SFMC 960 ROMULAN HONOR GUARD

For much of the last 2 centuries, soldiers, historians, and politicians have debated the many unanswered questions about the Earth-Romulan War of 2156 to 2160. What was the cause of the war? Why did the Romulan Star Empire attack the deep space stations of the United Earth (UE)? What did the Romulans hope to achieve? Some have suggested that the UE should be blamed for the war because its aggressive sensor probes and starship patrols led the Romulans to believe an invasion of their territory was imminent; according to this line of reasoning the Romulan attacks upon the UE space stations were preemptive and launched purely in self-defense. Others say that the UE sought war in an attempt to spread human civilization throughout the galaxy.

However, a consensus has slowly been building among UE and Federation historians that the Romulans' attacks were the first step in a campaign to conquer and return to their ancestral homeworld of Vulcan. Some 3 millennia ago, Vulcan was being torn apart by civil and religious wars. Amid the chaos, several factions left Vulcan to establish new societies in nearby solar systems. However, the exiles soon fell to fighting among themselves, leading to repeated cycles of schism, war, exodus, voyage, and resettlement on alien planets further and further from their homeworld. Most of the new off-world colonies withered and died through war, starvation, inbreeding, and natural disasters, but finally, after a hundred generations and a journey of 60 ly, a robust colony was established on a planet orbiting the star Gliese 431, which we now know as Romulus. Over the subsequent centuries, the Romulans built an interstellar society, but they never forgot how they had been exiled from their homeworld. They vowed to return one day and punish their erstwhile oppressors.

In 2153, Romulan ships on patrol from their base at Gliese 480.1 (also known as Taugus) encountered 3 ships of a previously unknown race: Humans. Having the tactical advantage, the Romulans destroyed 2 of the UE ships and were even able to glean valuable intelligence from the debris. They learned that the inhabitants of Vulcan still thrived under the teachings of Surak and had allied themselves with the Humans. The Romulans were astounded by the energy and ambition of the Humans, who had progressed from steam power to supraluminal flight in little more than two centuries. If the Vulcans were allied with such a bold race, any Romulan efforts to conquer Vulcan might soon be in vain. While they were now at rough technological parity with the Humans, the Romulans would have to strike quickly before the Humans gained an insurmountable advantage. However, in the likely event that the Humans chose to defend the Vulcans, who had become their important partners in science, culture, and trade, how were the Romulans to prevail? The Romulans concluded that the only way to prevent the Humans from defending Vulcan was to a pose a greater, existential threat to the Humans themselves. To this end, the Romulans planned to attack and occupy the UE bases in the Gliese 440 and Luyten 143-23 (Innes' Star) systems. These systems were the most antispinward outposts of the UE, and their capture would provide the Romulans direct, unrestricted access to all the major UE population centers. With their core star systems under threat of invasion, the UE, the Romulans concluded, would have little choice but to abandon their Vulcan allies.