January, 1951//START
Shadows
Sacred Priestess of the Benevolent Dice Gods
- Location
- USS Civilian, DDG-214
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[Flag courtesy of CyberEnby and r/COMPLETEANARCHY]
You are Penelope Carter, the First Director of the Interplanetary Exploration Cooperative. You have been selected by the representatives of the Workers and Peoples of the World to carry the hopes and dreams of an entire planet into the stars. Their goals for you are simple: to reach the heavens and use the knowledge you gain to better benefit the people of the world. Your goals are your own - and your skills lie in managing people. You have... a gift, really, for making sure people go where they'll be happiest and most productive, and enough social graces to make sure that if you've got to ruffle feathers, they remain as un-ruffled as possible. You also have a fair few friends in the groups that decide where money goes. With any luck, you'll steer the IEC wisely. Good luck, Director.
---
The paperwork was signed and it was, as anything was these days, official. You settled into the chair behind the desk that was now yours - and had been some bougie functionary's a few years ago, before the Revolution. But now, it was your job to give the people of the world some more of that hope they'd finally gotten when the Old World got cast aside. Give them a reason to look up and dream of not just one better world but many.
Not that anyone had told you that in so many words, but when you had been informed that the number of science fiction enthusiasts who were willing to lend their garage to your program was a distinctly non-zero number, you had chosen to interpret the outpouring of support as a mandate to boldly go where none had gone before.
Your program, however, was little more than a launch stand, a couple of offices, some machine shops, and, yes, a few garages and a smattering of enthusiastic personnel willing to lend a hand. You needed to fix all of that if you wanted to get anywhere with this whole thing. With that in mind, you dropped your hands to the keys of the typewriter on your desk, then, after taking a moment to set it properly (you were always forgetting to set the sheet) you began writing memos and letters of instruction.
The following locations held a vote and volunteered to be your first launch location; which did the IEC pick? (you can build more in the future)
[ ] [SITE] Near Mogadishu, Somalia (equatorial)
[ ] [SITE] Near Mombasa, Kenya (equatorial)
[ ] [SITE] Alcantara, Brazil (equatorial)
[ ] [SITE] Near Teba, Indonesia (equatorial)
[ ] [SITE] Mahia, New Zealand (polar)
[ ] [SITE] Kodiak Island, Alaska (polar)
By the way, who do you work for? (Name the world government!)
[ ] [GOVT] World Congress of Autonomous Republics
[ ] [GOVT] World Congress of Communal Councils
[ ] [GOVT] World Congress of Autonomous Councils
[ ] [GOVT] World Congress of Communities
[ ] [GOVT] World Congress of Anarchic Networks
[ ] [GOVT] The Platform
[ ] [GOVT] Write-in
Resources:
100 (+55R/turn)
60 Political Support
Facilities:
1 Launch Stand (0-5 tonne) (+1 Operations die)
1 Assembly Complex (+1 Build Capacity)
1 Engineer's Hall (+2 Engineering Dice)
1 University Affiliate (+2 Science Dice)
1 Materials Lab (+5 bonus to projects tagged [MATSCI])
1 Chemical Plant (+5 bonus to projects tagged [CHEM])
1 Electronics Cooperative (+5 bonus to projects tagged [AVIONICS])
1 Construction Union Hall (+1 Facilities die)
Penelope Carter [The Director] - [+10 to Politics rolls, +2 Politics die, +5R/turn in funding from Connections, reroll 1 failed politics roll per turn]
Operations (1 dice, +0 bonus)
[] Construct a Sounding Rocket - Having just launched its first sounding rocket, the IEC is very well advised to repeat the feat, this time with a heavier sensor payload to gain more information about the region beyond the edge of the Earth's atmosphere. (10R, 0/40, costs 1 Build Capacity until complete)
-[] And launch it (free action for Sounding Rockets) (gains Scientific Data, launch experience, results to show the people funding you)
Facilities (1 dice, +0 bonus)
[ ] Construct an Engine Test Stand - Your engineers tell you it's a good idea to have some place specifically built to test engines at, and specifically built to absorb the occasionally energetic failures such testing causes. (10R per die, 0/50, +2 to propulsion projects)
[ ] Construct a Hangar - A group of pilots and engineers approached you with the idea of constructing a spaceplane. Such an endeavour would surely benefit the construction of normal aircraft as well, making it a potentially easy sell to the People's Forum. First, though, the IEC would need a place to actually, well, build it. (10R per die, 0/100, allows constructing spaceplane prototypes)
[ ] Construct a Hardened Tracking and Observation (T&O) Complex - Your current T&O complex is adequate for the small rockets you're currently launching, but as the IEC's capabilities increase and improve, they will rapidly not be adequate as the energies involved skyrocket. Thankfully, your structural engineers have a great deal of experience designing bunkers and hardened instrumentation packages. (15R per die, 0/60, +3 to Operations, negates personnel consequences for failures of rockets up to Early Orbital Class)
[ ] Construct a Heavy Sounding Rocket launch site - Your current launch stand isn't up to the task of launching a much bigger rocket than it currently does, being little more than a repurposed parking lot. The launch area could use reinforcement, thicker concrete and rebar and the like, maybe a flame trench to divert the rocket's exhaust away from it. Your engineers have enough guesstimates from the ones who want to make the Heavy Sounding Rocket that they feel confident enough to tell you they can make a pad that can handle it. (15R per die, 0/60, allows launch of the Heavy Sounding Rocket and theoretical derivatives up to 30 tons)
Engineering (2 dice)
[ ] Regenerative Combustion Chamber Development (Tech) [MATSCI] - Your engineers think they can make what's called a regenerative combustion chamber, where fuel is pumped through channels in the chamber walls to absorb the heat produced by the combustion before being pumped into the chamber to be combusted. It sounds a bit strange, but they say it's been done before by the Soviets, though those research notes were lost in the fighting. (10R per die, 0/100, unlocks further engine development)
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Platform) (Heavy Sounding Rocket) [AERO] - Your small sounding rockets are, well, they work, but they're not as high-performing as you'd like. During the Third Great War, the Empire used a thirteen-tonne rocket as a terror weapon against civilians; that rocket is, approximately, thirteen times as large as the ones you are using, and able to fly at least three times as high, based on your people's calculations. They think they can recreate the design using notes seized from the ruins of the Empire's rocket complex. (5R per die, 0/80, unlocks Heavy Sounding Rocket (and a naming vote because that's unwieldy))
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Platform) (Spaceplane Development) [AERO] - If you're going to be building spaceplanes, it would be a good idea to develop a working design to build in that hangar the spaceplane gang had wanted. Your engineers were talking about things like payload fraction and use cases and aerodynamic loading - all of which went more or less over your head but it certainly seemed they knew what they were about. (5R per die, 0/100, unlocks Prototype Spaceplane)
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Alternative Launch Systems) [AERO, PHYS] - Still more of your engineers were talking about investigating different ways of potentially getting to space. Jules Verne stuff. Big guns and space towers and the like. You didn't think them likely to work, but having the knowledge wouldn't hurt. (5R per die, 0/300, ???)
[ ] Second Stages (Tech) [AERO, PHYS] - Some of your engineers have proposed putting a second rocket on top of your first rocket to gain greater range and altitude. You, personally, thought that was a wild idea, but they seemed to think it would work, and you had to admit their reasoning and solutions for the problems they had been able to come up with seemed sound. (10R per die, 0/200, gain the ability to make 2-stage rockets)
[ ] Advanced Concepts Office - A group of scientists and engineers have come to you asking to staff an Advanced Concepts Office, whose entire function seems to be dreaming up things you could do in space. Space stations, giant spacecraft, the works. (5R per die, 0/150, will occasionally provide a new Program to pursue based on brainstorming and priorities)
Science (2 dice)
[ ] Improved Instrumentation Development (Tech) [AVIONICS] - The scientific instrumentation aboard the IEC's sounding rockets is, to put it frankly, very basic. The rockets aren't that powerful in the grand scheme of things, and while your scientists have already figured out how to put approximately two more instruments (a geiger counter and a magnetic field measurement device) on your next launches, they would like time to develop a more comprehensive suite that could be used on a larger rocket. (5R per dice, 0/100, improves scientific outcomes from Sounding Rockets)
[ ] Exploratory Propellant Research (Phase 1) [CHEM] - A group of chemists attached to the IEC came to you with a proposal to conduct an exhaustive campaign characterizing just about as many propellants as they could come up with. While expensive, and dangerous, and potentially deadly, the knowledge gained could also be invaluable for nailing down mixtures and ratios of fuels that could help the IEC achieve its objectives. (15R per dice, 0/150, unlocks fuel mixtures and further fuel development)
[ ] Tracking Station Surveys - In order to support tracking and communication with long-range and orbital rocketry and experiments, you would need a network of tracking stations placed basically across the world. A survey would be conducted to find the most opportune locations for tracking station placement, prior to construction. (5R per dice, 0/150, unlocks Tracking Station Construction project for Facilities)
[ ] Research Program Outreach - Some of your scientists have brought up the idea of reaching out to their peers in other fields to canvas them for interest in conducting experiments in space. You will, of course, need better rockets for many of the experiments they'd want, but maybe that outreach, if properly funded, could net you some more helping hands. (10R per dice, 0/120, gives +2 bonus to 1d4 research areas (including engineering))
[ ] Publications Office - Your scientists really, really want an official (and convenient) way to, in effect, brag to all their colleagues about what they've discovered. The Publications Office will manage the publication of articles to the various scholarly journals attached to the fields the scientists are a part of, so that the scientists themselves don't have to worry about it as much. (Gain Publications Office, providing +1 bonus to all research fields, with a 1d2 roll yearly to increase the bonus)
Politics (3 dice, +10 bonus, reroll 1 failure per turn)
[ ] Outcome Surveys - In order to get a better handle on exactly what the various councils, committees, and the general public wanted out of the IEC, your staff thinks a survey should be conducted. They'll go out to the various bodies that voted for your creation - and even those who voted against - and see what they'd like to see investigated. (5R per dice, 0/120, get concrete goals to work towards)
[ ] Shaking Trees - Your current budget is set for the next year, and there's not much you can do about it. However, you can attempt to go around to the various demilitarization projects and see if they've got any more tools and parts (and spare booster rockets) lying around before they get turned into scrap. (5R per dice, 0/100, variable reward)
[ ] Outreach Program - One of the groups of people who'd attached themselves to your office were former PR spokesmen for one of the old corporations. They proposed building up a PR office and outreach program to help educate and excite the public about space - which would directly affect your funding and political support. (10R per dice, open Public Affairs Office, gain Outreach actions)
[ ] A Helping Hand - You will need someone to help you manage all the paperwork and personnel assignments pertinent to running the IEC. The People's Forum hadn't assigned you an Assistant Director - so you'd need to find one yourself. (Free, autosuccess, roll for quality. Triggers Assistant Director subvote. Unlocks Focuses when AD is chosen.)
[ ] The People's Program - You would have to be stupid, unobservant or actively unaware to not know how much of a problem ethnic tensions were becoming. You had the unique capacity, as a flagship global program, to help bridge gaps and douse the flames. Instruct your people to hire for both talent and diversity. Let the people of the world know that their space program represented all of them. (Autosucceeds, rolls for quality/effort outcome)
12 Hour Moratorium for discussion!
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