Turn 86 - Pele Breathes Words of Comfort
There is utter chaos in the Nya Kopenhamn system as both of the rather lunatic planetary governments finally collapse. Fighting is still going on, as the various factions battle for supremacy and take out old scores on each other. As planned four infantry divisions and a pair of Brigade Combat Teams land on each planet, smothering the incipient bloodbaths quite efficiently.
Your civil affairs teams rather smoothly move in as well, taking over offices and making exhaustive use of the massive amounts of data your intelligence people have been accumulating over the years in order to get the civil affairs of your new system into order. The IGMP moves in as well and begins the long and potentially fraught process of bringing law and order to a system which had been under the rule of lunatics and fanatics rather than of law for far too long.
It will be a long term project to bring this system fully up to snuff, so to speak, but the locals are tired of war, tired of repression, and ready to just live their lives without being forced to either engage in mass hedonism or truly oppressive overt religiosity. It helps that both planets in the system are resource rich and despite the gross misrule and the recent extreme civil unrest have fairly functional, if somewhat primitive, economies.
Say what you will about the hedonists, but everybody on that planet is at least passingly competent at, shall we say, recreational chemistry. And the religious nuts, say what you will, are pretty competent civil and material engineers in their own right.
You do wind up having to shuffle some garrison forces and volunteers from planetary militias over to Nya Kopenhamn in order to begin a proper garrison. Once locals have been properly vetted the militia units will return to their systems of origin.
Okusawa has elected their first system governor and parliament, as well as a full slate of delegates and Senators for the Imperial Parliament. It’s too soon to tell if they’ll be helpful or not, but you’ve got your fingers crossed.
A lone Black Steel
Essex attacks Chula but, unusually, retreats when confronted by a pair of
Samuel B. Roberts class destroyer escorts before combat can be joined. A number of ballistic trajectory high-yield nuclear devices were intercepted short of the planet.
Sensor records from the attack show that the Black Steel vessel appears to be a brand new ship. The visual data shows a distinct lack of micrometeorite wear to the hull, consistent with a vessel that has only been in space less than five years.
General Bradley meets with you regarding the various proposals for a new light trooper mech.
“Your Majesty, we received three proposals for the Light Combat Mech RFP that meet the minimum requirements and which have passed review. We’re still in the process of determining if actual procurement of any of them would be worthwhile, as there are solid arguments both for and against such small and vulnerable mechs. Their speed and agility would be solid advantages on the battlefield, and they are relatively inexpensive platforms, but they are also far more vulnerable than designs even twenty tons heavier.”
She brings up some graphics, showing models of the proposals along with their specifications.
“The first comes to us from Majeure Electrique’s mech division, accompanied by a rather whiny note from their vehicle division about how they could make a ‘jumping tank’ that would be ‘far more interesting’. When asked if said jumping tank could
land, they got a bit evasive so we’re laughing at them for that. The
Cossack Light Cavalry Mech is the slowest of the three proposals, with a maximum running speed of 97.2 kilometers per hour, but has a 180 meter jump range. Primarily because of the jump jets, the
Cossack is the most expensive of the proposals, but not by a crippling amount.” General Bradley smiles slightly. “Interestingly, it uses a conventional 5cm laser, apparently to reduce the heat load, rather than an extended range variety.”
She checks her notes. “The next is from Giza Battlemechworks, and is a rather different design. It runs at 118.8 kilometers per hour and is the cheapest of the three options, and would be the first operational design in service making use of a flamer as opposed to lasers or AP Gauss systems for anti-infantry work.
“Finally,” she grins slightly, “the graduate engineering students at the Calliope Military Academy, in conjunction with Calliope Motors, have proposed the
Tancerka Light Trooper Mech. In terms of cost it will be in the middle, but it does make full use of advanced materials, including both endo steel and ferro-fibrous armor on the way to being the most capable of the three designs in terms of offensive and defensive capabilities.”
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Cossack | $4,326.21 | ES, DHS | 13 | 23 | |
| [] | Flareon | $4,070.61 | ES, DHS | 13 | 23 |
- Swift
- Missile 0
- AMS 1
- TAG
|
| [] | Tancerka | $4,295.05 | ES, FF, DHS | 15 | 25 |
- Swift
- Missile 0
- AMS 1
- TAG
|
General Messerschmidt sends you a memo about the latest shenanigans from the NRI. And amazingly none of it involves your cult. Instead it involves a cult dedicated to your little sister. Not Thanh, but Sarah. She is tearing her hair out, because they’re building heroic nude statues of her as a Goddess of Scholarship. You, on the other hand, find this absolutely hilarious and a delicious bit of schadenfreude, thanks to how often she laughed at you for moaning about your cult.
Then you get word from New Port Royal which almost spoils your mood. The Space Bourbon emissary and several members of his entourage are dead, evidently killed by other members of the delegation when they attempted to assassinate the Prince in a fit of rage. The prince seemed quite blase about it all, and you have word that a new emissary has already been selected.
