Turn 129 - Walk On Down
Turn 129 - Walk On Down
Admiral Fisher is exceptionally cross, as far as you can tell from the written word. He’s forwarded to you a memo from BuShips detailing the new Mashū-class Parasite Logistics Transport. You can easily imagine him gnashing his teeth and snarling in frustrated anger as the new design is, in fact, a superior logistics vessel to the old dual-use Saipans, which doubled as parasite carriers as well. It does speak well of the crotchety old admiral that, despite it being Not Invented Here, he’s still, with all the grace of a lion with a toothache, pushing it forward into production.
The Army’s procurement apparatus is showing even less grace to their new chief, leaking to the press about the elevated costs of the new medium battle armor suits and implying that this is purely in pursuit of ‘frivolous’ aesthetics. CID is attempting to identify the leakers, while you’ve given leave for General Zara to publish an Op Ed defending the new design, one of the major points is that the primary reason for the elevated cost is the more sophisticated sensor suite and interface, which gives significantly enhanced situational awareness in all conditions as well as providing an integral targeting data link analogous to Target Acquisition Gear.. Said op ed also points out the significant overall cost savings to the program, as it rigorously standardizes many internal components that previously were bespoke to the design due to the age of the base chassis.
You’ve seen the internal memos on that point, the older suit was a direct linear descendent of the original ‘standard’ battle armor suit, and still made use of the same actuators, control interfaces, power interfaces, and sensor suites as the original. In contrast, both the lighter and heavier suits had seen their original configurations completely retired in favor of newer models.
This does introduce one complication in that the contoured ‘seats’ designed into the upper surfaces of your battlemechs had been optimized for the older ‘square’ design, requiring minor redesign for the new ‘round’ design. Considering that all of your current Mech models are cycling through the refit lines as part of the ongoing Service Life Extension Program you really don’t see the issue.
General Zara has also sent you memos detailing updates to the Light, Heavy and Assault suits, all incorporating the same upgrades seen in the medium suit. You notice on these suits the deprecation of the battle claw in favor of standard manipulators. When you inquire about that you get a detailed use survey, showing that for all three classifications of suits the use of the battle claw was exceptionally rare while consuming a disproportionate amount of training and maintenance time. Only the medium suits routinely made use of the claw as they had the ‘golden’ combination of the mobility to get in close enough to make proper use of the claw and the toughness to survive combat in that environment. The heavier suits were too slow to make effective use of the claw, and the lighter suits were too fragile. In the rare event that the heavy suit would be in a situation where the claw would be useful, a pair of integrated cutting torches mounted in recesses on the wrists would provide equivalent functionality at a fraction of the mass.
You authorize extended service trials on the proposed new suits. There’s no pressing need for them, after all, as the current suits are perfectly functional, and an extended trial should reveal any flaws or weaknesses in these suits prior to them being placed into full production. You also instruct General Zara to begin work on a replacement for the old Spec Ops suit which is still based on the ancient Nighthawk design.
The Bourbon expedition is still moving, slowly, through your space en route to their date with destiny. The Navy is taking care to route them away from anything sensitive or important, or even mildly interesting, resulting in an extended voyage. The Bourbon admiral is quite understanding about it all, and in many ways you find that you actually regret what will likely happen to him and his crew. Unlike the feudal ships, he has been a thoroughgoing professional by all reports and very pleasant for your officers to work with.
You are quite relieved that the distinguished faculty of the Department of Periphery Studies have given up on their latest obsession quite quickly. A few days of constant pounding rain mixed with hail evidently put paid to their ‘naturist’ inclinations, to the celebration of just about everybody else in Griffsport.
Parliament is exceptionally quiet this year, with nothing but routine business crossing your desk. According to the Eldest, there aren’t any simmering plots in the smoke-filled rooms of the Senate, and the Delegates seem quite subdued for a change, at least in regards to visits from the Good Idea Fairy. The typical off-year politicking and such banal activities as naming bridges, libraries, and post offices after themselves seems to be all that they are capable of at the moment.
And then it was time for the budget meeting.
Amaunet is lounging in her usual spot. “Padrone, rather than repeat myself yet again…” and the big cat nods to her assistants, who start holding up cue cards repeating the big cat’s usual opening spiel. You can’t help it, you start laughing as the big cat churrs in amusement. “More seriously, Padrone, we’d like to ask for one more year without surveying, just to make sure our forces are fully ready to go and exploit anything we may find.” She then nods to your new Army CoS.
The rather peppery Italian takes the stage. “We’re continuing to maintain and optimize Your army, Your Majesty. I would also request funding for a project to further enhance our logistics efficiency across the board.” He pauses, checking his notes, then glances over at the glaring figure of Admiral Fisher and visibly decides not to poke the bear, and instead sits down as his aids bring up the Army’s budget requests.
- Imperial Griffon Army
- General
- Logistics Optimization
- Procurement
- 25 Garrison Divisions
- 25 Militia Divisions
- 25 Infantry Divisions
- General
General Perkins then takes over. “Your Majesty, the Aerospace Force continues to need to expand as quickly as possible in order to cover our responsibilities. Thankfully our training pipelines are full with eager cadets, so we’ll have the butts to put in the seats, but we need the seats in the first place.”
- Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Production
- New ASF Factories
- Glorreich
- Shin Tōkyō
- Kurortas
- Raj
- Pustina
- Platzregensburg
- Pryyemnyy
- Awha
- Bāṛi
- Bellaterra
- New ASF Factories
- Procurement
- 40 Fighter Wing
- 40 CAP Wing
- 100 Carrier Wing
- 10 Patrol Wing
- Production
Admiral Fisher remains seated, nodding to Commodore Savić to handle the briefing once more.
“Your Majesty, the fleet concurs with Minister Amaunet’s recommendation to hold off on survey activity this year. While we have made good our losses from the recent battle, we would like to strengthen our formations before going back on the offensive.” She checks her notes. “That being said, BuShips and BuLog would like to thank General Zara for the Mashū-class design, we will be building a batch of them for testing purposes this year and hopefully they will perform as expected.”
You blink, because you can sense some layers there to what the Commodore said, and Zara does as well because, despite the evident ‘praise’, he’s bristling like his own mental antennae are quivering. The Commodore just leaves the rather bland and inoffensive statement hanging, then continues her briefing as if she hadn’t thrown a bit of shade at General Zara by implying that the new design might fail to perform as expected.
- Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
- Orbital Shipyards
- Expand All Orbital Shipyards
- Refit & Repair Yards
- Expand All Refit & Repair Yards
- Escort Yards
- Construct New Escort Yards
- Nowy Szczecin
- Baddorando
- Sturmland
- Neubayern
- Neuhessen
- Nouvelle Bourgogne
- Nuova Lombardia
- Skala
- Stahlfurt
- Grand View
- Griff's Leap
- Kurortas
- Novolar
- Olej
- Pinball
- Pryyemnyy
- Pustina
- Steingarten
- The Hub
- Nuova Puglia
- Chuma
- Nuovo Abruzzo
- Stenen Tuin
- New Libertalia
- Nyū Shikoku
- Nuova Tripoli
- Catachan
- Neuthüringen
- Nowe Mazowsze
- Nox
- Platzregensburg
- Porto Milano
- Landprettig
- New Algiers
- New Clew Bay
- Nubifragio
- Bellaterra
- Construct New Escort Yards
- Small Warship Yards
- Construct New Small Warship Yards
- Raj
- New Phoenix
- Nowa Warszawa
- Nowy Slask
- Chuma
- Awha
- Kaiyo
- Shin Tōkyō
- Iskra
- Griffon
- Bohren
- Feurstern
- Construct New Small Warship Yards
- Medium Warship Yards
- Construct New Medium Warship Yards
- New Pollux
- Calliope
- Pieklo
- Nya Kopenhamn
- Edelsteine
- Construct New Medium Warship Yards
- Large Warship Yards
- Construct New Large Warship Yards
- Glorreich
- New Port Royal
- New Castor
- Nowy Wrocław
- Construct New Large Warship Yards
- Orbital Shipyards
- Procurement
- Standard Dropships
- 400 Artemis-class System Defense Flotillas
- 128 Wright-class Dockable ASF Platforms
- 128 Colt-class Defense Blisters
- Large Dropships
- 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
- 286 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
- 30 Mashū-class Parasite Logistics Transports
- Jumpships
- 5 Windjammer-class Jumpships
- Escorts
- 190 Battle-class Destroyers
- 10 Skjold-class Missile Corvettes
- 10 Constellation-class Corvettes
- 50 Tarantul-class Missile Raiders
- 50 Asheville-class Raiders
- Small Warships
- 60 Belfast-class Light Cruisers
- 30 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
- 10 Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
- 6 Hosho-class Light Carriers
- Medium Warships
- 20 Prinz Eugen II-class Heavy Cruisers
- 20 Algerie-class Heavy Cruisers
- Large Warships
- 10 Kaiserin-class Battleships
- 10 Jean Bart-class Battlecruisers
- 4 Saratoga-class Fleet Carriers
- Standard Dropships
- Fortress Command
- Black Towers
- Griffon
- TTP (2 total)
- Nowa Warszawa
- Calliope IV
- Spartoi
- 5 total clusters
- Black Towers
- Production
Once the military has finished, Elizabeth stands up for her presentation. “Your Majesty, unlike Amaunet I didn’t prepare flash cards to skip the usual bits, so consider them said.” She smiles a bit at the chuckles. “To begin with, DoME has teams free, they have free time on their hands, I think we can all agree this is dangerous.”
- DoME
- Planetary Optimzation
- Novolar
- Terraforming
- Nuova Fortezza
- Neuthüringen
- Nuova Lombardia
- Nyū Shikoku
- Planetary Optimzation
“Next up, this years economic forecasts, projections, and recommendations.”
- Investment, Focus & Infrastructure
- Economic Focus
- Core
- Nowy Wrocław
- Periphery
- Steingarten
- Core
- Major Investment
- Core
- Feurstem
- Periphery
- Nox
- Core
- Investment
- Pustina
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zones
- Hot Mess
- Baddorando
- Salamander
- Nouvelle Bourgogne
- Nuova Puglia
- Economic Focus
Dr Severino is next. “Your Majesty, we actually have two proposals for this budget year, on top of the ongoing outreach efforts. First off, with the Olympics coming up next year, we’d like to ask you to fund sports camps like we have in the past in the hope of boosting our performance in the Games. Second of all, it has been a few years since we’ve hosted a cultural festival, we’d like to focus on Maori culture this time around, with your approval.”
Tiberius is looking dangerously cheerful, which has you a bit worried. “Your Majesty, apart from the continued expansion of the Civil Service, we’ve got nothing for you this year.” His eyes are sparkling a bit, giving you a sense that there’s a prank involved somehow, but for the life of you you haven’t spotted it yet.
Grace gives her insouciant colleague a ‘look’, trademark, patent pending, all rights reserved. “Your Majesty, we have one free R&D team at the moment, and they’ve requested that we coordinate with the Navy and Aerospace Force on fine-tuning our doctrine in regards to handling ASF swarms.”
Neither your Intelligence nor Justice ministers are present for the meeting, as both are representing the Empire at conferences off world at the moment and had previously indicated to you that they had no pressing budget requests this year outside their usual budgets.