Year 4005
While many cultures throughout galactic history have assigned a certain ritual importance to the turning over of the calendar year, most people in the Duranium Legion considered such ritualism an archaic relic of the weak and foolish societies which had preceded the Legion. This belief was perhaps shaken for much of the Legion’s populace by the coincidental encounter of a new alien species barely eight hours into the new year, in the newly-discovered Gliese 229 system.
First contact with the race then designated as the Gliese 229 Aliens was made by a passing survey frigate. It is to date unclear whether the Gliese 229 Aliens first detected this contact via planetary sensors or shipboard sensors on the contact shortly designated Moskva 1 by the Legion Naval Intelligence Division.
Gliese 229 was a fairly average system located four jumps away from Sol via the GJ 1061 branch of the galactic jump network. WIth a fairly extensive planetary system consisting of eight planets with 63 moons along with a handful of independent smaller bodies, Gliese 229 was considered a potential candidate for future exploitation but not an especially-promising one. However, the innermost planet in the system was almost perfectly-habitable, with the only serious limitation being a slight 0.007 atm excess of oxygen in the atmosphere placing the total concentration just beyond the upper range for human tolerance. On discovering the system, the survey frigate Adamant had immediately plotted a course for this planet, in keeping with Legion survey corps doctrine of investigating all easily-colonized bodies with top priority. Despite being Earth-sized, the actual planet was tidally-locked to its sun and had a surface more than 99% covered with liquid water. Therefore it could support only a small population of about 79 million, and the crew of Adamant had no reason to expect any large alien population to be present on the planet. In spite of this, the Legion had immediately marked the planet as a potential terraforming site given how easily it could be brought to full habitability.
Contrary to all expectations, however, not only had a new alien race been detected, but the EM wave signature emanating from Gliese 229-A I was almost 50% larger than that emitted from the surface of Duratus itself. Caught by surprise, it took Captain Achlys Tartarus aboard Adamant several moments to determine an appropriate course of action. The Moskva-class contact off her starboard stern was moving at 2,275 km/s, 50% greater than the top speed of Adamant, therefore any attempt to shadow the other ship would likely be fruitless. For now, Adamant would continue on to the alien planet to gather whatever intelligence she could, and telemetry data from the Moskva would be relayed to the Warden 2 at the entry jump point, which would attempt to intercept the alien vessel. Captain Tartarus noted in her orders that Warden 2 should make every effort not to be spotted on the jump point itself, so as to conceal its location from the aliens. She reasoned, of course, that had the aliens already discovered this jump point, they would have been encountered farther away from what was by all appearances their home system.
With her orders issued, Captain Tartarus spent the next eighteen and a half hours restless with anticipation as Adamant approached the alien planet. At 02:30, the momentary calm was broken by warnings from the RF scanner operator, calling out that Adamant was spotted on active sensors by a new contact, designated Krivak-class, and was furthermore receiving an unintelligible communication from the same source. While the tone of the message certainly did not sound friendly, the Captain ordered her ship to continue on-course, intending to judge the alien response in the next few hours. This intelligence-gathering procedure did not take long; two minutes later, three more Krivaks announced their presence by pinging Adamant with their targeting arrays. While cautious, Captain Tartarus was not interested in backing down too easily, and ordered her crew to bring Adamant to a full stop and hold position. As they did so, a fifth Krivak blinked into existence on the RF scanner tactical display. As the crew of the survey frigate waited with bated breath, the squadron of alien ships drew closer, giving no sign of stopping at any respectful distance. Finally, with the Krivaks 15.1 million km distant, the Adamant’s infrared scanners finally registered a signature for the alien vessels, confirming that they were in fact military ships with an approximate displacement of 7,600 void tons - collectively matching Adamant five times over, not that this would make any difference if the encounter turned hot. Captain Tartarus was glad to call the intelligence-gathering operation a success and ordered her ship back to the jump point - transmitting all sensor data to Warden 2 just in case things did not end as well as she hoped.
Not reacting to this change of orders, the Krivaks continued to close on Adamant, sending no further communication. Captain Tartarus and her crew braced themselves for the worst, only to be relieved as the Krivaks closed with, and then flew past, Adamant. Apparently, the Gliese 229 Aliens were not quite as hostile as the Gliese 1 Aliens had been. Encouraged by the apparent unimportance of her ship to the aliens, the Captain ordered her helmsman to once again proceed towards the planet, hoping to gather more intelligence under the guise of establishing diplomatic relations. Shortly after the Krivaks disappeared from the RF scanner, Warden 2 reported the original Moskva contact which appeared to be heading toward a gravitational survey location beyond the entry jump point, confirming its displacement as 8,568 tons. All signs indicated that the Legion ships had been detected transiting the jump point, although it was yet unclear how this could have occurred.
Status of the Gliese 229 survey mission at 20:45 on 2 January, following the second detection of the Moskva-class survey vessel.
As Adamant approached the planet, another new contact class appeared on her RF scanners, designated Kirov, which mounted the same sensor type as the Krivak class. Based on intelligence gathered from the previous encounter, Captain Tartarus believed that Adamant was detecting these contacts from beyond the range of their own active arrays, though this made little difference as the planetary sensor network assuredly was tracking Adamant regardless. In any case, continuing to press onwards was the clear choice in her mind, to gather as much information as possible regarding the alien capabilities.
Meanwhile, the Krivak squadron had arrived at the position of Warden 2 and seemed content to maintain a close formation around the small traffic monitor. Having already determined the displacement of these ships, Warden 2 obligingly powered down her active scanner to minimize any threat the alien ships might consider her to pose.
In contrast to the tense situation of first contact, Adamant’s approach to the alien home world proved uneventful. By 05:30 on 4 January, Adamant had reached orbit of Gliese 229-A I, detecting another twenty-one ship types on her approach. Many had been spotted first by her RF scanner as they activated their targeting sensors, which by now appeared to be standard operating procedure for the alien fleet; these contacts were classified as warships after analysis of their sensor signatures. Preliminary speculative analysis of the warship-type contacts suggested that the Gliese 229 Aliens operated at least 20 battlecruiser-size warships, 89 cruiser-size warships split across three classes, 67 frigate or destroyer-size warships split across six classes, and 8 defense stations split across two classes. To members of the Legion high command who received this data some time later, two things were evident from this information: first, given the observed speeds of the ships detected thus far, Legion technology was likely to be superior to that of the aliens; second, the Duranium Legion Navy was horribly outnumbered.
Sensor log record of the Gliese 229 home fleet, as detected by the survey frigate Adamant on her initial approach to the planet.
In the present moment, having approached the planet without incident Captain Tartarus decided to see if she could complete a discreet geological survey of the planet without unduly annoying the alien fleet. While clearly a great gamble, Duranium Legion captains have historically been noted for their great boldness more than any other aspect of neurological construction, so this decision was certainly not out of character for the Captain. Despite the danger, Adamant completed her mission with no difficulty, confirming that the alien homeworld had ample stocks of TNEs to support their powerful fleet. Thus emboldened, Captain Tartarus ordered her crew to plan a geological survey of the entire system, working from the inside out so as to leave detection range of the planetary sensor network before the aliens became too upset with her presence in their system. While such an operation certainly would not help diplomatic relations with the aliens, the intelligence gained would be critical for the war planners back home on Duratus.
Gliese 229-A I
Duranium 348,473 Acc 0.9
Neutronium 180,615 Acc 0.6
Corbomite 168,296 Acc 0.5
Tritanium 71,077 Acc 0.4
Boronide 73,892 Acc 1
Mercassium 95,454 Acc 0.8
Vendarite 110,454 Acc 0.8
Sorium 391,915 Acc 0.6
Uridium 261,554 Acc 0.8
Corundium 85,877 Acc 0.4
Gallicite 151,273 Acc 0.9
Unfortunately for the intrepid crew of the Adamant, a Minsk-class vessel, designated as a geosurvey vessel class, was surveying the same planets. Angry-sounding messages thus continued to be broadcast towards Adamant at regular intervals.
Finally, on 22 February a sufficient number of garbled communiques had been received from the aliens that communication could be established between Warden 2 and an alien stabilization ship which had positioned itself at the jump point. The aliens identified themselves as the Republic of Belaire. Unfortunately for the bold Captain Tartarus, the jig was up as the Belaire fleet commander issued an ultimatum: leave the system or be fired upon. Having pushed her luck as far as it would go, the Captain reluctantly acquiesced and set a course for the jump point to escort Warden 2 out of the system. This escape was completed without incident, and with Warden 2 left to monitor the other side of the jump point, Adamant transmitted her complete sensor logs through the communications network back to the Legion high command at Duratus, and set out hoping to find greener pastures. For ease of reference, the Gliese 229 system was renamed as Belaire after the alien race which resided there.
At the Legion high command on Duratus, the war planning department was considerably more flustered than Captain Achlys Tartarus had been. The existence of a rival navy which could overmatch the entire Legion Navy with the members of just one ship class, particularly the twenty 23,000-ton Kirov-class battlecruisers, was nothing less than an existential threat. Amidst the panic, Legion war planners were quick to grasp the hope of superior technology compared to their rival, as evidenced by the relatively weak engine signatures detected by the post-named Belaire Expedition. Unfortunately, while they were highly effective weapons in many respects, the railgun batteries preferred by the Legion Navy were not suited to exploiting a speed advantage against a superior enemy fleet, therefore the Legion high command was forced to turn to projects under development in hopes that a new secret weapon might be found to even the odds. Fortunately, while it would take some time yet to bring to fruition, just such a project had been the subject of top-secret research for a significant part of the past five years.
In the present, however, the situation continued to develop poorly. On 17 March, a Krivak-class scout ship transited the jump point into Kuiper 79, immediately declaring that this system lay within the territory of the Republic of Belaire. While the Legion was certainly not in the habit of giving in to empty territorial demands, the Legion was also not in the business of starting wars it could not win. For the moment, no official response was sent to the Krivak, and the Legion continued its business in the system as usual. While Kuiper 79 was not overly impressive, it would have been decently well-suited as a mining base had the Legion not preferred more productive opportunities in other sectors of the galaxy, so in a pinch it could be quietly left alone with Legion monitoring craft stationed at opposite ends of each jump point in the system.
Meanwhile, some form of decisive action needed to be taken. The system of GJ 1061 had long been marked for future colonization due to the quite-hospitable second planet, which would require relatively little terraforming to be fully-habitable. The remaining bodies in the system, only half of which had been surveyed by this time, included multiple gas giants with high content of accessible sorium and an extensive Kuiper Belt with excellent mining prospects despite the distances involved. It would therefore make an excellent near-Sol fleet base for operations against the Republic of Belaire, with a good chance to become a self-sustaining network of colonies later on. For now, the Legion high command determined that it was of critical importance to establish the jump gate network needed to build up a base on this colony, preferably before the Belaire aliens laid a claim to the system. Meanwhile, some initial groundwork had to be laid, and a convoy was rapidly dispatched to the system. For ease of reference, and while left unsaid likely also for the sake of public relations materials, the GJ 1061 system was redesignated as Adamantine after the bold frigate which had repeatedly brushed with certain doom and survived to bring glory to the Legion.
Adamantine-A II
Boronide 65,545,216 Acc 0.2
Mercassium 17,139,600 Acc 0.1
Vendarite 46,348,864 Acc 0.2
Nitrogen 71.000% 0.901 atm
Oxygen 29.000% 0.368 atm
Base Temp (K / C) 202.46 -70.54
Surface Temp (K / C) 191.64 -81.36
The Republic of Belaire wasted no time putting pressure on the Legion high command to act. Within the first month after their arrival in Kuiper 79, An Udaloy-class and Moskva-class ship also transited into the system, reinforcing the persistent requests for the Legion to vacate the system. The Lords Admiral who had begun developing ulcers due to this stress were not helped by the long-expected report that the gallicite deposits on Duratus had finally run out on 5 May, only adding to the list of problems which needed solving. With the gravitational survey of Kuiper 79 being completed on 9 May, it was decided to create some breathing room fo the moment and Warden 2 was ordered to pull back to the Adamantine system along with Avenging Wrath, which would assist Angel of Ares in completing the geological survey of that system. Meanwhile, Belaire scouts were detected in Luyten 302-89 on 12 May; as this was a non-critical system it was hoped that the Belaire would send their survey ships in that direction, buying the Legion precious time to fortify Adamantine. In the short term, these hopes seemed to carry through, as Belaire activity within range of Legion sensors largely ceased aside from incidental contact in the Luyten 302-89 system.
The all-too-short period of relative silence was broken on 20 August by another Belaire Krivak-class scout arriving in the Adamantine system, followed some days later by an Udaloy. As Adamantine Base was still in its early stages the Belaire captain judged the Legion’s presence to be insufficient to justify their firm request to leave the system, much to the chagrin of the Legion high command. As the base in Adamantine was not yet sufficient to maintain even a cruiser squadron, the Legion admirals settled for dispatching another Gatekeeper to the system to maintain the jump point monitoring, while Warden 2 would shadow the Krivak as it explored the system. Once the planetary base was sufficiently developed, the newly-assembled Cruiser Squadron 3 would be dispatched to ensure a respectable Legion presence in the system when the “request” was reissued. An ancillary task for establishing the base was completed by 29 August, when the stabilisation ship Pisces reported completion of the jump gate network between Sol and Adamantine.
Over the course of the following four weeks, the Krivak would scout out the inner system of Adamantine to its apparent satisfaction before retiring to its entry jump point though still remaining in-system. On 17 September, a pair of Minsks entered the system; apparently the Belaire had judged it safe. While this presence caused consternation for the Legion high command, it did indicate that the Belaire did not view the Legion with great hostility, thus they might be afforded sufficient time to complete a naval build-up before war was declared. On 3 October, with a presence of 400,000 colonists now ensconced on the planet surface, the Legion reissued a request for the Belaire ships to vacate the system. Three days later, the Belaire response was received, and once again they rejected the Legion’s claim to the system.
Still uneasy about the Belair refusal to respect Legion territorial claims, the Legion high command ordered the terraforming cluster currently in orbit of Mercury to be briefly relocated to Adamantine Base. As a fractional amount of excess oxygen to be removed was all that stood between this planet and easy (though not complete) habitability, the high command wished to accomplish this task before tensions with Belaire became too much greater and the terraforming mission too risky.
By 1 November, despite gallicite deposits being exhausted the maintenance supply factories on Duratus were reporting a shortage of duranium instead. As there were at least five years’ worth of supplies stockpiled on the planet surface, the Legion high command ordered that supply production would be shut down for the foreseeable future as a cost-saving measure. Legion planners anticipated that by the time production had to be resumed, systems such as Adamantine would be ready to take up the challenge.
Unfortunately for the blood pressure of the Legion’s admirals, the Belaire were not the only sentient species in the galaxy, and one ship’s crew in particular was about to be reminded of this inconvenient truth.
Shipbuilding
1x Defiant class Light Cruiser: Double Edge
2x Charybdis class Destroyer: Char, Corrugator
2x Bellerophon class Frigate: Bloodsucker, Braggart
2x Ars Magica class Survey Frigate: Ascendant Might, Ariadne
2x Phaeton class Freighter
2x Typhon class Colony Ship
2x Salamander class Troop Transport
1x Achelous class Terraforming Platform
2x Obsidian class Orbital Mining Platform
3x Gatekeeper class Traffic Monitor
Research
Construction Equipment
Fuel Production 56,000 Litres
Ground Formation Construction Rate - 320
Mining Production 14 tons
Systems Discovered
NN 3378: FS Ars Magica, 17 March 4005
WISE 0350-5658: FS Adamant, 27 March 4005
Lacaille 9352: FS Adjudicator, 10 June 4005
WISE 1506+7027: FS Archrival, 9 July 4005
Struve 2398: FS Adamant, 9 July 4005
Groombridge 34: FS Ascendant Might, 7 October 4005
Eta Cassiopeiae: FS Ardent Knight, 12 November 4005