Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Omake: Negotiations

"Tai-sho! We have an unscheduled jump signature at the nadir point! Tonnage, one million tons! Class, unidentified!"

"What?"

"They are broadcasting in the open!"

"I am Admiral Thanh of the Imperial Griffin Navy. The agreed-upon peace having run its course in the proper manner, the time has come to liberate this world from the greedy, conniving clutches of the overgrown slug which fancies itself a dragon." The Chu-i at the communications console silently pondered the irony that this foreign Admiral had much, much nicer dress armor than even Lord Kurita. Very silently, for Lord Kurita was known to be tremendously proud of his armor and would certainly not be amused at such a comparison.

"WHAT?!?!? That is not possible, the Griffins have neither JumpShips nor Dropships, merely ASFs!"

"DropShips are detaching -- ten Dropships of one-hundred-thousand tons, zero-zero course for the planet! Warning, additional jump signatures at both nadir and zenith points! Nine more of the same ten-collar model JumpShip, and another ten at the zenith point!"

"This must be a trick, the Griffins cannot possibly have twenty JumpShips!"

"Single jump signature at the near-planet pirate point. . . Tonnage, THREE MILLION TONS! Class, WARSHIP!"

The Tai-Sho barely held himself back from slapping his clearly hysterical subordinate. "Absurd!"

"The sensors are reading correctly, Tai-Sho! Emergence signature in excess of three million tons, followed by divergence of twelve DropShips and thirteen incoming drive signatures, twelve closely matching those at the nadir and zenith, one vastly more energetic. That is without doubt a Warship of not less than two million tons, with twelve drop colllars."

"I...I shall inform Lord Kurita."



Edit:

<Thanh> I would like to declare that this omake is TOTALLY NOT CANON and I am TOTALLY NOT an Admiral and TOTALLY WILL find a way to stick to ASF piloting no matter what Mom plots. So there!

Turn 38 - Machine or Mannequin

The Palace is opened up again for the annual children's Kart and Hovercraft race day, and just like last year it is an enormous success. This year there’s the addition of a soapbox derby track that is proving quite popular as well, and not just with the kids. The finale of the day is the adults soapbox race, with the entries judged not simply on who gets across the finish line first, but who does it with the most style.

There are three stages to the judging. First, a panel gives a score based on how creative the basic soapbox racer is. Second, a group of kids picked from the crowd gives their own creativity score of the entire zaniness of the racer. Then finally those scores are combined with the time it takes to complete the track to create the final score.

It’s hilarious. Willis actually entered the two of you in a soapbox made to look like a paper-mache grifftiger complete with glowing stripes. And he talked Sekhmet into pushing it for the initial off (which did give you quite a bit of speed starting off, you were hanging on the brakes in order to make the first turn).

You wipe out on the final berm and cross the finish line on your side, laughing the entire way.

Construction has started on the massive factory complex on Nowy Gdansk. Thanks to the hundreds of meters of extremely dense rock the complex will be nearly as perfectly defensible as the underground factory on Capricorn, just much, much larger.

You spend some time imagining just how badly the Dracs would react if they knew you were building your own version of Hesperus II right in their backyard. The thought gives you some warm fuzzies.

With the elections and your efforts to promote candidates who pass certain minimal requirements in terms of honesty and integrity the makeup of Parliament has shifted, favorably in your opinion. Fewer ‘old time’ political dinosaurs and more civic minded ordinary citizens. You approve of that.

And it does prove useful, Parliament off the gate gets down to business, with less of the posturing and preening of the past.

One of the first moves that Parliament makes is one that you hadn’t actually expected, but which you probably should have given how much of an anti-corruption and anti-backroom deal stance you’d been encouraging. They vote to make all proceedings, except those closed on national security grounds, fully open to the public. It’s a good look for Parliament and increases their general popularity with the public.

They also pass some quite interesting bits of legislation that head to your desk for approval. Unlike in the past, there’s not even a hint of power-grab in any of them, and each is refreshingly straightforward.

First, there’s a bill more clearly delineating the boundaries of authority for Imperial and Planetary governments, including provisions for how potential conflicts between planetary governments are to be adjudicated by the Imperial government. In the past it was pretty much ‘Imperial Step On Planet Who Make Trouble’ by default, but Parliament actually establishes set procedures for how to adjudicate things without requiring direct Imperial intervention except as a last resort.


The second proposal has to do with formally settling several issues of future concern about the apportionment of representation within Parliament itself when the Empire goes multi-stellar. Specifically, it codifies the model in use now within the Griffin system as being the standard, in that each system will get a number of Senators and Delegates related to the population, but how they are apportioned within the system would be a matter of local concern with the only requirement being that the method is approved by the Imperial government.


Finally there is a bill that you strongly want to support, although many traditionalists are looking positively dyspeptic over it. A proposal to create a new uniform for the AFGE that is distinct from that of the AFGR so as to more clearly distinguish Imperial and Planetary level forces. This would finally be your chance to get rid of the pointy bit of the uniform! On the other hand… this would be handled by a committee… and they might come up with something worse


You get to hold your latest granddaughter, and she’s named after you which makes you feel all gooey inside. Some things just make everything else worthwhile.

You totally understand ba now. You’ve become ba. And you couldn’t be happier about it.