Part 5:
Two Alaska Mod 1 freighters joined the Fleet on August 24th, the last for the foreseeable future due to the Duranium shortage and they were followed in early December by the first two Jamestown class colony ships. By this point, all the Oceanian automated mines in the Sol system had been moved to Midway, ready for transport to Birmingham, so the North Carolinas began moving infrastructure from Titan to Midway for eventual transport to Edinburgh-A II. As that would render Titan uninhabitable, the two Jamestown class ships and the eight Roanokes began evacuating the Titan colonists directly to Earth.
The two East Asian Alliance colony ships suddenly left Earth orbit in January 2089 bound for the Washington jump point, along with ten of their Bangalore class freighters. Somewhere within the Washington Nebula, or perhaps on the far side, they had obviously found a world worth colonising.
Later the same month, Oceanian ship designers completed their work on a new class of destroyer intended to combat the new missile threat from the East Asian Alliance. The Arleigh Burke class escort destroyer could detect incoming missiles at up to two and a half million kilometers and engage them with twelve point defence missile launchers with a ten second rate of fire. Her magazines carried 372 Space Wolf point defence missiles. The Space Wolf did not have a high chance of intercept against fast-moving missiles but it was small and cheap and could therefore be carried in large numbers. In a first for an Oceanian warship, the Arleigh Burke did not carry shield generators and instead relied on armour twenty percent tougher than any previous class. Unfortunately, no shipyard could be retooled to build Arleigh Burkes for the moment due to the extreme shortage of Duranium.
Arleigh Burke class Destroyer Escort 6000 tons 515 Crew 1129.2 BP TCS 120 TH 480 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 5-29 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 12
Magazine 372 Replacement Parts 7
Congreve-Hale Ion Drive (8) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 110,000 Litres Range 47.1 billion km (136 days at full power)
Point Defence Missile Launcher (12) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
SPG-3 Missile Fire Control (2) Range 2.5m km Resolution 1
Space Wolf (372) Speed: 24000 km/s End: 44.6 minutes Range: 64.3m km Warhead: 1 MR: 10 Size: 1
SQS-25 Missile Detection Sensor (1) GPS 252 Range 2.5m km Resolution 1A survey of the Leeds system, adjacent to Edinburgh, was completed on March 16th 2089 by Melbourne, Macedon and Yarra, revealing two new jump points. Sao Paulo carried out the explorations, discovering York and Salisbury. York was a G4-V system with four planets, including two with oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres, although one had only ten percent the atmospheric pressure of Earth and was far too thin to breathe while the other had a surface temperature of -92C. Salisbury was an F3-V system with a single Venusian world.
At approximately the same time, a gravitational survey was also completed in Sheffield, a system which was linked to both Edinburgh and Cambridge and, as both those system were linked to each other, formed a triangle of systems. The survey located two new jump points, leading to Scarborough, an unremarkable white dwarf ? brown dwarf binary, and Rio de Janeiro, a G3-V protostar in a level five nebula. As the Washington Nebula was also level five it was a distinct possibility that Rio de Janeiro was part of the same nebula and given the strong interest of the East Asian Alliance in the Washington Nebula, it was possible there could be Eastasian ships in the area. The best way to find out would be to survey Rio de Janeiro to determine if it connected to any known systems. The three Melbournes, Dandenong, Port Phillip and Sullivan Bay had already started a survey of Scarborough when Serra do Mar entered the nebula so they would move into Rio de Janeiro as soon as their Scarborough survey was completed.
On April 10th, the East Asian Alliance built two more of their new missile-armed destroyer class, now designated as the Akagi class by Oceanian Military Intelligence (OMI), and five days later the Eurasian Union launched two 10,000 ton ships of an entirely new class. Only the Oceanian Ark Royals and Eurasian Kirovs were so large so it was possible this was an updated version of the Kirov with new engines. Consequently, OMI gave this new class the temporary designation of Kirov II. Shortly after launch, one of the new ships formed up with ten Eurasian freighters and headed for the Chicago jump point at 3829 km/s, suggesting it might be a 10,000 ton jump ship. This was confirmed within twenty-four hours when Pueblo picked up data from a jump drive on the second ship. No new technical data was gained as the Eurasian jump drive was the same efficiency as the Oceanian J600, although much larger.
By late July 2089, a small amount of Duranium was being produced by the Birmingham asteroid mining colony, the automated mines on Midway and a few manned mines at a domed colony on Edinburgh-A II and limited Oceanian ship construction had resumed, although primarily for those ship types that could contribute to the ongoing effort to move automated mines to Birmingham, and colonists, infrastructure and manned mines to Edinburgh-A II. For the time being, the transfer of colonists to New Scotland had ceased with the population at 1.9m. The population of Edinburgh-A II was at 0.9m. The Sacremento class Tanker, construction of which had resumed after a long delay, and an Alaska mod 1 were both delivered on July 20th. Several more Alaskas were delivered during the following months. On October 15th 2089, the Eurasian Union launched two more 10,000 ton ships and once more they were of a previously unseen type.
In late February 2090, the Oceanian archaeology team completed its search of the destroyed alien outpost on Edinburgh-A II. Despite initial high hopes, nothing of significant interest was discovered. A month later, Oceanian survey ships completed a survey of Rio de Janeiro, the nebula system two transits from Edinburgh, via Sheffield. Four new jump points were found, all closer to the star than the Sheffield jump point. Serra da Cantareira transited jump point three on April 8th 2090 and found herself in Buenos Aires, a known system in the Washington Nebula. Given the amount of Eastasian activity around the Sol ? Washington jump point, it seemed likely the East Asian Alliance had already located Buenos Aires and possibly Rio de Janeiro as well. As Sheffield was adjacent to the key Edinburgh system, the East Asian Alliance could not be permitted to enter so either Sheffield or Rio de Janeiro would have to be defended; most likely the former due to the inability to use missiles in a nebula. Commander Joe Preston of the Serra da Cantareira decided to investigate the other jump points before taking his ship home to report.
Jump Point Two led to Caracas, a nebula system with a G4-V protostar, while the innermost jump point led to Lima, another nebula system, this time with a dim M0-V protostar and a single planet with an almost breathable oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, gravity of 0.65G and a surface temperature of -45C. No other planetary body found in any of the other six known nebula systems was even close to being able to support human life. Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely that Oceania would ever get chance to terraform this world given the likely proximity of Eastasian forces. The situation become more complicated when Serra da Cantareira transited the fourth jump point and entered York, a known system two transits from Edinburgh via Leeds. There were now two avenues of approach from Rio de Janeiro to Edinburgh, one via Sheffield and the other via York and Leeds. Although the obvious strategy seemed to be to defend the jump point from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires, the concentration on missiles and fighters meant that Oceania had no effective weapons that could be used inside the nebula.
Commander Preston held Serra da Cantareira at the Rio ? York jump point until the three Melbournes arrived and transited into York to begin a new survey. Rather than head back through the dust of the nebula at a maximum 2000 km/s, he then took his own ship across York and through Leeds to the Edinburgh jump point, finally hailing New Scotland on the 25th of July to warn them of the probable connection to Eastasian space. The message was quickly relayed via the Tarawa class ships stationed at the Edinburgh ? London and London- Sol jump points, reaching Admiral Nelson just thirty minutes after Serra da Cantareira emerged from the Edinburgh ? Leeds jump point. In late July 2090, the deployments of the Oceanian Navy were as follows:
First Carrier Striking Force (Vice Admiral Callum Jenkins)
Stationed at the Sol - London jump point
2x Ark Royal class CV: Ark Royal (flag), Enterprise
2x Tribal class DD: Apache, Zulu
VFA-08 ?Thundercats? (12x Eagle II, 1x Hawkeye)
VFA-09 ?Star Knights? (12x Eagle II, 1x Hawkeye)
Second Carrier Striking Force (Captain Ellen Brady)
Earth orbit
2x Ark Royal class CV: Yorktown (flag), Illustrious
2x Tribal class DD: Iroquois, Visigoth
VFA-05 ?Golden Hawks? (11x Eagle I, 1x Hawkeye)
VFA-10 ?Bandits? (12x Eagle II, 1x Hawkeye)
Third Carrier Striking Force (Rear Admiral Jake Harper)
Earth orbit (both carriers in overhaul)
2x Ark Royal class CV: Lexington (flag), Courageous
1x Tribal class DD: Mayan
VFA-03 ?Space Barons? (11x Eagle I, 1x Hawkeye)
VFA-06 ?Sky Demons? (11x Eagle I, 1x Hawkeye)
New Scotland Picket (Commander Louise Dawson)
New Scotland orbit
1x Tribal class DD: Gurkha
(Note: the ex-CO of Gurkha, Commander Edward Connell, is now Captain Connell of the CV Courageous)
Unattached Squadrons
Earth orbit
VFA-01 ?Wild Tigers? (12x Eagle I)
VFA-02 ?Shooting Stars? (12x Eagle I)
VFA-04 ?Fighting Hawks? (12x Eagle I)
VFA-07 ?Siberian Tigers? (3x Eagle I)
Jump-capable Ships
JD Nassau: London ? Edinburgh jump point
JD Peleliu: London ? Manchester jump point
JD Saipan: Manchester ? Birmingham jump point
JD Tarawa: Sol - London jump point
TJ Sao Paulo: Major overhaul on Earth
TJ Serra da Cantareira: Edinburgh ? Leeds jump point
TJ Serra do Mar: Major overhaul on Earth
TK Sacramento: Earth orbit
Geological Survey Ships
Kinkaid, Radford: Robinson system (adjacent to Cambridge)
Spruance: Cambridge system
Gravitational Survey Ships
Dandenong, Port Phillip, Sullivan Bay: York system
Macedon, Melbourne, Yarra: Newcastle system (adjacent to Manchester)
Freighters and Colony Ships
12x North Carolina class FT
6x Alaska class FT
13x Alaska Mod 1 class FT
8x Roanoke class CS
6x Jamestown class CS
Note: North Carolinas are inactive. Other freighters are transporting automated mines to Birmingham, infrastructure and mines to Edinburgh-A II and maintenance facilities to New Scotland, plus returning minerals to Earth. Colony ships are taking colonists to Edinburgh-A II and New Scotland.
As there was still no way to take an Ark Royal class carrier out of the Sol system, Admiral Nelson detached Zulu and Iroquois and ordered them to reinforce Gurkha in Edinburgh. The three destroyers would remain in the system, protecting it against any Eastasian advance. In the meantime, some form of small scout ship would be designed as a picket to watch the frontiers for any Eastasian, Eurasian or even alien encroachment into Oceanian territory. Lack of resources was a still a major issue though with the meagre supply of minerals from Birmingham, Edinburgh-A II and the remaining mines on Midway all being devoted to construction of colony ships and freighters. So far it had not even been possible to spare the resources to retool a shipyard for the proposed Arleigh Burke class destroyer escorts. For the moment, work on the scout would consist primarily of research into improving passive sensor detection so the proposed scout could detect intruders without giving away its own position by using active sensors.
The survey of the York system, located between Leeds and Rio de Janeiro, was completed on November 21st. Three new jump points were found, all of which were in the north-west quadrant of the system, making five in total. Serra de Cantareira began with a probe of jump point three, discovering a G4-V protostar and four planets in a level 12 nebula. The high dust density of this new nebula meant that ships would be able to move at a maximum of 208 km/s for each point of armour strength. During the early days of Oceanian exploration, it was agreed that systems beyond the Sol ? London jump point would be named after British cities, although there were some exceptions such as the six known systems beyond Cambridge being named after colleges at Cambridge University. However, as Oceanian exploration was now concentrated entirely on the systems of the London chain, the naming convention was abandoned in favour of a one that emphasised all the geographical regions of Oceania. Therefore the new system was named Great Falls and the newly discovered nebula became the Great Falls Nebula. Jump point four connected to Pensacola, a G9-V system with nine planets and fifty-nine moons. The third planet and a moon of the fourth planet had thin oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres but surface temperatures around -100C. Jump point five led to a planetless white dwarf system named Spokane.
December 3rd 2090 was an important date in the history of New Scotland and the Edinburgh system. Sufficient maintenance facilities were now in place on the planet to support ships of up to 6000 tons, the largest ship that could leave the Sol system using current Oceanian jump drives. Assuming sufficient mineral resources were available, that meant all the various survey ships operating in the systems around Edinburgh could be overhauled at New Scotland instead of having to return to Earth and the three Tribal class destroyers providing protection could be maintained while in orbit. To ensure the necessary supply of minerals, the first seven manned mining complexes had been delivered to New Scotland and, more importantly, mass drivers had been delivered to both New Scotland and the mining colony on Edinburgh-A II, recently named Inverness, allowing New Scotland to receive minerals from the twenty-six manned mines of Inverness. Between the two colonies, they had supplies of every mineral, albeit with very limited accessibility in some cases, except for Neutronium. To cater for this shortage, one thousand tons of Neutronium had been shipped in from Earth. The population of New Scotland was 4.1 million, while the domed cities of Inverness housed 2.8 million. The geological survey report for the two colonies was as follows:
New Scotland
Duranium 45,334,240 Acc: 0.1
Corbomite 32,012,960 Acc: 0.6
Mercassium 32,012,960 Acc: 0.1
Vendarite 42,817 Acc: 0.3
Sorium 19,001 Acc: 0.4
Uridium 4,284,796 Acc: 0.9
Gallicite 10,074,150 Acc: 0.9
Inverness
Duranium 22,848,260 Acc: 0.9
Tritanium 976,083 Acc: 0.1
Boronide 1,308,670 Acc: 0.1
Vendarite 3,312,025 Acc: 0.6
Uridium 7,595,271 Acc: 0.4
Corundium 12,873,680 Acc: 0.1
In addition to the continuing shortage of Duranium, by the end of 2090 a new resource crisis was facing Oceania. Fuel production had been halted in May 2087 due to a shortage of Sorium. At that time the fuel stockpile was over twenty-five million litres so there was no immediate concern. However, the limited amount of Sorium gained from the automated mines in the Birmingham system had been consumed for other purposes and the fuel stockpile was at nine million litres. With a growing number of freighters and colony ships in service fuel was being consumed at an ever-increasing rate. Therefore, as a fuel conservation measure, Admiral Nelson announced that after current survey and exploration missions were completed, no further survey activity would take place until sufficient supplies of Sorium allowed fuel production to resume.
The large comet known as Midway reached its aphelion of one point eight billion kilometers in late December and began falling back toward the Sun. Midway had proved to be a very useful base in the effort to colonise Edinburgh and set up the automated asteroid mining colony in Birmingham. The North Carolina class freighters moved all of the infrastructure, maintenance facilities and automated mines to Midway where they could be collected by Alaska class freighters, small enough to transit into the extra-solar systems. Minerals from Birmingham and Edinburgh were unloaded on to Midway and then dispatched by mass driver to Earth. A fuel stockpile had been established on the comet to refuel the freighters so they only needed to visit Earth occasionally for maintenance checks. With Midway at aphelion, the London jump point was only two point two billion kilometers away, compared to four billion kilometers from Earth, so it allowed the freighters to cut their time in the Sol system significantly. Eighty-one automated mines and a substantial amount of infrastructure still remained on the comet but over time they would be moved to Birmingham and Inverness respectively.
In June 2091, Oceanian scientists developed a way to build jump gates similar to the alien gate on the Washington jump point. If jump gates were constructed on the various jump points between Sol, Edinburgh and Birmingham, it would remove the need for Tarawa class jump ships stationed on those jump points. Even now, the Saipan was in overhaul after four years of continuous operation and her sister ships Tarawa, Nassau and Peleliu were in desperate need of their own overhauls. The jump tanker Sacremento was filling the gap left by Saipan but if a second Tarawa had to be overhauled then it would make Oceanian logistics very tricky. Jump gates would remove those concerns entirely. However, it was not an immediate fix as a ship capable of building the jump gates would have to be designed and constructed and the components needed for the gates would have to be built by construction factories. The resulting design was the Brunel class, shown below, which would be built in the BAE Systems shipyard once retooling was completed in January 2092, with the first ships estimated to be ready by March 2093. The other interesting fact discovered by the researchers was that jump gates can act as communication relays, allowing instant communication between any two systems linked by a series of jump gates.
Brunel class Construction Ship 8000 tons 829 Crew 966 BP TCS 160 TH 420 EM 0
2625 km/s Armour 1-35 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Replacement Parts 20
Jump Gate Construction Ship: 180 days
Congreve-Hale Ion Drive (7) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 48.2 billion km (212 days at full power)
In September 2091, a review of past survey data in search of possible sources of Sorium highlighted that a gas giant in the Oxford system, two transits beyond Edinburgh via Bristol, contained over three million tons of accessibility 1.0 gaseous Sorium in its atmosphere, enough to manufacture six billion litres of fuel. The harvesting technology required to extract the Sorium was already known to Oceanian scientists but it would require a significant industrial effort to build such harvesters at a time when resources were limited. However fuel reserves were down to six million litres and dropping fast so there was little option. In an effort to make the harvesters smaller and easier to construct, Oceanian ship designers decided to build them as bases rather than ships, saving the extra mass required for engines. Of course, this decision meant that the Harvesters had to be moved to Oxford and for that a brand new piece of technology was required; the ship to ship tractor beam. The tractor beam allowed one ship to link to another so that both could use their engines to move their combined mass, or allowed one ship to tow another if the second was damaged or had no engines. Retooling for both the Hercules class tug and the Iowa class Fuel Harvester would require the Electric Boat and Swan Hunter shipyards respectively, which were currently setup to construct Alaska Mod 1 freighters and Jamestown class colony ships. This would end production of those two classes but with fuel reserves so low, additional ships could probably not be fuelled anyway. Retooling would require until February 2092, after which both ship types would be laid down, resources permitting.
Hercules class Tug 5100 tons 498 Crew 724.4 BP TCS 102 TH 900 EM 0
8823 km/s Armour 1-26 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Tractor Beam Replacement Parts 11
Congreve-Hale Ion Drive (15) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 100.8 billion km (132 days at full power)Iowa class Fuel Harvester 6300 tons 536 Crew 665.4 BP TCS 126 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 1-30 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Replacement Parts 15
Fuel Harvester: 10 modules producing 320000 litres per annum
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range N/A
Eastasian Interlude
On the far side of the Kunming Nebula, five transits from the Sol system, the jump ship Xiangtan and the geological survey vessel Naka jumped from Changchun into the recently discovered Hangzhou system. Naka?s mission was to survey the two planets orbiting close to Hangzhou?s yellow G8-V primary, in particular a world with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere with seventy percent of the oxygen density required for humans and a temperature of -17C. Although this planet did not have the same prospects as Xuzhou Prime, the future Eastasian homeworld which lay beyond a jump point on the far side of Changchun, the semi-habitable planet might support a secondary colony. Unless it had huge mineral deposits though it was unlikely the Alliance would establish a mining operation given the vast resources of the Xuzhou system. Nevertheless, standard procedure called for a geological survey so Naka had been dispatched to Hangzhou with Xiangtan as escort.
Ten seconds after arrival in Hangzhou, with sensors still inoperative due to the effects of transit, both ships received an unexpected and unintelligible communication. With no idea of the source of the transmission, although the planet seemed the obvious suspect, Commander Murase Taura of the Xiangtan ordered both ships to immediately retreat into Changchun. Fortunately they had entered Hangzhou only three thousand kilometers from the jump point so they made their escape within seconds. Changchun had four jump points, including one to the key crossroads system of Kunming which was connected to Sol via a series of jump gates. Fortunately, there was an alien jump gate on the Changchun ? Kunming jump point, although the lack of a matching gate on the far side prevented using the gate as a communication relay, so Commander Taura ordered Naka to head for Kunming alone while he kept his own ship near the Changchun ? Hangzhou jump point to watch for pursuit. The fact they had been detected so promptly on their arrival in Hangzhou, two point five billion kilometers from the planet, suggested whoever was in the system either had very good sensors or was specifically watching the jump point.
On December 21st, Oceanian efforts to send automated mines to Birmingham and return minerals to Earth suffered a serious setback due to a failure of Peleliu?s jump drive. The jump destroyer had recently exhausted her supply of spare parts and was vulnerable to system failures but the shortage of suitable jump ships meant she had to remain on station. Tarawa was already undergoing an overhaul on Earth and now Peleliu would have to join her. Saipan, the second of the original Tarawas remained on the Sol - London jump point and a recent minor overhaul had restored her stockpile of spare parts. She was seriously in need of a major overhaul though and the spare parts would no doubt be used up quickly by her overworked systems. Peleliu?s sister ship Nassau, a Tarawa mod 1, had enough spare parts remaining to survive perhaps one more system failure before she too risked losing a key system. In the available time before that happened, she would have to cover the London ? Edinburgh and London ? Manchester jump points as required. The jump-capable tanker Sacramento remained on the Manchester ? Birmingham jump point.
Five days later, Nassau had to use her remaining spare parts to fix a problem with her own jump drive so Admiral Nelson decided that the combination of fuel shortages and lack of jump ships meant that all but essential operations would have to be suspended until the situation improved. Nassau was recalled and Sacremento took up position on the London ? Manchester jump point, ready to escort the vital Birmingham - Earth mineral supply runs through the London - Manchester and Manchester ? Birmingham jump points. Because of the length of time they had been in continuous operation, the Tarawa class ships were likely to be in overhaul for at least a year, which was going to put a severe restriction on all Oceanian extra-solar activity. Combined with the shortages of Duranium and Sorium, the restriction on easy movement of commerce would further increase the pressure on the faltering Oceanian economy.
On January 11th 2092, Oceanian sensors detected a major movement of Eastasian warships. The seven warships believed to be in the area of the Washington Nebula had returned two years previously so the total East Asian warship strength was known to be seven Jianghu class heavy cruisers, eleven Kongo class destroyers, four Akagi class missile destroyers and two new ships that were believed to an update of the Akagi that incorporated the Alliance?s recently developed Ion Engine technology and had therefore been designated the Akagi II. All twenty-four warships were in Earth orbit until three Jianghus, six Kongos and all four Akagis broke orbit and headed for the Sol ? Washington jump point. The reason for the Alliance?s largest ever deployment of warships outside of Earth orbit was unknown but given that for the last two years the Alliance?s leaders seemed quite content to leave them in Earth orbit, the only reasonable conclusion was that the Eastasians had encountered some significant threat in the area of the Washington Nebula or beyond. As Sheffield and York both connected to Rio de Janeiro, a system within the nebula, whatever was threatening the East Asian Alliance could also be a potential long term threat to Oceania. Unfortunately, Oceania was in no condition to start a new warship building programme. Although the single slipway of the Victoria Shipyard had recently been retooled to build the Arleigh Burke class destroyer escort, no hull had been laid down due to the continuing resource shortages. On March 8th, the Eastasian colony ships that had been running to and from the Washington jump point for several years returned to Earth and remained in orbit, further confirming that there was a problem in the Washington Nebula.
Steve
