Turn 127 - My Girl
About a week into the new year Admiral Fisher sends you a memo requesting permission to initiate surveillance operations as a prelude for Operation: Golden Dawn. According to the memo, he has all-volunteer crews lined up for both the
Caravel-class jumpship and the quartet of
Omaha-class Parasite Scout Cruisers who have been fully briefed on the mission parameters.
It is a high risk operation, with a very high probability of losing at least two of the
Omahas to the Black Steel, but it is a critical component of Operation: Golden Dawn, without the pre-strike intelligence provided by this preliminary phase, the rest of the operation would be exponentially more risky.
[] | Action |
[] | Approve Recon Mission |
[] | Don’t Approve Recon Mission |
He also sends Commodore Savić over with the details of the latest proposal from Fortress Command.
Although intellectually you know that she’s not much younger than you are, Commodore Savić is a product of Kilburrough, one of the young girls rescued from pirates who’d sworn fealty to your family. She’d since gone into the Navy and was now a rising star in her own right. Therefore she looks younger than your own daughters, apart from her eyes.
“Your Majesty, Fortress Command, in coordination with BuShips, has proposed an adjunct station cluster concept intended to provide close-in defensive cover for the various
Tower stations. The
Spartoi Defense Cluster is composed of ten individual stations, little larger than a standard dropship, with an armament optimized for fairly close in defense along with high powered sensors and datalinking systems intended to optimize targeting for the defensive cluster.” She brings up an image of a fairly spherical shaped station with a rotating grav deck in the center, the largest visible weapon is a 55 cm naval laser mounted on one ‘pole’ of the station, and you can see clusters of 30cm sub-capital naval lasers mounted in all quadrants of the design. In addition, as the image is zoomed in, you can see clusters of extended-range PPCs and 8cm laser batteries.
“The armament is solely energy based, Your Majesty, in order to minimize the logistical footprint of the station. In addition it has the latest generation of sensors and datalink systems identical to those fitted on our latest generation of warships.” She clasps her hands behind her back as she speaks. “The primary downside to this system is the cost, as a full cluster of 10 such stations comes in at slightly less than a quarter of the cost of a full-up
Black Tower, albeit providing slightly more than a quarter of the raw aggregate firepower. The main benefit to the arrangement is that Black Steel drone fighters and dropships would be engaged at a far more extended range than currently possible and that there is a much larger defensive footprint, making it more difficult for the Black Steel to avoid the orbital defenses for quick strikes.”
Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
Spartoi-class Defense Cluster | $10,699,725,000 | LFC, DHS | 2570 | 1570 |
- Armored 10
- AMS 1200
- Capital
- Capital AMS 480
- Command 3
|
The Department of Periphery Studies has been rather quiet as of late and you inquire of the staff as to the situation. Amusingly, the distinguished faculty are currently obsessed with the game of chess, and thus are spending all of their time in endless chess tournaments rather than anything loud and disruptive.
That’s a relief. However, for all of the occasional disruption, the Department of Periphery Studies does provide an enormous benefit to the Empire, especially as it grows. There will always be those with severe mental illnesses, either hereditary or brought on by circumstances. Keeping those people off the street, where they can get treatment in a positive environment and where their various neuroses and such can be dealt with without criminal activity or homelessness is a blessing. This strongly contributes to the exceptionally low homeless rates and helps significantly with keeping crime, especially petty crime, down. A crazy person hearing voices in their head telling them to kill people is far less dangerous when they are armed with a foam rubber sword and are also kept on their medications.
The weapon smuggling ring that was recently busted wide open is continuing to yield fruit as other criminal elements are being exposed. The most disturbing was a human trafficking ring in the New Algiers system which had extended tentacles of influence into Bourbon space as well as outside your own borders with the local pirates. The Special Branch took great pleasure in stomping on them extremely hard. Some might say it's too hard, but you are not among that number. You’ve already pre-approved authorization for capital punishment for those particular ‘people’.
General Perkins comes to meet you with a portfolio of the latest ASF upgrades, along with a brief presentation about the massive
Quetzalcoatlus.
“Your Majesty,” he begins. “While the
Quetz has been very effective, long term analysis has shown that the pilots primarily rely on their PPCs rather than on the HAG/40 in the nose, on account of the limited ammunition load. However it is very typical for a
Quetz to RTB for fuel and minor repairs while still carrying the majority of the ammunition load for the HAG. An analysis of over three hundred engagements shows that in none of them did the
Quetz fire the HAG more than 8 times, and that only ten times. In light of that, we are reducing the size of the ammo bins in favor of fitting advanced targeting electronics to maximize the potential of the rest of the armament.”
“That being said, Your Majesty, here are the latest specifications for the New Generation variants of our ASF designs, which are being rolled out to the Aerospace Force as we speak.”
Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
Peregrine NG Interceptor | $451,138.80 | FAA, DHS | 32 | 22 | |
Sparrowhawk NG Interceptor | $418,924.20 | FAA, DHS | 31 | 21 | |
Stingray NG Dogfighter | $652,697.50 | FAA, DHS | 40 | 30 | |
Eagle NG Aerospace Supremacy Fighter | $1,026,474.20 | FAA, DHS | 59 | 39 | |
Goshawk NG Light Attacker | $565,778.60 | FAA, DHS | 37 | 27 | |
Quetzalcoatlus NG Assault Fighter | $1,289,453.30 | FAA, DHS | 66 | 46 | |
“We are also in discussions concerning a proposed upgrade to the
Gripen ASF to bring it up to the latest state-of-the-art. However there is a roadblock here. Since development of this model is shared with the NRR, by contract any improvements we decide to make to the design will need to be shared with our allies. Since we are planning on mounting our latest 5cm extended range lasers, which are a substantial improvement on the previous model, we would require permission to release this technology.”
[] | Action | Result |
[] | Approve the tech transfer |
- Improves relations with the NRR
- Allows for the upgrade to the Gripen to NG standards
|
[] | OUR PRECIOUS!!!!! |
- Harms relations with the NRR
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