Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
[X] Plan: Expand Upwards

[X] Mama Grifftiger - Sekhmet

I'm going to argue for Sekhmet over Bast; I agree that "cat goddess" is the right to-go for names, but Sekhmet is the more applicable cat-goddess. When you compare the two (or one and a half*), Bastet is more the goddess of small cats that have domesticated humans, whereas Sekhmet was a warrior goddess of lionesses. Moreover, Sekhmet was specifically the protector and battle companion of the Pharaohs, also known as the "Mistress of Dread", the "Lady of Slaughter", "She-Who-Mauls", and "(The One) Before Whom Evil Trembles".

*Sekhmet and Bastet were originally separate goddesses, but later versions of Egyptian mythology merged them into being different aspects of the same goddess.
 
Last edited:

CurtisLemay

Wargamer, Amateur Historian, Writer
Nuke Mod
Moderator
Staff Member
Founder
[X] Plan: Expand Upwards
[X] baby grifftiger - M- Iowa F- Houston
[X] Mama Grifftiger - Essex
 
Turn 10 Results

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 10 Results


Economic Roll - 3 degrees of success
Health Roll - 7 degree of success
Stability Change roll - 0 degrees of success

Stability Rolls

-Political - No event

-Research - 6 Events, best two selected. (NOTE, from now on no more than 2 will be rolled)
--Result - All active projects complete immediately and succeed

-Economic - 1 event
--Result - +5% GDP

Meta Event Roll - 14 - +10 all ratings this turn
Dynasty Luck Roll - 36 - One Free Reroll this turn

Crown Influence Roll - 10 - no roll
Lords Influence Roll - 5 - no roll
Commons Influence Roll - 7 - no roll

Initiate Training Exercise Chasseur Hovertank*
Target - 50
Roll - 51
Result - Bare FAILURE (automatically succeed next turn)

Initiate Training Exercise Foot Infantry*
Target - 50
Roll - 32
Result - SUCCESS

Purchase new Flight of Roc ASF
Target - 60
Roll - 9
Result - SUCCESS

Construct Drop Port outside Capital*
Target - 85
Roll - 85
Result - SUCCESS

Construct Drop Port outside Huế mới*
Target - 85
Roll - 82
Result - SUCCESS

Investigate Rivers*
Target - 75
Roll - 35
Result - SUCCESS

Charter a luxury airship service between the capital and Huế mới
Target - 75
Roll - 97
Result - FAILURE

Establish Ministry of Culture*
Target - 65
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

Setup hovercraft racing league
Target - 85
Roll 61
Result - SUCCESS

Establish Protocols for Embassies
Target - 65
Roll - 31
Result - SUCCESS

Establish Forestry Police to protect wildlife in Wow
Target - 70
Roll - 48
Result - SUCCESS

-----

The anniversary celebrations continue throughout the year, and you attend many of them. The days out at the various fairs and street parties with your family are not only bearable, but downright enjoyable. You may be Queen, but you are also a wife and mother, and spending time with your husband enjoying yourself while watching your kids have an absolute blast is the highlight of each day.

People are rather more nervous these days around you, although the reason for that is very obvious. After all, in the past you didn’t have twenty tons of muscle, gristle, fur, teeth, and self-evident lethality following you around. Of course, the fact that the most dangerous thing about Sekhmet isn’t her bite, in your opinion, it’s her threatening to drown people in slobber when she bestows The Lick upon them does make for some amusing situations.

It helps that kids absolutely adore her. She doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest being used as an impromptu living climbing wall for adventurous youngsters and shows preternatural patience with little kids poking at her. If any get too aggressive, she seems to have no problem dealing with the situation with strategic deployment of her tail, which is far more agile and under her control than you’d come to expect from felines.

Of course, your kids are the envy of all of their peers for having a Grifftiger kitten gamboling around with them. Bastet is a tiny bundle of fur and playful joy and seems to have effortlessly slotted in with the kids as the furry member of their play group. The kids don’t notice, but you and your security team certainly do, that even in the midst of play Bastet is very alert to her surroundings and whenever a stranger comes into view the kitten will look at him or her, then glance over towards the closest security guard or towards you to see your reaction.

Your security people have picked up on this and have spoken with you about the implications. You’ve noticed Sekhmet doing the same thing, only more subtly… if subtle is something that could apply to a giant black tiger with glowing stripes and teeth the size of scimitars.

You’d seen just how good Sekhmet is at the ‘subtle’ thing the time this rocket scientist of a thief thought it would be a good idea to engage in an armed robbery right as you were passing by. Upon running out of the doorway with his loot, said thief had promptly soiled himself upon finding that he was facing a rather amused giant kitty with a ‘you done fucked up, son’ expression on her face. His attempt to flee back into the building was blocked by deployment of the tail, and a tapping claw inspired him that throwing himself upon the mercy of the police was far preferable to any other outcome.

The zoology people say that the Grifftigers are about as smart as extremely smart dogs or maybe dolphins. You are convinced they are as smart as people, just limited by not having opposable thumbs. Of course, you have had to put in the world’s largest scratching post at the palace, and you are incredibly thankful that it doesn’t appear that Grifftiger’s shed.

In the evenings you have to put up with rounds of balls, parties, formal dinners and the like. All of which are far more boring than your daily trips to festivals and carnivals with the kids. They are even more boring than meetings, and you’d never thought you’d be able to say that with a straight face.

When you were little you’d thought that being able to get all dressed up and go to formal events would be wonderful. Now you are doing it every single night. What was that ancient curse, be careful what you wish for? You regularly shook a mental fist at your younger self for cursing you like this, even as you smile and smile and smile some more until it feels like your face is about to fall off, shake endless hands, smile even more, eat food that is so elaborate in it’s presentation that there’s barely enough of it to qualify as a snack, then smile even more.

You hate it.

You loved going to the beach far more, especially with Sekhmet and Bastet along. Bastet would splash around in the shadows with your kids while keeping them from going too deep, while Sekhmet would bound into the water like a giant kitten then kitty-paddle around in the water like she was born to it.

Once there was a bit of a disturbance, you saw Sekhmet jump a little then whirl around and go under, before bursting out of the waves a minute later triumphantly. And promptly depositing a Great Shark on the beach in front of you like a typical housecat delivering a mouse. A relatively small bite mark was visible on Sekhmet’s flank, as evidently the shark had made the mistake of taking a nibble of Grifftiger.

The beach is promptly closed for the day since Great Sharks tend to congregate in groups and think of humans as tasty.

Sekhmet notices this, and is evidently offended that something is interrupting her fun and is a danger to her person. So she promptly charges back into the surf. About an hour later there are two more Great Sharks decorating the beach and a very self-satisfied Sekhmet getting all the scritching she wanted.

You do make a note that once the expedition to the river is back to make sure to assign some of the patrol boats to protect the coasts here and keep them clear of Great Sharks.

Then you get the news, of the ten patrol boats you’d sent out, only 4 make it back to Huế mới under their own power, towing a fifth. The other five were all lost.

The expedition had started out well, documenting flora and fauna. The massive rivers of Wow flowed sluggishly in deep meandering channels and were choked with fast growing plants that only thinned out as salinity increased.

They slowed the expedition to a crawl, as the patrol boats had to cut their way through the growth with the sailors reporting that they could watch the plants regrow behind them almost in real time.

They made the legendary kudzu seem like a slow growing, lethargic plant.

Then they came to a much clearer part of the river, with the plants having already been cleared back to the bank and only starting to regrow.

Then they discovered… well…

You’ve discovered what Grifftigers eat, apparently…

The imagery from the battle recordings are… terrifying.

Begin with a hippopotamus.

Give it a heavily armored carapace covering the entire top of it, including most of the head.

Give it a clubbed tail like some of those dinosaurs you’d seen pictures of when you were a kid, ankylosaurus or something like that.

Then scale it up.

Way up.

No, bigger than that.

The specimens in the video dwarfed the patrol boats and were estimated to tip the scales at well north of a hundred fifty to two hundred tons.

Then have them congregate in massive herds.

Then give them the friendly and cheerful disposition of a pissed off cape buffalo.

Experiencing a psychotic break.

While on combat drugs.

The first indication that something was wrong came when a loud, strident, and deafening bellow erupted from just ahead of the lead patrol boat, followed by a cacophony that almost overwhelmed the audio pickups. Then a mass of grey-green carapaces, massive incisors, and bellowing fury erupted, stampeding straight towards the patrol boats in an unstoppable mass.

The patrol boats tried to stop it, or dodge it, or do something, but autocannon and LRM fire seemed mostly ineffective, gouging out pits in the incredibly thick carapaces but not reliably punching through. The torpedoes, when the Cutlasses were able to launch them, were far more reliable, killing dozens of the creatures. But their fellows trampled over the corpses as they charged at the boats.

The Cutlasses dodged backwards, using superior speed to keep ahead of the rampaging stampede… until the thick river growth ensnared them and forced them off of their foils. The trailing boats sacrificed themselves in order to buy time for the leading boats to cut through the entangling plants in a desperate bid to escape.

And then came the Grifftigers. There was only a fraction of the herd left at this point, and the massive predators fell upon the survivors.

Evidently these things had a weakness, one that the Grifftigers knew how to exploit. Flip them over. They were naturally extremely stable, but much of their mass was distributed relatively high on their bodies, flip them over and they are unable to roll back to their feet,, leaving their unarmored bellies ripe for being ripped into by hungry cats.

One of the patrol boats had barely avoided being trampled into paste by the rampage but had been crippled, and the Grifftigers had rather gently nudged it over to the still mired ones, while several of the largest of the massive cats had pushed aside the waterplants to give the boats a clear lane down river.

It looked like you were going to need bigger boats in order to properly explore those waterways, what with those… Deathapotamusaurus things.

You at least had some good data, so far as it went, so the expedition wasn’t a complete failure.

You made sure to take the time to write personal letters of condolence to the surviving family members of those lost on the expedition and also arranged to meet with them to offer your sympathies in person.

It was very somber, and very sobering. People had died following your orders, and you felt just a little numb at the enormity of it resting on your shoulders.

You meet with a grim General Wolf and a subdued Tyler and discuss events. It’s pointed out that there exists a river monitor design that could have fared better than the Cutlasses did, but it would have been marginal as it lacks torpedoes and is fairly lightly armored.

You order a request for designs be posted for a riverine monitor that would be able to deal handily with these deathapotamusauruses.

You do get to be present when the new Roc fighters make their first fly-by. The pilots are obviously still getting used to their new birds, as their formations are rather shaky to say the least, but you have confidence that with time and training they’ll match the crisp exactness of the Falcon pilots in their birds.

You receive the reports with a certain sick sense of dread about the progress of the RRF, and are pleasantly surprised at the news. While they haven’t quite rated up to regular status yet, the instructors for the first time are expressing full confidence in this happening in the very near future. There hasn’t been a single spectacular crash, whoopsie, or oopsie for this entire training cycle. You are cautiously optimistic that this group weren’t more escapees from the Department of Periphery Studies.

Since you are off maternity leave now, you are able to participate in the training exercises for the infantry, spending a month in the fall away from the family in order to do so. You are very happy to say that you still ‘have it’, as your platoon completes the exercise rating in the top third of the participating units. The foot infantry in general is rated up to veteran by the end of your rotation in the training area and it is a very dirty, sweaty, and tired Queen who returns to the Palace with a shit-eating grin a mile wide.

You participate in the ribbon cutting ceremony for each of the new drop ports. The massive ferrocrete facilities are far more than you strictly need at this time, but have been built with future growth in mind. You have already seen a significant increase in traffic between them by the end of the year, and future prospects look good.

The luxury airship service, on the other hand, runs into a bit of a snag as even with your approval, financing, and charter the licensing bureau is still rather obstreperous about issuing permits for operational zeppelins of the size envisioned. They’ve even denied permits to begin flight testing of the prototype, leaving the project stranded at the moment. You schedule a meeting with the bureau head and come out of it feeling that the man is simply obstructionist by nature.

The opening of the Ministry of Culture (a sub-ministry of Foreign Affairs) is a surprisingly low-key affair, although you find that this is mostly because the organizers don’t want to risk competing with the ongoing planetary party that is the anniversary.

You do get a briefing on the basic outline for future embassies, and it looks pretty solid to you.

However, the inaugural race of the Griffin’s Roost Hovercraft Racing League is an absolute blast. Attendance is maxed out and every single infotainment channel is covering the race. Two dozen brightly painted hovercraft parade around the track during the parade lap, then… with a ‘rolling’, so to speak, start the race begins.

The howling shriek of the turbines makes you very glad of the complimentary headphones that every attendee is given upon entrance. The racing is fast, close, competitive. There are wrecks, shunts,brutal racing. There’s even an all-out brawl on pit road after two racers tangle up on entrance and take each other out of the race, leading to their respective crews going to town on each other while the driver’s do their level best to rip the others head off.

You love it. It’s pure adrenaline action to watch, and you can’t wait for the next race.

In light of the deathopotamusaurus threat, the establishment of the Forestry Police takes on new urgency. It takes a special sort of madman to apply for that sort of job, especially now that the world knows some of the threats that lurk in the jungles of Wow.

QM NOTE - After discussion in discord (it’s open to anybody! Join the Griffin's Roost Quest Discord Server!) it was decided by QM ruling that the mother grifftiger would be named Sekhmet and the baby Bastet after the two leading votes on the naming. Thank you to all who voted! In addition I am commissioning the extremely talented @Culsu to create one of his truly awesome maps for Griffin’s Roost! When I have more details I’ll let you know.
 
Turn 11 - Fluff and Story

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 11 Fluff and Story

You are exhausted.

An entire year of celebrations, formal events… finally over.

Now the fairgrounds and block parties are quiet as work crews clean up after the planet wide party.

You had taken Sekhmet out to a large field earlier and discovered that the giant cat actually liked playing a variant on ‘fetch’, you’d load a giant hard rubber ball into a trebuchet and launch it, and she’d go chase it down and wrestle with it until she rolled back to the starting place with it, playfully yowling and snarling as she ‘fought’ the ball.

Your kids were simply throwing a ball for Bastet, and she loved it just as much as her mother did.

It had been a happy day indeed.

You were glad for happy days, especially with your family. But sometimes it reminded you of all the things you’d lost.

On those days you are actually very happy that Willis is there for you, holding you as you cry, simply being your rock. Sure, you may have a playfully contentious relationship at times, but you both know that you’d never be happier than with the other.

He still regularly took birds up, although he no longer acted as a test pilot, and one day he took you and the kids up with him on a flight in one of the smaller civilian model aerodyne small craft that have become more common.

You were flying lazy circles over the nearby twin continents of Castor and Pollux just enjoying the view when Willis suddenly tensed.

“Strap in.” he tersely ordered as he took over controls from the autopilot.

You fumble a bit getting the kids strapped in, then do so yourself.

Willis meanwhile flips a control and the small screen in front of you lights up with the take from the crafts built in cameras.

“Look… there… those burn scars. They are consistent with a field landing of one of the spheroid craft we have, only far larger…” he glances over to you. “Something like those dropships that the Kuritans had.”

You tense. “Anything there now?”

Willis shook his head, even as he activated his comms. “I doubt it.”

He paused. “Royal One to Home Base, Royal One to Home Base. Delta. Delta. Delta.”

You aren’t familiar with aviation comms, but you’d never heard that before…

“Confirmed, I repeat Delta, Delta, Delta. My location. Will continue to orbit at this time.”

About five minutes later the squadron of Rocs lumbers into view, still flying a bit loosely rather than in tight formation. Willis then guides the shuttle back to the capital.

You wait until you are on the ground. “What does Delta mean?”

“Possible landing site.” he explains as he stretches a little. “Those burn scars were very old, and I only spotted them because the light was just at the right angle. Something large landed and launched from there 100 years or so ago, I’m guessing.”

Several weeks later a team from the university reports back, they had found a large buried complex near where this burn scar, now dated to around 2830 or so, was spotted. They’d not been able to gain access to it yet.

They do have pictures of the door. It’s massively reinforced and has an insignia in the center of it…


The area where this massive complex is located is near the coast, so you immediately order a battalion of foot infantry dispatched to secure the area around the complex itself.

“Look, this may well be a good area to expand to, or at least to look carefully at expanding to.” Tyler points out in a meeting. “It’s near the coast, is well watered. We don’t know about any significant resources in the area, but that’s mostly because we haven’t engaged in any focused searching of that entire continent yet.”

He lays out a plan for you.

First recruiting a specialized survey force. This would consist of specially trained mechanized infantry squads mounted in CH-1 helicopters, as well as submissions for a dedicated scout aircraft design.

Second, to avoid repeating the mistakes of the river survey in Wow, this unit would drill up to at least Veteran status prior to being deployed, just in case.

Third, conduct an extensive survey of both Castor and Pollux, the north and south of the twin continents respectively, by both aircraft and satellites with the ground survey force deployed to check anything spotted.

While this is taking place, a deep water coast guard unit is to be designed, constructed, and trained to secure the coasts.

Also while this is taking place teams are trained for penetrating the facility itself. There are files about the security measures typical of SLDF facilities, and such training would permit significant reduction in casualties from cracking said security.

Fourth, establish a suitable harbor city on Castor as close to the facility as possible to handle the logistics of the effort. Additional settlements may be called for depending on survey results. The establishment of these cities would require similar efforts to that required to get Huế mới up and running.

Fifth, establish a forward base at the facility and commence investigation.

He estimates that this may well take at least a decade of effort.

“This could be huge, so…” Tyler shrugs.

You’ve noticed that he’s been slowing down somewhat lately, a bit less flash, a bit more consideration, and you’ve even caught him a time or two looking his age for a moment.

General Wolf is also starting to look like an old grey wolf, his hair has gone completely grey verging on white, and he simply looks old at times.

You knew you’d eventually have to replace people, but… old age is creeping up on them even with the superb medical care available. In a few years they may well retire on you.

You decide not to worry about that for now, though. When it happens it’ll happen, and you know both of them well enough by now to trust that they won’t leave you in a lurch.

Wolf does send you a memo notifying you that in the near future you will have to make some decisions about the composition and organization of the military away from the current model of having all forces in a single unified command with relatively few layers between the General in command and the platoons themselves.
 

Thors_Alumni

Well-known member
Holy Shit! I was right.

We need to secure that facility. Who knows what is all in their. A Core, Battlemechs, or advanced clan Wolverine Technology unique to that clan.
 

CurtisLemay

Wargamer, Amateur Historian, Writer
Nuke Mod
Moderator
Staff Member
Founder
Orr.... a bioweapon created as a final "EFF Y'ALL" to the Clans if they come calling.

Whatever it is, if the Clans or the Combine see this? They're gonna go berserk. (Look up "Minnesota Tribe" for why on the Combine.)
 
Turn 11 - Advisors and Combat in Wow!

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 11 Advisors

The meetings are non-stop after the discovery of the hidden complex on Castor. It was well-hidden, and if your husband had been a little less eagle-eyed, and had been looking in anything except the perfect angle, he’d never have spotted it.

So naturally people were still running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

‘No, it’s not from the attack, unless they landed over a century ago and waited this long to attack us…’ is one of the most common soothing statements that you wind up making.

You stand at the window of your office, looking out over the grounds and watching your kids enthusiastically playing some undefined game with Bastet that seems to involve a lot of romping around, climbing things, and generally being little kids. Sekhmet is presiding over things with all the indulgent majesty of any mother watching her offspring. You smile yourself, as the giant cat looks up for a moment and looks right at you for a brief instant before turning her attention back to the shenanigans.

You chuckle and turn back to your desk.

Just this morning you’d gotten word from the zoo that progress was continuing on their work with their Grifftigers. They’d figured out a bit more about their diet. The fruit that seemed to give the tigers their bioluminescent stripes, for example, was found to be extremely rich in necessary chemicals for activating the bioluminescence of colonies of harmless bacteria that colonized the coats of the tigers. The fur follicles along the stripes had tiny secondary secretion glands that released these chemicals, providing food for the bacteria and enabling the glow.
According to them, the bacteria colonies seemed to give off a natural insect repellent, which might explain why the tigers and bacteria had developed this symbiotic relationship. The tigers provide concentrated nourishment from their far more efficient digestion of the fruit, while the bacteria provided the trademark blue-ish glow to the stripes along with insect repellent. The tigers got nibbled on less by tropical insects, the bacteria had easy food, they both won.

The notes indicate that extensive testing has found that both the chemical and the bacteria are completely harmless to humans, along with some proposed study lines involving the chemicals and bacteria for chemlights and such. You pass these along to Dr Palmer for her review.

The notes also indicate that the zoo has started more extensive intelligence tests for the grifftigers. Both your own experience, that of those who interacted with the giant cats over on Wow, and their own experiences contributed to that decision. They’d already shown that they seemed to understand mirrors, in that they seemed to realize very quickly that the image in the mirror was ‘them’. A video is attached of several of the zoo’s grifftigers hamming it up in front of the mirrors, either by themselves or with others, and seeming to find great amusement in the activity.

The keepers are also convinced that the vocalizations of the grifftigers were far more meaningful than any terrestrial big cat or dog, in that they were surprisingly complex once you analyzed them with broad-range microphones capable of picking up both infrasonic and ultrasonic sound.

Regardless, work was continuing and they’d keep you updated.

You manage to spend an entire week visiting with bà and the rest of the Ngố's down in Huế mới. You’d missed your weekly family meals ever since the clan moved down to the new city, and it is delicious as ever. Your kids and the younger Ngô children get along like houses on fire, and both Bastet and Sekhmet are huge hits.

Unfortunately, however, it seems old age is finally starting to catch up with bà. She’s now in a wheelchair and quite cross about how all of her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids are coddling her.

One morning while you are there you are awakened by shrieking alarms. You quickly discover that a massive herd of deathopotamusaurus had been sighted heading towards the rail line. Grifftigers had been sighted trying to turn the herd, but they appeared to rather stubbornly want to go right where the trains went.

“What forces do we have available?” you ask as you pull on your uniform.

“Three companies of foot infantry here in the city. The security mechanized infantry company is currently deployed to the fortification line. The Phalanx light tank platoon is here as part of your security detachment, and they can deploy as needed.” comes the report.

“Send out the Phalanxes, if they can’t hold them get on the horn with General Wolf and ask him how long until we can get an airstrike on them.” you say as you arrive at the small command center.

On the status screen you see the icons of the platoon of Phalanxes moving out to intercept. They are smaller than the Cutlasses and technically more lightly armed, and they certainly are lacking in torpedoes seeing as how they are tanks and not boats, but they are well armored, with steady reliable and skilled crews as well as minimal ammunition dependence.

The tankers are certainly eager to engage, and do so from the maximum range of their large lasers, maneuvering their tanks to keep the distance as long as possible. The sheets of laser fire slash into the lumbering herd of extremely angry and dangerous creatures who bellow their fury and disgust and accelerate into stampeding charges.

The Grifftigers, you note, slice in in the wake of each volley, obviously trying to take advantage of the deathopotamusaurus’s distraction to cut off individuals from the herd, flip them on their back, but then leaving them there while they go in for more.

It’s like watching a glacier melt, you think a bit numbly. The massive unstoppable wall of titanic beasts is succumbing rapidly. You see that the tank gunners aren’t bothering with shots to the body, they are firing at the legs and crippling the creatures, causing them to crash to the ground for the tigers to clean up. Smart tactics, you realize, those legs aren’t nearly as well armored as the carapaces covering the bodies.

The fighting takes several hours until the last of the herd is down. A few tanks are sporting scars on the armor from the few times they got too close, but are otherwise in good shape with no permanent losses. The grifftigers are feasting tonight, although you notice that most of the carcasses are being dragged off deeper into the jungles.

You head back to the capital in time for the meetings with your advisors.

General Wolf is first up, as usual. “Your Majesty, we have multiple priorities and not much wiggle room in meeting them. Yes, we need to secure and handle Castor and Pollux, and that facility could be vital, however we cannot take our eyes off the ball in terms of our defenses. The Kuritans are still out there, and they are inevitably going to come back. Therefore, I recommend that we start recruiting up the scout force, but that we also purchase a battalion of Foxhound Hovertanks and start training exercises for our Rocs. Or, since our Phalanxes did well enough against the deathopotamusaurus herd, we could conduct an after-action review to possibly improve their quality, and then purchase enough additional Phalanx tanks to round out a full battalion for service in Wow as security against those damn things.”

He looks at his notes then. “We are going to be reorganizing our forces starting next year, I’ll send you the dossiers when that happens. You’ll need to make a few decisions at that point in terms of who to place in command of various elements, but we’ll get into that when it’s time.”

Tyler manages to look almost completely like his typical, Tyler-ish self. “OK, here’s what we’ve got. Until General Wolf manages to deliver us a first-rate scouting party we’re a bit stuck in terms of what we can do to begin exploiting Castor and Pollux. I do not want to put in ports blind, there might be Death Crickets or something out there. Crickets so out of tune they make you want to die.” he grins. “So instead, I really think we need to start strengthening the central bank and taking a firmer grip on monetary policy. It’ll take a while, but will start yielding benefits at the same time expenses start soaring for dealing with the new settlements.”

Doctor Young brings a young man in with her. “Your Majesty, please meet Paul Harlason, he’s been leading the Ministry of Culture working group and has a presentation for you. Paul?”

When did you get so old that somebody who’s probably the age you were when you took the throne looks painfully young?

“Your Majesty, we’ve identified a number of areas where the Ministry of Culture can bring about positive and dynamic growth through arts, culture, and entertainment.” he begins, sounding like he’d rehearsed this in front of a mirror for days on end and is afraid that if he stumbles once he’ll lose it all.

“The biggest project that we propose, and which we think will have the most powerful effect while synergizing well with both economic and cultural growth, is to begin a concerted effort to improve the architectural beauty of our cities and important buildings. Right now everything is so very functional, with no real concern for aesthetics. If we need a building, we put up a box.” genuine passion enters his voice now… “We need a road, we slap down some concrete and asphalt and call it a day. There is no art, no beauty, no style at all. Every building looks like every other building. Even government buildings aren’t exempt. The Palace, all it is is an oversized box set in some unlandscaped yards.”

He takes a breath. “We propose to change all of that. It would be a long term goal, but with a bit of seed money and investment we believe that we can make it revenue neutral for the Crown after the first year.”

He looks like a puppy dog, you almost want to pat him on the head. Motherly instincts.

“Secondly, Your Majesty, do you know what our National Anthem is?” he asks.

You think about it, then realize… you don’t know the answer. You’ve never even thought of it, to be honest.

He nods “Precisely. We need one. We’d like to hold a competition for musicians and composers to come up with a proper national anthem for Griffin’s Roost, one that shows the pride we all feel in our home.” he manages to get that all out in a rush.

“Finally, we’d like to propose regular funding for the arts. Concerts, plays, operas, even simple things like art installations and demonstrations, all can raise public morale and prevent unrest.” he is smiling as he nears the end of his demonstration.

“So those are the three proposals from the Ministry of Culture, Your Majesty!” he finishes in a rush.

Dr Young smoothly takes over. “Until we’re further along in expanding to Castor and Pollux we won’t really have anything else to offer, Your Majesty. I think Paul’s points are well-made and would urge you to put some serious thought into them.”

Professor Chapman just sends you a memo from her office “Nothing really to report, Parliament is quietly supporting you, but nothing drastic, and there’s really nothing more to say at this time.”

Dr Palmer also limits herself to a memo. “We have a few things we’d like to do over here. First of all, our physics people and engineers are itching to work on the theory behind our fusion reactors and start looking for refinements. In addition, we have put together a team that is ready to start work on anti-penguin countermeasures..”

Juanita reports that there are still no positive reports of infiltrator activity among the new citizens from the Combine. She stresses, however, that any infiltrators at this point are the most dangerous sorts - the patient ones.

You saw Janet at the baby shower, and again when she brought her son home with her. She’s still officially on maternity leave, but she comes into your office anyways, carrying her son and looking bouncy and perky as ever.

“Nothing from me, boss! I do have my people working on a revised national police force concept from the ones my predecessors left us, but we’ll get back to you on that.” she smiles as Bastet and your kids bound into the office. “And little Jack here wanted to see his godmother!” she proclaimed.

Her son is fast asleep.

Janet doesn’t even look sheepish at this.
 

CurtisLemay

Wargamer, Amateur Historian, Writer
Nuke Mod
Moderator
Staff Member
Founder
[X] Plan: The Neighborhood Got Intreresting

-[X] Military
--[X] Procure 2 Roc ASF and 36 Foxhound Hovertanks
--[X] Recruit Pollux/Castor Scouting Force
--[X] Recruit Complex Entry Team

-[X] Interior
--[X] Strengthen Central Bank
--[X] Promote Heavy Industry

-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Increased Funding for the Arts
--[X] We Need a National Anthem

-[X] Research
--[X] Dire Penguin Countermeasures
--[X] Orbital Defense Platforms, Level 1

-[X] Justice
--[X] Establish National Police Force
 
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Jarow

Well-known member
[X] Plan: Ground Buildup
-[X] Military 4
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Chasseur Hovertank*
--[X] Recruit Battalion Foxhound, 7 Company (brings to battalion) Phalanx
--[X] Recruit Castor/Pollux Scouting Force
(First scouting team needed in complex chain. We need ports to use entry team, can hold off a bit for now)
--[X] After Action Review
(Only chance to get them above veterancy)

-[X]Interior 4
--[X] Charter a luxury airship service between the capital and Huế mới*
--[X] Strengthen Central Bank
(cost counterbalanced in diplomacy, economic growth)

-[X] Diplomatic 3
--[X] City Beautification
(stability Buffs and gdp growth)
--[X] We Need a National Anthem
(Small cheap stability buff)
--[X] Increased Funding for the Arts
(Cheap and nicer on events)

-[X] Political 3

-[X] Research 3
--[X] Orbital Infrastructure lvl 1*
--[X] Dire Penguin Countermeasures (non-lethal)
(Titanium access?)
--[X] Light Bipedal Mechs
(Can finally get mechs)


-[X] Intelligence 3
--[X] Counterintelligence Surveillance
(Lets make sure the choice to free them was safe)

-[X] Justice 2
--[X] Establish National Police Force
(Balanced by cities, protects from bad luck)
 
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