I'm putting this plan up mostly because I think ignoring ICE is a bad idea and prometheus110 has confirmed on discord that Mir can support a shipyard.
Also question for the thread does anyone have any requisition and design idea? or have enough of a grasp of the BT design rules to make a mark three version of the Toxotai so that we can have a petrusite armed ship with more range then the Noctis (or I at least think it has a little more range).
[X] Plan: More Black Harbors and Security
-[X] InDecision 3050
--[X] Allow Things To Play Out as Normal - Rationalists
-[X] Trinity League Integration Package: Dreamt up by Republic civil servants during the stabilization of the former Trinity League, the TLIP is a set of programs designed to ease the integration of said systems into the Republic over a shorter time frame schedule than afforded by the System Upgrade Program. Politically and materially expensive, the integration program aims to improve everything from the region's healthcare to cultivating collective ownership of the means of production. [Progress: 0/5] [Locked Until Completed] [This will cost 3 AP and progress by 1 point per turn]
-[X] Construct two Noctis-B-class Frigate Squadrons: Task your shipyards with constructing Six Noctis-B Frigates. [Can be taken multiple times a turn] -[X] Construct one Handyman-class Factory Ship Squadron: Task the Detroit shipyards with building a squadron of three Handyman-class Factory Ships. [Progress: 0/2] [Cannot construct other 1m+ ton designs until completed]
-[X] Orbital Shipyard (Helghan): Necessary to construct ships massing between 600,000 to 1,000,000 tons due to the limitations of anti-gravity drives, an orbital shipyard over Helghan will allow the Republic to construct much heavier vessels in batches of 3. [Progress 0/2] [Action Point Locked Until Completed]
-[X] Orbital Shipyard (Mir): Necessary to construct ships massing between 600,000 to 1,000,000 tons due to the limitations of anti-gravity drives, an orbital shipyard over Helghan will allow the Republic to construct much heavier vessels in batches of 3.[Progress 0/2] [Action Point Locked Until Completed]
-[X] Research
--[X] Primitive Hyperspace ECCM
--[X] Intruder Countermeasure Electronics
We definitely want to start Ferro-Carbide now, to give maximum time for rolling it out across ORDI forces. Teleportation Theory completes this turn, freeing up a slot. That's irrelevant as far as we're concerned in this thread, but it does mean at a minimum one research chain can be initiated from start to completion between threads, and that can be the ICE branch.
I'm not opposed to starting shipyards over Mir, but trade Handymen for them and bring back the second Noctis-B build order. We need the coverage, not just the replacements. We basically have nothing to respond with elsewhere, and that makes me extremely nervous.
[X] Plan: More Black Harbors and Security
-[X] InDecision 3050
--[X] Allow Things To Play Out as Normal - Rationalists
-[X] Trinity League Integration Package: Dreamt up by Republic civil servants during the stabilization of the former Trinity League, the TLIP is a set of programs designed to ease the integration of said systems into the Republic over a shorter time frame schedule than afforded by the System Upgrade Program. Politically and materially expensive, the integration program aims to improve everything from the region's healthcare to cultivating collective ownership of the means of production. [Progress: 0/5] [Locked Until Completed] [This will cost 3 AP and progress by 1 point per turn]
-[X] Construct two Noctis-B-class Frigate Squadrons: Task your shipyards with constructing Six Noctis-B Frigates. [Can be taken multiple times a turn] -[X] Construct one Handyman-class Factory Ship Squadron: Task the Detroit shipyards with building a squadron of three Handyman-class Factory Ships. [Progress: 0/2] [Cannot construct other 1m+ ton designs until completed]
-[X] Orbital Shipyard (Helghan): Necessary to construct ships massing between 600,000 to 1,000,000 tons due to the limitations of anti-gravity drives, an orbital shipyard over Helghan will allow the Republic to construct much heavier vessels in batches of 3. [Progress 0/2] [Action Point Locked Until Completed]
-[X] Orbital Shipyard (Mir): Necessary to construct ships massing between 600,000 to 1,000,000 tons due to the limitations of anti-gravity drives, an orbital shipyard over Helghan will allow the Republic to construct much heavier vessels in batches of 3.[Progress 0/2] [Action Point Locked Until Completed]
-[X] Research
--[X] Primitive Hyperspace ECCM
--[X] Intruder Countermeasure Electronics
[X] Turn 41 Plan: Tulips and Black Harbors
-[X] InDecision 3050
--[X] Allow Things To Play Out as Normal - Rationalists
-[X] Trinity League Integration Package: Dreamt up by Republic civil servants during the stabilization of the former Trinity League, the TLIP is a set of programs designed to ease the integration of said systems into the Republic over a shorter time frame schedule than afforded by the System Upgrade Program. Politically and materially expensive, the integration program aims to improve everything from the region's healthcare to cultivating collective ownership of the means of production. [Progress: 0/5] [Locked Until Completed] [This will cost 3 AP and progress by 1 point per turn]
-[X] Construct two Noctis-B-class Frigate Squadrons: Task your shipyards with constructing Six Noctis-B Frigates. [Can be taken multiple times a turn]
-[X] Orbital Shipyard (Helghan): Necessary to construct ships massing between 600,000 to 1,000,000 tons due to the limitations of anti-gravity drives, an orbital shipyard over Helghan will allow the Republic to construct much heavier vessels in batches of 3. [Progress 0/2] [Action Point Locked Until Completed]
-[X] Orbital Shipyard (Mir): Necessary to construct ships massing between 600,000 to 1,000,000 tons due to the limitations of anti-gravity drives, an orbital shipyard over Mir will allow the Republic to construct much heavier vessels in batches of 3.[Progress 0/2] [Action Point Locked Until Completed]
-[X] Research
--[X] Primitive Hyperspace ECCM
--[X] Ferro-Carbide Armour (+Major Armour Research Bonus (25%) x1)
-[X] Military Requisition and Design
--[X] Placeholder 1-4
The end of the Clan Invasion and the uneasy peace that follows is a natural place to end any story arc. Plus, I have a million other ideas and want to do character stuff.
FYI, the quest update will probably drop at the end of the week at the earliest. Yearly turns always take ages in comparison to the quarterly turns, and that's with me taking pains to limit how big they are.
Habitability Improvement: Improve the general habitability of one of the Republic's less hospitable worlds. [Success: +5 influence. Failure: -2.5 influence]
Modernize colony ships: Beginning to show their age after a lengthy career shuttling colonists to their new homes, replacing the Bellerophon-class colony ships with a new design could greatly reduce pressure on our maintenance yards. [Success: +5 influence. Failure: -2.5 influence]
Pride of the Fleet: Construct a naval vessel massing 1,000,000 tons. (Must have a BV at least equivalent to other battleship-class vessels of a similar mass) [Success: +15 influence. Failure: -7.5 influence]
Expand MAWLR Corps: With memories of war still fresh on people's minds and trouble clearly brewing in the Inner Sphere, a number of concerned citizens and politicians would be put at ease if the Republic were to expand the number of MAWLRs at its disposal. (Must build at least 2 MAWLR packs by Dec 31st, 3049) [Success: +10 influence. Failure: -5 influence] [Progress: 2/2]
ORDI Expansion: Convince a nation to join the Outer Rim Defence Initiative as either a full member or as an associate member. [Success: +10 influence. Failure: -5 influence]
InDecision 3050
[X] Allow Things To Play Out as Normal - Rationalists
Carefully listening to the slate of positions proffered by the many and varied electoral blocs—their upsides and downsides heavily scrutinised and considered—the year's final weeks saw the Malkiewicz government eventually settle on doing nothing. Put forward by the self-described Rationalists and based on the idea that the Malkiewicz government had done all it could to build support throughout the Republic and that any attempt to push for an early or late election would be seen as a cynical ploy for power, the Rationalist plan called for the ruling government to do nothing to impact the date of the next election lest it unwittingly trigger a catastrophic loss at the poles. Though a tacit refusal to seize the initiative and begin campaigning when opposition parties were least expecting it, the Rationalist bloc has repeatedly argued—and the Malkiewicz government was convinced—that holding the elections as usual and trusting in the Helghan people to make up their minds would serve to grant six additional months in power and decent odds at forming a minority government.
Considered something of a risky move even with the ruling government, those who held the view nonetheless silenced themselves as the Prime Minister made clear their choice; the decision not to change the election date seeing countless mechanisms within the Republic whir to life as the nation made ready to host the mid-year election in June of 3051.
Effect
Election set for midpoint between Q2 and 3.
ORDI Actions:
[X] Region-wide Industrial Investment: [Region-wide Progress: 16/84] [Locked Until Completed] [Progress capped at 42 until the URC is no longer in crisis] [+1 AP from Aurigan Coalition, +1 AP from Taurian Concordat, +1 AP from Magistracy of Canopus, +1 AP from Capellan Confederation, +2 AP from local systems using War Reparations] Today, I had to deal with a guy who changed his mind every five minutes about where he wanted his town's hospital. Last week, I had to buy ferrocrete from a guy at 15% over market rate because his brother was the only one for five hundred klicks who sold steel in the quality and quantity we needed. The week before that, I got RSI signing a stack of forms that came up to my knees.
Christ, I should have signed up for the Independence job. - Mark Strang, Regional Coordinator, ORDI International Development Programme.
Doing their best to push the increasingly omnipresent thoughts of the approaching Clans from their minds, the multinational army of labourers, engineers, and automata deployed to the Outback threw themselves into the effort to improve the region's industry; the steady stream of material from the ORDI's heartland put to use building up and enhancing scores of systems. Spread across the region's fifty-plus systems in ever-increasing numbers, ORDI personnel built and dredged and poured and dug their way from pole to pole across planet after planet, their anaemic internal economies slowly gathering speed as the wealth of empire was freed and—in a roundabout way—redistributed to the native peoples. Perhaps the most experienced people in the galaxy in such matters, ORDI work crews proved so productive when it came to infrastructural works that jokes soon abounded of ten-person towns waking up to find their very own international airport built overnight.
However, despite the steady progress made by personnel operating in the Federation of Autonomous Systems, the strained political situation in the United Rimward Collective led to only the most basic progress despite the surfeit of funds and experience available. Gridlocked into complete stasis thanks to the bitter political struggle between its three most powerful political groups, the URC government proved incapable of dispensing funds or organising labour to improve its nation's infrastructure, some members not even trying to appear interested in doing so. Though the benign disinterest displayed by the URC government did permit ORDI workers to make some progress on their own recognisance over 3050, most such efforts nonetheless faced challenges such as needless red tape, local power plays, indecisive decision-makers, and the inevitable presence of corruption; all of which hampered the ORDI's ability to stick to its commitments.
Steady progress except in the URC, where work has continued in spite of the government rather than because of it.
[X] Establish National Administration and Rebuild Local Administration (United Rimward Collective)
[URC Progress: 7/5] [+0 AP from URC + 0 from ORDI] [Locked Until Completed] [NO EFFECT UNTIL SOME SOLUTION IS MADE] 'Days Since Last Congressional Fistfight' was the phrase some joker scrawled beside the team's bulletin board, a big fat zero written next to it that lasted about a week before we had our first. After that, the idea didn't seem so funny. - Odessa Mira, Junior Staffer, ORDI Diplomatic Team, United Rimward Republic
Effect
No progress
[X] Basic Infrastructure and Housing Development and Repair (Federation of Autonomous Systems + United Rimward Collective)
[FAS Progress: 3/10] [+1 from FAS + 0.5 from Helghan Republic]
[URC Progress: 2/15] [+0 from URC + 0.5 from Helghan Republic] Dominating the skylines in typically Helghan fashion despite their international origins, the Outback's now iconic megabuildings are a continuation of the late 20th/early 21st centuries' conception of an arcology, each block home to eight thousand apartments as well as stores, entertainment options, and the ominously named but ultimately mundane "socialisation areas." Constructed by the Outer Rim Defence Initiative to supply displaced populations with housing options suitable for human life, the reputation of megabuildings differs significantly from planet to planet and class to class; some view them as hives of lawlessness and criminality, while others find them to be perfectly acceptable places to live.
In recent years, work by Professor Annett Kohoutová of Van Dalen University, Mir, has led to a critical reevaluation of their utility in rebuilding the Outback... - Megabuildings, a Primer. Prof. Asaf Ilić, 3075
Elsewhere in the Outback, ORDI personnel dedicated to housing and infrastructure continued their work with no less enthusiasm and no less trouble than those dedicated to improving the region's industrial capabilities. Working closely with locals and Automata—Horus Mark IIs once again proving their worth in constructing vast amounts of valuable products using in situ materials—ORDI workers threw up countless kilometres of electrical cables, sewer pipes, and water pipes over the yearlong period, each one terminating at some new apartment complex or housing estate as they worked to heal the scars of war. Though greatly hampered by the worsening internal situation in the Rimward Collective and with the Federation's industrial sector still in its infancy and thus unable to provide much support, the progress made nonetheless saw hundreds of thousands moved out of ramshackle homes into new housing before the year was out, the hopes of the remaining dispossessed kept alive by the ORDI's labours.
[X] Energy Infrastructure Development (Federation of Autonomous Systems + United Rimward Collective)
[FAS Progress: 3/15] [+1 from FAS + 0.5 from Helghan Republic]
[URC Progress: 2/15] [+0 from URC + 0.5 from Helghan Republic] First, there is the power of the Wind, constantly exerted over the globe... Here is almost incalculable power at our disposal, yet how trifling the use we make of it! It only serves to turn a few mills, blow a few vessels across the ocean, and a few trivial ends besides. What a poor compliment do we pay to our indefatigable and energetic servant! - Henry David Thoreau, The Dispersion Of Seeds
Likewise, the fourth prong of the Republic's Outback investment strategy saw great strides made over 3050, albeit primarily within the Federation of Autonomous Systems due to the ongoing dysfunction within the Rimward Collective. Present in vast numbers and equipped with tools that, even a few decades ago, would have been difficult to imagine, Republic workers across the region laboured around the clock to rebuild, repair, and replace electricity infrastructure damaged during the brief but painful independence war, Horus's spinning vast webs of high power cabling across planet after planet and spitting out wind turbines, solar power cells, hydropower turbines, and a wealth of other power sources. Kept fed by the Republic's prodigious industry, shortages struck the programme only a handful of times, the intense competition generated by the System Upgrade Program, Trinity League Integration Package, ORDIHCR Programme, and aid to the Taurian Concordat delaying several projects by a month or two.
Alas, though attempts to make equal progress in the Federation and Collective were many, varied, and enjoyed support from both the Helghan Parliament and workers on the ground, the Collective government's sheer gridlock meant that every advance required a vast expenditure of effort. In contrast to the Federation of Autonomous Systems, which saw hundreds of thousands of kilometres of power cabling laid and dozens of new power generation sites opened, Republic personnel were only able to open a fraction of that amount across the Collective. Worse still, this governmental dysfunction has encouraged some of the nation's more morally flexible sorts to begin accepting—or offering to accept— bribes in exchange for preferential treatment—Helghan peacekeepers arresting a score of corrupt officials with little effort.
Steady progress made in the FAS, but much less progress made in the URC
Strong indications that corruption is growing in the URC.
FAS Project Tracker
[X] Establish National Education System and Improve Local Education (Federation of Autonomous Systems) [Progress: 2/15] [Locked Until Completed] [+1AP from FAS]
[Progress: 2/15] → [Progress: 3/15]
URC Project Tracker
[X] Bolster Planetary Militia (United Rimward Collective) [Progress: 0/2] [Locked Until Completed] [+1AP from URC]
[Progress: 1/2] → [Progress: 1/2] SUSPENDED DUE TO DISJUNCTION
Alphard Republic:
[X] JumpShip Yard Development: Having promised to help the Alphard Republic to construct a jumpship yard, it behoves the Republic to get a start on that ASAP. [Progress: 2/4] [Locked Until Completed]
Sometimes as an antidote
To fear of death,
I eat the stars.
Those nights, lying on my back,
I suck them from the quenching dark
Til they are all, all inside me,
Pepper hot and sharp.
Sometimes, instead, I stir myself
Into a universe still young,
Still warm as blood:
No outer space, just space,
The light of all the not yet stars
Drifting like a bright mist,
And all of us, and everything
Already there
But unconstrained by form.
And sometime it's enough
To lie down here on earth
Beside our long ancestral bones:
To walk across the cobble fields
Of our discarded skulls,
Each like a treasure, like a chrysalis,
Thinking: whatever left these husks
Flew off on bright wings.
Antidotes to Fear of Death, Rebecca Elson, 1960-1999
Finding themselves halfway done with the task thanks to 3049's astounding efforts, January 2nd saw orbital construction crews working in the Alphard system throw themselves into the shipyard program with newfound energy; newly promoted forepeople such as Cecilia Terzić, formerly of Construction Crew #9, streamlining the construction process with every bolt planted and every truss erected. Labouring alongside swarms of automata and remotely piloted EVA vessels, Helghan personnel worked feverishly to transform the fleshed-out but unpressurised slipways into fully enclosed and pressurised worksites, eight months of work saw every gap sealed with metal, polymer, or epoxy. In late August, those heroic efforts were rewarded when the first of the three slipways felt the first gusts of atmosphere and held, the hexagonal scaffolds swiftly becoming tiny bubbles of light and warmth over Alphard's amber-hued surface and, in turn, becoming something of a second home to many as their work transitioned from bulk labour to precision installation.
With only four months remaining in the year, the Republic's construction crews and automata worked with single-minded efficiency as they installed the first of what would soon become many precision manufacturing machines, weeks-long setup processes followed by equally long testing programs designed to ensure the rigours of interstellar travel and construction had done nothing to impact the delicate means of production. Though ultimately only able to install a quarter of the required machinery by the time the year ended and Helghan personnel were forced by law to take generous leave, the project's completion lay, at most, a single year away by the time December gave way to the new year.
[Progress: 2/4] → [Progress: 3/4]
Effect
Project is nearing completion
Planetary Development:
[X] Construct Planetary Yards on Independence [Progress 1/2] [Action Point Locked Until Completed] Personally, I plan to leave here five kilos heavier, sick of Piña Coladas and burnt to a crisp. As for the rest of you, do what you want—I'm on holiday. - Wouter Van der Aart, project manager, November 17th, 3050
To the great disappointment of Helghan workers on Independence who wished only for endless days of sleeping, surfing, supping, and more, January 3050 saw them forced to return to the task at hand—work resuming on the paradisiacal world's planetary shipyards with only the expected amount of grumbling. Already halfway complete thanks to the prior year's astounding results, Republic construction crews swiftly finished the mag-rail lines begun last year, late May seeing kilometres of gleaming steel tracks play host to bullet-fast trains carrying cargo and people to islands across the planet's eastern hemisphere. That small but vital task complete, the labourers soon turned their attention to fleshing out the three shipyards begun last January; their empty shells soon filled with all manner of delicate and expensive equipment, three times three slipways dug around them and buttressed with steel and ferrocrete.
Though envious of those endless crowds who thronged the beaches and waters as they spent their days working to complete the shipyards, Helghan's workers proved more than a match for their task. Christened with a bottle of Roguish champagne by its builders in a ceremony that seemed curiously rushed to any who did not know of the island's near universal happy hour, mid-November saw the final planetary shipyard opened for business on the island of Nani Mau; the work crews responsible racing off as quickly as dignity would allow. Unsurprisingly, the next day saw almost 80% of the personnel assigned to the task cash in their accrued leave, ships earmarked to convey them to their next destination forced—to their crew's delight—to remain on the planet for several weeks longer than planned.
Effect
Planetary yard complete
[X] System Upgrade Program [3 AP until all Republic planets have a B rating for Technological Sophistication, Industrial Development, and Industrial Output] Six months ago, getting your hands on a 2nm printer was like pulling teeth—all the supply was off-world, and only the big players could justify the expense. Now, it's like every bike shop and library on the Rock has one humming away in the back. Like they're as common as a workbench. - Director Nia Marquez, Industrial Supply Chain Conference, Rockwellawan, September 3050
Fully established after its burgeoning staff had spent the prior year establishing lines of communication and ensuring that all their ducks were in a row, early 3050 saw the prosaically named Ministry of Industrial Development leap to the challenge of building up the industrial and technological capabilities of the Rockwellawan system—swarms of warpcraft carrying many thousands of tons of materials and personnel cutting through the void of space and arrowing in towards the system. Arriving mere weeks into the year, these vessels deployed a wealth of materials and skills to the surface of the former mining world, the planetary government receiving both with open arms as carefully prearranged plans roared to life across the system. Supercharged by the flood of federal funding that accompanied the move and kept well fed by the glut of skills and materials, local development programs saw explosive uptake as scores of companies, cooperatives, and individual ventures leapt at the opportunity to improve their capabilities, more such groups signing up in a single month following the programs' expansion than had done in the year prior.
Though predicted to receive a robust response by the Ministry's analysts, few proved prepared for how eager local manufacturing concerns would prove to upgrade their systems on the government's tab; one particularly intense day seeing the program's signup system accidentally DDOSed by eager applicants. However, despite these challenges, the Ministry's staff persevered, and the year's remaining months passed in a blur as countless applicants received all that they could have wished from the government and more; even the most miserly and spending-averse manufacturing concern soon boasting equipment of a quality that surpassed that which had come before. Primarily aimed at improving the system's sophisticated but limited industrial output, late December saw the program's goals partially realised when, after a lengthy evaluation, Republic inspectors grudgingly granted the system a B-rating in Industrial Output—the cheering from the Ministry's offices reportedly deafening according to those forced to share office space with the gargantuan department.
Effect
Rockwellawan Industrial Output is now B-Rated.
[X] Trinity League Integration Package: Dreamt up by Republic civil servants during the stabilization of the former Trinity League, the TLIP is a set of programs designed to ease the integration of said systems into the Republic over a shorter time frame schedule than afforded by the System Upgrade Program. Politically and materially expensive, the integration program aims to improve everything from the region's healthcare to cultivating collective ownership of the means of production. [Progress: 0/5] [Locked Until Completed] [This will cost 3 AP and progress by 1 point per turn] Oh, good. More work. - Maci Pavlenko, Junior Economic Impact Analyst, Ministry of Industrial Development
Dreamt up by Republic civil servants long before the former Trinity League systems voted to join the nation, January 3050 saw the wheels of government bureaucracy grind to life as observant officials noted which way the wind was blowing and began laying the groundwork for the program. All across the nation, in an almost coordinated burst of civil-minded preplanning, public officials and civil servants alike began calling in favours, burying past animosities, and spending political capital, each and every deal made throughout the year aimed at ensuring a supply of resources and personnel and expertise was ready and waiting by the time the final tally was made. Dubbed TULIPS by those seeking a less unwieldy name for public discussion and political manoeuvring, the project called for a short but intense period of investment across the half-dozen planets of the former League, vast sums of money and an even greater amount of resources required to elevate the quality of life across the disparate worlds.
Landing in Parliament's lap within days of the referendums' results arriving on Helghan, the bills intended to fund the TULIPS program found little blocking their way despite the fears of some—recent events within the Concordat combined with the Republic's own ideology serving to loosen the pursestrings despite the ongoing crisis of the Clan Invasion. Fully funded by the end of October, progress on the plan only hastened as the days drifted by; the colossal undertaking quickly made a responsibility of the Ministry of Industrial Development thanks to the organisation's expertise, an entire subdepartment founded to help manage the twin burdens of the SUP and TULIPS. With the resources assembled, the money to fund it found, and the bureaucracy necessary to manage the program created, December's final weeks saw the first of many vessels depart for the former pirate state; its vast cargo hold stuffed fit to bursting with work crews and their tools.
[Progress: 0/5] → [Progress: 1/5]
Effect
TULIPS program established. Will start working on the actual meat and potatoes of improving the former Trinity League in 3051.
[X] Orbital Shipyard (Helghan): Necessary to construct ships massing between 600,000 to 1,000,000 tons due to the limitations of anti-gravity drives, an orbital shipyard over Helghan will allow the Republic to construct much heavier vessels in batches of 3. [Progress 0/2] [Action Point Locked Until Completed]
[X] Orbital Shipyard (Mir): Necessary to construct ships massing between 600,000 to 1,000,000 tons due to the limitations of anti-gravity drives, an orbital shipyard over Mir will allow the Republic to construct much heavier vessels in batches of 3. [Progress 0/2] [Action Point Locked Until Completed]
With the conflict against the Clans heating up with every passing week and the nation's Navy rapidly running up against the limit of how many warships could be supported by existing infrastructure, early 3050 saw Helghan's government authorise a crash program of shipyard construction throughout the nation to ameliorate the pains; orders cut for the construction of shipyards over Mir and Helghan. Required to build and maintain ships past the 600,000-ton constraint imposed by the limits of anti-gravity drives and material sciences, the construction of two additional shipyards would represent a tripling of the Republic's 1mt shipbuilding capacity and dramatically increase the rate and number of vessels the Republic could deploy in a year. Already well-versed in the difficulties of micro-gee construction thanks to Helghan's long list of orbital infrastructure work—including the construction and reconstruction of Detroit's shipyards—work on the new shipyards began almost immediately.
Arriving at their destinations in early February, scores of Republic personnel and their automata threw themselves into their work with the diligent professionalism that was their trademark, veterans of the Charybdis sunshade working side by side with those who had brought light to New Oslo, rivers to Highwaters, and jobs to Detroit. Clad in armoured space suits and assisted by their buglike machines, these labourers worked tirelessly to transform raw materials and preconstructed parts into embryonic slipways, three each appearing over Helghan and Mir as March turned to April and April to May and so on and so forth. A thousand metres long and two hundred across by the time December came calling, the hexagonal cages drifted serenely over their host planets as workers laboured over the finishing touches, their wiry frames surrounded by a galaxy's worth of light as fusion torches made the final welds. Though only half-finished by the close of December and little more than kilometre-long prisms useful for nothing—bereft, as they were, of construction machinery—the Republic wasted little time when it came to staffing the twin shipyards, tens of thousands of jobs announced in 3050's final weeks and applications flooding in from all across the Outer Rim Defence Initiative.
Work begins on Mir and Helghan shipyards. Progress is on schedule.
Politics:
[X] Build 2 smaller mech factories on Fronc as per the agreement we made with the planets governments states. [Progress: 1/3]
With the caverns and chambers of the twin satellite factories already halfway complete thanks to last year's tireless efforts, early 3050 saw Helghan workers continue their much-belaboured and little-rewarded labours despite the countless inefficiencies and difficulties raised by Fronc's political system. Though every decision proved twice as difficult to make and every action twice as hard to undertake as they did anywhere else, skill and dedication sufficed to see steady progress made as the months passed by; the traditional network of underground tunnels and chambers steadily expanded and those already completed filled out with plumbing and electrical wiring. Doubtlessly frustrated with the project's tardiness, Republic workers nonetheless proved able to keep on track with the project's refactored timeline despite the endless array of roadblocks thrown their way by an equally endless array of busybodies and paranoiacs. Much to the relief of project managers on-site and on helghan alike, December saw the final assembly halls carved out of the earth and buttressed with ferrocrete, both factories ready to receive the vital manufacturing equipment that would turn them from artificial cave systems to fully functioning factories by the time the New Year arrived and those workers forced to suffer the task received their quietly increased bonuses.
[Progress: 1/3] → [Progress: 2/3]
Effect
Despite being a huge pain in the arse, everything is on track to finish next year.
Military:
[X] Construct two Noctis-B-class Frigate Squadrons: Task your shipyards with constructing Six Noctis-B Frigates. [Can be taken multiple times a turn]
[X] Construct two Noctis-B-class Frigate Squadrons: Task your shipyards with constructing Six Noctis-B Frigates. [Can be taken multiple times a turn]
Effect
+12 Nocti
Terra Group (Automated):
[X] Terraforming (Castile): De facto owned by the Republic due to its location, the jungle world of Castile is almost but not quite habitable despite its invitingly green surface. Lethally hot everywhere but the poles thanks to its CO2 rich atmosphere and sporting a huge variety of mind-rotting fungus, Castile will require years of work before humans can survive outside of sealed environments and at least a century more before it can be called completely terraformed. [Progress: 0/8] [Reduced from 12 due to 25% Gene-Tailoring Tech] [All Values Doubles From Base]
[Progress: 0/8] → [Progress: 1/8]
Warp Communications Consortium (Automated):
[X] FTL Comms Expansion. [Progress: 34/94 turns] (+1 AP From Taurian Concordat, +1 AP From Aurigan Coalition, +1 AP From Magistracy of Canopus, +1 AP From Capellan Confederation) [Increased Due To Territorial Expansions]
[Progress: 34/94 turns] → [Progress: 39/94 turns]
Helghan Interstellar Scouting & Survey Service (Automated):
[X] Send out Explorers: The final frontier, one filled with wonder and terror alike, space exploration offers many potential benefits for those willing to risk its hazards. Standing at the base of that valley, eleven kilometres of stone sitting behind me and 200 klicks of open grassland in front, I felt like an ant in a world made for giants—craning my neck up and up and up, the peak of the opposite wall hanging above me like some impossible fortress. I tell you, we named that valley right. - Salvo Danailova, Surface Team Commander, 56 Doradus, 07/12/3050
Riding high on last year's triple success—though studiously ignoring the quality of said successes—the HISSS executive council made the understandable decision to triple down on exploration; the flotilla of exploration craft once more dispatched into the void to seek out new worlds for the benefit of science. Well-equipped and staffed by veterans of multiple voyages, the refreshed expeditions set out for destinations deep within space's wine-dark void.
Dering's Pit
Discovered orbiting a relatively warm red dwarf star and named after the crew member that pieced together its existence from five lightyears distance, Dering's Pit is a small, cool world similar in many ways to Highwater but with several rather striking differences that have raised its profile among hydrologists and meteorologists the Republic over. Smaller and less dense than Helghan, Dering's Pit boasts a surface gravity of only 0.7Gs, an atmosphere 1.5x as dense as Terra's—though still breathable thanks to the low oxygen and CO2 content—and oceans that cover less than 10% of its surface. An unusual combination of factors, the triple threat of low gravity, substantial areas of exposed rock, and intense wind erosion caused by its dense atmosphere have conspired to give the planet a near-permanent planet-wide dust storm whose intensity waxes and wanes with the season, but which never breaks or covers less than 50% of the surface.
Nominally something that would render the planet unsuitable for colonisation without uneconomical terraformation beforehand, the decision to dump the Pit in the ignore pile was delayed following the discovery of several underground caverns of impressive size before being dismissed entirely as the extent of the cavern systems became apparent. Remnants of a world-spanning but thankfully extinct network of volcanoes that once covered the planet in its ancient past, these chambers—dubbed Saknussemm by a Vernian-minded member of the expedition that discovered them—range in size from caverns barely wide enough to fit a football field to city-sized abscesses in the crust, many of which are filled with water of varying levels of salinity.
56 Doradus
Orbiting a Sol-like star towards the galaxy's edge, the tediously named planet 56 Doradus is, in actuality, a planet-sized moon of a Jovian gas giant orbiting the same star. Roughly the diameter and mass of Portland—give or take a dozen kilometres and millions of tons—Doradus was immediately recognised as a possible colonisation candidate with a surface gravity of 0.9Gs, plenty of water, and a Pangea-like continent featuring an endless savannah thanks to a combination of the planet's particular water cycle and its own slow breakup into individual continents. More impressive than any of those, however—and the thing that stood out most to the planet's discoverers when they first arrived in the system—was the almost impossibly long crack that runs nearly the length of its sole continent; the 4000 kilometres long, 200 kilometres wide, 11-kilometre deep valley system since named Valles Profundus running from the continent's North-East tip to its South Western peninsula. Ordinarily a mere quirk of geology and tectonics, such a valley has proven particularly valuable in Doradus's case thanks to the planet's almost absurdly thin atmosphere, the mere 0.15 atmospheres of pressure at sea level unsuitable for long-term habitation by humans, but not the 0.5 atmospheres present at the bottom of the Profundus. Deep enough that humans can adapt without any particular difficulty and featuring a pleasant climate, planetary engineers throughout the Republic have already begun drawing up plans to colonise the Valles Profundus, a great many people seemingly eager to live in a pit whose walls extend over the horizon.
Effect
Discover a desert world informally called Dering's Pit by the crew responsible for its discovery.
Discover a habitable moon of a gas giant called 56 Doradus.
Helghan Bureau Of Ship Procurement (BuPro) (Automated):
[X] Sell Hasta IIIC squadron [Magistracy]
[X] Teleportation Theory [6.35/8]
[Progress: 6.35/8] → + 1 (base research) + 1.5 (Advanced Petrusite Theory) + 0.2 (20% ORDI Research Agreement) → [Progress: 9.05/8]
Undoubtedly coming as quite a shock to those critics who called it an "exercise in motivated reasoning and pseudo-science", December 3050 saw a joint six-person team of hyperspace and Petrusite physicists at Mir University inform the Republic government about a breakthrough in the understanding of Petrusite's interactions with hyperspace. Funded by the Republic military—which did so more for completeness' sake rather than any belief that it would produce anything of value—the top-secret research program built off fringe work published decades ago to prove that practical macroscale teleportation can be made to occur through the manipulation of Hyperspace by Petrusite. Though the process by which the effect occurs remains poorly understood despite years of practical and theoretical efforts, the team found that Petrusite particles excited in just the right way can be made to bore an extremely short-lived hole through hyperspace over macroscale distances; anything standing within the hole's formation point swallowed inside a fraction of a second before being ejected out the other side more or less intact.
Initially requiring a room-sized system to generate the effect and completely unable to control where the hole's endpoint formed beyond a natural preference for low-density materials such as air or even vacuum, several iterations of the technology have seen the generation equipment shrink to something humans can comfortably wear and a device developed that hooks the endpoints as they form. While the teleport system's maximum range remains a disappointing 1-2 kilometres with beacon assistance and unassisted teleports are both random and have a range of only ~200 metres, the practical benefits of teleportation are plain to see.
Completes with 1.05 Overflow!
Effect
Gain prototype teleport beacon and short ranged teleporter (special forces only)
Gain emergency short ranged teleporters (special forces only)
Helghan
As in prior years, the final weeks of December 3050 saw the refugee numbers entering the ORDI tallied at well over 50 million people—every one of them the victim of some crime or another or else seeking to flee before the oncoming tide of the invading Clans. Accepting the overwhelming majority of refugees, the Helghan Republic received more than 28 million new citizens, the Capellan Confederation 12.6 million, and the Magistracy of Canopus came in third with 5.9 million.
Surprising no one who was paying even the slightest bit of attention—so a large number of people given the ongoing distraction that is the Clan Invasion—the 3050's last third saw the Republic's plethora of political parties begin to ramp up their messaging in preparation for the start of the campaigning season. All across the Republic, from Caliban to Zathras, groups as diverse as Tharsis Vredespartij and the Interstellar Workers Alliance began prepping for what many expect to be a challenging election for the Malkiewicz government; every analyst in the nation declaring the outcome of the June election too hazy to predict with any certainty. While advertisements attacking Prime Minister Malkiewicz and their compatriots in parliament have yet to begin, those in the know have suggested that the physical and financial costs of the Republic's repeated interventions are likely to be key battlegrounds in the minds of voters.
In rather bothersome news from the rimward expanse, mid-August saw the Helghan Interstellar Scouting & Survey Service's leadership council quietly inform the Republic's government of a wildcat colony on Nike. Discovered quite unintentionally by the crew of the HISSS survey vessel Copernicus, the personnel aboard the craft had been about to start a follow-up survey of Nike and its almost impossibly large trees when they were hailed from the surface and informed of the colony's existence by its leader. Quite eager to converse with Copernicus' crew—no doubt grateful for someone new to talk to for the first time since they settled there—the colonists were more than happy to reveal that they've been living on the rimward planet for well over two years by this point, all two thousand of them living in a single settlement in a forested archipelago on the edge of the planet's largest continent.
While the Copernicus' crew has since confirmed that the colonists are healthy, happy, and probably not a cult or other extremist group, the colony's mere presence has introduced some challenges where the Republic's colonisation is concerned. Never formally claimed by the Republic and not home to any scientific outposts, Nike was essentially virgin territory free for anyone to settle as they saw fit—no legal precedent existing that gives Helghan and only Helghan the right to settle the planet. Now colonised by wildcat settlers, any prospective attempt by the Republic to colonise the Edenic planet will run face-first into the colony's strong claim on Nike and require substantial political finagling—or military force—to overcome.
Aurigan Coalition
Begun in 3048 and quickly becoming emblematic of the Arano government's desire to invest in the well-being of its citizens, the Aurigan program to clean up Panzyr's junk-filled orbit seemed only to accelerate throughout 3050—next-generation variants of extant technologies seeing hazards cleaned up at an increasingly rapid rate. Developed around a suite of homegrown solutions of varying complexities and scales, the Coalition's cleanup program has, according to publicly released reports, already succeeded in removing hundreds of tons of material and support for the measure is at an all-time high despite its high costs. While a hazard-free descent remains impossible for now, collisions between space junk and descending vessels are at a historic low, and recent estimates by Helghan and Aurigan scientists suggest that it will only be a few more years before a guidance-free descent can be accomplished.
In news of particular interest to professional and amateur court watchers alike, mid-November saw Lady Kamea Arano and Lord Alexander Madeira host a joint quinceañera/quinceañero for their two children on Coromodir; the fifteen-year-olds birthdays celebrated with a fete in the capital paid for out of the family's private coffers and a formal presentation to the nation's court. Doted on by both parents and provided with the best tutors in the Inner Sphere, both children have thrived over the years despite the hardships their parents experienced—Keona reportedly a headstrong and disarming child, and Tomas a perfectionist often lost in thought. Not a particularly widespread Aurigan tradition despite the Spanish influences within Aurigan culture, the decision to place special significance on the fraternal twins' shared birthday raised a few eyebrows within the Republic before it became apparent how popular news of the event was within the neighbouring Taurian Concordat—support for the Coalition reportedly increasing a point or two with a large segment of the population. While already enjoying positive relations with the freedom-loving and somewhat paranoid nation, Lady Arano's decision to lean into the Coalition's Spanish influences appears intended to deepen ties between the two nations and has made a good start.
For its part in the celebration, the Helghan government provided the pair with carefully selected gifts intended to appeal to their personalities: Tomas gifted a 1:400 scale model of a Helghan Workhorse Cruiser with a cutaway interior, while Keona received a chess set made with hand carved stone from every planet in the Republic.
Coming as something of a surprise given her history, mid-3050 saw Lady Marina Liao of Ganktok—ere of the Capellan Confederation's Ministry for the Military—announce that she would be leaving the planet's administration in the capable hands of her underlings for a short time to enjoy a brief sojourn to her old homeworld. Having negotiated for the governorship of Gangtok in the wake of the Capellan Confederation's near-collapse at the culmination of the Fourth Succession War, it seemed to many that visiting the Confederation was no longer in the cards for the one-time Mercenary Liaison Officer for fear of Chancellor Tormano Liao or one of the nation's many nobles ending her life. However, with the Capellan Confederation now a valued member of the Outer Rim Defence Initiative and its continued existence likely premised on its fellow alliance members' willingness to defend it, it appears that Lady Liao is willing to chance death for the opportunity to visit her old homeland for the first time in well over a decade. How this trip, which will occur in early 3051, will go remains to be seen, but many within the Republic's civil service are quietly hoping that they won't be woken up at 2 am by their assistants and/or superiors.
Capellan Confederation
In scientific news from the Capellan Confederation, late December 3050 saw the Confederation government inform its allies that its scientists have succeeded in cracking the technological secrets behind the Chameleon Light Polarization Shield of yore. First developed by the Terran Hegemony in 2630 alongside the Null Signature System, the Chameleon Light Polarization Shield system uses a kind of primitive mimetic system to break up the colours and outline of a mech and help disguise it to the naked eye—the ultimate result being a kind of visual stealth that works better the further way the observer is. Redeveloped by the Confederation using the Republic's infantry-scale holographic cloaking/disguise system as a starting base, the Confederation's version is broadly comparable to that made by the Terran Hegemony and represents a solid addition to the ORDI's arsenal of stealth technologies, the CCAF going so far as to reveal a new heavy mech design that uses the system to carry out seek and destroy missions against enemy scouts and commanders.
Code:
Type/Model: Sicarius
Mass: 65 tons
Equipment
Crits Mass
Int.Struct.: 104 pts Standard 0 6.5
Engine: 390 XL Fusion 12 23
Walking MP: 6
Running MP: 9
Jumping MP: 6
Heat Sinks: 10 Double [20] 0 0
Gyro: 4 4
Cockpit, Life Supt., Sensors: 5 3
Actuators: L: Sh+UA+LA+H R: Sh+UA+LA+H 8
Armor Factor: 211 pts Standard 0 13.5
Critical Location Internal Structure Armor Value
Head 3 9
Center Torso 21 33
Center Torso Rear 9
Left Torso 15 24
Left Torso Rear 6
Right Torso 15 24
Right Torso Rear 6
Left Arm 10 20
Right Arm 10 20
Left Leg 15 30
Right Leg 15 30
Weapons & Equipment Loc Heat Ammo Crits Mass
3 H-Small Laser LA 3 3 1.5
1 MRM 10 LT 4 24 3 4
(Ammo Locations: 1 LT) 24 Standard
3 H-Small Laser RA 3 3 1.5
1 Laser AMS RT 7 2 1.5
1 Null-Signature System - 10 7 0
1 Chameleon LPS - 6 6 0
CASE Equipment - 0 1 0.5
6 Standard Jump Jets: - 0 6 6
(Jump Jet Loc: 3 LT,3 RT)
TOTALS: 33 31 15
In a development welcomed by many within the Republic government, rumours and news reports from Confederation space suggest a nascent pro-democracy movement growing within the nation. Currently small in scale and supported by only a tiny fraction of the Capellan Confederation, this movement—typically known as the Five Rights Society for its five key tenants—has nonetheless seen rapid growth in recent months, Capellans from the middle and working classes forming the core of the movement. Heavily influenced by the democratic structures of the Republic, Magistracy, and Concordat, and growing out of Tormano Liao's earlier reforms to the Capellan system of government, members of the Five Rights Society hold that every Capellan citizen should be entitled to The Right to Free Healthcare, The Right to Free Education, The Right to Retire, The Right to Leisure, and The Right to Vote.
While the Capellan government has yet to make a move to support—or suppress—the movement, the fact that the Five Rights Society exists in opposition to the ever-irritating nobility and has concentrated the anti-aristocratic attitudes inculcated by Chancellor Liao has left many in the Republic hopeful for the continued democratisation of the Capellan state. A vital new movement in the Confederation whose base is numerous and widespread, the Five Rights Society seems poised for explosive growth over the coming decade, only time able to tell if it will live up to its promise.
In similarly positive news from the Confederation, abuses of power by the nobility of Sakhalin saw Chancellor Liao's government come down on those responsible like a ton of bricks in late October; police and other security forces raiding noble estates across the planet in a coordinated strike that saw well over a hundred nobles and their assorted hangers-on arrest over a single afternoon. Arrested for a litany of crimes ranging from the mundane—such as tax evasion—to the repulsive—whose details don't bear repeating—the consequences of the arrests were near immediate, almost every high-ranking noble on the planet thrown in jail pending a trial—or trials, as the case may be. Unsurprisingly considering the details released, few non-nobles on Sakhalin have displayed much care for the plight of the accused, most agreeing that stripping them of their rank and freezing their myriad assets constitutes a good start towards paying for their crimes.
A surprising move from the Confederation government despite the somewhat contentious relationship it enjoys with its remaining nobility, the response to the arrests has thus far been muted, with few off-world nobles willing to make much of a stir in their defence. Similarly, while some within the Republic's intelligence services have suggested that these arrests represent a testing of the water for the elimination of the noble class by Chancellor Liao, such comments have thus far been muted when they haven't been approving of the idea. As it is, most analysts within the Republic believe that this represents nothing more than a clearing out of a corrupt nobility by the Confederation, comments from the Liao government reinforcing this notion.
Magistracy of Canopus
Fresh out of the biological research labs and disturbingly gooey, late 3050 saw a conglomerate of Canopian medical companies announce the development of synthetically designed but otherwise biological organs to the galaxy, medical journals and news media carrying the announcement to every corner of the galaxy. Able to not just replicate the abilities of existing organs but provide entirely new ones, these novel organs can theoretically perform any biological process imaginable, be grown to order, and be surgically implanted in or attached to a human with comparatively little difficulty—though practical implementation reportedly lags behind the theory, somewhat. Nevertheless, the response to the technology has been extremely positive among many quadrants of the population. Hailed as a triumph of technology by everyone from doctors seeking new means of controlling chronic illnesses to military officers seeking next-generation advancements in lethality to furries and transhumanists seeking to modify their bodies as they will, the technology promises to introduce a great many changes to the galaxy over the coming decades despite still being in its infancy.
However, despite the rosy glow of achievement most have seemingly cast over the technology, some of the galaxy's more cynical figures have cautioned that—as with other technologies—some may choose to use the development for less savoury ends. Despite these warnings and despite the crimes of the future that will undoubtedly occur, most with the Republic government have taken the development as a sign that the future remains bright for the human race, some even going so far as to dream of a not-so-distant future filled with strange new forms of life.
Effect
Magistracy of Canopus develops Novel Organs (inc. improved senses, drug glands, etc).
Canopus reportedly doing all sorts of gross biological stuff with Project Keres troops (yes, yes. Get the jokes out of your system.)
Also develops targeted gene plagues, but we talked about that in the prior Q4 turn.
Shocking no one, the announcement which saw the Canopian conglomerate reveal synthetic organs to the galaxy was followed soon after by a spate of announcements from several conglomerate members stating that they would soon be selling custom-made drug glands for use as both medicinal and recreational tools, the wording of which was which seemingly intentionally vague. Looking not unlike a benign tumour or cyst in the promotional imagery used to advertise the concept, the announced line of synthetic drug glands are reportedly able to organically create various pharmaceutical compounds using materials provided by their host's body before releasing them into the bloodstreams on command. About the size of a human pinky nail, these glands are injected into their host's neck to bond with blood vessels and produce exceedingly pure substances.
Reportedly only able to make a single type of drug per gland—for now, anyway—there is little to stop someone from having multiple glands installed in their body besides the notable costs, and the doctors working with the conglomerates have already recommended a spread of glands to clients. Expected to go on sale in Q1 of next year, under-the-table discussions with the companies responsible for the glands suggest that interest is already high among the galaxy's more party-loving crowd. While information on which gland is most popular remains scarce, gossip overheard in a myriad of places suggests that the partying and "performance-enhancing" variants have received the most interest, with medicinal glands taking a distant third.
In a particularly divisive bit of news from Canopus itself, the start of flu season on the planet saw the outré and much-maligned bio-shock artist Encarnación Amalia Herrero—responsible for such artworks as Canopiss (3047) and Nude (3043)—announce a startlingly avant-garde new work in her chosen medium of biology; the woman opening an exhibit dedicated to the many viruses she, her celebrity friends, and their associates "enjoyed" over the year. A commentary on the parasocial relationship that exists between ordinary people and celebrities, even ones that are, like Encarnación and her friends, very minor, the exhibit will run for the duration of Canopus' flu season and invites guests to deliberately infect themselves with one of a number of mild illnesses via nasal sprays, guest also encouraged to keep a journal of their experiences while fighting off the viruses.
Controversial, to say the least, the exhibit has drawn criticism and praise from all the usual sources, even the Magistracy's medical community commentating on the exhibit. In contrast, much to the delight of Encarnación, a small but dedicated group of ordinary citizens have become die-hard supporters of the exhibit, some reportedly visiting several times over the October-November period. Similarly, and somewhat bitterly amusingly, despite being a commentary on parasocial relationships between ordinary people and celebrities, posts on social media by the most intense fans of Encarnación and her celebrity friends reveal a singular inability by those same fans to get it, most apparently viewing the sharing of disease as a way to feel closer to the celebrities they claim to love.
Taurian Concordat
In further news from the ORDI's technological sector, late 3050 saw several Taurian aerospace manufacturers announce a breakthrough in warp drive construction; new techniques and imported expertise conspiring to grant the anti-spinward state the ability to produce high-performance warp drives. On par with the drives used by the Republic and Confederation, these new designs promise to dramatically improve the strategic mobility of Concordat warships and improve the efficiency of Taurian freighters and private craft. Eager to take advantage of this new capability, private ventures have reportedly begun ordering vessels utilising the drives from shipyards across the Concordat, the first vessel predicted to launch early next year.
To the interest of economists throughout the Inner Sphere, 3050 saw the Taurian shipping industry undergo impressive growth thanks to a spate of freighter designs entering the market, everything from lethargic bulk hauliers to zippy courier craft announced by Taurian aerospace manufacturers. Flying off the shelves according to industry figures—pun, it is assumed, very much intended—these vessels have triggered a noticeable rise in inter-system trade across the Concordat in parallel with the decreasing import/export price of goods. Though no single design is identifiably the driving force behind the surge of activity, the Borderworld Series YX Dromedary design revealed in Q3 3050 achieved strong sales in the private sector and has become the workhorse of comparatively minor trading concerns.
In a surprising turn of events considering the nation of origin, mid-3050 saw a Taurian software development collective launch a WarpComm-enabled subscription service called FanHub to serve as one part social media website and one part content-hosting platform. Based within the Concordat and explicitly intended to be used by sex workers—non-sex workers perfectly welcome as well—the service offers creators the ability to monetize their content via subscriptions, tips, and pay-per-view, the creators offering a generous 19:1 split in the creator's favour to ally hosting and broadcast costs. Not a unique service by any means—the Magistracy alone boasts an innumerable list of similar services on many planets—FanHub is nonetheless the first of its kind to use the WarpComm network to distribute user content, the service available in every ORDI nation as a result.
While the service's reception varies significantly depending on who you ask and how privately, initial reports suggest that people from across the ORDI have flocked to the service in recent months. Moreover, and much to the amusement of those watching events from afar, the software collective responsible for FanHub's development has changed its hosting provider several times over Q4 in search of the hosting capacity required to serve their users' needs, the sheer amount of content being produced quite overwhelming.
Free Rasalhague Republic
Concerning many within the Republic's government and Schools of Psychology, sentiment analysis launched by private concerns and the Rasalhaugian government have revealed a growing sense of fatalism among the people of the Free Republic; the recently renewed Clan offensive against the Inner Sphere crystallising the public mood to one of resigned stubbornness in the war against the Clans. Far from giving in to hopelessness or a delusion that victory lies just around the corner, it appears that citizens of the Free Rasalhauge Republic perfectly understand the delicate situation their nation exists within and have—broadly speaking—consigned themselves to making the Clans pay for every inch of ground they wish to take. Dropping to an all-time low by early December, talk of victory against the Clans is rare, and most of the KungsArmé's recent volunteers are reportedly driven to fight the Clans out of spite as much as a desire to protect loved ones.
How such a fatalistic viewpoint will impact the Free Republic's struggle against the Clans and whether it will negatively affect the ORDI's plans remains to be seen. However, many within the Republic's leadership have begun to wonder if the morale of the Rasalhagians will recover with continued victories against the Clans or if it'll continue its decline until the Free Republic opts to surrender.
Federated Suns
In news that would have once been seen as terrible for the Republic but which recent events have forced a critical evaluation, late 3050 saw Helghan spies within the Federated Suns inform their superiors of a plan by the Federated Suns to dispatch an expeditionary force to the Lyran Commonwealth to assist the LCAF in their struggle against the invading Clans. While information on the plan and its negotiation is surprisingly scarce considering the degree of penetration the ORDI enjoys within the FedSuns' government—as sure a sign as any of the mission's importance to the First Prince—the sheer scale of activities has given the Republic a solid understanding of the plan, the AFFS preparing to send two RCTs and several warships to assist the beleaguered defenders of the Lyran state. While the exact goal of the expeditionary force remains unclear as of the start of 3051, analysts and cynics alike believe that it's simultaneously intended to aid the Lyrans in their efforts, build institutional experience warring against the Clans, and secure the Federated Suns additional examples of Clan technology. However, regardless of the reasons behind the expeditionary force's existence, the sizable military force is expected to arrive in the Commonwealth in either late Q1 or early Q2 of 3051—Republic intelligence services having already ensured that several agents are present within the force.
No doubt coming as a disappointment to the First Prince and his government's economists, reports from ComStar's News Bureau have made clear that the Federated Suns has entered a minor recession— growth of the nation's middle class slowing notably despite increased access to quality education and improved manufacturing technologies. Though not officially declared by the Federated Suns's government, analysis of key metrics by ORDI governments has laid bare that the renewed Clan invasion combined with prior damage to the Inner Sphere's economy has caused significant upset in internal FedSun markets. Though the First Prince's extensive industrial investment program has done much to offset this recession, vast amounts of public funding serving as a kind of stimulus, this has merely blunted the damage rather than preventing it altogether. How long this recession will last and quite how bad it will get are both things Helghan economists are loathe to try and predict, but some within the government have quietly expressed hope that it forces the FedSuns to be less aggressive for the foreseeable future, a less belligerent neighbour bound to allow the Republic to focus on the threat of the Clans rather than fighting in its backyard.
Much to the chagrin of ORDI mech forces who long enjoyed the most sensitive and lightest neurohelmets in the Inner Sphere—at least until the Clans appeared—3050 finally saw this monopoly broken. According to Helghan spies embedded throughout the spinward state's military, the year's final quarter saw elite mech units begin to receive neurohelmets of comparable quality and calibre to those used within the ORDI's militaries, the lightweight helmets enthusiastically adopted by both MechWarriors and propagandists alike. Undoubtedly a long-term project of the NAIS, the Federated Suns' is already trying to deploy as many of the improved neurohelmets to AFFS units as possible, and neurohelmet manufacturers across the nation are reportedly receiving substantial financial aid to upgrade their production lines.
Lyran Commonwealth
In a substantial shock to the established norms, 3050 saw confidence in the Lyran Commonwealth's economy degrade substantially, the sheer chaos caused by the Clan invasion triggering numerous economic disruptions across the nation and provoking a series of minor price shocks. A first for the Lyran Commonwealth given the nation's historically vigorous industrial sector, the impact of these events is difficult to predict in the long term. However, analysts within the Republic have warned that continued turmoil will seriously degrade the nation's ability to fend off the invading Clans and lead to increasingly dire consequences for the Archon and her government. To her credit, Archon Melissa Steiner has responded to these troubles by proposing and then pursuing a policy of so-called "investments" in a swath of private factories that have granted the Lyran government a controlling stake in numerous important but not war-winning production chains, permitting it to ensure a steady supply of goods to the populace and bolster confidence in shaky areas.
An uncharacteristically anti-laissez-faire move for a state that has oft been denigrated as a 'nation of merchants' by the Inner Sphere's more militant members, the Archon's proposals were nonetheless endorsed by almost the entire Estate's General, only token resistance put up by the nation's most ardent arch capitalists. Whether these investments will prove enough to stabilise the nation's ongoing confidence crisis remains unknown, but their short-term impacts have, at least, left the Republic's politicians breathing a little easier.
Similarly, the Lyran state's ongoing war bonds program achieved fantastic results over 3050 despite the nation's economic woes, a vast quantity of C-Bills raised without raising taxes or the populace's ire. Popularised by a widespread propaganda campaign that has succeeded in tying the purchase of war bonds by civilians directly to the defeat of Clan forces on the frontlines, the program's success has left the Commonwealth free to pursue an aggressive expansion policy for every branch of the LCAF; multiple new regiments raised over the year and paid for by the influx of cash. Primarily equipped with Lyran-manufactured weapons, vehicles, and battlemechs, a significant fraction of the money raised by war bonds has also gone to the nation's historic rival, a river of steel pouring over the border from Free Worlds League factories and landing in the hands of LCAF volunteers.
Free Worlds League
Speaking of the Free Worlds League, publically accessible economic data combined with a good bit of sleuthing by ORDI spies has made clear to the ORDI just how valuable the nation's arms sales have been—the Clan Invasion pumping hundreds of millions of C-Bills into the nation's economy and triggering substantial growth in the arms industry. Simultaneously, an ever-increasing number of warp freighters plying the trade lanes between League systems combined with the nation's ever-expanding warpcomm network has seen every other sector of the League economy grow notably, mining, farming, and manufacturing being the primary beneficiaries, and sectors such as information technology and service industries growing, too. Seeing this growth, economists within and without the Helghan Republic have begun drawing up projections as to where this situation will lead, the suggested figures raising a few eyebrows among those concerned with the coming decades.
Despite the recent controversies, it appears that the decisive action taken by Solaris VII's gaming commission against cheating players has done wonders to earn back the trust and interest of MechCombat viewers; the 3050 Solaris Games featured the highest viewership and profits in years. While still not back to prior heights—and with the Hardcore Games having eaten a small but distinct share of the audience—the mostly recovered viewership has undoubtedly come as a relief to the once-embattled organisation, and stringent anti-cheating efforts have led to the cleanest series of games in decades. While Solaris has a ways to go before the prior scandal is forgotten, 3050's success has gone a long way towards ensuring it will, and many throughout the galaxy are eagerly awaiting next year's games.
Draconis Combine
The Draconis Combine—already famous for its highly controlled media environment—has, somehow, contrived to lock down its media even further; what few rivulets of information were available to the Republic in 3049 almost entirely dried up despite the presence of ORDI forces in Combine territory. Despite this, what information has reached the Republic—primarily in the form of intercepted reports from the FedSuns' intelligence agencies—suggests that the situation in the Combine has grown increasingly dire throughout 3050, the quasi-fascistic imperial state throwing everything its people have into fending off the invading Clans and raising numerous regiments to replace those lost on the frontlines. Concerningly, at least from the point of view of economists, reports from Helghan warship crews in the region indicate that many of the civilian JumpShips that traditionally ply the nation's trade routes have been pressed into service as military transports. While not, on the face of it a terrible solution to a lack of interstellar spacelift, those same economists have been quick to caution that doing so is akin to robbing Peter to pay Paul—the long-term economic impacts doubtless going to make the Combine suffer.
Faction Popularity and Issue Changes
All Factions: -5% popularity (decrease from temp buff)
In 2360, at the end of a blood-soaked war started by a martyred dictator, the power-hungry CEO of Stahl Industries unleashed a genocidal weapon on the inhabitants of Helghan. In the months that followed, blood and water flowed in equal measure as tyrant battled tyrant until, at last, the people...
In 2360, at the end of a blood-soaked war started by a martyred dictator, the power-hungry CEO of Stahl Industries unleashed a genocidal weapon on the inhabitants of Helghan. In the months that followed, blood and water flowed in equal measure as tyrant battled tyrant until, at last, the people...
The problem with this is distance. We can't properly support them do to that distance potentially leaving Rasalhauge out to dry if their attacked because we can't get their in time.
So basically they use the Heavy mech like it's a medium mech? Makes sense but that wasn't really clear in the text as it specificly states that they revealed a new medium not a new heavy mech.
Holy fuck. The best thing about our ORDI idea has once more reared its head. We're definitely trading for light polarization and novel organ techs. Worst case, we've even got teleportation devices that we could trade if all initial offers fail...
It's the same, though not as big a problem, as OWA. We're too far to make the advantage of mutual defense completely viable. We're doing it now, sure, but we're doing it with the cooperation of 2 Great Houses, an independent polity, and Comstar, and we're still bottlenecked as all fuck. At best we could maybe do associate status to lend them more nonmilitary support.
The problem with this is distance. We can't properly support them do to that distance potentially leaving Rasalhauge out to dry if their attacked because we can't get their in time.
So basically they use the Heavy mech like it's a medium mech? Makes sense but that wasn't really clear in the text as it specificly states that they revealed a new medium not a new heavy mech.
Initially requiring a room-sized system to generate the effect and completely unable to control where the hole's endpoint formed beyond a natural preference for low-density materials such as air or even vacuum, several iterations of the technology have seen the generation equipment shrink to something humans can comfortably wear and a device developed that hooks the endpoints as they form. While the teleport system's maximum range remains a disappointing 1-2 kilometres with beacon assistance and unassisted teleports are both random and have a range of only ~200 metres, the practical benefits of teleportation are plain to see.
Completes with 1.05 Overflow!
Effect
Gain prototype teleport beacon and short ranged teleporter (special forces only)
Gain emergency short ranged teleporters (special forces only)
Now they've scaled it down - time to get the eggheads to scale it all the way up to a mech subsystem/component/mod - can you imagine the chaos a teleporting mech, randomly in a 200-metre radius, could reap?
Paired with stealth tech like Chameleon Light Polarization Shields and Null Signature Systems? The Clan's and Houses won't know what hit them - figuratively and literally!
Now they've scaled it down - time to get the eggheads to scale it all the way up to a mech subsystem/component/mod - can you imagine the chaos a teleporting mech, randomly in a 200-metre radius, could reap?
Paired with stealth tech like Chameleon Light Polarization Shields and Null Signature Systems? The Clan's and Houses won't know what hit them - figuratively and literally!
//Edit: I think we can put teleporters on some MAWLR so that they could act as mobile/forward SF deployment bases/points. We are a bit of a ways from teleporting MAWLRs.
