The Federacy

Prelude 

The roots of the Federacy lie back in the days of the Horus Heresy. Before Horus initiated his open rebellion against the Emperor of Mankind he attempted to win the support of powerful and wealthy factions that might one day aid him in his fight. One of those factions was the government of the Aleph sub-sector. It maintained a huge fleet of modern and well staffed warships to protect the sector and its interests from the numerous dangers that face any society on the eastern fringe. To win the support of this fleet Horus is alleged to have commissioned the construction of a Despoiler class battleship as a gift, although no records of this survive. In the fight over Earth the Aleph sub-sector sided with Horus and sent its fleet, commanded by one Grand Admiral Haskel, to aid the rogue Warmaster. When Horus was slain by the Emperor and the traitor fleets cast into disarray Haskel withdrew his ships in good order, fleeing back to Aleph. Upon arriving they found an Imperial Fists battle group in orbit around what had once been Aleph IV- now a smoking husk of rotting vegetation and poisoned seas. On hearing of Aleph’s betrayal the Space Marine legion had been tasked with carrying out an exterminatus of the planet as a demonstration to ensure the returned loyalty of the other worlds in the sector. On seeing the loss of his home world Haskel’s normally icy calm exterior was said to have cracked as he wept tears of rage. With his fleet damaged and low on munitions after the battle for Earth Haskel’s fleet fled with the Imperial Fists in hot pursuit. In desperation Haskel ordered his fleet to slingshot about the sun in a close orbit in a bid to escape the vengeful Marines. Taking advantage of a huge radiation burst that blinded all sensors Haskel ordered his fleet to shut down all non essential systems and lie dormant. Unable to find any traces of their enemies in the solar flare and radiation ridden reaches of the inner solar system it was assumed the fleet had been destroyed by solar activity or successfully fled into the warp. It was only when the Imperial Fists finally left the system that the remnants of Haskel’s fleet, badly damaged by solar activity, finally entered the warp and, just as many others were doing, fled to regroup in what is now the Eye of Terror.

The warp is an unpredictable medium of travel. A simple inter system journey can take days or months of real time and the relationship between real and warp time appears to be of a somewhat flexible nature. Sometimes ships go missing altogether only to re-appear millennia later. Such seems to have been the case with the Aleph fleet when it exited the warp ten thousand years later with its crews aged no more than a year since the day they had left.

Formation 

This freak of warp travel was what saved Aleph’s fleet from damnation. Like many others they had been taken in by the Warmaster’s story of an Emperor corrupted by Daemonic possession. Rather than suffer the gradual and insidious corruption that is the fate of all those associated with Chaos regardless of intent they saw at first hand the shocking horror of what had became of the Warmaster’s forces. Upon realising their fate should they remain the Aleph fleet once again entered the warp, this time homeward bound in the hope of once again rejoining with the Imperium.

On reaching the Aleph sub-sector of the 41st Millennium Grand Admiral Haskel hid his fleet in deep space whilst escorts scouted nearby systems and his spies reported on the current situation. Was his treachery remembered? Would they be welcomed back into the Imperial fold or shot as traitors? The news he received painted a depressing picture – of a society repressed and brutally governed in the name of a carrion Emperor, of ceaseless infighting and civil war, of millions sacrificed at the whims of unaccountable nobles and of a central governance that cared little as to the fate of its citizens as long as tyrants paid their taxes and sent their quota of men for the slaughter. What had happened to the ideals of the Dark Age of Technology? Here was a society kept in ignorance, where machines were worshipped as spirits and innovative research and exploration of alien worlds was forbidden. Determined to return the human race to the heights of the Dark Age of Technology Haskel formed the United Federation of Planets, an organisation dedication to returning freedom, morality and progress to Humanity.

History 

The Imperium was unprepared for the ferocity and speed of the Federacy attack. Supply lines vital to the Imperial Fleet were severed above Banderossa and Cerberex. With the Imperial fleet stalled Haskel distributed propaganda to the citizenry of the sub-sector. Quickly the Imperial authorities moved to suppress any support of the new Federation but their heavy handed attempts only served to highlight the Federal cause and spread civil unrest. Tallax was the first world to rebel. A centre of trade and technology in the sub-sector, Tallax was already dissatisfied by heavy Imperial taxation and interference with its free market economy and democratic government. Pointing out that under a 10 millennia old document Tallax had never actually joined the Imperium the world declared its neutrality and began supplying the Federal fleet with logistical support and allowing its ships to repair at Tallax’s orbital docks whilst the six new super-accurate Nova Cannon stations in orbit kept the Imperial Fleet from interfering. With munitions restocked and ships repaired Haskel then moved on Sartosa, a primitive world with a huge food excess that the Imperium had been exploiting for generations. The inhabitants of the planet believed that the sun god required sacrifices of food and they left out large quantities which were then seen to magically “disappear”, usually teleported into the holds of Imperial transport ships in orbit. 

After a brief space battle the defenders of Sartosa (consisting of 3 system ships) were destroyed and the planet liberated. Haskel immediately set about educating the population about how they had been used and offered a different arrangement – Tallaxian technology and medical supplies in exchange for the food. Grateful, Sartosa became the first world to join the new Federacy. The next was Hartak. 

As the premier manufacturer of Rhinos and Land Raider class vehicles in the sector, Hartak is a fortress world dedicated to the output of vehicles, weaponry and munitions for the Imperial war machine. Impregnable to outside assault it was never the less unprepared for what happened. The workers, Squats forcefully removed from their home worlds before the onset of the Tyranid threat, rose up and rebelled. In less than a day the few loyal Imperial soldiers on the planet were crushed and the new Brotherhood of Hartak declared its allegiance to the Federacy. But Haskel’s gain was not to be so easy. 

The Dark Angels had heard of the newly fermenting rebellion in the Aleph Sub-sector and moved to crush it. Invading Hartak they quickly crushed all but one of the Squat armies which retreated into the snowy wasteland of Hartak’s glacier ridden mountains. Confident that the world was secure the Dark Angels withdrew most of their forces and handed the mopping up operation to the Imperial Guard. Within a month the world was back in Federal hands and the Imperial commander executed for his incompetence by the Dark Angels. 

To prevent a re-invasion Haskel stationed his fleet in orbit. On seeing this victory Tallax finally officially joined the Federacy. With the two most powerful worlds in the sub-sector, outside the capital, in Federal hands Haskel moved his plan onto the next stage – the conquest of Aleph IV itself. The invasion was complicated by the simultaneous attack of Eldar and Chaos armies bent on gaining control of re-activated ancient warp technology hidden beneath the planetary crust. Unable to bring their full resources to bear the Imperial forces were powerless to prevent the Federacy gaining almost a third of the planetary surface along with the capital city itself. With the fall of the sub-sector capital many worlds began to see the Federacy as a valid power in the region and started to waver in their loyalties to the Imperium. In desperation the Imperial Government of the sub-sector struck a deal: to admit the Federacy into the Imperium and allow it to spread its doctrine of free speech, democracy and technological progress as an independent and sanctioned organisation.

Today 

The Federacy welcomed this opportunity to seek its aim by peaceful means and quickly set up a number of organisations dedicated to the advancement of science and the combating of repression within the Imperium. However it did not last long. Eventually the Federacy was seen as a threat, and the Federacy joined in an alliance with the Tau Empire. For a time the eldar also joined, as the threat from chaos and necrons gave them common cause, but the actions of the dark eldar enraged the Tau so much, that in 015M42 the eldar were forced to withdraw from the Alliance.

The Federacy received assistance from the 31st millenium as well, as the pursuers of Haskel, Commander Apollo of the Iron Warriors and a small portion of thethe Ultramarines Legion, appeared in the Aleph subsector in 014M42, having been trapped in the same warp eddy as Haskel himself. Similarly thrown 10,000 years into the future, Apollo and the Ultramarines aided the alliance and joined the Federacy. However the Iron Warriors legion, appalled at what had happened to their brethren, abandoned the Federacy in search of vengeance against their Legion and all Horus's followers in 016M42.

Today the Federacy is embattled on many fronts, but with its alliance with the Tau and expansion into Libria, there is still hope for the original imperial truth, even though Haskel himself has now retired from active service.

Federal Organisations

Federal Security Council (Based on Hartak)
Interplanetary Trade and Economic Commission (Based on Tallax)
Department of Science and High Technology (Based on Hartak)
Interplanetary Court of Human Rights (Based on Tallax, to move to Aleph if it joins)
Development Council (Based on Sartosa)
Commission for Health and Humanitarian Aid (Based on Sartosa, to move to Orvicare on successful cleansing and should it join)
Social Development Commission (Based on Tallax)

Federal Forces 

The core of the Federacy consists of only a handful of technologically advanced worlds. This denies the Federacy military access to the sheer disposable manpower and resources of equivalent Imperial forces, and even if this were not the case Federacy ethics and the democratic accountability of its regional governments make “attrition” tactics nonviable. Fortunately the Federacy possesses the two greatest industrial powers in the sub-sector as its core worlds and can therefore afford to equip its troops to a level far beyond that of most Imperial Guard forces. The pursuit of science allows the Federacy to fall back on superior technology and as a substitute for manpower. The officer corps of the Federacy are selected on basis of merit rather than aristocratic connections as is the case with the mainly feudal system of the rest of the Imperium. As a result Federacy military commanders are markedly more competent than their Imperial counterparts. 

The Federacy in general favours lightning fast, aggressive and mobile warfare using combined arms rather than the more sluggish and hammer like Imperial Guard approach. The Tallaxians are the epitome of this doctrine with their Legions consisting almost entirely of mobile tanks capable of firing at speed, supported by artillery, air assets and mounted storm infantry equipped for close quarter fighting. Whilst the Brotherhood Cadre forces are predominantly infantry and field artillery they are all equipped with APCs, unusual in Squat forces. Except for the assault troops most of the force will disembark and secure the transports to the rear before engaging the enemy as infantry.

The Federal Fleet 

The core of the Federal Fleet are surviving pre-heresy ships. Tallax maintains its own fleet of more recent Imperial class vessels and all their cruiser class ships employ Tallaxian Nova Cannon technology.