Mobile Suit Gundam: Pax Iove (An Original Gundam AU Advisorquest)

Bonus update because it's not Gundam without a few pieces of pre-planned handwavium. Here's a bit of how ships can get to and from the Kuiper Belt without Earth running low on hydrazine.

Science Corner: the Impulse Drive

The reactionless quantum foam impeller - usually just called an impulse drive - is the primary means of propulsion used by spacecraft. Its development in the early days of space colonisation allowed for the rapid expansion of humanity through the solar system - in particular, making spacecraft no longer restricted by needing to carry large amounts of fuel and reaction mass.

Despite the name, it is not truly "reactionless", and does not violate the conservation of momentum. The drive functions by perturbing the structure of space behind the craft, which in turn produces a "wake" of relatively long-lived exotic particles; these wake particles interfere with electromagnetic fields, until eventually decaying into a distinctive spectrum of photons. Due to the potential navigational hazards of wake particles, highly trafficked areas typically have restrictions on acceleration to avoid excess contamination. Without constant perturbation, wake effects fade from an area in a matter of hours, with the longest-lived wake particle having an estimated half-life of just under three hours.

These interference patterns have significantly impacted the development of other technologies. Spacecraft are essentially unable to send signals opposite their direction of acceleration, meaning that ships cannot receive remote telemetry from either their port of origin or their destination during primary impulse. This makes coordination of trajectories extremely important, and ships are required by law to carry powerful navigational computers which can not only calculate their own route but that of anything else that might intersect it, based on information given prior to receiving burn authorisation; many craft carry pre-impulse maneuvering thrusters in order to perform emergency evasive maneuvers without blinding themselves or nearby ships.

The development of the impulse drive has also essentially eliminated the use of remote weapons, even at distances where communications delay would be negligible. A manually operated machine can be shielded from wake effects and utilise an impulse drive, but a remotely operated machine is likely to cut off its own signal, meaning that any such weapon would need to use pre-impulse propulsion, limiting its range and runtime, and burdening it with the extra mass of its fuel. Worse, it would still be vulnerable to any hostile impulse wakes, created by machines without the previously-mentioned weaknesses.

The impulse drive has substantial limitations when used in a significant atmosphere; in addition to the typical wake, the presence of a fluid instead of simple vacuum produces powerful and unpredictable hydraulic effects, which tear most conventional impulse drives to pieces before they can build significant momentum. Reinforced drives which function in atmosphere can be built, but they are substantially less efficient. Surface-capable ships will typically not use impulse in a planetary atmosphere, instead attaching reusable liquid-fuel boosters to exit the atmosphere, then detaching the booster to switch to impulse.

Research mechanics as I get the office turn ready.

As Coordinator of Research, you have two primary means of fulfilling your objectives - performing the research yourself, or contracting it out to the Institutes. Researching something yourself will take more direct involvement, have more steps, and occupy more of your assets, but will also give you full control over the results (and full responsibility for the failures); giving grants or offering bounties to the Institutes will only cost you Resources, but will cut into Influence rewards and can be very expensive.

Contracting: Grants and Bounties

Grant Proposals use substantial amounts of Resources, but require no Workforce and cost no Office Actions. Individual Institutes will send in proposals that match whatever your official priorities are every turn, and you can request additional proposals on the topic of your choice with an Official Action and some Influence. They will progress quickly and need no oversight, but you'll have limited control over the results - the legacy of Bayh-Dole is unfortunately alive and well on Quaoar, and it's something you'll need to pry from the Institutes' cold, dead hands. (And for some of them, "cold, dead" aren't even enough.)

Complementing Grant Proposals are Bounties, which cost only an Office Action to initiate - but are very expensive later on. Bounties take a concrete objective and promise an award for anyone who can accomplish it; if no one succeeds, you don't have to pay anything, but a bounty is generally more expensive than a grant for the same task, and you might need to pay out for multiple successes - even if you can weasel all but one out of Resources, it'll take some Influence to get the other would-be winners to back down.

Doing It Yourself

The overall loop of doing your own research is to loop between analysis, experimentation, and development, with each phase being a single Office Action - however, it's possible to run different parts concurrently, such as refining a theory through experimentation while also developing a first-generation prototype.

To use the example of the reactor project, if you elect to do it all in-house: you'll first need to do an analysis to find an approach (or approaches) that might work; thankfully the problem is pretty well-defined (you know the approximate size and power output of the reactor, and know it can be accomplished with resources available to Titan) so this will be reasonably straightforward. After identifying potential candidates, you'll need to run actual experiments and see which ones are viable. Experimentation loops back into a new round of analysis - you can elect to refine your model with more experiments, or move into development to make a prototype. Development can also feed back into analysis, of course - you learn different things from full-scale prototyping and production than you do from lab testing, and it might even need new experiments. And once something reaches full deployment, you can expect a steady flow of new data from the people actually using it in the field, again to be fed through the cycle.

The end result is a sort of scientific lemniscate; it's obviously a highly simplified model of how the whole R&D track goes, but I think it's reasonably appropriate for a quest situation. In general, Experiment actions use proportional amounts of Workforce and Resources, Analysis actions are Workforce-heavy, and Development actions are Resources-heavy.

Finally, Administrative actions do not contribute directly to research, but instead turn Resources or Influence into expanding your Workforce or acquiring Assets. They can also trade Resources for Influence or vice-versa, but far from sustainably, so use that option sparingly - you can hardly plead for extra funding from someone and then turn around to write them a cheque!

The Union of Sol is nominally a federal republic based on the Union Spire, a massive colony located Earth-Luna L1. The largest space habitat ever constructed, the Spire is heralded as one of the wonders of modern humanity, and houses not only the Union Assembly but an entire metropolis, supporting not only the government officials but the vast corps of engineers needed to maintain the station and its spaceport.

The Union's core principles are local governance wherever possible, and for local authority to be defined by boundaries which are "scientific, and not arbitrary" - a repudiation of the pre-Union principles of astrocolonialism, where colonies were often primarily controlled by Earth Sphere-based governments or private interests, and apportioned representation, where political divisions within colonies were manipulated to ensure any democratic movements would remain favourable to Earth's interests. The primary political divisions within the Union are the Spheres, consisting of
with an explicit exception removing the Union Spire from the Earth Sphere "in recognition of the coequal status of the Member Worlds of this Union".

Bodies which meet none of these criteria are grouped into a second administrative category, the Belts, defined according to the planets or solar properties which bound their orbits. The most significant Belts are the Mars-Jupiter Belt (locally the Main Belt, Asteroid Belt, or Ceres Belt), the Sol-Mercury Belt (locally the Inner Disc), and the Neptune-Terminus Belt (locally the Outer Reaches or Kuiper Belt).

Seats in the Union Assembly are granted to the Spheres according to their relative population, to be elected by a proportional ballot of registered local political parties. Bodies within a Belt may choose to be counted as part of a bounding Sphere, or to be counted for the Belt as a separate body; however, their relatively small populations rarely make the Belts impactful in the greater Assembly or in local Sphere elections. The 26th Assembly has the seats apportioned to two Belts in their own right, with the rest holding no votes and a single observer's seat.
Seats within each Sphere are elected by a proportional ballot across registered political parties. The Union prohibits parties based in one Sphere from operating in others, but many parties still maintain informal interplanetary associations. While apportionment occurs on five-year cycles, seats often change within those cycles, as local election cycles are not required to correspond to Union apportionment cycles. The allocation of seats within the Belts is often handled by means other than direct proportion, given special Assembly approval; for instance, the Neptune-Terminus Belt allocates three seats to Pluto, three to Quaoar, two to Haumea, and one to the independent stations, even though by overall proportion, the fourth-place party on Pluto would likely beat out the second-place party on Quaoar. The recent settlement of Eris has no formal representation on the Assembly, and will not until the apportionment for the 27th Assembly to enter effect in 135.

The Assembly only has a few explicit legislative powers, with most belonging to the recognised government of each Sphere or celestial body. In particular, a vote in the Assembly is necessary to formally establish a new colony on any body, recognise a given institution as a body's government, or authorise the use of military force. Both of these issues were central to the deadlock over the Titanite revolt, as the "anti-spherian" parties tried to invoke procedures to recognise Titan as a new colony but could not muster the votes, while the "spherian" parties could likewise not gain the necessary support to declare Titan in revolt and authorise the use of force. The Union also has control over the provision of vital resources - energy, food, and raw materials necessary for the survival of a colony, as opposed to those that are used for expansion or profit, and the protection of basic human rights of all citizens. The Union has the responsibility to maintain and supply each Sphere and Belt's respective Home Fleets, again prioritising resources according to population.

Recognising that a full vote in the Assembly may not be able to accurately respond to an urgent crisis or complex developing situation, especially on worlds where there is a significant communications delay, the Union established the office of Governor Plenipotentiary. These Governors, acting as an appointed representative of the Assembly on each Sphere, are authorised to act with the voice of the Assembly for swift response when requested by the local government or by declaring a formal state of emergency. While the Governor Plenipoteniary is not a Sphere's head of state, and holds no powers outside such situations, they hold substantial influence and are often considered an informal representative of the Union in their Spheres. Growing influence of the Governor Plenipotentiary both led to and escalated the Titanite conflict; protests originally focused on the Union's apparent favouritism of Gov. Ppt. Wenceslaus Urwan's home moon of Tethys, and it was Urwan who ordered the assault on and bombardment of Titan. Citing the relativistic bombardment of Titan as a humanitarian crisis, it was Jovian Gov. Ppt. Marian Bullock who likewise authorised the intervention of the Jupiter Sphere Home Fleet. Both Governors were recalled to the Earth Sphere to account for their actions, but owing to the persistent deadlock in the Assembly, neither was dismissed from their post - however, Urwan elected to resign his post and return to his estate on Tethys.

[X]Plan: Professional Courtesy
-[X] Hypatia. One Consul to another. (When in doubt, mimic.)
-[X] [HoO] Don't bargain with Hargreaves.
-[X] [CEQ] Persuade de la Fuente that Jovian mobile suit imports might threaten local stable suit manufacturers. (DC 30 Stewardship check; -1 Influence on failure)
-[X] [FR] Bargain for Whipporwhil's support by committing to issue a report on potential Kilauea refits this turn.

Your headquarters is only a short ride from the Consulate chamber. The Governmental Research Office is a squat complex of multiple branching towers, linking six suspended glass ellipsoids; the sides and panes decorated to make it resemble a giant silver bonsai looming over Chuong Memorial Promenade. Originally built as an exhibition hall and luxury hotel when Toypurina was still Kunwarland, it was spared the worst of the Long Sunday fighting and briefly served as the provisional government's seat while the Consulate and House campus was under construction.

Your own office sits at the east end of the tallest bubble; as you enter, you are greeted by a panoramic view of Toypurina below and the stars above. You'd seen it before, in the background of a video call with your predecessors; before that, as a child watching science videos hosted by a misty-eyed man with a kind voice and strange jokes. The idea that the office is yours now still seems alien, and for a moment, you stand dumbly in the doorway, staring at the heavy desk in the room's centre.

You shake your head and kick off the floor, coasting across the office to land on the far side of the desk. It's a solid, boxy thing, though you could probably lift it effortlessly in Quaoar's meagre gravity. A small bronze plaque identifies it as authentic Earth pine - like as not, it had come with the original colonists. You tap the surface, and a large display slides up from the surface, then two smaller ones unfold from its back. A quick fingerprint scan, and the computer swings fully to life - presenting you with a full view of the mess that is your official inbox.

You pull out your chair, but before you sit down, you notice a smooth black box on the seat. A small, handwritten note is stuck to the bottom - "good luck, skipper", and a mess of tiny signatures of crew and maintenance staff. You pry the box open; inside is a fist-sized model Palomar, painted in Belogradchik's civilian colours. Behind the clear resin observation dome, the bridge is a bustle of miniature activity; a tiny Beltane and Karpiel are playing cards, while MacNeill strikes an old dance pose, microphone in hand, and Pruthi is disassembling one of the terminals. In the centre, a miniature version of you sits in the captain's chair, head in her hands.

You shake your head, blink back a stray tear, and set the model on top of your desk, just a little off to the left. You lean back in your chair, and suddenly feel watched.

On the far wall, above the door, hang portraits of your predecessors - not photographs, but paintings, all by strikingly different artists. Kriemhilding's friendly but austere smile is unmistakable, the only curve in the vivid neo-Cubist portrait that blends his dark skin with the night sky, his nose with Ti'at, and his eyes with Weywot and the distant shape of Sol. To his left stands a full-body classical portrait of Coumbassa, clad in an ornate silk robe and carrying a blazing astrolabe-lantern through a foggy landscape, indistinct figures following behind her. They were the only two you'd ever known in the office. The third painting is a three-coloured landscape depicting two women drifting in a nebula, both in old-style space suits, their faces concealed; the fourth and leftmost, styled after a woodcut print, shows a bright-eyed man holding open his chest like a door, revealing the organs and augmetics within.

The last hangs above the other four. An ink-spatter portrait of a smiling man with smeared eyes and the Research Office building growing from his cupped hands, it is angled slightly differently, as if looking down to meet your eyes as you stare up from the desk. Pulsing light bleeds through faint tears in the canvas, forming a distant starfield behind the man's face. Dario Ngunaitponi's misty eyes are inscrutable and piercing, even as specks of ink, and some part of you rebels at sitting in his seat - but it's your seat now, too, and it would be doing him a greater disservice to leave it empty.

Time to get to work.

Locked Actions:
[x] Analyse potential modifications of the Union Kilauea-class destroyer into a mobile suit carrier. (2 Resources, 8 Workforce)

You have 4/5 Official Actions + 1 Bonus Administrative Action Available
Available Assets:
Occupied Assets: None

Grant Proposals

Your intent to develop a native Quaoarian mobile suit reactor drew the most attention from the Institutes, and a curated list of proposals sits at the top of your inbox, along with notes from your new subordinates.

[ ] Deneb Veight wants to miniaturise a Penning-Mayuga plant. (14 Resources)
Penning-Mayuga annihilation plants are the gold standard of power production - or more properly, of time shifting, storing excess power from nuclear reactors or solar panels as antiprotons and releasing them at a controlled rate into a specialised reactor chamber as needed. With a mass-efficient way to deliver Mercury's vast surplus of solar energy across the solar system, Penning-Mayuga reactors have long been standard for spacecraft, and a firm majority of the ones in the Quaoar Sphere are produced by Deneb Veight. An MPEC standard terawatt-hour cell is efficient, controlled, and safe; the Deneb Veight prototype will be none of these things, but it will fit in a mobile suit.

Rennet-Dawson: It's unlikely the Titanites even tried this solution - they wouldn't have been able to secure enough antimatter without the Union noticing, either through MPEC or a sudden drop in their industrial output. For Jupiter... they could probably do it, but I'm not sure why they would, unless MPEC was giving them a hell of a deal under the table.

Crataegus: The least surprising proposal; though as Deneb Veight's marketing says, "they call us predictable because they know we're reliable". No surprise that they'd want us in bed with MPEC, either. Expect your co-consul Hawthorne to weigh in on this one if it sits in your box too long; Pomelo Veight doesn't own the SPQR but they're certainly willing to rent them.

[ ] Solaris-Yatate wants to modernise a monophase fusion plant. (17 Resources)
Monocycle fusion relies only on hydrogen and helium-3, both abundantly available from the gas giants. Originally widespread due to their lack of dangerous neutron emissions, monocycle plants were gradually phased out in favour of larger multicycle reactors that can utilise those same neutrons. Of course, those are built as massive complexes; even fitting one onto a battleship hull would be an exercise in creative engineering, let alone a mobile suit.

Rennet-Dawson: This is almost certainly what the Titanites and Jovians did. Titan's infrastructure is old enough to have access to plenty of monocycle reactors, and they had plenty of time to experiment on scaling them down. Likewise, helium-3 is cheap on Jupiter, and they certainly have the knowledge and skills to turn out a monophase design quickly. Solaris-Yatate's proposal is... perhaps a bit too ambitious, going beyond repurposing old tech into a purpose-built design with some very bold claims about its potential output. It's on the edge of believable - but not completely impossible.

Crataegus: Expensive for monophase. SY likes to make bold claims with big price tags, and while they usually deliver, there's no need to bet on them at this stage - if you want a fusion plant, it'd be just as easy to build a prototype in-house and then farm it out to them or the rest of the fusion jockeys for production.

[ ] Cocytus Salvage Works wants to repurpose a fission plant. (11 Resources)
While modern fission plants are as safe as any other form of power generation, the use of fissile weapons in the last stages of the Colonial War have revived old fears. Even the Reaches aren't free of them. But the reactors are cheaper to build and easier to compress than fusion counterparts - though burdened by heavy radiation shielding, relatively massive fuel, and the ever-looming question of their dangerous byproducts. Fission plants are generally limited to construction near large deposits of fissile material on rocky bodies, with the Union having phased them out in most other use cases. Cocytus has one of the few remaining dedicated fission research teams in the Reaches - as well as large reserves of nuclear material to fuel their proposed design.

Rennet-Dawson: I'm surprised this is a serious proposal; there's a reason we stopped using fission plants on spacecraft. I shouldn't need to lecture a salvage company on the dangers of high-actinide Kessler events. Then there's the mass economy; fuel and byproducts are heavier than fusion or annihilation, on top of the weight from shielding. I can't see this being a good idea.

Crataegus: The professor's spherian side is showing. Cocytus worked Charon, they know the risks better than we do. Hell, Charon salvage is probably half the materials they want to feed into this project. Still, fissiles are tight this far out - whatever we save in the short term will cost us in the long run, and that's saying nothing of how the spherians will take it. The last thing we need is to hand out a pretext for another Jovian intervention.

[ ] HIEDS wants to develop an experimental wake particle condenser. (12 Resources)
HIEDS has long been a proponent of increased energy independence, if only due to their history with MPEC and the Mercury Sphere; however, the company has struggled to compete at large scale against the energy density of Jovian helium-3 or Mercurian antimatter. When most people think HIEDS, they think of solar stations and fuel cells - vital by any measure, but more suited for civilian infrastructure. Still, they reinvest their profits heavily into fundamental research, making them the second-largest Institute in the energy sector despite their limitations. The proposal is... light on details, referencing a number of ongoing HIEDS internal projects, but...

Obscurantism: Hypatia Learning or Intrigue vs. HIEDS Intrigue

You've worked with HIEDS before - including experiments in deep space with impulse drives. Some of the names on the grant application worked with you on redirecting or trapping wake particles in busy spacelanes or in docking bays, though you'd believed that the project ended with simply improving shielding, rather than attempting to harness the particles as they seem to be proposing here. They seem reasonably confident in the ability to compress the particles into a long-lived, if not stable, form that might be viable for energy storage - but it's also clear that the work is still largely theoretical, and will require a lengthy experimentation process.

Rennet-Dawson: I'll admit, this is a bit beyond me - I've studied the basics of wake effect theory, of course, but beyond the broad strokes, it's a specialty among specialties even at- even on Galatea.

Crataegus: Don't let the price tag fool you - this won't get close to production without a lot more effort on our and their parts. If we're lucky, it will be proof-of-concept work; it could be groundbreaking, or it could be a desperate play from HIEDS to get their name on the project quickly.

Objective: Next-Generation Black Box

"Black boxing" refers to any system designed to prevent tampering or reverse-engineering of a proprietary system. Popularised by Earth's colonial companies, officially to prevent damage, sabotage, and malfunction, early black boxes were heavily criticised in the leadup to the Colonial War as another way of enforcing Earth's control. The technology was appropriated by the Union during Reorganisation, and distributed to the governments of each member colony to secure their own exports.

[ ] Analysis: Acquire Neptunian black boxes from the Galatean refugees and compare them to Quaoar's methods. (5 Resources, 8 Workforce)
[ ] Analysis: Thoroughly review current black boxing technology, production lines, and security protocols. (3 Resources, 6 Workforce)
[ ] Experiment: Authorise aggressive penetration testing on a factory spec TrueGrav unit... (6 Resources, 5 Workforce)
-[ ] ...on Quaoar, at the primary black box repository. (No additional cost, but most likely to draw public scrutiny.)
-[ ] ...on Quaoar, at a secure site your office controls outside Toypurina. (2 Workforce)
-[ ] ...on Ti'at Colony, at a secure site operated by the Fleet. (2 Resources)
-[ ] ...in deep space, on your ship. (Must deploy Belogradchik)
-[ ] ...in deep space, at a secure site operated by Nock and Krauser. (1 Influence)
[ ] Experiment: Perform simulated maneuvers to try and recreate the Titanite trajectories. (7 Resources, 6 Workforce) [Orbital]
[ ] Development: Harden existing black box technology currently in production. (9 Resources, 3 Workforce)
-[ ] Coordination: 2 Resources, 2 Workforce to automatically integrate results of other Analysis/Experiment actions this turn.

Objective: Mobile Suit Production

The current bottleneck in any mobile suit doctrine is access to even basic test models. Quaoar has no shortage of stable suits, but as long as they remain tethered to large stations, only so much can be done to simulate the usage conditions of a true mobile suit - and without the final size and configuration of your reactor, there's not much that can be done to prepare a model for conversion. A conversion to operate on battery power would be straightforward, but even your most generous estimates give an operational time measured in minutes.

[ ] Analysis: Select a paradigm and create an initial design for an in-house reactor prototype. (2 Resources, 9 Workforce)
[ ] Experiment: Test existing stable suit equipment for military applications. (6 Resources, 4 Workforce)
[ ] Experiment: Test current generation neurohaptic interfaces under simulated battle conditions.
[ ] Development: Convert a stable suit frame to a testbed "barely-mobile" suit running on battery power. (9 Resources, 2 Workforce)

Objective: Naval Modernisation

This is mostly Whipporwhil's job, but some of it falls on your office - especially the more theoretical exercises. Quaoar isn't due for a cruiser from the Union at any point in this geological epoch, but the Fleet doesn't like the outcome that Saturn's destroyers and corvettes saw over Titan, and is putting all its weight behind modernisation efforts, even if they depart from Union orthodox doctrine - whatever that ends up being after the dust from Titan settles.

[x] Analysis: Evaluate the conversion of a Kilauea-class destroyer into a mobile suit carrier. (2 Resources, 8 Workforce) [REQUIRED]
[ ] Analysis: Develop a doctrine for a Palomar to deal with mobile suit attacks. (1 Resources, 7 Workforce) [Orbital]

Administration

The running the government is Hoang's job, but running your office still falls on you. With the House apparently coming to take a look at your budget,

[ ] Prepare for the House's budget review.
-[ ] Immediately. (5 Workforce)
-[ ] Gradually. (3 Workforce occupied for the next three turns; only requires an action this turn)
[ ] Issue research bonds. (Gain 5 Resources per 1 Influence spent.)
[ ] Perform contract work. (Gain 1 Resources per 2 Workforce occupied.)
[ ] Host an exposition. (Gain 1 Influence for 7 Resources.)
[ ] Attempt to recruit more research staff. (Spend 1 Influence to potentially increase Workforce.)
[ ] Attempt to recruit more administrative staff. (Spend 1 Influence to potentially increase Official Action count.)

You have 2 Personal Actions
[ ] Assist in an official action. (This will add your personal characteristics to any relevant rolls for that action, and give more involved votes about its progress.)
-[ ] Write-in official action.
[ ] Get to know a subordinate.
-[ ] Ishak Rennet-Dawson, the Galatean professor.
-[ ] Niall Crataegus, the veteran administrator.
-[ ] Xiaoyun Karpiel, your replacement as Belogradchik's captain.
[ ] Work on your personal skills and knowledge.
-[ ] Obtain a stable suit operator certification.
-[ ] Study power generation and distribution systems.
-[ ] Study neurohaptic interfaces and other types of brain-computer integration.
-[ ] Cultivate a different skill. (Write-in activity or topic to try and cultivate into a skill bonus.)
-[ ] Develop an existing skill. (Choose 1 from character sheet's Skills tab. Higher ranks are progressively harder to raise.)
[ ] Perform research into a personal interest (deep space esoterica, orbital research, Adaptives).
-[ ] Study Quaoar's most famous unsolved mystery - its rings. Maybe you'll see something that the Institutes have missed - probably not, but it's tradition.
-[ ] Veight's Folly is technically under your jurisdiction; check in on the outer heliosphere and the Terminus probes.
-[ ] Compile your notes and journals from your work on Belogradchik. It might sell, or prompt more interest in dedicated research ships.
-[ ] You feel something strange at the edge of your mind - and there is only one response when a scientist is confronted with the unknown. Study yourself, and see where it leads.