Guide:2130-2161 - Into The Romulan War

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2130-2161 - Into The Romulan War

When the dust of war had settled on scorched Earth, dozens of Vulcan voidships had arrived to hover over the world of chaos and terror, of pillaged settlements and burned cities. But these ships were no circling vultures: instead, they contacted the surviving Earth governments and entered a series of negotiations on creating new order out of the chaos. With the help of its spaceborne cousins, humanity had clung together, beginning to form new infrastructure on the ravaged Europe, northern Africa and southeastern Asia and the pile of ashes that had been the US East Coast.

With the aid of the surviving space fleet, interstellar trade was begun to boost the recovery. Vulcans were happy to help, although they would no doubt have denied such a sentiment; Tellarites traded material for a respectable price; and Andorians were ready to negotiate on the issue of defending the weakened human homeworld. But Earth could not rely on what these cultures had to offer. Efforts continued to chart the uncharted, and to bring in materials and knowledge for the rebuilding of the world from areas of space not owned by the nearby cultures.

It had been almost 700,000 years since a major culture with FTL drives had inhabited the area of space immediately around Earth. The Pnaii, a fringe group of the powerful yet distant Tkon empire, had visited the area, briefly settled on some of its lesser planets, and departed for parts unknown, leaving but some footprints on airless planetoids and a few artifacts on the Saturnian moons. After that, only random visitors like the Preservers wandered by, and a seeming power vacuum was created. Even after gaining their interstellar wings, Vulcans were uninterested in playing the part of conquistadors here, preferring to keep lesser species ignorant of the presence of 'Others'. But when humans broke out to the stars, they found a reality much different from how the Vulcans viewed their dominion. There were powers out there, powers with conflicting agendas and alien mindsets – and a curious pattern of sociological and political lacunae that an opportunistic and unconventional species could exploit.

Map: Earth-explored area and major expeditions before 2100.

Humans took to this role quite naturally. The explorers from Earth soon wandered into space not inhabited, nor visited by the contemporary cultures. They wove a web of warp routes, building an empire of their own to bring in materials to repair the world they had scorched with nuclear war. Unable to conquer planets yet, they created their empire out of abstractions: trade relations, cultural exchange programs, ambitious expeditions. The Others watched as the Earthers sailed out, fearing what they might find. However, the idea of forming alliances to protect against undesirable or unfriendly findings did not yet gain acceptance among them.

For seventy years of Earth starflight, the fear of the unknown proved unsubstantiated. Cargo operators learned to accept the occasional piracy as part of the business; explorers understood that not every star system was open to them. Increasing numbers and types of ships were built for exploration, transportation, colonization and defense by Earth and her early colonies. Other ships were purchased from neighboring civilizations, and soon a volume of half a million cubic light years could be claimed as known by Man. This ovoid space extending from Earth to the direction of Beta Rigel contained dozens of inhabited worlds. As for why most of these inhabitants were humanoid in shape, several theories sprung out immediately. An external force governing the evolution of intelligence was assumed in most of them, and many religions rose and fell in consonance with the latest exploration results.

When the inevitable finally happened and a civilization definitely categorized as unfriendly was met close enough to be a problem, humans had already adapted reasonably well to the technological, political and physical realities of space travel. Yet, hampered by her lack of military buildup, Earth alone would have been severely outclassed by any of the more experienced FTL-capable races living nearby. Again, circumstances conspired to ensure Earth a fighting chance by pitting her against the arrogant but similarly inexperienced Rihannsu, and by giving the humans time to form alliances with their less malevolent neighbors.

The threat of a war was the step needed for the near-Earth races and cultures to unite for common defense. At first, and to the great frustration of the Vulcans, technological aid for the UESF was received from Andor; military and economic cooperation then followed in increasing amounts. By the time the first message of peace intents by Earth was transmitted and fell on deaf ears, Vulcan, Tellar, a Centauri and minor worlds including Axanar and Kaferia had also approved the first draft of the articles of a closely knit interstellar alliance. This coalition was to be formed for trade, cultural exchange, and for mutual protection. And not a moment too soon, as the end of year 2155 saw the eruption of the hostilities into a full-blown war. For a good while, this was simply known as The War, but historical perspective has forced the adoption of the definer ‘Romulan’ to separate it from the countless other interstellar military conflicts the Federation later plunged into.

The Romulan conflict is generally divided into three distinct parts: the initial clandestine Rihannsu attacks against Terran, Andorian, Tellarite and other shipping in 2132-55, the great offensive towards the heartspace of Earth and its allies in 2155-59, and the final desperate attrition battles of 2159-61. The 2155 attacks against Earth colonies are generally seen as the beginning of the actual Romulan War, even though undeclared hostilities had begun immediately after UESS Carrizal’s visit, and the first offensive action had been taken against UES Balboa as early as 2132.

The first phase of the conflict was characterized by a lack of coordinated UESF response, and continued until the Romulans deemed it impossible to maintain the veil of secrecy any longer. As the conflict escalated to its second phase, Romulan forces gripped and held the initiative thanks to their superior numbers and preparedness, as well as their more detailed information on the opposing players.

In response, the Coalition of Planets (albeit initially sans Vulcan) mobilized all its forces in the direction of the war theater. But in battles great and small, it was proven that Romulan weaponry was superior to that of its opponents, if not in quality, then in quantity. In short notice, four Enterprise, four Triton and eleven Messier cruisers and fifteen assorted vessels of lesser design, along with many Andorian and Tellarite ships, were lost or rendered in-operational. The situation seemed hopeless for the far-flung Coalition forces, and many of the partners began to ponder withdrawing from the conflict.

But fate turned the tables on the Rihannsu. Overtly emboldened by their successes in frontier campaigns, they decided to divide their forces at the crucial hour of striking at enemy homeworlds. The invasions were repelled as a consequence. The Rihannsu losses suffered as the result of this tactical mistake were far from crippling, yet fanned the flames of a political upheaval on Romulus. The new leadership adopted a doctrine of greater deliberation and preparation. In 2159, one UESF battle group, consisting of the elderly Earthships Halsey, Gorshkov and Yamamoto and their escort destroyers and frigates, almost accidentally managed to locate a Romulan fleet stocking point at a distant and unnamed star system in the Triangulum Australe region. Wreaking havoc on dozens of dormant Romulan ships, the cruisers managed to halt the second Romulan offensive before it reached the fringes of Earth colonization zones or the worlds of its neighbors and possible future allies. However, the self-destruction of the Romulan base crippled many of the vessels. Later, the battle group was attacked several times, and only UESS Gorshkov managed to limp home, along with one frigate. The war was far from being over.

The battles of 2159 drove home a bitter point: the Romulans would acknowledge no other form of combat than a fight to death, be it as individuals or as a species. Earth began to seek a way out of the insane conflict, with aims set not at victory, but at the most expedient way of ending hostilities. When a crippling hit was at last scored against the Romulan command outpost at Cheron in 2160, the enemy was amicable to a compromise that included few territorial gains or losses, and dictated no reparations whatsoever by either side. The war was ended by acknowledging the sovereignty of the Romulans within a carefully defined volume of space, and that of the humans outside that volume, with an impermeable and eternal barrier erected between.

A mere century would suffice to outdate all aspects of the compromise. Yet during this century, Earth and its interstellar allies would establish themselves as a political force in the firm belief that theirs had been the victory. Just as certainly, the Rihannsu would learn to view themselves as the defeated side, and would formulate the policies of their Star Empire accordingly. The memory of the Romulan War lived in politics far longer than in the technology and tactics of space combat. Still, many of the later Federation Star Fleet conflicts must be seen in the strategic context of the one that began it all.

The principal ship classes of the Romulan War in comparison view. The lifting body hull is prominent on destroyers intended for planetary defense, absent from spatial combatants; the terraced, sometimes cut saucer is now common in cruisers. Warp engine types and configurations are legion, posing obvious logistics problems.

2130-2161 - The Ships


Updated to August 2014 version (there is no intent to upgrade these existing ships to new versions, due to the potential for extreme historical contradictions)

Ships added to Timo's releases since above version include the following:

  • Pioneer class fast transport (2143-2182): Earth nuTrek-design; opposed to incorporating-too advanced design for time, too warlike for transport...



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