Excerpts from Rise of the Terran Empire
When the Discovery returned with news of the impending Grey colony fleet, it carried proof that it had found evidence of a technologically superior species. William Ordenburg and Sergei Kovalev had the foresight to jury-rig a sling that could carry one of the Grey scout disks found in the enormous colony mothership Hoser God. This scout disk, named Toby, reportedly short for Terra or Bust, eh?, caused quite a stir in the military-industrial complex. Several of the world leaders realized that the era of nationalist bickering had passed, and that the nations of the world needed to unite to provide the economic power needed to prepare for a military assault.
The heads of five of the six most powerful and populous nations of Terra met during a closed-door session in Sydney, Australia, in November IY-18 (2296 CE). They agreed to make a joint declaration at the upcoming December meeting of the United Nations. These nations, the United States of America, the European Union, Russia, Japan, and India, would immediately unite as one nation to prepare for a possible invasion.
At the closed meeting of the United Nations, there was a tremendous uproar. As expected, the totalitarian regime of China refused to cooperate. A generous offering of technological and economic uplift convinced the rest of the nations to cooperate with the industrial nations who had already agreed to the unification. A vicious attack against China through cyberspace destabilized the totalitarian government, opening the way for a freer government that was amenable to the unification. The representatives at the United Nations agreed that there would be no immediate public announcement of the threat that provided the catalyst of unification.
Anita MacKay, president of the nation with the strongest military force on Terra, was selected as acting president until IY-14 (2300 CE), at which time a free global election would be held. She carried the banner of United Nations solidarity in this decision to the people of Terra on December 14th, IY-18 (2296 CE). Although it was a difficult time for many, the transition was much smoother than some of the pundits predicted.
One of the major acts of Anita MacKay's early service as Terran President was the formation of the Terran Confederation in February IY-17 (2297 CE). The Terran Confederation provided the outlying members of the former United Nations a forum to interact with Terra as an equal. The Terran Confederation also provided a method to pipeline the enormous economic yield of Terra to those distant systems who needed assistance.
Shortly after the formation of the Terran Confederation, President MacKay instated a global draft on Terra. Tremendous military orders had already been noticed on the planning budgets, and the protests and violence in some cities following her announcement of the draft convinced her that the government had to tell the public about the perceived threat of invasion.
In early April IY-17 (2297 CE), President MacKay gave her famous "Shores of Chaos" speech. She gave a rousing call to arms to the people of the Terran Confederation. She admitted that the United States had a crashed disk identical to the Grey scout disk Toby. The disk had been badly damaged when it crashed in the American Southwest in the mid 20th Century, and scientists had been able to learn very little from it. She also told the people about the Grey colony mothership on Zeta Tucanae. She warned Terra that the Grey colonizers may not be as friendly as their counterparts on Zeta Tucanae 2. Critics noted that elements of her speech were culled from the Gettysburg Address of the 19th Century American President Abraham Lincoln and the "Fight from the Beaches" speech of the 20th Century British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Regardless of the inspiration for the text, it had the desired effect. Those people unwilling to fight to defend Terra by refusing to submit to the draft lottery were required to leave the planet with no hope of regaining Terran Citizenship. Many travelled to the Outworld Alliance, the loose coalition of colonies in the outer worlds of the Sol system.
In the meantime, military planners realized that they needed a depot to support reconnaissance fleets and a forward defensive position. The obvious choice was to place a military base on and over Zeta Tucanae 2. President MacKay insisted that the natives of the world agree to the base, and the Terran Diplomatic Corps was given the mission of accompanying a military mission to Zeta Tucanae. Several members of the Discovery mission had been tapped to join the mission. Gregor MacAllister, the Discovery executive officer, was given command of the diplomatic mission. Sergei Kovalev was sent to secure HG and see what information he could gather that would help engineers on Terra who were feverishly trying to understand the Greytech material found in Toby and on the Lunar and asteroid bases. William Ordenburg pulled some strings to get reinstated as a Marine combat pilot. Diana Morris managed to secure a berth on the mission as a contact specialist. Heidi Daniels became the Terran News Network's Zeta Tucanae Branch reporter.
During the trip to Zeta Tucanae 2, Gregor MacAllister took ill. Doctor MacLaren quarantined him aboard the leased passenger liner and refused to let him travel dirtside. To spite her, MacAllister appointed Lieutenant Ordenburg as the Acting Chief Diplomat. "Rocky" Ordenburg immediately ordered a landing team to accompany him to Ruarb Bettermire, the town where the Discovery's lifeboat crashed in IY-19.
The Greys were happy to see the humans again. Rocky brought gifts for the young Greys who had played Marine with him during the Discovery mission. Each received a basic military loadout of helmets, web gear, rucksacks, vision enhancement electronics, tac radio sets, and weapons. Rocky then proclaimed them members of the First Marine Battalion, Terran-Tucanae Cooperation Alliance. Over the coming weeks, the Terran-Tucanae Cooperation Alliance would become an actual semi-independent branch of the Terran Government. However, at the time Rocky created the TTCA, he had no authority from the Grey government, the Troks, or Terra. This declaration, in June IY-17, gave rise to the Extraterran Contact Protocols, or Rocky Directives, forbidding the creation of interspecies alliances without the consent of all affected governments.
Gregor MacAllister was soon cleared for dirtside duty, and he took over the stumbling diplomatic mission. He was soon able to gain consent from the Grey Prilem for the Terran base, and several members of the old Discovery mission took it upon themselves to find an ideal island for the Terran military complex. During this survey, Rocky took ill when he swallowed a copious amount of ZT2's sea water and the bacteria that lives therein.
Sergei Kovalev led a mission to Hoser God. He discovered that HG wanted to leave the system very badly. When asked why, HG only replied that "They were coming." With the assistance of HG and a Terran Navy Construction Battalion, Sergei was able to remove the main computer from HG. He accompanied it to an undisclosed location in the Terra system.
With most of the mission operating autonomously, the core members of the mission turned their attention towards the problem of the Troks. Ever since HG crashed on their home continent, the Troks had waged a war of vengeance against the Greys.
The Terrans were able to find the capitol of the Troks. They made contact with the Leader of the Troks, and discovered that the hatred of the Greys was so ingrained that it was irrational. Fortunately, the Leader had no idea what a Grey actually looked like.
Although the TTCA still does not confirm the story, several accounts suggest that a plan slowly formed to use some of the psionics researchers on the Diplomatic team to influence the Leader and his Generals in order to convince them that the Greys on Zeta Tucanae 2 were not enemies. To allow the psionicists to perform the needed actions, MacAllister quickly convinced Frederich Wurster, one of the top researchers of Terra, to form a Psionics Corps under the Aegis of the TTCA.
Freed of the protocols of the Terran Diplomatic Corps, the Psionics Corps successfully convinced the Trok leadership that the threat of the Greys was external. Although the Psionics Corps has never acknowledged its role in the influence of The Leader, and the TTCA denies that they interfered directly with the Trok Nation, there is substantial evidence supporting these claims. The Leader provided a recounting of the final nightmare from that time in IY-17:
It was happening again. The visions. The fire. The death. The people - my people - were suffering. Again, the silver plates came from the sky. Green death leapt from them, causing fires in the City. The Guard surrounded the palace, helpless to defend against the demons above. Even the strongest of the Guard could not throw a spear far enough into the sky to hurt these silvery aberrations. Again I screamed in rage: I, the Leader of the People, was powerless to defend my own lands from the demons above.
The last time, the dream was different. Overhead, more beasts appeared. These were different: Grey and bird-like, these strange birds threw javelins of fire at the demons. The demons exploded when touched by the fire, littering pieces of silver skin onto the city. I issued a quiet prayer of thanks to these Angels of Vengeance roaring through the sky with the thunder of the heavens. These saviors were slowly beating off the demonic attack.
I looked back towards the City. The demon spawn were there - short grey and silver beasts with grossly large heads and the tubes. I knew what would happen next, for it always was like this: the tubes spit green fire, much like the demons dying overhead. My people fell, agonizing screams cut short by the hellfire. Just when I had hoped my city might survive, the demon spawn slowly walked through the city, slaying people everywhere.
Once again, the last dream was different. This time, others were in the City. Short, like the demon spawn, these creatures had grey skin, too. They wore leather clothing. I recognized the organized efficiency of warriors. These newcomers pointed strange, hollow spears at the demon spawn. A mighty roar echoed through the City as smoke bellowed from the ends of these spears. Demon spawn fell en masse as the new warriors rapidly started doing something to their spears. The demon spawn kept coming. I realized that the new warriors would not have their spears ready in time.
More beings moved into view. Behind the warriors were taller beings - not as tall as the People, but taller than the warriors or the demon spawn. These taller beings moved with ease towards the demon spawn, pointing strange devices at the wall of evil. Strange cracks, like the distant snap of thunder, echoed up from the streets. Demon spawn fell everywhere. Within moments, the tall ones and the warriors were moving together, urging the surviving Guard to join them as they pressed towards the demon spawn, driving them from the city in clouds of white smoke and the thunder and cracking of magical death.
Sometime towards the end of the reeducation of the Troks, Gregor MacAllister realized that the Diplomatic Corps disliked his style of running the diplomatic mission. He held a meeting with several of his compatriots. During the meeting, he decided that the Terran-Tucanae Cooperation Alliance really was a good idea. He later submitted papers to the Terran Confederation proposing that a corporation-like entity would be the best choice for running non-military human operations on Zeta Tucanae 2.
The Terran Confederation agreed, and the Diplomatic Corps happily relieved him of duties as Chief Diplomat of the mission. The TTCA, composed of a small headquarters operation, the TTCA Marines (which had reached battalion strength already due to Grey volunteers), and the Psionics Corps, was now more than a brief footnote in the history of the Human-Grey relations. The TTCA quickly picked up numerous other missions, including operating the non-military aspects of the Neo Zealand Starport and controlling trade between the Terran Confederation and Zeta Tucanae 2. Due to the military quarantine of the system, most of these new missions would have to wait until the Grey Threat was resolved and the Terran Confederation permitted civilian traffic in-system.
By the end of IY-17, the TTCA was staffed and operational. The TTCA Marines planned to expand to two battalions, one of Greys and one of Troks, although the second battalion wouldn't be manned until IY-16. The smoothbore muskets that the indigenous marines trained with were to be replaced in IY-16 with advanced combat rifles developed independently by WebbTech Research of Mapulto.
The TTCA needed a headquarters. The military downport on Neo Zealand was acceptable as a temporary site, but the TTCA did not want to be misconstrued as a part of the military presence in-system. Rocky, Wurster, Morris, and Doctor MacLaren surveyed several islands before finding one that had signs of a former Terran occupation.
This island, now the TTCA headquarters, was settled briefly during the late 21st Century by a group of scientists fleeing United Nations oppression. What was remarkable about this group is that they had developed a working Jerome Effect Drive (stutterwarp drive) two centuries before it was re-discovered by Terran scientists. The archaelogical site was composed of numerous quick-forming concrete buildings. The Terrans who had occupied the site left quite a bit of the heavy machinery behind when they discovered that Zeta Tucanae 2 was already inhabited. Some personal records were found at the site, but there is no indication of where the Terrans intended to travel from there.
No matter where the first Terrans settlers went, the new Terrans had arrived at Zeta Tucanae 2 to stay.
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Last Updated 4 Jan 2000
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