The action on Arvum is quickly dubbed
Operation Falscherkampf by those charged with carrying it out. Home Fleet units begin erratic maneuvers, slowly and subtly as if panic is starting to sink in as ‘communications fail’. Reports are harder to get as the interference intensifies, but use is found of the oldest
Caravel and
Tramp-class jumpships which have formed a courier link between Arvum and Bohren making full use of the stable pirate point at the Lagrange points around Arvum itself.
The plan is breathtakingly simple. The crews are fully briefed on the overall OPLAN. At the squadron level, COs are given the authority to implement their own interpretation of the plan within limits, with contests over who manages to ‘sell’ the ‘panic’ the best. The most common action is to simply act uncoordinated, having individual units ‘fall out of formation’ while on extended maneuvers, then once light-speed lag is accounted for both ways, hastily reforming, acting like communications have become a serious issue. Patrol patterns are carefully calculated to appear disjointed, again simulating a loss of communications causing excess ‘friction’ in the works. Since the Navy had previously managed near metronomic precision across stellar distances thanks to extensive use of HPG-based datalinking, the difference is believed to be highly noticeable to an observer like the Black Steel.
Strike Fleet, meanwhile, is engaged in attempting to disrupt the sphere building activities of the Black Steel, preventing them from completely englobing the system with their jamming vessels. As the Black Steel uncharacteristically continues to evade rather than engage, even going so far as to engage their KF drives and jump to the other side of the system, this is an exercise in frustration and patience but it is accomplishing the goal of keeping the Black Steel a bit off-balance. It is hoped that the aggressive actions of Strike Fleet will help ‘sell’ the ‘panic’ induced by the loss of communications, since normally your formations are far less aggressive.
From the latest reports, it appears that the Black Steel’s ‘main’ formations are slowing down their approach even further, apparently in response to the panic in an attempt to take maximum advantage of it.
Good, the more they delay the better. Fortress Command is shipping in more
Spartoi clusters to cover major infrastructure like shipyards and orbital factories throughout the system and the system defense forces are seeding the stable pirate points with space mines, normally a rather useless tactic but, with the prep time you are being given, potentially useful in terms of area denial. Equally fortuitous is the fact that the techniques you’d developed to deal with the interference from the Ikea system are proving efficacious at maintaining at least minimal HPG bandwidth to the system, completely negating the intent of the Black Steel’s actions anyways.
-----
You receive combat reports from the destroyer groups that you sent out on long range patrols to the galactic northeast in support of your diplomatic efforts. While several ships are returning for repairs, there have been no actual losses as of yet. The pirates and more aggressive statelets out in this region of space are no match for proper warships after all, and while they may land the occasional hit it is rare that it does much more than minor damage. They are requesting that a
Vestal-class repair ship join the operation to provide forward support. Admiral Fisher advises you that the Navy was already planning on deploying the new
Vestal scheduled to finish commissioning this year for that purpose.
-----
Along with those combat reports come reports from your diplomatic teams. There are very few multi-system polities in this region, with the largest controlling a dozen systems. Fortunately it appears that the major players are more focused on internal affairs, defense against raiders and pirates, and basic survival rather than expansion. Unfortunately, many of them are quite stubbornly independent and proud, and would be very unlikely candidates for peaceful absorption. They report that any expansion in this direction would either require conquering the various systems and dealing with simmering insurrections, or require enormous investments in diplomatic efforts that may or may not pay off. Regardless, your anti-piracy efforts are yielding positive results in terms of burnishing your image and potentially creating trade partners.
-----
The working group on the spray-on vehicle wraps are hard at work. They’ve identified over a dozen major products that are widely available across the Empire which accomplish the ‘plastic wrap’, several of which break down under the application of mild and common household detergents. The problem is that the formulations which break down the fastest are also the ones capable of the most exotic ‘color shift’ effects and, consequently, are the most popular. With a bit of practice it is possible to completely strip a wrap of this type from a typical vehicle in less than a minute with the proper equipment, which generally consists of several squeegees, stiff brushes, and spray bottles. While there will be a puddle of discarded wrap left behind, that is less useful than it seems since without extremely high end equipment it is virtually impossible to link the wrap to a particular vehicle.
The working group has also identified patterns in terms of where criminal activity enabled by the wraps is taking place. Unsurprisingly, it is in the poorest sections of the inner cities or in rural areas. In wealthier urban areas, and more densely populated rural ones, security camera systems are easily accessed by law enforcement, and car washes tend to have said cameras which can be used to identify the palette swaps. Moreover, in the wealthiest areas, law enforcement has access to near military grade enhanced sensor systems based on the Active Probe technology which is easily capable of sniffing out the tell-tale chemical residues of the wraps in real time.
Currently the issue is relatively minor due to those factors, but the working group has noted that ‘minor’ is highly dependent on location. Criminal activity in those areas that are affected by this is showing a statistically significant uptick and in some areas is edging towards crisis levels. It is the sheer size of the Empire which is making this be ‘minor’ in the grand scheme of things.
They are continuing their work and have promised to have recommendations for you by next year at the latest.
-----
You walk into the conference room for the annual budget meeting to find General Zara and General Perkins in a full up shouting match at the front of the room. As far as you can determine, Zara made a comment criticizing the Aerospace Force over their flight suits being insufficient for their needs, General Perkins took offense and made a snide comment about the Army being useless and that Zara needed to shut up around his betters, and Zara evidently went full Italian pepper on the Aerospace Force CO. Only Amaunet physically keeping the two separate has prevented it from becoming physical, and the big cat is looking quite put upon.
It’s grossly unprofessional, but understandable. The Aerospace Force has taken horrid casualties, so Perkins is naturally very sensitive to criticism, especially related to survivability and pilot safety. Zara is an insensitive jackass when it comes to technical issues, and if the graphic up on the screen is any indication was going to be pitching funding for new piloting suits all around.
You are reminded of a rather darkly humorous line in an ancient movie you’d watched the other day, ‘gentlemen, no fighting in the War Room’. You do spend some time giving them both a rather Royal tongue lashing, but frankly the two men are simply too damn good at their jobs to fire over personality clashes of this nature. Plus, judging by Amaunet’s expression, she’s quite likely to be able to handle this situation herself without you having to intervene further.
“That unpleasantness aside, padrone.” The big cat rumbles as you take your seat. “The general state of the military is quite good. Operations in Arvum are proceeding as planned. I’ll leave the details to the Navy to discuss. General Zara?”
Zara is still glowering as he takes the podium. “Your Majesty, our piloting suits are two generations out of date on the Army side, and three generations out of date for the Aerospace Force.” As he’s speaking, Perkins looks almost murderous. “All three upgrade cycles were mostly driven by concerns about ASF pilot losses, leading to significant compromises in the piloting suits for the Army and Navy, but procurement records show that the Aerospace Force, despite their ostensible agreement to the final suits of each generation, has never actually fielded them in any significant numbers beyond flight demonstration teams and those units permanently assigned to the Imperial Guard. We in the Army simply haven’t had the budget to upgrade to the latest generation, and frankly the upgrades involved in those suits are completely useless for our needs, being as they are solely based around zero-g vacuum operations.”
You glance over at Perkins. “Your Majesty, the suits were never being used, our pilots disliked them intensely, and complained about them making the cockpits excessively cramped to the point of hindering combat flight operations. Only the latest generation ASFs even have cockpits nominally large enough for the suits, and the manufacturers have regularly informed us that they cannot expand the cockpits even larger without significant mass increases. The flight demo birds are stripped down and thus free up enough volume in the cockpit for the suits, while the Imperial Guard units wear them solely for ceremonial purposes outside of the cockpit…”
Before he can continue both General Zara and Admiral Fisher erupt in near unison, with the peppery Italian general being heard over the much older Admiral. “Then why did the Aerospace Force representative to the design conferences NEVER BRING THAT UP!” he bellows, slamming a fist on the podium then shuffling his notes. “Initial design conference, the only requirement from the Aerospace Force representative was that the suit incorporate g-force reduction measures comparable to a g-suit. Second design conference for the second generation suits, requested changes to the life support umbilical connections and enhanced zero-g capability. Third design conference, requested a new pattern of armored gloves with enhanced tactile feedback. Not a single mention of dimensions being an issue, thus they were designed with Navy hatch openings and our mech’s command couches as the dimensional constraints.”
Perkins glares back, slamming his hands on his desk. “You can ask Colonel Weintraub, who was at the first conference, for her response… oh wait, you can’t, she was killed at 2nd Arvum. Or Colonel Elizon, from the second conference… who died at Baddorando. Or Colonel Dixson from the third… who was killed last year at Shwartzstahlfriedhof. Unlike you, we don’t waste manpower on REMFs beyond the bare minimum, we’re a fighting force, not a paper shuffling force.”
Amaunet growls at this point, cutting off the growing interservice brawl. “Padrone, with your permission I’ll put together a team to deal with this, appropriately.” The big tiger then glares at the service chiefs. “Until then, budget proposals, gentlemen, without the editorial comments about other services.” There’s a definite snarl in her voice, as her usual equanimity and willingness to let the service chiefs have at it is certainly in abeyance at the moment.
General Zara visibly takes a deep breath, then brings up the budget allocations request. “The Army remains in garrison and defense mode, although costs will go up… for reasons previously discussed.” His voice is controlled as he clearly is resisting taking another shot at Perkins.
- Imperial Griffon Army
- Procurement
- Garrison
- 25 Garrison Divisions
- 25 Militia Divisions
- Conventional
General Perkins then stalks up to the podium, still glowering. “Our production capacity is catching up to our needs, but is not yet sufficient, we are also going to need to boost our training pipeline again.” He visibly restrains himself from saying anything else as the Aerospace Force budget request is displayed.
- Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Production
- New ASF Factories
- Glorreich
- Shin Tōkyō
- Kurortas
- Raj
- Pustina
- Platzregensburg
- Pryyemnyy
- Awha
- Bāṛi
- Bellaterra
- Procurement
- 40 CAP Wing
- 40 Interceptor Wing
- 100 Carrier Wing
- 20 Training Wing
Admiral Fisher remains seated as Perkins stalks back to his seat. “I’ll leave the bulk of the Navy’s presentation to Commodore Savić. I have some good news, however. Trials data shows that the new
Nevada-class Heavy Cruiser is performing to expectations and will be a solid, low cost, heavy platform suitable for anchoring system defense forces. As such, the ten vessels currently on order will be assigned to Home Fleet as flag units. Once they finish shaking down a decision will be made on further procurement of the type. This will also be the final year of procurement for the
Jean Bart-class Battlecruiser, design teams are currently working on a battlecruiser equivalent to the
Kaiserin-class, as the
Jean Bart was the battlecruiser equivalent to the older
Dreadnought design. Speaking of which, the remaining
Dreadnoughts will be transferring to Home Fleet beginning next year as the upcoming tranches of
Kaiserins come online.” He then nods to the Commodore. “Commodore?”
Commodore Savić takes the podium. “Your Majesty, procurement patterns will remain relatively unchanged since last year, with a continuing focus on building up production levels. Maintenance requirements will be an issue with the ongoing situation in the Arvum system, however, as we are having to defer yard time on deployed units. This is not perfectly optimal, but is well within the designed capabilities of the units in question.” As she speaks she brings up the budget requests for the Navy.
- Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
- Orbital Shipyards
- Upgrade All Orbital Shipyards
- Refit & Repair Yards
- Upgrade All Refit & Repair Yards
- Escort Yards
- Construct New Escort Yards
- Nowy Szczecin
- Baddorando
- Sturmland
- Neubayern
- Neuhessen
- Nouvelle Bourgogne
- Nuova Lombardia
- Skala
- Stahlfurt
- Griff's Leap
- Kurortas
- Olej
- Pinball
- Pryyemnyy
- Pustina
- Steingarten
- The Hub
- Nuova Puglia
- Chuma
- Nuovo Abruzzo
- Stenen Tuin
- New Libertalia
- Nyū Shikoku
- Nuova Tripoli
- Catachan
- Neuthüringen
- Nowe Mazowsze
- Nox
- Platzregensburg
- Porto Milano
- Landprettig
- New Algiers
- New Clew Bay
- Nubifragio
- Bellaterra
- Small Warship Yards
- Construct New Small Warship Yards
- New Phoenix
- Edelsteine
- Nowy Slask
- Chuma
- Awha
- Kaiyo
- Iskra
- Griffon
- Bohren
- Feurstern
- Novolar
- Grand View
- Kainga
- New Capricorn
- Medium Warship Yards
- Construct New Medium Warship Yards
- New Pollux
- Calliope
- Pieklo
- Nya Kopenhamn
- Nowa Warszawa
- Large Warship Yards
- Construct New Large Warship Yards
- Bari
- Shin Tōkyō
- Okusawa
- Raj
- Procurement
- Standard Dropships
- 400 Artemis-class Planetary Defense Flotillas
- 154 Wright-class Dockable ASF Platforms
- 154 Colt-class Defense Blisters
- Large Dropships
- 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
- 277 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
- 30 Mashū-class Parasite Logistics Transports
- Jumpships
- 1 Windjammer-class Jumpship
- Escorts
- 200 Battle-class Destroyers
- 30 White Plains-class Escort Carriers
- 10 Skjold-class Missile Corvettes
- 10 Constellation-class Corvettes
- 50 Tarantul-class Missile Raiders
- 50 Asheville-class Raiders
- Small Warships
- 50 Belfast-class Light Cruisers
- 20 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
- 20 Worcester-class Light Cruisers
- 10 Giuseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
- 7 Hosho-class Light Carriers
- Medium Warships
- 20 Prinz Eugen II-class Heavy Cruisers
- 10 Algerie-class Heavy Cruisers
- 10 Sacramento-class Fleet Logistics Ships
- Large Warships
- 12 Kaiserin-class Battleships
- 12 Jean Bart-class Battlecruisers
- Fortress Command
- Spartoi Defense Clusters
- Black Tower
- New Capricorn
- Nowy Slask
- Edelsteine
- Nowy Wrocław
- Catachan
Once the Commodore takes her seat Amaunet simply nods to Elizabeth Lee, ceding the floor to the Interior Ministry with no further comment.
Elizabeth, to her credit, looks completely unphased by the unpleasant aura still hanging around the service chiefs. “Your Majesty, not only are we in good shape economically, but we’re in a solid position to engage in some exploration. However, I’ll start with some future planning. We have eight DoME teams available and while it is tempting to go on a major terraforming blitz we recommend against that, rather we recommend preparing for the future by building up military infrastructure in the core worlds in preparation for building capital shipyards.”
She brings up the display.
- Department of Mega-Engineering
- Terraforming Projects
- Catachan
- Nuova Tripoli
- Hot Mess
- The Hub
- Construct Major Army Base
- Calliope IV
- Nowa Warszawa
- Construct Major Fleet Base
- Calliope IV
- Nowa Warszawa
“For economic growth and expansion our specialists have been hard at work determining the most efficient use of our resources.”
- Economic Focus, Investment & Infrastructure
- Economic Focus
- Major Investment
- Investment
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zone
- Hot Mess
- Baddorando
- Salamander
- The Hub
- Nowego Lublina
“Finally, our survey targets.” She smiles slightly and nods to Admiral Fisher. “The Navy informs me that they are fully prepared to provide appropriate escorts from the Expeditionary Fleet for all four of the proposed expeditions.”
- Survey
- GX-G17
- A relatively ‘young’ red hypergiant with a high likelihood of a closely orbiting white dwarf companion star. The close binary nature of the system makes it highly unlikely that the Black Steel are using it, due to the intense electromagnetic pulses and radiation associated, but it is better to check and make certain.
- GX-H17
- A red dwarf with evidence of, at minimum, multiple gas giants. There are some signs that point to the possibility of terrestrial worlds in the life-bearing zone.
- GX-N13
- A yellow-white main sequence star with extensive evidence for multiple planets. Has a high likelihood of being a valuable colonization target.
- GX-B24
- Data from the Masters of Ikea indicate that this red dwarf is completely devoid of planets, asteroid belts, or anything else, but it is better to check and make sure. If nothing else, securing it removes a vector for the Black Steel to attack us.
Admiral Fisher clears his throat and, at a nod from Elizabeth, interjects. “I will note that B24, for all that it is likely to be a barren system, is an ideal location for the Colony Core Station complexes that would enable the system to be used as a jumping off place for further survey and expansion to the galactic north.”
Agostina is off at the Olympics in your place while you handle affairs, although she did leave a note indicating that the Foreign Ministry has no specific budget requests this year. Likewise Tiberius is accompanying Agostina and has indicated that he too has no significant requests that require your attention beyond yet another plea for the expansion of the civil service.
Grace is also absent, overseeing the work in the Neuhessen system regarding radiation clean-up, her reports indicate that they are learning quite a bit from the effort which will be helpful in the future. She does request funding for R&D work on further improvements to Industrial Mechs.
Sina Day is present, but when it comes time for her presentation she remains seated. “Your Majesty, while we have a number of operations ongoing at this time, they all fall within Your intelligence agencies discretionary budget and thus do not require further allocations.”
Martina is working with the team attempting to come up with a solution to the spray-on wrap situation and has sent you a memo indicating no need for increased budget at this time.
A/N - I apologize for the long delay since the last post! This was exacerbated by my doing an audit of the various unit costs and discovering that I forgot to update the costs for ASF and Army units to account for the pilot suit projects, plus several math errors. We have an updated map now, I hope that I've kicked my writer's block in the patootie, and that we'll be back to our regular schedule Soon (tm).