Ridli Scott
Well-known member
The problem is that she could totally do that.
Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
The problem is that she could totally do that.
The problem is she could totally do that and she'd probably let our kids be involved in a peripheral role that was absolutely legal, absolutely safe, and absolutely exciting.
We *certainly* have correctly judged her good character, but we *probably* have misjudged just how mischievously creative she is.
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Joyousmadman
Well-known member
[X] Support the Lords - Immediate -1% GDP as the financial markets are roiled, however +1 to Approval Change and +1 to Econ Rating. +5 support in Lords, -10 support in Commons.
Lightwhispers
Well-known member
[X] Support the Lords - Immediate -1% GDP as the financial markets are roiled, however +1 to Approval Change and +1 to Econ Rating. +5 support in Lords, -10 support in Commons.
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] We don't know enough, get Janet's and Bridget's opinions on this.
Turn 24 - An Enigma
Turn 24 - An Enigma
“What we have here, Your Majesty, is a classic example of a very well written and well meant regulation running face first into the blender of legal precedent and becoming an albatross.” Janet says after you call her in to consult on the proposed legislation.
Bridget nods, but lets the legal expert take the lead.
“The regulation in question is so simple that any average 6 year old can understand it. When executing a purchase of stock on the market the buyer must have sufficient funds in their operating account to fully cover the cost of said purchase. As applied to ‘short’ sales, this regulation is expanded to ‘at the moment of placing the short sale order and at the time of execution of the short sale, the seller must have sufficient funds in their operating account to acquire the full position’.” Janet continues, getting nods around the table.
Bridget then speaks up. “It’s a really good idea, because otherwise unethical short sellors would, and have in the past, made massive short bets which didn’t pan out and then simply walked away from the sale, leaving the buyer to have to try and pursue legal remedies in court and thus incur significant expense.” she points out.
“Exactly. Thus this regulation makes it a felony securities fraud violation to try and pull something like that. So far this is quite simple and straightforward.” Janet takes over once more. “Until it wasn’t.”
She takes a breath and takes out a small binder. “Right before the Gem Conspiracy exploded bringing down so many major corporations an analyst at one of the smaller investment firms that wasn’t implicated in the conspiracy spotted some trends that led him to take a massive short position in the single largest bank that was involved. At the time he took the short position it was the single most expensive stock on the market, but he still managed to cover a very large bet on the stock crashing. Then the Gem Conspiracy unraveled and that bank’s stock completely collapsed overnight. As assets were seized and the conspiracy broken, the stock market delisted the bank. At that moment, all active trades were honored but the short position that the investment house had made was excluded since it was set to execute the next day.”
Another binder. “The investment firm went to court, pointing out that as a matter of equity all trades needed to be honored, due to the specific wording of the declaration you’d made concerning cleaning up the mess left behind by the Gems.”
Bridget takes over again. “They won that case, and made a massive windfall that strongly contributed to the economic boom the planetary economy enjoyed. But this also set a precedent in that a short position, even if it were scheduled to execute at a given time, could theoretically trigger at any moment.” She scowls. “And certain solicitors realized the opportunity.”
Janet takes up the conversation again. “So they started sending demand letters to banks whenever somebody took a short position on a stock, demanding to know the current balance of the operating fund and comparing it to the stock price. They would then try to spike the stock price above that balance, then send threatening letters to the investment firms threatening to file fraud charges for failing to maintain a sufficient operating balance. Generally speaking, it would cost the investment firms far more to litigate this practice than to just pay off the solicitors.”
Bridget smoothly tags back in. “As a consequence, no ethical investment advisor would ever recommend that a small investor engage in short sales, because of the conduct of those solicitors. The solicitors make money, the investment firms write it off as a cost of doing business.”
Janet returns. “But the solicitors have been getting greedy and have started demanding that the banks do their research and monitoring for them so that they can lower their expenses while increasing the volume of such suits, and when the banks refused to become their unpaid research team the solicitors started trying to hold the banks liable for ‘concealing fraud’. The banks were far less willing to play ball, so the solicitors have been lobbying members of Parliament to attempt to tilt the playing field as far in their favor as possible.”
Bridget takes up the thread. “Most members of parliament simply don’t have the background to know that they are getting played. The solicitors would include language in the stipulations of settlement they are already getting from the investment firms that the banks were at fault for not notifying the solicitors, and the solicitors would be able to use this legislation to then sue the banks.”
How do you react?
[] Write-In (QM will interpret)
“What we have here, Your Majesty, is a classic example of a very well written and well meant regulation running face first into the blender of legal precedent and becoming an albatross.” Janet says after you call her in to consult on the proposed legislation.
Bridget nods, but lets the legal expert take the lead.
“The regulation in question is so simple that any average 6 year old can understand it. When executing a purchase of stock on the market the buyer must have sufficient funds in their operating account to fully cover the cost of said purchase. As applied to ‘short’ sales, this regulation is expanded to ‘at the moment of placing the short sale order and at the time of execution of the short sale, the seller must have sufficient funds in their operating account to acquire the full position’.” Janet continues, getting nods around the table.
Bridget then speaks up. “It’s a really good idea, because otherwise unethical short sellors would, and have in the past, made massive short bets which didn’t pan out and then simply walked away from the sale, leaving the buyer to have to try and pursue legal remedies in court and thus incur significant expense.” she points out.
“Exactly. Thus this regulation makes it a felony securities fraud violation to try and pull something like that. So far this is quite simple and straightforward.” Janet takes over once more. “Until it wasn’t.”
She takes a breath and takes out a small binder. “Right before the Gem Conspiracy exploded bringing down so many major corporations an analyst at one of the smaller investment firms that wasn’t implicated in the conspiracy spotted some trends that led him to take a massive short position in the single largest bank that was involved. At the time he took the short position it was the single most expensive stock on the market, but he still managed to cover a very large bet on the stock crashing. Then the Gem Conspiracy unraveled and that bank’s stock completely collapsed overnight. As assets were seized and the conspiracy broken, the stock market delisted the bank. At that moment, all active trades were honored but the short position that the investment house had made was excluded since it was set to execute the next day.”
Another binder. “The investment firm went to court, pointing out that as a matter of equity all trades needed to be honored, due to the specific wording of the declaration you’d made concerning cleaning up the mess left behind by the Gems.”
Bridget takes over again. “They won that case, and made a massive windfall that strongly contributed to the economic boom the planetary economy enjoyed. But this also set a precedent in that a short position, even if it were scheduled to execute at a given time, could theoretically trigger at any moment.” She scowls. “And certain solicitors realized the opportunity.”
Janet takes up the conversation again. “So they started sending demand letters to banks whenever somebody took a short position on a stock, demanding to know the current balance of the operating fund and comparing it to the stock price. They would then try to spike the stock price above that balance, then send threatening letters to the investment firms threatening to file fraud charges for failing to maintain a sufficient operating balance. Generally speaking, it would cost the investment firms far more to litigate this practice than to just pay off the solicitors.”
Bridget smoothly tags back in. “As a consequence, no ethical investment advisor would ever recommend that a small investor engage in short sales, because of the conduct of those solicitors. The solicitors make money, the investment firms write it off as a cost of doing business.”
Janet returns. “But the solicitors have been getting greedy and have started demanding that the banks do their research and monitoring for them so that they can lower their expenses while increasing the volume of such suits, and when the banks refused to become their unpaid research team the solicitors started trying to hold the banks liable for ‘concealing fraud’. The banks were far less willing to play ball, so the solicitors have been lobbying members of Parliament to attempt to tilt the playing field as far in their favor as possible.”
Bridget takes up the thread. “Most members of parliament simply don’t have the background to know that they are getting played. The solicitors would include language in the stipulations of settlement they are already getting from the investment firms that the banks were at fault for not notifying the solicitors, and the solicitors would be able to use this legislation to then sue the banks.”
How do you react?
[] Write-In (QM will interpret)
The Queen mutters ominously under her breath that some days she really regrets standing on principle and opposing that whole "power to banish people" business.
[X] The League of Amateur Sledgehammer-Throwers
After several rather frustrating rounds of "The Queen suggests something, Janet and Bridget shake their heads and patiently explain why that would have unexpected consequences", the Queen rather heatedly suggests,
"Okay, how about just double down on mandatory reporting. Any suspected violation of financial laws must be reported immediately to the regulatory authorities; therefore, the solicitors pulling this shit are guilty of failing to report their suspicions to the proper chain of command, and can be punished for that. We give up the ability to easily punish them for making a fraudulent report unless it's provably malicious, but that was nearly impossible to prove anyway."
"Uh..."
"Declare everyone involve guilty of inflicting ACCOUNTING! on the Crown and sentence them to doing all my paperwork. Under Jane's supervision." The Queen threw up her hands. "It's not like you guys to bring up a complex technical regulatory issue without expert proposals on solutions, what gives?"
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] Trust Bridget and Janet
Lightwhispers
Well-known member
[x] Classify this as a form of blackmail/extortion, and prosecute it as such. Also, see if the solicitors involved can be disbarred for failing to report misconduct, or other unethical activity.
This is taking action to place someone in a position of danger they would not otherwise be in, and then threatening them with legal trouble, with the "out" of paying them money. It's something that should be covered by existing law. Also, going after the solicitors' ability to function as such, should help stop this sort of thing.
How are they justifying the demand letters regarding the balance of funds? Do they claim to have a client who has the right to know?
This is taking action to place someone in a position of danger they would not otherwise be in, and then threatening them with legal trouble, with the "out" of paying them money. It's something that should be covered by existing law. Also, going after the solicitors' ability to function as such, should help stop this sort of thing.
How are they justifying the demand letters regarding the balance of funds? Do they claim to have a client who has the right to know?
[X] Let it be quietly known to the firms that specialize in this practice that the "She is displeased with their behavior." and that her displeasure has legal and practical consequences. Like Special Branch's technical experts looking into their finances and leaking the results to the press? Or perhaps just other embarrassing items. The Crown would appreciate it if they withdrew their support for the proposed legislation and in fact, cease their frivolous lawsuits, lest the Crown be forced to take action?
edofthesquid
Well-known member
[X] Trust Bridget and Janet
Lightwhispers
Well-known member
It occurs to me that my previous post did not actually address the problem with short-selling and the current regulations.
Suggested fix: If a short-sale contract (or whatever the proper term is, I don't care, FEED THEM TO THE PENGUINS!) would violate the regulations regarding having sufficient operating capital to cover the sale due to the price rising, it is immediately executed at that price. (Essentially, if someone takes a short-sell position, they set up a "ceiling" value for the stock, either explicitly or just as an artifact of the balance in the account they have set up for that sale. If the stock goes above that ceiling, just as if it goes below the "floor" of the intended short-sell price, the transaction is triggered to immediately take place.)
Financial experts can probably make that more elegant, but it is a fix to the financial regulation issue.
The solution to the "unethical solicitor" problem... well, I still don't see how they are finding out about the short-sell contracts without breaching some level of confidentiality, and then using their position as a bludgeon to get information they don't have standing to acquire... I am coming to favor "feed the penguins" here.
Edit: Apparently, short-sell orders are publicly listed. So, not malfeasance on that end, even if it still is low-level extortion.
Suggested fix: If a short-sale contract (or whatever the proper term is, I don't care, FEED THEM TO THE PENGUINS!) would violate the regulations regarding having sufficient operating capital to cover the sale due to the price rising, it is immediately executed at that price. (Essentially, if someone takes a short-sell position, they set up a "ceiling" value for the stock, either explicitly or just as an artifact of the balance in the account they have set up for that sale. If the stock goes above that ceiling, just as if it goes below the "floor" of the intended short-sell price, the transaction is triggered to immediately take place.)
Financial experts can probably make that more elegant, but it is a fix to the financial regulation issue.
The solution to the "unethical solicitor" problem... well, I still don't see how they are finding out about the short-sell contracts without breaching some level of confidentiality, and then using their position as a bludgeon to get information they don't have standing to acquire... I am coming to favor "feed the penguins" here.
Edit: Apparently, short-sell orders are publicly listed. So, not malfeasance on that end, even if it still is low-level extortion.
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Turn 24 - Financial Decisions and Advisors
Turn 24 - Financial Decisions and Advisors
“So, recommendations?” you finally ask after the pair of them wind down.
“Simple, remove the issue by nullifying the precedent.” Janet says promptly. “Since it’s never made it back into court to be tested, the precedent still remains and is governing.”
Bridget nods “Normally this is happening at such a low level that it would never rise to anybody's attention. Just a normal cost of doing business for the big brokerage houses. But somebody got greedy.” she shrugs and gets excited. “So what we should do is craft some new legislation to address the issue like maybe something that says that if a stock is delisted with active short or long orders on it that those orders will still execute at the contracted time but the stock itself is frozen and ceases trading except to accommodate those orders and once they are all wound down the stock goes poof.”
Janet rolls her eyes at her colleagues' enthusiasm. “More or less that, Your Majesty.” she confirms. “It’s an extreme edge case regardless, but by putting a controlling regulation in place to address that edge case you remove the precedent that allows the solicitors to engage in those tort claims. The Lords who were backing the reform did so in the belief that they were addressing actual fraud in the system, mostly, rather than out of any sense of obligation to the solicitor firms behind this scheme.”
Jake pipes up from where he’d been listening quietly. “So by issuing a new regulation, announcing that it is in response to ‘fraud concerns raised by the Lords’, while also undermining the solicitors who profit off of the demand letters due to the old precedent… Your Majesty, in the politics business we call this a ‘win-win’.” he grins impishly, prompting everybody else to join in.
Several days later the announcement was made with some fanfare, with both the Lord’s who’d proposed the banking regulations and the Commons members who’d opposed it in attendance as guests of the throne.
(QM NOTE - +1 Approval Change, +1 Approval, +1 Economic Rating, +1 Lords and +1 Commons support)
The doctors have completed their final operations on Sarah and she now has all of her limbs back, but she’s still not waking up. They tell you it may be a few weeks to months, but that they are seeing encouraging signs.
Willis has been released from the hospital and is back home. And grumbling about the PT he still has to do. The twins and Thanh do nothing to help in that regard, as they seem to find the sight of Dad having to walk around with a zimmer frame absolutely hilarious.
You totally didn’t help them decorate the frame with tasteless glitter, ribbons, and adjust it so that every time he took a step with it it squeaked loudly. Sergeant-Major Ngo is a lying liar who lies.
Willis doesn’t believe your protestations of innocence either. Damn the man. On the other hand, you rather enjoy the consequences thereof. It’s good to have your husband back.
Alita is being a good sensible girl, keeping the books for your adopted families fishing firm and proving to be quite talented at it. And with her out of reach Willis is reduced to muttering imprecations about what he’ll do to anybody who breaks his son’s heart if she turns out to not be what you are convinced she is.
Jeremy is clearly his father’s son and is having a blast as a deckhand on one of the large fishing trawlers that operate out of Vinh Cam Ranh. He’s already been through his first big storm at sea and declared it ‘refreshing’.
All Willis’ fault. Adrenaline junkies.
With the volcano monitoring station built and operational you are told that the geologists should have updated information on where, precisely, on the mountain the eruptions would most likely occur. Modern seismographic equipment is incredibly precise, after all.
Then comes your favorite time of year again. No, not the Hovercraft Racing League championships, and not your birthday but, and a drumroll please, budget time!
Please try to at least pretend to be enthusiastic?
General Swanson starts things off. “I have a few requests, Your Majesty. First of all, I’d like to reorganize the Rapid Reaction Force into a proper regimental order, with the existing formations being slotted into a reinforced 1st Regiment. Technically that would be under General Potter’s authority, but he asked that I run it by you first.”
You nod at that, as it is a quite sensible request.
“In that case. We have a proposal to upgrade the Wolfhound to a new model, the Wolfhound 2. To do so would tie up our ferro-fibrous capacity for a year, but would give us our first anti-missile system equipped platform as well as boosting the RRF’s combat ability. The new design is slightly more expensive, at 987.6 per platoon compared to 948 but we get a more capable platform for the money.”
[] Approve the upgrade (total cost 356.4 and will take 1 turn, the upgrade increases Offense and Defense by 1 and HP by 4)
[] Disapprove
“In addition, we recommend procuring 2 lances of Ambush’s but holding off on additional Pathfinder production until the new models are thoroughly tested in field exercises this year. The Hue Moi garrison has requested a regiment of Verdun Urban Defense Vehicles, and of course we should finish up the Avenger battalion.”
She pauses. “On that note, Nollak has approached us with a design for an upgrade to the Avenger system making use of the new Ultra autocannons. The upgrade would not require any strategic materials but would be moderately expensive. The new design is a significant firepower boost over the old one, but it also will cost 834.4 per platoon rather than 628.
[] Approve the upgrade (total cost 2485.6 to upgrade to the new design AND complete the battalion. The upgrade increases Offense and Defense by 1 and HP by 4)
[] Disapprove
General Reyes takes over the lectern at this point. “Your Majesty, USS Enterprise is in commission. We only need to pay for the explorer team and a flight of fighters to have her be ready to start exploring. What we’d like to do is transfer the current Eagle squadron to the duty and procure a new set of Eagles to the AeroSpace Force. In addition, we’d like to begin construction of a second dropship in the class, to be tentatively named USS Constellation to continue the… tradition.” she smirks at that and flashes you a somewhat playful Vulcan salute, which you return with a laugh. “We also recommend expanding our L4 space station and procuring another flight of Goshawk’s to begin garrisoning the L4 region to protect our assets there. In terms of research, ferro-aluminium armor would be as big an asset to us as ferro-fibrous is proving to be for ground forces.”
Captain Stinnet is grinning. “Your Majesty, since I'm a blue-water coastie, and now we have a proper naval unit in the black, I’d like to recommend that my place in these briefings be replaced by my colleague who commands the Exploration Fleet. Admiral Jamison Kirk.”
A slender black man steps up to the podium, grinning a little. “I’ve heard all the jokes already, Your Majesty, and my 2nd has heard even more. As General Reyes said, USS Enterprise is up and running under Captain Lucas James. And yes, he’s heard the jokes as well. Once we have the eagles on board and the explorer team I’d recommend a shakedown exploration mission fully surveying the moon. The data we have from the cores claims there is little of interest there, but I’d like to verify that, and it would provide valuable training.”
General Potter then takes the lectern. “Apart from what they’ve already mentioned. I believe it would be advantageous to us to expand the Ferro-Fibrous and Endo-steel orbital plants as much as possible and start additional foundries. Once we’ve improved our orbital infrastructure some more I’d strongly recommend a third station at the L5 point to permit us to build a second cluster of orbital factories.”
He checks his notes “Now that Castor is fully open for development, I would also recommend the construction of a Roc plant there to finish up our Foc wing, as well as a Harris class dropship facility.”
Bridget then pops in. “We’ve got a whole bunch of stuff, Your Majesty!” she starts, grinning like usual. You had tried to cut her coffee ration, but she didn’t drink coffee, she was this perky naturally. It was unnatural. “We have so many things that we can do I don’t even know where to start we can build new drop ports which would really boost our economy we can also build a bunch more cities and even build more infrastructure down on Pollux so we can get that all up to snuff and looking great which would really help everything so we probably should do that and we have so much potential in that regard.”
Isoroku waits for Bridget to finish. “Statues.” is all he says, although there’s a faint smile on his face.
Jake guffaws, slaps him on the back, then turns to you. “I’d like to start hosting regularly scheduled town hall meetings across the various settlements on the planet, allowing us to get a better read on the pulse of the people in a more interactive format.”
Dr Palmer is busy in her office, so she sends her assistant to the meeting. “Your Majesty, we have a full set of labs available, as the AMS is out at the proving grounds while they wait for the new power lines to be run. We recommend Industrial Mechs, the Mauser 960 reverse engineering, improved Electronics and finally improved Power Generation.”
Well that was short and sweet.
Harry is back at the interrogation site. The DEST teams are singing like canaries, rather than have to listen to more of the JPOP classics that Jane seems to be able to find so effortlessly to annoy them with. He promises to have a full report by the end of the year, but that there is nothing immediately actionable.
Janet is dealing with a sick teenager, so she misses the budget meeting although she sends a note that all’s well on the Justice front.
“So, recommendations?” you finally ask after the pair of them wind down.
“Simple, remove the issue by nullifying the precedent.” Janet says promptly. “Since it’s never made it back into court to be tested, the precedent still remains and is governing.”
Bridget nods “Normally this is happening at such a low level that it would never rise to anybody's attention. Just a normal cost of doing business for the big brokerage houses. But somebody got greedy.” she shrugs and gets excited. “So what we should do is craft some new legislation to address the issue like maybe something that says that if a stock is delisted with active short or long orders on it that those orders will still execute at the contracted time but the stock itself is frozen and ceases trading except to accommodate those orders and once they are all wound down the stock goes poof.”
Janet rolls her eyes at her colleagues' enthusiasm. “More or less that, Your Majesty.” she confirms. “It’s an extreme edge case regardless, but by putting a controlling regulation in place to address that edge case you remove the precedent that allows the solicitors to engage in those tort claims. The Lords who were backing the reform did so in the belief that they were addressing actual fraud in the system, mostly, rather than out of any sense of obligation to the solicitor firms behind this scheme.”
Jake pipes up from where he’d been listening quietly. “So by issuing a new regulation, announcing that it is in response to ‘fraud concerns raised by the Lords’, while also undermining the solicitors who profit off of the demand letters due to the old precedent… Your Majesty, in the politics business we call this a ‘win-win’.” he grins impishly, prompting everybody else to join in.
Several days later the announcement was made with some fanfare, with both the Lord’s who’d proposed the banking regulations and the Commons members who’d opposed it in attendance as guests of the throne.
(QM NOTE - +1 Approval Change, +1 Approval, +1 Economic Rating, +1 Lords and +1 Commons support)
The doctors have completed their final operations on Sarah and she now has all of her limbs back, but she’s still not waking up. They tell you it may be a few weeks to months, but that they are seeing encouraging signs.
Willis has been released from the hospital and is back home. And grumbling about the PT he still has to do. The twins and Thanh do nothing to help in that regard, as they seem to find the sight of Dad having to walk around with a zimmer frame absolutely hilarious.
You totally didn’t help them decorate the frame with tasteless glitter, ribbons, and adjust it so that every time he took a step with it it squeaked loudly. Sergeant-Major Ngo is a lying liar who lies.
Willis doesn’t believe your protestations of innocence either. Damn the man. On the other hand, you rather enjoy the consequences thereof. It’s good to have your husband back.
Alita is being a good sensible girl, keeping the books for your adopted families fishing firm and proving to be quite talented at it. And with her out of reach Willis is reduced to muttering imprecations about what he’ll do to anybody who breaks his son’s heart if she turns out to not be what you are convinced she is.
Jeremy is clearly his father’s son and is having a blast as a deckhand on one of the large fishing trawlers that operate out of Vinh Cam Ranh. He’s already been through his first big storm at sea and declared it ‘refreshing’.
All Willis’ fault. Adrenaline junkies.
With the volcano monitoring station built and operational you are told that the geologists should have updated information on where, precisely, on the mountain the eruptions would most likely occur. Modern seismographic equipment is incredibly precise, after all.
Then comes your favorite time of year again. No, not the Hovercraft Racing League championships, and not your birthday but, and a drumroll please, budget time!
Please try to at least pretend to be enthusiastic?
General Swanson starts things off. “I have a few requests, Your Majesty. First of all, I’d like to reorganize the Rapid Reaction Force into a proper regimental order, with the existing formations being slotted into a reinforced 1st Regiment. Technically that would be under General Potter’s authority, but he asked that I run it by you first.”
You nod at that, as it is a quite sensible request.
“In that case. We have a proposal to upgrade the Wolfhound to a new model, the Wolfhound 2. To do so would tie up our ferro-fibrous capacity for a year, but would give us our first anti-missile system equipped platform as well as boosting the RRF’s combat ability. The new design is slightly more expensive, at 987.6 per platoon compared to 948 but we get a more capable platform for the money.”
[] Approve the upgrade (total cost 356.4 and will take 1 turn, the upgrade increases Offense and Defense by 1 and HP by 4)
[] Disapprove
“In addition, we recommend procuring 2 lances of Ambush’s but holding off on additional Pathfinder production until the new models are thoroughly tested in field exercises this year. The Hue Moi garrison has requested a regiment of Verdun Urban Defense Vehicles, and of course we should finish up the Avenger battalion.”
She pauses. “On that note, Nollak has approached us with a design for an upgrade to the Avenger system making use of the new Ultra autocannons. The upgrade would not require any strategic materials but would be moderately expensive. The new design is a significant firepower boost over the old one, but it also will cost 834.4 per platoon rather than 628.
[] Approve the upgrade (total cost 2485.6 to upgrade to the new design AND complete the battalion. The upgrade increases Offense and Defense by 1 and HP by 4)
[] Disapprove
General Reyes takes over the lectern at this point. “Your Majesty, USS Enterprise is in commission. We only need to pay for the explorer team and a flight of fighters to have her be ready to start exploring. What we’d like to do is transfer the current Eagle squadron to the duty and procure a new set of Eagles to the AeroSpace Force. In addition, we’d like to begin construction of a second dropship in the class, to be tentatively named USS Constellation to continue the… tradition.” she smirks at that and flashes you a somewhat playful Vulcan salute, which you return with a laugh. “We also recommend expanding our L4 space station and procuring another flight of Goshawk’s to begin garrisoning the L4 region to protect our assets there. In terms of research, ferro-aluminium armor would be as big an asset to us as ferro-fibrous is proving to be for ground forces.”
Captain Stinnet is grinning. “Your Majesty, since I'm a blue-water coastie, and now we have a proper naval unit in the black, I’d like to recommend that my place in these briefings be replaced by my colleague who commands the Exploration Fleet. Admiral Jamison Kirk.”
A slender black man steps up to the podium, grinning a little. “I’ve heard all the jokes already, Your Majesty, and my 2nd has heard even more. As General Reyes said, USS Enterprise is up and running under Captain Lucas James. And yes, he’s heard the jokes as well. Once we have the eagles on board and the explorer team I’d recommend a shakedown exploration mission fully surveying the moon. The data we have from the cores claims there is little of interest there, but I’d like to verify that, and it would provide valuable training.”
General Potter then takes the lectern. “Apart from what they’ve already mentioned. I believe it would be advantageous to us to expand the Ferro-Fibrous and Endo-steel orbital plants as much as possible and start additional foundries. Once we’ve improved our orbital infrastructure some more I’d strongly recommend a third station at the L5 point to permit us to build a second cluster of orbital factories.”
He checks his notes “Now that Castor is fully open for development, I would also recommend the construction of a Roc plant there to finish up our Foc wing, as well as a Harris class dropship facility.”
Bridget then pops in. “We’ve got a whole bunch of stuff, Your Majesty!” she starts, grinning like usual. You had tried to cut her coffee ration, but she didn’t drink coffee, she was this perky naturally. It was unnatural. “We have so many things that we can do I don’t even know where to start we can build new drop ports which would really boost our economy we can also build a bunch more cities and even build more infrastructure down on Pollux so we can get that all up to snuff and looking great which would really help everything so we probably should do that and we have so much potential in that regard.”
Isoroku waits for Bridget to finish. “Statues.” is all he says, although there’s a faint smile on his face.
Jake guffaws, slaps him on the back, then turns to you. “I’d like to start hosting regularly scheduled town hall meetings across the various settlements on the planet, allowing us to get a better read on the pulse of the people in a more interactive format.”
Dr Palmer is busy in her office, so she sends her assistant to the meeting. “Your Majesty, we have a full set of labs available, as the AMS is out at the proving grounds while they wait for the new power lines to be run. We recommend Industrial Mechs, the Mauser 960 reverse engineering, improved Electronics and finally improved Power Generation.”
Well that was short and sweet.
Harry is back at the interrogation site. The DEST teams are singing like canaries, rather than have to listen to more of the JPOP classics that Jane seems to be able to find so effortlessly to annoy them with. He promises to have a full report by the end of the year, but that there is nothing immediately actionable.
Janet is dealing with a sick teenager, so she misses the budget meeting although she sends a note that all’s well on the Justice front.