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Part
1B - The Overstretched Human Sphere and Communication Limitation
The
Human Sphere is roughly 40ly in diameter along several arm and sub-fingers/clusters
radiating in all directions from the Core (Sol/Alpha Centauri). Each
Arm will have several stars that are gateway systems or chokepoints
that all ships must travel. The
hub of the French Arm is known as the Beta Canum Cluster where most
“Garden” colony worlds had already established for at least 50 years. However,
most of the other systems and several fringe “fingers” had yet to be
fully explored. The Pentapods'
sphere, also know as the DM+27 28217 cluster of 14 or more systems,
was declared off limits at Pentapod’s request until a better working
relationship could be established. Elsewhere on the edge of the frontier
near Eta Bootis (Aurore) the DM+18 2776 “finger”, also known as the
Wolf Cluster, of at least 25 systems had just begun to be explored. The Human sphere was overextended and was very
vulnerable against an aggressor.
Like
the early days of human colonial history on Earth (1400-1800AD) communications
were sporadic and irregular at best. In the late 23rd and dawn of the 24th
century the widely stretched early colonies and outposts had not yet
developed a regular organization of courier/communications ships. Communication was still limited by light speed
even if starships are not. Couriers
were usually merchants that typically traveled on established regular
System-to-System routes. It still takes weeks for communications to
reach the Core even using fast couriers, traveling pony-express style,
from a frontier world like Aurore. Requests
for relief after a disaster or an attack would not be know to other
nearby systems for days or even weeks. The
Core would not typically get word for over a month regarding events
on the frontier.
Ship
communications typically consist of vessels rendezvousing less than
60 light seconds from each other usually at a consistant meeting point
such as a way station or other orbiting facility. Hard transfers of cargo and personnel take several
hours as the ships usually require a place to dock. Open space transfers are rare and somewhat dangerous. The
Coordination of fleet and convoy movement is even a greater challenge. Ships
leaving at the exact same time and speed from the same location will
never arrive in the system in formations and are often millions of miles
away from each other and can arrive hours apart. The reason this happens is that even slight differences
in only a thousandth of a degree over 7.7 light years can equate to
millions of miles away from your target destination and stutterwarps
never operate at the same speed due to shifts in mass within the ship
during operations. Communication
and coordination in-between systems are impossible due to the high speed
traveled by the stutterwarp ships. Although
most starships will stop halfway between systems to reorient themselves,
coordination has never been accomplished due to the inability to arrive
in the same location at the same time. Fleet and convoy rendezvous are
typically done at a planetary body outer system outside the stutterwarp
.01G threshold.
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A Marseilles Class Liner
in operation in the French Arm
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INDEX
Part
1C - French Arm/Kafer Sphere Chokepoints
The
route between the Core and the Kafer Sphere has three limiting chokepoints
that all starships must travel. Those
systems are Beowulf, Hochbaden and Arcturus. Beowulf was the gateway to the BCV cluster and
is a main shipping way station facility between the Core and the French
Arm. Beowulf always has a large
military presence and closely monitored interstellar traffic. Hochbaden was heavily colonized, but most of
the facilities being scattered on large orbiting factories and other
outlining mining facilities scattered in the system.
Hochbaden was lightly defended and did not have any permanent
warship presence, although German warships visited the system often. Arcturus was the weakest link in the frontier.
Arcturus
Station: On the edge of explored
space, the system was only occupied by humans for the scientific research
of an older Population II star, which is passing through the plane of
the galaxy. The Arcturus system
is devoid of any planets, but has some very small captured rocky bodies
and no usable natural resources so a large research station was placed
in the system for the initial purpose of studying Arcturus. Long-term
intentions were to use the facility as a way station for ships traveling
farther down arm once that region, known as the Serpeniti Cluster, was
explored for colonization.
INDEX
Part
1D - First Contact
The
Kafers first contacted humans by chance. A
Kafer ship of unknown design, probably a scout ship, entered the Arcturus
system in 2295. The Human research
station noted an unanticipated stutterwarp signature breaching the star’s
gravity field. The researchers at the station attempted to contact
the vessel thinking this was an exploration vessel or a supply ship,
which usually arrived at irregular intervals, and was often badly off
course. The ship did not attempt
to return contact and the Human research station became concerned the
ship might be damaged and of need of assistance.
 It is estimated that the Kafers were completely
unaware of the presence of the station until they received this general
communication from the station, and although the Kafers did receive
the Human communications from the station they were unable to translate
it. In any event, the Kafers would not have understood
the transmission as Kafer speech patterns are completely unlike human
speech with its heavy vernacular filled dialogue. The Kafer ships conducted passive surveillance
of the station and recorded all vocal and visual communications being
transmitted from the station.
The
Human researchers turned their stations instrumentation toward the unidentified
ship to help further assess the situation. Although
no unmistakable images were discerned, the researchers did determine
that the ship was not of any known Human design and was either an unknown
class of Pentapod ship or more excitingly, a new alien species. The ship departed without further contact or
incident. Upon the arrival and
return of the next supply mission to Arcturus, word of the event spread
slowly to the frontier colonies and eventually back to the Core.
The
French Union and new German Government were over occupied with their
own political differences, exploitations of their colonies, establishing
outposts and building alliances with the Pentapods to pay much heed
to this vague and by now greatly exaggerated reports of a unknown, unidentified
ship passing through the Arcturus system that may or my not have been
a new alien species. Any survey ship, courier ship or communication
drone deployed to the Arcture station would have provided some level
of surveillance and warning to the colony and forces stationed at Aurore.
In fact, no significant attempts were made to follow up on the station’s
account or monitor the Arcturus system until communication with the
station was lost in 2297.
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The survey ship Henri
Poincaré operating in the Wolf
Cluster in 2295
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INDEX
Part
1E - Understanding the Threat and Taking Precautions
There
was no way to determine that the ship discovered entering the Arcturus
system in 2295 could have been hostile. No hostile action was taken and no outward signs
of hostility were noted, other than not responding to a general hail. The now glaringly missed fact, discounted by
nearly every one who read about the event, was that the research station’s
report did mention that the unknown ship arrived from and departed toward
the outward direction from human space in the direction of the Serpentine
cluster.
French
intelligence and survey analysts wrongly concluded that the ship was
likely a Pentapod ship or an undeclared mining/merchant or even possibly
although less likely pirate ship that the research station had not noted
passing through the system. The idea that this was a new species was not
well received and championed by any high-ranking authority. Simply stated, no in-depth analysis or special
precautions were taken to either monitor or to secure the system after
the failure of first contact. Regardless,
in the event of hostilities, the French research station was not armed
with any weapons and had no quick and autonomous way of communicating
with the fleets at Aurore. The
crew did have supplies of small arms kept in the cargo bays. These arms
were for use with the French Orbital marines and were meant for resupply
of French troops, if needed. As
the supplies were secured and in the Zero-G cargo hold they were of
little use to the researchers on the edge of the frontier.
In
2297 all communications with the Arcturus station was lost after unknown
warships attacked the next supply ship entering the system. The idea of piracy or possible Pentapod warships
now seemed less likely, but still possible. A few nearly obsolete Ukrainian ships and some
very capable French warships were sent to reinforce Aurore and then
to Arcturus to investigate and possibly secure the station. The warships detached to investigate Arcturus
did not even get within visual range of the station before it was approached
by a several unknown, heavily armored and powerful ships. A painful decision was made to declare the station
a captured casualty and determined that there was little chance of survivors.
The French, Ukrainian and German fleet commanders began to recognize
a significant potential threat and did send a few more powerful warships
to shore up the meager defenses at Aurore, but did little else to prepare
for any hostility.
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Ukrainian destroyers Kiev and Sevastopol
patrolling Eta Bootis in 2297
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INDEX
Part
1F -
Overall Human Military Response and the Hochbaden System
Some
French and Ukrainian were already forward staged at Aurore. German
forces were deployed from nearby Hochbaden leaving that system practically
undefended. The strongest French
response was to deploy a frontline Battleship, with a flight of 6 fighters
to Aurore. The Ukrainians had
more than half of their fleet defending their lone outlining colony. The new German government
sent a few frigates, but were obligated to used Hochbaden as
their base of operations, with the intention of sending their new Battlecruiser
on its completion. The senior
fleet commander, lead by the French, determined that Aurore, because
of its population base, would be the point of defense to address this
unknown threat.
French
Intelligence at the time wrongly concluded that there was an equal chance
that this new alien threat could be coming from either the Wolf Cluster
nearest to Hochbaden or Serpenti Cluster that lied farther out beyond
Arcturus. The predicament with the decision to use Aurore
as a base was both politically and economically motivated for support
of the primarily French colonialists on the planet. However, any enemy ships from either the Wolf
or Serpentinis clusters need not travel through Eta Bootis to penetrate
into the French Arm. The Germans
did not ignore this fact as they had begun modifying some of their facilities
at Hochbaden with energy weapons.
The
crux of the defense of this frontier was that the primary supporting
forces would not and did not share intelligence or unify under a single
command. Although the French maintained the superiority
of the situation the German and Ukrainian forces would not be subordinated
and often patrolled without informing other forces of their intentions. Another
fact, mostly ignored by high-level intelligence planners was that an
enemy ship could travel straight to Hochbaden from Arcturus or via DM+18
2776 also known as “Wiseman”. Both
of those systems were completely unmonitored during this period and
the survey ships that were located in the area were moved back to the
safety of the inner French colony worlds. The
Eta Bootis system itself was difficult to monitor due to the star’s
dual companion, which was prone to flares and that both stars had a
fair number of gas giants and multiple moons. This
companion star flares constantly interfered with long-range scanners
was at some distance from the Aurore colony to properly patrol with
any regularity without leaving the colony vulnerable.
The
attack would come to Eta Bootis as planners anticipated, but when the
attack occurred the human forces were scattered throughout the dual
star system and were unable to provide a solid defense for the colony.
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Kafer warship spotted in the Hochbaden system
in 2300
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INDEX
Part
1G - Kafer Physiology Overview
“Kafers
love to fight” is both a cliché, and a fact. Ignorance
is not bliss to a Kafer and it goes against Kafer physiology to be at
peace. Kafers fight to keep their
intelligence level high and is triggered by a similar biological stimulation
that give humans an adrenaline boost during a time of crisis. Kafers fighting with others
of its kind and serves as a valuable social tool in keeping civilized
Kafer from falling in a pattern of self-destruction. In order to maintain this level of awareness
the Kafer Leaders or “Suzerains” were at constant odds with each other,
which was adequate as it fulfilled a sufficient level of stimulation
for the entire species.
Non-Xenobiologists,
Neo-Sociologists and other Pacifist groups’ claims that these creatures
could be lived with in peaceful coexistence are both uneducated and
ignorant. The Kafers did not attack humans because we invaded
their space or they were just defending themselves. The Kafers attacked humans because violence is
what makes them more self-aware. Unlike
the Sung, Kafer physiology cannot be compared with accuracy to human
behavior. Kafer actions can be
analyzed, but comparisons to human reactions can only be for reference
and not reason.
Although
Humans have been and are still capable of savage violence; violence
in itself does not boost a Humans individual intelligence level or make
the person more self-aware. A
poor human comparison could be to that of a psychotic killer that feels
more alive and “closer to God” each time they kill. The
reason this is a poor comparison, the killer may “feel” more intelligence
and enlightened, but their intelligence quotient (IQ) does not actually
rise. In Kafers, their intelligence
will rise and remains high and may remain the due to prolonged combat. Violence is the Kafer natural addiction to obtain
heightened self-awareness. A Kafer,
cannot by their nature, be reasoned into peace and coexistence. To ask a Kafer to live in peace would be like
asking all human to live with a lobotomy.
Kafers
will use any opportunity for violence and heightened self-awareness
even against a relatively passive species. Hundreds
of years of Kafer mass murder of the completely passive Ylii (discussed
later) have shown this to be a constant maxim. The
Kafer discovery of a pseudo-hostile human species has had the result
in galvanizing Kafer resolve and has given them an opportunity to the
entire species for greater self-awareness. The
Kafers reasoned that Humans can and will stimulate the level of self-awareness
and their war is part of this higher awareness goal. This long-term stimulation of thought by making
war with the humans is what the Kafers believe to be part of their overall
destiny.
“Triumphant
Destiny” vision was initially not initially successful in uniting the
other Kafer Suzerains to its cause because without a massive human response
and the weak combative response of the humans on the Arcturus station
the other Kafer Suzerains were unconvinced of the combat potential of
this new species. Initially, the
Humans put up no more resistance the Ylii. Undaunted, a Kafer Suzerian that called itself
“Triumphant Destiny” decided to prepare for a war with the humans on
its own.
The
Kafers knew, from intelligence gained after the capture of the station
in the Arcturus system, that the Humans had vast, often combative, but
scattered military forces. The
Kafers did not yet understand the balkanization of the Human species
and simply looked at the variety of humans as one of the same group.
After waited for nearly two years for a counter attack from the humans
the Kafers began their preparations for the first invasion of human
space. The Kafer “Triumphant Destiny”
mustered the majority of its forces, which consisted of 2 Battleships
and 4 Battlecruisers, followed by a flotilla of support and transport
craft and nearly all of its available ground forces. It struck out on its own to make war, (although
that is not an accurate word to describe its intentions) with the Humans
at the closest inhabited system to the Kafer sphere, the Eta Bootis
System. With no warning because
of the lack of picket and survey ships, Kafer forces arrived resolute,
but scattered in the Eta Bootis system in mid 2298. The
Kafers met an equally scattered and vacillate
human defense of the Eta Bootis system.
INDEX
BACK
- PART 2
28 August 2004
Copyright Michael
Bolda, 2004. Starship images are by Laurent Esmiol, French Arm map is
by Dan Hebditch and the DWRSI is by Abraham Gubler
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