A work in progress...
Soviet timeline update 2013 – 2022, beta 1:
1.9.2013: Soviet MARS units infiltrate Boskone One during the opening phases of Fleet Action Attila, capturing much of the asteroid in advance of the main Great Justice fleet.
5.9.2013 – 21.12.2013: The Soviet Air Force Delta Pavonis Expedition discovers a bunch of planets and an alien stargate orbiting Delta Pavonis. Activating the stargate they find another unit orbiting Zeta 1 Reticuli along with another bunch of habitable planets.
1.2014: Soviet Air Force elements participate in the final engagement of the Boskone War.
2.2014: The Soviet leadership agrees – with some acrimonious debate – to begin a limited demobilization of X-COM assets. The small fleet of Tu-22M Backfires acquired by the VVS are either shut down or have their weapons removed. ROU Frank Exchange of Views petitions to have its name changed to VFP Look! I’m A Plowshare. {number} MARS units are demobilized or turned into training commands per Soviet/Senshi agreements.
15.3.2014: The Joint Committee on Extraterrestrial Security subpoenas Mal Fnord as a witness in their ongoing investigation of the Artemis scandal. The staff-lizard sent to deliver the subpoena almost but not quite gets eaten by GLaDOS.
19.3.2014: Mal testifies in Washington to the Joint Committee. He admits most, defends all and personally insults several ranking members to the amusement of bloggers systemwide.
21.3.2014: In a private meeting with President {blank}, Mal and all members of the Soviet Air Force are given the heave-ho, which is backed up with a stack of personae non gratia orders in record time. Mal returns to a hero’s welcome on Luna, particularly from Lieutenant Sora Hasegawa, whose reaction makes the front page of the Illuminator.
22.3.2014: Mal and Sora depart for a “fact-finding mission” to Tau Ceti. Nobody’s particularly fooled; the most common speculation is they left to avoid being chased down by an enraged Noah Scott with a shotgun.
1.4.2014: Stellvia Corporation purchases NASA Human Spaceflight Office assets for fractions of pennies on the dollar. VVS leadership goes ahead with the plan to lease the OV-200 series design to Hephaestus.
1.5.2014: The Soviets officially purchase OV-202 as per their ‘pick of the litter’ agreement with Hephaestus. Production of the first four OV-200 orbiters gets underway.
6.2014: Artemis Foundation purchases the first four OV-200 orbiters to come off the production list. Thanks to a few crossed wires, OV-202 is now owned by Artemis and the VVS, though neither of them know it just yet.
7.2014 – 8.2014: Stellvia and the Soviets bump heads over ownership of the soon-to-be-completed OV-202.
4.7.2014: Minerva and Athene Weatheral leave Black Mesa (where they’d been operating as part of the science staff) for Korolevgrad to take on new positions as administrators for the growing bureaucracy. This is the first time any of Dee’s seraphim have left the nest, so to speak, and it’s a big moment for them.
8.7.2014: Tina Weatheral begins work as the Committee’s executive secretary. Meets Mal and Sora for the first time, and things get interesting in many ways.
5.11.2014: MCU Columbia (OV-202) launched.
9.3.2015: MCU Uragan (OV-208) launched.
11.9.2015: GCU Laika (NCC-104) launched.
10.2015 – 1.2016: The Columbia/Laika Expedition investigates Night’s Door, discovers that some of the higher functions of the stargate’s management computer can be accessed remotely. Initial queries produce a limited database of unknown data.
23.10.2015: {name} becomes the first person to set foot on Earendil (Z1 Ret II). {gender} calls it “not an experience I want to do again any time soon.”
10.2015 – 1.2016: The Xenu Express/Uragan Expedition does a simultaneous investigation of Tannhauser Gate. While the initial discoveries are more limited, a lucky micrometeoroid impact breaks off a 5 kg chunk of the stargate’s exterior. Xenu Express captures the debris and returns it to Black Mesa for examination.
1.5.2016: The Soviet Air Force officially dissolves and rebrands itself as the Sozvezdie Soviet, ditching the pretense of paramilitary force in favor of becoming a proper government. The VVS leadership steps down en masse and (for the most part) stands for election to the new Central Committee. The Soviet promptly votes those standing to their new posts in the Central Committee. The Committee then votes Mal in as First Minister.
2.5.2016: Columbia is seconded from the Red Banner Fleet to Film Collective Studio #1, the first time a ship is
5.2016: GCU Arbitrary (NCC-105) launched.
6.7.2016: MCU Groza (OV-216) launched.
15.9.2016: MCU Typhoon (OV-217) launched.
{date}.2016: Researchers working on the Tannhauser Gate fragment isolate stable isotopes of elements 126 (Unbihexium, later Skuldium) and 130 (Untrinilium, later Elerium). The mystery handwavium matrix the two transuranics were embedded in continues to defy analysis.
{date}.2017: GCU Undocumented Feature (NCC-109) launched.
{date}.2017: The Arbitrary Expedition returns to Night’s Door to conduct further experiments with the stargate’s control systems. No new functions are discovered, though Arbitrary does manage to trigger another data dump.
{date}.2017: LulzSec releases a handful of documents indicating that the Whole Fenspace Catalog was doctored before release. The Central Committee officially condemns Stellvia Corporation; privately, Mal lets Noah know “when you make dumb decisions because you’re afraid of what’ll happen to your bottom line, it will always come back around to bite you in the ass. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.”
{date}.2017: GCU It Was Like That When I Got Here (NCC-110) launched.
{date}.2017: Mal, Sora and Tina’s mutual orbits finally collide properly and the binary becomes a stable trinary, so to speak.
1.4.2017: MCU Iskra (OV-218) launched. Iskra is immediately seconded to Black Mesa and the Ministry of Science as a general utility vehicle.
{date}.2018: Elessar Air Force Weather Station established on the banks of a large river on the main contitnent of Arda (Z1 Ret III); in the distant future of the Soviet, this is considered the unofficial founding of the city of Osgiliath.
28.2.2018: MCU Buran (OV-223) launched.
30.3.2018: MCU Borei (OV-224) launched.
28.4.2018: An accident involving an experiment with untrinilium leads to some “creative rearranging” of Black Mesa’s surface layer and a minor panic on Galatea. The Central Committee considers moving Black Mesa out of the main belt and into the Kuiper as a precaution.
10.5.2018: MCU Tsiklon (OV-225) launched.
{date}.2019: GCU Rolled A Twenty On The Random Encounter Table (NCC-123) launched.
{date}.2020: GCU Cultural Imperialism Is Better Than The Other Kind (NCC-126) launched.
{date}.2020: The Soviet begins quietly agitating among left-leaning (and a few right-leaning) libertarian microfactions on Luna, Mars and in the Belt towards the formation of an “Autonomist Alliance” that would stand for four main points:
* Autonomy, self-organization, and self-governance for all sapient beings.
* Direct democracy and forms of organization where sapients collectively decide their own future.
* Mutual aid and reciprocating altruism between sapients.
* The right to engage in self-defense against oppression and coercive authority and stand in solidarity with sapients so attacked.
Initial reaction is neutral to positive, with most of those approached noting that a) most of this is covered by the Articles of Convention anyway, b) no matter how SMOF-heavy the Soviet is they’re still small fish in a big pond and c) so how do you fix that, smart guys?
At this point, the Soviet begins looking at an eclipse phase strategy aimed at the largest faction that could be said to hold autonomist leanings, the Federation.
{date}.2021: GCU Just Passing Through (NCC-136) launched.
1.5.2021: Election Day in the Sozvezdie Soviet. In a surprise twist, Mal refuses to stand for election again, citing a desire to get space under his feet again. Other former VVS leaders follow suit, so a (bare) majority of the new Soviet government are second-generation leftists of one stripe or another. The new Committee elects Minister of Justice and Equality Joseph Lacroix First Minister.
2.2021: Mal, Sora and Tina depart Sol for an extended tour of the Delta Pavonis and Zeta 1 Reticuli systems, ostensibly to start building more permanent bases on Yggdrasil and Valinor. Nobody’s particularly fooled this time either, but then again nobody really cares except the gossip rags, so.
5.2021: Minister Lacroix and the CentCom agree to let several joint-operating agreements with Stellvia Corporation lapse.
1.5.3022: The Soviet votes to join the United Federation of Planets as a charter member. Mal Fnord is elected to the position of Representative to the Federation Council.
{date}.2023: Black Mesa deciphers the Night’s Door data, reveals it as a database of accessible stargate nodes within a 3,000 light-year radius of the Door. The Science Ministry and the Central Committee classify the knowledge that there are other gates still connected to the Tannhauser-Door line until they figure out what the hell do to with it.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Soviet timeline update 2013 – 2022, beta 1:
1.9.2013: Soviet MARS units infiltrate Boskone One during the opening phases of Fleet Action Attila, capturing much of the asteroid in advance of the main Great Justice fleet.
5.9.2013 – 21.12.2013: The Soviet Air Force Delta Pavonis Expedition discovers a bunch of planets and an alien stargate orbiting Delta Pavonis. Activating the stargate they find another unit orbiting Zeta 1 Reticuli along with another bunch of habitable planets.
1.2014: Soviet Air Force elements participate in the final engagement of the Boskone War.
2.2014: The Soviet leadership agrees – with some acrimonious debate – to begin a limited demobilization of X-COM assets. The small fleet of Tu-22M Backfires acquired by the VVS are either shut down or have their weapons removed. ROU Frank Exchange of Views petitions to have its name changed to VFP Look! I’m A Plowshare. {number} MARS units are demobilized or turned into training commands per Soviet/Senshi agreements.
15.3.2014: The Joint Committee on Extraterrestrial Security subpoenas Mal Fnord as a witness in their ongoing investigation of the Artemis scandal. The staff-lizard sent to deliver the subpoena almost but not quite gets eaten by GLaDOS.
19.3.2014: Mal testifies in Washington to the Joint Committee. He admits most, defends all and personally insults several ranking members to the amusement of bloggers systemwide.
21.3.2014: In a private meeting with President {blank}, Mal and all members of the Soviet Air Force are given the heave-ho, which is backed up with a stack of personae non gratia orders in record time. Mal returns to a hero’s welcome on Luna, particularly from Lieutenant Sora Hasegawa, whose reaction makes the front page of the Illuminator.
22.3.2014: Mal and Sora depart for a “fact-finding mission” to Tau Ceti. Nobody’s particularly fooled; the most common speculation is they left to avoid being chased down by an enraged Noah Scott with a shotgun.
1.4.2014: Stellvia Corporation purchases NASA Human Spaceflight Office assets for fractions of pennies on the dollar. VVS leadership goes ahead with the plan to lease the OV-200 series design to Hephaestus.
1.5.2014: The Soviets officially purchase OV-202 as per their ‘pick of the litter’ agreement with Hephaestus. Production of the first four OV-200 orbiters gets underway.
6.2014: Artemis Foundation purchases the first four OV-200 orbiters to come off the production list. Thanks to a few crossed wires, OV-202 is now owned by Artemis and the VVS, though neither of them know it just yet.
7.2014 – 8.2014: Stellvia and the Soviets bump heads over ownership of the soon-to-be-completed OV-202.
4.7.2014: Minerva and Athene Weatheral leave Black Mesa (where they’d been operating as part of the science staff) for Korolevgrad to take on new positions as administrators for the growing bureaucracy. This is the first time any of Dee’s seraphim have left the nest, so to speak, and it’s a big moment for them.
8.7.2014: Tina Weatheral begins work as the Committee’s executive secretary. Meets Mal and Sora for the first time, and things get interesting in many ways.
5.11.2014: MCU Columbia (OV-202) launched.
9.3.2015: MCU Uragan (OV-208) launched.
11.9.2015: GCU Laika (NCC-104) launched.
10.2015 – 1.2016: The Columbia/Laika Expedition investigates Night’s Door, discovers that some of the higher functions of the stargate’s management computer can be accessed remotely. Initial queries produce a limited database of unknown data.
23.10.2015: {name} becomes the first person to set foot on Earendil (Z1 Ret II). {gender} calls it “not an experience I want to do again any time soon.”
10.2015 – 1.2016: The Xenu Express/Uragan Expedition does a simultaneous investigation of Tannhauser Gate. While the initial discoveries are more limited, a lucky micrometeoroid impact breaks off a 5 kg chunk of the stargate’s exterior. Xenu Express captures the debris and returns it to Black Mesa for examination.
1.5.2016: The Soviet Air Force officially dissolves and rebrands itself as the Sozvezdie Soviet, ditching the pretense of paramilitary force in favor of becoming a proper government. The VVS leadership steps down en masse and (for the most part) stands for election to the new Central Committee. The Soviet promptly votes those standing to their new posts in the Central Committee. The Committee then votes Mal in as First Minister.
2.5.2016: Columbia is seconded from the Red Banner Fleet to Film Collective Studio #1, the first time a ship is
5.2016: GCU Arbitrary (NCC-105) launched.
6.7.2016: MCU Groza (OV-216) launched.
15.9.2016: MCU Typhoon (OV-217) launched.
{date}.2016: Researchers working on the Tannhauser Gate fragment isolate stable isotopes of elements 126 (Unbihexium, later Skuldium) and 130 (Untrinilium, later Elerium). The mystery handwavium matrix the two transuranics were embedded in continues to defy analysis.
{date}.2017: GCU Undocumented Feature (NCC-109) launched.
{date}.2017: The Arbitrary Expedition returns to Night’s Door to conduct further experiments with the stargate’s control systems. No new functions are discovered, though Arbitrary does manage to trigger another data dump.
{date}.2017: LulzSec releases a handful of documents indicating that the Whole Fenspace Catalog was doctored before release. The Central Committee officially condemns Stellvia Corporation; privately, Mal lets Noah know “when you make dumb decisions because you’re afraid of what’ll happen to your bottom line, it will always come back around to bite you in the ass. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.”
{date}.2017: GCU It Was Like That When I Got Here (NCC-110) launched.
{date}.2017: Mal, Sora and Tina’s mutual orbits finally collide properly and the binary becomes a stable trinary, so to speak.
1.4.2017: MCU Iskra (OV-218) launched. Iskra is immediately seconded to Black Mesa and the Ministry of Science as a general utility vehicle.
{date}.2018: Elessar Air Force Weather Station established on the banks of a large river on the main contitnent of Arda (Z1 Ret III); in the distant future of the Soviet, this is considered the unofficial founding of the city of Osgiliath.
28.2.2018: MCU Buran (OV-223) launched.
30.3.2018: MCU Borei (OV-224) launched.
28.4.2018: An accident involving an experiment with untrinilium leads to some “creative rearranging” of Black Mesa’s surface layer and a minor panic on Galatea. The Central Committee considers moving Black Mesa out of the main belt and into the Kuiper as a precaution.
10.5.2018: MCU Tsiklon (OV-225) launched.
{date}.2019: GCU Rolled A Twenty On The Random Encounter Table (NCC-123) launched.
{date}.2020: GCU Cultural Imperialism Is Better Than The Other Kind (NCC-126) launched.
{date}.2020: The Soviet begins quietly agitating among left-leaning (and a few right-leaning) libertarian microfactions on Luna, Mars and in the Belt towards the formation of an “Autonomist Alliance” that would stand for four main points:
* Autonomy, self-organization, and self-governance for all sapient beings.
* Direct democracy and forms of organization where sapients collectively decide their own future.
* Mutual aid and reciprocating altruism between sapients.
* The right to engage in self-defense against oppression and coercive authority and stand in solidarity with sapients so attacked.
Initial reaction is neutral to positive, with most of those approached noting that a) most of this is covered by the Articles of Convention anyway, b) no matter how SMOF-heavy the Soviet is they’re still small fish in a big pond and c) so how do you fix that, smart guys?
At this point, the Soviet begins looking at an eclipse phase strategy aimed at the largest faction that could be said to hold autonomist leanings, the Federation.
{date}.2021: GCU Just Passing Through (NCC-136) launched.
1.5.2021: Election Day in the Sozvezdie Soviet. In a surprise twist, Mal refuses to stand for election again, citing a desire to get space under his feet again. Other former VVS leaders follow suit, so a (bare) majority of the new Soviet government are second-generation leftists of one stripe or another. The new Committee elects Minister of Justice and Equality Joseph Lacroix First Minister.
2.2021: Mal, Sora and Tina depart Sol for an extended tour of the Delta Pavonis and Zeta 1 Reticuli systems, ostensibly to start building more permanent bases on Yggdrasil and Valinor. Nobody’s particularly fooled this time either, but then again nobody really cares except the gossip rags, so.
5.2021: Minister Lacroix and the CentCom agree to let several joint-operating agreements with Stellvia Corporation lapse.
1.5.3022: The Soviet votes to join the United Federation of Planets as a charter member. Mal Fnord is elected to the position of Representative to the Federation Council.
{date}.2023: Black Mesa deciphers the Night’s Door data, reveals it as a database of accessible stargate nodes within a 3,000 light-year radius of the Door. The Science Ministry and the Central Committee classify the knowledge that there are other gates still connected to the Tannhauser-Door line until they figure out what the hell do to with it.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"