Terran Destiny in the Naplian Conflict

Terran Destiny

Forward to a political treatise Terran Destiny in the 28th Century by Alabert Chiu, Ph.d., published by New Baltimore Collegium, Mary City, New Baltimore-3, Terran Republic, in 2679, at the beginning of the Terran war with Naplia.

Forward

Centuries ago the children of Terra were assured by their leaders that interstellar colonization would usher in an age of peace; a Pax Terra. The youth of our empire read the histories of the great wars with the conviction that organized society had evolved to a state of enlightenment. The solemn admonition of our rulers was that we would avoid entangling interstellar alliances and, because we were separated from alien races by the stellar void, peaceful exploration and expansion would become the natural occupation of the human race. Indeed, what should we fear? Orion and the Columbia cluster would be ours. The whole of the Missian Nebula would become ours also, and our possessions would extend from Medra to the Fresian Cloud. We were isolated in our own grandeur, and our singular government protected us from the contentions of disparate communities.

But the promises were not kept. Conflict raged in the very heart of our home starsystem and spread outward with our every move. The Martian Wars, the struggle for the gas giants, the Ammanian Diaspora, the Reittian Revolt, and the many colonial conflicts drowned our peaceful intentions under waves of violence. Terra, rather than marching resolutely through an age of peace, has stumbled into rebellion and civil war. The Northern Alliance tempted fate when they took up arms against the guaranty of popular liberty and democracy which overcomes, expands, and goes on to higher destinies. It is the rule of the many, not of the few, that is the stronger government. Yet the most significant technological gains in modern times were wrought by those conflicts. Some of those gains are of dubious value, such as the cybernetics of the Consular Wars. Regarding territorial acquisition, we were particularly fortunate in the aftermath of those wars to purchase the Adalani starcluster from the Reittians, giving Terra a much-needed infusion of resources.

Unknown to us were the profound disturbances just beyond the cosmic horizon in the Rimward Reaches. The solar winds of war boiled in the Kartina Gulf between the Rutak and the Dresch-Briddarri coalition. Audria and Naplia fought a conflict that culminated at Woesreena, and the Pressians beat down the Audrians at Gawoda. The Naplian-Dresch war saw Panais fall and the Dresch loss of the regions of Denrais and Kereen. There was the Mutiny in Iesia, and the occupations of Aeigis, and Sindoom. There were battles to open the port worlds of Kheesha and the fight where the Noldan put the Arkhan to the sword. In the same period the Briddarri and Rutak obtained vast colonial possessions, Pressia unified its confederated constellations under a single government, and the Attel of the outer spiral arm crystallized into one kingdom.

Naturally, the tendency of the times has been the expansion of sovereignties, partly for the same reasons that we have seen the unparalleled growth of cities, planets and star systems. These things result from the extension and perfection of the trade route systems, cheap high-speed communications, the manufacture of high-grade metals, low-cost synthetics, and from improvements in the conditions of the hosts of laborers. Victories by peaceful expansion, like those on the field of battle, make for the aggrandizement of empires and the concentration of peoples. 

The galaxy is no longer unknown to us. It is explored, measured, and traversed. Even the Terran starsystems fronting the great rifts at the far ends of the empire are better known to each other and have a closer sense of cooperation. We have rights as a Human power, with faith in self-government and the assurance of a manifest destiny to extend our just influence into the Rimward Reaches. Shall we not go on to the honor and glory that await us as a regional power and, if we will, to speak for half the Rimward starsystems?

The increase of military and stellar navy armaments in this generation is unprecedented. The militant empires have consumed the whole of their industry and mortgaged their futures to cover extraordinary expenditures for the machinery of destruction. We ought to be armed as our colonial sisters have always been and we need to equip ourselves for interstellar eventualities. We are one of the great powers. This fact should appear elsewhere than in our statistical tables and on the maps. It is the logic and lesson of history, that the greatest of our wars are yet to come, for the empires of the west are spending money, time, and toil in perfecting their martial skill with increasing ardor as the years pass.

Kollas Marxa, former ambassador to Outland Colonies (2669-2677)

Next…Northern Terra Campaign Highlights

By Charles Lewis

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