Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Yacovo

Occasionally spouting nonsense
Omake: Overenthusiastic Collaboration

Happy Holidays everyone!

~~~
Agostina entered my office on a slow work day. It was around midday and I felt I might be able to finish early.

Agostina: “Your Majesty, we are facing an issue with one of the systems we recently surveyed.”

I rubbed my temple and sighed. So much for a slow day.

Erin: “What seems to be the problem?”

Agostina took out some of the reports she had on the subject.

Agostina: “Well according to our scouts, a violent revolution has taken place in Culler’s Point. Though locals have renamed the system to Yarnball.”

Erin: “Ok, skipping over the obvious question, what caused the revolution? The previous regime was pretty oppressive. I assume it was a popular uprising for better conditions?”

Agostina: “Actually it was mainly spurred by a religious group known as the Church of Sirius. Their main doctrine is the worship of aliens as higher than humanity on their Great Spiritual Chain and how aliens would one day descend from the stars to take their proper place as humanity’s rulers.

The Church has been dormant in their society for centuries due to persecution from the previous government. When they received word that our exploration team contained non-human sentient life, decentralized yet rapidly growing broadcasts began proclaiming that “The Day of Revelation had arrived”, and the resultant uprising deposed those in power to, and I quote: “Welcome our new alien overlords.””

My face met my hands as I processed this new bout of insanity from my fellow species.

Erin: “The people on the ground explained that we are an empire ruled by a human Emperor and a primarily human legislative branch, right?”

Agostina: “Yes, but the Church seems to believe that the Grifftigers are controlling things behind the scenes due to their long lifespans and just leave the public day to day business to their human servants.”

I suppose it is hard to disabuse someone of a notion they have believed all their lives. Even more if the theory held more weight than I was comfortable considering.

Erin: “At least they are willing to integrate into the Empire. Are there any issues with that or can we start filing the paperwork?”

Agostina: “Actually the Church wished to amend the standard treaty to “better serve the Masters.””

Not the most surprising thing to do. The standard treaty was more a template to be adjusted as needed.

Erin: “Very well, what are their demands.”

Agostina: “They phrase them as more petitions than demands. First, they request higher than standard taxes for humans in Yarnball to prove their devotion by “putting more skin in the game than the other servants.””

Erin: “Unexpected, but welcome. Maybe we can divert more public spending to the system to encourage other systems to follow their example. We should probably check their records to make sure they aren’t bleeding their economy dry.”

Agostina: “Next they request that a small portion of the Grifftiger population be sent to Yarnball so that “lesser beings such as us can see how far below we are.” This may prove trickier. As most Grifftigers are put off by excessive praise.”

Erin: “We could probably swing a separate living quarter as a “Temple District” to lessen interaction and give a place for the Grifftigers to cool their paws. We might have to increase pay and have more frequent rotations, but it is doable.”

Agostina: “They also want a Grifftiger as their governor, as to “take their proper place in the Great Chain. As humanity has proven incapable of leading itself.” Though with their theory about a shadow government, this may be a more ceremonial role than similar positions.”

Erin: “Either way, I imagine claiming “Grand Wisdom” will get the potential governor out of doing anything too absurd. What else?”

Agostina: “Well they want to volunteer a portion of their population as servants and missionaries to “partake in their Holy Service to their masters”. They are already engaging in mass recruitment in preparation. It would border on conscription if not for the reports confirming that they are voluntary.”

Erin: “Keep an eye on their numbers and check to see if they add any extra zeros for numbers or for their age. We don’t want another Children’s Crusade on our hands. Otherwise, as long as they keep things within the law, things should be fine.”

Agostina took out a new report and cleared her throat. Already I knew things were going to get more complicated.

Agostina: “As for their most, problematic, demand. The Planetary Theocracy of Yarnball formally petition with approval by referendum to have their planet terraformed to be habitable for “their new Masters”, the Grifftigers. Even if such terraforming reduces the habitability of the planet for humans.”

Erin: “What?”

Agostina: “They refuse to budge on this as they see this act of “Great Reformation” as the “Ultimate Sacrifice they can make for the Masters”. In addition, should we fail to give them access to a DOME team for this “Sacred Work”, they will assume we are sabotaging their efforts to “hoard the Master’s favor for ourselves”. Then they will attempt to perform the terraforming on their own.”

Erin: “Do they have the technology for terraforming?”

Agostina: “No. Also, they do not have access to Grifftiger biological data. That is not stopping them for preparing to burn down large parts of the planet’s forests and attempt to desalinate all their oceans while dumping chemicals in the water to give it the flavor of milk. Neither of which would make the planet more habitable for Grifftigers.”

Unable to withstand the weight of this revelation, my head met the hard wood of my work desk.

~~~

The Church of Sirius ideology is basically “Humanity sucks at ruling itself, so we should surrender to the first alien we find and help them in every possible way for the good of all.” Which to be fair to the people of the Church of Sirius, is not even the 5th most unreasonable and self-destructive ideology made in response to BT humanity and their recent history. At least they’re not going the Word of Blake or Rogue Noir route.

Fun note: Surrendering to the aliens is seen as a Moral Good by the Church of Surius. The treaty proposed was made by the various leaders and factions of the Church attempting to out-surrender each other to prove they are better at collaborating than the other factions in the Church and the Empire as a whole.
 
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ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
[X] Approve upgrades to the Lyr-class Corvette

Properly known as something else, but Sunhawk keeps renaming all the ship designs I make...grrr! May he be sat on by Griftigers.

Edit:

[X] Kamchatka class
 
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ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
Wonder if we need to change tactics when it comes to exploring. Since we know what general direction Black Steel is, why not come up with something like a Hunter Scout Class ship or a probe that can either jump on its own or be detached from a ship, and just spam the systems in that direction with them.

Unfortunately, the physics of Kearny-Fuchida drives explicitly forbid this; while sub-compact KF drives allow for DropShip sized ships that can jump on their own, they *cannot* be carried by a DropShip under any circumstances.
 

AlphaOmega

Well-known member
named it Nowego Lublina and, out of
Speaking as a Polish person, this is a really weird name. ‘Nowy Lublin’ is what I think this is going for but as I don’t know the planets backstory I can’t tell. There are several reasons that would make the name, in fact, perfectly reasonable. Like naming it ‘Ziemia Nowego Lublina’, ’New Lublin Land’ in English, and it simply got shortened like names tend to do.
Grifftigers are out off by excessive praise
It should be put
 

LordSunhawk

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Speaking as a Polish person, this is a really weird name. ‘Nowy Lublin’ is what I think this is going for but as I don’t know the planets backstory I can’t tell. There are several reasons that would make the name, in fact, perfectly reasonable. Like naming it ‘Ziemia Nowego Lublina’, ’New Lublin Land’ in English, and it simply got shortened like names tend to do.

It should be put
I put 'New Lublin' in Giggle Translate and that's what I got. Your explanation works, since the survey crews weren't Polish speakers and simply recorded the fragmentary documents that they had, which had 'Nowego Lublina' on them, it's possible that Ziemia was there, but for whatever reason was missed.
 

Rukatin

Malfunctioning NPC at Best.
People still haven't voted for ship names yet huh? It's currently at a three way tie with one vote each. Gonna roll a spinner if no one breaks it?
 

LordSunhawk

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People still haven't voted for ship names yet huh? It's currently at a three way tie with one vote each. Gonna roll a spinner if no one breaks it?
Yup, you have until tomorrow to vote on a name. If still a tie I'll pick whichever one I like best out of those with votes.
 
Turn 122 - Shela

LordSunhawk

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Turn 122 - Shela

There is a major controversy building up in the Empire. One that is pitting family members against each other, best friends on opposite sides, brother against sister, mother against daughter, father against son. It erupted out of nowhere, and is now turning into a great contest of wills.

Which is cuter, the bumbling lystrosaurus, or the Capricorn cuddlebear.

A biotech research firm has recently managed to develop a subspecies of the Capricorn Cuddlebear that can eat ordinary vegetable matter rather than being hyper-specialized to the giant bamboos found on the continent of Capricorn. They are now being marketed on the pet market after passing all relevant safety and ethics review boards. And this has caused the most hilarious ‘conflict’ you ever saw… which is cuter and more cuddly.

The cuddlebear seems to have only one ambition in life, to be cute and cuddly. Ten out of ten grifftigers agree, cuddlebears are just too cute and cuddly to hunt in the wild. Many people seem to agree, considering how popular they are becoming as pets.

Lystros, on the other hand, are merely incredibly cute, in a bumbling sort of way, and their detachable tails are the yummiest steaks imaginable, so they are cute and delicious, and you can enjoy lystro tail steaks without any guilt, since detaching the tail not only doesn’t hurt them but is actually very advantageous to the cute critters health. And very delicious.

The Eldest manages to settle the entire affair by posting an image universally accepted as the final word on the subject, a cuddlebear cuddling a lystrosaurus. This is promptly declared to be the cuteness singularity before which all other cuteness must bow.

You are still giggling over the entire thing days later.

You aren’t able to leave Griffsport for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics this year over on Glorreich, but you do make a point of watching. The Bourbons had lodged fresh protests this year over the existence of naked volleyball, being exceptionally self-righteous about it all. You contacted the Bourbon king and he informs you that he shuffled off a number of moral busybodies to something harmless and apologizes if they’re being annoying.

Considering that such protests from those twits is quite common anyways, and the Committee pretty much lets them rant, asks for a second on their motion, which never happens, and the case is closed for another four years.

This year, however, apparently the athletes from all four teams are tired of it all. So during the Athletes Parade in the Opening Ceremony things get a tad spicy, as all four teams decide to protest the shenanigans of those busybodies by wearing precisely what was issued to them upon their respective births. Good thing that the Empire is not prudish at all, or you’d probably be flooded with complaints about this.

And of course your youngest daughter is right there with the rest of Team Griffon.

The Black Steel has not made any moves in the first few weeks of the year, although there is an uptick in pirate activity along your eastern flank, the NRI patrols are doing a superb job dealing with that problem. Reports indicate that the pirates are making use of somewhat more sophisticated equipment, not nearly up to your standards but better than they’d been using previously.

It had originally been thought that the Iskra system would achieve Core status this year, however a number of corporate failures in the electronics industry have delayed this by at least a year as that sector of the local economy recovers. The companies in question produced consumer goods but had been caught out by shifting consumer preferences, they bet on the wrong horse, so to speak, and a number of bankruptcies and reorganizations followed.

The refits of the Lyr-class are underway. Admiral Bremman of Home Fleet has requested that the refitted Lyrs not be reassigned to his fleet, however, citing their incompatibility with their tactical doctrine. He recommends that once they are no longer needed by Grand Fleet that they be first transferred to Strike Fleet, then retired to system garrison duty.

Admiral Fisher, Admiral de Palo and Admiral Fanni all object to this, on the grounds that the Lyr is too capable an interstellar platform to be relegated to mere system defense duties, that Home Fleet is supposed to include ‘garrison duty’ as part of their mission anyways, and that Admiral Bremman is just angling to eventually get a number of rather wild ‘missile’ destroyer, cruiser, and even battleship designs into service.

You’ve met Admiral Bremman, you totally can see him doing something like that. So you preemptively rule that once Grand Fleet is back up to strength the Lyrs will go back to Home Fleet. You do approve of some competition among your commanders, it helps keep them all sharp, but you are not willing to sacrifice efficiency for the purpose.

That being said, a replacement for the Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers has been proposed by BuShips. It’s currently in the early design phase, with multiple designs being considered at the moment. One path is simply an updated Garibaldi, keeping the same basic armament, adding the new modular AMS systems, upgrading the fire control suites to further boost what the existing design is already specialized in (making enemy ASFs truly regret their existence), and removing some ‘gold-plated’ equipment that seemed like a good idea at the time. The other takes the same basic platform but goes in a somewhat different direction, stripping out the bow armament, the sub-capital lasers, and the ASF complement in order to fit a lethal array of heavy naval PPCs and heavy naval gauss cannons. A third design under consideration is a bit of a hybrid between the two, but one with a focus on actual ‘cruiser’ operations rather than acting purely as part of the screen, with a more varied armament optimized for independent operations. Admiral Fisher promises to keep you up to date on developments.

Another military development that is of interest to you is that the three branches of the military have finally settled on a unified standard suit of sealed power armor, as opposed to battle armor. Previously all three services had their own suits for use by pilots and vehicle crews with none of them being cross-compatible. Amaunet finally settled the arguments, as all three branches had been loudly insisting that they couldn’t possibly use suits designed for the other branches as they ‘didn’t meet their needs’.

The Army insisted on mounting an anti-personnel gauss rifle on a stowable shoulder mount, along with an attachment to fit their standard laser assault rifle to one arm without interfering with the armored gloves of the suit. The aerospace force were quite happy with the gauss rifle but wanted jump jets and extended life support without the infantry rifle mount. The navy, meanwhile, wanted no weapons on the suit, full space-adaptation gear but no jump jets, and a set of cutting torches faired into the forearms of the suit for emergency situations.

Amaunet had put up with the quibbling for quite some time before finally putting her paw down, the final suit is an amalgamation of these features that every single one of the services absolutely hates. It has a mounting for a standard infantry rifle on one arm, the integrated cutting torches, full space adaptation gear, jump jets, and extended life support capacity.

You are not all that sympathetic when everybody comes to you about this. You figure that it’s the perfect compromise, since it accomplishes what needs to be done yet absolutely nobody is actually happy about it.

Amaunet has informed you that she is absolutely certain that technicians in the field will happily remove unneeded features and customize the suits to their individual users preferences, but that’s OK, this creates a common structural core that will seriously improve the logistics of the situation.
 

Brogatar

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Actually no it doesn't Navy doesn't need the weapons on their suits. This is unneeded forced compatibility They do separate jobs.
 

LordSunhawk

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Actually no it doesn't Navy doesn't need the weapons on their suits. This is unneeded forced compatibility They do separate jobs.
It's the 'Anti-Personnel Mount', IE think of it as a set of rails in which compatible infantry weapons can be mounted that links to the suits systems for targeting. It does *not* mean that such a weapon needs to be mounted, it just provides the option. The Navy objected to the expense of the system.
 

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