Appendices

1. The Confederated Free Systems

The Confederated Free Systems, more commonly simply referred to as the Confederacy, is an interstellar nation established roughly two hundred years ago by planets under the protection of the Goa'uld Nekhrun. Two of the three founding members had been trading partners for two generations before the Confederacy was proposed to them by a third such world shortly after first contact. One of those three worlds, Heinessen, is the capital world of the Confederacy.

As of the beginning of the Confederacy's entry into the Goa'uld War, there are seven member nations covering ten inhabited planets, with an estimated population in excess of ten billion. In addition, the Confederacy has taken over a hundred worlds settled by humans under the guidance of Nekhrun under their protection as protectorate worlds and are quietly introducing social changes and scientific discoveries to guide the Protectorates towards global governments and space travel, which are the primary requirements in order that they can qualify to join the Confederacy.

The member nations are multi-ethnic but all have strong primary cultures, usually built around the ethnic group that came out on top during their unification: for example, Basantapur and Angrezi have dominant Indian cultures while Heinessen's dominant culture is German.

While there is no specific requirement for this, all seven states are ruled by imperial dynasties. The heads of these dynasties are the High Lords of the Confederacy and elect the First Lord of the Confederacy from amongst themselves to oversee the day to day leadership of their alliance. The other High Lords act as the primary restraint upon the First Lord's and in council they (or their representatives) can overrule his veto over the Senate's legislative powers. This authority is rarely exercised since the High Lords meet relatively infrequently and are reluctant to authorise others to vote for them as the votes of those representatives are binding without further ratification. When it is necessary, the vote or votes are almost always proxied to the First Lord or to Nekhrun. For the entire history of the Confederacy, the First Lord has been the High Lord of Heinessen, but this has no weight beyond tradition and under the constitution any of the High Lords can serve and in theory, a First Lord can be stripped of his position.

The Senate of the Confederacy is an elective body, with one fifth of the seats elected every year. However, the seats are voted for by a quite limited electorate. There are a number of ways to qualify for the vote but all require a certain degree of prominence: titled nobility, personal wealth and military rank are all possible routes. Most but not all member nations have a number of Electors, individuals who can vote in Senate elections because they won elections for the positions. It isn't a terribly democratic model of government but democracy is not especially prized by the Confederacy, which styles itself as a meritocracy.

The working government of the Confederacy is divided into several Ministries that are then subdivided into Secretariats. Ministers and Secretaries are appointed by the High Lords and sit and vote on the Senate, the only seats essentially controlled by the High Lords. The three most important positions in the government are the Minister of State, who is responsible for the smooth running of the government; the Secretary of the Treasury, whose position in the Ministry of Economics is very much that of the tail that wags the dog; and the Minister of the Fleet.

2. The Confederated Free Systems Fleet

To a very considerable degree, the Confederacy could be said to exist solely for the purposes of supporting the Fleet, the force intended by Nekhrun to be used to destroy the domination of the System Lords over the galaxy. That, at least, is the supposed role that it plays. The Fleet is a very small force compared to its opponents – numbering less than a hundred cruisers, carriers and destroyers after the Battle of Angrezi. However, it is well equipped and has strong bases in the Confederacy as with the exception of Angrezi all the seven member-states possess formidable orbital and planetary defences and the one exception is not expected to last long.

The largest single component of the Fleet in sheer numbers are the ground forces. Companies, battalions and regiments of soldiers can be found all over the Confederacy serving in many roles. The majority serve as infantry but there are a number of artillery and armoured units in service. However, the core of the Fleet in the public perceptions and in the strategic vision of the High Lords are the ships, indeed, not merely the ships but the warships, which remain outnumbered by the scouts, transports and other support vessels. Confederate warships fall into three basic classes.

Almost half of the Fleet's warships are Cruisers, well-armed ships that are individually capable of matching a much larger Ha'tak in space combat. They accomplish this largely by focusing upon this role to the exclusion of most others – they can carry only a single company of infantry and only one wing of interceptors with no ability to support larger attack craft. However, the twenty-four cannon mounted on cruisers provide an almost unmatched ability to target smaller vessels and can concentrate their firepower with great effectiveness at need. Cruisers are the most likely vessels to be seen operating on their own and quite often act as command vessels for long-range scouting expeditions or patrols over the Protectorates.

Slightly less than a third of the Fleet is made up of Carriers, ships roughly half again the size of a Cruiser. As the name suggests, Carriers are built around the ability to support the attack craft of the fleet, possessing a large spinal flight deck in addition to the ventral hangers and launch tubes used to house the interceptors. Typically a Carrier will carry a single interceptor wing, a wing of torpedo boats and three wings of fighter-bombers. However, the main flight deck is fully capable of supporting a wide range of options. The price for this specialisation is that a Carrier carries only a token force of soldiers and two-thirds the primary armament of a Cruiser. Carriers make up the bulk of most organised fleets protecting the Homeworlds and as flagships for extended operations in the Protectorates. They also lead escorts for military convoys.

The price of the fleet are the Ha'tak Destroyers, of which there were twenty-six until the destruction of the Leonidas. Destroyers are almost twice as large as Carriers and mount almost three times the primary armament of a Cruiser in only a third the number of mounts. As was proven over Angrezi, a Ha'tak Destroyer is capable of utter havoc against Goa'uld ships but unsupported is vulnerable to being swarmed. They each carry a single interceptor wing and a battalion of infantry. Destroyers serve as command ships for independent battle groups and are also grouped together in powerful destroyer groups as part of major fleets. The deployment of two-thirds of the Fleet's Destroyers during Operation Mount Niitaka was an unprecedented weakening of the Confederacy's defences that is not likely to be repeated in the future.