3 Kingdoms

[CharonJr (OP)]

1963

February: Bethany Fleming completed Missile Agility 32 and starts looking into Fusuion-boosted Fission Warheads. Due to the
growing fleet the Mountain Tribe has its first Rear Admiral, 39 years old George Yates whos career was focused on leading the
survey missions from Fleet Command and he made some friends in politics while doing so.

March: Geo survey of Glasgow completed, while Glasgow-A III would make a decent colony (cost 2.0) the system is lacking in mineral
ressources.

May: Edinburg grav survey completed, just the 2 JPs. Research is completed for Improved C&C and construction of a Sector
Command is started immediatly, it should be finished in December. The Quad Gauss prototype and Minimum Engine Power x0.4 were
completed as well. The Resolution class is designed, a 8000t AMM cruiser with 3 huge quad gauss turrets and a tracking speed of
12k, what the Resolutions lacks in accuracy is hopefully made up by pure point blank range firepower. It range is lacking, but
getting a AMM beam ship earlier is very important at the moment, we can worry about more fuel efficient engines later. 4
Resoltuions are ordered at Shah Shipbuilding and construction should be helped by already having 16 pre-build engines, the
1000t expansion that was currently worked at is scrapped.

Code: [Select]

Resolution class Cruiser    8 000 tons     201 Crew     1074 BP      TCS 160  TH 480  EM 0
3000 km/s     Armour 1-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 87.54
Maint Life 1.16 Years     MSP 252    AFR 170%    IFR 2.4%    1YR 192    5YR 2877    Max Repair 170 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 4   

Pearce Limited 120 EP Ion Drive (4)    Power 120    Fuel Use 81%    Signature 120    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 450 000 Litres    Range 12.5 billion km   (48 days at full power)

Quad Doyle Systems Gauss Cannon R2-100 Turret (3x12)    Range 5 000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 2    ROF 5       

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Gordon & Gray Fire Control S0.5 2.5-12000 (1)    Max Range: 5 000 km   TS: 12000 km/s     0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Patel & Rhodes Active Search Sensor MR3-R1 (1)     GPS 60     Range 3.6m km    MCR 392k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Sam Harrison starts to look into Boat Bays with 3 labs, Oliver Fuller in 12cm Lasers with another 3 labs and Jason Stevenson
into Capacitor Recharge Rate 2 with 3 labs, the final lab is allocated to Thomas Poole who is currently looking into Salvage
technology.

June: A luxury spaceliner from Godfrey Carrier Lines is heading out of the Polaris system, for some time there had been offers
for cruises into the London system, but so far there have not been enough people interested in taking a look at a new star
system, this seems to have changed now. It will be interesting to see if this will establish a new trend. The Charon completes
the Polaris/Manchester gate 112 days earlier than expected - just 248 instead of 360 days - Commander Alexandra Randall
receives a commendation for her superb work.

July: Construction of the 2 new Victory Mk2 classes, the Beagle and the Bloodhound was completed, we enabled trade with the
Protectorate hoping to find the homeworld by having our ships following the traders. Beagle will wait for the Protectorate
while Bloodhound moves to the London JP, trying to catch and shadow some Bismarck class ships from the Tundra Tribe who leaft
Polaris a few days earlier. The Vic2s should have 3 times the speed of the old Bismarcks. 2 additional Vic2 are ordered, once
they are finished they will replace the old Victories. Styx completed the construction of the Liverpool gate 94 days ahead of
time, a feat which earned Lt.Commander Nathan Nicholls a commendation as well. Unsurprisingly the Bloodhound did not find the
Bismarcks, only after having arrived in the London system Commander Philips realised that High Command had missed to inform him
of the fact that the Bismarck only had a tonnage of a bit over 20kt, too small for his sensors to detect. He will stay at the
JP anyway and scan for arriving or leaving ships.

August: One slipway has been added to Gould naval yard bringing them up to 2 at 1000t each, another slipway is to be added.
Odonnel&Co. added 1000t to its slipways, bringing them up to 5000., no further expansions at the moment due to money getting
low. New naval yard Barker&Marsh has been completed.

September: Construction factories on Polaris II are completed, due to the financial situation building will be focused on
financial centers now. Due to those problems building garrison units at Polaris is stopped as well. There is a Protectorate
Calumba at Polaris and the Beagle is ordered to follow, but it seems like this Calumba has some technical problems, at least it
is not moving anywhere.

October: Calumba still at Polaris, but it seems like civilian traffic is better this year than the last, about half the
civilian fleet seems to be moving around at the moment. Victory 1 completed her overhaul is moving to Glasgow for a grav
survey.

November: Construction of Improved Command & Control has been completed and the King assigns Henry Storey as Governor of
Polaris Sector, he has some skill at wealth creation, mining and population growth programs and a little bit of knowledge about
shipbuilding techniques, but it is hoped that he will improve substantially with this new post. The Protectorate regards us as
friends now and will share future geo survey data with us. With still no movement from the Calumba at Polaris the Beagle is
ordered to grav survey Glasgow while Bloodhound is ordered back to Polaris in cse the Calumba starts to move or other
Protectorate tradeships arrive. Grav survey of Newcastle was completed, there is only 1 jump point in the system, which would
help with the defensibility of the system once we have the time and ressources to start/expand the colony on Newcastle III.

December: 8 Calumbas entered the Polaris system, hopefully they will leave again soon and Bloodhound will be able to follow.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Polaris
Pop: 662m (+16)
Factories: 901 (+13)
Mines/automines: 402/185 (34 converted)
Labs: 32 (+3)
Academies: 6
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/9000, 2/5000 (+1000), 2/1000 (+1), +1/+1000
Commercial yards: 2/91400, 1/42400 (+9400)
Thermal: 17.3k, Tundra 18.1k, Hill 18.9k
EM: 48.3k, Tundra 50.3k, Hill 51.1k

Polaris II
Pop: 28.2m (+0.2)
Factories: 140 (+4)
Finance Centers: 31 (+13)

Polaris VI Moon 6
Pop: 8.1m (+0.9)

Scientists/projects - trying another format here, any preferences?:
Bio: 30% / Terraforming 0.0012 atm
Construction: - / -
Defense: 35% / Ceramic Composite Armor
Energy: 20%, 15% / Visiable Light Laser, 12cm Laser
Logostics: 25%, 10% / Boat Bay, Salvage Module 500
Missiles: 65%, 20% / Reduced Size Launcher 25%, Fusion-boosted Fission Warhead
Power: 35%, 15% / Max Engine Power x1.75, Capacitor Recharge 2
Sensors: - / -

Civilian Shipping (up from 2170 to 2600):
Godfrey Lines - 24 ships (+1 - 1540 income)
Shepherd Corp - 19 ships (940 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (no income)
Doherty Transport - 2 ships (80 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (20 income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (20 income)

Income at 18.4k (+1.3) and 23.3k spend (+0.7). Wealth reserves are at 2.7k. Something has to happen soon, hopefully the
Calumbas will generate some additional trade and lead us back to their homeworld.

[CharonJr (OP)]

Formatis still slightly off for smaller displays like tablets, but a few characters less on each line should do the trick.

[JacenHan]

Your Resolution class won't work, a fire control needs a range of at least 10,000 km to function. It should be pretty easy to fix and refit any you've already built.

[CharonJr (OP)]

Thx, would have been embarassing to have a anti missile ship which is unable to fire .

Btw, any other report anybody would like to see? Still unsure about the format and details here as well.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1964

January: It seems like the Protectorate crews like Polaris, they dont seem to want to leave... A few days later a Calumba started to move, but sadly in the direction of Polaris II, not back home.

February: Research into Boat Bays completed, Sam Harrison continues with Hangars. Simmons Enterprises added a 3rd civilian slipways, no further expansion for now, expansion of the single slipway at Crawford Corp. is stopped as well. At the 16th 9 Calumbas start to move towards the London JP, Bloodhound is following them. In London the Calumbas are moving with a heading of 62°, making lagrange point 2 in London V's orbit around the sun the most likely destination for now. Charon completed the Manchester/Polaris gate and is ordered to build a gate at the Polaris/Glasgow JP. Our long range sensors keep detecting Hill Tribe warhsips jumping into the Stevenage system, but so far none of them came back (OOC: and we all know what it means if you keep feeding the Swarm, this will get ugly).

March: Max Engine Power x1.75 was completed, Eleanor Singh starts to look into Stellarator Fusion Reactor Technology which promisses better engergy output for our future laser weapons in addition to potential ways towards better engines in the long run. A new energy weapon specialist (3rd one) gradeuated from the academy, Alexandra Moran is already fairly skilled despite being fresh from the academy (25%), but she lacks any administrative skills (5 labs). She is assigned one of Eleanor Singh's labs and starts to research means to Reduce Laser Size to 75%. Bloodhound loses sight of the Calumbas when the jump through the lagrange points, but picks up their signatures without any problems on the other side, the new heading is 116°, indicating that they are heading for the Leyland JP. Leyland looked looked like the 2 planets around Leyland-B would not be able to support life when we visited the system, so most likely the journey will lead to a undiscovered jump gate.

April: The Calumbas took the Leyland gate as expected, they continue on a course of 248° which leads into open space as far as we know, a undiscovered jump gate seems very likely now. Styx completed the Liverpool/Polaris jump gate and will start to set up a gate connecting Liverpool to London. Brooke Begum completed research into Reduced Size Launcher 25% and starts to look into Box Launcher, which will bring the size down to just 15%, but a base or carrier will be needed to rearm the launchers. A new jump point has been found in Glasgow, Prescott is ordered to investigate.

May: After having followed the Calumbas for 1 month through the Leyland system at a speed of 1142km/sec the expected emissions of a jump gate are detected by Bloodhound 96mkm dead ahead. Commander Philips orders to accelerate tp 3000km/sec and take a look at the new system, hoping it will turn out to be the Protectorate home system. Even though neither fuel nor the crew's morale are of concern at the moment a change from the bordedom of following slow freighters should be nice.

The gate leads to the Londonderry system, which contains nothing but a single G2-V star with roughly the same mass as the sun of Polaris. It seems like Bloodhound's voyage is not over yet. The new heading is 260°. With a 3rd 1000t slipway being added to Gould naval yard all expansions have been completed till new means of income have been found

Oxford has a single sun and 7 planets, an innermost dwarf planet followed by 2 terrestials, a super jovian with a number of moons, a dwarf planet with 1 moon, a gas giant with moons and finally another dwarf planet with a moon. In addition there are 80 asteroids and 5 comets in the system. With the two terresstial most likely being inside the potentially habitable zone at 18m and 44m from the small and weak M4 sun, taking a closer look here might be worth it.

July: As expected another jump gate is detected in Londonderry, flying ahead of the Calumbas again Bloodhound emerges in the Cambridge system, and simply due to the little warship armada guarding the jump point this looks like the Protectorate home system. Cambridge has a single class A7 sun and 7 planets. The innermost 3 are all terrestial (for a sun of this size likely to close to be habitable), Cambridge IV is a gas giant with a number of moons, V another terrestrial and with a 625mkm orbit most likely in the habitable zone, VI a dwarf and VII another gas giant with moon. In addition there is 1 asteriod in the system, between V and VI. Cambrige V is at least a myjor colony, but most likely the home planet, Bloodhounds basic sensors show a thermal of 26.6k and EM of 75.4k from the planet and 5.4mt of ship yards in orbit, giving about 50% more industry and population that any Polaris Tribe. The planet has a Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere of 0.66 with a gravity of 0.84, average temperature is 82°, which would mean a colony cost of 2.18 for us. It seems like our traders learned from their Protectorate counterparts about the location of Cambridge V as well, because with nobody but the crew knowing about Cambridge at the moment a large quantity of civilian ships are heading towards London. Bloodhound starts its trip back to Polaris to make its report.

With wealth below 1k 5000 Viper I missiles are scrapped, leaving only the missile currently in the tubes of the chips and platforms, about 650cr were gained, but it seems doubtfull that this will be enough. Due to the distance between Polaris and Cambridge V revenues from trade will not really be helpfull as well. We need a better civilial economy modifier quickly. In addition 50 factories and ressources for 50 financial centers are moved to Moon 6 and Polris starts to build financial centers.

2 Victory IIs have been completed and once the old Victories head back for overhauls they will be scrapped. The new Victories - Airedale and Afghan - start a grav survey of the Oxford system. Except for the 4 Resolutions all ship yards are idle at the moment.

September: The Bloodhound returned to the Polaris system and Commander Philips made his report. For finding 3 new systems he is awarded the Order of the Explorer and for finding the Protectorates homeworld he got a commendation as well. Hostile Aberdeen aliens have been detected in York close to York I, making it very likely that there is a jump point connecting Aberdeen and York. Commander Carey orders all ships to head back to the jump point at full speed immediatly. Tribal 5 is destroyed by 3 waves of 44 strength 1 missiles, the other ships make it back to the jump point and head to Polaris, informing High Command of yet another dangerous system. Only 3 survivors made it to the life pods and there is no chance to rescue them.

October: Thomas Poole completed research into Salvage Module 500, he will start to look into means to improve the civilian economy, despite having no expertise in this field. 4 Vulture class salvagers are ordered despite the wealth problems, with all the hostile aliens around we need better tech fast. Maybe some components can be scrapped for money as well. While Simmons Enterprises will have to retool from the Charon class Crawford Corp. can start construction right away.

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Vulture class Salvager    44 100 tons     165 Crew     768.2 BP      TCS 882  TH 900  EM 0
1020 km/s     Armour 1-111     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
MSP 0    AFR 8820%    IFR 122.5%    Max Repair 200 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 0    
Cargo 25000    
Salvager: 1 module(s) capable of salvaging 500 tons per day

Anderson-Lord 180 EP Commercial Ion Drive (5)    Power 180    Fuel Use 9.9%    Signature 180    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 470 000 Litres    Range 19.4 billion km   (219 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

No additional jump points were found in Glasgow, one is leading to Polaris, the other to York. Beagle heads to Polaris for an overhaul while Victory 1 will be scrapped.

November: When the Afghan and Airedale reached Oxford they saw the wreck of a Tundra class warship, they jumped back and report, another system off-limits till we can learn more about what happened.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Polaris
Pop: 677m (+15)
Factories: 851 (-50 to Moon 6)
Mines/automines: 351/236 (51 converted)
Labs: 33 (+1)
Academies: 6
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/9000, 2/5000, 3/1000 (+1), 1/1000
Commercial yards: 3/91400 (+1), 1/44800 (+2400)

Polaris II
Pop: 30.5m (+2.3)
Factories: 140 (+4)
Finance Centers: 47 (+16)

Polaris VI Moon 6
Pop: 9.0m (+0.9)
Factories: 50 (from Polaris)
Finance Centers: 2 (+2)

Scientists/projects:
Bio: 30% / Terraforming 0.0012 atm
Construction: - / -
Defense: 45% / Ceramic Composite Armor
Energy: 25%, 20%, 15% / Reduced Size Laser 75%, Visible Light Laser, 12cm Laser
Logistics: 25%, 10% / Hangar Deck, Expand Civilian Economy (CP)
Missiles: 65%, 20% / Box Launcher 15%, Fusion-boosted Fission Warhead
Power: 35%, 15% / Stellerator Reactor, Capacitor Recharge 2
Sensors: - / -

Civilian Shipping (down from 2600 to 2540, likely due to the long distance to Cambridge V):
Godfrey Lines - 26 ships (+2 - 980 income)
Shepherd Corp - 19 ships (1310 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (no income)
Doherty Transport - 2 ships (80 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (90 income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (80 income)

Income at 20.7k (+2.3) and 23.7k spend (+0.4). Wealth reserves are at 0.3k. The only thing that can be turned into wealth would be the missiles inside the ship/platform magazines, and they will yield about 400cr at best. No mine conversion at Polaris for the moment and most industrial capacity will be focused on finance centers and if all else fails less than the available industrial capacity will have to be used.

Edit: Mixed up the System, the Victories had orders to grav Survey Oxford, not York and it was there that they found the wreck.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1965

January: Charon completed the Polaris/Glasgow gate and starts to build the Glasgow/Polaris counterpart. Current monthly
wealth deficit is about 200cr, due to the trade with Cambridge there will be peaks, but it seems that the only way to avoid
negative wealth will be to stop using some industrial capacity for some time. Installation construction cost about 1k each
month at the moment.

February: Laura Little completed Visible Light Laser and continues with Near Ultraviolet Laser. Using just 40% of Polaris
industrial capacity for now leads to a slightly positive income. It will be raised again when the income situation allows
for this. Styx has completed the Liverpool/London gate and heads into London to build the counterpart. Oliver Fuller
completed 12cm Laser Size and continues with 15cm, Jason Stevenson compleetd Capacitor 2 and continues with 3. The 4
Resolution class anti-missile gauss cruisers have been completed as well and start training.

March: 10 Grendel class ships from the Hill Tribe arrived in Polaris via the Manchester gate, with the tonnage of 22850t
and slow speed of 958km/sec they look like transports. While they are to small for a Victory II to follow them the most
likely bodies in Manchester for a colony are Manchester II Moon 6 and Manchester III, Afghan is ordered to take a closer
look at both. As suspected there is a small Hill Tribe colony at Manchester II Moon 6. Due to no other entrance to
Manchester than through Polaris it is a nice system with some decent mineral deposits, but at the moment there is not much
we can do about the Hill Tribe there. The Victories are ordered to grav survey the Leyland system, which should be fairly
safe due to all the civilian traffic passing through it to Cambridge without any incidents.

April: Finally a new science graduate, but sadly still neither specialisted in construction nor in sensors. Joe Atkins is a
missile/kinetic weapons specialist (10%) able to utilise 30 labs at once. Currently there are no labs available for him.
Using 50% of Polaris factories still yielded a positive income due to reduced costs, utilisation is raised to 60%.

June: With the grav survey of Leyland nearly completed the first ships head to Londonderry to search for jump points there.
The first Vulture class salvager is completed, with 2 unknown wrecks in Liverpool and Liverpool deemed save the Vulture
heads there to salvage those 2 wrecks.

July: A new jump point with a gate has been found in the Leyland system, the Aardvark is ordered from Polaris to travel
through the gate. Leyland grav survey completed, no additional jump points found.

August: A new jump point was found in the Londonderry system, Aardvark will head there next.

September: The Leyland JP leads to the Dundee system, it contains a single T5 star. But with a gate on this side as well it
seems likely that there is another gate somewhere in the system. Charon completed the Glasgow/Polaris gate and is ordered
to build a gate at the Polaris/Edinburgh JP. Vulture completed its first salvage, the unknown 9650t ship had a jump drive
and we gained some knowledge about improved jump drive efficiency from it, nothing else was found. The unknown 19300t ship
will be next.

October: The salvaged unknown ship had Thermal Sensors with a sensitivity of 6 and a little bit about their design was
learned during the salvage, but other than that nothing else have been found or learned. Vulture heads back to Polaris to
unload the salvaged minerals and information. The Londonderry gate leads to the Oxford system which has another gate,
Captain Khan is a bit surprised that the wreck has vanished, it looks like the aliens who destroyed the ship are using
salvagers as well. Aardvark uses the gate back to Londonderry. That Oxford is connected to our trade route to Cambridge V
is of some concern since we dont know if/when the aggressive aliens suspected in Oxford might enter Londonderry to disrupt
our trade. At the same time a new gated jump point is found in Londonderry and Aardvark heads there.

November: Styx completed the London/Liverpool gate, next will be the Liverpool/Belfast gate. With 2k wealth again and
positive income - mainly due to close to 100 finance centers having been build on Polaris in addition to the trade tax -
construction is set back to normal. All civilian ships except for a couple of colony ships are constantly in use now.
Despite the long distance involved having found the Protectorate homeworld provided the income bonus that has been hoped
for.

A new scientist graduated from the academy, Anna Heath is a construction specialist (yeah, finally, the first one in
15 years) able to lead 20 labs. She is assigned to continue the work on improving the civilian economy from Thomas Poole.
Thomas Poole gets 1 lab to look into Large Fuel Tanks and Joe Atkins gets 1 lab as well to look into improving Ornance
Production by 20%. Expansion of Odonnel&Co. naval yard from 5000t to 6000t is started. The new gate from Londonderry leads
to another gate in the Sheffield system. Long range scanners show a single K3 star with a innermost dwarf planet, 2
terrestrials (with the 2nd one at 89m which might be the habitable zone around such a small star), followed by a super
jovian and a gas giant each with a couple of moons, another terrestrial followed by a gas giant with some moons. In
addition 17 asteroids and 5 comets are in the system. The 2 remaining Tribals are send to take a closer look at the planets
and Aardvark jumps back into Londonderry to provide fuel for the grav survey ships.

December: Due to the longer ranges involved in system surveys, the low number of remaining Tribals and advances in
technology the Tribal Mk2 class is designed. 3 ships will be build once Simmons Enterprises has completed building the 3
Vultures. The Tribal Mk2 will have more than 50% more speed, more than twice the range and 1 additional month of deployment
time for just 300t additional tonnage. Due to its small size and fairly powerful engines it willbe the fastest ship in the fleet.

Code: [Select]

Tribal Mk2 class Geological Survey Vessel    2 500 tons     45 Crew     339.8 BP      TCS 50  TH 180  EM 0
3600 km/s     Armour 1-16     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/2     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 85    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 30 months    Spare Berths 0   

Anderson-Lord 180 EP Commercial Ion Drive (1)    Power 180    Fuel Use 9.9%    Signature 180    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150 000 Litres    Range 109.1 billion km   (350 days at full power)

Geological Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Matthew Short completed research into better terraforming techniques (0.0012 atm) and continues to look for further
improvements (0.0015 atm). Once the finance centers have been completed at Polaris II and Moon 6 the first terraforming
complexes will be build on both worlds, but this is still some years away.

Another new jump point with a gate has been found in Londonderry and Aardvark heads there to investigate, due to having
refuled the grav survey ships she will had back to Polaris afterwards. Agincourt will replace her in Londonderry. With the
grav survey of Londonderry nearly completed the first Victories start to move into Sheffield.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Polaris
Pop: 693m (+16)
Factories: 858 (+7)
Mines/automines: 349/238 (2 converted)
Labs: 34 (+1)
Finance Centers: 99 (+99)
Academies: 6
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/9000, 2/5000, 3/1000, 1/1000
Commercial yards: 3/91400, 1/44800

Polaris II
Pop: 32.0m (+1.5)
Factories: 140
Finance Centers: 65 (+18)

Polaris VI Moon 6
Pop: 10.0m (+1.0)
Factories: 50
Finance Centers: 7 (+5)

Scientists/projects:
Bio: 30% / Terraforming 0.0015 atm
Construction: 15% / Expand Civilian Economy
Defense: 50% / Ceramic Composite Armor
Energy: 25%, 20%, 15% / Reduced Size Laser 75%, Near Ultraviolet Laser, 15cm Laser
Logistics: 25%, 10% / Hangar Deck, Fuel Storage - Large
Missiles: 65%, 20%, 10% / Box Launcher 15%, Fusion-boosted Fission Warhead, Ordnance Production 12BP
Power: 40%, 20% / Stellerator Reactor, Capacitor Recharge 3
Sensors: - / -

Civilian Shipping (up from 2540 to 4090, should still go up a bit with the Liverpool gates providing a slightly quicker
route to Cambridge and older/slower ships getting replaced and new ones build):
Godfrey Lines - 27 ships (+1 - 1790 income)
Shepherd Corp - 19 ships (1290 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (420 income)
Doherty Transport - 2 ships (130 income)
Lloyd T&T - 3 ships (170 income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (290 income)

Income at 24.0k (+3.3) and 21.7k spend (-2.0). Wealth reserves are at 2.7k. Spending will go up again now that construction
is largely back to normal and more ships are build and ship yards expanded again.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1966

With communication being a constant problem due to the large distances and especially the jumps between systems involved the
Royal Society has pondered the problem for quite some time. In the end a fairly simple solution came up, at least for the
systems that have our own or at least friendly jump gates. A transmitter device would be placed at each jump gate which -
upon receiving a certain code sequence - would record a message/file. This file would be stored inside a small drone which
is sent through the gate and docks at a similar transmitter at the other gate. There the file would be transmitted to the
intended target. If the target ship is not inside the system the transmitter would transmit the file to all other gate-
transmitters in system who would repeat this process with their own gate counterparts. Thus somewhere down the line the
intended ship is reached and since the message is stored for some time duplicate signals would be avoided, without this the
system would simply crash due to constantly resending the same message by all stations that are unable to reach the
intended target.

But this system has a couple of shortfalls, the biggest one being message integrety/security. There is no way to ensure
that the messages might not have been tampered with, wrong messages might be send or important messages being suppressed.
So while this system provides a very fast means of communications it can not be deemed safe. So no highly classified
messages should be send this way. And disrupting the system by simply destroying the transmitters is very easy, too. Naturally no
ships currently outside the range of the gate Network can be reached at this time. But messages will be stored and once a ship's
transponder signal is received by the transmitter the message is send out.

With the fairly large number of friendly gates already built by the Protectorate and our own growing number of gates most
of currently known space will be within reach of this gate-transmitter network. In order to add some layer of security a
encoding system should be developed which changes the codes in fairly short intervalls. While this would still not help
with messages potentially being suppressed it should lower the chances of important messages being read or fake messages
being sent. High Command approves of this plan and orders all gates to be fitted with transmitter devices. It is expected
that the network should be completed by the end of the year. In the meantime a encoding system will be developed.

January: No additional jump points have been found in Londondeery, a total of 5 have been found.

February: The remaining gate in Londonderry lead to the Notthingham system, a large trinary with fairly small and weak
suns. There are 5 planets in orbit around A, 2 terrestrialsand 3 gas giants with a couple of moons. B has 3 planets, all of
them terrestrial with moons around the 3rd planet. C has 3 planets as well, all of them super jovians with moons around II
and III. In addition there are 61 asteroids and 6 comets. Overall a fairly interesting looking system, but with distances
of up to 21bkm to the suns B and C and without any lagrange points travelling here will take lots of time. Low priority for
further exploration at the moment.

The 3 Vultures have been completed and construction of the 3 Trbal Mk2s is started. With the large trade income of the
civilian shipping lines another line has decided to enter the competition, John Transport and Trading, and their first ship
is a colony ship, the only type of vessel which is mostly idle at the moment.

March: Sam Harrison completed research into Hangar Decks, once box launchers have been completed a carrier based navy is
now a possibility, but without any better sensors there is not much use for long range strike capabilities by fairly small
craft. Sooner or later we will have to research better sensors even if no sensor specialist graduates. Sam Harrison starts
to look into Smaller Engineering Sections with 3 labs while the 4th is assigned to Eleanor Singh to speed up the research
for better reactors.

April: Another science graduate, Conor Booth, specialised in logistics and ground combat (10%) and able to lead 25 labs.
Another new shipping line, Lawson Container Company. 2 new jump points with gates have been found in Sheffield, Agincourt
moves to explore. Another gated JP was found in Sheffield.

May: Agincourt arrived in the Newport system, the jump point has a gate on this side as well. Newport is a large binary,
with A - a K2 - being 25% smaller than the sun and B - a L3 - a dwarf about 5bkm away from A. A has 7 planets, 4 inner
terrestrials, with II and III potentially inside the habitable zone followed by a gas giant with 34 moons, a dwarf planet
and another gas giant with 43 moons. B has no planets, in addition there are 5 comets in the system. Agincourt returns to
Sheffield and the next gate. Another gated JP is found in the meantime, the 5th.

Agincourt arrived in the Peterhead system, as became the norm around the Protectorate homeworld there is a gate here as
well. Peterhead is a small system with a F4 star a bit larger than our sun and about twice as bright. It has 3 terrestrial
planets with a single moon around the 2nd planet. In addition there are 5 comets. Agincourt heads to the next gate.

June: Sheffield geo exploration completed, terrestrial planet A-III looks very interesting, no so much due to minerals -
like the rest of the system there are actually milions of tons, but only at 10% accessability - but due to a partially
intact colony that has been found. Commander Isabelle Carey is not sure what the implications of this find are, but she
knows that High Command has to be informed as qucikly as possible and Tribal 2 heads back to Polaris to report.
This is the kind of report that will most likely always be send by ship.  Sorium is available at an accessability of 80% at the gas giants.

Agincourt arrived in the Douglas system which has a gate back to Sheffield as well. The single sun is a G8, roughly to same
mass, but half the luminosity of our sun. There are 9 planets with the innermost terrestrial followed by a moonless gas
giant and another terrestrial which might be habitable at a distance of 122mkm form the sun orbited by 2 moons. Next is a
dwarf planet followed by another gas giant with 16 moons and a super jovian with 25 moons. VII is another super jovian with
6 moons and the outermost planets are dwarf planets. In addition there are 17 asteroids and 5 comets. Overall a very
interesting looking system as well. Agincourt heads back to Sheffield.

And another scientist graduated, Kian John, he specialised in construction/production (still no sensors, sigh...) with a
research bonus of 20% and is able to use 5 labs. He takes over Civilian Economy research from Anna Heath who keeps 1 lab to
look into Shipbuilding Rate 560.

Grav survey of Sheffield completed, there are 5 jump points.

[CharonJr (OP)]

July: Charon has completed the Polaris/Edinburgh gate and jumps into Edinburgh to build the counterpart. Agincourt arrived
in the Brighton system, the first system for quite some time without a gate at the other side. Most likely since it is a
system with a heavy nebula (level 9) and thus of low interest to the Protectorate. There is a single terrestial planet in
orbit around the still very small and young sun, but it might be habitable. In addition there are 5 comets. Brighton has a
very low priority for now due to the heavy nebula. Agincourt jumps back and heads for the Douglas system.

August: Styx has completed the Liverpool/Belfast gate and jumpt to Belfast to build the counterpart. When the Bllodhound
arrived in Dundee for its grav survey it detected gate emissions from fairly close to the Leyland gate it just emerged
from, so there is at least 1 other jump point in Dundee. Brooke Begum has completed Box Launcher 15% research, he starts to
take a look into Missile Reload Rate 3 which should help with the rate of fire of future missile cruisers. 1 lab is
assigned to Connor Wallis to help with research new armor. Another gate is detected in Dundee by Bloodhounds sensors.

While the currently used transport relay chain to move messages around faster is not as fast as the new system will be it
is still faster than a single ship. At least as long as the message is directed towards Polaris, reaching a moving ship
with this system is very hard and thus rarely tried except in extreme circumstances. Thus just about 1 week after the
Bloodhound had sent the news about the first additional gate in Dundee to the transport closest to the gate in Leyland the
message arrived at Polaris and the Prescott is ordered to investigate and provide additional fuel for the survey ships.

September: Tribal 2 arrived in Polaris and Commander Carey informed High Command via tight-beam communications about the
ruins they found. A joint session of The Royal Council, High Command and the Rocal Society was called and it was decided
that those ruins have to be explored as soon as possible. 2 xenologist teams were assembled, the first led by 21 year old
Lt.Commander Dylan Murphy who is just 10 month out of the academy, but already has a reputation for having a knack at alien
languages. The 2nd team is led by Lt.Commander Patrick Coles, a highly educated language specialist who helped with
establishing and improving communications with aliens before. Tribal 2 moves to Polaris for refueling and picking up the
Xeno teams. Commander Carey, a 42 year old veteran of the navy and on the list on promotion to Captain receives a
commendation for having found the ruins on Sheffield III.

October: 1000t were added to Odonnel&Co. slipways, another 1000t are ordered. A new gated jump point was found in Douglas.

November: Dundee grav survey completed, 3 jump points averall. Bloodhound will start to grav survey Birmingham next. Geo
Survey of Douglas I showed 246mt of Duranium at 90% accessability, lots of other metals as well, but only at 10%. This
looks like a very interesting system for sure despite there currently being no shortage of Duranium.

Prescott arrivied in Blackpool via the Dundee gate, sadly no gate at this side, most likely due to Blackpool being a level
2 nebula. There are 15 unknown wrecks here, raning in tonnage from 2650t up to 70300t right at the JP, most likely a gate
builder. There are a couple of wrecks right in the orbit of Blackpool II around the G2-class sun, indicating that it is
inhabited or at least guarded. Overall there are 4 planets in Blackpool, with I and II terrestrial and possibly in the
habitable zone, III is a dwarf and IV a gas giant with the only moons in this system, 16 of them. In addition there are 5
comets. Prescott jumps back to Dundee to investigate the other gate and arrives in the Inverness system.

This time there is a gate at the other side. Inverness has a single G7 sun and 7 planets. All 5 inner planeta are
terrestrial with IV possibly inside the habitable zone. VI is a gas giant with 13 moons and VII a dwarf. In addition there
are 5 comets. Prescott head to Sheffield to provide fuel to the explorers in the surrounding systems.

A 3rd and 4th gated JP have been found in Douglas.

December: With the geo survey of Douglas III in progress the crew of Tribal 4 is getting more and more exited. The planet
is not just right inside the sun's habitable zone with its orbit of 122m, but it has a breathable Nitrogen/Oxygen
atmosphere of 0.94 atm as well. Together with a temperature of -29° and a gravity of 0.97 Douglas is a prefect world for
us. There are 16mt of 70% Duranium there as well and 21kt of 70% Boronide. And a Ruined Outpost has been found here as
well, the scientists aboard the Tribal suspect that the ancient installations might help us in researching new
technologies. The system survey is not completed yet, but while most minerals can be found here few are above 10%
accessability. In addition no Sorium has been found yet to refuel our ships, but the gas giant and super jovians have not
been survey yet. But even without complete information High Command has to be informed immediatly.

The main problem will be getting colonists and equipment here since its distance of 5 jumps from Polaris will prevent
civilian shipping from going here. A new transport and colony ship design is needed with better range. But at least for the
transports we will wait if any of the discovered gates will provide a shorter route. Due to this the Cryo Mk2 will be
designed, it has enough fuel to make the journey to Douglas and return to Polaris. Simmons Enterprises will be retooling to
build the new Cryo Mk2.

Code: [Select]

Cryo Mk2 class Kolonizator    18 600 tons     115 Crew     920.4 BP      TCS 372  TH 540  EM 0
1451 km/s     Armour 1-62     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 31    Max Repair 45 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 0   
Cryogenic Berths 50000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5   

Anderson-Lord 180 EP Commercial Ion Drive (3)    Power 180    Fuel Use 9.9%    Signature 180    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 700 000 Litres    Range 68.4 billion km   (545 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

With the grav survey of Douglas close to completion Beagle moves to unknown gate 1 and will wait there for the Agincourt to
explore this new gate which should happen shortly.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Polaris
Pop: 709m (+16)
Factories: 911 (+53)
Mines/automines: 328/259 (21 converted)
Labs: 37 (+3)
Finance Centers: 100 (+1)
Academies: 6
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/9000, 2/6000 (+1000), 3/1000, 1/1000
Commercial yards: 3/91400, 1/44800

Polaris II
Pop: 33.4m (+1.4)
Factories: 140
Finance Centers: 84 (+19)

Polaris VI Moon 6
Pop: 11.0m (+1.0)
Factories: 50
Finance Centers: 12 (+5)

Scientists/projects:
Bio: 30% / Terraforming 0.0015 atm
Construction: 20%, 15% / Expand Civilian Economy, Shipbuilding Rate 560
Defense: 50% / Ceramic Composite Armor
Energy: 25%, 20%, 20% / Reduced Size Laser 75%, Near Ultraviolet Laser, 15cm Laser
Logistics: 25%, 20%, 10% / Engineering Section - Small, Fuel Storage - Large
Missiles: 65%, 30%, 10% / Missile Launcher Reolad 3, Fusion-boosted Fission Warhead, Ordnance Production 12BP
Power: 40%, 20% / Stellerator Reactor, Capacitor Recharge 3
Sensors: - / -

Civilian Shipping (down from 4090 to 3790):
Godfrey Lines - 30 ships (+3 - 1350 income)
Shepherd Corp - 22 ships (+3 - 1470 income)
Payne Transport - 2 ships (280 income)
Doherty Transport - 3 ships (+1 - 170 income)
Lloyd T&T - 4 ships (+1 - 320 income)
Sharp Company - 3 ships (180 income)
Lawson Container - 2 ships (20 income)
John T&T - 1 ship (no income)

Income at 26.2k (+2.2) and 23.5k spend (+1.. Wealth reserves are at 5.4k. Finance Centers account for 17% of the income
with shipping and exports for another 8%. Installation construction is responsible for 55% of the costs, followed by
research at 36%.


Does anybody know if 2 Xeno teams check for success individually or if only the better team would make the checks? Not that it matters anymore since one of the teams will be moved to Douglas now, but it would be interesting to know.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1967

The test of the new gate communication system was successfull, it took a message send by a freighter just leaving Cambridge
just 6 hours to reach Polaris.

January: Grav survey of Douglas completed, there are 4 gated jump points.

February: The 1st gate in Douglas brought Agincourt to Plymouth, no gate on this side. Plymouth is a binary with a F8 sun
rougly the same as ours and a very small T8 in orbit around it. There are 9 planets in orbit of sun A and none around B.
The 6 innermost planets are all terrestrial with 2 of them likely in the habitable zone with orbits of 120mkm and 159mkm.
VII to IX are gas giants with a couple of moons. In addition there are 52 asteroids and 5 comets. While the Victories enter
Plymouth Agincourt moves to the next gate in Douglas. Beagle suddenly has 2 contacts on her sensors, previously unknown
ship classes from the hostile Aberdeen aliens, all ships in Plymouth are ordered to switch off their sensors and head back
to the JP immediatly, hoping that Agincourt will be back before they are found.

The new alien ship class is called Dragon, it has a tonnage of 9650t, S280/R92 sensors which will help the Victories due to
being just 3000t, but their speed of 8454km/sec will mean certain doom for the way slower Beagle. In order to keep the
aliens away from the other ships and the JP Commander Holloway decides to move Beagle away from the other ships. For some
reason the Dragons are heading away from the Beagle, soon contact is lost and so far no enemy missles have been detected.

Maybe the Dragons are scout vessels, but at 9650t and with strong active sensors this seems unlikely. On the other hand
this might explain their high speed and strange behaviour. With every passing minute Commander Holloway is more certain
that those were unarmed grav survey vessels and they have not been trying to attack his ship, but rather survey the grav
point where he just arrived. When all remained peaceful after 1 day all ships are ordered back to their surveys.

In a way seeing Aberdeen ships in Plymouth is a good sign, with their likely home system just 2 jumps from Polaris there
might be another and more importantly a short connection between Polaris and Douglas than currently known. But on the other
hand being able to use that connection would surely involve dealing with the aliens first and the speed of their ships make
them at least 1-2 tech levels above what we are currently using.

About 1 week after the incident with the aliens Beagle is suddenly hit by 8 strength 8 missiles which destroy the ship.
Only 12 crew make it to the life pods in time, Commander Holloway is not among the survivors. It still seems likely that
the Dragons were survey ships, but it seems like they have armed backup inside the system. When detectiong the explosions
the remaining Afghan and Airedale switch off their sensors and pray that they can escape notice till Agincourt gets back.
The area where Beagle was destoyed is to be avoided. 4 days later the signals of the life pods stop, the crew is either
dead or captured, a fate the remaining 2 ships try to avoid, but they know that the Agincourt is not due to be back for a
couple of months.

March: Charon has completed the Edinburgh/Polaris gate and heads back to Polaris for some rest and refueling. The 2nd gate
in Douglas leads to the Southhampton system, is has a small single L5-class sun and 3 planets and there is no gate here. 2
gas giants and 1 dwarf planet. In addition there are 10 comets in the system. Agincourts heads to the 3rd gate.
The 3 new Tribal Mk2 have completed construction and are send towards the new exploration hub around Sheffield. On Polaris
construction of 2 new academies was started, hopefully this will lead to the elusive sensor specialist sooner rather than
later.

April: The 3rd gate in Douglas leads to Aberdeen and there is no gate here, but the JP might explain the aliens presence in
Plymouth. The amount of wrecks seem to have even grown larger. This some of them being fairly close to each other it is
hard to be sure, but there seem to be around 50 wrecks overall. If we can get rid of the Aberdeen aliens this would open up
a means to have civilians travel to Douglas since via Aberdeen it is just 3 jumps away from Polaris. Agincourt jumps back
to Douglas and to the Plymouth gaet to provide fuel for the survey ships. A new jump point has been found in Plymouth, the
ships are still staying away from where the Beagle was destroyed and are running without active sensors.

On the 13th of April Aaron Heath graduates from the academy, he is the brother of construction/production specialist Anna
Heath and 1 year her junior. But the most important thing is that he specialises in sensors and fire control (20%). He is
able to utilise 5 labs. He is given 4 labs and starts to look into Grav Sensor Strength 16. The order for 2 academies is
cut by 1 and the capacity allocated to it lowered as well.

Styx finished the Belfast/Liverpool gate and heads to Polaris for some rest and refueling.

June: The new Tribals entered Newport for geo surveys. And the next new shipping line - Clements Carrier Corporation - is
established, bringing the toal up to 9. A 2nd jump point has been found in Plymouth, again no gate.

September: New slipways completed at Gould Dockyard and Barker & March, both naval yards who are supposed to specialise
into gunboats and corvettes later on. Gould is ordered to add 1000t and Barker & March another slipway. Sam Harrison
completed research into Engineering Section - Small, fitting with the small ship theme quite nicely. He starts to look into
Fuel Storage - Tiny next. Agincourt jumps to Plymouth to signal the survey ships that she is back, but with the wreck of
Beagle on the sensors fairly close it becomes quite hard to decide what to do next. With the Captain still recovering from
an accident 26 years old Commander Black has the helm. Since operating without using active shields and being the same size
as the Victories she decides to try to explore the 2 unknown jump points instead of jumping back to Douglas. Maybe one of
those jump point leads closer towards home. But first she jumps back into Douglas and sends a report back to Polaris via
the gate network.

Except for a single comet the geo surveys of Douglas and Newport have been completed. Douglas has an abundance of Duranium
with 246mt 90% at Douglas I and 16mt 70% at the ruin/colony world of III, except for Gallicite and Vendarite the other
element are present at 40kt+ at 50%+ accessability. There are 6mt Sorium at 80%. Newport III is a potential colony as well,
at -97° it is just too cold and the 0.39 atm lacks some Oxygen with making up just 14%, but it should be fairly easy to
change that once terraformers are up. There are no minerals at Newport III and the system lacks most of the metals as well.

October: Brooke Begum completed Missile Launcher Reload 3 and starts to look into Missile Agilty 48, with the speed
advantage of the aliens we will need better missile agility to hit them. 1 lab is assigned to Connor Booth who has had no
project till now, he will start to look into troop transport bays since we will need troops to guard our far away colonies
from invasion. A 3rd jump point has been found in Plymouth, again no gate.

November: Agincourt arrived at Dartmouth, there is no gate on this side of the jump point as well. Dartmouth is a small
system with a single small Mt sun and 3 planets. A innermost super jovian followed by a gas giant and a dwarf planet with a
single moon, in addition there are 5 comets. Agincourt jumps back to Plymouth and heads to the next jump point.

A new scientist graduated, Charlie Hutchinson, he has no specialisation (MK at 0%), but is a very good Xenogist (30%), with the ruins
we have found recently he will join one of the additional teams that will be formed once Bloodhound completes her overhaul
and move the teams to the ruins. A 5th jump point has been found in Plymouth and this one has a gate, maybe that is where
the aliens arrive in the system. We will have to be very careful in approaching this jump point and due to this will only
move there once the other jump points have been investigated. Grav survey of Plymouth is completed, 5 jump points overall,
1 with a alien build gate. Afghan and Airedale moved away from the survey points and sit as silent as possible in space
while they wait for news from the Agincourt.

December: Research into Civilian Economy has been completed by Kian John, wealth should now be no problem for some time.
With Duranium slowly becoming a problem he will look into imroving Mining Production to 14t.
The next JP from Plymouth leads to the Stevenage system, no gate there. This is nice on the one hand since this will mean a
short route between Polaris and Douglas, and bad on the other hand due to the Swarm in Stevenage. Agincourt jumps back and
moves to the next jump point.

The Protectorate grants us their grav data from now on. And another sensor/fire control specialist graduates, Ellis Cross
(10%), she can utilise 20 labs. She starts to look into EM Sensor Sensitivity 8. With Bloodhound having completed her
overhaul the 2 new Xeno teams are loaded and she heads towards Sheffield III. Afghan and Airedale are in need of an
overhaul as well, but are currently stuck in Plymouth.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Polaris
Pop: 727m (+18)
Factories: 962 (+51)
Mines/automines: 308/279 (20 converted)
Labs: 40 (+3)
Finance Centers: 100
Academies: 6
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/9000, 2/7000 (+1000), 4/1000 (+1), 2/1000 (+1)
Commercial yards: 3/91400, 1/44800

Polaris II
Pop: 32.0m (-1.4)
Factories: 140
Finance Centers: 101 (+17)

Polaris VI Moon 6
Pop: 13.0m (+2.0)
Factories: 50
Finance Centers: 17 (+5)

Scientists/projects:
Bio: 30% / Terraforming 0.0015 atm
Construction: 20%, 15% / Mining Production 14t, Shipbuilding Rate 560
Defense: 50% / Ceramic Composite Armor
Energy: 25%, 20%, 20% / Reduced Size Laser 75%, Near Ultraviolet Laser, 15cm Laser
Logistics: 25%, 20%, 10% / Engineering Section - Small, Fuel Storage - Large, Troop Transport Bay
Missiles: 65%, 30%, 10% / Missile Agility 48, Fusion-boosted Fission Warhead, Ordnance Production 12BP
Power: 40%, 20% / Stellerator Reactor, Capacitor Recharge 3
Sensors: 20%, 10% / Active Grav Sensors 16, EM Sensors 8

Civilian Shipping:
Godfrey Lines - 30 ships (2530 income)
Shepherd Corp - 24 ships (+2 - 1980 income)
Payne Transport - 3 ships (+1 - 200 income)
Doherty Transport - 3 ships (430 income)
Lloyd T&T - 4 ships (440 income)
Sharp Company - 5 ships (+2 - 200 income)
Lawson Container - 2 ships (220 income)
John T&T - 1 ship (300 income)
Clements Carrier - 1 ship (300 income)

Income at 30.2k (+4.0) and 23.1k spend (+3.6). Wealth reserves are at 8.5k. Finance Centers account for 16% of the income
with shipping and exports for another 16% - mainly caused by a jump in colonist movements, tried to get a better
distribution of colonists here, but got too low on Polaris II in the end. Installation construction is responsible for 50%
of the costs, followed by research at 34%.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1968

Grr, forgot about the auto dismisal problem again, lost a bunch of 18y veterans due to the recent HQ reshuffle making the
game think they have been unassigned for 18 years...

January: Agincourt arrived in the Rosyth system, and at first the crew thought that there sensors had a malfunction because
there were geo contacts everywhere, but after some test it became clear that this system contains a staggering 385
asteroids and 5 comets which caused this large number of contacts. Otherwise Rosyth has a single F1 sun and 9 planets. I is
a moonless gas giant, II to VI are terrestrials with moon with IV as a single gas giant between them. IV would have been a
prefect position for a habitable world, but III and V might still be inside the habitable zone. VII is a dwarf planet
followed by another gas giant with 25 moons and a super jovian with another 24 moons. Overall there are more than 400
objects in the system with some of the asteroids up to 30bkm away from the sun. Agincourt jumps back into Plymouth and
starts its slow approach of the gated jump point.

Agincourt made it to the jump point unmolested and arrived in the Holy Loch system. It is a trinary without any planets and
just 5 comets in the system with the farthest one being 18bkm away from the sun. Agincourt jumps back and starts to move
toward the Douglas jump point to bring the Victories out of Plymouth. The presence of a gate to Holy Loch is strange,
especially with no gate in Holy Loch itself and no other gate in Plymouth to indicate some kind of gate highway.

February: Agincourt and the 2 Victories reach the Douglas JP without incidents and head home to Polaris for some well
deserved rest. 2 mass drivers are ordered to bring back Duranium form the automines that will be set up on Comet#4.

March: A new science graduate, Ellis Parkin, she specialises in logistics/ground combat (25%), can use 15 labs and is
replacing Connor Booth in working on Troop Transport Modules.

A small population of a new alien race has been detected at Inverness I Moon 2, we try to establish communications. Thermal
and EM of 615 make it look like a automining colony, especially with Inverness I having a temperature of 168° and no
atmosphere.

April: A ship of the Inverness aliens was detected at Inverness I, so far they are neutral. The 2 mass drivers are
completed, the first still awaiting transport to Comet#4.

May: Thomas Poole has completed research into Fuel-Storage - Large and continues with Engineering Section - Tiny. Another
Sensor/Fire Control specialist gruadates, and a good one at that (30%), Gemma Kaur is able to use 20 labs. She will take
over looking into Active Grav Sensors while Aarron Heath looks into EM Sensors and Ellis Cross gets a single lab to look
into Beam Fire Control Range 16k.

June: Oliver Fuller researched 15cm Lasers and will continue with 20cm, but only one lab. The other 2 are assigned to
sensor research, our most important field of research at the moment. Communications have been established with the
Inverness aliens, they call themself the Chaurch of Jais. A new diplomatic team is assembled and we try to imporve our
relations with them. Lets just hope that the name does not indicate a bunch of crazy religious fanatics. Once the grav
survey ships complete their overhaul we will try to find their hone system. Maybe we will be able to establish trade with
them.

Eleanor Singh completed research into Stellarator Fusion Technology, opening up research into Magneto-Plasma Drives, which
is looked into immediatly.

In the meantime High Command has come up with a daring plan. Due to the large number of wrecks in Aberdeen they would try
to sneak into the system with salvage ships and try to gain some technology from the wrecks closest to the jump point. The
4 AMM cruisers and the 4 gauss AM cruisers would follow the salvagers, but hopefully their fairly low emissions would keep
them hidden from the aliens. But if they are detected their anit-missle fire might give them at least a chance to escape.
And if beam ships were to attack the small AMMs could be used offensively.

August: The builders of the ruins on Douglas III have been identified by Patrick Coles team as the Arapaha Star Emipre. 14
installations have been found, but the team does not have the means to recover them. Their overall level of technology
seemed to have been a bit above our own. A specialised infantry unit will be needed that specialises in construction to
recover the installations. When word gets back from Douglas research for such a construction unit will be started. A Tribal
waiting in system picks up the 2 Xeno teams and drops them off at Sheffield III, despite it being still unknown if more
than one team actually helps.

With workers getting short on Polaris II and a surplus at Moon 6 20 factories are transported to the moon. And with all
automines and the mass driver having arrived at Comet#4 the first minerla packages are send back to Polaris.

All 8 cruisers have completed their overhauls and head towards the Aberdeen gate in London. The Vulture class salvagers are
already underway. When they arrive at the Aberdeen gate the cruisers jump into Aberdeen first. After a couple og minutes
one cruiser returns and orders the Vultures to follow. One they are in system each Vulture is assigned one of the wrecks
close to the gate, all of them Hill Tribe warships, but a bit more towards the sun a couple of Tundra Tribe ships can be
seen as well. The cruisers follow the Vulture assigned the wreck the farthest away from the gate.

September: On 7th September all ships in Aberdeen detect 18x4 stregth 5 energy impacts about 60mkm away from the leading Vulture,
followed by a couple of magazine explosions and a power system explosion. A few seconds later a new Hill Tribe wreck appears,
a 28900 Colossus class which seems to have been a large missile ship. 5 seconds later another 14 strength 1 energy hits are
detected, the battle is obviously not over yet. Then nothing happens for 5 hours when suddenly 2 large enemy ships appear
on the sensors. A Greece and a Rommel class, both with known speeds of around 4.5kkm/sec and likely missile ships. Their
active S196/92 easily being able to detect our ships. After a couple of minutes the first missiles appear on the sensors at
a distance of around 300kkm. They are closing in with a speed of just 22kkm/sec which is slower than expected and have a
size of 1 and since there are only 7 missiles in each salvo our gauss turrets should have a fairly decent chance of taking
them down. When the missiles arrive the gauss turrets open fire, but as it turns out fire fire of 2-3 weapons is enough to
destroy the incoming missiles, so unless the aliens have more missiles or beam weapons in store for us we should be save
for now.

But the Greece and the Rommel are still heading our way, maybe they have beam weapons as well. After about 60 salvos their
magazines seem to have run dry. Commodore Isabelle Hall, commander of the taskgroup, has the information gained during the
fight till now transmitted to the Vulture closest to the gate, Vulture 3. She will try to keep real time information flowing to
the Vulture when the fight starts again. All Vultures are to head back to Polaris as fast as possible if a warship
is destroyed.

32 minutes later the alien ships are in range of the Ark Royals active sensors. There are 3 ships actually, 2 9650t Greece
classes and 1 19300t Rommel class. Having just about 2000 strength 1 missiles with a 60% chance to hit and unknown enemy
anti-missile capabilities does not sound very good against such ships. Commodore Hall orders the ships to open fire and
focus on Greece 001 at first. Strong jamming is detected, lowering the range to lock onto the targets from 3.6mkm to
2.6mkm. 3 minutes later the enemy ships are finally in range and the Ark Royals open fire with a volley of 320 Vipers.

196 hits from the first volley at Greece 001, bringing her speed down to 3480km/sec, another 221 from the second wave hit
and Greece 001 is destroyed, 40 missiles self destructed without a target.

Greece 003 is hit by 195 missiles from the first volley and slows down, the second volley destroys the fleeing ship as it
did with Greece 001.

The Rommel is still advancing, having closed the distance to 1.9mkm when the first volley arrives. 201 missiles hit with
anti-missile fire taking out 8 missiles. Rommel's speed drops down to 3232km/sec. 249 missiles of the second volley hit,
destroying the Rommel.

Due to no spare missiles at Polaris there is no sense in heading back to rearm, but since there is no need to risk the crews
of the now useless ships Commodore Hall orders the 4 Ark Royal's to return to Polaris and make detailed reports. Commodore
Ashley Cole has command of the 4 Ark Royals.

The old Vipers did a great job of dealing with those aliens, but just 1 more beam ship or slightly worse crews and thus
hit-rates would have been most likely the doom of the fleet since its magazines are dry now and only the point blank range
gauss turrets are left. Except for a Dragon class (likey grav survey ship) and 2 unknown classes this seems to be the first
losses the Aberdeen aliens have suffered. The combination of gauss missile defense and offensive missiles saved the day.
And with more and longer ranged missiles we might be able to bring the fight back to them.

Vulture 3 is the first to complete her salvage from a Hill Tribe Longsword class. Electronic Countermeasures, Counter-
Countermeasures, 50 EP Nuclear Engines, 4x Size 4 Missile Launchers and a EM Detection Sensor 8 were found in addition to
about 300t of minerals. Vulture 3 is ordered back to Polaris. Commodore Hall wishes to leave the system as soon as
all salvage operations are completed and only come back when the ships have been rearmed.

Vulture 2 is the next to finish its salvage of another Longsword. Some insight into EM Sensor Sensitivity 8 has been gained
during the operations and 1 ECCM, 4 size 4 launchers, 1 TH2-12 thermal sensor, 1 EM 8 sensor and 1 missile fire control
70/R85 have been found. Vulture 2 is ordered back to Polaris as well. Vulture 1 salvages another Longsword and gets 1 ECCM,
3 launchers and 1 EM sensor then heading back to Polaris.

In the meantime Alexandra Moran has completed research into 75% Size Lasers at 4x the recharge time. Due to other more
pressing matters there will be no new energy weapon research for now. The 3 labs are allocated to Improved Missile Agility
48.

Vulture 4 salvaged a Hill Tribe Gotterdammerung class, obviously a beam ship due to having salavaged 1 Pebble Bed Reactor,
in addition 1 small thermal sensor 5 was salavaged. With salvage operations complete Commodore Hall orders the other 3
Resolutions to escort the Vulture back to Polaris while her ship, the OPillbox, will try to rescue to Hill Tribe crew of
the Colossus, despite having no additional crew quarters. 330 survivors are picked up a short time later and Pillbox heads
back to Polaris, too. On its voyage home Pillbox keeps suffering maintenance failures due to the overcrowding, but supplies
should last till Polaris is reached.

[CharonJr (OP)]

Still in September Dylan Murphy's Xeno team is able to translate the alien symbols at Sheffield-III. The builders called
themself the Platinum Khanate and a staggering 209 installations have been discovered. The technology appears to be a bit
higher than our own as well. The waiting Tribal picks up the teams and heads back to Polaris to make its report.

October: Bethany Fleming has completed research into Fusion-boosted Fission Warheads, together with the soon completed
Missile Agility this should provide a nice boost to our missiles. She takes over Ordenance Production research and the
original 3 labs are used to boost research into sensors and armor. 1 week later Brooke Begum completes research into
Missile Agility 48. He starts to look into better Magazine Efficiency (90%). In addition a new missile is designed, the
Viper II (48% engine, 20% warhead, 1% fuel, 31% agility):

Missile Size: 1 MSP  (0.05 HS)     Warhead: 1    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 25
Speed: 20200 km/s    Engine Endurance: 4 minutes   Range: 4.5m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 505%   3k km/s 150%   5k km/s 101%   10k km/s 50.5%

It will take till next summer before enough have been build to rearm all missile cruisers.

It seems like the Protectorate has a grav explorer in Aberdeen because we received information about a new jump point
there.

When the combined salvage/warship fleet reaches Polaris they gets a hero's welcome. Not only have they managed to weather the storm of the alien's missile fire, but they managed to destroy 3 alien ships and bring back salvaged tech as well. High Command came up with a number of new medals to mark the Mountain Tribe's first victory in a space battle. The Vulture commanders all receive commendations for keeping their heads under fire. The Resolutions receive the newly founded (OOC: is a medal actually founded?) Aegis Medal, which will be awarded to ships that prevent friendly ships from being hit by missiles. In addition the newly found Combat Medal will be awarded to all military ships that participated in a battle and finally the First Blood Medal, indicating that the ship has killed an enemy warship. In addition Isabelle Hall receives a knighthood and the title of Dame as overall commander of the first successfull battle in space.

First Blood Medal:
Cmdr. Evie Green - CA(M) Amber for destruction of Greece 001
Cmdr. Amber Watts - CA(M) Ark Royal for destruction of Greece 003
Cmdr. Ashley Cole - CA(M) Diamond for destruction of Rommel 001

Aegis Medal: Cmdr. Joel Perkins - CA(G) Parapet, Commodore Isabelle Hall - CA(G) Pillbox, Cmdr. Naomi Steward - CA(G)

Rampart, Commodore Declan Clark - CA(G) Resolution

Combat Medal: All of the above + Cmdr. Harvey Stephenson - CA(M) Amethyst

In addition High Command has learned a few things due to this battle - except for the obvious "we need better tech":

1. No ship should enter combat unless its crew has been fully trained.
2. If we are going to rely on missiles as offensive weapons we need a dedicated supply ship.
3. Due to anti-missile weapons a single missile volley should be as large as possible.
4. Focus your fire on one target unless you are sure you can bring it down with less that a full broadside
5. When defending ships or planets the fleet has to be fairly stationary - look into deployable weapon platforms
6. Small size is an advantage since most sensors are build for large ships - look into building smaller ships

OOC: In addition I did a little reform of the military ranks due having too much brass there for my taste, Grand Admiral rank will be gone and a new Senior Captain/Captain 1st class is inserted where the Commodore was before, thus moving Commodore up one rank along with the rest of the upper brass.

December: 1 new research lab is assigned to Construction Brigade. 2 new jump oints were found in Aberdeen, seems like our Protectorate friends are surely busy over there.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Sector Polaris - Henry Storey - Adm 6 - Wealth +10, Min +20, Ship +5, Log +15, Pop +10, Ground +20

Polaris (Olivia Brookes - Adm 6 - Wealth +25, Fact +55, Min +30, Ship +35, Log +5, Pop +5, Ground +25)
Pop: 744m (+17)
Factories: 993 (+51 - 20)
Mines/automines: 308/270 (41 converted, 50 auto shipped away)
Labs: 43 (+3)
Finance Centers: 100
Academies: 7 (+1)
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/10000 (+1000), 2/8000 (+1000), 5/1000 (+1), 2/1000
Commercial yards: 3/91400, 1/44800

Polaris II (Louise Barrett - Adm 6 - Wealth +5, Fact +30, Min +15, Log +10, Pop +25, Ground +10, Polit +30)
Pop: 34.4m (+2.4)
Factories: 140
Finance Centers: 118 (+17)

Polaris VI Moon 6 (Rebecca Porter - Adm 3 - Wealth +20, Mining +20, Ship +30, Pop +30, Terra +15, Polit +10)
Pop: 14.6m (+1.6)
Factories: 70 (+20 from Polaris)
Finance Centers: 23 (+8)

Polaris Comet#4 (Thomas Dobson - Adm 3 - Min +20, Ship +15, Pop +5, Terra +10)
Automines: 50
170k 90% Duranium, 212 80% Corundium

Douglas III - Ruins - TL4, 14 Installations, +80% defense research
Sheffield III - Ruins - TL4, 209 Installations

Scientists/projects:
Bio: 30% / Terraforming 0.0015 atm
Construction: 20%, 15% / Mining Production 14t, Shipbuilding Rate 560
Defense: 50% / Ceramic Composite Armor
Energy: 25%, 25%, 20% / Near Ultraviolet Laser, 20cm Laser
Logistics: 30%, 25%, 20%, 20% / Fuel Storage - Tiny, Troop Transport Bay, Engineering Section - Tiny, Construction Brigade
Missiles: 65%, 30%, 10% / Magazine Feed 90%, Ordnance Production 12BP
Power: 40%, 20% / Megneto Plasma Drive, Capacitor Recharge 3
Sensors: 35%, 20%, 10% / Active Grav Sensors 16, EM Sensors 8, Beam Fire Control Range 16k

Civilian Shipping (should be at normal levels now):
Godfrey Lines - 32 ships (+2 - 1920 income)
Shepherd Corp - 24 ships (1435 income)
Payne Transport - 3 ships (225 income)
Doherty Transport - 3 ships (135 income)
Lloyd T&T - 5 ships (+1 - 275 income)
Sharp Company - 5 ships (280 income)
Lawson Container - 2 ships (90 income)
John T&T - 2 ships (+1 - 90 income)
Clements Carrier - 2 ships (+1 - no income)

Income at 33.9k (+2.7) and 29.7k spend (+6.6). Wealth reserves are at 12.7k. Finance Centers account for 19% of the income
with shipping and exports for another 10%. Installation construction is responsible for 47% of the costs, research 33%.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1969

With no problems so far and no indications of intercepted/tampered/forged messages yet all but the most critical of
communications will send via the gate network from now on.

With High Command and the Royal Society getting restless about additional new knowledge from salvaged ships it is decided
that the salvage fleet will head out again when enough Viper IIs have been build for 3 full salvos due to the improved to
hit chances of the new missiles. If the Aberdeen aliens warships are only able to travel at 5kkm/sec or less every missile
should hit now except those taken out by PD fire.

January: Oliver Fuller completed research into Near Ultraviolet Lasers and is assigned 1 lab to look into Ultraviolet
Lasers, the other 3 labs are added to Troop Transport Bays and Construction Brigades.

We learned about Jump Drive Efficiency 5 from the Protectorate traders visiting our system, while we mainly rely on gates
as a means of travel it is still nice to be able to build better jumpships if they are needed.

February: Jason Stevenson completed research into Capacitor Recharge 3 and starts to look into Max Engine power x2.0. Gemma
Kaur researched Active Grav Sensor 16 and takes over Beam Fire Controll Range 16k from Ellis Cross who gets one of the labs
for starting to look into Active Grav Sensor 21. A new gated jump point was found in Inverness by Bloodhound, this one
might be leading back towards the homeworld of the Jays, so Captain Philips sends word about his discovery back to Polaris.
A few hours later Agincourt starts to move towards Inverness.

March: The Protectorate has completed the grav survey of Aberdeen, finding a total of 5 jump points. With Viper II stocks
at close to 1200 already this sounds like the right time to pay Aberdeen another visit. The Vultures head off first, due to
being the slowest ships. Aardvark will move to Aberdeen as well to take a closer look at the jump points. With 320 missiles
each - enough for 4 full salvos - the Royal Arks and Resolutions of Homefleet set out towards Aberdeen.

With the 1000th construction factory having been completed on Polaris their construction stops for now and the freed up
capacities are used to convert more mines to automines. A bit later 3 new Cryo Mk2 class colony ships have been completed.
They head towards Polaris Moon 6 to pick up coloniest and will begin the long journey to Douglas III.

April: A newly build lab is assigned to Eleanor Singh to speed up Magneto Plasma Drive research and 30 factories are
contracted to be shiped from Polaris to Moon 6 to free up some more workers.

May: The combined salvage/warfleet enters Aberdeen for the second time. All newly found jump points have jump gates and
Aardvark heads to the one as far away from the center of the system as possible. The Vultures move to 2 Gotterdammerung, 1
Hel and 1 Colossus class, all of them Hill Tribe ships. When taking a closer look at the wrecks it looks like there is some
problem with our computer, it looks like it assigned a Longsword class to nearly every known race, at the moment there are
3 races that have a Longsword class, which might lead to some mistakes due to misinterpreting a ships capabilities.

In the meantime our Protectorate friends seem to be busy in Birmingham, having found 2 new jump points there as well. And
Conor Wallis completed research into Ceramic Composite Armor. He starts to look into Beta Shields next.

Aardvark arrives in the Sunderland system with a gate there as well. There is a very large number of asteroids here 212.
Sunderland has a single class G7 sun and 8 planets. It has 2 terrestrial and 2 dwarf planets in addition to 4 gas giants
with a couple of moons. With a sun like our own Sunderland III, one of the terrestrials, with a orbit of 372m might be on
ther outer edge of the habitable zone. Aardvark jumps back into system and starts to head slowly closer towards the center
of the system where the other 2 gates are located.

In Inverness Agincourt enters the gate and arrives in the Middlesborough system and there is a gate on this side as well.

Middlesborough is a binary system with a planetless very small sun in orbit around the G5-class sun A. A has 4 gas giants
and 1 super jovian in orbit. There are 66 moons, 53 asteroids and 5 comets. Agincourt jumps back into Inverness.

June: Vulture 1 completed its salvage of a Gotterdammerung retrieving 1 Fire Control S02 40-1250, 2 Pepple Bed Reactors 1,
1 Thermal 5 and 1 15cm Plasma Carronade. It heads to a Hill Tribe Valhalla class next. Vulture 2 has salvaged the other
Gotterdammerung and retrieves 1 Fire Control, 5 Pebble Bed Reactors, 1 Thermal 5 and 2 Carronades, it heads for a Hill
Tribe Longsword. Vulture 1 is the next to complete its salvage of the Valhalla, getting 1 Missile Fire Control 27R85, 2
EP50 Nuclear Engines, 5 Size 4 Missile Launchers and a Thermal 5. A Hill Tribe Longsword is next. A few hours later Vulture
2 finished salvaging its Longsword, gaining 2 Nuclear Engines, 4 Missile Launchers, 1 Thermal 5 and 1 Missile Fire Control
39R85. She sets out for another Longsword.

Aardvark jumps from the Aberdeen gate into Birmingham, there is another gate here. A little while later she jumps back to
examine the last remaining Aberdeen gate. She arrives in the Chester system and there is a gate there as well. Chester has
a single G3-class sun, a little brighter than our own. There are 4 planets in orbit, I is a moonless gas giant, II and III
are terrestrials and might be inside the habitable zone while 4 is another gas giant with 16 moons, in addition there are 5
comets. Aardvark moves back into Aberdeen and heads to the Birmingham gate again to examine the new jump point in
Birmingham.

July: It looks like Aberdeen is not as peacefull as it seemed, there are 40 strength 6 nuclear detonations at Aberdeen II,
but who is fighting whom is not known and Captain 1st class Dame Hall is not willing to risk any ship to take a closer
look. But it looks likely that one of the Aberdeen alien's enemies have attacked their homewolrd and this would mean that
the aliens warships are either all destroyed or too far away to interfere. 10 seconds later there are another 20 strength 6
explosions followed by another 20 stength 1 explosions 40 seconds later a bit furhter away from the planets, so maybe there
still are defnders left.

With the Douglas jump point close to 3bkm away from the center this looks like a good time to send a gate builder there and
open up a gate to Douglas. Dame Hall calls for the Charon.

50 seconds later there are another 20 strength 1 explosions about 1mkm away from Aberdeen II. 40 seconds later another 20
strength 1 explosions. This time it takes over 2 minutes before the next 20 small explosions are detected, everybody is
curious to know who is fighting whom, but all know that with the salvages in the system it is the best not to draw any
attention to them. About 2 hours later there are 20 strength 6 explosions and a new unknown wreck of 19250 ton appears on
the sensors right at Aberdeen II. This might be a defensive missle platform that shot the small missiles at the attackers
but is now destroyed. The defenders seem to have run out of missiles, now there are only the strength 6 explosions and some
time later and second unknown wreck appears at Aberdeen II. Then the explosions stop.

2 days later Vulture 3 completed its salvage of the Hel class, retrieving 5 Pebble Bed Reactors, 5 Carronades and 1 CIWS-50
from the wreck. She heads to a Hill Tribe Colossus next. Vulture 1 salvages some equipment from the Longsword, nothing that
has not been seen before. Her target is another Longsword, but this time from the Tundra Tribe. Vulture 2 salvaged here
Longsword as well and heads for a Tundra Tribe Reaper class. Among other things Vulture 4 salvaged 2 Capacity 201
Magazines, 1 EM2-16 sensor, 5 size 6 Missile Launchers and 1 Missile Fire Control 106R85 from the Hill Colossus class, with
her cargo bay completely filled up she heads back to Polaris.

The Protectorate found another jump point in Birmingham. Aardvark is already in system and moving to another jump point,
but will head there next. Niether of the new jump points has a gate.

Vulture 1 found a few pieces of equipment from salvaging the Tundra Tribe Longsword, but nothing unusual. With only 6kt of
cargo speace left she heads back to Polaris as well. Vulture 2 salvaged a couple of new items from the Reaper, a Fire
Control S02 64-2000 and 1 Patricle Beam-3. With just 800t cargo space left she heads of Polaris.

A new gated jump point in Inverness was found by Airedale.

August: Aardvark arrived in the Bristol system, no gate on this side. Bristol has a single class G8 sun, slightly smaller
and 50% less luminous than our sun. There are 6 planets in orbit. I-IV are terrestrial, V is a dwarf and VI another
terrestrial with the only moon in the system and there are 13 comets here. V and VI might be inside the habitable zone.
Aardvark jumps back to Birmingham to examine the final jump point.

A new lab is assigned to Magneto Plasma Drive research, bringing the total to 10, but it will still take till January 1972
before it is completed.

Vulture 3 completed the salvage of the Tundra Tribe Colossus, a missile ship as well as his namesakes. Among other things a
Size 7 Missile Launcher and 3 Missile Fire Control 80R86 were salvaged. With only 3.6k cargo space left Vulture 3 is the
last salvager to leave Aberdeen for Polaris. 2 new Vultures will be completed by December 1969, so there should be 6 of
them for the next trip. Homefleet returns to Polaris as well, by now there are enough missiles to completly refill all the magazines.

[CharonJr (OP)]

September: Gemma Kaur completed research into Beam Fire Control Range 16k and continues with 24k. Aardvark arrived in
Belfast, no gate here back to Birmingham as well, but there are 2 Protectorate Shiwa class right at the jump point here,
most likely already building a gate. Aardvark heads to Inverness, to take a look at the newly found and potential new jump
points.

The salvaged EM 8 sensors complete our research into EM 8 and a new active search sensor is prototyped, it should be able
to see 8500t ships from about 100mkm away. This will have to do till we are able to increase the tech level of our sensors
again. The prototype will be build by Storey Dynamics.

4 additional Resolution Gauss AM-cruisers have been completed and start training, 4 "veterans" of the Battle of Aberdeen
with the best training skills are taking command of the new ships and training starts immediatly.

October: With all salvaged equipment having been disassembled it looks like we can learn next to nothing new from our tribal
cousins, the next wave of salvages will focus on alien ships.

November: New jump point found in Cardiff, the Protectorate is busy again. We found a new jump point in Inverness as well,
this one is gate as were the previous ones.

December: The 2 new Vultures are completed and follow the othrs towards Aberdeen. A anomaly has been detected at
Middlesborough II-Moon 6 - and it looks like a small Church colony as well. The moon itself has a surface temperature of
59°, gravity of 0.71 and and 0.49 atmosphere, with 83% Nitrogen and 17% Carbon Dioxide. A decent candidate for
terraforming, sadly the only metals present are at 10% accessability. The anamaly would provide a 100% boost to
missile/kinetic weapons research which looks very nice. The only problem is that Middlesborough is 5 systems away from
Polaris, so unless we find some shortcut it will be very hard to establish a large enough colony to utilise the anomaly.
But with the grav survey of Inverness nearly completed the first survey ships are already in Middlesborough.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Sector Polaris - Henry Storey - Adm 6 - Wealth +10, Min +20, Ship +5, Log +15, Pop +10, Ground +20)

Polaris (Olivia Brookes - Adm 6 - Wealth +25, Fact +55, Min +30, Ship +35, Log +5, Pop +5, Ground +25)
Pop: 761m (+17)
Factories: 970 (+7 - 30)
Mines/automines: 337/200
Labs: 46 (+3)
Finance Centers: 100
Academies: 7
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/11000 (+1000), 2/10000 (+2000), 7/1000 (+2), 2/2500 (+1500)
Commercial yards: 3/94400 (+3000), 2/51900 (+1/+7100)
Thermal: 20k, Tundra 21.2k, Hill 21.2k
EM: 60.2k, Tundra 57.4k, Hill 57.2k

Polaris II (Louise Barrett - Adm 6 - Wealth +5, Fact +30, Min +15, Log +10, Pop +25, Ground +10, Polit +30)
Pop: 37.2m (+2.
Factories: 120
Finance Centers: 135 (+17)

Polaris VI Moon 6 (Rebecca Porter - Adm 3 - Wealth +20, Mining +20, Ship +30, Pop +30, Terra +15, Polit +10)
Pop: 16.1m (+1.5)
Factories: 100 (+30 from Polaris)
Finance Centers: 31 (+8)

Polaris Comet#4 (Thomas Dobson - Adm 3 - Min +20, Ship +15, Pop +5, Terra +10)
Automines: 50
168k 90% Duranium, 210 80% Corundium

Douglas III - Ruins - TL4, 14 Installations, +80% defense research
Sheffield III - Ruins - TL4, 209 Installations
Middlesborough II-Moon 6 - 100% missile/kinetic research

Scientists/projects:
Bio: 30% / Terraforming 0.0015 atm
Construction: 25%, 15% / Mining Production 14t, Shipbuilding Rate 560
Defense: 50% / Beta Shields
Energy: 25%, 25%, 20% / Ultraviolet Laser, 20cm Laser
Logistics: 30%, 25%, 20%, 20% / Fuel Storage - Tiny, Troop Transport Bay, Engineering Section - Tiny, Construction Brigade
Missiles: 65%, 35%, 10% / Magazine Feed 90%, Ordnance Production 12BP
Power: 45%, 20% / Megneto Plasma Drive, Max Engine Power x2.0
Sensors: 35%, 20%, 10% / Beam Fire Control Range 24k, Fire Control Speed 4k, active search sensor prototype

Civilian Shipping (4370 up to 5140):
Godfrey Lines - 35 ships (+3 - 1730 income)
Shepherd Corp - 26 ships (+2 - 1960 income)
Payne Transport - 4 ships (+1 - 575 income)
Doherty Transport - 4 ships (+1 - 150 income)
Lloyd T&T - 6 ships (+1 - 250 income)
Sharp Company - 4 ships (-1 - 305 income)
Lawson Container - 3 ships (+1 - 90 income)
John T&T - 2 ships (40 income)
Clements Carrier - 2 ships (40 income)

Income at 36.0k (+2.1) and 30.9k spend (+1.2). Wealth reserves are at 18.0k. Finance Centers account for 20% of the income
with shipping and exports for another 9%. Installation construction is responsible for 46% of the costs, research 34%.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1970

January: Agincourt arrived in the Greenock system, the Inverness gate has a counterpart here. Greenock has a single K5-
class star and 9 planets and due to the low luminosity of just 19% and the 2nd planet already at an orbit of 226mkm the

only planet in the habitable zone might be the first one, but with an orbit of 106mkm even it should be fairly cold
already. I and II are terrestrial, III a gas giant, IV a super jovian, V-VII gas giants and VIII and IX dwarf planets. Each
planet has at least one moon. In addition there are 154 asteriods and 5 comets in the system. Agincourt jump back to
Inverness to examine the other gate.

No additional jump points were found in Inverness, overall there are 4 jump points, all of them with gates.

Vulture 1 salvaged one of the Aberdeen alien's Greece classes and found evidence of Capacitor Recharge Rate 5, adding to
our knowledge of Recharge Rate 4, but no equipment could be salvaged. The next target will be a 9600t unknown class.

Vulture 2 salvaged the other Greece, finding evidence of Laminate Composite Armor and gaining some knowledge about it, in
addition 1 EP96 Magneto-Plasma Drive and 1 EM Sensor 14 were salvaged. The 9650t wreck of a Aberdeen Dragon class is the
next target.

Research into Troop Transport Bay was completed by Ellis Parkin and she takes over Construction Brigade research. Tylor
Mason starts to look into Brigade Headquarters with 1 lab, the remaining 2 are assigned to Beam Fire Control Range and
Magazine Feed Efficiency. A new ship class called Illustrious is designed, able to move up to 5 battalions at once or 1
construction brigade. With a range of 82bkm and 2 years of deployment time it is able to reach all currently known systems.
It will take 8 month to retool Crawford Corp. civilian yards for the construction of the first 2 new ships. To speed up the
actual construction we will prebuild the engines and transport bays.

Code: [Select]

Illustrious class Troop Transport    22 000 tons     145 Crew     729 BP      TCS 440  TH 900  EM 0
2045 km/s     Armour 1-69     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 21    Max Repair 45 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 0   
Troop Capacity: 5 Battalions    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5   

Anderson-Lord 180 EP Commercial Ion Drive (5)    Power 180    Fuel Use 9.9%    Signature 180    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 1 000 000 Litres    Range 82.6 billion km   (467 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

February: The Protectorate finished grav survey of Cardiff, it has 2 jump points, one to London, the other one unknown. And
a new gated jump point was found by us in Middlesborough, once a jump ships reaches the system it will be examined. With a
bit of luck the gate will lead to a system close to Polaris, allowing us to use the research bonus more easily.

With the salvage of the Aberdeen Rommel class complete Vulture 3 found evidence of Thermal Sensors 14 and learned something
about Sensors 6 in the process. 2 Megneto-Plasma Dirves, 4 Stellarator Fusions Reactors and 2 25cm V5/C5 railguns were
salvaged. A large 28950t unknown class will be the next target. 1 day later the 2 new Vultures arrive in Aberdeen, Vulture
5 gets an unknown with 9650t as does Vulture 6.

Vulture 1's unknown is a letdown, a low tech ship, about 1 tech level behind what we currently know. With the reaming
interesting wrecks too close to the center of the system for our taste we will try to salvage some tribe classes we havent
seen closely before or which might help us with jump tech. Thus Vulture 1 heads to a Tundra Tribe Deadly Reaper class.
Vulture 4 had a low tech ship as well and heads towards a 17900t Tundra Tribe Bardiche-J class.

A new sensor/fire control specialist graduated from the academy, Bradley Schofield has impressive knowledge for his young
age (30%), but is only able to use 5 labs at the moment. He takes over the Acitve Sensory prototype research from Ellis
Cross.

The Aberdeen Dragon class Vulture 2 salvage was better better than the last ships, evidence of EM Sensors 14 was found and
we learned something about EM Sensor 11, in addition 1 ECCM-4 was salvaged. The next target will be a Tundra Tribe Bismarck
class, most likely a cargo ship, but knowing for sure would be nice.

March: As expected the Bismarck class turned out to be a cargo ship, the one Vulture 2 salvaged seems to be a fairly old
model, still using nuclear engines. With around 6k cargo space left Vulture 2 heads back to Polaris anyway, its freight of
EM sensors and Magneto-Plasma drives being too important to linger any longer in Aberdeen for low tech ships. Vulture 4
finds the Bardiche-J to be a missile ship, but again, the tech is the same or lower than ours like we already got used to
from tribal ships. Vulture 4 returns to Polaris.

The final gate in Inverness brought Agincourt to the Derby system, there is no gate here. Derby is the first quadrinary we
have found, but only sun A - a G4 class - and sun B - another G4 - have any planets. A-I is a gas giant, A-II a dwarf, A-
III-VI are terrestrials, A-VII a super jovian and A-VIII another dwarf. B-I-III are all terrestrial, but with a max orbit
of 68mkm far too close to the sun to be habitable. A-IV and A-V might be inside the habitable zone. Agincourt jumps back
and heads to Middlesborough.

Vulture 5 got a interesting unknown for a change, 1 ECCM-4, 1 Missile Fire Control 34R1, 1 Magneto Plasma Drive, 5 Missile
Launchers Size 1 and 1 Thermal Sensor 14 were salavaged, making it salvaged ship look like it belonged to the Aberdeen
aliens. Vulture 5 returns to Polaris with its loot. Vulture 6 got a bad salvage and without having any important data or
equipment she takes a look at a look at a Hill Tribe Longsword-J.

April: A new lab is assigned to the active sensor prototype.

Vulture 1 learns that the Tundra Tribe Deadly Reaper is a beam ship, 3 Particle Beam-3 were salvaged along with nuclear
engines and reactors. Vulture 1 heads back to Polaris. The Hill Longsword-J was a missile ship. Vulture 6 heads to a Tundra
Preinz Eugen class next, it has a tonage of 8950t.

Louise Barret raises her factory production bonus to 50%, as governor of Polaris II this will help with building the
finance centers and the terraformers after them.

Vulture 3 drew another blank with her unknown ship, a close range beam with with carronades and old tech. Due to having
nearly filled up her cargo hold and having salvaged important tech earlier she heads to Polaris.

A new gated jump point has been found in Middlesborough.

The Prinz Eugen turned out to be another old tech beam ship, 1 Particle Beam-2 has been found, a Tundra Konigsberg class at
8950t will be looked at next by Vulture 6.

May: Aardvark entered the Middlesborough gate and arrived at another gate in the Leicester system. Ut has 2 suns, A being a
Large G0-class and B a very small L4 without any planets. A has 3 planets, the innermost are 2 terrestrials and the otuer
one a gas giant. Due to the orbits being to close to the sun neither planet look habitable, but there are 37 moons in the
system and some of them might be. Not a likely system for the Church's homeworld. Aardvark jumps back into Middlesborough
and heads to the next unexplored gate.

The Tundra Konigsberg turns out to be a missile ship, old tech as well. Vulture 6 contiunes to the more recent wreck of a
Tundra Reaper-J at 8950t. Another beam ship it turned out, but at least it was using Particle Beam-3s and not the older 2s.

The next and most likely last salvage for this tour will be a 32850t VonRoeder class, most likely some cargo or colony
ship. Cargo handling systems and commercial nuclear drives were salvaged, still leaving it unclear if this was a cargo or a
colony ship. With her hold nearly full Vulture 6 heads for Polaris.

June: Charon finished the Aberdeen/Douglas gate, so even civilian ships will now to able to reach the new colony on Douglas
III. With 15 wrecks in the nebulas of Blackpool Charon heads there to connect it to the gate network. Styx is kept in
reserve in case any interesting new system with need of a gate is found.

The next gate in Middlesborough brought Aardvrak to the Preston system, there is a gate here as well and more importantly
around 30 Church ships, it looks like we found their home system. Preston is a binary with planets around both suns. Sun A
is a small M3 with 4 planets - 2 terrestrials, 1 gas giant and 1 dwarf. Due to the weak sun and orbits > 40mkm it seems
unlikely that any of them is habitable. And there are 300 asteroids around sun A as well. Sun B is even smaller, and there
are 6 planets in its orbir. Due to its fairly close orbir of 18mkm B-I might actually be inside the habitable zone. B-II is
a gas giant, III and IV are super jovians, V a dwarf and VI another gas giant. Since no further gates need exploring at the
moment Aaardvark heads to B-I to see if it is the Chruch homeworld. And B-I very much looks like a homeword, thermal
sensors detect a strength 29.7k signal and EM show a reading of 93k, actually higher than the 83k we last saw at the
Protectorate homeworld and 50% higher than our own. There are 50 ships in orbit of B-I. Aardvark heads back to
Middlesborough.

July: With the Chruch's homeworld found we have to try to find a quicker way to them once we are able to trade there. Grav
survey of Preston is started.

August: Research into Construction Brigade has been completed and Ellis Parkin starts to look into Brigade Headquarters
next. A gated jump point has been found in Preston and Aardvark moves to explore. She arrived in the Southampton system,
which has a gateless jump point to Douglas as well. Aardvark jumps back hoping for more jump points in Preston. A few days
later another gated JP is found and Aardvark moves to investigate. While moving towards Aardvark for refueling Afghan's
sensors detect another gated jump point in Preston.

September: Aardvark arrived in the Chorley system and there is gate on this side. Chroley is a huge binary with planets in
orbit around both G2-class suns. A has 7 planets, with I and II terrestrial, III a dwarf, IV-VI gas giants and 7 a dwarf.
II might be in the habitable zone. B has 6 planets, I and II terrestrial, III and IV super jovians, V a gas giant and VI
another super jovian. Overall there are more than 100 moons and 180 asteroids in the system as well. Aaardvark jumps back
and takes a look at the new gate. The gate leads to the Norwich system, again with no gate on this side. Norwich is a
binary with sun A a K1-class amd B a very small T7 without any planets. A has 6 planets, I and II terrestrials too close to
the sun, III a dwarf, IV and V terrestrials again, most likely too far from the sun and VI a gas giant with moons. With
Aardvarks fuel reserves getting low she heads back to Polaris.

October: With the Vultures having rested they are moving back to Aberdeen. In addition the Resolutions will head to
Aberdeen, too, to take a closer look at Aberdeen II and one of the asteroids with a unknown wreck right on top of it.

Connor Wallis completed research into Beta Shields and starts to look into Shield Regeneration 2.

The Church of Jais has given us trade access which is pretty useless at the moment due to the large number of jumps
involved in getting to Preston. Grav survey ships are still looking for other routes. At the same time a new propulsion
specialist named Patrick Fowler graduated from the academy (30%, 10 labs).

When the Resolutions arrived in Aberdeen they headed to the unknown 3350t wreck right on top of one of the asteroids first.
But when they arrive there nothing unusual can be detected. Most likely the unknown is a geo survey ship that got destroyed
while taking a closer look at the asteroid. With a 2650t Tundra class Deutschland class wreck right on another asteriod it
is most likely a geo survey ship as well.

The Resolutions continue towards Aberdeen II were the fighting observed some months ago took place. The sensors show a
ruined colony on Aberdeen II in addition to a anomaly, but except for the 2 19kt ships in orbit nothing else can be found.

The planet itself has a temperature of 85°, gravity of 0.67 and an atmosphere of 0.35, with 83% Nitrogen, the rest Methane
and Ammonia. Not the best potential colony, but not the worst as well (colony cost 2.28). Since the aliens seem to be
defeated in Aberdeen 3 Tribals are send here for geo surveys, 1 of them brings the 4 Xeno teams to take a closer look at
the ruins.

While checking some more wrecks around Aberdeen III the Resolutions meet a Protectorate Darwin class in orbit. It becomes
clear fairly quickly at this point that they call Aberdeen Dros Delnoch and have send us geo survey data about it for quite
some time. More than 95% of the system is already surveyed, so the Tribal bringing in the Xeno teams together with the Darwin
class should be sufficient to survey the rest of the system. The other 2 Tribals are send to the neighboring Chester
system.

November: Gemma Kaur completed research into Beam Fire Control Range 24k taking over Fire Control Speed 4k research from
Aaron Heath next, but it will still be quite some time before we will be able to put together a fire control both fast and
small enough to be able to deal with the nimble swarm ships.

It seems that the Protectorate has started the grav survey the Lanchester system, they found a new jump point there.

Star researcher Brooke Begum (MK65%, Admin 11) has completed research into Magazine Feed Efficiency 90% and will design a
new magazine prototype with his better knowledge to be build by Bates-Ball.

December: A new jump point was found in Preston, Agincourt heads there to investigate. The Vultures arrive in Aberdeen.
With no alien threat likely all ships are free to be salvaged now, starting with the more interesting ones.

Ruins and a anomaly were found on Aberdeen-III, 2 teams are transfered there from Aberdeen-II. The Aberdeen-II anomaly is
adding 30% to power and propulsion research. Aberdeen-III would make a decent colony as well with a temperature of 48°,
gravity of 1.32 and a 0.35 atmosphere with 78% Nitrogen and the rest Oxygen (col cost 2.00).

Agincourt arrived in the gateless Ipswich system, it seems like the Aberdeen aliens are/were here as well, there is a
Greece class wreck along with a number of unknown and Chruch wrecks. Ispwich is a small system with a G5-class sun and 3
planets, 2 terrestrial and 1 dwarf, the 2nd terrestrial might be habitable. Agincourt returns to Preston, but the system is
earmarked for salvage after being cleared from potential enemies.

The Protectore found another 2 new JPs in Lanchester and Aardvark heads there to take a look.

Bradley Schofield has completed the 100R170 active sensor prototype, next is a active sensor to detect FACs, a 27R18 to be
build by Sullivan-Chambers.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Sector Polaris - Henry Storey - Adm 6 - Wealth +10, Min +20, Ship +5, Log +15, Pop +10, Ground +20)

Polaris (Olivia Brookes - Adm 6 - Wealth +25, Fact +55, Min +30, Ship +35, Log +5, Pop +5, Ground +25)
Pop: 777m (+16)
Factories: 1000 (+30)
Mines/automines: 377/160
Labs: 49 (+3)
Finance Centers: 100
Academies: 7
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/12000 (+1000), 2/12000 (+2000), 8/1000 (+1), 2/3500 (+1000)
Commercial yards: 3/105800 (+104000), 2/54700 (+2800)
Thermal: 20.7k (+0.7), Tundra 21.6k (+0.4), Hill 21.9k (+0.7)
EM: 61.6k (+1.4), Tundra 58.5k (+1.1), Hill 58.7k (+1.5)

Polaris II (Louise Barrett - Adm 6 - Wealth +5, Fact +50, Min +15, Log +10, Pop +25, Ground +10, Polit +30)
Pop: 40.0m (+2.8 )
Factories: 120
Finance Centers: 153 (+18)
Terraformers: 0

Polaris VI Moon 6 (Rebecca Porter - Adm 3 - Wealth +20, Mining +20, Ship +30, Pop +30, Terra +15, Polit +10)
Pop: 17.8m (+1.7)
Factories: 100
Finance Centers: 41 (+10)

Polaris Comet#4 (Thomas Dobson - Adm 3 - Fact +10, Min +20, Ship +15, Pop +5, Terra +10)
Automines: 50
166k 90% Duranium, 209 80% Corundium

Douglas III - Ruins - TL4, 14 Installations, +80% defense research
Sheffield III - Ruins - TL4, 209 Installations
Middlesborough II-Moon 6 - 100% missile/kinetic research
Aberdeen II - ?? - +30% power/propulsion
Aberdeen III - ?? - +40% logistics/ground combat

Scientists/projects:
Bio: 30% / Terraforming 0.0015 atm
Construction: 25%, 15% / Mining Production 14t, Shipbuilding Rate 560
Defense: 50% / Shield Regeneration 2
Energy: 35%, 25% / Ultraviolet Laser, 20cm Laser
Logistics: 30%, 25%, 20% / Fuel Storage - Tiny, Brigade Headquarters, Engineering Section - Tiny
Missiles: 65%, 35% / magazine prototype, Ordnance Production 12BP
Power: 45%, 30% / Megneto Plasma Drive, Max Engine Power x2.0
Sensors: 45%, 30%, 20% / Fire Control Speed 4k, active search sensor prototype, EM Sensor 11

Civilian Shipping (5140 up to 5700):
Godfrey Lines - 33 ships (-2 - 2030 income)
Shepherd Corp - 27 ships (+1 - 2160 income)
Payne Transport - 5 ships (+1 - 460 income)
Doherty Transport - 4 ships (210 income)
Lloyd T&T - 6 ships (310 income)
Sharp Company - 5 ships (+1 - 290 income)
Lawson Container - 3 ships (160 income)
John T&T - 2 ships (40 income)
Clements Carrier - 2 ships (40 income)

Income at 37.6k (+1.6) and 30.4k spend (-0.5). Basically everybody is waiting for new drives to become available, currently
the shipyards are largely idle. Wealth reserves are at 25.2k.

Question: Is there any way to deactivate the automatic spell check of the forum? It recognises next to no words, making formating the text very time consuming.

[CharonJr (OP)]

1972

January: No additional jump points have been found in Preston, there are a total of 5 gated jump points in Preston.
Brooke Begum completed research into the magazine prototype and he starts to look Missile Reload Rate 4, but is unlikely to
finish before a new launcher is needed for new ship designs.

February: The first jump point from Lanchester brought Aardvark to the Dartmouth system, there is no gate on this side as
well. She heads back to Lancaster and moves to examine the next jump point.

March: The Protectorate completed the grav survey of Lancaster, finding 7 jump points in total. The gate to London is the
only gate in the system.

The ruins on Aberdeen-II have been fully surveyed, the aliens who had lived there have been identified as the Republic of
Ansion, 63 installations have been identified and their tech level is below our own. Eleanor Singh has helped with this
being the case, she completed here research into Magneto-Plasma Drive Technology on the same day. Now we will need a couple
of prototype engines, with military ones having the highest priority. She will develope a 10HS 160EP military prototype to
be build by Dickinson&Doyle herself, while Jason Stvenson will prototype a new missile engine.

Aardvark jumped into the Southhampton system, no gate here. Polaris->London->Lancaster->Southampton->Preston is a 4-jump-
route to the Church's homeworld, once the gate builders complete their current task we will start to build those gates that
are currently still missing. Aardvark jumps back into Lancaster and heads to the next jump point.

Governor Thomas Dobson's Wealth Creation Bonus rose to +15%, not really usefull with his current position as Governor of
Comet#4, but it might become usefull later.

April: The first 2 Illustrious troop carriers are completed, engines and troops bays are ready for the next 2, but the
construction brigades are still training for 2 more months. So for now they take 2 mobile infantry, 2 garrison and 1
replacement unit each to Douglas III and Sheffield III. Those ruins have to be protected.

Bradly Schofield completed research on the prototype of the R18 FAC detection sensor. 4 R18 and 4 R170 will be pre-build.

He starts to look into approriate Missile Fire Controls next, the first is a 100R170 prototype to be build by Higgins-
Alexander.

Aardvark jumped into the Exeter system, no gate at the jump point. Exeter has a single very large A5-class sun and 4
planets, all of them terrestrial. Due to the sun's size only Exeter IV with a orbit of 676mkm might be cold enough to be
habitable. Aardvark jumps back to Lancaster and heads to the next jump point.

May: The new missile engine prototype is completed by Jason Stevenson, the new anti-ship missile design is called Mamba I
(50% engine, 40% warhead), as fast as the Viper II, but with 4 times the power and more than 20 times the range and about
50% the accuracy. When this new ASM prototype is completed production will be started at Polaris.

Missile Size: 2 MSP  (0.1 HS)     Warhead: 4    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 12
Speed: 20000 km/s    Engine Endurance: 94 minutes   Range: 112.7m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 240%   3k km/s 72%   5k km/s 48%   10k km/s 24%

Charon completed the gate from Dundee to Blackpool, but it will be some time before we are able to send a force into the
nebula to protect our salvagers from whatever destroyed those ships. Charon heads to Sothampton to build a
Southampton/Preston gate.

Aardvark arrived in a new system again, Canterbury. It is a quadrinary, but only sun A has any planets. A is a K2-class,
the other suns are much weaker. A has 5 planets and a staggering 250 asteriods. Canterbury I is a dwarf planet and due to
the weak sun the only planet which might be inside the habitable zone. II is a gas giant and III-V are dwarf planets again.
There is no gate on this side and Aardvark jumps back into Lancaster and moves to the next jump point.

While visiting the Church of Jais home planet one of our traders found a folder with some technical drawings and
descriptions in a public transport system. When he showed the folder to the engineer of his ship the engineer could hardly
believe his eyes. Those were plans for a Active Grav Sensor, and more importantly at a higher tech level than what the
Mountain Tribe currently knows. The captain called for a fast courier ship via the gate network and the courier took the
plans back to Polaris ASAP. On the day the courier arrived back at Polaris Eleanor Singh completed the Magneto-Plasma
Engine prototype.

There was some debate wether to start building new ships right now or pre-build some engines while at the same time trying
to get some new sensors prototyped involving the new tech. In the end it was decided to wait a bit longer since we have
already seen by how much time pre-build parts are able to shorten shipbuilding.

The new sensor tech allows us to lower the tonnage of the 100MR170 sensor from 300t to 250t and even gain additional 9mkm
range, the R18 sensor stays at 250t, but its range is increased from 27mkm to close to 36mkm. Storey Dynamics will
prototype both new sensors. Eleanor Singh starts to look into a high power Magneto-Plasma FAC/fighter engine to be build by
Dickinson Turbines.

Aardvark made her next jump, leading to the gateless Kilmarnock system. It was a single weak M1-class sun and 4 planets. I
and II terrestrial, III a dwarf and IV another terrestrial with the only 2 moons in this system. Kilmarnock might be inside
the habitable zone. Aardvark jumps back to Lancaster and heads towards the last unexplored jump point.

Aardvark arrived in the Aberystwyth system, no gate here. Aberystwyth has a single G9-class sun and 9 planets. I is a supr
jovian, II-V terrestrials, VI and VII super jovian, VIII and IX are dwarf planets. II and III might be inside the habitable
zone. With all Lancaster jump points explored Aardvark returns to Polaris for some rest.

July: Both active sensor prototypes have been completed and the Mamba I missile has been completed as well. Gemma Kaur
continues with Beam Fire Control Range 32k while Bradley Schofield will prototype missile fire controls. A bit later
Eleanor Singh completed the FAC/fighter engine prototype and starts to look into Capacitor Recharge Rate 4. While our
factories are producing the new sensors and engines a carrier has been designed. The King George V class, able to carry 8
of the new medium range Thunderbolt fighter-bombers. To house the Thunderbolt while the King George Vs are still under
construction a large hanger will be build on Polaris.

Code: [Select]

King George V class Carrier    12 000 tons     190 Crew     1632 BP      TCS 240  TH 960  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 1-46     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 6     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.27 Years     MSP 510    AFR 192%    IFR 2.7%    1YR 134    5YR 2014    Max Repair 105 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Flight Crew Berths 52    
Hangar Deck Capacity 4000 tons     Magazine 540    

Dickinson & Doyle 160 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (6)    Power 160    Fuel Use 63%    Signature 160    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1 515 000 Litres    Range 36.1 billion km   (104 days at full power)

Storey Dynamics Active Search Sensor MR109-R170 (1)     GPS 17850     Range 109.5m km    Resolution 170
Storey Dynamics Active Search Sensor MR35-R18 (1)     GPS 1890     Range 35.6m km    Resolution 18

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


Code: [Select]

Thunderbolt class Fighter-bomber    500 tons     6 Crew     128 BP      TCS 10  TH 112  EM 0
11200 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 100%    IFR 1.4%    1YR 17    5YR 257    Max Repair 56 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.2 months    Spare Berths 2    
Magazine 20    

Dickinson Turbines 112 EP MPD 1.75 (1)    Power 112    Fuel Use 272.25%    Signature 112    Exp 17%
Fuel Capacity 15 000 Litres    Range 2.0 billion km   (49 hours at full power)

Sheppard-Walters Size 2 Box Launcher (10)    Missile Size 2    Hangar Reload 15 minutes    MF Reload 2.5 hours
Walters-Brookes MFC 42-R18 (1)     Range 42.8m km    Resolution 18
Mamba I (10)  Speed: 20 000 km/s   End: 93.9m    Range: 112.7m km   WH: 4    Size: 2    TH: 80/48/24

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 Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes

In the long run we want to have dedicated sensor ships, but for the moment the carriers will be used in this role.

Odonnell&Co. starts to retool its 2 slipways for the new carriers.

August: The MFC R170 is completed as well as a new size 2 (50%) missile launcher and a new missile cruiser is designed, the
Vanguard class. It doubles as a sensor ship as well. Shah Shipbuilding starts to retool its 4 slipways for the new
Vanguards. With retooling of Odonnell completed in June 1972 and Shah in May 1972 industrial capacitiy is distributed to
have all pre-build components ready then. In May 1972 we should have completed the basic research for a 1000t laser FAC as
well (OOC: And with the other tribes continually feeding the Swarm in Stevenage I am afraid that I will face 1000 ships
there).

Code: [Select]

Vanguard class Missile Cruiser    12 000 tons     267 Crew     1820 BP      TCS 240  TH 960  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 1-46     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 5     PPV 60
Maint Life 2.21 Years     MSP 474    AFR 230%    IFR 3.2%    1YR 130    5YR 1954    Max Repair 105 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 1    
Magazine 1020    

Dickinson & Doyle 160 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (6)    Power 160    Fuel Use 63%    Signature 160    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1 390 000 Litres    Range 33.1 billion km   (95 days at full power)

Palmer-Waters Size 2 Missile Launcher (50% Reduction) (60)    Missile Size 2    Rate of Fire 100
Walters-Brookes MFC 42-R18 (1)     Range 42.8m km    Resolution 18
Parsons-Reid Missile Fire Control FC131-R170 (2)     Range 131.4m km    Resolution 170
Mamba I (510)  Speed: 20 000 km/s   End: 93.9m    Range: 112.7m km   WH: 4    Size: 2    TH: 80/48/24

Storey Dynamics Active Search Sensor MR35-R18 (1)     GPS 1890     Range 35.6m km    Resolution 18
Storey Dynamics Active Search Sensor MR109-R170 (1)     GPS 17850     Range 109.5m km    Resolution 170

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 Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

With 2 more Illustrious soon to be completed a couple of minor research projects are put on hold to develope a new
commercial engine using Magneto-Plasma technology.

September: Illustrious 1 is back at Polaris and loads a construction brigade to ship it to Douglas III.

October: The new commercial engine prototype is completed and a updated troop transport is designed, 10% cheaper and 20%
faster, the Illustrious Mk2.

Code: [Select]

Illustrious Mk2 class Troop Transport    23 000 tons     142 Crew     683.4 BP      TCS 460  TH 1152  EM 0
2504 km/s     Armour 1-72     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 19    Max Repair 40 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 0    
Troop Capacity: 5 Battalions    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5    

Daniels-Whitehead 192 EP Commercial MPD (6)    Power 192    Fuel Use 4.96%    Signature 192    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 530 000 Litres    Range 83.6 billion km   (386 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Construction of 2 more Illustrious troop carriers was completed and with their load of 2 mobile infantry, 2 garrison and 1
replacement unit they head to the digs at Aberdeen II and III.

Civilian Administrator Thomas Dobson has increased his population growth bonus to 15%, it looks like he really wants to
leave the mining colony he is currently assigned to for a real colony.

November: The Protectorate regards us as allies now. With us being able to see the Protectorate's transponders it seems
like there is another jump point at a heading of 74° of their homeworld.

Grav survey shows no additional jump points in Bristol, making it a dead end. But it is a dead end with a 0.42 colony cost
planet, sooner rather than later we will try to establish a colony there.

December: Thomas Dobson is at it again, pop growth skill is at 20% now. 50 auto mines and a mass driver have been
established on Polaris Comet#5, with Duranium down to 30% accessability at Polaris we have to look at other systems now for
new sources and build transports to ship them back to Polaris. Our Duranium reserves on Polaris are down to 20kt. Hauler
Mk3 was designed.

Code: [Select]

Hauler Mk3 class Freighter    35 750 tons     97 Crew     564.4 BP      TCS 715  TH 1152  EM 0
1611 km/s     Armour 1-96     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 10    Max Repair 38.4 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 0    
Cargo 25000    Cargo Handling Multiplier 5    

Daniels-Whitehead 192 EP Commercial MPD (6)    Power 192    Fuel Use 4.96%    Signature 192    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 785 000 Litres    Range 79.7 billion km   (572 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

A mining colony is established on London III Moon 30, there are 3.5mt of 100% Duranium on this moon. 200 automines are
contracted to be brought there.

At 29th December 11 strength 6 explosions are detected in London and the wreck of a Tundra Tribe Deutschland class (survey
ship) appears on the sensors of the civilian ships in the system fairly close to London III. A few minutes later High
Command is informed and orders 4 Resolutions to investigate the incident. Since there is a Church Panuco class with active
252R78 sensors fairly close it is most likely that the Church and Tundra Tribe are at war. No more fighting till the end of
the year.

End of year status

Planets/colonies:

Sector Polaris - (Henry Storey - Adm 6 - Wealth +10, Min +20, Ship +5, Log +15, Pop +10, Ground +20, Polit +5)

Polaris (Olivia Brookes - Adm 6 - Wealth +25, Fact +55, Min +30, Ship +35, Log +5, Pop +5, Ground +25)
Pop: 791m (+14)
Factories: 1000
Mines/automines: 149/306
Labs: 52 (+3)
Finance Centers: 100
Academies: 7
Naval yards (slipways/tons): 4/12000, 2/12000, 8/1000, 2/4000 (+500)
Commercial yards: 3/113700 (+7900), 2/62700 (+8000)
Thermal: 20.8k (+0.1), Tundra 22.6k (+1.0), Hill 22.1k (+0.2)
EM: 62.5k (+0.9), Tundra 60.3k (+1., Hill 59.5k (+0.

Polaris II (Louise Barrett - Adm 6 - Wealth +5, Fact +50, Min +15, Log +10, Pop +25, Ground +10, Polit +30)
Pop: 45.5m (+5.5 )
Factories: 120
Finance Centers: 171 (+18)
Terraformers: 3

Polaris VI Moon 6 (Rebecca Porter - Adm 3 - Wealth +20, Mining +20, Ship +30, Pop +30, Terra +15, Polit +10)
Pop: 20.1m (+2.3)
Factories: 100
Finance Centers: 50 (+9)

Polaris Comet#4 (Thomas Dobson - Adm 3 - Wealth +15, Fact +10, Min +20, Ship +15, Pop +20, Terra +10)
Automines: 50
164k 90% Duranium, 207 80% Corundium

Polaris Comet#5 (Jacob James - Adm 3 - Min +30)
Automines: 50
154k 70% Duranium, 221k 50% Mercassium

Douglas III - Ruins - TL4, 14 Installations, +80% defense research - Digging
Sheffield III - Ruins - TL4, 209 Installations
Middlesborough II-Moon 6 - 100% missile/kinetic research
Aberdeen II - TL2 - 63 Installations - +30% power/propulsion
Aberdeen III - TL2 - 70 Installations - +40% logistics/ground combat

Scientists/projects:
Bio: 30% / Terraforming 0.0015 atm
Construction: 25%, 20% / Mining Production 14t, Shipbuilding Rate 560
Defense: 50% / Shield Regeneration 2
Energy: 35%, 25% / Ultraviolet Laser, 20cm Laser
Logistics: 30%, 25% / Engineering Section - Tiny, Brigade Headquarters
Missiles: 65%, 35% / Missile Reload Rate 4, Ordnance Production 12BP
Power: 55%, 30% / Capacitor Recharge Rate 4, Max Engine Power x2.0
Sensors: 45%, 30%, 20% / Beam Fire Control Range 32k, Fire Control Speed 4k, EM Sensor 11

Civilian Shipping (5700 up to 6380 - most likely the shorter trips with the automines helped here):
Godfrey Lines - 33 ships (1990 income)
Shepherd Corp - 29 ships (+2 - 2380 income)
Payne Transport - 6 ships (+1 - 630 income)
Doherty Transport - 4 ships (320 income)
Lloyd T&T - 7 ships (+1 - 480 income)
Sharp Company - 5 ships (+1 - 290 income)
Lawson Container - 3 ships (190 income)
John T&T - 2 ships (80 income)
Clements Carrier - 2 ships (40 income)

Income at 39.8k (+2.2) and 32.1k spend (+1.7). Wealth reserves are at 32.9k.