Tale of the Sol Dominion
Chapter Two: Manifest Destiny
The Scramble for the Stars: 2205-2220
In the decades since the ISS Alacrity exited hyperspace in the Ditrim system, thousands more starships crossed the border of Utopia and made their way to the new frontier. As more and more ships spread out across the boundaries of known space, the Sol Dominion discovered countless wonders. They found ancient alien ruins, dissected the remains of ancient ships and more.
But even as humanity continued to explore the stars, division within the Dominion itself would bar their way. Late in 2201, an insurgent religious group known as the Throne of God was discovered on New Terra where they were appropriating resources of the state for their own nefarious agenda. After being driven off by the 1st Dominion Fleet, another force loyal to their sinister agenda was encountered in the Lyctabon system.
The encounter with their forces had shown Grand Marshal Alec Bennet just how ill-prepared the fleet was for this conflict and he then took an action none before him had done and invoked Clause 37 of the Sol Dominion Articles of Statehood. He overruled the High Council and temporarily took direct control of the Dominion’s finances to redirect funds from economic development to naval expansion.
Shown Above: The Dominion Fleet mobilizing for an attack on cultist forces in the Lyctabon System.
Over the next year, the navy would be expanded from three ships to eleven and on the 10th of November 2207, the fleet was ordered to engage a battlegroup of three cultist corvettes and an accompanying battleship in the Lyctabon system.
Shown Above: The Battle of Lyctabon
Admiral Masuku’s tactics in the Battle of Lyctabon were not exactly inspired but one cannot deny their effectiveness. The fleet sped towards the cultist positions at top speed, firing missiles and mass driver rounds as they went. The weaker corvettes caught out of position crumpled like wet paper. The battleship was a different story however. It stood up to wave upon wave of fire from the fleet’s ships and was able to successfully maneuver into position to return fire.
The ISS Eclipse and the ISS Damascus found themselves taking fire from the Battleship, designated the Temple of Light, for most of the battle. Ultimately, the Eclipse was unable to stand up to the Temple of Light and was torn apart after the Temple’s main gun pierced the hull and caused its reactor to go critical.
The ISS Eclipse was lost with all hands shortly after its reactor overloaded.
Shown Above: The destruction of the ISS Eclipse during the Battle of Lyctabon
Moments later, however, a cheer rang out through the halls of the fleet as the first rounds pierced the Temple of Light’s shields and made contact with the hull. Once its shields were down, Admiral Masuku took advantage of the fleet's numerical advantage and positioned the remaining vessels of the 1st Fleet out of the Temple’s angle of fire so the fleet could pound the ship into submission without taking unnecessary damage themselves.
Shown above: The Dominion fleet pierces the Temple of Light's shields .
After a few hours of fire, the Temple of Light’s reactor went critical and the fleet was ordered away from the ship before it went critical. The fleet’s captains caught a brief glimpse of the Temple of Light as it exploded in a brilliant flash of light.
Shown Above: The wreck of the battleship, Temple of Light, just before its reactor goes critical.
10,600 cultist sailors perished in that battle. Dominion losses were only 215. Spirits were high that day as the Admiral set the fleet’s course back to Utopia Station. We had removed a major threat to the Dominion’s expansion with minimal losses. What more could be asked for?
Shortly after the Dominion’s crushing victory at the Battle of Lyctabon, a Dominion colony ship rolled off the production lines, ferrying tens of thousands of Humans and their Tebazoan slaves to their new home in the Ditrim system with millions more to follow over the next few years. The Sol Dominion’s first extrasolar colony had finally been established.
Shown above: The colony of Pallas, early in its development.
As the Dominion’s hunger for new starships continued to grow and grow, it became increasingly obvious that the current shipbuilding industry lacked the resources to sustain the level of ship and station production the Dominion required to keep expanding. To meet the growing needs for the various alloys required for that production, the Grand Marshal ordered that a section of unutilized land on New Terra be allocated to the transformation of raw resources into alloys so the Dominion would have access to additional resources to fuel the growing interstellar expansion.
A census of the Dominion’s new colony on the planet of Pallas determines that their slaves are idle. Nothing could be worse than idle slaves so the planet’s provisional government starts the establishment of a series of mining complexes planetside to provide the Dominion with more raw resources and to give the slaves work to do.
Shown above: The provisional government of Pallas orders the construction of additional mines on the planet's surface to give the slaves some work to do.
As the Grand Marshal’s focus turned increasingly to interstellar expansion, he no longer cared so much about restricting the various underground political factions of the Sol Dominion as he had before and repealed an old law put in place by his predecessor banning all political parties save his own. Any new political party still had to go through a lengthy appeal process and prove that their platform would not threaten the Sol Dominion or attempt to undermine its foreign and internal policy agenda but the formation of political parties was no longer illegal.
Shown above: The result of the Grand Marshal repealing a law passed by his predecessor, banning all political parties.
As part of the Dominion’s interstellar expansion, a number of artifacts were found in a local system which indicated the area had once been under the control of a race of synthetic humanoid beings known as the Cybrex. Little is known so far but these Cybrex seem to have been linked together by a form of synthetic hive mind.
That fact seems to be the good part. Sadly, it seems that these Cybrex were nowhere near peaceful and there is strong evidence to suggest that they were engaged in a crusade to destroy all sapient biological life in the galaxy approximately 600,000 years ago.
After taking note of this information, the Grand Marshal has it sealed away and access designated Beta Omega Trinocon 6XA (Literally, nobody but the Grand Marshal and his personally appointed representatives on the High Council can even request it and granting unauthorized access is punishable by immediate execution).
Shown above: An intelligence report from the ISS Alacrity concerning their findings in a local system.
As the Dominion’s population begins to climb, our access to certain consumer goods becomes more problematic as we no longer have enough for the growing population. To counter this growing problem, an undesignated region on the colony world of Pallas is set aside for the construction of a set of factories to increase the Dominion’s production of these goods.
Shown above: The construction of additional manufacturing plants on Pallas to produce more consumer goods.
While the Dominion fleet is sizeable at this stage and more ships are an absolute necessity, the Grand Marshal decides to take the approach of “better safe than sorry” and orders the construction of an additional five corvette class ships to join up with the 11 that currently make up the 1st Dominion Fleet.
Shown above: The starbase in the Utopia system producing additional warships for the Dominion fleet.
As more systems are explored in the name of the Dominion, countless stellar bodies, rich in resources are found, exploited and utilized. With such vast riches flowing into the coffers every day, the Dominion is experiencing an untold era of wealth and prosperity. With a dozen new systems rich in mineral wealth discovered every year, it would seem that the golden era of the Sol Dominion is now.
Shown above: The territory of the Sol Dominion and the surrounding star systems.
