Turn 50-GR - Make It
You can’t spend much time stewing over what is going on at Griffon VI because your nephew Thomas is in the hospital following a severe accident involving a stoned driver who’d disabled the manual operation lockouts of a stolen delivery truck and plowed into the school bus your baby sister’s eldest son was riding in on a class trip.
Luckily the safety systems on the school bus worked as advertised, flooding the vehicles passenger compartment with a fireproof aerogel foam that absorbed most of the shock and protected the children from the worst of the impact. Unfortunately a dozen kids are still in the hospital, mostly for precautionary reasons. Thomas is one of them, and he’s already complaining that he’s
fine. Sarah and Tony are already at the hospital and are keeping you updated.
The responsible driver is in custody and has a history of DUI, indeed his manual operator's permit had already been permanently suspended years ago, he’d then spent five years in jail for violating that suspension and had only been released from prison a few months ago. In the stolen truck the police found over a ton of some of the few drugs that are, in fact, still illegal due to how incredibly dangerous they are.
Within a week or so the entire drug operation has been rolled up, all of those involved had multiple priors and are facing life sentences due to the sheer number of laws they were found to have broken.
Parliament, meanwhile, is not taking ‘I’m only a placeholder!’ for an answer and have sent several proposals to your desk.
The first one is a somewhat thorny one. A group of Senators and Delegates have proposed releasing the schematics and production of all ‘strategic materials’ to the private sector, on the grounds that operating such a massive industrial operation is not something that government should do and that this will save the Treasury an enormous amount of money as they will no longer be on the hook for the upkeep, construction, and maintenance of all of the foundries and orbital production lines.
On the one hand, it would make it far easier to mass produce military units as you won’t have to juggle the availability of strategic materials, plus it would save the crown a nice chunk of change. On the other hand it would make it utterly impossible to maintain any sort of security over such materials. All of your advisors are firmly against this proposal.
| [] | Support |
- Removes the requirement to factor in strategic materials for unit acquisition
- Zeroes out upkeep for orbital factories used for strategic materials
- Unlocks potential events
- +5 Economic Event
- -5 Research Event
- +5 support Senate
- +5 support Chamber of Delegates
- +1 Influence Senate
- +1 Influence Chamber of Delegates
|
| [] | Oppose |
- -5 support Senate
- -5 support Chamber of Delegates
- +10 Politics
- -5 Approval Change
- -10 Approval Rating
- Prevents potential events
|
The other proposal only will pass if you back it. A small pacifist party has made it into the Chamber of Delegates and has part of its platform sharply limiting military spending. They have proposed legislation limiting military spending (procurement+upkeep) to $1,000,000.00 a year and making it mandatory for the Empress/Emperor to obtain a declaration of war from both the Senate and Chamber of Delegates prior to deploying any military forces outside of the Griffon System.
| [] | Back it |
- +1 Influence Chamber of Delegates
- +1 Influence Senate
- Limits military spending to a total of $1,000,000.00 a year
- This is a total of military upkeep and projects
- Restricts the ability to deploy forces out of the Griffon system without Parliamentary approval
|
| [] | Let it die | |
Several days later you finally hear from Admiral Kirk. The entire formation is returning to Nowy Gdansk, as that is where the nearest yards are located…
And they are bringing something with them. SLS Morristown, the
Potemkin-class Troop Cruiser which had served as the main colony ship transporting your ancestors to this system has been found… intact.
The accompanying report indicates that it will take years of dedicated work to make her operational once more, due to centuries of neglect while she drifted in orbit of Griffon VI within the planetary rings, concealed by several large moonlets.
The transit drive, KF core, life support, reactor, weaponry… nothing is actually operational, but all of it can, according to the evaluations of the experts, be
made operational. The structure itself is fundamentally sound.
And she is an awe-inspiring sight. Even the largest dropships in service are utterly dwarfed by the titanic vessel. The SLDF markings are vividly visible, and despite the flaws imparted from centuries of micrometeorite bombardment the brilliant white paint scheme gleams in the light of the sun.
The media is in a frenzy. This is
history happening before everybody's eyes. By the time the formation is entering Nowy Gdansk orbit there are swarms of private shuttles rented by media companies are waiting for them, and Admiral Benjamin rises to the occasion. The combined fleets are in perfect order, executing the orbital insertion burns in perfect synchronization made possible by support from
SARAH.
Griffin’s Roost has a Warship.
Griffin’s Roost has her original colony ship.
Your little sister, of course, is very annoyed. She wants to be out there because this is the historians wet dream, on the other hand, she doesn’t want to leave her eldest son (who is still protesting that he’s fine, really, and can mom please stop it with the excessive momming?).
Tony is hard-pressed keeping her calm, with predictable results as a few days later you learn that Sarah is pregnant again, with twins.
You are pretty sure Mom will be happy with that, maybe even more than with the discovery of SLS Morristown.
