NC Part 14: July 2048 - December 2048

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

1st July 2048
A new Themistocles II is completed on Earth.

2nd July 2048
The Asian Alliance completes the reactivation of its survey cruisers, which immediately set course for Pharsalos. Three geological survey ships also left several weeks ago.

8th August 2048
The Gitanyow agree to exchange Damage Control for Improved Supply Production 2. Damage control is a system that will allow emergency repairs during combat, although it is expensive in terms of maintenance supplies.

14th August 2048
The Fast Colony Fleet returns to Earth with 197 tons of Gallicite and is joined by the recently built Themistocles II. Supplies of Gallicite are finally starting to reach the point where we can begin to expand our shipbuilding program so two more Themistocles II and an Artemis II are laid down. One of each is already under construction. On the forthcoming trip to Thebes, the fleet will carry colonists and nine construction factories.

18th August 2048
A pair of Asian freighters has left Earth orbit bound for Pharsalos. They may well be bound for Pharsalos-III, which has a substantial supply of Gallicite, albeit at only accessibility 0.3. The Terran Union is continuing to send freighters and a single colony ship into Athens. They still have two colony ships in mothballs, probably because their freighters are only just keeping up with the infrastructure requirements. However, they did complete a fifth freighter recently and a sixth is being constructed so they may increase their colonization activity in the near future.

21st August 2048
In an horrific terrorist attack, a tactical nuclear device is detonated close to the Commonwealth Congress, obliterating both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as 40,000 other Commonwealth citizens. Within hours of the incident, Commonwealth law enforcement officers arrest a senior Liberal Party official, Vander Marinus, and produce damning evidence of his involvement. After two days of intense questioning, Marinus confesses to the attack and names several other high-ranking Liberal Party members as co-conspirators.

Prince Arthur declares a national state of emergency and announces that he is suspending the constitution and will rule by direct presidential decree until the current crisis is over. At that time, the congress will be reconstituted and new elections will take place. In the meantime, the Liberal Party will be abolished until a complete investigation of its past activities and its current members is carried out. Prince Arthur is immediately backed in his stance by King William V, Czar Alexander and the Japanese Emperor. Although there are a limited number of demonstrations against the measures, the apparently incontrovertible evidence against the Liberals, reminders of the Asian interference in the last election and the solid support of the various Commonwealth monarchies combine to convince most Commonwealth citizens that temporary suspension of the constitution is necessary for their future safety and that Prince Arthur will use his new powers responsibly.

26th August 2048
The gravitational survey of Thalia is completed, revealing one new jump point. The four Commonwealth survey ships head to its location.

1st September 2048
Due to the state of emergency, the presidential election scheduled for September 1st is cancelled.

5th September 2048
Menelaus transits the unexplored jump point in Thalia. She discovers an white A1-V primary four million kilometers in diameter and nearly three times the mass of Sol, orbited by four rocky worlds, five gas giants and an asteroid belt. Although two of the rocky planets have oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres, one is a small world and their air is too thin to breathe while the other is a huge planet 30,000 kilometers in diameter and the oxygen pressure is at dangerous levels. Both are also too cold for unprotected humans, at -77 and -47 degrees respectively but could be future prospects for terraforming.

After the system is officially designated as Chimera, Menelaus returns to Thalia and Rear Admiral Ayres order his fleet to head for Thasos, a system three transits from Thebes along the route Thebes

[rmcrowe]

To whom did the EU announce the completeion of their research?  Was it a public announcement? (Would be strange, almost an invitation to industrial espionage.)  Or in a more or less private forum with the Commonwealth where they could hope to exchange something for it, as later proposed?

robert

[MWadwell]

14th August 2048
The Fast Colony Fleet returns to Earth.... SNIP On the forthcoming trip to Thebes, the fleet will carry colonists and nine construction factories.

21st October 2048
The Fast Colony Fleet returns to Earth with 220 tons of Gallicite and is joined by the recently completed Artemis II. The fleet loads 250,000 colonists and nine manned mines before setting out on the familiar journey to Thebes. The population of Thebes-III is now over four million and the planet

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

So out of 3 trips, 2 carried factories, while the other carried mines.

With the Duranium about to run out on Earth, and the only serious mining going on at Thebes, I'm surprised that more of an effort isn't being made to get mines to Thebes.....

After all, once the Duranium runs out on Earth, the only source of raw materials for the 511 factories (which need approx 6800 tons of materials, plus the raw materials needed for shipbuilding/supply factories/ordanance factores/etc.) are the 69 mines on Thebes (which only produces approx 4000 tons of raw materials of all mineral types per year).

The factories are there to build infrastructure but you are right that I probably should be concentrating on mines. However, I have recently added a new task for construction factories that allows them to convert manned mines to automated mines for 150 BP. The construction factories on Thebes are starting to do this (as well as the ones on Earth).

Steve

[Michael Sandy]

Hard to say.  Construction factories on earth are going idle too.  Also, there is a good roleplaying reason:

By shipping construction factories, the new colony can carry on if a war breaks out on earth.  Making the colony self-sufficient is a pretty high priority.

Also, keeping the manned mines active on earth allows the Commonwealth to get the largest amount possible of the remaining Duranium.  Keeping them active denies Duranium to the Commonwealth's competitors.

The alternative to shipping Construction factories to build infrastructure is to ship infrastructure directly.  Granted, the Commonwealth could ship the infrastructure it already has.  That just means that some number of people starve to death.  But it is cheaper than building new infrastructure at home.  A bit of a political knot there.

Shipping construction factories may make it easier to conceal from spies what is going on at the colony.  After all, construction factories could build anything.

How bulky is infrastructure?  Is 100 Build Points of infrastructure harder to ship than 100 Build points of factories?  That would be an excellent reason to ship factories.

All in all, colonies are likely to be much more industrialized than the home planet.  I see several different types of colony:

1) Pure mining colony.  All infrastructure and mining equipment are shipped.  Perhaps planet has a high colonization cost, so is not an economical site for factories.

2)  Supply base.  A colony with large or highly accessible duranium might make a good advanced supply base.  Has mines and supply factories and maybe a construction factory to, to keep up with population growth.  Ship production you probably want to have fairly concentrated, but it could pay to have supply production dispersed.  Plus, it has some nice roleplaying effects.

3)  New Earth.  Home planet is running out of resources, so rather than ship resources all the time to the home system, a new capital is set up.  It will become the new site where resources are shipped to.  Major production will be concentrated there, where it can be defended if necessary.  Goal is to get the planet to the point where it can expand the total economy.

It is possible that a new warp point could be discovered back to the Solar system, or close to it.  In which case there might be a massive shipment of colonists + infrastructure, but very little industry, as most of that would already have been shipped from Earth.  In which case you would have a fourth type of colony, a sort of population holding tank.

[Michael Sandy]

Forgot.  A 5th type of colony.

Forward naval base.
Possibly starts with construction and infrastructure only, in order to build missile bases.  Then expands into mines and supply factories, and eventually shipyards.

The difference is in the priorities.  The Commonwealth _could_ sell the construction factories going as building defenses against the "aliens".

[vergeraiders]

While with just 4 mil people removed from 700 mil+ its not a problem yet, are you going to track exactly where the population is comng from? Are the ground units going to be among the last to go? Are there problems with legal and illegal immigration into the commonweath?

If you get close to lifting the whole population will the last to go leave from an easy to defend area (Britian, Japan Australia all come to mind).

Mike S.

[TrueZuluwiz]

How do you decide which segments of the population to take? I would assume the oldsters can sit and wait. The younger folks need to go, as they will add to the problem on Earth, and add to the solution on the daughter worlds. (They WILL breed, regardless of what you tell them.) But you have to have some older elements with them, as a bunch of young colonists without mature guidance is asking for trouble.  What proportion of farmers, soldiers, factory workers, etc. do you try to acheive? The bureaucrats, by the way, can sit on Earth and rot. The people that are not going will inherit what is left on Earth, for what it's worth, and for as long as it lasts. One might assume some nasty wars amongst the last to leave, and those who are not going to go, for the remaining slots on the ships. Therefore, you need to have some troops remaining to keep order, but then the troops will know that they are being abandoned as well. It would not be well to be one of the last bunch on the planet. There would be no need to "turn off the lights", as the inevitable disorders will see to it that very little of value will survive the final days.

[MWadwell]

Hard to say.  Construction factories on earth are going idle too.  Also, there is a good roleplaying reason:

By shipping construction factories, the new colony can carry on if a war breaks out on earth.  Making the colony self-sufficient is a pretty high priority.

At this stage, if war breaks out on earth, the colony on Thebes is so small that I believe it would be pretty screwed regardless of how the war turned out.

Also, keeping the manned mines active on earth allows the Commonwealth to get the largest amount possible of the remaining Duranium.  Keeping them active denies Duranium to the Commonwealth's competitors.

True - but the Commonwealth has nearly 500 mines on earth. Shipping out 25 (or so) a year isn't going to make a huge difference to the amount of Duranium mined from Earth, as that is going to run out in a year or so anyway.....

Also, there is a substantial amount of Duranium on Thebes, so moving the mines won't affect the overall amount of Duranium available to the Commonwealth.

The alternative to shipping Construction factories to build infrastructure is to ship infrastructure directly.  Granted, the Commonwealth could ship the infrastructure it already has.  That just means that some number of people starve to death.  But it is cheaper than building new infrastructure at home.  A bit of a political knot there.

The Commonwealth is shipping out population, and the supporting infrastructure. That is why the Commonwealth population on Earth is decreasing, as there is no population growth (due to the population always matches the total infrastructure available).

[MWadwell]

If you get close to lifting the whole population will the last to go leave from an easy to defend area (Britian, Japan Australia all come to mind).

Mike S.

Who's saying that you are going to be able to shift the entire population?

At the moment, only 1.5 million people are being shifted out per year - and there is only one extra colony ship added last year. If you add a single colony ship per year, then in the 42 years until Nemesis arrives, only 270 million people would have been shipped out......

[Summercat]

However, that's at the assumption of only one colony ship per year.

I'm certain that as inter-stellar industry starts to rev up, more resources will become available to build more ships.

The same thing with the colony on Thebes - as the colony builds up, it can also start building colony ships.

I mean, if you start building 2 per year starting now, then you have over 500 million people (I think) being shifted out. MOre likely, though, it will continue to be one per year, then increase to two per year, then three...

[Shinanygnz]

However, that's at the assumption of only one colony ship per year.

I'm certain that as inter-stellar industry starts to rev up, more resources will become available to build more ships.

The same thing with the colony on Thebes - as the colony builds up, it can also start building colony ships.

I mean, if you start building 2 per year starting now, then you have over 500 million people (I think) being shifted out. MOre likely, though, it will continue to be one per year, then increase to two per year, then three...

Yep, plus as technology improves ships will get faster and/or bigger, both increasing the number of people who get shipped out.

[Michael Sandy]

Also, consider that currently no more population is being shipped out than there is (or will be) industry to employ them.

Consider how much industry, mines and factories, it would take to fully employ 270 million people.

And once the current mines and industry are shipped from earth, Theban production could double them in under 20 years.

[MWadwell]

However, that's at the assumption of only one colony ship per year.

I'm certain that as inter-stellar industry starts to rev up, more resources will become available to build more ships.

True - however there will be a lag involved, due to the time it takes for the resources to be shifted back to the construction centres (Earth in this case), and the time it takes to build the ships (which for a colony ship is 2 years).

While in the long term (i.e. 40+ years) this lag might be inconsequential, in the short term (e.g. 5 years) the lag can have a large effect on the colonisation effort.....