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The AeroSpaceForce Annals

A series of hard SF novels by Japanese author Kōshū Tani.

This page covers the works and the world in which the events described in the AeroSpaceForce Annals take place. Note that most of these works have not yet been published in English, so titles and other information is translated from the Japanese, and may be different in any future English publication.

Originally issued by Hayakawa Publishing, Chuokōron-Shinsha have since released Japanese electronic versions as well as four updated compilations. In 2015, “Columbia Zero” won the 36th Nihon SF Taishō Award.

Since 2016 Hayakawa Publishing have started issuing new versions with updated and additional information in new covers as “The Complete AeroSpaceForce Annals”.

The AeroSpaceForce Annals series
A collection of hard-SF novels about Earth's AeroSpaceForce, from its birth, through two wars against the satellites of the planets Jupiter and Saturn (the Outer Planets Revolts), and an interstellar war with the Pan-Galactic Federation.

The appeal of the series lies in its extension of contemporary science and engineering to create a credible space war scenario, with, for example, factually based and carefully calculated astronomical motions, weaponry utilizing relative trajectories and velocities, and space travel which takes years: there is no warp-drive. It also includes the social background to the war, with meticulously devised future developments in resources, technology, energy and the practical efforts needed to maintain them.

Titles
The stories are sorted below according to their “historical” order. They can be divided roughly into two kinds: the longer novels are the main story, while the shorter tales describe episodes in different locations.

Unofficial sources and older archives

 * Combat Unit Volte


 * The story of Volte, the AeroSpaceForce’s android(?) combat unit, and its fight for freedom takes place on Earth from Sakhalin to Siberia.


 * Mobile Brigade 137  (magazine story)


 * Exerting its power over Janu, Earth colonizes and industrializes the planet. Mobile Brigade 137 is deployed to suppress an indigenous uprising. Proud of its principle of distinguishing between enemy combatants and inhabitants, and never killing innocent civilians even in the heat of battle, Ozawa’s platoon of the scout squadron suffer a crushing defeat. The reason was obvious enough - - - . In its second series, the magazine “Kisōtengai” (The Totally Unexpected) gave Tani its New Writers Award for this his premiere work and the first episode in the AeroSpaceForce Annals series. The opening scene is narrated from a different point of view in the later work “Unending Pursuit”.


 * Ganesh and Bhairava(?sp)


 * After their defeat in battle, the Terrans, persecuted and scattered throughout the galaxy, attempt to hijack an interstellar spaceship to return to Earth. Their failure leads to massive casualties and a reckless interstellar escape in an interplanetary ship. What happens after a pursuit vehicle runs a simulation of the escapees’ delusional homesickness?  After publication in magazines and as a short story, the manuscript has effectively been rewritten. This work too appeared in the second series of “Kisōtengai”.


 * Over-wintering on Planet CB-8


 * Set in an era when the location of Earth has been forgotten by pan-Galactic civilization. The planet CB-8 is uninhabitable because of its eccentric orbit, but a project using an artificial sun is initiated to solve the problem. However, certain properties of CB-8 cause problems with the artificial sun. The resulting atmospheric pressure changes threaten to eliminate the wintering party. On the other hand, there is already a party of Terrans trying to colonize the planet as it is. As the atmosphere over the glacial continent thins, their fight for survival begins.    Once it was finished, this story too was published as a serial in the second series of “Kisōtengai”, as well as in hard cover. Though the author was named as “Kōshū”, this was Tani’s first complete book.

The first Outer Planets Revolt

 * The Eve of War on Callisto


 * Set on Callisto as the threat of war looms. Callisto’s top brass discuss strategies for a war with the AeroSpaceForce. Despite the talks being off record, loose control allows hawks to put their own plans into motion. General Eriksen, Chief of Strategic Information, is opposed to a hasty opening to hostilities and initiates his own plan to undermine the hawks.


 * Thanatos Force


 * When (Eriksen’s?) pacifists' coup d’état falls apart, the hawks take control on Callisto. Commander Dante, head of the Thanatos Force who has been commanded to prepare a surprise attack to open hostilities, infiltrates a city on the Moon. However, between the Callistan High Command’s wishful thinking and the impenetrable guard of the ASF’s Security Police, things move in an unforeseen direction.


 * Q-Cruiser Basilisk - a collection of short stories


 * Martian Railroad - a collection of short stories


 * Cruiser Salamander - a collection of short stories


 * [Hoshi no Hakajirushi] (gravestone of stars) a collection of short stories

After the first Outer Planets Revolt

 * The Final Sortie - - a series of related short stories
 * The Erinys Incident


 * Twenty-three years after the end of the Outer Planets Revolt, the underground Outer Planets Alliance carries out a coup d’état on the Uranian satellite Erinys. Three transports bring overwhelming forces to Erinys after a months-long journey and briefly appear to have taken control. A nation run through its constitution and the rule of law, turned upside down by the declaration of a national emergency, bringing political drama into this SF novel. While relating the post-Revolt history of the ASF,  it also the describes the misery families ripped apart by war. The Japanese version concludes with a historical summary of the period up to the year 2123. The English version has a different postscript.

The second Outer Planets Revolt
These works are part of The Complete AeroSpaceForce Annals


 * Columbia Zero - - a collection of short stories
 * The Mamiya’s war. (construction ship?) - - a collection of short stories

Conflict with pan-galactic civilization and the decline of the AeroSPaceFOrce

 * Endless Pursuit (originally On the Enemy’s Trail) Volumes I and II

E-books
Since 2005, the author has been rewriting his books, in the order they were written, for publication by Chuokōron-Shinsha in electronic format. The plots are unchanged, but some of the details have been brought up to date. They are available from GALAPAGOS, Sony Reader, the Kindle Store and other e-book sources.


 * The Eve of War on Callisto
 * Thanatos Force
 * Martian Railroad
 * Cruiser Salamander

The Complete AeroSpaceForce Annals

 * The Complete AeroSpaceForce Annals Vol I  (2016/08/05)
 * The Eve of War on Callisto
 * Thanatos Force
 * The Complete AeroSpaceForce Annals Vol II (2016/10/06)
 * Martian Railroad
 * Cruiser Salamander
 * The Complete AeroSpaceForce Annals Vol III (2016/12/08)
 * The Final Sortie(?)
 * [Hoshi no Hakajirushi] (gravestone of stars)
 * The Complete AeroSpaceForce Annals Vol IV 　(2017/02/09)
 * The Erinys Incident
 * Q-Cruiser Basilisk
 * The Complete AeroSpaceForce Annals Vol V 　(2017/04/07)
 * Endless Pursuit (On the Enemy’s Trail)

The AeroSpaceForce
The AeroSpaceForce is a fictional military organization which appears in the AeroSpaceForce Annals. The full details of its formation are not known but at the beginning of “星空のフロンティア Hoshizora no Frontier” it mentions that, under an AeroSpaceForce sub-committee of the United Nations Security Council, the force was assembled from personnel and equipment supplied by the member nations. The chronology at the end of "Endless Pursuit" (On the Enemy’s Trail) puts the formation of the ASF in 2020.

For convenience, it was under the command of TerraLune (the Earth-Moon union) but in effect it acted as if it had the rights of an independent nation.

At the end of the 22nd century, ASF High Command was relocated to the Uranian satellite Erinys, and control of the Inner and Outer Fleets was delegated to separate branches.

The Inner Fleet
In peace time, the Inner Fleet’s responsibilities lay with the maintenance of law and order. It was composed of frigates and guardships


 * Zodiac class frigate: Scorpio, Taurus, Aquarius, Aries, Sagittarius and Capricorn


 * Before the Outer Planets Revolt, six Zodiac class frigates were planned, but after the revolt another six were ordered. The ships are listed in order of construction.


 * Ophiuchi class frigate: Gemini, Ophiuchi and Orion


 * These were of an older design but were well armored.


 * Class I Guardship: Appears in “In pursuit of Salamander”. The ship commanded by Lieutenant Mizoguchi in “Range: 12,000” is also believed to have been of this class.
 * Special gunboat:   e.g. Lenny Luke
 * Sensing scout: Unmanned robot craft
 * Orca Killer

The Outer Fleet
The function of the Outer Fleet changed over time, with three major periods.

1) Origins
The original Outer Fleet was made up of observation ships and ancillary craft, and its object was interstellar exploration.


 * Daedalos series
 * Icaros series
 * Odysseus series
 * Support ship Sibyl 11
 * Observation vessel Ulysses

2) FTL Shafts (Faster-than-light space flows) and the encounter with the Sagittarius Gravitational wave source (SG).
Experimental FTL craft were added to the fleet. Around this time, probes were sent out to search for the pan-Galactic civilization described in the data received from SG. From then on the fleet expanded enormously. As its mission evolved into that of discovering, and then ruling, the pan-Galactic civilization, it developed into a military organization. Even during the early stages, the rapid expansion of humanity into space was driven by the need to find an enemy. How the AeroSpaceForce foresaw conflict with extra-solar civilization is described in the stories. The simple probes that composed the early fleet were replaced by high-acceleration combat craft which, during the conflict with the pan-Galactic civilization, came to make up the main component of the whole AeroSpaceForce.


 * Orpheus series
 * Kanchenjunga series (space supremacy/dominance carrier/base/mobile station)

3) Finale
Having failed to suppress pan-Galactic civilization with the threat of military action, the fleet was drawn into combat with allied PGC forces. By this time, the main force consisted of FTL ships.


 * Mindanao class (high acceleration) battlecruiser
 * Ganges class battleship

The Outer Planets Alliance
One of the AeroSpaceForce’s principal enemies in the Annals. It arose spontaneously as an alliance of the nation states on and around the Outer Planets and their satellites in response to direct and indirect domination by the TerraLune Federation, the Planetary Development Agency and finally the AeroSpaceForce. The core states were those at the Jovian satellites Callisto and Ganymede, and were later joined by Io, Europa and Saturn’s Titan. The last to join were the cities of the Leading and Trailing Trojans.

However, most of the action was carried out by the two core states, with limited influence from the others. In particular, the Saturnian satellites were not fully co-operative and their loyalty was often in doubt.

Before the first Outer Planets Revolt
The Outer Planets Alliance Fleet consisted of the combined space fleets of the Outer Planets Alliance. To avoid the attention of the AeroSpaceForce, the OPA at first maintained the appearance of mere liaison meetings, while surreptitious research was carried out into strategies for military resistance to the forces of TerraLune and the ASF. Until the beginning of the revolt it was not an official alliance, but this meant that there was a lack of control within the alliance. One section of the military took things into its own hands, giving the ASF an excuse to intervene, and preventing the OPA from developing or executing long term plans. In effect, the OPA Fleet consisted of no more than the assembled ships of the nations threatened by the ASF. The only real military strength lay with the three nations of Callisto, Ganymede and Titan.

By the beginning of the revolt, the OPA possessed large numbers of standard design merchant ships refitted as Q-cruisers.

Its only real cruiser, Salamander, was not completed until late in the revolt.


 * Cruiser Salamander
 * Q-cruiser Basilisk
 * Automated gun boat Valkyrie
 * Orca Squadron

From the end of the first Revolt to the annihilation of the Outer Planets Alliance.
At the end of the first Outer Planets Revolt the Outer Planets Alliance Fleet ceased to exist as an official organization, but carried on as an underground movement to assist former members of the OPA fleet who now risked being treated as war criminals. The officers came primarily from the Jovian satellites, and the high command from the Ganymedean intelligence branch. However, in trying to protect those responsible for the defeat and the horrors that preceded it, they aroused discontent and internal strife, leading to a purge of the commanders. Thereafter, it became an underground resistance against control by the ASF and TerraLune, but over long years of operations, internal discipline became lax and they were wiped out by the ASF’s internal police force, the SePos.

Thanatos Force
Callisto’s Security Agency commanded by Commodore Yamashta included a combat unit known as Thanatos Force, led by Commander “Dante” Fernandez, and Lieutenant Commander Lawrence (“Lance”) Bryant. The unit took part in the pre-emptive occupation of the ASF base on Ananké before the opening of hostilities, the attack on the Moon, the recovery of Lazarus from Titan and the Callistan coup d’etat at the end of the revolt, but the whereabouts of most of them thereafter is unknown.

The Pan-Galactic Federation
Throughout the series, the Pan-Galactic Federation does not appear in any clearly defined form. It arose in response to the ASF attempts to invade and control the Pan-Galactic worlds. The worlds themselves arose from the life force sown there by the “spirit”[?] of Joe Shimazaki, which crossed time and space through “space-flows” towards the center of the galaxy. The traditions and spirit of Joe Shimazaki were carried on by the new civilizations that arose there. Though a precise location is not specified the spatial relationship of the stars named indicate that it lay within 100 lightyears of Earth.