For those I left behind - the memoirs of Colonel Jason Myers

[Jansen]

At first I should tell you about the Colonial history, most of it can be found in history books all over the Republic, but you do have to understand it in order to understand me and my actions.


Mankind’s first interstellar endeavor has brought people from all nations to a place far away from their home, the Earth. They were a large group of individuals diverse as life can be, children, men, women, scientists, engineers, farmers, politicians and many more. A diversity that would be necessary for what was planned for them, they had volunteered to be the first humans travelling further away then anyone else before them, they had been chosen to find a new place to live, they had been chosen to be the founders of a new civilization. A new civilization somewhere out there.


Their destination was a sector spotted only a few years before their departure, it was a place unlike all the other uninhabitable worlds humanity could find out there, scans indicated that at least 6 of the planets in this area were able to be colonized by humans, most even supported life without the need of terraforming and could be settled within a short amount of time. Many years later the two prototype ships Gemini and Orion reached this place, the Crayter sector. The birth of the Crayterian nation began at a time when the humans on earth had been splited into two groups fighting each other, the Alliance and the Coalition.

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[Jansen]

However the Crayterians would never receive single information about the war destroying their old home, any possible means of communication with Sol had been lost on the way to Crayter. All the Cryterians knew, was that they were alone out there.


Soon after their arrival a government was formed, a government as simple as effective. A Quorum of 12 elected people had been chosen to lead the new nation to bloom. The people started to build a new home, soon large cities grew from the 2 planets the humans had chosen for their landing. Due to the high motivation and generally good morale within the colonies and the incredibly amount of natural resources found on the surface of the planets, the further evolution of infrastructure on the planets proceeded even faster than the most optimistic plans had predicted. Corporations started to grow out of small businesses, the first ships were built to explore the space around their new planets, life continued to go on, and for most citizens it was an even better life then the one they could have expected in the Sol sector. The ships that brought them to their new home, the giant Orion and Gemini had been grounded, turned into museums to remind the Crayterians of their past.


After the first 100 years the Crayterians had explored most of the sector and started to inhabitate the 12 planets that supported human life, wealth was a common sight and nobody had to fear that this could change in the future. Life in the Crayterian colonies was a life in a small paradise.


However, every paradise has its snakes aiming to destroy it, in this paradise humanity itself was the snake. Greed started to spread through the Colonies, crime became a common sight due to the lack of police or military, things that had not been necessary until now. The government soon formed a paramilitary group to strike hard against these pirates, murders and thieves. But it was too late, the paradise was lost. Even though the newly formed law enforcement was able to fight the organized crime it took them many years to get the situation under control. It could have happened faster, but the law enforcement had to use the old and mostly malfunctioning technology humanity had brought with them hundreds of years ago.


The government soon decided that new technology had to be used in order to fight back threats like this in a more effective way, remnants of this technology can still be seen in the current Colonial fleet, the Eros Fighter and the Thanatos Cruiser, both concepts date back to this time and have survived the centuries with nearly no changes. Over time the Military gained more and more might within the Colonials society, so that the government decided to involve it into political decisions to prevent the military from overthrowing it, the Republic became a military nation.

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[Jansen]

With the Military research on new technology a new age of civilian space exploration had started, new engine systems allowed travels to areas far away in a much shorter period of time then before. And so it happened that humanities children were able to find their cradle through a wormhole leading to Sol, or better said, the place were Sol once was. The explorers were not able to spot any of the planets in their ancient maps, Sol had been destroyed. However they were able to detect a giant ship wreck not too far away from the Sol sector, scans indicated that it was a more advanced version of the ships that brought their ancestors to Crayter. The ship was explored carefully, but the only useful thing they found were coordinates to a star system far away, located near Canis Majoris.


The government and Military leaders decided that a small part of the Colonials would venture to Sirius in order to establish contact with their brethren. The decision to restore the Orion and the Gemini was made and after more than 10 years of preparation the colossi had been repaired and people to represent the Crayterians in Sirius were chosen.

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[Jansen]

However, destiny did never know any mercy with the Colonials, soon after they finished rebuilding the ships, scientists detected a giant black hole moving towards them, calculations showed that Crayter would be devastated as soon as it gets hit by the cosmic danger. The exodus was ordered, even though there was little hope to save even a small part of the billions of people in the Colonies. There was not enough time to build more sleeper ships, so the highly industrialized Republic had to rely on smaller ships equipped with stasis technology similar to the one used on the sleeper ships in order to save as many citizens as possible, even though they knew that the small ships would never be able to travel all the way to Sirius, the hope remained, that against all odds another inhabitable sector existed, one that humanity did not detect yet.


The Black hole came closer and the so Crayterians left their home once more, families being divided, many millions of citizens left behind, all of them with little hope to survive. The Gemini and the Orion were on their way for many years, all of the smaller ships had been lost somewhere on the way. The common Colonial saying ‘For those we left behind’ originates from this disaster.

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[Jansen]

In 802 AS the two sleeper ships appeared in the Omegas, soon being detected by the Zoners who were the only ones welcoming the newcomers. The houses close by had little trust in these strange outsiders and their story right after what is known to them as the nomad war. The people of Crayter were forced to scatter through the Sirius sector, trying to find jobs to survive within this unwelcoming sector. They were not welcome in most places, the only ones accepting them as equal humans were the guilds and groups living in the edges of the Sirius sector, especially the IMG, and the Zoners offered shelter to them, they also had been the ones calling them ‘Colonials’ a name the newcomers soon used for themselves.


Most of the Colonials were unable to adapt to the new circumstances, they were unable to let their traditions go, they were unable to fit into the societies of Sirius. The Colonial government signed a contract with Planetform, offering them their services as cheap escort and transport pilots in exchange for an inhabitable planet. Only 2 years later the Bretonian government released a number of laws preventing Colonials from working in Bretonia by popular demand. These laws made it impossible for the Colonials to fulfill their contract with Planetform, which then forced them to leave Bretonia in order to escape the judicial consequences of this breach of contract they could not even influence. The Colonial escape ended in a war, a war that lasted for many years at the cost of the lives of many brave soldiers on both sides. This war was only settled because, many years later, both sides agreed that the reason they so willingly wasted life over was not worth the bloodshed.


Most of the Colonials were forced to leave everything behind another time, this time they were venturing for the Tau Systems, were the IMG offered them shelter. Soon after their arrival the Tau 44 system was found and the Colonials took the chance to settle there, they had found a new home. They started to rebuild their nation yet another time, scrapping the sleeper ships in order to kick-start the young nations economy.

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[Jansen]

The first Colonial bases in the Sirius sector have been constructed using mostly the materials taken from the Gemini and Orion, this way our Republic did not have to rely on assistance from the outside. I doubt that anyone except the IMG and the Zoners would have granted it anyways. The bases the Republic constructed in a relatively small time were Minato Harbor, which served as the Colonials Freeport, allowing access to everyone not considered hostile to the Republic. Minato soon became the Colonials main trade hub. Sarawak Station, the Colonials research station right next to planet Mindanao was the place where most of the improvement to Colonial weaponry and newer shipbuilding projects came from. The Military headquarters were located on Sulawesi Station, while the Colonials shipbuilding efforts were located at the well hidden Singapore shipyard. This is the place where the first Carrier prototype Warhammer and all other Zephyr class Colonial Carriers had been built.


My own involvement within the Colonial Military began in the 812, at the time when the tests on the prototype Carrier Warhammer were already finished and Valkyries construction had started. I had reached the age of 18, old enough to serve in the Military, just like nearly everyone in my family did before.
Back then nearly everyone in the Colonial Republic was born in Crayter, the only outsiders within our fleet were a few Zoners that decided to live within a Republic that offered more freedom then the other Sirian houses did. At this time the Republic was at war with the Kingdom of Bretonia which accused us of breaching the Planetform contract, even though they were the ones that decided on the Anti-Colonial laws in Bretonia. The Maltese nation started to be a problematic neighbor as well, as soon as Colonial forces stopped the first Slavers, heading for Malta. The Republic had never been in favor of slavery, the very principle of owning another human being had always been considered wrong by us, so we had to free those people. Most of them had lost everything in the places they came from, so the government offered them to stay within the Republic, freed slaves were granted the possibility of being a part of the Republic. Even though the Colonial citizenship had only been granted to them after they served in the Military. I still consider this to be one of the best decisions the Quorum ever made.


Basic Military training at this time took one year, so in 813 I had my first combat operations against Bretonians and Outcast forces alike. In the middle of the year the Carrier Valkyrie had been finished and I was one of the first people to serve onboard of it. I can assure that my time within the Valkyries Battlegroup was one of the best times in my life. It lasted for 3 years, until I had been promoted to the rank of a Captain. Within those three years the Carriers Rubicon and Nemesis had been constructed. The Rubicon always remained close to our home, the Tau 44 system, to serve as a line of defense in case of a hostile attack, while the Nemesis has always been involved in combat operations, even far beyond enemy lines.

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[Jansen]

With the beginning of the Colonial Republics interest in expanding, a Colonial force was sent out to the desolate Omicron Lost system, I was one of the pilots that volunteered for this mission, which meant that I had to leave the Valkyries 41st Battlegroup behind. Most of the work we did down there were boring escort jobs for the 51st Battlegroups research teams. But we also had quite a few dangerous encounters with the alien entities the Sirians call Nomads, we sadly lost many good people to these things. Down there we learned quite a few things about the dangers that lurk in the unknown edges of space.


The operation in Lost was, even though we had losses, a success, other operations in the Kansas and Coronado systems followed, but I did not take part in those. I never considered myself to be much of an explorer or researcher, I was born to be a soldier, born to defend the Republic. Upon our return to Tau 44 in the year 817, I was assigned to the 88th Battlegroup, to the Carrier Nemesis. I always admired Admiral Wingates, he was one of the most skilled tacticians the Republic ever had. He also had a different approach to solve the problems we had with the Maltese, instead of merely freeing the slaves he decided to destroy every Cardamine shipment we could detect, damaging their economy in ways we would never have imagined. This way of dealing with the Outcasts soon had been utilized within all parts of the Colonial fleet. Due to the fact that we damaged their economy badly the Outcasts did no longer consider us as a small nuisance that could be ignored and only had to be fought when necessary, they now saw us as the danger we were and attempted to destroy the Republic. We had another full scale war on our hands. Fortunately the war with Bretonia came to an end after the situation between them and Kusari escalated in the Taus, even though we were not at war anymore, the Colonials never forgot the Bretonian betrayal that took so many of our brave soldiers lives. The war with the Maltese was bloody, our only advantage, if you can even call it this way, was their limited reproduction capability, every life lost on their side was one that could only hardly be replaced. While we, due to the governments slave-friendly policy had highly motivated pilots that could be exchanged rather easily. This might sound harsh, but that’s the way I always saw it and I guess that’s the way the Military leaders saw it as well, sooner or later we would bring the Maltese close to their extinction, this was a fact nobody could ignore.


Within the year 817 the government had undergone radical changes, the Quorum had been considered to be too slow to act effectively, so all power was now given to the new Presidential position, even though not everyone liked the idea to have one person holding all the power, I had always been in favor of this structure, it simply was the most efficient way to deal with all important matters in a short time. The President had to be elected every year and had the same amount of power the Colonial Admiralty had, in order to prevent an abuse of power, this way most of the critical voices within the nation could be silenced and agreed to this change, but a limited number of people, mostly soldiers with close ties to the Quorum left the Republic and formed the Colonial Freedom Front, which soon began to fight against the regular forces, the Colonial news also accused them for various terroristic attacks of that time, I guess nobody will ever find out if they were behind those. Back then we had orders to terminate each member of this group without mercy, we didn’t question these orders and the Colonial Freedom Front had been taken care of within 3 months.

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[Jansen]

At the end of 817 we made the first contact with a group called the Council, the President soon assured them our aid in their fight against the Gallic kingdom, I am unsure if this was a mistake, but in the end it would be too late to change it anyways.
I did spend my next year within the 88th Battlegroup in the Taus, fighting the Outcasts wherever possible, my cousin, the now infamous Admiral Naia Myers had even been appointed to be the Nemesis XO.
818 was an eventful year, at first the Nemesis had been assigned for the operation Scarecrow II, a mission within the Omega systems, to defend the IMGs interests against the Republic of Rheinland. The Rheinlanders had trouble to fight within the asteroid fields of Omega 7, while we had never really fought in a different terrain. We were able to damage and even destroy a large part of the fleet the Rheinlanders sent to the Omegas, so that the IMGs interests within these systems could be protected. I had been promoted to the rank of a Colonel when we returned home.
When we arrived in the Taus the Emperor of Kusari declared war with the Republic due to a minor misunderstanding within their space, so we had made yet another enemy. Even though this enemy was fighting a war with Bretonia, it sooner or later could turn its whole attention against us, but we were lucky and this never happened.
Shortly after Kusaris war declaration the Gallic Navy arrived there and we received another deadly enemy. Fortunately the Gallics did consider the Maltese to be just another hostile entity, I do not want to imagine what would have happened to the Republic if they would have joined their forces against us.
818 was also the year when the most questionable Colonial President stepped into the office, Colonel Diocletian, he was the one that increased the Militaries importance even more. The old Carrier Valkyrie, which only served as one of the few defenses of Tau 44 due to its bad condition was brought back into active serve and my cousin had been appointed to be its CO, even though the Valkyrie was unable to fight against the Gallic fleet on its own, it was able to give the necessary support the forces needed to keep them away from our home.
Even though most people consider Diocletian to be a madman, I consider him to be a genius, he was the one that ordered the preparation of the exodus to Coronado, he knew that we could not win against the Gallic forces. He even considered to open talks with the Gallic, but did not accept their conditions when they expected our Republic to become nothing but a mere vassal, serving them and their king.


I admired Diocletians was of dealing with problems, even though it was a violent way, he always got the results he required. But I guess it was exactly this way that brought the Admirality against him. They did not trust him enough, they always had to fear that they would be executed for high treason if one of Diocletians plans went wrong, he was one of those people that always accused others of mistakes he obviously made himself. Even though he was one of the most dangerous people within the Republic, he also was one of the smartest.

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[Jansen]

The plan to evacuate a whole nation within a few days was his masterpiece, he knew what he had to do.
Shortly after the beginning of 819 the Gallics breached through our defenses, the Warhammer, the glorious guardian of Tau 44 was able to destroy a Valor, before its own end, the Nemesis also caused considerable amounts of damage to the Gallic forces before it escaped heavily damaged to a position within the Tau 39 system. Due to the heavily damaged engines the Carrier had been chosen to serve as a tactical frontier base, codenamed Hades. Its position is only known to a selected few and the nebula surrounding it should prevent the Gallics from detecting it.
Despite the overwhelming Gallic forces, our own civilian and military causalities remained extremely low, Diocletians plan had worked. The Colonial nation arrived in a prepared system, even though Coronado was not as hospitable as our old home was, we had a home. The ice planet of Pecos was able to support us with Deuterium, this Deuterium was enough to keep the fleet running and enough to build up a working economy from the profits we made by selling it. A new shipyard had been built close to the Planet Yuma, even though it was not completely finished it already started producing ships when we arrived. We had everything we needed, but could not forget the Gallic danger, that would sooner or later arrive in Coronado.


Diocletian decided that the old concept of Battlegroups did not suit our needs anymore, he deemed many smaller groups to be more efficient. He was the one that had ordered our engineers to improve the old Thanatos class Cruisers, a ship that, in his opinion would be more suited to be the backbone of the fleet then the aging Zephyr Carriers. A byproduct of the Thanatos improvement was the Kronos class Battleship, a vessel that, at least by the engineers calculations, could be built relatively cheap and efficient with the resources gained by scraping the old Zephyrs. So the fleets most reliable ships were scraped for a new project, but it soon turned out that the Kronos class was not what the Republic would have needed. The Admiralty attempted to put pressure onto Diocletian, they expected to be the ones responsible for the fleets improvement.
Diocletians answer was simple, he sent the Admirals to different places, some to fight the enemies, some to simply have them out of his way.


With the Admirals being in something that might be described as exile, Diocletian established his own ideas, Thanatos Cruisers should be the backbone of the fleet, due to the fact that the Kronos Battleships were not reliable enough, important tests within their creation had been ignored due to the limited time he gave the engineers to work on two ship classes.
Diocletians new fleet consisted of many smaller wings, operating alone, each wing consisted of at least one Cruiser and various support ships, the command of these wings was given to soldiers that had proven trustworthy in his eyes. I was one of them.
I received the command of the Cruiser Pandora and a wing consisting of 2 Nyx and 1 Eros fighters, 1 Pytho Bomber and one Celestra combat transport. This constellation had proven to be the most effective one behind enemy lines.
We soon were sent out to the Taus, to damage the Gallic war effort wherever possible. Our operation there lasted for months until further orders, until we received a transmission from Coronado, one that told us that the Admirals had murdered the infamous President.
The order coming from the fleet command was clear, we were to return to Coronado to receive further instructions.

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[Jansen]

Upon our arrival in Coronado the Admirals had been outlawed, they had formed a group they called the Vanguard and continued to damage the Republics enemies wherever possible. The hope that they could ever return to the Republic was low, they committed high treason, a crime that would have costed them and everyone supporting them, that would have been everyone within their crew their lives.
A new President had taken over, he had formed a government, all of those were people I never had heard of, upon further investigation I found out that they had not been elected, so this government was not a righteous one.
I decided to hope for the best and remained within the Republic, following orders given by this new government. However it soon turned out that they tried to reform the Military once more, they attempted to reduce the numbers of active units by incredible amounts.
As if they would completely ignore the Gallic danger.


Then, as they tried to remove me from the Pandoras command, I understood that this new government would surrender the Colonial Republic to the Gallics as soon as they reach Coronado. Everything we had fought for, all the lives that had been lost would have been useless.
That was the time when I remembered what the Colonial Freedom Front had fought for and I understood that they were right, even though I could not understand how they could fight their own people back then. I now understood why it would be necessary to fight for the Colonial Republic freedom, even if that would mean that I had to fight against the Republic itself to achieve my goal.
Nearly all of the former soldiers within my combat wing thought the same way that I did, but only a limited number of them joined me and left the Republic behind, we were willed to fight against our own people in order to bring the Colonials what they deserved and needed in order to survive in these harsh times, freedom and justice.

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