Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Turn 67 - Bolt of Fear

One of the first fruits of the aid agreement to the NRI is that they place a massive order for replacement combat vehicles with a number of manufacturers on Calliope IV, massively boosting the economy there. They have also placed a significant order for new trainer ASFs, keeping the factories there quite busy this year.

HMS Morristown was recharging at the pirate point when another, smaller, pirate raid jumped within range of her main battery. The idiots refused to surrender, and were promptly blotted out of the sky with contemptuous ease.

Meanwhile at the Nowa Warszawa Zenith point there is some serious excitement and alarm as a single Texas class battleship jumps into the system. When communications were opened the ‘Black Pumpernickels’ responded with a Gilbert and Sullivan number declaring that it was a wonderful thing for their Captain to be the Pirate King and demanding that the jump point garrison deliver an appropriate rope for swinging on because theirs broke, and you can’t be a pirate without a rope to swing on.

Oh, and they’ll be performing the Pirates of Penzance in three days and would you like to have broadcast rights for it in exchange for said rope? It needs to be a really strong rope, really, because they are just a bit dense and their previous rope wasn’t strong enough to support swinging.

This appears to be another faction of the Amaris Remnant, and these folks evidently are just as crazy as the last group you encountered. But they also appear to be fairly harmless despite the very deadly warship they are riding around in. This one appears to be obsessed with Gilbert & Sullivan, as their offer for broadcast rights includes a showbill indicating that they are willing to put on any of those ancient comic operas. They even have their own version of Thespis, which evidently is one of the ‘lost’ works of the pair.

The Oasis II allows the Black Pumpernickels to dock to recharge and even provide a suitable rope, and in exchange a truly skilled and rollicking performance of the Pirates of Penzance is put on to great acclaim.

QM NOTE - Negates all negative rating rolls next turn for Nowa Warszawa

Once recharged they depart with a promise to return some time in the future on their next theatrical tour.

While a very broad array of submissions are considered for a new militia mech, in the end a trio of designs from Lee Industries wind up being built. All three share a common 35 ton chassis, although one uses a rating 245 fusion engine rather than the smaller 175 of the others. None use any strategic materials whatsoever and are quite inexpensive, enough so that the Aerie is considering purchasing some as basic light mech trainers to reduce the wear and tear on the larger training platforms.


There is more bad news coming from New Rasalhague, the current government has lost a vote of no confidence and elections to the Thing are taking place. The leading parties are all far more protectionist economically, pledging to close the borders and restrict trade with you in order to safeguard their own economy. The largest of the opposition parties, and the one that seems set on being in the driver’s seat for any new coalition government, is also pledging to solve the so-called ‘Nya Köpenhamn’ problem, since the previous government failed to do so.

This statement has set off a firestorm locally, as evidently the previous government had been keeping whatever this ‘Nya Köpenhamn’ is well under wraps. The lame duck government refuses to comment, the party spokesman who brought it up just smirks and states that he can’t say anything more without legal repercussions. Your embassy is being stonewalled about the entire situation, with the current NRR Foreign Minister rather rudely informing the ambassador that you had been given your chance.

You are pretty certain that this has to do with GX-F11, based on the context. Perhaps it might be a good idea to send HMS Morristown to take a peak...

And then it became budget time, with kung fu grip!

General Stewart is up first. “Your Majesty, the Brigade Combat Team performed admirably in an extremely difficult situation. While they took losses, especially the conventional armored fighting vehicles, they proved quite capable and met all operational expectations. Beyond that, I will turn this over to the briefing team. Colonel?”

“Your Majesty,” the same colonel as last year, steps to the podium. “Starting with ground forces. We would like to field a second Brigade Combat Team, and therefore are recommending the purchase of 3 Standard Mech Regiments, 3 Armored Cavalry Regiments, and 3 Armored Regiments. In addition, we would like to procure our first LAM unit by procuring a single Raider Regiment. In addition, we recommend procurement of a fourth Armored Cavalry Regiment to fill out the 9th Armored Brigade as well as a single Assault Regiment for the 4th Assault Brigade. Finally, we recommend procuring a pair of the new Militia Mech Regiments, one for here at home in the Griffon system and one for Nowa Warszawa as well as an Imperial Guard Regiment for the start of the 3rd Brigade of the Imperial Guard.”

The display shifts. “For Aerospace assets, we have no units that will be commissioning this year that require any ASF support, however we do recommend purchasing a pair of Planetary Defense Wings for the two planets of the TTP, as they remain fairly exposed.” the Colonel looks up. “We are beginning some studies into a new ASF design to supplement the Eagle, but this is very preliminary at this time. We are currently evaluating an upgraded Eagle vrs a new Lee Aerospace design study that looks promising. A small firm on Nowa Warszawa called EFS has also offered a design which is radically different, being for a medium weight class fighter for the same role. When we have more information we will present recommendations in that regard.”

A fresh screen comes up on the display. “For the Navy, this year we intend to capitalize on the lessons learned from the latest combat action. The Lancer proved extremely useful at breaking up enemy ASF swarms before they could get within range to volley anti-ship missiles at HMS Morristown. The sheer volume of fire proved highly decisive when combined with the speed of the platform which allowed it to engage the enemy fighters well away from the warship. As such we shall be requesting 34 additional Lancers as well as 1 Puller and 2 Vandergrifts for the new Brigade Combat Team. We are also requesting a further five Independence class carriers. We strongly recommend constructing Capital Shipyards in the Griffon and Nowa Warszawa systems, as well as New Capricorn, and expanding the yard in the Calliope system. The battle over Nova Roma demonstrated just how lethal warships can be, and we cannot afford to not invest in as many warship building docks as possible. We do have open slips for Dart and Caravel construction.”

He steps back with a bow, and the perkiest Interior Minister to ever run an Interior Ministry perkily bounces to her feet and takes over the podium.

“Your Majesty!” Bridget exclaims, and based on the colorful drink she left behind you suspect she’d been drinking energy teas. “We have a new possible project! Not a DoME project, mind you, but we can build small habitats for Edelsteine so we can get started on actually using the system while flinging big chunks of ice at that dustball! And we can, well, get DoME on merrily flinging great big chunks of ice at the dustball in the planet so we can actually colonize it in a few years! And we can build a few more HPG stations! And do some economic investment! And focus some development somewhere, probably Calliope or New Capricorn for the most bang for the buck! Oh, and we can build another Germanium Processing Facility! OH! And we should build five more Commercial Space Stations! And I think we might want to think about building some more mech factories and ASF factories! Oh, and we should TOTALLY expand the DURF to handle more stuff!”

Isoroku, on the other hand, is looking grave. “Your Majesty, the political crisis in the NRR is reaching a critical point, and no matter what we are going to have to decide how we handle this. For starters, we recommend opening public negotiations with the current government on a revised trade agreement, one that is perhaps less generous to our industry and would likely be somewhat unpopular here at home, but which might ameliorate the growing sense that we are economically dominating the NRR. It’s an unpleasant pill to swallow, but sometimes you don’t have any pleasant options.”

Jake is humming something you can’t quite hear, which causes Isoroku to give him a little bit of a stink-eye. You’re not sure you want to know. “We’ll be finishing up with the Chamber of Delegates this year, your Majesty, and until Edelsteine is actually settled in some way, we have little to do in that regard. We do recommend continuing to expand the Colonial Office, although that is a fairly low priority.”

Anna takes the podium next. “Your Majesty, we have six research teams ready and raring to go, and 6 critical, albeit long-term, projects that we should have them working on. Our recommendation is that we go all in on standard and compact core R&D, devoting all six teams to these projects. This will not only allow us to potentially build larger and more capable jumpships, but also larger and more dangerous warships as well.”

Both Janet and Harry are absent, their deputies report no serious requirements, although Janet’s second does note that it may be wise to keep on top of our growing population by expanding the new Griff’s Leap prison facility if possible.