Imperial Navy/History
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Once the Warrant of Restoration officially formed the Third Imperium, Emperor Cleon I set about renaming and rebranding all the previous Federation's services under his command. At this point SFNS was engaged in hostilities with the Chanestin Kingdom, a minor empire rimward of Sylea. The war had been raging, on and off, for over 100 years, and it would have been a monumental task to reorganize and reform the navy during such a conflict. As a result the service was at the time only renamed the Imperial Navy and it was not until two years later, after the fall of the Chanestin capital at Keshi, that the task of reorganization could begin anew.
Once started the reorganizations completely reshaped the navy and laid the foundations of what it has become today. Most of what was implemented in those early days still holds true today although the sector and subsector fleet structures came later. The rank structures were basically left the same as those used by the SFNS, which were themselves holdovers from the Rule of Man.
In the opening years of expansion of the newly established Imperium the navy had a busy time. Besides the usual flag waving missions to newly absorbed worlds, there was the constant threat of piracy and minor disputes between member worlds. However, their major task was the pacification of the pocket empires that had grown up during the Long Night.
Pacification Campaigns[edit]
Beginning in the year 76, four separate pacification campaigns were fought to bring these resistant worlds into the fold. While for the most part these campaigns were economic or political, there were few holdouts that an Imperial battle fleet couldn't manage to "persuade". Each of these campaigns concentrated on specific regions of space and each was overseen by an Archduke of the Imperium.
- The Vilani Pacification Campaign targeted portions of the Dagudashaag and Gushemege sectors.
- The Ilelish Pacification Campaign was aimed at the Darmine region.
- The Antarean Pacification Campaign hit much of the Lishun sector.
- The Sylean Pacification Campaign centered on the Delphi and Fornast sectors.
By 120 the pacification campaigns had drawn to a close, and imperial expansion drew to a halt. The Imperial Navy used this period to look at its structure and deployment patterns. The relative peace of the following fifty-odd years allowed the navy to completely revamp its operations to create a more streamlined creature that was professionally capable rather than something that had just grown together over the last hundred or so years. Unfortunately, as in any extended period of peace, those years also saw the experienced officers in the service rise through the ranks and eventually retire out of the navy. By the end of this period very few officers and ratings had ever seen combat.
First Defeat[edit]
Emperor Martin I, who ascended to the throne in 166, was more ambitious than his actual powers allowed. He decided to try to add the sectors of Meshan, Mendan, and Amdukan to the Imperium in an attempt to significantly expand its borders.
After several years of negotiation with the various states in these sectors got nowhere, he decided to take them by force. In 175 the Imperial Navy staged an invasion of the sectors.
Progress was, initially, relatively swift as the local governments did not have the power to resist the Imperial fleets, and many worlds fell to the Imperium. However in 178 a bureaucrat by the name of Julian came to power in one of the confederations in the Amdukan sector. Julian managed to persuade all the disparate governments to rally to his call to drive out the Imperial aggressors from their homes. Surprisingly enough it worked.
The Julian Protectorate, as the new alliance was to be called, spent time uniting its fleets and fighting several major actions against the Imperial Navy. It was not until the Protectorate decided to carry the battle to the Imperium that the war started to take a serious turn.
In 185 the fleets of the Julian Protectorate moved across the Lesser Rift and through the Empty Quarter sector. They raided deep into Imperial territory and actually managed to raid and destroy the Imperial Naval Depots in the Antares and Ley sectors.
The Imperial Navy didn't know what had hit them. With their two closest Depots totally destroyed, the supply lines were devastated and all the fleets involved in the invasion were recalled to Imperial territory to protect their own lines of communication. What had started as a war of expansion was now turning into a defensive conflict.
Protectorate forces had by now taken many Imperial worlds and, despite a counterattack in 190, the worlds remained in Julian hands.
Eventually Martin I admitted that the worlds of the Protectorate could not be incorporated into the Imperium so he called for a truce. Part of the settlement included granting autonomy to a group of 12 worlds on the border of Imperial and Protectorate space.
After colonization of the more spinward reaches of the Imperium was initiated around 220, clashes with the already established Vargr states in and around the Vland, Corridor, and Deneb sectors became increasingly common. For the next 128 years, small-scale conflicts with the semi-organized Vargr occurred with depressing regularity.
Ilelish Rebelion[edit]
In 418 the sector capital world of Ilelish and several other worlds in the Ilelish sector declared their independence from the Imperium and urged many other worlds in the Ilelish and Verge sectors to join them. By 420 six whole subsectors had declared their autonomy.
The response of Emperor Martin III was a patient and well thought out plan. A circle of warships surrounded the rebellious worlds to prevent any trade in or out of the region. Slowly, over the course of the next 15 years, the noose was tightened, mobilizing more and more ships as it reached Ilelish, the center of the revolt. As it fell, each world was reincorporated into the Third Imperium. The patience of the Emperor paid off in minimizing the losses incurred on both sides.
Ilelish was the last planet to fall. Its surrender, once the Imperial fleets reached the Ilelish system, was unconditional and quick.
In order to exact a punishment against the people of Ilelish the sector capital was moved to Dlan, a world completely loyal to the Imperium. Emperor Martin ordered the evacuation of the entire equatorial region of the planet. This entire region of Ilelish was then sterilized by the Imperial Navy. What once was an area full of lush forests was reduced to a barren desert that still exists today, over 500 years later.
First Frontier War[edit]
The First Frontier War, as it was to later become known, began in 589 and spanned 15 years, and exacted a massive toll on the Navy as the Outworld Coalition, formed between the Zhodani and Vargr, invaded Imperial space. Communication times between the Spinward Marches and Capital, added to an almost complete lack of support from Empress Jaqueline I, resulted in the war lasting longer than it should have. Even though the Imperium eventually defeated the Outworld Coalition forces the conflict was to have a long lasting affect on the Third Imperium.
Barracks Emperors[edit]
In 606, after victory had been achieved in the Marches, Grand Admiral Olav hault-Plankwell took the bulk of his fleet all the way to Capital. Once there, he petitioned for an audience with Empress Jaqueline I and, during the course of the audience, murdered her.
Olav at once proclaimed himself emperor by right of fleet control and started a civil war that would rage throughout the Imperium for the next 18 years. The Imperial rule broke down as many groups vied for power, though the bureaucracy kept the government running. During this time 18 emperors sat on the Iridium Throne, all of them naval officers, and all the while the Imperial Navy was torn apart by its commanding officers choosing to ally themselves with the various factions. Historians would later know these rulers as the Emperors of the Flag.
While the forces of the Imperium were distracted, in 615 the Outworld Coalition once again reformed and attacked the Spinward Marches. This Second Frontier War was just as bloody as the first but eventually the Grand Admiral of the Marches, Arbellatra, succeeded in pushing back the invading forces.
After the conclusion Arbellatra, like Olav before her, returned to Capital with her forces and succeeded in removing the putative emperor before taking possession of power. However, Arbellatra took a different course to her predecessor. She did not claim the throne but instead proclaimed herself Regent until such time as a suitable Emperor could be agreed upon by the Imperial Moot.
Arbellatra's regency was accepted by most – and rammed down the throats of a few. She served as Regent and protector to the Iridium Throne for seven years before the Moot proclaimed her Empress in 629, beginning the line of Alkhalikoi.
Reconstruction[edit]
This was a bleak period in the navy's history. The majority of the core fleets had been crippled, and it would take many years of construction to bring the fleets back up to strength again. Safeguards were put in place along the chain of command to prevent such events from happening again in the future. However, personnel quotas became difficult to maintain as the honor of the Imperial Navy had been stained. It was over a generation before the crew crisis would abate.
The uneasiness that followed such a turbulent period, two Frontier Wars, and a Civil War in a short period of time actually encouraged a sense of calm throughout the Imperium for the next 350 years. The occasional border dispute and some saber-rattling by the Outworld Coalition caused only ripples, and the Imperial Navy was generally at peace for much of that time.
Some say this led to overconfidence on the part of the senior naval officers and when the Zhodani opened hostilities once again, in the Spinward Marches in 979, the fleets were slow to react. After the initial Zhodani gains the war became a stalemate for much of its six years with each side using hit and run tactics. The armistice in 986 gave a little to each side but both sides came out of the war with nothing to show for it.
Solomani Rim War[edit]
The Imperial Navy would return to war yet again only four years later, but this time the battle would not be over the worlds of the Spinward Marches but along the Solomani Rim. In 990, after a period of escalating tension, the Imperium declared war on the Solomani Confederation.
The initial phase of the war went very well for the Solomani. For three years the Imperial Navy was forced back by Solomani forces until finally, in 993, a large invasion force was stopped cold in the Old Expanses Sector. The period from 993 to 998 was one of stalemate. By 998, the Imperial Navy had achieved strategic dominance, as the greater industrial base of the Imperium made its power felt. The last phase of the war, 998 to 1002, consisted of a near-continual advance by Imperial forces into the heart of the Solomani Sphere. Finally, in 1002, Imperial forces retook Terra, and a temporary armistice was negotiated with the Solomani military commanders, who were glad to gain a respite to regroup their remaining forces. The war ended on this basis as both governments informally agreed to extend the armistice indefinitely.
History & Background (Dossier)[edit]
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References & Contributors (Sources)[edit]
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- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science