Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Turn 64 - Roll the Bones

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 64 - Roll the Bones

Meta-Event - 3
Dynasty Luck - 51

Imperial Approval - 3
Approval Change - 7
Political Event - -2

Imperial Economy - 1
Economic Event - -2
Research Event - 7

Griffin’s Roost
Economy - 6 (critical success)
Health - 1
Rating Change - 0

Nowy Gdansk
Economy - 1
Health - 5
Rating Change - 1

Griffon Inner Asteroid Belt
Economy - 1
Rating Change - 4

Griffon II Orbitals
Economy - -1
Rating Change - 0

Griffon IV
Economy - 4
Health - 4
Rating Change - 1

Nowa Warszawa
Economy - 1
Health - 1
Rating Change - 1

Calliope IV
Economy - 1
Health - 0
Rating Change - 2

TTP
Economy - 5
Health - 3
Rating Change - 1

New Capricorn
Economy - 3
Health - 4
Rating Change - 4

Plan: Border Walls
- Procurement [$ 4,081,160.95 ]
-- Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $854,566.16 ] (85)
--- 1 Puller Command RT [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 55
Result - SUCCESS
--- 2 Vandegrift RT [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 52
Result - SUCCESS
--- 10 Ensign [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 91
Result -Bare FAILURE (auto success next turn)
-- Lay down Jumpship [Jumpship Construction - 95,555 ] (65)
--- Caravel* [65]
Target - 65
Roll – 60
Result - SUCCESS
--- Caravel* [65]
Target - 65
Roll – 34
Result - SUCCESS
--- Caravel [->1]
--- Caravel [->1]
--- Caravel [->3]
-- Purchase New Units [ $ 3,131,039.90 ] (75)
--- 18 Fighter Wing [auto]
--- 5 Carrier Wing [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 49
Result - SUCCESS
--- 2 Light Horse Regiment [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 67
Result - SUCCESS
--- 4 Armored Cavalry Regiment [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 2
Result - SUCCESS
--- 1 Assault Regiment [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 16
Result - SUCCESS
--- 3 Standard Mech Regiment [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 61
Result - SUCCESS
--- 3 Armored Regiment [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 35
Result - SUCCESS
--- 3 SpecOps Regiment [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 1
Result -Critical SUCCESS
--- 3 Rapid Reaction Regiment [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 2
Result - SUCCESS
--- 4 Mechanized Regiment [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 6
Result - SUCCESS
- General [$ 210,705,564.52 ]
-- Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Griffon Zenith* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 80
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Nowa Warzsawa Zenith* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 13
Result - SUCCESS
-- Construct Aerie ASF training extension on Calliope IV [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 33
Result - SUCCESS
-- White Tower Calliope Nadir [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 70
Result - SUCCESS
-- White Tower New Capricorn Nadir [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 19
Result - SUCCESS
-- White Tower Sukiashi Zenith [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 28
Result - SUCCESS
-- White Tower Sukiashi Nadir [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 50
Result - SUCCESS
-- White Tower Kuroisora Zenith [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 6
Result - SUCCESS
-- White Tower Kuroisora Nadir [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 54
Result - SUCCESS
-- Upgrade All Ferro Fibrous Forges* [auto]
-- White Tower Nowa Warzsawa Nadir [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 33
Result - SUCCESS
-- White Tower Nowy Slask Nadir [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 53
Result - SUCCESS
-- White Tower Griffs Leap Nadir [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 82
Result - SUCCESS
-- White Tower Griffon Nadir [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 66
Result - SUCCESS
-- Establish Justice System on Nowy Śląsk [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 30
Result - SUCCESS
-- Establish Colony on Nowy Śląsk III [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 25
Result - SUCCESS
-- Establish Mining Colonies on inhabitable moons around New Capricorn III [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 82
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Relations with Senate [60]
Target - 60
Roll – 43
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Relations with Chamber of Delegates [60]
Target - 60
Roll – 72, Jarow reroll - 8
Result - SUCCESS
-- Investigate potential Delegates [65]
Target - 65
Roll – 90, ShadowArxxy reroll - 60
Result - SUCCESS
-- Investigate potential Senators [65]
Target - 65
Roll – 7
Result - SUCCESS
-- POW Interrogation [45]
Target - 45
Roll – 15
Result - SUCCESS
-- Establish a Maximum Security Prison in Griff's Leap Asteroid Fields [65]
Target - 65
Roll – 53
Result - SUCCESS
-- Upgrade All DHS Factories [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 71
Result - SUCCESS
-- Upgrade All Ferro Aluminum Factories [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 53
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Orbital Factory Ferro Fibrous Sukiashi [110]
Target - 110
Roll – 38
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Orbital Factory Endosteel Kuoisora [110]
Target - 110
Roll – 86
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Orbital Factory Ferro Aluminum Nowa Warzsawa [110]
Target - 110
Roll – 55
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Orbital Factory Ferro Aluminum Calliope [110]
Target - 110
Roll – 4
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Orbital Factory DHS Griffon IV [110]
Target - 110
Roll – 188 (100+88), ShadowArxxy reroll - 39
Result - SUCCESS
-- Build Orbital Factory DHS Griffins Roost [110]
Target - 110
Roll – 87
Result - SUCCESS
-- Expand All Shipyards [100]
Target - 100
Roll – 36
Result - SUCCESS
-- Expand Refit and Repair Yard [100]
Target - 100
Roll – 100, Charclone reroll - 25
Result - SUCCESS
- DoME [$ 38,000,000 ]
- Research [$ 200,000,000 ]
-- Genetic Engineering Lvl 2* [65]
Target - 65
Roll – 40
Result - SUCCESS
-- Subcapital Laser/3 [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 46
Result - SUCCESS
-- Improved XL Fusion Engine* [50]
Target - 50
Roll – 83
Result -FAIL
- Miscellaneous [$ 200000 ]
-- Olympics

You receive reports about the recent fighting around New Capricorn. In the latest round, the four Colchester class vessels which were lost took down almost three times their own tonnage in enemy dropships and ASFs before succumbing to mass nuclear missile attack, sufficient to overwhelm their impressive point defenses. The main problem that they appear to have faced was an inability to kill the enemy ASFs fast enough before they could launch their missiles, and that in turn came down to the focus on defensive capabilities in the class. For their mass they are extremely heavily armored, but are slow and were armed primarily for engagements against enemy major assets.

In response to the combat data and the loss of 60% of the class the AFGE Navy has pulled the remaining 4 Colchesters back to the Griffon System. Majeure Electrique has already prepared a full refit package for them to address the deficiencies, primarily by replacing the older, bulkier long range missile racks with the more modern units, and taking advantage of the recent completion of work on the 30cm sub-capital laser to overhaul the capital weapons on the platform from a mix of 10 and 20 centimeter mounts to an all 30cm arrangement focused on the forward arc. Additional heavy autocannons, a replacement of the laser based AMS system with the most modern gauss based one, and general updates to the avionics complete the package.

The navy has already begun the refit process with the Colchesters now intended to serve a purely defensive purpose as a convoy escort. Very few units have as heavy a missile loadout as the revamped vessels.

Meanwhile a company on Calliope IV has partnered with Majeure Electrique to propose an unsolicited design. The firm, Neue Rheinmetall Borsig, claims descent from the ancient Terran armament firm Rheinmetall as well as the even older locomotive company Borsig. While they are building railroads on Calliope IV and have had some market success in exporting rail transport solutions to other parts of the Empire, NRB has long been an arms supplier to the locals, specializing in high-quality autocannons.

The company has bet big, even though autocannons are somewhat of a niche product in the Griffon military, featuring only on some anti-aircraft platforms and as anti-fighter armament on some dropship classes. They’ve massively invested in expanding their production lines and bringing them up to the very latest standards, allowing them to build the full range of LB-X and Ultra autocannons available.

They are now marketing to the AFGE, in conjunction with Majeure Electrique, the Lancer Anti-ASF Corvette. The Lancer is optimized for anti-ASF swarm defense, mounting massive batteries of Class 20 LB-X autocannons and Class 2 Ultra autocannons, all in fast-track mounts with specialized fire-control solutions sources from Nollak Industries. In simulations conducted by the Aerie the Lancer utterly decimated ASF swarms, even though it doesn’t mount a single missile system which in the past had been seen as the sovereign cure for aerospace fighters.
Thanh theatrically shudders and declares that she wants nothing to do with this system, even as she passes over the paperwork to authorize potential purchases. While she and your loving husband are both waxing dramatic about how horrible this is, you do note that Thanh has officially endorsed the proposal anyways.
[]NameCostMaterialsHPA/DSpecials
[]Lancer Parasite AA Corvette298,967.20FAA, DHS893693
  • Armored 15
  • AMS 120
  • Capital AMS 12
  • Swift
[]We don’t need this

In the Olympics, the motor racing events have finally begun, and the sheer dominance of Team Griffon is a welcome antidote to the constant stream of defeats and failures of the rest of the team in other events. Your twin sons are still running the Team Griffon motorsports program, and it shows, as all four events are completely dominated by Team Griffon. The NRI does manage to make the podium in the Formula race with a technically brilliant performance by their driver, but mistakes by the pit crew deny them a victory. Said driver has already signed a contract with the twin’s professional race team.

The Rasalhaguians manage to win both the men’s and the women’s marathon events. Team Griffon, meanwhile, barely finishes the men’s event, with the first Griffon runner crossing the finish line almost a half hour after the last of the other two teams runners for the men’s event. Which is still better than in the women’s event, where none of the Team Griffon women managed to finish the race. Personally, the video of one of the Team Griffon ladies being attacked by a feral squirrel is one of the highlights of the blooper reel that was the women’s marathon for the team.

In the end, the Olympics were slightly embarrassing overall to Team Griffon, coming in last in the Gold Medal count and overall medal count thanks to the DNF in the women’s marathon. They did win more silver medals than anybody else, but that is faint comfort. Both the NRI and the Rasalhaguians seemed quite highly motivated to beat you, after your dominance in past Games.

The next Olympics are scheduled to be held in New Rasalhague.

There is a silver lining, however. The entire Griffon system is experiencing an economic boom. Unemployment is at a record low, incomes are way up, exports are booming. All in all, the Griffon system is seeing economic growth that, in absolute terms, is among the highest you’ve ever seen. As an economist you find yourself looking for the traps, but it appears to be the healthy sort of natural growth with no obvious bubbles lurking beneath the surface waiting to explode in your face.

This, of course, inspires the Department of Periphery Studies to hold a protest march, a mock ‘funeral’ for the jobs of unemployment office clerks and staff. They were prevented from raiding the nearest unemployment office to campus in order to ‘recruit’ people to ride inside the coffins they are carrying.

Then some wiseass shows them an ancient video from Earth featuring some strange sort of coffin dance, which the… respected tenured faculty of the Department of Periphery Studies promptly start attempting to emulate with predictably hilarious results.

There is one downside to all of this prosperity, however. The Ensign-class training dropship, of which the Navy had planned to procure 10, uses the same transit drives as one of the most popular commercial dropship classes. The surging economy, however, means that the factory building the drives is fully booked on orders, resulting in a long delay for procuring new training ships.

The Puller and two Vandegrift class dropships that will comprise the transport echelon of the 1st Brigade Combat Team are progressing on schedule and will be commissioning next year on schedule.

Two new Caravel jumpships have joined the fleet, increasing your spacelift capacity and allowing for more flexibility in moving units around.

The massive investment in White Towers has already paid off, in late December another pirate raid attempt on New Capricorn’s Nadir point is handily fought off with no losses. The newly formed fighter wings assigned to the defenses have shown that the quality of training provided by the Aerie hasn’t dropped at all, despite being stressed. The opening of the new training annex on Calliope IV should help ease the strain.

The 1st Brigade Combat Team is now operational and, once the transports are ready next year, will be available for operational deployment.

All other procurement went quite well, with one of the highest performing Aerie classes on record resulting in a number of the new units, specifically the Armored Cavalry and Rapid Response, being rated as ‘Crack’ quality from the start. The new SpecOps Brigade has been rated as ‘Elite’ in their initial evaluations thanks to incredible performance in training.

The first two Oasis II stations have been built, allowing for much more rapid transportation to and from Nowy Warszawa and the Griffon system. This has resulted in a small surge in trade and economic activity in Nowy Warszawa.

Nowy Śląsk, once known by the catalogue number GX-C9, has been settled successfully. The unpleasant atmosphere and high gravity make it difficult to attract settlers, although this is mostly subverted by the incredible mineral wealth present making settling here extremely profitable.
Mining outposts have been established on the inhabitable moons in the New Capricorn system, causing a small boost to the economy there. Over time this should result in faster development of the system into a fully contributing part of the Empire.

The new Maximum Security prison station has been built in Griff’s Leap. The most dangerous prisoners in the Imperial justice system will be housed here in the highly specialized facility.

Schmoozing with and buttering up Senators and Delegates has occupied much of your political staff's time the last several months, and it has paid off. Most members are showing rather more cooperation with the crown than before, although it is a far cry from enthusiastic support. Meanwhile investigations into the various Senators and Delegates has yielded some… interesting information, which your staff is already using to work at keeping Parliament in line.

Sometimes you wonder how you can smile at some of these bastards when you know that they’re not only cheating on their spouses, but are doing so with people young enough to be their adult children.

Your strategic materials production capacity has been boosted rather nicely in the latest round of new construction and upgrades to existing infrastructure.

Your orbital shipyards have all been expanded, and while the Refit and Repair Yards require extra effort due to them being fully occupied with the Colchester refits while the work is done, it is still completed on time and on budget.

Research into improvements to Genetic Engineering has been completed. Besides the immediate boost to overall medical treatments now available thanks to the improved techniques and methods, there are several fascinating areas of study now available.

Work on the improved XL fusion engine has stalled, the new shielding material is proving more sensitive than initially thought delaying the testing process for at least another year.
 

Thors_Alumni

Well-known member
[X] Lancer Parasite AA Corvette

I am not happy about the Colchester Dropships being such Cannon Fodder types. Reminds me too much of the Miranda Class from Star Trek.
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
[X] Lancer Parasite AA Corvette

For the record, "massive batteries" in this case is no less than a hundred twenty LB -20-Xs plus forty-eight Ultra AC/2s, all with full ammunition loads, on a hull that's the same tonnage as the Colchester but swift. It can outrun most ASFs (other than fast interceptors) while tearing them to shreds, and since UAC/2s are one of the handful of mech-scale weapons that hit "Extreme" range, it also outranges anything that isn't carrying Capital/Sub-Capital weapons.
 
Turn 65 - Like A Small Boat

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 65 - Like A Small Boat

You receive a diplomatic communique from the Rasalhaguians. They are willing to sell you astrographic data on GX-F11 and cede any and all rights to the system in exchange for full production rights to the Megaraptor design, to be produced under license in their own dropship factories. They give you a brief summary, two habitable planets, dense asteroid belt, but you do get the sense that they are leaving some things out.

You also sense that they would be willing to sweeten the deal somewhat, although how far is a question. On the one hand, the Megaraptor is an old design that is out of service apart from use as a converted space guard vessel. On the other hand it is significantly more capable than any other design that the Rasalhaguians would have access to and would reveal some of your strategic technology. On the gripping hand the Rasalhaguians are allies and the tech in question is older anyways.
[]Deal!
  • Gain full astrographic data on GX-F11, a Yellow star to the galactic south of New Capricorn
  • Gain full rights to GX-F11
  • Griffon System
    • +1% GDP
  • Political Rating +1
[]Sweeten the Pot, partner...
  • Chance for a better deal
    • Gain full astrographic data on GX-F11
    • Full rights to GX-F11
    • Griffon System
      • +1% GDP
    • Political Rating +2
    • +1% Tax Rate this turn only
  • If better deal fails
    • Political Rating -2
    • Approval -1
[]No Deal!
  • Political Rating -1

Closer to home, Pollux Man strikes again. A series of escalating events results in a full up siege of a ranch in the herding region of the continent. The problem is that it appears that law enforcement may have caused the entire issue in the first place by completely fumbling what should have been a completely routine traffic stop.

A trainee officer riding along with a trainer was involved in a traffic stop, the trainer had the trainee handling the stop as it seemed completely routine. Body and vehicle cameras show that the person being pulled over was cooperative, however a passenger in the vehicle was highly intoxicated and became verbally hostile. To her credit, the trainee officer kept her cool and responded professionally, however the training officer failed to pull her back as he was distracted with writing up the paperwork on the stop.

The drunken passenger grew more and more agitated as the trainee failed to respond to him in a way that he wanted, and suddenly lunged out of the window of the vehicle, tackling the trainee. The drunk was a 250 pound, highly athletic ranch hand who was exceptionally intoxicated. The trainee was knocked unconscious by the attack when she hit her head on the pavement and the drunk proceeded to attempt to sexually assault her. The driver of the car exited the vehicle and tried to drag his drunken brother off of the trainee.

The training officer at this point reacted to the situation by drawing his weapon and attempting to control the situation; the drunk, however, had managed to grab the trainee’s weapon. When the training officer saw the weapon he reacted, shooting the drunk. Unfortunately the round over penetrated and killed the driver as well.

Things should have ended there. A tragedy, but one that was primarily the fault of the now deceased drunk. Unfortunately the local police chief’s family had a long-running feud with the family involved, and the rookie officer who’d been attacked was his niece. He made several public comments that, taken on their own, were perfectly understandable and none of which were at all objectionable, however the family of the deceased took great exception to it and filed a civil suit for defamation against the chief.

The chief retained a lawyer and counter-sued, on the grounds that the allegations in the initial suit were libelous as well as defamatory. This should have ended up in court with both the initial suit and the counter-suit dismissed on the grounds of neither having much of a case and both acting butt hurt.

However when a process server attempted to serve the suit on the family things took a turn for the bizarre and tragic. The process server hired by the court for this had been sanctioned a few times for his conduct in the past, but nothing had ever risen to a level requiring any legal intervention. This time, however, he bumbled like an arrogant idiot, used to serving suits in urban areas, and decided to serve the lawsuit in the middle of the night. Wearing black tacticool gear and acting like he was the Immortal Warrior.

The family sees a black-clad stranger wearing night vision gear, body armor, and generally looking like an armed intruder on their land, and two shots later he was reporting to a higher authority than yours. Getting reports of gunshots, the local police send their response team to the location… who unfortunately were wearing dark uniforms that looked black in the poor light and tactical gear, looking similar to the now dead process server. A gunfight then broke out as the driver of the response team, not realizing just how high tensions were, drove up without his lights or sirens thinking it was just a case of shots fired in response to an animal attack.

The rancher’s are convinced that the local police tried to murder them over the lawsuit and have forted up in defense. The local police are surrounding the ranch house after the deaths of a half dozen of their own.

Planetary authorities are already taking action. However this is creating a very Pollux shitstorm all around. It’s not anything you need to intervene in beyond a few mild statements hoping for a peaceful resolution.

But it’s Pollux. You are almost certain that at some point, somehow, you will wind up having to handle Yet Another Pollux Man Situation.

You picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

The AFGE Navy is proposing Operation Governor, a thunder run recon of the Okasawa system in order to determine just what the Dracs are up to and generate intelligence for a future invasion of the system to put the Drac threat down for good.

They propose to jump three Monoliths in well away from the main jump points but not at a pirate point, accepting the extended time in the system. HMS Sentinel will be escorted by 17 Bainbridges on a high speed run through the system, deliberately avoiding engagement by dint of sheer speed. Nine Majestics will secure the jumpships. Once recharged, the jumpships will jump to a point on the opposite side of the system to pick up the scouting force.
[]Approve Operation Governor
[]Reject Operation Governor
 

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