Hello Jodan,
I'm sending this letter to you, Sam Harris and Douglas Murray, and hoping that it will reach at least one of you directly as I believe it could move all of your individual viewpoints as well as your future conversations forward. I'm sending it in the interest of possibly alerting you to at least one country, the one I grew up in, which seem to have completely evaded your research efforts and leaving you all, it would seem, agree on one, to me a very curious and strange point, that a successful and happy society without a (major) role of religion in it does not exist or have ever been tried. Sam is sure it would work, you say it did not work in Stalin's Russia case (you also add Hitler, who clearly was not an atheist and his most brutal forces had "God is with us" written right on their belt buckles which pretty much destroys the non-religious assertion), but none of you seem to be aware that it worked and is still currently working already very well.
I respect all of you greatly. I identify most with Sam's points of view at matters - perhaps unsurprisingly given the country I grew up in and the personality I am - and least with you Jordan, but that's only because of the religious part of views he seems to insist on deeply. I admire Jordan for your abilities to reason and, most of the time, reason so for clearly logical things. I admire the other two for the same reason without the need for that exception.
I've watched a great many videos featuring you 3 plus of course other very intelligent people like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and others in the past few years. The one thing that always keeps surprising me is the point where the discussion gets to the point of arguing about "how viable would a theoretical society" built basically purely on reason and no religion look like and what state it would end up in. Not even Christopher Hitchens seemed to ever have any other answers than a very good, but yet still purely theoretical arguments regarding such a society. From all of those occasions in those conversations, I am basically forced to believe that you all guys, however much-traveled and intelligent, have completely missed at least this one real-life, well-working example, which is my country - The Czech Republic. I think that if you haven't and if you then talked to a few people who grew up there at least at the time when I did - born 1973 - you would find not theoretical, but very real examples of a great many people who not only grew up completely without any religion or any stories coming from it and yet, still grew up very nice, intelligent and maybe surprisingly to you all VERY HAPPY people.
I'm not sure how many people exactly like me you would find because I really set up my life to be very happy, not even knowing how exactly stress would feel - I just maybe get hints of what it may feel like when I'm cold, which is why I have relocated to Queensland, Australia a long time ago - but you would definitely find heaps and heaps of people who are undergoing the same stresses in life as in any other western-type society with handling family, work and the other aspects of life, yet without any regard whatsoever to notions of any religion or any need to any type of any kind of comforting mythical stories.
That, of course, is not to say that many of us do not enjoy fiction books or entertaining stories in the form of books, tales, or other arts. We can enjoy it all the same with the full knowledge that those are fiction.
All the above is the result of the socialist/communist system we grew up in which not necessarily stifled but certainly did not promote any religion. It is the one thing I am grateful for to that system I grew up in, apart from a very happy childhood since nobody's parents had existential struggles. I do believe that there were efforts to eradicate the religion, many of which may probably be identified as forceful, but we've always kept our history including its buildings like castles and churches as opposed to destroying them, which would be an extreme way to get rid of something. Even clergy was tolerated and some very tiny minority of mostly the old-times people were attending services even at those times.
The actual real fact of life was, however, that we never were taught about religion apart from being a part of history, including ours. And we would still go on school trips some of which may include admiring a great cathedral purely for its architecture and art.
Strangely, even the name of the "person" who brings the presents at Chrismas (which in the Czech language is called "vanoce", which has nothing to do with Christianity - at least not obviously - I did not study its etymological roots) is "Jezisek", which, funnily and very interestingly enough I personally only realized when I was about 14 years old, means "a little Jezis = Jesus - "little" here meaning a kid, a baby). So the presents were being brought by a baby Jesus and yet, for almost all of us it was just a name, same as the west had Santa Claus or any other name you could use for a fictional character. It had NO religious meaning whatsoever to us, nor any story was attached to it at all. It was (and is for us) simply a holiday with the ritual of decorating a tree and having a very nice, extraordinary family dinner before (mostly the kids) would enjoy the present unwrapping under the tree. (Yes, our Christmas all happen on 24th Dec). We had no idea that it was originally a celebration of the winter solstice or that it was then stolen as a Christian holiday. We enjoyed it and frankly still enjoy it for the same family reasons, all the same. Actually now knowing that it has been for the past many hundreds of years appropriated by a religious cult if anything taints the experience. It probably would not if that cult was a thing simply belonging and part of the history of "less educated" times of us humans. The fact that this magical thinking still sways great sections of global citizens' everyday lives is what taints Christmas for some us Czechs. It surely does for me. I feel more at ease with it knowing that actually it is the winter solstice celebration. I would surely be more fine with it if it was just a date that someone decided to arbitrarily put on a calendar rather than thinking of it in terms of a cult that brutally killed and tortured so many innocent people in history and still thinks that magical thinking is just a fine idea.
Similar to Christmas, we in the Czech Republic also celebrate Easter (another holiday appropriated for itself by Christianity as I learned much later in my life). We also enjoy it purely for the tradition or maybe just for the fact that it is a day off work :). In Czech, a part of the tradition regarding Easter is that man create a nice looking weaved supple "sticks" from the branches of a willow tree, and in the morning we go around as many girls/women we know as possible to "hit" their behinds with it so that they stay young and supple too. I'm sure that in today's "politically correct" society many would find something very wrong with it, but the simple fact was that it ended up being a very nice and very social day for everyone. (By the way, I never knew that anybody would consider women as any lesser than men. I grew up in a society where had no reason to even suspect such a thing.) In the afternoon the girls and women had the right on the other hand to pour buckets of water over the men's' heads, even though that part was never really practiced. (At least in our parts of the Czech Republic. There are more traditional areas.) I suppose that is because it is not as convenient to run around with buckets of water around than it would be with sticks. Also, we - boys and men - would get a colorful ribbon bound to the ends of the sticks by each female we've visited and "paid off" - we don't really call it hitting or beating. It would leave the omitted girls and women feel neglected rather than happy not to get hit. I'm sure that the absolute majority of us were always as gentle as myself and my friends in performing that "stick-and-behind" ritual. I actually never wanted or was planning to do this whole thing, but I had a friend who always came on the morning of Easter Monday to my home with a couple of those "sticks" - one for himself, one for me, and basically had to talk me into joining him every single year. And it always ended up being one of the best days of the year, finishing in a mixed group having a great time (including a bit of drinking in our later teenage years). It was very nice and social and NOTHING to do with any religion or anything other than "this tradition actually turns out to be fun" and we did not need some deep explanation for it that I'm sure Jordan would try to dig out at this point. It was the same fun we can end up with when we come up with brand new social events, out of which, when they turn out fun, we often try to make a tradition of too. All that being completely atheist and secular. I really don't understand what seems to be so hard to comprehend even to Sam - not that he could not seem to be able to imagine it - clearly, he very much is - but that it actually has already been tried and is still going on successfully. Admittedly though, traditions like the Easter ones in Czech are fading as the capitalist style of life requiring most of us to work more and more puts a strain on that too, together with an overload of other modern culture distractions obviously.
In any case, my point is that what Sam is saying, what Christopher used to say and others too, is NOT a theoretically working "utopia", it IS a reality for millions in just my own country of origin and we suffer no ill effects from it!
On the contrary, despite being a tiny nation of 10 million people we have (even though thanks to globalization, corruption, and not in small part thanks to the totalitarianism of the European Union) we are loosing great industry and very clever people. We used to be (before EU) totally self-sufficient in basically everything, were exporting fighter jets, cars, atomic reactors, locomotives, food, and much more to the rest of the world, gave the world some amazing people and inventions like contact lenses, nanofibres, the lighting rod, or even small things like sugar cubes, pencils or Koh-i-Noor snaps for our jeans :) and we needed no religion or the related stories to do that. And that is the one thing I'm happy the "communist" regime gave us - true freedom from religion, freedom from bullshit stories if you pardon me. It lets us concentrate on interesting and important stuff in life instead of trying to solve mute problems like why are we here. We are, so enjoy it. I must say that without the religious ideas surrounding us that most of us don't even think about it as something to worry about. We worry about "we are here now, what can we do to live well" and some of us also "what can we do to leave my imprint on humanity". The more curious of us sure ask "how" did we get here and maybe do think about how in the great scheme of things we are totally insignificant, but I don't think it makes us unhappy. I know it does not make me unhappy for sure. I enjoy learning new things, discovering, making logical conclusions, and, apart from other things, being truthful to myself and others, which is probably why I'm also so happy in my life and have always been, which all of you I'm sure will very easily understand.
All of you guys seem to imply or straight away say that "sure, there is not a person who would not have major problems in life, who would not have "demons"" etc. Well, sure, I've encountered problems in my life. I'm solving software problems every day (I'm a software engineer) I've traveled around the world on a motorbike so I've encountered life-threatening situations, I've lost family members (fortunately for me just the ones who naturally died of old age, no tragedies so far, so yes, I've been lucky in that respect). But problems are here, to my eye, to be solved. They are a challenge, not a tragedy. They make life interesting. And demons? No, I do not have any. Things I regret? Maybe, a tiny little ones like not asking that beautiful girl on a bus for a coffee. But I've never done anything I would be ashamed of. That does not mean that I never failed of course. But I freely admit and not try to hide my failings so I have no demons. Am I really the only person in the world you think? I may be rare, but I'm sure I'm not alone.
Regardless, many, or basically I'd say almost all of my friends, much as they may have more normal everyday problems and stresses than I have (and it is not at all related to money - I'm not wealthy at all - we even still rent the place where we live), would tell you the same thing regarding the role of religion or religious stories in their lives and their decisions - NONE whatsoever.
The Czech Republic is very rich in culture too. Our country has one of the biggest concentrations of castles for example. I do not think that religion was necessary for those structures to be built for powerful people in our history. Yes, many, many churches too. Beautiful buildings. Some of them truly amazing, as some of the castles, too. And our secular society still builds and creates amazing things with no religion required for it. Just yesterday I was sent a link to a video about the biggest chandelier and at the same time, the biggest jewel ever built anywhere. (Link here if you are interested:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/AQ2udSvqx28 .) It could very well hang in a cathedral of some type. But it was built by a Czech company for a Saipan casino. Only human talent, work, and lots of money was needed to build this wonder. No religion whatsoever. So I'm pretty sure, Jordan, that you can stop worrying about losing culture if there was no religion. Sure, cassino may not be considered culture by many, but it is simply a fact of today's world that casinos are one of the areas where the money is. If you want to start to argue that we need religion as a way of extracting money from the population to build such marvels, as was historically exactly one of its functions and is one of the reasons those grand structures like great cathedrals exist, then fine. I would, like Sam, argue that it is possible to do without the pretense of magic, but at least that would be a simple point to defend. Not the only way though!! An example - and I'm sure there are also many modern ones too.. The National Theatre in Prague... It is a grandiose building with high ceilings covered with similar gold ornamentry and paintings to any cathedral you may find. It also has a huge painted curtain - a great painting of its own right. This all was built from money collected from donations of the citizens expressly towards building a national theatre, which was opened in 1881. The first idea came in 1844 at a congregation of Czech patriots. As far as I can tell no religion was involved. Certainly, none needed. And that great building is also a part of our and the world's registered cultural heritage sites.
So to summarize, the reason for this letter was to let all of you three guys know that you can stop only theorizing about a society without religion. Look at the Czech Republic especially before the Velvet Revolution (after which slowly more and more religion starts very slowly creeping in again), but where still today three-quarters of the population are completely irreligious. We are one of the safest, most educated, and happiest countries in the world. And if you look over the state ideology at any one time, where communism was making some people unhappy with restrictions on travel for example, and capitalism in its demands on sacrificing more of one's private / family time for work time, we are generally really happy people, nice to each other (without having to be threatened by hell or whatever other stupid magic idea), helping each other. And it is probably partly thanks to the LACK of any religion that we are that way. There is one less thing to partition us into opposing groups which argue about something they actually cannot even know.
Actually, that makes me think about my friends and people I know. I know and have experienced that my friends or even friends of my parents, for example, would (and in the past have) helped me when I really needed help, despite it being a great inconvenience for them. Yet, I was in similar situations when I only had a religious person to help me and they would not. It would seem to me that religious people like to listen to the stories that Jordan insists are shaping majorly their principles and behavior, rather than actually behave according to them. And then some feel great to tell you how good they are thanks to Jesus.
Ok, I think that concrete examples would be good here:
I know, that every time I go back to the Czech Republic for the summer I have offers from my friends to take me to the airport - both in Czech and in Australia (still from Czech friends interestingly enough). In both cases, it is over 100km and I do not want to inconvenience them if it is not necessary so I thank them and decline. But I know that even if I called them at three in the morning that I needed an urgent lift to the airport they would just tell me how long it would take them to pick me up.
Contrast that with this:
I've known a great person for 7 years and actually shared a house with her for 5 of those years. I consider her a very nice person and considered her a very good friend. I still visit her once a year or so when I have a chance, but thinking back on the story I'm about to tell you certainly makes me feel less worm towards her than I always thought she otherwise deserved.
So the story: I found a new life partner while again staying for the whole European summer in the Czech Republic. For reasons irrelevant to this story she could not join me permanently in Australia for the first few years of being together, so we were overcoming that problem by her periodically visiting me in Australia for 3 months, then we would not see each other for another 3, then I would go to Czech for 3 and a bit, again 3 months apart and then the cycle would repeat.
At the end of one of her stays in Australia with me, while I was still sharing the house with my friend, Jean, my partner was flying home the next day and I, shortly before that, decided I would actually fly back with her. I could not get a seat on the same flight so my flight was at 8 AM and hers the same day at 1 PM. My partner is a bit lost when traveling and she did not speak English at that time yet either, so we decided to travel the 150km to Brisbane in the evening before and arranged to stay with a friend there overnight. We were supposed to catch the second one of the only two trains that goes from that place to Brisbane daily. It was leaving around 9 PM. The nearest train station is about 8km from the place I lived in with Jean, who agreed or maybe even offered to take us to that train station, I can't remember that bit for sure. What is for sure is that once we got there it become clear that the train was not coming as the train tracks were not there and the workers currently working there under the floodlights confirmed that the trains were not operating on that track for the past 14 days and will not be going for another 14 more. I was amazed and surprised, especially after we got back home and I confirmed on the computer that the online time schedule directly on the Queensland Rail website still insists that there are no exceptions or delays and that that train is scheduled as per normal.
There was no other public transport for us to use from that place. So after another couple of hours of trying to figure out any other possibility of getting us there on time, I finally asked Jean if she would be so kind and took us to the airport (we did not want to bother the friend in Brisbane to sleep over anymore because we would arrive too late for that we felt) so that we could make our flights. Jean told us that "she would but that she promised her sister to accompany her to a church service the next morning and that if she took us she would be too sleepy for that the next day"..................
I probably don't have to say that I was a bit disappointed that someone I considered a friend and a good person would refuse to help us in a situation in which I would have no other safe viable option. I never analyzed it further beyond the disappointment. However, a couple of years later I was telling this story to a friend and he, I think very spot on, pointed out that "So she would rather go to church to listen to the preacher to tell her that she should be helping people rather than take the opportunity to actually help someone in a real need.". How is that for "Christian" values? I know my non-religious friends would not hesitate to help me in that situation as I'll give you an example of in a couple of lines.
Just to finish the story, Jean was "nice enough" to suggest that we can try hitchhiking on the highway (at 1 AM no less!!) and "kindly" offered to take us there. We had no other choice so we accepted. To start with, there were literally 2 cars in 40 minutes we stood there. Fortunately, the second car actually stopped for us, and also fortunately we survived that. I say the second "fortunately" since it was a German traveler who told us that he stopped because he needed someone to keep him awake since he has been driving at that point non-stop for 16 hours from Cairns. Needless to say that traveling in a car 20km over the highway speed limit with someone who is grossly falling to sleep is quite scary... The story still developed into having quite a few very interesting twists, but those are not relevant to this anymore.
So now a concrete matching example:
When I was 15 I was to travel by bus 150 km to my brand new high school. I was obviously gonna have to be staying at a boarding school there so I wanted to take an earlier Sunday bus to have a chance to choose my new bed. But after waiting over an hour over the scheduled time for the bus I concluded that it was not coming and I was going to have to take the late afternoon one. After returning to the bus station and waiting for that one for almost an hour again I finally figured out that it was actually a brand new holiday celebrating the two (religious - interestingly enough :)) men who managed to enforce the recognition of our language as a language recognized by the religion, based and thanks to which our writing was established. (Religion would not allow our writing if it did not recognize the language as being worthy.) It was never celebrated before as it was shortly after the Velvet Revolution so I had no idea. Anyway, the result was that there was no other bus that day and that not only I would arrive dead last to the boarding school, but I would also miss probably the important first half of the first day at the actual new school as a freshman since my dad was away somewhere at that time with our only car.
That evening, at about 10 PM, a neighbor and my parent's friend came to pick something up from my mum. He was surprised to see me still at home and so he asked how come? When we told him he said that we should have told him earlier because he would have taken me there. He also told us that he was supposed to be at work the next day at 5 or 6 AM so it was too late to drive me there now. I remember thinking that it is easy to say now if he can't prove he would have done it anyway. Three minutes later I hear him saying: "You know what, let's go, I'll take you there." It was a 3-hour drive one way!!! The Czech Republic is quite dense with towns and villages and there were at that time many quite large detours on the way, too. So this man would get home about an hour or two before having to go to work!
How big of a difference this is to a church on Sunday where you go by your own volition, you are not required to go and being able to take the highway instead of in that case basically the whole way, so that trip would have cost Jean 3 hours max!
So the person who is NOT compulsed to help me for fear of any hell or any other even slightly unpleasant result helps me for purely the good feeling that one gets from helping others by his own choice despite majorly inconveniencing himself is the one that actually helps me and the one that thinks of themselves as the chosen and the most kind people chooses to go listening about how kind they are rather than actually be. Does not that give you a pause? :)
Another example. I was renting a room in a home of another of my friends and I happened to accidentally either drop the clear plastic fridge bucket for fruits and veggies or drop something on it (I cannot remember), resulting in its cracking. The, for me absolutely obvious thing to do, despite that it was "just a crack" and the bucket was still capable of fulfilling its function (and in fact until this day I still use it in my garage to store stuff in), I went ahead and spent almost a whole day trying to find where I could buy the correct replacement and spent something like 60 bucks on it at a time I did not have much money at all. Just because it was a normal logical thing for me to do for the pure "golden rule" reason. And Jordan would maybe say "ha, see, Christian values". And I, same as Sam or Christopher or probably Douglas too, would say that that rule is very logical, self-evident, and much older than the Christianity that appropriates that too for itself. It is just logical. I did not ever need any kind of story behind it and definitely not one where I would be punished other than that others may start doing the same to me seeing me do that to others. And since I want others to be nice to me, I, quite logically and without complicated explanations that some try to fit to some ancient stories they happen to believe in, will behave nicely to them.
And now again, contrast this to a very similar situation the other way around, this time, however, the other person is a church-going Christian.
I now live in a nice big house, which we rent as I mentioned. For the past 10 years, it has been our home and we can only afford it because we are sub-letting one of its rooms directly connected to the main bathroom. And we do this because we fell in love with the house and felt immediately at home as soon as we inspected it. And we originally inspected it purely just as a point of comparison with other houses we went to see afterward because it was available for inspection first that day. Later, comparing it to the other houses, I realized we could make it affordable (same price as the others) by renting out just those two of the 4 rooms that were on the top of what we actually needed. So we did and it has been 10 years since.
We look for people who want to stay longer-terms. Last year, a guy from the Christian part of Nigeria was finishing his stay of over 2 years with us. He would go to church every Sunday without fail and was obviously a devout Christian. He was studying nursing and was working as well, earning quite good money too. In the home, we usually all fit in our big fridge together with our boarder. This one, however, said he needed more space so we bought an additional fridge for him. It was one of the smaller ones which still needs to be periodically defrosted. When we noticed that he is leaving the freezer to become overgrown with ice we told him that he will need to do that so that the fridge does not break. We asked him to do that several times over several months until the plastic hinge of the plastic freezer door broke by the ice pushing it out. It was obviously not even an accident. He would ignore that. So eventually I told him that now he, unfortunately, had to find a replacement freezer door for it because otherwise, the fridge will be consuming much more energy (and we are paying all the energy bills, the boarders have it included in a single unchanging rent amount, which is by the way cheapest in this area) and that it will freeze over faster and that the person after him will surely need the door, too. Nothing at all happened until he left.
I meant to force him to do that before I'd return his bond when he would eventually be leaving, but it happened just at a time when we were holidaying aborad and I forgot about the freezer door. So I remotely returned his full bond. Sometime after that, when he came to pick up some of his post that he still did not change the address for, I gave him the broken door and asked him if he could please finally get a replacement. It's been almost a year now and he tells me he did not find it. So I asked him obviously if he actually tried. He said he did. A couple of simple questions later it is clear that he actually did not even try but is happy to lie about it. So what exactly has the church taught him?? I know it has neither taught him for sure to be responsible for his own actions nor to be honest. Clearly. Qualities that I and all of my close friends who I grew up with, who have never been touched by religion of any kind, have.
I am not necessarily saying that these almost exactly one-to-one comparable examples are totally indicative of the difference of morals between Christians and completely irreligious people, but since it does fit pretty well with many others we see in history and also currently around us, I think it is time to stop theorizing about the necessity or even utility of religious values for modern people. I'm not disputing that religion does have utility for people who follow it, but it certainly is not the necessary or even important tool for people in general.
It seems to me that religion has a utility of a rock that you use to beat in a nail. Take the rock from me and you leave me with a hammer that actually makes much more sense, similarly to taking away the stories and threat of hell and replacing it with something that has been there all along - the genuinely nice feeling of helping someone even if I am otherwise not compelled by anything else than the great feeling and the very logical realization that I have a much better chance to be treated nicely if I treat everybody else nicely. And that I am much more likely to be helped by others if I unconditionally help them. And I may help someone who never helps me, but helps somebody else. And somebody I never helped may actually help me because he was also at some point helped or at least sees it as all so logical how this works.
Jordan, your well-researched arguments on many societal topics are great and helpful and make sense. But I must say that even though I heard a couple of ways you very interestingly matched biblical stories on some current situations or general human behavior, I also think that you are totally overcomplicating stuff in these cases and you are getting many, myself included, lost as to what you are in fact trying to do other than somehow trying to reconcile your Christian belief with current reality and as you just discussed during the talks with Douglas and Sam, smuggling the Jesus into it where really, it is not necessary at all, objectively.
I understand that it is important to many, you including, but it really is not necessary. We can very nicely do completely without it. As an exercise in reasoning it is, or can be, for sure interesting, especially for scholars like you. For us, normal people (or normal engineers like myself :)) it seems pretty pointless otherwise. And the case of the Czech Republic, I think, even takes a base from your case completely, even though I'm sure you could find connections.
As an engineer I can tell you I can map anything to anything if I put enough abstractions in between. But the simple truth is, that almost everybody in a real country that has been historically doing well, grew up a perfectly decent person, arguably in a bigger percentage more decent than the majority in much more religious countries. And we do not suffer. Again, I'd say we suffer less because we are not burdened by any traumas like worrying about ending up in hell.
Sure, in our folklore we have another tradition where St. Nicholas (we never used the "St" part, for us it was just "Mikulas") comes on 5. December together with one or more devils to our home and gives our children presents or coal if "they were not good". And yes, for most children the devils are scary and some parents use that to elicit the promise of being good "from now on", but I think that at least most parents (certainly mine) were not trying to persuade us these were real beings.
It was a (scary) theatre happening in almost everybody's homes. And as soon as you figure out those under the masks are just normal people you feel clever as a kid. And you feel like you've grown and maybe also that you outsmarted the adults who would not tell you straight away those are just people. When you are like 6, 7, or 8, you are looking forward to running outside with the Mikulases and devils despite sometimes still being scared by them if they play the role well. It is thrilling. But it never needed to be shoved down our throats as a reality and not even a story was needed.
We have folklore fairytales that feature devils punishing bad people, yes. But we do not need them to tell us what is right and what is wrong. We can figure that out for ourselves and the stories are just a nice entertainment, if done well. And yes, we can see the useful allegory in it. We would still, however, know quite naturally the difference between clear right and wrong, between hurting others and not hurting others. But we recognize the difference between entertainment and reality. We still enjoy stories all the same.
You do not need organizations that actually believe those, are exempt from paying taxes and are praying on those who cannot reason themselves out well enough or prevent themselves being reasoned in by these fantastical stories and the ability of the storyteller to manipulate. I'd say that the about 25% of people in the Czech Republic who identify themselves as somehow religious are exactly those types of people. Ones who severely lack logical thinking. I have an uncle and a stepdaughter both like that. Neither of them has very good reasoning ability and so they are hanging there to be hooked on by the use of fantastical and magical stories, despite the fact that they were not indoctrinated into it as children, which then makes it more understandable when even pretty intelligent people still have this illogical partition in their brain reserved for god.
OK, that's it. Quite a bit longer than I intended it to be, but I hope it will eventually reach at least one of you in person and maybe give you some more arsenal for good arguments. It is obvious that you are very busy people so I do not expect any reply at all, but it would be great to get something like: "Hey Marek, it reached me, thanks." so that I know that I haven't completely wasted almost the whole day today instead of fixing my server and getting back to my coding in which I'm so much behind.
Wish you all all the best.
Sincerely,
Marek Vsechovsky
Aside:
As I'm reading what I wrote after myself I realize that although not absolutely necessary to explain this, you may wonder if I'm not "telling you stories" since at one point I mention that I am a software engineer and in another talk about affordability of rent. Well, I really don't revolve my life around money. And since I very much enjoy my job and have large amounts of ideas, I'm trying to implement them running it as my own business. However, I am kind of a Wozniak without a Jobs, meaning that rather than marketing a finished product I immediately start working on the next one since I just can't wait to work on it, so I end up with no income to my business and so from time to time I have to accept a paid outside contract. Since my expertise is large and well valued, and since I am a very frugal person (if I compare myself to most other people who say they are too :) ) I only need to work for about 3 months to be able to live from that for the next two years developing my own ideas. That's why I'm still renting rather than owning. I do what I love, I spend as much time on it as I want and I live at a very nice place where I can take a 30-minute holiday jumping in the surf basically all-year-round, so I'm really happy.
lol sup so don't worry I realized that m previous decisions are shit but I can't post here lmao
don't worry the U.R is dead so you don't have to deal with that boring stuff anymore. Update: Turns out there's a limit so you don't see the disclaimer now. I will be forced to move the short story, by itk be linked and not here, to prevent #SPAM.
Maybe I should stop posting entire books..
nah
Spam is a disgusting food. Probably. Idk.
It is around twenty five thousand years INTO the life of the U.R when this new drive is discovered, capable of accessing a million systems. In the span of about a century, a massive war breaks out, bringing down both the U.R and the accord. As a result, the galaxy is split into hundreds of tiny factions covering a few systems.
The United Republic was mainly populated by Acrinians, although we used to be known as Foxians. Eons ago our ancestors left their home galaxy.
After three hundred years they left the next.
In the long voyage, we accidentally entered the slightly wrong coordinates.
It resulted in us entering a wormhole.
Later, we were dropped out above a small ocean world, around a dying red giant
This will start in the year 2436, up until 2740
Eventually, after thousands of years of conflict, a new FYL system was invented.
During the second and final Republic-National war, the armada suffered no losses, and being constructed with living metal infused in the hulls of the vessels, the two severely damaged Vasa class cruisers had repaired themselves.
The sole Lexington class carrier that was there, had, for its time, extremely advanced shielding, which would rival that of the battleships of 2600.
The amount of minerals churned out every month as well, was spectacular.
The Republics main problem was its economy. To counter this, the Republic drew from its massive stockpiles to construct a new series of habitats. These were dubbed the Potomacs, in honor of the Potomac, the construction vessel that assembled the first one.
Currently, there were three Potomacs, all producing massive amounts of power. A fourth was planned.
These all lied in the Eskellion system, the home of Eskellion Prime, which produced the majority of the energy the United Republic consumed.
A few decades before this, a sole U.R science vessel, charting systems, found something astonishing.
Jumping into a black hole system, they found planets.
But that was not what was of interest.
Far southeast of it, a massive structure, stood ruined.
Upon closer inspection, they found that the station had once been a massive structure devoted to the advancement of the sciences, from a long fallen empire.
A construction ship was dispatched at once, to build a defense system around the station, incase anyone, or anything, attacked it.
The logic behind it was, that if it was possible to build such a massive structure, it would also be possible to repair it, replicate it, and mass produce it.
The Republic, sensing that they would be able to repair the “Science Nexus” as they called it, quickly constructed five new colony vessels. As the mines of Rym were improved, two vessels, bound for a large tropical planet to the south, and another to the north, left the shipyards.
The northernmost planet was first. This one would become a new planet devoted to research.
Second was the southern planet, which would become another mineral planet.
The three others would dock with the Potomacs.
The Potomac series of habitat was a heavily moddable, massive orbital station. The first three were specifically designed to pull the Republic out of the economic hole it dug for itself.
Even then, plans were made, once the crisis was solved, the nation to the west crushed, and the war over, for a new subclass of Potomacs.
These would be the Potomac M class stations.
They were built off the same skeleton, but instead of producing power, they would be fitted with a massive central reactor, and huge mining lasers. Just one was manned by twelve billion people.
This was no worry to the Republic.
The 2300s was a age of expansion in every aspect.
The amount of food produced was much larger than needed, and if they were ever to run out, they could just build a Potomac-F, one designed to produce huge amounts of food.
Most new planets would likely be devoted to mining.
After the war, stellar super casinos became popular.
Despite gambling being illegal, it formed a sense of unification in the UR.
Seeing the.. Somewhat positive effects of gambling on massive scales, gambling was turned legal.
In the battle for the enemies capital system, the sole Lexington present, the FVR September,
jumped early. The shields were overloaded, and her reactor was severely damaged.
The captain ordered a jump ASAP.
After that, until 2346, no one had a clue where it ended up.
There are rumors that she entered a higher dimension of hyperspace to make such a long jump so fast.
Her wreck was found in previously uncharted space, on a small desert planet, a decade later.
Two more decades later and the rights to the wreck flipped holdings, into a family that would, in the 2900s, have a monopoly over the financial portion of the universe.
Before the second National-Republic war even began, plans were being made to turn the five planets obtained into massive mining planets, fueling the bulk of the empire.
Alongside massive updates to the mines of Rym, the engineering department was looking into enhancing the mineral scanners, thus improving total output overall.
The navy, was slowly choking the economy of the Republic.
Expansion was needed, and required for survival.
As a result, the planet Bazkarat, was designated by officials the next planet for colonization.
Until 2600 the Republic did not really expand, just colonizing planets to strengthen the economy.
Around 2520 The beacon collapsed into a black hole.
It was the year 2606 that resulted in a explosion of pure hatred across the Republic.
Millions of high level officials around the galaxy simultaneously received a single report:
The FRV Sojourner, was under attack.
FRV Sojourner was a small science vessel, about a hundred and fifty years old. Alongside the FRV Walter Raleigh, they had paved the course for expansion, becoming signs of peace and power, despite their civilians purpose.
The officials, watched, in relief, as the Sojourner jumped out of there. But this relief was misfound.
The massive relay station in Impan reported a simple message, one that would send shockwaves throughout the republic.
FRV Sojourner, destroyed.
The might of the entire navy was mobilized. Even Crusade squadron was involved. All space Amoebas would be ruthlessly hunted until they were extinct.
This campaign lasted two years.
As it concluded, the battlecruiser FRV Sojourner II was constructed, in honor of those that died in the Sojourners destruction.
It was but a mere few years lated the primitves on Mondaks Retreat, a planet in the same system as Rym, discovered nuclear power.
A prompt response was needed, and sent out.
All nuclear weapons were seized, for their own good, by the Republic.
They were dismantled and repurposed in Croken station.
then taught the secrets of the hyperdrive, gifted a planet, and left alone.
But suddenly they hated us. For no reason. We helped them along, and here they are, insulting us! They called our society,"Flawed and inefficient"
Here we are churning out stations the size of planets, receiving more resources in a month then they could store, with them barely even able to fund a formatiom of Corvettes, and they called US flawed! Pathetic.
In they year 2636 a declaration of war was made. We would seize Mondaks retreat.
One of the most unique engagements in the history of war occuredn. N.
Two massive orbital stations, dueled it out. There was no starships or armies, just two spaceports bqw forrawling.
In the end, our spaceport won, after a week of sucking up salvo after salvo. Simultaneously, our fleet moved on both Mondaks and the planet we gifted them.
As it was bombarded, the gifted planet rebelled. Bombardment concluded at once.
The fleet headed to Mondaks Retreat.
The first Republic-Confederacy conflict concluded in a victory.
We made a offer to preserve their empire.
They took it immediately.
The next ten years started the widespread construction of a line of massive orbital stations, of which most are destroyed, devoted completely to the advancement of the sciences. The rebellion was crushed, and the planet returned into the hands of the Confederacy.
It appears, that the Republic did not want the Confederacy to fall. It seems what they wanted, was for the Confederacy to take Bhudghobbd, in Beta Caeli, one of the far flung, useless colonies, in exchange for total control of Rym and Mondak. Afterall, before seizing the nuclear missiles, which are beleived to have been repurposed for new missileboats, they were seen more as a pet, than anything.
The Republic saw them as a toy. They hated us, we hated them. If they felt they grew to strong, the Republic would declare war, maybe take a few planets, and destroy the enemy fleet.
Meanwhile, a third ringworld was under construction, the one of Halbargaara. Apparently, it would be a massive shipyard. The actualy existence of the Halbargaara ring, however, has never been confirmed. Ever since the massive war that marked the end of the Republic and Rym Confederacy, the location has been lost. There are rumors that the ancient battleship Ghost still roams the galaxy, with old charts showing the state of the Republic at its height.
The Ghost, was, at one point, in 2436, a Lexington class fleet carrier, named FRV September. This specific vessel saw action in the second National-Republic conflict of the twenty four thirties.
When returning to Delta after the conflict concluded, the drive malfunctioned, sending the entire ship into a “Higher Dimension” of hyperspace, beleived to be the one we use in modern times. She traveled across the galaxy, crashing into a desert planet.
In the 2900s the vessel was salvaged, and would see battle as a super laser equipped pirate ship.
The ancient Halbargaa ring, built a hundred years after the first Sterope ring, apparently encompassed a Type G star. (Yellow dwarf) A likely candidate for Halbargaa is located in the sector (X324), (Y639), a Type G with a massive ring of debris, and no planets or asteroids.
Of course, the Sterope and Izta rings are both still used today, even tens of thousands of years after their construction. The massive sensor relay used by the Republic from the 2550s until its demise, was completely destroyed after a dreadnought rammed it at lightspeed in the end of the Republics life.
During the 2660s, another rebellion arose on Bhudghobbd. It was this time, left alone.
Around this time a order of 25 Snappers was thrown out there.
The Snappers design are as follows:
2x Medium Gamma Lasers
3x Large Gauss Cannons
1xTachyon Lance
4x Hyper Sheild Projectors.
The Snapper class was constructed of a mixture of crystal plating and living metal, creating a super heavy metal that both repaired itself and could suck up very heavy punishment. Some of these mass produced dreadnoughts are still present today, with the UNSFF fielding about a dozen for anti pirates.
Each one took 222 days to be churned out. They single handedly could siege a spaceport of their time and come out on top, while the Gamma lasers were good enough deterents to fend off smaller vessels.
The lance was able to wipe out most small vessels in a single blast, completely bypassing sheilding and nearly all armor.
In the year 2670 the Confederacy fell, with Mondak being left with really no purpose, no plans in place, and just left alone. It was mainly used as a pit stop for civilian starships.
In 2672 it was determined that the rebellion that had arisen in Beta Caeli, the one that was left alone, was not to be trusted. The Republic left them alone, keeping a weary eye on them. They were small, but as soon as they got a fleet that could take down a spaceport, they would be a threat.
However, fortunately, their development was capped off. With closed borders, they were limited to the northwestern portion of the accessible galaxy. Alongside this, the quality of the defense stations ordered around starports, and all over the capital system, formed a interlinking network of withering fire, each one being able to take on five Snappers at once, or about eleven early battleships. And with the massive technological leaps the U.R
By this time the first section of the Halbargaa ring world had supposedly come online, and the U.R produced enough minerals in a month to order a Vasa and Snapper class each month, which would, hopefully by the 2730s, be up to two Snappers orderable a month, as the Republic expanded slowly. Nearly two trillion people lived in the Republic by this time. (I count 1 pop as a billion.)
With the presence of a new foe, that had plenty of space to expand, the Sentry array was quickly guarded by a network of interlocking firing zones, to create a absolute deathtrap for any vessel caught in it.
Although with the combination of shipyards, average ship speed, and just age, it would be thought that it would now be defenseless, but that is not the case. The same can be said most likely for the rumored array to the south eastern portion of the galaxy, ancient holopads saying that a ruined array was found a few decades after the first was completed.
Seeing as they already had one, no resources were channeled into restoring it, though it was claimed and fortified in the case another empire ever came onto the galactic stage, they could not take it, atleast not without a fight.
Eventually, a abandoned vessel, seemingly a large yacht, was found in a asteroid belt.
It seems that atleast two of these vessels had been constructed, as one vessel with the exact same design was already in service, from a similar fate. This vessel found now, with the exact same “Super Engines” was disassembled, used for building a unique skyscraper on Delta. The engines were studied, and the knowledge from it was used in improving the Impulse engine design.
The speed of the Republic warships was unmatched.
At this time the Halbargaa ring was, according to records, starting to come online. Though yet to be colonized, there was already a portion completed, and another was being constructed. As well as this, a colony vessel had already landed on a large planet. In the coming decades, this specific system would be one of the most important systems in the Republic, churning out a massive amount of minerals.
But this output came at the price of vulnerability. Though surrounding systems were turned into fortress systems, this area was still but a few jumps from the Gubec Galactic Assembly, the former rebellion in the Beta Caeli system.
Though it would be very long before they could mount a offensive with the capability of taking a system, it was dangerous none the less.
A few years after touchdown on the planet, a new fleet was churned out.
Designated the first strike group, it contained the following:
3 supercarriers, the first off the lines.
5 Vasa class torpedo cruisers.
9 Defender class picket destroyers.
These carriers were extroadinarily fast, able to cross a system at unheard of speed.
This specific group would see intense action in the coming decades, in numerous wars against the Assembly.
The carriers were fast, definitely, but this came with the sacrifice of lacking hull durability.
The fleet was completely done by 2700, the flagship being the battlecruiser Sojourner II.
Their first assignment was to destroy some enemy vessels blocking the assemblies expansion, although soon after they departed the assembly insulted the republic, and the vessels were called back.
In the year 2690, a plan project was made.
The Sterope ring was the first ringworld the republic constructed, and it was completely devoted to technological advancment in all fields.
This plan was to build a third Dyson Sphere, then three more ringworlds.
One would be completely devoted to physics, the second to engineering, and the third to bio.
While the Republic enhanced everything, with super heavy sheilding and vessels, two colony ships touched down on Beta Caeli IV, and a planet on a nearby systems planet, both owned by the Assembly.
The Republic watched warily as they obtained destroyer sized vessels. Meanwhile, the Vasa's were enhanced, and one of them could now take on a old battleship and cruiser. In 2704 a battlecruiser was patrolling near Assembly space, when the array detected a small, unmanned vessel approaching. The array attempted to alert the FRV warships, but to no avail. The battlecruiser exploded and split in half, burnig up in the atmosphere of Sym. The ship that had approached was determined to be a assembly bomb ship. All twenty thousand aboard were killed.
Called a "Blatant act of terrorism" by the first speaker, a pair of Agincourt battleships was dispatched, steamrolling though the assembly as a warning. The capital city of Bhudghobb was leveled completely, along with a billion civilians.
Reeling In shock, they left each other alone.
Those who were related to the people killed aboard the battlecruiser simply had to live with the loss. Meanwhile the new Sphere was nearing completion.
It was the year 2729 when the Second Carrier Sqaudron was assembled, mirroring the first, with three super carriers, two battlecruisers, eight Vasas, and twenty destroyers of varying types.
By 2730 the sphere was finally completed, as well as the superheavy mining station of Rym II.
Across the Republic, massive new generator stations based off of the old Potomacs were constructed, and miniscule enhancements in the plants resulted in a massive amount of power gained overall.
Every two months the Republics massive mines put out enough minerals to build a unequipped massive Potomac sized station, and a corvette.
Construction on the first Ringworld, the frame having long earlier been constructed, finally commenced. This first one would be devoted completely to physics, a field that lagged behind compared to engineering and society.
As well as this, the large station "Defender." Was constructed, in the Fortress system dividing the Republic and the Bebaki. The nearest Beabakan star system being a single jump away, the friction even furtherly negatively impacted the two nation's relationship.
Despite the first wars lessons, the Assembly sent a hijacked cruiser and sent it into the atmosphere of Delta, wiping out a major population center, and killing billions, leading to the second Assembly war.
As the Galaxy heated up from the assemblies terrorism, the first new ring world was being built. As well as this, a series of late stations, the size of moons, although smaller then a Nexus, were being constructed, devoted entirely to research.
The second assembly war lasted half a year. Its main event was the great Terebellium chase.
The First Carrier Sqaudron was already stationed at Revannic, a few jumps from Assembly space. When the war broke out, they were ordered to destroy the remote starbases on the border, and then chase down and destroy the enemy fleet.
The Sqaudron had little problem with the starbases, and was followed by the main army of the Republic. The Accords fleet, a large formation of primitive destroyers and corvettes, completely bypassed the Sqaudron, and attacked the armies, a system behind.
The carriers quickly turned back. It was stressful, but eventually they made it, and though some vessels were heavily damaged, no ships were destroyed. In the battle between the Sqaudron and the Accord, the Kestrel class corvette FRV Zhengsheng was destroyed, and her sister was heavily damaged. A monument to the 578 men on Zhengsheng would be constructed in the 2770s, some of the first Republic casualties in the following wars.
Researchers were held with very high regard in the republic, the few who could lead science vessels or the different divisions, were practically gods in the public's eyes.
The capital city of Delta was dominated with the tips of the Xeno Biology museum, and capital complex super scrapers towers. On the outskirts was a massive research institute, with a massive sentient supercomputer, and logs of all technological advancements. This alone greatly enhanced the speed of research. Of course by now the Republic was in a constant diplomatic fire fight, insults flying over diplomatic lines.
During the construction of one of the rings, the Bebakans requested to send engineers to observe.
Such was promptly denied, for fear of yet another terrorist attack.
It was then that the Republic concluded terraforming efforts on a large tomb world, it had been a success. Radiation was back to the normal background levels for the type of star it orbited, and the planet was now covered with large, deep oceans.
In the 2750s war was once again declared, after the illegal seizing of the large civilian liner RV Velvet Abyss. (FRV stands for Federal Republic Vessel, while RV just Republic Vessel.)
The Velvet Abyss was relatively new, built in 2743. She measured stem to stern, 20 kilometers long, and a tenth that In height.
The seizing of the Velvet Abyss occurred when the vessel came " To close" to Accord space. As a result the vessel was boarded and a small but intense firefight broke out. During so the ship attempted to leave, but was hit by a volley of missiles near the reactor, and the ship, twice the size of a Republic battleship, exploded in a blaze of glory taking six hundred thousand lives. There were no survivors on either vessel. The power of the blast wiped out all station in the system.
All out war was declared. The First and second sqaudrons were in their space before they even knew it. Though it would be to power taxing to activate a hundred and fifty one sensor cloaking devices for the armies, they followed a few jumps behind.
The First Carrier sqaudron, the flag held on Sojourner II, spearheaded the assault, going straight for the heart of their empire, and assaulted the spaceport as well as a pair of small warships above their capital. The Relays reported that the enemies fleet, was now chasing down the faster transports, through the Terebellium system.
The transports were theoretically defenseless, but they were fast. With Impulse thrusters, enhanced from the technology duggen up from the old abandoned star yacht mentioned earlier. It was not hard for them to outrun the fleet. The problem was they could not get over to the next system before being caught. So as a result, they just played a long cat and mouse game that ended next to the hyperlane from Sym.
The turns started to let them catch up with the armies when a gaping rip between dimensions opened up.
Out of it came the Second Carrier Sqaudron. This was its baptism of combat, and it deeply confused the Accord Commanders. What they failed to realize was that the First Carrier Sqaudron, was not, infact, not, the main battlefleet of the Republic. The main battlefleet was actually a hundred times larger then both these fleets combined.
Each carrier sqaudron was composed of three super carriers, two battlecruisers, eight Vasas, twenty various destroyers, and two Kestrels.
It was a single pronged strike that had ended up kebabing the forces of the Accord in mere weeks. As the Accords fleet was crushed like bugs under the Second Sqaudron, the first was a jump away dealing with the spaceport above Bhudghobbd, and getting ready for orbital bombardment.
The two carrier sqaudrons had simultaneously destroyed their only mobile defense against the untouched landing force, and most of their ability to deploy warships.
The two sqaudrons then rendevoused for bombardment, to help along the invasion forces.
But they surrendered
The first section of the Rimmock Ringworld had been completed, the first labs were already under construction. Much to the northwest, nearer the border but yet far behind it, the first portion of the engineering ring was under construction.
This portion was finished and col onized by the 2780s.
By 2790 a new fleet had left the lines, its flagship a new escort carrier type, two Vasas, and a dozen corvettes. This fleet would conduct patrols on the outer reaches of the Republic. The system Rimmock was essential to the Republics security, even without the ring world. If a enemy fleet were to ever push even to the system north of it-
Rimmock would be the final fortress system before they could wreak havoc on the capital. And, it would cut the Republic completely in half if the system was to fall.
Fortunately, this was only a threat in the imminent future if there was ever a mutiny in the battle fleet.
Now it is here I should detail the average Republic capital ship.
By the year 2770 the Republic had about 125 capital ships.
Realistically, this is a very small number considering the massive economy of the Republic. They could, if they wanted to, produced about seventy Orion class battleships a year.
Of course, the Orion did not exist back then.
One U.R battleship could quickly destroy a spaceport, as long as it was not one of their own. They were flying command vessels, a feat of engineering. They only got more advanced as time went on.
The average U.R capital ship had four large Hyper Shield projectors, was made of Crystalline plates, and had a sentient, yes, sentient, super computer directing the fire of the weapons.
The U.R battleship of the 2770s could face a trio of the ancient “Reliant” class fleet carriers.
Though the Reliants had Hypershields as well, their usefulness was limited, for:
They did not have Zero-Point reactors.
The sheilding was not as advanced as the U.R shielding.
The lack of advanced reactors limited how many subsystems could be placed on the ship at once.
This was countered by the fact that the Reliants bombers could completely bypass the shielding, however most U.R capital ships had massive shield buster guns.
One single battlestation could take on 16 of these vessels. That is about half of the total amount of Reliants ever produced.
Two of the battlestations could take on the entire Deltan Republics navy, as of when they departed their second home, although it is likely one would go down.
The Jurii Covenant would be steamrolled, as they could not take to many fortress systems before falling, and would likely be caught by the Republics main battlefleet, which was six times larger then the Covenants fleet as of 2780, while the two carrier fleets could simultaneously conduct invasions.
In 2750 twenty “Snapper” class battleships were ordered from Danube, a portion of the old Sterope ringworld.
The Snapper class, when first designed in the 2360s, was to be the main ship of the line, although this title ended up falling to the older Agincourt class battleships.
The Snapper was expensive and powerful. It had a massive Tachyon Lance, firing particles at FTL speeds, completely bypassing shielding and delivering devastating blows that could wipe out most small ships, and do heavy damage to everything else. Production on the ships stopped completely in the 2450s, and the Snappers, though kept up to date and maintained well, were relics.
This is not to say that they were obsolete. They were far from it. It was actually superior to many of the capital ships in the fleet.
These snappers were the first ones built in three centuries.
In 2765 a new battleship was designed and put into service.
This battleship followed a single strategy.
Heavily armored, single deflector, shield buster ship.
It had a massive gun on the bow, and was loaded with artillery.
It only had a single shield projector, although it had the efficiency of two and a half of the older hypershield projectors.
Originally, the designer wanted to fit it with old chemical engines to lessen the reactor load, but this was thrown out the window, as such a slow vessel would prove more of a nuisance in war time then a actual fighting force, drastically slowing down the fleet, when speed could be a matter of life or death for the far flung colonies.
Originally, few were built, until the introduction of the First Battlefleet, twice the size of the First Carrier sqaudron, (Henceforth the FCS)
in the early 2770s.
In 2780 it was required that at all times, if all Federal ships were to mobilize at once, the Republic should still posess the ability to receive 300 extra energy credits simultaneously, as the Armada was useless, for total mobilization of it would slaughter the Republics economy in mere months.
To prevent this, a new Dyson Sphere was ordered, near Croken Station.
Croken Station was a Potomac R, a Potomac devoted to research only. It housed and cared for twelve billion researchers and their families. It orbited a massive black hole, and was top secret
Two decades later, as the new Dyson Sphere was startin to come
After the conclusion of the Samnivik Fleet Crisis, the galaxy was quiet. Life went on, the Republic continued construction of new research stations.
Finally, after decades of the projects dormancy, construction started on the ringworld that would house the biological labs, although only after the Perqim dyson sphere was constructed.
The massive industrial capacity also endlessly expanded.
In 2825, the main armada reached 700k on the FP scale, while the Confederacy lagged behind at about 7.8k.
In total the navy was at about 820k.
If wanted, the U.R could put out two new capital ships every month.
It was then the U.R looked into a secret base of operations. A secret battlefleet in a secret system, with a spaceport capable of massproducing massive ships.
The systems nearby Jurg Hulaghh, a old planet taken from primitives in a invasion and still far from the Republics main systems, were chosen.
However, this would never come to light.
In 2838 a defence fleet of five new “Galleon” class ships, large, heavily armored vessels with plasma cannons, was constructed for Trophy.
After this, war was declared, where they would make their debut.
They peformed even better then expected, and in a fight against the confederacy navy, wiped out their entire fleet, of which the five enemy battleships had spinal mounted weaponry, which the galleons lacked, on the fringes of Samnivik.
The cry for all galleons to open fire would be stolen by thousands of admirals following.
The five “Grand Galleons” as they were called, would be the main diplomatic escort for the higher ups. Eventually they would get the single “Battle Galleon” a Horizantus class equipped with cannons.
They also softened up the ground defenses of Monument after said space battle, in which the entirety of the Confederacy fleet was destroyed by said galleons. (Not one galleon was lost.)
Very little survivors from the Confederacy fleet were picked up, as most of the crew members were killed in the vacuum when the cannons ate through the hull.
The galleons would be one of the rarer capital ships, although still very powerful. Additionaly, The Armada received five.
In the 2840s it was found that the economy could now support the Armada away from its home of Danube, a portion of the Sterope ring world.
By this point the Armada was at about 760k on the FP scale.
The FBF was lucky enough to receive one of the said galleons, which would become the flagship.
The Galleons played a critical role in the fleets.
They had both heavy armor, and heavy shielding. (Very few of the ships in the Republic had armor.) Additionaly, they used weapons that easily bypassed armor, while the main fleet focused on anti shielding weaponry.
Armor covered 86% of the ship on the first Galleons, later being upped to 90%
They served as the command ships of the fleet, before the Dreadnoughts were introduced.
(One dreadnought had armor, heavy shielding, three gamma lasers, and three gauss cannons, as well as a mixture of a hull that had a mixture of living metal, crystalline plates, and the regenerative hull tissue of the space ameoba, creating the ultimate ship.)
The galleons were cheaper then most of the main capital ships, but never entered true mass production, and compared to most other ships like the Vasa class torpedo cruisers, the Agincourt and snapper class battleships, few were ever built.
The five “Grand Galleons” spent most of their time, when not peforming a task, as a early buffer between the Confederacy and the Republic.
You see, the Confederacy could not be in a worse place.
The main battlefleet was slow and far behind the capital.
The Confederacys main link to the Republic was but a few jumps from Rimmock, the engineering ringworld and the main highway between the Republic and the outer galaxy.
This was because this region of the galaxy, though near completely uninhabited, except for Rovannic, which even then is a stretch, was the quickest link between the core of the U.R and Uva Xavani.
Uva Xavani consisted of thirteen planets, and consisted of all systems once under control of the old National empire, destroyed in the National Republic wars of the late 2300s.
To go to the southern link, you would have most of the megastructures, as this area had a greater concentration of empty systems, completely useless.
If such a empire ever reach Rimmock, the western portion of the galaxy would be cut off near completely, and it would take months longer to reach Uva Xavani.
The only immediately available buffer was a small formation of ancient cruisers, with little shielding and armor, a slow hyperdrive, and a horrible design.
These ships had all been pulled from the gas wells of various gas giants.
It was suddenly when a massive coordinated terrorist attack destroyed the hyper comm forms around the Republic.
Surprisingly, they were not replaced.
About two decades after this event, as a new Dyson Spheres frame was being built, came the Asterion Incursion.
It resulted in the planet of Markaz III to be near completely pulverized, and it was only two years after the start of bombardment, six billion were dead.
In the year 2900 a new dyson sphere was finished. In 2904 , after nearly three centuries of the plan existing, the bio-research ring finally was colonized.
Two years before, in 2902, a new battlecruiser, the “Holy Fire” class,(Ironic, as gods were beleived in by a fraction of the population), FRV Fall Of Pompeii, became the new flagship of the fleet.
In 2915 a new dyson sphere was ordered.
Now, as we all know, today we use credits as currency. This is a development of the “ECU.” The United Republic used a scale of a qaudrillion ECU=1 Energy Credit, with a maximum surplus of about twenty thousand. By this time, if the fleet had not been mobilized, they could produce about 950 Energy Credits a month. The purpose of the newest Dyson sphere was to push economic security. We can see this, as in the 2940s, after said spheres completion, work was commenced on a new ring world, which would become a massive reactor. Although significant measures were taken, in the fortyfour sixties, the ring world would be hit by a massive swarm of advanced Bebaki missiles, quickly taking down the shielding and causing a chain reaction that pulverized the ring, along with a hundred billion souls.
In 2917 a suprise attack by the Armada on Budhghobbd was caried out.
In this war, the battlecruisers FRV Leeroy and FRV Jenkins, jumped ahead of the Armada into Bebaki space, and when the fleet arrived to save them from the onslaught, it quickly evolved into a chaotic fleet battle, with freindly fire claiming seven cruisers, three capital ships, and fourteen destroyers. Additionaly, Bebaki fire claimed the lives of the two cruisers.
FRV Jenkins was also severely damaged in a collision with a freindly armored cruiser of the Tramp class.
The Tramp was relatively old, with multiple missile systems and gauss cannons. It was heavily armored, slow, and lightly shielded, designed to absorb blows and overload point defense systems. It was the workhorse of the FRV until neutron torpedoes were introduced, with the Vasa class. After the introduction of the heavily shielded Vasa, the Tramps were kept in service but production halted on all. The occasional order for one might be sent to a backwater world every few years, but other than that they fell out of the spotlight
This specific Tramp was only mildly damaged, as the collision impacted one of five neutronium armor belts, although multiple plates buckled. Unfortunately, when The Jenkins attempted to go over the ship, the mangled remains of the #2 laser battery, mangled beyond repair, impacted the bridge, causing it to be exposed to the void, the command crew dying of asphyxiation.
The captains of both the Leeroy and Jenkins were court martialed for destruction of federal property, (Up to fifteen qaudrillion ECUs worth, of which a Energy credit is worth half a qaudrillion), mass murder, and extreme incompetence. They were summarily execueted.
FRV Jenkins had to be scrapped from the extent of the damages, and was broken up over Baltris. Her surviving weaponry was sent to weaponry emplacements on various cruisers and frigates.
Four hundred thousand, though miniscule compared to the total fleet, were killed in this engagement. (FRV Ships are kinda crew intensive) I typically count it as 20k per cruiser, 50k per battleship.
The horrific loss had a severe morale impact, and efficiency was estimated to decline by all the way up to 10%.
In the years following the engagement, specifficaly in 2920, a new battleship class entered service and mass production. This new vessel was the best of the best, with three heavy Gamma laser and heavy gauss cannon emplacements each. It had a large belt of Neutronium armor, in which the four hypershield projectors were surrounded.
The main weapons control was in a heavily armored nook between the reactor array, a array of massive zero point reactors, and the engine compartments. It was circular, in the middle of the neutronium belt, split into the laser and Gauss sections, for their weaponry. It was coordinated by a central computer, that ensured the ship was as effective as possible without danger of malfunction, and all weaponry attacked a single target.
The class was named "Successor", and became an icon, the ideal target that any cadet worked up to, to command a Successor class. Additionally, safety measures learned from the raid of Bhudghobd ensured such heavy friendly fire would never happen again. The shells could automatically detonate when it identified a allied ship in it's trajectory of fire. Exactly how they did this we have no clue.
These behemoths quickly replaced the Agincourt class, with fifty being ordered after seeing it's efficiency, ten yards getting five each, initially. They rose the Armada on the FP scale to 1.2 million, up to 1.4. Each was individually around 3.4K FP. Most FRV capital ships sat above this line, but it was only so low because the FP scale tends to favor gunsniber lasers. Who can blame em?
Of course, this is all dead wrong.
Although remotely based in fact, this “History” Of the United Republic, is plain wrong. storeh(was bored):
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