Alienating his peers isn't a good thing since it makes working with them more difficult. The Elder also getting annoyed with him is also not good. So it's time for Zara to go. He may have good idea's but he also can't seem to get along with his peers.
No matter how brilliant someone is, if they can’t politics they don’t belong in a high enough position to affect policy.
[X] Sign the Imperial Communications Act of 3061
We are the best Anti-Comstar! Also there probably is not going to be a time in the near future where are not at war.
Also I love how the second piece of legislation was so bad vetoing it did nothing negative while depriving them of power. Really shows how active our politics are that a screw up that bad actually has consequences.
[X] Fire General Zara
**I was considering keeping him on, but we NEED to keep our services working in tandem not at cross purposes. We should consider offering General Zara the position of Chief Inspector General though. His ability to detect stupidity is clutch in some ways.
EDIT: Maybe as head of a unique division within Special Branch.
[X] Sign the Imperial Communications Act of 3061
**Vetoing this one would just be protecting the status quo. In addition, strengthening our HPG bandwidth will only help in reducing the effectiveness of whatever the Black Steel jamming system is.
In short, brutal as it seems, the Mikasas absorbed fire that would otherwise have damaged or destroyed full scale warships, thus serving as a sort of ‘ablative armor’ for them, but suffered enormous losses in doing so. Only the fact that they have significantly fewer crewmembers per ship than even a Battle-class Destroyer kept them from being the single largest source of casualties in the battle, and even so it was a very close run thing for an ‘honor’ that nobody wants.
Admiral Fisher has already informed you that he has tasked his Advanced Projects Group with coming up with ways of automating the Mikasa as much as possible, in hopes of potentially turning them into completely autonomous drones rather than crewed vehicles.
The Inner Sphere is going to flip out if we show up with "Super CASPARs". Despite the massive changes in the timeline due to the lack of the massive MechIdiot Balls which completely characterize the canon fluff of BTech, CASPARs are definitely one of the bits of LosTech that no one in the Inner Sphere *or* the Periphery *or* the Clans is inclined to touch, not only for practical and ideological reasons but also because they have an incredible bogeyman reputation for just how lethal they were compared to manned ships.
[X] Don't fire General Zara
At least not yet. If he continues with this behavior he definitely needs to be demoted, but we haven't historically been big on firing people on the first major screwup.
[X] Sign the Imperial Communications Act of 3061
We've always been bold about investing in technological infrastructure, and this is basically the first step towards an actual HPG Internet...
At least not yet. If he continues with this behavior he definitely needs to be demoted, but we haven't historically been big on firing people on the first major screwup.
I was right there with you on this until I really started to think about it. He's been in the position for a while, and it's not the first time he's rubbed everyone a bit raw.
He's great at the job, which I why I hate to lose the talent there.
The issue is really that we need to do something about the personality issues in our 'top' team before they really begin to hamper operations further. The simplest way forward I could come up with was my suggestion that we get him into a position where we don't lose that talent.
If we keep General Zara in then we're definitely going to have some more problems down the road as a result.
Other suggestions are welcome.
Hell, maybe we conduct an interview with General Zara to see if we can adjust his headspace enough to keep him on?
I was right there with you on this until I really started to think about it. He's been in the position for a while, and it's not the first time he's rubbed everyone a bit raw.
QM Note - I somewhat wrote myself into a corner with General Zara, based on past experience with Admiral Fisher I had not expected the vote to go the way it did *looks sheepish*. For that reason, and to keep me from having to come up with a new slate of characters, I am retconning the ‘fire’ option to ‘personal reprimand from the Crown’.
Reports are flowing in from Arvum regarding the relief efforts there. The Space Guard is heavily involved, as are private humanitarian organizations. Morale is surprisingly very high among the survivors, with a sort of grim ‘they hit us with their best shot, and we’re still standing.’ attitude being the norm.
After fully reviewing all of the details on the debacle from the planning meetings last year you schedule a pair of meetings.
First, with General Zara, goes about how you expected it to. The peppery Italian came in, with the same fierce energy he always seems to have. You decided to skip all the usual pleasantries and instead got right down to business, reading him the riot act over his jumping to conclusions and antagonizing General Perkins the way that he had. You simply roll over all of his attempts to interrupt, giving him a solid taste of his own medicine for a good thirty minutes before concluding with a rather stern admonition that he is on very thin ice indeed.
Oddly, he takes it quite well, indeed after about the fifth minute he simply took it like a chastised schoolboy being lectured by an angry headmistress. You doubt that he’ll remain all that subdued for long, but you think you made your point.
The second, with General Perkins, also goes rather well, and involves no yelling whatsoever. You simply give the General a simple ultimatum. Either the Aerospace Force establishes a proper administrative staff system or it gets folded into the Navy as the Fleet Aerospace Arm. Yes, you are quite aware that this goes against the High Speed Low Drag ethos of the Aerospace Force inculcated by your Great Aunt when she was a pilot and encouraged by your Great-Grandmother and Grandfather, and even by yourself in your younger days, but the lack of a proper administrative staff had been shown to be a serious weakness.
The General promises to get to work on putting together a proper permanent administrative staff for more than just the procurement, training, and development functions.
You had barely finished with all of that when Admiral Fisher positively saunters into the outer office and breezily requests a priority meeting with you. A relaxed, smiling, Admiral Fisher… you immediately consider if he’d been replaced with a pod person or something.
“I’ve got two things for you, one for your consideration, one for your information.” he begins, signaling his aide to hand over a stack of documents.
“First of all, a replacement for the old England-class frigates. We opened this one up to industry rather than handling it in-house, since this will be both for us and for the Space Guard, who are still swanning around in first generation droppers. We got three solid submissions, although none are what I’d usually propose because, well, you know me.”
You actually laugh at that.
“First off, from Majeure Electrique, who are still salty over the Navy moving design work in-house, we have the Eagle concept. It has the highest thrust, has the most balanced and effective armament despite the usual Majeure Electrique obsession with capital missiles, and the most potent sensor suite. It is the most combat-focused of the three designs, but is also very suitable for all Space Guard missions.”
“Next, we have the Broadsword concept from Hellespont Industries. This is the lightest of the three concepts, but also the most expensive and with the most cargo capacity. Unfortunately it is very lightly armed with old-style twin turrets for the 5.5m lasers rather than the more modern fast-action quad turrets. As such it has very low overall combat potential against anything other than the most primitive pirate Jolly Rogers. It is also the only one of the proposals to have small fighter bays for a single squadron of ASFs.”
“Finally, we have a pyramid, I repeat, we have a pyramid, and their concept art gleefully played up all their stereotypes from past submissions with a great deal of bling and ominous chanting. The Senusret is a potent design in many ways, looking past all the bling, with the heaviest armor plating. However by only using 10 cm Sub Capital Lasers for secondaries it has the weakest anti-fighter and anti-missile defense, and it lacks the acceleration to keep enemies far enough away for its massive battery of heavy naval PPCs to be truly decisive.”
[]
Name
Cost
Materials
HP
A/D
Specials
[]
Eagle
$1,238,004,600.00
LFA, DHS
1745
1445
Armored 20
AMS 160
Capital
2/424
3/498
4/458
Capital AMS 568
Capital Missile 300
Command 6
[]
Broadsword
$1,281,684,400.00
LFA, DHS
782
612
Armored 7
AMS 160
Capital
2/297
3/431
4/443
Capital AMS 184
Command 3
[]
Senusret
$1,209,464,800.00
LFA, DHS
1518
788
Armored 63
AMS 160
Capital
3/237
4/907
Capital AMS 116
Command 3
“We’ll need a decision on which of these three to pursue so we can start planning procurement for next year.”
He then grins, looking positively boyish. “And we have our new battlecruiser design ready to go!”
You blink, as you can almost hear ethereal chants of ‘speed is armor, speed is armor, speed is armor’ and Admiral Fisher appears overlaid with an old wet-navy British naval officer for a moment.
“Meet the Lion-class Battlecruiser, the battlecruiser equivalent to the Kaiserin-class.”
On the display in your office comes up a 3d representation of the design, which looks very… predatory and dangerous, as well as fast.
Name
Cost
Materials
HP
A/D
Specials
Lion
$3,252,778,800.00
LFA, DHS
7538
5528
Armored 201
AMS 160
Capital
3/1687
4/3477
Capital AMS 336
Command 6
You have a feeling you might need to contact a priest for an exorcism at some point, but it does look like a capable ship.
A few weeks later and it is budget time, which you both enjoy and welcome as an escape from the loud debates outside the palace by the Periphery Studies Mock Parliament over whether or not invisible crosswalk paint should be sprayed from a left or right handed foot pump.
Things are certainly much calmer, and Amaunet simply chuffs softly and nods to the peppery Italian Army general who takes the stage.
“The Army doesn’t need much, although we are beginning work on fully optimized Marine battle armor rather than the current kludges that we are using.” He says simply as the budget numbers come up on the screen.
Imperial Griffon Army
Procurement
25 Garrison Divisions
25 Militia Divisions
25 Infantry Divisions
For a change there are more Aerospace officers than just General Perkins present, he even has an aide with him for a change and the quality of the budget presentation shows that this wasn’t something that a certain overworked flag officer had put together on his own.
“While we could technically avoid expanding our training wings this year, Your Majesty, we felt it better to build in more capacity as we go.” Left unspoken is the fact that many of the new pilots will be filling slots emptied by more senior officers dragged kicking and screaming into office jobs.
Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
Production
New ASF Factories
Glorreich
Shin Tōkyō
Kurortas
Raj
Pustina
Platzregensburg
Pryyemnyy
Awha
Bāṛi
Bellaterra
Procurement
50 CAP Wings
40 Fighter Wings
100 Carrier Wings
20 Training Wings
Commodore Savić is once again handling the actual briefing, with Admiral Fisher looking on in approval. It is becoming rather apparent that the Admiral is grooming the younger officer to be his eventual replacement, and so far you are rather impressed with how she’s been handling herself.
“Your Majesty, as usual we will have the largest budget requests. The good news is that the fighting in the Arvum system had no impact on our production capacity, although it was quite hard on our repair facilities in the system.”
Imperial Griffon Navy
Production
Orbital Shipyards
Construct Orbital Shipyard
Highland
New Arcadia
New Portland
Upgrade all Orbital Shipyards
Refit & Repair Yards
Construct Refit & Repair Yard
New Portland
Upgrade All Refit & Repair Yards
Escort Yards
Construct New Escort Yards
Nowy Szczecin
Baddorando
Sturmland
Neubayern
Neuhessen
Nouvelle Bourgogne
Nuova Lombardia
Skala
Stahlfurt
Griff's Leap
Kurortas
Olej
Pinball
Pryyemnyy
Pustina
Steingarten
The Hub
Nuova Puglia
Chuma
Nuovo Abruzzo
Stenen Tuin
Nyū Shikoku
Nuova Tripoli
Catachan
Neuthüringen
Nowe Mazowsze
Nox
Platzregensburg
Porto Milano
Landprettig
New Algiers
New Clew Bay
Nubifragio
Bellaterra
Highland
New Arcadia
New Portland
Small Warship Yards
Construct New Small Warship Yards
Calliope IV
Edelsteine
Nowy Slask
Chuma
Awha
Kaiyo
Iskra
Bohren
Feurstern
Novolar
Grand View
Kainga
New Capricorn
New Libertalia
Medium Warship Yards
Construct New Medium Warship Yards
New Pollux
New Phoenix
Pieklo
Nya Kopenhamn
Nowa Warszawa
Large Warship Yards
Construct New Large Warship Yards
Glorreich
New Port Royal
New Castor
Nowy Wrocław
Procurement
Standard Dropships
400 Artemis System Defense Flotilla
147 Wright-class Dockable ASF Platform
147 Colt-class Defense Blister
Large Dropships
30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
304 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
30 Mashu-class Parasite Transports
Jumpships
8 Windjammer-class Jumpships
Escorts
200 Battle-class Destroyers
30 White Plains-class Escort Carriers
10 Skjold-class Missile Corvettes
10 Constellation-class Corvettes
50 Tarantul-class Missile Raiders
50 Asheville-class Raiders
Small Warships
50 Belfast-class Light Cruisers
20 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
20 Worcester-class Light Cruisers
10 Giuseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
2 Hosho-class Light Carriers
20 Vestal-class Repair Ships
Medium Warships
20 Prinz Eugen II-class Heavy Cruisers
10 Algerie-class Heavy Cruisers
10 Nevada-class Heavy Cruisers
Large Warships
12 Kaiserin-class Battleships
12 Lion-class Battlecruisers
Fortress Command
Miscellaneous
Rebuild Arvum Defense Grid
Jump Point Defense
Highland
New Arcadia
Gateway
Waypoint 7
Oasis II
Highland
New Arcadia
Gateway
Waypoint 7
Black Tower
Highland
New Arcadia
Gateway
Waypoint 7
Nya Kopenhamn
Spartoi
5 clusters
Elizabeth Lee then takes over once the commodore sits down. “Your Majesty, we’ve got quite a bit to cover here.” She checks her notes. “To start with, DoME. We have six teams free at the moment. We have a number of projects for them to handle, with your approval.”
Department of Mega-Engineering
New Projects
Optimization
Pustina
Terraforming
Nuova Fortezza
Neuthüringen
Construct Major Army Base
New Portland
Construct Major Fleet Base
New Portland
Build Capital Shipyard
Griffon
You glance over at Admiral Fisher at that, since you’d noticed that Griffon hadn’t been scheduled for any conventional yards to be built this year. “We’re about a year away from beginning R&D work on larger warships, according to Grace. So we decided to bite the bullet and get a yard ready to begin building them when they are ready.” He explained.
Elizabeth nods. “In addition, we will need basing facilities to the Galactic Southwest to support expansion in that direction and New Portland is ideally placed for such.”
“Moving on, we have three colonization projects this year. Two are conventional, but one will be making use of those Colony Core cylinders that we’ve been constructing in the Stenen Tuin system.”
Colonization Projects
Colonization, System Government & Justice System
Highland
New Arcadia
Colony Core Station Complex
Gateway
“Next, we have our economic foci and investments for the year, Your Majesty.”
Economic Focus, Investment, Infrastructure & Industrial Zones
Economic Focus
Core
New Castor
Periphery
Kurortas
Major Investment
Core
Grand View
Periphery
Catachan
Investment
Landprettig
Infrastructure & Industrial Zones
New Portland
Sturmland
Salamander
The Hub
Nowego Lublina
Your Foreign Minister is up next. “Your Majesty, with all of the minor polities we are starting to contact to the northeast there are substantial prospects for increased trade. The Foreign Ministry would like to expand our trade attache budgets to promote Griffon as a place to do business, in hopes of attracting additional trade and thus strengthening our overall economy.”
Tiberius is off handling the details of finalizing the CIvil Service expansion this year, so he isn’t present for the meeting. Grace, therefore, takes over with the R&D report.
“Your Majesty, the only project we’d recommend is to further improve our communications technology in conjunction with the recently approved boost to the Academic HPG network funding.”
You catch Sina Dey frowning a bit as your Intelligence Minister looks over her notes. “The expansion of the HPG network is a good thing overall, Your Majesty, but it introduces increased vulnerabilities to our counterintelligence efforts. With your permission we’d like to begin work on enhanced signals intelligence collection.” She glances over at your Justice Minister, who is looking uncomfortable. “I know there are privacy and civil liberties concerns, but the risks are too high to dismiss lightly.”
Martina grumbles a bit. “I don’t like it, Your Majesty, but honesty compels me to admit that Sina is right, this is a case where there are no perfect solutions, just a balancing of harms. With proper oversight the damage should not be significant, but Your Majesty, I warn you, it is very easy for this to turn into a very slippery slope indeed.”
Scheduled vote count started by LordSunhawk on Jun 15, 2023 at 5:14 AM, finished with 12 posts and 10 votes.
What? Someone needs to vote for the Pyramid design, and its not too bad from what I know of how the system works. Yeah, half the A/D of the Eagle but its got more armour to it. Its also slightly cheaper.
