Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Turn 83 - Never Ever False Metal

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 83 - Never Ever False Metal

You receive reports from Okusawa, there has been a surge in violence in several of the major cities as ISF radicals have unleashed a campaign of roadside bombings targeting civilians rather than your occupation forces, apparently as ‘righteous punishment’ for the civilian population being ‘insufficiently zealous’ in their opposition to you according to the broadsheets tacked up near the scenes. Considering that the favored targets appear to be school buses, this is causing a great deal of unrest in the system.

Your occupation forces are reacting well, SAR teams responded swiftly to the incidents and, despite secondary mortar attacks aimed at the response teams, have managed to save a surprisingly high number of lives, as the bombs are rather cruder than previous ones with significantly less explosive payload.

This is progress of a sort, at least in the cold calculus of insurrection. When the enemy turns on their own people it means that they are growing desperate, and as such attacks continue it will drive those undecided or neutral to you for protection from the fanatics. You inform the system government that they will have full access to any Imperial law enforcement assets that they need in order to try and counter the increased attacks.

The 1st Brigade Combat Team is currently engaging in field exercises with the FRR units in the Gotland system. This is excellent training for both sides, or you’d not have approved it. That it keeps your granddaughter well away from those systems most likely to be attacked by the Black Steel is something you will never mention to her.

You do have a medical scare, however, as you suffer a minor heart attack thanks to the incredible stress you place on yourself. You are kept away from the office for a few weeks on enforced bed rest, but thanks to the advanced medical care available there are no long term lingering effects. The doctor’s are demanding that you take at least a month’s vacation each year, however, and pretty much order you to attend next year's Olympics on Calliope IV.

This is rather unwelcome, as you have far too much work to do to indulge such things. You’ll just need to be more careful with your diet and exercise more, that should be enough. You are the emperor, you don’t have time for vacation. Vacations mean that you miss things and people might get killed as a consequence.

You get some good news, the agents you’ve sent to the Nya Kopenhamn system have successfully infiltrated both factions. Unrest is boiling under the surface on both worlds and the lunatics and fanatics in charge of the two planets are being forced to greater and greater repressive measures to try and contain the growing discontent with their rule.

Your agents are stoking the fires of revolution on both worlds, and reports are that in only a few years it is expected that all out revolts will topple both planets' governments, leaving the way clear for your forces to land and start establishing sane leadership.

You receive some memos from General Bradley to review. New Infantry Fighting Vehicles from the Imperial Griffon Armor Werk have been procured to replace the Grizzly and Sheridan designs. Both are Omni Vehicle designs, although both have only a pair of variants each. The Namer is named after an ancient Terran APC design and is a 100 ton behemoth, armed as standard with a massive HAG/40, a pair of anti-missile systems, and a TAG designator, with the main IFV variant also sporting a total of 30 tubes of improved LRMs with Artemis targeting. The Command variant has a full suite of electronics dedicated to battlefield command and control. The smaller Warrior is slightly slower and cheaper than the Sheridan, but possesses greater firepower in compensation. The base armament is a single 5cm extended range laser, a twin-pack of Streak-targeting enhanced short range missiles, and an anti-missile system, plus a TAG designator. The more common Prime variant adds an enhanced PPC, a ten-rack of improved LRMs with Artemis support, and a second anti-missile system, while the Missile variant simply adds a total of 40 tubes of improved LRM launchers, albeit without Artemis.

Since the new Namer possesses substantial anti-aircraft capability it is no longer required to make use of the Chaparral Arrow IV missile artillery/anti-air vehicle to provide both artillery and AA capabilities to your mechanized infantry units, instead the Long Tom armed Sholef SPG is fielded in these formations, giving your mechanized units substantially increased artillery punch.

There is a proposal to retire the Abbot II SPG in favor of additional Sholefs in the Corps Artillery roll. They both are Long Tom SPGs, but the Sholef is marginally more expensive and more capable, making use of the ‘tank rider’ concept to bring along a squad of battle armor rather than the internal transport bay of the older design in exchange for additional ammunition and more potent self-defense weapons. Critics of the proposal point out that the older Abbot II is a perfectly functional system and that the Corps Artillery concept renders the enhanced self-defense armament superfluous, while the loss of the internal APC bay renders the attached infantry marginally more vulnerable to enemy artillery, which is the primary threat faced by the Corps Artillery units. Therefore the older, less expensive, tank is actually slightly more capable in the role than the more modern one due to such ‘soft’ factors.

The difference is less than $400 per vehicle, which at the scale of an entire regiment is pretty trivial. Plus both chassis make use of common components, rendering any concerns about the older design becoming too expensive to maintain moot. General Bradley recommends keeping the older guns in service for now, at least until a more substantial upgrade is available. She does recommend replacing the older twin-missile Chaparrals in use in the Corps Artillery with the new, quad launcher Tor system in either event.
[]Replace the Abbot II
[]Keep it in service

Parliament is a bit busy this year. Two pieces of legislation have been presented to you for your agreement. Both have fairly broad support within both the Senate and Chamber, and neither is particularly objectionable, although both are extremely minor.

The first, the Agricultural Subsidy Act of 3013, is targeted at ensuring a healthy food supply from New Eden to the various Core worlds by establishing a subsidy fund aimed at assisting farmers on the planet obtain necessary equipment and materials. While aimed at New Eden, it would have knock on effects across the empire by slightly reducing the costs involved in agriculture, at least the capital costs.
[]ActionArguments ProArguments ConEffects
[]Support the Agricultural Subsidy Act of 3013Initial and ongoing capital expenses reduce the profitability of farms, encouraging instead large agribusiness arrangements which are relatively less efficient while employing fewer farmers on the ground. It is in the interest of the Empire to encourage small family farms to proliferate.The disdain and suspicion directed at large businesses is tiresome. While in an ideal world small yeoman farmers are a wonderful thing, in the real world this act won’t truly keep them from being outcompeted by large agribusiness concerns. This is simply the politics of envy
  • Adds an ‘Agriculture Subsidy’ expense to general upkeep
    • $1,000,000 per level per system
  • Increased GDP growth of all systems by .001% per level
  • Approval +1
  • Approval Change +1
  • Politics +1
  • Economy -1
  • Economic Event -1
  • Chamber of Delegates Support +2
[]Oppose the Agricultural Subsidy Act of 3013See above rightSee above left
  • Imperial Senate Support -5
  • Chamber of Delegates Support -5

The second is the Imperial Governance Act of 3013 which would make significant changes in how system governments are organized and subsidized, with the intent of streamlining and improving inter-system cooperation and coordination, improving internal trade, and reducing barriers to investment across systems. This legislation is a major initial element to a potential future addition of a ‘sector’ tier of government above the individual systems.

This Act would increase imperial subsidies to system governments, increasing their ability to manage system-specific affairs and projects thus freeing Imperial resources for other purposes. As a consequence the Colonial Office would grow more efficient, increasing the number of systems capable of being overseen by the Office efficiently.
[]ActionArgument ProArguments ConEffects
[]Support the Imperial Governance Act of 3013As the Empire grows larger we will need to delegate more and more authority down the chain. Directly overseeing every single system in the Empire is inefficient and a recipe for eventual disaster. This act lays the foundation for this important work by setting up the most basic of systems for its implementation without prematurely switching to the new model before it is ready.There’s no real reason to worry about the organization of the Empire, the current system works, it was good enough for your mother, and there’s absolutely no reason to change it. Besides, if it grows too cumbersome we can simply pause our expansion and reconsider things at a future date, there’s absolutely no call to muck around with things now.
  • Increases the System Government level by 1
    • Increases upkeep to system governments by $100,000,000 per system
  • Doubles the efficiency of the Colonial Office
    • Each level of Colonial Office adds two systems to the limit
  • +1 Economy
  • +1 Economy Event
  • +2 Support Chamber of Delegates
[]Oppose the Imperial Governance Act of 3013See above rightSee above left
  • -5 Support Imperial Senate
  • -5 Support Chamber of Delegates
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
[X] Keep it in service

[X] Oppose the Agricultural Subsidy Act of 3013

[X] Support the Imperial Governance Act of 3013

It's not like we just had a literal heart attack from the sheer amount of work we're doing with all this micromanagement. . .

It's not like every single family member is glaring at us. . .

It's not like the grifftigers are threatening to sit on us. . .

It's not like the Royal Physicians are threatening to send me on a tour of Periphery Studies.

I -- we -- are totally fine! TOTALLY FINE, I SAY!

Oh COME ON, it was a REALLY MINOR heart attack! Why is everyone around me overreacting so much!?!?!?
 
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Rukatin

Malfunctioning NPC at Best.
[X] Keep it in service

[X] Oppose the Agricultural Subsidy Act of 3013

[X] Support the Imperial Governance Act of 3013
 

Jarow

Well-known member
[X] Keep it in service

Doesn't really matter too much, so leaving it as is.

[X] Support the Agricultural Subsidy Act of 3013

Relatively inexpensive, but minimal benefits. Might as well, I feel.

[X] Support the Imperial Governance Act of 3013

Annoyingly expensive, but the doubling of colonial office thing is going to be needed if we keep exploring 2 systems/turn.
 

Yacovo

Occasionally spouting nonsense
[X] Keep it in service

No sense replacing old equipment that still works fine and there is plenty of parts for.

[X] Support the Agricultural Subsidy Act of 3013

If we are going for a colony rush north, might as well make it easier on the homesteaders.

[X] Support the Imperial Governance Act of 3013

We’ll need a system eventually, and the Colonial office buff is nice.

Sounds like Okusawa’s ISF is soon going to be just old men, polishing antique rifles on a dirty beach. Also glad the revolutionaries we have been fermenting for our sponsored rebellions are almost ready.
 
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kashim3

Texan, Mandalorian, Alabamian.
[X] Keep it in service

[X] Oppose the Agricultural Subsidy Act of 3013

[X] Support the Imperial Governance Act of 3013
 
Turn 83 - Itchy Trigger Finger

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 83 - Itchy Trigger Finger

A major battle has broken out between ISF fanatics and Okusawa security forces on the grounds of the Shinto temple that had been built there. By the time your own forces arrived the fighting was more or less finished. The temple was completely involved in flames, with no hope of saving any of the structures, but the local security forces had managed to wipe out the attackers.. Without your help. A number of the monks and priests of the temple were killed, and all of the survivors and much of the local forces were seriously injured, but they won, which is a major shot in the arm to their morale. A follow-up report several days later says that the local community has banded together to rebuild the temple.

New Phoenix is hit by a small Black Steel raid that is handled by the local garrison, a pair of Vincents are no match for your defending forces after all. One Dart sustains some slight damage and spends a few days in the repair yards to deal with it. No dropships were lost, the two Majestics and two dozen Bainbridges barely engaged the enemy before the combined Dart, Stiletto and Dagger squadron took down the seriously outclassed pair of enemy corvettes. A clever sensor officer onboard one of your Majestics notes that there is absolutely no sign of any atmosphere or decompression when the enemy ships are destroyed according to spectroscopic analysis. This leads to an exhaustive survey of all extant sensor data and it is determined that at no point in any of the Black Steel raids, from all the wreckage you’ve recovered, you’ve yet to find anything even vaguely resembling fragments from any sort of life support system.

There is, however, a near disaster. One of your five Monolith class Jumpships that you captured from the Dragon is transporting the 4th Brigade Combat Team to a training exercise when utter pandemonium breaks out. The jumpship attempted to jump as normal, but was still there afterwards… without a core, and a completely freaked out and panicking crew and passengers. Every single person on board the jumpship and all nine dropships are utterly convinced that they are dead. They saw the explosion coming for them, they felt the flames and the blast, they heard it, they smelled it, they tasted it. The stories are consistent across the entire crew, every single dropship crewman, every single member of the 4th.

After days of head scratching and trying to figure things out an answer is sort of found. Every single clock onboard any of the ships, every single person's watch, everything that measured time, was a quarter second out of sync with everything else. The only explanation that even comes close to making sense is that the Monolith suffered a catastrophic misjump and detonated its core, but the very process of detonating the core sent the jumpship that quarter second back in time, rewinding the event and leaving everybody alive.

Study of KF physics has a reputation for being the single most reliable indicator of somebody who will someday be offered a prestigious tenured position in the Department of Periphery Studies, and this is borne out here because this is utterly maddening to try and parse.

It doesn’t help that everybody involved is suffering from such extreme PTSD that they have all been placed on mental health leave, being transported (under sedation) to a dedicated facility that specializes in treating PTSD.

The remaining Monoliths are ordered to remain in place while careful inspections are carried out on their jump cores, likewise the captured Tramps are subjected to equally careful inspections. Microfractures are detected in the cores of two ships, both among the oldest of the captured vessels. In neither case is the damage deemed to be critical, however out of an abundance of caution both vessels, which luckily were in the Griffon system already, are brought to the repair and refit yards for thorough overhauls of their cores.

And now it is time to work on the budget. Hurray.

No really. Hurray.

Let’s try this again. Hurray.

General Jenkins is grinning… and it is not a nice grin. “Well, Boss, we’re in pretty good shape, regardless of anything else. This year, if all goes according to plan, we’ll complete our ninth large mech production site, allowing us to build an entire Assault division in a single go. The problem lies in deciding how to expand from here. We should build additional mech production in groups of three, simply to allow us to continually produce complete formations rather than having to break up production over multiple years. I’ll let General Bradley give you the details there. General Romanov is going to be talking about increasing ASF production some more, as well as ferro-aluminum production, and your sister is going to troll the hell out of you like she always does, fair warning so you don’t blame me. That being said, General Bradley?”

She steps up to the podium, activating the display. “This year we will not be requesting maximum production, in the hopes of clearing the deck for being able to build a full Assault division next year. We will be constructing three more Light Brigade Combat Teams, these units are proving exceptionally efficient in exercises and simulations and we are looking forward to actual live fire testing in the future. Likewise the Light Armored Divisions are proving their worth as well. That being said, we would like to focus on increasing our production capacity. As General Jenkins noted, for mech production we strongly recommend building factories in three factory blocks, which unfortunately leaves us in a bit of a pickle. DoME is responsible for constructing megafactories, which produce our heaviest mech designs. There are only 2 teams available according to Elizabeth, so we are requesting that these teams be held in reserve this year so that next year we can begin simultaneous construction of fresh megafactories in the Griffon, Nowa Warszawa, and Calliope systems. We are also requesting that new Mech factories be built in the New Phoenix, New Castor, New Pollux, Edelsteine, New Capricorn, and Okusawa systems. Finally we are requesting a total of 15 new Conventional Military Factories spread across Kainga, New Port Royal, and Griff’s Leap.”

She brings up the full request on the display for your review.
  • Imperial Griffon Army
    • Production
      • Hold 2 DoME teams in reserve for next year
      • Construct 6 Mech Factories
        • New Phoenix
        • New Castor
        • New Pollux
        • Edelsteine
        • New Capricorn
        • Okusawa
      • Construct 15 Conventional Military Factories
        • 5 - Kainga
        • 5 - New Port Royal
        • 5 - Griff’s Leap
    • Procurement
      • Heavy/Assault Mechs
        • 1 Standard Mech Regiment
      • Light/Medium Mechs
        • 9 Medium Mech Regiments
        • 9 Medium Scout Regiments
      • Conventional Vehicles
        • 9 Air Cavalry Regiments
        • 8 Light Mechanized Regiments
        • 16 Light Armored Regiments
      • Garrison Forces
        • Add 1 Garrison Rating to New Port Royal
General Romanov is next. “Your Majesty, we have a number of defensive stations coming online this year. Thankfully we have been preparing for this for several years and will only need to procure six additional wings of ASFs to fill those bays. In addition, in discussions with Admiral Griffith we would like to procure 30 Heavy Carrier Wings to fill the bays of the carriers that the Navy intends to procure this year. For new production we foresee a need for 4 additional production lines, in the Griffon, Nowa Warszawa, Calliope and Nowy Wroclaw systems.”
  • Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
    • Production
      • Construct 4 ASF Factories
        • Griffon
        • Nowa Warszawa
        • Calliope
        • Nowy Wrocław
    • Procurement
      • 30 Heavy Carrier Wings
      • 6 Heavy Fighter Wings
Thanh then takes the podium, grinning very wickedly at you. “First of all, your wife informs me that she will not take no for an answer on her next request for a vacation to Calliope III, and that I am authorized to tease you mercilessly until you give in on that point. Second, and for business, we have a new light destroyer design that we would like to put into production starting this year. Plus, we can finally build million ton warships, albeit fairly slowly. The challenge is in increasing our production capacity and balancing the fleet. On paper I know it looks attractive to build as many of the most powerful units we can as quickly as we can, but that is actually not a good strategy. We need a properly balanced fleet capable of mutually supporting each other. Where this becomes challenging is in deciding how to expand our production capacity. We can build either new light warship yards or new medium warship yards in any given core system, but we cannot build both simultaneously. Things will get even more complex once we finally get the ability to build true capital ships. That being said, here’s what we want this year.”

She loads up the display, which promptly starts playing an ancient music video found in SARAHs databanks all those decades ago, one which causes you to introduce your palm to a loving encounter with your face, which as we all know is forbidden love.


After the laughter and threats of defenestration die down, she brings up the actual request.
  • Imperial Griffon Navy
    • Production
      • 1 Medium Shipyard
        • Griffon
      • 2 Light Shipyards
        • Nowa Warszawa
        • Calliope
      • 5 Escort Yards
        • New Port Royal
        • New Capricorn
        • Griff’s Leap
        • New Phoenix
        • Edelsteine
      • Expand all Refit & Repair Yards
      • Expand all Naval Shipyards
        • Note, final expansion planned for the near future, primarily to equalize production of standard dropships year to year.
    • Procurement
      • Regular Dropships
        • 81 Long Beach Parasite Missile Destroyers
      • Large Dropships
        • 30 Saipan Parasite Carriers
        • 6 Enterprise-B Parasite Exploration Vessels
      • Jumpships
        • 2 Galleon Jumpships
      • Escorts
        • 5 Haida Light Destroyers
      • Light Warships
        • 4 Wichita Heavy Cruisers
      • Medium Warships
        • 1 Exeter Heavy Cruiser
      • Miscellaneous
        • 341 PPG-001
With the military portion out of the way, Elizabeth Lee takes over the podium. “Your Majesty, as Generals Jenkins and Bradley both already stated, we have a pair of DoME teams available this year, however we concur with them that it would be most efficient to hold them back for a year and commence megafactory construction next year. While we could start production of two this year and a third next year, according to the planning staff this would result in excessive idle lines in the future, a case of haste now making waste tomorrow. What they haven’t mentioned is that as we increase production we will be edging closer to our production capacity for several strategic materials. Therefore we are recommending across the board upgrades in capacity for all four of our major strategic material foundries.”

She shuffles her notes a bit. “In regards to the factory production question, we have reorganized here in Interior, making oversight over factory production more efficient. A single team can now oversee construction of a given factory type in multiple systems, although limitations in vetted contractor availability do still limit us to one such project per system unless we are building conventional vehicle factories, in which case we estimate that we can build five at the same time per system.”

She sets down the notebook and picks up a heavy folder. “For development and investment opportunities our experts have the following recommendations.”
  • Core World Focus
    • Calliope
      • Still the poorest of the three Core systems, focusing here will help even things out, especially as the system is in the midst of a minor growth spurt thanks to refit contracts to Calliope Motors.
  • Peripheral World Focus
    • New Castor
      • With nearly the lowest per-capita GDP in the Empire, New Castor is in the process of turning the corner economically thanks to a strong showing from the metals refining industry this year. Focusing here should help reinforce this success.
  • Economic Investment
    • New Capricorn
      • The system is in the midst of a significant economic growth period. Until Okusawa fully settles, reinforcing economic success in the New Capricorn system would be highly useful for future growth.
“Finally,” she concludes. “We have teams from Colonial Affairs prepared to facilitate initial colonization of both the Chuma system and also the system where we recently fought the Black Steel, which has been dubbed the Stahlfurt system. Similar to Griff’s Leap, the Stahlfurt system has enormous mineral potential, making it a highly valuable system to have complete control of.”

You had sent Leila off to the NRI to deal with some minor diplomatic matters between your respective nations, mostly revolving around the Oculus Venetus system. She’d informed you before her departure that there was nothing pressing from the Foreign Office, although Cultural Affairs wanted approval to build a memorial to those lost at the Battle of Stahlfurt.

Therefore Lien is up next. “Your Majesty, with the Chamber elections next year we do not recommend engaging in any lobbying efforts this year as they would likely be redundant. We are prepared to support the establishment of new system governments in both the Chuma and Stahlfurt systems with your approval.”

Grace is up next. “Alright, I’ve got seven teams and labs eager for work. To start with, the odd interference with HPG transmissions in the Kainga system is causing a mild uproar in the KF crowd, they’d like to conduct a number of experiments and try to figure out what is causing the issue. Next we would like to strongly recommend dedicating teams to the next generation of standard core jumpships. I know they aren’t as sexy as compact core vessels, but they serve a critical purpose. Finally we would strongly recommend funding research into fundamental Kearny-Fuchida theory itself. We have the remote facility, and we have a number of geniuses just a step or two removed from being committed to the Department of Periphery Studies. Plus our engineering teams have run into a bottleneck in terms of further improving the compact core. Last, but certainly not least, I’ve requested this before, our weapons development people are eager to work on it, and unlike the other projects these are fairly cheap. Yes, I’m bringing up the advanced machine guns and flamers again.”

General Messerschmidt is up next. “Your Majesty, I have very little to report this year, we are still monitoring Nya Kopenhamn, the NRI hasn’t done anything that I can use to troll you, and apart from setting up an outpost on GX-O25, the NRR is quiet this year.”

Martina is up last. “Justice is prepared to support the colonization efforts on Chuma and Stahlfurt if desired, Your Majesty, otherwise we strongly recommend financing the semi-decadal review and rationalization of the Empire’s legal and regulatory codes.”
 

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