Turn 65 - Wrecking Balls
Operation Governor is underway. It will be at least a month before you get any useful reports from the task force.
You politely, but firmly, decline the offer from the NRR. The ambassador is disappointed but doesn’t raise all that much of a fuss about it. The press is somewhat less understanding of the whole situation, but all in all nothing much seems to come of it.
The ambassador does have a counter offer of survey data taken almost a century ago of GX-E5, a system that the Dracs never assigned a name to and which, in the ambassador's words, ‘completely humiliated the Dragon’. Evidently there had been an attempt to colonize the world defeated by incredibly lethal and aggressive fauna and flora on a jungle deathworld. The Dracs had given up after the second attempt had failed just as badly. The mineral wealth is extreme, however, and one entry catches your attention but probably completely escaped the Dracs… the world's oceans are rich in the precursor chemicals for Harjel, far more so than the moons on Griffon VII where you’d first discovered the material. Controlling the planet would give you sufficient access to the base chemicals to allow the use of the wondrous sealant material in far more use cases. Controlling that system is also critical if you want to ever expand to the Galactic Southwest.
In return the ambassador has been instructed to secure the
Megaraptor design, at least in its original incarnation. A downteched variant would be marginally acceptable, with the ambassador noting that they already have full production capability for NRI-grade gauss rifles identical to the ones you use.
You check with Siriwan and get the same story from her, with a few more details that she remembers from listening to her father rant and rave at times. The planet consists of large, extremely heavily forested, continents in a ‘ring’ around the equator, separated by narrow rift straits. Rainfall is supposedly extremely high, and the sea life is as aggressive as the land life. She doesn’t have charts though, but thinks that her father once ranted about germanium deposits in the asteroid belts.
| [] | Make the deal |
- Gain old charts of GX-E5 sufficient for navigation and survey work.
- Gain +1% Interest Rate this turn
- Griffon System
|
| [] | Reject the deal | |
More clarity comes in about the situation on Pollux, and it looks like some media sensationalism was at work. The ‘stand off’ and ‘siege’ lasted until an hour after dawn, which was just long enough for the morning news to breathlessly report on an ‘extended standoff’, there were six police officers of the rapid reaction team
shot rather than
killed as all six survived their injuries thanks to their excellent body armor, and the entire thing was resolved peacefully before any Planetary authorities could arrive.
The training officer involved has been relieved of training duties due to failure to adhere to proper procedures and not covering his rookie correctly, the rookie herself has recovered from her concussion and received a commendation for her own conduct in the entire affair. The dueling lawsuits have both been dismissed for failure to state a claim for which relief could be legally granted, the ranchers have gotten lightly slapped on both wrists with minimal fines for misdemeanor ‘obstructing the duties of a peace officer’, and the reaction team has been disciplined for failing to adhere to proper procedures and not identifying themselves before entering the property. As for the process server the courts have ruled, in essence, that he well earned his Darwin award and the shoot was lawful.
The press is completely unapologetic about their role in hyping this affair. It’s Pollux, and Pollux Man is good copy.
Parliament is in session again, and they are being their usual selves in many ways. However there is one bill that has passed both the Chamber and the Senate and been presented to you for ratification that is actually interesting, and has the backing of the Eldest.
The two gas giants in the Griffon system have been mostly left alone, as the radiation environments around both are challenging at best for occupation. Parliament would like to fund a project to address this. It would fully occupy one DoME team for the next ten years, but the plan is to construct a giant habitat around Griffon VI using a shell of hundreds of meters of rock to provide natural radiation shielding to the inhabitants. This would provide a ‘home base’ for mining operations among the moons and rings of Griffon VII. A similar project would be started for Griffon VII to provide the same benefit to the more distant gas giant.
On the one hand Parliament would be fully footing the bill, and the prospective benefits at the end of the projects are enormous. Similar gas giants exist in every other system within the Empire, and being able to construct such shelters would allow for them to be exploited fully as well, giving boosts to other planets in the future.
On the other hand this will tie up two DoME teams for a decade, when they could be used for multiple other, equally important, projects. Plus it would raise the standing of Parliament, giving them an important ‘win’. Finally it would further exacerbate the gap between the Griffon system and other systems in the Empire, at least in the short term.
| [] | Sign the legislation |
- Initiates free DoME projects
- Construct Radiation Screened Orbital Habitat - Griffon VI
- At conclusion of project
- +1% base GDP growth Griffon system
- 1 time +10% GDP growth Griffon system
- +2 Infrastructure - Griffon system
- +1 Econ Rating Limit - Griffon system
- Construct Radiation Screened Orbital Habitat - Griffon VII
- At conclusion of project
- +1% base GDP growth Griffon System
- 1 time +10% GDP growth Griffon system
- +2 Infrastructure - Griffon system
- +1 Econ Rating Limit - Griffon system
- +1 Influence Senate
- +1 Influence Chamber of Delegates
- +1d10 support Senate/Chamber of Delegates
|
| [] | Veto the legislation |
- -1 Influence Senate
- -1 Influence Chamber of Delegates
- -1d20 support Senate/Chamber of Delegates
|
Another matter that has come up is a proposal sent to you by Janet for a 5 year transition to you stepping down as Empress and sticking Jeremy in the big seat. You’d be almost 90 by then and, to be honest, you’re starting to feel the aches and pains more than before. The advanced medical care is good, and you’d be looking at a nice long retirement, but it may be time to step aside regardless of how much it would annoy Jeremy to be yanked out of the cockpit and into the Big Chair.
| [] | Time to retire! |
| [] | I’m gonna rule forever! |
