[X] They at least die with some shred of honor
Begging for mercy only after they were caught isn't really repentance.
Begging for mercy only after they were caught isn't really repentance.
Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
Glad to see the rng supports RRF shenanigans
Winter_Wind45
Well-known member
[X] They at least die with some shred of honor
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] They at least die with some shred of honor
[X] Hamid al-Aziz Senior surviving officer from 1st Armored (deputy Regiment commander), is currently waiting for a replacement arm.
They only started pleading for mercy once the first few executions' happened. Sorry no dice, If they really wanted mercy they should have done it before not after. Remember Sandoval or whoever his name was that falsely swore allegiance to the queen and died for it? Yes its like that. only this is worse.
[X] Hamid al-Aziz Senior surviving officer from 1st Armored (deputy Regiment commander), is currently waiting for a replacement arm.
They only started pleading for mercy once the first few executions' happened. Sorry no dice, If they really wanted mercy they should have done it before not after. Remember Sandoval or whoever his name was that falsely swore allegiance to the queen and died for it? Yes its like that. only this is worse.
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SuperHeavy
Well-known member
I know by doing so we would be dancing on the fine line between genius and madness, but I still want to try stuffing a heavy naval PPC into a dropship. It would probably only have the one weapon and some AMS but you could zap enemy dropships with a single push of a button.
namar13766
Well-known member
Great, we can punish any future Drac POWs!
[X]They at least die with some shred of honor.
”We know we we were doing horrible things, but we felt bad about it , really!”
Yeah, no. They die the same like the monsters. Soulless. Honourless. Weeping. Ashamed.
Wageslave
Well-known member
[X] Repentance is a virtue, as is mercy. Commute their sentences to life in prison.
-[X] New prison, just for this sort of criminal, where Dire Penguins thrive.
[X] Hamid al-Aziz Senior surviving officer from 1st Armored (deputy Regiment commander), is currently waiting for a replacement arm.
Do. Not. Waste. Good.
-[X] New prison, just for this sort of criminal, where Dire Penguins thrive.
[X] Hamid al-Aziz Senior surviving officer from 1st Armored (deputy Regiment commander), is currently waiting for a replacement arm.
Do. Not. Waste. Good.
namar13766
Well-known member
I’m sorry, but I don’t think admitting guilt and pleading for mercy once it was demonstrated they would face ACTUAL FUCKING CONSEQUENCES for their actions is necessarily the same as being repentant.
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Jarow
Well-known member
[X] They at least die with some shred of honor
We were already nice enough not to super execute them, no reason to spare them now.
[X] Hamid al-Aziz Senior surviving officer from 1st Armored (deputy Regiment commander), is currently waiting for a replacement arm.
Having a survivor of the destroyed division feels right to me.
We were already nice enough not to super execute them, no reason to spare them now.
[X] Hamid al-Aziz Senior surviving officer from 1st Armored (deputy Regiment commander), is currently waiting for a replacement arm.
Having a survivor of the destroyed division feels right to me.
ShadowArxxy - The Quality of Mercy
Omake: The Quality of Mercy
“My client pleads guilty to all charges, and begs the Empress’ mercy. In lieu of a personal statement, he begs Her Majesty to consider an ancient wisdom:
There was a small stir in the court at this; while almost all of the oligarchs and their corrupt cronies had tried to negotiate some form of plea bargain, this was the first to straight up plead guilty. The Empress had already read through the case file, but motioned for a hard copy.
“Mister Reese.” Her voice was cold and precisely formal. “Had you begged Our mercy at any point before you were actually arrested, We would have granted it. Perhaps even during the six weeks when you were free on bail. But you did not. Indeed, you spent the majority of those six weeks trying to arrange the murders of the subordinates you believed to be the key witnesses against you. At no point up until you entered this Court have you displayed the slightest hint of remorse, much less repentance.
“Therefore, Our answer to you is an older and higher piece of ancient wisdom: ‘So speak ye, and so do, as being to be judged by the law of liberty. Judgement without mercy to him that hath not done mercy’. Our judgement is that you will be hung by the neck until dead, and you will be buried unshriven, and you will not be remembered.”
“My client pleads guilty to all charges, and begs the Empress’ mercy. In lieu of a personal statement, he begs Her Majesty to consider an ancient wisdom:
‘The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God Himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.’ ”
There was a small stir in the court at this; while almost all of the oligarchs and their corrupt cronies had tried to negotiate some form of plea bargain, this was the first to straight up plead guilty. The Empress had already read through the case file, but motioned for a hard copy.
“Mister Reese.” Her voice was cold and precisely formal. “Had you begged Our mercy at any point before you were actually arrested, We would have granted it. Perhaps even during the six weeks when you were free on bail. But you did not. Indeed, you spent the majority of those six weeks trying to arrange the murders of the subordinates you believed to be the key witnesses against you. At no point up until you entered this Court have you displayed the slightest hint of remorse, much less repentance.
“Therefore, Our answer to you is an older and higher piece of ancient wisdom: ‘So speak ye, and so do, as being to be judged by the law of liberty. Judgement without mercy to him that hath not done mercy’. Our judgement is that you will be hung by the neck until dead, and you will be buried unshriven, and you will not be remembered.”
Joyousmadman
Well-known member
[X] They at least die with some shred of honor
[X] Hamid al-Aziz Senior surviving officer from 1st Armored (deputy Regiment commander), is currently waiting for a replacement arm.
[X] Hamid al-Aziz Senior surviving officer from 1st Armored (deputy Regiment commander), is currently waiting for a replacement arm.
namar13766
Well-known member
That's actually pretty merciful considering the alternative is being drawn and quartered for high treason in a time of war.
Turn 53 - Ever Since I Was A Young Boy
Turn 53 - Ever Since I Was A Young Boy
The year starts out with meetings. Assessment of the damage from the Second Battle of Griffin’s Roost is complete, and it is a sobering situation. Castor will be years, if not decades, fully recovering from the devastation wrought by the Dracs. It is pointed out that one of the reasons the Rapid Reaction Force lasted as long as they did, giving the main force time to assemble, was that the Dracs seemed to mostly focus on sheer wanton destruction of ‘soft’ civilian targets over actually dealing with the hovercraft.
Planetary authorities, however, have the situation well in hand and have not requested Imperial assistance, indeed there seems to be an almost fierce local pride in handling the rebuilding themselves. ‘You can knock us down, you can’t knock us out’ is how one local business leader put it in an interview on the IBC.
The executions have finally been completed, although there is still one case outstanding that requires a decision from you, and it has you and Janet both rather… flummoxed.
The case itself hasn’t gone to court at all yet. And, honestly, it wouldn't even be a case in the first place if the defendants hadn’t quietly informed the Crown of the situation, as it was something that was completely missed. If the defendants had simply kept their mouths shut nobody would likely have ever found out.
It came down to cybercrime and security. A small outfit on Pollux specialized in ‘white hat’ penetration testing of secure computer systems, and were widely regarded as probably the best in the entire business. In fact, it was some of their gear which the Special Branch had used to gather all of the intelligence on the oligarchs in the first place, and they’d been consulted at multiple points in the investigation by the Justice Ministry.
However, they found in their records that when they were just starting out they’d performed a pen test for one of the major media conglomerates owned by the oligarchs involved in this mess, hired ostensibly for journalistic purposes. They had thought at the time that they had covered their legal bases, in that they had authorization from the ‘target’ of the pen test to perform the work. With the reveal of the criminal activities of the oligarchs, however, they had gone back and out of excessive due diligence determined that this authorization, while on its face was valid, had been issued by one of the ‘inside’ conspirators working with the Oligarchs, and thus it could be argued that they had instead performed a criminal cybercrime by performing the pen test.
It turns out that the security flaws that the pen test had revealed had never been fixed, instead the oligarchs had exploited them to further their own goals.
So, on the one hand, this outfits work had been fairly crucial for the oligarchs corruption to prosper as long as it had, on the other hand, they had no reasonable way of knowing that this was the case, had done their due diligence in getting what they reasonably believed to be lawful authorization to perform the pen testing, and when they had discovered the possibility of an issue with that authorization they’d immediately reported themselves to the authorities rather than try and cover it up.
Then there are meetings about the response to the attack and the efforts to reorganize and rebuild the ground forces to better handle the situation.
Jeremy is again taking the lead, seeming somewhat more relaxed and less like the grim God Of War he’d looked like right after the battle, with Admiral Benjamin along giving the briefing for the Navy.
“OK, Mom, we have a number of decisions to make.” Jeremy started. “We want to start fielding full mechanized units as soon as possible, and then we will start working out proper force balances for armored units. We put out some emergency requests for proposals and have received a number of responses.”
He brought up the display. “First of all, we’ll start with the command element of the new units. Due to the lessons learned from the battle, we determined that any command elements will need to be as robust and capable as possible, able to provide command and control while mobile, and have their own integrated infantry elements.”
He consulted his notes. “We have four entrants into this phase. First up is actually the command variant of a new Omnivehicle design, the manufacturer is calling it the Gavin II. This vehicle is rather well armed, with multiple anti-personnel gauss rifles, an enhanced particle projection cannon, anti-missile defenses, a 3cm pulse laser, a pair of 5cm extended range lasers, and a Streak-enhanced six-pack of short range missiles. This entry has the heaviest close in defense of any of the four.”
He brings up the next display. “Next up is… an odd one. The designer in question is a small firm on Pollux that, well… as you can see, it does have a turret mounted enhanced particle projection cannon, 5cm pulse laser, and anti-missile system, but for some reason they mounted a 20 rack of long range missiles on the sides as some sort of broadside weapon. Our people are very skeptical about the efficacy of this design choice, even if it means that this platform, on paper, has excellent long range capability.”
Another slide, and your son shuffles his papers. “The next design is the most… conventional… of the four, armed with a laser-based anti-missile system and an enhanced PPC in the turret, and a pair of 20 rack long range missiles firing forward. It is also the least expensive of the three and avoids the use of strategic materials.”
“Finally,” he brings up the last slide. “Is a somewhat more unconventional entry from Nollak, a combination command and anti-aircraft vehicle armed with a pair of turreted LB-10X autocannons, anti-missile systems, an anti-personnel gauss rifle and a 5cm extended range laser. This is the most versatile of the designs, sacrificing raw firepower for enhanced anti-air capability, but still managing to be an effective overall design and the second least expensive proposal, albeit still making use of ferro-fibrous armor.”
“Next up on the list are the assault-grade IFVs that will form the primary strike elements of the force. We purposely divided this into conventional and missile designs so that we could build balanced units, however one of the three designs submitted for the conventional category is a missile boat. I’ll get to that in a moment.” Jeremy grimaces slightly.
“First up is the Gavin II based platform, using the Omni capabilities. This one has a single greatest long range punch of all of the proposals, combining an enhanced PPC with twin gauss rifles to punish targets at long range, but lacks missiles entirely.” he brings up the image, showing an identical hull to the command proposal, albeit one with a pair of ‘horns’ projecting from the glacis where the gauss rifles are mounted.
“Second, we have a very odd duck that we almost rejected out of hand, because it flies in the face of our combat experience, doesn’t meet the intent of the ‘conventional’ category, and frankly we seriously doubt its viability. It’s the same designer as the broadside command vehicle, but this time they decided to put a single 20 rack missile launcher on each side, the front, and the back while retaining the same turret.” he grimaces again. “This design would find it utterly impossible to concentrate fire in any particular direction, the provisions for the infantry boarding and debarking seem… a triumph of hope and optimism over the laws of physics, and in general we are very leary of this design, but it does meet the strict letter of the requirements.”
He brings up the next slide, “And finally the proposal from our own internal design staff, the Myrmidon Assault IFV. A turret-mounted Gauss Rifle, 5cm extended range laser, anti-personnel gauss rifle, and anti-missile system, combined with a hull mounted secondary anti-missile system and a 20 rack of long range missiles. It is the most balanced of the three designs, lethal across all ranges.”
“Next we have the missile-centric assault weight IFVs, intended to provide support for the conventional forces.” Jeremy smiles slightly. “We again have 3 entries, including another pyramid.”
He brings up the first slide. “We almost rejected this one, as it is slightly more expensive than our RFP specified, but it is also an Omni configuration, which if we purchase the others in this range may be useful. The Gavin II Missile has the most long range punch, as it retains the enhanced PPC of the base model. Four front mounted long-range missile racks give it its primary punch.”
He takes a deep breath. “And now for the next entry in pyramid power. It again fits the requirement, but has the missiles in that same bizarre pyramidal configuration preventing any concentration of fire.” he quickly moves on.
“Finally, we have the Minuteman Assault Missile IFV, the product of our internal team. It is the least expensive of the three options, with a pair of anti-missile systems and a quartet of 20 rack missile launchers in a well armored turret. It is the only one of the three to mount the missiles in a turret, giving it enormous flexibility.”
“Now things start to get interesting. For the more mobile elements we had competitions for both missile and non-missile centered designs. This time we got a pair of omni designs, along with a pair of more conventional designs.”
“First up, we have the Sheridan II Cavalry Fighting Vehicle, one of the two Omni entries. For this one the only fixed equipment is the troop bay itself, everything else is modular. This variant is armed with an enhanced PPC, anti-missile system, and both a 5cm extended range laser and an anti-personnel gauss rifle in the hull.” he grins slightly.
“The pyramid boys are back with another entry, but this time they dispense with the broadsides, mount a single 20 rack on the front, and a quartet of 5cm extended range lasers in the turret.” he shows that slide with a bit of a smirk.
Then he switches to the next one. “Next is the second of the 2 ‘conventional’ designs, that is, non-Omni. This one is armed with a hull-mounted 20 rack of missiles and a combination of an extended range and pulse 3cm laser. It has the least non-missile firepower of any of the entries and our analysis is that it would struggle to fulfil the role we envision for the design due to its, well, trying to be a missile IFV in a non-missile role, but it is the cheapest of the four.”
The next slide comes up on the screen. “And finally the second Omni entry in this contest. The Bobcat ‘Prime’ configuration. The only ‘fixed’ weapon is the anti-missile system in the turret, everything else is modular apart from some electronics and the troop bay. This variant is armed with an enhanced PPC and a 5 rack of long range missiles in the turret, giving it excellent harassment potential without sacrificing punch.”
He then brings up the next segment of the presentation, luckily the slides are really more for showing details that he’s not bothering to talk about, so it’s not as boring as General Powerpoints presentations. “Next we have the missile focused IFVs of this size range. Again we have 2 Omni and 2 non-Omni proposals.”
“First up is the first of the two Omni, the Sheridan II Missile Cavalry Fighting Vehicle. This time the primary armament is a pair of 20 rack LRMs, an anti-missile system, and an anti-personnel gauss rifle.” he checks his notes. “It is the most expensive of the four, incidentally”
Next he advances to the next screen. “Next up is the Challenger 6 from, well, the pyramid power people… with the requisite weapon systems, but mounted on the broadsides like an age of sail warship. In its favor it's the second cheapest, so there is that.”
“We have the least expensive of the four options next, and the most straightforward. Just a pair of 20 racks in a turret, no advanced electronics, no frills at all, but it gets the job done.”
“And finally,” he advances to the next screen. “We have the second of the two Omni entries, the Bobcat Alpha Cavalry Fighting Vehicle. This one is a bit interesting as it is a missile design that is also effective in close range combat, while sacrificing a bit in the long range arena to the other designs. Unlike them, it only has a single 20 rack of long range missiles, but that is paired with a 5cm extended range laser and a Streak-equipped twin rank of short range missiles supplied with deep magazines. It has the greatest combat endurance, in terms of ammunition load, of any of the proposals.”
“Lastly we have the new self-propelled guns, and with these we faced a bit of a revolt internally, as two of the designs had the cannon-cockers of the Artillery categorically rejecting them despite them technically meeting all requirements. We made a point of paying out the RFP response awards to each of them regardless.” he grimaced. “We don’t like doing that without giving the designs a fair hearing, but according to the artillerists fixed mounts are far too rigid for their needs and would never be acceptable in the field.”
“First up is the Creusot Self Propelled Gun. This design pairs the Long Tom with a dizzying array of lasers, a quartet of conventional 5cm lasers on the flanks and a pair in the turret alongside an anti-personnel gauss rifle and a pair of anti-missile systems.”
“The second is the Bishop Assault SPG. This design also has a single Long Tom, but all of it’s secondary weapons are also turret mounted, consisting of a pair of 5cm extended range lasers, a single anti-personnel gauss rifle, and an anti-missile system. The Bishop has somewhat deeper magazines than the Creusot, with a total of 50 rounds of ammunition carried vrs 40.”
“As far as our internal recommendation. For the command vehicle we find the anti-air capability offered by the Archduke to be a significant advantage, as it will save us from having to assign other anti-air assets to the formation. For the heavy IFVs both the Gavin II based Omnivehicle and the Myrmidon satisfactorily fulfil the role, for the missile IFVs the Gavin II based platform would be preferable if we procure the Gavin II for the conventional role, otherwise the Minuteman. For the medium IFVs either of the Omni submissions would be preferred. On a per vehicle basis the Sheridan is superior, but across an entire formation the Bobcat becomes more capable thanks to the harassment potential of the combination of long range missiles and TAG even for those units with fewer than 20 tubes of missiles. Regardless, we recommend choosing either one or the other, not both. For artillery we recommend the Bishop, for the combination of no additional Strategic material usage and cost.”
Then Admiral Jackson takes over. “Your Majesty, we have the preliminary assessment of the captured Monoliths. The four that remained close to Griffin’s Roost just needed some crews to remove the bodies of the former crews, but repairs will still need to be made to the fusion cores, and a full inspection and recertification will be required for the KF cores before they can safely be used. Once the yards are up to the task of building jumpships, which could happen as soon as 4Q this year, we’ll be able to accomplish those tasks and put them into service at minimal expense. The two that were salvaged near the Nadir, on the other hand… I’ve been aboard one of them after she got towed in and… I have never been so creeped out in my life. The entire interior will need to be stripped, and if you know any good exorcists now might be a good time to get on good terms with them, because I could have sworn I was hearing phantom voices everywhere I went on those two ships.”
“On the subject of adjustments to our ships, we have a rough proposal for a complimentary parasite battleship design to the Royal Sovereign class, provisionally dubbed the Majestic-class, but we will need the Barracuda missiles researched before we can finalize the design work.”
He then takes a deep breath. “We also have a somewhat more radical proposal. We currently field several classes of vessels which carry either individual flights of ASFs or squadrons, rather than full wings. It was felt that this would provide a minor self-escorting function to the designs and enhance their ability to screen larger units. Experience, however, has shown that in fleet actions this appears to cause issues of coordination, with the relatively small number of ‘additional’ ASFs to the fleet complement causing command issues. This is not an issue for independent operations, such as those performed by Enterprise-A and Sentinel class vessels, nor for training purposes, but for fleet units it is a problem. Therefore, we are proposing that we withdraw the Devastation, Warrior and Megaraptor designs from consideration for Fleet actions, using them purely as picket vessels until we are able to fully replace them with more optimized designs. The Megaraptors will be reassigned to picket duty on the zenith and nadir points, supplementing the existing forces there, while the Devastation and Warriors will be reassigned to the Inner Asteroid Belt.”
“Won’t this reduce our fleet strength?” you ask, concerned, especially with the loss of the Devastation-class.
“In the short term, yes, and it will slow our growth as we replace at least the Devastation and Warrior class vessels with new builds. But ultimately it will result in a far more cohesive and capable force mix. On that note.” he shuffled his notes a little. “We also intend to halt procurement of the Lightning-class in favor of the Oviraptor, with the first 22 of them replacing the Lightnings on a 1 to 1 basis. The Lightnings currently in service will be redesignated as Parasite Destroyer Escorts, renamed to numbered PDE designations, and will give up their names to the new Oviraptors, which shall be designated as Parasite Destroyers. The Lightnings are decent ships overall, but too small to adequately serve in the role of a fast attack dropship. We will also be halting Tyrannosaurus procurement in favor of additional Oviraptors.”
“Keep me informed.” you reply, pursing your lips in thought. You do have a growing variety of dropship designs in service, and many of them overlap. Consolidating and rationalizing things could only be helpful.
The year starts out with meetings. Assessment of the damage from the Second Battle of Griffin’s Roost is complete, and it is a sobering situation. Castor will be years, if not decades, fully recovering from the devastation wrought by the Dracs. It is pointed out that one of the reasons the Rapid Reaction Force lasted as long as they did, giving the main force time to assemble, was that the Dracs seemed to mostly focus on sheer wanton destruction of ‘soft’ civilian targets over actually dealing with the hovercraft.
Planetary authorities, however, have the situation well in hand and have not requested Imperial assistance, indeed there seems to be an almost fierce local pride in handling the rebuilding themselves. ‘You can knock us down, you can’t knock us out’ is how one local business leader put it in an interview on the IBC.
The executions have finally been completed, although there is still one case outstanding that requires a decision from you, and it has you and Janet both rather… flummoxed.
The case itself hasn’t gone to court at all yet. And, honestly, it wouldn't even be a case in the first place if the defendants hadn’t quietly informed the Crown of the situation, as it was something that was completely missed. If the defendants had simply kept their mouths shut nobody would likely have ever found out.
It came down to cybercrime and security. A small outfit on Pollux specialized in ‘white hat’ penetration testing of secure computer systems, and were widely regarded as probably the best in the entire business. In fact, it was some of their gear which the Special Branch had used to gather all of the intelligence on the oligarchs in the first place, and they’d been consulted at multiple points in the investigation by the Justice Ministry.
However, they found in their records that when they were just starting out they’d performed a pen test for one of the major media conglomerates owned by the oligarchs involved in this mess, hired ostensibly for journalistic purposes. They had thought at the time that they had covered their legal bases, in that they had authorization from the ‘target’ of the pen test to perform the work. With the reveal of the criminal activities of the oligarchs, however, they had gone back and out of excessive due diligence determined that this authorization, while on its face was valid, had been issued by one of the ‘inside’ conspirators working with the Oligarchs, and thus it could be argued that they had instead performed a criminal cybercrime by performing the pen test.
It turns out that the security flaws that the pen test had revealed had never been fixed, instead the oligarchs had exploited them to further their own goals.
So, on the one hand, this outfits work had been fairly crucial for the oligarchs corruption to prosper as long as it had, on the other hand, they had no reasonable way of knowing that this was the case, had done their due diligence in getting what they reasonably believed to be lawful authorization to perform the pen testing, and when they had discovered the possibility of an issue with that authorization they’d immediately reported themselves to the authorities rather than try and cover it up.
| [] | Proceed with prosecution, let the chips fall where they may |
| [] | Thank the outfit for their honesty and leave it be, there was no criminal intent after all |
Then there are meetings about the response to the attack and the efforts to reorganize and rebuild the ground forces to better handle the situation.
Jeremy is again taking the lead, seeming somewhat more relaxed and less like the grim God Of War he’d looked like right after the battle, with Admiral Benjamin along giving the briefing for the Navy.
“OK, Mom, we have a number of decisions to make.” Jeremy started. “We want to start fielding full mechanized units as soon as possible, and then we will start working out proper force balances for armored units. We put out some emergency requests for proposals and have received a number of responses.”
He brought up the display. “First of all, we’ll start with the command element of the new units. Due to the lessons learned from the battle, we determined that any command elements will need to be as robust and capable as possible, able to provide command and control while mobile, and have their own integrated infantry elements.”
He consulted his notes. “We have four entrants into this phase. First up is actually the command variant of a new Omnivehicle design, the manufacturer is calling it the Gavin II. This vehicle is rather well armed, with multiple anti-personnel gauss rifles, an enhanced particle projection cannon, anti-missile defenses, a 3cm pulse laser, a pair of 5cm extended range lasers, and a Streak-enhanced six-pack of short range missiles. This entry has the heaviest close in defense of any of the four.”
He brings up the next display. “Next up is… an odd one. The designer in question is a small firm on Pollux that, well… as you can see, it does have a turret mounted enhanced particle projection cannon, 5cm pulse laser, and anti-missile system, but for some reason they mounted a 20 rack of long range missiles on the sides as some sort of broadside weapon. Our people are very skeptical about the efficacy of this design choice, even if it means that this platform, on paper, has excellent long range capability.”
Another slide, and your son shuffles his papers. “The next design is the most… conventional… of the four, armed with a laser-based anti-missile system and an enhanced PPC in the turret, and a pair of 20 rack long range missiles firing forward. It is also the least expensive of the three and avoids the use of strategic materials.”
“Finally,” he brings up the last slide. “Is a somewhat more unconventional entry from Nollak, a combination command and anti-aircraft vehicle armed with a pair of turreted LB-10X autocannons, anti-missile systems, an anti-personnel gauss rifle and a 5cm extended range laser. This is the most versatile of the designs, sacrificing raw firepower for enhanced anti-air capability, but still managing to be an effective overall design and the second least expensive proposal, albeit still making use of ferro-fibrous armor.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Gavin II Command Omnitank | 1361.94 | FF | 27 | 18 |
|
| [] | Challenger 3 | 1355.23 | FF | 28 | 19 |
|
| [] | Challenge 3 Command Vehicle | 917.04 | 27 | 18 |
| |
| [] | Archduke Command Vehicle | 1194 | FF | 28 | 19 |
|
“Next up on the list are the assault-grade IFVs that will form the primary strike elements of the force. We purposely divided this into conventional and missile designs so that we could build balanced units, however one of the three designs submitted for the conventional category is a missile boat. I’ll get to that in a moment.” Jeremy grimaces slightly.
“First up is the Gavin II based platform, using the Omni capabilities. This one has a single greatest long range punch of all of the proposals, combining an enhanced PPC with twin gauss rifles to punish targets at long range, but lacks missiles entirely.” he brings up the image, showing an identical hull to the command proposal, albeit one with a pair of ‘horns’ projecting from the glacis where the gauss rifles are mounted.
“Second, we have a very odd duck that we almost rejected out of hand, because it flies in the face of our combat experience, doesn’t meet the intent of the ‘conventional’ category, and frankly we seriously doubt its viability. It’s the same designer as the broadside command vehicle, but this time they decided to put a single 20 rack missile launcher on each side, the front, and the back while retaining the same turret.” he grimaces again. “This design would find it utterly impossible to concentrate fire in any particular direction, the provisions for the infantry boarding and debarking seem… a triumph of hope and optimism over the laws of physics, and in general we are very leary of this design, but it does meet the strict letter of the requirements.”
He brings up the next slide, “And finally the proposal from our own internal design staff, the Myrmidon Assault IFV. A turret-mounted Gauss Rifle, 5cm extended range laser, anti-personnel gauss rifle, and anti-missile system, combined with a hull mounted secondary anti-missile system and a 20 rack of long range missiles. It is the most balanced of the three designs, lethal across all ranges.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Gavin II - Cannon | 1200.44 | FF | 32 | 23 |
|
| [] | Challenger 12 | 1274.73 | FF | 32 | 23 |
|
| [] | Myrmidon Assault IFV | 1181.53 | FF | 32 | 23 |
|
“Next we have the missile-centric assault weight IFVs, intended to provide support for the conventional forces.” Jeremy smiles slightly. “We again have 3 entries, including another pyramid.”
He brings up the first slide. “We almost rejected this one, as it is slightly more expensive than our RFP specified, but it is also an Omni configuration, which if we purchase the others in this range may be useful. The Gavin II Missile has the most long range punch, as it retains the enhanced PPC of the base model. Four front mounted long-range missile racks give it its primary punch.”
He takes a deep breath. “And now for the next entry in pyramid power. It again fits the requirement, but has the missiles in that same bizarre pyramidal configuration preventing any concentration of fire.” he quickly moves on.
“Finally, we have the Minuteman Assault Missile IFV, the product of our internal team. It is the least expensive of the three options, with a pair of anti-missile systems and a quartet of 20 rack missile launchers in a well armored turret. It is the only one of the three to mount the missiles in a turret, giving it enormous flexibility.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Gavin II Missile | 1410.26 | FF | 33 | 24 |
|
| [] | Challenger 2 | 1308.73 | FF | 32 | 23 |
|
| [] | Minuteman Assault Missile IFV | 1267.83 | FF | 32 | 23 |
|
“Now things start to get interesting. For the more mobile elements we had competitions for both missile and non-missile centered designs. This time we got a pair of omni designs, along with a pair of more conventional designs.”
“First up, we have the Sheridan II Cavalry Fighting Vehicle, one of the two Omni entries. For this one the only fixed equipment is the troop bay itself, everything else is modular. This variant is armed with an enhanced PPC, anti-missile system, and both a 5cm extended range laser and an anti-personnel gauss rifle in the hull.” he grins slightly.
“The pyramid boys are back with another entry, but this time they dispense with the broadsides, mount a single 20 rack on the front, and a quartet of 5cm extended range lasers in the turret.” he shows that slide with a bit of a smirk.
Then he switches to the next one. “Next is the second of the 2 ‘conventional’ designs, that is, non-Omni. This one is armed with a hull-mounted 20 rack of missiles and a combination of an extended range and pulse 3cm laser. It has the least non-missile firepower of any of the entries and our analysis is that it would struggle to fulfil the role we envision for the design due to its, well, trying to be a missile IFV in a non-missile role, but it is the cheapest of the four.”
The next slide comes up on the screen. “And finally the second Omni entry in this contest. The Bobcat ‘Prime’ configuration. The only ‘fixed’ weapon is the anti-missile system in the turret, everything else is modular apart from some electronics and the troop bay. This variant is armed with an enhanced PPC and a 5 rack of long range missiles in the turret, giving it excellent harassment potential without sacrificing punch.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Sheridan II Cavalry Fighting Vehicle | 621.16 | FF | 25 | 16 |
|
| [] | Challenger 5 | 604.24 | FF | 25 | 16 |
|
| [] | Challenge 5 Recon IFV | 420.71 | FF | 22 | 13 |
|
| [] | Bobcat Prime Cavalry Fighting Vehicle | 623.49 | FF | 24 | 15 |
|
He then brings up the next segment of the presentation, luckily the slides are really more for showing details that he’s not bothering to talk about, so it’s not as boring as General Powerpoints presentations. “Next we have the missile focused IFVs of this size range. Again we have 2 Omni and 2 non-Omni proposals.”
“First up is the first of the two Omni, the Sheridan II Missile Cavalry Fighting Vehicle. This time the primary armament is a pair of 20 rack LRMs, an anti-missile system, and an anti-personnel gauss rifle.” he checks his notes. “It is the most expensive of the four, incidentally”
Next he advances to the next screen. “Next up is the Challenger 6 from, well, the pyramid power people… with the requisite weapon systems, but mounted on the broadsides like an age of sail warship. In its favor it's the second cheapest, so there is that.”
“We have the least expensive of the four options next, and the most straightforward. Just a pair of 20 racks in a turret, no advanced electronics, no frills at all, but it gets the job done.”
“And finally,” he advances to the next screen. “We have the second of the two Omni entries, the Bobcat Alpha Cavalry Fighting Vehicle. This one is a bit interesting as it is a missile design that is also effective in close range combat, while sacrificing a bit in the long range arena to the other designs. Unlike them, it only has a single 20 rack of long range missiles, but that is paired with a 5cm extended range laser and a Streak-equipped twin rank of short range missiles supplied with deep magazines. It has the greatest combat endurance, in terms of ammunition load, of any of the proposals.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Sheridan II Missile Cavalry Fighting Vehicle | 599.66 | FF | 24 | 15 |
|
| [] | Challenger 6 | 545.36 | FF | 25 | 16 |
|
| [] | Challenge 6 Medium Missile IFV | 387 | FF | 24 | 15 |
|
| [] | Bobcat Alpha Cavalry Fighting Vehicle | 581.44 | FF | 23 | 14 |
|
“Lastly we have the new self-propelled guns, and with these we faced a bit of a revolt internally, as two of the designs had the cannon-cockers of the Artillery categorically rejecting them despite them technically meeting all requirements. We made a point of paying out the RFP response awards to each of them regardless.” he grimaced. “We don’t like doing that without giving the designs a fair hearing, but according to the artillerists fixed mounts are far too rigid for their needs and would never be acceptable in the field.”
“First up is the Creusot Self Propelled Gun. This design pairs the Long Tom with a dizzying array of lasers, a quartet of conventional 5cm lasers on the flanks and a pair in the turret alongside an anti-personnel gauss rifle and a pair of anti-missile systems.”
“The second is the Bishop Assault SPG. This design also has a single Long Tom, but all of it’s secondary weapons are also turret mounted, consisting of a pair of 5cm extended range lasers, a single anti-personnel gauss rifle, and an anti-missile system. The Bishop has somewhat deeper magazines than the Creusot, with a total of 50 rounds of ammunition carried vrs 40.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Creusot Self Propelled Gun | 945.30 | FF | 30 | 21 |
|
| [] | Bishop Assault SPG | 888.80 | 30 | 21 |
|
“As far as our internal recommendation. For the command vehicle we find the anti-air capability offered by the Archduke to be a significant advantage, as it will save us from having to assign other anti-air assets to the formation. For the heavy IFVs both the Gavin II based Omnivehicle and the Myrmidon satisfactorily fulfil the role, for the missile IFVs the Gavin II based platform would be preferable if we procure the Gavin II for the conventional role, otherwise the Minuteman. For the medium IFVs either of the Omni submissions would be preferred. On a per vehicle basis the Sheridan is superior, but across an entire formation the Bobcat becomes more capable thanks to the harassment potential of the combination of long range missiles and TAG even for those units with fewer than 20 tubes of missiles. Regardless, we recommend choosing either one or the other, not both. For artillery we recommend the Bishop, for the combination of no additional Strategic material usage and cost.”
Then Admiral Jackson takes over. “Your Majesty, we have the preliminary assessment of the captured Monoliths. The four that remained close to Griffin’s Roost just needed some crews to remove the bodies of the former crews, but repairs will still need to be made to the fusion cores, and a full inspection and recertification will be required for the KF cores before they can safely be used. Once the yards are up to the task of building jumpships, which could happen as soon as 4Q this year, we’ll be able to accomplish those tasks and put them into service at minimal expense. The two that were salvaged near the Nadir, on the other hand… I’ve been aboard one of them after she got towed in and… I have never been so creeped out in my life. The entire interior will need to be stripped, and if you know any good exorcists now might be a good time to get on good terms with them, because I could have sworn I was hearing phantom voices everywhere I went on those two ships.”
“On the subject of adjustments to our ships, we have a rough proposal for a complimentary parasite battleship design to the Royal Sovereign class, provisionally dubbed the Majestic-class, but we will need the Barracuda missiles researched before we can finalize the design work.”
He then takes a deep breath. “We also have a somewhat more radical proposal. We currently field several classes of vessels which carry either individual flights of ASFs or squadrons, rather than full wings. It was felt that this would provide a minor self-escorting function to the designs and enhance their ability to screen larger units. Experience, however, has shown that in fleet actions this appears to cause issues of coordination, with the relatively small number of ‘additional’ ASFs to the fleet complement causing command issues. This is not an issue for independent operations, such as those performed by Enterprise-A and Sentinel class vessels, nor for training purposes, but for fleet units it is a problem. Therefore, we are proposing that we withdraw the Devastation, Warrior and Megaraptor designs from consideration for Fleet actions, using them purely as picket vessels until we are able to fully replace them with more optimized designs. The Megaraptors will be reassigned to picket duty on the zenith and nadir points, supplementing the existing forces there, while the Devastation and Warriors will be reassigned to the Inner Asteroid Belt.”
“Won’t this reduce our fleet strength?” you ask, concerned, especially with the loss of the Devastation-class.
“In the short term, yes, and it will slow our growth as we replace at least the Devastation and Warrior class vessels with new builds. But ultimately it will result in a far more cohesive and capable force mix. On that note.” he shuffled his notes a little. “We also intend to halt procurement of the Lightning-class in favor of the Oviraptor, with the first 22 of them replacing the Lightnings on a 1 to 1 basis. The Lightnings currently in service will be redesignated as Parasite Destroyer Escorts, renamed to numbered PDE designations, and will give up their names to the new Oviraptors, which shall be designated as Parasite Destroyers. The Lightnings are decent ships overall, but too small to adequately serve in the role of a fast attack dropship. We will also be halting Tyrannosaurus procurement in favor of additional Oviraptors.”
“Keep me informed.” you reply, pursing your lips in thought. You do have a growing variety of dropship designs in service, and many of them overlap. Consolidating and rationalizing things could only be helpful.