[GZG] The Rise of the United Stars

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http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lYou guessed
it--another pretender tries to recreate America. I tried to keep the
hokum to a minimum; maybe I succeeded.

Maybe not.

Anyway, enjoy. Ratings in Summary are guesstimates, to say the least.

The United Stars: An Overview

  The United Stars occupy five star systems near Free Cal-Tex (with
which it is linked at BD-69*177) and the Nea Rhomaoi Imperium. The
capital system lies at Nu Indi, the human-inhabitable planet of which
was named New Madison after the independence of the US was recognized by the
NAC in 2153, following a successful (due largely to the distraction of the NAC
by the Second Solar War) war of independence.

Summary Information
  Category: Open/Conventional
Political Power: 3 Military Power: 3 Economic Power: 5 Size: 5

Galactography of the United Stars Nu Indi (capital)
  BD-69*177
  LFT 158
  BS 8935
  CD-68*2331

The flag of the United Stars is a variant on the ancient flag of the United
States of America on Old Terra, having a blue canton in the upper left bearing
five white stars in a circular pattern. The rest of the flag consists of five
horizontal stripes, red alternating with white.

Born in the Crucible The worlds of the Five Colonies were settled from the
NAC. Among the settlers were members of “old line families” from the former
American states of Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, and
these families’ descendents quickly rose to leadership positions in the
colonial administrations, industries, professions, and trading houses. A fair
number were strongly interested in (some would say absurdly preoccupied with)
their genealogy, leading to a growing reverence for an idealized
memorialization of the lost United States of America.

The colonies were rich with potential and settled by an ambitious and
industrious people, and by the 2130s the Five Colonies were among the most
economically productive regions of the New Anglian Confederation. At the same
time, they began to chafe under the remote and occasionally
ham-handed administration of Parliament and Charles V. Particularly
galling to the Five Colonies was the impressments of able-bodied
citizens, who could have contributed considerably to the growing local
economy, into the NAC armed forces during the First Solar War. The looming
crisis, however, appeared to have been averted by the expedient end of the War
in 2142. The NAC forces stood down, and the colonials disbanded their
committees of correspondence and turned back to the task of getting rich.

Actually, the crisis was not averted, merely delayed. The colonies ultimately
broke with the NAC in 2147 over the imposition of what the locals considered
an unacceptable level of taxation (over which the colonists, having no
Parliamentary representation, had no say). Added to this was the stripping of
not only personnel, as had been done in the First Solar War, but this time of
local defense forces from the territory of the Five Colonies. Such was the
fruit of the Second Solar War.

  This might be seen as rather self-absorbed, but in fairness the Five
Colonies were sorely beset by pirate activity during the 2140s and were hard
put to it by the NAC’s requisitioning of local patrol squadrons. There is
some evidence of ESU involvement; in fact, some claim the ESU played a double
game, supporting the pirate clans attacking merchant shipping in the colonies
in what was in effect a "privateer" arrangement (without the paperwork), as
well as using other clans to send
clandestine resources to the Colonial Congress and its thin-stretched
armed forces.

If the ESU hoped to gain a client state thereby, though, their hopes were
swiftly dashed. Even before the conclusion of what United Stars
historians now call the Twenty-Second American Revolution the Colonial
Congress, on the advice of the officers commanding the Colonial Navy,
rejected an offer of "sale" of active-duty ESU ships complete with
crews, although they did in the end purchase three mothballed
CRIMEA-class (predecessor of the TIBET class) light cruisers.

The CRIMEAs proved to be prone to breakdown and ultimately were of limited
value in service, although one unit did record a victory over an NAC light
cruiser in 2149 (and was damaged beyond repair in the effort). In any case,
the system BS 8935 happened to boast one of the larger yards in the region,
with three slips each capable of building ships in
the 20,000-ton range.

In addition, the colonies as a whole had previously provided significant
resources, as well as a sizable number of recruits for its population, to the
NAC Navy. The rebels thus quickly developed an
impressive indigenous naval-architecture and shipbuilding capacity, and
were able to expand their nascent fleet with impressive rapidity.

By 2151 the United Colonies had achieved more or less de facto
independence as the hard-pressed NAC was forced to withdraw more and
more first-line units from the colonial front to continue the main
effort in the Second Solar War. The last major clash came late in 2152
when a Colonial Navy task force led by the jury-rigged carriers LANGLEY
and RANGER (converted bulk freighters) smashed an NAC squadron that was strong
on paper, but in actuality suffering from low morale, shortages of essential
supplies and personnel, and deficient in maintenance. A few months later, on
August 31, 2153, the NAC officially recognized the United Colonies as a
sovereign power, concluding surprisingly gracious terms in a treaty negotiated
via the "good offices" of the FSE, who presumably wanted the NAC to
concentrate on the real war, not on this backwater muddle.

An odd dance ensued in the first years of independence, during which the
infant United Stars government tried to take as little notice as possible of
the occasional ESU or NAC incursion unless they came too close to a colony or
mining site. To be fair, the ESU committed many more violations of United
Stars claims than did the NAC. Colonial Navy patrol units tangled in several
minor scrapes with NAC units, but ESU forces invariably declined combat even
while making ever more pointed diplomatic references to the “assistance”
rendered to the US during
the Twenty-Second American Revolution. It became clear that the ESU
would call in their marker as soon as they were reasonably certain they could
make it stick; the fear at Madison, the new United Stars capital, was that the
ESU’s demands would drag the US back into war with the NAC.

An Interlude, Possibly Apocryphal The final break with the ESU came in 2156,
when the ESU "requested" the establishment of a fleet base at BS 8935 in
return for support provided during the war of independence. They delivered the
request with a strong cruiser squadron.

  The United Colonies’ response to the ESU's saber-rattling was a
shakedown cruise off BS 8935 by Task Force Seventeen, centered on
LANGLEY and RANGER, now accompanied by the spanking-new, purpose-built
fleet carrier ENTERPRISE.

The ESU, by way of "demonstration," as their communications dispatch put it,
maneuvered smartly into battle formation at a distance of some 100 mu from the
ships of Task Force 17 and shaped a gradually converging course.

The events to this point are a matter of historical record. Subsequent events,
in some respects, are murkier. The official version of events is this: Each of
the three carriers of Task Force Seventeen launched their six squadrons of
fighters, two at a time. The fighter squadrons, every
bit as smartly as the ESU had done, formed up with long-range fighters
covering the attack and torpedo squadrons, while the destroyers moved to
assigned positions covering the "barntops," as the carriers were
affectionately called (for some reason).

The ESU and USN forces continued on their slowly converging courses for some
minutes. Then, for no apparent reason, the ESU squadron bore off and
eventually departed the system. To this day no one knows why, although it is
rumored that the rear admiral commanding the squadron (whose name is likewise
lost to history) lost his commission over the incident.

The unofficial version of events goes like this, following the point at which
Task Force Seventeen launched its fighters and formed up:

After some minutes of silence, a hail came from one of the USN ships (some
claim it came from LANGLEY, others ENTERPRISE, although LANGLEY was the
flagship at the time, under Rear Admiral Radley Pownall Briggs). "A right
spacemanlike piece of work, and all credit to you," the
unidentified but genial-sounding voice said.

"If you've come for a visit, you're welcome in the United
Stars--though you'd be more welcome with fewer," the voice allegedly
went on. "If you've come for anything else, you're going to need a lot more."

After a brief pause, the voice made one last transmission before breaking the
RF link: "As for me, give me liberty or give me death."

Under most circumstances, of course, this could well have been an intolerable
provocation. However, the circumstances were anything but normal; the Second
Solar War would be over in a year, but no one could know that at the time. In
any case, the ESU did not want to drive the United Stars back into the arms of
the NAC, or to draw the NRE into a conflict over the systems of the US.

We, the People of the United Stars The United Colonies then continued the
process of organizing themselves politically, ratifying in 2158 a Constitution
nearly identical to the original United States Constitution. This new
Constitution featured what the framers hoped were stronger protections against
the use by the Federal government of any of its clauses as a "sweeping
clause." By this the framers hoped to deny the federal government to act
beyond the powers specifically enumerated to it by the Constitution. (How well
they succeeded depends upon whom one asks, of course and, as always, time
will tell.)

The US therefore is a constitutional republic in form, with considerable
autonomy devolving to the individual former colonies. The Congress is
bicameral, with a Senate consisting of two members from each of the five
systems and a House of Representatives who serve districts of roughly equal
population (each system by constitutional provision has at least one
representative regardless of population). The current president is Ambrose
Sidemore Jackson.

The Pursuit of Happiness The US actively pursues trade with practically anyone
receptive, and
for the most part pursues free-trade policies, although a handful of
industries receive tariff protection. Perhaps the most important export
from the United Stars is in the form of high-value agricultural
products, including a bewildering variety of fruits and vegetables as well as
cereal grains. In fact, the United Stars are developing a reputation as one of
the "breadbaskets of humanity."

Several converging trends contributed to US leadership in this area. First,
farming is a revered occupation. Second, the former Five Colonies are
fortunate to have a variety of arable production areas in both temperate and
subtropical climate zones. Third, the shipbuilding facilities left behind by
the NAC have contributed to the development of a vibrant merchant fleet,
meaning there is plenty of lift capacity to move produce to the sources of
demand. Fourth, the US is a center of both plant breeding (including genetic
engineering techniques) and of preservation technologies that can deliver
fresh produce at levels of quality undreamed of by the standards of previous
centuries, and many of these products have important "nutraceutical" benefits
as well.

  And if that’s not fresh enough, Star-Fresh Inc. and its competitors
have pioneered shipboard farming, where crops are grown continuously on
converted liquid-hydrogen tankers for "vine-ripe/fresh-picked" delivery
to meet the demands of the most discriminating palates. There are even
rumors that one Star-Fresh freighter farm plying the trade lanes between
the US and Mongol space intermittently trades with Sa'Vasku ships, some of
whose Volitional crewmembers have acquired a taste for "exotic" human
foodstuffs on their travels through human space.

Another interesting export, though not on the scale of agriculture,
comes in the form of both cabinet-grade lumber and the goods made from
it (particularly musical instruments, furniture in the style of
pre-spaceflight Old Terra, and even small personal watercraft powered by
sail, oar, or even internal combustion engine, where environmental laws
permit). This is very much a niche market, but a high-profile one.

Other leading exports include merchant hulls, drive components, and
navigational hardware and software, the latter from the renowned firm of
Chapman & Bowditch, LLC.

The United Stars also enjoys an adequate industrial base, most of the output
of which presently is consumed domestically, and a fairly robust mining
sector, with the exception of certain strategic minerals such as chromium, for
which it trades with the PAU, and iridium, which it obtains from the Rim
Worlds Confederacy.

With Malice Toward None While the US seeks peaceful relations with its
neighbors, the better
to facilitate trade, relations with Free Cal-Tex are surprisingly frosty
considering what the powers nominally have in common. This condition seems to
be based on little more than personal antipathy on the part of the leadership
of the Federal Party—rather surprising in a polity that considers itself the
inheritors of an intellectual tradition deriving directly from the
Enlightenment of the 18th Century.

Interestingly, there also exists a definite coolness in the general tone of
relations with the Rim Worlds Confederacy and New Sparta. Observers speculate
that perhaps the leading citizens of the United Stars considers itself the
true heirs of the United States of America,
in contrast to the boorish louts of Free Cal-Tex, the uncultured
money-grubbing mercenaries of New Sparta, and the iridium-squatting
pretenders of the Rim Worlds Confederacy (why, the nerve of those people,
appropriating the Betsy Ross flag!).

The US also has an open hand, and occasionally a wary eye, for powers with
which it shares links: the Mongols, the Templars, and the NRE. The
philosophical cross-pollination and intrigue resulting from the United
Stars' position in space, and the trade relations resulting therefrom, may be
what is responsible for the exceptional degree of Freemasonry practiced among
the political, economic, and intellectual leadership (as in, just about anyone
who is anyone in the United Stars).

The US has yet to join, or even to recognize the authority of, the
UNSC. The characteristic antipathy of the 21st-century United States
toward the UN and the traditional underlying skepticism of "entangling
alliances" play significant roles here. However, a minority faction on the
General Board of the Navy would be willing to "jine up" in return for
unfettered access to the UNSC's graser research database. Despite the
traditional “go it alone” sentiment that runs strong in the US, the USN in
2192 volunteered six warships to the combined forces fighting the Kra'vak:
battlecruisers VALLEY FORGE and MOUNT VERNON, patrol cruiser CONSTELLATION,
and destroyers HARRY YARNELL, THE SULLIVANS, and RADLEY BRIGGS.

Anchors Aweigh The United Stars Navy, being unable to match the raw scale of
the major powers, has focused on fighters as the primary fighting arm, and
has developed a pair of first-generation fleet carriers, the ENTERPRISE
and FORRESTAL classes, to deliver them (some internal critics say they haven't
done enough, considering the proximity of the NRE and its impressive fleet
fighter arm). The other units of the USN are designed primarily to support and
defend the carriers, although certain classes
(such as the CONSTITUTION-class patrol cruisers and SARATOGA-class
battlecruisers) are capable of long-duration independent operations away
from the fleet train.

Funded during time of peace on the proverbial shoestring, the Navy
nevertheless retains a considerable degree of prestige among the citizenry,
although perhaps less so among the wealthiest industrial, financial, and
mercantile circles. The Navy is seen as an honorable
career for middle-class citizens who do not take up commerce,
agriculture, or one of the professions, and it is common for the sons and
daughters of officers to seek appointment to the Naval Academy at
Annapolis-Over-the-Horizon, orbiting BT 8935 near the Navy Yards.

USN warships, as one might suspect, carry the designation United Stars Ship
(USS).

State of the Fleet While in many respects the ENTERPRISE was ahead of its time
when it made its debut in 2156, the FORRESTAL class on its introduction was
pretty much "more of the same, only with more fighters. " The inevitable march
of progress in other nations has rendered ENTERPRISE and FORRESTAL, if not
exactly obsolete, then certainly no longer in the forefront of carrier
technology. Thus far the Navy’s sole response to
developments has been the abortive ten-squadron ORISKANY class. The
ORISKANY was an achievement of a sort, though one entirely unfit to operate in
the presence of hostile forces. They are presently used to
test ten-squadron operations and for fleet carrier training. In wartime,
the USN envisions them as fighter ferries.

  Some observers suggest a game of high-stakes chicken between the
General Board, which would very much like Congress to fund a proposed
construction slip in the 25,000-ton range that would be capable of
turning out a carrier more to its liking, and the House Committee on Naval
Affairs. Even this, though, is reputed to be the source of vociferous debate
within the General Board; one faction reputedly
prefers a proposed ten-squadron carrier in the 25,000-ton range (a sort
of ENTERPRISE on steroids), while another believes that a dozen squadrons on
the same mass, for a design more along the lines of FORRESTAL, will be most
effective.

USN fleet carriers resemble elongated spacegoing barns topped with a
conning-tower superstructure. Fighter squadrons launch forward and
recover aft, the main drives being set beneath the main hull abaft the beam,
rather than directly astern.

That conning tower is offset to starboard, for reasons not apparent to the
casual (or even the informed) observer. Asked why, the colorful, iconoclastic,
and possibly mythical naval architect and BuShips chief designer Dalziel
Francis Xavier Herreshoff says only, "Hell fire, son, 'course the island's on
the starboard side! It's a carrier, ain't it?"

While the USN does field a (small) battle line in the form of the KEARSARGE
and IOWA class superdreadnoughts, these ships too are
influenced by the General Board’s carrier-first mentality. Unlike many
of the designs of other navies, these classes carry no fighters (says the
irrepressible Herreshoff, "That’s what carriers are for, son"), being
intended to operate in concert with, and in defense of, the carrier line.

Other classes are fairly unremarkable, although the emphasis in the USN on
fighters has left smaller classes, particularly destroyers, rather undergunned
compared to designs of other nations. The Board is
presently evaluating proposals to refit a number of SPRUANCE-class
destroyers with Beam-2 armament, and is also reviewing proposals to
similarly enhance the offensive firepower of PITTSBURGH and SHILOH class
cruisers, as well as the heavy units of the battle line.

  Assessment
  The United Stars, at present, is a typical third-rate power with a
typical third-rate navy to match. Their ships range from serviceable to
mediocre, but they do have going for them a vibrant economy, boundless
self-confidence, and something of a tradition of victory, if one given a
considerable helping hand by circumstance.