I do want to have a discussion on some of these options before I vote, despite favoring everything in Plan Slightly Less Discreet Spending, as to avoid making a silly decision simply because no discussion was going on.
Going down the list, Expand Technical Funding does seem like the best choice when put in the context of the first gen suit walking so the second gen suit can run. It clearly states that the extra work done here will help significantly for our next attempt; and I think implicitly it also states that the extra money spent here wont really be worth it for the current suit were building, when looking at a cost-benefit analysis. But again, thats fine, we're still in the phase where technical development is the name of the game.
As for the light laser rifle, the big thing is that its in somewhat of a weird spot doctrinally. I think that, given that the next plan will almost certainly demand a loooot of technical funding to actually expand upon all the theoretical technologies wer are developing, Specialist Unit Issue is the best bet. Two hundred thousand laser rifles is actually a lot of fucking laser rifles; if given to only frontline personnel that's still several armies worth of laser rifles. Ultimately if we get invaded next plan, having more or less laser rifles will probably not actually be that important compared to other, more strategically decisive weapons systems. Hence Specialist Unit Issue.
Id agree with System Defense Optimizations. This looks like by far the most robust variant for turning the ship into an escort ship, which is something we need. While having something that can deploy outside our system would be nice, system defense is and should remain our highest priority right now. We need to operate within our constraints here.
The moon fortification is the one im least sure of. Funding isnt realy an issue now unless we go for the absolutely heaviest fortification option, but thats so attention grabbing I think its super silly. The question is then between the cheapest, most discreet option or the "middle of the road" option. Going for the heavier one to "prevent waste" is a bad argument, but I think that the heavy laser installations still seem to be the most reasonable. We've already had PRLM ships entering our system in an aggressive fashion, and theres reason to believe they might escalate more. Theres a very real chance this moon will get raided even without them knowing about the artifacts. In addition, we arent the only ones that can leak stuff here, so doubling down on trying to be discreet only for the Sovereignty to let something slip would be painful. The heavy laser installations would make their worth known in any scenario except a full invasion fleet, given that we know laser batteries on planetary bodies can easily win most gun duels against ships much more expensive than them. In addition, ultimately this whole thing is about buying time for us too loot the moon. A smaller force is much faster and easier to mobilize than a larger force. I think finally, the fact that there is an explanation for why we're building such heavy defenses that doesnt involve the artifact; the fact that there is a jump point there, adds a lot of robustness to our deception operations. Most people will find the first layer of secrets and be content with it.
Therefor yeah, Id vote for this.
[X] Plan Slightly Less Discreet Spending
-[X] Expand Technical Funding (-100B)
-[X] Specialist Unit Issue
-[X] System Defense Optimizations
-[X] Heavy Laser Installations (-150B)
However, I hope others consider the options in more depth, and hopefully come with some counter arguments somewhere.
