Cat & Mouse

Stardate: 8.2.2258

Location: Sector 5,15, near the Torian Southern and Drengin Western Colonization Region border
 

The NX-1 class Advanced Exploration Cruiser was indeed a work of beauty. Smooth lines, a huge streamlined body - the epitome of advanced Alliance engineering. Gone were the old days when ships would take several months to move from one sector to another. The NX-1 could cover an entire sector within a single month (it was a measure of how vast the Alliance’s territories were, that it would take an NX-1 more than five months to cross across the entire volume of Alliance controlled space, even at top speed).

Right now though the T.A.S. Oracle was gliding slowly through space at minimal speed, in a programmed series of drift-and-dash maneuvers, its sensors searching space for any signs of gravitic distortion, which would indicate the presence of a starship or other objects, like starbases or space debris. Although not capable of giving much detail, the Gravitic Distortion Detector allowed the Alliance ship to detect ships at extreme range, upto 7 parsecs away, without any active detectable emission. Once any ship was detected, the Nexus would stealthily track and approach its target, allowing the other passive sensors, like Modulated Particle Analysers, BVR Telescopes, LR Infrared Receivers and Signal Trappers to analyse the target specifications from a safe distance.

The NX-1 had been patrolling this border region for weeks, its mission - to chart out enemy territory and use coded ultrawave data bursts to report the positions and composition of Drengin defenses and ships to operators aboard the T.A.S. Warhammer, the flagship of the nearby approaching 1st Battle Group. A dangerous job, as had been amply proved by the loss of the legendary T.A.S. Enterprise a few weeks ago - an incident, that along with the Omega 7 attack had led to the re-kindling of hostilities between the Alliance and the Empire. So far though, no enemy ships had been detected.

Captain John Conrad was in his private room, catching up on some much needed sleep, when his communicator started buzzing.

Uttering a string of colourful curses, the captain got up and blearily reached for the communicator.

As soon as he activated the communicator, the voice of his First Officer Parsons informed him that he was urgently needed on the bridge.

Just another false alarm, he thought wearily. But he had to get up nevertheless – after all it came with the job…

----

A few minutes later, as he stumbled through the turbo-lift doors to the bridge, he could sense that this might actually be the real deal. The tension in the air was palpable, though everyone was doing his or her job, stoically refraining from looking at him.

“Report Ms. Parsons”

The red-haired First Officer, Kylie Parsons turned and motioned for him to come to the sensor station. A Caucasian female from the former Canadian Republic, before it had peacefully merged into the North American Union, Kylie had beautiful big brown eyes that could look into your soul. They had once had an intense affair, but it had tapered off when both had realised that it was adversely affecting their work life. After all only it was only one in a million people who actually got a chance to become a part of Starfleet and it made no sense to throw away years of effort just for the sake of an affair that had no future.

Forcing his mind off this line of though, the captain nodded and moved to the upper portion of the bridge. As soon as he saw the Threat Indicator Display he realised what had happened. A group of 5 red dots labeled with myriad statistics – they had found the Drengin!

“Target type and composition?”

The Sensor Officer Mc Grille turned when he saw the captain.

“Hard to say from this range, but it seems like a full Drengin Killer Fleet, composed of Frigates and Escorts.”

A stab of fear went through his spine. If they had been detected…

Mc Grille must have guessed what was going on in his mind, because he immediately added, “They haven’t detected us.”

John nodded but couldn’t keep the relief from his voice.

“Can you give me a course projection?”

The Sensor Officer turned and tapped a few keys on the sensor board. A 3-d hologram of the nearby sectors appeared, with blue lines being superimposed on the red dots.

“We will be able to get a more accurate estimate once we know their speed and mass, of course…”

“…but the picture is clear enough. It seems that they are on an intercept course for the Poseidon system, which lies directly in the path of the approaching 1st Battle Group.”, the captain concluded.

It was the turn of First Officer Kylie to nod. “We guessed as much sir. That’s why we called you.”

John took a deep breath. Walking to his Captain’s chair, he sat down and stared giving orders.

“Okay everybody, you know the drill. Mr. Horatio, enter a course parallel with the target, but at a safe distance. Carefully please, I would prefer not to be detected. Mr. Grille, continue scanning – we must have all the details – ship types, weapons, shield defences, sensors, everything. Once we have enough data, we’ll warn Commander Gordon.”

Everybody resumed their posts and soon the bridge was a scene of hectic but organised activity.

Outside in space, the massive Warp Engines started thrumming as it prepared to activate the transition sequence to hyperspace. It was time to play cat and mouse with a Drengin Killer Fleet.

Just another day in the life of an NX-1 crew.

Anticipation & Reflection

Personal Log
Stardate: 15.10.2257
Alex Gordon
Captain T.A.S. Warhammer & Commander of Alliance Hammer Squadron

 Another potential mother of a battle coming up and once again we are going to be at the forefront of the action. Things just keep getting more and more exciting. Though this time I doubt whether we will be able to come lightly off. The Drengin were certainly no pushover…but the Torians and Altairians were able to tie down their fleets…preventing them from turning on the Alliance with their full force. But even though we won most of the few battles that occurred and destroyed several Drengin ships, we still suffered casualties. I lost a lot of good men in that last major battle of Theta Iota…people under my command. The vision of Drengin missiles tearing through those ships and the screams of the dying men still echo in my brain and sleeping at night is becoming more difficult day by day.

But this time it looks like full-scale war. Despite having lost a total of more than 50 ships and some planets, they still remain a powerful force to reckon with. Our military attaches have kept us informed of the horrific casualties suffered by even the massively powerful Altairian Navy – with more than 70 ships destroyed and almost 3 billion Altairian soldiers killed. The Torians too have lost many ships and have once again fallen back against the renewed Drengin offensive, though they haven’t lost any more planets.

Even if our ships do manage to blow the Imperial Grand Fleet out of the skies, their numerous worlds are protected by billions of bloodthirsty Drengin marines - the galaxy’s fiercest warriors, who are all sworn to defend their planets to the very end.

Of course the Alliance is now in a much better position itself to deal with the Drengin menace. Most of the Nova class Cruisers that had made up the bulk of Starfleet have been upgraded to the far more deadly modified Nexus Torpedo class – more than twice as fast and with double the firepower. The Alliance has been pumping out dozens of these and several of the mighty Warhammer Battleships in the last one year. In fact, with the new emphasis on industrial production, most of the Alliance’s factories are performing at 100 % efficiency (up from the previous 61 % a few months ago) and the Alliance’s total production levels are even catching up with the mighty Arceans and Altairians. Intelligence reports have shown that the Alliance Navy has now become the fourth most powerful space force in the known galaxy, having already surpassed the Drengin Empire and nearing the Yor Collective too in combat power.

The Warhammer – reminds me of the T.A.S. Warhammer, my current ship and the first ship of its class. Quite a change from my previous unmodified Nexus Cruiser with which we had taken on the Drengin Killer Fleets.

Although I do miss my old Ranger Squadron, I must say that I am excited to have been put in command of the Alliance’s first squadron of Warhammers – with the safety of 4 of these beauties and more than 400 personnel on my aching shoulders. The lethality of these new ships was proved in our most recent engagement, where our squadron took out a Yor gifted Drengin Ith’kar Frigate (the same type which had inflicted such heavy casualties on our older Nova and Longbows and had destroyed the Omega 7 Starbase) within a few seconds…without any loss of life or significant damage.

It’s good to see that the crew is adjusting nicely to these new ships and morale is high despite the recent loss of many comrades. I am glad that all those brave sailors who died in the line of duty received their due accolades though that will be small compensation to their bereaved families. I can only hope that these new ships will allow us to take on the powerful Drengin Navy on a more even footing…with the minimum of loss of human life.

Have to go now…the emergency drill alarm has just sounded. More later…

Build-Up

G.Y. 31-32 (T.Y. 2256-2257)

It was during this brief period that the Alliance decided to embark on a daring course of action. Terran leaders, under advice from Grand Admiral Hartford, had decided that the resurgent Drengin threat had to be eliminated once and for all…and with the Torians and Altairians (who were also facing rising tensions with the Arceans, who accused them of fermenting rebellion in their colony on Dark Yor III - a worrying development) engaging their fleets with heavy casualties, the time was ripe for the Alliance to change their defensive stance and launch a full-scale invasion of the Drengin Empire.

Although the Yor had never challenged them openly, their involvement in the notorious Dark Yor and Snathi plans for galactic domination as well as their giving ships to the Drengin to fight the Alliance, the strange virus attacks on Allied Research Networks and the mysterious disappearance of personnel in Yor space, as well as the deteriorating state of relations all led to one certain fact – that the Yor Collective would one day open hostilities with the Alliance. Before that happened and before the Yor became too powerful (they were already the second most advanced and powerful race in the known universe), Alliance Command decided to take care of the Drengin threat and so avoid a two-front war that might well prove to be disastrous.

With this aim in mind, Commander Hartford decided to build up his forces near the SCZ and a steady flow of ships and materials soon started their long journey to this area. Of course, enough ships (around 25) were left behind in the Northern Colonization Zone to deal with any Yor attack or atleast buy time to re-deploy forces…just in case.

By August of 2257, Alliance Command had amassed a force of 8 Warhammer Battleships, 60 Nexus Torpedo Cruisers, 2 Enterprise-NX-1s and 24 fully laden Warcraft Troop Transports (more than 90 starships) for their campaign, designated Operation Blitzkrieg.



The Alliance First Battle Group arrayed near the southern border prior to starting Operation Blitzkrieg

This was going to be humanity’s first full-scale interstellar war - a costly war, against a dangerous, powerful and more advanced foe, but a war that was necessary to ensure the survival of the human race.

The Great Alliance-Drengin War was about to begin in earnest.

Historical Note: It was also during this period that the Alliance built an Economic Capital on Earth and a Technological capital on Snathi IV. In addition bio-engineers and geologists had discovered 2 new resources – Harmony crystals and Aphrodisiacs. These were immediately harnessed and mass produced and would greatly help in the growth of the Alliance in the years to come.

 Stardate: 10.02.2255

Location: City of Antoris Prime, Planet Brendor II, Brendor System, Alliance Northern Colonization Zone

 

Antoris Prime, named after the first person who had set foot on this planet, was not only the capital city of Brendor II, but the Manufacturing Capital of the Terran Alliance as a whole. Despite not having a readymade Precursor Mine underneath its surface like the border planet of Oredtes III, or any exceptional mineral riches like some of the Alliance’s other planets, Brendor II’s natural inhabitability (it was a class 15 world), enterprising citizens and the fact that it was one of the Alliance’s earliest settled planets, had helped it to become the most productive planet in the Alliance territories.

And as the capital city of the Alliance’s most productive planet, Antoris Prime was a very busy place indeed. The skylines were thick with huge Skytrains which zipped across the city, mostly carrying workers from the numerous Manufacturing Centers on the outskirts of the city. Squadrons of Air Taxis and private hovercars only added to the organised chaos, as giant space freighters took off and landed on the nearby Space Port, carrying surplus products to be traded to the other planets of the Alliance and even exchanged for the goods and currencies of the Alliance’s neighbouring alien civilizations.

Jack Haverton was a worried man indeed as he unseeingly glanced out the Plexiglass window of the Skytrain. His worries were not centered on himself, but rather on the fate of his colleague and till late his co-worker Sal Corrison. Sal was a good man, a good father, a good worker and most importantly a good friend. But he was not very flexible in his thoughts…and so when the government started upgrading the factories to the new, almost fully automated Manufacturing Centers…he could not adapt. The result…he had lost his job. And with 4 mouths to feed in his family, he was in dire circumstances indeed. True the government’s federal welfare scheme would not let his family starve, but things would be hard…

The soft voice of the Skytrain’s automated comm. system, announcing the approaching stop, broke through his thoughts. This was where he had to get off.

As the Skytrain sped away, Jack Haverton turned and walked towards the nearest grav-pad, which would take him down to the sub-levels of the city. Ten minutes later he was walking through the doors of his favourite watering hole, a disreputable bar-cum-diner called The Orisons. Somehow, like always, the dim lighting and loud raucous ambience inside served as a therapeutic remedy to soothe his already frayed senses. The place was crowded as usual, and there were even some Altairians present, with their strange cybernetic face ornaments and glowing symbol covered dresses.

As Jack made his way to his usual spot near the bar, he noticed for the first time that something was wrong. The nearby Virtua-Pool and Auto-Gambling setups were deserted and everybody seemed to be crowded near the single holo-tank in the joint. And it wasn’t even Hover-Soccer week.

The sound emanating from the holo-tank became more audible as he worked his way closer. The smartly dressed GNN anchor was just saying – “Although the military remain tight-lipped about the entire event, our sources have confirmed that as of a few weeks ago a single Drengin warship, identified as one of the powerful Ith’kar Frigates gifted to them by the Collective, engaged and took out 2 Alliance Nova Missile Cruisers in a surprise attack, before moving on and destroying the relatively unprotected Alliance Military Starbase Omega 7 in the Sol sector, leading to the death of many of the station’s almost 500 strong personnel. This, despite the recent peace treaty signed between the Alliance and the Drengin.”

Several outraged gasps could be heard as well as a few horrified cries. A few of the crowd even had relatives working in that station…Jack couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. He turned his attention back to the display.

“However, our reports also indicate that the Drengin ship, identified as the D.I.S. Kro’kar was finally intercepted and destroyed by an Alliance Nexus squadron, consisting of 2 ships, one of which was destroyed in the battle. Sources have learned that the military plans to re-build this Starbase and have decided to install some heavy-duty weaponry this time around, like in the case of the other frontier Battle Stations. We have also been informed that Alliance Nexus Cruisers have engaged and destroyed 2 more Drengin Escort ships, gifted by the Collective.

The Drengin representatives have as usual no comments, other their usual threats of annihilation. We also have reports of protestors converging on the Drengin Embassy on Odin III.”

Here the holo-tank switched to a view of a large angry crowd holding banners and protesting outside the embassy, as Alliance Enforcement Officials held them at bay by brandishing their Stun-Batons and Needle-Guns while behind the walls of the embassy the emotionless Drengin Guards paced relentlessly, carrying some terrifying looking weapons.

Jack Haverton could take no more. Suddenly the dim lighting, increasingly volatile atmosphere and the loud din were making him feel nauseous - he had to get out!

As the doors parted and he stumbled out, an ominous feeling of dread overcame him. Surely there was going to be full-fledged war now - a deadly interstellar war with one of the deadliest and most aggressive civilizations in the galaxy. And as the Alliance’s Manufacturing Capital, Brendor II would be a prime target. With all the Alliance’s fleets at the various borders, the core planets themselves were guarded only by the weak and obsolete Guardian ships, thereby leaving them almost defenseless against attacks from space – something amply demonstrated by the Omega 7 incident. And how would the Alliance’s neighbours react to this crisis?

The future had just got a whole lot more uncertain…

First Blood

Battle of Theta Iota:

Terran Alliance Forces: 5 Combat Squadrons (a total of 32 ships – mostly the newer Nexus class Missile Cruisers along with a handful of Nova Missile Cruisers and Longbow Heavy Fighters) – of which only Ranger & Wolf Squadrons actually engaged the enemy (6 Nexus Cruisers each).

Drengin Empire Forces: 2 Killer Fleets (a total of 12 ships, consisting mostly of the M-5 Thra’kath Battle Frigates, armed with 2 Kra’tak missile launchers each and protected by advanced Barrier Shields)…which was a part of the Hunter-Killer First Group that had decimated the technologically inferior Torian Battle Fleets in the beginning of the war.

Outcome: Major Allied Victory

Casualties: The Drengin lost all 12 ships and more than 700 personnel. The Alliance lost 5 ships and 2 more were damaged. Almost 200 personnel lost their lives in this battle.


The T.A.S. Courageous facing off against the Drengin Battle Frigates and Escorts

Analysis: The Drengin Commander, on realization that he had walked into a trap, decided to spring a surprise of his own. He sent one of his Killer Fleets to the left, to flank the approaching Wolf Squadron at an oblique angle, hoping to surprise the Alliance with this bold move and earn enough time to launch a first strike. The plan worked and the Drengin ships launched their missiles first, destroying one of the Nexus cruisers and damaging another. That was when things started going wrong for them.

The original strike did not do as much damage as hoped and the Allied ships replied with a withering missile salvo of their own. As the battle progressed and the Drengin Commander moved his main Killer Fleet to attack the already engaged Wolf squadron from the flanks, disaster struck. Commander Alex Gordon, in a bold move, moved his Ranger Squadron out of formation and attacked from the right flank. The initial missile salvo destroyed one-thirds of the Drengin ships and stopped them from launching their attack on the beleaguered Wolf Squadron. The battle soon turned into a deadly melee, as ships weaved to evade incoming fire, while streams of deadly Harpoon missiles, their exhausts glowing brightly against the darkness of space and exploding vessels lit up the darkness of space.

The Drengin force, though surprised, was still formidable and a total of 5 Alliance Cruisers were destroyed and a few others damaged, before their last ship succumbed to the punishing Terran missile bombardment.

Aftermath: Although the Alliance suffered significant losses in this battle, it was a great victory for them. This was the first time ever that any race had managed to defeat and demolish Drengin Killer Fleets and the first to do so despite having the same number of ships (the Torian fleets had been no match for any of these fleets and the Altairians too had taken casualties). The battle showed that, at last, the Alliance had become a military force to reckon with and its ships were no pushovers. The Torians took this opportunity to declare war on the Drengin again…with the Altairians coming to their aid once again.

A few months later, Allied scientists came up with a new and very destructive weapon – the Photonic Torpedo. Using a super-condensed concentration of FTL Photonic particles, this warhead could inflict terrible damage on an enemy ship. Not to be outdone, Polaris, Orion and SpaceTech Industries submitted their plans for 3 radical new ships, which would serve to revolutionize the Allied Navy and form the backbone of the new and powerful Terran Starfleet for many years to come.



The first was the modified Nexus Torpedo Cruiser. Having the same specifications as the original Nexus (though a 100 feet longer), the only difference was that 3 Cydonis Photonic Torpedo Launchers replaced the 3 Harpoon AMS Launchers, thereby seriously enhancing the Nexus’s firepower. Alliance Command embarked on a massive modernization program to upgrade as many Novas and older Nexuses as possible.



The second ship was the Warhammer class Battleship. More than 2,200 feet long (almost twice as large as the Nexus), this monster was armed with 5 Photonic Torpedo launchers, had a crew of 100 souls, advanced sensors and was as fast as any other Alliance ship, other than the new Enterprise-NX1 class scout ships.



The third and most revolutionary ship was the Enterprise-NX1 class Advanced Exploration Cruiser. Equipped with 3 Novaris Warp Drives, the NX-1 could move at speeds of upto LH 12 (easily one of the fastest ships in the known universe), had highly advanced sensors (2 Survey Suites and 1 Sensor Array), which enabled it to detect ships upto 7 parsecs away (as compared to the 2-3 parsec detection range of most other ships) and had a range greater than any other Alliance ship.

This ship was conceptualized as a part of the new tactical doctrine that had been drawn up by Alliance Command. In any attack the NX-1s would use their superior speed and range to go into enemy territory and record all enemy movements. This information would be transmitted to the main Alliance Battle Force, which would then re-deploy its ships for maximum effect. It was theorized that these NX-1 (as had been the case of the centuries old AWACS planes) would make it virtually impossible for enemy fleets to sneak up on the Allied forces and give Starfleet the edge in any conflict.

The T.A.S. Enterprise was upgraded to this version and immediately re-deployed back into Drengin space to monitor events. Alliance Command was sure that with its new sensors and enhanced speed, the Enterprise would be able to outrun any pursuers. The T.A.S. Terra, which was tracking an Arcean Battle Fleet in the Dark Yor system, was similarly upgraded and more ships were constructed in the Scottlingas II shipyards.

The Dawn of War

G.Y. 29 (T.Y. 2254)

The T.A.S. Enterprise, commanded by Captain Theodorus Clark (the original captain had been Dan Higgins) was at the forefront of the action, sending back ultrawave holo feeds and data streams that kept Allied Command informed of the progress of the war. Technical analysts pored for months over the specs of huge Drengin Battleships, tough Battle Frigates and battle tested Escorts – all armed with Kra’tak missiles that were comparable to the Harpoon AMS and the small Defenders, armed with the ridiculously powerful Psyonic missiles. Meanwhile the military and strategic experts watched in horror the almost real-time decimation of the Torian ships. Although the Torians fought bravely, their ships were surrounded and destroyed by the Drengin Killer Fleets…the border between the 2 civilizations was littered with debris (mostly Torian). Meanwhile the Enterprise’s sensors detected a steady stream of Freighters, carrying fleeing Torian refugees. Most of them even made it to safety, but a few of them were intercepted by Drengin ships and either captured or destroyed.

Then, disaster struck. An Alliance Seeker class Scout Ship – the T.A.S. Discovery, while monitoring activity on the western Drengin-Torian border was intercepted and destroyed by a massive Drengin Battleship, launched from a nearby planet. Starfleet Command immediately responded by warning all nearby ships to withdraw from Drengin space immediately. Receiving this directive, Captain Theodorus Clark immediately ordered the crew to turn the Enterprise around and make for Alliance space as fast as possible.

The real action began a few months later, when sensors on the Omega 6 Battle Station detected an incoming Yor warship from the Collective’s territories…but captained by a Drengin crew and carrying the rusty brown and red colours of the Empire. Allied Intelligence had sent reports that the Yor had handed over some of their Frigates and Escorts to the Drengin, to help their cause. President Bradley decided to make a stand and told Commander Hartford to warn all Drengin ships to keep away from Alliance space. He knew that if he let the new Drengin ships just waltz through the Alliance space, not only would he give the impression that the Terrans were weak and vulnerable, but also further alienate the Torians and Altairians (who were already sore because the Alliance hadn’t joined the fight yet).

The Drengin commander, as predicted, did not withdraw despite several warnings but kept moving deeper into Alliance territory. This left Alan Bradley with no option but to declare war. And then all hell broke loose.

The former Yor Frigate was one of the newer models, armed with Nano-Rippers and faster as well as larger than the Alliance Novas. In the end it took an entire Alliance Squadron (of Novas and Longbows) to destroy the monster…with one cruiser – the T.A.S. Felix suffering massive damage. In the course of the next few months, 3 more borrowed Yor ships (1 Frigate and 2 Escorts) entering Alliance space were destroyed, though another of the Escorts managed to make it through safely. The Terrans lost 3 ships in these battles (1 Nova and 2 Longbows), while several others were damaged.

Meanwhile, Drengin Imperial Command had accorded the destruction of the T.A.S. Enterprise as their number one priority. 3 full Killer Fleets gave chase to the Enterprise as it fled across almost half the galaxy in order to evade its pursuers. Although one Killer Fleet eventually gave up and returned, the others continued the chase. The Drengin commanders were so confident that they thought that even if they might not be able to catch the Enterprise, the 2 remaining Killer Fleets would burn through the Alliance Southern Colonization Zone…destroying all ships and Starbases in their way. This would not only humiliate the Terrans but also expose the weakness of the Alliance Navy and maybe embolden the Yor Collective to attack. They also successfully negotiated a peace treaty to which the Torians and Altairians hastily agreed, leaving the Alliance high and dry (this would lead to some bad blood between the Alliance and their allies later on).

To deal with the Drengin threat, Commander Hartford started to build up his forces in the SCZ. He was confident that they would be able to stop the Drengin, but with heavy casualties (the Novas and Longbows were outgunned by the Drengin Thra’kath M5 Battle Frigates that made up the bulk of the 2 incoming Killer Fleets).

That’s when designers at Orion Industries came to the rescue. Using new miniaturization techniques learned by the Alliance from the Snathi (in one of their last deals before hostilities started) they came up with the new Nexus class Missile Cruiser. Armed with 3 Harpoon AMS launchers (instead of 2), and equipped with the Novaris Warp II Engines, the 1,100 ft long Nexus had 1.5 times the firepower and twice the speed of the Nova…but with a slightly reduced range. Crewed by 50 personnel, the Nexus was considered a match for the Drengin M-5…and this would soon be put to the test.


The Nexus class Missile Cruiser

In a desperate move, Alliance Command tried to upgrade as many Novas in the frontier region as possible before the Drengin arrived. 3 squadrons were refitted…including the soon to be famous Ranger and Wolf Squadrons. The remaining 3 squadrons in the area consisted of a mix of Novas and Longbows. And then the Drengin arrived…

Battle Drums

G.Y. 25 – 28 (T.Y. 2250-2253)
 

In the earlier part of this period, in order to counter increasing Altairian influence in the South Eastern & Eastern Colonization Zones, the Alliance embarked on an ambitious project to build a chain of 5 massive Influence Starbases…floating structures in space that contained entire cities, cultural centers and diplomatic enclaves. Although a very expensive endeavor, once constructed, these starbases did what they had been designed to do – significantly curbing the aggressive Altairian cultural invasion.

The first shots of what would turn out to become a full galactic war started with a horrific tragedy. One of SolCorps giant Space Freighters, while on final approach to Docking Bay 4 of the massive Alpha-1 Economic Starbase in the heart of Alliance space suddenly and inexplicably exploded, causing massive damage to the station and damaging nearby ships. The holo-feeds of the Galactic News Agency, showing the terrible carnage caused by the blast – mutilated bodies lying scattered around in the docking bay, damaged ships with damaged hulls drifting rudderless in space and the massive inferno in the base itself being fought by hundreds of firefighters and automated Fire-Bots shocked people across the Alliance and for the first time reminded them that they were living in a very violent universe.

Alliance Command, though stunned, assumed that the entire thing was an accident, until a detailed examination of the ships communication logs with SolCorp headquarters revealed that just a few weeks ago, on its last trip to Snathi II, the ships captain had reported a possible break-in while landed on the planets surface. Nothing had been stolen and a cursory examination of the ship had not indicated that anything was amiss or there had been sabotage of some kind…and so SolCorp did not pursue the matter very closely. But to the TBI (Terran Bureau of Investigation) analysts, this entry showed that the incident might not be the accident it seemed.

A few months later Allied diplomats on Altaria alerted President Bradley that their new allies, the Altairians had declared war on the Dark Yor. It seemed that they had destroyed a Dark Yor Freighter that had been heading towards one of their major Mining Starbases, ignoring all hails. Altairian agents had allegedly uncovered a Dark Yor plot to use disguised freighters to strike specific targets in Altairian and Torian space. They suspected a Yor hand behind these events, but this was not confirmed.

The T.A.S. Terra, a Nova class Missile Cruiser, commanded by Captain Luke Hastings was already in the Dark Yor system, since Alliance Command had decided to keep an eye on this volatile system, where the Altairians and Arceans also occupied planets. The Alliance had also targeted this system for colonization, but they had been beaten by the faster ships of the other races. Nevertheless, Starfleet had decided to keep an eye on the system…just in case.

As a result, Alliance Command, through live holo-feeds transmitted by hyper wave from the T.A.S. Terra, could witness the entire battle as if they were there in the system themselves. President Alan Bradley, Commander Hartford and other senior military commanders and analysts watched as the 2 Altairian Republic Battle Fleets converged from different directions on Dark Yor II. Bright blue Phasor beams lit space as they destroyed the couple of Dark Yor Fighters protecting the planets. The green laser beams fired in return bounced harmlessly off the powerful Barrier energy shields of the Republic ships. Then the massive Altairian Battle Transports moved in, releasing hundreds of shuttles that sped to the green world below, while the warships split up to seek and destroy all fleeing Dark Yor transports (which they believed were all armed with specially rigged explosives).

Immediately after, Sensor Operators on the Omega 1 Battle Station in the Southern Colonization Zone reported a small fleet of Altairian Fighters and Battle Transports heading towards Snathi II – the home world of the Snathi. Right about this time Alliance agents inserted into Snathi society after the Alpha-1 incident reported having unearthed a horrific conspiracy by the Snathi, before they went incommunicado (most of them were discovered, tortured and killed). It seemed that the plot unearthed by the Altairians was more widespread than imagined - both the Snathi and Dark Yor had prepared a plan to crash nuke-armed freighters into the Economic Starbases of a few of the major galactic powers, thereby sparking off confusion and, in the worst case full scale war (many said that the Yor were said to have been the masterminds of this plot, and also pointed at the free handing over of a Yor Heavy Fighter to the nascent Snathi Navy, as well as the Collective having flourishing trade routes with both, as additional proof). It was also reported that the Alpha-1 attack had been a test run and the lack of suspicion by Alliance authorities had emboldened them to begin their scheme.

Alan Bradley had no choice but to declare war on the Snathi. This led to the rather hastily planned Alliance Operation Dartfish, with the nearest Alliance Combat Squadron, the Rangers being diverted towards Snathi II, where the Terran ships, led by Commander Alex Gordon, in an intense, but one-sided battle destroyed 8 Snathi Freighters, which were on the verge of heading out towards their respective targets. Luckily the Alliance had recently embarked on an ambitious modernization drive, which had led to all existing Stormrider transports being upgraded to the much faster Warcraft version, whose Novaris Warp Drive IIs could propel it at speeds of LH 7. This enabled the Alliance transports to reach Snathi II first, before the Altairians and launch a successful invasion.



Alliance Invasion Fleet heading towards Snathi II, as Ranger Squadron takes out the enemy freighters and keeps the Altairians at bay.

Although the Alliance had managed to prevent a major disaster and had greatly increased their military reputation, more than 10 million Terran soldiers died in the invasion (though this was nothing against the more than 150 million Snathi troops that had perished). But it seemed that the threat of war had been dealt with successfully and peace would return to the galaxy once again.

Then suddenly an event occurred that immediately changed the balance of power in the quadrant. For some inexplicable reason…perhaps provoked by several border incidents, or to take revenge for their centuries of enslavement in time past and emboldened by the recent discovery of a couple of powerful Precursor Frigates, the Alliance’s Torian allies declared war on the Drengin and the Altairians followed suit immediately after to aid their allies. This news was immediately conveyed by Chief Diplomat Aurius Victus, based on Toria, in a famous ultrawave message, along with a reminder that the Confederation were asking the Alliance to aid them in this war.

This put the Alliance President Alan Bradley in a prickly situation. Although not particularly fond of the Drengin, the Alliance was still not ready for full-scale war. Almost half their relatively small navy still consisted of the Longbow class Heavy Fighters and the 40 Nova Cruisers that formed the combat core were too few and outclassed by the heavier and more powerful Drengin counterparts. Moreover, interstellar war was a very costly enterprise leading to the loss of billions of lives…something that Alan Bradley did not want to undertake, unless it was absolutely imperative. Instead he settled for cutting off trade routes with the Drengin and imposing trade sanctions.

In addition, other than the 10 Combat Squadrons (almost 60 ships) patrolling the Yor, Altairian, Torian and Arcean borders, 3 Combat Squadrons were immediately re-assigned to make all haste to the Southern Colonization Zone…just in case. All available Troop Transports were also similarly re-directed and all Sector Commands were notified to send their newly commissioned ships to the new checkpoints.

However, as the weeks passed, news from the frontier kept getting more alarming. The Torian Navy, despite its huge size was being decimated by the much smaller but technologically far superior Drengin Imperial Fleet. The bulk of the Torian Navy were mostly Fighter and Heavy Fighter class ships, along with a handful of larger medium hulls, all armed with relatively outdated beam weapons and with virtually no defence against the Drengin Escorts, Battle Frigates, War Cruisers and Battleships, equipped with powerful missile weapons and advanced Force shields. In a few weeks the Torians had lost more than 140 ships (half of their standing navy), while the Drengin had lost only 6 ships (although several other Drengin ships were damaged). The Drengin had also successfully invaded 6 Torian planets, leading to the loss of life of 100 million Torian troops and more than 3 billion civilians. The Altairians, though eagerly joining the conflict did little except for a few border skirmishes, in which 3 Republic ships were destroyed for the loss of 2 Drengin ships. Things looked bleak indeed for the Torian Confederation…