Turn 133 - He Counted Long
Turn 133 - He Counted Long
There’s a growing protest movement concerning the sheer hedonism present on New Port Royal and many of the other worlds of the Scarlet March. Granted, the ‘concerned citizens’ making noise are not from the Scarlet March itself, and most have never even traveled there, but travel agencies which arrange tours there, as well as transportation companies who carry passengers there, are coming under pressure from these protestors for ‘enabling immorality’.
Oddly, there doesn’t appear to be any religious component to this, as most of the religious groups in the Empire may counsel their followers to avoid such sinful behavior, but haven’t made any moves against it due to the general belief across the Empire of ‘live and let live’ in these matters.
Instead, the protestors seem to mostly be coming from more atheistic backgrounds, and appear to be objecting on the grounds that such ‘frivolous’ pursuits distract from ‘gainful labor’. You have the Special Branch discretely investigate and they determine that the actual backers for these protests are a group of individuals from the financial sector who believe themselves to be ‘enlightened’ and who feel that those ‘beneath’ them should simply labor to exhaustion with no vacations or time off in order to maximize their personal profits and wealth.
Special Branch does discover quite a few financial irregularities among this group, including the rather delicious fact that they’ve been using very creative accounting techniques to completely avoid paying any taxes for the last fifty years or so, and only the regular efforts to streamline and rationalize the legal and regulatory codes have prevented them from creating situations where they profit off of every single transaction in the Empire, thus constantly draining wealth from the economy into their own pockets for ‘financial services’.
To top it off, several of them have been creating ‘debt traps’ for poorer citizens, despite such predatory practices being utterly illegal. To be fair, local authorities are doing a bang up job of breaking up such practices once they catch on, but the financiers behind it usually hide behind extremely tangled corporate structures that shield them from any accountability.
So you decide to let the Special Branch have some ‘fun’ with these people, and within less than a month you have a crowd of would-be plutocrats standing before your throne in chains. The precedents set by your great-grandmother are brutally clear for situations like this, the best these people can expect is a properly tied rope and drop killing them cleanly.
You could grant them mercy, of course, but these are the sort of people who’d never grant any such thing to those in their power. Their financial empires have already been completely broken up to general public acclaim, although the presence of some individuals who’d publicly been your supporters, all while scheming behind your back, is denting your overall approval numbers slightly.
In the end you confirm the death sentences, such conduct, especially in time of war, is utterly reprehensible, and the strong stance that your dynasty has always taken against such things is clear. You make yourself watch each execution, which makes the upcoming budget meetings all the more pleasant of a distraction.
It appears that peace has tentatively been fully restored to the senior ranks of the military, or at the very least the service chiefs aren’t competing with each other on who can glare the hardest. Amaunet is looking quite pleased with herself as she opens the meeting. “Padrone, the military, across the board, is in a solid position. In the near term we will be looking into designating another system as a logistics hub, most likely in the Diamond March to support operations in that region, but for now, General Zara?”
The pugnacious Italian takes the podium. “The Army needs to start building up our offensive capacity, especially considering reports about those so-called FedCom attacks, Your Majesty. Thankfully, almost all of our systems have full garrisons, and as such procurement of such is slowing down. For now we would like to concentrate on conventional forces, but will be pausing the ongoing SLEP process in the near future to permit Mech expansion as well.”
- Imperial Griffon Army
- Procurement
- 19 Garrison Divisions
- 19 Militia Divisions
- 25 Infantry Divisions
- 12 Armored Divisions
- Procurement
Once the Army general sits down, General Perkins heaves himself to his feet, looking exhausted. “The Aerospace Force is continuing to work up our admin capacity, but thankfully we are in a solid position in regards to our training organization which is allowing us to keep up with pilot demand.”
- Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Production
- Construct New ASF Factories
- Glorreich
- Shin Tōkyō
- Kurortas
- Raj
- Pustina
- Platzregensburg
- Pryyemnyy
- Awha
- Bāṛi
- Bellaterra
- Construct New ASF Factories
- Procurement
- 50 CAP Wings
- 50 Patrol Wings
- 100 Carrier Wings
- 30 Fighter Wings
- Production
Admiral Fisher remains seated. “OK, the Navy is in solid shape. I, on the other hand, am getting too damn bloody old to handle both the development and operational side of the Navy. As such, I would like your approval to promote Commodore Savić to Rear Admiral and place her in charge of handling these briefings while manhandling Admiral de Palo off of her flag bridge to put her in charge of the Operational side of the Navy while I focus on overall administration and development. Admiral Johann von Koester will be placed in charge of Fortress Command.”
[] | Action |
[] | Approve the promotions and appointments |
[] | Keep things as they are |
Commodore Savić looks a bit surprised at her Admiral’s statement, clearly it hadn’t been mentioned to her at all, but she takes the podium gamely. “Your Majesty, repairs for Grand Fleet are nearly complete and within a year we should be in a position to begin offensive operations against the Black Steel, assuming we can find them. We will be recommending that we begin scouting operations against them next year. Until then, it remains critical that we continuously expand our production capacity. With the increased possibility of encountering a hostile Inner Sphere it becomes increasingly possible that we may soon be faced with a two-front war, and in that case production capacity will be utterly paramount.”
- Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
- Orbital Shipyards
- New Orbital Shipyards
- New Portland
- New Port Royal
- Okusawa
- New Phoenix
- New Pollux
- Upgrade Existing Orbital Shipyards
- New Orbital Shipyards
- Refit & Repair Yards
- Upgrade All Refit & Repair Yards
- Escort Yards
- Build 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
- Nyū Shikoku
- Nuova Tripoli
- Catachan
- Neuthüringen
- Nowe Mazowsze
- Nox
- Platzregensburg
- Porto Milano
- Landprettig
- New Algiers
- New Clew Bay
- Nubifragio
- Bellaterra
- Highland
- New Arcadia
- New Portland
- Build New Escort Yards
- Small Warship Yards
- Build New Small Warship Yards
- Calliope
- Edelsteine
- Nowy Slask
- Chuma
- Awha
- Kaiyo
- Iskra
- Bohren
- Feurstern
- Novolar
- Grand View
- Kainga
- New Capricorn
- New Libertalia
- Build New Small Warship Yards
- Medium Warship Yards
- Build New Medium Warship Yards
- New Pollux
- New Phoenix
- Pieklo
- Nya Kopenhamn
- Nowa Warszawa
- Build New Medium Warship Yards
- Large Warship Yards
- Build New Large Warship Yards
- Glorreich
- New Port Royal
- New Castor
- Nowy Wrocław
- Build New Large Warship Yards
- Orbital Shipyards
- Procurement
- Standard Dropships
- 400 Artemis-class System Defense Boat Flotillas
- 160 Wright-class Dockable ASF Platforms
- 160 Colt-class Defense Blisters
- Large Dropships
- 318 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
- 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
- 30 Mushu-class Parasite Logistics Ships
- Jumpships
- 8 Windjammer-class Jumpships
- 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
- 30 Legend-class Frigates
- Small Warships
- 50 Belfast-class Light Cruisers
- 20 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
- 30 Worcester-class Light Cruisers
- 20 Giuseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
- 1 Hosho-class Light Carrier
- Medium Warships
- 20 Prinz Eugen II-class Heavy Cruisers
- 10 Algerie-class Heavy Cruiser
- 5 Nevada-class Heavy Cruiser
- Large Warships
- 14 Kaiserin-class Battleships
- 14 Lion-class Battlecruisers
- Standard Dropships
- Fortress Command
- Jump Point Defenses
- Spark
- Nashornland
- Nuovo Paradiso
- Ogien
- Oasis II
- Spark
- Nashornland
- Nuovo Paradiso
- Ogien
- Black Tower
- Spark
- Nashornland
- Nuovo Paradiso
- Ogien
- Okusawa
- Spartoi
- 5 new clusters
- Sensor Satellite Shell
- Calliope
- Jump Point Defenses
- Production
She takes her seat. Amaunet simply chuffs softly and nods, while Elizabeth Lee rises to take over the podium.
“Your Majesty, to start with we’ve got three potential colonial expeditions, all within the Diamond March.” She begins, smiling as she brings up the first slide.
- Colonize + System Government + Justice System
- Nashornland
- Nuovo Paradiso
- Ogien
“Meanwhile, DoME is getting bored again, as seen by their ‘helping’ with that ridiculous monument over a mud volcano. So we need to keep them as busy as possible.”
- Department of Mega Engineering
- Optimization - Periphery
- Landprettig
- Terraforming
- Nuova Puglia
- Nuova Abruzzo
- Nuova Lombardia
- Construct Major Army Base
- New Port Royal
- Construct Major Fleet Base
- New Port Royal
- Build Capital Shipyard
- Calliope
- Optimization - Periphery
“Finally our economic teams have their recommendations for this year.” She brings up the final slides for your perusal.
- Economic Focus, Investment, Infrastructure & Industrial Zones
- Economic Focus
- Core
- New Pollux
- Periphery
- Nubifragio
- Core
- Major Investment
- Core
- New Libertalia
- Periphery
- Pustina
- Core
- Investment
- Porto Milano
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zones
- New Portland
- Sturmland
- Salamander
- The Hub
- Nowego Lublina
- Economic Focus
Agostino is present for this meeting, although she’ll be heading out to Nova Roma in a few days for a high level diplomatic summit. “Your Majesty, overall we are in a good position, but I do strongly recommend hosting the cultural festival this year, especially with us heading into an Olympiad next year. This will be the perfect opportunity to maximize the economic and diplomatic impact. While I would normally advise holding sports camps, with the large number of new events doing so would be problematic as we are still trying to nail down precisely what some of these events even involve, let alone secure trainers for them. The Olympic Committee concurs that our focus should be on that, this year, in order to secure long term success.”
Tiberius is off handling some of the fallout from the massive civil service reforms implemented by Parliament, so isn’t available for the meeting.
Grace is finally out of the hospital, but is looking rather exhausted still. Thankfully her staff has stepped up in a big way and is handling most of the burden while the elderly woman recovers. “Your Majesty, our researchers believe that we can begin basic development of drone systems, although frankly they would be exceptionally crude in comparison to historical examples. With your permission, we can begin work across the board for that.”
- Research & Development
- Military Drone Theory
- Develops the basic operational theory underpinning any drone operations
- Military Drone Design
- Develops the basic parameters for functional drones
- Military Drone Control Systems
- Develops the avionics and software undergirding drone operations
- Military Drone Handling Systems
- Develops the basic system infrastructure needed to operate drones on any sort of widespread basis
- Military Drone Theory
Sina Dey is currently off at a meeting with her counterparts in the NRR and reports no new budget requests, while Martina is handling the fallout of latest crackdown on overly arrogant and greedy idiots.