Dealing with an alien warrior race (RAR!)

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Zor
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Dealing with an alien warrior race (RAR!)

Post by Zor »

In this scenario it is the year 2325 and you are the Prime Minister of the Terran Commonwealth, a secular democratic federal entity which has most of humanity under it's aegis for the last 187, which has overseen humanity's gradual expansion through the stars using hyperdrive equipped starships. So far the Terran Commonwealth has colonized some 94 habitable worlds (not including Lonestar, Neo Europa, Haijingou, Nazareth and Eazala, five independent system-states founded by various forms of nationalist that are notable for not liking the way the Confederation was going, isolationism and being underdeveloped for their age and population due to an insistence on autarchy and naval build up as well as the Kingdom of Avalon that was founded by an eccentric trillionaire who wanted a kingdom of his own which has less pronounced problems due to less of a siege mentality, two pastoral worlds in which everything more advanced than a steam engine is illegal and Heinlein, which was founded on Libertarian ideals and ended up an unstable mess of corporations that each have their own fiefs that are just held in check by the Heinlein Army) in a sphere about two hundred light years in diameter as well as various smaller settlements in systems without habitable planet with a total population of about a hundred and twenty billion linked by a network of hyperspace relays and courier ships. The Commonwealth Exploratory Fleet has also explored an spherical area of space about 400 light years from from Sol. So far six other sapient species have been identified on various planets. Three of which are at a stone age level of development and the most advanced has a civilization at a level of development comparable to ancient Rome. Their planets have been set aside as preserves with monitoring stations. There are also a few worlds which have the remains of long extinct civilizations on them. To deal with pirates, handle peacekeeping operations, match any threat the nationalist might pose and deal with the vague prospect of hostile aliens the Commonwealth has a small military of 850 warships (more than double that of all the independent star systems put together in terms of tonnage) in the 150 to 800 meter range, 1,900 support ships and transports and a marine corps of 40,000,000 marines with Power Armor and combined arms. In general there has been about two centuries of peace and prosperity.

But now the Terran Commonwealth has got a problem.

About eighteen months ago an exploration ship on the spinward frontier of explored space was destroyed, it's wreckage was found a couple months latter as radioactive slag while unscheduled jumps were also detected. Another was lost in the same area a few weeks after that. After that they began pairing up survey ships and in a month's time they managed to survive the attack, which was launched by a 250 meter long warship of unknown make and model. Before said attack it was hailed with a standard first contact package. The craft responded announced itself with a basic video transmission showing an image of a bridge of said ship in which an individual of this species...
Image
...ranted on in a language that humans could not understand, though certain visuals that were sent along with the transmission such as one of their four fingered hands grasping a model of the star system, a parade with millions of these creatures marching in lockstep brandishing swords in front of a pyramidal keep as twelve members of their species watched and a pair of such creatures clashing their swords together conveyed conveyed some of their intent. A week latter six of these ships attacked an exploration fleet supply dump which was (just) fought off by the commonwealth navy squadron assigned to guard it, even though it lost it's cruiser and two of it's destroyers with an exploration ship receiving significant damage. A long range scouting mission was then organized in the general direction of the attacks with several ships and warships which found about 600 light years from sol radio traffic as well as several inhabited worlds with phase one colonies being developed as well as having dozens of ships. Observations were made and an attempt at proper first contact was made with a data package being sent out containing relevant information on humanity and our general history. This was incidentally not met with hostile intent beyond a couple of ships flew over which did not fire but did relay a language package, some information and a general message that this ship that they are in their territory without permission and should leave.

What can be acquired of the information gathered is that this species (the Dreivan) is organized into an Empire that has colonized an area of space about 200 light years in diameter and lays claim to an area about 400 light years in diameter. Their society is largely feudal and has a religion which stipulates that those who fight have a right to rule. There are several castes, which include warriors, attendants, artisans, merchants and laborers as well as an enslaved caste of untouchables. Their society has twelve great clans, each one with it's on hierarchy of vassalised lesser warrior clans under their control. The leader of each of the great clans elects from their own ranks an emperor who serves for life or until he voted out by eight or more clan leaders. Warriors are required to be trained in warfare and serve for 3.52 years in the military before going into either a religious, military, police, educational or civil service career and are required to take up arms afterwards when summoned to duty. About 5% of warriors who don't cut the mustard are drummed out and become part of the civilian castes (usually the attendant caste or merchant castes). The Warrior Caste makes up about 3% of the Dreivan population. It is possible for a civilian Dreivan to become part of the warrior caste by serving for 21.12 years, those that do enter the lowest tiers of the warrior caste though outside of major wars there are only a limited number of slots. The same could not be said about the 17% of the Empire's population which are not Dreivan. Like humans, the Dreivan encountered several other sapient races at a more primitive level of technological development, which they conquered and enslaved. 91.7% of these conquered races are chattel slaves with the rest existing as an underclass of slave drivers that are still reckoned to be below any free Dreivan. The total population of the Dreivan Empire is 135 billion and it controls about 101 worlds.

Small scale limited warfare is part of life for the Dreivan Empire. The military forces of the Empire is half divided among the Imperial Military and half is divided among the clans. The house which launched the attacks on the scout ships was a rival of the clan that first contact was made with. Each of the clans has it's own army and naval assets. Clans often fight with each other for trade concession, positions within the hierarchy, control of territory and similar. In part this is done to dispose of old warriors since it is considered disgraceful for a warrior to not die in battle. These battles are usually scheduled at pre-determined battlefields in accordance to strict rules. Most of these are done with traditional weapons such as swords and muskets though some have more modern weapons and clashes between the big clans can involve spacebattles. In total the Empire has about 20,736 warships between 150 and 1,200 meters long and it could easily mobilize over two and a half billion ground troops.

Dreivan technology is a bit behind Commonwealth tech. Their reactors generate about 5% less energy than a commonwealth reactor of comparable size, their shields are 30% less effective per watt and their hyperdrives can only reach 512 C rather than the 1,032 C that Commmonwealth Hyperdrives can (in both cases this refers to high end hyperdrives used by exploration ships, courier vessels and warships, most civilian freighters, transports, construction ships and similar on both sides make do with cheaper models which can go half as fast). Their ships and torpedoes are not as fast accelerating (10 g vs 12 g for torpedoes, 4.6 g vs 5.4 g for ships) as their Terran counterpart and while their lasers are as powerful their rate is lower. In general in a firefight a Commonwealth frigate/destroyer/cruiser has an advantage in strategic maneuverability and a minor advantage in a shooting fight over a comparable Dreivan ship, though this advantage is hardly overwhelming.

They do have shield networks above their more prominent worlds and theater shield generators for all their cities. Dreivan ground forces have tanks, artillery, air support and similar. Most (91.7%) of their infantry is unpowered (though the average Dreivan is about 2 meters tall and has upper arms three times as strong as an average human's arms) though they are equipped with personal shield generators which can on full power take a few shots from a Commonwealth Powersuit rifle before going down. They also all carry monomolecular swords of starship armor grade molecular alloy such as the one pictured before.

Hyperdrives take about 30 minutes to spool up to jump. In relative space terms you can't get too close to a large gravity well (for Sol this is about 22 AU). Attempting to do so will cause your ship to be spewed out across the surrounding few hundred million kilometers as a cloud of radiation and mono atomic dust. Minor gravity wells from meteors and small asteroids cause minimal distortions and even if a ship in hyperspace flew directly through the corresponding realspace of said object it would have no effect on either object. Ships jumping in and out of Hyperspace (and their general size and mass) can be detected by FTL sensors up to a lightyear and a half away. Both Commonwealth and Dreivan Empire ships have that technology.

There Opinion on the Commonwealth is divided. They have some information collected from salvaged computers. Some houses want to mobilize a conquest fleet right away, others desire to scout out the situation before making the move. Preparing a conquest fleet would take a few years and it would mean establishing logistical hubs along the way to refuel and provision their armada which would take more than a year to go from the outskirts of their Empire to the fringes of Commonwealth space. Since the first encounter some 300 more warships have been ordered (of which 200 have been delivered) and it has been estimated that the Commonwealth could produce up to 1,000 warships a year with a peacetime economy (an output which could be expanded by 50 ships each year) and 2,000 a year with a wartime economy.

What do you do?

Zor
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Tandrax218
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Re: Dealing with an alien warrior race (RAR!)

Post by Tandrax218 »

Fiirst thing:
Get MORE intel on the various clans and their philosophy, composition, strength/weakness, worlds and military.

From the RAR it looks like all out war is inevitable so EARTH comes first and foremost.
Try to secure an alliance with the other human political entities. Unite under a common enemy.
Pump MORE $$$ into wartime production, train troops, build more ships and fortify worlds.
Study alien biology and devise adequate Biological and Chemical WMD's ( but use them only in an instance of full blown out war). Also try to devise planet killer weapons and delivery systems.

Set up a separate agency that will try to negotiate with the aliens and try to buy time before they invade.

On another level
Using info gained on the various clans try to use the age old "Divide et Impera" tactic - try to make the clans go to full war against each other to weaken the whole alien imperium.
Also try to instigate and help various slave revolts and attempts at overthrowing the aliens by the slaves. Weaken their industry, food production and general economy by said slave revolts.
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KraytKing
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Re: Dealing with an alien warrior race (RAR!)

Post by KraytKing »

Blow the threat as far out of proportion as I can. Push for emergency powers and a massive increase in military funding. I can't imagine this working to perfection with only a few dozen deaths out on the edge of civilization, so perhaps something else will be required.

I want to use the house divisions to trick the Empire into a Pearl Harbor=style attack. Put some cheap ships and politically undesirable crews out on some Rim planet, and watch the PR dream come true. Use the panic to justify the absorption of all other political entities, through force if necessary. The united resources of humanity are greater than the divided resources of the Empire, so I'll want to continue to divide the houses by giving lucrative trade deals to some and perhaps even ceding certain planets. Of course, everything I do is going to be manipulated by the press to make the enemy seem even more powerful, and prove that larger defense budgets and greater "emergency powers" are required. Meanwhile, I'll try and portray the Commonwealth as weak to the Dreivan Empire, to discourage similar buildup, but strong enough not to warrant immediate all-out assault.

When I go on the offensive after a year or two of shipbuilding and recruitment, I'll go after the territories of specific houses individually. I'll focus most of my strength on those specific areas, then propose a peace treaty where the House retains most, if not all, of its former territory and rights. I'll use the strategic speed advantage to avoid the enemy fleet while constantly threatening to destroy worlds. If the ultimatum is refused, I'll crack some planets and move to the next House. Odds are, they'll accept my terms (free passage and the occasional military outpost) rather than lose millions of lives.

Once a few Houses are eliminated, I'll start taking and holding territory. By this point, I'll have the economic advantage, and probably the raw tonnage advantage, too. Any slaves on the planets I seize will be given freedom and paying jobs for the Commonwealth in reconstruction or the military. Dreivans will be left to their own devices and have most of their social power stripped. If the planet surrendered peacefully, then Dreivans will be allowed to relocate to those Houses that chose peace over warfare. Slavery will still be outlawed.

All of this should see the enemy totally shattered. Killing the (relatively) few diehards won't take too long. After the war ends, all former Dreivan territory, save perhaps a few choice worlds, will be returned to their Houses. Houses that accept all Commonwealth edicts destroying their previous way of life will be given extensive economic aid in reconstruction. Those that don't will be cut off completely from the outside and allowed to change their minds.

Those Houses that chose peace before the end of the war will gradually be required to pay heavier and heavier taxes and be given steadily lower naval tonnage limits. Trade will be reduced until a starving point is reached, when I'll come in and save the day with reconstruction and aid, provided there are certain concessions. Eventually, all of the Dreivan Empire will become a vassal state heavily indebted to the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth will be a fascist, authoritarian state in all but name.
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