General Part 1: Seeking comments on my write up of Tremous Dex

[Commander Truestar]

Hi All,

So, this is obviously IMTU, where I do keep as close as I can to the OTU...but there are differences. It is based on CT/MT data as well as my own writing.

In this case, the Federation of Arden has begun forming in 1112-1113, but has not been seen to be looking at the Tremous Dex system yet. So, it is largely viewed as a pirate system.

So, the questions start with:
How does a system get settled and make its way to being the host of a large Imperial Naval base only to become an independent pirate haven?
Especially when the growth happened between 200 and 986
And how did it fall so far when the "collapse" started in 986 and it is 1113 now? So, only 127 years??

So, here is my write up. I would appreciate any comments you have:
By 100 Third Imperial calendar(TI), both IISS and private explorers had been joined by the wave of Jump-2 and “Wealthy” Jump 2 ships(with a rare Jump-3 ship) had begun exploring the Spinward Marches.
Regina and that cluster of systems had been settled by 75 TI, so it is “reasonable to assume” that Tremous Dex and the Arden cluster of systems had been explored and surveyed.

Still, the main world of the Tremous Dex system was smaller than Earth (2/3s Earth) and barely had any atmosphere. Because of that, it had little surface fluid and that was mostly frozen.
The combination of size and biosphere meant the world was most likely less dense than “Terran Standard”, which meant it wasn’t likely a source of metals and heavy minerals/ores.
While there were no deposits of lanthanum found, there were deposits of cerium and praseodymium. It was the praseodymium which first suggested this would be a good world for ship building and repair as the mineral was rapidly displaces hydrogen from water with the use of diluted acids.

Because of the promise, a growing firm named "Exo Elements" stepped up, raised lots of cash for bribes and an actual payment, and got permission to buy control of the Tremous Dex solar system.
The plan was to bring in the orbital assets needed to build a starport and the facilities needed to support mining firms and independents who would come to the world for it’s riches.
Deposits of samarium (Used for high-temperature shielding) and europium(used with phosphors to make computer displays “glow”) added to more generic lighter metals such as lead, tin and other lighter minerals.

While settlers looking for more “human-friendly” worlds flowed past the Dex system to Arden, Imperial authorities added the strand of systems to Naval patrol routes.

In 290 TI, Arden negotiated entry into the Imperium and opened parts of the world for increased settlement and investment, which increased two-way traffic crossing though Tremous Dex.

By 300 TI, the system had gained a permanent “naval support” presence as mining in-system increased and brought in more traffic specific to the Tremous Dex system. This included traffic which now moved both “back into” the Imperium as well as out to the fringes. In-system, the port was growing well, and had been classified a C Class port, while the IISS stationed a mobile X-Boat support base locally.
Early mining concerns had actually become more complete as the smaller corporations grew or were edged out and some permanent settlements and processing facilities were built.
Along with everything above, the system’s permanent population rose along with the economic growth.

By 350 TI, the region of space was designated “District 257” and Imperial investment restrictions were reduced. A decision was taken to accept Tremous Dex as an Imperial Client State, and the Imperial Navy began construction of a full naval base in Tremous Dex. This would be supported by extensive shipyards. Shortly after that decision, there were a number of incidents between Imperial ships and vessels out of the Sword Worlds.

As settlers had arrived and built out industry, that activity was shared in significantly by Sword World0-based ships, settlers and corporations. However, as Imperial settling and industrial restraints were reduced, this only increased Sword Worlders who felt they were being edged out of the subsector. Zhodani authorities observed this with concern as they dealt with Imperial expansion in the Chronor subsector, and on their door step.

By 400 TI, the die had been cast and orders were published to push investment into the Tremous Dex and Arden systems (as well as other systems in the subsector) in advance of the expected order to absorb the region into the Third Imperium. These continued measures faced increasing protest from the Sword World governments. Historians feel there were no hostilities at that time because the last unified government in the Sword Worlds, the “United Jarldoms”, had dissolved thanks to tensions between Gram and Sacnoth. The Second Dominate would not be formed until just before the First Frontier War(and many Historians believe that happened thanks to a great deal of Zhodani manipulation, money and weapons shipments).

In 470 TI, the long expected order came from Empress Nicholle, and the “Arden subsector” was absorbed into the Third Imperium over the protests of the Sword Worlds. This action included the Sword World systems of Vilis(then named Svavasorm), Asgard(then named Lyusing), Arkadia(then named Aroundight) and Gard-Vilis(then named Tanoose). This “outright theft” of four solar systems enraged the Sword Worlds governments even though each of the systems had asked for and negotiated entry into the Imperium. The Arden system became the center of the "County of Arden", which included the Zenopit, Zircon and Pequan systems.

As tensions increased between the new Imperial systems and Sword World factors, it is expected the Zhodani had already begun a military build up in the Zdiadlevepra subsector(Just Spinward-Coreward from the Chronor subsector). Had they had improved intelligence, it would have been obvious to Imperial authorities that the Zhodani were preparing for war! Sadly, Imperial leaders in the Marches had little proper intelligence and were unaware of Zhodani plans even as the Zhodani used the Sword Worlders as a “foil” to distract Imperial attention.

By 580 TI, Tremous Dex supported a massive naval base and significant shipyards for construction and repair as that fleet faced continued hostility from the Sword Worlds governments. This increased as the Sword Worlds came together in Sacnoth system to create the Second Dominate. Soon, leaders in the Second Dominate began to raise the call for war against the Imperium! Again, this activity pulled Imperial attention from the Chronor borders, across which the Zhodani were finalizing their own plans.

In 589 TI, Zhodani forces flooded across the Spinward-Coreward Imperial border of the Spinward Marches, supported by organized fleets from the Sword World’s Second Dominate and various organized Vargr fleets from the Gvurrdon Sector. While the “Outworlds Coalition” won a significant victory in what is now called the “First Frontier War”, much of the loss in systems happened in the Chronor and Querion subsectors and the County of Arden remained a power on the Sword Worlds border. What should have been a period of “resupply and strengthening” for Imperial systems and bases in the Spinward Marches became a period of increased weakening as the Imperial civil war was started by Grand Admiral Olav hault-Plankwell as he drove his fleet to Core and killed Empress Jaqueline.

The period between 606 and 622 TI were dominated first by the Imperial Civil War and then by the Second Fronter War, as Zhodani forces took advantage of the weakened state of Imperial forces in the sector. Forces in the Arden subsector held their positions largely because Zhodani reinforcements had concentrated on rebuilding fleets on their war front and consolidating the systems conquered in the first frontier war. As a result, there were very few supply shipments sent to the Sword Worlds and battles along the Arden, Lanth and Lunion fronts balanced more with the remaining Imperial forces in those subsectors. Still, what had been a frontier promising treasure, jobs, land and hope had become a war zone and people were fleeing back to safer systems.

What created an economic downturn for the Arden system was still a boon for the Tremous Dex system, because traffic flowed in both directions as people fled the frontier. And that flow of escapees soon slowed and then reversed itself in the next three and a half centuries before the Third Frontier War. In those centuries, the Tremous Dex starport expanded to a full service B Class port. The shipyards supporting the naval base were not only completed but expanded and the population of the system had expanded into mining, refining and light manufacturing. This continued until the onset of the Third Frontier War in 979 TI.

 

[Commander Truestar]

Part 2: Seeking comments on my write up of Tremous Dex

On-world and in orbit, the Tremous Dex system was profiting with from interstellar and in-system growth. In orbit, extensive shipyards were built out to support construction and repair of naval vessels with the local base tasked to protect the Arden subsector. On-world, electronics and mining spurred the growth of smaller sealed communities which extended out from the downport or closer to on-world resource sites. Maglev transit systems extended out to sites for light transport while localized transit ports provided suborbital heavy lifting of ores and processed cargoes. Closer in to the sealed archology that was the port city, the only city on-world, new construction and expansion was being carried out both above and below ground to serve a growing population.

Ironically, the Sword Worlds stayed neutral in the Third Frontier War because of a constitutional crisis. Forces assigned to the Tremous Dex base not needed to “prevent Swordie Adventurism” were re-posted to other fronts fighting the Zhodani or Vargr. With forces drawn down as a start, the once thriving Tremous Dex system was dealt a heavy blow at the end of the war. With a third Zhodani victory, the Imperium was forced to withdraw borders trailing and declare the spinward systems of the subsector independent.

The result of forced independence was not a tapered event but a sudden one. The official withdrawal of the Imperium included a mandated demilitarization, so bases and defensive structures had to be removed or destroyed in place. The “Arden subsector” was renamed the Vilis subsector. On top of that, a huge percentage of the population who could, simply ripped up what roots they had and returned to systems that would remain within the Imperial border. There were initial attempts by some of those who remained to “scoop up” ownership of these abandoned spaces expecting populations to return after the panic ended. At the same time, many abandoned spaces were broken into and looted by everything from opportunists to organized criminal groups. This led to the first failures of smaller sealed environments in a number of near-range small settlements.

By 1000 TI, an attempt by the government to extend active administration over all settlements and organizations had been attempted. Unfortunately, it had been bungled and resulted in development of several factions. One violent set of events happened when the port tried to take control of those shipyards that remained after the Imperial Navy pulled out. Where the port government thought it would be fairly easy to take over those stations and systems, they’d not considered the fact these were now former military stations and would still be armed and equipped as such. The direct attempt to take the shipyards over failed with quite a few fatalities and the loss of one still-operating shipyard. So, while authorities at the port replanned their approach, they also initiated a scavenger hunt to overtake and consolidate the remains of abandoned shipyards. That was just as quickly countered by the shipyards themselves, and led to a guerilla war which lasted quite some time.

By 1010 TI, factionalization was well underway dirtside as the systems few growers tried to remain independent and both electronic and mechanical maker shops formed into free companies. Different groups had also started scrounging and scavenging to replace items no longer being brought in from the Imperium. This led to early turf wars, which spread damage causing wider system failures and the loss of sealed structures. This increased as population groups pulled back into each other rather than pulling together to deal with the crisis. Those reactions led to culturally similar groups moving to seize housing, facilities and material to form factions identified by culture or function. Sadly, cultural enclaves didn’t last long because they were generic and tried to cover too many needs at once. Enclaves based on function could specialize and then find allies to trade with for what they didn’t have or could not make. Or steal. This period led to the first steps past turf wars to organized aggression on world.

During these early years, arriving starships were treated with special status because few factions had the ability to take on all but the smallest ships. This was underscored by an incident when the IMV Kirdeke Marpumi landed in the outskirts of NariiKalak [Vilani for “City of Boxes”], the port city, as part of a free-lance delivery contract. When those receiving the shipment attacked the delivery crew thinking they could take and keep the ship, a bitter firefight broke out. That was ended when one of the ship’s crew manned one of Kirdeke Marpumi’s turrets and opened up with ship-grade lasers. That not only ended the brief battle but allowed the ship crew to button up and blast clear of the facility they were in after threats to continue firing on the damaged structure got the groundhogs to open the bay doors. Since then, ships have only been attacked with significant or overwhelming force, or by the extreme use of guile.

The Kirdeke Marpumi incident also pushed those ship captains still operating in-system to organize. Especially following attempts by both the starport and shipyards to seize those starships transiting the system. The captains reacted to the first moves in surprised and disorganization. Soon, some of the captains organized into small teams, making demands of the port to gain promises of safety. And, sometimes to force the port to keep those promises too. The bad news was that these were mostly merchant ships, sometimes supported by what few mercenaries they could afford. And other ports, especially Imperial ports, only saw potentially rogue captains claiming their attacks on an established port were justified. That meant they had even fewer resources as ports refused to help them or provide repairs.

This ultimately led to different decisions among the captains. Some turned their back on the Arden strand while others tried to go around Tremous Dex. Some others, with the help of shattered mercenaries who wanted revenge, and new-comers who sensed an opening, chose to fight. This group banded together to strike hard, and teach the port a lesson. Understanding they’d be branded as pirates even by the Imperium along with all other local authorities, they came in howling. Their first attacks were either against targets the starport and shipyards used to capture their ships or against the ships which had been taken. This was to show both groups that they would not be able to keep attacking merchants nor would they keep anything they’d stolen.

The first battles went to the “pirates” because neither the port nor the yards were prepared for it. Even worse, neither the ports or yards were prepared for continued action against them. Where the shipyards had some ability to recover form the attacks, the starport could only shutdown damaged sections with a hope to use them for future reconstruction or parts scavenging. Despite ship losses, the pirate fleet managed to keep the upper hand early on. Soon, the fleet even managed to recover and man abandoned and damaged structures in-system. This gave them an in-system base, letting them relax, recover and repair without jumping to other systems or uninhabited sections of the solar system. Of course, this became a double-edged sword when the system authorities figured out where they were.

It didn’t happen quickly, and the reaction also wasn’t sudden. After learning the fleet had set up bases in-system, the starport chose to gather their strength and strike. Spies from the shipyards got that information from the port and yard administrators came up with a different plan. Using resources which didn’t require nearly impossible-to-get lanthanum, they began work on a smart attack missile. Most agree now that the downfall of those two plans was due to the complete lack of cooperation between the port and yards. By the time the missile was launched, the fight between the fleet and port had already ended in a victory for the fleet. Still, as fleet ships patrolled in preparation to defend, they moved recovered wrecks they planned to repair to non-functional ship building structures. Leaders from the shipyard launched their plan by ordering their combat ships out as a diversion. Behind that, they launched the smart missile, in an attempt to strike the fleet base itself.

Limits on the missile’s AI and the yard master’s ability to tele-command the device were more difficult because of the energies being exchanged as fleet defenders began reacting to the early wave coming from the shipyards. Once their distraction covered the passage of the missile, ships under yard-command began to pull out while fleet ships, drawn in by overconfidence, hoped to add more kills to their list and more resources to their supplies. That was when the AI on the missile identified the largest cluster of ships it could find. Docked on a work-yard “Fence”. The fence was a large but fragile structure which could be spread open between multiple structures in a space-based work site allowing workers, structures, supply casings and more to be connected and traversable. In that case, the identified cluster turned out to be the recovered wrecks from the battle with the port’s ships. And controllers aboard the ship yards couldn’t break that target lock once it was in play. So, the AI missile killed a small number of engineers, technicians and scavengers as it further destroyed the wrecks but did little damage to active fleet assets or personnel.

 

[Commander Truestar]

Part 3: Seeking comments on my write up of Tremous Dex

Over time, as the fleet attracted former soldiers and mercenaries as well as new ships with less interest in revenge and more in wealth accumulation, the fleet became more of a pirate-based organization. And those aboard the port and yard who’d been forced into cooperation found a new income stream from fencing or re-selling goods and cargoes brought “home” by the raiders. Both the shipyards and ports also found a new, if limited, supply line of parts and material so long as they accepted that the pirates either got “first choice” or payment in services.

By 1050 TI, the modern structure of the system existed within the orbital and dirtside facilities. What had been a sprawling environmentally-sealed city had become separate still operational sealed sectors sometimes connected to other sealed sectors and sometimes not. Each inhabited section of the dirtside structure was either claimed by one or shared by multiple factions including free companies of growers, makers, scroungers and those caught in the middle. Those wandering any of the shattered parts of the city could find local defenders, hermetic loners or scroungers and salvagers. By agreement, there are few areas of shared control, the most famous of those being Maakham Zuuker breweries, who had managed to defend their independence as a Free company.

As things settled down, half-hearted efforts were made to follow the path the Arden system had taken and try to lure in outsiders as a neutral “free zone”. A large part of the reasoning behind that was an acceptance that there were already a population of espionage operators in-system from all sides. Not just Imperial and Zhodani but some Sword Worlders, some from Arden, Zenopit, Zircon and Pequan. Some free companies were established and some existing companies over-run and taken over by mercenary outfits which chose to move in-system.

So, the modern system of Tremous Dex is essentially comparable to a cobblestone courtyard where each cobblestone has contact with those surrounding it. Despite that contact, there is no real cooperation except where the needs of each align, and those can change very quickly indeed. For the Imperial traveler, there are Imperials in-system though they may not be apparent and certainly do not often advertise. When they do, it is often only to state they work to ease importing from, exporting to and visiting Imperial worlds and will not likely get involved in a traveler’s politics or troubles. The largest contiguous zone of control in the system are the starports, both orbital and dirtside. They are also the one organization most likely to accept payment in Imperial Credits(CrImps). And while they will protect a ship and crew in their facilities they will not likely help any arriving or departing ship fight their way through any interference encountered.

As a result, all Imperial offices as well as those of the Traveler’s Aide Society urge all Imperial citizens and traders to exercise extreme caution when visiting the Tremous Dex system