Federal Stellar Authority

After the United Citizen Federation successfully rebuilt Earth, they looked outward to feed the human race. Combining all pre-Disorder space assets, the FSA was founded.

The Federal Stellar Authority chose an ambitious project for its first efforts – the construction of a permanent colony on Earth’s moon Luna. Within two years, it began to launch a series of rockets into orbit, ferrying with them immense containers that would hold the necessary equipment to lay the barest foundations of what was already being referred to as Luna Base. In 2078, only a decade or so after its creation, the FSA launched the Galileo, its first manned vessel.

The Galileo gathered the orbital containers left behind by previous launches and ferried them to the Sea of Tranquillity on the moon’s surface, where construction began on temporary quarters to house the crew of the Galileo, and the crews that would follow them.

The work was exceptionally difficult and dangerous and very nearly one quarter of the Galileo’s complement of 43 crewmen died in the efforts. With determination and perseverance, however, these first colonists of the Citizens’ Federation endured, building the first habitable domes on the moon’s surface, the barest foundations of the immense facility that stands there today.

Mission after mission after mission followed the Galileo to the moon’s surface and the tiny handful of domes mushroomed into a full-fledged lunar complex. Eventually, Luna would become home to four installations, housing a total of three million people, as well as the largest shipyard facility in the entire Federation.

The moon held a number of valuable resources but the ability to grow food was not among them. Setting its sights elsewhere in the Solar system, the FSA turned its attention to Mars. Major innovations in everything from drive systems to specialisation of ship designs made the long-held dream of colonising Mars and mining its great mineral resources a dream that could withstand the light of day. With the lessons learned from the establishment of Luna Base, the FSA was soon bending the entirety of its efforts toward human habitation of the red planet.

In 2076, only a year after the establishment of Luna Base, the FSA and the population of the Federation once again had cause for celebration and pride, as Olympus Base, the first permanent human colony on Mars, went online. Mars proved to be everything the FSA had expected it to be, a resource-rich world of untapped potential that could supply the mineral needs of the Federation for the foreseeable future.

Mars also provided an excellent stopover point for vessels travelling farther out into the reaches of the Sol system, and almost as soon as Olympus Base was online, the FSA commissioned the construction of an orbital base above the planet, between the orbits of Phobos and Deimos (Mars’ two moons). Christened Crimson Base, this orbital station would act as a repair and refueling depot for FSA ships, as well as a last line of defence for Earth itself, should such a thing ever be needed.

In only one way did Mars disappoint the Federation, though it was a significant disappointment. Hopes that there would be life somewhere on the planet in the form of primitive plants that could be harvested for food were dashed. The colonists at Olympus Base began agricultural efforts in the large underground chambers beneath their feet, but these efforts were not even enough to feed the population of Mars, let alone export food back to Earth.

With its options for finding a new source of food somewhere in the Sol system beginning to run low, the Federation turned to its last hope – the Jovian moons. Of the four major moons of Jupiter, the so-called Galilean moons of Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io, only Europa seemed a possible prospect for solving the impending food crisis of the Federation, a crisis looming larger year by year and whose inevitable approach was making the Federal Council exceptionally nervous.

In 2077, just a year after the first permanent Martian colony was established, the FSA sent the research vessel Beagle to land on Europa and begin an in-depth study that ultimately had but one real goal – to determine if there was any way Europa could feed Earth. As every citizen and civilian in the Federation now knows, it could. The distinctive greenish banding of the Jovian moon was determined to be a rich ecosystem of sub-artic plant life and nutrient-rich rivers, promising an effective and renewable food source for Earth. Elated at the news, which was beamed out over FedNet the moment it arrived, the Federal Council directed the FSA to place a colony there as soon as possible.

Overlooked in the elation at finding this new food source was an even more important discovery, one not fully appreciated until days later. Though it might be small, primitive and wholly unintelligent, the first alien life had been discovered beneath the ice of Europa. Although it took eight years for the FSA to actually get Markham Base, the first true colony of Europa, up and running, the Jovian moon was providing Earth with food within a year of the Beagle’s discovery. With the smallest permanent population of any Sol system colony, Europa nonetheless continues to occupy a position of tremendous importance to the Federation. For more than a century, it has been the breadbasket of Earth, a task it seems perfectly suited to continue performing for a very long time to come.

Concurrently with the colonisation of Europa, the FSA was directing its attention to the Jovian moon of Io. As different as night and day from placid, pleasant Europa, Io is a hellish place of volcanic eruptions and temperature extremes. However, it is also a rich source of multiple gasses and other forms of energy that can be collected and stored. As Callisto and Ganymede were revealed to be nothing but extremely large rocks, the FSA ignored them utterly.

Flush with the success of every colonisation effort thus far in the Sol system, the FSA confidently moved forward with the colonisation of the Jovian moons, establishing colonies simultaneously on food-rich Europa and resource-rich Io. The moon’s volatile, volcanic nature posed some significant problems for the establishment of a functional, permanent base but by applying the experience learned with other colonies, the FSA was finally able to build a small but secure colony site on the moon’s surface. It was named McManus Base, in honour of John C. McManus, the man considered by many to be the founder of the Federation, who weathered the violence of the Disorders to bring a new golden era to humanity.

For a handful of years, McManus Base seemed like the latest in the line of Federation success stories, harvesting the gases, the geothermal and electrical energy of Io for use elsewhere in the Federation. Unseen beneath the placid surface of the colony, however, discontent was growing. Working conditions on Io were exceptionally harsh but that fact had hardly been hidden from the colonists recruited to McManus Base, who were extremely well compensated for their service. However, for some of the civilian colonists, such compensation was not enough.

Led by a gas mining technician named Alfred LaRocque, a small group of dissidents began to form on Io. They were careful to keep their presence invisible, meeting in secret in small groups, where they slowly formed themselves into a coherent band of insurrectionists, with the self-styled name of Free Io. When LaRocque and his forces moved at last, they did so swiftly. They stormed and raided the Federal Service armoury on the base, then took control of the major installations of McManus Base before sabotaging its spaceport and herding as many colonists as they could capture into the base’s enormous dormitory buildings that had not been used in more than a decade, not since the earliest days of McManus Base. Once they had claimed control of McManus Base, LaRocque and his followers flashed a message to the FSA, listing a number of demands they wanted fulfilled before they would agree to continue Io’s support of the Federation.

Chief among these were In higher wages, nationhood for Io and abolition of the citizen franchise. response to these demands, and aware that Free Io could erupt into a fullscale rebellion, the Citizens’ Federation moved swiftly. As diplomats worked nonstop with the Free Io insurrectionists, a military mission was dispatched from Mars to intercept any threat that might come from Io but to only use military force as a last resort. While the military task force was still en route, however, the negotiations between Federation diplomats and Free Io dissidents broke down.

Upon detecting the arrival of the military ships in orbit, the Free Io dissidents made a monstrous decision. Rather than seeking out and accepting a peaceful solution, they chose death. Within moments of the FSA ships’ arrival, a series of immense explosions battered the moon’s surface and left a smoking crater where McManus Base had stood. The Free Io dissidents had chosen death not just for themselves but for every citizen and civilian in the colony. More than 17,000 souls were lost that day, April 21, 2078, the greatest loss of life due to violence since the Federation had risen to power.

Touching the stars

With the expansion of the Citizens’ Federation to reach as far as the Jovian moon of Europa and the commencement of harvesting the seemingly endless plant life of Europa to feed the population of Earth, the FSA had effectively reached its limits.

With the technology of the time, the FSA was boxed in. The colony of Europa was so distant it took weeks to reach them, rendering the possibility of colonising the Saturnian moon of Titan an impossible dream. The hostile and violent planet of Venus was deemed untouchable as well, possessed of an atmosphere so thick that merely standing on the surface would subject a person to the same kind of pressure found half a mile or more beneath the surface of an Earth ocean. The FSA informed a disappointed Federal Council of the news – without some significant technological leaps forward, humanity had found the limits of its reach.

In truth, this technological barrier was a blessing in disguise, as it gave the Federation time to consolidate its holdings and enshrine new laws to keep the territory of the human race peaceful and secure, free of the threat of future incidents like the one that destroyed the base on Io. This was a finite project however, and once it was done, the Federal Council knew the vexing technical limits on its expansion still loomed, unbreakable without the creation of new technology, creation that could not be rushed by an impatient government.

Fortunately, the Federal Council and the FSA did not have to wait for long. Deep inside the massive FSA compound in Kazakhstan worked a civilian scientific researcher named Pavel Cherenkov, a soft-spoken man who had proven a sturdy, if uninspired, asset in the FSA’s reach into space who made a hobby of studying every theory, however unlikely, ever published about faster-than-light travel. Walking from his quarters to his laboratory one morning, Dr Cherenkov was struck with a sudden epiphany, seeing with absolute clarity the lines of connection between all the theories he knew so well, leading him to one inescapable breakthrough.

Once in his lab, he began work on his inspiration immediately, something that very nearly led to his termination by the FSA as he let his assigned work lapse. After a little more than a week of work, scarcely taking the time to sleep, he had constructed a computer model of his new engine model, an engine designed to allow a ship to travel beyond the speed of light. Needless to say, once he presented it to his superiors at FSA, his future employment was assured. Immediately, construction on a prototype began. Once it was completed, it was installed in an unmanned ship, dubbed the Einstein. The Einstein was towed away from Earth, past the orbit of Mars, as several scientists at FSA who were dubious of Dr Cherenkov’s invention had spun theories of the potential disaster the engine could unleash. Once the Einstein was in place and had been programmed to fly a distance of three astronomical units tangentially to the orbit of Jupiter, the researchers aboard the observation vessel crossed their fingers and activated the engine. The Einstein vanished. Less than a minute later (though it was only by comparing timelines later that this could be verified – the Einstein vastly outpaced any radio signal), the Einstein appeared again at its destination, seemingly no worse for wear. Though dozens more tests would follow, it was clear that the new engine was a success.

Famously self-effacing, Dr Cherenkov objected to the FSA insistence that his new design be christened the Cherenkov drive, asking that it be named instead after his hero, Sir Isaac Newton. By then, however, it was too late. FedNet was already spreading the word of this amazing technological leap, one of the cusp events in the history of humanity. The Federal Council immediately conferred on Dr. Cherenkov the status of citizenship, the first time such an honour had been bestowed on someone who was not a veteran but his contribution to the Federation clearly warranted it.

Manifest Humanity

The creation of the Cherenkov drive opened the galaxy to humanity and a new day dawned in human exploration. With the vast resources of the colonies in the Sol system at its disposal and concerns about keeping its population fed a thing of the past thanks to the wealth of plant life discovered on Europa, the Federal Council directed the FSA to turn its gaze to the stars.

In order to grow, to become ever stronger, the human race needed to expand. Eventually, given the growth of its population, even the entire Sol system would not be enough room. Moreover, the exciting discoveries made on places like Europa, almost literally in humanity’s back yard, offered persuasive arguments that there were limitless mysteries to be found among the stars. Certainly there would be new worlds, offering new resources and new homes for the human race but perhaps there would also be alien races, creatures on a par with humanity, strange new allies waiting to be discovered.

It was a time of excitement and expectation – the Sol system suddenly seemed too small, too claustrophobic. There was no doubt in the human heart that the race’s destiny was among the stars.

Earth’s closest stellar neighbour is the Alpha Centauri system, just over four light years away. Before 2080, the distance seemed immeasurably vast, a great gulf of darkness that would take centuries for the fastest FSA ship to cross. Now, with the benefit of the Cherenkov drive, it was but a few months away. On May 7, 2082, the FSA launched the Magellan to great fanfare on a two-year mission to explore and map the Alpha Centauri system. On August 20, 2082, the Magellan arrived and began its work.

After two years out of contact with the Federation, considering that any transmission made from the Alpha Centauri system would take four years to reach Earth, the Magellan returned with a data core full of information about the strange, hostile but mineral-rich worlds orbiting Alpha Centauri. The FSA identified two potential candidates for potential colonisation, Hesperus and Hod. Hesperus would be first.

Everything changes

The construction of the colony on Hesperus seemed cursed from the start. Material failure, record numbers of suicides among the construction workers dispatched by the FSA, equipment malfunctions and illness all dogged the venture and threatened to render the Hesperus project an expensive folly. Members of the Federal Council talked of canceling the project; people on Earth grumbled about the wasted lives and wasted money. In only a few years, the mood of the Federation had gone from supreme confidence in the future of stellar colonisation to worry that humanity had overstepped its bounds. Finally, five years behind schedule and more than a billion dollars over budget, the base opened its doors and the Federation Colonisation Commission began the tricky work of recruiting colonists to relocate to another star system.

Unfortunately, the Hesperus troubles were not over. Humanity’s first meeting with alien life, with the algae on Europa, had been a pleasant surprise. Humanity’s second meeting was far less welcome.

In what has come to be known as the Hesperus Incident, an alien ship entered the Alpha Centauri system in 2100, just two years after the Hesperus colony went online. Obviously the product of a technologically advanced race, it was superior to anything the Federation could produce. It destroyed one FSA battleship, the Sun Tzu, and was only stopped by the heroic sacrifice of a second battleship, the Reynolds, which detonated its own power core to destroy the invaders.

When the news reached Earth, it struck the population like a blow to the face. The government of the United Citizens’ Federation declared a day of mourning, then set out with a purpose to prepare for war against this new foe. Ultimately, the original purpose of those preparations was in vain, as no ship remotely like the alien vessel at Hesperus has ever been seen again. However, the incident sent ripples throughout the Federation, instigating changes that exist to this day.

The first change was the addition of a mandatory contingent of soldiers on every ship in the fleet, men and women with the skills, training and tools to fight off the boarders who had overwhelmed the unprepared crew of the Reynolds. The second change was to the ships themselves. The enemy vessel had fired some sort of fusion-based directed energy weapon, a technology that was still beyond the Federation which had armed its ships with cannons and conventional missiles. In light of this new threat, all FSA warships would now be armed with nuclear torpedoes. Perhaps they were not as advanced as a directed energy weapon but their destructive power was hard to deny.

The largest change of all was to the fleet itself. The Federal Council was no longer willing to let the FSA handle the Federation’s warships, and decided to bring such administration under its own control. The Federal Council created the Strategically Integrated Coalition of Nations (SICON), a new and mighty arm of the Federation that would have complete control over the UCF military – be it the fleet, ground forces, military intelligence or any of the auxiliary services. SICON shouldered this burden with enthusiasm, creating the Mobile Infantry and instituting new training measures in all armed forces that have made the UCF military the most highly trained and capable military force in human history.

Made aware of all the dangers stellar colonisation posed, both through the attack on Hesperus and the Herculean task of building the colony in the first place, the Federation proceeded outward from the Sol system with a careful deliberation. Survey missions dispatched to new stars, such as Proxima and Barnard’s Star, travelled under sufficient military escort to mount an invasion and a nervous populace saw the possibility of alien menace in every parsec of space, every penumbra of an unexplored star. Gradually, however, the Federation came to realise that the galaxy was a very empty place, where intelligent life seemed a rare thing indeed.

Eventually, the fears brought on by the Hesperus Incident were forgotten and the Federation went busily about its work of claiming the galaxy for humanity.

Colonization efforts by the Federation

The Federation didn't aimlessly expand and spew its seeds into the far and wide galaxy. It made a concerted effort in colonizing vital points first. These colonization efforts can be grouped into 'phases' or 'waves' pretty easily.

Sol Expansion

The first off-world colony was Luna Base, errected in 2075 on the surface of Earth's moon.
The first federal installation on Mars followed one year later in 2076, Olympus Base

Early-FSA (First Wave)

The Federation reconstituted the space programs of the pre-Disorders super powers under the Federal Stellar Authority.

The very first stellar colony of the Federation was Hesperus, founded in 2101.
Hesperus' neighbour, Hod, followed 7 years later, 2108
Iskander was colonized in 2114
Shoreridge III was founded in 2122
The business world of Epsilon Prime received their colonists in 2131
Both, Faraway and the Trio have been colonized in 2137, though the latter is an unofficial colony but has strong ties to the Federation.
Cassandra was founded in 2146
Karrus was developed in 2147
Zegama Beach was colonized in 2150
Rhohan was colonized in 2152