Posted by: bankshot
« on: April 09, 2020, 08:47:01 PM »Captain's Briefing Room, Missile Cruiser Ajax 4
61 Cygni outer system, near Sol Jump Point
November 25th, 2083
Five days later the jump from Sol to 61 Cygni was unsettling as ever but routine. What followed was even more unsettling and anything but routine. Colonel Barton had given him a message chip as soon as the jump completed, saying only "I was told you should view this as soon as we were in 61 Cygni". Imogen placed a chip into the secure reader and activated the display. The screen displayed the Lord Chancellor's arms with MOST SECRET, NATSEN, and NEODYNIUM codewords displayed below. It then shifted to a video of the Lord Chancellor at his desk.
"Commodore Imogen, I apologize for the secrecy, but we have a true emergency and the Regency council is far too busy panicking and looking for scapegoats to give rational directives. On November 20th we detected a transit by a unknown vessel from Kruger 60 to 61 Cygni. The ship's cross section matched no known configuration, and when challenged it replied with an indecipherable reply, so we believe this is our first encounter with an live aliens. The xenologists and Colonel Barton's diplomatic team will be doing all they can to establish friendly communications, but should those efforts fail you will be the one who has to deal with the immediate consequences. Oliver's no slouch and I saw how you snookered him in the last fleet exercises. That's why I had Gemma promote him to handle the Earth-Luna PDC network so you would be in charge of Battle Fleet for this.
The alien ship moved at 1,777 km/s, was estimated to displace 2,700 tons, and moved in the direction of a known survey point when it left the range of the Watchman buoy. The drive signature was like nothing in our database, and spectral analysis of the scanner returns showed a pronounced Neodynium emission line on the signature. And that sums up all we know, the rest is extrapolation and speculation. Given its size and predicted destination we believe it is a gravitic survey ship.
Our analysts have given it the code name Wallaroo. Based on the tonnage and power output our best guess is that the ship uses Ion propulsion but it could be using higher tier engines that are tuned for fuel efficiency instead of maximum power. That Neodynium emission line may even be from frequency doublers used for inertial confinement fusion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium#Lasers If that is the case they are on par or slightly ahead of us, as we have only begun to build ships with ICF drives.
I'm sure you talked to Callum before you broke orbit so you know how FUBARed our ammo logistics are at present. I've shut down automine production on Earth and started up ordinance factory production but that will take months to make any real difference. I wasn't able to add Luna's production - the council demanded priority production of more tracking stations for 61 Cygni and Kruger 60 even though it would make much more sense to shift those we already have. So for now the missiles you have in your magazines is the best of what we have. I also cancelled the scrap order for the last three remaining Ajax 3 class cruisers. They will be at your disposal as colliers once we have something to load in them.
Your job for now is to reestablish contact with this craft then watch and wait. I've dispatched a Cato carrier wing to join you to provide additional tracking, it should arrive in a couple of days. Hopefully our diplo team will establish communication with these aliens and we can be friendly but that's not something we can count on.
Our first priority is the survival of humankind, and since most of our industry and all of our shipyards are in the Sol system the security of this system is paramount. So it cannot be permitted to discover the warp point you just transited. Your second priority is the survival of your command. Your two dozen cruisers represent almost our entire mobile military and cannot be replaced. Take no risks with battle fleet. If we have seen the Wallaroo's true speed you should be able to maintain the range and bearing of your choosing.
Your third priority is the defense of 61 Cygni. This ship is too small to be a threat to the system but more may come through the Kruger 60 jump point at any time. Unfortunately Kruger 60 must survive on its own until we secure 61 Cygni. I've ordered PDC production to resume on colonies with industry which should discourage casual raids but won't be worth much against a real fleet. And your final priority is to keep as much of our capabilities a secret as possible. If the aliens believe your battle group is only capable of moving at 3,000 km/s your true speed of 7,989 could prove decisive in a later fleet action.
Good luck Commodore, and Godspeed. I'm sure we will be in contact again soon.
61 Cygni outer system, near Sol Jump Point
November 25th, 2083
Five days later the jump from Sol to 61 Cygni was unsettling as ever but routine. What followed was even more unsettling and anything but routine. Colonel Barton had given him a message chip as soon as the jump completed, saying only "I was told you should view this as soon as we were in 61 Cygni". Imogen placed a chip into the secure reader and activated the display. The screen displayed the Lord Chancellor's arms with MOST SECRET, NATSEN, and NEODYNIUM codewords displayed below. It then shifted to a video of the Lord Chancellor at his desk.
"Commodore Imogen, I apologize for the secrecy, but we have a true emergency and the Regency council is far too busy panicking and looking for scapegoats to give rational directives. On November 20th we detected a transit by a unknown vessel from Kruger 60 to 61 Cygni. The ship's cross section matched no known configuration, and when challenged it replied with an indecipherable reply, so we believe this is our first encounter with an live aliens. The xenologists and Colonel Barton's diplomatic team will be doing all they can to establish friendly communications, but should those efforts fail you will be the one who has to deal with the immediate consequences. Oliver's no slouch and I saw how you snookered him in the last fleet exercises. That's why I had Gemma promote him to handle the Earth-Luna PDC network so you would be in charge of Battle Fleet for this.
The alien ship moved at 1,777 km/s, was estimated to displace 2,700 tons, and moved in the direction of a known survey point when it left the range of the Watchman buoy. The drive signature was like nothing in our database, and spectral analysis of the scanner returns showed a pronounced Neodynium emission line on the signature. And that sums up all we know, the rest is extrapolation and speculation. Given its size and predicted destination we believe it is a gravitic survey ship.
Our analysts have given it the code name Wallaroo. Based on the tonnage and power output our best guess is that the ship uses Ion propulsion but it could be using higher tier engines that are tuned for fuel efficiency instead of maximum power. That Neodynium emission line may even be from frequency doublers used for inertial confinement fusion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium#Lasers If that is the case they are on par or slightly ahead of us, as we have only begun to build ships with ICF drives.
I'm sure you talked to Callum before you broke orbit so you know how FUBARed our ammo logistics are at present. I've shut down automine production on Earth and started up ordinance factory production but that will take months to make any real difference. I wasn't able to add Luna's production - the council demanded priority production of more tracking stations for 61 Cygni and Kruger 60 even though it would make much more sense to shift those we already have. So for now the missiles you have in your magazines is the best of what we have. I also cancelled the scrap order for the last three remaining Ajax 3 class cruisers. They will be at your disposal as colliers once we have something to load in them.
Your job for now is to reestablish contact with this craft then watch and wait. I've dispatched a Cato carrier wing to join you to provide additional tracking, it should arrive in a couple of days. Hopefully our diplo team will establish communication with these aliens and we can be friendly but that's not something we can count on.
Our first priority is the survival of humankind, and since most of our industry and all of our shipyards are in the Sol system the security of this system is paramount. So it cannot be permitted to discover the warp point you just transited. Your second priority is the survival of your command. Your two dozen cruisers represent almost our entire mobile military and cannot be replaced. Take no risks with battle fleet. If we have seen the Wallaroo's true speed you should be able to maintain the range and bearing of your choosing.
Your third priority is the defense of 61 Cygni. This ship is too small to be a threat to the system but more may come through the Kruger 60 jump point at any time. Unfortunately Kruger 60 must survive on its own until we secure 61 Cygni. I've ordered PDC production to resume on colonies with industry which should discourage casual raids but won't be worth much against a real fleet. And your final priority is to keep as much of our capabilities a secret as possible. If the aliens believe your battle group is only capable of moving at 3,000 km/s your true speed of 7,989 could prove decisive in a later fleet action.
Good luck Commodore, and Godspeed. I'm sure we will be in contact again soon.