The One Day War: Galactic Alliance vs Federation
Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 1:44 am
How an invasion of the United Federation of Planet would fare.
This argument/commentary is based on several assumptions:
1. A wormhole 100 km by 100 km opens connecting the outer rim of the galaxy far far away with the Milky Way galaxy.
2. The respective time periods are the post Legacy of the Force era Galactic Alliance because I feel guilty about supporting the Galactic Empire, and the 24th century United Federation of Planets.
3. Nitpick: Leia Organa Solo replaces Daala as chief of state for this scenario.
4. G canon > T canon > C canon
5. Suspension of disbelief method used unless if there is an obvious VFX error/goofup or an irreconcilable contradiction.
6. Both sides show decent levels of competence
7. First contact has already been made, and hyperspace maps have already been drawn.
The context: after first contact was made, trade and eager communication between the two civilizations quickly sprouted up. Things seemed hopeful; goods and cultures were eagerly exchanged, but both sides were tight lipped about their technological capabilities. Then a disaster happened, one that led to all out war. While scouting the outer rim of the Star Wars galaxy Picard and the Enterprise stumbled upon a late information age planet that was about to be hit by some random relativistic kill vehicle that was floating around in space, presumably launched by a Star Wars faction in some war long, long, long ago. Lacking the means to stop the threat, Picard instead calls Starfleet for transport ships to evacuate the citizens, but Starfleet refuses, citing the Prime Directive, but Picard convinces them to see reason. As the Enterprise is waiting, a civilian corvette hired to investigate comes along. The ship’s sensors misread the corvette as a hostile, and the ensign nearby, being too reckless, orders the ship to fire after the corvette raises its shields. A firefight ensues, in which both ships end up wrecking each other, both exploding from thermonuclear and antimatter warheads. Both of the crew are presumed dead. This ignites a firestorm, and before long the events here ensue.
0 hours
The GA Senate declares war on the Federation. Secretly, Leia and her top military advisers had already planned out the operation. A high urgency mobilization order is sent out to several sector fleets, totaling five hundred star destroyers* and thousands of frigates.
*The battle of Coruscant consisted of “tens of thousands” of ships, a small honors fleet of Hapes has 66 ships, the Death Star was half completed the second time around in under a year and outmassed billions of star destroyers, the ROTS opening scene shows hundreds of star destroyers gathered just to ward off a surprise attack.
8 hours
The various fleets are amassed into one location. They proceed through the wormhole.
10 hours
150 of the colonies* are estimated to be significant threats. Three star destroyers are sent to each, with a significant fifty being sent to the Sol system.
*The early Federation had 150 colonies; new colonies popping up in the past centuries would be smaller and developing, probably not self sufficient.
22 hours
The various fleets exit hyperspace at around this time and prepare to attack throughout the Federation. The mission? Mini base delta zero’s targeted at infrastructure, industrial centers and major resources. Few of the systems have any effective defenses whatsoever*, and within minutes there are several spots of molten slag scattered around the planets*.
*In Star Trek Generations, the Enterprise was the only ship in range to investigate something happening 3 light years away…and it was in the middle of Sol! Any defenses would consist of stationary orbital platforms that only the more developed planets would contain.
*With the Dankayo example, three star destroyers blew off the atmosphere of the planet, requiring in excess of 10^26 joules. How, you may ask, would they be able to locate all major infrastructure (they could have base delta zero’d, but that’s not very ethical, is it?)? Scanners that have detected microcracks and other such things, along with Stealth X’s being used for recon, which, as the name implies, is stealth’ed. If you require further proof that high end base delta’s are valid, the Death Star circumnavigated Yavin in 30 minutes, requiring about 2e29 joules of energy per second; scaling that down to a star destroyer, you get a power reactor of 2e23 watts. That energy enough to blow off the atmosphere of an Earth like planet in a matter of hours.
The far larger fleet of star destroyers and frigates exits hyperspace a few hundred millions kilometers outside of Sol. With a few mini hyperjumps, the various ships are scattered, surrounding the star system. They then all hyperjump in, popping out right above major industrial zones in the Sol system and blasting them to slag while the frigates provide cover and diversion, attacking the orbital defenses in a screen. The Federation is not known for having strong readiness to fend off attacks; try and wave it off as a plot point all you like, but there are numerous occasions in which the Enterprise is the only ship able to do something to save the day when there should be a huge contingent of ships on standby against attack. Remember that the Federation would not expect for an invasion force from another galaxy to be able to strike at their capital within hours; with their tech base, they’d expect for it to take years or decades for such a thing to happen.
24 hours
The Federation, not used to the amazing speed of hyperdrive, will be taken by surprise. There will be few ships within range to fight; most would be far enough into deep space that it would take even the close ones hours to get back; some even weeks or months. By that time, the various fleets would have done their surprise attack and have hyperjumped away, leaving the various Federation planets completely scattered, the civilization’s industrial base in ruins.
And what can the Federation do about this? Any counter invasion would take literally decades just to reach the Galactic Alliance, and they lack the capability to crack planetary shields or the troop numbers to take heavily populated Star Wars planets.
Leia Organa Solo sends a message to Starfleet headquarters, sending her condolences for any lives lost, but that it should serve as a message for better diligence and integrity. She requests a surrender, and promises due compensation for all damages and full trade rights. The Federation, seeing little other option, agrees.
In 24 hours, the Galactic Alliance went into conflict with, and punked, the Federation. But, hopefully, better negotiations will come out of this.
This argument/commentary is based on several assumptions:
1. A wormhole 100 km by 100 km opens connecting the outer rim of the galaxy far far away with the Milky Way galaxy.
2. The respective time periods are the post Legacy of the Force era Galactic Alliance because I feel guilty about supporting the Galactic Empire, and the 24th century United Federation of Planets.
3. Nitpick: Leia Organa Solo replaces Daala as chief of state for this scenario.
4. G canon > T canon > C canon
5. Suspension of disbelief method used unless if there is an obvious VFX error/goofup or an irreconcilable contradiction.
6. Both sides show decent levels of competence
7. First contact has already been made, and hyperspace maps have already been drawn.
The context: after first contact was made, trade and eager communication between the two civilizations quickly sprouted up. Things seemed hopeful; goods and cultures were eagerly exchanged, but both sides were tight lipped about their technological capabilities. Then a disaster happened, one that led to all out war. While scouting the outer rim of the Star Wars galaxy Picard and the Enterprise stumbled upon a late information age planet that was about to be hit by some random relativistic kill vehicle that was floating around in space, presumably launched by a Star Wars faction in some war long, long, long ago. Lacking the means to stop the threat, Picard instead calls Starfleet for transport ships to evacuate the citizens, but Starfleet refuses, citing the Prime Directive, but Picard convinces them to see reason. As the Enterprise is waiting, a civilian corvette hired to investigate comes along. The ship’s sensors misread the corvette as a hostile, and the ensign nearby, being too reckless, orders the ship to fire after the corvette raises its shields. A firefight ensues, in which both ships end up wrecking each other, both exploding from thermonuclear and antimatter warheads. Both of the crew are presumed dead. This ignites a firestorm, and before long the events here ensue.
0 hours
The GA Senate declares war on the Federation. Secretly, Leia and her top military advisers had already planned out the operation. A high urgency mobilization order is sent out to several sector fleets, totaling five hundred star destroyers* and thousands of frigates.
*The battle of Coruscant consisted of “tens of thousands” of ships, a small honors fleet of Hapes has 66 ships, the Death Star was half completed the second time around in under a year and outmassed billions of star destroyers, the ROTS opening scene shows hundreds of star destroyers gathered just to ward off a surprise attack.
8 hours
The various fleets are amassed into one location. They proceed through the wormhole.
10 hours
150 of the colonies* are estimated to be significant threats. Three star destroyers are sent to each, with a significant fifty being sent to the Sol system.
*The early Federation had 150 colonies; new colonies popping up in the past centuries would be smaller and developing, probably not self sufficient.
22 hours
The various fleets exit hyperspace at around this time and prepare to attack throughout the Federation. The mission? Mini base delta zero’s targeted at infrastructure, industrial centers and major resources. Few of the systems have any effective defenses whatsoever*, and within minutes there are several spots of molten slag scattered around the planets*.
*In Star Trek Generations, the Enterprise was the only ship in range to investigate something happening 3 light years away…and it was in the middle of Sol! Any defenses would consist of stationary orbital platforms that only the more developed planets would contain.
*With the Dankayo example, three star destroyers blew off the atmosphere of the planet, requiring in excess of 10^26 joules. How, you may ask, would they be able to locate all major infrastructure (they could have base delta zero’d, but that’s not very ethical, is it?)? Scanners that have detected microcracks and other such things, along with Stealth X’s being used for recon, which, as the name implies, is stealth’ed. If you require further proof that high end base delta’s are valid, the Death Star circumnavigated Yavin in 30 minutes, requiring about 2e29 joules of energy per second; scaling that down to a star destroyer, you get a power reactor of 2e23 watts. That energy enough to blow off the atmosphere of an Earth like planet in a matter of hours.
The far larger fleet of star destroyers and frigates exits hyperspace a few hundred millions kilometers outside of Sol. With a few mini hyperjumps, the various ships are scattered, surrounding the star system. They then all hyperjump in, popping out right above major industrial zones in the Sol system and blasting them to slag while the frigates provide cover and diversion, attacking the orbital defenses in a screen. The Federation is not known for having strong readiness to fend off attacks; try and wave it off as a plot point all you like, but there are numerous occasions in which the Enterprise is the only ship able to do something to save the day when there should be a huge contingent of ships on standby against attack. Remember that the Federation would not expect for an invasion force from another galaxy to be able to strike at their capital within hours; with their tech base, they’d expect for it to take years or decades for such a thing to happen.
24 hours
The Federation, not used to the amazing speed of hyperdrive, will be taken by surprise. There will be few ships within range to fight; most would be far enough into deep space that it would take even the close ones hours to get back; some even weeks or months. By that time, the various fleets would have done their surprise attack and have hyperjumped away, leaving the various Federation planets completely scattered, the civilization’s industrial base in ruins.
And what can the Federation do about this? Any counter invasion would take literally decades just to reach the Galactic Alliance, and they lack the capability to crack planetary shields or the troop numbers to take heavily populated Star Wars planets.
Leia Organa Solo sends a message to Starfleet headquarters, sending her condolences for any lives lost, but that it should serve as a message for better diligence and integrity. She requests a surrender, and promises due compensation for all damages and full trade rights. The Federation, seeing little other option, agrees.
In 24 hours, the Galactic Alliance went into conflict with, and punked, the Federation. But, hopefully, better negotiations will come out of this.