The Third Desolator Incursion of the 02280s

Roughly twenty years after the first encounter with the Desolators, the TransFed fleets encountered a third and much more powerful representative of that ancient dark robotic evil that once again, as fifteen years before, penetrated to Terra's orbit.  Only the combined efforts of the Federacy's best military and scientific minds staved off this attack, thereby delaying the full brunt of the Desolator invasions until the 02900s.

The fallout of the Third Desolator Incursion was a major effort to build a new generation of combat-capable starships, while still retaining the focus on exploration that had dominated fleet doctrine for most of the 02200s.   

As the older starships began to be phased out around 02290, the newest designs in the "V" series came into service.  The Valiant is shown here with an elderly Venture class exploration cruiser and a refit Valkyrie serving in a patrol function out on the frontier.

The Valiant class battlecruisers were somewhat larger and substantially more powerful than the earlier "V-series" exploration cruisers.  Optimized for both combat and exploratory roles, the Valiants were such a successful design that they ultimately served for most of the 02300s by way of multiple refits and service life extension programs. 

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The Rise of the "Ubermen" in the 02280s

The rise of genetically-modified "Ubermen" (or "Genies") from the Northern Bloc nations back in the mid-02000s through the 02100s was one of the great crises of that era.  Their attempts at domination of their fellow Terrans ultimately resulted in their expulsion to a penal colony the Tau Ceti star system, located 12 lightyears from Terra along the early frontier of mankind.  The premise was that the metal-poor system of Tau Ceti would prevent the Genies from getting off-world and building starships of their own, and that the penal colony's location in the debris disk would make it difficult for outsider vessels to navigate to the planet as well.

Genie Ubermen ships were typically highly-modified freighters and transport vessels equipped with captured or purchased weaponry and operated by genetically-modified geniuses who, unfortunately for them, knew very little about space combat operations limiting them to merely being a minor pirate presence during their era of influence despite their alliance with the Cronans.

However, in the 02280s the Ubermen were able to make contact with the recently-defeated Cronans and contract with them for passage offworld in exchange for military support and cooperation against the Zarlacks.  The result was a combined Cronan-Ubermen piracy presence in the known worlds for much of the late 02200s and early 02300s. 

Both the Cronan and Uberman ships of the 02280s were cargo ships and freighters refitted with advanced weaponry but lacking in defensive measures other than armor.

The fact that the Ubermen and the Cronans were both genetically-modified humanoids originating on Terra may have been what drove these two divergent offshoots of humanity into cooperation, but the partnership could never last and the two eventually had a falling out resulting in the almost complete genocide of both (although an amalgamation of the two sub-species would experience a resurgence in the 04000s and 05000s).

During their stint as pirates in the known worlds, the Ubermen attempted to seize Exodus Colony, a distant settlement in the Medusa Nebula.  This brought the Venture into direct conflict with one of the Uberman ships, and ultimately resulted in a campaign by the VanGuard to defeat the threat posed by the new piracy threat.  (NOTE: This image shows the Venture firing two fusion warheads at the Uberman ship, the Genghis Khan.  Historically, this is significant as antimatter warheads were only deployed by VanGuard vessels during times of all-out war).

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The SolarGuard of the 02260s and 02270s

Even as the VanGuard reached further out into the Great Deep to claim worlds for Terran humanity, the once-proud Solar Navy transitioned into a new force for the protection of the Sol System.  The SolarGuard, as it came to be called, served as an adjunct to the HomeGuard (itself composed of "down-commissioned" warships of the former UECON forces) with the assigned duty of protecting Earth, the Solar System and the colonies of the nearest systems.  The SolarGuard fleet used a standardized fleet of Defense Frigates, termed the Valkyrie class, as well as a limited number of larger warships, although in many ways these massive vessels duplicated the capabilities of the existing HomeGuard superdreadnoughts and thus were removed from the line of duty long before becoming obsolete. (The Valkyrie class also made something of a name for itself in exploring previously ignored systems of the known worlds while the Venture class did the same out on the Frontier). 

Valkyrie class Defense Frigates served side-by-side with their Venture class Light Exploration Cruiser brethren throughout the 02260s and 02270s, and some sixteen units remained in service into the 02290s to be upgraded/re-categorized from frigates to perimeter patrol cruisers.

The SolarGuard Valkyrie class Defense Frigates were designed with a mix of captured Qajari/Laythian technologies and Promedian building methods resulting in extremely capable, but costly vessels for their intended purposes. 

The Heaven's Will/Kusanagi class superdreadnought came into being when the Promedians offered technology enhancements to the Terrans as part of the foundational agreements that created the InterStellar Federacy.  In addition, advances made by reverse-engineering Qajari and Laythian technologies recovered from the prior conflict ensured these huge vessels were amongst the most capable warships fielded in the octant during their service life despite their limitations (such as not being very maneuverable in battle and requiring frequent and major maintenance cycles to remain combat-worthy).  Their tremendous cost made them easy targets for decommissioning as the VanGuard began to grow into the role of a single-fleet navy for the fledgling alliance.

The Second Desolator Incursion-02270s

The presence of rogue Desolators (massive and extremely destructive automated robot warships from left over from some ancient epoch) throughout the known worlds began to become common knowledge in the mid-02260s and early-02270s with the second infiltration of Terran space by one of these great machines.  Only superior cunning on the part of VanGuard warship captains resulted in the human homeworld not being devastated as had happened to so many other worlds.
The Desolators would return centuries later in larger groups utilizing more cohesive tactics, but the groundwork for their later attacks would be laid even in this early era of mankind's journey amongst the stars.

Desolator vessels, such as the one that attacked the Terran homeworld in 02271 were one of the greatest nightmares ever faced by humanity in the early days of interstellar exploration.  Although most galactic citizens think of the later Desolator invasions, even these early incursions by single units were terrifying to those who faced them.

Many historians of the time period (and others in retrospect) note that the Desolator Crisis of 02271 was the first time that VanGuard and TerraFleet HomeGuard ships truly worked together since the Kraceen, Felinoid and Galactic War crises of the early to mid-02200s in order to solve a major problem facing Terra.  This would ultimately lead to the much stronger Terran fleet dynamics of the 02300s.

The Zarlack Revolt of 02270

As the 02260s wound down, a major change in interstellar politics was about to take place.  One of the species conquered by the Cronans and held under their sway for a century was the serpentine Zarlacks, a once proud race closely related to the enigmatic Draconyar encountered by a Terran captain five years previous.  After achieving a brief independence from the Cronans during the early part of the 02200s before being re-conquered, the Zarlacks worked tirelessly to regain their freedom.  When their final revolt took place in 02270, they waged a devastating campaign against their hated Cronan foes, leading to a collapse of the regime that turned the once feared Cronans into a secondary interstellar power. 

The Zarlacks were heirs to a once-great empire based many lightyears from the known worlds, but had fallen under the domination of the Cronans a century before the founding of the TranStellar Federacy.  TransFed supported the independence of the Zarlacks in the 02260s and 02270s as a way to restrain the power of the Cronans, but soon regretted their actions as the Zarlacks became an even greater thorn in the side of the Federacy over the next century despite their occasional, but often brief, alliances during the 02300s. 

The Vanguard Fleet during the early Terran Age of Discovery (02200s)

While ships of Terra did carry out significant exploration efforts during the mid- to late-02100s, the first real era of discovery began in the 02260s with the deployment of the TransFed Vanguard Exploration Cruisers.  This new line of galactic research ship was made up of vessels ranging from the diminutive Exploration Frigates to the late era Exploration DreadNaughts and consisted of both brand new designs and upgrades of earlier classes, such as that of the TFS Venture and her sister ships. 

Some of the newer TransFed VanGuard designs were merely upgraded variants of previous designs.  These ships turned out to be excellent vessels for both exploration and military purposes and many enjoyed long service lives into the late 02290s.

The 02260s also marked the first contact between Terrans and one of the Galaxy's cosmic horrors (or guardians, depending on how you look at it); the sublimely ancient Omnicrons.  Their massive vessels plied the deep space lanes, alternating between attacking and protecting the ships of Terra and her allies.

The VanGuard became the major fleet power during the First Terran Age of Discovery as their starships became commonplace throughout much of the local region of known space.  At the same time, there was significant jockeying for position and influence with other races, such as the Cronans and a newly-discovered avian species called the Pauk.  The Cronans were transplanted humans from Terra's ancient past who followed a religion of conquest and debauchery, ruling over other beings in a brutal fashion using their genetically-modification technology.  The Pauk, on the other hand, were a suspicious and devious race who saw themselves as a counter-balance to the Terrans.  With their population spread throughout dozens of nebulae, these "Warriors of the Clouds" (as they called themselves) caused fear throughout the known worlds for nearly two centuries, although at least one sect of the Pauk were nominal allies with the TransStellar Federacy on occasion.  These two races, along with other species that would rise and fall from time to time, posed the greatest threat to the Terran Ascension during the 23rd and 24th Centuries.

The vile Cronans were responsible for many of the interstellar crises that developed during the 02260s, but were overthrown circa 02270 by one of their slave races, the reptilian Zarlacks. 

Pauk warships terrorized the allied worlds during the two centuries that began around 02260 and ended roughly 02460, although they seemed to take a long hiatus here and there and hide out in their stellar nurseries from time to time.  Their treachery became the stuff of legends, and even thousands of years later the term "Paukish" still connotes a being of dishonest or duplicitous nature.

The InterStellar Federacy of the 02260s

With the conclusion of the Great Galactic War, Terra and its colonies found itself part of a new collective of worlds which came to be known as the InterStellar Federacy, or "InterFed" for short.  InterFed was a newly minted power, focused on both exploration and unification of the various inhabited human and xenoalien worlds making up the known worlds.  The fading domination of the Promedians, with their former mandate from the distant Galactic Assembly, paved the way for the Terrans to rise to prominence and the era beginning in the 02260s became known as the "Terran Ascension".

Newly-built frigates of the InterStellar Federacy on manuevers over Potsdam Colony in the 36 Ophiuchi system.

While both homeworlds of the Promedians (Promedia Prime in the 40 Eridani system and Promedia Secundis in the Chi Draconis system) played an important role in the foundation of InterFed, and their technologies contributed to the design process of an entire new generation of starships, as well as upgrades to previous VanGuard vessels.  Gone were the massive lumbering Terran warships of the Alliance era and in their place were the new, more agile and sleek Exploration Cruisers.

The Exploration Cruisers of the 02260s were elegant and powerful designs.  They crammed the weaponry of the previous generation of Superdreadnoughts into hulls the size of cruisers, to the point of completely putting the larger ships out of service as warships and relegating them to intersystem transports.

The C-series of exploration scouts traveled far and wide during the 02250s and 02260s securing footholds on numerous uninhabited worlds throughout the region of space that would become dominated by Terran humanity.  This particular example is Unit 57-Delta which explored the Cosmic Oracle world circling the nearby star Altair.