MOD:WCU:Intro to WC2669
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Contents
Acknowledgements
A merging of various sources including:
- Wonder Chicken's exquisitely well written post BOA situation
- To a great extent, Psych's finely detailed Fleet Tactics - Communications
- ...and, of course, the CIC Encyclopedia
INTRODUCTION TO WC YEAR 2669
Wonder Chicken's well written introduction to 2669:
Introduction
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.
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.
Political Changes
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.
False Colors says,
A political void is created immediately following President Rhodam’s resignation and the Battle of Earth. A new government is formed from a coalition of the Maj. parties. The new government is cautious, unwilling to allow a Maj. offensive against the Empire of Kilrah. The Department of Industrial Affairs refuses to allow production sped up at the cost of quality. Secretary of Defense Haviland refuses to intercede.
Reconstruction of the Fleet
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.
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.
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.
Reasons leading to Disaster
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.
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.
False Colors says,
The Belisarius Group, including highly placed officers like DuVall and Murasaki, is formed. Their goal is to stage a military coup, replacing the post-Battle of Earth civilian government which they view as ineffective. They form a special security department, designated Y-12. In truth, the group is only a distraction, created as a cover for an even more sinister conspiracy seeking to use the Genetic Enhancement Program to forcibly prepare humanity for the next war. Adm. Whittaker is one of the few officers who understands this level of the project.
Kilrathi Reconstruction
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 [work as] rear-echelon units.
Confed's Opening Gambit
Wonder Chicken: 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.
= Fleet Status Report at the start of 2669: = (Psych's Fleet Tactic's Comms-based)
Admiral Price Hancock in charge of 19th Fleet
General Taggart at SOCOM has come up with a new type of logistics for carriers that includes advanced recycling systems, mining apparatus, and manufacturing and industrial capability. This has the the ability to make a warship totally self-sustaining.
Admiral Tom Jarvis has compiled a report on the status of remaining carriers after BOA: *At Sol system, Sol sector: ** Lexington class - 4 carriers under construction destroyed at Luna ** TCS Wolfhound - Destroyed at Luna ** TCS Austerlitz - Destroyed at Luna ** TCS Copenhagen - Destroyed at Luna ** Lexington class - 1 carrier at Luna: internal facilities gutted out ( Paulson recommends scrapping; requested by Hancock on 2669.003 for refitting with new logistics. ) ** TCS Lexington - Gutted out; - Sol - hull still orbiting Earth ** TCS Concordia - Severe damage - Sol - Est. 2 yrs on dry dock (less if accepting smaller compliment) ** TCS Saratoga - Good condition, - at Sol - minor repairs needed. ** Jutland-class - 1 Hull intact at Jupiter's Trojan IV naval yards. Est. completion: 2669.90 ** Lexington class - 7 Hulls intact at Trojan IV. Est. completion: 2669.90 (Note: the Confederation-class dreadnought TCS Concordia and the Concordia-class carrier TCS Saratoga were the only two carriers that fought in BOA and survived.) *At Tamayo shipyards, Tamayo, Vega sector (Day Quadrant): ** TCS Armageddon - Ligth damage - Est repairs to complete by 2669.25 ** TCS Winterrowd - Ligth damage - Est repairs to complete by 2669.25 ** TCS Liberty - Ligth damage - Est repairs to complete by 2669.25 ** TCS Valiant - Ligth damage - Est repairs to complete by 2669.25 *At Caernaven Station, Pembroke system, Enigma sector (Grills Quadrant): ** TCS Hermes - Ligth damage - Est repairs to complete by 2669.25 ** TCS Invincible - Ligth damage - Est repairs to complete by 2669.25 ** TCS Illustrious - Ligth damage - Est repairs to complete by 2669.25 *Destroyed construction yards: ** All at Earth and Luna *Intact carrier construction yards at: ** Jupiter's Trojan IV naval yards, Sol, Sol ** Tamayo shipyards, Tamayo, Vega ** Caernavon Station, Pembroke, Enigma *Intact fighter construction yards at: ** Luyten ** Krueger ** Alpha Centauri ** Proxima Centauri.
Tidbits from CIC's WC Information Center about 2669 yet not precisely dated:
Cloaking requires the use of a crystal that has a limited life. The first Confed Stealth Fighter prototype was unveiled in the Selyan Sector at the 2669 GCM competition. It featured an integral MX-27BC guided-proton warhead. Stealth gear was used on the Light Smuggler (Bannockburn) is intended to be used for short periods of time. It is a huge drain on the ship's energy and sending a narrow band translight pulse required dropping out of stealth. The Kilrathi seemed not to be able to detect the Bannockburn.
In 2669 a Confederation solar shadow ring station in the Trafalgar System observed a jump point formation inside the Tanhauser nebula. Due to the potential strategic value of such a discovery, the CID classified all information gathered on the occurrence.
Question 31: What happened to the TCS Victory after the Kilrathi War? Answer: It was decommissioned and turned into an orbital museum in Sol.
Question 32: What happened to the TCS Tarawa after the Kilrathi War? Answer: It was sold to the Landreich and recommissioned the FRLS Independence.
