Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
Turn 8 - Advisors
Turn 8 Advisor Advice
You sign off on having the specialists from the zoo here in the capital study the damntigers. The cost isn’t that high after all.
Within a few days there is a new trending video on the planetary datanets. Evidently, damntiger kittens are incredibly cute and cuddly. Your eldest wants one. You, however, being an older and wiser parental unit, and having seen the imagery of what an adult damntiger looks like, have been able to easily resist childish blandishments.
In other wildlife news, the reptilian Griffin Gulls endemic to the coastlines around the capital are even more common and a bit larger around the new port facilities, and evidently far more aggressive when it comes to seeking food. The garrison forces put in an emergency order for shotguns to counter the winged menaces.
General Wolf compares them to the legendary Canada Goose in terms of aggression and pure evil. Then he has to spend a few hours explaining the legend from Earth.
You aren’t too sure about that, it seems that the Griffin Gulls are less obnoxious than what he describes, but you haven’t really dealt with them much.
You get a chance to sit down with Dagny and discuss her observations of the Dracs as well as her experiences as a MechWarrior, tactfully not asking about intelligence or… other… matters.
She gives you a solid briefing on the Jenner in use by the forces you are facing, its strengths, weaknesses, and ideas on how to best combat it. The meal winds up lasting far longer than you’d expected as your husband, Dagny, and yourself find yourselves bouncing ideas off of each other for how to best handle groups of these light fast mechs.
One thing that comes of this is that your Chasseur hovertanks might be an excellent counter in the hands of skilled troops. After observing the Rapid Reaction Force in action, you and Dagny both agree that they really will need to up their game.
Meanwhile you have meetings with the walking hormone about the titanium deposits down in the antarctic. Before you can even hope to exploit them you’d need to improve certain things, specifically improve the materials that would be used in the mining and extraction rigs as well as construct some icebreakers to clear the sea lanes to any prospective port.
Icebreakers are one thing that nobody on the planet had ever designed or built, so Tyler proposes opening up a design competition for one.
It doesn’t take long and there are a pair of submissions for the contest.
[] Whistle-class Icebreaker
[] Independence-class Icebreaker
Both will cost the same, and while the Independence has slightly higher utility with the crane the Whistle is a bit more heavily armed. You will need two ships to start, with future expansion possibly needed depending on maritime traffic through the arctic regions. So you can either buy 2 of one design, or 1 of each.
You note that you will have the option to turn the ships over to civilian crews for a 50% discount on maintenance, however the vessels would count as Student-quality for combat purposes.
Once you have the icebreakers in service you will be able to better ascertain what will be needed to ultimately exploit the Titanium find.
On the most certainly plus side, this is the year when you can complete the mining project and get those new mines in full operation. Looking at your balance sheets… it’s looking pretty good. Several of the investments made during the rebuilding process are starting to pay off handsomely, resulting in additional economic growth this year over and above expectations.
You also get surprising news from the small expedition sent into the ruins of the original colony site. Apparently on the very first day they decided to shelter for the night in a ruined building that just happened to contain damaged examples of Star League water purification and filtration gear that would be required to help terraform a planet less conducive to human life than Griffin’s Roost. It’s nothing you need right now, but is something that would come in handy if you wind up colonizing new worlds.
Your meetings with your advisors are mercifully short. The twins are teething and a right handful.
General Wolf proposes putting the Rapid Reaction Force through extensive exercises and training to increase their skills. ((QM note - this will cost the maintenance cost of the units involved, so for the RRF this will cost 36)). He would also like to put the Falcon pilots through similar training. The higher their skill, after all, the more likely that they will be victorious in the next battle.
Tyler Lee is excited about finishing the mines, and recommends that you consider constructing proper drop ports in both the Capital and Huế mới to further boost commercial opportunities. It would be expensive, but in the long term would have significant effects on the economy. He notes that as space infrastructure expands the presence of the drop ports will be very beneficial.
Dr Young sends you a memo again advocating for the racing league, but is otherwise squirreled away with her people pouring over the data from Dagny.
Professor Chapman doesn’t have much for you either. According to her, while the Commons were able to boost their popularity lately, they did so by explicitly backing Crown policies with the parties most in support of you being the vast majority. So she recommends holding off on anything to do with checking parliamentary influence. Your own profile is high enough to shield you from most issues, while still not being so high as to put a target on your back as a potential tyrant.
Dr Palmer recommends working on some Materials research in preparation for the next big push towards that titanium deposit, but she also recommends building either Cutlass or Monitor patrol craft to start clearing a river route to the mines.
Juanita reminds you that the POWs are just a dead weight at this point, you’ve extracted all the intel you’ll likely get from them.
Janet, meanwhile, still dealing with the novelty of having a long-term steady boyfriend who won’t simply jump into bed with her (and who STILL hasn’t popped the question), agrees and recommends commencing with the war crimes
EDIT - Here are the available actions, BTW
You sign off on having the specialists from the zoo here in the capital study the damntigers. The cost isn’t that high after all.
Within a few days there is a new trending video on the planetary datanets. Evidently, damntiger kittens are incredibly cute and cuddly. Your eldest wants one. You, however, being an older and wiser parental unit, and having seen the imagery of what an adult damntiger looks like, have been able to easily resist childish blandishments.
In other wildlife news, the reptilian Griffin Gulls endemic to the coastlines around the capital are even more common and a bit larger around the new port facilities, and evidently far more aggressive when it comes to seeking food. The garrison forces put in an emergency order for shotguns to counter the winged menaces.
General Wolf compares them to the legendary Canada Goose in terms of aggression and pure evil. Then he has to spend a few hours explaining the legend from Earth.
You aren’t too sure about that, it seems that the Griffin Gulls are less obnoxious than what he describes, but you haven’t really dealt with them much.
You get a chance to sit down with Dagny and discuss her observations of the Dracs as well as her experiences as a MechWarrior, tactfully not asking about intelligence or… other… matters.
She gives you a solid briefing on the Jenner in use by the forces you are facing, its strengths, weaknesses, and ideas on how to best combat it. The meal winds up lasting far longer than you’d expected as your husband, Dagny, and yourself find yourselves bouncing ideas off of each other for how to best handle groups of these light fast mechs.
One thing that comes of this is that your Chasseur hovertanks might be an excellent counter in the hands of skilled troops. After observing the Rapid Reaction Force in action, you and Dagny both agree that they really will need to up their game.
Meanwhile you have meetings with the walking hormone about the titanium deposits down in the antarctic. Before you can even hope to exploit them you’d need to improve certain things, specifically improve the materials that would be used in the mining and extraction rigs as well as construct some icebreakers to clear the sea lanes to any prospective port.
Icebreakers are one thing that nobody on the planet had ever designed or built, so Tyler proposes opening up a design competition for one.
It doesn’t take long and there are a pair of submissions for the contest.
[] Whistle-class Icebreaker
[] Independence-class Icebreaker
Both will cost the same, and while the Independence has slightly higher utility with the crane the Whistle is a bit more heavily armed. You will need two ships to start, with future expansion possibly needed depending on maritime traffic through the arctic regions. So you can either buy 2 of one design, or 1 of each.
You note that you will have the option to turn the ships over to civilian crews for a 50% discount on maintenance, however the vessels would count as Student-quality for combat purposes.
Once you have the icebreakers in service you will be able to better ascertain what will be needed to ultimately exploit the Titanium find.
On the most certainly plus side, this is the year when you can complete the mining project and get those new mines in full operation. Looking at your balance sheets… it’s looking pretty good. Several of the investments made during the rebuilding process are starting to pay off handsomely, resulting in additional economic growth this year over and above expectations.
You also get surprising news from the small expedition sent into the ruins of the original colony site. Apparently on the very first day they decided to shelter for the night in a ruined building that just happened to contain damaged examples of Star League water purification and filtration gear that would be required to help terraform a planet less conducive to human life than Griffin’s Roost. It’s nothing you need right now, but is something that would come in handy if you wind up colonizing new worlds.
Your meetings with your advisors are mercifully short. The twins are teething and a right handful.
General Wolf proposes putting the Rapid Reaction Force through extensive exercises and training to increase their skills. ((QM note - this will cost the maintenance cost of the units involved, so for the RRF this will cost 36)). He would also like to put the Falcon pilots through similar training. The higher their skill, after all, the more likely that they will be victorious in the next battle.
Tyler Lee is excited about finishing the mines, and recommends that you consider constructing proper drop ports in both the Capital and Huế mới to further boost commercial opportunities. It would be expensive, but in the long term would have significant effects on the economy. He notes that as space infrastructure expands the presence of the drop ports will be very beneficial.
Dr Young sends you a memo again advocating for the racing league, but is otherwise squirreled away with her people pouring over the data from Dagny.
Professor Chapman doesn’t have much for you either. According to her, while the Commons were able to boost their popularity lately, they did so by explicitly backing Crown policies with the parties most in support of you being the vast majority. So she recommends holding off on anything to do with checking parliamentary influence. Your own profile is high enough to shield you from most issues, while still not being so high as to put a target on your back as a potential tyrant.
Dr Palmer recommends working on some Materials research in preparation for the next big push towards that titanium deposit, but she also recommends building either Cutlass or Monitor patrol craft to start clearing a river route to the mines.
Juanita reminds you that the POWs are just a dead weight at this point, you’ve extracted all the intel you’ll likely get from them.
Janet, meanwhile, still dealing with the novelty of having a long-term steady boyfriend who won’t simply jump into bed with her (and who STILL hasn’t popped the question), agrees and recommends commencing with the war crimes
EDIT - Here are the available actions, BTW
Last edited:
On the selection of the icebreaker, I would argue that two Medium Lasers is overkill for a non-combatant vessel, whereas there is substantial utility value to having a Small Laser mounted as a deck gun in a forward turret where it can be used as a utility tool to assist in icebreaking. In addition, the rival design lacks side machine gun coverage, which are quite useful as an anti-piracy/anti-boarding functionality, especially in the light of Highly Hostile Wildlife apparently being a thing on this world.
I would not, in or out of character, like to place bets on the Antarctic *not* having some serious hyperpredators of its own.
I would not, in or out of character, like to place bets on the Antarctic *not* having some serious hyperpredators of its own.
Last edited:
Jarow
Well-known member
I made whistle mostly just to build one, think I agree that Independence is the better one
[X] 2x Independence with Civilian Crew
[X] Plan: Basic Training
-[X] Military 4
--[X] Build Fortifications lvl 1*
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Chasseur Hovertank
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Falcon ASF
-[X]Interior 4
--[X] Financial Sector Reform (Interior)*
--[X] 4) Construct Mines
(Finally, we get the +100% GDP Boost)
-[X] Diplomatic 3
-[X] Political 3
-[X] Research 3
--[X] Foxhound Hovertank
(Other main desired military unit from previous turns)
--[X] Cutlass Patrol Boat
(Last turn before we start getting all the money; lets finally get the boats)
--[X] Materials Research lvl 1
(seemingly needed for next project)
-[X] Intelligence 3
--[X] Establish dedicated intel agency*
Justice 2
--[X] Financial Sector Reform (Justice)*
--[X] Conduct War Crimes Trials
(Now we both have the action available and can't learn more stuff, can finally do this)
Plan costs about our income, if I did my math right, so we aren't losing our savings. Next turn we should probably start the drop ports though
[X] 2x Independence with Civilian Crew
[X] Plan: Basic Training
-[X] Military 4
--[X] Build Fortifications lvl 1*
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Chasseur Hovertank
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Falcon ASF
-[X]Interior 4
--[X] Financial Sector Reform (Interior)*
--[X] 4) Construct Mines
(Finally, we get the +100% GDP Boost)
-[X] Diplomatic 3
-[X] Political 3
-[X] Research 3
--[X] Foxhound Hovertank
(Other main desired military unit from previous turns)
--[X] Cutlass Patrol Boat
(Last turn before we start getting all the money; lets finally get the boats)
--[X] Materials Research lvl 1
(seemingly needed for next project)
-[X] Intelligence 3
--[X] Establish dedicated intel agency*
Justice 2
--[X] Financial Sector Reform (Justice)*
--[X] Conduct War Crimes Trials
(Now we both have the action available and can't learn more stuff, can finally do this)
Plan costs about our income, if I did my math right, so we aren't losing our savings. Next turn we should probably start the drop ports though
[X] Jarow
Plan: Inherent Resolve
[X] Build x3 Independence Icebreakers with civillian crews.
[X] Military
-[X] Hold Training Exercises for Falcon ASF
-[X] Hold Training Exercises for Rapid Reaction Force
-[X] Purchase 1 battery of Long Tom Artillery
[X] Interior
-[X] Construct Drop Port outside Capitol
-[X] Construct Mines
[X] Diplomatic
-[X] Establish Hovercraft Racing League
[X] Political
No Actions
[X] Research
-[X] Research Light Bipedial Mechs
-[X] Research Cutlass Patrol Boat
-[X] Materials Research Level 1
[X] Intelligence
No actions at this time
[X] Justice
-[X] Commence War Crimes Trials
[X] Build x3 Independence Icebreakers with civillian crews.
[X] Military
-[X] Hold Training Exercises for Falcon ASF
-[X] Hold Training Exercises for Rapid Reaction Force
-[X] Purchase 1 battery of Long Tom Artillery
[X] Interior
-[X] Construct Drop Port outside Capitol
-[X] Construct Mines
[X] Diplomatic
-[X] Establish Hovercraft Racing League
[X] Political
No Actions
[X] Research
-[X] Research Light Bipedial Mechs
-[X] Research Cutlass Patrol Boat
-[X] Materials Research Level 1
[X] Intelligence
No actions at this time
[X] Justice
-[X] Commence War Crimes Trials
Last edited:
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] Jarow
Turn 8 - Results
Turn 8 Results
-----
You go over the reports of the shake-down cruise for the new icebreakers out of the brand spanking new New Kaiser Yards in Huế mới - after a few years of constant reminders from Sergeant Ngô and bà you are finally able to consistently pronounce the Vietnamese name. They seem like good little ships, although evidently the crews are not all that keen on marksmanship beyond ‘ouchy side points thataway’. You remind yourself that if you really need to you can assign proper gunners to them, but leave it at that for now. The two ships are currently being tested near the edges of the Antarctic ice pack, by this time next year they should be available for cruising down to the site of the Titanium deposits.
The reports from the field exercises come in and they are a mixed bag. Evidently your Falcon pilots just needed a little motivation and extra training time to hone their skills, by the second day of the exercises they were already showing marked improvement and by the end of the scheduled time General Wolf is comfortable marking them as a Veteran unit. The attached video of some of the more hair-raising manoeuvres has your husband whooping in delight and jealous he couldn’t be flying them, and you a little white-knuckled and hoping none of your kids catches the flying bug from Willis. With how much little Jeremy loves playing airplane with daddy you are not too confident in that regard.
You wish the reports from the Rapid Reaction Force were as favorable. Well, once you stop laughing at the ‘greatest hits’ compilation General Wolf helpfully includes in the packet. If you were training a force of slapstick comedians you’d consider what you are seeing a great and rousing success. But your hopes that this was simply a blooper reel are dashed when you find out it was the highlights and best performances of the exercises…. They clearly need a lot more practice before they’d be anything you’d feel comfortable deploying in the field. You are sure that the technicians assigned to the RRF have had many very choice things to say to the pilots, probably including many four letter words and scathing scatalogical descriptions about the pilots probable ancestry. EVERY single one of the hovercraft involved crashed spectacularly at least once, including the truly epic 36 hovercraft pileup.
You are just grateful that none of these turkeys managed to kill themselves.
Well, at least the family loved it, and when you showed bà the video she laughed harder than you’d ever seen her laugh before commenting that she was just glad that none of her grandchildren were involved in that debacle.
And when Jeremy solemnly told you that the silly people needed to stop crashing and do it right it was everything you could do not to break down giggling and restrict yourself to agreeing with your son and ruffling his hair before sending him back to playing with his blocks.
Of course, 30 seconds later Tyler swooped in, picked up your son, and ran out the door after goosing you, leading to you chasing after him threatening such dire retributions (edited for young ears) as taking away his dessert and banning him from pie.
Somehow this chase got caught on video and wound up on the evening news. And from the commentary apparently people loved seeing their Queen with her hair down, so to speak. You are certain that Tyler arranged this, but can’t prove it.
Several days later you see your first damntiger in person while on the VIP train up to the new mining area to officially open it. It’s one of the adults and even from a distance it is terrifyingly huge. Your guide tells you that so far nobody has been attacked by any of the adults, and attacks from the subadults had subsided significantly after the zoologists had reported that it appeared that the glowing stripes were some sort of identifier. Crews working on the railway and mines had taken to wearing glowing strips on their clothing and those who did so were left completely alone by the giant predators.
There was one absolutely terrifying video of a full adult damntiger walking through a campsite, completely ignoring the guards and people there, only to pause to sniff at the locomotive idling at the trackhead. The damn thing was almost as big as the locomotive. But afterwards it became apparent that for all of its sheer size and power, the massive beast hadn’t disturbed anything at all in the camp, having somehow managed to avoid so much as knocking over a spotlight stand.
There is concern over what the diet of the massive adults was. The subadults had been seen hunting the various herbivores that called the jungle home, but nobody had yet seen what the full adults ate.
The new mines are finally open for business, and the sheer productivity from them is staggering. Seeing the projections on paper is one thing, experiencing it in person is something else entirely. And the really valuable deposits aren’t even being touched yet as they are reserved for the future when and if you start building jumpcores.
General Wolf takes you on a tour of the fortifications surrounding the capital, Huế mới, and the mining area. The density of the network is impressive, with Thumper artillery pieces sited in carefully positioned fire bases giving them interlocking fields of fire. Small bunkers topped with anti-aircraft turrets are scattered about as well in a carefully planned pattern. All in all, it is a very impressive effort. Nowhere near the legendary Castle Brians of myth and fairy tale, perhaps, but a good solid set of defensive works.
Janet and Tyler happily inform you of the completion and implementation of the first wave of financial reforms in the wake of the Gem Rebellion. Many of the smaller banks that had been seized following the trials were now being privatized under the new regulatory regime. There is still planning being done on options for the larger banks. Tyler promises you a briefing on the matter by next year.
On a more grim note, the war crimes trials are set to begin. For the majority of the prisoners, the infantry and such, the trials went quickly. Yes, most of them were guilty of what they were charged with, but none of the charges were capital offenses. On average, for the normal grunts they would spend the rest of their lives in prison camps doing hard labor. A number of the technicians were acquitted, as Janet had warned you would probably happen. They may have been support personnel, but they pretty much all had been conscripts who had been given zero choice in the matter and would have been messily killed if they’d shown any defiance or resistance. You’ll have to decide what to do with them…
[] Offer them citizenship free and clear, so long as they swear loyalty, they’d already suffered enough as slaves of Kurita.
[] Offer them citizenship in exchange for service to the Kingdom. While they’d been unwilling pawns in the attack, they’d still helped cause damage. Service would allow them to pay back some of the harm done.
[] Keep them in the current POW camps, they aren’t your citizens, you have no responsibility towards them, let them grow crops and support themselves, but if they leave the confines of the camp your guards have their orders.
Professor Chapman sends you a memo as the trials begin recommending sharing the credit for the trials and such with Parliament. Your popularity and personal authority is already high enough that raising it further may cause worries of dictatorship to find fertile ground. Sharing the credit would slightly raise the influence of both the Lords and the Commons, but would also calm any fears of unilateral rule on your part.
[] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[] Keep all the credit (+1 Influence to the Crown)
It is when the Mechwarriors, tankers, and officers of the raiding force come up on trial that things become… interesting. Every single one of them is guilty as charged, every single one of them have committed rapes, murders, abuses… and are utterly unrepentant about it all. The MechWarriors and officers especially are arrogant and dismissive of your authority to judge them, with many of them threatening that any actions taken against them would be seen as treason against the rightful First Lord.
When they are convicted anyways and sentenced to death, they have the gall to demand the right to commit seppuku.
[] Permit it, they’ve already lost, let them die with some dignity
[] Firing squads are the best they can hope for. They have no honor, but they are soldiers, not traitors or pirates.
[] The gallows are waiting. String them up as the scum they are.
You take a break from judicial affairs to attend the official unveiling of the pre-production prototypes of the Foxhound and Cutlass. Both are impressive in their own ways. The Foxhound is nearly as fast as the Chasseur, while massively better armored and armed, and are clearly superior to your existing tracked tanks. The Cutlass is an extremely promising harbor and river patrol hydrofoil that would permit you to start exploring the riverine systems of the continent where Huế mới is located.
Economic Roll - 6 degrees of success = 6%
Health Roll - 1 degree of success = 1% Pop growth rate
Stability Change roll - 6 degrees of success
Stability Rolls
-Political
--Result - No event
-Research -
--Result - All Research Projects active at start of turn autocomplete and autosucceed
-Economic -
--Result - +5% GDP
Meta Event Roll - 45 - No event
Dynasty Luck Roll - 22 - Investments pay off, +5% to GDP this turn
Crown Influence Roll - 8 - FAIL
Lords Influence Roll - 3 - FAIL
Commons Influence Roll - 8
Health Roll - 1 degree of success = 1% Pop growth rate
Stability Change roll - 6 degrees of success
Stability Rolls
-Political
--Result - No event
-Research -
--Result - All Research Projects active at start of turn autocomplete and autosucceed
-Economic -
--Result - +5% GDP
Meta Event Roll - 45 - No event
Dynasty Luck Roll - 22 - Investments pay off, +5% to GDP this turn
Crown Influence Roll - 8 - FAIL
Lords Influence Roll - 3 - FAIL
Commons Influence Roll - 8
Build Fortifications lvl 1*
Target - 75
Roll - 18
SUCCESS
Initiate Training Exercise Chasseur Hovertank
Target - 50
Roll - 68
FAIL
Initiate Training Exercise Falcon ASF
Target - 50
Roll - 18
SUCCESS
Financial Sector Reform (Interior)*
Target - 95
Roll - 89
SUCCESS
4) Construct Mines
Target - 85
Roll - 78
SUCCESS
Foxhound Hovertank
Target - 95
Roll - 55
SUCCESS
Cutlass Patrol Boat
Target - 95
Roll - 27
SUCCESS
Materials Research lvl 1
Target - 80
Roll - 92
FAIL
Financial Sector Reform (Justice)*
Target - 95
Roll - 43
SUCCESS
Conduct War Crimes Trials
Target - 75
Roll - 32
SUCCESS
Target - 75
Roll - 18
SUCCESS
Initiate Training Exercise Chasseur Hovertank
Target - 50
Roll - 68
FAIL
Initiate Training Exercise Falcon ASF
Target - 50
Roll - 18
SUCCESS
Financial Sector Reform (Interior)*
Target - 95
Roll - 89
SUCCESS
4) Construct Mines
Target - 85
Roll - 78
SUCCESS
Foxhound Hovertank
Target - 95
Roll - 55
SUCCESS
Cutlass Patrol Boat
Target - 95
Roll - 27
SUCCESS
Materials Research lvl 1
Target - 80
Roll - 92
FAIL
Financial Sector Reform (Justice)*
Target - 95
Roll - 43
SUCCESS
Conduct War Crimes Trials
Target - 75
Roll - 32
SUCCESS
-----
You go over the reports of the shake-down cruise for the new icebreakers out of the brand spanking new New Kaiser Yards in Huế mới - after a few years of constant reminders from Sergeant Ngô and bà you are finally able to consistently pronounce the Vietnamese name. They seem like good little ships, although evidently the crews are not all that keen on marksmanship beyond ‘ouchy side points thataway’. You remind yourself that if you really need to you can assign proper gunners to them, but leave it at that for now. The two ships are currently being tested near the edges of the Antarctic ice pack, by this time next year they should be available for cruising down to the site of the Titanium deposits.
The reports from the field exercises come in and they are a mixed bag. Evidently your Falcon pilots just needed a little motivation and extra training time to hone their skills, by the second day of the exercises they were already showing marked improvement and by the end of the scheduled time General Wolf is comfortable marking them as a Veteran unit. The attached video of some of the more hair-raising manoeuvres has your husband whooping in delight and jealous he couldn’t be flying them, and you a little white-knuckled and hoping none of your kids catches the flying bug from Willis. With how much little Jeremy loves playing airplane with daddy you are not too confident in that regard.
You wish the reports from the Rapid Reaction Force were as favorable. Well, once you stop laughing at the ‘greatest hits’ compilation General Wolf helpfully includes in the packet. If you were training a force of slapstick comedians you’d consider what you are seeing a great and rousing success. But your hopes that this was simply a blooper reel are dashed when you find out it was the highlights and best performances of the exercises…. They clearly need a lot more practice before they’d be anything you’d feel comfortable deploying in the field. You are sure that the technicians assigned to the RRF have had many very choice things to say to the pilots, probably including many four letter words and scathing scatalogical descriptions about the pilots probable ancestry. EVERY single one of the hovercraft involved crashed spectacularly at least once, including the truly epic 36 hovercraft pileup.
You are just grateful that none of these turkeys managed to kill themselves.
Well, at least the family loved it, and when you showed bà the video she laughed harder than you’d ever seen her laugh before commenting that she was just glad that none of her grandchildren were involved in that debacle.
And when Jeremy solemnly told you that the silly people needed to stop crashing and do it right it was everything you could do not to break down giggling and restrict yourself to agreeing with your son and ruffling his hair before sending him back to playing with his blocks.
Of course, 30 seconds later Tyler swooped in, picked up your son, and ran out the door after goosing you, leading to you chasing after him threatening such dire retributions (edited for young ears) as taking away his dessert and banning him from pie.
Somehow this chase got caught on video and wound up on the evening news. And from the commentary apparently people loved seeing their Queen with her hair down, so to speak. You are certain that Tyler arranged this, but can’t prove it.
Several days later you see your first damntiger in person while on the VIP train up to the new mining area to officially open it. It’s one of the adults and even from a distance it is terrifyingly huge. Your guide tells you that so far nobody has been attacked by any of the adults, and attacks from the subadults had subsided significantly after the zoologists had reported that it appeared that the glowing stripes were some sort of identifier. Crews working on the railway and mines had taken to wearing glowing strips on their clothing and those who did so were left completely alone by the giant predators.
There was one absolutely terrifying video of a full adult damntiger walking through a campsite, completely ignoring the guards and people there, only to pause to sniff at the locomotive idling at the trackhead. The damn thing was almost as big as the locomotive. But afterwards it became apparent that for all of its sheer size and power, the massive beast hadn’t disturbed anything at all in the camp, having somehow managed to avoid so much as knocking over a spotlight stand.
There is concern over what the diet of the massive adults was. The subadults had been seen hunting the various herbivores that called the jungle home, but nobody had yet seen what the full adults ate.
The new mines are finally open for business, and the sheer productivity from them is staggering. Seeing the projections on paper is one thing, experiencing it in person is something else entirely. And the really valuable deposits aren’t even being touched yet as they are reserved for the future when and if you start building jumpcores.
General Wolf takes you on a tour of the fortifications surrounding the capital, Huế mới, and the mining area. The density of the network is impressive, with Thumper artillery pieces sited in carefully positioned fire bases giving them interlocking fields of fire. Small bunkers topped with anti-aircraft turrets are scattered about as well in a carefully planned pattern. All in all, it is a very impressive effort. Nowhere near the legendary Castle Brians of myth and fairy tale, perhaps, but a good solid set of defensive works.
Janet and Tyler happily inform you of the completion and implementation of the first wave of financial reforms in the wake of the Gem Rebellion. Many of the smaller banks that had been seized following the trials were now being privatized under the new regulatory regime. There is still planning being done on options for the larger banks. Tyler promises you a briefing on the matter by next year.
On a more grim note, the war crimes trials are set to begin. For the majority of the prisoners, the infantry and such, the trials went quickly. Yes, most of them were guilty of what they were charged with, but none of the charges were capital offenses. On average, for the normal grunts they would spend the rest of their lives in prison camps doing hard labor. A number of the technicians were acquitted, as Janet had warned you would probably happen. They may have been support personnel, but they pretty much all had been conscripts who had been given zero choice in the matter and would have been messily killed if they’d shown any defiance or resistance. You’ll have to decide what to do with them…
[] Offer them citizenship free and clear, so long as they swear loyalty, they’d already suffered enough as slaves of Kurita.
[] Offer them citizenship in exchange for service to the Kingdom. While they’d been unwilling pawns in the attack, they’d still helped cause damage. Service would allow them to pay back some of the harm done.
[] Keep them in the current POW camps, they aren’t your citizens, you have no responsibility towards them, let them grow crops and support themselves, but if they leave the confines of the camp your guards have their orders.
Professor Chapman sends you a memo as the trials begin recommending sharing the credit for the trials and such with Parliament. Your popularity and personal authority is already high enough that raising it further may cause worries of dictatorship to find fertile ground. Sharing the credit would slightly raise the influence of both the Lords and the Commons, but would also calm any fears of unilateral rule on your part.
[] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[] Keep all the credit (+1 Influence to the Crown)
It is when the Mechwarriors, tankers, and officers of the raiding force come up on trial that things become… interesting. Every single one of them is guilty as charged, every single one of them have committed rapes, murders, abuses… and are utterly unrepentant about it all. The MechWarriors and officers especially are arrogant and dismissive of your authority to judge them, with many of them threatening that any actions taken against them would be seen as treason against the rightful First Lord.
When they are convicted anyways and sentenced to death, they have the gall to demand the right to commit seppuku.
[] Permit it, they’ve already lost, let them die with some dignity
[] Firing squads are the best they can hope for. They have no honor, but they are soldiers, not traitors or pirates.
[] The gallows are waiting. String them up as the scum they are.
You take a break from judicial affairs to attend the official unveiling of the pre-production prototypes of the Foxhound and Cutlass. Both are impressive in their own ways. The Foxhound is nearly as fast as the Chasseur, while massively better armored and armed, and are clearly superior to your existing tracked tanks. The Cutlass is an extremely promising harbor and river patrol hydrofoil that would permit you to start exploring the riverine systems of the continent where Huế mới is located.
[X] Offer them citizenship free and clear, so long as they swear loyalty, they’d already suffered enough as slaves of Kurita.
[X] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[X] Firing squads are the best they can hope for. They have no honor, but they are soldiers, not traitors or pirates.
[X] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[X] Firing squads are the best they can hope for. They have no honor, but they are soldiers, not traitors or pirates.
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
Pretty much what I am thinking.
[X] Offer them citizenship free and clear, so long as they swear loyalty, they’d already suffered enough as slaves of Kurita.
[X] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[X] Firing squads are the best they can hope for. They have no honor, but they are soldiers, not traitors or pirates.
[X] Offer them citizenship free and clear, so long as they swear loyalty, they’d already suffered enough as slaves of Kurita.
[X] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[X] Firing squads are the best they can hope for. They have no honor, but they are soldiers, not traitors or pirates.
[X] Offer them citizenship free and clear, so long as they swear loyalty, they’d already suffered enough as slaves of Kurita.
[X] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[X] The gallows are waiting. String them up as the scum they are. (Considering all the convicted are guilty of? No, they are pirates, not soldiers.)
[X] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[X] The gallows are waiting. String them up as the scum they are. (Considering all the convicted are guilty of? No, they are pirates, not soldiers.)
[X] Offer them citizenship in exchange for service to the Kingdom. While they’d been unwilling pawns in the attack, they’d still helped cause damage. Service would allow them to pay back some of the harm done.
I would offer them permanent residency free and clear, but full-fledged citizenship is rather much. These are trying times and frankly, we can only afford so much mercy.
[X] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[X] The gallows are waiting. String them up as the scum they are.
I would make a public announcement: these were not war crimes tribunals, because we were not (and still are not) at war with the Draconis Combine, nor did these individuals actually present themselves as members of the Combine military or any other recognized uniformed service. They are therefore not even war criminals; they are nothing more than mass murdering terrorists, they have been duly convicted in fair trials in unbiased courts of law, and now they will be executed by hanging just like every other common criminal.
I would offer them permanent residency free and clear, but full-fledged citizenship is rather much. These are trying times and frankly, we can only afford so much mercy.
[X] Share the credit (Lord and Commons +1 Influence)
[X] The gallows are waiting. String them up as the scum they are.
I would make a public announcement: these were not war crimes tribunals, because we were not (and still are not) at war with the Draconis Combine, nor did these individuals actually present themselves as members of the Combine military or any other recognized uniformed service. They are therefore not even war criminals; they are nothing more than mass murdering terrorists, they have been duly convicted in fair trials in unbiased courts of law, and now they will be executed by hanging just like every other common criminal.
Turn 9 Fluff and Story
Turn 9 Story Start
The year started out with a bang. Literally. You found yourself hauled out of bed and dragged down to the command center by Sergeant Ngô as alarms howled and wailed in the background. On the main status board was an ominous glowing indicator..
“Radio telescope picked up what is believed to be a large KF signature at a nearby pirate point, we are currently attempting to determine what may be incoming.” comes the terse report from the duty officer.
You tense, this could be what you had feared. “All units alerted?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. The Falcon squadron has scrambled and is boosting towards low orbit, all units are reporting readiness.” came the terse response.
Hours crawl by as you are forced to wait while the relatively small telescopes at the University are pressed into service searching for an incoming threat.
All units report ready for action, the Falcons have started patrol rotations in order to maintain a continuous orbital watch.
General Wolf arrives from where he was overseeing preparations for the next set of Rapid Reaction Force exercises two hours after the alert is given, a respectable turn around time considering he was almost two hours out from the capital when the alert was given.
Janet shows up with the Black Bean of Life, earning a thankful nod. The alert continues.
You are on your twelfth cup of coffee when word comes down. There’s nothing there. False positive on the initial jump flare report is listed as the most likely culprit.
You really need to improve your orbital infrastructure so you can get some proper deep space radar systems in place.
A few days later word comes from the university that the actual cause of the false alarm was the sudden appearance of a transient nova flare from a previously steady star about 9k light years away. So a solar burp nine thousand years ago caused you to miss a night's sleep.
You are annoyed. You complain to Sergeant Ngô about this for hours.
Then your husband manages to distract you by dragging you and the kids off to the zoo for the day. The young damntigers are on display in a specially constructed habitat and are the stars of the zoo. OK, you decide, if they are only half as deadly as they are cute when they’re play-wrestling with large balls and each other, they are the most lethal creature on the planet.
Your son again tries Pleading Little Boy Eyes on you to get a damntiger as a pet. You, as the properly mature adult, manage to succeed at your resistance check at the memory of just how huge the damn things get when fully grown.
You note that the zoo is campaigning to have the name changed to the Grifftiger.
[] Support this, it’s a much better name for such a wonderful creature!
[] Are they nuts? They’re damntigers and damn scary! (and cute… hush you traitorous voice)
[] Write-in
While you are at the zoo a number of the zookeepers and ecologists buttonhole you to press for an exploration expedition to chart the rivers of the equatorial continent. They give a number of very cogent arguments, mostly relating to the possibility of natural resources hidden underneath the jungle canopies, as well as a burning desire to learn more about the ecology of the planet. They’ve got a very good handle on the local ecology, but the deep jungles of that continent are an irresistible mystery to the scientists.
They do inform you of some of what they’ve learned so far. The observed growth rate of the cubs tracks to them reaching subadult (but sexually mature) status at around age 15 or so, and assuming growth rates continue at the same pace they would be full adults at 50 or so. They have no idea about maximum longevity. Surprisingly they are habitual carnivores, not obligate carnivores, and supplement their diet with small quantities of certain fruits. The bioluminescent compound in their coats appears to be derived from symbiotic bacteria very similar to bacteria found on the fruit itself, which are native to the equatorial continent. This has the zoologists a bit puzzled but they have a number of theories.
Now that you think about it…
You decide to hold a contest in grade schools for a good name for the equatorial continent.
[] Write-in
Of course, on the home front, the twins are in the terrible twos, and having two of ‘em at the same time makes that trial all the more vexing. Jeremy fortunately is proving to be an excellent big brother and seems to enjoy taking time to play with the twins and share his toys with them. You of course take full credit for this. When he throws a tantrum because somebody told him no? That’s obviously your husband's fault. Most likely because of Tyler.
Stating this obvious truth usually results in you getting tickled by your loving husband. So you make a point of stating it as often as it happens. You’ve decided to hold off a little on having more munchkins, but that resolution starts to wear thin after a while and you inevitably find yourself pregnant again.
Not because you lost your willpower and decided to stop taking the pill, no, it’s totally Willis’ fault and that is your story and you are sticking to it.
Sergeant Ngô finds this hilarious, but then again she’s on her second child herself.
You get word back from the icebreakers about a month after they’ve set out. Evidently they’re returning after having expended all of their ammo dealing with, of all things, hyper-aggressive carnivorous dire penguins. It takes you a few read throughs of the reports for it to fully sink in. Dire. Penguins. There are a few injuries and rather extensive… gnawing… damage to the icebreakers. The only thing anybody can think of doing here is to replace the machine guns with flamers, with a fusion engine on the icebreakers that way they won’t run out of… anti-penguin countermeasures.
You never thought you’d consider such a phrase anywhere outside of a comedy script.
On the plus side, after repairs and counter-penguin upgrades and training, the icebreakers return to test things out. Evidently the dire penguins are very tasty when fried. Something to keep in mind!
You are grateful when the planetary surveillance network detects a massive storm system heading towards the capital region well before it arrives. The early warning allows for people to shelter in place in time, and the storm passes with minimal disruption (although you are a bit upset that your favorite garden got trashed by hail).
In other news, there is finally an opposition party forming, although they have no seats in either the Lords or the Commons, they are led by one of the men who’d originally been considered for your political advisor.
After seeing the first of their rather buffoonish campaign commercials, combined with the laughably badly thought out wording of their early press releases… You are VERY glad that Josh Baldwin is NOT your political advisor. And very glad that he IS the political advisor for your adversaries.
You and Professor Chapman have a few laughs at his expense.
The year started out with a bang. Literally. You found yourself hauled out of bed and dragged down to the command center by Sergeant Ngô as alarms howled and wailed in the background. On the main status board was an ominous glowing indicator..
“Radio telescope picked up what is believed to be a large KF signature at a nearby pirate point, we are currently attempting to determine what may be incoming.” comes the terse report from the duty officer.
You tense, this could be what you had feared. “All units alerted?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. The Falcon squadron has scrambled and is boosting towards low orbit, all units are reporting readiness.” came the terse response.
Hours crawl by as you are forced to wait while the relatively small telescopes at the University are pressed into service searching for an incoming threat.
All units report ready for action, the Falcons have started patrol rotations in order to maintain a continuous orbital watch.
General Wolf arrives from where he was overseeing preparations for the next set of Rapid Reaction Force exercises two hours after the alert is given, a respectable turn around time considering he was almost two hours out from the capital when the alert was given.
Janet shows up with the Black Bean of Life, earning a thankful nod. The alert continues.
You are on your twelfth cup of coffee when word comes down. There’s nothing there. False positive on the initial jump flare report is listed as the most likely culprit.
You really need to improve your orbital infrastructure so you can get some proper deep space radar systems in place.
A few days later word comes from the university that the actual cause of the false alarm was the sudden appearance of a transient nova flare from a previously steady star about 9k light years away. So a solar burp nine thousand years ago caused you to miss a night's sleep.
You are annoyed. You complain to Sergeant Ngô about this for hours.
Then your husband manages to distract you by dragging you and the kids off to the zoo for the day. The young damntigers are on display in a specially constructed habitat and are the stars of the zoo. OK, you decide, if they are only half as deadly as they are cute when they’re play-wrestling with large balls and each other, they are the most lethal creature on the planet.
Your son again tries Pleading Little Boy Eyes on you to get a damntiger as a pet. You, as the properly mature adult, manage to succeed at your resistance check at the memory of just how huge the damn things get when fully grown.
You note that the zoo is campaigning to have the name changed to the Grifftiger.
[] Support this, it’s a much better name for such a wonderful creature!
[] Are they nuts? They’re damntigers and damn scary! (and cute… hush you traitorous voice)
[] Write-in
While you are at the zoo a number of the zookeepers and ecologists buttonhole you to press for an exploration expedition to chart the rivers of the equatorial continent. They give a number of very cogent arguments, mostly relating to the possibility of natural resources hidden underneath the jungle canopies, as well as a burning desire to learn more about the ecology of the planet. They’ve got a very good handle on the local ecology, but the deep jungles of that continent are an irresistible mystery to the scientists.
They do inform you of some of what they’ve learned so far. The observed growth rate of the cubs tracks to them reaching subadult (but sexually mature) status at around age 15 or so, and assuming growth rates continue at the same pace they would be full adults at 50 or so. They have no idea about maximum longevity. Surprisingly they are habitual carnivores, not obligate carnivores, and supplement their diet with small quantities of certain fruits. The bioluminescent compound in their coats appears to be derived from symbiotic bacteria very similar to bacteria found on the fruit itself, which are native to the equatorial continent. This has the zoologists a bit puzzled but they have a number of theories.
Now that you think about it…
You decide to hold a contest in grade schools for a good name for the equatorial continent.
[] Write-in
Of course, on the home front, the twins are in the terrible twos, and having two of ‘em at the same time makes that trial all the more vexing. Jeremy fortunately is proving to be an excellent big brother and seems to enjoy taking time to play with the twins and share his toys with them. You of course take full credit for this. When he throws a tantrum because somebody told him no? That’s obviously your husband's fault. Most likely because of Tyler.
Stating this obvious truth usually results in you getting tickled by your loving husband. So you make a point of stating it as often as it happens. You’ve decided to hold off a little on having more munchkins, but that resolution starts to wear thin after a while and you inevitably find yourself pregnant again.
Not because you lost your willpower and decided to stop taking the pill, no, it’s totally Willis’ fault and that is your story and you are sticking to it.
Sergeant Ngô finds this hilarious, but then again she’s on her second child herself.
You get word back from the icebreakers about a month after they’ve set out. Evidently they’re returning after having expended all of their ammo dealing with, of all things, hyper-aggressive carnivorous dire penguins. It takes you a few read throughs of the reports for it to fully sink in. Dire. Penguins. There are a few injuries and rather extensive… gnawing… damage to the icebreakers. The only thing anybody can think of doing here is to replace the machine guns with flamers, with a fusion engine on the icebreakers that way they won’t run out of… anti-penguin countermeasures.
You never thought you’d consider such a phrase anywhere outside of a comedy script.
On the plus side, after repairs and counter-penguin upgrades and training, the icebreakers return to test things out. Evidently the dire penguins are very tasty when fried. Something to keep in mind!
You are grateful when the planetary surveillance network detects a massive storm system heading towards the capital region well before it arrives. The early warning allows for people to shelter in place in time, and the storm passes with minimal disruption (although you are a bit upset that your favorite garden got trashed by hail).
In other news, there is finally an opposition party forming, although they have no seats in either the Lords or the Commons, they are led by one of the men who’d originally been considered for your political advisor.
After seeing the first of their rather buffoonish campaign commercials, combined with the laughably badly thought out wording of their early press releases… You are VERY glad that Josh Baldwin is NOT your political advisor. And very glad that he IS the political advisor for your adversaries.
You and Professor Chapman have a few laughs at his expense.
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] Support this, it’s a much better name for such a wonderful creature!
[X] Gambier Bay
Gambier Bay both for the location in Alaska and the only American Escort Carrier to be sunk by the Japanese in combat. For more information look up the Battle off Samar on Wikipedia.
[X] Gambier Bay
Gambier Bay both for the location in Alaska and the only American Escort Carrier to be sunk by the Japanese in combat. For more information look up the Battle off Samar on Wikipedia.