Free Planets Star Fleet

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Revision as of 04:58, 15 December 2011

The Free Planets Star Fleet was the main military arm of the Free Planets Alliance, and the direct adversary of the Reichflotte during the Alliance-Imperial War.

History

Establishment

The Free Planets Star Fleet was presumably founded early in the Alliance's days by the members of the Exodus Fleet, who were quite aware, from personal experiences, of the fact that the Galactic Empire would in all probability try to conquer the young republic. The founders were very adamant in their warnings to future generations, and subsequent generations continued to build up a military force, while its soldiers stood ready to defend the nation at any given moment.

Early Days

For over a century, peace and growth generally flowed through the Alliance as its population and industry rose by leaps and bounds. Although there is evidence that the Star Fleet was very active before UC 640, and maintained bases in several Alliance systems, its role seemed to be little more than a peacekeeping force.

FPA-Imperial War : Early Phase

In February of UC 640, the Alliance and the Empire finally made contact, and the result was exactly what the Alliance's founders had feared: the Empire immediately assembled a fleet to conquer what they saw as a rebel group. In response, the Alliance mustered its carefully-built Star Fleet. Led by geniuses Lin Pao and Yusuf Topparol, the smaller space force decisively crushed its imperial counterpart in the Battle of Dagon, setting the stage for sixteen decades of on-again, off-again warfare.

By fighting almost exclusively defensively, the Star Fleet negated the greater numbers that the Reichflotte consistently enjoyed, allowing themselves the overall strategic upper hand, despite the fact that victories and defeats were given to both sides in rather equal measures.

Bruce Ashbey and the 730 Mafia

The Star Fleet would reach the peak of its power under the Alliance group called the 730 Mafia, led by the flamboyant Alliance genius Bruce Ashbey. As a talented group of young officers who had been friends since their academy days and had graduated together - hence the name of their group - they rose quickly through the ranks, becoming increasingly important in the Star Fleet. By UC 745, Ashbey was Space Fleet Commander and five of the numbered fleets were under the command of a seperate member of the Mafia. During the 740s, this powerful group struck hard against Imperial forces, inflicting many defeats upon the Empire, culminating in the very lopsided victory at the Second Battle of Tiamat in UC 745.

That battle, however, saw the death of Bruce Ashbey, and with none of the others having the sheer charisma to lead the group, it disbanded. Nevertheless, its members remaining in the military during the 740s, 750s and 760s allowed the Star Fleet to retain a certain advantage in terms of talent. This talent, however, did not prevent the Empire from ultimately claiming much of the Iserlohn Corridor by building Iserlohn Fortress.

Decline and Defeat

After the 730 Mafia departed, the Star Fleet's command staff and its general tactical prowess declined and stagnated, and by the 790s, few of the admirals in general command of the Fleet could boast to having command talent truly above the ordinary. This stagnation proved disastrous when confronted with the rising power of the Imperial genius, Reinhard von Lohengramm, who built up an increasing following. The corruption and stagnation in the Star Fleet was in fact such that the only man who would prove himself a match for Lohengramm, Yang Wen-li, would be hindered far more than helped in his efforts to prevent the imperials from achieving success.

Following the decisive Imperial victory at the Battle of Astarte, the Alliance and its fleet enjoyed a brief resurgence of power through the aforementionned Yang and his newly-formed 13th Fleet, who took Iserlohn in the Seventh Battle of Iserlohn. This advantage was wasted when the bulk of the Star Fleet was then sent in an ill-prepared invasion of Imperial territory, where it was mostly wiped out by Lohengramm's careful, if ruthless, strategy. Immediately afterwards, the FPA Civil War further reduced the Star Fleet's strength, so much that it could no longer stand up to imperial invasion.

Despite Yang Wen-li's victory at the Eighth Battle of Iserlohn, the fleet was unable to meet the challenge of Lohengramm's large-scale Operation Ragnarök in UC 798. Despite the efforts of Fleet Admiral Alexander Bewcock at the Battle of Rantemario, and Yang Wen-li's successful guerilla campaign, the Alliance surrendered just as the Battle of Vermillion, a clear Alliance victory in the making, was reaching its final phase. Standing down, the fleet was then slated to be slowly scrapped per the Treaty of Barlat in UC 799.

Dissolution

The Star Fleet, fatally diminished, would splinter after the end of the war, with many eventually following Yang Wen-li's fame and genius, forming a resistance group. The remaining Alliance-aligned fleet, however, would rally one final time when Reinhard von Lohengramm, by then the first Kaiser of a new Imperial dynasty, decided to fully absorb the Alliance. Mustering a fleet of 20,000 ships, Fleet Admiral Bewcock and the Star Fleet fought a brave but doomed battle at the Battle of Mar-Adetta, where the Star Fleet ceased to exist as an Alliance force. The survivors of this battle linked up with Yang Wen-li's forces.

With the dissolution of the Alliance in February UC 800, ironically exactly 160 years after the initial Alliance-Empire contact, the Free Planets Star Fleet officially ceased to exist.

Appendices

Licensed Sources

The Free Planets Star Fleet was formed shortly after the founding of the Alliance and its core was initially composed of 8 Heinessen class battleships, equivalent in size to cruisers of the Alliance's final days. The Heinessen class was followed by the greatly enlarged and expanded Nguyen Kim Hua class. Production capacity and speed was greatly increased with the building of orbital construction facilities above Heinessen. (Data Book: Mechanic & Seiyū Encyclopaedia, p. 109-110)