Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition

[Derpmind]

Spoiler: "Winning Plan"

[X] Plan Digging the Ms Instrumentally v1.0:
-[X] Earthside Facilities (Unlimited Dice, +5 bonus)
--[X] Isolinear Computing Center Phase 1 134/200 25 CpD, 1 Die = 25 C 40% DC 61
-[X] Earth-Orbit Facilities
--[X] Enterprise Orbital Assembler (Phase 4 of 4) 0/80 +80 IP
-[X] Lunar Facilities (4 Dice available, +25 to lunar dice):
--[X] Craterscope Final Assembly and Testing (New) 0/900 2 IPpD, 4 Dice 8 IP 4/13 Median ADC N/A
-[X] Martian Facilities (13 Pathfinder days)
--[X] Martian SCED Research Base (Phase 2) (Northern polar region) (10/20 Facilities, 5 IP per Facility) (Max 10 parts per Pathfinder trip) (-3 Astrotech Team) 50 IP 13 Pathfinder days
-[X] Venus Facilities (12 Pathfinder days):
--[X] Venus Research Station (5/20 Station Parts; 10 IP per Part) (Max four parts per Pathfinder trip) 2 Parts Free
-[X] Assembly
--[X] Tick Digger Vehicle Rollout 21/80 IP +59 IP
-[X] Development (7 Dice, +35 bonus)
--[X] Experimental Lunar Fission Reactor 166/200 (20C/Die +10IP) (Updated) 1 Die 20 C 100% DC 1
--[X] He-3 Fusion Prototype 0/400 (35C/Die + 15IP) (New) 2 Die = 70 C 30 IP 2/5 Median ADC N/A
--[X] Lunar Metallurgy 0/400 (4IP/Die) (New) 4 Dice 16 IP 17% ADC 65
-[X] Space Command Mission Planning (4 Dice, +10 bonus)
--[X] Mission: Orbital Scan (Tittania) (Requires one Die) 1 Die
--[X] Mission: Manned Landing (Titan) (Requires one Die) 1 Die
--[X] Mission: Manned Landing (Charon) (Requires one Die) 1 Die
--[X] Mission: Manned Landing (Pluto) (Requires one Die) 1 Die
-[X] Missions
--[X] Mars (13 Pathfinder days)
---[X] Edit: Rover Delivery-Mars (Required for activation: 4IP per Location) (22/50 locations surveyed) 4 IP
---[X] Mars Pathfinder Survey (Required for activation: 20 Pathfinder days) (Max 2 surveys per pathfinder trip) (22/50 locations surveyed) X4 80 Pathfinder days

SCEDQuest Q3 2062 Results

Isolinear Computing Center Phase 1 199/200 (Auto-completed, Phase 2 Updated)
After thousands of credits, months of negotiations, and no small amount of bureaucrats personally wined and dined by Commander Cim Turry, SCED has almost gained the many isolinear (and related) components needed for its new computer center. Fortunately, SCED's in-house isolinear chip printer will be able to hand-assemble the remainder, though it will take a significant amount of manufacturing time to do so.

Enterprise Orbital Assembler Phase 4 +80 80/80 IP
Similar to the one on Gagarin Station, SCED has a second zero-g laboratory bolted onto the Enterprise, this time specialized in material testing. A relatively small area in the Station Bay has been allocated to SCED, and it is crammed full of manufacturing tools and scientific equipment. The zero-g lab next door, meanwhile, tightly clings to the side of the far larger Station Bay. When not needed for science team projects, the manufacturing center will be operated by SCED engineering teams to maximize the usage of SCED's limited equipment. Unfortunately, due to the noise of the endless work in the larger Station Bay, SCED personnel are currently bunked on the other side of the station.
(+10 IP, research projects require less progress)

Craterscope Final Assembly and Testing 404/900
The final steps in the craterscope's construction are arduous and complicated. Thousands of expensive components need to be assembled in the most inhospitable of locations, in unwieldy space suits and under much pressure from Space Command and the SCED leadership. One of the more unique challenges has been updating the SCED site on the GDInet for the public to access the declassified images from the Craterscope, a webtechnical effort that caused the entire site to crash multiple times during development.

Martian SCED Research Base (Phase 2) 20/20 Facilities (Northern polar region) (-3 Astrotech Teams)
The byword for the martian outpost's second phase is more. More prefabs, more solar collectors, more wind turbines, more storage space. Astronauts are hardened frontiersmen and -women of the void with extensive and broad fields of expertise and can endure working and living for months at a time out of basic prefab structures, but their number is limited. If SCED wants to expand the base further, they will need to do so with astrotechs. In this regard the base expansion is unique, as the circumstances are very different to the previous Lunar outpost. Curiosity Base, named for a planned rover mission that never happened, cannot expect resupply and crew exchanges with the same regularity. The added facilities are thus first and foremost meant to provide additional amenities to the occupants. This goes from proper socialization, relaxation, and workout spaces, to facilities to provide medical services with a dedicated astrotech doctor on site. With all of this completed, and the new staff on site, what follows now is the development and research into a proper base with standing structures to enable an environment suited for the proper investigation of martian space science.

Event! Project Removed: [-] Martian Particle Mining Base (Phase 2)
After 6 months of operation, the astrotechs stationed at Schmitt Base have all but revolted. The base is a bare-bones set of prefab structures with little else but the basics and a fleet of mobile sand-sifting minings rigs. The three astrotech teams, operating in three shifts constantly day and night, have no real amenities and little space to their own. Their work conditions are harsh even compared to the lunar mining crews, and combined with the months-long work rotations they have been stretched past the limit. Although SCED astronaut teams will be willing to tolerate these conditions, for it to be staffed by astrotechs would require expanding Schmitt Base to incorporate the same facilities Curiosity Base has recently inaugurated. (+3 Astrotech Teams)

Venus Research Station 7/20 Station Parts
While there was little left in terms of resources to fabricate parts for the Venusian station, SCED engineers were able to refurbish a rejected module from the construction of Shala into a greenhouse and recreation space which can provide both food augmentation and water recycling, as well as give the crew a place to relax, though the high humidity and temperature will likely cause some issues. Now attached to the rest of the station, it awaits more scientific and habitation spaces.

Tick Digger Vehicle Rollout 80/80 IP
SCED now has a large garage where the Tick Digger Vehicles are stored, ready for deployment. The Lunar-specialized diggers have already been shipped up to Conrad Base. The rest will be deployed by SCED over time as new off-Earth bases or other projects will require.
(+5 to all off-Earth construction rolls) (Nerfed the bonus a bit)

Experimental Lunar Fission Reactor 232/200
SCED's Lunar base is powered by RTGs, Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators. They are an extremely reliable and compact (lowering required cargo space) power source, able to operate for decades with no maintenance whatsoever, as the famous Voyagers 1 and 2 demonstrate. Launched in 1977, they maintained power and kept radio contact well into the late 2020s, even after leaving the Sun's heliosphere. Their flaw, however, is that they do not output much power. Rather than build an extensive (and very cargo expensive) solar panel array, as the Treasury did for the lunar mines, SCED will build the first lunar fission reactor, designed to operate in the Moon's 0.166 gs of gravity. While fission is a mature technology, with GDI having arguably over a century of experience, the unique environment of the Moon introduces new variables to be tested and experimented with. Though there have been concerns raised about how the designers made the reactor somewhat overbuilt, with excessive safety features and redundancy, SCED's leadership sees this as an important intermediary technology between current power systems and future fusion reactors.

He-3 Fusion Prototype 168/400 168/380
The beginning of SCED's fusion reactor design this quarter has fortuitously coincided with a far larger Treasury effort to refine fusion technology. While the Treasury has settled on a conventional design that can be implemented at scale with only minimal use of STU materials, SCED has been able to pick up many of the ideas and prototypes discarded on account of cost: Elerium catalysts in the plasma stream, Infernium ignition lasers, Ultrachrome alloy heat exchangers, Sparkle shield containment fields, and a wide variety of other devices and techniques that will make for a far more compact and energetic design. While production model He-3 reactors will likely do away with the many STU elements, due to SCED's easy access to STU materials and GDI's massive (and growing) demand for superconductors, these methods will actually reduce the expense for the Exploratory Division's test reactor.

Past the technological looting, work has begun on the magnetic containment bottles meant to catch and convert the wild protons a Helium-3 reaction produces. Experimental testing of the bottle field structure and how to effectively shape it to safely bleed the high speed protons of their energy will be the main goal of the prototype reactor.

Lunar Metallurgy 384/400 384/380
(Auto-completes Q4.)
A plethora of sample alloys produced at the Ore Electrolysis Test Facility has been shipped to SCED's labs aboard Gagarin Station, Enterprise, and downwell to Earth. Full materials testing and analysis is already mostly finished, but further number crunching from various supercomputer clusters is still ongoing. Additionally, a full Lunar Metallurgical Complex has been designed as an expansion on the current test facility, though it will require far more power than is currently available.

Treasury Communal Housing Evaluation 199/200 (Auto-completed) (Quality: 67 SCED staff, 79 general population)
SCED's normal quarters are cramped, with little room for personal effects or privacy. They are also an astronaut's and astrotech's sole refuge from their fellow humans in the often tiny enclosures of space stations, space vessels, and research bases. So the idea of anything that might infringe upon this sacred space is practically taboo, causing the project to be nearly rejected outright by SCED senior staff.

After several mock-ups were constructed, however, it quickly turned out that the many of the Treasury's more compact Communal Housing designs were essentially SCED's, but better. The result of the Treasury's years of extensive testing is a massive technical document full of numerous optimization tweaks, from slightly larger doorways in certain hallways, to a certain defined number of shower stalls per unit, even down to the exact number and variety of toothbrushes in stock. After some further examination, buried in the research notes were citations from SCED's own design department.

SCED staff have grudgingly given the stamp of approval to the improved designs, and expect to incorporate it in further constructions. Meanwhile, the general public's response, including sizable numbers of Project Trailblazer members still waiting for the further construction of GDSS Columbia, was decently positive. Though the personal quarters are much smaller than those currently being built on Columbia, the communally shared facilities provide much larger areas and more amenities than many had feared, including actual showers. (Though the showers will be in considerably high use.)

A final design integrating the housing improvements with green architecture is now much anticipated, both by SCED and many residents aboard the rapidly-expanding Columbia. However, this still requires the completion of the Pollen Free Decorative Plant Development project.

Mission: Orbital Scan (Titania) (Requires one Die) 1 Die
Mission: Manned Landing (Titan) (Requires one Die) 1 Die
Mission: Manned Landing (Charon) (Requires one Die) 1 Die
Mission: Manned Landing (Pluto) (Requires one Die) 1 Die
An itinerary has been established for scanning Titania at Uranus, while the planning bureau has also gone through the data for Titan at Saturn to determine the best options and equipment for landing, as its thick and cold atmosphere are likely to cause some issues. Planning for the manned landings on Pluto and Charon would be almost mundane in comparison, were it not for the sheer distance from Earth causing a few issues of its own.

With the planning for Titania's future scan finished, Mission Planning has a file on all major bodies in the solar system for orbital operations. While not a requirement, finishing these scans was one of the initial reasons for the Space Command Exploratory Division program getting the greenlight for official establishment, and will be a major milestone.

Rover Delivery-Mars + Mars Pathfinder Survey x4 27/50
Work has resumed on the survey of the red planet. While most usable resource deposits found were only in trace amounts, vistas of the vast, rusted desert remain moderately popular. Of particular note, astronaut Xavier Morales used his personal mass allocation on the Pathfinder to bring painting supplies, and has made the first landscape painting created on Mars with martian iron oxide paint. Though there have been several generous offers for its acquisition, it currently hangs in pride of place in the Pathfinder's galley.

SCEDQuest Q4 2062

This Side Quest was allowed by Ithillid and is supposed to be fun. Things happening in SCEDQuest will be affected by the main one, but unless Ithillid says otherwise it is only semi-canon.

Budget: 186 C (+100 Capital per turn)
Industrial Capacity: 240 IP
Pathfinder Time: 90 Days
Astronaut Teams: 5 (+1 per year, +1 per Plan)
Astrotech Teams: 9 (+1 per turn, +5 per year)
Zero IP Station Parts: 2 per turn

How to make SCED Plans.

Earthside Facilities (Unlimited Dice, +5 to Earth dice)
[] Isolinear Computing Center (Phase 2) (Updated)
A fully dedicated isolinear computing center will allow the SCED to not only run more simulations, but will host a dedicated AEVA cluster to aid research teams. (Though this will be decidedly more limited than the full AEVA rollouts seen on the space stations.) While almost all needed supplies are ready for installation, the last few isolinear chips must be produced in-house. As SCED's temperamental isolinear printer currently has nine failed chips for every good one, it will take extra effort to finish final assembly than previously expected.
(0/60 IP) (+5 to Development dice)

Earth-Orbit Facilities
--Locked while GDSS Columbia and GDSS Shala are under construction--

Lunar Facilities (4 Dice, +30 to lunar dice):
[] Craterscope Final Assembly and Testing
The Craterscope is ready for many months of testing, tweaking, tuning, turning, and even more testing after that. With thousands of ultra-high precision components, dozens of incredibly intricate instruments, and hundreds of kilometers in power and data cabling, it is a massive project even before taking into account that it must all be done by a mere handful of astrotechs in the vacuum of space.
(404/900, 2 IP per die) (-2 Astrotech Teams)

[] Lunar Imaging Seismic Array (Phase 2 of 10)
LISA can be deployed from orbit, the pods landing and burying their sensors by themselves. The SCED will expand the array region by region, scanning each for available volcanic caves.
(0/10 Sensor Pods, 4 IP per Sensor Pod)

[] Lunar Fission Reactor Assembly (New)
While in principle, the Lunar Fission Reactor's design is substantially similar to small base-load reactors used by GDI bases around the world or the larger civil gigawatt reactors, there are modifications made to use local materials, and then meet the unique challenges of lunar surface operations. Most obvious of these are the radiator fields that take the place of the reactor's normal cooling towers, slowly turning throughout the lunar day to minimize solar heating. The coolant used must also be stable in this secondary loop through the full range of lunar temperature swings, or must be actively heated or cooled when the radiators shut down for maintenance. Superconducting power cables can be used to keep the reactor at a safe distance from the facilities they will power, but will require a measure of cooling themselves during the hot lunar day.
(0/300, 5 IP and 20C per die) (-2 Astrotech Teams)

Martian Facilities (13 Pathfinder days)
[] Particle Base Restaffing (New)
A simple solution to the particle base's bare-bones construction is to staff it with hardened, expert Astronaut teams. However, given the base's lack of significant science and exploration equipment, this will not make them happy if the current setup is not updated soon.
(-3 Astronaut teams) (Particle mining continues, will finish in two turns) (Base's next phase modified)

[] Martian Particle Mining Base Expansion (New)
In a mirror of Curiosity Base, an expansion will fill in many more prefabricated base parts, and create an environment relatively suited for long-term work by normal humans.
(0/20 Facilities, 5 IP per Facility) (Max 10 parts per Pathfinder trip) (-4 Astrotech Teams) (Particle mining continues, will finish in two turns) (Base's next phase modified)

Mercury Facilities (13 Pathfinder days)
[] Mercury Comsat/GPS Network
Before permanent facilities can be manned on Mercury, a network of communication and positional satellites has to be completed to facilitate communication with Earth and allow for accurate positioning on the planet for the scientists. This includes relay satellites to enable communications when the sun blocks line of sight to earth, thus the need for larger transmitters and receivers.
(0/10 CSATs) (5 IP per CSAT)

[] Mercury SCED Research Base (Northern polar region)
The initial base will follow a similar pattern to the lunar one. A number of prefabricated habitat units, connected to life support and power. The plan is for an underground base in a crater near the poles as it is easier to deal with constant cold temperatures than the large swings in temperature that are present away from the poles.
(0/15 Facilities, 5 IP per Facility) (Max 10 parts per Pathfinder trip) (-1 Astronaut Team)

Venus Facilities (12 Pathfinder days):
[] Venus Comsat/GPS Network
Before permanent facilities can be manned on Venus, a network of communication and positional satellites has to be completed to facilitate communication with Earth and allow for accurate positioning on the planet for the scientists. As with Mercury, relays to communicate when occluded are a required part of this network.
(0/10 CSATs) (5 IP per CSAT)

[] Venus Research Station
A station in orbit of Venus has been requested to safely study tiberium samples collected there as they can easily be returned to the surface if needed. The station will float in the upper atmosphere with oxygen-nitrogen as a lifting gas. A second goal of the station would be a study of Venus's unique weather phenomena
(7/20 Station Parts; 10 IP per Part) (-2 Astrotech Teams) (Max four parts per Pathfinder trip)

Assembly

[] Pathfinder Modernization Refit 0/150 IP (Updated)
In the years since the Pathfinder was first built there have been several research breakthroughs that can be applied to the ship, not least of which is the new G-Drive design. Replacing the engine on the Pathfinder will take months and a large part of our workshops supporting the effort. But doing so will not only speed the Pathfinder's travel, but will allow time to replace and upgrade several important components around the ship, such as better superconductors, a new sparkle shield array, shimmer-shield airlocks, and more. Allowing these new components to be evaluated for their performance.
(60 Pathfinder days to install) (IP can be partially or fully paid before doing the installation)

Spoiler: 0.55Gs Time Requirements (Two way journey time)

Note: Includes +3 days for (current) maintenance requirements.

Mercury 12 -> 11 days
Venus 12 -> 11 days
Mars 13 -> 12 days
Ceres/Asteroid Belt 16 -> 16 days
Jupiter 23 -> 21 days
Saturn 29 -> 27 days
Uranus 39 > 37 days
Neptune 48 -> 45 days
Pluto 54 -> 51 days

[] Pathfinder Science Refit 0/50 IP (Updated)
The Pathfinder is currently designed to do everything the SCED needs from science missions to construction of space stations. With the Treasury's promise to give SCED a Conestoga this plan we can reduce the Pathfinder's cargo space to increase the size of the onboard labs, sensors, and crew quarters.
(40 Pathfinder days to install) (Pathfinder can only carry five station/facility parts per trip. Surface Scans take 2 days instead of 4 days, Pathfinder Surveys take 10 days instead of 20 days, and can do unlimited Pathfinder Surveys per trip.)

Development (7 Dice, +35 bonus)
[] Expedience Shuttle Prototype 0/190 (40C + 20IP/Die) (Updated)
With work on new variations of the Leopard underway the research department has asked permission to build a testbed variant for new technology. The plan is to start with one of the new VIP Leopards and refit it with a hover landing system and artificial gravity. Other planned additions include large sensor arrays, an isolinear EVA, and extensive monitoring systems to study the craft while it is flying.

[] He-3 Fusion Prototype 168/380 (35C/Die + 15IP/Die)
GDI's current fusion reactors use Deuterium-Deuterium or Tritium-Deuterium fusion. (Hydrogen isotopes with one and two extra neutrons respectively). These cycles have several limitations as these release a radical neutron that needs to be stopped by radiation mass shielding in the form of metal, concrete or energy shielding. Helium-3 Fusion, in addition to its availability in space mining, has the potential to allow for smaller fusion reactors as the cycle releases a free proton instead. A proton has a positive charge and can thus be manipulated and tapped for energy via magnetic fields, reducing the need for hard shielding. While SCED does not have the funds to produce an energy net-positive reactor, it can still operate and build a prototype test reactor to lay the groundwork.

[] Europa Deep Ocean Sample Extraction Drone 0/190 (4IP/Die)
It has long been theorized that Europa contains oceans of liquid water under its icy surface, heated by geothermal forces. If this should prove to be the case, there may be life in some form huddled around the energy providing deep sea volcanoes on Europa. A specialized, disinfected robot would have to be designed to take samples without contaminating any potential ecosystem already in place.

[] Gravitational Wave Observatory Assessment 0/145 (4IP/Die)
The theory of gravitational waves has long existed in scientific literature and has gained some increased attention with the discovery of the Gdrive. New advancements in Laser-, sensor- and computing technology have brought new options to the table to facilitate the construction of such Gravitational Wave Observatories on or off Earth.

[] Void-compatible Ultra High Albedo Coatings 104/145 (No cost per die)
White surfaces had been used to protect space equipment from the sun's heat ever since the early days of space exploration, but since then space coating technology has barely evolved. By going through the chemical literature and papers on high albedo pigments and coatings since then, maybe an improvement can be made.

[] Pollen Free Decorative Plant Development 0/95 (No cost per die)
Plant pollen causes two issues in spaceborn environments: Allergies and increased maintenance for the air-exchangers' particle scrubbers. Since the environment they are in is entirely artificial and controlled they have no need for reproductive functions. Removing the ability to produce pollen for a number of flowers, bushes and trees meant for decorative greenery should be a relatively easy affair.

[-] Lunar Metallurgy 384/380 (Auto-completes this turn)
With the experimental refineries in place, practical work on producing Luna alloys can begin. Lunar soil consists of primarily light metals like silicon, calcium, aluminum, magnesium, titanium with a good percentage of heavy metals like iron. The purpose of the project will be to produce a variety of alloys and metal components entirely made from local materials to figure out the limitations of lunar industry using primarily lunar materials.

[] Advanced Martian Research Base Development 0/570 (2IP/Die) (New)
As a technological exercise and as a proof of concept, much of the proper martian research outpost will be built from local resources. Doing so will require researching the technologies to make that possible; from producing construction materials from on-site resources to drawing water from the thin atmosphere of the red planet.

[] Astromech Development 0/380 (20C/Die + 15IP/Die) (New)
With a name blatantly stolen from the Star Wars movies, the general concept of the astromech droid is to place an advanced isolinear-based EVA in a mobile and multifunctional robotic droid. A "mech" is intended to be able to assist astronauts and -techs in a variety of tasks out in the depths of space.

[] Reusable Lunar Imaging Seismic Array 0/95 (2IP/Die) (New)
The LISA design, intended to search for underground volcanic caves suitable for future exploration and habitation, has proven too expensive for SCED to deploy in full. To remedy this, the current hover rover design will be modified to include a reusable drill and modified LISA deployment system.

Space Command Mission Planning (4 Dice, +10 bonus)
[] Mission: Manned Landing (Write-in) (Requires one Die)

[] Mission: Survey Mission (Write-in) (Requires one Die)
-Mercury
-Titan

[] Mission: Research Base (Write-in) 0/150
---

Missions
Total Pathfinder Time: 90 days
Current Maintenance time: 3 days

Spoiler: Current Pathfinder Base Time Requirements (Two way journey time):

Note: Does not include the maintenance time. Sorry if it's a bit confusing.

Mercury: 9 days
Venus: 9 days
Mars: 10 days
Asteroid Belt: 13 days
Jupiter: 20 days
Saturn: 26 days
Uranus: 36 days
Neptune: 45 days
Pluto: 51 days

Mercury (12 Pathfinder days)
---

Venus (12 Pathfinder days)
---

Mars (13 Pathfinder days)
[] Rover Delivery-Mars
(Required for activation: 4IP per Location) (27/50 locations surveyed)

[] Mars Pathfinder Survey
(Required for activation: 20 Pathfinder days) (Max 2 surveys per pathfinder trip) (27/50 locations surveyed)

Asteroid Belt (16 Pathfinder days)
[] Rover Delivery-Ceres
(Required for activation: 4IP per Location) (2/15 locations surveyed)

[] Manned Ceres Landing
(Required for activation: 30IP, 15 Capital, 1 Astronaut Team, 14 Pathfinder days)

Jupiter (23 Pathfinder days) Banned due to Scrin presence.
[] Observation Array - Jupiter
(0/10 Observation Satellites 6IP)

[] Callisto Rover Delivery
(Required for activation: 4IP per Location) (0/15 Locations surveyed)

[] Manned Landing Callisto
(Required for activation: 30IP, 15 Capital, 1 Astronaut Team, 23 Pathfinder days)

[] Surface Scan - Ganymede
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

[] Surface Scan - Io
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

[] Manned Landing Europa
(Required for activation: 30IP, 15 Capital, 1 Astronaut Team, 23 Pathfinder days)

[] Observation Probes - Jupiter's Minor Moons + Rings
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

Saturn (29 Pathfinder days)
[] Observation Array - Saturn
(0/10 Observation Satellites 6IP per Satellite)

[] Manned Landing Titan
(Required for activation: 30IP, 15 Capital, 1 Astronaut Team, 23 Pathfinder days)

Uranus (39 Pathfinder days)
[] Observation Array - Uranus
(0/10 Observation Satellites 6IP per Satellite)

[] Surface Scan - Oberon
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

[] Surface Scan - Titania
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

[] Surface Scan - Miranda
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

[] Surface Scan - Ariel
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

[] Surface Scan - Umbriel
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

[] Observation Probes - Uranus's Minor Moons + Rings
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

Neptune (48 Pathfinder days)
[] Observation Array - Neptune
(0/10 Observation Satellites 6IP per Satellite)

[] Surface Scan - Triton
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

[] Observation Probes - Neptune's Minor Moons + Rings
(Required for activation: 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

Pluto (54 Pathfinder days)
[] Pluto Rover Delivery
(Required for activation: 4IP per Location)(0/10 Locations surveyed)

[] Manned Landing Pluto
(Required for activation: 30IP, 15 Capital, 1 Astronaut Team, 23 Pathfinder days)

[] Charon Rover Delivery
(Required for activation: 4IP per Location)(0/5 Locations surveyed)

[] Manned Landing Charon
(Required for activation: 30IP, 15 Capital, 1 Astronaut Team, 23 Pathfinder days)

Other
[] Eris Surface Scan
There is little practical benefit of scanning a dwarf planet this far away but it would be the most distant object visited by the Pathfinder.
(Required for activation: 85 Pathfinder days, 6IP or 4 Pathfinder days)

[] Voyager Visitation
The Voyager probes were the first and only of Mankind's creations that reached the Interstellar void between the stars. Their position has been extrapolated and, using Pathfinder, the SCED could catch up to their theoretical position to place a higher power beacon next to them and secure the probes inside a protective, armored shell.
(Required for activation: 90 Pathfinder days)

Lunar Facilities (4 Dice, +30 bonus)

-[] Craterscope Final Assembly and Testing 404/900 5 dice 8%, 6 dice 43%, 7 dice 81%, 8 dice 97%
-[] Lunar Fission Reactor Assembly (New) 0/300 3 dice 13%, 4 dice 65%, 5 dice 94%

Development (7 Dice, +35 bonus)

-[] Expedience Shuttle Prototype (Updated) 0/190 2 dice 33%, 3 dice 90%
-[] He-3 Fusion Prototype 168/380 2 dice 18%, 3 dice 81%, 4 dice 99%
-[] Europa Deep Ocean Sample Extraction Drone 0/190 2 dice 33%, 3 dice 90%
-[] Gravitational Wave Observatory Assessment 0/145 2 dice 73%, 3 dice 99%
-[] Void-compatible Ultra High Albedo Coatings 104/145 1 die 95%
-[] Pollen Free Decorative Plant Development 0/95 1 die 41%, 2 dice 97%
-[-] Lunar Metallurgy 384/380 0 dice Auto-completes this turn
-[] Advanced Martian Research Base Development 0/570 (New) 5 dice 1%, 6 dice 22%, 7 dice 65%, 8 dice 92%
-[] Astromech Development 0/380 (New) 4 dice 27%, 5 dice 77%, 6 dice 97%
-[] Reusable Lunar Imaging Seismic Array 0/95 (New) 1 die 41%, 2 dice 97%

Space Command Mission Planning (4 Dice) +10

-[] Mission: Surface Exploration (Write-in) 1 die auto
-[] Mission: Manned Landing (Write-in) 1 die auto
-[] Mission: Research Base (Write-in) 0/150 2 dice 26%, 3 dice 73%, 4 dice 94%

My thanks to the many people of the Discordium who gave me suggestions, wrote entries, and generally helped a bunch. This update wouldn't have happened without you.

Vote by Plan. Comments and critiques are welcome and appreciated.

 

[BOTcommander]

The tension was suffocating, a dense cloud hanging over the crowd gathered outside the commanding officer's office in the Space Command Exploratory Division. They stood in silence, waiting, their breaths collectively held. The quiet was so absolute that even the faint beep of an automated delivery truck reversing in the distance sounded unnaturally loud. Every eye was locked on the closed door, as if sheer willpower could force it open.

It was a strange mix of people, astronauts, astrotechs, accountants, technicians, janitorial staff, every rung of SCED's ladder was represented. Many of them had been part of the organization since its wild beginnings, back when it was Vice Admiral Carter's probably-illegal, definitely-audacious side project. Despite their differences, they were united now in their loyalty to the Director and the mission he'd built.

Finally, the door creaked open, and Alexei Leonov stepped out. The legendary "second first man on the moon" and acting CO of SCED carried himself with a rigid tension that matched the crowd's mood. His face betrayed nothing, but his sharp eyes scanned the room, seeming to weigh the atmosphere before he spoke.

"I just got off the line with the Big Boss," he said evenly, his voice cutting through the thick silence. Everyone knew who he meant.

"The news isn't good," he continued, pacing slightly. "Budget cuts are coming across the board. They're pulling resources to fund the TCN project. Space exploration, expansion, colonisation has been slashed. We're done. SCED won't be the ones leading humanity to the stars in the decades ahead."

The air seemed to leave the room in an instant. Heads dropped, murmurs of disbelief rippled through the crowd, and a few began to quietly sob. But before the despair could fully take hold, Leonov raised his hand sharply, commanding silence again.

"But it's not all bad news," he said, his voice firm, yet sly, like he was holding back a trump card. The crowd stilled, sensing something beneath his words.

"Do you really think Director Carter would abandon his most loyal crew, let us hang out to dry?" His tone sharpened, igniting a flicker of hope among the crowd. He leaned in slightly, as though sharing a secret. "We'll retain the funding for the Epsilon Eridani Expedition. That fat stack of credits is untouched."

For a split second, there was silence. Then the room erupted. Cheers burst forth like a dam breaking, wild and frenzied. People clapped, shouted, and even wept openly, their despair flipping to jubilation in an instant. The sound was deafening, a storm of manic loyalty.

"Carter's got our backs!" someone hollered, their voice half-lost in the roar.

"Always does!" another shouted back, and the cheers redoubled, quickly turning into the director's name being rythmically chanted.

Leonov held up his hands again, trying to regain control, but the crowd was barely listening, swept up in their fervor. Leonov only gave them a tight-lipped smile, waiting for the frenzy to burn itself out.

When the noise finally began to fade, Leonov's voice cut in again, crisp and commanding. "Yes, we've got the funding," he said, "but it's not a blank check. We'll need to get creative, make every credit count. The administrative staff and I will figure it out. Until then, spread the word, and clear the corridor!"

He turned sharply to one of his aides. "Hanson, get the paper-pushers into my office now. We've got some accounting gymnastics to pull off."

---

Amalia Amiri slurped a cup of noodles, her posture mirroring the curled shrimp that flavored her lunch. She sat hunched over in her small office, reviewing the latest batch of data. Her chopsticks hovered midway to her mouth as she cast a glance out the window, her gaze landing on the gray, barren lunar surface. Even now, the sight felt surreal, almost impossible to believe. Living and working here on the moon was a dream realized, a challenging, often grueling dream, but worth every hardship.

In the early days, living conditions had been far more primitive. Amalia hadn't minded; the opportunity to work on her doctorate in this extraordinary place, under the SCED banner, had been reward enough. Fortunately, the Treasury had finally taken the hint, funneling significant funds into lunar infrastructure. The promised mass migration to the moon might never materialize, but Earth itself might yet be saved.

From her office, the view of Earth was blocked by the habitation dome perched at the edge of the crater. Still, she appreciated the recent improvements: unlimited warm-water showers, expanded ration cards, and better facilities, small luxuries that made life here more bearable. The SCED and, by extension, Director Carter, always seemed to look out for their own.

Her computer console beeped, pulling her focus back to her work. The supercomputer she'd secured time on had finished its latest computations. She scanned the indicators, graphs, and measurements it had derived from terabytes of Craterscope observational data. Another dud. Another lifeless, uninhabitable rock.

Amalia cursed under her breath, setting the noodle cup gently on her desk. How she envied the team working on the discovery of Epsilon Eridani h. But her time would come. For now, she would continue her meticulous search, gathering data and contributing to the broader efforts of the SCED.

There was, of course, her side project. The sweeping budget cuts had gutted civilian space exploration initiatives, but Carter had ensured a steady flow of funding for military applications. SCED members were encouraged to leverage their expertise in service of the wider Space Command. Amalia had found her niche in these new priorities, and her console's screen now displayed the title of the current work-in-progress report she was working on with a few colleagues:

"Project Apocalypse: A Feasibility Study on the Use of a G-Drive-Powered Interstellar Vehicle as a Relativistic Planetary Assault Weapon."

Every star in the night sky an enemy. The phrase echoed in her mind, chilling and galvanizing all at once.

Her academic focus had always been on the search for advanced extraterrestrial life: detecting radio signals, identifying planets with unusual light patterns that might indicate artificial illumination, and investigating stars with peculiar dimming, suggestive of Dyson constructs. That pursuit was as much one of wonder and curiosity as it was a mandate to prepare for the unknown, for the threat of an adversarial universe.

Amalia shook her head, dispelling the thought. She picked up her noodles and continued eating, savoring the rare indulgence of shrimp as she prepared to dive back into the work.

---

Mercury was one of the worst postings, not only because of the harsh conditions but due to its very position in the solar system. The planet was tidally locked to its orbit, meaning that any construction on the surface had to contend with the extreme fluctuations between blistering heat and freezing cold. Add to that the constant bombardment of solar radiation that stripped the planet's surface bare, and it became clear that any material found here was more easily accessed elsewhere in the system, usually farther out, where the resources were more useful.

But Mercury had one undeniable advantage: its proximity to the Sun.

Sky Vellia stood at the heart of it all. As the lead scientist for the first experimental stage of the Epsilon Eridani Expedition, they were overseeing the development of the solar-powered laser acceleration array, the infrastructure that would eventually propel solar-sail powered probes into the vast interstellar void. For now, though, it was small scale: a compact, well-shielded habitation module, around one square kilometer of solar panels, another kilometer of radiators, and a laser engine where the engineering team conducted tests, shooting their powerful laser at pieces of aluminum foil.

"And this is the control center," Sky was saying, guiding a visitor through the facility. They were currently giving a tour to a member of Parliament from Starbound, who'd come to inspect their progress.

"Not much to it, is there?" the representative remarked, clearly unused to the lack of gravity. His gaze flicked nervously between the two stations in the capsule, where a laser was being carefully aimed at the floating aluminum flakes.

Sky smiled slightly, knowing exactly what he was thinking. "It's a testbed facility," they explained, helping him rotate on the spot with a practiced gesture. "This is where we test everything, from the specially developed solar panels to the laser engine. It's a hazardous environment. Solar radiation damages everything that isn't shielded. We're here for precision and redundancy, not luxury and space."

The representative nodded, still glancing around the confined space. "I understand, but it still feels… small."

Sky chuckled softly. "Out here, showering with cold is a luxury." They gave him a small, almost wistful smile. "This is the frontier, after all. We're so close to the sun, we don't have the luxury of comfort if we don't want to be boiled alive."

The representative fidgeted with the grip on the side of the module, clearly uneasy with the zero-G environment. He seemed to be searching for something else to latch onto, something to distract from the awkwardness of the situation.

"Did you know," he said after a moment, voice dropping slightly, "that Carter's been having talks with the Lands of Nod about joining the expedition?"

Sky froze, their expression darkening. The low hum of murmured chatter in the control center abruptly ceased, and the security agent beside the representative stiffened, eyes narrowing.

"What?" Sky's voice was a sharp, angry growl, much sharper than they intended. The words hung in the air for a moment.

"I—I'm sorry, I thought you knew," the representative muttered, now looking genuinely uncomfortable. "Some Nod laser specialists are being considered for the project, to help improve the laser engine. Less waste heat, better beam coherence. If I remember correctly. The Director's trying to set up some kind of framework for an Anti-Scrin defense council. Both our nations have a vested interest in the exploration of our immediate interstellar neighborhood, security-wise. It's still early, though. Baby steps, you know, but… well, you didn't hear it from me."

Sky shook their head slowly, the sharp edges of frustration softening into a resigned understanding. "I guess if it grew from Carter's initiative…" Their tone was clipped, but there was an odd sense of acceptance there.

The representative, eager to shift the focus away from the uncomfortable topic, pressed forward. "What happens to the full installation once all the probes have been launched?"

Sky blinked, taken aback for a moment. "Depends," they said thoughtfully, continuing. "The Lighthouse Array, once completed, is expected to produce 200 gigawatts of power. I think the plan was to look into antimatter manufacturing after that..."

---

John Adams stood motionless, staring at the distant pinprick of light in the pitch-black sky. The Sun, so faint from here, was a barely discernible glow, casting long, faint shadows on the icy surface of Makemake. The plantoid lay at the farthest reaches of the solar system, its orbit pushing it some fifty times farther from the Sun than Earth.

"Stop daydreaming and help me," Meying Lee's voice cut through the silence, pulling him back to reality. She nudged him with her armored hand, her voice laced with the playful impatience they'd long shared.

John snapped back to the task at hand, shaking his head inside the sealed environment of his heartcase spacesuit. His focus returned to the drilling robot in front of him, which was silently extracting core samples from the frozen surface. It was mostly working on its own, as designed. John and Meying were there to keep watch and troubleshoot, just in case something went wrong.

There had been a proposal some years ago to limit this kind of expedition to drones equipped with EVA capabilities. The idea was to send out machines that could work independently without needing humans in such extreme conditions. But the SCED had protested vehemently. They had their own reasons, of course, human expertise, oversight, and experience were invaluable, even in the deepest reaches of the solar system.

John chuckled lightly to himself. This was their routine. They'd done it countless times before: drilling for traces of the precious "mystery element", the same elusive element first identified on Mars. So far, all they'd found was ice and dirt, but it was still progress. It was still something.

The robot's mechanical arms whirred, finishing the last of the cylindrical water ice samples and carefully depositing them into the collection tubes. Satisfied with its work, the robot ceased, its task now complete.

"All right, R2," Meying said with a grin, slapping the robot's metallic backside playfully to encourage it forward. "Pathfinder's coming back in a day, and we've got a lot of ground to cover before then."

The robot gave a soft mechanical whirr as it moved, dutifully following its programmed path.

---

Doctor Kawaga stood before his corkboard, arms crossed tightly, eyes narrowing behind his glasses as he scrutinized the mess of data before him. His mind was already weary, but he pressed on. Red string crisscrossed between prospecting reports, laboratory notes, and planetary data, connecting theories made by colleagues and their angry, often venomous refutations. It was a tangled web of information, each thread leading somewhere new but never quite to the heart of the mystery he was supposed to solve.

It felt, more often than not, like a puzzle with only one piece, a piece that stubbornly refused to fit anywhere, no matter how hard he tried to make sense of it. The M-element, the mystery element discovered on Mars. What was it? Where had it come from? Was it natural? Artificial? If it was the latter, who had brought it here? The Visitors didn't seem to have any use for it, and that left a whole new set of questions: if it was natural, why hadn't they found any traces of it anywhere else in the solar system?

Theories abounded, each one more outlandish than the last. Dense, perhaps? Maybe it was concentrated deep within the cores of planets, but if that were true, there should have been anomalies, strange gravitational or electrical readings in the asteroid belt, or odd fluctuations in Earth's gravity. Yet, nothing. Nothing except for Mars, where, over the years, the SCED had managed to gather barely ten grams of the elusive substance.

Ten grams. A speck. And yet, it was their greatest treasure. The name Carterium had been thrown around by some under hushed breaths.

Kawaga sighed, his gaze lingering on the board. It was maddening. The data never aligned in any meaningful way. It was as if the element itself were deliberately evasive, slipping through their fingers whenever they thought they had a grasp on it.

The door behind him swung open suddenly, the sound of it startling him out of his thoughts. His aide burst into the room, flushed and breathless, her voice filled with urgency.

"Doctor! Doctor!" she panted, struggling to catch her breath. "Boston, Boston's found traces of the M-element in a Charon sample! It's... it's ten thousand times less than on Mars, but it's there!"

Kawaga's heart skipped a beat. His eyes widened as the words hit him like a jolt of electricity. Charon? He turned slowly, his gaze shifting back to his corkboard as the magnitude of what he had just heard began to sink in.

Charon… this could change everything.

His fingers twitched, itching to grab the nearest marker and start connecting new dots, drawing fresh lines. A discovery like this wasn't just important, it was everything. Ten grams from Mars had been their greatest treasure, their sole clue. But traces on Charon? That could mean something entirely different. A different source. A different possibility. A thread he hadn't even considered before.

Kawaga turned back to his aide, his voice low but full of purpose. "Get me the full report. Now. We need to confirm this. If this is what I think it is…" His mind raced ahead, already running through the implications. This could finally be the breakthrough they needed.

Heyho everyone. If you are no aware, there is I believe currently an unofficial vote going on on what GDI's name for Element Zero should be. I think []Carterium is pretty funny. I think it will be used in conjuction with Eezo to avoid confusion, but it would mean a lot to me if you could vote for my suggestion. Thank you. Sorry I was not able to continue SCEDQuest all the way through. I hope everyone had fun regardless. Thank you Ithillid for this quest. <3