Earth Starting Minerals
Duranium 99,398 Acc: 0.9
Neutronium 114,799 Acc: 0.6
Corbomite 90,866 Acc: 0.5
Tritanium 35,098 Acc: 0.9
Boronide 47,933 Acc: 0.1
Mercassium 78,832 Acc: 1
Vendarite 37,466 Acc: 0.5
Sorium 49,398 Acc: 0.9
Uridium 56,266 Acc: 0.2
Corundium 38,999 Acc: 0.6
Gallicite 67,032 Acc: 0.7
Starting in January 2084, Oceania, the Eurasian Union and the East Asian Alliance devoted all their research efforts to their Jump Theory programmes in an effort to eventually provide a ?Jump Drive? that would allow ships to use the still theoretical jump points. The world?s leading power and propulsion experts were within the Eurasian Union so they seemed likely to achieve their goal first.
In Earth orbit, the warships of the various powers maintained their endless vigil, watching their sensor displays for any sign that the war in Africa and the Middle East was spreading into space. As active sensors were necessary for locking on weapons and could be used to gain technical data on opposing ships, each of the three powers kept only a single ship active; enough to watch their opposite numbers without appearing too threatening. Because of the possibility that their opponents would gain technical information on their ships, each of the powers was looking for a base away from Earth where they could set up maintenance facilities and establish a fleet base well away from prying sensors. An ideal location would be one which contained most of the necessary minerals, was suitable for a domed colony to house the maintenance workers and was far enough from Earth that a military exclusion zone could be setup and defended without causing problems in Earth orbit. Unfortunately, the only bodies in the Sol system with high enough gravity for colonies were Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Titan. The first two were extremely hostile and Titan wasn?t much better. The drawback for Mars was that its proximity to Earth would make it less secure and creating a Martian exclusion zone could prove problematic. Each power was engaged in a delicate balancing act between protecting their interests and avoiding a confrontation in space that might lead to the cataclysmic Final War. If such a catastrophe unfolded, the planetary defence centres armed with high-yield nuclear-tipped ICBMs that lay dormant in Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia would awaken and smash all of Earth?s industry into radioactive rubble. Therefore Mars was probably more trouble than it was worth. Eurasia and Eastasia decided to keep their forces in Earth orbit, hoping the jump drive research bore fruit and opened the possibility of out-system bases.
Vice Admiral Dominic Ryan, the Chief of Naval Operations for Oceania, was particularly concerned that Eastasian and Eurasian ships could be gaining technical data on his warships in orbit, especially as both the Jianghu class heavy cruiser and Kirov class battlecruiser being used by the Eastasians and Eurasians as their guard ships had multiple active sensors, giving them more chance of gaining valuable data than Apache, the Tribal class destroyer serving as the Oceanian guard ship. Although he could send his two carriers and two destroyers into the outer system to avoid hostile sensors that would start to build up time on their maintenance clocks and would also remove any chance of Apache gaining useful technical data on the opposing forces. Therefore he asked his staff to come up with options to resolve the problem. The result was a small base intended purely as a sensor platform. The Pueblo class sensor outpost was designed to be deployed in orbit of a planet with minimal maintenance facilities. As it was designed using only basic technology, the Eurasian and Eastasians would be unable to learn anything new from scanning it while it would be free to scan their ships as the single active Oceanian unit. While this didn?t solve the problem of the rival powers scanning the Oceanian ships, it did remove one of the problems associated with moving them away from Earth. Furthermore it could be built in the smallest Oceanian shipyard which was not currently in use. Vice Admiral Ryan ordered the immediate construction of two Pueblos.
Pueblo class Sensor Outpost 1000 tons 87 Crew 162.6 BP TCS 20 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 0.5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 25/10/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
SPS-80/16 Active Sensor (1) GPS 800 Range 8.0m km Resolution 16
SPS-375/75 Active Sensor (1) GPS 3750 Range 37.5m km Resolution 75
ST-5 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 25 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 25m km
SE-2 EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 10 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 10m kmWhile the Pueblos were being constructed, Vice Admiral Ryan requested that infrastructure be moved to Titan in order to create an outpost where maintenance facilities could be setup and manned. At -178C with an atmosphere of Nitrogen and Methane the conditions were hardly ideal, giving a colony cost of 7.0 and a therefore a requirement of 700 points of infrastructure for every one million colonists. A substantial amount of infrastructure would be required to man enough maintenance facilities to support the two 10,000 ton Ark Royal class carriers but Vice Admiral Ryan believed the investment would be worth it so the head of the Oceanian military, Admiral Marcus Nelson, gave the go-ahead for the operation to begin. Earth?s factories started building infrastructure and the North Carolina class freighters began loading for their first trip to Titan.
On March 26th, Eurasian scientists completed their research into jump point theory and began work on the three primary jump drive technologies. In addition, they designed a small survey ship, the Baden class Corvette, to begin work on a gravitational survey of the Sol system. The Baden was cheap and could be built in the Nikolayev shipyard which was currently building three Tarantul Fast Attack Craft. Retooling began immediately and was due to finish in early June.
Baden class Survey Corvette 1000 tons 93 Crew 276.6 BP TCS 20 TH 40 EM 0
2000 km/s Armour 0.5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/2/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Replacement Parts 2
Nuclear Pulse Engine E8 (1) Power 40 Efficiency 0.80 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 60,000 Litres Range 135.0 billion km (781 days at full power)
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey PointsIn the first three months of 2084, the Eastasian cruiser Jianghu kept up a continuous scan of the various Oceanian and Eurasian ships in orbit, gaining information on a wide range of technologies, including active and thermal sensors, beam fire control range and tracking speed, capacitor recharge rate, missile fire control, launcher reload speed and near ultraviolet lasers. In all, her scans produced in three months an amount of research data equivalent to that produced in nine months by the thirty-two Eastasian research facilities. In comparison, the Oceanian destroyer Apache gained about half as much the research data while the Eurasian battlecruiser Kirov gained extremely limited information on a couple of Oceanian missile technologies.
On April 16th, both Pueblo class sensor outposts were completed by Oceania. Vice Admiral Ryan ordered the four Oceanian warships to head for Titan while one of the Pueblos took over as the Earth orbit guard unit for Oceania. Although the Ark Royals and Tribals would be without maintenance until the base on Titan was completed, Vice Admiral Ryan believed that was a better option than leaving them within active sensor range of the other powers. On May 1st 2084, 80,000 Oceanian colonists arrived on Titan, creating the first human colony. Unfortunately forty percent of the colonists were be required for agricultural and environmental work, which mean the colony would have to be of a considerable size before enough workers were free to man sufficient maintenance facilities.
Oceanian scientists completed their research into Jump Point Theory on May 6th. As with the Eurasian Union they began development of the various jump drive technologies and designed a small gravitational survey ship, albeit larger, faster and more expensive than the Eurasian equivalent. Expansion of the smallest Oceanian shipyard, the Bath Iron Works, was underway and had raised its capacity to three ships of 1400 tons, making it ideal to build the Melbourne class once retooling was completed.
Melbourne class Gravsurvey Ship 1400 tons 128 Crew 329.4 BP TCS 28 TH 80 EM 0
2857 km/s Armour 0.5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/2/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Replacement Parts 2
Nuclear Pulse Engine E7 (2) Power 40 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 120,000 Litres Range 220.4 billion km (892 days at full power)
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey PointsIt took the East Asian Alliance until July 21st 2084 to complete its jump theory research and begin work on jump drive technology. Like the other two powers, the Eastasians also designed a gravitational survey ship, in their case the Kagero. While slower than the Oceanian Melbourne class, it had a better all around sensor capability than either of its rivals and surpassed the Baden in both range and speed.
Kagero class Gravsurvey Ship 1700 tons 159 Crew 365.6 BP TCS 34 TH 80 EM 0
2352 km/s Armour 0.5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/0/2/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Replacement Parts 5
Nuclear Pulse Engine (2) Power 40 Efficiency 0.80 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 198.5 billion km (976 days at full power)
Active Sensor S10-R16/100 (1) GPS 160 Range 1.6m km Resolution 16
Thermal Sensor TH1-5/100 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey PointsBy August 2084, the Oceanian colony on Titan had reached a population of 570,000 with enough infrastructure to support almost double that number. The manufacturing sector of the population was 250,000, enough for sufficient maintenance facilities to support ships up to 1000 tons. While that was nowhere near enough to maintain the carriers or destroyers of the Oceanian Navy, it was easily able to support fighters. Twenty-four Eagle fighters had recently been completed by fighter factories on Earth and were currently in Earth orbit awaiting the completion of two new Ark Royals in May 2085. Vice Admiral Ryan ordered all twenty-four to move to Titan where they would be safe from hostile sensors. Four squadrons, each of twelve Eagles, were now in service. VFA-01 ?Wild Tigers? was on board the Ark Royal in Titan orbit, VFA-02 ?Shooting Stars? was embarked on the second carrier, Enterprise, while the two squadrons en route from Earth were VFA-03 ?Space Barons? and VFA-04 ?Fighting Hawks?.
By mid-September 2084 scientists of the Eurasian Union had researched the three foundation technologies for jump drives and had even developed an improvement in basic jump drive efficiency. Their attention changed from theory to practical application as development of their prototype jump drive was completed within two weeks. The new jump drive was built into the Montcalm class Jump Frigate, designed to explore any jump points discovered by the planned gravitational survey and to escort Baden class Survey Corvettes and Konigsberg class Geological Survey Ships into new star systems. Work began on retooling the Saint-Nazaire shipyard to build the new class and was expected to take until early January, a month after projected completion of the three Badens. Eurasian scientists returned to their work on Jump Drive Efficiency so that larger drives capable of being mounted on 10,000 ton ships without ruinous expense could be created.
Montcalm class Jump Frigate 3000 tons 264 Crew 379.4 BP TCS 60 TH 160 EM 0
2666 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/5/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Replacement Parts 5
Prototype Jump Drive Max Ship Size 3000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Nuclear Pulse Engine E8 (4) Power 40 Efficiency 0.80 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 120,000 Litres Range 90.0 billion km (390 days at full power)
R80 Long Range Search Sensor (1) GPS 4800 Range 48.0m km Resolution 80
Active Sensor S12-R16 (1) GPS 192 Range 1.9m km Resolution 16
Thermal Sensor TH1-6/100 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-5/100 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m kmThe Pueblo class sensor outpost was proving a success for Oceania as the flow of technical data from its scans was considerably more than had been achieved by Apache?s more limited sensors. So much data had been gained by late September that an improvement in active sensor strength was achieved without the need for dedicated research facilities.
Two new Kongo class destroyers were built by the East Asian Alliance in early October. The Kongo was a small but effective warship, armed with four 15cm visible light lasers that gave it a solid punch at close range. The completion of the Kongos took the warship strength of the Alliance to eight, comprising five Kongos and the three Jianghu class heavy cruisers, Anshun, Jianghu and Shaoxing. Eurasian forces included two Kirov class battlecruisers, the largest pure warships in the Sol system, two Dunkerque class escort cruisers and eleven Tarantul fast attack craft. Oceania relied primarily on her fighters, twenty-four of which were on the two carriers with twenty-four more in reserve. Two Tribal class Missile Destroyers provided an escort for the carriers.
Oceania developed its first jump drive five weeks after the Eurasian Union but with a lower level of jump drive efficiency. Although the J270 Jump Drive was twenty percent larger than its Eurasian counterpart and cost almost fifty percent more, it was only capable of opening a jump point for a ship of 2700 tons or less, resulting in the design for the Sao Paulo class Jump Tender. The capabilities of the J270 were based on the need to escort Spruance class geosurvey ships through a jump point, as well as the smaller Melbourne class gravitational survey ships that were still under construction. Retooling began at the Electric Boat shipyard at Groton, Connecticut, which was building two Tribal class destroyers. While this would prevent the construction of any more Tribals for the moment, the retooling of the yard and the construction of the destroyers would be finished in late December, opening the way for a pair of Sao Paulos to be laid down in January 2085.
Sao Paulo class Jump Tender 2700 tons 261 Crew 311.4 BP TCS 54 TH 160 EM 0
2962 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 0.5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 10/0/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Replacement Parts 5
J270 Jump Drive Max Ship Size 2700 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Nuclear Pulse Engine E7 (4) Power 40 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 70,000 Litres Range 66.6 billion km (260 days at full power)
Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 160 Range 1.6m km Resolution 16
SPS-150/75 Active Sensor (1) GPS 1500 Range 15.0m km Resolution 75
SQS-2 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 10 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 10m kmOn November 27th, Oceania become the first power to launch gravitational survey ships when the three Melbournes were completed by the Bath Iron Works. All three ships immediately broke orbit to begin their survey of the Sol system. They were followed ten days later by the three Eurasian Baden class Survey Corvettes. Although the Union had superior research capabilities, Oceania had an advantage in ship construction rates, allowing them to make use of the new technology more quickly once it was available. The East Asian Alliance was far behind its rivals with its two Kagero class survey ships not due until June 2085 and its research work on basic jump drive technology still several months from completion.
The two Oceanian destroyers Gurkha and Iroquois were also completed in early December and were dispatched to join the carrier group in Titan orbit. At this point, the Titan colony had a population of one point seven million and its maintenance facilities could support ships of up to 2800 tons, still well short of the facilities required by the 5950 ton Tribals, let alone the 10,000 ton Ark Royal class carriers. Despite the wear and tear on his ships, Vice Admiral Ryan was still keen to keep them away from Earth, especially as Pueblo had recently gleaned enough data from the Eurasian and Eastasian ships to allow the creation of Oceanian 15cm lasers.
Continued scans of opposing ships during the early months of 2085 allowed Oceania and Eastasia to improve the range of their beam fire control technology and the Eastasians to also bring their active sensor technology to the same level as their rivals. Meanwhile the Eurasian Union completed their latest research into jump drive technology (efficiency 5) allowing them to create a design for the Cherkasov J10 Jump Drive, a drive capable of opening a jump point for a 10,000 ton ship. Work began immediately on developing the new design.
The East Asian Alliance finally joined the race to the stars in earnest on March 27th 2085, when they completed research into all three foundation technologies for a jump drive. Their scientists created a design for the Xianan X510 Jump Drive, capable of opening a jump point large enough for their survey ships, freighters, colony ships and Kongo class destroyers. Development of the drive was expected to require a further three months.
Xianan X510 Jump Drive
Max Ship Size: 102 (5100 tons) Max Squadron Size: 3 Max Dist: 50
Jump Engine Size: 34 Efficiency: 3 Jump Engine HTK: 7
Cost: 289 Crew: 170
Materials Required: 57.8x Duranium 231.2x Sorium
Development Cost for Project: 2890 RP
On April 12th 2085, Oceania completed three more Melbourne class Gravsurvey Ships. As the Oceanian survey of the Sol system was close to completion, Vice Admiral Ryan ordered them to head for Titan Base to await the results. For the moment the Bath Iron Works shipyard remained empty as the Oceanians were planning a next generation survey ship that would be jump-capable. The required jump drive would be developed once the research into greater jump drive efficiency was completed.
Five days later, on April 17th, the Eurasian Union became the first power to complete a geological survey of the Sol system. Although several planets, moons and asteroids had reasonable quantities of two or three minerals at high accessibilities, no system body came close to Earth in terms of the variety, quantity and accessibility of all minerals. Unfortunately, with the three great powers running almost three thousand mining complexes between them, Earth?s supplies were fast running out and would be mostly depleted within eighteen months. Once interstellar exploration began, any extensive mineral supplies close to the Sol system would be very valuable indeed.
Earth Mineral Situation, April 17th 2085
Duranium 47,807 Acc: 0.86
Neutronium 80,377 Acc: 0.6
Corbomite 62,181 Acc: 0.5
Tritanium 1,361 Acc: 0.16
Boronide 42,196 Acc: 0.1
Mercassium 24,741 Acc: 0.66
Vendarite 10,658 Acc: 0.33
Sorium 7,522 Acc: 0.34
Uridium 44,792 Acc: 0.2
Corundium 8,511 Acc: 0.32
Gallicite 27,429 Acc: 0.59
On May 1st 2085 the Melbourne class Gravitational Survey Ship Macedon took the final sensor readings of the Sol survey, added the readings gathered by her sister ships Melbourne and Yarra and ran the computer analysis. Within a few minutes, six jump points appeared on the system-wide holo-chart. The closest to Earth lay just outside the orbit of Jupiter, eight hundred million kilometers from the Sun at a bearing of 235 while the second was at twice the distance, on a similar bearing of 249. The third jump point was much further out at four billion kilometers and a bearing of 52 with jump point four in a similar direction to the first two, located at a distance of five billion kilometers on a bearing of 273. Jump points five and six were approximately five and a half billion kilometers from Sol and on opposite sides of the system, bearing 87 and 232 respectively. Now Oceanian sensors knew where to look they scanned the areas around the jump points and to the considerable surprise of Oceanian scientists, they detected a large structure surrounding jump point five. After hours of frantic and noisy meetings, the President?s scientific advisers concluded that the structure was a jump gate; a device of alien origin designed to allow passage through a jump point without the need for a shipboard jump drive. Who had built the structure and when it had been assembled were unknown but it was plain to all that mankind was not alone in the universe. Furthermore it was obvious that an intelligent race had visited the Sol system and presumably Earth at some point in the past and might yet return again.
All three of the deployed gravitational survey ships were desperately short of fuel so they were ordered to head for Titan where a small fuel stockpile had been gathered. In the meantime, Vice Admiral Ryan did not want to take the chance that one of the other powers would beat Oceania to the first interstellar voyage so he ordered the Tribal class destroyers Apache and Zulu and the three Melbournes already at Titan to investigate the jump gate and determine if it was still functional. The other five jump points would have to wait at least three more weeks until the two Sao Paulo class jump tenders were completed. As the three Spruance class geological survey ships were almost finished with their survey of the Kuiper Belt and were in the same general area of the system as jump point five, Vice Admiral Ryan ordered them to head for the jump point once their current task was completed.
Oceania?s military power increased considerably on May 12th with the completion of the Ark Royal class carriers Illustrious and Yorktown. Both ships left orbit almost as soon as they cleared the slipways. Although Titan Base could still not handle ships greater than 4000 tons, Vice Admiral Ryan did not want any of their technology being scanned by Eastasian or Eurasian ships and was prepared to handle the eventual overhaul costs to maintain security. The two Sao Paulo class jump tenders were launched ten days later. Both ships also headed for Titan from where they would move to investigate the closest two jumps points to Earth, located either side of Saturn?s orbit. A direct course to the jump points was avoided in case it raised suspicion among the other powers that Oceania might have completed a gravitational survey. The eventful month of May concluded with Apache, Zulu and the Melbourne class gravitational survey ships Port Phillip, Sullivan Bay and Dandedong arriving at the alien jump gate.
Steve
