2226-2228
2226
A year of tentatives of surgical bombing the titan on Horizon gave very small results, as their location, close to human settlements, forbade any escalation of force due to the risk of causing additional casualties. The Federal Council in fact, while waiting for the formation of the first colonial navy divisions for orbital assault, decided to go soft and instead relying on probes with aid and supplies launched from the orbit that parachuted on the planet surface. Everyone in the federation was however growing anxious and worried about the colonists of the planet, with many people proposing instead a massive bombardment to end the situation once and for all. Paquette was clear that she would have waited to give her blessing to any form of assault not earlier than the moment the colonial navy forces was effectively ready and prepared. There was a massive recruitment campaign with many volunteers that wanted to join the new force that so far it was mostly a paper army, due to the lack of a proper reason to spend an immense amount of money on its formation.
The Colonial Navy (sometimes referred as Colonial Army due to the fact that the largest part of the personnel was in fact soldiers, called “marines”), as envisioned during the 2200 reform, would have been the mobile element of the armed forces, a mix between the Federal Army and the Federal Navy. It would have been also, for the most part, better equipped than standard Federal Division due to the need of performing operations in hostile planets via orbital insertion, hence a space based component of the forces to pilot the transport ships was also needed.
Each division would have been formed with around 15,000 soldiers, less compared to the Federal Army divisions of 20,000, but the single units firepower and protection would have been far superior.
During these years of recruitment and preparation for the operation on Horizon, the megacorp Matsuda Solutions was delegated to develop both the transport ships and the orbital landing craft. They came up with the transport ship Class LHD-1 Nasprite, able to hold an entire Colonial Division and the landing craft OLC-101 Drakkar that, deployed from a Nasprite, was able to land a company at once (around 120 soldiers).
During 2226, the number of colonial divisions formed was around 16, with the goal of reaching 25 fully staffed divisions by mid 2227. The recruitment was extended also on Sirius Prime, after a surge of volunteers on the planet.
The Trident Station, the first defense along the border with the Chimm Swarm, was expanded with the construction of one additional Orbital Defense Platform (to reach 3 in total), a crew quarter for stationing a fleet, a cannon battery and an ASM-1 Tartan nuclear missile battery.
At the end of the year, the excavation on the Mak’vaehl ruins on Centauria was finished, and the scientific team led by Jose Maria Solano was able to retrieve the fabled “blade of the huntress” and her skeletal remains. The weapon material was unknown but tests revealed that it was able to cut through nearly every material it was tested on. It was then transferred to military laboratories of the Federal Army where a series of studies started on it. Solano and his crew aboard the USV Hubble departed finally from Centauria after nearly a two decade long study.
2227
In January, the Director of Research Division P, Rashad Khadem, announced that the study on Field Modulation ended and it was now possible to apply new principles on the way energy was produced for an improvement in yield of about 20% on production machinery used on planetary level (hence not affecting unfortunately orbital station generation). The next research would be instead a joint effort with multiple megacorporations: AuraCorp, Dynacore, United Solutions, Niagara Foundation, Geomax Aerospace and Binary Aerospace for the development of fusion reactors able to be used on starships for propulsion.
Three new systems became part of the federal space:
Finally, the first 25 Colonial Divisions were ready and they departed from their home planets: ten from Earth, ten from Centauria and five from Sirius Prime. They expected to rendez-vous in orbit around Horizon and commence the liberation of the planet from the titans. Their departure was celebrated with planetary wide parades and the command of the full Colonial Navy was assigned to General Yuna Ishii (Colonial Navy ranks were more similar to the Federal Army than the Federal Navy). The Federal Navy’s Second Fleet also was moved to Horizon to join the First in supporting from orbit the planetary operation. The assault on Horizon was planned for February 7th of 2228, and at the end of the year, Paquette addressed the federation with a message of encouragement on the endeavour.
“Fellow citizens,
As you know, at this very moment we have our brave sons embarked on transport ships en route to Horizon. The moment to finally liberate our citizens from the monsters is coming. The battle will be fierce and we will expect that many lives of our soldiers of the Colonial Navy will be taken by these beasts; our soldiers know that too, they enlisted as volunteers because they believe in our cause, they believe that mankind is destined to continue its adventure amongst the stars, the they believe that saving the lives of our citizens is our first priority, before profit, before pride, before personal success and glory.
The United Systems were formed believing that we have the rights to colonize this galaxy, and no matter the challenges we will succeed. I waited anxiously for this moment, I knew very well that everyday lives are lost on Horizon, but I wanted to be sure that our forces were prepared, failing our assault would have meant additional lives lost for nothing, and that was something that we cannot tolerate. Our citizens on Horizon know that too. They know we’re coming for them, they know we will not abandon our brothers.
Citizens of the federation, I say that this time we will win, this time we will reclaim Horizon.”
During the three years from the initial titan’s assault, the casualties on Horizon reached 250 million.
2228
The attack on Horizon started as planned on February 7th of 2228. The 25 LHD deployed the nearly 400,000 Colonial marines on more than 3,000 orbital landing craft. The full force of 25 Colonial Division was unleashed on the planet and concentrated in an area rich in atolls. The plan envisioned by General Ishii was to perform an island hopping campaign, similar to the operation the United States Marines performed in the Pacific during the Second World War, in the 20th century, this time however, the scale was planetary.
The 25th and 3rd divisions landed in an area where it was discovered that a high concentration of titan was present and, although their resistance was fierce, they were completely wiped out before the end of the month. In the week following the landing the human forces were able to slowly retake settlements while targeting the titans with a tremendous firepower, the losses were high but the colonial forces were winning on all fronts. The 5th division was destroyed too battling in the north pole area of the planet but after months of fighting, by May half of the planet was reconquered. General Yuna Ishii's plan was working and everyday the planets of the United Systems were following the news coming from Horizon. By June, operations between the orbit and the surface of the planet were nearly totally re-established in the area cleared by titans so it was possible to transfer immense quantities of supplies thanks to the effort of the Department of Space that coordinated both federal and civilian shipping in the area. In mid-July, 95% of the planet was conquered and the last titan was killed on August 17th, effectively liberating the planet and ending the nightmare for the colonists.
The citizens of the federation celebrated the liberation of Horizon with two days long festivities through all the cities of the United Systems and President Paquette declared August 17th as federal holiday (called “Liberation Day”, the first official). Finally, after four years, life on Horizon restarted again and in the following months the focus of the Department of the Federal Affairs was aimed towards the reconstruction of cities, factories and infrastructure on the planet, with multiple megacorporation taking part in the endeavour.
The amount of losses was anyway staggering, with over 300 million citizens, 40,000 Federal Army soldiers (during the first attack) and around 150,000 Colonial Navy marines.
After the liberation of Horizon, the Colonial Navy was split in two main forces:
The Department of Defense decided also to allocate a part of the budget for the construction of frigates to give the Colonial Navy also the capability to operate as a standalone force, not to be necessarily supported by the Federal Navy in times of need. The Federal Navy fleets were relocated too, with the First taking position at the Trident Station, bordering the Chimm Swarm, and the Second at Fort Pegasus, bordering the Korinth space.
During the year, the expansion of the United Systems continued with the construction of Nile Station orbiting Gliese 823, later renamed Watson, and the black hole 2MASX J10270057 renamed Schwarzschild.
Criminal organizations started to operate also in space: using civilian vessels they performed limited attacks to cargo ships moving back and forth the federal colonies. The cargo ships were usually approached while traveling in space, boarded, and their cargo stolen to be sold in black markets. Another phenomena was the transportation of illegal substances or weapons. The Department of Security through the Federal Police was fighting the crime in the colonies (very much like in the same way mankind used centuries before, as drug trafficking, prostitution, money laundering, bribes etc.. was still common practices) but for fighting this new criminal business in space, the help of the Federal Navy was needed. For this reason, additional budget was allocated to form “Recon Flotillas” to fight piracy, dependent on navy fleets, that could have patrolled the most common trade routes. The first of these was the “11th Recon Flotilla”, that would have reported to the First Fleet, composed of 2 FF-1 Mercury and 1 FFG-2 Mars frigates.
A very good news for humans came from Ambassador Durston that was working on Koros to improve the diplomatic relations between the United Systems and the Korinth Republic. Impressed by the news about the recapture of Horizon, the Supreme Leader Rhethan agreed to open the border of the Korinth controlled space for allowing human scientific ships to traverse it towards uncharted space. As it was well known, Korinths recognized highly the military power of a species and it was a mix of this and the fear of the United Systems could have become hostile that convinced their leader that having warmer relations could have been beneficial.
The Korinths also shared their knowledge and contacts about the existence, in the galactic Southwest of the federal space, of a race called Alvanian. The Alvanians were a humanoid race controlling a limited amount of systems but all the information retrieved by the Korinths revealed that they were extremely advanced.
President Paquette was put in contact with the leaders of the Alvanian thanks to Rhethan but the communication was very short, it seemed like that these new incredibly powerful aliens had no interest at all to meddle with other species in the galaxy.
Rhethan explained to Paquette that they estimated that the Alvanians controlled around five systems but the area signature outlined a population of more than 150 billion people. They had very limited contact with this enigmatic race but everything suggested they were a very old isolationist race that wanted to keep themselves neutral towards what they see as “minor races”, to preserve their far superior technological advance. The curious aspect of the Alvanian that Korinths were able to understand is that half of the population was composed by sentient robots, and the other half, biological and the “real” Alvanians, used to leverage on many cybernetic implants.
The news reached all the corners of the federation but as humans became more and more used to what would have been dubbed “shocking” just thirty years before, there were no particular emotion related to it, rather than a confirmation that the galaxy was indeed a very turbulent and enigmatic place.
The year finally ended with a surprise for the United Systems. In a masterful display of engineering, the team of the USV Kepler under Science Officer Haruna Yamazaki managed to gently raise a derelict ship discovered on magellan IV to the gas giant’s upper atmosphere. The ship was an ancient cruiser, more than three times the size of a federal frigate, that was still operational and no sign of the whereabouts of the original crew were available.
The cruiser was then towed to Excelsior Station in the Sirius system where engineers from Binary Aerospace were able to integrate the existing ship’s technology with human components and parts and put it back in service. The weapon, propulsion, armor, shields and, essentially, any other major ship systems were of a highly advanced technology that personnel of the Federal Navy was able to operate while at the same time it was impossible to understand how they worked nor the way they were manufactured. While normally a discovery like that would have foreseen putting the ships in labs to be examined, it was decided with a general consensus by the Federal Security Council that such a luxury was impossible considering the challenges mankind were facing in the galaxy. Having the cruiser in service in the Federal Navy, while eventually studying it from the inside, could have proven to be the safest approach. It was estimated that the ship power could have been comparable to 10 to 15 common federal frigates.
It was commissioned with a crew of 920 sailors and named USV Relic.
A year of tentatives of surgical bombing the titan on Horizon gave very small results, as their location, close to human settlements, forbade any escalation of force due to the risk of causing additional casualties. The Federal Council in fact, while waiting for the formation of the first colonial navy divisions for orbital assault, decided to go soft and instead relying on probes with aid and supplies launched from the orbit that parachuted on the planet surface. Everyone in the federation was however growing anxious and worried about the colonists of the planet, with many people proposing instead a massive bombardment to end the situation once and for all. Paquette was clear that she would have waited to give her blessing to any form of assault not earlier than the moment the colonial navy forces was effectively ready and prepared. There was a massive recruitment campaign with many volunteers that wanted to join the new force that so far it was mostly a paper army, due to the lack of a proper reason to spend an immense amount of money on its formation.
The Colonial Navy (sometimes referred as Colonial Army due to the fact that the largest part of the personnel was in fact soldiers, called “marines”), as envisioned during the 2200 reform, would have been the mobile element of the armed forces, a mix between the Federal Army and the Federal Navy. It would have been also, for the most part, better equipped than standard Federal Division due to the need of performing operations in hostile planets via orbital insertion, hence a space based component of the forces to pilot the transport ships was also needed.
Each division would have been formed with around 15,000 soldiers, less compared to the Federal Army divisions of 20,000, but the single units firepower and protection would have been far superior.
During these years of recruitment and preparation for the operation on Horizon, the megacorp Matsuda Solutions was delegated to develop both the transport ships and the orbital landing craft. They came up with the transport ship Class LHD-1 Nasprite, able to hold an entire Colonial Division and the landing craft OLC-101 Drakkar that, deployed from a Nasprite, was able to land a company at once (around 120 soldiers).
During 2226, the number of colonial divisions formed was around 16, with the goal of reaching 25 fully staffed divisions by mid 2227. The recruitment was extended also on Sirius Prime, after a surge of volunteers on the planet.
The Trident Station, the first defense along the border with the Chimm Swarm, was expanded with the construction of one additional Orbital Defense Platform (to reach 3 in total), a crew quarter for stationing a fleet, a cannon battery and an ASM-1 Tartan nuclear missile battery.
At the end of the year, the excavation on the Mak’vaehl ruins on Centauria was finished, and the scientific team led by Jose Maria Solano was able to retrieve the fabled “blade of the huntress” and her skeletal remains. The weapon material was unknown but tests revealed that it was able to cut through nearly every material it was tested on. It was then transferred to military laboratories of the Federal Army where a series of studies started on it. Solano and his crew aboard the USV Hubble departed finally from Centauria after nearly a two decade long study.
2227
In January, the Director of Research Division P, Rashad Khadem, announced that the study on Field Modulation ended and it was now possible to apply new principles on the way energy was produced for an improvement in yield of about 20% on production machinery used on planetary level (hence not affecting unfortunately orbital station generation). The next research would be instead a joint effort with multiple megacorporations: AuraCorp, Dynacore, United Solutions, Niagara Foundation, Geomax Aerospace and Binary Aerospace for the development of fusion reactors able to be used on starships for propulsion.
Three new systems became part of the federal space:
- 22 Lambda Sagittarii, renamed Carson, with the construction of Volkov Station
- Wolf 921, bordering with the Korinth Republic space, renamed Alexander, with the construction of the military starport Fort Pegasus
- Gliese 8429 a pulsar, renamed Boyle, with the constriction of Resonance Station
Finally, the first 25 Colonial Divisions were ready and they departed from their home planets: ten from Earth, ten from Centauria and five from Sirius Prime. They expected to rendez-vous in orbit around Horizon and commence the liberation of the planet from the titans. Their departure was celebrated with planetary wide parades and the command of the full Colonial Navy was assigned to General Yuna Ishii (Colonial Navy ranks were more similar to the Federal Army than the Federal Navy). The Federal Navy’s Second Fleet also was moved to Horizon to join the First in supporting from orbit the planetary operation. The assault on Horizon was planned for February 7th of 2228, and at the end of the year, Paquette addressed the federation with a message of encouragement on the endeavour.
======================================================================
“Fellow citizens,
As you know, at this very moment we have our brave sons embarked on transport ships en route to Horizon. The moment to finally liberate our citizens from the monsters is coming. The battle will be fierce and we will expect that many lives of our soldiers of the Colonial Navy will be taken by these beasts; our soldiers know that too, they enlisted as volunteers because they believe in our cause, they believe that mankind is destined to continue its adventure amongst the stars, the they believe that saving the lives of our citizens is our first priority, before profit, before pride, before personal success and glory.
The United Systems were formed believing that we have the rights to colonize this galaxy, and no matter the challenges we will succeed. I waited anxiously for this moment, I knew very well that everyday lives are lost on Horizon, but I wanted to be sure that our forces were prepared, failing our assault would have meant additional lives lost for nothing, and that was something that we cannot tolerate. Our citizens on Horizon know that too. They know we’re coming for them, they know we will not abandon our brothers.
Citizens of the federation, I say that this time we will win, this time we will reclaim Horizon.”
======================================================================
During the three years from the initial titan’s assault, the casualties on Horizon reached 250 million.
2228
The attack on Horizon started as planned on February 7th of 2228. The 25 LHD deployed the nearly 400,000 Colonial marines on more than 3,000 orbital landing craft. The full force of 25 Colonial Division was unleashed on the planet and concentrated in an area rich in atolls. The plan envisioned by General Ishii was to perform an island hopping campaign, similar to the operation the United States Marines performed in the Pacific during the Second World War, in the 20th century, this time however, the scale was planetary.
The 25th and 3rd divisions landed in an area where it was discovered that a high concentration of titan was present and, although their resistance was fierce, they were completely wiped out before the end of the month. In the week following the landing the human forces were able to slowly retake settlements while targeting the titans with a tremendous firepower, the losses were high but the colonial forces were winning on all fronts. The 5th division was destroyed too battling in the north pole area of the planet but after months of fighting, by May half of the planet was reconquered. General Yuna Ishii's plan was working and everyday the planets of the United Systems were following the news coming from Horizon. By June, operations between the orbit and the surface of the planet were nearly totally re-established in the area cleared by titans so it was possible to transfer immense quantities of supplies thanks to the effort of the Department of Space that coordinated both federal and civilian shipping in the area. In mid-July, 95% of the planet was conquered and the last titan was killed on August 17th, effectively liberating the planet and ending the nightmare for the colonists.
The citizens of the federation celebrated the liberation of Horizon with two days long festivities through all the cities of the United Systems and President Paquette declared August 17th as federal holiday (called “Liberation Day”, the first official). Finally, after four years, life on Horizon restarted again and in the following months the focus of the Department of the Federal Affairs was aimed towards the reconstruction of cities, factories and infrastructure on the planet, with multiple megacorporation taking part in the endeavour.
The amount of losses was anyway staggering, with over 300 million citizens, 40,000 Federal Army soldiers (during the first attack) and around 150,000 Colonial Navy marines.
After the liberation of Horizon, the Colonial Navy was split in two main forces:
- 1st Colonial Fleet Armageddon, based on Horizon, led by General Ishii and composed by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd (reconstituted, replacing the 10th), 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 22nd, 23rd and 24th Colonial Divisions.
- 2nd Colonial Fleet Cataclysm, based on Celestia, led by the newly appointed General Jian Huang, composed by the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st Colonial Divisions.
The Department of Defense decided also to allocate a part of the budget for the construction of frigates to give the Colonial Navy also the capability to operate as a standalone force, not to be necessarily supported by the Federal Navy in times of need. The Federal Navy fleets were relocated too, with the First taking position at the Trident Station, bordering the Chimm Swarm, and the Second at Fort Pegasus, bordering the Korinth space.
During the year, the expansion of the United Systems continued with the construction of Nile Station orbiting Gliese 823, later renamed Watson, and the black hole 2MASX J10270057 renamed Schwarzschild.
Criminal organizations started to operate also in space: using civilian vessels they performed limited attacks to cargo ships moving back and forth the federal colonies. The cargo ships were usually approached while traveling in space, boarded, and their cargo stolen to be sold in black markets. Another phenomena was the transportation of illegal substances or weapons. The Department of Security through the Federal Police was fighting the crime in the colonies (very much like in the same way mankind used centuries before, as drug trafficking, prostitution, money laundering, bribes etc.. was still common practices) but for fighting this new criminal business in space, the help of the Federal Navy was needed. For this reason, additional budget was allocated to form “Recon Flotillas” to fight piracy, dependent on navy fleets, that could have patrolled the most common trade routes. The first of these was the “11th Recon Flotilla”, that would have reported to the First Fleet, composed of 2 FF-1 Mercury and 1 FFG-2 Mars frigates.
A very good news for humans came from Ambassador Durston that was working on Koros to improve the diplomatic relations between the United Systems and the Korinth Republic. Impressed by the news about the recapture of Horizon, the Supreme Leader Rhethan agreed to open the border of the Korinth controlled space for allowing human scientific ships to traverse it towards uncharted space. As it was well known, Korinths recognized highly the military power of a species and it was a mix of this and the fear of the United Systems could have become hostile that convinced their leader that having warmer relations could have been beneficial.
The Korinths also shared their knowledge and contacts about the existence, in the galactic Southwest of the federal space, of a race called Alvanian. The Alvanians were a humanoid race controlling a limited amount of systems but all the information retrieved by the Korinths revealed that they were extremely advanced.
President Paquette was put in contact with the leaders of the Alvanian thanks to Rhethan but the communication was very short, it seemed like that these new incredibly powerful aliens had no interest at all to meddle with other species in the galaxy.
Rhethan explained to Paquette that they estimated that the Alvanians controlled around five systems but the area signature outlined a population of more than 150 billion people. They had very limited contact with this enigmatic race but everything suggested they were a very old isolationist race that wanted to keep themselves neutral towards what they see as “minor races”, to preserve their far superior technological advance. The curious aspect of the Alvanian that Korinths were able to understand is that half of the population was composed by sentient robots, and the other half, biological and the “real” Alvanians, used to leverage on many cybernetic implants.
The news reached all the corners of the federation but as humans became more and more used to what would have been dubbed “shocking” just thirty years before, there were no particular emotion related to it, rather than a confirmation that the galaxy was indeed a very turbulent and enigmatic place.
The year finally ended with a surprise for the United Systems. In a masterful display of engineering, the team of the USV Kepler under Science Officer Haruna Yamazaki managed to gently raise a derelict ship discovered on magellan IV to the gas giant’s upper atmosphere. The ship was an ancient cruiser, more than three times the size of a federal frigate, that was still operational and no sign of the whereabouts of the original crew were available.
The cruiser was then towed to Excelsior Station in the Sirius system where engineers from Binary Aerospace were able to integrate the existing ship’s technology with human components and parts and put it back in service. The weapon, propulsion, armor, shields and, essentially, any other major ship systems were of a highly advanced technology that personnel of the Federal Navy was able to operate while at the same time it was impossible to understand how they worked nor the way they were manufactured. While normally a discovery like that would have foreseen putting the ships in labs to be examined, it was decided with a general consensus by the Federal Security Council that such a luxury was impossible considering the challenges mankind were facing in the galaxy. Having the cruiser in service in the Federal Navy, while eventually studying it from the inside, could have proven to be the safest approach. It was estimated that the ship power could have been comparable to 10 to 15 common federal frigates.
It was commissioned with a crew of 920 sailors and named USV Relic.
- 1
