In the annals of the Confederate history of space exploration there is perhaps no greater “Golden Age” than the time leading up to and including the Third Colonial War. Beginning with the Confederate Scout Corps’ Star program, the Confederate Stellar Systems pushed outward and explored unknown space and an incredible rate. The list of cataloged planets seemed to grow every few days between 3008 and 3020. During that same time period, new worlds were opened for settlement every few weeks and new colonies established almost as quickly.

            When the war broke out between the Confederacy and the Mosaic Tessellation on April 11th of 3009, the whole war effort for the Confederacy depended upon finding new resources close to the front. New lines of supplies had to be established to what was then the edge of explored space. The Osmani Empire was still interdicted and supply routes had to skirt Osmani space. These factors created great pressure for the Confederacy to expand.

            With no faster-than-light communications, it took four months for a message to be sent from the front to the Admiralty at Langlais and back again by the fastest ship. As the first messages of the ambush and destruction of the CSS Freedom traveled back toward the inner systems, Scout and Navy bases along the way sent all the ships and crews they could spare: mostly relics left over from the Second Colonial War nearly 70 years earlier.

            The Confederate Navy had only the year before began to rebuild and refurbish the fleet. Caught totally unprepared for war on this scale, it would take almost two years for any significant reserves to be transferred from the inner systems. Upgraded Shield Class Defender Frigates, left over Buckley Class Destroyer Escorts and Hero Class Battle Squadrons held a tenuous grip on Confederate systems while the CSS geared up for war. The only ships larger than 15,000 tons were the Hero Class Jumpers that brought their Battle Cruisers into action. These brave crews with no more than escort class vessels fought and died valiantly against the hordes of Mozie fighters and their ship smashing kinetic torpedoes. The Confederate forces were outnumbered and overwhelmed from the beginning. It was only by the selfless sacrifice of the Confederate Navy, Marines and Scouts that the Tessellation was prevented from overrunning the frontier.

            Now, few are left alive that can tell the first hand story of this glorious age where sophonts were driven to such extremes of greatness and depravity. That is why the discovery of these memoirs are such a great national treasure. Statistics can give us an idea of the ebb and flow of great fleets and battles as they course across the stars. But it takes memoirs such as these to personalize them and taste the sweetness of victory and the bitterness of loss and death. A sophont in the middle of an epic interstellar struggle can tell us, not the grand sweep of events, but instead, the personal triumphs and defeats. It is only then that we might imagine ourselves in the middle of great happenings.

            The Memoirs of Wesley F. Edwards begin as a Midshipman on the first of the Type W Star Deep Space Explorers: the Star Seeker. These writings, based on his diaries and the recollections of his surviving crewmates' and official Scout documents, were compiled by his father and published two decades later. Through these we can experience these events from the beginning of the war through this young officer’s eyes. These are no ordinary memoirs because Edwards always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. In the grand scheme of things, he was not himself the central figure, but he was always somewhere close by to those who were.  

            Told from the perspective of a Scout, these memoirs go beyond the popular fiction of thrilling action of fleet battles and exploits of commandos on the front line. They include the exploration of new planets and first contact with new races and species. They include important negotiations and diplomatic missions and much, much more that has not come to light for the general public until now.

 

 

Précepteur Sir Eduard de la Vert,

Historien Lauréate 3184-3200

Confederate Stellar Systems