The original founding population originated in the Greek city-state of Aeolis, on the western coast of Turkey. However, 12 Amazonian prisoners among the abductees took over leadership of the small group on the new planet and established a matriarchal society based on a blend of Amazonian and Greek culture and beliefs. The descendants of the original Amazon warriors are known as the House Aronte.
The Aeolian Empire formed a military alliance with the RDF in 2186 and became a full voting member of the Rim Federation in 2209, due to the efforts of Empress Hecate.
Aeolis (planet)
Aeolis is a planet in the Beehive Cluster, 580 light years from Earth. It is the capital planet of the Aeolian Empire. The capital city, Aronte, is named after the founding house of the Empire, the House Aronte. Aeolis orbits a G2 type star called ‘Helios’ in the Aeolian language and is similar to Earth in size, composition and climate.
Amasya (planet)
Amasya is a planet in the Fringe of the Aeolian Empire. Like most planets in the Cluster, it is quite young, with an estimated age of 600 million years. Due to an exceptionally large number of comets in its system, significant amounts of water were deposited on the planet in its early evolution, as occurred in many other systems in the Cluster. This allowed oceans and a basic atmosphere to develop. Per the Machine Ship Pandora, the rogue Machine Ship Darwin elected to use these young planets as the basis for a bottleneck experiment to determine the minimum environmental factors required for sentient life to survive. Seeding at least a dozen planets with oxygen-producing microbes and plant life, Darwin moved on to other projects, waiting approximately 500 million years for the atmospheres of the planets to develop suitable levels of oxygen and plant cover. He then located sentients for his experiment, selecting humans from Earth as well as several other species from the Orion Arm, abducting them and depositing them on various planets in the Cluster around 750 BC. Only the humans deposited on Aeolis survived. After several thousand years the Aeolians, having a basic awareness of spaceflight and the universe due to their abduction, developed starships and spread out into the Cluster. Amasya was colonized by the Aeolians in 1777 AD by the Rim Calendar.
A hot desert planet with a low population, Amasya has small deposits of iron, leading to its primary industry of exporting iron and steel finished goods, including starships from the Hercules Shipyard. Amasya is also noted as the birthplace of the Fringe Rebellion, which lasted from 2120 to 2185, and ultimately resulted in freedom for males in the Empire.
Andrea Iona Satra (Fleet Admiral)
Admiral Andrea Iona Satra was the first Fleet Admiral of the RDF from the Aeolian Empire, commanding RDF First Fleet at the Battle of Nest and later at the Battle of Orinoco. On 25 July 2207 at the Battle of Orinoco, Admiral Satra was killed when her flagship, the Empress Hecate, went down with all hands after the Bat Empire destroyer Waspeater performed a kamikaze attack into her engines. A memorial to Admiral Satra and the officers and crew of the Empress Hecate occupies a prominent position in the main quadrangle at RDF Command Headquarters on the planet Kamilaroi in the 36 Ophiuchi C system. The RDF fleet carrier Satra is named after her, as well as the primary moon of the planet Haven, Andrea.
Satra was born in 2160 on the planet Aeolis into the Satra clan, a junior branch of the House Aronte. Both her mother and father were killed in battle during the Fringe Rebellion, and she was brought up as a ward of the Imperial Family. She attended the Imperial Naval Academy at Aronte, graduating in 2178 as an ensign. She was first assigned to the destroyer Mycenae, where she distinguished herself in the 2nd Battle of Amasya in 2180. In late 2180, she was assigned as the Tactical Officer of the frigate Chrysaor and was aboard when it was destroyed off Aegea in the Fringe Ambush of 2182, surviving in a lifeboat for two days before rescue.
Subsequently, Satra advanced to the position of XO of the destroyer Nemesis, commanded by Hecate Aronte, the future Empress. She participated in the action at Pestilence Port in April 2185, in which action she first encountered RDF Admiral Jake Hammett of Earth aboard the RDF Paris. In July 2185, she was advanced to Captain and took command of the frigate Pegasus. Satra was further assigned as Naval Aide to Empress Hecate from 2187 through 2191 and then as Captain of the battleship Empress Miranda from 2192 through 2194. In 2194, Satra was advanced to Admiral and served as Chief of Staff for the AEN until 2205. In early 2205, she was seconded to the RDF at Tolleson Base as Fleet Admiral, First Fleet, taking as her flagship the newly commissioned battleship Empress Hecate.
Satra married Admiral Jake Hammett in April 2205, shortly after taking command of the Empress Hecate and joining the RDF First Fleet.
Satra and Hammett had two children, who were twins:
1. Ligeia Antiope Satra, b. 2206, d. 2272, Aeolian MP to RimFed 2236 - 2244, Prime Minister of the Rim Federation 2244 - 2248 and again 2268 -2272, died in office during the Burin Conflict. Twice Rim Ambassador to the Bat Empire, led the Reconciliation which removed the interdiction and brought the Bat Empire into the Rim Federation on a provisional basis in 2270. Buried in the Imperial Cemetery in Aronte, Aeolian Empire between her mother and her godmother, Empress Hecate.
2. Alexander Orien Satra, b. 2206, d. 2272, military officer killed in action during the Burin Conflict. Satra graduated from the Imperial Naval Academy at Aronte in 2228 and received a commission in the Rim Defense Force. After graduation, Satra joined the battleship Kindunos at Tolleson Base which was assigned to Home Fleet, serving as a Ready Response task force for the Rim, including enforcement of the Basic Rules in various hot spots throughout the Alliance. Remaining in Home Fleet for twenty years, Satra advanced steadily in rank but decided to transfer to Exploration Fleet in 2248. He received command of the cruiser Kuznetsov in 2252, followed by command of the aging battleship Vercingetorix in 2265. In 2272 while exploring near Hades, the Vercingetorix was attacked by ships of the Burin Alliance, resulting in heavy damage. Calling for assistance while retreating toward the Rim, Satra’s damaged ship managed to survive long enough for reinforcements to arrive from the Ready Task Force. In the subsequent running five-day battle, the RDF Ready Response Task Force fought the Burin Fleet to a stalemate, leading to a ceasefire and eventual truce. Satra, however, died from his wounds shortly after. Buried in the Imperial Cemetery in Aronte, Aeolian Empire between his mother and his godmother, Empress Hecate.
Antiope (Planet)
Antiope is a planet in the Trappist system, formerly called Trappist 1-e. It is 39.6 lights from Earth. Because the planet is tidally locked to its host star, only a thin band between the hot and cold hemispheres is suitable for human habitation.
The planet was named by Jake Hammett after the Aeolian Empress Antiope, whom he met and married while secretly visiting the Aeolian Empire. Antiope was the mother of Princess Deinomache and the grandmother of Empress Hecate, who was instrumental in bringing the Aeolian Empire into the Rim Federation. Jake Hammett was quoted as stating he named the planet after Empress Antiope because “she had a single-minded focus on suppressing the Fringe Rebellion, to the exclusion of all other issues – like a planet forever staring at a star, while the other side freezes.”
Antiope (Empress of Aeolis)
Antiope Lysippe Aronte was the 212th Empress of the Aeolian Empire, reigning from 2141 to 2165. She prosecuted an intense military campaign against the Fringe Rebels, resulting in a polarized nation which struggled to understand the unending cost and destruction of the war.
Antiope was born in 2114 to Princess Merope, the second daughter of Empress Asteria. She was raised in the traditional militaristic manner of the Amazonian nobility, attending the Imperial Naval Academy at Aronte and serving in the active fleet for three years until her first marriage, when she transferred to the Reserves. Princess Antiope first married Prince Hyginus Lysippe in 2135 and immediately gave birth to a daughter, Hippolyta, the future 213th Empress. In 2137, Prince Hyginus was killed while onboard the frigate Miletus, which was ambushed by Fringe Rebels while transporting troops to Maia. In 2140, Antio
pe married as her second husband the Earth-born RDF leader Jake Hammett, who had infiltrated the Aeolian Empire posing as a mercenary named Zeno. She had one child by Hammett, Deinomache. As a result of this birth, per the laws of the Aeolian Empire, Jake Hammett was banished from Aronte.
In April of 2141, her aunt Empress Miranda and her mother Princess Merope were killed by a terrorist attack in the Imperial Palace. Per the laws of succession of the Aeolian Empire, Antiope thereby received the tiara and became Empress. In response to the terror attack which killed her aunt and mother, she embarked on a prolonged and violent war against the Fringe Rebels, a campaign which drained the treasury, created hundreds of thousands of casualties, and turned a significant part of the populace against her. By the time of her death, Empress Antiope had become increasingly unpopular with the nobility and merchant class of the Empire but was still well supported by the rank and file.
Empress Antiope was killed in the Great Raid of 2165 when a task force of Fringe Rebel warships managed to break through the defenses of the Helios system and bombard the capital, Aronte, killing thousands. She is buried in the Imperial Cemetery near Aronte.
Aronte (city)
Aronte is the capital city of the Aeolian Empire. With a population of well over 5 million, it is the largest city in the Empire. Located on the planet Aeolis in the Helios System, it sits on the banks of the Thermodon River about 4 km from the Pontus Axeinos, the ocean covering most of the western hemisphere of Aeolis.
Atsuko Kawasaki
RDF Captain Atsuko Kawasaki was head of the RDF Intelligence branch from 2121 until her disappearance in 2139. In 2225, it was revealed by Granada Hammett, daughter of Jake Hammett and Teresa Tolleson, that Atsuko was a clone created by the Machine Ship Pandora prior to arrival on Earth, meant to assist in the integration of Jake Hammett, Teresa Tolleson and Dr. Kirsten Monk into an effective team for the sake of humanity’s survival. According to Granada, when Pandora made her final departure from Kamilaroi in 2139, Atsuko left with her. This has never been confirmed and her disappearance remains a mystery, but the fact that the RDF never mounted a search for her acts as indirect confirmation of this theory.
Barcam (planet)
Barcam is a planet in the Fringe of the Aeolian Empire. Like most planets in the Beehive Cluster, it is quite young, with an estimated age of 600 million years (see Amasya for details of the early evolution of populated planets in the Cluster). Barcam was colonized by the Aeolians in 1748 AD by the Rim Calendar.
Barcam is a temperate world with adequate amounts of water for plant and animal life to flourish. It has little industry and primarily produces agricultural products, especially grapes and wine, most of which are exported. Like most of the Fringe Planets, it has a low population. Barcam was a peripheral participant in the Fringe Rebellion of 2120 – 2185.
Basic Rules (RimFed)
The Basic Rules are a set of provisions of government which a star nation must follow to be a member of the Rim Federation. Initially adopted by the RDF Colonization Office in 2122 under the supervision of Dr. Kirsten Monk, the Basic Rules were later incorporated into the Rim Federation (RimFed) system of governance and remain the foundational government model for star nations in the alliance. The Basic Rules consist of the Rim Model of Responsible Government coupled with strong sanctions, such as ostracization, for any government which abandons the Rules.
Bat Empire
The Bat Empire is a star nation centered on the planet Nest, located 805 light years from Earth on a nearly direct line behind the Pipe Nebula. The Bat Empire was notoriously involved in the genocides of an estimated 9 sentient species before 2207, when it was defeated by the RDF at the Battle of Orinoco and subjected to severe sanctions for a period of 100 years (later reduced for good behavior to 63 years). Since 2207, the Bat Empire has demonstrated exemplary behavior and was given provisional (non-voting) membership in the Rim Federation in 2270, and given full membership in RimFed twenty years later, in 2290.
Battle of Aronte
The Battle of Aronte was an engagement between the Aeolian Empire Navy (AEN) and a rebel fleet seeking to overthrow the House Aronte and install a democratic government in the Aeolian Empire. The battle resulted in the defeat of the rebel force, which retreated to the Aeolian Empire Fringe Worlds.
In 2120, the planet Amasya became the center of a rebel force determined to institute reforms in the Aeolian Empire. Among the reforms they espoused were an end to the House Aronte's rule of the Aeolian Empire, the abolition of slavery, a democratic government based on sortition (choosing political officials by lot), universal suffrage (i.e. the male vote), and the end of laws preventing males from obtaining political office or serving as officers in the Navy. By 2139, Amasya and ten other planets had been taken over by the rebels and a respectable naval force had been accumulated from captured AEN ships and converted merchant vessels.
After several minor skirmishes in and around Amasya, Maia and Barcam, in early 2140 the rebel fleet felt they had enough power to make a surprise attack on the capital city, Aronte, and execute a coup against the Empress. A diversionary attack was launched in the Aeolian system near the gas giant Hypnos, which tied up a significant portion of the Home Fleet. The main rebel fleet then appeared suddenly in the system and charged for the planet, advancing to geostationary orbit over the capital city of Aronte where it prepared for an orbital bombardment which would have destroyed the Imperial Palace, Fleet Headquarters at the Navy Yard, and the Imperial Naval Academy, with the intent of decapitating the Aeolian leadership. A last-ditch suicide charge by the cruiser Kleitos, commanded by Captain Ligeia Satra, was able to blunt the force of the attack sufficiently for the Home Fleet to regroup and come in behind the rebels, driving them from the field and destroying most of their ships.
Battle of Nest
The Battle of Nest was the first major battle of the Bat War, in which the forces of the Rim Defense Force (RDF) executed a surprise attack on the Bat Empire Navy Home Fleet on 3 July 2207 at Nest. The battle was a prelude to the later Battle of Orinoco and was designed to decimate the Home Fleet while the Detached Fleet was enroute to Farpoint (see Battle of Orinoco).
In response to numerous RDF decoy operations (Project Guano, Project Skyhook) that had presented a false scenario that the Human home world was located at Farpoint (HR6497), on 1 July 2207 the BEN split their fleet, sending half of their front-line ships in an attack to wipe out the supposed home world of humanity (the Detached Fleet). Immediately after the departure of the Detached Fleet, RDF First Fleet struck in a surprise attack at the remaining half of the BEN Home Fleet left behind at Nest, resulting in the loss of 18 BEN warships and demoralizing the remnant of the Home Fleet.
Battle of Orinoco
The Battle of Orinoco was the final major battle of the Bat War, in which the forces of the Rim Defense Force (RDF) fought the Bat Empire Navy (BEN) armada on 25 July 2207 at Orinoco (HIP 94272). The result was a narrow victory for the RDF, but one sufficient to lead to the unconditional surrender of the Bat Empire less than one month later (20 August 2207).
In response to numerous RDF decoy operations (Project Guano, Project Skyhook) that had presented a false scenario that the human home world was located at Farpoint (HR6497), on 1 July 2207 the BEN split their fleet, sending half of their front-line ships in an attack to wipe out the supposed home world of humanity in the Detached Fleet. Immediately after the departure of the Detached Fleet, the RDF First Fleet struck in a surprise attack at the remaining half of the BEN Home Fleet left behind at Nest (Battle of Nest), resulting in the loss of 18 BEN warships and demoralizing the remnant of the Home Fleet.
The BEN Detached Expedition immediately turned to pursue RDF First Fleet, which had taken a vector toward the Orinoco system. Joined by the survivors of the Battle of Nest into the Bat Armada, the BEN pursued the Humans in a stern chase that lasted for three weeks, arriving at Orinoco about twenty hours after RDF First Fleet. First Fleet made a run for the system's primary in a planned ploy
designed to convince the BEN commander they were dispersing for escape. This illusion of disarray convinced the BEN fleet the humans were attempting to slingshot around the primary star and flee the system, causing Fleet Admiral Zetun Bruntel to rush his destroyers and faster capital ships ahead of the remainder of his Armada to destroy the fleeing human ships as soon as possible.
In the event, this was a deception by the RDF, and as the BEN Armada became strung out in pursuit of First Fleet, they were ambushed first by 726 small, one-man Wicked (A40) attack craft and immediately thereafter by the RDF Second Fleet surfacing behind them at the mass limit. In the ensuing battle, the BEN Armada, constituting the main front line fleet of the Bat Empire, was virtually destroyed, leading to the ultimate surrender and interdiction of the Bat Empire. However, the RDF also suffered significant losses, causing Fleet Admiral Jake Hammett to paraphrase a quote from Lord Wellington regarding the 1815 Battle of Waterloo: “Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.”
Brush War
The Brush War was a short, sharp conflict involving Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, North Korea, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States in early 2115. Triggered by a minor brushing incident between ships of North Korea and Japan in the Yellow Sea on 2 January 2115, the conflict soon involved China and the U.S. as they came to the aid of their allies; within two weeks, the war had escalated, other military forces were involved, dozens of naval vessels had been sunk, and full-scale air battles had occurred over China, Japan, North Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan.
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