The Light-Speed Lombards

[Michaelangelo]

That is one multiracial science staff. Should be interesting if an alien ever is elected president.

Looks like the ENC will have to break out of its corner of the galaxy now that it's surrounded by alliances.

 

[Nuada Airgetlám]

So, when is the push against the Bokasherans? They are a clear rival and are gaining ground.

 

[Nikolai]

I love the political machinations in your divided Empire.

 

[RedTemplar]

I love the political machinations in your divided Empire.

I enjoy it, as well! Stellaris is a great game but admittedly a little barebones right now, so the added political stuff on Earth gives me more to work with from a storytelling perspective

 

[Admiral Coriolanus]

I don't really have much to add except this is one of my favorite AARs I've ever read on this forum--for any game!

 

[RedTemplar]

I don't really have much to add except this is one of my favorite AARs I've ever read on this forum--for any game!

Wow... Thank you!!! I'm humbled.

 

[RedTemplar]

Threat Assessment
2310 - 2320 AD: Sollander Looks to the Stars

Choosing Who to Hate

The election of 2310 AD saw Alicia Galloway pushed out of office thanks to her handling of the Uri Dominion's ultimate defeat. In her place, the Scandinavian Johan Sollander rose to power in a time when the ENC was losing its immediate political momentum. The threat of the authoritarian Uri Dominion had given Humanity a single, plainly visible rival -- their defeat meant that the Coalition no longer had an easy scapegoat in the world of foreign policy. The early years of Sollander's presidency were mired in endless debate over the best direction in which to point the ENC's agenda.

The most obvious choice of a public rival was the Bokasheran United Systems, who had very blatantly infringed on Earth's sphere of influence by making a vassal of the small Eadominar Republic, home to large numbers of liberated Uri. Ruling over 28 planets, the BUS was the second-largest state in the galaxy, just barely behind their neighbors to the north, the Celimy Sovereignty. In addition to being significantly larger than the ENC (which controlled just 13 worlds), the Bokasheran fleet utilized highly advanced weaponry, including powerful Arc Emitters and highly advanced strike fighters and bombers, and all of their ships possessed superior armor and shielding when compared to Coalition ships. Still, even with their significantly stronger military and technological resources, the Bokasherans lacked strong allies. Their principal allies, the Sovereign Domanna Colonies, were far weaker and less advanced, and the Eadominar Republic's strength was trivial compared to the ENC's. With the Karabnar and Genoggians fighting alongside them, many believed that their strength in numbers could overtake the Bokasherans and open up the possibility of annexing the Eadominar Republic or making a strike against the Domanna.

Despite the fact that pursuing a conflict against the Bokasherans seemed the most logical option based on their existing relationship (or lack thereof), the position was not without its dissenters. The Confederacy of Karabon expressed a greater interest in pressing up to the north, where they sought to occupy the remaining Hathgum Hegemony planets and seek to claim them for themselves or integrate them into the Free Hathgum Republic. Vocal leaders on Earth from places like Powhatan, France, and Mali agreed with the Karabnar's preference, and argued that the Coalition should build strength by subduing smaller enemies and gaining additional allies before taking a direct course against the Bokasherans. Still others -- most notably Brittany, Mexico, and Australia -- preferred a course of nonviolence. Rather than springing into a brand new rivalry, they argued that improvements to infrastructure and economic ventures with neighboring star polities was preferable to additional expansion. The only principle on which everyone agreed was that challenging the Golden Axis was a fool's errand.

President Sollander was not particularly disposed to war and conquest, and he used the bickering in the United Nations to his advantage. Under the pretense of weighing the merits of all arguments and attempting to keep the UN in political harmony, Sollander effectively stalled any moves toward direct or indirect confrontation with the neighboring states, instead investing heavily into economic expansion in the Core Worlds, extensive upgrades to orbital spaceports, and a surge in new technological research. The ENC remained at peace, although its constituent states did their best to lobby otherwise.

Ancient Weapons Fired Anew

The Eruxo Ascendancy's presence was well-known in the galaxy -- one of a small number of apparently ancient civilizations, possessing technology far beyond anything else in known space and preferring to remain isolated from contemporary events. So long as they had been left alone, these large and mysterious empires remained almost eerily silent, watching events transpire around them. Very few nations dared to interact with them, much less to travel near them; a lesson that was not heeded by the small Provalguvor Dominion, a vassal state under the Kedeshi Confederacy. The Eruxo deemed that the Provalguvor's dwellings had drawn too close to their borders, and in 2319 they dispatched their navy to "resolve" the issue.

The Eruxo Border War marked the first time that the modern galactic states witnessed the military power of an ancient empire. The results were nothing short of terrifying.

The Provalguvor's parent state, the Kedeshi Confederacy, gathered its allies from the Vissari Galactic Republic, Glost-Werheni Directorate, and Zukakkan Republic, combining their forces to resist the aggressive push of their isolationist neighbors. Together, they traveled to the eastern borders of Provalguvor space, where they met the Eruxo fleet in the Provalguvor home system of Veldoon. The battle that ensured there was not a long one. The Eruxo's ships were exotic in design and even more exotic in power -- they utilized deadly lance weaponry that shredded through the shields and armor of their opponents at an alarming rate. Although the Eruxo fleet was much smaller in numbers, the power of their vessels meant that the combined forces of the four allied nations was far from adequate to stop their advance.

As a result, the mysterious warships of the Eruxo gained free reign over their enemies' space. After capturing two seemingly unimportant systems from their rivals, the Eruxo swarmed the Provalguvor homeworld of Charion's Crystal and established a wide blockade around the planet. To the horror of the allied nations, the Eruxo ended the war on a devastating note. The orbiting ships activated their powerful lance weapons and ravaged the surface of Charion's Crystal, annihilating the entire population -- marking the extinction of the Provalguvor people.

The abrupt and crushing victory struck fear into many of the galaxy's states and peoples. What they had already believed was confirmed -- these ancient civilizations possessed incredible military strength far beyond what any modern nation seemed to be able to muster. The genocide of the Provalguvor gave legitimacy to the threat these ancient empires held.

However, yet another threat was on its way -- one very different from the ancient empires, and perhaps even more deadly...

 

[TheAnguishedOne]

Indeed, humanity is in a bad situation to expand. President Sollander is probably right to just take the time everyone is debating to just improve the infrastructure. Rarely a bad idea.

The might of a Fallen Empire has been reminded to the younger empires. Hopefully one day that situation will be reversed.

 

[Nikolai]

A late game crisis this early?

 

[RedTemplar]

A late game crisis this early?

It would appear so... But the question remains until the next update: which one?

 

[Michaelangelo]

Never a good idea to mess with a fallen empire. At least humanity has been given a good example as to why not to pester them.

 

[Taintedtamt]

Oooh a crisis! I personally think its the Extradimensional Invaders since the Fallen Empire was a major event in the last chapter.

 

[Nuada Airgetlám]

So this ancient remnants live up to the hype.

 

[JerseyGiants88]

This is the first Stellaris AAR I have read and I have really, really enjoyed it. Therefore, I am nominating Light-Speed Lombards for the Weekly AAR Showcase. The award normally goes out on Sunday but I will be unavailable for a while starting tomorrow so I decided to pass it on early. Congratulations @RedTemplar well earned. Looking forward to the next update!

 

[Nikolai]

Congratulations, and well earned!

 

[RedTemplar]

This is the first Stellaris AAR I have read and I have really, really enjoyed it. Therefore, I am nominating Light-Speed Lombards for the Weekly AAR Showcase. The award normally goes out on Sunday but I will be unavailable for a while starting tomorrow so I decided to pass it on early. Congratulations @RedTemplar well earned. Looking forward to the next update!

Well thank you!!! Quite humbled, I am

 

[Asantahene]

Wow a fallen empire and....

I reckon organics hehehe

 

[RedTemplar]

Hunters From the Void
2320 - 2330 AD: The Unbidden Arrive

A New Kind of Enemy

At first, Dr. Leonard Allenby thought that his sensors, mounted on the ENC starbase over New Verona, was experiencing a technical malfunction when it reported a massive power surge of unprecedented scale. For days, maintenance crews and research assistants attempted to repair and recalibrate the instruments to no avail; it appeared that everything was functioning normally. When similar reports started coming in from his colleagues in other places like Ur Idra, Sant Mikael, and even Earth, Dr. Allenby understood that his observation was real -- he couldn't understand what it was, but he knew it was something of historic magnitude.

President Sollander organized a team of his best scientists to isolate the signal and determine its origin. It was a process lasting several weeks, in which the Coalition's top scientific minds struggled to understand what they were witnessing. That question was answered on December 2, 2320, when a mysterious transmission was received at ENC Headquarters. The creatures were bizarre, unlike anything the Coalition leaders had witnessed -- they appeared to be almost immaterial, with three eerily glowing eyes and a body that seemed only partially physically manifested. They spoke in short, cryptic fragments, but their message was clear: wherever they had come from, they were here to hunt. Their ships poured out of some sort of dimensional rift in the Yval system, and the great hunt of the Unbidden began.

The Yval System was within the space controlled by the Ess'Jaggon Empire, a relatively small nation of bird-people to the galactic west. The Unbidden ships, with their strange, almost immaterial structure and deadly weaponry, quickly overran the fortifications of the Ess'Jagon in a series of one-sided assaults. The fortified space stations of the Empire fell, and a disturbing trend emerged -- wherever the Unbidden gained control of a planet, the result was always the same; the eradication of all sentient life on that world.

Their advance was measured, but aggressive. By 2323, the Unbidden had carved out a small region of controlled space at the intersection of the Ess'Jaggon Empire, Ikarzuri Polity, and Imperial Tendra-Zuhn Regions. With the galactic center at their back, they steadily expanded outward into their neighboring regions. As they purged the sentient life of each system they encountered, they left in their wake a series of defensive space stations, seemingly of the same immaterial nature as their starships. As more fleets continued to pour out of the dimension tear in the Yval System, it became clear to the regional powers that a swift answer was needed.

The first counter-attack against the Unbidden came from the three systems on the border of their arrival. The Ess'Jaggon Empire, Ikarzuri Polity, and Tendra-Zuhn Imperial Regions pooled their fleets together and launched a massive assault on the Iriani system, at the outer edge of the Unbidden's expansion. The defensive stations of the Unbidden were resilient, bearing the same powerful weaponry and shields as their attack ships; the battles were extended ones, and many ships from all three nations were lost in the process. However, their combined fleet strength overwhelmed the Unbidden outposts, and they were destroyed at the end of a protracted battle.

By 2326, there was an active allied campaign inside Unbidden space to destroy their remaining outposts, even as Unbidden attack fleets were pressing west and north to take additional ground. For the most part, the more distant galactic powers hung back and watched, waiting to see if this threat would expand or if the local empires could drive these Unbidden back to their place of origin.

The Coalition Debates How to Respond

When Reagan MacDonnell was elected ENC President in 2330, her primary task was to determine how the Coalition would respond to the threat of the Unbidden. Some were calling for an end to all expansion and warin favor of preparing for the expansion of the assault; others called for war to subjugate neighboring empires and build up a stronger, united front. President MacDonnell had several plans for how to put the Coalition in a more powerful position, and they would entail some surprising political reversals...

 

[TheAnguishedOne]

The Unbidden... well then. I haven't seen them before. That's kind of terrifying. Good luck to Reagan MacDonnell to prepare the ENC against such an unusual opponent.

 

[Taintedtamt]

I was right but not for the reasons I thought it was going to be. I wonder if the Ess'Jagon Empire was researching jump drives?

Can't wait to see how far this will spread and how the galaxy will be left after the invasion.