Turn 47 - Fight For 18 Days of Battles
The naval reorganization goes very smoothly indeed, with the senior-most
Lightning CO being promoted to Commodore and placed in charge of the new Strike Fleet. This has resulted in many hours of staff meetings hashing out future expansion plans, as now the three ‘mobile’ fleets are each somewhat unbalanced. Home Fleet lacks light units to serve as a screen, Capital Fleet likewise is lacking such, but has a surfeit of ASFs to make up the lack, Strike Fleet has no ASFs at all, and has such high tactical acceleration that only your interceptors are more maneuverable than they are.
Admiral Benjamin has also sent you a memo recommending that once their current surveys are completed that the 5
Enterprise class survey ships be either refitted or replaced, and that in the future the exploration fleet is to operate as a single unit rather than spreading out as they have been.
| [] | Approve Exploration Changes |
| [] | Disapprove Exploration Changes |
The representative from the New Rasalhaguians arrives. Yvette Johansen is not exactly what you’d expected, being a tiny woman who barely tops five feet in high heels and looks like a particularly energetic exhalation would knock her over.
According to her, the NRR had assets tracking the force that attacked you and had dispatched Yvette to warn you in a show of good faith and in the hopes that the warning would be a good first step in normalizing relations. She carried with her a message from Anton Gustavson, the leader of the New Rasalhaguians.
“Your Majesty, the war with the Kuritans continues. We are at a stalemate, lacking the ground forces to successfully drive the Dragon off of their worlds, while the Dragon lacks the aerospace forces to permit him to land his superior ground forces on our own. Agents have managed to send word, however, that the Dracs are planning to strike at you in the very near future, in hopes of a ‘quick victory’ to demonstrate their strength. We are hopeful that this warning will be sufficient to permit you to defeat the attack. If so, congratulations. If not, please accept my condolences for your losses and my prayers that you are able to make them good. Major Johansen is authorized to give you our latest intelligence estimates of the Dragon’s production capabilities. She is also authorized to act as my ambassador pro tempore with full plenipotentiary authority to negotiate on my behalf. I know that you have little reason to like or trust my motives, as not so long ago we faced each other on the battlefield. It is my hope that we can move past such differences and establish peaceful, if not cordial, relations.”
The estimates of DCMS production is… sobering. They have the ability to construct 1
Monolith a year from their largest yard over Nowa Warszawa along with a full 20 modified
Achilles. They are also able to produce up to 10
Leopard variants a year as well as a half dozen
Overlords from a secondary orbital yard that they are still in the process of expanding. The only two ASFs they have in production are
Sabres and
Shilones. Mech wise, they now have production facilities for
Dragon,
Catapult,
Jenner,
Phoenix Hawk,
Shadow Hawk,
Victor and
Atlas mechs. A Rasalhaguian raid managed to destroy their
Panther factory, and according to the report it has not been rebuilt.
According to Yvette the Rasalhaguians have been providing limited support to continuing insurgent activity on Nowa Warszawa.
Yvette floats the possibility of a formal peace treaty between the Griffon Empire and the New Rasalhaguians.
| [] | Begin formal negotiations for a peace treaty |
| [] | It’s still too soon, we don’t trust these Rasalhaguians any more than the Dracs |
It is then time for your favorite time of the year. Budget time. Please try and keep from being overly sarcastic, thank you very much.
General Stewart is up first. “Your Majesty, a general overview before we get into specifics. Construction of a dedicated HQ is on track and we hope to report completion by Q4. Our Personnel department has finalized the revamped survivor benefits as of last week and it has been determined that those lost in the recent action at the Nadir point qualify ex post facto for the increased benefits. General Griffith will be presenting the ground forces section of the briefing, General Reyes the Aerospace section, and Admiral Benjamin the Naval section. General Griffith?”
Your son stands up, smirking slightly as he twirls the remote in one hand before activating the screen. “We have several priorities this year, Your Majesty, and several options for how to best fulfil them. Specifically, we are hoping to complete either 2nd or 3rd Armored division by the addition of their 3rd Brigades. If we choose to go with completing 2nd Armored, we would need to procure 2 Standard Armored Regiments and a single Armored Cavalry Regiment. If we decide to take this route, we recommend procuring a 3rd Training Regiment to start establishing a 2nd Aerie Cadre to be based on Griffon IV. If, however, we complete 3rd Armored to full establishment strength, we would need to procure 1 Standard Armored Regiment, 1 Mechanized Standard Mech Regiment, and 1 Armored Cavalry Regiment, leaving us no free mech production for expanding the Cadre. The Aerie has informed us that they are currently not seeing any bottlenecks in Mechwarrior training.”
He changes to a new slide. “Regardless of which route we take, now that Griffon IV is at least marginally habitable, we will need to begin garrisoning the planet. However, currently there is a distinct lack of facilities to support any ground garrison unit. Therefore we recommend that we hold off on the procurement of any garrison forces until after the Colony is actually established and has the ability to house and feed the men. We do recommend continued expansion of mech production facilities in order to increase the total numbers we can procure in a given year.”
He then shifts to the next slide, which shows three assault mech designs, along with details about them. “Next up, we have three proposals for a new Trooper Assault Mech. The Sabaton features a trio of gauss rifles, a quartet of extended range 5cm lasers, and a single Anti-Personnel Gauss Rifle. This design has the highest downrange damage potential of the three, but is hampered by a highly vulnerable XL engine and being massively more expensive than any of the other competitors. Second is the Pattern 1b Assault Mech, which mounts a pair of gauss rifles, a pair of 5cm extended range lasers, a laser anti-missile system and an anti-personnel gauss rifle. The design also features a targeting computer, giving exceptional precision, however it also uses endosteel for the main structure. Finally the Doppelsoldier proposal features a pair of gauss rifles, a pair of AP gauss rifles, an enhanced extended range PPC, and a single 5cm extended range laser. This design only uses double heat sinks and is the cheapest of the three, although it lacks the sheer firepower of the Sabaton or the precision of the Pattern 1b.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Sabaton | 9102 | DHS | 188 | 28 | Armored 1 |
| [] | Pattern 1b | 4266 | DHS, ES | 188 | 28 | Armored 1, AMS 1 |
| [] | Doppelsoldier | 4036.8 | DHS | 184 | 27 | Armored 1 |
Another slide comes up, this time showing a pair of missile support mechs. “We have had 2 submissions for the Assault Missile Mech request for proposals. The Pattern 3 Assault Mech makes use of double heat sinks and endo-steel, as well as an XL fusion reactor, to achieve higher mobility, including limited jump capacity. It is armed with a pair of 20 pack long-range missiles with Artemis enhanced targeting, a laser anti-missile system, and a single enhanced PPC, all linked into a targeting computer for increased precision. In addition the Pattern 3 features an ECM suite. However the design is expensive, and relatively vulnerable due to the XL fusion plant. The Longbowman proposal also features twin 20 pack long range missiles with full Artemis support, makes use of a machine gun based anti-missile system, and has a pair of enhanced PPCs to supplement the missiles. This design only uses double heat sinks and a standard fusion engine, giving less mobility but greater survivability.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Pattern 3 | 6112.76 | DHS, Endo | 172 | 24 |
- Armored 1
- Missile 2
- AMS 1
- ECM
|
| [] | Longbowman | 4537.6 | DHS | 180 | 26 |
- Armored 1
- Missile 2
- AMS 1
|
“Finally,” Jeremy continues, bringing up a final slide showing two different command and artillery mechs. “We have had 2 submissions for the Command/Artillery Support competition. The Pattern 2c features a single Long Tom filling the entire right side of the mech, with an enhanced PPC, a 5cm extended range laser, and a machine gun based anti-missile system. This design has the requisite command console, beagle active probe, and ecm suite while using both double heat sinks and endo-steel. The Trebuchet Assault Artillery mech has a pair of Arrow IV launchers with substantial ammunition backed up by a pair of extended range 5cm lasers in the central torso. This design only uses double heat sinks.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Pattern 2c | 4788 | DHS, ES | 172 | 24 |
- Armored 1
- Artillery 3
- Command
- AMS 1
- Scout
- ECM
|
| [] | Trebuchet | 4854.4 | DHS | 168 | 23 |
- Armored 1
- Artillery 6
- Command
- ECM
- Scout
|
General Reyes is up next, and fires up the dreaded powerpoint of doom. “Your Majesty, with the new construction coming online we only need to procure a single Standard Carrier Wing. In addition, we recommend the procurement of a Planetary Defense WIng for Griffon IV, our lower manning requirements means that we will be able to support the unit even as the initial colonization begins.”
She then takes a breath. “In light of the significant losses sustained in the Nadir point engagement, it is now believed that the composition of the Star Fort ASF Wing is… less than optimal. The Goshawk IIG, AKA the Gausshawk, has proven to be a solid garrison bird due to not making use of any strategic materials. However, it has now been shown that an air wing primarily composed of them is inefficient in regards to handling massed DCMS attacks. On the other hand, their integrated AMS did come in very handy in blunting the massive missile attacks of the Dracs. With your approval we would like to begin the process of procuring a new heavy dogfighter to supplement the Eagle and replace the Goshawk 2G in the Star Fort Wings. The general desired capabilities are as follows.”
- 65 ton design
- 8/12 thrust profile
- Equipped with at least 1 Laser AMS on the tail (similar to Goshawk 2G)
Another slide… “Another proposal is to preemptively authorize first strike with Alamo-class Nuclear Anti-Ship Missiles in the event of another DCMS attack. This would require us to forward deploy our Alamo arsenal to the Star Forts. This would give us a substantial advantage against enemy dropships, however our analysts are concerned that our reliance on dropships for our own defenses, along with our fixed defenses, large number of orbital installations, and the relative vulnerability of the same may make us far more vulnerable to nuclear strikes than the DCMS. Nuclear strikes of this nature primarily benefit the attacker, not the defender, and the fear is that going nuclear may well, in the long term, result in far greater harm to ourselves than to the Dracs. For now this is only in the realm of thought exercises, we would need to modify the Star Forts to support nuclear ordnance before any decision can be made.”
Admiral Benjamin then takes the podium. And has his aide bring in the flip chart and begin passing out handouts rather than use powerpoint. Bless the man.
“Your Majesty, we have 9 ships commissioning this year, and a whole bunch of open building slips to fill. We’re planning on assigning the two new
Tyrannosaurus-class ships to the jump point defense squadrons to give them some more heft, the four new
Defiants to the Nadir squadron to replace losses, the
Troodons to the Inner System Patrol, and the
Langley to Capital Fleet. We will have the following slips open for construction.”
| Class | Available Building Slots |
| Defiant | 2 |
| Tyrannosaurus | 2 |
| Devastation | 2 |
| Langley | 1 |
| Lightning | 4 |
| Megaraptor | 2 |
| Troodon | 2 |
“In addition, we have 1 Large Dropship and 2 regular Dropship slips available thanks to the expansion of the Orbital Shipyards. We recommend procuring a third
Devastation and a pair of
Tyrannosaurus class ships. We also, of course, recommend continued expansion of the orbital yards.”
He then takes a very deep breath and looks… old and tired. “Finally, Your Majesty, we should conduct a thorough after-action review of the Nadir action. Commodore Smith retains my full confidence, despite this defeat, and I would like to strongly recommend her retention in command of the Nadir Patrol squadron. If there are any heads that need to roll over that defeat, Your Majesty, it is mine, for failing to ensure that she had sufficient assets on hand to fulfill her mission.”
General Stewart then retakes the podium. “Your Majesty, while I fully endorse the need for a comprehensive after-action review, I do not feel that any heads need to roll over the Nadir action, the Nadir Patrol performed as well as could be expected of them against a much stronger than expected attack. I would like to state that we will need to replace the Nadir Star Fort, and I have directed my staff to begin consideration of satellite defense facilities to complement the Star Forts.”
Bridget is up next, or she would be if she weren’t out on Maternity leave. You are terrified about how hyper her kids will likely be. She did, however, send an assistant who has the Interior's briefing.
“Your Majesty. We are ready to commence proper colonization of Griffon IV’s surface. Initial colonization will require environmental domes and suits. DoME is chafing at the bit to get started on additional projects, however as we will need 3 DoME teams for the next stage of colonization of Griffon IV we recommend keeping them on the leash. We stand ready to support any construction projects. In terms of direct economic support, we recommend doing so on Griffon IV, as we calculate this will have the greatest relative benefits this year.”
OK, her assistant is as dry and boring as Bridget is perky and hyper. You manage to stay awake through the dull monotone delivery… barely.
And then Isoroku is up. “Your Majesty, the Olympics were a great success for us, and we are looking forward to the Pan-Griffon Games next year, as well as the next full Olympiad in Roman space. Work on the Diplomatic Courier Service is going well and we are in discussions with both the Free Folk and the NRI to provide jump services for it. For this year's cultural affairs event we are recommending a memorial monument to those lost in the Nadir assault.”
Jake’s up next. “Your Majesty, we may be busier than a one armed paper hanger, but we’re ready to support the extension of Imperial governance to Griffon IV.”
Short, sweet, hard to beat.
Mary is looking quite chipper, and apparently is going to not be short, sweet, but hopefully will be hard to beat. She promptly fires up her presentation software.
- New Military Projects
- Aerodyne Dropships (Maximum)
- Aerodyne Dropships up to 35,000 tons
- Spheroid Dropships (Maximum)
- Spheroid Dropships up to 100,000 tons
- Improved Large Laser
- While in and of itself not a significantly effective weapon compared to existing weapons, this system is the culmination of advanced materials, power generation, and heat dissipation research. Mastering the practical application of these theoretical advances could lead to significant improvements for all laser weapons.
- Improved Large Pulse Laser
- Similar to the Improved Large Laser, in and of itself not a significantly capable weapon system, but it allows for proof of concept and practical application of theoretical R&D
- Improved PPC
- Same as above, only more so
- Improved Gauss Rifle
- This would be a significant improvement on existing equipment, while also allowing for practical engineering on theory-crafted science
- Improved AC 2/5/10/20
- This is more engineering proof-of-concept rather than any practical weapon systems, but would allow for future research into improved LB and Ultra systems
- Improved LRM
- Advanced materials should allow for a significant reduction in mass of LRM launchers. It should be noted that it is expected that advanced fire control systems may have some difficulty with the new launchers, especially in dropship mountings. (QM note - IC explanation for MML bug related to Improved LRM and Artemis IV)
- Improved SRM
- For SRMs the missiles themselves are improved, giving greater range from launchers of the same mass
- Research Recommendations
- Military
- Improved Gauss RIfle
- Improved LRM
- Spheroid Dropships (Maximum)
- Non-Military
Harry is up next for Intel. “Your Majesty, the public education campaign is going very well, as such we think it may be wise to go… carefully… in terms of ramping up COINTEL procedures. We recommend implementing only the most basic of general security screening, as well as implementing more comprehensive screening for all public employees.”
Finally Janet is up. “Your Majesty, we’re in position to extend law enforcement to Griffon IV. In addition, I strongly recommend that we engage in some serious prison reform, our maximum security facility is growing more and more overcrowded and we may start having serious issues there unless something is done.”
