Martial:
[ ] Expanding Production: You will always need more ships. Always always. And in the long run, you'll want your own factories to get them. Expensive, but they're yours forever. And you've built enough that with some more, you can really start kicking projects into high gear. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 90%. Cost: 40,000 credits. Effect: Gain a large boost to production, either significantly boosting your ship numbers or unlocking larger-scale projects.
Don't have the budget.
[ ] Repurposing Production: Building new shipyards is a costly proposition at a time when money is dearly stretched. You could save a lot by instead repurposing civilian orbital production. Of course, while that saves in the short term, you then lose out on the revenue that civilian production generates, and that's less production moving through the economy. You've already snapped up the factories that were on the edges of the economy; the impact this decision has will only get even worse as time goes on. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 90%. Cost: 20,000 credits. Effect: Gain a large boost to production, either significantly boosting your ship numbers or unlocking larger-scale projects.. -1000 yearly income due to damage to civilian economy.
More feasable than Expanding Production, but the hit to the income is 
[ ] Military Response: Five warships a system away from you is a provocation that cannot be ignored, especially not in wartime. Wait for a lull in the fighting at the Relay and send a task force to confront these vessels in strength. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 60%. Cost: 2 light cruisers, 6 frigates, 12 corvettes. Effect: Confrontation with the mystery vessels, mini-turns.
If the mini-turns go poorly, some or all of the vessels you send may not return. With your new production, you can now send newly-produced ships without weakening the Relay defenses to the point of serious vulnerability.
Would prefer diplomacy, but we might have to consider this option simply due to budgeting constraints.
[ ] Production Targets (Defense Platforms): Military vessels are a priceless resource at the moment. They're needed for a variety of missions away from the Relay. One way you could address this is by targeting your new production to the construction of immobile defense platforms. Lacking the need for expensive drive systems, these platforms are far cheaper, and training crews for them is far simpler. They're also a lot tougher than ships of equivalent size, since more space can be devoted to armor and the fledgling kinetic barrier tech. You can crank these things out by the dozen to secure the Relay,
finally allowing you to pull the 2nd VDV off of Relay duties in favor of other missions. The only risk is the switch itself -- the Rachni are certain to notice... Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 50%. Cost: Free. Effect: Stop producing a surplus of military vessels in favor of defense platforms, freeing your entire fleet for other duties.
The Rachni will almost certainly take advantage of the switch for an attack. If this option is not taken, all production will by default be devoted to military vessels.
Incredibly risky with that base 50% success rate.
Diplomacy:
[ ] Draft First Contact Protocols: The Council has protocols, but they're completely inapplicable to your situation. You're not negotiating from the position of the most powerful polity in the galaxy; you're a single planet under siege. If there's somebody else sharing the Sentry Omega cluster with you, or deeper into the Relay network, you need to be ready. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 70%. Cost: 5,000 credits. Effect: Draft a set of First Contact Protocols in the event of successful contact with new civilizations while you search for a way out of Sentry Omega.
Might give us extra chances of success / hidden benefits if taken before actual First Contact. That said, do we have the luxury of time to delay?
[ ] Light Into the Void: The comm beacons were the first bit of infrastructure to go, but you still have FTL transmitters. They still transmit without a receiving node. You don't even know how long it takes for those signals to propagate when they're not being bounced from node to node, but they certainly do propagate...and it's the only way you have of contacting anybody. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: ? Cost: 10,000 credits. Effect: Fire up the old FTL transmitters, budget the energy grid towards them to overcharge them, and send out regular distress calls at random into the galaxy. Pray that somebody is in the way and listening...and that they're not inclined to worsen things.
Could go well, could go poorly. Do we like the unknown odds?
[ ] First Contact: An unknown force regularly scouts the system just next door. They
can't have missed you; it's time to let them know that you haven't missed them, and see if you can't work something out. Against the Rachni, everybody must work together. You'll send an escort, of course, but nothing like the task force a military response would demand. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 60%. Cost: 15,000 credits, 1 Frigate, 2 Corvettes. Effect: Establish peaceful First Contact with the unknown contacts and open formal diplomatic relations.
Slightly smaller chance of success compared to drafting, but the time saved could be useful.
Stewardship:
[ ] Off-World Stockpiles: When Minister Shurna made her wave of arrests, a lot of criminals lost access to and control over the massive off-world stockpiles of resources they had pillaged and couldn't use yet. The big rackets left over are doubtlessly moving in to find these treasures, but you already have all the intel you need to nail down their locations. If you move now, you can secure these stockpiles for yourself, repossessing an mountain of stolen goods. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 75%. Cost: 10,000 credits. Effect: Secure illegal stockpiles before the big corruption players can find them. +100,000 credits.
Really, really want to do this. Nice one-time payout, keeping it away from corrupt parties.
[ ] Ardat-Yakshi Hunt: You have three issues facing your government: the big rackets, the petty corruption that suffuses everything, and the inefficiencies that the first two hide within. Of those three, only one has the resources to really react if your attempts to deal with them are noticed, so that's where you'll strike first. The problem is that you'll be wiping and replacing the bigwigs of your Ministry of Finance -- and unlike Relations, this one
has to keep running while it's being fixed. This will take some time, and care, but knowing where to strike certainly helps. Time: 2 years. Chance of Success: 80%. Cost: 15,000 credits. Effect: Plan and execute a wave of mass arrests, removing the big corruption rackets from your government in one fell swoop. +5,000 Yearly Income for 1 year after completion; +10,000 thereafter as the replacements settle into their jobs.
This is also important, but it takes 2 years to complete. Maybe next year once budget / income is less of a worry.
[ ] Roadways and Trains: Virmire is very highly developed for a colony less than a century old, but...well, it's less than a century old and has expanded far more quickly than expected. Your infrastructure on the ground is embarrassingly ad-hoc and can't really handle the load of production efficiently. It'd be a large investment up-front, but some simple transit system improvements would ease the load on trade substantially, and that means credits. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 90%. Cost: 20,000 credits. Effect: Ground infrastructure is modernized and streamlined. +10,000 Yearly Income, future development is easier and cheaper.
Wish we had more Stewardship slots, but this is lower priority compared to the other options.
[ ] Surplus Sale: The army, let's face it, does very little for this war. This is as it should be, but it does mean that their weapons stockpiles are growing massive as wartime production kicks out good that don't get used. Such weapons have always had a market outside the military, and in times like this, that doesn't look like as bad a proposition as it does to a government in peacetime. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 95%. Cost: 10,000 credits. Effect: +150,000 credits, civilian population has access to military-grade infantry equipment and weaponry. This may be either good or bad, depending on follow-up.
This is actually (IMO) less risky now that we've nipped a major corruption / criminal ring in the bud. Worth considering?
Intrigue:
[ ] Ancient Tradition: Minister Shurna would enjoy the opportunity to get a more personal look at the new contacts. Should Minister Dantius be given the order to make contact, Shurna would appreciate the chance to slip a spy or two into the delegation and plant some bugs on these mystery folk. The consequences of failure or discovery are obvious, but Shurna is confident in her people's abilities. Time: 1 year. Cost: 5,000 credits. Chance of Success: 70%. Effect:
Must be taken in tandem with a, "First Contact," option. If First Contact is successful, plants bugs on the unknown contacts' personnel and vessels, as practical. Gain intel whenever these bugs transmit data or are retrieved.
Pick this if we go with First Contact.
[ ] Bugs On Bugs: It's an unfortunate reality that the Marines attached to your fleet regularly have to fight boarding or counter-boarding actions against the Rachni. It's a horrible prospect, but it does present a somewhat...mostly...
completely insane opportunity. San wants to secretly attach Intelligence Division agents to some of your vessels and task them with getting tracker beacons, listening devices, and hidden cameras onto Rachni soldiers and workers, in the hopes that some will make it back to their ships and transmit valuable data. It's...a long shot, she admits, and even a successful operation would be very costly in terms of lives and materiel. But when you think of what a success could mean, your knees go weak. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 30%. Cost: 30,000 credits. Effect: Gain snapshots of first-hand data on Rachni and their vessels.
Not even worth considering at the moment.
[ ] Spy Probes: The listening posts are still catching occasional activity in Sentry Omega 4. Whoever this is, they have an interest in the system. With the right timing, you could deploy some more of the posts to the system when the ships are absent, expanding the Network and giving you more comprehensive and covert surveillance on the system. Unfortunately, establishing the Network at all used all of our stockpiles of probes, so we'll have to spend on the manufacturing this time. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 70%. Cost: 15,000 credits. Effect: Expand the Sentry Network. Gain detailed, live surveillance on Sentry Omega 4.
Only pick this if we don't go with First Contact this turn.
Learning:
[ ] Nursing School (Crash Course): Best to rip the bandage off. It'll mean essentially shutting down Virmire's health care system, but by calling everybody working at a clinic into classrooms staffed by every person with real medical training, you can knock this out quickly. Of course, you're going to need to pay the price for this kind of speed, and this
may just blow up in your face. Time: 2 years. Chance of Success: 50%. Cost: 20,000 credits per year the option is active. Effect: Rush the entire clinic through ad-hoc nursing schools, going completely without a medical system for two years in order to get this over with as quickly as possible.
Locked in for 2 years, and 50% success? Pass.
[ ] Nursing School (No Special Treatment): You
have accredited nursing schools. There's no need to cripple your medical system when you can fund a smaller crash expansion of those schools' and their mandate before cycling the clinic workers in and out. You can't avoid disrupting the network entirely, of course, but at this way you won't have to outright
shut down. This is safer and cheaper...but it'll take a lot longer. Time: 4 years. Chance of Success: 65%. Cost: 10,000 credits per year.
Locked in for 4 years? Pass.
[ ] Nursing School (Mentorship Programs): Total shutdown, massive expansions of your nursing schools -- you'd like your Ministry of the Sciences to be
productive during the next few years, thank you very much. The simplest way is to keep on as you have, and make official the system already in place. Clinic workers report to nurses report to doctors -- and those on top will teach those below. Minimal disruption. Your Ministry won't have to oversee the whole thing once they work out the system, opening it up for other things. Cheap compared to the other options -- although nothing involving doctors is even
close to free.. It'll
definitely work...eventually. Time is the biggest cost -- and something like this will take a
lot of it to bear fruit. Time: 6 years (after 2, becomes an automated process and the MoS may select new options). Chance of Success: 90%. Cost: -5,000 yearly income. Effect: Establish large-scale mentorship programs to qualify clinic workers for nurse status. MoS only directly involved in planning stages.
This is somewhat more palpable, locked in for only 2 years but it nearly halves our income for 6 years. Pass.
[ ] Up To Code: It's not surprising that the Citadel doesn't approve of their colonies having local military forces with cutting-edge tech. Frankly, we can't
get cutting-edge tech. But our vessels are a little dated even beyond that. Engineering is requesting a grant to attempt to bring our warships up to a more modern standard. If they find something, the military will need the budget and breathing space to put vessels in for refit, but it would be well worth it. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 60%. Cost: 25,000 credits. Effect: Gain access to modern-day refits for present vessels, and begin constructing such vessels by default.
Useful to get our military up to spec.
[ ] To Boldly Go: Whether or not a breakout from Sentry Omega is even feasible is, frankly, unknown. It would only be responsible to explore other avenues of escape. But before you touch the Mass Relays, with all of the now-obvious risks which those entail, it would be prudent to secure your flanks. An exploration mission is only wise, and the Research Council assures you that they don't even need a grant. Just a loan of some corvettes, which they would return good as new. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 80% per corvette. Cost: 10 corvettes for one year. Effect: Survey neighboring systems in the Sentry Omega cluster for issues or opportunities.
Failure by more than ten may result in the loss of corvettes.
Only a small risk to 10 corvettes, but perhaps would be wiser to wait until after First Contact to prevent any misunderstandings.
[ ] Digging for Clues: Something about Sentry Omega 4 has these unknown contacts interested -- interested enough to keep coming back time and again, even though it's right next door to you. Head out there, stake a claim, and start poking around to find out what's out there. Of course, without making this a proper military expedition, you can only justify sending so many ships. If the newcomers return while you're there, and are hostile... Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 50%. Cost: 4 corvettes. Effect: Determine what has interested the unknown parties so much about Sentry Omega 4. Failure may result in a confrontation with the unknown parties.
50% success, and might trigger a shooting war? We have other options to deal with the unknowns. Pass.
Personal:
[ ] Personal Attention: Sometimes, a project needs all hands on deck, including yours. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 100%. Cost: none. Effect: Oversee one of your chosen actions personally, adding your full stat in the relevant category (i.e., Martial for Martial actions) to the success roll.
Which one?
[ ] Get To Know San: Your Minister of Intelligence is a woman you can't read and don't know, and is much better at her job than you are. Try to fix this. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 40%. Cost: Free. Effect: Develop a friendly professional relationship with San Shurna. Possible Intrigue gains for critical successes.
Would be nice.
[ ] Speak To the People: You have the support of the people, and should never take it for granted. Beyond that, they could use some cheering up, you'll bet. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 50%. Cost: 1,000 credits. Effect: Run a series of public broadcasts. Raise popularity with the populace by justifying administration decisions and being a visible and accessible public presence. A happier populace allows a deeper recruiting pool, for when you need it, as well as being just generally better.
Would be nice.
[ ] Take a Break: You've been two years at this job already. Most leaders would have had at least a weekend off by now. You'd have to work at it to find the time, but you're pretty sure that if you clear your schedule, you can get a week set aside. You've always wanted to visit Virmire's arctic circle during the summertime. You hear fabulous things about the flood tides once the seasonal ice caps melt. Time: 1 year. Chance of Success: 50%. Cost: Free. Effect: Take a step back from work, clear your budget, and take a Goddess-damned vacation. Possible stat or trait gain; possible relationship gain with advisers or people of importance.
Would be nice.
