Theban Empire sf

[Starslayer_D (OP)]

"They have death rays! Move the bases away from the warp point!" "They have immense ships shooting missiles all over the system, move the bases close in!" "Stop refitting the fleet, we need them now!" "Build a new class with more shields! "Builds more buyos"

.... I can sure immagine the chaos in the Buer high command, given that they just the turn before had started to refit all their CA's and CL's, removing quite a bit from their mobile fleet, and that they just reached TL 5... and have green base crews. I check at home how they move what. Though soft crust their home defenses sure are not. More like the big hard seed inside the avocado. So a bit more from the fly on the wall later on.


Meanwhile the Lords of Mars avoided racial suicide, after having just developped the atomic bomb. (RD 87, RC of 84, RM of 92... yes I can immaginde them using it to nuke other powergroups on their planet. I rolled RC/20 % for it.).


In the end, the Buer decided to move their buffel class bases out to 8 from the wp, and the Coetzee bases to 5. (yeah, bad, but they are not really perfect and have no idea of plasma gun's capabilities.)


BUFFEL II class BS3       17 XO Racks    85 Hull    TL 4
[1] Sx11Ax10ZHXrQFx3DFx3(BbS)Fx4DLhQFx3M3 [-]
85 RCP  15 MCP       Trg:4        Cost =  1196/ 59.8
HTK 44   Sx11  Ax10  Dx2  Fx13  

[Paul M]

The Confederation would be hardly upset if they were to find out about the lords of mars they hope the Udines enjoy meeting them as much as we did when or if they ever get off their rock ball.  The aussies are welcome to their problems as they are also self inflicted.

For the base replace the 0 speed with [-] that stops it from changing to the ° symbol and giving you a new line.

A tip based on the last turns results:
In war have colliers with supplies, but even more importantly make sure that you change the control of the system and regenerate the supply path if you are using the new supply rules.  The RM as odd as it may sound actually hit this war on a shoestring budget and are more or less doing a good approximation of a man flailing his arms and bounding forward to stay upright.  That 70% maintence was just killing war prep.  Once this situation stabilizes then a few more colliers per battlegroup will show up and I will load them.  They are in the odd position of having blockade support groups without mines and bouys...  The group that is supposed to cover the Thebans or the Thing's second point of contact is still half empty and the one they have covering their active action is continously picking up and laying down the same pathetic 12 paterns of mines.

[Paul M]

[ooc]If this was a ISF scenario I would be hard pressed to find a good name: "Catching the Buer with their pants down"  but equally so "Greco decides he will make it big or sleep in a POW camp" also fits.[/ooc]

Month 8, Day 5, WP to Alien Held System 2

Two survey groups held station at the newly discovered WP.  They had arrived faster then the main body of the force that was held to the speed of the Battlewagons.  After establishing a defensive perimter six Bolzano class survey ships move forward accelerating to full speed along a trajectory towards a particular spot in space.

The lead Bolzano emerges from the warp point its drive field radiating energy.  SquadCom Monti is the first of the People to see the system.  
"Sir!  Contacts, multiple contacts!  Ranging now."  
"Helm, bring us about!"  The ship began to yaw its way around to re-enter the warp point.  Around it appeared the other members of the probe.  
"Weapons, lock up..."  Monti, glanced at the plot...the situation was target rich "one of that highly concentrated group of small bases."  
"Communications.  To all ships.  Mark target and fire all weapons."  
"Sir!  Mass updates.  Battlecruiser weight bases!"  
"Weapons Free."
"Target Locked!  External Missile Seperation.  Beam Arrays Firing."  Missiles struck the base, followed by the ships force beam array and then the energy beam mounts.  Each ship was able to launch and every base took internal damage as the energy beams overloaded the targets compensators and arcing currents flowed through their hulls.  But the sheer number of bases ensured that fire was returned, targeting the 5th ship to make transit its shields and armour were battered away and then damage smashed through the ship until it crumpled into wreckage surrounded by life pods.  
"Hull MAP!  Multiple!"  
"Damn!  All hands brace for impact."  Monti glanced at the helm indicator, his ship was 150° through its turn.

In a ring around the RM ships detonations flared and drove an Xray shock front at the ships.  Twelve satilites engaged each ship and for a survey light cruiser that was a significant amount.  Monti was tossed from side to side in his shock frame as the ship rolled and shuttered.  Armour spalled and damage to the ship was catastrophic; its drive field fluctuated wildly as engine room after engine room was destroyed.  Monti was staring at the plot, of the six light cruiser that had entered the system currenly only 3 had motive power, two were outright destroyed and the last had lost its drive field.  

The engines stuttering with the overload caused by so many system failures the ship barely managed to make it about and slip back through the warp point.  It was the only one to do so.

Month 8, Day 8, WP in Alien Held System 2

It had cost FleetCom Greco five survey ships to get the warp point surge data he needed to launch his attack.  Currently at his workstation on the Fleet Flag he was the second ship in a spear heading outwards directly towards a group of 3 battlecruiser weight bases, and his ship currently occupied the space near a trio of the aliens small defence bases.  They had been pulled back from their usual half light second ring.  "Weaponeer.  Lauch assault missiles."  Behind his ships the three Aviere's volleyed plasma packets and the other two Battlewagons fired their assault missiles.  He studied his plot, his plan was simple: drive a wedge through the defence and then peal them back from each side.  But that meant he had to drive through the double ring of bases and analysis of the data from the probe suggested that the big ones carried lots of beam weapons.  
"FleetCom!  Lead ship reports targeting!"  He had hoped the battlecruiser sized bases would not reach action stations, but unfortunately they had.  The lead Battlewagon was wreathed in debries as its armour belt and outer spaces exploded under fire.  
"Captain.  Take the datagroup 30° Absolute of that base group."  The enemy had learned about the Aviere's and they drew fire but the enemy bases were soon haloed by debrie clouds.  
"FleetCom!  Communications from Theban ships."  His long range sensors restored Greco had been studing the ships, 6 of them had changed to violet.  The aliens had two cruisers and six destroyers, the Theban's had six cruisers.  Greco had 6 Battlewagons, 3 Battlecruisers, and 3 Crusiers in system.  
Greco, selected the Autotranslate function.  "Communications.  Connect me with the Theban Commander."  
"Linkage estableed Fleetcom."  
"Commadore.  I'll make this short.  I have orders to secure this system as the Egg Stealers here illegally occupied a system within our space."  Greco paused, "I have the capability to do so."  At this moment Greco was wondering if he did as the larger bases were putting out significant fire and his ships were mostly still shaking off transit.  "Proof?  Of course we have proof, but if you want the Synod approved time stamped data blocks that will take several days to organize as it has to come from the Homeworld.  We can arrange its delievery to our trade point." he listens to the reply.  "I am under orders to minimize casualties as well, we have prisoners from previous battles they are held in camps and are recieving medical attention and otherwise being held as honorable captives."  
He glances at the plot, his moments of worry vanishing as did the aliens defences, a squadron of destroyers had sprinted forward and the arriving battlewagons had largely smashed it, transit scrambled launcher targetting systems or not.  
"Commadore if you want to help these muck dwellers convince them to surrender."  The Theban ships had not moved and the time when they might have played a decisive role in the fight was past.  
"Commadore, if your honor compells you to fight, rest assured I will do my best to recover your life pods you have my word."  A data group of battlewagon smashes six targets into fragments and half his display shows nothing but friendly ships.  
"Magazine Status?"  
"One more full volley."  
"Hmmph."  One more would be enough, the enemy ships were now facing the bulk of the RM assault force as his reduced data group of 2 curved around the other way.  No undamaged RM ships were in range of the enemies bases and 2 cruisers faced 8 Battlewagons, 2 Battlecruisers, and 2 survey cruisers.  
"Fleetcom, they dropped their drivefields."  Greco smiled. A minute later the Theban ships moved away from the warp point.  His gamble had paid off as 1 day out from the warp point was a contact.  Given the distance to the homeworld from here that was likely a reinforcement echelon.  Still the battle had cost him.  Two battlewagons were cripples, one Aviere was lost and the remaining pair were also cripples, the original four Cavour's were reduced to a pair; the other two were a barely salvagable hulk and a cripple.  A further 3 survey light cruisers were cripples as well, survey force 3 was without a single functional ship.  When search and rescue was done he had over 5000 prisoners to send back down the line [ooc]500 Crew Points-10Q worth were recovered from the Buer bases that were destroyed.[/ooc]

The collier made good his missile expenditures with around 130 remaining in its magazines.  Leaving his cripples and a single Battlewagon plus the survey ships he advanced on the inbound aliens.  He sent his faster scout ships forward to get a look at them.  The Theban's contacted him days later and apparently they had made a deal with the Aliens.  They would offer the aliens, who refered to themselves as the Buer, a world in their empire and the fleet he was "chasing" would withdraw to there.  His journey to the homeworld would take nearly 2 weeks so Greco said he didn't much care what the aliens did in the time remaining to them, but if they were at the homeworld when he arrived he would smash them.  Destroying some 20 alien ships would take only a short time but he had not so many missiles remaining in the collier, but if necessary, escorting his troop ships were the RMs first carriers with 9 squadrons of fast strikers onboard.

As his scouts observed the Buer warships escorted a rag tag fugitive fleet from the system into Theban space.  The Buer Government in Exile was a case of the ruling elite fleeing the results of their own decisions as far as Greco was concerned.  He ignored Bishop Orso's suggestions as the military understood the value of the Theban trade agreement.

[ooc]Starslayer and I discussed this one.  The Battle actually see-sawed, I was wondering if I would need to kludge together an exit strategy for the RM.  The Buer were activating rather well and things weren't looking so good. Then with more and more DNs firing both their Alpha strike of XO launched missiles and their regular 39 CMs things rapidly went the other way, one group of DN engaged 6 targets and destroyed them for example.  This left the Buer at the end with 2 intact mobile ships (both of which had tissue paper for armour and that only due a spectacular case of rolling poorly otherwise both would have been crippled) facing the entire RM fleet and the DNs could destroy the remaining bases and crippled ships with impunity.  But the battle wasn't a one sided blow out.  If moving the bases helped or hurt is harder to say; it actually produced a much wider range where their F beams were effective.  Also without the warp point surge data Greco could never have launched the attack his DNs are just too unmanueverable.  It was really a case of "He who gets there the firstest with the mostest"...the Buer had 27 BS0 (plus 6 BS0 buoy control bases), and 14 BS3, plus 1 CA, 1 CL and 6 DDs.   The RM had 12 DN, 4 BC, 3 CA and 5 CL.  Plus 6 CL, and 3 CT they could have used.[/ooc]

Month 8, Day 24, Buer Homeworld Orbit

"Target Designated.  Squadron lock firing solution.  Fire Control to Automatic.  Maximum Evasion Protocol on my mark.  Mark!  Squadron initiating attack."  Greco watched the battle on his plot listening to the chatter from the fast striker squadrons closing in on the Buer base.  Each of his three escort carriers [ooc]CVS in reality[/ooc] had launched a single squardon.  On his plot the icons intersected, then one vanished.  The Battlecruiser sized Buer base had been destroyed in 30 seconds by green crews for no losses.  Test run sucessful.  "Communications.  Send to all ships.  Launch the shuttles." [ooc]An overall -5 to hit adjustment for the bases defensive fire[/ooc]

Month 8, Day 24, Buer Shipyards

The RM marines were closing in on the main control centre or so they assumed given what their engineers could make of the structure and power cabling.  
"GO! GO! GO!"  Two figures sprinted, hurling themeselves down as small arms fire from the barricade scared their combat hardsuits.  
"FIRETEAM TWO!"  Four marines ran; a pair hugging the wall on either side of the corridor while the two marines in the corridor fired on full automatic their fletchettes filling the corridor with a spray lethal to anyone without hardened armour.  
"SMOKE!"  
"ROUNDAWAY!"  Zero-g designed obscuring medium exploded as one of the armoured troopers fired a gernade round.  The marines vaulted the barricade and the suit HUD kept the marines vision clear.  The Buer security force was down in seconds of rifle butt work.  
"Engineers get that door open."

Month 8, Day 29, Buer Homeworld Captial Region LZ

"Target designated."  
"Target Acquired.  Initiating Deorbit. Time to impact 15 seconds."  
"Down!"  The sky glowed as the kinetic interdictors payloads sliced through the air then the area where the Buer defenders had set up an artillary post exploded and rocks and other debrie went flying.  The ground shock wave made the RMs ground force troopers bounce, the first thing they had learned was not to be standing when the rods hit the ground.  
"Strike inbound."  An assault shuttle flashed by overhead, configured for atmosphere its ramjets were at full, and the silent supersonic pass it made through the target zone was preceeded by the sound transmitted through the earth but the yammer of its 30 mm autocannon and whistle of the bombs that it deployed were unmistakeable.

RM ground troops advanced at speed through the wreckage of a Buer armoured column, their GEV APCs missile launchers seeking targets.  They roared down streets of the city the Buer had stood to defend seeking buildings orbital survellience had determined to have a high communications traffic.  Behind them came their heavy ground forces.  The battle for the Buer's world lasted a day.  [ooc]RM had 57 PCF8a, 105 PCF8, 300 KBS and 300 Bombs plus 19 ast (4 used for bombing) and 30 st (I guessed it would take about 30 transports to move their troops).  The Buer had 115 PCF4.  Officially the battle took 1 hour (2 inteception turns).  The RM landed in 3 zones and used 75 KBS/20 bombs per shutle in the first attack but that was over kill so I used only 25 KBS and more bombs in the second.  They then moved the Troops into a different zone and dropped more troops.  RM losses were 13 PC8a, and 13 PCF8.  They then landed 180 SEC.  Then moved to the next planet and landed their other ground troops to hold it: 15 PCF8, 45 SEC.[/ooc]

[Starslayer_D (OP)]

This was a tough call for the thebans, and they were happy that they had been handed an excuse not to sacrifice the only mobile force within 8 jumps. Even if the Neferkhau fleet had moved, they migh loose 2-5 systems by the RM just moving 2 more jumps. SO they were happy to take the refuges (91 PTU) and the 11 CA and 11 CL wich had just finished refitting this turn and were shaking down (The blib on the radar wich would have posed real problems for the RM had they arived.. and had finished shake down.
As the thebans are currently prototyping a DN, they have an idea what such a ship can do, and will use the time gained by not starting shooting to fortify the contact area. Little do they know about the RM being TL 9 and soon able to bust fortifications without breaking a sweat.
Mines and SBMHAWKs, the biggest balance breakers for warppoints. Fighters, and to a lesser bit the CM, then SBM are it for deep space combat.
I guess the next conflict will depend on how the RM act towards the Thing. If the Thing can redeploy it's assets, they will try their best against a HT 5 race with elite crews  *carnage on the warppoint*.. and they have an all beams philosophy too, the elites... Even 2 TL advantage are not making it easy.. or cheap.

Unlike the Buer with their green crews...  actually, this whole small war might make a very interresting mini-campaign scenario, as it was very balanced overall. Drag your feet as RM, and the buer can bottle the home system up against you with more dsb-l build etc. And other variables. I predict much ship type refinement taking place by the RM for the next such occasion.

[Paul M]

Roger Buck turned back to his audience, behind him was a picture of the typical Benthian.  "Well you can see why they are called squids or tentacle heads anyway."  He sounds hardly apologetic.  
"The Benthian's have a government made up of a ever changing council of aristocrats, the best translation we have is the Council of Lords."  His emotional leakage is mostly frustration.
  
"As a race, they are borderline Xenophobic, infact we are about the only race to have successfully weathered the contact period without it going seriously wrong."  He brings up an economic chart.  "Their concern over alien races has led to them keeping the bulk of their fleet active."  He nods to the navy side.  "That gives them two battleships, six battlecruisers, and sixteen cruisers most of them light, a further three battlecruisers are in their reserve."  He indicates a number on the chart. "That means their maintenance bill is eating up about 50% of their income and this seriously limits their economic development.  It is also odd since they don't want to focus on a military build up, but in the past 8 months they have had 3 or 4 negative contact with alien races."
  
He taps his display and a timeline shows up.  "We think the fact we apparently took our time about the negotiations was a contributing factor to our success but when you get down to it the best our research teams can come up with are conflicting guesses."  He pauses, then shrugs and resumes.  "No one knows what to make of them, they aren't particularly warlike but they are forced to keep their fleet active, they survey with unarmed survey ships...outside of a pair of missiles on them anyway, they have limited numbers of fixed defenses as well."  His emotional leakage was all increduility.

He glances over his audience.  "They basically want to be left alone, though clearly they were willing to interact with us.  The ship building projects we had with them have worked wonderfully, and we have 3 more repair ships, 2 yard vessels and a third on the way."
 
He taps his fingers on the podium apparently gathering his thoughts.  "We have not even considered joint fleet exercises with them and the Drakes."  
He looks at the naval people.  "Our briefs indicate they have ships that use the same weapons as do our ships, so integration of their ships with ours in a fleet would be possible."  He shrugs, "When we first met them, they were somewhat more advanced then we were.  At the moment we are about equal, but we have more money in our operational budget then they make in total so it seems reasonable to expect that the SCN will soon enjoy a technological edge, and it is possible the Drakes will catch up to them."

"Alien Affairs basically hopes the situation improves over time but they have to admit that there is a distinct chance they will drag the Confederation into a war over a botched attempt at first contact."

[Paul M]

[ooc]This is just to say that the campaign is still going we have just encountered "technical difficulties."  Starslayer's computer has had parts of its motherboard subjected to unplanned voltage and current.  As well the last few weeks for me have been busy with work and but it is looking better.  I will do the turn over the weekend and next week and thus can do a major update, but advancing the turn will be held up.  We have also both participated in the beta test 4 for "The Secret World" and been quite impressed (to the point of pre-ordering) soooo there may be other delays.[/ooc]

[Anarade Relle]

Bummer

[Starslayer_D (OP)]

Computer is back.. now needs a re-install but turn is with Paul still.

[Paul M]

This friday looks to be a day of Starfire...The Secret World is dragging my attention to the ability wheel however.  Hopefully I can make the will power saving throw checks and get the turn done and written up this weekend.

[boggo2300]

BAH! there is ONLY the Secret World

*still smarting from multiple smackdowns from someone looking suspiciously like Cthullu in the Polaris instance*

Matt

[Paul M]

I am still kicking myself from dieing twice to bombs before I sorted out that there were two cameras on the ceiling and that the funny lights I was seeing on the floor was the camera tracking around....*sighs*  Otherwise I'm having a lot of fun.  Just wish there was an offline source for the ability wheel so I could look at it and do some longer term planning.  But today is Starfire night...I must be strong and resist...not to mention to hope that I can recall what "da plan boss" was for the NPRs.

[Starslayer_D (OP)]

*a quiet courier delivers a link before slipping away in the fog of kingsmouth*
http://thesecretsandbox.com/DeckBuilder/

[Paul M]

[ooc]Well my will power saving throws were made more or less, I hope to get the rest of the turn done today for the RM but the Confederation is done.  I spot that deckbuilder thing and will be heading there...I just love the freedom to choose what my character will do.  Now if they can only get the gear manager to work properly it will be the bomb.  Uhm...me and explosives don't mix I am finding out.  As far as the wheel of distraction goes, 5 more AP into blades for martial discipline and self heal, a further 2 AP into pistols for a nice AOE heal, and then loads into fist weapons so I can get some better heals for my chaotic healing deck.[/ooc]

Month 171, Shanir

The Theban Empire's diplomatic envoy dropped a massive surprise on the Confederation Parliment when the proposal was read.  They were willing to transfer several systems to the Confederation for no cost, explaining that the distance and degree of interconectivity to the Confederations species made thse systems less interesting to them.  The Confederation Parliment conveened for a special session and quickly agreed to the exchange.  The data revealed itself to be quite a "Gift Horse" as a number of until that point and time unknown connections were found.  That area of space also connected to the newly discovered trading partners who call themselves the Thing of Odin, and who have been trading with the Drakes for quite some time.  The question of what to do about the connection between Frontier zone 1 and Frontier zone 2 is also finally showing signs of reaching a conclusion.  The current form of the report recommends transfering the Treveri-Rubicon chain plus all systems after the Treveri-Heracles warp point to FZ2.  This will stabilize the otherwise confusing situation but it is now making it harder to determine which system should be the designated Frontier Zone Capital.  The world Portal in the Vesuvius system is currently the front runner but there is ongoing evaluations.

Ongoing for some months now has been a join colonization program with the Drakes.  The planets Everchill in the Crossroads system and Blizzard in the Babylon system were the first two test sites.  Everchill's Drake population is now well in excess of the original Shanirian colonists, while Blizzard's Drake population is still at the outpost stage.  So far the program can be deemed sucessful.  Discussions are still ongoing on how to divide up the moons for resource extraction purposes.  Military matters are even more unclear but proponents of the idea say that the first step has been passed in that both populations are present and co-existing peacefully.  High level negotiations are proceeding between the SCN and the High Council to determine how a joint patrol schedule can be best facilitated.  In particular for the Crossroads system with its connection to the Thing of Odin and its closeness to what is considered a major Drake Transit System.  As the Drakes trade with the Thing of Odin, in the past through the Londonium system, it makes sense that Everchill is better and more direct trade connection to their homeworld for the Drakes.  What sort of economic impact this will have on the businesses in the New Expanses is not clear since we are unsure of any details about the Thing of Odin's internal connections.

The map attached to this report shows the newly added territory.  Exploration has been slow by all three of the Confederations species.  The Shanirian exploration groups are currently busy expanding the frontier or else about to push down the unexplored warp chains from Tarentum.  The primary issue is distance to the homeworld.  Colonization costs are now firmly driven by the distance and time each freighter must spend on the journey.  Discussions are also going on about to what extent the ships of the survey forces should be updated.  There have been substantial changes in the technological map since they were last refit.  The only issue is that would increase their maintenance needs and thus restrict somewhat their time on station.  As two good sized freighters are part of each survey group though this argument is loosing its support and it is likely only a matter of time before the refit plans hit the review board.  The Drakes and Squids are exploring steadily if not speedily.  The Drakes are limited by having only 2 groups, while the design of the Squids survey ship also hampers them.  The Squids are also reaching the end of their logistics reach and have desided to build Packmule class freighters to increase their survey groups logistics.

In terms of yard capacity over all the SCN is pleased with the expansion.  Three stations orbit Shanir, with 6 repair bays and 38 yard docks between them.  Exapansion of the newest station is ongoing and in under two years it will be complete and the total capacity will stand at 42 yard docks and 6 repair bays.  There is some serious discusion now starting to add an additional 8 repair bays in either a new station or else to the existing 3 space stations.  The utility of the repair bays with respect to their size makes them welcomed when it is time to refit the fleet.  As well two reapir stations are under assembly or in operation in Tarentum and Nova Vox systems.  This gives Tarentum 6 yard docks and 6 repair bays, and Nova Vox will soon have a similiar amount.  A pre-fabricated support base has just started its journey to Portal and will be operational inside of 6 months.  Five mobile construction groups are in existance and are fully occupied with tasks throughout Shanirian space, with a sixth being built in Sea.  This will give two groups of the large yard ships, two groups of the small yard ships, and two groups of repair ships.

The SCN has been able to prototype a new hull for some time.  Tentatively titled the Dreadnaught this would be a ship with a usable internal volume approximately 25% greater than the Battleships forming the heavy core of the SCNs 1st Fleet.  There is a clear advantage in combat and most importantly in warp point assaults from such a ship but there is no way to move it around the Confederation easily.  The large number of warppoints that allow only a battleship or smaller hull through make its deployment virtually impossible.  A ship of that size would not be able to get from the core worlds to the frontier as inevitably an insufficiently sized warp point shows up.  In the light of this the SCN military review decided to not proceed with the prototype phase and simply to channel the money and resources into other projects.  Due to the combat effectiveness difference, the SCN review pannel recommended increased numbers of Battleships to compensate for their individual lack in size.  The review pannel concluded that fixed defences were more cost effective then a ship that did the same job.

One new technological development, the datalink capable point defence suite also caused an uproar.  The analysis of its effectiveness showed clearly that it was a must have system, in particular for smaller ships, but that would require both major funding changes to the maintenance budget and also a round of refits on a shorter than anticipated schedule.  It took a compromise where not all point defences were swaped out for the new version to get it through the budget committee.  Still it has led to new designs for all major combat vessels, and dramatic improvements in their overall antimissile defence capacity.

                        WARBOOK UPDATE SECLEVEL PRIMUS

LEGIONAIR MOD 1 class BBP     AM    20 XO Racks    100 Hull    TL 7
[3] S0x22Aix20ZHRc(III)H(BbM)Q(III)?1RcMgED(III)RcETiQDRcMgEDM4DzC!1XrLhQEDz(III)(III) [5]
100 RCP  50 MCP       Trg:5  Bmp +2  Tem -1        Cost =  2124/ 318.6
HTK 86   S0x22  Aix20  Dzx2  Dx3  Ex4  Rcx4  Tix1  Mgx2  
120x CM, 24x CM LT1, 10x CAM (Mg), 10x EDM (Mg), 10x ADM (Mg)

ARBALIST MOD 2 class BCG     AM    16 XO Racks    80 Hull    TL 7
[3] S0x22Aix6ZH(III)Q(BbM)(II)?1RcDRc(III)RcMgM3!1RcDMg(II)RcMgDzXrLhQEDz(III)(II) [6]
80 RCP  20 MCP       Trg:4  Bmp +2  Tem -1        Cost =  1655/ 248.3
HTK 66   S0x22  Aix6  Dzx2  Dx2  Ex1  Rcx5  Mgx3  
200x CM, 40x CM LT1, 8x CAM (Mg), 10x EDM (Mg), 8x ADM (Mg)

HASTA MOD 2 class BCP     AM    16 XO Racks    80 Hull    TL 7
[3] S0x18Aix12ZH(III)RaQRa(II)?1RaQ(BbM)ED(III)RaMg!1M3!1ED(II)EDzXrLhQEDz(III)(II) [6]
80 RCP  70 MCP       Trg:4  Bmp +2  Tem -1        Cost =  1720/ 258
HTK 70   S0x18  Aix12  Dzx2  Dx2  Ex4  Rax4  Mgx1  
140x SM, 10x CM, 8x CAM (Mg), 4x EDM (Mg)

SPATHA MOD 3 class CAP     AM    12 XO Racks    60 Hull    TL 7
[2] S0x12Aix12ZH(BbM)Q(II)Ra(II)?1RaRa(II)RaM2!1MgE(II)XrDQLhDzE(II)(II) [6]
60 RCP  40 MCP       Trg:3  Bmp +2  Tem -1        Cost =  1187/ 178.1
HTK 55   S0x12  Aix12  Dzx1  Dx1  Ex2  Rax4  Mgx1  
136x SM, 12x CM, 10x EDM (Mg)

GLADIUS MOD 5 class CLP     AM    9 XO Racks    45 Hull    TL 7
[2] S0x12Aix10ZH(BbS)(II)(I)?1Ra(II)Ra(I)!1RaM2Mg(II)DLhQDzE(I) [6]
45 RCP  5 MCP       Trg:3  Bmp +2  Tem -1        Cost =  862.5/ 129.4
HTK 46   S0x12  Aix10  Dzx1  Dx1  Ex1  Rax3  Mgx1  
150x SM, 6x CM, 10x EDM (Mg)

LANCEA MOD 6 class DDP     (AC) AM    6 XO Racks    30 Hull    TL 7
[2] S0x6Aix3ZHs(BbS)(I)Qs(I)?1(I)(I)RaRaM2Mg(I)(I)QsDzE(I) [7]
30 RCP  20 MCP       Trg:3  Bmp +2        Cost =  614/ 92.1
HTK 28   S0x6  Aix3  Dzx1  Ex1  Rax2  Mgx1  
120x SM, 6x CM, 6x CAM (Mg), 4x EDM (Mg), 2x ADM (Mg)

Additionally two new classes of ship were designed and both have or are just about to enter into service.

PRINCIPII class BBA     AM    20 XO Racks    100 Hull    TL 7
[3] S0x38Aix30ZH(BbM)(III)?1(III)DGDQDGD(III)TiDGDMgDGDM3GMg!1DXrCLhQD(III)(III) [5]
100 RCP       Trg:4  Bmp +2  Tem -1        Cost =  2049/ 307.4
HTK 112   S0x38  Aix30  Dx10  Gx5  Tix1  Mgx2
140x GM, 10x CM, 18x CAM (Mg), 8x EDM (Mg)
Notes:  The SCN Assault Fleet's heavy combat ship.  It is intended to enter contested warp point and sweep paths through minefields while still putting out a substantial close in fire power.  The SCN design board stuck with the gun launcher due to its well tested nature.  [ooc]Also because in the future I can launch anti-minefield missiles from them.[/ooc]

SCUTEM class DDE     AM    6 XO Racks    30 Hull    TL 7
[2] S0x8Aix3Z(I)HsTiQs(I)?1Dz(I)Dz(I)Dz(I)DzM2XrsQsDz(I)(I) [7]
30 RCP  20 MCP       Trg:3  Bmp +2        Cost =  729/ 109.4
HTK 31   S0x8  Aix3  Dzx5  Tix1
Notes:  This is a dedicated anti-missile escort vessel.  It is planned to escort the fleet flagship with a pair of them, but they can be detached to thicken any other units defences.  As they are a highly specialized ship they will be limited in number compared to the ubiquous Lancea.

(To be continued...and likely a bit of editing will occur to the above, editing did occur)

[Paul M]

Shanirian Confederation Update Continued

Economically the three races that compose the Confederation are doing well.  All have experienced growth in steady if not spectacular terms.  Their current incomes are:

Benthian Lords
Production:  17 957 MCr
Trade:  1 795 MCr (only trading with the Shanirians)

Drakes
Production: 21 855 MCr
Trade:  8 742 MCr (multiple trade partners)

Shanirians
Production: 36 405 MCr
Trade: 16 953 MCr (multiple trade partners, the newest is the Council of the Moon, the largest is the Theban Empire)
Government Freighters:  942 MCr (Maintenance: 628.4 MCr Net: 313 MCr)

Bureau of Colonization efforts have enhanced the flow of new colonists to 4 worlds: Vulcan's Forge, Argos, Byzantium Secundus and Byzantium Tercius resulting in their recent reclassification as medium population worlds.  Frontier zone capital world Motherload is also benefiting from continued colonization incentives and is very soon likely to cross the threshold.  Regardless of the success of such plans for the foreseeable future all new colonization efforts will come from Shanir, and will require journeys of up to 3 months.

The plan to increase the government pool capacity to 10% of what is available from commercial firms is proceeding well.  That level of cryogenic transport capacity is nearly achieved, and about half the goal in terms of pure cargo capacity has been achieved.  The construction costs of a new ship (426 MCr) are paid by the project before the ship completes construction.  It is expected that inside of a year the project will be able to fund on a monthly basis new construction and still generate a positive cash flow.

Excepting the Squids, trade is a crucial component of the races total monthly revenue streams.  For this reason the Drakes have invested substantially in frontier security and even more so in the security of their homesystem.  Shanirian Fortress command is gradually increasing its presence outside of key nodal systems, but has not been as successful as the Drakes in this regard.

Fortress Command

Fortress command is responsible for the warp point security and traffic control of a group of systems inside the Confederation defined to be of critical defensive value.  Due to the generally low tonnage of the SCN's patrol class vessels, frontier security is based on the concept of falling back to existing fixed defences and a heavy reliance on buoys and ADSW patterns as force multipliers.  The primary goals are to give the shipyards time to activate the reserve and to concentrate the existing fleets.

This has been accomplished by seeding the frontier with fleet support stations, which in turn begin construction of local system defences.  Fortress command is not as glamorous as service with the SCN or Survey Command but it represents a substantial fraction of the deployed mass of the Navy.  As often as the SCN claims the Lancea class is extremely numerous the truth is the Sling class outnumbers them by a factor of two.  The Sling bases form the line in the stars that in many respects defines the volume claimed by the Confederation.  Steadily the number of Pilum-Onager groups has increased, and the number of Pilum bases also outnumbers the Spatha class.

Funding wars over the SCN have been common but funding for Fortress command, given its close ties with inhabited systems with often highly populated planets, has been for the most part been made available.  Fortress command also only takes 26% of the total military maintenance budget so in general its requests have been accommodated without undue complaint from the SCN itself.  Over the last few years substantial amounts of money have been channeled in automated weapon platforms and sensor/communications systems.  Although, individually a system may lack numbers of an individual buoy the sum over the Confederation is nontrivial.

Currently there are 11 operational fleet support or fleet repair stations in 9 systems.  Shanir itself is the most heavily defended system in the confederation but Tarentum due to its critical nature is a close second.  The current goal is to secure all trade contact points and at the same time build up the defences in Tarentum and in all systems adjacent to it.  Nova Vox due to Motherload being designed a Confederate Command Centre and Frontier Zone Capital World will also receive more extensive fortifications.  The plans for the other frontier zone are in a greater state of flux due to the recent rewriting of the warp point map.  But the defences of Cyrene are well developed and when TF 30 takes up station the system will have significant defences.

The Drakes; however, have in their homesystem Angband some of the thickest fortifications known.  No less than 45 cruiser sized bases orbit Angband's 4 warp points and a further 4 protect their two shipyards.  An additional 36 bases exist outside their homesystem monitoring trade borders.  The Drakes have also constructed an impressive communications network and apparently have seeded a large number of their systems with extensive sensor buoy networks.  The Shanirian's lead still in this respect as they have had the technology to do the task longer but the Drake High Council considers security important and invest money steadily to increase the coverage of their network, especially for their more critical transit systems.  Due to cost the Squids are only beginning to produce the necessary buoys to start seeding their systems with buoy networks.  The Squids have increased the defenses of Sea substantially over the last two years.   Eight large Gloire class bases are currently operational and a further four are under construction to secure Sea's four warp points.  They suffer a significant problem in that they must control the Nantes system that connects to Sea with a low capacity warp line and has no habitable worlds.  This requires forward deployment of their fleet and strong reliance on their Gloire Warp Point defence bases to protect Sea itself.  Two jumps from Nantes is the Nice system another nexus.  The Squids are building mobile construction vessels to allow them to start fortifying these two systems.

[Paul M]

[ooc]This is just a brief note to summarize the RM's progress.[/ooc]

The People have been busy "digesting" their victory over the Buer Homesteads and have focused on three aspects.  The first is a dramatic increase in their technology, just this month they had two critical break throughs in the field of weapons:  Anti-matter warheads and the spinal mount force beam.  The anti-matter warhead is twice as powerful as the fusion warhead and so makes their heavy missile DN even more dangerous but also dramatically improves the damage output of their screening BCs.  The spinal mount force beam is the last key system they need before finalizing their new assault DN design.  Next month two new ship classes will enter production, an assault dreadnaught based on the lessons learned in the Buer assualts, and a new dreadnaught intended as a support ship carrying nearly 480 of new SBMHAWK pods just entering service.  Research is still ongoing on a new advanced targeting system which will improve overall weapons accuracy but that is several months away from completion.  The first carrier sized hull is nearing completion and already there are discussions how to refit it based on what was seen in attacks on the Buer warp points.

Well advanced is the plan to assimilate the Buer into the People.  Special residential schools have been set up to teach their young in the way of the faith away from the corrupting influence of their parents.  The cost of this venture is trivial against the over all economic gain of the conquest.  The military might deployed the Buer systems has so far resulted in no rebellions, probably also helped by the small increases in local industrial infrastructure.  In general, this phase of the conquest is going well on every level.  The Buer are still making communication difficult but that will eventually be overcome.

What is considerably behind initial estimates is the clean up from the battles.  This was in large part due to the lack of a dedicated fleet of repair and construction vessels.  This lack is being rectified on a monthly basis and there are now 6 yard ships out of the yards or nearly so.  One more just started and a further 5 are planned to begin construction over the next 5 months.  Likely also is that a third support ship will be built.  The Buer mobile yard ships have nearly all been refit and will be available for service largely to assemble pre-fabricated bases.  Repairs to the ships damaged in the assaults are also nearing completion, inside of 3 months the damage to the RM should be repaired.  Three destroyers captured from the Buer have so far been refit to the Vigil watchship class.  Additionally the bases captured in the first two systems have been largely refit to a new standard but the bases on the Buer homesystems entry warp point have not been touched, nor have the shipyards captured in the attack.  Currently planning calls for refitting the larger bases into the Santa Rosa class of fast striker bases, plus the establishment of a number of Mafia bases to monitor the systems gas giants and secondary colony.  The Buer ships captured will be refit into Vigil class watch ships, Bolanzo class survey cruisers or assault cruisers depending on their size.

This month the Heavy Reaction Force, its ships all repaired and once again space worthy, will be leaving the Buer homesystem heading for the yards at Genoa where they will enter into refit.  Once all ships are repaired in the Bari fleet a fraction will be detached for refit as well, unless the refit of the Buer yards is sufficiently advanced to allow them to be used for this purpose.  Overall aproximately half the RM is currently in refit.

Politically the Synod is wresting with the task of finding a clear path to their future.  Their largest question at the moment is what to do with the Thing of Odin.  War or not?  That is the question that haunts their most learned theologians.  The RM points out that for a war against a major power, and it seems the Thing must be at least considered such, they will need more preparation than they had for the war with the Buer.  The navy reviews indicate that the battle at the Buer warppoint could have been a massive dissaster had they not hit a time window where the bulk of the Buer fleet was not available.  Also they need assault capable ships since neither of the battle cruisers or existing battlewagon's are well suited to that mission and the blockade cruisers although performing admirably also suffered 100% attrition in the battles.

On an economic front massive investments have been occuring as the People strive to overtake the infidel Theban's in a game of economic one up manship.  So far the the Theban economy has proven to grow faster, but month by month the Great Houses expand their economic empires; each seaking to improve its wealth by colonial clients.  Both intact survey fleets are working to find new systems to colonize and the 3rd survey fleet savaged in the attack on the Buer, at last, has all suriving ships either repaired or under repair.  A captured Buer light cruiser is being refit to replace a lost ship and another captured ship will be refit.  As with many of the ships damaged in the assault their old crews will be used as cadre to train new recruits.

Overall things are going well but the spectre of the collapse they nearly faced makes economic expansion a necessity.  Naval prepardness is a further critical requirement.  Patrolling and securing their borders are two tasks that the RM is only slowly getting a solid grip on.  Pre-fabricated bases are being stockpiled to secure trade contact points, while small forces of corvettes are patrolling the network of space claimed by the people.  It has been decided to not undertake refits to the existing warp point bases and wait on technological developments and Santa Rosa fast striker bases to come on line.  Each yard system has also been working at building up a stockpile of automatic weapons, mines, sensor buoys, and SBMHAWK pods.  The fast striker school can provide up to 18 squadrons per month of trained replacements and the two support ships each have the fast strikers and pilots on board to replace that amount as well.  By the end of this month 9 light carriers will exit refit, bringing the total active carriers to 12.  Current planning calls for a further construction of 8 carriers to be matched with the 9 existing light carriers.  What is not clear to the Naval Review Board is what level of screening vessels should be attached to the carrier forces.  Current thinking is that 3 corvettes and 3 battlecruisers or possibly 2 battlecruisers and a new class of escort vessel once the anti-fighter point defense system is avalable are options to be considered.  The carriers have limited self defence but the light carriers are all but defenseless and represent high value assets.

Regardless the RM continues to stand ready to execute the will of the Synod and the Prophet or defend the People against the infidel that surround them.