WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS WITHIN!!
Tales of the Union.
The Union Discovered! (8 )
27th June 83 Phi-2 Ceti. The first discovery in Phi-2 Ceti was that the ruins on Phi-2 Ceti-A II and A IV were obviously built by the same species. The Fang Quin Juan team were racing the Nicholas Porter team to break the cipher of the aliens written and electronic records and unlock the identity of the vanished race. The Fang Quin Juan xeno team won that race and identified the builders as the Church of Beaumaris, a tech level 4 civilisation. To be fair they had much more material to work with than the Nicholas Porter team. The Fang Quin Juan team found 1031 installations which might be recovered on Phi-2 Ceti-A II, which was far more that the Nicholas Porter team as they found only 64 installations on Phi-2 Ceti-A VI. The two planets will be named Beaumaris Alpha and Beta respectively.
26th March 84. Excalibur – Avalon-A IV. The first seven of the new Argon Mk VI class, Tellurium, Thallium, Indium, Gallium, Terbium, Palladium and Dysprosium, left the orbital ‘yard complex at Excalibur - Avalon-A IV and were assigned to Training Squadron – Avalon for working up prior to be dispersed to their duty Task Groups. Two more will follow over the next few months. The principal reason for these vessels was to equip the new fast task groups with their own integral escort able to keep up with the rest of the task group.
Argon Mk VI class Escort 8,500 tons 817 Crew 8285 BP TCS 170 TH 201.6 EM 3360
14823 km/s Armour 4-37 Shields 112-400 Sensors 18/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 34 PPV 49.5
Maint Life 4.27 Years MSP 2741 AFR 128% IFR 1.8% 1YR 242 5YR 3628 Max Repair 750 MSP
MilSpec SCAD E2.75 (12) Power 210 Fuel Use 27.5% Signature 16.8 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 270,000 Litres Range 207.9 billion km (162 days at full power)
Sigma R400/20 Shields (14) Total Fuel Cost 280 Litres per day
Advanced 20cm X-Ray Laser (2) Range 800,000km TS: 14823 km/s Power 10-10 RM 7 ROF 5 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 10 9 8
Twin Gauss Cannon R5-50 Turret (5x10) Range 50,000km TS: 52500 km/s Power 0-0 RM 5 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S04 400-12500 (2) Max Range: 800,000 km TS: 12500 km/s 99 98 96 95 94 92 91 90 89 88
Fire Control S01.4 34-50000 (5) Max Range: 68,000 km TS: 50000 km/s 85 71 56 41 26 12 0 0 0 0
Gas-core Anti-matter Power Plant Technology PB-1 (2) Total Power Output 20 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor MR76-R16 (1) GPS 960 Range 76.8m km Resolution 16
Active Search Sensor MR7-R1 (1) GPS 24 Range 7.7m km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH1-18 (1) Sensitivity 18 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 18m km
Compact ECCM-5 (2) ECM 60
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes 16th January 84. Vyssotsky McCormick 71. Exploration of a jump point in the Giclas 126-49 system by Survey Task Group 3 has revealed the new system of Vyssotsky McCormick 71. This was a lonely K6-V star without the suspicion of a planetary system. The survey group began a gravitational survey.
30th May 84: Canyon - 15 Sagittae-A II. Squadron Leader Scott Tyler was assigned to the Bai Ting Kang Geology Team. Squadron Leader Tyler had a notable career in Survey Command before taking this assignment with the Union Department of Systems Development. While serving in this capacity Squadron Leader Tyler remains within Survey Command and was only seconded to the Department. Many former Survey officers are employed this way.
27th August 84. Charter - Mu Cygni-B III. Addition of Nitrogen to the atmosphere of Charter - Mu Cygni-B III has been halted as the atmospheric pressure has reached one atmosphere. Charter - Mu Cygni-B III was the first of three planets in the B component to be achieve an HI of 0 and thus be considered terraformed, however the finishing touches took considerably longer. A final planet in the A component will be the last to be terraformed in this system.
4th October 84. Excalibur – Avalon-A IV. Iridium (Argon Mk VI class) built on Excalibur - Avalon-A IV and assigned to Training Squadron – Avalon prior to being assigned to its operational Task Group.
27th October 84. Gliese 898. Exploration of a jump point in the Xi Pegasi system by Survey Task Group 2 revealed the new system of Gliese 898. This was a planetless K4-V star with no intrinsic value. The squadron set about a gravitational survey.
27th October 84. Excalibur – Avalon-A IV. Stellar Lifter (Stellar Mk III class) built on Excalibur - Avalon-A IV and assigned to Training Squadron – Avalon.
30th November 84. Phi-2 Ceti. Captain Brandon Briggs was relaxing in his sizeable quarters aboard the construction vessel Galain III-006 idling at the Gliese 16 jump point awaiting his next assignment. These were large vessels and unless you were unlucky quite safe, although this particular marque had not a sensor worthy of the name. Captain Briggs had a large whiskey in one hand and in the other his pad, displaying a racy novel by one of his favourite authors. He cursed whoever had posted him to the construction division, but while he was here he would make the best of this comfortable berth. Without any warning whatsoever the ships alarms burst into action, drink and pad went flying as Briggs scrambled out of his recliner and made a dash for the bridge, his only thought was “what had that idiot of a second officer done now?” When he burst into the bridge there was a frozen tableau of his sensor officer and the second officer staring at the scanner screen which was displaying the blood red icon of an imminent threat just klicks from the hull. “Shut that row off!” Was his first command, his second utterance “what the devil have you two done” was answered by the two subordinates pointing at the screen, The comp chose that moment to cut in and delivered in a deadpan voice ”A new ship class has been detected in Phi-2 Ceti. It has been designated the YM-2800 class. The new contact has been designated YM-2800 002, thermal contact strength 240. New Alien Race Detected in Phi-2 Ceti.” Briggs dived for the ansible console and started sending, those poor sods on Beaumaris Alpha and Beta wouldn’t have a clue until the light-speed laser com reached them, but Star Corps on Avalon and Iota Piscuim would and hopefully get their backsides in gear! “Get the pilot; let’s move this bucket to jump point 2.” The unthinkable had happened! Aliens had found the Union, it was meant to be the other way round. Thus were the Phi-2 Ceti aliens brought to the attention of the Union.
Star Corps did indeed move into high gear. Task Force 5 was immediately ordered to Phi-2 Ceti to protect the nascent sector capital. Task Force 4 was now the garrison force for Iota Piscium and Task Group 4.4 was ordered to picket the Gliese 16 side of the Iota Piscium/Gliese 16 wormhole to see if this intimidated the new aliens. A pre-fabbed Fort Mk III PDC was dispatched to Beaumaris Alpha, Beaumaris Beta and Asran along with the requisite ordnance. A ground side ansible receiving station was set up on Beaumaris Beta – Phi-2 Ceti-A IV.
Fort Mk III class Planetary Defence Centre 15,550 tons 1160 Crew 4264.5 BP TCS 311 TH 0 EM 0
Armour 11-55 Sensors 42/1500 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 84
Troop Capacity: 1 Battalion Magazine 1560
Triple R4.5/C3 Meson Cannon Turret (2x3) Range 45,000km TS: 57600 km/s Power 9-9 RM 4.5 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
CIWS-320 (2x10) Range 1000 km TS: 32000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
PDC Fire Control S02 56.25-40000 (2) Max Range: 112,500 km TS: 40000 km/s 91 82 73 64 56 47 38 29 20 11
Solid-core Anti-matter Power Plant Technology PB-1 (2) Total Power Output 16 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Solid-core Anti-matter Power Plant Technology PB-1 (1) Total Power Output 3.2 Armour 0 Exp 5%
PDC Size 1 Missile Launcher (10) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 5
PDC Size 5 Missile Launcher (10) Missile Size 5 Rate of Fire 15
Missile Fire Control FC230-R16 (2) Range 230.4m km Resolution 16
Missile Fire Control FC28-R1 (2) Range 28.8m km Resolution 1
Arrow III (560) Speed: 45,000 km/s End: 2.7m Range: 7.2m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 450 / 270 / 135
Novastar III (200) Speed: 65,600 km/s End: 35m Range: 138m km WH: 12 Size: 5 TH: 350 / 210 / 105
Active Search Sensor MR19-R1 (1) GPS 60 Range 19.2m km Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR1920-R16 (1) GPS 24000 Range 1,920.0m km Resolution 16
Thermal Sensor TH3-42 (1) Sensitivity 42 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 42m km
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 7 sections 2nd December 84. Gliese 16. As Task Force 5 transited across Gliese 16 the sensors on the fleet scouts picked up the alien scouts YM-2800 003 and 004. How many more of these 2400 ton, 5000 k/s survey craft were operating in Union space! How long had they been there and where did they come from?
3rd December 84. Gliese 16. The question asked the previous day was begun to be answered as Task Force 5 penetrated further into Gliese 16 towards its target of the Phi-2 Ceti wormhole. New alien contacts appeared on the fleet scout Farsight’s sensors as YM-2800 005 and 006 were detected.
In Phi-2 Ceti the DSTS were moved from A I moon 3 to Beaumaris Beta – Phi-2 Ceti-A IV to try and improve coverage further out system, but it was still insufficient to cover the majority of the systems jump points. Further fleet movements were underway. Survey Group 3 was still in overhaul at Asran – Iota Piscium-A VII so Survey Group 7 was directed to Phi-2 Ceti to start the laborious task to backtrack the aliens to their core systems. This could take some time as Phi-2 Ceti had six unexplored jump points. Survey Group 3 would join the hunt when it has completed its overhaul.
13th December 84. Gliese 898. Survey Task Group 2 completed their gravitational survey of Gliese 898. The system the system was found to have a total of 8 jump points.
13th December 84. Gliese 16. The Phi-2 Ceti aliens ignored the presence of Task Group 4.4 sitting on the Iota Piscium wormhole and transited into Iota Piscium anyway. There was one salutary effect. Whereas before the aliens entered the system the Asrans were always protesting at the presence of the Union Task Force in the system, they were now demanding an increased naval presence!
26th December 84. Phi-2 Ceti. Communications were finally achieved with the new aliens. They called themselves the Lleida Hierarchy. These aliens looked remarkably human! However their communications were very brief and contained little of substance. The aliens were also very reticent on the location of their home world.
28th December 84. Gliese 900. Survey Task Group 2 working out of Xi Pegasi discovered the new system of Gliese 900 via a previously unexplored jump point. Gliese 900 was an unremarkable M0-V star with a gaggle of planets and a pair of asteroid belts. The squadron began a gravitational survey; the geological survey would come later.
2nd January 85. GJ 1008. Survey Task Group 7 arrived in the Phi-2 Ceti system. They wasted no time and entered the nearest unexplored jump point. This revealed the new system of GJ 1008. This was a single K7-0 star without any companion bodies. The Survey Group set about a gravitational survey.
28th January 85. Beaumaris Beta - Phi-2 Ceti-A IV. The 186th Engineer Brigade disturbed an underground vault on Beaumaris Beta - Phi-2 Ceti-A IV that contained Destroyer android soldiers. These were at the high end for sophistication, not far off those found on Wayland – SAO 89188-A II. The 4th Sky & Light were the garrison division. In their immediate response with the duty brigade they decimated the leading cybernetic formation.
3rd February 85. Beaumaris Beta - Phi-2 Ceti-A IV. While the leading cybernetic unit had been savaged it was not out of the fight yet. It managed to assault the 239th Brigade Headquarters unit The HQ staff were forced into hand-to-hand combat with the mechanical monsters, 18% did not survive the experience. Regular MI units came to their rescue and utterly destroyed at least a quarter of the cybernetic warriors and decimated a second unit.
8th February 85. Beaumaris Beta - Phi-2 Ceti-A IV. The clockwork killers had run out of steam and were rolled back; the two mechaniod battalions suffered extensive decommissioning losing 25% and 40% of their number respectively. Even the MI replacement battalions got in on the action with the 206th Replacement Battalion seeing action which increased the morale of the unit.
13th February 85. Beaumaris Beta - Phi-2 Ceti-A IV. Working carefully so as to preserve the infrastructure and facilities of the colony the 4th Sky & Light pushed the enemy back to the vault from which they emerged. On the way one of the cybernetic battalions was completely reduced to spare parts.
17th February 85. GJ 1008. Survey Task Group 7 completed their gravitational survey in the GJ 1008 system. The system had a total of three jump points, but there was no evidence of open wormholes or Lleida Hierarchy construction vessels.
18th February 85. Beaumaris Beta - Phi-2 Ceti-A IV. In the time honoured fashion the 4th Sky & Light collapsed the bunker in which the remaining mechanical monsters had taken refuge, ending their threat for all time.
29th February 85. NN 4378Survey Task Group 7 chose a new jump point to explore out of Phi-2 Ceti. This revealed the new system of NN 4378. This was an M5-V star with but a handful of cometary bodies to keep it company.
HIP 117042At the same time Survey Task Group 2 was active in the Xi Pegasi system. Exploration of a jump point in the Xi Pegasi system revealed the new system of HIP 117042, a G0-V star with a couple of planets and a few comets.
3rd March 85. Gliese 36. Gliese 36. Survey Task Group 3 was fresh out of overhaul and returned to Phi-2 Ceti raring to go. Exploration of an unexplored jump point in the Phi-2 Ceti system revealed the new system of Gliese 36. This was another planetless star, a G9-V this time. The Group set about a gravitational survey.
26th March 84.Excalibur - Avalon-AIV. The escort Indium (Argon Mk VI class) left the naval orbital ‘yards in Excalibur - Avalon-A IV orbit and was assigned to Training Squadron Excalibur prior to its deployment to its operational task group, TG 5.3.
28th March 85. NN 4378. Survey Task Group 7 completed their gravitational survey in the NN 4378 system. The system had only the one jump point. This system could be ruled out as the route by which the Lleida Hierarchy found the Union.
5th April 85. Phi-2 Ceti. Gailain III-006 found gainful employment in opening wormholes to the newly discovered systems. The first target was the Phi-2 Ceti side of the Phi-2 Ceti/NN4378 wormhole. This one at least should be safe, since there was only one way in and the Survey Group had been in there a month with nothing untoward occurring.
7th April 86. 15 Sagittae-A II. Squadron Leader Scott Tyler was promoted to Group Commander and command of the Bai Ting Kang Geology Team.
10th April 85. EG 285. Survey Task Group 7 took the next jump point on the list. Exploration of this jump point in the Phi-2 Ceti system revealed the new system of EG 285. EG 285 was a D9-VII star with a single planet barely worthy of the name and a few comets. The Group started a gravitational survey.
23rd April 85. HIP 117042. Survey Task Group 2 completed their gravitational survey in the HIP 117042 system. The system had a total of four jump points.
26th April 85. 9 Ceti. Survey Task Group 3 completed orders by entering yet another jump point in the Phi-2 Ceti system. This one revealed the new system of 9 Ceti. 9 Ceti was a G3-V star with a few planets and comets, nothing of apparent interest. The Survey Group began their gravitational survey.
13th May 85. Iota Piscium. Cargo Task Group 11 approached Comet #4 in the Iota Piscium system. It was a routine run to establish a government mining colony. It was an Asran officer in command, not only was it his first command but he was one of a recent intake rushed through training and thus not entirely sure what all the systems did. He noticed as they went into orbit about the comet a red light came on, on his console no less. This Asran was one of the brighter ones; after all he had made a command slot. He knew a red light meant something wrong, even if he was not entirely sure what. He established a comms link with system control, which soon cottoned on to the problem as he described his predicament. System control was able to reassure the Asran captain saying the light will go out when you leave orbit. The system controller had been present in December 82. System control alerted the 9th Marine Division and they rapidly made their way to Comet #4. As the 9th Marines transports approached the comet the thermal signature of an Asran Council colony glowed crimson on their screens. It was not a hard decision for the Star Corps high command to decide a resurvey of the Iota Pisium system was necessary. Survey Task Group 6(G) was dispatched with all haste.
17th May 85. Iota Piscium - Comet #4. The 9th Marine Division completed their deployment on the small asteroid and commenced their envelopment of the holdout Asran Council colony.
22nd May 85. Iota Piscium. Survey Group 6(G) arrived in system to begin a complete geological resurvey of the Iota Piscium system.
25th May 85. LHS 1247. Exploration of a jump point in the Phi-2 Ceti system by Survey Task Group 7 revealed the new system of LHS 1247. This system consisted of a D7-VII star, one planet with one moon and five comets, nothing of real interest. The survey group started a gravitational survey.
29th May 85. NN4378. The Galain III-006 was almost halfway through the tricky operation of making the Phi-2 Ceti/NN4378 wormhole bidirectional. Captain Briggs was on the bridge overseeing the operation. The proximity warning alarm suddenly blared into life, startling all in the compartment. “Not those bleeding aliens again” thought Briggs as he brought up the sensor screen on his console. What he saw made him go white, no matter the fact he had a rich dark skin. It was aliens again all right, but these were a death sentence for most if not all aboard, twenty Horde gunboats were not more than 90,000 klicks away on a bearing of 288 degrees and a declination of 0.5 minutes. “Where had they come from? There’s no other way in!” He thought as he said “Pilot lay in a course for Comet #3 maximum burn.” The bridge staff looked at him questioningly, one asked timorously “what, but we’re in the middle of the wormhole operation?” “Now! Immediately!” Briggs loudly retorted. His one thought was to try and clear the jump point as he triggered the ansible’s omega function, that way the horrors wouldn’t be sitting on the jump point when the cavalry came through, he knew Task Force 5 was sitting in Phi-2 Ceti. He had his doubts his untrained crew could manage it but it was all he could do in the circumstances.
Even as Briggs issued the orders the vessel shuddered as twenty meson beams exploded within the confines of the hull, the most affected part of the ship was of course the engines. Seven of the great Celesteon Designs drive units blew as vital parts disintegrated under the barrage. Alarms were now activated throughout the ship as compartments opened to space; Briggs gave the only order he could. “All hands prepare to abandon ship.” His hope of moving the great 107,100 ton vessel also abandoned as the Horde gunboats closed to 70,000 klicks. The ship shuddered again as the deadly beams did their work of destruction. More drive units failed. The jump point stabilisation module took hit after hit, but eventually it too failed explosively, killing over 400 of the crew as it did so. Briggs sealed his suit and fitted his helmet as the entrances to the escape pods irised open. Briggs made his final announcement “all hands abandon ship” before shepherded the bridge staff into the escape pods. As he entered he felt the tug of escaping air as the integrity of the bridge failed. No sooner had he taken his seat than the capsule piled on the g-force with an explosive bang as it separated from the dying ship. Briggs went sprawling, hitting his head and knew no more for a space of minutes. Twenty seconds was all it had taken to destroy the great vessel. Briggs came to with his Navigation officer dressing a wound on his forehead, his helmet beside him with an ugly crack running across the visor. All they could do now was wait.
30th May 85. Iota Piscium. Survey Task Group 6(G) found the first pay dirt as it located another Asran Council colony on Asteroid #85. The 8th Assault Division was tasked with reducing it.
5th June 85. Iota Piscium – Comet #4. The combat on Comet #4 saw the rapid destruction of the Asran Council garrison. They really had no heart for a fight and were massively overmatched. All that was left was for the Marines to impose order on the colony and prepare for the formal surrender.
6th June 85. NN 4378. Commodore Elsa Dannenberg brought her command to the NN4378 jump point. At 02:33 the Task Force split into its task groups, now only three (Task Group 5.3 was being reconstituted in Avalon);
TG 5.1 - Jump Escort Cruiser - Vanguard. Missile Cruisers - Raider, Relentless and Reliant. Fleet Scout -Farsight. Escort - Neon.
TG5.2 - Jump Escort Cruiser - Swiftsure. Missile Cruisers - Renown, Resolution and Revenge. Fleet Scout – Scanner. Escort - Nitrogen.
TG5.4 – Jump Destroyer - Valheeru. Missile Boats - Bayard, Bicorne, Bunyip and Camelopard. Escort - Yttrium.
The task groups made a simultaneous combat transit into NN 4378. Once the groups arrived they made for a waypoint out system while waiting for their sensors to come back on line in case the Horde gunboats were sitting on the jump point. Task Group 5.1 was 966k from the jump point, Task Group 5.2 814k from the jump point and Task Group 5.4 only 157k from the jump point. Then as sensors came back on line the brood mother with its brood was detected 1440 million klicks in system, along with 5 miners on Comet #4, 1893million klicks from the jump point. The task force recombined and recovered 337 survivors (which included Captain Briggs) from the life pods scattered around the wreck of the Galain III-006. These were all that remained from a crew of 1599. The Task Force then headed in system towards the gunboats which were already outrunning the brood mother on an attack vector towards the Task Force.
7th June 85. NN4378. It took six salvos of the rather poor Hellcat missiles to take out the twenty gunboats approaching the fleet. But there was never any real doubt about the outcome, even with only a 40% hit rate.
8th June 85. NN4378. A behaviour never seen before in a brood mother, the ship was fleeing! This was to no avail as the Task Force easily overhauled it and opened fire.
09:10. 360 Hellcat missiles intercepted the Brood mother; the nuclear inferno shrivelled the vessel to a carbonised husk, but not before twenty gunboats had issued from the dying ship. The cruisers took just a minute to set up the firing solutions, after that it was just waiting for the launchers to cycle, wait for the missiles to intercept their target, then pick off any survivors with a single missile. The Task Force then moved on to the miners. As the force approached it was clear that there was the wreck of a Triththaas gunboat also in orbit of the comet being strip mined. This was surprising as gunboats did not normally leave any wreckage. Gomaithil 012-016 were targeted and destroyed in short order. The system was finally cleansed.
As for Captain Brandon Briggs, he was initially posted to a survey vessel in Iota Piscium, but then quickly transferred to take command of the new missile cruiser Longsword when news of his award of the Distinguished Service Medal was announced.
9th June 85. Iota Piscium - Comet #4. The Asran Council colony on Comet #4 formally surrendered to the Union. It turned out to be a civilian mining colony with three mining complexes which somehow had been missed in the confusion of the takeover, probably deliberately concealed.
12th June 85. Iota Piscium - Asteroid #85. The 8th Assault Division landed on Asteroid #85 and commenced operations against the Asran Council colony there.
18th June 85. Iota Piscium - Asteroid #85. The combat on Asteroid #85 was short sharp and brutal, the Asran unit was unable to stand for long against the might of an Assault Division. The garrison troops just shrivelled like moths in a flame.
20th June 85. Iota Picium Asteroid #94. A third holdout Asran colony was found on Asteroid #94. The 9th Marine Division was sent in to recover the colony. The Division completed unloading and moved against the holdouts, encircling the colony.
24th June 85. Iota Piscium - Asteroid #85. The 8th Assault Division found the colony on Asteroid #85 was another civilian mining colony complete with four civilian mining complexes.
29th June 85. Gram – Avalon-A II. The captured Hellcats were proving unsatisfactory against the Horde. Thus the Union weaponeers came up with a devastating new design for limited manufacture. 2500 units of the Hellcat IV were initially authorised.
Missile Size: 6 MSP (0.3 HS) Warhead: 16 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 27
Speed: 63300 km/s Endurance: 51 minutes Range: 193.9m km
Thermal Sensor Strength: 0.6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 600,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 11.3583
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 1709.1% 3k km/s 567% 5k km/s 341.8% 10k km/s 170.9%
Materials Required: 4x Tritanium 0.6x Uridium 8.6833x Gallicite Fuel x4041.5
Development Cost for Project: 1136RP Excalibur - Avalon-A IV The JCLE Warrior and Defence (Vanguard Mk IB class) left the construction bays at Excalibur - Avalon-A IV and began working up with Training Squadron - Avalon.
10th July 85. Iota Piscium - Asteroid #94. The combat was again short but ferocious, the Asran Council battalion had no stomach for a glorious last stand and broke and ran. It then remained for the Marines to disarm the Asran troopers which had gone rogue within the domed enclave.
11th July 85. NN4388. Salvage of Horde gunboat in NN 4388 was both informative and disappointing. It was the opinion of the salvage crew that far from being a wreck the gunboat was in the process of being “grown” but apart from that it provided no useful information, just a few TN minerals. However, it was the first gunboat ever recovered, wreck or otherwise.
17th July 85. Iota Piscium - Asteroid #94. The 9th Marine Division found Asteroid #94 was yet another civilian mining colony records of which had been mysteriously mislaid. This one also has four civilian mining complexes.
26th July 85. Phi-2 Ceti. The last unexplored jump point in Phi-2 Ceti was entered by Survey Task Group 7 to reveal Gliese 18, a glorious K4-V with ten planets, dozens of moons and hundreds of asteroids. Two of the planets had an HI1.9.
23rd August 85. Gliese 40. Exploration of a jump point in the 9 Ceti system by Survey Task Group 3 has revealed the new system of Gliese 40. This was a K5-V, M9-V binary system both with planetary systems. However, the M9-V was too far away to bother surveying and a later geological survey only found two deposits of TN minerals worth mining, 12 megatons of neutronium and 2.5 megatons of vendarite.
22nd August 85. Iota Piscium. Survey Task Group 6 (G) completed its resurvey of the Iota Piscium system. They found no more Asran Council holdout colonies in the system.
4th September 85. Excalibur – Avalon-A IV. The last of the Argon Mk VI class, Thorium, left the construction ‘yards at Excalibur - Avalon-A IV and was assigned to Training Squadron – Avalon for working up.
1st October 85. Gliese 40. Survey Task Group 3 completed the gravitational survey of the Gliese 40 system. The system has a total of 3 jump points
7th October 85. Gliese 57. Exploration of a jump point in the GJ 1008 system by Survey Task Group 7 has revealed the new system of Gliese 57. This was another planetless K5-V star.
17th October 85. Gliese 862. Exploration of a jump point in the EG 285 system by Survey Task Group 3 revealed the new system of Gliese 862. This system consisted of a K4-V star, three planets and five comets. Gliese 862-A III had an HI of 2.85.
1st December 85. Phi-2 Ceti. All the ruins on Beaumaris Beta - Phi-2 Ceti-A IV that could be restored have been restored. Work is now beginning to construct the first stage of the sector command centre now the PDC has been completed.
8th December 85. 13 Ceti. Exploration of a jump point in the GJ 1008 system by Survey Task Group 7 revealed the new system of 13 Ceti. The system consisted of an F8-V star, five planets and dozens of moons. Two moons had HI’s of 2.46 and 2.63.
26th December 85. BPM 46239. Exploration of a jump point in the EG 285 system by Survey Task Group 3 revealed the new system of BPM 46239. This system was one of those that surprise you, it was a dim M2-V star surrounded by nine planets, over a hundred moons, an asteroid belt and a handful of comets. BPM 46239-A II and BPM 46239-A III had HI’s of 1.9 and 1.96 respectively. A later geological survey of BPM 46239-A II discovered all eleven TN minerals on the planet, although the neutronium deposit was only a few hundred tons.
6th January 86. Phi-2 Ceti. Two Lleida Hierarchy scout craft were observed heading for the 9 Ceti jump point. Perhaps this could lead the Union back top their home system? But no, the aliens were surveying 9 Ceti. At least that route could be ruled out.
7th January 86. Iota Piscium. A team on Asran - Iota Piscium-A VII led by Arnfiðr Refkellson has completed research into Sensor Buoy Mk I. These would be emplaces in the systems surrounding Phi-2 Ceti. Eventually specialist vessels will be constructed to lay these buoys.
Buoy Size: 6 MSP (0.3 HS) Armour: 0
Reactor Endurance: 60 months
Active Sensor Strength: 12 Sensitivity Modifier: 400%
Resolution: 1 Maximum Range vs 50 ton object (or larger): 4,800,000 km
Cost Per Buoy: 24
Materials Required: 12x Boronide 12x Uridium
Development Cost for Project: 2400RP 28th January 86. 13 Ceti. Survey Task Group 7 completed the gravitational survey of the 13 Ceti system. The system had a total of four jump points.
14th February 85. 94 Aquarii. Survey 7 out of 13 Ceti found 94 Aquarii, a G8-C and K4-V binary system both with a substantial planertary system, but nothing outstanding.
14th March 86. LHS 1908. Exploration of a jump point in the BPM 46239 system by Survey Task Group 3 revealed the new system of LHS 1908. This was another of the ubiquitous K5-V stars with nine planets, over a hundred moons, an asteroid belt and a handful of comets. LHS 1908-A II had an HI of 2.23. A subsequent geological survey discovered it had a 12.6 megaton deposit of duranium and reasonable deposits of a few other TN elements. However on the whole the system was not well endowed with TN elements.
End of Part Eight.
