Posted by: Michael Sandy
« on: November 08, 2006, 06:47:55 PM »Yep, a slum. But much nicer than the radioactive rubble that Earth would be.
Looking at how thorough the resource crunch is for the Terran Union and the Asian Alliance, I wonder if the Commonwealth could do well by buying their manned mines at fire sale prices. Say 60 Duranium per manned mine.
The Asian alliance has 1842 tons of Duranium in various places and 1479 supply.
The Terran Union has 800 Duranium and 11 maintenance. That is a pretty desperate situation.
Of the two, the Terran Union has more freighters and 47 automated mines compared to 55 for the Asian Alliance, but the Terran Union has far more explored territory close to it.
Once the Asian Alliance exhausts the asteroids in the Sol system, it is stuck. The Terran Union can cut back its economy to the point that the Nantes mines bring in enough Duranium, but what it needs is more automated mines.
So an interesting diplomatic option would be to subsidize the Terran Union's exploration and colonization efforts. When the Asian Alliance runs out of resources, they can look either to the Terran Union, Gitanyow or the Commonwealth for mining sites. The Terran Union will have probably cut back even more on the warships to eke out just a bit more hope of avoiding economic contraction, and Gitanyow will be as tough as ever. So if the Asians push on the Terran Union, where does the Terran Union have to turn?
If the Commonwealth can get the Terran Union as a 'slave' state, or whatever, they get access to the research labs, shipyards, etc... They can basically offer the Asian Alliance leadership a colony world with few resources as a haven come Nemesis. (Herakleia).
>It is possible the cruiser could attack the gate itself but in that case >Comanche would send a message through the gate to summon Poseidon >and Earth would be notified immediately.
Could the Poseidon have gotten back to Sol in time to make any difference? I thought it was trapped there until a Jump Cruiser arrived.
>Scylla and Charybdis arrive at the Sol
It would be interesting for the Terrans and the Alliance to sit down and compare notes, as they have both lost ships in Corinth - the Terrans to an "alien race", and the Alliance to "faulty Jump Point Gravitational Stabilizers".
If they ever do compare notes, and the Terrans tell the Alliance that there is no such things as "Jump Point Gravitational Stabilizers", I would expect that both the Terrans and the Alliance will have suspicions about who really caused their ships to be lost......
18th July 2050
The Islamic ambassador to the Commonwealth delivers a message from his government demanding information about the fate of the Islamic ship that entered the Corinth jump point four days ago. According to the message, unless such information is provided, the Islamic Alliance will assume that the ship was destroyed by Commonwealth forces. It appears the Alliance takes a slightly more pro-active stance than the Terrans when one of their ships disappears. The Islamic Alliance also completes the reactivation of a 4450 ton Hufuf class destroyer and begins reactivating an Ashdod class freighter.
19th July 2050
A message is delivered to the Caliph, head of the Islamic Alliance, by the Commonwealth ambassador, stating that jump gates are being constructed on each side of the Sol
Perhaps the Islamic Alliance will believe this song and dance about their missing ship. Want to place a bet on it? If I were in their shoes, I wouldn't believe it.