I don't remember the timing, but when we visited Thessia we got a free action about education since that was our focus. @PoptartProdigy dont know if you took that into account.
I don't remember the timing, but when we visited Thessia we got a free action about education since that was our focus. @PoptartProdigy dont know if you took that into account.
We used that on a different action. Year 34: 513 GS
-[X] Curriculum Review: Time: 3 years locked, 7 years to completion. Cost: -15,000 yearly income. Chance of Success: 75%. Effect: Finish the process of integrating your new reforms to Virmire's new school system, instilling the desired overall martial tendency and giving staff the tools they need to identify promising military candidates early.
--[X] Free Expedite
It was the longer option to reach full completion, so think that's why it was used for that instead of the military schools themselves.
[ ] Power Is Power: You have recently cracked power generation principles from Yulair technology offering a staggering improvement in gains. You, quite frankly, cannot afford not to roll it out as widely as possible. Time: 3 years. Cost: 75,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%. Effect: Better warships, +40,000 yearly income.
It's being applied to everything, the technology distributed universally, but the two applications a concern to Mira and the government in general, are the application to the planetary power grid, which has already been resolved, and the application to warships, which will conclude in the upcoming update.
It's being applied to everything, the technology distributed universally, but the two applications a concern to Mira and the government in general, are the application to the planetary power grid, which has already been resolved, and the application to warships, which will conclude in the upcoming update.
I don't actually see stealth being much of a factor for conventional warship design. Given a ship's agility is a factor of it's acceleration and the range it can effectively be engaged at it is heavily derived from said agility, a ship with enemies around needs to be moving if it doesn't want to be an easy target to enemies that can engage it but it can't engage (because it's enemies are actively moving and can afford to bleed velocity in evasive maneuvers). That means big engines, with big thermal blooms, and big honking radiators.
Is that a dreadnought or a battlecruiser? Is it a battlecruiser or a heavy cruiser? A heavy cruiser or a light cruiser? A light cruiser or a frigate? A frigate or a corvette? The Rachni were able to make us unable to tell the difference between dread and BC capitals until the BCs went to maximal combat maneuvering.
This is a major war, and where fleet actions with tens and hundreds of ships are more common than we'd prefer.
Introducing uncertainty into the enemy decision-cycle is like throwing sand into an internal combustion engine.
This isn't a case where 'sneakily approach closer to the enemies' is really viable... because you have some of the most energetic reactors ever made charging massive capacitor banks to power the guns for the impending combat, energizing propellant for thrust, and powering exotic field emitters to generate kinetic barriers. And it's not like it's trivial to spool the reactor up to that kind of output either if you're trying to minimize emissions. Even if you do have low thrust, in order to prepare for battlestations you are going to have to radiate a ton of heat. If you're not preparing your means of; fighting a conventional battle, defining the range of a conventional battle, and surviving said battle...clearly something's a bit unconventional.
It very much is. You dont have to be unseen, you just have to look like something else for long enough that your opponent
You dont run those reactors at full output all of the time. You dont burn your drives at maximum impulse all the time either.
If you have good enough ECM, you can plausibly make ship classes impersonate each other at long range.
The Rachni did it to us during Wrath of the Swarm.
The tactical and strategic implications can be profound.
Make some Rachni squadron commander commit to an intercept vector against a light cruiser flotilla before half of them turn up the juice and turn out to be heavy cruisers. Make your force of 2x dreadnoughts and 4x battlecruisers look like a full dreadnought squadron if you're trying to bluff, or like an all-battlecruiser squadron if you want to look like bait.
Even more, deceive a scouting Rachni force about the composition of a particular fleet, or the disposition of your capital ships.
Remember that the Rachni have cluster-wide interstellar FTL telepathy. Anything one Rachni sees, their commander can potentially know about.
We have very strong incentive to obscure what they can see at any given time.
Stealth techniques aren't a straight addition to survivability when so much of survivability is contingent on range and agility, which requires a starship to be painting it's position on the canvas of space with neon colors from it's drive plasma. It clearly has value, but when speed is in a very real sense armor by defining range and accuracy so heavily and speed is clearly so fundamentally opposed to stealth in space- it's a tradeoff rather than just an additional layer of defense.
It still has it's place, and I'm sure there are applicable techniques- but it seems fundamentally unreasonable for a warship with our technology to be prepared to give and receive a blow while being meaningfully stealthy.
Scenario 1: Resurgent Grace, where Beshkar and two battlecruisers jumped into a system with a single Rachni dreadnought defending. We lost a BC there. If he'd had good enough ECM to appear to be two dreadnoughts, or even one dreadnought and one battlecruiser, the Rachni force would have declined battle altogether.
Scenario 2: Wrath of the Swarm, where during their relay assault against our minefields and defense platforms at close range, we couldnt tell that the Rachni had brought battlecruisers until we started actively blowing them up and they started maneuvering faster than the dreadnoughts could.
More generally? Speed is not armor. A dreadnought and a corvette have roughly the same top speed in normal space.
Acceleration is armor, because that governs your responsiveness and maneuverability.
And acceleration is as much a factor of the size and efficiency of the eezo core in your ship as it is the power output of your reaction drives compared to your ship mass.
But 'electronic warfare' covers a broader spectrum of techniques than just 'make yourself invisible.' It includes a lot of stuff that cannot be easily and concisely summarized except as "generically create complications for the enemy's detection scheme, while improving your own."
I don't think literally everyone is relying solely on FLIR infrared-tracking pods to detect all enemies at all times, and if they were, that would introduce vulnerabilities of its own, not least because an IR signature can be spoofed and 'beamed' at a target ship, and because a given ship may look quite different on infrared from different target aspects.
Is that a dreadnought or a battlecruiser? Is it a battlecruiser or a heavy cruiser? A heavy cruiser or a light cruiser? A light cruiser or a frigate? A frigate or a corvette? The Rachni were able to make us unable to tell the difference between dread and BC capitals until the BCs went to maximal combat maneuvering.
Scenario 2: Wrath of the Swarm, where during their relay assault against our minefields and defense platforms at close range, we couldnt tell that the Rachni had brought battlecruisers until we started actively blowing them up and they started maneuvering faster than the dreadnoughts could.
Issue here wasn't about the sensor readings. We knew immediately that it was a new class of ship. The issue was that we'd never seen that class of ship before, and had no knowledge base to use beyond the Rachni always previously having dreadnaughts to interpret the data we were getting from our sensers. Specifically
"That said, there is something odd about the signatures Mordin is getting from the incoming capital ships. They are a patterns of warship you have not seen before. He's not sure to make of it, and reports it up the chain until it falls into your hands."
"Placed on the Rachni flank facing you, a capital ship pulls a maneuver that should have sheared armor plating from its superstructure, twisting in place to open fire and gut a heavy cruiser on your side. Your ships focus fire on it by way of reply, and it dies swiftly.
Too swiftly.
Your blood runs cold as you connect the dots. The Rachni have battlecruisers." - from the Wrath of the Storm The First Strike
We had the data to know which ship each thing was, we didn't have the intel to know that one of their ships could be battlecruisers.
Now, we might be able to pull of that kind of fake, and utilize that kind of thing in battle at some point, or so might our opponent, but currently it doesn't look like either side has the capability of hiding which pattern of ships they are using.
Your effort to disseminate the Yulair power generation technology continue to proceed. Power stations are being erected throughout your territory -- often in one-for-several replacements of older stations, although this varies -- and the Navy is arguing now over the merits of various ship designs featuring the new technology. Speed or barriers, barriers or guns...nobody can agree on the priority, as of yet.
The personal barriers project languished a little; you do not allow a matching advancement in armor technologies to do the same. You set to work immediately, personally overseeing the apportionment of funds -- because like hell are you going to let the lunatics at the Research Council have the lead on this one.
Happily, the project is simple enough at this stage -- mostly sending work to engineering teams to demonstrate the principles. And, after months of work, you are present to watch the demonstration. A mass accelerator frequently used for this sort of testing fires a salvo of rounds into a target bearing the new armor plating; the plating holds. Not wholly -- bits crack away in layers, sacrificing themselves to rob the shots of their force -- but it keeps the underlying target whole and undamaged for longer than an equivalent thickness of your present armor, and for less weight.
The question of how to redesign your warships in light of the Yulair power generation technology has just gotten even more complicated.
A practical ablative armor representing an improvement on your present armor schemes is now available, and your next classes of battlecruiser and dreadnought will feature it. More ships will unlock the armor as your engineers improve on the concept. -62,000 credits.
Yes I am. The action rewards specifically state "Better Warships" and the results descriptions mention teams debating how best to apply the boost, because the action itself is to fund the dispersion of the technology to all corners of the commonwealth, including the shipyards, which would be pointless without settling on designs for the shipyard to start implementing. Other actions that apply also refer to it.
While I'm in the middle of my reread can someone explain something to me I've never understood?
Why the fuck did the Reapers indoctrinate the Rachni in the first place? Taking such a major action outside of the bounds of the cycle, and risking the destruction of entire species before you have the chance to harvest them? Galactic society literally would have ended millennia before the Reapers arrived if not for some fairly improbable events.
It seems so wildly out of their established pattern, and I've never found an explanation in game or on the internet.
While I'm in the middle of my reread can someone explain something to me I've never understood?
Why the fuck did the Reapers indoctrinate the Rachni in the first place? Taking such a major action outside of the bounds of the cycle, and risking the destruction of entire species before you have the chance to harvest them? Galactic society literally would have ended millennia before the Reapers arrived if not for some fairly improbable events.
It seems so wildly out of their established pattern, and I've never found an explanation in game or on the internet.
In terms of trading the power tech, my 2 cents would be to use it get an ongoing tech trade with the quarians. Where we effectively share any tech that is ready to be deployed in our respective fleets beyond prototypes for the duration of the war with the option to pull out for both of us. It let's us build trust in the long term and lays the ground work for them possibly joining the terminus alliance.
Also we should inform our allies in the terminus and collectively trade it to the council for hopefully a fair and possibly on going deal. That would reassure them that we are mutually committed to fighting the rachni. The idea being to avoid as much infighting as possible at least while the war is ongoing. Also they are suffering great losses fighting the rachni and this will help them in that fight.
The one thing that can screw us all is infighting while the rachni remain as a threat. On an optimistic note it may also help in a post war situation where the relationship with the council and it's clients is one of rivalry rather than pure opposition like what followed ww2 with the west and the soviets. Something to hope is not an inevitable outcome due to the bipolar power structure of the galaxy post rachni.
Infighting would definitely screw us all over. But its interesting to note that as best as I can tell, none of the other polities have been sharing their tech with us, beyond the basic civilian level. So, I'm not sure it'd be right/appropriate/considered positive if we were to do so. Like, we got away with stealing the tech from the Quarians because to them it was a decade out of date, even if it was decades ahead of our current level, and we still had to pay for it. We had to use what amounts to blood money payment to get the industrial tech from the council.
Is that a dreadnought or a battlecruiser? Is it a battlecruiser or a heavy cruiser? A heavy cruiser or a light cruiser? A light cruiser or a frigate? A frigate or a corvette? The Rachni were able to make us unable to tell the difference between dread and BC capitals until the BCs went to maximal combat maneuvering.
This is a major war, and where fleet actions with tens and hundreds of ships are more common than we'd prefer.
Introducing uncertainty into the enemy decision-cycle is like throwing sand into an internal combustion engine.
Is it? If it's a BC slow boating to look like a Dreadnought, it's traded it's singular advantages (besides being slightly cheaper) to apply a misdirection at the range more favorable to a hostile Dreadnought and said misdirection doesn't change the fact that both are properly engaged by a long range gunnery duel by capital ships.
You are directly impacting survivability to play silly buggers when the solution to either uncertainty is to hit it with the biggest hammer you can.
EXTREME range: tens of thousands of kilometers. This is first contact. Under normal conditions, only dreadnought and battlecruiser cannons can be effectively employed. Dreadnoughts and your battlecruisers rule the field here with unquestioned supremacy, although dreadnoughts firmly take precedence.
LONG range: singular thousands of kilometers. Cruisers become combat-effective, although heavy cruisers of course enter firing range first. Commanders must decide here whether or not to commit to the fight or withdraw, satisfied with a simple artillery duel. Dreadnoughts remain the queens of the field, but cruisers in sufficient numbers can destroy dreadnoughts. Battlecruisers are at their weakest of any range other than a knife-fight, being under the effective fire of both dreadnoughts and cruisers while not gaining any advantages.
MEDIUM range: hundreds of kilometers. This is the general melee. Fleets intermingle, and commanders can now order screening vessels on attack runs. Cruisers begin to edge out dreadnoughts, as their greater maneuverability begins to tell in closer quarters where dreadnoughts have a tougher time laying their decisive main cannons on target, and can be more easily flanked. Battlecruisers are the queens of the field, able to target dreadnought firepower with cruiser maneuverability. Battlecruisers can and should engage in one-on-one contests with enemy dreadnoughts.
This is how naval combat actually works, and the illusion only works at longer ranges where the BC is objectively weaker. Notably pretending to be a DN doesn't actually make you much safer because you're still going to be engaged by DN scale cannon either way, but it means you have a harder time getting into your favored range band.
It's not entirely irrelevant, but it is a gimmick that undermines it's ability to fight a conventional battle. The idea said uncertainty is paralyzing is completely conjecture.
More generally? Speed is not armor. A dreadnought and a corvette have roughly the same top speed in normal space.
Acceleration is armor, because that governs your responsiveness and maneuverability.
And acceleration is as much a factor of the size and efficiency of the eezo core in your ship as it is the power output of your reaction drives compared to your ship mass.
This is just pure sophistry. Acceleration is the delta v, you bleed velocity manuevering and creating a wider envelope where your ship could possibly between the cannon being fired and it reaching you. Trying to accelerate from a slower speed in response to an attacker definitely places you at a disadvantage and drastically limits your ability to approach the target while evading. The time it takes to reach your favored engagement range while conducting evasion is contingent on the time you actually spend accelerating rather than some absurd distinction that the potential acceleration you can put out at any moment is the only factor.
Your example of a bunch of CA's pretending to be CLs ignores that CAs can't maneuver like CLs, and can't achieve the same sort of thermal blooms while accelerating at a CL's profile. Likewise trying to create outsized thermal blooms to look bigger runs face first into the massive canon ME warship issue of combat endurance being defined by waste heat. Looking bigger has very real costs even if you insist combat mobility isn't a meaningful cost.
Likewise- your assertion that the 2 BCs could have pretended to be BBs with absolute certainty and thus forgone an entire fight seems to be speculation, and ignores the very real possibility they would be caught and their efforts to avoid giving away their acceleration left them at Extreme and Long range and at the BB's advantage for longer. Stealth is not some obvious gimme, no more, no less. I don't really have any more desire to talk past each other, as I said, some stealth techniques and technology are absolutely viable- but a lot of stealth compromises the agility and survivability of a ship.
So i just noticed something interesting with the Destructive testing option in learning.
It started with year 513 -
[ ] Destructive Testing: The Anarchy Sphere you originally found in Sikel has yielded little data, as of yet, but you have recently acquired an additional seventy-three of them. This opens up options for more destructive testing, prying them apart to see how they work. Time: 2 years. Cost: 1d10 anarchy spheres, 26,000 credits. Chance of Success: Progress, [52/???]. Effect: Significantly advance understanding of the anarchy spheres. Slightly increased risk of containment breaches.
year 514
[ ] Destructive Testing: The Anarchy Sphere you originally found in Sikel has yielded little data, as of yet, but you have recently acquired an additional seventy-three of them. This opens up options for more destructive testing, prying them apart to see how they work. Time: 2 years. Cost: 1d10 anarchy spheres, 26,000 credits. Chance of Success: Progress, [52/???]. Effect: Significantly advance understanding of the anarchy spheres. Slightly increased risk of containment breaches.
year 515
[ ] Destructive Testing: The Anarchy Sphere you originally found in Sikel has yielded little data, as of yet, but you have recently acquired an additional seventy-three of them. This opens up options for more destructive testing, prying them apart to see how they work. Time: Until done, no lock. Cost: 1d10 anarchy spheres (74 available), 26,000 credits. Chance of Success: Progress, [55/???]. Effect: Authorize a series of destructive tests of the anarchy spheres, adding the result of your roll to Progress. Slightly increased risk of containment breaches.
So for some reason it gained 0 progress year 513-514, and 3 progress year 514-515. So its actually making some very slow progress there on its own and we can actually see that progress year to year.
Issue here wasn't about the sensor readings. We knew immediately that it was a new class of ship. The issue was that we'd never seen that class of ship before, and had no knowledge base to use beyond the Rachni always previously having dreadnaughts to interpret the data we were getting from our sensers. Specifically
"That said, there is something odd about the signatures Mordin is getting from the incoming capital ships. They are a patterns of warship you have not seen before. He's not sure to make of it, and reports it up the chain until it falls into your hands."
"Placed on the Rachni flank facing you, a capital ship pulls a maneuver that should have sheared armor plating from its superstructure, twisting in place to open fire and gut a heavy cruiser on your side. Your ships focus fire on it by way of reply, and it dies swiftly.
Too swiftly.
Your blood runs cold as you connect the dots. The Rachni have battlecruisers." - from the Wrath of the Storm The First Strike
We had the data to know which ship each thing was, we didn't have the intel to know that one of their ships could be battlecruisers.
Now, we might be able to pull of that kind of fake, and utilize that kind of thing in battle at some point, or so might our opponent, but currently it doesn't look like either side has the capability of hiding which pattern of ships they are using.
Thats not new; in a long war like this, you see multiple new classes of ships being produced with iterative design improvements in response to both advances in RnD and changing battlefield requirements. The USN built two different classes of destroyers in WW2, a war that lasted barely four years. And we're already on either our second or third class of BC.
However, we didnt know it was a battlecruiser; we thought it was a dreadnought despite its being at close range to the weapons platforms and mines and fixed sensor arrays that formed the relay fortifications there.
If its possible to hide that, at that short a distance, until they were forced to dodge? Then yeah, we are probably underestimating EW capabilities in this universe.
Its like seeing a reindeer for the first time, and mistaking it for a moose.
Is it? If it's a BC slow boating to look like a Dreadnought, it's traded it's singular advantages (besides being slightly cheaper) to apply a misdirection at the range more favorable to a hostile Dreadnought and said misdirection doesn't change the fact that both are properly engaged by a long range gunnery duel by capital ships.
You are directly impacting survivability to play silly buggers when the solution to either uncertainty is to hit it with the biggest hammer you can.
1) The battlecruiser gives up nothing in such a scenario.
Nobody in a fleet battle is trying to outrun the rest of their support short of a rout or a calculated strike by light ships.
The better maneuverability, the higher linear and lateral acceleration of a battlecruiser only come into play as advantages once the slugs begin to fly.
=====
2)No, you have completely missed the point.
In a proper battle of this sort, nobody is simply picking a random dance partner.
Weapons officers across the fleet have coordinated and set up targeting plans and priorities based on the ships they can identify and the fleet admiral's battleplan; that kind of coordinated targeting has been a thing as far back as WW2.
A battlecruiser( or battlecruisers) thats been masquerading as a dreadnought until they opened fire has faked out the other side and had them setting up a fire plan and targeting priorities based on false data.
They were setting up a fire pattern based on a dreadnought that can only maneuver at X gravities, only for the battlecruiser to maneuver at 2X or 3X gravities, completely throwing off the targeting and costing time and bandwith to correct.
Now they have to redo the entire thing on the fly, while under fire, and transmit it back to the rest of the fleet.
That both improves the battlecruiser's individual chance of survival, and it improves the fleet's chances of winning the battle.
POSTSCRIPT: IDLE WANKING
Using the figures for the Everest dreadnought from Mass Effect, which is roughly 1.3% the speed of light for a 20kg slug?
The velocity of a round from a dreadnought's spinal gun is ~4000km/s, rounded up.
It would take five seconds to hit a target at 20,000km from slug leaving gun to impact on target.
This is how naval combat actually works, and the illusion only works at longer ranges where the BC is objectively weaker. Notably pretending to be a DN doesn't actually make you much safer because you're still going to be engaged by DN scale cannon either way, but it means you have a harder time getting into your favored range band.
It's not entirely irrelevant, but it is a gimmick that undermines it's ability to fight a conventional battle. The idea said uncertainty is paralyzing is completely conjecture.
The illusion apparently worked at fairly close to the relay fortifications at Attica Beta, which are going to have bigger and more acute sensory arrays than can be fitted on a sub-kilometer long mobile starship.
The sensor arrays for a minefield or relay fortifications dont have to worry about the mass-volume-power constraints of a mobile warship.
This is just pure sophistry. Acceleration is the delta v, you bleed velocity manuevering and creating a wider envelope where your ship could possibly between the cannon being fired and it reaching you. Trying to accelerate from a slower speed in response to an attacker definitely places you at a disadvantage and drastically limits your ability to approach the target while evading. The time it takes to reach your favored engagement range while conducting evasion is contingent on the time you actually spend accelerating rather than some absurd distinction that the potential acceleration you can put out at any moment is the only factor.
Your example of a bunch of CA's pretending to be CLs ignores that CAs can't maneuver like CLs, and can't achieve the same sort of thermal blooms while accelerating at a CL's profile. Likewise trying to create outsized thermal blooms to look bigger runs face first into the massive canon ME warship issue of combat endurance being defined by waste heat. Looking bigger has very real costs even if you insist combat mobility isn't a meaningful cost.
Likewise- your assertion that the 2 BCs could have pretended to be BBs with absolute certainty and thus forgone an entire fight seems to be speculation, and ignores the very real possibility they would be caught and their efforts to avoid giving away their acceleration left them at Extreme and Long range and at the BB's advantage for longer. Stealth is not some obvious gimme, no more, no less. I don't really have any more desire to talk past each other, as I said, some stealth techniques and technology are absolutely viable- but a lot of stealth compromises the agility and survivability of a ship.
1) No its not.
Speed does not particularly matter when firing a computer-aimed spinal gun at a non-relativistic target thousands of kilometers away at around 1% the speed of light. Moving in a straight line just requires they lead you a little.
Acceleration does.
Well, acceleration and better random walk algorithms to complicate enemy targeting.
Furthermore, as has been evidenced in every fleet action thus far, our fleets fight as a team, which means that the corvettes, with the fastest accelerations, are largely tied to the combat speed of the slowest accelerating ships in the fleet.
Which are presumably the BCs and DNs.
=====
2) Strongly disagree.
1st Battle Fleet does not maneuver at the acceleration of its corvettes, it maneuvers at the acceleration of its slowest ships, usually its dreadnoughts. Because cohesiveness and mutual support are greater priorities than individual performance.
Individual ship acceleration, while important in combat and critical in duels, are of little relevance in the immediate pre-combat maneuvering for advantage that hostile fleets undertake.
War is a team sport.
You see much the same phenomenon in RL naval fleets, where the fastest surface ship on the seven seas is the American nuclear carrier, but since none of its escorts can keep up in range or endurance, it doesnt cruise at the 30+ knots that its capable of doing.
As for fuel, thats why you have not!oilers.
As evidenced in the 2-Day War, as well as the whole existence of the Explorer Corps, our ships already had endurance in excess of weeks before we had to redo our entire naval logistics with the discovery of refuelling ships as a thing.
And hydrogen is both cheap and the commonest element in the universe.
=====
3) Two BCs false-flagging as dreadnoughts are in no increased danger in that scenario.
Either the enemy dreadnought has fled before entering combat range, or they have simply gone to full combat power when they entered extreme combat range.
=====
4)Wrath of the Swarm.
Its been done to us, so we know its possible IC. Whether the tradeoffs are worth it for how our navy has chosen to operate on a tactical and strategic basis requires a set of IC calculations using data we dont have.
Mentioned: the content is referenced, but is not discussed to any extent.
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[X] Plan Integration, Reform, and Analysis
-[X][Martial 1] Occupation Patrols. LOCKED. 3/4 years
-[X][Martial 2] Military Integration. Time: 1 year. Cost: 61,000 credits. Chance of Success: 60% + Minister 11 = 71%
-[X][Diplomacy 1] Democratic Reforms: Time: 1 year. Cost: 37,300 credits. Chance of Success: 10%/40%/60%/90%.
--[X][Double Down] Doubles Cost, Doubles Minister Bonus: Cost 74,600 credits. +42
--[X][Personal Attention] Adds Mira's Bonus +16. Final Chance of Success: 68%/98%/118,%/148%
-[X][Diplomacy 2] Volus Expertise: Time: 1 year. Cost: Free. Chance of Success: Automatic, unless you ask for something extravagant.
-[X][Intrigue 1] Establish A Spy Academy: LOCKED. Time: 1/3 years.
-[X][Intrigue 2] Support And Analysis: Time: 2 years. Cost: -30,000 income. Chance of Success: 75% + Minister 12 = 87%
-[X][Learning 1] Military Schools. Time 4 years. Cost: -40,000 income Chance of Success: 80% + Minister 10 = 90%.
--[X][Expedite] Doubles Cost, Halves Time: Cost -80000 income. 2 Years.
-[X][Learning 2] Loading and Unloading Facilities. Time: Until Done(0/100). Cost: 28,000 credits. Minister 10 +
-[X][Personal 2]Take A Break. Chance of Success: 50%
-[X][Personal 2] Personal Attention: Democratic Reform
-[X][Personal 3] Establish Ardat-Yakshi Policies: Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: No roll. Cost: 50,000 credits.
Content Warning for this update:
Discussed
Indiscriminate planetary bombardment [Voted]
Mentioned
Ardat-Yakshi
Sexual assault
Suicide
Reader discretion is advised.
Year 36: 515 GS Results
Martial: Occupation Patrols
By the time they're all complete, you have three new classes of warship. They are obsolete from the moment they clear the slips, with power plants that became last-generation, in some cases, literal seconds after their commissioning. They are unfit to participate in any void battle, even ones against the most obsolete of warships. But for the job of shooting at ground targets, they are exactly what you need.
The ships omit secondary and point defense weapons. They have no armor. They have shields fit only to deflect navigational hazards. Their STL engines are underpowered and small. What they have are their main guns. The rest of their design owes more to cruise liners than it does to warships — in fact, one of the delays in the project was the designers bringing on engineers from one of your civilian shipbuilders as consultants. After all, with long, boring patrols a fact of life for these warships, crew amenities are a significant concern. These aren't a ship you would ordinarily approve, but before anything else, each is significantly cheaper than a warship of equivalent size, and allows you to patrol much more space for much less cost.
The Rifle-class light bombardment cruiser is a 362 meter long vessel that will form the mainstay of the Occupation Fleet. Over 90% of its power plant output is reserved for its gun. There's a limit to how much you can get by supercharging a spinal gun, especially with all of the heat they produce that needs venting, but the Rifle's targets won't be shooting back. A thirty minute reload cycle is more than acceptable in this case, for a vessel devoted to the strategic bombardment mission.
That said, the liberation of Eletania has led to some Army commanders calling for an expanded role for fire support, and a gun that can flatten a mountain every thirty minutes, while powerful, is somewhat unfit for the close fire support mission. The proposed solution is the Spearfish-class bombardment frigate. 90 meters long, its gun fires on a reduced charge even relative to what such a small gun would already be using. The reduced heat buildup means that it fires very, very quickly. The Navy isn't convinced of the design concept and only gave the ship a limited production run, but it has been deployed and will be tested for the operational fire support role.
Then, there is the other direction. A target that can stand up to a Rifle's main gun is exceptionally rare, but for those cases, you have authorized a production run of five heavy bombardment cruisers. The Elector-class comes in at 607 meters, with a main gun — much like the Rifle — tuned for an exceptionally high charge. Between that charge and the sheer size, it needs an hour to disperse heat between shots, and it is believed that no facility can be practically hardened to an extent that it can withstand a direct impact. This vessel serves the point destruction mission in addition to strategic bombardment. It also serves a grimmer role: that of flagship for extinction-level bombardment missions, when an entire planet needs to die.
You place these warships under the newly established Occupation Fleet's command, and they proceed out to their duty posts. As you've noted, problems with crew quality persist. You've shunted the less qualified applicants here, where they'll do the least damage. It's actually causing some resentment from the rest of the Navy to see the worst crews getting the nicest ships with the easiest missions. There are still some things to resolve — the resentment, the crew quality issues, points of procedure, coordination with combat commands, and a long-running debate about your policy on extinction-level bombardments that now needs to be resolved.
But most immediately is the flood of warships that hand off their missions to their more specialized citations and report for duty at actual combat postings.
Option complete. Occupation Fleet established. All other fleets now available for combat operations. Vote on extinction-level bombardment policy available below. -42,000 credits.
Admiral-In-Chief Sheera Nakal is, as ever, having a fairly poor day.
The bustle of Terminus Joint Fleets Force Command rumbles through the walls, providing a somewhat soothing counterpoint to her pounding headache. She screws her upper row of eyes shut while continuing to read with the lower one. Then, she switches. It does not help. Groaning, she digs a knuckle into her temple, desperate for some relief. The room's lights are all dimmed, but it honestly just makes the glare from her datapad's screen worse.
The door opens, and her aide, an almost painfully young salarian man, walks in. He gives her an unimpressed look. "Water, ma'am."
Sheera looks up, blinking blearily. "...right," she mutters, looking around.
Her aide sighs and beats her to it, pickup up her thermos and carrying it out. A moment later, he returns with the thing brimming full and hands it off.
She chugs half of it, gasping at the end and wiping off her lips. "Thank you, Lieutenant Ran," she says, setting down the thermos.
"Of course, ma'am," he says. "I also recommend looking away from the screen for a while."
She groans. "I don't have time!" She points at her datapad. "Rear Admiral Korsun is refusing to work with Admiral Marix again because the Jondam Corporation cut their latest order of ships from Korlus."
Ran frowns, humming as he digs out his own datapad. "We have them on the same fleet presently?"
Sheera buries her face in her hands. "Marix won't work with Admiral Shunn, and Korsun and Commodore Sheerayel nearly killed each other the last time they met. They're with Ninmah Command, so we can't send either one there."
Ran tabs through his pad. "Could send one of them to Eagle Command? Have them consider whether or not cooling their heels on Korlus keeping the border with the Citadel is worth not having to deal with their grudges?"
Sheera pushes away from the desk and leans back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. "What, send Korsun home as punishment? Sure, that'd work. I suppose it'd work to send Marix to deal with the people his bosses just spited, but then I'd be causing an internal incident and the President would have my head. Plus, Marix would have to deal with Vane's bitching. And nobody can stand Vane. I'd make an enemy for life."
Ran snorts. "Fair enough. Well, ma'am, I can't see any alternative but to put one of them with Omegan Command."
Sheera snorts, rubbing at the sensitive spot on the back of her head. "Sure, why not? Send Korsun and I can give Governor Gaim more excuses to visit the President. Maybe even convince me I did it as a favor to him. And I'm not putting more JCN forces near the capital than I absolutely have to. Fuck it, fine. Send Korsun. Invite them both to the retreat for Unity Day. They're working this out if I have to hold both their heads in the pool until they see sense."
Ran actually laughs at that. "I'll pass that along to Deployments, Admiral."
Sheera shakes her head. "Headache's gone now, I guess." She rolls her head on her shoulders, taking a deep breath. Her office smells just faintly of the tea she blends every morning. She'll need to make a new cup soon. She sighs. "Not gonna enjoy having Korlus's ships off the line, even just for a while."
"Hopefully, then, we can get Attica's ships in their place soon enough," replies Ran.
Sheera looks up at him, raising an eyebrow. "'Attica's,' ships?" she asks. "You mean the Attican Commonwealth, yes?"
He actually flushes at that. "It's...catching on," he says, averting his gaze.
"Catching on," she repeats, smirking.
"Among the younger officers!" he replies. "We chat about it at-" He coughs harshly, expression going blank.
Sheera bares needle-sharp teeth in a grin. "At the break room up by the station's belly that has the still in the head, I know," she says, snickering. "You think we don't know about that? Boy, I made that still, in my day. Do you think I was born old?"
Ran bolts upright, flush spreading. "Well, ma'am, I'll just pass these orders along to Deployments, with your compliments, unless there's anything else."
She waves him off, chuckling, and he leaves at speed. She scoots upright in her chair, feeling much better. "Damn kids, thinking they invented delinquency. Why, in my day, et cetera..." She picks up a desk toy and starts fiddling with it, trying to make the sphere come out into a starburst as her mind wanders in the dimly-lit room.
She remembers the heady days when she first got her position in the Joint Fleets. Serving with the Rim Dominion Navy was fine enough, but everybody knew that working directly for Force Command was the real route to the top. She remembers coming in, an eager young ship's captain making the jump to staff work under Admiral Kalak. She remembers bouncing off the iron wall of fellow officers who'd been serving in Force Command together from Ensign on up. Months of trying to work her way in. Finally making a crack over a cup of tea with a cute asari, and getting an invitation to those after-hours parties in the lounge. The astringent smell of alcohol over everything when the still blew up, and winning everybody's trust when she knew how to build another one.
She smiles. "Good times," she sighs, taking another sniff of a long-familiar scent of tea, and the memory of a blue face.
And the door opens, Ran leaning back in. "Admiral, ma'am, I just wanted to remind you that your meeting with Councilor Lystheni is in twenty."
Sheera bolts upright, eyes wide. "F-"
- - - - - - - - -
"-antastic to see you again, Councilor," says Sheera, smiling as she shakes the Dalatrass's hand.
The aged woman smiles back. "And yourself, Admiral."
The two sit, working through the remainder of the formalities.
It doesn't take long for them to hit old arguments again.
"We can send you the Second Battle Fleet at any time, Admiral," says Lystheni, with seemingly infinite patience. "The old Virmirean Defense Fleets operated according to Massalian doctrine much as yours do. Those of our officers still experienced in it are some of our most distinguished veterans by now! They could fit in just fine and allow you to continue operating as you already do. No disruption, no fuss, no problem."
Sheera takes a deep breath. "As I've said, Councilor, that is not our preference. We want raiding fleets." She holds up a hand as Lystheni starts to speak. "Please, a moment." She turns to the projector and flicks it on, revealing a galaxy map of the front with the Rachni. "The Terminus Joint Fleets have ongoing problems due to our force structure. Being comprised of several state militaries' voluntary contributions makes for obvious friction points. We rely on a defensive doctrine because it's something we can reliably execute." She singles out the front systems and highlights them, pulling up displays of the massive defense platform complexes guarding the relays to Rachni space. "Several state navies having to coordinate can have difficulties executing a Mahakian grand offensive, but they can fly to reinforce a cluster of heavy defense platforms under assault. Our offensives need to be carefully planned to offset this structural weakness." She leans forward. "But Attican raiding fleets? A cohesive, practiced, and potent force specifically tuned to offensive operations? It compensates for one of our great challenges as a force."
Lystheni leans back in her chair, face shrouded in her gown's hood. Only a faint glitter from her eyes is visible as she remains silent for a long moment. "I understand that," she says, calm. "But the Commonwealth needs its raiding fleets."
Sheera has heard that kind of answer many times, in the past. She tries not to let it cut too deep now. "Every member state needs their fleets," she replies. "It is why we so often get the less-favored elements. That's a mistake. Don't think of this as a sacrifice, Councilor. Consider it an opportunity." She drums her fingers on the table. "Do you know which states are most overrepresented in the Joint Fleets?"
Lystheni tilts her head. "The Minos-Ismar-Crescent Border Region. The Northern Defense League. Sparsely populated, but a strong majority of the actual forces in the Joint Forces."
"The Protestants," says Sheera. "And I know that the Commonwealth has joined with the President's faction. Your forces already stand to significantly redress the military imbalance between your factions; if you can give me raiding fleets, then you'd also be fulfilling a vital offensive role that nobody else can replace. It would give you a lot of clout on the Council."
Lystheni considers this for a long moment. "And how, exactly, do you mean?"
Talks have dragged on to the point where you have not come to an agreement on how your forces should integrate into the Joint Fleets. First there was the admittedly-serious issue of figuring out how to integrate your dramatically different doctrines. Then, once things were passed all the way up to Admiral-In-Chief Sheera, who saw the above possibilities, she did not start by outlining the above benefits. Your Councilor, hearing that the TJF would like your main offensive punch for itself and heeding the Commonwealth's general preference to maintain its ability to vigorously prosecute the war so as to continue to politically benefit by battlefield successes, stonewalled, until the above conversation took place.
The option fails, but going into next year, you have a clearer idea of what each side wants and expects. The action you'll get next turn to finish this, and choose how you want to engage, will be an auto-pass; you've reached the point where Sheera has pretty much made her pitch and it's just up to a yes or a no from you. Otherwise the prep work is done and you can move on once you've made a choice. But enough time has been lost that you need to invest another option in finishing this. -61,000 credits.
* * *
Martial Updates
Probes Along the Border: Observation posts and the rare patrols you've placed in the Maroon Sea have begun reporting Rachni scouts coming through in increased numbers. There have been some exchanges in fire, some intense and prolonged enough that the Rachni now surely know that you aren't holding the Sea in strength. As a result, and particularly with the difficulties in integrating your forces with the TJF, you're starting to catch some flak from the rest of the Alliance for accepting a cluster you couldn't defend, and potentially opening a gap in the lines. Shereel is reporting back that there are rumblings from the Council about a motion presenting you with an ultimatum to defend the Sea or lose it. Of course, you would not vote with that measure, and that alone would sink it...but being the squeaky wheel on something that is supposed to be your whole selling point, so soon, does not sit well.
Taking them all in hand and swearing them to secrecy, you outline for them your plans, and invite their feedback. And, together with them, you get to work.
The primary thing, it is clear to everybody, is the sheer amount of power invested in your office. You don't care for how much the Delegates like to keep throwing it in your face as though it was your idea, when you're the reason they're even here, but it is the fundamental problem. Virmire had a set of laws that divided up powers. It was by no means perfect, but it had them. By now, almost nothing is left.
You will need to start anew.
It's clear enough that there do need to be guardrails on powers and responsibilities that cannot simply be overturned by fiat. Norms don't hold, and desperation does curious things to people's priorities. Some manner of founding document, then, is required.
But who should be primarily in charge? Some Delegates propose a Prime Minister subordinated to them, but you mislike the idea of taking away the one office that every citizen of the Commonwealth votes for. There should be somebody who represents the country as a whole.
But even once that is resolved, how should powers be divided? Even in a system with branches subordinated to one another, different branches do different things. What makes the Assembly a farce is that they can't actually do anything you don't delegate to them. So what's a good job for a single head of state, and what's a good job for hundreds of politicians?
A thousand minutiae race by you all, but slowly things converge on a few key principles. The arguments over responsibilities, divisions, and powers are important, but what finally informs the approach you take is a set of core ideas that should form the basis of your future state.
The legitimacy of a state is the assent of its citizens.
The purpose of a state is to wield the resources of its society for the betterment of the citizens living within that society.
The state is responsible to safeguard the rights of its citizens; any failures in this are the state's responsibility and fault.
It's not a legal code, and there is certainly opposition on some points, but as you and the Assembly move forward, this is the vision that you will all come together to enact.
You and the Assembly have created a road map to a more democratic form of governance, and drafted a statement outlining the above principles. Your next step is an effort at creating a founding document outlining fundamental functions and structure for your state. Following that, you will need to act to execute that document and create that state. Finally, there will be the initial work of passing legislation to get that state into action.
From then on, it's just government. -37,300 credits.
* * *
Diplomacy: Volus Expertise
No roll.
It's been a few years since you established this favor, but the Vol Union's word is good. It's simple enough to get some representatives in to sit down with you through your consulate.
Now it's just down to the asking.
Options below.
* * *
Diplomacy Updates
CSP Rallies: The Commonwealth Security Party, following its split from the Socialist Party, seems to have found its voice again as you work through the earliest stages of your democratic reforms. They have argued fiercely against the definition, and doing so has allowed their leadership to reassert their hold on power and fend off challenges from their base. They openly reject the notion of popular sovereignty. While they are not going so far as to argue that the Commonwealth owes fealty to the home worlds of the species living within its borders, they are claiming that sovereignty derives from the asset of the peoples living within a state, and not the individuals comprising those peoples. They appear to be gearing up to fight this one out to the bitter end, although they appear to be in the minority.
* * *
Stewardship: Power Is Power
The work is complete. Your power infrastructure is more powerful and modern than ever. New warship designs have been finalized and are starting to hit the yards. It's been a long time coming, but the Commonwealth, thanks to the fruits of the Yulair's long-dead civilization, now has some of the best power generation technology in the galaxy. It's a badly-needed addition to your economy; even with recent improvements, it's still dealing with the effects of decades of war.
Rollout complete. Your power grid is now modern, powerful, and comprehensive. New classes of warships with the improved power plants will begin showing up in future turns. +40,000 yearly income.
* * *
Stewardship: Establishing Force
The CNIS, in current plans, will be the Commonwealth's top-level investigative force. You'll still have more conventional policing, but day-to-day enforcement will be handled on a more local level; your national policing model will be typified by these expert investigators, and their influence and mission will likely impact how officers on a lower level do their jobs. That might change in the future, but for now, this is the shape of it.
At the moment, the work is paperwork, recruitment, and training, much more than it is material. The ships and equipment these investigators will need are already in production; the active efforts are all in personnel coordination. Intense work; the training halls you've visited have some of the tensest atmosphere you've ever experienced outside of combat.
Personnel are moving through the training. Two of three years complete.
* * *
Stewardship Updates
Exploiting the Run: With other routes to friendly space running along the front line, the Foreign Development Office has begun looking beyond its traditional purview of work within the capital cluster of Sentry Omega into investment in Kurik's Run. They've identified it as an underappreciated route for mass trade, and made an enduring commitment to getting better use out of it. They've sunk their budget their year into expanding facilities in the Run and offering incentives to shipping companies to move more goods through the relay chain. No results yet, but honestly the projections are very good. This is, again, an overreach in their areas of responsibility, and Lissa is telling you that you may need to rein them in again if you don't want them becoming a super-agency.
* * *
Intrigue: Establish A Spy Academy
Shurna begins to slowly come to grips with the issue of the training academy.
You would call Shurna a friend, at this point. A sometimes troubled friendship, but you trust her, and recognize that she trusts you where she trusts few other people. It can, admittedly, be difficult to be her friend while dealing with the failures of administration that have brought you to this point, but you would call her a friend.
Thus, you do feel comfortable, in the face of admittedly considerable evidence to the contrary, in saying that she is a competent administrator. She ran her Ministry directly for decades. You can't do that without administrative skills. She just let her paranoia override her better judgement.
But, as time wears on, you see her starting to make herself fit into the mold of a Minister rather than a particularly talented analyst. As time wears on, you start to stop needing to personally involve yourself quite so often. You get to step back and take a breath, knowing that Shurna won't respond to a dilemma by reflexively ordering the issue routed through her office in the future.
As your friend learns how to take her hands off, the academy takes shape, the process you started beginning to do its work.
Two of three years complete.
* * *
Intrigue: Support And Analysis
Needed: 26. Rolled: 58+12(Minister)=70. Success.
As you've observed, Shurna acted more as a super-analyst than a Minister for many years. An unsought-for benefit of this is that she actually knows quite a bit about what analysis work demands, and can write an excellent brief for recruiters to work from.
The issue was getting her to stop trying to run the process herself. This was the source of the delays last time. She wanted personal involvement in several stages of the process, and with her work elsewhere, she simply hadn't the time. But as she learns the lesson of delegation elsewhere, she applies them here as well. The first new hires are already at their desks, and a steady flow of more is incoming.
One of two years complete. -30,000 income.
* * *
Intelligence Updates
Troubling News: Shereel has reported to Counter-Intelligence Division that one of her fellow Dalatrasses has made reached out to her about their concerns about the shifting dynamics of social and political power in the Commonwealth, appealing to their shared positions of very traditional social supremacy in salarian society. Shereel says that the woman spoke of money and support for concerned citizens hoping to avoiding disruptive influences. A lot of money and support.
The public education legislation, the test bed schools, the consultation with foreign experts, the constant reviews and revisions. Despite everything, there's been one piece missing. The capstone. The thing that takes potential and turns it into skill.
You swore that you would build a system that served your adopted home. You swore that it would prepare its subjects to succeed in life. It has taken a dramatically different shape from what you first envisioned, but you are willing to say that you have succeeded. The work, in truth, will go on, but what approaches now is at least an ending.
You promised your teacher on his deathbed that as he overcame his great challenge, you would do him proud by overcoming yours. You are finally poised to succeed.
You are Minister off the Sciences Fulka Pak, and it is time to get to work.
Work on the finishing academies begins. -80,000 yearly income (down to -40,000 once option completes). One of two years complete.
* * *
Learning: Loading And Unloading Facilities
Progress [0/100]. Rolled: 60+10(Minister)=70. Progress now [70/100].
Tasir Nam has worked in the Yulair Council of the Ministry of the Sciences for years.
He doesn't know why he was selected for the Council in the first place. Things were all classified, back in the early days, and a lot about Yulair research is still classified. He's written three papers on the anarchy spheres, and maybe a hundred people have read them.
But those hundred people include Minster Pak and the Prime Minister herself, and that gets a man's name noticed.
Tasir helped design the emergency procedures for Code Pink. His work contributed to the quarantine stations for the anarchy spheres. He was also recently asked to contribute to designs for microstations meant to hold single prisoners in solitary confinement. Some whacky ultramax prison scheme, although he has no idea for what.
It's an impressive resume of work and a more impressive record of discretion. But that's not what got him his first spot as a project lead for a reverse-engineering initiative on Yulair tech. It got his name in the hat, but it didn't get him the job. What got him the job was something exceptional about him. Something almost nobody else in the entire Council -- the entire Ministry -- has.
Tasir Nam is one of the most boring people in the galaxy.
- - - - - - - - -
"Very well," he says, shutting off his laser pointer. "We'll proceed with Nayeli's proposal to use alloy 12B for the loading arm. Kaskar, I do-" gshk "-want you to run some additional tests as to performance in high temperatures, in case that turns out to be a problem."
Kaskar blinks, his four eyes out of synch as he stares woodenly at his boss. "Mhm."
Tasir takes a seat. "Now, I do have some excitement, unfortunately."
Down at the other end of the table, an asari junior researcher whispers, "Unfortunately?!" to her neighbor, an elder salarian doctor. The man winces and leans over.
"Doctor Nam is...conservative," he murmurs, discreetly covering his mouth. He then straightens, clearing his throat. "What's the development, Tasir?"
Tasir sighs, drumming his fingers on his suit's belly. "The Minister has-" gshk "-amended the requirements, I'm afraid. In addition to handling galactic standard shipping containers, the prototype should have the capability to handle non-standard cargo. Of course-" gshk "-this will compromise our plans for the manipulator, and will require adjustments to the targeting programming. Fortunately, this will not require major updates to structural elements-" gshk "-but it will require much work on the particulars. Ideas?"
One of the other asari leans forward. "Element zero manipulators." She grins, just a bit too widely to be comfortable. "If we take the barrier emitters from a Devastator-class dreadnought and mount them in a cluster, then run a charge through them in the right sequence, we can lift arbitrary objects and not have to worry about hardware details at all!"
Intrigued whispers chase each other around the room.
"The possibilities-"
"-would never work-"
"Now, if we went with my design-!"
"You fool, eezo is nothing when we could be using magnets-!"
Tasir hums, nodding along inside the suit. He allows them exactly twenty seconds of competitive monologuing before clearing his throat. "No. That would break the budget, and we are unlikely to be able-" gshk "-to source the parts. I am interested in the potential of element zero for specialist applications, however. Look into it-" gshk "-Liara. Keep up with the topic throughout development and give me a feasibility report at the end. Something to hand off to the next team."
The researcher slumps down in her chair, pouting. "Yes, sir. It will be informative and properly formatted," she spits, bitter.
"Quite," he says. He triggers the next slide, and an attendant wave of groans. "Now," he says, a note of life and vigor coming into his voice. "We've received our quarterly budget allocation!"
He watches the souls drain just a little bit from the eyes of the room of mad scientists before him, feeling nothing but a sense of warm contentment. I was born for this.
Progress at [70/100]. Under the able hand of Tasir Nam, the project is off to a fine start! -28,000 credits.
* * *
Learning Updates
Curriculum Review Continues: While it no longer needs direct oversight from the Ministry, work on the public schools' curriculum continues. The professionals now directing the effort continue to coordinate with the Ministry, specifically those organizing the military academies, to ensure that their work prepares students for those institutions.
* * *
Personal: Take A Break
Needed: 51. Rolled: 17. Failure.
I'm beginning to get a foreboding feeling that things are starting to spin out of control. I worried that this stalemate wouldn't last -- was I right? Is something awful coming? I need time to relax more than ever, but even when I get the chance, I can't put my whole mind into it. There's always something pulling me back...
Mira bleeds off some stress, but can't really put her all into it.
* * *
Personal: Establish Ardat-Yakshi Policies
Shalaya's new role is an informal one, as of now. As you and the few people in the know gather together, it becomes clear that that's the biggest issue at play. Everything's harder when you're sneaking around the issue to avoid public notice, and you've grown used to making decisions through a filter of bureaucrats.
Still, you have something to work with. Some discreet studies of your asari population have given you a rough image of ardat-yakshi numbers that you think you can trust. Bizarrely, you actually can account for the deaths that are attributable to ardat-yakshi; you can place one of the coven members near all of them, and are starting work on getting confessions from the ones you've captured.
While you aren't certain by any means, you think it's more likely than not that the Commonwealth doesn't have any lethal-strain ardat-yakshi homegrown. There's one incident years back -- a girl committing suicide after her significant other died of an apparent brain bleed -- but otherwise, nothing. Your numbers on non-lethal strains are significantly less reliable when identifying victims is so much less straightforward, but you think there's lesser incidence than the Asari Republics experience there as well.
Something odd is going on, here.
It's something to bear in mind as you move forward and consider the big questions, here. First and foremost, how much cooperation you want with the Republics. They've been gently pressing for you to fold in with their enforcement system. That's not happening, not with your Terminus Alliance membership, but there's a difference between completely separating and keeping in close communication. You're always allowed to talk.
You need to decide who gets to know the secret. The circle needs to widen, there's no way around that, but is it widening to some shot-callers in your government? To a full enforcement agency? To the Terminus Alliance as a whole?
You'll need to determine how willing you are to accept ardat-yakshi into this organization, as well. There's an argument to exclude any more beyond Shalaya, but you could also freely include them in an advisory or even frontline capacity.
Finally, there's the aim of your efforts. The Republics' system's aim is suppression and containment, but that doesn't have to be your plan. To a certain extent, this is also the question of what role ardat-yakshi have in your efforts to manage them.
There's a lot to figure out.
Fortunately, you brought budget for that.
Options available below. -50,000 credits.
Credit Reserves: 913,800.
Yearly Income: 303,000.
The time has come to settle the question of your policy on extinction-level bombardments within your own space.
Presently, there are a few elements to your policy:
Indiscriminate bombardment of civilian populations is a war crime.
The Rachni have no apparent civilians. Every attempt at outreach from the state level to the personal has led to completely unrelenting, murderous hostility.
As a result of the above, all rachni everywhere are recognized as military targets.
Due to the gravity of this topic, I will also confirm OOC that the above as accurate, albeit because queens and brood warriors are irreversibly indoctrinated after birth once they become aware of their surroundings. With all reproduction being handled on Suen itself, no ability to reach it to disrupt this process, no known cure for indoctrination, and no knowledge that this is even happening, there is nothing the Attican Commonwealth right now can do to change the above priors, or even to know that they can be changed.
Extinction-level bombardment is currently classified as a tool for the denial of resources to the enemy. This was Beshkar's justification for ordering the bombardment of Trebin, which his board of review accepted. Thus, for occupied stellar bodies behind your lines, authorization for extinction-level bombardments requires your personal authorization, which you have generally declined to give. Now that you've established a formal authority overseeing occupation efforts, you have been asked to revisit this policy to be sure it still aligns with Virmire's interests. Life-bearing worlds within your territory will not be subjected to extinction-level bombardment under any circumstances outside of their imminent loss, and then only maybe. But short of that, what are the rules?
[ ][EXTINCTION] No extinction-level bombardments. One cannot un-bombard a planet. Some rocks will not be worth the retaking even once you have an army up to the task, but you don't know which ones those are without that army. Besides, the Occupation Fleet already massively reduces the costs of the occupation without needing to relieve it further. The policy stands.
[ ][EXTINCTION] Only bombard worthless rocks. You want to preserve anything you know to contain valuable resources or facilities, but there's no harm in scratching the worthless asteroids that the Rachni occupy purely to be a pain in the ass off the list.
[ ][EXTINCTION] Bombard everything the Army doesn't veto. Every Rachni garrison to your back is another foothold from which the Rachni can swiftly reestablish themselves should they retake or even contest a cluster. Have the Army draw up a shortlist of targets it wants maintained to test reforms on, but otherwise, tell the Fleet that it's a free-fire zone. [ ][EXTINCTION] Extinction. There will be other worlds. There will be other targets. You don't need these. Destroy them all. This option is very out of character for Mira. She has no ethical objection to it — again, she views them all as military targets who never negotiate or surrender — but the waste is unacceptable to her.
Rachni forces have been probing the Maroon Sea. Warships are beginning to come off of occupation patrols as the Occupation Fleet moves into action. How do you wish to respond?
[ ][MAROON] In force. All three raiding fleets are now coming off of patrol duties, and the 2nd Battle Fleet is held in Sentry Omega for situations that require a reserve, just such as this one. Send all of them to Maroon Sea while you figure out a more permanent solution. If the Rachni have decided they've smelled weakness, they'll be terminally disappointed.
[ ][MAROON] Conventionally. Deploy the 2nd Battle Fleet to Maroon Sea. Have one of your raiding fleets pick up patrol duties in Sentry Omega. That will provide a powerful deterrent to any attempts at moving in, and if the rachni try anyway, you should be able to hold long enough to bring in reinforcements.
[ ][MAROON] Lightly. Second one of the raiding fleets. They won't be able to strongly hold the system, but they'll be there to satisfy your critics. If the Rachni do come, though, the fleet will be forced to conduct a fighting retreat hoping to buy time for reinforcements.
[ ][MAROON] Don't. The Rachni abandoned that system, unfought. You don't believe they're coming back now, and them sniffing around just makes you suspicious. You're holding your forces back.
The Vol Union has sat down to discuss the matter of their favor to you -- perhaps the last piece of truly independent foreign policy you will conduct as an Alliance member, as a holdover from your independent days. They intend to pay you back for your willingness to allow them to freely settle their people on Vol Kam, without preconditions. What do you want that's worth free access to a garden world?
[ ][FAVOR] Ask for something on behalf of the Terminus Alliance, which they will pick, in exchange for one vote of your choice passed without a veto in the Council.
[ ][FAVOR] Investment. The finances of Irune are without equal. You want that money moving to prop up enterprises within your space, on generous terms.
[ ][FAVOR] Tech transfers. They'll run the risk of offending the Council with this, so you won't get much or the really good shit, but the Volus really owe you one, so they'll float you some less flashy stuff. Perhaps something...dual-use...for the discerning customer?
[ ][FAVOR] Write-in.
Finally, the question of ardat-yakshi policy. Form a plan from the following options, choosing one option from each category.
[ ][PLAN] Plan [NAME].
-[ ] Republics cooperation. How closely will you work with the experts in this field? They will have conditions.
--[ ] You will maintain close communications and unofficial coordination with the Asari Republics (you must take all actions marked [ASARI], and can take no others).
--[ ] You will pass information on ardat-yakshi fugitives back and forth, but little more (you must take no options marked, [BREACH].
--[ ] You will pursue no cooperation with the Asari Republics.
-[ ] Scope of reveal. You can do nothing to compel others to keep the secret save whatever is available to you, in-character.
--[ ] Only trusted individuals will be informed of the reality behind the policies they are called upon to execute [ASARI].
--[ ] You will establish a formal government agency to handle the matter of ardat-yakshi within Commonwealth space.
--[ ] You will inform your sub-faction within the Cooperatives faction of the ardat-yakshi secret, and fold them into your policies.
--[ ] You will share the truth with the Cooperatives faction as a whole, which will subsequently develop its own policies; you will have significant influence.
--[ ] You will inform the Terminus Alliance of the truth of ardat-yakshi, and they will develop their own policies, over which you will have some influence [BREACH].
-[ ] Ardat-yakshi recruits. Do they have a place in these efforts?
--[ ] Shalaya is an exception and you'll not risk a second attempt at her going awry [ASARI].
--[ ] You'll recruit them in advisory capacities to inform policy.
--[ ] Ardat-yakshi are personnel. No more, no less [BREACH].
-[ ] Aim of efforts. What are you planning on doing about the ardat-yakshi? To an extent all of these will happen, but what is your point?
--[ ] Suppression and containment. Before anything else, ardat-yakshi are threats [ASARI].
--[ ] Treatment and support. Fundamentally, this is a public health issue, and you'll treat it as such with an eye to allowing victims to function in society as best they can.
--[ ] Exploitation. Shalaya proves the potential of ardat-yakshi, and while she personally is unfit for intelligence or military missions, others may not be [BREACH].
MANUAL MORATORIUM. APPROVAL VOTING. WRITE-INS WELCOME, ESPECIALLY FOR THE PLAN; I'LL MARK THEM APPROPRIATELY AT THE VOTE'S OPEN.
Welcome back, y'all! Shit's been crazy! I had a kid, he's perfect!
I'm really feeling the juice lately, so hopefully I can sustain this. Have fun~!
I want to tell the Terminus Alliance. Only addressing the issue locally means our allies are uninformed and vulnerable. I don't think any level of coordination with the Asari Republics would gain us enough to help the Terminus Alliance, not while keeping them in the dark.
[ ][FAVOR] Investment. The finances of Irune are without equal. You want that money moving to prop up enterprises within your space, on generous terms.
With our influence I'm willing to do it with the Cooperatives, but without that frankly I don't trust the others in the Terminus to treat AY the way we'd want them to be treated. I'm probably gonna go with a middle of the road no ASARI no BREACH plan.
[ ][EXTINCTION] Only bombard worthless rocks. You want to preserve anything you know to contain valuable resources or facilities, but there's no harm in scratching the worthless asteroids that the Rachni occupy purely to be a pain in the ass off the list.
As long as we get their ship production, it's not too much of a problem just leaving the Rachni on the surface. We can easily cull them from orbit until we're comfortable sending in our armies after softening them up. As long as we can keep the TA and Citadel from just getting flat out knocked out of the war, I'm confident we can keep our gains.
[ ][MAROON] In force. All three raiding fleets are now coming off of patrol duties, and the 2nd Battle Fleet is held in Sentry Omega for situations that require a reserve, just such as this one. Pick up everything you can and get it into the Sea while you figure out a more permanent solution. If the Rachni have decided they've smelled weakness, they'll be terminally disappointed.
Since we've got that shot in the arm towards production, I'm leaning towards this one. MS is reasonably positioned that if we need to, we can shift fleets between it and AB at will. Any other front would have to go through allied territory to get to us. (If I'm reading the map right, MS and AB are our only direct fronts with the Rachni, if I'm wrong someone please correct me)
[ ][FAVOR] Investment. The finances of Irune are without equal. You want that money moving to prop up enterprises within your space, on generous terms.
We'd be fools not to take financial benefits from the best economists in the galaxy. Money will never not be useful, the more we have the more we can double down.
[ ][EXTINCTION] Bombard everything the Army doesn't veto.
Thinking this. The other choices just don't do much. Yeah, it'll mess up the planets a little bit but at most it'll need some mild terraforming to fix. Annoying, but hardly the, literal in this case, end of the world.
[ ][MAROON] Lightly. Second one of the raiding fleets.
As has been discussed, the Rachni abandoned this system for a damn good reason. It has very little resources, we've raided it to hell and back, and it's exposed. So long as we don't put anything of value in the system that the Rachni would be tempted to destroy they will have exactly zero reason to perform any kind of major operation in or through the Maroon Sea as all it would do is give us a heads up that they are doing so.
Plus stationing a Raiding fleet here just makes sense as obviously if we're going to raid Shadow Sea we'll be doing it through Maroon Sea.
[ ][FAVOR] Tech transfers.
Unless someone can come up with a better write-in I say we go for this. We are having zero issues on the money front and it's only going to get better for us going forward.
How are the defenses in the Caleston Rift? Cause the primary reason that I would really want to garrison the MS is so the Rachni don't just go straight through and into CR, ignoring us. But if CR is suitably fortified, then I could see us getting away with a lighter presence that would give us all a good warning to start maneuvering.
I'd also like to start poking at Hades Gamma, see what they've got going on there. If we can take it that's a significant chunk of Rachni space we've claimed, with two clusters utterly cut off from each other and the rest of the galaxy.
That's some heavy armament for the bombardment ships and as noted, not suited for close fire support which when dealing with the Rachni is going to be needed as the battle lines will get incredibly close. I know the Spearfish class is on trial but are conventional missiles and autocannons not an option for additional fire support of a less destructive magnitude?
Not how it works. We have shipyards and they have a capacity to building. We can't expand our Naval production without expanding our shipyards, which we just did year 34. This is probably either a free expedite, or it's a number of turns with some random volus investment raising income each turn.
[ ][EXTINCTION] Only bombard worthless rocks. You want to preserve anything you know to contain valuable resources or facilities, but there's no harm in scratching the worthless asteroids that the Rachni occupy purely to be a pain in the ass off the list.
[ ][MAROON] Conventionally. Deploy the 2nd Battle Fleet to Maroon Sea. Have one of your raiding fleets pick up patrol duties in Sentry Omega. That will provide a powerful deterrent to any attempts at moving in, and if the rachni try anyway, you should be able to hold long enough to bring in reinforcements.
The Rachni are probing to see what they can get away with. So let's show them they can't get away with anything of importance. But, our raising fleets are one of our biggest assets. Raids into shadow sea in retaliation for these trespasses will do more to deter major action in the maroon sea than any number of fleets committed to it's defense. Our Police will be ready at the end of Year 37, allowing us to shift the raiding fleets patrolling in Omega Sentry back to active duty.
[ ][FAVOR] Ask for something on behalf of the Terminus Alliance, which they will pick, in exchange for one vote of your choice passed without a veto in the Council.
That's some heavy armament for the bombardment ships and as noted, not suited for close fire support which when dealing with the Rachni is going to be needed as the battle lines will get incredibly close. I know the Spearfish class is on trial but are conventional missiles and autocannons not an option for additional fire support of a less destructive magnitude?
They exist, and are implemented, to limited effect, because the Rachni are several meters under the ground at best and possibly dozens of meters under elsewhere. There effectiveness is limited and thus not the focus of this action. The utilization of those methods relates closer to mechanisation than occupation patrols.
[ ][EXTINCTION] Bombard everything the Army doesn't veto.
If the army doesn't want to take a crack at it then slam it from orbit, we might lose out on some facilities and resources but keeping the army intact can only be good for us. Also Keepin them in the loop might just let them see something the navy misses and allows flexibility.
[ ][MAROON] Conventionally. Deploy the 2nd Battle Fleet to Maroon Sea. Have one of your raiding fleets pick up patrol duties in Sentry Omega. That will provide a powerful deterrent to any attempts at moving in, and if the rachni try anyway, you should be able to hold long enough to bring in reinforcements.
Let's not over commit, our fleets are due yard time soon for upgrades also we want our raiding fleets on the offensive. Also if we throw so many fleet assets into the area were just asking the Rachni to try something.
So let's send our battlefleet in to do what it's built for, hold the line while we raid with our fleets and send one to the terminus alliance. They want them and we do want the alliance to flourish.
[ ][FAVOR] Investment. The finances of Irune are without equal. You want that money moving to prop up enterprises within your space, on generous terms.
Money! We're still recovering from the crash a bit and we're still stuck in a war economy. Investment will help solve so many issues especially from the volus.
Also with money we can buy everything else we need maybe not the most advanced tech but we can still grab it. That and more fleet expansions will be possible with this.
-[ ] Republics cooperation. How closely will you work with the experts in this field? They will have conditions.
--[ ] You will pursue no cooperation with the Asari Republics.
Their already pissed with us for joining the Terminus and started smearing us, our relationship is already a bit screwed so why even give them the courtesy of upholding their policy's.
-[ ] Scope of reveal. You can do nothing to compel others to keep the secret save whatever is available to you, in-character.
--[ ] You will inform the Terminus Alliance of the truth of ardat-yakshi, and they will develop their own
Their our allies and honestly the more people who know the easier it is to handle. Though it'll probably open a can of worms and breed distrust to Asar.
-[ ] Ardat-yakshi recruits. Do they have a place in these efforts? policies, over which you will have some influence [BREACH].
--[ ] Ardat-yakshi are personnel. No more, no less [BREACH].
Offer them a fair deal and just be aware of them, it will ensure they actually try and act like decent people because if their not hunted they might just prove that their not all monsters. It might also yield a core of loyal Ardat-yakshi that could prove useful in the future.
-[ ] Aim of efforts. What are you planning on doing about the ardat-yakshi? To an extent all of these will happen, but what is your point?
--[ ] Treatment and support. Fundamentally, this is a public health issue, and you'll treat it as such with an eye to allowing victims to function in society as best they can.
If they kill cause they can and or willing to do it then it's prison which we have built for them. Though if they discover it either through accident or medical checkups. Well then Therapists and a note in their file to keep and eye on them. It sucks but better than been hunted for a genetic quirk also we might just find out a way to solve the issue. Especially if we actually treat it as a health issue.
