The Galaxy Awaits ... Choose Your Path!(Aurora) - Page 7

Brian Swartz · 11-24-2014, 02:20 PM

Thanks! I'm looking forward to it as well, it's been a long time coming and I just so happen to be going into my annual vacation so I should be able to get into those events pretty quickly.

RETIREMENTS

Carroll Westcott -- A mining outpost supervisor, Westcott did one tour at Io at the end of his career. By the time he diversified her skills, he was too old and in too poor health to really take advantadge of it. A solid mid-level governor.

James Earl Jones V -- A veteran of a few directorial elections, Jones had tours on colonies like Luna, Venus, and Titan, as well as top mining placements such as Sedna. He didn't play the political game, and it cost him a chance at the top spot. Ironically some of his best work was in the past year in helping with the recovery from his important post on Titan.

Art Weston -- Another solid governor, good mining skills but not quite enough excellence or versatility to be more than a long shot.

Larry Steckel -- For a long time, Steckel has been the premier mining expert in SPACE. Though these skills were wasted on Mars recently, he's bounced around to almost every important post short of Earth in his varied career. Health concerns force him aside a bit early at 59.

Alberto Eighmy -- Perhaps none other than Herbert Duling have been more gifted. Health was the one-time director's achilles heel, and combined with the stress of trying to do two jobs after the Rakes resignation it has compelled him to retire early at 56. Eighmy had a gift of being able to take in all the information available, regardless of the pressures around and upon him, and see through to the end results. He wasn't a visionary like Duling, but he was exceptionally competent and always had a friend or six he could count on in a pinch.

It's a veritable who's-who of the old guard. SPACE will be in dire need of new civilian leaders to step up and be counted after losing five valuable servants this year.

2081 ELECTION

A new era dawns under Operation Renewal, and it will dawn under untested leadership. There are no former directors even active. Only seven are even eligible for the office -- SPACE has had elections with more names than that on the final ballot! Former Earth governor Riley Awad, presently on Luna, is the biggest name in the field and the early favorite simply on name recognition.

Five were on the final ballot, but only three had a real chance. The real favorite was indeed Awad, who simply has more varied experience and gravitas than the others. Mercury governor Burt Stonerock, the best natural challenger, did himself no favors with his response to the New York scandal, and polarizing loudmouth Russell Salvucci made himself a lot of enemies but even more friends with his scathing attacks on Rakes during that period. He based his campaign on tying Awad to those failings as part of the old, failed leadership. This had some effect but not all that much given most people's settled opinion that the lion's share of blame belonged to India Rakes, not SPACE as a whole.

** Note: Salvucci was given a much wider range of possible popular support for the election, with the most likely scenario a slightly better vote for him than would otherwhise have been the case, but also the possibility for a boomerang effect and bigger negatives. The scandal is still plenty fresh to have an impact here, but due to the effective recovery it is not a dominant, defining issue. **

In the end, the voters made it clear that there were no real winners, only losers. They unenthusiastically elected Awad, the most qualified candidate. He had more than twice the votes of Salvucci, but neither impressed and both Stonerock and Sedna governor Errol Igoe were obviously detested by large numbers. The only one that really did well was Ganymede governor Francesco Alborn who came in a surprising second, but as he's only supervised the one small colony for a single tour, he was considered to be greatly lacking in experience.

Full results:

Awad -- 37.9%
Alborn -- 23.2%
Salvucci -- 18.2%
Stonerock -- 12.8%
Igoe -- 7.9%

POLICY REVIEW

The loyal Awad has a chance to implement his vision for the first time. He and Alborn each have a variety of of skills, neither particularly impressive in any one area but rather more likely to find their impact in a range of smaller influences.

He also has the general outlook that it is better to take a risk than to be overly cautious. Awad wants the situation in Epsilon Eridani resolved sooner rather than later, concurring with the Navy's opinion that regardless of what happens elsewhere, the Fleet will be tied down until that happens. Aside from the obvious technological inferiority we still face, we do not have a jump drive capable of bringing our combat vessels through to the system. In any case, the Navy believes it is best to wait for the Ion Drive and a new generation of missiles, electronics, etc. before a new generation of ships is prepared that will be capable of mounting a credible threat. The new director believes SPACE should be ready to act when that happens, and in that vein has authorized the deployment of a diplomatic ship to the system ...

Ambassador-class Diplomatic Craft
Size: 800t
Speed: 1500 km/s
Crew: 18(+10 for diplomats)
Sensors: Commercial-grade passive EM and Thermal, latest Mark IV version

The mission of the Ambassador is to perform a solo jump into a hostile system, and broadcast friendship messages on all frequencies in an attempt to begin a dialogue with an alien species. To that end, quarters for two diplomatic teams are included. It is also equipped, like the ESF carriers and tankers, with extra supplies for a 5-year stay if required. Awad's goal is to determine, however long it takes, whether there is any chance of peaceful co-existence with the aliens who destroyed our Pioneers back in the 50s. Many, in fact most in SPACE, want and will probably get a military response eventually, but by sending in an Ambassador those of a more pacifistic mind can be mollified, Awad can appear to be doing something about Epsilon Eridani while the next generation of ships is developed, and there is the chance that we could learn more about the alien threat. Any intelligence is greatly valued right now, we still know virtually nothing.

In Awad's mind this need for more information outweighs all risks. Therefore the Lalande 21185 will no longer be considered off limits, but the ESFs will only visit it after they have surveyed the others. Sirius and Luyten 726-8 are considered to be by far the best candidate systems after EE, and they will be prioritized first. Sirius has the easiest terraformable candidate for a 'system hub', and Luyten is the only known system outside of Sol with comets, plus four possibilities for major fuel sources on gas giants/super jovians. Rather than focus on any one system though, the plan is to see what Siriuis and Luyten have, then also survey the other four(Barnard's Star, Teegarden's Star, Lalande 21185, and Van Maanen's Star), which are considered much less promising. Unless a particularly excellent find is discovered, no colonization plan is expected to be hatched until all six are surveyed completely. Epsilon Eridani is of course off-limits until the diplomatic teams have reported back.

Finally there is the issue of the off-world bases. It's clear that building local, static defenses everywhere is not going to be a viable option. SPACE must instead focus more on a mobile defense via the Navy, an approach which places more importance than ever on resolving the Epsilon Eridani situation since the navy will be tied down to Earth unless that system is secured. The Tennessee, both normal and Light versions, are to be eradicated. The Alaska(brigade of ground troops, multiple missile launchers) will continue to be built on any strategic locations with significant population(Titan and Earth at the moment), and the Ticonderoga on less critical populated colonies. Major mining outposts, defined as any which contribute 10% or more of total output, will recieve a DSTS(deep space tracking system). Minor mining outposts will be defenseless, the judgement being that they aren't important enough to be worth the cost of investing in their protection.

LEADERSHIP OUTLOOK

It's an interesting situation in the higher-ups of civilian leadership at SPACE. The military branches are better led than they ever have been overall: the top leaders may not be as good as Chiefs Camble or Silvers, but the depth of quality in the upper reaches is outstanding right now. On the other side of the coin, civilian leadership which is IMO more important -- the navy can only uses the tool the civvies give them, after all -- has never been weaker. Awad is the only administrator left, who would have been considered good enough to be relevant on an agency-wide scale during Duling's heyday, and both he and Alborn have one, maybe two at most terms left. The requirements of leading the colonies grow ever higher, to the point where low-level admins aren't skilled enough to take on tasks like Mercury and Titan. Right now the stage is set for less capable and even more importantly unstable/impulsive/self-seeking leaders like Stonerock and Salvucci to take the reins within the next decade. It's a dangerous time for SPACE politically. We've been both spoiled and blessed with usually great leadership in this arena, but it appears that's about to change and the results may not be pretty.

As already mentioned, the scientific arena isn't any better right now. The only elite scientist who won't have retired in ten years is Julio Kuchler. He's been around for what seems like forever but is only 48, though health is already a concern so even he's not a guarantee.

The development of new leaders has never been more important, particularly with Operation Renewal about to launch and the navy beginning to approach a point where it can consider the possibility of serious combat operations by the end of the century. Exciting time are ahead ... who will step forward to ensure humanity faces them with courage and vision?

sterlingice · 11-25-2014, 08:02 AM

Let's get to the exploring

Is it possible to "focus" on civilian leadership? It seems like all the best and brightest are going military and the administration is suffering for it.

SI

Brian Swartz · 11-25-2014, 06:37 PM

I think it will eventually get better(I hope). I can't focus on one branch or another, the only thing I can do is build more academies to get more leaders of all branches. At the moment we have four which is giving us enough over time for current needs.

Brian Swartz · 11-28-2014, 11:35 AM

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Time to get this updated to where we are now, a lot of stuff going on.

2081 ANNUAL REPORT(Part 1)

The year did not get off to a great start. On January 2, with most of BOG is still transiting from here to there all over the system, two dozen Lexingtons on their way to and fro. Today's business was made less routine and more stressful, as the Wickes arrived at Stephan-Oterma. A controlled demolition on the Ticonderoga followed shortly thereafter. It was a small base, but it was not anticipated how completely the explosion obliterated the structure. Apparently the navy is too good at their self-destruct sequences ... there wasn't anything left to salvage.

The expected test of the salvage gear was not needed, so the Wickes simply went back to Earth. Another ship that wasn't needed, but at least it was fairly inexpensive. Adding to the mitigation is that no special shipyard investment was needed to make it, and the argument that it can still be used at some point during interstellar exploration. A few people said a few things they shouldn't have while a few protests erupted, but there was no serious disruption of SPACE business this time ...

Meanwhile adding to the hustle and bustle now was the process of Lexingtons(for the officers) and Portlands(for the garrisons) journeying all over the system to evacuate the no-longer-needed bases. The MRD, referencing the 2081 SOS Report, section IB, identified only Sedna and Triton as being in need of DSTS. Awad also wants to diversify the economy by getting a couple more shipyards of each type up and running eventually -- he wants the eventually refits to Ion drives to go smoothly and efficiently, and they won't with the current number. More shipyards is preferable to constant wholescale retooling, the latter approach being more costly in the long run. In view of these goals, the following changes were made to Earth's industrial allocation:

Research Labs(33-25%)
Ordnance Factories(13-11%)
Mine Conversions(30-15%)
Mine Construction(24-12%)
Commercial Shipyards(new, 18%) -- 2 ordered
DSTS(new, 10%) -- 2 ordered
Naval Shipyards(new, 9%) -- 1 ordered

This is more like the economy used to look before Rakes had concentrated most of it into mines. This is not to pile on, that was likely the best approach at the time, but for now the number of facilities flowing to Triton will decline. At the time of publishing ETAs for these were not set, as incoming Earth governor Alborn is still en route. Once he arrived, the dates were not impressive, given that he is of merely novice skill in factory production while Awad is only average. SPACE is now down to about eight mines produced and converted per year, a little under one lab, etc. It's partly temporary, but the combination of reduced factory access and less expert supervision is a big hit to these efforts. Both are right on the novice/accomplished line in terms of shipbuilding though, and between the two that process has sped up. The first ESF is expected to begin training exercises in early spring.

At the end of the month, with most of the reassignment activity now completed, the relative quiet was disturbed by the sudden hospitalization of Rear Admiral June Aspinwall, the Navy's second-in-command behind Chief Feeser. The 52-year-old Aspinwall is seen as a key advisor, the eldest and in some quarters most respected among the admiralty. Right now the outlook is that she can finish this tour and probably another, but her future is definitely uncertain at this point.

In February, the Ambassador began construction at Niehuis SY. The year was off to busy start. A little over a week later, the new laser turret(SpearPoint DL-12) completing it's testing phase. This allowed for the next generation of the Brooklyn to finally be hammered out. The engineers had a little over a month lead time in this case until the last of the 72s was finished. A nine-year-old design. Incredibly, the passive sensors are the same ones used then -- new thermals will be ready later this year, electromagnetics are in the pipeline farther back -- but the actives are improved and of course the capacitors, power plants, weapons have all seen advances. Combined with the advancements in armor, this allowed for a significantly smaller ship:

Brooklyn 81-class Gunboat
Size: 10.5 kt(13.45 kt, -22%)
Crew: 282(356, -21%)
Speed: 2380 km/s(2379, virtually identical)
Fuel: 1.25ml(1.75, -71%)
Thermal Emissions: 210(269, -22%)
Armament: 2x SpearPoint DL-12 Twin Laser Cannon Turrets, 2x WT Excalibur 135 Meson Cannon Turrets, 1x CIWS 79 Battery. The 72 has twice the lasers and the same amount of mesons.
Tracking Speed: 12k km/s(8k, +50%)
Armor: 5 layers(4, +25%)
Cost: 1.71m(1.89m, -9.5%)

The Brooklyn 81 is smaller and a little cheaper than its predecessor. It doesn't pack nearly as much punch but the faster tracking speed makes it a more effective combatant anyway. This is of course a marginal upgrade, a stopgap version to bridge the time until ion drives are ready.

At the same time, it was announced that Eva Vadnais was the latest top SPACE researcher to end her public career. Along with Joe Tycho she carried the Energy Weapons field for the last couple of decades. It's been a time of great improvement as they've seen the program advance from its infancy to third, nearly fourth-generation weapons and techniques. At 64 years old and already suffering the natural effects of aging, she leaves behind her not a single quality researcher to fill the void. This does not bode well for the Navy's efforts over the next couple of decades.

March began with the launching of the first Baltimore Command Carrier. Only the Iowa XR now remained before the first ESF was complete and Operation Renewal could get underway. On the fifth, two days later, Cedrick Wormack retired. He battled through health problems to finish up his final project, the Orbital Habitat Module. Just one of these massive components would be about 50% larger than a South Carolina superfreighter. Each can house indefinitely 50,000 workers, with shuttles for transportation to normally uninhabitable bodies. It is possible, though seemingly unlikely, that deploying a space station to remote outposts may become a feasible goal. That time is not now, and it won't be soon either.

The 67-year-old Wormack retires having been an integral part of a cadre of top logistics researchers who greatly advanced SPACE's capabilities through practical solutions to the thorny problems of living in an increasingly space-faring age. There are other capable minds to succeed him, not quite like the greatest generation of LG scientists that he concludes, but the field is still in good hands.

Another three days, and the Alaska base on Titan was finished up. It was just one thing happening after another. SPACE headquarters at Sol Sector Command was a constant madhouse. More Caldwells were finished up in late March, a new Nimitz and Brooklyn each were operational in early April. Shortly aftewards, Dr. Julio Kuchler finished his report on considerably improved active gravitational sensors. This set the stage for four new systems to be prototyped: commercial, ship search, and missile search sensor variants, as well as a new missile fire control suite.

On April 18, in the early hours of the morning, the first Iowa XR tanker received clearance to depart its moorings. The preparation was over, it was time for Operation Renewal to begin ...

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

January 12 -- Uridium is exhausted on Faye.

January 21 -- Ticonderoga on Machholz is demolished.

February 10 -- Ticonderoga on Reinmuth is demolished.

February 16 -- Another most welcome expansion at Sedna is finished, now totalling 36 CMCs.

March 8 -- The Alaska base on Titan, after years of construction, is finally finished. The construction brigades are loaded up to head back to Earth.

LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL

Late January -- Garland Sidhom has made another leap in his abilities. Too bad he's in biogenetics, but he's nearly doubled his skills in less than a year to nearly reach elite status. At 60, he's got a decade at most to make his mark. Right now he's doing background work on improving the efficiency of shipyard operations. Not exactly what he signed up for. Clint Wyche is still the man in BG, and in that field there's only room for one top dog ...

Accomplished Elwood Tousant(SF) has also made a significant jump. He's a real success story, a guy who was given make-work jobs and didn't make much of them at first back when he was a snot-nosed, nigh-incompetent novice. Certainly a late bloomer, but at 57 and in excellent health he has a lot to offer humanity in the later stages of this century.

Mid-February -- It's almost literally raining Army talent recently it seems. Col. Galen Onken is the latest. He's cut out of the same cloth as Zoe Bean, and many already project that within five years the two of them will be neck-and-neck for the top spot.

Meanwhile, Dr. Cedrick Wormack seems to finally have age catching up with him. He's in the final weeks of his current project, and his health is failing him. Also, Curtis Gloster(CP) and one of the novice scientists in the same field have recently seen noted improvements. Gloster has joined the ranks of the elite now, accelerating his vital work on mining techniques.

Late February -- Medical issues announced for two relatively unknown army colonels, including Deacon Palmer Jr.. Dr. Eva Vadnais retires. Newbie Ricky Tsutsui will take the vacated lab to work on the prototype SITG Emdar-44.7, the latest in military-grade EM detection.

Early April -- Despite the health problems, June Aspinwall has developed a minor novice-level affinity for Intelligence operations.

April 14 -- Four more officers are dismissed, three navy and one from the army as well.

EARTH

February 16 -- Niehuis SY has finished retooling for the Ambassador, and construction has begun. A late spring finish time is expected.

March 3 -- The first of the Baltimore Command Carriers is finished. Only the Iowa XR tanker is now needed for the first ESF.

March 23 -- Caldwell x4 finished. The sixth quartet of what has been upped to eight begins.

April 5 -- A new Nimitz 76c is finished, second in the class, fifth Nimitz overall.

April 7 -- The fourth and final Brooklyn 72 is ready. Retooling for the newly designed 81 will require most of the rest of the year.

April 18 -- The Iowa XR tanker launches, completed the first ESF.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Late February -- SpearPoint DL-12 Laser Cannon Turret finished.

March 5 -- Orbital Habitat Module finished by Dr. Cedrick Wormack's team, and his expected retirement is made official. After dividing up his labs between another pair of novices, there is only one unemployed scientist left ...

April 15 -- Julio Kuchler finishes the new active gravitational sensor techniques. Kuchler needs to take over a new project. It's the first shakeup of the revised R&D protocols. He'll take over work on improving fire control tracking speeds, and a number of other projects are suspended to make room for the prototypes to get underway.

Brian Swartz · 11-28-2014, 10:58 PM

RENEWAL

April 18 -- By the end of the day, Rear Admiral Hank Rohrer, an accomplished survey officer, had taken command of the first fully-formed ESF and instituted TF ESF Alpha on board the Baltimore 1 Command Carrier! It was a historic moment. His first order of businesses was to begin the first fleet exercises that the SPACE Navy has ever conducted.

Joining him are staff officers Cpt. Shad Gullo(Survey) and Cpt. Asa Hotz(Operations). Under their command are the following assets:

Baltimore 1 Command Carrier(Cmdr. Warner Godzik)
Gearing 1 Survey Carrier(Cmdr. Christin Dinges)
2x JS Explorer(Lt. Cmdrs. Trevor Lerner, Clement Sarrett)
3x GSV Frontier(Cmdrs. Lavern Camel, Elvin Harnett, Jay Cin V)
3x GEV Prospector(Lt. Cmdrs. Marc Cypriot, Fredrick Holcomb, Alfonso Galyen)

This also lowered Earth's fuel reserves to a shockingly low 2 million litres, SPACE has less than 15 million combined in the tanks when Titan and Callisto are added in. Most of Titan's supply was immediately shipped to Earth. It is expected to be a little over a year for the other XR, which will complete ESF Bravo.

April 22 -- Baltimore 2 is ready, and the Baltimore Marine SY is able to go silent.

Late April -- Garland Sidhom is in the news again. He's on an absolute tear and now has elite-level skills as a project lead.

May -- By the first of the month Earth has dipped under 1.25m liters. This is scary territory. The last group of Perrys to be scrapped are inbound just a few days out, and their tanks will be drained beforehand in order to boost the supply. It's not a huge amount, but about 700-800k can be gained there to make sure supplies last until Titan's shipment comes in.

Mid-May -- The exercises are supposed to be for the crew, but Rear Admiral Hank Rohrer has gained a meager amount of operations skill in the process.

May 19th -- The Ambassador is ready. A team of the best and brightest junior expendables were found. The sole representative from BOG, Marion Polizzi, concerned many. This was a lightning-rod of a choice if ever there was one. She has as fine a skill for diplomacy as anyone, but has a wicked streak in her as well. She's the kind of diplomat who will make nice to your face, stab you in the back, then dance a jig on your corpse in celebration. Then again, there's a chance that might be what SPACE needs in this situation ...

Regardless, it's a risky selection. The team will be led officially by Col. Karen Cotsis, though Polizzi is pulling the strings in actuality. Col. Jeff Wiechmann along with Lt. Cmdrs. Jean Rickabaugh and Arturo Calnan round out the group.

Commanding the Ambassador itself, though he's in truth a subordinate on this mission with a duty simply to ferry them around, is Cmdr. Fritz Weinstock. He's not exactly overjoyed by the assignment but as someone who knows how to keep the peace and get things done, he's definitely the right man for the job.

It would only take a little over five days to reach the jump. Final approval was obtained from Fleet Command for the first jump in almost 23 years. After this long, there was no way to know what to expect. It could be years of nothing, or it could be very 'exciting' and brief. The sane ones hoped earnestly for the first option.

May 24, 0328 -- Final approval from the two Forrestals at the point where nothing has ever once been detected was obtained. The Ambassador was enveloped in a bluish hue ... and then disappeared.

And the waiting began.

May 27 -- Triton's base is demolished. A DSTS is already on the way. Only Sedna's remains.

June 2 -- SITG ThermoScan 121(Bessie Wallander) is finished.

June 6 -- Long Beach completed.

June 15 -- Final Long Beach finished, sixth group deployed. Long regarded as the most incompetent researcher in SPACE, David Gruis(PP, 47) has reached accomplished status. He may yet become actually important before he retires ...

Some thought was given to whether the two dozen Long Beach are actually enough. The tanks are at about 13m right now, a concerning situation but most of the ships that need to be built have been built. Still, with another tanker coming next year, another Gearing coming at the end of the year, and who knows what else, the mine shipments are drawing more fuel ... building up a reserve for the future will require massive amounts. They'll be needed eventually for certain, so why wait. Another two groups of four are ordered, and the slipways resume their active state at the P&A Group SY. Ironically when the Long Beach was first proposed, it was considered by some ridiculously massive and far more than SPACE would ever need. About that ...

Another two slipways are ordered as well. With this many harvesters it will take a very long time to refit them all if and when that becomes necessary. With most of the mineral stockpiles stable and duranium slowly edging upwards, Director Awad is gambling that it's an affordable expense. And can we really afford not to do it?

Mid June -- Gallicite exhausted on Halley's Comet

June 19 -- The Ambassador returns. It has been less than four weeks since it jumped out.

DIPLOMATIC MISSION LOG -- EPSILON ERIDANI

May 24, System Entry. Wrecks on the Pioneers are still visible about 1.5b km from the jump, right where they were reported almost a quarter century ago. It was a rather morbid and gruesome sight, an apparently permanent graveyard in space. They had not been touched. Apparently the aliens don't consider our technology worth the effort of salvaging. That's ... well that's beyond words.

Still, they were here to do a job. 25 years after first contact, the diplomatic channels were officially opened. Would anyone respond? Were they even still here to do so?

The answer didn't take long. Within the first day, long-range sensor instruments determined that something out there was receiving the messages. There was no question, they were still here. Somewhere. Probably near the wrecks. But no response was made. Either they couldn't understand us, or they didn't care to reply. Neither was encouraging.

The team was already beginning to sense their mission might well be futile.

June 4 -- Just as the team officially noted that it looked like establishing contact might be impossible, there were a few small signs of progress over the next week.

June 19 -- That was really the only positive note in the log unforunately. Before and after that opening week of June, it was more a situation of one step forward, two or three steps back. On this date, 25 days after the beginning of the mission, team lead Cotsis had to report that they had simply run out of options.

The mission was a failure. The aliens are simply too different, there's no basis for meaningful, effective communication and in the unanimous opinion of the team we are only antagonizing them by further attempts. Cmdr. Godzik had no choice but to accept the verdict and jump back to Sol.

SPACE Sector Command was not pleased at the news, but it was not entirely unexpected either. We made the effort. We tried to attempt peace. They've shown they aren't interested or capable of it repeatedly. There is only one option available. It's been true in a de facto state for a generation, but Director Awad made it official.

Humanity is now officially at war with the aliens in Epsilon Eridani. This cold war can only end with the surrender and/or extermination of one or the other. SPACE's #1 priority is to make sure we win a fight we cannot afford to lose. All other concerns are secondary.

Late June -- With only the Sedna base left to deal with, Awad orders the next step in resolving the base situation. Mercury, Venus, and the four moons of Jupiter are still without any protection. Enough prefabricated Ticonderogas exist to handle all of them twice over. Yes they are basically 'stone-age' technology from the mid-60s, but they are something.

June 25 -- Diplo team arrives back on earth. A mysterious accident kills a junior naval at the same time, around 10 AM GST. The two incidents are probably unrelated, but the intranet goes crazy with conspiracy theorists' unsupported allegations and speculation.

July 1 -- Mercury and Venus have everything in place, and a single construction brigade begins work on each of their respective Ticonderoga bases.

Early July -- Navy Chief Mitchell Feeser adds a bit of Logistics knowledge to his resume, and the last of the Perrys are scrapped.

July 10 -- Io and Callisto begin work on the Ticonderogas there, the other two moons await incoming construction brigades. So far all of them are expected to be finished early next year. Also, research finished on Small Troop Transport Bay, fit for a company, though we have no units that small yet. Alphonse Lambeth led the work.

Mid-July -- RA Parker Lanzi has become accomplished in her current posting as Communications Officer at Fleet HQ.

Director Riley Awad, and to a lesser extent the public, is growing impatient with the continuing 'fleet exercises'. Over the strenuous objection of Chief Feeser and Rear Admiral Rohrer, he orders ESF Alpha to get going and stop the exercises. They want another five months in addition to three already spent in order to get to what the navy feels is a sufficient level of training and coordination. Awad goes apoplectic at that notion, pointing out that this isn't some complicated combat maneuver they're being asked to perform -- it's survey operations. With the current fuel situation, they can't afford to burn more of it up with these training exercises, and delaying the mission isn't an option either.

Combining the concerns for a shakedown run and fuel supply issues, with the rare optimal position of Saturn at nearly the same bearing as the Barnard's Star point, the furthest one in Sol, Awad orders ESF Alpha there first. There won't be a better chance in terms of a good refueling point. Saturn takes almost a 30-year path around the sun, so while it's a very unglamorous place to start it served as a useful compromise and made practical sense with the goal to survey all the systems eventually anyway.

July 15 -- After topping off at Earth, ESF Alpha breaks orbit and heads for Barnard's Star. It's almost a four-month journey, so it'll be late in the year before they arrive. Operation Renewal was officially underway. It was expected to take most of the decade to map the six systems.

July 20 -- Sedna's Tennessee base is the last to be destroyed.

July 24 -- Construction begins on the final two Ticonderoga bases on Europa and Ganymede.

August -- ESF Alpha has passed through the asteroid field and is nearing Jupiter orbit path.

July 27 -- Caldwell finished(x4). Two more groups to go.

Late July -- Medical condition discovered for Lt. Cmdr. Chance Perj. It does not appear to be threatening in the short term.

Mid-August -- Sedna expands again, now at 37 complexes.

September -- Now roughly midway between Saturn and Uranus orbits, ESF Alpha's progress is agonizingly slow for most observers on Earth.

September 25 -- The final DSTS departs for Sedna. Research Lab and Ordnance Factory production are increased to pre-election levels(33 and 13 percent respectively).

October -- ESF Alpha has reached the midpoint between Uranus and Neptune orbits.

Early October -- Dr. Rosemary Urenda has bumped her already elite skills up again. Anything that gets ion drives here sooner is worthy of praise.

** At this point, a power loss cost me notes on what happened for about the next year and a half. I can recreate the major events, just not specific personnel/research stuff. Thankfully Aurora saves constantly. I need to do a better job of doing that myself

**

Mid-November -- ESF Alpha reaches the jump and departs for Barnard's Star, which was discovered and last visited back in 2055. It's time now to wait ... and hope that humanity has better luck this time around than they did in the 50s.

Brian Swartz · 11-30-2014, 03:24 AM

** The next couple or so posts will be summary-style, covering the year and a half of details that I lost. **

November 2081 - March 2082

On November 11 2081 ESF Alpha jumped out to the Barnard's Star system after a successful scout by Explorer 1. They were not heard from for the rest of the year, nor were they expected to be. Nobody had any real idea how long it would take to scout a system, and doubtless it would vary depending on the system, but it was assumed a few weeks would definitely not be enough.

SPACE rang in the new year in 2082 with a bit of political debate. Well, more than a bit actually. Gross colonial population had finally reached 10% of the total, and a significant political force they were becoming. Previous proposals to move factories, research labs, etc. to the colonies had never gotten anywhere largely because they were simply wasteful. Earth is a fairly central location in Sol, and why ship more personnel and equipment all over the system than necessary? This time however, the colonials had found an issue with a legitimate argument behind it -- sort of. Their proposal gave birth to the Clemson Controversy.

The Clemson was a proposed tug ship, using tractor beam technology that SPACE has had for a a while now but not used. The proposed ship would be capable of hauling the P&A Group SY, responsible for Long Beach harvesters, to Titan. There it would be closer to Saturn's massive harvesting operation for purposes of refitting, building new ships, etc. Time and fuel would be saved. All of this was very good in theory, but deflected eventually by the fact that Titan was about a million short of the three million workers needed to operate the shipyard. The bigger issue of the colonies would not go away though: they have 10% of the population and only 1.5% of the lucrative TN industrial jobs, those in maintenance facilities and mines on Titan and Europa. The shipyards, factories, and research labs, by far the biggest employers, had 100% of their operations on earth and the colonialists are increasingly unhappy about. Naturally the Earth Firsters love it and want to keep it that way.

Director Riley Awad soon proved that, like most politicians, he paid little head to Hesitations 5:18("all those who remain on the fence shall receive splinters"). He straddled the issue and reinstituted the 2% Initiative. This time however, it would be directed towards terraforming installations. A 3-4 year timeline would be required for each installation, delivered to the colonies as a way for them to both have higher-paying high-tech TN jobs and improve the living conditions at the same time. From SPACE's point of view, it also provided a dry run on establishing best practices for terraforming ahead of the eventual need for them in colonization efforts.

The spring would provide another challenge. On March 9 the last of the Ticonderogas were finished on the moons of Jupiter, and the positive elements of the vision put forward 17 years previous by India Rakes in terms of bases throughout Sol were completed. Of course these bases were also basically two decades old technology wise at this point, and the Alaskas on Earth certainly remain SPACE's best, perhaps only, chance at repelling an alien attack should it ever come. So much has changed that when the redesigns eventually came, it proved far cheaper to build new bases than refit the old ones. Director Awad put SPACE on a path to build new updated bases by 2100, a path that requires about a fifth of Earth's industry for the first several years of that effort. The biggest takeaway from the redesign is that defending humanity is going to require a staggeringly increasing amount of resources in the future. SPACE is really starting to feel the pinch in terms of needing to get colonization beyond Sol going in order to bring in more resources. It isn't that painful yet, but it will get progressively more so as time goes on. Earth's industrial base has not expanded in a long time, and won't be doing so anytime in the near future due to the navy's ravenous and ever-growing need for resources, duranium espescially. The only way out is to find more.

Alaska 82 Missile Base

Size: 22.7kt(53.7 kt)
Crew: 709(1025)
Armament: 25 Defender 76 Missile Launchers, 250 missile capacity(previously 400 missiles, same launchers), half standard and half higher-payload P versions; 4 CIWS 79 Batteries(18 CIWS I)
Sensors: 2 each thermal, EM, and active grav military-grade standard
Armor: 10 layers composite(10 layers duranium)
Troop Capacity: 1 brigade(same)
Cost: 3.53m(4.51m)

The big reduction in CIWS is due to the previous amount being considered extravagantly large. Hopefully we won't ever have to find out if that's correct. Otherwhise the sensors are both much better and much smaller, the missiles faster and more powerful, and the cost down quite a bit as well.

Ticonderoga 82 Sensor Base

Size: 3.7 kt(2.95 kt)
Crew: 24(16)
Armament: 1 CIWS 79 Battery
Sensors: Mark IV Commercial variants
Armor: 8 layers composite(5 layers duranium)
Troop Capacity: 1 battalion(same)
Cost: 198k

Other than upgraded sensors, the main difference is thicker armor and the needed addition of a CIWS battery. Any kind of massed attack would still be a problem, really anything other than an armed scout ship. In that case the support of the fleet would be needed. It's more about the appearance of safety than actual safety.

The necessity of building these bases meant that other priorities like mine expansion, research labs, etc. had to receive reduced priority.

Brian Swartz · 11-30-2014, 04:11 AM

April - August 2082

It was a quiet spring after the bustle of base-building activity and political back-and-forth of the first few months of the year. It ended up being the calm between the storms however. In June, at almost exactly the same time, ESF Bravo was finished and ESF Alpha returned from Barnard's Star. This lit a fire under Bravo to get their training exercises done as soon as possible so they could get in on the fun. Rear Admiral Parker Lanzi, a bit perturbed that she hadn't gotten the first flotilla, was nabbed to lead Bravo. Among her Frontier commanders was one Daniel Watters.

Barnard's Star Survey Report
ESF Alpha, June 2082

Jump Points

One additional jump point was found in the system, to Gliese 563.2. It's almost directly across Barnard's Star from the Sol jump, a 2.3b km distance, so from Earth to Gliese 563.2 is about 8.2b km.

Geological Survey

There wasn't much to evaluate here, the geosurvey took just over a month. 186kt of sorium was found on the gas giant at the same 0.7 accessibility as Saturn has. This gives the system potential as a refueling point at least. The fifth moon has 636kt of highly inaccessible(0.1) duranium. The other moons and asteroids were found to be completely barren.

No evidence of alien civilizations, past or present, was found.

New System -- Gliese 563.2

This is a rather incredible system. The report was hard to believe until the spectography was analyzed and confirmed. It's a binary system, but a binary of such massive scale as to be inconceivable. The secondary star orbits at an incomprehensibly far 93 billion kilometers from the primary. That is not a typo. Almost 100 billion km. In the diagram below, the asteroid field shown is about six times larger in diameter than the outer one in Sol(the one that contains Pluto, past the orbits of all the planets). Even Sedna is only about as 30% as far from the sun as these objects are from Gliese 563.2 A.

Gliese 563.2 B is a royal tease. It has three terrestrial planets, a super jovian, couple of gas giants, lots of moons ... and the second planet is almost as good as the planet in Sirius for habitation. It's just about 30 degrees too cold, very fixable with the right terraforming. Nothing a little greenhouse effect coudn't fix. None of that matters of course, because it would take a survey ship almost two and a half years just to get there. And that's the good part -- getting any amount of equipment there would be obscenely difficult, and of course it's several times the effective range of mass drivers so any resources would have to be shipped back at exorbitant costs. For the same reason, the asteroid field is a non-starter.

Still, the inner system around A is not a thing to be disregarded. Three terrestrial planets, one of which is a lot closer to Mars/Luna than Titan in terms of being habitable and could be terraformed to be much better -- the biggest problem right now is flouride in the atmosphere that would need to be removed, it would also need more oxygen and some carbon dioxide to up the temperature. A reasonably long-term investment, but the presence of four more gas giants complete with 80 moons makes it very likely to be a good long-term investment.

Back in Sol, ESF Alpha reported 92% fuel, no major maintenance issues, all systems were green so the refueling at Saturn was bypassed and the flotilla headed directly to Luyten 726-8. The shakedown cruise was over and a smashing success, all ships had worked as intended and lived to tell about it.

SPACE was not allowed to celebrate this success for long. In early July, they were rocked by the sudden retirement of Earth governor Francesco Alborn. Alborn had finally arrived on the political scene it seemed, and was considered a very fitting lieutenant to Riley Awad. Unfortunately there are some things medical science still can't fix. An inoperable brain tumor forced him out of office and the rest of his life was sure to be very brief.

Practically speaking this meant various beauracrats had to share in holding things together on Earth for the next couple of years. Factory and shipyard production slowed down considerably, especially the latter. Humanity was also deprived of a chance to really celebrate the first completely surveyed system outside of Sol, as with the shock of Alborn's tragic departure came a certain amount of uncertainty.

By the time fall arrived, ESF Alpha was in Luyten 726-8, and Bravo on it's way to Teegarden's Star for it's shakedown run. The two flotillas would meet in the 'middle', Alpha taking the jumps to the left of the system and Bravo those on the right.

Brian Swartz · 11-30-2014, 05:40 AM

** Note: This brings us up to where my log resumes**

September 2082 - June 2083

In late 2082 and early 2083 the biggest issue was fuel. The SDF began training as there were now several each of the Brooklyn and Nimitz classes in service and they needed to be ready should the worst come. the P&A Group SY was constantly busy building more Long Beach harvesters. Every time it looked like there would be enough after another group or two, something new(like the Defender 76 missiles, for example) would come up needing more and the building continued. It was somewhere in this time period that the shipyard was expanded to allow for additional slipways: four at a time just wasn't enough with this level of demand. Most of the time the combined tanks stayed around 12-15 million litres. This was enough to refuel anything that was needed, but not enough for any semblance of comfort level. It's just a fraction of what the navy can go through in a year.

In the spring of 83 both ESFs returned. Bravo set course for the much-anticipated Sirius system, while Alpha headed to Van Maanen. Incredibly, both were due to jump out within three minutes of each other on the same day, leading many in SPACE to bet on who would finish their survey first and therefore get to do the final one in Lalande 21185.

** If I recall correctly, and I probably don't, it was sometime in April that they jumped to the new systems**

Luyten 726-8 Survey Report
ESF Alpha, Spring 2083

Jump Points

Three were found by the time the gravitational survey was a third over with, leading many to think this would be another major hub system like Sol. No more were found after that, but still, three new systems were discovered: Tau Ceti, Lacaille 9352, and Epsilon Indi.

Geological Survey

The key feature of Luyten 726-8 is that it is the only known system outside of Sol with comets. Five of them, four of which are close enough to survey. All were found to contain sufficient quantities of accessible, important minerals to make them worth the price of development.

Comet #1: 5.3 kt neutronium(0.9), 16+kt corundium(1.0), as well as five minor minerals in varying amounts.
Comet #2: 29.8 kt duranium(0.9), 348 t gallicite(0.7), five minor minerals most notably 176 kt of tritanium
Comet #4: 19.7 kt corundium(1.0), some vendarite and sorium as well
Comet #5: 17.9 kt mercassium(1.0) and each of the six minor minerals also

Luyten 726-8 B's system was surveyed first. It was barren except for 1.4 mt(1.0) of sorium on the third planet, a gas giant. That makes this an excellent refueling station, as it's more accessible than Saturn's reserves.

The primary star was found to contain the stuff dreams are made of. The first planet contains 991 kt duranium(0.8), and four minor minerals at lesser accessibilities, a total efficiency of 23 which is not great but ok. Most important though is that this is the best single source of duranium known. It's only a fraction of Venus's deposits but far more accessible, and about twice as big as major sources such as Triton and Sedna in Sol were with similar extraction rates. The rest of the system was barren.

New System -- Tau Ceti

The jump here is astonishingly close ... a mere 32m km away! Even better, this system has everything you could want, save comets. It has a couple terrestrial planets, the second of which is great in terms of gravity and temperature: it just needs oxygen added to the atmosphere. This would be a pretty quick terraforming job, 50 years for a single installation to make it earth-like. Two gas giants, a super jovian, a fair number of moons, and 30 asteroids sweeten the pot. Definitely a big prospect for further surveying.

The distance from Sol to Tau Ceti is 6.5b, but if Luyten 726-8 were settled that distance would become negligible. Even so it's still much closer than Gliese 563.2.

New System -- Lacaille 9352

The jump here is 2.36b out, in the outer edges of an asteroid field containing 100 or so objects. In other respects it's a virtual copy of Tau Ceti. Actually has more terrestrials for possible colonization, it could become a virtual cornocopia of colonies like Sol eventually. The second planet will need a little more terraforming(2-3 times as much) in this case because it has a thicker atmosphere, but temperature and gravity are again right in range. Plenty of potential gas giants for fuel sources.

6.6 b km from Sol. It's a poor man's Tau Ceti, which means it's still very much worth investigating.

New System -- Epsilon Indi

This system grabs your attention right way with the fact that it's a tertiary system -- three stars! Unfortunately B and C are relegated to distant observers. They only have one unimpressive planet between them anyway, but more importantly is that B, closely orbited by C, is a staggering 230 billion km away from the primary star A. Give or take, maybe a little under 230 billion. Hard to be accurate at such a hilariously distant range, which is well over twice as distant as the secondary in Gliese 563.2. And of course it doesn't matter.

A has an observer of it's own, a dwarf that spends it's time 43b km out. Almost four Sedna's away. All the good stuff is under 2b, a very workable margin. Another good terrestrial as the second planet, though not as good -- it's like Mars or Luna, right temp and gravity but it needs an atmosphere. One super jovian and gas giant each with the usual amount of moons for each, so it's still another good system but definitely not in the same category as the first two. About the same distance as Lacaille from Sol as well.

Summary/Evaluation

Things would be much better if the second planet, by far the most habitable one, had the minerals instead. The first planet where they actually are is roughly Mercury in terms of habitability, so it's definitely a case where we'd need to colonize the second planet, putting automines on the first and the comets and a refueling station at the third planet of the B star. That station would typically be only about 800m km away, as compared to the 1.4b km Saturn is in Sol, so even travel times would be better. The drawback is there is nowhere around the B star for a decent colony -- the one terrestrial is about four times more inhospitable than Venus -- so all we could do is slap a DSTS for detection on that and the harvesters would need to travel further for shore leave. It would still be a better scenario all things considered.

Luyten 726-8 has plusses in every category. With jumps to three other promising systems it is strategically important, it has a good if somewhat limited(comparatively) source of fuel, the duranium on A-I could help considerably in stemming the impact of the eventual duranium crash when Sedna goes out of business, and the comets contain enough of the big four minerals to serve at least as a stopgap source to buy some time. No sign of any alien civilizations was found either. There's no question Luyten has leaped to the head of the class in terms of colonization targets.

Teegarden's Star Survey Report
ESF Bravo, Spring 2083

Jump Points

For the first time, none were found save the one back to Sol. This is a dead end, which has it's own positives in a way. No alien race has access to it.

Geological Survey

Bravo did not receive high marks for the fact that, noticed well after they returned to Sol, one of the planets was skipped completely. Having said that, the survey was largely underwhelming. The asteroid field is completely useless. Planet I has huge amounts of duranium, neutronium, and tritanium that are all virtually inaccessible. Planet IV is suspiciously similar to Saturn. It has 11.3 mt of sorium(0.7, like Saturn), which is far more than will ever be needed in this system since it doesn't lead anywhere. The third of it's moons is a near-copy of Titan in terms of the cost of living there -- and it has the big find of the system:

24.5 mt duranium(0.1)
24 mt tritanium(0.1)
37 mt boronide(0.1)
640 kt vendarite(0.1)
2.25 mt sorium(0.3)
20.3 mt corundium(0.8)

The last is obviously the most important there. With a sufficiently large mining operation on that ball of rock corundium concerns are history for the forseeable future. A large enough terraforming operation could eventually improve it as well, but it's very cold and would need a crushing atmosphere to heat it up enough so it's never going to be a paradise.

The third planet is also worth developing, not the planet itself but it has three useful moons. The first two have accessible duranium at about 40kt each, which would help greatly in building up the infrastructure the 'Titan' moon would need. The third has 14kt of neutronium, which is always useful.

Summary/Evaluation

Developing the corundium here has to be a long-term objective at least. It will be 24 years before Ikeya-Zang in Sol is within safe mass driver range: it remains to be seen whether it will be practical to develop Teegarden's Star before that. Even if it isn't, that's only 82 kt and would last only decades at best.

Director Awad made a couple of immediate decisions upon receiving these reports. There was no longer any point to having sensors at a dead-end jump, so the Teegarden Forrestals were recalled. He also began the process of the biggest development contract in the history of SPACE: nearly 10 million credits to Akheton Corp. for a jump drive capable of propelling a ship of South Carolina-magnitude. No other development contract has been much more than a third of that, most of the government's general-purpose research is still less. It's about how much was spent to develop Jump Theory and some of the more involved advances so far achieved. It was now clear, however, that colonization beyond Sol was coming. Now that there was proof the resources are there, we needed to be able to move large quantities of equipment through the jumps.

Brian Swartz · 12-01-2014, 12:02 AM

JULY - SEPTEMBER 2083

On July 9th, Dr. Curtis Gloster, the top construction scientist the last 15 years or so, basically since icon Deacon Palmer retired, finishes new improved mining techniques which should result in a 15% improvement in output across the board. It was no particular leap of technology that achieved this, but rather standardizing of various best practices discovered through SPACE's decades of experience across Sol. At 67, he has decided to retire. So too did Mike Minaya(BG), at age 66. Minaya was a good though not great project lead, but working in a limited field he still had a difficult time getting consistent work.

At the same time, it was notice that a couple others had slipped through the cracks and were continuing to work against medical advice. After the Juishao incident SPACE cannot afford to let these matters continue on. Harlan Welle(only quality scientist in MK) and Shanon Patteson(CP, working on the followup to improve construction rates along with the better mining results) both are forced out as well. Welle was 68, Patteson 65.

This hurt the construction & production field considerably with the two top researchers retiring. By the time the dust had settled, the reorganization had active projects up to 33, and most of the newcomers including a bevy of novice energy weapons scientists had something to work on. The missiles & kinetic weapons field though ... is scary bad. Novice Elyse Buckler, who is 32 and hasn't really developed much, is the only one there is. It's one of the busier fields -- or should I say, it ought to be -- but there's not going to be a whole lot getting done for the forseeable future.

On August 23, another first as the initial ship of the Brooklyn 81 class was deployed. The next month provided a real day to remember. On September 14, Dr. Rosemary Urenda announced that ion drive research had been successful and produced initial proof-of-concept reports and testing. While she moved on to work on the new commercial jump drive, great news in and of itself since that was crucial to the colonization efforts, the ripple effects of this advance were rather seismic throughout major segments of SPACE. It's not every day that a new type of engine comes along: it's been more than 20 years that nuclear thermal pulse was the standard-bearer.

The rest of the Power & Propulsion field suspends their current projects to work on the bevy of engines that will now need to be prototyped. There are six of them, three novice and three accomplished. It's a strong group overall, as strong as in any field. And yet they will find themselves very busy. The new engines needed are as follows. Note that all military engines are thermal shielded(35% emissions), while the commercial engines are not. Initial testing shows an impressive 50% increase in propulsion power, meaning that once these are fielded all ships, espescially the warships, will be that much more effective. Advances in fuel efficiency will help greatly in keeping the increased drain on the harvesters to a minimum.

JPS ID 36 -- military-grade thruster, standard power ratio, 150 tons. Used in the Forrestal sensor vessels and the survey ships(Explorer/Frontier/Prospector).

JPS ID 63 -- military-grade thruster, maximum power ratio(175%), 150 tons. Used for the Caldwell VIP shuttles.

Vertigo 72/108/144/180 -- Four engines of varying sizes(200/300/400/500-ton varieties) for the combat ships, slightly increased power ratio(125%). Some debate was had over increasing this. Fuel consumption increases exponentially with overclocking of the core reactions, but the fact of the matter is that the Navy intends to use the next generation of ships in a more mobile capacity and needs every advantadge it can get. Current designs(Brooklyn '81, Nimitz '76c) use less than 2.5% of their space for fuel. It is decided that the need for more speed is paramount and this round will be designed with 150% ratios. As a result the overall power increase will be 80% over the current Phoenix variants, with a resultant overall speed increase expected to approach that. This won't make us as fast as the alien ships we encountered in Epsilon Eridani in the 50s, but it should bridge a significant part of the gap.

Eagle 60/72 -- It is not worthwhile to use such overclocked engines on survey ships such as the Gearing and Baltimore classes. For them, speed is important but so is fuel efficiency. Therefore the military series of engines is split into two parts, one for combat and one for non-combat ships. These will actually see reduced power ratios to the standard configuration. This will make them more fuel-efficient yet still faster in spite of it. The current engines being used on these ships are 300 tons, so a 250 and 300-ton variety being developed for the Eagle series ensures the navy will have the opportunity to optimize a bit for the next-gen in case a little more space needs to be squeezed in for something else.

WP ID 120/240 -- As before, these are unshielded engines. Prior iterations have used the standard commercial power ratio of 50%. While we can gain much greater efficiencies by lowering it as far as 25%, speed is not irrelevant. At this point though, ion drives make our engines powerful enough that it is thought best to begin reducing the ratios some amount further. This time around a 40% strikes what is thought to be an appropriate balance. These engines are 20% faster and 30+% more efficient than the existing nuclear thermal-pulse varieties.

That's ten engine prototypes needed, and it doesn't include the relatively miniature engines needed for a new round of missiles. The picture clouded even more when the Navy began to consider that issue ...

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

** July 9 -- Curtis Gloster finishes improved mining production. He and other top scientists retire.

** August 15 -- Research completed on enhanced efficiency, one-quarter power engines(Reynaldo Darrington).

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

July 19 -- Sedna is up to 38 CMCs now. Just over 43 years now left with this expansion and the improved mining. The clock is ticking ...

August 6 -- A new Shipment of mines to Tempel-Tuttle leaves Earth.

LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL

July 9 -- Researchers Curtis Gloster, Mike Minaya, Harlan Welle, and Shanon Patteson all retire.

July 23 -- New member of BOG: Sara Seals. Good news is she's aleady elite in large-scale management. Bad news ... solid abilities in shipbuilding is the only other skill she has.

EARTH

August 23 -- First Brooklyn 81 finished.

Brian Swartz · 12-01-2014, 12:21 AM

NAVAL IMPACT -- ION DRIVES

What interested Naval Command even more was how these would change anticipated missile effectiveness. With virtually no progress being made in the field there is no point to waiting for further advances in missile agility, payload, etc. None will be forthcoming in the near future. Therefore one of the most important questions the Navy has ever had to answer is whether or not ion drives change the relative balance of power enough to justify an eventual attempt to drive the aliens out.

BEAM WEAPON DEFENSE

At present our best tracking speed against missiles is 12-16k km/s, depending on how long we've had them detected to better anticipate their future location. Kuchler is presently working on upping that speed to 16-20k km/s, which is just barely passable against an incoming weapon of the estimated 15-30k km/s. A very large fire control required to get the necessary range to ensure the missiles wouldn't cross the entire engagement envelope before there would be a chance to fire, but it was possible.

MISSILE ANALYSIS

Three different missile types were considered here. The standard anti-ship defender 76 has a hit rate a little over 50%, the higher-payload P variant is only about 30% but still considered probably the better option since it has more than twice the punch, and the anti-missile Interceptor, merely a concept at the last evaluation, had an estimated hit rate of just 9%. On the last score we must emphasize that this is a guess based on the rough estimate of enemy missile speed which covered a wide range. About a 20% hit rate is considered necessary to make that a viable weapon system.

Current doctrine, which is a rough guestimate at best, calls for a 70m km range on the anti-ship missiles. The new Defender standard would be better than 50% faster, with a hit rate of 78%! The P variant is almost exactly 50% faster than the previous, and at a hit rate of 48% is considered nearly 40% more effective now in simulations. These missiles travel 19.6 and 17.5 km/s respectively, which puts them in the low end of the range of known alien capabilities. This is a very significant development in the minds of Navy brass -- we are getting close to matching their recorded, quarter-century-old capabilities.

As for the Interceptor concept, it doesn't need nearly the range. Our current missile sensors have the capability of detecting an incoming missile at 2m km. That means a range longer than thatis pretty much useless. Right now we are in the 15-30% hit range for the target speeds for this missile, which isn't great but good enough.

NAVAL DOCTRINE

The current designs of the Nimitz and Brooklyn are based on the assumption that there is no effective defense against alien missiles. The Navy's most recent analysis, summarized above, stipulates that this may no longer be the case. This fact called for a wholesale revision in ship design and combat doctrine. Under the old assumption, all ships operated independently, with their own detection systems since there was no way to protect any kind of centralized 'early-warning' ship. The doctrine called for 'aggressive defense', i.e. multiple independent weapons platforms to overwhelm the enemy with massed firepower before they could destroy us. It was primarily designed to defend against an enemy attack.

Every ship having its own sensors was both highly inefficient and undeniably necessary. Now that there is the prospect of potentially shooting down incoming alien missiles, this reality is changing. The question is, has it changed enough? Practically speaking, that question has to be considered irrelevant at this juncture. With next to no progress expected on the missile research front, the question is really are we prepared to wait another generation before beginning to deal with the threat in Epsilon Eridani. That could easily take 20 or more years. Humanity's growing need to expand beyond Sol makes this an extremely dubious proposition, and the Navy is very disinclined to wait. It is also worth remembering that our knowledge of their capabilities is extremely limited and also 25 years old. There's no way for the Navy to be ready without better intelligence information, and there's only one way to obtain that is to go get it.

We have waited long enough. It is time to set plans in motion to repel them. In order to do this, the Navy will no longer divide it's ships between beam and missile variants, but attempt to use combined-arms theory. This new approach calls for retirement of the Brooklyn and Nimitz concepts, and an initial division into three new classes of ships: a command ship which will have more powerful sensors, increased armor and CIWS defenses, and be protected at all costs by an escort class. These escorts will contain anti-missile weapons systems(meson cannons and Interceptor missiles). This should in theory allow for a staggered approach with a better chance to weaken the incoming salvos at least, and also allow for valuable intel on the effectiveness of both weapons systems. The third class will serve much the same role as the current Nimitz, a missile ship carrying a new missile based on the same principles as the Defender. This has been termed the Exorcist.

All of this requires new prototypes across the board. Sensors of every kind. Reduced-size missile launchers to maximize firepower -- reload time will suffer but this is more than considered an acceptable trade-off. Larger power plants. And of course two more engines, one for each variety of missile. Once the blueprints for the new, larger sensors were hammered out for the sensor/command ships, the general effect of these new changes was to double the Interceptor range and more than triple the Exorcist from the Defender to about 250m km. This does lower the hit chance a bit, it will now have about a 36-37% rate but stand a much better chance of not simply being outranged. The Interceptor will have an effective range of about 4m km, at a simulation-estimated hit rate of 14.5-29%. As many as six volleys could potentially be launched at a single missile wave, though practically speaking that is more likely to be two, maybe three.

This massive initiative was dubbed Operation Frozen Vengeance, the preparation stages of which has begun. They do say it's a dish best served cold ... and what is colder than the void of space? The goal of Frozen Vengeance is to bring battle to the aliens in Epsilon Eridani by the end of the century, aiming to drive them from the system, stop the desecration of the long-dead tombs that are the Pioneer wrecks, and push them away from the doorstep to Sol.

Similarly to the PP field, Sensors & Fire Control cancels four ongoing projects to focus on prototyping the new systems. At least five years expected before all systems are ready and Frozen Vengeance can be turned over to the shipyard engineers.

Brian Swartz · 12-01-2014, 12:48 AM

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2083

A little of this and that, but no major news in the final few months of the year. SPACE is awaiting word from survey operations in Sirius and Van Maanen, expected fairly early next year.

LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL

September 16 -- Accomplished PP scientist Norris Gunterman moves up yet again.

September 22 -- Riley Awad makes a slight increase in accomplished wealth creation skills. Russell Salvucci and Burt Stonerock have also seen minor increases this year.

November 2 -- Adolfo Walth(DS, 40) is up to Accomplished level now with a nice bump to his efficiency. Currently he's doing early work on a more deflective version of composite armor.

December 15 -- A new sensors scientist(Sung Padro) is not particularly notable on his own, but with him on the case all of the new electronics as well as the new quad-meson cannon turret are in the prototype phase. Half of the engines are still idle of course, and the new missiles will have to wait for them, there'll be magazines for the missiles and new fire controls for the mesons. But a considerable portion of the components needed for Frozen Vengeance are now in the testing phase, enough for SPACE to say things are underway.

EARTH

November 8 -- Assault and Mobile Infantry Battalions finished on earth. Two more Assault Infantry queued up.

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

November 18 -- Corbomite deposits exhausted on the comet Borrelly.

December 2 -- Sedna expands to 39 complexes.

sterlingice · 12-01-2014, 09:36 AM

For colonization, would it be feasible to have some sort of distant outposts or are the supply costs just too great? For instance, there's some planet you mention in Tau Ceti that will be a "quick" 50 year terraforming job. Could you send a small team there to start that timer now without risking too much so that in 2 generations, when tech catches up, SPACE will be ready to full scale colonize there? I mean, the game has "only" progressed 70 years since the start so 50 years seems like a long time to wait for more development.

Or since you mention "single installation", does that mean you can drop, say 5 terraformers (in the game, are those factories? mechanical devices? ships?) and cut that down to 10 years?

SI

Brian Swartz · 12-01-2014, 10:22 AM

Good questions.

First of all, terraforming takes a long time generally unless things are already pretty much perfect. Changing the environment of an entire planet is ... well it's time-consuming. Massive on a scale I can't really even fully appreciate. Your example is exactly correct, 5 terraformers could do it in 10 years, 10 could do it in five years, etc. Improved terraforming technology also helps(we can terraform twice as fast now as we could when SPACE started up, so it would been a not-as-quick 100-year project then.)

When I say terraforming installation, it's just that -- an installation. There's two ways you can do terraforming. One is to build a terraforming ship, the other is the installation which is just like a factory or a mine or lab or a tracking station -- build it and move it where it's needed. Right now SPACE is partial to the latter approach, but both have their pros and cons.

In terms of what is involved to set up such an advanced prep type of operation, it depends on which method is chosen. To do it the installation route, you need enough colonists to operate the installations and enough infrastructure to support them as well as the installations themselves. I don't know yet what population is required to operate each one, but based on the cost to build them I'm guessing it's 250k. That's 250k manufacturing workers, not 250k total population. So if that number is right, there would need to be at least a million probably more to get that number of workers. The reason we know that is Luna/Mars have the same colonization cost, and the higher the cost the higher the percentage of people are needed for environmental/logistical/service labor and the less available for industry. Particularly hostile locations like Mercury or Venus don't allow for any industrial labor even with their growing populations. So keeping in mind that this is all educated guesswork -- part of the fun is figuring it out -- we would need 200 tons of infrastructure, costing 400 tons of duranium, to support each million people and therefore each installation. A lot of that is front-end effort since once it was terraformed, the infrastructure would no longer be needed and it could be moved to another colony in need of it ... lots of logistics to be worked out here.

The ship route is more problematic on a distant planet. At least one ship would need a jump drive, and every so often it would need refueling and shore leave at a colony. Therefore it would take longer(per terraforming module, which is what they're called when operated from a ship) and if the destination is far enough away, that could cost more than the infrastructure to set up a colony on the planet.

Finally I should mention that we don't yet know if Tau Ceti is worth the effort. It's a promising system, but no geo/grav surveys have been done. In terms of the distance, the current existing South Carolina freighters would take, on average, a little over four months to get there. So it's not so far away that it's prohibitively expensive.

sterlingice · 12-01-2014, 10:28 AM

But that does answer the unasked question. You can't just start easily seeding planets with outposts, hoping a couple survive. The upfront mineral costs are great and, even moreso, the human cost is high

SI

chesapeake · 12-01-2014, 11:10 AM

Why the decision to plan for an attack on the aliens of Epsilon Eridani rather than improving your military capacity until you find that you have to use it? Sure, the aliens have destroyed two of your ships; but, they have shown no interest in advancing from their current position. With so little intel on their capabilities and interests, isn't picking a fight unwise?

sterlingice · 12-01-2014, 11:15 AM

(I'll second that thought)

SI

Brian Swartz · 12-01-2014, 01:05 PM

Another outstanding question. First I'll say that in this case the matter is settled -- SPACE has already spent too much money to go back now(current game date is January 1 2085 which I'll get this thread up to in the next couple of days). That doesn't mean that I'm less interested in why it might be a stupid idea though.

1. To fight on our terms. Continuing to wait for them to attack us is inviting disaster. If they jump into Sol and we lose, humanity is through. If we jump into Epsilon Eridani and we lose, we have a chance to recover. We don't know their capabilities, so the chance of our weapons systems, both offensive and defensive, being completely mismatched to their capabilities is considerable. There's no second-chance to adjust the approach if they attack us first: we either win that battle or we perish. There is risk both ways, but SPACE thinks there's more to lose and less to gain by 'turning turtle' so to speak.

2. The proximity and known hostile intent of the enemy. Things would be much different if, for example, they were in some system beyond Van Maanen or Luyten or something. In that case there would be a buffer. We have no buffer: humanity has lived under the constant threat that we might be wiped out in the next few days(literally) for a quarter century. If they never attack, that still means our fleet is completely tied down to the defense of Earth until we deal with them. No matter where or how far we expand, the navy will not be free to defend those systems regardless of how capable it becomes in doing so, because everything has to stay in Sol to defend against the threat of invasion.

3. It's just too passive. Humanity needs to forge its own future, not have its movements dictated to it by an illogically(from our POV at least) hostile alien race. Peace at any price is not considered a viable option.

Thanks for making me think about this a little more

.

Brian Swartz · 12-02-2014, 01:34 AM

NAVY RETIREMENTS

** Rear Admiral June Aspinwall. A veteran and steady voice, Aspinwall has led the SSF(commercial wing of the Navy) for the past six years. She is respected without being flashy, and will be missed in the admiralty.

** Commander Val Peevy. A fixture on low-level bases or warships the last decade. Peevy will perhaps best be known for having the honor to take out the first ship of the most recent Nimitz iteration, the 76c.

** Commander Conor Zavier. For 15 years after making commander rank at the respectable age of 31, Zavier hovered near the bottom of the rank. This most recent tour he managed to get himself a posting at the Lalande jump on sensor duty, and recent improvements weren't nearly enough to stave off forced retirement.

** Commander Charles Holiday. A similar story to Zavier, he finished his career with a six-year stint at the Sirius JP.

** Commander Tatiana Scheutz avoids the same fate, as she is presently on survey duty with ESF Bravo in the Sirus system.

** 7 Lieutenant Commanders as well.

A sizable chunk of the junior ship COs will need to be replaced, but the power structure at the top is still intact. Due to the number of retirees it will be some while before the Navy replaces Aspinwall. The admiralty will revert to five for a while.

ARMY RETIREMENTS

** Chief of the Army Anton Engelhardt would normally be set for forced retirement at age 60, but he has no wish to leave yet and is still in excellent health. SPACE will keep him on for at least another tour.

** 4 colonels

MILITARY CHARACTER UPDATE

Lt. Cmdr. Chance Perj -- 15th out of 126. For this tour he moves to one of the 'spare', i.e. built-on-accident Explorers. It's a babysitting job, but a better babysitting job.

Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers Jr. -- 8th out of 14. Construction brigades are not particularly glamorous, but of late it has not been a boring post. His brigade built the Ticonderoga on Venus and will certainly be involved in getting the new bases up and running.
Col. Deacon Palmer Jr. -- 25th out of 62.

Brian Swartz · 12-02-2014, 02:27 AM

January - July 2084

A hole was created in the Navy with the loss of several officers, and the obvious choice as he's the latest prodigy to move up to Commander was Tyrone Marszalek(22). After the reassignments there are only 15 officers without a command. With over 150 ships in operation, naval opportunities are bigger than ever. Two in five are on either a Long Beach fuel harvester or a Caldwell VIP shuttle. The remaining 60% are more diversified. With the week the civilian sector continued to show it's growing strength as a firm with the flagrantly dishonest name of Ridolfi Interstellar was officially founded.

On March 4, another scientist was lost early as Billie Allington was killed in a traffic accident. As she was working on new fire controls and was a solid, veteran lead this is a relatively significant loss. Later in the month it was decided to make another pivot in the deployment of automines. The final shiopment to Tempel-Tuttle is set to leave soon, and corundium continues it's slow decline. Also, the bean counters at MRD have noticed that Halley's Comet will exhaust its deposits a little sooner than anticipated given the recent uptick in production. SPACE calculates that at least one load, 5 automines, should be diverted so as not waste them. Another outpost is to be established using those mines on Swift-Tuttle. Swift-Tuttle is inbound at 6.3b km, well beyond Neptune's orbit and just shy of Sedna's distance, but it's still the best choice. It has good concentrations of a number of minerals, most notably almost 20kt duranium, 4.6kt corundium at 0.8 to continue increasing that supply bit by bit, and overall efficiency of 64 which is right in line with what the best comets could offer in the heyday of the Sol rush. It's another one that will need to be limited probably to about 12-15 automines, but the best stopgap available with Herschel-Rigollet(8.0b now) probably after it.

This is not a cheap operation. Delivering five mines that far and back again, to say nothing of the mass driver, will require in excess of 750,000 litres of fuel. It is still unfortunately far better than any alternative. That final shipment to Tempel-Tuttle departed on April Fool's Day.

Late in April, Julio Kuchler unveiled the new faster fire control technology. These will allow us to reach the 16k or better tracking mentioned in the naval analysis. It comes at a cost though, the new suite which will be tested soon is a full 600 tons. A new advance in planetary sensor strength is his next objective.

On June 2, ESF Alpha returned from Van Maanen and presents its report. The tanker is still a 56% capacity with all other ships fully fueled, and maintenance supply levels are good as well. The mission clock is under three and a half years yet, plenty of time to go visit the final system: Lalande 21185. The jumps are just over 500m km apart, just a week and a half journey. A nice little stroll in galactic terms.

Ten days later, they made the jump to, Explorer 1 having reported that there is a jump gate to Sol on the other side. That's three now, and no sign of who built them. More perplexing is the fact that the wrecks that were discovered in Lalande 21185 when it was initially discovered on April 24 2055 are no longer showing on our scanners. They were too far from the star to collapse into it's gravity. Either a collision with an asteroid ... or someone salvaged them.

Someone that might still be here. There is more trepidation about this system than any of the others. It is very likely that sometime in the last century an alien space battle took place.

As for the system itself, moderate sized pattern, jump is 2.69b out, Two asteroid belts, only place we've seen that outside of Sol. 219 of them in all, so that will take some time. Even with that, it is on the surface the most useless system. Nothing even remotely habitable. A terrestrial that has too much gravity for us to survive on it, four dwarfs with a few moons. Not even a gas giant or super jovian for fuel.

What on earth ... strike that, what in lalande would they have been fighting over here? It's quite the mystery and another one that may never be solved. The most likely scenario though, seemed to revolve around the massive terrestrial planet being the source of the conflict. Perhaps one or both races have different gravitational tolerances.

Van Maanen's Star Survey Report
ESF Alpha, June 12 2084

Jump Points

Two new ones were found, one of them on the second-to-last survey location. This fact kept the ESF in system for about an extra month while it was investigated.

Geological Survey

Van Maanen decided to be dramatic here also, with the last survey being the ninth moon of the first planet, a super jovian that is the only interesting planet in the system. The asteroid field and a couple of dwarf planets had already been found to be barren, there were a couple of other moons with minerals but nothing exciting. One had 1.66mt of corundium(0.1), another 78kt uridium at 1.0 but of course we have an absurd amount of that. This last moon however was far better:

259 kt duranium(0.9)
50kt vendarite(0.5)
783 kt sorium(0.9)
38 kt gallicite(0.6)

New System -- GJ 1006

Small dim M6-V star. Just 515m km from Van Maanen, with another jump gate here!! The mystery continues to confound us. Four dwarves at ranges from 700m to 27b, the last two obviously are just spectators as they are above the 10b limit. 18 asteroids, a terrestrial, a super jovian, and two gas giants so good fuel potential. 57 moons to investigate, and the terrestrial could be terraformed to close to earth conditions at least. A sizable amount of methane would need to be removed from the atmosphere and replaced with oxygen, so it would take some time but this system has good potential. The jump gate also makes one curious.

New System -- YZ Ceti

Compact system, the jump is 1.59b km out which is average for this star, right in the middle of the second ring. Lots of planets here, 3 gas giants, 2 super jovians, 2 terrestrials, 2 dwarves, plus 65 moons of varying sizes. Despite all that nothing is more than marginally habitable. The second planet is best but has a crushing atmosphere with 50x the pressure of Earth's. This definitely won't be a priority to investigate further.

Summary/Evaluation

The most likely use would seem to be an automine operation with a tracking station, perhaps a small population so it could serve as a refueling/maintenance base. We can always use another good source of duranium, and the gallicite would be a nice kicker. A big part of whether SPACE ever develops Van Maanen will probably depend on whether GJ 1006 turns up anything useful.

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

January 8 -- Civilian firm Ridolfi Interstellar is founded.

LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL

March 19 -- Dr. Stanley Kogut(LG) has has joined the ranks of the accomplished.

April 11 -- Freddy Salsgiver(EW), only 22 years old, has moved up to the ranks of the accomplished with a major leap recently. Perhaps a new star is being born here ...

April 27 -- Minh Klausner(EW, 33) is a guy who has been in the ok-but-unimpressive category. He steps out a bit with a marginal upgrade that puts him in the accomplished tier.

July 2 -- Michael Reneau joins the admin team. He can manage any size operation well and has a good start on terraforming and financial oversight abilities. Could stand to be more flexible but a decent graduate. Also, Rear Admiral Parker Lanzi now has an elite-level training ability through the experience of leading ESF Bravo.

EARTH

March 23 -- Construction Brigade finished on Earth. With eight of the ten desired now in operation, training is begun on a ninth.

April 1 -- On April Fool's day, the third and final shipment of automines to Tempel-Tuttle departs earth.

May 25 -- New research lab finished.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

April 25 -- Improved Beam Fire Control Tracking finished(max. 16k km/s) by Dr. Julio Kuchler.

May 17 -- A new, fighter-sized engineering section is available. This may be useful on optimizing designs, particularly on smaller ships. Alphonse Lambeth led the development. With the beginning of interstellar colonization efforts clearly not far over the horizon, he'll next devote his time to improving techniques for minimizing the effect of hostile conditions.

May 30 -- The first commercial ion engine is now ready for production, the smaller one(Irving Steinmeyer).

July 2 -- Elyse Buckler has finished the prototype of the Exorcist missile launcher.

July 8 -- The first of the Vertigo series to be finished, the 108, by Norris Gunterman.

Brian Swartz · 12-02-2014, 01:24 PM

July - September 2084: The Plot Stinkens

July 18, 02:53 AM, GST

A lone explorer, Trevor Lerner in command, jumped into Sol from Lalande 21185 and sent a burst transmission on the emergency band to SPACE HQ. Just minutes before, ESF Alpha's officer in charge, Rear Admiral Hank Rohrer, had ordered this action and a full abort from ongoing survey operations. Key moments from the mission log leading up to this follow ....

June 24, 1900 -- This has to be a record.

First grav survey, just over 12 days in system, and another jump point has been found in Lalande 21185. Interestingly it is almost directly between the Sol point and the star. A few degrees right, and 1.89b km ... less than a billion km travel time between them. Further than the Van Maanen - Lalande gap in Sol but still very close. An important strategic consideration in the system no doubt. Explorer 1 is launched to investigate.

July 1 1741 -- Explorer 1 jumps out of Lalande.

July 1 1753 -- Explorer 1 returns, delivering this report ...

New System -- GJ 1156

Fairly small jump pattern, between the outer two rings and yet just a little over 2b km away. Unitary M5-V, about 180 asteroids in a single belt, fairly close in between the third and fourth planets. The second is a dwarf, but surprisingly habitable, just enough gravity to be useful. There's also a gas giant, super jovian, and a terrestrial. Better than average potential here, we've seen better but also a lot worse.

July 5 -- Two of the Prospectors reach the edge of the outer asteroid field. Nothing yet, but the wrecks were further in. They could still be around and just not seeing us yet ... we have a pretty darn tiny thermal emission on those things for a reason.

July 18, around 0220. Cmdr. Fredrick Holcomb is on the bridge as his Prospector surveys the right side of the asteroid belt.

'Conn Thermal, new contact bearing approximately 078. Designate contact Swiftsure zero-zero-two. Commander ... you're going to want to see this for yourself. Estimate range ninety-five to one hundred million kilometers sir'

The sensor officer's voice quivered, and Holcomb knew something was up. The only way the HISS Mark IV thermal suite could find something that far way was if ... He could see why thirty seconds later as he looked at the readout.

'That's impossible!! Check your gear.'

The diagnostics showed everything green. His wide-eyed crew stared at him, but he wasn't in any more control of himself than they were. It was impossible. At the edge of the asteroid field there was a thermal contact all right, reading 16,000. 1600 would have been huge. 16,000 ... there weren't words for it. Eight times the signature of a South Carolina superfreighter. Twenty-three times the signature of anything else in the SPACE navy. That thing's engines had power beyond imagining. There were only two possibilities: they knew we were here and didn't care ... or they weren't looking for us. Either way, there was only course of action.

'Battle stations! Communications, relay our sensor data to the Baltimore, priority one! Navigation, set course 261 for survey waypoint #1. If they chase us, we don't want to lead them back to Earth.'

It took Rohrer all of about ten seconds to order the abort once they received the transmission. All craft were recalled to base -- if the aliens followed, the Prospectors would be left in-system. There were very specific orders for this contingency.

Back at Fleet Command, there was as much suprise that the alien ship had not attacked Holcomb's surveyor as anything. Once the gamma readouts were analyzed, it became obvious that these were not the same aliens as those that destroyed the Pioneers in Epsilon Eridani. The most likely scenario was that it was an enormous asteroid mining ship of some kind, but either way it seemed obvious this was a far more advanced alien species, and apparently a less hostile or less curious one. With this determined, the contingency order was given.

Prep the Ambassador. Captain Rosemary Tallant was in charge this time, Marion Polizzi and Karen Cotsis joined as veterans of the previous failed attempt, and another pair of junior naval officers rounded out the team. This time there was more optimism: this appeared to be a more willing to listen species, and this was a more experienced, more talented team.

It would still take them three weeks to reach the jump to Lalande, and if all went well almost four weeks for all of the survey craft to get back so that ESF Alpha could jump back to Sol. There were a lot of people having sleepless nights for those long weeks.

The normal goings-on continued, virtually ignored as background noise. The run of Defender 76 missiles was finished, having taken eight years from design to full production run completion. Army chief Engelhardt gained more political connections. A 40th CMC was finished on Sedna, moving the exhaustion clock there under 40 years, and the shipment of mines from Halley to Swift-Tuttle arrived. The ninth group of Long Beach harvesters was launched. Another group of five was begun, as fuel reserves are merely holding steady at 15m.

All of this was greeted with a collective yawn. We had other things on our mind. On August 8, the Ambassador jumped out to Lalande.

Zenaida Howse, just 24, continued her incredible progress, and with recent improvements in her training techniques is now the top-rated Captain only three years removed from the Academy! Yawn.

On the 13th, ESF Alpha jumped back into Sol, having recovered all of the utility craft. The aliens never followed and everyone made it back to Sol safely. That in itself was a huge accomplishment, greeted by muted celebrations as we waited to hear from the diplomatic team.

Progress from Captain Ronald Dunkin in becoming an elite crew trainer. Dr. Jerry Bartholf's team finished testing the new JPS ID 36, thruster for the Forrestal class. Elyse Buckler's group completed the Interceptor missile launcher. Background noise. Static.

Leonel Wessels, heralded as the most talented talented straight-from-the-academy researcher SPACE has ever seen joins the crowd. Accomplished in the energy weapons field and xenology, with decent novice-level political connections. Unlike the missile field, the energy weapons field is recovering quite well from the loss of its top members. Nimitz 76c built, last of the class.

Normally this would be celebrated.

Another two weeks of quiet.

September 15 -- The Ambassador jumped back in from Lalande. Mission failure. They had a few new ideas, took about a week longer than the attempt in Epsilon Eridani had taken, but found even less progress. Again the conclusion was there was simply no way to find common ground with which to communicate. The fear is that all we've done is antagonize them, and the recommendation is to avoid further contact at all costs.

Nobody was foolish enough to argue. Unlike the other race, it appears this time it might be possible to take a live-and-let-live approach. Against such advanced technology, it's not like there's another choice. Engineering reported that engines of such power would take up more than 41kt of space if they were built with max overclocking of the new ion technology. Just the engines. That's bigger than a Fletcher-class freighter. And don't even try to think about how much fuel it would require. Such a ship would be so grossly impractical as to be absurd. The only response in this case was to stay out their way. Anything else would be suicidal.

sterlingice · 12-02-2014, 01:30 PM

I concur - stay away and leave some early warning stuff near the jump points

SI

Brian Swartz · 12-03-2014, 06:05 AM

September - December 2084

October was another big month. New army battalions were finished, another military engine prototpye tested, and then on the 23rd Reynaldo Darrington certified the WP ID 240, the largest of the commercial engines at 2.5kt. Engineering suddenly became very busy. A total of ten different classes needed an upgrade with the new engines and some other systems improved as well. The '84i' naming scheme was adopted, indicating 2084 technology and the upgrade to ion drives.

Arleigh Burke 84i Brigade Transport

Size: 17.3kt(17.8)
Crew: 127(136)
Speed: 695 km/s(563)
Fuel: 250k(350k)
Range: 57b km(38b)
Troop Capacity: 1 brigade(5 battalions, i.e. 4 + HQ)
Armament: 2x CIWS 79 battery(2x CIWS 71)
Cost: 544k(553k)

This will be a consistent pattern throughout these redesigns, but the impact of the leap to ion drives, and to a lesser extent the advances made in armor, CIWS, etc., is obvious here. The new version is more than twice as fuel efficient which is the most important thing about it: it's 23% faster, yet carries a lot less fuel and gets 50% more range. It's even a hair cheaper, superior across the board.

Portland 84i Battalion Transport

Size: 4.35 kt(4.5 kt)
Crew: 39(43)
Speed: 1379 km/s(1111)
Fuel: 50k(60k)
Range: 45b km(29b)
Troop Capacity: 1 battalion
Cost: 189k(182k)

Same story here, with the minor exception that the new Portland is a hair more expensive than the old one.

Cleveland 84i Supply Ship

Size: 2.0 kt(2.1 kt)
Crew: 28(30)
Speed: 3000 km/s(2380 km/s)
Fuel: 50k(100k)
Range: 99b km(92b)
Maintenance Supplies: 1000
Cost: 143k(137k)

Tarawa 84i Collier

Size: 6.0 kt(6.4 kt)
Crew: 66(85)
Speed: 1000 km/s(781 km/s)
Fuel: 100k(250k)
Range: 66b km(76b km)
Magazine Storage: 1200(1050)
Cost: 577k(573k)

Room for another 25 anti-ship missiles was added, while an unneeded glut of maintenance supplies and other dead weight was culled from the original design.

Wickes 84i Salvage Ship

Size: 21.7 kt(20.6 kt)
Crew: 191(188)
Speed: 829 km/s(486 km/s)
Fuel: 250k
Range: 46b km
CryoStorage: 1000
Cargo Storage: 5000
Salvage Modules: 1 @ 500t/day.
Armament: 2x CIWS 79 Batteries(2x CIWS 71)
Cost: 708k(682k)

In addition to the new engines, the Wickes gets the latest CIWS system and a couple of sensor upgrades that weren't ready when it was originally designed. A third engine was added as well to give it a more respectable speed. As a result this is an exception that is a little bigger and more costly than it's predecessor.

Iowa 84i Fuel Tanker

Size: 8.5 kt(9.8 kt)
Crew: 44(53)
Speed: 1411 km/s(1020 km/s)
Fuel: 5m(6m)
Armament: 1x CIWS 79 Battery(1 CIWS I)
Cost: 394k(604k)

This version slightly reduces the capacity of the Iowa tanks, but with the improved fuel efficiency that is not expected to be a concern. The new huge fuel tanks can handle as much as five of the old very large ones, and at less than 60% of the cost. SPACE taxpayers can see that savings reflected impressively in the new ship's bottom line layout.

Iowa XR 84i Extended-Range Fuel Tanker

Same as the regular Iowa 84i, except:

Size: 8.55 kt
Speed: 1403 km/s
Cost: 404k

This is the version with crew facilities and supplies for a five-year tour to accomopany the ESFs, not the standard two-year accomodations.

Gato 84i Small Freighter

Size: 7 kt
Crew: 33
Speed: 857 km/s
Fuel: 100k
Range: 57b km
Cargo Capacity: 5k
Cost: 182k

For further efficiency it was designed to add a third class of freighter. The Gato is designed for small loads of minerals in various circumstances where a larger load is not expected to be needed. In such cases sending even a Fletcher is inefficient as the fuel used to push around a larger cargo hold is just wasted. The plan here is to have small numbers of each class of freighter, instead of the one-size-fits-all approach that the Fletcher filled for decades. Another engine was contemplated for the Gato, but was considered to not be worth the cost.

Fletcher 84i Freighter

Size: 35.9kt(36.9 kt)
Crew: 153(162)
Speed: 1002 km/s(813 km/s)
Fuel: 250k(650k)
Range: 41b km(51b km)
Cargo Capacity: 25k
Armament: 4x CIWS 79(4x CIWS I)
Cost: 614k(644k)

The Fletcher was the workhorse of the Sol mining rush. Its deployment in the late 40s and 50s was indispensable to the development of SPACE throughout our home system. Since the South Carolina came on the scene it has changed roles to more of a short-range freighter, with the occasional longer run if a small load is called for(a single facility or a small amount of minerals needed to build a base, etc.). For this revision an extra cargo handling system has been added(a total of 2 now) to decrease loading times, yet the cost was still able to be reduced by 30k. This is mostly due to a drastic reduction in the needed amount of fuel.

South Carolina 84i Superfreighter

Size: 163kt(165 kt)
Crew: 487(531)
Speed: 735 km/s(607 km/s)
Fuel: 1.5m(2.15m)
Range: 54b km(38b km)
Cargo Capacity: 125 kt
Armament: 21x CIWS 79(18x CIWS 71)
Cost: 1.99m(2.08m)

The fuel saved here during the coming interstellar colonization startup will be considerable. Even a moderate speed increase like the 21% here will be significant as well. At least weeks, probably months per trip will be saved. As with the other revisions the fuel efficiency here is just over twice the standard South Carolina now in service.

Long Beach 84i Fuel Harvester

Size: 80.8kt(79.1 kt)
Crew: 429(411)
Speed: 445 km/s(379 km/s)
Fuel: 2m(1.5m)
Harvesting Modules: 26(rated at 832k per year)
Armament: 10x CIWS batteries(5 CIWS 71)
Cost: 1.77m(1.66m)

The Long Beach is of course a 'younger' or 'newer' design than most of the others. It also held a bit of a special concern. The recent improvement in mining techniques has led to some ships with particularly skilled COs nearly maxing out their tanks before shore leave. A good problem to have, but in the redesign it was decided that an attempt needed to be made to expand the fuel capacity. As a result, the new version is somewhat larger. These will fare much better than the originals if they are deployed somewhere with more accessible sorium than Saturn's 70%.

After all this some major reworking of the commercial shipyards was needed. The new one being built will service the Portland and Gato when it is ready, probably in a couple years. Vickers-Armstrong, idle since the Lexingtons were retired, will expand to be able to handle the Arleigh Burke. Howaldtswerke is set up to handle the Wickes, Oregon will continue to service the Iowa/Iowa XR classes, and the new Vegesacker SY will handle the Fletcher. P&A Group will have more work than they can possibly handle keeping up with the Long Beach harvesters, ENDM is expanding to match the needed size for the massive jump ships that will be built once the drive is ready, and the Tod & MacGregor handles the South Carolina.

After the Wickes is updated, Howaldtswerke should be able to handle whatever kind of colony ship SPACE comes up with, but this still leaves us a little tight. Another yard really is needed to keep things running smoothly, and is added to the queue. There's always a need for more, it seems. Always.

If you can keep all that straight, you're a better man than I. And we haven't even gotten to the military side yet ... Millions of workers at the shipyards were back at work retooling several of the yards to get ready for new or refit ships.

In November, a change to the optimal ESF loadouts was decided upon. Every system surveyed so far has finished the geological work long before the jump points are finished. It was decided to shift the balance of survey craft from three of each to two Prospectors and four Frontiers in order to balance this out a little bit. The new engines, when ready, will also help, as would better grav sensors but that last part is quite a ways off yet.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

** October 16 -- Vertigo 144 finished(Alejandro Otteson).

October 23 -- The larger of the two commercial engines, the WP ID 240, has been finalized, led by Reynaldo Darrington.

December 16 -- Vertigo 180 completed(David Gruis). Meanwhile

EARTH

Mid-October -- Two assault infantry battalions enter service. One more construction brigade begins training, and the third training facility will idle now as that is all that is needed.

November 26 -- Another shipment of auto-mines departs for the Swift-Tuttle comet. They won't arrive until well into next year.

LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL

Early November -- Recent graduate Timmy Sheerin has now doubled his administrative skills to an accomplished level. He can handle pretty much any assignment short of Earth now.

November 30 -- Burt Stonerock moves into the accomplished tier in factory production, strengthening his resume for a run at the director's office in a month.

Mid-December -- The navy is touting the name of Patsy Demange, recent academy graduate. already accomplished in training, xenology, and factory production ... though im not sure what good the last one will do.

Mid-December -- Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers Jr. has developed some more friends in high places, improving his stock among his rivals.

Brian Swartz · 12-03-2014, 01:47 PM

STATE OF SPACE, 2085

I. IMPERIAL HOLDINGS

IA. Populated Colonies

Earth(1.75b, 500 CF, 109 OF, 75 REF, 49 RL, 4 AC, 3 GFT, 5 DSTS, 15.2k MF, 1 SP, 1 SC, 4x Alaska MB)
Mars(76.9m, Tennessee MB)
Luna(74.1m, Tennessee MB)
Mercury(22.0m, Ticonderoga SB)
Titan(17.8m, 1 DSTS, Alaska MB)
Venus(16.0m)
Io(120k)
Europa(120k)
Ganymede(110k)
Callisto(110k)

Total Population: 1.96b(+9.5%)

The increasing political force of the colonies can be seen in the fact that populatons on Mars and Luna continue to grow at more than twice the rate of Earth. Percentage-wise, that is, most of the growth in terms of pure numbers of people is still on our homeworld. Civilian contractors continue to bring staggering amounts of infrastructure to Mercury, which has surpassed Titan as expected, growing by over 30% this cycle. Venus continues to grow as well albeit more slowly and there has even been the rare delivery of infrastructure to the moons of Jupiter, though in minute quantities. Colonial population now numbers more than 200 million people, 10.7% of the total. Humanity will likely reach the two billion mark sometime in the next year.

IB. Outposts

Sedna(40 CMC, 16 eff, 11.7 kt)
Triton(117 AM, 23.6 eff, 4.58 kt) -- mercassium(1.8)
Earth(50 SM, 6.2 eff, 515 t)
Borrelly(39.8 AM, 40 eff, 3.70 kt) -- vendarite(1.4)
Halley's Comet(36 AM, 33 eff, 2.17 kt) -- corbomite(9.5)
Reinmuth(33.8 AM, 30 eff, 1.68 kt)
Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 32 eff, 1.49 kt) -- gallicite(0.2)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 24 eff, 1.10 kt) -- sorium(4.1)
Neujmin(25.8 AM, 25 eff, 1.07 t) -- duranium(6.0)
Titan(25 SM, 6 eff, 311 t)
Faye(25 AM, 24 eff, 995 t) -- neutronium(4.4)
Comas Sola(25 AM, 29 eff, 1.20 kt) -- boronide(0.5), tritanium(8.5)
Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 1.76 kt)
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 26 eff, 881 t)
Wolf-Harrington(17.8 AM, 40 eff, 1.18 kt) -- uridium(8.6)
Tempel-Tuttle(14 AM, 40 eff, 930 t)
Callisto(10 SM, 6 eff, 10 t)
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 912 t)
Prokne(10 AM, 7.9 eff, 131 t)
Wild(8 AM, 34 eff, 452 t)
Wolf(8 AM, 26 eff, 346 t)
Swift-Tuttle(5 AM, 71 eff, 618 t)

Total Production: 37.73 kt, +20%. This is by far a record total amount that SPACE mines are bringing in. Expansion on Sedna and Triton, new productive outposts on Tempel-Tuttle and Swift-Tuttle were the key factors. Swift-Tuttle is particularly worthy of mention as it is the most efficient comet ever developed. That fact will last for less than a decade as a number of minerals are in short supply, but it's certainly a short-term boon. 16 of the 21 comets that don't have a prohibitively long period have been developed now. At least one more, Herschel-Rigollet, soon will be. This is certainly a case of the boom before the crash, but right now it's more than enough to keep the wheels turning. Looking ahead, it is now projected that Comas Sola will be the first to completely run out sometime in the mid-90s. The crash is coming.

IC. Mineral Stockpiles & Production

Tier A(rare usage): Corbomite(79 kt), Vendarite(71 kt), Sorium(56 kt)

Supplies of all three rose sharply as they continue to do. It's rather stunning to recall that sorium was once considered a key mineral some decades ago. Now we bank roughly two kilotons a year in the ever-growing storage compounds. Vendarite usage varies greatly, and while it moves up to an A-list material now that may well change by next cycle as shipbuilding for the refits, Frozen Vengeance, etc. will likely move it down a tier again.

Tier B(some usage, but a good stockpile): Uridium(127 kt), Tritanium(52 kt), Boronide(37 kt), Gallicite(31 kt)

There is now 62% more uridium than any other mineral in the stockpiles. When Sedna's deposits of it vanish, which will happen sometime around the end of the century, that fact may change. We may have approaching 200 kt of it by then, despite significant constant use, so there is not even the shadow of concern. Tritanium has remained fairly steady over the last couple of decades, and boronide is starting to decline a bit with increased shipbuilding.

Gallicite is the biggest concern here by far. It notably dropped by 5 kt with the Defender 76 missile production run, and while it'll get a relative break here, once Exorcist and Interceptor missiles are needed for the next generation it will be needed in large quantities again. Gallicite is the unquestioned favorite to join the big four minerals, but there is enough of it still that this is not an immediate concern.

Tier C(major usage, needs close watching/ under 20 kt): Mercassium(19.4 kt), Neutronium(17.5 kt), Duranium(16.9 kt)

Duranium has recovered from the recent dive, mercassium is nearly stable at this point and neutronium has steadily risen for about a decade now. The coming massive round of shipbuilding will stress all of them.

Tier D(major usage, economic growth limiter): Corundium(8.36 kt)

Recent development of the new comet outposts to increase supply has served to greatly reduce the decline in corundium, but the supply still shrinks and that fact is likely to continue. This will limit the amount of new mines put out there, but should be enough to allow some to continue. Duranium is very likely to rejoin this tier as shipbuilding activity ramps up again.

ID. Income

Taxes(population): 43.1m
Taxes(civ. tourism): 14.5m
Taxes(civ. shipping): 5.3m
Taxes(civ. fuel): 238k

Total: 63.1m(+15%)

Tourism is an overall powerfully growing but also volatile sector of the economy. SPACE expects this to make revenue projections increasingly difficult and inaccurate in the future. Right now planetary taxes make up only about two-thirds of income, a share that is expected to continue to decline, and they are the only real predictable element in the mix.

Balance: 809m(+90 m)

IE. Expenses

Research: 11.7m
Mineral Purchases: 9.89m
Shipbuilding: 7.65m
Installation Construction: 5.76m
Shipyard Modifications: 1.72m
PDC Construction: 1.35m
Maintenance Facilities: 1.12m
Ordnance: 813k
GU Maintenance: 553k
GU Training: 281k

Total: 40.8m (+21%)

Yet again income far outpaces expenses. SPACE expects this situation to become much more unpredictable as well, with greater and greater periodic swings in the needed amount of activity in the shipyards and army training facilities.

II. SHIPYARDS

IIA. Commercial Yards

Tod & MacGregor(2 slipways, 166 kt capacity)
** Retooling for the South Carolina 84i(June 2085)
Estalerios Navais do Montego(ENDM)(2, 132 kt)
** Expanding to 170kt(unknown)
P&A Group(5, 80 kt)
** Building a tenth group of harvesters(September 2085) and a sixth slipway(same time). P&A has been the busiest shipyard by far, seeing constant activity for over a decade now.
Howaldswerke/Deutsche Werft(HDW)(1, 55.3 kt)
** Retooling for the Wickes 84i(February)
Oregon Shipbuilding(1, 50.7 kt)
** Retooling for the Iowa 84i XR(April)
Vegesacker Werft(1, 40.7 kt)
** Set up for the Fletcher 84i. The next administration will decide how many to build.
Vickers-Armstrong(4, 10.8 kt)
** Expanding to 17.3kt or so for use with the Arleigh Burke.

IIB. Naval Yards

Wartsila(1, 17.6 kt)
** Idle.
Yokohama Dock Co.(1, 15.2 kt)
** Idle.
Baltimore Marine(2, 12.2 kt)
** Idle.
Permanant(1, 10.1 kt)
** Idle
International(2, 1 kt)
** Building the first of two additional pairs of Frontier Gravitational Survey vessels for the ESFs.
Niehuis and van den Berg(2, 1 kt)
** Idle.
KSEC(4, 1 kt)
** Idle.

The lack of activity in the naval yards is due to this being a significant waiting period. Once the new jump drive, military engines, etc. are finished they'll have about as much work as they can handle.

III. ARMY TRAINING FACILITIES

IIIA. Earth

** Three active training facilities
** One idle, the final two planned Construction Brigades are being trained up.

IV. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

IVA. Earth

Research Lab(25%) -- August 2085. The pace has slowed to less than one per year with the recent diversification and the sudden retirement of Governor Alborn.
Mine Conversions(standard to automated, 15%) -- approx. 8/year
Mine Construction(12%) -- approx. 8/year
PDC Alaska 82(12%) -- Four bases for Earth, to be finished sometime in 2099
Ordnance Factories(10%) -- 41 still on order, about 6 per year
Commercial Shipyards(10%) -- Two more needed, ETA mid-2089
Prefab PDC Alaska 82(5%) -- An upgraded base for Titan, ETA 2092
Naval Shipyards(5%) -- Two ordered, the amount will be under review by the new admin. ETA 2092
Mass Driver(2%) -- Replacement for those sent to the new comet outposts. One left, est. late 2086
Prefab PDC Ticonderoga 82(2%) -- Eight upgarded sensor bases for populated colonies. Two are already finished and being assembled on Mars and Luna, the rest are estimated completed roughly by the end of 2092
Terraforming Installation(2%) -- The new 2% Initiative in operation. First installation is expected ready this November.

V A. PRIORITY RESEARCH PROJECTS

** Quad WT Excalibur 135-16(Meson Turret)(Leonel Wessels) -- February/March 2085
** JPS ID 63(Ion Shuttle Thruster)(Alejandro Otteson) -- March/April 2085
** Eagle 72 Military Engine(David Gruis) -- May 2085
** SPPI ID 525(Exorcist Missile Engine)(Jerry Bartholf) -- September 2085
** GEI GCF 5400(Large Power Plant)(Norris Gunterman) -- November/December 2085
** Eagle 60 Military Engine(Reynaldo Darrington) -- December 2085/January 2086
** Vertigo 90(Combat Engine)(Irving Steinmeyer) -- 2Q/3Q 2086
** GEI MSS 336.7(Active Missile Search Sensor)(Elwood Tousant) -- 4Q 2086
** GEI SSS 336.7(Active Ship Search Sensor)(Bessie Wallander) -- Early 2087
** AKH CJ-90.4(Commercial Jump Drive)(Rosemary Urenda) -- Late 2087
** MFC 126-1.7(Interceptor Missile Fire Control Suite)(Carl Fosberg) -- Late 2087
** SITG Emdar 132.7(Military Electromagnetic Sensor Suite)(Ross Dodge) -- Late 2087/Early 2088
** Improved Planetary Sensors(Julio Kuchler) -- Early 2088
** Colonization Cost Reduction(Alphonse Lambeth) -- Mid-2088
** SITG ThermoScan 176.7(Military Thermal Sensor Suite)(Sung Padro) -- 2090
** RSJ Sniper 16-72.7(Anti-Missile Beam Fire Control Suite)(Irma Bartlebaugh) -- 2090/2091
** Improved Terraforming Rate Garland Sidhom) -- 2090/2091

A cursory examination of this list shows the massive effort currently being put forward by R&D to support Frozen Vengeance and the Navy's refits/upgrades. Most but not all of the prototypes are either finished or currently being worked on.

V B. NOTABLE SCIENTISTS

** Biology/Genetics
Garland Sidhom(Elite)

** Construction/Production
None!

** Energy Weapons
Leonel Wessels(Accomplished)
Freddy Salsgiver(Accomplished)
Minh Klausner(Accomplished)

** Logistics/Ground Combat
Alphonse Lambeth(Elite)
Stanley Kogut(Accomplished)

** Missiles/Kinetic Weapons
None!

** Power/Propulsion
Rosemary Urenda(Elite)
David Gruis(Accomplished)
Norris Gunterman(Accomplished)
Alejandro Otteson(Accomplished)

** Sensors/Fire Control
Julio Kuchler(Elite)
Elwood Tousant(Accomplished)
Bessie Wallander(Accomplished)

It's a mixed bag right now. The strongest fields are those SPACE needs the most. Things would be far worse if Propulsion or Sensors had a shortage of quality project leads. Energy Weapons is strongly on the comeback trail en route to probably being a great strength for decades, and Logisitics is solid even if there isn't the bevy of geniuses that there has been in the past. The negatives are big though as well. Missile technology is crucial to the effort to combat the aliens and it's a dead area right now. Construction and Production advances are vital to growing the industrial base, getting the most out of our mines, etc., and this is the first time there hasn't been a top-drawer project lead though at least in that case we can say there are a couple of youngsters who might develop. All the gains in recent years have been wiped out by retiring elite researchers, but at least some of them have been replaced.

VI. ACTIVE NAVAL ASSETS

VI A. Military Bases

Alaska(5, 59.45 kt, 1020 crew, major missile base)
Tennessee(Lt)(2, 12.1 kt, 214 crew, missile base)
Ticonderoga(8, 3.0kt, 16 crew, sensor base)

Total: 15 installations(+25%), 345 kt(+15%), 5.66k crew(+11%)

VI B. Combat Ships

MB Nimitz(3, 14 kt, 373 crew, 2437 km/s, 1.75m fuel, missile-armed)
MB Nimitz '76c(4, 10.3 kt, 273 crew, 2439 km/s, 1.25 m fuel, missile-armed)
GB Brooklyn '72(4, 13.5 kt, 356 crew, 2379 km/s, 1.75 m fuel, beam-armed)
GB Brooklyn '81(1, 10.5 kt, 282 crew, 2380 km/s, 1.25 m fuel, beam-armed)

Total: 12 ships(+72%), 148 kt(+60%), 3.92k crew(+59%), 18.5m fuel(+57%)

One more Brooklyn 81 is due to be finished soon, but that will be the last of these to be built. Ironically it looks like this first-wave combat Navy will end up having served only PR purposes, unless the aliens change it up and come hunting.

VI C. Military Non-combat Ships

CC Baltimore(2, 10 kt, 284 crew, 600 km/s, 750k fuel, command carrier)
ST Caldwell(32, 950 t, 14 crew, 2210 km/s, 500k fuel, VIP shuttle w/8 capacity)
MV Cleveland(2, 2.1 kt, 30 crew, 2380 km/s, 100k fuel, supply ship)
SC Explorer(6, 850 t, 18 crew, 1411 km/s, 250k fuel, jump scout)
SB Forrestal III(14, 650 t, 14 crew, 3692 km/s, 50k fuel, sensor buoy)
GSV Frontier(6, 950 t, 24 crew, 1263 km/s, 250k fuel, gravsurvey)
SVC Gearing(2, 10 kt, 158 crew, 600 km/s, 750k fuel, survey carrier)
GEV Prospector(6, 950 t, 24 crew, 1263 km/s, 250k fuel, geosurvey)
CO Tarawa(2, 6.4 kt, 85 crew, 781 km/s, 250k fuel, supply ship)

Total: 72 ships(+36%), 107 kt(+58%), 2.21k crew(+84%), 24.9 m fuel(+69%)

Most of the growth came from finishing up the Caldwell VIP shuttles, with the carriers being added to the ESFs as well. With the coming refits and upgrades I don't see the total numbers climbing much if at all.

VI D. Commercial Vessels

TT Arleigh Burke(6, 17.8 kt, 136 crew, 563 km/s, 350k fuel, brigade troop transport)
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)
TK Iowa XR(2, 9.7 kt, 53 crew, 1.03k km/s, 6m fuel, fuel tanker)
FH Long Beach(36, 79.1 kt, 411 crew, 379 km/s, 1.5m fuel, fuel harvester)
TT Portland(2, 4.3 kt, 35 crew, 581 km/s, 60k fuel, troop transport)
FT South Carolina(4, 164.6 kt, 531 crew, 607 km/s, 2.15m fuel, superfreighter)
SV Wickes(1, 20.6 kt, 188 crew, 486 km/s, 250k fuel, salvage/recovery)

Total: 61 ships(-20%), 3.98 mt(+38%), 19.5k crew(+58%), 89.4m liters fuel(+31%)

The new Iowa XR tankers were finished for the ESFs, a couple of Arleigh Burke brigade transports added, and of course the continued growth in the Long Beach harvester portion of the fleet. Meanwhile the old Lexingtons and Perrys have all been scrapped now. Out with the old, in with the new, and that process will definitely continue now for at least a decade.

Grand Total: 160 assets(+13%), 4.58 mt(+51%), 31.3k crew(+75%), 133m liters fuel(+41%)

It just keeps growing ... and growing ... and growing ...

Available Crew: 170k(+10%)

VI E. Fuel Status

Earth -- 10.9m liters
Titan -- 8.3m
Callisto -- 5.0m

Total -- 24.2m liters(-9%) A second straight decline, but probably the last one. Given the reduced fuel needs of the new ships and the ever-increasing amount being harvested, it looks like the recovery is well under way.

VII. ACTIVE ARMY ASSETS

** Brigade HQs(6)
** Construction Brigades(8)
** Assault Infantry Battalions(4)
** Mobile Infantry Battalions(12)
** Garrison Battalion(34)

Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 480k(+14%)

The army will reach the half-million mark when the latest construction brigades finish their training. It's interesting that an obscenely higher amount of money is spent on the navy, yet there are 15 soldiers in the army for every 'sailor' in the navy.

VIII. CIVILIAN SHIPPING CORPORATIONS

Tolles Transport & Logistics(53 ships, 8.62m annual income)
Jensrud Transport and Trading(60, 5.32m)
Voliva Carrier Company(77, 4.87m)
Ridolfi Interstellar(3, 1.11m)
Everton Shipping & Logistics(3, 150k)
Hayter Container Group(3, 100k)
Suter Shipping Services(2, 40k)
Clavette Shipping Line(2, 10k)

Total Vessels: 203(+32%)
Total Civilian Income: 20.2m(+60%)

Voliva's ever-increasing ship count and profits and ever-decreasing market share is rather humorous to watch. Once a near-monopoly, they are now third in the sector. The key to Tolles Transport's inconceivable rise, as they doubled their operations again this cycle, has been a strong mix of fuel harvesting from Uranus and infastructure deliveries to the ravenous appetites for that on Mercury and Venus. Newcomers Ridolfi Interstellar are off to a strong start with a primary focus on colonist transport. For every success story there are at least an equal number of failures. 7 of the 13 registered civilian firms are all but defunct.

** Beginning in this report, those with no income at all are removed. This continues the focus on only reporting the most important things. **

IX. SPACE LEADERSHIP PROSPECTUS

** Naval Officers: 174 of 196 assigned(89%), +5%
** Ground Forces Officers: 64 of 84(76%), --
** Civilian Administrators: 29 of 37(78%), -1%
** Scientists: 29 of 37(78%), -12%

Overall: 296 of 354(83.6%), +3.8%

BOG has recovered nicely with a record number of candidates, even though most are unimpressive. R&D has actually seen a small decline from 40 to 37 researchers, with retirements outweighing new talent recently. The overall picture has never looked better, with only one in six 'qualified' candidates out of a job.

Brian Swartz · 12-04-2014, 09:35 AM

RETIREMENTS

None. Definitely a polar opposite of what happened in 81. In this case there are a handful of BOG members in the upper 50s or early 60s, but all of them are in good health. That's good news for almost everybody.

2085 ELECTION

Overall, Director Riley Awad had a highly successful first term. A much better, although far from optimal, first contact in Lalande 21185 saw no ships lost. Operation Renewal has gone extremely well, with some significant new resources and new systems found and all assets working as designed/expected. Most of this is the result of those who came before him, but it's always the man in charge when it happens that gets the credit. Awad was a near-prohibitive favorite to win another term. At 60, it's his final election win or lose.

Luna governor Burt Stonerock was the only serious challenger. Out of nine qualifiers, just four made it to the final ballot. That's the smallest field since the first few elections in the 20s and 30s, half a century ago. Stonerock is a real lightning rod, 'rhetorically undiplomatic' is I believe the polite way to put it. His concept is essentially to tell the whining colonialists to stick it where the sun don't shine, only in less charitable language. For the health of the body politic it certainly was an important vote.

It also, much to everyone's surprise, ended up being one of the closest votes SPACE has ever had. Stonerock's 'plain talk' appealed to far more people than was initially considered(and hoped). Awad looked a little uninspired, a little tired, perhaps unsure he really wanted to do this for another four years. And so it came right down to the wire. The final tally:

Riley Awad -- 33.4%
Burt Stonerock -- 32.2%
Errol Igoe -- 17.9%
Russell Salvuccii -- 16.5%

The status quo held, but barely. The fault lines in SPACE have clearly not healed as much as it has sometimes appeared. There have been many changes in recent years, perhaps too many to be fully and seamlessly assimilated. Meanwhile, it was another stronger-than-expected showing by Errol Igoe, governor of Titan, considered by far SPACE's top expert in shipbuilding. The Clemson project still has considerable backing, and there was no doubt Igoe was the colonial's choice.

POLICY REVIEW

Never afraid to stir things up, Awad almost had that propensity cost him the election. But it didn't, and he was in the Director's Office at Sector Command for a second and final term.

A growing concern was that factory production just didn't go as far as it used to. Mines, research laboratory complexes, nothing is getting built any faster than it was twenty years ago. The relative amount added to the economy shrinks -- adding a lab a year is not as impressive when there's almost 50 as it is when there's 30 in service. Meanwhile the shipyards continue to claim more and more workers and minerals. Believing in a balanced economy as ever, Awad ordered an investment in equalizing the number of workers employed in the factories and shipyards over time, which right now requires a the first significant investment in new factories that has been contemplated in decades. Certainly mineral supply will become an issue with this at some point, but the goal is to be able to switch or pivot wherever production is needed. With the factories 'falling behind', the entire economy suffers. They need to be able to kick out equipment faster during slow times for the navy. Initially it was determined that 168 new factories in addition to the present 500 were needed to match shipyard employment, nearly a 30-year proposition with a 10% investment and the needed factories would grow as the new shipyards come into service. In just a few years Earth has gone from a very concentrated effort on mines and research labs to the most diversified set of efforts ever(12 ongoing projects).

The second was far more controversial. It was announced that, witnessed by two World Court justices, Riley Awad had invoked the little-known and never-used Sealed Order provision of the SPACE constitution at the end of the previous term. The Sealed Order is a means by which a Director may change major elements of governmental structure and/or procedure, but only if approved by the winner of the next directorial election and a majority of BOG.

The subject at hand was the continuity of government. The Sealed Order laid out several problems with the current arrangement, which had remained essentially unchanged since the charter was enacted 60 years ago:

DEFINING THE PROBLEM

1. The constant jetting around for reassigments cost significant amounts of time and fuel. Additionally, it was also not sustainable for a future in which humanity spread to far-flung systems. Change was inevitable, it was only a question of when.

2. The reassignments also posed a security risk. If a clever enemy attacked when the naval reassignments were being done, or a terrorist organization during the political ones, disaster might easily follow. It was frankly stunning that this had not happened already and could only be chalked up to providence or incredible luck.

3. Most officials could be more effective with more familiarity in their tasks. When so many change positions every 2-4 years, the kind of long-term contacts and mutual confidence between the supervisor and the supervised necessary was difficult if not impossible to achieve.

4. Positions were handed out in many cases based on regimented rules, not logic and merit. A key mining outpost, for example, has often been (mis?) managed by someone moving their way up the ladder who doesn't know the first thing about rudimentary automining techniques simply because they were next on the totem pole. Similar problems existed in the military. A new approach was needed to match candidates more intelligently with the needs of SPACE's ever-changing operations.

5. Similar regimented rules often prevented important jobs from being filled. The formulaic requirement of having several officers of a particular rank for each of the rank above has resulted in a lack of sufficient construction brigades because there weren't enough generals to lead them, and staff officer positions going unfilled because of no captains to man them, to use a pair of prominent examples.

It was clearly noted that these procedures had made sense as a starting point when SPACE was founded, but had long outlived their utility. A transition must be made to a government appropriate to the interstellar empire humankind is attempting to become.

A RADICAL SOLUTION

The new proposed approach is a hierarchical meritocracy. It is modeled on the wildly successful approach the R&D Directorate has taken the last few years, an approach which has rightly earned nigh-universal approval. The public at large would still have their control of the situation, it is strongly emphasized, through election of the Director anytime the office came open. Instead of an every-four-years mentality though, an election would only take place when the Director retired or was recalled by popular or BOG vote, either of which could unseat him/her by a 60% supermajority.

Appointments in the Navy, Army, or BOG are now considered semi-permanent. Promotion or retirement are the primary reasons for moving from one posting to another, aside from that officials will remain in position. Promotions happen as needed -- a new ship or ground unit, a new colony/outpost founded, a higher-ranking official retiring, etc. -- and the person appointed is based not on some abstract calculation but a vote of one's superiors. I.e., if a new general is needed the existing generals will vote on which colonel to promote, etc. This operates in a chain, where the colonel position vacated would then be filled as voted on by other colonels, and so on. There will be far less flitting about, because 'lateral moves' will be virtually non-existent. To encourage continuity, anyone who has not been in their current position 2-4 years will be unlikely to be promoted. There are exceptions of course.

Under the new paradigm it was proposed that R&D remain as it is, things are working well there. The Army would remain relatively unchanged. Colonels will be brigade commanders or prospective ones, Brigadier General for brigade commanders, Major General for division commanders(divisional HQs are not yet a thing but are being researched, so it's appropriate for plans to be made), and the highest rank of Lieutenant General is reserved for the senior commander in locations where multiple divisions are deployed. The honorary title of General of the Army is bestowed upon the Lieutenant General in charge of ground forces on Earth. The first is of course Anton Engelhardt, vitality still fending off retirement in his case. All of SPACE's ground forces ultimately report to him.

The other two branches of public service are effectively split into two tracks. In the case of BOG, the two tracks are malleable and converge significantly. There is the mining outpost career path, for those who excel in delving deep for vital TN resources, and the colony career path, for those who are better at managing populations. At this moment there is no place where they really merge completely. Earth as the industrial center has special needs, and both Titan and Callisto benefit from mining and logistic skills as well as those related to financial excellence. In general though while the mining path is less prestigious, it is not less important. New administrators in search of a first posting will tend to stay on the path where they get their first opportunity, but as skills evolve there is a significant chance of crossover.

The Navy would see the greatest change. The present system of eight distinct ranks would be largely done away with, replaced with a new system of ten. Each would generally define an officer's role and authority, not necessarily their overall skill:

Fleet Admiral -- The Navy's top officer, in present case the meteoric Mitchell Feeser. The Fleet Admiral, in addition to being the man or woman to whom all the naval forces ultimately report, personally commands all combat ships in the Sol system.
Admiral -- Top combat commander in any major system.
Vice Admiral -- Combat commander of any expeditionary/invasion fleet or defensive combat forces in a minor system
Commodore -- Commander of a combat task group/military base; Operations officer of a combat TF; Commander of any military non-combat TF
Captain -- Commander of a combat ship; staff officer of a combat TF; operations officer of a military non-combat TF; or commander of a commercial TF
Commander -- Commander of a military non-combat ship; staff officer of a military TF; operations officer of a commercial TF
Lieutenant Commander -- Commander of a commercial ship; staff officer of a commercial ship
Lieutenant -- Pool of candidates for first command. Most will have finished a year of training and experience as an ensign, but particularly talented officers will be fast-tracked here after six months or even in exceptional cases immediately upon graduation.
Ensign -- Recent graduates undergoing mandatory training and experience to prepare them for the responsibilities of command.

The two paths in the Navy are ship commander and staff officers, generally speaking. It will probably be rare for those in the staff officer path to rise higher than Captain or transition over to the ship command wing, but it is possible if they learn the proper skills.

BOG REACTION

There was a certain amount of hysteria, even shock from certain quarters. Even the opponents of Awad's plan though were forced to admit the truth of the assessment that the current setup often worked against SPACE and humanity, rather than serving it as it should. A variety of mostly spurious counterproposals were floated and had holes poked in them even more quickly. In the end BOG and more than enough of the public came to the conclusion that it was a troubling plan except when you compared it to all the others. The devil would always be in the details, but there was no question it was an improvement over the status quo.

The amendment passed quite easily in the end, and was put to an immediate test. Earth was without a governor. Typically that position passed to the second-place finisher in the election, but not under the new arrangement. It came down to three candidates: Burt Stonerock, Errol Igoe, and Roxann Harshberger. Everything of industrial importance pretty much still happens on Earth, and that was the dominant consideration. Stonerock had the best resume as an experienced governor accomplished in both shipyard and factory operations. His age(55, in declining health) was not in his favor though, and neither was the fact that he has made no friends due to his rampaging foot-in-mouth disease. Igoe is a shipbuilding savant but has only limited skill on the factory side, so a much more imbalanced candidate. He was Director Awad's favorite for the job as they share similar personal styles. Finally, there was Roxann Harshberger. Just 38, Harshberger has been on Venus for the last four years and has an overall resume to match Stonerock's.

Harshberger's overall body of work was considered far better for an eventual run at the Director's spot than for Earth: she isn't very skilled in industrial matters. Meanwhile, Russell Salvucci sided with Stonerock due their similar mentality(or lack thereof?), most of the other key players went that way as well due to candid observations that Earth really needs a strong hand on the factory side of things. The remainder really just didn't want to rock the boat, espescially if it meant making an enemy of Salvucci. And so it was that Burt Stonerock was appointed Governor of Earth.

This created a hole on Luna, and it was very quickly concluded that Harshberger was perfect for the job. She's talented in everything the moon needs: terraforming, population growth, and finances. The overall package made it a no-brainer. On it went, with the lesser positions being filled in similar manner. The full list, as an example of how the new policy is implemented:

Luna - Earth: Burt Stonerock
Venus - Luna: Roxann Harshberger
Europa - Venus: Rufus Ke
Triton - Europa: Augustine Wollner*
Borrelly - Triton: Timmy Sheerin
Tempel-Tuttle - Borrelly: Antione Fuss*
Unemployed - Tempel-Tuttle: Antonette Kristek

The asterisks were cases where it was more a candidates political acumen and highly-placed friends who got them the job rather than their actual management skills. This was particularly the case with Antione Fuss -- there was no question that Ronald Waxman was a better, more experienced candidate to take over probably SPACE's most important comet mining concern, but Fuss was better at winning over the right people without doing anything provably illegal.

Brian Swartz · 12-04-2014, 01:01 PM

** I think it's safe to say the annual report is dead. I don't think I've every had half this much stuff in the 'things that happened at Earth' section. It's a particularly busy time for SPACE right now but part of that is just what will become the 'new normal'. Exploration should pretty much be a constant thing, colonization will bring new challenges, and even if the Navy has no battles to fight there's just going to be a little more of everything. There have been times when it's just been the occasional bit of minor news for a few years with mostly just making sure the freighters keep running.

SPACE is no longer in it's infancy -- she's stretching her legs. So probably 2-3 updates a year I think is what's going to end up happening.**

January - September 2085

Fleet Admiral Mitchell Feeser was the key to keeping the peace in the early months of transition to the new arrangment. There was some necessary upheaval in the Navy, and a fair amount of confusion about what all the new ranks meant. Some had been effectively promoted, others demoted, by nature of the new status of their assignments. By the end of February though, Feeser had put out most of the fires and the skill with which he did so had even previously recalcitrant BOG members calling him an equal match with former Navy chief Ellie Camble as the greatest naval officer SPACE has ever had. That, my friends, is high praise indeed. At 49, he is likely to lead the service for another decade or more.

** February increases in Feeser's political reliability and survey skills in short order; his 'promotion score' is within 100 points of Camble's peak and 1000+ higher than anyone's else's has been **

March was a big month. The new mining governors were increasing supply enough that despite an increase to a moderate level of shipyard activity, most of the stockpiles were holding steady. Sedna added it's second complex this year which didn't hurt matters either. The new meson turret for Frozen Vengeance was finished, and all staff officers except those in ESF Bravo which is apparently still in Sirius had been reassigned. All the needed base and combat ship COs were already on location, so they began their new jobs and in just over two months the navy's power structure was in place. Any major disruption now averted, the attention was turned to the rank and file. By the middle of the month, gallicite was exhausted on Stephan-Oterma in not-so-good news and incoming Earth Governor Burt Stonerock began his duties on the 18th.

There was shipyard news detailed in the Earth notes in early April, and then on the 9th The JPS ID 63, high-powered thruster for the Caldwell redesign, has been finished with Alejandro Otteson serving as lead researcher. The new protocols will definitely result in a smaller number of those, but how many exactly has not yet been determined. The new design is hammered out:

Caldwell 84i VIP Shuttle
Size: 950t
Crew: 15(14)
Speed: 3315 km/s(2210 km/s)
Fuel: 500k
Range: 40.2b km(33.4 b km)
Cost: 183k(151k)

The sensors were only one generation old as this was one of the newer nuclear pulse classes. They were upgraded, the new ion powered thruster added, and a little more maintenance capacity added as well to make sure SPACE's most visible servants have an uninterrupted, smooth flight to wherever they are going. Despite a 50% speed increase, the same amount of fuel will carry the new models further, giving them more than enough endurance. Reducing the total in service will make this version's 30k price increase a much easier pill to swallow -- it should still be a much cheaper operation overall.

KSEC will require just over a month for the retooling. Meanwhile the last of the new engines enters testing. By April 19 all of the Navy's military ship postings were filled, leaving only the commercial openings left to resolve. Two days before the end of the month, that too was completed. Just under four months and the Navy was operating as before, only a little better. There were no holes going unfilled. The initial division of officers by rank:

Fleet Admiral -- 1
Admiral -- 0
Vice Admiral -- 0
Commodore -- 9
Captain -- 19
Commander -- 87
Lt. Commander -- 73
Lieutenant -- 8
Ensign -- 1

Not a lot of spare parts with all the new staff officers, that's for sure. But SPACE was confident the academies would soon rectify that situation.

On May 2, two Frontiers are finished, ready to outfit the ESFs with the new configuration. Two Caldwell commanders are tapped for the positions and their ships scrapped, the beginning of a process that will eventually see 20 of 32 done away with. This will add 10 million liters of fuel to the tanks. It will also cause a temporary stagnation in the lower ranks of the Navy, as that's twenty commanders(now 18) who will need to find new tours of duty. Two weeks later retooling was finished and the first of the new South Carolina superfreighters and Caldwell VIP shuttles were begun.

In about the middle of June the last of two Brooklyn 81s was finished, the final ship to be built of the 'old navy'. Yokohama Docks go silent for the time being. Still having heard nothing from Sirius, and with ESF Bravo gone two years, an Explorer was dispatched to the system to investigate and report back on their general mission status. This was around three times as long now as any other system has taken to survey ...

While that was still ongoing, with the Wickes refit nearing completion, SPACE engineering begins to work on the latest new design: the Spruance 85i Colony Ship. This was around the middle of July. Avid SPACE historians may recall that the original Spruance-B, built in the early days of the Sol colonial rush, was constructed but never actually used. This was because the earnestness of the civilian sector to profit from the process was not accurately anticipated.

There are no such concerns this time around as all jump technology is highly classified. Bringing people to a world outside of Sol will require an official transport.

Spruance 85i Colony Ship

Size: 52.2 kt
Crew: 299
Speed: 920 km/s
Fuel: 550k
Range: 62.4b km
Cryo Storage: 150,000 colonists
Armament: 6x CIWS 79 Batteries
Cost: 2.25m

The most expensive ship SPACE has designed to date, the Spruance 85i will be capable of taking 150,000 pioneers multiple jumps away from their home if need be to colonize new worlds. Obscene amounts of mercassium -- 1.25 mt -- will be needed for each ship, and several hundred kilotons of duranium as well. The cryogenic storage modules, 15 of them,demand the finest tolerances and most careful construction to ensure safety. Estimates are the first will be able to be deployed no sooner than late 2089.

A few days later there was a bit of history as SPACE finished it's 50th research complex -- a far cry from the five they started with a little over 60 years ago. Rounding out the month was the departure of ESF Alpha, which had been docked for about a year. To begin it's second voyage, it headed to Teegarden's Star for a hopefully short visit to clean up Bravo's mess(the fifth planet and it's two moons were never surveyed).

On August 12, the Explorer jumped to Sirius, and within an hour was back with the report that Sirius had been a difficult and complicated survey, but all mission indicators were still green and ESF Bravo would return in the fall with a full report. A relief to be sure that, as many in SPACE feared the worst, Director Awad certainly among them. The same week, five new Long Beach harvesters were finished and after a seemingly interminable run of construction the judgement was made that their are finally enough of them to stop constantly building more. By the end of August the new Interceptor missile was ready and ordnance factories began the initial run of those to get ahead, even though the Exorcist won't be ready for production for some time yet.

In the early hours of September 27, ESF Alpha made the jump to Teegarden's Star. SPACE was soon occupied elsewhere, as in the final hours of the month it was announced that the first-ever terraforming installation was now ready! Transport to Mars is arranged immediately, where nearly 80 million colonists eagerly anticipate the first TN jobs ever on the red planet -- as well as the prospect of improved living conditions, though it will likely be their children or even grandchildren who benefit most from that.

Before it could arrive, on October 8th ESF Bravo finally returned. The much-anticipated, long-awaited survey report on Sirius was finally here ...

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

January 7 -- Sedna finishes a 41st complex.

March 1 -- Sedna adds again, a 42nd.

March 16 -- Gallicite exhausted on Stephan-Oterma.

July 8 -- Boronide on Comas Sola has been exhausted.

August 12 -- A third Sedna expansion on the year.

PERSONNEL

January 23 -- Dante Sawatsky(DS, 31) is the latest to reach accomplished status, earning him a second lab for his work on shield regeneration rates.

April 16 -- A single colonel is dismissed.

May 16 -- Earth governor Burt Stonerock is probably the first accomplished terraformer BOG has ever had. Won't do him a whole lot of good in this assignment of course, but the colonies could potentially benefit from it if he ever reaches the Director's position.

June 5 -- Rufus Ke has reached accomplished status in encouraging new population growth. Don't ask how. Just ... don't ask.

June 9 -- Long-maligned Delois Woznicki improves her administration ability. This will allow her to remain on Mercury, which was becoming a strain too great for her abilities.

EARTH

February 20 -- The first retooling job is finished and the refit of the Wickes begins. It may not have ever done anything useful yet, but it's the first ship to get one of the new ion drives, so that's one small piece of history.

March 16 -- Fleet training exercises resume

April 2 -- Construction of the first of the new class of Fletchers begins. The old ones will be scrapped, as they are so old that they really need to go and it would cost almost as much as a new ship to refit them anyway. The current eight is far more than SPACE needs: three will be built to start, one at a time at Vegesacker Werft.

April 5 -- Oregon finishes retooling for the new Iowa fuel tankers. Due to the change in the tanks, this will be a new build prospect also. The Navy wants two in reserve for it's operations, so four regular and two XR tankers will be built this time instead of two of each. Oregon begins adding a second slipway to support this, while the first of the standard hulls is begun.

May 16 -- Retooling for the new Caldwell 84i and South Carolina 84i is now complete. As feared new superfreighters will need to be built, refitting isn't a practical option. Another four will be laid down at least, and impressively they could be finished in a little over a year. That means an impressive amount of minerals being burned through as well, but there's little option here. A similar story for the much-cheaper Caldwells

June 4 -- First pair of Caldwells are scrapped.

June 11 -- Last of the Brooklyn 81s is built. Second and last of the class.

July 1 -- Fleet HQ sends an Explorer to Sirius to investigate the length of their stay.

July 14 -- The Wickes is finished and retooling begins for the Spruance 85i. It will likely be close to the end of the decade before the first is in operation.

July 17 -- A 50th research complex has been built on Earth. That's still about 10-12 less than the optimal amount for the present scientists. The work must continue.

July 28 -- ESF Alpha leaves for the Teegarden's Star JP.

August 3 -- Sixth slipway completed at P&A Group SY. It will now need to expand a bit for the Long Beach 84i.

August 12 -- Ninth construction brigade is now in service.

August 14 -- Long Beach(x5) finished.

September 6 -- P&A Group has expanded to 80.9 kt for each of its slipways now and begins the process of retooling, which will basically take the rest of the year. That's a bit long to wait so the new 10th Harvester Group heads for Saturn, only four ships as the fifth will remain so engineers can do the refit calculations when the time comes.

September 11 -- A third and final shipment of automines leaves for Swift-Tuttle. So far the mineral stocks are holding up surprisingly well. Duranium is down only about a kiloton, corundium and neutronium are holding steady, mercassium slowly declining but there remains a buffer.

RESEARCH

** April 9 -- The JPS ID 63 has been finished(Alejandro Otteson)

** May 18 -- Eagle 72 military engine ready(David Gruis). For the first time in a couple of years, the power & propulsion field isn't completely occupied with prototype testing.

** June 5 -- Irving Steinmeyer finishes the SPPI ID 105, better known as the Interceptor engine. He's worked himself out of a job for the moment, as Elyse Buckler will take on testing the missile itself now.

** July 4 -- Combat Drop Modules of Battalion size are now ready thanks to the work of Modesto Huch's team. If we ever do find the homes of the alien bastards we'll likely need them.

** August 8 -- Vertigo 72 military engine finished(Alejandro Otteson).

** August 25 -- Interceptor 84i(Elyse Buckler) is finished.

** September 26 -- The SPPI ID 525, aka the Exorcist engine, has finished the prototype phase with Jerry Bartholf as project lead. This gives Elyse Buckler a chance to get back in the game for the next year-plus at least, working on the Navy's new ship-killer. They hope.

Brian Swartz · 12-09-2014, 04:28 AM

October - December 2085

Sirius Survey Report
ESF Bravo, October 8 2085

Survey Issues

Sirius itself was the main obstacle. The system is huge. It's the only system yet found where the jump point survey locations are more complex than those in Sol. Each Frontier took nearly a full month instead of less than ten days on station in most systems for each potential location. The pattern was huge as well. On the outer ring it was a month and a half travel, then a month for survey, etc.

The flotilla was also plagued by maintenance issues, far more than Alpha had in all their systems combined. Many began to consider the system cursed. Cmdr. Milo Rhoads, one of the Frontier COs, grew steadily worse and his junior officers had to pilot the craft back the long three-month journey from the final jump survey with him in sickbay. He's been honorably discharged from the service, and one of the other Frontier COs is rumored to be thinking about an early retirement after this tour as well. It just took a lot out of everybody. Crews were at the breaking point by the time it was finished, but they got the job done in the end.

Jump Points

Prolonging the fun was the fact that it was the very last location that yielded the second and last jump point in the system. This required a nearly three-month round trip by the Explorer while everyone waited the second half of that.

Geological Survey

After all that work, SPACE will benefit ... not much if at all. Sirius A I has massive quantities of inaccessible duranium and gallicite. The most habitable planet yet found, A II, has nothing and neither do it's moons. There are a handful of finds in the dense asteroid field, with the only one of real significance yielding 44 kt of mercassium at 0.9. Nice, but not worth coming here for.

Sirius-B, which orbits A at a distance of 3 billion km, was quite naturally almost completely on the other side of the Sol jump. It has a 45-year orbital period and at least 40 of those years would have been a better time to come visit. Go figure. The lone gas giant is barren, which shot all hope of a major insystem fuel source. The most habitable of it's moons, which could at least be put in the Mars/Luna range with some work, has 765 kt boronide(0.1), 9.9 mt sorium(0.1), and 2.06 mt neutronium(0.6). That last part is the only major mineral find in the system. This one moon is the only useful part of the Sirius-B system.

New System -- V577 Monocerri

Mid-range jump a little inside the middle ring, 1.78b away from the primary of two stars. Average pattern size and difficulty, just over half that of Sol.

A System: Two fairly habitable terrestrials, the first planet already has a breathable atomosphere. It's cold(-51 C), making it only a little easier to deal with than Luna/Mars. With a thicker atmosphere it could probably by Earth-like. One gas giant also with a dozen moons and two dozen asteroids. Overall pretty good.

B System: Orbiting at a little under 600 million km, this is a very accessible system. Two terrestrials, neither as habitable as the ones around the primary. Main feature is a close, thick asteroid belt with over 160 objects. Might be some interesting things in there.

An interesting, promising system that is also really far away. Average distance from earth is 10.1 billion, closer to 12 billion by the time you get to the planets around A. Time for the Spruance to make a round trip would be close to 10 months.

No wrecks, jump gates, or sensor evidence of alien presence of any kind.

Summary/Evaluation

It sucked, and there's little reason to go back at least in the near future. V577 Monocerri is just interesting enough to merit a closer look, but there's more interesting places closer. Neutronium is plentiful enough on the comets of Sol for a while to make building a colony to exploit that a little ridiculous. So far only one really good source has been found -- and that's in Epsilon Eridani. Heh.

There's time to find more though. Decades of time at this point. Eventually the extreme habitability of Sirius A-II will almost certainly see us expanding there. It's a ten-year terraforming job for one installation with a crappy governor. It's a dream to the right kind of pioneer. But there's nothing beckoning us there in the short-term.

Back in Sol, a week later on the 15th of October the terraformer on Mars officially went operational. An important moment in history, and one worth examining more fully. Mars has a very thin atmosphere, just 1% as thick as Earth's. It is also cold(-48 C, actually 5 degrees warmer than Luna due to the fact that there is significant CO2 here providing a small greenhouse affect). The biggest problem though is that the air isn't breathable, on account of their not being a hint of oxygen. The first goal then, is to add 0.1 atm, the minimum amount of oxygen to make it breathable. It will be far too high a concentration of oxygen at that point, requiring other gases for the right mix, but enough oxygen for human consumption.

250k is the right amount of population needed. The one will take over 42 years at this point at the current rate to reach the needed oxygen level. Nevertheless, it is a beginning. Things are underway.

On the 27th ESF Alpha returned from Teegardens Star. 318 kt of inaccessible duranium had been found, essentially leaving that report unchanged. Operation Renewal, the focus of SPACE's efforts since the early 60s and therefore lasting two and a half decades, was completed. Humanity had begun to become a spacefaring people, again.

Finishing one goal meant needing to find another. Until the last few years we had visited eight systems and fully surveyed only our own. We've doubled that first number now to sixteen, and have six fully explored. There are two no-fly-zone systems, those occupied by the aliens, and another that we must enter Lalande to reach. That leaves seven to expand our knowledge with.

CONCLUSIONS

** Humanity is extremely fortunate to have developed it's civilization in Sol. Had it happened somewhere like Barnard's Star we would have never reached this point. Sol is unique so far among the systems we've found both in mineral wealth and in being a strategic nexus of multiple jumps.

** Of the five other systems we surveyed, we have found three, two, one(twice), and zero additional jump points in them. 'Hub' systems appear to be quite rare and are therefore to be considered strategically important.

** Mineral resources are not abundantly overflowing, but definitely TN materials are common, nigh-universal. The long-term prospects for expansion and sustaining a growing interstellar empire are good -- if we can keep the aliens either at bay or not actively hostile.

** We need survey teams up and running and we need them as soon as possible. It is obvious there will be more work than they can possibly keep up with. Several of them would be nice.

** The jump gates in the Van Maanen direction are still a mystery. Obviously they were built by somebody however, and the presence of one in the Lalande system suggests it could have been them or a similar race. who moved on. This also bears further investigating.

** The leading candidate by an enormous margin for our first extrasolar colony is Luyten 726-8. It has significant resources in itself, and also provides an excellent location for supporting further exploration with an eventual refueling, shore leave, and maintenance base for the ESFs. It is very likely that at least one of the bordering systems will give promising possibilities.

** SPACE is a very long ways off yet from having any kind of coherent colonization policy. We'll need answers to questions we haven't even thought of yet. At this point though it is necessary to define some things in terms of exploration. Two major points are decided. The first has to do with how far to explore. It is very possible that by continuing to extend humanity's knowledge of those systems in our galactic 'neighborhood' we may come into contact with a more aggressive enemy that will attempt to chase us back to Sol and invade, but that could happen from Epsilon Eridani or Lalande at any time ignorance is not considered bliss. It is still far better to know what is out there than not to. A one-year limit is established, meaning the goal of the ESFs will be to explore systems that are within one year's travel from the closest refueling and maintenance base. Right now this is Earth only, and a distance of 18.7 billion kilometers. Beyond that point, about half the mission time would be spent just traveling and the enterprise would become wasteful. Almost all of the systems we know of right now are less than half that, so we are not yet approaching this limit. When the refits to the new ion-powered Eagle engines are done, that distance will probably increase. Plenty of room yet for increased exploring.

The second issue was a matter of standard operating procedures for the ESFs. For Renewal after surveying a system the flotillas jumped back into Sol and confirmed new orders from Fleet HQ before heading to the next one. This will no longer be practical, as from now on new systems will be found at least two jumps away. The ESFs will be out of contact for longer, and will need to operate independently of Fleet HQ. The Commodore in charge of each will have greater responsibilities. For each voyage/tour they will be assigned a 'route', i.e. a particular system to push beyond. For example, Alpha's next journey will take it to the Luyten 726-8 route, during which they will be tasked with the three new systems it connects to, and the mission will be to push the frontier as far in those directions as possible before returning to Sol. Fuel and maintenance levels will need to be watched ever more closely.

NAVAL DEPLOYMENT

Renewal brought much-needed intelligence to the Navy, and the news was both good and bad. An incredibly advanced alien civilization in Lalande 21185 is not good, but the other systems revealed no new civilizations and no evidence of them other than the jump gates in the Van Maanen 'route'. Teegarden's Star is a dead-end but threats could approach from any of the other six jumps. Intelligence has decided to take the rather unoriginal step of naming the known alien civilizations by using the AI-assigned name of the first detected ship class and then reversing the spelling. Therefore the aliens from Epsilon Eridani will be known as the Ratamli, and those in Lalande as the Erustfiws.

The Navy believes that blockading the jump points is the best way to defend against any potential incursion. Once an alien force gains a foothold in Sol space, they may well be able to simply bombard our positions from distance if they outrange us which the Erustfiws would be very likely to given how advanced their technology obviously is. As a long-term strategic matter, Frozen Vengeance is considered very important since if there is any chance of securing Epsilon Eridani with current missile technology, forces would not have to be divided between the two jumps but could be focused on the Lalande 21185 point. If not, any effective combat fleet will have to be defensive since we won't be as fast as their ships and virtually all weapons development for the forseeable future is going to be in the energy weapons field.

INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS

Although the beauracrats have put it off for far too long it has become painfully obvious that the Navy is going to need a lot more large(10kt) shipyards than it currently possesses. For Frozen Vengeance at least three will be needed(command ship, defense escort, anti-ship missile escort). It is clear that the Navy must get a blockade of the Lalande jump point up as well, the best chance of thwarting any enemy attack is to meet them when they come in. This would involve armed-to-the-teeth laser/meson ships at the point ready to fire as soon as anything emerged. That's a fourth yard, and then the Baltimore/Gearing survey carrier ships will require two more. Six.

Presently the Navy has four. International and Niehuis were immediately set to expand, a process that will take some years as has been discovered in the past. That leaves only KSEC which will the handle the Caldwell shuttles and Forrestal sensor ships. The Navy will still need a mid-range yard with 6+ kt capacity for the Tarawa colliers and Cleveland supply ships, plus a pair of small ones from the Ambassador, Prospector, Frontier, and Explorer. The current two ordered yards weren't enough, they'd need three and really a fourth should be built against future needs. .

With the completion of Renewal it was also clear that the first need for colonization was to confirm the findings with ground survey teams. It was proposed that the Ambassador diplomatic shuttle would double nicely for this purpose, but it would need larger fuel tanks so a new ship was designed. With the Navy's needs for the shipyards, nothing could be done right away.

Mine production was reduced further to accomodate. In the process it was determined that for decades now SPACE has been building new regular mines, then converting them to automated, a process which costs an eighth more than just building automated mines directly, in both time and treaure. An estimated three kilotons each of duranium and corundium had been wasted this way, along with countless billions of man-hours. Stonerock did a massive double-facepalm when he discovered this idiocy, and loudly corrected it. This sparked a new round of yelling and screaming but nothing much came of it. Sort of like the boy who cried wolf.

With the increasing pressure on Earth's factories Awad decided a strict prioritizing was in order. Research labs would continue to occupy a quarter, replication(mines/factories) another quarter, with the remaining half going to whatever else was needed. Some projects would go with minimal funding but that was just the nature of the beast. Continually expanding research and industrial capability simply had to be a priority. With that in place over time the capability of the 'discretionary half' would also rise. Ordnance factory and commercial yard allocations were both reduced a fifth(10 to 8% each) to allow faster construction of the vitally needed naval shipyards. It would still take until past the end of the decade for the recommended amount to be finished.

On November 10, the first naval shipyard, which had been almost finished, is ready for 'business'. Named C. Mitchell & Co., here after referred to simply as the Mitchell SY, it was planned to expand immediately for the Mitchell and Cleveland classes. After discussions with engineering it was determined a new jump drive was needed for a jump shuttle, whether to carry VIPs or geology teams. The ones used on the Explorers were not big enough for a ship that would end up being well over a kiloton in size. Irving Steinmeyer was tapped for a quick testing job on a new, slightly larger one-ship drive for that purpose, and the Mitchell yard expanded as initially planned.

For the moment that meant five yards expanding at the same time, though that won't last long, a few retooling projects going on, a slipway being added, along with the eight or nine ships being built -- new workers added to shipyards all the time, and the mineral drain was fairly massive.

As December began, a close look at the supplies for the incoming ESFs reveals that they will consume over 1300 tons of maintenance supplies when they dock, over 90% of Earth's current stockpile. Almost all of that goes to Bravo which had all kinds of trouble in Sirius. Nevertheless, it's one more priority that has to be added to the factory workload. SPACE orders a strategic reserve of five thousand tons to be built up. On the 21st, retooling is finished and engineering analyzes the costs for refitting to the new Long Beach 84i. This time the news was better. For a little over half the cost of a new ship the existing harvesters could be refit. With 41 ships in service, the overall savings to the Navy is expected to exceed 32 million credits, and of course the minerals saved are an even bigger deal. The decision was made to bring two groups in at a time, reorganizing the ten groups of four plus a spare into four groups of eight each.

The only real question then was whether to expand from six to eight slipways or increase the size of the yard, which would eventually be needed. It was decided the size increase was more pressing, with a goal of eventually reaching the 160-170 kt range, effectively doubling. The effect on the refits would be minimal anyway, given that it would take three years or so to expand for two more slipways, by which time a sizable portion of the refitting will be completed.

On Christmas Day, a nice present for the crew, ESF Alpha returns to Earth. It was four in the morning, so that they had the day and quite a bit longer to enjoy. It was expected that sometime in early February of next year all would be ready again for a prolonged voyage to the systems beyond Luyten 726-8. There would be a bit of an overlap here as Bravo will probably arrive a couple weeks before Alpha departs. They've got a longer stay ahead of them, of course.

EARTH

October 10 -- 4x Caldwell 84i finished, another four begun.

October 27 -- The third Ticonderoga 82 base departs, in sections of course, for Mercury. The initial run(500) of the new Interceptor missiles is completed. For now the ordnance factories go quiet waiting for Frozen Vengeance to proceed further with more specific details.

October 29 -- The first Fletcher 84i is finished, and another begun.

November 10 -- C. Mitchell & Co. naval SY opens.

December 11 -- First two South Carolina 84i ships are finished. For the most part two is all that has been needed, occasionally a third. The Navy wants at least six, to provide more capability for colonization.

December 26 -- Commercial SY Kaverner-Massa is christened. It was tasked to handle the Portland and Gato classes. The new Gatos were deemed a higher priority.

December 28 -- The first of the new Iowa tankers is ready and heads to Callisto.

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

November 5 -- Construction of the third of eight Ticonderoga 82 sensor bases, this one on Mercury is begun.

RESEARCH

** November 23 -- Testing of the new large power plant, the GEI GCF 5400, is completed by Norris Gunterman.

PERSONNEL

December 30 -- Gov. Yadira Desousa has become an accomplished terraformer, obviously a private study matter campagining for a post on Mars or Luna as he's currently on the mining outpost at Halley's Comet.

Brian Swartz · 12-09-2014, 04:51 AM

CHARACTER REVIEW

Here's how the active chars stack up under the new protocols:

Cmdr. Chance Perj -- Minimal crew training skill, low-level accomplished in fleet initiative. Accomplished surveyor. Good chance at a posting on one of the geology teams when they are formed. CO of an Explorer headquartered in Sol.

Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers Jr. -- Novice training and ground combat, but better than most of the rank. It will be really interesting to see what happens when Engelhardt retires, which will happen by the end of the decade for certain. Silvers Jr. is a bit of a long shot for the next leader but it's a definite possibility, two of the main rivals are Zoe Bean(young phenom from Mars) and Wyatt Pittman(experienced right-hand man of Engelhardt, Luna). Being born in the colonies won't help their cause. There is a handful of candidates who could be picked, there is no clear favorite. I was surprised that Silvers Jr. is only 35.

Col. Deacon Palmer Jr. -- Run-of-the-mill battalion CO. This unfortunately hasn't changed. One thing we've discovered is that army officers are pretty much who they are ... they don't improve as much over time as the other branches of service, as a rule. Minor abilities in training and combat make a decent commander, no political connections, nothing to distinguish yourself. An honorable but largely unnoticed career likely to continue that way. Only 15 army officers outranking him in a society of nearly 2 billion is pretty darn good, but he's probably stuck. At age 34, he's already had health problems. A few more years of this and then retirement is the likely career path.

Brian Swartz · 12-09-2014, 07:06 PM

January - June 2086

A few more construction factories have been built, but it is not coming close to the pace at which shipyard operations are currently expanding. That trend is expected to continue for some years to come, since the Navy is just beginning to enter what will be a prolonged period of peak shipyard operation, and the lion's share of the 'industrial investment' sector of Earth's manufacturing continues to go to producing automines so that the mining haul can continue to grow. A painfully slow process, but it continues.

Duranium and neutronium are in a slow free-fall, mercassium continues to decline every-so-slowly, but corundium has actually begun to rebound with the slower mine production. The next mine to be targeted will not be Herschel-Rigollet as anticipated but rather Whipple. A short-period comet, Whipple is never more than a 800 million kilometers away and has probably the best remaining untapped source of mercassium(15.9 kt at 0.7) as well as a decent stash of duranium(11.5 kt at 1.0). Sorium, tritanium, and a bit of uridium are there as pot-sweeteners.

The terraforming on Mars proceeds slowly, with the temperature already raised a fraction of a degree, but enough for the instruments to record it. Oxygen is now almost 5% of the thin atmosphere.

Many significant manufacturing goals are set to be completed late this decade or early in the next: ordnance factories, prefabricated 82-tech bases, the 'final' shipyards currently planned for this cycle of refits and Navy expansion, etc. For now, that makes progress on any one of them slow. It was noticed well after it should have been that Earth is in danger of not having enough mass drivers to keep up with all the incoming packets. This will delay matters a bit, and an emergency shift was made to increase production of them and up Earth's total to a minimum of 10(50kt capacity). To ensure no 'accidents' took place, the inactive one of Venus was picked up as well. Earth will attempt to maintain a full dozen to ensure 10 are always in place. It's an issue that snuck beneath the cracks, and will require currently produced automines to get dumped on Venus just to get some decent use out of them.

On January 17, ESF Bravo returns to Earth. More maintenance issues on the inbound journey meant they were unable to completely refill maintenance needs but by the time they leave supplies should be more than sufficient. More than half of Bravo's ship COs are replaced as they retire due to health issues related to the stresses of working in Sirius. It was a very costly survey, and a reminder of the inherent dangers involved in stretching our legs, galactically speaking.

On the 27th, ESF Alpha is cleared for operations a little early. They break orbit and make for the Luyten 726-8 jump to survey that 'highway'. They will leave Sol space in early April, and may well not return until late in 2090. This is the last Earth will see of them in this decade if all goes well. Most of the same personnel is with them as before. The following day, Dr. Garland Sidhom, standard-bearer for the Biology & Genetics research field and one of only four active elite scientists, had decided to retire from public life at age 65. While BG researchers are not usually of major importance, his legacy will be mostly that of advancing the effectiveness of terraforming efforts at the end of the 70s and early part of the this decade, a period that led up to the recent deployment of the first installation. The field now falls on hard times with only a trio of novices to carry on the torch, and further advances in terraforming are expected to be very rare. Meanwhile, humanity crosses the 2-billion barrier in total population for the first time in well over 60 years.

February begins with the first two groups of harvesters arriving at Earth to unload their fuel and begin the refit process. Total reserve fuel is at about 24 million, it will be interesting to see how well it survives the disruption of the refits. The final construction brigade exits training in the middle of the month. The ten of them number a combined quarter-million, almost half of the Army's total personnel.

In March some shipyard goals were met with the details noted in the appropriate appendix as always, and on April 3, 1532 GST, ESF Alpha jumped out of Sol. By the end of May a notable chapter in the navy's commercial operations passed as the second of the new Fletchers was finished. The old ones will now be scrapped, a ending a long and distinguished service of nearly four decades.

Things had settled down to a somewhat relaxed pace, relatively speaking at least, after the first couple months of the year.

PERSONNEL

January 9 -- Delois Woznicki(57) can now handle any assignment except for Director. Too bad she took so long to get here.

January 17 -- Russell Salvucci, currently posted as Mars' governor, is an accomplished financial manager now.

Mid-March -- BOG welcomes a new member, Lillie Buske. Already capable of managing mid-sized operations, she has a variety of decent starter skills, most notably in logistics and manufacturing.

Late April -- Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers Jr. furthers his ambitions with another jump in political connections, accomplished now(25%).

Early June -- Cmdr. Chance Perj records a minor increase in initiative.

RESEARCH

January 10 -- Eagle 60 military cruising engine finished(Reynaldo Darrington).

January 29 -- John Dangel(55, LG) pushes for a strong finish to his thus-far unmemorable career by stepping up to the accomplished tier.

February 29 -- Irving Steinmeyer finishes testing the new jump drive for the jump shuttle that will transport the geology teams. Work will begin on it as soon as the next naval yard is finished. The mass driver situation being what it is, that is not likely to be until next year.

EARTH

January 17 -- ESF Bravo returns and begins it's overhaul.

January 27 -- ESF Alpha is cleared for departure on the Luyten 726-8 route.

February 3 -- Long Beach refits begin.

February 15 -- Final Construction Brigade is finished.

March -- ENDM has reached it's goal and is now the largest-capacity SY at Earth at over 171kt. The new jump drives have a size limit of 169+ kt so it is ready to handle anything the new jump ship might throw at it.

March 5 -- A second Caldwell group is finished, one more to go.

Mid-March -- Vickers-Armstrong SY has reached its target size and begins retooling for the new Arleigh Burke.

May 3 -- First Gato finished.

May 26 -- The second and for now last of the new Fletcher freighters is finished

June 21 -- First shipment of automines leaves for Whipple.

June 25 -- First of the refit harvesters heads to Saturn.

June 27 -- Research lab finished.

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

February 17 -- Luna's Ticonderoga 82 base is the second to be completed.

Brian Swartz · 12-09-2014, 07:46 PM

I meant to post this last 'year', it's the lastest galaxy map from the completion of Operation Renewal, late 2085:

Brian Swartz · 12-10-2014, 08:22 AM

July - December 2086

It was mostly a lot of small things happening the second part of the year. Retooling for the Arleigh Burke was finished on July 25, and refits for the first four begun. A couple of days later mercassiuim was exhausted on Triton, this was expected to put Earth's supply into a much stepper dive. Also at the end of the month the last group of new Caldwells was finished and the old models began to hit the scrapping phase. August sees Elwood Tousant(SF) join the rarified air of elite scientists and a new group of Long Beach harvesters finishing their refits.

Mitchell shipyard started up the new Clevelands in September, and Earth hit the needed ten mass drivers. There were no mishaps in the interim, but that was a matter of sheer good fortune. Four more will yet be built for Venus, Whipple, and a couple of spares, but the crash course is no longer necessary and some of the factory space is diverted back to more urgent projects, mostly the naval shipyards being built. On the 8th Oregon shipyard finished it's second slipway and the new Iowa's proceeded now two at a time. The 10th brought the completion of the second and final Gato small freighter, and on and on it went with the navy's upgrading.

September 25th brought news of a more pressing caliber. After more than 16 years of leading SPACE's ground forces, GoA Anton Engelhardt(63) is calling it a career. The expected alien invasion never happened on his watch, but expansion of the army to various bases around Sol did. He spent the first half-plus of his career at low-level posting, on cadres from 2045-57 and basic garrison duty from 58-69. Shortly afterward he was elevated to lead the Army from 2070-2086 and did an admirable job at it. There was no question at any point in his tenure that he was the best officer for the job, and by a considerable margin.

Discussion about his successor swirled around the controversial and brilliant Zoe Bean, CO of one of the other brigades on Earth. The contoversy wasn't about her really, so much as the fact that she was a native of Mars. None of the colonies have had such a high-ranking official, and many felt they shouldn't. Three others were also put forward for the post. Incredibly none were older than Sterling Silvers Jr(36). The next would likely take the reins for a long time.

Eventually Gil Milstead(31), Earth-born and possessing good political and combat skills -- though training ability is notably lacking -- was appointed. Aside from that he has impressive overall skills. Milstead is a religous man, notable for his unsual insightfulness, ability to delegate, and a man who handles himself well in the public eye. Despite his youth, he has been a brigade commander for almost nine years so he knows his way around. It was a very close call with Bean the top challenger as expected -- it seems the Mars issue was the decider in this case. But Milstead is a very capable choice.

On November 7, ESF Bravo was cleared for departure from Earth and headed for the systems beyond Van Maanen. Between Alpha and Bravo they are scheduled to survey five of the seven known systems available to be explored, and who knows what beyond them. The year finished with more mundane shipyard news. The new Portland battalion transports began their construction run, while four Burke transports and a Long Beach harvester were finished with their refits within the final couple of weeks of December.

Earth

July 5 -- Second pair of South Carolinas are finished.

Mid-July -- First of the Fletchers has been scrapped.

July 25 -- Retooling for the Arleigh Burke is finished. Refits begin on four of the six hulls.

July 30 -- The final group of Caldwells is finished, and scrapping of the old ships begins.

August 9 -- 5 Long Beach refits completed.

September -- Mitchell SY reaches the necessary size for the Cleveland, but refitting is not advised and the first of two new ships begun. Meanwhile expansion continues to prepare for eventual work on the new Tarawa down the road. Also Earth has reached the ten mass drivers it needs.

September 2 -- First group of Caldwells scrapped.

September 8 -- Oregon SY adds a second slipway, and a second Iowa 84i is begun. .

September 10 -- Second and last of the Gato small freighters is finished.

September 14 -- Second of eight Fletchers scrapped.

September 21 -- The second of the Iowa 84i tankers is finished.

October 2 -- Second group of Caldwells scrapped.

November 2 -- Four more Caldwells are scrapped. The fuel from the scrapped ships is starting to replace that of those that have been built, and is keeping reserve levels well afloat.

November 7 -- Another Fletcher is scrapped and ESF Bravo is cleared for departure. They'll head out to the systems beyond Van Maanen.

Dec. 2 -- Another group of Caldwells scrapped. Four of eight groups now.

Dec. 8 -- First of the two new Cleveland's finished.

Dec. 18 -- At Kvaerner Masa SY, retooling is finished and the first of the new Portland battalion transports is begun.

Dec. 20 -- Refits finished for the first four Arleigh Burke brigade transports.

Dec. 30 -- Long Beach refit finished.

Personnel

Mid-July -- Promising CP researcher(Carmelo Constanza) graduates.

August 7 -- SPACE is up to four elite scientists again. The latest is Elwood Tousant(SF, 63) who won't have long at the top due to his age but has made an impressive late-career charge. He's presently finishing up testing on one of the new active sensors, after which he'll have his pick of projects to lead.

October 4 -- Reynaldo Darrington(PP, 38) steps up to the accomplished tier, further strengthing the vital propulsion field.

Research

September 27 -- Elwood Tousant's team finishes the new missile search active sensors. He'll next work on the fire controls for the Exorcist anti-ship missile, as the sensors field is still trying to catch up with all the testing projects.

November 17 -- Reynaldo Darrington has finished research into jump drive miniaturization. It is now possible to do a squadron jump with a 600-ton drive, the previous minimum was over 700 tons.

November 20 -- The Exorcist 85i missile is now ready for production(Elyse Buckler).

Colonial Developments

October 20 -- Venus begins assembly of its new Ticonderoga 82 sensor base.

sterlingice · 12-10-2014, 12:42 PM

Was the reorg due to poor results (i.e. bad mining governors in mining posts, etc)?

Also, you keep mentioning someone "building" jump gates. I thought they were naturally occurring locations. Are they alien made? If so, why does Earth have 8? Or is there a difference between a jump gate and a jump point (i.e the former is a device placed at the latter that allows for hyperspace jumps without a hyperspace drive)?

SI

Tellistto · 12-10-2014, 05:19 PM

SI,

Jump points and jump gates you have the right of. They are different. The gate allows transit to all ships through the point without need of a jump drive. Need one on both sides to make it usable for back and forth traffic.

These can be dangerous, as it also allows anyone else to use the jump point without a jump drive.

So use with caution.

Sometimes the game creates systems with Gates already installed on jump points, but it's not that normal.

Tell

Brian Swartz · 12-10-2014, 08:21 PM

The reorg was not due to poor results, though that also did happen. It was due to necessity, which often is the mother of invention as the saying goes. I did it earlier than I planned due to having officials missing(Rakes being forced out and then Alborn having to retire suddenly) during successive administrations, thus creating a more urgent 'casus belli' for a change if you will. But having a multi-system 'empire' pretty much made it essential. Having shuttles constantly moving across multiple systems every couple of years would be ridiculous -- under the previous system there would eventually reach a point where a lot of positions would spend more time with people in transit than actually doing their job if and when humanity's colonies get widespread enough.

Basically from time to time there are situations where a policy that worked before when SPACE was smaller does not work now. This will happen again, at some point, perhaps multiple times, in dealing with a 'multi-system empire' scale of civilization. I've been fairly reactionary about it. I'm trying to be a little more proactive and solve problems before they occur, but there is also a real sense that society doesn't change until there is significant pressure -- having something cause a little bit of real pain and then saying 'maybe we should do something different' strikes me as the kind of things that really would happen and makes it interesting for me as a player.

Tellistto is correct on his jump gate explanation. The naturally occurring ones are being viewed by SPACE as evidence of former alien civilizations in the area(what else could they be?), particularly since there is one in Lalande.

** Full disclosure: A bit of the 'new order' is based on other Aurora stories I've read, but it also owes a fair amount to the Turian Hierarchy in the Mass Effect universe(itself modeled loosely on Roman civilization). I've always found those kinds of 'flawed meritocracy'/bordering on oligarchy systems interesting. **

Brian Swartz · 12-10-2014, 09:50 PM

** Note: the thread is now officially caught up. Current game date is December 1, 2087. I plan on keeping it that way or at least close. Sometimes it can be difficult to rip myself away from particularly interesting times in the game(the initial voyages of the ESFs were espescially this way given the literally decades of buildup to them) to format my notes into a post **

JANUARY - JUNE 2087

The year began with a bang. Shortly after the annual celebrations of having survived another year, Director Awad announcee he would be retiring at the end of January. It was one of those things which tended to drown out other news in the month. A couple things in the shipyards and in colonial mining operations, ESF Bravo jumped out to Van Maanen on the third of the month, but pretty much the minds of most were on who the new rirector would be.

Official Biography -- Director Riley Awad

Awad succeeded late in his career. An unknown beauracrat until his mid-30s, he made his first noise in being appointed to Governor of Sedna in 2057. Even then it was a distant but important posting. Minor colonies and comet postings covered the next decade plus, as he was sometimes in the election field, sometimes just out of it. Then in 2073 he finished second and got the reward of that accomplishment at the time, the governorship of Earth. He was 49. A tour on Luna proved to not be fortuitous, at least not health-wise. He grew in capability steadily though and once Duling and Eighmy left the scene, he was clearly the best of those left. His six years as Director have been generally well received, with the emphasis on diversifying the economy after the consolidations under Rakes and the controversial use of the Sealed Order to provide a major change in SPACE's continuity and official governmental structure as his most obvious legacies.

Directorial Election: January 30, 2087

Eight qualified, but only four made the ballot. A small field as it's become more and more of lately. Burt Stonerock was the most qualified, but he is also 58, in declining health which will allow him probably only a couple more years of service, and he couldn't spell 'tact'(or use the concept) if his life depended on it. The arrogant Russell Salvucci is always popular when anti-SPACE sentiments run high, but they really don't right now. Errol Igoe and Evelyn Kaczor have a less polished overall resume and body of work than anyone who has held the office since the days of Lena Dungey(impressive bonus points for anyone with any idea who she was). Kaczor is the kind of straight-shooter that could make a fine director someday.

The electorate essentially punted on this one. Stonerock has done a good job in his time as Earth's governor, he's got a balanced set of economic skills, and while he doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut or what to say when he opens it, he is a strong leader unafraid of challenges. He was elected in one of the most one-sided elections SPACE has ever had, a stark contrast to his narrow loss to Awad just over two years ago. The full results:

Burt Stonerock -- 40.8%
Evelyn Kaczor -- 24.3%
Errol Igoe -- 19.0%
Russell Salvucci -- 15.9%

By making this choice, they are essentially giving the others a little longer to distinguish themselves. Another candidate could rise as well of course, and it's also possible Stonerock's health could improve. Salvucci is three years younger but his peak seemed to be during the New York scandal, Igoe and Kaczor a full decade more junior than the new director. Salvucci was definitely the big loser this time around, while Kaczor showed herself a real player in finishing a distant second. BOG then had the crucial task of choosing a new Earth governor.

Stonerock maintans most current economic policies. He's hawkish and aggressive by nature, intending to accelerate Frozen Vengeance as much as possible and let the chips fall where they may. Earth still needs a strong hand in production but logistics are also seen as important this time around with the amount of activity at the spaceport and overhauls for ships, etc. There were several possible candidates, but one stood way apart from the rest. The popular and now qualified Delois Woznicki had no serious rivals -- she's the only one with any logistics ability at all and is accomplished in production matters across the board, decent political connections and a good public manner -- finally the 58-year-old underachiever has hit the big time. She's still in excellent health and should serve as an oustanding governor on our homeworld for several years. In the areas that matter most, the Stonerock/Woznicki pairing in the top two spots in the agency really is quite a strong combination.

Ricardo Bloise moved from Sedna to Mercury, replacing Woznicki, in a mild surprise. Most expected Kaczor, currently on Ganymede, to get that spot. Meanwhile Sedna is taken by Ronald Waxman, one of the finest mining administrators around. It's a promotion he should have gotten years ago, but was passed over for political reasons.

On February 2, the final pair of South Carolinas are finished, allowing for the old ones to now be scrapped and reducing the mineral drain significantly. Meanwhile under Roxann Harshberger's leadership, Luna has now surpassed Mars as the most populous colony again. The right leader, in the right spot, can make a big difference. By the end of the month a couple of the older Nimitzes have completed maximum readiness in their training exercises, another step in getting the Navy up to speed. All of the sensor packages were now either finished or in testing as well.

Lots of shipyard activity as has been the trend lately. By the end of March the new Clevelands were finished with the second of the 84i's clearing the Mitchell SY, and an initial run of Exorcist missiles was concluded as well. By April duranium was up a full kiloton in the two months since the South Carolina's were finished, but that also was due to reduced production on Earth with officials still being shipped around after the election. Once Woznicki arrived things would pick up again.

In the spring, a tenth automine and finally a mass driver departed for Whipple on April 21. That's halfway now to the current target goal of twenty mines on the comet. In May, there was news from Sedna. With new administrator Ronald Waxman in place, it was announced that duranium production had reached five figures -- over 10kt annually. That's just insane. Exhaustion clock is now down to under 25 years. That's horrifying.

On June 12 Delois Woznicki arrived on Earth, completing the transition. Most will be faster but with Sedna in the chain of commands to be replaced it takes a while for even the new shuttles to get out to that rock. Getting Waxman there was vital though. The initial results are that we now have enough supply to sustain current levels(more or less). Less than a week later the final South Carolina's were scrapped, leaving Earth with 34 million litres of fuel in the tanks -- 56 million, by far a record(low 40s was the previous high) combined when Titan and Callisto are added into the mix. The goal is a minimum of 100 million, but it's nice to have more of a buffer than the 15-20 million commonplace for the last several years. Each of the superfreighters carried 2.15m apeice, so they were far from the only factor but a significant one.

Rounding out the first half the year, retooling for the Spruance 85i colony ship was finished on the 29th, and the first, named the CS Forbes, is set to be finished late next year. All that remains for colonization to be viable is the jump ship, for which the jump drive is still being researched.

The 'ion drive era transition', or whatever you want to call it, is somewhere around the halfway point now. Fuel and mineral levels are as healthy as they've been in years. There is generally confidence in current leadership, and SPACE stands less absurdly ill-prepared for the future than it has in quite some time. Of course, that means it's a prime opportunity for the other shoe to drop -- but perhaps humanity will catch a break for once.

Earth

January 2 -- Fletcher, 4x Caldwell scrapped.

January 3 0846 -- Bravo jumps to Van Maanen.

February 2 -- Last pair of South Carolina superfreighters completed.

February 4 -- Another group of Caldwells scrapped.

February 17 -- Five more Long Beach's finish the refit. Five slipways idle while more return from Saturn.

March 1 -- Another Fletcher scrapped. Three to go.

March 11 -- Another group of Caldwells scrapped.

Late March -- Four more harvesters begin the refit process.

March 28 -- Another class update is finished as the second Cleveland clears the Mitchell SY.

March 30 -- Initial run of 200 Exorcist missiles finished.

April 10 -- The first two South Carolinas are scrapped.

April 20 -- Final two Caldwells scrapped. 11 former COs still do not have new assignments.

April 21 -- A tenth automine and finally a mass driver depart for Whipple.

April 29 -- First of the Cleveland's is scrapped.

May 11 -- Fletcher scrapped. Two to go.

May 29 -- Second of the old Cleveland supply ships scrapped.

June 11 -- Last two Arleigh Burke's are refit, and the first of the new Portlands is finished.

June 17 -- Last two South Carolinas scrapped. Fuel tanks hold 34m on Earth alone, a record 56m combined. 100m is the goal.

Late June -- Third of the regular Iowas finished, first of the XR versions begun.

June 29 -- Retooling finished for the Spruance 85i.

Colonial Developments

January 6 -- Sedna adds a 44th CMC. Uridium production has begun to decline now, duranium has about twice the amount though and has not yet begun that process.

Mid-January -- Vendarite exhausted on Borrelly.

Late January -- Sedna up to 45 now.

February 15 -- Sedna is at 46.

February 19 -- Sedna is blowing up, 47 complexes now. 8.2kt of duranium per year, but the exhaustion clock is now under 30 years.

March 30 -- Mercury completes it's Ticonderoga 82 sensor base.

Personnel

Early February -- Russell Salvucci ups factory bonus in an apparent effort to do better with the voters next time, while Commodore Hank Rohrer has increased his novice intelligence abilities. New researcher Edna Hanzel(DS) is more notable for the fact that she immediately becomes a prime candidate for survey duty, accomplished in that task as well as the so-far useless xenology.

Late February -- Deanna Ide is the second promising CP researcher to join the scientific ranks in as many years.

March 20 -- Fleet Admiral Mitchell Feeser has expanded his training skills to legendary status.

April 8 -- The continuing fleet exercises have helped Commodore Ronald Dunkin become accomplished in managing fleet operations as well.

April 16 -- One officer dismissed from the navy and army each. It's become quite a rare thing reserved only for the most incompetent to slip through the cracks at the academies.

May 21 -- A big year for Ronald Dunkin continues as the Commodore is now approaching the elite range in training skill.

June 2 -- Cmdr. Chance Perj ups initiative.

Research

February 19 -- GEI SSS 336.7, the new ship search active sensors, completed by Bessie Wallander. All of the needed sensor prototypes are now either completed or at least in testing.

Mid-April -- Dr. Carmelo Constanza(CP), just ten months out of the academy, moves up to accomplished and takes a second lab. There are presently 28 projects which is the lowest it's been in a long time due to a higher number of mid-level scientists right now. Only the best novices or those needed for specific testing projects are able to get consistent work.

May 9 -- Maintenance module research complete(Stanley Kogut).

May 17 -- The Exorcist missile fire controls are now ready(Elwood Tousant). He'll take over the second half of the testing phase on the fire controls for the meson turrets next.

Tellistto · 12-13-2014, 06:41 PM

Update update update!

Brian Swartz · 12-13-2014, 10:15 PM

Yesterday I woke up, did a bunch of stuff, and then went back to sleep.

Tellistto · 12-14-2014, 06:19 AM

Nice! That second job can be killer on the weekends, huh?

I'll be patient!

Brian Swartz · 12-14-2014, 02:46 PM

Nah I was just being sarcastic. I actually only work one job now, which ironically I have to leave for now and I'm not quite done formatting the next update. So it'll go up tonight after I get back

Brian Swartz · 12-15-2014, 02:49 AM

Here's a proper update for you. Enjoy your wall of text :P

JULY - DECEMBER 2087

Even with the increased overall factory output, the shipyards are only moderately busy right now and mineral supplies are holding steady. In late August, a new scientist joins that is of particularly important note. Deacon Palmer III is the answer to many hopes and even prayers, dare I say it. He is the first ballistic weapons researcher to arrive in the 15 years since Elyse Buckler graduated the academy. He's also more than twice as good, good enough to merit a spot at the head of the class to get the next available laboratory complex, though he is still a novice. He'll be watched closely, her every success celebrated regardless how minor. Palmer III could be the one to begin moving the field of missile technology forward again. Ironically while his grandfather was known for construction advances, he'll mostly be tasked with finding better ways of destruction.

On the 29th, Rufus Ke retires from the moderately important position of Governor of Venus. The 'green' pressure-cooker of a planet is just shy of surpassing Titan, both with a little under 18 million population. As for Rufus, he steps down at age 64. He came from nothing, spending over half his career as a paper-pusher before taking the reins at Io in 2067. He's been on middling comets like Comas Sola and Van Biesbroeck, had a tour at Europa, and the last two years-plus on Venus have definitely been the peak of his influence. He's become important, but not indispensable.

As the only available administrator with colony experience and the ability to manage a large endeavor such as Venus, Evelyn Kaczor, presently serving on Ganymede, was a choice that essentially made itself. Antione Fuss used his connections to get himself another move up the ladder, taking the opening at Ganymede and leaving Borrelly where, to be honest, he was virtually useless as a mining supervisor anyway.

A month later, in the last week of September, the massive commercial jump drive is finally finished. It caps off Rosemary Urenda's career -- the propulsion leader retires at age 65. Only three elite scientists now remain. Urenda has been the face of the propulsion field for the last decade-plus after toiling behind others most of her career. A very productive and impressive career, and while the field has several solid leads behind her there are none in the elite category yet.

With this development the new jump ship specs are decided upon by the design teams. It is far different than the original North Carolina which served during the Epsilon Eridani crisis, but will bear the same name.

North Carolina 87i Jump Freighter

Size: 168kt
Crew: 995
Speed: 715 km/s
Fuel: 1.5m(52.9 b km range)
Cargo: 75k
Cost: 3.82m

This ship dwarfs the Spruance for sheer cost due to the price of the jump drive mostly, which is nearly a million credits by itself and requires huge amounts of engineering space for spare parts. ENDM begins the costly retooling process which will take a little under a year.

COLONIZATION -- A NEW ERA DAWNS

With this development it is time for SPACE to decide how colonization will be handled. It will be a few years before the ships are built for it of course, but other preparations need to be made by then. Director Burt Stonerock made what many termed an arrogant series of pronouncements on the subject, but that's a misunderstanding of the man. Arrogance is a better description of Salvucci. Stonerock isn't arrogant -- that would imply he considers his own opinions to be better than those of others and he wouldn't lower himself to imagine other opinions relevant enough to even make such a comparison. He's simply a leader who believes in doing what he thinks is best in any situation, political considerations be damned.

Accordingly, these points have been laid out:

** The colonies will have the same relationship to SPACE as the ones in Sol do -- they are expected to contribute whatever resources are developed to the greater good of SPACE/humanity. This is not expected to be a problem in the short-term, but as the population living off of Earth grows, some sociologists are concerned that a different, less heavy-handed approach will be required to maintain unity.

** Beginning in Luyten 726-8, a 'seeding' approach will be used. The goal is to provide a big investment at first, enough to support a million colonists in a new system and make the colony self-sufficient. Then efforts will switch to a new system while the colony grows on its own according to the whatever the current needs are(both locally and for SPACE).

** With the coming mineral(espescially duranium) crash, though it's still a decade or two off, Stonerock believes a mere token or minor investment is not in the best interests of SPACE. He makes the suprisingly large commitment of setting aside a full 20% of Earth's industrial capacity to building equipment for colonization efforts. Earth's production is to be divided into the following categories, each at a fifth of the total:

** Research
** Industrial expansion(new mines/factories for Sol)
** Military Base upgrades(when needed)
** Electives(miscellaneous, i.e. shipyards, academies, terraforming installations, whatever is deemed needed)
** Colonization equipment

Luyten 726-8 Colonization Needs

As an example of this approach, the following equipment is ordered under this 20% investment for eventual delivery to Luyten.

DSTS
Ticonderoga 82 Sensor Base with garrison btn.
10 factories
10 automines
1 Terraforming installation
6 Mass Drivers(1 for Luyten A-II(receiving), one each for Luyten A-I and each of the four comets that will be tapped)
Infastructure for 1 million colonists(2.0 colony cost, so 400 tons)
6 administrators
A new commercial TF(one captain, one commander, four Lt. Cmdrs.)
50 tons of each TN mineral for startup operations

It is obvious that, particularly in the realm of political administration, the pool of available leaders will need to be expanded. It is expected that the above requirements will be able to be delivered to Luyten by the mid-90s, at which time a new system will be chosen for investment. If this pace(roughly) continues and SPACE is able to add a new system every 6-8 years as is hoped, the current four academies will be woefully inadequate to supply enough bodies for all the needed positions. Two more academies will be built as an initial first step in alleviating this crunch. The jump shuttles and geoteams for them are top priority right now, as it continues to be SPACE's policy not to deploy mines anywhere that surveys are not complete. The sooner that is finished, the sooner production can begin.

Luyten 726-8 A-II, the world where the new colonists will live and work aside from the automine leaders, has been named New Genesis in honor of it being the first world to be populated outside of Sol -- IF everything goes according to plan. As we know, it often doesn't.

With these changes in place, Earth's factories are now running a record 15 different activities, and that's with some(DSTS, mines, factories, terraforming) doing combined work both for Earth/Sol and the colonization efforts. Jump gates are a matter of some contention. It is decided they should be built to any system with a population of 25 million or more, with the additional requirement that they must have all adjacent systems surveyed with no evidence of present alien activity. This obviously isn't the case in Sol, but that's declared to be an obvious exception since (a) it's defended by the navy and (b) any invasion of Sol will either result in the aliens defeat or humanity's defeat. The Navy will not beccommitted to defending outlying systems in the same way. DSTS and Forrestal sensor buoys will be early priorities for developing systems. All of that brings us to the latest design:

Nautilus-class Jump Gate Construction Ship
Size: 65.5kt
Crew: 270
Speed: 732 km/s
Fuel: 550k(49.7b km range)
Jump Gate: Construction in six months
Cost 1.81m

Some very expensive ships coming out of engineering lately. Apparently a subway token isn't enough to get this colonization business going. Vegesacker Werft SY, which handles the Fletcher freighters and is currently idle, is chosen to expand to the needed size.

October brought a return to the more 'mundane'. Mitchell SY reached 6.54kt capacity, a little more than needed for the new Tarawas. Retooling for them last a few months. Most of the SDF has finished training, with only three ships still needing additional work. On the 2nd of the month, four more Long Beach's head to Saturn after their refits. That's 19 of 41 finished, nearing the halfway point. Later in the month, Portland refits are finished. The old Portland II's will now be scrapped. Originally deployed from historic Vickers-Armstrong SY in January of 2053, they have enjoyed a fine tour of service lasting nearly 35 years.

By mid-November, Sedna had built multiple additional complexes, bringing the total to 51 and an astonishing seven built just this year! Also a new civilian firm Elman Freight Services is formed. That's 14 now technically, though less than half are relevant.

Another bullet to R&D was fired on November 26. Having completed the testing on the new Sniper fire controls, Elwood Tousant retires at 64. He was a slow starter but a major contributor at the end of his career, and in one of the most vital fields of study. With Frozen Vengeance testing almost finished and new long-term projects next on the agenda, it's time for others to carry on the torch. This leaves SPACE with just two elite scientists(Kuchler in the SF field, Lambeth in LG).

The year finished in dramatic and cliffhanging fashion, with the final needed testing done on the new thermal sensors. This meant engineering would be busy over the new year transition hammering together designs for new ships that will attempt to give wings -- err, engines -- to our collective desires for retribution ...

Earth

July 5 -- Research lab finished.

July 8 -- Fletcher scrapped, final one started.

July 10 -- Final standard Iowa tanker finished, last/second of the XR's begun.

July 28 -- Another Long Beach refit is finished.

August 26 -- The original Fletcher is officially no more after the last of the ships is scrapped.

October -- Mitchell SY begins retooling for the new Tarawas

October 2 -- Four more Long Beach refit.

October 5 -- 20th harvester refit completed.

October 24 -- The second Portland 84i is finished and the battalion transport upgrades are now finished.

November 28 -- First of the Portland II's scrapped.

Personnel

October 21 -- Venus gov. Evelyn Kaczor continues her gradual rise through the ranks of BOG by increasing her connections marginally.

November 6 -- Col. Elaine Menna graduates the academy, complete with genius-level ground combat command abilities. Pretty neutral mental outlook although she is prone to complacency.

November 7 -- Commodore Parker Lanzi increases fledgling operations skill.

Colonial Developments

August 8 -- Sedna up to 48 CMCs. That's five this year which I think is a record. If this keeps up it could be gone in 15 years, but we'll be able to stockpile a considerable amount of duranium in the interim.

Mid-November -- Sedna expands for a sixth time this year, which I know is a record. 49 CMCs. Purchases are approaching 12 million credits a year, and still rising. Only research is a higher line item in the budget, and not by much.

November 17th -- A 50th(seven this year!) complex on Sedna.

November 21 -- Callisto begins work on their new Ticonderoga 82 sensor base. It's scheduled for completion a year from next Christmas, though nobody really expects it to be finished by then.

Research

** September 27 -- The AKH CJ-90.4, the new massive commercial jump drive, is finally finished by Rosemary Urenda's team. She retires and Deacon Palmer III takes a lab for work on improving the output of ordnance factories. A little construction, rather than destruction, task to begin with despite his chosen field.

** September 29 -- Carl Fosberg finishes testing the Interceptor missile fire controls.

** November 19th -- The latest SITG Emdar version(military EM sensors) have been tested with Ross Dodge completing the work.

** November 26 -- New Sniper fire controls for the meson turrets are completed(Elwood Tousant).

** December 30 -- Bessie Wallander's team finishes the new thermal sensors(SITG ThermoScan 176.7).

Brian Swartz · 12-15-2014, 11:25 AM

Failures of Imagination

Frank Borman once famously used those words to describe the training accident that killed three Apollo astronauts more than 120 years ago. As the Navy's engineers attempted to hammer out effective ship designs for Operation Frozen Vengeance, they became watchwords again. It seemed that another point in history had been reached where not all the possibilities had been fully considered.

History is a very strange thing sometimes. So many times it has happened that the course of a man, an army, a nation has been governed by an occurence of seeming incredible improbability. Smooth progress often seems rather more the exception than the norm. SPACE has over its history had such periods, but also many where humankind advanced by fits and starts. Great plans can be made and erected only to find they've been built with an insecure foundation, or in the wrong place entirely.

At the beginning of 2088, it seemed that at the moment the most important consideration was a ball of rock, smaller than many regional geological features on Earth, more than 11 billion kilometers away. The history of Sedna itself is an example of both the failures, and successes, of human imagination. It was not discovered until 2003, and less than two years after it was surveyed the civilians began mining it in November 2046 -- more than 40 years ago. This was an achievement beyond amazement at the time, given the very basic state of even SPACE's spaceflight capabilities. Jump Theory had just been discovered and we were in the nuclear thermal age of propulsion. It was the very unlikelihood of it that even made it possible: the Ministry of Resource Development(MRD) had failed to file the necessary paperwork mandating the 1600-km-wide dwarf planet as an official colony, thereby precluding any civilian involvement, because it had been deemed unnecessary: the idea of any private sector group going to the at-the-time astronomical expense of traveling that far from Earth was ludicrous. Ludicrous, that is until it happened. Fortunes were invested in the very speculative enterprise, and where SPACE's imagination failed, theirs succeeded almost beyond measure.

For 41 years and counting, Sedna has been Sol's best source of duranium and the most plentiful outside of Venus. It now contributes almost a third of the total mineral haul and about two-thirds of that vital building block without which any major TN application is flatly impossible. Compared to any other known material, duranium's tensile strength is simply not approached. It is virtually priceless.

As the plans for the new ships were designed, re-designed, and pored over, cracks in the Frozen Vengeance concept appeared. The first was that the new ships would have to be larger and more expensive than originally thought, and with less capability. Engineering was unable to come up with a reasonable design that would allow for more than 3600-3800 km/s, far faster than the current Nimitz/Brooklyn ships but not as fast as was hoped. The meson turrets and fire controls were more massive than had been originally considered and functionally impractical.

At the same time, questions began to be more fully considered as to what would happen after Frozen Vengeance. If the operation failed, there was certainly a marginal risk. Humanity's survival to this point was due mostly to the fact that the Ratamli apparently do not consider us a significant threat. An attack could change that, but what had not been fully considered before was what would happen if we succeeded? An attempt to subdue the entire Epsilon Eridani system was the logical answer. This is where Sedna came in: any such attempt would likely be occuring around the turn of the century, in the middle of what is the expected timeframe for the coming mineral crash. Failure or success would both result in the same problem: a need to divert a lot of resources to the combat wing of the Navy at a time when it will likely be the least affordable.

Faced with these factors, and an revised analysis giving a low chance of success, Burt Stonerock was virtually forced to conclude that continuing the operation would be a clear case of throwing good money after bad. Thirty years after the fact emotions still run high in some quarters, particularly in the Navy, but the economic base to fight and win a technologically inferior war does not yet exist. Without it, beginning the fight is now deemed a fruitless enterprise. A significant amount of research capacity has been diverted to Frozen Vengeance the last few years, but aside from that, there has been little wasted.

Brian Swartz · 12-15-2014, 12:08 PM

JANUARY - JUNE 2088

With a punitive expedition tabled indefinitely, SPACE still needed to find a more modern approach to defending Sol. Every analysis showed the same problem: the missile bases were good for PR, but might not be good for anything else. The best chance for defense would be at the jump points themselves. If a hostile force ever penetrated into the Sol system, they quite probably -- particularly if the technology gap is as significant as it appears to be -- could simply assault Earth and the colonies at range. Bottling them up with a dedicated jump point defense was the only option that allows some chance no matter what their capabilities. Thus began the planning for the Guardian. A small warship designated as a corvette, it would need a few small systems but nothing requiring a major effort. A full design spec is expected in months.

Back to normal business. To start the year, Lt. Bertha Trammel heads out to Saturn to take her first command on one of the Long Beach harvesters. This is notable only because she has the highest scores in combat initiative ever seen despite being only a year and a half out of the academy. Quite literally off the previous charts, she's redefined what's possible possessing an almost preternatural sense of what her opponent's next several moves will be. It will be interesting to see where this tactical genius takes her in the SPACE Navy.

It was a quiet-ish first couple of months. The first real news at all was completion of retooling for the new Tarawas, with the announcement that theirs would be one of the most cost-effective refits. Only about 40% of the cost of a new ship would be needed. Late February was the timeline here. March began with a major advancement in planetary sensor capabilities(Dr. Julio Kuchler). Techniques effectively increasing the detection range of tracking stations by more than a third are involved, allowing for more advance warning in the case of any approaching threat. His efforts will next be put toward improving our missile tracking techniques in an attempt to make beam point defense a more viable option. A few days later Reinmuth governor Philomena Hubner, a mid-level administrator at best who did not leave a particularly lasting impact, retired at 64. Once among the most important mining outposts, Reinmuth still has 34 automines and is one of the biggest neutronium sources, assuring it will maintain relevance for decades.

New developments continued to come fast and furious in March. The last of the new Iowa XR tankers was finished on March 12, and about the same time the decision was made to cease shipyard expansions. None were vitally needed now -- it would be nice to keep the P&A Group SY expanding as preparation for eventual larger harvesters but far more important was to preserve as much duranium as possible. Meanwhile it was discovered that there was a miscalculation in the jump shuttle: the plans would require a slightly larger jump drive, requiring another round of testing before that design could proceed. More harvesters finished their refits, research was completed on the first of the new Guardian systems, the Venus Ticonderoga 82 sensor base was made operational ... and March wasn't even over yet. Before it was, Dr. Deborah Barnhouse(42) became the first elite scientist in the Defensive Systems field, most notable for advances in armor and thermal emissions masking, in probably a decade or more. Theoretical Cloaking Theory concepts is her current tasking.

April was a busy month as well. The completion of another terraforming installation and deployment to Luna was a big piece of welcome news to start the month. It ended well also, with the finalization of the blueprints for the new jump defense ship:

Guardian Jump Defense Missile Corvette
Size: 1.9 kt
Crew: 85
Speed: 947 km/s
Fuel: 50k(8.1b km range)
Armament: 5 anti-ship missile launchers(Exorcist 85i-S, short-range variant currently being researched). 1 Fire Control each with 4.6 million km range.
Cost: 279k

The Guardian concept is presently planned to be the first and best line of defense against an invasion. Should the worst happen it will launch two volleys of missiles and then retreat. Multiple squadrons are planned on a rotating basis at both Lalande and Epsilon Eridani jump points. Niehuis SY will do the honors, first retooling and then building the first pair of ships while adding slipways to be able to handle several at once eventually. The first will enter production in about two months, late June.

Summer began with the announcement that the plans for the jump shuttle were finalized. Well, two of them in this case:

Caldwell(J) Jump Shuttle
Size: 1.5 kt
Crew: 33
Speed: 2100 km/s
Fuel: 600k(30.5 billion range)
Cost: 243k

The range is not as much as would have been preferred here. This will be used for transitioning VIPs between systems.

George Washington Survey Shuttle
Size: 1.15 kt
Crew: 27
Speed: 1565 km/s
Fuel: 350k(94 billion range)
Cost: 181k

As the name suggests, the George Washington is optimized for deploying ground survey teams. It is smaller and cheaper due to the use of more efficient thrusters, which also allows it to carry much less fuel.

In similarly timed political news, Director Stonerock has improved his terraforming oversight, marginally accelerated work on Mars and Luna. At present Mars has 6.4% of the needed oxygen in it's atmosphere, while Luna which just started has 0.4%. Venus surpasses Titan, the last of the inner-system colonies to do so. Both are about 18 million strong.

On June 24, the first Guardians entered construction. Niehuis SY will also be adding slipways to facilitate faster servicing and construction of the corvettes. While it has not taken the form the Navy desired or intended, this will unquestionably be a better tool for defending the system than what they currently possess. Meanwhile the preparations to colonize Luyten continue as well ...

Earth

January 1 -- Final Portland II transport scrapped.

Mid-January -- Another Long Beach refit completed.

February 26 -- Retooling finished for Tarawa

February 30 -- First New Iowa XR finished and will await the return of the ESFs. Scrapping of the old Iowas begins.

March 12 -- Second and final of the new Iowa XRs completed.

March 24 -- Another five long beach harvesters are refit and make the journey back to Saturn.

April -- Second terraforming installation complete and departs for Luna.

May 7 -- Last of the 'old' Nimitz/Brooklyn navy ships finishes their fleet training. At this point their role is to join the Alaska bases in a last-ditch defense of Earth.

May 28 -- Iowa tanker scrapped.

May 30 -- First of the Tarawa collier refits finished.

June 9 -- Last of the Iowas scrapped.

June 24 -- Niehuis SY begins the first pair of Guardians, along with adding a third slipway. At the moment each slipway can build two per year.

Personnel

June 11 -- Director Stonerock has improved his terraforming oversight, marginally accelerated work on Mars and Luna.

Research

** March 2 -- Planetary Sensor Strength improved(Julio Kuchler)

** March 16 -- The missile fire controls for the Guardian are complete(Carl Fosberg). New miniaturized magazine still needed.

** April 25 -- Elyse Buckler finishes the new magazine for the Guardian corvettes.

** May 15 -- In another development that might be useful someday at best, Dante Sawatzky finishes work on improving shield regeneration abilities.

** New jump drive finished(Irving Steinmeyer). Ready for use with jump shuttle.

** June 25 -- Reynaldo Darrington's research team has developed new ways of increasing the random spread of 'combat jumps' from 100k km to 250k, though it does require a slightly larger jump drive to achieve this effect.

Colonial Developments

March 17 -- Venus Ticonderoga 82 finished.

June 7 -- Sedna expands to 51 CMCs.

Mid-June -- Ticonderoga 82 construction begins on Io.

Brian Swartz · 12-16-2014, 04:11 PM

JULY - DECEMBER 2088

On July 6, Bessie Wallander(SF, 52) becomes the fourth active elite research lead and second in the still-strong sensors field along with Kuchler. At present her work is very long-term, working on the next generation of thermal sensors. Her lab space is doubled to four in order to allow it to proceed at a quicker pace, an exception to the usual rule of three. Retooling for the new George Washington survey shuttle finishes in the middle of the month, with an initial pair expected later this year.

At about the same time, a 17th automine is deployed to Whipple and this is determined to be a sufficient quantity. That allows for 35 years of duranium production, about 70 of mercassium. While duranium continues to increase for the time being, nearly at 20kt now which may be a record high, neutronium/corundium/mercassium are all stagnant or declining barely enough to be perceptible. As the best available untapped source in Sol of the first pair of that trio, it's time to develop Herschel-Riggolet. Three shipments of are expected to the comet(a total of 14 automines and a mass driver) which is still 7.7b km distant -- they'll be stashed on Venus until a full order is ready.

August brought more important news. It's not often these days that a new branch of technology opens up, but that happened on the 18th as Alphonse Lambeth finished a report detailing a collection of new techniques for living on hostile words. Effectively this will result in a 5% reduction in needed infrastructure. All of the Mars/Luna types(atmosphere not breathable but otherwhise suitable) will require 190 instead of 200 per million, Titan is down from 700 to 665, etc. This will result in a marginal but very significant in the aggregate savings as colonization proceeds. Further advances are considered inevitable, and will be highly prioritized now in the LG research field. The less infrastructure we build the less duranium we have to expend -- a ton saved is a ton earned. A Division HQ structural protocol for the army is Lambeth's next barrel of fun.

A rash of civilian ships were scrapped about a week later. About a dozen, the most seen to date at any one time, and while they are usually disposed of when a new more modern ship is built almost none were replaced. Half were Voliva vessels. It appears their declining fortunes may be starting to hit them where it hurts. It could be the beginning of a downturn in the civilian sector of the economy as whole however, and that would be a more serious matter ...

The month wasn't done yet. On the 28th the massive retooling efforts for the North Carolina jump superfreighter were finished ... and a surprising effect noticed. . It seems the yard is also capable of building the 'normal' South Carolina superfreighters without retooling. Engineering speculates it is likely possible, if desired at some point, to build a jump capable version of the Spruance, Fletcher, Gato, Long Beach, etc. if warranted and build both versions from the same shipyard, saving on shipyard and retooling costs.

As for the North Carolina itself, two will be built initially at a cost in excess of 7.6 million credits, more than three kilotons of duranium, and lesser amounts of other minerals. It's the front-end effort that's needed though to be ready for the colonization push. By late next year the first should be ready, the final pieced needed to be in place for moving initial equipment to Luyten, should the order be given ...

With the finalizing of the new Sentinel 420.7 sensor package a week into September, a modernized version of the sensor vessels was readied.

Forrestal 88i Sensor Vessel
Size: 650t
Crew: 13(14)
Speed: 5538 km/s(3692)
Fuel: 100k(47.6 b km range)(up from 50k to ensure enough range for large systems)
Sensor Range: 4.6m km(3.2m km)
Cost: 154k(95.6k)

More expensive this time around but significantly higher performance. At the start of October the Krohn naval shipyard was finished to handle them. With the new sensors, engines, expanded fuel tanks refitting is not an option. For the next couple years or so adding slipways and replacing the current Forrestal fleet will keep it busy.

At the end of the month there was a rather ironic political development. Burt Stonerock's decisive leadership has him as a polarizing figure, but one growing in popularity overall. A few important officials have flocked to his cause, which is somewhat humorous given that he's the only director SPACE has ever had get to the Office without a significant amount of this kind of groundwork done ahead of time. Seems he's put the cart before the horse, so to speak.

The last couple months were mostly about the ground geology teams. On November 19th the ball got rolling with the deployment of the first two GW shuttles. As with the diplomatic teams, the selections were made from those not in vital major responsibilities already in their respective branches of service. Several of the best were restricted from this duty in that way. A real discussion point was had with rising star Dr. Elliot Monks(DS, 34) -- it was decided his services are best used in research even though he would be able to strengthen the survey efforts. Selection for the teams gifted eight lieutenant commanders, two lieutenants, and even an ensign(Marcus Zavier) an immediate pass to Commander rank for their service. Other than a pair of out-of-work scientists, the Navy contributed all the team members. It also provided an opportunity to resolve the ex-Caldwell commanders left out of work when that class shrunk. There were nine such individuals previously, none after the reassignments.

While those were being carried out, the first two Guardian missile frigates -- for which the missiles have not finished being tested, much less been built -- were finished. Then the CS Forbes, first of the colony ships, made it's way free from the docks. It was Christmas Eve afternoon when all were assembled. The launch was delayed about 40 hours or so for them to enjoy the holiday with family and friends, and early in the morning on the 26th the two shuttles, four teams between them, departed for Luyten 726-8. Their work was a vital step in assuring full knowledge of the system before mining operations began. Leading the teams are Cmdr. Gloria Synnott, Dr. Edna Hanzel, Cmdr. Chance Perj, and Cmdr. Lena Rackham.

The race was on. Next year should bring the beginning of human interstellar colonization, the next step towards a brighter future.

Earth

July 4 -- Long Beach finished with refit.

July 15 -- International SY finishes retooling for the GW. Two will be built, expected to be finished around Thanksgiving.

August 28 -- Retooling finished for the North Carolina jump superfreighters.

September 6 -- Tarawa refit completed.

September 8 -- New research lab completed.

September 12 -- Another group of five harvesters refit. 30 down, 11 to go.

October 1 -- Krohn SY operational.

Mid-December -- Another Long Beach refit, and two Guardians completed.

December 22 -- CS Forbes finished. Second colony ship begun.

Personnel

August 4 -- Noble Stephson(BG, 27) gives terraforming research a shot in the arm by moving up to accomplished in the biology field and nabbing a second lab for his efforts.

August 9 -- Fleet Admiral Mitchell Feeser is at it again, seeing a minor increase in his intelligence skills.

Mid-December -- Lt. Cmdr. Dirk Blade made the short list as a long-shot candidate for Logistics Officer in the SLF, one of the openings that came about as a result of the geoteam assignments, but was passed over.

Colonial Developments

Late August -- 12 civilian ships scrapped ... and only one replaced. Half were Voliva vessels.

November 30 -- Sedna up to 52 now.

Research

** September 6 -- The new sensor package(Sentinel 420.7) is ready.

Brian Swartz · 12-19-2014, 03:22 AM

JANUARY - JUNE 2089

With Sedna now under two decades supply MRD has been instructed to track duranium usage more closely. An annual report as follows will be presented:

Duranium Production Report

Sedna: 11.1 kt(52 CMCs at 0.9)
Others: 6.06 kt
Stockpile: 21.5 kt
Stockpile +/-:
Forecast:

The +/- and Forecast will show change in the current stockpile and projected 'post-Sedna' readiness, but require a year's change in the numbers first. For now the policy is to maintain a somewhat reduced amount of naval investment until there is confidence there is enough output to sustain basic economic investment.

On January 22nd, the ground geosurvey teams jumped Luyten, and began their mission confirming deposits there and searching for new ones. Another week, and the testing of the new Exorcist(S) missile, for the Guardian corvettes, was completed by Deacon Palmer III. 200 are ordered which should be more than enough for the initial wave.

Breaking News: Alien Ruins Found!

On February 23, Josef Canterberry's Explorer, part of ESF Bravo, jumped in from Van Maanen with a priority message for Fleet HQ. Just before Christmas last year, while surveying the recently discovered system of 40 Eridani, one of the Prospectors assigned to Bravo detected what they believe to be evidence of a former alien civilization. It appears to have most likely been a relatively small ... whatever it was, and whether through time or more likely hostile action, almost completely destroyed as well. Intel classifies it as a definite alien ruin, a 'Destroyed Outpost'.

Though the possibilities of making any useful discovery might be somewhat slim, there was strong agreement that an attempt must be made anyway. This is another first in SPACE's efforts to learn more about our galactic neighborhood -- indisputable evidence of alien civilization that we can, at least theoretically, study unmolested. This is proof that ours is not the first spacefaring struggle that has ever happened in this part of the galaxy. It will also almost certainly not be the last, but any chance we have of learning from those who came before us and failed is considered invaluable.

Two more George Washington shuttles are begun immediately. The first step is to take a xenology team out there to learn what they can about the site, those who originally built it, etc. If warranted, construction brigades can be sent in later to excavate anything useful.

March brought the next blow to essential mining operations as neutronioum was exhausted on long-running supplier Faye. Two weeks later as April dawned the first shipment of mines departed for Herschel-Riggolet, and the ebb and flow continued. There was more good news from research. A jump in one of our propulsion leads was noticed earlier in the year, but this time it was in the Logistics field. John Dangel(58) has made a major leap to join the elite ranks. There are now five at that status, two in Logistics. He's working on the next step in reducing colonization costs. It's a rather enormous project(20 million credits in total), and he now has five labs to carry on the work. Most of the novices are out of work now with all the high-level research going on. We have 26 projects in 53 labs, marking the first time the average laboratory complexes per project has gone over two apiece. It's definitely a rising tide right now -- the coming years should bring some exciting things. April finished out with a renewed focus on mining from Director Stonerock, who is now an elite administrator in such matters. Output increases were soon seen from all over Sol, which as always is a good thing in general but also double-edged: available deposits will now run out that much faster as well.

The summer began with one of the Army's veteran generals, Rey Hoel, retiring on June 3rd. Stability at the top of the military has been a great strength for years, but such things come and go. Good things were seen in the personal development of a number of top Navy personnel. The middle of the month saw a new civilian firm join the fray, emphasizing the strength of the civilian economy, and completion of the run of Exorcist(S) missiles. It was decided to cancel the final 20 ordnance factories on order. Speed has greatly increased with the current 130 and there will be no need in the near future for more missiles. This is the kind of project that SPACE has in the 'would be nice' category, a luxury that is not really a reasonable indulgence with the focus on future economic viability.

The second quarter closed with an important moment. Another pair of George Washington shuttles were finished, and with them the first-ever human xenology team assembled. It will be led by Cmdr. Clifford Christo, with the other members of the team Cmdr. Gaye Franco, Lt. Cmdr. Allison Kime, Lt. Cmdr. Adolfo Legler, and Lt. Valerie Mclarty. As with the geology teams all are given automatic promotions to Commander rank. Their mission is as vital as it is historic. They will attempt to decipher the ruins on 40 Eridani A-II, learning all they can about the site. When that work is complete, assuming they find anything, construction brigades will be called in to excavate whatever is useful. Should this step be necessary clearly a new jump-capable version of the Burke transports will be needed, another task for the propulsion scientists.

A crucial last six months of the decade awaits. The 2080s will close with initial efforts in colonization as well as xenological ruin investigation. These efforts will alter the course of human history permamently. Much depends on those who have been chosen to carry them out.

Colonial Developments

Mid-January -- Sorium exhausted on Machholz. Neutronium and uridium remain there, but it won't be long before what was once one of the most productive mining colonies becomes a mere footnote.

January 22 -- The ground survey teams jump to Luyten.

February 11 -- Europa begins construction of it's new sensor base(Ticonderoga 82). Only Ganymede remains. Mars has passed Luna again as more of the colonists are coming from Luna these days, for some reason. It's a constant tug of war with those two.

March 11 -- Tracking station deployed to Mercury.

March 19 -- Neutronium deposits exhausted on Faye. There's several more years of sorium, but mercassium, over a quarter-century's worth, is what will keep the mines running.

April -- The first shipment departs for Herschel-Riggolet. There are now only three untapped short-period comets left in Sol.

April 17 -- Callisto Ticonderoga finished.

June 9 -- Long Beach refit finished.

June 13 -- Dyett Freight Company founded.

Earth

January 30 -- First of the new Forrestals is ready.

March 4 -- Four more Long Beach are refit. The final four take their turn now.

March 5 -- Second slipway added to Krohn SY. A third will be added and another Forrestal as well.

May 28 -- Second of the new Forrestals finished.

June 14 -- Exorcist(S)(x200) finished.

June 27 -- New GW Shuttles ready.

Research

January 30 -- Deacon Palmer III finishes testing of the new Exorcist S missile for the Guardians.

Personnel

Mid-March -- Irving Steinmeyer(PP, 30) moves up to Accomplished. You can never have too many capable propulsion scientists.

April 15 -- Rita Kersey gives Defensive Systems another young researcher with good potential. Not the best timing right now though, she'll struggle to get project approval in the present environment. A full third of the project leads are now unemployed at the moment.

April 17 -- A single colonel is dismissed from the Army.

Late April -- Stonerock elite in mining now(50%), escalating production.

Early May -- Mitchel Feeser improves operations to the accomplished tier.

Late May -- Commodore Ronald Dunkin is now an elite trainer, continuing his improvement in recent years. The 38-year-old is making a strong case to be Feeser's eventual replacement.

June 3 -- Brig. Gen Rey Hoel(60) retires.

June 6 -- Commodore Graham During, not heard from in quite some time, has become an elite trainer.

Brian Swartz · 12-22-2014, 07:30 PM

JULY - DECEMBER 2089

On the 8th of July the xenology team departed, it's long journey to 40 Eridani and into history beginning. It's nearly a four-month journey each way. Relief shuttles will need to be sent periodically if it is a particularly lengthy stay as is feared, but it's a small cost considering the potential rewards.

Two weeks later they were still in-system as training exercises began for the first squadron of four Guardians. Many other things would still continue. August began with Hipolito Greig being dispatched to the distant outpost on Herschel-Rigollet, mines still en route. Greig is just five months out of the academy but definitely the best mining administrator among the recent graduates.

The event of the year was definitely August 11, when the two North Carolina jump ships were given launch clearance. This simultaneously lowered the mineral drain the shipyards are putting on the stockpiles and allowed for first steps in colonization. Ground surveys are still not complete, but some equipment can still be shipped in. The first group consisted of a North Carolina jump ship, a South Carolina superfreighter, and a Spruance transport. A GW jump shuttle would follow later with administrators. It soon became obvious that many trips would be required. The second jumpship along with a pair of South Carolina superfreighters departed shortly afterwards. The initial haul was three mass drivers, three construction factories, startup minerals, 150,000 colonists, and enough infrastructure for about 415,000 people. Quite literally the next day one of the geoshuttles in Luyten(Perj & Rackham teams) returned with the news that all comets have been surveyed with no change in the evaluations. The survey of the first planet is still ongoing. Since they are on the same side of the system, they will now proceed to Barnard's Star for verification there.

Within a week there was another bit of important news. The lengthy Long Beach refits are now finally over, and Guardian production could now accelerate with a third slipway ready at Niehuis.

A third terraforming installation was finished at the start of September, and sent to Luna temporarily though it'll be transported to New Genesis eventually. A big development in BOG saw Earth governor Delois Woznicki manage to step up to maximum administrative skill, making the 60-year-old who is still in excellent healthy qualified for and the clear favorite to replace Stonerock whenever he goes. Rather amazing considering she was barely qualified for a minor colony less than a decade ago. Then in mid-October the last of the ordnance factories is finally completed, with the space diverted to other elective tasks.

At the end of October the first colonization group jumped out to Luyten en route to New Genesis, and it was time to get the initial administrators in place there. A steady stream of graduates has swelled the unemployed BOG members to a dozen, a number that will now be cut in half. They'll have to 'rough it' aboard the George Washington shuttle as opposed to the increased speed and comfort of the Caldwell J, but such are the necessities of the initial colonization effort here. Michael Reneau(26), a creative natural leader with a knack for finances and terraforming will be the first governor of New Genesis. There are no major mining talents available -- those naturally already have jobs -- but a couple minor ones are among those assigned to the five mining outposts. Luyten A-I, by far the most important with it's considerable duranium deposits, will be led by newcomer Edison Fredrickson.

At almost exactly the same time, on November 3, Deborah Barnhouse presented her report on Cloaking Theory. There is more work to do before any such device could be successfully deployed, and they are not considered a major focus right now anyway. It did open up a new avenue of research and possibilities for the future however. One potential application is this kind of device could make it safer for scout/survey ships to operate in hostile systems. The main effect was proof of concept demonstration of the theoretical principles involved in hiding a ship's signature from active sensors, and a basic structure for further practical research. That structure involves three avenues: minimum size and efficiency which are similar to the jump drive version of those technologies, affecting the size of ship which can be cloaked, and sensor reduction which defines the amount of protection to cloak affords(a % by which hostile active sensors have their range inhibited). Barnhouse turns her attention to ceramic composite armour, one of two long-term and far more immediately practical and valuable projects in the field of defensive systems.

It turned out to be a big month for the leadership corps, especially in terms of research. By November 10th, Norris Gunterman(29, PP) had joined the elite ranks. He's had a meteoric rise and has the potential now to join the ranks of legendary scientists in the annals of SPACE given how quickly he's reached the top of the profession. Improving capacitor recharge rates, which allows for less delay between shots in our beam weapons, is his present task. This is now six elite researchers, a number not seen in many years.

The year finished quietly over the last several weeks. Humanity's reach continues to spread. Between the colonization groups in Luyten(New Genesis), ESFs Alpha and Bravo which are still out there somewhere, and the xenology team which should have arrived and begin its work in 40 Eridani by now, there are now human operations ongoing in at least four systems beyond Sol. It has become typical for at least as much if not more activity to be conducted in other systems as there is here. Most of it is either unknown or revealed well after the fact, as is the nature of interstellar travel, but it has been an unquestionably historic decade for SPACE. What other secret treasures -- and dangers -- the galaxy holds for us in the decades and centuries to come can only be guessed at from this vantage point.

Earth

July 3 -- Forrestal 88i finished.

July 22 -- Training exercises begin for the first squadron of four Guardians.

August 9 -- Krohn SY adds a third slipway. One more is to be built.

August 11 -- The two North Carolina jump ships are finished.

Mid-August -- Long Beach refits complete, slipway added to Niehuis SY. Work begins on a fourth, and another Guardian enters production. Two of the Long Beach's remain at Earth for eventual transit to Luyten since Saturn is presently directly opposite the system from the jump. The other two head there for harvester duty.

September -- Terraforming Installation finished.

September 25 -- New research lab. Lately advances have been few and far between so it's a chance for a fresh directon.

September 27 -- Forrestal finished. Caldwell J retool begins.

October 25 -- Retooling finished for the Caldwell J jump shuttle. Regular Caldwell is too differen to be built at the same shipyard. Two hulls are begun.

November 1 -- Forrestal finished.

December 7 -- Forrestal finished.

December 11 -- Two guardians finished.

Colonial Developments

July 9 -- Sedna up to 53.

Late September -- Ganymede's sensor base is the last to be started.

September 29 -- Sedna expands to 54.

Mid-November -- Io sensor base finished.

December 11 -- A second shipment of automines leaves for Herschel-Rigollet.

Personnel

August -- Hipolito Greig gets his start on distant Herschel-Riggolet.

August 11 -- A bit of late-career success for Commodore Ali Mandujano, who ups training skill to the accomplished range.

August 12 -- Russell Salvucci(pop growth) and Ricardo Bloise(Wealth) increased skills.

Late August -- Health problems for Evelyn Kaczor(Venus, 48), but they do not appear to be immediately serious.

Early October -- Commodore Emile Jeffcoat gets into the act, increasing training skill(accomplished).

November 4 -- Lena Bohannan(CP, 35) steps up to accomplished, claiming a second laboratory.

November 10 -- Health concerns for Deborah Barnhouse, Commodore Tommy Huntley has accomplished political connections now, and Norris Gunterman joins the elite ranks.

December 14 -- Errol Igoe(Titan) has strengthened his political position marginally.

Research

November 3 -- Cloaking Theory complete(Deborah Barnhouse).

Brian Swartz · 12-22-2014, 09:26 PM

MINISTRY OF RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT SPECIAL REPORT

The SOS Report will now be offered every five years instead of four beginning with this year(there is no longer the regular election cycle to follow, and that seemed most sensible). It is 2090, a new decade is upon us and also a new era of colonization. As MRD prepared it's portion of the latest SOS, it was found that the situation was ... well, truly distressing.

Duranium Production Report

Sedna: 11.8 kt(54 CMCs at 0.9, 18.1 years)
Others: 6.27 kt
Stockpile: 27.3 kt
Stockpile +/-: +5.8 kt
Forecast: 51%

When the Long Beach refits were finished and the North Carolina jump ships as well in the late summer, the duranium stockpile began to surge upwards after only marginal savings earlier in the year. The initial forecast shows that despite banking several kilotons this year, at current production and consumption rates we will only be producing just over half the duranium we need post-Sedna.

This was only part of the story. As the SOS will detail, several important duranium sources will be exhausted before the end of the final decade of the 21st century. It is very possible the forecast will drop from half to a third or less at this point. When this became clear, Director Stonerock authorized a new approach to mining operations requiring more specific and detailed oversight. From the early days of SPACE to the present, the mineral resources have been managed in a fairly general way. Supply levels of less than 5kt in any mineral have been considered a crisis point, less than 10kt a matter of concern, and mines generally deployed to improve supply of whatever mineral looked like it was the most vital need at the time, or else to whatever location could provide the largest total haul.

This generally worked well, but is no longer adequate. As the Navy has ramped up, it's ravenous appetite has meant much greater swings in usage. Additionally, the ongoing depletion of sources throughout Sol has resulted in a constantly changing balance of supply. Finally, diversification and shifting industrial priorities have made these swings even more significant.

The methodology used to estimate supply readiness with the duranium report will be extended to all minerals, and used to guide mine deployment and redeployment as needed. It will be a few years, probably until the '95 SOS Report, before MRD has a particularly refined handle on the situation. A strict policy of suspending all non-essential mineral use is in place for the time being.

Post-Sedna Outlook

Forecasts and projections of exactly what the supply situation will look like a couple of years from now are guesstimates at best. Having said that, it is still quite useful to consider the most likely scenarios. At the moment there is still the huge(14.8 mt @ 0.5) duranium deposit on Venus, as well as 439 kt remaining on Triton and a couple of distant asteroids in the 100-200 kt range with good accessibility. It's not a case where SPACE will forseeably run out of duranium completely after Sedna goes dark. The capability to build new equipment and installations will continue. The question is how much, since focusing mines completely on duranium would mean shortages elsewhere and maintenance efforts consume a certain amount as well. At the moment the worst-case scenario is that somewhere around a third to a half of Earth's factories might go silent at some point along with the present moratorium on all non-essential naval construction. Essentially the threat is of a significant depression.

It is expected that SPACE will be able to build it's way out eventually. With enough mines on Venus, Luyten A-I, and any other extrasolar sources that might be found there is little question progress will continue. The transition could be very rough and lengthy(decades) however, given the expense of building automines and the massive amount of them which will be needed.

Brian Swartz · 01-08-2015, 03:20 AM

I have some potentially bad news. I had most of the 2090 SOS done and was planning on getting things going again after the holiday. However my new year's present from my computer was a lovely batch of epic fail. At this point I'm planning on attempting to reinstall windows on Friday which is really the last straw since it will not even boot up at this point. If that doesn't work, I'll need a new hard drive and this story will be over. That possibility makes me sad, I really really wanted to finish the story. I'm not really sure what I'll do if that happens, but I will post here other way once I find out if it works.

Tellistto · 01-09-2015, 05:31 PM

Even if you cannot get Windows installed to the drive, even with a new drive, it might be possible to access that old drive to pull off the .db file to save the game. Just because it won't run an OS doesn't necessarily mean it cannot be accessed as a secondary drive.

One night, I was happily playing away on my computer, and boom, dead.

Mine was the motherboard, not the hard drive.

If this is dead, it's been really fun. Love you for having introduced me to this game.

And...you can upgrade your game version if so!

Tell

Brian Swartz · 01-12-2015, 03:42 PM

I am pleased to announce that I have successfully extracted the essential Aurora files(saved database and the text file holding all my notes) from the fubared HD. That means this story will continue barring something extremely bizarre. When is another matter, I'm going to pull anything else useful off and then I need to format it. If that doesn't work I'll need a new hard drive, so it could be a week or two but the adventures of SPACE appear to have been snatched from the clutches of data fail.

To infinity, and beyond!

Brian Swartz · 01-13-2015, 01:47 PM

And ... the old hard drive is now officially dying to the point of being unusable. So a new one is on the way.

Brian Swartz · 02-04-2015, 04:00 PM

Back in business now with the wall of text that comprises the SOS Report.

STATE OF SPACE, 2090

I. IMPERIAL HOLDINGS

IA. Populated Colonies

Earth(1.92b, 542 CF, 130 OF, 75 REF, 54 RL, 4 AC, 3 GFT, 5 DSTS, 15.2k MF, 1 SP, 1 SC, 3x Alaska MB, Alaska 82 MB)
Mars(90.7m, Ticonderoga 82 SB, 1 TI)**
Luna(86.5m, Ticonderoga 82 SB, 2 TI)
Mercury(30.3m, 1 DSTS, Ticonderoga 82 SB)
Venus(21.1m, Ticonderoga 82 SB)
Titan(19.0m, 1 DSTS, Alaska MB)
New Genesis(150k, 3 CF)
Io(130k, Ticonderog 82 SB)
Europa(120k, Ticonderoga SB)
Ganymede(120k, Ticonderoga SB)
Callisto(120k, Ticonderoga 82 SB)

** Note: TI is new, stands for Terraforming Installation

Total Population: 2.17b(+10.7%)

Long-standing trends continued in the second half of the 2080s. The share of humanity living on Earth continues to slowly decline, aided by new technology slightly reducing infrastructure requirements in this case. The big news is the New Genesis colony in Luyten 726-8, less than three weeks old as of this writing.

IB. Outposts

Sedna(54 CMC, 14.1 eff, 18.5 kt) -- uridium(9.1)
Triton(117 AM, 20.3 eff, 5.99 kt) -- vendarite(7.2)
Earth(50 SM, 6.2 eff, 781 t)
Borrelly(39.8 AM, 32 eff, 2.29 kt) -- duranium(9.5)
Halley's Comet(36 AM, 33 eff, 2.35 kt) -- corbomite(4.0)
Reinmuth(33.8 AM, 30 eff, 1.83 kt) -- boronide(7.7)
Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 25 eff, 1.26 kt)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 15 eff, 745 t) -- neutronium(8.7)
Neujmin(25.8 AM, 25 eff, 1.16 kt) -- duranium(0.9)
Titan(25 SM, 5.6 eff, 315 t)
Faye(25 AM, 14 eff, 630 t) -- sorium(6.8)
Comas Sola(25 AM, 19 eff, 897 kt) -- tritanium(2.7), duranium(4.8)
Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 1.48 kt) -- uridium(8.4)
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 26 eff, 954 t) -- sorium(5.1), duranium(8.8)
Wolf-Harrington(17.8 AM, 40 eff, 1.34 kt) -- uridium(3.2), mercassium(9.5)
Whipple(17 AM, 43 eff, 1.38 kt) -- uridium(0.4)
Swift-Tuttle(15 AM, 71 eff, 1.92 kt) -- uridium(1.0), neutronium(7.7), boronide(9.9)
Tempel-Tuttle(14 AM, 40 eff, 1.16 kt)
Callisto(10 SM, 6 eff, 12 t)
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 990 t)
Prokne(10 AM, 6.4 eff, 115 t)
Wild(8 AM, 34 eff, 490 t)
Wolf(8 AM, 26 eff, 375 t)
Herschel-Rigollet(4 AM, 54 eff, 464 t) -- corbomite(1.9)

Total Production: 47.4 kt(+26%) Sedna has seen an explosion as noted elsewhere. A full one-third expansion of operations, advancemenets in mining techniques, and improved local management combined for an increase of 58% in the output from the dominant force in SPACE mining operations, despite the beginning of death throes for the uridium portion. Overall the mining sector annihilated the previous high of five years ago by more than a quarter.

IC. Mineral Supply & Usage

** With the new scrutiny being devoted to MRDs mineral assessment, a color-coded approach has been devised with five levels defined, replacing the original four with adjusted definitions. It is strongly emphasized here that the initial evaluation presented is fairly speculatory. Once a few years of supply and usage data come in, MRD will be able to make much more accurate determinations. **

White Status Minerals -- No shortfall is expected in the next century, regardless of expenditures. Essentially this is a level where we couldn't use it all if we tried.

** Sorium(64.4 kt stockpiled, 1.93 kt annual yield). Most current sources are expected to dry up in the next couple of decades, but this is tentatively considered irrelevant since it is rarely used industrially. The most likely scenario to change this probably is the possibility that a strategically important system without local fuel is discovered. In that scenario refineries might be transported there which would result in a massive change in usage. Barring that type of operation though, the status is extremely safe. Stockpiles have grown eight kilotons in the past five years, and consistently since the harvesters were deployed to Saturn decades ago.

** Uridium(150 kt, 8.55 kt). A massive 23-kiloton gain. Over three-quarters of the supply comes from Sedna, so this will stabilize when that expires sometime in the final year or two of the coming decade most likely. The sheer massive amount available makes it difficult to imagine any potential shipbuilding initiative draining it at this time.

** Corbomite(99.4 kt, 4.42 kt). A 20-kiloton gain and over half the supply comes from Triton, which has over half a megaton remaining and will see increased investment if anything due to the importance of it's duranium reserves. Combine that with the fact that it's one of the most rarely-used minerals and it's easy to see why corbomite is considered the safest at the present time. It's highly doubtful anyone alive today will live to see a time when it becomes the slightest concern.

Green Status Minerals -- These are considered safe for the next 20 years or so, but could potentially become concerns in the decades after that. They tend to be high-stockpile but also high-usage substances.

** Vendarite(77.4 kt, 1.79 kt). A healthy rise of 6 kt+ in the last five years, but Triton contributes more than half and when that runs out in the latter half of the next decade there will only be a relatively meager supply coming in. It sees fairly limited use in ship construction, espescially in the survey carriers. Given the magnitude of the stockpile even an eventual slow decline would be a very minor issue.

** Tritanium(59.7 kt, 3.48 kt). Aside from duranium, no other mineral comes in greater quantity. It is used fairly heavily but the greatest need is for ordnance factories which is a rare project and not one currently required. Some ship construction of course and it is used in other factories to a lesser degree, which will pretty much be a constant need for the forseeable future. The stockpile rose 7kt over the past five years, and it has a highly diversified group of fairly long-term sources.

Yellow Status Minerals -- These are those minerals which are generally around the 'tipping point'. There is enough for current needs, no further supplies are expected to be necessary for a decade or so, but there is not a big enough stockpile or enough current supply for long-term comfort. 'Bears watching' is the general approach here.

** Boronide(37.8 kt, 1.98 kt). Stagnant over the last cycle. There are not many sources, and over 30% of the supply, from Reinmuth and Swift-Tuttle, will go away in the coming decade. As the major building block material of fuel tanks, boronide will be needed in significant quantities indefinitely.

Amber Status Minerals -- These are those which are not yet at crisis point but where the current supply status will require a change, either investment or reduced production, within the next decade. These have a smallish stockpile and will mostly be in decline as well.

The big four minerals have now essentially become the big five with gallicite joining them as a significant concern.

** Mercassium(16.0 kt, 2.11 kt) A decline of 3.5 kt in the last five years. At that rate it would take about 23 years to run out. There are multiple long-term sources, but Wolf-Harrington will deplete around the turn of the century and others may see mines diverted to increase duranium supply.

** Gallicite(19.2 kt, 796t) Falling like a rock(-12 kt) mostly because this is by far the lowest-yield mineral right now. There's just not much coming in. Until that changes further missile production is pretty much an impossibility which greatly limits military options.

** Corundium(8.83 kt, 1.13 kt). Mostly stagnant, up a few hundred tons during the last cycle. It's really a case of limited supply here again, and of course the need for automines will have basically no forseeable end so it's a priority. Even more fun is that among the current sources, only Herschel-Rigollet is expected to still be one in twenty years. New Genesis will bring in more from a couple of decent comet sources around the Luyten system by then, but that's just a stopgap.

** Duranium(27.3 kt, 18 kt). As mentioned duranium is sharply on the rise, but it is still listed here because it's a very temporary situation. Several comets amounting to multiple kilotons in annual yield will cease their contributions in the coming years, followed by the Sedna crash. There's no question duranium will be the epicenter around which MRD's efforts in the coming decades will revolve.

** Neutronium(16.2 kt, 3.16 kt). Effectively stagnant for decades now, neutronium is down 1.3 kt this past cycle. Multiple comets rich in the mineral and the present naval restrictions should keep it from being an urgent issue, though a significant source in Machholz is scheduled to deplete before the end of the decade/century. Additional investment will need to be made before a full naval ramp-up can ever happen though.

Red Status Minerals -- Less than a five-year supply. This is the emergency, immediate-action-required level.

** None at the present time.

ID. Income

Taxes(population): 58.4m
Taxes(civ. tourism): 23.9m
Taxes(civ. shipping): 7.29m
Taxes(civ. fuel): 329k

Total: 89.8m(+42%)

Improved financial administration resulted in considerably less waste, while the tourism sector continues to explode. Taxes on civilian spaceflight operations now account for over a third of all income, ensuring a limitless future in terms of finances for SPACE. The mineral crisis is definitely not reflected in this sector.

Balance: 947m(+136 m)

IE. Expenses

Mineral Purchases: 13.2m
Research: 12.8m
Shipbuilding: 10.5m
Installation Construction: 6.2m
Maintenance Facilities: 1.48m
PDC Construction: 1.34m
Shipyard Modifications: 1.23m
Ordnance Production: 672k
GU Maintenance: 602k
Maintenance Supplies: 153k

Total: 48.2m(+18%)

The hilariously large gap between income and expenses is expected to do nothing but grow as raw materials become more and more of a determiner. Sedna's minerals are over a quarter of current outlays, and when that goes away and as naval operations are minimized, expenses will be only a third to a half of income at most in the projections. If only all of SPACE operations were so healthy.

II. SHIPYARDS

IIA. Commercial Yards

Estalerios Navais do Montego(ENDM)(2 slipways, 171 kt capacity)
** Idle
Tod & MacGregor(2 slipways, 166 kt capacity)
** Idle
P&A Group(6, 101 kt)
** Idle
Vegesacker Werft(1, 66.5 kt)
** Idle
Howaldswerke/Deutsche Werft(HDW)(1, 55.3 kt)
** Building CS Pineda, second of the Spruance colony ships
Oregon Shipbuilding(2, 50.7 kt)
** Idle
Vickers-Armstrong(4, 17.4 kt)
** Idle
Kvaerner-Masa(1, 10 kt)
** Idle

IIB. Naval Yards

Wartsila(1, 17.6 kt)
** Idle.
Yokohama Dock Co.(1, 15.2 kt)
** Idle.
Baltimore Marine(2, 12.2 kt)
** Idle.
Permanant(1, 10.1 kt)
** Idle
C. Mitchell & Co.(1, 6.53 kt)
** Idle
Niehuis and van den Berg(3, 4.14 kt)
** Adding fourth slipway(October 2090), building Guardian(February 2090)
International(2, 4.14 kt)
** Idle
KSEC(4, 1.66 kt)
** Building Caldwell(J)(x2), April 2090
Krohn(3, 1 kt)
** Building Forrestal(x3), various times

There's a lot of bored workers, a fact that won't change anytime soon due to the mineral crash.

III. ARMY TRAINING FACILITIES

IIIA. Earth

** Three active training facilities
** All three idle

IV. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

IVA. Earth

Research Lab(20%) -- November 2090. Under the division of fifths the rate is one every 13-14 months. Inadequate, but it's something.
Automated Mines(19%) -- About 9/year.
Construction Factories(12%) -- These will be built pretty much indefinitely at this point for industrial expansion & colonization startups. 10-11/year.
PDC Alaska 82(9%) -- A little over two bases left for Earth, late 2098 is the current ETA.
Mass Driver(7%) -- Three remaining, early 2091
Military Academy(6%) -- Summer 2091
Naval Shipyard(6%) -- Final 'reserve' one, mid-2092
Prefab PDC Alaska 82(5%) -- An upgraded base for Titan, September 2090
Terraforming Installation(4%) -- 2091
Commercial Shipyards(4%) -- Also a final 'reserve' shipyard, March 2092
Prefab PDC Ticonderoga 82(2%) -- Final one for the moment, intended for New Genesis. Ready in April.
DSTS(2%) -- July 2090
Maintenance Supplies(2%) -- Still over 1,000 tons needed. Mid-2091.
Infrastructure(1%) -- Mid-2095 for the current run.

A lot of projects are close to wrapping up.

V A. PRIORITY RESEARCH PROJECTS

** Divisional HQ(Alphonse Lambeth) -- October/November 2090
** Ceramic Composite Armour(Deborah Barnhouse) -- December 2090/January 2091
** Capacitor Recharge Rates(Norris Gunterman) -- December 2090/January 2091
** Freighter Jump Drive(Jerry Bartholf) -- Early 2091
** Missile Tracking(Julio Kuchler) -- Early 2092
** Thermal Sensor Sensitivity(Bessie Wallander) -- Late 2092/Early 2093
** Colonization Cost Reduction(John Dangel) -- Early 2094

There's almost no prototyping going on right now, it's all big-picture stuff aimed at the long-term.

V B. NOTABLE SCIENTISTS

** Biology/Genetics
Noble Stephson(Accomplished)

** Construction/Production
Carmelo Costanza(Accomplished)
Lena Bohannan(Accomplished)

** Energy Weapons
Leonel Wessels(Accomplished)
Minh Klausner(Accomplished)
Freddy Salsgiver(Accomplished)

** Logistics/Ground Combat
John Dangel(Elite)
Alphonse Lambeth(Elite)
Stanley Kogut(Accomplished)

** Missiles/Kinetic Weapons
None!

** Power/Propulsion
Norris Gunterman(Elite)
David Gruis(Accomplished)
Alejandro Otteson(Accomplished)
Reynaldo Darrington(Accomplished)
Irving Steinmeyer(Accomplished)

** Sensors/Fire Control
Julio Kuchler(Elite)
Bessie Wallander(Elite)

Overall it's been a great five years for the Research Directorate. Most of the holes have been filled. Biogenetics is weak but nobody really cares. There's a couple of construction researchers on their way up, logistics is a strength again, and the propulsion field has absurd quality depth. Missile research is still the biggest problem, though it ironically doesn't matter quite as much with the problems in acquiring enough gallicite to build any. Another emerging issue is that the vital sensors field is very top-heavy. Kuchler and Wallander are both in their mid-50s so this isn't a problem now, but could become one if no fresh blood emerges.

VI. ACTIVE NAVAL ASSETS

VI A. Military Bases

Alaska(4, 59.5 kt, 1020 crew, major missile base)
Alaska 82(1, 22.7kt, 709 crew, major missile base)
Ticonderoga 82(6, 3.7kt, 24 crew, sensor base)
Ticonderoga(2, 3.0kt, 16 crew, sensor base)

Total: 13 installations(-13%), 289 kt(-16%), 4.97k crew(-12%)

Two Ticondergoa upgrades remain, and most of the Alaska's are yet to be replaced. The old Tennessee bases have been swept away.

VI B. Combat Ships

GB Brooklyn '72(4, 13.5 kt, 356 crew, 2379 km/s, 1.75 m fuel, beam-armed)
GB Brooklyn '81(2, 10.5 kt, 282 crew, 2380 km/s, 1.25 m fuel, beam-armed)
MC Guardian(5, 1.9 kt, 85 crew, 947 km/s, 50k fuel, jump defense missile corvette)
MB Nimitz(3, 14 kt, 373 crew, 2437 km/s, 1.75m fuel, missile-armed)
MB Nimitz '76c(4, 10.3 kt, 273 crew, 2439 km/s, 1.25 m fuel, missile-armed)

Total: 18 ships(+50%), 168 kt(+14%), 4.62k crew(+18%), 20m fuel(+8%)

The new Guardians will soon to be ready to take up postions at the jump points, while the others will remain at Earth.

VI C. Military Non-combat Ships

DC Ambassador(1, 800t, 18 crew, 1.5k km/s, 150k fuel, diplomatic jump shuttle)
CC Baltimore(2, 10 kt, 284 crew, 600 km/s, 750k fuel, command carrier)
ST Caldwell 84i(12, 950t, 15 crew, 3.32k km/s, 500k fuel, VIP-grade jump shuttle)
MV Cleveland 84i(2, 2.0 kt, 28 crew, 3k km/s, 50k fuel, supply ship)
SC Explorer(6, 850 t, 18 crew, 1411 km/s, 250k fuel, jump scout)
SB Forrestal III(14, 650 t, 14 crew, 3.69k km/s, 50k fuel, jump point sensor vessel)
SB Forrestal 88i(6, 650 t, 13 crew, 5.54k km/s, 100k fuel, jump point sensor vessel)
GSV Frontier(8, 950 t, 24 crew, 1263 km/s, 250k fuel, gravsurvey)
SVC Gearing(2, 10 kt, 158 crew, 600 km/s, 750k fuel, survey carrier)
ST George Washington(4, 1.15 kt, 27 crew, 1.57k km/s, 350k fuel, general-use jump shuttle)
GEV Prospector(6, 950 t, 24 crew, 1263 km/s, 250k fuel, geosurvey)
CO Tarawa 84 i(2, 6.0 kt, 66 crew, 1k km/s, 100k fuel, supply ship)

Total: 65 ships(-9.8%), 84.2 kt(-21%), 2.16k crew(-2.3%), 17.2 m fuel(-31%)

The shrinking of the shuttle fleet and the lower fuel required are the big stories here.

VI D. Commercial Vessels

TT Arleigh Burke 84i(6, 17.3 kt, 127 crew, 695 km/s, 250k fuel, brigade troop transport)
FT Fletcher 84i(2, 35.9 kt, 153 crew, 1002 km/s, 250k fuel, freighter)
FT Gato(2, 7.0 kt, 33 crew, 857 km/s, 100k fuel, small freighter)
TK Iowa 84i(4, 8.5 kt, 44 crew, 1.41k km/s, 5m fuel, fuel tanker)
TK Iowa XR(2, 9.7 kt, 53 crew, 1.03k km/s, 6m fuel, extended range fuel tanker)
TK Iowa 84i XR(2, 8.55 kt, 44 crew, 1.4k km/s, 5m fuel, extended range fuel tanker)
FH Long Beach(41, 80.8 kt, 429 crew, 445 km/s, 2.0m fuel, fuel harvester)
FJ North Carolina 87i(2, 168 kt, 995 crew, 715 km/s, 1.5m fuel, large commercial jump ship)
TT Portland 84i(2, 4.35 kt, 39 crew, 1.38k km/s, 50k fuel, troop transport)
FT South Carolina 84i(6, 163 kt, 487 crew, 735 km/s, 1.5m fuel, superfreighter)
CS Spruance 85i(1, 52.2 kt, 299 crew, 920 km/s, 550k fuel, colony ship)
SV Wickes 84i(1, 21.7 kt, 191 crew, 829 km/s, 250k fuel, salvage/recovery)

Total: 71 ships(+16%), 4.97 mt(+25%), 24.6k crew(+26%), 139m liters fuel(+55%)

A couple of the old Iowa's have yet to be retired, but mostly the growth here was in finishing up the new Long Beach harvesters.

Grand Total: 167 assets(+4.4%), 5.51 mt(+20%), 36.4k crew(+16%), 176m liters fuel(+32%)

The fuel number can be a bit misleading since almost half of it is contained in the harvesters alone.

Available Crew: 210k(+24%)

VI E. Fuel Status

Earth -- 43.1m liters
Titan -- 39.9m
Callisto -- 4.83m

Total -- 87.8m liters(+263%!!) An explosion in supply due to two factors: the expansion of the massive harvester operations, and detanking fuel from ships that are now equipped with more efficient ion-based engines. It would appear that fuel problems are over for the moment.

VII. ACTIVE ARMY ASSETS

** Brigade HQs(6)
** Construction Brigades(10)
** Assault Infantry Battalions(4)
** Mobile Infantry Battalions(12)
** Garrison Battalion(34)

Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 530k(+10%)

The current force is more or less stable for now, though garrisons will periodically be sent out-system from time to time.

VIII. CIVILIAN SHIPPING CORPORATIONS

Tolles Transport & Logistics(89 ships, 13.6m annual income)
Jensrud Transport and Trading(77, 8.84m)
Voliva Carrier Company(92, 7.03m)
Ridolfi Interstellar(9, 1.52m)
Hayter Container Group(3, 210k)
Suter Shipping Services(2, 160k)
Ouellet Shipping(2, 147k)
Everton Shipping & Logistics(3, 120k)
Elman Freight Services(3, 90k)
Dyett Freight Company(2, 40k)
Clavette Shipping Line(2, 20k)
Forbius Carrier Limited(1, 20k)

Total Vessels: 285(+40%)
Total Civilian Income: 31.8m(+57%)

The civilian economy has grown to the point where the rising tide is indeed lifting all ships -- well most of them at least. There were only three effectively defunct small carriers compared to six in the last cycle. Ridofli not-truly-Interstellar continues to grow, showing it has designs on joining the big boys, and Tolles is increasingly dominant, with a fleet nearly as large as bloated Voliva. For the second straight cycle, gross income is up more than half.

IX. SPACE LEADERSHIP PROSPECTUS

** Naval Officers: 214 of 233 assigned(92%), +3%
** Ground Forces Officers: 70 of 80(88%), +12%
** Civilian Administrators: 33 of 45(73%), -5%
** Scientists: 27 of 43(63%), -15%

Overall: 344 of 401(85.7%), +2.1%

It's a good time to be in the military, but prospects for civilians have rarely been bleaker.

11-25-2014, 08:02 AM	#302
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	Let's get to the exploring Is it possible to "focus" on civilian leadership? It seems like all the best and brightest are going military and the administration is suffering for it. SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!"

12-01-2014, 12:21 AM	#310
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	NAVAL IMPACT -- ION DRIVES What interested Naval Command even more was how these would change anticipated missile effectiveness. With virtually no progress being made in the field there is no point to waiting for further advances in missile agility, payload, etc. None will be forthcoming in the near future. Therefore one of the most important questions the Navy has ever had to answer is whether or not ion drives change the relative balance of power enough to justify an eventual attempt to drive the aliens out. BEAM WEAPON DEFENSE At present our best tracking speed against missiles is 12-16k km/s, depending on how long we've had them detected to better anticipate their future location. Kuchler is presently working on upping that speed to 16-20k km/s, which is just barely passable against an incoming weapon of the estimated 15-30k km/s. A very large fire control required to get the necessary range to ensure the missiles wouldn't cross the entire engagement envelope before there would be a chance to fire, but it was possible. MISSILE ANALYSIS Three different missile types were considered here. The standard anti-ship defender 76 has a hit rate a little over 50%, the higher-payload P variant is only about 30% but still considered probably the better option since it has more than twice the punch, and the anti-missile Interceptor, merely a concept at the last evaluation, had an estimated hit rate of just 9%. On the last score we must emphasize that this is a guess based on the rough estimate of enemy missile speed which covered a wide range. About a 20% hit rate is considered necessary to make that a viable weapon system. Current doctrine, which is a rough guestimate at best, calls for a 70m km range on the anti-ship missiles. The new Defender standard would be better than 50% faster, with a hit rate of 78%! The P variant is almost exactly 50% faster than the previous, and at a hit rate of 48% is considered nearly 40% more effective now in simulations. These missiles travel 19.6 and 17.5 km/s respectively, which puts them in the low end of the range of known alien capabilities. This is a very significant development in the minds of Navy brass -- we are getting close to matching their recorded, quarter-century-old capabilities. As for the Interceptor concept, it doesn't need nearly the range. Our current missile sensors have the capability of detecting an incoming missile at 2m km. That means a range longer than thatis pretty much useless. Right now we are in the 15-30% hit range for the target speeds for this missile, which isn't great but good enough. NAVAL DOCTRINE The current designs of the Nimitz and Brooklyn are based on the assumption that there is no effective defense against alien missiles. The Navy's most recent analysis, summarized above, stipulates that this may no longer be the case. This fact called for a wholesale revision in ship design and combat doctrine. Under the old assumption, all ships operated independently, with their own detection systems since there was no way to protect any kind of centralized 'early-warning' ship. The doctrine called for 'aggressive defense', i.e. multiple independent weapons platforms to overwhelm the enemy with massed firepower before they could destroy us. It was primarily designed to defend against an enemy attack. Every ship having its own sensors was both highly inefficient and undeniably necessary. Now that there is the prospect of potentially shooting down incoming alien missiles, this reality is changing. The question is, has it changed enough? Practically speaking, that question has to be considered irrelevant at this juncture. With next to no progress expected on the missile research front, the question is really are we prepared to wait another generation before beginning to deal with the threat in Epsilon Eridani. That could easily take 20 or more years. Humanity's growing need to expand beyond Sol makes this an extremely dubious proposition, and the Navy is very disinclined to wait. It is also worth remembering that our knowledge of their capabilities is extremely limited and also 25 years old. There's no way for the Navy to be ready without better intelligence information, and there's only one way to obtain that is to go get it. We have waited long enough. It is time to set plans in motion to repel them. In order to do this, the Navy will no longer divide it's ships between beam and missile variants, but attempt to use combined-arms theory. This new approach calls for retirement of the Brooklyn and Nimitz concepts, and an initial division into three new classes of ships: a command ship which will have more powerful sensors, increased armor and CIWS defenses, and be protected at all costs by an escort class. These escorts will contain anti-missile weapons systems(meson cannons and Interceptor missiles). This should in theory allow for a staggered approach with a better chance to weaken the incoming salvos at least, and also allow for valuable intel on the effectiveness of both weapons systems. The third class will serve much the same role as the current Nimitz, a missile ship carrying a new missile based on the same principles as the Defender. This has been termed the Exorcist. All of this requires new prototypes across the board. Sensors of every kind. Reduced-size missile launchers to maximize firepower -- reload time will suffer but this is more than considered an acceptable trade-off. Larger power plants. And of course two more engines, one for each variety of missile. Once the blueprints for the new, larger sensors were hammered out for the sensor/command ships, the general effect of these new changes was to double the Interceptor range and more than triple the Exorcist from the Defender to about 250m km. This does lower the hit chance a bit, it will now have about a 36-37% rate but stand a much better chance of not simply being outranged. The Interceptor will have an effective range of about 4m km, at a simulation-estimated hit rate of 14.5-29%. As many as six volleys could potentially be launched at a single missile wave, though practically speaking that is more likely to be two, maybe three. This massive initiative was dubbed Operation Frozen Vengeance, the preparation stages of which has begun. They do say it's a dish best served cold ... and what is colder than the void of space? The goal of Frozen Vengeance is to bring battle to the aliens in Epsilon Eridani by the end of the century, aiming to drive them from the system, stop the desecration of the long-dead tombs that are the Pioneer wrecks, and push them away from the doorstep to Sol. Similarly to the PP field, Sensors & Fire Control cancels four ongoing projects to focus on prototyping the new systems. At least five years expected before all systems are ready and Frozen Vengeance can be turned over to the shipyard engineers. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 12-01-2014 at 12:25 AM.

12-01-2014, 09:36 AM	#312
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	For colonization, would it be feasible to have some sort of distant outposts or are the supply costs just too great? For instance, there's some planet you mention in Tau Ceti that will be a "quick" 50 year terraforming job. Could you send a small team there to start that timer now without risking too much so that in 2 generations, when tech catches up, SPACE will be ready to full scale colonize there? I mean, the game has "only" progressed 70 years since the start so 50 years seems like a long time to wait for more development. Or since you mention "single installation", does that mean you can drop, say 5 terraformers (in the game, are those factories? mechanical devices? ships?) and cut that down to 10 years? SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!"

12-01-2014, 10:22 AM	#313
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Good questions. First of all, terraforming takes a long time generally unless things are already pretty much perfect. Changing the environment of an entire planet is ... well it's time-consuming. Massive on a scale I can't really even fully appreciate. Your example is exactly correct, 5 terraformers could do it in 10 years, 10 could do it in five years, etc. Improved terraforming technology also helps(we can terraform twice as fast now as we could when SPACE started up, so it would been a not-as-quick 100-year project then.) When I say terraforming installation, it's just that -- an installation. There's two ways you can do terraforming. One is to build a terraforming ship, the other is the installation which is just like a factory or a mine or lab or a tracking station -- build it and move it where it's needed. Right now SPACE is partial to the latter approach, but both have their pros and cons. In terms of what is involved to set up such an advanced prep type of operation, it depends on which method is chosen. To do it the installation route, you need enough colonists to operate the installations and enough infrastructure to support them as well as the installations themselves. I don't know yet what population is required to operate each one, but based on the cost to build them I'm guessing it's 250k. That's 250k manufacturing workers, not 250k total population. So if that number is right, there would need to be at least a million probably more to get that number of workers. The reason we know that is Luna/Mars have the same colonization cost, and the higher the cost the higher the percentage of people are needed for environmental/logistical/service labor and the less available for industry. Particularly hostile locations like Mercury or Venus don't allow for any industrial labor even with their growing populations. So keeping in mind that this is all educated guesswork -- part of the fun is figuring it out -- we would need 200 tons of infrastructure, costing 400 tons of duranium, to support each million people and therefore each installation. A lot of that is front-end effort since once it was terraformed, the infrastructure would no longer be needed and it could be moved to another colony in need of it ... lots of logistics to be worked out here. The ship route is more problematic on a distant planet. At least one ship would need a jump drive, and every so often it would need refueling and shore leave at a colony. Therefore it would take longer(per terraforming module, which is what they're called when operated from a ship) and if the destination is far enough away, that could cost more than the infrastructure to set up a colony on the planet. Finally I should mention that we don't yet know if Tau Ceti is worth the effort. It's a promising system, but no geo/grav surveys have been done. In terms of the distance, the current existing South Carolina freighters would take, on average, a little over four months to get there. So it's not so far away that it's prohibitively expensive. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 12-01-2014 at 10:25 AM.

12-01-2014, 10:28 AM	#314
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	But that does answer the unasked question. You can't just start easily seeding planets with outposts, hoping a couple survive. The upfront mineral costs are great and, even moreso, the human cost is high SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 12-01-2014 at 10:28 AM.

11-24-2014, 02:20 PM	#301
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Thanks! I'm looking forward to it as well, it's been a long time coming and I just so happen to be going into my annual vacation so I should be able to get into those events pretty quickly. RETIREMENTS Carroll Westcott -- A mining outpost supervisor, Westcott did one tour at Io at the end of his career. By the time he diversified her skills, he was too old and in too poor health to really take advantadge of it. A solid mid-level governor. James Earl Jones V -- A veteran of a few directorial elections, Jones had tours on colonies like Luna, Venus, and Titan, as well as top mining placements such as Sedna. He didn't play the political game, and it cost him a chance at the top spot. Ironically some of his best work was in the past year in helping with the recovery from his important post on Titan. Art Weston -- Another solid governor, good mining skills but not quite enough excellence or versatility to be more than a long shot. Larry Steckel -- For a long time, Steckel has been the premier mining expert in SPACE. Though these skills were wasted on Mars recently, he's bounced around to almost every important post short of Earth in his varied career. Health concerns force him aside a bit early at 59. Alberto Eighmy -- Perhaps none other than Herbert Duling have been more gifted. Health was the one-time director's achilles heel, and combined with the stress of trying to do two jobs after the Rakes resignation it has compelled him to retire early at 56. Eighmy had a gift of being able to take in all the information available, regardless of the pressures around and upon him, and see through to the end results. He wasn't a visionary like Duling, but he was exceptionally competent and always had a friend or six he could count on in a pinch. It's a veritable who's-who of the old guard. SPACE will be in dire need of new civilian leaders to step up and be counted after losing five valuable servants this year. 2081 ELECTION A new era dawns under Operation Renewal, and it will dawn under untested leadership. There are no former directors even active. Only seven are even eligible for the office -- SPACE has had elections with more names than that on the final ballot! Former Earth governor Riley Awad, presently on Luna, is the biggest name in the field and the early favorite simply on name recognition. Five were on the final ballot, but only three had a real chance. The real favorite was indeed Awad, who simply has more varied experience and gravitas than the others. Mercury governor Burt Stonerock, the best natural challenger, did himself no favors with his response to the New York scandal, and polarizing loudmouth Russell Salvucci made himself a lot of enemies but even more friends with his scathing attacks on Rakes during that period. He based his campaign on tying Awad to those failings as part of the old, failed leadership. This had some effect but not all that much given most people's settled opinion that the lion's share of blame belonged to India Rakes, not SPACE as a whole. Note: Salvucci was given a much wider range of possible popular support for the election, with the most likely scenario a slightly better vote for him than would otherwhise have been the case, but also the possibility for a boomerang effect and bigger negatives. The scandal is still plenty fresh to have an impact here, but due to the effective recovery it is not a dominant, defining issue. In the end, the voters made it clear that there were no real winners, only losers. They unenthusiastically elected Awad, the most qualified candidate. He had more than twice the votes of Salvucci, but neither impressed and both Stonerock and Sedna governor Errol Igoe were obviously detested by large numbers. The only one that really did well was Ganymede governor Francesco Alborn who came in a surprising second, but as he's only supervised the one small colony for a single tour, he was considered to be greatly lacking in experience. Full results: Awad -- 37.9% Alborn -- 23.2% Salvucci -- 18.2% Stonerock -- 12.8% Igoe -- 7.9% POLICY REVIEW The loyal Awad has a chance to implement his vision for the first time. He and Alborn each have a variety of of skills, neither particularly impressive in any one area but rather more likely to find their impact in a range of smaller influences. He also has the general outlook that it is better to take a risk than to be overly cautious. Awad wants the situation in Epsilon Eridani resolved sooner rather than later, concurring with the Navy's opinion that regardless of what happens elsewhere, the Fleet will be tied down until that happens. Aside from the obvious technological inferiority we still face, we do not have a jump drive capable of bringing our combat vessels through to the system. In any case, the Navy believes it is best to wait for the Ion Drive and a new generation of missiles, electronics, etc. before a new generation of ships is prepared that will be capable of mounting a credible threat. The new director believes SPACE should be ready to act when that happens, and in that vein has authorized the deployment of a diplomatic ship to the system ... Ambassador-class Diplomatic Craft Size: 800t Speed: 1500 km/s Crew: 18(+10 for diplomats) Sensors: Commercial-grade passive EM and Thermal, latest Mark IV version The mission of the Ambassador is to perform a solo jump into a hostile system, and broadcast friendship messages on all frequencies in an attempt to begin a dialogue with an alien species. To that end, quarters for two diplomatic teams are included. It is also equipped, like the ESF carriers and tankers, with extra supplies for a 5-year stay if required. Awad's goal is to determine, however long it takes, whether there is any chance of peaceful co-existence with the aliens who destroyed our Pioneers back in the 50s. Many, in fact most in SPACE, want and will probably get a military response eventually, but by sending in an Ambassador those of a more pacifistic mind can be mollified, Awad can appear to be doing something about Epsilon Eridani while the next generation of ships is developed, and there is the chance that we could learn more about the alien threat. Any intelligence is greatly valued right now, we still know virtually nothing. In Awad's mind this need for more information outweighs all risks. Therefore the Lalande 21185 will no longer be considered off limits, but the ESFs will only visit it after they have surveyed the others. Sirius and Luyten 726-8 are considered to be by far the best candidate systems after EE, and they will be prioritized first. Sirius has the easiest terraformable candidate for a 'system hub', and Luyten is the only known system outside of Sol with comets, plus four possibilities for major fuel sources on gas giants/super jovians. Rather than focus on any one system though, the plan is to see what Siriuis and Luyten have, then also survey the other four(Barnard's Star, Teegarden's Star, Lalande 21185, and Van Maanen's Star), which are considered much less promising. Unless a particularly excellent find is discovered, no colonization plan is expected to be hatched until all six are surveyed completely. Epsilon Eridani is of course off-limits until the diplomatic teams have reported back. Finally there is the issue of the off-world bases. It's clear that building local, static defenses everywhere is not going to be a viable option. SPACE must instead focus more on a mobile defense via the Navy, an approach which places more importance than ever on resolving the Epsilon Eridani situation since the navy will be tied down to Earth unless that system is secured. The Tennessee, both normal and Light versions, are to be eradicated. The Alaska(brigade of ground troops, multiple missile launchers) will continue to be built on any strategic locations with significant population(Titan and Earth at the moment), and the Ticonderoga on less critical populated colonies. Major mining outposts, defined as any which contribute 10% or more of total output, will recieve a DSTS(deep space tracking system). Minor mining outposts will be defenseless, the judgement being that they aren't important enough to be worth the cost of investing in their protection. LEADERSHIP OUTLOOK It's an interesting situation in the higher-ups of civilian leadership at SPACE. The military branches are better led than they ever have been overall: the top leaders may not be as good as Chiefs Camble or Silvers, but the depth of quality in the upper reaches is outstanding right now. On the other side of the coin, civilian leadership which is IMO more important -- the navy can only uses the tool the civvies give them, after all -- has never been weaker. Awad is the only administrator left, who would have been considered good enough to be relevant on an agency-wide scale during Duling's heyday, and both he and Alborn have one, maybe two at most terms left. The requirements of leading the colonies grow ever higher, to the point where low-level admins aren't skilled enough to take on tasks like Mercury and Titan. Right now the stage is set for less capable and even more importantly unstable/impulsive/self-seeking leaders like Stonerock and Salvucci to take the reins within the next decade. It's a dangerous time for SPACE politically. We've been both spoiled and blessed with usually great leadership in this arena, but it appears that's about to change and the results may not be pretty. As already mentioned, the scientific arena isn't any better right now. The only elite scientist who won't have retired in ten years is Julio Kuchler. He's been around for what seems like forever but is only 48, though health is already a concern so even he's not a guarantee. The development of new leaders has never been more important, particularly with Operation Renewal about to launch and the navy beginning to approach a point where it can consider the possibility of serious combat operations by the end of the century. Exciting time are ahead ... who will step forward to ensure humanity faces them with courage and vision?

11-25-2014, 06:37 PM	#303
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	I think it will eventually get better(I hope). I can't focus on one branch or another, the only thing I can do is build more academies to get more leaders of all branches. At the moment we have four which is giving us enough over time for current needs.

11-28-2014, 11:35 AM	#304
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Happy belated Thanksgiving! Time to get this updated to where we are now, a lot of stuff going on. 2081 ANNUAL REPORT(Part 1) The year did not get off to a great start. On January 2, with most of BOG is still transiting from here to there all over the system, two dozen Lexingtons on their way to and fro. Today's business was made less routine and more stressful, as the Wickes arrived at Stephan-Oterma. A controlled demolition on the Ticonderoga followed shortly thereafter. It was a small base, but it was not anticipated how completely the explosion obliterated the structure. Apparently the navy is too good at their self-destruct sequences ... there wasn't anything left to salvage. The expected test of the salvage gear was not needed, so the Wickes simply went back to Earth. Another ship that wasn't needed, but at least it was fairly inexpensive. Adding to the mitigation is that no special shipyard investment was needed to make it, and the argument that it can still be used at some point during interstellar exploration. A few people said a few things they shouldn't have while a few protests erupted, but there was no serious disruption of SPACE business this time ... Meanwhile adding to the hustle and bustle now was the process of Lexingtons(for the officers) and Portlands(for the garrisons) journeying all over the system to evacuate the no-longer-needed bases. The MRD, referencing the 2081 SOS Report, section IB, identified only Sedna and Triton as being in need of DSTS. Awad also wants to diversify the economy by getting a couple more shipyards of each type up and running eventually -- he wants the eventually refits to Ion drives to go smoothly and efficiently, and they won't with the current number. More shipyards is preferable to constant wholescale retooling, the latter approach being more costly in the long run. In view of these goals, the following changes were made to Earth's industrial allocation: Research Labs(33-25%) Ordnance Factories(13-11%) Mine Conversions(30-15%) Mine Construction(24-12%) Commercial Shipyards(new, 18%) -- 2 ordered DSTS(new, 10%) -- 2 ordered Naval Shipyards(new, 9%) -- 1 ordered This is more like the economy used to look before Rakes had concentrated most of it into mines. This is not to pile on, that was likely the best approach at the time, but for now the number of facilities flowing to Triton will decline. At the time of publishing ETAs for these were not set, as incoming Earth governor Alborn is still en route. Once he arrived, the dates were not impressive, given that he is of merely novice skill in factory production while Awad is only average. SPACE is now down to about eight mines produced and converted per year, a little under one lab, etc. It's partly temporary, but the combination of reduced factory access and less expert supervision is a big hit to these efforts. Both are right on the novice/accomplished line in terms of shipbuilding though, and between the two that process has sped up. The first ESF is expected to begin training exercises in early spring. At the end of the month, with most of the reassignment activity now completed, the relative quiet was disturbed by the sudden hospitalization of Rear Admiral June Aspinwall, the Navy's second-in-command behind Chief Feeser. The 52-year-old Aspinwall is seen as a key advisor, the eldest and in some quarters most respected among the admiralty. Right now the outlook is that she can finish this tour and probably another, but her future is definitely uncertain at this point. In February, the Ambassador began construction at Niehuis SY. The year was off to busy start. A little over a week later, the new laser turret(SpearPoint DL-12) completing it's testing phase. This allowed for the next generation of the Brooklyn to finally be hammered out. The engineers had a little over a month lead time in this case until the last of the 72s was finished. A nine-year-old design. Incredibly, the passive sensors are the same ones used then -- new thermals will be ready later this year, electromagnetics are in the pipeline farther back -- but the actives are improved and of course the capacitors, power plants, weapons have all seen advances. Combined with the advancements in armor, this allowed for a significantly smaller ship: Brooklyn 81-class Gunboat Size: 10.5 kt(13.45 kt, -22%) Crew: 282(356, -21%) Speed: 2380 km/s(2379, virtually identical) Fuel: 1.25ml(1.75, -71%) Thermal Emissions: 210(269, -22%) Armament: 2x SpearPoint DL-12 Twin Laser Cannon Turrets, 2x WT Excalibur 135 Meson Cannon Turrets, 1x CIWS 79 Battery. The 72 has twice the lasers and the same amount of mesons. Tracking Speed: 12k km/s(8k, +50%) Armor: 5 layers(4, +25%) Cost: 1.71m(1.89m, -9.5%) The Brooklyn 81 is smaller and a little cheaper than its predecessor. It doesn't pack nearly as much punch but the faster tracking speed makes it a more effective combatant anyway. This is of course a marginal upgrade, a stopgap version to bridge the time until ion drives are ready. At the same time, it was announced that Eva Vadnais was the latest top SPACE researcher to end her public career. Along with Joe Tycho she carried the Energy Weapons field for the last couple of decades. It's been a time of great improvement as they've seen the program advance from its infancy to third, nearly fourth-generation weapons and techniques. At 64 years old and already suffering the natural effects of aging, she leaves behind her not a single quality researcher to fill the void. This does not bode well for the Navy's efforts over the next couple of decades. March began with the launching of the first Baltimore Command Carrier. Only the Iowa XR now remained before the first ESF was complete and Operation Renewal could get underway. On the fifth, two days later, Cedrick Wormack retired. He battled through health problems to finish up his final project, the Orbital Habitat Module. Just one of these massive components would be about 50% larger than a South Carolina superfreighter. Each can house indefinitely 50,000 workers, with shuttles for transportation to normally uninhabitable bodies. It is possible, though seemingly unlikely, that deploying a space station to remote outposts may become a feasible goal. That time is not now, and it won't be soon either. The 67-year-old Wormack retires having been an integral part of a cadre of top logistics researchers who greatly advanced SPACE's capabilities through practical solutions to the thorny problems of living in an increasingly space-faring age. There are other capable minds to succeed him, not quite like the greatest generation of LG scientists that he concludes, but the field is still in good hands. Another three days, and the Alaska base on Titan was finished up. It was just one thing happening after another. SPACE headquarters at Sol Sector Command was a constant madhouse. More Caldwells were finished up in late March, a new Nimitz and Brooklyn each were operational in early April. Shortly aftewards, Dr. Julio Kuchler finished his report on considerably improved active gravitational sensors. This set the stage for four new systems to be prototyped: commercial, ship search, and missile search sensor variants, as well as a new missile fire control suite. On April 18, in the early hours of the morning, the first Iowa XR tanker received clearance to depart its moorings. The preparation was over, it was time for Operation Renewal to begin ... COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS January 12 -- Uridium is exhausted on Faye. January 21 -- Ticonderoga on Machholz is demolished. February 10 -- Ticonderoga on Reinmuth is demolished. February 16 -- Another most welcome expansion at Sedna is finished, now totalling 36 CMCs. March 8 -- The Alaska base on Titan, after years of construction, is finally finished. The construction brigades are loaded up to head back to Earth. LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL Late January -- Garland Sidhom has made another leap in his abilities. Too bad he's in biogenetics, but he's nearly doubled his skills in less than a year to nearly reach elite status. At 60, he's got a decade at most to make his mark. Right now he's doing background work on improving the efficiency of shipyard operations. Not exactly what he signed up for. Clint Wyche is still the man in BG, and in that field there's only room for one top dog ... Accomplished Elwood Tousant(SF) has also made a significant jump. He's a real success story, a guy who was given make-work jobs and didn't make much of them at first back when he was a snot-nosed, nigh-incompetent novice. Certainly a late bloomer, but at 57 and in excellent health he has a lot to offer humanity in the later stages of this century. Mid-February -- It's almost literally raining Army talent recently it seems. Col. Galen Onken is the latest. He's cut out of the same cloth as Zoe Bean, and many already project that within five years the two of them will be neck-and-neck for the top spot. Meanwhile, Dr. Cedrick Wormack seems to finally have age catching up with him. He's in the final weeks of his current project, and his health is failing him. Also, Curtis Gloster(CP) and one of the novice scientists in the same field have recently seen noted improvements. Gloster has joined the ranks of the elite now, accelerating his vital work on mining techniques. Late February -- Medical issues announced for two relatively unknown army colonels, including Deacon Palmer Jr.. Dr. Eva Vadnais retires. Newbie Ricky Tsutsui will take the vacated lab to work on the prototype SITG Emdar-44.7, the latest in military-grade EM detection. Early April -- Despite the health problems, June Aspinwall has developed a minor novice-level affinity for Intelligence operations. April 14 -- Four more officers are dismissed, three navy and one from the army as well. EARTH February 16 -- Niehuis SY has finished retooling for the Ambassador, and construction has begun. A late spring finish time is expected. March 3 -- The first of the Baltimore Command Carriers is finished. Only the Iowa XR tanker is now needed for the first ESF. March 23 -- Caldwell x4 finished. The sixth quartet of what has been upped to eight begins. April 5 -- A new Nimitz 76c is finished, second in the class, fifth Nimitz overall. April 7 -- The fourth and final Brooklyn 72 is ready. Retooling for the newly designed 81 will require most of the rest of the year. April 18 -- The Iowa XR tanker launches, completed the first ESF. RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Late February -- SpearPoint DL-12 Laser Cannon Turret finished. March 5 -- Orbital Habitat Module finished by Dr. Cedrick Wormack's team, and his expected retirement is made official. After dividing up his labs between another pair of novices, there is only one unemployed scientist left ... April 15 -- Julio Kuchler finishes the new active gravitational sensor techniques. Kuchler needs to take over a new project. It's the first shakeup of the revised R&D protocols. He'll take over work on improving fire control tracking speeds, and a number of other projects are suspended to make room for the prototypes to get underway.

11-28-2014, 10:58 PM	#305
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	RENEWAL April 18 -- By the end of the day, Rear Admiral Hank Rohrer, an accomplished survey officer, had taken command of the first fully-formed ESF and instituted TF ESF Alpha on board the Baltimore 1 Command Carrier! It was a historic moment. His first order of businesses was to begin the first fleet exercises that the SPACE Navy has ever conducted. Joining him are staff officers Cpt. Shad Gullo(Survey) and Cpt. Asa Hotz(Operations). Under their command are the following assets: Baltimore 1 Command Carrier(Cmdr. Warner Godzik) Gearing 1 Survey Carrier(Cmdr. Christin Dinges) 2x JS Explorer(Lt. Cmdrs. Trevor Lerner, Clement Sarrett) 3x GSV Frontier(Cmdrs. Lavern Camel, Elvin Harnett, Jay Cin V) 3x GEV Prospector(Lt. Cmdrs. Marc Cypriot, Fredrick Holcomb, Alfonso Galyen) This also lowered Earth's fuel reserves to a shockingly low 2 million litres, SPACE has less than 15 million combined in the tanks when Titan and Callisto are added in. Most of Titan's supply was immediately shipped to Earth. It is expected to be a little over a year for the other XR, which will complete ESF Bravo. April 22 -- Baltimore 2 is ready, and the Baltimore Marine SY is able to go silent. Late April -- Garland Sidhom is in the news again. He's on an absolute tear and now has elite-level skills as a project lead. May -- By the first of the month Earth has dipped under 1.25m liters. This is scary territory. The last group of Perrys to be scrapped are inbound just a few days out, and their tanks will be drained beforehand in order to boost the supply. It's not a huge amount, but about 700-800k can be gained there to make sure supplies last until Titan's shipment comes in. Mid-May -- The exercises are supposed to be for the crew, but Rear Admiral Hank Rohrer has gained a meager amount of operations skill in the process. May 19th -- The Ambassador is ready. A team of the best and brightest junior expendables were found. The sole representative from BOG, Marion Polizzi, concerned many. This was a lightning-rod of a choice if ever there was one. She has as fine a skill for diplomacy as anyone, but has a wicked streak in her as well. She's the kind of diplomat who will make nice to your face, stab you in the back, then dance a jig on your corpse in celebration. Then again, there's a chance that might be what SPACE needs in this situation ... Regardless, it's a risky selection. The team will be led officially by Col. Karen Cotsis, though Polizzi is pulling the strings in actuality. Col. Jeff Wiechmann along with Lt. Cmdrs. Jean Rickabaugh and Arturo Calnan round out the group. Commanding the Ambassador itself, though he's in truth a subordinate on this mission with a duty simply to ferry them around, is Cmdr. Fritz Weinstock. He's not exactly overjoyed by the assignment but as someone who knows how to keep the peace and get things done, he's definitely the right man for the job. It would only take a little over five days to reach the jump. Final approval was obtained from Fleet Command for the first jump in almost 23 years. After this long, there was no way to know what to expect. It could be years of nothing, or it could be very 'exciting' and brief. The sane ones hoped earnestly for the first option. May 24, 0328 -- Final approval from the two Forrestals at the point where nothing has ever once been detected was obtained. The Ambassador was enveloped in a bluish hue ... and then disappeared. And the waiting began. May 27 -- Triton's base is demolished. A DSTS is already on the way. Only Sedna's remains. June 2 -- SITG ThermoScan 121(Bessie Wallander) is finished. June 6 -- Long Beach completed. June 15 -- Final Long Beach finished, sixth group deployed. Long regarded as the most incompetent researcher in SPACE, David Gruis(PP, 47) has reached accomplished status. He may yet become actually important before he retires ... Some thought was given to whether the two dozen Long Beach are actually enough. The tanks are at about 13m right now, a concerning situation but most of the ships that need to be built have been built. Still, with another tanker coming next year, another Gearing coming at the end of the year, and who knows what else, the mine shipments are drawing more fuel ... building up a reserve for the future will require massive amounts. They'll be needed eventually for certain, so why wait. Another two groups of four are ordered, and the slipways resume their active state at the P&A Group SY. Ironically when the Long Beach was first proposed, it was considered by some ridiculously massive and far more than SPACE would ever need. About that ... Another two slipways are ordered as well. With this many harvesters it will take a very long time to refit them all if and when that becomes necessary. With most of the mineral stockpiles stable and duranium slowly edging upwards, Director Awad is gambling that it's an affordable expense. And can we really afford not to do it? Mid June -- Gallicite exhausted on Halley's Comet June 19 -- The Ambassador returns. It has been less than four weeks since it jumped out. DIPLOMATIC MISSION LOG -- EPSILON ERIDANI May 24, System Entry. Wrecks on the Pioneers are still visible about 1.5b km from the jump, right where they were reported almost a quarter century ago. It was a rather morbid and gruesome sight, an apparently permanent graveyard in space. They had not been touched. Apparently the aliens don't consider our technology worth the effort of salvaging. That's ... well that's beyond words. Still, they were here to do a job. 25 years after first contact, the diplomatic channels were officially opened. Would anyone respond? Were they even still here to do so? The answer didn't take long. Within the first day, long-range sensor instruments determined that something out there was receiving the messages. There was no question, they were still here. Somewhere. Probably near the wrecks. But no response was made. Either they couldn't understand us, or they didn't care to reply. Neither was encouraging. The team was already beginning to sense their mission might well be futile. June 4 -- Just as the team officially noted that it looked like establishing contact might be impossible, there were a few small signs of progress over the next week. June 19 -- That was really the only positive note in the log unforunately. Before and after that opening week of June, it was more a situation of one step forward, two or three steps back. On this date, 25 days after the beginning of the mission, team lead Cotsis had to report that they had simply run out of options. The mission was a failure. The aliens are simply too different, there's no basis for meaningful, effective communication and in the unanimous opinion of the team we are only antagonizing them by further attempts. Cmdr. Godzik had no choice but to accept the verdict and jump back to Sol. SPACE Sector Command was not pleased at the news, but it was not entirely unexpected either. We made the effort. We tried to attempt peace. They've shown they aren't interested or capable of it repeatedly. There is only one option available. It's been true in a de facto state for a generation, but Director Awad made it official. Humanity is now officially at war with the aliens in Epsilon Eridani. This cold war can only end with the surrender and/or extermination of one or the other. SPACE's #1 priority is to make sure we win a fight we cannot afford to lose. All other concerns are secondary. Late June -- With only the Sedna base left to deal with, Awad orders the next step in resolving the base situation. Mercury, Venus, and the four moons of Jupiter are still without any protection. Enough prefabricated Ticonderogas exist to handle all of them twice over. Yes they are basically 'stone-age' technology from the mid-60s, but they are something. June 25 -- Diplo team arrives back on earth. A mysterious accident kills a junior naval at the same time, around 10 AM GST. The two incidents are probably unrelated, but the intranet goes crazy with conspiracy theorists' unsupported allegations and speculation. July 1 -- Mercury and Venus have everything in place, and a single construction brigade begins work on each of their respective Ticonderoga bases. Early July -- Navy Chief Mitchell Feeser adds a bit of Logistics knowledge to his resume, and the last of the Perrys are scrapped. July 10 -- Io and Callisto begin work on the Ticonderogas there, the other two moons await incoming construction brigades. So far all of them are expected to be finished early next year. Also, research finished on Small Troop Transport Bay, fit for a company, though we have no units that small yet. Alphonse Lambeth led the work. Mid-July -- RA Parker Lanzi has become accomplished in her current posting as Communications Officer at Fleet HQ. Director Riley Awad, and to a lesser extent the public, is growing impatient with the continuing 'fleet exercises'. Over the strenuous objection of Chief Feeser and Rear Admiral Rohrer, he orders ESF Alpha to get going and stop the exercises. They want another five months in addition to three already spent in order to get to what the navy feels is a sufficient level of training and coordination. Awad goes apoplectic at that notion, pointing out that this isn't some complicated combat maneuver they're being asked to perform -- it's survey operations. With the current fuel situation, they can't afford to burn more of it up with these training exercises, and delaying the mission isn't an option either. Combining the concerns for a shakedown run and fuel supply issues, with the rare optimal position of Saturn at nearly the same bearing as the Barnard's Star point, the furthest one in Sol, Awad orders ESF Alpha there first. There won't be a better chance in terms of a good refueling point. Saturn takes almost a 30-year path around the sun, so while it's a very unglamorous place to start it served as a useful compromise and made practical sense with the goal to survey all the systems eventually anyway. July 15 -- After topping off at Earth, ESF Alpha breaks orbit and heads for Barnard's Star. It's almost a four-month journey, so it'll be late in the year before they arrive. Operation Renewal was officially underway. It was expected to take most of the decade to map the six systems. July 20 -- Sedna's Tennessee base is the last to be destroyed. July 24 -- Construction begins on the final two Ticonderoga bases on Europa and Ganymede. August -- ESF Alpha has passed through the asteroid field and is nearing Jupiter orbit path. July 27 -- Caldwell finished(x4). Two more groups to go. Late July -- Medical condition discovered for Lt. Cmdr. Chance Perj. It does not appear to be threatening in the short term. Mid-August -- Sedna expands again, now at 37 complexes. September -- Now roughly midway between Saturn and Uranus orbits, ESF Alpha's progress is agonizingly slow for most observers on Earth. September 25 -- The final DSTS departs for Sedna. Research Lab and Ordnance Factory production are increased to pre-election levels(33 and 13 percent respectively). October -- ESF Alpha has reached the midpoint between Uranus and Neptune orbits. Early October -- Dr. Rosemary Urenda has bumped her already elite skills up again. Anything that gets ion drives here sooner is worthy of praise. At this point, a power loss cost me notes on what happened for about the next year and a half. I can recreate the major events, just not specific personnel/research stuff. Thankfully Aurora saves constantly. I need to do a better job of doing that myself Mid-November -- ESF Alpha reaches the jump and departs for Barnard's Star, which was discovered and last visited back in 2055. It's time now to wait ... and hope that humanity has better luck this time around than they did in the 50s.

11-30-2014, 03:24 AM	#306
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	The next couple or so posts will be summary-style, covering the year and a half of details that I lost. November 2081 - March 2082 On November 11 2081 ESF Alpha jumped out to the Barnard's Star system after a successful scout by Explorer 1. They were not heard from for the rest of the year, nor were they expected to be. Nobody had any real idea how long it would take to scout a system, and doubtless it would vary depending on the system, but it was assumed a few weeks would definitely not be enough. SPACE rang in the new year in 2082 with a bit of political debate. Well, more than a bit actually. Gross colonial population had finally reached 10% of the total, and a significant political force they were becoming. Previous proposals to move factories, research labs, etc. to the colonies had never gotten anywhere largely because they were simply wasteful. Earth is a fairly central location in Sol, and why ship more personnel and equipment all over the system than necessary? This time however, the colonials had found an issue with a legitimate argument behind it -- sort of. Their proposal gave birth to the Clemson Controversy. The Clemson was a proposed tug ship, using tractor beam technology that SPACE has had for a a while now but not used. The proposed ship would be capable of hauling the P&A Group SY, responsible for Long Beach harvesters, to Titan. There it would be closer to Saturn's massive harvesting operation for purposes of refitting, building new ships, etc. Time and fuel would be saved. All of this was very good in theory, but deflected eventually by the fact that Titan was about a million short of the three million workers needed to operate the shipyard. The bigger issue of the colonies would not go away though: they have 10% of the population and only 1.5% of the lucrative TN industrial jobs, those in maintenance facilities and mines on Titan and Europa. The shipyards, factories, and research labs, by far the biggest employers, had 100% of their operations on earth and the colonialists are increasingly unhappy about. Naturally the Earth Firsters love it and want to keep it that way. Director Riley Awad soon proved that, like most politicians, he paid little head to Hesitations 5:18("all those who remain on the fence shall receive splinters"). He straddled the issue and reinstituted the 2% Initiative. This time however, it would be directed towards terraforming installations. A 3-4 year timeline would be required for each installation, delivered to the colonies as a way for them to both have higher-paying high-tech TN jobs and improve the living conditions at the same time. From SPACE's point of view, it also provided a dry run on establishing best practices for terraforming ahead of the eventual need for them in colonization efforts. The spring would provide another challenge. On March 9 the last of the Ticonderogas were finished on the moons of Jupiter, and the positive elements of the vision put forward 17 years previous by India Rakes in terms of bases throughout Sol were completed. Of course these bases were also basically two decades old technology wise at this point, and the Alaskas on Earth certainly remain SPACE's best, perhaps only, chance at repelling an alien attack should it ever come. So much has changed that when the redesigns eventually came, it proved far cheaper to build new bases than refit the old ones. Director Awad put SPACE on a path to build new updated bases by 2100, a path that requires about a fifth of Earth's industry for the first several years of that effort. The biggest takeaway from the redesign is that defending humanity is going to require a staggeringly increasing amount of resources in the future. SPACE is really starting to feel the pinch in terms of needing to get colonization beyond Sol going in order to bring in more resources. It isn't that painful yet, but it will get progressively more so as time goes on. Earth's industrial base has not expanded in a long time, and won't be doing so anytime in the near future due to the navy's ravenous and ever-growing need for resources, duranium espescially. The only way out is to find more. Alaska 82 Missile Base Size: 22.7kt(53.7 kt) Crew: 709(1025) Armament: 25 Defender 76 Missile Launchers, 250 missile capacity(previously 400 missiles, same launchers), half standard and half higher-payload P versions; 4 CIWS 79 Batteries(18 CIWS I) Sensors: 2 each thermal, EM, and active grav military-grade standard Armor: 10 layers composite(10 layers duranium) Troop Capacity: 1 brigade(same) Cost: 3.53m(4.51m) The big reduction in CIWS is due to the previous amount being considered extravagantly large. Hopefully we won't ever have to find out if that's correct. Otherwhise the sensors are both much better and much smaller, the missiles faster and more powerful, and the cost down quite a bit as well. Ticonderoga 82 Sensor Base Size: 3.7 kt(2.95 kt) Crew: 24(16) Armament: 1 CIWS 79 Battery Sensors: Mark IV Commercial variants Armor: 8 layers composite(5 layers duranium) Troop Capacity: 1 battalion(same) Cost: 198k Other than upgraded sensors, the main difference is thicker armor and the needed addition of a CIWS battery. Any kind of massed attack would still be a problem, really anything other than an armed scout ship. In that case the support of the fleet would be needed. It's more about the appearance of safety than actual safety. The necessity of building these bases meant that other priorities like mine expansion, research labs, etc. had to receive reduced priority.

11-30-2014, 04:11 AM	#307
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	April - August 2082 It was a quiet spring after the bustle of base-building activity and political back-and-forth of the first few months of the year. It ended up being the calm between the storms however. In June, at almost exactly the same time, ESF Bravo was finished and ESF Alpha returned from Barnard's Star. This lit a fire under Bravo to get their training exercises done as soon as possible so they could get in on the fun. Rear Admiral Parker Lanzi, a bit perturbed that she hadn't gotten the first flotilla, was nabbed to lead Bravo. Among her Frontier commanders was one Daniel Watters. Barnard's Star Survey Report ESF Alpha, June 2082 Jump Points One additional jump point was found in the system, to Gliese 563.2. It's almost directly across Barnard's Star from the Sol jump, a 2.3b km distance, so from Earth to Gliese 563.2 is about 8.2b km. Geological Survey There wasn't much to evaluate here, the geosurvey took just over a month. 186kt of sorium was found on the gas giant at the same 0.7 accessibility as Saturn has. This gives the system potential as a refueling point at least. The fifth moon has 636kt of highly inaccessible(0.1) duranium. The other moons and asteroids were found to be completely barren. No evidence of alien civilizations, past or present, was found. New System -- Gliese 563.2 This is a rather incredible system. The report was hard to believe until the spectography was analyzed and confirmed. It's a binary system, but a binary of such massive scale as to be inconceivable. The secondary star orbits at an incomprehensibly far 93 billion kilometers from the primary. That is not a typo. Almost 100 billion km. In the diagram below, the asteroid field shown is about six times larger in diameter than the outer one in Sol(the one that contains Pluto, past the orbits of all the planets). Even Sedna is only about as 30% as far from the sun as these objects are from Gliese 563.2 A. Gliese 563.2 B is a royal tease. It has three terrestrial planets, a super jovian, couple of gas giants, lots of moons ... and the second planet is almost as good as the planet in Sirius for habitation. It's just about 30 degrees too cold, very fixable with the right terraforming. Nothing a little greenhouse effect coudn't fix. None of that matters of course, because it would take a survey ship almost two and a half years just to get there. And that's the good part -- getting any amount of equipment there would be obscenely difficult, and of course it's several times the effective range of mass drivers so any resources would have to be shipped back at exorbitant costs. For the same reason, the asteroid field is a non-starter. Still, the inner system around A is not a thing to be disregarded. Three terrestrial planets, one of which is a lot closer to Mars/Luna than Titan in terms of being habitable and could be terraformed to be much better -- the biggest problem right now is flouride in the atmosphere that would need to be removed, it would also need more oxygen and some carbon dioxide to up the temperature. A reasonably long-term investment, but the presence of four more gas giants complete with 80 moons makes it very likely to be a good long-term investment. Back in Sol, ESF Alpha reported 92% fuel, no major maintenance issues, all systems were green so the refueling at Saturn was bypassed and the flotilla headed directly to Luyten 726-8. The shakedown cruise was over and a smashing success, all ships had worked as intended and lived to tell about it. SPACE was not allowed to celebrate this success for long. In early July, they were rocked by the sudden retirement of Earth governor Francesco Alborn. Alborn had finally arrived on the political scene it seemed, and was considered a very fitting lieutenant to Riley Awad. Unfortunately there are some things medical science still can't fix. An inoperable brain tumor forced him out of office and the rest of his life was sure to be very brief. Practically speaking this meant various beauracrats had to share in holding things together on Earth for the next couple of years. Factory and shipyard production slowed down considerably, especially the latter. Humanity was also deprived of a chance to really celebrate the first completely surveyed system outside of Sol, as with the shock of Alborn's tragic departure came a certain amount of uncertainty. By the time fall arrived, ESF Alpha was in Luyten 726-8, and Bravo on it's way to Teegarden's Star for it's shakedown run. The two flotillas would meet in the 'middle', Alpha taking the jumps to the left of the system and Bravo those on the right.

11-30-2014, 05:40 AM	#308
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Note: This brings us up to where my log resumes September 2082 - June 2083 In late 2082 and early 2083 the biggest issue was fuel. The SDF began training as there were now several each of the Brooklyn and Nimitz classes in service and they needed to be ready should the worst come. the P&A Group SY was constantly busy building more Long Beach harvesters. Every time it looked like there would be enough after another group or two, something new(like the Defender 76 missiles, for example) would come up needing more and the building continued. It was somewhere in this time period that the shipyard was expanded to allow for additional slipways: four at a time just wasn't enough with this level of demand. Most of the time the combined tanks stayed around 12-15 million litres. This was enough to refuel anything that was needed, but not enough for any semblance of comfort level. It's just a fraction of what the navy can go through in a year. In the spring of 83 both ESFs returned. Bravo set course for the much-anticipated Sirius system, while Alpha headed to Van Maanen. Incredibly, both were due to jump out within three minutes of each other on the same day, leading many in SPACE to bet on who would finish their survey first and therefore get to do the final one in Lalande 21185. If I recall correctly, and I probably don't, it was sometime in April that they jumped to the new systems Luyten 726-8 Survey Report ESF Alpha, Spring 2083 Jump Points Three were found by the time the gravitational survey was a third over with, leading many to think this would be another major hub system like Sol. No more were found after that, but still, three new systems were discovered: Tau Ceti, Lacaille 9352, and Epsilon Indi. Geological Survey The key feature of Luyten 726-8 is that it is the only known system outside of Sol with comets. Five of them, four of which are close enough to survey. All were found to contain sufficient quantities of accessible, important minerals to make them worth the price of development. Comet #1: 5.3 kt neutronium(0.9), 16+kt corundium(1.0), as well as five minor minerals in varying amounts. Comet #2: 29.8 kt duranium(0.9), 348 t gallicite(0.7), five minor minerals most notably 176 kt of tritanium Comet #4: 19.7 kt corundium(1.0), some vendarite and sorium as well Comet #5: 17.9 kt mercassium(1.0) and each of the six minor minerals also Luyten 726-8 B's system was surveyed first. It was barren except for 1.4 mt(1.0) of sorium on the third planet, a gas giant. That makes this an excellent refueling station, as it's more accessible than Saturn's reserves. The primary star was found to contain the stuff dreams are made of. The first planet contains 991 kt duranium(0.8), and four minor minerals at lesser accessibilities, a total efficiency of 23 which is not great but ok. Most important though is that this is the best single source of duranium known. It's only a fraction of Venus's deposits but far more accessible, and about twice as big as major sources such as Triton and Sedna in Sol were with similar extraction rates. The rest of the system was barren. New System -- Tau Ceti The jump here is astonishingly close ... a mere 32m km away! Even better, this system has everything you could want, save comets. It has a couple terrestrial planets, the second of which is great in terms of gravity and temperature: it just needs oxygen added to the atmosphere. This would be a pretty quick terraforming job, 50 years for a single installation to make it earth-like. Two gas giants, a super jovian, a fair number of moons, and 30 asteroids sweeten the pot. Definitely a big prospect for further surveying. The distance from Sol to Tau Ceti is 6.5b, but if Luyten 726-8 were settled that distance would become negligible. Even so it's still much closer than Gliese 563.2. New System -- Lacaille 9352 The jump here is 2.36b out, in the outer edges of an asteroid field containing 100 or so objects. In other respects it's a virtual copy of Tau Ceti. Actually has more terrestrials for possible colonization, it could become a virtual cornocopia of colonies like Sol eventually. The second planet will need a little more terraforming(2-3 times as much) in this case because it has a thicker atmosphere, but temperature and gravity are again right in range. Plenty of potential gas giants for fuel sources. 6.6 b km from Sol. It's a poor man's Tau Ceti, which means it's still very much worth investigating. New System -- Epsilon Indi This system grabs your attention right way with the fact that it's a tertiary system -- three stars! Unfortunately B and C are relegated to distant observers. They only have one unimpressive planet between them anyway, but more importantly is that B, closely orbited by C, is a staggering 230 billion km away from the primary star A. Give or take, maybe a little under 230 billion. Hard to be accurate at such a hilariously distant range, which is well over twice as distant as the secondary in Gliese 563.2. And of course it doesn't matter. A has an observer of it's own, a dwarf that spends it's time 43b km out. Almost four Sedna's away. All the good stuff is under 2b, a very workable margin. Another good terrestrial as the second planet, though not as good -- it's like Mars or Luna, right temp and gravity but it needs an atmosphere. One super jovian and gas giant each with the usual amount of moons for each, so it's still another good system but definitely not in the same category as the first two. About the same distance as Lacaille from Sol as well. Summary/Evaluation Things would be much better if the second planet, by far the most habitable one, had the minerals instead. The first planet where they actually are is roughly Mercury in terms of habitability, so it's definitely a case where we'd need to colonize the second planet, putting automines on the first and the comets and a refueling station at the third planet of the B star. That station would typically be only about 800m km away, as compared to the 1.4b km Saturn is in Sol, so even travel times would be better. The drawback is there is nowhere around the B star for a decent colony -- the one terrestrial is about four times more inhospitable than Venus -- so all we could do is slap a DSTS for detection on that and the harvesters would need to travel further for shore leave. It would still be a better scenario all things considered. Luyten 726-8 has plusses in every category. With jumps to three other promising systems it is strategically important, it has a good if somewhat limited(comparatively) source of fuel, the duranium on A-I could help considerably in stemming the impact of the eventual duranium crash when Sedna goes out of business, and the comets contain enough of the big four minerals to serve at least as a stopgap source to buy some time. No sign of any alien civilizations was found either. There's no question Luyten has leaped to the head of the class in terms of colonization targets. Teegarden's Star Survey Report ESF Bravo, Spring 2083 Jump Points For the first time, none were found save the one back to Sol. This is a dead end, which has it's own positives in a way. No alien race has access to it. Geological Survey Bravo did not receive high marks for the fact that, noticed well after they returned to Sol, one of the planets was skipped completely. Having said that, the survey was largely underwhelming. The asteroid field is completely useless. Planet I has huge amounts of duranium, neutronium, and tritanium that are all virtually inaccessible. Planet IV is suspiciously similar to Saturn. It has 11.3 mt of sorium(0.7, like Saturn), which is far more than will ever be needed in this system since it doesn't lead anywhere. The third of it's moons is a near-copy of Titan in terms of the cost of living there -- and it has the big find of the system: 24.5 mt duranium(0.1) 24 mt tritanium(0.1) 37 mt boronide(0.1) 640 kt vendarite(0.1) 2.25 mt sorium(0.3) 20.3 mt corundium(0.8) The last is obviously the most important there. With a sufficiently large mining operation on that ball of rock corundium concerns are history for the forseeable future. A large enough terraforming operation could eventually improve it as well, but it's very cold and would need a crushing atmosphere to heat it up enough so it's never going to be a paradise. The third planet is also worth developing, not the planet itself but it has three useful moons. The first two have accessible duranium at about 40kt each, which would help greatly in building up the infrastructure the 'Titan' moon would need. The third has 14kt of neutronium, which is always useful. Summary/Evaluation Developing the corundium here has to be a long-term objective at least. It will be 24 years before Ikeya-Zang in Sol is within safe mass driver range: it remains to be seen whether it will be practical to develop Teegarden's Star before that. Even if it isn't, that's only 82 kt and would last only decades at best. Director Awad made a couple of immediate decisions upon receiving these reports. There was no longer any point to having sensors at a dead-end jump, so the Teegarden Forrestals were recalled. He also began the process of the biggest development contract in the history of SPACE: nearly 10 million credits to Akheton Corp. for a jump drive capable of propelling a ship of South Carolina-magnitude. No other development contract has been much more than a third of that, most of the government's general-purpose research is still less. It's about how much was spent to develop Jump Theory and some of the more involved advances so far achieved. It was now clear, however, that colonization beyond Sol was coming. Now that there was proof the resources are there, we needed to be able to move large quantities of equipment through the jumps.

12-01-2014, 12:02 AM	#309
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	JULY - SEPTEMBER 2083 On July 9th, Dr. Curtis Gloster, the top construction scientist the last 15 years or so, basically since icon Deacon Palmer retired, finishes new improved mining techniques which should result in a 15% improvement in output across the board. It was no particular leap of technology that achieved this, but rather standardizing of various best practices discovered through SPACE's decades of experience across Sol. At 67, he has decided to retire. So too did Mike Minaya(BG), at age 66. Minaya was a good though not great project lead, but working in a limited field he still had a difficult time getting consistent work. At the same time, it was notice that a couple others had slipped through the cracks and were continuing to work against medical advice. After the Juishao incident SPACE cannot afford to let these matters continue on. Harlan Welle(only quality scientist in MK) and Shanon Patteson(CP, working on the followup to improve construction rates along with the better mining results) both are forced out as well. Welle was 68, Patteson 65. This hurt the construction & production field considerably with the two top researchers retiring. By the time the dust had settled, the reorganization had active projects up to 33, and most of the newcomers including a bevy of novice energy weapons scientists had something to work on. The missiles & kinetic weapons field though ... is scary bad. Novice Elyse Buckler, who is 32 and hasn't really developed much, is the only one there is. It's one of the busier fields -- or should I say, it ought to be -- but there's not going to be a whole lot getting done for the forseeable future. On August 23, another first as the initial ship of the Brooklyn 81 class was deployed. The next month provided a real day to remember. On September 14, Dr. Rosemary Urenda announced that ion drive research had been successful and produced initial proof-of-concept reports and testing. While she moved on to work on the new commercial jump drive, great news in and of itself since that was crucial to the colonization efforts, the ripple effects of this advance were rather seismic throughout major segments of SPACE. It's not every day that a new type of engine comes along: it's been more than 20 years that nuclear thermal pulse was the standard-bearer. The rest of the Power & Propulsion field suspends their current projects to work on the bevy of engines that will now need to be prototyped. There are six of them, three novice and three accomplished. It's a strong group overall, as strong as in any field. And yet they will find themselves very busy. The new engines needed are as follows. Note that all military engines are thermal shielded(35% emissions), while the commercial engines are not. Initial testing shows an impressive 50% increase in propulsion power, meaning that once these are fielded all ships, espescially the warships, will be that much more effective. Advances in fuel efficiency will help greatly in keeping the increased drain on the harvesters to a minimum. JPS ID 36 -- military-grade thruster, standard power ratio, 150 tons. Used in the Forrestal sensor vessels and the survey ships(Explorer/Frontier/Prospector). JPS ID 63 -- military-grade thruster, maximum power ratio(175%), 150 tons. Used for the Caldwell VIP shuttles. Vertigo 72/108/144/180 -- Four engines of varying sizes(200/300/400/500-ton varieties) for the combat ships, slightly increased power ratio(125%). Some debate was had over increasing this. Fuel consumption increases exponentially with overclocking of the core reactions, but the fact of the matter is that the Navy intends to use the next generation of ships in a more mobile capacity and needs every advantadge it can get. Current designs(Brooklyn '81, Nimitz '76c) use less than 2.5% of their space for fuel. It is decided that the need for more speed is paramount and this round will be designed with 150% ratios. As a result the overall power increase will be 80% over the current Phoenix variants, with a resultant overall speed increase expected to approach that. This won't make us as fast as the alien ships we encountered in Epsilon Eridani in the 50s, but it should bridge a significant part of the gap. Eagle 60/72 -- It is not worthwhile to use such overclocked engines on survey ships such as the Gearing and Baltimore classes. For them, speed is important but so is fuel efficiency. Therefore the military series of engines is split into two parts, one for combat and one for non-combat ships. These will actually see reduced power ratios to the standard configuration. This will make them more fuel-efficient yet still faster in spite of it. The current engines being used on these ships are 300 tons, so a 250 and 300-ton variety being developed for the Eagle series ensures the navy will have the opportunity to optimize a bit for the next-gen in case a little more space needs to be squeezed in for something else. WP ID 120/240 -- As before, these are unshielded engines. Prior iterations have used the standard commercial power ratio of 50%. While we can gain much greater efficiencies by lowering it as far as 25%, speed is not irrelevant. At this point though, ion drives make our engines powerful enough that it is thought best to begin reducing the ratios some amount further. This time around a 40% strikes what is thought to be an appropriate balance. These engines are 20% faster and 30+% more efficient than the existing nuclear thermal-pulse varieties. That's ten engine prototypes needed, and it doesn't include the relatively miniature engines needed for a new round of missiles. The picture clouded even more when the Navy began to consider that issue ... RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT July 9 -- Curtis Gloster finishes improved mining production. He and other top scientists retire. August 15 -- Research completed on enhanced efficiency, one-quarter power engines(Reynaldo Darrington). COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS July 19 -- Sedna is up to 38 CMCs now. Just over 43 years now left with this expansion and the improved mining. The clock is ticking ... August 6 -- A new Shipment of mines to Tempel-Tuttle leaves Earth. LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL July 9 -- Researchers Curtis Gloster, Mike Minaya, Harlan Welle, and Shanon Patteson all retire. July 23 -- New member of BOG: Sara Seals. Good news is she's aleady elite in large-scale management. Bad news ... solid abilities in shipbuilding is the only other skill she has. EARTH August 23 -- First Brooklyn 81 finished.

12-01-2014, 12:48 AM	#311
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2083 A little of this and that, but no major news in the final few months of the year. SPACE is awaiting word from survey operations in Sirius and Van Maanen, expected fairly early next year. LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL September 16 -- Accomplished PP scientist Norris Gunterman moves up yet again. September 22 -- Riley Awad makes a slight increase in accomplished wealth creation skills. Russell Salvucci and Burt Stonerock have also seen minor increases this year. November 2 -- Adolfo Walth(DS, 40) is up to Accomplished level now with a nice bump to his efficiency. Currently he's doing early work on a more deflective version of composite armor. December 15 -- A new sensors scientist(Sung Padro) is not particularly notable on his own, but with him on the case all of the new electronics as well as the new quad-meson cannon turret are in the prototype phase. Half of the engines are still idle of course, and the new missiles will have to wait for them, there'll be magazines for the missiles and new fire controls for the mesons. But a considerable portion of the components needed for Frozen Vengeance are now in the testing phase, enough for SPACE to say things are underway. EARTH November 8 -- Assault and Mobile Infantry Battalions finished on earth. Two more Assault Infantry queued up. COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS November 18 -- Corbomite deposits exhausted on the comet Borrelly. December 2 -- Sedna expands to 39 complexes.

12-01-2014, 11:10 AM	#315
chesapeake College Starter Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Arlington, VA	Why the decision to plan for an attack on the aliens of Epsilon Eridani rather than improving your military capacity until you find that you have to use it? Sure, the aliens have destroyed two of your ships; but, they have shown no interest in advancing from their current position. With so little intel on their capabilities and interests, isn't picking a fight unwise?

12-01-2014, 11:15 AM	#316
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	(I'll second that thought) SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!"

12-01-2014, 01:05 PM	#317
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Another outstanding question. First I'll say that in this case the matter is settled -- SPACE has already spent too much money to go back now(current game date is January 1 2085 which I'll get this thread up to in the next couple of days). That doesn't mean that I'm less interested in why it might be a stupid idea though. 1. To fight on our terms. Continuing to wait for them to attack us is inviting disaster. If they jump into Sol and we lose, humanity is through. If we jump into Epsilon Eridani and we lose, we have a chance to recover. We don't know their capabilities, so the chance of our weapons systems, both offensive and defensive, being completely mismatched to their capabilities is considerable. There's no second-chance to adjust the approach if they attack us first: we either win that battle or we perish. There is risk both ways, but SPACE thinks there's more to lose and less to gain by 'turning turtle' so to speak. 2. The proximity and known hostile intent of the enemy. Things would be much different if, for example, they were in some system beyond Van Maanen or Luyten or something. In that case there would be a buffer. We have no buffer: humanity has lived under the constant threat that we might be wiped out in the next few days(literally) for a quarter century. If they never attack, that still means our fleet is completely tied down to the defense of Earth until we deal with them. No matter where or how far we expand, the navy will not be free to defend those systems regardless of how capable it becomes in doing so, because everything has to stay in Sol to defend against the threat of invasion. 3. It's just too passive. Humanity needs to forge its own future, not have its movements dictated to it by an illogically(from our POV at least) hostile alien race. Peace at any price is not considered a viable option. Thanks for making me think about this a little more . Last edited by Brian Swartz : 12-01-2014 at 01:06 PM.

12-02-2014, 01:34 AM	#318
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	NAVY RETIREMENTS Rear Admiral June Aspinwall. A veteran and steady voice, Aspinwall has led the SSF(commercial wing of the Navy) for the past six years. She is respected without being flashy, and will be missed in the admiralty. Commander Val Peevy. A fixture on low-level bases or warships the last decade. Peevy will perhaps best be known for having the honor to take out the first ship of the most recent Nimitz iteration, the 76c. Commander Conor Zavier. For 15 years after making commander rank at the respectable age of 31, Zavier hovered near the bottom of the rank. This most recent tour he managed to get himself a posting at the Lalande jump on sensor duty, and recent improvements weren't nearly enough to stave off forced retirement. Commander Charles Holiday. A similar story to Zavier, he finished his career with a six-year stint at the Sirius JP. Commander Tatiana Scheutz avoids the same fate, as she is presently on survey duty with ESF Bravo in the Sirus system. 7 Lieutenant Commanders as well. A sizable chunk of the junior ship COs will need to be replaced, but the power structure at the top is still intact. Due to the number of retirees it will be some while before the Navy replaces Aspinwall. The admiralty will revert to five for a while. ARMY RETIREMENTS Chief of the Army Anton Engelhardt would normally be set for forced retirement at age 60, but he has no wish to leave yet and is still in excellent health. SPACE will keep him on for at least another tour. 4 colonels MILITARY CHARACTER UPDATE Lt. Cmdr. Chance Perj -- 15th out of 126. For this tour he moves to one of the 'spare', i.e. built-on-accident Explorers. It's a babysitting job, but a better babysitting job. Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers Jr. -- 8th out of 14. Construction brigades are not particularly glamorous, but of late it has not been a boring post. His brigade built the Ticonderoga on Venus and will certainly be involved in getting the new bases up and running. Col. Deacon Palmer Jr. -- 25th out of 62.

12-02-2014, 02:27 AM	#319
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	January - July 2084 A hole was created in the Navy with the loss of several officers, and the obvious choice as he's the latest prodigy to move up to Commander was Tyrone Marszalek(22). After the reassignments there are only 15 officers without a command. With over 150 ships in operation, naval opportunities are bigger than ever. Two in five are on either a Long Beach fuel harvester or a Caldwell VIP shuttle. The remaining 60% are more diversified. With the week the civilian sector continued to show it's growing strength as a firm with the flagrantly dishonest name of Ridolfi Interstellar was officially founded. On March 4, another scientist was lost early as Billie Allington was killed in a traffic accident. As she was working on new fire controls and was a solid, veteran lead this is a relatively significant loss. Later in the month it was decided to make another pivot in the deployment of automines. The final shiopment to Tempel-Tuttle is set to leave soon, and corundium continues it's slow decline. Also, the bean counters at MRD have noticed that Halley's Comet will exhaust its deposits a little sooner than anticipated given the recent uptick in production. SPACE calculates that at least one load, 5 automines, should be diverted so as not waste them. Another outpost is to be established using those mines on Swift-Tuttle. Swift-Tuttle is inbound at 6.3b km, well beyond Neptune's orbit and just shy of Sedna's distance, but it's still the best choice. It has good concentrations of a number of minerals, most notably almost 20kt duranium, 4.6kt corundium at 0.8 to continue increasing that supply bit by bit, and overall efficiency of 64 which is right in line with what the best comets could offer in the heyday of the Sol rush. It's another one that will need to be limited probably to about 12-15 automines, but the best stopgap available with Herschel-Rigollet(8.0b now) probably after it. This is not a cheap operation. Delivering five mines that far and back again, to say nothing of the mass driver, will require in excess of 750,000 litres of fuel. It is still unfortunately far better than any alternative. That final shipment to Tempel-Tuttle departed on April Fool's Day. Late in April, Julio Kuchler unveiled the new faster fire control technology. These will allow us to reach the 16k or better tracking mentioned in the naval analysis. It comes at a cost though, the new suite which will be tested soon is a full 600 tons. A new advance in planetary sensor strength is his next objective. On June 2, ESF Alpha returned from Van Maanen and presents its report. The tanker is still a 56% capacity with all other ships fully fueled, and maintenance supply levels are good as well. The mission clock is under three and a half years yet, plenty of time to go visit the final system: Lalande 21185. The jumps are just over 500m km apart, just a week and a half journey. A nice little stroll in galactic terms. Ten days later, they made the jump to, Explorer 1 having reported that there is a jump gate to Sol on the other side. That's three now, and no sign of who built them. More perplexing is the fact that the wrecks that were discovered in Lalande 21185 when it was initially discovered on April 24 2055 are no longer showing on our scanners. They were too far from the star to collapse into it's gravity. Either a collision with an asteroid ... or someone salvaged them. Someone that might still be here. There is more trepidation about this system than any of the others. It is very likely that sometime in the last century an alien space battle took place. As for the system itself, moderate sized pattern, jump is 2.69b out, Two asteroid belts, only place we've seen that outside of Sol. 219 of them in all, so that will take some time. Even with that, it is on the surface the most useless system. Nothing even remotely habitable. A terrestrial that has too much gravity for us to survive on it, four dwarfs with a few moons. Not even a gas giant or super jovian for fuel. What on earth ... strike that, what in lalande would they have been fighting over here? It's quite the mystery and another one that may never be solved. The most likely scenario though, seemed to revolve around the massive terrestrial planet being the source of the conflict. Perhaps one or both races have different gravitational tolerances. Van Maanen's Star Survey Report ESF Alpha, June 12 2084 Jump Points Two new ones were found, one of them on the second-to-last survey location. This fact kept the ESF in system for about an extra month while it was investigated. Geological Survey Van Maanen decided to be dramatic here also, with the last survey being the ninth moon of the first planet, a super jovian that is the only interesting planet in the system. The asteroid field and a couple of dwarf planets had already been found to be barren, there were a couple of other moons with minerals but nothing exciting. One had 1.66mt of corundium(0.1), another 78kt uridium at 1.0 but of course we have an absurd amount of that. This last moon however was far better: 259 kt duranium(0.9) 50kt vendarite(0.5) 783 kt sorium(0.9) 38 kt gallicite(0.6) New System -- GJ 1006 Small dim M6-V star. Just 515m km from Van Maanen, with another jump gate here!! The mystery continues to confound us. Four dwarves at ranges from 700m to 27b, the last two obviously are just spectators as they are above the 10b limit. 18 asteroids, a terrestrial, a super jovian, and two gas giants so good fuel potential. 57 moons to investigate, and the terrestrial could be terraformed to close to earth conditions at least. A sizable amount of methane would need to be removed from the atmosphere and replaced with oxygen, so it would take some time but this system has good potential. The jump gate also makes one curious. New System -- YZ Ceti Compact system, the jump is 1.59b km out which is average for this star, right in the middle of the second ring. Lots of planets here, 3 gas giants, 2 super jovians, 2 terrestrials, 2 dwarves, plus 65 moons of varying sizes. Despite all that nothing is more than marginally habitable. The second planet is best but has a crushing atmosphere with 50x the pressure of Earth's. This definitely won't be a priority to investigate further. Summary/Evaluation The most likely use would seem to be an automine operation with a tracking station, perhaps a small population so it could serve as a refueling/maintenance base. We can always use another good source of duranium, and the gallicite would be a nice kicker. A big part of whether SPACE ever develops Van Maanen will probably depend on whether GJ 1006 turns up anything useful. COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS January 8 -- Civilian firm Ridolfi Interstellar is founded. LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL March 19 -- Dr. Stanley Kogut(LG) has has joined the ranks of the accomplished. April 11 -- Freddy Salsgiver(EW), only 22 years old, has moved up to the ranks of the accomplished with a major leap recently. Perhaps a new star is being born here ... April 27 -- Minh Klausner(EW, 33) is a guy who has been in the ok-but-unimpressive category. He steps out a bit with a marginal upgrade that puts him in the accomplished tier. July 2 -- Michael Reneau joins the admin team. He can manage any size operation well and has a good start on terraforming and financial oversight abilities. Could stand to be more flexible but a decent graduate. Also, Rear Admiral Parker Lanzi now has an elite-level training ability through the experience of leading ESF Bravo. EARTH March 23 -- Construction Brigade finished on Earth. With eight of the ten desired now in operation, training is begun on a ninth. April 1 -- On April Fool's day, the third and final shipment of automines to Tempel-Tuttle departs earth. May 25 -- New research lab finished. RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT April 25 -- Improved Beam Fire Control Tracking finished(max. 16k km/s) by Dr. Julio Kuchler. May 17 -- A new, fighter-sized engineering section is available. This may be useful on optimizing designs, particularly on smaller ships. Alphonse Lambeth led the development. With the beginning of interstellar colonization efforts clearly not far over the horizon, he'll next devote his time to improving techniques for minimizing the effect of hostile conditions. May 30 -- The first commercial ion engine is now ready for production, the smaller one(Irving Steinmeyer). July 2 -- Elyse Buckler has finished the prototype of the Exorcist missile launcher. July 8 -- The first of the Vertigo series to be finished, the 108, by Norris Gunterman.

12-02-2014, 01:24 PM	#320
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	July - September 2084: The Plot Stinkens July 18, 02:53 AM, GST A lone explorer, Trevor Lerner in command, jumped into Sol from Lalande 21185 and sent a burst transmission on the emergency band to SPACE HQ. Just minutes before, ESF Alpha's officer in charge, Rear Admiral Hank Rohrer, had ordered this action and a full abort from ongoing survey operations. Key moments from the mission log leading up to this follow .... June 24, 1900 -- This has to be a record. First grav survey, just over 12 days in system, and another jump point has been found in Lalande 21185. Interestingly it is almost directly between the Sol point and the star. A few degrees right, and 1.89b km ... less than a billion km travel time between them. Further than the Van Maanen - Lalande gap in Sol but still very close. An important strategic consideration in the system no doubt. Explorer 1 is launched to investigate. July 1 1741 -- Explorer 1 jumps out of Lalande. July 1 1753 -- Explorer 1 returns, delivering this report ... New System -- GJ 1156 Fairly small jump pattern, between the outer two rings and yet just a little over 2b km away. Unitary M5-V, about 180 asteroids in a single belt, fairly close in between the third and fourth planets. The second is a dwarf, but surprisingly habitable, just enough gravity to be useful. There's also a gas giant, super jovian, and a terrestrial. Better than average potential here, we've seen better but also a lot worse. July 5 -- Two of the Prospectors reach the edge of the outer asteroid field. Nothing yet, but the wrecks were further in. They could still be around and just not seeing us yet ... we have a pretty darn tiny thermal emission on those things for a reason. July 18, around 0220. Cmdr. Fredrick Holcomb is on the bridge as his Prospector surveys the right side of the asteroid belt. 'Conn Thermal, new contact bearing approximately 078. Designate contact Swiftsure zero-zero-two. Commander ... you're going to want to see this for yourself. Estimate range ninety-five to one hundred million kilometers sir' The sensor officer's voice quivered, and Holcomb knew something was up. The only way the HISS Mark IV thermal suite could find something that far way was if ... He could see why thirty seconds later as he looked at the readout. 'That's impossible!! Check your gear.' The diagnostics showed everything green. His wide-eyed crew stared at him, but he wasn't in any more control of himself than they were. It was impossible. At the edge of the asteroid field there was a thermal contact all right, reading 16,000. 1600 would have been huge. 16,000 ... there weren't words for it. Eight times the signature of a South Carolina superfreighter. Twenty-three times the signature of anything else in the SPACE navy. That thing's engines had power beyond imagining. There were only two possibilities: they knew we were here and didn't care ... or they weren't looking for us. Either way, there was only course of action. 'Battle stations! Communications, relay our sensor data to the Baltimore, priority one! Navigation, set course 261 for survey waypoint #1. If they chase us, we don't want to lead them back to Earth.' It took Rohrer all of about ten seconds to order the abort once they received the transmission. All craft were recalled to base -- if the aliens followed, the Prospectors would be left in-system. There were very specific orders for this contingency. Back at Fleet Command, there was as much suprise that the alien ship had not attacked Holcomb's surveyor as anything. Once the gamma readouts were analyzed, it became obvious that these were not the same aliens as those that destroyed the Pioneers in Epsilon Eridani. The most likely scenario was that it was an enormous asteroid mining ship of some kind, but either way it seemed obvious this was a far more advanced alien species, and apparently a less hostile or less curious one. With this determined, the contingency order was given. Prep the Ambassador. Captain Rosemary Tallant was in charge this time, Marion Polizzi and Karen Cotsis joined as veterans of the previous failed attempt, and another pair of junior naval officers rounded out the team. This time there was more optimism: this appeared to be a more willing to listen species, and this was a more experienced, more talented team. It would still take them three weeks to reach the jump to Lalande, and if all went well almost four weeks for all of the survey craft to get back so that ESF Alpha could jump back to Sol. There were a lot of people having sleepless nights for those long weeks. The normal goings-on continued, virtually ignored as background noise. The run of Defender 76 missiles was finished, having taken eight years from design to full production run completion. Army chief Engelhardt gained more political connections. A 40th CMC was finished on Sedna, moving the exhaustion clock there under 40 years, and the shipment of mines from Halley to Swift-Tuttle arrived. The ninth group of Long Beach harvesters was launched. Another group of five was begun, as fuel reserves are merely holding steady at 15m. All of this was greeted with a collective yawn. We had other things on our mind. On August 8, the Ambassador jumped out to Lalande. Zenaida Howse, just 24, continued her incredible progress, and with recent improvements in her training techniques is now the top-rated Captain only three years removed from the Academy! Yawn. On the 13th, ESF Alpha jumped back into Sol, having recovered all of the utility craft. The aliens never followed and everyone made it back to Sol safely. That in itself was a huge accomplishment, greeted by muted celebrations as we waited to hear from the diplomatic team. Progress from Captain Ronald Dunkin in becoming an elite crew trainer. Dr. Jerry Bartholf's team finished testing the new JPS ID 36, thruster for the Forrestal class. Elyse Buckler's group completed the Interceptor missile launcher. Background noise. Static. Leonel Wessels, heralded as the most talented talented straight-from-the-academy researcher SPACE has ever seen joins the crowd. Accomplished in the energy weapons field and xenology, with decent novice-level political connections. Unlike the missile field, the energy weapons field is recovering quite well from the loss of its top members. Nimitz 76c built, last of the class. Normally this would be celebrated. Another two weeks of quiet. September 15 -- The Ambassador jumped back in from Lalande. Mission failure. They had a few new ideas, took about a week longer than the attempt in Epsilon Eridani had taken, but found even less progress. Again the conclusion was there was simply no way to find common ground with which to communicate. The fear is that all we've done is antagonize them, and the recommendation is to avoid further contact at all costs. Nobody was foolish enough to argue. Unlike the other race, it appears this time it might be possible to take a live-and-let-live approach. Against such advanced technology, it's not like there's another choice. Engineering reported that engines of such power would take up more than 41kt of space if they were built with max overclocking of the new ion technology. Just the engines. That's bigger than a Fletcher-class freighter. And don't even try to think about how much fuel it would require. Such a ship would be so grossly impractical as to be absurd. The only response in this case was to stay out their way. Anything else would be suicidal. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 12-02-2014 at 01:26 PM.

12-02-2014, 01:30 PM	#321
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	I concur - stay away and leave some early warning stuff near the jump points SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!"

12-03-2014, 06:05 AM	#322
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	September - December 2084 October was another big month. New army battalions were finished, another military engine prototpye tested, and then on the 23rd Reynaldo Darrington certified the WP ID 240, the largest of the commercial engines at 2.5kt. Engineering suddenly became very busy. A total of ten different classes needed an upgrade with the new engines and some other systems improved as well. The '84i' naming scheme was adopted, indicating 2084 technology and the upgrade to ion drives. Arleigh Burke 84i Brigade Transport Size: 17.3kt(17.8) Crew: 127(136) Speed: 695 km/s(563) Fuel: 250k(350k) Range: 57b km(38b) Troop Capacity: 1 brigade(5 battalions, i.e. 4 + HQ) Armament: 2x CIWS 79 battery(2x CIWS 71) Cost: 544k(553k) This will be a consistent pattern throughout these redesigns, but the impact of the leap to ion drives, and to a lesser extent the advances made in armor, CIWS, etc., is obvious here. The new version is more than twice as fuel efficient which is the most important thing about it: it's 23% faster, yet carries a lot less fuel and gets 50% more range. It's even a hair cheaper, superior across the board. Portland 84i Battalion Transport Size: 4.35 kt(4.5 kt) Crew: 39(43) Speed: 1379 km/s(1111) Fuel: 50k(60k) Range: 45b km(29b) Troop Capacity: 1 battalion Cost: 189k(182k) Same story here, with the minor exception that the new Portland is a hair more expensive than the old one. Cleveland 84i Supply Ship Size: 2.0 kt(2.1 kt) Crew: 28(30) Speed: 3000 km/s(2380 km/s) Fuel: 50k(100k) Range: 99b km(92b) Maintenance Supplies: 1000 Cost: 143k(137k) Tarawa 84i Collier Size: 6.0 kt(6.4 kt) Crew: 66(85) Speed: 1000 km/s(781 km/s) Fuel: 100k(250k) Range: 66b km(76b km) Magazine Storage: 1200(1050) Cost: 577k(573k) Room for another 25 anti-ship missiles was added, while an unneeded glut of maintenance supplies and other dead weight was culled from the original design. Wickes 84i Salvage Ship Size: 21.7 kt(20.6 kt) Crew: 191(188) Speed: 829 km/s(486 km/s) Fuel: 250k Range: 46b km CryoStorage: 1000 Cargo Storage: 5000 Salvage Modules: 1 @ 500t/day. Armament: 2x CIWS 79 Batteries(2x CIWS 71) Cost: 708k(682k) In addition to the new engines, the Wickes gets the latest CIWS system and a couple of sensor upgrades that weren't ready when it was originally designed. A third engine was added as well to give it a more respectable speed. As a result this is an exception that is a little bigger and more costly than it's predecessor. Iowa 84i Fuel Tanker Size: 8.5 kt(9.8 kt) Crew: 44(53) Speed: 1411 km/s(1020 km/s) Fuel: 5m(6m) Armament: 1x CIWS 79 Battery(1 CIWS I) Cost: 394k(604k) This version slightly reduces the capacity of the Iowa tanks, but with the improved fuel efficiency that is not expected to be a concern. The new huge fuel tanks can handle as much as five of the old very large ones, and at less than 60% of the cost. SPACE taxpayers can see that savings reflected impressively in the new ship's bottom line layout. Iowa XR 84i Extended-Range Fuel Tanker Same as the regular Iowa 84i, except: Size: 8.55 kt Speed: 1403 km/s Cost: 404k This is the version with crew facilities and supplies for a five-year tour to accomopany the ESFs, not the standard two-year accomodations. Gato 84i Small Freighter Size: 7 kt Crew: 33 Speed: 857 km/s Fuel: 100k Range: 57b km Cargo Capacity: 5k Cost: 182k For further efficiency it was designed to add a third class of freighter. The Gato is designed for small loads of minerals in various circumstances where a larger load is not expected to be needed. In such cases sending even a Fletcher is inefficient as the fuel used to push around a larger cargo hold is just wasted. The plan here is to have small numbers of each class of freighter, instead of the one-size-fits-all approach that the Fletcher filled for decades. Another engine was contemplated for the Gato, but was considered to not be worth the cost. Fletcher 84i Freighter Size: 35.9kt(36.9 kt) Crew: 153(162) Speed: 1002 km/s(813 km/s) Fuel: 250k(650k) Range: 41b km(51b km) Cargo Capacity: 25k Armament: 4x CIWS 79(4x CIWS I) Cost: 614k(644k) The Fletcher was the workhorse of the Sol mining rush. Its deployment in the late 40s and 50s was indispensable to the development of SPACE throughout our home system. Since the South Carolina came on the scene it has changed roles to more of a short-range freighter, with the occasional longer run if a small load is called for(a single facility or a small amount of minerals needed to build a base, etc.). For this revision an extra cargo handling system has been added(a total of 2 now) to decrease loading times, yet the cost was still able to be reduced by 30k. This is mostly due to a drastic reduction in the needed amount of fuel. South Carolina 84i Superfreighter Size: 163kt(165 kt) Crew: 487(531) Speed: 735 km/s(607 km/s) Fuel: 1.5m(2.15m) Range: 54b km(38b km) Cargo Capacity: 125 kt Armament: 21x CIWS 79(18x CIWS 71) Cost: 1.99m(2.08m) The fuel saved here during the coming interstellar colonization startup will be considerable. Even a moderate speed increase like the 21% here will be significant as well. At least weeks, probably months per trip will be saved. As with the other revisions the fuel efficiency here is just over twice the standard South Carolina now in service. Long Beach 84i Fuel Harvester Size: 80.8kt(79.1 kt) Crew: 429(411) Speed: 445 km/s(379 km/s) Fuel: 2m(1.5m) Harvesting Modules: 26(rated at 832k per year) Armament: 10x CIWS batteries(5 CIWS 71) Cost: 1.77m(1.66m) The Long Beach is of course a 'younger' or 'newer' design than most of the others. It also held a bit of a special concern. The recent improvement in mining techniques has led to some ships with particularly skilled COs nearly maxing out their tanks before shore leave. A good problem to have, but in the redesign it was decided that an attempt needed to be made to expand the fuel capacity. As a result, the new version is somewhat larger. These will fare much better than the originals if they are deployed somewhere with more accessible sorium than Saturn's 70%. After all this some major reworking of the commercial shipyards was needed. The new one being built will service the Portland and Gato when it is ready, probably in a couple years. Vickers-Armstrong, idle since the Lexingtons were retired, will expand to be able to handle the Arleigh Burke. Howaldtswerke is set up to handle the Wickes, Oregon will continue to service the Iowa/Iowa XR classes, and the new Vegesacker SY will handle the Fletcher. P&A Group will have more work than they can possibly handle keeping up with the Long Beach harvesters, ENDM is expanding to match the needed size for the massive jump ships that will be built once the drive is ready, and the Tod & MacGregor handles the South Carolina. After the Wickes is updated, Howaldtswerke should be able to handle whatever kind of colony ship SPACE comes up with, but this still leaves us a little tight. Another yard really is needed to keep things running smoothly, and is added to the queue. There's always a need for more, it seems. Always. If you can keep all that straight, you're a better man than I. And we haven't even gotten to the military side yet ... Millions of workers at the shipyards were back at work retooling several of the yards to get ready for new or refit ships. In November, a change to the optimal ESF loadouts was decided upon. Every system surveyed so far has finished the geological work long before the jump points are finished. It was decided to shift the balance of survey craft from three of each to two Prospectors and four Frontiers in order to balance this out a little bit. The new engines, when ready, will also help, as would better grav sensors but that last part is quite a ways off yet. RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT October 16 -- Vertigo 144 finished(Alejandro Otteson). October 23 -- The larger of the two commercial engines, the WP ID 240, has been finalized, led by Reynaldo Darrington. December 16 -- Vertigo 180 completed(David Gruis). Meanwhile EARTH Mid-October -- Two assault infantry battalions enter service. One more construction brigade begins training, and the third training facility will idle now as that is all that is needed. November 26 -- Another shipment of auto-mines departs for the Swift-Tuttle comet. They won't arrive until well into next year. LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL Early November -- Recent graduate Timmy Sheerin has now doubled his administrative skills to an accomplished level. He can handle pretty much any assignment short of Earth now. November 30 -- Burt Stonerock moves into the accomplished tier in factory production, strengthening his resume for a run at the director's office in a month. Mid-December -- The navy is touting the name of Patsy Demange, recent academy graduate. already accomplished in training, xenology, and factory production ... though im not sure what good the last one will do. Mid-December -- Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers Jr.** has developed some more friends in high places, improving his stock among his rivals. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 12-03-2014 at 06:07 AM.

12-03-2014, 01:47 PM	#323
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	STATE OF SPACE, 2085 I. IMPERIAL HOLDINGS IA. Populated Colonies Earth(1.75b, 500 CF, 109 OF, 75 REF, 49 RL, 4 AC, 3 GFT, 5 DSTS, 15.2k MF, 1 SP, 1 SC, 4x Alaska MB) Mars(76.9m, Tennessee MB) Luna(74.1m, Tennessee MB) Mercury(22.0m, Ticonderoga SB) Titan(17.8m, 1 DSTS, Alaska MB) Venus(16.0m) Io(120k) Europa(120k) Ganymede(110k) Callisto(110k) Total Population: 1.96b(+9.5%) The increasing political force of the colonies can be seen in the fact that populatons on Mars and Luna continue to grow at more than twice the rate of Earth. Percentage-wise, that is, most of the growth in terms of pure numbers of people is still on our homeworld. Civilian contractors continue to bring staggering amounts of infrastructure to Mercury, which has surpassed Titan as expected, growing by over 30% this cycle. Venus continues to grow as well albeit more slowly and there has even been the rare delivery of infrastructure to the moons of Jupiter, though in minute quantities. Colonial population now numbers more than 200 million people, 10.7% of the total. Humanity will likely reach the two billion mark sometime in the next year. IB. Outposts Sedna(40 CMC, 16 eff, 11.7 kt) Triton(117 AM, 23.6 eff, 4.58 kt) -- mercassium(1.8) Earth(50 SM, 6.2 eff, 515 t) Borrelly(39.8 AM, 40 eff, 3.70 kt) -- vendarite(1.4) Halley's Comet(36 AM, 33 eff, 2.17 kt) -- corbomite(9.5) Reinmuth(33.8 AM, 30 eff, 1.68 kt) Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 32 eff, 1.49 kt) -- gallicite(0.2) Machholz(27.6 AM, 24 eff, 1.10 kt) -- sorium(4.1) Neujmin(25.8 AM, 25 eff, 1.07 t) -- duranium(6.0) Titan(25 SM, 6 eff, 311 t) Faye(25 AM, 24 eff, 995 t) -- neutronium(4.4) Comas Sola(25 AM, 29 eff, 1.20 kt) -- boronide(0.5), tritanium(8.5) Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 1.76 kt) Crommelin(20.4 AM, 26 eff, 881 t) Wolf-Harrington(17.8 AM, 40 eff, 1.18 kt) -- uridium(8.6) Tempel-Tuttle(14 AM, 40 eff, 930 t) Callisto(10 SM, 6 eff, 10 t) Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 912 t) Prokne(10 AM, 7.9 eff, 131 t) Wild(8 AM, 34 eff, 452 t) Wolf(8 AM, 26 eff, 346 t) Swift-Tuttle(5 AM, 71 eff, 618 t) Total Production: 37.73 kt, +20%. This is by far a record total amount that SPACE mines are bringing in. Expansion on Sedna and Triton, new productive outposts on Tempel-Tuttle and Swift-Tuttle were the key factors. Swift-Tuttle is particularly worthy of mention as it is the most efficient comet ever developed. That fact will last for less than a decade as a number of minerals are in short supply, but it's certainly a short-term boon. 16 of the 21 comets that don't have a prohibitively long period have been developed now. At least one more, Herschel-Rigollet, soon will be. This is certainly a case of the boom before the crash, but right now it's more than enough to keep the wheels turning. Looking ahead, it is now projected that Comas Sola will be the first to completely run out sometime in the mid-90s. The crash is coming. IC. Mineral Stockpiles & Production Tier A(rare usage): Corbomite(79 kt), Vendarite(71 kt), Sorium(56 kt) Supplies of all three rose sharply as they continue to do. It's rather stunning to recall that sorium was once considered a key mineral some decades ago. Now we bank roughly two kilotons a year in the ever-growing storage compounds. Vendarite usage varies greatly, and while it moves up to an A-list material now that may well change by next cycle as shipbuilding for the refits, Frozen Vengeance, etc. will likely move it down a tier again. Tier B(some usage, but a good stockpile): Uridium(127 kt), Tritanium(52 kt), Boronide(37 kt), Gallicite(31 kt) There is now 62% more uridium than any other mineral in the stockpiles. When Sedna's deposits of it vanish, which will happen sometime around the end of the century, that fact may change. We may have approaching 200 kt of it by then, despite significant constant use, so there is not even the shadow of concern. Tritanium has remained fairly steady over the last couple of decades, and boronide is starting to decline a bit with increased shipbuilding. Gallicite is the biggest concern here by far. It notably dropped by 5 kt with the Defender 76 missile production run, and while it'll get a relative break here, once Exorcist and Interceptor missiles are needed for the next generation it will be needed in large quantities again. Gallicite is the unquestioned favorite to join the big four minerals, but there is enough of it still that this is not an immediate concern. Tier C(major usage, needs close watching/ under 20 kt): Mercassium(19.4 kt), Neutronium(17.5 kt), Duranium(16.9 kt) Duranium has recovered from the recent dive, mercassium is nearly stable at this point and neutronium has steadily risen for about a decade now. The coming massive round of shipbuilding will stress all of them. Tier D(major usage, economic growth limiter): Corundium(8.36 kt) Recent development of the new comet outposts to increase supply has served to greatly reduce the decline in corundium, but the supply still shrinks and that fact is likely to continue. This will limit the amount of new mines put out there, but should be enough to allow some to continue. Duranium is very likely to rejoin this tier as shipbuilding activity ramps up again. ID. Income Taxes(population): 43.1m Taxes(civ. tourism): 14.5m Taxes(civ. shipping): 5.3m Taxes(civ. fuel): 238k Total: 63.1m(+15%) Tourism is an overall powerfully growing but also volatile sector of the economy. SPACE expects this to make revenue projections increasingly difficult and inaccurate in the future. Right now planetary taxes make up only about two-thirds of income, a share that is expected to continue to decline, and they are the only real predictable element in the mix. Balance: 809m(+90 m) IE. Expenses Research: 11.7m Mineral Purchases: 9.89m Shipbuilding: 7.65m Installation Construction: 5.76m Shipyard Modifications: 1.72m PDC Construction: 1.35m Maintenance Facilities: 1.12m Ordnance: 813k GU Maintenance: 553k GU Training: 281k Total: 40.8m (+21%) Yet again income far outpaces expenses. SPACE expects this situation to become much more unpredictable as well, with greater and greater periodic swings in the needed amount of activity in the shipyards and army training facilities. II. SHIPYARDS IIA. Commercial Yards Tod & MacGregor(2 slipways, 166 kt capacity) Retooling for the South Carolina 84i(June 2085) Estalerios Navais do Montego(ENDM)(2, 132 kt) Expanding to 170kt(unknown) P&A Group(5, 80 kt) Building a tenth group of harvesters(September 2085) and a sixth slipway(same time). P&A has been the busiest shipyard by far, seeing constant activity for over a decade now. Howaldswerke/Deutsche Werft(HDW)(1, 55.3 kt) Retooling for the Wickes 84i(February) Oregon Shipbuilding(1, 50.7 kt) Retooling for the Iowa 84i XR(April) Vegesacker Werft(1, 40.7 kt) Set up for the Fletcher 84i. The next administration will decide how many to build. Vickers-Armstrong(4, 10.8 kt) Expanding to 17.3kt or so for use with the Arleigh Burke. IIB. Naval Yards Wartsila(1, 17.6 kt) Idle. Yokohama Dock Co.(1, 15.2 kt) Idle. Baltimore Marine(2, 12.2 kt) Idle. Permanant(1, 10.1 kt) Idle International(2, 1 kt) Building the first of two additional pairs of Frontier Gravitational Survey vessels for the ESFs. Niehuis and van den Berg(2, 1 kt) Idle. KSEC(4, 1 kt) Idle. The lack of activity in the naval yards is due to this being a significant waiting period. Once the new jump drive, military engines, etc. are finished they'll have about as much work as they can handle. III. ARMY TRAINING FACILITIES IIIA. Earth Three active training facilities One idle, the final two planned Construction Brigades are being trained up. IV. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY IVA. Earth Research Lab(25%) -- August 2085. The pace has slowed to less than one per year with the recent diversification and the sudden retirement of Governor Alborn. Mine Conversions(standard to automated, 15%) -- approx. 8/year Mine Construction(12%) -- approx. 8/year PDC Alaska 82(12%) -- Four bases for Earth, to be finished sometime in 2099 Ordnance Factories(10%) -- 41 still on order, about 6 per year Commercial Shipyards(10%) -- Two more needed, ETA mid-2089 Prefab PDC Alaska 82(5%) -- An upgraded base for Titan, ETA 2092 Naval Shipyards(5%) -- Two ordered, the amount will be under review by the new admin. ETA 2092 Mass Driver(2%) -- Replacement for those sent to the new comet outposts. One left, est. late 2086 Prefab PDC Ticonderoga 82(2%) -- Eight upgarded sensor bases for populated colonies. Two are already finished and being assembled on Mars and Luna, the rest are estimated completed roughly by the end of 2092 Terraforming Installation(2%) -- The new 2% Initiative in operation. First installation is expected ready this November. V A. PRIORITY RESEARCH PROJECTS Quad WT Excalibur 135-16(Meson Turret)(Leonel Wessels) -- February/March 2085 JPS ID 63(Ion Shuttle Thruster)(Alejandro Otteson) -- March/April 2085 Eagle 72 Military Engine(David Gruis) -- May 2085 SPPI ID 525(Exorcist Missile Engine)(Jerry Bartholf) -- September 2085 GEI GCF 5400(Large Power Plant)(Norris Gunterman) -- November/December 2085 Eagle 60 Military Engine(Reynaldo Darrington) -- December 2085/January 2086 Vertigo 90(Combat Engine)(Irving Steinmeyer) -- 2Q/3Q 2086 GEI MSS 336.7(Active Missile Search Sensor)(Elwood Tousant) -- 4Q 2086 GEI SSS 336.7(Active Ship Search Sensor)(Bessie Wallander) -- Early 2087 AKH CJ-90.4(Commercial Jump Drive)(Rosemary Urenda) -- Late 2087 MFC 126-1.7(Interceptor Missile Fire Control Suite)(Carl Fosberg) -- Late 2087 SITG Emdar 132.7(Military Electromagnetic Sensor Suite)(Ross Dodge) -- Late 2087/Early 2088 Improved Planetary Sensors(Julio Kuchler) -- Early 2088 Colonization Cost Reduction(Alphonse Lambeth) -- Mid-2088 SITG ThermoScan 176.7(Military Thermal Sensor Suite)(Sung Padro) -- 2090 RSJ Sniper 16-72.7(Anti-Missile Beam Fire Control Suite)(Irma Bartlebaugh) -- 2090/2091 Improved Terraforming Rate Garland Sidhom) -- 2090/2091 A cursory examination of this list shows the massive effort currently being put forward by R&D to support Frozen Vengeance and the Navy's refits/upgrades. Most but not all of the prototypes are either finished or currently being worked on. V B. NOTABLE SCIENTISTS Biology/Genetics Garland Sidhom(Elite) Construction/Production None! Energy Weapons Leonel Wessels(Accomplished) Freddy Salsgiver(Accomplished) Minh Klausner(Accomplished) Logistics/Ground Combat Alphonse Lambeth(Elite) Stanley Kogut(Accomplished) Missiles/Kinetic Weapons None! Power/Propulsion Rosemary Urenda(Elite) David Gruis(Accomplished) Norris Gunterman(Accomplished) Alejandro Otteson(Accomplished) Sensors/Fire Control Julio Kuchler(Elite) Elwood Tousant(Accomplished) Bessie Wallander(Accomplished) It's a mixed bag right now. The strongest fields are those SPACE needs the most. Things would be far worse if Propulsion or Sensors had a shortage of quality project leads. Energy Weapons is strongly on the comeback trail en route to probably being a great strength for decades, and Logisitics is solid even if there isn't the bevy of geniuses that there has been in the past. The negatives are big though as well. Missile technology is crucial to the effort to combat the aliens and it's a dead area right now. Construction and Production advances are vital to growing the industrial base, getting the most out of our mines, etc., and this is the first time there hasn't been a top-drawer project lead though at least in that case we can say there are a couple of youngsters who might develop. All the gains in recent years have been wiped out by retiring elite researchers, but at least some of them have been replaced. VI. ACTIVE NAVAL ASSETS VI A. Military Bases Alaska(5, 59.45 kt, 1020 crew, major missile base) Tennessee(Lt)(2, 12.1 kt, 214 crew, missile base) Ticonderoga(8, 3.0kt, 16 crew, sensor base) Total: 15 installations(+25%), 345 kt(+15%), 5.66k crew(+11%) VI B. Combat Ships MB Nimitz(3, 14 kt, 373 crew, 2437 km/s, 1.75m fuel, missile-armed) MB Nimitz '76c(4, 10.3 kt, 273 crew, 2439 km/s, 1.25 m fuel, missile-armed) GB Brooklyn '72(4, 13.5 kt, 356 crew, 2379 km/s, 1.75 m fuel, beam-armed) GB Brooklyn '81(1, 10.5 kt, 282 crew, 2380 km/s, 1.25 m fuel, beam-armed) Total: 12 ships(+72%), 148 kt(+60%), 3.92k crew(+59%), 18.5m fuel(+57%) One more Brooklyn 81 is due to be finished soon, but that will be the last of these to be built. Ironically it looks like this first-wave combat Navy will end up having served only PR purposes, unless the aliens change it up and come hunting. VI C. Military Non-combat Ships CC Baltimore(2, 10 kt, 284 crew, 600 km/s, 750k fuel, command carrier) ST Caldwell(32, 950 t, 14 crew, 2210 km/s, 500k fuel, VIP shuttle w/8 capacity) MV Cleveland(2, 2.1 kt, 30 crew, 2380 km/s, 100k fuel, supply ship) SC Explorer(6, 850 t, 18 crew, 1411 km/s, 250k fuel, jump scout) SB Forrestal III(14, 650 t, 14 crew, 3692 km/s, 50k fuel, sensor buoy) GSV Frontier(6, 950 t, 24 crew, 1263 km/s, 250k fuel, gravsurvey) SVC Gearing(2, 10 kt, 158 crew, 600 km/s, 750k fuel, survey carrier) GEV Prospector(6, 950 t, 24 crew, 1263 km/s, 250k fuel, geosurvey) CO Tarawa(2, 6.4 kt, 85 crew, 781 km/s, 250k fuel, supply ship) Total: 72 ships(+36%), 107 kt(+58%), 2.21k crew(+84%), 24.9 m fuel(+69%) Most of the growth came from finishing up the Caldwell VIP shuttles, with the carriers being added to the ESFs as well. With the coming refits and upgrades I don't see the total numbers climbing much if at all. VI D. Commercial Vessels TT Arleigh Burke(6, 17.8 kt, 136 crew, 563 km/s, 350k fuel, brigade troop transport) 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) TK Iowa XR(2, 9.7 kt, 53 crew, 1.03k km/s, 6m fuel, fuel tanker) FH Long Beach(36, 79.1 kt, 411 crew, 379 km/s, 1.5m fuel, fuel harvester) TT Portland(2, 4.3 kt, 35 crew, 581 km/s, 60k fuel, troop transport) FT South Carolina(4, 164.6 kt, 531 crew, 607 km/s, 2.15m fuel, superfreighter) SV Wickes(1, 20.6 kt, 188 crew, 486 km/s, 250k fuel, salvage/recovery) Total: 61 ships(-20%), 3.98 mt(+38%), 19.5k crew(+58%), 89.4m liters fuel(+31%) The new Iowa XR tankers were finished for the ESFs, a couple of Arleigh Burke brigade transports added, and of course the continued growth in the Long Beach harvester portion of the fleet. Meanwhile the old Lexingtons and Perrys have all been scrapped now. Out with the old, in with the new, and that process will definitely continue now for at least a decade. Grand Total: 160 assets(+13%), 4.58 mt(+51%), 31.3k crew(+75%), 133m liters fuel(+41%) It just keeps growing ... and growing ... and growing ... Available Crew: 170k(+10%) VI E. Fuel Status Earth -- 10.9m liters Titan -- 8.3m Callisto -- 5.0m Total -- 24.2m liters(-9%) A second straight decline, but probably the last one. Given the reduced fuel needs of the new ships and the ever-increasing amount being harvested, it looks like the recovery is well under way. VII. ACTIVE ARMY ASSETS Brigade HQs(6) Construction Brigades(8) Assault Infantry Battalions(4) Mobile Infantry Battalions(12) Garrison Battalion(34) Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 480k(+14%) The army will reach the half-million mark when the latest construction brigades finish their training. It's interesting that an obscenely higher amount of money is spent on the navy, yet there are 15 soldiers in the army for every 'sailor' in the navy. VIII. CIVILIAN SHIPPING CORPORATIONS Tolles Transport & Logistics(53 ships, 8.62m annual income) Jensrud Transport and Trading(60, 5.32m) Voliva Carrier Company(77, 4.87m) Ridolfi Interstellar(3, 1.11m) Everton Shipping & Logistics(3, 150k) Hayter Container Group(3, 100k) Suter Shipping Services(2, 40k) Clavette Shipping Line(2, 10k) Total Vessels: 203(+32%) Total Civilian Income: 20.2m(+60%) Voliva's ever-increasing ship count and profits and ever-decreasing market share is rather humorous to watch. Once a near-monopoly, they are now third in the sector. The key to Tolles Transport's inconceivable rise, as they doubled their operations again this cycle, has been a strong mix of fuel harvesting from Uranus and infastructure deliveries to the ravenous appetites for that on Mercury and Venus. Newcomers Ridolfi Interstellar are off to a strong start with a primary focus on colonist transport. For every success story there are at least an equal number of failures. 7 of the 13 registered civilian firms are all but defunct. Beginning in this report, those with no income at all are removed. This continues the focus on only reporting the most important things. IX. SPACE LEADERSHIP PROSPECTUS Naval Officers: 174 of 196 assigned(89%), +5% Ground Forces Officers: 64 of 84(76%), -- Civilian Administrators: 29 of 37(78%), -1% ** Scientists: 29 of 37(78%), -12% Overall: 296 of 354(83.6%), +3.8% BOG has recovered nicely with a record number of candidates, even though most are unimpressive. R&D has actually seen a small decline from 40 to 37 researchers, with retirements outweighing new talent recently. The overall picture has never looked better, with only one in six 'qualified' candidates out of a job.

12-04-2014, 09:35 AM	#324
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	RETIREMENTS None. Definitely a polar opposite of what happened in 81. In this case there are a handful of BOG members in the upper 50s or early 60s, but all of them are in good health. That's good news for almost everybody. 2085 ELECTION Overall, Director Riley Awad had a highly successful first term. A much better, although far from optimal, first contact in Lalande 21185 saw no ships lost. Operation Renewal has gone extremely well, with some significant new resources and new systems found and all assets working as designed/expected. Most of this is the result of those who came before him, but it's always the man in charge when it happens that gets the credit. Awad was a near-prohibitive favorite to win another term. At 60, it's his final election win or lose. Luna governor Burt Stonerock was the only serious challenger. Out of nine qualifiers, just four made it to the final ballot. That's the smallest field since the first few elections in the 20s and 30s, half a century ago. Stonerock is a real lightning rod, 'rhetorically undiplomatic' is I believe the polite way to put it. His concept is essentially to tell the whining colonialists to stick it where the sun don't shine, only in less charitable language. For the health of the body politic it certainly was an important vote. It also, much to everyone's surprise, ended up being one of the closest votes SPACE has ever had. Stonerock's 'plain talk' appealed to far more people than was initially considered(and hoped). Awad looked a little uninspired, a little tired, perhaps unsure he really wanted to do this for another four years. And so it came right down to the wire. The final tally: Riley Awad -- 33.4% Burt Stonerock -- 32.2% Errol Igoe -- 17.9% Russell Salvuccii -- 16.5% The status quo held, but barely. The fault lines in SPACE have clearly not healed as much as it has sometimes appeared. There have been many changes in recent years, perhaps too many to be fully and seamlessly assimilated. Meanwhile, it was another stronger-than-expected showing by Errol Igoe, governor of Titan, considered by far SPACE's top expert in shipbuilding. The Clemson project still has considerable backing, and there was no doubt Igoe was the colonial's choice. POLICY REVIEW Never afraid to stir things up, Awad almost had that propensity cost him the election. But it didn't, and he was in the Director's Office at Sector Command for a second and final term. A growing concern was that factory production just didn't go as far as it used to. Mines, research laboratory complexes, nothing is getting built any faster than it was twenty years ago. The relative amount added to the economy shrinks -- adding a lab a year is not as impressive when there's almost 50 as it is when there's 30 in service. Meanwhile the shipyards continue to claim more and more workers and minerals. Believing in a balanced economy as ever, Awad ordered an investment in equalizing the number of workers employed in the factories and shipyards over time, which right now requires a the first significant investment in new factories that has been contemplated in decades. Certainly mineral supply will become an issue with this at some point, but the goal is to be able to switch or pivot wherever production is needed. With the factories 'falling behind', the entire economy suffers. They need to be able to kick out equipment faster during slow times for the navy. Initially it was determined that 168 new factories in addition to the present 500 were needed to match shipyard employment, nearly a 30-year proposition with a 10% investment and the needed factories would grow as the new shipyards come into service. In just a few years Earth has gone from a very concentrated effort on mines and research labs to the most diversified set of efforts ever(12 ongoing projects). The second was far more controversial. It was announced that, witnessed by two World Court justices, Riley Awad had invoked the little-known and never-used *Sealed Order* provision of the SPACE constitution at the end of the previous term. The Sealed Order is a means by which a Director may change major elements of governmental structure and/or procedure, but only if approved by the winner of the next directorial election and a majority of BOG. The subject at hand was the continuity of government. The Sealed Order laid out several problems with the current arrangement, which had remained essentially unchanged since the charter was enacted 60 years ago: DEFINING THE PROBLEM 1. The constant jetting around for reassigments cost significant amounts of time and fuel. Additionally, it was also not sustainable for a future in which humanity spread to far-flung systems. Change was inevitable, it was only a question of when. 2. The reassignments also posed a security risk. If a clever enemy attacked when the naval reassignments were being done, or a terrorist organization during the political ones, disaster might easily follow. It was frankly stunning that this had not happened already and could only be chalked up to providence or incredible luck. 3. Most officials could be more effective with more familiarity in their tasks. When so many change positions every 2-4 years, the kind of long-term contacts and mutual confidence between the supervisor and the supervised necessary was difficult if not impossible to achieve. 4. Positions were handed out in many cases based on regimented rules, not logic and merit. A key mining outpost, for example, has often been (mis?) managed by someone moving their way up the ladder who doesn't know the first thing about rudimentary automining techniques simply because they were next on the totem pole. Similar problems existed in the military. A new approach was needed to match candidates more intelligently with the needs of SPACE's ever-changing operations. 5. Similar regimented rules often prevented important jobs from being filled. The formulaic requirement of having several officers of a particular rank for each of the rank above has resulted in a lack of sufficient construction brigades because there weren't enough generals to lead them, and staff officer positions going unfilled because of no captains to man them, to use a pair of prominent examples. It was clearly noted that these procedures had made sense as a starting point when SPACE was founded, but had long outlived their utility. A transition must be made to a government appropriate to the interstellar empire humankind is attempting to become. A RADICAL SOLUTION The new proposed approach is a hierarchical meritocracy. It is modeled on the wildly successful approach the R&D Directorate has taken the last few years, an approach which has rightly earned nigh-universal approval. The public at large would still have their control of the situation, it is strongly emphasized, through election of the Director anytime the office came open. Instead of an every-four-years mentality though, an election would only take place when the Director retired or was recalled by popular or BOG vote, either of which could unseat him/her by a 60% supermajority. Appointments in the Navy, Army, or BOG are now considered semi-permanent. Promotion or retirement are the primary reasons for moving from one posting to another, aside from that officials will remain in position. Promotions happen as needed -- a new ship or ground unit, a new colony/outpost founded, a higher-ranking official retiring, etc. -- and the person appointed is based not on some abstract calculation but a vote of one's superiors. I.e., if a new general is needed the existing generals will vote on which colonel to promote, etc. This operates in a chain, where the colonel position vacated would then be filled as voted on by other colonels, and so on. There will be far less flitting about, because 'lateral moves' will be virtually non-existent. To encourage continuity, anyone who has not been in their current position 2-4 years will be unlikely to be promoted. There are exceptions of course. Under the new paradigm it was proposed that R&D remain as it is, things are working well there. The Army would remain relatively unchanged. Colonels will be brigade commanders or prospective ones, Brigadier General for brigade commanders, Major General for division commanders(divisional HQs are not yet a thing but are being researched, so it's appropriate for plans to be made), and the highest rank of Lieutenant General is reserved for the senior commander in locations where multiple divisions are deployed. The honorary title of General of the Army is bestowed upon the Lieutenant General in charge of ground forces on Earth. The first is of course Anton Engelhardt, vitality still fending off retirement in his case. All of SPACE's ground forces ultimately report to him. The other two branches of public service are effectively split into two tracks. In the case of BOG, the two tracks are malleable and converge significantly. There is the mining outpost career path, for those who excel in delving deep for vital TN resources, and the colony career path, for those who are better at managing populations. At this moment there is no place where they really merge completely. Earth as the industrial center has special needs, and both Titan and Callisto benefit from mining and logistic skills as well as those related to financial excellence. In general though while the mining path is less prestigious, it is not less important. New administrators in search of a first posting will tend to stay on the path where they get their first opportunity, but as skills evolve there is a significant chance of crossover. The Navy would see the greatest change. The present system of eight distinct ranks would be largely done away with, replaced with a new system of ten. Each would generally define an officer's role and authority, not necessarily their overall skill: Fleet Admiral -- The Navy's top officer, in present case the meteoric Mitchell Feeser. The Fleet Admiral, in addition to being the man or woman to whom all the naval forces ultimately report, personally commands all combat ships in the Sol system. Admiral -- Top combat commander in any major system. Vice Admiral -- Combat commander of any expeditionary/invasion fleet or defensive combat forces in a minor system Commodore -- Commander of a combat task group/military base; Operations officer of a combat TF; Commander of any military non-combat TF Captain -- Commander of a combat ship; staff officer of a combat TF; operations officer of a military non-combat TF; or commander of a commercial TF Commander -- Commander of a military non-combat ship; staff officer of a military TF; operations officer of a commercial TF Lieutenant Commander -- Commander of a commercial ship; staff officer of a commercial ship Lieutenant -- Pool of candidates for first command. Most will have finished a year of training and experience as an ensign, but particularly talented officers will be fast-tracked here after six months or even in exceptional cases immediately upon graduation. Ensign -- Recent graduates undergoing mandatory training and experience to prepare them for the responsibilities of command. The two paths in the Navy are ship commander and staff officers, generally speaking. It will probably be rare for those in the staff officer path to rise higher than Captain or transition over to the ship command wing, but it is possible if they learn the proper skills. BOG REACTION There was a certain amount of hysteria, even shock from certain quarters. Even the opponents of Awad's plan though were forced to admit the truth of the assessment that the current setup often worked against SPACE and humanity, rather than serving it as it should. A variety of mostly spurious counterproposals were floated and had holes poked in them even more quickly. In the end BOG and more than enough of the public came to the conclusion that it was a troubling plan except when you compared it to all the others. The devil would always be in the details, but there was no question it was an improvement over the status quo. The amendment passed quite easily in the end, and was put to an immediate test. Earth was without a governor. Typically that position passed to the second-place finisher in the election, but not under the new arrangement. It came down to three candidates: Burt Stonerock, Errol Igoe, and Roxann Harshberger. Everything of industrial importance pretty much still happens on Earth, and that was the dominant consideration. Stonerock had the best resume as an experienced governor accomplished in both shipyard and factory operations. His age(55, in declining health) was not in his favor though, and neither was the fact that he has made no friends due to his rampaging foot-in-mouth disease. Igoe is a shipbuilding savant but has only limited skill on the factory side, so a much more imbalanced candidate. He was Director Awad's favorite for the job as they share similar personal styles. Finally, there was Roxann Harshberger. Just 38, Harshberger has been on Venus for the last four years and has an overall resume to match Stonerock's. Harshberger's overall body of work was considered far better for an eventual run at the Director's spot than for Earth: she isn't very skilled in industrial matters. Meanwhile, Russell Salvucci sided with Stonerock due their similar mentality(or lack thereof?), most of the other key players went that way as well due to candid observations that Earth really needs a strong hand on the factory side of things. The remainder really just didn't want to rock the boat, espescially if it meant making an enemy of Salvucci. And so it was that Burt Stonerock was appointed Governor of Earth. This created a hole on Luna, and it was very quickly concluded that Harshberger was perfect for the job. She's talented in everything the moon needs: terraforming, population growth, and finances. The overall package made it a no-brainer. On it went, with the lesser positions being filled in similar manner. The full list, as an example of how the new policy is implemented: Luna - Earth: Burt Stonerock Venus - Luna: Roxann Harshberger Europa - Venus: Rufus Ke Triton - Europa: Augustine Wollner* Borrelly - Triton: Timmy Sheerin Tempel-Tuttle - Borrelly: Antione Fuss* Unemployed - Tempel-Tuttle: Antonette Kristek The asterisks were cases where it was more a candidates political acumen and highly-placed friends who got them the job rather than their actual management skills. This was particularly the case with Antione Fuss -- there was no question that Ronald Waxman was a better, more experienced candidate to take over probably SPACE's most important comet mining concern, but Fuss was better at winning over the right people without doing anything provably illegal.

12-04-2014, 01:01 PM	#325
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	I think it's safe to say the annual report is dead. I don't think I've every had half this much stuff in the 'things that happened at Earth' section. It's a particularly busy time for SPACE right now but part of that is just what will become the 'new normal'. Exploration should pretty much be a constant thing, colonization will bring new challenges, and even if the Navy has no battles to fight there's just going to be a little more of everything. There have been times when it's just been the occasional bit of minor news for a few years with mostly just making sure the freighters keep running. SPACE is no longer in it's infancy -- she's stretching her legs. So probably 2-3 updates a year I think is what's going to end up happening. January - September 2085 Fleet Admiral Mitchell Feeser was the key to keeping the peace in the early months of transition to the new arrangment. There was some necessary upheaval in the Navy, and a fair amount of confusion about what all the new ranks meant. Some had been effectively promoted, others demoted, by nature of the new status of their assignments. By the end of February though, Feeser had put out most of the fires and the skill with which he did so had even previously recalcitrant BOG members calling him an equal match with former Navy chief Ellie Camble as the greatest naval officer SPACE has ever had. That, my friends, is high praise indeed. At 49, he is likely to lead the service for another decade or more. February increases in Feeser's political reliability and survey skills in short order; his 'promotion score' is within 100 points of Camble's peak and 1000+ higher than anyone's else's has been March was a big month. The new mining governors were increasing supply enough that despite an increase to a moderate level of shipyard activity, most of the stockpiles were holding steady. Sedna added it's second complex this year which didn't hurt matters either. The new meson turret for Frozen Vengeance was finished, and all staff officers except those in ESF Bravo which is apparently still in Sirius had been reassigned. All the needed base and combat ship COs were already on location, so they began their new jobs and in just over two months the navy's power structure was in place. Any major disruption now averted, the attention was turned to the rank and file. By the middle of the month, gallicite was exhausted on Stephan-Oterma in not-so-good news and incoming Earth Governor Burt Stonerock began his duties on the 18th. There was shipyard news detailed in the Earth notes in early April, and then on the 9th The JPS ID 63, high-powered thruster for the Caldwell redesign, has been finished with Alejandro Otteson serving as lead researcher. The new protocols will definitely result in a smaller number of those, but how many exactly has not yet been determined. The new design is hammered out: Caldwell 84i VIP Shuttle Size: 950t Crew: 15(14) Speed: 3315 km/s(2210 km/s) Fuel: 500k Range: 40.2b km(33.4 b km) Cost: 183k(151k) The sensors were only one generation old as this was one of the newer nuclear pulse classes. They were upgraded, the new ion powered thruster added, and a little more maintenance capacity added as well to make sure SPACE's most visible servants have an uninterrupted, smooth flight to wherever they are going. Despite a 50% speed increase, the same amount of fuel will carry the new models further, giving them more than enough endurance. Reducing the total in service will make this version's 30k price increase a much easier pill to swallow -- it should still be a much cheaper operation overall. KSEC will require just over a month for the retooling. Meanwhile the last of the new engines enters testing. By April 19 all of the Navy's military ship postings were filled, leaving only the commercial openings left to resolve. Two days before the end of the month, that too was completed. Just under four months and the Navy was operating as before, only a little better. There were no holes going unfilled. The initial division of officers by rank: Fleet Admiral -- 1 Admiral -- 0 Vice Admiral -- 0 Commodore -- 9 Captain -- 19 Commander -- 87 Lt. Commander -- 73 Lieutenant -- 8 Ensign -- 1 Not a lot of spare parts with all the new staff officers, that's for sure. But SPACE was confident the academies would soon rectify that situation. On May 2, two Frontiers are finished, ready to outfit the ESFs with the new configuration. Two Caldwell commanders are tapped for the positions and their ships scrapped, the beginning of a process that will eventually see 20 of 32 done away with. This will add 10 million liters of fuel to the tanks. It will also cause a temporary stagnation in the lower ranks of the Navy, as that's twenty commanders(now 18) who will need to find new tours of duty. Two weeks later retooling was finished and the first of the new South Carolina superfreighters and Caldwell VIP shuttles were begun. In about the middle of June the last of two Brooklyn 81s was finished, the final ship to be built of the 'old navy'. Yokohama Docks go silent for the time being. Still having heard nothing from Sirius, and with ESF Bravo gone two years, an Explorer was dispatched to the system to investigate and report back on their general mission status. This was around three times as long now as any other system has taken to survey ... While that was still ongoing, with the Wickes refit nearing completion, SPACE engineering begins to work on the latest new design: the Spruance 85i Colony Ship. This was around the middle of July. Avid SPACE historians may recall that the original Spruance-B, built in the early days of the Sol colonial rush, was constructed but never actually used. This was because the earnestness of the civilian sector to profit from the process was not accurately anticipated. There are no such concerns this time around as all jump technology is highly classified. Bringing people to a world outside of Sol will require an official transport. Spruance 85i Colony Ship Size: 52.2 kt Crew: 299 Speed: 920 km/s Fuel: 550k Range: 62.4b km Cryo Storage: 150,000 colonists Armament: 6x CIWS 79 Batteries Cost: 2.25m The most expensive ship SPACE has designed to date, the Spruance 85i will be capable of taking 150,000 pioneers multiple jumps away from their home if need be to colonize new worlds. Obscene amounts of mercassium -- 1.25 mt -- will be needed for each ship, and several hundred kilotons of duranium as well. The cryogenic storage modules, 15 of them,demand the finest tolerances and most careful construction to ensure safety. Estimates are the first will be able to be deployed no sooner than late 2089. A few days later there was a bit of history as SPACE finished it's 50th research complex -- a far cry from the five they started with a little over 60 years ago. Rounding out the month was the departure of ESF Alpha, which had been docked for about a year. To begin it's second voyage, it headed to Teegarden's Star for a hopefully short visit to clean up Bravo's mess(the fifth planet and it's two moons were never surveyed). On August 12, the Explorer jumped to Sirius, and within an hour was back with the report that Sirius had been a difficult and complicated survey, but all mission indicators were still green and ESF Bravo would return in the fall with a full report. A relief to be sure that, as many in SPACE feared the worst, Director Awad certainly among them. The same week, five new Long Beach harvesters were finished and after a seemingly interminable run of construction the judgement was made that their are finally enough of them to stop constantly building more. By the end of August the new Interceptor missile was ready and ordnance factories began the initial run of those to get ahead, even though the Exorcist won't be ready for production for some time yet. In the early hours of September 27, ESF Alpha made the jump to Teegarden's Star. SPACE was soon occupied elsewhere, as in the final hours of the month it was announced that the first-ever terraforming installation was now ready! Transport to Mars is arranged immediately, where nearly 80 million colonists eagerly anticipate the first TN jobs ever on the red planet -- as well as the prospect of improved living conditions, though it will likely be their children or even grandchildren who benefit most from that. Before it could arrive, on October 8th ESF Bravo finally returned. The much-anticipated, long-awaited survey report on Sirius was finally here ... COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS January 7 -- Sedna finishes a 41st complex. March 1 -- Sedna adds again, a 42nd. March 16 -- Gallicite exhausted on Stephan-Oterma. July 8 -- Boronide on Comas Sola has been exhausted. August 12 -- A third Sedna expansion on the year. PERSONNEL January 23 -- Dante Sawatsky(DS, 31) is the latest to reach accomplished status, earning him a second lab for his work on shield regeneration rates. April 16 -- A single colonel is dismissed. May 16 -- Earth governor Burt Stonerock is probably the first accomplished terraformer BOG has ever had. Won't do him a whole lot of good in this assignment of course, but the colonies could potentially benefit from it if he ever reaches the Director's position. June 5 -- Rufus Ke has reached accomplished status in encouraging new population growth. Don't ask how. Just ... don't ask. June 9 -- Long-maligned Delois Woznicki improves her administration ability. This will allow her to remain on Mercury, which was becoming a strain too great for her abilities. EARTH February 20 -- The first retooling job is finished and the refit of the Wickes begins. It may not have ever done anything useful yet, but it's the first ship to get one of the new ion drives, so that's one small piece of history. March 16 -- Fleet training exercises resume April 2 -- Construction of the first of the new class of Fletchers begins. The old ones will be scrapped, as they are so old that they really need to go and it would cost almost as much as a new ship to refit them anyway. The current eight is far more than SPACE needs: three will be built to start, one at a time at Vegesacker Werft. April 5 -- Oregon finishes retooling for the new Iowa fuel tankers. Due to the change in the tanks, this will be a new build prospect also. The Navy wants two in reserve for it's operations, so four regular and two XR tankers will be built this time instead of two of each. Oregon begins adding a second slipway to support this, while the first of the standard hulls is begun. May 16 -- Retooling for the new Caldwell 84i and South Carolina 84i is now complete. As feared new superfreighters will need to be built, refitting isn't a practical option. Another four will be laid down at least, and impressively they could be finished in a little over a year. That means an impressive amount of minerals being burned through as well, but there's little option here. A similar story for the much-cheaper Caldwells June 4 -- First pair of Caldwells are scrapped. June 11 -- Last of the Brooklyn 81s is built. Second and last of the class. July 1 -- Fleet HQ sends an Explorer to Sirius to investigate the length of their stay. July 14 -- The Wickes is finished and retooling begins for the Spruance 85i. It will likely be close to the end of the decade before the first is in operation. July 17 -- A 50th research complex has been built on Earth. That's still about 10-12 less than the optimal amount for the present scientists. The work must continue. July 28 -- ESF Alpha leaves for the Teegarden's Star JP. August 3 -- Sixth slipway completed at P&A Group SY. It will now need to expand a bit for the Long Beach 84i. August 12 -- Ninth construction brigade is now in service. August 14 -- Long Beach(x5) finished. September 6 -- P&A Group has expanded to 80.9 kt for each of its slipways now and begins the process of retooling, which will basically take the rest of the year. That's a bit long to wait so the new 10th Harvester Group heads for Saturn, only four ships as the fifth will remain so engineers can do the refit calculations when the time comes. September 11 -- A third and final shipment of automines leaves for Swift-Tuttle. So far the mineral stocks are holding up surprisingly well. Duranium is down only about a kiloton, corundium and neutronium are holding steady, mercassium slowly declining but there remains a buffer. RESEARCH April 9 -- The JPS ID 63 has been finished(Alejandro Otteson) May 18 -- Eagle 72 military engine ready(David Gruis). For the first time in a couple of years, the power & propulsion field isn't completely occupied with prototype testing. June 5 -- Irving Steinmeyer finishes the SPPI ID 105, better known as the Interceptor engine. He's worked himself out of a job for the moment, as Elyse Buckler will take on testing the missile itself now. July 4 -- Combat Drop Modules of Battalion size are now ready thanks to the work of Modesto Huch's team. If we ever do find the homes of the alien bastards we'll likely need them. August 8 -- Vertigo 72 military engine finished(Alejandro Otteson). August 25 -- Interceptor 84i(Elyse Buckler) is finished. September 26 -- The SPPI ID 525, aka the Exorcist engine, has finished the prototype phase with Jerry Bartholf as project lead. This gives Elyse Buckler** a chance to get back in the game for the next year-plus at least, working on the Navy's new ship-killer. They hope.

12-09-2014, 04:28 AM	#326
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	October - December 2085 Sirius Survey Report ESF Bravo, October 8 2085 Survey Issues Sirius itself was the main obstacle. The system is huge. It's the only system yet found where the jump point survey locations are more complex than those in Sol. Each Frontier took nearly a full month instead of less than ten days on station in most systems for each potential location. The pattern was huge as well. On the outer ring it was a month and a half travel, then a month for survey, etc. The flotilla was also plagued by maintenance issues, far more than Alpha had in all their systems combined. Many began to consider the system cursed. Cmdr. Milo Rhoads, one of the Frontier COs, grew steadily worse and his junior officers had to pilot the craft back the long three-month journey from the final jump survey with him in sickbay. He's been honorably discharged from the service, and one of the other Frontier COs is rumored to be thinking about an early retirement after this tour as well. It just took a lot out of everybody. Crews were at the breaking point by the time it was finished, but they got the job done in the end. Jump Points Prolonging the fun was the fact that it was the very last location that yielded the second and last jump point in the system. This required a nearly three-month round trip by the Explorer while everyone waited the second half of that. Geological Survey After all that work, SPACE will benefit ... not much if at all. Sirius A I has massive quantities of inaccessible duranium and gallicite. The most habitable planet yet found, A II, has nothing and neither do it's moons. There are a handful of finds in the dense asteroid field, with the only one of real significance yielding 44 kt of mercassium at 0.9. Nice, but not worth coming here for. Sirius-B, which orbits A at a distance of 3 billion km, was quite naturally almost completely on the other side of the Sol jump. It has a 45-year orbital period and at least 40 of those years would have been a better time to come visit. Go figure. The lone gas giant is barren, which shot all hope of a major insystem fuel source. The most habitable of it's moons, which could at least be put in the Mars/Luna range with some work, has 765 kt boronide(0.1), 9.9 mt sorium(0.1), and 2.06 mt neutronium(0.6). That last part is the only major mineral find in the system. This one moon is the only useful part of the Sirius-B system. New System -- V577 Monocerri Mid-range jump a little inside the middle ring, 1.78b away from the primary of two stars. Average pattern size and difficulty, just over half that of Sol. A System: Two fairly habitable terrestrials, the first planet already has a breathable atomosphere. It's cold(-51 C), making it only a little easier to deal with than Luna/Mars. With a thicker atmosphere it could probably by Earth-like. One gas giant also with a dozen moons and two dozen asteroids. Overall pretty good. B System: Orbiting at a little under 600 million km, this is a very accessible system. Two terrestrials, neither as habitable as the ones around the primary. Main feature is a close, thick asteroid belt with over 160 objects. Might be some interesting things in there. An interesting, promising system that is also really far away. Average distance from earth is 10.1 billion, closer to 12 billion by the time you get to the planets around A. Time for the Spruance to make a round trip would be close to 10 months. No wrecks, jump gates, or sensor evidence of alien presence of any kind. Summary/Evaluation It sucked, and there's little reason to go back at least in the near future. V577 Monocerri is just interesting enough to merit a closer look, but there's more interesting places closer. Neutronium is plentiful enough on the comets of Sol for a while to make building a colony to exploit that a little ridiculous. So far only one really good source has been found -- and that's in Epsilon Eridani. Heh. There's time to find more though. Decades of time at this point. Eventually the extreme habitability of Sirius A-II will almost certainly see us expanding there. It's a ten-year terraforming job for one installation with a crappy governor. It's a dream to the right kind of pioneer. But there's nothing beckoning us there in the short-term. Back in Sol, a week later on the 15th of October the terraformer on Mars officially went operational. An important moment in history, and one worth examining more fully. Mars has a very thin atmosphere, just 1% as thick as Earth's. It is also cold(-48 C, actually 5 degrees warmer than Luna due to the fact that there is significant CO2 here providing a small greenhouse affect). The biggest problem though is that the air isn't breathable, on account of their not being a hint of oxygen. The first goal then, is to add 0.1 atm, the minimum amount of oxygen to make it breathable. It will be far too high a concentration of oxygen at that point, requiring other gases for the right mix, but enough oxygen for human consumption. 250k is the right amount of population needed. The one will take over 42 years at this point at the current rate to reach the needed oxygen level. Nevertheless, it is a beginning. Things are underway. On the 27th ESF Alpha returned from Teegardens Star. 318 kt of inaccessible duranium had been found, essentially leaving that report unchanged. Operation Renewal, the focus of SPACE's efforts since the early 60s and therefore lasting two and a half decades, was completed. Humanity had begun to become a spacefaring people, again. Finishing one goal meant needing to find another. Until the last few years we had visited eight systems and fully surveyed only our own. We've doubled that first number now to sixteen, and have six fully explored. There are two no-fly-zone systems, those occupied by the aliens, and another that we must enter Lalande to reach. That leaves seven to expand our knowledge with. CONCLUSIONS Humanity is extremely fortunate to have developed it's civilization in Sol. Had it happened somewhere like Barnard's Star we would have never reached this point. Sol is unique so far among the systems we've found both in mineral wealth and in being a strategic nexus of multiple jumps. Of the five other systems we surveyed, we have found three, two, one(twice), and zero additional jump points in them. 'Hub' systems appear to be quite rare and are therefore to be considered strategically important. Mineral resources are not abundantly overflowing, but definitely TN materials are common, nigh-universal. The long-term prospects for expansion and sustaining a growing interstellar empire are good -- if we can keep the aliens either at bay or not actively hostile. We need survey teams up and running and we need them as soon as possible. It is obvious there will be more work than they can possibly keep up with. Several of them would be nice. The jump gates in the Van Maanen direction are still a mystery. Obviously they were built by somebody however, and the presence of one in the Lalande system suggests it could have been them or a similar race. who moved on. This also bears further investigating. The leading candidate by an enormous margin for our first extrasolar colony is Luyten 726-8. It has significant resources in itself, and also provides an excellent location for supporting further exploration with an eventual refueling, shore leave, and maintenance base for the ESFs. It is very likely that at least one of the bordering systems will give promising possibilities. SPACE is a very long ways off yet from having any kind of coherent colonization policy. We'll need answers to questions we haven't even thought of yet. At this point though it is necessary to define some things in terms of exploration. Two major points are decided. The first has to do with how far to explore. It is very possible that by continuing to extend humanity's knowledge of those systems in our galactic 'neighborhood' we may come into contact with a more aggressive enemy that will attempt to chase us back to Sol and invade, but that could happen from Epsilon Eridani or Lalande at any time ignorance is not considered bliss. It is still far better to know what is out there than not to. A one-year limit is established, meaning the goal of the ESFs will be to explore systems that are within one year's travel from the closest refueling and maintenance base. Right now this is Earth only, and a distance of 18.7 billion kilometers. Beyond that point, about half the mission time would be spent just traveling and the enterprise would become wasteful. Almost all of the systems we know of right now are less than half that, so we are not yet approaching this limit. When the refits to the new ion-powered Eagle engines are done, that distance will probably increase. Plenty of room yet for increased exploring. The second issue was a matter of standard operating procedures for the ESFs. For Renewal after surveying a system the flotillas jumped back into Sol and confirmed new orders from Fleet HQ before heading to the next one. This will no longer be practical, as from now on new systems will be found at least two jumps away. The ESFs will be out of contact for longer, and will need to operate independently of Fleet HQ. The Commodore in charge of each will have greater responsibilities. For each voyage/tour they will be assigned a 'route', i.e. a particular system to push beyond. For example, Alpha's next journey will take it to the Luyten 726-8 route, during which they will be tasked with the three new systems it connects to, and the mission will be to push the frontier as far in those directions as possible before returning to Sol. Fuel and maintenance levels will need to be watched ever more closely. NAVAL DEPLOYMENT Renewal brought much-needed intelligence to the Navy, and the news was both good and bad. An incredibly advanced alien civilization in Lalande 21185 is not good, but the other systems revealed no new civilizations and no evidence of them other than the jump gates in the Van Maanen 'route'. Teegarden's Star is a dead-end but threats could approach from any of the other six jumps. Intelligence has decided to take the rather unoriginal step of naming the known alien civilizations by using the AI-assigned name of the first detected ship class and then reversing the spelling. Therefore the aliens from Epsilon Eridani will be known as the Ratamli, and those in Lalande as the Erustfiws. The Navy believes that blockading the jump points is the best way to defend against any potential incursion. Once an alien force gains a foothold in Sol space, they may well be able to simply bombard our positions from distance if they outrange us which the Erustfiws would be very likely to given how advanced their technology obviously is. As a long-term strategic matter, Frozen Vengeance is considered very important since if there is any chance of securing Epsilon Eridani with current missile technology, forces would not have to be divided between the two jumps but could be focused on the Lalande 21185 point. If not, any effective combat fleet will have to be defensive since we won't be as fast as their ships and virtually all weapons development for the forseeable future is going to be in the energy weapons field. INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS Although the beauracrats have put it off for far too long it has become painfully obvious that the Navy is going to need a lot more large(10kt) shipyards than it currently possesses. For Frozen Vengeance at least three will be needed(command ship, defense escort, anti-ship missile escort). It is clear that the Navy must get a blockade of the Lalande jump point up as well, the best chance of thwarting any enemy attack is to meet them when they come in. This would involve armed-to-the-teeth laser/meson ships at the point ready to fire as soon as anything emerged. That's a fourth yard, and then the Baltimore/Gearing survey carrier ships will require two more. Six. Presently the Navy has four. International and Niehuis were immediately set to expand, a process that will take some years as has been discovered in the past. That leaves only KSEC which will the handle the Caldwell shuttles and Forrestal sensor ships. The Navy will still need a mid-range yard with 6+ kt capacity for the Tarawa colliers and Cleveland supply ships, plus a pair of small ones from the Ambassador, Prospector, Frontier, and Explorer. The current two ordered yards weren't enough, they'd need three and really a fourth should be built against future needs. . With the completion of Renewal it was also clear that the first need for colonization was to confirm the findings with ground survey teams. It was proposed that the Ambassador diplomatic shuttle would double nicely for this purpose, but it would need larger fuel tanks so a new ship was designed. With the Navy's needs for the shipyards, nothing could be done right away. Mine production was reduced further to accomodate. In the process it was determined that for decades now SPACE has been building new regular mines, then converting them to automated, a process which costs an eighth more than just building automated mines directly, in both time and treaure. An estimated three kilotons each of duranium and corundium had been wasted this way, along with countless billions of man-hours. Stonerock did a massive double-facepalm when he discovered this idiocy, and loudly corrected it. This sparked a new round of yelling and screaming but nothing much came of it. Sort of like the boy who cried wolf. With the increasing pressure on Earth's factories Awad decided a strict prioritizing was in order. Research labs would continue to occupy a quarter, replication(mines/factories) another quarter, with the remaining half going to whatever else was needed. Some projects would go with minimal funding but that was just the nature of the beast. Continually expanding research and industrial capability simply had to be a priority. With that in place over time the capability of the 'discretionary half' would also rise. Ordnance factory and commercial yard allocations were both reduced a fifth(10 to 8% each) to allow faster construction of the vitally needed naval shipyards. It would still take until past the end of the decade for the recommended amount to be finished. On November 10, the first naval shipyard, which had been almost finished, is ready for 'business'. Named C. Mitchell & Co., here after referred to simply as the Mitchell SY, it was planned to expand immediately for the Mitchell and Cleveland classes. After discussions with engineering it was determined a new jump drive was needed for a jump shuttle, whether to carry VIPs or geology teams. The ones used on the Explorers were not big enough for a ship that would end up being well over a kiloton in size. Irving Steinmeyer was tapped for a quick testing job on a new, slightly larger one-ship drive for that purpose, and the Mitchell yard expanded as initially planned. For the moment that meant five yards expanding at the same time, though that won't last long, a few retooling projects going on, a slipway being added, along with the eight or nine ships being built -- new workers added to shipyards all the time, and the mineral drain was fairly massive. As December began, a close look at the supplies for the incoming ESFs reveals that they will consume over 1300 tons of maintenance supplies when they dock, over 90% of Earth's current stockpile. Almost all of that goes to Bravo which had all kinds of trouble in Sirius. Nevertheless, it's one more priority that has to be added to the factory workload. SPACE orders a strategic reserve of five thousand tons to be built up. On the 21st, retooling is finished and engineering analyzes the costs for refitting to the new Long Beach 84i. This time the news was better. For a little over half the cost of a new ship the existing harvesters could be refit. With 41 ships in service, the overall savings to the Navy is expected to exceed 32 million credits, and of course the minerals saved are an even bigger deal. The decision was made to bring two groups in at a time, reorganizing the ten groups of four plus a spare into four groups of eight each. The only real question then was whether to expand from six to eight slipways or increase the size of the yard, which would eventually be needed. It was decided the size increase was more pressing, with a goal of eventually reaching the 160-170 kt range, effectively doubling. The effect on the refits would be minimal anyway, given that it would take three years or so to expand for two more slipways, by which time a sizable portion of the refitting will be completed. On Christmas Day, a nice present for the crew, ESF Alpha returns to Earth. It was four in the morning, so that they had the day and quite a bit longer to enjoy. It was expected that sometime in early February of next year all would be ready again for a prolonged voyage to the systems beyond Luyten 726-8. There would be a bit of an overlap here as Bravo will probably arrive a couple weeks before Alpha departs. They've got a longer stay ahead of them, of course. EARTH October 10 -- 4x Caldwell 84i finished, another four begun. October 27 -- The third Ticonderoga 82 base departs, in sections of course, for Mercury. The initial run(500) of the new Interceptor missiles is completed. For now the ordnance factories go quiet waiting for Frozen Vengeance to proceed further with more specific details. October 29 -- The first Fletcher 84i is finished, and another begun. November 10 -- C. Mitchell & Co. naval SY opens. December 11 -- First two South Carolina 84i ships are finished. For the most part two is all that has been needed, occasionally a third. The Navy wants at least six, to provide more capability for colonization. December 26 -- Commercial SY Kaverner-Massa is christened. It was tasked to handle the Portland and Gato classes. The new Gatos were deemed a higher priority. December 28 -- The first of the new Iowa tankers is ready and heads to Callisto. COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS November 5 -- Construction of the third of eight Ticonderoga 82 sensor bases, this one on Mercury is begun. RESEARCH November 23 -- Testing of the new large power plant, the GEI GCF 5400, is completed by Norris Gunterman. PERSONNEL December 30 -- Gov. Yadira Desousa has become an accomplished terraformer, obviously a private study matter campagining for a post on Mars or Luna as he's currently on the mining outpost at Halley's Comet.

12-09-2014, 04:51 AM	#327
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	CHARACTER REVIEW Here's how the active chars stack up under the new protocols: Cmdr. Chance Perj -- Minimal crew training skill, low-level accomplished in fleet initiative. Accomplished surveyor. Good chance at a posting on one of the geology teams when they are formed. CO of an Explorer headquartered in Sol. Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers Jr. -- Novice training and ground combat, but better than most of the rank. It will be really interesting to see what happens when Engelhardt retires, which will happen by the end of the decade for certain. Silvers Jr. is a bit of a long shot for the next leader but it's a definite possibility, two of the main rivals are Zoe Bean(young phenom from Mars) and Wyatt Pittman(experienced right-hand man of Engelhardt, Luna). Being born in the colonies won't help their cause. There is a handful of candidates who could be picked, there is no clear favorite. I was surprised that Silvers Jr. is only 35. Col. Deacon Palmer Jr. -- Run-of-the-mill battalion CO. This unfortunately hasn't changed. One thing we've discovered is that army officers are pretty much who they are ... they don't improve as much over time as the other branches of service, as a rule. Minor abilities in training and combat make a decent commander, no political connections, nothing to distinguish yourself. An honorable but largely unnoticed career likely to continue that way. Only 15 army officers outranking him in a society of nearly 2 billion is pretty darn good, but he's probably stuck. At age 34, he's already had health problems. A few more years of this and then retirement is the likely career path.

12-09-2014, 07:06 PM	#328
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	January - June 2086 A few more construction factories have been built, but it is not coming close to the pace at which shipyard operations are currently expanding. That trend is expected to continue for some years to come, since the Navy is just beginning to enter what will be a prolonged period of peak shipyard operation, and the lion's share of the 'industrial investment' sector of Earth's manufacturing continues to go to producing automines so that the mining haul can continue to grow. A painfully slow process, but it continues. Duranium and neutronium are in a slow free-fall, mercassium continues to decline every-so-slowly, but corundium has actually begun to rebound with the slower mine production. The next mine to be targeted will not be Herschel-Rigollet as anticipated but rather Whipple. A short-period comet, Whipple is never more than a 800 million kilometers away and has probably the best remaining untapped source of mercassium(15.9 kt at 0.7) as well as a decent stash of duranium(11.5 kt at 1.0). Sorium, tritanium, and a bit of uridium are there as pot-sweeteners. The terraforming on Mars proceeds slowly, with the temperature already raised a fraction of a degree, but enough for the instruments to record it. Oxygen is now almost 5% of the thin atmosphere. Many significant manufacturing goals are set to be completed late this decade or early in the next: ordnance factories, prefabricated 82-tech bases, the 'final' shipyards currently planned for this cycle of refits and Navy expansion, etc. For now, that makes progress on any one of them slow. It was noticed well after it should have been that Earth is in danger of not having enough mass drivers to keep up with all the incoming packets. This will delay matters a bit, and an emergency shift was made to increase production of them and up Earth's total to a minimum of 10(50kt capacity). To ensure no 'accidents' took place, the inactive one of Venus was picked up as well. Earth will attempt to maintain a full dozen to ensure 10 are always in place. It's an issue that snuck beneath the cracks, and will require currently produced automines to get dumped on Venus just to get some decent use out of them. On January 17, ESF Bravo returns to Earth. More maintenance issues on the inbound journey meant they were unable to completely refill maintenance needs but by the time they leave supplies should be more than sufficient. More than half of Bravo's ship COs are replaced as they retire due to health issues related to the stresses of working in Sirius. It was a very costly survey, and a reminder of the inherent dangers involved in stretching our legs, galactically speaking. On the 27th, ESF Alpha is cleared for operations a little early. They break orbit and make for the Luyten 726-8 jump to survey that 'highway'. They will leave Sol space in early April, and may well not return until late in 2090. This is the last Earth will see of them in this decade if all goes well. Most of the same personnel is with them as before. The following day, Dr. Garland Sidhom, standard-bearer for the Biology & Genetics research field and one of only four active elite scientists, had decided to retire from public life at age 65. While BG researchers are not usually of major importance, his legacy will be mostly that of advancing the effectiveness of terraforming efforts at the end of the 70s and early part of the this decade, a period that led up to the recent deployment of the first installation. The field now falls on hard times with only a trio of novices to carry on the torch, and further advances in terraforming are expected to be very rare. Meanwhile, humanity crosses the 2-billion barrier in total population for the first time in well over 60 years. February begins with the first two groups of harvesters arriving at Earth to unload their fuel and begin the refit process. Total reserve fuel is at about 24 million, it will be interesting to see how well it survives the disruption of the refits. The final construction brigade exits training in the middle of the month. The ten of them number a combined quarter-million, almost half of the Army's total personnel. In March some shipyard goals were met with the details noted in the appropriate appendix as always, and on April 3, 1532 GST, ESF Alpha jumped out of Sol. By the end of May a notable chapter in the navy's commercial operations passed as the second of the new Fletchers was finished. The old ones will now be scrapped, a ending a long and distinguished service of nearly four decades. Things had settled down to a somewhat relaxed pace, relatively speaking at least, after the first couple months of the year. PERSONNEL January 9 -- Delois Woznicki(57) can now handle any assignment except for Director. Too bad she took so long to get here. January 17 -- Russell Salvucci, currently posted as Mars' governor, is an accomplished financial manager now. Mid-March -- BOG welcomes a new member, Lillie Buske. Already capable of managing mid-sized operations, she has a variety of decent starter skills, most notably in logistics and manufacturing. Late April -- Brig. Gen. Sterling Silvers Jr. furthers his ambitions with another jump in political connections, accomplished now(25%). Early June -- Cmdr. Chance Perj records a minor increase in initiative. RESEARCH January 10 -- Eagle 60 military cruising engine finished(Reynaldo Darrington). January 29 -- John Dangel(55, LG) pushes for a strong finish to his thus-far unmemorable career by stepping up to the accomplished tier. February 29 -- Irving Steinmeyer finishes testing the new jump drive for the jump shuttle that will transport the geology teams. Work will begin on it as soon as the next naval yard is finished. The mass driver situation being what it is, that is not likely to be until next year. EARTH January 17 -- ESF Bravo returns and begins it's overhaul. January 27 -- ESF Alpha is cleared for departure on the Luyten 726-8 route. February 3 -- Long Beach refits begin. February 15 -- Final Construction Brigade is finished. March -- ENDM has reached it's goal and is now the largest-capacity SY at Earth at over 171kt. The new jump drives have a size limit of 169+ kt so it is ready to handle anything the new jump ship might throw at it. March 5 -- A second Caldwell group is finished, one more to go. Mid-March -- Vickers-Armstrong SY has reached its target size and begins retooling for the new Arleigh Burke. May 3 -- First Gato finished. May 26 -- The second and for now last of the new Fletcher freighters is finished June 21 -- First shipment of automines leaves for Whipple. June 25 -- First of the refit harvesters heads to Saturn. June 27 -- Research lab finished. COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS February 17 -- Luna's Ticonderoga 82 base is the second to be completed.

12-09-2014, 07:46 PM	#329
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	I meant to post this last 'year', it's the lastest galaxy map from the completion of Operation Renewal, late 2085:

12-10-2014, 08:22 AM	#330
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	July - December 2086 It was mostly a lot of small things happening the second part of the year. Retooling for the Arleigh Burke was finished on July 25, and refits for the first four begun. A couple of days later mercassiuim was exhausted on Triton, this was expected to put Earth's supply into a much stepper dive. Also at the end of the month the last group of new Caldwells was finished and the old models began to hit the scrapping phase. August sees Elwood Tousant(SF) join the rarified air of elite scientists and a new group of Long Beach harvesters finishing their refits. Mitchell shipyard started up the new Clevelands in September, and Earth hit the needed ten mass drivers. There were no mishaps in the interim, but that was a matter of sheer good fortune. Four more will yet be built for Venus, Whipple, and a couple of spares, but the crash course is no longer necessary and some of the factory space is diverted back to more urgent projects, mostly the naval shipyards being built. On the 8th Oregon shipyard finished it's second slipway and the new Iowa's proceeded now two at a time. The 10th brought the completion of the second and final Gato small freighter, and on and on it went with the navy's upgrading. September 25th brought news of a more pressing caliber. After more than 16 years of leading SPACE's ground forces, GoA Anton Engelhardt(63) is calling it a career. The expected alien invasion never happened on his watch, but expansion of the army to various bases around Sol did. He spent the first half-plus of his career at low-level posting, on cadres from 2045-57 and basic garrison duty from 58-69. Shortly afterward he was elevated to lead the Army from 2070-2086 and did an admirable job at it. There was no question at any point in his tenure that he was the best officer for the job, and by a considerable margin. Discussion about his successor swirled around the controversial and brilliant Zoe Bean, CO of one of the other brigades on Earth. The contoversy wasn't about her really, so much as the fact that she was a native of Mars. None of the colonies have had such a high-ranking official, and many felt they shouldn't. Three others were also put forward for the post. Incredibly none were older than Sterling Silvers Jr(36). The next would likely take the reins for a long time. Eventually Gil Milstead(31), Earth-born and possessing good political and combat skills -- though training ability is notably lacking -- was appointed. Aside from that he has impressive overall skills. Milstead is a religous man, notable for his unsual insightfulness, ability to delegate, and a man who handles himself well in the public eye. Despite his youth, he has been a brigade commander for almost nine years so he knows his way around. It was a very close call with Bean the top challenger as expected -- it seems the Mars issue was the decider in this case. But Milstead is a very capable choice. On November 7, ESF Bravo was cleared for departure from Earth and headed for the systems beyond Van Maanen. Between Alpha and Bravo they are scheduled to survey five of the seven known systems available to be explored, and who knows what beyond them. The year finished with more mundane shipyard news. The new Portland battalion transports began their construction run, while four Burke transports and a Long Beach harvester were finished with their refits within the final couple of weeks of December. Earth July 5 -- Second pair of South Carolinas are finished. Mid-July -- First of the Fletchers has been scrapped. July 25 -- Retooling for the Arleigh Burke is finished. Refits begin on four of the six hulls. July 30 -- The final group of Caldwells is finished, and scrapping of the old ships begins. August 9 -- 5 Long Beach refits completed. September -- Mitchell SY reaches the necessary size for the Cleveland, but refitting is not advised and the first of two new ships begun. Meanwhile expansion continues to prepare for eventual work on the new Tarawa down the road. Also Earth has reached the ten mass drivers it needs. September 2 -- First group of Caldwells scrapped. September 8 -- Oregon SY adds a second slipway, and a second Iowa 84i is begun. . September 10 -- Second and last of the Gato small freighters is finished. September 14 -- Second of eight Fletchers scrapped. September 21 -- The second of the Iowa 84i tankers is finished. October 2 -- Second group of Caldwells scrapped. November 2 -- Four more Caldwells are scrapped. The fuel from the scrapped ships is starting to replace that of those that have been built, and is keeping reserve levels well afloat. November 7 -- Another Fletcher is scrapped and ESF Bravo is cleared for departure. They'll head out to the systems beyond Van Maanen. Dec. 2 -- Another group of Caldwells scrapped. Four of eight groups now. Dec. 8 -- First of the two new Cleveland's finished. Dec. 18 -- At Kvaerner Masa SY, retooling is finished and the first of the new Portland battalion transports is begun. Dec. 20 -- Refits finished for the first four Arleigh Burke brigade transports. Dec. 30 -- Long Beach refit finished. Personnel Mid-July -- Promising CP researcher(Carmelo Constanza) graduates. August 7 -- SPACE is up to four elite scientists again. The latest is Elwood Tousant(SF, 63) who won't have long at the top due to his age but has made an impressive late-career charge. He's presently finishing up testing on one of the new active sensors, after which he'll have his pick of projects to lead. October 4 -- Reynaldo Darrington(PP, 38) steps up to the accomplished tier, further strengthing the vital propulsion field. Research September 27 -- Elwood Tousant's team finishes the new missile search active sensors. He'll next work on the fire controls for the Exorcist anti-ship missile, as the sensors field is still trying to catch up with all the testing projects. November 17 -- Reynaldo Darrington has finished research into jump drive miniaturization. It is now possible to do a squadron jump with a 600-ton drive, the previous minimum was over 700 tons. November 20 -- The Exorcist 85i missile is now ready for production(Elyse Buckler). Colonial Developments October 20 -- Venus begins assembly of its new Ticonderoga 82 sensor base.

12-10-2014, 12:42 PM	#331
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	Was the reorg due to poor results (i.e. bad mining governors in mining posts, etc)? Also, you keep mentioning someone "building" jump gates. I thought they were naturally occurring locations. Are they alien made? If so, why does Earth have 8? Or is there a difference between a jump gate and a jump point (i.e the former is a device placed at the latter that allows for hyperspace jumps without a hyperspace drive)? SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!"

12-10-2014, 05:19 PM	#332
Tellistto College Prospect Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Whitman, MA	SI, Jump points and jump gates you have the right of. They are different. The gate allows transit to all ships through the point without need of a jump drive. Need one on both sides to make it usable for back and forth traffic. These can be dangerous, as it also allows anyone else to use the jump point without a jump drive. So use with caution. Sometimes the game creates systems with Gates already installed on jump points, but it's not that normal. Tell __________________ FOOL - Ann Arbor Winged Lingerines FOOLX - Portland Axemen Hattrick - Fizzle United (222968)

12-10-2014, 08:21 PM	#333
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	The reorg was not due to poor results, though that also did happen. It was due to necessity, which often is the mother of invention as the saying goes. I did it earlier than I planned due to having officials missing(Rakes being forced out and then Alborn having to retire suddenly) during successive administrations, thus creating a more urgent 'casus belli' for a change if you will. But having a multi-system 'empire' pretty much made it essential. Having shuttles constantly moving across multiple systems every couple of years would be ridiculous -- under the previous system there would eventually reach a point where a lot of positions would spend more time with people in transit than actually doing their job if and when humanity's colonies get widespread enough. Basically from time to time there are situations where a policy that worked before when SPACE was smaller does not work now. This will happen again, at some point, perhaps multiple times, in dealing with a 'multi-system empire' scale of civilization. I've been fairly reactionary about it. I'm trying to be a little more proactive and solve problems before they occur, but there is also a real sense that society doesn't change until there is significant pressure -- having something cause a little bit of real pain and then saying 'maybe we should do something different' strikes me as the kind of things that really would happen and makes it interesting for me as a player. Tellistto is correct on his jump gate explanation. The naturally occurring ones are being viewed by SPACE as evidence of former alien civilizations in the area(what else could they be?), particularly since there is one in Lalande. Full disclosure: A bit of the 'new order' is based on other Aurora stories I've read, but it also owes a fair amount to the Turian Hierarchy in the Mass Effect universe(itself modeled loosely on Roman civilization). I've always found those kinds of 'flawed meritocracy'/bordering on oligarchy systems interesting. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 12-10-2014 at 08:24 PM.

12-10-2014, 09:50 PM	#334
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Note: the thread is now officially caught up. Current game date is December 1, 2087. I plan on keeping it that way or at least close. Sometimes it can be difficult to rip myself away from particularly interesting times in the game(the initial voyages of the ESFs were espescially this way given the literally decades of buildup to them) to format my notes into a post JANUARY - JUNE 2087 The year began with a bang. Shortly after the annual celebrations of having survived another year, Director Awad announcee he would be retiring at the end of January. It was one of those things which tended to drown out other news in the month. A couple things in the shipyards and in colonial mining operations, ESF Bravo jumped out to Van Maanen on the third of the month, but pretty much the minds of most were on who the new rirector would be. Official Biography -- Director Riley Awad Awad succeeded late in his career. An unknown beauracrat until his mid-30s, he made his first noise in being appointed to Governor of Sedna in 2057. Even then it was a distant but important posting. Minor colonies and comet postings covered the next decade plus, as he was sometimes in the election field, sometimes just out of it. Then in 2073 he finished second and got the reward of that accomplishment at the time, the governorship of Earth. He was 49. A tour on Luna proved to not be fortuitous, at least not health-wise. He grew in capability steadily though and once Duling and Eighmy left the scene, he was clearly the best of those left. His six years as Director have been generally well received, with the emphasis on diversifying the economy after the consolidations under Rakes and the controversial use of the Sealed Order to provide a major change in SPACE's continuity and official governmental structure as his most obvious legacies. Directorial Election: January 30, 2087 Eight qualified, but only four made the ballot. A small field as it's become more and more of lately. Burt Stonerock was the most qualified, but he is also 58, in declining health which will allow him probably only a couple more years of service, and he couldn't spell 'tact'(or use the concept) if his life depended on it. The arrogant Russell Salvucci is always popular when anti-SPACE sentiments run high, but they really don't right now. Errol Igoe and Evelyn Kaczor have a less polished overall resume and body of work than anyone who has held the office since the days of Lena Dungey(impressive bonus points for anyone with any idea who she was). Kaczor is the kind of straight-shooter that could make a fine director someday. The electorate essentially punted on this one. Stonerock has done a good job in his time as Earth's governor, he's got a balanced set of economic skills, and while he doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut or what to say when he opens it, he is a strong leader unafraid of challenges. He was elected in one of the most one-sided elections SPACE has ever had, a stark contrast to his narrow loss to Awad just over two years ago. The full results: Burt Stonerock -- 40.8% Evelyn Kaczor -- 24.3% Errol Igoe -- 19.0% Russell Salvucci -- 15.9% By making this choice, they are essentially giving the others a little longer to distinguish themselves. Another candidate could rise as well of course, and it's also possible Stonerock's health could improve. Salvucci is three years younger but his peak seemed to be during the New York scandal, Igoe and Kaczor a full decade more junior than the new director. Salvucci was definitely the big loser this time around, while Kaczor showed herself a real player in finishing a distant second. BOG then had the crucial task of choosing a new Earth governor. Stonerock maintans most current economic policies. He's hawkish and aggressive by nature, intending to accelerate Frozen Vengeance as much as possible and let the chips fall where they may. Earth still needs a strong hand in production but logistics are also seen as important this time around with the amount of activity at the spaceport and overhauls for ships, etc. There were several possible candidates, but one stood way apart from the rest. The popular and now qualified Delois Woznicki had no serious rivals -- she's the only one with any logistics ability at all and is accomplished in production matters across the board, decent political connections and a good public manner -- finally the 58-year-old underachiever has hit the big time. She's still in excellent health and should serve as an oustanding governor on our homeworld for several years. In the areas that matter most, the Stonerock/Woznicki pairing in the top two spots in the agency really is quite a strong combination. Ricardo Bloise moved from Sedna to Mercury, replacing Woznicki, in a mild surprise. Most expected Kaczor, currently on Ganymede, to get that spot. Meanwhile Sedna is taken by Ronald Waxman, one of the finest mining administrators around. It's a promotion he should have gotten years ago, but was passed over for political reasons. On February 2, the final pair of South Carolinas are finished, allowing for the old ones to now be scrapped and reducing the mineral drain significantly. Meanwhile under Roxann Harshberger's leadership, Luna has now surpassed Mars as the most populous colony again. The right leader, in the right spot, can make a big difference. By the end of the month a couple of the older Nimitzes have completed maximum readiness in their training exercises, another step in getting the Navy up to speed. All of the sensor packages were now either finished or in testing as well. Lots of shipyard activity as has been the trend lately. By the end of March the new Clevelands were finished with the second of the 84i's clearing the Mitchell SY, and an initial run of Exorcist missiles was concluded as well. By April duranium was up a full kiloton in the two months since the South Carolina's were finished, but that also was due to reduced production on Earth with officials still being shipped around after the election. Once Woznicki arrived things would pick up again. In the spring, a tenth automine and finally a mass driver departed for Whipple on April 21. That's halfway now to the current target goal of twenty mines on the comet. In May, there was news from Sedna. With new administrator Ronald Waxman in place, it was announced that duranium production had reached five figures -- over 10kt annually. That's just insane. Exhaustion clock is now down to under 25 years. That's horrifying. On June 12 Delois Woznicki arrived on Earth, completing the transition. Most will be faster but with Sedna in the chain of commands to be replaced it takes a while for even the new shuttles to get out to that rock. Getting Waxman there was vital though. The initial results are that we now have enough supply to sustain current levels(more or less). Less than a week later the final South Carolina's were scrapped, leaving Earth with 34 million litres of fuel in the tanks -- 56 million, by far a record(low 40s was the previous high) combined when Titan and Callisto are added into the mix. The goal is a minimum of 100 million, but it's nice to have more of a buffer than the 15-20 million commonplace for the last several years. Each of the superfreighters carried 2.15m apeice, so they were far from the only factor but a significant one. Rounding out the first half the year, retooling for the Spruance 85i colony ship was finished on the 29th, and the first, named the CS Forbes, is set to be finished late next year. All that remains for colonization to be viable is the jump ship, for which the jump drive is still being researched. The 'ion drive era transition', or whatever you want to call it, is somewhere around the halfway point now. Fuel and mineral levels are as healthy as they've been in years. There is generally confidence in current leadership, and SPACE stands less absurdly ill-prepared for the future than it has in quite some time. Of course, that means it's a prime opportunity for the other shoe to drop -- but perhaps humanity will catch a break for once. Earth January 2 -- Fletcher, 4x Caldwell scrapped. January 3 0846 -- Bravo jumps to Van Maanen. February 2 -- Last pair of South Carolina superfreighters completed. February 4 -- Another group of Caldwells scrapped. February 17 -- Five more Long Beach's finish the refit. Five slipways idle while more return from Saturn. March 1 -- Another Fletcher scrapped. Three to go. March 11 -- Another group of Caldwells scrapped. Late March -- Four more harvesters begin the refit process. March 28 -- Another class update is finished as the second Cleveland clears the Mitchell SY. March 30 -- Initial run of 200 Exorcist missiles finished. April 10 -- The first two South Carolinas are scrapped. April 20 -- Final two Caldwells scrapped. 11 former COs still do not have new assignments. April 21 -- A tenth automine and finally a mass driver depart for Whipple. April 29 -- First of the Cleveland's is scrapped. May 11 -- Fletcher scrapped. Two to go. May 29 -- Second of the old Cleveland supply ships scrapped. June 11 -- Last two Arleigh Burke's are refit, and the first of the new Portlands is finished. June 17 -- Last two South Carolinas scrapped. Fuel tanks hold 34m on Earth alone, a record 56m combined. 100m is the goal. Late June -- Third of the regular Iowas finished, first of the XR versions begun. June 29 -- Retooling finished for the Spruance 85i. Colonial Developments January 6 -- Sedna adds a 44th CMC. Uridium production has begun to decline now, duranium has about twice the amount though and has not yet begun that process. Mid-January -- Vendarite exhausted on Borrelly. Late January -- Sedna up to 45 now. February 15 -- Sedna is at 46. February 19 -- Sedna is blowing up, 47 complexes now. 8.2kt of duranium per year, but the exhaustion clock is now under 30 years. March 30 -- Mercury completes it's Ticonderoga 82 sensor base. Personnel Early February -- Russell Salvucci ups factory bonus in an apparent effort to do better with the voters next time, while Commodore Hank Rohrer has increased his novice intelligence abilities. New researcher Edna Hanzel(DS) is more notable for the fact that she immediately becomes a prime candidate for survey duty, accomplished in that task as well as the so-far useless xenology. Late February -- Deanna Ide is the second promising CP researcher to join the scientific ranks in as many years. March 20 -- Fleet Admiral Mitchell Feeser has expanded his training skills to legendary status. April 8 -- The continuing fleet exercises have helped Commodore Ronald Dunkin become accomplished in managing fleet operations as well. April 16 -- One officer dismissed from the navy and army each. It's become quite a rare thing reserved only for the most incompetent to slip through the cracks at the academies. May 21 -- A big year for Ronald Dunkin continues as the Commodore is now approaching the elite range in training skill. June 2 -- Cmdr. Chance Perj ups initiative. Research February 19 -- GEI SSS 336.7, the new ship search active sensors, completed by Bessie Wallander. All of the needed sensor prototypes are now either completed or at least in testing. Mid-April -- Dr. Carmelo Constanza(CP), just ten months out of the academy, moves up to accomplished and takes a second lab. There are presently 28 projects which is the lowest it's been in a long time due to a higher number of mid-level scientists right now. Only the best novices or those needed for specific testing projects are able to get consistent work. May 9 -- Maintenance module research complete(Stanley Kogut). May 17 -- The Exorcist missile fire controls are now ready(Elwood Tousant). He'll take over the second half of the testing phase on the fire controls for the meson turrets next. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 12-10-2014 at 09:51 PM.

12-13-2014, 06:41 PM	#335
Tellistto College Prospect Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Whitman, MA	Update update update! __________________ FOOL - Ann Arbor Winged Lingerines FOOLX - Portland Axemen Hattrick - Fizzle United (222968)