NationStates Jolt Archive

Over the decades, the populations on the Primus and Bajor Systems had reached the breaking points of either system. As of the current time, 5 planets in Primus and 3 in Bajor had been terraformed by the IDF Empire. All of those planets had reached their breaking points as the population within the empire boomed.

For the last 5 decades, Starfleet had spent most of its time exploring rest of the Alpha Quadrant. In these surveying missions, thousands of suitable M-Class planets had been discovered that were capable of supporting future growth of the empire. It was with this in mind that the decision was made to colonize new systems.

The flotilla or starships left Primus III at warp factor 5. Within this flotilla was a combination of starships.

There was the newly refitted ISS Potemkin. She was a battlecruiser and the first of the refitted Excelsior class ships that was more suited for war than exploration. She wasn't the most powerful ship in the group though. The ISS Nebula, first of the brand new Nebula class starships was traveling with the group. In addition, there was an assortment of older Excelsior class vessels, Constitution-refits, Miranda class, and Steamrunner class vessels. These ships made up the bulk of the escort force. There were even older ships used in this mission. 3 of the old NX class explorers and 2 Daedalus class explorers were also going out on this mission.

This firepower was probably not needed, but IDFwould not take chances with a convoy of over 50 transport and colony ships carrying over 100,000 civilians plus a large amount of equipment that would be heading towards the Vesuvi System.

The system was the perfect spot for future growth. It was positioned about midway between Bajor and Primus. It was already considered by many to be IDF controlled space. The 3rd and 4th planets in the system were both Class M planets suitable for life. Only the 3rd planet would be settled at this time as the 4th planet would require some terraforming in the future.

Vesuvi III was rich with rare resources from Dilithium to Latinum. This untouched landscape would be the first step in establishing IDF as a true Galactic Empire.

The 50 civilian vessels assumed standard orbit over Vesuvi III. They had all set parallel courses and the same speed to ensure that there was no chance of a collision as the crews delivered their cargo. The 24 escort ships had all of their shuttlecraft depart and join the civilian ships to assist in ferrying people down to the planet. As this happened, large transporters in the cargo bay beamed down cargo containers containing rations and other materials.

Large Workbee shuttles from the Nebula's cavernous shuttlebay departed carying cargo pods which contained parts for a mass replicators. It would take 48 hours for the Workerbee to bring the parts down. It would take another 3 days for Starfleet Corp of Engineers personnel to complete the mass replicator which would help facilitate the beginning of this new colony.

Within an hour, 2,000 colonists had reached the surface. They began setting up tents and other temporary housing on the main continent. They would be in these conditions for about a month until more mass replicators could be brought in and assembled so that permanent housing could be rapidly produced.

The colonists were scattered over a 100 square mile plain about 10 miles from the nearest ocean. It was on this site that Vesuvi City would be founded as the Capital of this new Colony world of the IDF Empire.

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Above the planet, the ISS Potemkin was joined by another of her class, the ISS Lexington. The battlecruisers were the only ships not involved with the colonization of the planet. They flew further away from the planet making constant sensor scans of the sector. They were on the lookout for any possible Orion Pirates.

Admiral Ross had become more concerned that they would try to raid the tranports. As a result, 2 more Excelsior class batltecruisers, 1 more Nebula class vessel, and 2 of the cloaked Defiant class vessels were being dispatched in order to ensure that the operation could go on unhindered.

The colonization was continuing on schedule. A 2nd convoy of 20 ships came in with the parts for fusion power plants that would serve the colony as it grew into a thriving new world. Matter-antimatter reactions were rejected on the grounds that there was too much of a risk of a major accident occuring on the planet's surface. Besides, fusion would generate sufficient power.

The trio of industrial replicators was now in place. They were replicating building supplies for housing, infrastructure, and automated farms.

Up in orbit, there were other plans being made. Most of the ships in the original convoy returned to Primus III and loaded up with different cargo than supplies and colonists. Fourty of the ships were returning with starbase and orbital battery components for the planet's defense ring. The ships began deploying and activating orbital batteries that each housed 100 photon or quantum torpedoes and 4 phaser arrays powered by small matter-antimatter reactors.

The rest of the ships took formation and had Starfleet Engineers make spacewalks to help assemble what would in a few months be a large starbase.