After a day of national Mourning, the Administration Council gathered for en Emergency meeting.
The Ship technicians were invited as well, and it was time to devise a Military Strategy for the future years.
The Alien ships were hostile, they were faster than anything known so far, and they managed to rip the Scout detachment up purely with Strength one Anti-Missiles, which they obviously didn't need to save up on.
The first decision made was to officially declare the Colony the Outworld Federation, a name which was largely unnoticed by the general public so far, and to openly admit to a Military Build-up program.
Next, new ships would have to be laid down and the shipyards expanded.
For now, the Technicians came up with several design reevaluations.
First, they needed a ship to take the fire if necessary. This design was to be the Fake:
Fake class Sham Cruiser 45,000 tons 423 Crew 3324 BP TCS 900 TH 750 EM 0
833 km/s JR 2-25(C) Armour 23-112 Shields 0-0 Sensors 8/8/0/0 Damage Control Rating 8 PPV 0
Maint Capacity 369 MSP Max Repair 100 MSP
Cargo 15000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 5
JC45K Commercial Jump Drive Max Ship Size 45000 tons Distance 25k km Squadron Size 2
Commercial Ion Engine 150 (5) Power 150 Fuel Use 7% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 130,000 Litres Range 74.3 billion km (1031 days at full power)
CIWS-120 (5x8) Range 1000 km TS: 12000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Base ASS R12/18m (1) GPS 2520 Range 18.4m km Resolution 120
Thermal Sensor TH1-8 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-8 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
With massive armor, it was supposed to take the enemy fire and live to tell the tale; Given the hostile ships had likely used Anti-Missiles, it was a valid proposal, and one was laid down.
Given the layout, the same shipyard could also be used to produce Freighters, as the Fake was technically one.
However, it took a while until those decisions were made, and the first and only Fake was laid down in early November.
The design had a flaw, with current tech it would take 4 years to complete.
Other revisions of the fleet would be done faster.
The Spruance had basically fulfilled it's job, as far as it was able to, but the question was raised why the ship was equipped with rare artifact missiles, which had a significant range for the available tech, with an Anti-Missile Firecontrol that would not let the ship fire them.
As such, the old design was deleted from the files, and a new one was laid down in one of the Naval Shipyards.
Spruance Mk2 class Flag Ship 6,000 tons 559 Crew 1081.88 BP TCS 120 TH 360 EM 300
3000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 6-29 Shields 10-300 Sensors 8/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 17 PPV 3.96
Annual Failure Rate: 41% IFR: 0.6% Maint Capacity 789 MSP Max Repair 150 MSP Est Time: 4.56 Years
Flag Bridge Magazine 36
J6K (3-50) Jump Drive (M) Max Ship Size 6000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Ion Engine 60 (6) Power 60 Fuel Use 70% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 85.7 billion km (330 days at full power)
Gamma Shield S2/300 (5) Total Fuel Cost 70 Litres per day
Emergency S3 Launcher (4) Missile Size 3 Rate of Fire 600
Emergency MFC (1) Range 61.7m km Resolution 150
Mainline 3 ASM (
Speed: 26,000 km/s End: 27.5m Range: 42.8m km WH: 4 Size: 3 TH: 112 / 67 / 33
Fleet Anti-Missile Sensor /700k (1) GPS 84 Range 6.7m km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH1-8 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
ECM 10
The Outreach had proven to be unable to cover enough of the system to make a swift escape, and it's single Gauss Turret didn't deter the Ships demise by a second.
The Revision consequentially sacrificed it's Gauss Turret and firecontrol for ECM and extra Armor, which would make it work better alone as well as in a fleet. However, everyone agreed that sending a trained fleet HQ out alone was not to happen ever again, until they got back to the Battlecruisers of old that could defend themselves against a small hostile fleet.
Outreach Mk2 class Fleet Scout 6,000 tons 542 Crew 1312.2 BP TCS 120 TH 360 EM 60
3000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 8-29 Shields 2-300 Sensors 40/8/0/0 Damage Control Rating 8 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 36% IFR: 0.5% Maint Capacity 1094 MSP Max Repair 315 MSP Est Time: 3.91 Years
J6K (3-50) Jump Drive (M) Max Ship Size 6000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Ion Engine 60 (6) Power 60 Fuel Use 70% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 190,000 Litres Range 81.4 billion km (314 days at full power)
Gamma Shield S2/300 (1) Total Fuel Cost 14 Litres per day
Anti-Gunboat Sensor R16/33m (1) GPS 1680 Range 33.6m km Resolution 16
Fleet Anti-Missile Sensor /700k (1) GPS 84 Range 6.7m km Resolution 1
Space Reconaisance Sensor R150/308m (1) GPS 47250 Range 308.6m km Resolution 150
Fleet Searcher T1 (1) Sensitivity 40 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 40m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-8 (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
ECM 10
The only ship that didn't underwent any changes was the Backbone.
The ship had proven to be quite sturdy, and it was planned to accompany a group of two Flak Frigates or Missile Cruisers from now on.
The Fleet would need more of them.
Furthermore, with the build up of military strength, the economy would have to boosted, so the birth of a new financial sector was laid down.
The Economy was running at a strong deficit and within a year, the reserves would be used up.
Nonetheless, the probing of new systems was imperative, to make sure no threats were lurking in unexpected directions.
Seeing as the fleet was lacking Scout ships, the currently unemployed Gravsurvey Ships were to probe the other two systems and search for potentially habitable planets that could be the source of other races.
Communication Log, 2nd December 26.
"God, look at this. this is the find of the century. They are everywhere!"
"Sophie, cool down. It's just ruins. How.."
"But they are so many. we've been working through this all month, and now there's another level of it! It must be hundreds! That'll take years to recover!"
"Yes, I see a lot of work coming at us. This is hazardous!"
"Albert, this is more important than your free time! We could gain so much knowledge from this! An entire city, completely intact! The infrastructure of a complete colony! This is the day I've been working for the past years!"
"Sophie, I'm as enthusiastic as you are about the find, but I see the risk. Did you ever think about why this city was deserted, everything left in place? The Inhabitants just left without a trace, for no obvious reason? Maybe Summersale in the neighboring system? Did you see any bodies? It's awe-inspiring, but it could be just as dangerous. We should call for Groundsupport before anyone starts excavating anything here."
"I... yes, you probably are right. For a change. But that's no reason to not acknowledge this unbelieveable find. This is IT! We need to send the news immediately!"
"
If this goes on I'll quit..... Fine.!
On Outworld B IV, the remnants of a former colonies Capital were uncovered, counting over 1000 potentially intact Installations.
Work on a Troop Transport Design begins.
Rapid Embark class Troop Transport 40,400 tons 456 Crew 1148 BP TCS 808 TH 1650 EM 0
2042 km/s Armour 2-104 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 0
Maint Capacity 36 MSP Max Repair 40 MSP
Troop Capacity: 10 Battalions Cargo Handling Multiplier 20
Commercial Ion Engine 150 (11) Power 150 Fuel Use 7% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 63.6 billion km (360 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
Based on the Rapid Delivery Freighter Design, it will be able to transport two Engineering Brigades to Planets in the system to exploit the vast ruins.
However, it'll be another year before a slipway is free to start production, and the Commercial shipyard will first have to be retooled.
The Administration starts to think about building a second commercial Yard for future problems of this kind.
January 26
On the 22nd January of Year 27, Discovery 001 successfully jumped through the second Jump point of Outworld and seconds later emerged in Tau Ceti, a level 6 Nebula, 4 billion kilometers from a G5-V Protostar orbited by 2 Terrestrial Planets and 3 Gas Giants with dozens of Moons.
Of Specific Interest was the 13th Moon of the first Gas Giant; It had acceptable Gravity, a rare Nitrogen-Oxygen Atmosphere that could be made breathable with minimal effort, and the temperature below -70 degree could be circumvented by Infrastructure or extensive terraforming.
Given the low sensor Range in Nebulas, the Survey ship started searching for Jump points in the system after sending the first assessment of the system home.
Just a day later, Discovery 002 Jumped into Sigma Draconis, a small binary system with a K8-V orbiting a D1-VII at a distance or just 3.5 billion Kilometers.
The Primary was surrounded by a perfectly circular Asteroid belt that likely was a remnant of a former Planet ripped up between the gravity of the close stars.
The second Star had a single Planet of interest, with 0.29 Gravity barely within acceptable limits, and a scorching 81 degrees hot. The lack of atmosphere could allow a significant cooling by adding Anti-Greenhouse Gas to the planet.
However, the planet was always showing the same side to his parent Gas Giant, resulting in long days and aggressive tectonics.
Like Discovery 001, the ship started surveyed the system, not expecting any trouble.
June 27
The natural supply of Neutronium is exausted on the Homeworld.
Current reserves are still high, though.
September 27
Outworld B4 is now officially named "Relic" for it's vast amount of alien Installations.
The term was coined by the Engineer Brigades Training for the axcavation mission that is planned to start as soon as the first Rapid Embark Transport is built.
Sadly, construction of the first ship of this class can only begin in April 28, when the Shipyard is retooled.
The 1st Engineer Division is formed.
October 27
For unexplainable reasons, the deficit for this month is only half as high as last months.
The production of additional costruction factories had recently been put on hold in favor of additional financial centres, but only a handful are actually finished.
West Transport Company has joined it's first Freighter!
This is the first civilian build ship of the Outworld Federation, and the first non-"State"-controlled ship in system since the collapse.
It is decided to boost trade by expanding Relic to a fullfledged colony. However, available architechture is sparse, and the Planet is not particularly hospitable.
The Federation has no terraforming options at the moment, and will not for the foreseeable future.
A technician suggested prebuilt Living Habitats being towed to the planet by other ships, but it'll be even longer until the Comercial Ship Yard is big enough to allow the construction of Orbital Habitats, let alone have a Tug available.
Unltimately, despite the Harsh conditions, producing additional infrastructure seems to be the only solution.
November 27
After nearly two years of work, the Jonas Brandenburg Geology team has finally made his first find on the second Moon Of Outworld B V.
This comes as a total surprise to the authorities who had completely forgotten there even was such a team.
Given the team seems to be completely incapable, it is quickly disbanded and three of it's members are exchanged for more experienced geologists.
The recently fired officers will likely find a new assignment on the Geosurvey ships once those are out of Overhaul.
December 27
This has been a great Month for the Federation.
Led by Professor Wilken, a Team of Scientists on Homeworld has finished the first research conducted completely and solely in Outworld, and the first tech advance in the short History of the Federation.
The new technology will increase the beam fire control range to 32000 kms.
Nearly at the same time, a new, third Argentina Missile Cruiser, the CG Batavia, has been finished in a Naval Shipyard. Incidentially, it is the first Federation Ship carrying a name in addition to it's class designation.
As a third memorable occasion, Jonas Brandenburg, the Lead Geologist of the Administration, has been promoted to Rear Admiral and will now take part in the decisions of High Command.
January 28
The West Transport Company has Launched another Freighter despite the complete lack of any potential Profit.
Due to a mistake in the Logistics Department, Sophies Xenology Team was accidentially sent to Outworld A1 instead of B1, and it took a full month before anyone noticed.
This has wasted nearly three months in which the by now extremely skilled team could have been productive.
A new Backbone is leaving the yards, only be be immediately replaced by onther one.
Given the Backbone is meant as a Jump Escort for any offensive Ship of the Federation to be in service for the next years, it'll need another two production runs to supply the fleet with a reasonable amount of backbones.
Luckily, the second slipway of the assigned Shipyard is nearly finished, and the production demands might be met by summer 29.
Professor Wilken is tasked with improving the fire control tracking speed to 400 km/s, to fit the turret tracking gear currently available.
At the same time, the development for higher turret tracking speed is temporarily slowed by diverting research supplies to other projects.
June 28
With Wambui Marlin, and incredibly talented Scientist joins the Project Leaders on the homeworld.
He will be able to supervise developments in the propulsion sector and is known for being more than double as efficient in this sector than an unrelated scientist.
This will finally allow the Federation to improve the speed of their ships and missiles, to maybe, at some point, compete with the aliens in Proxima Centauri.
The second unkown Jump Point is found in Sigma Draconis.
July 28
After all those months, what everybody expected has finally happened, the state is bankrupt.
Production of new financial Centres has been temporarily suspended since early June, but some believe that might be saving on the wrong end.
As efficiency is spiraling downwards, the production of new ships will be put on hold.
However, the creation of the Fake and the troop transports is too urgend.
After a long while of being grounded, High Command has decided the Fleet will resume training, so that once the Fake is ready, it can be accompanied by an experienced and battleready fleet, obviously excluding the new, green fleet HQ that hasn't been fully built yet.
In late July, another Jump Point is found in the Sigma Draconis System.
As an other one was found in the prior Month, the system already contains four Jump Points, and over a third of the Survey is yet to happen.
The Geosurvey Ships Geodruid 1 and 2 are assigned each to one of the, so far, save systems to start being useful finally.
Furthermore, Eichheim Carrier Corporation, the Second Civilian Company in Outworld, has finally launched it's first Freighter.
This means theres 3 Civilian Freighters in service, only one less than State Controlled Freighters.
Not a single on of them is Jump Capable, though.
September 28
After over three years of Surveying, despite a part of it in the Outworld System, Discovery 001 has returned for overhaul.
There is a day of celebration as the ships deployment was the first out-system operation that didn't horribly fail.
For inexplicable reasons, the colonies production efficiency is back to peak despite still running at a deficit.
December 28
The Supply of Tritanium on the Homeworld is exhausted.
