The year is now 2042, Humanity is reaching the high end of nuclear pulse tech level, and the old ION engines salvaged from Mars have finally been salvaged putting us close to cracking the secret of those engines, meanwhile the success of private enterprise which has invested heavily around the Martian colony at the ruined city of Gehenna has convinced Earths's government to push for colonisation of other worlds.
Mars approaches 80 million people now, just 20 years ago it was considered science fiction for people to live on other worlds, however with the discovery of transnewtonian elements the capability of life support and industrial production increased significantly, furthermore working terraforming equipment was found in the city and after a few years we were constructing more back on earth, then on Mars itself, now 100 TNE factories and 14 terraforming stations are driving the planet towards the ultimate goal of habitability. The remaining 15 terraforming stations needed shall be completed by Martian industry by 2055, estimates are that the planet should be fully terraformed by 2060, after this the stations and infrastructure shall be moved to Venus.
The lunar colony now has 25 million people and growth has been put on hold, the moon was originally a research project to see how well the terraforming technology would work on a smaller body with virtually no atmosphere, there is only one terraformer here and more are not planned for a long time, however even here finding willing colonists was easy, unemployment back on earth is high, even here half the population isn't employed full time, but lunar settlers are enjoying the increased space and freedom compared to earths run down high density slums.
A small starting colony has been sent to Titan, 9 Construction brigades are sent first to set up the initial 2100 infrastructure and the first terraforming station. The colony is expected to be self sufficient, half of the needed 100 factories and 40 terraforming stations will be sent from earth as well as enough infrastructure to support the workers, the remaining half will be constructed on site by the engineers and at an increased rate when the factories come online. More infrastructure may be constructed as needed also. Titan is expected to be fully terraformed sometime around 2075, Estimates are that due to the extreme distance from earth a very thick atmosphere will be necessary, colonists may have some trouble adjusting to 4 atmospheres of pressure but deep diving experiments have shown this to be survivable.
(OOC It looks like I can reach a maximum of colony cost 1.38 on Titan, with the number going down somewhat as reduced cost is researched, I will probably genetically modify the colonists when the planet is done)
The last Comets have finally been surveyed, the 500 ton 400 km/s nuclear thermal powered survey ships proved themselves highly capable, the last 2 have begun the slow 15 month crawl back to earth, they shall get a hero's welcome.
Space X have announced their plans for a new Nuclear Pulse powered Freighter, their first new freighters since launching the venerable conventional powered behemoths which started the Martial colonys. Unlike those ships which reached only 60 km/s, the Wyvern will be capable of 1200 km/s, the fastest commercial vessel yet. Weighing in at 116,000 tons these vessels will hold an astonishing 75,000 tons of cargo, a far cry from their 60,000 ton forbears which could barely haul 5,000 tons. New technology also allows these vessels to unload in a few hours, a fraction of the time and for much more cargo.
Finally Mitsubishi Jukogyo announces it has finished a fourth slipway, retooling is begun for the slightly enhanced Oliver H Perry - 43 Model, with the new heavy duranium armour allowing an extra armour layer, and mod 2 launchers allowing half the reload time.
Oliver H Perry - 43 class Destroyer Escort 9,000 tons 223 Crew 1093.6 BP TCS 180 TH 500 EM 0
2777 km/s Armour 5-38 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/5/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 24
Maint Life 1.41 Years MSP 152 AFR 324% IFR 4.5% 1YR 84 5YR 1257 Max Repair 90 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Spare Berths 2
Magazine 564
10HS 100 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (5) Power 100 Fuel Use 141.5% Signature 100 Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 330,000 Litres Range 4.7 billion km (19 days at full power)
Size 1 Missile Launcher (R2) (24) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 15
Missile Fire Control 10/5 FC4-R1 (3) Range 4.5m km Resolution 1
Super Sparrow MK III (564) Speed: 15,600 km/s End: 6.8m Range: 6.4m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 52/31/15
Active Search Sensor 10/5 MR4-R1 (1) GPS 90 Range 4.5m km MCR 490k km Resolution 1
Barbone-Dillenbeck Thermal Sensor TH1-5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Barbone-Dillenbeck EM Detection Sensor EM1-5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
After refitting the 6 old destroyers, work will begin on the Portland heavy missile cruiser, in 2 years Newport news is expected to have enough capacity to construct destroyers itself, saving greatly on refit costs.