The Suez Canal

The VOC’s role in the construction of the Suez Canal was minimal. With so much of its holdings in rail, any new canal was potential competition. However, when a group of British and Dutch business interests and government organs gathered together to form the Suez Canal Company, the VOC’s Board of Holders saw yet another opportunity. The VOC did buy into the SCC, eventually taking upwards to 29% of the shares at the height of their investment. They were not the largest investor, for with its securing the lands for the canal, the British government amassed 40% of the SCC shares.

The Canal was even more vital to the Dutch than the British who proposed it. It offered a shortcut from the United Provinces into India. It would also open up trading posts of the old VOC to development. The VOC reopened long forgotten trading posts, including one in Mogadishu, which would serve as regional headquarters for the Company. The new flow of trade opened up the Somali coast to great commerce and development. It also opened the Red Sea to one of maritime commerce’s oldest banes.

New Amsterdam Referendum

The Life-Eater Virus

Biochemical Test Facility
Sorn II
Sorn System, Mshrak Sector

Natkva nar Che’ri hated what she had to do, but her Pride were some of– no, the best biochemists in the Empire. None could match the Che’ri Pride in their ability to engineer genetic material. She hated this particular material, but when the Kilrah Pride issues a command, none are strong enough to ignore. She growled as she looked at the latest reports on her failing computer. Billions for genetics, but not a single coin for a descent backlit monitor. Since all this equipment came from Kilrah, naturally it used the red light of the Homeworld. The Che’ri Pride’s planet orbited a much brighter star, and her eyes were accustomed to something greater than this glume.

To kill when threatened, be it territory or cubs, was one thing, but what the Emperor had in mind was quite another. It was killing on a scale that boggled the mind. She expected indiscriminate killing from any male, but even the brutes on the frontline would be appalled by this. They wanted to get their claws bloodied, to crush the skulls of their fallen victims beneath their boots. They would be crushing many skulls once Life-Eater was perfected; plenty of lifeless bodies. How could the Emperor order such a weapon– no, this was no weapon. The Terrans have a word for it; ‘murder’. They had to borrow it from their language, for the Kilrathi are not a people to kill enemies from the shadows, without issuing a challenge. Prey perhaps, but never enemies.

Prey or not, the Apes deserved better than this. Natkva looked over at her sister, Mrisha, who finished typing her own report. "Status, my sister?"

Mrisha, whose hair was a few shades darker than Natkva’s own golden-brown, glanced at her with a board expression. Or perhaps depressed. "Life-Eater has proved 100% contagious in the limited tests, but we will need a much larger population to get solid numbers."

Natkva bowed her head in shame. More victims. A shipment of Terrans arrived on world a few days ago, some two octaves of the Apes were set up in a pen. The walls were tall enough to prevent them from escaping, but not so tall as to skew test results by trapped pockets of air. The planet’s warm air will blow the virus all about. It will be a good test, one that will see just how lethal the virus could be in an open environment.

Natkva quietly cursed the war. Like all of her Pride, she too has lost cubs to the Terrans. Out of five males she has born over the course of ten years, only two are still alive. The younger of the two served with the Imperial Guard. She thought of him with some pride, despite having no love for the Imperial Pride. To be selected to serve in the Kilrah Pride’s own fleet was the highest honor, accorded only to the best.

Her oldest– she did not like to think about him. He was sent to Repleetah, that slaughter house of a planet, and was taken under the wing of a veteran. Last she knew, both were on the rebel planet of Ghorah Khar. If he still lived, he was lost to her anyway. She did not wish to lose any more cubs to this war, nor did any of her sisters. If this virus could end the war, and prevent more of Che’ri Pride’s sons from dying, then perhaps it would be worth it.

She looked over some of the stills of the slaves. They looked new, recently captured from who knows where. The Terrans did a masterful job of pushing the Kilrathi out of the Enigma Sector. "These are new captives?" she asked her sister.

Mrisha snorted. "Of course. The Emperor doesn’t care how many sickly Apes Life-Eater will kill, only how many healthy ones."

Natkva tried to inquire the computer system as to their origin, but received no reply. They looked to be young, at least by Terran standards. The way some marched, still trying to maintain their dignity despite the shame of imprisonment, made her believe they must be warriors. Perhaps ejected from one of the numerous Terran ships destroyed in Enigma. She briefly wondered about the Terrans’ own mothers. Did they mourn their losses the way she did her own cubs?

Terrans might not be as cultured as a Kilrathi, but even the mothers of the lowliest species would fight to defend their offspring. And, at least she had the comfort of knowing her cubs died in battle. Terran mothers would never know their own children died as nothing more than experimental subjects. Died as laboratory rodents, and their deaths would no be nearly as quick as that of prey.

"The subjects are in place?" she asked her sister.

Mrisha tapped a few buttons on her keyboard. "Just about, give it a moment."

Natkva snarled, not at her sister but the whole situation. "Tell the guards to hurry them up. I want to get this test done and over with." The sooner the Apes were dead, the sooner she could push them from her mind.

VOC Cruise

During the 1840s, a series of revolutions across Europe sent hundreds of thousands of people streaming across international frontiers as homeless refugees. There was neither land or jobs to be spared in the United Provinces, thus Dutch, as well as Germans, French and other groups, set out for the New World. The first choice of almost all of these people was America. Brazil came in a close second place. The VOC saw this wave of immigration and knew it would not be the last. Famines, revolutions, even full scale wars would create refugees, and those people would wish to travel far and wide in search of opportunity.

To start with, the VOC converted a number of freighters into simple and rudimentary passenger ships. The first ship designed specifically for a trans-Atlantic trip was launched in 1843, and served to take passengers from Rotterdam to Recife. These passenger liners were marginally profitable, for though they left Rotterdam fully loaded, the left Recife with only a few on board. The flood of refugees in 1848, sparked off a rush across the ocean. In order to meet the demand, the VOC opened new shipyards in Amsterdam, not far from their 18th Century yards.

In order to speed the voyage, and return for another load faster, the first steamer was launched from the VOC’s shipyards in 1851. The Pride of Amsterdam was the largest ship of its day, capable of cramming several hundred refugees within its 120-room hull. The ship was not designed for luxury or even comfort, but people who road upon it reached the New World alive and ready to set forth on their new lives. The ship could cross to Recife in just under ten days, or reach New Amsterdam or Philadelphia in less than a week. Most of the VOC Cruise department’s ships made runs to Brazil, and between 1840 and 1890, VOC ships carried some two million immigrants to the Empire of Brazil.

VOC Rail

In the 1820s, the advent of steam engines lead to a new method of transportation: the railroad. The British had already made great use of the rail, but business interests in the United Provinces were divided by it. Canal owners and shipping magnate swore that the railroad would destroy the economy by putting out of business dozens of canals and hundreds of captains. A fight for the future of the railroad broke out in the Staaten-General as canal interests lobby against the laying of railroad tracks. Most shipping companies were against the rail and saw it as a threat, save one. The VOC saw the railroad as an opportunity.

The new VOC was not about to make the same mistakes as its predecessor, and Maarten Minuit decided the company should diversify. He had a great deal of clout with the Board of Holders, despite his attempts to convince them to re-enter the cinnamon trade. In 1835, due to persuading by Minuit, the VOC took out a loan (so large that the entire company was put up as collateral) and bought into the railroad industry, acquiring the Amsterdam-Hague line, as well as other small tracks connecting to it. By 1837, the line was extended to Bruges and in 1838, to Arnhem.

The rail proved to be more than a passing fad and rather profitable at that. By 1840, the loan had been repaid in full, and the VOC continued to lay track across the United Provinces. It did weaken the canals, and put a few shipping companies out of business, some the VOC purchased on the cheap. The railroad proved to be a far more profitable way to ship things within the United Provinces than did ships themselves. By 1843, the VOC Rail operations were the largest railroad in the United Provinces, with hundreds of kilometers of track lain.

In that same year, the first tracks of the VOC Rail were lain in Brazil. Brazil was a massively larger state than the United Provinces, and railroads would be the future of Brazilian commerce and the key to developing parts far from the coast nor accessible by rivers. Brazilians, once crowded along the coastline, soon spread out to new lands in the interior. These newly available lands also drove immigration from Europe, bringing millions of people to Brazil over the next fifty years. By 1850, thousands of kilometers of VOC track were lain not only in the United Province sand Brazil, but colonies such as southern Africa, Ceylon and even India. The rail venture was a gamble, but not only did it succeed, but it also put the VOC back on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, with the company being took public in 1849, causing new investors to sink millions of guilders of capital into the company.

Project Galileo

Project Galileo was launched by the United States in 1985 as a follow-up to the fly-by of Jupiter by the Pioneer Probes. The primary concern of the first Galileo mission was that of studying the planet Jupiter itself. A small probe, designed by the French Space Agency, hitched a ride on Galileo I and was ejected for a one-way trip through Jupiter’s atmosphere. As it happened, the probe hit one of the driest spots in the planet’s atmosphere, detecting only trace amounts of water vapor. Galileo did take pictures and readings from the Galilean moons as it passed. Even after Pioneer, which where not in the proper place for decent pictures, the moons were assumed to be uninteresting. Galileo I’s biggest shock was that of volcanic activity on Io, and what appeared to be a copy of the Arctic Ocean on Europa. Further Galileo missions were launched to study the moons in the 21st Century, first from Earth, then later from the surface of Luna.

Galileo I (1985): First orbiter of Jupiter. Launched atmospheric probe. Was later turned to focus on the moons as their attributes became widely known.

Galileo II (2001): Passed through the Jupiter-Io flux tube and had its communications disabled.

Galileo III (2008): Carried the Io lander, which successfully landed near a lava flow. Functioned for three hours.

Galileo IV (2008): Carried Europa lander, which crashed and was unable to send back data. Galileo IV entered orbit around Europa and further mapped the planet and its ocean.

Galileo V (2020): Launched from the surface of the moon. Delivered a submersible that was successfully landed on Europa and melted through the ice. Discovered evidence of biological activity, though no indisputable evidence of life.

Galileo VI (2034): Sample return mission for Io.

Galileo VII (2034): Ganymede lander; sample return rocket failed to ignite.

Galileo VIII (2054): The Europa Biochemical Laboratory successfully touched down on Europa and began a five year mission. A small rover collected samples from cracks and faults in the ice. Biological activity confirmed, yet again no samples of lifeforms discovered.

Wing Commander reboot, part 5

2638

Frontier Floods

At the start of 2638, the Kilrathi have already effortlessly rolled across most of the Epsilon Sector. This is more due to lack of Confed presence beyond it shallow border in the sector than Kilrathi efforts. At any given time, no more than two Kilrathi carriers are in the sector. Most of their forces remain in Vega, on a more direct route to Earth. The Council of Eight, as well as powerful planetary Prides, were in an uproar. They had expected the war to be over already, and with it stalling, the opening of a new frontier had also been delayed. To quell internal difficulties, these Prides planned to deport dissatisfied portions of their fief’s populations to newly conquered worlds.

It was only the lack of a free press (and news media in general) that prevented the average Kilrathi from knowing the amount of resistance this supposed prey species was capable. The fight for Hubble IV, though it was effectively in their hands, was still raging as bands of Confed guerillas launched their own hit-and-run raids against Kilrathi outposts and convoys. Not even the most eager of powerful Prides thought it a good idea to begin colonizing the planet. Other worlds, such as McAuliffe VI and Munro III, were seeing the first Prides arrive as early as 2636, when even the most pessimistic of Kilrathi planners anticipated the war being over. Carlin II, already devoid of Terrans, was wide-open to Kilrah’s undesirable Prides from the beginning.

The Frontier worlds were not completely helpless. A sense of betrayal by Confed did grow in its population. But rather than being resentful, the settlers banded together for common defense, now knowing they could not depend upon Earth for any aid. Leading these self-organizing governments was the Free Republic of the Landreich. Landreich was already a de fact independent state existing well beyond Confed’s official borders. However, Landreich did occupy a good position for any future invasions of the Enigma Sector. By 2638, the Kilrathi had only launched a few scouting expeditions into Enigma, raiding commerce and generally acting as pirates.

The Landreich faced similar raids. Their own homegrown industry was not capable of putting out the quality of weapons that Confed took for granted. Landreich also purchased, or "obtained" older, obsolete Confed ships. The Landreich would modify their ships to suit whatever needs were at hand. Many old freighters simply had pulse cannon turrets graphed onto the hull. These ungainly ships did well against the pirates and militia of the Kilrathi frontier, but as of yet had to stand up against frontline warships.



Rostov Raid

Confed was still incapable of launching any offensive to retake the Vega Sector, but new ships and weapons gave them the ability to strike deep within Kilrathi territory. In May of 2638, TCN launched an attack on the Kilrathi starbase recently completed in the Rostov System. It was not their sector HQ, but it was a vital staging area for further strikes against the Alliance-Hubble Line. Three carriers, the Vanguard, Ranger and Saratoga, all knew carriers, formed the nucleus of the raid, which also included battleship The Seventeen Provinces as well two Belgrade class cruisers and four new Monarch-class cruisers. These new ships caught the Kilrathi off-guard

Such a surprise would not be so for humans, who redesign things on a regular basis. This is not to say the Kilrathi are stagnant, far from it. Instead of total redesigns, they tend to keep the same general configuration for centuries on their ships, but with regular upgrades of hardware. The Fralthi of the start of the war looked pretty much the same as the Fralthi of the end of the war on the outside. The same went with fighters. When Kilrathi bombers were launched from Grn’tahk (Rostov) Station, the pilots were fully versed on the Wildcats they expected to intercept them as well as the Firecats that served as point-defense fighters. When the eighty bombers and their own escorts were intercepted by over a hundred Scimitars, the pilots were at a loss.

At a loss, at least until their own bombers began to explode. Kilrathi Dralthi found themselves equally matched by these new Terran fighters. The fact that Kilrathi seldom changed designs before their war with Earth played further to Terran advantage. IR (image recognition) missiles could be preprogrammed with their targets and fired without waiting for a lock. Many costly defeats would plague the Kilrathi, before their engineers figured out how the "stalker" missiles as they called them, were so successful. It would take only minor cosmetic changes to throw them off.

Of the Kilrathi bombers launched, only a handful of bombers made it through to the fleet. These were intercepted by only recently acquired F-36 Hornets. These point-defense fighters were designed specifically with data obtained about Kilrathi bombers in mind. In the words of surviving Kilrathi pilots, these new fighters were worth two Firecats each. However, no defense was ever perfect, and anti-ship missiles did reach their targets. Many naval personnel were killed and ships damaged, but no ships were lost.

Raptors launched against the Kilrathi starbase were also a surprise for the defenders. Though a few were destroyed by Kilrathi fighters, the Raptor’s own defensive and offensive weapons were more than a match for enemy fighters. More than twenty anti-ship missiles were launched and all but two hit Grn’tahk. The starbase was not destroyed, but its repair facilities were, as well as communications. Supply depots put in a loose orbit around the station went up in spectacular explosions as anti-ship missiles set off all the munitions stored within. While the starbase was not destroyed, it was crippled. A second strike was planned, but the sudden arrival of Kilrathi warships prompted Rear Admiral Turner to quit the system while still ahead.

Stardust: Apocalypse, chapter 9

Chapter 9 of Stardust: Apocalypse is now up on its site. And no, it is not about the end of any world.

On board the Absolution

For the rest of it, click here.

Pilot’s Quarters
TCS Absolution
Granita System

Lieutenant Colonel Brenell Zollern, head of Absolution’s security, stood over the corpse of one Lieutenant Edgar Mainz. Cause of death was fairly clear. The stench of charred flesh and bone has yet to be filtered out of the quarters by the ship’s life-support. It was a smell that brought back many memories, none of them good. The thirty-one year old Marine was veteran of several ground pounding engagements before the wound he received from a nasty slap by a Kilrathi soldier in the trenches of Repleetah. After rehab, he transferred to fleet security. He had enough of the trenches, and by the time hit vat-grown left eye had been fully accepted by his body, most of the men under his command on that Godforsaken planet were already transferred off, or dead. Which was just as well, Zollern had enough of up close and personal with the Cats.

He glanced over at Lieutenant Commander Mirat, one of the ship’s doctors. She was a fair lass, if he did say so himself, a petite blonde with the face of an angel. Reminded him of his own daughter, though she was only three years of age. Since Ellie died while she was visiting her parents on Sirius Prime, during that damnable “truce”, Zollern had not much time for women. He suppose he should thank God for minor miracles, as the Catholic chaplain of his old T.C.M.C. outfit would say, that Serena was left with his parents back in the Luyten System. Otherwise she too would be a rotting corpse under the shine of Sirius.

After the bio-attack on Epsilon Prima ten days ago, along with the subsequent evacuation of the Absolution task force to the Granita System, it was not a wonder that more suicides had occurred. He has seen enough of this as well back on Repleetah. Some Marines just could not handle the day upon day, month upon month of death. He briefly touched the three scared gouges across his left cheek bone. That planet cost him an eye, and cost many of his men a great deal more. If not for his own wound, he might have died with the rest of them on that planet, be it by the Cats or his own hand, he could not say.

“What’s the verdict, doctor?” he said, his slightly Germanic accent raising its head again. Since he joined the Corps, and spent so much time around all these English speakers, his own accent was slowly fading from Luytener Deutsche.

“He’s dead,” she said as a-matter-of-factly. Zollern knew for a fact she did not require a fancy full-body scanner to tell that. The fact that part of his head was missing was sort of a giveaway.

Zollern scowled. “No kidding.”

Mirat glanced over her shoulder at him, shooting him a look of reproach. “Suicide; self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. It was a pulse weapon, but you would know more about weapons than I.” Mirat was not fond of war– who was?– but she was of the impression that Marines were a little bit on the death-hungry side.

Zollern could not admit to innocence to that, at least back when he first signed on. Kicking the Cats out of the Enigma Sector cost the lives of a majority of his graduating class; out of fifteen graduates of the Luyten Academy that enlisted that week, only Zollern and two others were still breathing. They were all lolly-ho about the war, at least until all of them ended up as replacement officers in Repleetah.

“I need details, Commander,” Zollern told her. He felt no particular reason to explain his actions to anyone, but with a dozen other items on his daily agenda, he wanted to wrap this investigation up. “I have a report to write up, and Captain Powers is a bigger stickler for the regs than even me.”

This time Mirat did not even bother looking at him. “Self-inflicted shot to head from a pulse pistol. Judging by the coolness of the wound, I’d say his time of death was less than an hour ago. That would have been just before he was scheduled to go back on patrol, I assume.” Mirat knew little about the operations of Old Abby’s fighter compliment, a squadron of Epees. Zollern knew the schedule; after all, the wing commander was the one who reported Mainz missing. It was a silly report, as far as Zollern was concerned. Missing? Just where on this ship was he suppose to go?

As always, he took the direct approach and headed to the pilot’s quarters, assuming the W.C. overlooked the Obvious. Sure enough, he was there, dead on the floor. After that, Zollern summoned medical personnel, and informed the captain. Powers was none too pleased. “Can you certify suicide?” This time Mirat looked back at him, questions in her face. “I’ve already scanned the pistol; only Mainz’s fingerprints were on it. I need one of the medical personnel to certify it before I commit it to paper.”

Mirat gave a most unladylike snort. “Are you suggesting somebody killed him?”

Zollern shrugged. “I wouldn’t be much of a security chief if I ever discounted the idea.”

Mirat shook her head. “No, this man was a suicide, count on it.”

Zollern said nothing. The captain was not one for counting on anything short of solid evidence. He was already angry over the loss of a second pilot in a week. The previous one was a Lieutenant Hatford, and she was K.I.A. while the task force was “evacuating” the Epsilon System. Evacuating my foot, Zollern had thought. The Cats just pasted Epsilon Prima with the Life-Eater and the Commodore of this little flotilla decided to escape before one of the locals brought the disease on board. They were running, no two ways about it.

“What do you know of Mainz?” Zollern asked. “Aside form his medical record?” Zollern knew nothing about the pilots defending this old battleship, save what was on their files. They all kept their noses clean, and as a ground pounder, he had little desire to mingle with those hot shots. Still, it could have been worse. The last pilot to die took her fighter with her. At least Mainz did not take his Epee with him. Zollern had known of more than one pilot to go out in blaze of glory.
“No,” Mirat admitted. “I’ve never spoken with him outside of sickbay. Here’s a thought; you could go ask his fellow pilots.” She said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Zollern had no immediate comeback, snappy or otherwise. Instead, he turned to leave the quarters. “If you find anything out of the ordinary, do let me know,” he said, leaving the room without waiting for her to have the last word.

Stardust: Mylo

Alpha Centauri B-II (Mylo)
Type: F3 (84 %)
Gravity: 7.9 m/s2 (0.810 Earth)
Pressure: 830 mb
Atmosphere: 54% Nitrogen
30% Oxygen
15% Helium
01% Argon
Lots of Greenhouse Gases to keep thin air warm
Distance: 0.67 AU
Diameter: 10000km (0.783 Earth)
Mass: 0.496 Terran Units
Volume: 0.483 Terran Units
Surface Area: 0.615 Terran Units
Density: 1.026 Terran Units
Axis Tilt: 0 +/- 7 degrees
Moons: N/A
Temperature: 305 K
Day: 28.600 hrs
Year: 258.407 days (0.707)
Population: 40 min (humans) 2 min (gobli) 50k (dragon)
Settled: AY 2896, circa 13500 B.C.E.
Tech Level: Iron (Pre-industrial)
Life Level: Neozoic/Transient

The Great Lakes Theater, 1913

Battle of Mackinac

Also called the Battle of Mackinac Strait or Battle of Fort Mackinac, this battle was the first British-Canadian counter-offensive following the declaration of War. Part of Britain’s own war plan against America called for it to drive American Naval forces from the Great Lakes. This called for bottling up much of the American Great Lakes’ Fleet on Lake Michigan while the British took control of the other four lakes. Not only would this allow the British, and the Canadians, uninterrupted supply lines for armies operating on American soil (none at the time), but it would also force the Americans to withdraw from the York Peninsula and cut off their iron mining regions in the west from the steel mills in the east.

Under the command of Vice Admiral Walter Cowan, a British fleet of two battleships (on BB and one BC), three cruisers, nine destroyers and ten smaller vessels, sailed ahead of a marine flotilla destined to occupy Mackinac Island. The British plan called for surprise, which was shattered on June 30, 1913, when the submarine Swordfish, commanded by Commander Edward Fitzgerald, spotted the British fleet and moved in to attack. A torpedo managed to hit the battlecruiser Leopard, but caused only slight damage, a rupture in the midship that was easily patched. In return, British destroyers hunted down the primitive submarine and sank it. At the time, Cowan was not aware if U.S. subs were equipped with the newly invented wireless transmitters. Though primitive, they were capable of transmitting a morse code pulse to warn that the British were coming.

On July 2, the British fleet entered Mackinac Strait and began to bombard the fortress upon Mackinac Island at 1133. A century ago, a British fleet made the same move and forced the fort to surrender before taking control of Lake Michigan during the Second Anglo-American War. Fifty years later, during the Third Anglo-American War, the British again attacked the fort, but this time took it by assault. Cowan planned to be the third to take the island in just over a century. Unbeknown to the British, Fitzgerald did get a signal back to Chicago, and the American fleet stationed their sortied.

The United States Navy split its forces on Lake Michigan into two columns. The western column, commanded by Rear Admiral Charles Vreeland, consisted of two battleships, two cruisers, four destroyers, seven frigates and torpedo boats. The eastern column, commanded by Commodore Robert Doyle, consisted of a lone battlecruiser, another lone cruiser, three destroyers along with a dozen torpedo boats. When the two columns converged on Mackinac Island, midday on July 3, Vreeland took overall command for what would turn out to be a short battle.

Given British superiority in overall firepower, Vreeland played his own gambit. He would send ahead the torpedo boats and smaller craft to launch their torpedoes at the British. He expected to loose many of the boats, after all, Destroyers were designed to destroy torpedo boats. However, he had hoped to open a breach in the British formation to exploit. At a distance of ten kilometers, the British guns began to open up on the Americans. At that distance, their aim was poor, and only a handful of near misses gave the Americans cause for alarm. The U.S.S. Columbia, a battlecruiser, did have a shell land close enough to cause minor damage to its hull.

In design, the British and Canadian Great Lakes Battleships were fifteen percent larger than their American counterparts, and sported 300mm guns, as opposed to the 203 and 253 mm used by American Great Lakes Battleships and -cruisers. Their armor was thicker as well. British cruisers had close to the same advantage against their American counterparts. American warships were lighter armed and armored, but also traveled faster than their enemies. American gunnery tended to be better on the Great Lakes, as was shown when shells from the Oregon made contact with a British destroyed that strayed too close, and tore it to pieces.

Before the opposing capital ships could get into more effective range, Cowan had to run the gauntlet of small torpedo boats. As was typical of a Royal Navy man, Cowan looked upon these lightly armed, glorified fishing boats with disdain. The idea that a boat could damage, much less sink, a Royal Navy battleship struck the Admiralty as absurd. This did not, however, prevent the Canadians from building their own torpedo boats to ply the Great Lakes. Cowan’s pride was about to receive a deep bruise when the American boats entered firing range. As was doctrine, the larger ships ignored the boats while the destroyers dealt with them. Two torpedo boats were destroyed before they could launch their torpedoes, but an addition thirteen breached British lines and launch two torpedoes each before retreating. Of these, and addition three boats were destroyed.

Many of the torpedoes missed, either be dodged, or simply sailing beneath the enemy bows. However, the bulk of the torpedoes were aimed at the largest ships; battleship Port Royal, battlecruiser Leopard and a cruiser steaming close to them. Seven torpedoes did hit, including one that took out the Leopard’s rudder. Two more torpedoes ruptured the battleship’s hull, reducing its speed by half. The cruiser received such a lashing, that it began to list. Before the day was out, it would be abandoned and capsized. With one capital ship mortally wounded and the other crippled, Cowan now had to face the Americans at a disadvantage. No British admiral had ever retreated from battle against the Americans on the Great Lakes, and Cowan did not wish to be the first.

When the American battleship and battlecruiser came into range, they quickly changed his mind. Shells from the Oregon and Susquehanna destroyed three destroyers and broke an addition cruiser in half. British shells caused their own damage, sinking an American destroyer and crippling two more, along with a cruiser Columbia even received hits, knocking out one of its two turrets. It was the fact that the Royal Marine transports would be within range of American guns within a day that caused Cowan to retreat. The transports were lightly armed, fast destroyers that would have stood little chance against the Americans. He would not condemn so many marines to their death just to save his own pride. At 1605, Cowan gave the order to withdraw. Not retreat, but to withdraw. He had every intend on returning as soon as his ships were repaired, and reinforced by ships from Lake Superior and Huron.

The Americans would not give Cowan, or any British admiral, a second change to seal Lake Michigan. Within a week, addition torpedo boats have arrived on seen, and damage to most of the ships was repaired. The Columbia did have to return to Chicago for repairs, but it would be replaced by ships arriving at Mackinac from Lake Superior. Addition soldiers were rushed to reinforce Fort Mackinac, and a small airstrip was built on the island. It could not project power against the Royal Navy, but would serve to base scouts. Addition guns were placed on the island in the following month, as were fortifications on either side of Mackinac Strait. Admiral Vreeland would not give the British a second chance to take Mackinac. As soon as he was reinforced, he took the fight to the British on Lake Huron.

Battle of Lake Huron

Following their victory at Mackinac, the America Great Lakes Navy took up pursuit of their British counterparts once Mackinac Island was reinforced. By September of 1913, Vreeland set his fleet out, reinforced by two cruisers and the battleship Minnesota, across Lake Huron to hunt down what was left of Cowan’s fleet. Seaplanes launched from the northern shores of Michigan scoured the lake for the British fleet for a week before the first signs were detected. On September 7, Cowan’s fleet was spotted nearing Georgian Bay. Cowan had hoped to shelter in Owin Sound and repair the damage his ships sustained. At this point in the war, scouting planes were, if armed at all, very lightly armed. Bombers did not come into serious play for a couple more years. Had the Americans had these bombers, they might very well have sunk the British fleet from the air.

Instead, Vreeland ordered his fleet to sail across Lake Huron towards Georgian Bay. Cowan’s own scouts learned of the American’s approach. A squadron of five torpedo boats made runs on the Americans, missing the battleships at the cost of three of their own. One ship was eventually abandoned, but the fifth returned to Owin Sound with word of an American fleet approaching. The term fleet is used very loosely on the Great Lakes, for what Vreeland commanded would have been a glorified squadron on the high seas. Cowan had little choice but to put his whole fleet to sail, including the damaged Leopard. The British Admiral had no reinforcements aside from a few gunboats that nominally defend the naval base at Owin Sound. These followed Cowan towards their destined fate.

On September 15, 1913, just a few days over a hundred years since the Battle of Lake Erie, the American and British Great Lake Navies clashed some twenty kilometers of the northwest tip of the Bruce Peninsula. The battle was joined at 1103, when the Port Royal fired the first shots of the battle. British torpedo boats charged the Americans under the cover of the big guns. The shells fell short and wide, hitting a destroyer, ironically named the USS Oliver Perry. The destroyer was knocked out of action by hits from the British battlecruiser’s functioning turret, and began to list at 1108. The torpedo boats finished off the Perry and hit three more destroyers. The destroyer screen was tight enough that British boats could not penetrate to threaten the two American battleships and two battlecruisers.

By 1145, the playing was over and both formations began battling each other at ranges less than two kilometers. A British and American destroyer destroyed each other at under 300 m distance. Just before midday, Vreeland passed between Bruce Peninsula and the British Fleet, crossing Cowan’s ‘T’. All heavy caliber guns fired upon the lead ship, the battleship Port Royal. Of the shots fired, seven hit the battleship, including one just below the bridge’s superstructure. Cowan and his command staff were killed in the explosion. More hits punctured the aft and destroyed the rudder. The Port Royal began to turn to the port, no longer under human control. Seeing this, the following ships changed course, not realizing just what happened.

Both fleets lined up broadsides against each other. Several of the British shots hit their mark, damaging the Minnesota and killing its own captain. Over a hundred were killed when a boiler exploded onboard the Susquehanna. The damage to the Americans was painful, but not life threatening. Three destroyers were gutted during the exchange, with the loss of several hundred more sailors. The British losses were far worse. The earlier wounds on the Leopard were opened again by a torpedo run by one of the American destroyers lost. Explosions below the water line broke the back of the battlecruiser, which snapped in half at 1205. Only a handful of survivors, and none of them officers, were plucked from the lake. The out-of-control Port Royal was hit five more times, with two shots ripping open spontoons and causing the ship to enter a dangerous twenty degree list to its port. At 1211, the battleship capsized and went down. An addition royal cruiser and four destroyers were lost in the fight. By 1300, the British fleet on Lake Huron was effectively annihilated, and the remaining wounded ships limped away from battle. Two destroyers steamed towards Detroit in hopes of breaking through to Lake Erie, but the remainder of the ships headed towards Owin Sound.

The two destroyers were sunk by shore batteries attempting to cross over to Lake Erie, and the remaining ships were bottled up in Owin Sound. Vreeland sailed his own fleet within range of the Sound and began bombarding the naval base. Little damage was caused to the base, and none of the warships suffered any more serious damage, though a light cruiser was hit and ended up beaching itself. Vreeland sailed back towards Lake Michigan, victorious in clearing Lake Huron of British forces. Several American submarines set up a blockade of Owin Sound, and supply ships used the Huron side of the York Peninsula to resupply American forces in Canada. The Great Lakes were cut in half, and British and Canadian naval forces on Lake Superior remained isolated. American warships sortied into Lake Superior and hunted down the British cruiser and destroyers stationed upon it by the middle of 1914. Taking control of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario would not be as easy.

Ginger

Since Cinnamon was already here, I had to bring her daughter, Ginger to the Weblog. I am training her how to deal with monkeys.

Television News and Political Lean in AHN USA

American Broadcasting Company: Democratic Party until the early 1980s, when it switched over to a heavy Libertarian lean.

Business New Channel: Libertarian Party

Cable News Network: Socialist Party

Columbia Broadcasting System: Progressive Party

Columbia Cable News: Progressive Party

Fox News Network: Democratic Party

National Broadcasting Company: Socialist, but with a considerable Progressive lean by some journalists.

People’s Broadcasting Network: Socialists Party

Wing Commander reboot, part 4

2637



Fall of Hubble’s Star

In January of 2637 A.L., the reason the Kilrathi had been so quiet the previous year became painfully obvious. A fleet of some four carriers and ten cruisers, accompanied by various smaller craft, jumped into the system from both Port Hadland and Cheng-Cu. The two prong attack caught Confed off guard. When the first fleet arrived from Cheng-Cu, TCN defenders moved quickly to intercept it, despite being outnumbered two-to-one in respect to carrier strength. The first Kilrathi attack was a feint, designed to lure the Confed ships away from Hubble IV as well as Hubble Station in the L-2 point between Hubble IV and Hubble’s Star.

When the second Kilrathi force jumped into the system, roughly the same size as the first, the Terran defenders soon found themselves trapped between two fleets. Tough Confed gave a tough fight, taking a Kilrathi carrier and cruiser with them, the Carrier Adrianople as well as battlecruiser Viceroy, four cruisers and seven destroyers were all destroyed with few survivors. Those who reached escape pods were fortunate in that the Kilrathi ignored them as they headed for Hubble IV. Their next victim was Hubble Station itself.

The battle for the station was short, for the Kilrathi had no intent on capturing it. Over a hundred fighters defended the station, but the Firecats were of little match against the Kilrathi’s Dralthi and Salthi. Only a few TCN fighters escaped destruction to land on Hubble IV. Hubble Station had spent most of its effort in preparing for a boarding action than redoubling its countermeasures. Instead of boarding pods, Kilrathi bombers struck the station, delivering several anti-ship missiles towards their target. Hubble Station was destroyed with more than ten thousand on board.

The Kilrathi invasion of Hubble IV, the primary population in the system, took place with the minimal of interruption. Three days were spent by Kilrathi fighters and bombers inside the atmosphere of the planet, destroying whatever fighter cover remained, as well as air defenses around the landing zone of Drakeston. As the first wave of forty thousand Kilrathi were landing, Hubble militia destroyed the Drakeston Spaceport and the civilian population began to flee the city. The planet’s population in the census of 2630, was around two hundred million, with a further three million scattered around the rest of Hubble’s Star. The planet was home to a great deal of industry, most of it civilian and pressed into war service.

The Kilrathi took Drakeston, only to find the city abandoned. Kilrathi engineers were sent in with the next wave of invasion, along with machines for clearing the wreckage of the spaceport. While the Kilrathi were still thin on the ground, Confed Army units on the planet struck at the city, effectively laying siege to the very city they had abandoned. When additional Kilrathi ships attempted to land, the Army would throw all of its artillery into destroying transports, preferably while still in the air, but would settle for them on the ground as well.

The Kilrathi attempted a second landing some fifty kilometers north of Drakeston, in an attempt to crushed the Confederation Army between its two forces. This landing fared worse than the first, with twenty-seven percent of the transports destroyed by ground batteries as well as atmospheric aircraft. Privately owned space- and aircraft were pressed into service along side militia craft. Anything that could fly was equipped with FF missiles and pulse cannons. The second invasion flew into a school of pirana. However, this did not stop tens of thousands of more Kilrathi from stepping foot on Hubble IV.

By the third week of the invasion, enough pressure was taken off Drakeston for the Kilrathi to repair the spaceport and begin expanding it, all the while hundreds of Kilrathi transports were setting down on the planet on a weekly basis. The ad hoc air cover of the Terrans was slowly dwindled down as Kilrathi fighters spent most of their time in the atmosphere, and destroyers began pounding locations from orbit. The space between both initial Kilrathi landing zones was laid waste by several annihilation warheads, creating a link between the two Kilrathi forces. By the end of the fifth week, over three hundred thousand Kilrathi were on the planet.

Kilrathi reinforcements did not enter the system unopposed. TCN sent raids into the system repeatedly, targeting transports, freighters and any other logistical craft. This tactic forced the Kilrathi to divert its in-system forces to escort duty. It also diverted assets from across the Sector. Taking one of the systems in the Line was vital to Kilrathi war aims. When the Kilrathi could have launched another sizable attack on the line, they were instead forced to funnel more resources to take Hubble’s Star. This allowed only one large raid to take place in the Vega Sector.

By week ten, the Battle for Hubble’s Star was in full swing with over a million soldiers fighting for control of the planet. The Kilrathi, finally with air and space superiority, began a slow but relentless march to victory. The battle was officially won by the Kilrathi after five months of fighting, when the remaining Confed forces broke up and scattered into the wilderness. What would follow would be years of guerilla warfare and resistance against Kilrathi occupation. Hubble IV would continue to be a drain on their Vega Sector operations for years to come.

Securing the rest of the system was a simple enough task. What locations they did not want, or would not serve a strategic purpose, the Kilrathi simply destroyed. More than 2.5 million Terrans off of Hubble IV were killed during the conquest of the system.



Proxima Raid

After jumping quickly into Proxima from Munro, a Kilrathi task force centered around a light carrier (the only ship that would eventually not see action in Hubble’s Star) as well as four cruisers headed straight fro Proxima IV. It was the less populated region of the system, but steered well clear of Proxima Station and its compliment of several hundred fighters and bombers, as well as ships of TCN. Proxima IV and the asteroids that orbited it, was home to industry in the system as well as ten million Terrans. The Kilrathi had no intend on capturing the planet, and instead struck at factories built on the asteroids, including the largest fighter plant of McCall Industries in Vega Sector. The raid was clumsy, for the Kilrathi were not use to wars that were entering their fourth year, nor use to strategic warfare. However, by the time Confed sent interceptors to Proxima IV, the Kilrathi had already left the system.



The Mandarins and Catholics

Kilrathi occupation of planets such as McAuliffe VI, had taught the local humans that there was no beating the Kilrathi. They could not be killed without massive retribution. They could not be coerced. They could not even be bribed. In the ruined city of Forester, a man by the name of Alfred Mandar decided the Kilrathi could not be beaten. Publicly, he taught that the people should submit to Kilrathi rule, and that all the Confederation should surrender. This made him a traitor in the eyes of Confed. Privately, he taught that humanity should put itself in the good graces of the Kilrathi, be spread across their empire, then– when the Kilrathi were complacent, to rise up and overthrow them. He wanted to defeat the Kilrathi from within.

The Society of Mandar, or just plain Mandarin Society, spread across the occupied worlds. Because it openly taught submission, the Kilrathi authorities allowed their missionaries to move from world to world. Their teachers were not the only doomsayers, though the only ones who desired a surrendered. The forty-nine century old Catholic Church had its own fringe elements that believed the Kilrathi were punishment from God for the hubris of man. The majority of the Church held the official line that man should stand up and vanquish the godless beasts. As soon as the Church heard of Kilrathi defections, they immediately petitioned Confed for access to the isolated Kilrathi, so that they may spread the word of the gospel to these aliens.



New Hardware

In 2637, the first of the Vanguard Class Carriers, the TCS Vanguard and TCS Ranger were commissioned at the Shipyards of Mercury. These two carriers, as well as several new Concordia Class carriers could barely replace the loses in the Vega Sector. Concordia production was ceased that year, and their shipyards retooled to produce more Vanguards. Already, various design agencies were developing a newer, larger strike carrier to replace the Vanguards.

As well as the new carrier class, two of the four new fighters rolled off the assembly line in 2637. The A-14 Raptors, slatted replace the slow Warhammers. These new attackers would have the same bomber capability as the Warhammers, but would carrier the missiles and guns of a heavy fighter, as well as the agility. Second to come off the line are the venerable F-105 Scimitars (Confed’s fighter designation is rather arbitrary and comes from the manufacturer instead of TCN) which would replace the Wildcats as both bomber escorts and interceptors. Both of these new fighter classes were designed with the Kilrathi in mind, and incorporated aspects of Kilrathi fighter weakness, learned from refugees, into their overall design.

In the same year, new battleships were on the drawing boards. These are not battleships in the traditional sense, but a throwback to the arsenal ships of millennia past. These new BBGs as they are officially designated are little more than missile barges, carrying thousands of FF missiles and anti-ship missiles. The engineers promised that each ship could fire a salvo of over five hundred FFs in under a minute. Critics of the Arsenal Ship program argue that for the price of one of these ships, several hundred smaller fighters and bombers could have been built.

Rebuilding the VOC

The new VOC, a strictly private venture between a group of captains, sailors, employees and investors of the former colossus opened its doors to business in 1801. In retrospect, it was a very poor time for any company to open its door, much less the second incarnation of a company that had earned itself many enemies. With the Wars of Napoleon raging across Europe and the United Provinces located in the middle of it all, neutrality was a position harder and harder to maintain. British and French ships alike preyed upon the merchantmen waving the hated VOC standard. Losses in the first year alone would have made any other business fold.
Dutch involvement in the Wars opened a new avenue of business for the VOC; privateering. All of the fourteen surviving ships were armed to the teeth as investors sought to remake their income by simply looting French vessels. The profits from captured French ships and their contents was far greater than sailing to Angola for a hull full of logs. Some of the captured ships were sold to offset costs, but the larger ones, and the few genuine frigates captured, were held by the company. The warships were used not only to raid more commerce but to escort VOC ships on their more legitimate business ventures.
The final fall of Napoleon saw a VOC that had expanded to forty-one heavily armed ships. The frigates had partitions and excess guns removed and were turned over to commercial freight once French shipping was legally no longer an option. Though the VOC had barely survived the first decade of the new century, the had in deed survived and were generating a modest, if small ,profit. With no spice monopoly, the VOC made few trips to the Far East. Instead, the bulk of their revenue was made in the timber trade in both Angola and Brazil.

VOC Bankrupt

The conquest of Bengal depleted the coffers of the VOC, as well as forced them to take out loans in order to finance their war against the British East India Company. Most of these loans were taken from the Bank of Amsterdam, a bank not only chartered by the Staaten-General, but with a majority of the shares owned by both Staaten-General and the Crown, as well as the Dutch government being the largest depositor. The fiscal situation for the VOC could not be offset by its virtual international trade monopoly to India, as well as its spice monopoly to the East Indies. Neither could keep up with rising debt. As a result, the VOC defaulted on its loans in 1798, and later that year declared bankruptcy.
Just how a corporation of such revenue could suddenly become bankrupt was not understood by the general public, or even VOC shareholders. Upon hearing this, those who could sell their shares did just that. Investors wished to liquidate their holdings in the company, while the company still existed. In early 1799, the Staaten-General refused to renew the VOC’s monopoly. The end of the almost two century old company looked at hand. In order to compensate for defaulted loans, the Bank of Amsterdam seized company property. The Staaten-General received its compensation for lost deposits in the Bank by seizing company lands in India, the Far East as well as the African Coast. The Company began to sell off assets to pay off its debt, and in effect, dissolved itself by 1800.
This was not the end of the VOC, but rather the beginning. The company was no longer a monopoly, nor in the trade of conquest. What remained by 1801, was a few diehard investors, captains and sailors, as well as twenty ships that these men purchased while the company was being liquidated. Despite the risk, they kept the name VOC, for the captains have served the company since they were cabin boys, decades before. Heydrick Doeff became the first chairmen of the new VOC. He would lead the company into fiercely competitive trading market, without the VOC’s previous power or privileges, but with the ghosts of all the enemies the previous company had made during its existence.

End of the Spanish State
The final collapse of the Spanish Republic during the 2010s had its roots following the Second World War. A new constitution was created by the victors, to replace the restored monarchy with a federal republic based on centuries old nationalities. Languages, such as that of the Basque, which were suppressed during the restored monarchy were brought back to the surface of day, often acting as one of, if not the, official language of the reconstituted states. Resurrection of medieval nationalities sparked division among the previous united Spanish people.
During the 1980s, the Basque were the first to leave the republic. The federal government in Madrid nearly sparked off a war in trying to prevent the Basque from departing. For their part, the Basque tried the diplomatic path first, presenting their case to the United Nations. They pleaded that this was part of their national self-determination, one of the points of the U.N. Charter, and the U.N. ruled in favor of the Basque. The Basque Republic was founded, and Madrid waited for the dominos to fall. They did not. In fact, the federal government ran smoother without the Basque obstructing legislation.
For nearly thirty years, Spain experienced a time of stability. This all changed in 2013, when the strongly Federalist president, Manuel Chavez, was assassinated while visiting Oporto. Reactionary elements within the Spanish military cracked down on the city. Across the state of Portugal, the people protested the unfair treatment and singling out of their own nationality because of the assassination, one that was later learned to be committed by a Catalonian. Active resistance to the occupation of Oporto resulted in further crackdowns inside Portugal.
In 2014, a Portuguese General, one Louis Ramalo, took control of the state assembly in Lisbon. Just how Portuguese Ramalo was is still debated, for his father was born in Seville, and he spent much of his youth in southern Spain. On August 14, 2014, Ramalo declared himself king of a restored Kingdom of Portugal. Portugal seceded from the Spanish Republic the following day. In a speech televised across Portugal, King Louis promised to restore Portugal’s former glory. The phrasing of his speech caught the attention of the Dutch Commonwealth, which member states of Brazil, Angola and Mozambique were centuries ago Portuguese colonies.
Portugal was not the only state to secede that year. Catalonia used the same national self-determination excuse as the Basque, and left the Republic on October 30, of that year. Madrid was quick to send in soldiers to Barcelona, bringing several of the Catalonian politicians into custody. Battle for the city and the surrounding countryside lasted well into 2015. At the start of the new year, the Leonese began to speak of their own self-determination. The New Years massacre in Tarragona of some three thousand Catalonian nationals caused the assembly in Leon to vote for dissolving their union with the Spanish Government on January 3.
With Leon in rebelling, soldiers in Catalonia were recalled closer to the capital to do battle with Leonese rebels. Leonese officers and soldiers within the army mutinied, taking control of a great store of military equipment. While Madrid was distracted closer to home, the Catalonian Army, numbering less than 100,000, made a move of its own. It invaded southwards into Valencia, committing its own atrocities in the meanwhile. These acts were nowhere near as violent as some carried out during the Balkan Wars (1948-89), but international communication and cable news networks brought them into houses around the world.
Fighting in Leon grew fierce enough that other nationalities began to fear they would be next. Even the Castillians, whose state was home to Madrid, were appalled by the heavy-handedness of Madrid. Tensions grew during March and April, until finally, on May 1, the national assembly voted to disband itself, after several attempts of the president to reign in the army had failed. The Spanish state abruptly ceased to exist.
This, obviously, did not stop the violence. War erupted between Castile and Leon, as Leonese soldiers crossed the border to take revenge on what they saw as lackeys to a now dead federal government. Castile retained control over the largest portion of the Spanish Air Force, and used it to bomb targets across Leon. Not just military targets of logistical ones, but general carpet bombing of cities. Leon’s air force attempted to match raid with raid, but was outfought by the Castillians.
Piracy erupted along the Atlantic Coast, as Portuguese sailors took once more to the sea. This time, they preyed upon the shipping lanes that entered northern Europe from the Mediterranean and African Coast. On July 19, two Portugese frigates made the monumental mistake of attacking a VOC convoy. VOC property was damaged, but no ships taken. The Company has a very strict no-tolerance policy when it comes to piracy, and the day after the attack the VOC Board voted to declare Lisbon a pirate den, opening the way for its private navy to attack the city.
The Staaten-General of the United Provinces was forced to intervene in Iberia just because of this. The VOC had destroyed many pirate dens, but most were in obscure places along the West African Coast, or some village the news networks never even notice. Lisbon was a well-known ans large European city. To raze it would bring much unwanted attention upon the Dutch Commonwealth. The Commonwealth agreed to move against Portugal, if only to keep the VOC from doing something they would all regret.
The Commonwealth expeditionary force arrived off the Portuguese coast, and landed north of Lisbon on September 11, 2015. There was little in the way of opposition, with most of the Portuguese Army attacking north into Galicia or defending the border with Leon. The following day, air strikes of Dutch carriers eliminated “King” Louis and his cabinet. The fall of Lisbon turned out to be little more than simply marching into the city. The elimination of its dictator through the country into disarray. At no point was an effective resistance organized, and early in 2016, the Dutch completed their occupation of Portugal. Shortly after, the Commonwealth placed a Protectorate over Galicia.
The Dutch Commonwealth was not the only non-Iberian state to intervene in the Iberianization of Spain. Shortly after the Dutch Protectorate, Italian Marines based in Majorca, landed near Barcelona. The Italian Federation placed its own protectorship over Catalonia. Not wanting to be left out of the picture, or lose a chance to extend its own influence, French soldiers crossed the border into Aragon. Fifty thousand were already staged on the border, to prevent a flood of Argonese refugees from stepping upon French soil. To give Iberians a place of refuge, they invaded Aragon and turned it into a protectorate, as well demilitarized it (or all non-French forces).
In southern Iberia, the Dutch moved in May of 2016, to occupy Gibraltar. To keep open the flow of oil from Armenia and Kurdistan, as well as to prevent piracy from plaguing a strategic trading nexus were the reasons cited for the occupation. For its part, Andalusia did not protest the occupation, or even oppose it. They had more problems with their neighbors to the north than the Dutch. Andalusia, despite its Moorish history, was not in anyway connected to its long forgotten Arab past. It was not the revival of Grenada, though its capital was in Malaga. Since Leon and Castile threw so much of their weight against each other, Andalusia managed to push its own frontiers as far north as the Guadaira River.
It was not until 2017, that the United Nations was able to motivate itself to act. With Security Council Resolution 2017-4, the U.N. voted to send in peace keepers to uphold the peace established by a resolution passed by the general assembly a few days before, calling for immediate cessation of violence. The bulk of the Peace Keepers were comprised of British, German, Swedish and Moroccan Army units, and ships of the Royal Navy were prepared to strike targets inside of both Castile and Leon if both countries did not stop the violence. They complied on March 2, 2017, bringing the brief but destructive war to an end.
The resolution also called for the Dutch Commonwealth to abandon its conquests, which King William VIII steadfast refused to do so. His decision was applauded back home, as was the final destruction of the United Provinces’ most ancient enemy, that of Spain. Despite the resolution, the Commonwealth, as well as France and Italy retained their protectorates and influence in the region.