Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
Decim
Chronic on/off lurker
The Romans primarily paid for the dropship design. Not dropships themselves. Sure, they'd be happy to take possession of anything we're willing to sell, but, well. We kinda need the dropship construction capacity for ourselves to make up for losses last year and to get further ahead of the DCMS when we start raiding them.
Simonbob
Well-known member
But we're talking about sending a bunch off to protect some people who cannot offer us anything in return right now.
Edit: Ok, I did forget something. One operational Jumpship. This'll tie down our only jumpship pretty much full time. When we have more, sure.
So.....
[X] We need them at home.
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Jarow
Well-known member
[X] Send the desired forces
Losing the ground forces hurts, but since we want to integrate them, we're going to need to send ground forces at some point. I'm pretty confident in our space-based defenses already, so we'll probably be fine for that half of the offer.
Comparing the two units for possible imperial guard (and, just in case, the standard vehicle regiment):
Note that assault is mech-based.
Going to leave off voting here while I think a bit longer, but currently leaning towards assault regiment.
Losing the ground forces hurts, but since we want to integrate them, we're going to need to send ground forces at some point. I'm pretty confident in our space-based defenses already, so we'll probably be fine for that half of the offer.
Comparing the two units for possible imperial guard (and, just in case, the standard vehicle regiment):
| Unit Name | Size | Cost | Endo | Ferro | DHS | HP | Attack | Defense | Missile | AMS | TAG | Scout | ECM | Swift | Command | APC | Artillery | Anti-Air |
| Imperial Guard Regiment | Assault | $109,130.32 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 3686 | 682.6 | 682.6 | 86 | 35 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Assault Regiment | Assault | $173,034.00 | 27 | 0 | 27 | 6945 | 1779 | 1779 | 81 | 81 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 18 | 1 |
| Armored Regiment | Heavy | $113,356.16 | 0 | 27 | 0 | 4139 | 895 | 895 | 93 | 36 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 15 | 1 |
Going to leave off voting here while I think a bit longer, but currently leaning towards assault regiment.
[X] We need them at home
Good relations are all neat and wonderful, but we just escaped destruction by a hair's breadth. Even if it is unlikely that the Dracs can muster a similarly sized follow up strike soon not keeping these units in reserve could massively undermine the Throne`s position and the continuation of our rule. I suggest at best a limited expeditionary force as a show of good faith.
Good relations are all neat and wonderful, but we just escaped destruction by a hair's breadth. Even if it is unlikely that the Dracs can muster a similarly sized follow up strike soon not keeping these units in reserve could massively undermine the Throne`s position and the continuation of our rule. I suggest at best a limited expeditionary force as a show of good faith.
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[X] Send the desired forces
I think we can afford to err on the side of kindness and generosity, plus it's arguably a long term investment on our part.
[X] Assault Regiment
- [X] The assault regiment will be "new" like USS Puritan -- new in fact, but retaining the name, colors, honors, and traditions of the existing unit.
I think we can afford to err on the side of kindness and generosity, plus it's arguably a long term investment on our part.
[X] Assault Regiment
- [X] The assault regiment will be "new" like USS Puritan -- new in fact, but retaining the name, colors, honors, and traditions of the existing unit.
ShadowArxxy - All The Time - Part I
Omake: All The Time, Part 1
Private Mining Vessel Ranma Maru, Deep Space Near Zenith Point, Griffon’s Roost System
“Holy shit! What the hell is that thing?”
“This,” declared Grace cheerfully, “is a Nollak FC-1 flechette rifle. It’s a recoilless semi-automatic manpack derivative of an LB-X autocannon, specifically designed for space boarding.”
“That gun is almost as big as you are, Grace, and we are ‘boarding’ an abandoned derelict with no detectable life signs. This is a simple salvage job.”
The tall redhead glared at her brother-in-law. “Matt, I have a bad feeling about this one.”
“Grace, you have a ‘bad feeling’ about every single salvage contract we take.”
“That’s because ever since you talked Julie into adding salvage hardware to the Ranma, you insist on jumping on every single half-ass recovery contract they post. Most of which barely pay for the fuel it takes to get out there and back.”
“This one’s different!” insisted Matt, thumping the long-range sensor console for emphasis. “We have absolutely hit the jackpot this time -- that’s a freaking Monolith class JumpShip and there’s no other salvage rated vessels within half a day’s burn. She’s too big for us to tow single-hand, but we’ll have undivided first salvage shares on her.”
“That’s one of the fucking Combine ships from the invasion, which means she’s out here because she misjumped. Misjumped ships are bad, bad shit.”
Julie floated through the hatch to join her twin and husband. “That’s just spacer superstition. All of our sensor reads say she’s derelict but totally intact.”
Grace sighed. “I still say I have a bad feeling about this, and I’m not going without Sasha.”
"You NAMED IT?"
“Naming guns is totally traditional!”
-----
Fortunately for the Ranma Maru, it appeared that the Combine used Star League standard docking collars and tug connections. Their salvage-and-recovery variant of the docking collar was structurally reinforced so that it could be used under limited thrust, which greatly simplified the delicate job of matching the movements of the slowly tumbling JumpShip, latching on, and then slowly zeroing out its movements relative to the system primary so that additional tugs could safely come alongside.
Actually getting inside the ship was a considerably more time-consuming challenge. The salvage collar had integrated cutting torches, but they were only civilian ones and it took a painfully long time to sear through the JumpShip’s capital-grade hatch plating.
“Okay, we’re just about through. We’ll want to head aft to the engineering compartment first to verify the status of the reactor and the K-F core, then head forward to the hab areas and bridge. Suit checks, everyone?”
“Sealed and green.”
“Sealed and green.”
“Sealed and green for me too.”
“Ah, Grace, you go first.”
“I thought I was ‘just being crazy and superstitious’?”
“You’re the one with the giant cannon!”
“You’re the one who insists there’s nothing to worry about, you go first!”
Julie rolled her eyes and preempted further argument by deftly gliding ahead to the front of the airlock. “You two bicker so much that anyone else would think you’re the married ones.”
"Sorry, dear."
"Sorry, sis."
-----
Given that the JumpShip had apparently drifted for months before SARAH’s long distance sensors found her at the outer edges of the system, the three salvagers were unsurprised to find the interior cold, dark, and eerily quiet. Their shoulder-mounted lights provided more than enough light to safely proceed through the docking area, gliding from hand-hold to hand-hold in the zero-G environment.
The layout of the ship did not diverge significantly from the standard Monolith blueprints provided by SARAH, although they did note the presence of anti-boarding security points consisting of prefabricated machine gun emplacements clamped to the deck. Those could have swept the entire entry area with a lethal cross-fire, so it was rather a relief to find them abandoned. A careful double-check verified that the emplaced weapons were in battle ready condition, loaded and cocked but with safeties engaged.
Their initial assumption from the abandoned security stations had been that the unfortunate crew had at least initially survived the misjump and then retreated to the habitation section to conserve life support resources, but things began to look different as they began making their way towards the engineering section. The docking area of the ship had been almost too clean, with the showroom sharpness of a ship that was not just perfectly maintained but brand new. The spoke corridors leading inwards to the core of the ship swiftly lost that newness, and the central corridor along the spine of the ship was weathered in the way of a ship that had seen many decades of service.
They found the remains of most of the crew at the far end of the central corridor, a collection of ship suits in Draconis Combine military colors free-floating in a loosely drifting pile near the far bulkhead. All of them were not just deceased, but visibly long dead, their suits impossibly age-worn and faces withered and dessicated like those of ancient mummies.
Although they would forever deny it afterwards, the sudden transition from creepy silence to graphic horror made all three salvagers panic. Matt screamed like a little girl and threw himself backwards, colliding with an equally-terrified Julie. Grace shrieked and whipped Sasha up, but overbalanced as she fired, sending a blast of flechettes past the drifting mummies to rake down the side of the corridor like great metallic claws while she somersaulted helplessly in midair.
The only reason they didn’t flee the ship entirely at this point was that by the time all three of them managed to physically stabilize themselves, it was clear that the mummies were simply dead and not any sort of undead. They had to pick their way past the bodies to reach the hatch into the engineering section, but fortunately did not have to actually touch them.
----
Unlike the docking section of the ship, the engineering section actually did still have power. The dim red emergency lighting would have felt completely mundane under any other circumstances, but in the wake of the mummy encounter it couldn’t be taken as anything but sinister. But no actual threat materialized, and they made their way to the reactor without further incident.
They found two more dead crew members in the reactor room, seated at the control stations. These appeared to be even more terribly aged than those in the access shaft, their suits decayed to fragments to reveal skeletal remains. Unwilling to come any closer than they had to, the salvagers made only a hasty examination of the control panels, which appeared to indicate that the reactor had been automatically shut down after the misjump and had not been restarted.
There was an immediate, silent agreement that since restarting the reactor would require moving the bodies and a JumpShip didn’t have much in the way of transit drives anyway, they were going to leave this alone. All they needed to know was that the reactor was in a safe and stable configuration, and “shut down” certainly qualified. And if that conclusion was a little rushed, who could blame them?
----
Despite the pucker factor of having to squeeze past the floating pile of corpses again, the trio were able to make their way back to the Ranma Maru without further incident. Their trip through the aft section of the ship had taken much longer than they expected, so they needed to rest and recharge their life support before proceeding forward.
No one argued with Grace when she insisted on stopping to unclamp the two closest security hardpoints and turn them around to cover the corridor leading up to the docking collar. They still had no idea what had actually happened to the JumpShip’s crew, after all.
Once safely back on board their own ship (and glad as never before to be in their lovingly maintained but slightly run down, well-used home in the stars), they took the time to replay their video logs. The sight of the dead Combine crew was almost as horrific as it had been in person, but what caught their attention now that they had more time to examine was the reactor shutdown.
"I hate to say this,” commented Grace in a tone that was entirely too tense to contain even a hint of her usual I told you so, “but there’s even more disturbing shit going on. I grabbed a copy of the reactor logs while we were down there, and they’re saying the reactor didn’t shut down from the misjump because all of the safety systems were manually overridden. The reactor shut down because it ran out of fuel."
“A JumpShip fusion reactor ran out of fuel?!?!?!?”
“Like I said, more disturbing shit. The log shows that they disengaged the safeties in order to force a fast charge of the Kearny-Fuchida core, and they triggered a jump as soon as the core reached minimum adequate charge. But the reactor never spooled down after that -- it just kept running at emergency maximum output until fuel exhaustion.”
“On a reactor design that regenerates its fuel?”
“Hydrogen fuel regeneration is 'only' about 99.99% efficient. At least in theory, a reactor *does* slowly run down its core bunkerage even if you're not bleeding off plasma for the transit drive or main maneuvering thrusters. It would just take a really, really long time. Like, hundreds of years even running flat out.”
“Hundreds of years on a ship that’s been out here for three months?”
Grace gave a helpless shrug. “It's probably a glitch in the sensors, but all the bodies we found didn’t look three months old either. The ship’s main logs might tell us more; we should look for them when we’re on the bridge. Unless you want to check the reactor directly?”
"Ah, no. Definitely not, unless we've checked the main logs and it's still an issue."
“I don’t know if I want to go back out there at all.” sighed Julie. “I am definitely all of the creeped out.”
“Oh come on! We lose our first salvage rights if we can’t confirm that the ship is cleared and safe.” complained Matt, who was perhaps a little too eager to make up for (totally not) losing his nerve earlier. “The bridge is a lot closer than engineering was, anyway. What could...”
“Don’t you DARE say it!” snapped Grace. “That damn phrase is challenging Murphy and that is the last thing in the universe we need right now!”
TO BE CONTINUED. . .
Private Mining Vessel Ranma Maru, Deep Space Near Zenith Point, Griffon’s Roost System
“Holy shit! What the hell is that thing?”
“This,” declared Grace cheerfully, “is a Nollak FC-1 flechette rifle. It’s a recoilless semi-automatic manpack derivative of an LB-X autocannon, specifically designed for space boarding.”
“That gun is almost as big as you are, Grace, and we are ‘boarding’ an abandoned derelict with no detectable life signs. This is a simple salvage job.”
The tall redhead glared at her brother-in-law. “Matt, I have a bad feeling about this one.”
“Grace, you have a ‘bad feeling’ about every single salvage contract we take.”
“That’s because ever since you talked Julie into adding salvage hardware to the Ranma, you insist on jumping on every single half-ass recovery contract they post. Most of which barely pay for the fuel it takes to get out there and back.”
“This one’s different!” insisted Matt, thumping the long-range sensor console for emphasis. “We have absolutely hit the jackpot this time -- that’s a freaking Monolith class JumpShip and there’s no other salvage rated vessels within half a day’s burn. She’s too big for us to tow single-hand, but we’ll have undivided first salvage shares on her.”
“That’s one of the fucking Combine ships from the invasion, which means she’s out here because she misjumped. Misjumped ships are bad, bad shit.”
Julie floated through the hatch to join her twin and husband. “That’s just spacer superstition. All of our sensor reads say she’s derelict but totally intact.”
Grace sighed. “I still say I have a bad feeling about this, and I’m not going without Sasha.”
"You NAMED IT?"
“Naming guns is totally traditional!”
-----
Fortunately for the Ranma Maru, it appeared that the Combine used Star League standard docking collars and tug connections. Their salvage-and-recovery variant of the docking collar was structurally reinforced so that it could be used under limited thrust, which greatly simplified the delicate job of matching the movements of the slowly tumbling JumpShip, latching on, and then slowly zeroing out its movements relative to the system primary so that additional tugs could safely come alongside.
Actually getting inside the ship was a considerably more time-consuming challenge. The salvage collar had integrated cutting torches, but they were only civilian ones and it took a painfully long time to sear through the JumpShip’s capital-grade hatch plating.
“Okay, we’re just about through. We’ll want to head aft to the engineering compartment first to verify the status of the reactor and the K-F core, then head forward to the hab areas and bridge. Suit checks, everyone?”
“Sealed and green.”
“Sealed and green.”
“Sealed and green for me too.”
“Ah, Grace, you go first.”
“I thought I was ‘just being crazy and superstitious’?”
“You’re the one with the giant cannon!”
“You’re the one who insists there’s nothing to worry about, you go first!”
Julie rolled her eyes and preempted further argument by deftly gliding ahead to the front of the airlock. “You two bicker so much that anyone else would think you’re the married ones.”
"Sorry, dear."
"Sorry, sis."
-----
Given that the JumpShip had apparently drifted for months before SARAH’s long distance sensors found her at the outer edges of the system, the three salvagers were unsurprised to find the interior cold, dark, and eerily quiet. Their shoulder-mounted lights provided more than enough light to safely proceed through the docking area, gliding from hand-hold to hand-hold in the zero-G environment.
The layout of the ship did not diverge significantly from the standard Monolith blueprints provided by SARAH, although they did note the presence of anti-boarding security points consisting of prefabricated machine gun emplacements clamped to the deck. Those could have swept the entire entry area with a lethal cross-fire, so it was rather a relief to find them abandoned. A careful double-check verified that the emplaced weapons were in battle ready condition, loaded and cocked but with safeties engaged.
Their initial assumption from the abandoned security stations had been that the unfortunate crew had at least initially survived the misjump and then retreated to the habitation section to conserve life support resources, but things began to look different as they began making their way towards the engineering section. The docking area of the ship had been almost too clean, with the showroom sharpness of a ship that was not just perfectly maintained but brand new. The spoke corridors leading inwards to the core of the ship swiftly lost that newness, and the central corridor along the spine of the ship was weathered in the way of a ship that had seen many decades of service.
They found the remains of most of the crew at the far end of the central corridor, a collection of ship suits in Draconis Combine military colors free-floating in a loosely drifting pile near the far bulkhead. All of them were not just deceased, but visibly long dead, their suits impossibly age-worn and faces withered and dessicated like those of ancient mummies.
Although they would forever deny it afterwards, the sudden transition from creepy silence to graphic horror made all three salvagers panic. Matt screamed like a little girl and threw himself backwards, colliding with an equally-terrified Julie. Grace shrieked and whipped Sasha up, but overbalanced as she fired, sending a blast of flechettes past the drifting mummies to rake down the side of the corridor like great metallic claws while she somersaulted helplessly in midair.
The only reason they didn’t flee the ship entirely at this point was that by the time all three of them managed to physically stabilize themselves, it was clear that the mummies were simply dead and not any sort of undead. They had to pick their way past the bodies to reach the hatch into the engineering section, but fortunately did not have to actually touch them.
----
Unlike the docking section of the ship, the engineering section actually did still have power. The dim red emergency lighting would have felt completely mundane under any other circumstances, but in the wake of the mummy encounter it couldn’t be taken as anything but sinister. But no actual threat materialized, and they made their way to the reactor without further incident.
They found two more dead crew members in the reactor room, seated at the control stations. These appeared to be even more terribly aged than those in the access shaft, their suits decayed to fragments to reveal skeletal remains. Unwilling to come any closer than they had to, the salvagers made only a hasty examination of the control panels, which appeared to indicate that the reactor had been automatically shut down after the misjump and had not been restarted.
There was an immediate, silent agreement that since restarting the reactor would require moving the bodies and a JumpShip didn’t have much in the way of transit drives anyway, they were going to leave this alone. All they needed to know was that the reactor was in a safe and stable configuration, and “shut down” certainly qualified. And if that conclusion was a little rushed, who could blame them?
----
Despite the pucker factor of having to squeeze past the floating pile of corpses again, the trio were able to make their way back to the Ranma Maru without further incident. Their trip through the aft section of the ship had taken much longer than they expected, so they needed to rest and recharge their life support before proceeding forward.
No one argued with Grace when she insisted on stopping to unclamp the two closest security hardpoints and turn them around to cover the corridor leading up to the docking collar. They still had no idea what had actually happened to the JumpShip’s crew, after all.
Once safely back on board their own ship (and glad as never before to be in their lovingly maintained but slightly run down, well-used home in the stars), they took the time to replay their video logs. The sight of the dead Combine crew was almost as horrific as it had been in person, but what caught their attention now that they had more time to examine was the reactor shutdown.
"I hate to say this,” commented Grace in a tone that was entirely too tense to contain even a hint of her usual I told you so, “but there’s even more disturbing shit going on. I grabbed a copy of the reactor logs while we were down there, and they’re saying the reactor didn’t shut down from the misjump because all of the safety systems were manually overridden. The reactor shut down because it ran out of fuel."
“A JumpShip fusion reactor ran out of fuel?!?!?!?”
“Like I said, more disturbing shit. The log shows that they disengaged the safeties in order to force a fast charge of the Kearny-Fuchida core, and they triggered a jump as soon as the core reached minimum adequate charge. But the reactor never spooled down after that -- it just kept running at emergency maximum output until fuel exhaustion.”
“On a reactor design that regenerates its fuel?”
“Hydrogen fuel regeneration is 'only' about 99.99% efficient. At least in theory, a reactor *does* slowly run down its core bunkerage even if you're not bleeding off plasma for the transit drive or main maneuvering thrusters. It would just take a really, really long time. Like, hundreds of years even running flat out.”
“Hundreds of years on a ship that’s been out here for three months?”
Grace gave a helpless shrug. “It's probably a glitch in the sensors, but all the bodies we found didn’t look three months old either. The ship’s main logs might tell us more; we should look for them when we’re on the bridge. Unless you want to check the reactor directly?”
"Ah, no. Definitely not, unless we've checked the main logs and it's still an issue."
“I don’t know if I want to go back out there at all.” sighed Julie. “I am definitely all of the creeped out.”
“Oh come on! We lose our first salvage rights if we can’t confirm that the ship is cleared and safe.” complained Matt, who was perhaps a little too eager to make up for (totally not) losing his nerve earlier. “The bridge is a lot closer than engineering was, anyway. What could...”
“Don’t you DARE say it!” snapped Grace. “That damn phrase is challenging Murphy and that is the last thing in the universe we need right now!”
TO BE CONTINUED. . .
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
I think its the bodyguard unit for the Royal Family.
Turn 54 - I Watched Miami Vice
Turn 54 - I Watched Miami Vice
You cut the orders dispatching the old Warriors and the surviving Devastations to Calliope IV, along with 2nd RRF. About two months later you get a thank you package from the local residents on Calliope IV, over a hundred cases of mixed high grade beer and some truly tasty spiced mead, along with over a thousand bottles of krupnik.
And it appears that you have a leak in your security named Willis, because a day after you caught him letting the cat out of the bag concerning the krupnik you find yourself again deluged with pleading dignitaries from Nowy Gdansk begging for bottles. According to a laughing Sergeant Major Ngo the line is now wrapped twice around the hotel, there have been a few fist fights but is generally orderly, with the remaining survivors of the actual refugees from Nowa Warszawa being passed through to the front, a gesture that is quite touching, actually.
As for the Olympics themselves, well… the losses from the battle are painfully obvious here.
The wrestling matches, both men’s and women’s, are surprisingly close, even though the best your teams can manage is a single bronze medal between them. Thanks to the losses you’d taken, the surviving coaches had just headhunted for the strongest young men and women they could find, gave them a crash course in wrestling, and prayed. It worked much better than it should have, but not nearly well enough to earn any victories.
The fencing matches are even more lopsided. The badly short-handed men’s team manages to scrape together a single bronze in saber, but it is brutally obvious that many of the competitors are competing in disciplines outside of their specialty. The women’s team? The less said about that one the better, as not a single one of the girls manages a single touch. Considering that the team is made up of mostly high-school level fencers, with two old retirees who’d last taken up a foil twenty years ago being the only available women’s coaches, since the entire training facility for professional level fencing in the Griffon Empire had been leveled during the fighting? The team is just happy not to have suffered any serious injuries.
The women’s archery contest is more of the same, a bunch of teenagers struggling to compete against professional archers. Here again the NRI shows some superb sportsmanship, as directly after the competition is over the NRI team is working with the youngsters on their form.
The men’s competition, however, is both the one bright spot lately in the litany of woe and defeat, and a stunning upset. All thanks to one young archer who is only a freshman in High School who, in your humble opinion, is shooting the bow like Robin Hood reborn. Every single arrow hits the bullseye, even though the kid’s technique is wildly at variance to ‘professional’. He doesn’t seem to aim in the conventional sense, he holds the bow at his side, then simultaneously brings it up to a firing position while drawing it back, and then releases the moment the arrow is fully drawn. He doesn’t bother with the sights or anything, and he hits the bullseye… every… single… time… you are relieved to note that he isn’t named William Tell or Robin Hood but rather a rather boring Billy Smith.
And then suffer a moment of angst when you see Jeremy’s expression, as young Billy Smith is the son of the deceased pilot of his Empress command mech. You’d hoped the God Of War look would be left in the past, but it clears away soon enough.
Even though you are on Nowy Gdansk for the Olympiad you can’t escape paperwork, and budget time. Yay.
General Stewart is up first. “Your Majesty, I cannot stress enough how badly we need rapid expansion of our strategic materials production capacity. Right now that, along with Mech Factories, is our biggest and most critical bottleneck. That being said, General Griffith?”
Jeremy comes forward, accompanied by his aide de camp. “Before I get into procurement, Your Majesty, there are several organizational notes. The Imperial Griffon Armorworks in conjunction with Lee Industries has released a pair of new armored fighting vehicles with which we currently intend to replace the Jaguar and the Arbalest.”
He brings up a graphic, showing a rather interesting tank design. Unlike the Jaguar, this Patton shifts the gauss rifle to a hull mount, has a different pattern 20 tube LRM rack that seems to be split on the rear deck, obviously designed for VLS fire forward. The most interesting thing about is the addition of a trio of moulded seats on each track guard flanking the missile launcher and the fact that the covers for the missile tubes themselves seem to be reinforced.
“This tank is slightly less powerful on a per-unit basis, but it is about 20% faster, plus the split nature of the main armament allows it to engage multiple targets at once. Moreover, as you probably noticed, the hull has been designed to readily permit battle armored infantry to ‘ride along’ on top. While it doesn’t give the infantry as much protection as a true APC, this still allows for infantry to be attached to the unit itself.” he consults his notes. “About a quarter of the losses of Jaguars in the battle were due to them not being able to fall back quickly enough, and another 20% were due to them not being able to traverse their turrets rapidly enough to reengage a second target, when neither required both the enhanced PPC and the gauss to destroy.”
He changes to the next graphic, which shows a similar hull. “This is the Stahlregen MLRS system, which will be replacing the Arbalest II in providing missile support to the Patton MBT. This does have an enclosed infantry bay, so is even better suited for transporting supporting infantry. It has the same armament as the Arbalest, on twenty more tons, with greater mobility and armor.”
“That out of the way, Your Majesty, here are the recommended procurements for this year. First of all, for mech procurement, we do not have enough endo-steel production for more than 2 regiments even with the recycled spares from the decommissioned mechs, unless we purchase more training mechs that we, honestly, do not currently need. Therefore, I recommend finishing out the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, that is, 1 Armored Cavalry regiment and 1 Standard Mech Regiment while holding on to the stockpiles for next year when, hopefully, we’ll have more production of endo-steel.” He checks his notes. “We’re also able to procure a pair of conventional regiments, again due to the lack of strategic material production, in this case Ferro Fibrous armor. Therefore, we recommend procuring a Rapid Reaction Regiment to finish filling out the 1st Rapid Reaction Force along with a Mechanized Regiment and SpecOps Regiment to begin reforming 3rd Armored, which will be redesignated as 2nd Armored.”
He takes another deep breath. “And, again, I cannot stress enough, we desperately need more Endo-Steel and Ferro-Fibrous production if we want to get our ground forces production up to par.”
He sits back down, and Major General Powerpoint herself steps back up. General Reyes promptly fires up her signature Powerpoint presentation. On the screen is something you’ve not seen for a while, a proposal for a new ASF.
“Your Majesty, combat analysis has shown that while the Gyrfalcon is a lethally armed combatant, with the enhanced particle projection cannon combined with extended range 5cm lasers, it consistently suffered higher loss rates than heavier designs, primarily due to the thin armor. Therefore our design staff came up with this…” she gestures towards the screen, which is showing a rather sharp looking design. “Armed with a total of 5 5cm extended range lasers, two in the nose, one in each wing, and one in the tail, tied into an enhanced targeting computer. The performance and fuel profiles are the same as the Gyrfalcon, with enhanced armor protection.”
“We intend to only procure these for future carrier platforms, rather than replacing existing Gyrfalcons completely. The Gyrfalcon is still a perfectly viable design, and the increased firepower is very valuable situationally.” she changes to the next slide.
“As we do not have the need to staff any new dropships this year, Your Majesty, we would like to focus on increasing our general ASF forces. To that end, we are requesting the procurement of as many Fighter Wings as possible, we would like to send one to help defend Calliope IV, and base the rest on Griffin’s Roost itself to augment our home defenses. Ideally, we would procure 7 such wings.” She steps back and returns to her seat.
Admiral Benjamin then bounces up, despite how old he looks he’s still spry as ever. “Well, Your Majesty…” he gestures to his aide, with the flip chart. “For all of our collective sanity, and to reduce the strain on Ferro-Aluminium and Double Heat Sinks, we are not proposing using every single possible dropship production slip. Minion?” The poor aide, with a look of long-suffering, takes out a pair of cymbals and crashes them together. “Yes, shocking, I know. Minion?” and the aid does it again, not looking very happy with being reduced to a sound effect generator for her Admiral. “So for this year, we recommend laying down all 17 large dropships, but holding off on laying down regular dropships until next year, this way we can start staggering production more. So for this year we recommend the following. Minion, the FLIP CHART…” the poor poor aide crashes the cymbals one more time, then flips the top sheet of the flip chart.
General Stewart takes the podium again. “Your Majesty, I will once again stress the vital importance of boosting endo-steel and ferro-fibrous production. While we can always use more double heat sinks, we are badly behind the eight-ball when it comes to the others, especially endo-steel. We would need to produce almost 13 more endo-steel a year before we can reliably bring a third mech regiment online each year, and in a few years we will have additional Mech production facilities coming online which will require even more. I hate to see idle mech factories.”
Bridget has obviously been kept far away from the caffeine. It hasn’t helped noticeably. “Your Majesty we are going to be able to maybe help the military guys and gals with more strategic material production if you want because I’ve got people all ready to do it so we can do it Oh and I recommend focusing on Nowy Gdansk’s economy this year, and Admiral Benjamin just sent me a note to remind you that we can cycle the Monoliths through the shipyards in order to get them fit for duty, although those two creepy ones need exorcists still because they are totally creepy one of my assistants went on board one and I never saw him so pale and shaking afterwards so like totally CREEPY And expanding the shipyards of course and remember we now have three of them but only have to pay for two so remember that because that will change sooner than you’d think ok?”
One breath… god in his heaven… one breath.
Isoroku is off engaged in discussions with the New Rasalhagians, although he does send a memo to remind you of the speech you’ll need to give to close the Games, cheeky….
Jake, meanwhile, is busily handling the aftermath of a seismic shift in the Chamber of Delegates, as every single politician associated with the media cartels has been handily defeated. He sends you a note stating that he’s been working to ensure that the newcomers will support the Crown as they promised in their election materials and speeches.
Mary is then up. “Your Majesty, in light of the need to ramp up materials production, my staff and I thought it prudent to be budget conscious this year in recommending new research projects.” She fires up her presentation program.
Harry is busy dealing with last minute details regarding the infiltration efforts in the New Rasalhague Republic, while Janet is busy keeping Jane from harassing Harry while Harry deals with the last minute details on the infiltration efforts.
QM NOTE - The Imperial Guard is the personal bodyguard unit for the Queen
You cut the orders dispatching the old Warriors and the surviving Devastations to Calliope IV, along with 2nd RRF. About two months later you get a thank you package from the local residents on Calliope IV, over a hundred cases of mixed high grade beer and some truly tasty spiced mead, along with over a thousand bottles of krupnik.
And it appears that you have a leak in your security named Willis, because a day after you caught him letting the cat out of the bag concerning the krupnik you find yourself again deluged with pleading dignitaries from Nowy Gdansk begging for bottles. According to a laughing Sergeant Major Ngo the line is now wrapped twice around the hotel, there have been a few fist fights but is generally orderly, with the remaining survivors of the actual refugees from Nowa Warszawa being passed through to the front, a gesture that is quite touching, actually.
As for the Olympics themselves, well… the losses from the battle are painfully obvious here.
The wrestling matches, both men’s and women’s, are surprisingly close, even though the best your teams can manage is a single bronze medal between them. Thanks to the losses you’d taken, the surviving coaches had just headhunted for the strongest young men and women they could find, gave them a crash course in wrestling, and prayed. It worked much better than it should have, but not nearly well enough to earn any victories.
The fencing matches are even more lopsided. The badly short-handed men’s team manages to scrape together a single bronze in saber, but it is brutally obvious that many of the competitors are competing in disciplines outside of their specialty. The women’s team? The less said about that one the better, as not a single one of the girls manages a single touch. Considering that the team is made up of mostly high-school level fencers, with two old retirees who’d last taken up a foil twenty years ago being the only available women’s coaches, since the entire training facility for professional level fencing in the Griffon Empire had been leveled during the fighting? The team is just happy not to have suffered any serious injuries.
The women’s archery contest is more of the same, a bunch of teenagers struggling to compete against professional archers. Here again the NRI shows some superb sportsmanship, as directly after the competition is over the NRI team is working with the youngsters on their form.
The men’s competition, however, is both the one bright spot lately in the litany of woe and defeat, and a stunning upset. All thanks to one young archer who is only a freshman in High School who, in your humble opinion, is shooting the bow like Robin Hood reborn. Every single arrow hits the bullseye, even though the kid’s technique is wildly at variance to ‘professional’. He doesn’t seem to aim in the conventional sense, he holds the bow at his side, then simultaneously brings it up to a firing position while drawing it back, and then releases the moment the arrow is fully drawn. He doesn’t bother with the sights or anything, and he hits the bullseye… every… single… time… you are relieved to note that he isn’t named William Tell or Robin Hood but rather a rather boring Billy Smith.
And then suffer a moment of angst when you see Jeremy’s expression, as young Billy Smith is the son of the deceased pilot of his Empress command mech. You’d hoped the God Of War look would be left in the past, but it clears away soon enough.
Even though you are on Nowy Gdansk for the Olympiad you can’t escape paperwork, and budget time. Yay.
General Stewart is up first. “Your Majesty, I cannot stress enough how badly we need rapid expansion of our strategic materials production capacity. Right now that, along with Mech Factories, is our biggest and most critical bottleneck. That being said, General Griffith?”
Jeremy comes forward, accompanied by his aide de camp. “Before I get into procurement, Your Majesty, there are several organizational notes. The Imperial Griffon Armorworks in conjunction with Lee Industries has released a pair of new armored fighting vehicles with which we currently intend to replace the Jaguar and the Arbalest.”
He brings up a graphic, showing a rather interesting tank design. Unlike the Jaguar, this Patton shifts the gauss rifle to a hull mount, has a different pattern 20 tube LRM rack that seems to be split on the rear deck, obviously designed for VLS fire forward. The most interesting thing about is the addition of a trio of moulded seats on each track guard flanking the missile launcher and the fact that the covers for the missile tubes themselves seem to be reinforced.
| Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| Patton MBT | 801.8 | FF | 31 | 22 |
|
“This tank is slightly less powerful on a per-unit basis, but it is about 20% faster, plus the split nature of the main armament allows it to engage multiple targets at once. Moreover, as you probably noticed, the hull has been designed to readily permit battle armored infantry to ‘ride along’ on top. While it doesn’t give the infantry as much protection as a true APC, this still allows for infantry to be attached to the unit itself.” he consults his notes. “About a quarter of the losses of Jaguars in the battle were due to them not being able to fall back quickly enough, and another 20% were due to them not being able to traverse their turrets rapidly enough to reengage a second target, when neither required both the enhanced PPC and the gauss to destroy.”
He changes to the next graphic, which shows a similar hull. “This is the Stahlregen MLRS system, which will be replacing the Arbalest II in providing missile support to the Patton MBT. This does have an enclosed infantry bay, so is even better suited for transporting supporting infantry. It has the same armament as the Arbalest, on twenty more tons, with greater mobility and armor.”
| Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| Stahlregen MLRS | 817.08 | FF | 31 | 22 |
|
“That out of the way, Your Majesty, here are the recommended procurements for this year. First of all, for mech procurement, we do not have enough endo-steel production for more than 2 regiments even with the recycled spares from the decommissioned mechs, unless we purchase more training mechs that we, honestly, do not currently need. Therefore, I recommend finishing out the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, that is, 1 Armored Cavalry regiment and 1 Standard Mech Regiment while holding on to the stockpiles for next year when, hopefully, we’ll have more production of endo-steel.” He checks his notes. “We’re also able to procure a pair of conventional regiments, again due to the lack of strategic material production, in this case Ferro Fibrous armor. Therefore, we recommend procuring a Rapid Reaction Regiment to finish filling out the 1st Rapid Reaction Force along with a Mechanized Regiment and SpecOps Regiment to begin reforming 3rd Armored, which will be redesignated as 2nd Armored.”
He takes another deep breath. “And, again, I cannot stress enough, we desperately need more Endo-Steel and Ferro-Fibrous production if we want to get our ground forces production up to par.”
He sits back down, and Major General Powerpoint herself steps back up. General Reyes promptly fires up her signature Powerpoint presentation. On the screen is something you’ve not seen for a while, a proposal for a new ASF.
“Your Majesty, combat analysis has shown that while the Gyrfalcon is a lethally armed combatant, with the enhanced particle projection cannon combined with extended range 5cm lasers, it consistently suffered higher loss rates than heavier designs, primarily due to the thin armor. Therefore our design staff came up with this…” she gestures towards the screen, which is showing a rather sharp looking design. “Armed with a total of 5 5cm extended range lasers, two in the nose, one in each wing, and one in the tail, tied into an enhanced targeting computer. The performance and fuel profiles are the same as the Gyrfalcon, with enhanced armor protection.”
| Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Speed | Fuel | Specials |
| Peregrine Light Dogfighter | 306.87 | FA, DHS | 25 | 15 | 15 | 5 |
|
“We intend to only procure these for future carrier platforms, rather than replacing existing Gyrfalcons completely. The Gyrfalcon is still a perfectly viable design, and the increased firepower is very valuable situationally.” she changes to the next slide.
“As we do not have the need to staff any new dropships this year, Your Majesty, we would like to focus on increasing our general ASF forces. To that end, we are requesting the procurement of as many Fighter Wings as possible, we would like to send one to help defend Calliope IV, and base the rest on Griffin’s Roost itself to augment our home defenses. Ideally, we would procure 7 such wings.” She steps back and returns to her seat.
Admiral Benjamin then bounces up, despite how old he looks he’s still spry as ever. “Well, Your Majesty…” he gestures to his aide, with the flip chart. “For all of our collective sanity, and to reduce the strain on Ferro-Aluminium and Double Heat Sinks, we are not proposing using every single possible dropship production slip. Minion?” The poor aide, with a look of long-suffering, takes out a pair of cymbals and crashes them together. “Yes, shocking, I know. Minion?” and the aid does it again, not looking very happy with being reduced to a sound effect generator for her Admiral. “So for this year, we recommend laying down all 17 large dropships, but holding off on laying down regular dropships until next year, this way we can start staggering production more. So for this year we recommend the following. Minion, the FLIP CHART…” the poor poor aide crashes the cymbals one more time, then flips the top sheet of the flip chart.
- 7 Majestic-class Parasite Battleships
- 10 Shannon-class Parasite Armored Cruisers
General Stewart takes the podium again. “Your Majesty, I will once again stress the vital importance of boosting endo-steel and ferro-fibrous production. While we can always use more double heat sinks, we are badly behind the eight-ball when it comes to the others, especially endo-steel. We would need to produce almost 13 more endo-steel a year before we can reliably bring a third mech regiment online each year, and in a few years we will have additional Mech production facilities coming online which will require even more. I hate to see idle mech factories.”
Bridget has obviously been kept far away from the caffeine. It hasn’t helped noticeably. “Your Majesty we are going to be able to maybe help the military guys and gals with more strategic material production if you want because I’ve got people all ready to do it so we can do it Oh and I recommend focusing on Nowy Gdansk’s economy this year, and Admiral Benjamin just sent me a note to remind you that we can cycle the Monoliths through the shipyards in order to get them fit for duty, although those two creepy ones need exorcists still because they are totally creepy one of my assistants went on board one and I never saw him so pale and shaking afterwards so like totally CREEPY And expanding the shipyards of course and remember we now have three of them but only have to pay for two so remember that because that will change sooner than you’d think ok?”
One breath… god in his heaven… one breath.
Isoroku is off engaged in discussions with the New Rasalhagians, although he does send a memo to remind you of the speech you’ll need to give to close the Games, cheeky….
Jake, meanwhile, is busily handling the aftermath of a seismic shift in the Chamber of Delegates, as every single politician associated with the media cartels has been handily defeated. He sends you a note stating that he’s been working to ensure that the newcomers will support the Crown as they promised in their election materials and speeches.
Mary is then up. “Your Majesty, in light of the need to ramp up materials production, my staff and I thought it prudent to be budget conscious this year in recommending new research projects.” She fires up her presentation program.
- Military R&D (2 Available)
- Improved Autocannons
- Not very useful in and of themselves, but could lead to some valuable insights for existing Ultra and LB-X class autocannons
- A-Pods
- Having experienced enemy battle armor it might be prudent to develop these. They are essentially large Mech scale claymore mines, mounted on the exterior of a mech, to blast infantry that get too close.
- Improved Autocannons
- Non Military (3 Available)
- These will all be military related, but not using Aerie facilities
- MASC
- Myomer Accelerated Signal Circuitry
- Gives a situational boost in speed, could be valuable for light mech units
- Supercharger
- Boost fusion engine performance at the cost of damage to the reactors, could be valuable data for other projects, but likely to be operationally a dead end
- Thumper Cannon
- A short-barreled direct-fire only variant of the Thumper artillery piece
- MASC
- These will all be military related, but not using Aerie facilities
Harry is busy dealing with last minute details regarding the infiltration efforts in the New Rasalhague Republic, while Janet is busy keeping Jane from harassing Harry while Harry deals with the last minute details on the infiltration efforts.
QM NOTE - The Imperial Guard is the personal bodyguard unit for the Queen
Wish we could research better production methods to up the amount of strategic resources
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
Don't forget we need to upgrade the repair and refit yard
You already have, increasing output from 1 per level to 3 per level.
I guess but it still feels like a "You must construct additional pylons!" thing atm. I understand the reasoning but I really want to see the snakes get their just desserts.