissioned. Datalinked squadrons of these
ships will initially replace existing line ships in fixed system defence
work then sufficient numbers will be rolled out to allow a squadron per
system.
3. All fleets would receive at least one of the new Hermes class along with
its datalink escorts. This would provide additional cohesive firepower along
with long range sensor capability that would have at least some
survivablilty in a fleet action. The more fragile Stargazer II and III units
would be transferred to straight exploration or piquet duties.
4. All fleets would start to receive the new Constellation class Heavy
cruisers and a single Constitution class command cruiser once they were
available. An investigation would be made into the apparent botch ups made
by the Federation Scientific community with regard to the new multiple
targeting and acquisition sensor arrays that had been slated for these
classes and has now held up production for four months.
5. Gross tonnage of all fleets would be considered in allocation of new
reinforcements. Shortfalls would most likely be made up with datalink
squadrons of Discovery II+ or Discovery III units dependent on upcoming
military trials of the Discovery III design.
6. Finally class re-deployment would more than likely take place to
re-balance certain shortfalls. As an example, the 6th fleet comprises of
over 70% Stargazer class research ships, a smattering of other craft and
only a single cruiser.
In order to facilitate this fleet build up (and in anticipation of an
outbreak of war with the Klingons), economic growth has become a priority.
Colonisation levels have hit an all time high and are expected to continue
at this rate for some time as Humans, Prominans and Indii are repatriated in
their millions to swell the populations of the closest most economically
viable planets.
Starfleet Vessels in service.
Avon class FF One of the original Starfleet
vessels, a number are still in
service today as exploration vessels. A well balanced light multi role
vessel, the Avon’s are now long in the tooth and are all scheduled to be
refitted as soon as local dock space becomes available.
Burke class FF The second generation
derivative of the Avon class, this is
one of the most numerous class of vessels in service. While fully capable of
numerous roles, it is currently the vessel of choice for fleet screening
duties and local patrol work. The Z refit consists of the inclusion of
datalink for squadron and fleet actions. 4 have currently been built as new
constructions and are undergoing shakedown while en-route in response to a
possible hostile invasion.
Discovery class DD The original heavy vessel, with the advent
of cruisers it
has lost its place as a flag vessel of anything larger than patrol sized
detachments but still remains a viable battle-line unit. The class has
undergone many refits in its history: the + refit (an interim design which
saw the inclusion of external missile mounts to the standard Discovery
hull), the Discovery II which saw the inclusion of gun/missile launchers and
active defensive systems and the Discovery III which upgrades the point
defence systems and allows the inclusion of datalink.
Unfortunately it is becoming evident that there is a design flaw in the
engines of this unit which preclude the use of its top speed when under
battle conditions as the power drain from the weapon mounts causes a
substantial drain on the main reactors. Fortunately for the discovery, there
are way too many in service for it to be viable to scrap or mothball and
replace them with a newer design. Indeed as a single class, the Discovery II
variant has more vessels in service than any other two classes put together.
Hermes class SC A new design based on a
Discovery III hull, it attempts to
compensate for the under powered reactors by reducing the beam weaponry and
replacing it with better active defences and long range scanners. The
resulting vessel is a fully capable scout that can still hold its own in a
battle situation.
Texas class CL Based on the one off prototype
USS Nelson, the Texas class
has now served Starfleet as their front line heavy unit for a number of
years and some still carry the fleet flags for their respective battle
groups. Indeed the “Grand Old Man” Nelson has since been refitted to this
pattern and serves as the flagship of the 6th fleet based out of Epsilon
Indi.
A + refit is forthcoming which will upgrade the active defences and allow
the cruisers to participate in datalink groups.
Ticonderoga class CA Originally intended as a prototype only, a
small number
of these vessels have been put into production due to the unexpected delays
that have dogged deployment of the Constellation and Constitution class
cruisers. This is probably a good thing as 2 of these units are en route to
reinforce against a possible Klingon incursion. A + refit along similair
lines to that of other classes is slated for these vessels.
Stargazer class SC The first and only all Indi ship, these
vessels are far
different from all other Starfleet ships. Armed with a single laser emitter,
these craft are not only the smallest in the fleet, they are also the
fastest and capable of atmospheric flight. Indeed Starfleet was so impressed
with the concept, The Stargazer II class (completed after Epsilon Indi
joined the Federation) is now the main explorer vessel of the fleet. The
laser has been ditched in favour of the more versatile gun/missile launcher,
external ordinance racks added and long range scanners installed. The
Stargazer III sees the inclusion of datalink.
The bulk of the Stargazers are deployed in the 6th fleet, with a smattering
serving in the other fleets as scout units. It is more than likely that they
will be replaced in that role by the Hermes class as they are too fragile to
be able to withstand prolonged combat.
Enforcer class CT Currently under construction, these Danzig
designed
“Police corvettes” are intended to take over local planetary patrol duties
currently held by larger combat vessles.
To be continued in part 2...
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