Blue Planet intelligence data

The following information has not been confirmed by Volition and is therefore not canon for the FreeSpace universe.

This page references Intelligence entries of the techroom in Age of Aquarius and War in Heaven.

Back to Blue Planet Tech Room data.

See also: Vishnans

The Second Incursion

The GTVA entered the Second Shivan Incursion with the caution and contingent planning appropriate to second contact with a xenocidal alien species. The initial Alliance containment effort was overwhelmingly successful.

No unclassified source has ever explained the decision to enter the Knossos portal and attempt to press the Shivans on their own ground, but all signs suggest that the Security Council and High Command elected to test Shivan strength in order to gather strategic information and perhaps secure a permanent resolution of the Shivan threat. This decision was bolstered by GTVI's initial threat reassessment, placing the Shivans at technological parity with the GTVA.

This bold offensive strategy succeeded longer than pessimists had predicted, and the destruction of the Sathanas juggernaught was seen as analogous to the elimination of the Lucifer 32 years earlier. Shortly afterwards, Vasudan combat elements began to inflict severe damage on what were believed to be Shivan rear-area targets. True strategic victory against the Shivans appeared to be in sight.

But Shivan strategic organization did not collapse after the destruction of the Sathanas, as had been predicted. An overwhelming counterattack made it apparent that the true extent and capabilities of the Shivan species had been vastly underestimated. SOC recon elements supplied evidence that the nebula beyond the Knossos was perhaps only a perimeter element of Shivan space.

In the wake of the destruction of Capella, the Alliance was left reeling. In spite of a modestly successful evacuation effort under severe pressure, civilian confidence in the military was shattered by the sudden strategic turnabout. But the blow was felt on a deeper level.

Humanity, as a species, saw the destruction of Capella as a sign of its own cosmic insignificance. The Lost Generation's dreams of defeating the Shivans and mastering thirty-two-year-old fears were crushed. The Destroyers had brushed mankind aside like a tick and detonated a star with almost playful ease.

Broken, bleeding, and discouraged, suddenly terrified of the vast and impenetrable emptiness and the things waiting in its shadows, mankind turned its attention towards returning to its birthplace.

The Post-Capella GTVA

The Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance (GTVA) was formed in 2345, ten years after the Great War. This treaty organization recognized the autonomy of its constituents as it provided a framework for trade and mutual defense. The Great War had transformed the enmity between Terrans and Vasudans into a lasting fellowship.

As the industry and economy of the Terran-Vasudan systems recovered, support for a more powerful GTVA gained momentum. In 2358, delegates signed into existence the Beta Aquilae Convention (BETAC), named after the system where the constitution was drafted and ratified. BETAC dismantled the governments of the Terran blocs and recognized the General Assembly, the Security Council, and the Vasudan Imperium as the supreme authorities of Terran-Vasudan space.

The General Assembly (sometimes referred to as the General Terran Assembly, in a reference to the old GTA) represents the Terran civilian government, while the Vasudan Imperium mirrors its function for the Vasudan species. The Security Council, which includes representatives of both species as well as elements of GTVA High Command and the Admiralty, sets long-term strategic goals, handles military matters, and defines responses to crisis situations.

The GTVA was a state that encompassed billions of diverse peoples and hundreds of cultures, but it was never a nation. It offered its citizens the promise of security and of a future built from hard work, safety, exploration, and vigilant defense. It was an appealing promise, and strategically wise, but it was insufficient to soothe the nihilistic anguish of the Lost Generation. The NTF rebellion exploded out of the Terran need for something to believe in, something more substantial than constant vigilance.

Capella shattered the icons of GTVA security. The Colossus, as much propaganda coup as strategic asset, died in a few inglorious minutes, disabled by a Shivan tactical strike and outmatched by a single Shivan juggernaught. Citizens all across the Alliance saw civilians die by the tens of thousands as the overstretched GTVA tried to protect refugee convoys.

It is debatable whether the GTVA deserved condemnation - its failures were the result of bad intelligence. But, in the wake of Capella, the population turned against the Security Council. Pundits condemned the GTVA as hubristic, militant, arrogant, and bombastic. The phrase 'gambling with the fate of humanity' was thrown about.

The GTVA had offered security. Now, in the popular eye, it was a paper aegis against an unstoppable fire - or, worse, a military junta that had tempted extinction in order to satisfy its own pride.

GTVA analysts saw in this upswelling of discontent a potential end to the GTVA. Conditions across the Alliance echoed those which had preceded the NTF rebellion.

Into this gap stepped the Petrarch Doctrine, the centerpiece of which was the promotion of a return to Earth as a beacon for human salvation. The GTVA offered this plan as a way to placate its constituents. For the past eighteen years, the plan has moved forward, even as discontent stirred on Terran worlds and relationships with the Vasudans grew frosty.

The Rift, Parts 1 and 2

The eighteen years that followed the Capella supernova were not kind to Terran-Vasudan relations. The reasons for this were as much psychological as political.

As the post-Capella economic collapse accelerated, secessionist movements and brush wars sprang up in outlying GTVA systems. Following the pattern established by Marcus Glaive’s GTI insurgency and Bosch’s Neo-Terran Front, these conflicts disproportionately targeted Vasudans as symbols and perpetrators of humankind’s economic and ideological disintegration. The reasons were not complex - fringe demagogues and seditious militia leaders saw the Vasudans as an easy way to unite disaffected Terrans. Alliance citizens were often initially unwilling to revolt against their own government, but found it easier to accept passive resistance or armed uprising when their hostility was steered towards the Vasudan elements of the GTVA.

The GTVA response to these brush wars was initially coherent and coordinated. However, the Vasudophobic nature of the conflicts presented new challenges. Terran elements of the GTVA fleet had suffered more casualties than their Vasudan counterparts during the Shivan incursion (despite extensive Vasudan operations in the nebular theater). Moreover, the Vasudan Battlegroup organizational scheme was more flexible and versatile than the Terran Fleet model. This meant that, in many cases, GTVA High Command deployed Vasudan warships to take up patrol and intervention roles that would normally have been filled by Terran ships and crews. Perceived Vasudan ‘meddling’ in border conflicts only deepened Terran fears of the economically prosperous and militarily intact Vasudans, exacerbating growing ideological rifts and prejudices. Meanwhile, Khonsu II’s willingness to put Vasudan ships and aid workers in harm’s way in missions to stamp out Terran brushfires led to some degree of discontent amidst the Vasudan technocrats and politicians of the General Assembly. This tension inevitably began to contaminate relations within the General Assembly, even between Terrans and Vasudans who had once been friends and political partners.

By 2370, these political effects were boiling over. Vasudan warships on peacekeeping missions were frequently targeted for attack, and in at least one incident, a clever separatist ploy led a Terran corvette to assault a Vasudan cruiser in ‘defense’ of what the Terran captain believed to be a innocent refugee convoy. Meanwhile, Terran politicians continued to bicker over the terms of Vasudan aid in post-Capellan reconstruction, unwilling to either accept too much Vasudan aid (for fear of angering anti-Vasudan constituents) or too little (simply because Vasudan aid was necessary and vital). Admiral Petrarch’s drive to devote funding to the return to Sol rather than to reconstruction efforts frustrated Khonsu II, who accused the Admiral of ‘looking to the past instead of to the stars for answers.’ In return, Petrarch, once a staunch advocate of Terran-Vasudan military integration, accused the Emperor of petty jealousy over the prospect of the Terrans regaining their homeworld where the Vasudans never could. Khonsu handled the personal affront better than most Vasudans might have, but the damage was done.

Within the next two years it became apparent that Terran-Vasudan relations were decaying. Political chill crept into the military, and officer exchange programs tapered off. In the Capellan era, the GTVA had been on the verge of becoming a truly integrated society. The ‘frog calls’ of Vasudan intercom chatter were becoming a welcome sound on Terran destroyers, and Vasudan society in general had begun a sharp turn away from ritualized, formulaic protocols and towards a more Terran model. These social changes reversed themselves with startling rapidity, born out of growing Terran pessimism and the (ironically reversed) Vasudan perception that the Terrans had become backwards-looking, superstitious, and hidebound.

On the Vasudan side, animosity towards Terrans grew as they continued to devote resources to their return to Sol. The prosperous, cosmopolitan Vasudans of the post-Capella era looked down on the Terran fixation with their homeworld and resented continued Terran xenophobia towards the Vasudans. In Vasudan eyes, the Terrans were petulant, tribal, fractious, immature, overly focused on a return to their planetary womb, and devoid of the kind of racial pride that the Vasudans felt towards their Emperor.

While Vasudan contractors continued to build warships for the Terrans, and Vasudan engineers and tacticians worked closely with Terran friends on the design of a new generation of warships and weapons to counter the Shivan threat, the GTVA military began to segregate. Khonsu II reinstated the Medjai, a close-knit band of military leaders and admirals who reported directly to him. The Medjai began an ambitious restructuring of the Vasudan military in order to create a totally self-sufficient and powerful force capable of power projection, sustained counter-insurgency operations, and node denial. The Terrans, who were still struggling to get their own new warship program off the ground in the face of massive debt, were not pleased to see themselves so thoroughly eclipsed. Terran elements of the General Assembly accused Khonsu II of planning this move even before Capella, citing the Vasudan insistence on developing and deploying their own Setekh AWACS instead of adopting the superior Terran Charybdis.

Joint Terran-Vasudan military exercises continued in a cursory fashion for the next several years, but only in the form of planned responses to Shivan incursion. No counterinsurgency operations in either Terran or Vasudan space were gamed out. Officer exchange programs did not resume, simply because the political will for such a reconciliation did not exist. The Vasudans had found their place amongst the stars, and the Terrans were busy trying to go home.