18th November 1897
The three former Mongolian gravitational survey ships recently completed a survey of Chengdu, finding two new jump points, one of which had a jump gate of unknown origin. This could indicate a new civilization in the area, although it seems unlikely as we have not encountered them, or perhaps the jump gate, as with the ruins we have discovered in several systems, is a remnant of an ancient civilization. Kushan, a Hazara class jump frigate, was dispatched to investigate and found two unremarkable systems. In line with our policy of assimilating the Mongols, we allowed them to select the names of the new systems. They chose Ningxia and Xuanhua. The policy of naming systems in this way will continue for any additional systems discovered beyond Marathon.
1st February 1898
British scientists have developed an colossal new active search sensor, the Foxhunter 30/4, capable of detecting objects as small as 200 tons out to a distance of thirty million kilometers, which is outside the range of both British and American fighter-launched missiles. The Foxhunter is backed up by the Bloodhound 30/4 Missile Fire Control system, able to engage fighter-sized targets at the same range, and the new Gladius anti-fighter missile. The Gladius is the same size as our current anti-ship missiles, although with only a strength-4 warhead. This will be sufficient to penetrate the minimal armour of most fighters and allows the extra space to be devoted to improving agility, making the Gladius the most accurate missile ever built. Our scientists estimate it will have a forty percent chance of an intercept against a target moving at 10,000 km/s. It can also be used as a rather expensive anti-missile missile.
Foxhunter 30/4
Active Sensor Strength: 756
Sensor Size: 36 Sensor HTK: 1
Primary Mode: Resolution: 4 Maximum Range: 30,240,000 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 756 Crew: 180
Materials Required: 189x Duranium 567x Uridium
Development Cost for Project: 7560 RPThe 1800 ton Foxhunter 30/4 has been incorporated into the design of the new Marathon class escort cruiser. Its primary mission is to detect hostile fighters and either launch its own Gladius missiles or provide FB5 Interceptors with the necessary sensor data for their own fire control systems. Although the Marathon is fairly short-ranged and has smaller engineering spaces than might be expected for a ship of its size, it is intended for deployment with the battle fleet rather than as a patrol or picket vessel. The cruiser will be built in the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard, which has been inactive since the completion of the two Agamemnon class monitors. Retooling is underway and construction of the first two ships should get underway in November.
Marathon class Escort Cruiser 9000 tons 887 Crew 1878 BP TCS 180 TH 720 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 3-38 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 24
Annual Failure Rate: 162% IFR: 2.2% Maintenance Capacity 522 MSP
Magazine 384
Whitworth Ion Engine (12) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 57.1 billion km (165 days at full power)
Vickers S4 Missile Launcher (6) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 40
Bloodhound 30/4 Missile Fire Control (1) Range 30.2m km Resolution 4
Gladius Anti-fighter Missile (96) Speed: 21000 km/s End: 25 minutes Range: 32m km WH: 4 MR: 19 Size: 4
Foxhunter 30/4 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 3024 Range 30.2m km Resolution 48th February 1898
Because of the growing size of the Empire, a sector headquarters has been established on Victoria. This will provide a layer of oversight above the planetary governors. Initially, Sir Richard Hamilton will take on this role and leave the day to day running of the Fleet to Admiral Sir Frederick Richards, the second ranked officer in the Royal Navy. Sir Richard was also the de facto governor of Victoria in terms of production, research, etc. and this role will now be taken on by Vice Admiral John Fisher, an expert in propulsion technology.
9th March 1898
Since our defence treaty with the United States, the construction ship Brunel has been building a chain of jump gates between Britannia and Washington. The last gate before Washington is completed and the United States has given permission for Brunel to build a gate on their side of the Washington ? Newcastle jump point. In less than six months direct communication will be possible between the two capitals.
11th March 1898
Several months of study on Karakorum have revealed some disturbing facts about the Mongols. Karakorum has a gravity of 1.65G, an average surface temperature of 4C, although it is a little colder at the moment due to the dust in the atmosphere, an atmospheric density of 2.73 and an oxygen pressure of 0.36 atm. The gravity alone should make this world uninhabitable for humans yet the Mongols seem completely at ease in this inhospitable environment. Medical examinations carried out by our leading scientists have revealed the Mongols physiology has been modified so that the planet is actually an ideal habitable world, matching their physiological requirements perfectly. Although there is little external evidence of the change, their musculature and internal organs are far more efficient than our own and their strength is considerable. Whoever or whatever was responsible for the Transference apparently altered the Mongols? physical attributes to match their new homeworld. Given the other marvels associated with the Transference, such as the new knowledge added to our consciousness, this physical transformation is far less unsettling than it would have been in the days before the Transference. It has still started a lively debate among our scientists as to how far this unknown power may go in modifying human capabilities.
1st April 1898
Hermes and Argus, our first two carriers, have been launched by the Harland & Wolff shipyard. The strikegroup to be carried by these two twelve thousand ton vessels has yet to be determined, primarily because only ten Avro 504 fighters have been constructed so far. Although we now have forty fighter factories in operations, construction of new factories has been put on hold while resources have been devoted to increasing the size of our sector command facility and building a new research facility. Even though we have a very limited number of fighters, construction of two more carriers of the Hermes class has been authorized.
11th April 1898
Three new Minerva class light cruisers, Diana, Juno and Minerva II, have joined the fleet. No additional units of this class will be built in the foreseeable future as there are no Javelin missiles available to fill the magazines of the newly built ships. Missile production is becoming a real problem and many of our ships have little or no ordnance. Sir Edward Harland and Sir William White have begun looking at energy-based weapon systems to ensure that if we become involved in a major conflict we need do not find ourselves in the embarrassing situation of running out of ammunition. Such energy-based weapons would be very short-ranged compared to missiles but they would be ideal for ships designed to fight a jump point defence and they would not require ammunition. They could also be used in designs combining both missiles and energy weapons.
21st April 1898
The Majestic class battleships Victorious and Illustrious are launched from the Swan Hunter shipyard, taking the total for the class to four and our overall number of battleships to thirteen. Of the four Majestics, only Magnificent has a full load of ordnance. Majestic has just twenty-six percent of her assigned missiles, Illustrious has eighty-six percent and Victorious twenty-nine percent. More Broadsword and Rapier missiles will be assigned as they become available and in the event of an emergency, missiles could be more evenly distributed. Four Royal Sovereigns have full magazines but three more have only a third of their ordnance and two are without missiles entirely.
29th April 1898
All six of our Newton class gravitational survey ships have returned to Britannia over the last couple of weeks after long exploration missions on the fringes of known space. After refueling and resupply, the Newtons will undergo overhauls that will require many months, so the only exploration in the near future will be undertaken by the three small Mongolian-built Ogadei class ships. Known space now extends to seventy-six systems. Gravitational surveys have been conducted in thirty-one. A interesting feature of exploration in the last two years has been the number of internal links. There are several ?loops? and cross-connections among the known system, often allowing multiple routes to the same destination. I will provide some maps to be viewed alongside this chronicle.
With the pause in surveying, the Royal Commission has met to determine our future exploration strategy. In the past, our survey commanders have had the latitude to proceed in whatever direction seemed easiest or interesting, with little regard for an overall strategy apart from their initial dispatch by the Admiralty to a general area. In the future, surveying and exploration will be based on creating buffer zones around populated systems. All systems within two jumps of a populated system will be surveyed and any jump points investigated, providing astrographic information on all systems within three transits.
The British Empire currently has six populated worlds, including Karakorum, plus a mining colony. All the extra-solar colonies are two jumps from Britannia. The populations and general industry are as follows:
Victoria (Britannia) ? Vice Admiral John Fisher (Research 30%, Shipbuilding 15%, Production 10%)
Population: 942m
Wealth: 38402
Shipyards: 8 / 20
Maintenance Facilities: 19,000 tons
Construction Factories: 800
Ordnance Factories: 161
Fighter Factories: 40
Fuel Refineries: 320
Mines: 610
Automated Mines: 40
Research Labs: 32
Financial Centres: 20
Ground Force Training Facilities: 6
Deep Space Tracking Station: 3
Naval Academy: Level 4
Sector Command: Level 1
Spaceport: Level 1
Commercial Freight Facility
Civilian Space Centre: Level 3
Fuel Stockpile: 16m litres
Maintenance Supplies: 89,000
Athena (Britannia) ? Commodore Benjamin Gregory (Research 30%)
Population: 11.7m
Wealth: 469
Research Labs: 7
Deep Space Tracking Station: 1
Sparta II (Sparta) ? Captain Neville Dawson
Population: 5.4m
Wealth: 239
Maintenance Facilities: 8,000 tons
Mines: 10
Automated Mines: 8
Deep Space Tracking Station: 1
Abandoned Factories: 1383
Abandoned Mines: 419
Fuel Stockpile: 4m litres
Artemis (Cambridge) ? Commodore Isaiah Powers
Population: 2.9m
Wealth: 110
Athens IV (Athens) ? Captain Luke Kirby
Population: 320,000
Wealth: 12
Karakorum (Marathon) ? Vice Admiral Zhenjin Khan (Research 35%, Production 30%, Mining 15%)
Population: 195m
Wealth: 1444 (due to effects of conquest)
Shipyards: 2 / 4
Maintenance Facilities: 6,000 tons
Construction Factories: 173
Ordnance Factories: 36
Fuel Refineries: 40
Mines: 146
Automated Mines: 43
Research Labs: 6
Deep Space Tracking Station: 1
Naval Academy: Level 1
Fuel Stockpile: 2.9m litres
Maintenance Supplies: 38,000
Cambridge-B VIII ? Moon 9 (Cambridge) ? Rear Admiral Robert Bryant (Mining 30%)
Automated Mines: 182
15th July 1898
The Washington - Newcastle jump gate has been completed by Brunel, opening up a direct communication link between Victoria and New America. Our diplomatic relations with the United States have been excellent since contact was first established two years ago and this link will further aid understanding between our two governments. It may also allow direct civilian trade in the future. To celebrate the occasion, the American First Carrier Group, comprising the carrier Midway, the destroyers Fletcher and Conway and fourteen fighters, will travel through Newcastle and Liverpool to Britannia and pay a visit to Victoria. This will be the first extra-solar expedition for the United States Navy.
15th August 1898
The First Carrier Group arrives in Victoria orbit. As a sign of respect, both sides shut down their active sensors after initial contact was made to avoid any accusation that either might be trying to gain technical information on the other.
27th August 1898
It is now more than a year since the Mongol surrender. With Zhenjin Khan as leader of their planet and a continued Mongol presence in space on board most of the captured ships, there has been little active resistance to the Empire. Therefore the Commission has decided to reclassify Karakorum from Conquered to Subjugated. This means more freedom for the Mongol populace and greater rights within the Empire. The threat of orbital bombardment will be withdrawn and the Mongol internal security forces will be relied upon to handle any dissent. However, there still needs to be a visible British presence on the planet, which will require ground troops. We have no way of transporting our ground forces off Victoria so a small troop transport has been designed. This will be built in the Yarrow & Company shipyard, which recently completed the third and fourth Perseus class scout cruisers.
Centaur class Troop Transport 3750 tons 246 Crew 344.6 BP TCS 75 TH 300 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 1-21 Shields 0-0 Sensors 8/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 56% IFR: 0.8% Maintenance Capacity 115 MSP
Troop Capacity 2 Divisions
Whitworth Ion Engine (5) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 68.6 billion km (198 days at full power)
TH8 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km3rd September 1898
The American First Carrier Group has departed for home. Their nineteen day visit has been a great success with officers of the Royal Navy and the United States Navy learning to work together in a series of fleet manoeuvres. A number of diplomatic receptions have been held on all three US navy ships and on the Home Fleet flagship Majestic, providing an opportunity for dignitaries from both nations to get to know each other better. Using the new hotline established between the Admiralty and the United States Navy Department, President Truman has invited a Royal Navy task group to visit New America in the new year.
2nd November 1898
The civilian spaceport on Victoria has completed three new civilian colony ships, based on the same White Star II design as the next generation of government-owned colony ship, the first three of which will be completed in April 1899. There are now five civilian operated colony ships in commission. The first two are of the original White Star design and have been transporting paying passengers from Victoria to Athena, in the Britannia-B system.
White Star II class Colony Ship 7200 tons 389 Crew 1233.6 BP TCS 144 TH 540 EM 0
3750 km/s Armour 1-33 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 103% IFR: 1.4% Maintenance Capacity 428 MSP
Colonists 80000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 10
Whitworth Ion Engine (9) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 53.6 billion km (165 days at full power)7th December 1898
The United States has launched two jump-capable gravitational survey ships. The Barnard class is the first US design to feature either of these capabilities and will spearhead the United States? own space exploration program.
Barnard class Gravsurvey Ship 3750 tons 367 Crew 727.6 BP TCS 75 TH 300 EM 0
4000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-21 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/5/3/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 37% IFR: 0.5% Maintenance Capacity 364 MSP
J3750 Jump Drive Max Ship Size 3750 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Ion Engine E8 (5) Power 60 Efficiency 0.80 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 120.0 billion km (347 days at full power)
SPS-1 Search Sensor (1) GPS 4800 Range 48.0m km Resolution 60
Thermal Sensor TH5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Electromagnetic Sensor EM5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (3) 3 Survey Points
1st January 1899
The first day of the new year brings the news that a new colony has been established on an ideal habitable world in the Thermopylae system, three jumps from Britannia. Although Thermopylae III was discovered five years ago, it lacked natural resources so other colonization missions took precedence. In the meantime, our nine White Star class ships have been making the regular run to Sparta while the civilian-owned ships carried colonists to Athena. The mission to Thermopylae was carried out by the four Mongol-built Mughal class colony ships, escorted by the jump cruiser Blake.
17th March 1899
The Hermes class carriers Glorious and Courageous are launched by the Harland & Wolff shipyard. Enough fighters are now available to provide Hermes with a strikegroup of fifteen Avro 504 fighters and two BE2 scouts but Argus, Glorious and Courageous are without fighters. No more carriers will be built until the number of fighters has substantially increased. Seventy fighter factories are now in operations.
8th May 1899
The recently launched Centaur class troop transports have delivered a headquarters and three mobile infantry divisions to Karakorum. Over the last eight months there have been some scattered nationalist demonstrations, probably due to some of the populace taking advantage of our decision to lift the threat of orbital bombardment. The newly arrived ground forces will ensure these do not cause any long-term difficulties.
25th May 1899
The battleships Majestic and Victorious, escorted by the Minerva class light cruisers Diana and Venus, arrive in orbit of New America on a goodwill visit. They are warmly welcomed by President Truman. The purpose of the visit is to reinforce the steadily growing friendship and cooperation between the United States and the British Empire.
12th September 1899
British scientists on Victoria have made a made major breakthrough in propulsion technology, enabling the creation of new engines based on a Magneto-plasma drive that are expected to be 33% more powerful than ion-based engines.
25th November 1899
The Civilian Space Centre on Victoria has built two civilian freighters based on the Cunard class. These will be used by private sector companies to transport infrastructure to colonies located on hostile worlds. The infrastructure will be constructed by the private sector so this will not affect government-owned production facilities. As we do not have any hostile environment colonies at the moment, the Commission has decided to designate Manchester IV and Newcastle III. The former is a small, low gravity world within minimal atmosphere and virtually no mineral resources but it is located in an important transit system. It will be very useful as a sensor outpost and future military installation that guards one of the approaches to Britannia. The latter is a world much more similar to Victoria, although it is cold at -16C and the oxygen content of the atmosphere is only seventy percent of the minimum breathable pressure. As well as containing sixteen million tons of accessibility 0.5 Duranium, the planet is the site of an ancient ruined colony with a small number of abandoned factories and mines. Once our small terraforming fleet has completed its current mission in the Piraeus system, adjacent to Sparta, it will probably be dispatched to Newcastle III to transform it into an ideal habitable world. Newcastle?s location is also strategically vital, just one transit from Washington.
to be continued...
Steve
