[GZG] The Rise of the United Stars

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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.