Rob, a link to the Google Doc may be nice...
Anyway, while the scene-let you posted is cute, I cannot in good conscience let it stand like that. Mainly because I see the timeline of events differently, specifically that the various attacks on the major Boskonian bases were full-fledged Allied force assaults.
The following is a failed fic, primarily because I can't get the tone of it right (you'll see what I mean). It HAS, however, passed by the All seeing Eye of Mod (M Fnord) who didn't immediately reject it. I've stripped out any spoilers I know about (besides mine), so hopefully I'm not disrupting other fics by posting it to demonstrate my view of the timeline from Serenity-Con to the immediate post Boskone War.
Excerpt from 'Sidestepping the Singularity: The Emergence of Meta-Humanity', published 2063 by Oz Foundation Press.
Details of the events of the Battle of Serenity Valley are covered in depth elsewhere, but to understand the context of those events and what they led to we must step back a few months.
In the wake of the Inter-dimensional Incursion Incident the early Boskonian leadership was faced with the realisation that the advantage they had barely six months ago with the destruction of Crystal Osaka was quickly running out. A quiet but effective purge of their intelligence assets was underway in the major Fen enclaves, and Great Justice counter-intelligence assets were beginning to squeeze revenues and resources. Furthermore, improved security procedures were neutralising what gains they were making; the rescue of Crystal Tokyo Chief Inspector Ten-Joh from a slaver gang before the leadership of the gang in question knew what they had, and the resultant loss of said gang's base of operations, is a chief example of this.
Records captured at the end of the war reveal that the Boskonians put aside their major grievances and met to discuss the situation. The formation of the Space Patrol was considered a minor problem, but pre-Convention rumours of a major breakthrough in technology left behind by the Travellers spurred most of the major gangs into action. Under now-constant bombardment by Fen forces, Boskone could not let a potential game-changer just float by. They could not refuse to act.
As has been put elsewhere, the risks were great. But the potential benefit included both technological superiority to the rest of Humanity, and the near decapitation of the Fen leadership. Had it succeeded, the world as we know it would not exist.
But it did not succeed. The events of the fifth day of the Serenity Valley Convention are well known, from the discovery of the subversion of Ganymede's sensor net to the final rout of the remains of the massed Boskonian fleet.
To this day, even with the extensive and highly detailed records available, political scientists, behavioural psychologists, and military analysts are amazed at the speed and cohesiveness of the response to the event. Detailed analysis of the events is beyond the scope of this work, but the major events are generally agreed to have occurred within 36 hours of the end of hostilities, and include:
The infamous clash of personalities between then S.H.I.E.L.D. Captain A.C. Peters with Supreme Commander Suzumiya and the other SOS-dan, which quickly became a riot of conflicting myths, legends, and conspiracy theories.
The complete restructuring of Operation Great Justice and the chartering, empowerment, and deployment of the Space Patrol. Most political analysts and medical professionals still disclaim the sanity of those there, given the speed in which it was achieved.
The organisation of Fleet Operation Attila, which makes military planners to this day shake their heads in disbelief and awe.
Specialists in Fen psychology and political history point to the fact that in the vulnerable environment of Space, a mindset of 'Help Thy Neighbour' is a survival trait. Coupled with the 'Us-verses-Them' psychology still existent from the start of the Diaspora and the attack on the Serenity Valley Convention moved the Boskonians from criminal threat to deadly enemy. The rapid establishment of the multitude of Factions also points to the organisational talent inherent in the inhabitants of Fenspace.
Within three days of the end of the Serenity Valley Convention, Fleet Operation Attila had succeeded in capturing the staging point for the Boskonian attack Boskone One (the major storage and transfer hub for the Boskonian alliance, as well a major slaver site). By the end of the month, the Space Patrol had rolled up over twenty Boskonian cells.
Much like the successful Normandy landings of World War II, the Fen forces now had momentum. In the last week of September, Operation Great Justice forces backed by the first battleship groups the United Federation of Planets and Galactic Republic factions had ever deployed either destroyed or captured the shipyard complex of Boskone Two, an event that more or less reversed the abilities of both sides to produce tonnage of ships. By mid October, the main Thionite production facility Boskone Three on Venus had finally been shut down.
But even the Fen couldn't be everywhere. The capture of the individual known to history as The Professor brought the Fen advance to a halt as they redirected forces to his rescue.
This was with good reason. Advanced weaponry and unusually combat focused biomods started appearing after about a fortnight. This lead to the most intensive fighting of the entire war, culminating in the siege-like fighting of the Battle of Jusenkyou as Operation Great Justice took the main Boskonian research and development centre of Boskone Four.
It was during this time that the vast majority of the medical techniques in current use were created or developed. The sheer amount of injured coming from the Boskone Four operation led to the first mass use of cyberware. Even with all this medical firepower, force strengths were low.
As such, the assault on Boskone Five consisted of nearly all of the FESWAT forces available to the Space Patrol supported by the Operation Great Justice second fleet.
The discovery of Boskone Prime, the central command of the Boskonian forces, led to the greatest collection of military might seen so far in Space. And it was necessary, as Boskone Prime was arguably the most secure enclave in the Solar System at the time.
The increasingly rapid technological development that followed the Serenity Valley incident is most apparent in this final attack. Not only does the use of a redirected camouflaged asteroid as a Trojan Horse to bring the fleet into range imply the sheer resources that were now available to the Fen, but the technologies inherent in the actions taken during the battle. These clearly demonstrated how rapidly Fen technology was progressing, and included among the many others the military deployment of the first particle beam weapon ever used, the extensive use of powered armour suits as we know them, the mass deployment of advanced mechanised units that were the precursors to units now in use with every major military force, the first recorded death of a sapient autonomous constructed intelligence at the actions of another, and the demonstration of defences that had been theoretical only months earlier.
The Boskonians were not without their own resources. The birth of the Troll, Ork, and Fiend meta-human subtypes are generally attributed to this period, as is the creation of such horrors as Burrower flechettes, rage inducing drugs, and toxic bio-bombs. Boskonian production speeds actually increased during the final stages of the War; this was one of the reasons the Boskone Four operation took the two days it did.
The 'Scorched Earth' attack that culminated the rescue of The Professor rates historically as a side note, as the device used in the threat was not what the Boskonian cell understood it to be.
The ending of the First Boskonian War was the start of what is acknowledged as the Second Renaissance. Vast new vistas of knowledge opened up to humanity, and the increase in the existing fields of scientific and medical knowledge expanded the very definition of 'Humanity'.
The birth of Metahumanity was heralded the return of USS Miranda, bringing news of First Contact.
We were not alone.
Anyway, while the scene-let you posted is cute, I cannot in good conscience let it stand like that. Mainly because I see the timeline of events differently, specifically that the various attacks on the major Boskonian bases were full-fledged Allied force assaults.
The following is a failed fic, primarily because I can't get the tone of it right (you'll see what I mean). It HAS, however, passed by the All seeing Eye of Mod (M Fnord) who didn't immediately reject it. I've stripped out any spoilers I know about (besides mine), so hopefully I'm not disrupting other fics by posting it to demonstrate my view of the timeline from Serenity-Con to the immediate post Boskone War.
Excerpt from 'Sidestepping the Singularity: The Emergence of Meta-Humanity', published 2063 by Oz Foundation Press.
Details of the events of the Battle of Serenity Valley are covered in depth elsewhere, but to understand the context of those events and what they led to we must step back a few months.
In the wake of the Inter-dimensional Incursion Incident the early Boskonian leadership was faced with the realisation that the advantage they had barely six months ago with the destruction of Crystal Osaka was quickly running out. A quiet but effective purge of their intelligence assets was underway in the major Fen enclaves, and Great Justice counter-intelligence assets were beginning to squeeze revenues and resources. Furthermore, improved security procedures were neutralising what gains they were making; the rescue of Crystal Tokyo Chief Inspector Ten-Joh from a slaver gang before the leadership of the gang in question knew what they had, and the resultant loss of said gang's base of operations, is a chief example of this.
Records captured at the end of the war reveal that the Boskonians put aside their major grievances and met to discuss the situation. The formation of the Space Patrol was considered a minor problem, but pre-Convention rumours of a major breakthrough in technology left behind by the Travellers spurred most of the major gangs into action. Under now-constant bombardment by Fen forces, Boskone could not let a potential game-changer just float by. They could not refuse to act.
As has been put elsewhere, the risks were great. But the potential benefit included both technological superiority to the rest of Humanity, and the near decapitation of the Fen leadership. Had it succeeded, the world as we know it would not exist.
But it did not succeed. The events of the fifth day of the Serenity Valley Convention are well known, from the discovery of the subversion of Ganymede's sensor net to the final rout of the remains of the massed Boskonian fleet.
To this day, even with the extensive and highly detailed records available, political scientists, behavioural psychologists, and military analysts are amazed at the speed and cohesiveness of the response to the event. Detailed analysis of the events is beyond the scope of this work, but the major events are generally agreed to have occurred within 36 hours of the end of hostilities, and include:
The infamous clash of personalities between then S.H.I.E.L.D. Captain A.C. Peters with Supreme Commander Suzumiya and the other SOS-dan, which quickly became a riot of conflicting myths, legends, and conspiracy theories.
The complete restructuring of Operation Great Justice and the chartering, empowerment, and deployment of the Space Patrol. Most political analysts and medical professionals still disclaim the sanity of those there, given the speed in which it was achieved.
The organisation of Fleet Operation Attila, which makes military planners to this day shake their heads in disbelief and awe.
Specialists in Fen psychology and political history point to the fact that in the vulnerable environment of Space, a mindset of 'Help Thy Neighbour' is a survival trait. Coupled with the 'Us-verses-Them' psychology still existent from the start of the Diaspora and the attack on the Serenity Valley Convention moved the Boskonians from criminal threat to deadly enemy. The rapid establishment of the multitude of Factions also points to the organisational talent inherent in the inhabitants of Fenspace.
Within three days of the end of the Serenity Valley Convention, Fleet Operation Attila had succeeded in capturing the staging point for the Boskonian attack Boskone One (the major storage and transfer hub for the Boskonian alliance, as well a major slaver site). By the end of the month, the Space Patrol had rolled up over twenty Boskonian cells.
Much like the successful Normandy landings of World War II, the Fen forces now had momentum. In the last week of September, Operation Great Justice forces backed by the first battleship groups the United Federation of Planets and Galactic Republic factions had ever deployed either destroyed or captured the shipyard complex of Boskone Two, an event that more or less reversed the abilities of both sides to produce tonnage of ships. By mid October, the main Thionite production facility Boskone Three on Venus had finally been shut down.
But even the Fen couldn't be everywhere. The capture of the individual known to history as The Professor brought the Fen advance to a halt as they redirected forces to his rescue.
This was with good reason. Advanced weaponry and unusually combat focused biomods started appearing after about a fortnight. This lead to the most intensive fighting of the entire war, culminating in the siege-like fighting of the Battle of Jusenkyou as Operation Great Justice took the main Boskonian research and development centre of Boskone Four.
It was during this time that the vast majority of the medical techniques in current use were created or developed. The sheer amount of injured coming from the Boskone Four operation led to the first mass use of cyberware. Even with all this medical firepower, force strengths were low.
As such, the assault on Boskone Five consisted of nearly all of the FESWAT forces available to the Space Patrol supported by the Operation Great Justice second fleet.
The discovery of Boskone Prime, the central command of the Boskonian forces, led to the greatest collection of military might seen so far in Space. And it was necessary, as Boskone Prime was arguably the most secure enclave in the Solar System at the time.
The increasingly rapid technological development that followed the Serenity Valley incident is most apparent in this final attack. Not only does the use of a redirected camouflaged asteroid as a Trojan Horse to bring the fleet into range imply the sheer resources that were now available to the Fen, but the technologies inherent in the actions taken during the battle. These clearly demonstrated how rapidly Fen technology was progressing, and included among the many others the military deployment of the first particle beam weapon ever used, the extensive use of powered armour suits as we know them, the mass deployment of advanced mechanised units that were the precursors to units now in use with every major military force, the first recorded death of a sapient autonomous constructed intelligence at the actions of another, and the demonstration of defences that had been theoretical only months earlier.
The Boskonians were not without their own resources. The birth of the Troll, Ork, and Fiend meta-human subtypes are generally attributed to this period, as is the creation of such horrors as Burrower flechettes, rage inducing drugs, and toxic bio-bombs. Boskonian production speeds actually increased during the final stages of the War; this was one of the reasons the Boskone Four operation took the two days it did.
The 'Scorched Earth' attack that culminated the rescue of The Professor rates historically as a side note, as the device used in the threat was not what the Boskonian cell understood it to be.
The ending of the First Boskonian War was the start of what is acknowledged as the Second Renaissance. Vast new vistas of knowledge opened up to humanity, and the increase in the existing fields of scientific and medical knowledge expanded the very definition of 'Humanity'.
The birth of Metahumanity was heralded the return of USS Miranda, bringing news of First Contact.
We were not alone.