The Orions began exploring and colonizing the Orion Arm in Y13. Their First encounter with another power came in Y25 when a patrolling Frigate encountered a Klingon Exploration ship. The Orions quickly began trading with them and were quite happy with this arrangement until the Klingons attacked in Y30. The Klingons received a nasty surprise when the Orions counterattacked with unexpected ferocity.
The history of the Klingons and Orions is actually much older than this. The Orions, like the Klingons, were once a subject race of the Old Kings. The Klingon claimed the whole of the Old King's former empire by right of succession. When the Klingons announced this to the Orions, the Orions thought that this was hilarious and were sure that the Klingons were joking. The outbreak of war proved that the Klingons were dead serious.
The Klingons, on the other hand, had made the mistake of considering the Orions a race of fat merchants and were not prepared for their strong martial tendencies. During the war, a Federation Exploration ship wandered into the Orion rear areas and only escaped destruction due to the captain's excellent negotiation skills. Trade began with the Federation almost immediately which gave the Orions the edge that they needed to drive back the Klingons.
Trade between the Federation and the Orion Sphere culminated into a non-aggression treaty in Y35 and a free trade agreement an Y42. During the Federation-Romulan war the Orions stayed neutral but sold the Federation large amounts of war materials and gave some logistical support. Finally in Y51 the Orion Sphere and the Federation of Worlds united and became the United Federation of Planets. This union nearly doubled the Federation in size and increased the economic base by about 35%. The fleets of the members were almost doubled in overall numbers.
In Y69 Terran representatives propose to disband all national fleets in favor of a unified fleet of a single design. Although this proposal had a solid tactical basis it was seen as an attempt at Terran domination of the Federation by many of its members. A compromise is reached in Y71 that allows those member planets that wish to maintain a navy to do so, and those that do not will support the construction of the United Fleet. The Terran saucer design is chosen as the design of the United Star Fleet, due to its longer range and cheeper maintenance.
When the Kzintis attacked the Federation in Y88 several early defeats are blamed on the logistical problems of supporting the many different ship designs. Although these problems were corrected during the war, many member fleets were retired after the armistice leaving only three major fleets other than the United Fleet (Orion, Rigelian, Cygnan). It was feared that if the (Human dominated) United Star Fleet was the only fleet that this would lead to a Terran dominated Federation.
The Federation-Klingon war in Y110 sealed the fate of the independent fleets. (The war was at least partially by Orion merchants that were selling weapons to Klingon subject races in order to start rebellions.) The Federation Council under the recommendation of Star Fleet Command voted in a resolution that gave the United Fleet sole discretion for shipbuilding and deployment of all warships during wartime.
Star Fleet Command quickly suspended production of all independent designs and took all of their ships off front line duty. The Klingon invasion was stopped by the ships of the United Star Fleet and the Klingons were driven across the border. The admiral in charge of the campaign publicly stated that the national fleets were a menace to the security of the Federation and that they should all be scrapped as soon as the war was over. This was popular with Star Fleet Command and it was soon made policy.
This policy was extremely unpopular with the member worlds of the Federation. Rumors soon spread that this was the first steps in a military takeover. The planned victory celebration soon turned into widespread strikes, riots, and violence against Star Fleet personnel and property.
Although such a plot was never actually uncovered, the plan was scrapped and a new plan was adopted. The plan still called for the decommissioning, but the ships would not be scrapped if the member state would pay for their maintenance. All three of the major independent fleets decided to maintain all of their ships.
Probably the most devastating strike during the period of turmoil was the Orion Merchant Association boycott. The Orion Merchant Association is the largest trade alliance in the Federation and over 40% of the members are not Orions. When they began their boycott against the member states that had supported the resolution, the effect was an instant depression of their economies and a Federation wide recession. Although the strike lasted only 6 months, its effects were felt for many years afterward.
In Y112 the Orions put forth a resolution called the Enclave Defense Plan to the Federation Council to deter any invasion. It allowed the Orions to upgrade their decommissioned ships as well as maintain them. It also set up a perimeter deep in federation territory known as the Orion Defense Zone. If an attacking fleet were to cross this zone the rest of the plan would be activated.
Pending a vote of the council, the Orion Government would declare an independent state called the Orion Enclave. They would then activate their fleet to defend this territory. This area would serve as a refuge, an undevistated region, and a rallying point should the capitol fall. The plan passed with a overwhelming majority with the notable opposition of the Terran delegation.
In Y113, two weeks after the decommissioning of the last operational Orion squadron, 16 ships were stolen from their anchorage and over 9000 veteran fleet personnel disappeared. These ships formed the nucleus of the 'Orion Pirate Fleet'. It is noteworthy to mention that although the majority of these crewmen were Orion, over 3500 were from other member worlds. The Pirate Fleet was given covert support by many Federation members who were upset with what they saw as Star Fleet's heavy handed policies.
The idea that the Pirate Fleet was under the control of the Orion Government is incorrect. Although the Pirates had many sympathizers in the government, the Orion Government was very unlikely to have set up an organization that disrupts trade, which is the lifeblood of the Orion economy. The Klingons have always maintained that the Pirates are a covert arm of the Federation government and have used this as justification for their raids and harassment of the Federation border.
The Orion Government declared the Orion Enclave an independent and neutral state. The Coalition quickly recognized the new state and the Federation (with a lot of public protest and rhetoric) did so soon after.
Work was immediately started on the Orion shipyard; getting it prepared for activating the Reserve Fleet and beginning the construction of new ships.
The next and most controversial step was to offer amnesty (and a hefty paycheck) to any pirate cruiser that would swear allegiance to the Enclave. Although this offer was more successful than its originators ever anticipated, it would set the stage for the Orion Civil War.
In Y174 certain representatives from the Orion Merchant Association wanted to have the Enclave declared a free haven for pirate ships. This was rejected (by a wide margin) in favor of the Pirate amnesty Act.
The Davon Cartel sent a representative to the Enclave Council. He offered the loyalty of all the Davon Cartel warships and many of their allied independents. After a great deal of discussion and negotiation that included the Federation Ambassador, an alternate deal was struck. The Cartel would remain independent and would begin working to support the Grand Alliance. In return the Alliance would give them technical and logistical support. They would also act as a conduit to the Hydrans for information and intelligence.
The leaders of the Capitol Cartel took this as a personal insult and a representative was sent with a declaration of war on both the Enclave and the Davon Cartel. This conflict quickly escalated and became known as the Orion Civil War. At its height, the war included all the western cartels, and spilled over into the General War. The war was lost by the Pirates when Enclave intelligence located the Pirate shipyards. After that it was only a matter of time until Enclave, Davon or Alliance forces destroyed them.
The Enclave stayed neutral from the rest of the General War and, at its conclusion had begun negotiations for rejoining the Federation when the ISC attacked.
Originally, the ISC left the Enclave alone, as they had never fought anyone except pirates. This changed when the ISC decided that there needed to be a buffer zone between the Enclave and the Federation. The resulting joint defense gave the ISC its only other major defeat, besides the Tholian incursion, during the ISC war.
Three Enclave and three Federation fleets were able to drive the ISC back with heavy losses. The ISC then decided that high degree of cooperation and coordination shown by the Enclave and the Federation made such a buffer zone unnecessary.
The Andromedan invasion nearly destroyed the Enclave. When the LDR fell to the Andromedans, It was decided by someone (or something) that the Enclave was the next logical target due to its size and location. The Enclave suffered terrible losses and the home system was only saved because Federation units arrived to relieve it.
Over half the Enclave fleet was destroyed and the economy was devastated. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, the Enclave was one of the major staging grounds for Operation Unity. Upon completion of Operation Unity the Enclave began the process of rejoining the Federation. In Y203 the Enclave rejoined the Federation and never separated from it again as far as the records indicate.
(R?.1C) ENCLAVE SHIP SYSTEMS: Enclave ships NEVER have the following systems or abilities. Enclave ships never have option mounts, suicide bombs, cloaking devices (unless captured in a campaign), the stealth bonus, and cannot double their engines. Enclave warships did not have the drone control problems of the Pirate Cruisers (which was a side effect of the stealth design), and therefore never used OAKDISC. Defecting Pirate Cruisers in Enclave service had their original crews and follow standard Orion Pirate rules except they have their suicide bombs removed (-10 to their explosion strength). There is no special bonus for capturing any Enclave ship (including defecting Pirate cruisers). Pirate Cruisers that have been converted to Enclave configurations do not retain any Pirate special abilities. Enclave Cruisers and Pirate Cruisers of the same hull type can be told apart at Tactical Intelligence level H.
(R?.1D) CONVERSION TO PIRATE TECHNOLOGY: In order for a ship to have the stealth bonus it must be extensively modified. All Auxiliary Power Reactors must be removed due to their powerful, broadband emissions. All active systems must be surrounded by layers of absorbent materials. The bulk of these materials necessitates the removal of as much space as possible. This results in the removal of such systems as labs, redundant control facilities, and most crew facilities. A cargo bay is added. The engines are completely replaced with new hyper-warp engines. A suicide bomb could be added to any ship by any shipyard (but why?).
Although Pirate Cruisers are variants of Enclave ships, they use two entirely different technologies. The Enclave cannot produce Pirate variants of their ships and could not operate a captured Pirate Cruiser without a Pirate crew. Likewise a Pirate Cartel cannot produce Enclave versions of their cruisers although they could operate one. Both the Enclave and the Pirates could convert a captured ship of the same hull type to their own technology. Ships that do not have a corresponding ship in the other fleet (e.g. E.DD, O.BR, etc.) cannot be converted under the current rules.
(R?.1E) FEDERATION SHIPS: The Enclave was capable of producing any Federation ship class produced before Y174. In fact there is evidence that the Enclave may have built several war cruisers and destroyers between the General War and the ISC War to sell to the Federation. They also produced standard Federation bases, fighters, auxiliaries, monitors, and all other generalized units. The main reason that they never produced Federation ships for their own use seems to be that they felt that their own designs were simply better. The Enclave never produced the F-14 fighter. It is known that the Federation producedthe A-15 in limited numbers and may have had limited production of ASMs.
(R?.1F) WYN NEW CONSTRUCTION SHIPS: The WYN marine predator series (Barracuda, White, Orca, etc.) are not variantse of either Enclave or Pirate Cruisers and cannot be converted from one to the other under any circumstances. They can be told from Enclave Ships at Tactical Intelligence level D.
(R?.1G) NOTES ON PIRATE TERRITORIES: The Capitol Cartel had the Enclave as its home territory. The Dragon and Pharaoh Cartels had it in their operating zones.
This site is maintained by John H. Kim, <jhkim@fnal.gov>
Last modified: Tue Jan 6 16:14:48 CST 1998