Earthkind/An-Mizarian Conflict (2199 -2230* )

The Earthkind/An-Mizarian conflict began in 2199, after the discovery of the An-Mizarians. It is an ongoing conflict and can be characterized as the first interstellar/interspecies conflict since Humanity entered the stars. The majority of the military action ended in 2230 with the neutralization of the anomolous moon orbiting An-Mizar.

Drakon Incident, 2199

The Nigerians sent an armed squadron to Drakon (BD+60 1623), the habitable planet in the star system nearest the Mizarian contact. Upon their arrival in 2199, the Nigerian ships were quickly immersed in the first significant armed conflict with the An-Mizarian sentience. Analysts are still working on exactly what happened, as the An-Mizarians don’t seem to regard things like ships and crews exactly as Humanity, or even the Mimosans, do. An-Mizarian “objects” appeared to have the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct themselves at will from independently mobile subcomponents no more than several meters long, and even these frequently deconstructed into sub elements a tenth of a meter long, and less than a centimeter wide. These objects, dubbed flechettes by space crews, were the primary weapon of the An-Mizarians although they have been seen to use high powered laser weaponry in their occupied system. The nature of the attack is not fully understood, but the object is believed to have been testing. The An-Mizarian tactics appeared almost random and had no obvious target beyond whatever was in their path.

Communications amongst An-Mizarians appears to be on two levels: a laser system for high data density system; and a low data density system of a kind not currently understood, but possibly based on quantum engineering.

When it was over, there were countless bits of An-Mizarian whatevers scattered about, the Nigerians and Koreans had each lost a warship, the Italians had lost a research support vessel, and the Russians had lost a chartered commercial ship- but the Nigerians have in their possession what may be an An-Mizarian. If so, it is unlike anything even speculated on, and strains the envelope not only of Life, but of Matter. The An-Mizarian entity(ies) are composed of microscopically thin but macroscopically long threads of stabilized Strange matter, wrapped in sheaths of high density normal matter- atoms that by all right should radioactively decay in fractions of a second, but are somehow stabilized by modulation of the Strong Nuclear Force, from the Strange Matter core within. These threads grow at their tips by converting normal matter to strange matter, and the threads form information processing networks by transmitting pulsed modulations of the Strong Nuclear Force. The threads are also much, much denser than any ordinary matter, and early theories are that the threads propagate through normal matter, “tapping” and adapting to any information processing capabilities- intelligence- they may find.

The battle suggests how to and how not to engage them. According to the Koreans and Nigerians, energy weapons are largely a waste of time, as the “pseudo-stable” atomic structures the threads create seem to be very good at absorbing unwanted electromagnetic energy, but kinetic weapons are suitable for blasting them apart.

The Drakon Salas Campaign, 2214

In 2214, Humanity launched its first major military effort against the An-Mizarians, seeking to drive them the Drakon Salas system. Military force was available in plenty- nearly twice as much as the high end estimates said would be required. International cooperation was another matter entirely. With several major alliances working and no umbrella group controlling operations, coordination was left to ad hoc arrangements between officers of various fleets, mostly worked out in the exercises leading up to the invasion. What Humanity lacked in coordination it made up in sheer mass. There were a few fans of 20th-21st century science fiction among the Combined Fleets of Earth, and they noted the irony: all those stories about sudden mass invasions by huge alien fleets, and no one predicted that when it finally came to pass, the huge invasion fleet would be Earth's.

Starting at the Top

The lack of central control meant a lack of ability to conduct a single large scale operation against the system. The "Everywhere at Once" scenario was scrapped. In its place, commanders considered starting with the High Ground of the system, the outer region of icy Kuiper bodies and comets. At the same time, they would infiltrate intelligence platforms into the close solar orbit region. The outer system would give Earth's forces the ability to slowly constrict and peel apart the system, layer by layer, while keeping some assets close to the star enabled them to stay well hidden, with their sensors aimed outwards, providing a watch over the in system.

The close solar orbits, it was found, belonged to the An-Mizari, who very likely had the same idea. It was too heavily infested for even small, stealthy, intelligence platforms to work safely, and with such a large preponderance of forces, Earth commanders felt to pressure to take extraordinary risks.

The outer rim of the system, on the other hand, was taken quickly, and here a new chapter was added to Earth's knowledge of space warfare. This outer zone, where small changes in energy created enourmous changes in distance, combined with the fact that time and patience was on Earth's side, was the new niche of the medium sized crewed warship. The small fighters, drones, and missiles which were preferred for inner region battles had the manueverability, but their lack of endurance, their need to be serviced and recharged by mother ships, meant they could not fully exploit it. Frigates, on the other hand, could fight a war of attrition against the drone-halos that larger ships surrounded themselves with. Against An-Mizarians, which were far more heavily oriented around the drone-halo than Earth forces were, the advantage was more obvious.

Here a number of things happened. First, field commanders, (uncertain whose, but most point the fingers at Indians) managed to change the name of the enemy. An-Mizarians became clumsy when discussing the actual Mizarians. Somehow, an acronym entered the vocabulary: Strange Thread Alien Network Living Intelligence. And the enemy became STANLI. Up until the outer system battles, STANLI's capital ships, or equivalent thereof, had been seen, but not actually attacked, as Earth forces stayed on the safe side, and contact was between drone-halos. Now, squadrons of Indian and Brazilian vessels attacked *through* the Drone Halos, and it was discovered that in this situation, STANLI's capital ships reacted the same way their Earth counterparts did. They fled. STANLI, apparently in response to its earlier contacts with Earth technology, were well equipped to deal with small fighters, remotes, drones, etc, but didn't seem capable of handling a direct, large scale assault. Over the course of a number of engagements, they abandoned the field to the Earth Forces.

This was the first sign of genuine self-regard seen from any STANLI, and it several fleet commanders made capture of a capital ship a priority. Still, they fled as Earth warships attritted and penetrated their picket screens, and by June of 2214, STANLI didn't show itself more than 6 AU from the star.

The Geography of the Drakon Salas campaign

Broadly, a star system has five regions. These are:

1) The coronal region, the region between the surface of the star and the line where solar plasma no longer has a significant effect.

2) The hot region, between the coronal region and the life zone.

3) The life region, the band where habitable planets may exist.

4) The cold region, between the life zone and the "snow line", the distance at which gas giants may form. (they may, later, migrate within the snow line, but they cannot form there.)

5) The main outer system. The realm of gas giants.

6) The far outer system- where matter wasn't dense enough to form gas giants, and small, ice objects are the norm.

Each region is also defined by its distance from the star, and thus, for a Red Dwarf, the outer regions are really much closer in than they are for a star like the Sun.

Each region creates a different tactical environment. One reason, previously noted, is that the further out you go, the greater a change in location you can make with the same change in direction or velocity. In a way, the outer regions are high ground- it takes very little energy exenditure for a starship in the outer system to enter the inner system, but a lot of energy for a ship in the inner regions to reach the outer. Of course, to reach an inner system planet or orbit and stay there, a ship from the outer system has to shed a lot of energy- which is the same thing as gaining energy, but in the other direction, and just as difficult. That assumes, however, that once you get to the inner system you intend to stay there. If staying is not on your Agenda there is no reason to shed energy, a fact that leads directly to the next phase of the Earth campaign.

The Thunder Runs, and the Seige of Drakon Salas IV.

Drakon Salas has one single planet in its outer region, a fairly ordinary Gas Giant with a dozen icey moons of varying sizes. Reconaissance showed a STANLI concentration here. No one really knew why this was, but clearly, as STANLI was heavily invested on the anomalous airless moon of Mizaria, STANLI had the ability, and perhaps the desire, to exploit non-habitable planets of various types. Armed with the knowledge that STANLI was weak against heavier ships, Earth's leaders organized a series of fast, heavy raids. The objective was to clear STANLI from the gas giant, Drakon Salas IV. Heavy capital ships were not the standard for Earth, with most nations favoring fighter-carrier types, and it took substantial political wrangling for the officers at the front to get a combined squadron together, pulled from the heavy ships available from various fleets.

STANLI, as it turned out, had ideas of its own, and was not as quick to give up this location as it was the outer comet region. The raids were opposed by a STANLI fleet and orbital defenses. These were considerable, based on massive charged particle weapons powered directly by energy drawn directly from the planet's magnetosphere. They also had the ability to launch clouds of abrasive dust at very high speed. This abrasive dust would prove to be a continual hazard, serving to blind sensors, but alone it could not cause lethal damage. But the particle beams could. Passing the gas giant at high speed, Earth ships didn't remain in contact long enough to be destroyed, but these orbital weapons used power supplies far beyond what a warship could carry and caused a lot of damage. A few Human crew had been lost in the outer system war, but here, the first heavy loss of life occurred when a Chinese cruiser was mauled by a partlicle beam weapon. The ship's velocity took it out of reach quickly, where it was screened by a swarm of robot fighters, but it had to be brought home with tugs, and was eventually returned to Earth for evaluation.

Earth tactics became more cautious and more conventional. The gas giant was blocaded by several carriers and a horde of fighters, which enacted revenge when a STANLI force arriving (for unknown purposes, but resupply/reinforcem ent is assumed) was intercepted and defeated.

After several weeks of slowly attriting the STANLI force's defenses, the Earth fleet tightened the grip, and began launching long range missile attacks against the orbital defense stations. Although STANLI fought better against drones than against ships, sheer weight of numbers overwhelmed them. Their perimeter failed, and a salvo of German missiles destroyed one of the orbital defense stations. Apparently sensing an end here, the remaining orbital stations scuttled themselves, entering the atmosphere of the gas giant and being destroyed. Presumably, these were not capable of being quickly moved and STANLI chose this to avoid allowing them to be closely examined by Humans. After that, whatever could leave, did, some not surviving the blockade.

Tales from the Drakon Salas Campaign

The appearance of three self-aware sentient cruisers belonging to the Mediterranean Union caused varying levels of surprise. The intelligence services of many nations were aware of this development, as the Mediterranean Union had never gone to great lengths to conceal it. These were not to be used as front line warships. Rather, the intent was to use them for research, and control and coordination.

That was the intent. For reasons still unknown, STANLI focused attention on these ships whenever possible. They drew a disproportionate share of counterattacks, and STANLI even mimicked Earth tactics with efforts to penetrate through drone halos and deliver lethal blows to capital ships. The Mediterranean Union incurred kept up its defense of these ships at great cost, especially in munitions, and none were destroyed, with one receiving moderate damage shortly after the siege of Drakon Salas IV.

STANLI’s focus on these vessels, all out of proportion to their actual utilization in military operations, is a subject of scientific debate, but it was recognized, and Earth commanders learned to capitalize on it. The sentient ships became more valuable merely as diversions than anything else. If anything, the heavy defense of these vessels on the part of Mediterranean Union, Eastern European, and Spanish forces might have reinforced the idea, in STANLI’s thinking, that these ships were priority targets. Of STANLI’s losses in the campaign, roughly a quarter occurred when attacks against the sentient vessels were intercepted.

Of the three ships, two were casualties by the end of the campaign. One, as mentioned, had received moderate damage, and returned to Earth (under its own power, but with escort) for repairs. The second was a casualty of a different nature. During a rest and refit cycle back in the Drakon system, which served as the forward support base for Earth, the ship was observed to carry on a highly unusual radio conversation, in which it responded to messages from ships that were not present, including its damaged sistership. AI specialists investigated and learned that the ship’s consciousness centers had actually created internal models of other ships, and despite the fact that these existed nowhere but in the mind of the sentient ship, it responded to them as if they were real, external, and communicating. Although the scientists were eventually able to convince the ship that these entities did not actually exist, the ship was brought to Thule, where it is currently undergoing counseling and evaluation. The initial consensus is that stress caused psychological problems.

STANLI faced the entire campaign significantly out-resourced by Earth forces. Still, STANLI managed three ventures into the Drakon system. Two of these are believed to be intelligence gathering missions, as an often used STANLI tactic involves using a very obvious and otherwise pointless sacrificial attack to draw attention from the deployment of a very stealthy device, which departs later.

The Drakon system was the forward support base for Earth's forces, which were considerable in size. At any one time, most of quarter million plus Humans (and some Dolphins) brought along for the operation would be found here, with only a fraction on the warships deployed to Drakon Salas. Also, most of the warships not currently operating in the Drakon Salas system would be here, on rest and refit between mission. The only colony on in the system was the new American colony. This grew rapidly, home to an international stew of contractors and camp followers supporting the armada. The Americans watched their colony grow much faster than they had planned, as foreign enterprises, including a Turkish spa resort, set up in the American colony zone.

The one STANLI mission here that wasn't an apparent intelligence gathering run was directed at Drakon IV, a habitable world, home of the colony. The STANLI ship was notably different in design than others that had been encountered. In an event that has sparked great controversey on Earth, as the STANLI vessel approached, it was trailed for eight hours by drones operating from an American warship, without a shot being fired by either side. As other warships, fightercraft, and drones appeared, the STANLI vessel landed on Drakon IV, and it and the landscape for several tens of kilometers in vicinity were immediately pulverized by the combined Earth squadron. The American commander gave his reason for inaction: his government hadn't authorized anything beyond self defense and defense of the colony. Leaders of other fleets were understandably unhappy.

On Earth, the incident rallied the anti-war oppositions in many nations. Protests broke out, generally amateurish, as Humanity hadn't seen many wars to protest in the past few decades. In the eyes of the opposition, the STANLI mission to Drakon IV was obviously an attempt at peaceful communication.

Several nations brought their ground assault forces along. From the beginning of the campaign through the gas giant seige, these didn't get a real chance to be involved. More commonly, their assault landers were used as emergency retrieval vehicles, and the troops for rescue and cleanup missions. Many of the spacebourne troops were trained and prepared for zero-gee combat and boarding, and during the extended battle at the gas giant, some hoped they would have the chance to seize one of the orbital weapons platforms. It never happened, but when the STANLI relief/reinforcemen t mission was intercepted, one STANLI large vessel was crippled, and a Royal Thai space assault unit managed to retrieve it. The ship had some automated exterior defenses, but once these were neutralized there was no resistance beyond that, and the ship was secured and brought back to Drakon for research. The assault team did note that the STANLI vessel did not have corridors or passageways of any kind, making boarding problematic. They did recover remains of dead Mizarian animal life- the bodies fully colonized by STANLI threads. Other assault landing teams were used to scour moons and battle areas for anything that could be salvaged for intelligence analysis.

The Drakon Salas campaign: Conclusion.

There was initial clumsiness, there was a lack of high level cohesion and there were assorted STANLI surprises, but Earth forces had sufficient mass to absorb each small setback and press on with fresh forces. Lessons from each encounter spread rapidly. STANLI's several counterthrusts left it severely depleted, and after the gas giant battle, unable to muster sufficient forces to take the initiative again. By late 2214 Earth's fleet operated in two large wings: the Brazil-SSA-Chinese force (a large portion of which was China) and the India-Germany force, which sort of absorbed the other members as well. The Mediterranean Union's initial efforts at coordination began to fade. Part of this was the fact that two of their three of their Sentient ships were unavailable, but the larger part was that by November 2214 it wasn't needed. TUSC managed to get things organized. Cooperation was overcoming political differences.

The remainder of the campaign was a slow, methodical removal of remaining STANLI objects in the Drakon Salas system. STANLI withdrew what it could, becoming more conservative than it had been in the past. Earth commanders knew that a lot of STANLI objects were not capable of FTL travel and relied on tugs- by keeping a constant watch for these, and responding to any appearance with quick pressure, Earth forces prevented many of the STANLI objects from leaving.

The Ground Campaign:

The inner system has four rocky planets, three small, and one large; a tidally locked superterrestrial world of ice and rock. One this world, Drakon Salas I, STANLI had a ground installation. This, finally, gave the ground assault forces something to do. "Blow it to bits from orbit" was a popular opinion, but ground force commanders managed to persuade fleet commanders that their was significant intelligence to be gained with a landing.

The ground operation was an example of how seemingly straightforward operations had political implications. Thus far, ground forces had a secondary role, mostly rescue and cleanup, and a number of leaders of ground forces of several nations were eager for an opportunity. But doing so would have been a disaster: the invading force would either have been a hodge-podge of small units from different nations, or it would have been so big that they would be virtually shoulder to shoulder as they advanced on their objective, offering excellent targets to STANLI. Much to their credit Earth leaders chose rationally: the assault was left to the Chinese, as the Chinese had brought more ground assault capacity than any other nation, and thus could garantee a force that was both large enough to provide overwhelming power and homogenous enough to avoid coordination problems.

Even this apparently logical strategy had opponents and required modification: by this time, knowledge of STANLI capabilities had progressed to the point where it was seen as a foregone conclusion that the CHinese would triumph easily, and China's critics were unhappy with the idea of the largets trove of STANLI artifacts recovered to date winding up entirely in Chinese hands. The matter was settled with TUSC units incorporated into the operation.

The Orbital Landing Brigades managed a textbook landing over the horizon from the objective while the large Chinese fleet was tasked with suppressing the STANLI defenses. Carefully, though, so as not to leave it so suppressed that it would be a series of large and very suppressed craters when the ground forces arrived.

In and around this outpost, which turned out to be a sophisticated mining operation, China's troops fought the only ground battle of the Drakon Silas campaign. STANLI does not think of ground warfare in any fashion recognizable to Humans. In part this is because of its physical nature: it is a not a creature, or machine, or grouping of creatures or machines, it is a linked intelligence existing in the thread network. STANLI's preffered means of dealing with other sentiences encountered is to incorporate them into the network. It was here that Humanity first encountered what are STANLI's growth and reproductive organs: structures designed to create more of the strange matter threads that form its networks.

The Chinese force was, from STANLI's point of view, unstoppable. There were efforts to "colonize" Earth force troops and vehicles, but this could not be done fast enough to prevent the inevitable. Weapons fire broke up the networks- whatever inscrutable intelligence existed along the threads of strange matter faltered and died. The Reproductive Organs, as they were dubbed, were largely destroyed by STANLI, but two were taken and are now in magnetic isolation fields, orbitting near a Chinese outpost, carefully kept away from any physical contact with matter.

Sina, the Side Show

Brazil and Germany made a sweep through the Drakon Sina systemassigned itself to patroling this system, but it turned out to be of only marginal interest to STANLI. Drakon Sina has no natural relation to the other nearby stars other than proximity. It has no planetary system, just a thin scattering of icy debris in a wide variety of orbits. Although STANLI had been seen here, they obviously had no interest in posessing this system.

Humanity had learned that very large fleets could cut off means of escape that would allow a threatened vessel to reach a safe FTL course. With only small groups at Sina, the battles here were small, generally inconclusive skirmishes that almost always favored Earth. STANLI made several counterattacks into the system, but accomplished only one thing: the only military MIA of the campaign were four Brazilians unaccounted for. During the course of the campaign STANLI's efforts here, never large or consistent from the beginning, trickled down to almost zero.

STANLI and Mizarians

The dominant life form of Mizaria, pre-STANLI, is birdlike, although it's structure shows some different principles of architecture. Appendages are based on tentacles of variable rigidity, rather than a classical skeletal system. These creatures, independent of STANLI, appear to be in a primitive sentient stage.

When colonized by STANLI, however, things change. STANLI uses them to obtain senses and abilities it does not ordinarily posess. If one line of reasoning is correct, without their brains to tap, STANLI isn't even self-aware. Until the Drakon Salas campaign, these creatures had only been observed remotely, on Mizaria. They were never known to be aboard STANLI vessels. In fact, most of the objects STANLI uses in space are not even capable of supporting a crew.

By the end of the campaign, a number of wrecked STANLI ships had these creatures aboard. Humanity is in posession of about 20 of their bodies. These unfortunate creatures are fully colonized by thread networks, ending in dense strange matter node clusters in the brain. Strange matter actually makes up about 3% of the mass of the colonized Mizarian, and about half of that is in the brain.

Thread networks extended out from the creatures, and embedded into the ship's network. In each case, the Mizarian creatures appeared to be in a state of decay, although still alive until the battles in which they were taken. Human and Mimosan scientists believe that these are specially prepared "war brains", selected and incorporated into special command and control ships to provide sentient abilities to STANLI war forces. In all cases, colonized Mizarians do not survive when the ships in which they are embedded are disabled. The level of damage necessary to disable a STANLI ship seems about equal to or less than the level necessary to render in uninhabitable.

Colonized Mizarians were also encountered at the Drakon Salas I mining outpost, though, as were some uncolonized Mizarians. The Chinese forces managed to aquire three of the former and nine of the latter. These also are now kept at an outpost for research.

The End of the Drakon Salas campaign

By April, 2215, STANLI objects had not been seen at either Drakon Salas or Drakon Sina in a month. Several nations had even sent forces on exploratory probes into the Mizaria system. Reports came in that STANLI's ability to mount assaults outside of the Mizaria system were severely attritted, but that there appeared to be increased efforts to create defenses in the Mizaria system.

The question emerged: Now what? Studies of the battles indicate that Earth deployed overwhelming force- but that this same level of force would not so overwhelming if thrown against the more prepared defenses of Mizaria. Humans fall into several camps: Onward to Mizaria, Containment, and Still Not Our Concern being prominent.

Interim Acts

One of the most alarming occurrences of the interim period occurred when the Indian Star Fleets withdrew from the Drakon front.  General Zhao, commandant of the Chinese Imperial Guard, and personal military advisor to the Emperor, when asked about the apparent withdrawal of the Indian fleet from the war effort, shrugged and said, “All nations act on their own time schedule, and according to their own perceived interests. Good things come to those who wait. Bad things may happen to those who wait too long. Who can say?”  It was soon very obvious that the Indian Fleet, sensing that the Drakon front would hold without its presence and bolstered by a request to German Naval Forces, had re-deployed in hopes of finding alternate routes to Mizaria.  The Indians were working on the premise that STANLI was not native.  Checking every other route into Mizar, then Indian effort proved one thing if nothing else: the Mizarians had no supply line and thus, once defeated at Mizar, would be eliminated from the region.  This bolstered allied resolve to take action and begin the necessary coordination of forces to eliminate the threat once and for all.  Unfortunately, the allied commanders could not resolve on a unified plan of attack and the risks remained high as a result.  In addition, there were still not clear measures of what it would take to fully defeat the An-Mizarians.

The Main Act