Turn 109 - Walking The Dog
Periphery Studies has finally put away their pogo sticks, much to everybodies relief, but have instead decided to circle back to an old ‘favorite’... and have all decided to become mimes, for the sole purpose of creating ‘mime fields’ around various public parks in Griffsport. There has quite clearly been a run on invisible walls, fences, boxes, and other invisible objects, according to the reports you are reading.
You are still on New Port Royal, as thanks to the extended monologue about baseball the summit is still in the opening stages where your presence is warranted.
The discussions are currently focusing primarily on the Rouges Noir, and the Bourbons are a bit torn between prideful upset at you and relief as all indications that they can see are that you intend to take over those systems currently occupied by the radicals. On the one hand, those systems were once part of their kingdom, and they’d clearly like them back once the radicals are dealt with, on the other hand dealing with the radicals, even after their military is defeated, is likely going to be a hellishly difficult and thorny problem that they’d just as soon wash their hands of.
In the end pragmatism more than wins out, with the Bourbon King declaring that he is willing to cede title over those ‘worlds in rebellion’ for the sum of one gold Bourbon franc per system. And then noting that he will gladly trade several cases of those delightful New Libertalian spirits that have been featured at the various diplomatic dinners in lieu of the coins.
Once you both stop smirking, and after you are certain that you won’t break out laughing at the old man’s ingenious expression, you agree with proper formality to ‘pay the steep price demanded’.
Word comes of continued skirmishes along the frontier facing the Black Steel, several parasite destroyers have been lost to the pin prick raids, as well as a single
Fletcher that took down a pair of Black Steel corvettes with her. Strategic analysts believe that this is simply the sort of sparring that the Black Steel engages in while building up for a major strike, which they predict will be in anything from two to five years from now.
There has been a statistically noticeable spike in misjumps for commercial jumpships, affecting both new-build and older models that have been in service for decades at this point. Investigations are ongoing to determine a cause, or if it is just a statistical artifact. So far there have been no obvious commonalities, and the jumpships in question are cargo haulers rather than on the various passenger lines.
And now it is budget time. You are attending remotely, which lessens the enjoyment.
Amaunet is chairing the meeting in your absence, you figure a few tons of alpha predator will be sufficient to keep Tiberius from doing anything too outrageous, although that will only work if Amaunet doesn’t find your Political advisor’s antics ‘funny’.
The big cat starts things off. “Padrone, the refits are ongoing to fully roll out the new units, early signs are extremely positive however. We are on track for completion in 3042, which will also be when we are projecting that the encirclement of the Rouges Noir will be complete.” A rather feline grin follows, with a lot of very big and sharp teeth on display. “At which point they will be having a very poor time of things, no?”
The big cat then nods to General Bradley who takes the podium. “Your Majesty, as discussed previously while the refits and reequipping is in process we will be focusing all of our primary production capacity in that direction, upgrades to our garrison forces are much easier, since literally any production facility, depot, or DURF facility can handle the work. While we intend to continue to boost our militia and garrison numbers during this transition, this will mean that our infantry divisions will again lag slightly behind new colonization. This is not ideal but our production levels are such that we should be able to catch things up quickly.”
- Imperial Griffon Army
- Production
- Logistics Factories (5 each)
- Shin Tōkyō
- Porto Milano
- Nuova Fortezza
- Nowe Mazowsze
- Neuthüringen
- Procurement
- Garrison Units
- 16 Garrison Divisions
- 16 Militia Divisions
General Romanov is up next. “The Aerospace Force is in solid shape, Your Majesty, we’ll want to be continuing to build up our defensive units for now, but otherwise we have sufficient production capacity for our needs.”
- Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Procurement
- 90 Naval Patrol Wing
- 30 Heavy Carrier Wing
Admiral Fisher is up next. “We all saw how well the big iron did, we want as much of that as we can get. Production levels are low, so far, but that is mainly due to wanting to ensure a solid pace of production, we’ll need many more slipways if we want to boost it to the levels we’ll need long-term. We’ll be putting the new parasites in production this year, and we’ll be wanting to build a few new orbital yards for them in order to continue to expand our production levels.”
- Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
- Orbital Shipyards
- New Orbital Shipyards
- New Algiers
- New Clew Bay
- Nuova Tripoli
- New Libertalia
- Upgrade All Orbital Shipyards
- Refit & Repair Yards
- New Refit & Repair Yard
- Upgrade All Refit & Repair Yards
- Escort Yards
- Neuthüringen
- Nowe Mazowsze
- Platzregensburg
- Bellaterra
- Landprettig
- Nubifragio
- Porto Milano
- Shin Tōkyō
- New Algiers
- New Clew Bay
- Nuova Tripoli
- New Libertalia
- Small Warship Yards
- Pieklo
- New Phoenix
- New Capricorn
- New Castor
- New Port Royal
- Nowy Wrocław
- Nya Kopenhamn
- Kainga
- Edelsteine
- New Capricorn
- Large Warship Yards
- Griffon
- Calliope
- New Pollux
- Nowy Warszawa
- Procurement
- Standard Dropships
- 200 Shimakaze-class Parasite Destroyers
- 134 Spruance-class Parasite Destroyers
- Large Dropships
- 20 Meteor-class Parasite Missile Battleships
- 40 Aetna-class Parasite Missile Battleships
- 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
- 91 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
- Jumpships
- 6 Windjammer-class Jumpships
- Escorts
- 60 Fubuki-class Destroyer
- 30 England-class Frigate
- 60 Lyr-class Corvette
- 20 Supply-class Transport
- Small Warships
- 30 Dido-class Light Cruisers
- 20 Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
- 4 Hosho-class Carriers
- Medium Warships
- 20 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruisers
- Large Warships
- 4 Dreadnought-class Battleship
- 4 Jean Bart-class Battlecruiser
- Fortress Command
- Black Tower
- Griffon
- Nowa Warszawa
- Calliope
- New Capricorn
- New Port Royal
Amaunet churrs softly, looking quite smug as she sits there behind the podium. “Well, Padrone, we’re in solid shape. I recommend prioritizing the orbital shipyards and the large warship yards over the escort and small warship yards. The long term strategic material contracts are showing excellent results, to the point that I strongly recommend continuing them once they come up for renewal, potentially at a slightly higher discount rate.”
Elizabeth Lee then takes the podium once Amaunet finishes up. “Needless to say, we are ready to support anything that is decided to build. Our economic teams do have a number of recommendations.” She checks her notes for a moment then brings up a chart for your consideration.
- Economic Focus, Investment & Infrastructure/Industrial Zones
- Focus
- Major Investment
- Investment
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zone
- Arvum
- Nuova Tripoli
- New Algiers
- Landprettig
- Nubifragio
“DoME has a single team available for work, thanks to the completion of the Pustina optimization project. To that end, we recommend sending that team to Steingarten for further optimization of that system.”
“For survey work, we intend to hook around the northern border of the Bourbons and Rouges Noir to continue our encirclement.” She brings up another chart.
- Survey Targets
- GX-D29
- The system primary is a fairly dim red dwarf, however there are indications of rocky planets in the system.
- GX-D30
- The system primary is a slightly variable main sequence yellow star, with at least a mix of terrestrial and gas giant planets.
- GX-D31
- Another red dwarf, this system shows definite signs of rocky planets
- GX-C30
- Red Giant, unlikely to have planets but there is evidence of extensive asteroid belts in the system
Dr Kamato is with you, but is currently in a break-out session with several of his counterparts discussing various important issues concerning the logistics of strengthening alliances and ties.
You were wondering where Tiberius was, and you finally spot him… pinned underneath the paw of Amaunet. You only notice when he sticks an arm out with his thumb up, then sticks out a small sign reading ‘We Haz Cheezburger! And Parks & Recreation please!”
You laugh a bit at that, as Amaunet looks long-suffering, but you can tell that the big cat is enjoying herself.
Grace is up next. “Your Majesty, I know that this will be expensive, but I think we can afford it this time. We have three R&D teams available, and I strongly recommend both Improved Automation and Improved Education this year, while also starting work on improved Arrow-IV missile launchers.”
General Messerschmidt is absent, as he’s continuing to oversee pirate interrogations to try and extract as much data as possible. Martina is also absent, mostly due to working with General Messerschmidt on the interrogations.
