one of the many casualties of the superweapon vs nuclear weapon War In My QM Notes which the superweapons conclusively won im afraid Ish. Most nations can procure some amount of plutonium, but the process is hard and a lot of effort and at this point solar power + battery is just cheaper for most applications*, so few countries bother with it overly much.
(In general, I'm still not super sold on nuclear weapons being present or nearly as developed as IRL, because we have to explain Strangereal's love of humongous superweapons somehow over the other option of "build endless arrays of nuclear missiles" like what happened in arms races IRL)
ANEA is trying to help - it's just that a lot of those engineers came in expecting to talk about "how do we get this railgun to fire better and faster" and the current project is talking about "so how do we ship these extremely custom parts from one of the like three factories on the continent that can produce this tolerance over a big fucking desert in a short timeframe".
edit: I do intend to update within about eight hours, and I'm willing to doublepost if necessary - I'd just prefer if it didn't come to that.
one of the many casualties of the superweapon vs nuclear weapon War In My QM Notes which the superweapons conclusively won im afraid Ish. Most nations can procure some amount of plutonium, but the process is hard and a lot of effort and at this point solar power + battery is just cheaper for most applications*, so few countries bother with it overly much.
(In general, I'm still not super sold on nuclear weapons being present or nearly as developed as IRL, because we have to explain Strangereal's love of humongous superweapons somehow over the other option of "build endless arrays of nuclear missiles" like what happened in arms races IRL)
My headcanon is that "burst" missiles are actually some sort of weird exotic-physics reaction that creates a fireball like a very small tactical nuke, but is self-limiting enough that it can't be scaled up like a true nuclear weapon. And without fallout.
Thus, burst warheads fill the niche of tactical nukes ("what you use if you are willing to escalate to a situation where both sides start dying very fast, because you want to kill that hardened target over there"), but thermonuclear bombs are the thing that causes widespread devastation. Burst missiles are bad but don't cause that much worse mass destruction than, say, fuel-air bombs or cluster bombs necessarily, whereas "nukes" are generally imagined to mean megaton-range fusion bombs with intense radioactive fallout.
Everyone hesitates to deploy burst missiles almost as much as nukes in real life, and not everyone even has them, but they don't have enough of a destructive footprint to immediately end a war in a single missile barrage the way thermonuclear bombs do.
They're also hella expensive, of course, probably actually more expensive to make than IRL nuclear weapons.
___________________
[I say this because come on, burst missiles do not act like any normal conventional explosive weapon, period. The ability to create giant fireballs hovering in midair is typical of a small nuke]
ANEA is trying to help - it's just that a lot of those engineers came in expecting to talk about "how do we get this railgun to fire better and faster" and the current project is talking about "so how do we ship these extremely custom parts from one of the like three factories on the continent that can produce this tolerance over a big fucking desert in a short timeframe".
Yup, thats a problem alright. I've heard from the WW2 channel run by Indy that the Italians had a similar problem. In the sands of Northern Africa, Italian High Command figured they could send their armored forces to develop their doctrine. Unfortunately, they quickly discovered that their logistical train cannot support the tanks need for such developed force unable to properly combat the British.
Of course, the British circumvented this problem by having tons of supply depots, with tons upon tons of cargo trucks crossing the sands each day. Much different problem then what the boys down at Stonehenge are having, I suspect... Do we have blimps?
Yup, thats a problem alright. I've heard from the WW2 channel run by Indy that the Italians had a similar problem. In the sands of Northern Africa, Italian High Command figured they could send their armored forces to develop their doctrine. Unfortunately, they quickly discovered that their logistical train cannot support the tanks need for such developed force unable to properly combat the British.
Of course, the British circumvented this problem by having tons of supply depots, with tons upon tons of cargo trucks crossing the sands each day. Much different problem then what the boys down at Stonehenge are having, I suspect... Do we have blimps?
[X] Plan Hello Estovakia My Old Friend, Semifinal Version
-[X] Directives:
--[X] Logistics personnel are to begin planning requirements for their own activities based around a 40-hour workweek, with variable amounts of overtime. Between now and February 14th, Logistics personnel are forbidden from working more than 10 hours of overtime. Overtime is under no circumstances to be considered mandatory during this timeframe.
--[X] Daniel Snow, personally, is ordered to take tomorrow off, sleep, see a doctor, and sleep. Snow is expressly forbidden from taking overtime between now and February 14th. -[X] IC Budget:
--[X] Aerospace Procurement:Major success. Objectives achieved at sticker cost within February 14th.
---[X] Up to 16000 IC for 4 F-35C before February 14th. Cost overruns acceptable to avoid delay.
---[X] 7000 IC and 5 Alien Alloy for 5 EMLs. First two needed ASAP to equip Azdaha, delays acceptable on the others.
---[X] Up to 3000 IC to refill our ADMM stockpiles.
---[X] 7200 IC for 3 F-14Xs. Delays acceptable.
---[X] 15000 IC for 1 CFA-44 Nosferatu. Delays acceptable, but try to play on our relationship with Albastru-Electrice as a good customer to get bumped up the wait list.
---[X] Operation Neighborhood Watch, Phase 2: Up to 500 IC budget. Launch substantial numbers of polar-orbiting reconnaissance satellites over Belka, to recapture the kind of data we obtained from "Phase 1" a couple of weeks ago. Gather information on the Belkan war mobilization.
---[X] Unconventional Airlift Requirements Study: Low-budget. Find out requirements for heavy-lift and cargo aircraft from the Stonehenge project and our researchers' salvage operations. What do we need, and what will it cost us?
----[X] Superheavy skycranes were used to build the Lighthouse and then dismantled. Is it possible that some of the parts or operators are still to be found somewhere around Selatapura? This could help us get started. --[X] Base and Logistical Expansion:Success. All goals accomplished, although Defense-critical installations are delayed.
---[X] 7200 IC for Build Industry (Planes). Delays acceptable.
---[X] 2000 IC for backup power generating capacity and fuel/parts stockpiles to run it. Minor inefficiencies tolerable. Significant delays tolerable. Priorities for the equipment, in order:
----[X] Selatapura Air Command
----[X] Fort Grays Air Base
----[X] Defense-critical installations throughout Selatapura city --[X] Development and Relief Aid:Slight failure. Only 8000IC makes it into the project proper. Industrial building efforts mostly succeed, except where it exceeds the ability to Estovakia and Voslage to actually use the IC.
---[X] General Directive: As a practical matter, all these projects should be considered in terms of "just get the funds out and keep the balls rolling as best you can." Inefficiency in actually banking IC towards completion of the project is acceptable, as long as nobody starves to death because of it. This is to prevent our people working themselves to death trying to micromanage everything. We want to minimize inefficiency, but subject to the constraints of the work hour requirements set for this week in the directives.
---[X] 10000 IC to the Dashau Resurgence Project.
---[X] 2400 IC for Build Industry (Estovakia)
---[X] 2400 IC for Build Energy Production (Estovakia)
---[X] 3000 IC for Build Industry (Voslage)
"Long Caster," Daniel Snow starts. His body rocks forward, he holds his hand up to his head, but he grits his teeth under some amount of pain. "I...can't do that," he says. "There's still so...so much we have to do," he said, knuckles gripped white.
"You can do that," Long Caster said, leaning in, "because I'm ordering you to. Take today off. Take tomorrow off. No overtime for a week, just get yourself back together."
"B-but...I can still work," Daniel Snow said, gritting your teeth.
"Like that, Daniel? Seriously?" Long Caster said. "Look at yourself!"
"Sorry, sir," Daniel said, rigidly standing up, "but I can't comply with that order. I'll get your orders done, Commander, sir," Daniel saluted, red eyes tearing up around the corners.
"Lieutenant Snow, so help me, if you go through with this I will confine you to your room without work," Long Caster said.
"Do what you must," Daniel said, stiffly turning his back.
"Sir, our autopsies of the alien specimen has been completed. What we have found of the small humanoid aliens, which the research team has currently assigned the label of "Sectoid", has...disturbing implications.
"The most noteworthy conclusion our research team has found is a means for these sectoids to communicate in a complete sensory void; frankly, it seems like telepathy, and moreover it has its strongest reaction to a select few individuals on our base. Somehow, the surviving alien specimen we have recovered always exhibits a massive spike in brain activity whenever one of our special individuals moves closer to the alien, or even so much as pays attention to them.
"If I may be so bold, sir, I would say that this signifies that the aliens are, for lack of a better word, functionally telepathic, and that some of our ace pilots may be telepathic to some degree as well. I...well, frankly, I have little idea of how we would manage to test something like psychic ability, but clearly according to reports it exists to some degree.
"Moving on, the second set of conclusions our research team made was about the genetic composition of these aliens - namely, how similar they are. Normally, within a species, even with a 99% match within species there should still be some genetic markers that vary between species. We saw implausibly small amounts of genetic variation - far too low to be natural. Without knowing how these aliens reproduce, it would be too early to draw conclusions, although our best evidence is pointing in the direction of cloning.
"A third, tangential conclusion is that the genetic data recovered from alien fighter fluid does not match this alien's genetic code - which is, of course, something else worth investigating.
"In terms of additional information, their tremendously oversized brains relative to the rest of their body lends credence to the idea that these sectoids were not naturally born; it is furthermore reinforced by the biomechanical brain implants we have found in their brain matter that shows little signs of recent surgeries. Either we must believe that the alien medical technologies are so advanced as to make a recent surgery invisible, or that they can implant augments in early cranial development. Neither is a particularly comforting thought.
"As a result of some brainwave testing, we've discovered that a certain combination of radio waves and magnetic fields greatly impairs their ability to, for lack of a better word, sense our pilots; however, our...I cannot believe I am saying this...our telepathically-inclined pilots also exhibit some small headaches as existing in the same region of this device, with more pronounced effects the more sensitive a pilot is."
"As such, Commander, we are requesting a new assignment."
Psi-Jammer Pods unlocked! Can be fitted on planes as an SP. Weapon. Costs 10IC each.
[][ResearchA] Sectoid Framework[20/???]
"Commander, with the revelation that these aliens are telepathic to some degree, we would like to analyze the metal structures surrounding the aliens in the Bulb Ships - they may have some insights we lack." [][ResearchA] Fighter Alien Analysis [0/???]
"Commander, we would like to examine the genetic structure of the aliens in the fighter jets. Due to the lack of an intact specimen, we suspect this would be quite difficult; however, given the possible value we could discover by analyzing their remains, we feel obligated to at least mention the possibility." [][ResearchA] Strange Machinery [0/???]
"Commander, we've picked up the notes from Burns, and we concur; this behavior is very strange, and we would like to investigate why the magnetic fields seem much stronger than they should be." [][ResearchA] Toroidal Energy Storage [0/??]
"Commander, with the properties of these alien alloys, we would like to explore a potential application for incredible amounts of energy storage." [][ResearchA] Alien Alloy Fabrication [20/160]
"Commander, frankly, I would feel remiss not putting this option up there. We have such an incredible surfeit of Alien Alloy that it is a travesty that we very nearly cannot use any of it due to our inability to shape it to our needs. With your permission, sir, our research team can rectify that."
"Long Caster, you've made your point. Please, let me out of this room," Daniel begged.
"No."
"Come on, I got the point! Besides, this is like imprisonment or something, and at least prisoners get one phone call! Come on, give me something to do!"
"Prisoners don't use phone calls to try and keep working after their superiors explicitly order them to stop working," Long Caster replied.
"Bullshit," Daniel Snow said.
"Okay, fine, my unruly subordinates who can't be trusted with devices lest they work themselves to death don't get phone calls to try and keep working after their boss tells them to stop working!"
"But this room is so goddamn boring! This is like solitary confinement, which is a torture or something!"
"Count probably agrees," Long Caster said, thumbing over to another report.
"So will you let me have something to do other than stare at the window?"
"Long Caster," Daniel Snow starts. His body rocks forward, he holds his hand up to his head, but he grits his teeth under some amount of pain. "I...can't do that," he says. "There's still so...so much we have to do," he said, knuckles gripped white.
"You can do that," Long Caster said, leaning in, "because I'm ordering you to. Take today off. Take tomorrow off. No overtime for a week, just get yourself back together."
"B-but...I can still work," Daniel Snow said, gritting your teeth.
"Like that, Daniel? Seriously?" Long Caster said. "Look at yourself!"
"Sorry, sir," Daniel said, rigidly standing up, "but I can't comply with that order. I'll get your orders done, Commander, sir," Daniel saluted, red eyes tearing up around the corners.
"Lieutenant Snow, so help me, if you go through with this I will confine you to your room without work," Long Caster said.
"Do what you must," Daniel said, stiffly turning his back.
Daniel Snow's commitment to duty will make him very powerful just as soon as he recovers from the ravages of his own excessive commitment to duty. Though given just how blunt he was when we made a plan that overworked his people to literally impossible degree, I wasn't expecting it to be this hard to get him to sleep.
"Sir, our autopsies of the alien specimen has been completed. What we have found of the small humanoid aliens, which the research team has currently assigned the label of "Sectoid", has...disturbing implications.
"The most noteworthy conclusion our research team has found is a means for these sectoids to communicate in a complete sensory void; frankly, it seems like telepathy, and moreover it has its strongest reaction to a select few individuals on our base. Somehow, the surviving alien specimen we have recovered always exhibits a massive spike in brain activity whenever one of our special individuals moves closer to the alien, or even so much as pays attention to them.
"In terms of additional information, their tremendously oversized brains relative to the rest of their body lends credence to the idea that these sectoids were not naturally born...
Alternate hypothesis, devil's advocacy: what if they hatch from eggs or something? Or go through a larval stage of having proportionately much smaller brains before attaining this size? Their lack of reproductive organs (I presume) would be stronger evidence for this hypothesis than "their heads are too big."
"As a result of some brainwave testing, we've discovered that a certain combination of radio waves and magnetic fields greatly impairs their ability to, for lack of a better word, sense our pilots; however, our...I cannot believe I am saying this...our telepathically-inclined pilots also exhibit some small headaches as existing in the same region of this device, with more pronounced effects the more sensitive a pilot is."
"As such, Commander, we are requesting a new assignment."
Psi-Jammer Pods unlocked! Can be fitted on planes as an SP. Weapon. Costs 10IC each.
Ooooh, that's a toughie. A weapon that would have to be fitted in place of things like an EML, and that is actively counterproductive for our aces.
@huhYeahGoodPoint , what's the cutoff threshold? Which pilots are feeling the effects? All our SSRs, probably. The SS's? S-rankers? A-rankers?
Anyway, definitive confirmation that it's NOT sectoids in teh fighter aircraft.
...
Since this is the de facto xenobiology group under Vahlen, I say we pick:
[X][ResearchA] Sectoid Framework[20/???]
"Commander, with the revelation that these aliens are telepathic to some degree, we would like to analyze the metal structures surrounding the aliens in the Bulb Ships - they may have some insights we lack."
Though, uh, since ResearchC should be working on Cyclonic Accelerators, @huhYeahGoodPoint , I'm a bit confused about that still being an option on offer?
"But this room is so goddamn boring! This is like solitary confinement, which is a torture or something!"
"Count probably agrees," Long Caster said, thumbing over to another report.
"So will you let me have something to do other than stare at the window?"
Long Caster: "Take some sleeping pills and get some fucking sleep."
...
Anyway.
I seriously wouldn't mind letting him have something that isn't work, like a Playstation or something. Set of weights. Hobby equipment. Stack of books- even books related to work as long as he isn't actively keeping himself awake with them.
"Long Caster," Daniel Snow starts. His body rocks forward, he holds his hand up to his head, but he grits his teeth under some amount of pain. "I...can't do that," he says. "There's still so...so much we have to do," he said, knuckles gripped white.
"You can do that," Long Caster said, leaning in, "because I'm ordering you to. Take today off. Take tomorrow off. No overtime for a week, just get yourself back together."
"B-but...I can still work," Daniel Snow said, gritting your teeth.
"Like that, Daniel? Seriously?" Long Caster said. "Look at yourself!"
"Sorry, sir," Daniel said, rigidly standing up, "but I can't comply with that order. I'll get your orders done, Commander, sir," Daniel saluted, red eyes tearing up around the corners.
"Lieutenant Snow, so help me, if you go through with this I will confine you to your room without work," Long Caster said.
"Do what you must," Daniel said, stiffly turning his back.
"The most noteworthy conclusion our research team has found is a means for these sectoids to communicate in a complete sensory void; frankly, it seems like telepathy, and moreover it has its strongest reaction to a select few individuals on our base. Somehow, the surviving alien specimen we have recovered always exhibits a massive spike in brain activity whenever one of our special individuals moves closer to the alien, or even so much as pays attention to them.
"If I may be so bold, sir, I would say that this signifies that the aliens are, for lack of a better word, functionally telepathic, and that some of our ace pilots may be telepathic to some degree as well. I...well, frankly, I have little idea of how we would manage to test something like psychic ability, but clearly according to reports it exists to some degree.
"As a result of some brainwave testing, we've discovered that a certain combination of radio waves and magnetic fields greatly impairs their ability to, for lack of a better word, sense our pilots; however, our...I cannot believe I am saying this...our telepathically-inclined pilots also exhibit some small headaches as existing in the same region of this device, with more pronounced effects the more sensitive a pilot is."
"Long Caster, you've made your point. Please, let me out of this room," Daniel begged.
"No."
"Come on, I got the point! Besides, this is like imprisonment or something, and at least prisoners get one phone call! Come on, give me something to do!"
"Prisoners don't use phone calls to try and keep working after their superiors explicitly order them to stop working," Long Caster replied.
"Bullshit," Daniel Snow said.
"Okay, fine, my unruly subordinates who can't be trusted with devices lest they work themselves to death don't get phone calls to try and keep working after their boss tells them to stop working!"
Can we like, fit the Psi-jammer to a drone? So as to make the craziest maneuvers that will evade as many shots as possible, and stay in the vicinity of the alien fighters while we shoot them down from afar?
Hey, we could even get the Psi-jammer drones as a first wave attack, the Aces following behind while the other shoot from afar with EML's.
Hard to tell. Your SSR-tier aces describe it as a headache. Mobius One described it as a buzzing, staticy noise. Blaze described it as "a sparky kind of headache", while Trigger felt the need to conspicuously stretch out, and wrote out "feeling constricted". Bringing in the SS-rankers made them go "huh, something's weird, but I don't know what", and your S-Rankers are about even on whether they react to it.
Completely incidentally, Dr. Shen's migraines have flared up for no discernible reason.
Though, uh, since ResearchC should be working on Cyclonic Accelerators, @huhYeahGoodPoint , I'm a bit confused about that still being an option on offer?
I keep saying it and I'm not going to stop saying it. This is keystone tech. It makes everything else easier: Cyclonic Accelerators benefit, Toroidal Energy Storage benefits, Strange Machinery - all benefit from being able to better work with Alien Alloy.
"Like I said, I'm ok Mommy, Daddy. I'm like, at work here in Selatapura and Dashau, collecting information I could use for the next game's plot," Annabelle Scarborough, Goddess of the Programmers and Chief Creative Officer of Tracers in the Sky, said into her cellphone while sitting at a table in one of Selatapura's Hawker Centers.
In front of her lay a half filled bowl of Wanton Mee, and beside it was an opened notebook filled with the pencil written results of her questioning of refugees, non-governmental organization members and government personnel, as well as her observations of the refugee resettlement of Erusean civilians to Dashau. And under her, beside her feet, lay her backpack.
"What about the person I wanted to interview? Actually I like still haven't gone and asked at Selatapura Air Command. When I got here and like, saw the news about the refugees, I got seriously inspired. So I like, went towards the refugee columns. Followed them to the camps. Interviewed people after people. And now, I like, am seriously thinking up something good. Something that is like…seriously controversial. But enough about me. Mommy, Daddy, are you two safe? Belka is like, about to declare war on all its neighbors, right?"
Annabelle listened to her mother's reply, and then nodded.
"Ok, if that is what Major General Delacroix said. Stay safe Mommy, Daddy…no, it's not like that! I just like, had a great idea at the time - Daddy, stop saying you will beat Mr. Pixy up! Seriously! Bye Daddy! Bye Mommy! See you later!"
Annabelle turned off the call and pouted while returning to eating her Wanton Mee.
Minutes later Annabelle finished her Wanton Mee and returned to her notebook.
"Ok. What should I like, call this new country that broke up into pieces? Hmm…Erusea…Rusa…Yusa…Yuga…Yugo…Yugobana…Yugoslavia…hey, that sounds good."
Annabelle quickly wrote down the word Yugoslavia in her notebook and then encircled it and underlined it.
"Tracers in the Sky: Yugoslavia. Coming soon, after Belkan War."
Annabelle packed up her notebook and pencil into her backpack, and then wore it on her back.
She stood up from her chair, took several deep breaths before talking to herself.
"Ok, Annie girl. It's like, seriously, showtime. Shyness away, let's finally go meet Mr. Pixy. SQUEEEEEE."
With those words said, Annabelle walked out of the Hawker center and went towards the direction of Selatapura Air Command.
Vote-wise....we need Alloys ASAP. [X][ResearchA] Alien Alloy Fabrication [20/160]
"Commander, frankly, I would feel remiss not putting this option up there. We have such an incredible surfeit of Alien Alloy that it is a travesty that we very nearly cannot use any of it due to our inability to shape it to our needs. With your permission, sir, our research team can rectify that."
Hard to tell. Your SSR-tier aces describe it as a headache. Mobius One described it as a buzzing, staticy noise. Blaze described it as "a sparky kind of headache", while Trigger felt the need to conspicuously stretch out, and wrote out "feeling constricted". Bringing in the SS-rankers made them go "huh, something's weird, but I don't know what", and your S-Rankers are about even on whether they react to it.
Completely incidentally, Dr. Shen's migraines have flared up for no discernible reason.
Gotta try to ask what Ciph- El Cero feels around that thing. Given that you said he reached even further beyond SSR one time over the Dam, he may or may not have a different reaction from SSR folks.
Also, what about our other officers? Have we tried testing it on Daniel, or LC himself?
edit2: Shen is lister as SSR-tier engineer. Avril is listed as SSR-tier mechanic. We should test this thing on Avril too, for science.
The biggest issue in commercializing fusion is material science. The walls tend to vaporize and infect the plasma with heavy ions that cool it way down, that's why we're spending so much time and money fucking around with magnetic confident research: keeping the plasma way from the walls.
MHA doesn't have that issue: it's made of Hydrogen, and it's stupid strong to boot, so not only would vaporization from the reactor walls be reduced, but it wouldn't really cool off the plasma because it's just more hydrogen ions. And we can also generate stronger magnetic fields to boot with it.
We can also eliminate the need for radiation shielding due to MHAs composition being perfect for thermalizing neutrons, and we don't need to worry about cryogenic cooling for the magnets because room temperature superconductor.
And heat transfer is also trivialized because MHAs are thermal superconductors.
Plus, fusion is inherently fail-safe and doesn't reply on a supply of uranium from Belkan mines.
edit: Imagine refitting an Arsenal Bird with an onboard fusion reactor instead of microwave receiver and flying it across the ocean to Belka.
Are we going to have to order him to specifically lay down and stay in bed or something? Holy shit we underestimated how much of a workaholic Daniel Snow is.
Can we like, fit the Psi-jammer to a drone? So as to make the craziest maneuvers that will evade as many shots as possible, and stay in the vicinity of the alien fighters while we shoot them down from afar?
Hey, we could even get the Psi-jammer drones as a first wave attack, the Aces following behind while the other shoot from afar with EML's.
This is XCOM. Where are our MEC/SHIV/HWP analogues?
Psi-jammer drones sound like a good idea. Thinking about it, Hammer and Nail doctrine would probably work with swarms of expendable drones to pin down ayys, as opposed to nigh irreplaceable ace pilots. Less worries about friendly fire, since no one's going to care about losing a few drones.
Are we going to have to order him to specifically lay down and stay in bed or something? Holy shit we underestimated how much of a workaholic Daniel Snow is.
I think it would be best to give him some form of entertainment/relaxation, as long as it doesn't enable workaholic tendencies. We literally locked him up in a room with nothing to do except sleep, that's going to leave him with the itch to do something, even if it isn't work. Give him a TV, books, whatever, so he has something to focus his mind on other than work and can actually unwind a bit.
Give him some fucking kiddie video game - like the equivalent of those V-Tech "consoles" IRL.
It gives him something to do, but we don't need him to do something we need him to sleep. Hopefully, the monotony of such a video game would make him decide to sleep.
