[Psionics] [Space] Psi Trek - Worldbuilding

[TGLS]

Wait a minute, this is the RCMP in space! I was going to compare, but it's so close the differences are basically invisible. I do find the military and the police folded together a little unusual, but I suppose it makes sense, the apocalypse was literally less than a century ago.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Wait a minute, this is the RCMP in space! I was going to compare, but it's so close the differences are basically invisible. I do find the military and the police folded together a little unusual, but I suppose it makes sense, the apocalypse was literally less than a century ago.

Well, I wasn't intending it to be exactly that, but 'RCMP Iiin Spaaaaace' is close enough to the concept. Someone less familiar with the RCMP than you are might match it to a different semi-military police force, though, like the French gendarmerie. I was actually taking inspiration from the London Metropolitan Police Service and NYPD and LAPD.

[Prince Charon]

On the Kzin, and their wars with the Solar Cooperative.

The Kzin are a particularly aggressive branch of the felinoid species commonly known as 'Caitians.' 'Kzin' is a transliteration of their actual name for themselves, which is both difficult to spell properly with Roman letters, and unpronouncible for most hominid races. Their ancestors were one of several groups taken from the planet Cait by the Preservers (who had settled the Caitians' ancestors on Cait millennia earlier), during the Caitians only full nuclear conflict; it is believed that the first generation of Kzin-Caitians arrived on the planet as children, forced to raise themselves or die trying, which may help to explain the culture which they developed. Kzin are stronger on average than other Caitian subspecies, but have poorer hearing and night vision, closer to the senses of humans. One of the native plants on their world produces an addictive substance which induces telepathic abilities in members of many feline species. Most or all of the Caitians who were settled on the planet that came to be called Kzin suffered from a sex-linked genetic disease which caused reduced intelligence in females. This disease is extinct in other Caitian populations. For this reason, the government of the Kzin culture's empire is generally called the 'Kzin Patriarchy' in English, and their autocratic leader the 'Patriarch of Kzin.'

Once interstellar travel became minimally available, interstellar conquest and colonization became both a means of distracting the population from internal problems, and a vital safety valve: young warriors who thought that they might make a better Patriarch of Kzin than the current Patriarch or his heirs, or who otherwise might advocate for reforms that the Patriarch wasn't prepared to grant, could be sent off into space to bother someone else. The fact that their travel speeds at the time were limited to high sub-light by the gravitic (psychokinetic) drives that they used was a bonus in this case, since while they could communicate with some difficulty, they couldn't come back to make trouble.


* The First Human-Kzin War, and Terran humanity's first contact with the Kzin race, began without warning in early 2131, when a Kzin conquest fleet invaded the planet New California, an extrasolar colony of the Solar Cooperative (for this, it is also called the New California Incident or New California Conflict by those who do not wish to classify it as a war). The Kzin in the fleet had no experience fighting an opponent capable of FTL travel, but still did well initially due to their numbers. However, they could not hope for reinforcements, while the Terran colonists could. Political tensions with the Andorian Star Empire (due to the SC's alliance with the Vulcanians) and the Orion Union (due to piracy and other criminal activities by the Orion Syndicate, a criminal organization which is strongly suspected to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Orion government) lead to the Solar Cooperative Space Patrol developing a rather large interstellar defence force, primarily under the previously small SCSP Special Weapons and Tactics Directorate.

By the time Task Force New California arrived, the Kzin Seventh Conquest Fleet was in control of the orbitals, and the Kzin troops on the ground were discovering that they really hated guerilla warfare (which they subsequently called 'ape warfare' or 'monkey warfare' in their own language, comparing it to the behavior of troops of primates on their homeworld); the effectiveness of improvised explosive devices was especially unnerving for them. In space, the portion of the Seventh Conquest Fleet still in orbit was unprepared for attack, and badly outnumbered, while those on the ground needed time to gather their crews and take off. Task Force New California was thus able to obtain orbital superiority with minimal losses, and begin landing ground troops (primarily drawn from the Lunar Commonwealth Militia (formerly the Lunar Colonial Militia) and the surviving or reconstituted military forces of Earth) within days. The war lasted several months, as the Seventh, typical of conquest fleets of that era, had numerous strong personalities in the officer corps, who didn't agree with each other on a lot of things, and certainly weren't going to accept a surrender order just because someone they didn't like had 'turned coward.'

Once all the surviving Kzin were captured (less a few crazy or stubborn ones who made their way far enough from the few settled parts of the planet that they weren't detected), the question was what to do with them. After much consideration, the surviving spacecraft of the Kzin Seventh Conquest Fleet were demilitarized, the surviving Kzin were loaded on to them, and a mixed fleet of Space Patrol, SC civilian-owned freighters, and various alien military and cargo vessels, dragged the Kzin sphereships into warp, and delivered them back to the Kzin homeworld (located using the Kzin vessels' own computers). This failed to go over well with the Patriarch of Kzin, but there was little he could do about it against prepared opponents with spacetime warp stardrives... not that he didn't try, as he couldn't lose face by just accepting this 'invasion,' but Patriarch Kilrargh-Riit was intelligent enough to grasp the implications better than many of his subordinates. This resulted in a lot of deaths, most of them Kzin.

Once the fighting was done, information about other problems came out: the Patriarch had limited influence over the Kzin interstellar colonies, who might make trouble eventually, the Fourth Conquest Fleet was missing (the Fifth had been sent to the same system, and found no evidence of them), and an Eighth Conquest Fleet was recently sent out. Also, the Patriarch of Kzin really didn't want the prisoners back.

The peace treaty included a trade agreement favorable to the Solar Cooperative's interests, signing over of ownership rights to the Solar Cooperative of the Kzin vessels that the SCSP had already captured, the Kzin giving up all claim on New California (a sticking point that they eventually gave in on, despite having launched the Seventh Conquest Fleet some years before the first SC colonists arrived on the planet), an agreement not to attack the Solar Cooperative if not attacked first, and an agreement that the Space Patrol would transport the prisoners to the existing Kzin colonies when they went to inform the colonists of the treaty, and convince said colonists of its validity. This lead to the final phase of the war, as the colonists needed a lot of convincing, in many cases.

The war was effectively over, and the troops back home, by Christmas, 2132.

(OOC: The Fourth and Eighth Conquest Fleets are left as adventure seeds; what happens with them is up to the individual GM.)


* The Second Human-Kzin War took place a decade later, from late 2141 to early 2143, when trade with the various FTL-capable civilizations had allowed the Kzin to develop spacetime warping technology of their own, and equip it on what became the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Conquest Fleets. All three fleets were sent to the Sol system, the Ninth to Earth and Luna, the Tenth to Mars, and the Eleventh, which was already the most fractious, to deal with habitats in the rest of the system; the official casus belli was a bar fight on Tellar, in which a human who served as a guard at the Solar Cooperative's embassy threw the first punch at a Kzin telepath who was part of the Kzin embassy. Due to the Kzin Patriarchy's limited experience with espionage and counterintelligence, the coming invasion was by no means a surprise, though due to limited intelligence assets and general arrogance in the Intelligence Bureau at the time (and the Kzin not being completely incompetent at counterintelligence), the total number of vessels was badly underestimated.

The first two battles occurred in deep space on the way to Sol, and were tactical victories for the Kzin, in that the SC fleets were driven off without the Kzin needing to significantly alter course, but strategic losses, as several vessels were disabled or destroyed, and unit cohesion was reduced in the Ninth and Tenth Conquest Fleets, as the flagships were specifically targeted, and were destroyed.

The invasion of the Sol System did not go terribly well for the Kzin, both due to the initial losses in deep space, and the fact that the Kzin were playing catch-up with a technologically-superior opponent. Indeed, they wouldn't have done as well as they did, if the Intelligence Bureau had registered how big the fleets were going to be. As it was, the Conquest Fleets had been forced to surrender by June, save for a few couriers that were assigned to bring news to the Patriarch, and a small group of vessels that were taken over by telepaths, and fled to Orion territory.

In August, 2142, a large punitive expedition was launched to the Kzin system, along with smaller expeditions to keep the Kzin colonies (now reluctantly under closer supervision by the Kzin homeworld) from getting ideas. This lead to several battles, before the Kzin were eventually brought to the negotiating table. The new treaty required the Kzin to pay significant war reparations, and had a much clearer definition of what constitutes an attack sufficient to justify a war.


(Continued next post.)

[Prince Charon]

* For the rest of the 2140s and the early 2150s, relations between the Cooperative and the Patriarchy were tense, but generally not violent. That didn't mean that the Patriarchy itself was at peace, though, nor that the SC had no problems during that period. The First Contact with the Kaa in 2144 did not go brilliantly, but did not quite result in military action. The formation of the Solar Cooperative's colonies in the Alpha Centauri systems into the independent Alpha Centauri Concordium of Planets in 2149 was handled diplomatically, but did lead to some tensions, and reforms (both good and bad) of the Solar Cooperative's dealings with their extrasolar colonies. The war with the Crystal Computers beginning in 2151 was fairly limited, but serious, and the disastrous first contact with the Xindi in 2153 only failed to lead to a war by sheer luck, diplomatic acumen, and mutual antipathy toward the Kaa. The Kzin, meanwhile, sent a significant number of 'mercenaries' (mainly Kzin officers and NCOs with Gormelite soldier-slaves as enlisted) to help the Orions in their war with the Andorians in the late 2140s (though they did not formally join the war); a war that the Kaa would have joined in on the Kzin/Orion side if the Solars and Xindi hadn't threatened to join in on the Andorian side.

In 2154, scouts from a civilization the SCSPIB designated 'Romulans' began to be reported, though communication did not occur, and contact was sparse. On January 11, 2156, Romulan vessels attacked and destroyed Space Station Salem One without warning, beginning the Romulan War (though the station did fairly well defensively, due to numerous 'surprise attack' drills; several couriers and other warp-vehicles were able to escape). An Andorian colony was attacked later the same month. On learning of this, suspiciously well-equipped Kzin 'pirates' began opportunistic attacks on nearby SC colonies and trade routes. The SC threatened to declare war on the Kzin if the attacks continued, as relatively few bought their excuse (they weren't nearly as good at making their deniability plausible as the Orions were). By the time there were enough votes to declare war on the Kzin, however, this was pre-empted, as a fleet of Kzin 'armed freighters' suspected of piracy were attacked by a Romulan force that were preparing to attack the same colony. This lead to the Kzin Patriarchy declaring war on the Romulans in 2157. Despite the lack of an official declaration, some historians refer to the attacks (and unofficial reprisals by civilian-owned Solar Cooperative armed freighters) as the Third Human-Kzin War. When the Romulan War ended in 2160, the Kzin were at the negotiating table alongside the other Coalition powers, though they received fairly little from it, and in 2161, they were one of the first star-nations to be granted Observer status in the newly-formed United Space Authority.


* The Fourth (or Third) Human-Kzin War began in 2179, and was the first real test of the Authority. Throughout the 2170s, agents of the Kaa and Orions (and by coincidence, the Xindi) attempted to drive wedges between the various powers of the infant USA, and especially between the more warlike powers and the more pacifistic powers. This was varyingly effective, at least enough that they believed by 2179 that they could implement Phase Two: The Kaa declared war on the Andorian Star Empire, whose military forces were the least recovered from the Romulan War. Shortly thereafter, the Kzin declared that the Treaty of 2143 was an unequal treaty imposed by blackmail and accepted by a dishonourable leadership, and thus was invalid, and began attacks on the Solar Cooperative. Finally, the Orions provoked the United Planets of Tellar into declaring war on them. All three anti-USA powers (the Xindi stayed out of it) carefully avoided attacking the other members of United Space, and made attempts to avoid appearing to be allied - though the Kzin and Orions did both use Gormelite soldier-slaves, the Orions were already known for using them, so this was not a clear connection. The Kaa did not use Gormelites at all, preferring Nausicaan and Cidi mercenaries. It was hoped that the Vulcanians, Pachekki, Centaurans, and the Betazoids - who had recently become Observers in the USA legislature - would stay out of it, and thus with that trust destroyed, the Authority would break up, and cease to be such a threat.

This failed for multiple reasons: Firstly, the intelligence services of the various members were not idle, and were at least somewhat aware of this plan, even if they were uncertain of the exact details beforehand. Secondly, the less warlike star-nations were fully aware of the benefits they gained from being part of the Authority, and had no intention of giving that up. Thirdly, the anti-USA powers underestimated the strength of the bonds that they were trying to break (and were completely confused as to why pro-war posters in the Concorduim often read 'Gondor Calls For Aid!'), or perhaps overestimated their own political skills. Finally, they were not expecting the Xindi Alliance to just watch as they did, but to opportunistically attack (they would have, if the war had lasted longer, or had looked like it might be successful). The Kaa were the first to bow out, establishing a separate peace in 2183. The Orions reluctantly withdrew from the war in early 2185, with the Kzin holding on until the end of 2187.

The war had a variety of results:

The Kaa, having bowed out early, suffered minimal consequences, only needing to pay war reparations that were only slightly larger than they had budgeted for the rest of the war.

The Orions were forced to give up all non-Orion slaves, and agree not to take more, in perpetuity, as well as paying war reparations (the Tellarites and Solars wanted to force the Orions to give up slavery completely, but the other member-states were against that, as it would prolong the war, and significantly increase loss of life). This lead to the fall of the Orion Union's government, and was replaced with a new constitution and government, the Orion Free States (or Orion Commercial States, depending on the translation).

The Kzin suffered worst, as they hadn't wanted to give up, and had dearly wated to avenge the 'humiliation' of the last two or three wars; thus, they lost too much of their fleet to have any real negotiating power. The Kzin were made a protectorate of the United Space Authority (primarily a mandate of the Solar Cooperative), lost several colonies, and were forced to accept severe restrictions, including having no armed space vessels beyond lightly-armed patrol craft, that they had to buy from the SC.

The small Kzin population on the Gormelite homeworld was mostly removed to the remaining Kzin colonies, or to the Kzin homeworld, and the Gormelites were given sovereignty over themselves again, and Observer status in the USA, with an offer of membership if they qualified in twenty years.

The USA was changed as well by the war, with the member-nations growing closer, and the original, relatively ad hoc Authority Space Forces becoming a more formal organization, with dedicated vessels, stations, and personnel, rather than everything being very clearly on loan from the members. Likewise, whilst the member states retained their own intelligence services, the Authority established a centralized intelligence agency, as well.


Thoughts?

[Prince Charon]

OK, so, the Views counter suggests that people are reading this, but that doesn't tell me whether the above is good worldbuilding, or if it needs changing, and if it does need changing, what needs to be changed. I'd like to know, please.

[TGLS]

Two thoughts:

1) Is the Earth-Romulan War going to be renamed the Human-Romulan War to be consistent with the Human-Kzin Wars?

2) Human-Kzin War IV appears to be relatively short, which makes some sense, but I'm not sure that the results are consistent with its length. The Kaa result makes the most sense. The Orion result forbidding xeno slaves seems a little off, though if there are no other sources the demand could be academic, and the Orion Free State could plausibly ignore the restriction and claim it only applied to the Orion Union. The Kzin result seems slightly less likely; a total rollback seems like it would need a longer war that had a degree of occupation. Disarmament is plausible as written, but the protectorate status is questionable.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Two thoughts:

1) Is the Earth-Romulan War going to be renamed the Human-Romulan War to be consistent with the Human-Kzin Wars?

I'm fine with that, as long as the rest of whomever is reading this doesn't mind.

Originally Posted by TGLS

2) Human-Kzin War IV appears to be relatively short, which makes some sense, but I'm not sure that the results are consistent with its length. The Kaa result makes the most sense. The Orion result forbidding xeno slaves seems a little off, though if there are no other sources the demand could be academic, and the Orion Free State could plausibly ignore the restriction and claim it only applied to the Orion Union. The Kzin result seems slightly less likely; a total rollback seems like it would need a longer war that had a degree of occupation. Disarmament is plausible as written, but the protectorate status is questionable.

Hmm. Good point. I was going with the idea of 'short shooty periods and longer periods of political tension,' but I may have gone too far.

So, the question is:
Should I make the war that started in 2179 longer (which also helps with the Orions), or should I reduce the penalties that the Kzin are under?

EDIT: OK, I'll make the war longer.

[TGLS]

OK, another short timeline:

2110: Contact with Vulcans, Humans enter Galactic Community
2131: HK (Human-Kzin) I Begins
2132: HK I Ends
2141: HK II Begins
2143: HK II Ends
2144: First Contact with Kaa
2147: Orion-Andorian War Begins, Kzin send Volunteers
2149: Orion-Andorian War Ends
2149: ACCP Established
2151: Crystal Computer War Begins
2152: Crystal Computer War Ends
2153: Xindi Affair
2154: First Contact with Romulans
2156: Romulan War Begins, Kzin Piracy (HK III)
2157: Kzin Enter Romulan War
2160: Romulan War Ends
2161: United Space Authority (USA) Established
2179: HK IV, Andorian-Kaa War, Orion-Tellarite War Begin (The Unification Wars?)

Looking at just Human-Kzin relations to this point, there have been two costly wars and an out of context war (i.e. Enemy appearing out of nowhere, like the conquistadors or the Mongols). The Romulan War has given Humans and Kzin little to bond over, and tensions have been accumulating for about half a century. A twenty year break since the last big war helps.

To play devil's advocate against lengthening the war, the USA doesn't seem to have the political wherewithal to engage in wars to unconditional surrender at this point, and even "Victory or Valhalla" forces (such as the Axis forces in WW2) were sued for peace eventually (though they were ignored).

I'll go with lengthening the war.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by TGLS

I'll go with lengthening the war.

OK, that's one vote. Your timeline looks right, too.

[Prince Charon]

OK, if no one has a contradictory vote in the next day or two, I'll call it at 'lengthen the war.'

My current thinking is that the Kaa bow out in 2182 or 2183, the Orions surrender in 2184 to 2186, and depending on when the Orions surrender, the Kzin hold out until somewhere between 2186 and 2189, basically trying to fight to the bitter end to avenge the 'humiliations' of previous wars, and losing faster once the USA has no distractions. They only last as long as they do because they had a long time to build up a fleet.

Whenever it is, the terms are harsh because the humans are well and truly done with the Kzins' collective attitude (and their habitual revanchism and irredentism).

Thoughts?

EDIT: I'm not sure that 'revanchism and irredentism' are the right words, as the Solars hold very little territory prior to the Third/Fourth War that the Kzin had any sort of historical claim on (just New California, really, and then only on a technicality), but they're the nearest equivalent: The Solars have no problem with the Kzin being expansionist, most of the USA members are, but the Kzin want specifically to expand into the territory that the Solar Cooperative already occupies, partly because they strongly wish to punish Terran humanity for their past defeats.