posted
Wow, man. The Dominion war ended almost EIGHT YEARS AGO. It's already a classic historical event!
And look at whre Trekdom is now. By WWII standards, the Cold War is in full swing, A Pepsi bottle is way too sweet and costs a whole nickel, and people have been successfully duped into believeing that "Duck and Cover" is a great way to survive a nuclear blast. Where would the Federation be now, post Dominion War?
posted
Based on the numerous correlates between the Pax Federation and Pax Britannia, the Federation (read Empire) is in slow but inevitable decline. It's completely bankrupt thanks to a huge war and endless conflicts and other military disputes that have raged for years along it's borders (for years, read every other episode). As a result the Federation is desperate to scrap all it's war build ships and most of the older vessels who are more expensive to support and more manpower intensive due to a critical lack of money/latinum/resources/litres of warp plasma/units of currency or whatever else they use.
In addition, there is the vast damage to infrastructure to many of the Federations colonies and core planets to repair, plus building housing and providing temporary accomodation and transport for refugees. There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of troops and reservists to demob, partly to get rid of the unnecessary manpower and partly to get rid of the costs. There are thousands of war wounded, civilian and military, to care for long term.
Politically, there is an increasing desire to draw down on interstellar committments and a growing sense of disillusionment with the Federation among many of the non-human members and even some of the long established human colonies. This partly stems from the realisation that the Federation is not unbeatable and all powerful, having just witnessed first hand numerous instances in which a foreign invader, operating at vast distances from their own home worlds, handed the Feds their asses more than once on the same day. Such a Federation has lost the veneer of peace and security, invincibility and comfortable civilisation it once had, and people are starting to wonder if they wouldn't be better off on their own in future, running their own affairs as they see fit.
And as if that wasn't enough, the old tensions are rapidly being replaced by new ones in the post-war era, thanks to the radical shifts in the power base of the quadrant which the war brought about. This requires the Federation to make it's best effort to retain an effective fighting force of it's newest and most advanced ships and most professional serving personnel to deal with brush fire wars, incursions from opportunists and to ensure the continued security of the Federations current borders. This task is made no easier by the need to continue funding research and development into the new types of weapons systems which came into being on both sides during the war. Much of this technology was dispersed among many potentially hostile neighbours who, whilst having been allies of the moment when the shit was hitting the fan, may soon change their tune when the dust settles. So military spending in some areas cannot be cut back and maintaining it is painful for the economy as a whole. The Fleet will lose some of it's more expensive assets and sacrifice the balanced structure within it's order of battle in order to maintain the high quality of the units that remain. This last part is code for having to cut the aircraft carriers so you can afford to build the ballistic missile submarines.
One day the Federation will get it's economy and it's prospects back in the black, but before that day comes the Federation will a much smaller place which places more emphasis on integrating itself into profitable economic treaties and trade zones than it does in unilaterally "going it alone".
posted
P.S. I made all this up but it still sounded better to me than any of the logically inconsistent, pie in the sky canon stuff you're likely to find ;-)
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
Turmoil has engulfed the United Federation of Planets. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.
Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy First Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Cestus III.
While the congress of the Federation endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Federation President has secretly dispatched two Starfleet Officers, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict�
Registered: Feb 2005
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WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
And finally the FIFTH foundation will return Trantor to its rightful place as Emperial Throneworld until the return of the Shadows in mankinds "Second Uplift" that breaks the seal on the Dark One's prison to allow Rand Al Thor to battle at Tarmon Gaidon and start the Wheel of Time over where R. Daneel Olivaw wakes up and realizes that Giskard has been messing with more than his mind and he has now leaked lubricant all over himself.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
quote:Originally posted by WizArtist II: And finally the FIFTH foundation will return Trantor to its rightful place as Emperial Throneworld until the return of the Shadows in mankinds "Second Uplift" that breaks the seal on the Dark One's prison to allow Rand Al Thor to battle at Tarmon Gaidon and start the Wheel of Time over where R. Daneel Olivaw wakes up and realizes that Giskard has been messing with more than his mind and he has now leaked lubricant all over himself.
You forgot psycho-history fool!
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
I feel ashamed that my reply was serious and contained structured thought and that I did not opt for a humourous retort or funny skit on a variety of other franchises and even some novels. I would remedy this now but I am dull and lack the necessary wit.
/hangs head in shame
Instead, I challenge anyone to recognise this reference. His name was as a colour, shade of purple grey.
Registered: Jul 2006
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WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
Jabberwock?
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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