In the real history of Star Fleet Battles, the idea that the Andromedans were a migratory species, just passing through, was just one of a number of theories that turned out to be wrong. But what if it had been the right theory…


The Migration Timeline.


First appearing during the General War, the Andromedan nomads became an increasing irritant to the various powers over the course of the General War and the later ISC conflict. While never a threat to the existence of any nation’s existence, they often pulled ships away from other duties, and their bases and mining operations had an unnerving habit of appearing in previously safe sectors.

Most of the Andromedans were evidently migrating through this region of space, and after 205, few were left, mostly those ships that had, for whatever reason, decided to stay and a few actual enclaves who had permanently settled. At no point was any information about their final destination was discovered, and more than a few Andromedan ships reacted violently to anyone pressing the issue.

Nobody ever saw an Andromedan, resulting in a number of theories, ranging from rogue AI’s to ships inhabited by the ghosts of their dead crews. All contact was conducted via radio, or the robots most Andromedan ships possessed.

In terms of their behavior, various groups of Andromedans could behave unpredictably. Newly encountered Andromedans might evade contact, attack, or seek to negotiate with the empires. As the migration reached it’s height in the late stages of the General War, larger ships turned the irritation into a real threat, with more than a few fleets being savaged when they got too close to an Andromedan migratory fleet.

The early stages of the migration were mostly made up of combat ships, mostly intruders and infestors, with a few reconnaissance cobras brought along. These ships apparently spent their time charting out paths for the later fleets, mostly designed to avoid natural and artificial dangers, while establishing base stations to provide the links the convoys needed. It was during this time that the Andromedans made first contact with the various Orion Cartels, evidently using them as “native guides” that were less likely to pose a major threat than any national government did. Payment for the Orions included refined material, and the occasional assistance of a warship in a raid when the Orions needed it.

By Y180, the migration, which had previously been more or less ignored by the galactic powers, was become a problem. The Andromedan escorts tended to operate on a hair trigger when escorting their ships, which led to more than a few battles. Later analysis confirmed that this aggressive defense was due to the inability of more than two motherships to operate in close proximity—escorting Andromedan ships had to intercept any attackers well short of the ships they were escorting, which left them little time to verify whether or not a Galactic ship was planning on attacking or just passing through. Furthermore, the migration ships were only lightly armed and slow, making them hideously vulnerable to any serious attack. As the pace of the migration picked up, the number of encounters grew in frequency and danger, especially as the Andromedans deployed more classes of ships, some of them evidently patterned after Galactic concepts.

In addition, by Y184, some Andromedan bases had been built up into a real threat. While Andromedan bases had been detected since Y170, they were either the navigational beacons, which were easy to destroy (and which the Andromedans would relocate upon detection) or mining centers, where mining sleds would gather materials to support the movement of other ships, and in most cases, were simply “written off” if attacked.

However, the establishment of larger stations, base and battle stations, along with a few construction stations resulted in the expansion of the Andromedan defense perimeter around those facilities and often a tendency to launch spoiling attacks on groups that were getting “too close.” In some cases, these attacks derailed planned offensives during the general war.

The height of the Andromedan migration occurred between Y186 and Y195. During this period the Andromedans became very aggressive in protecting their fleets, often engaging galactic units and bases to create “safe areas.” Attacks on the convoys (as opposed to combatant ships) always lead to a massive response. Although these raids seldom caused much damage to worlds, beyond the destruction of planetary defenses and fleet support units, they led to the creation of large “lawless” areas, where the galactic powers had little influence, especially given the Andromedan tendency to pick off lone ships. In addition, the Andromedans established several small enclaves, heavily defended regions to serve as safe havens, and production centers for their ships. Unlike most hidden bases, these regions were firmly established as being under andro control.

While the ISC attempted to create its cordon, it quickly ran into the same problems other groups had, and was soon cut up into dozens of isolated cantonments, although a much larger percentage of the ISC fleet survived. For the most part, the ISC cordons were largely respected because the locals had better things to do. Some commentators rather archly noted that the chaos caused by the Migration was doing a better job than the ISC ever could.

In Y190, the Andromedan migration was at its height, and in several places, the galactic powers had more or less ceded control to the stream of Andromedan convoys. Entire worlds were put on their own, with fast freighters and convoys providing them with needed resources.

But from Y190 to Y195, the migration flagged in numbers. Navigation beacons and supply stations were either removed, or abandoned, only their robotic systems defending them, By Y195, as near as could be detected, the migration was at an end, only a small number of Andromedan ships (compared to previous years) being left in galactic space. Although still a major factor, (few people would consider an X-intruder or dominator a minor factor), the remaining Andromedans were merely one more faction in a swiftly changing galaxy.

The destination of the Migration was never discovered, with the trails for the Andromedan fleets vanishing into the void.

***

This was an AU somne of my group once played. It's likely too big to be ever done officially for the same reason many AU's are (not that appealing outside of a small group), but the basis for it was some of the players wanted the Andros around and a big deal, but not the overarching factor they are in Canon. Well, there was that bit that some analyst originally thought the Andro's might be a migratory group, and well, here we are. I'll be putting the rest of it up in the next few days.

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Saturday, October 16, 2021 - 11:44 am: Edit

Intriguing, did they go through Omega as well? If yes, before or after Alpha, and how does that affect the year range in Omega?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, October 16, 2021 - 02:15 pm: Edit

He has completelyomitted the Magellanic Cloud to make his migration system work.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Saturday, October 16, 2021 - 04:10 pm: Edit

yeah, the Magellanic cloud was the beachhead for an invasion. This is closer (Yes, this is a fairly loose comparison) to the big Bronze Age Migrations, or the migrations seen in the later Roman Empire.

Because it's not the core of the invasion, the cloud remains too far away for anyone to really contact or honestly care about, so whatever is happening there remains unknown. I did try to figure out a way to put them in, but given the differences, it just felt forced, and so it was better to just leave it lie.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Saturday, October 16, 2021 - 04:20 pm: Edit

Suggestion:

You let the Magellanics play by being driven before the Andromedans.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Saturday, October 16, 2021 - 07:17 pm: Edit

Established in C3; Andromedan agricultural practices turned whole regions of worlds into dustbowls.

Migrations are just passing through and are not likely to be coming back, so they're not likely to see good stewardship agricultural practices as worthwhile.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Sunday, October 17, 2021 - 02:39 am: Edit

The Andromedan migration started with the establishment of navigational stations (satellite bases) with the later addition of base and battle-stations as rest and refit points. The three primary routes originated from various points, but combined, the primary path of the migration impacted every species in the region. (will have F&E map done soonish)

The primary migration ships were made up of large, non-combatant ships, considerably different from the Andromedan ships that had yet been seen. They were totally dependent on the network of navigational stations and support ships, and were extremely vulnerable to being attacked. This was, ironically, one of the things that sparked the first major conflicts, as the Andromedan combat ships tended to err on the side of caution, and would often launch unprovoked attacks against galactic forces that were seen as threatening a migratory fleet. Successful attacks on a migratory fleet often led to savage retaliation.

Unfortunately, many galactic powers assumed that the migratory fleets were either carrying troops or colonists and attacked them, sparking massive retaliation from the Andromedans. In addition to the waning of the migration, it is believed that the decision by the majority of governments to cease attacking migratory fleets, as opposed to combatant ships, may have contributed to a reduction in hostilities.

Sidebar: Did the Jindarians start the conflict?

The Andromedans placed many of their stations in asteroid belts and clusters, both to keep them near vital resource and to stay concealed—but they also intruded into areas the Jindarians saw as their own, and numerous conflicts erupted. Both the Klingons and Federation found evidence of Jindarian-destroyed migratory fleets as early as Y176, and a number of strategists believe that at least in part, the Jindarians might have been responsible for the increasingly hair-trigger responses of the Andromedans. On the other hand, even in areas were there was no sign of conflict between the two groups, there was still a good deal of hostility, so this, as with many other aspects of the migration, remains a mystery.

Migratory Operations

While Andromedan motherships could and did operate at the same speed as galactic ships, the migratory fleets were very slow in normal warp,* and depended on the navigation stations to let them dash from station to station, taking some time to repair and refit, before moving on to the next station.

Generally, base and battle stations were set up in areas where a fleet might have to rest and refit for some time, often a month or more. Dangerous sectors saw larger stations and defense cordons. In addition to bases, small “pitstops” formed out of repair, mining and gun sleds were set up, letting a fleet pause for a bit before continuing on. The Andromedans tended to treat the loss of these forces as a minor thing, convincing some that most sleds were in fact robotic systems.

Later in the migration, the establishment of large enclaves was pursued, including full production facilities for ships and equipment. It was never learned if this had been the plan all along or if the greater resistance in the region had forced the Andromedans to establish such secure regions.

Because the navigation beacons were so vital to the movement of the fleets, the Andromedans tried to have several “spares” either deployed, or ready to be deployed. The destruction of a link could see a growing number of migration ships “piling up” as they waited for the network to be restored. Two such pile ups and the actions of the local governments led to the near destruction of the Romulan Republic and the Five Powers campaign, where the Kzinti, Klingons, Federation and ISC battled the Andromedans in the aftermath of the Kzinti’s successful destruction of a major migratory fleet.

Escort operations:

Andromedan escort planning ran into a single vital issue—no more than two motherships could be in the same place at the same time. (For some reason, the Andromedans never considered arming their migratory ships or producing combat variants of them). While non-displacement device equipped satellite ships could escort the fleets, this was rarely done, perhaps speaking to operational limitations that were never made clear. It was not until quite late in the migration, that the Andromedans developed their monitor class ships, but even these tended to be rare.

Whatever the reason, migratory fleets tended to move through what Starfleet intelligence came to view as “zones” where individual Andromedan squadrons would watch over them, dashing in to intercept any intruder well-short of their charges.

Outside of the zone, roaming Andromedan ships would engage possible threats, such as fleets that might be able to attack a convoy. Unfortunately, the Andromedans clearly considered capabilities, rather than intentions, and more than one ship or fleet engaged in a completely unrelated mission found itself attacked by roving Andromedan patrols. That alone would have been bad enough but the Andromedans also, especially in the later periods of the conflict, often scoured worlds in their area of any facilities that might support an attack. While invasions were rare, in many cases, the Andromedans destroyed all infrastructure that might support attacks on the fleet.

More than a few worlds simply evacuated their infrastructure, depending on the size of the fleet sent to deal with it. While this did not directly lead to many casualties (the Andromedans very rarely bombarded such worlds indiscriminately), the financial damage was severe and cumulative.

Some worlds would see agricultural and research stations established, although the reasons were never clear as to why. In some cases, the agricultural stations did grievous damage to the regional environment, while the science stations work ranged from the mundane to the puzzling. For example on one world, the research stations occupied themselves sending out robots to retrieve ground cars, and then disassembled them, leaving the remains stacked by part type. Why this was done was never understood.

Fleet Composition:

The Andromedan military ships did change as the migration progressed. Refits and redevelopments tended to follow encounters with galactic forces, although the protection of the migratory fleets remained their priority, explaining the fielding of fighters in Y173, to serve as drone defenses, and then the fielding of MWP in Y176. It was not until Y183 that the first PFs were fielded, but even so, many Andromedan ships stuck with MWPs. The first recorded X-ship was seen in Y185, but they remained extremely rare. Refits were similarly uneven, something that confused the various powers, as normally a refit was one of the cheapest ways possible to increase a starships combat potential. Still, this led to even greater uncertainty on the part of galactic captains when an Andromedan ship was sighted.

The fact that Andromedan improvements tended to lag behind galactic developments lead to two schools of thought. The first, hewing to the “non-creative computer” line of thought, argued that this was a sign that the Andromedans were simply incapable of innovation. The second held that being in the middle of what appeared to be a species-wide migration probably left the Andromedans with few resources for casually adding new forces, and that the slow speed of adoption had less to do with intelligence than resources.

(Since it’s an AU, why not use parts of C3A?)


*Not covered yet, but Andro ships work a little differently here. Displacement equipped ships function at the same speed as galactic ships, but satellite ships have far more limited range, and are much, much slower. The purpose of the sat bases is for the migration fleets, not the motherships.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Sunday, October 17, 2021 - 02:49 am: Edit

duplicate posting

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Monday, October 18, 2021 - 05:07 pm: Edit

Timeline the First:
The Andromedan Migration was not recognized as such for many years—and in fact a full understanding of the process was only arrived at in the years after the Migration in part due to communications with the remaining Andromedan forces.


Y158-168: Misinterpreted Warnings.


During this period, the Andromedans started preparing the way for their later migration. Intruders, Conquistadors and Infestors moved into local space, sweeping from East to west. The Vudur and off map Lyran and Hydran worlds were the first to notice these strange ships, most of which attempted to avoid contact. By Y160, the first Andromedan probes have advanced to ISC space, still avoiding contact, save for some battles with the Jindarians and overly curious starships.

Most Andromedan activity is concerned with establishing the “bare bones” of what will become the three main migration routes. Navigation beacons are emplaced, although many of them are left inactive.

During this period, the few encounters with the Andromedans are mostly written off as just another example of old weapons, much like the death probes. The fact that the Andromedans attempt to evade contact also lead many analysts to underestimate their power.

Two major developments occurred during this period. The first was a battle between an Intruder and the Tholians in Y162. Tholian webs confounded the Andromedans, leading to the loss of several satellite ships and heavy damage to the intruder. Rather than risk continued conflict with what appeared to be a heavily armed nation, the Andromedans displace their rimward migration route “up” into the neutral zone and federation space. However, that encounter evidently left the Andromedans nervous about future unplanned encounters, which led to the second major event—contact with the Orions.

While the Andromedans had encountered the Orions, in general both sides had avoided each other. While there had been some engagements, most Orions were in the business to make money and fighting unknown warships didn’t make money. For the Andromedans, few parts of space were so important as to require a direct confrontation with an Orion base. But in Y164 the Andromedans opened limited communications with the Orions, paying in refined materials. (No technology was ever exchanged). Being somewhat unaware of galactic trade patterns, the Andromedans overpayed for the information they gained, something the Orions never told them about. By Y166 most of the cartels were providing the Andromedans with information and limited support, in exchange for resources. Some independents and cartel forces were hired by the Andromedans, acting as “muscle” to drive off prospectors and other intruders into areas where the Andromedan migration routes were planned.

During this period, many intelligence services noticed that the Orions were building more and larger ships, evidently having funding that could not be explained by their normal patterns of raiding. In another case of missed opportunities, the general assumption was that they were being subsidized by the enemy of whatever nation the intelligence service was working for.


Y169-180: Storm warning.


While the General War raged, teh Andromedans started preparing for the body of the migration. Now joined by a number of fast cargo transports (Galleon and Caravel, in addition to other smaller cargo ships), the migration networks started to be set up in earnest with multiple navigation beacons anchoring each “leg” of the migration routes. In addition, Base, battle and sector stations were established, leading to the first major conflicts between the Andromedans and the galactic powers. In Y172 a Federation squadron attacked a base station near the Tholian neutral zone, destroying the station but being savaged by two intruders and their satellite ships. Worse, a Klingon squadron took advantage of this battle to launch a damaging, but inconclusive attack on several Federation colonies.

The same pattern worked out in most of the galaxy. With most nations already fighting one war, the Andromedans were, if not ignored, put on the back burner. This was aided in part by the Orions, who were far more understanding of politics and bribery than the Andromedans were. However, some members of the cartels were becoming nervous. What had started as a small group of ships were rapidly morphing into what might be an invasion. But the pay was very good and so most cartels continued their activities, culminating with direct Andromedan assistance, such as the attack on Klingon Convoy #213, where a Conquistador and Cobra assisted an Orion pirate fleet in destroying the escorts. During this period, the Andromedans also fielded their first fighters (Y173), and by Y180, the first Plasma Pods.

By Y179, the migration preparations were complete and the first convoys were entering Hydran and Lyran space. The Galaxy was about to pay for their failure to notice the build up.


Y180-188: First Waves.


The first thing that many powers noticed in Y180 was that the Andromedans had become considerably more aggressive. The Migration fleets were hideously vulnerable to even small warship and so the Andromedans worked to clear the immediate vicinity of any potential threats. Logistics bases that could be used to engage the fleets were attacked as were convoys venturing too close to Andromedan forces. No battlestations or starbases were attacked, but more than a few civilian stations were not so fortunate. While still small in comparison to the main body of the migration, this helped cement the eventual end of the General War as a return to the status quo antebellum. It was also the period when many services noted that the Orions were directly cooperating with the Andromedans, leading to considerably more effect directed to dealing with cartel ships and bases.

Some direct contact with the Andromedans occur mostly offers to ignore certain star systems if they do not host any military forces. Since those systems are also needed for the war effort, such requests are declined. During this period the Andromedans also enter into negotiations (via the Orions) with the WYN. The Usurper, currently readying his war of return, stalls the Andromedans due to fear of the political repercussions of being seen to be supporting an alien force. Other members of the WYN are more interested. A Vudur/Hydran conflict which results in the destruction of several migration ships that were caught between the two warring sides, results in a month long rampage by a Dominator, giving a hint of things to come as more and more convoys start transiting the region.

The growing threat of the Andromedans is one reason for the relatively quick end to the General War. Unfortunately, the ISC, which had not yet seen the full threat of the Andromedans (to be fair, few knew how bad it was going to be) commenced their pacification operation, completing it in Y188—just as the truly huge main body of the migration arrived, with listening posts on the Vuder frontier detecting fleets of nearly a hundred ships, some of them as large as dreadnoughts.


The Orion Quandary: The Orions found themselves in the same position they’d put many other groups in. Being part of an agreement that no longer looked so good, but they were no longer in a position to back out of. With many intelligence agencies now fully aware that the Orions had been cooperating with the Andromedans, they were no longer seen as pirates, but as co-belligerants. A number of Orion bases were destroyed, and many Orions fled to the Andromedans for sanctuary, which only confirmed the various nations suspicions. By Y190, the Cartel System was in ruins, and the Orion enclave was receiving credible reports that the Federation, still stinging from their decision to declare neutrality during the general war, was seriously considering invasion. In light of this, the Orions turned to the only allies they had left—the Andromedans, offering them space in their domain to establish refuge and repair centers.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Wednesday, October 20, 2021 - 05:40 pm: Edit

From Y188 to Y195 the Andromedan migration hit its stride and along the three primary routes the Andromedans started enforcing their cordons, as well as strikes beyond the direct line of the migration.

In general, the Andromedans avoided strikes on planetary populations or industries. Their concern was creating zones that could not support military action against the migration fleets. The various nations of course objected to this. (Despite some claims by historians, it is highly unlikely that any nation would have allowed the Andromedans to move across their nations).

Convoys, logistics nodes, even colony infrastructures were all targeted by roving Andromedans, usually about five hundred parsecs to either side of their main “lanes.” Longer-ranged attacks were launched when the Andromedans believed that a build up to attack was being made. Among these attacks were those of the Orion Pirates that were cooperating with them, although a number of Orions had split off and were now cooperating with the galactic powers.

Lightly defended targets might be assaulted by pairs of reconnaissance Cobras or Pythons, which would engage until heavy forces appeared and then would retreat. In more than a few cases, unwary pursuers found themselves ambushed by other forces, and the fear of encountering a lurking Intruder led to more than a few cases where smaller squadrons merely chased the Andromedans away.

The Andromedans were not beyond using psychological warfare—for example, any vessel which dropped its engines would see the Andromedans immediately cease attacking it. While this preserved the ship, it forced the owning empire to send out repair forces, or accept that the ship would have to make a very long trip via non-tactical warp, during which time it was essentially out of service. Worse, when confronted with larger raids, more than a few convoys saw some (or most) ships drop their engines immediately rather than risk destruction. While this preserved crews and cargoes, it soon saw civilian shipyards overflowing with ships needing replacement engines.

More damaging even than this was the way the Andromedan migration routes had sliced most of the empires into discrete groups, with transits across the lanes fraught with danger. Not only did this harm the national economies, it rendered previously safe areas vulnerable, especially since nobody could estimate the total size of the invasion. Soon, the various Empires found themselves facing the worst economic dislocations they had seen since the height of the General War—worse in the case of the Federation.


Y188-Y190. The Storm Breaks


The first sign of the Andromedan movement was a wave of commerce and infrastructure attacks across the entire galaxy. The impact to economies already strained by years of war was immense, especially since the Andromedans were focusing on infrastructure, rather than enemy fleets. The intent was obvious, to clear out zones where galactic forces would have a hard time operating.

Where the migration routes were directly opposed by the galactic navies, the Andromedans launched massive offensives, clearing the way, but outside of those zones, most attacks were spoiler in nature, trying to prevent the build up of forces that could endanger the main cordon. In addition, a wave of piracy struck galactic society, the Orion Pirates drawing off desperately needed forces.

The ISC was hit hard, with nearly a quarter of their fleet destroyed in attempts to break the migration routes. Furthermore, the routes isolated large portions of their fleets from the ISC homeworld. These isolated cantons either continued their original mission (which was quite easy as the local powers had other things on their minds) or joined with forces opposing the Andromedans (a somewhat more dangerous activity).

One of the largest problems facing the galactic powers was that the Andromedans didn’t always attack vital installations. For example, in Y188, Wilson’s Paradise, a mining colony in the Federation with a single commercial platform and a half dozen freighters protected by a single monitor was struck by a dominator dreadnought which crippled or destroyed every ship and orbital platform in the system.

To strategists, using such a powerful platform on such a minor target made no sense—but as the number of “small” attacks grew, it was realized this was an attempt to create a desert, where military ships could receive no support for their operations. Furthermore, colonies that were dependent on outside supplies had to be supported or evacuated, both costly endeavors, that pulled fleet units away from engaging the Andromedans. Tellingly, evacuations were almost never attacked.


Carrier Raids: While the Andromedans had used fighters before, they came into their own during the first stages of the conflict. A conquistador with a fighter module could become a handful for even fairly well defended systems. Worse, there was no way to tell what a ship carried until it started deploying its combat units. The Andromedans appeared quite willing to abandon their fighters, often using them as a screen to cover retreating units.


Between the attacks on colony systems and the risks of major attacks on fleet elements, most major powers found themselves paralyzed, launching only local counter attacks over the course of this period. The difficulty of coordinating units, and Andromedan spoiler attacks led to the many forces being used to “shore up” local defenses to prepare for the main Andromedan invasion.

By y190, the Andromedans had added another tactic to their quiver—blockading various bases. The blockades were not tight—if a force that could defeat them (or give them a serious fight) appeared, the Andromedans would withdraw, but the mere potential of an attack meant that only heavily escorted convoys could be sent, which again, reduced the number of forces that could be deployed against the Andromedans.


Y190-Y191: The Five Power Conflict


The Kzintis had suffered badly during the General War, and the Usurper (or Patriarch) could not risk the political loss of just tolerating another incursion into Kzinti territory. One plan by his general staff was to find and attack several navigation beacons, and then when the transport fleets stopped, attack them. Ideally, that would prove to the Andromedans that this route was too dangerous and drive them to the other two routes, which coincidentally, harmed their enemies.

The attack by a Kzinti fleet succeeded in destroying dozens of transport vessels.

The Andromedan response was not long in coming. By the middle of Y190, forces that had been transferred from the other Migratory routes started to attack Kzinti bases in waves, smashing them and driving the Kzinti fleet out. Worlds that were taken saw their entire infrastructure shattered to a far greater degree than any other incursion to date.

The Klingons, Federation, and ISC soon came to fear that the Andromedans might destroy the Kzinti nation—and while that might normally be seen as a good thing in the Klingon halls of power, what the Andromedans might do with that region of space didn’t bear thinking about. By Y191, all five powers were engaged in battles with the Andromedans, leading to further attacks on local infrastructure.

One thing the Klingons and Federation both agreed on was not to attack the transport fleets. It was clear that the Andromedans were responding to that attack and the hope was that if the fleets weren’t molested it might make it easier to force the Andromedans to retreat, rather than driving them into another rage.

By the end of Y191, the Andromedans had “Settled down” after more or less devastating the Kzinti. While few worlds had lost much of their populations, the destruction of infrastructure and the loss of a number of bases knocked the Kzinti out of the conflict—which soon led to the Andromedans ignoring them.

It was this that started convincing the Alliance that the Andromedans were moving through rather than preparing to stay, but the suggestion that those migration routes be abandoned were untenable for a vast number of reasons, not the least of which was that the migration theory could be wrong.

Nobody knows for certain what the Andromedans thought of the conflict, but the fact that only one other power directly targeted the migration fleets likely convinced them of the success of their strategy.

The WYN and the “Federation” PFs.

If one nation prospered during this time, it was the WYN. Benefiting from defenses of the cluster, their internal resources, combined with many groups fleeing into the cluster, granted the WYN an immense windfall of equipment and trained workers which enabled them to rapidly expand their shipyard. One result of this was the massive sale of “export” PFs.

On the Federation side, the utility of PFs were plain, but the politics made it impossible to develop homegrown versions—an issue the WYN were all too happy to solve by exporting Freedom PF’s with certain product changes, mainly making provisions to modify them to use photon torpedoes.

These ships were crewed by paramilitary forces, officially not part of Starfleet but working in cooperation with them (usually recruited from local world’s security services). By Y191 several Federation worlds were defended by these ships, and at least two division control ships had their heavy fighters replaced by the PFs—but not, it must be noted Federation PFs. No, these were simply local forces lending their assistance to the war effort.

The Klingons, upon hearing about this, were said to have rolled their eyes and once again verbally wonder how they had lost to a government like that.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 04:25 am: Edit

Little Wars:


The combined effects of the migration, General War and the ISC Pacification had left vast regions more or less uncontrolled by any national navy. While the Andromedans had destroyed much of the infrastructure, much remained, ranging from colony worlds to isolated asteroid mining flotillas. Without much support from home, many of these groups started taking issues into their own hands. At best, they merely policed themselves, but at worst, more than a few large corporations, assuming the eventually the Andromedans would leave, sought to ensure that when they did return, the right people would be left in charge.

Without actual warships (save in a very few cases), the majority of conflict was between civilian ships, ranging from armed freighters to prime-corvettes and escort carriers. Helpless against even the smallest “real” military, none of these groups even considered trying for any kind of independence. That was not their goal. Their goal was to present a stable situation, with the right people in charge, when the owning government returned.

Nor did they attempt to resist the Andromedans, with their small ships utterly helpless against the invaders. For their part, the Andromedans seemed to see these groups as harmless and ignored them unless they were provoked, at which point they demonstrated the difference between a prime corvette and a dedicated warship.

Most groups involved in these small conflicts assumed that when order was restored, the central government would not be overly interested in investigating the events that had come before.

In some cases, they were right. The Klingons, for instance, were far more interested in getting the reclaimed regions up and running, and assumed that those who had managed to hold on to them knew what they were doing. The Federation, for its part, tended to conduct more in depth investigations, especially if there was evidence of attacks on civilians.

Most of these conflicts occurred between Y190 and Y198, during the height of the Andromedan migration in those areas the Andromedans had cleared of national forces. Y195-198 saw the various national governments and ISC reassert authority, with varying degrees of aggression. It should be noted that none of these small conflicts ever morphed into defiance against the central government, when it returned. It was all about positioning local groups to welcome the central government’s officials back.


Composition:


In general, these conflicts were fought with mostly civilian craft. Armed freighters, Prime Corvettes and local defense fighters and bombers. In some cases, PF’s were also used, although many groups found themselves unable to maintain the finicky craft. A very few groups had somehow found and maintained small warships or police craft, but never more than one, and never larger than a frigate, usually with some degree of irreparable (by the current owners, at least) damage. Sometimes such military ships, however damaged, proved to be double-edged swords, with the Andromedans bringing their existence to a swift end.

Orion mercenaries did sometimes play a role in these conflicts, but few groups had enough money to make it worthwhile, especially compared to the prices the Andromedans and galactic powers were willing to pay. In most cases, the only Orion ships that might be around would be light raiders or slavers, ships too weak to be useful in most roles—but in comparison to the local forces were true capitol ships.


Doylist:


I was always intereseted in the “little” ships of SFB, and given how many colonies are mentioned, as existing even in a single hex, I’ve liked the idea of glorified “Street fights” where everyone battles until the big guns show up and then carefully sit back down.

This is to try to create a situation where you can have those, with some reasonable justification for why a cruiser isn’t immediately sent out to enforce calm. Here you can fight with your glorious armada (three small armed freighters and a Prime Corvette) only to discover that the enemy has deployed his dreaded supership. (A light raider he’s hired).

It’s the kind of thing that leads to many worlds erecting statues to ‘their savior,’ who isn’t known outside of the system, except as a reference some miserable cadet has to find as part of their Y205 thesis on ‘civilian conflict in the X system.”

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 04:08 pm: Edit

Huh, that's odd, pasting directly from open office leads to some wonky characters. I'll have to post direclty from text next time.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 07:17 pm: Edit

And the Y190ish map showing both ISC cordons and the Three Main Andromedan migration routes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YpIR8kJQFhQe_5Wx0bSrEiqhLlzDjq26/view?usp=sharing

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 09:16 pm: Edit

Notge that the base F&E map is from the free download section, with the color bits added by me. didn't want to take credit for something that isn't mine.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, October 22, 2021 - 10:24 am: Edit

Very cool. Note that the Vudar are about competely cut off from the Klingons so they'd have a much easier time...

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Friday, October 22, 2021 - 10:08 pm: Edit

The Andromedans


Named Andromedans due to a theory that they were extragalactic invaders, the origins of this group have never been determined, despite communication with those ships and bases left in the octant after the end of the migration. But it is believed that the Andromedan’s were made up of two separate groups—those on the migration fleet and those who escorted them.

None of the ships in the migration fleets ever communicated with any galactic ship, and actions of their enraged guardians meant that very few scans were made of wrecked ships. However, the migration fleet transports appeared to be mostly solid, with tiny chambers connected by narrow tubes, sometimes as small as fifteen centimeters in diameter. No combatant ship had a similar construction. For this reason, many researchers believe the the lifeforms aboard the migration fleet were either a separate species or were held in some form of suspension.

As for the Andromedans proper, no organisms were ever recovered, and due to the nature of the PA panels, destroyed ships left little information about what they did or did not contain behind. The only interaction with them other than combat came via robots, or subspace verbal communications, and from what few clues were left, none of the ships appeared to have recognizable living quarters.

This resulted in two primary schools of thought regarding the Andromedans. First that they were some form of immaterial energy life form that, secondly that they were AI’s of some kind. (A popular spacers tale, that they were in fact, ghosts, did not receive much support in academic quarters.) Ultimately, it proved to be a unimportant difference.


Society:

No hard information about their society and culture was ever discovered. The most important note was that any Andromedan ship detected during the migration would always preface any communication with some variant of “Serving the purpose.” After the migration, this was no longer used by any ships, indicating that they had been released from their mission. Attempts to ask what the purpose was, were never answered.

Socially, the Andromedans seemed to be based around displacement device equipped ships, which identified themselves by various subspace codes. Satellite ships without displacement devices would identify themselves as serving a local mothership, base or enclave, when they did communicate with galactic ships, which was not often.

PFs, fighters, MWPs and sleds never communicated, and given the Andromedans lack of care for losses in these units, it was assumed that they were robotic in nature. Robot landing teams did communicate, but this was always either pre-recorded statements, or communications by units in contact with a mothership, leading most to agree that the robots were not themselves sapient.


Post-Migration Behavior.


After the migration, the remaining ships (a small fraction of the forces that had escorted the migration) were divided into two groups. The first were those ships associated or constructed by the enclaves, which mostly acted in the same way galactic ships operated, IE defending their borders, dealing with monsters, and assisting allied powers.

The second were ships that were identified as “rogues” although this definition was contested by some. Almost universally motherships they operated independently of the enclaves, apparently pursuing their own interests. The primary unifying trait of these vessels was that they tended to be consistent, allowing the galactic powers to build up a database of independent ships and their behaviors. Some of them were friendly, others neutral or hostile, although they all maintained the trademark Andromedan hostility to the Jindarians.

Rarely, an enclave ship would “go rogue” although there seemed to be no hostility associated with that decision, as many rogue ships repaired and refitted at Enclaves.

This behavior, especially given the fact that the ships could have left with the migration, lent credence to the idea that they had somehow been compelled to work with it. The other possibility, that they had been left behind to keep watch on the region, and were still in contact with the migration, was another reason why most states were reluctant to attempt to wipe out the remaining Andromedans.


Notes: I wanted to keep the mysterious nature of the Andros, but equally, leave an opening for them to be allied/neutral forces in campaigns and settings, rather than the more or less universally hostile force the canon Andromedans are.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Saturday, October 23, 2021 - 09:32 pm: Edit

As the migration fleets faded into the past, and the Andromedans abandoned their cordon zones, the powers of the octant were left with picking up the pieces. While the Andromedans had not devastated many worlds, the destruction of transport infrastructure and military forces near their migration routes had done tremendous financial damage to states that had only barely begun the process of repairing the damage done by the General War.

Demands for rebuilt fleets and improved designs including some hopeful plans for the “all X-ship fleet” ran around on the simple demands of logistics. Demands for new cruisers competed with the need for humble police ships to reassert central authority, and freighters to carry the bounty of the the outer regions to the central worlds.

Ironically, the Andromedan migration helped the cause of the ISC. While their fleets had been hammered, there were still enough to enforce the Cordons, and it wasn’t until Y200 that most major powers started challenging the ISC in earnest. Until then, most nations, whatever they said for public consumption, were not unhappy that the ISC had given them more or less secure borders, letting them focus on infrastructure and rebuilding their fleets instead of the drain of a new war. This did not keep constant sovereignty patrols from occurring, of course, but most powers adhered to a set of unofficial rules intended to keep the situation from escalating beyond control.

The greatest change to the galactic map were the Andromedans and their enclaves. Seven microstates had been established by the Andromedans and in the aftermath of the migration, most of them were sufficiently heavily fortified to make eliminating them by force of arms difficult. Most importantly, nobody was certain (and wouldn’t be certain until the early 220s), if they maintained contact with the migration fleet—and the memory of the long-range sensor images of the Devastator battleships that had been part of the last migration fleets loomed large in the thoughts of most admiralties. Put simply, nobody wanted to find out the hard way that the enclaves had a way to summon assistance. In addition, the fact that the Enclaves were largely located in neutral space and appeared willing to trade, caused a number of empires to put their final elimination on the back burner.

Although there were numerous individual conflicts during this period, they were mostly small-scale, and focused more on improving the economic position of the various powers, thus giving rise to the popular (if incorrect) term “Trade Wars.”


Individual nations:


The Federation:


Continuing the popular saying that the universe liked the Federation, the Federation came out of the situation better than many nations. The tremendous disruption caused by the migration was partially mitigated by the fact that the Federation had always run a somewhat decentralized economy. For that reason, in many areas, local authorities simply took control while keeping in touch with the central government. There were conflicts—but very few of them harmed the actual populations.

The Federation also benefited from a very active business community that wasn’t afraid to take advantage of the ISC’s moral stance against war, while also paying taxes to the Federation—which could invest those taxes in rebuilding it’s merchant and naval forces, while offloading the cost of protecting some of those new colonies on the ISC.

The primary issue facing the Federation was the Orions. They had clearly worked with the Andromedans, and more than a few politicians outright demanded their annexation and dissolution. Ultimately however, the province remained, under considerably greater Federation supervision, including the demand that Federation police and naval ships now operate within its borders to “assist” in aiding the Orion’s handle local piracy.


The Kzinti:


The Kzinti were shattered by the response to their attack on the migration fleets, with only a few combat formations surviving. Virtually their entire merchant marine was destroyed, along with severe damage being done to the Kzinti shipyards. Worse, by Y195 the Kzinti financial situation was only better than that of the Romulan Republic. Only the ISC cordons and Federation support kept the Klingons and Lyrans from taking advantage of this situation, while the Patriarch was occupied until Y200 with dealing with rebellious vassals and increased piracy.


The Lyrans:


Being sliced into three separate states, the Lyrans could take some comfort in the fact that they were better off than the Hydrans or the Kzinti, and their other border was with a friendly power. Furthermore, the somewhat independent nature of their government allowed individual worlds and provinces to better weather the storm. Plans to retake Lyran territory from the ISC forces were shelved, due to the weakness of the Lyran fleet and the presence of an Andromedan Enclave on their border. However, of all the Western empires, the Lyrans were the most aggressive in trying to convince the ISC to withdraw their services.


The Hydrans:


During this period the Hydrans were occupied with attempting to rebuild their nation. Fortunately, the Andromedans had quickly realized the dangers of displacing to within 10,000KM of a squadron of stingers and avoided raiding the Hydran spacelanes as much as they had other nations. The Hydrans, for their part, swallowed their pride and adopted a strictly hands off policy on the Andromedans, a policy made easier by the fact that the General War had rather thoroughly devastated the regions the Andromedans were moving through. Their greatest enemy during this period, was the Vudar Enclave, which was taking advantage of their own defensive advantages vs. The Andromedans and the withdrawal of many ISC units to carve off Hydran space for their own benefit.


The WYN:


The WYN Cluster, benefiting from it’s own safe position and the fact that it was more or less invulnerable to the Andromedans, had spent the period building up ties with various neighboring worlds. It’s Y194 offensive, claimed the regions around the WYN, granting the cluster the defense in depth it had always lacked. It was not so much the distance, of course, but the fact that now the need to carve through the already existing defenses would give the WYN time to prepare.

During this period the WYN officially renounced any links to piracy, taking several Orion groups on as official mercenaries on long-term contracts. A few pirates were even turned over to the surrounding powers for trial and punishment. (Mostly, it must be said, pirates who opposed the current WYN Council). Moving into Y200, the WYN presented themselves as the champions of free trade, and worked to ensure that the larger neutral zones remained, especially since they would grant WYN traders a great deal of freedom.

Ultimately, due to business friendly regulations (and willingness to not inquire too closely into how some fortunes had been accumulated), as well as very favorable immigration practices, the Cluster prospered. WYN traders and shipping companies could be found all over the Octant—including some Andromedan ships.


The Tholians:


If any power had benefited as much as the WYN, it was the Tholians. The Andromedans had quickly ceased attacks against the Holdfest, deciding that they were no threat to the migration fleets.

The fact that the displacement device had met its match in Tholian web might have had something to do with it as well.

With every other power concerned with other matters, the Tholians took the time to rebuild their defenses to the strength they’d enjoyed before the General war. With an already self-sufficient economy and no continual bleeding from Klingon raids, by Y196, the Tholian Defense Force was as powerful as it ever had been, including perhaps the highest percentage of X-ships of any power in the Octant.

The Tholians also remained supporters of the ISC, supporting the larger neutral zones on the quite logical point that the ISC neither had the ability no desire to conquer the Holdfest, and thus served as unknown auxiliaries to the Tholians.


The Klingon Empire


The Klingon Empire had been badly handled during the General War, eventually losing the industrial battle to the Federation and its allies. With the Andromedans cutting the Empire into three pieces and the ISC taking some of the richest parts of the Empire, while collecting taxes to “protect” them, the Klingons found themselves in a very bad position.

For this reason, the Empire engaged in a period of opening up its economy and society, accepting a loss of control in some areas. While there were glitches, the productivity of the Empire slowly increased, with worlds that had long since been seen as unprofitable starting to change. Perhaps the luckiest break for the Empire was that none of their enemies were in a position to strike at them, with the Kzinti and Hydrans even worse off than the Empire, while the Federation was focusing on its own affairs and the slow motion catastrophe that was the Romulan Republic.


The Vudar: The Vudar had been separated from the rest of the Empire by the Andromedan migration routes, and had taken the opportunity to expand their fleet. Furthermore, the withdrawal of ISC forces from the neutral zone between the edge of the galaxy and the Andromedan’s rimward migration routes left the Vudar a free hand, and between Y190 and Y195 they carved off a number of Hydran worlds before the ISC returned with sufficient force to prevent future conquests, although not enough to force the Vudar to give their gains back.

In Y197, the Klingon Emperor appointed a Vudar Viceroy to represent the Enclave, the appointment to be chosen from candidates proposed by the Vudar themselves. This action declared, in fact if not word, that the Vudar were in fact partners, albeit junior partners, rather than subject species of the Empire.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Tuesday, October 26, 2021 - 01:04 am: Edit

To the East


The Romulan Republic:


Having had one of their two capital planets devastated, enduring a devastating civil war, the ISC incursions and then provoking an Andromedan offensive, the writ of the Romulan republic barely extended beyond the province holding the capitol. Outside of that, Republic space was a mixture of warring great houses, rampaging pirates, and the occasional monster. Many Romulans were fleeing their worlds, unwilling to endure another attack, and the refugee issue was becoming a concern for the ISC, Federation and even the Gorn.

Ancient enemies they might be, but the Confederation would at lease keep the refugees safe from the Orions and other factions.

Ironically, it was just this situation which led to the Romulan Republic receiving assistance from its former enemies. All of its neighboring powers knew that if the Republic completely collapsed, its former space would become a haven for pirates—and once they had wrung those worlds dry, they would no doubt turn to the neighbors. For that reason, by Y197, the Republic signed a treaty with the ISC permitting their warships “hot pursuit” rights for any pirate ships detected.

Meanwhile, the Republic was rebuilding it’s fleet—only a fleet that it could afford, being mostly lighter ships, intended for securing it’s territory rather than battling any neighbors. That, the Romulan Admiralty realized would be impossible for some time to come. The remaining X-ships and heavy warships were husbanded, sent out only for the most important missions, such as the destruction of an Orion base, or the suppression of a Great House.

By Y200, the central parts of the Republic had been brought back under control, but it would be well into the 210s before the Republic could be said to be a great power once again.


Gorn Confederation:


While cut off from the Trusteeship Zone, the Confederation benefitted from the fact that they bordered an ally, and a completely prostrate enemy. The large neutral zones enforced by the ISC allowed the Confederation Assembly to satisfy their inner budget cutters, transferring money from the fleet to recovery and infrastructure programs. The end of the Migration allowed them to once again start exploring the Trusteeship zone, bringing more prosperity to the Gorn.

The Gorn Fleet manages to conceal a modernization program within a large-scale drawdown of warships, most of them older survivors of the General War, replacing them with X-ships. While smaller the new fleet is one of very high quality, taking advantage of the fact that the Confederation, for the first time in living memory, has no serious enemies on its borders.

One issue is what to do with the Romulan Refugees. Rather than settle them on its border with the Romulan Republic (and risk later issues) the Gorn settled them on the border between charted space and the Trusteeship zone. While eminently habitable, the worlds were mostly lightly populated, allowing the new inhabitants to find suitable places to live and giving them reason to be grateful to the Gorn. By 205, some of the refugee settlements have become a net economic benefit to the Gorn.


The ISC:


By numbers the ISC had lost more warships to the Andromedans than any other empire with the sole exception of the Kzinti. This however, still left the ISC with the largest economy and military in the region. Furthermore, the decision of the ISC command to continue enforcing its neutral zone cordons has led to growing discontent among the people of the ISC. What was sold as a way to save the people of less civilized nations from themselves, and more importantly what was sold as a relatively cheap way to do so, has become an ever more expensive undertaking. More importantly, many have started to ask: when will it end? Is the ISC going to enforce these cordons forever, and how long can that be continued?

At the higher level, various ISC think thanks pointed out that the recovery from the General War and Migration will unavoidably result in a position where the ISC could no longer maintain it’s cordons by force. For that reason, by Y198, an diplomatic offensive had been launched, attempting to negotiate larger neutral zones by treaty, rather than by armed fiat. A number of empires, with some caveats, proved receptive to these negotiations.


Sidebar: The Larger Neutral zones.


Ultimately, one thing that proved to be the case during the General War was that border defenses… weren’t. In in most cases, they did not effectively blunt major attacks, and in some cases orders to hold the frontier led to defending forces being cut off and destroyed in detail by attackers who possessed the initiative. While surrendering to an active enemy was of course out of the question, the zones were already in existence, and meant that any aggressor, even those who could break through the ISC cordons, would have no way to do so without giving abundant warning.

While officially, a number of empires refused to even consider giving up their sacred land, in practice, there were no major attempts to reclaim the zones, at least not before Y210.


Pirates and Wanderers:


Orions:


The Orion Pirates emerged from the migration badly fractured. On the one hand, the Andromedan payments to the Orions, mostly in rare and valuable alloys and materials, had permitted the construction of numerous ships and even a number of hidden shipyards.

On the other hand, many nations blamed the Orions for their assistance with the Andromedans, and many cartels suffered as their territories became far more dangerous. Capital Cartel found itself on the defensive, as a resurgent Starfleet started rooting out hidden bases and ships. Other cartels prospered, such as Lion and Cluster cartels.

The larger neutral zones did give the pirates ways to move further afield than they had before, and despite various “hot pursuit” treaties, more than a few nations were content to chase a pirate into the neutral zones.

Equally, the construction of asteroid shipyards and bases permitted the construction of larger ships, and some of these hidden shipyards parlayed their value into a more independent stance. At the same time, independent operators started coming together in small (and not so small), groups, oftentimes operating in defiance of the local cartel lord. For much of this period, the various groups seemed as interested in fighting among themselves as they were raiding, something most other nations heartily approved of.

A common rumor was that a number of Orions, ranging from only a few ships to a cartel-sized nation based on an Andromedan built mother ship, had left with the migration, offering to work as scouts and helpers. The truth of this rumor was denied by many, but equally, a number of Orion Ships had vanished…


The Jindarians:


The Jindarians had found themselves pressed by the Andromedans. While the stories vary, with the Andromedans merely expressing a desire to “remove” them, some Jindarians have claimed that the Andromedans are the reason they became nomadic. A number of researchers claim to doubt that, pointing out that Jindarian origin stories differ and that it wasn’t until the Migration that they started claiming that it had been the Andromedans.

A more likely reason is that the Andromedans tended to come across Jindarian caravans during the process of establishing the migration routes and either attacked them, or were attacked.

Whatever the reason, the Jindarians tended to either attack or flee from Andromedans whenever they encountered them, while the Andromedans worked very hard to remove any Jindarians in their space, as well as anywhere else they might be encountered. This has led to a long-running conflict between the two, which while not as intense as many local wars have been, seems to have no end in sight. Most of the other galactic powers consider the outcome of these fights a win, regardless of whether the Jindarians or Andromedans are victorious.

By Stewart Frazier (Frazikar3) on Tuesday, October 26, 2021 - 05:56 pm: Edit

One left-over, the Seltorians.

However, as they first surfaced in Hydran territory, they may have 'popped in' during the Migration and got taken out, or tried to go through the Vudar state (depending on their timeline) and then there would be the Klingon corner and the Tholians themselves (depending on how much delay was thrown in).

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Tuesday, October 26, 2021 - 07:19 pm: Edit

I'm assuming the Seltorians were more or less destroyed as they were in the OTL, since the major parts of the Migration started after the General War--before then, as far as anyone knew, the Andromedans were just a scattered group of ships poking around and making annoyances of themselves.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Saturday, November 06, 2021 - 04:27 am: Edit

The end of the migration left a large number of Andromedans behind, for unknown reasons. The communications about their purpose ÒendingÓ indicated that these Andromedans had been deliberately left behind.

Why was the question. There was clearly no reason they could not have continued with the migration fleets, as the majority of the Andromedan ships did. The two competing theories was that the Andromedans had been released from their obligation or compulsion (or programming for those who followed the AI theory), and that the enclaves were left either as fall back positions or in preparation for another Migration. However, despite fears regarding another migration, no such migration occurred during recorded history.

A total of three enclaves were established, each one heavily defended. All were established in the neutral spaced the ISC had carved out, either because the Andromedans were attempting to convince the other powers that they did not intend to conquer there territories or simply because the neutral zones were less heavily defended, it was impossible to tell.

The Enclaves encompassed roughly 7 F&E hexes, while other regions of interest might include a few hidden base or battle stations. Armed attacks into the enclaves were met with force, but civilian ships transiting the region were often simply observed, usually by a reconnaissance cobra.

Already existing populations were by and large ignored, with most Andromedan facilities being space-based or located on uninhabited worlds. However, attempts to build facilities capable of supporting a military incursion were suppressed. The Andromedans did provide defense against pirates, monsters and other phenomena for those worlds in their space, but a slow, but consistent stream of people heading to other worlds outside the enclave was a common theme.

The enclaves traded with each other, keeping in touch via cargo and messenger ships moving through the neutral zone, often with the aid of hidden navigation beacons. Although the ISC did not often assault these beacons, the Andromedans still moved them frequently. Stations outside of the neutral zones were subject to destruction upon detecting, but the Andromedan habit of moving them made it difficult to locate them, especially since stations were usually only placed outside of the neutral zones for a specific purpose.

Most cargo runs were handled by Galleon or Caravel class cargo ships usually moving in pairs with a CV pod or satellite ships serving as security.

In addition to the Enclaves, there were numbers of ships, universally displacement device equipped ships, that behaved in a more independent way, either alone or with other ships, almost as if they were free to pursue their own interests. (this bolstered the idea that the ships were either AIs or were somehow a single organism). Given that most motherships had self-repair capabilities, they often operated far away from the Enclaves, only occasionally returning to resupply for those who couldnÕt obtain such supplies on their own.

Their behaviors varied widely, with a few ships actively interacting with galactic powers and other groups (such as a Conquistador that took up defending several primitive worlds in Romulan Space), while others ignored or were hostile to galactic nations. At least two groups ventured out of the galaxy, evidently heading for the Lesser Magellanic Cloud.

The Galactic powers tended to engage and destroy ships that were hostile, since independent ships did not seem to be allied to any other faction. The Enclaves were a different matter, and most powers planned to deal with them when they had rebuilt their forces. However, by Y210, those plans were still very much in in the future.


Foreign Relations:


While the Andromedans never traded technology (and never, with a few exceptions, adopted galactic technology), the enclaves were willing to trade raw materials, both biological and inorganic. In many cases, these were rare compounds and elements that were required for a wide range of industrial processes. The payments demanded ranged from simple exchanges of material to items ranging from the mundane to the esoteric. In one case, an enclave traded valuable biological components to a neighboring group of colonies in return for a complete run of the various fiction series that had been locally produced. In another case, several conventional freighters were purchased and then converted to Andromedan technology.

Independent Andromedan ships were known to occasionally rent themselves out. While most major governments had little interest in such mercenaries, (save to hire them to stay away), smaller nations and in some cases, large corporations, did seek to hire the Andromedans.

A popular choice for many companies or independent worlds was to seek to make an arrangement with either a galleon or caravel class ship. Not armed as warships, they did not attract the wrong kind of attention, while their extensive cargo facilities, high speed, and displacement devices meant that few pirates could catch themÑand most importantly, the presence of hanger spaces left any pirate uncertain as to whether the ships were filled with cargo pods, or a somewhat more deadly cargo.

Few large ships offered their services as mercenaries, with most being the larger displacement device equipped ÒsatelliteÓ ships and some Conquistador hulls and variants. A few other independent Andromedan ships offered non-military services, such as the Missionary Class ÒLightningÓ which accepted a private commission to explore several regions coreward of the Federation.

It should be noted that every major power paid extremely close attention to individual worlds and organizations dealing with the Andromedans, and required any groups subject to their rules to inform them of all the details of such interactions. This did not always happen.

There is no known case, absent the hiring party breaking their agreement, where the Andromedans proved untrustworthy once an agreement was arrived at. Needless to say, many groups remained prepared for the possibility that they might be the first.

Very few nations were willing to allow Andromedan warships to cross into their territory. (For cargo ships, most governments generally required that cargo pods be transported into space to prove that the ship was not carrying any satellite ships, unless they had already been approved.) A few exceptions were the ISC, which permitted non-hostile Andromedan ships to move through the neutral zones and took advantage of their presence to shore up the credibility of the neutral zones, as few governments wanted to risk starting a conflict with the Andromache enclaves.

The Romulan Republic for most of the period, were simply unable to effectively confront major incursions, and on at least a few occasions, grudgingly hired Andromedan forces.

A number of Orion groups, both cartels and independent groups, sought to hire Andromedan forces, quite often to use against each other. The Orions had to balance the advantages of bringing Andromedan firepower to the field, and the risk of provoking a serious response from the Galactic powers. Even so, at least two Orion factions included a number of Andromedan ÒmembersÓ complete with rapidly relocatable bases.

The Kzintis almost always attacked Andromedan ships in or near their space, even if the fight was lopsided. For the most part, the Andromedans took the hint and avoided intruding into Kzinti spaceÑat least as far as most groups could tell.

The WYN sought to employ as many Andromedans as possible, both to bulk up their fleet, and provide a credible deep strike capable deterrent force against their neighbors. How many Andromedans the WYN had managed to attract remained unknown (and a matter of great interest to the surrounding powers), but at least one Intruder hull was confirmed to be among the forces.


The DEW Line.


The Distant Early Warning Line was one of the few examples of cooperation even among enemies, being a network of sensor platforms established on both the Western and Eastern edges of explored space, using advanced sensors designed to pick up mass use of Andromedan displacement devices. Ideally, such sensor platforms would be able to detect any future Andromedan Incursion.

By the end of the period recorded on the Air Force tapes, no such incursion had been detected.

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Saturday, November 06, 2021 - 04:34 pm: Edit

I have some designs for Andro ships during this period, some of which would work for Andro's in general, and some of which would be specific to this AU--where should I put them. In the ships proposals or here?

By Charles Gray (Cgray45) on Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - 03:11 am: Edit

Okay, looking at this, I have a few things, mainly some scenario rules, but the setting is more or less completed).

Like I said, our gaminmg group really liked Andro's, so this was the first "AU" setting, and I may put the other one up, which was designed more or less to make the Andro's more of a local menace than a galaxy-changing menace.
The problem being of course, that I expect very few people would want to play this one. I mean, I am of course one of the best writers in the history of the english language, but something like this requires a player to not simply want different andros, but want them differently in the way this setting has them, AND be satisfied with how everything else turns out, and I bet the numbers that trip all three points, are very small.

By Riccardo Perni (P_R_S) on Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - 06:23 am: Edit

I am in!