This new campaign is going to be a little weird because I am going to redo an old campaign. One of my favourite test campaigns was the Preservation campaign where I ran a late 19th Century British Empire in space. This will be an expanded version of that campaign with a little more detail. Several large chunks of the early part of the campaign are going to be very familiar but I didn't want to change it much because it was the style of this campaign that appealed to me. I am also going into greater detail than usual because we have a lot of new players and I hope this campaign will help explain some of the concepts within Aurora. By the way, all the Williams are real! (you'll see what I mean).
Preservation II Campaign
Prelude
Ny-Ghrr waddled along the outer cloister of the Temple of Omnipotence, his ponderous bulk swaying from side to side. As usual, he was late for his weekly audience with the High Keeper and Mu-Thron was not known for his tolerance of tardiness. Why the High Keeper had forbidden teleportation within the Temple was a mystery to Ny-Ghrr but as far as he was concerned, if the Seven Gods had meant for him to walk, they would have given him stronger ambulatory appendages. By the time he finally arrived in the great hall, he was flustered and exhausted in equal measure and cowered under Mu-Thron?s stern visage.
"I see you have finally graced me with your presence Ny-Ghrr. I assume this is because you worked throughout the night on producing a most impressive report on the primitive planet on the outer edge of the Dygarh Spiral Arm?" Mu-Thron's tertiary auditory sensors leaned forward to lend an unmistakable degree of sarcasm to his question.
"It is as you say, Exalted One", replied Ny-Ghrr, cringing at the foot of the steps leading up to the High Keeper?s throne and hoping Mu-Thron would not ask to see the report that consisted of three sheets of parchment and constituted a hurried ten minutes work. "I am happy to provide a verbal summary if you so desire"
"No doubt I would be bored into hibernation by the time I read your report anyway, if it is as exciting as the previous ones. Present your summary."
"The planet has a single, laterally symmetrical, bipedal species that could be classed as fully sentient although they have very limited technology. There is evidence of cultural activity such as art, basic musical composition and some diversity of architecture."
"Any sign of militancy or violent behaviour?"
Ny-Ghrr paused for a moment, well aware that his few minutes of study could not provide conclusive proof of the non-violent behaviour that was a pre-requisite for species preservation but also conscious that reporting such a lack of knowledge would reveal his laziness to Mu-Thron. A very unpleasant prospect. Besides, he hadn't seen anything suspicious in the few holographic images from the remote space-time viewer that he had bothered to examine closely.
"No, Exalted One, they appear to be a very peaceful race"
"Very well. They seem to meet the necessary requirements and I have no wish to spend any more time on this distraction. When will their extinction take place"
"Three days Exalted One?"
"And they do not know of their impending demise"
"Their sensory devices are most limited and they will only realise a black hole is moving through their system in the hours before their planet is torn apart by gravitational flux."
Mu-Thron lifted his sceptre and adopted a bored expression "Junior Keeper Ny-Ghrr, you are hereby instructed to carry out a Preservation Order on species 7392."
Ny-Ghrr bowed. ?Thank you Exalted One. Should I include temporal preservation??
"If you wish. Now begone, I have important matters to attend to."
Ny-Ghrr waddled away backwards, bowing until he reached the archway to the inner cloister.
Back in his office and floating in his anti-gravity field, Ny-Ghrr quickly reviewed his data on the planet in question. According to regulations, his duty was to carry out a thorough examination of species 7392 and select samples of its most highly developed cultural societies for preservation. However, he had agreed to meet Cha-Yurr, a most attractive female, before the setting of the second moon and his already limited chance of visiting her hibernation chamber would be reduced to zero if he was late again. As the preservation order was for a primitive species anyway, he instructed his office AI to run a temporal search for dominant societies throughout the history of the planet and to preserve a section of each. As there was no evidence of violence, albeit from a very limited sample, the dominant societies would surely be those that were culturally the most sophisticated. To avoid the problems usually associated with bringing together societies with different temporal coordinates, all the samples would be sent to different planets within a remote galaxy and provided with sufficient resources to maintain their society. His task complete Ny-Ghrr activated the teleporter and arrived in Cha-Yurr's living quarters on time. A most remarkable achievement for the Junior Keeper.
However, in his hurry, Ny-Ghrr forgot to add the necessary parameters for the type of resources to be provided to the preserved societies. The AI therefore fell back on the default package of assistance for a newly preserved society. Each society would be provided with a suitable number of factories, mines and shipyards, based on their population, to allow them to exploit the trans-dimensional elements within the planetary cores. The AI interfaced with the telepathic scanner on the remote space-time viewer to investigate the mental processes of species 7392 and quickly realised their primitive science had insufficient knowledge to make full use of the default assistance package. As part of the AI's base programming was to make things happen as smoothly as possible, as the preservation process took place, it painlessly added to every member of the preserved societies the skills required to operate their new facilities as well as the understanding of the science behind them. Once they awoke in their new home, they would be ready to expand their culture throughout a new galaxy. Where the new planets had environments that did not quite match the homeworld of species 7393, the AI modified the DNA of each society to cope with higher gravity, lower temperatures, etc. The AI did notice that this particular species had a far more violent history than any other preserved species but Ny-Ghrr had not set any restrictions so the AI proceeded as instructed. As each preserved society was installed on its new planet, the AI recorded the name by which each society referred to itself and its temporal coordinates in the local calendar, so that Ny-Ghrr could review them later.
Preserved Society #1: British Empire 1889
Author?s note:
Although the British Empire of the late nineteenth century used the imperial system for weights and measures and used the Fahrenheit scale for temperatures, Aurora defaults to the metric system so I will convert everything as required.
1st January 1890
It is a year since the Transference. Whether it was a miracle or the devil?s work, no one knows but we have come to accept our new fate and now we will spread the peace and justice of Britannia to the stars. Queen Victoria has asked me, as Royal Historian, to provide an official chronicle of these strange events. To ensure a complete record, I am being given unrestricted access to both Admiralty House and Government House and the Astronomer Royal has begun giving me a crash course in astronomy; and may I just note here for the record that is he is an intolerant teacher.
In the course of a single night in the autumn of 1889, the entire population of the Empire was swept up from the face of the Earth and deposited on this new world with its unfamiliar sky. Natives of the British Isles, Australians, Canadians, Sikhs, Gurkhas, New Zealanders, Baluchis, Pujabis, Marathas, Rajputs, South Africans and inhabitants of a myriad of islands across the globe, all woke up in this extraordinary land and all seemed to possess new knowledge, allowing them to operate the plethora of wondrous machines that covered the landscape. It took weeks for the various groups to link up and a census to be taken, although the communication devices discovered in our new home, that make the recently invented telephones appear no more than tin cans tied with string, assisted greatly in re-establishing the political structure of the Empire. A few small groups expressed their wish to remain apart from the Empire, violently in some cases, but all of them have been returned to the fold, both for their long term welfare and their protection.
Although Great Britain leads the world in industrial output, the innumerable factories of our sceptered isle pale into insignificance compared to the industrial marvels of this planet. Colossal mining complexes, several of them completely automated, that draw new minerals from the very heart of this new Earth, enormous factory complexes that can build all manner of new installations and munitions, including some for which we have yet to determine a purpose, shipyards that construct ships to sail in the heavens rather than the sea, refineries that convert one of the new minerals into fuel for those space-going ships and even an array of stupendously well-equipped research facilities to enable our scientists to develop even more astounding technologies.
With the drive and invention that built a world-spanning Empire, British scientists and engineers quickly grasped the purpose of almost all of these installations, albeit helped by the new knowledge that had somehow found its way into their memories, and our political leaders organized the necessary population to operate them. Many people fell back into their old occupations such as farming, shop-keeping or banking as even this new world requires food production and service industries, although the methods involved are a world away from what they once were.
The study of the new minerals by our geologists and physicists has revealed several startling properties that defy the physical laws set down by the world-renowned British scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, They will enable space-going ships to move far more quickly and with far more manoeuvrability than our scientists could ever have conceived before the Transference. Therefore they have become collectively known as Trans-Newtonian Elements or TNEs.
The Astronomer Royal, Sir William Christie, was as excited as a young child on Christmas morning when he found the extent and capabilities of the available astronomical equipment. Together with his team, he has mapped the new night sky and begun studying the solar system in which we are located, now officially named Britannia. Our sun is an orange star, smaller than Sol and only a third as bright. However our new planet, Victoria, orbits at a distance of 110 million kilometers, approximately seventy percent of the distance from Earth to the Sun, resulting in an average surface temperature of twenty-four degrees, marginally greater than Earth. Victoria is the fourth planet from our new sun and is similar in size to Earth, with almost identical gravity, and has a single tiny moon that is visible only as a small speck in the sky. Unlike our original solar system, Britannia is a binary system with a dim, red star orbiting at about the distance of Pluto. The primary star has eight planets, including Victoria, six rocky planets and a single gas giant. The innermost planet, Hephaestus, is a tiny version of Mercury, small, airless and scorching hot, while the second, Hades, is similar to Venus but on a much grander scale. At 29,000 kilometers in diameter, the planet is more than twice the size of Victoria and a man stood on the surface would weight three times his normal weight. According to Sir William, he would only suffer the increased weight momentarily before he was crushed by the atmospheric pressure or incinerated by the temperature. Hades is well named.
The third planet is Poseidon, a gas giant one hundred thousand kilometers in diameter. Unlike the gas giants in the solar system, Poseidon has no moons. Sir William has explained this is because it is tidelocked to the star, which apparently means the planet rotates only once as it orbits the star and it?s day is as long as its year, which sounds rather odd. The fifth planet, Ares, is similar in size to Mars and has a very thin oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and a temperature of -65C. The three outer planets of the primary, Hestia, Hera and Nyx, are unremarkable iceballs. Eight planets also orbit Britannia-B. Tartarus and Erebus are Venusian worlds, smaller than Hades but just as hostile, while Dionysus, Demeter and Hermes are gas giants with over seventy moons between them. Morpheus and Charon are frozen, barren wastelands. The jewel of Britannia-B is Athena, the second planet. While not as immediately habitable as Victoria, Athena has a breathable atmosphere, acceptable gravity and a temperature of ?9C. I am sure some of our Scottish subjects would find it positively balmy. We will just need to ship in some protected housing and a substantial supply of haggis.
Included among the industrial marvels of Victoria are six extensive shipyard facilities with a total of twelve slipways between them. For the past year, our efforts have been concentrated on learning about our new home and its wonders but the British desire for exploration and adventure cannot be contained any longer. Parliament has finally voted for an expansion into the heavens, moving beyond the confines of our new home to seek new worlds to colonize. Designs for several spacecraft have already been prepared and construction will commence immediately. Based on insights gained during the Transference and his own research, aided by the miraculous ?computers?, Sir William believes it will be possible to visit other solar systems by means of ?jump points?. According to Sir William, these are created by ?gravitational distortions of space-time?, whatever that means ? I sometimes think Sir William makes these phrases up ? and allow immediate passage from one star system to another, like gateways in the heavens. With this in mind several of the new ships we have been building incorporate ?jump drives?, that will allow them to enter these gateways, if they exist.
I am no shipwright, so I have sought the help of Sir Edward Harland, one of our leading ship designers and part-owner of the Harland & Wolff Shipyard, to assist me in describing these space-going vessels. Before the Transference, Sir Edward was on the brink of retiring from the shipbuilding industry to pursue a political career but our new reality and the great leap forward in engineering technology has re-invigorated his desire to design and build ships. The most basic of the new ships is the Cunard class Freighter, named after the famed shipping line. Sir Edward informs me this ship is capable of transporting most of our factories and mining installations to other worlds. If we do colonize Athena or perhaps worlds yet undiscovered in other star systems, this ship will bring any infrastructure and industry required to establish the colony.
Cunard class Freighter 4750 tons 244 Crew 359.8 BP TCS 95 TH 360 EM 0
3789 km/s Armour 1-25 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 45% IFR: 0.6% Maintenance Capacity 189 MSP
Cargo 25000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 5
Whitworth Ion Engine (6) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 81.2 billion km (248 days at full power)Complementing the Cunard is the White Star class colony ship, named after the White Star shipping line. Back on Earth, it was Sir Edward and his partner Gustav Wolff who designed and built the ships of the White Star line. The White Star carries fifty thousand people in cryogenic storage. According to Sir Edward, this involves instantly freezing someone in a box about the size of a coffin and then hopefully reviving them at their destination. I can guarantee if I ever leave Victoria, it won?t be as a colonist.
White Star class Colony Ship 4800 tons 274 Crew 825.6 BP TCS 96 TH 360 EM 0
3750 km/s Armour 1-25 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 46% IFR: 0.6% Maintenance Capacity 430 MSP
Colonists 50000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 5
Whitworth Ion Engine (6) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 80.4 billion km (248 days at full power)Next is the Buckland class geological survey ship, named after the famous British geologist William Buckland. The ships of this type will visit Britannia?s other planet?s and moons to investigate the possibility that they too may possess the new trans-newtonian minerals. Victoria?s own resources will run out eventually if we continue to consume them at the current rate so it is imperative that we find new resources, either in Britannia or out among the stars. Sir Edward tells me that the Buckland has been designed with long term operations in mind. It has extensive engineering spaces for a ship of its size plus enough fuel storage for several years of operations. It is also equipped with a jump drive so it can travel to other star system if the theorized ?jump points? turn out to be a reality.
Buckland class Geosurvey Ship 3750 tons 364 Crew 729.6 BP TCS 75 TH 300 EM 0
4000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-21 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/0/0/3 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 28% IFR: 0.4% Maintenance Capacity 486 MSP
J375 Jump Drive Max Ship Size 3750 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Whitworth Ion Engine (5) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres Range 274.3 billion km (793 days at full power)
Foxhunter 6/40 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 640 Range 6.4m km Resolution 40
T6 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
Geological Survey Sensors (3) 3 Survey Points The Newton class gravitational survey ship, named after Sir Issac Newton, is almost identical to the Buckland class except for the gravitational sensors replacing the Buckland?s geological survey sensors. The Newtons will survey the Britannia system to search for Sir William?s heavenly gateways. If they are successful, one of them will be selected to enter a jump point and have the honour of being the first British ship to make an interstellar voyage. Sir Edward has pointed out that if Sir William hasn?t done his calculations correctly, they may instead have the honour of being the first British ship to be squashed to the size of a tennis ball.
Newton class Survey Ship 3750 tons 364 Crew 729.6 BP TCS 75 TH 300 EM 0
4000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-21 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/0/3/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 28% IFR: 0.4% Maintenance Capacity 486 MSP
J375 Jump Drive Max Ship Size 3750 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Whitworth Ion Engine (5) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres Range 274.3 billion km (793 days at full power)
Foxhunter 6/40 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 640 Range 6.4m km Resolution 40
T6 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (3) 3 Survey Points Sir William has managed to convince both Queen Victoria and the Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, that somewhere in the depths of space, there may be strange alien creatures bent on our destruction. Personally I doubt we are going to encounter the French this far from Earth. Nevertheless, despite the considerable doubts of many members of Parliament, and myself, the British Empire has not survived so long by taking unnecessary risks. While we may be wasting time and resources building warships, we would risk far more by simply assuming that nothing in this strange region of space presents any danger. Sir William has also suggested that perhaps the subjects of the British Empire were not the only humans transported from Earth by powers unknown so we must be capable of defending ourselves.
Sir Edward has described our primary offensive weapon as the anti-ship missile. This is apparently a very advanced version of the rockets originally designed by Sir William Congreve and used in our wars against the French and the Americans in the early years of this century. The British inventor William Hale made his own improvements to rocket technology and Hale rockets were used against the Russians in the Crimean War and also by the Americans themselves in their war against Mexico. The ?rockets? our new warships will launch are so far beyond the Congreve and Hale rockets that they would appear magical to the inventors of their distant ancestors. With a range of almost fifty million kilometers and destructive powers beyond imagination, they will be a mighty sword with which to smite our enemies. Surprisingly, Sir Edward does not seem to appreciate my descriptive prowess and has asked me not to get too carried away until we see how the missiles actually perform in a combat situation.
The missiles will be carried by the Royal Sovereign class battleship. Sir William White (its becoming apparent that William is a very popular name among our engineers and scientists), only recently knighted due to his tireless work since the Transference, was the chief designer of the Royal Sovereign. Sir William designed a class of ocean-going battleships of the same name in the years before the Transference that would have been the largest and fastest capital ships in the world once they were launched in the early 1890s. He has now brought his considerable expertise to bear on spacecraft design. The Royal Sovereign class is equipped with twelve missile launchers, designed by Vickers, and will carry 237 anti-ship missiles. Her thick belt of armour will protect her from hostile missile attack, although Sir Edward is advocating that we should be developing some form of weapon that can shoot down incoming missiles. That seems like an excellent plan, especially if any potential adversaries have the same idea.
Royal Sovereign class Battleship 12000 tons 1145 Crew 1693.6 BP TCS 240 TH 960 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 5-46 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/5/0/0 Damage Control Rating 8 PPV 48
Annual Failure Rate: 144% IFR: 2% Maintenance Capacity 706 MSP
Magazine 948
Whitworth Ion Engine (16) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 53.6 billion km (155 days at full power)
Vickers S4 Missile Launcher (12) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 40
Bloodhound 50/35 Missile Fire Control (2) Range 50.4m km Resolution 35
Broadsword ASM (180) Speed: 21000 km/s End: 38.3 minutes Range: 48.2m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 4
Rapier ASM (57) Speed: 24000 km/s End: 22.3 minutes Range: 32.1m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 4
Foxhunter 48/60 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 4800 Range 48.0m km Resolution 60
T6 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
Electromagnetic Sensor EM5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m kmSir William (Astronomer Sir William, not Ship Designer Sir William ? its easy to get confused) believes it may be possible to ?terraform? (I am sure he just made that word up) a planet not currently suitable for human habitation, perhaps adding more oxygen to make the atmosphere breathable or gases that would trap heat and warm up the planet, so that it would eventually become as ideal a planet as Victoria. Personally I think it would be a lot easier to just find planets similar to Victoria as ?terraforming? sounds like a lot of work. However, as usual he has convinced the Queen about his latest idea and we will therefore be building a class of terraforming ships to carry out this activity. Sir Edward and Sir William (the other Sir William) have taken up this challenge with great relish, resulting in a design for the rather grandly named Genesis class Terraformer.
Genesis class Terraformer 7150 tons 646 Crew 1147.8 BP TCS 143 TH 240 EM 0
1678 km/s Armour 1-33 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 12 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 34% IFR: 0.5% Maintenance Capacity 1204 MSP
Terraformer: 2 module(s) producing 0.002 atm per annum
Whitworth Ion Engine (4) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 36.0 billion km (248 days at full power)Two of each ship class have been laid down with Sir Edward?s own Harland & Wolff Shipyard building the Genesis class terraforming ships. The first ships scheduled to be delivered are the Cunard class freighters being constructed by the Vosper Shipyard, which should launch in early July this year. The rest will be completed over the first few months of 1891 with the Royal Sovereign and her sister ship Hood due in mid-May.
As well as the creation of mobile forces, we will be building ground-based defences as a backup. Initially these will be Olympus class planetary defences centres, constructed within some of more substantial mountain ranges on Victoria. They will use the same technology as the Royal Sovereign class battleships and will be equipped with twenty missile launchers plus twice the magazine capacity of their mobile cousins.
Olympus class Planetary Defence Centre 14450 tons 1140 Crew 1473.8 BP TCS 289 TH 0 EM 0
Armour 9-52 Sensors 1/80 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 80
Troop Capacity 2 Divisions Magazine 1880
Vickers S4 Missile Launcher (20) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 40
Bloodhound 48/20 Missile Fire Control (1) Range 48.0m km Resolution 20
Bloodhound 50/35 Missile Fire Control (2) Range 50.4m km Resolution 35
Broadsword Anti-Ship Missile (470) Speed: 21000 km/s End: 38.3 minutes Range: 48.2m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 4
Foxhunter 48/60 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 4800 Range 48.0m km Resolution 6012th March 1890
In addition to government efforts to build a space-going capability, there are several civilian projects underway. The first concrete result of this private sector program is the construction of a civilian spaceport on Victoria. Eventually this spaceport may produce privately owned colony ships.
7th April 1890
Our construction factories have completed work on a seventh shipyard complex, which will be operated by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company.
27th June 1890
The Royal Naval College at New Dartmouth has been increased in size by fifty percent to provide for an increase in the number of officers that will be required over the next few years.
12th July 1890
The first two Cunard class freighters have been launched but will remain in orbit for the moment though as they have nowhere to go. Two more freighters are laid down.
27th February 1891
The geological survey ships Buckland and Clarke and the gravitational survey ships Newton and Kepler have been completed. All four will get to work immediately.
29th February 1891
Two days into her maiden voyage, Buckland has found mineral deposits on Hephaestus, the innermost planet of Britannia-A. To aid with my limited geological knowledge, I have enlisted the aid of the President of the Geological Society of London, the oldest geological society on Earth at the time of the Transference. The only problem is that his name is William, which will only cause further confusion. To avoid that I will refer to William Thomas Blanford simply as Mr Blandford. He tells me that one of the most important aspects of any new deposit of trans-newtonian minerals will be their accessibility for mining purposes. He has therefore created the Blandford Scale, which rates each mineral deposit from 0.1 to 1 with 1.0 being the easiest to access. Mining of an accessibility 1.0 mineral will yield ten times as much as mining an accessibility 0.1 mineral. The first section below shows the current mineral resources of Victoria along with their Blandford Scale accessibility rating. Below that are the results of the mineral survey from Hephaestus.
Victoria Resources
Duranium 118,111 Acc: 1
Neutronium 80,564 Acc: 0.4
Corbomite 27,441 Acc: 0.1
Tritanium 31,246 Acc: 0.6
Boronide 74,646 Acc: 0.6
Mercassium 33,941 Acc: 0.1
Vendarite 219,046 Acc: 0.6
Sorium 53,760 Acc: 1
Uridium 31,928 Acc: 0.8
Corundium 21,769 Acc: 0.9
Gallicite 15,928 Acc: 0.8
Hephaestus Mineral Survey
Duranium 288 Acc: 0.9
Tritanium 28,224 Acc: 1
Mercassium 256 Acc: 0.8
Sorium 150,544 Acc: 0.9
Uridium 4,624 Acc: 1
Corundium 4,096 Acc: 1
Gallicite 32,400 Acc: 0.8
Mr Blandford has explained, in his usual precise and controlled manner, that some minerals are more important than others due to the wide variety of construction tasks for which they are required. The most important is Duranium as it is needed for many planetary installations as well as key parts of spacecraft while Sorium is also very valuable as it can be refined into fuel. Mercassium is used for life support systems, including the cryogenic transport modules of our colony ships, and also is a key component in the construction of research facilities. Uridium is vital for all electronic equipment including sensors and fire control system while Tritanium is the primary resource for all missile-based technology. Gallicite forms the basis of all engine technology and Boronide is used for power generation. Neutronium is used for the construction of shipyard and maintenance facilities and for the creation of advanced armour. Corbomite is not in great demand at the moment, although Mr Blandford has spoken to the head of the Royal Society, which advises the Queen and the Prime Minister on potential scientific development, and believes it will prove useful for a number of proposed new technologies, including shields, stealth systems and electronic warfare systems. If you have no idea what any of that means, then you are in good company. Of course the head of the Royal Society is called William, in this case William Thomson. I am seriously beginning to suspect that a conspiracy of Williams has taken over the entire scientific establishment of the British Empire.
We should get back to Geology. According to the Williams, Corundium could be used in future for several different types of energy weapons once we can spare the scientific resources to develop them. I won?t bore you with the rather lengthy explanation of energy weapons provided by Mr Thomson, mainly because I didn?t understand it. If we ever do develop such weapons, I promise to pay attention next time he explains it. That leaves Vendarite, which has no use whatsoever as far as anyone can tell. Although Mr Thomson has described a persistent young gentlemen called Percy Pilcher who has some ideas about creating small, high powered spacecraft using technologies that he claims would require Vendarite. Mr Thomson seems quite dismissive of the young Mr Pilcher, probably because he isn?t called William Pilcher, but I will try to keep an eye on his efforts and will pass on anything I learn.
22nd March 1891
The geological survey of Ares has found substantial deposits of Duranium, Sorium and Corundium at reasonably high accessibility. Although the planet is very cold and the atmosphere extremely thin, Mr Blandford has spoken to the Astronomer Royal, Sir William Christie, about the possibility of terraforming Ares so it could provide a location for our manned mining complexes once the resources of Victoria have been exhausted.
Ares Survey Report
Duranium 324,818 Acc: 0.7
Boronide 216,225 Acc: 0.3
Mercassium 311,364 Acc: 0.1
Sorium 923,521 Acc: 0.7
Corundium 2,307,361 Acc: 0.6
Gallicite 4,060,225 Acc: 0.1
1st May 1891
Two Genesis class terraforming ship have been completed by the Harland & Wolff Shipyard. Their first task will be travel to Athena in the Britannia-B system and begin warming up the atmosphere by adding greenhouses gases. Sir William has explained that these gases will help in retaining heat within the atmosphere and warming the planet from its current -9C to a more temperature more acceptable to non-Caledonians. Once the temperature rises above freezing, we can establish our first colony.
18th May 1891
The battleships Royal Sovereign and Hood have been launched from the Swan Hunter Shipyard. Construction of their sister ships, Repulse and Royal Oak, will begin forthwith. Command of the Royal Sovereign will go to Rear Admiral John ?Jackie? Fisher, an officer who commanded the battleship HMS Inflexible, the most powerful warship of her time, during the early 1880s and was serving as Director of Naval Ordnance at the time of the Transference. Rear Admiral Fisher is also a strong proponent of the new missile technology and has a keen interest in ship design. Command of the battleship Hood goes to Captain Louis Alexander Mountbatten, formerly Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg, a minor German prince who married one of Queen Victoria?s granddaughters in 1884. Captain Mountbatten was born in Graz, Austria, the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine. He became a naturalized British subject and joined the Royal Navy on 3 October 1868, at the age of fourteen. He was enlisted as a naval cadet aboard HMS Victory, Admiral Nelson's old flagship. Despite occasional accusations that he has gained his captaincy through his royal connections, he has a excellent service record.
9th June 1891
A survey of Athena in the Britannia-B system has revealed large, accessible deposits of Duranium and Corbomite plus several other minerals at very low accessibility. The presence of Duranium in substantial quantities will make the planet much more valuable as a potential colony.
Athena Mineral Survey
Duranium 3,437,442 Acc: 0.7
Corbomite 23,474,020 Acc: 0.9
Tritanium 26,904,970 Acc: 0.1
Boronide 15,920,100 Acc: 0.1
Vendarite 3,755,844 Acc: 0.1
Sorium 3,122,289 Acc: 0.1
Uridium 15,023,380 Acc: 0.2
Corundium 81,225 Acc: 0.1
Gallicite 25,735,330 Acc: 0.1
17th August 1891
The two Newton class survey ships have completed their search for ?jump points?. Sir William claims their survey information shows the location of seven within the Britannia system. To avoid any unnecessary clarifications in future, when I simply mention Sir William I will be talking about Sir William Christie, the Astronomer Royal. I will identify the myriad of other Williams when required. As I am only recently becoming accustomed to the idea of space travel, it is difficult to explain the locations of the jump point, although I have found a useful analogy is to imagine yourself looking down on the system from above and think of it as the face of a clock. The innermost of the seven jump points is at nine o?clock and 500m km from the primary, the second is at 800m away at four o?clock and the third is at two billion kilometers and twelve o?clock. The next two jump points lie in the bottom half of the clock at three and four billion kilometers respectively and at eight and six o?clock while the last two are both near the Britannia-B system, over five billion kilometers from the primary at ten and eleven o?clock. Newton and Kepler are currently both on the outer limits of the system at four and five o?clock so Newton heads for jump point five while Kepler heads into the inner system to investigate the jumps points closest to Britannia-A
25th August 1891
Sir William and I have been invited to the Admiralty today by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Richard Hamilton to observe Newton?s attempt to transit Britannia?s fifth jump point. Sir William is far more confident than I regarding the outcome as I still remember Sir Edward?s dire warnings about what will happen if this goes wrong. It?s difficult to tell if Sir Richard is confident as he appears reserved and taciturn. Apparently he is a very capable administrator and an expert on our new sensor technology but he doesn?t seem very sociable, in stark comparison to Sir William?s usual buoyant mood. Newton arrives at jump point five and with little ceremony activates her jump drive. Her communication signal is abruptly terminated. Tense minutes pass before she returns to Victoria and her captain, Commander Anderson, announces that her mission was a complete success. I am as surprised as anyone else that Sir William?s theory has been vindicated but pleased to see Britain?s first interstellar expedition has been successful and all 364 crewmen have returned safely.
The solar system at the far side of the jump point has a single G2-V star, similar to Sol. As that designation may mean little to the reader, I will attempt to convey some of my recently acquired astronomical knowledge. Stars are rated for their luminosity, or surface temperature. This rating consists of a letter, indicating the Spectral Class, which is a general measure of luminosity, and a number, indicating a more precise measurement within that Spectral Type. The letter codes for the main types of stars from hottest to coolest are O, B, A, F, G, K and M. I have no idea why astronomers chose such a strange arrangement of letters when it would have much easier to remember A, B, C, etc but Sir William tells me the classification system has evolved over time as new knowledge was gained, including several changes as a result of knowledge gained during the Transference. It still makes little sense to me. To add to the confusion there are some additional special classes, L and T which are Lithium dwarfs and Methane Dwarfs, known collectively as Brown Dwarfs, and DA, DB, DC, DO and DQ, all of which are types of White Dwarf. To be honest I think Sir William and his cohorts like to come up with these ridiculous naming conventions just so they appear to be smarter than they really are. The different classes of stars have colours ranging from blue for the hottest through white, yellow, orange and red to the cool brown dwarves,
Within a spectral classification, stars are rated from 0 to 9 in terms of ascending temperature so a G0 star is hotter than a G5. That at least seems logical for a change. The roman numeral after the hyphen indicates the size of a star with lower numbers indicating large stars. Sol was a yellow G2-V star, Britannia-A is an orange K0-V star and Britannia-B is a red M0-V, all are which are known as ?main sequence stars? as the V size is the most common. The larger types are sub-giants (IV), Giants (III), Bright Giants (II) and Supergiants (I). VI and VII are used for dwarf stars.
Assuming you are still reading and did not turn to drink during the last couple of paragraphs, that returns us to the new star system discovered by Newton. Queen Victoria has decreed that new star systems should be named after cities from the British Isles and the Dominions so this first system is named London. London has nine planets, the first three of which are all similar to Hades, or Venus in the Sol system, with poisonous, high pressure atmospheres and searing surface temperature. Sir William believes this type of planet will be quite common so I will refer to them as Venusian planets in the future. London IV is a terrestrial size world with a thin oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and a surface temperature of -93C while the remaining five planets are gas giants with almost eighty moons between them. As the geological survey of Britannia is almost complete, one or both of the Buckland class ships may soon be dispatched into London to investigate the various system bodies.
1st September 1891
Kepler has just entered Britannia?s second jump point and discovered Edinburgh, a system with a dim M4-V red star, five unremarkable planets and an asteroid belt, Sir William as informed that because the primary of the new system has a much smaller mass than Britannia-A, it will be easier to survey for new jump points. The area required for the survey, plus the likely distance of any jump points, is directly proportional to the square of the star?s mass.
4th September 1891
Kepler and Newton transit the first and fourth jump points respectively. Kepler discovers Liverpool, a planetless system with a small L2-VII brown dwarf star. Because the mass of the star is only six percent that of Sol, this system will be even easier to survey than Edinburgh. Newton enters Manchester, which has an G5-IV sub-giant primary, larger and brighter than any star encountered thus far, and six rocky planets, one of which is a high gravity world with a dense oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. Unfortunately the high gravity renders the planet uninhabitable for humans. The system also has a substantial asteroid belt and Mr Blandford of the London Geological Society believes as many as three hundred asteroids will be worthy of a survey.
5th September 1891
As Buckland and Clarke recently completed a geological survey of the Britannia-B system, they have been directed to investigate the two jump points near their position. Buckland arrived at her destination first and transited jump point seven, finding a white A5-V primary, even brighter and more massive than the sub-giant star in Manchester, though smaller in terms of diameter, plus fourteen planets. Two planets have thin oxygen nitrogen atmospheres, one of which is much too hot and the other is much too cold. Sir William remarked that neither was in the ?Goldilocks zone? where the temperature is just right. One minute he is baffling me with science and the next he is quoting children?s fairy tales. It is becoming obvious though that ideal habitable planets such as Victoria are likely to be few and far between. The system is named Melbourne, after the largest and richest city in our Australian colonies on Earth. As she is already at the jump point, Buckland will return to Melbourne to conduct a geological survey.
10th September 1891
Clarke explores jump point six and finds the Ottawa system. The normally calm and composed Mr Blandford is almost aquiver with anticipation when he sees the scouting report. As well as nine planets and forty moons orbiting the small M0-V star, Ottawa has nine hundred and twenty-five asteroids, spread among five separate asteroid belts. I must confess I find it difficult to share his enthusiasm for such a multitude of floating rocks. Clarke re-enters the system to begin a geological survey.
11th September 1891
Kepler completes the investigation of Britannia?s jump points by entering jump point three. To the great excitement of Sir William, she encounters a new phenomenon in the form of a protostar and several planets within a nebula. According to Sir William, the protostar is just one stage in the process of star formation and consists of a mass of coalescing gas that will one day ignite into a main sequence star. It still gives off heat, although this is not caused by the nuclear reactions within a star but by the conversion of gravitational energy to thermal kinetic energy. No, I don?t know what that means either but it was easier just to write it down than listen to Sir William?s enthusiastic but lengthy explanation again. The nebula itself is a dense field of dust particles, which will have the effect of slowing down our ships, especially those with very thin armour, and severely degrading our sensors. The system has four terrestrial size planets, none of which are habitable, and a gas giant with a dozen moons. Mr Blandford believes that because the star system is so young, there will be a greater chance of finding useful mineral deposits. Queen Victoria has named the system Calcutta, after the capital of British India. Kepler and Newton will now head to Liverpool, which lies beyond Britannia?s innermost jump point and will be the easiest of the seven new systems to survey.
25th November 1891
Kepler has just jumped into the Britannia system to report the gravitational survey of Liverpool has been completed, revealing three new jump points. All three have been explored, leading to the systems of Newcastle, Oxford and Cambridge. Newcastle is a G1-V system with an asteroid belt and five planets, one of which has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere with oxygen at seventy percent of the breathable level and a temperature of -16C, making it a prime candidate for future terraforming. Adding more oxygen and sufficient greenhouse gas could turn this into an ideal habitable world. Oxford is a binary with two dim M8-V stars and five barren planets. Because of the low mass of the primary, this will another relatively easy to survey system.
Cambridge is a binary system with two G-class stars eighteen billion kilometers apart and a total of eighteen planets. It is easily the most important system to be discovered thus far as the third planet of the companion star is an ideal habitable world, the first one to be encountered outside Britannia. The gravity, temperature and air pressure are all a little higher than Victoria but well within human tolerance. We are now faced with two significant problems. The first is the lack of a jump ship large enough to escort our colony ships through a jump point. When one of our jump-capable ships enters a jump point, her jump engines can hold the gateway open long enough for two more ships to follow her, although neither can be larger than the jump ship itself which means our 3750 ton survey ships are too small for the task. Therefore a new design has been created for a 5000 ton jump cruiser, large enough to escort both the Cunard class freighters and the White Star class colony ships. Retooling of the Thorneycroft Shipyard, currently building two new Buckland class geological survey ships, will take until April next year, after which two Blenheims will be laid down.
Blenheim class Jump Cruiser 5000 tons 450 Crew 742.4 BP TCS 100 TH 420 EM 0
4200 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-26 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/5/0/0 Damage Control Rating 6 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 33% IFR: 0.5% Maintenance Capacity 1557 MSP
J500 Jump Drive Max Ship Size 5000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Whitworth Ion Engine (7) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres Range 514.3 billion km (1417 days at full power)
Foxhunter 48/60 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 4800 Range 48.0m km Resolution 60
T6 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
Electromagnetic Sensor EM5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m kmThe second problem facing the colonization of Cambridge-B III is the great distance from the jump point to the planet. The two stars in Cambridge are eighteen billion kilometers apart, three times the distance between Britannia-A and Britannia-B, and the Liverpool jump point is five billion kilometers from Cambridge-A on the opposite side of the system from Cambridge-B, making the total distance twenty-three billion kilometers. A very lengthy voyage for any prospective colonists. However, Sir William believes he has found a solution. During his work on jump point theory he discovered that gravitational anomalies were formed at the Lagrange points of super-jovians. I will attempt to translate that into English. Lagrange points were first theorized in 1772 by the mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange. They are five points in space where the gravitational effects of a star and an orbiting body are cancelled out, forming zones of gravitational equilibrium. It is only since the Transference that this theory has been proved. In the case of extremely massive gas giants, known as super-jovians because their mass is greater than that of Jupiter in the Sol system, one of the five Lagrange points develops a very useful property. A region of space-time instability forms in the L5 Lagrange point, which has the same orbit as the superjovian but trails it by sixty degrees of arc. Sir William believes that if there is more than one superjovian in a system, as is the case in Cambridge, these different regions of instability will link to form short-ranged jump points within the system. Furthermore, because the gravitational stresses are far less than for an interstellar jump point, ships would not need a jump engine to use the intra-system jump points. With three or more superjovians in a system, Sir William has calculated that selecting a particular entry trajectory would allow a ship to exit at a specific Lagrange point.
The eighth and ninth planets of Cambridge-A are both superjovians and their orbital positions place their Lagrange points 2.2 billion and 3.5 billion kilometers from the Cambridge - Liverpool jump point. Over time, the orbits of the two planets will gradually move the Cambridge-A VIII Lagrange point further away from the jump point and bring the Cambridge-A IX Lagrange point closer. As they have orbital periods of 110 years and 164 years respectively, that will not happen very quickly. The second planet of Cambridge-B is also a superjovian and its orbital distance of just fifty-seven million kilometers makes it an ideal destination point for a theoretical intra-system jump point from the Cambridge-A system. Cambridge-B III orbits at 129m kilometers so it will always be less than two hundred million kilometers from the Cambridge-B II Lagrange point. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Richard Hamilton is not entirely convinced by our enthusiastic astronomer but agrees that possibility is too important to discount, especially as Sir William was proved right on interstellar jump points. He therefore gives Newton permission to attempt the intra-system jump.
9th December 1891
Captain Samuel Miles of the Kepler, still located on the Britannia ? Liverpool jump point, relays a message from Commander Anderson on the Newton, reporting that his mission to Cambridge was a complete success. Newton jumped between the Cambridge-A VIII and Cambridge-B II Lagrange points with no problems and returned safely. Once again Sir William has been proven correct and we had enough problems with his ego already. Still, the testing of my own levels of tolerance is of minor importance compared to the benefits of the intra-system jumps. The ideal habitable world of Cambridge-B III can now be colonised as soon as the Blenheim class jump cruisers are ready. Newton and Kepler will now survey Oxford before returning to Victoria for refueling.
to be continued...
Steve
