Pheonix Dawn

Document container for project design documents.

Phoenix Dawn Map

Based on a map by Andrew Chaing(aka Fu-Man-Chu).

Phoenix Dawn Timeline

 

PHOENIX DAWNTIMELINE

2000 pf.(Pre-Frontier) Corpse Wars: The twenty-four Human and Yazirian colonies in the Triad System’s three stars(Faith, Hope and Charity) are overwhelmed by a massive invasion of cybernetically-enhanced Humans rotting from the inside out from the effects of antiagathic drugs(Corpses) using the Black Hole of Kel’kar as a shortcut between Corpse Space and the Triad system, the Corpses initating a brutal holocaust wiping out over 70% of the colonies’ population. The survivors stage the Great Exodus, using newly-developed Void engines to lead a fleet of refugee spacecraft from the Triad System’s three stars and into space, the Corpses pursuing the entire time.
515 pf. The Triad refugees fight a final battle with Corpse forces at a desolate system 594,000 light years from their homeworlds.

The Battle Of Dead Star 686 results in the apparent eradication of all Corpse presence.
510 pf. First Vrusk/Dralasite contact occurs when Vrusk traders enter the Fromeltar system to open new markets.
450 pf. First Vrusk/Human contact achieved via subspace radio between Triad refugee ships and a Vrusk colony at the rim of the Andromeda Galaxy, 640,000 light years from the Triad system.
400 pf. Vrusk, Dralasites, Humans and Yazirians meet for the first time in the White Light system, in what is to become known as the Frontier Sector or the Frontier. The Great Exodus comes to an end, as the Triad refugees begin exploring and colonizing the Frontier’s worlds. Clarion, in the White Light system, becomes the Triad refugees’ first colony world, the descendants colonizing Triad in the Cassidine system later that same year.
399 pf. Theseus system colonized by Humans.
370-4 pf. The Frontier is colonized.
360 pf. Gran Quivera and Gollwin in the Prenglar system both colonized.
356 pf. Rupert's Hole,in the Cassidine system, is colonized.
330 pf. Pan-Galactic Corporation started on Gran Quivera.
320 pf. Dixon's Star system discovered by Humans.
310 pf. Madderly's Star system discovered by Vrusk and Humans.
303-300 pf. Corpse forces strike the Frontier, devastating Laco and Kdikit, forcing the Frontier worlds to call the first Common Muster, the combined militia and PGC starships and troops launching a relentless counterattack culminating in the Battle of Laco, lasting 47 hours and resulting in 70% of the Frontier forces and nearly all of the Corpse forces being wiped out. The muster is swiftly dismissed.
300 pf. Pale and New Pale discovered in the Truane's Star system, named in honor of the colony group’s charismatic first leader, Colonel John Henry Truane.
Zuraqquor discovered, enslaved and assimilated by the Human colonists of New Pale. Amongst its first leaders is Abraham Streel, founder of a chain of department stores which is to become the Streel Corporation.
270 pf. Dramune system discovered by Dralasites.
268 pf. Athor system discovered by Yazirians.
261 pf. K'tsa-Kar system discovered by Vrusk.
256 pf. K'aken-Kar ssytem disovered by Vrusk.
255 pf. Gruna Garu system discovered by Yazirians.
252 pf. Timeon system discovered by Humans.
250 pf. The Pan-Galactic language accepted throughout the Frontier as a common trade tongue.
246 pf. Kizk'-Kar system discovered by Vrusk.
229 pf. Araks system colonized by Yazirians and Humans from Pale and New Pale fleeing religious persecution from the Truane’s Star government and the Streel Corporation which has used its economic power to insidiously take control of the government, the media, the schools and churches system-wide.
225-10 pf. The Age of Adventure. The discovery and exploration of new planets slows down for the next century while the major races concentrate on mapping the hazards and boundries of the Frontier. Hundreds of exploration vessels and brave spacers are lost during this time. Meanwhile, the discovered planets begin to develop. Thousands of fortunes are made and lost during the Age of Adventure.
124-78 pf. The Greater Morass is mapped.
120-110 pf Laco's War: When the government of Laco refuses to allow Streel to set up business on their soil, the CEO of Streel, Truane's Star President Jacob Streel, declares a "war of the righteous to liberate Laco from the forces of Sadam and Her dark legions," dispatching Streel and Truane's Star warships to invade Laco in force. Laco's militia, assisted by PGC security forces, the Kdikit Defense Force and the Clarion Royal Marines, wage a bloody ten-year defense of the Dixon's Star system against Streel and Truane's Star, the war ending only after a devastating attack against Pale and New Pale by the combined forces convinces the Streel board of directors and the Truane's Star government to break off hostilities.
94 pf. Scree Fron system discovered by Yazirians.
61 pf. The Zebulon system is discovered by Professor Alorne Zebulon, the Frontier's most noted scientist, explorer, and educator. Following the loss of the exploration ship Serena Dawn, with all hands—including Professor Zebulon—during the second expidition to the Zebulon system, the Truane’s Star government, now completely under the thrall of the Streel Corporation, claims the system and closes off all access to it.
59 pf. Streel announces the complete takeover of all mediacorps on Nexus, the culmination of an insidious campaign begun with the purchase of commercial spots two hundred years before. With control of all commecial media and the subspace computer network(or the SubNet), the Streel family are now positioned to feed their worldview to the citizens of the Frontier.
The Frontier worlds respond to this by establishing their own mediacorps and subspace computer networks independent of the SubNet, these independent computer networks uniting over the next five decades into the Mosaic.
56-40 pf. The White Light Nebulae are mapped.
39-33 pf. The Yreva Nebula is mapped.
32-26 pf. Thirty-two exploration vessels are lost trying to map the Xagyg Dust Nebulae. Only a small part of the area beyond Fromeltar is ever mapped.
Several hundred more exploration vessels are lost trying to explore the Zebulon system, to the point where most governments and corporations abandon further attempts along those lines altogether.


25-2 pf.
The War On Piracy.

25 pf. A remarkably well-equipped and organized pirate fleet under Hatzck Naar—

larger than any of the planetary militias individually—raids the Cassidine and

Prenglar systems, seizing Rupert’s Hole and Triad’s moon of Evergleem in a single

battle. The second Common Muster in nearly three centuries is called, as Streel

and the Truane’s Star government both demand the establishment of a strong,

central interstellar government and military to combat this and other threats.



24 pf.
Naar’s fleet ravages the Pale worlds as a diversion, seizing Laco in a

lightning raid, Streel CEO Ezekiel Streel pointing this out as
“proof positive that only

a Frontier united under a single directive, under strong, decisive leadership with the

moral superiority to
lead, can defeat this threat to our security once and for all.”



24 pf.
Later that year, the Frontier forces deals a series of overwhelming,

devastating defeats to Naar’s forces, seizing Laco and Rupert’s Hole in a single

campaign, diverting Naar’s fleet away from his home base on Outer Reach, allowing

forces led by the Lord Commander of the Clarion Royal Marines, Vincent Morgaine,

to launch a devastating assault which results in the seizure of Outer Reach and

Darkworld Station by Frontier forces, scattering Naar’s forces throughout the

Frontier.



23 pf.
Naar’s attempt to establish a base in the Planrion asteroid belt fails

miserably, the Frontier forces ambushing his remnant fleet, destroying or driving off

most of his ships in a bloody eighteen-hour battle, Naar himself becoming a fugitive.


22 pf.
Hatzck Naar's ship, the heavy cruiser King George’s Revenge, is cornered by

Frontier warships off Timeon, Morgaine’s heavy cruiser
Oath-Bound hammering the

Revenge
into a dead hulk. Naar is captured by Morgaine and a Royal Marine

boarding party and
ejected into space to slowly boil inside his spacesuit, as he falls

toward Timeon. The muster is dismissed, only to be replaced by the Interstellar Law

Enforcement Organization, created when Gran Quivera, Gollwin, Clarion, Triad,

Rupert’s Hole, Fromeltar, Minotaur, Krataar. Hargut, Hakosoar, Kenzah' Kit and

Inner Reach, along with the Cassidine Development Corporation and PGC, donate

ships, manpower, funds and resources into a common effort to combat the growing


threat of piracy throughout the Frontier worlds.
 

Morgaine is named the Organization’s first commander, granted the rank of
 

admiral by the Frontier Security Council, formed to oversee the Organization’s


activities, and the Organization is headquarted on Gollwin in the Prenglar system.


21-10 pf. The Xagyg Dust Nebulae is mapped from Fromeltar to K'aken-Kar.


19-8 pf.
The Xagyg Dust Nebula, particularlly in and around the Zebulon system

claims thousands of exploration vessels. Exploration of the area ceases
 
completely.


10 pf.
With Streel and the Truane’s Star government continuing to sound the call for

a strong government in the face of continued piracy, the Interstellar Law

Enforcement Organization—now simply known as Star Law—makes significant

inroads against various pirate bands, wiping a dozen of the largest pirate fleets out

completely. Impressed, most of the remaining Frontier worlds begin contributing

resources, personnel and ships to Star Law, securing representation on the

Council.


2 pf.
The First Sathar War: A massive force of Sathar warships—led by several

gigantic vessels, each five times the size of a heavy cruiser—emerge from the Void

in the Prenglar system, outnumbering both Gran Quivera’s and Gollwin’s planetary

militias, as well as the Star Law Spacefleet forces in system. In spite of this,

Morgaine, personally leading the combined Star Law/militia forces aboard the
Oath-

Bound
, fight a bloody, 47-hour battle with the Sathar, destroying them utterly, while

suffering 60% casualties, including the destruction of the
Oath-Bound with all

hands.


1 pf.
In honor of Morgaine’s sacrifice and service to the people of the Frontier, the

people of Gollwin vote to rename their planet Morgaine’s World .


1 f.y. (Federation Year)
What had begun as an oversight body for Star Law

becomes an interstellar government, the Frontier Security Council and Star Law

transforming into the center of the United Planetary Federation. Streel and Truane’s

Star reluctantly join, in spite of their criticism of the new UPF being too weak to

adjudicate squabbles amongst itself, let alone lead the Frontier against a second

Sathar invasion.


5 f.y.1.1.
Interstellar Industries develops the first assault scout-class warship for

use by Star Law's Spacefleet, beating out the Streel-built
Hatchet-class corvette.

The assault scout proves to be so successful, Star Law orders several hundred

more, the ship becoming the Spacefleet's most common vessel, while the Streel

corvette becomes the chief ship of the resurgent pirate bands.



5 f.y.1.40.
PGC unveils the first of Star Law's Morgaine-class battleships and the


first five
Oath Bound-class frigates, the latter class of ship soon becoming the

mainstay of Star Law and the militias.


14 f.y.
The Sundown system is discovered.


17-25 f.y.
The Blue Plague sweeps the Frontier. Scientists believe it was brought to

the Sundown system by an alien vessel that crashed on Starmist. Because of

Starmist's light population, the plague was not immediately detected and had a

chance to mutate. It is believed that vermin from the planet became infeted and

somehow gained entry to a ship. The ship makes several stops on the Frontier and

the plague spreads rapidly. It is called the Blue Plague because of its earliest

symptoms -- large blue welts that appear about the face and extremities. These

welts leave horrible black scars even if the victim survives the plague.


20 f.y.
Five star systems become so infested with the Blue Plague that the Frontier

Security Council, requests all races to recognize a permanent quarantine of these

four star systems. The systems are designated by Greek letters. A spaceship seen

leaving one of these systems is to be destroyed by Star Law before it has a chance

to spread the plague any further.


22 f.y.
Hargut, Clarion and Pale suffer massive population losses due to the Blue

Plague. All three planets are temporarily quarantined.


Streel CEO Samson Streel criticizes the UPF’s handling of the epidemic, using

Streel’s control of the Nexus(and several other Frontier) mediacorps to spread the

opinion that the Plague is a punishment from the One True God(the One)for the

Frontier’s tolerance of sin and the “moral inferiors” who spread it. Streel’s belief,

repeated thousands of times by thousands of beings such as him over the next few

years, results in millions more innocent beings being imprisoned, brutalized and

even murdered.


23 f.y.
The Medical Services Organization is founded. Funding pours in from most

of the Frontier worlds, except Pale and New Pale.


Gretl Grohn is named as the MSO Chief Surgeon.


24 f.y.
Vaccine for the Blue Plague is discovered at the MSO Center on Morgaine's

World, in spite of Streel agents attempting to sabotage the research, Star Law and

the Clarion Royal Marines being instrumental in discovering that the Plague was, in

fact, engineered by Streel’s pharmecuticals division and seeded on Starmist to

begin the epidemic.Incensed, the people of Clarion launch a series of bloody anti-

Streel demonstrations, butchering hundreds of Streel employees on planet and

throughout the White Light system, before Queen Felicia II orders Streel expelled

from White Light system space, revoking the corporation’s operating authority in

Clarion soil.


Samson Streel makes repeated denials, accusing the Council and the moral

inferiors controlling it, the Frontier’s media and Star Law of persecuting him,

claiming the Streel employees responsible for engineering and releasing the Plague

were in fact Sathar agents.


This doesn’t stop the Frontier Criminal Court from fining Streel 500 trillion credits in

damages and reparations.


Star Law—to its infinite regret—is unable to prove Samson Streel, any member of

the Streel board of directors or even the Truane's Star government had anything to

do with the epidemic.


25 f.y.
The Blue Plague is eradicated from inhabited planets in the Frontier. In total,
170 million victims fell to the plague, while another 250 million were murdered by

the prejudice and panic resulting from the plague.


26 f.y.
Very tough laws and penalties are laid down by both the Frontier Security


Council and the member worlds concerning the intersystem transportation and

handling of flora and fauna. Star Law is given jurisdiction over planetary imports and

exports.


The Frontier Security Council also requires all genetic expirimentation projects

secure the approval of the Council and to have Star Law and MSO oversight at all

times.



27 f.y.
The PGC frigate Omicron, missing since the last Corpse War three hundred

years ago, is discovered drifting and powerless in the Void between Dixon’s Star

and Araks. The Star Law frigate
Artemis is dispatched to investigate, only to battle

both the ship’s cybernetic intelligence...and a force of two Sathar heavy cruisers

and six destroyers, Strike Force NOVA joining the fray.



The
Artemis sends a Marine boarding party onto the Omicron, fighting off a

Zuraqquor-led Sathar boarding party and the ship’s cybernetic brain, succeeding, in

spite of heavy casualties, in seizing control of the ship, using its weapons to help

defeat the Sathar force, after it succeeds in dealing a damaging blow to Strike

Force NOVA, destroying its flagship, the heavy cruiser
Stalwart with the loss of all

hands, including Star Law Admiral Clinton.


With the intelligence that the Zuraqquor were leading the Sathar in hand, Star Law attempts to probe further, only to discover that Streel officials have eradicated all evidence of the Zuraqquor’s history and civilization prior to human colonization of
New Pale.

30 f.y. Pan-Gal system is discovered by the Pan-Galactic Corporation and becomes the first mega-corp star system.
31 f.y. New Streel system is discovered by the Streel Corporation.
32 f.y. Devco system is discovered by the Cassidine Development Corporation.
36 f.y. The Second Dramune War is fought.
46 f.y. Solar Major system discovered by WarTech Incorporated.
50 f.y. A rebellion flares up on Corpco in reaction to Streel's repressive measures, Streel sending in troops and ships to "excise the morally inferior from the body of the planet," as Streel Security Forces head Joshua Streel bluntly puts it.
The Clarion Royal Marines, along with the Triad Militia, PGC and CDC security forces and Star Law's Strike Force NOVA—under the command of Star Law Admiral Alannah Red Cloud—come to the aid of Corpco's oppressed populace, engaging Streel and Truane's Star forces in a series of bloody battles on Corpco and throughout the New Streel system, culiminating in the Battle of Ten Fleets, Red Cloud's forces and the Corpco rebels scoring a decisive victory, but at the cost of Admiral Red Cloud's life and 60% of the UPF forces, Samson Streel claiming neither Streel nor the Truane's Star government had any involvement in the events which took place, the Frontier Security Council nevertheless suspending Streel Corp's and Truane's Star's membership for five years.
55 f.y. Frontier Expiditionary Force formed at Clarion. A joint effort between Star Law and the Royal Marines, the FEF is charged with scouting for signs of Sathar presence beyond the Frontier's boundaries.
70 f.y. Liberty system discovered by the UPF. Strike Force NOVA and the Frontier Expitionary Force liberate the planet Snowball and the Mhemne from Sathar tyranny. Tacticians, politicians, and exobiologists are given a chance to study Sathar machinery and methods first hand because of the information gathered by the populace during their occupation. It is feared that many pockets of Sathar tyranny exist all around the Frontier.
70-75 f.y. The Second Sathar War.
70 f.y.7.22. The Sathar seize the Araks, Dixon's Star and Madderly’s Star systems in a series of lightning assaults, overwhelming and destroying the UPF forces and the planetary militia forces in those systems. The people of Hentz, Laco and Kdikit are swiftly and brutally enslaved.
The Sathar turn Kdikit into a planet-wide military and industrial complex intended as a permanent advance base for incoming Sathar supply ships and troops.
70 f.y.8.12. Strike Force NOVA and the Mhemne militia are mauled when Sathar Fleet #4—accompanied by a force of Truane's Star warships—invades the Liberty system. The combined UPF forces lose 80% of their ships and personnel while completely annhilating the enemy force.
71 f.y.1.40. The UPF mines the sector between Cassidine and Madderly's Star. Sathar Fleet #1 is driven from Gruna Garu and pursued as it tries to make its way to Fromeltar. All militia ships in the sector, including half of Task Force Prenglar, are engaged in the pursuit.
71 f.y.2.2. Joint Reaction Force #1 is formed at Clarion, incorporating Spacefleet and Royal Marine warships. JRF #1’s commander, Captain Margaurite Dermond, believes more of the Sathar fleet may attack through the White Light Nebulae.
71 f.y.2.32. Task Force Liberty formed at Snowball using the survivors of Strike Force NOVA as a cadre. with Mhemne-built warships—including the new Liberty-class patrol gunships—and Mhemne crews bringing the task force up to full strength. The task force's commander, Commodore Maria Starr, is promoted to Rear Admiral of the Spacefleet.
71 f.y.2.39. Sathar Fleet #2 emerges between Timeon and Prenglar, placing itself in front of Task Force Prenglar. The Battle of Prenglar begins two hours later and results in Sathar Fleet #2 scattering or destroying the reduced Task Force Prenglar.
Flush with victory, the Sathar proceed recklessly into the Frontier. JRF #1, along with Task Forces K'aken Kar and Fromletar, soon engage Sathar Fleet #2. The remaining Task Force Prenglar ships return and join the battle. This running battle results in the eventual withdrawal of Sathar Fleet #2 into the White Light Nebulae, as Samson Streel renews his call for stronger leadership to combat the Sathar menace.
71 f.y.3.1. Sathar Fleet #3 attempts to circumnavigate the Great Morass. Two weeks later it is engaged by frigates and assault scouts from Moonworld. Without any knowledge of the existence of the Lynchpin system, the Sathar forge ahead, finding the whole Task Force Liberty waiting in orbit around Moonworld to ambush the Sathar in a carefully-laid trap, as they emerge from the Void.

This begins the Battle of Moonworld.
72 f.y.1.12. JRF #1 launches a surprise raid on Kdikit, smashing the Sathar supply line, stationing themselves at the edge of the system to engage and destroy incoming Sathar vessels.

72 f.y.3.5. Mhemne and Interstellar Industries scientists develop the first practical artificial gravity generator
72 f.y.5.17. The final dregs of Sathar Fleet #1, after slipping into the Xagyg Nebula off Fromeltar, arrive back at Kdikit and prepare to defend it to the death.
72 f.y. The Battle of Moonworld ends with the destruction of three-quarters of Sathar Fleet #3. The remaining Sathar vessels are forced to retreat.
72 f.y.5.35. Task Force Prenglar regroups off K'aken-Kar. JRFs #2 and #3 formed at Triad. Task Force White Light begins forming at Fortress Redoubt from the remains of the Frontier Expiditionary Force. Commodore Karl Reider assumes command of Task Force White Light aboard the newly-comissioned battleship Admiral Red Cloud.
72 f.y.10.39. JRFs #1-3, along with Task Forces Cassidine, Liberty, Fromeltar, and K'aken Kar, secure the Frontier inward from Theseus.
73 f.y.1.2. The remains of Sathar Fleet #2 arrive at Kdikit. Despite a desperate shortage of supplies caused by the Star Law blockade and terrible losses from previous engagements, the Sathar have completed their construction. Kdikit is now a formidable fortress. Task Forces Prenglar and White Light prepare to invade Kdikit.
73 f.y.5.4. The Battle of the Blockade. A Sathar reinforcement fleet—accompanied by a Truane's Star heavy cruiser and a pair of Streel Corporation frigates—is challenged by JRF#1. Half of the enemy fleet—including all the Streel and Truane's Star ships— escape, the other half sacrificing themselves to save them, at the cost of half of JRF#1's warships and personnel.
74 f.y.1.11. JRF#1 is greatly increased by reinforcements from Clarion. Dermond’s ships rendezvous with Task Forces Prenglar and White Light. Battered and weary, they still insist on joining the siege of Kdikit , gaining notoriety throughout the Frontier.
74 f.y.1.40. A peace faction splits the Frontier Security Council. In spite of its being led by the ambassador from Truane’s Star—Gestas Streel—and the Streel represenative—Gestas’ twin brother Dismas—their father, Samson Streel, decries this development, insisting that this is only one more reason why strong leadership is needed if the Frontier is to survive “the Dark Lady, her Sathar, and the moral inferiors amongst us who are their servants.”
In a surprising development, the Star Law commander, Admiral Ironside Brannecken, insists that a diplomatic mission be sent to Kdikit, stunning the Council enough for a majority to agree to this.
The Sathar also agree, the Star Law negotiators sent to talk peace meeting with non-Sathar agents, who Star Law’s Special Branch covertly confirms are Streel Corporation management personnel...and,
they seem to be the ones in charge on Kdikit, confirming intelligence dearly bought during several of the war's earlier engagements.


Like the Sathar, the Star Lawmen are buying time for their forces to gather all the strength they can before striking, the Sathar and their Streel handlers using the the six months the negoiations drag on to strengthen defenses around Kdikit.


75 f.y.7.21. Task Force Cassidine joins Task Forces Prenglar and White Light at the edge of the Madderly’s Star system, as Samson Streel grows increasingly suspicious of Brannecken’s tactics, and equally concerned that Streel’s involvement with the Sathar might be exposed.

75 f.y.7.25. Streel, Sathar, and Truane's Star naval forces launch an offensive against Clarion. Even with the aid of the Clarion Liberation Party and the pirates operating in the Planarion asteroid belt, they are surprised and decimated by a larger-than-expected Star Law/Royal Marine force outnumbering them 4-1.

During the battle, a Star Law patrol gunship squadron captures the tramp freighter transporting Samson Streel from Prenglar to White Light.

Streel is arrested, and the family loses their hold on power in the Truane's Star system, as news of their connection to the Sathar is made public and a popular revolt deposes the Truane's Star government.

All three of Samson' Streel's sons are lynched during the course of the rebellion.

75 f.y.7.30. Sathar forces withdraw from the Dixon's Star, Madderly's Star, Zebulon and Araks systems.

75 f.y.7.32. PGC acquires the pieces of the crumbling Streel empire, the merged corporation naming itself PGC-Streel.

75 f.y.7.40. Several fleets spearheaded by what appears to be Juggernaut-class dreadnaughts ravage the Frontier, overwhelming and destroying Star Law forces throughout the Frontier, including the whole of the four task forces in the Madderly's Star system.

Three fleets led by Juggernauts devastate the Prenglar system, annhilating the city of Gollwin on Morgaine's World, the UPF capital of Port Loren and both orbiting fortresses, along with the bulk of Star Law and militia forces in system.

Amongst the ten and a half billion killed on Morgaine's World and Gran Quivera are all but one member of the Frontier Security Council, the surviving Star Law senior admirality, the MSO senior staff and most of the personnel essential to Star Law's infrastructure.

The survivng Council member, PGC-Streel CEO J.C. Billingslea, immediately goes on the Mosaic, assuming emergency martial law powers as he proclaims,“The Frontier will be defended from the moral inferiors and the lovers of the alien and the perverse who have brought this judgement of the One True God down upon our heads.“

75 f.y.8.10. As the surviving Star Law forces rally and regroup in the Clarion system under the command of Commodore Maugarite Dermond, the findings of PGC-Streel's Special Security Division's investigation implicates Star Law in the attack, accusing Brannecken and the senior Admirality of working with them and “other moral inferiors“ in a “conspiracy of darkness“ to “supplant the values of freedom, democracy and moral certainty,“ with “a dictatorship dedicated to the promulgation of draconian doctrines of ideological propriety, no matter the cost.“

A newly-formed Council of Worlds grants Billingslea the Presidency and emergency powers to “deal effectively with the true epidemic of moral inferiority rotting away at our common ideals of freedom, democracy and morality, and to provide the necessary strength to lead our peoples into the dawn of the New Frontier.“

The governments of Snowball, Krataar, Corpco, Minotaur, Clarion, Triad, Rupert's Hole, Inner Reach, Tereldrom, Cass, Zik'Kit, Kenzah'Kit, K'tsa Kar, Solar Major, Asgard and Zenith as well as the boards of Interstellar Industries, and Cassidine Development Corporation, all withdraw from the Federation in protest, Billingslea warning of “the wages of the path of sin you all have chosen.“

In anticipation of an imminent UPF assault, the remnants of Star Law are reinforced with elements of the rebelling planetary and corporate militias to form the Combined Interstellar Forces, or, simply the Star Forces.

Dermond appointed Star Forces Admiral by a newly-formed Frontier Security Council


7
5 f.y.9.11. The New Frontier Act goes into effect, calling for the mobilization of a Spacefleet and a Landfleet to replace Star Law, with a new series of military starships immediate available for the Spacefleet's use, including the first of the Leviathan-class dreadnaughts.

The New Frontier Act requires all Federation member worlds to completely surrender all sovreignty to the Council of Worlds, disbanding their governments, disarming their militias and submitting to the rule of planetary governors appointed by the Council, with those planets refusing to comply being bombed into near-ruin by the UPF Spacefleet.

The Act further mandates a “correct and proper Frontier culture,“ including the adoption of the True Faith as the sole legal religion,and Pan-Galactic as the only legal language. It also calls for the “utter and complete destruction of all alien and perverse ways which otherwise endanger the people of New Frontier as a whole.“

As a consequence, the Yazirians in the New Frontier dismantle their clan system and the New Frontier's Vrusk dismantle the system of merchant houses, all races destroying all traces of their former languages and cultures, as they adopt the culture of the New Frontier.

Also, in a bizzare twist, the New Frontier Act defines marriage as a “union between a male and a female Frontier citizen, as sanctified by the One True God,“ while outlawing procreation as,“a device by which the morally inferior seek to debase and corrupt those of superior morality, isolating them from the One True God and His free gift of salvation and life eternal.“

Finally, the New Frontier Act vests Billingslea, as President of the Council, with virtually unlimited executive and emergency powers, while at the same time, officially disbanding Star Law and declaring any and all surviving Star Lawmen to be “enemies of freedom and democracy.“

75 f.y.9.15. Control of the Mosaic given to the Nexus mediacorps, the consequent merger of the SubNet and the Mosaic being hailed throughout Federation soil as a “great leap forward.“

The independent worlds—eventually referred to as the Wilderness by those inside Federation space—set up their own version of the Mosaic, made as proof against hacking by the SSD as possible.

75 f.y.10.25. After three months of bluster and bullying, Billingslea orders the Spacefleet to carry out a full-scale assault of the White Light system, the resulting Second Battle of White Light pitting Task Forces Leviathan, Gargantua, and Colossus against the Star Forces, now reinforced by privateers and former planetary militia craft fleeing the tyranny of the New Frontier.

The five-hour battle, fought near the orbit of Luminere(White Light III)results in the almost complete eradication of all three task forces—including the destruction of the Leviathan by the Star Forces flagship, the strike cruiser Clarion—with the loss of over half of the Star Forces units.

76 f.y.1.1 . The Frontier Security Council formally organizes the independent worlds into the Alliance of Free Frontier Systems, or, simply the Free Alliance, with Dermond appointed Free Alliance Admiral,

The Frontier Security Council also authorizes Interstellar Industries, CDC, and Mhneme Confederacy shipbuilders to begin construction on a new series of combat starships to incorporate pion engine and artificial gravity technology, the conglomerate commissioning the first twenty Longknife-class assault torpedo boats later that month.

76 f.y.7.15. The first of the new Pugilist-class war cruisers enters Free Alliance service.

76 f.y.8.27. The first of the new Morgaine-class destroyers enters Free Alliance service.

81 f.y.-83 f.y. Third Sathar War.

81.fy.4.6. A Sathar fleet of six destroyers, eight cruisers, nineteen corvettes and a Juggernaut-class dreadnaught invades the K'aken-Kar system, advancing on the station at Dolin Bay, defended only by a Star Forces war cruiser and a pair of assault torpedo boats.

The ensuing Battle of Dolin Bay results in the destruction of the cruiser Z'Gata by Sathar forces, as privateers assist the torpedo boats Glaive and Guisarme in wiping out all nineteen enemy corvettes, seven of the eight Sathar cruisers. four of the six Sathar destroyers, and the Juggernaut itself—destroyed by multiple successive torpedo hits from the Guisarme.

Badly crippled, the two remaining Sathar destroyers and single cruiser are forced to retreat back into the Void.

81 f.y.,6.11. The Council of Worlds declares its neutrality, UPF President Billingslea informing the independent worlds that “we refuse to intervene in the judgement the One True God Himself has imposed upon you for your heresy and tolerance of moral inferiority.“

At the same time, a Sathar fleet of four dreadnaughts, twelve destroyers, thirty-six cruisers and sixty corvettes emerges from the Void inside the Liberty system, the Sathar commander immediately broadcasting a demand for the Mhneme government to surrender.

Meeting them near the orbit of Akhala(Snowball's moon), Star Forces' Battle Groups Clinton, Prescott and C'hikk engage the Sathar invasion force in a series of bloody running battles, resulting in the eradication of 75% of the Sathar forces, at the cost of all of Battle Groups Prescott and C'hikk.

The remaining Sathar forces self-destruct rather than surrender to a greatly-reduced Battle Group Clinton.

81 f.y.10.20 In response to intelligence of a major Sathar fleet base detected in the White Light Nebula, Free Alliance Admiral Dermond orders the deployment of all of the battle groups stationed at Clarion, leaving only the Clarion Royal Marines defending the White Light system.

Her battle plan, however, falls into the hands of the enemy when a Sathar agent and known Liberation Party operative, Clarion Royal Marine Lieutenant William Runner, delivers the assault torpedo boat Eagle into the hands of a Sathar-crewed merchant escort carrier lurking in the orbit of White Light's innermost planet, Phosphor, Runner and the Sathar murdering the rest of the Eagle's crew between them.

In spite of this, Dermond does not alter her plans to send most of her forces in-system into the nebula.

81 f.y.10.39. The Third Battle of White Light is a resounding victory for Star Forces, who meet the Sathar fleet of eight Juggernauts, twenty destroyers and eighty corvettes in the Planarion asteroid belt.

Even with the assistance of the pirates infesting the Planarion asteroids and forces amassed by the Clarion Liberation Party, the Sathar are incapable of overcoming the combination of greater than expected numbers of enemy vessels and asteroids rigged with antimatter explosives, the Sathar and their allies losing nearly every ship they have while the Star Forces and Royal Marines suffer relatively light losses.

82 f.y.2.33. A major Sathar fleet is forced into normal space near the Cassidine system and completely destroyed by Battle Group McCoy, under the command of Commodore Hannah Creed.

82.f.y.7.25. Star Forces deploy six battle groups to the Lynchpin system, surprising and smashing the Sathar fleet massing in the system over what is obviously a major base on Moonworld in the Battle of Moonworld.

82 f.y.7.26. Hoping to take advantage of the diversion of forces from Thesus for the Moonworld offensive, two Sathar fleets invade the Minotaur system, only to find themselves engaged against three times the amount of military force they were led by their agents in the Free Alliance's ranks to expect.

At the same time, Battle Groups McCoy and Hazor invade the Sathar bases in the nearby Solar Minor system, easily seizing the lightly-populated and defended worlds of Circe and Kir'Kut.

82 f.y.10.38. Special Security Division divorced from PGC-Streel and made a separate entity, answerable exclusively to the President, who gives the SSD even more sweeping powers than they had previously, including the right to mete out summary justice for any crime in the name of “preserving the necessary security of democracy,“ in the words of President Billingslea.

83 f.y.7.4. With Admiral Dermond's Battle Group Morgaine in the lead, the Star Forces launch the offensive they had been preparing against Kdikit for almost a decade, finding themselves engaged not only by ten Sathar fleets...but also by Spacefleet Task Forces Titanic, Dominus, Majestic, Imperator, and Overlord.

The bloodiest battle in the history of the Frontier, the Battle of Twenty-Seven Fleets is but a precursor to the bitter fighting waiting the Frontier Marines when they are finally able to land on Kdikit, the Star Forces taking a month to secure the planet, losing 67% of their ships and personnel—including Admiral Dermond herself, lost along with the crew of the Morgaine—annhilating the Spacefleet/Sathar forces in the process of liberating Kdikit.

What the Free Alliance finds on Kdikit is more distressing than even the horrific casualties they have sustained...the planet has been turned into a mass slave-labor camp, with Kdikit's surviving citizens subjected to unspeakable brutality at the hands of their Sathar/PGC-Streel/UPF oppressors.

What angers the peoples of the Free Alliance further is Billingslea's public acknowledgment of the brutality inflicted upon “moral inferiors who understand only brutality, who are incapable of any other way, any mode of civilized behavior.“

83 f.y.-95 f.y. The Frontier War.

83 f.y.7.6. President Billingslea declares war against the Free Alliance, as a consequence of the invasion of Kdikit by the Star Forces, Spacefleet Task Forces Avenger, Dominator, Magister, Adjudicator and Ravisher imposing a blockade of the White Light system at the same time the UPF mines the routes between the Free Alliance systems,

83 f.y.7.7. The Fourth Battle of White Light results in the destruction of the five Spacefleet task forces by three Star Forces battle groups, spearheaded by Battle Group McCoy, under the command of Star Forces Fleet Vice Admiral Hannah Creed.

86 f.y.8.40. As Spacefleet forces from Truane's Star invade the lightly-defended Cassidine system, an overwhelming Star Forces armada smashes their way into the Truane's Star system, handily defeating the token forces orbiting Pale and New Pale to secure uncontested control of both worlds.

Cut off from any avenue of retreat, the Spacefleet units in the Cassidine system are ambushed by seven Star Forces battle groups under the personal command of Free Alliance Admiral Gillian Trivette, aboard her flagship, the destroyer Admiral Red Cloud, Trivette routing and annhilating the invading Spacefleet forces in the culmination of the Truane's Star Offensive.

88 f.y.10.22. Spacefleet protective garrison orbiting Lossend is diverted to the Prenglar system, as ten Star Forces battle groups hit Gran Quivera and Creed(formerly Morgaine's World) hard.

This proves, however, to be diversion for Vice Admiral Creed's offensive against Lossend itself, four Star Forces battle groups entering the Timeon system virtually unopposed, the citizens of Lossend deposing the planetary governor and the planetary Morality Review Committee, the new government declaring itself firmly for the Free Alliance.

Unconvinced that Lossend was the true prize and the assault against the capital worlds of the UPF is a mere diversion, President Billingslea overrides the Chief of Military Operations'—Fleet Admiral Chek Groznal—decision to deploy Task Forces Despoiler, Divine Judgement, Freedom's Wrath and Goliath to the Timeon system, instead ordering the commanders of those four task forces to remain in place over Gran Quivera.

The Star Forces units in the Prenglar system employ hit and run tactics to wreak severe damage to both worlds, before disappearing into the Void.

90 f.y.10.24. Fleet Admiral Groznal relieved of command and arrested, as the Council of Worlds lays sole blame for the loss of the Timeon system and the debacle at Prenglar on him, his failure to be “ruthlessly aggressive in the defense of the Prenglar system,“ and on “tactical blunders“ he supposedly committed by failing to recognize the Timeon system as the true target of the Star Forces offensive.

The commander of Task Force Goliath, Admiral Clifford Thomas Creed, is—at the recommendation of his close political ally, Billingslea—promoted to Fleet Admiral in Graz's stead.

90 f.y.10.40. The Star Forces cruiser Shadowboxer, commanded by the legendary Captain Alissa Quin, fights and wins a pitched battle with several Spacefleet cruisers and corvettes attempting to recover former Fleet Admiral Groznal.

Groznal defects to the Free Alliance, serving in an advisory role.

92 f.y.2.11. Groznal—over the objections of many in the Star Forces, including his former friend and comrade in arms, Fleet Vice-Admiral Creed—is given command of the newly-created Battle Group Dermond and the newly-built destroyer Admiral Maugaurite Dermond, Groznal—now a Commodore in the Star Forces—immediately leading his new command to a decisive victory in the Battle of Dixon's Star.

This does nothing to relieve suspicions harbored by many even in his own command concerning the former Spacefleet supreme commander.

92 f.y.6.4. Battle Groups Moraes and Dermond enter the Zebulon system, surprising the combined Spacefleet and Sathar forces in the midst of erecting an advance base. In just under an hour, the Star Forces battle groups eliminate all Spacefleet and Sathar presence in the system and the planets of Anker and Volturnus.

92 f.y.6.26. Acting on intelligence gathered at the Battle of Zebulon, Battle Groups Moraes, Dermon and McCoy enter the Wayland system, encountering a massive Sathar/UPF force who—with the help of one of the two native sentient races, proto-felinoid brutes calling themselves the Dubelwhy—are using the planet's other native sentient race—a race of felinoids known as the Kroimeeka—as slave labor in their shipyards, orbiting the system's only habitable world—dubbed Verdant by Star Forces personnel.

With the help of native Kroimeeka resistance fighters in Wayland's asteroid belt, the three Star Forces battle groups successfully engage and destroy 80% of the Sathar and Spacefleet vessels orbiting Verdant, with a subsequent spaceborne landing overwhelming the UPF Landfleet/Sathar garrison on planet.

Immediately granted Free Alliance membership and access to Void engine technology, the Kroimeeka provide valuable intelligence on the relationship between the UPF and the Sathar.

95 f.y. The UPF prepares to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the New Frontier, even with a war on. Celebrations and gala events are planned for all Federation worlds throughout the year, with the SSD receiving Landfleet assistance in providing security for the events.



The Free Alliance

 

THE FREE ALLIANCE

 

The Free Alliance is a confederation of Frontier worlds who have chosen to stand against the tyranny of the New Frontier.

The Alliance is held together by the Frontier Security Council, the Frontier Courts, the Medical Service Organization and, perhaps most importantly, the Star Forces, all long-standing pillars of Frontier society that even the UPF's aggressive “New Frontier“ policies have failed to eradicate.

The governing document of the Free Alliance is the Frontier Security Agreement, containing a series of laws governing the Alliance as a whole. The Agreement is a delicate balance between planetary sovreignty, individual civil rights and liberties,and the safety and security of all the Alliance's citizens. Like Star Forces, the Agreement predates the official formation of the old Federation by two decades, and, in spite of its critics in both the New Federation and the Free Alliance, it continues to work.

The Frontier Security Council

 

Orginially formed as an oversight body for Star Law, the Frontier Security Council is the final executive and legislative authority in the Free Alliance, consisting of one repesenative from each of the independent worlds, one represenative from each of the Alliance's interstellar megacorps, the Star Forces Admiral and the MSO Surgeon General.

The Council convenes year-round in New Hope, on Triad. In times of peace, the Presidency of the Council rotated between the member worlds and corporations on a two-year basis, the President speaking for the Council in all Alliance-wide matters.

With the current war on, the Star Forces Admiral has assumed the Presidency for the duration, as the Frontier Security Agreement calls for.

The Frontier Courts

 

The Frontier Courts adjudicate all Alliance-wide civil and criminal disputes. Meeting in Valentina, on Clarion, the Courts are divided into two branches:

The Frontier Criminal Court: The Frontier Criminal Court deliberates on all criminal matters concerning violations of the Frontier Security Agreement. Their decisions are appealable to the Frontier Security Council.

The Frontier Court of Arbitration: The Frontier Court of Arbitration decides on civil matters between Free Alliance members and acts as a final court of appeal for all other civil matters.

Each of the two courts has one judge from each member world and an ombudsman from each of the member corporations.

 

The Medical Service Organization

 

The MSO resulted from the Frontier worlds and corporations pooling their medical resources during the Blue Plague, the MSO evolving from that ad hoc effort, becoming the last word for Frontier medicine.

 

Utilizing Star Forces ranks, the MSO provides medics and medships to that organization during wartime, and the MSO's hospitals can be found on nearly every outpost of civilization in the Free Alliance.

 

The MSO is headed by the Surgeon-General.

The Star Forces

 

The organization which has been the glue holding Frontier society together, the Star Forces evolved from the old Federation's Star Law, formed by the Frontier worlds and corporations in the aftermath of Hazick Naar's piracies and the Second Common Muster.

 

Now composed of former Star Law, planetary and corporate militia personnel, the Star Forces is the Alliance's military and law-enforcement organization, charged with defending the Frontier from all threats foreign and domestic and with the enforcement of the Frontier Security Agreement.

It is sub divided into five branches, each headed by a vice-admiral:

 

The Fleet

 

The Star Forces’s most visible branch, the Fleet—more commonly known as the Knight Hawks, in honor of the Triad system’s ancient defenders—patrols the spacelanes, acting as the first line of defense against invaders and pirates, while serving as the Star Forces' first response to criminal activity on a planetary scale(in conjunction with the Special Branch, below).

 

The Fleet's arsenal of warships range from Boomerang fighters to the ponderous Morgaine-class destroyers.

Fleet Organization: The Fleet moved away from the unwieldy task force model to a more mobile battle group formation, organized as follows:

Battle Squadron One:

Division 1: One Morgaine-class destroyer, two Puglist-class war cruisers.

Division 2: Three war cruisers.

Battle Squadrons Two-Four: Same as above,

Assault Torpedo Boat Squadron Five:

Divisions 1 and 2: Three Longknife-class assault torpedo boats per division.

ATB Squadrons Six-Nine: As above.

 

Three battle groups—each bearing the name of its flagship—are stationed at each of the Alliance's worlds.

The Frontier Marine Corps

 

The old Federation's ground forces, the Frontier Marines continue to serve in that capacity for the Star Forces.

 

The Marines consist mainly of powered-armor infantry troops, with a small number of artillery and cavalry assets.

 

Stationed mostly aboard the Fleet's warships, the Marines are also called out for riots and other domestic disturbances which threaten the security of the Alliance as a whole.

 

The Exploration Service

 

The Star Forces Exploration Service is charged with exploring all worlds beyond the Frontier. In wartime, the Exploration Service's scoutcraft have the added duty of Fleet reconnaisance.

 

The Special Branch

 

Special Branch handles all criminal investigations and intelligence gathering within the Free Alliance.

 

Support

 

The Support Branch supports the Star Forces's day-to-day operations. It is divided into four smaller bueraus:

 

Administration:The Admin branch handles all of Star Forces's payroll, paperwork, personnel and other administrative matters.

 

Logistics: The Logistics branch handles all of Star Forces's supply needs.

 

Technical Services: The Technical Services Branch handles all of Star Forces's engineering and maintainence needs.

 

Reserach and Development: Star Forces R&D handles all of Star Forces's research, from coordinating with the MSO on vaccine research to developing and testing new starships for the Spacefleet.

 

Star Forces Rank Structure

All of the Star Forces's divisions and branches use the following rank system:

 

Rank

Expirience Points Needed

Pay/Day

Command Responsibilities

Midshipman 2d Class

0

100

None

Midshipman 1st Class

50

125

None

Petty Officer

75

150

None

Petty Officer 1st Class

100

275

Combat Team

Chief Petty Officer

125

325

Combat Team

Master Petty Officer

150

375

Platoon

Ensign

250

425

Small Ship Department Head

Lieutenant

275

500

ATB Command

Captain

375

605

Cruiser Command

Fleet Captain

470

725

Destroyer/Squadron Command

Commodore

550

925

Destroyer/Battle Group Command

Vice Admiral

800

1275

Destroyer/Branch Command

Admiral

1000

1525

Destroyer/Star Forces Command

 

The rank system is a direct progression from Midshipman 2C to Admiral, the Star Forces not having a service academy in which to train their people.

As a consequence, all training is on the job and generally under fire, with Fleet and Marine personnel entering service as star fighter pilots and infantry grunts respectively, while Special Branch personnel begin as low-level operatives, Exploration personnel start out as survey team members, and Support personnel begin as clerks or techs, depending on which buerau they join.

Rank Conventions

 

All Star Forces' officers Fleet Captain rank or above are collectively referred to as the full Admirality, while the Free Alliance Admiral and her Vice-Admirals are collectively known as the senior Admirality.

 

The United Planetary Federation

 

THE UNITED PLANETARY FEDERATION

 

The United Planetary Federation of f.y. 95 is a brutal dictatorship bearing no resemblance to the ideas and institutions of the originial UPF.

The New Frontier

 

The UPF is governed by a series of draconian measures known collectively as the “New Frontier Initiative,“ chief of which is the New Frontier Act.

Citizenship and the Morality Index Number

 

In the New Frontier, a Morality Index Number(MIN), assigned at birth/decanting to each being in the UPF, determines who receives citizenship and thus civil and personal rights, with lower MINs being granted less rights than higher MINs and those with the very lowest MINs(01-10), also known as proks, born into utter and complete slavery—incarcerated in Non-Citizen Containment Matrices or NOCCMs(no' see'ems)—the property of the Council of Worlds and those UPF citizens with MINs of 50 or above.

The Morality Index Number also determines what type of job a being is allowed to hold, how many hours he is required to work per day(with proks being forced to work 20 hours a day)and the maximum daily pay he is allowed to receive.

A variety of factors go into determining a being's MIN, including socioeconomic background, gender, race, family, and job history.

The minimum MIN required for UPF citizenship is 25. Citizens at this minimal level of citizenship are required to work 15 hours out of every 20, can hold only the lowest paying jobs(or positions in the Spacefleet/Landfleet) and can only earn a maximum pay of 75 credits/day.

The highest MIN is 100, supposedly representing a person who is 100% morally pure. Only one person in UPF soil—the President himself—can have a 100 MIN at any one time.

Members of the Council of Worlds hold MINs of 96-99, while high-ranking government officials hold MINs between 90-95, their immediate subordinates holding MINs of 85-89, their immediate subordinates holding MINs between 80-84 and so on, each higher MINs being held by an exponentally smaller group of people.

In short, 75% of all beings in UPF space have MINs between 01-10, with another 15%, acting as slave overseers, holding MINs between 11-24, 9% of the UPF's population holding MINs between 25-50, and 1% of all beings in the UPF holding MINs 51+.

(NOTE: In game terms, roll d100 for each character who starts in UPF space, rerolling any result below 25 and above 50.)

MINs can only be improved after death, when the local Morality Review Committee(see below) examines the being's life to see if he is worthy of being cloned, and, if so, whether or not the clone is worthy of promotion to the next higher MIN.

Conversely, MINs are easy to lower over the course of an individual being's life. Such demotions are entirely too common events, taking place for any reason or none at all(or, as one UPF citizen was reported to have said,“creets and chuckles“) , with the worst fate imaginable for a citizen being “reassignment,“ in which his mind is downloaded into a cloned body of a murdered prok.

New Frontier Culture

 

The New Frontier Act outlawed all “non-Frontier“ cultures, banning everything from the Yazirian clan system to Dralasites(at least the few “tame“ ones in UPF space) discussing philosophy (or making jokes) in public. It established the True Faith as the only “correct“ religion of the New Frontier, declared Pan-Galactic the only legal language spoken, mandated that marriage is an act sanctified by the One True God, only between those of appropriate moral standing(MIN 26+), and, strangely enough, outlawed procreation, making such punishable by slow, humiliating public death, during which the offender is forced to apologize for procreating, before being forced to beg for death.

 

The Taxation And Responsibility Acts

Two other cornerstones of New Frontier Culture are the Taxation and Responsibility Acts.

The former calls for citizens with MINs below 50 to give up 75% of their daily pay to the UPF government, to fund, amongst other things, the maintenance of the Spacefleet, Landfleet and SSD. It futher mandates that these citizens file an Income Tax Record every Federation Day, during which time they must pay additional tax equal to 25% of their annual income.

The Responsibility Act, passed in f.y. 76, decriminalized all criminal acts, outlawed any sort of public assistance, dismantled all fire and emergency services throughout the New Frontier, overturned centuries of workers' rights and protections, and banned civil lawsuits, on the basis that certain people choose to involve themselves in circumstances they knew were bad for them to begin with, “and the time, energy, and money of the New Frontier should not be wasted in helping the less morally endowed of our people avoid responsibility for their consequences of their irresponsible actions[as President J.C. Billingslea put it].“

Morality Review Committees

 

Each world in the UPF has a Morality Review Committee, consisting of all citizens with MINs of 75 or higher, assisting the planetary governor in ensuring the goals of the New Frontier are being met on a daily basis.

Along with smaller MRCs in every city and town, the planetary MRC serves as legislature and inquisition, passing laws governing the “moral health“ of every citizen under its domain and, with the help of the local SSD commanders, reviewing the daily lives of its citizens, not just to ensure their conformity to the agenda of the New Frontier, but also to evaluate their fitness for cloning(or, to put it in their terms, “whether or not the One shall write their names into the Roll of the Living.“)and their “place[MIN] in the “life to come,“

The average citizen does not know who is on his local MRC, nor is he ever allowed to see their proceedings for himself...ultimately, he finds out he is in trouble with his local committee only when the SSD's enforcers come to take him away to be executed or—for the truly unfortunate—reassignment.

 

The Great Encyclopedia

 

An ongoing operation of the SSD's Department of Public Truth and Morality(see below), the New Frontier's Great Encyclopedia Project involves the centralization of all knowledge into a single electronic archive(the Great Encyclopedia) accessible only on the Mosaic by those with MINs 30 or above.

 

This centralization involves the destruction of more than 150 trillion printed books and data cubes every ten hours by the scrubbers, the deletion of entire databases of information from every part of the Mosaic, and, all too commonly, the deaths or reassignments, on an hourly basis, of tens of thousands of beings whose only crime was possession of information deemed dangerous to freedom, democracy and the continuing security of the New Frontier.

 

The Draft

 

All citizens with MINs below 50 not otherwise serving in assignments deemed “mission critical“ under the New Frontier Act are required to serve twenty years in whatever branch their local Morality Review Committee deems most suited to their level of moral commitment.

Failure to submit to the draft is punishable by reassignment.

Citizens from the UPF's established military officer families(i.e., the clones of previous officers) are required to serve twenty years in whatever branch their local Morality Review Committee deems most suited to their level of moral commitment. Officers, after forty days aboard the Strategos(see below)enter service either at the rank determined by their MINs or at a rank several levels(three at most) below their final assigned rank, these latter officers waiting for openings above them to advance to the rank they were meant by the MINs to hold.

Conventions

 

Citizens address their moral superiors as “Master,“ while the President himself is addressed as “Progenitor.“

A citizen who fails to give his superiors the deference due them will be reassigned.

 

UPF Government

 

The President

 

The President is the UPF's chief executive, chief legislator, final judge and supreme commander in chief of the Spacefleet, Landfleet and SSD, presiding over the Council of Worlds and governing with virtual carte-blanche authority since the bombing of Creed(formerly Morgaine's World)and Gran Quivera twenty years ago.

Granted perpetual emergency powers by the Council of Worlds, the President is answerable to no one, serving until death, when he is replaced by a member of the Council of Worlds.

 

The Council Of Worlds

 

The Council of Worlds is the UPF's legislature and court of final appeal. Meeting year-round in the Council chambers in Port Loren, on Gran Quivera, the Council consists of the CEO of PGC-Streel and one represenative from each UPF member world.

Council members are selected by the President and serve exclusively at his pleasure.

The Military Staff Committee

 

The Military Staff Committee is comprised of the Spacefleet Fleet Admiral, the Landfleet Field Marshal and the SSD Director-General,one of whom is appointed by the President tp preside over the others as Chief of Military Operations.


All three members of the MSC are selected by—and serve at the pleasure—of the President.

 

The Special Security Division

 

The UPF's Special Security Division, or SSD, handles all internal law-enforcement and external intelligence gathering in the UPF, with the power to act as judge, jury and executioner in all criminal cases.

 

The only law-enforcement agency in UPF soil, the SSD is singularly ruthless in the pursuit of its duties, its black-uniformed Tactical, Provost Marshal, and Special Operations Departments' enforcers practicing casual brutality as effortlessly as breathing, while the insidious tactics of the Criminal Investigation and Internal Surveillance Departments' operatives—especially in the way they shamlessly earn the trust of their victims, only to casually betray them—have done more to isolate the beings of the UPF from one another than any other act or institution of the New Frontier.

 

Amongst the SSD's other branches are the Department of Public Truth and Morality—the “scrubbers“—charged with the dilligent removal of any idea conflicting with the culture of the New Frontier or any fact which the New Frontier might find inconvenient, the Behavioral Sciences Department—the “technicians“—feared as much as the Tactical and Special Operations Departments for the casual sadism involved in their techniques of torture and interrogation, the Containment Department—the “brutes“—the UPF's brutal prison guards, and the often-underfunded and undermanned External Operations Department—the “spooks“—charged with all espionage, sabotage, destablization and other such operations against the Free Alliance.

 

All departments of the SSD use Landfleet ranks.

 

Spacefleet

 

The UPF's space force, the Spacefleet is ruthless in its twin duties of maintaining the subjugation of the UPF's worlds and eradicating the Free Alliance.

With warships ranging from Stinger starfighters to massive Leviathan-class dreadnaughts, the Spacefleet numbers 110 task forces, each bearing the name of the dreadnaught serving as its flagship.

A task force numbers 216 warships, divided into four task groups of nine task units of six warships apiece, as follows:

Task Group Alfa

Task Unit 1

One Leviathan-class dreadnaught

Five Exalted-class destroyers

 

Task Units 2-4

 

Two Exalted-class destroyers

Four Marauder-class war cruisers

 

Task Units 5-7

 

Two Maurauder-class war cruisers

Four Hatchet-class corvettes

 

Task Groups 8 & 9

 

Two Shadow-class escort carriers

Four Hatchet-class corvettes

 

Task Groups Bravo-India

 

Task Unit 1

Six Exalted-class destroyers

 

Task Units 2-4

 

Two Exalted-class destroyers

Four Marauder-class war cruisers

 

Task Units 5-7

 

Two Maurauder-class war cruisers

Four Hatchet-class corvettes

 

Task Units 8 & 9

 

Two Shadow-class escort carriers

Four Hatchet-class corvettes

 

 

Spacefleet Rank Structure

 

Spacefleet employs the following rank system:

 

 

Rank

Pay/Day

Required MIN

Able Spacer

50

25

Spacer 1st Class

70

30

Petty Officer

90

40

Petty Officer 1st Class

120

50

Chief Petty Officer

150

55

Master Petty Officer

190

60

Juinor Lieutenant

215

70

Lieutenant

280

75

Fleet Lieutenant

355

78

Commander

425

85

Space Commander

600

90

Rear Admiral

925

93

Vice Admiral

1500

95

Admiral

1700

96

Fleet Admiral

2500

97

 

Landfleet

 

Short for Space Landing Fleet, the UPF Landfleet replaced the Frontier Marines as the Federation's ground forces. Like the Marines, they are primarily powered-armor infantry, supported by ARCVs and some aerodyne tanks.

They also have complete control over the transports and dropships which bring them into battle and the starfifghters and bombers charged with direct infantry support, all of which only contributes to the resentment between Spacefleet and Landfleet.

Inter-service rivalry between the two is bitter and all too often violent, forcing SSD provosts stationed on board Landfleet and Spacefleet vessels to stay on their toes. This rivalry is deliberately encouraged and fed by the President, the Council of Worlds and the Military Staff Committee(see above)so as to keep both services' energies too divided for anything even remotely resembling a coup d'etat.

Landfleet employs the following ranks:

 


Rank

Pay/Day

Required MIN

Private

50

25

Trooper

70

30

Lance Corporal

90

40

Corporal

120

50

Sergeant

150

55

Master Sergeant

190

60

Juinor Lieutenant

215

70

Lieutenant

280

75

Captain

355

78

Commander

425

85

Colonel

600

90

Brigadier

925

93

Major General

1500

95

General

1700

96

Field Marshal

2500

97

 

 

The Strategos

 

All inductees into the UPF military are assigned to the Strategos, a modified Leviathan-class dreadnaught, for basic training, where they are subjected to forty days(spent either in space or in the Void) of coldwire(cryogenic VR) training, political indoctrination, behavior-adjustment threapies, physical fitness drills and live-fire exercises against the inmates of the NOCCMs, all designed for enlistees and officers who will obey orders to kill their own families without a second thought.

Those who wash out of basic training are either reassigned or lobotomized and cybernetically “enhanced,“ depending on their overall usefulness to the New Frontier.

Planetary Government

 

Simply put, there is no place for planetary sovreignty in the New Frontier.

All member worlds were required to disarm their militias and dismantle their governments, submitting themselves wholly to the will of the President and his Council of Worlds.

Nor are they allowed to secede from the UPF, needless to say.

Each member world is governed by a planetary governor, appointed by the President from all UPF citizens with MINs 75+, with the sole requirment for office being the prospective governor have a higher MIN than any member of the planetary Morality Review Committee.

Governors serve at the pleasure(and/or whim)of the President, their local represenative on the Council of Worlds and the members of the planetary Morality Review Committee, in that order, with any governor failing to secure the support of any of those three finding themselves either executed or reassigned.