- Pronouns
- They/Them
Sure, but if we can afford to it is cool.
Attempting to Subvert the Plan: Dominion Edition
- Thread starter Etranger
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
-
- Tags
- starcraft plan quest
Sure, but if we can afford to it is cool.
Enthusiast#117
This is not the Profile you are looking for
- Location
- United States
When our R income has increased in the past, I don't believe our F income has increased to match it on it's own. All changes to F have been a direct result of our own projects, I believe.
And we've exhausted all the options to increase our F income. Nothing more can be done right now, even if we get a bigger R budget.
It's possible that we'll get more options to increase F income in the future, but we can't really depend on those options showing up in a timely manner - or at all - outside of word of QM.
So until we lay eyes on new projects that would expand our F income, doing any of the projects that reduce F income will remain a bad idea imo.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Okay, then I'll just say that it was mentioned that decisions on Public Income stuff is something that was mentioned as one of the potential subjects of the coming Budget Meeting, even if we don't know how and in what way and all of that.
Unless the benefit that the reduction gives us is high enough to offset the loss. Personally I think extra dice and lower DCs can be considered good enough to discuss loss of 5F.
That said until we get a write up of our last turn and then the options for the next turn we wont' know what options we have gotten.
Unfortunately this organization is only a shelf company and does nothing "real". A shelf company is basically just a shell company that's been set to age for a while to make it look more legitimate.
Like I said, this company is fake and has no real revenue streams. Future actions along this path would likely just do more DC reduction and dice increases. Adding in legitimate import-export revenue has the potential to actually make things look more fake, since it would give authorities a point of comparison. I don't see it actually making us money unless it becomes so good that crooks pay us money to launder their money through it (unlikely imo).
However, I think that I may have an idea of a project that could open up said path, the Orbital Station. Having our own private mercenary group sounds like it could gain us some decent income. Having close ties with certain groups might also help. My main suspects are the Union (skimming and unions are a classic pairing), and Security (security services offering cash incentives for assistance is also a classic). Still, like with our normal R income, I think the annual poker game is our best bet.
So did I. I figure that it encompasses doing stuff that makes Security's job easier. In exchange, we get benefits, probably at certain relationship breakpoints. For example we may get some bonus F at 5/20, a Paranoia reduction at 10/20, and Valerian's number at 15/20 or 20/20, perhaps with some smaller benefits awarded for completing certain projects. Unfortunately, said projects will not be free of charge. I'm guessing they will be morally questionable, paranoia raising, or both.
I think my eyes sort of rolled over the "shelf" part in the description. So yeah, you're right, on the nature of it. That said the benefit of it is that it has history, which means from a bank and government standpoint (which is amusing as Treasury is the 'government' standpoint and WE are Treasury) it has history.
I am by no means an expert on this but I looked it up and from reading some elements it seems that the benefit of buying it and then working it to make a profit is something that actually happens. That it allows someone to skip past the redtape on corporate creation and already have an entity that they can use.
So us taking this decades or century-old company and making it actually turn be profitable isn't "what is going on" and more the thing that happens sometimes with such entities.
I don't see it as just Security Department options and more 'security' related things, but either way I think there is benefits to us learning on what is going on and such.
Well, on the morally questionable aspect - the whole StarCraft universe is morally questionable. lol (so as long as we aren't going out and murdering puppies or the innocent I'm fine with some darker/shadowy stuff.)
----
Honestly, and I guess this is probably a non-popular opinion, but I have more interest in the Starke and Raynor suff, and our own shell/shelf company, and even the soldier option, then I do with us working for the union thing. I know we made the contact and will work it and stuff but I honestly don't really care about them. Definitely not enough for us to risk the legalization option, and kind of not for the worker sites either.
In fairness, we had literally just set up the slush fund last poker game. It's reasonable to assume that the action to increase our F at the poker game hadn't yet been unlocked. Now that all known ways to increase income have been done, the situation may be quite different.
Also, there's a very good chance that incoming-raising projects are behind constant income projects. There's quite a few of them, and I am rather hopeful about the orbital station in particular.
- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
Results update is up for preview on Patreon and will go live here tomorrow.
Perhaps, but we are buying this company for the express purpose of using it to launder our activities and strengthen our underworld. Doing stuff like "actual business" is likely to be a secondary priority at best, although it is possible that we may get some legit business at some point. Still think Orbital Station is a likelier prospect though.
I suspect that murdering the innocent, or at least heavily oppressing them, is very much on the table for Starke. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being the bread and butter of those actions. Forget personal favors, we're fairly confident that he'll use a census for nefarious purposes for crying out loud! Of course censuses have a history of being misused by tyrannical regimes (the Nazis were horrifically good at using them), but the point still holds.
I think that you are massively underestimating exactly how useful the Union can become. They can grant us mass popular support in the industrial heart of the Dominion. That'll be extremely useful when it comes time for the revolution.
The benefits are also sizable in the short term. We've got a serious list of attractive projects in HI. Improving our relationship with the Union has a more-than-decent chance of helping there as well.
I do agree that Worker Aid Centers aren't the best investment at the moment, for reasons I've already touched on in previous posts. Tl;dr, we can't afford a sixth free die right now. Still, once our budget improves sufficiently, I'll be happy to go for it. It's a way to get dice without guaranteed Paranoia after all.
I am fairly confident that you are also overestimating the risk inherent in legalization. 3 dice is enough to get the odds of failure down to a bit under 14%, 11.36% if we get rid of that last bit of penalty. If we throw four dice, the chance of failure is only 2.23%, 1.5% if we wait (aka statistical insignificance in both cases). That Uncrowned Queen bonus is insane, another reason why I like Union projects.
I am definitely willing to throw that amount of dice into it. 5/20 seems like a decent breakpoint. Simply knowing for sure if there is a breakpoint there is valuable information. Plus it's extremely cheap in F with no ongoing costs.
Speaking of outside relations, did ours decline while I wasn't looking? I could have sworn we were at 2/20 with the Raiders, 1/20 with the Union, and 1/20 with the Marauders. When I checked recently we are at 1/20 with only the Raiders. So did our relationship decline from lack of aid? Or is my memory just shoddy?
Turn 6 (Q4 2507) Results
- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
Turn 6 (Q4 2507) Results
Resources (R): 615 initial - 415 expended = 200 total
Funds (F): 70 initial - 60 expended = 10 total
Paranoia: 30 initial + 15 incurred - 20 reduced = 25 total
Infrastructure
Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 2) [MANDATORY]
With the base of the Imperial Palace and most of the central Imperial District complete, your crews can begin expanding outward and upward. In addition to finishing the Palace's upper floors, they'll start building the second ring of inner districts, which are slated to include most of the necessary government offices, various supporting enterprises and service establishments, and a variety of cultural sites, including the vast and baroque Korhal Planetary Opera House.
(-10 Paranoia)
(Progress 262/400, -5R per die) [71] [+22 Overflow bonus]
"By order of His Imperial Majesty Arcturus I, all on-site laborers below the rank of Labor Officer are required to tune their suit radios to the Korhal Opera streaming audio and keep it there at all times while working. Failure to participate in this cultural uplift will be met with disciplinary action."
- Notice to DLS work gangs employed at the Opera House site
This quarter, the whole of the Augustgrad work detail is dedicated toward completing the Korhal Opera House, which is intended to serve as the centerpiece for high Terran culture in the Koprulu Sector. An enormous baroque edifice, the Opera House has been designed to comfortably seat the entirety of Dominion high society. Mengsk himself is an avowed opera aficionado, having attended many times in the company of his parents back when Korhal was green and populated, and he has sworn to restore his boyhood pastime one way or another.
In this instance, the restoration is being accomplished by a hundred thousand laborers, as well as the elite of the Dominion Labor Service's extensive engineering corps, swarming over a ten-story monument to extravagance and concentrated power. Four of its great domes cover theaters of lesser magnitude, but the fifth and central-most dome is for the Great Stage, the focus of the entire structure. The colonnades and domes are gilded until they gleam in the harsh sunlight, ornamental towers rise up adorned with elegant statues, and the interiors are painted with hyper-realistic paintings combined with sense-distorting sculpture, so that their vastness is further magnified.
The Opera House is, in short, like everything Mengsk envisions: personal desire magnified by greed and corruption until it sprawls out beyond recognition, a monument to one man's overweening pride and hubris. As deprivation and want ravage the unhoused, unemployed population of Terran Space, their Emperor builds decadent splendor to temporarily satisfy some unfillable void within himself. And, of course, you are his instrument.
Nephor II: Planetary Reconstruction (Phase 2) [Reconstruction]
While DLS labor gangs begin fanning out across the rest of the Blue Zone to replicate the success of the initial residential district, they will also be hard at work restoring the smashed, torn-up, and otherwise obliterated linkages connecting the various portions of the megacity. Transit between them is currently restricted to air-shuttles and ground vehicles, but Nephor once had a substantial network of intra-urban tramways capable of conveying masses of workers across the planet's surface. Most of them are obsolete, but they still need to be rebuilt; modernization can come later.
(Progress 614/500, -5R per die) [81, 116, 87, 106]
[114 Progress toward next phase]
"No, I understand that you don't have enough rails to finish the job. What you need to do is take the workers who don't have enough rails to lay down over to the old Framingham Steel Works, and get it back up and running again. Then everyone will have enough rails. Also, while you're over there, refurbish the aggregate factory across the way. We're short on gravel."
- Victoria Archibald, solving problems
As SCVs and fully kitted-out DLS laborers become increasingly common sights on Nephor II, reconstruction efforts become self-sustaining. When confronted with supply shortages or insufficient finished parts, the work gangs simply find an old factory and boot it back up, then switch it over to whatever they need. The process has gotten to the point where you and your Chief of Staff have simply delegated the entire process over to those labor brigadiers who've proven themselves most responsible, and so support industries begin coming online alongside the infrastructure that they sustain.
The infrastructure in question is a vast network of heavy rail lines fanning out from the Megacomplex and throughout the industrial parks that characterize most of Nephor's surface. These are old-style railways, with fission-powered engines pulling wheeled cars made up of stamped metal, unlike the high-tech freight maglevs that used to criss-cross Tarsonis. Even so, you have to make do with the remaining rolling stock and the industrial capacity dedicated to building more, for the moment.
Many railways were blown up during one fighting retreat or another, as Confederate forces collapsed outward from outlying industrial sectors toward the Megacomplex, tightening their defensive lines as the Sons closed in from all sides. Others have simply been neglected for the better part of a decade, or scavenged by opportunistic refugees in need of decent steel. You make no effort to find out; everyone did what they had to during the War, and no one wants to relitigate what happened there.
Instead, you look on with pride as the trains begin moving again; this initial effort only restores the main trunks and branches, without addressing the numerous smaller lines that need refurbishment or replacement. Goods are flowing between industrial sectors once more, albeit not exactly at pre-War levels of efficiency... if "efficiency" is the word you want to use for how the Confederates ran this place.
Fringe Worlds: Supply Bunker Construction (Phase 1)
While not the well-populated and productive Core Worlds, the so-called Fringe or "colony" worlds represent nearly a tenth of the Dominion's population... or they did before the War, anyway. While the situation out on the Fringe is very much still in flux, what's undeniable is that those people are dealing with banditry and deprivation on a scale unknown in the Core, where the Dominion Military and Internal Security reign supreme. By deploying the new Supply Bunkers to major Fringe settlements, their defensibility and sustainability will be substantially improved. This is good for the colonists... but will be less than warmly received by the authorities.
(Progress 166/100, -5R per die) [36, 94]
[66 Progress toward next phase] [+5 Paranoia]
"Hah! Those no-good bandits didn't know what to do with themselves when they showed up and had to stare down a gen-u-ine military bunker. We may only have hunting rifles and shotguns, but they ran right quick when we opened up on 'em. Must've figured out that taking shots at us while we were all bunkered up was just throwing their ammo away. Cowards."
- Fringe settler, speaking to a Treasury official
Across the Inner Fringe, small DLS crews descend from conscripted freighters, often with a single SCV and crates full of pre-fab parts. They start in the morning with the new 'burrower' earth-movers, and by the afternoon they've got a huge hole dug, several levels deep. Before the sun falls, that hole's been stabilized with reinforced ceramacrete pillars and panels of durable neosteel.
On the second day, they fill in the hole, layering it like a birthday cake: the fusion power generator on the lowest level, then the automated manufactory the level above that, then two more levels of storage, each one capable of holding months worth of industrial supplies, food, water, and other essentials. Finally, the uppermost two levels have accommodations (bunk beds and communal washrooms) for a couple dozen people, if they don't mind getting cozy.
On the third day, they cap off the bunker like an oddly shaped mushroom, surrounding the rounded steel top with a four-sided external shell, each side equipped with a reinforced blast door and multiple firing-ports with retractable plasteel covers. Up to six combatants (eight if they're unarmored) and three times that number of non-combatants can fit inside, and even a conservative estimate says that they'll be able to hold out against conventional small arms for two to four months.
For the larger Fringe settlements, a half-dozen of these bunkers can serve as the linchpin of their militia's defensive plans. But for the smaller ones, the little mining outposts and ranches with a dozen people or less, a single Supply Bunker is their lifeline, their only way to hold out until a militia patrol from one of those larger settlements comes by or their enemies simply give up. It is, in no uncertain terms, hope.
Heavy Industry
Dylar IV: Dylarian Shipyards (Phase 1) [Reconstruction]
The Dylarian Shipyards have been the centerpiece of Terran naval development since the establishment of the Confederacy. They're a vast orbital network of spacedocks, foundries, recyclers, parts depots, and personnel habitats. They're also heavily damaged following a major push by the Zerg during the Great War, and their keystone, the great capital shipyards, are inactive. Without their refurbishment, every dropship and battleship is irreplaceable.
(Progress 522/500, -15R per die) [20, 49, 84, 41, 93, 21]
[22 Progress toward next phase] [-10 Paranoia]
"Hot damn! We're back in business!"
- General Edmund Duke, commander of the Dominion Military, upon hearing the news
Once the irradiated wreckage of the scuttled battlecruisers is out of the way and the entire drydock complex has been given a thorough decontamination, the rest is just lots of high-risk skilled manual labor being done in zero gravity with inadequate facilities. You know, easy stuff.
Given the interconnected nature of the drydocks, which rely on a cluster of networked fusion reactors for their power, it's most expedient to simply repair them all at the same time. Each slip in the dock needs to have its power conduits replaced, its mechanized fabricators either refurbished or rebuilt, and its many high-powered sensors, crucial for spotting flaws in the construction process, brought back online.
Midway through the last month of the year, just before you go away for a nice holiday with Carla, you're able to attend the re-ignition ceremony for the drydock's fusion cluster. Watching a dozen shackled suns slowly flare back to life under the watchful eye of your engineers is an eye-opening experience, and just one of the many great things about your job.
That ornery bastard Duke may not have been able to hold you down to a promise on these shipyards, but by God, you delivered anyway. Let's see him chomp that cigar at you this year.
Light and Chemical Industry
Vardona: Vespene Extraction Operations (Phase 1)
The planet Vardona has been settled for over a century and under the Confederacy was principally mixed-use agriculture and urban settlement. However, recent subterranean surveys have detected a massive network of Vespene reservoirs beneath the planet's surface, concentrated around one of the planet's lesser seas. By declaring that sea a Dominion resource zone, we can convert it into one of the sector's richest gas fields and expand production during a period of desperate shortage.
(Provides Resource income upon completion)
(Progress 517/500, -5R per die) [51, 28, 63]
[17 Progress toward next phase] [+30R/turn]
"Now, remember, folks. When Mister Safety Valve isn't engaged, Mister Pipe is not your friend!"
- Instructional video for Vespene drillers, in the form of Sparky the Talking Gas Cloud
With the success of Rig One firmly cemented and operations proceeding smoothly, the next step is replicating that feat a half-dozen more times. Across the Donette Sea, new iterations of the Rig One design go up swiftly, each drilling down into an immense concentration of Vespene below the seafloor. The most successful is Rig Four, which incorporates several additional hard-learned safety lessons as well as a number of quality-of-life features, like larger bunkrooms for the workers.
Over the course of the last half-year, Vardona has gone from a modest Vespene importer to a net exporter, with the promise of far greater production capacity in its future. The principal limits, besides trained personnel and the amount of time it takes to build a gas rig, are in terrestrial haulage, as the few tanker ships you have available are converted from older designs, not purpose-built, and vessels of the right size are in sharply limited supply. Even with these inefficiencies, the export operations net you – that is, the Treasury – a tidy profit.
Tyrador IX: Refugee Workshops (Phase 2) [Reconstruction]
While the core factories on Velocis have been completed, many smaller refugee communities remain without viable sources of employment. As such, the next push in factory construction will be a series of dispersed mid-range workshops focused on the literal nuts and bolts of industry: fasteners, small hand tools, and other mass-produced metal items.
(Provides Resource income upon completion)
(Progress 152/400, -5R per die) [22, 67]
"Please note that reprogramming factory fabricators to produce personal items, including but not limited to so-called 'military grade' foam darts, is strictly forbidden. If found in possession of factory property, you will be subject to disciplinary action."
- Exasperated automated reminder, broadcast in a Velocis toy factory
With the renewed focus on shipbuilding and heavy industry, there is little room in the Treasury budget this quarter for Tyrador's light industry, and it shows. Efforts to actually build factories are modest; lacking the resources to invest heavily in new construction, labor brigadiers instead focus on expanding existing facilities, allowing overburdened consumer goods producers to either improve output of current products or develop new lines all together.
Environmental
Korhal: Regreening Effort (Phase 1)
While Augustgrad is intended to be the center of a vast planet-wide city, the Emperor has been convinced that covering the entire planet in urban sprawl is perhaps not ideal. Instead, swathes of the surface have been set aside for so-called "park districts," where forests and meadows are allowed to exist. The process of regrowing an ecosystem may take decades, even after the radiation scrubbing, but there's no time like the present.
(+5 Paranoia)
(Progress 48/100, -5R per die) [18]
"We located the source of the radiation leak. No, it's not an old reactor core. You'd better get the engineering corps down here, and quickly."
- A very nervous DLS labor officer, reporting to her superior
Progress on the first park district is unfortunately stalled during the quarter due to unforeseen circumstances. Actually, extremely unforeseen circumstances. During the course of decontamination efforts, one area's radiation level stubbornly refuses to decline, remaining above expectations even after several passes of soil conditioning. Finally, the team leader gives up and calls in the surveyors.
What the survey team discovers is a literal blast from the past: an unexploded Apocalypse-class city-buster nuclear warhead, buried beneath what's slated to be a lovely children's park. According to the EOD experts you have brought in, the proximity fuse malfunctioned and the thing buried itself rather than go off. Decades later, it's leaking military-grade nuclear material salted with cobalt.
After the entire work site has been evacuated, the warhead is very, very carefully extracted, piece by piece, from its former burrow. The nuclear material itself literally disappears when a Ghost team from Dominion Security shows up to confiscate it, and the rest is hauled away by military engineers. Only once that extremely careful process is completed can another, much heavier decon effort move through the district, scouring away any and all traces of the thing's existence.
Tyrador IX: Establish Farmsteads (Phase 2) [Reconstruction]
The initial focus of the Velocis farmstead program has shifted away from small-scale family farms towards larger-scale communal farms based around planned villages, with the intention of improving both efficiency and output. While small farmsteads are still available to those who prefer the frontier lifestyle, this new emphasis on large communes should allow us to absorb more of the refugee population and improve food output at the same time.
(Progress 360/400, -5R per die) [75, 87]
"Wait, you want me to raise a what? A 'karak'? The hell's a karak? And why is this fence so high?"
- A communal farmer, confronted with an exciting new challenge
With the unfortunate consumption of many Fringe agri-worlds that lay in the Swarm's path during the Great War, and the devastation of others in other conflicts, food is at an all-time shortage within the Dominion. Given the lack of available Earth-born breeding stock and the slow rate at which it replenishes, one proposed solution is to invest in alternate forms of animal husbandry using more-numerous Koprulu animals.
One such animal is the karak, a bipedal flightless bird with powerful legs and, among the males of the species, a large, distinctive head-crest. Unlike chickens, which tend to get devoured en masse by the Zerg, karaks have very strong survival instincts and the mobility to use them, leading to substantial remaining populations across the Dominion. Also unlike chickens, the karak is not a domesticated animal, nor has it been bred to produce meat and eggs. In fact, karak products are widely considered inferior to those produced by chickens and other Earth-born livestock, and the animals themselves are somewhat... temperamental.
Even so, you authorize a pilot program for a dozen new karak farms across Velocis, shipping the birds en masse. Fortunately, some crackpot from Antiga Prime who was obsessed with karak farming left behind extensive documentation on how to raise the things and not get kicked to death in the process, so there's plenty of literature available to your farmers. Soon enough, low-quality eggs and meat are flowing from the farms, suitable mostly for inclusion in stews and other multi-ingredient dishes. And all the injuries are good practice for the local clinic doctors, anyway.
Dylar IV: Orbital Hydroponics
Dylar IV is a singularly unpleasant planet, selected to host the Confederacy's shipyards only due to its rich mineral deposits and technically breathable atmosphere. It has always been entirely dependent on external food shipments for its numerous personnel, which led to several perilous moments during the Great War when freighters failed to get through. By building a series of hydroponics habitats capable of producing their own fresh foodstuffs, we can alleviate, if not solve, the Dylarian Shipyards' need for a constant influx of outside food.
(Progress 122/100, -15R per die) [60, 62]
[22 Progress toward next project]
"Suzanne, I gotta tell you, farming in space is just about the weirdest gig I can imagine. It's so, so damp, and you can hear the pipes working all the damn time. Even so, the amenities are fine, the pay is great, and the view... you just can't beat it."
- Hydroponics worker, vidcomming her sister from aboard an orbital agri-habitat
At their peak, the Dylarian Shipyards were an enormous, sprawling industrial complex capable of employing and housing upwards of a million people. They were also placed over a world poorly suited to terraforming, with intense wind-storms and an unfavorable atmospheric gas mixture. As such, unlike other space-based industries elsewhere in the Confederacy, the Shipyards could not be sustained by the planet they orbited.
Though the hazards and perils of warfare wreaked their own havoc on the Shipyards, the decisive final blow to their functioning was the cessation of the massive, constant food imports needed to keep their workers healthy and productive. Some small-scale efforts to grow 'war gardens' aboard the habitats were attempted, but ultimately proved unsuccessful. In the end, virtually the entire population of Dylar IV emigrated for other, more hospitable worlds. This was, in many senses, a deathblow to the Confederate cause.
While some Fringe food imports have resumed and other projects have begun exporting other produce, Dylar IV still needs its own means of, if not replacing external imports, at least defraying its enormous needs. As such, a constellation of orbital habitats go up around the planet, each one consisting of a massive plasteel dome under which a dense array of hydroponics trays are warmed by the system's sun. The foodstuffs being grown are mostly high-calorie staples like grain and rice, which both substantially reduce the Shipyards' freight needs and are easily stockpiled. Some agri-habitats are set aside for factory livestock farming, or for more appealing produce, in order to provide much-needed variety to the workers' diet.
Services
Vardona: Angustia Orbital Shipyard Complex (Phase 1)
Dylar IV is the unquestioned heart of Terran military production in Koprulu space, but the massive investment there has always overshadowed the needs of the overburdened, underfunded, and thoroughly mismanaged merchant marine. Between inter-faction commerce raiding and Zerg attacks, space-going and warp-capable freighters are currently at an extreme premium. The Angustia Yards are the solution: a dedicated civilian shipyard capable of replenishing and maybe even someday expanding the Dominion's shipping capacity.
(Progress 479/400, -15R per die) [81, 80, 40, 44, 43]
[79 Progress toward next phase]
"This here boat represents the Dominion's unceasin' commitment to self-sufficiency, industry, and commerce. While we'll always be good pals with the Kel-Morians, it's time that we stopped relyin' on them for every long-haul, short-haul, and, hell, medium-haul freighter in the fleet. Maybe, one day, they'll be buyin' from us."
- Chancellor Horner, at the dedication ceremony for the Hermes, the first ship built by the Angustia Yards
Despite your high-flown commitment to self-sufficiency, Angustia is built on the back of Kel-Morian imports. Given the Dominion's military might, they're more or less willing to part with the massive ship-fabricators and freighter schematics you need, but they also charge a high premium as they watch all that business walk out the door. Even so, with the Yards in their current state, you won't be ending their export business any time soon.
What you do have is a strong nucleus of what will one day be a thriving complex, with overbuilt power systems and accommodations that are currently only utilized at a fraction of their full potential. The truth is, you only need a few thousand laborers for the four drydocks that are up and operational right now, though that number tends to wax and wane depending on the stage of construction. Those drydocks can only handle a single medium-size freighter at any given time, or two smaller ones, foreclosing on the larger and more impressive superhaulers for the time being.
But it's up, and it works, and it's a hell of a start.
Military
Korhal: Fort Romulus Lunar Garrison
Located on Korhal's second moon, Ursa, Fort Romulus is intended to be a major linchpin of the throne world's orbital defense network. While the Emperor anticipates blanketing Korhal's skies in defense platforms like Tarsonis some day, the presence of a natural satellite allows for a much faster and cheaper option in the interim.
(Progress 344/300, -5R per die) [57, 33, 74, 37]
[22 Progress toward Augustgrad] [-10 Paranoia]
"Effective immediately, the 13th Orbital Infantry Division will be known as the Space Wolves, and the unit crest changed to reflect that."
- Fort Romulus' commanding officer, after being besieged by requests
This kids' show is out of control. When you go to tour the Fort Romulus construction site, you notice that the labor brigadiers have made several unauthorized cosmetic changes to the installation's exterior. Your suspicion that they conform to the damn playset of the fictional space base is confirmed when you first set foot inside and notice the massive Space Wolves crest set into the foyer. Someone actually has a faux wolf tail flying below the Dominion flag. Unbelievable.
Whatever the reason behind it, the work crews have absolutely thrown themselves into the project, setting up a fully functional installation in well under six months. The centerpiece of the site is a multi-celled launch accelerator which, when out of the prototyping and testing phase, will be able to magnetically fire drop pods directly at Korhal's surface, cutting deployment times in half.
You note with approval that much of the base is underground (again thanks to the damn show), including the support quarters and other vulnerable areas. Combine that with all the fortified entrances, and it'll be a damn tough nut to crack.
Of course, part of you wonders if that's actually a good thing, all told...
Vardona: Treasury Reserve Site Alpha [TRUST] [NEW]
If you're going to have an army, that army needs a base. Smith has identified an ideal site on the outskirts of Vardona's main urban center, an abandoned industrial park that readily lends itself to being bulldozed and fortified. It'll be useful as a place to house the TRUSTroopers, perform training exercises and drills, and stockpile weapons. You know, in case of a civil emergency.
(Progress 141/300, -5R per die) [84, 57]
"Please be aware that site security has been empowered to perform uniform spot checks on anyone below the rank of Commandant. If you fail to pass the spot check, you will be issued a formal demerit."
- New regulations for Site Alpha, per the Vice-Chancellor
Reserve Site Alpha, codename TREASURE, is the centerpiece of your new uniformed service, God help you. In keeping with TRUST's civilian roots, its aesthetic is more "office complex" than "fortified military installation," but just because the precautions aren't obvious doesn't mean they aren't there. Site security has made extensive use of concealed pop-up turrets and camouflaged side doors, along with discreet cameras, to make the entire effort just about invisible.
Likewise, the accommodations are far less spartan than you'd expect from a base, and are quite suitable for short- to mid-term habitation by both regular personnel and visitors. You catch a nap in one of the finished bunkrooms, which feature single-person beds and surprisingly comfy mattresses, and find it eminently satisfactory.
Even so, you have no intention of moving in full-time. The majority of Treasury staff will remain in the temporary building for the time being, so as to avoid the impression that you're climbing into your own personal bunker. Eventually, most of the department will move to Korhal, but even so, you won't be leaving Vardona entirely behind. Site Alpha will be your home away from home, your own personal footprint, and from there... who knows?
Unfortunately, part of slow-rolling the entire TRUST program includes not actually being able to finish the project at lightning speed. Instead, you divert just enough work crews that can be safely missed to the site, without leaning too hard on material requisitions. As such, the construction process is slow, verging on leisurely for a DLS project, and less than half-done by the end of the quarter.
Research
New Model Weaponry (Phase 2) [Tech] [NEW]
The Hailstorm shoulder-mounted multiple missile launch system is a modification of the anti-air missile launchers mounted on the Goliath walker. Instead of two separate launchers, the Hailstorm boasts four sequence-firing tubes, albeit with much smaller munitions. The projectile spread will give each rocket trooper a surprising amount of firepower against enemy flyers, especially when deployed en masse.
(Progress 198/250, -15R per die) [27, 67, 5, 71, 22, 6]
"No, sir, everything's going fine! The munitions are fantastic, working perfectly. The sensor array? Adapted from the standard missile turret, slimmed down wonderfully, no problems whatsoever. The housing, very sturdy, mid-grade neosteel, holds up under repeated uses. I can hardly think of anything els– sorry, the what-firing sequence? I think you're breaking up, sir."
- R&D team leader, giving a very honest and forthright status update
Okay, so the Hailstorm launcher might have been slightly ambitious. It's not that your people don't know how to build a missile launcher, necessarily. It's just that firing four missiles all at the same time in a manner that keeps them reliably on-target is, you know, extremely complicated. The hardest part, according to the research team, is getting them to keep from colliding in midair when directed at a single point, what they term a "premature link-up scenario." You've seen one happen, and "giant aerial clusterfuck" is a much more accurate term, in your mind.
Still, all the fundamentals are quite solid. A little more work ironing out the minor defects, like that the munitions are more likely to hit each other than their target, and all will be well.
Bureaucracy
Re-Establish the Bureau of Planning and Statistics
The Confederate Bureau of Statistics and Long-Term Planning was, to put it bluntly, a den of liars and crooks. The employees there were retained as professional forgers of documents and obfuscators of numbers. Charlatans, frauds, scam artists, you get the drill. But hey, what if you hired real statisticians and engineers to populate the department? You might get a better picture of what's actually going on in the Dominion.
(Progress 387/200, -5R per die) [71, 43, 89, 104, 44]
[94 Progress toward SALOME] [Stats unlocked] [+10 Paranoia]
[Sub-update pending]
"Okay, so they want numbers proving the viability of the project. Just make them up. Easy. Wait, we have to provide the math? But... but... that's unheard of! Inconceivable! Unprecedented! Next, they'll be demanding that we actually produce results!"
- Vice-Commandant for Special Construction, two days prior to being relieved of duty
For the last three months, all you've been hearing from the 23rd through 26th floors is an ominous rumbling, as furniture and computer mainframes are moved into the new offices of the Bureau for Planning and Statistics. With them come a veritable legion of experienced and newly-trained statisticians, literally everything the Dominion has to offer, and more than a few Umojan expatriates lured with the promise of exorbitant salaries.
Nothing emerges from them in that entire time, either, save the promise of "a brief overview of the current situation." With that ominous note, you're left to sit back, wait, and try not to fret. Just how bad could it be, anyway?
Personal
Raynor's Raiders: "Lose" Military Surplus
While Raynor himself is off God knows where with the Protoss, the rest of the Raiders are out around the Fringe Worlds, providing the protection and security that the Dominion presently either can't or won't. Despite having quite a few skilled personnel, their operational ability is constrained by their lack of dedicated manufacturing facilities. Given our access to a vast pool of surplus military equipment, it would be easy enough to simply "lose" some of it, for a good cause.
(DC 60 to avoid +10 Paranoia, -10F per die) [31, 97, 15]
[143 vs DC 60; pass] [+1 Relations with Raynor's Raiders]
"SCVs! Factories! Machine shops! Aw, hell, we're gonna build so much stuff with these, you've got no idea. Thanks, Chuckles."
- Chief Engineer Swann, expressing his gratitude
As Duke sends you piles and piles of military surplus, most of it refurbished or second-rate, there are certain... procedural errors. Invoices and manifests mysteriously vanish, shipments get diverted, and whole pop-up machine shops slip through the cracks. All very understandable as the natural friction of a large and ad-hoc movement of cargo from deep storage to many places with poor infrastructure. How all those crates made it outside the sector and showed up in Aiur is a mystery that may never be resolved. Frankly, the losses are shocking, even by the standards of the Confederacy. You make sure to have Arendt order and run a full internal investigation, which will surely identify and punish the individuals responsible. Any day now.
Fringe Worlds: Divert Supplies to Independent Settlements
While the Confederacy officially numbered thirteen planets in total, and the Dominion exercises control of roughly half of those, the true number of Terran-inhabited planets is up in the dozens. Outside the Core Worlds, settlements are spread-out and focused mainly on mining or procuring planetary exotics, with little in the way of help or support from any official body. By creatively editing our shipping manifests, we can redirect relief supplies out to those fringe communities in greatest need, potentially staving off disaster for millions of people.
(DC 40 to avoid +10 Paranoia, -15F per die) [50, 48]
[98 vs DC 40; pass] [+1 Relations with Raynor's Raiders]
"Three cheers for the Chancellor! Hip hip, hooray! Hip hip, hooray! Hip hip, hooray!"
- A somewhat embarrassing vidcom sent from the Troubadour mining colony, kept in your personal safe
You're appalled, to be quite honest. It turns out that the losses were even more severe than you expected. There must be some kind of graft at work, or maybe even a smuggling operation within your own ranks. How all those prefab shelters and emptied-out barracks ended up spread across the Fringe is an absolute puzzle, no matter how you look at it. Now, instead of due-to-expire vaccine doses just sitting in a DLS warehouse, an entire generation of Fringe children is getting inoculated against Antigan measles. Furthermore, you expect that your stockpile of outdated vehicle parts, useless for any modern government-owned conveyance but compatible with most colonist gear, is now being used to keep a bunch of Fringers' motorized lifelines running instead of gathering dust or being broken down for scrap.
How ever will you explain yourself? If only you could trust the military to get what they promised to you. Shameful. Just shameful.
[+1 bonus Relations with Raynor's Raiders due to double-passing synergistic actions]
Last edited:
- Location
- SEAsia
- Pronouns
- Thou
Good Ol' Chuckles, making fringe colonies safer, one bunker and misplaced shipment of "office supplies" at a time. 
VoidZero
Passing Flan 布丁魔王
- Location
- Anywhere but RL
Resources and supplies went unaccounted for? What terrible sloppiness done by the military supply chain and the transportation industry. We must immediately clamp down any and all such reports and ensure news of these deficiencies are kept strictly in-house.
We can't let our emperor's enemies know the exploitable weakness from other sources.
We can't let our emperor's enemies know the exploitable weakness from other sources.
Last edited:
Sailor_Skarro
The Lurker
Aside from Mengsk forcing his music tastes on everyone and the issues with the firing, I think we did good this turn.
F0lkL0re
Officially not an Inquisitor
- Location
- Shetland
Shocking just shocking but at least we've got our best man looking into it.
Don't worry Arendt is on it. [Arendt looks up from an industrial shredder he's feeding documents into and gives a thumbs up] What a guy!
Sailor_Skarro
The Lurker
Eventually, Korhal will run out of things to microwave people with, if only because there won't be a planet left to microwave people.
F0lkL0re
Officially not an Inquisitor
- Location
- Shetland
Cursed pish posh just a few more discoveries like this and our nuclear arsenal will out strip the Confederacies.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This got me good.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Fired: We need to regreen Korhal so it can be pretty.
Tired: We need to regreen Korhal so we can see what dies.
Wired: We need to regreen Korhal because it's taunting us.
Inspired: We need to regreen Korhal to see what else can go wrong.
Tired: We need to regreen Korhal so we can see what dies.
Wired: We need to regreen Korhal because it's taunting us.
Inspired: We need to regreen Korhal to see what else can go wrong.
- Location
- alphen aan den rijn
to sad about the fail on the learning roll but other then that and planting trees most of it went well.
i see minsk is still being himself and semi drunk on power.
did we send a note on whats going on with the zerg or did that report go missing somewhere?
i see minsk is still being himself and semi drunk on power.
did we send a note on whats going on with the zerg or did that report go missing somewhere?