The Cost of Victory Read online

  Europa has a relatively small collection of colonies. All colonization is done under strict government oversight, and existing colonies are subject to the heaviest bureaucratic burden of any of the powers. Inspectors, regulators, and political officers swarm over every colony world, suppressing economic activity and making Europa's settled worlds the least productive in human-occupied space.

  Colonies are garrisoned by the Compagnies d’Etoile, well organized and equipped units of colonial regulars. The Compagnies are recruited on Earth, and volunteers receive grants of land or mining rights in exchange for a commitment to settle on the frontier after their ten year term of service.

  The Compagnies are supported by Consular Guard units of powered infantry. Europa has also maintained the ancient French Foreign Legion, a small but highly effective frontier fighting force manned entirely by outcasts of other nations.

  Central European League

  Capital: Neu-Brandenburg

  The intensity of the Caliphate's attack in the early years of the Unification Wars was such that virtually all the nations of Europe were forced to join forces to hold back the onslaught. Once this southern front was stabilized, Europe was thrown into confusion as many of the old governments collapsed, their bloated and bankrupt bureaucracies no longer able to sustain themselves or deliver even basic civil services.

  The coalescence of Europa Federalis from the Latin nations of Europe caused the Germanic and Slavic peoples to fear Gallic domination, and they looked to the shattered remnants of Federal Republic of Germany for leadership. The senior generals of the Heer, now fully in control of the German government, drafted a new constitution offering associate status to neighboring nations. The resulting Central European League ultimately came to encompass all of greater Germany, Poland, the Balkans, and parts of Belarus, the Ukraine, and Scandinavia.

  The CEL is essentially a military dictatorship. The new Reichstag was comprised of 333 members, 200 nominated by the military and the rest elected by the component states. The Chancellor is chosen by the Reichstag, but the commander of the Heer has veto power over any Chancellor-elect, and to date none but senior generals have served.

  The CEL is the only superpower to have a completely new, purpose-built capital city. With Berlin virtually destroyed by revolution and riots and occupied by millions of squatters and refugees, the CEL government commissioned the construction of a new city to be called Neu-Brandenburg. Though small by the standards of other capitals, it is the newest and most modern city in the world.

  The CEL has a moderate, but very consolidated and organized interstellar empire. The frontier military forces of the CEL are spearheaded by elite panzergrenadier units of powered infantry.

  The CEL remains a bitter enemy of Europa Federalis.

  Russian-Indian Confederacy

  Capital: St. Petersburg

  In the early stages of the Unification Wars it seemed as though the tattered remnants of the old Soviet Union would fall to the forces of the Caliphate. The invader was eventually defeated, as had happened so many times in the past, by the Russian winter combined with a desperate counteroffensive. The previously scattered remnants of the Russian, Georgian, and Ukranian armies, reinforced by a small but capable contingent of allied US forces struck back, and in a massive two-month battle they defeated the forces of the Caliph and turned them back.

  The Russians and their allies never regained all of the territory lost to the Caliphate and were subsequently deprived of several Asian provinces by the CAC and the PRC. Nevertheless, with continued U.S. assistance and a humiliating but necessary treaty with the PRC, the situation was stabilized, and the newly formed Confederacy survived to emerge, however marginally, as one of the superpowers.

  The CAC and the Caliphate had destroyed the emerging Indian superpower, but they fought each other to exhaustion over the spoils. The Russians, regrouped and reorganized, attacked south and reclaimed the former Soviet states in the area, then invaded Afghanistan and seized part of Pakistan. Establishing contact with the scattered and disorganized remnants of the Indian military, the revived Russian army drove south. Taking advantage of an opportunity, they offered the Indians a co-equal partnership and extended the Confederacy to include the re-claimed northern areas of India.

  The Confederacy is ruled by three triumvirs, elected to staggered ten-year terms of office by the Oligarchs, the leaders of the large business combines that control the economy. The RIC is a relatively poor and technologically backward superpower, and the Russo-Indian military, other than a few elite strike units, is poorly equipped.

  The Confederacy was struggling for its very survival when the other superpowers began sending expeditions through the newly discovered warp gates. By the time the RIC made it into space in significant force, many of the choke point systems were occupied, and the Russians were compelled to fight hard to assemble a small collection of colonies.

  South American Empire

  Capital: Caracas

  When the world economy began to collapse, the nations of South America suffered catastrophic depressions followed by mass starvation and revolution. Warfare erupted throughout the continent, as nations and shattered remnants of nations fought each other savagely for a dwindling pool of resources.

  Eventually, a brilliant Venezuelan warlord named Gabriel de Santos conquered most of the northeastern portion of the continent. The formation of the Western Alliance, and the resulting increase in U.S. military power created a fear that South America would fall under Alliance domination. Fanning these fears, de Santos was able to unite about half of the continent under his rule, and he declared himself emperor. Several decades of war were required to subdue the rest of the South America.

  The newly formed empire was in ruins and economically prostrate, and it was left to the conqueror's son, Gabriel II, to rebuild the shattered realm and attain true superpower status. By the time this reconstruction was sufficiently complete to support a program of space exploration, the other powers had sewn up all the lucrative systems. The SAE has the smallest collection of colonies, and this cluster has no known warp gates leading to unclaimed space. The empire cannot expand in space without taking someone else's real estate, and they lack sufficient force to do so alone. As a result, the SAE strategy has been to seek opportunities to align with stronger powers to attain its goals.

  SAE space forces consist of quasi-irregulars supplemented by a very few elite Imperial Guard units. SAE worlds are owned and operated by major corporations, which field their own private armies. It is common for these forces to be hired out as mercenaries to any power that can pay and not unheard of for SAE troops to be fighting on both sides of a war.

  Free Martian Confederation

  Capital: Ares Metroplex

  In the years just before the start of the Unification Wars, several small U.S. colonies were established on the surface of Mars, followed by similar settlements from China, Russia, Japan, and the U.K. While the nations of Earth fought decade after decade of increasingly savage and destructive war, these colonies survived, prospered, and grew.

  Millions wished to escape from the cataclysm occurring on Earth, and the Martian colonies had their pick of immigrants. Consisting almost entirely of the highly skilled and educated, the Martian Exodus, as it was called, created somewhat of a "brain-drain" on Earth, but fueled the expansion and prosperity of the Mars colonies.

  When the Treaty of Paris was signed and the nations of Earth again focused on space exploration, they found that the Martians, as they called themselves, felt they were independent of any Earth authority. They banded together into a loose confederation and demonstrated that Mars was quite capable of defending itself, possessing what was at the time the largest fleet of spacecraft of any nation.

  While the population of Mars was tiny compared to that of the superpowers, it was almost entirely comprised of productive elements. Where the superpowers had crime ridden, poverty stricken, and useless cities, the Martians had a well ordered and highly e
ducated society. Where the powers of Earth were devastated, exhausted by war, and plagued by crumbling infrastructure, Mars was a high-tech and productive society. The superpowers had no viable choice but to accept the Confederation as an independent power.

  By far the smallest of the powers, the Confederation relies upon small, well-trained, and superbly equipped ground units to maintain its position in the interstellar race. The Confederation is the least expansionist of the powers, and while it dominates the moons and asteroids of the Sol system, it has a very small group of interstellar colonies. Mars rarely intervenes in the wars between the other powers, preferring to maintain a policy of armed neutrality.

  By Jay Allan

  Tombstone (A Crimson Worlds Prequel)

  Marines (Crimson Worlds I)

  The Cost of Victory (Crimson Worlds II)

  A Little Rebellion (Crimson Worlds III)

  (December 2012)

  The First Imperium (Crimson Worlds IV)

  (March 2012)

  The Last Veteran (Shattered States I)

  The Dragon's Banner

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  Table of Contents

  By Jay Allan

  Chapter 1

  AS Cromwell

  Flagship, Alliance Grand Fleet

  Gliese 250 System

  Chapter 2

  I Corps Assembly Area

  Columbia - Eta Cassiopeiae II

  Chapter 3

  Western Alliance Intelligence Directorate HQ

  Wash-Balt Metroplex, Earth

  Chapter 4

  Control Center

  AS Pendragon

  In orbit around Columbia - Eta Cassiopeiae II

  Chapter 5

  CAC Central Committee HQ

  Hong Kong, Earth

  Chapter 6

  Classified Excavation Site Z

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 7

  Space Station Tarawa

  Gliese 250 System

  Chapter 8

  Western Alliance Intelligence Directorate HQ

  Wash-Balt Metroplex, Earth

  Chapter 9

  AS Cromwell

  Flagship, Task Force Tecumseh

  AD Leonis System, en Route to TZ Arietis Warp Gate

  Chapter 10

  I Corps HQ

  Columbia - Eta Cassiopeiae II

  Chapter 11

  Marine Earthside HQ

  Camp Puller

  Near New Houston, Texas

  Chapter 12

  I Corps HQ

  Columbia - Eta Cassiopeiae II

  Chapter 13

  Alliance-PRC Combined Fleet

  Epsilon Eridani System

  Inbound from the YZ Ceti warp gate

  Chapter 14

  Launch Bay Alpha

  AS Pendragon

  In orbit around Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 15

  1st Brigade HQ

  Base of the Lysandra Plateau

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 16

  Northern Face of the Lysandra Plateau

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 17

  Alliance-PRC Combined Fleet

  Epsilon Eridani System

  Deployed around Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 18

  Foothills of the Tarsus Mountains

  North of the Lysandra Plateau

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 19

  Field Hospital One

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 20

  Alliance-PRC Combined Fleet

  Epsilon Eridani System

  Approaching the orbit of Epsilon Eridani V

  Chapter 21

  Near 1st Brigade HQ

  Northern Spur of the Lysandra Plateau

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 22

  WAS Saratoga.

  Epsilon Eridani System

  In the asteroid belt past the orbit of Epsilon Eridani V

  Chapter 23

  East of the Lysandra Plateau

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 24

  Task Force Omaha

  YZ Ceti System

  En route to the Epsilon Eridani warp gate

  Chapter 25

  Field Hospital One

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 26

  East of the Lysandra Plateau

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 27

  WAS Midway

  Alliance Combined Fleet

  In orbit around Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 28

  I Corps HQ

  Durang Valley

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  Chapter 29

  C1 Headquarters Building

  Wan Chai, Hong Kong

  Central Asian Combine, Earth

  Chapter 30

  Shuttle Beta-3

  Henderson Landing Field

  Epsilon Eridani IV

  By Jay Allan

  Appendices

  Naval Combat Tactics

  Weaponry

  Defensive Systems

  Nationalism and Cultural Makeup of the Superpowers

  Class Structure in the Western Alliance

  The Cogs

  The Middle Class

  About the Superpowers

  The Western Alliance

  Capital: Washbalt Metroplex

  The Mohammedan Caliphate

  Capital: New-Media

  Central Asian Combine

  Capital: Hong Kong

  Pacific Rim Coalition

  Capital: Tokyo

  Europa Federalis

  Capital: Paris

  Central European League

  Capital: Neu-Brandenburg

  Russian-Indian Confederacy

  Capital: St. Petersburg

  South American Empire

  Capital: Caracas

  Free Martian Confederation

  Capital: Ares Metroplex

  By Jay Allan