Russian Federation - 23rd January 2104
ColoniesEarth 413m
Novaya Rodina: 45m
Novaya Zemlya (EZ Aquarii): 13.7m
Tau Ceti: 0.05m
Over the last four years the Russian Federation has discovered thirty-one new systems. Until recently, that exploration had not resulted in any major discoveries; no ruins had been found and no particularly valuable systems. That changed in mid-2103 when Russian survey ships explored the area beyond the planetless Epsilon Eridani system (see map below). The first system further out was Kazan, an unremarkable red dwarf system with eight planets. Kazan had three further jump points, two of which led to the systems of St. Petersburg and St. Ekaterina. The latter system had only a single planet, a large rocky world with a nitrogen atmosphere of 0.24 atm and a colony cost of 2.00. On the surface was an abandoned but partially intact alien colony, the most valuable archaeological discovery in known space. A Russian xenology team made remarkable progress in understanding the alien language and identified two hundred and eighty-two installations for possible recovery.
St Petersburg, perhaps the most valuable system discovered by any human survey ship, was a quaternary with two F-class stars, two G-class stars, fifteen planets and eighty moons. Seven of the system bodies had colony costs between 2.00 and 3.00, four more had colony costs lower than 5.00 and a further eleven had sufficient gravity to support a colony. St Petersburg-D II was home to another partially intact alien colony, an alien research facility that would almost double the output of research facilities working on construction or production technologies and six million tons of accessibility 0.7 Duranium, along with nine other minerals at low accessibility. The temperature was 43C and the atmosphere was 1.25 atm of nitrogen and CO2, which meant the addition of sufficient oxygen plus a small temperature reduction would make this an ideal habitable world. In addition, St Petersburg-B II had a breathable atmosphere, although with a temperature of -70C and St Petersburg-C IV was also a good terraforming candidate which actually had too much oxygen in the atmosphere. The system was also a mineral treasure house, with large quantities of all mineral types at high accessibilities. In addition to the planets and moons shown below, there were a large number of asteroids and several comets with high quality deposits. The only disadvantage for St Petersburg was that the B and D components were fifteen billion kilometres from the primary and there were no Lagrange points in the system.
St Petersburg-C VI - Moon 6 Mineral Survey - CC5.45
Duranium 415,872 Acc: 0.8
Corbomite 608,400 Acc: 0.9
Vendarite 646,416 Acc: 0.8
Uridium 1,354,896 Acc: 0.7
Gallicite 501,264 Acc: 1
St Petersburg-D IV - Moon 3 Mineral Survey - AM only
Duranium 472,392 Acc: 1
Tritanium 5,184 Acc: 0.8
Boronide 9,801 Acc: 0.7
Sorium 431,649 Acc: 0.9
Uridium 142,884 Acc: 0.8
Corundium 272,484 Acc: 0.6
St Petersburg-C II Mineral Survey - CC3.97
Duranium 2,298,368 Acc: 1
Neutronium 1,638,400 Acc: 0.8
Boronide 147,456 Acc: 0.6
Mercassium 409,600 Acc: 1
St Petersburg-A II Mineral Survey - CC4.55
Duranium 3,612,672 Acc: 0.7
Boronide 1,695,204 Acc: 1
Gallicite 1,285,956 Acc: 0.7
While Russia's leaders were celebrating this discovery, a survey ship entered a jump point in St Ekaterina and discovered Kapteyn's Star. The second planet was home to a ruined alien city and another alien research installation, this time dedicated to missile and kinetic technology. The planet had an nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere of 0.18 and a temperature of 78C, making it a reasonable terraforming candidate. As the three systems containing alien ruins, alien installations and several planets ideal for terraforming were within a chain of just four systems in total, this area immediately became the focal point for future Russian expansion. The immediate concern though was how to prevent this valuable territory from being exploited by other nations. Manchuria was the only urgent problem as the other twelve powers did not appear to have any serious interest in the Russo-Manchurian Arm, apart from a small Canadian colony in Manchu. Various options were considered, including a direct strike at the main Manchurian colony as a prelude to seizing the entire Arm and and the less aggressive but still incendiary option of refusing to allow Manchurian traffic to pass through Novaya Rodina. Both those options though entailed considerable risk to Russian industrial capacity on Earth and in Earth orbit. Even if Russia won a war against Manchuria, the cost could be high and leave a weakened Russia open to attack from a third power. Eventually, it was decided to declare the planetless Epsilon Eridani system, the only way to reach the St Petersburg area, a Russian military exercise zone and to warn other nations not to enter. A cruiser and two destroyers were dispatched to guard the jump point from Teegarden's Star. A Manchurian survey ship attempted to approach the jump point but left without serious complaint when warned off by the Russian warships. The other powers raised no objections at all.
The situation also made the Russian Navy aware that it could not mount any operation in Epsilon Eridani or beyond due to a lack of jump-capable warships. If a ship of another power did enter Epsilon Eridani, there was nothing the Russian Navy could do to stop them until jump gates were constructed. As a result, a design for the Project 1214 Berkut-J class Cruiser was created. This new class was a Project 1201 with some of the weapons removed to allow space for a jump drive. Two ships,
Admiral Isakov and
Admiral Nakhimov, were laid down and will be available in early 2105.
Project 1214 Berkut-J class Cruiser 12,000 tons 300 Crew 1738.4 BP TCS 240 TH 972 EM 0
4050 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 4-46 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/6/0/0 Damage Control Rating 7 PPV 30.75
Maint Life 2.03 Years MSP 634 AFR 164% IFR 2.3% 1YR 205 5YR 3068 Max Repair 266 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Spare Berths 1
Magazine 125
MJD-12000 Max Ship Size 12000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
NPO Energomash R-324 Ion Engine (3) Power 324 Fuel Use 58.4% Signature 324 Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 770,000 Litres Range 19.8 billion km (56 days at full power)
100mm/L3 Railgun (4x4) Range 30,000km TS: 4050 km/s Power 3-3 RM 3 ROF 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Railgun Fire Control (2) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 4000 km/s 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Medium Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (1) Total Power Output 3.15 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (2) Total Power Output 9 Armour 0 Exp 5%
SSM Box Launcher (25) Missile Size 5 Hangar Reload 37.5 minutes MF Reload 6.2 hours
Volna-600 Missile Fire Control (1) Range 63.1m km Resolution 120
SS-N-1 Scarab (25) Speed: 20,200 km/s End: 68.8m Range: 83.4m km WH: 9 Size: 5 TH: 67/40/20
Voshkod MR-4 Missile Detection (1) GPS 64 Range 3.8m km MCR 418k km Resolution 1
Voshkod MR-600 (1) GPS 11520 Range 63.1m km Resolution 120
EM-12 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
Russian naval shipyard capacity has grown from 50,000 to 59,000 tons since January 2100, while commercial capacity has risen from 160,000 to 300,000 tons. During that time the shipyards constructed a Project 1201 Berkut class cruiser, four Project 1202 Sarych class Destroyers, a single gravitational survey ship, five colony ships, four freighters and a fuel harvester. In addition to the jump-capable cruisers mentioned above, the shipyards are currently building two more destroyers, a survey ship, three colony ships, a fuel harvester and first two Project 1211 full size construction ships. Russia is the only nation currently operating a construction ship with a small construction module.
The Russian Federation has three shipping lines operating eleven ships between them with a combined tonnage of 587,000. The Russian economy is in fair condition; mineral shortages are becoming an issue but the reserve of wealth is reasonable and there are no immediate issues with fuel. The strategic objective for Russian now is to exploit the St Petersburg area as soon as possible while preventing any other nations from emulating the Russian discoveries.