UGT: Unknown; 6 hours after May went to sleep
Location: Unknown yellow dwarf system, near the third planet
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[ Time to wake up, May. ]
That was the first thing I heard, once I woke up. I felt refreshed enough, therefore I got up and made my way towards the Bridge of the ASF Aurora. "Tell me, what did Admiral Thorrison send us?", I asked, once I reached the Bridge and set down in the Captain's chair. "Wait, no. First, any problems while I slept?", I asked, maybe a little bit anxious.
[ There were no problems during yoru sleep. Admiral Thorrison and his fleet remained cordial and the minor problems that popped up on the ship, I took care of. I would have woken you up otherwise. ]
[ The information package send to us by Admiral Thorrison is quite extensive. We got extensive star maps of the entire galaxy, the current war and the Admiral was even nice enough to add a star map from the time we claim to come from. ]
[ Furthermore, I now posess data concerning most of the currently spoken languages in the galaxy, the political climate and alliances, rough strength estimations of most starnations, the technological level of the galaxy and many more things. I can now pinpoint our location and the current date easily. ]
"Oh? Do tell. I roughly know how many years passed by, but akctually having a date would be nice.", I said. It truly got time for me to familiarise myself with the current situation. No longer would I stumble about in the dark with nearly no context clues!
[ It seems like the entire glaxy has a single unified standard time named "United Galactic Time", or "UGT" for short. In the same way, galaxywide the same year is valid. The current year seems to be the year "280 after Galactic Armistace" or "280 a.G.A." for short. The days, weeks, and months of a year are still the same as last time. The twelve months are: Fall, Remnant, Ascent, Aether, Humana, Ruida, Revoluia, Organa, Una, Endra, Nova and Emergenta. The current date is "12th Ascent 280 a.G.A." as far as we are informed. ]
"Finally! It took us long enough to figure that out. But what is this Galactic Armistace they talk about?"
[ The Galactic Armistace put an official end to the so-called "Galactic War Against Imperialism", a war that was led against the local remnants of (REDACTED). It seems like the First Human Federatin took up the mantle of defender of the galaxy after the fall of the Aetherian Empire. The coalition they formed waged war upon the local remnants of (REDACTED) for another 700 years after the fall of Aetheria, before an armistace was signed to end the brutal conflict. As we can see, the Ruidan Raider Association still exists and the reconquest of the eastern side of the galaxy failed. ]
"700 years of war? I understand why they decided to stop. But nothing of that matters right now. You said something about maps?"
[ Yes. Our own most modern map depicts the galaxy a few moths before the fall of the Aetherian Empire. The maps we got from Admiral Thorrison depict the galaxy at the time of the armistace and a map of how the galaxy looks now. You should be able to see all three of them now in front of you. ]
And indeed, three holograms opened up before me, allowing me to study the maps Fen talked about.
image [https://i.imgur.com/saUeen4.jpeg]
I gave the base input, but because of a lack of time, AI strongly helped out (Before the fall of the Aetherian Empire / 700 b.G.A.)
image [https://i.imgur.com/ONz3Clb.jpeg]
Once again AI helped out (The Galactic Armistace / 0 G.A)
image [https://i.imgur.com/xGtlbQ5.jpeg]
This one was mostly done by myself and shows the current spheres of influence of the four galactic superpowers (spheres of influence does not necessarily mean allied, just that this particular superpower holds the most influence over the nation)
image [https://i.imgur.com/oEYBrdE.jpeg]
This one was mostly done by myself as well and shows the current war situation (yes the federation seems to be slightly fucked but there is still hope)
"That... is a lot. As interesting as the history of our galaxy is, they are currently of no conern. The spheres of influence in the galaxy and the current war situation are much more relevant right now. How is the Federation still standing after over one and a half decade of war!?"
[ There seem to be multiple reasons for that. The first is that the Galacitc Council and their Galactic Convention for War, or GCW for short, puts hard limits on how much the galactic superpowers are allowed to intervene in each others business. Declerations of war between the superpowers are outlawed, and an intervention is limited to a tenth of their total amount of warships. The Federation is therefore only fighting 10% of the total capabilities of the Alliance and the Association. No one seems to be interested in breaking these rules, fearing a direct intervention of the Union and an all-out galacitc war with an unknown outcome, should these rules be broken. And no one seems to want that. ]
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
[ Another reason is the massive support the Federation gets from the Union. They seem to be the only reason the Federations' war machinery is still running strong after all the time. The Union sees itself as a balancig factor and otherwise above galactic policies and is therefore willing to do much in order to keep the galactic superpowers balanced out. ]
[ The last reason I can see is the truly massive navy of the Federation. Even though technologically behind the other superpowers and in recent decades neglected, the sheer amount of mothballed warships that they had in stock allowed them to stabalise the frontlines. As of now, the entire situation is a stalemate, thet the Federation is hard-pressed to break soon, or the war will truly be lost for them, as it is only a question of time, until the ISA Managers to find a way to get their fleets to the front as well. ]
For a few seconds, I mused about these new informations. "It doesn't change anything for us. We will still help the Federation out of their unfortunate situation. We do have the power to break this stalemate, right?"
[ With the support from Admiral Thorrison, we could be able to tip the scales in favor of the Federation, if we play our cards right. ]
"That is good. Very good. Well than, if we need the support of Admiral Thorrison, we better go and secure said support. Ping them. It seems like it's time for a new round of negotiations."
[ I pinged the FSF Defience. The moment they pick up the ping they'll see you, including the fake Bridge I created. Have fun, May! ]
A small smile formed on my lips. "I will, thanks Fen. This truly makes a surprising amount of fun." That was the moment, the ping was picked up and Admiral Thorrison picked up the ping. Instantly, I had my smile fall away, hoping that the Admiral didn't see it. But, glancing at the very dishevelled looking Admiral, I truly doubted that he was currently in a situation were he would have noticed this tiny slip-up.
"Captain Lunaris, back from analysing our data package, I see. How can I help you?", Admiral Thorrison asked, his facial expressions blank once more. "Yes, it was very informative. I now have a much clearer view of the current situation. Our position is nearly perfect. We broke through the frontlines locally and together, we are in a perfect position to tip the scales of the war in our favor.“
One of the Admirals eyebrows rose slightly. „Do tell. What are you planing, Captain Lunaris?“; he asked, clearly interested.
“The plan isn‘t to complex. Based on the data I got from you, my Battlecruiser would be something akin to a Super Battleship for you. Supported by your fleet, we should be able to swiftly take out the remaining Association forces in the sector, as well as their local enclave. Afterwards, we should have an open way into the Kingdom of Ferron, I believe they were called. We can than move in through the new and unexpected hole in the front, to take over their home system and hold their homeworld hostage. As the bulk of the forces pressuring the Federation from the northeast are fleets of Ferron, we could effectively close this front and force them to switch sides. Otherwise, their homeworld won‘t survive, including their king.“
For the first time since I met him, Admiral Thorrison looked truly shocked. „That is insane! We would break the GCW in at least three different ways! If this gambit fails, we would risk loosingthe few allies we have left, as well as the Unions support!“
I sighed. Seemingly it would be harder to convince Admiral Ghorrison to help me hold a planet hostage than I thought. „We have to prove us to the galaxy. Our enemies are breaking the GWC as well, aren‘t they? I refuse to let them get away with that without consequences! Their homeworld will be ours, either by them switching sides or us bombing it into an apocalyptic wasteland. Nothing is more important than the glory of the Federation and especially not some random space rock that I couldn‘t care less about. The Union won‘t ablndon you, the only thing they care about is to sucessfully balance the galactic superpowers against each other. Meanwhile, Our sucess would mean the turning point of this entire fucking war. You Need a decisive victory to really your people and your allies behind. You know that. Im offering you that chance. Don‘t waste it.“, I said.
The Admiral still didn‘t look convinced. “Even if we ignore the ethical concerns of your idea for a moment, how do you plan to fight a way through Ferrons‘ territory and than, with a small and already battered fleet, win against the homefleet of the Kingdom of Ferron?“
“You have me. With your support, we can minimalise causalities. The homefleet I could take on myself if necessary, though support would be greatly appreciated.“, I responded, more confident than I truly felt. But the Admiral didn‘t need to know that. My true reasons for that plan were different.
Sure, if possible, I wanted the Federation to win. If I could gain independence and influence that way, great. But I doubged that. Looking at the galaxies history, the galactic superpowers were always, if nothing else, greedy. They wouldn‘t let me walk away just like that. I had a different goal. The langer the ripple I started now, the better the smaller ripple named ASO-17309, controlled by Naori, had to go unnoticed. And that was of upmost importance to me.
Admiral Thorrison still seemed to struggle with the decision, but in the end he slumped in defeat and sighed. „Fine. We will try it your way. But I warn you right now, if you truly try to bomb the Ferron homeworld, insgesamt of just threatening to do it, we will go against you. The Kingdom of Ferron is still a human-led nation with primarily human population. They are our people, even if we currently stand on different sides.“, he said relictantly, but determined nonetheless.
“Fine. I can work with that. Than, it gets time for a proper tactical meeting. My CO will contact you, regarding that.“, I said. Cut the connection, Fen. I know you can still read my thaughts.
[ Done. What did you plan this time? ]
I smiled. „I remember you told me something about holographic projectors. Let‘s send some to our current allies. We will have a nice Little holographic conference and put on a show. You can faciliate that?“
[ Of course. Let‘s have some more fun with Admiral Thorrison. I Must say, I find all that greatly amusing. ]
“I do as well, Fen, I do as well.“