67th Solarian Fleet

[Scheveningen]

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Subfaction.

Describe this proposal in a single sentence (12 word maximum): A seasoned Solarian battlegroup with a feared reputation.

How will this be reflected on-station?: It might be reflected in future events or antag gimmicks.

Does this faction/etc do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Yes.

Why should this be given to lore developers rather than remain player created lore?: The objective canonicity of player created lore is questionable at best.

Do you understand that if this is submitted, you are signing it away to the lore team, and that it's possible that it will change over time in ways that you may not forsee?: Yes.

Long Description: 
The 67th Tactical Strike Battlegroup of the Solarian Navy, composed of wing numbers 700 to 812, is a large-scale fleet unit with a general focus on shock-and-awe tactics combined with decisive battle doctrine, followed by an immediate withdrawal to prevent being counter-attacked by reinforcements, should they be present. This is later followed by successive strike attacks following the fleet's combat readiness restoration. A majority - if not all - of the starfighter and bomber wings within the 67th Fleet are stealth capable and possess unrivalled manueverability - albeit they are believed to lack other defensive countermeasures such as deflector shields. This is believed to still work in their favor, as conventional super-long range radar is unreliable in detection until they are too close to react against, and ultra-scopes have a difficult time distinguishing the signature void-black coating of the craft against the backdrop of space. The carrier vessels are closely guarded by a robust defensive escort of many cruisers and destroyers positioned in a wedge formation intended to cover every angle. While this sounds hardly different from any conventional military naval force, the extent of which their tactics are demonstrated are often described as ruthless and relentless, to a fault.

Another major difference between the 67th and other fleets is that during missions, their transponders are disabled and their ships lack any noticeable regalia or emblems that could be attributed to the Solarian Alliance - this tactic is strictly illegal under Alliance regulations ever since the Interstellar War started, but such laws tend not to apply to the military. During public star-show affairs displaying the few starfighters and bombers known to the public of the Orion Spur is the only known occasion where the 67th displays its black, gold, and red paint and livery.

Their service record goes back prior to the Interstellar War, where every deployment of the fleet was an overwhelming and predictable victory. This initially led to the Coalition being forced to immediately withdraw their forces and leave whatever could not escape behind as rear guard to occupy the 67th with live targets, knowing full well that their highly mobile flotillas could not survive a direct strike from the overwhelming power projected by the strike fleet. Regardless, their unusually high amount of victories varied from amounting to very little in appreciable tactical gain besides causing immense explosions to easy targets, spiking upward to seizing major tempo during the offensive in the Frontier. Yet the Coalition's tactics never gave the combined forces of the Alliance any decisive ground, and any losses sustained by the Coalition were taken in stride.

While the Coalition managed to survive in the end, it is believed the 67th was active in the Frontier long after the Interstellar War concluded, mopping up the remainder of extremist Coalition forces that refused to abide by the Coalition's cease-fire orders. It is also believed that the 67th was tasked with "bringing to justice" several dozen Solarian deserters and defectors. Several historians suggest the continued activity of the 67th was part of the unwritten peace treaty between the Alliance and the Coalition, as both elements being pursued by the 67th posed a problem to both factions. This contributed to the current reputation that the 67th Fleet's specialization was no longer limited to strike and stealth tactics, but also as a powerful, off-the-books interventionist force and extrajudicial unit tasked to enforce maximum consequence for any allied forces intending to betray the missions and values of the Alliance's combined forces. Stories pertaining to the 67th's combat prowess are still told to Coalition children and adults to further radicalize and weaponize their growing hate, considering the Alliance's totalitarian reputation.

The Coalition today has consistently attempted to appeal to the Alliance leadership to seek further war reparations due to excessive damage inflicted by the 67th during the Interstellar War.

For many years the 67th's movements became more difficult to track, with Solarian politicians and public military figures declaring that the battlegroup no longer existed, or in some cases never existed. Pirate flotillas would still commonly appear and then immediately after, a graveyard of ramshackle debris would be the only trace of their piracy at their last known position. Public military reports of defection and desertion sunk to all-time lows under the post-Interstellar War regime of the Solarian Alliance. Extra-national smuggling and inter-system crime was almost unheard of, aside from petty corporate quality assurance rip-offs or credit fraud. For a time, it was believed the 67th truly did pass through the annals of history into obscurity, but with the recent decade's events passing, this was shown to be far from the truth.

When the 33rd fleet under the former Admiral Frost was pushed back and its commanding officer fled to the unknown regions of the Spur, the 67th showed its hand again, but this time with its full public regalia in an attempt to force the remnant of the 33rd to recognize its situation. What assets or personnel of the 33rd did not immediately submit and become absorbed into the 67th's command structure, they would be summarily hunted down and executed for desertion or treason. In recognition of the reputation of the 67th, this was only 12% of the remaining force of the 33rd before the battlegroup was officially destroyed through political declaration.

Frost's death was a crippling blow to the morale of many Solarian naval battlegroups, and as recent history tells us, the rate of defection and desertion within the Solarian Alliance's military ranks skyrocketed. There were internal fears that the 67th battlegroup would also defect, but many inner colonies were relieved to hear that the commanders of the fleet possessed undying loyalty to what the Solarian Alliance stood for. 

No longer a pure surprise force, the 67th Tactical Strike Battlegroup has succumbed to its hunger for easy targets such as deserters, insurrectionists and local criminals - or whomever they believe they can get away with accusing as being such. Its current reputation is that of a relentless enforcer fleet of the inner colonies' imperialistic and draconian laws. It retains the tactical edge it has always possessed since the start of the Interstellar War. It is believed that even with the dividing up of the Alliance to the other galactic powers from the result of the colonial administration losing its grip on the outer worlds that the Alliance's current borders are now proportionately much more difficult to invade, given overall fleet coverage of the Alliance's occupied systems has now more easily solidified. This has led the Coalition's populace to suddenly become withdrawn and disquiet with their characteristic revanchist rhetoric and bold calls to war with its long-time enemy.

Military commentators and historians seem to agree that the 67th is currently poised to mount a severe operation against the remaining rogue Alliance fleets. The idea of two military forces of the same origin clashing seems to make much of the Orion Spur's powers uneasy, as the 67th Tactical Strike Battlegroup has been known throughout history to use excessive military force and possess very little regard for collateral damage.

Edited January 18, 2021 by Scheveningen

[NewOriginalSchwann]

Hello. First, please accept the human lore team's sincere apologies for how long it's taken to get to this application. Unfortunately, we have decided to deny it as it is not the direction in which we would like to take the Solarian Navy and the broader Wildlands. Thank you for your contribution.