The amount of love and detail put into this story is absolutely incredible. I love this, definitely will be following 
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Thank you!The amount of love and detail put into this story is absolutely incredible. I love this, definitely will be following
2217: Monsters
2217: Monsters
The 6 Corvi system was renamed Magellan, and around the main star the first pure commercial starport is built. It’s called Freeport One, and it was a joint enterprise between AuraCorp, Xianmei and Tyrrell Expeditions. The reason for a commercial port on the galactic northeastern border is that it is predicted that a lot of commercial traffic will pass through being at the crossroad between the Orion Spur, the Perseus Arm and the Outer Arm. In fact, since the colonization of Centauria and the beginning of extrasolar mining operations, the amount of commercial ships that travel between human colonies increased at an incredible rate, Tyrrell Expeditions in particular ruled the shipping market with a fleet of over 800 merchant FTL vessels.
Another system, 44 Kappa Aurigae, was exploited and renamed to Copernicus, and its primary starbase Port Kelvin.
On March 31st, the USV Kepler picked up a radio signal in the 22 Aquilae system, since it was artificial a team on Earth from the Research Division S worked on it and in a couple of days it was possible to decipher it. The signal was originating from the system’s main star, where an orbital station was discovered, and it contained common navigation information for nearby starships. It was possible to determine that the “entities” behind the signal called themselves “Chimm” and they were, till that moment, unknown about human presence. Immediately all the containment protocols were put in place and a general alert through the federation’s military structure was issued. In a matter of 48 hours, human technicians were able to set up a proper communication channel towards the signal origin. It was decided that the President itself would have been on screen, along with a team of diplomats, officers and scientists for the First Contact with an apparently spacefaring civilization. Many guessed that there were possibilities that the newly discovered aliens were the once encountered bird-like species. The USV Kepler was waiting at the fringe of 22 Aquilae, waiting to move towards the heart of the system depending on the outcome of the first communication.
On the morning of April 4th, unbeknownst to the billions of humans spread through the federal space, from a conference room in a Department of Xeno Affairs building, Julia Paquette was waiting to be put in communication with the “Chimms”. Her hands, hidden below the conference table, were shaking, as with the hands of probably the most of the personnel present in the room.
At 10:31, the holoscreen was lit and, after a handshake performed by the two species communication systems to properly commence a data exchange, a massive arthropod life form appeared on screen, everyone in the room shivered.
Behind the alien figure, a seemingly glass window shows a devastated landscape covered by chitinous insect-like nests. Apparently the aliens themselves relayed the message from the station to their homeworld, that the human engineers monitoring the transmission located at circa 5 hyperlanes jump, a planet that was later determined to be named “Chimnar”, orbiting around a star named “Chiril”. The horrifying alien started speaking with an high pitched, echoing voice that added an additional layer of creepiness to the conversation that was translated instantly and showed on screen:
In the conference room everyone was frozen, still looking at the static on the holoscreen.
Paquette thoughts rebounded in her skull, literally. The moment has come, the worst fear of an existence threatening first contact became a reality thanks to a fifteen second videocall. She was not frightened, she was relieved, because now there were no more unknowns, she knew exactly what to do.
She broke the silence first:
In the following 4 hours, the full United Systems were mobilized. The threat was too high to enforce any kind of information containment and President Paquette reached the full population in a unified broadcast in the late afternoon:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“Citizens of the Federation,
I reached you again, after all these discoveries that mankind did in these years, to bring you the news that this morning we had our first, real encounter with a spacefaring civilization on the galactic west of the federal space.
I promised you multiple times that I want to be transparent with you all, keeping you updated the more we know about our galaxy, and I will do the same now.
The species we encountered, that name themselves Chimm Swarm, is hostile.
Our worst fear, of a dangerous first encounter, is now a reality. These beings interrupted any communication with us as soon as they delivered their message: they will come for us. There was not time to talk, these are savage beasts from space.
We learnt that they come from a system that is close to our western border, and the systems they control are luckily not yet bordering with ours, but this will happen at some point.
I have already mobilized all our armed forces, and I clear immediately and once for all our standings on this: we will annihilate these beings if they try to approach our space. We will leverage on our combined power, we will stay together and we will protect every human in this galaxy.
They have not officially declared war against us but it will be a matter of time, all your provincial, regional and planetary leaders will follow through with all the information that you need.
We’re still studying these aliens and their hostility is the only thing that we know so far.
We’re all in this together, I ask you to stay strong and do not fall to panic as there is no reason: we are prepared, the United Systems are prepared, mankind will face and prevail any challenge we will have to face.
I will keep you all posted.
Thank you”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In the upcoming weeks, surveillance posts were established on the western border of the federation space but sensors did not pick up any contact. Apparently the Swarm intention was not to invade the United Systems yet. Studies were conducted on the video communication that happened as it, along with readings from the space station in 22 Aquilae, were the only details known about the aliens. Luckily a language pattern was also found in multiple relics scattered through the federal space, allowing to formulate hypotheses and analysis on the origin, society and physiology of the Chimms.
Researchers came up with the following theories:
The federation entered a “contingency” mode. While the defcon was lowered since there was no sign of imminent attack from the Chimms, additional generator sectors were built on Earth and Sirius that will allow to increase energy credits necessary to sustain military spending.
The single fleet of the Federal Navy, the so-called Starfleet, was complemented by additional frigates for a total of 20, commanded by Admiral Gao (renamed to First Fleet, with the naming “Starfleet” becoming a pure synonym of the full Federal Navy), and at the same time a new fleet, the second, was formed with an initial batch of 7 frigates (3 FF-1, 2 FFG-2, 2 FFE-3) and put under the command of Admiral Paseka Akiloye, leading from the USV Hardy (FF-1 Mercury class, SSV-021).
To be able to coordinate the new starfleet forces properly, the two starbases that were recently expanded, the Excelsior in Sirius and the Calypso in Darwin, were refocused on military base stations, with dedicated shipyards, crew quarters for the Federal Navy personnel and specific anchorage to support for extended time the mooring of the military frigates. The Federal Army was expanded with the constitution of the 5th and 6th divisions on Sirius Prime, and General Miranda Lang nominated as head of all the planetary forces to better coordinate the defenses.
In all of the planet of the federation, the Department of Federal Affairs overstocked the emergency food reserves in bunker to be distributed to the population in case of need, and on Sirius Prime, Paquette re-established contact with the “parallel” dimension where she informed her doppelganger about the hostile encounter. Both agreed in using the portal as a way to trade critical emergency resources like medical supplies, as the portal allowed for non-biological material transfer, of course in a limited amount giving the size of it. Sirius Prime luckily had a slightly lower gravity than Earth, so trained personnel were able to manually haul the supply packages.
The United System was preparing for war.
“My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are.”
The 6 Corvi system was renamed Magellan, and around the main star the first pure commercial starport is built. It’s called Freeport One, and it was a joint enterprise between AuraCorp, Xianmei and Tyrrell Expeditions. The reason for a commercial port on the galactic northeastern border is that it is predicted that a lot of commercial traffic will pass through being at the crossroad between the Orion Spur, the Perseus Arm and the Outer Arm. In fact, since the colonization of Centauria and the beginning of extrasolar mining operations, the amount of commercial ships that travel between human colonies increased at an incredible rate, Tyrrell Expeditions in particular ruled the shipping market with a fleet of over 800 merchant FTL vessels.
Another system, 44 Kappa Aurigae, was exploited and renamed to Copernicus, and its primary starbase Port Kelvin.
On March 31st, the USV Kepler picked up a radio signal in the 22 Aquilae system, since it was artificial a team on Earth from the Research Division S worked on it and in a couple of days it was possible to decipher it. The signal was originating from the system’s main star, where an orbital station was discovered, and it contained common navigation information for nearby starships. It was possible to determine that the “entities” behind the signal called themselves “Chimm” and they were, till that moment, unknown about human presence. Immediately all the containment protocols were put in place and a general alert through the federation’s military structure was issued. In a matter of 48 hours, human technicians were able to set up a proper communication channel towards the signal origin. It was decided that the President itself would have been on screen, along with a team of diplomats, officers and scientists for the First Contact with an apparently spacefaring civilization. Many guessed that there were possibilities that the newly discovered aliens were the once encountered bird-like species. The USV Kepler was waiting at the fringe of 22 Aquilae, waiting to move towards the heart of the system depending on the outcome of the first communication.
On the morning of April 4th, unbeknownst to the billions of humans spread through the federal space, from a conference room in a Department of Xeno Affairs building, Julia Paquette was waiting to be put in communication with the “Chimms”. Her hands, hidden below the conference table, were shaking, as with the hands of probably the most of the personnel present in the room.
At 10:31, the holoscreen was lit and, after a handshake performed by the two species communication systems to properly commence a data exchange, a massive arthropod life form appeared on screen, everyone in the room shivered.
Behind the alien figure, a seemingly glass window shows a devastated landscape covered by chitinous insect-like nests. Apparently the aliens themselves relayed the message from the station to their homeworld, that the human engineers monitoring the transmission located at circa 5 hyperlanes jump, a planet that was later determined to be named “Chimnar”, orbiting around a star named “Chiril”. The horrifying alien started speaking with an high pitched, echoing voice that added an additional layer of creepiness to the conversation that was translated instantly and showed on screen:
The chimm interrupted the conversation.
In the conference room everyone was frozen, still looking at the static on the holoscreen.
Paquette thoughts rebounded in her skull, literally. The moment has come, the worst fear of an existence threatening first contact became a reality thanks to a fifteen second videocall. She was not frightened, she was relieved, because now there were no more unknowns, she knew exactly what to do.
She broke the silence first:
In the following 4 hours, the full United Systems were mobilized. The threat was too high to enforce any kind of information containment and President Paquette reached the full population in a unified broadcast in the late afternoon:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“Citizens of the Federation,
I reached you again, after all these discoveries that mankind did in these years, to bring you the news that this morning we had our first, real encounter with a spacefaring civilization on the galactic west of the federal space.
I promised you multiple times that I want to be transparent with you all, keeping you updated the more we know about our galaxy, and I will do the same now.
The species we encountered, that name themselves Chimm Swarm, is hostile.
Our worst fear, of a dangerous first encounter, is now a reality. These beings interrupted any communication with us as soon as they delivered their message: they will come for us. There was not time to talk, these are savage beasts from space.
We learnt that they come from a system that is close to our western border, and the systems they control are luckily not yet bordering with ours, but this will happen at some point.
I have already mobilized all our armed forces, and I clear immediately and once for all our standings on this: we will annihilate these beings if they try to approach our space. We will leverage on our combined power, we will stay together and we will protect every human in this galaxy.
They have not officially declared war against us but it will be a matter of time, all your provincial, regional and planetary leaders will follow through with all the information that you need.
We’re still studying these aliens and their hostility is the only thing that we know so far.
We’re all in this together, I ask you to stay strong and do not fall to panic as there is no reason: we are prepared, the United Systems are prepared, mankind will face and prevail any challenge we will have to face.
I will keep you all posted.
Thank you”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In the upcoming weeks, surveillance posts were established on the western border of the federation space but sensors did not pick up any contact. Apparently the Swarm intention was not to invade the United Systems yet. Studies were conducted on the video communication that happened as it, along with readings from the space station in 22 Aquilae, were the only details known about the aliens. Luckily a language pattern was also found in multiple relics scattered through the federal space, allowing to formulate hypotheses and analysis on the origin, society and physiology of the Chimms.
Researchers came up with the following theories:
- The Chimms were a very ancient species, they were remnants of a much vaster territory that also covered a part of the actual United Systems.
- Their society was similar to ant colonies: they not only were an insectoid species, they apparently were governed by a hive mind, most likely a queen, and judging by the radio emission from their main star, their population should be comparable to humans, so approximately 20 billions, but all of them concentrated in the single inhabited planet.
- Analysis of the video suggested their body is very strong, protected by an exoskeleton like Earth based insects.
- Their intent may be hostile as it seems they “eat” different species transforming them in biomass.
- Their technology level should be similar to humans’ technology, as they were unable to spot the science ship and the space station readings show energy levels comparable to a human starport.
- The cityscape visible behind the alien shows signs of devastation and ruins, with ant-like nests encroaching them. This suggests a parasitic lifestyle.
The federation entered a “contingency” mode. While the defcon was lowered since there was no sign of imminent attack from the Chimms, additional generator sectors were built on Earth and Sirius that will allow to increase energy credits necessary to sustain military spending.
The single fleet of the Federal Navy, the so-called Starfleet, was complemented by additional frigates for a total of 20, commanded by Admiral Gao (renamed to First Fleet, with the naming “Starfleet” becoming a pure synonym of the full Federal Navy), and at the same time a new fleet, the second, was formed with an initial batch of 7 frigates (3 FF-1, 2 FFG-2, 2 FFE-3) and put under the command of Admiral Paseka Akiloye, leading from the USV Hardy (FF-1 Mercury class, SSV-021).
To be able to coordinate the new starfleet forces properly, the two starbases that were recently expanded, the Excelsior in Sirius and the Calypso in Darwin, were refocused on military base stations, with dedicated shipyards, crew quarters for the Federal Navy personnel and specific anchorage to support for extended time the mooring of the military frigates. The Federal Army was expanded with the constitution of the 5th and 6th divisions on Sirius Prime, and General Miranda Lang nominated as head of all the planetary forces to better coordinate the defenses.
In all of the planet of the federation, the Department of Federal Affairs overstocked the emergency food reserves in bunker to be distributed to the population in case of need, and on Sirius Prime, Paquette re-established contact with the “parallel” dimension where she informed her doppelganger about the hostile encounter. Both agreed in using the portal as a way to trade critical emergency resources like medical supplies, as the portal allowed for non-biological material transfer, of course in a limited amount giving the size of it. Sirius Prime luckily had a slightly lower gravity than Earth, so trained personnel were able to manually haul the supply packages.
The United System was preparing for war.
“My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are.”
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I'm trying to came up with some better way for reading conversations and, for example, speech. There are limited options in the formatting of the posts, so feel free to ping me if you have idea on how can improve the general readibility.
Thank you
Thank you
What will be the common population's reaction to the Chimm Swarm. A uptick in fear, panic, and xenophobia? People and conspiracy theorists claiming that the government is driving fear for power grabbing purposes or there has been a big misunderstanding?
There seems to be only hyperlane route from the Chimm Swarm to human space. Time to fortify it. Humanity must claim as many empty systems and lock down as hyperlane clusters as possible to secure as much resources as possible for the coming war.
Where are the so-called "bird aliens"?
There seems to be only hyperlane route from the Chimm Swarm to human space. Time to fortify it. Humanity must claim as many empty systems and lock down as hyperlane clusters as possible to secure as much resources as possible for the coming war.
Where are the so-called "bird aliens"?
Wow, that is not a good first contact situation.
Do the Chimm originate on a Relic world?
Do the Chimm originate on a Relic world?
That is one rough first contact. You expect friendly neighbors and get a hive mind that just sees your entire species as food.
Also, it'll be interesting to see if the Chimm are returning to the galactic stage after a failed (or, worse, successful) mass-eating of the galaxy, or perhaps arising from the ruins of a previous civilization (like if cockroaches took over the Earth after a nuclear war).
Also, it'll be interesting to see if the Chimm are returning to the galactic stage after a failed (or, worse, successful) mass-eating of the galaxy, or perhaps arising from the ruins of a previous civilization (like if cockroaches took over the Earth after a nuclear war).
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Nowhere! They were part of the event chain tied to the missing probes, unless they popups somewhere later I believe they were one shot!
Wow, that is not a good first contact situation.
Do the Chimm originate on a Relic world?
Yes, they have the remnants origin
2218-2219
2218
The study on the automated mining drones, discovered in 36 Ophiuchi was completed and allowed to experiment new techniques for mineral extraction on asteroids. It was also discovered that these drones emitted a low frequency ping, as a signal to transmit their position. The destination or the receiver of this ping is however unknown.
The starbase Port Kelvin, in the Copernicus system on the western border, was expanded with dedicated facilities for the Federal Navy, allowing for long time stationing of starfleet ships. The installation will be the first line of defense in case of Chimm incursions and the First Fleet is immediately relocated there.
In the HD 411223 system, the USV Hawking discovers the last of the missing probes, but it was “guarded” by a strange “cloud” of pure energy that was identified as a subspace anomaly. The incredible happened as soon as the science ship tried to approach it as the cloud unleashed a bolt of energy against the ship. Somehow, the anomaly was hostile, but the nature of it remained a mystery. To solve the matters, the Federal Navy dispatched the First Fleet that was traveling the region for reaching Port Kelvin, and authorized un using weapons on the anomaly. The authorization came from Paquette in person, that given the emergency times due to the Chimm menace, decided for an aggressive show of force.
Admiral Gao reached the system by the end of the year and for the first time in history, human starship opened fire on an hostile entity in space. After several hits, the cloud somehow exploded, allowing later the Hawking to retrieve the last probe. On Earth the event was widely publicized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the human forces, although many protests against the very superficial approach on the cloud, claiming that no study where performed on the entity at least to determine if it was sentient or not nor the Federal Senate was involved in voting the course of action.
Martin Develey, head of the Federal Navy, retired, and his title of Grand Admiral was given to Admiral Feng Gao. Gao kept his assignment as head of the First Fleet too, establishing the tradition that the head of the Federal Navy was also the admiral of the first fleet. The second fleet, reinforced with five additional frigates built at the newly christened shipyards of Excelsior Station in Sirius, reached a total of twelve vessels, and was stationed in the Sol system.
In December the system HD689086 became part of the federal space after the Farooqui Station (in honor of Mashal Farooqui, fourth president of the United Systems) was built, and the system renamed Edison. The system was the westernmost of the federation, so the closest one to the Chimm space.
2219
The first “Orbital Defense Platform” was built around Port Kelvin. The platform was developed in a joint venture between Hoplon Security, Atlas Arsenal and the Federal Spaceborne Command (FSC), and it was essentially a small space station, manned by FSC personnel deployed at around 100-200 meters from the main station that needed to be defended. This first model, named ODP-1 Slingshot, was equipped with nuclear missiles, cannons and turbolasers.
A new constructor ship was built, the USV Fisher (SSM-007) and it was sent to cooperate with the USV Shippingport on reinforcing the western federal space. On Horizon in the meantime, the first phase of colonization was completed, and the colony became self-sustaining.
The year, the first after many where no big events happened, ended with the discovery of a second group of automated mining drones in the 17 Pegasi system, north of Sol. Given the danger that the drone fleet represented, it was decided to “bypass” the system, keeping the same policy in act for the first drone fleet, and given that these drones seemed stationary in the vicinity of the area they usually operated.
The Federal Senate passed the Federal Decree n°769 15 Dec.2219, with the intent of reducing the bureaucratic apparatus and streamlining the chain of command in crucial departments like the defense and research. The decree follows the example of Admiral Gao in being the Grand Admiral of the Federal Navy and at the same time Admiral of the First Fleet, in fact it not only regulates his role, but also extended the same principle to non political (so not tied to the Federal Council) roles. In particular:
The study on the automated mining drones, discovered in 36 Ophiuchi was completed and allowed to experiment new techniques for mineral extraction on asteroids. It was also discovered that these drones emitted a low frequency ping, as a signal to transmit their position. The destination or the receiver of this ping is however unknown.
The starbase Port Kelvin, in the Copernicus system on the western border, was expanded with dedicated facilities for the Federal Navy, allowing for long time stationing of starfleet ships. The installation will be the first line of defense in case of Chimm incursions and the First Fleet is immediately relocated there.
In the HD 411223 system, the USV Hawking discovers the last of the missing probes, but it was “guarded” by a strange “cloud” of pure energy that was identified as a subspace anomaly. The incredible happened as soon as the science ship tried to approach it as the cloud unleashed a bolt of energy against the ship. Somehow, the anomaly was hostile, but the nature of it remained a mystery. To solve the matters, the Federal Navy dispatched the First Fleet that was traveling the region for reaching Port Kelvin, and authorized un using weapons on the anomaly. The authorization came from Paquette in person, that given the emergency times due to the Chimm menace, decided for an aggressive show of force.
Admiral Gao reached the system by the end of the year and for the first time in history, human starship opened fire on an hostile entity in space. After several hits, the cloud somehow exploded, allowing later the Hawking to retrieve the last probe. On Earth the event was widely publicized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the human forces, although many protests against the very superficial approach on the cloud, claiming that no study where performed on the entity at least to determine if it was sentient or not nor the Federal Senate was involved in voting the course of action.
Martin Develey, head of the Federal Navy, retired, and his title of Grand Admiral was given to Admiral Feng Gao. Gao kept his assignment as head of the First Fleet too, establishing the tradition that the head of the Federal Navy was also the admiral of the first fleet. The second fleet, reinforced with five additional frigates built at the newly christened shipyards of Excelsior Station in Sirius, reached a total of twelve vessels, and was stationed in the Sol system.
In December the system HD689086 became part of the federal space after the Farooqui Station (in honor of Mashal Farooqui, fourth president of the United Systems) was built, and the system renamed Edison. The system was the westernmost of the federation, so the closest one to the Chimm space.
2219
The first “Orbital Defense Platform” was built around Port Kelvin. The platform was developed in a joint venture between Hoplon Security, Atlas Arsenal and the Federal Spaceborne Command (FSC), and it was essentially a small space station, manned by FSC personnel deployed at around 100-200 meters from the main station that needed to be defended. This first model, named ODP-1 Slingshot, was equipped with nuclear missiles, cannons and turbolasers.
A new constructor ship was built, the USV Fisher (SSM-007) and it was sent to cooperate with the USV Shippingport on reinforcing the western federal space. On Horizon in the meantime, the first phase of colonization was completed, and the colony became self-sustaining.
The year, the first after many where no big events happened, ended with the discovery of a second group of automated mining drones in the 17 Pegasi system, north of Sol. Given the danger that the drone fleet represented, it was decided to “bypass” the system, keeping the same policy in act for the first drone fleet, and given that these drones seemed stationary in the vicinity of the area they usually operated.
The Federal Senate passed the Federal Decree n°769 15 Dec.2219, with the intent of reducing the bureaucratic apparatus and streamlining the chain of command in crucial departments like the defense and research. The decree follows the example of Admiral Gao in being the Grand Admiral of the Federal Navy and at the same time Admiral of the First Fleet, in fact it not only regulates his role, but also extended the same principle to non political (so not tied to the Federal Council) roles. In particular:
- The Director of the Scientific Exploration Flotilla will be chosen amongst the commanding science officers of the flotilla’s ships, based on Rank.
- The Commander of the Federal Army will be chosen amongst the army generals, based on Rank
- The Grand Admiral of the Federal Navy will be chosen amongst the fleet admirals, based on Rank.
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Well a first victory is something to improve morale, even if it is against an energy cloud. Onwards and upwards for the fleet!
2220-2222
2220
The year opened up with the start of the political campaign for the election of the new United Systems President and Government. There were no major changes in the political formation in the last decade, President Paquette was very popular and the NSL was racing head to head with the FEC that has Haruna Yamazaki running for the presidency. After the NSL and the FEC, the major competitor was DRM, run by Aanya Patil. In general the support was spreaded nearly equally between all the political formations, but at the elections held in July, the NSL won the majority of the vote with a slim total 26%, securing the presidency of Paquette for a second term.
After the elections, to sustain the increased military spending, the Federal Senate passed a series of laws to increase the energy credits production and the alloys manufacturing, “militarizing” (as branded by the media) the United Systems economy. In the meantime, new systems were secured: HD 533324, renamed Bell, where the station Port Helen was built, and Gliese 5270 (another system on the west border), renamed Tesla, that saw the construction of Cloudtop Station.
In Wolf 3836, a new spaceborne lifeform was discovered, the Tiyanki. These were massive entities that roamed from system to system thanks to the capability of accessing some lower dimension of subspace for traveling, and grazed the upper layers of gas giants. They usually moved in packs of two to three elements and they appeared to be very docile.
On Horizon, the Research Division S started a study on the titanic lifeforms present on the planet, as their massive size was a puzzle for the scientists that previously believed that such a scale was not possible for biological life. In the eastern outskirts of the federal space, a potentially habitable continental world was discovered in the Kepler 1053 system. This system was at two jumps from Bell, so a possible expansion passing through the M8314 system was envisioned.
2221
Jose Maria Solano, commander of the USV Hubble that was working on the Centauria ruins, published an additional study on the now nearly decade long investigation. He discovered that the civilization living on the planet was a predatory avian species that defined themselves Retarax. The Retarax periodically collected random individuals from the many subjugated alien civilizations under their rule and hunted them down in a traditional ceremony held in the so-called “Mak’vaehl” area. This brutal tradition lasted for several centuries until the Retarax domain eventually succumbed to an undefined outside threat.
In Horizon a group of investigators found a hidden factory that was used by an unknown previous civilization. The status of the factory and the machinery allowed it to be reprogrammed to produce general customer goods and was reset to operational again by Adler Advance technicians.
The system M8314 was exploited, in an effort of reaching the habitable world in Kepler 1053, when the federal constructors finished the building of the Lumax Station, orbiting the main star. The system itself was renamed Franklin.
The year ended with a very curious situation: an apparently sentient “gaseous” life form was identified and contacted on the second planet of Wolf 3836. Their very presence was almost imperceptible, but they asked to be relocated on the second planet, a gas giant, of Barnerd’s Star. After a brief consultation with the federal authorities, Claudia von Fritsch, the commander of the USV Dupuy de Lome that discovered this weird civilization, allowed to proceed with the transport (as They called themselves Dathnak. They were moved leveraging on a convoy of civilian freighters equipped with massive pressurized gas tanks. Boarding and relocating them was just “opening the airlocks'' and waiting for the confirmation of their movement via radio, so many speculated that it was just a joke from some crewmember. In the end a permanent channel was kept open for future communications, although everyone in the federation was quite perplexed by the encounter.
2222
Rashad Khadem, director of the Scientific Division P, announced the end of the twenty year long studies on Quantum Theory. The studies, started at the time where the now President Julia Paquette was director, explored the mediation of fundamental forces through subatomic particles, thus establishing the bases of quantum science that will pave the road for its future application. The division plans were now to study Field Modulation theories that could have allowed for an increased production of energy.
In Centauria, the federal offices were expanded to allow for additional manpower to support the logistical and administrative effort created by the new colonies, in particular Sirius Prime and Horizon.
A strange structure was discovered nearby the GOODS J1236 black hole. It was determined that it could have been an ancient subspace gateway that appears to have been part of a galaxy wide network of similar stations which, when operational, allowed for near-instantaneous travel from one part of the galaxy to another. At some point after its initial construction its connection to the rest of the network was severed. It offered only one valid destination, an uncharted group of stars just beyond the Milky Way that astronomers designated the “L-Cluster”. Even more intriguing, the gateway was built entirely by microscopic nanites of an unknown design.
Although the Gateway emitted a faint power signature, it has been deliberately locked into some kind of maintenance loop that prevented its activation. Studies on it were planned to be conducted to understand if, at some point, it would have been possible to re-activate it.
The “Space Amoebas” studies ended (classified as Species 413-4, Cephalopodea Astralis), and allowed to understand how to “pacify” these creatures that were populating the galactic south of the federal space. It was defined that the venting of emissions from federal starships somehow triggered these entities' natural defense system and, as a reaction, put them in an aggressive stance. A drone ship was used to test the theory and, by reducing its emissions venting, was able to move freely inside a group of amoebas. This could provide incredibly helpful for further expanding the federal space in the south, that was halted by both amoebas and automated mining drones that were locking some hyperlanes accesses.
A military starbase, Trident Station, was built around the main star of Nu Centauri, securing the only access to federal space from 22 Aquilae, the easternmost Chimm system. The station was equipped with two ODP-1 platforms and it will be used as a first line of defense against the Chimms, that were now effectively bordering the federal space.
The system was renamed Lincoln, and it was also the one where “Volatile Motes” were discovered previously, granting the United Systems direct access to these strategic resources as soon as human scientists were able to properly employ them and exploiting the massive energy charge that they could contain.
The year opened up with the start of the political campaign for the election of the new United Systems President and Government. There were no major changes in the political formation in the last decade, President Paquette was very popular and the NSL was racing head to head with the FEC that has Haruna Yamazaki running for the presidency. After the NSL and the FEC, the major competitor was DRM, run by Aanya Patil. In general the support was spreaded nearly equally between all the political formations, but at the elections held in July, the NSL won the majority of the vote with a slim total 26%, securing the presidency of Paquette for a second term.
After the elections, to sustain the increased military spending, the Federal Senate passed a series of laws to increase the energy credits production and the alloys manufacturing, “militarizing” (as branded by the media) the United Systems economy. In the meantime, new systems were secured: HD 533324, renamed Bell, where the station Port Helen was built, and Gliese 5270 (another system on the west border), renamed Tesla, that saw the construction of Cloudtop Station.
In Wolf 3836, a new spaceborne lifeform was discovered, the Tiyanki. These were massive entities that roamed from system to system thanks to the capability of accessing some lower dimension of subspace for traveling, and grazed the upper layers of gas giants. They usually moved in packs of two to three elements and they appeared to be very docile.
On Horizon, the Research Division S started a study on the titanic lifeforms present on the planet, as their massive size was a puzzle for the scientists that previously believed that such a scale was not possible for biological life. In the eastern outskirts of the federal space, a potentially habitable continental world was discovered in the Kepler 1053 system. This system was at two jumps from Bell, so a possible expansion passing through the M8314 system was envisioned.
2221
Jose Maria Solano, commander of the USV Hubble that was working on the Centauria ruins, published an additional study on the now nearly decade long investigation. He discovered that the civilization living on the planet was a predatory avian species that defined themselves Retarax. The Retarax periodically collected random individuals from the many subjugated alien civilizations under their rule and hunted them down in a traditional ceremony held in the so-called “Mak’vaehl” area. This brutal tradition lasted for several centuries until the Retarax domain eventually succumbed to an undefined outside threat.
In Horizon a group of investigators found a hidden factory that was used by an unknown previous civilization. The status of the factory and the machinery allowed it to be reprogrammed to produce general customer goods and was reset to operational again by Adler Advance technicians.
The system M8314 was exploited, in an effort of reaching the habitable world in Kepler 1053, when the federal constructors finished the building of the Lumax Station, orbiting the main star. The system itself was renamed Franklin.
The year ended with a very curious situation: an apparently sentient “gaseous” life form was identified and contacted on the second planet of Wolf 3836. Their very presence was almost imperceptible, but they asked to be relocated on the second planet, a gas giant, of Barnerd’s Star. After a brief consultation with the federal authorities, Claudia von Fritsch, the commander of the USV Dupuy de Lome that discovered this weird civilization, allowed to proceed with the transport (as They called themselves Dathnak. They were moved leveraging on a convoy of civilian freighters equipped with massive pressurized gas tanks. Boarding and relocating them was just “opening the airlocks'' and waiting for the confirmation of their movement via radio, so many speculated that it was just a joke from some crewmember. In the end a permanent channel was kept open for future communications, although everyone in the federation was quite perplexed by the encounter.
2222
Rashad Khadem, director of the Scientific Division P, announced the end of the twenty year long studies on Quantum Theory. The studies, started at the time where the now President Julia Paquette was director, explored the mediation of fundamental forces through subatomic particles, thus establishing the bases of quantum science that will pave the road for its future application. The division plans were now to study Field Modulation theories that could have allowed for an increased production of energy.
In Centauria, the federal offices were expanded to allow for additional manpower to support the logistical and administrative effort created by the new colonies, in particular Sirius Prime and Horizon.
A strange structure was discovered nearby the GOODS J1236 black hole. It was determined that it could have been an ancient subspace gateway that appears to have been part of a galaxy wide network of similar stations which, when operational, allowed for near-instantaneous travel from one part of the galaxy to another. At some point after its initial construction its connection to the rest of the network was severed. It offered only one valid destination, an uncharted group of stars just beyond the Milky Way that astronomers designated the “L-Cluster”. Even more intriguing, the gateway was built entirely by microscopic nanites of an unknown design.
Although the Gateway emitted a faint power signature, it has been deliberately locked into some kind of maintenance loop that prevented its activation. Studies on it were planned to be conducted to understand if, at some point, it would have been possible to re-activate it.
The “Space Amoebas” studies ended (classified as Species 413-4, Cephalopodea Astralis), and allowed to understand how to “pacify” these creatures that were populating the galactic south of the federal space. It was defined that the venting of emissions from federal starships somehow triggered these entities' natural defense system and, as a reaction, put them in an aggressive stance. A drone ship was used to test the theory and, by reducing its emissions venting, was able to move freely inside a group of amoebas. This could provide incredibly helpful for further expanding the federal space in the south, that was halted by both amoebas and automated mining drones that were locking some hyperlanes accesses.
A military starbase, Trident Station, was built around the main star of Nu Centauri, securing the only access to federal space from 22 Aquilae, the easternmost Chimm system. The station was equipped with two ODP-1 platforms and it will be used as a first line of defense against the Chimms, that were now effectively bordering the federal space.
The system was renamed Lincoln, and it was also the one where “Volatile Motes” were discovered previously, granting the United Systems direct access to these strategic resources as soon as human scientists were able to properly employ them and exploiting the massive energy charge that they could contain.
Well the Council of High Technology haven't performed as well as I'd have hoped with 16% with but a steady improvement on the 2210 results (11%). The United Systems Federation will need the most advanced tools, weapons and equipment possible to hold the line against this alien menace!
I do like how you are renaming everything. It really adds to the richness of the story
Agreed, a wonderful touch.
A very interesting overview of xeno studies. I've always liked the gas giant civilisation and I'm sorry there isn't a way to have them show up as actual population in your empire.
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Agreed on the renaming. These Chimm need to be dealt with quickly, before they get too strong.
These Chimm need to be dealt with quickly, before they get too strong.