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Introduction and Prologue

Rawghi

Second Lieutenant
94 Badges
Mar 10, 2005
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INTRODUCTION

Hello everybody and welcome to my Stellaris after action report. I’m not new to this forums and I’ve tried multiple times to came out with a good AAR, most of the times, failing. I manage to get through a long one only once in my gaming career and was on Aurora 4x, a game that some of you may know, on a different forum (in Italian).
So looking at the new expansion I was thinking to start a new one on Stellaris. I love science fiction and an AAR could become very entertaining because, contrary to other “real world” games the settings allow you to go wild with your imagination.

Stellaris itself is not new to me, so my idea for this AAR is to create something with, hopefully, long, moving slowly as part of the entertainment would be the AAR itself.
I will try to create and original setting but of course, I will take inspiration from major sci-fi themes and movies. Lastly, it will not be a min/max game, instead I will “bend” the game for narrative purposes, for example I do not plan to leverage on console or cheats, but, if this will enrich or create new storytelling opportunity I will surely go for it. All of this for saying that this is not intended to be in any way a “guide” for new gamers, but hopefully something to you to spend your time reading through.

End note, english is not my first language, so sorry in advance for typos or other spelling horror you may encounter.
Thank you!


PROLOGUE

The year is 2200.
Mankind is united under a world governing body, the United Systems Federation, that managed, through a series of tumultuous events, to channel humanity efforts for a better future and common goals.
Earth itself is different compared to the planet we’re used to: megacities that sprawls also vertically gathered the majority of the population leaving gaps of flourishing nature between them, big corporations that rule the markets and are very interconnected with the federation itself and spaceships roaming back and forth from the planet surface and the nearby solar systems asteroid fields and orbital bases.

Humans are.. humans, the very same people with different lives, jobs and culture we’re used to. The society itself is not changed too much, there are still rich and poor, the one that rule and the one that serve but at least the total poverty that was plaguing the old world is gone, no one endure famine and generally, everyone has the same possibilities while living following the federation rules. Space is now exploitable (in the sense of the Solar system) so people are also used to reach it, both for work and for leisure.
The Federation is a “just” governing body, resembling 21st century democracies with their own pros and cons, and the general perception of the government is good.

At the start of our story, the Federation is thirty years old and was just “restructured” to further fulfill its duty at best, and people are looking at the stars as a near future virgin land to explore and exploit.

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SUMMARY

The Age of Discovery

The New Era
  • WIP


UPDATES


April 19th 2020
@ChaoYang started to help me to correct and revise the text for a much better narration. I cannot thank him enough!


CREDITS
Text Revision - @ChaoYang
 
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Timeline
TIMELINE

2032
First human expedition to Mars by SpaceX.

2035
Global warming, caused mostly by pollution, continue to cause region wide natural disasters. United Nations establish a permanent commission to regulate efforts from countries in moving to renewable energy sources.

2038
Dynamotors Ltd., an aerospace company, patent a space-able nuclear fission engine capable of reaching a top speed of over 50,000 km/h (circa 13 km/s) in space, nearly the speed of the Voyager I probe launched in 1977. The breakthrough is the ability to reach that speed in a short amount of time. This will cut by one third the time needed to reach Mars, the inner planets and the asteroids belt of the Solar System.

2040
Dynamotors test the first unmanned spacecraft equipped with its prototype nuclear fission engine, the Prometheus. The spacecraft is launched from Cape Canaveral successfully and reach Mars in 34 days.

2041
After several years of planning and construction, HyperNet, an high speed world wide web is opened to the public and his first dorsal is deployed on the Atlantic Ocean between France and United States.

2042
European states are united under a single flag, not just economically but also from administrative and military point of view, the old continent is now the EUF, European Union Federation.

2043
Bekenfeld an energy market company, cooperates with Dynamotors for the construction of the first commercial nuclear reactor based on the revolutionary fission engine used on the Prometheus spacecraft. Multiple countries sponsor the initiative with the common goal to abandon fossil fuels.

2048
Pollution levels, dramatically high, lead to toxic smog clouds that periodically force the population of cities in affected regions to relocate.

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2049
The United Nations enforce a 5 year terms for the ban of all fossil fuels in favor of any other renewable energy source, including the Type-10 nuclear reactors manufactured by Bekenfeld.

2050
Russian Federation joins the European Union Federation after an economical crisis that crippled the country. EUF reasons were mostly dictated by the possibility to exploit the country vast natural resources.

2055
In the last two decades, humans were able to establish a quasi-permanent presence on Mars. However, many scientists dismissed the endeavour stating that “there is nothing important or profitable to look there”.

2061
The last car fueled by petrol is sold for buying for an electric car in Agadir, Morocco. The main reason is the very scarce availability of fuel that led to an unaffordable prices.
India launches a military offensive on China on the Himalayan border for the old territorial dispute, after two months of conflicts the war risks to see an escalation to a nuclear exchange if it wasn’t for United States and EUF mediation. Peace is signed with minor border alteration in late November.

2067
The first asteroid mining operations are performed in space by the newly founded corporation ExaCorp, joined shortly by Weymore Mining and Kovalev Materials. All three companies profits are so big that they can rival small Earth nations.

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2069
Thanks to the shifting of the focus from Earth resources to the near space asteroids, the later called “Last Conflict”, a small low-intensity border skirmish between South Sudan and Uganda ends. Countries unwilling to play political or military aggressive strategies and diverts their attention to the recent evolution of the space industry.

2071
Several companies merge together to counter the dominance of so-called “Space Corps”, corporations that have the biggest part of their revenue based on space operations like ExaCorp or Dynamotors. The latter expands its business no more only on space propulsion but on construction and engineering and is renamed Dynacore.
Amongst the merge, the biggest new competitor on the market is AuraCorp that spans from spacecraft reactors development to the space tourism sector.

2074
United States is the first nation to create a space-based military branch, followed shortly by China, India and the UEF. Most South American countries joins together to form a continental government called South American Confederation, or SAC.

2076
Several countries impose strict tariffs on corporations, especially the ones involved in space mining to prevent them for becoming much more influential than governments.. There is also a great debate over assigning or not asteroid belt regions to Earth countries. Overshadowed by Earth events, amongst many space mining spots, nations and corporations battle over the control of single high mineral asteroids. Spacecrafts employs both projectile, missile and high energy laser weapons to disable rival vessels. Both corporations and governments keeps this so-called “secret-war” away from the public eyes in a sort of mutual agreement transforming asteroid rich regions in unregulated conflict zones. Casualties are reported as “accidents” in official paperworks.

2077
Whistleblowers expose the “secret war” to the public, in just one year from the start, thanks to the fast-spreading of informations that the technology provide. United Nations are assembled and deliberate to send observers to prevent this “shame” (as it was branded the secret war) to ever happen again. Previous discussion about assigning asteroid regions to countries are dismissed and mining operation were forbidden to state funded enterprises, effectively striking a big win for the mega corporations.

2080
The year will be remembered as the start of the new economic boom. Thanks to progression in science and technology, the quality of life of the whole mankind increases dramatically. Megacorporations runs the market and pay impressive salaries that allows families to live on the shoulders of just one worker while at the same time guaranteeing high living standards and purchasing power. Amongst other corporations, Solaris Group launch the “New Dawn” project to end, once and for all, the critical humanitarian condition of most African countries thanks to huge investment and aids, effectively making them new and profitable markets to invest in.

2083
A think-tank group funded by Solaris Group, Blue Sky Consortium and United Solutions start elaborating the plan for the creation of a global unified body to manage and regulate space exploitation. Amongst political, diplomatic and economic matters, also military branches are contemplated.

2084
Asteroid mining operations continue at a steady pace, new minerals are discovered and new materials then manufactured.

2090
Vitruvian Genetics, a pharmaceutical company, patent TotalVir, an antiviral drug able to efficiently combat more than 94% of known diseases, including HIV and Ebola. Vitruvian Genetics stocks (VTG) are suspended from most markets due to the massive price increase.
While aging process is still impossible to stop, human progress in the field of medicine allows now for a sure-recovery of 98% of cancer patients.

2100
Humans begins the 22nd century in a world different than the century before. The total population is stable at around 16 billions, concentrated in mega-cities that expands also vertically in the sky. Technology, especially artificial intelligence, helps and automate the daily tasks of every individual although there are no clear sign of a possibility of evolve this into something sentient.
Mega-corporations runs the markets and establish themselves as global superpowers while the new unified nations try to combat this phenomena by limiting and taxing them more and more. This creates tension between CEO and government representatives, that are solved usually with corruption and bribes.

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2104
The United Nations Space Consortium (UNSC) is founded after a positive vote at the United Nations Assembly. The UNSC main task is to regulate each spaceborne operations and fund corporations and countries towards progress in technology and science.

2107
A census of the humans on Mars reveal a total population of 30.000 citizens. Most of them working on scientific laboratories that leverage on the exotic planet for performing different types of researches.

2112
United Solutions, an engineering megacorporation, is tasked by the UNSC to develop the first Sun orbiting space station. The station will be totally different then the now several hundreds smaller stations orbiting the Earth. It will be rather a permanent installation in space that not only support mining and space related activities but also host a permanent population for an indefinite amount of time. The station will be under the UNSC jurisdiction and will be a neutral ground for all countries.

2115
In the last three decades, many countries followed the UEF and SAC example and started joining together, the outcome is the formation of many bigger states like the Central American Union (CAU), the Asian Confederation (ACO) and the Indian Ocean Republic (IOR).

2120
The Schiaparelli colony, Gallipoli Outpost and Lowell Starport on Mars are devastated by a series of supermassive dust storms in the so called Promethei-Terra disaster (named after the region where the three human installation were located). The death-toll rise to nearly 10,000 people, forcing the UNSC to re-evaluate the martian colonization effort.
Scientists predict the possibility of more storms in the months to come on Mars due to anomalies in the Sun affecting the martian thin atmosphere.

2121
UNSC order the evacuation of all the human personnel on Mars. The drastic decision is fostered not only by the small benefits of the operations performed on the red planet but also by the imminent christening of the Sun station being built by United Solutions that will substitute Mars as research ground. Terraforming technologies being still more theories rather than concrete science prevent any effort in making Mars effectively a living planet.

2126
After circa 80 years of efforts towards renewable energy sources and the reduction of pollution levels driven by UN, the Earth is slowly recovering from the reckless abuse of the 20-21st centuries. The influx of the population towards megacities and the availability of space (mostly asteroids) resources allowed flora and fauna to flourish again in many regions that were abused and exploited. Large portions of Siberia and the Amazon Forest are now heavily protected under special laws and human presence is quasi-forbidden apart from scientific expeditions. The nearly total melt of the north pole ice cap is stopped and ice is actually expanding at a steady pace.

2130
Professor Adam Vaughn, a scientist from Cambridge, publish theories about the possibility of developing a Faster-Than-Light (FTL) engine, using a newly discovered mineral called Neutrite, present on asteroids.

2133
The United States merge with EUF and Canada to form the North Atlantic Alliance (NAA), a federal state that spread for most of the northern earth hemisphere. The NAA government, due to the immense economic and political power that can exert, is able to take the edge on the mega-corporation influence over the worlds affairs, thus re-establish a balance between private and state long gone since 2077.

2145
The United Nations passes a motion to create a unified currency. Named “credit”, it will facilitate operations between countries removing bureaucracy involved in foreign exchange and its fluctuations.

2150
United Solutions complete the Sol-orbiting station that was commissioned in 2112. The station is first populated on August 2nd by maintenance personnel and its initial task is providing a communication center to facilitate space based operations, performing research in high-low gravity environments and start the construction of a station based shipyard for building next-generation starships. The station is named “Helios One” and feature a perpetual counter-clockwise rotation to simulate Earth gravity.

2161
Adam Vaughn found Vaughn Propulsions, fueled by UNSC subsidies and interest in exploiting FTL theories. This mark the beginning of the “Homeworld” program by the UNSC, aimed at making humans an interplanetary species, not jsu bound to the Earth.

2166
A continent size comet is spotted by Indian Ocean Republic Astronomy Bureau on a path with a 65% possibility to hit Earth in 2188. Regardless the effort to keep, at least initially, the new discovery secret by IOR government, the news spread fast generating chaos and panic through the rest of the world. It was estimated by in the first day alone more than 200.000 people died from news related events and chaos. The UN call for an emergency commission to be established to plans how to deal with the threat.
The comet is renamed “Inferno”, not only due to the risk that pose to the human civilization but also by the tail that is actually red-colored. The actual position is estimated to be between Neptune and Uranus.

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2167
At the start of the year, the total death count caused by the Inferno comet hysteria is estimated to have reached a peak of two millions. Many countries has military units deployed through all their territories and the subsequent economical crisis caused by market crashes devastate the life of billions of people, with corporations shutting down and families reduced into total poverty.
UN emergency commission, called the “Doomsday Council” burn immense amount of credits between counseling and research initiatives, thus enforcing the UN to ask countries and corporations for funds continuously.

2169
The Doomsday Council update the hit possibility of the Inferno comet to 82% and declare that in case of hit, there are no chances for any life form on Earth to survive. All the efforts are then diverted to find a proactive way to deviate the comet path, or at least reducing the size via massive bombing.
The South American Confederation cease to exists as an entity due to the total collapse caused by both the economic crisis and the massive poverty, the North Atlantic Alliance intervene with military presence through all the biggest cities enforcing martial law and, authorized by an UN motion, effectively include the continent in its territories. The same fate happens to the Indian Ocean Republic that became part of the Asian Confederation. The world is now divided between six countries:
  • North Atlantic Alliance, that controls the former North America, Europe, Russia and South America
  • Asian Confederation, former China, most Indian Ocean facing countries till Iran
  • Central American Union, formed by Mexico and Central America states
  • Pacific Union, formed by Australia, Japan, Philippines and all the Pacific Ocean Islands
  • The Cone, composed by nearly all african countries below the equator
  • North African Council, formed by the arabic-speaking countries from Iran to Morocco

2170
David Bradley, former secretary of the UNSC, is elected secretary of the United Nations. On the seventh day of his nomination (July 28th), during a UN Security Council meeting, announce his plan to unify the six countries under a single planetary umbrella to face as a single entity, with a single goal and the totality of the effort, the Inferno comet threat. He deliberately decide to broadcast live the security council on HyperNet, but inform the six head of the states about being broadcasted just at the end of his speech, after his question “would you, in the interest of your citizens, in the interest of mankind, follow me in this endeavor to guarantee a future for our species?”.
The outcome was clear, a “no” from anyone of the world leaders would have put their countries in revolt and all of them accepted. The event became legendary and marked the creation of the “United Systems Federation”, a planetary-wide body to guide the mankind towards his battle for survival.
The United Nation Space Consortium became part of the Federation as a division tasked to continue its governance of space operations.
David Bradley take the role of President.
The name “United Systems” symbolize the union and cooperation not only by nations but also by a multitude of corporations and organizations, hence the “System” word. The USF (also US was used as an acronym, since the United States were not existing anymore as a body, replaced by the North Atlantic Alliance) logo is a star, representing the Sun, in front of a planet (Earth) with two oblong shapes pointed upwards, to represent the efforts to reach united higher goals.

2171
The Doomsday council, now embedded as an office of the United Systems Federation announce its cooperation with Vaughn Propulsion to find a solution to the comet threat.

2172
After two years from its creation, the United Systems Federation (USF) manages to reestablish some sort of economic stability although the gap between rich and poor people expands dramatically. The fear of the comet is kept at bay with a massive public relation campaign aimed at showing the population the efforts and the resources diverted to find a plan.

2174
To further optimize the spending, the USF Federal Army (US-FAR) is founded. Its aim is to replace the former six constituent countries armies. Many questions the role of the FAR as having one single governing body for the full Earth prevent previous-eras wars, but its purpose is mostly aimed at peacekeeping operations and population control duties in poorest (hence more difficult) regions of the planet.
David Bradley is re-elected for his second mandate as USF president. The federations political form resemble western 21st century countries representative democracy where electors can vote for a parliament (Federal Parliament), a senate (Federal Senate) and directly a president with a 4 year mandate.

2175
The Federal Astronomy Department (US-FADE) correct the previous Inferno comet direct hit from 82% probability to 61% accordingly to the latest observations. The gases inside the comet, released along its way, modified the path. During the same year, the Space Administration (US-SPACE) launches the first manned mission on the comet, achieved thanks to the new revolutionary engine built by Vaughn Propulsion. While not being a real FTL drive, its performances allowed the vessel to reach the comet in less than 1 month, while the comet was approaching Jupiter.

2176
AuraCorp acquire Vaughn Propulsion, Adam Vaughn became part of the company board of directors.

2177
After ten years of simulations, planning and research, the famous Doomsday Council announces the strategy for dealing with the comet, that will be composed by two steps:
  1. A mass driver cannon will be build on the Helios One Sol-orbiting station, and in 2181 will fire at the Inferno comet, aiming to deviate sensibly the path.
  2. If the above plan will not succeed or, if the projectile, instead of the forecasted deviation would generate a meteor shower of dangerous size, a contingency plan will be enacted that will foresee:
    1. The construction of series of “Generations ships”that will be launched before 2188 towards Alpha Centauri, Barnard’s Star and Sirius, with the aim of finding a new place for mankind
    2. The construction of deep reinforced “ark” bunkers, that can self-sustain as a last resort
The plan generate discomfort amongst people as the second option pure existence means that the first could, possibly, fail.

2178
Ann Lau is elected as President of the United Systems.
The construction of the mass driver on Helios One is progressing as expected. Mining operations in the solar systems continue at a steady pace.

2180
Trident Corporation reveals the first gravitational generator, thanks to the exploit of the space based mineral called Mendarite. The generator allows to create a gravitational field in defined spaces, like a starship, that allows the crew to walk around as if they were on a planetary body. A series of generators are immediately installed on Helios One for testing purposes.

2181
US-FADE publish a new report about the Inferno comet. Against all odds, the probability of an Earth hit decreases again, this time to set the percentage from previous 61% to 24%. The news generate a wave of celebrations around major Earth cities. President Lau states that regardless of the updated estimation, the contingency plan will proceed as planned, however, the firing of the projectile from the mass driver cannon is delayed by two years, since FADE confirmed that in 2183 the trajectory will be “final” and no natural events could then modify the trajectory in a significant way.

2182
Jordan Takeda is elected as third President of the United Systems.
On February 8th, FADE states that, due to the recent additional expulsion of gases from the comet, the final path will no longer has any chance to hit the Earth, nor any other major bodies in the solar system, it will more likely enter in the long run on a out-of-system course given by the Sun gravity “sling”.
The Federation announce a week of celebrations that will be held in all cities and, for the first time in history, the whole population of Earth can rejoice united. The day will be remembered and celebrated as the “Future Day”, becoming a global holiday.

2183
Thanks to the events related to the closing of the comet impact threat, economies boom, the United Systems Federation finances, due to the massive increase of revenues, are diverted to cope with the lower strata of the society with welfare programs.

2184
Plan for the construction of an artificial island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean are laid down by the Federation, it will serve as the seat for the major federal offices. Its name will be Pax Astra.

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2186
Takeda is re-elected as President of the United Systems.

2189
Pax Astra is completed and all of the federal departments and headquarters are transferred there. The President office, the Federal Presidium, is located at the island center.

2190
Thanks to the successful economic reinvigoration, Takeda is elected for the third time as President of the US.

2194
AuraCorp patent the Vaughn-1 engine. The engine, mounted on a starship allows to reach speeds beyond the speed of light making it the first real FTL engine but it must be paired by sub-light thrusters for infra-system travels.
The “hyperdrive”, as it’s now commonly called, engine will open for the first time in human history the capability to explore the stars: distances that required generation ships and centuries, if not millennia, to travel, can now be exploited in a matter of weeks. The hyperdrive however relies on a a “hyperlanes” network: invisible highways that, due to gravitational fluctuations and fields, allow stars to be connected only in a specific pattern. Hence travel between star A and B, may require the hyperdrive equipped engine to pass through star C and so on. This limitation is however minimal, since hyperlanes to nearby stars are easily individuated and mapped, and it’s discovered that follows the common sense (so nearby stars are usually connected between each others).
Mashal Farooqui is elected as President of the United Systems, her presidential campaign is focused towards the expansion of the human presence on the Solar System along with additional fundings on the research for habitable planets in the nearby stars.

2195
A probe equipped with a Vaughn-1 engine reaches Alpha Centauri system successfully.
President Farooqui announces the Horizon Program, an effort to reach nearby stars with manned starships no later than 2200.

2196
Exacorp build the first human orbital mining station in the Solar system, orbiting Io.

2197
Weymore Mining, following ExaCorp example build its first orbital mining station, this time orbiting the dwarf planet 136108 Haumea.
The United Systems entrust the construction of 3 military-focused starships to Dynacore. The Consortium define them as “Frigates” in consideration of future increase of starship size, “Mercury” is the name given to the class. Skepticism around militarization of space and the reasoning behind it were taken care by President Farooqui statement about the incognita of an expedition towards other stars.

2198
The USF charge Geomax Aerospace for the construction of a research vessel: it will be the first human ship to reach a nearby star leveraging on the AuraCorp’s Vaughn FTL drive, and Binary Aerospace for the mooring of a construction vessel that will assist mining industry firm in expanding the station building efforts in the Solar system. Mashal Farooqui is re-elected president.

2199
President Farooqui shuttle, that was returning to Earth after a visit to the Helios One station, experience a catastrophic system malfunction during the atmospheric re-entry phase and crashes in the Himalayan range on July 20th.
The Federation Provisional Authority, an emergency body formed by major ministry and prominent military personnel ordered a 5 days global mourning and new elections before the end of the year. The president was working on a final charter of the Federation, bringing substantial modification to its structure. The charter is anyway approved by both the Senate and the Parliament.

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The 2200 Constitutional Reform
The 2200 Constitutional Reform

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The reform of the United Systems Federation, approved at the end of 2199 and in effect at 1st January 2200, is aimed at streamlining government bodies and departments to better suits the upcoming projects for the nearby stars exploration (the Horizon project sponsored by President Farooqui), and to better manage the Solar system affairs.

Below the list of the most important bodies that compose the core of the Federation:

Presidium
The Presidium is the office of the president, he’s the head of the state and the armed forces. He is elected every 10 years, voted by the citizens of the United Systems Federation, and is tasked to form the new government, by nominating Secretaries for the seven departments that cover all the major government areas.
The Presidium is hosted in a building at the center of the Pax Astra artificial island, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and along with the President’s office itself, it sports a plethora of offices that helps the President fulfilling his duties.

Federal Senate
The Federal Senate is the single body of the United Systems parliament. It hosts 250 senators that are elected by the population. The Senate role is not only to embody the legislative power, but also to act as a form of control over the President and the Federal Council. Senators too are elected every 10 years.

Federal High Court
The High Court is an assembly of 25 high judges. Its task is to ensure that every government decision and law follows the constitution (also called “the Charter”) and regulate the judicial system of the Federation. High Judges are nominated by the Senate every 5 years.

Federal Council
The Federal Council constitute the de-facto government of the United Systems Federation.
It is divided into seven different departments with respective duties and area of responsibility and each one is lead by a Secretary. The Council elects a General Secretary that is the second highest charge of the Federation, acting also as Vice President in case of needs. The General Secretary task is to ensure that each department’s secretary work in accordance to the government policies and strategies.
Following a list of departments.

Department of Federal Affairs
The DFA is probably the most important office of the Federation. It regulates the citizens day to day life taking care of many important areas such as the welfare system, the education, the health of the citizen through the Federal Health Service and a myriad of other sub-offices. Transport services and planetary infrastructures are also an area of responsibility of the DFA.

Department of Economy
The Department of Economy, abbreviated as DECO, manages the finance of the Federation and its citizens. It not only handle the treasury and regulates the banking system but it also takes care of the labor legislation and plans for the federation future development. It establish and distribute the budget of the governing bodies according to the Council decision.

Department of Security
The DS is the federal department that takes care of the security of the Federation assets, both material and in terms of human lives. It manages the Federal Police Force (FPF), the prisons through the Federal Penitentiary Command, the judicial System by working in tandem with the High Court and lastly the FIS: the Federal Information Service that is the intelligence and national security office that collaborate strictly with the Department of Defense. The reason of having the FIS not under the DOD is to prevent a very dangerous concentration of both intelligence and power in one single Department.

Department of Xeno Affairs
The department, abbreviated DEX, is one of the newly introduced by the 2200 reform. While so far there are no proof of non-human life forms in the galaxy, the need for forming and preparing a body for a possible “first encounter” was deeply believed being necessary. It’s composed by multiple offices of diplomats, scientists from very different scientific branches (like language experts, biologists, etc..) and historians.

Department of Research and Exploration
The DRE is the main scientific department of the Federation. It’s composed by three major research division: the Federal Research Division S, that handles all society related studies, the Federal Research Division E, that focus its effort on engineering, and lastly the Federal Research Division P, which works on physics related matters.
The three divisions are regulated by the Joint Research Directorate, that is tasked to ensure that the information are shared and to elaborate common strategies.
The Department also sports a newly formed command in the form of the Scientific Exploration Flotilla, an organization that manages all the upcoming scientific starships, starting from the first one about to be christened and built by Geomax Aerospace.

Department of Space
Another newly formed department that many believes will replace the DFA in terms of importance inside the Federation. The DOS handles everything “civilian” that interact with the non-planetary environment (in short, everything that operates in space). It manages the orbital mining efforts, the space transportation and it’s related regulations, the future possible colonization of extrasolar planets, the Federal Cartographic Office and lastly the Federal Communication Management Office. The last one task is to manage specific beacons and relays necessary for instant communication between space-scale distances.

Department of Defense
Much like many counterparts of the 21st century nations, the DOD is the governing department of the Federation Military forces. It’s been heavily restructured in the reform and through a Joints Staff Command, it manages the following organizations:
  • Federal Army
    The ground-based army of the Federation. It’s composed by corps and divisions using highly mechanized equipment that operates at the planetary level. It features not only a land based component (the Federal Ground Army) but also a navy (in the seas, the Federal Oceanic Navy) and an air force (in the skies, the Federal Airforce). Generally the Federal Army is organized in independent, self sufficient units, that has subunits of each of the three branches attached, depending on the needs, called Planetary Divisions.
  • Federal Navy
    Also called “The Starfleet”, the Federal Navy governs the military starships of the Federations. It will take charge of the first three upcoming Mercury-Class frigates built by Dynacore and at the moment its entire structure is more of a cadre for the future expansion of the space military forces. Actual focus is the training of personnel and officers that is held in several academies on Earth.
  • Colonial Navy
    The Colonial Navy is a “mix” between the Federal Army and the Starfleet. It’s an experimental organization that is envisioned in taking charge of possible future operations that involves both space based transport and ground units warfare. For this body, the personnel is selected from the two previously mentioned forces and is trained to work alongside, so far fictional and very theoretical training exercise like planetary landings and assaults.
  • Spaceborne Command
    The Spaceborne Command is responsible for managing all space-based “static” assets like military starbases. At the moment the command manages a small units that tasked to man defensive systems and security onboard the Helios One Station orbiting the Sun.
  • Joint Special Operations Department
    The JSOD is a joint organization that is responsible of tier-1 special operations units. Since the organization is recently formed, each of the previous branches is in the process of selecting and proposing personnel to JSOD.
 
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FF-1 Mercury Class
FF-1 Mercury Class

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The Mercury frigate is the first military vessel class built by the United Systems and put in service in 2200.
Developed by Dynacore, it sports the innovative Auracorp Vaughn-2 hyperdrive engine, a descendant of the Vaughn-1. For sublight travel, the vessel relies on own Dynacore F-50 thruster.

The ship is similar in length to a 21st century aircraft carrier, and hosts a total of 450 personnel onboard. The Mercury class is armed with a three turrets: one is a Caleston 20cm Turbolaser cannon and two are Mashima 400mm mass drivers.

The first three vessels: USV Falcon (SSV-001), USV Hawk (SSV-002) and USV Eagle (SSV-003) constitute the actual forces of the Federal Navy.
 
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Very impressive background. :)
 
WOW! I wish I could make an AAR with such incredible detail like yours! Pictures and charts and histories and details and world-building! I'm blown away!

I am extremely jealous of you and will be following this AAR very closely!
 
WOW! I wish I could make an AAR with such incredible detail like yours! Pictures and charts and histories and details and world-building! I'm blown away!

I am extremely jealous of you and will be following this AAR very closely!

Thank you very much! I hope to be able to entertain you with this AAR!
 
Wow the graphics for this AAR are really amazing, keep up the good work!
 
Clearly a lot of work gone into this.
 
2200: Opening moves
2200: Opening Moves

The year starts with the outcome of the election after the premature death of President Farooqui. The 16 billions humans on Earth voted Raymond Wade as the new President of the United Systems.
Wade reassured along the election campaign of his intention of follow Farooqui policy regarding seeing the human colonizing a possible habitable world in the nearby stars to become an interstellar civilization, plus a focus on improving the alloys industries output thanks to a package of reforms and federal subsidies to companies working on that specific industry sector.

The new council elects as General Secretary (hence also vice-president) Pyotr Ivanov. Ivanov working in tandem with the Federal Affairs Department announced in late February a series of decree aimed at the improvement of the general health of the population through a collaboration with nutritionist experts and investments in agricultural farms to bring “better food to everyone’s table”. The policy, branded by the media as the “Nutritional Plenitude Act” is very well received by the population.

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In the first quarter of the year, all of the five vessel (three military, one constructor and a research vessel) ordered by the USF are now in space and ready to start their respective operations.
The construction ship built by Binary Aerospace, the USV Francis Fowke (SSM-001, Cape Ducato class), enter its service with the construction of an orbital mining station on the big asteroid 4 Vesta, and, along the year, with a energy gathering station in Jupiter’s orbit (that leverages on wind currents of the planet) and lastly a permanent scientific outpost on TItan, the biggest Saturn satellite, where research on protomaterials will be performed.

The Department of Research nominates three scientists at the head of the three main divisions: Julia Paquette on physics, Aanya Patil on society and lastly Marcelo Ortiz on engineering.
The effort of the three departments were aimed respectively:
  • Quantum theories, with Paquette explaining the benefits that quantum physics can bring once applied to calculators and generally to the scientific community
  • Studies on biodiversity, that will help better approaching possible life forms discovered in the galaxy
  • Nanomechanics, to further help in the miniaturization process in all engineering fields.
The USV Hawking (SSC-001), the first ship of the Scientific Exploration Flotilla, is also christened, and is placed under the command of Estelle Warner, a scientific officer that was previously a Federal Navy commander.
The plans for the ship is to depart from Earth orbit directed at Alpha Centauri, becoming the first manned ship to endure a hyperdrive travel and reaching an extrasolar system.

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The buildup to the event is enormous, having not only a worldwide coverage on media being broadcasted live, but also a solemn ceremony is held onboard the Hawking where President Wade holds a speech before leaving the ship in Commander Warner hands.

The hyperdrive travel, on the hyperlane corridor between Sol and Alpha Centauri, will last a variable time between 24 to 48 hours in which no communication could be established to the ship. At the arrival however, a new innovative communication system, based on gravitational variations developed by BrightSystems, allows for real time communications.

The Hawking departure is announced by a spark in the black space background and, as expected the ship re-establish communication with Earth authorities in 32 hours. The arrival in Alpha Centauri is broadcasted in all the major megacities of Earth and Commander Warner holds a speech from the bridge of the ship, where not only she explain the experience of enduring the first hyperdrive travel, but also express the gratitude to humanity for granting her such an incredible honor.

In late summer, the Senate approves a series of new reforms under the “Map the Stars” initiative, where industries and companies that operates in space exploration sector (by providing supplies, maintenance and manufacturing for example to the SEF) will have tax benefits and cuts.

On September 1st, the new regulatory behind the “credit” view the currency backed by energy source. In short, the value of the credit will be calculated and emitted based on the energetic counterpart it represents.

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It will be interesting to see how that pie charts changes over time.
 
2201-2204
2201

The year opens with the announcement from the government of federal subsidies and aid to the construction of new alloy industries. In particular 400 units of minerals (a unit is a federal standard of measurement equals to a billion tons) are allocated at very low prices for companies, two major megacorporations immediately apply for them, Hengsha and Trident Corp, followed later by a multitude of others.
As expected, the effort of President Wade in increasing the resource output, not only with orbital mining stations but also on Earth is evident, but at the same time funds are allocated for the construction of scientific research station, in particular one in orbit on Venus, aimed at studies the effect of the planet atmosphere on microbes and germs.

The USV Hawking, arrived in the meantime in the Alpha Centauri system, starts its orbital survey of the planets and immediately relies back to Earth the incredible news that Alpha Centauri III is a planet very much like Earth. Estelle Warner, the ship’s commander, is ordered by the Department of Research to investigate and prioritize the survey of it. After the ship touch-down on the planet, the crews relies back a series of breathtaking discoveries:
  • The planet atmosphere is breathable, and very much like Earth
  • The planet features oceans, mountains and forests, implying that life exists outside of Earth
  • Other than vegetals, also small multicellular life forms are discovered both in water and on the soil

The scientific community is overwhelmed by the data gathered and relied back to Earth, and not only federal but also private corporations collaborate and sends scientific personnel to the planet to perform studies and research. The pristine environment required also specific and strict quarantine protocols to ensure that the exchange of bacteria and germs between earthlings and the planet biota doesn’t put anyone of the two subjects in harm.

While far from intelligent, there is life in the universe.

On Earth, Wade announces that plans are underway with major aerospace firms for the construction of the first extrasolar colony ship, to possibly transport humans on Alpha Centauri III, renamed Centauria, and transform it to the first permanent colony outside the solar system (before the birth of the federation, human had a small presence on Mars, later abandoned after the Promethei-Terra disaster).

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Centauria geography features a dense jungle forest on the planet equator, but also very fertile lands in more temperate areas along with hot springs and waterfalls.
After the initial exploration of the planet and the subsequent hand-off of additional scientific surveys to dedicate teams, the Hawking departs toward the other planets of the system and, upon even a greater stupor, discovers abandoned structures, clearly built by a long gone intelligent civilization on Alpha Centauri Va, a moon of the fifth planet.

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Once again the world is nearly left shocked by the incredible news: in a year from mankind's journey to the stars, humans not only discovered life forms, but also that other sentient and intelligent life forms existed. This led to the speculation that there may be civilization still present in the galaxy.
The full federal government and political apparatus struggled to keep up with the recent discoveries, and security concerns started to grow, for this reason the Federal Navy is ordered to organize an expansion plan and Admiral Feng Gao is nominated as Fleet Commander of the Starfleet.

Commander Warner, onboard the USV Hawking is in the meantime ordered to continue the survey of the system and skip at the moment additional investigation, with the effort of mapping fully Alpha Centauri (composed by a main G star, Alpha Centauri A, a sister K star, Alpha Centauri B, and an M dwarf star, Proxima Centauri). The Scientific Exploration Flotilla also ordered the construction of an additional scientific exploration ship, the USV Kepler (SSC-002) and put it in the hands of Commander Haruna Yamazaki. The ship is ready towards the end of the year and sent to a system to the galactic north of Sol, 49 Arietis.


2202

After the full system scan of Alpha Centauri is completed, the Hawking starts the analysis of the structures found on the fifth planet moon. The structures were found to be not so ancient, as expected, but dated back just a couple of millennia, and their real purpose was puzzling: some structures resembled an amusement park, others a sensor array, other instead a gigantic art installation.
The nature, origin and most importantly the current status of these aliens was still unknown.
On Alpha Centauri II instead, it was discovered a pattern on the planet surface that was determined to be an alien writing. The incredible of this is that it was somehow carved from the orbit using a gigantic laser approximately 5,000 years ago, it covers most of the planet’s northern hemisphere and language experts were able to translate it as a short story of the life of an alien mercenary.
Apparently, the traces of life in the galaxy seemed more exotic and weird than any prediction.

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On Earth, these discoveries lead to the speculation that there is a probability that intelligent life forms, equal to humans, may be absent, possibly extinct, in the galaxy, due to unknown causes.

In the meantime, the plans for the system colonization continues: mining stations are built around several of the system’s planets, the construction of a main star orbiting station is well underway (It will be christened as Proxima Station) and lastly the Federal Department of Space announces the launch of a colony ship from Earth towards Centauria in 2203.
The USV Hawking returns to Earth for refueling and resupply and Commander Werner is awarded for her discoveries in commanding the ship with the Federal Star (one of the highest civil decorations in the United Systems) directly by President Wade.

On Earth, specifically on the Pax Astra artificial island, at the end of the summer is inaugurated a monument in memory of President Farooqui and her drive for mankind to push towards becoming an interstellar civilization.

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The Federal Navy launched a new frigate class, similar to the Mercury: the FFG-2 Mars. The Mars class differ from being armed with nuclear missiles (hence the FFG designation), but apart from minor bow shape changes, it’s very similar to the Mercury. The ship is christened as USV Atik (SSV-004).

The year closes with the news of the USV Kepler reaching 49 Arietis (in the nearby Pipe nebula) and discovering glowing webs of unknown origin that periodically illuminate the surface of the first moon of the second planet of the system.


2203

The exploration effort of the Federation towards the survey of nearby star systems is further expanded with the “Habitable Worlds Survey”, a Federal initiative to allocate a good portion of the budget to the research of additional planets that can be colonized.
After the exploration of 49 Arietis and Alpha Centauri, the ships of the Scientific Exploration Flotilla starts to map Barnard’s Star and Procyon, joined shortly by a third ship, the USV Dupuy de Lome (SSC-003), commanded by Claudia von Fritsch, that instead is headed to the nearby 2MASX J102700057+1749001 I black hole, that will possibly allow for close studies.

The USV Knudson, the colony ship committed in 2201, was launched from Earth with 50,000 colonists and headed to Centauria. It touches down at the end of the year and the ship itself starts its conversion in what will be the central core of the colony.
The event is followed closely by Earth’s media and new discoveries in both flora, fauna and geographical features of the planet start to become common in news channels on hypernet. The colonization plan will foresee the end of the first phase by 2207, when the planet will have around 500 million colonists immigrated from Earth, a dozen of cities scattered through the globe and will reach self-sufficiency on primary needs.

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The “Drive for Centauria”, seen as land of new opportunities, reinvigorates the economy of the Federation with a plethora of megacorporations investing in projects on the recently colonized planet.

On Earth, the General Secretary Ivanov is forced to resign by the council after passing a motion of no confidence. The reasons can be seen in the lack of coordination he failed to drive between the Department of Research and the Department of Space which led to six months of delay before the colonization of Centauria. The young Yekaterina Maksimushkina, 34 years old, took his role as General Secretary and Vice President of the Federation after the approval from President Wade.
Maksimushkina's first move was the “Cleaning Act of 2203” that foresee the tender, won by Solaris Group, for the removal of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an immense waste area floating on the Pacific Ocean.

The Federal Navy is further expanded, not only with the addition of two new frigates, an FF-1 Mercury and an FFG-2 Mars, but also to one frigate of the new class FFE-3 Venus, that will serve as an escort ship armed with Point Defense turrets.

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2204

The 2204 was opened by the expansion of the Federation into the Procyon star system with the construction of the Beaufort Station, orbiting the system’s star, which allowed the beginning of both orbital mining and scientific operations.

The system Z1556 is explored and huge geothermal extractors are discovered on the first planet's surface. These facilities, ancient in origin, were composed by batteries of machineries that pumped up superheated fluids from the planet’s core. Although now lying in total ruin, some storage capacitor still contained energy and it was possible to siphon them. There was no clear consensus whether the long-gone aliens, responsible for the amusement park on Alpha Centauri or the colossal writing were somehow connected, as no traces of their language, physiology or culture were discovered, leading to the conclusion that probably the factory was fully automated.

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Wonderful work! As a navy buff I especially love your attention to detail on the different starship classes. It is a very neat touch. :)
 
Wow, Federations had inspired me to try an AAR but after having read this one, it is making me doubt any effort i could submit would look even remotely half decent lol, well done. Very impressed! Looking forward to more.