3 Kingdoms

[CharonJr (OP)]

Hi,

since it is a lot more interesting to play Aurora with a bit of RP/story behind it, I have decided that writing an AAR might be a good way to keep this game interesting for me.

This will be more of a description of actions/events than a full fledged story, but I hope this will allow me to bring some meat to the bones of this game and maybe offer some distraction or even provide some ideas to some of the readers.

Setup:
Custom start with 3 manually set up factions in the starting system (1 player controlled) with 3 additional computer generated NPRs lurking in the 50 systems generated during setup.
The 3 manually created races start with 30k research in addition to 500m people, 2 shipyards and 20 research facilities each. There will be a truce for 30 years. The auto generated NPRs should start at 500m and 120k research (if I understand the setup correctly).
The minerals on the starting planet will be raised by 300k each and accessability raised by 0.3 to make up for the competition for minerals by 3 races. Difficulty is at 150% and since I am not sure if the manually created NPRs will be affected by the difficulty modifier they will get 130% industry and wealth production.

Background:
The Polaris system has 7 plantes, with the 3 innermost planets being terrestial, IV&V dwarf planets, VI a super jovian with 17 moons and VII a gas giant with 10 moons. In addition there are 5 comets in the Polaris system.
Polaris III has a nitrogen/oxygen/carbon dioxide atmosphere with a temperature of -13 degrees and a gravity of 1.27 and more importantly intelligent life has evolved on this planet which is fairly similar to Earth's polar bears, except that those are bipedal and have opposable thumbs.
Overall the Polarians evolved pretty similar to Humans, but their society is largely tribal with powerfull nobles electing kings as head of state.

Around the year 1940 there are 3 major kingdoms who are fairly equal in power, each living on a seperate continent. A war has broken out about some major oil deposits at the uninhabited northern pole, but neither side was able to achieve superiorty. During the 3rd year of the war the arrival of an alien probe put the war on hold by announcing its arrival with transmitting lots of data nobody was able to understand at first, but it was very clear that the Polarians were not alone in this galaxy and since nobody knew what the aliens intentions were a truce was called.

After 3 weeks the alien probe left the orbit after having transmitted its data 3 times, with the Polarians still having no clue what this meant. A joint council of the best and brighest minds of Polaris was formed in order to decipher the alien message, but once it became clear that the message largely consisted of technological data and information about a completely unknown class of elements each kingdom withdrew its scientists and tried to put any useful information to use before any other kingdom would be able to do so. But it was agreed that there would be a truce lasting at least 40 years in order to prepare for any potential alien threat.

After 10 years each kingdom has been able to convert its industry to new standards based on the knowledge gained from the probe and set up 2 experimental shipyards to take a first step toward the stars.

This story will be from the point of view of the Mountain Tribe. The three major tribes all took names due to the prevailing terrain on each of the three major landmasses/islands on Polaris. The other two are the Tundra and the Hill Tribes.

With the initial alien tech data and some additionla research the Mountain Tribe currently has knowledge of:
Pebble Bed Reactor (3000)
Nucelar Pulse Engine (5000)
Anti Grav Sensor 12 (2000)
EM Sensor 6 (2000)
Construction Rate 12 (3000)
Research Rate 240 (5000)
Mining Production 12 (3000)
Jump Point Theory (5000)
Fuel Consumption 0.9 (1000)
Size 25 50% Nuclear Pulse Engines
750 points into Grav Survey Sensors

5 Tribal Class GeoSurvey Ships are ready for launch, together with 3 cargo haulers, 1 Cryo ship and a 33 silo nuclear base (wanted to get rid of all build Points here despite having no real need for 5 survey ships at start).

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Tribal class Geological Survey Vessel    2 200 tons     42 Crew     302 BP      TCS 44  TH 100  EM 0
2272 km/s     Armour 1-15     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/2     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 86    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 29 months    Spare Berths 0   

Duffy & Thomas 100 EP NPE C (1)    Power 100    Fuel Use 11.93%    Signature 100    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 70 000 Litres    Range 48.0 billion km   (244 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Fort class Planetary Defence Centre    44 400 tons     671 Crew     1492.5 BP      TCS 888  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-111     Sensors 1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 792
Intended Deployment Time: 29 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 792   

Fuel Capacity 70 000 Litres    Range N/A
ICBM Silo (33)    Missile Size 24    Rate of Fire 43200
ICBM Launch Control (3)     Range 50k km    Resolution 50


This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 18 sections


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Hauler class Freighter    30 100 tons     61 Crew     299 BP      TCS 602  TH 300  EM 0
498 km/s     Armour 1-86     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 6    Max Repair 25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 1   
Cargo 25000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5   

Duffy & Thomas 100 EP NPE C (3)    Power 100    Fuel Use 11.93%    Signature 100    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200 000 Litres    Range 10.0 billion km   (232 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes


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Cryo class Kolonizator    14 750 tons     96 Crew     606.5 BP      TCS 295  TH 300  EM 0
1016 km/s     Armour 1-53     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 26    Max Repair 25 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 1   
Cryogenic Berths 40000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5   

Duffy & Thomas 100 EP NPE C (3)    Power 100    Fuel Use 11.93%    Signature 100    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100 000 Litres    Range 10.2 billion km   (116 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes


A counter-espionage team is established in addition to a diplo team. Due to the lack of personal for a second diplo team the focus will be on improving relations with the Hill Tribe at first.

Initial industry is at 70% factories, 20% mines and 10% infrastructure to establish a small colony on Polaris II (3.1 col cost).

Due to the available scientists research is focused on turret tracking 2000 (5 labs), high density duranium (5 labs), gas cooled reactors (5 labs) and despite having only a missile specialist left 5 labs for grav survey sensors.

[CharonJr (OP)]

The geo-scans provided information about a fair number of TN elements throughout the system, but sadly none on Polaris II. Nevertheless infrastructure was moved to Polaris II and a small colony of 40.000 people was established by the middle of February. The Polarians took their first real step towards the stars.

The ships of the other 2 tribes seem to have roughly the same speed as our own ships, with speeds form 470-1492km/s being observed. Initial scans show that the other tribes seem to be more focused on weapons than us with a fair number of their ships deploying active scanners.

By the middle of May the survey of the system has been completed, the most notable deposits are:
Duranium: 180k at 90% accessability at Comet #4, Polaris HW 566k at 100%, except for traces at Polaris VI Moon 1 no other sources in system
Neutronium: 102k at 80% at Comet #2, HW 357k at 80%, additional 13k at Comet #4
Corbomite: 1.513k at 70% at Polaris V, HW 382k at 70% with another 235k at 80% at Polaris VI
Tritanium: 35k at 50% at Comet #3, HW 354k at 90%, no other deposits
Boronide: 1.367k at 80% at Polaris V, HW 527k at 90%, another 200k combined on 3 comets at around 60%
Mercassium: no deposits except on the HW with 393k at 70%
Vendarite: no deposits except on the HW with 374k at 90%
Sorium: 592k at Polaris VI, HW 437k at 100%, additional 250k throughout the system at around 60%
Uridium: 30k at Comet #3, HW 521K at 100%
Corundium: 222k at 80% at Comet #4, HW 418k at 100%, 30k at 90% on other bodies
Gallicite: 40k at 80% at Polaris VI, HW 360k at 100%, another 13k at 100% at various moons

In the short term minerals are no problem due to the quantities and good availabilities at the homeworld, but Duranium will turn into a bottleneck in the medium term and with the the only other source at Comet #4, which has additional highly accessible other minerals as well, getting some automines to Comet #4 will be a medium term priority.

A geo-team is established once all geo scouts have returned to Polaris and send to review the smaller bodies at first.

9th July 1950 - turret tracking 2000 completed, research continues with turret tracking 3000

The civilians have seen the potential of Comet #4 as well and have established a mining colony with 3 mines by the middle of July.

2 civilian shipping companies have build 1 luxury liner and 2 cryo freighters and are moving people to Polaris II while our transports are bringing more infrastructure.

12th December 1950: Grav Sensors completed and 2 Victory Class grav sensor ships are ordered at the 2 slipway (6.000t each) Shah naval shipyard, completion is expected for the middle of November 1951. The freed up 5 labs are used to look into Implosion Fission Warheads.

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Victory class Gravitational Survey Vessel    2 200 tons     42 Crew     302 BP      TCS 44  TH 100  EM 0
2272 km/s     Armour 1-15     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/2/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 3.04 Years     MSP 86    AFR 38%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 14    5YR 210    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 29 months    Spare Berths 0   

Duffy & Thomas 100 EP NPE C (1)    Power 100    Fuel Use 11.93%    Signature 100    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 70 000 Litres    Range 48.0 billion km   (244 days at full power)

Gravitational Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

January 1951: 330 infrastructure have been build and send to Polaris II, being able to support 1 million colonists, production is switched to Military Academies.

March 1951: Shield regen 1.5 researched (seems I chose the wrong project there) and research is started on High Density Duranium Armor.

July 1951: Turret Tracking 3000 completed, research started on 4000.

August 1951: Civilian Godfrey Carrier Lines launches its first freighter. And the theories about jump points have been validated by observing a jump at a bearing of 31° 465m km from the sun. 5 warships (3 Hill, 2 Tundra) are gathered around this jump point. In addition a new Tundra warship has been launched with S120/R86 sensors and a speed of 2.513 km/s heading towards the jump point.

14th November 1951: The 2 Victory Grav Survey Ships are completed and heading out to search for additional jump points, raising the Shah Shipyard capacity to 7000t is started.

6th December 1951: A 2nd jump point is found at a bearing of 297° 774m km from the sun.

Status at the end of 1951:
Polaris HW - Pop 522m, 500 construction factories, 423 mines
Polaris II - Pop 1,5m

Ships:
5 Tribal GeoSurvey
2 Victory GravSurvey
3 Hauler
1 Cryo Transport
1 Fort ICBM Base

Hill Tribe:
6x Fenrir - thermal 438, speed 616
2x Asgard - thermal 38, speed 883
5x Grendel - thermal 438, speed 958
1x Loki - S120/R85 & S60/R20 - thermal 600, speed 0
1x Heimdal - S70/R85 - thermal 200, speed 1.041
1x Hrothgar - S10/R85 - thermal 25, speed 0
4x Tyr - thermal 112, speed 1.492
5x Vithar - S60/R1 sensor - thermal 1, speed 0
2x Freya - S60/R1 - thermal 1, speed 0
1x Ragnarok - S60/R1 - thermal 400, speed 1.035
1x Odin - S70/R85 - thermal 400, speed 1.036
1x Godheim - S120/R85 - thermal 500, speed 7?
1x Garm - S70/R85 - thermal 200, speed 0
1x Valhalla - S70/R85 - thermal 200, speed 0
1x Norn - S60/R1 - thermal 200, speed 0
Population: thermal 14,1k and EM 39,1k

Tundra Tribe (seem to have better speed and sensors than the Hill Tribe):
2x Scharnhorst - thermal 25, speed 470
3x VonRoeder - thermal 312, speed 473
1x Deutschland - thermal 38, speed 715
3x Bismarck - thermal 312, speed 774
3x Gneisenau - thermal 25, speed 0
2x Prinz Eugen - S70/R85 - thermal 250, speed 1.396
1x Konigsberg - S10/R86 & S40/R4 - thermal 250, speed 1.396
1x Hamburg - S70/R86 - thermal 250, speed 1.396
1x Hipper - S70/R86 - thermal 250, speed 0
1x Konig - thermal 500, speed 0
2x Graf Spee - S90/R1 - thermal 1, speed 0
2x Rheinland - S90/R1 - thermal 1, speed 0
1x Scheer - S90/R1 - thermal 250, speed 0
1x Custer - S120/R86 - thermal 450, speed 2.513
Population: thermal 13,5k and EM 38,6k

We have to do something about our military power soon, currently only the truce keeps us alive here, with the number of R1-sensors it is fairly likely that the other tribes would be able to intercept our outdated ICBMs. And with a thermal of 11,6k and EM of 36k our industry seems to be lagging behind as well.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1952

January: A 3rd jump point is found at a bearing of 90° 747m km from the sun, in addition the Hill Tribe launched a 2nd Ragnarok class warship. Implosion Fission Warhead
research is completed and the 5 labs are allocated to researching higher Magazine Feed Efficiency (80%).

February: 4th jump point found at 137° 3bn km away from the sun.

March: 5th jump point at 91° 5,5bn km from the sun. We still lack the researches for the special engines needed to use those jump points, but with at least one other tribe
already using the jump points we will have to start research there soon, even without any specialists.

April: 6th jump point bearing 182° 2,3bm km from the sun.

July: Civilian Shepherd Corporation launched a small freighter.

September: Research into High Density Duranium Armor completed and despite still having no specialist (except Jason Stevenson at 10% who is currently researching Gas Cooled
Reactors) research into Jump Drive Efficiency 4 is started.

October: Magazine Feed Efficiency (80%) completed and the labs are assigned to Missile Launcher Reload Rate 2.

November: Shepherd Corporation launches another small freighter and Shah Shipyard has expanded its capacity to 7000t, the next expansion to 8000t is ordered.

By the end of the year our population has risen to 532m at Polaris (+10m) and 2,9m at Polaris II (+1,4m), 44 new construction factories (544) and 12 new mines (435) have been
build at Polaris. With thermal readings of 12k (+0,4) and EM readings of 36,8k (+0,8) - the Hill Tribe is at thermal 14,2k (+0,1) and EM 39,8k (+0,7) and the Tundra Tribe at
thermal 13,7k (+0,2) and EM 39,3k (+0,7). It looks like our industry focus enables us to close the gap a little bit, but our military power is virtually unchanged while the
other tribes grew.

Currently the focus is still on industrial expansion and getting jump capable ships. In addition the groundwork is laid for a military fleet which will focus largely on beam
based anti-missile ships and missile based attack ships. Due to the cost of producing and moving anti-missile-missiles I consider them to be not worth the costs at the
moment, but when we meet a more advanced alien race this might change. Additional shipyards will be needed for this build-up as well and I will try to reallocated some
industry there by the end of next year.

The military leadership has worked on a new naval doctrine for the past years and with the capabilities of the new weapon systems it became clear quite quickly that the first
priority has to be missile defense since destroyed ships are not able to fight. And while we have a energy weapons specialist who can provide research for the needed anti-
missile turrets and beam weapons we sadly still lack the sensor specialist to help with targeting. The second priority is speed since this will allow the navy to dictate when
and where battles will take place. Due to this the current research for better reactors and engines will continue. At the moment only fairly large warships seem viable, but
in the long run a mix of large defensive beam ships and smaller missile based attack ships is planed. The small missile ships will be guided towards their targets by large
sensor platforms who stay with the main fleet.

1953

March: Godfrey Carrier Lines launches a new large freighter and the Tundra Tribe launches a new ship class, the Nassau with S90/R1 sensors and a thermal reading of 250. The
Hill Tribe launches another new class as well, the Troll with a S60/R1 sensor and a thermal signature of 200. Overall the other tribes seem to be fairly focused on anti-
missile ships. At the end of the month the grav survey of the Polaris system is completed and now further jump points have been found, but 6 is a fairly high number anyway
which will make guarding our homesystem from potential enemy incursions a nightmare.

June: Another large freighter of the Shepherd Corporation is launched.

July: The Hill Tribe launches another new ship design, the Langsword-J with a thermal signature of 200 while the Tundra Tribe launches the first ship of the new Tirpitz
class with a S90/R1 sensor and a thermal signature of 500. We have to get some sensors in place to learn more about those ships soon. At the end of July a new civilian
shipping line is established, Payne Transport Line. In addition research into Missile Launcher Reload Rate 2 and Gas-Cooled Reactors are completed, the freed up labs are
assigned to Gauss Cannon Rate of Fire 2 and Ion Drive Technology.

August: Payne Transport Line launches its first ship, a huge freighter. Overall the civilian shipping lines are fairly busy moving goods and colonists between Polaris and
Polaris II which has grown to 5,7m people. During the last month 25% of the 1,3bn credit income came from trade taxes, expenses were at 1.1bn with 60% spent on construction
and most of the remaining 40% on research. Turret Tracking 4000 has been completed and research is started on Max Squad Jump Radius 50k.

September: The Hill Tribe launches yet another new design, the Msl Guardian class with a improved sensor suit - S108/R1 - and a thermal signature of 200. Shah Shipbuilding
expanded its capacity to 8000t, and 3rd slipway will be added next since the target weight for the first military ships is 8000t. A 2nd 48kt slipway will be build for the
commercial Simmons Enterprises as well. Shepherd Corporation launches a new small freighter.

By the end of the year our population at Polaris has risen to 540m (+8m) on Polaris II to 8,2m (+5,3m). 52 new construction factories (596) and 15 new mines (450) have been
build. Polaris has a thermal signature of 12,4k (+0,4) and EM of 37,6k (+0,8) while the Hill Tribe is at a thermal of 14,4k (+0,2) and EM of 40,7k (+0,9) and the Tundra Tribe
at thermal 14,1 (+0,4) and EM 40,2k (+0,9). The gaps remained fairly stable this year, but without any new scientics in the last 4 years, especially in the important
construction field it seems likely that the gap will get larger again in the future.

Current scientists/projects:
Brooke Begum - MK 40%, can use 20 labs - researching Gauss Cannon RoF with 5 labs (14th July 1954)
Laura Little - EW 15%, can use 30 labs - researching Max Squad Jump Radius 50k with 5 labs (15th May 1954)
Jason Stevenson - PP15%, can use 30 labs - researching Ion Drive Technology with 5 labs (16th October 1958)
Conor Wallis - DS 10%, can use 5 labs - researching Jump Drive Efficiency 4 with 5 labs (16th March 1954)

[CharonJr (OP)]

1954

January: Industry allocation for construction factories is lowered from 70% to 50%. 10% are allocated towards research labs and 10% to a new naval shipyard.
February: A 2nd military academy has been established, hopefully yielding some new scientists soon. Shepherd Corporation launches a new small freighter bringing its total
ships up to 7.

March: Civilian mining at Comet #4 is expanded to 4 mines, but with not much of surplus wealth generated each month and mining still ahead of consumption (even Duranium at
+36) the civilian mines will continue to be taxed for now. Connor Wallis completed research into Jump Efficiency 4 and starts with the last remaining tech needed for a jump
drive - Max Jump Squad Size 3 which should be completed by August 1955.

April: Godfrey Carrier Lines launches a new small and a new large freighter, bringing their total ships up to 5.

May: A new shipping line is established, Lloyd Transport and Trading. Laura Little completes research into Max Squad Jump Radius 50k and heads back to her own field of
research - Turret Tracking Speed 5000.

June: Godfrey Carrier Lines launches a new large freighter, since this will most likely even increase in the future I will just give a short overview at the end of each year
for the civilian shipping from now on.

July: Brooke Begum completes research into Gauss Cannon RoF 2 and continues with RoF 3 which is felt to be the minimum rate of fire needed for effective anti-missile turrets.

By the end of the year Polaris population rose to 547m (+7) and Polaris II to 13,1m (+4,9). 37 new construction factories were build (633) and 15 new mines (465). Thermal is
at 12,7k (+0,3) and EM at 38,3k (+0,7) while the Hill Tribe rose to thermal 15,1k (+0,7) and EM 41,8k (+1,1) and the Tundra Tribe rising to 14,4k (+0,3) and EM 41,1k (+0,9).
As expected the gap is starting to grow, but it will be interesting to see if the other tribes will run into problems with their population growth not keeping up with their
industrial growth.

Scientists/projects:
Brooke Begum - MK 40%, 20 labs (unchanged) - Gauss Cannonn RoF 3 (Feb 57)
Laura Little - EW 15%, 30 labs (unchanged) - Turret Tracking 5000 (Jul 58)
Jason Stevenson - PP15%, 30 labs (unchanged) - Ion Drive Tech (Oct 58)
Conor Wallis - DS 15%, 5 labs (+5%) - Max Jump Squad Size 3 (Aug 55)

Civilian Shipping:
Shepherd Corp - 8 ships
Godfrey Lines - 7 ships
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships
Payne Transport - 1 ship

1955

February: A 2nd diplo team is estabished and assigned to the Tundra Tribe.

August: Connor Wallis completes research into Max Jump Squad Size 3 and continues with researching the first jump engine (3000t) which is large enough for the survey ships.

November: Connor Wallis completes the new jump engine prototype and the new Agincourt jump ship is designed (basically a mobile jump gate combined with a small tanker) and
research is started on Composite Armor. With all shipyards currently undergoing modifications we will have to wait for another few weeks before being able to start building
the new ship.

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Agincourt class Jump Ship    3 000 tons     52 Crew     244.6 BP      TCS 60  TH 100  EM 0
1666 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 51    Max Repair 33 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 19.5 months    Spare Berths 0   

Gibson Engineering J3000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 3000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Duffy & Thomas 100 EP NPE C (1)    Power 100    Fuel Use 11.93%    Signature 100    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 600 000 Litres    Range 301.6 billion km   (2095 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

By the end of the year Polaris population rose to 557m (+10) and Polaris II to 16,9m (+3,8). 43 new construction factories were build (676) and 17 new mines (482). Due to the large number of ships I can no longer see any information about the other two tribes, but I think it is very likely that the gap kept growing larger.

Scientists/projects (despite 2 academies still no additional scientist):
Brooke Begum - MK 50%, 25 labs (+10%, +5 labs) - Gauss Cannonn RoF 3 (Dec 56)
Laura Little - EW 15%, 30 labs (unchanged) - Turret Tracking 5000 (Jul 58)
Jason Stevenson - PP15%, 30 labs (unchanged) - Ion Drive Tech (Oct 58)
Conor Wallis - DS 15%, 5 labs (+5%) - Composite Armor (Jul 58)

Civilian Shipping:
Shepherd Corp - 10 ships (+2)
Godfrey Lines - 8 ships (+1)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships
Payne Transport - 2 ships (+1)

[CharonJr (OP)]

1956

February: The second slipway has been completed at Simmons Enterprises and 2 Agincourts are ordered. After having guarded jump point #1 together with a Tundra fleet the 3
ship battlegroup of the Hill Tribe has returned to Polaris, leaving just 2 Tundra ships at the jump point. This leaves the Mountain Tribe high command a bit puzzled, the only
explanation coming to mind is either a refit of the ships or that something might have chanced in the system behind jump point 1. When the Agincourts are ready in January

1957 JP1 will be one of the first targets.

April: A third slipway has been added at Shah Shipbuilding. With most of the civilian ships doing nothing and Polaris II already at 18m colonists a new colony is set up at
the 6th moon of Polaris VI (4.2 col cost, no minerals).

June: The new naval shipyard - Odonnel & Co - has been completed (+1000t ordered) together with a new research lab which is assigned to Ion Drive Tech miving the completion
date to May 58. The 10% industrial capacity is reallocated to research labs.

August: Finally we got a new scientist - Oliver Fuller - but sadly he is specialised in energy weapons at 15%, just as Laura Little, but at least we are at 3 academies now,
so the chances for usefull scientists are rising.

December: Overall 100 new mines have been build at Polaris, but with only 2m available workers left the new focus will be on automated mines where the freed up 20% industrial
capacity is allocated. Research for Gauss Cannon RoF 3 is completed and with 4 labs Brooke Begum starts to research Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity 2 while the remaining lab is
given to Oliver Fuller to look into using Spinal Mounts on our ships.

At the end of 1956 Polaris population is at 567m (+10) and Polaris II at 20,7m (+3,8). 48 new construction factories were build (724) and 18 new mines (500) with production
started on new autmines (currently there are 80 of those). In addition 1 reasearch lab has been added - bringing to total to 21 - and a 3rd academy has been opened.

Scientists/projects:
Brooke Begum - MK 50%, 25 labs/4 used (unchanged) - Gauss Cannonn Velocity 2 (Jan 58)
Laura Little - EW 15%, 30 labs/5 used (unchanged) - Turret Tracking 5000 (Jul 58)
Jason Stevenson - PP15%, 30 labs/6 used (unchanged) - Ion Drive Tech (May 58)
Conor Wallis - DS 15%, 10 labs/5 used (+5 labs) - Composite Armor (Jul 58)
Oliver Fuller - EW 15%, 10 labs/1 used - Spinal Mount (Dec 69)

Civilian Shipping - still growing, despite only 4-5 ships being used on average throughout the year:
Shepherd Corp - 12 ships (+2 - 810 income)
Godfrey Lines - 10 ships (+2 - 1240 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (no income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (no income)

Wealth is pretty stable with 14.2k earned (82% pop tax) and 14k spend (58% construction).

1957

January 1957 will be a day long remembered, for the first time in history we have the means to leave our home system. And while our scientists are fairly certain the the jump itself in not dangerous (various jumps from the other tribes were observed during the last years) nobody knows what expects us on the other side of the jump point or how fsat a jump back can be made in case of danger. Due to this high command has been looking for volunteers among its 14 commanders (lt. cmd being to inexperienced for such a task while the 5 captains are too valueable). Actually all 14 commanders volunteered. In the end Alice Adams, a 25 year old rising star (1st in class at the academy, promoted to commander just 1 year after graduating) was chosen due to her unmatched initiative and 26 year old Elliot Khan who's good political connections played a large role in getting this assignment. Alice Adams takes command of the Agincourt and will head towards JP1 while Elliot Khan takes command of the Aardvark and will head to JP3.

While the crews are getting aboard their ships large fleet movements from the Hill and Tundra Tribes are seen towards JP1, with a total of 10 warships heading towards the mixed fllet of 5 ships already at JP1. Most of them seem to be missile ships with long range sensors calibrated for large ships (S120/R86). The fairly small size of the Agincourts (3.000t) might actually be an advantage here.

At 16:21 on the 21st of January Alice Adams declares the Agincourt to be ready for the jump and with the high command and even the king himself wishing her, the crew and the ship the best of luck the ship vanishes from Polaris. Just a few seconds later the Agincourt pops back into existance in new system which the computer calls London for now. Long range scanners show 9 planets, 116 asteroids and 24 comets, with some of the asteroids and comets being to to 50bn km away from the sun. As soon as the jump drive is back up the Agincourt jumps back to Polaris to relay the news and enable 3 Tribals and 1 Victory to jump into the London system to start their surveys. For her jump into the unknown Alice Adams is awarded the newly found "Order of the Explorer". From the short glimps into the London system it remains a mystery why 13 warships of the other 2 clans are crusing in the vincinity of JP1.

At the 25th of January the Aardvark follows suit and arrives in the Manchester system. Manchester consists of 6 planets, 60 asteroids and 5 comets with most of the bodies being inside of 1bn km from the sun, the only exception are 3 of the comets. After jumping back with his quick report Elliot Khan is awarded the "Order of the Explorer" as well and the 2 remaining Tribals and 1 Victory are heading towards JP3.


Ok, time to get some sleep, more to follow tomorrow...

[CharonJr (OP)]

test - hmm, getting Error 404 when trying to post the update, but "test" worked obviously.

Seems to be related to the length of the text, typical, once it gets more story like there is sabotage...

[CharonJr (OP)]

While/when the survey ships made their jumps the Agincourts will head to JP2 and JP4.

Meanwhile the Royal Society is debating if it might be possible to transfer the jump engine technology into automated permanent structures around the jump points. And even if this were the case if it is actually a good idea to do so. The other option would be to stick with mobile jump ships would would provide transport when needed, but even with just the current number of known jump points this might turn into a logistical nightmare.

Expansion of civilian shipyard Simmons Enterprises is ordered since it is felt that more and larger transports will be needed in the near future.

At the 30th of January the Agincourt entered JP2 and arrived in the Liverpool system. Liverpool is a binary system with 7 planets - 2 dwarf planets and the other 5 gas giants/super jovian - all in orbits around Liverpool A as is Liverpool B, roughly 30bn km away. In addition to the planets and theirs moons there are 35 asteroids and 5 comets. But most importantly to Commander Adams the long range scanners pick up wrecks of unknown origin - 19.300t and 9650t - between the orbits of Liverpool A I and A II, about 5bn km from the Polaris jump point. After jumping back and reporting her findings the Liverpool system is declared off-limits for now by the high command. Only a recon in force seems appropriate under those circumstances and the navy is years away from being able to field such a force. In the Royal Society those wrecks - and the potential hostile forces that destroyed those ships - are helping the no jump gate faction. But after the civilian shipping lines made it clear that they would not use any ship based jump gates it became clear that jump gates would be the only option. In addition a way has to be found to investigate those wrecks and salvage any usefull components from them. Agincourt moves on to JP5.

JP5 leads to another binary system, Stevenage, with Stevenage B in a 700bn km orbit around Stevenage A. Stevenage A has 4 planets - 3 terrestial and 1 outer gas giant - and 5 comets while B has 6 planets - 4 inner gas giants/super jovians and 2 outer dwarf planets - in addition to 65 asteriods. After making here report about the Stevenage system Commander Adams continues to JP6.

At the 3rd of March the Commander Khan's Aardvark transited JP4 and a couple of seconds later arrived in the Edinburgh system. Edinburgh has a single star and 9 planets, 5 of them gas giants/super jovians, 2 terrestrial plants and 2 dwarf planets in addition to 40 asteriods and 5 comets, the 9th planets has an orbit of about 4.4bn km from the sun. Further details will only be available once survey ships have been able to take a closer look. The Aardvark returns to Manchester to provide fuel and a means of communication with Polaris for the survey ships.

At the 15th of March the Agincourt transited JP6 and arrived in the Glasgow system, again a huge binary with Glasgow B's orbit around 25bn km away from Glasgow A. There are 6 planets around Glasgow A, 5 inner terrestial and 1 outer dwarf in addition to 5 comets. There are only 3 moons in orbit around the planets with the outermost dwarf having a distance of around 1.2bn km from the sun. After heading back to Polaris and making her report Commander Adams returns to London to support the survey ships there.

[CharonJr (OP)]

When the Aardvark arrived back in Manchester the first survey reports are transfered and relayed to Polaris. The 6th moon of Manchester A II might make a decent colony in the future, it has no atmosphere and with -74° and a gravity of 0.26 it is far from ideal, but still better suited than both Polaris colonies. And while there are no minerals to be found on the moon itself Manchester A I has 6mt of Soruim at 90% accessability and the 3rd moon of Manchester A II has 1.3mt of 80% Duranium in addition to 300kt+ of Corbomite, Vendarite and Corundium each at 50%+ accessability and at the moment less than 25% of the bodies have been surveyed.

April: Odonnel&Co naval yard has finished its upgrade to 2.000t and another upgrade to 3.000t is ordered in addition to a 4th slipway for the Shah Shipbuilding naval yard.

When the Agincourt arrived back in the London system the survey ships have found some moderate sources for minerals in the meantime and no suitable colony planets yet, but a jump point has been found and after Commander Adams has send the reports to Polaris the Agincourt heads to this new jump point. While still moving to the new JP Commander Isabelle Carey reports that her crew has found a potential colony spot with the 31st moon of the super jovian London A III. This terrestial moon with a diameter of 13.2kkm, a temperature of -143, a gravity of 0.72 and a 0.52 nitrogen/methane atmosphere is a bit worse than Polaris II (and there are living 22m colonists there by now), but it has some mineral deposits, most notably 17.3mt of Tritanium at 60% accessability and 16.7mt of Venarite at 70%, most other TN elements are there at 1mt+ as well, but with accessabilities of just around 10%. A few day later Commander Carey reports large mineral deposits on neighbouring moon 30 with the most important being 3.6mt Duranium at 100% accessability. And most of the system is still unexplored at this point. High command will have to be informed as soon as possible about this find and for a moment Commander Adams considers heading back to Polaris before having taken a look at the new JP. But having additional intel about neighbouring systems will ne needed to decide how to progress with a potential colony anyway she decided to keep heading for the JP about 5.7bn km away in the 90 days it is expected to take heading there and getting back to the Polaris JP a large amount of new survey data can be expected as well.

At the 5th of June the Agincourt arrived in the Cardiff system, the smallest system encountered so far. Just 4 planets and 5 comets orbit a single sun. The outermost planet has a distance of just 128m km form the sun. There are 3 terrestial planets and one super jovian (the 3rd planet) with none of them having a moon. Commanders Adams orders to head back to the Polaris JP after this first brief scan.

July: A glaring mistake is revealed about the current ship design, a grav survey sensor broke down on one of the Victories in London, but the ship's 86 maintenance supplies are not enough to repair the grav sensory which would need 100 supplies. Despite still having one operations sensor the ship is ordered back to Polaris for repairs and potential repairs will be considered a higher priority when designing the next ships. A newly build lab is assigned to Oliver Fuller's Spinal Mount project. With available workers on Polaris down to 1.1m instead of building new automines the old mines will be converted to automines instead, thus freeing up additional workers. A 5th civilian mine is set up at Comet#4.

[CharonJr (OP)]

August: A new shipping line, Sharp Company has been established, but with most civilian ships currently being used it is unknown how they expect to make a profit.

September: Geo survey of the Manchester system has been completed (geo-ships are ordered back to Polaris), showing decent deposits of most TN elements, with the largest/most
accessible being
Duranium - 1.3mt (80%) at Manchester A II moon 3
Neutronium - 9kt (100%) at Manchester A II moon 5
Corbomite - 372kt (50%) at Manchester A II moon 3
Tritanium - 89kt (80%) at Comet#4
Boronide - 263kt (70%) at Comet#4
Mercassium - 275kt (80%) at Comet#3
Vendarite - 548kt (60%) at Manchester A II moon 3
Sorium - 6mt (90%) and 28mt (80%) at Manchester A I and A III
Uridium - 175kt (90%) at Comet#4
Corundium - 436kt (100%) at Manchester A II moon 3
Gallicite - 88kt (60%) at Comet#2

December: 2 new Agincourt class ships were completed, the Akira Kurosawa and the Andrew Foote Prescott. They will relief Agincourt and Aardvark as tankers/temporary jump gates and allow those crews some well deserved rest. 1000t have been added to the slipway of Odonnel&Co naval yard and a second slipway is ordered. A small Hill Tribe outpost was detected at Polaris A IV, most likey a couple of mines. After some rest and refuel at Polaris the 2 Tribals from Manchester are ordered to help with the Survey of the London System.

At the end of 1957 Polaris population is at 577m (+10) and Polaris II at 24,7m (+4,0). 52 new construction factories were build (776) and 6 new automines with an additional 7 mines having been converted to automines (93). 1 research lab has been added (22).

Scientists/projects:
Brooke Begum - MK 50%, 25 labs/4 used (unchanged) - just finished Gauss Cannonn Velocity 2 and started Levitated-Pit Implosion Warhead (May 59)
Laura Little - EW 15%, 35 labs/5 used (+5 labs) - Turret Tracking 5000 (Jul 58)
Jason Stevenson - PP15%, 40 labs/6 used (+10 labs) - Ion Drive Tech (May 58)
Conor Wallis - DS 15%, 10 labs/5 used (unchanged) - Composite Armor (Jul 58)
Oliver Fuller - EW 15%, 10 labs/2 used - Spinal Mount (Oct 63)

Civilian Shipping - still growing, despite only 4-5 ships being used on average throughout the year:
Shepherd Corp - 13 ships (+1 - 610 income)
Godfrey Lines - 12 ships (+2 - 1380 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (20 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (no income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (new - no income)

Wealth is starting to be an issue with 14.6k earned (+0.4, 82% pop tax) and 16k spend (56% construction, 32% research).

[CharonJr (OP)]

First of all, happy new year to everybody.

1958

January: Civilian shipyard Simmons Enterprises reached 58kt, another 10kt are to be added.

February: With Polaris II having reached a population of 25m contracts to move 20 factories there via civilian shipping are drawn up. In addition 1200 Corbomite and Uridium and 1200 Duranium, 600 Tritanium and 600 Vendarite are moved there by transports to enable building 20 additional factories and 20 financial centers which should help with the current wealth problems (more financial centers will be added in the future). Another civilian mine has been added at Comet#4, bringing the total up to 6.

The current industry at Polaris II is producing civilian transport, entertainment products, furs and machinery while Polaris is producing chemicals, consumer electronics, machinery and recreational drugs.

March: After completing repairs Victory 1 heads back to London to continue looking for jump points. When the Victory reaches grav survey location #27 the rudimentary close range scanners are suddenly reporting a contact. A unknown ship design from a unknown race with a termal signature of 252 sitting right at the survey location, making it a likely grav survey ship as well. Captain Charlie Kaur - the most junior of the 5 captains currently serving in the navy - is unsure what to do at first, but since he hopes that the grav ship is as unarmed as his own vessel he decides to start the survey after having send out all avaiable data about the unknown ship to the Agincourt class (Akira Kurosawa) waiting at the jump point.

The ship is called the Mojokassa class for now and Captain Kaur tries to establish communication. When the news reaches Polaris a new diplomacy team is formed and everybody on the king's council is anxiously waiting for any new developement in the encounter with the first extra-Polaris race. The aliens answer Captain Kaur's hail, but it become clear that some time will be needed before any real communication can be established, but at least no shots have been fired and the aliens seem to be willing to talk. The news is quickly relayed to Polaris via the Akira Kurosawa. At the 22nd the alien ship suddenly moves away from the survey point and due to the poor sensors of the Victory neither its speed nor its heading can be learned.

At Polaris there is a huge discussion if the aliens are actually living in the London system or if they live somewhere else and just exploring the system as we are doing. With all planets in London having been surveyed and no signs of intelligent life (or even any life at all) have been found it seems most likely that they are from another system as well, unless one of the still unexplored asteroids or comets turns out to be their home planet, but given their size this seems very unlikely.

May: A new jump point is found in the London system and the Argincourt heads out to investigate. Communications have been established with the aliens, they call themself the Palikir Protectorate. Jason Stvenson completed research into Ion drives and is ordered to build a 500t military prototype.

June: The new JP in London leads to the Belfast system. It contains 4 planets (3 terrestrial, 1 gas giant - all of them without any moons) and 24 comets. Belfast A IV has a 163m km orbit around its sun. Agincourt heads back to London to have its report relayed back to Polaris. With the geo survey of London nearly completed the geo ships are ordered to Belfast. Aardvark is ordered to provide a gate from the Tribals already resting at Polaris and will be used as a tanker in Belfast. Research into Composite Armor is completed by Connor Wallis and since the academies have failed to provide any new scientists his team starts to research Small Jump Gate Construction Module. A new research labs has been build and is assigned to Connor Wallis. A 4th academy has been completed as well, hopefully providing additional scientists in the near future.

July: Laura Little completed Turret Tracking Speed 5000 and since there is still no suitable scientists she starts to work at Fire Controll Speed 2000. Another JP is found in London and Akira Kurosawa heads out to investigate. Geo survey of London (inner system) has been completed (there are still about 20 asteroids/comets more than 10bn km out), showing large deposits of TN elements.

Duranium - 3.5mt (100%) at London III moon 30
Neutronium - 200kt (100%) at London IC moon 4
Corbomite - 299kt (50%) at Comet#5
Tritanium - 17.3mt (60%) at the potential colony at London III moon 31
Boronide - 1.1mt (90%) at London III moon 30
Mercassium - 1.7mt (60%) at London III moon 30
Vendarite - 16.7mt (70%) at London III moon 31
Sorium - 348kt (100%) at London IV
Uridium - 77kt (100%) at Comet#24
Corundium - 321kt (90%) at Comet#24
Gallicite - 117kt (80%) at Comet#5

But despite this mineral wealth and London III moon 31 looking like a decent colony location the presence of the Palikir Protectorate makes the King's Council unsure if the colony should be established. But since a jump gate the civilians require is still some years away there might be enough time for better intel in order to make a more informed decision.

August: Grav survey of Manchester is completed showing no other jump points, making it a very good and safe location for the first outer-Polaris colony. The Victory heads to Polaris for an overhaul.

September: Akira Kurosawa arrived in the Birmingham system, a binary with 7 planets in orbit around Birmingham A and Birmingham B - in orbit roughly 8bn km out - having no planets. Birmingham I, II, III and V are terrestrial and the other planets gas giants. There are 71 moons, 29 asteroids in 5 comets in the system as well. Once the news from the Akira is relayed back to Polaris her commander, Commander Brooke Brennan is awarded the Order of the Explorer for her first jump into the unknown.

October: Another jump point is found in London, bringing the total up to 5. In the longer term this makes the system very interesting as a stepping stone to other systems, espcially with the good supply of TN elements, but as said before, the presence of aliens is a concern. By mid October finally a new scientist gruduates from the academy, Eleanor Singh who specialises in power and propulsion and despite her young age has all the markings of a brilliant scientist (25%, 20 labs), sadly this does not help with the missing specialists for construction and sensors. She takes over the prototype engine project which should finish later this month from Jason Stevenson who gets a single lab to work on Max Engine Power Modifier x1.25. After completing the military engine prototype Eleanor starts to look into lowering fuel consumption (0..

November: Another new scientist graduated from the academy, Matthew Short who specialises in biology and genetics and has great organisational talents (30 labs), but is only a medicore scientist (10%). At the moment there are no free labs and other research priorities, but in the medium term research into better terraforming techniques will be needed.

December: Simmons Enterprises expands its 2 slipways by another 10kt to 68kt, the without knowing what the size of new civilian ships is going to be needed it will continually upgrade from now on.

At the end of 1958 Polaris population is at 589m (+12) and Polaris II at 26,8m (+2,1) and Polaris IV moon 6 at 0,5m (+0,5). 54 new construction factories were build (810) and 11 new automines with an additional 16 mines (477) having been converted to automines (110). 1 research lab (23) and 1 new academy have been added (4). 20 factories were moved to Polaris II and 1 new factory has been build (21).

Scientists/projects:
Brooke Begum - MK 55%, 35 labs/4 used (+5%, +10labs) - Levitated-Pit Implosion Warhead (Apr 59)
Laura Little - EW 20%, 35 labs/5 used (+5%) - Fire control 2000 (Dec 59)
Jason Stevenson - PP 15%, 40 labs/1 used (unchanged) - Max Engine Power Modifier (May 61)
Conor Wallis - DS 25%, 10 labs/6 used (+10%) - Small Jump Gate Module (Nov 59)
Oliver Fuller - EW 15%, 10 labs/4 used (unchanged) - Spinal Mount (Feb 61)
Eleanore Singh - PP 30%, 20 labs/3 used (new) - Fuel Consumption 0.8 (Jan 60)
Matthew Short - BG 10%, 30 labs (new)

Civilian Shipping (overall income is down from 2010 to 1690):
Shepherd Corp - 13 ships (1160 income)
Godfrey Lines - 14 ships (+2 - 500 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (20 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (10 income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (no income)

The wealth situation got slightly worse with stable income at 14.6k (84% pop tax) and 16.8k spend (+0.8k - 57% construction, 32% research).

[CharonJr (OP)]

1959

January: At the 8th of January Victory 1's long range sensors picks up energy emissions from a structure right at the unexplored jump point in the London system, but currently there is no ship at the Polaris JP to relay the news back to Polaris. Since the Agincourt class Andrew Foote Prescott is expected to arrive in London soon Captain Kaur decides to continue with his survey. Without any jump ship at the Polaris JP he would not be able to inform Polaris anyway. It seems likely that this new structure might be a jump gate similar to the one the Royal Society is working on. And possibly it is leading to the Palikir Protectorate's home system. As expected the Andrew Foote Prescott arrives a few days later and relays the news to Polaris. Commander Bates is ordered to stay at the jump point till Victory 2 has completed her overhaul and explore the jump point after the Victory has entered London. This would mean no quick communications back to Polaris till the survey of the Cardiff system is completed, but finding the Protectorate's home system seems worth the risk. And since it is theorised that a jump gate is needed at both ends of a jump point and without knowing if a gate is in place on the other side using one of the Tribals to investigate is no option.

February: During one of the daily communication jumps between London and Birmingham the Akira Kurosawa detects a Protectorate ship right at the JP in London. With a termal reading of 1500 it must be a huge ship and is called the Shiwa Nagandu class. Due to its size and position (pretty much what is expected from a gate builder) it seems likely that this ship has build the gate at the unexplored jump point is building one at the Birmingham JP now. What seems strange is that despite both other tribes having a military presence around the London JP most of the time no actual jumps have been detected for a couple of years. Maybe the unidentified wrecks found in the Liverpool system were jump ships from the other tribes and no new ones have been build.

April: Brooke Begum completed research into Levitated-Pit Implosion Warhead and is assigned 3 labs to look into Missile Agility 32, the remaining lab is assigned to Matthew Short to start research into better terraforming techniques (0.0012 atm).

May: A new research lab is completed and assigned to Eleanore Singh (fuel consumption). 2 Custer class ships from the Tundra Tribe (thermal 450, speed 2513, S120/R86) are watched jumping to London. Either those ships are jump capable themself or either the Hipper class (thermal 250, speed 1396, S70/R86) or the Prinz Eugen class (thermal 250, speed 1396, S70/R86) still sitting at the London JP in Polaris are jump ships. Victory 2 has completed her overhaul and heads to London to help with the grav survey, thus freeing up Andrew Foote Prescott to examine the unknown jump point in London as planned.

[CharonJr (OP)]

July: A new shipping Line, Doherty Transport Company, has been created and with all but 2 shipping lines already making no profits everybody is wondering why. Andrew Foote Prescott arrived in the Aberdeen system after using the unexplored London JP. Aberdeen is the first trinary system encountered, but only sun A has any planets. The inner 3 planets are terrestrial and the outer 2 gas giants. There are 23 moons, a staggering 300 asteroids and 5 comets in the system as well. The outermost gas giant has a distance of 774k km from the sun. But more importantly Commander Bates can identifiy 9 Hill Tribe wrecks of various classes on his long range scanners. While this makes it even more likely that Aberdeen is the Protectorate home system it also means that most likely the Hill Tribe and the Protectorate are at war with each other. And if Protectorate ships arrive in the Polaris system we can not be sure if we are not drawn into this war as well, despite having neutral and continually improving relations with the aliens. We will have to start a serious military fleet build-up soon, just to be prepared for the worst. After a quick jump back into London to make a report the Andrew Foote Prescott returns to Aberdeen to monitor the situation.

At least no jump ship will be needed at the London/Aberdeen JP since there is a gate at the other side as well. At the end of July the energy signature of what is now known to be a jump gate is picked up in the London system at the Birmingham JP where the huge Protectorate ship was seen earlier. We just have to hope that they will build a gate on the other side first and head for the Polaris JP when at least a couple of military ships are ready.

August: 2 additional jump points have been found in the London system, both showing the jump gate energy signature. Instead of waiting in Aberdeen Andrew Foote Prescott moves to investigate. But the placement of those gates offers a bit of hope as well, they are fairly close to the Aberdeen jump gate as is is Birmingham gate, but fairly far away from the Polaris jump point, maybe we will have a bit of time before the Protectorate arrives in Polaris. But the number of gates and the the fairly short time it took before the Birmingham gate was completed indicate that the Protectorate is either specialised in gate constuction or that they are technologically superior to us, the last being more likely. The first new gate lead to the Newcastle system, another binary, and there is a jump gate there as well. There are 5 planets around sun A and nothing around sun B. the planets are 2 terrestials and 3 gas giants with a total of 22 moons, there are 194 asteroids and 5 comets as well. Andrew Foote Prescott continues to the other new London JP. After transit Commander Bates and the crew of the Prescott arrived in the Leyland system, a small binary. Just one gas giant is in orbit around Leyland A and a single dwarf planet is in orbit around Leyland B, with B's orbit being 650m km for A. In addition there are 5 comets in the system. After this quick scan the Prescott heads back to London and the Polaris JP to finally inform high command about the latest findings, most importantly about the likely war between the aliens and the Hill Tribe.

September: Odonnel&Co naval yard completed its second slipway, adding 1000t to those slipways is ordered, bringing it up to 4000t. A 8th JP is found in the London system, but the Prescott will deliever here important news back to Polaris before checking it out. At the end of September the Prescott finally arrived back in Polaris and Commander Bates sends his report. The king immediatly orders a emergency joint session of the Royal Council, High Command and the Royal Society to discuss the distrubing news. Commander Bate is awarded the Order of the Explorer, but there are some voices in High Command who argue that he should have reported immediatly after learning that the aliens and the Hill Tribe are most likely at war.

During the emergency meeting it becomes clear quickly that despite still regarding anit-missile missiles as a waste of resources that those AMMs will be the only way to stop a potential alien attack on Polaris if the Protectorate decides to bring the war back to the Hill Tribe. With the current poor fire controls for beam weapons and lacking a sensor specialist it would just take too long to develope usefull anti-missile beam weapons against a technologically superior threat. But at the moment we are unable to even detect any enemy missiles, so a missile sensor has the highest priority for now. Research of Spinal Mounts will be paused and Oliver Fuller will use 5 labs to prototype a missile sensor which will be build by Patel&Rhodes. Due to the low sensor tech (strength 12, sensitivity 6) a 250t sensor will be needed to detect small missiles about 392k km away. It is expected that it will till early March 1960 before a working prototype is available. A missile launcher will be needed as well and Brooke Begum is ordered to pause his research into missile agility and start to work on a prototype immidiatly together with Chandler-Winter Industries. Due to the fairly basic tech involved and a AMM being fairly small a working prototype - size 1, 15sec reload - is expected in about 3 weeks. A basic magazin will have to be build afterwards (80 missiles) which should take about 3 month which should still allow enough time to develope the actual missile. And finally a missile fire control is needed and Matthew Short is ordered to pause his research into Terraforming to build a prototype. The sensor will have to be 100t and will have a slightly longer range than the actual missile sensor to allow for some potential ECM (470k km). The fire control should be completed at the end of February. Overall all needed components should be ready at the begining of March, the most likely weapon platform for the AMMs is a stationary planetary defense center, but only once all parts are available the engineers will be able to determine which platform will allow for the fastest construction.

October: Grav survey of London is completed, with 8 JPs found. Due to the Protectorates presence the survey will focus on systems right next to Polaris for now. And with the 2 unknown wrecks in Liverpool it is important to know if there are any jump points leading there. Geo survey of the Cardiff system is completed. Cardiff IV is a decent colony location with it being a terrestial planet with a temperature of -76°, 0.45 gravity and a 0.20 atmosphere with traces of Oxygen (0.01) and 0.16 Nitrogen. But there are no minerals present. The whole system barely has any minerals. After jumping back from Cardiff to London a new ship from the Shiwa Nagandu class is oberserved, most likely building another jump gate.

The geo survey of the Belfast system is completed as well - except for a couple of outer comets. Belfast IV looks like a good colony. It is a terrestial planet with a temperature of -35°, gravity of 0.40 and a thin atmosphere of 0.04 Oxygen and 0.12 Nitrogen. With a bit more of an atmosphere it would actually be a ideal colony. It even has some mninerals, most importantly a staggering 8.4mt Duranium at 80% accessability, in addition to 3.9 mt Corbomite (40%) and 2.8mt Uridium (80%). The gas giant Belfast II has 4.2mt Sorium at 80%. With the notable exception of Neutronium (no deposits) most other TN minerals can be found at average accessability. A good candidate for a colony in the future, but for not knowing its jump points yet and it being away 2 jumps from Polaris.

November: The Prescott arrived in the Lancester system. Lancester is very small, with just 1 terrestrial and 1 gas giant orbiting the sun in a max distance of 17.5m km. No moons are to be founs and there are just 5 comets. Prescott jumps back into London and heads for the Polaris JP. Sensors in London show a new jump gate at the Cardiff JP, the Protectorate really fast builders. Geo survey of the Birmingham system is about to be completed and there is a Shiwa class gate builder at the JP to London.

There are a couple of suitable colonies in Birmingham, with Birmingham III being the best. It is a terrestrial planet with a temperature of -90°, perfect gravity of 1.30, a perfect atmosphere of 1.36 Notrogen and 0.32 Oxygen. The only thing it is lacking is accessable minerals, it has huge quantities of Duranium (10.7mt), Tritanium (52.5mt) and Mercassium (24.3mt), but all at just 10%. Minerals are somewhat scares except for gigantic Sorium deposits at the gas giant Birmingham VI with 135mt at 100% and Comet#5 (currently 10bn km from the sun), which contains 56kt 100% Duranium, 73kt 50% Tritanium, 70kt 60% Boronide, 94kt 100% Mercassium, 366kt 90% Vendarite and 71kt 90% Gallicite. Overall a very interesting system, but right inside the Protectorates sphere of influence as can be seen by the jump gate under construction.

Conor Wallis completed research into Small Jump Gate Modules. The 6 labs are allocated to Jason Stevenson to help with getting a higher engine power modifier before the missile engine has to be prototyped. Eleanor Singhs team has completed research into Fuel Consumption 0.8 and starts to look into lowering it even further to 0.7, one of her 4 labs is assigned to Conor Wallis who starts to look into Ceramic Composite Armor.

December: Grav and geo survey of the Liverpool system was started. Laura Little has completed research into Fire Control Speed 2000 and continues with 3000. A new scientist graduates, Sam Harrison, the first Logistics/Ground Combat specialist (10%, 10 labs), he gets one lab from Eleanore Singh to take a look into Improved Command and Control.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Polaris
Pop: 603m (+14)
Factories: 869 (+59)
Mines/automines: 458/129 (19 converted)
Labs: 24 (+1)
Academies: 4
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 3/8000, 2/3000
Commercial yards: 2/82900

Polaris II
Pop: 27.6m (+0.
Factories: 23 (+2)
Finance Centers: 1 (+1)

Polaris VI Moon 6
Pop: 1.1m (+0.6)

Scientists/projects:
Brooke Begum - MK 55%, 35 labs/1 used (unchanged) - magazine prototype (Feb 60)
Laura Little - EW 20%, 35 labs/5 used (unchanged) - Fire control 3000 (Sep 62)
Jason Stevenson - PP 15%, 40 labs/7 used (unchanged) - Max Engine Power Modifier 1.25 (Feb 60)
Conor Wallis - DS 25%, 10 labs/1 used (unchanged) - Ceramic Composite Armor (Sep 80)
Oliver Fuller - EW 15%, 10 labs/5 used (unchanged) - Active Search Sensor R1 prototype (Mar 60)
Eleanore Singh - PP 30%, 20 labs/2 used (unchanged) - Fuel Consumption 0.7 (Jun 62)
Matthew Short - BG 10%, 30 labs/2 used (+10%) - Missile Fire Control R1 (Feb 60)
Sam Harrison - LG 10%, 10 labs/1 used (new) - Improved Command and Control (Nov 74)

Civilian Shipping (overall income slightly up from 1690 to 1850):
Shepherd Corp - 14 ships (+1 - 500 income)
Godfrey Lines - 15 ships (+1 - 1190 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (30 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (70 income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (no income)
Doherty Transport - 1 ship (60 income)

The wealth situation got slightly worse again, better income at 15.2k (+0.6 - 83% pop tax) and 17.9k spend (+1.1 - 58% construction, 32% research). With wealth reserves of 19.6k we can keep this up for a bit longer, but with the yearly deficit getting larger more financial centers are needed at Polaris II, soon. 50 additional factories and ressources for 50 additional financial centers will be moved to Polaris II.

[CharonJr (OP)]

OOC - Bloody dismissal bug took one captain and one commander, after having been replaced at their commands recently the game thinks they have been unused for 6 years+...

1960

February: Just 10 years after graduating from the academy Brooke Begum is considered the most brilliant mind in the history of the tribes at the young age of 31 years
(he is able to work 65% quicker than a average scientist and in addition he is able to potentially coordinate the work of 35 labs). Largely due to him our missile technology is
way ahead of other techs with the possible exception of engines. In recognition of his outstanding achievements he is awarded the Civilian Service Cross. Shah naval Yard
completed a 4th slipway and Jason Stevenson finished his research into Engine Power Modifier 1.25, the actualy missile engine prototype is next.

With 25% of the missile needed for the warhead and barely any fuel due to the short range and no need for advanced steering mechanism due to the still fairly poor missile
agility most of the remaining 75% of weight can be allocated to the engine. Thus a 0.74 engine with max power is designed, leading to a engine power of 1.11. With 4 lab
the engine will be completed in about 2 weeks. A few days later the missile magazine is completed. Brooke Begums starts to look into improving the Magazine Feed Efficiency to

85%. The missile engine and fire controls have been completed. Matthew Short restarts his Terraforming research with 1 lab while Jason Stevenson starts with prototyping a
new 1500t commercial engine which will be build by Anderson-Lord. 2 additional labs are allocated to Sam Harrison looking into Improved C&C. Brooke Begum interrupts his
research to prototype the new Viper I AMM, it has a speed of 22.2kkm/sec, but very poor agility, the chance to hit an enemy missile at 10kkm/sec are just 22%.

March: Research into the short range active search sensor prototype is completed. And Oliver Fuller resumes his Spinal Mount research, thus returning to his field of
expertise. 2 of the 5 labs that had been assigned to him are reallocated to Laura Little and another one to Eleanor Singh. With all components in place the new Fortress class
planetary defense base is designed and construction of 4 of those bases is started. Due to the currently low to hit chance of the Viper missiles each base will have 80 launchers,
with 1 search sensor and 2 fire control systems. The base is protected by 14 layers of Composite Armor. With 40% of our industrial capacity allocated it will take about 2 month
to build a base. 3 bases will be build on Polaris at first.

Code: [Select]

Fortress class Planetary Defence Centre    7 350 tons     264 Crew     947.8 BP      TCS 147  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 14-33     Sensors 1/60     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 80
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 240   

Chandler-Winter Size 1 Missile Launcher (80)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 15
Higgins-Alexander Missile Fire Control FC4-R1 (2)     Range 4.3m km    Resolution 1
Viper I (240)  Speed: 22 200 km/s   End: 9.3m    Range: 12.3m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 74/44/22

Patel & Rhodes Active Search Sensor MR3-R1 (1)     GPS 60     Range 3.6m km    MCR 392k km    Resolution 1

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 Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 3 sections

2 jump points have been found in the Liverpool system, but up till now no indication to the cause of the two unknown wrecks has been found. The Agincourt under newly
promoted Captain Adams is ordered to investigate the jump points. A new research lab is completed and assigned to Brooke Begum. Realtions with the Protectorate have
improved to the point where they allow us trade access. But without knowing where exactly their planet is nor having any jump gate leading out of Polaris this is a little
practical consequence at the moment. But is reinforces that without the other tribes there would be no danger for us from the aliens.

April: A Shiwa class gate builder is detected in London at the Polaris JP, now we just have to hope that hostilities will not break out before our bases are ready.
When the Agincourt jump through the first JP in Liverpool Captain Adams is surprised that she finds herself in London, since presumably all JP in London have been explored.
But after jumping back and forth serval times is seems like this is a stable jump point, bringing the total number of jump points in London up to 9. Agincourt heads to the
second new JP. And another strange thing happened, instead of combined fleets from both other tribes guarding the Polaris/London JP only the Hill Tribe remains there while
the Tundra Tribe ships have moved on to the Polaris/Manchester JP with reasons for this unknown. When Agincourt transits the JP this time she ends up in Belfast, it begins
to look like the systems are fairy well interconnected by jump points. Agincourt stays in Liverpool in case of further new JPs and as a tanker for the survey ships.

May: With the Shiwa class still constructing the jump gate to Polaris the first Fortress PDC becomes operational. In addition to the stationary Fortress it was decided that a
mobile version would be build as well, the first real military spaceship of the Mountain tribe, the Ark Royal class. Its magazines will solve the problem of bringing missiles to
planets without any ordnance factories as well since it seems that it is impossible to transport missile by normal transports. Due to its intended in-system use a Lt. Commander
is considered sufficient to command a Ark Royal.

Code: [Select]

Ark Royal class Cruiser    8 000 tons     308 Crew     1004 BP      TCS 160  TH 240  EM 0
1500 km/s     Armour 1-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 80
Maint Life 2.2 Years     MSP 157    AFR 256%    IFR 3.6%    1YR 43    5YR 652    Max Repair 60 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 2   
Magazine 480   

Pearce Limited 120 EP Ion Drive (2)    Power 120    Fuel Use 81%    Signature 120    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 210 000 Litres    Range 5.8 billion km   (45 days at full power)

Chandler-Winter Size 1 Missile Launcher (80)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 15
Higgins-Alexander Missile Fire Control FC4-R1 (2)     Range 4.3m km    Resolution 1

Patel & Rhodes Active Search Sensor MR3-R1 (1)     GPS 60     Range 3.6m km    MCR 392k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

July: Another new scientist, but still no construction or sensor specialist - Thomas Poole has some skill in logistics/ground combat (10%) and is able to use 15 labs.
Geo survey of the Edinburg system has been started. Jason Stevenson completed the commercial ion engine prototype, he starts to look into Max Engine Power Modifier x1.50,
Thomas Poole is given 1 lab to look into Salvage Modules which look very useful with the wrecks found. The new engines are used to design a gate builder of our own, the
Charon class. Simmons Enterprises is ordered to build 2 Charons.

Code: [Select]

Charon class Construction Ship    32 500 tons     100 Crew     1059.4 BP      TCS 650  TH 720  EM 0
1107 km/s     Armour 1-90     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 20    Max Repair 45 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months    Spare Berths 2   
Jump Gate Construction Ship: 360 days

Anderson-Lord 180 EP Commercial Ion Drive (4)    Power 180    Fuel Use 9.9%    Signature 180    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 430 000 Litres    Range 24.0 billion km   (251 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Geo survey of Liverpool is completed. The most habitable planet is Liverpool III, a terrestial with a temperature of -123°, gravity of 0.70 and Nitrogen/methane/Neon
atmosphere of 0.49. Some work would be needed to make it habitable and it is lacking any minerals. The system has hardly any minerals at all, the most notable exception
being 9.7mt of 60% Sorium at the gas giant Liverpool-A II.

August: A 4th JP is found in Liverpool and Agincourt moves to investigate. A second Fortress became operational. Agincourt arrived in the York system, which contains
only 1 terrestrial planet and 5 comets. The planet has a orbit of 492m km. Agincourt heads back to Liverpool. At the 27th new jump gates appear at the London/Belfast and the
London/Polaris JP, Prescott jumps to Polaris to observe the other tribes reactions to the likely arrival of the Protectorate's Shiwa class and report the new gates. There are
currently no other ships at the Polaris/London JP while the Polaris/Manchester JP is guarded by 2 Hill Tribe ships. For now the other tribes show no interest in the Shiwa.

September: With the 3 Fortress PDCs completed 3 pre-fab versions are ordered in addition to another commercial shipyard. The Shiwa has been unmolested so far,
either they are  at peace now or a free jump gate is being seen as important enough not too interfere for now. Or there never actually was any war between the Protectorate
and the Hill Tribe and another unknown race destroyed those Hill ships in Aberdeen.

October: The next scientist - Bethany Fleming, missiles/kinetic weapons 10%, 20 labs max. The Odonnel&Co naval slipways have been expanded to 4000t. And by combined
efforts of our scientists and intelligence service in observering their ships we were able to learn about Max Engine Power Modifier x1.5 from the Palikir Protectorate. Jason Stevenson
starts to look at the other side of the spectrum - Minimum Engine Power Modifier x0.4 and Bethany Fleming continues the interrupted research into Missile Agility 32.

December: At the 24th a Longsword-J of the Hill Tribe with active sensors heads towards the Polaris/London JP where the Shiwa is still trying to build a jump gate. We only
know of a single Longsword-J in service of the Hill Tribe, it has a mass of 9650t, a thermal signature of 200 and is using S96/R85 active sensors with a range of 82mkm, making it
a likely missile ship. Its observed max speed is 1035km/sec. It seems like the Longsword jumped to London, but due to our poor sensors we can not be sure, maybe they just
deactivated their active sensors. But at least no shots have been fired at the Shiwa.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Polaris
Pop: 617m (+14)
Factories: 854 (-15 due to 50 having been moved to Polaris II)
Mines/automines: 446/141 (12 converted)
Labs: 25 (+1)
Academies: 5 (+1)
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 3/8000 (+1/0), 2/4000 (0/+1000)
Commercial yards: 2/82900 (0/+8500)
Thermal: 15.6k (Hill Tribe 17.4, Tundra Tribe 16.9)
EM: 44.4k (Hill Tribe 47.6, Tundra Tribe 47.0)

Polaris II
Pop: 25.6m (-2.0)
Factories: 78 (+55)
Finance Centers: 5 (+4)

Polaris VI Moon 6
Pop: 5.8m (+4.7)

Scientists/projects:
Brooke Begum - MK 65%, 40 labs/5 used (+10%, +5 labs) - Magazine Feed Efficiency 85% (Jan 61)
Eleanore Singh - PP 30%, 20 labs/3 used (unchanged) - Fuel Consumption 0.7 (Jun 62)
Matthew Short - BG 25%, 30 labs/1 used (+15%) - Terraforming 0.0012 atm (Feb 66)
Conor Wallis - DS 25%, 15 labs/1 used (+5 labs) - Ceramic Composite Armor (Sep 80)
Laura Little - EW 20%, 40 labs/7 used (+5 labs) - Fire control 3000 (Jan 62)
Oliver Fuller - EW 15%, 10 labs/2 used (unchanged) - Spinal Mount (Nov 62)
Sam Harrison - LG 15%, 10 labs/3 used (+5%) - Improved Command and Control (Jul 64)
Jason Stevenson - PP 15%, 40 labs/1 used (unchanged) - Min Engine Power Modifier 0.40 (Jun 63)
Bethany Fleming - MK 10%, 20 labs/1 used (new) - Missile Agility 32 (Dec 63)
Thomas Poole - LG 10%, 20 labs/1 used (new) - Salvage Module 500 (Jun 75)

Civilian Shipping (huge jump in income, mainly due to Polaris VI Moon 6 - 1850 to 5845):
Godfrey Lines - 20 ships (+5 - 3040 income)
Shepherd Corp - 17 ships (+3 - 1775 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (160 income)
Doherty Transport - 1 ship (560 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (155 income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (155 income)

Wealth continues to take a dive, but the gap got smaller. Income at 19.2k (+4.0 - 66% pop tax) and 20.4k spend (+2.5 - 52% construction, 29% research).
Wealth reserves are at 18.4k.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1961

January: Brooke Begum completed research into Magazine Feed Efficiency 85% and continues with Reduced Sized Launcher 75%. Sam Harrison and Eleanor Singh are assigned 1 new
lab each.

February: The Shiwa class has completed the Polaris/London gate, it took just about 5.5 month, indicating they the Protectorate is in posession of Gate 180 technology. 4 Hill
Tribe combat ships and 14 Bismarck class ships from the Tundra Tribe (likely transports - 20150t, 773km/sec speed) are moving towards the new gate to London. Learning where
the transports are heading should be interesting. The Prescott is ordered to follow them once they reach the gate, but fails to follow them through the gate due to being
unable to tell the exact time of the jump and its basic sensors failing to pick them up again in London. Prescott heads back to Polaris to report new gates at the Lancester
and Belfast JPs, making colonisation in Belfast-A IV with is huge Duranium deposits and fairly easy terraforming a possible move. 2 transports are ordered to load some
infrastructure from Polaris II and a colony ship starts to load colonists. One they are ready they will head to Belfast IV to establish a colony there. In addition we offer
contracts for moving 100 infrastructure form Polaris II to Belfast IV, but are not sure if the civilian lines will take them. With a small Godfrey freighter heading from
Polaris II towards the London JP it looks like it. Another contract is offer for bringing 100 infrastructure to London III Moon 31 in preparation for another colony at this
major hub system.

5 Von Roeder class ships of the Thunda Tribe head towards the gate as well, with a tonnage of 32850t and a speed of 474km/sec those might be colony ships, with their lower
number making this more likely than the Bismarcks being colony ships. Prescott is ordered to try to follow those, but fails to pick up their signatures after transit.

March: Grav survey of Liverpool has been completed, 4 jump points have been found.

April: When jumoing into Belfast there is a Shiwa class which has build a gate. Trying to find the Protectorate homeworld became a priority in order to allow additional trade
which should be a huge boost to wealth. Tribals are send to Aberdeen with the Agincourt to be used as a tanker.

May: Brooke Begum completed research into Reduced Size Launcher 75% and continues with 50%.

June: The frist extra-Polaris colony has been established at Belfast IV, but since the colony ships is lacking the fuel to head back to Polaris it is stranded there for the
moment. It is largely hoped, that the abundant civilian ships play a major role in getting new colonies up and running anyway after they have been established. With a couple
of Hill Tribe wrecks in the orbit of Aberdeen III it looks like a good location for the alien homeworld, one of the Tribals is send there.

With Tribal 1 getting within 80mkm of Aberdeen III suddenly 2 warships appear on its sensors, but they are not from the Protectorate, but rather an new alien race, likely
living in Aberdeen. Both ships are using what appears to be S196/R92 active sensors. Commander Andrew Hanson at the Tribal 1 orders all engines stopped and tries to establish
communications. He feverently hopes tries to avoid anything that might provoke the Aberdeen aliens who seem to react poorly to provocations as can been seen by the numerous
Hill Tribe wrecks. As the most senior commander in system Isabelle Carvey - commanding Tribal 2 - orders all other ships to finish their current assignments and then head
back to London JP. The aliens ships are observed to be moving at a speed of 4475km/sec, roughly twice what the Tribals are capable of. 10 minutes after trying to establish
communications Tribal 1 is hit by 7 small missiles, all ships are ordered to cease whatever they are doing and head to the jump point right now, it seems that we found an
enemy here and not all alien races are as peacefull as the Protectorate. Agincourt makes a quick jump back to London to have this news relayed to Polaris. 8 minutes later
Tribal 1 is struck by another 7 missiles, so far the ship is holding up, but Commander Hanson is killed when a missiles hits the bridge. The next wave of missiles destroys
the engine and the crew abandons the ship. 24 crew make it to the life pots, 18 have been killed. Only hours after the destruction of the Tribal the emissions from the life
pods ceased. The crews of the other Tribals have mixed feelings about this, on the hand heand it means that their fellow crewmen have been most likely rescued from certain
death, on the other hand it means that they have been captured by an aggressive alien race. The remaining Tribals continue to race towards the jump point at full speed,
hoping that their fairly small size will keep the aliens from picking them up on their sensors.

When High Command learned about what happened in Aberdeen there was another emergency meeting, but it was realised fairly quickly that other that avoiding the Aberdeen system
and trying to establish communications there is nothing that can be sone for now. The proximity of the Aberdeen/London JP to London III is of huge concern.
The first 4 Ark Royals should be completed in about 1 year, but with the speed the Aberdeen aliens showed even the Viper I AMM would only have a chance of about 50% to hit those ships, not
to even start to think about their missiles. Despite this loss finding the Protectorate hoemworld is still a high priority and considering the collected data and having
survey a couple of systems already it seems possible that the homeworld in in the Newcastle system. The remaining Tribals and the Agincourt are send there. Despite no obvious
Protectorate wrecks maybe they are at war with the aggressive Aberdeen aliens themself or maybe they are willing to help fighting against them.
All ships made it out of Aberdeen without further losses.

Tribal 3 is in the Stevenage system heading towards Stevenage A when the scanners suddenly detect 163 termal contacts with a strength of 160. Right after the detection the
aliens suddenly open fire and Tribal 3 is stuck by energy weapons. Just 5 hits for 5 damage are taken in and Commander Roberts full flank speed back to the jump point. 5
seconds later another 5 energy beams hit the Tribal, bypassing all armor and destroying the ship. 14 survivors make it to the life pods in time. The Prescott flees back to
Polaris and makes a report, luckily there is no jump gates, so Polaris should be save for now, but 163 ships whose weapons can not be stopped by armor and are moving at
10000km/sec are the largest threat yet faced by the Mountain Tribe. We are trying to establish communications with those aliens as well. It begins to look like aggressive
aliens are the norm and the peaceful Protectorate are an exception. Stevenage is declared off-limits until either peaceful communication can be established or a way has been
found to deal with the mass of alien ships there.

July: A small Tundra Tribe colony is discovered at Newcastle III. With its temperature of 90°, gravity of 1.17 and 1.29 atmoshere it looks like a good terraform candidate,
about 0.30 Methane and Sulphur Dioxiode would have to be removed first and some Oxygen and Greenhouse Gases added, but then it would be perfect. The only drawback is that
except for large quantities of Sorium - 122mt at 80% - no other TN minerals have been detected, but with the large number of moons and asteroids in Newcastle it seems very
likely that the other minerals can be found in system as well. A contract is put up for transporting 100 infrastructure from Polaris II to Newcastle III, thus establishing a
colony of our own there as well. Even in the unlikely case that no other minerals are found it will be a good refueling station.

August: Communication attempts with the Stevenage aliens, now called Swarm due to their large number of ships - are stopped since not even a single signal has been received
from them. In contrast the Aberdeen aliens have tried to establish communication with us, but it seems impossible to find any way to talk to each other, no further attempts
will be made.

September: With all planets and moons in Newcastle surveyed it seems unlikely that this is the Protectorate home system due to not finding any form of life except for the
Tundra colony - and no minerals except for more Sorium as well. It seems likely now that the homeworld is more than 1 jump away from London, so further grav survey will be
needed. With better sensors and faster ships just allowing them to trade with us and then simply following their ships might work as well, but further research is needed
before we are able to try this. With the 3 pre-fab Fortresses completed they are shipped to Polaris II.

October: After completing her overhaul Victory 2 heads to Newcastle to look for jump points. With the 6th academy completed the freed up capacity is allocated to additional
labs, if we are to have any chance against those aliens better tech is the key.

November: 3 Protectorate ships are detected at the London JP in Polaris, the computer assigns them the class name of Calumba, at the moment nothing is known except their
thermal of 750 which indicates medium to large ships. The Calumbas start to head towards Polaris and with a speed of 1142km/sec they look like freighters. 3 additional
Calumbas appear at the at the same JP a few minutes after the first, moving towards Polaris, too. It seems like another Tribe opened up trade with the Protectorate. We will
try to follow those ships back to their homeworld once they leave, but without any better sensors it seem unlikely that we will be able to succeed.

December: Research into Reduced Sized Launcher 50% was completed, Brooke Begum starts to look into Reduced Launcher Size 33%. Since we need better sensors to follow the
transports Matthew Short interrupts his Terraforming research to prototype a 300t R500 search sensor, it will have a range of about 96mkm. As expected earlier following the
Protectorate freighters had failed.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Polaris
Pop: 631m (+14)
Factories: 894 (+50)
Mines/automines: 436/151 (10 converted)
Labs: 27 (+2)
Academies: 6 (+1)
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/8000 (+1/0), 2/4000
Commercial yards: 2/91400 (0/+8500)

Polaris II
Pop: 27.8m (+2.2)
Factories: 82 (+4)
Finance Centers: 10 (+5)

Polaris VI Moon 6
Pop: 6.5m (+0.7)

Scientists/projects:
Brooke Begum - MK 65%, 40 labs/3 used (unchanged) - Reduced Size Launcher 33% (Feb 63)
Eleanore Singh - PP 30%, 20 labs/4 used (unchanged) - Fuel Consumption 0.7 (Feb 62)
Matthew Short - BG 25%, 30 labs/5 used (unchanged) - sensor prototype (Jun 62)
Conor Wallis - DS 25%, 15 labs/1 used (unchanged) - Ceramic Composite Armor (Sep 80)
Laura Little - EW 20%, 40 labs/5 used (unchanged) - Fire control 3000 (Jan 62)
Oliver Fuller - EW 15%, 10 labs/2 used (unchanged) - Spinal Mount (Nov 62)
Sam Harrison - LG 15%, 10 labs/3 used (unchanged) - Improved Command and Control (Mar 64)
Jason Stevenson - PP 15%, 40 labs/1 used (unchanged) - Min Engine Power Modifier 0.40 (May 63)
Bethany Fleming - MK 10%, 20 labs/1 used (unchanged) - Missile Agility 32 (Dec 63)
Thomas Poole - LG 10%, 25 labs/2 used (+5 labs) - Salvage Module 500 (Aug 68)

Civilian Shipping (income went down from 5845 to 2920):
Godfrey Lines - 22 ships (+2 - 1870 income)
Shepherd Corp - 18 ships (+1 - 890 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (40 income)
Doherty Transport - 2 ship (+1 90 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (10 income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (20 income)

Wealth continues to take a dive, gap got larger again due to less shipping/trade tax. Income at 17.4k (-1.8 - 79% pop tax) and 22.5k spend (+2.1 - 51% construction, 28%
research). Wealth reserves are at 13.2k.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1962

January: Research into Fire Control Speed 3000 is completed, without any sensor specialists Lura Little takes over Spinal Mount
research while Oliver Fuller starts to develope a point blank beam fire control with a tracking speed of 12kkm to be build by
Gordon&Gray taking less than 2 weeks. Afterwards Bethany Fleming the labs to design a prototype gauss cannon with a rate of
fire of 3 and a range of 20kkm which will be build by Doyle Systems. A new commercial shipyard was completed and construction
of a new naval shipyard has been started. The first Fortress PDC became operational at Polaris II.

February: Research into Fuel Consumption 0.7 completed, Eleanor Singh starts to look into Max Power Modifier x1.75 with 3 labs,
the remaining lab is assigned to Matthew Short to continue looking into Terraforming while Oliver Fuller replaces him with the
sensor prototype research.

March: Geo survey of Newcastle has been completed, overall a big disappointment, there are about 10k of each mineral scattered
across all the asteroids, making it very hard to set up any decent mining operation. So Newcastlers main value will be as a
refueling station.

April: Gauss cannon research completed, next up is a turret for the cannon. A quad turret is going to be build since what we
are lacking in high tracking speed should be made up by the the number of projectiles from a quad turret. The turret itself
weights nearly as much as a single cannon, so overall weight is a bit below 1500t. For the turret Bethany Fleming and Oliver
Fuller switch projects so that at least Oliver Fullers expertise can be used on the turret while we are still lacking any
sensor specialist so it does not matter if a EW or a BG specialist tries to finish the sensor prototype.

May: With Polaris starting to run out of workers and wealth further in decline another 50 factories are contratec to be moved
to Polaris II with minerals for another 50 financial centers. The 4 Ark Royals have been build and a new taskgroup is formed
under the command of Captain Kai Daniels. The newly found Homefleet starts task force training immediatly.

June: Prototype R500 sensor completed, Bethany Fleming takes 3 labs to continue looking into Missile Agility 32 while the other
2 are allocated to Salvage Module 500 and Improved C&C. The new sensor gets incorporated in a improved Victory design, which
will have dual roles. It can survey grav points as the previos Victory, but in addition it is able to detect and follow large
ships up to a range of 96mkm. 2 are ordered from Odonnel&Co. and should be completed in about 1 year.

Code: [Select]

Victory Mk2 class Gravitational Survey Vessel    3 000 tons     62 Crew     440.5 BP      TCS 60  TH 180  EM 0
3000 km/s     Armour 1-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/2/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 0
Maint Life 4.24 Years     MSP 184    AFR 36%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 16    5YR 246    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 48 months    Spare Berths 1   

Anderson-Lord 180 EP Commercial Ion Drive (1)    Power 180    Fuel Use 9.9%    Signature 180    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 130 000 Litres    Range 78.8 billion km   (303 days at full power)

Mellor-Harding Limited Active Search Sensor MR96-R500 (1)     GPS 36000     Range 96.6m km    Resolution 500
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

August: Shah naval yard added 1000t to its slipways who are at 900 now, another expansion by 1000t is ordered. We got some
readings about the other tribes population again, Tundra 17.7k thermal, 49k EM, Hill 18.2k thermal, 49.5 EM, we are at 16.3k
thermal and 46.2 EM on Polaris itself.

September: The 2 Charon class gate builders are completed, Charon is sent to the Manchester JP and Styx to the Liverpool JP.

October: Research into Spinal Mounts completed, now we need some beam weapons for them, Laura Little starts to look into
Visible Light Lasers. A new jump point was found in the Edinburgh system and the Akira Kurosawa moves to take a look.

November: Research into Reduzed Size Launcher 33% completed, Brooke Begum continues with 25%. Gould Dockyard naval yard
completed, an additional slipway is ordered and a new naval yard is under construction. Akira Kurosawa arrived in the Swansea
system, a binary without any additional bodies.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Polaris
Pop: 646m (+15)
Factories: 888 (-6, 50 moved to Polaris II)
Mines/automines: 436/151 (10 converted)
Labs: 29 (+2)
Academies: 6
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/9000 (0/+1000), 2/4000, +1/+1000
Commercial yards: 2/91400, +1/+23800

Polaris II
Pop: 28.0m (+0.2)
Factories: 136 (+54)
Finance Centers: 18 (+8)

Polaris VI Moon 6
Pop: 7.2m (+0.7)

Scientists/projects:
Brooke Begum - MK 65%, 40 labs/4 used (unchanged) - Reduced Size Launcher 25% (Aug 64)
Eleanore Singh - PP 30%, 20 labs/4 used (unchanged) - Max Engine Power x1.75 (Mar 64)
Matthew Short - BG 30%, 35 labs/1 used (+5%, +5 labs) - Terraforming 0.0012 atm (Dec 65)
Conor Wallis - DS 25%, 15 labs/1 used (unchanged) - Ceramic Composite Armor (Sep 80)
Laura Little - EW 20%, 50 labs/2 used (+10 labs) - Visible Light Laser (Feb 65)
Bethany Fleming - MK 20%, 20 labs/3 used (+10%) - Missile Agility 32 (Feb 63)
Sam Harrison - LG 20%, 10 labs/5 used (+5%) - Improved Command and Control (May 63)
Oliver Fuller - EW 15%, 10 labs/4 used (unchanged) - quad gauss cannon turret prototype ((May 63)
Jason Stevenson - PP 15%, 40 labs/1 used (unchanged) - Min Engine Power x0.40 (May 63)
Thomas Poole - LG 10%, 25 labs/4 used (unchanged) - Salvage Module 500 (Jun 65)

Civilian Shipping (income went down from 2920 to 2170):
Godfrey Lines - 23 ships (+1 - 1170 income)
Shepherd Corp - 19 ships (+1 - 785 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (10 income)
Doherty Transport - 2 ships (80 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (30 income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (25 income)

With less civilian shipping wealth keeps going down, the trickle of new financial centers is not enough to compensate. Income
at 17.1k (-0.3) and 22.6k spend (+0.1). Wealth reserves are at 7.9k. Opening up trade with the Protectorate might help here,
but we want to have ships able of following the transports back to their homeworld first.