History of the FAF

History of the Federal Armed Forces:

The Secession and the Federated Alliance of Stars:

Division in the faltering Terran Confederation over colonial rights reached a pinnacle in early 2631 when nearly eight hundred colony worlds formally seceded through the Charter of Secession. The fledgling democratic government of the Federated Alliance of Stars was formed the same day, along with the initially undermanned and poorly-equipped Federal Allied Defense Forces. The FADF would meet its greatest test a mere three days later as the newly-aligned League of Terran Worlds (or simply the Terran League) sent the Fourth Interstellar Taskforce to strike the FAS capital of Ceres.

Despite being outnumbered nearly 10 to 1, the FADF managed to defeat the League’s 4th Taskforce in a grueling ten month struggle for Ceres. Removing Terran forces from Ceres, the FAS member worlds concentrated their resources into a massive military build-up to the FADF, with priority given to the starship fleets to ultimately take the fight to Terran League worlds. As more and more warships were added to the Fleet, the FADF decided to split the Fleet in three parts; each with applicable responsibilities. The Defense Fleets would guard member worlds, especially those with immense strategic or manufacturing capabilities, while the Patrol Fleets would travel the hyperspace paths in search of League forces in either FAS or League territory. Finally, the Strike Fleets would be faced with the demanding responsibility of attacking Terran League targets and member worlds. From 2632 to 2634, the FAS threw everything it had at the Terran League, and the war ultimately began to whittle down the manpower and resources of both sides.

Then, in June of 2634, the FAS struck into the heart of the Terran League using a risky, but daring strategy. The 3rd and 4th Strike Fleets caught the League’s shipyards at Barnard’s Star off-guard, mere days before the League’s 2nd and 3rd Taskforces were due to launch an offensive on Ceres. The destruction of the forces at Barnard’s Star opened a pathway to Earth and with it, the possibility of quickly ending the war.

With the next month, the Terran League Navy began a strategic withdraw from Earth upon hearing reports of FAS Strike Fleets were approaching. They hoped it would serve two purposes: the evacuation of their key government officials, and create bait for the FAS that the Terran League Navy would pounce upon. On the 22nd of July, the FAS 1st and 2nd Strike Fleets attacked the League’s Main Fleet at Alpha Centauri, which had in fact been their original target. The surprise attack threw the Terran League Navy into disarray, and what ships weren’t destroyed had fled away from the League’s core member worlds. Within days, Earth itself was flying the flag of the FAS.

The largest offensive of the war took place at the Terran League Naval Headquarters in orbit around Capella Prime on November 2nd, when a daring FAS taskforce caught the remnants of the Terran League main fleet off-guard. The resulting battle inflicted heavy casualties on both sides, but crippled the Terran League’s naval forces completely. The loss of their last major shipyard would signal the death throes of the League.

After the fall of Clarke on November 27th of 2635, most of the League forces withdrew to their colonies, with the fall of Mars in May of 2636 as their final Sol System stronghold. The relocated capital of New Seattle would be the FAS final objective to closing the war. Fortunately, the Terran League opted for formal surrender, recognizing their defeat was imminent. The war officially ended on August 1st, 2637 with the formal surrender of the Terran League.

The Early Years:

Having won their independence following the end of the Third Interstellar War, the Federated Alliance of Stars set about establishing the new government to oversee both colonial worlds and the then-annexed Terran worlds. During the war, the draft of the Federated Constitution had been crafted by the legislature of the FAS to balance colonial rights with Terran interests, like the Confederation before it. But they also wanted the new constitution to govern all worlds under one government, instead of a loose alliance of individually governed worlds.

On August 11th of 2637, the Terran Federation was established. It would be a federal republic with strong central government and checks and balances and govern all worlds fairly. The Terran Federation military forces began a complete restructuring program to create a formal Federal military arm. By October of 2638, all three components of the Fleet became the Federation Navy, while the Ground Defense Forces were transformed into the Federation Army. On January 1st of 2640, starfighter, starbomber, and support craft units became a new branch, named Stellar Combat Command.

The newly created Federal Armed Forces faced considerable challenges in the early years of the Federation, in the form of Terran remnant insurgency and terrorism. An uprising on the planet Vorol in July 2640 challenged Federal authority over former Terran worlds. One change in policy involved the relocation of the Federal capital from Ceres to Earth in hopes of staving off further terrorist activity. But the bombing of the Federal Congress on February 20th, 2641, which killed one hundred and twenty representatives, including the Federal President, sent shockwaves of concern throughout the Federation involving government stability. In a matter of seven years, the early FAF waged a war against insurgent forces and terrorists which overall strengthened the security and stability of the government during the Occupation Years.

The Establishment of the Protectorate:

Nearly two centuries of peace and growth in the Terran Federation would be tried as rapid colonization of the Frontier began to exact its toll on regulation and law enforcement. Piracy became commonplace in the Frontier, and the FAF was increasingly stretched thin to maintain peacekeeping and security. Maintaining security and coordination in the Frontier became a nigh-impossible task for a government whose capital was over a thousand light-years from the edge of human space. But the constitution as it stood forbade the creation of an oversight council to oversee the colonies, stating it as “unfair lack of representation of which the constitution was established to prevent.”

The Congress of the Federation decided to amend the constitution, known as the 387th amendment. The amendment would permit the creation of a provisional governing body to oversee colonial worlds whose population was not sufficient to permit elected representation. But to balance it in terms of fairness, the Protectorate Charter was also created to protect the rights of citizens living in the colonies, which was essentially an extension of the Federated Constitution to colonial citizens.

On January 1st of 2833, the Frontier Protectorate Governing Board was established, or simply the Protectorate Board. Made up of law enforcement officials, former Supreme Court judges, military officials and executive branch-selected governors, this governing board of fifty people would oversee nearly one thousand colonies in the Frontier.

Piracy, smuggling, and resource abuse/mismanagement in the Frontier Worlds dropped considerably. The Protectorate-supported FAF units found their job of peacekeeping much easier and even improved since the Board establishment. But the Board became universally reviled in the Frontier, in particularly by worlds that had pushed for independence from Terran affairs for decades. The government appeared to shift its focus inward, securing Earth and the inner member worlds’ interests before looking out for those struggling on the Frontier.

The first conflict in opposition to the dominion of the Protectorate Board took place on the planet Cirris, a world that was strongly opposed to the 387th amendment and any intrusion of Terran politics into their star system and its established colonies. On January 10th of 2834, Cirris revolutionaries seized control of the Protectorate Board Federal Building in Promise City, holding its staff and the governor hostage in exchanged for independence from the Terran Federation. The Federation Navy’s First Fleet was deployed to the Cirris system in response. All attempts at negotiations failed and the FAF was forced to deploy Terrestrial SEALs to rescue the hostages. The SEALs succeeded, though at the cost of many lives of the insurgency. Shortly after the liberation of the Federal Building, planet-wide martial law was established which lasted for several months. The First Cirris Insurrection became a grave wake-up call to those who believed in unity and peace in the Frontier.

The Sorwind Star System Conflict:

The planet Sorwind, another world long opposed to Federation politics and the Protectorate Board launched its own war of independence, threatening stability in the Frontier systems. On August 17th of 2873, numerous members of the Sorwind Free Army, aided by FAF Frontier Forces defectors, captured 96 starfighters, along with armament from the Vance SCCB WRM storage facilities. They proceeded to assault the nearby Evans SCCB. Their fighters were caught on the ground and the bulk majority were destroyed within minutes. The remaining FAF units fled to the Vindel Logistics Center some two hundred miles away.

Within hours, FAF HQ received an emergency communiqué from Vindel. The Federal President authorized an emergency deployment order for the Fourth Fleet, and Taskforce 22, led by the Enterprise-class starfighter carrier TFS Peacekeeper departed from Terrace Naval Base. There would be no time to reinforce the outnumbered FAF forces however. On August 18th, the Vindel Logistics Center was overrun, and the survivors captured and held as enemy combatants.

With their home planet firmly in their control, the Sorwind Free Government declared independence from the Terran Federation and at the time delivered their intentions to “liberate” the nearby systems from Protectorate control.  Without heavy warships of their own, or the ability for their fighters to make hyperspace travel, it seemed very unlikely they would be able to back their call (it was discovered years later that Cirris, New Promise and the Feyinn Unified Worlds clandestinely lent their support to Sorwind in the form of starships and reinforcements by volunteers).

Nevertheless, the message was received. The Federal Congress was fearful of a second wind of revolution in the vein of the Cirris Insurrection, so diplomats were dispatched to Sorwind to negotiate a peaceful solution. However, the 22nd Taskforce was on the move, using the opportunity to make an advance against the insurgents. The TFS Peacekeeper pierced through the Sorwind system’s defense line on August 24th with its fighter compliment and support ships, while the six Iwo Jima-class assault ships dropped Federation Army troops into the spaceports, pushing towards the former FAF bases.

By the end of the day, defeat seemed inevitable for the Sorwind insurgents. One last trump card was about to be played. The insurgents had managed to unlock the nuclear fusion missile storage facilities in Vindel, and had equipped their starfighters with them in a kamikaze effort to destroy the Taskforce. Recognizing the tactic, Colonel Jeremy Espara and his squadron raced to intercept the enemy fighters, outnumbered nearly four to one. As result of his daring actions, no Federal vessel was lost. However, Colonel Espara was mortally-wounded and died that day, along with fifty-seven pilots of Peacekeeper Wing.

The leadership of the Sorwind Free Government offered surrender at 2300 on August 24th. The surrender was accepted by Taskforce 22, and the bulk majority of the surviving insurgent forces neutralized and captured. Partisan units continued to harass Federal Forces for the next five years following the establishment of the Sorwind Occupation.

The beginning of a major investigation was launched to determine the source and extent of the funding supporting Sorwind’s insurrection. The Federal Congress at the time had only scratched the surface of the treason and unrest that would unfold thirteen years later.

The Insurrectionists and the Capella Incident:

If the Sorwind System Conflict had accomplished anything for the Terran Federation, it had shaken the upper echelon of the Federal Armed Forces and the Federal Congressional Defense Oversight Committee into reality. Both feared subsequent incidents and had set out to modernize the Federation’s military forces should such a situation occur. Their first priority was to develop much more powerful and mobile starfighter for Stellar Combat Command, which would be specifically designed to perform hyperspace travel on its own. Spearheading the effort was a newly instituted agency: the Federal Armed Forces Starfighter Development Department.

Over the course of several years, the first two prototypes were built. Faster and more maneuverable than any other design constructed, these prototypes were specialized in beyond-visual-range combat, increasing its overall space combat effectiveness. The YSF-16 became known as Leviathan, in reference to a mythical dragon of the ocean, for its overwhelming speed and power in combat.

With preliminary testing completed at Mimas SCCB, the Chiefs of Staffs of SCC and the Navy both agreed to field test the units at a supposedly secret location in the Frontier systems. The two Leviathan prototypes, along with its test pilot and team, was transported on the temporarily-organized taskforce code-named “Box of Wonders.”

The fate of Leviathans were already sealed. Sympathizers and agents of the Cirris Free Army, a clandestine insurgency embedded in the hierarchy of Cirris’ government, had learned of the prototype’s existence through their contacts within both the Federal Congress Defense Oversight Committee and Stellar Combat Command, and planned for its capture from the taskforce. On April 30th of 2885, a unit of insurgent forces assaulted the taskforce in the Yuril star system during its last stop prior to its field testing in the planned location. Destroying four support ships and damaging several others, the insurgent ships and starfighters units successfully seized the prototypes from the cargo bays of the TFS Beckoning and fled.

Taskforce 15, attached to the First Fleet and spear-headed by its flagship, TFS Challenger, was adjacent to the Yuril system and ordered to investigate the Beckoning’s disappearance. Over several weeks, battles took place between the Challenger’s starfighter squadrons and their mysterious foes, spanned between several star systems in the Williams State as the taskforce pursued the enemy.

Using pieces of tactical information gleaned from the attacks, as well as data retrieved from captured hostile units, the crew of the Challenger learned of a clandestine military build-up by an insurrectionist movement, supported in due-part by several worlds in the Frontier; Cirris, Sorwind, and the Feyinn Worlds all played a large part in the conspiracy. The taskforce proceeded at once to the site of the build-up: the Capella Aa system.

The pilots of Challenger Wing raced around the massive debris-ringed gas giant of Capella Prime, where they uncovered the shipyards and a massive starfighter construction facility. Outnumbered and outmatched by the insurrectionists’ advanced weaponry, Taskforce 15 proceeded headlong towards the facility. The desperate attack managed to succeed and both prototypes destroyed in a heated battle between dual aces.

The data uncovered by the taskforce was hoped to essentially unravel the plans of the conspiring Frontier worlds to the Federal Armed Forces and to the Federation Congress. Embarrassed by the security leaks, lack of sufficient oversight, and unveiling of a fighter developed potentially to enforce Federation law in the Frontier by force, the Capella Incident was sealed. No incrimination took place. No investigation was launched. In spite of mandatory non-disclosure agreements and miles of red-tape, the brass at  FAF HQ knew something was amiss. Something drastically was about to happen. Something that would change inhabited space beyond recognition…

The Battle of Cirris:

March 15th of 2887 was the dawn of most devastating war ever waged by the human race. Numerous colonies in the Frontier led by the Cirris Allied States declared independence from the Terran Federation, denouncing the Protectorate Board as an organization dedicated to enslaving the colonies for Earth’s greater glory. For the Terran Federation, there would be only one option to prevent widespread secession: send in the Second Fleet for a show of force, and if necessary, launch a strike on Cirris’ orbital defenses with a subsequent invasion to dispose the insurgent leadership.

Within a matter of a day, the Federation Navy’s Second Fleet mobilized from Ceres Naval Base and deployed for the planned suppression and subsequent invasion of Cirris. The journey would take five days utilizing the swiftest hyperspace paths. Little did the Second Fleet know of the sinister manipulations of Cirris and their allies would unfold. The fledgling Allied Free Systems had already anticipated the Federal Forces deployment order. In fact, they had hoped for it.

At approximately 0425 hours Zulu on the 20th of March, the Second Fleet dropped out of hyperspace into the outer orbit of planet Cirris. Their strategy focused on direct assault of Cirris’ orbital defenses and a planetary invasion, while reinforcements from Protectorate Command would undertake the other system forces. Unbeknownst to the Second Fleet or even to FAF Headquarters, a coup within the FAF Protectorate Command on Sorwind had transpired merely twelve hours prior and the command codes to Protectorate-assigned warships seized. Subsequently, most of colonial-commanded vessels defected to the insurgency. Incidentally, the nuclear fusion weapon stockpiles in many FAF Frontier bases had fallen into enemy hands, including the stockpile in Promise City.

The Second Fleet found itself facing not only the Cirris Defense Forces and orbital defenses, but an entire fleet of defected FAF vessels that managed to reach Cirris in time. Still outnumbered by the FAF Second Fleet by three to one, Cirris played its trump card by launching an all-out nuclear attack with its newly-acquired stockpile. Hundreds of warships were destroyed in the initial strike, with the remainder severely-damaged or crippled.

By the end of the battle, ninety-five percent of the Second Fleet was destroyed, some one thousand three hundred and forty warships in all, with a combined total of four hundred and sixty-seven thousand men and women; shipmen, support personnel, fighter pilots, and ground forces in all. The Federation Navy was dealt a major blow, one that emboldened more and more Frontier worlds to join Cirris’ cause.

On March 16th, Cirris, New Promise, Sorwind, the Feyinn Unified Worlds, and numerous colony worlds bonded together as the Allied Free Systems and merged their respective forces into the Allied Star Forces. That same day, the Congress of the Terran Federation denounced the movement and declared war on the ASF. History had repeated itself and the Fourth Interstellar War had begun.

After Cirris and the Reorganization:

Following the destruction of the Federation’s Second Fleet at the Battle of Cirris, the Allied Star Forces continued the indiscriminate use of its nuclear stockpile during the initial campaigns in the war, striking heavily-fortified and/or strategic targets in hopes of closing the gap of the FAF’s numerical superiority. In just six months, the FAF suffered the loss of nearly one quarter of its fighting force. Both the Navy and Stellar Combat Command suffered most of the attrition as warships, space wings, and installations were destroyed.  But subsequent FAF counter-offensives retook key interstellar territory and soon, an interstellar stalemate ensued across the Outer Member Systems and the Frontier by early-2888.

Even with much (if not all) of the ASF’s nuclear stockpile depleted and its recent losses in manpower, the FAF drove to reorganize as planned in the previous decade to improve joint tactical and strategic capabilities. The Navy was dissolved and re-integrated into a new arm of Stellar Combat Command: the Fleet. Although a part of SCC, the Fleet retained its original Navy rank structure, and became much more flexible with starfighter and support craft units. The Army and surface-based Special Forces unified into a new branch: Terrestrial Combat Command. Carrier-based fighters and spatially-operated bases became the Starfighter Arm of Stellar Combat Command, while Bombers and Support Craft became the Bomber/Support Craft Arm.