The Galaxy Awaits ... Choose Your Path!(Aurora)

[Brian Swartz]

** Author's Note: In the spirit of the sci-fi signup, i.e. the FTL(Grover) and XCOM(Neon Chaos) threads, I present another opportunity. Feel free to sign up here, and join with humanity's first serious reaches into space.**

I made one very brief Aurora thread quite some time back, and while i've learned several times as much as I knew then, I've barely scratched the surface. I've done some test games and am familiar with the basic mechanics of most elements in the game, but I'll definitely be learning more as we go along. From my test games I know enough to get off to a solid start, but many forms of disaster are yet possible.

I expect this game to last centuries, which will give any who choose to participate the option of going through generations of characters.

THE SETTING(** This is all my slightly game-inspired gobbledy-gook, as the game doesn't go into a detailed backstory)

In late 2013, a breakthrough discovery was made. Deep within the earth's mantle and core, a series of new elements was discovered with incredible properties, properties which rendered Newtonian physics obsolete in most fields. These elements soon became known as Trans-Newtonian(TN) materials.

Unfortunately, the lesser angels of humanity's nature made themselves known soon after, as the international community could not agree on how these revolutionary new resources would be controlled and exploited. Every major nation, and many of the minor ones, wanted their piece of the pie and then some. World War III lasted the better part of a decade, and ended with the earth decimated -- less than a tenth of the population survived the fighting. Only when it became apparent that the only possible result of continued nuclear war was the destruction of humanity en masse was an uneasy truce signed.

A few years after the breakout of peace, in 2025, a united government was formed. Clearly mankind could not survive another war -- the only way forward was to do away with the archaic concept of nation-states and join as one race, using the potential of the TN elements to reach into space. A new agency was formed, absurdly named SPACE(Strategic Planning Agency for Collective Endeavor).

SIGN-UPS

The SPACE GLTC(Global Leadership and Training Center) needs you! For those with the courage to be cadets, four career paths are possible, in order of projected needed personnel:

** Naval Officer. Space is big. Many vessels of more types than can be imagined will be needed. Task Force Commanders, Staff Officers, Ship Captains(Warship and/or Commercial), Starfighter Pilots, etc. will be needed at every turn in the coming exploring of the solar system and beyond. Only the bravest need apply for this ever-popular career.

** Ground Forces Officer. No matter how powerful space-based technology becomes, there will always be the need for boots on the ground. Command a battalion, brigade, even a division in the new human army.

** Scientist. Research the cutting-edge TN technologies that will ensure the survival and hegemony of humanity. Lead a research team overseeing millions of personnel to unlock the previously-unthinkable secrets of the universe.

** Civilian Administrator. Progress through the ranks from pointless pocket-protecting, pencil-pushing bureaucrat to oversee the(hopefully) far-flung colonies of humankind in space. Perhaps you might even one day be appointed the governor of Earth, if you play your cards right.

Members of all branches are also eligible, with the right skills, to take part in specialized teams(geological survey, xenological discovery, diplomacy, and espionage).

The following will be needed from all applicants:

Career Path
First Name
Last Name
Gender

The next graduate(5 per year as of now, that will grow considerable over time so there will be tons of space for whoever wants to join). One character per person but a new one will be generated whenever yours dies/retires. There will also be some limited decision-making(i.e., whether to take a job on a project team, choice of assignments within your rank and skill level when available, etc.)

We'll see how it works as we go along, but I'm hoping this will be a lot of fun for everybody. It will be slow without a lot happening at startup, but that will change in time. I'll have a lot of screenshots at the beginning and more periodically later to show what is going on.

I'm working a lot the next few days, so I figured I'd post this now, and then I'll get things going probably sometime on Tuesday.

[Grover]

Sign me up!

Naval Officer
Chip
Overdrive
Male

[path12]

Ground Forces
Path
Twelve
Male

[Tellistto]

Naval Officer
Tell
Perj
Male

[PilotMan]

Civ Admin
Slick
Willie
Male

[DaddyTorgo]

What is this - a game I've never heard of?

[ntndeacon]

Scientist
Deacon
Palmer
Male

[Coffee Warlord]

Naval Officer
Rob
Nielsen
Male

[Breeze]

Naval Officer
Benton
Gale
Male

[law90026]

Ground Forces Officer
Dolph
Stallone
Female

[Brian Swartz]

What is this - a game I've never heard of?

You're not alone. It is admittedly a very hard game to get into. PCWorld did a short review in November 2011(a major iteration or two ago). A few quotes to give you an idea of what we're in for here in this adventure:

"The Dwarf Fortress of 4X Games". This is an accurate description, and your reaction to that statement is a good gauge of your reaction to the game itself.

insanely deep, complex, and unforgiving

"Why are all my colonists dying on Mars?" Answer: Because I didn't bother to pack any life support gear for them. Aurora is happy to let you dump naked colonists on an airless world, or give a ship orders it doesn't have the fuel to complete, or send a warship into battle with no missiles loaded. I imagine that Aurora giggles in delight when you do this.

To provide an idea of how complex Aurora is, understand that in most games of this type, you may research "Missiles" and discover "Fusion Missiles" and then "Anti-Matter Missiles" and so on. In Aurora, you research root technologies, such as warhead types, ECM, fuel efficiency, and so forth, and then you design a specific missile by making selections from many different categories, and then you perform a research project to learn how to build that missile, and then you start factories producing the missiles. I should also note you must design missile launchers and magazines as well, and then put them on an appropriate ship. You must also design the tracking systems to be used by the missiles, and decide which launchers are controlled by which sensors.

It is also, as the screenshots will soon demonstrate, very much like playing a spreadsheet from an interface POV. Some(though I disagree, having played and liked both) have found the interface far more impenetrable than that of Dwarf Fortress(which has 10 or 20 times the following that Aurora does, I'm assuming everyone in this thread has at least heard of DF).

I'm not discouraging anyone away from the game, just saying that it will require effort, a lot of it, in order to really begin enjoying the game at a high level, assuming it's the kind of thing you like to begin with. You are all now part of my journey as one who is fascinated by Aurora(and you don't have to deal with figuring it out anyway to have fun with this thread :))

[Brian Swartz]

Our Story Begins

Upon creating a new game in the universe of Aurora, you will be greeted with this ...

http://i.imgur.com/XK4n2wu.png (http://imgur.com/XK4n2wu)

I changed some of the options before creating our adventure, but this is how it starts. Aside from the obvious name of empire, difficulty etc. which require no explanation, the major decision facing us is:

Trans-Newtonian or Conventional Start. Ours is a conventional start(and slightly nerfed at that), i.e. the 'five minutes into the future' feel. A TN start is the 'default' mode, it is how any aliens will start out(meaning we start off behind), and basically represents a world in which TN technology has already transformed society. In a TN game you have a certain amount of ship points and research points which you use to decide what technologies and ships you start off the game with(in our case, being a conventional start, that's none).

Except for a couple of minor changes(no shipyard to begin with, orbital motion for asteroids, random # of jump points from Sol) and the cosmetic name changes, the rest stays the same.

So now we move into the game proper. A fundamental screen that we'll be looking at a lot is this one:

http://i.imgur.com/aCHA8Jw.png (http://imgur.com/aCHA8Jw)

From this far out it looks like a mass of nonsense, but it's a 2D display of all of the bodies(comets, such as Hale-Bopp in the lower left, asteroids, moons, planets, etc.) In the upper left there's the scale(11.1 billion km, that's some serious real estate) and to the left more tabs and options than I'll probably ever use. You can do it other places, but for a number of reasons this is the 'home' screen which I use to advance time from.

Now we'll zoom in to a far more sensible view ...

http://i.imgur.com/aR7Oqmy.png (http://imgur.com/aR7Oqmy)

A fraction of the area, and you'll soon notice this is basically the 'inner system'. The planet orbits out to Mars, and on the right there's enough to see part of the Kuiper Belt. On the bottom the Whipple comet makes it's way inward between Earth and Mars orbits(you can interact with comets the same way you can with anything else, it's just more complicated by the fact that they are often on their way to the outer system and beyond, and in a right big hurry as well).

We can see all of these things because of the Deep Space Tracking Station on Earth, which you always start with. If we had any ships(we don't, and won't for a while), their locations would be displayed in yellow. We'll get to that.

One more from this view to show a further close-up ...

http://i.imgur.com/naA9967.png (http://imgur.com/naA9967)

This of course is the Jupiter 'system'. As with the other bodies, all the moons orbit as time advances(increments can be as low as 5 seconds, but most things are set by default for the sanity of the processor to only update at the default 5 days. Combat uses the 5-second interval liberally of course). And for each body, though it is cut off in this screen, you can access more information than you could possibly care about(diameter, orbital period, distance, gravity, atmosphere, etc. ad nauseum) as well as the more vital stuff like what minerals if any are found there, is there a colony and details of that, etc.

I should mention at this juncture that many a campaign has been made just in the Sol system without even trying to do anything else. There's a lot of 'sandbox' features -- you can simply add a tech or bunch of ships or another empire to the game anytime you feel like it. Some interesting stuff has taken place with people using a divided-earth start(pitting the US, Russia, China, Japan etc. against each other in user-created scenarios).

Ok, next up we'll look at some of the economic screens, and then get into assigning a starting character for each of the signups and get this road on the show.

[Brian Swartz]

Now we'll delve a bit into the specifics of exactly what the situation is on Earth as of the beginning of 2025.

http://i.imgur.com/GseBkut.png (http://imgur.com/GseBkut)

All of these screens are from Economics, this one laughably yet accurately being labeled the Summary. Perhaps most significant are the current population and growth rate, and the fact that we have tons of free labor -- almost 45M workers in the manufacturing sector unemployed.

We've got a few research labs, basic maintenance facility and scanner, no fuel, no shipyard -- yeah, there really isn't a lot going on. Yet.

http://i.imgur.com/VCcXz2s.png (http://imgur.com/VCcXz2s)

This is the relevant section of the Mining Report, listing the amounts of the 11 TN minerals that are present on Earth. Note the Stockpile column on the right -- yep, we don't have jack. Also, the years to depletion tell us we'll be out of 8 of them by the end of the 21st century even at current rates of excavation. Truth be told this is a pretty crappy amount(it's random with each new game). Often Earth can be richer than this, but them's the breaks.

Obviously, we need to find more elsewhere, and we need to be in a bit of hurry about it. One really important concept that we'll see again and again is the accessibility column. It can, and almost certainly will, happen that a huge deposit is discovered(in the millions of tons) of a vital mineral that will jumpstart the economy -- and it will have a low accessibility. Accessibility of, say. 0.2 means that only 20% of the normal amount is excavated in a year, so particularly bad accessibility involves a ton of deep core drilling and the like and basically makes the deposit, no matter how large, economically unfeasible to develop. In our case, we can only hope that we don't need much Corbomite, Tritanium, and/or Vendarite in the immediate future.

The 11 TN minerals are the engine of the economy. Without them and an adequate supply of cash(more on that in a sec), it will grind to a halt and we won't be able to build anything.

http://i.imgur.com/9Pcdqa6.png (http://imgur.com/9Pcdqa6)

The Industry tab, aka 'where we go to build crap'. There's not a whole lot available to build, and what there is isn't what we need right now. We'll address that in a bit, but we can see that we have 1000 Construction Factories, otherwhise known as Conventional Industry(CI). These are sizable factories left over from the war. No Ordnance Factories(used to build missiles etc.) and no Fighter Factories.

At the bottom, you'll notice we can divide production up by percentages(one could, in theory, have something like 20 projects going on each with 5% of the industrial base working on them) and the cost on the lower left. For each ton of TN minerals it also costs 1 'wealth'(which I think of as 1000 credits), the direct financial cost of producing whatever. 240 total in this case as listed for a Financial Centre.

Enough of the technical briefing for now, it's time to find out just where our new leaders will land ...

[Brian Swartz]

UNDERSTANDING YOUR RANK

Before assignments are handed out, it's important to know what your rank means and how it changes. Scientists and Civilian Administrators don't have a rank per se, but they do have an Administrative rating. For Scientists, they have the ability to oversee a maximum of 5 labs for each administrative rank, so a scientist rated 5 could oversee 25, etc. More experienced, higher-rated scientists will therefore tend to get the larger, more difficult, and often more useful projects as they are the ones who can complete them in a reasonable amount of time. For Civilian Administrators, a certain minimum administrative rank is recommended(which for our purposes becomes a RP requirement) before taking on certain jobs. If you look back up at the Summary from Earth, the third line down on the left is 'Administrative Level Required: 2' which means a civilian administrator with rank 2 or higher is needed to be Earth's governor.

The military branches are different. New academy graduates come into the system from the bottom and then are promoted when needed. Using Ground Forces as an example, their ranks are as follows:

Colonel
Brigadier General
Major General
Lieutenant General. When the ratio of Colonels to Brigadier Generals becomes too high, a Colonel will be promoted, and so on up the chain.

Naval Officers works the same way, with a deeper rank chain as there will be more of them:

Lieutenant Commander
Commander
Captain
Rear Admiral(Lower Half)
Rear Admiral(Upper Half)
Vice Admiral
Admiral
Fleet Admiral

As of now, there are no officers ranked above Brigadier General and Rear Admiral(Lower Half) and won't be until more recruits come into the system and 'push' them up the chain.

With that in mind, the FOFC branch of the GLAT announces the following commissions. As new recruits, all are currently 21 years of age. Further sign-ups will only be added as new officers come out of the academy, not from the startup group.

NAVAL OFFICERS

Lt. Cmdr. Chip Overdrive
Age: 23
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2023
Current Assignment: None(only staff officers at Fleet HQ are currently required, and a ranking of Captain or higher is required for those).
Fleet Movement Initiative: 122(a higher score aids a commander in combat movement)
Bonuses: None
Personality Traits: Conscientious, Faith in others
Promotion Score: 61(20th out of 20 Lt. Commanders -- suffice to say the random number generator was not your friend)

Note: the personality traits are there soley for RP reasons and have no actual game effect(though we may well use them and it can certainly help to flesh out the characters). In his brief career of two years, Chip so far is a really nice guy and a really crappy naval officer. But most of his career is ahead of him ... hopefully.

Cmdr. Tell Perj
Age: 31
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2015
Current Assignment: None
Fleet Movement Initiative: 131
Bonuses: Fighter Combat(20%), Logistics(15%), Fighter Operations(10%), Intelligence(10%), Espionage(10%)
Personality Traits: Flexible and pragmatic, Good judge of character, Impoverished, risk-taker
Promotion Score: 472(4th out of 7 Commanders)

Tell got the opposite end of the spectrum as our highest-ranking naval officer.

Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen
Age: 23
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2023
Current Assignment: None
Fleet Movement Initiative: 182
Bonuses: Crew Training(25), Fighter Combat Bonus(15%), Xenology(10%), Logistics(10%)
Personality Traits: Aggressive
Promotion Score: 197(9th out of 20 Lt. Cmdrs.)

I'm real interested in where Nielsen got his Xenology expertise inasmuch as no sign of alien life has ever been detected.

Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale
Age: 23
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2023
Current Assignment: None
Fleet Movement Initiative: 192
Bonuses: Survey(10%), Fighter Combat(10%), Terraforming(10%), Logistics(10%)
Personality Traits: Flexible and Pragmatic
Promotion Score: 202(8th out of 20 Lt. Cmdrs.)


GROUND FORCES OFFICERS

Brig. Gen. Path Twelve
Age: 30
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2016
Current Assignment: Commanding Officer, 12th Low Tech Armour Battalion
Bonuses: Ground Combat(10%)
Personality Traits: Good motivator, Insightful, Resourceful
Promotion Score: 125(2nd of 2 Brig Gen)

Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone
Age: 27
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2019
Current Assignment: Commanding Officer, 11th Low Tech Armour Battalion; Commanding Officer, all Human Ground Forces
Bonuses: Ground Combat(20%)
Personality: Intolerant, Observant, Punctual, Rude
Promotion Score: 425(1st of 2 Brig Gen)

Well isn't that special -- Dolph Stallone is in charge of defending humanity, in terms of the ground forces. And she just had to be intolerant and rude to go with it. An auspicious beginning.


CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATORS

Slick Willie(4)
Age: 21
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2025(today)
Current Assignment: None
Bonuses: Factory Production(15%), Shipbuilding(10%), Population Growth(10%), Ground Unit Construction(10%)
Personality Traits: Calm, Indifferent, Rude

** For governors, I'm using a quick-n-dirty election simulation which leads to the best candidates have a somewhat better chance to win. Slick Willie finished a distant third out of four candidates, with Lena Dungey(the only woman) beating out Terrence Forson by less than 2% of the vote for the job of first governor of Earth.


SCIENTISTS

Deacon Palmer(3)
Age: 21
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2025(today)
Current Assignment: Lead on Trans-Newtonian Technology Team(5 labs)
Field of Expertise: Construction/Production(10%)
Personality Traits: Innovative, Poor Family, Tolerant

** As it turns out, Palmer is the most important scientific mind at this point in history. We've discovered the TN elements but don't know how to use them yet. Investigation into practical applications for widespread use is being supervised by Dr. Deacon Palmer and is considered far more important than any other task -- therefore he and his subordinates have been given full reign over all of the currently available laboratories and the five million technicians, assistants, and various other support personnel. He is currently the only top scientist who specializes in Contruction & Production, which made it an easy choice: anyone else would have taken far longer to get results.

Dr. Palmer's report is scheduled to be completed sometime in the summer of 2028, three and a half years from now.

[Tellistto]

Cmdr. Tell Perj
Age: 31
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2015
Current Assignment: None
Fleet Movement Initiative: 131
Bonuses: Fighter Combat(20%), Logistics(15%), Fighter Operations(10%), Intelligence(10%), Espionage(10%)
Personality Traits: Flexible and pragmatic, Good judge of character, Impoverished, risk-taker
Promotion Score: 472(4th out of 7 Commanders)

Tell got the opposite end of the spectrum as our highest-ranking naval officer.

Too bad on some of those stats. Lowest Fleet Init of the bunch. Must have been a fighter jock and intel type guy coming through the ranks. Impoverished.... Let's hope nobody tries to bribe this poor dude!

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

SPACE HQ
Jan 1st, 2025

Be careful what you ask for . . . *

Earth's new governor-elect Lena Dungey could not help but consider her place in history, fragile though it was, looking around at her new office. * She had barely won with 29. 6% of the vote over three 'more qualified' men, including rival Terrence Forson who was the choice of over 28% and whose help she would need now. * Humanity would now look to her as the first director of SPACE and leader of a new more peaceful and prosperous future in what was already being called the 'Trans-Newtonian Age'.

500 million souls. * So many problems faced them. * Nearly half(44+ million) of the manufacturing sector had no work. * The miners were busy, but for all the excitement about the newly discovered TN minerals, it would not take long to exhaust their supply. * The report she held just now indicated tritanium was the most plenteous, but also was so difficult to get to that not much would be recovered. * The fact that it wouldn't run out for almost 600 years was of little consequence as a result. * Corbomite and vendarite were equally inaccessible. *

Other minerals were easier to find, and would run out quickly. * In less than a generation, all of the neutronium, boronide, and corundium were projected to be exhausted -- eight minerals would be gone within her lifetime more than likely. * While there was nothing she could do about it directly now, she looked around the room at Forson, Jayson Riese, and Slick Willie, and made it clear to all of them that humanity's number one priority was finding supplies beyond Earth. * This world would not be humanity's sole home long into the future. * If hadn't found and prepared to begin exploiting veins elsewhere in the solar system within a decade, SPACE will have grievously and perhaps fatally failed humankind.

Discussion of the direction of research was very short. * It was obvious that not enough was known about the TN materials, potential uses, chemical properties, what new industries or manufacturing techniques might be gleaned from them. * Other than the fact that they existed and had exotic properties, little else was certain. * Dr. *Deacon Palmer was clearly the foremost expert in matters of physical materials, and he was given carte blanche with the five research complexes and corresponding millions of support staff at SPACE's disposal to find practical applications, and find them quickly. * Even preliminary findings were expected to take nearly four years, the initial target date being the summer of 2028.

It was also clear that the military, though what use it might be in the new age was unclear, needed more leadership. * The Navy needed several more staff officers to be prepared for a proper command structure to be in place when needed, and the Army had three of it's fifteen battalions, limited as they were, operating without proper commanders as it was, to say nothing of any future growth. *

Director-Governor Dungey's final order of her first day on the job then, was for the industrial sector to work on expanding the academy and ramping up recruitment of the best and brightest to serve in human armed forces. * It was the Roman Cicero who said wisely centuries ago, "If you want peace, prepare for war. " *Peace was indeed mankind's desire after so much destruction, but it could not be assumed that wish was even possible. * Was space empty, or were there even greater threats in it's unimaginably vast expanse? *The former conclusion was assumed by many, but as with all assumptions, it was dangerous and unprovable. *

Thus the human race moved cautiously into a new era. * Lena would not sleep well for some time. *

[Coffee Warlord]

Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen
Age: 23
Commissioned: Jan 1st, 2023
Current Assignment: None
Fleet Movement Initiative: 182
Bonuses: Crew Training(25), Fighter Combat Bonus(15%), Xenology(10%), Logistics(10%)
Personality Traits: Aggressive
Promotion Score: 197(9th out of 20 Lt. Cmdrs.)

I'm real interested in where Nielsen got his Xenology expertise inasmuch as no sign of alien life has ever been detected.


There are some things we in the Fleet keep from even our political leaders.

...and trust me, you'd find the answer fairly appalling anyway.

[sterlingice]

Wherever the character is needed to help move the story with a player instead of NPC: be it scientist, politician, or military
Sterling
Silvers
Female - it's a sausage fest right now so I'll mix it up

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Sounds good. There's about a 2 or 3-to-one ratio of men to women in the game anyway, so that's not necessarily a problem. Silvers will be put in as the next female leader generated ...

I can only say that LT Nielsen has me both chuckling and making sure I have my tinfoil hat ready ...

My goal here is to do updates as regularly as possible, which means at the beginning there won't be a whole lot in them. I'll do every two years of game time until enough things happen to break them up(when stuff starts happening, it will becomemuch slower). I went through the first two years last night, so that'll be up next. That timeframe works well as it's what I'm using for the typical military tour of duty.

[Brian Swartz]

AS THE SOLAR SYSTEM TURNS ...

Such events happen all the time, but it somehow seemed significant that by the third day of the year the comet Crommelin had rounded the Sun and was on it’s long journey back towards the outer reaches of the known system. By summer it was passing through the Kuiper Belt, continuing on it’s 27-year journey. Whipple headed off in the other direction, while Faye and Wolf-Harrington were nearing the end of their latest trip. Such is the rhythm of the universe.

Administrative staff occupied themselves with relatively small goings-on ... a new promising naval officer was commissioned, without knowing for certain if there’d ever be a ship for her to captain. Captain Louis Meola, Survey Staff Officer, soon developed a serious medical problem and doctors reports came across Dungey’s desk on a daily basis. And there was the long wait –
what would happen with Dr. Palmer’s research team?

Lt. Cmdr. Lucius Patino seems more interested in cultivating political allies than anything else, which may be a wise strategy in these times, positioning himself for future action if there is opportunity.

** September 2025 – It has become apparent that Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone has been hard at work developing friends in high places – she finds herself even more distinguished among her peers than before due to her increasing political connections.

** May 2026 – Col. Woodrow Husar’s commission gives the last of the battalions a qualified commander. Naval staff officers is still a severe shortage and will be for years.

2027 BI-ANNUAL REPORT

The population on earth has grown to 522.8 million, staying steady at about 2.5% per year, although it's dropping just slightly. The expansion to the academy is set to finish in about two months, and for now one expansion seems that it will be sufficient. And we still have a year and a half or thereabouts remaining waiting for Dr. Deacon Palmer's report.

** Normally I'll put an update here with the position of the various officers and leaders, but as time is running short for the moment I'll post that this evening.

[path12]

This looks like the kind of game I would totally be into but could never put the time in to learn, so I'm thinking of this as a tutorial of sorts. Looking forward to it.

[korme]

Career Path - Civilian Admin
Sonny Dean, Man

[Brian Swartz]

path12, or anyone else in that boat for that matter -- excellent! Feel free to ask any questions you have, and a conventional start is good for that as it allows me to roll out game concepts piecemeal. One of my goals was to be able to do that. I've seen a couple places where somebody thought it was a good idea to start TN right away and try to introduce people to the game ... information overload is a kind way of putting what happens.

** Lt. Cmdr. Chip Overdrive is not doing well, to put it mildly. 23rd out of 23, no current assignment other than endless flight/fleet combat simulations.
** Cmdr. Tell Perj is 4th out of 8 Commanders. Assuming that he doesn't improve his currently-rock-bottom political savvy, it may be a long time yet, if ever, before he makes Captain.
** Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen is 10th out of 23. As with most of the rest of the FOFC officers, he's been better than some of the new recruits and worse than others, basically treading water waiting for something to happen. To be fair, the whole Navy is doing that really. We find his comments about what 'we in the Fleet' do to be hilarious inasmuch as there is no Fleet. There isn't even a shipyard to build a fleet, or technical plans to build a shipyard with which to build a fleet, or a team with the requisite expertise to draw up technical ... you get the idea.
** Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale is 9th.

** Brig. Gen Path Twelve has been narrowly surpassed by Annette Burkhard, who is one year his junior and was just today promoted to Brigadier General. He is third out of the three to achieve that rank, and is the commanding officer of the 13th Low Tech Armour Battalion. Unlike the other two, there are concerns about his long-term health ...
** Brig. Gen Dolph Stallone is by far the most accomplished of the three generals, and will remain with the 11th Low Tech Armor Battalion for another tour. She is also the de facto head of the human armed forces.

** Slick Willie has little to do aside from dry discussions of projected developments and wishing he were Director-Governor.

** Dr. Deacon Palmer remains in charge of the Trans-Newtonian Tech research team. Right now, he has the most important job in the world -- literally.

Sterling Silvers and Sonny Dean are in the Academy, studying to be approved and commissioned to some vital or even irrelevant assignment.

[PilotMan]

** Slick Willie has little to do aside from dry discussions of projected developments and wishing he were Director-Governor.


Thank God for interns and cigars! Now is the time to be enjoying a job of no consequence!

[Coffee Warlord]

We in the Fleet only want you to THINK there is no Fleet.

[Grover]

** Lt. Cmdr. Chip Overdrive is not doing well, to put it mildly. 23rd out of 23, no current assignment other than endless flight/fleet combat simulations.


Can we just use him on our first test flight and leave the airlocks open or something?

[Tellistto]

I, for one, am unable to play a conventional start in this game. As it happens, every time I try to do so I get several errors after 2 or 3 days simming. 3020 and 3021 errors of varying kinds just roll through. If I close all the game windows, a different error pops up that forces a forced restart of the computer to make it go away.

However, if I start a TN game, I have no troubles at all. So I'm not real sure what to do. I'd like to start as a Conventional Empire just to mess around and see what's possible to start, but alas, it won't let me.

Now to figure out how to get the ships built out of the Shipyard TG and actually doing something useful, like surveying my home system!

Tell, aka non political junkie.

[Brian Swartz]

That's strange. There's definitely a significant amount of bugs etc. in the game, but I wouldn't think something like a conventional start would cause it and I've never seen it. *shrug*

BTW, on the getting ships to do something useful, go to Task Groups(9th icon/button from the left on the System View, I don't think there's a hotkey for it or if there is I don't know what it is, and go to the Special Orders & Organization Tab halfway down the screen). You can set up new task groups, move ships between them, etc. there, then issuing orders can happen on the first tab(Task Group Orders).

Hope that's of use.

[ntndeacon]

We scientists who are the most important people should be made to feel like that by Victoria Secret models!

[path12]

We scientists who are the most important people should be made to feel like that by Victoria Secret models!

Sorry, we army guys get them.

[Brian Swartz]

3.3.2027 – Military Academy finished. For the next year-plus, the miners are charged with stockpiling as many minerals as they can, pending completion of the Palmer team’s research.

Mid-March – Col. Sterling Silvers is commissioned, and observers consider her the best of the 15 Colonels right out of the Academy. She has a great skill in Ground Combat(30%) and is very good at Ground Forces Training(100). No other Army officer can match either of those abilities in probably the two most important categories for the job. Silvers clearly is headed for great things, and should be the next general. She is known as an Atheist, Observant, Moody, and Gloomy – political skills are not her forte, and will probably be her downfall if anything is.

In May, the Academy finally commissioned somebody worse than Chip Overdrive, who is now no longer the laughing stock of the Navy. Ok, at least not as much the laughing stock of the Navy. Before the month was out, they found a second naval officer of like ability – were they dragging the bottom of the rivers for these guys now?

In September, Mitchell Aull, a master of the political game, is promoted to Captain and assigned to Fleet HQ as the Intelligence Officer. Three of the seven staff positions there are now filled.

Late March 2028 – As the team was approaching the time to work on their final report, Dr. Deacon Palmer was noted to have increased his expertise markedly in Construction & Production as a result of his work on the project(now a 15% bonus). Although there isn’t enough time left
for it have a huge impact, this is expected to accelerate the reports’ arrival by about two weeks.

Late June 2028 – As expected, Sterling Silvers did not wait long as has been promoted to Brigadier General. His abilities – despite having not received an actual command yet – have been so widely recognized that he has succeeded BG Dolph Stallone as the top ground forces commander.

July 11th, 2028 – The Palmer team’s report was delivered to SPACE HQ the previous night, and this day(and many to come as well) would be spent poring over it.

Lena Dungey and the three deputy directors soon lost their powers of speech, able only to gurgle and blink and grunt in response to what they found. The high-level summary of the report detailed an unbelievable finding and two inescapable conculsions:

** The TN minerals were more revolutionary than anyone had imagined, or could have. Their properties were so revolutionary that:

** Earth’s economy was obsolete. Not merely parts of it. All of it, in it’s entirety. A complete conversion would be required to take advantadge of the fact that
** New technologies in all fields, previously unconsidered and un-thought of, would now be possible.

ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING

The present economic paradigm was based on large-scale factories which could be adjusted to whatever needed to be built. In order to unlock the potential of TN technology, this way of doing things had to go. The Palmer report detailed the need for dedicated facilities that specialized in a particular branch of manufacturing, taking advantadge of the amazing properties of the new minerals. An astounding increase was possible in what was possible to
produce:

** 10-fold increase in mining output from converting factories to mines
** 20-fold increase with conversions to refineries
** 10-fold increase for conversions to either multi-purpose construction factories, ordnance factories, or fighter factories(not that there is any immediate use for the latter pair)

It was clear that whatever was decided, this conversion was absolutely necessary and would need to be a major focus of efforts in the coming years.

In addition, there were many more types of facilities possible. New, modern research labs could be built; orbital shipyards of either commercial or naval focus: automated mines which would require no labor at all, freeing up the work force for other tasks, and many others which would have no imminent value but helpful potentially down the line. The options for industrial construction were only four as of yesterday: today, with the schematics outlined in this report, the list has expanded six-fold to 24 ...

http://i.imgur.com/QxPJgAo.png (http://imgur.com/QxPJgAo)

It is clear that it will be rarely if ever that the factories sit idle in the future as they have for over a year ...

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

The expansion of research possibilities was similar in scale. TN technology provided the possibility of not just a revolutionized present: rather, that was merely the tip of the iceberg. In broad terms, the Palmer report outlined the following areas of potential advancement:

** Rudimentary terraforming possibilities, based either on orbiting vessels or land-based installations
** Potential increases in the efficiency of all manner of production above the incredible gains already described
** Future abilities to mine asteroids or convert fuel from the gases in the upper atmospheres of gas giants
** Improved materials for better armor, and the possibility of kinetic shields on spacecraft
** Space-based weapons of several varieties of significant reach and potential damage, several orders of magnitude beyond the only current try(ICBMs). Some had a ballistic base, others were based on focused energy
** A wide variety of specialized modules for potential spacecraft, including cryogenic transport for colonizing other worlds, advanced cargo and storage systems, orbital habitats, salvaging any derelict spacecraft that might potentially be encountered, and many more
** Improved power-generating technology to allow significant amounts to be produced in small enough size to be useful on a starship
** Higher power output and efficiency than current engine technology could allow for
** Improved sensors optimized for space of various types
** Scanners that could detect mineral deposits and/or gravitational anomalies
** Etc.

Like the Manufacturing Ministry, Reserach & Development had no lack of options to consider.

All of this left Dungey and the three deputy directors quite overwhelmed. They needed to move immediately, but weren’t quite sure what the right direction was, so Dungey ordered the Manufacturing Ministry to concentrate half it’s efforts on upgrading the factories, another quarter each to converting some to mines and some to fuel refineries. That would get some progress moving and hold down demand for action while a more detailed long-term plan was formed over the rest of the month. As for the research team, the top priority had been and still was to find TN minerals beyond Earth. Unfortunately none of the top scientists had particularly noteworthy knowledge of sensors and the associated instruments, so the most talented overall – Dr. Wayne Sabagh – was tapped to lead a team investigating ship-mounted geological scanning packages. All 5 laboratories were tasked over to this effort for the time being, which was expected to take until next May.

Can we just use him on our first test flight and leave the airlocks open or something?

All in favor?

We scientists who are the most important people should be made to feel like that by Victoria Secret models!

No, just no. Shut up and get back to work.

[Brian Swartz]

SPACE HQ
August 1, 2028
Executive Order of Director Lena Dungey -- For Immediate Release

Strategic Development Plan

** The Manufacturing Ministry will focus half of our industrial output on converting to the more modern and specialized facilities. Initially, 34% will work on converting 715 of our 1000 units to construction factories; 1% on converting 10 to fighter factories; 3% on converting 50 to Ordnance Factories; 8% on converting 150 to Mines; and 4% on converting 75 to Fuel Refineries. When one of these projects is completed, the remaining capacity will be re-allocated among the uncompleted projects until the entire conversion is complete, but the ratio is designed to allow all of them to complete as close to the same time as possible.

This should result in a more than 7-fold increase to general purpose production, 50% increase in fuel and mineral extraction, and allow a modest but significant ability to produce ammunition and fighters should they be needed. This conversion is expected to take nearly 40 years(Sept. 2066) at current levels of production(1 facility has already been converted and is operating well at the new TN standard as a construction factory), but should accelerate quickly as more and more of the conversion is completed.

** The remaining 50% will be divided into the two most critical needs of new production: more research labs, and an initial shipyard for general exploration and transport vessels. Each of these will require nearly nine years at current levels, but should see the same benefits of increased construction rate as the economic conversion proceeds.

** Given that the geological sensors are expected to be ready several years ahead of the time when there will be a shipyard available to build a ship that can use them, the decision has been made to divide our research efforts for the time being. Dr. Sabagh will retain two of the five labs for his work(this should still allow him to complete the project in a bit under two years, well ahead of it's usefulness). With resources always a concern, Dr. Santo will oversee a single lab investigating ways of improving fuel efficiency, Dr. Palmer will oversee a project aimed at improving the speed of construction yet further, and Dr. Grimmett will be developing a larger fuel storage module aiming at eventually increasing the range of potential ships.

** For his team's monumental and unprecedented contribution at this critical moment in human history, Dr. Deacon Palmer has been awarded the title of 'Pioneer' for his part in revolutionizing human civilization.

[ntndeacon]

Does that mean I get a coonskin cap to go with the Victoria Secret model?

[Grover]

Does that mean I get a coonskin cap to go with the Victoria Secret model?

You can get back to your desk and keep working so we can blast Chip Overdrive to a spacy doom.

[Coffee Warlord]

You can get back to your desk and keep working so we can blast Chip Overdrive to a spacy doom.

Now now, The Fleet (tm) can make perfectly good use of all officers.

I'm presently in the works of submitting Operation Solar Cartography to the Admirality. It's primary mission will be a manned mission to explore the inner workings of our sun.

...and I have just the officer in mind for command.

[ntndeacon]

the construction we are working on is synthetic models. not as good as the real thing but we all gotta tighten our belts I guess.

[Brian Swartz]

I'm presently in the works of submitting Operation Solar Cartography to the Admirality. It's primary mission will be a manned mission to explore the inner workings of our sun.

...and I have just the officer in mind for command.

Humanity's doomed ...

November 2028 – Sonny Dean is the first new civilian administrator appointed since the formation of SPACE nearly four years ago. His greatest talent is in Espionage(25%) with smaller abilities in Factory Production(15%), Shipbuilding(10%), and Mining(5%)

BI-ANNUAL REPORT, 2029

2029 Election Results: Lena Dungey will be back for another term as Governor of Earth, in a bit of a surprise. It was thought that with the outcry from the manufacturing sector(unemployment there is continuing to climb, now at 49.4%) that a change in leadership might appease them. Nevertheless, Dungey is back for a second term and has made some adjustments to account for this.

As painful as it is to do, the new research labs have become a lower priority, reduced from 25% to 10% of available factory space. 10% will go to new construction factories, and the final 5% to speed up work on the shipyard.

At present the economic conversion is set to finish in April 2064(already two-plus years has been chopped off the time) and is just under 1% completed. Dr. Sabagh’s research into geological sensors is slated to finish in July of 2030, with the new shipyard reaching completion in June 2035. For at least the next couple of years, Dungey’s main job will be monitoring the situation
and making needed adjustments, but no major devolopments seem imminent.

Lt. Cmdr. Chip Overdrive still has no notable skills to report, and is 26th out of 30.
Cmdr. Tell Perj is 3rd of 10 Commanders
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen – 9th
Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale – 8th

Brig. Gen. Path Twelve – 4th out of 4 Brigadier Generals, CO of 14th Low Tech Armour Battalion
Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone – 2nd out of 4 Brigadier Generals, CO of 12th Low Tech Armour Battalion
Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers – 1st out of 4 Brigadier Generals, CO of 11th Low Tech Armour Battalion, top-ranking Army officer

Slick Willie(4) – Deputy Director, Space HQ,
Sonny Dean(1) – no current assignment

Pioneer Deacon Palmer – Assigned to researching ways to increase construction rate

[Brian Swartz]

June 2029 – Rob Nielsen’s political connections have improved(5%).

August – A scientist had to retire due to medical problems, following up a training accident and another medical issue costing two naval officers earlier in the year. Is this just coincidence, or is somebody or something sabotaging the leadership?

Late October – Sterling Silvers has been promoted to Major General, becoming the first human to ever achieve that rank ...

July 11th, 203 – Wayne Sabagh’s research team has completed work on the geological survey sensor.

With the shipyard less than four years away from completion, it’s time to work on designing a ship capable of using it. Ship design is a big part of any 4X, and in the case of Aurora I like a comment the primary moderator over at their forums made: ask 4 Aurora players to design a 'missile cruiser' and you'll get 8 different designs. I might add that all of them may well have good arguments for their own design depending on the situation. In this case it'll be a bit more simple, but there's still several things that need to be done. Here's the basic ship design screen ...

http://i.imgur.com/bo5w3Ef.png (http://imgur.com/bo5w3Ef)

Already we've started a new class(accepting the default name of Essex, though this can be changed at whim), changed the hull type to Geological Survey Vessel(this is completely cosmetic, you can have a 1000-ton Dreadnought or a 1 million-ton destroyer escort if you wish), and already we have a problem. The summary near the bottom shows a speed of 1k km/s(no primary engines, only maneuvering thrusters) and there aren't any in the components list to add. Yet we do have basic engine technology at game start, and the Geological Survey Sensor is there ...

This is because items with multiple choices require you to design a specific variant. A specific kind of engine has to be designed and prototyped, while the geological sensor is a one-size-fits-all technology. There are number of different kinds of technology that has to be designed specifically this way, ...

http://i.imgur.com/85UgyuK.png (http://imgur.com/85UgyuK)

Most of them, like the Active Sensors required to mount any kind of effective missile-based weapons system shown here, we lack the technology to build even the most basic version of. Proceeding to engines however ...

http://i.imgur.com/xzjCnUM.png (http://imgur.com/xzjCnUM)

There's five fields to select, but we only have choices in two of them. The first is the second from the top, Power/Efficiency modifiers. Basically, high power means low efficiency(a military engine), low power engines are high-efficiency commercial engines, which is what we want for the moment to conserve fuel until we have a better handle on the off-world situation. The bottom field is for Engine Size. A larger engine is more durable in combat(but if their weapons are hitting your engine, you are in trouble anyway), costs a little more, and is more fuel-efficient. We've chosen the biggest we can go(50 HS, 1 HS= 50 tons so this is a 2500-ton engine, any engine 25 HS or more is commercial, the smaller ones are military). 5 HS(250 tons) is the default, though they can be as small as 1 HS. However, that would use almost double the fuel. Essentially here we are accepting a(much) larger engine size, and also an larger ship size, for a ship that is more fuel-efficient which is important for range and resource conservation.

http://i.imgur.com/23DnNbQ.png (http://imgur.com/23DnNbQ)

Here is our research screen, where we can see that engine has a very small research cost in comparison to most others(50 RP, TN Technology was a 5k RP cost by comparison). This is where we create research projects and assign a number of labs and a project lead.

Dr. Ignacio Bavaro will only take a few months – until the end of September – to get the new engine prototype ready.

Early Sept – Ken McKay promoted to Commander. He wasn't at the top of the list, but officers get a higher 'promotion bonus' each year they remain at a rank and aren't promoted. His sheer time of service moved him above a couple of more highly qualified officers in this case.

Sept. 21st – Ignacio Bravo’s team completes work on the new engine

Back at our design central, we add one of these new massive 2500-ton engines to the ship ...

http://i.imgur.com/6qwWb82.png (http://imgur.com/6qwWb82)

We can see that the new engine takes up the majority of the space, this ship is little more than a ship with skin, a few instruments, and a place for the crew to operate. However, there are still some issues.

** Intended Deployment Time: 3 months(from the summary on the bottom). If we exceed this operational time, morale will suffer and this will impact survey time(and maybe accuracy, I'm not certain). For some ships, low morale doesn't have an in-game effect but I still consider it exploity to ignore it and don't abuse it for RP reasons.

** There usually will be a listed range at the bottom. There isn't any at the moment because there's no fuel storage(components list on the right). If we build and launch this ship as is, it won't be able to go anywhere because it has no fuel. That's bad.

** In the lower right(Design Errors) it says 'Freighters' require at least one Engineering Spaces(they store maintenance supplies). Our ship is being referred to as a freighter simply because of it's size. In the summary it lists MSP 0(zero maintenance supplies) and Max Repair 100 MSP on the third line. Now as a commercial vessel we could get away with low maintenance supplies since in game terms they don't suffer maintenance failures, but again for RP reasons I still have enough on board to cover the maximum repair.

So after adding Engineering Spaces, upping our deployment time to 2 years, and adding the smallest fuel storage tank we have(10k liters), our final design is complete:

http://i.imgur.com/pQfxrhe.png (http://imgur.com/pQfxrhe)

Our speed is down to 68 km/s(by comparison, the 70s-era Voyager probes reached a top recorded speed of 93 km/s, they were much smaller so this is actually better in terms of performance). Deployment is up as mentioned, we have 103 MSP which is enough for this ship, and the fuel will give us a range of 5.5 billion km, by which time we'd have exceeded the deployment time anyway. The cost of the ship to produce is in the top line(201.2 BP).

A little over three years is left on the clock until the shipyard is set to be ready to begin construction, in January 2034.

Geological surveying is a two-step process. Boots on the ground are required in the form of a five-person team which will sometimes find minerals the orbital scanners missed. We also need a second ship therefore which will transport teams, unless we want to use the survey ship for double-duty which will slow down it's ability to move on to other system bodies.

Using then the same engine, deployment time, etc. just without the sensors we come up with this design for the Lexington-class Shuttle:

Lexington class Shuttle 3,200 tons 35 Crew 68.4 BP TCS 64 TH 5 EM 0
78 km/s Armour 1-19 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 13 Max Repair 5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 1

5 EP Commercial Conventional Engine (1) Power 5 Fuel Use 8.84% Signature 5 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres Range 6.4 billion km (942 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

The Lexington class is nearly as large as the Essex class, but requires only a tiny fraction of the maintenance supplies and costs roughly a third as much to build. Most of this is because the geological scanner is so expensive and maintenance-heavy as an advanced, specialized instrument pack. This is also why we didn't add more scanners to increase the speed, as the cost of doing so would have been prohibitive.

[Brian Swartz]

2031 BI-ANNUAL REPORT

Population: 570m, 58.6m unemployed and rising
Fuel: 6.65m liters
Economic Conversion: 8.2% completed(June 2054)
Shipyard: 40% completed(November 2033)
Research Lab: 17% completed(February 2043)

Mineral Stockpiles: Tritanium is the biggest concern, all of the others continue to rise. Tritanium is holding steady at just under 500 tons, there’s still 114k tons left to be mined but progress will be slow due to the very low accessibility. Meanwhile the boronide veins are projected to be depleted in less than five and a half years, though that’s not really as bad as at sounds given that it isn’t being used for anything yet.

In September the research teams of Dr. Brandon Grimmett(a larger fuel tank module) and Dr. Santo Makar(increased fuel efficiency techniques) are due to present their reports, with the other two ongoing projects still three or more years away.

Lt. Cmdr. Chip Overdrive – 33rd out of 36
Cmdr. Tell Perj – 4th out of 12
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen – 9th
Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale – 13th

Brig. Gen Path Twelve – 5th out of 5, CO 1st Low Tech Infantry Battalion
Brig. Gen Dolph Stallone – 2nd out of 5, CO 13th Low Tech Armour Battalion
Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers – only MG in human history, CO 11th Low Tech ArmourBattalion

Slick Willie(4) – Deputy Director, SPACE HQ
Sonny Dean(1) – No current assignment

Pioneer Dr. Deacon Palmer – Continuing work on increasing construction speed(late 2037
est.)

[sterlingice]

Is the first ship required to be named the "Enterprise"?

SI

[Coffee Warlord]

Now that LtCdr Nielsen has his political connections, he can go back to studying those aliens The Fleet totally don't have stashed in Starbase Gamma IV, the starbase we totally don't have.

[Grover]

I am an incredible waste of Naval space. Amazing.

[Brian Swartz]

Is the first ship required to be named the "Enterprise"?

It can be if there's enough support behind that, but actually there's a pretty cool feature in the game that I didn't get to in the design discussion for autonaming ships. They can be named individually whatever we feel like(I'm thinking if any sign-up characters are the first CO they can pick the name) but can also be assigned a 'name type' which the game will pick an auto-name from. There's a ton of types available, somewhere in the vicinity of 120-150 of them, anywhere from alphabetical to thematic stuff like birds, mountains, etc. to various real-life water navies to warhammer 40k stuff. Often scout classes will be named after the 'famous explorers' type, etc.

I am an incredible waste of Naval space. Amazing.

Hey, it takes skill, after a fashion, to be this bad. Not everyone can do it. Ok, maybe everyone could, but not many do.

[Brian Swartz]

September 16th, 2031 – Dr. Grimmett’s research team completes a prototype for a large fuel storage tank. The space is given to Dr. Palmer’s team(construction speed) to accelerate their progress.

September 25th – Dr. Matar’s team announces new techniques have been discovered which permit a 10% increase in fuel efficiency across the board. His team gets to work on a new engine prototype incorporating these ideas.

November – Tritanium stockpiles have gradually declined, only by a few tons this year but it seems to be increasing. Some(4%) of the industrial capacity is switched from factory conversion to mine conversion to begin addressing this shortfall.

November 6th – The new engine is ready and is incorporated into the Essex and Lexington designs. The range of the Essex class ships is now 6.2b km. Dr. Makar begins work on increasing engine power, and Dr. Grimmett starts a new project aimed at improving the storage capacity for maintenance supplies on starships.

Jan 2032 – Another review of the mineral situation shows the tritanium stockpile has stabilized again, so the new allocations will hold for the time being.

May 2032 – Tritanium is beginning to decline again, so a new larger adjustment is made. Also, Dr. Palmer has increased his prowess at C&P research yet again(20%).

2033 BI-ANNUAL REPORT

Space has a new Director as the by-laws require Lena Dungey to step down for at least one term after two consecutive tours, and it probably would have happened anyway due to her declining health. 29-year-old Slick Willie was the landslide choice to replace her. He is expected to focus more on factory production and population growth, less on shipbuilding efficiency and mining, in general.

Population: 595.1m(63.5m unemployed)
Economic Conversion: 16.1% completed, which has been enough to well over double production.
Shipyard: almost 90% completed
Research Lab: one-third completed

Mining Report -- All mineral stockpiles are increasing at least marginally. Deposits of boronide(just over 4 years) as well as neutronium and corundium(a little under 7 years each) are becoming critical. With sorium production still significantly outpacing our ability to refine it and 1.27m liters being refined each year(9m now in storage and rising), fuel is not expected to become a concern anytime soon.

Lt. Cmdr. Chip Overdrive -- 42nd out of 46
Cmdr. Tell Perj -- 6th out of 15
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen -- 13th
Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale -- 16th

Brig. Gen Path Twelve -- 5th out of 5, CO 1st Low Tech Infantry Battalion
Brig. Gen Dolph Stallone -- 2nd out of 5, CO 13th Low Tech Armour Battalion
Maj. Gen Sterling Silves -- Only MG, CO 11th Low Tech Armour Battalion

Dr. Pioneer Deacon Palmer -- Continuing research on increasing construction rate(July 2034 est.)

Slick Willie(4) -- Newly elected Governor-Director!
Sonny Dean(1) -- no assignment

[path12]

Brig. Gen Path Twelve -- 5th out of 5, CO 1st Low Tech Infantry Battalion

No tyranny of high expectations for me!

[PilotMan]

Call me Governor-Director-Supreme Chancellor to the great planet of Earth.

The people have spoken and it's time that we act! I feel your pain!

[Coffee Warlord]

The Fleet will watch the development of this Governor-Director-Nacho-Beef-Supreme very carefully.

[Brian Swartz]

** Ping: PilotMan. Director-Governor Willie has an important decision to make. The next couple of posts will outline the current situation, after which you have 48 hours to respond. Failure to respond within that timeframe will result in your deputies(i.e. me) making an interim decision **

[Brian Swartz]

May 21st, 2033 – Another historic day for humanity as the orbital shipyard P&A Group is completed. It can build vessels of up to 10,000 tons, well over twice the size of the Essex and Lexington class ships. The slipway is prepped and construction begins on the GEV Marc Aaronson immediately, to be completed sometime in late February of 2034.

Some of the newly-freed-up factory capacity is used to begin a Ground Forces Training Facility, some goes to speed up work on the research lab.

March 1st, 2034 – The GEV Marc Aaronson is another first for mankind, a vessel built in an orbital shipyard and intended for extended manned missions in space. The honor of the first command goes to Commander Leota Schnepel who is something of a prodigy. Schnepel was commissioned just over two years ago in Dec. 2031, and her innovative approaches to training have seen her rise through the ranks quickly.

Her orders are to take the Marc Aaronson on something of a shakedown cruise, testing the geosensor suites on the dozen known asteroids in the inner system(Mars orbit or closer to the Sun). If all goes well there, the moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars will be the next phase.

The closest target was Itokawa, a very typical ball of rock 2km wide, and the Marc Aaronson soon set a course for it. Meanwhile, the P&A Group shipyard began retooling to build a pair of Lexington-class shuttle transports. It would take almost two months.

The journey to Itokawa was about 53m km, and the Marc Aaronson arrived on station just after midnight on the 10th of March – it had taken a week and a half. Finding nothing there, they moved on to Apollo, and on the 6th of April reached Apollo and reported back – minerals found!

It was a small deposit, a few hundred tons of Corbomite and Tritanium, both easily accessible.

There wasn’t anything we could do with this information – we don’t have the technology to mine asteroids yet, which requires a specialized ship and module designed just for that purpose. But this was evidence that the Marc Aaronson’s sensors were working. On it continued its mission to the other ten asteroids.

April 20 – Retooling at the P&A Group yard is complete and the first Lexington-class is begun. It is expected to take just over three months.

June – Dr. Ignacio Bravo’s team has completed work on a lower-power, higher-fuel efficiency technology for engines. He begins work on a new project for Cryogenic Transport. Clearly it will be necessary at some point to exploit whatever resources we find with off-world colonies, and we need some way to effectively transport significant number of colonists over extended
distances.

July – Dr. Grimmett’s team has completed maintenance storage research. They move on to the equal boring cargo handling systems. Later in the month, Dr. Palmer’s team completes work on construction techniques, and finds an impressive 20% increase in speed of production! He gets back to work immediately, this time working on Shipyard Operations.

July 28th – The ST Valencia, first of the Lexington class, is completed. A second Lexington is begun, and Commander Claudio Offutt is assigned to the Valencia.

Sep. 9th – The asteroid survey is complete. The Marc Aaronson has been in operation for six months, and used up only about a sixth of it’s fuel. Cmdr. Schnepel also reports a 3% increase in crew operating efficiency in that time. Only the small deposits on Apollo were found, which is not encouraging – but there is no reason to believe that the sensors are malfunctioning at all.

Now it is time for the acid test. Governor-Director Willie makes a personal appeal to Cmdr. Schnepel, making it clear that she WILL find significant deposits on the moon or the inner planets ... or else. Off to Luna first.

From roughly Mars orbit it was almost a two-week journey if the earth stood still, which in fact it was already moving away from them. The asteroids had taken hours at most to scan, but none of them were larger than 6km diameter – the moon is hundreds of times that size, and took over a week for the Marc Aaronson to get complete readouts.

In the middle of the afternoon on September 30th came the news – Luna was barren. SPACE was not amused. They had to begin considering the fact that perhaps the Earth was nearly unique. What if they couldn’t find significant deposits of TN minerals anywhere else? Humanity could be stuck on a ravaged world with no real future, the technology to advance into space but not the supplies to do it with. Such a thing was terrifying – but very possible.

Venus was up next. The Marc Aaronson arrived on station on October 12th, and the sensors churned out an estimate of over three weeks to survey the planet which is nearly the size of earth itself(though much less inviting to humans). On the morning of the 25th came back the full report:

Several TN minerals present!

This was received to much rejoicing. Director Willie congratulated the Marc Aaronson and her commander on their fine work – though he swallowed hard when he saw some of the details.

The size of the finds were simply astonishing ... millions of tons each! But approximately 2 million tons of sorium, similar amounts of corundium, 13 million neutronium, and an obscene nearly thirty million tons of vendarite were extremely inaccessible and extracting significant amounts of them from such an inhospitable world would be virtually impossible. It wasn’t all bad news though – 50% accessible Duranium was available to the tune of nearly 15
million tons ... that alone made it worth the effort as Earth held just over 40k. Almost 22m of boronide, which by now would be completely gone in three years on earth, was a darn nice kicker as well.

Back at SPACE HQ, Director-Governor Willie and his assistants pondered what to do next ...

** OOC: The next post will be a technical briefing on how colonization works, the precise mineral situation on earth, etc. Any game concept/mechanics questions will of course be welcome and encouraged to clarify the briefing **

[Brian Swartz]

Game Date: October 25, 2034, 6:00 AM

To being with, it is important to note that the Venus deposits may be even larger or more numerous than first reported. A five-person geological team may be formed(members of all four branches can be included) to survey the planet on the ground. This takes a lot longer than the ship-board sensors but is the only way to be certain that all of the deposits have been found. Their survey, if one is conducted, will not result in a reduction -- the geological sensors may not have found everything, but they don't 'overestimate'.

As the ST Valencia is ready at the P&A Group Commercial Shipyard, a team could be formed and immediately sent to Venus if such is desired.

MINERAL SITUATION

Earth:

http://i.imgur.com/UTYMsgr.png (http://imgur.com/UTYMsgr)

Venus's known military deposits as of the survey just completed by the GEV Marc Aaronson:

mt = millions of tons

Duranium: 14.83mt(0.5 accessibility)
Neutronium: 13.63mt(0.1)
Boronide: 21.72mt(1.0)
Vendarite: 29.67mt(0.1)
Sorium: 1.938mt(0.1)
Uridium: 8.794mt(0.5)
Corundium: 2.289mt(0.1)

By comparison, this is on the Apollos asteroid:

Corbomite: 431(1) -- not millions or thousands, just four hundred thirty-one tons :)
Tritanium: 324(1)


COLONIZATION

In Aurora, there are three main factors to consider in colonization: gravity, temperature, and atmospheric pressure. If a body does not have gravity within a (quite wide) acceptable range, it cannot be colonized period. Venus is about as close as you can get at 91% of earth's gravity, no problem at all. Temperature-wise, Venus is 462 degrees celcius, with the Earth at 14 degrees. This is a huge issue, not completely insurmountable. Atmospheric pressure is 100 times that on earth -- also an issue but not as big of one as temperature in this case.

The equipment required to survive in conditions less suitable than earth is known in game terms as infrastructure. Every habitable body has a colony cost(earth's is 0) -- each point of colony cost means one infrastructure is required to support a million people. Each infrastructure costs 2 duranium to produce, plus you then need to get it there(build the ships, fuel, etc.).

Venus's colony cost is 25, i.e. 25 units of infrastructure per million colonists.

Other potential habitable bodies in the solar system:

Luna(colony cost 2.0) -- already found to be barren of minerals
Mars(2.0)
Mercury(16.21)
Io/Europa/Ganymede/Callisto(5.75) -- moons of Jupiter, a much farther journey but a doable one
Titan(7.0) -- largest moon of Saturn

Terraforming is possible, it would require research at this point, then either a small colony to set up terraforming facilities or terraforming ships, each of which have their own costs. It also requires a lot of time, so it is not a short-term solution.

Automated mines(requiring no people to operate them) are also possible, but this would anger(in rp, not game terms) a ton of people who are upset about rising unemployment. Politically disastrous, but possible.

Immediate colonization is not possible until Cryogenic Transport is researched(a new ship would then need to be designed and built, and a freighter would be needed to move infrastructure etc. there as well). CT research is currently slated to be done in July of 2037, or a little under three years from now.

I'll be happy to answer any questions as mentioned, but for now I see a number of possibilities:

1. Do you want a geology team formed to go to Venus? If yes, should they take the best leaders available(highest geological bonus skill, higher means faster surveying) or should those currently assigned to other work remain in their current jobs?

2. You may wish to accelerate/obsess about some branch of research, such as terraforming technology or cyro transport to get things moving faster. Another possibility, though IMO remote at this point, would be to prioritize Jump Point Theory research(gets us down the track to grav sensors which are needed to detect jump points to other star systems and interstellar exploration).

3. You could choose to punt and do nothing while more of the solar system is surveyed. Even if 'do nothing' isn't the choice, you may wish to give orders along the lines of 'survey habitable worlds ASAP', form X number of geology teams, build X number more Essex-class survey vessels and/or Lexington-class shuttle transports, etc.

SPACE awaits your orders and/or clarifications on this briefing. You are now on the clock, 48 hours to choose.

Edit: we can design ships that go further if necessary, but the current range of the Marc Aaronson being 6.2 billion km, that means getting to Pluto is about the outer range of it's capability(it would be a year and a half there and a year and a half back). The timeframe for colonizing the outer system is therefore pretty large at current engine tech.

[Tellistto]

So wish I could start a conventional start to this game and learn more about the technology that is already given to a TN start.

Still haven't put in the time to figure out how to move a ship from Shipyard TG to available for use to go exploring.

One question. On your shuttle, how do you plan to have passengers on that ship with no spare berths, or 2 spare berths? I was looking at designing a ship as a shuttle after seeing your discussion about geological survey teams, and could not understand how a team could board a ship without spare berths.

I checked the box to not delete extra crew quarters and designed a ship that had 5 spare berths. Is this not required to allow this shuttle class to carry a five person geolical team to another point in the solar system?

Just to say, this game is damn daunting all things considered. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt a tiny bit. I haven't even gotten into the whole designing new systems or ships yet.

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

Good question -- you don't have to have spare crew berths. The team can board any ship so far as I can tell.

As far as the conventional question -- I'd recommend doing a 'TN' start that really isn't. I.e., you can change the starting labs/shipyards and delete all your starting research points(or just a good portion of them) and get most of the same effect. Far from optimal, but probably better than nothing.

The learning curve is very steep. I wish you well with it :).

[PilotMan]

Clearly on first look it appears that the volume of minerals, specifically certain types of minerals on Venus means that we need to initiate some progress toward extracting them. However, the cost at our current tech level is much too great to jump in with both feet.

I propose that we spend the money to continue to explore other locations in the Solar System. There are many locations where the cost to extract would be much more manageable than this.

Furthermore, we need to begin to develop the right technologies that would allow us to feasibly extract and possibly colonize the planet of Venus. However, we have only explored 1 inner planet. I will not rush to conclusions that it is the immediate solution.

If I understand correctly, the deposits of Duranium specifically are only just under twice as hard to get at as they are on our own planet? If that's the case then assets should be allocated to getting it whether it be by auto-mining or else, as long as it isn't cost prohibitive. We need to attain what we can at our current level while pushing to explore and open as many options as we can. At the same time we will not tie all resources to a solution that instead, may find us wasting time and money when a simpler solution may be out there.

As for geology teams. At this time we know that the extent of minerals on Venus is great at a minimum. Instead of sending our best men and women there right now, we ask for them to continue to develop technologies that will allow for us to move about the galaxy.

I am authorizing the production of up to 2 more Essex-class ships to explore the system, as well as the beginning of a regular production of line of shuttles that can quickly move our people when our brave and intrepid explorers find another supply of minerals.

If we should find the rest of the solar system to be barren and our only recourse is to transit to Venus we will have the infrastructure built with which to move our people and the technology to make life work there.

{I have no clue if anything I said there works in the aspect of the game, tbh. But hopefully, you get the gist of it, and can work with it within the confines of the writing and playing.}

[Brian Swartz]

{I have no clue if anything I said there works in the aspect of the game, tbh. But hopefully, you get the gist of it, and can work with it within the confines of the writing and playing.}

Works fine, thanks. Here's a translation which should be roughly decent I hope ...

Executive Order of Director Slick Willie
Ocober 25, 2034

GEV Marc Aaaronson is ordered to proceed with the survey of the inner system, and the P&A Group Shipyard is instructed to immediately retool for the Essex class -- at least one more vessel is to be constructed as soon as possible to facilitate faster surveying of the rest of the system, and possibly a third if warranted.

The Ministry of Research & Development is to prioritize developing technologies to enable faster engines, with the goal of rapid deployment of geology teams at an opportune time when the ship surveys are further along. In view of this, Dr. Grimmett and Dr. Bavaro's projects(Cargo Handling and Cryogenic Transport) have been paused for the moment to allocate their lab space to Dr. Santo Makar, whose work in expanding engine capabilities will take precedence for the time being. His current project is expected now to complete in a few months' time, next January.

The Navy has been instructed to develop the facilities and ship designs required to build vessels to move significant quantities of personnel, colonists, and materials off-world. At least one more shipyard will be necessary, so construction of a new Commercial Shipyard is also ordered.

Finally, the Ministry of Industry is instructed to use a small portion of it's capacity to begin producing infrastructure to be ready to deploy wherever it may be needed in the future.

[Brian Swartz]

November 2034

The ST Vega is finished and re-tooling back to the Essex class begins. Meanwhile the Marc Aaronson reports on the 17th that Mercury is barren and heads for the Mars. The red planet is of extreme interest as the best potential colonization target in the system ...

BI-ANNUAL REPORT

Leota Schnepel(recently promoted to Captain) reports that the Marc Aaronson is just 34 million km out from Mars, and should arrive in less than a week. The journey has been delayed somewhat by the fact that they had to ‘catch’ Mars in it’s orbit, and the planets’ orbital speed is enough to be significant.

Population: 628.7m(68.9m unemployed)
Infrastructure: 13(enough to support about a half-million on Venus)
Economic Conversion: 31.4% completed

Major Construction Projects: Research Lab(80%, spring 2036); Commercial Shipyard(4%, fall 2037); Ground Forces Training Center(27%, Winter 2039)

Mining Report: Duranium is coming up shorter and shorter but not by significant amounts yet and with well over 2k in the existing stockpiles that is not considered a significant concern at this point.

Shipyard Operations: P&A Group retooling for the Essex class is expected to complete in June.

SPACE has now been in operation for 10 years, during which time three ships have been put in operation, orbital shipyard built, the economy is one-third of the way into a complete conversion and of course the leap to TN technology. Future decades look a little brighter than they did before.

Lt. Cmdr. Chip Overdrive – 48th out of 53
Cmdr. Tell Perj – 7th of 17, could well receive his first command in the next few years
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen – 14th
Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale – 18th

Brig. Gen. Path Twelve – 6th of 6, command unchanged
Brig. Gen Dolph Stallone – 3rd, command unchanged
Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers – only MG, command unchanged

Slick Willie(5) – Director-Governor, only admin with a job at this point.
Sonny Dean(1) – paper-pusher extraordinaire

Pioneer Deacon Palmer – Researching ways to improve Shipyard Operations, expected to take another 4+ years

[Brian Swartz]

** There's enough things going on now that I've decided to break updates down to annually instead of bi-annual**

2035

Jan. 15th – A vital report as the Marc Aaronson completes it’s survey of Mars. Admiral Wilburn Castilleja orders the ship back to earth as Cpt. Schnepel is to accept a staff position at Fleet HQ. It will refuel there, and then begin the long journey to Jupiter.

More importantly, the survey of Mars revealed – nothing. This confirms that Venus is the only habitable inner-system world with resources.

Two days later, Dr. Makar’s team finishes and he emerges from the study with a deeper understanding of propulsion concepts. With Director Willie’s orders clear, his next project will be the Pressurized Water Reactor, which he believes will lead to a quantam leap in engine technology. Even with four of the five available labs being used, this is expected to take over a year.

March 3rd – The Marc Aaronson departs for Jupiter under it’s new CO, Lt. Cmdr. Waldo Politis, having given the crew a well-earned couple of months for shore leave. The journey will take over four months. Io is the first of four moons that will be surveyed, and the hope is there will be
time to scan the massive planet itself as well before returning to Earth.

June 13th – It’s been a quiet few months after the constant activity that marked the Venus and Mars surveys and the changes at the end of last year. A new Essex-class vessel begins construction, while the Marc Aaronson has passed through the Kuiper Belt but is well over 100 million miles from Io, nearly a month yet of travel.

July – In the first week, the Marc Aaronson passed into the mini-system of the giant red planet. Io was surveyed by the 13th, followed by Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto before the end of the month. The last survey turned up a modest-sized deposit(58k) of Tritanium at 0.5 accessibility, but that was it. It’s a long trip out here, at least at current engine technology, for that.

By the middle of August a report on Jupiter itself was completed. Progress was getting a lot over time, but unfortunately, they had found nothing.

LC Waldo Politis inquired of navigation the possibility of reaching Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and returning to earth in time. Titan would take over six months to reach, then several more back home, but fuel reserves were more than adequate and it would be achievable in less than the two
years the crew had signed up for. Coordinates were locked in and before the end of the day they were under full power heading for the famous rings of Saturn. Since the Cassini Solstice mission in 2016-17(which resulted in nothing since mankind was too busy fighting each other to be bothered with their spacecraft at that point) no human craft had been this far, and of course this was far further than any manned mission had ever hoped to go.

Titan was the last option in the solar system for a permanent human colony. Much would depend on the result of this journey.

October – The Ministry of Industry switches over more capacity from converting factories to converting mines, as the duranium stocks continue to decline(now only 1800 tons). Meanwhile, the first run of 100 Infrastructure is done on Earth, more than enough to begin colonization wherever SPACE might wish in the future.

At year’s end the Marc Aaronson was still a month and a half out from Titan, with a number of other important developments expected in the spring.

[Brian Swartz]

2036

Feb. 18th – The Titan mission was complete and a message sent back to SPACE HQ detailing the findings.

21k of decently-accessible duranium(0.6) was found, but that was all. On March 1st, it was found that Saturn itself possesses a nigh-incomprehensible mammoth amount of sorium in it’s atmosphere (45.9mt at 0.7 accessibility) which could potentially be harvested by orbiting ships with the right technology. It was now up to Director Slick Willie to make sense of these findings; the Marc Aaronson set to survey the rest of Saturn’s moons to make use of some more of the remaining mission time, and then make the 8-month return trip to earth. Only Tethys(36.5k Uridium at 0.8) was found to contain anything useful.

March – Pressurized Water Reactor(Dr. Sanko Matar) research completed. Work begins on nuclear thermal engine tech(expected time: 2 years).

March 26 – GEV George Obden Abell completed, Cmdr. Sam Baker takes the helm and sets course for Jupiter to finish off the rest of the moons there. The P&A Group yard sets to work adding another slipway so that two vessels can be built at once.

Early April – Tragedy strikes! Director-Governor Slick Willie is killed in an accident under mysterious and highly classified circumstances. He was 33, nearing the end of his first term. Rumors fly as the public demands but does not get answers, and more than a few largely unjustified accusations are thrown about by various people with an axe to grind.

Emergency appointment 32-year-old Jayson Riese, who has been with SPACE since the beginning along with Lena Dungey and Terrance Forson, vows to continue Slick Willie’s policies until the election which is less than eight months off.

April 27 – Having completed the sweep of Saturn’s moons and finding little, the Marc Aaronson sets course for Earth.

Late July – George Obden Abell begins surveying the remaining Jupiter moons ...

** Carpo – trace amounts of Duranium, Neutronium, Boronide, and Mercassium, only about 420 tons combined.
** Sinope – more trace amounts, 5 minerals and just over 200 tons combined.

In August, Cmdr. Baker sets course for the Kuiper Belt, the asteroid field which provides the last chance for deposits to be found within a reasonable range of Earth.

December – After 20 months on the current tour, the Marc Aaronson arrives back at Earth for shore leave.

[Brian Swartz]

Well, condolences to Slick Willie on being our first casualty. You may sign up a new character if you choose.

[Tellistto]

In my current game, Venus has something millions of tons of 5 different minerals, all at 0.1 accessability.

Sorry to see you go, Slick Willie!

Tell

[sterlingice]

June 13th – It’s been a quiet few months after the constant activity that marked the Venus and Mars surveys and the changes at the end of last year. A new Essex-class vessel begins construction, while the Marc Aaronson has passed through the Kuiper Belt but is well over 100 million miles from Io, nearly a month yet of travel.


I don't know if there's an official name for the asteroid belt but isn't the Kuiper Belt the one past Neptune/Pluto (oh and suck it people who don't think Pluto is a planet ;))?

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Yeah it is. I feel like an idiot now :).

On Pluto being a planet, that's rather interesting actually, because what's the dividing line between planet and asteroid? Eris is lot farther away(and larger), yet nobody wants to call it a planet :).

[sterlingice]

On Pluto being a planet, that's rather interesting actually, because what's the dividing line between planet and asteroid? Eris is lot farther away(and larger), yet nobody wants to call it a planet :).

It kindof makes sense, not that I'd ever admit it.

Pluto being a planet is two parts "that's how it was when I was growing up" and one part "it's one of Kansas's claims to fame so they still celebrate Clyde (Tombaugh) Day there".

SI

[Brian Swartz]

In my current game, Venus has something millions of tons of 5 different minerals, all at 0.1 accessability.

Hopefully you've had better luck elsewhere then. Yuck!

[PilotMan]

Struck down in his prime! A visionary who prepared the people of earth for their first settlements beyond Earth.

A new voice will rise from among the people. A similar voice, but strong and reassuring on it's own. The voice of James Earl Jones....the V.

James Earl Jones V
Admin
Male

[Brian Swartz]

A new voice will rise from among the people. A similar voice, but strong and reassuring on it's own. The voice of James Earl Jones....the V.

So it shall be written, so it shall be done! Wait, that's Yul Brynner and Sir Cedrick Hardwicke. Nm. Added though of course.

ANNUAL REPORT – 2037

The 2037 election was the most hotly contested yet for a number of reasons. There were eight candidates, the leading ones being former director Lena Dungey and interim director Jayson Riese. The colonization of Venus was a political hot potato, as was the controversy surrounding
the death of Slick Willie. ‘Earth First’, ‘No Blood for Duranium’, and similarly simplistic slogans could be heard everywhere, while others argued that is was foolhardy not to take the risk of colonization given the potential rewards.

It was the closest election in history, requiring several recounts to finally resolve. Dungey was challenged by Herbert Duling, who was the only candidate more politically adept than her and brilliant when it comes to mining and logistics as well. In the end though Lena Dungey’s experience counted for more and she won a third term by a fraction of a percent.

To ensure the public’s confidence and avoid a serious split, and because he would be darn good at the job and everybody knew it, she put Duling in charge of the newly-formed Ministry of Colonial Affairs.

It was clear to both of them that Venus was central to the long-term economic future of earth. Yet by itself it would be no panacea. All efforts were focused on the job of colonizing Venus as quickly as possible, and being ready for asteroid mining operations if any significant deposits were found in the asteroid belt. Venus would not provide any answer to the need for more accessible tritanium and the lack of corundium virtually anywhere was disturbing. However, it would potentially provide jobs for many who needed it.

Construction of mass drivers for transporting the minerals between planets begins on earth, as well as that of automatic mines. It was hoped that by the end of her term in 2041, mankind would be ready for it’s first off-world colony.

In the shorter term, the Marc Aaronson had a couple more months of shore leave coming before joining the George Obden Abell in sweeping the belt, where absolutely nothing has been found as of yet but only five asteroids have been surveyed. Meanwhile, the best personnel non-
essential to the Venus preparations on earth were organized into a pair of survey teams, one assigned there and the other assigned to the Jupiter and Saturn moons.

The Venus team was led by Lt. Cmdr. Miquel Rater, the JupSat team by scientist Brandon Grimmett.

Mineral Update: Duranium and Neutronium stockpiles continue to slowly decline on earth despite increased effort put into increasing mining capacity. The situation could become critical in the years to come.

Nearly 50% of the conversion from conventional industry is completed ...

Lt. Cmdr. Chip Overdrie – 52nd out of 61
Cmdr. Tell Perj – 7th out of 20, currently third in line to receive new ship commands
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen – 18th
Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale – 22nd

Brig. Gen. Path Twelve – situation unchanged
Brig. Gen Dolph Stallone – situation unchanged
Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers – situation unchanged

Sonny Dean(1) – no assignment

Pioneer Deacon Palmer – funding has been yanked for his project in favor of thetechnologies needed for Venus and other colonization efforts, so he is currently unassigned

[Brian Swartz]

February 2037
Navy Purges Officers; 'Budgetary Concerns' Blamed

In reality, Rear Admiral Castilleja doesn't want anybody to think that the youngsters are in charge so he decided to make a point. A BIG, unmistakable point. The junior officers corp was reduced nearly by half, with those he considered useless tossed aside like so much refuse.

Among those who were told their services(ok, their non-services or at best potential services) were no longer required are the following:

Lieutenant Commander Chip Overdrive
Commander Tell Perj
Lieutenant Commander Rob Nielsen
Lieutenant Commander Benton Gale

Consider yourselves pinged, gentlemen. Regens are encouraged, and better luck next time if you choose to do so :). In one fell swoop, the Admiral forcibly retired the entire FOFC naval contingent.

Edit: In pure game terms, I should point out this happened because of how severely the number of naval officers was 'surplus to requirements', and only those who had never been given an assignment and had been active for over six years were culled. This is to point out that while it could happen again, it won't indefinitely as eventually the navy will grow large enough to catch up with the number of leaders. Lots of leaders and only a few ships makes things dicey.

[Coffee Warlord]

Commander Nielsen is going pirate!

His heir is not of age yet, but there is one man who can serve the Navy. One man who all shall fear. One man who can stand on the bridge and rule a crew with iron fisted discipline. One man who can destroy enemy ships by merely punching through their hulls...with his dick.

That man?

Erik Flamebeard of the Neither Here Nor There has joined the Naval Academy.

[Brian Swartz]

Feb. 10th – The Venus team is on site and begins the long process of surveying the planet ..

Feb. 18th – The Marc Aaronson has completed it’s allotted shore leave and joins the effort to survey the asteroid(not Kuiper) belt.

Mar. 11th – Second slipway is complete at the P&A Group Shipyard.

April – Construction begins on a third Lexington-class shuttle, while on the 18th the JupSat team led by Brandon Grimmett arrives on Callisto.

May – Minerals found on the asteroid Doris: 2-3k each of highly-accessible Sorium, Mercassium, and Boronide. A very small find to be sure.

June – New commercial shipyard is ready on earth. It is the Tod & MacGregor and immediately sets to work expanding capacity as will likely be needed for large freighters to be built to ship materials to Venus and elsewhere. Work begins on a third shipyard which may or may not be
needed.

July – The ironically named ‘Venus’ shuttle is completed on Earth and will remain in reserve for any needed transport duties.

Sept. – Another small asteroid deposit: 600+ Uridium on Asia. Also, James Earl Jones V graduates the Academy. He appears quite capable with an admin rating of 4, 30% Shipbuilding bonus, and 10% Ground Unit Construction Speed. He is also resourceful and highly educated.

December – A major development on earth as research into Nuclear Thermal Engines is completed. All available lab space is switched over to Dr. Bavaro’s work on cyro transport which should finish in February.

Compared to our conventional engines, nuclear thermal engines cost two and a half times as much – but produce a ridiculous 25 times the power! On lab is diverted for work on the CNT-25-4 engine, which is half the size of the ones used on the Lexington and Essex class ships while providing a huge boost in power and actually being slightly more fuel efficient due to the advances the last few years.

By next April, we should be ready to design a new line of ships utilizing this technology.

[Breeze]

Benton Gale II is signing up to join the Naval Academy as well...

[Grover]

Joe Tycho, Male, Scientist

[Tellistto]

Tell Perj Jr, at your service. Naval again, male.

Maybe this time a ship will open up. Do you put people into all the fleet staff positions so that some get assigned to something?

Other option is to put them all into team's so that they are assigned to something.

I had a Brigadier get cashiered in my last game. What the heck do I do with those guys? They don't get auto assigned to units, and there aren't any staff positions for ground units it seems. Perhaps it's something I have to research to get that?

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

I do fill staff positions, but at the moment I'm only doing that with Captains and up(the recommended level). All of the Fleet HQ positions have a Captain now, but there's no extras, and between the ships and teams only a couple Commanders are jobless as well at the moment(a year ahead of what's here, I'll post the next years events a bit later).

On the army leaders, I don't know if there is research later(but I think there is) to have higher structures above the individual units. I've just got all my top guys assigned to units, so the MG, BGs, and top colonels are the ones who get commands. I figure it's better both from gameplay and rp standpoint to lose the lower-level unacheivers.

There might be another naval purge in the works but I do think it will happen less and less as time goes on and more jobs become available.

Thanks for the signups, they are added as of the beginning of 2039.

[Brian Swartz]

2038

Early Feb. – The JupSat team completes it’s survey of Callisto. They found a major Uridium deposit(2.53mt) but only 0.1 accessible. The team heads to Carpo next. No word yet from the Venus team.

Small asteroid deposits continue to be found, but nothing significant yet.

Feb 26th – Ignacio Bravo’s team completes work on Cryogenic Transport.

March 3rd – The final piece of the puzzle clicks into place as the CNT-25-4 engine prototype is approved for production. Soon afterward, the engineers come up with four new blueprints ...

Essex II - class Geological Survey Vessel
Speed: 1136 km/s(16.7 times faster than the current Essex)
Range: 35.9 billion km(5.8 times further, the entirety of the system is now within it’s reach)
Size: 2200 tons(40% smaller)
Cost: 185(8% cheaper)

Lexington II - class Shuttle Transport
Speed: 1388(17.8 times faster)
Range: 43.9 billion(6.2 times farther)
Size: 1800(43.8% smaller)
Cost: 64.2(6.1% cheaper)

Spruance - class Colony Ship
Twin CNT-25-4 Engines and capacity for 50,000 colonists in cryostasis.
Speed: 295 km/s – Saturn is a 5-6 week trip each way, approximately.
Range: 4.7 billion(there’s nothing habitable that far away, so more fuel would be redundant at this point).
Cost: 654.6, takes nearly two years to build
Size: 16,850

Fletcher-class Freighter
15,000 tons of cargo space for carrying ... whatever, twin engines
Speed: 257
Range: 2.7 bkm – enough to go to Saturn and back nearly twice.
Cost: 180.4
Size: 19,400

The Fletcher was the one that really got debated a lot here. It would be nice to design one that could reach the outer edges of the system but to do that in a reasonable time frame, even quad engines wasn't enough and the cost etc. really started going through the roof ... it was decided that a freighter going that far really needs to wait until the next generation. Crawl before we can walk.

They also wanted to call it the Enterprise. Really, a freighter? No. Just no.

March – Nothing found on Carpo or Sinope. Jupiter is pretty much a dead planet to us, resource-wise.

April – Tod & MacGregor has expanded to 20k capacity.

June – Boronide deposits are depleted on Earth. It’s not being used much right now, and with almost 10k in reserve, it’s not something to get concerned about. Yet.

MG Silvers decides not to rest on his laurels, and makes some important friends. Political reliability is up to 5%.

Late August – FT Victoria, first ship in the Fletcher class, completed. Retooling begins for the Spruance class(this would later turn out to be a miscalculation, more freighters should have been built first. I underestimated how much infrastrucure was needed for Venus. Apparently it's not 1 per colony cost per million, but 100 per. A rather, ahem, large miscalculation, but appropriate as infrastructure is darn cheap. The long and the short of it is that at the accessibility levels of duranium on venus and the colony cost, it will take 50 years for a million citizens working in a mine -- and only a fraction of them actually can -- to pay back the duranium the infrastructure to support them will cost. Hello automines -- though we can't afford many -- and of course they'll be mining a lot more than duranium there as well).

Oct. 20 – Ouellet Shipping lauches Ouellet small class 1 freighter ... Here's a new, and cool, Aurora feature to introduce. Your civilians produce shipping firms(on their own). You can subsidize or not(not in my case), but we do make money taxing their shipping routes. They will ship colonists and infrastructure(though you have to watch them, they may ship too many colonists and end up with some of them dying). They design and build their own ships based on your existing commercial tech. It is also possible for them to build their own mining complexes on uncolonized bodies, which you can either buy the output from or tax the profits. Here's our first shipping line and they've built a small freighter(faster than ours, as well :().

Meanwhile, Erik Flamebeard graduates, and appears at first to be fairly unimpressive. 25 Crew Training, Fleet Movement Initiative 127, 15% Terraforming. Terraforming? For a naval officer? And conscientious. Indeed, it would seem that it would be impossible for him to be more contrary to his desired persona. Only at FOFC would a Flamebeard be good at terraforming, the tree-hugging git. Just sayin'

Nov – ST Wayne sets course for Titan as the JupSat team will next complete work on the Saturn moons, hoping for a better result than was found in Jupiter. Incredibly, this journey is expected to last only 11 days. They arrive on the 22nd.

Mid-December – The Venus team completes it’s survey, and finds nothing new. This is disappointing, but rather expected. They are sent back to Earth, and from there they will work on surveying the several asteroid finds that the survey vessels have pinpointed so far.

As the year ends, P&A Group Shipyard reports it is ready for the Essex II vessels to begin to be built. Two will be constructed concurrently, the Amerigo Vespucci and the Lief Ericson.

** OOC: At this point the updates will slow down in pace a bit. Partly because the next week or so is heavy on work for me, partly because as more and more things are going on it will take a little longer and I need to be methodical and make sure all the ships and production orders are doing what they need to be doing. I'm also going to change the reporting a bit starting with the next one to make it easier to follow what all is happening on an annual basis.

[Brian Swartz]

Char. updates will be next, but I wanted to add a pair of screens here to demonstrate a couple of things.

http://i.imgur.com/9qUORkb.png (http://imgur.com/9qUORkb)

This you've seen before with just the planets, asteroids, comets, and so on. But now it's got all of our ships out there, a couple of Oullet(civilian) ships, etc, different speeds and tasks -- it'll get more crowded over time but the real-time location of anything we're doing is updated on the system view here.

http://i.imgur.com/XeS0pne.png (http://imgur.com/XeS0pne)

This is task groups and specifically where we set orders -- I can't show them all here but wanted to demonstrate the fact that once you get used to it, you can plan ahead almost as far as you feel like in terms of giving orders. Obscenely complicated trade routes can be set up to repeat almost infinitely(you do have to give the crew shore leave from time to time) but there's a huge variety of orders that can be given which vary with the equipment the ship carries(i.e, without a cargo hold all of the load this, load that stuff doesn't exist).

[Tellistto]

I originally had the auto assign officers, think I'll have to ditch that since I'm not happy with the results of it.

Anyways, make sure you manage to get that whole mass driver to Venus. And yeah, it's 2500 to 1 to get a million pop on that planet.

Tell

[Coffee Warlord]

Erik Flamebeard will terraform the FUCK out of planets, till they scream for mercy.

[Brian Swartz]

Mass driver's already there(second trip for the rest of it) and a dozen infrastructure with more coming as fast as the Victoria can ship it(i.e., not very). There'll be more freighters eventually to speed up the process.

[Brian Swartz]

Lt. Cmdr. Erik Flamebeard -- 42nd out of 42, no assignment

Benton Gale II and Tell Perj Jr. are on the waiting list

Brig. Gen. Path Twelve -- 7th out of 7, still with the 1st Low Tech Infantry
Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone -- 3rd, 13th Low Tech Armour
Mag. Gen. Sterling Silvers -- only MG, 11th Low Tech Armour

Sonny Dean(1) -- no assignment
James Earl Jones V(4) -- no assignment

Pioneer Deacon Palmer -- Researching improved Shipyard Operations(2042)

Joe Tycho is on the waiting list

[Grover]

Hopefully Joe isn't being dropped down flights of stairs like his distant cousin Chip Overdrive.

[Ironhead]

Naval Officer Hannah Shepard, female reporting for duty.

[Coffee Warlord]

The Flamebeard ain't so great, I see.

He will make up for his shortcomings through sheer stabbing.

[Brian Swartz]

** The new format is a shameless ripoff, and I think it will work better as it makes it easier to organize events now that we are gradually getting more and more happen each year. For now I'm going to stick with annual updates**

2039 IN REVIEW

Sol Survey Efforts

The Rater team(Miquel Rater, formerly known as the Venus team) departs on the ST Marengo(Cmdr. Pitianello) in late January. They first make for Apollo in their tour on inner-system asteroids with confirmed deposits by orbital scans. With the new engines in place, it takes only 20 hours ...

A decent find was discovered in April on the asteroid Chernykh, with 40k vendarite and 20k+ gallicite. Unfortunately not what we need right now. In June, several minerals were discovered on the Whipple comet, including 11k Duranium and 16k Mercassium. No corundium or neutronium yet.

Sept. 13th – The Leif Ericson and Amerigo Vespucci are christened. Commander Lucas Marini, the brightest young star in the navy at this point, takes the first and head to Uranus to survey that system. The previously unreachable(for a manned mission) seventh planet would take less than a month to approach. Un-freaking-believable. The latter vessel goes to Jon McElveen(previously on the Valencia, which LTC Besler will take over) and heads to Neptune.

Oct. 16th – The report from Uranus is in: 18.2mt of Sorium at 1.0. We won’t lack for fuel in the near future, that’s for sure – though that isn’t our problem at the moment. A search of the moons followed ... a small amount of Gallicite was found on Stephano, and that was it. Sigh. The Lief Ericson went in search of more targets in the outer system ...

November – More Sorium, only 1.5mt at half accessibility, found on Neptune. It’s very unlikely we’ll develop that as Uranus and Saturn seem much better long-term targets. On the 10th, the Neptune moons’ surveys were completed, and there was some much better news. Triton contains 475k duranium(0.8 ), 553k corbomite at 0.9, and lesser amounts of some others. The corbomite find is worth noting because, while it’s not a need right now, we haven’t found it anywhere else in quantity off of earth. It’s not worth the extreme cost of developing right now – but it certainly could be in the near future.

At the same time, a report came in from the comet Borrelly – good-accessibility Duranium(18k at 0.9) and even better Neutronium(44k at 0.8 ) was found along with several others. Borrelly gives us a short-to-medium range solution to the problem of neutronium for shipyard operations etc. Since there’s duranium there as well, moving automated mines from Venus(though not all of them) seems productive. Orders were immediately sent for a new mass driver and for automines to be split between Venus and Borrelly as soon as a team could be deployed there.

December — Less than a month after it's discovery, the Borrelly deposits got downgraded in importance as the Schaumasse comet yielded ... a number of things, but most importantly 19k corundium at 1.0! Everything else on earth stopped. A mass driver and as many automines as could be hauled by the Victoria were sent immediately.

Commissioned Officers

Feb – Another purge sees two dozen more officers get canned. This time the majority are from the army.

May – LTC Benton Gale II commissioned.
Fleet Movement Initiative: 214
Bonuses: Fighter Combat 30%, Terraforming 15%, Espionage 15%, Diplomacy 10%
Personality Traits: Focused, Honest, Impatient, and Results-oriented

Anybody good at fighter combat and diplomacy scares me.

July – Tell Perj Jr. graduates.
Fleet Movement Initiative: 152
Bonsuses: Fighter Ops 30%, Training 50, Mining 20%, Fight Op 15,
Personality Traits: Dispassionate, Psychological Problems

Sept. – Erik Flamebeard’s political reliability is up to 10% as he continue to defy even his own classifications. Also ...

LTC Hanna Shepard commissioned
Fleet Movement Initiative: 100
Bonuses: Training 100, 10% each for Factory Production, Logistics, Political Reliability, and Survey

Venus Colonization

The first automated mine arrives on March 20th. In July, the mass driver starts shipping back very small amounts to Earth. By the end of the year, Venus sits at 6 automated mines, allowing annual production of a little under 200 tons combined. A very paltry contribution, but we've just started. It has 24 infrastructure, as the freighter has been busy hauling mines(and will be even more so with the new discoveries).

Venus has been shuffled to the back burner, probably for quite some time.

Earth Industry

April 25 – Ground Force Training Facility Completed(Earth)

July – Conventional Industry conversions halted. Still over 27% remains, but it is clear that right now mining will not keep up with industry as it is due to lack of good deposits. Work on the third commercial shipyard has also been paused for the same reason. Rapidly we are running out of things to usefully do. Director Dungey orders an independent review over the last months of the year to evaluate options.

September – Earth inches over 700m total population.

Research

Sep. 25 – Sanko Matar’s team completes marginally useful research on increasing power plant output – while also making the things more likely to blow up if they ever get him in combat. I’m not so sure about that one. Meanwhile, a seventh research lab is completed, allowing Clint Wyche to begin a study on improving fuel efficiency further.

Special Update

As it impacts on multiple areas ...

December -- Following the Borrelly and Schaumasse finds, an interesting factoid is discovered: every single comet surveyed so far(five of them) has yielded results. Most asteroids have not, and those that have were in much smaller amounts. Therefore the scheduled review is delayed and the survey ships(Essex and Essex II's) have been order to expend every possible effort to survey the remaining comets as soon as possible. When their initial scans are complete, SPACE will have some decisions to make, decisions that are likely to be highly painful.

As of now, 5 of 25 comets have been surveyed. Of the remaining twenty, four(Ikeya-Zang, Hale-Bopp, McNaught-Russell, and Brooks) are at an obscene range(15b km or more) but the others should be able to be 'caught' or are incoming. Thirteen of the twenty spend most or all of their orbit within range of the Fletcher-class freighters, so if more mineral deposits are found, it is likely we will be able to act on them.

[Tellistto]

I tried putting people on venus too. Believe me, it's not worth it. Even if you get a few million people there, most of them will be stuck doing agriculture work and nothing else.

It's truly a harsh place. Auto mines all the way, no people.

Tell

edit: corrected planet.

[Brian Swartz]

Unforunately, at least so far, we don't have that option, since we can't make enough automated mines to just dump a bunch of them there.

[Brian Swartz]

2041, Part One

Comet Surveys

Jan 3rd – Rater geology time lands on Schaumasse.

Late Feb – Swift-Tuttle surveyed and found to contain 8 minerals at high accessibility(all 0.7 or better), though only a total of 70k altogether. A very good yet fairly small discovery. Six for six ... where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

March 3rd – Wild has 5 minerals, most notably 35k Gallicite and 12.5k Neutronium. A little over 60k altogether.

March 14th – Faye makes it 8 for 8. Safe to call it a pattern, I’d say. 6 more at 0.7 or better, including over 7.5k of the rare corundium. A little over 50k in total.

April 3rd – Herschel-Rigollet is one of the best finds yet, but unfortunately it’s almost to the Kuiper Belt and has another 3b+ km to go before it turns around, so it’ll be some time before we can make use of it. Over 40k of several minerals, and 10k corundium is there.

Just about now, I’m wondering what in the heck is taking the team on Titan so long? I mean, Venus didn’t even take this long and it’s much larger. We can only hope that what it means is that they are verifying in triplicate the size of some enormous discovery ...

May 5th – Enke has about 35k and none of the key minerals are there. 11 more ‘catchable’ comets to survey.

May 17th – Halley’s Comet has about 90k, most notably Neutronium at 18k+. It’s another long-term project as it’s heading out past the Kuiper Belt soon. It’s also the last of the highly distant comets – the rest are inside Uranus orbit – and hopes are high they can be tagged by the end of
the year ...

June 9th – Reinmuth survey complete. Enough mines on there and neutronium would be an ex-issue for a very long time. 164k at 0.7, 350k total a very considerable discovery, most of the rest being corbomite.

June 13th – Tempel-1 is found to contain less than 30k, and the Rater team finishes on Schaumasse, having found no additional deposits.

June 18th – Stephan-Oterma has 25k Duranium, about 105-110k total.

June 22nd – 8 minerals on Crommelin, 16k duranium, 3.2k corundium, a total of about 150k the majority of which is tritanium.

June 25th – Rater geology team arrives on Borrelly.

July 2nd – Neujmin has primarily Neutronium(90k) and Tritanium, about 185k total.

July 3rd – Temple-Tuttle yields a little under 70k, including 5k corundium and about half of it Tritanium.

July 10th – Comas Sola results in 75k or so, including all three key minerals. The Rater team finds nothing more on Borrelly. Comas Sola has the best balance of the three most-essential minerals to be found so far, and the Rater team heads there next.

July 17th – The Rater team finds nothing more on Comas Sola. Wolf-Harrington has no duranium, but some of just about everything else and a total pushing 150k.

July 22nd – Macholz has the big three and a total of 8 minerals, 80k-plus.

July 24th – Wolf has suprisingly little, about 30k and only the Neutronium is particularly needed.

That’s all for the comets except the four extremely distant ones, none of which we need concern ourselves with for many years.

Earth

Feb. 15th – Retooling complete, construction of the CS Antonio Abetti(Spruance-class colony ship) commences at the Tod & MacGregor. It is no longer vitally needed, and will likely see some sitting around after it completes a year from August.

April 22nd – Earth has built all the automated mines we can afford without running corundium reserves too low. All that’s left is to ship them to the best places we can find. A side effect is the only thing being worked on is building more research lab complexes( this will have a huge long-term effect as long as the mineral crisis endures)

May – Corundium and neutronium are now exhausted on earth. We knew it was coming, but it’s still depressing.

Commissioned Officers

Deacon Palmer’s Political Reliability improves to 10% -- which for a scientist means next to nothing.



The SPACE Executive Board has drawn up a review of the present knowledge of the Sol system geologically speaking, and will be presenting it momentarily.

[Brian Swartz]

SOL STRATEGIC GEOLOGICAL REVIEW

A. MINERALS & THEIR USES

Duranium – We use duranium in everything we build, as it is an essential fundamental to the construction process. Four to five kilotons a year is the current need: Earth produces 3.3kt, and will only be able to sustain that level for about another five years, maybe six. When it begins to fall(or possibly even sooner), many factories on earth will fall silent for extended periods of time if the supply cannot be replaced. Extreme rationing will result.

Neutronium – Primarily used as a key element in all shipyard perations(building them, retooling, expanding) though not in shipbuilding itself, neutronium is also used for ground force training facilities, mass drivers, and maintenance facilities. Earth’s deposits have been exhausted, and less than 4.5k remains, resulting in all neutronium usage requiring the personal authorization of Director Dungey and only approved in cases of the most urgent need.

Corbomite – Not many traditional industrial concerns use it: financial centres, spaceports, and military academies. A small amount(5 tons) is used in each ship we construct. Earth still has over 16k left at low accessibility, and over 5k stockpiled which would last us for the forseeable future at current expenditures by itself. Corbomite is not a short-term concern.

Tritanium – Required for building construction and ordnance factories as well as military academies. Quite a bit was used initially for the economic conversion, but it is expected to see extremely limited use. It is earth’s richest deposit with over 110k left at low accessibility, and we presently have 2.5k with none being used. As there will be no need for new factories for some time, tritanium is also not a short or medium-range issue.

Boronide – was the first mineral to be exhausted on earth: thankfully we didn’t need much of it. There is 9.5k in the stockpile and a huge reserve of 1.0 accessible on Venus whenever we want more. Mass drivers, spaceports, and terraforming installations require it, as well as a very small(1.5 to 5 tons) on each of our spaceships. Boronide is as close to a complete non-issue as anything could be.

Mercassium – The most essential use is a considerable amount required for research labs, and some also for spaceports. It also sees considerable use in starship construction, with all of our current designs requiring 20-25 tons, with the exception of the Spruance-class colony ships which require over 400 tons each! Fortunately, mercassium is fairly plentiful and accessible on earth. We have 15k in the stockpile with over 20k left to mine. We need to make sure we don’t run low on it if possible, but for the next several years at least there would be no way for us to spend more than we have.

Vendarite – Used in construction and fighter factories only, Vendarite is not expected to be needed for quite some time. There are 6kt in the stockpile, and another 63k available to be mined on earth, the most plenteous mineral aside from tritanium. It’s only 0.3 accessible, but as it isn’t being used at all right now the stockpile should grow gradually for the forseeable future.

Sorium – Sorium’s sole use is a very important one: it is refined into fuel for our starships. Run out, and our fleet will cease to function, so running out is not an option. At present the stockpile is at 7.6kt and growing – the refineries are only using up around half of each year’s yield. Earth has only 7.3k left though, and accessibility is at 0.45 and shrinking. We have time, but not more than a decade probably, to find additional sources.

Uridium – Used in deep space tracking stations, financial centres, military academies, spaceports, and small amounts in starships, uridium is a versatile mineral that is required in small amounts for several different purposes. It is currently our largest stockpile with nearly 21k on hand and another 17 left at pretty good but declining accessibility(0.72).

Corundium – Required mostly for mines, but also used in military academies. Corundium is in dire straits, exhausted on earth and 5k in the stockpile.

Gallicite – Used in modest amount for starships(5-20t each for current designs), but that’s it. With a 20kt stockpile, we’re not all that worried that there’s less than 5k left to mine.

SUMMARY

Clearly our top concerns are duranium(so the economy doesn’t grind to a halt) and corundium(the more we have, the more of everything, duranium included, we can extract). Neutronium, and after that sorium also have to be concerns because we have limited amounts of them and because they are essential to what passes as the fleet. Mercassium is a long-range concern, the rest are just icing on the cake in terms of immediate mining.

[Brian Swartz]

Bah -- I screwed up and intended to post this yesterday ...

B. SURVEY RESULTS TO DATE

Planets(Habitable)

Mercury – Nearly as hot and inhospitable as Venus, the smallish sun-blasted planet is completely barren of useful resources. It’s a useless ball of rock, and likely to remain useless.

Venus – Though the infrastructure cost is massive, the resources there demand some investment. A mine on Venus will result in 24 tons per year. Unfortunately, only 7 tons of that will be the minerals we presently need, part of the calculus which is resulting in a steady downgrading of it’s importance.

Mars – The best terraforming candidate in the system has nothing to avail it except space to live on. Given the current state of affairs, that isn’t even close to being good enough, though it may be worth investing it far down the road simply as another place for our people to live.

Planets(Other)

Jupiter – The huge red planet has nothing to offer, there is literally no way to make use of it.

Saturn – Our best potential source of sorium in the system, at over 45mt it would make fuel issues go away with sufficient investment. That’s a long-term goal, both because we have more pressing issues at the moment and because the technology does not exist to harvest it. If we can find a way in the future however, it would be most lucrative.

Uranus – Another good source of sorium, more accessible but more distant. ‘Only’ 18mt, but when talking about those kinds of amounts the size of the deposit seems virtually irrelevant.

Neptune – More sorium was found here, but only a bit under 1.5mt and at 0.5 accessibility. Saturn and Uranus are much better choices.

Dwarf Planets(1 of 8 surveyed)

Ceres was found to be barren, with the others all located in the Kuiper Belt region.

Habitable Moons(6 of 6 surveyed)

Luna is barren but could be settled if desired. Titan has a small cache of duranium(21k at 0.6) and at 7.0 colony cost is a reasonable place for a refining colony for sorium harvested from Saturn’s atmosphere in the future. Callisto(58k tritanium at 0.5, 2.5mt Uridium at 0.1) was the only other moon to show results and is clearly not worth the price of a colony.

Asteroids(283 of 528 surveyed)

With 53.5% completed, just 17 have been found to contain minerals, or just about 6% of the asteroids so far. Of those 17, just two – both small outer-system moons – have been found to contain 10k or more. Triton is the exception that breaks the rule -- the Neptunian moon boasts over a million tons including almost a half-million duranium.

It has also proved true that the outer-system asteroids have slightly more likelihood of containing resources, and at higher concentrations.

Comets(21 of 25 surveyed)

All of them have had something, and most of them enough to be worth investing in.

SUMMARY

While it remains possible that the 5 dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt and the 245 asteroids there and elsewhere will contain more deposits, it is reasonably likely that all the significant deposits have been found, and highly unlikely that what more might be found will make a difference given the size of the rocks left to survey and the distance to reach them. It is therefore recommended that SPACE operate under the assumption that the currently known minerals are the full extent of what exists in our system.

ANALYSIS

It appears that there are enough resources on the comets that, in time, we will be able to dig ourselves out of the current mineral shortages. 75-80k of high-accessibility corundium is potentially available, enough to give us several hundred automated mines. Known sorium is over 100mt, duranium over 600kt plus the 14mt at 0.5 on Venus, neutronium in the 350-400k range and Reinmuth alone(160kt) could satisfy our needs for generations.

This scenario allows for continued progression and hegemony of human civilization. It also would require decades of hard work and hardship to achieve, with nothing but mostly continued hardship on the horizon as more and more miners get thrown out of work. The unemployment rate is already 11.5% and continuing to rise. There is only one hope for a better economic future for our people – another planet in another star system elsewhere in the galaxy.

The best of our long-range telescopes cannot tell us with any confidence the habitability conditions for planets that distant, or even in most cases if the systems even have any, much less what we might find there(if we could reach them). Alpha Centauri, the closest system at 4.24ly away, would take our fastest ships(the Lexington-II class transports) nearly 25,000 years to reach – assuming they didn’t use any fuel of course, the need for which would make such a journey completely impossible. Even quantam leaps in fuel storage, refining, usage, and engine power would not scratch the surface of making such a trip doable.

The only realistic option is a concept which is as of yet only a theory, though one that scientists believe as probably valid though unproven. The extreme forces involved in the formation of star systems are believed to both weaken and warp certain space-time locations to the extent that it may be possible with to open a singularity(i.e. wormhole) at these locations. This is known as Jump Point Theory, wherein it may be possible for a ship to transit from one such point to another nearly instanteously. Many scientists have even gone so far as to theorize that the number, location, and geographic arrangements of these ‘jump points’ in a given system is a mathematically predictable element.

Mankind is then presented with a choice: is it worth the price of investment to research this possibility now, with no guarantee it will be worth it even if ‘success’ is achieved? Director-Governor Dungey wishes to consider advice from all who may wish to give it before making a decision on this matter. The mineral crisis, and these issues surrounding it, is certain to dominate the upcoming 2041 election ...

[Brian Swartz]

2040, Part Two

It was obvious that the Abetti would no longer be needed – Venus was no longer a priority and there’d be nowhere to send colonists. The ship was less than a third finished and construction was cancelled, a tacit admission of years of wasted resources, time and effort, but far better than trying to defend a near-useless ship in the upcoming election.

Lena Dungey also decided not to build new freighters, as improvements in cargo handling techniques were expected to be ready at the end of the year. A new variant could be designed at that time, and a decision made on jump theory. For now, the Victoria would continue to ship as many mines as possible to Schaumasse. The only other major change that was made was the decision to get another mass driver built and prioritize using the remaining corundium to convert as many mines as possible to the automated variety. At the moment, that meant 67 could be ordered. Work on new research labs was prioritized down to 25% capacity as before. Meanwhile the four geosurvey vessels(both variants) would continue to work on sweeping the
remainder of the asteroids, and the surface teams would continue following up on any finds as quickly as they could. A third team, considerably inferior in skill and therefore speed as well, was formed to aid in the process, led by LTC Kathy Wheatley. Among its members was LTC Hannah Shepard. There weren’t enough qualified officers to field any more teams, at least without crippling Fleet Headquarters of it’s best ...

Sol Survey Efforts

Aug. 15th – Wheatly team arrives on Whipple, their first assignment ...

Six more asteroids were found to contain insignificant deposits. There are now 49 bodies with resources of some kind in the system. 14, less than 30%, have had their ground team surveys completed. Still nothing from the JupSat team on Titan. Concern and frustration are growing.

The asteroid belt between Mars and Saturn orbits has been virtually exhausted, and the original Essex survey ships, lacking the range to push further out into the system, will become obsolete very soon.

Commissioned Officers

October 30th – Benton Gale II increases Political Reliability to 10%. Also, Tell Perj Jr. has been promoted to Commander!

Late Dec. – Joe Tycho is commissioned as a scientist. He’s in the crowded and unneeded field of Energy Weapons(15%), capable of overseeing up to 10 labs(more than we currently have) and with a 10% Xenology bonus. He’s roughly average in the community of top scientists, meaning that he may see a job from time to time or may be just unimpressive enough to merely be an observer. Time will tell.

Research

Dec. 8th – Ignacio Bravo’s team completes research into Cargo Handling system. In order to have the most efficient(in terms of time, not fuel) freighter possible, his team begins work on a new engine prototype, the CNT-25-5, which is 25% faster and 80% less fuel efficient than the current
Fletcher’s design. It will be another three months delay now for that work to complete.

Earth

In December, the last of the original Lexingtons, the Venus – which literally never left earth orbit – is ordered to be scrapped at the P&A Group Shipyard.
At year's end the duranium deposits begin to become more difficult to access -- the economic crunch has officially begun. A mine on earth once produced 68 tons -- that's down now to 37.3 tons, or just over half. Many of the comets are more lucrative than that.

There are now a dozen automated mines ready to be shipped off world with 61 more being converted. Even at that, there will still be 230+ standard human-operated mines on earth. Work on new research labs is ongoing but slow, another should be ready sometime in the summer.

Remote Mining Colonies

Schaumasse has a mass driver and almost two operational mines, Venus has one and six operational mines, and Reinmuth will have an operational mass driver soon.

2041 Election

Politics can be a brutal business. The colonization of Venus was abandoned before it rightly could be said to have begun, as the comets have been found to clearly be a much better source of needed resources. Combined with the wasted effort put into the Spruance design, this was a death sentence for the career aspirations of Director-Governor Lena Dungey. She chose to retire from public life rather than accept the ironic assignment to run the automated mining colony with 24 tons of infrastructure accomplishing absolutely nothing that Venus has become. SPACE's first director, Dungey served three terms and is only 37. Hers is a mixed record -- there were many successes, but her failure to detect the comet resources earlier will unfortunately be her most enduring legacy.

There were only two serious candidates for her replacement: Herbert Duling, the current Governor of Venus who narrowly lost in '37, and India Rakes, an incredibly talented young woman who has just about every skill you could ask for and a good amount of political acumen to go with it. Despite being only three years older(27 to 24), Duling's main advantadge is the experience from last year's election and his time on Venus, along with his superlative political skills. These proved to be more than enough as he won a landslide victory with a surprising 59.8% of the vote.

Rakes takes over on Venus, and Duling tapped the best mining mines available for other appointments: Herman Fox is the new governor of the mining colony on the comet Schaumasse, Jarrett Hugh at Reinmuth, and others will be needed soon.

Duling has named Comas Sola and Machholz as the primary targets for investment after the new engines are ready and the Fletcher II freighter design is complete. As short-period comets with several kt deposits of all three essential minerals(duranium, neutronium, and corundium), these are to be the centerpiece of the effort to minimize the coming economic struggles.

His inaugural speech also emphasized the need to pursue all possible options, indicating that Jump Theory is very much on the table though no immediate investment in research was announced.

Lt. Cmdr. Erik Flamebeard -- 29th out of 45
Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale II -- 7th
Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. -- 7th out of 15 -- currently first in line to receive a new command. An assignment to one of the new freighters is considered extremely likely.
Lt. Cmdr. Hannah Shepard -- 5th, currently on board the ST Vega with the rest of the Wheatly GeoSurvey Team, en route to the comet Wolf-Harrington. Thus far her team has failed to discover a single additional deposit in several attempts.

Brig. Gen Path Twelve -- 7th out of 7, going nowhere and gettin' there fast :P
Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone -- 3rd
Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers -- The periodic firings ensure that he will remain the lone MG for quite some time.

Sonny Dean(1) -- no assignment, but with jobs starting to open up there is some hope for admins now.
James Earl Jones(4) -- no assignment

Pioneer Deacon Palmer -- Work continues on Shipyard Operations(est. Aug. '42)
Joe Tycho -- no assignment

[Tellistto]

Heh, I hadn't noticed that my dude was looking pretty nice in regards to a warship type commander.

Do you rotate people through your ships that you have now? I've noticed that it helps to pick the guys you really want and rotate them through available ships, freighters and shuttles and colony ships for Lt. Commanders works I would think. Maybe every year or so put someone else in command of those non essential to skill's.

Not sure if your geo ships are required to have Commanders or not, or the other ships either, for that matter.

Also, learned yesterday how to make the geosurvey/gravsurvey ships automatic. Just hadn't noticed those boxes until I did some reading.

[sterlingice]

I'm not at all familiar with the game but unless I'm missing my mark, you have to go for the jump point technology or we're never making it out of our corner of the solar system, right?

The only thing that looks like it has minerals at this point are comets. Is there some "origin" point for comets that we could head towards that might have bigger deposits?

Also, I'm thinking Sterling will enjoy retiring as the only Major General in the history of earth as there won't be any need for ground troops for a couple of generations.

SI

[Brian Swartz]

@SI: From a game point of view you're absolutely right re: jump theory. It's really not a question of 'if', but 'when'. Some of my commentary is just trying to bridge the gap between game and reality -- I roleplay a lot of stuff.

Also, comets do have the best but not the 'only' strictly speaking -- the comets we have are only comets we will get(in our system, anyway). New comets aren't generated over time.

@ Tellissto: I use the 'next five system bodies' quite a bit(assuming that's what you mean by automatic). I rotate some but not very much, I usually keep people at their command until there's something more important for them to do, then they get replaced by the 'next in line'.

[Tellistto]

Well, in my TN start with Ion engines, I can create a commercial GeoSurvey Ship that can go for over 5000 days on 300k fuel. So basically, it's not the fastest ship in the world but it gets the job done.

It's just that I was just going down the list and saying go here and geo that over and over. Finding that 5 system bodies thing was gold.

Ship designing is my next thing, I suppose. Knowing what are good ship systems.

On rotating...I guess in some way I take the 2 year terms to mean naval officers should move around some.

Also, I know that staff positions are meant for Captains on up, but you CAN put LtC in those slots if you wanted to. It certainly gives those LtC's some skills quicker than anything else would.

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

2042

Sol Survey Efforts

March -- The JupSat team finally finishes on Titan after well over two years, and finds – nothing. They’ll head to Tethys next.

May 25th – Tethys survey is complete, yielding nothing: this confirms that there is nothing left to be found on the Saturn moons.

July – It has been discovered that an error was made when designing the Essex II – they don’t have enough fuel for a full tour, a fact that has been made obvious during their surveying expeditions into the outer system. Engineers have looked into the possibilities of increasing their fuel storage, and found that a longer-range vessel would be the same size and require just a 2.2% increase in cost of building from scratch. Refitting the GEV Amerigo Vespucci(which returned from it’s recent tour with less than 3% fuel left) and Lief Ericson(which has been cut off just 10 months in and has just enough to make it back itself) would require only three weeks and less than 6% of the cost of a new vessel. The decision was also made at the same time to return and retire the original Essex class vessels, the Marc Aaronson and George Ogden Abell. They served well, but lack the range and espescially the speed to be useful now. Refitting them would cost almost as much as a new ship, as replacing the huge engines completely would be required.

September – Refit to the IIx class and shore leave completed, the Amerigo Vespucci resumes scanning the asteroids.

0October 3rd, 8:30 AM – The Leif Ericson makes it back to earth ... barely ... with less than 200 litres of fuel remaining, about 0.5% of it’s normal capacity. That was too close, and had the earth been on the opposite side of the sun instead of in a neutral position at the time, a rescue operation would have been required.

Oct. 15th – George Ogden Abdell returns to earth, and is scrapped at the P&A Group Shipyards.

Dec. 17th – A rare potentially useful asteroid in the outer system has been found: 1998 SN165, cerca Neptune orbit, contains nearly 80kt of high-accessibility minerals. Some is duranium, but most is unneeded gallicite and boronide.

Ground surveys are quickly being caught up: 28 of 54 are now completed. The closest remaining orbital survey is 3.9b km, with only 97(18.4%) remaining to be scanned. In the next few years the job should be completed, and everything being looked at now is a long-term target at the very best, since they are well beyond the operational range of our freighters with current propulsion technology. Only four asteroids with deposits were found this year, a significant decrease from the current rate but the Essex IIx refits did have an impact on this.

Commissioned Officers

February – It’s that time of the year again: 8 army and 7 naval officers are dismissed.

Research & Development

March 6 – Dr. Ignacio Bravo’s research into the new engine is complete, and the engineers finish the design for the Fletcher II freighter. The requirements are that it be able to reach Saturn(in the event of colonizing Titan), utilize some of the new cargo-handling systems for faster unloading, and be as fast as reasonably possible with a 25kt cargo hold, two-thirds larger than the existing Fletcher.

The new design has six engines instead of the standard two, has the two-thirds increase in cargo space and nearly twice the speed at 524 km/s. It costs a little over twice as much as well, but should achieve more than three times the shipping of the original Fletcher with somewhat reduced fuel efficiency. It’s not a massive improvement, but it is an improvement and will be the ship responsible for the shipping duties until significant technological advances become available. It will have a crew of 117, compared to the meager 41 required to man the Victoria.

The P&A Group Shipyard sets to work expanding to the required size of 35,750 tons, nearly twice the size of the original Fletcher as well. As of now we do not expect any of these to be able to be completed until late 2042 at the very soonest.

Concurrently, Director Herbert Duling announced that Dr. Ignacio Bavaro, by far the most skilled scientist SPACE has, would be beginning investigations into Jump Theory. Duling stressed that other fields would not be abandoned, with the majority space going to general research in different fields, but that this was to be the top single priority going forward. Bavaro’s team will have the use of two compounds and a third when it is completed later this year. This is expected to take several years to yield any substantive results, but anything coming from it will be classified at the highest levels. Accordingly, construction began on a secret shipyard to be used only for classified designs. It’s existence could hardly be kept secret – all one has to do is look up from the proper hemisphere to see the materials being assembled – but the details of the work there were kept in the strictest secrecy.

May – Dr. Everette Snuggs’ team completes research into Flag Bridge, a speculative project to be sure but one that shows the general belief in jump theory. It’s a specific type of command bridge intended as a ship-mounted command staff for the task groups in a remote system, which
obviously wouldn’t be useful unless significant numbers of ships were able to get to such a location.

He was chosen again to lead a team researching Replacement Battalion, as it was decided to get a couple of very basic combat research tasks out of the way.

July -- Deacon Palmer has increased his skill in C&P to 25%, making him the second-best scientist alive today behind Dr. Bavaro(far behind, as Bavaro has a 60% skill bonus).

July 21 – An eighth research lab is built, and assigned to the Jump Point Theory team. Much could change, but it estimated the project will take another five years until the summer of 2046.

[Brian Swartz]

Lt. Cmdr. Erik Flamebeard – 33rd out of 51
Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale II – 7th
Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. – 7th out of 17, presently third in line to command due to the ships that have been scrapped.
Lt. Cmdr. Hannah Shepard – 3rd, still serving on the Wheatly Geology Team, which has been on the asteroid Gyptis since mid-April.

Brig. Gen. Path Twelve – 7th out of 7, situation has remained unchanged for several years now.
Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone – 3rd
Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers – 1st. BG Abel Rosinski is actually generally considered to have far surpassed Silvers in terms of ability, but is three years younger(33) and must simply wait his opportunity due to the numbers and beauracracy of the situation.

Sonny Dean(1) – Having patiently bided his time, Sonny is now the governor of Comas Sola these past 14 months, one of the most important assignments in SPACE given the need for minerals. He is still lacking the skill required to be considered for governor of Earth, however.
James Earl Jones V(4) – Lacking any skill in mining(he’s great at overseeing shipbuilding, which nobody much cares about right now relatively speaking), he remains a glorified beauracrat.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer – Recently finished a long project on improving Shipyard Operations. At the moment Palmer remains the top expert in construction & production, guaranteeing him fairly regular work. He has no current assignment due to other priorities being paramount at the moment.
Joe Tycho – Capable, but behind two excellent minds in the Energy Weapons department. Joe may be doomed to obscurity.

[Grover]


Joe Tycho – Capable, but behind two excellent minds in the Energy Weapons department. Joe may be doomed to obscurity.


Story of my life.

[Brian Swartz]

2043

Commissioned Officers

February – 12 naval and three army officers fired. Among them are two who most definitely were given assignments(even though the game thinks they weren’t). I’ll need to watch this – my best guess as to the reason is that when the ships were scrapped, it also scrapped the assignment from their ‘history’? This is suggested by the fact that both Essex commanders are the ones who were prematurely ‘retired’. In this case I can just wait to scrap the ships until reassignment in the future, if I remember.

August – Erik Flamebeard develops a medical problem affecting his long-term health. Maybe, I dunno, lighting his beard on fire wasn’t such a great idea?!

Earth

April – A ninth research laboratory is completed on Earth. A record seventh concurrent project is begun, this one under Dr. Edward Groat(his first assignment) is the final in the recent series of basic combat projects, Duranium Armor for use on starships as a better defensive material.

April 20th – Construction of the first in the Fletcher II freighter class begins at the Tod & Macgregor Shipyard. It is expected to be finished around Christmas.

December 25 – Two days late, the FT Venus is christened on Christmas Day. Commander Chong Vaugh, a new star on the horizon, is named her commander – he was just promoted from LTC in the past week, knocking Tell Perj Jr. a peg down the order of seniority. Rumor has it Perj is not taking it well, to put it mildly.

The Venus gets to work immediately assisting the Victoria in the task of hauling mines to Machholz. The Tod & Macgregor Shipyard gets to work immediately building another, but this will immediately multiply the speed of mining expansion ...

Immediately the effect of the new cargo handling systems are obvious, as what takes the Victoria almost a week to unload is done in less than a day.

Off-World Mining

May – The final delivery has been made to Comas Sola, leaving the comet with 10 operational mines. A mass driver and follow-up mines will be sent to Machholz for the rest of the year’s shipping activity via the Victoria. Comas Sola is expected to deliver 700 tons a year overall, and the corundium it produces will be enough to convert one new mine annually. It’s a start, though a thoroughly modest one at best. In August, the mass driver on Machholz became operational, and another mining colony was officially up and running.

November – A new civilian shipping firm has been formed(to do what, I have no idea): Jensrud Transport and Trading.

Research & Development

December 11th – Dr. Wayne Sabagh’s team completes research on Infrared Lasers. Pioneer Deacon Palmer takes on a most important project, one which more labs will be allocated to over time but he’ll begin with just one. He’s been tasked with finding ways to improve the production of our mines. Nothing could be of more immediate value. Meaningful results will take over seven years without further support though, by which time the usefulness of it will have been somewhat diminished.

SUMMARY

It was a quiet year in surveys with the work nearly done. Another four ground team surveys were completed, bringing the total to 40 with 22 remaining. Both of the Essex Iix’s are en route to super-distant asteroids(12b km and up) with 6.5b now the limit at which everything has been scanned. Only eight asteroids, the four longest-period comets, and the two most remote dwarf planets remain. Their results are more of a scientific curiosity than anything else at this point.

The focus of SPACE leadership has switched firmly to the mining efforts. Crommelin and Stephan-Oterma are still outside Saturn orbit, making Machholz still the target for now. It has nearly two mines operational and is just about to clear the asteroid belt. With the Venus now in service, it will not be long before that increases dramatically.

Corundium production is the most important economic indicator right now. It stands at 117 tons annually, enough to convert about 1.5 mines to their automated variants. Two thirds of this comes from Comas Sola. It will still be three-to-four years before Earth’s supply of corundium runs out, so that’s the window we have to get a bigger flow going. Right now, the stockpile of automated mines is at 28 and has gradually grown, but the Venus is expected to reverse that situation.

It has not yet been fully decided if the lastest freighter under construction will be the last or if more will be immediately required(likely).

Money is not an issue, as it is increasing faster than we have the resources to spend it. About 60% goes into the treasury each year at this point. There is less than 2.4kt corundium and 2.7kt neutronium remaining, and those remain the crucial factors in the expansion.

[Brian Swartz]

2044

Research and Development

January 8th -- Dr. Cedrick Wormack announced that a smaller
Engineering Section ship module had been built, allowing more efficient designs particularly of smaller-end vessels. The lab was re-allocated to Palmer’s work on increasing mining output.

Feb. 16th – Dr. Sanko Matar’s team produced results detailing the possibility of engines with an additional 25% power, up to 150% possible now with new techniques. Dr. Cedrick Wormack takes the space and begins research into larger fuel storage tanks.

April 20 – Magazine Ejection System research completed by the Dr. Harlan Welle and his team. The space is transferred to the Very Large Fuel Storage module project.

Earth

January 28th -- The top-secret shipyard was completed, named the Wartsila A/B & O/Y. I’m assuming that was merely an attempt to confuse. It has a capacity for only 1000 tons, and begins expansion immediately to allow for a reasonably-sized ship should something be required.

April 1 – Voliva Carrier Company founded(commercial shipping line). Civilians are coming out of the woodwork in a clear vote of confidence for the expansion efforts, but as yet there is really nothing for them to do so it’s a bit premature.

July 27th – A 10th research lab is completed on earth. The Jump Point Theory team gets a fourth complex to use, the most that has been devoted to any one project since Trans-Newtonian Technology nearly two decades ago. Revised estimates indicate a final report can be accelerated a few months, due now in January of 2046.

August 29 – The FT Hercules is completed at the Tod & MacGregor Shipyards, the second andfor now final in the Fletcher II class. Cmdr. Jung Besler, who has commanded the ST Vega for nearly eight years, is assigned as the best available experienced CO.

t has also been determined that a significant flaw exists in the Hercules and Venus as currently constituted. Namely, they are very short of fuel storage with the Venus having to refuel monthly. A new design, unoriginally dubbed the Fletcher II-x, will have one less cargo handling system – only one is needed to achieve loading within two days, a perfectly reasonable timeframe – and increase fuel storage 16 times over to 800,000 litres.

The new smaller engineering spaces will also be made use of to save on maintenance supply space. The resulting ship is just a hair larger, actually requires 12 less crew(105 compared to 117), loses less than 2% of it’s speed and has a range of over 33b km, effectively putting the entirety of the system within it’s range.

The Venus is the first to undergo the refitting process, which will be set to begin next year.

Commissioned Officers

January -- Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. was named the new CO of the ST Marengo(responsible for shuttling the top geology team, the Rater team, to their mission sites). It’s much less glamorous than the Venus freighter, but it’s something.

Mar. 16th – Pioneer Deacon Palmer irrelevantly has a 20% Political Reliability bonus now.

June – Sonny Dean’s Admin. rating is up to 2. Earth now requires a 3 for governor, so he’s still not a candidate for that post yet.

Off-World Mining

May – Just under a year after the mining outpost was founded, Machholz has surpassed Comas Sola as the largest off-world venture with 10+ mines operational.

Early August – With over two dozen in place, mine transfers to Machholz are cut off prematurely, in an effort to preserve some to spread out to the other useful comets.

Sol Survey Efforts

Eight bodies remain now, three asteroids, Sedna, and the four comets. No new deposits were discovered this year, with eight more ground surveys bringing the total to 48 completed, 14 remaining on that front.

Mining Report

Off-world operations are significant enough now that it’s worth presenting an annual report on the state of things. Each location will list the number of mines and type(standard or automated), the total yield, efficiency(minerals per mine per year), and the amount of corundium since that’s the most critical need right now.

Earth(249 standard/17 automated) – 8.44kt annual yield, 24t efficiency, 0 corundium
Machholz(0S/27.6A) – 1.92 kt yield, 63t eff, 213 corundium
Comas Sola(0S/10.2A) – 696t yield, 65t eff, 75 corundium
Venus(0S/6A) – 177t yield, 24t efficiency, 7 corundium
Schaumasse(0S/1.8A) – 80t yield, 36t efficiency, 22 corundium
Reinmuth(0S/1.8A) – 101t yield, 47t efficiency, 0 corundium

From this it is clear that getting mines off of Earth and Venus as much as possible and to higher-efficiency mining outposts will continue to be a productive endeavor. New mine conversions can be queued up now at a little over four per year, and Earth still has 20 in the pipeline to be converted at this point, a year and a half worth.

The top untapped known sources, in terms of mining efficiency(min. 50t) are:

Swift-Tuttle(71t, 4.36kt corundium) – A long-period comet that won’t be within reasonable range for decades.
Wolf-Harrington(67t, 6.49kt corundium) – Previously overlooked because it lacks duranium, but this was probably short-sighted. Wolf-Harrington is in position to be exploited immediately(280m km, well inside the asteroid belt) and will be added to the short-period comet list along with Comas Sola and Machholz.
Crommelin(66t, 3.18kt corundium) – This incoming comet will be exploited in the next few years.
Neujmin(59t, 1.42kt corundium) – Incoming on a similar vector and distance to Crommelin, it will be exploited as well. Both are about 1.6b km out at this point.
Borrelly(58t, 0 corundium)
Van Biesbroeck(55t, 0 corundium) – We’ll keep an eye on it, but for now are focusing soley on corundium sources.
Herschel-Rigolet(54t, 9.88kt corundium) – Another long-period comet that can’t be reached efficiently.
Halley’s Comet(51t, 0 corundium) – Very long-range, and has only neutronium out of the big three.

[Brian Swartz]

2045 Election

11 of the 18 career politicians were able to stand for the Director of Space/Governor of Earth combo, but it pretty much came down the same as four years ago with incumbent Herbert Duling a slight favorite over India Rakes(Governor of Venus). There was a wild card this time around with long-shot Herman Fox(Governor of Schaumasse) also making it to the final ballot. It was closer than in 2041, but Duling again wins with 40.7% of the vote, 36.2% chose Rakes, and a respectable showing by Fox with the remaining 23.1% in a distant third.

The remaining posts were chosen by mining ability:

Machholz – India Rakes
Comas Sola – Herman Fox
Venus – Jarrett Hugh
Schaumasse – Damian Ackley
Reinmuth -- Larry Steckel

Lt. Cmdr. Erik Flamebeard – 30th out of 51
Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale II – 8th
Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. – 9th out of 17 -- CO, ST Marengo(Lexington II-class transport shuttle)
Lt. Cmdr. Hannah Shepard – 2nd, member of the Wheatly Geology Team, currently taking an absurd amount of time to survey the asteroid Gyptis.

Brig. Gen. Path Twelve – 7th out of 7
Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone – 3rd
Mag. Gen Sterling Silver – only

Sonny Dean(2) – is currently without an assignment, but expected to be named governor to one of the new comet-based mining posts in the next few years
James Earl Jones V(4) – essentially useless in the current environment and unassigned

Pioneer Deacon Palmer – Researching ways to improve mining output, a critical priority assignment
Joe Tycho – doing nothing

[Tellistto]

Yay for an assignment! My guy won't get canned!

Might want to consider designing a FAC and OWP to give you some defense and ships for your naval officers. I know it's mineral crunch time and everything is going into auto mines and getting them out.

For the record, Brigade Headquarters(Logistics and unimportant for sure now) is the ground unit that requires a Brigadier to command it. Beyond that is divisional command which I haven't bothered to research.

On a side note, I had an AMAZING LtCom who would have made it to the top of the tier get killed in an accident. I was so bummed, caused it happened in like 6 months after she graduated.

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

Good idea on designing the ships, except we quite literally can't right now. Not because of the minerals, but because we can't.

We don't have the technology to design an active sensor or fire control right now. Designing a ship -- even a bad one -- for combat is beyond our capability at the moment.

That will change in time.

Thanks for the other info also, that's useful to know. Since Slick Willie, we really haven't lost much in terms of accidents, gotten really lucky with that the last few years.

[Brian Swartz]

2045

Earth

Director-Governor Duling began his second term by ordering a couple more mass drivers built to be ready when more comets came in range, and by sending all three freighters to Wolf-Harrington immediately to establish a new mining outpost there. With two weeks, four mines were operational and a governor had been appointed – Francesco Alborn.

Jan. 18th – Tod & MacGregor has retooled for the Fletcher II-x class, and the Venus begins it’s refit. It’s a four-month process to make the necessary changes, mostly just adding the massive fuel storage.

January – Two civilian colony ships, making it three with nowhere to go, launch on Earth. At least the private sector has confidence that we’re going places ... sometime.

March – With almost 10 operational mines, the Wolf-Harrington shipments are discontinued. Earth is down to single digits in the automated mine stockpile, and considerable investments in Crommelin and Stephan-Oterma are desired when they approach as we won’t have a shot at them again for a while. That means we can’t spend all our mines elsewhere in the meantime.

May 18th – The Venus finishes it’s refitting, and hilariously an auto-warning is dispatched to Fleet HQ that the ship has just over 4% of it’s fuel remaining. Refueling requires half a year’s production from the refineries, but they’ve built up a considerable reserve and this is no problem.

A major announcement by Director Herbert Duling is of considerably more import. In a globally televised address, he outlines a plan to colonize Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Arguing that this is a venture of vital importance, he stresses the sorium riches of Saturn itself and the strategic value(regardless of what happens with jump theory) of having a refueling and recuperation base outsystem as a bridge to developments in the Kuiper Belt region. Titan is the most advanced potentially habitable location, and as such is best candidate for such an endeavour. Duling also stresses the need for such a moderate-range colonization effort(Saturn is over a billion km away on closest approach) and the experience needed from it before any dreams of a future attempt tocolonize other systems could possibly be entertained in the future. He also calls on the civilian shipping firms to stand ready to aid in shipping the first wave of colonists -- they’ll need to do more than ‘aid’ in it, since the Spruance class was never produced –. The Venus is loaded with infrastructure and sent to make preparations for an initial settlement, departing late on the 19th. It’s nearly a month journey one way. Some whispers are heard that this is a hasty response to pressure from corporations, but the possibility of jobs on Titan drowns out that concern with the unemployment rate still north of 12%.

Meanwhile, the Hercules takes it’s turn getting the update to the II-x variant.

June 18th – The first 10 infrastructure are off-loaded onto Titan. This in itself means nothing – there’s 24 still sitting on Venus doing nothing. SPACE officially designates it as a colonist destination and appoints as governor Sonny Dean, formerly in charge of Comas Sola. As it is uncertain what, if anything, the civilians will do, the Spruance class is updated with the latest advances. Designated the Spruance-B, the new design is just under 20k tons, requires 110 crew, and is just a hair slower than the Fletcher II’s at 501 km/s. The main difference is that is has four engines instead of the original two, and more fuel for longer range and higher speed.

The P&A Group Shipyard is just large enough to accomodate the design, but retooling alone will take over a year(and about 350 neutronium). Still, it is considered worth the effort.

July 14th – Jensrud Trading launches a large freighter ...

July – A new politician has emerged who will be one to watch: Alberto Eighmy has a wider variety of skills than anyone currently at SPACE, and is already being tapped by many as a future SPACE director.

Sep. 18th – The Hercules has been refitted, and it promptly refuels and heads to Titan(via Venus first to scoop up the useless infrastructure there).

October – Earth’s population reaches 800 million.

December – Voliva sends a small colony ship to Titan ... the first human colonists are onboard. The Spruance-B project will go forward as a learning exercise if nothing else, but history is in the making! The estimated speed is 600-650 km/s, a little faster than our design. These guys know
what they are doing, that’s for certain.

Meanwhile, a new research lab is finished. Dr. Everette Snuggs begins to use it for work on a tiny fuel storage tank, another option for fine-tuning espescially on smaller ships. He’ll need more help on this down the line. We’re now up to six ongoing research teams in 11 laboratory complexes.

December 24th – It was quite the Christmas Eve, as the Lief Ericson reports high-accessibility duranium on Sedna(the final dwarf planet to be surveyed, over 11b km distant) of 373kt! Additionally, expansion of the Wartsila top-secret military shipyard is complete to 3000 tons, and it awaits word from the Jump Theory team early next year on any new developments.

Research & Development

Jan. 18th – Dr. Edward Groat’s research team has completed the Duranium Armor project. Dr. Santo Makar gets to work on a new effort to progress basic engine technology in the direction of lower-power, higher-efficiency possibilities.

Commissioned Officers

February – This year’s involuntary terminations of service include LtC Erik Flamebeard, LtC Roger Wilco, and LtC Jay Cin II.

April – LtC Hannah Shepard has seen a marginal increase in her survey skill to 11%. Shortly afterward, the team returns to Earth and is disbanded. It’s mission is complete – all the inner-system bodies have been surveyed, without a drop being found for their efforts.

May – ‘Pioneer’ Deacon Palmer improves his Admin. rating to 6. Given the paucity of available research labs(though more are constantly being built), this is irrelevant.

October – Brandon Seymer, an unused scientist, was killed in an accident. This is SPACE’s first untimely death in some years.

November – A naval officer is the second in two months to die in strange circumstances, and conspiracy theorists abound ...

SUMMARY

At year’s end, we are less than a week away from the Voliva colony ship arriving at Titan ... less than two weeks away from a report by the Jump Theory research team. Exciting things are(hopefully) about to happen.

Crommelin is now inside Saturn orbit, with 17 mines now waiting on earth for them to get a bit closer with 14 more still in the production queue. The development of Wolf-Harrington improved the mining situation somewhat.

[Coffee Warlord]

Bah!

Luckily, the naval academy has Rob Nielsen Jr in the hopper!

[sterlingice]

How long does it take to get to Titan?

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Depends on the ship, but it's just under a month, about four weeks for our freighters.

[Tellistto]

Yay for not being canned this time! With a ship command, my dude might stick around to see a warship of some kind! Let's go research teams!

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

2046

Colonizing Titan

Jan. 3rd – The first colonists arrive at Titan, which has enough infrastructure to support 70,000 now. 50,000 are unloaded from the Voliva colony ship within a couple days, and it’s official – humanity is no longer bound to earth alone! It’s taken 21 years for SPACE to establish a human colony, and so Titan enters the history books.

January – Jensrud and Voliva have already dispatched trade freighters to Titan, leaping into action to gain economically from the new colony. Interestingly, both of these are a bit slower than our freighters.

Research & Development

Jan. 10th – Exactly one week after the events at Titan, Dr. Ignacio Bravo’s team unveils the most important scientific pronouncement since TN technology nearly two decades ago, and among the most significant ever.

Key points from the report on Jump Point Theory:

** Jump points have been proven to potentially exist and the possibility of transiting them is very real.
** All jump points have been demonstrated to be 1:1 connections. That is, travel is possible in both directions and only to a specific destination. A jump point cannot be used to travel to multiple different locations, but rather the wormhole can be formed only to a specific point in space-time.
** Every star has a number of potential locations where jump points may, or may not, have formed. The only way to tell for certain is by close-range gravitational surveys, requiring a ship with a new kind of sensor suite.
** In the case of Sol, there are 30 such locations arranged in three ‘rings’ or concentric circles. The inner ring has six and is located between Saturn and Uranus orbit, approxmately 2b km away. The second is about 3.5b km between Uranus and Neptune and has a dozen, with the remaining dozen in a third ring in the Kuiper Belt region some 6b km or so away.
** Considerable but doable amounts of energy would be required to transit, requiring multiple research projects into a classified device colloquially known as a ‘jump engine’. ** Before a jump engine would be of any use, navigational data will need to be obtained by the gravitational sensors.
** An ‘installation’, for lack of a better word, can be built at any jump point called a ‘jump gate’, allowing transit without the use of a jump drive.

Bravo’s team sets to work on gravitational sensors, an instrument suite required to detect if a jump point actually exists at a potential location. Armed with the information from the previous study, this will actually be a much quicker project and is expected to complete in a year and a half. Work on jump engines will need to follow this, but getting a vessel ready to survey the potential jump point locations is clearly the first priority.

Aug. 12th – Dr. Cedrick Wormack’s team completes research into Very Large Fuel Storage module. These hold a million litres each, and are useful only on extremely large vessels. One lab was reassigned to Everette Snuggs’ work on the other end of the scale, Tiny fuel storage tanks. The second is freed up for the next new project, Pebble Bed Reactors. This is a gateway project that may eventually lead to the a new generation of more powerful engines beyond our current standard, nuclear thermal propulsion. Dr. Rosemary Urenda gets her first project lead for this endeavor.

Commissioned Officers

Jan. 16th – Tell Perj Jr. increases Fleet Movement Initiative to 173.

April – Tell Perj Jr. increases Fleet Movement Initiative again, to 182.

Early May – A bit of a shakeup in the army as Brig. Gen. Willis Hindley is forced to retire for medical reasons. Col. Leland Mesecher takes over his command on an interim basis.

July –Rob Nielsen Jr. is commissioned.
Fleet Movement Initiative: 137
Bonuses: Training 100, Logistics 10%
Personality Traits: Methodical, poor family, will not delegate.

A very high skill in crew training makes it likely he will have a bright future.

Late September – Captain Louis Meola has died of natural causes. He was Survey Officer at Fleet HQ for over a decade, and was 47 years old. At present, there is not an available Captain to replace him. Claudio Offutt is transferred from the presently virtually-useless
post at Operations to serve as his successor.

October – Tell Perj Jr. increases Fleet Movement Initiative to 219, a marked increase this time around.

Late November – India Rakes, governor of Comas Sola, hilariously announced a breakthrough in improving industrial production. You’re on a mining rock, governor ... I think you’re working on the wrong thing.

Earth

Early March – Gallicite is the fourth mineral to be exhausted on earth. With almost 25kt in the stockpile, limited usage, and about 170 tons coming in from the comets each year, this is a non-issue. Sorium will be the next to be depleted, sometime in the next three years.

June – Prospects on Titan lead to a surge in population growth on earth, as public confidence in the future of humanity grows stronger with each passing shipment. (I.e., Herbert Duling now has a 10% pop. growth bonus). Meanwhile, the first mine arrives on Titan, and 50,000 of the 70,000 unemployed there now have something to do.

July – It has become clear that more freighters are needed to keep up with the demand of more colonists being constantly shipped to Titan. With duranium supplies relatively steady at a solid 6kt, it is deemed a worthwhile use and the FT Southampton, third of the Fletcher II-x class, begins construction at the Tod & MacGregor. There begins to be some concern now at Fleet HQ about the sustainability of our fuel reserves, but with Machholz and Comas Sola bringing in almost 400t of sorium per year and over 10kt on earth, it’s not an immediate issue.

Sep. 16th – The Spruance-B colony ship begins construction, which will take nearly two years at the P&A Group Shipyard. It is rapidly becoming obvious that this is more of a ‘proving we can do it’ thing than something actually needed, as the civilian lines are shipping more to Titan than we can.

Sol Survey Efforts

March – The GEV Amerigo Vespucci completes the last survey for now, scanning the comet Ikeya-Zang some 14+b km out because they were ‘in the neighborhood’ at one of the more distant asteroids. Ikeya-Zang contains three minerals, the most significant is maximum-accessible corundium in the amount of over 81kt! This single-handedly more than doubles known deposits, and ensures that as the available sources elsewhere dwindle, there will be a place to go for expansion. It’s likely to be somewhere around a decade or more until Ikeya-Zang is close enough for convenient investment, but it is still quite welcome news.

It will be decades until the other three extremely distant comets is close enough to bother scanning. The top two ground survey teams are still expected to take some time to finish surveying the distant asteroids.

Mining

November – A civilian mining complex has been established on Sedna. I tell you, these corporations are ambitious! We now have the option to either buy what they produce, or tax the shipping of it. We choose to buy, as this is the richest duranium find in the system and we’re going to take as much of it as we can get our hands on. This will cost us 250k credits per year, and net us an extra 90t duranium. As we are running an annual surplus of over 13m, this is not at all a problem.

Summary

Titan now has approximately 270,000 citizens at year’s end, and more mines than they can operate. With corporate shipping booming there and elsewhere(i.e., Sedna), there is the first glimmer of hope for the unemployed on Earth, now numbering over 102 million. The growth is slowing, but it’s still rising at 12.46%. Ground survey efforts continue, with 57 of 64 completed.

Mining Report

Earth(220S/31A) – 6.48 kt annual yield, 19.4 efficiency
Machholz(0S/27.6A) – 2.17 kt, 63 eff.
Comas Sola(0S/10.2A) – 827 t, 65 eff.
Wolf-Harrington(0S/9.8A) – 689 t, 67 eff.
Venus(0S/6A) – 172 t, 24 eff.
Sedna(1 CMC) – 90t, 9 eff.
Reinmuth(0S/1.8A) – 88 t, 47 eff.
Schaumasse(0S/1.8A) – 72 t, 36 eff.
Titan(5S/0A) – 16 t, 6 eff.

Duranium – 5.7 kt stockpiled, 2.089 kt annual yield
Neutronium – 2.85 kt, 480 t yield
Corundium – 604 t, 460 t yield
Sorium – 10.13 kt, 426 t yield

Earth’s fuel reserves are at 27.5 million litres and still growing a bit. Long-term sorium is a concern and the refineries consume 790t a year, so it’s definitely in our interest to keep growing the amount of that we produce. As for the others, we could use twice as much duranium as we are currently producing, and 70% of what we are getting still comes from the dwindling deposits on earth. Neutronium is actually pretty decent for what we need, and we are still ‘catching up’ to the corundium reserves with only about six months supply for converting mines left now.

[Brian Swartz]

With the shift from surveying to shipping as a priority, and a couple of new commanders, there is a mass reassignment of commands that will occur early in 2047.

Lt. Cmdr. Benton Gale II – 10th out of 53
Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. – 10th out of 17, still CO of the ST Marengo
Lt. Cmdr. Hannah Shepard – 3rd, unassigned since the end of her geology assignment.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen Jr. – 11th

Brig. Gen Path Twelve – 6th out of 6
Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone – 3rd
Mag. Gen. Sterling Silvers – Still the only MG.

Sonny Dean(2) – Governor of Titan, a rather high-visibility role and a definitive place in history.
James Earl Jones V(4) – Still unassigned.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer – Work continues on improving mining production, with results expected in the fall of this year.
Joe Tycho – Nothing ...

http://i.imgur.com/IUH3SDt.png (http://imgur.com/IUH3SDt)

This shows the numbered potential jump point locations, with most of the labels taken off so they can be seen reasonably well.

[Tellistto]

Just in case you weren't aware of it. It's very beneficial to send your best survey team, say over 130 total skill, to the biggest moons and planets that your survey ships whiffed on. They actually do have a shot at finding minerals that your ships missed.

As I said, though, try to do it with all of your best survey minds in one team. Better score means better chances, from what I've read.

I've also seen it happen, as well.

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

I've seen it stated on the Aurora forums that this was changed and skill only affects speed, not chance of finding minerals, a major version or two back. Either way, I don't see a difference between the Rater team(best of the three) and what the others have found so far. Do you have a source for this that I'm not aware of(i'd definitely like to change a bit if there's something going on different from what I've been told).

Also, I have a question for everyone to weigh in on. On the Aurora boards an opinion has been voiced about colonizing Mars and Luna. My perspective on this has been that there's little reason to do so -- i.e. they have no resources and so it would be a negative from a colonization point of view, there would be much higher unemployment there than on earth because there's nothing for the manufacturing sector(approx. 50% of a new colony's population, then it shrinks with time as the service sector grows) to do. The only way around this is of course to ship a bunch of factories/resources/etc. and have them build things there, which is a waste of resources and takes jobs off of Earth.

Others there have argued that the pioneer spirit, desire for a better life, do it because you can, etc. would drive people to want to expand this way. This isn't an argument from a 'game strategy' perspective, I'm playing this driven by RP.

So what do you all think? Should SPACE open the door to colonizing Mars/Luna by getting infrastructure in place and then get out of the way and let the civilians do what they want? Not go because it's a waste? Prioritize these as a major effort? Consult the bones(i.e., let the RNG decide?

What say you? I'm not going to hold up game time progress for this, but I am definitely open to 'changing course' -- there's that election thingy coming up again in a couple of years after all ...

[sterlingice]

I'm not really in favor of it at all. Yes, I appreciate the role playing aspect of the game but this game also seems unforgiving in terms of difficulty. It's a meta-fictional answer but, really, I think we sound like we're already behind the 8-ball mineral-wise with only the comets to mine. To me, it's completely stupid to waste what little we have traipsing around our solar system and making unemployment worse for no gain at all.

Is there any possible benefit to doing this? I mean, I don't know if there are other aliens in the game (tho I kindof expect there to be) and I don't think I want to as I prefer no spoilers. However, the only miniscule benefit I can see is having yet another place for humanity to hide, should we be in a fight, but it would be somewhere with no usable minerals and would literally just be a lifeboat. We've got Titan to satisfy the pioneer spirit. If other companies want to colonize and make Luna Park, by all means, but it's stupid for SPACE to do it.

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Two benefits: colonies with lower population get higher population growth(more workers, not exactly an issue right now). The second is that we make money from taxing commercial shipping(money is also a complete non-issue right now). Both of those could potentially be important in the future, particularly if we find some great worlds to colonize(if we manage to explore other systems and if there are places worth settling that we find, etc).

There's absolutely nothing we would get from it that is important to SPACE right now.

[Tellistto]

I've seen it stated on the Aurora forums that this was changed and skill only affects speed, not chance of finding minerals, a major version or two back. Either way, I don't see a difference between the Rater team(best of the three) and what the others have found so far. Do you have a source for this that I'm not aware of(i'd definitely like to change a bit if there's something going on different from what I've been told).

I only spoke of it because I've seen it happen. I've taken to sending my best team to Jupiter and Saturn moons before sending them to the inner circel, after my ships have done the surveys out there. My teams find, albeit rarely, minerals that ships didn't find.

They might not be super veins or the like, but any minerals is better than no minerals.

I don't recall exactly where I got that idea, but it was on the Aurora forums, likely in the tutorial section in one of those threads.

Tell

[Coffee Warlord]

Apparently the Nielsen family fell on hard times after Nielsen Sr was kicked out of the Navy and went rogue.

[Coffee Warlord]

In my opinion, one should establish a long term plan for (reasonably) sustainable mineral exploitation before worrying about colonizing less useful places.

Hell, it's even fitting for an RP perspective - why are we establishing colonies that can contribute nothing to our immediate expansion? When we are comfortable with our resource production, then we can allow our pioneers to fill every available corner of space with Humanity - Earth's limited resources right now should be put to use gaining more resources, not trying to establish commercial goals - particularly when we have no commerce (due to, ding, no resources!)

[Brian Swartz]

Interestingly, the debate is breaking down along board lines: FOFC is anti-colonization, Aurora is pro-colonization. What this likely means is that the next elections will involve politicians being politicians and looking for a compromise solution that everybody can live with.

Edit: and thanks for the info Tell, that makes me lean towards two teams, with the better one being sent to potentially richer locations and the weaker one to small asteroid type finds. I think the only thing we found so far was some millions of 0.1-accessible Uridium on one of the moons that I don't even plan on exploiting at this point, so not a huge thing.

[Brian Swartz]

2047

Mining

January – Earth had over 30 mines sitting ready, and with Comas Sola inside Jupiter orbit and Crommelin incoming at a little over 1b km, it was time to get a few of them moving. The goal at this point is to get Comas Sola up to 20 mines, then put at least that many on Crommelin. The Hercules kept making shipments to Titan, while the Venus switched to comet duty.

August – It’s uncertain how he’s done it, but reports from Comas Sola indicate that the recent mining investment is paying off even better than expected. Gov. Herman Fox has found some revolutionary technique to dramatically increase productivity(Mining Bonus up to 35%, by far the best among SPACE officials). At around the same time, with 20+ active mines on the comet, focus switched to first development on Crommelin, now just under a billion kilometers away. By the end of the month, the latest mass driver was active there. Alberto Eighmy received his first job as the governor at Crommelin ...

Commissioned Officers

February – The Navy has it’s first new captain in roughly a decade, as Commander Lucas Marini, long with the Lief Ericson, has been promoted. He’ll be the new Public Operations officer, with Sammie Sreaves moving over to Operations.

Benton Gale II is among this year’s dismissed officers.

Late March – A significant medical problem for Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone. At 49, this brings into question how long she will be able to continue to serve ...

July – Upon returning to earth for a couple months of shore leave after completing the most recent tour with the ST Marengo, Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. is reassigned to the ST Valencia. This is basically a demotion, as he’ll now be shuttling around the occasional VIP. He’s a bit fortunate in a way though, the lowest Commander on the totem pole to still have a command ...

October 1 – Sonny Dean’s financial leadership has improved(Wealth Creation+10%).

October – Deacon Palmer’s admin rating is irrelevantly up to 7(only Bavaro’s is higher).

Earth

February 20 – Another research lab is completed, making it an even dozen now, and becomes the fifth assigned to Dr. Bravo’s work on gravitational survey sensors.

March 25 – The FT Southampton is set for duty. It heads out for Comas Sola immediately, and the fourth Fletcher II-x(the FT Custer) is begun.

Research & Development

March 23 – Dr. Clint Wyche’s team has completed research on increased fuel efficiency, another 10% improvement has been made. With the amount of traveling the freighters are doing, a new engine with this technology is a priority for them of course, and Wyche sets to work on that.

June 30 – Gravitational Survey Sensors research is complete. As much as it is desired to get a ship going for the next ‘acid test’, surveying the potential jump point locations, it was only sensible to wait a bit with a new more fuel-efficient engine underway. Bravo agreed to allow Wyche’s team to use his considerable allotment of research space to speed up the project,
allowing it to be completed less than three weeks later on July 18th.

An interesting side effect of this was that the research community appears to have galvanized more completely behind Director-Governor Duling(Pol. Reliability up to 25%, highest we’ve seen for a politician so far). More importantly though, a fourth in the Fletcher freighter variant was designed(the II-xe) and refits scheduled to begin as soon as possible(the Custer won’t be finished until early next year). The more efficient engines allow them to carry less fuel(700k liters instead of the previous 800k for the same 2-year duration).

Even more noteworthy was of course the finalizing of the Coontz class of Gravitational Survey Vessel. Only one is planned, since that is plenty to survey the 30 jump locations and it will have no purpose once that mission is completed. It is very similar in size to the Essex, 2250 tons which is well within the 3k capacity at Wartsila. It requires a choice crew of 32 for which there will undoubtedly be fierce competition, and is among the fastest ships yet designed, just a hair slower than the Lexington-II transports at 1377 km/s.

Construction of humanity’s first ship to be classified military-grade began immediately, expected to take just under 8 months. The GSV Hopeful(somebody slap those beauracrats for this name) will be a highly sought-after post.

One of the labs was re-allocated to the Pebble Bed Reactor project, with the remaining five staying with the jump point tree of research. The next priority was working on the ‘jump engines’ themselves, which required three specific aspects of design. These are efficiency(higher efficiency means the same size engine can allow a larger ship to navigate a jump point), squadron size(number of ships that can jump simultaneously with the use of a single jump engine), and jump radius(how close squadron mates must be to the ‘jump ship’ itself). With Ignacio Bavaro again heading up the team, jump radius as the easiest of the three projects was begun.

September 23 – Pioneer Deacon Palmer has made a report on groundbreaking research that will improve the output of all mines(automated or standard) by 20% instantly! This is a huge development. He’ll next turn his attention to hopefully improving the efficiency of our refineries ...

It’s become clear that more transports are needed to shuttle all the VIPs/politicans around to the various mining colonies and for other potential purposes. The plan at this point is to use the Lexington II’s which are plenty fast and have more than enough range, and finish the mothballed third commercial yard to use for the purpose of building a few more, then scrapping the original Lexington’s. This will basically erase the small increases in the neutronium stockpile that have been achieved the past few years.

SUMMARY

The last few months of the year were pretty quiet. Titan continues to grow, now at about 610k total population. Almost 250k of those are needed to take care of the food and environmental needs. Steady but slow investment due to the distance of Crommelin continues, a little over six mines operational now. With the year’s mining advances, the supply of corundium is now sufficient to convert almost ten mines per year, a nearly acceptable rate. At the same time, Machholz(one of the better duranium sources) will exterminate it’s supply in about a decade. Hopping from moderate source to moderate source is a losing game over time, and while it’s necessary for the time being, it will become less effective and more expensive as time goes on.

[Brian Swartz]

2048

Everybody in the know at SPACE knew this year would be defined by the jump point surveys ...

Jump Point Survey Efforts

March 28th – The GSV Hopeful clears the Wartsila docks. Less than a week later Cmdr. Chong Vaugh arrives, transferring to the ship and handing over command of the FT Southampton. He’s an experienced officer, graduating the Academy in ‘42 and since has been at the helm of the freighters Victoria, Venus, and now the Southampton. This
experience and his convenient proximity to Earth at the time earn him this command over the more talented, younger Gregorio Granberg who is at this moment near Titan.

April 1st – April Fool’s day is no laughing matter as the GSV Hopeful sets course for Jump Point #6, the next one ‘ahead’ of Saturn in it’s orbit. It will then head to 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 in turn, completing the circuit of the inner ring before heading further outsystem. It was a journey of just over two billion kilometers, and would take two and a half weeks.

April 18, 7:05 AM – The Hopeful arrived on station and began scanning the jump point location. They soon reported back that the scan itself would take another week or so, according to the onboard computer.

April 26, 4:00 PM – Just moments after the turning of the hour, the Hopeful had some rather unhopeful news: there was no active singularity at Jump Point #6, and they were proceeding to #5. Although disappointing, we had been told that most of them would like not contain active possibilities. Still, until one is found, there is a sense of worry about the validity of the entire exercise.

May 21, 7:44 PM – Another report from the Hopeful ... success! A jump point has been found, and it has also been discovered that it is closer than anticipated ... inside Jupiter orbit!

Scientists are not certain why it is so far from it’s expected location, speculating only about the unpredictable nature of space-time. But the evidence cannot be denied that it exists, the scanners test gravitational anomalies dozens of different ways to verify all aspects of the space-time
distortion. The jump point is a mere 737m km away from the sun at a bearing of 216.

While the survey proceeds, Director-Governor Duling put the apparatus of SPACE in motion. Operation Uncertain Hope was a go. The next step was probably the most intimidating and certainly the most demanding from a resource point of view. It was expected that the required technology to build a functional jump engine would be ready by 2050, and everything else needed to be prepared.

Uncertain Hope was the(rather cheesy) name given to the design and deployment of a new class dubbed the Pioneer (with apologies to Dr. Palmer). The mission was astounding: to explore a jump point and whatever system lay beyond it. The specifications were considerable. Assuming it worked, the ship would emerge in a star system of which we would have only the vaguest knowledge from long-range telescopes. It would need to be prepared for anything, including an extended duration of stay to make vital recordings of whatever was found.

Geosurvey and gravsurvey suites would be essential to scan both for any further jump points in the new system and test for any resource deposits. In addition, equivalently sized thermal and electromagnetic passive sensors would need to be designed and built. Nobody knows what’s out there, and all possible information would be needed. The vessel would need fuel-efficient engines capable of reaching a reasonable speed – if not, it might find itself in a paradise but be too far away to discover it. This would also be an espescially long-term mission, with the commander given authority to explore as far as may be deemed necessary and/or fruitful. A 5-year commitment would be required from commander and crew for extended traveling, which in turn would imply substantial fuel reserves. And of course it would need a ‘jump engine’ large enough to open a wormhole for all of this vital equipment to navigate the jump. Engineers estimated such a ship would need to be multiple times larger than the current survey ships, probably at least 6000-6500 tons, and possibly as large as 10,000. Wartsila set to work immediately expanding from the current capacity of 3000, which clearly would be absurdly inadequate to the task. There could be no doubt the cost would be considerable, but was there really a choice? Multiple research projects would be required to prototype the optimal components. There was much to be done ... and hope seemed to shine a bit brighter with the pursuit of a challenging and potentially rewarding goal.

Two of three ‘regular path’ projects that were using multiple labs had one each taken from them to allow these prototype instruments to be designed. Clint Wyche(EM 5-3 Sensor Suite), Elwood Tousaint(TH 5-3 Sensor Suite) headed up the new teams. A new engine would be needed as well but that was best kept until the completion of some of the efficiency-related research that is presently ongoing. Tousaint has never headed up a project before, and is not the most skilled for the job, but as the only scientist SPACE has yet produced with a talent for Sensors & Fire Control, it is hoped he will improve through this experience.

Early September – The inner-most of the three circles of potential jump point locations has been completed: only the one has been found to contain an active jump point. The GSV Hopeful has been underway for just under five months, and moves out to begin investigating the second circle.

October 24th – Another confirmed jump point by the GSV Hopeful! This one is at a distance of 3.6b km, bearing 304. That places it squarely between Uranus and Neptune orbits, some five times further than the first one. For the time being these are known simply as Jump Point Alpha and Jump Point Bravo, respectively. An interesting, if probably coincidental, fact is that Bravo is nearly exactly the same distance from Alpha as it is from the sun itself.

Fleet Operations

January 11 – The FT Custer clears the Tod & MacGregor Yard, which immediately readies to install the new engines on the freighters. That work will begin later this year.

June 22nd – The FT Hercules returns to earth for shore leave, and is the first to undergo the refitting process to the new, more efficient II-xe model. It’s a four-month process, costing about half as much as a new ship for each. That’s a pretty penny to spend on some relatively minor upgrades, but HQ deems it worth it for using 11% less fuel.

June 28th – In a highly embarassing miscalculation, the FT Victoria under the command of Cmdr. Jon McElveen comes up about a week short of Earth, having run out of fuel. The ship is a relic at this point and is probably nearing the end of it’s useful service, but the FT Custer is less than two weeks away and inbound, and it is retasked with getting the
Victoria enough fuel to finish the journey.

July 9th – Refueling mission is complete, and the Victoria is back underway.

July 13th – The first official colony ship(the corporations have already built five of them) is finished. Dubbed the CS New Beginnings, it sets out to take it’s first 50,000 colonists to Titan, which is nearing a million now. The P&A Group Shipyard retools for the Lexington II class, and at the same time works on scrapping the Vega and Valencia. They’ve served well, but
their time is up.

August 9th – The ST Vega and ST Valencia have been scrapped on Earth.

October 20th – The FT Hercules becomes the first of the freighters to be refitted. The Venus, already a month into it’s allotted shore leave which will now be extended significantly, takes the next spot.

Earth

May -- The factories have ‘caught up’ with the corundium supply. The rate of conversion would need to be indexed to the available supply being produced, which right now is a little over a dozen per year – except that’s about how fast the 11.7 million workers assigned to the task are able to convert them anyway. The supply has caught up with production just in time

September -- Construction begins on a few more mass drivers to ensure enough are available for the next round of comet-based mining colonies.

Commissioned Officers

The ongoing commander carousel continues and Tell Perj Jr. is assigned now to the Leif Ericson, which means he basically sits in drydock waiting for one of the comets to come closer(McNaught-Russell is some 21+b km away, so it’s a guessing game whether he’d retire by the time it became useful to scan it).

March – Sonny Dean has developed a long-term medical condition ...

April – Indirectly due to deployment of the GSV Hopeful, Tell Perj Jr. gets his first freighter command, taking over at the helm of the Southampton ..

Research & Development

March 3rd – Ignacio Bavaro’s team completes research into Maximum Jump Radius(50k km). The base level for squadron size is three ships, and that’s their next project. However, Sanko Matar, the best propulsion scientist alive today, switches to take over at this point with Bavaro taking over his work on reduced-power engine technology.

May – Santo Makar research skill is up to 45%, accelerating progress on the jump engine projects. Meanwhile, the factories on earth and pumping out more than ever before thanks to Herbert Duling’s supervision(increases Factory Production to 10%).

June – A 13th research lab is completed and assigned to one of the existing projects that recently lost space(Pebble Bed Reactor).

December 1st – The next step has been unveiled by Dr. Santo Makar, who has completed research into Jump Drive – Maximum Squadron Radius. The most important jump drive technology, efficiency, is up next and will take until late summer next year.

December 5th – Our first thermal sensor, the TH 5-3 Sensor Suite, has been successfully prototyped by Dr. Clint Wyche’s team. Only after the project was completed was it discovered a clerical error had been made in the blueprints: the intended size was 250 tons, these are 150-ton sensors. Back to the drawing board for Dr. Wyche. A similar mistake had been made on the electromagnetic sensors, and work on that prototype was canceled in favor of the desired size there as well.

Colonial Developments

August 1st – Crommelin is up to 20 mines, and shipping efforts briefly switch to Comas Sola which is on close approach again, upping the prescence there to 25. That was a quick effort, completed by late August, and it was then time for the next phase of comet exploitation.

Corundium is no longer considered the most critical mineral, with duranium still depleting rapidly on earth and mine conversions sustainable at a passable rate. With that in mind, the comet Borrelly was next on the agenda at less than 700m km and incoming. Van Biesbroeck, Neujmin, and Stephan-Oterma are incoming after it, so there are plenty of targets.

Mid-August – The CS New Beginnings unloaded it’s 50,000 colonists and headed back to Earth.

September 20th – The mass driver on Borrelly has been activated, under the leadership of newly appointed Governor Carroll Westcott. SPACE has now run out of people to appoint who have any notable mining skill, and is just taking the best administrators available to put in charge of the colonies. Hopefully they’ll learn.

September 23rd – A bizarre but positive report arrives from Sedna, the second-to-last of the geological surveys to be ordered. Immediately after being dropped off, the Rater team reported a large deposit of uridum(almost 180k, fairly good accessibility at 0.7) and that there was no use spending any more time there. A rock that size(1600 km diameter, about a seventh that of earth) and they only needed hours to find that much and conclude there was nothing left to find? Bizarre, and they head off to the Ikeya-Zang comet next for the ‘final’ survey for the time being, but the civilian complex there will now be sending us uridium as well.

Figures that it’s the mineral we need least – the uridium stockpile on Earth is over 35kt, by far our most plenteous, and has very limited use(not a gram is currently requisitioned for any ongoing project). They might as well have told us they found a treasure trove of quartz or pumice, for all that good it would do. Actually, those we might have been able to sell.

Mid-October – The team originally known as the JupSat geology team, led by Dr. Brandon Grimmett, has completed it’s final survey and is headed back to Earth.

December 14th – The JupSat(Brandon Grimmett) Geology Team arrives back at Earth and is disbanded. Meanwhile, the Vega II and Valencia II transports are completed at the Tod & MacGregor, and a third pair is begun.

[Brian Swartz]

I think the annual updates are getting too long and technical/recitation of events as it were. I'm thinking of either making them shorter time frames or summarizing more, or maybe both. Any ideas would be welcomed.

[Brian Swartz]

2049 Election

Term limits strike again and Herbert Duling is ineligible to run again. There are plenty of qualified candidates though in a crowded field. India Rakes, Governor of Machholz and Venus before that, has nearly a decade of experience and has finished second to Duling in the past two elections, last time in a close one. Also returning from ‘45 is Herman Fox, experienced as a comet governor and a successful one, maximizing outputs on Comas Sola after a term at Schaumasse.

Three new candidates have also emerged. Damian Ackley is an industrial and sociological genius and has done competently at Schaumasse to increase his mining acumen, the well-rounded skills of Alberto Eighmy(governor of Crommelin) are well known to anyone, and despite his limitations, the post as leader of humanity’s first human colony at Titan makes [/b]Sonny
Dean[/b] a long-shot candidate as well.

India Rakes’ combination of skill, wit, and experience was enough to earn her the victory as expected. What was less than expected is how well Ackley did(24.4% to Rakes’ 27%) and how poorly Fox(20.8%) and Eighmy(14.9%) did compared to their expectations going in. Dean was credible for a first election with 12.9% to round out the field.

Policy Review

Every new administration will tweak this a bit, adjust that a bit, but this transition was more noteworthy than most. Public pressure and debate about freeing up colonization opportunities was growing, and starting to become a real issue – the kind of issue a successful politician needs to get out in front of. The view of the corporations had been made more than clear in their rush to Titan. Additionally, the mineral crisis has mostly abated. Corundium production is at a rate sufficient to convert over a dozen mines a year for the next 12-15 years or more, which would be enough transform almost all the existing mines on earth. And even at current levels, duranium supply is nearly equal to it’s demand. Within a few years, the MRD(Ministry of Resource Development) estimates SPACE will have the very welcome decision of how best to invest a surplus.

Incoming Director Rakes boldly declared humanity to be entering a new phase, wherein we would no longer consider ourselves citizens of earth, but members of an interplanetary republic. The most striking of the proposals was her 2% Initiative. Beginning immediately, 2% of the annual duranium yield would be dedicated to building infrastructure for colonizing habitable but unsettled worlds that were not deemed to serve a strategic human interest. SPACE would provide the initial survey and governmental basics, while providing whatever equipment needed for an starting settlement of 100,000 colonists. An additional shipment of half that number of volunteers would be provided if needed, but beyond that it would be up to each colony and corporate shipping to take over the rest, and they would grow or stagnate depending on what the market determined.

For 2049, that meant 52 infrastrucure would be dedicated to the task, more than enough to get basic supplies to the obvious two first choices, Luna and then Mars. A combination of habitability, distance, and any available mineral resources would be the criteria used to determine what would be settled first.

Coinciding with the 2% Initiative was a plan to expand the Army for the purpose of basic police protection in the colonies. Anytime a colony reaches a million civilians strong, it was deemed proper for a basic force to be sent there. Unfortunately, we lack the capability to do this at the moment, so researching a means to transport a battalion to various worlds has been deemed a research priority.

It was also noted that fuel reserves have stagnated and are beginning to decline. There is no immediate danger with approximately 26m liters available, but with new ships being contemplated and built and Earth just months away from depleting the sorium deposits, the situation is not going to get better on its own. Accordingly, development of a way to harvest to sorium in Saturn’s atmosphere, thereby making full use of the Titan colony, has also become a research priority.

It is expected that civilian administrators will continue to see increased opportunities with new colonies sure to form with this plan. Both types of military officers are also expected to be in higher demand over time, though the research career path remains crowded as progress on building new laboratory complexes continues, but at a painfully slow rate.

Key Governor’s Assignments

As is SPACE policy, the top votegetters in the election get the most prestigious/developed posts.

** Frmr. Dir. Herbert Duling – Titan
** Damian Ackley – Machholz
** Herman Fox – Comas Sola
** Alberto Eighmy – Crommelin
** Sonny Dean – Wolf-Harrington

[Brian Swartz]

Current Naval Assets

After nearly a quarter-century, Space has several active classes of vessels, with more on the way.

Coontz
Role: Gravitational Survey
Size: 2,250 tons
Crew: 32
Maximum Speed: 1377 km/s
Range: 81.7b km
Ships: GSV Hopeful

Essex II-x
Role: Geological Survey
Size: 2,200 tons
Crew: 35
Maximum Speed: 1136 km/s
Range: 71.9b km
Ships: GSV Leif Ericson, GSV Amerigo Vespucci

** Both vessels are essentially now glorified shuttles, with only three comets remaining to be surveyed and none for decades.

Fletcher
Role: Freighter
Size: 19,400 tons
Crew: 41
Max. Speed: 257 km/s
Range: 2.7b km
Ships: FT Victoria

** Obsolete, but still helpful.

Fletcher II-x
Role: Freighter
Size: 36,350 tons
Crew: 105
Max. Speed: 515 km/s
Range: 33.2b km
Ships: FT Venus, FT Southampton, FT Custer

** The Venus is currently refitting to the more efficient II-xe variant

Fletcher II-xe
Role: Freighter
Size: 36,150 tons
Crew: 100
Max. Speed: 518 km/s
Range: 32.8b km
Ships: FT Hercules

Lexington II
Role: Shuttle Transport
Size: 1,800 tons
Crew: 20
Max. Speed: 1388 km/s
Range: 43.9b km
Ships: ST Wayne, ST Marengo, ST Vega II, ST Valencia II

** The Lexington-II remains the fastest ship developed to date. Two more are currently being constructed to bring the total to six vessels soon.

Spruance-B
Role: Colony Ship
Size: 19,650 tons
Crew: 110
Max. Speed: 501 km/s
Range: 33b km
Ships: CS New Beginnings

** The New Beginnings is the most expensive ship constructed to date, costing nearly 730,000 credits and requiring just shy of 22 months to build.

Overview

In all, the SPACE Navy currently fields 13 ships weighing 198.1kt and requiring a combined 3.74m liters of fuel storage capacity. 748 crew are required at any one time to serve on these vessels.

[Brian Swartz]

Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. – 11th out of 18. At 30 years of age, it does not appear that Tell will progress much further up the command tree, but he’s certainly made a success of himself. Of late, he has one of the freighter commands with the Southampton for the last nine months.
Lt. Cmdr. Hannah Shepard – 2nd out of 53. One of the top lieutenant commanders since her survey assignment ended over three years ago, she is overdue for a promotion and initial command. At this point, it is possible it may never come.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen Jr. – 10th

Brig. Gen. Path Twelve – 6th out of 6
Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone – 3rd
Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers – 1st. With the 2% Initiative, he will be responsible for units not just on earth but on multiple colonies as well in the coming years.

Sonny Dean(2) – A fortunate assignment on Titan has come to the end, and Sonny is now the governor of the Wolf-Harrington comet.
James Earl Jones V(4) – Can only be glad that politicans don’t get fired for being ‘surplus to requirements’. With colonization beginning to ramp up, he has a decent chance to be given an actual assignment.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer – Researching ways to improve the output of fuel refineries.
Joe Tycho – Standing around with his thumb ... yeah, just standing around.

[Tellistto]

I do not mind your length of posts. I've not been bored by them as of yet, either. So, that's my .02.

Too bad my guy hasn't gotten any crew training skill pops. That seems to be the real ticket to higher command levels.

Tell

[sterlingice]

If you really feel like breaking it up, go for either shorter time frames or do it by "headlines" - like Jump Point Survey would be one post, Fleet Ops would be its own (mainly because of the fuel gaffe), Colonial Developments would be one, and then Earth/Comm Oficers/R&D would get one together. And pick whichever is the biggest headline- so if the jump points play into another story, make sure to lead with it.

There's not a lot of exterraneous details- I find myself trying to pick apart most things except maybe the Comm Officers- but I think each person is looking for "their character". I think you have just the right level of detail.

Also, boo on the 2% Initiative. I guess the Aurora board won instead of us micromanaging min/maxers here :p

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Re: the 2% Initiative, I guess you could say they won but not really, they didn't get what they wanted either(massive investment). It just seemed to me to be the kind of thing a smart politician would do, i.e. try to make everybody as happy as possible without really having to do all that much. Does earth lose much by investing a relatively small amount of fuel and 1/50th of their duranium? We'll find out but seemed a win-win to me. Not that it's going to make everybody happy.

Also, thanks for the input, it is definitely appreciated. I want to keep this worth participating in for all involved, so it's beneficial for me to bounce things off the wall everyone once in a while, so to speak.

[Brian Swartz]

Employment update: No FOFC characters were among the 17 dismissed officers in the year's employment terminations.

[Brian Swartz]

2049 ANNUAL REPORT

Overview

The launching of the 2% Initiative led to the first equipment being offloaded onto Mars and Luna in the first weekend of February, with the Southampton(Tell Perj Jr.) handling the Mars trips and the Hercules(Jay Cin III) taking care the Luna duty. James Earl Jones V was installed as the governor of Luna(now just a five-minute trip from Earth), while it was one of the original four SPACE political appointees, 45-year-old Terrence Forson, who got his first official assignment on the ‘red planet’. The civilians got the first shipment of colonists onto the moon in less than a week, while the CS New Beginnings got involved to jumpstart Mars, then the private sector took over there as well. That’s now a trip of two to four days each way, depending on where the planets are in their respective orbits.

Within a month, the convoys to Titan had virtually stopped, leading to a number of untimely deaths as infrastructure did not keep up with the growing population for a few weeks until matters balanced themselves out again. Not a serious loss in the grand scheme of things, but you can’t tell that to the victims’ families. The 2% Initiative gained a few small, but very vocal, critics due to the scandal. As it was resolved quickly and far more were quite happy with their new homes, at least initially, it was expected the matter would blow over ...

As all of this was going on, the GSV Hopeful identified a new jump point, designated Charlie. This one is slightly closer than Bravo, and on the opposite side of the sun, 3.2b km away bearing 104. There are three more locations to survey before the Hopeful moves to the outer ring.

In just over a quarter, the moon eclipsed Titan with one and a half million colonists! The rush was insane – even the most optimistic backers were surprised at how earnest the desire was to settle the barren rock. That was early July, and by the end of the month two new shipping corporations(Everton Shipping & Logistics, and three weeks later Presnar Freight) had been formed. As is SPACE policy, no subsidizing was countenanced. They will succeed or fail on their own.

As if that wasn’t enough, July also featured an unprecedented discovery by the Hopeful. In the final survey of the middle ring of jump locations, not one but two were found in close proximity! The scientific community is puzzled, as they did not think this was even possible.

Delta is the closest jump point other than Alpha, 2.68b km and a bearing of 25, inside Uranus orbit. Just outside that orbit is Epsilon, 3.1b km at a bearing of 31. The two are just 519m km away from each other, a fact that could prove to be of considerable importance in the future. The Hopeful proceeded out to the Kuiper Belt for the final ring of a dozen locations ...

From a fleet perspective, the bustle of the last few years quieted down considerably in the fall. With all four of the large freighters refit to the II-xe class, the Victoria was scrapped and shipping had caught up with production of mines on Earth. Additionally, with survey operations complete, there just wasn’t much left to do. A new mine will be sent off to Titan(when population permits) or a comet(when a new automated one is converted about once a month), but other than that it is very quiet.

Colonial Developments

Two new comets were added to remote mining operations this year. On January 9 the mass driver on Neujmin was activated(Derek Latch dispatched as governor) and on July 12(more stuff happening in a crazy-busy month) the one on Vanbiesbroeck, a near-perfect job for Delois Woznicki(see bio in the next section of this year’s report) to cut her teeth on.

Machholz depleted it’s supply of vendarite early in February, a nearly complete non-event than nobody cares about. By Thanksgiving, the Hopeful was headed back to Earth for shore leave, needing refueling and some time off before scanning the final eight locations.

Colony populations at year’s end:

Earth – 870m
Luna – 3.26m
Titan – 1.81m
Mars – 1.45m

Three-quarters of a percent of the population now lives somewhere other than Earth ...

Commissioned Officers

January 29 – I think he heard you – Tell Perj Jr. increases training skill to 75 ...

February 11 – For the first time in several years, Pioneer Deacon Palmer has made a major personal breakthrough. His C&P experitise rises from 25% to 35%. No other C&P scientist is higher than 15%.

March 1 – A new political star on the rise officially joins SPACE – Delois Woznicki. Genius-level ability in mining, espionage, and shipbuilding to go along with strong political skills(only Duling is better) and industrial production. The only thing she needs is experience. Unfortunately for her, just days before the Mars appointment had already been made.

Mid-May – Col. Ray Hoel becomes the best army officer to be produced by the Academy since top-ranking colonel Anton Engelhardt over four years ago. Hoel is expected to take command of one of the infantry battalions when the current tour is up in 2051.

June – Alberto Eighmy’s political connections have increased(20%), continuing to demonstrate that he’ll be a serious challenger in the decades to come.

In December, long-term medical problems surfaced for Lt. Cmdr. Hannah Shepard and Dr. Joe Tycho. The 31-year-old Shepard in particular has been a hard-luck case, right at the top of the Lieutenant Commander list for years since her survey assignment ended, on multiple occasions the next-in-line to receive her own command. Every time she’s been surpassed by some new hotshot recruit, sometimes weeks before an opportunity opened up.
She’s still got a couple of years left to get her break, but seems stalled and this won’t help her.

Research & Development

February saw the arrival of more good news from the Jump Theory Team. Dr. Santo Makar’s expertise is growing by leaps and bounds. His specialized skill is up to 55%, nearly now the equal of Ignacio Bavaro (60% in Energy Weapons). The difference is that Power & Propulsion is a much more useful field to us. It is not an exaggeration to say he is now our most important researcher, and will likely remain so after this phase of development is completed.

** July 24 -- Jump Drive Efficiency(4) was completed. Squadron Size is the final of the three jump engine projects, a report currently anticipated in early spring of next year.
** September 25 -- 30% Engine Power(higher-efficiency) completed(Ignacio Bavaro). Cedrick Wormack(Troop Transport Bays) takes over the space.
** October 26 – TH 5-5 Sensor Suite(thermal sensors) work finished(Clint Wyche). Sorium Harvesting Module gets the additional space.

Earth

For the second year in a row there is news on April Fool’s Day: Sorium is depleted. At current supply levels, we are now producing half of what we refine each year and will be able to sustain current refinery output for 20-25 years before seeing a dropoff. In five years’ time, uridium will(irrelevantly) be the next mineral to be depleted. In less than two decades, only vendarite and tritanium will remain on our homeworld.

Two days later, the ST Sussex and ST Starlight are finished at the P&A Group, and a final pair of Lexington-II’s begun.

April 29 – A third commercial shipyard, dubbed the Vickers-Armstrong Shipyard, is finished in orbit at Earth. New slipways will be added immediately, with the goal of taking over the role that the P&A Group currently is filling, the ability to construct multiple small vessels at once to fill accessory roles. Another commercial yard is immediately begun, as Director Rakes wants to plan ahead for the future as much as possible at this point. It will not always be obvious ahead of time when a new shipyard will be needed: this one will serve as a buffer of sorts. Also, the few remaining conventional factories that were set to be converted to refineries have that work restarted: nothing has been done in the last decade or so with other priorities, but it has been deemed time to finish it now. Earth now has six ongoing industrial projects.

Mid-July – The shipyards all benefit from the experience of Director Rakes, who has become more adept at certain personnel matters, resulting in faster operations.(5% Shipbuilding Bonus).

July 20 – The ST Hipparchus and ST Endymion are finished on Earth, completing the current set of shuttles at eight.

October -- Another research lab has been finished, and Shanon Pateson’s first project is to begin work on a Sorium Harvester module, the goal of which is to find a way to extract sorium from the atmosphere of gas giants such as Saturn. She’s just there to lay some groundwork, a more experience researcher will be taking over the project down the road.

November 20 – Refinery conversions are complete on Earth. Between the remaining 250+ conventional industry and 75 refineries, production is now over 2 million liters annually. Initial work begins on a second military-grade orbital shipyard, for the same reason that the fourth commercial yard is being built – it’s best to be prepared.

By year’s end, duranium production on Earth is under a kiloton for the first time. Over 60% of the total supply, which still gradually increased over the past year to 2.67kt, now comes from other sources.

In terms of fuel, SPACE has set a policy for production goals to be 80% of the maximum usage of the fleet, though that is less important with a huge reserve such as we have. At present the reserve has stagnated between 26-27 million litres for the last few years, though with reduced naval activity it is expected to start growing again for the next few until there is more for the ships to do. Peak operations for the current fleet year-round would consume 1.85m liters, meaning current production levels of 2.1m liters are more than enough at about 112% or so of maximum demand. A reserve of five years’ worth will be maintained, but again we are well ahead of that at 14 years worth for the moment. Right now there is clearly no urgent need, but it’s worth revisiting the fuel situation periodically to make sure we do not run out, and the long-term goal of moving refinery capacity off of Earth so as to allow the sorium there to be used for jump drives and any other purposes that may arise is still important. Nothing could potentially cripple the fleet faster than a fuel crisis, and SPACE is determined not to have one.

Sol Survey Efforts

March – The Rater team has completed it’s work on Ikeya-Zang, finding nothing. Their work is now complete.

July 25 – The last of the geology teams is disbanded on Earth, officially bringing an era to an end. It was just shy of ten years ago that the Lief Ericson was officially christened and began the surveying of the system. Though progress often seems slow, in the big picture a lot has been accomplished in a relatively very short period of time.

October 19 – Another jump point has been found, the first in the outer ring, designated Jump Point Foxtrot. That’s six now. On a bearing of 65, it is 5.1b km from the sun, or 700m km outside Neptune orbit but closer than all but the nearest Kuiper Belt objects.

Fleet Operations

February 18 – The FT Venus completes its refit, Southampton will be up next.

March 5 – The Southampton returns to earth from getting the Mars colony set up, and begins it’s turn refitting at the Tod & Macgregor. There’s nothing much for Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. to do except enjoy some R&R and ponder ... whatever for the coming months.

May 11 – The New Beginnings returns to earth and stands down, the decision having been made that there is no need to ship new colonists to Titan(which would require a lot more infrastructure being sent at SPACE expense). At almost 1.5m strong, the colony will see significant numbers added just through the natural process of life at this point.

May 18 – Fleet HQ is puzzled where the miscalculation was – a technical error on the part of the refueling crews during their last leave is expected – but it has become clear that the ST Marengo is not going to make it back to Earth on their current reserves. The Amerigo Vespucci is dispatched to make a fuel transfer immediately. It is however expected that the shuttle will be forced to drift helplessly for at least a month before they can be reached, as they are presently nearly 7b km away ...

June 21, 0800 – The Marengo runs out of fuel, and while it made excellent time, the Amerigo Vespucci is yet a little over two days away.

June 23, 1230 – The Amerigo Vespucci rendezvous is complete, and soon both vessels are on their way. An embarassing moment for the
Fleet(such as it is), but no great harm was done. There’s nothing comfortable, for certain, about running out of gas over three billion kilometers away from home.

July 3 – The Southampton(Tell Perj Jr.) is underway again, the third freighter to be refitted. The only one remaining is the Custer, whose return trip from Titan will be completed at the end of the month. For now, the Southampton will take over the duty of getting standard mines to the colony.

July 28 – FT Custer is the last to begin refitting to the II-xe variant of the Fletcher.

October – Most of the freighters and the rest of the fleet are now idle as SPACE enters a quieter time after the flurry of activity. Every couple of weeks a new mine heads to Titan aboard the Southampton or to Vanbiesbroeck on one of the other freighters, but other than that the traffic
is nearly all civilian.

November 22 – The FT Custer is the last to be refitted. The obsolete and unneeded FT Victoria is to be scrapped now.

[Brian Swartz]

2050 ANNUAL REPORT

Operation Uncertain Hope

March 9 was the most significant date this year, marking the completion of research into Jump Engine Squadron Size by Sanko Matar’s team, a significant milestone. The next step is a crucial one, specifying final capabilities for the jump engines and standard propulsion engine that the vessel will need. After poring over various options, it was determined that the upper end of the initially estimated size range was most likely, close to 10 kilotons.

Current efficiency technology requires that a military jump drive be one-quarter the size of the ship it is opening a wormhole for(civilian jump drives are also possible, but they are ten times the size and a third less efficient). There’s little point in considering a civilian drive since the sensor suites require the ship to be a classified design anyway. The MJD 50-3a will require 100 crew members to service by itself, and take considerable effort to prototype.

Also needing consideration is the fact that while there is some duranium required, the primary mineral needed to build it is sorium – almost 230 tons. This is the first industrial application of sorium to be found, and building the required ships will further drain the amount available to the refineries. The Saturn Harvesting Project just became that much more important.

Standard propulsion also needed new engines designed. The engineers estimate that there will be room for about 4kt of engines, allowing for twin 2,000-ton engines to be the most fuel efficient configuration. There was a rather lengthy discussion about how much power to shoot for, a debate that largely centered on speed vs. fuel economy. The choice was made to sacrifice some fuel for speed in this instance, given the huge distances that will need to be traveled. Making more trips to refuel would just eat up more of the reserves. The massive CNT 40-50c will be about 20% more fuel efficient than the Fletcher-class freighters, and allow for a much higher top speed which should be about 1000 km/s, possibly a little faster. This would allow for a journey across the width of a system similar in size to ours of in about four months.

Makar will head up the jump drive prototype team, with one complex reserved for the standard propulsion engine team and Dr. Ignacio Bavaro. It is expected to take about a year for these to complete, at which time the Pioneer class will be finalized. The other obstacle is expanding the Wartsila Shipyard to the required size to build it. At present, capacity is just over 6kt, so it is well on its way, but it will likely take some months, maybe even a year or two longer than the research teams. After that, retooling of the yard will be necessary before construction can begin, which is estimated to take a full two years on it’s own. There are still many uncertainties, but current estimates are that the first operational vessel is extremely unlikely to be ready before 2055, and could very well require most of the decade before it is underway. Most of the technical obstacles are in the rearview mirror though, it’s a matter of time and hard work by millions remaining before the job is completed if all goes well.

Most of the balance of the year was spent reviewing highly routine reports and in a fair degree of boredom and frustrating anticipation for Director India Rakes. A new recruit would be commissioned, another mine sent to Titan or Stephan-Oterma, the colonies continued to grow, medical issues, the occasional very minor adjustment to industrial allocations on Earth, civilian corporations produced new ships from time to time, etc., but in each case her job was only to keep the beauracratic machinery moving. The most significant development was the improvement in mining efficiency on several outposts brought about by increased skill of the civil servants. Herbert Duling, Jarrett Hugh, Carroll Westcott, Delois Woznicki, and Francesco Alborn all had noted improvements. These allowed the supply of duranium to stabilize and even(very marginally) creep higher late in the year. As for Rakes herself, she spent the time improving her political connections(20% now) to give herself a better shot at re-election. Ever the politician, as the job requires.

A few days before Christmas, on December 21, Uncertain Hope moved one step closer to completion in the year’s most significant development. Dr. Ignacio Bravo’s team completes research into the CNT-40-5c engine that will power the Pioneer class. It is also determined that the vessel will require 750k liters of fuel for its extended tours: this is a bit more than the current freighters, but a bit less than the original Fletcher II design. In about three months, the final design piece of the puzzle is expected to click into place, with all the kinks worked out of the massive jump drive.

Colonial Developments

Venus is next on the hit parade for the 2% Initiative, though it’ll take some years to get enough to set up a basic colony there, probably about five years. Mercury will be next, followed by the four habitable moons of Jupiter. Initial deliveries result in no activity, as expected. Meanwhile Luna, Mars, and Titan all grew steadily or better, with a total of over 16m now living beyond Earth by year’s end.

On June 3, a second civilian mining complex has been activated on Sedna. We gladly will continue purchasing the output, which is now over 200t duranium along with almost that much uridium.

Fleet Operations

The FT Victoria was scrapped on January 3, with the rest of the year’s news decidedly routine. A mass driver was activated on Stephan-Oterma in February, with new recruit Burt Stonerock(seriously, that’s his name. You can’t make this stuff up) escorted in as the initial governor. The next couple of years will see available mines go to the highest duranium
concentration of any comet(over 25kt). A sizable amount of sorium(almost 17kt) is also available.

Commissioned Officers

February 7 – It has been noted that James Earl Jones V has increased his ability to manage economies well(Wealth Creation 5%). As of now, this is worth an extra 4,000 credits per year to the SPACE treasury from his post on Luna.

March 14 – Sonny Dean increases Ground Unit Construction Speed to 10%. I don’t know how, or why, but it is a marginal increase in his value.

Early August – Santo Makar continues to improve, now possessing a 60% bonus to his research efforts.

Research & Development

March 6 – Dr. Elwood Tousant announces that the EM 5-5 Sensor Suite(Electromagnetic Sensors) has been successfully prototyped. Unfortunately, he managed not to learn a darn thing about the field in general during the process. The space is now the third complex to be added to the Sorium Harvester project, which is still slated to take another five years.

Jump Point Survey Operations

March 23 – The GSV Hopeful leaves Earth again on what is expected to be it’s final mission: there are eight more jump locations to scan. It would be May before they arrived, nearly a 50-day trip from Earth to the outer reaches of the system.

November 14 – For the first time in well over a year, a new jump point is found! Jump Point Gamma is 5.9b km out, bearing 258. The Hopeful has only two locations remaining to survey ...

Earth

April 1 – For a third year in a row there is April Fools’ Day news: Vickers-Armstrong has added a second slipway. The shipyard goes silent, part of a general order for no new non-essential shipyard operations to conserve duranium as the stockpile continues to be slowly depleted. The only active shipyard at the moment is Wartsila, which continues expanding it’s way to 10,000 tons capacity.

[Brian Swartz]

Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. – 10th out of 18. Reassigned to the ST Wayne, definitely a step down from the important posting on the FT Southampton.
Lt. Cmdr. Hannah Shepard – 7th out of 51. Too many better recruits have come through the last few years – it’s not looking good.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen Jr. – 10th.

Brig. Gen Path Twelve – 6th out of 6.
Brig. Gen Dolph Stallone – 3rd out of 6.
Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers – situation unchanged., over 20 years now as the head of the Army.

Sonny Dean(2) – A relatively minor post as Governor of Wolf-Harrington.
James Earl Jones V(4) – Not much has been heard from the Governor of Luna since he took his first assignment. With Earth’s most populous colony just shy of 9.5m souls, he’s a busy man these days.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer – Putting the finishing touches just now on a report on improving refinery output.
Joe Tycho – Doing nothing, but getting paid well for it.

Only one man has served as head of the Navy – Admiral Wilburn Castilleja. He retires after 26 years of service(mandatory at age 60), with 52-year-old Harley Artley stepping in to take his place. There are a number of experienced leaders in their upper 40s or early 50s. In about 10-15 years SPACE is going to lose a lot of it’s most accomplished personnel.

[sterlingice]

I know years are just flying by but it would be amazing to be living at a time when we're off colonizing and discovering other worlds.

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Indeed! And it's starting to get more complicated now(a 'problem' which will increase with time). It seems all is not sunshine and roses in these brave new worlds ...

2051 ANNUAL REPORT

Overview

All eyes were on the completion of the jump drive research in March, but that report wasn’t due for a month and India Rakes had to deal with a conference call she’d just finished with Luna Governor James Earl Jones V. He’s reported some serious unrest on the colony, with the citizens lamenting the ‘lack of military protection’.

Isn’t that just like a civilian? Clamor for new worlds to settle, then whine about the crime after you get there. They were told they would be on their own, were they not? One couldn’t go around acceding to the demands of every segment of society, but from what Jones has reported, this isn’t likely something that will go away.

It was quite fortuitous that the clamor didn’t get too loud before the jump drive prototype was finalized on March 10 by Santo Makar’s team. At this point, Operation Uncertain Hope entered its final phase. The Pioneer class was finalized by the engineers, and it was discovered a considerable and fairly costly miscalculation had been made. Specifically, the maintenance requirements for the jump engine had been underestimated by several factors. Adding the required supplies meant something had to go to keep the ship at the maximum size of 10kt. Some fuel went, some crew space went, and the final deployment time could be set no higher than 49 months – almost a full year less than that of the original specs.

Final operational details:

Size: 10,000 tons(right at the jump drive limit)
Crew: 240
Speed: 1000 km/s.
Fuel: 600,000 liters
Cost: 1.004 million credits, the first ship to cross this threshold(50% more costly than the Spruance-B colony ship)
Build Time: 20 months

So it hadn’t gone perfectly. Or even close to it. But there was nothing for it now, the only alternative would be to make the ship bigger, redesign an even larger jump engine, wait another year for it, etc. – that wasn’t going to happen. This was good enough. Or at least, it had better be. Wartsila Shipyard was still expanding at 8300 tons currently, so it would be some time before retooling could commence. In the weeks that followed, it was also decided(far too late) that expanding the horrifically inadequate state of Earth’s maintenance facilities had to become a priority.

The research team switched to working on a commercial jump drive, the reasoning being that it was pointless to explore if there were no way to exploit anything that might be found. Therefore a commercial ship, henceforth to be known as the North Carolina class jump ship, had to be designed and capable of escorting the freighters through the jump process. While the initial plan was to retain some cargo capability, it was eventually decided to minimize the size and cost of the vessel to what was needed for jump capability only.

In late May, the North Carolina specifications were nailed down:

Size: 19,200 tons
Speed: 520 km/s(a hair faster than the Fletcher II-xe, powered by quad CNT-25-4 engines, the most efficient available)
Fuel: 250,000 liters
Range: 34.3b km
Crew: 133
Cost: 378k
Build Time: Just under a year, 50-51 weeks give or take

The P&A Group would take the rest of the year to retool to the new ship design, but it would still be finished years ahead of any Pioneer so there was no rush. This left Rakes with another major decision: with the jump research done for the moment, what would be done with the laboratories that had been used for it? Some went to existing, underfunded projects, while two more were begun: Improved Terraforming Rate(Dr. Clint Wyche) and Fighter Production Rate(Dr. Curtis Gloster, in his first project lead assignment!).

** Note: See the R&D section of your report for a prognosis of the current research policy.

Most of the late summer and full was then spent observing closely the progress at Wartsila. On November 9, retooling to the Pioneer class finally began and the finish line seemed that much closer, with estimates now pretty locked in on the timeline. Sometime between Christmas 2052 and New Year’s(i.e., right on the eve of the election!!) the retooling should be complete, which would put the first operational vessel in the second half of 2054. For better or worse, this phase of human advancement should be completed by the middle of the decade, and SPACE will know what we’ve got(if anything).

By the end of the year, considerations for the Office of the Director were mounting. The steady but incremental increase in duranium continued, now just a hair under 3kt per annum. Long-term sources were needed, and that will mean going to the edge of the system. There are a couple of notable asteroids, Sedna obviously could do with some official mines to keep the civilians from charging us for it all, and of course the nearly half-million tons on Triton would be a great source. Or should we simply go for the less accessible but far easier to reach 14mt on Venus?

Then there was the unrest on Luna, which has now reached 77% and is showing no signs of turning around. It’s all well and good to say they got themselves into this, but not helping them out of it was not an option(and not just because Governor Jones won’t stand for it). There are over 11 million on the moon, and they have far too many friends and relatives on earth to just ignore them and allow the colony to go to pot.

Of course there was absolutely nothing that could be done immediately: the technology to get military help to the moon(or in some cases to get the military help, period) does not yet exist. A series of executive orders that essentially admit a failure of foresight on the part of SPACE dramatically redrafted research policy(again, see the R&D supplement). Any non-critical projects using more than one complex were reduced to one, with additional resources diverted to the Troop Transport Bay project. Two more research projects were also begun, Boat Bays(hangars for fighter-size craft, under Dr. Brandon Grimmett, famously the lead on the JupSat Survey Team), and Active Gravitational Sensors(without which no weapon system is worth much, if it can’t find a target in deep space) directed by Elwood Tousant.

Additionally, it is becoming clear that more and more stress is going to be put on the industrial capacity of Earth. More and more things keep popping up that MUST be done NOW(with no possible way to do them even ‘reasonably soon’). There simply isn’t anything to be done about this at the moment, because the limiting factor is still mineral resources. Having more factories without the raw resources to supply them would be worse than pointless. Stephan-Oterma is nearly to Mars orbit on its path away from the sun now, and for the next year at least it will continue to be the recipient of whatever automated mines are produced. After that though, there will be many hard decisons. Funny how these moments always seem to coincide with an election year ...

Commissioned Officers

January – Captain Ellie Camble is promoted to Rear Admiral. Shortly afterwards, Kendall Muratore is promoted to Captain to take her place. Muratore is a veteran commander at 40 years old, and has a varied history with commands on survey ships, freighters, and transports to his credit.

February – This year’s officer purge claims 13.

Early July – Tell Perj Jr. increases crew training to 100.

Mid-September – Sonny Dean increases mining bonus to 15%.

Research & Development

February 1 – Deacon Palmer’s team completes research increasing fuel production per refinery to 24,000 liters(+20%!). He’ll now take over the Sorium Harvester Module project from Dr. Shannon Pateson, who got it to about a quarter completed. This leaves two complexes empty, one goes to Dr. Brandon Grimmett for a study into Garrison Battalion(needed for the colonies), and the second is added to the Jump Drive research.

Right now the research teams are entering another phase of cleaning up relatively quick but not particularly essential projects. One never knows when a particular branch of technology, such as the two above, might be needed and so it is prudent to have a basic level of knowledge even in those areas which are not a major focus. There are a record 8 ongoing teams in the 15 laboratories. The rule of thumb being used to decide how many laboratories are being used is to ensure any project is completed in less than five years. This allows for what is deemed a reasonable balance between making progress in the ever-increasingly difficult demands of scientific advancement, and developing the minds of tomorrow in case they are more urgently needed(i.e., having a constantly improving scientific ‘bench’ of experienced project leaders).

At present levels of research difficulty, technology, and scientist skill, this means 1-3 laboratories are devoted to each project.

July 17 – Dr. Everette Snuggs’ team completes its report on Tiny Fuel Storage Module. The Fighter Production Rate team takes over the space, and Snuggs takes over for Brandon Grimmett on the Garrison Battalion project.

July 30 – Pebble Bed Reactor research complete(Sanko Matar). This does nothing by itself, but allows for the next generation of engine technology to be considered as a possibility. He’s assigned to looking for further ways to improve fuel efficiency. A research gap is expected now, with nothing further expected from the existing teams until spring or summer of 2053, nearly two years down the road.

A major shift at the end of the year occurred in research priorities as mentioned in the Overview. Specifically, this relates to military priorities. The general pattern of deciding ‘what is the best thing to research next’ has been a combination of value and cost. Nothing over 5000 RP has been researched yet, to keep it within a reasonable timeframe as discussed above. Military technology, being a non-issue up to this point, has only been researched when it is 20% or less of the cost of the least expensive ‘domestic’ or ‘economic’-focused technology. This has been done to simulate it’s low priority on SPACE’s radar screen. With the issues on Luna, this has been shifted(particularly as it relates to basic ground unit technology and the ability to transport said forces) from 20% to 50%. This means from a relative point of view, the focus is not as strongly on the domestic sector but that’s still where it is long-term. In the short-term, there’s some ‘catching up’ to do as basic military technology in many areas is still unknown. Only 8 out of 23 areas of specific designable technology(i.e. engines with all their various options) can even be designed(a basic tech in each aspect is required and some/all are missing for the others). A rather unavoidable side effect of all this is the fact that badly needed economic techs will go unresearched while cheaper and equally necessary in their own way military technologies progress, at least for a time.

Jump Point Surveys

The final survey is completed in early February, and the Hopeful begins the journey back to Earth. SPACE now has yet another ‘expensive shuttle.’

Earth

February 13 – New research lab on Earth. Dr. Shannon Pateson begins a new project on developing a jump gate construction module for ships. A jump gate could potentially allow ships to transit a jump point without the use of a jump drive, significantly easing transport between systems. Kind of putting the cart before the horse, but it was deemed the next priority.

May – Fuel reserves are climbing again, reaching 28 million for the first time.

October – Voliva launches the first ever luxury liner, a ship to essentially ferry tourists to the colonists. They now have the largest single human fleet, with 17 vessels and rising.

Fleet Operations

July – Titan also has reached its full target complement of 25 mines. It is basically on it’s own at this point. The only real naval activity left at this point is shipping an automated mine to Stephan-Oterma, now about at close approach, every month.

[Tellistto]

Go go Crew Training Skill!

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

2052 Annual Report

It was an election year filled with looking ahead to the future much more than it was about current events. While construction began in the first week on the JS Velociraptor, first in the North Carolina class, the most notable event was the summer completion of Troop Transport Bay research, and the subsequent design of the TT Portland:

Size: 4300 tons
Crew: 35
Speed: 581 km/s(1 CNT 25-4 efficiency engine)
Fuel: 60,000 liters
Range: 36.7b km
Cost: 137.5(6-7 months)

This was a perfect first job for the Vickers-Armstrong Yard, which immediately began building a pair of them. They’ll be ready early next year, well before the time that we’ll be prepared to actually transport troops. Meanwhile, work continued on various fronts, and stability on Luna continues to decline(52% at year’s end)

Colonization

It will be several years before a sufficient amount of infrastructure is up and running on Venus, but the corporate ships responded this year with the first-in colonists. Apparently the harsh environment is not going to scare them away, though it remains to be seen when(if ever) enough of a colony will be present there to make it self-sufficient.

There are now more than 43 million humans living somewhere other than arth, 4.5% plus of the total population.

Commissioned Officers

Early January – Joe Tycho has improved his research bonus to 20%. Hard work such as this is rare in an unemployed scientist, and gives him a better shot at getting into the action as it were down the road.

February – I’m completely befuddled as to why, but there were no officer terminations this year. Some certainly qualified for it ...

Mid-June – Light dawns on marble head! Elwood Tousant finally managed to wrap his mind around some Sensors & Fire Controls concepts, increasing his bonus to 10%. He’s now our foremost(i.e., only) expert in that field.

Late June – Sonny Dean’s administrative rating is up to 3.

Late July – Sonny Dean’s Factory Production Bonus is up to 20%.

Private Sector Activities

Early February -- Tolles Transport & Logistics becomes the sixth civilian shipping line. By April 1, they had their first freighter in operation.

November 10 – Another shipping line. Forbius Carrier Ltd. What else is new. However, since Voliva and Jensrud are each larger than the others combined, those are really the only two that matter right now.

Resource Development

May – With 28 operational automated mines, Stephan-Oterma is now the largest mining operation outside of Earth. A further half-dozen or so are planned.

Research & Development

** June 28 – Troop Transport Bay research completed(Dr. Cedrick Wormack). He moves on to researching general increases in the combat strength of our ground forces. Additionally, Ignacio Bavaro is assigned to 10cm Laser Focal Size, and Eva Vadnais(first project) to Turret Tracking Speed 2000 km/s. An obscene 11 projects are now under way.

** July 1 – With a new research lab now available, Harlan Welle begins looking into improving missile magazine ordnance storage efficiency. Also, somehow previously overlooked, the terraforming team has an extra lab and that was taken away to allow Karabishi Juishao to work on Magazine Ejection Systems, the chance that a magazine will eject it’s ordnance if
hit(otherwhise it explodes). A mind-boggling 13 different research projects are now underway, with only the Sorium Harvester Module and Active Gravitational Sensors still warranting more than a single laboratory. This leaves just under half the scientists still unemployed ...

Earth

November 18 – The JS Velociraptor is complete, and provisionally assigned a CO.

[Brian Swartz]

It's time for a couple of things to be explained again. First, here's another screen of the solar system, now with the orange-ish jump points labeled:

http://i.imgur.com/lrG0nnU.png (http://imgur.com/lrG0nnU)

The first one you can't see very well as it's hidden by a mass of comets and asteroids. The 'Unex' just means unexplored.

Also, now that we're starting to get into space-based weaponry, a bit of an explanation of the various weapons systems is in order I think. I have next to no experience with this part of the game, so it's going to be a learning experience for me as well, but I know just enough to be dangerous(to myself :)).

Any combat system requires active sensors, which we are of course researching right now. But beyond that, it's necessary to decide which systems to focus research on.

Missiles are the longest-range combat system, which also tends to make them the predominant one overall. The limitation of this is of course that once you're out of missiles ... your ship is a really expensive paperweight. There's also considerable logistics involved in keeping the ships supplied on extended deep-space excursions. A missile system requires the missiles themselves, a magazine(for storing and reloading them on the ship), the active sensors, and a missile launcher(which determines how many missiles of what size can be launched at once). At the moment, we can't design sensors or magazines at all, but we do have the basic tech to build the missiles themselves and the launchers(all of these have to specifically designed to whatever specifications we want).

There are several types of beam weapons as well, which use energy to fire but don't require reloading or carrying specific ordnance per se. These are:

** Lasers(long-range, damage decreases with range).
** Railguns(projectile-based weapon, four projectiles with higher damage but much shorter range than lasers)
** Particle Beams(damage does not drop off with range, somewhat shorter range than lasers but still significant reach)
** Meson Cannon(minimal damage(one point only), half the range of lasers, but they ignore shields and armor)
** Gauss Cannon(several shots per volley, one point of damage only)
** Plasma Carronade(high damage, point-blank range)
** Microwave(one point of damage, three vs. shields, damages electronic systems)
** Close-In-Weapons-System(CIWS) -- a specialized and complicated system that basically is a last-ditch attempt to shoot down missiles on their final approach to a ship(it cannot target anything other than missiles attacking the ship it is mounted on).

Trying to research all of these systems would be completely wasteful, it is necessary to focus on those we would intend to use. Fleet doctrines vary considerably. Long-range, missile-based fleets are very popular and certainly the dominant Aurora combat philosophy. More defensively, a beam-focused fleet can try to render missile opponents helpless by shooting down enough of their missiles to exhaust their supplies, then closing in for the kill. High-speed shuttles used as boarding craft for ground forces or carrier-based fleets with hordes of fighters(both of these tend to result in quite high attrition, but are achievable). The success of a fleet will depend on the foe it's matched up with(it's unknown if there are any and certainly what their composition might be should they be met). It would also be possible to focus mostly on static ground defences(PDCs, i.e. Planetary Defence Centers, which have all the same capability of a ship other than the whole being able to move thing).

We will want to have some kind of long-range offensive capability and some short-range(point-defense), but beyond that, specifics of a what branches of weapons research to focus on will be formulated by the winner of the upcoming election.

[Brian Swartz]

** OOC Note: I’ve been thinking for a while now about how to keep the thread updated with periodic overviews of how the key indicators are doing. I’ve come to the following plan, which is to update naval assets, populations, research, etc. in a once every four years report just prior to the election. Here’s the first one, as always feedback is a good thing if there are any particularly strong opinions. My goal is to have it in a sensible and consistent order, so that you can skip to the parts you care about and use it for easy reference should that be desired.

STATE OF SPACE, 2053

**SoS, insert dumb joke here**

I. IMPERIAL HOLDINGS

** Key: Location(population, growth rate).
CF = Construction Factories
CI = Conventional Industry
OF = Ordnance Factories
FF = Fighter Factories
REF = Refineries
RL = Research Labs
AC = Academies
MF = Maintenance Facility Size

** Note: I don’t have mines here as I think those are best included in the mining section.

IA. Populated Colonies

** Note: For the purposes of this report, ‘colony’ means ‘anyplace where people live’ and ‘outpost’ means ‘anyplace where there is SPACE-operated industrial equipment’. Obviously there is some overlap, in which case a location will appear in both lists.

Earth(895.6M, 322 CF, 253 CI, 50 OF, 10 FF, 75 REF, 16 RL, 2 AC, 2.4kt MF)
Luna(29.18M)
Mars(9.00M)
Titan(4.85M)
Venus(20k)

IB. Outposts

SM= Standard(human-operated) Mine
AM = Automated Mine
CMC = Civilian Mining Complex(equivalent to 10 AMs)

Earth(129 SM, 12.9 efficiency, 2.99 kt annual yield) – Uridum is set to deplete next, in mid-2057
Titan(25 SM, 6 eff., 234t)
Venus(6 AM, 24 eff., 208t)
Stephan-Oterma(35 AM, 40 eff., 1.68kt yield)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 56 eff, 2.04kt) – just under 8 years of duranium remains
Comas Sola(25 AM, 65 eff, 2.63kt) – vendarite will deplete in about 17 months
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 66 eff, 1.78kt) – less than 3 years of vendarite left
Borrelly(12.8 AM, 58 eff, 1.16kt) – Less than 8 years of sorium remains
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 857t)
Wolf-Harrington(9.8 AM, 67 eff, 906t) – Less than 3 years of gallicite
Neujmin(9.8 AM, 59 eff, 694t) – Just over 3 years of corbomite
Schaumasse(1.8 AM, 36 eff, 94t)
Reinmuth(1.8 AM, 47 eff, 113t) – 8+ years of duranium remaining
Sedna(2 CMC, 16 eff, 384t)

Total: Approximately 15.76kt. No single source currently produces more than 19% of this, so the resource pool has certainly been diversified.

As can be seen, we are fast approaching the point where Earth will no longer even be the largest supply of minerals in total, never mind the fact that none of the most important ones are found there. More than half the mines have already been converted to automated and transferred off-world, a process that will definitely continue.

IC. Mineral Stockpiles & Production

Four categories have been established to guide our mining efforts.

** Tier A are minerals that have a supply of 20k or more on Earth in stockpiles and are in minimal demand. This combination of high supply and low usage means they are a complete non-concern and no thought needs to be given to developing further resources. Their presence is considered merely a bonus, and not that much of one.

Uridium(40.7kt), gallicite(28.2kt), and vendarite(24.4k) are at present Tier A minerals.

** Tier B consists of minerals that either see moderate or higher use, but have supplies expected to last at least a decade, or else see minimal use but have less than 20kt in reserve. In this case, it is important to review the supply each successive SoS report, and their presence is marginally notable, but developing further supplies does not need to be a priority.

Mercassium(25.8kt) is primarily used in research labs, and at the rate of less than 1kt per year. Low-use substances corbomite(15.5kt), tritanium(17.9kt), and boronide(14.8kt) also fit here.

** Tier C are minerals that see considerable use, but where supply is presently sufficient to current needs. They bear close watching, but expanding production is merely a low-level priority at present. Careful monitoring of the current supply levels for C and above materials is mandated.

Corundium has just been moved here, as supply has moved past the rate at which earth is using it. With only 316t in the reserve and well over 800t consumed each year, it still teeters very much on the edge. Current annual yield is 979 tons.

The second Tier C mineral is sorium, holding steady between 10-11kt for several years now. With massive fuel reserves(31.5m liters and rising) it is a long-term but not short-term concern. Production is 1.42 kt per year, which sounds like a lot but is actually about 65t less than the refineries consume.

** Tier D are minerals that are ‘bottleneck’ materials: that is, a lack of them makes increased economic activity of some kind impossible. Naturally, these are the most vital economic priorities that SPACE will focus it’s policy on for the next term.

At present, it will be unsurprising that neutronium(3.83kt, 1.36kt yield) and duranium(4.48kt, 2.98 kt yield) are the Tier D materials. To really be comfortable in economic terms and support significant economic expansion, both amounts would need to be doubled if not more.

ID. Income

Taxes: 22.06M credits
Colonist Fees: 3.05M
Trade Goods Tariffs: 1.33M
Export Tariffs: 1.27M
Tourism Fees: 460k

Total: 28.17M

The tourism industry is just getting off the ground, but over a fifth of our income now comes from various taxes and fees associated with civilian shipping. Over two-thirds of our current operating expenses could be funded by this alone!

IE. Expenses

Installation Construction: 4.16M
Research: 3.10M
Shipyard Expenditures: 1.19M
Mineral Purchases: 501k
Ground Unit Maintenance: 101k
Maintenance Facilities: negligible

Total: 9.05M

We’re still printing money, but research is gradually growing as a percent of expenses(34% now) and of course there would be a lot more shipyard operations had we the mineral resources to do so. Finance continues to be a total non-concern.

II. SHIPYARDS

** For now, and until stated otherwhise, all orbital shipyards are at Earth. One of each type remains under construction. Except where noted, they are presently inactive.

IIA. Commercial Yards

Tod & MacGregor(1 slipway, 36.4kt capacity)
P&A Group(2 slipways, 20kt capacity)
Vickers-Armstrong(2 slipways, 10kt capacity)
** Building 2x TT Portland

IIB. Naval(Military) Yards

Wartsila A\B & O\Y(1 slipway, 10kt capacity)
** Building JSC Intrepid, first of the Pioneer Class

III. Industrial Activity

IIIA. Earth(at present, there is no industrial capacity beyond our homeworld)

** Research Lab(34% of factory capacity) – Ongoing, one every year and a half, roughly
** Mine Conversions, Standard to Automated(33%) – Ongoing, one every 4-5 weeks
** Maintenance Facility Expansion(18%) – An additional 7.6kt planned, March 2059
** Naval Shipyard(5%) – December 2058
** Commercial Shipyard(5%) – January 2057
** Mass Driver(5%) – 2 more by July 2054

IV. Research Projects

** The game is more specific than this, but I felt it was a useful RP element to have more general dates the further out a project is from completion.

** Garrison Battalion(Everette Snuggs) – May/June 2053
** Sorium Harvester(Deacon Palmer) – Q3/Q4 2053
** Active Gravitational Sensors(Elwood Tousant) – Q4 2053
** Boat Bay(Brandon Grimmett) – Q4 2053
** Laser Focal Size, 10cm(Ignacio Bavaro) – Q4 2053/Q1 2054
** Ground Unit Combat Strength(Cedrick Wormack) – Early 2054
** Turret Tracking Speed, 2k km/s(Eva Vadnais) – 2055
** Magazine Feed Systems, Efficiency(Harlan Welle) – 2055
** Terraforming Rate(Clint Wyche) – 2055
** Magazine Ejection Systems(Karabishi Juishaou) – 2056
** General Fuel Efficiency Techniques(Santo Makar) – 2056/2057
** Jump Gate Construction Module(Shannon Patteson) – 2057/2058
** Fighter Factor Production Rate(Curtis Gloster) – 2060-2062

We’ve got several projects on the horizon, and others much further from completion.

V. Active Naval Assets

(Number of active ships, size per ship, crew per ship, top speed, fuel per ship, designed role)

GSV Coontz(1, 2.25kt, 32 crew, 1377 km/s, 130k, gravitational survey)
GSV Essex(2, 2.2kt, 35 crew, 1136 km/s, 60k, geological survey)
FT Fletcher II-xe(4, 36.2kt, 100 crew, 518 km/s, 700k, freighter)
ST Lexington II(8, 1.8 kt, 20 crew, 1388 km/s, 30k, transport shuttle)
JS North Carolina(1, 19.2 kt, 133 crew, 520 km/s, 250k, large jump ship)
CS Spruance-B(1, 20.0 kt, 110 crew, 501 km/s, 250k, colony ship)

Totals: 17 vessels, 205kt, 905 crew, 3.79m liters of fuel

Available Crew: 65.1k

VI. Active Army Assets

** Low-Tech Armour Division(5)
** Low-Tech Infantry Division(10)

Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 15,000

VII. Civilian Shipping Corporations

** Voliva Carrier Co.(22 vessels, 3.82m credits annual income)
** Jensrud Transport & Trading(15, 1.68m)
** Everton Shipping & Logistics(4, 440k)
** Presnar Freight(4, 80k)
** Ouellet Shipping(4, 150k)
** Tolles Transport & Logistics(3, none)
** Forbius Carrier Limited(0, none) **Current wealth is 2m credits, second only to Voliva. I’d expect them to get in the game soon**

[Brian Swartz]

Addendum: I forgot a section.

VIII. SPACE Leadership Prospectus

** Naval Officers: 25 of 78 assigned(32.1%)
** Ground Forces Officers: 15 of 33(45.5%)
** Civilian Administrators: 16 of 24(66.7%)
** Scientists: 13 of 24(54.2%)

Overall: 69 of 159(43.4%)

Times are good for politicians and researchers: it's the high-water mark observed so far for both. Once military research catches up times will get tougher for the scientists, while growth in political opportunities will be scarcer in the future as well with most of the best resources in Sol now tapped. Gradual growth in the number of ship commands is expected, and with the colonies in need to boots on the ground, the best path to immediate service might be in the Army right now.

[Tellistto]

Galicite is one of the minerals used for missiles, just FYI.

Not a lot per...but if you go with missiles, you'll build a LOT of them. Hence, Galicite is quite important for that use.

Tell

[sterlingice]

The JS Velociraptor?

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Dinosaur theme.

On missiles/gallicite, that is very true but there will be time to adjust for that if it is the case.

[Brian Swartz]

2053 ELECTION

**Note: I changed the way I generate the results to be slightly less predictable for this round. One still has to be a top candidate to win, however.

There were 16 technically qualified to challenge incumbent India Rakes. The issues on Luna had seriously strained her credibility and political capital. The 2% Initiative, initially a political masterstroke, was now blamed as an overreach. She is still a significant political force, but her allies have thinned and some sense blood in the water(in practical terms, this meant a 20% reduction in her voting bloc). None are more poised to take advantadge of this than Herbert Duling of course, eligible to return from Titan and the unquestionable favorite.

Duling had used his time well, and his list of achievements, accomplishments, and connections was incredible. The field was the same five that made up the ‘49 ballot, but this time he had what would likely be a decisive edge. Rakes, and Herman Fox(Governor of Comas Sola) were overmatched challengers, with Sonny Dean(Wolf-Harrington) barely on the radar screen. However, Duling was not the only one who had been busy. His top foe was expected to be the Governor of Crommelin, Alberto Eighmy, though he was not considered to have all that much of a chance either.

There were points in the campaign when Director Rakes did better than expected, but her liabilities proved too much to overcome. Herbert Duling returns to Earth for a third term as director, taking 26.4% of the five-way race. Alberto Eighmy(22.1%) edged out Rakes(21.0%) for second place, with Fox taking fourth(17.2%) and Dean(13.3%) showing a disappointing and distant fifth, even for such a long-shot candidate. All of them will be governing true colonies with five settled bodies now available.

Earth – Herbert Duling
Luna – Alberto Eighmy
Mars – India Rakes
Titan – Herman Fox
Venus – Sonny Dean

The lower-level administrators were assigned new posts in most cases, based on their skills(esp. mining of course)

Policy Review

** After reviewing the SoS report, and the supplements describing options for further resource development, it was clearly time for a shift in mine deployment priorities. Stephan-Oterma was at 35 automated mines, the largest locale off of Earth, and at that rate it would deplete neutronium in 25 years, duranium and sorium in less than 60. There are very limited options left for mining both neutronium and duranium, in fact only two(Borrelly and Neujmin) in the entire system with potential for significant expansion without draining their reserves excessively quickly. The heyday of comet strip-mining will be coming to a close soon, which means more effort will need to be put into locations with only one essential mineral. This, in turn, implies more mines will be needed for the same output. Even at current levels of production, mines will not be sufficient to even maintain current levels for long. Perhaps Operation Uncertain Hope will provide a solution to this eventually. Perhaps it will provide nothing, and we cannot assume the former is more likely than the latter as there is no way of knowing.

The most glaring priority was clearly just increasing the raw number of mines deployed, as critical now as ever. By executive order, Duling reclassifies corundium back to a Tier D priority and classifies increasing the supply to a level that will support a 50% industrial commitment possible. There’s no practical reason to go beyond that as other priorities need to be able to go forward even at a reduced rate, and with the state of duranium there’s no point in entertaining the possibility of more factories being built in the forseeable future.

The new direction came to be known as the Maximum CD Plan – maximize corundium, then maximize duranium. A little over 1.2kt of corundium would be needed annually, an increase of about 225t from what is currently available. An in-depth review of known deposits and deployed mines was not encouraging. The single most effective thing to do would be massive investment in the comet Ikeya-Zang, which contains well over half the known reserves(not including Venus at 0.1 accessibility of course) at over 81kt. At 13.9b km distant though, this is not possible: It’s a journey of nearly two years round-trip for our freighters. Decades would literally be required.

A number of existing mining outposts have supplies that will last at present in the 12-20 year range, so investing more in those would be shortsighted as it would just accelerate the issue. However, for the time being, the desired level could be reached be reallocation of mines to the comet Schaumasse, which has 19kt at maximum accesibility and less than 2 operational mines, and doubling the amount on Wolf-Harrington(from just under 10 to 20). Schaumasse has duranium and Wolf-Harrington neutronium, so some of what is lost in transferring mines there will be recouped.

That’s Phase One, which will be implemented immediately. Phase Two calls for the development of a series of stopgap sources. While overall mining production will be lost in the shift to ‘single-source’ locations, that is deemed necessary and therefore acceptable. The target production has been upped to a quarter higher than what is strictly needed(1.5kt) for the purpose of providing a buffer against shortages when deposits are depleted in specific locations.

Comet Faye(7.66 kt at 1.0, neutronium at 10.4kt, sorium 9.67kt, 650m km)
Asteroid Prokne(7.3kt at 1.0, 485m km)

To date ignored because of the lack of duranium(in the case of Faye) and the lack of anything else at all(Prokne), these would extend production another decade. Another three-plus years can be gained with the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which also has 5kt of sorium and is incoming 2.2b km away. That’s it for Phase Two though.

Phase Three requires the development of Swift-Tuttle(6.5b km and rising, another 3-years supply plus almost 20kt duranium) and then Ikeya-Zang itself. It is hoped(but not expected) that more advanced engines will be available for that, otherwhise it will be highly painful in terms of travel times.

Duranium will be easier to deal with once corundium is increased. Mines that can’t be transported in a timely fashion can simply be dumped on Venus for half accessibility, and there are good reserves in the outer system on the order of millions of tons. It’s just a question of how long it takes to develop them.

In order to support these activities, an exception is made to the general moratorium on new ship construction. Two more freighters will be built, with the potential for another pair if it is deemed warranted.

As can readily be seen, the mineral situation is highly fluid and complex, and becoming more so.

** As much of a political football as the 2% Initiative has become, it is something akin to Pandora’s Box – one cannot simply abandon Luna or the other colonies. Hanging onto them meant pursuing a military path to some degree, as chaos threatens on the moon and the others wouldn’t be long to follow.

** Luna would continue to be a primary short-term focus, with battalions to be shipped there as soon as the technology becomes available. Current estimates expect that to be before a full-scale revolt, but not by all that much, in early 2054. As a showy but actually inconsequential move, as
least as far as Luna is concerned, he announced an expansion to training facilities on Earth to begin immediately. Practically speaking of course, this will take several years to complete with other competing industrial priorities, but just the fact that it was being invested in created support in some quarters, while accusations of phony, disingenuous leadership in others ...

** Lauding the merits of the 2% Initiative while deploring the poor execution of it, Duling announced that it would continue – stressing the jobs created in the shipping business and downplaying colonial conditions. It is probably not coincidental that this argument only works with the 95% plus of the population that still lives on Earth. Colonials are still second-class citizens, but if their numbers continue to grow ...

** A narrower focus for research efforts was announced as well. Taking primary importance would be matters of policing the colonies via improvements in ground combat technology. Along with this, investment in space-based weapons would not be set in stone yet, as there wasn’t anything that could really be built until another round or two of research. The scientists were directed to consider more energy-based weaponry than ballistic however, for the simple reason that the mineral shortfalls didn’t need any help. SPACE policy for the moment is that space-based weapons systems decisions will be based on the most cost-effective(in terms of building and maintaining), as all that’s necessary right now is to have a basic policing capability. Should anything resembling a major fleet action be required, we’ll need answers to questions we haven’t thought of yet.

** Earth’s industrial priorities remain mostly in place. There hadn’t been any intention of moving them at all, but upon further reflection Duling decided it would be better to continue maxing out the corundium supply, up to maximum of 50% of capacity and reduce the research and general-purpose pools if necessary. Right now there was no reason to set it higher than 40%, which was just about at the level of supply.

** Operation Uncertain Hope has been put on the back burner in terms of the public consciousness, but only because right now it’s simply a waiting game. Wartsila has begun production of the JSC Intrepid, which will not see the light of day until late summer 2054 at the earliest. It is still a highly anticipated event, but the malcontents on Luna have made it seem less important.

[Brian Swartz]

Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. – 9th out of 17. Set to be transferred from the ST Wayne to the GEV Amerigo Vespucci, a marginally better post.
Lt. Cmdr. Hannah Shepard – 7th out of 53. The end appears near for one of the oldest entry-rank officers(34).
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen Jr. – 11th, expected to be dismissed this year.

Brig. Gen Path Twelve – 6th out of 6. Path, presently 58 years old, is facing mandatory retirement after this tour.
Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone – 3rd out of 6
Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers – Situation unchanged, SPACE’s only MG.

Sonny Dean(3) – A promotion from Wolf-Harrington to Venus is now in the works for the man who has finished 5th in the last two directorial elections.
James Earl Jones V(4) – He caught a break with being named governor of Luna, then proceeded to not do enough with it while the colony gradually disintegrated due to runaway growth. He’s en route to Schaumasse, which is another stroke of luck – it stands to see significant investment due to the Maximum CD Plan, making it a more important post than it immediately appears.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer – Heading up the largest current project, Sorium Harvester Module. A distinguished career for Palmer needs only a strong finish.
Joe Tycho – Among the best scientists to not yet receive his chance to lead a research team.

[path12]

Brig. Gen Path Twelve – 6th out of 6. Path, presently 58 years old, is facing mandatory retirement after this tour.

Interesting. Real life path appears to be just as successful as Aurora path, though I have way longer before retirement.

Sigh.

[Coffee Warlord]

Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen Jr. – 11th, expected to be dismissed this year.


BOOO!

Well, when he goes, Rob Nielsen III is ready and waiting for the Fleet.

[Brian Swartz]

Snicker @ path12. Perspective man -- you've been in the top 8(at worst) army officers virtually your entire career, which has now lasted about 30 years. That's roughly top quarter for most of that time span, dozen of officers haven't gotten canned while having done nothing ... all of this while fighting health issues.

Nothing to sneeze at, friend.

[Brian Swartz]

2053 ANNUAL REPORT

All four freighters were immediately sent to Venus to load up the six mines that were there and transfer them to Schaumasse as the initial action of the Maximum CD Plan. Three of them carried infrastructure as the 2% Initiative investment for the year, and all of the shuttles were fanned out over Sol as the bustle of reassigning administrators and beauracrats dominated activity as it always does immediately after an election.

For the first time, the most significant development of the year had absolutely nothing to with anything SPACE did, any policies enacted by the returning director, or any such thing. Beginning in February, for reasons that are still unknown and may forever remain so, a major depression hit the private shipping corporations. Populations on all colonies consistently slightly outstripped infrastructure(ironically not including Venus until late in the year, but everywhere else). Director Duling could only reiterate SPACE’s position that the colonists were on their own – he couldn’t have made up the slack even had he wanted to, it would have required several times more freighters than are at his disposal.

Shipping just plain fell of a cliff – almost overnight, it dropped to less than a fifth of previous levels which had been sustained for years since the early stages of the Titan colonization. Soon there were for all intents and purposes only two active firms(Jensrud and Voliva) and the majority of their shipments were miscellaneous trade goods – spices, plastics, recreational drugs, and the like. Virtually all of the civilian-produced infrastructure, and there wasn’t much, went to Luna.

Unquestionably, the ‘gold rush’ of colonization is over, at least for now. Nobody knows for sure why, and the 2% Initiative has been called into serious question in many quarters, while others argue it is all the more essential now to support new markets for earth’s colonists and products. Many of these proponents suggest prioritizing the Jovian moons as their proximity to each other could lead to a new boom in shipping activity. No official word has yet come from SPACE on this.

Meanwhile, an adjustment to the Maximum CD Plan was soon made. One factor that was not sufficiently foreseen was how much production would drop off on Earth as Duling took the helm again: his factory production skills are only 10%, with mining, wealth, logistics, and ground unit construction being his primary strengths. Rakes was better in industrial(20% to 10) and shipbuilding(5% to 0), so output on Earth declined. A side effect of this was a lowered goal in terms of corundium as the factories would produce a couple fewer mines per year. Maxing them out at the 50% dedicated space would now require 1.19 kt, so the goal for the first phase was to up the production rate to 1.43kt or thereabouts, a bit lower than the previous estimate. By early summer, over 1.2kt had been reached and the process of sucking mines off of high-efficiency comets ceased as corundium supplies on earth began to creep upwards again. By year’s end, it was nearly 1.3kt, and both neutronium and duranium(over 3kt by year’s end for the first time ever) were increasing on earth as well, the first time that all three have been on the rise(though notably this comes partly due to limited shipyard activity). The mineral picture hasn’t looked better in over a decade, largely thanks to the activities on Sedna.

The year’s big research news came in two parts. The first was the completion of the Garrison Battalion project by Dr. Everett Snuggs and his team. For the first time, ground combat technology has leapt into the TN age, over a quarter-century after its discovery. Garrison Battalions have no attack capability, but utilize new techniques, equipment, and weaponry to achieve incredible increases in combat effectiveness. Simulations to date detail that despite being only including 5,000 men each, one-tenth the size of the active divisions, each battalion would be equal to four Low-Tech Infantry and better than three Low-Tech Armour divisions on the battlefield in defensive roles. The cost is also equal to a full infantry division(but well worth it, of course).

Training began immediately for the first battalion, which will be immediately field-tested on Luna. It was expected to be ready early in 2054, but finished ahead of schedule. Earth’s #2 in command, Brigadier General Abel Rosinski, arrived on Luna via the first of the Portland Troop Transports with the 16th Garrison Battalion in early December. Unrest there was approaching critical levels with stability less than 30%, but by year’s end that was up to 37% and climbing. More battalions would be continued with the goal of having a few on Earth and one on each occupied colony as soon as they could be trained up. It’s the first expansion of army capabilities in SPACE’s nearly three decades of history, most welcome and according to many observers long overdue.

Secondly, and probably even more significant, was the September 18 unveiling of the Sorium Harvester Module report. The second-most impressive achievement of Deacon Palmer’s distinguished career(after TN technology of course) it brought with it a new round of ship design. The Oliver H Perry class, hereafter known simply as the FH Perry class, was initialized with the goal of extracting enough sorium from Saturn’s atmosphere to render planet-based refinery operations obsolete and preserve other sorium sources for industrial uses such as jump drives.

Obviously the Perry would not need to refuel as it would be providing its own and then some, and with Titan close by it could have shore leave there. This meant it would be the first vessel to be deployed with someplace other than earth as it’s base, another step into the galaxy for humanity. That also meant that speed is a virtual non-issue: it shouldn’t need to go anywhere, once on station.

Specs were finalized as follows:

Speed: 254 km/s(the slowest ship in the fleet by far) – twin CNT-25-4 efficiency engines
Size: 18.95kt
Fuel Capacity: 350,000 liters
Harvesters: 6, estimated at about 275k liters harvested per 2-year tour
Range: 48.5b km, a mere academic curiosity in this case
Crew: 98
Cost: 405.5(just over a year)

8 of these could completely replace current fuel production. The plan is for six to be built immediately, which would allow conventionally mined sorium to be used for other purposes such as jump drives. However, ‘immediately’ is a bit of a relative term in this case of course. It would be a six-month process for retooling the P&A Group Yard to build the first, putting the first ship into service at approximately late winter/early spring of 2055. Before the decade is out though, planetside refineries are expected to be a part of history. Naval officers received the news with much excitement, as it meant a considerable increase in the number of available commands, and duties for the shuttle transports as well which will be required to ferry commanders to Saturn from time to time.

Earth

January 14 – The two Portland class troop transports are completed. For now, no more are planned to be built.

May – Earth crosses the 900-million threshold in population.

Early October – The FT Ute, fifth in the Fletcher class, is completed. A sixth, the Yellowstone, is now under construction. The freighters are mostly quiet for now, but it won’t be long until development of the outer system begins, and they will be needed then. Lt. Cmdr. Ali Mandujuano, notable for her ability to brown-nose at extremely high levels(as in, better than any current politician, which is saying a lot) and little else, is the Ute’s first CO.

Commissioned Officers

Late February – This year’s purge claims 20 officers, 14 of them navy. Hannah Shepard, and Rob Nielsen Jr. are among the victims.

Mid-March – James Earl Jones V has(irrelevantly) increased his shipbuilding skills to 35%.

Early May – Rob Nielsen III is commissioned.
Fleet Movement Initiative: 146
Bonuses: 50 crew training, 15% Terraforming.
Personality Traits: Good judge of character.
Outlook: He has a basic training skill but other than that is mostly useless, so it will depend on how much he can make of that. The odds are definitely stacked against him, I’d say he’s the least talented of the Nielsen trio.

May -- Pioneer Deacon Palmer made a substantial leap in his skill to 45%. This is enough to accelerate the completion of the Sorium Harvester Module a few months, now due in early fall.

Late August – Herman Fox increases factory production to 30%, a true achievement considering he doesn’t currently, nor has he ever in his career, oversee a single one.

Early September – Alberto Eighmy’s political reliability increases again as he is already thinking about the ‘57 elections. Dolph Stallone raises hers to 15%, a moot point one would think near the end of her career.

September – Shortly after his first appointment, Dr. Joe Tycho improves his administration skills to allow him to oversee 15 labs(3 admin.). This is good, but irrelevant given the space restrictions.

Late September – A new scientist joins the fray, Julio Kuchler, who has a 20% skill in Sensors & Fire Control, a field of moderate and increasing importance as of late. This makes him instantly our top expert in the field, and he takes over Billie Allington’s work on Beam Fire Control Range.

Research & Development

** May 25 – Following the completion of Garrison Battalion, a new projects was begun on Beam Weapon Fire Controls(new addition Billie Allington)

** September 18 – Three research labs are freed up by the completion of the Sorium Harvester Module project. Particle Beam Range(Wayne Sabagh), Small Cryogenic Transport(Everett Snuggs), and Meson Focal Size(Joe Tycho in his first assignment) claim the available space. There are now a dizzying 15 active research projects, as the feverish rush to ‘catch up’ on weapons tech continues.

** November 18 – Two research projects are completed concurrently: Boat Bays(Brandon Grimmett) and Active Grav Sensors(Elwood Tousant). Edward Groat(Alpha Shields, our first investigation into kinetic shields), Deacon Palmer(10cm Microwave), and Grimmett(15 cm Carronade) begin new research into basic weapon systems. The weapons technology holes are starting to get filled in. Sometime around the end of the decade it is expected that there will be enough information to consider prototyping the top candidates for initial weapons systems.

** December 18 – Ignacio Bavaro’s team completes research into 10cm focal size lasers. Meson focusing technology is his next project.

Maximum CD

July saw the establishment of the first asteroid mining colony on Prokne. By the end of the month, new administrator Jedidiah Thone was on site along with an operational mass driver and the first automated mine. The sole purpose of this outpost was to add to the corundium supply.

Late September – Within the span of a single week, Sedna is expanded from 2 to 4 civilian mining complexes, making the distant dwarf planet a primary contributor of duranium at nearly half a kiloton per year.

[Brian Swartz]

SPECIAL REPORT: LOOKING FORWARD
** Operation Uncertain Hope **

The JSC Intrepid is two-thirds completed, and has long since past the point where the bustle of activity at Wartsila can be concealed from the public. Mid-summer, just half a year away, is the estimated date of completion. Already there are some issues arising.

A highly classified memo has circulated to top SPACE officials, co-signed by Director Herbert Duling and acting Chief of the Navy Admiral Harley Artley. It details that with the improving mining outlook an additional two Pioneer-class vessels have been authorized pending a successful test jump by the Intrepid, and emphasizing the vitality of their role. They will venture into unknown territory without the ability to communicate what happens when(if) they arrive. A series of standard operating procedures have been established for Pioneer commanding officers to follow when and if jump point transits are successfully conducted:

** The top mission priority is to gather basic information on whatever lies beyond all seven Sol jump points as soon as is practicable. This is Phase One of exploring the immediate galactic neighborhood.
** Jump ships will transit back as soon as basic readings can be verified, for the purpose of sending a transmission to Fleet HQ detailing what is found, and then proceed back into the new system if warranted.
** Any system with a habitable body or bodies(defined as a habitability of colony cost 5.0 or better) will have those bodies surveyed, as well as any targets of opportunity on the way from the jump point to these locations that don’t require significant diversions to reach. If a system does not contain any habitable bodies, it will be ignored at least until the completion of Phase One which will give SPACE a rudimentary picture of what these systems(if any and reachable) contain in terms of colonial prospects.
** Any eventualities(defined broadly, as nobody knows what to expect and therefore are expecting the unexpectable) significantly outside the experience of humanity in Sol must be reported to Fleet HQ immediately for further deliberation by high command. In the event this is not possible, ship commanders have full discretion as a matter of necessity.
** No jump point surveys will be undertaken in these systems until the completion of this initial phase.

** OOC Note: From a game point of view, nothing that has not been reported to SPACE HQ will be reported in the thread. The exception to this will be if a signup character is commander of one of these vessels, in which case they will receive updates via private message including any decisions that might need to be made if there’s something I deem a close call. There is very much a fog of war here, I’ve always had a fascination with the Pony Express and the dangers faced by the riders in merely delivering a message prior to the invention of the telegraph in the 1830s. etc. It’s been said that there is nothing quite so much like God on earth as a general on a battlefield: well, the commanders of the Pioneer science vessels have a far greater responsibility and authority than that, in a sense. Theirs is very much the role of the enterprising explorer – to boldly go where no one has gone before. In the hands of them and their crew literally lies the fate of humanity, they can answer to no-one because there is no way, other than going back through the jump point, to transmit a message – and many imaginable situations will not allow for that eventuality.

Naval Politics

All of this leads to another issue, about who will command the Intrepid and future ships in the class. SPACE naval tradition has, to date, informally ‘held’ that the most crucial/advanced ships being led by the top officers of Commander rank – hence why the JS Velociraptor, lone example of the North Carolina class, is led by Cmdr. Gregorio Granberg, who would presently be first in line to take the Intrepid by that method. Some are arguing that due to the importance of the mission, a Captain should be assigned. Typically Captains have thus far been reserved as staff officers, but that’s more a matter of necessity so far to see that Fleet HQ is fully staffed. The debate over whether this is a time to break with informal tradition or whether such times require more urgently holding to tradition has, as of yet, been undecided.

[Brian Swartz]

2054 Annual Report

On March 6, retooling for the Perry class was completed, and construction of the first pair of fuel harvesters begun at the P&A Group Shipyard. Incidentally, this is the first significant industrial use of boronide we have yet discovered. The first ships are due out in late winter/early spring of next year.

This was merely an afterthought with the completion of the Intrepid expected in just under three months. But within a week, the Navy and SPACE itself had been rocked by some shocking news. The expected commander of the historic first voyage, Commander Gregorio Granberg, was dead after what appeared to be an accident. Given his position, foul play was highly expected, and a highly public investigation immediately ensued. Accident remained the official, and highly suspected, explanation as no conclusive evidence was found to indicate otherwhise – but those below him in the pecking order were under heightened suspicion.

Granberg’s death left two men essentially neck-and-neck for the command of the Intrepid – Jay Cin III and Dan Spengler. There was hardly a sheet of paper between them, with Spengler the more talented officer and Cin the more experienced. He moves into Granberg’s spot aboard the JS Velociraptor for the moment.

By May, Jay Cin III was the clear choice. His conduct, both publicly and privately, had been above reproach during the investigation, clearly swaying his superiors in the Navy’s high command(**political reliability increased to 20%**). It is amazing how everything is falling for him this year – almost like it was arranged. It is indeed fortuitious tha he has not made Captain like some would have expected by now, and gotten stuck in a staff officer role as a result.

On July 1, the Intrepid was launched, culminating a long process that began in March of 2042, over 13 years ago, when Duling first authorized jump theory research. At the same time, instability on Luna was also eliminated. Nobody cared – this would be a moment long remembered in the history of humanity, regardless of how it went.

Jay Cin III was in command as anticipated. His good showing the past few months and experience over the fresher, more talented Spengler proved decisive. Being considerably skilled(25%) in survey operations didn’t hurt his case any either. It seems he is a perfect fit for the job – one of the most important jobs in the history of mankind.

Everybody knew the next step, with high command both in the navy and in the SPACE office of the director hanging on every update from mission control. The Intrepid set course immediately for its obvious destination – Jump Point Alpha. It was nearly 850 million km, a distance they would cover in just under ten days. The ten longest, tensest, and most exciting days anyone could remember. The extranet exploded with pirated images of the ship, most attention focusing on the obvious redundancies in its communications gear seen by protrusions from the hull in numerous locations, and the unmistakable bulge from the massive jump drive's size.

Passing just by Venus on the first day of it’s journey, what limited bservations the colony there could make were studied in minutest detail. After that, all that could be gleaned were from the official reports. Mars orbit was cleared late on the 4th, with close(at a safe distance) approach to the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt taking place just before midnight on the 6th.

At 1600 hours on July 10, Commander Jay Cin III reported to command that all systems were green, and final drills had been completed without a hitch. It was time for final approach and calibrations. He and the 240 men and women, the finest in the Navy, would all be dead in three hours if navigation was not precisely correct. If it was, and the scientists were right – their place in history could hardly be overstated.

At 1842 hours, the jump drive was fully powered up, and the order was given. There was no flash of light, no rift opening in space, disappointing many fans of various popular science fiction imaginings. All the external systems of the escort ships could detect was a barely discernible ripple, like the outline of something somehow invisible against the background of space, and a faint bluish-tinted glow. And then the Intrepid was gone. Nobody saw it move – it simply wasn’t there anymore.

Seconds seemed like eternities, and all that anyone could do was wait.

They had only to wait about ten minutes. The Intrepid reappeared, announcing a successful jump to Epsilon Eridani! Mankind was no longer bound to Sol – the galaxy was now within our reach(theoretically). What’s more, it appears it is a system worthy of further investigation. Key elements of the classified report relayed to Earth within minutes:

** The Epsilon Eridani star was a class K2-V, 2.64b km away from the jump point into that system. Three-quarters the mass of our sun, and a quarter of the brightness.
** Six planets orbit the star, only one of them a terrestrial, with three gas giants and two super jovians.
** Smaller bodies are plentiful, with 89 moons and 268 asteroids in the system. The second planet(terrestrial) and the third(a gas giant) were both extremely close to the star(300m km), about a months journey from the jump point for the Intrepid. Each has a moon with habitability of 2.0, similar to Mars/Luna. Both would be investigated.
** The physical effects of the jump on personnel were intense but brief: basically vertigo combined with nausea. It was not pleasant, but within a couple minutes of emerging into ‘normal space’ it dissipated. Long-term effects will need to be studied, but its doubtful such things will deter SPACE from exploring opportunities of this magnitude.

And then the Intrepid was gone again, for how long nobody knew for certain.
There was only the long wait ...

Research & Development

** February 18 – Cedrick Wormack’s team completes research into Ground Unit Combat Strength, having discovered new techniques and training regimens to increase combat effectiveness by 20% across the board. This is expected to be the only research news of the year. Dr. Wormack gets back to work immediately, considering further advances in the same field.

Maximum CD Plan

Late February – With comet Faye approaching, a mass driver heads its direction and a new colony is founded there for further diversification. Faye is the final available inner-system source for corundium. Provisional governor Russell Salvucci, a graduate of the Earth Academy last November, is by far the best choice and in position by the end of the first week of March. He has a minor skill in mining, which will aid production a bit. Faye of course has neutronium and sorium as well as corundium, so it’s not a one-trick pony, so to speak.

In May, with the delivery of a fourth mine to Faye, the ‘C’ part of the Maximum CD plan is completed. A mass driver is dispatched to Triton, the Neptunian moon which is the next target for increasing duranium supply. With this action, official investment in mass outer-system mining is under way.

October 27 – Provisional governor Riley Awad arrives on Triton. SPACE is starting to drag the bottom of the river for outpost administrators now.

By year’s end, there are four operational mines on Triton. A modest, but important start.

Commissioned Officers

There was no officer purge this year.

Late March – Tell Perj Jr. increases training bonus to 125, and Dr. Joe Tycho increases research bonus to 25%.

Mid-June – For some reason it was also the summer of Derek Latch(governor at the minor outpost on Reinmuth), who was constantly reporting some breakthrough or another.

Earth

Early May – A new research lab is finished on Earth. 17 laboratories, and a 17th project commences. Mike Manaya’s first task is Microwave Focusing.

Late May – The 17th Garrison Battalion is completed. Brigadier General Angela Bankson is dispatched to Titan with them.

July 20 – The FT Yellowstone is completed on earth, expanding the number of freighters to six. It will be assigned to close-Earth duty, shifting mines around as needed and moving any extra that are converted beyond what the other five freighters can haul to Triton over to Venus.

November 27 – 18th Garrison Battalion is completed on Earth, shipped off to Mars with CO Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone

[Brian Swartz]

Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. – 9th of 14, about to have a second tour on the FT Southampton after being reduced to shuttle duty the last few years.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III – 40th

Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone – 3rd out of 5, keeping the peace on Mars with the 18th Garrison Battalion. It appears this will be her final posting.
Mag. Gen. Sterling Silvers – Still leading human ground forces overall and on earth.

Sonny Dean(3) – Governor of Venus
James Earl Jones V(4) – Governor of the comet Schaumasse

Pioneer Deacon Palmer(CP 45) – Currently working on Microwave Focal Size
Joe Tycho(EW 25) – Researching Meson Focal Size, finally out of obscurity

[Brian Swartz]

The plot thickens a bit ...

2055 Annual Report

The year began with a significant shakeup in the Navy, with Admiral Harley Artley being forced into retirement. At 56 years old he still has four years left, but the younger admiral Ellie Camble is far his superior and everyone knows it. She becomes the first female navy chief. Artley was the navy’s chief for the last four years. Also retiring are Captain Sammie Sreaves(a 24-year veteran of Fleet HQ as a staff officer, 55 years old), Commander Ken McKay(55, 12 years of geology survey service and four more as CO of the Lexington II-class shuttle transport Endymion, a low-ranking Commander for almost his entire service), Commander Chung Jegede(served with McKay on the Rater geology team, then on the FT Custer and ST Marengo, age 59), and Commander Greg Garza(58, JupSat i.e. Grimmett geology team for 11 years, various ship postings in the five years since, mostly shuttles). The old guard, actually more like the original guard, is beginning to pass into the sunset. A new generation of officers must take their place.

One Christopher Blair benefits significantly, as he was the final LtC named to replace the newly-vacated commands ... In the army, Brigadier General Path Twelve was the only retiree. The oldest civilian administrators are 51, 14 years away from retirement age of 65. Elite scientists retire at 70, with the oldest presently at 51 as well(several, including Deacon Palmer). So SPACE still has some time before en masse retirements kick in.

The admiralty waited a few days to dispense assignments for next tour, as some promotions needed to sort themselves out. Ellie Camble was Communications Officer for the last 18 and a half years since her promotion to Captain, and at 47 still has some life left in her career for certain. She is now the lone admiral, with only five captains, two short of a full staff. The Navy unquestionably needs fresh blood.

In early March, a ‘late’ round of dismissals relieved a dozen officers of their duties, eight naval and four from the army. And then on the 16th, the Intrepid reappeared in Sol space from the Epsilon Eridani jump point. The report was promising, with 94% fuel left, no maintenance issues to report despite being out of contact for several months, and still over three years left on the mission clock. Onward to Jump Point Delta a months journey away, while command digested their report ...

The short version was that a number of considerable deposits have been found, most of them not of the minerals we need or highly inaccessible. However, there is a corundium deposit of a half-million tons, and another of neutronium of a full million, both worth exploiting. No duranium yet though the survey there is far from complete. All in all, quite good news!

In the late morning of April 24, the Intrepid proceeded through Jump Point Delta and then back again. What they found there was far more significant – it held the potential to change the course of human history. The new system was Lalande 21185, which held 219 asteroids, 4 dwarfs, and a terrestrial planet far too large for human colonization, all orbiting a M2-V class star 33 times dimmer than our sun. Also orbiting at close range(just inside the inner asteroid field) was an astounding discovery:

Long-term scanners showed the wrecks of three vessels, two in the 9kt range and one almost 18kt. From a range of 2b km it is impossible to tell what destroyed them or how long ago, but one thing is for certain: we are not alone. This was compelling evidence of advanced life.

This information was classified at the highest imaginable level, and orders given immediately that anyone caught so much as thinking about it without permission would leave the ship immediately via the airlock. Back on Earth, it was obvious something was up by the incredible activity at SPACE, but for now at least security has been maintained. In the end, Director Duling made the decision to pretty much keep on pace with current policies until more systems were explored. Getting a basic handle on weapons research was even more important now, but there wasn’t anything that could be done to speed that up at the moment. There was no way of telling the age of the destroyed vessels. Millions of km from the nearest body and nowhere near the lone planet, it was highly unlikely they broke up in an atmosphere anywhere, esp. given their relatively intact shape(of the wreckage, that is). With one ship, a massive malfunction might be a possibility, but three? Almost certainly they were destroyed, intentionally. The implications of this were ... unpleasant.

The Intrepid headed to Jump Point Epsilon, just a short hop away. There was nothing to recommend Lalande 21185 from an economic standpoint. Cmdr. Cin was commended for jumping back immediately to Sol and not putting his ship, mission, or crew at risk with the tempting possibility of investigating the wrecks.

On the final day of April, JP Epsilon was revealed to link to Van Maanen’s Star. The system has two dozen asteroids and a couple of dwarf planets, the key find being a super-jovian with nearly two dozen moons. Only two of the moons are habitable, and those marginally, a full 2b km from the jump point as well. Again, not worth the effort, and the Intrepid moved on.

The next two jump locations would be Bravo and Charlie: Bravo was a hair closer and became the next to be visited. Before that, on the early morning of June 1, the first two harvesters arrived as Saturn and began successful sorium extraction operations. After a successful test over the course of a few hours, they offloaded most of their fuel at nearby Titan and began an extended tour at the ringed planet. Titan now stands fully ready, with 600k liters from the two vessels and more to come, to be a fully-functional refueling base.

On the 16th, the Intrepid transited Jump Point Bravo, hoping this would be more fruitful than the last pair of jumps. They found Luytens 726-8, emerging about 2b km away as seems to be normative. The first five comets found outside Sol are there, which could be a very good thing if they are as fruitful. No asteroids and only one dwarf planet, but a pair of terrestrial planets, a gas giant, and a super-jovian proved more interesting. The second planet has only a trace atmosphere but is reasonably habitable(2.0) with a very reasonable(in galactic terms) surface temperature of -18.7 celcius. The first planet is as hospitable as Mercury(not at all), and a couple of moons orbiting the jovian are as habitable as Titan or Io/Ganymede, but it’s that second planet that makes this a system worth a second look. Soon it was time for another blackout, as SPACE had been informed and the Intrepid would be gone for another surveying tour.

This time they were only gone about two months, emerging in August with the news that none of the comets had been within range to make investigating them a valuable use of mission time. Worse, the second planet was barren, so unless a further expedition showed more resources, it was not a useful candidate system. As they were already partway there from Earth, the Intrepid headed next to Jump Point Gamma in the outer system.

Barnard’s Star was revealed in the first week of October. Partially counterbalancing the distance of the jump point in Sol was the fact that on the other side, it was only 1.33b km from the primary star. This might even have mattered if it wasn’t a complete and utter pile of crap. 17 asteroids were found, along with a gas giant orbited by 17 moons, two of which were in the over-6 habitability range as the best potential sites. Adios, Barnard’s Star – we hardly knew ye.

The next trip would be considerable. Jump Point Charlie was back across the system, some 9b km from the jump to Barnard’s Star. It would take the rest of the year plus to cover the distance. In completely unrelated news, it is worth noting that total human population rose to more than a billion souls in mid-November, the first time that’s happened since the war which shall not be
mentioned.

At year’s end, Triton is at 12 automated mines, Venus is up to 10, and Sedna expanded again to 5 civilian complexes there now. More freighters are needed, or faster, but both require more fuel, so really a lot of things are waiting on getting enough Perry-class harvesters out to Saturn which will be some more years in the making. Given the size of our reserves though, the order is given to build more Fletchers anyway and not wait. If the reserve declines, so be it – 32m liters is a lot. A big lot. The Hyperion, second in the Pioneer class, will come off the line within days.

Earth has over 800t corundium, over 5kt duranium and nearly 6kt neutronium. The line will pretty much held at current expenditures, but we finally have a surplus – and a growing one. That is becoming relatively less of a matter of discussion in the current environment though. Most of the debate at SPACE is still what to about Lalande 21185 and the prospect of advanced life – a debate that has no forseeable end in sight.

Research & Development

** February 19 – Turret Tracking Speed 2000 km/s completed(Eva Vadnais). Railgun(10cm) is her next objective.

** Mid-May – Clint Wyche’s team completes research into improved terraforming rates. He gets to work on Shield Regeneration Rate, another necessary basic technology required for mounting shields on ships.

** June 7 – Ignacio Bavaro’s team(Meson Focusing) has presented their report. Railgun Launch Velocity is his next project.

** August 16 – Harlan Welle’s team completes Magazine Feed System Efficiency. They move on to Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity.

** November 14 – Karabishi Juishao’s team completes Magazine Ejection System improvement research(80% success rate). Next up is Gauss Cannon Rate of Fire. This is a significant moment as the Ministry of Research & Development indicates this is the final basic combat tech that needs to be researched before an analysis can properly begin. So we are now one research cycle(3-5 years) away from doing that.

** December 25 – Everette Snuggs’ team unveils on Christmas Day plans for Small Cryogenic Transport modules, basically in case of emergencies. He then takes over for Deacon Palmer on Microwave tech so that Palmer can turn his C&P expertise to the matter of improving systems at the research complexes themselves for the purpose of improving efficiency and productivity of our scientific teams – something that is of vital importance.

Earth

March 23 – The first two Perry-class Fuel Harvesters gave the Navy plenty of other activity to look after. Another pair of young lieutenant commanders stave off potential elimination as they are the first to head to Saturn as field testers while two more ships begin construction. They are expected on station before the middle of June.

Late May – 19th Garrison Battalion is complete. Venus is the only populated colony without one, and additional battalions will be assigned to Earth. Brig. Gen. Conrad Brocklehurst heads to Venus as the CO.

Commissioned Officers

Late July – James Earl Jones V has increased his shipbuilding administration bonus to 10%.

Mid - September – Sonny Dean ups Ground Unit Construction speed to 20%.

Early December – Herbert Duling’s political skills continue to improve(30% reliability).

Epsilon Eridani – Ship Commanders Log
JSC Intrepid – Commander Jay Cin III

July 11, 2054 – Set course for asteroid #160, which is only about a 10% deviation from ourcourse towards Epsilon Eridani-A.
July 23 – Asteroid #160 reveals nothing. We set course next for a clump of asteroids ‘behind’ the fourth planet in the same solar orbit. There are 26 of them in quite close proximity, almost exactly 10% of the total asteroids in this system, and a lagrange point in the vicinity as well.
Aug 10 – We’ve reached the asteroid clump and scanning begins.
Sep 4 – The asteroid clump is completely scanned, with nothing having been found. We continue in-system to the third planet’s orbit, just a few days journey, to scan the asteroid clump ‘ahead’ of it.
Sep 16 – Having once again found nothing, we head for the third planet itself. The gas giant is the size of Jupiter and has 14 moons, two of which are habitable and one of which is our secondary target in this system.
Sep 20 – EE3 scanning has commenced, and is expected to take somewhere on the order of a month.
Oct 20 – The third planet reveals no resource deposits of any kind, and the moons around it are next to be hit.
Oct 30 – The first moon(habitable, but at a cost of 5.05) reveals the first deposits of TN minerals outside of Sol! Neutronium(2.52mt at 0.1), Tritanium(508kt at 0.6), Sorium(135kt at 0.1), and Uridium(4.67mt at 0.8). As neither tritanium or uridium are needed, despite the size of the finds this is not a promising target.
Nov 2 – The third moon also has deposits: uridium(215kt at 0.8) and corundium(577kt at 1.0!). That corundium find is highly important of course – efficiently developed, it would end corundium supply issues for generations, perhaps centuries. Epsilon Eridani III is a three-billion-kilometer trips(give or take) for a freighter group from Earth, making it close to five months round-trip. With corundium supplies stable and rising, despite its significance, this find was not deemed important enough to break off and report to Sol high command.
Nov 5 – The process of scanning the tenth moon of III, the best reason to come to this planet, was begun and would take even longer than the planet itself. It is more than two and a half times larger than Earth.
Dec 10 – The tenth moon is a treasure trove of highly unaccessible minerals, unforunately:
Neutronium(48.3mt at 0.1)
Mercassium(26.1mt at 0.1)
Sorium(72.9mt at 0.1)
Corundium(1.74mt at 0.1)
Gallicite(30.7mt at 0.6)
Duranium(109mt at 0.1)
Sadly, the only reason to develop this moon would be in the event of a need for more gallicite.
Four more moons to survey.
Dec. 12 – Having found nothing more, we head to planet II, a terrestrial planet better than nine times more massive than earth. The crushing gravity makes colonizing it impossible. It has two moons, the second of which is the most habitable body in this system.
Dec. 17 – Scanning of Epsilon Eridani-A II begins, and we’ll be here a while. Over a month and a half, given the sheer size of this thing.
Feb. 6 -- Good news: EE II contains every TN mineral, only planet found other than earth that can say that!. Bad news: all are at 0.1 accessibility. At least 24mt of all but tritanium(57 kt). Not that it matters. If they were more accessible, there’d be no need to consider other sources of minerals. Ever.
Feb. 8 – Primary target scanning begins(second of two moons of EE II).
Feb. 15 – Scanning of the moons is complete and we begin the journey back to Sol jump point to present our initial report.
Neutronium: 1.02 mt at 0.9
Mercassium: 2.30 kt at 0.6
Vendarite: 331 kt at 0.6

[sterlingice]

Life! I'll be curious to see how you roleplay this to the public. Also, is it possible to have a game where there are no other civilizations? Where humans are the only ones out there?

Also, with Epsilon Eridani II- is there a way to increase accessibility of minerals? Or are they forever stuck at 0.1? Is there some technology that could make them more accessible?

SI

[Brian Swartz]

No way that I know of to increase it, stuck there forever.

It is possible to play a game as only humans, it depends on how you set things when you set up the game. The default(which we are using) is to have at least one other race and the chance for more to be created(so there's 1-?? of them out there).

[Brian Swartz]

2056 Annual Report

As the Intrepid finally approaches Jump Point Charlie, the Hyperion is cleared for operations and heads out to Jump Point Foxtrot, naturally with the meteoric Commander Dan Spengler assigned as her CO. This pair of jumps will complete initial perusal of the Sol jump locations.

Five days later, the Intrepid reaches Teegarden’s Star on January 16. It’s a very close jump point, just 326m km away from the extremely dim M6-V star. There are 28 asteroids, six planets, and a couple dozen or so moons. None are less than 8 or worse habitability. Sigh. Jay Cin III heads his vessel back to Earth for some well-earned shore leave, well short of the maximum stay but they need to await further instructions from SPACE HQ on what to do next, which won’t be decided until the Hyperion reaches its objective. It is, however, abundantly clear that Epsilon Eridani is our best chance at finding either a reasonably close colony in another system, or a better system further out(via a second jump from there).

On March 10th, the Hyperion makes its jump, and finds Sirius. Siriusly. A binary system, with Sirius A as the primary star and Sirius B the secondary one. A is much larger but also dimmer than our sun, B is relatively tiny orbiting at 20 times the distance earth is from our star, on the order of 3bkm. We are 1.8bkm-plus away, bearing 358. One apparent effect of the binary system, according to our calculations, results in jump point survey locations being very far away(3.5b km for the inner ring).

More importantly, there is some sirius(sorry) potential here. A has two planets. First is a terrestrial with a hilarious 60 colony cost due to the 1450+ surface temperature, the second is a 2.0 habitable terrestrial with a 2.0 habitable moon. It also has 86 asteroids. B sports a dwarf and a gas giant – the gas planet has 23 moons, two of which are 2.7-3.1 habitable and two more in the 4.5-5 range. It’s not as nice as Epsilon Eridani, but better than anything else we’ve seen. The Hyperion will investigate further.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, an oversight is noticed. A big one, that was noticed some time back, but the current maintenance facilities are not nearly large enough to allow the Intrepid to do a full overhaul. It’s decided that the process of enlarging them needs to be dramatically accelerated, and so most of the effort currently going to mine conversions is switched to building more maintenance capacity. Transitioning sooner wouldn’t really have been feasible anyway, due to the need for mines and minerals – but there are some who aren’t buying that explanation.

Shortly after the Hyperion jumps, a report reaches the director’s desk about a certain Mitchell Feeser, recent graduate of the Academy. He’s considered the finest naval officer talent that humanity has produced since the founding of the agency, and is definitely one to watch.

In mid-June, the Hyperion returned and the news was not good. A further investigation might be warranted in the future, but the habitable bodies were all barren. The first phase of jump point investigation was now complete, and there were a few inescapable conclusions:

** The discovery of the wrecks in Lalande 21185 makes preparedness for a likely inevitable first contact all the more urgent. Weapons research needed to continue, should the worst happen.
** Locations suitable for human colonization appear to be rare. Attention should perhaps be given in the near future to terraforming technology. An analysis of terraforming prospects for known habitable bodies has been ordered for the upcoming SoS report.

Finally, a more thorough investigation of Epsilon Eridani was in order, for a number of reasons. One, if duranium could be found, its proximity would make it a good first target for extra-solar colonization – it might be worthwhile even if that isn’t the case, though on a longer time scale. Two, if any of the gas giants or super jovians had sorium, a refueling base could be established in-system. Third, if there were any more jump points reasonably close to the one to Sol, exploring those could possibly provide a system ‘close’ in travel time even if it was two jumps away.

Such an operation, however would require multiple ships operating independently of each other with coordinated activities. That would require a new task force, which would require a command ship with a flag bridge. The possibility of updating the North Carolina class was considered and rejected, since the maintenance capacity and cost required would be considerable. A new design for a minimal command shuttle was assembled and then rejected, because it would require the use of the Wartsila Shipyard, presently at work with the third vessel in the Pioneer class. So there’s was little to be done for now. The best that could be achieved immediately was to send in the Intrepid again, the Hyperion could replace it when the mission time was up, and eventually the navy could work towards a more sizable fleet dedicated to the task.

Commissioned Officers

Early February – Sonny Dean increases his irrelevant terraforming skill to 5%.

Mid June – Rob Nielsen III has been doing something at least, increasing political reliability to 5%.

Early October – Tell Perj Jr. increases Fleet Movement Initiative to 256.

Mid December – Director Herbert Duling ups factory production to 20%, giving himself a much better position in the election which is just a couple of weeks away now.

Sirius Survey
Ship Commander’s Log
Commander Dan Spengler
JSC Hyperion

April 21 – Sirius A II is barren. Not the news we were looking for.
April 25 – The moon is barren as well. We head to Sirius A I since we are here anyway ...
June 4 – Sirius A I has 75mt-plus of duranium, 41+mt gallicite, both are 0.1 accessibility. Pshaw. Back to Sol for more orders.

Research & Development

** April 6 – Joe Tycho’s team completes research on Meson Focal Size. Lab space goes to Palmer’s work on research speed.

** April 20 – Julio Kuchler’s team announces Beam Fire Control Range report – a third lab goes to Palmers work, which should be sufficient.

** June 27 – Wayne Sabagh’s team(Particle Beam range) presents their report. Julio Kuchler takes the space to work on improving Thermal Sensitivity of our sensors.

Earth

Early April – A second pair of Perrys are completed and head to Saturn, work proceeds on a third pair. The afore-mentioned talent earns Feeser one of the new commands.

June 10 – Research Lab completed. Joe Tycho is back after a short break and takes the space for a project on Turret Tracking Speed, hoping to achieve a 50% increase compared to present capabilities. This was assigned because it isn’t a specific weapon path but will benefit numerous weapons systems.

October 5 – FT Apollo is finished, and Lt. Cmdr. Conor Zavier is assigned the interim command.

[sterlingice]

Siriusly
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i116/julie_anne_hall/srsly.jpg

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Before I move on to the next election cycle, here's a new thingy to look at. Behold, the Galactic Map, in all its blocky, super-zoomed in glory:

http://i.imgur.com/vEeb6wb.png (http://imgur.com/vEeb6wb)

The arrangement of systems was done quickly and fairly amateurishly by yours truly. They originally start basically on top of each other and can be moved into pretty much whatever position you want. The best way to make sense of it is to move them a roughly equal distance from each other in most cases. Ignore the directions, they roughly correspond to the direction each jump point is from the Sun, but there's now way to maintain that. For example, it's entirely possible that a jump point 'down' and 'right' in the Teegardens Star system might lead to Luyten 726-8. In that case, I'd simply move the systems around until the links(green lines like the spokes on a wheel) make sense. In some cases that can take some doing.

Which, btw(bonus moment here) I messed up on the exploration of. Why, you didn't ask? Too bad, gonna tell you anyway. Turns out Luyten 726-8 is a binary system as well. I thought the 'B' star was a planet -- that's how unimpressive its surrounding orbits are. Not a huge thing, but made me feel pretty darn stupid. So there it is. As an aside to this aside, something amusing that I read about on the aurora forums was a binary system -- with the secondary star 0.13 light years away. This was the home system for the game(starting with real Sol is optional). With far more advanced technology than we have, the exploratory survey ship required 20 years to get there, with the usual attendant jokes about 'i hope they get along well' and 'their grandkids will have to fly the return trip' and 'hope they brought enough snacks'. We haven't found anything as obscene/rare as that yet, at least.

The purpose of the map is to keep clear which systems lead to which(get a few dozen on there and things will get a little murky without it) in the (dubious) eventuality that SPACE ever makes a proper interstellar empire of itself. This currently obviously shows all the jumps from Sol, we have no idea what other jumps(if any) there are available from the surrounding seven systems.

So, the Galactic Map. If our collective journey is successful it'll expand in time to include dozens or possibly hundreds of systems. If not ... well, we'll have more important things to do. Like go play solitaire.

[Brian Swartz]

STATE OF SPACE, 2057

I. Imperial Holdings
IA. Populated Colonies

Earth(973.2m, 322 CF, 253 CI, 50 OF, 10 FF, 75 REF, 18 RL, 2 AC, 6.8k MF)
Luna(36.11m)
Mars(9.58m)
Titan(5.09m)
Venus(approx. 90k)

Mars has only grown by a half-million in the last four years, Titan by 200k. Luna kept growing for a bit(up almost 7m) but has stalled now as well. The civilian shipping halt has left Earth just continuing to grow. Our homeworld is up more than 77m, with total human population now at 1.024b(up 9.1%).

IB. Outposts

Earth(77 SM, 1 AM, 11.4 eff, 1.84 kt yield) – uridium set to deplete in 3.1 years
Titan(25 AM, 6 eff, 243t)
Venus(7 AM, 24 eff., 233t)
Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 40 eff., 1.75 kt)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 56 eff., 2.41 kt) – duranium(2.8 yrs)
Comas Sola(25 AM, 58 eff, 2.09 kt) – neutronium(4.6 yrs)
Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 942 t)
Triton(21 AM, 30 eff, 756 t)
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 59 eff, 1.73 kt) – corundium(7.2 yrs)
Wolf-Harrington(13.8 AM, 60 eff, 994 t) – vendarite(9.1 yrs)
Prokne(10 AM, 10 eff, 138 t)
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 726 t)
Neujmin(9.8 AM, 49 eff, 576 t)
Borrelly(9.8 AM, 58 eff, 851 t)
Faye(4 AM, 48 eff, 240 t)
Reinmuth(1.8 AM, 47 eff, 101 t) – duranium(7.1 yrs)
Sedna(5 CMC, 16 eff, 1.06 kt)

Total Production: 16.68 kt annual yield, a 5.8% increase or almost a full kiloton per year. The total amount will eventually fall as the comets deplete – the most important thing is keeping the key minerals coming in.

Earth has just over half the mines it did four years ago, and has now been reduced to a relatively minor contributor. The expected depletion times have actually been increased due to the rapid rate of conversion and shipping of mines off-world(at least, until the switch to maintenance facility work last year). It won’t be long until more mines have to be built and the economic focus switches from converting standard to automated to actually adding new mines.

A few minor minerals on comets were depleted, but nothing worth noting. That will change in the coming years, but losing Machholz’s duranium won’t hurt as much with the growth on Triton and Schaumasse that was achieved.

IC. Mineral Stockpiles and Production

Tier A: Uridium(45 kt), gallicite(31 kt), and vendarite(29 kt) are joined by tritanium this time(24 kt)

Tier B: Mercassium(27 kt), corbomite(18 kt), and boronide(19 kt) remain as before. Boronide is seeing more use as a primary component of the fuel tanks used on ships for the navy, but as of yet the stockpile continues to grow.

Tier C: Corundium(1.87 kt) is growing rapidly with the temporary, recent decline in mine conversion; sorium(12.1 kt) is growing as well and will grow a lot more as the Saturn harvesting operation picks up steam.

Tier D: Neutronium(5.99 kt) and duranium(5.35 kt) supplies have never been better, but continuing to grow them is essential. There still isn’t enough for a significant economic expansion.

ID. Income

Taxes: 24.16M
Export Tariffs: 115k
Trade Good Tariffs: 115k
Tourism Fees: 80k

Total: 24.47M

Taxes on civilian shipping don’t bring in a tenth of what they did four years ago. As a result, though direct citizen tax income rose by over two million credits, total income actually shrunk by 3.7 million, over a 13% decline. The good news, I suppose, is that it can’t fall much further – and still dwarfs spending. Just over one million credits comes from the colonies – over 90% is from Earth.

IE. Expenses

Installation Construction: 4.16M
Research: 3.51M
Shipbuilding: 1.82M
Mineral Purchases: 1.25M
GU Maintenance: 134k
GU Training: 83k
Shipyard Modifications: 61k
Maintenance Facilities: 10k

Total: 11.02M

For the first time, there is cause to be just the slightest bit concerned about the financial side. SPACE still made more than twice what it spent, but with the decline in income and a spending rise of almost 22%, there is definitely a need to ensure that trend does not continue indefinitely.

II. SHIPYARDS

IIA. Commerical Yards

Tod & MacGregor(1 slipway, 36.5kt capacity)
P&A Group(2 slipways, 20kt capacity)
** Building 2x Perry-class fuel harvesters
Vickers-Armstrong(2 slipways, 10kt capacity)
** Building 2x Lexington II-class shuttle transports

IIB. Naval Yards

Wartsila A/B & O/Y(1 slipway, 10kt capacity)
** Building Pioneer-class jump scout

III. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

IIIA. Earth

** Maintenance Facility Expansion(50%) – to 10kt, expected to finish in early December
** Research Lab(25%) – one per two years or so at the current rate
** Mine Conversions(10%) – about 3 per year
** Ground Force Training Facility(4%) – 2065
** Naval Shipyard(4%) – spring/summer 2061
** Mass Driver(4%) – summer 2058
** Commercial Shipyard(3%) – 2059/2060

** A new run of infrastructure for the 2% initiative typically siphons off 2% production for 8-10 months.

IV. Research Projects

** Jump Gate Construction(Shannon Patteson) – January 8
** Fuel Consumption Efficiency(Santo Makar) – January 13
** Plasma Carronade(Brandon Grimmett) – March 12
** Ground Unit Strength(Cedrick Wormack) – March/April
** Alpha Shields(Edward Groat) – June
** High-Powered Microwave(Everette Snuggs) – June/July
** Shield Regeneration(Clint Wyche) – Summer 2058
** Railgun Velocity(Ignacio Bavaro) – Summer 2058
** Microwave Focusing(Mike Manaya) – Summer 2058
** Gauss Cannon Velocity(Harlan Welle) – Late 2058
** Figher Production(Curtis Gloster) – Late 2058/Early 2059
** Gauss Cannon Firing Rate(Karabishi Juishao) – Late 2058/Early 2059
** Research Rate(Deacon Palmer, only project with multiple labs(3)) – Winter/Spring 2059
** Railgun(Eva Vadnais) – Winter/Spring 2059
** Thermal Sensor Sensitivity(Julio Kuchler) – 2060/2061
** Turret Tracking Speed(Joe Tycho) – 2061

The research teams haven’t been heard from that much the last couple years, but this shows why. There’s a number of projects due to complete in the next few months, and several more next year.

V. Active Naval Assets

GSV Coontz(1, 2.25kt, 32 crew, 1377 km/s, 130k, gravitational survey)
GEV Essex Iix(2, 2.2kt, 35 crew, 1136 km/s, 60k, geological survey)
FT Fletcher II-xe(7, 36.2kt, 100 crew, 518 km/s, 700k, freighter)
ST Lexington II(8, 1.8kt, 20 crew, 1388 km/s, 30k, transport shuttle)
JS North Carolina(1, 19.2kt, 133 crew, 520 km/s, 250k, large jump ship)
FH Perry(4, 18.95 kt, 98 crew, 263 km/s, 350k, fuel harvester)
JSC Pioneer(2, 10kt, 240 crew, 1000 km/s, 600k, jump scout)
TT Portland(2, 4.3kt, 35 crew, 581 km/s, 60k, troop transport)
CS Spruance-b(1, 20kt, 110 crew, 501 km/s, 250k, colony ship)

Total: 28 vessels(nearly doubled from 17!), 426.7kt, 2.1k crew, 8.61m liters fuel

Available Crew: 71.9k(+ 6.8k)

Nine current ship classes(we had only six before). It’s getting a bit crowded. Overall, the navy basically doubled in the last four years. We’re at about 32.5m liters and holding steady, but that number doesn’t seem quite as huge as it used to.

VI. Active Army Assets

** Low-Tech Armour Division(5)
** Low-Tech Infantry Division(10)
** Garrision Battalion(6)

Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 780,000(4% increase)

VII. Civilian Shipping Corporations

Voliva Carrier Company(26 ships, 310k annual income)
Jensrud Transport & Trading(16)
Everton Shipping & Logistics(4)
Presnar Freight(4)
Forbius Carrier Limited(1)
Oullet Shipping(1)
Tolles Transport & Logistics(3)

55 total, just up from 52 four years ago, but Voliva is the only active one left. They effectively have a monopoly on the virtually non-existent industry, which generates just 5% of the income it did in our last report. Voliva has more cash on hand(516k) than the others combined. Meanwhile, 350,000 colonists sit in colony ships with nowhere to go. What a mess the corporations have created.

VIII. SPACE Leadership Prospectus

** Naval Officers: 33 of 72 assigned(45.8%)
** Ground Forces Officers: 21 of 33(63.6%)
** Civilian Administrators: 18 of 26(69.2%)
** Scientists: 16 of 28(57.1%)

Overall: 88 of 159(55.3%) – up a full 10% from 45 last report

19 new positions were created, while the overall number of leaders remains exactly the same as it was before. The outlook is declining for researchers as more focused and expensive projects lie ahead, but for the other three branches it definitely appears that growth opportunities will continue to be strong. SPACE continues to need more than a few good men and women to keep the wheels moving, and early dismissals are unquestionably on the decline.

IX. Terraforming Review

After reviewing the situation, there’s less to say about this than I expected. But first, a bit of a OOC primer on how terraforming works. I’ll try not to make it too long/dense, its one of those things that is far easier to wrap my head around than to explain cogently. There’s four basic factors to a planet’s suitability for colonization: gravity, breathable atmosphere, temperature, and atmospheric pressure. Searching for colony prospects, we must first satisfy the zero-tolerance conditions. That is, a body must be:

** Terrestrial. I.e., not a gas giant or super jovian, since obviously those we can’t land on.
** Somewhat close to Earth’s size, although there’s a wide range. Asteroids aren’t big enough, and the largest terrestrials are too big to fit the gravity requirement.

Basically, anything that fits the gravity range and has a hard surface to land and build on can be colonized, technically. It may well not be practical, however, and usually isn’t. As an extreme example, Luytens 726-8 B I has a surface temperature of over 2330 celcius. That’s five times further from our habitable range as Mercury or Venus, and Venus is four times easier to colonize. Not gonna happen.

The next things to look for then, are temperature and an atmosphere that is both breathable(reasonable range of oxygen is tolerated, no dangerous gases like neon or methane) and within a suitable pressure range. A body with no atmosphere would take almost 300 years at current tech levels for a singe installation to terraform, by adding an atmosphere thick enough(about a third of Earth’s is required). Temperature is a function both of the type/pressure of atmosphere and distance from the primary star, so that’s only partly changeable.

Ok, so a couple of examples that we know. Mars has only slightly less gravity than earth, and while it is too cold that issue(1.6 colony cost) is slightly less of a hindrance than not having a breathable atmosphere(2.0). The problem is it has almost no atmosphere, so making the atmosphere breathable both in terms of sufficient oxygen and the right percentage of it would take about 270 years(again for one installation). This thicker atmosphere would also warm the planet up some, improving the temperature issue as more heat is trapped. In the case of Mars if we put a lot of effort into it and built, say, 20 or so terraforming ships/installations then inside of a generation you would have an improved planet, and eventually the capacity for one that does not require any infrastructure at all. It isn’t out of the question that we might eventually do something like this, though certainly it’s not a priority right now.

Venus, on the other hand, has 25 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth. That would need to be changed, and would take those same 20 terraformers more than 4,000 years to do so. Not gonna happen. Luna is similar to Mars because it has no atmosphere.

All of this leads to the conclusion that any place we would wish to terraform, particularly outside of Sol, has to have resources beckoning us there and then also be in a reasonable range of practicality. There are a number of moon-like objects out there(no resources, no atmosphere, reasonable otherwhise), but also little reason to put that kind of massive effort in.

The one distinct exception that we have found is Sirius-A II. Now of course we haven’t found significant resources in the system, so unless a further scan revealed more we still wouldn’t wish to do it, but the planet has an atmosphere almost half as thick as Earth’s, 20% oxygen. It needs about 25% more oxygen than what it has to be enough for breathability, something that could be accomplished within 17 years by a single installation or faster by a few more. Temperature(64 celcius) would still be an issue. This could be reduced but not eliminated(it’s just too close to the star) by gradually removing some nitrogen and making the atmosphere somewhat thinner. In all, eventually Sirius-A II could eventually become a planet with somewhat less than 1.0 colony cost. Some infrastructure still required, but a relatively small amount. Any significant local duranium source might allow it to eventually produce it’s own infrastructure, etc.

Bottom line: terraforming isn't a near-future priority, but the advance of science in many fields is expected to make it both more viable and more necessary as our holdings grow.

[Brian Swartz]

2057 ELECTION

Herbert Duling was obviously the favorite, espescially after his December Surprise shoring up his most glaring weakness. A win would net the 43-year-old a record fourth term as director. Eighmy was in poor health, a fact that prevented him from even making the final ballot this time: a similar fate kept Sonny Dean out. This left only two challengers: India Rakes and Herman Fox, both of whom were about equally dark horses. In reality, this election was over before it began. Duling has become virtually unbeatable.

As it was, he ran a near-perfect campaign to eliminate any doubt quickly. All three candidates acquitted themselves very well in fact. Duling had 39.2% of the final tally, with Rakes(31.8%) beating out Fox(29.0%) for second. Once again there were no surprises. The only real news was the fading away of Eighmy as a serious challenger due to his health issues, and the emergence of Fox as more of a major player in SPACE politics.

Policy Review

Most things stay as they are, as one would expect with the incumbent director returning. Exploration is still waiting on survey operations from Epsilon Eridani which are expected to take some years. The improved mineral situation though does allow for some modest increase in activity, which for the moment will take the form of overdue modernization of some navy elements. All the shipyards could do with adding slipways, but for now the P&A Group is the only one that actually will get to do that right away.

More critically, a number of ship classes will get upgrades transitioning to duranium armor from conventional. Naturally the freighters will benefit the most from this. The benefits, by class, will be as follows from the lighter armor:

Fletcher freighers – 1700t lighter, 1.4b km longer range, 22 km/s increase in speed(518 to 540), even about a .5% decrease in cost to boot
Lexington shuttles – 200t lighter, 174 km/s increase in speed(1388 to 1562, even with more fuel added)

The Spruance(colony ship), Essex(geosurvey), and Coontz(gravsurvey) also need to upgrade and would see fairly similar benefits, but that will not be done for some time as the shipyards will be otherwhise occupied. The shuttles and freighters comprise the majority of the fleet, and so they
will be given priority.

These refits are expected to begin later this year, but the retooling process begins immediately.

[Brian Swartz]

Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. – 11th out of 17, remains on board the Southampton for another tour. He’s got almost two decades in, and for some time has seemed to be settled in as a run-of- the-mill ship commander, likely to remain at the current rank for the duration.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III – 34th out of 50. He’s moving up, but not nearly fast enough.

Brig. Gen. Dolph Stallone – 3rd out of 5. One more tour with the 18th Garrison Battalion on Mars – she’s up for mandatory retirement after this.
Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers – At 50 years old, he’s got a decade left and is still the big cahuna as he has been for nearly three decades now.

Sonny Dean(3) – Failing health had him reassigned to Wolf-Harrington, a major demotion from Venus. It remains to be seen if he can recover from this, both personally and in terms of his career.
James Earl Jones V(4) – From Luna to Schaumasse, where he was given a good opportunity and didn’t do much with it. He’s been demoted to the asteroid Prokne now, a less lucrative mining outpost.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer(CP 45) – Investigating systems to improve research rates, as the slow march of science continues.
Joe Tycho(EW 25) – He’s made good use of his chance and become an important scientist, though certainly not an elite one – definitely a part of the regular rotation. At the moment, he’s in the early stages of improving Turret Tracking Speed.

[Brian Swartz]

2057 ANNUAL REPORT

The major news of 2057 was that, beginning in the first months of the year, civilian shipping picked up steam again. Just as mysterious as its decline was its sudden reemergence, with the reasons for the increased activity completely unknown. Regardless, infrastructure espescially and also colonists flowed again all year long, with the resurgent profitability of intra-system trade highlighted by a new firm, Abair Shipping, which began operations in May.

SPACE’s investment in Venus was completed this year, with another 35 units of infrastructure taking the planet to 100k supported population. Mercury is next on the hit list, and will take a few more years before we head out to the jovian moons.

Civilian expansion also continued at record pace on Sedna. An incredible five mining complexes were added, doubling its output to over a kiloton of duranium! Sedna now approaches 30% of our total intake on that score.

Otherwhise, the year was filled with a lot of personnel shuffling, new appointments, and a number of new research projects completed and ships built. It was a busy year, but a lot of minor things getting done, nothing of dramatic importance other than the development in civilian activity. No new word yet from the Intrepid, which has been out of contact for a year and a half in Epsilon Eridani and is expected to return next summer at the lastest due to mission time requirements for maintenance.

Commissioned Officers

Administrative assignments are usually blah, but it was worth noting that Titan was handed out to Delois Woznicki. At 29, she has emerged as the top potential rival(really, only potential rival) to director Duling, but lacks the experience to manage a settlement of Earth’s size. Titan is her first full-fledged colony, having handled the important mining outpost on the comet Machholz with excellent results for the past few years. It will be interesting to see how she performs there.

Meanwhile, Alberto Eighmy has been demoted to the comet Comas Sola, an important position but generally below someone of his stature, and Sonny Dean will be stationed at the moderately-important comet Wolf-Harrington – a return to his most recent assignment prior to Venus. Unless their health improves, both men are finished as contenders for the directorship.

Elsewhere, Cruz Luscombe gets his first assignment(comet Borrelly). On the other end of the scale, for all of Derek Latch’s recent improvements, he will be unemployed due to poor health, a major setback for a promising career. The navy has a switch at their top ship command, with the more experienced Anton Ericson taking over for Dan Spengler on the Hyperion. It seems Spengler can’t catch a break.

Early March – 13 officers are dismissed, 11 from the navy. With expanding opportunities, new ships, etc. this is expected to be the last culling of this size, though a few more may go in a year or two.

Early April – Captain Lucas Marini, longtime Public Affairs officer at Fleet HQ, has been killed in an accident. Anton Ericson’s tour aboard the Hyperion is short indeed, and a shuffling of commands is now done as Dan Spengler retakes the post there. Ericson is just 35, a full decade younger than any of the other four current captains.

Late April – James Earl Jones V increases Logistics to 5%, continuing his pattern of working on skills virtually useless to his present or likely future assignments. In July, he did it again, with administration rating increasing to an unusable 5.

Late August– Dr. Rosa Suda is ready for work, and is twice the expert in Missiles & Kinetic Weapons(MK) that any of our current researchers are. She’s a welcome addition and will have priority in any new tasks in that field.

Late November – Joe Tycho’s admin rating is up to 5.

Mid-December – Deacon Palmer’s admin rating is up to 9.

Research & Development

** January 7 – Small Jump Gate Construction Module research is complete(Dr. Shanon Patteson). She starts work on increasing factory output – she’ll need help with that down the road, as the initial completion date is more than 12 years out.

** January 14 – Santo Makar’s team presents it’s report, showing an increase in fuel efficiency techniques(0.7 liters per EPH). Instead of adding the space to Patteson’s work, as would normally be sop, as our top propulsion scientist he begins work on nuclear pulse engines, the next generation of baseline engine technology. The nuclear pulse concept involves a much more efficiently managed reaction, resulting in less wasted energy.

** March 13 – Brandon Grimmett’s team has completed research into Plasma Carronade technology. His team begins work on Mobile Infantry Battalion, the next progression of ground combat units which will provide the first TN-based offensive capability to our armies.

** March 30 – Ground Unit Strength research is finished. Each man in the new units is now as effective as approximately 14 were pre-TN technology.

** April 2 – Cedric Wormack’s team completes work on general increases in ground unit combat strength. He gets to work next on a big project, Improved Command and Control. This is an investigation into the systems and logistical techniques needed to build another level of administrative authority for SPACE – Sector Command. Such a structure would provide political and administrative oversight of all worlds and outposts in a system, and the office of the director would be moved to this location.

This is now a third project in desperate need of additional lab space. Once some of the less elite scientists finish their current projects, that shift will occur.

** In game terms, one-quarter of the Sector Governor’s bonuses are conferred to everything in its jurisdiction, so an individual with significant and varied skills such as Director Duling would be able to confer significant improvements not just on Earth, but across the entire system.

** June 13 – Alpha Shields completed(Dr. Edward Groat). Improved Construction Rate gets the lab space.

** June 23 – Microwave Focal Size(Everette Snuggs) is completed. The space goes to Improved Command and Control(Cedrick Wormack).

Earth

February – A third garrison battalion unit is trained on earth, and some of the existing infantry divisions are converted into cadres(personnel and equipment used as a starting point to reduce the cost of new unit training). The Armour divisions will remain to give earth’s ground forces a limited offensive capability. For our garrison battalions, this effectively reduces cost and training time to just a third of what it was originally.

March 20 – With the completion of the latest pair of shuttle tranports at the Vickers-Armstrong Shipyard, refitting all of the Lexingtons to the new II(d) standard with double the fuel and duranium exteriors instead of the heavier conventional materials begins. It’s cheaper than building a new ship, but only by about a third. Each set of refits will take a little over three
months, putting the total time of all ten vessels at a little shy of a year and a half.

April 27 – A third pair of Perry fuel harvesters are finished an en route to Saturn.

June 7 – The first two Lexington II-d refits are completed.

Mid-July – The refit of the Apollo begins, the first of the freighters to undergo the process. It’s expected to take nearly six months each.

September – With the completion of the third and final Pioneer-class vessel, a new ship is designed by the engineers – the Belknap-class command shuttle.

Size: 2.0 kt
Crew: 50
Speed: 1250 km/s
Range 79.1b km

This is the first ship to have the classified module known as the ‘flag bridge’, mobile command and control for multiple task forces. Logistically, it is a requirement for SPACE to be able to effectively coordinate efforts in another system, as anything close to real-time communication with Fleet HQ is not possible. Retooling efforts begin at Fleet HQ immediately, and construction of the first ship is expected to begin before the end of the year.

September 18 – The JSC Excelsior is completed, and Chong Vaugh named as the CO.

November 5 -- Another round of refits for Lexington II-d are completed.

Mid-November – Voliva launches the first civilian fuel harvester. Looks like they are intending to steal some of the Saturn fuel! The bastards! Of course, there’s plenty for everyone, but still – the bastards!! However, it seems they are headed for the more accessible but also more distant and less plentiful concentrations in the atmosphere of Uranus.

December 1 – Maintenance facility expansion is completed on Earth, and the Hyperion begins an overhaul. With capacity now available for it, Duling orders the first expansion of Earth’s industrial production in decades. The rule of thirds is reinstigated: a third of capacity goes to new research labs, a third to general-purpose, and a third to addressing industrial needs, either in terms of mine conversions or factory conversions. Most will still go to the mines, but the order is given to gradually convert 53 more conventional industry to construction factories. Total economic conversion is still just under 75% complete, and this will up that number to 80% over the new few years under the current plan.

December 18 – Retooling is finished and the first Belknap-class command ship begun at Wartsila.

[Brian Swartz]

2058 ANNUAL REPORT(truncated)

The first half of the year turned out to be a whole lot of blah, to the point where there really isn’t much to headline. The February promotion of Col. Anton Engelhardt to being the youngest Brigadier General by a full 15 years was probably the highlight of it all. He was shortly afterwards dispatched with a garrison battalion to the newest colony on Mercury to lead policing efforts there ...

In May, Earth reached the one billion mark in total human citizens.

And then June arrived. Still no sign of the Intrepid, which had been growingly suspected of having a mechanical failure in Epsilon Eridani. As it had now passed the the end limit of its mission timeframe, the Hyperion was sent for a quick investigative long-range scan of the system.

In the early morning of June 11, the Hyperion returned to Sol space. Shortly afterwards, a brief public statement by SPACE’s press secretary indicated that Director Duling would be taking the unprecedented step of a brief public statement on the Intrepid’s situation later that evening ...

Earth

January 5 – The Apollo is finished with the refit process, and tasked with the first infastructure deliveries to Mercury while the Yellowstone takes it’s place getting the new lighter armor.

January 21 – Another set of shuttle refits is finished, and another pair begins.

Early March – With small pockets of colonists arriving on Mercury and the infrastructure shipment complete, Derek Latch is sent as the first governor after over a year cooling his heels.

April 7 – Last set of Lexington refits is completed, and work begins on a new pair to once again expand the shuttle fleet.

April 9 – A research lab completed, and added to the efforts on the Nuclear Pulse Engine.

Mid-April – Earth’s mass drivers are back up to the desired 25kt annual capacity, and work begins on a spaceport to expedite shipping operations.

May 13 – A fourth pair of Perry’s is constructed. Given a marginal level of inaccessibility in Saturn’s sorium(0.7), each has been found to produce about 100k liters per year, or a little less. Given this, at least 15-20 are needed so there is a lot of work to do yet before earth’s refineries can be shut down.

Civilian Operations

Early January – A second fuel harvester is launched by Voliva – looks like they are serious about getting an independent source of fuel. Interestingly, their design is about three times as large as ours(60 kt-plus) and also much slower(just 100 km/s). It’ll take them most of a year to
reach Uranus at that speed ...

Commissioned Officers

Early March – James Earl Jones V increases administrative rating to 6.

Mid-May – James Earl Jones V increases Factory Production to 5%.

[Brian Swartz]

2058.6.11.19.0
SPACE HQ
New York

Duling’s statement was brief, and the director did not take any questions after highlighting a few main points:

** The Hyperion’s scan of Epsilon Eridani had revealed the existence of wreckage 2.7b km from the jump point in that system. The wreckage is believed to be the remains Intrepid, which is presumed lost along with all on board, including Commander Jay Cin III, one of the navy’s best. This announcement was briefly delayed in part of out of respect for the next of kin of the 241 who served on mankind’s first ship capable of interstellar travel, the first starship ever, to coin a phrase.

** In keeping with SPACE’s commitments, the highest level of transparency and forthrightness would be maintained on the investigation into this disaster. At present the circumstances and causes were unknown, and Duling stressed the need to avoid rampant speculation and jumping to conclusion(not that anyone expects the various conspiracy theorists on the extranet to actually comply with this).

** In order to honor the brave men and women aboard the Intrepid, properly steward SPACE’s resources, prevent future reoccurences, and honor the trust of humanity in their efforts, SPACE will be undertaking an investigative mission which will launch within days. To maintain the promised level of transparency, a number of high-ranking officials from all branches of the service will be sent to independently verify the results of the mission. It will involve all three SPACE-operated jump-capable vessels: the JSC Hyperion, JSC Excelsior, and the JS Velociraptor. The Velociraptor and and Excelsior will transit the jump point back and forth to keep communication lines open between Fleet HQ, themselves as the jump point ships, and the Hyperion which will journey to the wreckage for a close-range scan to verify its identity, search for any possible survivors though that possibility is known to be remote, and to ascertain the cause of this tragedy.

[sterlingice]

Jump Point Delta was not Epsilon Eridani, correct?

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Epsilon Eridani was behind Alpha(although they've now been renamed for the system they go to). It's the best system and the closest jump point(just inside Jupiter orbit) approx. 740m km from the sun.

[Uncle Briggs]

Re: terraforming, if you scroll to the bottom of the list of gasses there is "anti-greenhouse gas" which will allow you to convert those warm planets to 0 colony cost. It is effective enough that Mercury is more easily terraformed than Jupiter's moons.

[Brian Swartz]

Interesting, didn't know they were nearly that effective. I'm curious, does the temperature update immediately as the atmosphere changes or is it a gradual thing over time?

[Uncle Briggs]

Temp changes gradually as you add/remove gases. There's a formula somewhere to figure how much is needed, maybe in the wiki. But it's easier to back up the database and go into SM mode and fiddle with the terraform values to see how feasible a terraform is.

[Brian Swartz]

Ok so some really important stuff is happening(in Aurora). Unfortunately I lost some of the writeup I think in getting my new PC going, which also had its issues -- hard drive was a dud so I'm still using the old one while that is rectified. All of which is to say regular progress will continue but I don't know how soon that will be, probably will end up summarizing Operation Post Mortem sometime this weekend and then getting into the reaction to it after that which is the current game date. I'm unlikely to progress the game much until the computer issues are sorted, but it won't take that long -- having a brother who does this stuff for a living build the thing helps http://aurora2.pentarch.org/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif. In the long run the new system is going to be much better for the game, its just annoying me right now.

[sterlingice]

We're not waiting with baited breath. Better to get the story right and take an extra couple of days than to rush the story.

SI

[Brian Swartz]

** OOC Note: I intended to write a dramatic speech/press conference at the end of this, but after several drafts I couldn't get it the way I wanted. I'm not that comfortable with writing specific dialogue/speeches, etc. so I just decided to leave it as a summary and put the rest of that to the reader's imagination.**

OPERATION POST MORTEM: TIMELINE

** July 30, 2058 -- The JSC Hyperion reaches the wreckage and makes a thorough close-range scan. No signs of life or anything out of the ordinary in the sector of space other than the destroyed ship. The decision is made to scan a nearby jump point location for possible point of entry into Epsilon Eridani before returning to Sol.

** August 2 -- Halfway or so to the jump survey location, a massive active gravitational sensor is detected, about 250-300m km away(note: I'm still getting used to accurately measuring distances and am not that good at it yet). The Hyperion immediately changes course to rendezvous with the other ships at the Sol jump point. The other ship moves to intercept, and is much faster, easily closing the gap.

** August 3, 5:34 AM -- Two flights of 10 missiles each are detected in close proximity to the Hyperion. Less than ten seconds later, the ship is destroyed by six to seven impacts. Almost half the crew makes it to lifepods, but these have only a two-week reserve of supplies and nobody can make it that far. On board are 240 crew, Commander Dan Spengler, and official observers Gov. Herman Fox and Gov. Cruz Luscombe.

The Velociraptor and Excelsior are ordered back to Earth immediately. They couldn't reach the lifepods until twice the two-week time expired, and could do nothing about it if they got there with no cryogenic storage, recovery apparatus, etc.

Director Herbert Duling secretly pauses several research projects to get the top scientists to SPACE HQ to assist in a group studying the sensor logs and other aspects of these events

** August 11 -- With the Excelsior approaching Earth, available time for delaying a public statement is up and a press conference called at SPACE HQ. Flanked by Chief of the Navy Ellie Camble, Chief of the Army Sterling Silvers, and several of the top scientists, Herbert Duling explains the fate of the Hyperion, though some details are left out(and the wrecks in Lalande 21185 are still classified discoveries as well).

Duling summarizes the mission, commends the heroism of the men and women of both ships(Intrepid and Hyperion), and then turns his attention to SPACE's response to these events. He stresses the strength humanity has shown in unifying after decades of war and successfully pursuing peace in the last 30+ years, he emphasizes that the attacks in Epsilon Eridani were ted were completely unprovoked and conducted by an enemy that was either unwilling or unable to communicate with our ships. Despite humanity's well-earned distaste for war, war was indeed upon us once again, with our foe an alien race of some kind with technology far beyond our own current capabilities.

** Facing this new threat would require a single-minded focus. A shift in priorities was required. The 2% Initiative and all further interstellar explorations were halted for the time being, with the Ministry of Resource Development confident that enough resources were available in Sol so long as it remained secure to supply humanity's needs for decades to come. It was no longer possible to view long-term economic prosperity as the only goal -- that must take somewhat of a back seat now.

** The top priority to pursue is to know our new enemy: intelligence. Citing the universally recognized need for this, from both BoG(Board of Governors) and the scientific community, Duling announced that SPACE's approach would be to first increase sensor capabilities in Sol.

** Development of a sensor buoy, and if needed a carrier vessel to deploy them at all seven Sol jump points.

** Expansion of deep space tracking stations on Earth and deployment of smaller ones at least on Titan and possibly on other colonies.

** Basic passive sensors will be deployed as soon as possible on all SPACE-operated vessels, military or commercial grade.

** A shift in research focus to improving our relative technology level in sensors and propulsion(espescially reducing thermal emissions to become less visible to the enemy's passive sensors) as a top priority. Economic techs were still important, but less so in comparison now to what the military would need.

** A full weapons review, which was still a couple years away, would be conducted as soon as possible with an eye to defense of Sol first.

CLASSIFIED BRIEFING

Sensor logs indicate that the Intrepid was destroyed in similar fashion to the Hyperion. Only one enemy vessel was detected, but it was capable of a top speed of over 6k km/s, four times that of our fastest ships, and the missiles which destroyed the Hyperion were tracked at speeds of at least 20k km/s, possibly closer to 30k.

It seems likely that they aliens destroyed our ships to keep us from something in that area of Epsilon Eridani, given that both vessels were attacked in the same general area of space. Perhaps a jump point to a more important system, since they don't seem to have moved and earlier investigation of the inner system brought no indications of an alien prescence in the system, though all this is merely educated guestimation. We just plain don't know. What we do know is they appear to be powerful enough that they could wipe us out on a whim if they chose to do so -- at the speed of their vessels, they could have already reached Earth if they'd wanted to and knew where the jump was.

The internal conclusion of SPACE is that most likely our technological primitiveness is actually an advantadge in this case: we are as threatening to them as a man might consider an insect to be. You don't go out of your way to kill an insect where it lives, you just swat it away if it annoys you, then go back to what you were previously doing. Most likely we are essentially beneath their notice, unworthy of significante effort. Furthermore, the wrecks in Lalande 21185 indicate it is very possible that we may have stumbled into the middle of an interstellar war between multiple alien species. In this case they would have bigger problems to deal with, espescially if they were on the losing end of that battle. The assessment at the moment is that there are almost certainly at least two alien species operating in known space because of that, possibly more(if the ship in Epsilon Eridani doesn't belong to either faction involved).

In any case, our best chance at survival is in getting better intelligence and developing the ability to wage war in space, regardless what the enemy decides to do or what their undetermined motivations are. A diplomatic solutions seems highly unlikely given their 'just attack' stance against the Hyperion and presumably the Intrepid as well, but if one is possible it will be best served by not again provoking in Epsilon Eridani an enemy we have no way of hurting at present.

The sensor buoys at the jump points and tracking stations on Earth that will be built are to some extent political measures -- it won't do any good if our naval combat capability isn't up to the task. However it is also true that the Navy needs better intel in order to intelligently design ships which have the best chance of defending humanity against the alien threat.

[sterlingice]

Love that this dynasty is back. It's my favorite to read currently (and that's nothing against the others I read).

Is there a way to make some sort of orbital defenses near the jump point? And, if so, are they resource efficient (as in would they actually do anything) or is it just better to use the resources to bulk up your ships for defense?

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Thanks for the kind words SI! I'm glad you enjoy it, gives me more motivation to keep going.

As far as orbital defences go, the problem with that is they need time for maintenance overhauls and shore leave unless they orbit a colony(no way to make a colony on/near the jump point itself). You could make a station and have it hauled there and hauled back -- if you had tractor beam technology, which we don't yet. However, there's at least two jumps(maybe more) that aliens have access to.

Right now SPACE is in a situation of wanting the initial naval defense force of Sol to be mobile until we know more about the surrounding systems. And then there's also that whole issue of not actually being able to build any kind of defense force quite yet ...

[Brian Swartz]

2058 Annual Report(conclusion)

It is one thing to make a fine speech, and another to back it up. Looking at the research picture, there was one decidedly inconvenient fact: the next generation of engines is in fact still coming, but not for almost three years. In other circumstances, that time might have been somewhat shortened by adding a few more labs, and building any new classes of ships delayed long enough to wait a couple of years for it. The present political environment demanded action, and there was too much else going on to just yank the rug out from under all of the other research projects in order to rush the engine tech. This meant there was really only one choice: get moving on designs that would cease to be state-of-the-art before their maiden tour was even completed. Wasteful, yet unavoidable. Given the growing size of the navy, SPACE was now on a path where refitting will be a constant process for at least the next decade, and perhaps indefinitely. Currently nearly six million are employed at the shipyards, more than 20% of those in the planet-based construction sector and more than any other industrial concern -- they will be quite busy, and those numbers will only grow.

Another result of the growing and more military-oriented navy is the establishment of contracts with a number of firms to provide the necessary components. SPACE turned to GEI (Gradient Electronics, Inc.) for another first: a line of active sensors for use in the new buoys which would be stationed at jump points. A good amount of debate went into how large the buoys should be, how much to invest in each one, but in the end the Sentinel 275 was chosen. This suite is capable of detecting the smallest of missiles almost 150k km away and more importantly a ship of any size 1.37 km out, the maximum range of the suite. Of course a design with a higher resolution could increase the range of ship detection without the missile capability, but this should be more than enough distance to find anything entering the jump point and some missile capability was also desired in a small package.

Secondly, JPS(Johnson Propulsion Systems) is favored for work on manuevering thrusters needed to maintain position relative to the jump point for the buoys. The JPS NT-15 will thankfully not require much development effort as it is by far the smallest and least powerful engine to be put into space to date.

HISS(Hyabushi International Sensor Systems) was contracted for a trio of projects, the small declassified active, thermal, and electromagnetic systems for use on commercial ships such as the shuttles and freighters.

Each of these needed laboratory space and a project lead, and several lesser-known scientists found themselves switched over to a new project or out of work for the time being. Among them was Joe Tycho, whose work on increasing turret tracking speed was among the deprioritization casualties. Most of the space, however, came from taking resources away from existing projects. This slowed down needed economic research in most cases, but there simply was no easy choice. Most of the new projects would not take long(two to three months) to prototype, with available space shunted into the more involved Sentinel 275 when possible.

Earth's industrial priorities also changed immediately. Work on a new academy for the leaders that would be needed for the new responsibilities(mostly ships) and deep space tracking stations began at once, with economic investment dropping from a third to a fifth to allow for this requirement. Shipyard priorities changed as well, with expansions required to the larger commercial yards to allow for the refits which would make all vessels somewhat larger. In the case of the Perry fuel harvesters, it was also clear that they simply weren't big enough for the growing needs of the navy. Much higher-capacity harvesters would be required before long, so the P&A Group began an indefinite expansion immediately upon completing it's third slipway.

In mid-November, the new commercial sensors were all ready and the yards began retooling for the three primary classes of refits: Fletcher III-class freighters, Lexington III-class shuttle transports, and Perry II-class fuel harvesters. The shuttles will begin their refits before the end of the year, while the others will take longer to prepare the shipyards for that to begin. The Perrys are the lowest priority, as once a deep space scanner is deployed on Titan, their sensors will become merely a redundancy. In terms of cost, the shuttles are now a third more expensive, with the freighters seeing a much smaller comparative increase(about 6%). Speed impacts are largely marginal, with the shuttles again seeing the biggest reduction(down to just under 1400 km/s).

Later in the month, the Sentinel 275 is finished, and the new sensor buoy design finalized and dubbed the Forestal.

Size: 288 tons
Max. Speed: 347 km/s
Maintenance Life: 28+ years
Crew: 10

It is just a fraction of shuttle size, a little faster than the Perry harvesters but well short of the freighters. The first few will be able to make their assignments on their own, but for effective deployment another class will need to be designed to ferry them around. That will probably wait until the next generation of engines, however. The fighter factories on Earth are sufficient to produce about three per year, so it will take five years to build enough to man all of the jump points. Technically, this is SPACE's first 'fighter' class ship, though it is of course anything but a fighter.

By the end of the year, only one of the basic weapons techs remains to be finished. Completion of that is expected late next year, with lab space juggled to ensure it will roughly coincide with the finalizing of the theoretical work on the nuclear pulse engine. Work has begun on a weapons review that will be presented to the Director at that time, and there will be some critical decisions to be made. Meanwhile, it appears that the aliens in Epsilon Eridani have no intention of entering Sol yet. Humanity can only hope that we continue to be irrelevant to them at least until the point where we have the capability to confront them ...

　
Research & Development

** September 8 -- Fighter Production Rate(Dr. Curtis Gloster)
** September 30 -- Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity(Dr. Harlan Welle)
** October 8th -- JPS NT-15(Rosemary Urenda). The engine is now ready, but the sensors are still two months away.
** October 10th -- HISS thermal commercial sensors completed(Dr. Delmer Ytuarte)
** November 8th -- Late as usual, Dr. Elwood Tousant's team has finished the report on the HISS commercial gravitational sensor array.
** November 10th -- HISS Thermal sensor array(Dr. Billie Allington) is the final piece of the puzzle for the commercial refits.
** November 23 -- Sentinel 275(Dr. Bessie Wallander) is completed. With this, the new sensor buoy design can be finalized. The lab space is reassigned, split fairly evenly between the remaining basic weapons techs and accelerating other critical projects.
** December 1 -- December 1st -- 10cm Railgun(Eva Vadnais)
** December 1 -- Gauss Cannon Rate of Fire(Karabishi Juishao)

　
Commissioned Officers

Early October -- Herbert Duling's political reliability increases to 35%. As has happened every time so far in his career, he has successfully navigated the Epsilon Eridani crisis in the minds of humanity.

Mid-October -- Sonny Dean's ground unit construction speed is up to 25%

Mid-November -- As India Rakes continues to improve her skills in the wake of the year's revelations, Derek Latch(governor of Mercury) demonstrates that SPACE was indeed right to limit his appointments in the wake of failing health. Not yet 40 years old, Latch is found dead of natural causes. Salvador Loving is dispatched to replace him.

The big-picture takeaway here is that Duling and Rakes continue to tighten their grip on the SPACE administrative beauracracy. It's really hard to imagine anyone challenging them in the near future.

Earth

October 4th -- A fourth commercial shipyard completed, to be known as ENDM(Estalerios Navais do Montego). There is no construction currently planned, but it immediately expands with a goal of 20kt capacity, filling a middle ground between the smaller Vickers-Armstrong yard and the two larger yards(P&A Group, Tod & MacGregor)

November 6th -- The first of the now-obsolete Belknap-class command ships is finished. It will now be not only the first, but the only. Fleet HQ didn't even bother assigning a CO this close to new tour assignments in a couple of months.

December 15 -- The Custer refit is completed, and retooling begins for the Fletcher III, the freighter class redesign with sensors included. It is estimated that the Tod & MacGregor will be ready for the first refit late next summer.

December 19 -- The first pair of Lexingtons begin the process of getting refitted with their new sensors. Each is expected to take a little under three months.

[Brian Swartz]

Brigadier Generals Dolph Stallone and Angela Bankson hit mandatory retirement. That leaves the Army with just five generals left, and it is expected that a colonel or two will be promoted soon to make up the slack. Both had served since SPACE's inception 34 years ago, and there are a rapidly dwindling few who can say that. The army also loses two of its top three colonels for the same reason, so it's definitely a changing of the guard.

Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr -- 8th out of 15. Now 40, Perj is in the middle of a very steady, highly respectable career. He's set to remain in Saturn orbit as the CO of one of the fuel harvesters.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III -- 27th out of 47. The cutoff for commands is at 23 right now, and Nielsen has another year before he'll be considered for auto-termination, so it looks like it'll come right down to the wire for him. He could make it, he could just miss.

Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers -- The retirements make Silvers, now 52, as old as any of the army generals as he winds down his career. He's the standard by which all others are judged.

Sonny Dean(3) -- Governor of Wolf-Harrington. At 51, with declining health, it appears he's in the twilight of a mostly strong administrative career.
James Earl Jones V(6) -- Governor of Prokne. Since his tour their started a couple years ago, nothing's been heard from him.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer(CP 45) -- In the final stretch of work on improving research rate, one of several priority research projects for SPACE at the moment.
Joe Tycho(EW 25) -- A casualty of the Epsilon Eridani crisis, his project was yanked and is still in limbo, as is Tycho who awaits his next assignment.

[Tellistto]

Nice that Jr. made it longer than his pop did. Good work on this!

Tell

[sterlingice]

Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers -- The retirements make Silvers, now 52, as old as any of the army generals as he winds down his career. He's the standard by which all others are judged.

Since we don't have a lot of folks jumping at the idea of Ground Forces officers, whenever Sterling retires (or before, depending on where the time falls), create Sterling Silvers II as that next "once in a generation" type ground forces officer that looks destined for high office. So, if possible, Sterling II doesn't need to be the next general after "Dad" retires, make him the next elite one even if it takes a few years or a decade or more.

(or if it takes too long, make him Sterling III as 70 year old dad with a 20 year old son starting the military would probably be a bit off- it could just be roleplayed that the military gene skipped a generation and Dad did some work in science or industry or whatnot but had an unremarkable career)

SI

[Brian Swartz]

2059 ANNUAL REPORT

Call it the calm after the storm. 2059 was a pretty quiet year, for which most everyone was very thankful. The 'excitement' of '58 is not generally preferred by sane people.

The army goes with experience, promoting 48-year-old Joann Altschuler as it's most recent brigadier general to fill the vacancy, while it was decided they could make do with six generals and so a seventh was not needed.

The year's biggest news was the deployment of the first Forrestals, as the first one takes up station at the Epsilon Eridani jump point on April 27th. A second is added later, and a third is en route to the Lalande point by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the first sensors are deployed on a pair of shuttles in March, and 2059 sees most of the shuttles refit and the harvesters less than a month away from finishing their run of refits. The freighters will take much longer, and the Tod & MacGregor begins the long process of adding a second slipway to speed up the process, but that will take over two years to finish.

The private sector continues to do our work for us, placing four more mining complexes on Sedna for a total now of 15. That's over 1.6kt, somewhere in the range of a quarter of our duranium supply, from that rock alone. Almost 4 million credits a year now goes to that worthy investment. At this rate, it will soon be the top line item in our annual budget.

Automines continue to be shipped out to Triton, which is now in the low 40s. The mineral crisis, which lasted over two decades, can be decisively declared to be over. Shipyards are now free to make whatever expansion/construction is deemed necessary, Earth's industrial capacity is expanding(and would expand faster were it not for the need to pour resources immediately into laboratories, deep space scanners, new shipyards, etc.). SPACE has reached a clear transition, much more economically viable now and sustainably so for decades, probably centuries, but the alien threat has taken center stage.

The expected weapons review and implications of it is now on everyone's minds, expected about a month into the new year ...

Commissioned Officers

Mid-January -- The meteoric Mitchell Feeser is now promoted to Commander, and immediately tapped by HQ as their top captain candidate despite his relative lack of experience. It's possible he could skip any kind of military ship command entirely.

Early March -- Five naval officers are dismissed.

May 30 -- Latest pair of Perrys are completed, and Rob Nielsen III is assigned to one as the CO. He won't be going anywhere for a while, as they will stay at Earth to be refit with sensors.

Late December -- Joe Tycho increases his EW expertise to 30%, Rob Nielsen III increases Fleet Movement Initiative to 168.

Research & Development

June 11 -- Research rate increased(Deacon Palmer). The more efficient storage equipment and techniques immediately accelerate every project ongoing, as well as freeing up the two laboratories that were being used by Palmer's team. He'll take over work on improving the construction rate of our factories(previously led by Shannon Patteson and a third finished). Elsewhere, Joe Tycho gets back in the game with resumption of his work on improving turret tracking speed after nearly a year's hiatus, and Elwood Tousant starts a project focused on improving EM sensors.

That's it, just one research project completed for the year. Like I said, a quiet season.

Earth

Early August -- Freighter refits begin. New research lab built, Dr. Edward Groat gets to work on reducing thermal emissions from engines.

Early December -- The third Forrestal is completed and heads to the Lalande 21185 jump point, with Olad Mrtav in command.

Mid-December -- Duranium on Machholz has been exhausted. From time to time various minerals have dried up, but this is a significant development as it is the main reason for the 27+ mines on the rock. There are still significant deposits of neutronium and corundium there, as well as mercassium and sorium, so for now no diverting of mines will occur.

[Brian Swartz]

SI brings up a point that was brought up on the other forums as well. With the number of people currently involved I think it's manageable -- an option to have a descendant added before the oldest active character retires(in this case the Major General Sterling Silvers).

I've operated under the assumption of only having one per person, but I think it would be feasible with the number of people currently active to add another one after, say, 20 years of active service(i.e., 20 years from the time of the first actual assignment). Any comments pro or con on this idea?

As far as making him the next elite guy, I'm going to have to nix that. I think it makes for a better 'story' if there are sometimes bad apples(one on Aurora just genned probably the worst naval recruit I've ever seen) -- the whole idea that without the possibility of failure, success doesn't mean much either.

[sterlingice]

My bad- I didn't realize that this is also on another forum and that makes sense as there are a lot more roles to fill.

To me, it seems like the story rotates around a few key players (Duling, Rakes, Palmer, and a couple of the ship captains) so if I were, say, any of CW's characters or PM's, this wouldn't be interactive dynasty for me as the characters are just a footnote, hoping to eek out a few years of a career before getting culled by the budget one year. I would even argue that as "prolific" as Sterling's career has been, I'm almost certain, I can count the number of times that she (I think she was a she and not a he) has shown up in the story outside of on the end of the year report as "good job, you saw no action".

This is not to argue for my character or anyone else's to get any more "screen time" as I think the narrative is working great as it. I just think that limiting people by "dice rolls" is unnecessary. Even if the player characters were always given the top couple of characters each year and the NPCs relegated to the weaker ones, the situation will dictate that even those top of the class characters won't make much of a dent in the narrative as there are only a couple of real "starring roles" as we have run through how many characters in the history of the dynasty and only a few even make it onto the stage.

For instance, the administrators are pretty visible as there are elections regularly and posts for all of them. But who is the fifth most famous administrator at SPACE in history? I don't think I could name him or her. And that's the fifth best in 30+ years - that's not even the best every year or best every couple of years. And this is to say nothing for not caring about scientists in wartime, ground forces in peacetime, etc.

SI

[Tellistto]

I agree with SI in that it seems unnecessary to limit people to dice rolls if you actually are interested in making this an interactive dynasty. There isn't much reason for anyone to keep up if the character they have is simply not going anywhere or going to accomplish anything.

Given that the game can truly create some spectacular failures when it comes to characters. Giving said character to a reader just because that's the next one created is not going to keep people interested in interacting.

Tis your dynasty, you may do as you wish. I enjoy reading it. I messed with the game itself for a bit myself before shelving it so I could understand it more. I'll continue reading and probably roll the dice again. So this isn't in any way anything other than offering an opinion based on the current discussion.

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

Thanks for the feedback gents. It is true that there isn't a lot of detail/decision making for all but a few chars, and that's just sort of the nature of the thing in order to keep it moving at a decent pace. The only real interactive element is following the progression of your characters, as the reader doesn't have any real control over it given the number of things which are abstracted in the game.

I don't see the 'do-nothing' characters being as big of an issue. There aren't going to be many of them anymore due to the fact that there's enough 'activity' if you will in all four branches to give the possibility of almost any type to be involved, and those few who don't make the cut can simply make a new char six years down the road so it's not like they are stuck with a useless character until they are dead/retired. That's also why I'm entertaining the idea of family members as it gives something else to watch in the updates. The whole 'interactive' element of this is pretty limited, but I think it is what it is -- useful to give people who are into that sort of thing another reason to follow.

In terms of 'game events', 'things to do', the ground forces officers are really a lot more limited in general, it's just the nature of what they do. Glorified policing really, unless we got into the point of conquering alien worlds which is a long way off if we ever get there.

I'm going to see what the Aurora boards(the other forum I'm doing this on) thinks of the idea of waiting for better chars.

[Brian Swartz]

Update -- I'm writing up new SPACE policies based on the weapons review, and it's taking a lot longer than I thought it would. That's partly due to RL interruptions and partly due to thinking through more different options than I expected. I should have that up early next week and then get through the rest of 2060.

[sterlingice]

Good deal. I was thinking to myself "wonder what happened with SPACE"

SI

[Brian Swartz]

STRATEGIC REVIEW

On January 6, the Nuclear Pulse Engine was completed(Dr. Sanko Makar), and revealed to result in a 60% power increase over a similar nuclear thermal engine. On the 28th, Particle Beam research was finished(Eva Vadnais), paving the way for a strategic review of SPACE's current military stance, readiness, etc. The primary mission remains the defense of Sol, with secondary objectives given as gathering more intel on the alien(s) and expanding human presence beyond our home system.

TECHNOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

There is precious little information available on the aliens, but there were a number of pieces of information gleaned in Epsilon Eridani: they utilize ships capable of at least 6.5k km/s, and missiles capable of 15-30k km/s, and have vastly superior sensor systems. It must be stressed at this point that they may have other vessels/weapons systems far different in capability than these, but we can only operate on the basis of the information that we have.

There are a number of good arguments in favor of energy weapons rather than kinetic. Firstly, the top two weapons scientists are both in the energy field: Ignacio Bavaro and Eva Vadnais, though a number of decent if lesser minds are developing in kinetic weaponry. Secondly, they are re-usable: there's no ammuntion to worry about building. Third and finally, they make for the best jump point defence as closer ranges are their forte, espescially due to higher rates of fire.

The most obvious form of defense would be to field a weapons system capable of shooting down their missiles. This is impossible with any kind of energy-based system, due to the fact that the best tracking speed we can muster is capable for our fire control systems is 5k km/s, or at best a third of their velocity. In an offensive role, beam weapons would be limited by our completely inadequate propulsion technology: namely, that we would have to occupy well over half a ship's volume with nothing but engines to even match the speed of the enemy ships. Unless we build such ships which would have very little space for the weapons systems themselves, there would be no way to prevent the aliens from simply firing their missiles at us from out of range, then retreating to load more, and so on with impunity. That is, unless they were guarding some crucial objective that they didn't want to retreat from, but in this case we are the most obviously the ones on the defensive.

Missile-based systems don't fare much better: our best anti-missile projections are that we would have, at best, a 6% chance at a successful intercept. It is, however, the only option that currently holds out any hope of destroying enemy ships. A reasonably sized anti-ship missile could presently be designed with a projected 20-25% hit rate against ships of the speed the aliens were observed traveling at.

GROUND FORCES

It is expected that the lion's share of protection responsibilities will lie with the Navy, and that the army will still be called upon largely in a police role as is presently their sole duty. However, as soon as better offensive capabilities are discovered, more units will be trained up for the goal of occupying strategic objectives by force should the need arise. At present, maintenance of ground forces consumes less than 0.4% of annual income, so the cost is hardly a concern at this point and being ready for all contingencies is certainly desirable.

NAVAL FORCES

The time has come for the SPACE Navy to essentially split into two branches: a commercial branch and a combat branch. The decision is made to design military ships relying on both energy and missile-based variants for a number of reasons. One is to get used to the various components required, how much space they will require, etc. Given the technological gap, our current weaponry is expected to have little to no effect on the enemy in a serious confrontation, and yet the political situation clearly demands action. Building multiple types of ships gives more flexibility and basically punts a number of decisions down the road.

NAVAL DOCTRINE

Given our present near-complete inability to defend against the aliens known attack abilities, present thought favors a high number of small vessels in the hopes that those not initially targeted by an enemy fleet will be able to fire and damage the enemy before coming under fire themselves. There will not be anything in the way of centralized command or sensor vessels, as the enemy would likely destroy these quickly crippling the fleet. Rather, each ship will be expected to operate on its own. This is far from an optimal solution, but the only one presenting itself. This also means a carrier-based fleet is for now out of the question, as a carrier would simply be an easy target for alien missiles.

ENERGY-BASED WEAPONS

It is still desired to utilize SPACE's natural talents and develop a focus on energy weapons over time. But that still leaves the question of which energy weapons? The conclusion of analysts is that there is no way to insulate ourselves against the possibility of not choosing the 'optimal' system(s) -- it all depends on what enemies field and trying to research them all can only result in mastering none. Further, early projections by the scientific community indicate a specialized, layered approach to ship weaponry and defense is far more likely to be effective and flexible than a one-size-fits-all philosophy focused on just one weapons system.

The laser is an obvious choice, with as good of a damage-to-power ratio as any weapons system available. Only the plasma carronade is equal in this, and it is larger and much more costly. Range is a virtual non-issue at the moment as all of the systems far out-range our fire control capabilities.

The meson cannon fits by far the best among the energy-based weapons prototypes as a point defense type of weapon. Meson particles ignore shields and armor, and the cannon has minimal power requirements like the laser, though with minimal damage and half the range.

Thie size and cost of the particle beam rules it out as a serious option, as does the plasma carronade.

One final option deserves special mention -- microwave. The high-powered microwave is designed to deplete enemy shields and damage electronic systems, essentially blinding them but not destroying them. The most obvious use to this would be as a first step to capturing enemy ships, something we will definitely want to do sometime down the road as part of our attempts to learn more about them.

MISSILES & KINETIC WEAPONS

It seems a certain amount of diversification will be necessary. Since missiles are basically a combat requirement for us right now, a modest amount of research will be invested in making them better, at least until we can 'catch up' to the aliens, if we can, in other areas. A second reason is the CIWS(Close-In Weapons System). The CIWS, an automated system designed for destroying missiles on final approach to a target, has been deemed a political necessity on all but very small ships(including commercial) to provide some semblance of defense. As it utilizes gauss cannon technology, that will also need to have a certain amount of research dedicated towards it.

MILITARY GOALS

** Finishing up the deployment of Forrestals at all jump points with a reserve and a new class to serve as a 'carrier' to ferry them around Sol as needed.

** Research will focus on propulsion and sensors/fire controls first, particle beams and meson cannons second, with a modest investment also in advancing missile technology/gauss(for CIWS) and general advancement/economic improvements, etc. Of course, prototyping immediately needed ship systems will come before any of these.

** Refitting of all vessels except the Perry harvesters(which don't need speed as much) to take advantadge of the newer, more powerful engines as well as CIWS. The # of CIWS will vary based on the size of the ship, but all vessels including commercial will get at least one as SPACE is committed to at least the appearance of protection of its personnel. It is the only weapons system that has been declassified enough to permit mounting it on commercial vessels.

** Design and construction of planetary missile bases, primarily for the purpose of pacifying the public.

** Design and construction of two classes of military ships, as small as practicable: one based on missiles and another emphasizing beam weapons. Particle beams will be used for long-range, anti-ship duty and meson cannons for short-range, anti-missile duty.

** New/expanded shipyards as deemed necessary to meet and stay ahead of current needs.

** For political reasons, further interstellar exploration comes last. However, it is presently the navy's top priority internally. It has been decided to name the effort the Fox Plan, an homage to Herman Fox who pioneered(ahead of his time to the point of impracticality) the idea of sending small, expendable ships in first as explorers. There will be more detail on the Fox Plan as the time for it approaches.

[Brian Swartz]

2060 Annual Report

It was another quiet year, as various research projects took center stage. The first order of business was to get a new line of commercial engines going, the WP NP-100 as it was designated(WP standing for WawaPincus, the manufacturer). Also our first weapons systems, manufactured by the KKC(Kimmel-Kiewit Corporation), which will be the CIWS I. All further refits were put on hold, since there's not much point in doing it twice ...

On March 15th, the first Forrestal arrived on station at the Lalande 21185 jump point. All of the jumps leading to systems known to have alien presence are now being monitored for incoming threats. Around the same time, orders went out on Earth to queue up an additional 25 conversions of CI to CF, which when finished will leave us with an even 400 factories.

April brought the completion of the Baltimore-Marine Shipyard, the second naval facility. Also, the 50th automine is on its way to Triton. After reviewing the situation, it has been decided to keep investing there at least until the freighter refits with newer, faster engines have been completed.

Noteworthy advances also were reached in August(Mobile Infantry Battalion, the first offensive combat unit under the TN revolution) and December(Improved Command & Control, allowing the construction of Sector Commands). The facilities required will take some time to build, and resources were allocated to let the completion coincide with the 2065 election. Mobile Infantry is twice as effective in defense as in attack, but they are still far superior to traditional armour formations in attack capabilities.

Commissioned Officers

March -- James Earl Jones V improves Shipbuilding up to 40%.

Mid-April -- James Earl Jones V increases mining to 10%, a surprising resurgence for him after years of not really going anywhere.

Early July -- Joe Tycho's admin rating increases to 6.

Early August -- The first medical problem in memory has surfaced for the seemingly invincible Herbert Duling. He's not eligible for re-election anyway, but if this illness proves serious he may find himself relegated to a fairly minor post.

Mid-August -- 32-year-old Rey Hoel is the latest General to be promoted.

Late November -- Tell Perj Jr. increases Fleet Movement Initiative to 306.

Early December -- Joe Tycho 's Pol. Rel. up to 10%.

Earth

MId-April -- Another Forrestal is completed and heads to the Lalande jump point. There are still 16 needed but they are put on hold pending research space for new thrusters to be designed.

Late September -- Earth has now depleted Uridium deposits.

November 11 -- Research lab finished(21 now). Eva Vadnais gets to work on increasing the recharge rate of our capacitors.

Research & Development

** May 23 -- KKC CIWS I prototype completed(Dr. Rosa Suda). Though it is completely defensive in nature, this marks the first human space-based weapons system. The space is diverted to the JPS NP-24, a new manuevering thruster for the Forrestal sensor buoys. Vadnais takes the project due to a lack of qualified propulsion scientists.

** July 17 -- JPS NP-24 research completed(Dr. Eva Vadnais) and construction begins on updated Forrestal-b buoys. The freighter engine, WP NP-200, will be developed next. Everett Snuggs gets the call on that one, expected to take a year and a half.

** Late July -- Dr. Rosa Suda has improved her expertise in M&K to 40%, a marked increase in our ability to research in that field.

** Late August -- Sensors & Fire Control gets a boost as Dr. Bessie Wallanders's expertise is now up to 25%.

** September 23 -- Rosemary Urenda's team completes the prototype of the WP NP-100, our primary commercial engine(for non-freighters). This allows the redesign of the harvesters and shuttles to proceed, though the shuttles will have to wait to begin the process until after the coming election as they are otherwhise occupied at the moment.

** October 5 -- Thermal Sensor Sensitivity(Dr. Julio Kuchler) is increased. He'll next work on the most vital matter of increasing the tracking speed of our fire control systems.

** Early November -- Kuchler, our top sensors scientist, is now up to 40%. We have a reasonably good scientist in all key fields now.

** December 8 -- After finishing Improved Command & Control research, Dr. Cedrick Wormack moves on doing similar work for the Army, researching Brigade Headquarters which allows for a proper command structure a level above battalion commands.

Civilian Activities

Late July -- Jensrud gets in the fuel business, launching their first harvester.

Late August -- Sedna expands again, 16 complexes now.

Mid-November -- Sedna up to 17 complexes.

[Brian Swartz]

STATE OF SPACE, 2061

I. IMPERIAL HOLDINGS

IA. Populated Colonies

Earth(1.059b, 394 CF, 191 CI, 50 OF, 10 FF, 75 REF, 21 RL, 2 AC, 4 DSTS, 11k MF)
Luna(30.5m)
Mars(25.81m)
Titan(15.11m)
Venus(190k)
Mercury(less than 5k)

Due largely to changes in colonization policy, Luna has actually shrunk by over 5 million, but the other colonies have grown dramatically. Non-essential(in a strategic sense) locations such as Luna and Mars are now used as a source for colonists once they reach the 25m threshold, leaving only natural growth to increase their size. Total human population is now at 1.13b souls, a increase of over 10% in the past four years that has been concentrated on Earth as one might logically expect. With the 2% Initiative dead for the time being at least, it is likely that Earth and Titan will be the largest sources of continued growth.

IB. Outposts

Earth(73 SM, 181 CI, 9.6 eff, 1.178 kt) -- 7.6 y of mercassium, 9.3 y of duranium, though those dates continue to increase slightly with mine conversion
Titan(25 SM, 6 eff, 234t)
Sedna(17 CMC, 16 eff., 3.264 kt)
Triton(50 AM, 30 eff, 1.89 kt)
Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 40 eff, 1.88 kt)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 39 eff, 1.81 kt)
Comas Sola(25 AM, 58 eff, 1.914 kt) -- neutronium(1 y)
Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 942 t)
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 59 eff, 1.734 kt) -- corundium(3.3 y)
Wolf-Harrington(13.8 AM, 60 eff, 1.14 kt)
Prokne(10 AM, 10 eff, 132 t)
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 660 t)
Neujmin(9.8 AM, 49 eff, 635t) -- corundium(5.9 y)
Borrelly(9.8 AM, 58 eff, 682t) -- sorium(5.1 y)
Faye(4 AM, 48 eff, 266t)
Reinmuth(1.8 AM, 47 eff, 115t) -- duranium(4 y)

Total Production: 18.48 kt, an increase of 10.8%. The continued expansion of Sedna is of course the main factor here.

Currently under consideration is the possibility of relocating mines from Comas Sola to Wolf-Harrington or Faye when the neutronium runs out there, but the comet still has corundium, sorium, and duranium, so it is far too valuable to consider abandoning. Whatever is decided, it will be a minor point as there are many other active sources.

IC. Mineral Stockpiles & Production

Continued expansion and diversification of the economy has led to reclassification of some minerals. It is possible, perhaps even probable, that in the future we will reach the point where Tier A materials no longer exist.

Tier A: Gallicite(34 kt), Vendarite(33 kt), Tritanium(28 kt), Boronide(23 kt), and Corbomite(22 kt)

Tier B: Uridium(51 kt) and Mercassium(28 kt). Uridium is still highly plentiful and likely to remain so, but coming under considerable use now both industrially(spaceport, military academies, the ongoing work on the sector command) and in the navy(extensively used in the fabrication of the various sensors).

Tier C: Sorium(13.3 kt) and Corundium(5.76 kt). Production continues to outpace usage for both, but neither is at a 'safe' level either.

Tier D: Duranium and Neutronium are both holding pretty steady at 6 kt, with ample production to support operations at the expanded factory sector and the ever-increasing demands of shipyard tasks. Further economic expansion will soon be halted as their supply is once again the limiting factor.

ID. Income

Taxes(population): 26.7 m
Taxes(civ. shipping): 4.17 m
Taxes(civ. fuel): 35 k

Total: 30.87m(+26.1%). The resurgence in civilian shipping has played no small part in this increase, accounting for well over half of it.

Balance: 449.2m. Almost 15 years of present income in the bank. Money is not a problem for SPACE.

IE. Expenses

Research: 4.81m
Installation Construction: 4.77m
Mineral Purchases: 3.86m
Shipyard Operations: 1.59m
Shipbuilding: 1.31m
GU Maintenance: 113k
Fighter Production: 89k
Maintenance Facilities: 72.5k
GU Training: 35.9k

Total: 16.67m(+51.3%)

Research is now the #1 item on the budget(by a hair), which given present circumstances would seem entirely appropriate.

The growth due to diversification and greater mineral resources sheds light on the fact that while money is not an issue now, it could well become one. Spending has reached more than half of income(54%) for the first time and that share is expected to continue to grow. Some voices are concerned with the amount of money being shelled out to Sedna, and our reliance on it(23% of the budget and growing). However, there is really no choice, as the obvious fact of the matter is that we can't replace the level of production that we are getting from Sedna any other way(thankfully, it is sustainable for another two centuries). We have the money, so we might as well use it.

II. SHIPYARDS

IIA. Commercial Yards

Tod & MacGregor(1 slipway, 41.8 kt capacity)
** Adding another slipway, March 2062

Estalerios Navais(1, 23.2 kt)
** Adding another slipway, November 2061

P&A Group(4, 21.4 kt)
** Retooling for the Perry III-class fuel harvesters, January 2 2061
(tomorrow :P)
** Building 3x Perry II harvesters, February 2061

Vickers-Armstrong(3, 10 kt)
** Adding another slipway, February 2061

IIB. Naval Yards

Wartsila(1, 10 kt)

Baltimore Marine(1, 1.82 kt)
** Capacity expansion, current target is 5 kt

III. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

IIIA. Earth

Research Lab(34%) -- January 2062
Mine Conversions(standard to automated, 15%) -- 26 queued, May 2065
Sector Command(10%) -- Winter 2064
Factory Conversions(10%) -- March 12 2061
Deep Space Tracking Stations(6%) -- July 2061
Ground Force Training Facility(5%) -- Spring/Summer 2063
Naval Shipyard(4%) -- Early 2070
Commercial Shipyard(4%) -- Mid 2068
Military Academy(4%) -- Early 2067
Spaceport(4%) -- December 2062
Maintenance Facilities(4%) -- 20 in the queue, 2073
Forrestal-b -- 19 left, Mid-2067

IV. ACTIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS

** SPPI NP-396M(first missile engine)(Rosemary Urenda) -- Late March/Early April 2061
** Turret Tracking Speed(Joe Tycho) -- Mid-late August 2061
** Improved Construction Rate(Deacon Palmer) -- Late November 2061
** Laser Miniaturization, 25% Size Reduction(Ignacio Bavaro) -- November/December 2061
** Terraforming Module(Clint Wyche) -- November/December 2061
** WP NP-200(next-gen freighter engine, Everette Snuggs) -- January 2062
** Reduced Thermal Emissions(Edward Groat) -- June 2062
** Active Grav Sensor Strength(Delmar Ytuarte) -- August 2062
** Emergency Cryogenic Transport Module(Brandon Grimmett) -- Winter/Spring 2063
** Planetary Sensor Strength(Bessie Wallander) -- Spring 2063
** EM Sensor Sensitivity(Elwood Tousant) -- Summer 2063
** Brigade HQ(Cedrick Wormack) -- Winter 2063/2064
** Beam Fire Control Tracking Speed(Julio Kuchler) -- Winter 2063/2064
** Maximum Engine Power(Santo Makar) -- Late 2064
** Capacitor Recharge Rate(Eva Vadnais) -- Late 2066

The next generation of ships has many more components which need to be prototyped, and this will be the focus of the new administration's research efforts.

V. ACTIVE NAVAL ASSETS

CC Belknap(1, 2 kt, 50 crew, 1250 km/s, 60k fuel, command ship)
GSV Coontz(1, 2.25 kt, 32 crew, 1377 km/s, 130k fuel, gravitational survey)
GEV Essex II-x(2, 2.2 kt, 35 crew, 1135 km/s, 60k fuel, geological survey)
FT Fletcher II-xe(4, 36.2 kt, 100 crew, 518 km/s, 700k fuel, freighter)
FT Fletcher IId(2, 34.7 kt, 100 crew, 540 km/s, 700k fuel, freighter)
FT Fletcher III(1, 36.4 kt, 106 crew, 515 km/s, 700k fuel, freighter)
Forrestal(4, 0.3 kt, 10 crew, 347 km/s, 5k fuel, sensor buoy)
Forrestal-b(1, 0.3 kt, 10 crew, 347 km/s, 5k fuel, sensor buoy)
ST Lexington IId(4, 1.6 kt, 20 crew, 1562 km/s, 60k fuel, transport shuttle)
ST Lexington III(10, 1.8 kt, 26 crew, 1388 km/s, 60k fuel, transport shuttle)
JS North Carolina(1, 19.2 kt, 133 crew, 520 km/s, 250k fuel, large jump ship)
FH Perry II(10, 19.2 kt, 104 crew, 261 km/s, 350k fuel, fuel harvester)
JSC Pioneer(1, 10 kt, 240 crew, 1000 km/s, 600k fuel, jump scout)
TT Portland(2, 4.3 kt, 35 crew, 581 km/s, 60k fuel, troop transport)
CS Spruance-b(1, 20 kt, 110 crew, 501 km/s, 250k fuel, colony ship)

Total: 47 vessels(+67.8%), 535 kt(+29.4%), 2.84k crew(+35.2%), 10.8m liters fuel(+25.4%).

Available Crew: 78.7k(+9.46%)

Fuel -- 36.9m liters, 3.5m on Titan.

Most of the growth in the past four years came in the small Forrestal and Lexington classes, though a number of Perry harvesters were also built. Still, by any measure the Navy continues to expand at a rapid pace, and now has 11 distinct ship classes(excluding different versions of the same base class), more than double what were present a decade ago and several times the number of ships that were in service then. Crew continues to be a complete non-issue, and fuel reserves continue to slowly expand despite the increased demand, partly because most of the ships are usually idle.

VI. ACTIVE ARMY ASSETS

** Low-Tech Armour Division(5)
** Garrison Battalion(18)

Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 340k(-56.4%)

Leaner but more effective, the army will soon have moved fully into the TN era.

VII. CIVILIAN SHIPPING CORPORATIONS

Voliva Carrier Company(34 vessels, 2.34m annual income)
Jensrud Transport and Trading(18, 990k)
Everton Shipping & Logistics(4, 240k)
Presnar Freight(4, 240k)
Abair Shipping(1, 80k)
Forbus Carrier Ltd(1, 80k)
Tolles Transport & Logistics(3, 210k)
Ouellet Shipping(2, 160k)

Total Vessels: 67(+21.8%)

The recession is indeed over, but nothing has changed the dominance of Voliva. With Jensrud getting into the fuel harvesting business lately, they seem the only firm capable of mounting any real challenge, and they have a lot of work to do. Although the gap is closing, there are still more civilian than official vessels operating in Sol space.

VIII. SPACE LEADERSHIP PROSPECTUS

** Naval Officers: 50 of 76 assigned(65.8%), +20%
** Ground Forces Officers: 22 of 38(57.9%), -5.7%
** Civilian Administrators: 20 of 25(80%), +10.8%
** Scientists: 15 of 31(48.4%), -8.7%

Overall: 107 of 170(62.9%), +7.6%

Times are good overall, mostly because of the growth in the Navy. For the second four-year period in a row, 19 new positions were created overall and nearly 2 of 3 professional leaders has a job, with prospects remaining strong except for the scientist corps which is crowded and highly-competitive(good for SPACE in the short-term, but not good for developing new talented minds).

[Brian Swartz]

2061 ELECTION

The 10th in the annals of space, this year's contest was historic in that it would be the last one held prior to the completion of Sector Command, at which point the director of SPACE and governor of Earth offices would be split. It was also notable because of those who aren't on the ballot. Aside from Herbert Duling(ineligible), there is also 32-year-old phenom Delois Woznicki who unfortunately excels highly in smaller settlements but hasn't yet learned the required skills to translate her abilities to qualify for as large a responsibility as Earth. Ditto for the much older Damian Ackley.

Combining those absences with the failing health of Alberto Eighmy, the other top potential challenger, and it was expected that India Rakes would have an easy campaign, taking over the directorship much as she did when Duling had to abdicate a dozen years ago. There were five names on the ballot, but she had an overwhelming advantadge over each of them. As one might expect, very little effort was put forward by most of the candidates. The only one who took it seriously at all was ultimate long-shot Sonny Dean, but he didn't have the backing to make a credible run having barely made the ballot to begin with. Less money was spent on this campaign than any other in SPACE's history by a long shot, to the delight of much of the public. Rakes returns for another term easily, as expected:

India Rakes -- 29.1%
Jarrett Hugh -- 20.4%
Alberto Eighmy -- 17.3%
Sonny Dean -- 17.2%
Larry Steckel -- 16.0%

Rather more concerning is the fact that none of those with the talent to succeed Duling, Rakes et al have managed to put the whole package together thus far in their early careers. When that pair retires in around 15 years, hopefully the picture will have changed.

POLICY REVIEW

SPACE has a long list of projects that are just going to take time, mostly revolving around getting a combat fleet up and operational and the continual march of technology. There isn't much for Rakes to really do there other than manage the situation, and no major changes are expected. In reality, her political future will likely be determined more by what happens with Duling's health than anything she does in the next four years.

[Brian Swartz]

RETIRING OFFICERS

** Cpt. Mitchell Aull -- Intelligence Officer at Fleet HQ for the past 34 years!, since 2027
** Cmdr. Judson Carlberg -- Almost 27 years experience as a commander, seeing time on almost every major ship class
** Cmdr. Chauncey Macewen -- Almost 12 years on geology survey, the last 13 split mostly between shuttles and freighters. Steady but unimpressive officer.

No retirements are anticipated in the next few years in the other fields.

CHARACTER UPDATES

Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. -- 9th of 15. With the retirements, he is likely to be promoted a bit from his current assignment on one of the Perry fuel harvesters the past couple of years.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III -- 26th out of 53. He'll be reassigned to a shuttle in the near future.

Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers -- Set to take command of the first Mobile Infantry Battalion as soon as training completes, as is only proper.

Sonny Dean(3) -- A 4th-place finish in the election is about as much as he's ever achieved and more than expected for the 53-year-old beauracrat. He's bounced around a lot, in this case earning a second tour on Titan(previously he was there '45 to '49).
James Earl Jones V(6) -- Just missed the cut for the SPACE final ballot this time around, but he still gets a significant promotion from the minor outpost on the asteroid Prokne to a notable mining colony on the comet Machholz.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer(CP 45) -- Another vital project is nearing completion, a further increase in general production rate of SPACE's factories.
Joe Tycho(EW 30) -- An important if not elite energy scientist, Tycho is improving turret tracking speeds.

A couple of notes: for future sign-ups, characters of any ability may be requested(obviously more talented ones will in general require a longer wait), and a descendant/family member may be added after 15 years of active service(or longer if you desire).

[Grover]

Amazing that Tycho has come so far. I'm so proud.

[Brian Swartz]

He'll become even more important in the next year ...

[sterlingice]

Update nao!

SI

[Brian Swartz]

As soon as I can(a few months left in the year).

[Brian Swartz]

** The official story here is an inglorious pile of happy horse manure. In actuality, a bug in the game(fixed in newer versions, but I can't upgrade because the save wouldn't be able to be transferred) which I had forgetten allows fighter pilots to get ridiculous fighter combat bonuses(800-1000%), which leads to astronomic promotions scores, completely messing up the career path. Therefore I needed a reason to permanently abandon fighters or this type of thing would continue to happen. The text is a lame and transparent attempt to justify this, but no more fighters will be built for the duration of the story.

2061 ANNUAL REPORT

39-year-old Chong Vaugh was promoted to Captain to start off the year. He'll take over as Communications Officer, having no skill whatsoever but he was best suited to being a ship commander so it'll take him some time to settle in. This puts the navy back up to five captains, still two short of a full complement.

Meanwhile, the Engineering Department put together schematics for the Iowa-class Orbital Fighter Base. Technically, it isn't restricted to orbit, with the manuevering thrusters able to propel it at 16 km/s, but at that speed it might as well be(a trip to the Luna, which takes 4 minutes for a Lexington shuttle, would take the Iowa class nearly 7 hours. Even Mars would take on average half a year, so any trip to outer system is pretty ridiculous to contemplate). For now it's only capability is to perform periodic maintenance on the Forrestal sensor buoys, but it is expected to possibly have more uses down the line. Two are planned, the first of which should be in service by late 2062.

Size: 6 kt
Crew: 108
Hangar Capacity: 3.5kt
CIWS: 2 arrays
Maintenance Life: 4.63y

A carrier to ferry them back to the Iowas will be needed soon as well.

In March, the first Forrestal reaches the Teegarden's Star jump point, with Tell Perj Jr. at the helm. Less than a week later however, the pair at the Lalande 21185 jump point reported a horrific accident: a small electrical explosion on board one of the buoys which killed a few of the crew as well as the CO, Commander Marjorie Riner, a very solid officer for nearly two decades now. High Command ordered all the Forrestals back to Earth pending an investigation.

It was eventually determined that the effort to make the buoys so small(less than 300 tons) had inevitably resulted in insufficient safety safeguards. Even though it was a bit of PR disaster, the Forrestal line was redesigned in favor of a larger version.** It was decided to keep the same sensor and just go with larger twin 150-ton thrusters and make the thing capable of delivering itself on station, eliminating the need for the carrier for the time being and cancelling the Iowa project. Due to the distances required, these will be made with a standard engine configuration, not the more common high-efficiency, low-power variant. Fuel use will be considerable, but tolerable given the small size of the ships(estimated about 750t each).

In happier developments, by the end of March the new Defender missile prototyping was ready to begin, with the following final specs:

Size: 14.5 tons
Speed: 13,700 km/s(about 10x the speed of our fastest ships, twice the recorded speed of the enemies in Epsilon Eridani)
Range: 77.3m km
Manueverability: 15
Hit %: approximately 33-34% vs. the information we have on the aliens

As mentioned before, this is strictly an anti-ship weapon. Against the known enemy missiles it would hit only about 8% of the time.

In July, the Forrestal II design was ready:

Size: 650 tons
Crew: 15
Speed: 3692 km/s(more than twice as fast as the Lexington transport shuttles)
Maintenance Life : 9+ years
Fuel: 50k(this allows a range of 20.4b km, more than what is required)

The Forrestal II can reach any jump point in the system from Earth within a month.

It was time for the next wave of combat systems research: electronics for the planetside missile bases. Dr. Billie Allington gets to work on the GEI SSS 200m, a massive 1000-ton suite that can spot a 3000-ton enemy ship at the maximum range(77m km) of a Defender. 40 crew members will be required to man it. She'll need a lot of help on this project, but it will start with just the one lab. Of course we don't really know if this is way too 'big' or way too 'small' or if the range is anywhere close to useful much less ideal, but based on SPACE's current best guesses, this is what they're going with. It probably doesn't matter much anyway, since as has been said already, if they attack, we're probably sccrewed no matter what.

With the finalizing of the Defender missile prototype in late November, an initial order of 200 is queued up. This won't take long, with the current fifty ordnance factories capable of churning out a few hundred Defenders per year.

2061 was quite a year. An accident causing the scrapping of one design(the Iowa OFB) and the redesign of another class(Forrestal upgrade), but with all that chaos a lot of progress was still made. The Defender missile system components are nearly finished, sensor packages are on the way, harvester refits have made significant progress, the first notable economic expansion in decades was completed and mines are flowing to Triton again. Several new Lexington III-class shuttles were also built and the last of those needed to meet the navy's needs are now under construction. Refits to the next generation of freighters are expected to begin in the first month of the new year. And yet there is, as always, so much to be done ...

Commissioned Officers

Early January -- New naval appointments are out. Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. will get the 5th different ship class of his career. He's served on shuttles, freighters, survey vessels, and fuel harvesters, and will now be heading to the Lalande 21185 jump point as soon as a transport is available to command one of the sensor buoys out there. Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III will have a shuttle command assigned.

Early February -- More health concerns for Sonny Dean, governor of Titan.

Mid-March -- Six officers are dismissed this year, three from the army and three from the navy. Far more critically, Dr. Ignacio Bavaro was forced to retire mid-project. Bavaro is the preeminent mind in Energy Weapons, and has contributed as much to human research as any one person over 46 years since SPACE's inception in as distinguished a career as one could imagine. He will definitely be greatly missed. Only four other scientists have reached the 60% skill level(maximum) that he achieved. He was 57, and leaves Eva Vadnais(40%) as the top energy weapons specialist.

Mid-August -- Rob Nielsen III increases Fleet Movement Initiative(now 187).

Late November -- Eva Vadnais has taken well to the task of being the top energy weapons scientist, increasing her skill to 50%.

Early December -- Sonny Dean's shipbuilding bonus is now up to 20%.

Earth

February 15 -- The last 3 Perry II's are completed. It'll take just over six months for them to refit to the new Perry III design.

March 5 -- Factory conversions are complete for now with 400 TN factories now on-line. The quarter of capacity devoted to economic investment will now be split between converting conventional industry to mines, and converting those mines to automated for shipping off-world. Earth has just over 50 mines, the desired minimum amount, so for the first time in decades new mines are required. Economic conversion from pre-TN facilities is at over 82%, but still not completed. The net result is about a 50% increase in the number of mines that will be exported, back up to about 9-10 per year. A small amount is also diverted to add five fighter factories to the existing ten.

May -- A new freighter are ordered for the first time in several years, as keeping the mines going while refits occur is probably not going to be possible with the current fleet of seven. The Aegir is expected to be ready early next year, about the time of the new engine which will allow the freighter refits to begin.

June 10 -- The first Mobile Infantry Battalion is ready for duty, with Sterling Silvers naturally taking command of it.

Late July -- Baltimore & Marine Naval Shipyard begins construction of the new Forrestal II sensor vessels.

August 1st -- The first of the fuel harvester refits are completed, and another trio head to the shipyard for their turn at the refit.

November 18 -- The first of the new, larger Forrestal II's is complete and the process of getting sensors out to the jump points begins again. With the reshuffling of commands due to scrapping the older ones, Tell Perj Jr. will take the first watch at the Epsilon Eridani jump point. The fastest human ship yet devised will take just under two days to get there.

Research & Development

** Mid-March -- With the retirement of Bavaro, it is decided to leave his project (reduced-size lasers) in limbo for the time being. Rosa Suda begins work on the Defender MLS, a launcher for the Defender missile system for which the missile engine is currently being prototyped. HMI(Heavin-Medline Industries) is contracted both for the launcher itself and the HMI 30, the magazine which will store the missiles for the missile bases. Jarabishi Juishao takes up that project.

** Mar. 30 -- The first-ever missile engine is completed(Dr. Rosemary Urenda).

** July 23 -- JPS NP 240t research complete(Rosemary Urenda), the new small engine for the Forrestal II. The lab is added to the Capacitor Research Rate project(Eva Vadnais, which will speed it up to a more reasonable completion date in some three years time).

** August 1 -- Defender missile launch system is ready(Dr. Rosa Suda). She begins work next on the missile itself.

** August 19 -- Turret Tracking Speed(3000 km/s) completed by Joe Tycho's team. Another step toward being able to field useful beam weapons.

** November 26 -- Deacon Palmer's latest project is complete, increasing factory output across the board by a sixth to 14 tons per factory per year. Mineral supplies will definitely come under increased pressure now, and he'll begin work on making the mines more efficient to compensate.

** November 28 -- Just two days later, Rosa Suda's team has finished prototyping the Defender missile. Lab space is diverted to Palmer's just-begun project and that of the new sensor project by Allington to speed those up.

** December 2 -- The third research project to complete in about a week is Terraforming Module(Clint Wyche). He'll stay in the terraforming field and work on increasing the output of potential terraforming operations.

** December 4 -- A new research lab is completed, and the second of the two active search sensors, the GEI MSS 140, will begin it's prototype phase. As all of the sensors scientists are presently occupied, Rosa Suda gets the call to begin it as the top available researcher. It's been quite a start to the holiday season on the researching front.

Colonial Developments

March -- Venus colonists have ventured far ahead of infrastructure, threatening massive casualties(tens of thousands). With a couple of months however, though thousands had died, supply shipments alleviated the difficulties. Such are the perils of being at the whims of capricious firms with no higher duty than their financial bottom line.

Mid-November -- No new civilian ships have been seen in some time, but a new firm is founded anyway: Clevette Shipping Line. There are now nine of them, but only the biggest two are worth noting.

Mid-December -- Clavette Shipping launches their first freighter.

[Brian Swartz]

Happy Thanksgiving, from SPACE to you!!

2062 ANNUAL REPORT

A new challenge presented itself in 2062 on the minerals front, where a new crisis must be averted. The mines shipped to Triton over the past several years have created a situation where duranium is now rising steadily, despite a surprising lull in civilian investment on Sedna. However, neutronium is declining just about as fast, down to just over 5.3kt now. When the deposits on Comas Sola were exhausted in February, space diverted all new mines away from Triton and to Reinmuth, which has the largest deposit in the system at over 160kt(excepting Venus where it can only be extracted in trace amounts). Going forward, that plan will be diversified to include several other comets that also have significant deposits of the vital mineral used in almost all aspects of military-related construction. As of now the stockpile's decline has been slowed but not eliminated, and this will be the primary economic focus for now with demand expected to only continue to increase.

SPACE also completed a number of important research projects. The WP NP-200 engine, used for freighters and other large vessels, was finished in mid-January. Unfortunately a clerical error that was not discovered until August delayed retooling the Tod & Macgregor yard for refitting the freighters, but the new Fletcher IV will be a significant improvement:

The big question was how many engines to give it. The ship could be made somewhat smaller and somewhat faster, but given the need to reach very distant locations, three of the new Wawa-Pincus designed engines were given, a total size equivalent to the six smaller engines that the current freighters possess. The result was a notable speed boost, even after the new defensive weapons systems were added.

Size: 36,900 tons(half a kiloton bigger than the Fletcher III)
Crew: 162(56 more, a major investment)
Speed: 813 km/s(+298!)
Range: 51.2b km(+18.6b)
Fuel: 650k(-50k -- the larger engines are more efficient in multiple ways, allowing for a near doubling of fuel efficiency, 6.2% compared to the previous 10.6%).

Of course, it will also take a few more months to build, a total of over a year. This is expected to be the last freighter refit for some time. Only one actually made it to the Fletcher III class, the rest are still one of the Mark II variants. The modernization is much needed, well worth the cost, and can't happen soon enough. The journey to Triton, which presently takes three to three and a half months, will now take two months or a bit less. The deposits on Oort cloud objects are now within reasonable travel range. Other than the most super-distant comets, the entirety of Sol can feasibly be developed.

All of the first-gen space combat systems except for the sensor suites have been finished. Those will not all be finished until 2066, so there will be a bit of a lull. The R&D Summary details the specifics on the numerous prototyping phases that were completed, and by the end of the year investment began again in new general research avenues.

A third development was the completion of a number of industrial tasks. The initial run of Defender missiles, Deep Space Tracking Stations, Ground Force Training Facilities, and the first Spaceport for Earth were all completed. These allowed remaining projects such as the shipyards and maintenance facilities to see increased funding. In naval concerns, four Forrestal IIs are now operational, and the harvester refits will be finished within the next month. It was a good year.

By year's end, SPACE decided the situation was stable enough to seriously(though still secretly) entertain priorities for an eventual return to interstellar exploration. It has now been more than three full years since the return of the surviving ships from Epsilon Eridani, and will be many more before a human spacecraft fires a jump drive in any direction, but it is inevitable that the effort will be made again as soon as practicable. A study group returned with the a series of policy directives completely revamping the exploratory approach.

The Pioneer-class jump scout will not be the vehicle for future explorations. Instead, a carrier vessel will be designed which will monitor operations from the point of the initial jump in-system under the direction of a navy admiral and serve as HQ for the efforts in a system. This carrier will contain a flag bridge for effective command management, enough supplies for a 5-year tour, and docking bays for smaller vessels which will carry out the exploration activities. Geosurvey, Gravsurvey, and salvage vessels will be needed.

This approach will allow for minimal risk, as only a relatively small vessel will be exposed in the event of an enemy attack. Standing orders will be for the carrier to retreat back through the jump if alien presence is detected, stranding support vessels in system if necessary. Those who volunteer for these missions will be required to willingly accept that risk. Using smaller vessels also minimizes the chances of detection, since their detectable emissions will be much smaller than that of the Pioneer.

With what we now know of the aliens, several technologies that we do not possess yet are considered to be minimum essentials, without which SPACE will not proceed.

** Geological sensors can be developed(at a very great cost, twice that of our most expensive research tasks to date) which are capable of not only scanning for resources but also alien ruins. Any evidence of how they live, culture, technology, etc. is valued by the navy to the point where it would be impossible to put a price on them.

** Salvage modules for the purpose of similarly investigating any alien wrecks such as those found in Lalande 21185 are also needed for the same reason, and are not expected to require quite as high an investment.

Due to the amount of resources required and the other vital priorities, SPACE does not expect a mission to be ready anytime this decade. A tentative, and quite likely flawed, goal of being ready to resume exploration by 2075 at SPACE's 50-year anniversary has been set.

Finally, in order to conserve resources and improve efficiency, SPACE is delaying new naval tours for another year until the end of 2063. In this way, the elections and redeployment of military personnel will not happen at the same year and stumble over each other, so to speak.

Earth

January 10 -- The Tod & Macgregor completes a second slipway.

Mid-January -- Another round of Perry refits are completed.

Late April -- The first round of 200 Defender missiles has been completed.

June 11 -- Another first for SPACE as a spaceport is constructed on Earth. As of now, none of the colonies are deemed to be in need of one, so the 20 factories that were working on it are divided between other projects.

July -- Total shipyard workers cross the 10m threshold.

Mid-August -- A clerical error is discovered which mistakenly had the Tod & Macgregor Shipyard continuing to expand its per-slipway capacity(good idea) instead of retooling for the freighter refits(much more needed). The situation has been corrected, but the refitting process will not be able to start now until next year.

Mid-October -- Earth has expanded to five Deep Space Tracking Stations, sufficient of our current needs and providing a much stronger and more thorough ability to detect anything hostile that might be out there. This announcement has a considerable calming effect on the population, though that's really all it does for now as there's no sign the aliens have come into Sol or intend to.

November 2 -- The fourth of the new Forrestals is completed and heads out to complete the pair at the Epsilon Eridani jump point.

Late November -- A second Ground Force Training Facility is completed on Earth.

Research & Development

** January 12 -- The WP NP-200 engine, for use in freighters and other large vessels, is complete. Team leader Everette Snuggs will tackle another vital project, the missile fire control suite needed for an effective missile system. A new contractor, RSJ(Ramsey, Sheetz, and Johnston) has been awarded the deal given their expertise in similar lines of work. The RSJ MFC 81-60 is smaller than the other electronics, 'only' 350 tons.

** May 9 -- Karabishi Juishao finishes HMI 30, missile magazine. Joe Tycho takes over the reduced-size lasers project abandoned when Bavaro retired last year.

** June 23 -- Thermal Signature Reduction(Dr. Edward Groat) has been finished. All new engine designs will include this, which causes less heat to be produced in space by ship engines, and therefore drops the range at which they can be detected. These initial advances constitute a reduction of one-fourth in the normal emissions.

This is a very high-priority branch for the navy, but getting a working prototype of laser-based weaponry going is even more important at the moment. Uihlein-Bechtel Optics Solutions was really the only worthy player in the field. The UBOS 10-1 IR Laser gets the long-sidelined Wayne Sabagh back into the game ... at least for a week or so. Everything in the laser system is very barebones and elemental tech, and it isn't expected to take long.

** July 2 -- The laser is ready, now it needs a support system. Power to begin with, as it's based on energy not ballistics. Here we turn to General Electric, one of the few major corporations to survive(in a greatly lessened state) from pre-war days. Based on the same pebble-bed reactor technology that drives our engines, the GE PBR 1500 is a 25-ton power plant that actually produces energy 50% faster than our laser can use it to recharge, at a price of 4k credits and requiring just a single crewperson to operate. It's a quick project for Rosemary Urenda, expected to take just over a month.

** August 10 -- GE PBR 1500 power plant research is complete(Rosemary Urenda). The RSJ Bullseye 5k, an initial beam weapons fire control, is next on the docket. 5k is the tracking speed, normal size with a minimal 10k range. No available SF specialists, so Curtis Gloster will take a few months and iron out the kinks there.

** August 23 -- Grav Sensor Strength 12(Delmar Ytuarte) has now been completed. Next year EM sensors are expected to hit their next generation and that's when a sensor redesign will be contemplated, no point in doing it halfway. The next item on the agenda is the final piece of the laser weapons system puzzle: a turreted deployment. Sinclair Development Corp. has successfully pitched the SpearPoint series, the first of which is the DL-50, which allows for matching our maximum fire control speed of 5k km/s and two lasers per turret. 17 crew, 7k credits. Newcomer Glenda Alioto gets the call to head up that project.

It's worth taking a moment here to explain the turret situation. Any energy-based weapons system needs to match tracking speed: it's no point in having a weapon capable of higher tracking speed than the software(fire control) can handle for example. Similarly, the weapons system is limited by the speed of the ship. If a ship can't move and turn fast enough, it can't keep a target in the firing arc of a weapon mounted on a hardpoint directly to the ship's hull. This is where turrets come in handy, particularly in a situation like the present one where the enemy has a major speed advantadge. By putting a sufficient amount of gearing mechanisms into the turret design, it is capable of being more agile than the ship itself and therefore matching our current technological fire control limit of 5k km/s. Building a combat ship with anything close to that speed right now would be very difficult if not impossible, but there is a cost(increased materials, size, etc. taken up by the turret component).

This covers all the immediately needed prototypes with one research lab yet free, allowing for a new general research project to begin. Edward Groat gets to work after a brief pause on the next stage in reduction of thermal emissions.

** November 5 -- New research lab is finished and added to Groat's team on reducing engine emissions.

** November 8 -- SpearPoint DL5(Glenda Alioto), the turret project, is now finished.

** November 10 -- RSJ Bullseye 5k(Curtis Gloster) completed. Delmar Ytuarte takes the recently vacated laboratories for work on improving the range of our beam fire control systems.

Commissioned Officers

Late March -- It is seemingly strange timing for such endeavors, but Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers increases political reliability to 10%.

Mid-April -- James Earl Jones V bumps Logistics to 15%, and Sonny Dean has learned enough to improve his administration rating to 4.

Late April -- On distant Triton, Herbert Duling ups to 40% politial reliability. It seems nothing can stop him from preserving his political capital, not even health problems and a distant posting.

Early May -- It was destined to happen eventually. Mitchell Feeser becomes the navy's sixth active captain. Just 27 years old, he's over a decade younger than any of the others. He'll take the vacant post at Operations. A few days later, Kendall Muratore becomes the navy's second Rear Admiral. The 51-year-old Muratore is very accomplished, but no threat to Ellie Camble(55) as the navy's chief.

August 23 -- Mr. Derick Pinegar(34, some health concerns, experience in most major ship classes though he has never served on a freighter) is the navy's most recent Captain. Fleet HQ now has a full set of staff officers, as he takes over at Intelligence.

Late September -- Tell Perj Jr. fleet movement initiative up to 354.

Early October -- Joe Tycho's expertise ticks up to 35%.

Early November -- Deacon Palmer's abilities rise again, now at 50%.

[Brian Swartz]

2063 ANNUAL REPORT

There was a new development from the Office of the Director almost immediately. The last four harvesters finished their refitting runs, after which two decisions were made. With an estimated 1.2m liters of fuel able to extracted from Saturn now per year, that was deemed a sufficient amount and the 75 refineries on Earth were shut down. Concurrently, the need for a ship capable of moving fuel from Titan to Earth(and elsewhere) as needed was clearly seen. Having a tanker was a thought in the back of many minds for years but now moved to teh front. The Iowa design team was redirected to this new project, resulting in the following specs:

Size: 9.8kt
Crew: 53
Speed: 1020 km/s
Range: Basically unlimited(just under 1.8 trillion km)
Fuel: 6 million liters
Cost: 604k

They aren't cheap, but one is plenty to do the job for now. The plan is to build two, just for redundancy's sake, and station one at Earth, one at Titan. The ENDM yard will function perfectly for this, and is presently idle. Both are slated to come off the line in a little under two years' time.

February brought a bit of bad news, with the loss of young sensors scientist Glenda Alioto who just got her feet wet last year on her first project. Medical difficulties forced her retirement from active service, and there aren't nearly enough sensors and fire control specialists(while at least four in logistics for example, go constantly without work as they aren't needed).

On March 10, retooling was finally finished at the Tod & Macgregor and the Custer and Yellowstone became the first freighters to begin refitting to the more modern Fletcher IV standard. It was a busy year already, and then civilian operations on Sedna began expanding again in May.

September brought the retirement of youngish Captain Derick Pinegar, who had been improving quite a bit in his post at Intelligence. This surprising development led to the promotion of 48-year-old Jung Besler, long one of the better ship COs in the Navy.

November saw a shift in mining deployment, as two previously untapped comets(Wild and Wolf) will now see investment due to both having over 10kt of Neutronium at conveniently accessible locations. This has the minor advantadge of further diversifying the cocktail of less-critical minerals that will be regularly inbound to Earth. Three more mass drivers are ordered on Earth to ensure there are plenty to be deployed in such situations in the future when they are needed. Jayson Riese and Philomena Huber were dispatched as their first administrators.

The Forrestal IIs continue to deploy, with the Sirius node getting it's first guardian on December 15th. Six down, only one to go(Barnard's Star remains unguarded, though there's no reason to suspect alien activity there). A key strategic objective of SPACE for both public relations and military reasons, the increased surveillance capability in Sol space will be all but complete by the next election in a year's time.

It was a very good year for SPACE. In addition to the highlights here, the more detailed reports relay a number of scientific advancements, some of them quite important, and the graduation of a new naval prodigy from the academies.

Research & Development

** February 3 -- Cryogenic Transport: Emergency Size has been completed(Brandon Grimmett). Among many useful choices, he will next work on the equipment and organization needed for a Construction Brigade, a military unit dedicated to working on planets that don't have factories. This is deemed particularly necessary for getting basic army facilities up and running on remote outposts, for example. The makeshift structures presently used in places like Luna, Venus, etc. are notoriously unworthy.

** April 7 -- Planetary Sensor Strength(Bessie Wallander) has been increased, further extending the reach of the deep-space tracking stations. The Construction Brigade project receives one of the laboratories, leaving one for a new project. Wallander takes over for Rosa Suda's sensor team so that Dr. Suda can look into Implosion Fission Warheads, with the promise of delivering a bigger bang for the buck on impact than our standard nuclear warheads can.

** Early August -- Dr. Elwood Tousant's team finishes their work on improving EM Sensor Sensitivity. New EM and gravitational sensors are now set to be designed. The Sentinel 27-6 suite, for use on the Forrestals, is 25 tons smaller yet possesses 15% greater range. Tousant gets to work on it immediately.

** October 7 -- 24th Research Lab is ready. Slowly but steadily the research directorate grows. The second generation of commercial-grade sensors is our next priority, with Curtis Gloster taking the actives first in lieu of a sensors specialist.

** Late December -- A significant breakthrough by #1 sensors researcher Julio Kuchler's team results in the possibility of better beam fire controls, on the order of 60% higher tracking speeds. Redesigned fire controls and turrets are indicated immediately. This new capability should render our beam weapons capable of hitting the enemy ships we've encountered, though they are nowhere near good enough to threaten their missiles yet. The RSJ Bullseye 8k is Kuchler's next objective.

** December 30 -- Just ahead of the new year, Dr. Cedrick Wormack's team has completed all the specifications for Brigade Headquarters. These will give the army a much more proper organizational structure, and training the necessary personnel for the first HQ begins immediately. Each one will take well over a year, so this is a long-term modernization.

Wormack and his two laboraties next turn their attention to Salvage Modules -- this is the first concrete step towards renewed exploration efforts down the road.

Earth

Early February -- Mobile Infantry training finishes on Earth. At this point there will simply be a wait until the new HQ units are ready.

April 11 -- A second slipway is complete at the Baltimore-Marine SY. Two Forrestals at a time can now be built there. Another one is queued up and there are now ten vessels being built in Earth orbit by over 10.5 million workers. It's a good time to be part of the SPACE navy ...

Colonial Developments

Early March -- Duranium has been exhausted on Reinmuth. There's wasn't much there to begin with, so it's not a major loss and was inevitable once more mines began to be sent.

Late May -- Sedna's first expansion in a year and a half takes it up to 18 civilian mining complexes.

July -- Neutronium is under 5kt, still dropping by around 100t a month.

Late July -- Another expansion on Sedna to 19 complexes.

Mid-October -- Sedna has 20 complexes now, contributing over 3kt duranium and 2.3kt-plus of Uridium per year.

Commissioned Officers

Mid-March -- Five officers were dismissed this year, four from the army and only one from the navy. One side affect of the increased stability in the officer corps is that officers who might have been dismissed early ten years ago are now sometimes promoted. The quality of the senior officers as a whole has definitely decreased some.

Late March -- Joe Tycho's research bonus vaults up to 45%. He's moved into the upper echelon of active researchers, just a hair behind Dr. Vadnais in the EW field.

Late July -- Herbert Duling has upped factory production to 30%. If his health wasn't a concern, and it still is, you could just go ahead and pencil him in for the 2065 election right now.

Early July -- Joe Tycho has made some new friends, upping his political reliability to 15%. He's making a serious pitch for taking over the top EW scientist post, but isn't quite there to unseating Dr. Vadnais yet. With both in their mid-40s(Tycho is 43, Vadnais 46) the competition is quite good for SPACE's prospects in developing better EW systems.

Late July -- Deacon Palmer's administration rating, which he'll never approach using, is now up to 11(55 labs max -- we have less than 25 total :P).

Late October -- The latest prodigy emerges from the naval academy. Shad Gullo is considered to be every bit the talent that Mitchell Feeser was seven years ago: we'll see if he makes Captain rank as quickly or can beat Feeser's time(6 years, 1 month, and 5 days). That's getting it done and is a high mark. Gullo is a training prodigy(200 skill), and his greatest strength is skills in a wide variety of areas, particularly surveying and diplomacy(20% each), and he also possesses some quality political connections(10%). Shad immediately takes the latest Forrestal command, the vessel having been readied for launch literally during his graduation ceremony, and heads forthwith to the Luyten 726-8 jump point.

[Brian Swartz]

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS

Retirements

** Cmdr. Jon Mcelveen -- a typical solid naval CO, he saw action on most major lines
** Cmdr. Louis Pitianello -- ditto, both served at the Commander rank for nearly three decades
** Cmdr. Annette Bugay -- Not nearly as accomplished as the other two, Bugay nonetheless was steady, ending her career on a high note with FT Southampton the past six years.

Three LTCs were promoted to replace them. Shad Gullo has not, of course, put in his mandatory year to be eligible yet.

Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. -- 2nd out of 19. He's been assigned to the lone Belknap-class command ship.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III -- 22nd out of 56. Not quite good enough to escape shuttle duty yet.

Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers -- Second to last tour upcoming, Silvers will get to oversee the initial stages of the transition the new Brigade HQs before he retires. Two of the brigadiers below him are considered to be more talented, but he's been the figurehead of the Army for 35 years now.

Sonny Dean(4) -- Governor of Titan
James Earl Jones(6) -- Governor of Machholz

Pioneer Deacon Palmer(CP 50) -- Mining productivity
Joe Tycho(EW 45) -- Reduced-size lasers

[Brian Swartz]

2064 ANNUAL REPORT

Another productive year of gradual progress for SPACE. With each one that passes the alien threat seems further in memory, less urgent, less foreboding, to the point where some convince themselves it was merely imagined. Those more sober-minded are able to remind themselves that we still exist only because they have chosen to allow it.

In the first week of the year, a medical scare involved Rear Admiral Kendall Muratore(53), who checked himself in for an extended medical stay. This triggered speculation that he may not be able to serve long enough to ever succeed Camble as Chief of the Navy. The next few months were filled with various steps up the ladder of science with the prototyping of combat systems best detailed elsewhere.

In October, the first two of the Iowa tanker class is deployed, and the navy turns it's attention to modernizing troop transports. The Portland(single battalion capacity) is upgraded which will not require a great deal of effort and can be easily handled as an initial 'breaking-in' job for the now Oregon Shipbuilding yard.

However, with the new Brigade HQs it would also be desired to transport an entire brigade at times. That would require a much larger ship. Dubbed the Arleigh Burke, the Brigade-level transport has twin CIWS batteries, a pair of cargo handling systems for reasonable loading times, twin WP NP-100 engines, and Mark II commercial sensors.

Size: 17.8kt
Crew: 136
Speed: 563 km/s
Range: 38.2b km
Cost: 553k

ENDM will retool to get an initial pair of these in production, scheduled for deployment around the end of 2066.

By the end of November, the last Forrestal IIb sensor boat had been deployed to the Barnard's Star jump point, and the robotic arms at the Baltimore-Marine Shipyard fell silent. In terms of surveillance and early warning, Sol was now as safe as SPACE could make it -- bringing new urgency to the eventual goal of expanding our reach outwards.

Finally, on December 15th, another historic moment was reached with the completion of Sector Command in London. Administrative staff and equipment was in place, await the results of the election just a half-month away now.

Research & Development

** January 12th -- Eva Vadnais completes her report, which allows for the doubling of recharge rates on the capacitors of our beam weapons. That means a new round of laser development. The new UBOS 10-2 IR Laser can fire every 10 seconds instead of every 15.

** January 28th -- After just over three weeks, Vadnais has completed work on the new laser. A new turret, the SpearPoint DL8, will now be prototyped with the more rapid-firing weapon and faster-tracking firing controls in mind. It's roughly 25 tons larger due to more gearing being necessary to attain the more agile tracking mechanisms.

** February 13 -- Everette Snuggs has completed his latest project, the missile fire control system RSJ MFC 81-60. He's next been tasked with the new commercial electromagnetic sensors.

** February 21 -- Dr. Curtis Gloster has finished the first of the next-gen commercial sensors, the HISS Mark II GravSen suites. He moves on to the thermal sensors next.

** March 3 -- Elwood Tousant's team has finished the testing phase of the Sentinel 27-6 sensor system. A new Forrestal IIb variant has been designed implementing the newer electronics, and while the last several to be built will get the updated system, the others won't be refit until they come in for shore leave. Lighter, faster, and requiring 13 crew instead of 15, the IIb is superior in every way. Retooling will take less than a month.

Wayne Sabagh is back for a new task, this time looking into extending laser wavelengths into the visible light spectrum.

** March 5 -- Julio Kuchler returns with final blueprints for the new beam weapon fire control, the RSJ Bullseye 8k. He and Tousant take over a couple of projects being run by non-sensors scientists, and Karabishi Juishao gets her biggest task in a while, looking into improving Missile Agility.

** March 25 -- Joe Tycho finishes work on reduced-size lasers(with massively higher recharge times, making them of dubious practical use). It's time to get a workable Meson Cannon system up and running. Wheaton Technologies was tapped for the prototype WT Excalibur 102.

** April 2 -- Mark II Thermal Sensors(Julio Kuchler) have been finished. He sets to work in further improvement in thermal sensor technology.

** April 4 -- Mark II EM Sensors(Elwood Tousant) are finished, completing the next generation of commercial electronics. Appropriate adjustments are made to the Lexington, Fletcher, and Perry classes. In the process, it was discovered that it had somehow been overlooked to upgrade the engines on the Lexington shuttles. Grrr ...

** April 8 -- The new SpearPoint DL8 laser turret is now ready(Eva Vadnais). Vadnais will now direct her efforts to a 12cm laser, more powerful than our current 10cm builds.

** June 20 -- Nearly forgotten in the latest rush in weapons and sensors, Dr. Santo Makar has reported on increased engine power(175%). His pair of labs will next be devoted to Gas-Cooled Fast Reactors, the next potential breakthrough in reactor power.

** September 13 -- 25th Research Lab is finished. Rosemary Urenda begins work on a 10% power boost for power plant reactors.

** October 2 -- The first working Meson Cannon prototype(WT Excalibur 102) is ready. As with the laser, a turret is needed for it, but that will have to wait as the Reactor Power project grabs up the vacated space.

** December 23 -- Dr. Clint Wyche completes his latest zero-fanfare project(terraforming improvement to .0015 atm). Genome Sequence Research, from which it is hoped to gain a further concept of genetic engineering and what TN technology might hold in that vein, will be his next goal.

Commissioned Officers

Mid-February -- I don't know what has gotten into Joe Tycho, but after making another major breakthrough his skill has rocketed to 55%, making him the new clear top dog in energy weapons(weapons of any kind, actually). Also, new researcher Adolfo Walth appears to be the heir apparent to Edward Groat, already with a 15% skill in Defensive Systems. It's been a good month for R&D.

Late March -- Joe Tycho's political reliability is up to 20%. The man simply cannot be stopped ... Apparently some of the SPACE higher-ups like the idea of the reduced-size lasers better than does the Navy ...

Early April -- Dr. Rosa Suda, tops in the MK field, has improved a bit to 45%.

Mid-July -- Joe Tycho's administrative skills, already way more than adequate, have increased to 7.

Early November -- Relentless brown-noser extraordinaire Cmdr. Ali Mandujano has been promoted to Captain. There is no open staff officer slot for her, and the navy is not yet ready to divide command(it is planned to seperate into a civilian and military task force, but not until ground-based anti-space defenses are ready to be produced ). She'll remain on board the JSC Excelsior for the remained of her tour, by which time the situation hopefully will be different.

Late November -- Less than 13 months after being commissioned, Shad Gullo is promoted to Commander.

Mid-December -- A couple of key scientists improved themselves, including Dr. Rosa Suda(55%) who has become the first elite Missiles & Kinetic Weapons specialist in the history of SPACE.

Earth

Mid-February -- The fifth harvester group is formed, upping our total to 17 ships. Another group of four is planned, which should bring production to about 2m per year, considered sufficient for the time being.

Early March -- The Custer and Yellowstone have completed refitting, to be followed now by the Hercules and Southampton. Their refits will include the new Mark II gravitational sensors, which they hopefully will never have to use.

March 13 -- The first Forrestal II arrives at the jump point to Barnard's Star and activates it's Sentinel gravitational sensor array. Redundancy and backup still needs to be built up with additional vessels, and continued monitoring of the situation, but Sol is now being fully and sufficiently policed. SPACE has high confidence that anything attempting to arrive, or anything hiding currently here that tries to exit or approach, will be spotted. The first phase of defending Sol has been achieved, and it is a day for some celebration!

March 25 -- Retooling is finished for the Forrestal IIb, and the third Military Academy has been completed. With the naval academies hard-pressed to churn out enough quality officers lately, and beauracratic candidates declining in quality for some time now, this is most welcome news.

May -- As neutronium continues to decline, expansion of the Tod & Macgregor slipways has been suspended. Larger freighters will be needed, but not in the near future and the supply is getting too close to the critical point. Wartsila also ceases it's expansion, but the Baltimore Marine and P&A Group yards continue on.

August -- With neutronium now under 4kt, expansion at the Baltimore-Marine yard is suspended as well.

August 3 -- The fifth commercial shipyard has been completed, named simply Oregon Shipbuilding. There's no 'Oregon' in Earth orbit, but whatever. Normal procedure would be to add one more yard as a security against future needs, but with the present state of neutronium that idea is shelved.

August 10 -- The first four Lexington IIIb(with top of the line commercial sensors and new nuclear pulse engines) have finished their refits, and they'll take the most remote locations as the shuttles fan out ahead of the upcoming election.

October 20 -- The first two of the Iowa tanker class are ready for active service. One heads for Titan, with the second remaining at Earth. Meanwhile, Crommelin is the second outpost to report that Corundium deposits have been exhausted this year.

December 1st -- A third naval shipyard is ready for operations, Yokohama Dock Co. Construction on a fourth begins immediately.

[Brian Swartz]

STATE OF SPACE, 2065

I. IMPERIAL HOLDINGS

IA. Populated Colonies

Earth(1.149b, 400 CF, 137 CI, 50 OF, 10 FF, 75 REF, 25 RL, 3 AC, 5 DSTS, 13.8k MF, 1 SP, SC)
Luna(34.55m)
Mars(32.06m)
Titan(16.56m, 1 DSTS)
Venus(4.49m)
Mercury(less than 5k)

40 years old and still growing strong. Earth has added 90 million, with noticeable growth everywhere except for Mercury. Venus has exploded, adding more than four million to a population of less than 200,000 just four years ago. Titan was expected to grow more, but saw under 1.5 million added due to slow infrastructure shipments, even with the investment of a deep-space tracking station. Total human population has reached about 1.24 billion, about a 9% increase.

There are still vestiges of pre-TN economic concerns hanging around. At the current rate it will take at least a decade to convert all of the remaining conventional industry.

IB. Outposts

Earth(49 SM, 137 CI, 9.1 eff, 1.03 kt) -- 5.1 y of mercassium, 7.1 y of duranium. Maintaining at around 50 mines until our homeworld is bare, which right now would take almost half a millenium(tritanium)
Titan(25 SM, 6 eff, 207t)
Sedna(20 CMC, 16 eff, 5.38 kt)
Triton(63 AM, 30 eff, 2.95 kt)
Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 40 eff, 1.48 kt)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 39 eff, 1.42 kt)
Comas Sola(25 AM, 50 eff, 1.5 kt) -- gallicite(5.1 y)
Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 1.13 kt)
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 52 eff, 1.34 kt) -- boronide(8.0), gallicite(9.8)
Borrelly(15.8 AM, 58 eff, 1.15 kt) -- sorium(0.1)
Wolf-Harrington(13.8 AM, 60 eff, 994t) -- vendarite(0.9)
Reinmuth(11.8 AM, 37 eff, 550t)
Neujmin(10.8 AM, 49 eff, 761t) -- corundium(1.6)
Faye(10 AM, 48 eff, 664t)
Prokne(10 AM, 10 eff, 138t)
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 660t)
Wolf(5 AM, 26 eff, 156t)
Wild(5 AM, 34 eff, 204t)

Total Production: 21.71 kt, an impressive 17.5% increase in annual yield! Some of the larger comets actually saw significant drops with top administrators suffering medical setbacks, but continued civilian investment in Sedna, expansion of operations on Triton and several smaller outposts, and new mining operations on the comets Wolf and Wild were able to dwarf those losses.

The recent exhaustion of corundium on a number of bodies(with Neujmin set to join them) is only a minor concern, as Earth's stockpile continues to grow.

IC. Mineral Stockpiles & Production

Tier A & B materials continue to be in a high state of flux due to the fickle nature of shifting economic priorities.

Tier A: Uridiuim(59 kt), Vendarite(38 kt), Gallicite(35 kt), Tritanium(32 kt), and Corbomite(28 kt)

Gallicite should have an asterisk here. Quite a bit was used in the defender missiles, but the stockpile still grew and that's the only major usage with none planned in the next year or so.

Tier B: Mercassium(27 kt), Boronide(25 kt). Mercassium declined for the first time, raising a bit of a red flag. Boronide is being used more with the increase in shipbuilding, as it is required for fuel tank technology. However, should a shortfall ever occur, Venus has 21mt of the stuff, and it can be virtually picked up off the surface there.

Tier C: Sorium(16.7kt), Corundium(7.42 kt). Sorium is quite safe at the moment, with planetside refineries no longer consuming it the stockpile is rising quickly. Corundium is less certain, and will be watched fairly closely the next few years.

Tier D: Duranium(5.87 kt) has fluctuated up and down, with more investment still needed to indulge in constant full-capacity shipbuilding. Neutronium(3.75 kt) has nearly stabilized but has largely ground shipyard expansion operations to a halt. No non-essential goals are proceeding while more resources are found.

MRD requested an analysis of all known sources of neutronium to ensure our situation is sustainable. Approximately 375kt exist in reasonably high-accessible and good concentration sources in Sol. One of the moons in Epsilon Eridani has almost three times that much by itself ... but it might as well be on a black hole for all the good that information does us. The present situation is sustainable for perhaps as long as close to a century, but not indefinitely.

ID. Income

Taxes(population): 29.4 m
Taxes(civ. shipping): 4.45 m
Taxes(civ. fuel): 65 k

Total: 33.91m(+9.8%). All sectors saw modest increases.

Balance: 499m(+50m)

IE. Expenses

Research: 5.86m
Installation Construction: 5.82m
Mineral Purchases: 5.03m
Shipbuilding: 4.05m
Shipyard Operations: 1.11m
GU Training: 201k
GU Maintenance: 168k
Maintenance Facilities: 77.3k

Total: 22.32m(+33.9%)

Shipbuilding and training of ground units both more than tripled, and continued growth is expected as the military ramp-up will only intensify. In a decade or two, finances may yet become a real issue.

II. SHIPYARDS

IIA. Commercial Yards

Tod & MacGregor(2 slipways, 58.1 kt capacity)
** Refitting to Fletcher IV(x2), February 2065
Estalerios Navais(2, 23.2 kt)
** Retooling for the new Arleigh Burke troop transports(brigade), late summer 2065
P&A Group(4, 36.7 kt)
** Expanding in preparation for larger harvesters, target of 50-60kt. Still a number of years out
** Building 4x Perry III harvesters, March 2065
Vickers-Armstrong(4, 10 kt)
** Building Lexington IIIb(1), late January 2065
Oregon Shipbuildilng(1, 10 kt)
** Refitting to Portland II(1), February 2065

IIB. Naval Yards

Wartsila(1, 10 kt)
** Idle
Baltimore Marine(2, 3.64 kt)
** Refit to Forrestal IIb(1), January 8 2065
Yokohama Dock Co.(1, 1 kt)
** Idle

III. ARMY TRAINING FACILITIES

IIIA. Earth

** Two active training facilities
** Brigade HQ(April 2065)
** Brigade HQ(Early 2066)

IV. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

IVA. Earth

Research Lab(33%) -- January 2065
Mine Conversions(standard to automated, 22%) -- 10-11 per year
Naval Shipyard(14%) -- Early 2067
Mass Driver(14%) -- 1/4 left, January 25, 2065
Maintenance Facilities(14%) -- 6 in the queue, October 2065
Mine Conversions(conventional industry to standard, 3%) -- 10+ per year

V. ACTIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS

** GEI MSS 140 -- active grav missile search sensor(Bessie Wallander) -- March 2065
** Beam Fire Control Range - 16k(Delmar Ytuarte) -- April 2065
** Mining Production(Deacon Palmer) -- Q2/Q3 2065
** Thermal Reduction -- 50% Emissions(Edward Groat) -- Q3 2065
** GEI SSS 200m -- active grav search sensor(Billie Allington) -- Q4 2065
** Construction Brigade(Brandon Grimmett) -- Early 2066
** Implosion Fission Warhead(Rosa Suda) -- Early 2066
** 10% Reactor Power Boost(Rosemary Urenda) -- Late 2066
** Salvage Module(Cedrick Workmack) -- Late 2066/Early 2067
** 12cm Laser(Eva Vadnais) -- Late 2066/Early 2067
** Thermal Sensor Sensitivity(Julio Kuchler) -- Mid-2067
** Genome Sequence Research(Clint Wyche) -- Late 2067/Early 2068
** Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor(Santo Makar) -- Early 2068
** Increased Missile Agility(Karabishi Juishao) -- Mid-Late 2068
** Visible Light Laser Wavelength(Wayne Sabagh) -- Late 2068

There have been consistently 15-16 ongoing projects at any one time the last few years, as increasing costs per project have eaten up the laboratories that have been produced to enter the system. The majority of projects now require two, and a single lab has become the exception rather than the rule.

Most, but not all of the initial combat system prototyping has been completed. It is still an ongoing process as systems are becoming obsolete very quickly, at times before they are even ready! This is slowing down already, and will continue to do so as the cost of improvement continues to rise. For the most part, it is simply a function of how 'behind' SPACE was and is in terms of combat technology.

VI. ACTIVE NAVAL ASSETS

CC Belknap(1, 2 kt, 50 crew, 1250 km/s, 60k fuel, command ship)
GSV Coontz(1, 2.25 kt, 32 crew, 1377 km/s, 130k fuel, gravitational survey)
GEV Essex II-x(2, 2.2 kt, 35 crew, 1135 km/s, 60k fuel, geological survey)
FT Fletcher II-xe(4, 36.2 kt, 100 crew, 518 km/s, 700k fuel, freighter)
FT Fletcher III(2, 36.4 kt, 106 crew, 515 km/s, 700k fuel, freighter)
FT Fletcher IV(2, 36.9 kt, 162 crew, 813 km/s, 650k fuel, freighter)
SB Forrestal II(11, 650t, 15 crew, 3.69k km/s, 50k fuel, sensor buoy)
SB Forrestal IIb(3, 600t, 13 crew, 4k km/s, 50k fuel, sensor buoy)
TK Iowa(2, 9.8 kt, 53 crew, 1.02k km/s, 6m fuel, fuel tanker)
ST Lexington III(17, 1.8 kt, 26 crew, 1.39k km/s, 60k fuel, transport shuttle)
ST Lexington IIIb(6, 1.8 kt, 28 crew, 2.78k km/s, 60k fuel*, transport shuttle)
JS North Carolina(1, 19.2 kt, 133 crew, 520 km/s, 250k fuel, large jump ship)
FH Perry III(17, 20.1 kt, 123 crew, 498 km/s, 350k fuel, fuel harvester)
JSC Pioneer(1, 10 kt, 240 crew, 1000 km/s, 600k fuel, jump scout)
TT Portland(2, 4.3 kt, 35 crew, 581 km/s, 60k fuel, troop transport)
CS Spruance-b(1, 20 kt, 110 crew, 501 km/s, 250k fuel, colony ship)

* A beauracratic oversight led to more powerful engines and the same amount of fuel. A further modification, the IIIc, increases to 250k with somewhat reduced speed for the endurance.

Total: 73 vessels(+55%), 770 kt(+44%), 4.62k crew(+63%), 27.1m liters fuel(+151%).
Available Crew: 85.7k(+8.9%)

Fuel Reserves -- 37.8m liters total(+2.4%)

The navy continues to grow by leaps and bounds. The two Iowa tankers can carry more fuel than the entire fleet combined four years ago held. This makes it easy to see why the economy became stressed to keep up the last couple of years.

VII. ACTIVE ARMY ASSETS

** Mobile Infantry Battalion(6)
** Garrison Battalion(17)

Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 115k(-66%)

The army has fully made the leap to TN tech, and the shrinking is over. Once the troops on Earth are fully organized into brigades, significant growth in the force is expected.

VIII. CIVILIAN SHIPPING CORPORATIONS

Voliva Carrier Company(37 vessels, 3.48m annual income)
Jensrud Transport and Trading(17, 700k)
Everton Shipping & Logistics(2, 80k)
Presnar Freight(3, 100k)
Clavette Shipping Line(3, 90k)
Abair Shipping(1, --)
Forbus Carrier Ltd(1, --)
Tolles Transport & Logistics(3, 70k)
Ouellet Shipping(2, 120k)

Total Vessels: 72(+7.5%)
Total Civilian Income: 4.64m(+6.9%)

Voliva now has a near-complete monopoly. Abair & Folbus have ceased operations and all of the other competitors have shrunk while Voliva Carrier Co. showed a near-50% increase in their take, to a 75% market share in 2064. For the first time, there are more SPACE vessels(73) than civilian(72) in Sol space.

IX. SPACE LEADERSHIP PROSPECTUS

** Naval Officers: 81 of 92 assigned(88.0%), +22%
** Ground Forces Officers: 29 of 41(70.7%), +13%
** Civilian Administrators: 22 of 27(81.5%), +1%
** Scientists: 15 of 31(48.4%), --

Overall: 147 of 191(76.9%), +14%

31 of 40 new positions added were in the navy, and it continues to be difficult to find enough civilian administrators as well. The scientific establishment, meanwhile, has for the most part more talent than it can use. It remains to be seen whether the recent increase in recruitment efforts will be enough to fill all needed positions.

[Brian Swartz]

2065 ELECTION

There was a record turnout this year, for multiple good reasons. It was historic, with the inauguration of Sector Command. It was predicted to be the closest race in SPACE history for other reasons as well. The slight favorite was ailing Herbert Duling(51) due to his incomparable range of experience and unmatched political skill. His health and the mining expertise of incumbent India Rakes(48), combined with the fact that she'd managed not to make any major mistakes last term, gave her about a 40-45% chance of staying in power according to most handicappers.

And then there were the usual disappointments. Delois Woznicki hasn't yet learned the management skill to run Earth, much less the whole system, and Alberto Eighmy will be on the ballot, but his health is even rose than Duling's. The always-solid Jarrett Hugh is probably the third choice, followed by mining savant Larry Steckel, newcomer to the ballot Riley Awad, and Sonny Dean who unfortunately never learned the political part of politics. Seven in all on the ballot, but really it's between Duling and Rakes with Hugh having a puncher's chance if they both embarassed themselves.

The also-rans were the ones to embarass themselves. Dean and Awad didn't even really put forth a serious effort. Steckel made some headway with his focus on mining, but was considered too weak in other areas, and Eighmy's health continued to be his achilles heel. A series of gaffes ensured Hugh would not challenge the expected leaders.

So it was down to Duling and Rakes, and first the first time anyone can remember, Duling was out-campaigned by a smart, aggressive incumbent. It came down to less than a million and a half votes, but Duling was defeated in the directorial election for the first time in his career, 30.1 to 28.8%. The rest of the contenders:

Larry Steckel -- 11.5%
Alberto Eighmy -- 10.2%
Jarrett Hugh -- 10.1%
Sonny Dean -- 5.1%
Riley Awad -- 4.2%

Most notable here was a strong showing by Larry Steckel in placing third.

** This is the first upset I've had, albeit a mild one, and made this election a lot of fun to do.

POLICY REVIEW

Rakes had campaigned on a mining focus with a number of industrial priorities having been wrapped on Earth the last few years -- spaceport, sector command, shipyards, academies, etc. This was an emphasis in her re-inauguration speech. The share of the industrial sector devoted to economic investment would rise from 25% to 40% or more, with as many mines produced as could be without overrunning corundium resources. New mines would be split evenly between development of corundium deposits and develoopment of neutronium/duranium. Research would continue to constitute a third as the onward march of science was the only way to combat the alien threat in the long-term.

The one sticking point was the 2% Initiative, which has become controversial again as some as proposing reinstatement in the face of the fact that expenses are growing four times as fast as income over the past decade. As tempting as the idea was, it's an issue that has bitten India Rakes in the past, and she could not afford to be seen as doing anything that could take away from investment in military defenses.

The director also announced that construction would begin immediately on a new class of installation, the Ticonderoga-class plantary defence centre. The Ticonderoga would be deployed on remote outposts or very small, not strategically essential colonies. Housing a single garrison battalion, commercial-grade sensors, and a single CIWS battery, it was little more than a visible, physical reminder of SPACE's commitment and authority. Only 16 MPs would be required for each facility, weighing just under 3kt. Far larger and more robust facilities are planned for Earth, core colonies, and major mining outposts, with more details promised on those within two years. There were many quarters viewing this announcement as a political move to appease the growing dissatisfaction with the lack of concrete military assets in place, and efforts here will be closely watched.

[Brian Swartz]

2065 ANNUAL REPORT

As planned, it was a year filled with a return to expanding mining operations. Wolf-Harrington was chosen as the first place to invest mines, as corundium and neutronium are both found there. With Comas Sola and Machholz both set to run out of corundium in the next decade however, it was desired to not have a third comet run out that soon so within the first quarter focus switched to Faye for further development. Distant comets Herschel-Rigollet and Swift-Tuttle also have both minerals available but are over 7b km away, ruling them out when a closer source was available.

On March 4, such concerns were interrupted for a somewhat surprising state funeral. Sonny Dean, Governor of Venus died of natural causes. He was 55, and had a long, very respectable administrative career. He was never charismatic enough to make serious inroads in any directorial election, though he appeared on the ballot in several due to a wide range of skills.

Later in the month, another objective was complete as Harvester Task Group 6 was completed and underway for Saturn, clearing the P&A Group Shipyard on March 29. The next day, the first Brigade Headquarters was ready for operation, with Major General Sterling Silvers the obvious choice for the job.

April brought more health problems for Rear Admiral Kendall Muratore. Sources inside the Navy indicate the 54-year-old veteran may be 'asked to retire' when the current tour is up at the end of the year.

The mining focus returned in May with the first of two expansions of civilian operations on Sedna. Then in early June, Deacon Palmer produced a report on improved mining production techniques. Combined with effect of much better high-level supervision of urgent issues due to the formation of Sector Command, production of existing mines has increased considerably this year. By August, neutronium levels were creeping back up, though corundium was only just keeping pace with the increased demand of nearly two automines a month coming out of the 180 factories devoted to the task. Director Rakes held the line of any changes to the current spending profile, as reaching the long-established 'safe zone' of at least 5kt would help in terms of a strategic reserve and promoting public confidence.

Virtually every month having something to say this year, September chimed in with initial production of the first two Arleigh Burke(simply Burke hereafter) class of brigade-capacity troop transports initialized at the ENDM Shipyard. Deployment is expected in the early months of 2067.

By the middle of November, Faye had reached the target goal of 25 mines, becoming one of the larger mining outposts from virtually nothing less than two years ago. The Ministry of Resource Development prioritized moving Neujmin and Reinmuth up to at least that level(25-30, the comfortable range for a major comet-based outpost). Those two are the largest good-yield neutronium sources in the system at over 80kt each, and have 11-12 mines at the moment so production should at least be doubled. It is believed that will be a sufficient amount to allow shipyard operations to resume on a larger scale. Incidentally, at about the same time, support personnel for the massive research laboratories passed construction workers for the #1 industrial concern on Earth for the first time(both at about 26m each). Shipyards operations are #3, just over half at about 13.9m employed.

That increased neutronium will not come a moment too soon. With a couple of finished prototype tests being presented in early December, the navy was down to just one more project, expected next year. At that point, construction of major military assets, both planet-based and ships for a combat fleet, will be ready to begin.

SPACE promised major mining investment and delivered on that promise. Meanwhile, four of the new bare-bones Ticonderoga PDCs were finshed as well and await transport and assembly. A new remilitarized age is on the horizon, and even the most optimistic human cannot claim to know for certain where that will lead ...

Commissioned Officers

Early February -- Karl Mattey(24) becomes the youngest Brigadier General to be promoted since the formation of SPACE.

Mid-March -- Only a single army colonel is dismissed after no military officers were fired last year. It's all hands on deck with expanding opportunities and need for qualified personnel.

Late April -- Rob Nielsen III, Fleet Movement Initiative 206.

Late May -- Joe Tycho admin to 8.

Late August -- Cpt. Ali Mandujano's brown-nosing skills reach new heights(45%). Or depths, depending on your perspective.

Colonial Developments

Mid-February -- Sorium on Borrelly has been exhausted, but this is not a cause for concern with the refineries on Earth being shut down.

Early August -- Vendarite deposits have been exhausted on Wolf-Harrington.

Late August -- Sedna expands again to 22 complexes.

Earth

Mid-February -- Two more freighters finish the refit process, with half of the eight in the navy now upgraded.

March 6 -- The latest run of mass drivers is completed.

July 3 -- Both Portlands(troop transports) have finished refitting.

October 7 -- A second brigade HQ is finished on Earth. A third is in training, and three is considered enough for current forces. Additonal garrison battalions, for use on colonies and outposts, is now the top priority again.

Research & Development

** March 28 -- GEI MSS 140, the new active-grav missile search sensor, is completed(Bessie Wallander). She'll turn her attention to the SITG ThermoScan 102, a fairly massive 850-ton thermal sensor suite intended for passive military-grade detections.

** April 24 -- A report extending the range of beam fire controls to 16k km has been filed(Delmar Ytuarte). Elwood Tousant begins work on the final military-grade sensor, the SITG Emdar-30 for use in passive EM-based detection scans.

** June 8 -- Deacon Palmer finishes work on improved mining efficiency. Improving Shipyard Operations is Palmer's next goal.

** August 1 -- Dr. Edward Groat's team has come back with a considerable breakthrough, noting a 50% reduction in thermal emissions is now possible. He wants to take the concepts still further, and is given permission given the importance of the field to our future reconaissance efforts. He'll need another lab down the road, as two won't be enough to get what is our most expensive project to date -- six million credits the required expenditure -- done.

** August 18 -- A research lab is finished and added to the Thermal Emissions Reduction team.

** December 5 -- Billie Allington's team completes the trial of the GEI SSS 200m, the primary military anti-ship active sensor system. This leaves only the passive sensors before the navy is ready to begin building major military installations and ships. Harlan Welle takes one lab to put a new CIWS system incorporating the latest fire controls through its paces, and the other is devoted to larger meson cannons(12 cm focal size), under the direction of Wayne Sabagh.

** December 9 -- Courtesy of Elwood Tousant's team, passive EM sensors are now available. The thermals are expected by early summer of next year at the latest. Tousant will need more assistance down the road on this, but he gets started on the next round of fire control speed improvements(3k km/s).

[Brian Swartz]

** It should be noted here, as I forgot to put it in the 2065 report, that there were a number of solid-to-good naval recruits who came into the system last year, bypassing a lot of veterans. None of them were in Gullo/Feeser genius-level category, but one was very good and several moved well up the Lt. Cmdr. chain immediately.

RETIREMENTS

As anticipated, it was mutually agreed for Rear Admiral Kendall Muratore to accept early retirement. It's only five years early, and best for all concerned given his failing health of late. The 55-year-old Muratore is a veteran of more than 30 years active service, making Commander rank within just over a year. He spent almost an entire decade as CO of one of the original Fletcher-class freighters before making Captain in 2051. After a brief stint at Public Affairs, he led Fighter Ops(no, there weren't any, stop interrupting the story). His health began to trouble him shortly after his promotion to Rear Admiral in '62. He's served the navy well, and retires with honor and distinction worthy of that service.

** Cmdr. Miquel Rater -- Assigned to lead the top geology survey team less than 18 months after his graduation, Miquel's most lasting legacy is undoubtedly his 12+ plus years of service during the inital period of surveying in Sol. It was about halfway through this period that he was promoted to Commander, but he lacked the skills or political connections to make it any further up the command chain. Rater spent most of his CO assignments on board freighters, with brief stints aboard shuttles and the last couple of years on one of the Forrestal sensor buoys. His retirement will be temporarily delayed until he can catch a shuttle back to Earth.

Leota Schnepel(55) is promoted to be the new second Rear Admiral, leaving a spot open for Shad Gullo at Captain. It took him just two years, two months, and three days -- just about as fast as it is possible to climb. However, he's at the bottom of the heap now among Captains, and unless he shows more initiative than he has so far to improve his natural skills, he won't be going any further anytime soon.

Commissioned Officers Update

Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. -- 2nd out of 23. Surpassed by multiple younger men in the last few years(5 of 7 Captains are younger), Perj Jr. is now 47 and has three years to make Captain before automatic retirement kicks in. The clock is ticking. He remains on board the Belknap.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III -- 26th out of 68. Nielsen has finally escaped shuttle duty and is set to be transferred to one of the Iowa-class tankers.

Maj. Gen. Sterling Silvers -- Now head of the first properly formed brigade in the army, Silvers(59) will spend his final tour overseeing a military that has cut the fat and is now reorganizing and growing again. It's been a long time in coming.

James Earl Jones V(6) -- Moved from Machholz to Stephan-Oterma, Jones is good enough to keep a spot at one of the top mining colonies, not good enough to be a major force in Sol politics. Now 49, it seems unlikely that situation will change. He's had a very respectable career to date.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer(CP 50) -- Palmer is in the early stages of work on Improving Shipyard Operations. He has two, maybe three projects left in him now at 62 years old. Only one man living(Santo Makar) can arguably say he has been as important as Palmer to human scientific advancement over the past four decades.
Joe Tycho(EW 55) -- Now among the elite who can pretty much work on what they want to work on, Tycho has been battling health issues for almost two decades now which is a cloud that hangs over his work, but certainly hasn't stopped him. His interest in xenology motivates him to continue on and see the day when SPACE will once again explore the galaxy in search of new discoveries. Right now his talents are devoted to extending weaponized laser wavelength technology from infrared into the visible light spectrum.

[sterlingice]

Nice to have the holidays pick up the pace a bit :)

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Yeah I've been on vacation from my primary job the last week so it's been more than just the holidays -- I go back tomorrow and hope to find a happy medium. It helps that I've got a good long-term project to work towards -- I'm really excited to see some combat ships start churning out and start exploring neighbouring systems again, but that's a major undertaking and some time yet into the future.

[Brian Swartz]

Due to a small miscalculation on my part ... forgetting about Harvester Group 6(how you 'forget' eighty kilotons of ships is something I'll leave to reader's imagination), the information on Rob Nielsen III is incorrect. His next assignment, in fact, will be on one of the freighters, not a tanker. This is good news as it is considered a slightly better assignment in the hierarchy.

[Brian Swartz]

2066 ANNUAL REPORT(truncated)

A rather large bit of administrative news from the Navy to start off the year served the purpose of satisfying the public that SPACE continues to be serious about combat directives and preparing the way administratively for that orientation. The Navy was split from a unified command into two distinct task forces for the first time. Ellie Camble, the more senior of the two Rear Admirals, heads up the new Sol Defense Fleet(SDF), while Leota Schnepel takes command of the Sol Support Flotilla(SSF). As of now, the SDF consists only of the Forrestal II-class sensor vessels, but it will be growing soon.

During the disbursement of naval officers, there were a growing number of valid complaints. It seems the officers didn't appreciate crowding in some cases a dozen or more into the cramped room of a single crewman. And so, in the neverending list of overlooked necessities, the Lexington has been redesigned again to the 3d which contains six spare rooms. If more than six VIPs need to be transported, additional shuttles will be sent. Hopefully they'll be ready by next tour ...

In late January, ballistic technology specialist Rosa Suda increased to a 65% skill bonus, the largest yet seen. Dr. Suda has not yet reached her 30th birthday, and yet is now considered the most brilliant scientist in post-war annals of SPACE. This fact pretty much ensures that missile technology will be a notable priority for the forseeable future.

A month later, the Ute and Venus completed their refits, leaving only two more freighters to complete the process. And March saw the sudden and surprising investment of cclonization efforts on Mercury. For nearly a decade less than 5,000 have eked out an existence there, a number that was multiplied several times over in weeks. Later in the month, specifications for Construction Brigades capable of setting up needed facilities on worlds with a factory were completed. Such things were certainly noteworthy, but really only minor preludes to what happened a couple of monhts later.

On May 3, the final system needed for space-based combat clicked into place with Dr. Bessie Wallander's trials of military-grade passive thermal sensors. The culmination of nearly eight years of effort since Herbert Duling's historic global speech on the heels of the Epsilon Eridani crisis, this announcement meant that SPACE was finally ready to build its first generation of combat facilities and ships, taking war-making capability into space and putting some teeth into human naval operations.

Research & Development

** February 20 -- Dr. Suda wraps up work on the Implosion Fission Warhead, prompting calls in the navy for a new missile to take advantadge of the additional explosive yield. It is eventually decided to hold off until Karabishi Juishao's work on missile agility, though it is nearly three years off yet, is completed before crafting a new generation.

Suda decides to pursue improving launcher reload rates.

** March 26 -- Construction Brigade plans have been finalized(Dr. Brandon Grimmett). With the Burke transports already in production, the first Brigade enters training immediately. The Army always overestimates the required time, but has the first one finishing sometime in fall of 2067. Grimmett next applies himself to Hangar Decks, an improved version of Boat Bays for servicing small vessels on a ship.

** May 3 -- Thermal sensors are completed(Bessie Wallander). Planetary sensor strength is her next objective, which will require a third lab once one becomes available.

Commissioned Officers

Late April -- Some most welcome news as top electronics researcher Julio Kuchler marginally improves to 45% expertise.

[Brian Swartz]

SPACE SOL DEFENSE INITIATIVES

SDI(Sol Defense Initiatives) is SPACE's #1 strategic objective. As such, the primary focus of the industrial sector will be shifted to construction of new missile bases for planetary defense. A 'ground-up' prioritization will be followed, with defensive capabilities on Earth and the colonies considered more important than projecting power into space, which is a secondary goal.

PLANETARY-DEFENSE CENTERS

Ticonderoga-class Outpost

As previously discussed, the Ticonderoga is the most basic level of defense. These are to be deployed in two instances: any colony with less than 10 million population and no strategic value(i.e. Mercury), or a mining outpost that does not have considerable quantities of a vital mineral resource and is for that reason not considered a long-term necessity.

Mercury along with most of the mining outposts in Sol will receive Ticonderoga Outposts.

** Barracks for a single Garrison battalion
** Commercial-quality sensor suite.
** Minimal official presence.
** 2.95 kt, 16 crew, 87.5k cost

Tennessee-class Missile Base

Deployment of a Tennessee-class facility represents a larger investment in colonies of significant population with no strategic value other than their populations(Luna, Mars) and/or major mining outposts(Sedna, for example). There are two versions of the Tennessee, with the Tennessee Light used in situations such as Luna where passive sensors are not necessary due to coverage by deep space tracking stations on Earth. They should be strong enough to deter a 'recon in force' but not a major attack.

** Barracks for two Garrision Battalions
** Military-grade passive sensors(except for the Lt variant)
** Military-grade active sensors
** Five Missile Lauchers(Defender), six volleys each
** 7 feet of duranium armor(upgrade from the basic 5 for the Ticonderoga)
** Two CIWS batteries for a(very) basic element of defense
** The Tennessee Lt. is 12.1 kt with 214 crew and a cost of 951k; The standard Tennessee is 13.3 kt, 254 crew, and 1.1m credits cost.

Alaska-class Missile Base

The Alaska is intended for major planetary defense. Initially, only Earth and Titan, SPACE's most strategically important activity centers, will receive this level of investment.

** Barracks for a full combat brigade
** Military-grade passive sensors(two of each for redundancy)
** Military-grade active sensors(again, two of each)
** 25 Defender Missile Launchers(18 volleys each)
** 14 feet of duranium armor
** 18 CIWS batteries for defense
** 60.7 kt, 1030 crew, 5.2 million. An Alaska installation is a major investment, more than 5 times the price of the Pioneer, previously our most expensive endeavor, and 70% larger than a Fletcher IV freighter.

Because of the previously-discussed issues that make energy-based weaponry totally ineffective(at least for now) against known enemy capabilities, missile-based ships will be the backbone of the initial combat navy. The major combat doctrine issue to be resolved is whether to make each ship self-sufficient and able to operate independently if needed, or to have a number of ships rely on dedicated sensor ships painting targets for them. The latter would be far preferable given the current required size of active sensor suites, but our inability to defend against enemy missile attacks in any meaningful way pushed it out of mind. Two ship designs were thrown together with this in mind: the Nimitz-class missile boat and the Brooklyn-class beam ship. The Nimitz will carry Defender missile launchers, similar to the Tennessee missile base, and the Brooklyn meson and laser turrets.

Their primary purposes are two-fold: first, a public demonstration that SPACE is making progress towards a real combat navy, and secondly, the ability to test, as much as is possible, various logistical and combat necessities. There will be a considerable amount of 'wasted' resources in the sense that current sensor electronics components are already obsolete(equally effective and 30% smaller versions are already possiblke), but it remains a top SPACE priority to get assets into service, however inefficient they may be. Final specs on the Brooklyn and Nimitz await only the testing phase of the new 200-ton Phoenix engine, the primary military-grade propulsion system that is awaiting lab space to be developed. Fuel efficiency has been tossed to the wind(125% power modifier) in an effort to get the most speed that can reasonably be achieved.

It is expected to be quite some time(probably decades) before an equilibrium is reached wherein the initial waves of research advancements slows down to the point where our ability to build things can catch up with it and a modicum of stability can be established.

[PilotMan]

Dude, this had fallen off my radar a while ago, sorry about that. It's ironic that JEJ V is the governor of a mining colony. Maybe he should have been BDW V instead.

[Brian Swartz]

lol, I go through times of absence too. No biggie :).

2066 ANNUAL REPORT(Part 2/Conclusion)

Matters continued on much as they had before, except that nearly half of Earth's factories were now devoted to building bases for planetary defense. Still even at that, the first Alaska was not due to be ready for about three years. Meanwhile, with limited research set to complete in the second half of the year, many of the reports to the Director's office were not particularly consequential.

In early May, 36-year-old Nick Cuffie became the eighth active navy Captain, the most the branch has ever had at one time. On August 17, the maintenance facility expansion to 15kt was finally completed, as was the first run of 10 Ticonderoga-class facilities, ready to be deployed but lacking the means to do so as of yet(Construction Brigades and Burke transports to take the brigades to their destinations).

Days later, probably the most significant news of the latter half of the year came, as neutronium crossed the 5kt threshold again, this time in the positive direction. Capacity expansion at the Tod & Macgregor resumed immediately, and at two of the naval yards a couple months later.

Colonial Developments

Mid-May -- Corundium deposits on Neujmin have been exhausted. This will not be an issue anytime soon -- Earth's stockpile will grow considerably with most resources diverted to building army bases, not economic investment.

Late November -- Sedna expands to 23 complexes. Duranium outlook has never been so secure, reaching nearly five figures(10kt) on Earth by now.

Research & Development

** May 30 -- Harlan Welle's latest project(KKC CIWS II) finished.

** July 10 -- The latest laboratory complex is completed, and work begins on the Phoenix military engine(newcomer David Gruis).

** November 15 -- Rosemary Urenda's team completes work into increased reactor power(10%) with equivalent explosion risk. She'll take over on the Phoenix 40 military engine test phase. Billie Allington takes a couple of labs for work on the GEI MSS 180, second-generation missile search sensor which can detect enemy missiles an estimated 40-80 seconds out. Naval command believes that number needs to be stretched to at least five minutes, but that would make the required electronics prohibitively large so the march of technology will first need to have its effect.

** Early Dec -- Joe Tycho reaches some rarified air, upping his expertise to 65%. If only the sensors and fire control branch could develop a couple minds at this level ...

Commissioned Officers

Early August -- More medical problems for Dr. Joe Tycho. It appears now to be quite likely that the 46-year-old researcher will be forced into early retirement at some point ...

Mid-August -- Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III improves Fleet Movement Initiative up to 227.

Mid-October -- James Earl Jones V improves Factory Production bonus to 15%.

Earth

Late September -- Four shuttles are brought up to the Lexington III(d) standard.

Sept/Oct. -- For several weeks, the jump to Teegarden's Star goes unguarded as both ships require maintenance at the same time. It is presumed uninhabited, but still a matter for increased concern.

October -- The Baltimore-Marine and Yokahama naval yards resume capacity expansion, as rising neutronium stockpiles are considered sufficient.

[sterlingice]

This is Sterling Silvers's last year, correct?

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Correct. Automatic retirement hits at the end of 2067. And as for your next char, there's hasn't been a once-in-a-generation army recruit in ... well, in over a generation now actually. Navy's been getting all the good ones, especially since the academy got expanded. All of the top army officers are now in their 30s and 40s or older except for one decent mid-20s Brig. Gen. So ... still looking.

I should also point out there that I've had to work extra 9 of the last 10 days with no end in sight as the busy season continues, and I've been getting sick the last couple days. That probably adds up to slow Aurora progress, but the story shall continue!

[sterlingice]

No worries- I'm enjoying reading the story as is, character or not.

Also, take it at your own pace- it's a bummer to not get updates but at the same time, it's no good if you get burned out and feel like writing is a chore

SI

[Brian Swartz]

2067 ANNUAL REPORT


To begin her mid-term, Director Rakes re-institutes the 2% Initiative, citing the large and growing duranium stockpile as evidence SPACE can easily afford it. The four habitable moons of Jupiter(Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) are all that remains to settle. All have a 5.75 difficulty, making them slightly less hostile than Titan. Callisto will be first as it has some limited mineral utility(58kt Titanium at 0.5, 2.5mt Uridium at 0.1). The plan at present is to ship a few mines there to boost the economy, eventually.

A mass driver is sent to each of the four moons, and an initial shipment of 125kt of infrastructure sent to Callisto, along with another 70 kt for Io. Ricardo Bloise and [/b]Rufus Ke[/b] are sent as administrators for the respective prospective colonies ...

On January 26, the Salvage Module research team(Cedrick Wormack) finishes its work. The Salvage Module is one of the primary objectives needed to properly pursue exploring interstellar space again, allowing for gathering intel from wrecks should we come upon any.

A ship capable of deploying the salvage module effectively would have to be larger than any current SPACE vessel operating: it would need to be 50kt or more, even if not equipped with its own jump drive. A freighter-size hold would be required to carry anything that might be found, and the salvage module itself is 10kt, costing 200k credits and requiring 80 crew members to operate.

In the opinion of Director Rakes, it is pointless to worry about designing and/or building such a ship right now, until it gets closer to the time when the other required priority tech, improved geological sensors, can be researched.

At the end of April, the Phoenix engine is finally ready and after much debate the two initial combat ship classes are finalized. Future versions are expected to be much smaller and more specialized, but for now this is what the navy has come up with.

Brooklyn-class Gunboat
Armament: 4 SpearPoint DL8 dual-laser turrets, 2 Excalibur 102 Single-meson cannon turrets, each with their own firing controls.
Power: 12 PBR 1650 Reactors
Size: 15.15 kt
Speed: 2376 km/s
Fuel: 2m, 20.2 b km range(98 days)
Crew: 415
Cost: 1.88m, 2.33y

Nimitz-class Missile Boat
Size: 13.95 kt
Crew: 373
Speed: 2,437 km/s -- both just over a third of known enemy ship speeds
Armament: 5 Defender missile launchers, 6 volleys each
Cost: 1.89m, 2.49y

Only Wartsila is close to being large enough to accomodate these ships, but it is still a bit small at 12.5 kt.

Less than a week later, on the second of May, there was more big news as the first Construction Brigade was readied on Earth. Soon a three-ship convoy headed for Stephan-Oterma: the FT Hercules(carrying required minerals and the equipment to assemble a Ticonderoga base), a Portland(with the garrison battalion) and a Burke(carrying the construction brigade to assemble the base).

By the middle of June, a second brigade is ready and en route to Machholz, which was just outside Mars orbit and a much smaller trip. By the end of the month, everything was in place there with the construction brigade headed for Stephan-Oterma still almost two weeks out. Brigadier General Karl Mattey on Machholz reported in that assembling the base would take over six months, into the early weeks of 2068. Clearly the process of getting proper bases set up on all of SPACE's outposts in Sol space is an undertaking that will be measured in years, if not decades.

By the middle of October, Wartsila is ready to retool for the Nimitz-class missile boat. That will take almost two years, the first ship another two and a half, putting the first vessel in service sometime in late 2071. Much may well have changed by then, but the process of getting a proper navy put together is off to its first halting start. With the other shipyards far too small as of yet, it is unclear if any of this generation of Brooklyn gunboats will even be constructed before a more efficient design becomes available.

It was a most eventful year. Most of the shuttle refits have been completed, construction of minor military bases on Stephan-Oterma and Machholz has commenced, the initial test boats of both missile and energy weapons have been designed, and two moons of Jupiter were colonized. The militarization of Sol has begun.


COMMISSIONED OFFICERS


Early January -- 44-year-old Christopher Sonders becomes the eighth active Brigadier General, as the army officer corps is growing as well.

January 14 -- Ricardo Bloise officially moves into his makeshift command post, as it were, on Callisto, which presently has enough infrastructure to support 30,000 people and a mass driver, but no industrial equipment or colonists.

Early February -- James Earl Jones V's GU Construction Speed is up to 20%; Rob Nielsen III's Fleet Movement Initiative improves to 258.

March -- Alberto Eighmy, not heard from in quite some time, has managed to gain some more influential friends(political reliability 35%). In terms of playing the political game, only Duling exceeds him. ... too bad his health has not permitted him to be as active.

Late March -- The first officer dismissals in three years see four army and two navy officers released.

Early May -- Starved for leadership with the only two free officials set to take posts on Europa and Ganymede in coming years, SPACE is excited to see the graduation of Roxann Harshberger from the academies. She has notable skills in population growth, terraforming, and logistics, but no known political connections. Harshberger is considered a candidate for a relatively important posting immediately, ranking in the top half of administrative candidates.

Mid-May -- James Earl Jones V Shipbuilding to 50%(he still has not, once, been in charge of anything that required this skill. Nor is he likely to, at this point. Counter cross-stich would be equally useful for him to pursue). Rob Nielsen III increases training to 75, which actually matters.

Early October -- A stellar new naval recruit, Parker Lanzi, with very good training marks and some skill in logistics and survey, bolsters the naval officer ranks.

Mid-October -- Deacon Palmer increases admin rating to 12, tops among active scientists(Bavaro was at the same level before his sudden retirement).

Late November -- The Navy now has nine Captains with the promotion of 36-year-old Rocco Lett. Soon it is eight again as Anton Ericson(46) is promoted to Rear Admiral, giving the navy three active admirals. The Navy then creates what is really an honorary position given her impending retirement, as Ellie Camble is dubbed the first Senior Rear Admiral in SPACE history.


RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT


** January 16 -- Dr. Eva Vadnais finishes work on a 12-cm focal size laser project. Upgrading the laser weapons to the next generation is best saved until Tycho's work on wavelength is finished in a couple of months, so she instead takes over work on increasing focal size of the meson cannon, which was started by Wayne Sabagh.

David Gruis gets another crack with the GE PBR 1650, prototype phase for a slightly more efficient reactor using the increased power option.

** January 26 -- The Salvage Module is completed by Cedrick Wormack's team. His next project(Tiny Engineering Section) is not nearly so momentous, simply an effort to allow more fine-tuning in ship design.

Lacking an appropriately specialized scientist to take the project, Everett Snuggs is assigned to begin work on the next improvement in EM Sensor Sensitivity.

** March 15 -- Joe Tycho's team completes research on visible light laser wavelengths, allowing for the next generation in laser weaponry to commence prototype phase. The UBOS 12-2 VIS has a third greater damage than the previous IR lasers, and extends range to 80k km. Tycho will take a month to test it out.

** April 1 -- David Gruis finishes work on the newest power plant(GE PBR 1650), having learned nothing in the process.

** April 20 -- The new laser is complete, and turret testing begins. That will take a bit longer, a few months.

** April 28 --The Phoenix 40 military engine(Rosemary Urenda) is finished. A third and final lab is now added to EM Sensor research(Everett Snuggs).

** May 21 -- Better thermal sensors(sensitivity 8) have been discovered by Dr. Julio Kuchler. He sets to work developing the SITG ThermoScan 104, which is a hair stronger and 200 tons(nearly a quarter) smaller than the current military-grade standard ThermoScan 102. Rosemary Urenda takes the remaining lab to investigate continuing improvements in her series of projects on increasing plant reactor power(and explosion risk).

** June 3 -- A newly-finished research complex is added to the recently-formed team investigating increases in reactor power(Urenda).

** August 10 -- The new laser turret(SpearPoint DL8(b)) is ready, courtesy of Joe Tycho. Improved focusing for meson cannons is his next objective.


EARTH


February 2 -- The first two Arleigh Burke-class brigade-capacity troop transports are under way! They'll be going nowhere though, until there are Construction Brigades for them to transport, which is expected to happen this summer. SPACE can only guess at how long it will take a brigade to set up the bases once on-site ... there are almost certainly logistical problems that will arise which can only be guessed at from the current vantage point.

Meanwhile, many of the shipyards are silent ... for now.

Mid-February -- The final two freighters complete their refitting, and all of them are now more or less at the modern standard. Only the Vickers-Armstrong yard continues on with refitting the shuttles.

July 3 -- Earth finishes a mass driver to replace as backup the one sent to Callisto. The space is devoted to an expansion of the maintenance facilities at humanity's homeworld, which are just a hair too small to accomodate a Brooklyn at the moment.

July -- The last of the oldest Lexingtons have completed the refit process. The rest will go much more quickly. Completion of the process is expected next year, well ahead of the 2069 electoral cycle.

September 28 -- Maintenance facility expansion on Earth completed, now at 15.2kt.


COLONIAL AFFAIRS


Early February -- First-in colonists land at Callisto, with Io soon following suit.

July 11 -- The Stephan-Oterma Ticonderoga begins the assembly process.

Early October -- Suter Shipping Services joins the civilian shipping fray.

[Brian Swartz]

RETIREMENTS

It is as clear a changing of the guard as their could be. The Chief of the Navy and Chief of the Army are both retiring to start 2068, and both are the most recognizable and accomplished heads of their respective branches that SPACE has ever had.

** Senior Rear Admiral Ellie Camble is the standard by which all future naval officers will be judged(6824 promotion score). Ironically, she retires just as the navy is about to begin deserving the name. SPACE was just over three years old when she graduated the academy in 2028. She was a senior officer before there were any notable ship commands and therefore never received one, taking just over four years to reach Captain rank in the summer of '32. After 18 of her 22 years as Communications Officer as Fleet HQ, she was promoted to Rear Admiral. Since 2055, she has served impeccably as the navy's top officer. She will be succeeded briefly by Rear Admiral Leota Schnepel(57).

** Major General Sterling Silvers took less than 16 months to rise to the top of the Army in June 2028. A little over a year later, he became the first, and only until now, Major General in SPACE. He has overseen the modernization to TN-tech in the ground forces, commanding low-tech armour divisions for over two decades, and the first brigade for the past almost three years since the reorganization took place. A few can say they were more skilled, including his successor Brigadier General Abel Rosinski(58), but none approach his visibility and/or reputation. The Army was not called upon to do much of anything during his tenure, but there must always be vigilant men ready to do violence on behalf of humanity if need be. For four decades, Silvers was charged to make sure there were, and he fulfilled his duty well.

There are others stepping aside at this time as well. Health and age are becoming an issue for a number of the more experienced scientists and administrators, but for the time being they all soldier on.

** Brig. Gen. Angela Bankson, a 36-year veteran of the general rank and longtime commander of the garrison on Titan.
** Cols. Roberto Nicastro and Edward Clontz
** Commander Kathy Wheatly, famously of the Wheatly geology team, which she headed for five years until 2045. By that time she was already a senior officer, but despite experience on many different vessels, she never quite made it to Captain.


Cmdr. Tell Perj Jr. -- 4th out of 26. For two brief periods totalling around six months, Perj Jr. was the top promotion candidate for Captain, but he never made it. Barring something highly extreme, this will be the final tour for the 49-year-old veteran officer. He'll spend it back onboard one of the Forrestal sensor ships.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III -- 18th out of 79. Another tour on board the FT Hercules ... it could be worse.

James Earl Jones V(6) -- Still at Stephan-Oterma, but has improved himself enough that a colony posting is likely in a year's time.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer(CP 50) -- Shipyard operations is due to be finished late in the next year. He has one, maybe two projects left in him in my estimation(64 years old).
Joe Tycho(EW 65) -- You can count the number of researchers as important as the ailing Tycho on one hand. A victim of health issues both physical and psychological, he also seems likely to snap at any time. It's a fate all too common with geniuses, it seems. About two years remain on his task improving meson cannon focusing abilities to increase their range.

[Brian Swartz]

Just a heads up that this will continue -- I've suspended all other gaming activities -- but I don't know when that will be. Last week I worked an unintended personal-record 79 hours and expect to be quite busy for the duration of the winter. I also got sick over New Year's(no, not chemically induced :). Doesn't leave a whole lot of time for dilly-dallying, but the story of SPACE will continue.

[sterlingice]

Good to hear

SI

[Brian Swartz]

2068 ANNUAL REPORT

Ganymede saw the lion's share of the 2% Initiative this year, expected to finish up in 2069 assuming the next administration doesn't nix it. In the meantime, there were more economic changes made in the final year of the term. The catalyst was the simple and glorious fact that there is very little pressure on mineral stockpiles. All are rising except for neutronium which is pretty much holding steady -- and that with some commercial yards still expanding that really don't need to be any bigger right now, expansions that could be shut off with little consequence at any time. In face of these facts, Director India Rakes ordered that the one-sixth of the industrial sector devoted to economic improvements switch its focus to two matters: getting ten standard mines set for shipment to Callisto, and increasing the number of factories available on Earth. It is expected that within five years the conversion from conventional facilities, now at 90.7%, will be completed. Also in view is building maintenance facilities for both Callisto and Titan for servicing the Forrestal sensor vessels, and a shipment of fuel to Callisto so it can refuel them. With out-system refueling bases on both moons, there will be less reason for ships to have to return all the way to Earth just to fill up.

Rosinski was promoted to Major General as expected, replaced by Wyatt Pittman(35). This still left the army two generals short of where it was before.

Less than three weeks into the year, Clint Wyche completed Genome Sequence Research. The spectre and possibility of genetically engineering races more suited to various climates and conditions raises a number of ethical issues, issues which SPACE has elected to punt on for now. Breaking the general policy of specialization and the 5-year project limit, with nothing to pursue for now in his field, Wyche is assigned to working on Improved Geological Sensors, the final piece required for resumed exploration of neighbouring systems. With three labs eventually assigned, it is expected to take nearly a decade unless a sensors researcher is available to shorten that time.

On February 10, the eventful start to the year continues as the first off-world military base is established on Machholz. Meanwhile, the first mine is sent off to Callisto.

February 27 was a rough day for the R&D Directorate. Scientist Rosa Suda, the top missile specialist and just barely 30 years old, has died prematurely of natural causes. Harlan Welle takes over her work on reload rates, which was expected to complete in the summer, but this tragedy will have far longer-reaching consequences. Suda was expected to head up a major element of SPACE's weapons research efforts for decades: no scientific mind in the agency's annals reached such dizzying heights so quickly. Karabishi Juishao is now the clear replacement, but does not have Suda's talents and is 55 years old. Welle is 53 and the only other established scientist in the field. Early speculation holds that this may force SPACE to rely more on energy-based weapons in the future ...

March brings the shipment of the first Tennessee(Lt) along with required men and materials to Mars. Construction begins in April, and is expected to take as much as five years to complete. Meanwhile, before the end of the third month, Hank Rohrer(23) is been promoted to captain, less than three years after graduating the academy. Shortly afterwards, the navy has three admirals again with Jung Besler(52) the most recent to make rear admiral. Questionable health makes it an open issue how long she will be able to serve there. Leota Schnepel takes the vacated post at Senior Rear Admiral, where she is expected to stay as head of the Navy for the next couple of tours.

June 8 was one of those days that would be remembered for a while simply because multiple important events happened for whatever reason to converge at once. The final of the three Construction Brigades initially ordered finished its training -- with the timeframe building the off-world bases is requiring, at least two more have been ordered. It was also decided to divert some production from the bases to expanding ground unit construction facilities to enable an eventual third training unit at once. With ongoing construction currently happening on Reinmuth and Mars, the comet Faye would be their first assignment. Karabishi Juishao's report was presented, detailing a 60% increase in missile agility, and she takes over the final stages of the missile launcher reload rate project, started by Suda and continued by Welle when she died earlier this year. A third, and for the moment final, lab is added to the crucial Improved Geological Sensors project. Finally, Asa Hotz was promoted to Captain, and two days later Chong Vaugh(47) was named the fourth active rear admiral, a new high mark. This leaves Mitchell Feeser, just 33, as the top-ranking captain in the navy.

Later in the month, more naval recruits led to more promotions, and in this case the result is extending the career of Tell Perj Jr. who is promoted to Captain! The 49-year-old Perj was a year and a half away from mandatory retirement, but will now soldier on for another decade, having spent nearly three at his previous rank of commander.

Matters were fairly quiet until mid-September, when on the 15th Missile Launcher Reload Rate is completed(Dr. Juishao again in the news here). With this, the prototyping phase for the next generation of missiles can begin. She gets to work on the Defender II, which is expected to increase the hit rate by 6% and the payload by 50%, an estimated 78% increase in combat effectiveness and the ability to fire faster but still an overmatched weapons system.

Engineering also took another look at possibilities for anti-missile ballistics based on the improved agility specs. They didn't expect much -- internal estimates are that the next generation of engines will need to be available before such a thing becomes viable. They were right -- basically the effective chance to hit can now reach 4-8% instead of 3-7%, nowhere near being useful yet.

In October, the Army gets back a new general as Col. Beverly Kisinger, 31, is promoted. Later in the month, the research directorate suffered another loss with Delmar Ytuarte found to be the apparent victim of one of those senseless, seemingly random street crimes. He was prototyping one of the next-generation sensor suites, which will now be taken by the best available scientist, logistics specialist Curtis Gloster. Sensors & Fire Control now has only four active researchers, no better than half of what is really needed right now

It was quite the eventful year: the first Ticonderoga bases were established, untimely deaths of two key researchers, a number of new senior officers in both branches of the military, developments in missile and sensor technology, and continued development of minor outsystem colonies and outposts. The future continues to be promising but uncertain, and clouded with danger.



Research & Development

** January 19 -- Clint Wyche completes Genome Sequence Research.
** Feb. 26 -- Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Theory is published(Santo Makar). Ion Drives are now possible, but the research is prohibitively expensive for the time being. Makar begins work on improving jump drive efficiency instead. Another lab goes to Dr. Adolfo Walth, whose first project lead involves researching a high-density advancement in duranium armor.
** Late April -- Research lab completed and added to the duranium armor project.
** June 8 -- Improved Missile Agility completed(Karabishi Juishao).
** November 21 -- Deacon Palmer presents his report on Shipyard Operations, detailing minor decreases in the time and cost required for expansions, retooling, and the like. He'll next work on increasing the rate at which ships can be built.
** December 8 -- SITG ThermoScan 104, new military-grade thermal sensors, are unveiled by Dr. Julio Kuchler's team. He takes over Curtis Gloster's work on new actives, and Harlan Welle gets back in the game working on new missile launchers.



Commissioned Officers

Mid-February -- Tell Perj Jr. increases Fleet Movement Initiative to 403.
Early August -- The energy weapons field gets even stronger with Eva Vadnais upping to 55%.
Early September -- Not resting on his laurels even at this late stage, Deacon Palmer has increased his expertise to 60%.
Early October -- Alberto Eighmy improves to 50% Factory Production.
Mid-October -- Eighmy makes a less-useful breakthrough in Terraforming(10%).
Late October -- Mitchell Feeser improves Operations to 15%
Mid-December -- Parker Lanzi, the latest naval prodigy, is promoted to Commander. Meanwhile, Alberto Eighmy continues a strong year, upping mining skill to 20% ahead of the election.



Colonial Developments

February 10 -- Machholz PDC Ticonderoga becomes the first off-world base.
February 24 -- The Stephan-Oterma Ticonderoga is completed.
Late February -- Sedna expands to 24 complexes.
Mid-March -- Construction of the first off-world military base begins with the shipment of men and materials to Mars(Tennessee-class missile base).

Early June -- The final delivery of the ten mines for Callisto is made, though right now only one can operate at full capacity with the number of workers presently available there. The small amount of mining investment switches back to building automated mines for access of neutronium deposits in various outposts.

Mid-August -- Investment in Neujmin resumes with the first automated mine of the most recent wave being sent there.

November 1 -- Gallicite exhausted on Comas Sola.


Earth

Late March -- A new naval shipyard, dubbed the KSEC(even naval command isn't pretending to know what these initials stand for, a spokesman simply stated that this four-letter arrangement 'tested well in focus groups') is completed. With five commercial and four naval yards, SPACE is fairly satisfied with current shipyard status. With the other yards expanding for more substantial jobs, KSEC will take over the role of servicing the Forrestal sensor vessels.

November -- -- The shuttles fan out over the Sol system in anticipation of the coming election.

[Brian Swartz]

** Note: A 'SPACE AT 50' retrospective summary is planned for 2075, but right now six years takes a long time **

STATE OF SPACE, 2069

I. IMPERIAL HOLDINGS

IA. Populated Colonies

Earth(1.250b, 435 CF, 45 CI, 50 OF, 10 FF, 75 REF, 29 RL, 3 AC, 5 DSTS, 15.2k MF, 1 SP, SC)
Mars(38.74m)
Luna(37.06m)
Titan(16.78m, 1 DSTS)
Venus(7.12m)
Mercury(3.46m)
Io(200k)
Callisto(120k)
Ganymede(110k)

All colonies grew during the most recent cycle, though Titan and Luna were relatively stagnant as Mars became the most populous colony. The final of the Galilean moons, Europa, will be added to the list in the next year but that is expected to be it for quite some time as there are no other habitable places to go in Sol. The last fragments(4.5%) of pre-TN economic infrastructure are expected to be converted in the next few years.

Total population is at 1.354 billion(+9.2%).

IB. Outposts

Sedna(25 CMC, 16 eff, 8.19 kt)
Triton(63 AM, 30 eff, 3.27 kt)
Earth(50 SM, 45 CI, 8.6 eff, 1.03 kt) -- mercassium(0.9y), duranium(3.3)
Reinmuth(29.8 AM, 37 eff, 1.91 kt)
Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 40 eff, 1.94 kt) -- neutronium(8.1)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 39 eff, 1.95 kt) -- corundium(3.8), mercassium(6.1)
Titan(25 SM, 6 eff, 354t)
Faye(25 AM, 48 eff, 1.89 kt) -- tritanium(6.5)
Comas Sola(25 AM, 43 eff, 2.03 kt) -- corundium(2.8), sorium(8.6)
Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 1.48 kt)
Neujmin(20.8 AM, 42 eff, 1.45 kt) -- vendarite(3.1)
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 52 eff, 1.67 kt) -- boronide(2.5), gallicite(3.9)
Wolf-Harrington(16.8 AM, 50 eff, 1.59 kt) -- corundium(7.8)
Borrelly(15.8 AM, 49 eff, 1.28 kt)
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 952t)
Prokne(10 AM, 10 eff, 181t)
Wild(5 AM, 34 eff, 268t)
Wolf(5 AM, 26 eff, 205t)

Total Production: 31.64 kt, a massive increase of just under 10kt per year, or 45.7%!! Much of this is due to increased efficiencies due to the installation of Sector Command, but continued expansion on Sedna and neutronium-focused investments on Reinmuth, Neujmin, and elsewhere also were significant contributors. Corundium deposits are set to dry up soon in several locations which will need to be watched closely, but Earth's deposits increased by about half in the last four years so it is not a short-term concern. The extreme long-period comet Ikeya-Zang(81.7 kt, 1.0 accessible) is the only really long-term solution, but at 13b km distant it is still decades away from being a convenient investment option. Other than trace amounts from Venus's massive reserves, it is the only untapped significant deposit in Sol.

IC. Mineral Stockpiles & Production

Tier A: Uridium(73 kt), Vendarite(45 kt), Gallicite(39 kt), Corbomite(36 kt), Boronide(33 kt)

Boronide is promoted to Tier A with very little ship-building going on recently. This is expected to be a temporary situation.

Gallicite should have an asterisk here. Quite a bit was used in the defender missiles, but the stockpile still grew and that's the only major usage with none planned in the next year or so.

Tier B: Tritanium(38 kt), Mercassium(29 kt).

A modest increase in mercassium eliminated any concern on that front, and tritanium is demoted to B as it is being used on considerable amounts for base construction. The stockpile is still growing, so there's no supply issue at this point.

Tier C: Sorium(24.9 kt), Duranium(14.8 kt, Corundium(11.0 kt). All three rose sharply, with the near-tripling of duranium stockpiles leading to a demotion to this tier. This speaks to the increasing economic stability and strength that SPACE has demonstrated.

Tier D: Neutronium(6.15 kt) has recovered strongly and is slowly increasing, though it is still by far the most critical mineral concern, both short and long-term. Current supplies are enough to support all but the most aggressive shipbuilding activity.

ID. Income

Taxes(population): 33.6 m
Taxes(civ. shipping): 6.19 m
Taxes(civ. fuel): 125 k

Total: 39.90m(+17.7%). The civilian share of the economy grew from about 13-16% this cycle, and it was a very strong growth period for the treasury.

Balance: 564m(+65m)

IE. Expenses

Research: 6.89m
Mineral Purchases: 6.01m
Installation Construction: 3.92m
Shipyard Operations: 2.60m
PDC Construction: 2.00m
GU Maintenance: 274k
GU Training: 199k
Maintenance Facilities: 76k
Shipbuilding: 61.5k

Total: 22.04m(-1.3%)

Contrary to the expectations four years ago, shipbuilding nearly ground to a halt, leading the way to the first overall decline in expenses that SPACE has ever seen. This is expected to reverse itself eventually with the Brooklyn and Nimitz classes entering production along with next-gen exploratory vessels, military and support ships down the road -- but for now it is the economy and the march of technology taking the lion's share of expenses.

II. SHIPYARDS

IIA. Commercial Yards

Tod & MacGregor(2 slipways, 84.1 kt capacity)
** Expanding for the next generation of higher-capacity freighters(approx. 150 kt)
P&A Group(4, 54 kt)
** Expanding in preparation for larger harvesters, target of 70-80kt. Still a number of years out, and waiting for next-gen engines as well.
Estalerios Navais(2, 23.2 kt)
** Idle
Vickers-Armstrong(4, 10 kt)
** Idle
Oregon Shipbuilding(1, 10 kt)
** Idle

IIB. Naval Yards

Wartsila(1, 14 kt)
** Retooling for the Nimitz Class, Summer 2069
Baltimore Marine(2, 5.62 kt)
** Expanding Capacity
Yokohama Dock Co.(1, 4.05 kt)
** Expanding Capacity, eventually for the Brooklyn class in some years time
KSEC(1, 1 kt)
** Adding a second slipway(February), for use as the new maintenance yard for Forrestals and other small vessels.

III. ARMY TRAINING FACILITIES

IIIA. Earth

** Two active training facilities
** Construction Brigade(Fall 2069)
** Garrison Battalion(April 2069)

IV. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

IVA. Earth

Research Lab(33%) -- March 2069
Alaska PDC(15%) -- Four ordered, Early 2080s
Ground Force Training Facility(10%) -- Early 2071
CF Conversions(9%) -- 5 remaining on the current run, due in February
Mine Conversions(standard to automated, 8%) -- 4-5 per year
Maintenance Facilities(6%) -- 5 remaining, Mid-2070
Prefab Alaska PDC(5%) -- For Titan, Early 2080s
Prefab Tennessee PDC(5%) -- Two more needed, Summer 2072
Prefab Tennessee(Lt) PDC(5%) -- 1 left, Spring 2071
Infrastructure(2%) -- 14 left on final run, February 2069
Prefab Ticonderoga PDC(1%) -- Early 2080s, 11 left for various minor outposts
Mine Conversions(conventional industry to standard, 1%) -- 4-5 per year

V. ACTIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS

** Improved Meson Cannons -- larger focal size(Eva Vadnais) -- February 2069
** Defender II Missile(Karabishi Juishao) -- February 2069
** Thermal Reduction(Edward Groat) -- Late Spring/Early Summer 2069
** GEI MSS 180 -- active missile search sensors(Billie Allington) -- Late Fall/Early Winter 2069
** Defender MLS(Harlan Welle) -- Late Fall/Early Winter 2069
** Improved Meson Cannons -- better focusing(Joe Tycho) -- November/December 2069
** GEI SSS 168 -- military-grade active search sensors(Julio Kuchler) -- December 2069/January 2070
** Improved Fire Control Speeds(Elwood Tousant) -- Spring/Summer 2070
** Increased Reactor Power(Rosemary Urenda) -- Summer 2070
** Hangar Deck(Brandon Grimmett) -- Late 2070/Early 2071
** EM Sensor Sensitivity(Everett Snuggs) -- Early 2071
** Planetary Sensors(Bessie Wallander) -- Mid-2071
** High-Density Duranium Armor(Adolfo Walth) -- Mid-2071
** Increaseed Shipbuilding Rate(Deacon Palmer) -- Late 2071/Early 2072
** Tiny Engineering Module(Cedrick Wormack) -- Late 2071/Early 2072
** Improved Jump Drive Efficiency(Santo Makar) -- Late 2072/Early 2073
** Improved Geological Sensors(Clint Wyche) -- 2076/2077

VI. ACTIVE NAVAL ASSETS

VI A. Ships[/b]

TT Arleigh Burke(2, 17.8 kt, 136 crew, 563 km/s, 350k fuel, brigade troop transport)
CC Belknap(1, 2 kt, 50 crew, 1250 km/s, 60k fuel, command ship)
GSV Coontz(1, 2.25 kt, 32 crew, 1377 km/s, 130k fuel, gravitational survey)
GEV Essex II-x(2, 2.2 kt, 35 crew, 1135 km/s, 60k fuel, geological survey)
FT Fletcher IV(2, 36.9 kt, 162 crew, 813 km/s, 650k fuel, freighter)
FT Fletcher IVb(2, 36.9kt, 162 crew, 813 km/s, 650k fuel, freighter)
FT Fletcher IVc(4, 36.9kt, 162 crew, 813 km/s, 650k fuel, freighter )
SB Forrestal IIb(14, 600t, 13 crew, 4k km/s, 50k fuel, sensor buoy)
TK Iowa(2, 9.8 kt, 53 crew, 1.02k km/s, 6m fuel, fuel tanker)
ST Lexingon IIIc(5, 2.0 kt, 28 crew, 2500 km/s, 250k fuel, shuttle transport)
ST Lexington IIId(19, 2.0 kt, 28 crew, 2500 km/s, 250k fuel, shuttle transport)
JS North Carolina(1, 19.2 kt, 133 crew, 520 km/s, 250k fuel, large jump ship)
FH Perry III(21, 20.1 kt, 123 crew, 498 km/s, 350k fuel, fuel harvester)
JSC Pioneer(1, 10 kt, 240 crew, 1000 km/s, 600k fuel, jump scout)
TT Portland(2, 4.3 kt, 35 crew, 581 km/s, 60k fuel, troop transport)
CS Spruance-b(1, 20 kt, 110 crew, 501 km/s, 250k fuel, colony ship)

Total: 80 vessels(+9.5%), 1.10 mt(+43%), 5.82k crew(+26%), 33.5m liters fuel(+24%)

As has been noted elsewhere the growth of the navy slowed dramatically during this cycle. The commercial needs of SPACE are well-satisfied by the present assets, but as combat-role ships ramp up production, the force is expected to multiply.

[u]VI B. Planetary Defense Centers

PDC Ticonderoga(2, 3.0kt, 16 crew, sensor base)

Total: 2 Bases, 32 crew

Even though they are not ships in any sense, as their primary purpose is defending against space-based threats, planetside bases are still considered part of the navy and commanded by naval officers.

Available Crew: 96.5k(+12.6%)

VI C. Fuel Status

Earth -- 23.9m liters
Titan -- 9.69m liters
Callisto -- 5.33m liters

Total -- 38.9m liters(+2.9%). The tanks continue to grow, but very slowly. There is enough to run every ship in the navy non-stop for less than two and a half years. The plan at the moment is to upgrade to a much larger, higher-capacity harvester when the next generation of engines arrives, which is expected to take a decade or two.

VII. ACTIVE ARMY ASSETS

** Brigade HQs(3)
** Construction Brigades(3)
** Mobile Infantry Battalions(6)
** Garrison Battalion(21)

Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 197k(+71%)

With new Construction Brigades needed to get naval bases up and running as soon as possible, garrisons to staff them, and Earth short of the desired amount of mobile infantry, there is need for new men everwhere. The Army is expected to continue to grow for at least the next decade.

VIII. CIVILIAN SHIPPING CORPORATIONS

Voliva Carrier Company(48 vessels, 4.61m annual income)
Jensrud Transport and Trading(15, 1.04m)
Ouellet Shipping(2, 460k)
Tolles Transport & Logistics(3, 150k)
Everton Shipping & Logistics(3, 120k)
Presnar Freight(2, 110k)
Suter Shipping Services(2, 60k)
Clavette Shipping Line(3, 20k)
Abair Shipping(1, --)
Forbus Carrier Ltd(1, --)

Total Vessels: 80(+11%)
Total Civilian Income: 6.57m(+42%)

Voliva continues to dominate with a 70% market share, but that's down from 75% last cycle. Overall the civilian sector showed incredible expansion with most competitors expanding either operations or profits, both in the case of top rival Jensrud TT. Ouellet managed to triple their business with only two operational vessels, partly through modernization, and moved into the #3 spot decisively.

IX. SPACE LEADERSHIP PROSPECTUS

** Naval Officers: 92 of 124 assigned(74.2%), -14%
** Ground Forces Officers: 38 of 48(79.2%), +8.5%
** Civilian Administrators: 26 of 29(89.7%), +8%
** Scientists: 17 of 30(56.7%), -- +8%

Overall: 173 of 231(74.9%), -2%

Merely graduating the academy no longer is a guarantee of a navy command as the output of the GLTC has increased, but opportunities have improved in all other branches and 11 new positions were added in the navy as well. Administrators continue to be in increasingly short supply, but it is hoped that the quality and available candidates will improve now as Sol has nearly reached full colonization.

[Brian Swartz]

2069 Election

India Rakes is required to step aside for a term, leaving Herbert Duling as the expected, prohibitive favorite. Rakes will take over as Governor of Earth for the next tour in a supporting role. Duling's health has not significantly improved, and at 55 the possibility that he could be forced into retirement at any time is a very real issue.

Additionally, the remaining members of the original contingent at SPACE HQ, Terrence Forson and Jayson Riese, both are retiring at age 65 and struggling health. This leaves the agency with just a single spare candidate. Forson was a long-time contributor to important positions such as Mars and Sedna before through the mid-50s, while Riese spent most of his career watching from the sidelines, his highlight an 8-month tour as interim director in '36.

While the other 27 administrators remain in service, health is an major issue for many including almost all of those on the final ballot. Alberto Eighmy continues to be a prime example, as the Governor of Mars has skills second only to Duling but is in very poor health that has not improved over time. Delois Woznicki is still very talented and still has not learned how to manage on a large scale.

This leaves only Mercury's governor, Jarrett Hugh, and Eighmy as realistic challengers to Duling. The final ballot features a total of seven names this year. Duling's brand appears to have shattered. While once he couldn't put a foot wrong politically, he had a very poor campaign this year and the ailing Eighmy made a serious run at the Directorship. Last election's surprise third-place finisher Larry Steckel had a brilliant, near-perfect campaign, but still doesn't have the base of power to seriously threaten the top challengers.

Faced with only very flawed choices, 248 million electors chose as first-time Director the ailing 44-year-old Alberto Eighmy, with a thin margin over Duling of 17.6% to 16.9%. It is the smallest plurality that a winning candidate has ever received, and Eighmy's directorship is anticipated to be a shaky thing on multiple fronts. Duling is headed to Mars, where he will attempt to find some way to recover from consecutive close defeats in the last two elections. The rest of the results:

Larry Steckel(15.7%) -- Luna
Jarrett Hugh(15.0%) -- Titan
James Earl Jones V(13.9%) -- Venus
Burt Stonerock(10.7%) -- Mercury
Riley Awad(10.2%) -- Io

Hugh and Awad are both in good health, and their showings were extremely disappointing. The larger question to come out of this election is the vital need for more qualified administrators, as health and aging issues become more pressing with each passing year and the electorate clearly could not rally behind any one candidate.

Policy Review

Although most of the branches would do fine without it, an academy expansion is ordered from three to four in order to up the search for new qualified administrators. Beyond that though, there are no changes made. Under the circumstances, Eighmy needs only to survive(physically) his term for it to be labeled a success.

[Brian Swartz]

Civilian Character Update

James Earl Jones V(6) -- Having endured minor assignments for the past decade and a half, he heads to Venus in a major promotion after a credible showing in the elections. At 52, Jones has only a few tours left.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer(CP 60 -- After spending the next couple of years improving shipbuilding techniques, Palmer has probably one more major project left before his time is done.
Joe Tycho(EW 65) -- The question with Joe is simply health. He's the top man in one of the top fields, currently researching meson focusing. His body threatens to force him out of the limelight at any time, however.

[Brian Swartz]

2069 Annual Report

The most significant practical change with Eighmy moving into the Director's Office is that he is more adept at factory production, less adept at mining, which means more will be produced with less resources. With the dizzying number of industrial needs on Earth, this may not be a bad thing.

Other than that he is standing pat, even to the point of not acting on a couple of minor policy changes that are currently pending and recommended. As his hold on power is tenuous at best, Eighmy intends to fight only those battles which need fighting, politically speaking. Before the first month of the year was out, pessimistic physical evaluations of two key personnel further weakened the state of things as SPACE's top leaders continue to face medical struggles. Governor Herbert Duling(Mars) and Dr. Julio Kuchler(top sensors scientist) were the affected men. Both will continue in their current assignments, but both have poor prognosis in the long-term, particularly troubling in the case of Kuchler who is only 36.

Meanwhile, the first colonists arrive on Europa as a long-standing project is completed: the 2% Initiative has nowhere else to go. Every habitable rock in Sol has been colonized, and what's more all of the colonies have maxed out their existing infrastructure, some exceeding it. At this point, colonial growth(just over 100m total pop. at the moment) is up to the private sector. SPACE sees no compelling reason to make any further investment.

By March, with a few relatively minor reports detailed in the department summaries, Ticonderoga-class bases were operational on Reinmuth and Faye, and all three construction brigades focused on Mars. Even so, it was still expected to take an additional year and a half for completion of the first missile base there.

May brought the completion of the first of the behemoth Alaska-classes bases on Earth. They require a captain in command, and Asa Hotz is appointed. Just weeks later in early June, Wartsila completes retooling and the first Nimitz enters production.

In August, a second Tennessee(Lt) is begun on Luna with the graduation of a fourth brigade from training.

October brought news of a significant oversight. The previous presumption with little thought directed to the matter that missiles would be transported in the Fletcher freighters proved ... hazardous. Only by quick thinking were a number of accidents avoided. It became obvious that a dedicated ship type would be needed to transport ordnance, which probably should have been obvious but it was overlooked. Once again Engineering worked quickly, and the collier was born.

Tarawa-class Collier
Size: 6.4kt
Crew: 85
Speed: 781 km/s(just a bit slower than the current Fletcher freighters)
Cost: 573k(15 months)
Maint. Life: 4.12 years
Missile Storage: 180 Defender IIs
Defenses: 1 CIWS II Battery, standard commercial-issue sensors.

It could have been made bigger or smaller, but at present has enough space to resupply 6 Tennessee or Nimitz, and nearly half of an Alaska base. The size was determined by the fact that the largest available military shipyard, Baltimore Marine, can accomodate no larger a vessel right now.

Retooling is expected to take about six months, so the first Tarawa should enter service by the end of 2071. Only the Mars base is expected to be operational before then anyway, so consequences shouldn't be too drastic.

Less than 48 hours before the new year, there was one final bit of significant news. SPACE's longest-running major project, the industrial conversion from convention to TN facilities, has finally been completed as the last factory has its equipment repurposed for mining use. In one fashion or another, the economic conversion has been underway for 40 years, nearly as long as SPACE has been in existence as an entity.

This also means a slow-down in deployment of new mines and factories, as they will now have to be built from scratch which takes considerably more time and resources.

2069 saw the economic conversion completed, acceleration of missile base construction, completion of the 2% Initiative and with it full colonization of Sol, final refits of the shuttles, new military-grade sensors completed, many relatively minor research advancements, new missile systems readied for service, and of course the birth of the Tarawa Collier ship class. A lot of things were wrapped up, and the focus for the future is all the clearer for it.


Colonial Developments

January 10 -- Reinmuth completes Ticonderoga-class base.

February 4 -- Faye completes Ticonderoga.


Research & Development

** February 11 -- 12cm Meson Focal Size completed(Dr. Eva Vadnais). Reassigned to improving Turret Tracking Speed, for which she will need another laboratory complex.
** February 16 -- Defender II(Karabishi Juishao) prototype is completed, and ushered into production immediately as the old Defender missiles, none of which were so much as loaded into a magazine, are scrapped. Juishao will now work on a new missile launcher for ship-based Defender IIs.
** February 25 -- The vital sensors field gets a boost as the once-maligned Elwood Tousant improves to 35% expertise, making him the clear #2 behind Kuchler.
** February 28 -- Research lab completed and added to Turret Tracking Speed.
** Early May -- Edward Groat, tops in Defensive Systems, improved to 35% expertise as he wraps up his present assignment. On the 23rd, Engine Thermal Reduction to 35% is announced. A Damage Control System, for use on repairs 'in the field', is next up and leaves one complex unaccounted for. On-again, off-again Wayne Sabagh gets set to investigate lasers in the near-UV range. There are now 18 active projects, a number that continues to creep slowly upwards
** August 9 -- Defender II MLS(s) prototype is completed(Karabishi Juishao). She'll next work on Levitated-Pit Implosion Warheads -- I don't have the faintest clue what all that means, but it promises to improve explosive yield of our missiles significantly.
** September 13 -- GEI MSS 180, the latest in military-grade missile search sensors, is finished(Billie Allington). The labs are redirected for the moment to the Levitated-Pit Warhead and Near-UV Laser projects.
** September 20 -- Defender II MLS(p) is completed(Harlan Welle). Allington's gets back to it with work on improving active sensors(the next generation of thermals is ready and EM is being researched at the moment), but there will need to be a bigger investment of lab space eventually.
** November 26 -- A new research lab is completed and added to Active Grav Sensor Strength, but a third will be needed.
** Early December -- Meson Focusing Technology is improved by Joe Tycho's research team. This allows for a third lab to go to the active sensors team, while Tycho takes over the Near-UV Laser development, which has been led by Sabagh up to this point and is less than 10% completed.
** Mid-December -- Dr. Julio Kuchler's team completes the GEI SSS 168, second-generation active search sensor. Kuchler relieves Billie Allington(active grav sensors), and Wayne Sabagh begins work on a new meson cannon(WT Excalibur 124) taking advantadge of recent improvements.

One lab is diverted from the active sensors for Allington to work on a new prototype for a more space-efficient missile fire control system(RSJ MFC 72-60). This is the final step toward a new generation of missile bases and ships, though there is still much to be done on the energy weapons side of things.


Earth

February 24 -- KSEC Shipyard expands to two slipways, officially taking over as the maintainer of the Forrestals.

February 26th -- Refitting of the Lexington shuttles to the most modern and spacious(6 VIP capacity) IIId variant is completed.

May -- With the duranium stockpile still increasing, it is decided to keep increasing construction factories on Earth from the current 450 to a total of 500.

Mid-December -- Mercassium becomes the latest mineral to be exhausted on Earth, with duranium set to join it in about three years' time.

Late December -- A maintenance failure forces one of the sensor boats at Epsilon Eridani to come home for resupply several months ahead of schedule.


Commissioned Officers

Mid-March -- Tell Perj Jr. has put in work on crew training(up to 150), propelling him up past a few of his fellow captains.

Late March -- The navy dismisses a single officer, the first such action in a number of years.

Mid-May -- Joe Tycho is up to 9 Administration.

Late June -- Tell Perj's training bonus is up to 175.

Early August -- Rob Nielsen III increases Fleet Movement Initiative to a solid 297.

Early August -- A new administrator graduates the academy, which is notable only because there is at least a backup now with all the current beauracrats assigned to posts already.

Mid-October -- Dr. Justin Stdenis, unimpressive enough that he'd never had a project lead, is the latest scientist to die before his time.

[sterlingice]

Looks like we've hit a bit of a stall: nowhere else to colonize and possible hostilities through jump points

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Yeah that's very true. There's a limit to how long it can last(Sol's resources are not unending) so something will eventually break. However, I've been surprised by how long we will actually be able to sustain it if need be.

[Tellistto]

Must have missed the promotion to Captain somehow. Good for Jr.!

If you want you can put me in for another Naval Officer the third.

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

Will do! It was actually rather interesting as you made in just under the wire ...

more naval recruits led to more promotions, and in this case the result is extending the career of Tell Perj Jr. who is promoted to Captain! The 49-year-old Perj was a year and a half away from mandatory retirement, but will now soldier on for another decade, having spent nearly three at his previous rank of commander

I was all set to write his retirement, then a few timely promotions opened the door. The whole thing was quite interesting, and I'm curious to see what he does in his final few years.

[Brian Swartz]

Retirements

Captain Claudio Offutt -- Claudio spent almost his entire career as a Captain, taking less than five years to reach the rank in early 2035. He was a survey officer, mostly at Fleet HQ, for the last 35 years and will not easily be replaced in that capacity. A man who served well for a long time, he never had the connections or varied skills required to make it further.

Major General Abel Rosinski -- Objectively the best army officer SPACE has ever had, Rosinski was more than able, made general rank in less than four years, spending most of his career as the second-in-command to legendary Sterling Silvers. He has been Chief of the Army for only a single two-year tour.

Brigadier General Conrad Brocklehurst -- A 30-year veteran of general rank, Brocklehurst spent a number years in policing duty on Venus before returning to Earth to head one of the modern brigades. Limitations in training skill kept him from advancing any further up the chain.

Colonel Rickie Drexler also retired this year.

MILITARY CHARACTER UPDATE

Cpt. Tell Perj Jr. -- 5th out of 9. Having returned from his final tour at the Epsilon Eridani jump, Tell is now the Logistics Officer for the SSF.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III -- 16th of 88. After two tours on board the FT Hercules, Nielsen(37) is headed to one of the harvesters at Saturn.


Waiting List

Sterling Silvers Jr.
Tell Perj III

[ntndeacon]

I would love to have Deacon Jr. be an Army guy!

[Brian Swartz]

So it shall be written ... so it shall be done!

[Brian Swartz]

2070 ANNUAL REPORT

The expected round of promotions included new Chief of the Army Anton Engelhardt(46, M) being promoted to Major General, Filomena Miga(34, F) and Dave Fruth(23, M)moving up to Brigadier General, and the last real prodigy in the naval pipeline, Parker Lanzi(23, M) moving up to Captain.

A new standard in beam fire controls(3k km/s base) is reached on January 27 by Elwood Tousant's team, and this is relevant for two reasons. It allows for a marginal but significant chance of hitting known alien missiles(somewhere around 25% accuracy expected with large suites) and also allows smaller fire controls to be used vs. their known enemy ships, allowing for size decreases or greater range. Fire control development is split into two tracks, the new Bullseye 12k having a 50% increase in speed over the current version, and Ramsey Sheets & Johnson also are developing the Hybrid system which balances speed and range.

On February 3, Rosemary Tallant(24, F) becomes the 10th active navy Captain. From now on, we will note only rear admiral promotions in this space due to increasing number of captains.

In March, the final maintenance facility arrives at Callisto, completing 800t capacity at both refueling colonies. Around the same time, the first pair of Tarawa-class colliers enters production, retooling having been completed at Baltimore Marine Shipyard.

May brings awareness of a need for a new ship class, a supply ship to ferry maintenance supplies between Earth and Titan/Callisto. The Cleveland class is born, which is basically a shuttle with a maintenance storage bay added on.

Size: 2.1kt
Crew: 30
Maint. Storage: 1.04 kt
Speed: 2380 km/s
Range: 92.3 b km
Cost: 136k(just shy of six months)

Yokohama Docks takes the project of getting a pair of Clevelands into service.

In mid-July, the second-ranking officer in the Navy, Rear Admiral Anton Ericson, is forced into early retirement for medical reasons. Anton was expected to be a long-running replacement for Schnepel, so this is definitely a major loss to the branch. Chong Vaugh, also in poor health, is the new heir apparent and Mitchell Feeser is promoted to give the service four rear admirals again. At 35, he is by far the youngest to reach that post.

After a quiet summer and early fall, October brings the training of a 5th Construction Brigade(deployed immediately to assist the one already on Luna) and the first Cleveland enters service, immediately taking 200t of maintenance supplies to Callisto and Titan each.

A quiet year for SPACE, 2070 sees prototyping of new beam fire controls and the development and deployment of the Cleveland-class supply ship as highlights, while the loss of Rear Admiral Ericson certainly was the biggest disappointment. Completing small-scale maintenance capabilies at Titan and Callisto is also worthy of mention. 2071 is expected to bring more activity, with the first Nimitz expected to enter service, the first off-world missile base expected to be completed on Mars, and no less than ten significant research projects slated for completion.


Commissioned Officers

January 7 -- Tell Perj III graduates the academy on Earth.
Fleet Movement Initiative: 394(might be the biggest I've seen in a recruit, definitely a warship captain potential)
Training: 75
Bonuses: Diplomacy(30%), Xenology(15%), Fighter Combat(10%), Diplomacy(10%)
Personality: Dynamic, Intolerant

Outlook: Political skills, specialized teams skills(diplomacy/xenology may well become relevant in his service time), and serious command potential. A pretty good recruit initially, well-rounded with above-average outlook for improvement. I expect to hear more from him in the future. Initially ranked 12th out of 89 Lieutenant Commanders, and certain to receive a command when the next tour begins in '72, quite possibly before if an interim position opens up.

February 15 -- Serious medical problem for Rob Nielsen III. It is not considered so serious as to threaten the 37-year-old's current assignment, however. A number of officers, some higher-ranking such as Rear Admiral Chong Vaugh, followed suit later in a cursed month for military personnel. One exception is Admiral Schnepel, who actually strengthened her position with many new political contacts(25% reliability).

Early August -- Two significant skill increases, with Director Eighmy's Shipbuilding skill increasing to 10% with the recent projects(1 Nimitz, 1 Cleveland, and 2 Tarawa's are currently under production). Meanwhile, Dr. Wayne Sabagh ups to 25% in the field of energy weapons.

Early September -- Earnest Joeckel becomes the latest naval prodigy to graduate the academy. He's not as skilled as the likes of Feeser, Gullo, etc., but is considered the equal of the top Commanders right now, particularly in matters of crew training.

Mid-October -- Tell Perj Jr. has amassed a couple of new political connections(10% reliability).


Earth

Mid-January -- The Tod&MacGregor reaches 100kt capacity: it will need at least 160k for the next generation of super-freighters intended for outsystem and/or interstellar shipping.

Spring -- Sedna expands to 26 complexes.

October 1 -- The first of the Clevelands enters service, and a second is begun.


Research & Development

** January 27 -- Fire Control Speed(3k km/s base) has been completed by Elwood Tousant's team. Tousant will work on the Bullseye system first, while Curtis Gloster gets the Hybrid team going.
** July 10 -- Dr. Rosemary Urenda's team completes the next stage in reactor enhancements(+15% power). The GE GCF series is born with two variants(a small 25-ton one like the current models in use, and a 150-ton for larger applications). Urenda and newcomer Reynaldo Darrington take the project leads in the prototype phase for these.
** July 30 -- New beam fire controls are completed(RSJ Bullseye 12k) by Elwood Tousant. He'll next work on improving their anti-missile tracking bonuses, and will need another lab for this which will shortly be available.
** August 15 -- The latest research lab is assigned to Tousant's work on missile tracking.
** September 25 -- Dr. Reynaldo Darrington's first project is complete, prototyping one of the new GCF reactors. Increasing the maximum number of ships per jump is his next goal, and will require at least one more complex in time.
** December 20 -- The Hybrid fire control is complete(Curtis Gloster). The lab is diverted to Darrington's jump research, who reports he will need yet another to finish on time.

[Brian Swartz]

CIVILIAN CHARACTER UPDATE

James Earl Jones V(6) -- The Venus governor still hovers on the outskirts of significance, good enough to make the final ballot in any forseeable election, not good enough to be any kind of real challenger. This is largely because he continues to studiously avoid playing the political game.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer(CP 60) -- The current shipbuilding project has about a year left. The only real question is whether Palmer, now 67, will pursue one last project lead or retire at that point.
Joe Tycho(EW 65) -- Relentless medical difficulties have not stopped Joe, who is still investigating laser wavelengths in the Near-UV band.

[Brian Swartz]

Tell Perj III, 22 years old and just over a year out of the academy, retired due to early diagnosis of a rare bone disorder in early March of 2071. The navy has lost a talented young officer.

[Tellistto]

Ouch, that's painful. :(

Perhaps we need a new name, a cousin perhaps. Chance Perj next time.

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

2071 ANNUAL REPORT

As the year began, the happy news was announced that all minerals, even neutronium, were now creeping upward again. Alberto Eighmy has managed at least to keep the machinery running and not screw anything up, somewhat blunting the health concerns so far.

February saw the first significant news of the year with the Mars Tennessee base going operational on the 10th. Two brigades were diverted to Luna with the third sent out to distant Sedna(expanded again to 27 complexes within the previous week). Earnest Joeckel was appointed as the interim CO.

The spring brought some interesting recruits from the academies and various research projects completing. In March, a new round of passive sensor prototyping began and the second Cleveland-class supply ship was finished, and April followed with the first naval purge in some years. Later in the month, the Tarawa colliers were completed and one of them headed to fill the empty launchers on the Mars base. At the same time, two new Burke-class transports were begun to handle the increasing workload in transporting construction brigades around the system.

The summer was extremely busy and productive, beginning on June 8 with the announcement by Dr. Adolfo Walth that for the first time in decades an advancement in ship armor has been reached, in the form of a high-density version of the current duranium armor. Estimates indicate about a 20% reduction in weight and space required, with the same investment of duranium. A modest improvement, but nonetheless worth noting, and the new HD armor will be integrated into all new designs.

Harlan Welle gets to work on a new prototype, an upgrade of existing CIWS systems to take advantadge of new, faster tracking speeds. Also, [/b]David Gruis[/b] starts off work on increasing capacitor recharge rates, a project which is really mostly intended to get him some experience in the hopes of developing the power & propulsion scientist into a more productive leader. For now, the one lab leaves the project woefully understaffed.

The total number of active research teams is now at a record 20, largely due to six 'small' prototype development phases going on.

July brought better planetary sensors, but that news was soon forgotten as two days later on the 23rd SPACE had inaugurated the first human space-capable combat navy with the launch of the first Nimitz-class missile boat. Recent graduate Chance Perj has interim command with precise orders to do absolutely nothing beyond basic crew drilling until an experienced commander is appointed at the end of the year. A second Nimitz is begun immediately as well, which will probably be the last of this version as many components are already obsolete compared to SPACE's best technology. It was, however, not deemed prudent to design a more modern version until the next generation of active sensors becomes available(1-2 years yet).

Meanwhile, Yokohama Docks is at 10.7kt, some 4kt+ away from being ready to support a Brooklyn-class construction.

The second half of the year was not nearly as newsworthy. 2071 was a very eventful year for SPACE, with the deployments of the first Nimitz as well as the Tarawas and Clevelands keeping the navy busy, while leadership and scientific advances were too numerous to summarize. The thickness of the appendices in this year's report has rarely been approached for this reason. '72 has a moderate amount of research coming but aside from that and the election it is expected to be quieter.



Commissioned Officers

Mid-March -- At long last, an army officer has graduated worthy of the name Sterling Silvers II.
Training: 50
Bonuses: 15% Ground Combat, 15% Political Reliability
Personality: Astronomy Geek, Authoritarian, Dispassionate, Patient

Outlook: Why an astronomy geek would choose the army over the navy is beyond me, but SSII immediately becomes the top colonel in the service on his graduation and should make general before his mid-20s. He has considerable unit-level abilities and also knows how to take advantadge of his famous grandfather's name.

April -- Herbert Duling increases his record-setting political connections(45%).

April 3 -- The first naval purge in several years sees nine officers relieved of their non-duties.

April 12 -- Rosendo Hoglen(M, 22) becomes the latest Brigadier General ... Silvers II is not eligible for promotion for several months yet.

May 6 -- Chance Perj is commissioned.
175 Fleet Movement Initiative, 25% Survery, 20% Fighter Combat.
Personality: Indifferent, Patient, Subjective.

Survey work is by far his top calling. Chance looks like a good-but-not-great officer for now.

Early May -- Dr. Everette Snuggs is up to 50%. He's prototyping new EM sensors for now, but has joined the elite class of scientists with this advancement and will be able to command appointments in Logistics & Ground Combat. Unfortunately this will be of limited use since both he and fellow LGC stalwart Brandon Grimett are both facing retirement later this decade at 67 years old each, though Cedrick Wormack has a little over a decade left.

Mid-May -- More news from former director Duling as he announces breakthroughs in ground unit training speeds(40%).

Early June -- Top Defensive Systems researcher Edward Groat has progressed to 40%. Also, Tell Perj Jr. continues his improbable late-career drive in a rather transparent attempt to make admiral(political reliability 15%). Sources indicate only all-time brown-nose champion Ali Mandujano is considered a better promotion candidate among the ranks of the ten current captains.

Late July -- Again Duling is in the news, this time with a terraforming breakthrough.

Early August -- Ronald Dunkin is the latest naval prodigy to be worthy of remembering. With solid political connections and genius-level ability to train crews under his command, Dunkin is expected to do great things.

Early October -- Chance Perj's Initiative is up to 208.

Mid-November -- Missile research got a significant bump as Harlan Welle made a major personal breakthrough, nearly doubling his effectiveness to 25%. He's now a serviceable #2 behind Juishao in the field.

Early December -- Duling again, now increasing Mining to 50%. He's the runaway favorite in '73 now, poor health or not.

Meanwhile, Rear Admiral Jung Besler has made a breakthrough in training techniques(up to 275), and has now surpassed Chong Vaugh as the top candidate to replace Schnepel. The final decision on that appointment will be made in just 20 days ...

Shortly afterwards, the other admiral Mitchell Feeser made a significant jump in Operations, but he's still well behind Besler and Vaugh for the time being.


Research & Development

** February 18 -- Hangar Decks are now available, courtesy of Brandon Grimmett and team. Next up in Logistics is an Ultra Large fuel storage module(5m liters, for use in tankers etc.). This is now a second project in need of additional lab help.
** Early March -- Everette Snuggs has completed an increase in EM Sensors(Sensitivityx8). One lab each is diverted to aid the Darrington and Grimmett teams, bringing all current projects up to full funding. Snuggs gets back at it with next generation of military EM suites, the SITG Emdar-36, 20% more powerful and 10% smaller than the current iteration at 225t.
** April 15 -- A new turret is complete thanks to the work of Wayne Sabagh. Curtis Gloster takes on prototyping the next generation of civilian-grade thermal sensors.
** April 29 -- A new research lab is completed and devoted to improved civilian-grade EM sensors, under the direction of long-idle Shanon Patteson.
** June 30 -- Rosemary Urenda's team finishes the new GCF reactors. She next takes over the capacitor research project, which Gruis led without distinction or much progress either for four weeks.
** July 15 -- General-purpose EM sensors are now ready(Curtis Gloster). Gruis takes on another basically 'make-work' task, diving into more efficient maneuvering thrusters(25% power).
** July 21 -- Bessie Wallander's team completes an increase into Planetary Sensor Strength, effectively increasing the range of our deep-space tracking stations by a third. Maintaining the same two labs, she'll next direct research into increasing the range of our beam weapon fire controls.
** August 1 -- The new civilian EM sensors are now available(]b\Shanon Patteson[/b]). Wayne Sabagh is back in action now to investigate larger, more powerful lasers.
** September 26 -- Eva Vadnais and team have increased turret tracking speed, allowing for more efficient use of space via less gearing required. She'll investigate advances in meson cannons with her pair of labs next.
** November 5 -- New missile fire controls have finished the prototype phase(Billie Allington) and are ready for use. Wayne Sabagh's laser research claims the lab space.
** December 13 -- Deacon Palmer's team unveils a 16% increase in shipbuilding speed, reducing the expected completion time of the second Nimitz by nearly six months.

For his final contribution, he will research a module capable of building a highly classified device colloquially known as a 'jump gate'. If constructed, it is believed this device would allow for ships to navigate a jump point without the aid of a dedicated jump engine. It seems a fitting end to a fantastic career.

** December 18 -- Tiny Engineering Sections are now available for fine-tuning ship designs, thanks to Cedrick Wormack. He'll next investigate a topic once thought to soley be the domain of science fiction: ship-to-ship tractor beams. Should a catastrophic maintenance failure be experienced, they may well be necessary in the future, and it has been theorized that orbital facilities could be moved to differing locations with their use as well. More resources will be needed beyond the lone initial lab he begins with.


Earth

April 25 -- The two Tarawa-class colliers are finished. Judah Thone gets one of the interim command assignments, and missiles are quickly shipped to Mars.

May 23 -- An expansion to the army training facilities on Earth has been completed, allowing for three units to be trained at once. Another construction brigade is recruited immediately.

Early July -- A third slipway is added to the KSEC Shipyard, tasked with all Forrestal operations, and a fourth is begun.

July 29 -- The last of the Tennessee missile bases has completed prefabrication on Earth, and more resources are diverted to the Alaskas which are now expected to be finished by the middle of the decade.

August 3 -- The initial run of Defender II missiles(1000 of them) is completed on Earth.

Mid-October -- A new garrison battalion is trained and Sterling Silvers II gets his first official command. Meanwhile, the long journey to Sedna has finally been completed, and construction of a the Tennessee-class base over 11 billion kilometers out from Earth has begun.

December 20 -- A new construction brigade is finished on Earth, the sixth with a seventh in training. It will be sent to Sedna, but that deployment was delayed due to the impending reassignment at the end of the eyar.

December 28 -- Earth's second Alaska-class base is finished in the waning days of the year.


Colonial Developments

May 3 -- Another complex comes on-line on Sedna(28 in total now).

** A couple of mineral deposits of minor importance were also exhausted this year, one on Crommelin and another on Neujmin. Vendarite and Boronide, both with considerable stockpiles available, were affected.

[sterlingice]

Wow- you weren't kidding about it being a busy year. I didn't realize how far out Sedna was until I hit the wiki page. It makes the orbits of Neptune and Pluto look like inner planets by comparison

Also, great to see a Silvers back in the game

SI

[Brian Swartz]

It's a hike out to Sedna. We can get someone to the moon in less than a trip to the corner store(about two and a half minutes), and to Mars in less than a day, but it takes almost two months to get to Sedna, so that's still a considerable trip.

[Brian Swartz]

RETIREMENTS

Senior Rear Admiral Leota Schnepel presided over the creation of the first element of the combat navy, though she held the top spot for only four years. She spent most of her career as a captain('34 through '66) as Logistics Officer at Fleet HQ. Her only ship command was the Essex-class Marc Aaronson, since scrapped decades ago.

Lieutenant Commander Chiquita McGuffie retires as well.

Brigadier General Joann Altschuler, second in command under MG Anton Engelhardt, is the last of the old guard to step aside. She held the rank of General for the last 13 of her 40 years in the service, commanding one of Earth's combat brigades for the last few.

All of the remaining generals are in their 40s or younger, so the current group should be quite stable for a while.

Overall, a couple of big names leave but not that big a shakeup in the grand scheme of things.

MILITARY CHARACTER UPDATE

Cpt. Tell Perj Jr. -- 1st out of 10. The 53-year-old is still Logistics Officer at Fleet HQ, and is presently the top candidate for promotion to Admiral. If that happens though, it is not expected for a few years.
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III -- 19th out of 95. Routinely surpassed by younger recruits, Nielsen's career is expected to be over soon. At 39, he's one tour away from being 'encouraged to pursue other opportunities' to allow those with more potential to step up . He'll finish out, barring something pretty dramatic, with another tour onboard one of the fuel harvesters at Saturn.
Lt. Cmdr. Chance Perj -- 11th. A good start sends Chance out to Saturn as well, but it's a solid initial posting after he managed not to do anything particularly stupid on the Nimitz's shakedown.

Col. Sterling Silvers Jr. -- 1st out of 46. Currently CO of the 34th Mobile Infantry under Engelhardt himself in the 2nd Brigade, Silvers has an important job while he awaits the inevitable promotion. Most observers consider him superior to the majority of active generals already.

WAITING LIST

Deacon Palmer Jr.(Army)

[Brian Swartz]

FYI, 2072 is in the books but I haven't had a chance to write it up yet(coming Wed/Thurs.). The '73 election is more important than usual ...

[Brian Swartz]

2072 ANNUAL REPORT

Jung Besler is named Chief of the Navy as expected and promoted to Senior Rear Admiral, while the Army names young Col. Cole Callihan(M, 23) as Altschuler's replacement. By late February, with the appointment of another captain, the navy has enough staff officers for a full complement at both task forces for the first time ever.

On March 14th, the Research Directorate loses one of it's most senior and more recognizable scientists as Dr. Everette Snuggs retires with the 68-year-old citing poor health. The most crowded field in SPACE science(Logistics & Ground Combat) can at least shoulder the loss, but it will still hurt as Snuggs was one of three elite members. He is also one of very few public servants remaining from the agency's founding.

Early May brings the completion of Luna Base, and the redeployment of construction brigades to Sedna and Triton, with the latter less than half the distance but still quite a journey at an average distance of 4.5b km. Less than two weeks later, on the 20th, the new pair of Burke-class brigade transports clears the docks and joins the efforts.

A relatively quiet year gets a jolt exactly at the midway point, as it is announced on July 1st that Yokohama Shipyard has reached the required size for the Brooklyn-class Gunboat. This leaves Eighmy in a bit of a quandary though. The Brooklyn is by now obsolete, with better versions of all components now available. Using that design would be decidedly wasteful: however, it would be preferred for the current round of sensor research to be completed. Theoretical active sensor improvements aren't going to be ready until November, and then it would take some time after that to design a new system specifically ... so SPACE has decided to go with what is available now. The Brooklyn '72 design was put together with the following specifications(numbers from the never-built original design in parentheses)

Brooklyn '72-class Gunboat
Size: 13.45 kt(15.15kt)
Speed: 2379 km/s(2376 km/s)
Crew: 356(415)
Armor Plating: 4 feet of high-density duranium(3 feet of regular duranium armor)
CIWS: 1 battery(same)
Armament: 3 Twin-laser turrets, 1 single-meson turrets(1 fewer of each)
Cost: 1.89 m(1.88m), about 22 months

The new version is smaller, better armored, but has less firepower(though much more accurate) as well. Speed and cost are virtually identical. About a year is the expected retooling time, which would put the first one in service for early 2075.

September brings a welcome shift in industrial resources on Earth, as all of the needed Ticonderoga components have been completed, though the construction teams will be busy for some time with larger installations. Most sectors receive part of the newly available capacity to speed up existing projects.

On November 5, Dr. Julio Kuchler announces a considerable breakthrough in active grav sensor abilities. The new developments allow for considerable minituarization and other increased efficiencies. The new specs are included in the R&D supplement.

The final month of the year brought more news of significance. The expansion of Earth's massive industrial centers to 500 construction factories is completed, and that will be the new status quo for now with capacity again being redeployed to further other projects for the second time in just a few months. Then, just two days before the election, the news came that Earth has finally exhausted its supply of duranium. Corbomite, vendarite, and tritanium remain, all of which are minor both in use and need at the moment. Earth has now become virtually irrelevant in the grand scheme of things in terms of mining, the transition to a purely industrial center more and more complete.


Research & Development

** January 10 -- Harlan Welle completes the latest upgrade of the CIWS defense system, and a new research lab is built. Welle will pursue improving efficiency of magazines for better missile storage, and the tractor beam project gets a needed second lab as well.

** January 20 -- Near UV Laser completed, Joe Tycho. Since a larger laser is currently being worked on, Tycho takes over that project from Sabagh: a new generation of laser cannons will be developed with greater punch and range when it's complete. Wayne Sabagh moves on to the final piece of the next generation of meson cannons, improved focusing.

** March 14 -- The SITG Emdar-36 is now ready, and Everette Snuggs retires. Minh Klausner debuts as a project lead, a young one to be sure as the EW researcher is less than nine months removed from the academy. Klausner will investigate improved high-powered microwave concepts.

** November 5 -- While Julio Kuchler completes research into better base active grav technology(sensitivity 16). It's time for a new round of active sensors ...

The GEI MSS 192 is a little more powerful and 20% smaller than the current MSS 180(military grade missile search sensor). The next generation of anti-ship sensors does even better, with nearly a 50% size reduction, and 40% smaller on the new anti-ship missile fire control suites. Kuchler has found a considerable leap in active detection, and new suites for the Forrestal sensor buoys as well as basic commercials will be incorporated in time.

** November 8 -- Levitated-Pit Implosion Warheads are here(Karabishi Juishao). Prospects for anti-missile ballistics are improving(estimated interception chances of about 10% on enemy missiles are now possible), but to really be useful better engine technology is required, so no development of anti-missile systems is expected until then. Juishao moves on to missile agility, and newcomer Elyse Buckler will look into reduced-size launchers.


Commissioned Officers

Late January -- Cpt. Tell Perj Jr. increases his position with crew training upped to 200.

Mid-February -- Rosemary Urenda's skill increases to 40%, an important development as she's the second of only two quality power & propulsion researchers.

Mid-April -- Col. Deacon Palmer Jr. commissioned.
Bonuses: 10% Political Reliability, 5% Ground Combat
Personality: Good Motivator, Observant, Subjective, Tough

Outlook: Above-average recruit, Palmer will definitely be headed straight down the command career track, no specialized teams for him. A command is expected before the year is out.

Early May -- Herbert Duling continues to amass favors to call in for the upcoming election(50% political reliability). With Director Eighmy continuing to basically sit on his arse, it's not looking good for his re-election chances right about now.

Mid-November -- Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III increases his training bonus to 100, but it might be too-little, too-late to save his career.


Earth

March 8 -- A fourth and for now final slipway has been added at the KSEC Shipyard.

August 5 -- The final(for now) and seventh construction brigade is completed. With the shuffling around of commands that is required, Col. Deacon Palmer Jr. is given his first command, one of the mobile infantry battalions.

September 17 -- The latest research lab is finished, and Klausner's microwave research gets a needed boost.


Colonial Developments

Mid-August -- The first construction brigade arrives on Triton, and construction of the military base there is underway.

[Tellistto]

Late charge by Tell Perj! Really hoping we see some more exploration sooner or later. Need to beef up that Navy to go stomping around in the nearby systems!

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

Yes indeed it has been, Tell has done well. On the exploration front, it's inevitable. The only question is when.

[Brian Swartz]

STATE OF SPACE, 2073

I. IMPERIAL HOLDINGS

IA. Populated Colonies

Earth(1.358b, 500 CF, 50 OF, 10 FF, 75 REF, 35 RL, 3 AC, 3 GFT, 5 DSTS, 15.2k MF, 1 SP, SC, 2x Alaska MB)
Mars(46.82m, Tennessee MB)
Luna(42.14m, Tennessee MB)
Titan(17.02m, 1 DSTS)
Venus(9.58m)
Mercury(7.29m)
Europa(110k)
Io(110k)
Callisto(110k)
Ganymede(110k)

All of the inner-system colonies grew considerably, and while Titan edged up a few hundred thousand, the Jupiter moons have not been invested in at all and remain stagnant. Callisto's mines remain scandalously undermanned. The conversion to TN industry is now complete on Earth.

Total population is at 1.481 billion(+9.4%). About 70% of the growth came from Earth, but the colonial share is still growing. 1 in 12 humans now lives somewhere else, a significant number, but not yet enough to give them a major political voice. In time, however ...

IB. Outposts

Sedna(28 CMC, 16 eff, 7.90 kt)
Triton(63 AM, 28 eff, 3.12 kt)
Earth(50 SM, 6.4 eff, 705 t)
Reinmuth(33.8 AM, 37 eff, 1.84 kt) -- gallicite(7.5)
Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 40 eff, 1.73 kt) -- neutronium(5.1)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 39 eff, 1.58 kt) -- corundium(0.8), mercassium(3.6)
Neujmin(25.8 AM, 34 eff, 1.42 kt) -- boronide(5.4)
Titan(25 SM, 6 eff, 331 t)
Faye(25 AM, 48 eff, 1.94 kt) -- tritanium(2.3), uridium(8.3), corundium(9.7)
Comas Sola(25 AM, 36 eff, 1.46 kt) -- sorium(6.0)
Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 1.15 kt)
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 35 eff, 1.21 kt) -- corbomite(5.4)
Borrelly(17.8 AM, 49 eff, 1.28 kt)
Wolf-Harrington(17.8 AM, 50 eff, 1.37 kt) -- corundium(5.3)
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 808 t)
Prokne(10 AM, 10 eff, 147 t)
Wild(8 AM, 34 eff, 400 t)
Wolf(8 AM, 26 eff, 306 t)

Total Production: 28.7 kt, 9.3% less than at last report. This is the first decline in mining production since off-world mining expansion first began way back in the late 30s, over 40 years ago! Some deposits were exhausted(it can be seen at a glance that most comets are in the mid-30s efficiency when many were once over 60), but just as important is the fact that Eighmy isn't the mining administrator that his predecessor was. Borrelly, Neujmin, and other locations received some additional mines, but it wasn't enough to prevent a significant decrease.

IC. Mineral Stockpiles & Production

Tier A: Vendarite(50 kt), Corbomite(44 kt), Boronide(40 kt), Gallicite(40 kt)

Tier B: Uridium(84 kt), Tritanium(40 kt), Sorium(32 kt), Mercassium(27 kt)

A small decline(about 2 kt) in mercassium has resulted in a small amount of concern, particularly considering that a major source(on Machholz) will be drying up soon and production on Triton is starting to dwindle. Every known major source save one in the system has been tapped(more on that source in the election aftermath), and there is only just under 150kt total in known mineable reserves in Sol. That's enough to last just under a century at current usage rates. SPACE projects mercassium to become a more and more vital concern gradually as time goes on.

Meanwhile, sorium joins Tier B as it continues to be used only minimally for industrial concerns and the fuel on Saturn is expected to last millenia.

Tier C: Duranium(17.0 kt), Corundium(15.2 kt)

Duranium has mostly stabilized with the increase in factories on Earth, but it is still slowly increasing. Corundium appears well on it's way to becoming a minor need with the stockpile of the once-crisis mineral growing rapidly.

Tier D: Neutronium(5.93 kt) rose and then declined again with massive shipyard operations and increased ground forces training, both of which will be less needed during the next cycle. Still, it's a vital need and the dominant factor right now in mining considerations. With the considerable production from Stephan-Oterma only lasting a few more years, this will continue to be the case.

ID. Income

Taxes(population): 35.6 m
Taxes(civ. shipping): 4.25 m
Taxes(civ. tourism): 2.58 m
Taxes(civ. fuel): 142 k

Total: 42.60m(+6.8%).

Balance: 619 m(+55m)

Slower growth than the previous cycle, but still a very healthy balance sheet

IE. Expenses

Research: 8.23m
Mineral Purchases: 7.01m
Installation Construction: 3.98m
Shipyard Operations: 3.97m
PDC Construction: 3.02m
Shipbuilding: 1.47m
GU Maintenance: 384k
Maintenance Facilities: 319k
GU Training: 280k

Total: 28.67m(+30.1%)

Shipbuilding became a significant expense again after a lull with more Burkes and the debut of the Nimitz. Maintenance of military vessels(mostly the Forrestals) is becoming more expensive, but is still a very minor expense in the grand scheme of things. Overall, expenses rose sharply but are not yet close to catching up with income.

II. SHIPYARDS

IIA. Commercial Yards

Tod & MacGregor(2 slipways, 166 kt capacity)
** Expanding for the next generation of higher-capacity freighters(approx. 175 kt, nearly there)
P&A Group(4, 80.2 kt)
** Idle
Estalerios Navais(2, 45.5 kt)
** Idle
Oregon Shipbuilding(1, 10 kt)
** Idle
Vickers-Armstrong(4, 10 kt)
** Idle

IIB. Naval Yards

Wartsila(1, 17.6 kt)
** Second Nimitz in production(March 2073)
Baltimore Marine(2, 11.3 kt)
** Expanding Capacity
Yokohama Dock Co.(1, 15.2 kt)
** Retooling for the new Brooklyn 72(Summer 2073)
KSEC(4, 1 kt)
** Idle

III. ARMY TRAINING FACILITIES

IIIA. Earth

** Three active training facilities
** Garrison Battalions(One in February, 2 more in the summer)

IV. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

IVA. Earth

Research Lab(33%) -- May 2073
Alaska PDC(28%) -- Two more by mid-2075
Prefab Alaska PDC(15%) -- For Titan, Early 2074
Mine Conversions(standard to automated, 10%) -- approx. 7 per year
Mines(8%) -- same rate
Military Academy(5%) -- Fall 2074

V. ACTIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS

** Jump Drive Efficiency(Santo Makar) -- Mid-January 2073
** Damage Control Module(Edward Groat) -- Summer 2073
** Missile Tracking(Elwood Tousant) -- Early 2074
** Ultra Large Fuel Tanks(Brandon Grimmett) -- Spring 2074
** Larger Laser Cannons(Joe Tycho) -- Spring 2074
** Larger Meson Cannons(Eva Vadnais) -- Spring/Summer 2074
** Jump Squadron Size(Reynaldo Darrington) -- Summer 2074
** Capacitor Recharge Rate(Rosemary Urenda) -- Late 2074
** Jump Gate Module(Deacon Palmer) -- Late 2074/Early 2075
** Ship Tractor Beams(Cedrick Wormack) -- Late 2074/Early 2075
** Improved Microwave Focusing(Minh Klausner) -- 2075
** Beam Fire Control Range(Bessie Wallander) -- 2075
** GEI MSS 192(Julio Kuchler) -- 2075
** Improved Meson Cannon Focusing(Wayne Sabagh) -- Late 2075/Early 2076
** Magazine Feeding Systems(Harlan Welle) -- Late 2075/Early 2076
** GEI SSS 128(Billie Allington) -- Late 2075/Early 2076
** Improved Geological Sensors(Clint Wyche) -- Late 2076/Early 2077
** Reduced-size Launchers(Elyse Buckler) -- Late 2070s
** Missile Agility Improvements(Karabishi Juishao) -- Late 2070s
** Improved Thruster Efficiency(David Gruis) -- Late 2080s

There are a number of prototypes in the pipeline and 20 on-going projects ... a very busy time right now. A lot of stuff in the '74-'75 time period much like in '71, but not much expected for the coming year, and a few existing projects in need of additional labs as well.

VI. ACTIVE NAVAL ASSETS

** Starting with this edition, this is being divided into additional sections that mirror the naval hierarchy. This will hopefully aid both in understanding where a particular commander's posting ranks in the grand scheme of things, and summarizing what parts of the navy are currently growing/being invested in.

VI A. Military Bases

Alaska(2, 59.45 kt, 1020 crew, major missile base)
Tennessee(Lt)(2, 12.1 kt, 214 crew, missile base)
PDC Ticonderoga(4, 3.0kt, 16 crew, sensor base)

Total: 8 installations, 149.1 kt, 2,532 crew

VI B. Combat Ships

MB Nimitz(1, 13.95 kt, 373 crew, 2437 km/s, 1.75m fuel, missile-armed combat ship)

Total: 1 ship, 13.95 kt, 373 crew, 1.75m fuel

VI C. Military Non-combat Ships

CC Belknap(1, 2 kt, 50 crew, 1250 km/s, 60k fuel, command ship)
MV Cleveland(2, 2.1 kt, 30 crew, 2380 km/s, 100k fuel, supply ship)
GSV Coontz(1, 2.25 kt, 32 crew, 1377 km/s, 130k fuel, gravitational survey)
SB Forrestal IIb(14, 600t, 13 crew, 4k km/s, 50k fuel, sensor buoy)
JSC Pioneer(1, 10 kt, 240 crew, 1000 km/s, 600k fuel, jump scout)
CO Tarawa(2, 6.4 kt, 85 crew, 781 km/s, 250k fuel, supply ship)

Total: 21 ships, 33.25 kt, 681 crew, 2.19m fuel

VI D. Commercial Vessels

TT Arleigh Burke(4, 17.8 kt, 136 crew, 563 km/s, 350k fuel, brigade troop transport)
GEV Essex II-x(2, 2.2 kt, 35 crew, 1135 km/s, 60k fuel, geological survey)
FT Fletcher IV(2, 36.9 kt, 162 crew, 813 km/s, 650k fuel, freighter)
FT Fletcher IVb(2, 36.9kt, 162 crew, 813 km/s, 650k fuel, freighter)
FT Fletcher IVc(4, 36.9kt, 162 crew, 813 km/s, 650k fuel, freighter )
TK Iowa(2, 9.8 kt, 53 crew, 1.02k km/s, 6m fuel, fuel tanker)
ST Lexingon IIIc(5, 2.0 kt, 28 crew, 2500 km/s, 250k fuel, shuttle transport)
ST Lexington IIId(19, 2.0 kt, 28 crew, 2500 km/s, 250k fuel, shuttle transport)
JS North Carolina(1, 19.2 kt, 133 crew, 520 km/s, 250k fuel, large jump ship)
FH Perry III(21, 20.1 kt, 123 crew, 498 km/s, 350k fuel, fuel harvester)
TT Portland(2, 4.3 kt, 35 crew, 581 km/s, 60k fuel, troop transport)
CS Spruance-b(1, 20 kt, 110 crew, 501 km/s, 250k fuel, colony ship)

Total: 65 vessels, 908 kt, 5,584 crew, 32.7m liters fuel

Grand Total: 95 assets(+18%), 1.10 mt(--), 9.17k crew(+58%), 36.6m liters fuel(+9.3%)

Most of the commercial vessels have been in service for decades in some form or another. The growth sector is definitely on the military side right now.

Available Crew: 105k(+8.8%)

VI E. Fuel Status

Earth -- 17.6m liters
Titan -- 13.3m
Callisto -- 10.7m

Total -- 41.6m liters(+6.9%). The reserves continue to grow slowly, outpacing the needs of new ships and fueling existing operations.

VII. ACTIVE ARMY ASSETS

** Brigade HQs(3)
** Construction Brigades(7)
** Mobile Infantry Battalions(6)
** Garrison Battalion(32)

Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 380k(+93%)

The army has grown almost exponentially for over a decade now, and is starting to come close to current needs. There is also an issue of finding enough qualified officers to lead(only six colonels are unemployed as of this writing). One way or another, growth is expected to slow soon.

VIII. CIVILIAN SHIPPING CORPORATIONS

Voliva Carrier Company(54 vessels, 3.24m annual income)
Jensrud Transport and Trading(21, 2.61m)
Tolles Transport & Logistics(7, 730k)
Everton Shipping & Logistics(3, 240k)
Ouellet Shipping(3, 220k)
Suter Shipping Services(2, 125k)
Presnar Freight(2, 70k)
Clavette Shipping Line(3, --)
Abair Shipping(1, --)
Forbus Carrier Ltd(1, --)

Total Vessels: 99(+24%)
Total Civilian Income: 7.24m(+10%)

Jensrud increased by about 150%, while Voliva's revenue declined by over 30%. For the first time in decades they have viable competition, though still possessing the top spot with a 45% market share, a far cry from the 70% they enjoyed just four years ago. Also making a move is Tolles Transport & Logistics, more than doubling their fleet and nearly quintupling their income to become a credible third firm. Everybody's favorite underdog last cycle, Ouellet Shipping, saw their brief renaissance crumble.

Surprisingly, the civilian sector saw only modest increases overall.


IX. SPACE LEADERSHIP PROSPECTUS

** Naval Officers: 107 of 147 assigned(72.8%), -1.4%
** Ground Forces Officers: 53 of 59(89.8%), +10.6%
** Civilian Administrators: 27 of 29(93.1%), +3.4%
** Scientists: 20 of 33(60.6%), -- +3.9%

Overall: 207 of 268(77.2%), +2.3%

Opportunities are good in all branches, with the army and administrative career paths taking pretty much anyone with a pulse.

[Brian Swartz]

** For reasons that are yet classified(but observant and studious followers of the goings-on at SPACE are not expected to have much trouble guessing), this election is considered the most important in several cycles. In practical terms, this meant a doubling of the effect of political reliability in determining eligibility and appointment as more favors than usual were called in. This is only in place for this election cycle, and not a permanent change**

RETIREMENTS

Herbert Robards, Governor of Machholz, faces mandatory retirement this year. Machholz is the best of several comet-based assignments he's held after emerging from two decades of toiling in beauracratic obscurity to receive his first governor posting in the early 50s. His talents were mostly in shipbuilding and the financial sector, and they were largely wasted as he did not have enough ability or connections to garner a colonial job.

2073 ELECTIONS

The field was a tad smaller than usual, with six qualifying for the final ballot. The work put in by Herbert Duling looked certain to pay off, as he was the prohibitive favorite with only Director Eighmy considered capable(and unlikely) to mount a serious challenge. Fmr. Director India Rakes along with Riley Awad, Jarret Hugh, and Larry Steckel filled out a mostly familiar field as many of them have finished distantly behind the winners before.

On the eve of the election it was clear that both favorites had pushed too hard, age and poor health showing in a number of campaigning mistakes and gaffes which left the door open to the other challengers. Rakes ran a fairly good campaign, but it was largely unknown Riley Awad, governor of Io, who hardly put a foot wrong despite being last in the field in name recognition, having appeared only sporadically in the past and never in the last several cycles.

All of that potentially made for a rather suspensful and longer than expected night at the polls but the groundwork put in by Duling was thorough and his overwhelming advantadge could not be overcome. Herbert won his record fifth Directorial election, having spent the last 12 years now out of the office, by the reasonably comfortable margin of 25.9% to Awad's 20.4%. The rest of the field:

India Rakes -- 17.8%
Alberto Eighmy -- 16.7%
Larry Steckel -- 11.3%
Jarret Hugh -- 7.8%

Hugh, who was just embarassing, and Eighmy, finishing 4th as the incumbent, both were big losers on the night.

POLICY REVIEW

While making veiled references to the 'defining challenges' of the years ahead, Duling did have a number of changes to put in place as he reoccupied the Director's Office for the first time since leaving in '61 -- before Sector Command had been finished.

** Development of Halley's Comet. The most famous comet in Sol due to our fascination with it going back to decades before TN physics were even known to be possible, the long-period comet is only a little over 2.5b km from the sun, less than half it's maximum distance, between Saturn and Uranus orbit. A mass driver and administrator will be sent immediately, along with all automated mines produced for the indefinite future. Halley contains almost 30% of the mineable mercassium in the system and is the single largest remaining source(38.9kt) along with over 18kt of needed neutronium and minor amounts of four less vital minerals.

** Acceleration of Academy Expansion. Adding Halley to the list of developed sites, combined with the retirement of Robards, will leave SPACE once again with zero surplus administrators. The possibility that a mining might have to be shut down temporarily for lack of a qualified person to lead it is not remote. More than doubling the investment in the expansion will allow it to be finished this fall, with fewer mines being produced in the interim to compensate. In the last cycle, only two administrators were found -- recruitment must do better during the next cycle to avoid shutdowns.

** Two new ship class were announced. The first Long Beach-class fuel harvester, a long-desired upgrade which is now ready.

Long Beach Fuel Harvester
Size: 79.1 kt
Crew: 411
Speed: 379 km/s
Defenses: 5 CIWS Batteries, basic sensors
Sorium Harvest Modules: 26(728k per year harvested under optimal conditions)
Cost: 1.66m(about 15 months)

A Long Beach will produce more than four times the fuel of a third-generation Perry for just over three times the cost and has upgraded sensors and CIWS batteries. It's slower ... but the trip from Saturn to Titan is only 1.2m km and will take no more than an hour. Speed is a virtual non-issue for these vessels. The Long Beach is expected to be a permanent solution to increasing fuel capacity and reserves ahead of anticipated future needs as the military wing of the navy grows. Only minor changes are expected in forseeable plans.

The P&A Group Shipyard is retooling for the massive new ships, which are more than twice the size of a Fletcher-class freighter, and the existing Perrys will have their equipment repurposed one task group at a time, along with building three more vessels to make all six TGs four harvesters each for a total of 24. The first wave of refits is set to begin sometime around the end of the summer.

** The second new class was the South-Carolina class superfreighter, intended for heavy transport for jobs when a Fletcher or two just wasn't enough to get the job done. They will be most useful for huge transport activities to the outer system.

South Carolina Freighter
Size: 164.6 kt
Crew: 531
Speed: 607 km/s
Fuel load: 2.15m
Defenses: 18 CIWS batteries, basic sensors
Cargo Space: 125 kt(equivalent to 5 Fletcher-class freighters)
Cost: 2.08m(10 months)

The South Carolina will be by far the largest ship in Sol space -- civilian designs have topped out at less than half the size, about 70kt. The massive engines(10 of them) can be detected 16m km away by even our basic commercial sensors.

Two are intended to be converted right away, with construction beginning at the end of the summer like the Long Beach.

** Six new Lexington-class shuttles were ordered to be built, to keep up with the needs of shuttling VIPs around. This will bring the total to 30.

[Brian Swartz]

CIVILIAN CHARACTER UPDATE

James Earl Jones V(6) -- A small demotion this go-round from Venus, as he'll head out to super-distant Sedna. Jones does have some mining skill, but it's hardly the best use of his abilities.

Pioneer Deacon Palmer -- Roughly two years remain on the final project of his career(jump gate construction module). It seems fitting that Palmer's retirement will closely coincide with the planned 'SPACE at 50' celebration.
Joe Tycho -- Joe has seemingly learned to adapt to his health difficulties the last couple of years. At the moment he's set to finish work on a larger, more powerful laser cannon varianit sometime in the spring of '74.

[Brian Swartz]

It's been an extremely busy RL week. Current game date is July 2073, midway through the year. Not a ton going on so there's a pretty good chance I'll be able to get an update up this weekend.

[sterlingice]

You can't lead with a line like "For reasons that are yet classified(but observant and studious followers of the goings-on at SPACE are not expected to have much trouble guessing)" and then say you can't write for a while ;)

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Of course I can. See!:P

2073 ANNUAL REPORT

SPACE noticed one election impact right away: a significant slowdown in production time for everything, both planetside and orbital ship construction. Alberto Eighmy was a director with many flaws, but none to occupy the office have had his mind for getting more done in less time. Add to that new Governor of Earth Riley Awad's very minimal skills in mining and production(he has more of a financial focus, and is also good with the training of new army units) and there was an immediate delay of weeks to months in everything across the board. With a number of major projects completed under Eighmy's watch, and others set to finish in the next year or two, this is at least a relatively painless time for such a transition to occur.

Less than three weeks into the new year, Santo Makar finished his latest project(jump drive efficiency, see the appropriate appendix for details) and the 69-year-old retired to private life. Makar's most prominent achievement was the development of jump theory itself, but his legacy goes beyond that. He laid the groundwork for virtually everything important we know about TN propulsion technology, and the crucial field is expected to suffer considerably in his absence. Rosemary Urenda(40%) is a third less efficient at leading research teams in the field, and there's nobody else that could even be considered good at it. In fact, only one other researcher has any aptitude for propulsion science at all(Reynaldo Darrington, 15%). David Gruis seems to have the gift, but a number of make-work projects have not resulted in the slightest improvement. At 50 years old, Urenda is no spring chicken either. A very real potential crisis is brewing in the power & propulsion field, which SPACE considers one of it's most critical research priorities. Known enemy combat ships(from nearly two decades ago, I might add) travel at a speed that is still nearly three times as fast as the Nimitz and Brooklyn ships, and that's with a huge portion of their mass devoted to engines. If the academies aren't able to recruit new talent in this area, it will have a huge impact both on research as a whole(as more and more labs will have to be poured into less efficient research) as well as a slowdown in the advancement of propulsion technology specifically. This is no small concern for Duling's new administration.

Before the end of the month, there was a small bit of better news as a spare administrator finished the academy and was ready for assignment. He's horrible, but better than having to face the shutdown of an outpost.

March brought the completion of a second Nimitz. Wartsila began a third, with plans to seriously consider a more modern ship after it is completed. A month later, Halley's Comet officially joined the list of SPACE outposts, as the first automated mine came on-line.

The summer was pretty quiet, but a modest buzz was generated with the promotion of a second Major General -- Wyatt Pittman(40, M), the first time the army has taken that step. He'll still remain second in command under Engelhardt. Also, the first beam warship(Brooklyn '72 class) is begun at Yokohama in mid-July.

In October, retooling is finished for the Long Beach and South Carolina classes is finished, but for now no construction will commence. There are fundamental issues being debated within the administration and the navy, and until they are resolved no further activity on these ships will proceed. One thing is certain, a huge drain on duranium and neutronium reserves has ended for the moment.

The rest of the year was quiet -- overall not that much happened in 2073. With bases on Sedna and Triton more or less halfway finished, Titan's massive Alaska-class base set to be ready for shipping in the spring, and many other expected developments, next year will likely be more eventful leading up to the 50-year celebrations in 2075.


RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

** January 17 -- Santo Makar's team finishes improving the efficiency of our basic jump drive technology. They have effectively reduced the necessary size of jump engines by 25%, which will allow for jump ships to either be smaller and cheaper, or to pack on more equipment.
The lab space was reassigned to Juishao's missile agility research, which is now funded at the desired level.

** June 28 -- New research lab completed. Curtis Gloster takes another of the prototype jobs, the new missile fire controls. There are still two awaiting space for a project lead to be assigned.

July 20 -- Edward Groat's team completes blueprints for a Damage Control station, increasing the capabilities of ships to repair themselves away from a colony. This is not considered important for immediate application, but certainly will be needed for future interstellar excursions at some point.

Groat and little-used but fairly talented Alphonse Lambeth, from the Logistics & Ground Combat branch, will sub as prototype leads for the final two sensor suites currently designated -- Groat takes the Sentinel 400, for use on the next Forrestal upgrade, and Lambeth a new commercial sensor.


COMMISSIONED OFFICERS

Late January -- Another improvement for Cpt. Tell Perj Jr., a minor increase in training to a very respectable 225.

Early April -- 8 Navy officers are released, a sign that the military feels current numbers are more than sufficient.

Late May -- A new general is promoted(Jimmie Atteberry). Command decides it's time for the fourth(and for now, final) combat brigade on earth. Two new mobile infantry battalions are recruited to complete it.

Late June -- Sterling Silvers Jr. is promoted to Brigadier General as well, and is considered average at that rank already despite his youth.

Early July -- James Earl Jones V is heard from for the first time in years, increasing Logistics knowledge to a fairly strong 25%. Also, light finally dawns in the mind of David Gruis, who is up to 10% in Power & Propulsion. Still a long way to go, but this cuts the time of his current research by more than four years, and he will now be at least as effective as any general-purpose replacement could hope to be for actually important research.

Mid-November -- Industrial production increases on Earth as Governor Awad has learned a couple of things in his first year in office there(20% Factory Production).


EARTH

March 19 -- A second Nimitz-class warship is finished.

Mid-July -- Retooling is complete at Yokohama, and the first beam-armed warship enters construction there(Brooklyn 72 class).

November 25 -- Military Academy expansion completed on Earth(4 operational now). A mass driver is ordered up using the freed capacity to replace the one sent to Halley.


COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

April 16 -- Halley's Comet officially joins the list of SPACE outposts, as the first automated mine comes on-line. Two more would be added by year's end; a total of 30 are planned.

Late July -- Sedna expands to 29 complexes.

August 30 -- Corundium deposits on Machholz have been exhausted. Another quarter-century's worth of neutronium will keep the mines there in place.

[chesapeake]

No protests from the astro-conservationists over the naked plundering of Halley's Comet? Imagine having to deal with an insane alliance of conservationists and fundamentalist Christians that believe that Halley's Comet heralded the baby Jesus. That could see the end of a number of political careers.

[Brian Swartz]

Snicker. Yeah I'm glad I'm not forced to deal with such concerns.

[sterlingice]

So, uh?

SI

[chesapeake]

The Jesus Loves Halley's Comet Coalition has shut down the dynasty.

[Brian Swartz]

Sometimes good-bye is a second chance ...

A hailstorm knocked out the internet for the computer that has Aurora on it, latest in a series of things. The dynasty is not dead, thanks for asking :). The Halley's Comet protestors have been loud but ineffectual -- both of them :P

[Brian Swartz]

The unplanned, month-long hiatus has been due to several factors. I had a brief lapse in interest(happens with any project from time to time unforunately, though this is the first one I've had with Aurora), a generally difficult job transition, weather and health stuff, and general lack of focus personally. I'm not sure how things will proceed now but I definitely want to keep the story going as best I can.

RETIREMENTS

Cmdr. Bennett Cadorette -- Most recently of one of Earth's Alaska-class bases
Lt. Cmdr. Rob Nielsen III -- Spent his two decades mostly on the harvesters with a couple tours on the FT Hercules as well, but was never able to make a leap.

Cols. Sean Riney, Helen Perales, Dan Yawn, and Jeanne Pont also take early retirement.

Leadership in the upper echelon of the Army is particularly stable right now, with all of the current generals expected to remain in place into the 80s.

MILITARY CHARACTER UPDATE

Cpt. Tell Perj Jr. -- 1st out of 11. The most senior captain by a decade, he remains Logistics Officer at Fleet HQ.
Lt. Cmdr. Chance Perj -- 9th out of 100. Another tour harvesting fuel at Saturn awaits. Chance is looking for a break to move up, but it hasn't happened yet and competition is as tough as ever.

Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers Jr. -- 5th out of 10. Junior is headed to ?? to take over one of the construction brigades, his first brigade-level command.
Col. Deacon Palmer Jr. -- 28th out of 45. Like most colonels, Palmer Jr. is assigned to a garrison battalion.

[Brian Swartz]

Present gamedate is April 10, 2074 -- we are less than nine game-months from the long-anticipated 'SPACE at 50' celebration.

[Brian Swartz]

2074 ANNUAL REPORT

It was a year of industrial transition on Earth, beginning with the completion of a mass driver in February to replace the one sent to the new outpost on Halley's Comet. Mine production and work on the Alaska bases increased, and would increase again in late April when the components for the Titan base were completed.

March brought a number of important developments on the research front, including the retirement of one of the agency's original scientists, Dr. Brandon Grimmett. At 70 years old and in poor health, it was an easy decision. The early part of his career was spent in leading one of the ground-based geology survey teams in the exploration and exploitation of Sol('37-'48), after which he became a leading Logistics researcher, contributing many vital components for ship construction as well as modernization of ground forces. Another of the original minds that formed the initial research community at SPACE's formation, his retirement continues the process of handing the reigns to the next generation.

Two of the three elite Logistics scientists that made it the strongest research field for decades have now retired: only Cedrick Wormack(61) and younger, far less skilled researchers remain.

Aside from shipping the components and minerals needed for the new base to Titan in late April and May, there was not much news in the late spring and summer. Fall passed as well, until a November shakeup in the navy's power structure provided the first bit of hard news in several months. Veteran Cpt. Tell Perj Jr. became the fifth active admiral, a new high, on the 5th. Just two days later, the overall #2 in command, Chong Vaugh, was forced into medical retirement a little over a year ahead of schedule. Then about three weeks later, just before the end of the month, 28-year-old rising star Parker Lanzi brought the number back up to five again.

Such things would often just be footnotes, but given the slowness of the year more than usual was made of them. In the final week of the year, as all eyes were on the preparations for the upcoming festival, the launching of a third Nimitz-class missile boat went virtually unnoticed ...


RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

** Jan. 26 -- Third-gen. commercial grav sensors(Alphonse Lambeth) and improved missile tracking(+20%, Elwood Tousant) are completed. All three labs are assigned to Adolfo Walth for work on a new composite material for use in strengthening armor capabilities.

** March 5 -- A surprisingly important day scientifically. Dr. Joe Tycho's team announced new, larger and more powerful laser cannons(15 cm focal size). This would have been enough, but top sensors scientist Julio Kuchler announced a breakthrough(55% expertise), AND a new, much-needed power & propulsion researcher joined the fray. Already serviceable with a 15% skill, Alejandro Otteson immediately becomes a potential contributor. Tycho will spend a couple of months hammering together a usable blueprint for the next UBOS laser prototype, while Otteson gets an immediate project, horribly understaffed, to work on improving reactor power output.

** March 19 -- Brandon Grimmett's team completes a more efficient fuel storage tank for very large ships. Each of the massive tanks can hold 5m liters in the same space but using just over half the boronide required for five 1m-liter tanks.

Elwood Tousant begins the next generation of theoretical sensor improvement, beginning with the passive thermals. He'll take two labs for the project and will require at least one more -- considerable investment is needed to improve existing capabilities at this point as all the easy advances have already been made.

** April 23 -- Tousant claims the latest lab complex to be completed, bringing his project up to full funding.

** May 3 -- Foundational work on a 15cm Meson Cannon to match the new lasers is completed by Eva Vadnais. She'll turn her attention to a better microwave weapon while capacitor and focusing technology continues to be developed by others for the next generation of weaponry. A second lab is taken by Alphonse Lambeth for work on improving effectiveness of ground units.

** May 5 -- Joe Tycho finishes work on the new laser cannon, only to discover that a new round of research will be necessary once new capacitors are finished to allow for a faster firing rate. The last couple months were basically a waste of his time, to no small amount of annoyance.

He'll get basic foundational work done on improving turret gearing, a fairly long-term project which there is not space to fully fund at this time.

** June 5 -- Reynaldo Darrington's research team has completed plans for improving the number of ships that can transit with a single jump engine from 3 to 4(including the jump ship itself). Two projects that were a lab short are reinforced, and Darrington gets a make-work job looking into jump engine minituraization.

** September 30 -- Edward Groat's team finishes the Sentinel 400, the latest advancement in active sensors for the jump point detection ships. The new Forrestal III class will have improved armor and twice the sensor range for a slight size increase(650t) and a 19% cost increase to over 95k. Groat will take over work on the composite armour project, and Otteson's work on reactor power improvements gets a boost with a second lab.

** October 13 -- Rosemary Urenda's team has improved capacitors to allow recharging at a rate 50% better than existing technology. She'll next turn her attention to working on increasing fuel efficiency.


EARTH

March 3 -- Two mobile infantry battalions are ready for service.

April 27 -- The Alaska components for Titan have been completed. Needless to say it is a massive project: more than half of the freighters, five in all, will be required to transport it, with a sixth taking the required minerals to be used in the assembly process. Meanwhile, mine construction is further accelerated to about nine per year, and addition funding goes to the last Earth-based Alaska base as well. Initial estimates are that even once all seven brigades are transported to Titan, assembling the base will take over four years.

Late May -- Earth's population reaches 1.4 billion.

Mid-July -- The newest Brigade HQ is ready on earth and the training facilities fall silent, as the officer corps needs to grow before new units can be accomodated.


KEY PERSONNEL

Early May -- Curtis Gloster, the heir apparent to Palmer in the Construction & Production field, increases his skill to 45%.

Early October -- Lt. Cmdr. Chance Perj has learned a bit about crew training(25).

Late Dec -- James Earl Jones V ups shipbuilding to 55%. Too bad that by far the greatest mind in the agency in terms of building ships never has had the chance to actually supervise such operations.


COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

Mid-November -- The Tennessee base is finished on Triton, and the construction brigades there(four of them) will soon depart for Titan and their greatest off-world task: assembly of the Alaska there.