The Edge of Midnight: Masterthread

[Trekfan27]

Edge of Midnight is an amazing piece of work I really enjoyed what ive read and cannot wait for the next updates.

My favourite parts of this are the world building lore and all the extra little stuff tranquilty press and its affiliates have done to really make the universe pop

I do want to ask because my favourite part of this project is the extra tidbits like the federation armed forces and etc




Are we going to see any articles on say ground warfare in the 23rd century? I don't think armoured engagement would entirely be dead?

Are we going to get any unit histories? Like the way Chapter 17 showed the paras are we going to get a history of the tellar peoples volunteers or the Unis Force of Sauria or the Arctutus regiments and etc or even what exactly UESPA/UESN was doing during the klingon wars and etc or Vulcan Defence Forces? The Federation Naval patrol? I really cannot wait for the next updates!

Keep up the great work!

 

[KennyMadison]

Good lord.

I am absolutely floored by this piece of work. The intracacy involved. The amount of lore and the passion for not just Trek, but politics in general. It is so good, it makes me want to be interested in history in general.

How? How does this happen? It's addictive reading.

 

[CanSoc]

Edge of Midnight is an amazing piece of work I really enjoyed what ive read and cannot wait for the next updates.

My favourite parts of this are the world building lore and all the extra little stuff tranquilty press and its affiliates have done to really make the universe pop

I do want to ask because my favourite part of this project is the extra tidbits like the federation armed forces and etc




Are we going to see any articles on say ground warfare in the 23rd century? I don't think armoured engagement would entirely be dead?

Are we going to get any unit histories? Like the way Chapter 17 showed the paras are we going to get a history of the tellar peoples volunteers or the Unis Force of Sauria or the Arctutus regiments and etc or even what exactly UESPA/UESN was doing during the klingon wars and etc or Vulcan Defence Forces? The Federation Naval patrol? I really cannot wait for the next updates!

Keep up the great work!

Thank you very much! I'm glad you like our stuff, and enjoying the full Tranquility Press back catalogue!

The Federation Ground Forces stuff is a bit of a hobby horse I try not to push too hard on (so i actually finish the main narratives), but now you're tempting me with unit histories, and shoulder flashes...I might get back to you!

 

[CanSoc]

Good lord.

I am absolutely floored by this piece of work. The intracacy involved. The amount of lore and the passion for not just Trek, but politics in general. It is so good, it makes me want to be interested in history in general.

How? How does this happen? It's addictive reading.

"Good Lord". Yeah, that's a fair reaction. I'm happy you're enjoying it though!

How does this happen? Three things:
1) I am by trade an Imperial Historian (even if it doesn't pay the bills) which means a lot of the structures and networks are part of parcel of how my brain works. Applying it to Trek was inevitable.
2) I read a *lot* of history too, almost as much as I watch Trek.
3) I don't get out very often.

 

[Turtletrekker]

"Good Lord". Yeah, that's a fair reaction. I'm happy you're enjoying it though!

How does this happen? Three things:
1) I am by trade an Imperial Historian (even if it doesn't pay the bills) which means a lot of the structures and networks are part of parcel of how my brain works. Applying it to Trek was inevitable.
2) I read a *lot* of history too, almost as much as I watch Trek.
3) I don't get out very often.

This truly is a remarkable piece of work. I'm going to have to print a lot of this out in order to really sit down and do an in-depth reading. I tend to gloss over too much when reading off a screen.

This really hits the spot for me because I love connecting the canonical dots in this fashion myself, but nowhere near to the extent and detail that you have here. As a fan of the Curzon Dax character, I'm looking forward to seeing how you incorporate the Korvat colony negotiations, which Memory Alpha places in 2289, in between Star Trek's 5 and 6. I have my own head canon, but I am looking forward to your take.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

The Federation Ground Forces stuff is a bit of a hobby horse I try not to push too hard on (so i actually finish the main narratives), but now you're tempting me with unit histories, and shoulder flashes...I might get back to you!

I haven't really got into Edge of Midnight but sign me up for a discussion on that, I've had a few different ideas on that in the past.

 

[CanSoc]

This truly is a remarkable piece of work. I'm going to have to print a lot of this out in order to really sit down and do an in-depth reading. I tend to gloss over too much when reading off a screen.

This really hits the spot for me because I love connecting the canonical dots in this fashion myself, but nowhere near to the extent and detail that you have here. As a fan of the Curzon Dax character, I'm looking forward to see how you incorporate the Korvat colony negotiations, which Memory Alpha places in 2289, in between Star Trek's 5 and 6. I have my own head canon, but I am looking forward to your take.

I'm looking forward to handling Curzon when I get there (with a bit of the historians "was this great man important or does he just have good PR" flair." It could be a while...I haven't even gotten to Organia yet!

If you're struggling with the website or the PDF, there's always the audiobook! https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-edge-of-midnight/id1687098490

 

[CanSoc]

I haven't really got into Edge of Midnight but sign me up for a discussion on that, I've had a few different ideas on that in the past.

Brilliant! It's definitely an interesting one, and there's a couple of pieces on the website that explain my thinking:

https://edgeofmidnight.weebly.com/articles-and-sources/an-introduction-to-the-armed-forces-of-the-ufp-part-1

The Federation Ground Forces
With the formation of the Federation in 2161, each member was obliged under Article 44 to “as requested, provide armed forces for the Defence of the United Federation of Planets under the jurisdiction of the Federation Council”. These obligations were, however, generally not followed with much intent; most members expressed their commitment to collective security by amalgamating their space-borne fleets into the Federation Star Fleet in accordance with Article 45; unfortunately for the newly established Military Staff Committee, constitutional legal advice concluded that (as each member world retained the right to withdraw their personnel from the Star Fleet at any time), their stellar commitments fulfilled the collective security obligation of article 44; there was no obligation to ever put their defence forces under Federal command; only the principle that each member would come to each other’s aid in a time of crisis.

This principle struggled in practice. The member worlds were unwilling to submit their own armed forces to the command of other governments, let alone send them to defend other assets without the reasoning being explained. Existing principles around the chain of command and consent from civilian leaders could not keep up with the rate of expansion or the impossibility of instantaneous communication across the ever-expanding UFP. Further issues around members using their armed forces to get their way on the frontier also caused concern; clashes between the Andorian Guard and Tellarite People’s Force in the Beta Antares region made the possibility of armed forces being used in intergovernmental disputes alarmingly possible.

Practical necessity would achieve what decades of principle discussion had worked towards. The Orion Police Action (2191-92) would see the first major commitment of the Federation Armed Forces in an offensive role; while the question of the chain of command would create massive political headaches on Earth, out on the frontier the senior leaders of the units involved were much more practical, ceding command to the senior leaders and organising themselves in a “Combined Task Force” under General Qox’pec Sh’Grasny.

The success of the CTF in the first police action would lead to major reforms for the rest of the decade. the Military Staff Committee would be reorganised into a function; general staff, acting as an umbrella organisation over all “Federalised” armed forces. They also began to organise command and logistical formations that member-world formations could be slotted into at will. After 2210, Each Federation Member-world would also agree to contribute one formation to the collective defence of the Union; the size of the “obligated force” would be based on the assessment of the Military Staff Committee as to the capabilities and ability of each member to maintain units in the field. The “new army” - officially named the Combined Federation Ground Forces (or FGF) in 2215 - would evolve across the 23rd century, but would remain largely split between Federal and Unitary Formations.

There's a lot more thinking in my head and in my notes, but my general rule with Edge of Midnight is to "keep everything in the set dressing" - i.e. I only need the reader to understand it as far as my discussion is relevant. It sounds like a cop-out, but it is also the reason why a book about Pearl Harbour doesn't take a digression to explain the Dreadnought race, so I don't feel took bad about it.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I've never entirely convinced of the merits of a Starfleet Marines as a top-level organisation that's probably only subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief and the UFP President (which is particularly challenging if they are de facto the same person), though I'm a bit more onboard with the Federation Ground Forces (which I see as more Big Army, but with strong National Guard flavour?) being this.

My concept of the "Marines"/Commandos is probably modelled more on the UK's Royal Marine Commandos & UK Special Forces or something of a SEALs/MARSOC hybrid and was designed to be able to 'officially' be declared a "hazardous environments assistance, rescue and training cadre" in order to survive the Khitomer/Algeron reforms that "demilitarized" Starfleet sitting within the Starfleet Attorney General/Inspector General's Office* (which manages Starfleet Security, Starfleet (Domestic) Intelligence, OSHC and Starfleet Rehab).

* Not the Justice Department, as would be too easily confused with the Starfleet Justices, who presumably sit within the Judge Advocate General's Office.

 

[CanSoc]

I've never entirely convinced of the merits of a Starfleet Marines as a top-level organisation that's probably only subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief and the UFP President (which is particularly challenging if they are de facto the same person), though I'm a bit more onboard with the Federation Ground Forces (which I see as more Big Army, but with strong National Guard flavour?) being this.

My concept of the "Marines"/Commandos is probably modelled more on the UK's Royal Marine Commandos & UK Special Forces or something of a SEALs/MARSOC hybrid and was designed to be able to 'officially' be declared a "hazardous environments assistance, rescue and training cadre" in order to survive the Khitomer/Algeron reforms that "demilitarized" Starfleet sitting within the Starfleet Attorney General/Inspector General's Office* (which manages Starfleet Security, Starfleet (Domestic) Intelligence, OSHC and Starfleet Rehab).

* Not the Justice Department, as would be too easily confused with the Starfleet Justices, who presumably sit within the Judge Advocate General's Office.

I can agree with that - I think the Marines absolutely report to the Starfleet Chief of Staff over the C-in-C, and they're a significantly smaller for than some imagine: Royal Marine Commandos are a much better model for them.

The FGF are sort of National Guard (at least with the "Federally" untis) but the Planetary units are closer to UN Peacekeeping Multinational Task Forces. In many senses, the FGF is how people imagined a "World Guard" and other proto-UN peacekeeping organisations in the late 1940s and 1950s, a contrivance that has stuck because, for now, it works: and, as you say, probably does not the survive the Khitomer/Algeron draw-down.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Last time I brainstormed this topic with evilchumlee and fireproof78 I suggested that what you call the Federation Ground Forces (we mostly alternated between Starfleet Marines and Starfleet Expeditionary Forces) was originally split up into the Federation Active Force which operated permanently (and was very much the "army" to Starfleet's "navy") and the Federation Reserve Force which was available to assist Starfleet with extra personnel, but with the possible exception of the Earth-based units of the FRF were typically focused on their sponser/member world's interests in peacetime.

The FAF part of the FGF (which contained most of the formation-level expeditionary forces) was mostly demobilized during the Khitomer/Algernon reforms, with a "small" Training Cadre being embedded within Starfleet's security community with the intention of being able to co-opt serving Starfleet and Reservists to scale up to about company-level in an emergency (based on the team from The Siege at AR-558 but with more realistic ranks*) and roughly battalion-level at short notice (particularly if an Ambassador, Nebula, Galaxy or similarly large vessel is available to transport them.

* "Captain Loomis" would have been a Major and "Commander Parker" would have been a 1st LT, and Larkin could have been anything from a 1st LT down to a CPO/Master Sergeant.

 

[Trekfan27]

.I might get back to you!

Please do I love the detail that went into this project and The wolf 359 one

Please do write about the federation naval patrol if possible and whatever constitutes the federation air force?

I personally am of the opinion the federation member worlds kept their individual armed forces and stellar fleets but they way you guys built the world is fascinating and probably more realistic

Are we going to get any more articles and etc and if this isnt too how often will you guys be releasing?