[ooc]OOC: The chapters are starting to slow down as more and more things happen. This time the best break seemed to be discovering the intra-system jump gates. It certainly makes for good drama![/ooc]
Starting Date: June, 2126
Military Actions
Before any transit will take place, Admiral Owens wants to ensure that all his pieces are in place. The Demeter has just returned from picket duty to refuel and refit, and the Hecate has taken her place. No transit will happen without both ships available, since Owens intends to send one ship through and keep the other on-station until things look safe enough to allow the scientific fleets in. Until Demeter rejoins her sister ship, Owens plans to keep the frigate and destroyer fleets training, which should give them an additional 2-3 months. Demeter has not seen an overhaul in over a year.
Meanwhile, the designers at the shipyards have been preparing an updated package for the Stalkers. Though the ships are only 2 years old, the weapons technology that has come out during that time has been substantially improved. The package calls for:
- Removal of the (4) 40 EP engines in favor of (3) 80 EP engines. Ship speed increases from 2,285 km/sec to 2,891 km/sec and range increases from 16.9 bil km to 17.2 bil km.
- Removal of the Kaur Heavy Industries 10cm C2 IR lasers in favor of the Lei-He 12cm C3 IR lasers (4 of the new instead of 5 of the old). The range is increased to 40k from 30k.
As the cost of a Stalker is only 436 to begin with, it is decided there will be no refits of the old ships. Instead, production will turn to the new classes.
In late August the retooling is complete and two of the Stalker Mk.1s begin construction. At the same time, Owens orders the construction of three more Sheffields and the production of deep space tracking stations which will be sent to Mars and possibly other locations. Owens is being particularly careful even though they are nearing the eve of the movement through the gate. Call it a premonition, but Owens has a nagging feeling that he can’t quite put his finger on. Sometimes commanders have to rely on premonition and intuition when they have nothing else. And as the old axiom says: Sometimes it’s better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.
Demeter completes her overhaul right on October 1 and makes for the gate. There will be a delay as Hecate returns to refuel and resupply, but a tentative date for the gate jump is set at November 1. There is talk of delaying it until the end of the year, when the three Sheffields and two Stalker Mk. 1s will be completed. However, Commodore Phillips has been putting pressure on Owens to allow her through the gate, citing a lack of any indication of anything coming through. The Global Congress reflects this concern as well, which makes the decision even harder.
There are additional considerations. Equipment failure on board several frigates has forced Owens to send them in for overhaul. This leaves his current force at the three Sheffields which have moved to the gate in preparation.
Weighing the pros and cons, Owens decides to allow the Demeter to cross the gate on October 26.
At 16:37 Sol standard time, Demeter crosses the gate and emerges on the other side. It takes sensors a minute or two to come back online after the jump, but computers are quickly computing the ship’s location once they are back up. Within a few minutes Demeter sends a message back that they have arrived in the Procyon system, a binary star system.
Only one planet orbits Procyon-A, and it contains a high carbon dioxide/nitrogen dioxide atmospheric content. It is expected that colonization would be difficult at best, and it would take a major terraforming operation to do the job. Like it’s sister star, Procyon-B has a single planet in orbit, but this is a gas giant with 18 moons, none of them habitable.
With both of the geological survey ships undergoing overhaul, Owens allows Commodore Phillips and her team to proceed through the gate and begin a survey of any possible jump points in Procyon. As the threat from Procyon appears to be nil, the Destroyer TF is ordered to resume training exercises. Owens feels silly, but also notes there are three more jump points that have yet to be explored.
The Ship Design Bureau comes up with the Catapult-class Jump Ship. It’s a military ship by design, meant to provide access to the jump points but also be able to survive until it can safely jump out.
Catapult-class Jump Ship
Size: 4,800 tons
Crew Compliment: 122
Top Speed: 2,500 km/sec
Range: 14.9 billion km
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months
Maintenance Life: 3.14 years
Fuel Capacity: 250k liters
Richardson Dynamics 40 EP Nuclear Pulse Engine (3)
Knowles-Goodwin J5000(3-100) Military Jump Drive - Max tonnage: 5,000, # Ships: 3
Grant-Begum Active Search Sensor TH50-300
Nesterov-Konstantinov Thermal Sensor TH5-30
She is armored the same as the frigates/destroyers, but the addition of her active and passive sensors means that the AEW ships will not necessarily be needed to picket the points on either side.
The tactics envisioned are that one of these ships will be on each side of the point to allow for transit of Stalker-class frigates in the event that it appears that there are hostile forces on the other side. These would only transition through to provide a delaying action until reinforcements could picket the other side of the point; at that time, they would withdraw back through the point.
Cook Shipyard has just completed the addition of a second slip to their 6,000-ton capacity, and they are given the task of constructing the first two of this class. It is expected to take six months to complete, which will give the grav and geo teams plenty of time to explore Procyon in greater depth.
On November 7, the Patroclus crosses through the gate and heads towards Procyon-A I to conduct a geological survey. They will move to Procyon-B I afterwards and then return to Sol as the distance from the jump gate to either planet is substantial.
The three Sheffields and two Stalker Mk. Is float out of drydock on December 15. They are assigned to their respective fleets, though there is a shortage of eligible commanding officers at present which forces another round of likely-premature promotions. Additional Academies are going to be needed to turn out good officers. Fortunately, two geological survey teams have wound down operations in Sol, and a number of them are fleet officers. They are placed for reassignment and two of them are given commands once the first two Catapult-class Jump Ships leave drydock in late March.
The completion of these ships means that it is now possible for the UEA to begin looking at the other three Sol jump points. Once again. Admiral Owens moves cautiously, sending the Catapults to the first of the three Neptune-orbit points. It will take some 41 days for the ships to arrive, which will give Owens time to refuel his destroyer and frigate fleets and prepare to deploy them to the jump point.
On May 8, the Barricade, one of the two Catapults, traverses the jump point. Computers pinpoint their location as Lalande 21185-A. Lalande is a very large system with 9 planets orbiting it. Six are gas giants or Super Jovians with 133 moons between them - the inner 3 planets have no moons at all. Preliminary analysis suggests 10 of the moons and the third planet of the system could be inhabitable, with colony costs at or below 10 (to put it in perspective, Venus is 25).
There is one surprise that awaits the Barricade... the presence of three intra-system jump gates. Once again, the scientific community is scrambling and the military wonders if there might be anything unfriendly in the system.
Commercial/Civilian Actions
The Fujimoto Colony Corporation came into existence in April and produced their first large colony ship - capable of 100k colonists - in late May. Fujimoto is trying to encroach on Bird’s territory, but their one colony ship is up against 5 colony ships with a total capacity of about 350k colonists. Bird is also focused on the freight side of the ledger, with one small freighter, two larges and one huge.
All of these are helping develop the Mars colony, whose population as of July stands at nearly 20 million. 114 construction factories have been moved from Earth to help Mars get started, and there are some 250 mines already on planet (211 automated). Plans call for that number to increase by a factor of 10 in the next 4 years, part of an aggressive growth strategy under Governor Savage. There is also talk that one or more shipyards may move to Mars orbit once the mineral levels improve sufficiently.
Savage is not the only one with expansion on the brain. Even though Governor Parsons technically has no colony save the 270 auto mines on Venus, the supply of Duranium there dictates that a colony needs to eventually be formed there to increase production. Right now the planet sends about 4,000 tons of Duranium a year to Mars via mass driver, but Parsons wants production levels to be quadrupled within 5 years and is also calling for the deployment of terraforming units (of which 20 currently are in storage on Earth) to begin introducing oxygen into the atmosphere and reduce the greenhouse effects of the planet. The Global Congress agrees with this, and orders 10 of the 20 to be dispatched to Venus, with the other 10 likely to go to Mars once their population is improved.
The geological survey of Venus is completed at the end of July, 2126. No new mineral deposits are found. Commodore Phillips’ task force is asked to pick up the team and take them to the comet Whipple, where a force of 90 auto mines is currently working over a moderate quantity of Gallicite and smaller quantities of Tritanium, Uridium, and Corundium - all of which are being sent to Mars.
The first colonists arrive on October 1. It is estimated that 3.5 million will be needed for terraforming operations, which will require a substantial investment in infrastructure. Bird Transport is preparing to handle the colonist situation, as another new colony ship is launched. On October 9, the Global Congress elects to provide Fujimoto Colony Corporation a subsity of 5,000 - the same subsidy presented to Bird. There have been recent declarations from Fujimoto that the subsidy provided to Bird allowed them an unfair competitive advantage, and so the Congress decides to even the playing field.
In mid-November the geological survey of Luna is finished. As feared, no new deposits are found. Garner’s team will be picked up and sent to the asteroid Euphrosyne to verify the survey conducted there. As for Luna, she remains a good choice for a future colony but no immediate plans are in place with two other colonies already underway and an entirely new solar system to explore.
Christmas, 2126 shows the completion of the first planet in another solar system. Despite Procyon-A I being barely habitable, it is determined that the planet contains a wealth of resources, though many of them are going to be difficult - at best - to obtain.
Procyon-A I Preliminary Survey
Duranium: 11.8 mil (0.1)
Gallicite: 29.1 mil (0.1)
Neutronium: 6.2 mil (0.1)
Corbomite: 25.7 mil (0.1)
Tritanium: 4.6 mil (0.1)
Boronide: 25.2 mil (0.1)
Vendarite: 19.1 mil (0.1)
Uridium: 1.1 mil (0.80)
Corundium: 944k (0.1)
Mercassium: 746k (0.1)
Sorium: 420k (0.1)
Less than three weeks later, Procyon-B I is completed. Since it is a gas giant, it contains 1.3 million in Sorium with an accessibility rating of 0.7. The geological ships are recalled for the moment as none of the moons are habitable and there is ongoing discussion in the Congress as to how best to proceed.
Surveys of Euphrosyne and Whipple turn up negative. The geological survey teams are disbanded as additional officers and scientists are needed at the moment.
On April 3, 2127, news is passed to Administrator Faulkner: Scientist Jamie Horton, whose research has been so instrumental in the development of engine technology and the discovery of jump points, has developed a medical problem that will impact her long-term health. No official announcement is made of the diagnosis, and medical data is kept under tight scrutiny. It is believed, however, that the diagnosis involves cancer. Horton is undaunted, and determined to see that Ion Drive technology - her latest research topic - is completed by the end of the year. She recognizes that she has no successor to take her place - the closest is Oscar Hooper, but he does not have the same talents as Horton does.
At the end of April two of the new Telemachus Mk. 1 -class asteroid miners depart from drydock and set course for Euphrosyne. This variation does not carry any cargo space, instead adding three more asteroid mining modules which brings the fleet’s mineral production to 620 tons/year. Euphrosyne contains small quantities of Duranium, Vendarite, and Corundium, with a smaller deposit of Gallicite. The arrival of the two new ships is good news, for the three existing ships have been on station for two years or more and are in need of refueling.
