Alliance

Humanity, having long ago realised that to ensure its survival it must spread to the stars, has become united under a meritocratic world alliance in order to secure our future. Whilst this has not been easy and not  all have chosen to share it, a grand alliance of the majority of the earth’s nations has enabled humans to spread away from the solar system and found colonies in the surrounding sectors of space. Colonies, bases, mining operations and trade routes have sprung up in a hundred systems as mankind establishes a foothold in our area of the milky way, founded by colony vessels and kept safe by the might of the military. But as we have found on numerous occasions however, it turns out that we are not the only species in this area of our galaxy. Nor are we the only ones to have come up with this idea.
For the most part this expansion has been peaceful with the Alliance making first contact with a number of smaller empires and independent worlds which we have subsequently signed peace treaties with along with founding trade agreements. However, as we expanded into new areas, we encountered more hostile civilisations. First contact with the Marak and then the Gorshkonian’s resulted in the first major interstellar war for control of the surrounding star systems, with both empires seeing us as outsiders. Whilst we at first made every effort to open and foster peaceful relations with these species their continued hostilities gave us no choice but to fight back to not only defend that which we had created but also to prevent the potential subjugation (or in the case of the Gorshkonians, extermination) of humanity itself. Relations with other species are more cordial if strained at times. Meanwhile the growing threat of terrorist organisations operating within our boarders has diverted much needed personnel and resources from the ongoing war. On top of this many mysteries have been uncovered as we spread our influence further afield and establish ourselves on planets deep in neutral territory, many of which may yet prove to be a threat or a benefit to us in the future.
One of these mysteries the Alliance has encountered involves the discovery of a large numbers of systems with evidence of an advanced race inhabiting them millennia ago, which have now vanished, leaving nothing but the occasional ruin and buried tech cache which Alliance engineers are busily attempting to reverse engineer. From little information the Alliance was able to translate from fragments of text this race called themselves the Berek and occupied most of this area of the milky way. How and why disappeared however remains a mystery.

Combat Doctrine: The preferred tactics of the Alliance navy  is for balanced task groups  working together to cover large areas.

Dren

The Dren are almost completely unknown to the other factions, occupying an area to the galactic East of known space. They have made no attempt to open relations with any other race and all hails between any factions vessels and theirs, as well as long range comms broadcast across their boarders, go unanswered. Also, whenever Dren task groups have been encountered in neutral territory, they show nothing but disinterest towards other factions vessels unless directly challenged or if outside forces are moving into a system, they have claimed for themselves. They do however seem to be expanding their boarders slowly into the neighbouring systems though well away from any territorial disputes affected by the war. This has resulted in Dren task groups heading deep into the surrounding space, in actions that are thought to be securing territory and resources.

Combat Doctrine: Dren military doctrine is for task groups comprised of large numbers of warships, primarily escorts and cruisers, to utilise weight of numbers against their enemies.

Wraiths

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The alien vessels which have been codenamed as wraiths by the Alliance military are a complete mystery. Appearing not to belong to any known race and with no information having been discovered regarding their origins, the vessels themselves are larger than any vessel yet encountered and possess systems and weapons that are extremely advanced and powerful. Whilst they appear to have no interest in other races at all (with the exception of the Gorshkon, who they appear to have a very belligerent relationship with), with all hails going unanswered, it has been noted on numerous occasions that if a vessel approaches too closely the Wraith will suddenly transform from a slow moving, harmless target into an extremely aggressive enemy with no provocation. The reason for this is still unclear.

The Wraiths slowly travel through space, pausing only to entre orbits of apparently random planets to carry out scans before moving away again or scan passing vessels or installations. The reason is yet unknown however Alliance intelligence has noted that they have only been encountered singularly, never in task groups and large numbers have been detected moving along the edge of the milky way, almost as if they are patrolling the edge of the galaxy to guard against something, from what however is unknown. It is also theorised, given that they appear to operate mainly (but not exclusively) in areas of neutral space containing large numbers of Berekian ruins, that they may be linked to the disappearance of the Berek in some way. Others have postulated that they might in fact be the remanets of this once great civilisation, left behind to guard their former colonies from outsiders. The truth remains hidden for now.

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Standing orders for Alliance units is to stay well clear of them.

Marak Republic

The Marak are an old, long-established republic which has been slowly expanding from their arid home world of Tursk for hundreds of years. Whilst they do have a democratic core to their culture the military have a large say in how things are run, with military service almost seen as a rite of passage for many young Marakians. They have unfortunately proven to be extremely xenophobic in regard to almost all other races they encounter. This appears to be as a result of a strong sense of pride which has bred a sense of superiority towards over species which was evident when Humanity first made contact with them, resulting in relations which were cordial however this quickly changed into outright hostility. This belief led directly towards the war between them and the Alliance, whom they believe to be little more than upstarts who are attempting to occupy territory they have long held to be theirs as well as the ongoing war between them and the Gorshkon, who they have had a long period of hostile tensions with. The Marak have no direct contact with the Dren , given their respective locations in the galactic community, however more than one Marakian navy task group has been observed making its way through neutral space towards the boarder with the mysterious race. The theorised reasons for this range from an attempt at first contact with them to probing manoeuvres for a larger operation in the future though the actual reason remains unclear.

The Marak quickly discovered evidence of the Berek as they initially started their colonisation effort, along with making multiple attempts to capitalise on any tech that has been discovered. They have made little headway in this regards (like most of the other races who have made similar attempts) but remain convinced that a breakthrough would give them an advantage in the war. They have however made little attempt to discover the reason for the collapse of the Berek civilianisation, seeing this as nothing more than natural evolution. Regardless, the large number of systems that the Berek inhabited in what is now known as neutral space are considered prized possessions, ones which the Marak covet greatly.

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Combat Doctrine: Marakian tactics is for large battlegroups comprised of their hybrid carrier-dreadnaughts, supported by large numbers of escorts.

Gorshkon

The Gorshkon have a well-established empire to the galactic North of Alliance territory, run by a theocracy supported by a large military.

The Gorshkon are an old empire, having settled in the space they now control centuries ago. They are extremely xenophobic to the point where they consider any aliens species, they encounter to be a threat, usually resulting in aggression being shown towards the other race. They are also very proactive in regard to expanding their boarders and settling colonies. They seem to hold the recovery of Berekian ruins and tech as a high priority and seem to be going out of their way to recover and claim this resource. What the other factions do not know however is that they have managed to at least partially translate the Barek language. Whilst most of it remains unintelligible, there are numerous mentions of two phrases, which roughly translate as “Gorshkon” and “inheritance”. This has led the Gorshkon to believe that the remains of the Berek civilisation were originally meant to be passed to them. As a result, they have effectively claimed the entirety of the ruins of the Berek empire as an extension of their territory and see any other factions as trespassers, occupying territory and systems that do not belong to them.

It has been noted that their forces seem to be going out of their way to locate Wraith vessels, which have been observed to be far more hostile towards the Gorshkon then other races. This has led some to speculate that they may have prior experience with them or a deeper relationship. Where and how this relationship started remains unknown.

Combat Doctrine: Gorshkonian military doctrine is for task groups built around a solid core of dreadnaughts and cruisers supported by fast moving escorts.