You know, the ISC just barely got finished with their peacekeeping operation when the Andros smacked htem in the face with the invasion.
But what about a universe where the Andros turned right instead of left and are off bothering the Selterians.

How long does the ISC operation last? Is everyone dead set against it, or are some Empires happy to use them as an ablative shield? What about the worlds in the larger neutral zones?
Because the ISC plan seemed to be: 1. send out giant fleet. 2. .... 3. Eternal peace! I could see a lot of fodder for what happens at 2.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, July 21, 2025 - 11:45 am: Edit

I'm... fairly sure that a topic similar to this one was posted to the BBS at some point in the past. But if so, I don't recall exactly where it might have been discussed.

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If you want to get a clearer sense of how the Pacification campaign played out - or, at least, was intended to play out, from the perspective of the ISC - I'd recommend reviewing the Driving Winds scenario from ISC War - though there are a few other Pacification-era notes scattered across various other files here and there.

In terms of how the campaign functioned, the ISC had assigned eight Pacification cordons: Alpha through Foxtrot ran from Circle Trigon (the neutral planet in F&E hex 5109) through to the hexes claimed by the Vudar along the pre-war Klingon/Hydran Neutral Zone. Cordon Yankee covered the ISC-Gorn border; Cordon Zulu was set along the ISC-Romulan border. (Certain "friendly" NZs, such as that between the Federation and the Gorns, were not directly assigned cordons.)

In each corridor, the ISC directly controlled the line of pre-war NZ hexes they chose to occupy. The adjacent lines of hexes to either side of these NZs were treated as "Pacification Enforcement Zones", in which the ISC authorized themselves to destroy any interloping warship, if needs be. To either side of these PEZs, the next adjacent lines of hexes were regarded as "Combatant Exclusion Zones"; in these CEZs, they authorized their forces to cripple any intruding warships from the General War belligerent powers.

In both economic and strategic terms, the ISC were liable to "commandeer" certain planets and provinces within these PEZs and CEZs; this was not occupation per se, but was not seen favourably by the local empires involved.

In terms of economic impact on the ISC proper, the ISC had ran their economy "hot" for 10 F&E turns (or five full calendar years) prior to the onset of the Pacification in Spring Y186. Thus, by the end of the fifth "turn" of the campaign, they would reach the point at which their economy would begin to feel the impact of economic exhaustion.

Perhaps with this in mind, the ISC are noted to have built a "prototype" war cruiser in Y187. While they did not see an immediate need to switch to full "wartime construction" ship designs just yet, this move at least ensured that the fleet yard would have the tools required to do this if so required later on.

By the end of Spring Y188 (Turn #5 of the Driving Winds scenario), the Pacification cordons had more or less reached their historical extent. Had the Andromedans not crashed the party soon thereafter, it's likely that the ISC would have moved to further expand their enforcement and exclusion zones, thus further separating the armed forces of the belligerent powers.

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As a side note: there is conflicting data as regards the ISC and the Vudar.

It would appear that the Concordium considered the Enclave hexes in pre-war Klingon space to be "an internal Klingon matter". But, that they would have demanded the Vudar withdraw from the three pre-war Hydran provinces they were occupying at that time, plus the three pre-war Neutral Zone hexes they had combined in to a fourth "province".

However, it's unclear if the ISC had actually begun to enforce this as part of Cordon Foxtrot, or if the Andros intervened before that could happen.

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As for what the local powers had to say on the matter: we might have to wait for F&E Andro War to get a clearer sense of how their post-war economic recovery was going. But it does appear to have gone somewhat faster than the current rules in F&E account for.

Needless to say, the longer the Pacification went on - and, indeed, the wider the respective PEZs and CEZs were set - the greater degree of exception would be taken by the governments of the belligerent empires being "pacified".

And, much later on, there is still the potential for the Xorkaelians to launch an attack from their side of the galaxy, as historically happened in Y210. So, one way or another, there might have been trouble from an unexpected direction for the Alpha Octant empires to confront.

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Personally, I find it more interesting to think of how the opposite would have gone: as in, what might the Andromedan War in the Alpha Octant have looked like, had there been no ISC Pacification?

Particularly in the various "Mapsheet P" timelines of Module C6, in which the "lost empire" Paravians joined the Romulans in the General War, forcing the ISC to enter the war on the side of the Alliance.

But, there's already a thread (or two) in which to speculate on that topic.

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Although, were the Andros to have never ventured towards the Milky Way Galaxy in the first instance, it might be interesting to consider how the histories of the Lesser Magellanic Cloud and of the Omega Octant might have diverged also.

In the case of Omega, the locals might still have faced a full-scale Souldra invasion at the end of the Second Great War; historically, this onslaught was ended by the actions of the Loriyill Splinter Collective in Y198.

So, just long enough for the Mæsrons to develop both "volatile warp" PFs (from samples of "volatile warp" Interceptor tech they had acquired from the Federal Republic of Aurora) and their earliest samples of first-generation X-technology - but not quite long enough for the New Alliance to have felt any sort of obligation to share this tech with anyone other than the FRA...

Plus, with no Andromedan conquest of the Iridani Cluster - and thus, no Grand Quest to retake the Throne Planet - and with a "shortened" Souldra-only war in Omega proper, perhaps the Iridani might have been minded to send direct Quests to and from the LMC? (Or rather, to send more of them, as there appear to have been occasional visits prior to this at different points in time.)

Perhaps they might have found a still-active set of rival Magellanic empires, as had been present historically prior to the Andromedan invasion? Indeed, what if the Magellanics had begun to independently develop their own equivalent to X-technology by then?