Angel of War: Voyage of the Starship Marathon
TECHNICAL AND HISTORICAL BIBLE
Table of Contents:
- Galactic Map
- Recent Galactic History
- The Nebelkrieg (Nebula War)
- Factions of the Nebelkrieg – Coalition
- Factions of the Nebelkrieg – Fellowship
- Factions of the Nebelkrieg – Augments
- Technical Breakdown: [Marathon]
- Dossier: [Ino Esperanta]
PART 1: Galactic Map
PART 2: Recent Galactic History:
- Founding of the Trinary Coalition
- The Commonwealth of Earth, Republican Cyandite Holdings, and Kodranite Confederation ratified the Interstellar Mutual Defense Treaty in 2155, agreeing to cooperate with each other in conflicts against ancient mining drones and space ameobas, both of which were widespread in the region at the time.
- The Galactic Community
- The Galactic Community was established by the Coalition, Glebsig Foundation, Astral Fellowship, Theian Administation, and Empire of Axpentl to facilitate negotiations about the creation of interstellar laws. The first meeting of the Galactic Senate occurred in 2212.
- Axpentl-Coalition Border dispute
- Coalition member-state Kodranite Confederation laid claim to 21 Axpentl systems over 15 years as relations continued to deteriorate. Cross-border skirmishes eventually led to all Coalition members closing their borders to the Empire.
- Planetary Revolts in the Outer Limb
- On the western side of the galaxy, the Confederacy of Qa-Adash and Fex’Klanga Empire were both rocked by multiple planetary rebellions. Both empires fragmented into multiple smaller states that have been warring with each other for the past 20 years.
- Discovery of the Tiyana Vek Wormhole
- A Human science vessel entered the Tiyana Vek star system intending to study the Tiyanki Homeworld. Instead found a wormhole leading to a region of space controlled by the Augmented Cevantian Administration.
- Beginning of Coalition-Augment relations
- The Earth Commonweath government expressed a strong desire to build friendly relations with the Augments, to ensure the far end of the Tiyana Wormhole was secured against any foe that could threaten Earth.
- The Manifesti Revolution
- A nonsensical political movement briefly paralyzes the Parliament of Earth. While the Manifestis never seized power, they left a lasting legacy on the art world and Coalition culture.
- The Axpentl Border War
- Skirmishes across the disputed border erupted into a shooting war (primarily led by the Kodranite Confederation) in the year 2218. This was Humanity’s first major interstellar war. All of the combat in this war occurred in space, with actual combatants never seeing each other face-to-face. Many of the lessons learned from this conflict would be applied during the Nebelkrieg ten years later.
- Fellowship Invasion and Partition of Qix’Lufran
- While the Coalition was distracted fighting the Empire, the Desstican Astral Fellowship set off on a long-running series of conquests. Starting in 2214, the Fellowship launched an invasion of the Alliance of Qix’Lufran, cutting the county in half and vassalizing the northern rump state. This pattern would repeat as the Fellowship attacked its neighbors one at a time and carving out new vassals and tributary-states.
- Continued Growth of the Coalition-Augment Friendship
- Alarmed by the Fellowship’s conquests, Coalition diplomats began aggressively pursuing stronger relationships with the Augmented Cevantians. On the homefront, local governments launched an aggressive propaganda campaign in the theocratic Cyandite Holdings to prepare citizens for friendship with cybernetic people.
- Augment Association with the Coalition
- In 2224, the Augmented Cevantian Administration accepted association status with the Trinary Coalition, publicly signaling its intent to join the Coalition in the future. This action prompted angry rhetoric from the Astral Fellowship, who insisted that the Weeping Ghost Nebula (the region of space Augments call home) lies entirely within the Desstican sphere of influence and that the Coalition has no right to operate there.
- Augments on Earth and the Blade of the Huntress
- In 2225, following the negotiation of a Migration Treaty, Humans and Augments began to pass freely through the Tiyana Wormhole to settle on each other’s worlds. A period of mutual exploration took place that climaxed with the discovery of the Blade of the Huntress by a visiting Augment scientist. The Blade is now on display at the Human Parliament Building in Beijing.
- Munytha Thoso takes over Fellowship, announces Cosmic Doctrine
- In the final weeks of 2225, the Desstican Astral Fellowship announced the selection of a new First Ascendant. Munytha Thoso was a high-ranking member of the Dimensional Covenant, a religious organization that had subsumed all aspects of national government in Desstican space. First Ascendant Thoso announced a new doctrine that, among other things, proclaimed the Weeping Ghost Nebula and its Wormhole exit to be divine objects. He also denounced the use of cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and the concept of cybernetic ascension entirely; using genocidal language while describing the Augmented Cevantian people.
- Fellowship Invades Cevasia
- The Desstican Astral Fellowship launched a military invasion of the Weeping Ghost Nebula in December 2226, overran Cevasia, and established a tributary government to rule the Augments living in the region. The Coalition immediately began to demand the Fellowship’s withdrawal from the nebula. Human covert operatives simultaneously started to seek out a way to deny access to the Tiyana Wormhole, as the wormhole allows access to a vulnerable region of Human territory.
- Nebelkrieg begins
- Renowned Paragon Gia’Zumon delivered an impassioned speech to Coalition Congress on January 1, 2227, reminding her colleagues that the time for talk had passed. Congress unanimously voted to declare war against the Desstican Astral Fellowship, with the explicit goal of ejecting the invaders from the Weeping Ghost Nebula and liberating the Augmented people before any genocidal action could occur. During a subsequent press conference, the Coalition Secretary-General (a German-born Human) gave the war its name: War in the Nebula. Nebelkrieg.
PART 3: The Nebelkrieg (Nebula War)
The war draws its name from the region where the conflict takes place. The Weeping Ghost Nebula is a stellar nursery where a cluster of newly-formed stars can be found. The region contains deposits of the strategic resource Zro, as well as Astral Threads and the all-important exit point of the Tiyana Wormhole. Cevasia, the Augment Homeworld, can also be found here.
Dense gasses and dust veins blown by stellar wind interfere with starship sensors, making navigation in the nebula very difficult. Using sensors to detect enemy vessels is extremely difficult here.
PART 4:
The Coalition (BLUFOR)
The Trinary Coalition is a Martial Alliance, founded by the Sol, Afrmkye, and Fulaz star systems in the mid 2150’s. The purpose of the alliance was to allow the fledgling star nations to defend themselves and each other against space amoebas and ancient mining drones, both of which were a scourge during this time. The alliance has since reworked itself to focus on defending against larger star nations.
The Coalition government consists of a Congress (to write laws) and an executive in the form of the Secretary-General. (to execute those laws) The Presidency of the Coalition rotates from one member to the next. The current President is the Earth Commonwealth.
The Coalition operates its own military forces, to which the member states can contribute their own starships and soldiers. The President commands coalition forces. Meritocracy is a crucial tenant of the Coalition. Promotion and advancement are completely dependent on field-proven skills and aptitude tests (both written and physical exams are administered yearly)
PART 5:
The Astral Fellowship (OPFOR)
The Desstican Astral Fellowship is a highly authoritarian theocratic state centered around the
Dimensional Covenant: the worship of Astral Scars. (a stellar phenomena that is the subject of intense scientific study) Under the dictatorial leadership of the First Ascendant, the Fellowship is made up of the Dessticans, a Necrophage race that seeks out pre-FTL people and pre-sapient lifeforms and uses them in sacrificial ceremonies at the Chamber of Ascension on Dekron. (the Desstican Homeworld)
The Astral Fellowship is considered an enemy of the Coalition due to their extremely frequent genocidal actions including (but not limited to) mass abduction, forced mass relocation, and mass sentient sacrifice. The Coalition fears the day when the Fellowship gains access to the Tiyana Wormhole, as this would make it possible for the Fellowship to attack Coalition territory from two directions simultaneously.
PART 6:
The Augments (INDFOR)
The Augmented Cevantian Administration is the government ruling over the Weeping Ghost Nebula. The Cevantian people are bipedal Humanoids. At some point in their distant past, before first contact with the Coalition, the Cevantian people underwent an event they call “the Cybernetic Revolution.” Their civilization as a whole developed a powerfully strong interest in Cybernetic Ascension. Even before achieving spaceflight, the Cevantians had already started down the long and arduous process of transforming themselves into Synthetic lifeforms, to shed the limitations imposed by their imperfect organic bodies.
All Cevantians are taught to understand that the process of Ascension will be very long and challenging, and that it will take several dozen generations to be fully completed. However, the fusion of the “exalted body and holy cybernetics” is a divine outcome that will be worth the time and effort. To the Cevantians, augmenting their own bodies with cybernetic technology is a deeply religious experience to be celebrated. Ritualistic implants are given to people at all ages, from small children to the elderly.
In the modern day, the Cevantians strongly prefer to be called “Augments,” a name that reflects their halfway status in the Ascension process. Very few Augments exist outside of the Weeping Ghost Nebula. Prejudice and discrimination against Cybernetic and Synthetic lifeforms is widespread across the galaxy, and the Augments know they have no friends outside of the Coalition.
Before the 2226 Invasion, the leaders of the Desstican Astral Fellowship publicly announced and discussed their plans to carry out genocidal action against the Augments. Now that the Fellowship’s invasion of Cevasia has actually occurred, such action is considered inevitable.
PART 7: Technical Breakdown (The
UNS Marathon)
The
UNS Marathon (CSN-116) is the Hero Ship of the story. She is the lead ship of the “Azrael-Improved” class of Battleship in the Coalition Navy. The Azrael has been a mainstay in the Coalition Navy for 50 years. The Azrael-Improved (or Azrael-i) for short, is an overhauled version of the template, incorporating hundreds of improvements made necessary by the Axpentl Border War.
Marathon was built by Imperial Arsenal – Space Division, a modern-day continuation of the shipbuilding company used by the Ottoman Empire. Construction took place at Barnard’s Star Station and took 272 days. The vessel is currently undergoing space trials at Alpha Hydri. When launched, the Commonwealth Parliament of Earth registered the
Marathon under the British flag, since the United Kingdom provided the majority of the funding the construction required. The Russian Aircraft Corporation Mikoyan (also known as “MiG”) won the contract to provide the
Marathon with her compliment of Starfighters.
The
Marathon is a dedicated Command Ship. She carries all of the equipment needed to provide command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) to Coalition fleets in the AO. Once she completes space trials and is accepted into service, the
Marathon will replace her aging sistership
Basilisk as the Flagship of Strike Force Cerberus.
The vessel carries five Starfighter squadrons, with each squadron consisting of eighteen MiG-95 Space Superiority Fighters. For self-defense, the
Marathon is armed with four Coilgun kinetic batteries and four flak batteries.
Marathon is protected by three layers of Ceramo-Metal Armor and three layers of Deflector shields. A fusion reactor provides electric power.
Marathon carries a highly experimental cloaking device, which is standard on all Azrael-i vessels.
Under normal circumstances, cloaking a Battleship is considered to be impossible. The Coalition is the only faction known to have tried this. The experimental cloaking generator is fueled with Dark Matter, and while the field it produces is highly unstable, it does render the
Marathon undetectable to most conventional sensors. This tactical advantage comes at the cost of substantially reduced sublight speed and shield effectiveness. Field tests performed by Coalition reconnaissance ships suggest the cloaking device is much more effective while operating inside a nebula.
The Marathon requires a crew of 3,500 to operate, plus an additional 290 support staff for the MiG-95 fighter squadrons.
Vacancies in the command staff are still being filled, although a promising young person may have been found for the role of Tactical Officer:
FINAL PART: Ino Esperanta
Ino Esperanta will be the main protagonist of this story.
She is a 23-year-old Argentine woman born and raised in the city of Ushuaia. Both of Ino’s parents are intensely loyal members of a political movement called the “Esperantists” who seek to install the constructed language “Esperanto” as the official language of the Coalition.
The Esperanta family is stricken by a severe case of Golden Child Syndrome. Ino’s younger brother Venka is heavily favored by Ino’s parents and can do no wrong in their eyes. Ino is expected to sacrifice her own happiness and achievements for her brother’s benefit, she must also be the scapegoat whenever he is accused of wrongdoing.
As Ino grew older, she started to resent her family. The last straw was when she was ordered to let her brother hog the spotlight during her own High School graduation party. Ino applied to the University of Buenos Aires, (3000 kilometers away from home) and began to study for a degree in Investigative Journalism, hoping that she could find work that would take her very far away from Ushuaia.
When the University notified Ino that she was going to graduate, a duplicate notification was sent to her parents. Both Mr. and Mrs. Esperanta showed up in Buenos Aires with Venka at their side, demanding to speak with Ino about having her brother follow her into the world of journalism.
Desperate to evade her family, Ino visited a nearby Coalition recruiting center and applied for a job in the Coalition Navy, specifically asking for a post on a starship.
After taking the written and physical aptitude exams, Ino was offered a job in Coalition Military Intelligence, setting the events of this story into motion…
