Time to trust in the bunker then.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Given how stupidly durable this thing appears to be, and given that we appear to have removed it from the asteroid it was embedded by repeatedly blowing up the surrounding rock with explosives, I'm pretty sure it can handle our planetary gravity.
If it can't, then we've probably already reduced the internals to confetti by sheer force of dumbass, and so we have little enough to lose.
I stand by this, knowing about the 3 on d100.
- Location
- Northish
Well at least the army and navy got to have fun while our intel department is probably a great asset to the enemy at this point. The cube with that 3 likely had failing anti-matter cells or something.
Turn 10 (42AE): The Threats of Fascism Results
- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Turn 10 (42AE): The Threats of Fascism Results
Budget: 505B Or
Government Support: 65
Cube Analysis:
The mass construction of the bunker facility has started with the digging in of the anti-orbital batteries, ensuring that the entire operation has been kept classified. As far as the briefing for all forces involved the entire project was judged to be for the fortification of a new c3 node to coordinate planetary defense and offer a hard point for resistance. Construction work proceeds along the theme with the development of local defenses prioritized first to minimize the possibility of a contractor leaking any information about the artifact. As far as they knew the massive shafts required to move the cube in along with basing the local air force squadron that was soon to be designed were meant exclusively for airborne defenses.
Delivery of the Cube itself proceeded according to plan with the captain holding to comprehensive communications discipline by blocking off any transmissions from the crew. The men aboard further held firm to their beliefs, especially since they would be the first in the firing line. Where the leak came from despite all careful preparations a moralistically obsessed staffer who believed that the civilian government deserved to know what was going on. In his report to several personnel affiliated with the PDL premiere, he reported that an alien object was found and that it was being transported home. The transmission itself was not caught as a sufficient monitoring system has continuously been underfunded and only a comprehensive algorithmic review caught it six days late.
Some reports have come from several officials associated with the civilian government with at least several representatives ensuring that the matter stayed quiet. Most phrased the matter as something of a civilian inquiry and sent it along the correct channels ensuring that at least the majority of the civilian government were not idiots. Several representatives have effectively been placed under house arrest as the crisis sorts itself out with the immediate preventative arrest and complete confinement of anyone involved on the staff end. This has left the army with the questionable decision of what to do with them, as tempting as it would be to charge them all for treason that will likely cause an entirely different relationship with the civilian government than has so far been cultivated.
[]Debrief the Government: The newly seated government is going to know something happened and rather than enabling half-informed bumbling which will do more damage explaining the matter will be essential. As long as an example is made of the idiot it's unlikely that anyone would be dumb enough to leak it and going to the government to get them to decide how to judge their own will be an extension of trust. If the aliens have intercepted the transmission already there is little that can be done, the civilians may as well know and be able to react. (??? Political Support)
[]Strike then Debrief: Moving now to plug the leak before more happens will technically be a radical step but one that needs to be taken. The passage of proper electronic control legislation will be an explicit target while the problematic legislators who failed to report the leak will be imprisoned waiting for trial, ensuring that no information leaks from them. Once the program is passed and the civilian government comes to a reasonable decision a full debrief can be undertaken of those who have at least proven loyal. (Severe Political Support Cost)
[]Take Active Measures: The army is not ready to defend against a large-scale invasion and through a single mistake an imbecile may have threatened everything. Shooting all those involved and placing any of their staff that heard anything into complete confinement will be the first step towards ensuring that no leak spreads. Further measures to control the narrative will be taken with several conspiracy theories propagated along with the re-establishment of several control elements of the panopticon system. If the civilian government cannot manage a single crisis and people are going to delusionally leak to it, the civilian government as it is is a threat to the species. (Changes Political Support Mechanic)
Intelligence Operations:
Operation Purple Finger: Infiltration operations to the army directly can be conducted using alternative means. Work towards training intelligence agents to pose as curious officer recruits with an accelerated career track to provide more information can be started. Their careers will effectively be a repeat of officer academy before an eventual re-recruitment into the intelligence services ensuring that they are attractive candidates for discovering conspiracies. Discoveries from the program are unlikely to be immediate with the first year of education almost entirely useless from an intelligence perspective but eventually, several conspirators may be found. (15)
The initial training of candidates to push through officer academies has started with several otherwise non-military educated paid to go into the academy. Their technical expertise has generally allowed for a placement into officer tracks but due to the lack of personnel with command experience little has been done. These candidates are expected to finish their academy careers in two years and start to conventionally climb the ranks to obtain military experience and start gathering intelligence on officer groups available at the academy and lower rank level. Results are expected to only come in years but the program has just started, allowing those selected to appear exactly like any other first-time officer candidate.
Operation Luxuriant Hat: Preparing gray and black operation signal groups is effectively as simple as protecting several hackers and placing them on a government payroll. Keeping said hackers from knowing they are on a government payroll will require several shadow groups, but ensuring that large organizations can be at least ostensibly directed will provide a further layer of obfuscation. These groups are uncertain, likely inconsistent, and can cause problems directly but with the numbers of disaffected youth, there is no shortage of experienced cybercriminals that can be productively used. Further, the most capable can be directly recruited, providing legitimate careers and expanding directorate capacity. (nat 1) (crit fail)
Due to what may have been perceived as a provocation against some hacker environmental groups for trying to shift their targets towards more useful means, retaliation has come through a major banking compromise. Several funds responsible for the funding of operations have been publicized on several boards before getting brought down, with an ecological group claiming responsibility. This has not compromised any physical agents but has made much of the funding scheme that was to be used for the program known to those targeted for recruitment, getting sixteen prospective organizational shells to go silent while increasing the number of useless scammers that must be filtered. Anonymization of databases along with further diversions of monetary streams has already been formalized, with several agents regretting the quantum defeat of pre-war crypto-currencies.
Procurement Decisions:
Generally, phases go from wanting something to a prototype, to low-rate production(LRP), to full-scale production. Once you have a prototype or something in LRP, you can request changes to it to bring it into line with requirements either military or political.Anti-Orbital SSBN: Despite improvements in hull section manufacturing Bun has struggled to get a submarine into the water much less make it a competent combat system. Missile systems for the program have proven challenging to develop as the bus itself needs to maintain a relatively smart engagement profile all while minimizing the impact of external ECM or even direct EWAR attempts. Onboard AI systems are going to be essential for terminal profile targeting as active sensor returns cannot be trusted. The known factor behind every spaceship is that they are all thermal beacons, leaving the only viable guidance system an IR sensor. BNG's attempt to do it in-house has been just that, a juvenile attempt, and now an external contractor now needs to be brought in to manage the weapon system. (29)
[]Lunos Industries: Lunos has experience working on the necessary AI hardware needed for the missile systems and is already charged with developing several further missile systems. The need for a terrestrial guided missile can be accomplished with their representative certain that a full-scale guidance package can be managed that will use passive sensor readouts for relative missile positions, ensuring depth of penetration and an adequate detonation. Their missile package as designed will meet all specifications with a program explicitly focused on resistance to enemy EWAR capability to avoid guidance degradation. (100B Or Cost)
[]Avalon Industrial Trust: Avalon's rep has broadly insisted that the entire system does not have to be re-invented to achieve an adequate product. It doesn't matter if alien EWAR protocols can degrade the coordination of a launch wave if it only takes a few hits to achieve an effective mission kill. The Avalon representative has instead insisted on a conventional IR system to be incorporated to save weight and improve kinematic performance as much as possible. Further, their use of already proven technologies from several other projects is likely to keep costs low and reduce delays, if technically not meeting several capabilities. (40B Or Cost)
[]General Aerospace: General Aerospace and their representatives have offered a curious change in the missile system, unifying the main bus for the full size of a launch tube and instead splitting the second stage. This offers the chance to mount additional armor plating to the missile shroud allowing for some degradation of laser fire onto the missile system. Swarm guidance is expected to be achieved through the cross-linkage of three open sensor missiles in each formation, reducing laser threat to otherwise delicate equipment. Their program doesn't offer advanced AI guidance packages, but the use of swarm guidance and reducing laser vulnerability is an attractive proposition. (100B Or Cost)
Surveillance Drones: A prepared automated system and tracking hardware from Lunos has had few issues with operations, allowing tight beam laser communication to send back collected footage to pre-programmed receivers. This technically allows for the automated operation of drone systems in a frontal role in the case of heavy enemy ECM presence. Contacting the airframe and production capacity is the last step of the program with the addition of a new reconnaissance drone providing some limited ground-strike capacity in advance of the development of new fighter craft. Several airframes have already been prototyped and offered, effectively serving as pre-prepared packages for the developed electronic and weapon systems. (69)
[]Listor Precision Gear: Listor has steadily expanded its experience along several material science programs with several prototypes for a new airframe made from reducing observability. Incorporating additional airflow in the propeller stream is expected to reduce thermal return while coating in a low-maintenance but partially reflective coating will significantly cut down on radar returns. Fabrication of the new drone is to be conducted as a series of modular panels on an Aluminum-primary HEA frame, deriving some modularity for front-line maintenance. Listor is asking for the largest share of funding to develop their craft and bring it to production but they have also brought six demonstrators to the field along with showing the printing of a full airframe to the design commission. (120B Or Cost) (Finishes Procurement) (Possibility of Future Issues) (Disfavored by the Mobilization Approach)
[]Unified Aviation Enterprises: Breaking with the design specification in technicality UAE has pushed for the use of a small turbine motor instead of a propeller complex. Their entrant still manages to obtain the necessary range specification but can travel at almost double the speed required by the specification. The principal factor behind this is an ultra-light turbine directly derived from technical developments for the VTOL lift fan system that have been licensed out. The use of a new ultra-light very high bypass engine offers the advantages of both worlds and eliminates a propeller's high radar return. The program itself is expected to be more expensive due to the advanced engine but the technology itself is not experimental and has been demonstrated in a prototype. (80B Or Cost) (Finishes Procurement) (Disfavored by the Mobilization Approach)
[]Avalon Industrial Trust: The least complex airframe that meets all operational requirements the Avalon bid uniquely ensures that the entire program can come in under budget. Their work has effectively copied the last generation of surveillance drones in design and layout, taking advantage of improved materials to lower costs and expand the capacity of the system. The engine is unexceptional but the original range specification has been exceeded by almost two thousand kilometers. Only a single prototype has been presented but there is no doubt that Avalon can manufacture the drone system in mass and is willing to gamble against significant financial penalty clauses that a full inventory can be delivered by 45 AE. (40B Or Cost) (Finishes Procurement)
Militarized Orbital Frigate: Work on the next generation of missile systems and weapons onboard has proceeded along the previously planned program, with several in the office joking that the missile system is just a rebranded orbital shuttle. Technical work for the systems onboard at this point is almost complete with the power-production bus designed, the drive designed, and the weapon system progressing at an acceptable pace. Current questions rest on what additional capability to add to the frigate hull before finalizations. Improved FTL field stability is already expected to be included in lessons learned from the Indomitable but several further innovations exist. CASP program ship redundancy measures have already saved two craft and their incorporation as a new baseline of safety has been proposed. The mental health committee has however reported the previous generation of ships has a significant issue with fatalism, reporting that the crews for older ships have started a custom of pre-emptive funerals which may extend to the current class. (70) (Choose As Many As Desired Additional Features) (Current per Unit Cost Expected 95B Or)
[]CASP Safety Systems: Installing secondary gas-cooled reactors on a separated coolant loop along with more durable redundancy systems can be carried over from civilian craft. The primary goal of the systems onboard would be to provide the crew with a four-week endurance if conventionally operating without primary systems and a six-month endurance if using hibernation equipment onboard. The systems involved are heavy and voluminously expensive but they provide a significant degree of redundancy that a primary drive and a battery system do not. (50B Or, +10B Or Per Unit)
[]Expanded Recreation Areas: Inflatable modules mounted to the exterior of the ship will be easy to adapt to large-scale zero-gravity recreation areas. The modules themselves can be deflated in any expectation of combat and would effectively provide a significant atmosphere-enabled area for the crew to relax outside combat conditions. The use of inflatable modules in a ring outside the armor system and pressure hull will add negligible weight outside the flat pack furniture needed to convert it to living space. In case of sudden combat conditions, the modules themselves will be able to be jettisoned but the use of multiple airlocks will technically introduce vulnerabilities in the armor. (50B Or, +5B Or Per Unit)
[]EWAR Bridge: Building onto dedicated signals intercepting and targeting ECM and ECCM systems will extend the ability of the missile armament to deliver impacts. If enemy sensors can be blinded through high-power targeted emissions that can do more to enhance defense penetration than a far greater tonnage of missiles. This will divert almost 10MWe of power from the reactor system to dedicated hardware with a significant magnetic cooling system integrated to keep the systems functional. Of course, the effect of these heavily depends on the Aliens using similar sensor systems, limiting impact in case of a mismatch. (100B Or, +20B Or Per Unit)
[]Automated Combat Systems: Increasing the use of automated components promises to reduce internal volumes and more importantly crew sizes. This will cut the total crew down to fifty in ideal circumstances and replace most management systems with a small but flexible crew. The AI systems involved will take up the first-order management of power and sensor systems to allow a single officer to look at problems that are first screened through the automated management system. Further improvements are expected in the integration of automated systems to internal rotations, reducing burdens on the fleet and simplifying the ship itself. (150B Or, -10B Or Per Unit)
[]Slow-Field FTL Geometry: Modernizing the FTL drive to slow travel, increase field stability, reduce branon containment systems, and overall move towards a new generation of drive will be an expensive endeavor. Parallel programs on the long burn ships have already started but those are working with a Gen 1.5 drive rather than a true second-generation system. Transit times are expected to be more than doubled but through current revisions to the drive structural issues will be minimized. This will allow the drive to be used reliably with measures adapted to reduce crew panic and minimize the psychological impact of FTL discontinuation syndrome through pharmacological means. (100B Or, +5B Or Per Unit)
[]Remove FTL Drives: There is no viable FTL system that can be mounted on a ship and a gen 1.5 system is too experimental to be risked on a combat ship. Technical efforts can be refocused elsewhere rather than integrating the expensive drive, saving considerable costs per hull and cutting development costs while incorporating them entirely with the current experimental fusion ship program. Practical reductions in costs are not expected to be significant on a research basis but avoiding the precise fabrication of drive elements will massively bring down per-unit costs. (+50B Or Gained, -30B Or Per Unit)
[]Ceramic Armor Plating: Providing enough armor to resist alien laser blows is not going to be practical with the logical scaling of their laser weapons. Ablative high-resistance multi-layer coating however can be practical to mount onto the core hull, leaving only some external hydrogen tanks and inflatable modules unprotected from laser exposure. New plating techniques will be developed involving carbon-carbon plating coated in titanium dioxide to enable high sustained point exposures. The plating will be heavy and significantly slow down the craft, but there is nothing mechanically complex about it. (50B Or, +10B Or Per Unit) (Significant Reduction in Delta V)
Multirole VTOL: Massive technical programs have started for the development of a new fully enclosed cockpit along with the required developments in novel aerodynamic forms. The program itself has rapidly produced a VR headset capable of full-resolution hybridization of external cameras but allowing it to work with onboard systems has posed a significant problem. Pilots in the simulator have complained at length of the nauseating effect of the equipment while several others have found the new cockpit layout claustrophobic in the extreme. Further, recovery system testing has proven challenging as a full pod ejection still requires disembarkation before landing. Parallel electronic systems to the cockpit have gone better as the sensor package required is derivative rather than novel work, preparing the craft for release to a contractor for manufacturing once onboard electronics are mature. (34)
Standardization of Orbital Troops: The development of the basic electronic helmet system has been practically an adaptation of the previous generation's suit helmets. Integration of atmospheric control onto the helmet with the arm PDA serving as a backup has unified most elements of technical development and life preservation. The atmospheric control system itself is to be mounted into the primary suit rather than the helmet itself outside the simplest components. The sub-chin mounting area is expected to interface with the supporting equipment while most of the electronic components are split between the wrist PDA and the back of the head. Emergency oxygen in the helmet itself is frontally mounted, narrowing the direct field of view but enabling total frontal individual management of life support. Further, control for the system has been built on proven eye-tracking hardware, allowing the easy navigation of menus to manage addon systems. The only further question is how many specialized variants to make, with several viable suits proposed for general-purpose use. (34+15 Omake) (Choose As Many As Desired)
Baseline Suit: The baseline suit is designed around a frontal life support pack with two rechargeable carbon dioxide absorbers and a duplex of oxygen cylinders controlled by a triplex of atmospheric computers. This provides sufficient redundancy for each loop to provide six hours of life support capability for the suit in case of vacuum conditions. Cooling is not considered as a necessary redundant system, with it formatted as a simple evaporation cooler to keep temperatures low across the entire suit. To keep the suit balanced the rear plate has incorporated much of the cooling system to counterbalance the frontal rebreather. The cartridges for each system can be reloaded directly by a single operator, with that remaining a core concern of the system. In combat internal use is expected to involve a reload of consumables every four hours rather than direct linkage, avoiding the necessity of running pure oxygen lines the length of the craft. (20B Or Cost(already accounted for in budget))
[]Dedicated EVA Suit: Adapting the baseline suit further for out-of-craft duties is primarily a case of attaching a new heavy backpack system with several stabilization mechanisms. This will accompany the standardized life-support systems onboard and provide an improved option for out-of-craft work. Cooling systems will be improved in case of necessary work near radiator surfaces to minimize emission exposure along with a reflective coating for improved thermal and radiation management. Several additional hookups for holding mining or repair equipment will be mounted on the suit with a series of rigging developed to improve external performance. Some of this capacity can be compensated for with add-ons to standard suits, but a dedicated system will likely be necessary. (15B Or Cost)
[]Orbital Combat Suit: A five-part external component that is expected to be developed in six sizes for standardized heavy orbital combat use. Semi-powered primary axis actuation will be integrated externally with heavy frontal plating mounted to provide some protection against laser fire and rifle caliber armor piercing rounds. Life support equipment will be localized underneath the armored plate even if the entire suit is expected to be tightly mounted, necessitating a technical exit to replace internal canisters individually. An external system of life support on the backpack along with a thinner degree of armored plate will be mounted, allowing allied units to replenish primary reserves for the operators. The primary weapon is expected to be a space-adapted 15x120mm automatic rifle, providing the capacity for dealing with hostile forces on something of an even ground. The armor around the head will limit the view out of the suit to a single slit but the incorporated display on the helmet will be used to provide an accurate picture ahead of the suit. (15B Or Cost)
[]Terrestrial Suit: With the rapidly increasing population on the moon and the start of colonization of the outer planets, dedicated suits will be needed for the next frontier of space. The two largest issues for terrestrial operations are a combination of gravity-increasing fatigue for heavier suits and the significant cooling effect of most planetary atmospheres outside the inner planets. As most operations are expected to focus on the exterior one of the primary incorporated systems will be a bilayer system of reflective insulation along with more direct thermal management systems. Both will keep a comfortable temperature in the suit and reduce the calorie loss to external work that has plagued current generations of suits. (10B Or Cost)
[]Terrestrial Combat Suit: With the adaptations needed for groundside combat directly paralleling those needed on Dannan the suit itself has several of the same assumptions. A vest of laser-resistant alloy is to be mounted on top of the frontal life-support pack while the helmet itself is enclosed to minimize visual damage. This is expected to add some weight and be slightly unbalanced due to the expectation of frontal rigging but by carrying equipment in a backpack the front can be partially counterbalanced with essential combat equipment. For most deployments, this is expected to comprise a shovel, additional ammunition, and provisions for continued operation in hostile environments. (10B Or Cost) (-5B Or Cost if Taken with Terrestrial Suit)
Politics:
Large-Scale Exercises(Army): The military has not fought anything larger than a skirmish for the last forty years and that needs to be remedied before new equipment is brought in to fight an unknown enemy. There is an approximate estimation of the capability of the alien enemy but it is almost certainly a lower order estimate primarily over their infantry rather than any significant armor presence. Running a series of comprehensive exercises on the brigade level against both conventional and approximate Redfor will improve capability and ensure that we are preparing for the next war. (100B Or Cost) (71) (Terrestrial Forces Combat Changed from -50 to -36)
Large-scale exercises have been organized between the Sixteenth, Seventh, Sixth, Fourth, and First Combined Arms Armies with a steady rotation of defensive and offensive objectives. The area for much of the operations was the northern plains with the units deployed on a rotating basis to emulate large-scale combat between formations. The overall objective was generally the seizure of several entirely abandoned urban areas, providing adequate cover for forces along with a challenging environment. Most of the objectives ended up with fighting between blocks and factories with significant maneuvers practiced on all levels with seven army-level battles to test equipment and the troops involved.
The news from the exercise has been universally apocalyptically bad, as a formation the Sixteenth Army has been incapable of maintaining coordination through maneuver much less pressing for contact. Wartime-era officers have been partially able to make do with lower-level commands but the state of staff work involved has been a humiliation and disgrace to any relatives of the commanders. Divisional-level operations have done better where wartime commanders and XOs have been present but the lack of exercise for commanders has rendered the army an uncoordinated sloppy mess. The only positive note has been that the new commanders have been able to rapidly learn outside simulations with a good academic knowledge of doctrine that could be regurgitated consistently on intensive questioning.
Naval commands have performed similarly poorly with obsolescent ships stuck deploying into operational theaters where they should not exist due to a lack of vessels. The navy in itself has performed better than the army in a theoretical sense but that is practically because there are so few vessels that failures to coordinate them have had less impact. Simulated air force impacts have been focused around wargaming and simulator uses with fewer issues than the army deployments have had. High-level cross-squadron coordination on a simulated battlespace has been better achieved but that is in part due to the simpler nature of their task. New airframes are needed to test and season the airforce and those are unlikely to be available for a few years.
On the company level in isolation, current training programs have proven to be functional with lower-level officers able to lead their units competently. As long as higher order coordination is not involved and maneuver fighting is not a significant factor army units can perform to standard, using their equipment well and coordinating within the unit. Coordination with armored units has also proceeded well with the Type 36 proving itself as a reliable vehicle that can be moved around the planet and run with few issues. Close armor-infantry coordination has been limited but can be performed at lower levels without too many issues. The motor pool that was brought over has been more of a sample of obsolete car models across sixty years, but even those units have performed adequately at the lower level and in isolation.
Orbital Defense Exercises: The orbital troops are not ready to defend the orbits in any form and that is known to practically everyone in the military. The crews themselves are unprepared and undertrained to do their duty and provisions for final defense of the stations are not available in any significant form. Testing out theoretical defensive systems in lower orbit along with using the current fleet as Redfor can provide some experience on how to defend an orbit against a hostile fleet. (Political Support Gain) (50B Or Cost) (71) (Orbital Forces Combat Changed from -75 to -48)
The theoretical existence of the orbital fleet is a factor that was taken for granted at all levels including the majority of the command loop. The fleet as it exists is a mess of strange scavengers that have little idea of how to operate existing equipment and one that is too consumed with the use of legacy hardware. Full-scale simulation using shuttles as targets to simulate alien emission reduction techniques and drive performance has shown the majority of the fleet to be an utter disappointment incapable of combat. With the quality of current station sensor technicians, it may even be possible to achieve stealth in space through their sheer blindness.
Orbital commands have been inadequate for the coordination of single ships much less larger assets as cooperation across sensor systems has been limited through the sheer amount of diverse sensor systems. Older craft have been designed around an era in space combat that does not exist and has little capacity to do anything functional. Data linkages exist in a theoretical sense across the fleet but they are not adequately used and many of the captains on board cannot use their ships and stations to maximum effect. What in the simulations should be easy attacks to engage and counter has seen every mistake in the textbook made. Lack of launch discipline is the principal error with insufficient saturation of alien defensive systems offering the largest vulnerability.
The available commands could theoretically be worse only if the Universe was actively conspiratorial. The higher commands that are seasoned by the war can plan out maneuvers and organize them without too much difficulty outside combat pressure. Under combat conditions, these organizations break down but crude improvised fleets that can practice some sensor linkage have been formed. The worst of the officers and crewmen are those who have been pushed up in the last decade as they are practically untrained and dependent on apprenticeships for much of their experience. New personnel trained in comprehensive simulators are arriving in ever-increasing numbers but those will take time to form the majority of the force. Station officers are theoretically trained but need far more practice and experience before they can form anything but a speed bump.
Current recommendations have seen a comprehensive overhaul program towards radar and IR detection systems to work on a synchronized database. Further, simulator training has been mandated for non-combat commands to improve their capacity for deterrent fire. Officer training standards are expected to be significantly increased with a comprehensive overview of the systems on the field and how best to employ them. Coordination on the fleet scale is expected to be practiced now that sufficient propellant is available in low orbit. Simulationist training in low orbit has also started to improve standards and toughen troops on ships to ensure that a basic understanding can be trained in.
Study Wartime Issues(VTOL): Committing some time to do a full literature report on a critical wartime piece of equipment and how it exactly failed is going to be a massive crawl through the archives but someone needs to do it. Working for a few continuous days on pulling the papers will take some extra leisure time but it's expected if one is to understand anything of what they are doing. (+2 depending on roll) (38)
Assessments done based on the immediate problems present in the development of closed canopy fighters have been challenging. The theoretical hardware that would go into a fully enclosed canopy has been studied and debated for a prolonged period but outside of three experimental craft little information exists. Looking for any actual test results for these craft has taken the majority of time as proprietary development programs started divided between companies and have only gotten worse. The limited test data that was available only came through a few weeks of interviewing the pilot involved who discussed several issues in the programs and her opinions on how to fix them.
12-Hour Moratorium Vote by Plan
Last edited:
- Location
- Midwest
I think we should become a junta.
Immediate reaction: Ouch.
Okay, going through it step by step: THE CUBE:
Someone leaked it, and Ricky is willing to raise hell over it. We have three options, debriefing the civilian government like usual, half ass a not-quite-a-coup or decisively soft coup the government. I strongly suggest we don't stab ourselves in the kneecaps over this and just debrief the government. Despite our intentions not to tell the civilian government about this, they can't know that we never intended to tell them about this. Spin some yarn that we only wanted to keep operational security until we had that thing under lock and key and we should avoid any serious splash. Information about the CUBE will leak if it leaks, best just to accept that. Information can't travel faster than lightspeed, so we still got time.
Intel department:
Well, fuck. Our smart scheme to recruit experienced CYBINT agents in a deniable manner failed completely. At least we werent directly implicated in anything, and the hacktivist community is probably gonna be filled with a lot of opinions on who it could be. I imagine the army wont top the list, which is good enough for us. Purple Finger is just delayed, which is unfortunate but not the end of the world.
Politics:
aaaaaaaa- everything's fucked up and bad. We need to sort this out and fast. Drop everything to unfuck Army and Orbital commands ASAP. There's not much more to say about this.
Procurement:
We should do one of the expensive options for the submarine; it would be a terrible blunder to cheap out on the firepower of this thing. Drones meanwhile should go for as cheap as we can get away with as they were intended to be disposable. My suggestions for the frigate is to add CASP safety, add recreation, add automation and remove the FTL drive. That'll get us a cheap, livable and at least somewhat survivable frigate. When it comes to the suits we should just grab all of the suits, otherwise we're wasting a lot of development time.
Okay, going through it step by step: THE CUBE:
Someone leaked it, and Ricky is willing to raise hell over it. We have three options, debriefing the civilian government like usual, half ass a not-quite-a-coup or decisively soft coup the government. I strongly suggest we don't stab ourselves in the kneecaps over this and just debrief the government. Despite our intentions not to tell the civilian government about this, they can't know that we never intended to tell them about this. Spin some yarn that we only wanted to keep operational security until we had that thing under lock and key and we should avoid any serious splash. Information about the CUBE will leak if it leaks, best just to accept that. Information can't travel faster than lightspeed, so we still got time.
Intel department:
Well, fuck. Our smart scheme to recruit experienced CYBINT agents in a deniable manner failed completely. At least we werent directly implicated in anything, and the hacktivist community is probably gonna be filled with a lot of opinions on who it could be. I imagine the army wont top the list, which is good enough for us. Purple Finger is just delayed, which is unfortunate but not the end of the world.
Politics:
aaaaaaaa- everything's fucked up and bad. We need to sort this out and fast. Drop everything to unfuck Army and Orbital commands ASAP. There's not much more to say about this.
Procurement:
We should do one of the expensive options for the submarine; it would be a terrible blunder to cheap out on the firepower of this thing. Drones meanwhile should go for as cheap as we can get away with as they were intended to be disposable. My suggestions for the frigate is to add CASP safety, add recreation, add automation and remove the FTL drive. That'll get us a cheap, livable and at least somewhat survivable frigate. When it comes to the suits we should just grab all of the suits, otherwise we're wasting a lot of development time.
[]Plan Rally, Regroup and Reorient
-[]Debrief the Government
-[]General Aerospace
-[]Avalon Industrial Trust
-[]CASP Safety Systems
-[]Expanded Recreation Areas
-[]Automated Combat Systems
-[]Remove FTL Drives
-[]Dedicated EVA Suit
-[]Orbital Combat Suit
-[]Terrestrial Suit
-[]Terrestrial Combat Suit
First idea, using a draft I shamelessly stole. I am well set on everything here except the General Aerospace vs Lunos bid for the submarines, but I'll need to sleep on that one.
-[]Debrief the Government
-[]General Aerospace
-[]Avalon Industrial Trust
-[]CASP Safety Systems
-[]Expanded Recreation Areas
-[]Automated Combat Systems
-[]Remove FTL Drives
-[]Dedicated EVA Suit
-[]Orbital Combat Suit
-[]Terrestrial Suit
-[]Terrestrial Combat Suit
First idea, using a draft I shamelessly stole. I am well set on everything here except the General Aerospace vs Lunos bid for the submarines, but I'll need to sleep on that one.
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
I dont think we should pick automated combat systems, there is probably a lot of developmental risk in that specific option. Better to get experience with dedicated space warships before we start automating them
Automated Systems aren't that radical at this point. The current political crisis is practically defined by the successes of automation in almost everything; we're doing the same thing with our submarines already, and although the submarine is suffering problems that hasn't actually involved automation. The reduction in per unit cost is very, very significant which combined with reduced strain on the amount of trained crew we need makes it a must given our circumstances. We want to be shitting out a lot of these things and we want to do it while we have a severe shortage of trained crew.
First gut impressions on the procurement decisions.
[]Lunos Industries has generally done good on sensors for us.
[]Avalon Industrial Trust is offering a cheap drone to pump out in numbers fast, and it's not like we picked an overall layout that's trying to survive long under any kind of threat so cheap and spammable is pretty good for this IMO.
[]CASP Safety Systems, []Expanded Recreation Areas, []Remove FTL Drives would give us a more redundant frigate without an expensive somewhat unusable FTL drive that isn't hell to serve on. And redundancy is what seemed to serve the Lirrir armored trains well in their fight against the lasers. I am hesitant to cut crew count in favor of automation though because crew redundancy is also a thing. I would prefer a reduction in capabilities from a 5 person job having to be done by 3 people after taking a hit, instead of a single elf running herd on all the systems getting picked off with no one easily able to take their place without leaving a bunch of their job behind.
[]Dedicated EVA Suit, []Terrestrial Suit, []Terrestrial Combat Suit. I personally consider 0g ship to ship boarding actions unlikely, either us attacking their ships or vice versa. Defense of our stations in orbit is more likely, but given our willingness to nuke ourselves to hurt invaders I feel like if we feel like we can't hold our stations we'll have no problems ordering their evacuation and just shattering them to deny their use.
[]Lunos Industries has generally done good on sensors for us.
[]Avalon Industrial Trust is offering a cheap drone to pump out in numbers fast, and it's not like we picked an overall layout that's trying to survive long under any kind of threat so cheap and spammable is pretty good for this IMO.
[]CASP Safety Systems, []Expanded Recreation Areas, []Remove FTL Drives would give us a more redundant frigate without an expensive somewhat unusable FTL drive that isn't hell to serve on. And redundancy is what seemed to serve the Lirrir armored trains well in their fight against the lasers. I am hesitant to cut crew count in favor of automation though because crew redundancy is also a thing. I would prefer a reduction in capabilities from a 5 person job having to be done by 3 people after taking a hit, instead of a single elf running herd on all the systems getting picked off with no one easily able to take their place without leaving a bunch of their job behind.
[]Dedicated EVA Suit, []Terrestrial Suit, []Terrestrial Combat Suit. I personally consider 0g ship to ship boarding actions unlikely, either us attacking their ships or vice versa. Defense of our stations in orbit is more likely, but given our willingness to nuke ourselves to hurt invaders I feel like if we feel like we can't hold our stations we'll have no problems ordering their evacuation and just shattering them to deny their use.
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- Pronouns
- He/They
For the frigates I think this one is really important, because like the submarines these ships' only value is their missiles and even their main defensive measure is the threat of their missiles. Despite the big hit to unit cost, there's a decent chance it could push them over the line from "Not a threat" to "Possible threat" and thus ensure they're a meaningful deterrent.
For automated systems, I'm not sure if the cost savings will be worth it - the first construction is probably between two and four years out, depending on when we can afford new slips, so ramping production up to the point we get a significant ROI will take a long time. I'd be willing to bet our budget expands fast enough that spending the 150k elsewhere now is worth more than saving the money then. The crew reductions could help the fleet skill level though.
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- Location
- The great frozen north
I see we have open combat roll modifiers now. A storm is coming...
No ricky you do not get to coup the government for this.
No ricky you do not get to coup the government for this.
I figured it was an ergonomics thing, the interior not designed with gravity pointing one way in mind.
What did I miss this update what happened to Orbital/Army command?
- Pronouns
- Viewer
He meant the exercises we just did that revealed to us that our high commands are very incompetent, so much so we got those big negatives for combat. Plus its being mentioned in discord that those bonuses don't account for the foe's technology so if we were to face a technologically superior foe, which I think its almost certain of any alien that invades us, those negatives will increase a fair amount.
Right now it looks we have the same command capability as the Italians during WW2.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
It seems unwise to assume that the people whose entire mode of warfare revolves heavily around at least allowing for potential space combat will have maluses in space combat tactical skill.
To change topics completely, how committed to the world government do you think our regions are? One of the big issues the owls are going through is divide and conquer tactics combined with a disunited and (compared to us) unmilitarized society. Given we can have a massive advantage over the lirrir in the event of an attack similar to what they're going through by virtue of not having any governments that can turn quisling. Keeping people invested in the central government can keep that advantage.
There is some insurgency in the North.
It does not seem too strong, but there is at least a caveat of the Brown party (or at least of a faction within it) wanting to go to some form of Moaran supremacism. Which could become sorta kinda "early Milošević", with a potential to go worse in case of aliens trying to repeat Lirrir story here.
Elf planet is an archipelago planet, unlike Lirrir, so even if things would go similar politically, it would look different militarily (land armies cannot just march from island to island, they'll have to be delivered either by air or by sea. So it would impact strategy and so on.)