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| − | Aftermath of the Battle of Earth
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| − | 2669 AD, the last year of the Kilrathi War will became known as the Dark Times. Near the end of 2668, Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn's victory over Prince Thrakhath in the Battle of Earth will forever be known as one of the greatest battles of all time. Hopelessly outnumbered, Admiral Tolwyn stopped a Kilrathi nuclear attack on Earth itself and forced the Kilrathi fleet to retreat. Aided by Max Kruger's fleet from the Landerich, Tolwyn and the Confederation Third Battle Fleet destroyed half of Thrakhath's fleet, including three Kilrathi supercarriers, a standard fleet carrier and almost forty escort vessels. In addition, the other two supercarriers and host of other ships were crippled. This defeat was more then a military victory, it was a political one as it had almost put the other clans in total rebellion and political turmoil. The Kilrathi Emperor had barely thwarted two assassination attempts and was forced to keep the remainder of the Kilrathi military in the Kilrah System to guard himself and his grandson Thrakhath.
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| − | However, the Battle of Terra was a pyrrhic victory for the Confederation. The Joint Chiefs and other high-ranking military officials were killed in the pre-Battle of Terra assassination, and the top ranking Confed officer, Marine General Duke Grecko, was killed during the fighting. Including the systems that were directly in path of Thrakhath's armada, the inner homeworlds of Sirius, Warsaw, and Gilhead were radiation bombarded beyond any hope of salvation. 70% of the Confederation fighter pilots who fought were killed. The Fleet lost over four dozen cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, but the most hard-felt warship losses where its fleet carriers in which a total of twelve were destroyed in one way or the other. The TCS Moskva, Verdun, Ark Royal, Leyte Gulf, and Lexington were destroyed in combat, the TCS Wolfhound, Austerlitz, and Copenhagen were destroyed in drydock, and four Lexington-class carriers were destroyed undergoing construction in the Lunar Shipyards. Only two carriers that fought in Battle of Earth survived, the Confederation-class dreadnought TCS Concordia and the Concordia-class carrier TCS Saratoga.
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| − | Political Changes
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| − | On the political end, President Harold Rodham had resigned in disgrace as a result of the False Peace ruse. To clear room for the new president, his entire cabinet resigned as well. Foreign Secretary Jamison, for whom Confed Intelligence had concrete evidence she was a Kilrathi traitor, was tried, convicted, and executed for treason and other crimes against the Confederation. To replace Rodham, Vice-President Dave Quinson was sworn in as President, and the two major political parties bonded together into a single coalition. Because of the political and civilian chaos that was occuring during this time of crisis, the Senate declared martial law over all Terran Confederation territory and replaced judiciary powers from the civilian Supreme Court to the military Admiralty Court headed by Admiral Elsa Harnett. Admiral Tolwyn was now appointed the temporary commander of all Confederation forces.
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| − | Reconstruction of the Fleet
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| − | Plans to rebuild the Navy and the Space Force had already started to began. During the False Peace in 2668 and before his death, Admiral Bainbridge knew that the Kilrathi peace pleas were a ruse. Unknown to the joint Chiefs of Staffs, President Rodham, and (especially) ex-Foreign Secretary Jamison, during the False Peace Bainbridge had covertly assigned BuShips and BuWeaps to develop the next generation fighters and capital ships. By the Battle of Terra's end research had been completed, allowing for almost immediate mass production.When he saw the plans for the new fighters and capital ships, Admiral Tolwyn considered it Bainbridge's last gift. Even though the main drydocks, shipyards, and naval base on the moon had been destroyed, Confed still had the Trojan IV naval construction yards around Jupiter intact, as well as the shipyards in the Tamayo System. Meanwhile, there were still fighter factories intact in the Tamayo, Luyten, Krueger, Alpha Centauri, and Proxima Centauri Systems.
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| − | For the next month, the Confed war machine began to churn out the next generation fighters and capital ships. Within a few months, Confed would replace all the fighters that they had lost. The capital ships took just a bit longer. The three remaining escort carriers in the Landerich Free Corps mission had been withdrawn and reincorporated into ConFleet service. Confed had also started to bring their other mothballed vessels online. The most important were the seven fleet carriers that were still mothballed due to the False Treaty: the Confederation-class dreadnought TCS Armageddon, and the Concordia-class carriers TCS Valiant, Winterrowd, Liberty, Hermes, Invincible, and Illustrious. They were quickly brought online in a matter of weeks. In addition, ConFleet was forced to refit their mothballed fleet of Ranger-class light carriers and send them into active duty ConFed service once again.
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| − | Reconstruction on the TCS Lexington, gutted from the Battle of Earth, had also started but it wasn’t going to be back in active service anytime soon. But because the Trojan IV shipyards at Jupiter were spared by the Kilrathi, seven new Lexington-class carriers and one Jutland-class attack carrier were nearing completion and had remained intact. By the beginning of March, the CVNs Quinson, Bradshaw, Kinney, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, Kennedy and the Lincoln, plus the CVA Coral Sea finished construction and entered ConFleet service. With eight new carriers joining the nine existing carriers, ConFleet now boasted a force of seventeen fleet carriers, but it would ultimately prove to be too little, too late.
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| − | Reasons leading to Disaster
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| − | In addition to their fleet carriers, ConFleet had also brought their escort carriers and light carriers into service. Twelve fleet carriers were sent to the front lines to be the center of what was called the Confederation Forward Fleet. The Forward Fleet, combined with the other smaller carriers, would have definitely turned the tide against the Kilrathi had they not sued for peace in 2668, but the False Peace had enabled the Kilrathi to rebuild their fleet and logistical forces. Even with the losses at the Battle of Terra, Confed forces had one more chance to turn the tides in their favor by taking advantage of the political turmoil that plagued the Emperor and Prince Thrakhath. But the Confed civilian government took this opportunity and threw it away.
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| − | The politicians suckered by the truce were now back in the saddle again. The first thing they did was to relieve Admiral Tolwyn of his "temporary" duty as head of Terran Defense and selected a series of Admirals and Generals (lackeys under the politicians payroll no less) to be the new Joint Chiefs of Staff. The government then refused Admiral Tolwyn's rightful promotion to a major fleet command, in which they had said he was too "valuable a commander" to be taken from the front lines. Besides this, bureaucrats and politicians were back bickering with the military and refusing to give extra funding and resources for the war machine. In addition, the Confed Senate endlessly debated and bickered on high priority targets to attack; this move kept the carrier fleet in a defensive rather then offensive postures along the front. Instead of attacking the necessary targets vital to the war, the Senate dictated ConFleet to spend their time attacking worthless targets. The end result was that the civilian government’s incompetence enabled the Kilrathi enough time to rebuild everything they lost at the Battle of Terra, and then more.
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| − | Kilrathi Reconstruction
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| − | Because the False Peace had enabled the Kilrathi to rebuild their construction and logistical resources, they had the edge over the Terrans in shipbuilding and fighter production. They had too also brought their next generation fighters online to counter the latest Arrows, Hellcats, Thunderbolts, and Longbows the Confederation Space Force wielded. They had also started increased productions on their new corvettes, destroyers, and cruisers. But more importantly, they started to mass-produce the new Bhantkara-class carrier design to counter the Terran's newest Lexington-class CVNs. They had also started the construction of massive space-colony sized dreadnoughts to act as flagships. Kilrathi carriers eventually outnumbered the Confed carriers by 2 to 1. Meanwhile, the Kilrathi had took their aging force of Snakier II, Fralthra, Ralatha, and Kamekh warships and put them to rear-echelon units.
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| − | Confed's Opening Gambit
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| − | During the first few months, the first Terran attacks were by raider units. One of the four Lexington-class carriers destroyed in the Battle of Terra was deemed salvageable and had been modified into a self-sustaining raider. This ship, christened the Lexington, and the Confederation's majority of their escort carriers were pooled together to act as the vanguard for the next Confederation war strategy. Familiar with the success of the escort carrier a few years past, ConFed High Command finally pooled the CVE raider units in their own major command, the 19th Battle Fleet. Under the command of Admiral Price Hancock, these raider ships were delegated into Recon-in-Force guerilla units and were sent independently of the front line to attack rear-echelon facilities and other secondary logistical resources. But unlike a few years past, these behind-the-lines strike missions were stopped cold. The Kilrathi were waiting for the CVEs with their reserve Snakier II-class carriers and their new class of Dubav-class light carriers. These Kilrathi forces well outnumbered the CVE forces, and many Recon-In-Force units never reported back to HQ.
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| − | The Kilrathi Counter-Attack
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| − | Destroying a majority of the attacking CVE forces, the Kilrathi military started to gain a momentum that would rear its ugly head in their massive counter-offensive that started near the beginning of March. Approximately twenty Kilrathi carrier groups attacked from all points along the front and steamrolled over the defending Confed forces. The Confederation Forward Fleet lost six of its twelve carriers in an utterly disasterous period lasting from March to June. The TCS Illustrious was destroyed in the Aloysius System by the famed Kilrathi ace "Bloodmist". The TCS Quinson battle group encountered one of the new Kilrathi dreadnoughts and the entire group was wiped out. The TCS Valiant battle group simply dissapeared along the border while enroute to the Gemini Sector. The TCS Winterrowd, also reassigned to the Gemini Sector, was destroyed by what Intelligence has determined to be a Kilrathi superweapon. The TCS Roosevelt went down during the failed Confed offensive in the Munro System.
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| − | But the most staggering loss occured when the TCS Concordia, the pride of the Confed Fleet, fell prey to a Kilrathi ambush in the rear-echelon Vespus system. The Concordia was mopping up raiders when a lucky torpedo hit crippled her engines and forced her to crash into the Mistral Coast off Vespus IV. There were no survivors on board. Paranoid by Kilrathi raids and fearing another attack on the inner homeworlds, the civilian government refused to deploy the Third Fleet’s five major carriers to the front. The TCS Armageddon, Saratoga, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Lincoln stayed behind to defend Earth under direct Presidential order as the core to the newly christened "Terran Defense Fleet".
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| − | Squadron Positions and Ranks Note: You can lower the age for the rankings if you want.
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| − | Bear in mind that these are the official stance given by Confed Doctrine and Training, as quoted from the document. This does not take into account the prolonged War with the Kilrathi and the theories stated above is subject to deviation. Real life purposes might include senior-grade promotions for younger pilots to replenish combat losses, Captains filling in as squadron leaders, Lt. Colonels in command of the fighter wing, Senior Lieutenants and Captains in charge 4 aircraft flights, etc etc. War is a dynamic and brutal monster, and the Confederation military has to adapt for it to survive.
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| − | Element- this is the basic fighter unit, consisting of 2 fighters, a wingleader and a wingman. An element is mostly used for basic Combat Area Patrols (CAPs), or for escorts.
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| − | Flight-When there is a sign of a larger and more dangerous enemy presence, squadron commanders usually send 4-ship flights on missions. These larger group of fighters are responsible for reinforced CAPs, and for space superiority, where there is a larger number of enemy fighters.
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| − | Squadron-Numerous flights and elements consist of a squadron. As of 2669, the norm for squadron complement tends to be around 10 aircraft.
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| − | Fighter Wing- Consists for multiple squadrons. The norm is three combat squadrons for an escort carrier, four to five for a light carrier, and nine to ten for a fleet carrier.
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| − | 2nd Lieutenant- a new pilot, usually of age 22 or so, comes fresh either from the Space Force Academy, Space Force ROTC, or Officer Candidates School. This is his first time into a squadron as a 2nd Lieutenant, a nugget on his 1st Tour of Duty. Normally 2nd Lieutenants are assigned as wingleaders to higher officers, being responsible to following their orders. Also the 2nd Lieutenants are the 'newbies' and the 'cherries' of the unit.
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| − | 1st Lieutenant- It takes about 2 years to 4 to be promoted to 1st Lieutenant. What a First Lieutenant really is basically is an experienced 2nd Lieutenant, with the basic fundamental knowledge of fighter combat and life in the military. As before 1st Lieutenants are basically wingmen, but some are given great commanding skills.
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| − | Captain- Being promoted to Captain sheds the first aspects of commanding responsibility into the pilot. The pilot should now be in the mid to late 20s. For the most part Captains are wingleaders, held and trusted with the responsibility to issue competent orders to their wingman. In this the lives and safety of two pilots are held in the mind of the Captain in a CAP element. The Captain is the normal "workhorse" of the squadron or the wing, being assigned to the most number of missions available.
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| − | Major- Being promoted to Major is a first sign of moving into a senior rank and administrative responsibilities. Majors for the most part are experienced, and capable, proving themselves in combat. There are usually two to three Majors in a squadron. Majors usually command 4-ship flights, and are responsible for the logistics and operation status of the squadron. Majors are the pilots who are Executive Officers (2nd in command) or Operational Officers (3rd in command) in the squadron. Most Majors's ages range from early to late 30s. Operational officers are responsible for the normal flight routine and roster of the squadron, while the Executive Officer serves as second-in-command of the squadron. There are more then a few Majors who have command of their own squadrons.
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| − | Lieutenant Colonel- There is usually a single Lieutenant Colonel in a squadron, and if he is, he is most likely the squadron commander. During wartime the average age of a Lieutenant Colonel ranges from early to late 30s. He is responsible for the tactical training and preparation of his pilots under his command, and also by leading them into battle. As squadron commanders, Lieutenant Colonels are weighed down by the various paperwork and administrative duties that come as a burden, but nevertheless are given responsibility of an entire squadron. There are numerous leadership styles of squadron commanders, ranging from leading behind a desk to leading their pilots in battle. It is usually the actions of the squadron commander that determines morale and capability of his fighter squadron. Good squadron commanders can make a squadron perform well in battle, bad squadron commanders won't.
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| − | Colonel- A full Colonel is in charge of the entire fighter wing. He is the one responsible for all of the wing's operations from the carrier. For the most part Colonels range from late 30s to the 40s. As the Wing Commander, the Colonel coordinates with the carrier Captain's operations and is responsible for the briefing of all of the pilots under their command. Overall, the Colonel as the Wing Commander is responsible for all of the fighters and pilots under his command. It may be the Captain giving command to the ship, but it is the Colonel's fighter wing. The impact of morale aboard a fighter wing is very dependant on the Wing Commander's leadership ability.
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