Tomorrow in History

2063.9934 – Human first Contact

In Late December, 2063 the Human Orbital Habitation and Manufacturing Colony of New London on Wolf 359 recieved an odd signal from outside the system. At first it was mistaken as a corrupted radio location signal from a wrecked mining ship. But triangulation soon proved it was coming from the opposite side of the system. The next guess was that it was as yet undetected radiation from one a nearby star or pulsar. This was quickly dispproven when the signal began modulating with precise measurements.

An asteroid tug, the EAS Gray Goose II under Captain John Westsmith was quickly dispatched from it’s duties of capturing asteroids from the belt and sending them in system for processing. It took nearly two and a half days of travel under Van Gussen drive to reach the source of the signal. What the Gray Goose found was beyond all expectations. An unknown ship floated in space while a coolant leakage near the engines spewed gases behind it. Westsmith and his crew quickly identified it as an unknown contact, a conclusion confirmed by New London’s Defense Force once they recieved video and telemetry on it. Already suspecting a first contact scenario, NLDF commander Admiral Kyler ordered the Gray Goose to back off but to retain visual contact as much as possible until an official first contact team could be put together.

Captain Westsmith disregarded orders and closed to grapple range. Unoffical transcripts and records from the period mention a recent incident in which the NLDF had arrested several of Westsmith’s brother captians during a routine Union strike. Disregarding any thoughts of contamination, his crew mated the two ships and opened the airlock to not only render aid, but also to gain fist claim on any possible salvage rights. What they found inside was outstanding, mysterious, and so ordinary that it’s belivabilty is still questioned today by certain conspiracy theorists.

The wrecked ship contained an unconcious crew of seven aliens who later turned out to be 99.98% DNA compatible to humans. Their skin coloration was an uniform dark shade. Their basic weight and height specifications were 22% higher of those on Earth. As such the Gray Goose’s auto-doc was able to stabalize 3 of the crew. The rest had sustained to many injuries when the engine failure happened. Captain Westsmith immediatly ordered a return to New London and a full spectrum broadcast of what they had found, and a registered claim on the ship wreck.

Upon return, the Gray Goose was impounded, Captain Westsmith and his crew arrested by NLDF, and the aliens taken into protective custody for examination. By this time news was already hitting Earth. Kept under observation two of the aliens eventually woke up. Translation programs started working on a common language, while sociologists and xeno-biologists went over them with every observation device known at the time. Eventually enough information was collected to identify the surviving crew members as Jexon Illard, Sub-Commander of the Bright Hope, Opandgaerd Hesslemant, Medical Officer and still unconcious Qaraft Bazca the Electronics Collector who’s switched modulation of the communication array provided the emergency signal. Their home planet was Eta Cassiopeiaea Four or simply Home.

By this time public reaction was such that the Eta Cassiopeiaeans could no longer be kept secret, despite Earth Confederation’s wishes. Admiral Kyler’s iron-fisted handling of the situation was resoundly critized by the public, even though he was following standard regulations. Several years later, demoted to a non-critical post and demonized in the public eye, he committed suicide via an air lock. Captain John Westsmith and his crew’s salvage rights were bought out by Earth Confed, making them very wealthy. Several of the crew wrote best selling books and the Captain went on several speaking tours even once ending up on Eta Cassiopeia Four itself for an audience with the Emporer.

The Eta Cassiopeiaens eventually became part of the Diplomatic Corps and helped create the first diplomatic treaty between the two worlds. Scientists on each side immediately seized on the sameness of both races and eventually which eventually became the first evidence of Precursor influence in the Galaxy. They also collaborated on the Hawking-Dweaveran drive which eventually became the first practical FTL-drive and opened up both races to further contacts and memberships on the Galactic Council.

5236.6843 AD – C15 Multi-Purpose Field Rifle

5236.6843 AD the C15 Multi-Purpose Field Rifle was released into production. The staple of Alliance small arms for well over 2000 years, it’s main components were a K3 “Cerigan” Micro-Reactor, a standard off the shelf quarter size material reducer and a newly upgraded Mark II combat designator. All of these components were relatively easy and cheap to produce across most worlds making it also one of the cheapest combat ready fire arms in well over 800 years. Protected by the standard Quarsteel stock they were also fairly robust under extreme combat conditions. The overall design of the rifle changed very little. Major improvements included a K7 Micro-Reactor and a small combat nano-repair module. Both of which were added about 350 years before the end of it’s combat life.

The real break through by the Hessen-Glock Arms Company was figuring out how to narrow the reducer’s output to a useable form. The final product, a simple in-stock mold in the shape of the 3.4 centimeter long, 1.2 millimeter wide ammo turned out to be a real “Jafataugh!” moment. Any loose material nearby was simply shoved into the receiver input on the stock. The micro-reactor provided the needed power to the material reducer which superheated the materials into base gases which were then squirted into the mold. They then formed the round which was ready to fire .3 seconds later. 500 rounds could be stored internally, while a seperate external magazine held another 1500. Both storage compartments could be refilled via the reducer by using the firing chamber as a pass-through.

Using power from the micro-reactor the rounds were accelerated down the barrel much like a rail gun via sub-audible electron pulses at roughly 2.4kilometers/s. Which was fast enough to pierce most forms of hyperceramics and many energy fields. The rate of fire could be selected via the combat designator. One or two round shots were usually reserved for sniper situations or when ammo was getting low. A twelve round selection was usually used during normal combat. The last selection was a one-hundred round rate of fire for suppression fire tactics. In addition a longer 1.3 meter barrel was available to change the C-15 into a long range, high velocity sniper rifle.

Pre-made ammunition is also available. Most is for specialized circumstance, such as anti-infantry, anti-armor, anti-shield, anti-missile, etc. Other variations include field expedient detonation ammo for quickly creating holes in walls, to dig trenches and other minor engineering feats. Several variations existed for intelligence gathering, but amazingly little is known about them.

The C15 saw usage by the Royal Marines and the Colonial Ground Forces during it’s tenure in every action they played a part in. Notable actions included the hold out of a company of Royal Marines at Hanner’s Pass during the 2nd Xceronalian War. Cut off from reinforcement and running low on supplies, the 67th Royal Marines held the pass against the Xceronalian assault for 43 days. The insect-like Xceronalian’s exoskeleton provided one of the best materials for conversion into the C15′s ammo.

During the Yatean Revolution a Recon team of the Colonial Ground Forces were able to get into position 2.3 kilometers away from the People’s Parade Grounds. Using the sniper barrel of the C15 they were able to insert a microphone near the General Gurnyvale, positively identify him, and then assassinated him in front of a crowd of two hundred thousand citizens and thus ending the General’s genocidal programs.

Some strategists and military-industrialist saw it a step backwards in technology from gravity based weapons which were just then being developed into single soldier portable versions. Ground General Ash-Polinsky pushed the development of the C15, siting the need for “a cheap, field repairable, self-sufficient rifle.” 11 years of development and testing later the first C15 were issued to combat troops and field tested under live conditions. The C15 performed better then expected, and a legend was born.

About Tomorrow in History

Tomorrow in History explores different topics of history before the year 10,007 A.D. From Wars to important (or interesting figures,) to ancient technology and the more modern, we’ll cover it all. If there is a topic you’d like to know more about, feel free to post about it in the comments, or email me!