Turn 80 - Now I’m a Soldier of Fortune, I’m a Dog of War (yeah)
The 1st Special Forces Division deploys to Okusawa directly into the operation, striking at a dozen confirmed ISF safehouses and facilities.
All of the facilities were destroyed, significantly hindering the capabilities of the ISF holdouts and insurgents. However this isn’t to say it was a complete success. In many ways, it was a minor disaster that prevented a far far worse one. One of the compounds hit was a chemical weapons site, and during the strike the insurgents fired off multiple barrages of chemical shells into the surrounding areas.
The gas was a fairly common VX derivative, deadly if untreated and with some lingering properties, but nothing all that special. But the facility itself had over a thousand tons of the stuff in the process of being loaded into mortar shells and rockets, and the actual gas release and chemical attack resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people outside the evacuation zone. Even worse, one of the weapons that they’d had hidden in the facility was a Long Tom, and they managed to fire it twice before it was destroyed. And one of the shells hit an elementary school ten miles outside the evacuation zone during recess, killing hundreds of kids. Worst of all a news crew had been at the school filming a general interest piece and caught the attack on camera.
Short-term, it is a PR debacle, however if that facility hadn’t been hit when it was, the results would have been far more catastrophic. Analysts indicate that given the stockpiles of precursor chemicals on hand, the number of shells and weapons available, and given enough time to complete their work, the ISF could have unleashed a chemical weapons attack that would have killed tens of
million. As it is, things are bad, but your spokesmen are able to stress that it was the best of a menu of terrible options.
The short term upshot is that a significant blow has been delivered to the insurgents. They are by no means defeated, but their ability to unleash mass casualty WMD attacks has been eliminated. Long term, this should result in the insurrection failing under the weight of ordinary police tactics from the IGMP.
On Griffon, the Department of Periphery Studies sponsored ‘war’ in the parks around the Palace has sputtered to an end. You are rather worried about what they might come up with next.
You should have been very worried.
Mimes.
They have decided to become mimes.
This is horrifying enough that you decide not to think about it any further. That could lead to a mime-field of bad mime jokes and you really don’t want to mime-ic your dad too much in this regard.
Wait, you already are. Your grandkids are groaning at the horrible puns.
So there’s a silver lining to all of this.
Parliament is in session and the Imperial Senate is hard at work.
Legislation has been proposed that has some controversy but also plenty of support. Currently logistics support for the AFGE is sourced from commercial sources to the lowest bidder that meets quality requirements. That is all well and good, but it has over time resulted in a few massive conglomerates completely dominating the supply market for the AFGE to a frankly concerning level. Overall costs for perishable supplies as well as spare parts and such were creeping up as fewer and fewer companies were able to compete for the contracts.
Worse, in many ways, is that most of the current production capacity for perishable and durable logistical materials is almost completely automated, resulting in enormous profits for a smaller and smaller pool of ultra wealthy investors. This would normally not be much of a problem, but it has been determined by the Special Branch that there is a great deal of cartel-like behavior seeping into the system from both ends, costs to you are not dropping at a rate commensurate with the reduced costs to the vendors. Strictly speaking there’s absolutely nothing illegal going on, but it is the sort of thing that sours business relationships when discovered.
The Senate is certainly quite sour on the situation, or at least the Eldest is, and a number of Senators have rallied around the Eldest to write legislation dealing with the situation.
Under the proposed legislation, the Imperial Government would build dedicated Military Logistics Factories in various systems, then lease the factories to local firms at rates set by the Quartermaster Corps to produce the perishable and durable goods devoured by the military at frightening rates. The current system would remain in parallel, and if the megacorps currently dominating the segment wish to continue to profit off of the AFGE they’ll need to adapt. Local economies where such Military Logistics Factories are built would see significant ongoing economic benefits.
Needless to say, the megacorps involved are lobbying hard against the legislation. Unfortunately for them it is mostly landing on deaf ears. The total headcount of employees within one of the single most lucrative market segments in the entire empire is under five digits in length. The farmers and ranchers who supply raw materials to the megacorps testify about the immense downward pressure that they place on the food markets for the producers while not passing on the savings to the consumers, while the Quartermaster Corps produces documentation showing a steady decline towards the minimum standards of things like field rations and commissary supplies while costs continually rise, albeit at a rate somewhat below that of inflation.
Money does talk, and a number of Delegates to the Chamber are listening and opposing the legislation. They argue that the current system is stable and predictable, having withstood both market disruptions and enemy action, and that far less drastic action would be needed to correct the issues without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. These now megacorps in the sector all started out as small companies in what has not always been an at all profitable business, they have stuck things out for you through thick and thin and have earned consideration for their loyalty to the Empire. The long term contracts that the farmers and ranchers are complaining about have arbitration and renegotiation clauses, none of which have ever been activated by any of the producers.
The opponents argue that the main barrier to entry isn’t that the current players actively collude against new blood, but that the AFGE itself has entered into long-term contracts with the suppliers in order to drive costs down. New suppliers have to find market niches that are not already contractually filled. The Special Branch investigation shows that the megacorps involved do indeed compete on a relatively level playing field when those new niches open without any illegal conduct. The Quartermaster Corps documentation also shows that at no point have any of the megacorps dropped below any requirements, and in those instances where requirements have been raised the companies in question have swiftly met or even exceeded the new requirements, often at lower costs than initially estimated.
The megacorps aren’t opposed to shifting their business models, they just feel that the Senate proposal unfairly burdens them while subsidizing new competitors at the taxpayers expense. While they’d be able to buy into the new Military Logistics Factories and benefit the same as anybody else, they’d have to do so while maintaining their current facilities in order to meet their contractual requirements.
The Chamber proposes a somewhat different bill. The same Military Logistics Factories would be built and available for lease, with the same goals of spreading out production and the like, but the existing megacorps would be given preferential access to said Factories during the transition period as they shift their operations from their own to the leased facilities. Once production is fully shifted, the preferential access would sunset and the current megacorps would then compete on a fully level playing field for access to the Factories.
[] | Action | Results |
[] | Support the Senate plan |
- Creates a new category of factories ‘Logistics’
- Logistics Factories will cost $100,000,000.00 to build and take 1 turn
- Logistics Factories draw from the same pool of available Factories as Mech, ASF, and Conventional Factories
- Logistics Factories base upkeep is $10,000 per year
- Logistics Factories Benefits
- Core Worlds
- Adds .0001% to system GDP per Logistics Factory in system
- Peripheral Worlds
- Adds .001% to system GDP per Logistics Factory in system
- +5 Approval Rating
- +1 Approval Change
- -5 Politics
- +1 Imperial Economy Rating
- -5 Economy Event Rating
|
[] | Support the Chamber plan |
- Creates a new category of factories ‘Logistics’
- Logistics Factories will cost $100,000,000.00 to build and take 1 turn
- Logistics Factories draw from the same pool of available Factories as Mech, ASF, and Conventional Factories
- Logistics Factories base upkeep is $10,000 per year
- Logistics Factories Benefits
- Core Worlds
- Adds .0001% to system GDP per Logistics Factory in system
- Peripheral Worlds
- Adds .001% to system GDP per Logistics Factory in system
- For the next 10 turns
- +5 Approval Rating
- -1 Approval Change
- +5 Politics
- -1 Imperial Economy Rating
- +5 Economy Event Rating
|
[] | Veto both |
- -1 Approval
- -1 Approval Change
- -1 Politics
- -10 support Imperial Senate
- -10 support Chamber of Delegates
|