Kroll Alliance

## Overview

The Kroll Alliance was the name given to the loose alliance (mainly for mutual defense) between the main sectors (numbering 17 from approximately 3000 AD in the human timeline until 4210 AD) of Kroll space. The citizens of this alliance were the Kroll, an insectoid alien race with multiple sub-races. The chief sub-races of the Kroll were the workers, ant-like beings, the messengers, who have the appearance of large cicadas or dragonflies, the warriors, who have the appearance of heavily armored, slim-bodied beetles able to stand on two legs, and the rulers, who had the appearance of large house centipedes, up to five meters long excluding their antennas. The Kroll government and society were caste-based, with the ruling species holding near-absolute power over the other castes. The governments of each sector were traditionally accountable to the government of the sector which had constructed the most capital ships; at the time of the First Kroll War this was the Prazdan sector, which had been in power since 3589, when the Thack sector lost the title due to their decommissioning of many of the ships in their fleet. However, after the events of the Kroll Civil War, each Kroll sector maintained an independent government, with a loose alliance between the sectors for defense, trade, exploration, and research. The Kroll were slightly more advanced than humanity in weapons technology and armor and shield technology. The Kroll took a unique approach to subcapital ship construction, with an automated mini-shipyard producing one fighter, which it then keeps repaired and serviced throughout its whole service life. The disadvantage to this is that each fighter has to return to its assigned mini-shipyard, and these installations are not mobile, meaning that it is difficult for the Kroll to deploy many subcapital forces rapidly to other systems. These shipyards are constructed in swarms, and the fighters are often piloted by members of the Kroll messenger race in large formations of up to a thousand ships behind a "vanguard ship". Kroll capital ships are massive, generally with a oval-shaped forward plane, oriented vertically rather than horizontally, and several kilometers tall and wide, with the width at its widest point being no more than half, and usually approximately a quarter, of the height of the ship. One of the most notable Kroll designs, in use at the time of the Second Kroll War, was the Dredzek-class super dreadnought. The Dredzek was equipped with an incredibly powerful two-meter thick charged nanite shield that made up the whole forward plane of the ship, allowing it to plow through enemy ships, destroying them and absorbing their hulls and metallic components into the nanite matrix, which would digest them and restructure them into more nanites. Underneath the charged nanite shield was a thirty-centimeter layer of solid metal. The charged nanite shield provided an effect similar to a combination of armor and shields. Most other Kroll capital ship designs were slight modifications of this design, and all Kroll capital ships built from roughly 5000 BC in the human timeline were roughly diamond or oval-shaped, oriented vertically, and had charged nanite shields protecting the forward plane.

## Sectors

At the time of most of the Kroll Alliance's initial contacts with humanity, and for the first few centuries afterwards, the Kroll Alliance had 17 sectors. This number had fluctuated extensively in Kroll history, changing from as few as six sectors to as many as 63 sectors in various points in Kroll history. The Kroll first achieved spaceflight at approximately 23000 BC in the human timeline. At the time of the contact with humanity, the 17 Kroll sectors were the following, ordered roughly in terms of military power:

1. Prazdan
2. Rismek
3. Dorogur
4. Ingatwa
5. Skree
6. Yrd
7. Vodspar
8. Khreen
9. Koldhan
10. Fongrad
11. Dezshun
12. Sakshan
13. Zongar
14. Tireer
15. Thack
16. Kareen
17. Bavkhun

## First contact with humanity and the First Kroll War

On 20 February 3870, an AIS scoutship entered the Yrd Pasar star system and discovered the Kroll colony there, as well as the massive complex of mini-shipyards in the system. The scoutship was destroyed by Kroll fighters after several failed attempts to communicate. On 15 March, a larger AIS naval scouting force entered the system, trying to find out what happened to the scoutship; they managed to inflict severe losses on the Kroll forces before retreating. This ignited a war (the First Kroll War) between humanity and the Kroll; while Kroll capital ships were able to enter human systems and wreak havoc on smaller human ships, Bandorian and Asgardian dreadnoughts could destroy most of the Kroll capital ships by working together, as the Kroll almost always only deployed one capital ship (albeit an enormous one) in each attack. The Kroll also could not move many fighters or support ships outside their own systems; this had the effect that most of the Kroll attacks on human systems resulted in major losses for the Kroll forces. Eventually the Kroll fleets were driven back to Yrd Pasar, and after the human allied fleet managed to drive the Kroll out of the system in a massive battle on 20 February 3878, they requested to negotiate a peace treaty. During the war itself, many Bandorian generals and admirals refused to participate in offensive operations; the Protectorate led the field in trying to open diplomatic communications with the Kroll and translate their language, as well as only using force to defend human-controlled systems. The Bandorians most notably refused to send additional ships to assist in the Second Battle of Yrd Pasar, although the rest of the human allied fleets still overcame the Kroll forces there. The Renegades voiced their strong opposition to the war and refused to send sensor data from their ships to the AIS and Asgardian forces, as they claimed these factions were unreasonably hostile towards the Kroll.

## Negotiations with the Duskhan League

On 25 June 3878, the Duskhan League, a Bandorian auxiliary organization with the main purpose of improving diplomatic relations between humanity and the Kroll, was formed, although at this time it was called the League of Advanced Diplomacy. The Protectorate gave the League a capital system, Duskhan, which the League was then named after. The Duskhan League entered into intense negotiations with the Kroll Alliance over the next few decades, eventually resulting in a technology exchange program being set up in 3904, with Kroll weapons and technology becoming available in human markets through this exchange. The Kroll, while they had more advanced weapons, armor, and shields than human technology at the time, were in need of better propulsion, data storage, and medical technologies. This mutual exchange took place between three major Kroll companies: Decius Systems, which was the main Kroll front for business with human organizations; Skree Sector Engineering, and Ingatwa Sector Engineering, which were the major shipbuilding and equipment manufacturers of two Kroll sectors, and multiple human companies, including UAP Shipyards, Bandoria Stardrive, and Brock Industries. The Kroll greatly enjoyed modified interceptor designs, such as the IK-400, the Salamander, and the Aera Mk1. Human antimatter-based weaponry was also very popular with the Kroll, who had not developed weapons using antimatter; in return, the Kroll offered thermolasers and advanced plasma weapons capable of firing at long ranges.

## Encounters with the Toraki and Kroll Civil War

Sometime after the end of the First Kroll War, the Kroll, continuing to expand and colonize other star systems, stumbled upon a military base of another alien species called the Toraki; this encounter had much the same kind of result as the initial encounter between the AISN scoutship and the Kroll system defense forces in Yrd Pasar. The Toraki were a fearsome opponent, using antimatter-based weaponry and advanced cloaking systems. The Kroll immediately withdrew their forces after this incident, even abandoning several colonies in that general region of space rather than risk further conflict. Once news of the encounter spread throughout the Alliance, however, the Kroll were divided on how to act on this. Some of the sectors' populations overwhelmingly preferred to go to war against the Toraki, while most of the other sectors were against this idea. This resulted in the Kroll Civil War, which lasted from 4127 to 4136. The Kroll Civil War resulted in over 6 million casualties and nearly 40,000 starships destroyed. In the end the Kroll were united in seeking a non-violent solution, and approached the Toraki for peace talks, which were successful and resulted in a non-aggression agreement. In the early 4200s, the Toraki discovered humanity; their ships managed to remain undetected. The Toraki approached the Kroll after their discovery, asking them to assist in conquering the humans. Several Kroll citizens revealed this information to the Duskhan League in 4206, and the League sent representatives to both the Alliance and the Toraki in an attempt to stave off the impending war. The attempt at negotiation with the Toraki failed, and the Duskhan representatives were killed by the Toraki. However, the negotiations with the Kroll proved successful; 14 of the 17 Kroll sectors decided to make an alliance with the Protectorate in July 4206.

## Second Kroll War

The three Kroll sectors which made an alliance with the Toraki, the Prazdan, Rismek, and Dorogur, were the strongest and most powerful; the only human-allied Kroll sectors which came close to them in power (especially in terms of military forces) were the Skree and Ingatwa, and even those two together could not match even the weakest of the three Toraki-allied Kroll sectors for numbers of military forces. In addition, many leaders of the Kroll sectors which allied with the Protectorate still had reservations about making an alliance with humanity in general, most notably the Yrd, who had taken heavy civilian losses from Asgardian and AIS attacks directed at Kroll civilian populations during the First Kroll War. On 17 July 4206, even as the Toraki and Kroll alliance entered human space in the Kepler Sector and began attacks on many colonies there, the leaders of the Yrd sector announced the results of several large investigations that they had undertaken into the mass deaths of civilians in the First Kroll War, alleging that the Asgardian and AIS forces had used biogenic weapons against Kroll civilian populations. Following this announcement, the governments of the Yrd, Khreen, Thack, and Bavkhun sectors withdrew from the alliance, stating they would now follow a policy of neutrality, although they would assist any human-allied Kroll forces which came under attack in Kroll space controlled by them. The remaining ten Kroll sectors still allied with the Protectorate, headed by the governments of the Skree and Ingatwa sectors, continued the alliance on the condition that they not be requested to fight the forces of the four neutral Kroll sectors. The Protectorate agreed to this condition, but the AIS and Asgardian representatives broke off negotiations with the Kroll and ceased all tactical communication with them in fleet actions. The first major battle of the war took place in Mystic on 24 July 4206; despite the Toraki and separatist Kroll forces' strange weaponry, the Bandorian and allied Kroll fleets were able to force them to retreat.