Terra Nova ,”The lost colony”

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Terra Nova ,”The lost colony”


Transition
In 2067 humanity discovered the secrets of Trans-Newtonian technology which spurred the beginning of a mad race for the stars. Several factions on Earth were trampling each other to be the first to send a colonization fleet out into space and be the first to establish a colony outside of the Sol system. This competition unavoidably led to several minor wars, all of which fortunately was confined (for the most part) to space.

By 2103 there were only four major factions left that had the economic might and will to compete in the space race. One of these factions was the newly formed New Anglian Confederation.

The NAC (New Anglian Confederation) was a loose federation of states highly influenced by Britain. Britain had early left the European Union when they felt that their interests were not aligned with the rest of Europe. During a severe economic downturn in the early 21st century there was a collapse of many states, including a second civil war in the US. Britain offered an economic alliance with all former Commonwealth nations in response to the aggressive postures of China, especially with their politics against India and threats towards Australia.
In 2036 Britain and their allies had intervened in the war in the US and managed to either subdue or ally with the now fractured country. The only free state left after the war was the newly found Cal-Tex State that principally were California and  New  Mexico, who now also were a strong ally with Mexico and would later become the technological powerhouse of the New American League.

When a Californian scientist published his paper on the Trans-Newtonian theory they were first ridiculed as mere science fiction. But when a Swedish scientist working in London proved the existence of four of the new minerals it was literally as lighting a match inside a barrel of gasoline. Soon every scientist and physicist in the world was working hard to prove and discover all the new wonders that these minerals could be used for. Such as advanced super computers with near human like capabilities or being able to efficiently propel ships in space to other places in our solar system or even manipulate gravity itself.

At the end of the 21st century several factions on Earth had launched survey and exploration expeditions to most of the bodies in the Solar system. Soon, hostilities broke out due to the scarcity of these new resources in space.

In 2109 the NAC launched the first probe through a detected graviton well. Telemetry showed a more or less empty solar system with a dying dwarf sun. This rather sparse solar system was, though, inhabited by seven more functioning gravity wells.  Several of these led to systems that were ripe with resources including a few promising planets for colonization.

The NAC were still involved with skirmishing battles with ESU (Eurasian Solar Union) fleets in the Sol system. Despite this there was a huge effort of raising funds for a huge colonization fleet to start colonizing these new worlds. Ships from all over Sol were bought or confiscated, several new ones built and soon a huge fleet of nearly fifty civilian ships was assembled near the lunar orbit of Earth. With the military escort the fleet would number nearly seventy ships. It would carry nearly three million colonist and all the materials needed for several years of hard work in a new and somewhat inhospitable world. This was the largest concentration of ships ever assembled by humanity.
Tasked with the role to lead this enormous convoy was Commodore Nathan Pike, a veteran of the first ESU war. One of his closest senior officers was also prince August, second in line to the throne of England.

The journey would take nearly half a year. Their destination was a terrestrial planet in the Wolf system. In order to reach it they had to first traverse the very large and empty Lalande system.


The Lalande incident
At 03.00, July 23, 2112 the order to clear the space dock and break orbit was given to Commodore Pike. It would now take the fleet about two weeks to reach the jump point in Sol space. There were still hostilities between NAC and ESU, although, it was a very long time since either fleet engaged civilian targets. Commodore Pike got regular tactical updates from the ground based tactical centre at Earth and advanced sensor telemetry from the surveillance cruiser Jutland that were escorting the fleet in a vanguard position.

Two days from the jump point, nothing in particular happening, when suddenly three boogies with a minimal thermal imprint were detected at 36 million kilometres and 70 degree starboard of the fleet. No one could really say what they were, but they were not traveling all that fast. No active scanners could lock on or get any information which was a little strange. Their thermal imprint certainly suggested a vessel bigger than a corvette or fighter craft.

Commodore Pike orders the third Frigate squadron to detach and close with the object to identify it. The lead ship Achilles II launched a fast scout that mounted advanced low resolution scanning equipment to quickly assess the potential threat. It would take the scout ship about three hours to reach a point where it possibly could be able to detect the vessels signatures.

But just minutes before the scout had reached a position to engage its scanning equipment twenty boogies traveling at incredible speeds was detected by one of the fleet escorts’ early warning crafts. Several Viper interceptor missile volleys was fired by the closest escort frigates but both the speed and armour of the missiles were too hard for the NAC fire systems to handle. Despite this, they were able to intercept about half the salvo of missiles before they struck one of the escort frigates. The Frigate was severely knocked about. Strangely enough the ship only sustained light damage. An even stranger thing was that all its electronics had more or less been completely disabled.

Shortly after the impact the thermal signature started moving at a much faster pace away from the fleet and soon they were simply gone, not even the fast scout ship sent after it could keep up with them.

It took nearly half a day to restore most of the system malfunctions on the escort ship, enough was done to restart its engines and get it moving again. Commodore Pike was not very keen on letting any ship leave the comfort zone of the fleet with something like that lurking about. No one had any clue, what so ever, what these ships was. Clearly they must be some new experimental craft that the ESU has been working on in secret.

After the repairs the fleet started moving again and two days later it arrived at the jump point, about half a day late but all in one piece. The fleet starts jumping to Lalande. With only three Jump capable civilian ships in the fleet it would take some time to transit the whole fleet to the other side. A few hours later the fleet were on course for the next gravity well that would lead them to the Wolf system.

Somewhere, in between the two jump points, a short transmission made by Commodore Pike was sent back to Earth through the communications buoy stationed at the gravity well to Earth. A strange energy field surrounded the frigate London (the very same ship hit by the unknown missiles) were blinding all the fleet sensors and then all was silent. The fleet was gone and there was no single trace of its very existence left.


A new dawn
In one moment the fleet was in Lalande, and in the blink of an eye they were somewhere else. All ships in the fleet were accounted for, except for the frigate London who was missing. No trace of it has ever been found.

The fleet were in perfect geosynchronous orbit of a large terrestrial planet orbiting the sun at a distance of just 15.8 million kilometres. The planet was big at a diameter of 19600 kilometres. Its atmosphere was mostly Nitrogen and Oxygen and at about the right levels, pressure was slightly above one. The temperature was a little cold at -14 degrees Celsius and the atmosphere had too much Carbon Dioxide to be healthy to breathe. The planet had no moons orbiting it.

Aside from this planet the system seemed rich in bodies and, it did, in a way resemble the Sol system. It had an inner system with an asteroid field surrounding it. In the inner systems there were six planets, two Terrestrial, three Gas Giants and one Super Jovian. Of all the planets and moons there was only this one planet that was clearly habitable. Only one other body in the system seemed capable of housing human life which was the seventh moon of 22 moons of the sixth planet, a Gas Giant in the inner ring.

On the other side of the thick asteroid belt were five more planets, three Dwarf Planets, one Gas Giant and one Super Jovian. In addition, there were a total of no less than 10 terrestrial planets orbiting the Gas Giants and Super Jovian planets in the system.

The inner edge of the asteroid field was about 300 million km from the sun while the outer band of the asteroid field was nearly one billion km from the sun. There was also a rather great distance between the outlaying planets and the sun, they ranged from 3.8 billion km to as much as 85 billion km for a single small Dwarf Planet and its moon.

Commodore Pike quickly ordered a crisis meeting on-board his ship, the cruiser Nemesis. He orders a single squadron of frigates to patrol the area around the fleet and be ready, for anything.
Most of the ships captains and commanders were called upon to discuss the situation. After a few days of deliberation and no further events taking place it was decided to awake some of the senior scientists from cryo sleep. The naval intelligence and science officers could not make heads or tail of their star charts and had no clue where the fleet could have ended up in relation to earth.

About a week later, astrophysicists and astronomers had established that the fleet was not even near the Milky Way. In fact, it was quite far away from our own galaxy. They were pretty sure which galaxy was Milky Way, but the point was rather moot.

Another month had gone by and no one had discovered any further clues as to what had happened to the fleet. All sensor logs were there but during the few minutes before the event every sensor on every ship was dead. After the event they were back online immediately. It was almost like a reverse jump through a gravity well were sensors are jammed after the jump but not before.

Yet another month had passed, the fleet were still parked over the cold blue planet. The leaders of the civilian delegation had convened to discuss what to do next, their decision was supported by almost all the delegates. The fleet, which had enough supplies, building material and people to start a new civilization would do just that. The survey of the planet had also shown large quantities of all Trans-Newtonian minerals. This planet was a perfect new home for humans to start over. Some were even excited over the possibility of perhaps making things right this time around.
The fleet had about forty-five very large transport and freighter ships and almost three million people in cryo sleep. Enough building material to establish a well suited infrastructure on the planet. In addition to this there were two complete factory complexes and two terraforming facilities. It was also decided that at least half of the civilian ships would be dismantled and its raw material reused to support the new colony. There were no real maintenance facilities to take care of them anyway.

Part of the civilian fleet was converted into a temporary command and control centre and would also serve as a temporary maintenance facility for the smaller frigates in the fleet. The two larger cruiser ships in the fleet had to make due with emergency repairs and some assistance from the ad hoc maintenance facilities.

The new star was named after the famous 21st century poet Victoria Zandori and was plainly called Zandoria. The planet was named after the call sign of the project which was project Nova. This was the new human home world in a new galaxy far far away… and it was from now on called Terra Nova.


Prosperous times
Time on Terra nova was passing on by and the new society was prospering, even though it was a hard life for many. The military were still patrolling above the planet, but a lack of fuel meant that most of the ships had to stay in orbit of the planet. Aside from Commodore Pike, who was more of a civilian government official now, the single most influential man in the military was Prince August who had attained the rank of Commodore while Pike was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet.
Most of the work of the military was to oversee the survey missions of the inner ring of the system. A few of the scouting crafts had been stripped of all their military sensor equipment and given rudimentary survey equipment. Within a couple of years most of the inner system had been charted.

After about five years since their arrival at the Zandoria system the decision was finally taken to dismantle the whole fleet and use their raw materials for more pressing matters. From who would the military really protect everyone from?!? Aliens?!?
In the hundred or so years that humanity had ventured into the stars they had never seen any evidence of any intelligent life anywhere. Life on other planets was a fact, easily proven to even a blind on Terra Nova.
Most scientists pretty much agreed that the likelihood that humans would ever meet another intelligent species in their little corner of the cosmos were close to zero.

Admiral Pike and Prince August both argued for to pass a resolution in the senate that there should at least be some underground missile bases built, just for safe measures. No one knows if what happened to them can’t happen again. It would be better to be safe than sorry. The motion passed and three underground planetary complexes were built.
In addition to this Prince August laid the foundation for a new Military Academy, more known as the Royal Academy. The whole military structure and mentality is strongly tied to the Royal family and a sense of duty to the sitting monarch. The monarch has no real say in either the military or in the chambers of the senate, but the family is both wealthy and influential. Both males and females of the royal family is educated at the Royal Academy. This is a tradition.
All ships tied to the military or in the service of the state are referred to as the king’s or the queen’s ship and the navy refer to itself as the Royal Navy. Every ship is basically called RNSS which stands for Royal Navy Space Ship.


The future
Time has now passed and nearly 70 years has gone by since their arrival. The calendar is rewritten and the time of arrival stands for year zero while the old history has been rewritten as BA (Before Arrival).

Terra Nova has now flourished and has a large population of little more than 300 million people. As you can imagine a big part of the population are still young and families tend to be large and very complex in their construction. The young republic has finally started to turn their eyes towards the stars again. The supplies of minerals on Terra Nova are dwindling fast, especially since the new mining regulations have been lifted. Both population and industry is expanding very fast.

The planet was fully terraformed after about ten years after its creaion, it is now a lush paradise with large wet jungles and majestic oceans and an average temperature of 24 degrees, atmosphere pressure of one and a gravity of 1.57 which has just improved the physique of the population.

The first space dock was constructed two years ago and since then two new geological survey vessels have been constructed with the mission of exploring the outer ring of the system.

At the inner ring there are the spitefully planet named Mordor for its extremely inhospitable environment. It has allot of minerals, most of which, is very hard to get. The most accessible mineral is Tritanium: Tritanium is not a very critical mineral at this time. Terra Nova still have this mineral at very easy access and enough mineral for building about 1000 construction facilities, or far more than there is Duranium to spare. Mordor are still an interesting planet to start mining since it is close and there is a lot of different minerals so the overall gain in the long run is high.

Further out are the Gas Giants Elis, Zeus and Zandra, all has reasonable quantities of easily mined Sorium. As soon as the practical science to build Sorium extractors is done these planets are going to be the first to be mined. Zeus also has two moons with smaller amounts of very accessible minerals while Zandra has two terrestrial moons named Lindara with Corbomite and Tritanium and Richmond with Corbomite and Sorium. Although, neither minerals found at these moons are very crucial at this time.

There also is a comet by the name of Borelia that has lots of easy access minerals. It is currently situated at the edge of the asteroid belt moving away and will be a candidate for exploitation as soon as possible.

The most pressing matter is finding high quantity of Duranium, Corundium, and Mercassium and to some extent Neutronium. The most pressing matter at the moment is Corundium which is at mere 20% accessibility in Terra Nova and at only about 80000 tons left and Duranium which is only found at a total of 200000 tons. Borelia has an additional 32000 ton Duranium but only 5500 tons worth of Corundium.
Mordor has very large quantities of both Duranium and Corundium. The problem is getting it of the ground, in a place as hostile as this planet with its 3461 degree Celsius on average, who will work there freely?!?


Civilian Government of Terra Nova at AD 73-75
President: Harrison Cole
Vice President: Samuel Day
Population: 326 million
Annual Wealth: 6605
Annual growth rate: 3.04%

Military Academies: 1
Deep Space Tracking Stations: 1
Naval Maintenance Facilities: 1600 tons
Mass driver capacity: 5000 tons per year

Naval Shipyard (Kaiser Company Incorporated) 3200 tons, 1 slipway
-   Expanding from 1500 to 3000 tons AD 73-74
-   Retooling for the Kepler Mk.I class Gravitational Survey Vessel, ready in March AD 75

Construction factories: 286
Ordnance factories: 10
Fighter factories: 10
Fuel refineries: 25
Mines: 250
Terraforming installations: 5
Research labs: 5
Financial centres: 5
Ground force training facilities: 1

Fuel reserves: 11.750.000 tons
Maintenance supplies: 5000 tons

Royal Navy Assets


Fleet Admiral: Sir William Davey

Groundforces
101st Infantry Brigade
-   10th Infantry Guards Battalion
-   11th Infantry Guards Battalion
-   12th Infantry Guards Battalion
-   9th Infantry Guards Battalion

401st Garrison Brigade
-   3rd Garrison Battalion
-   4th Garrison Battalion
-   6th Garrison Battalion
-   7th Garrison Battalion

13th Garrison Battalion (stationed at Edmonton)
8th Garrison Battalion (Stationed at Lyndhurst)
5th Garrison Battalion (Stationed at Newark)


Planetary Defence Centres (So. Captain Commander Dominic Barnett)
Edmonton (Edmonton class missile base)
Lyndhurst (Edmonton class missile base)
Newark (Edmonton class missile base)


Space fleet
Geosurvey 01(So. Captain Commander Peter Haynes)
-   RNSS Copernicus (GEV, Copernicus Mk.I)

Geosurvey 02 (So. Captain Mark Patel)
-   RNSS Challenger (GEV, Copernicus Mk.I)

[backstab]

Someone is a fan of Full Thrust !

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Yes, part of the backstory is highly influence by the Full Thrust game. From the start I had the intention of starting a multi factional earth set in an alternate Full Thrust setting. This project turned out to be a little too big for a first try at writing some fiction for a game so I settled with this instead.

This game will actually have no AI except for the precursor races, so it should hopefully be quite interesting.

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Some data on the designs in current use by the Royal Navy.

Code: [Select]

Edmonton class Missile Base    11,050 tons     295 Crew     953 BP      TCS 221  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 10-44     Sensors 1/100     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 80
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 27    
Hangar Deck Capacity 250 tons     Troop Capacity: 1 Battalion    Magazine 80    

Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range N/A
GMLS-08/120  PDC Missile Launch System (10)    Missile Size 8    Rate of Fire 120
GSMFC-134/80  GSM Launch Control System  (1)     Range 134.2m km    Resolution 80
GSM-136/04 Bloodhound Mk.I - Heavy Missile (10)  Speed: 7,200 km/s   End: 315.1m    Range: 136.1m km   WH: 4    Size: 8    TH: 24/14/7

NSS-45/80  Naval Search Sensor (1)     GPS 8000     Range 44.7m km    Resolution 80
This base is a nearly fifty year old planetary defense structure and is still armed with the same old Nuclear Missiles it was armed with when constructed.
The general idea behind the base was that they should be completely self contained and able to function at full efficiency if other bases were compromised. They also used to house a small scouting craft to extend their active scanning range in order to lock on to targets very far away. These crafts are no longer in use and there has not been any resent plans to include new ones.

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Copernicus Mk.I class Geological Survey Vessel    1,500 tons     42 Crew     286.5 BP      TCS 30  TH 40  EM 0
1333 km/s     Armour 1-11     Shields 0-0     Sensors 5/5/0/2     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 8.11 Years     MSP 179    AFR 12%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 5    5YR 73    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 1    

NPE-500/40 - Nuclear Pulse Stardrive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 12.73%    Signature 40    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 47.1 billion km   (409 days at full power)

TH-05/05  Naval IR Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
EM-05/05  Naval EM Detection System (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
Geological Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

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Kepler Mk.I class Gravitational Survey Vessel    1,500 tons     42 Crew     286.5 BP      TCS 30  TH 40  EM 0
1333 km/s     Armour 1-11     Shields 0-0     Sensors 5/5/2/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 8.11 Years     MSP 179    AFR 12%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 5    5YR 73    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 1    

NPE-500/40 - Nuclear Pulse Stardrive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 12.73%    Signature 40    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 47.1 billion km   (409 days at full power)

TH-05/05  Naval IR Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
EM-05/05  Naval EM Detection System (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour
These are two sister ships. They use the exact same hull configuration but the difference in how the gravometric sensor is integrated into the ships power matrix in comparison with a standard geological sensor make it very difficult to produce these ships in the same yard without extensive retooling in between productions.

At the time when these ships were projected the maximum weight had to be caped at 1500 tons since that was the maximum capacity of the naval yard. Since then the yard has been expanded to about 3200 tons. There were now plans for some slight modifications to the ships. The most pressing matter would be to increase the ships fuel storage capacity. Most experienced captains also felt that the ship had to be able to stay on mission for at least 24 months.
Modifications to the ships hull had already started and soon these would be presented before the Royal Navy engineering committee in the senate.

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Copernicus Mk.I - v.2 class Geological Survey Vessel    1,600 tons     42 Crew     302 BP      TCS 32  TH 40  EM 0
1250 km/s     Armour 1-12     Shields 0-0     Sensors 5/5/0/2     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 8.06 Years     MSP 177    AFR 13%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 5    5YR 73    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 1    

NPE-500/40 - Nuclear Pulse Stardrive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 12.73%    Signature 40    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 88.4 billion km   (818 days at full power)

TH-05/05  Naval IR Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
EM-05/05  Naval EM Detection System (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
Geological Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

Code: [Select]

Kepler Mk.I - v.2 class Gravitational Survey Vessel    1,600 tons     42 Crew     302 BP      TCS 32  TH 40  EM 0
1250 km/s     Armour 1-12     Shields 0-0     Sensors 5/5/2/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 8.06 Years     MSP 177    AFR 13%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 5    5YR 73    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Spare Berths 1    

NPE-500/40 - Nuclear Pulse Stardrive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 12.73%    Signature 40    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 88.4 billion km   (818 days at full power)

TH-05/05  Naval IR Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
EM-05/05  Naval EM Detection System (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2)   2 Survey Points Per Hour

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Reports, late74-75


Important events

November 10th, -74
A historical and remarkable find is made on Boomerangs fifth moon. During a routine survey by Copernicus they suddenly discover some strange structures on the moon’s surface. The moon is a large terrestrial body with small traces of an atmosphere. The structures seem to be some ancient buildings left by an alien civilization, they are clearly not of human origin.

On Terra Nova there is some very surprised people, some are even startled by this new find. Was humanities arrival at this place after all part of a greater plan, but if so, what role would we play?

November 19th, -74
Another ruin is discovered at the tenth moon of the Super Jovian Boomerang. A team is sent to start investigation on these findings.

The tenth planet is chosen as the first site to be investigated and the team led by Lieutenant Colonel Dominic Peters arrive approximately a month later.

May 20th, -75
The team of Dominic Peters manages to translate some of the ideography and texts found in the ruins on Boomerangs tenth moon. The ancient race seemed to be of a reptilian heritage and did not evolve at this moon. They seemed to have called themselves the Ormstown Kingdom. The moon is renamed to Ormstown.

December 5th, -75
By a pure coincidence a geology team sent to the southern pool of Terra Nova discover something that had been missed during the initial scans of the planet. Under a thick layer of iron ore they discover huge reserves of Duranium, Vendarite and Sorium. The total tonnage of the planets reserves of these mineral are raised to an astounding 6.000.000 tons each.

When the president received the report he had to ask them to recheck several times for accuracy before he really believed it. Such a huge reserve of Duranium was more than he could ever have hoped for.

The leader of the team Louise Robson is given the honorary title of duchess for her acumen in finding these new mineral deposits. She then requests the challenge of taking her team to Mordor to conduct a survey there, she is quite confident that she could find some deposits that would increase the accessibility. Her request is certainly not denied, most are rather surprised she even wanted that mission. Mordor is not a very hospitable place to be.

Note: The findings on Terra Nova were actually for 60.000.000 but I had to reduce that to 6.000.000.  A deposit there for 60.000.000 Duranium would not be very fun now would it?!?


Research report
Research technology 240 -75


Survey report
Survey of bodies in Zendoria system is continuing and is expected to be finished by early 76. There will still be some bodies left after survey is done, these bodies will have to wait until there are ships available with the capacity to reach them. No major new finds have been established.


Colonial report
No important news


Royal Navy report
No important news


Future plans
The new Duranium finds at Terra Nova had certainly made some changes on the immediate needs. Efforts will now turn to finding some additional Corundium.

The industry of Terra Nova has been working on research facilities and will complete one more during next year and hopefully the first commercial construction yard should be available by November or December in -76.

The RNSS Kepler should be ready to start its scans of the system by February in 76.

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Reports of 76-77


Important events

November 30th, -76
The team lead by Dominic Peters arrives back at Terra Nova with some rather interesting finding on Boomerangs 18th moon. It was early suspected that the ruins of the two moons actually came from different civilizations, and their suspicions seem to have been the correct one. The civilization that inhabited the 18th moon was much different from the one at Ormstown. These aliens seem to have been much like ourselves, some form of humanoid species who called themselves the Pieksamaki. There are many old structures left on the moon as there were on Ormstown. The effort of digging them up in such an inhospitable environment will require a lot of resources.

There have been several concerns raised by many people in the last year since the first find, some seem to reinforce their fears now that something or someone is behind all this. What are the odds of three intelligent species occupying the same system?
Even if not at the same time, it is still a valid question. Most scientists are still arguing that no rash actions should be taken. The sites must be excavated before any decision on anything should be made.

Still, even at the top, there are concerns about the safety of the colony. A motion in the senate is passed to increase the spending on military R&D and start the development on some form of naval defense force. The task obviously falls to the Royal Navy to devise a plan and suggest a new budget for it and present it within one year before the senate.


Research report
Fuel Storage Small -76
Shipyard Operations 5% -77


Survey report
Four gravitational wells are detected in Zendoria system as well as three Lagrange entry points. Two are found at the inner ring and one trailing the Super Jovian Boomerang.

Marcus Hutchinson and team finish their geological study of Lindara. They have found a high concentration of Mercassium at a high availability. The planet now has 8.2 million tons of Corbomite (0.7), 7.4 million tons of Tritanium (0.9) and 2 million tons of Mercassium (0.8 ). If there were people who were hesitant at building a colony here before, such notions have now been more or less dealt with.

The senate has decided that all of the current infrastructure on Terra Nova should be sent to Lindara and prepare for a starting colony there. The major problem is that there are no ships left for this task. The Royal Navy has been instructed to construct a new class of Cargo Ships to help the civilian sector starting this project. Additional funds have been diverted to the cause and the newly finished commercial construction yard will build three new cargo ships as soon as the R&D necessary has been carried out.



Colonial report
Nothing to report…


Royal Navy report
(February 20th, -76) RNSS Kepler launched (Kepler Mk.I - v.2 class GRV) - Co. Captain Grace Potts
(November 15th, -76) Commercial construction yard completed - operated by Skiperliner
(December 30th, -76) RNSS Scott (Kepler Mk.I - v.2 class GRV) - Co. Commander Bailey Saunders
(May 15th, -77) Slipway added to Kaiser Company Inc. - it now has two slipways.
(December 3rd, -77) 101st Infantry Division is formed by the Royal Navy.


Future plans
The Terra Novan yearly budget is starting to become a bit strained but there are enough credits accumulated by the government during the past decades to keep spending.

The Royal Navy will continue its plans to expand the exploration capacity of the fleet. A new branch of the fleet has been organized to coordinate all the exploration efforts by the Novan government. The new organization are designated SED (Science & Exploration Directorate). Tasked with leading this new organization is Commodore Isabelle Wells. She is, for the moment, hard working in the field as of December -76, but she was the obvious choice. The new organization only exists on paper so far.
The two science vessels Copernicus and Challenger have more or less finished their survey of Zendoria except for some of the more extreme ranged objects in the system. After refiting to model two Challenger has been tasked with taking a long trip to Atlas and survey its nearly thirty moons. This is a trip at more than 70 billion kilometers.

The Royal navy has presented the blue prints for the new Ton class Jump Tender. This will become the backbone of the SED exploration taskforces. There are plans for three separate exploration task forces each with its own Jump Tender. Each task force should have several GEV and GSV attached as well.
As soon as the two ships RNSS Kepler and RNSS Scott is finished then retooling of the Kaiser Company Inc. will start in preparation for production of the Ton class. There are three ships projected for the Ton class.

Code: [Select]

Ton Mk.I class Jump Tender    3,000 tons     51 Crew     288.5 BP      TCS 60  TH 40  EM 0
666 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 3/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 0
Maint Life 7.01 Years     MSP 120    AFR 36%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 4    5YR 64    Max Repair 33 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months    Spare Berths 0    

JPN-3000/15(3)  Graviton Slingshot Drive     Max Ship Size 3000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
NPE-500/40 - Nuclear Pulse Stardrive (1)    Power 40    Fuel Use 12.73%    Signature 40    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 1,200,000 Litres    Range 565.0 billion km   (9819 days at full power)

TH-03/05  Naval IR Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 3     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  3m km
The Ton class Jump Tender are supposed to act as the command ship for each Exploration task-force. It is the only ship carrying the advanced equipment needed to communicate through a gravity well without dedicated communication buoys on each side.
The Ton class ship also carry emergency fuel for the task force, just in case it is needed.

Note: In this universe there is no communication possible between two jump point, even with a jump gate. A jump gate is not really a gate or even a physical object. A construction ship does not construct anything, it permanents the connection between two gravity wells in opposing stars so that any object can go from one side to the other without the need of a slingshot drive. The problem is that no communication is possible through such a portal no matter what. Messages can, though, be relayed through very advanced devices put on both sides of the gravity well. Military ships with Jump Drives will carry such devices and as long as they stay on a Jump point (at either side) they can relay data traffic.
The more permanent solution would be to place a large communication buoy at each side of the gravity well (JP). This will allow communication to be more permanent. These buoys must be placed in the game before any such traffic is possible. This can be important for the story going forward to know about.

In December of 77 a report is delivered to the senate committee on the plans for a future defense force of Terra Nova.
It is made very clear how backward the colony really is on military technology. The most advanced system that can be developed are missile systems but the logistics and resources to support large quantities of ordnance are very limited, not to mention the strain on the governments budget the current exploration project has.
Any form of defense fleet is out of the question for the the foreseeable future without extensive R&D made into new sensor technology, kinetic research, propulsion and energy technology.
The most immediate concerns can be alleviated by designing and building new missiles for the current missile bases at Terra Nova.
The slow increase in civilian shipping in the system can easily be handled by producing some civilian police corvette type craft. The Royal Navy could provide the technology and manpower to help build such a vessel and should not be viewed as a military craft and be completely operated by the civilian government.

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Some pictures (this is two years later, but just some pictures of the Terra Nova system)

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Reports of 78-79


Important events

July 22nd, -79
There was a last meeting at the Royal Navy HQ, captain Sam Barber had just received his last direction for his mission before heading back up on the shuttle to his new ship RNSS Repton. He wished his colleague Captain Dominique Barnett luck on his mission, Barnett were to command the second Exploration task-force.
The Repton was a new class of ship built for transporting other ships through gravity wells with its very large slingshot drive. Sam was the senior officer of the newly organized “First Exploration task-force”. The task-force comprised RNSS Repton (Ton class), RNSS Copernicus (Copernicus class) and RNSS Kepler, RNSS Beufort (Kepler class).
Sam had been assigned to head for the closest gravity well from Terra Nova, a mere 200 million kilometres from the Zandoria star. On the morning of the 23rd the four ships started their engines and propelled their ships toward the gravity well.
The task-force arrives at their destination at early midday the 26th. Sam orders the Copernicus to stand ready for transition through the gravity well. After confirmation from Commander Mark Patel on the Copernicus he orders his helmsman to initiate the jump. The slingshot drive takes a few seconds to form the gravity field and suddenly the two ships disappear and moments later they reappear at the other end. Sensors are blinded for maybe a minute or so before it all clears up.
The Copernicus starts taking scans of the new system, positioning the star on its star charts. They seem to have arrived at a star designated as Phoenix, it has four planetoids and a large asteroid field. The inner planet is a Terrestrial planet with no atmosphere and a below human gravity for colonization. There are two Gas Giants with plenty of moons and a smaller Dwarf planet on the outer orbital ring. The distance to the Dwarf Planet from the sun is about 550 million kilometres. There does not appear to be any bodies outside the asteroid field.
Sam spins up their slingshot drive again and brings the other two ships into the system. After some initial scans by the group Sam order each captain a sector of the system to operate in and send them on their way. Sam and the Repton will stay at the Jump Point to coordinate and make sure that all information collected is transferred back to Terra Nova.
 
August 15th, -79
The “Second Exploration task-force” arrives at their designated gravity well and transit through. Dominique Barnett is currently only commanding his own ship the RNSS Sheraton (Ton class) and RNSS Ross (Kepler class). The RNSS Challenger should also be part of the task-force but she is out surveying planetary bodies far out in the Zandoria system. The rest of the ships for the second exploration task-force are currently on the assembly line at the naval yard on Terra Nova.
Transit into the gravity well reveals a very empty star system designated as Basilisk. It has three stars but there are no bodies to survey. The Ross is ordered to begin scanning the system for additional gravity wells.


Research report
CPE-2500/200 Nuclear Pulse Stardrive, -78
Terraforming rate 0.0012, -78
JPN-3000/15(3) Graviton Slingshot Drive, -78


Survey report
8,300,000 (0.8 ) Sorium found at Atlas (Super Jovian), -79
39,000(0.9) Duranium, 137,000(0.9) Neutronium, 400(0.9) Corbomite found at Phoenix-A IV moon 14, -79
27,000(0.7) Boronide, 39,000(0.7) Mercassium, 116,000(0.9) Sorium found at Phoenix-A II moon 5, -79


Colonial report
Both government and civilian cargo ships manages to deliver up to 500 infrastructure over the course of a few months to Linden plus one Terraforming complex. A small presence of colonists has also started to arrive on the planet and numbers about half a million.


Royal Navy report
Retooling for Copernicus Mk.I - v.2 at Kaiser Company Inc., -78
RNSS Beufort (Kepler Mk.I – v.2) constructed, Co. Commander Bailey Sunders, -78
RNSS Challenger refitted to Copernicus Mk.I – v.2, -78
RNSS Copernicus refitted to Copernicus Mk.I – v.2, -78
SS Linden (Linden class Cargo Ship), -78
Retooling for Ton class Jump tender at Kaiser Company Inc., -78
SS Surrey (Linden class Cargo Ship), -78
RNSS Repton (Ton Mk.I class Jump tender) constructed, Co. Captain Sam Barber, -79
RNSS Sheraton (Ton Mk.I class Jump tender) constructed, Co. Captain Dominic Barnett, -79
SS Norfolk (Linden class Cargo Ship), -79
Retooling for Kepler Mk.I – V.2 at Kaiser Company Inc., -79


Future plans
Given the strain on the current economy of Terra Nova most development of military technology has been put on the back burner. The closest project is to develop a long distance missile for the Terra Nova missile bases and develop some kind of fast short ranged scout to dock in the bases hangar.

There have obviously been some very long and heated debates about the future of the Royal Navy.
In Sol the strategy had evolved into long range combat between carrier based crafts armed with missiles or beam weapons, supported with recon and patrol vessels. A typical battle group would comprise some sort of carrier and its escort, including support elements of cruisers. Recon would be performed by smaller frigate sized ships while cruisers would be used for long range missile strikes and/or reconnaissance in force.
Most of the tactics and uses of weapon platforms are readily available by the academy. Most material had been attained by the few warships and its crew from Sol. The problem now faced was of course the infrastructure to build any kind of fleet and also why, there were no real threats.
 Most argued that the fleet should be built around a number of smaller recon and strike capable vessels using medium range missiles where protecting Terra Nova would be its main concern and other colonies and installations in the solar system second.
Others argued that having a more mobile fleet capable to protect colonies in other systems as well as Terra Nova had to be planned. Such ships would certainly be larger and more powerful but also very expensive to both research and production, not to mention the lack in the current infrastructure to accommodate them.

There has been no real consensus among the higher ranking officers in the Royal Navy except that a new type of missile and a recon craft has to be designed and prototyped as fast as possible. The future of a potential fleet will have to wait until there are more data on any potential threats.



*** Start historical data ***

The capital ships of Sol

The frigate
In Sol frigates would range from 4000-6000 tons in size with the biggest frigates weighing in at nearly 8000 tons. Their purpose was often to act in smaller squadrons as recon and/or early warning for larger battle groups. Frigates were often also used as escorts for cruisers and carriers since they were mainly armed with defensive weaponry.
The designation of frigate would usually be made for a ship that was fast and could perform missions on their own without a specific escort.

The Destroyer
The destroyer was a ship that had dwindled in fancy by the factions of Sol. The defining factor of the destroyer was in general a fast, weak armoured and well-armed ship. Most of the offensive actions had been overtaken by larger cruisers and some of the offensive capacity had been transferred to the frigate class of ships.
The most common destroyer used in Sol was the destroyer escort, a ship made as a pure escort ship for other larger ships. The destroyer escort was fast, had weak armour and a high number of laser arrays and gauss cannons for point defence and close combat. Destroyers would, in general, range from 5000-8000 tons in size, with sizes starting to decline rather than increase.

The Cruiser
The cruiser is the most versatile class of ships ever to be fielded of the factions of Sol. A cruiser where in general any ship above 12000 tons that was not a carrier and the biggest cruisers where closing in on 50000 tons in size. The most defining factor of a cruiser was its general design philosophy of being a completely self-sufficient platform for both self-defence and offensive actions. Even if most cruisers tended to be more one thing than the other. The most common principle was that a single cruiser could face three other cruisers of its own kind and survive a battle, they were built to last. The role of the cruiser were often to provide carrier strike groups with an armoured forward element to draw enemy fire or act as recon in force who could easily defeat smaller frigate sized enemy scout groups. Many cruisers were as fast as frigates, some were slow and mainly a missile magnet.
It should also be noted that most cruisers in Sol had hangars with fighter and/or recon crafts, though not as spacious as those on a dedicated carrier.

The Carrier
The carrier was the heavy artillery of any fleet in Sol. They would, in general, provide the long distance strike force. Many carrier battle groups also had missile cruisers with extreme long range missiles in support. Carriers obviously came in many different forms and sizes. The most common carrier were around 30000 tons and was a dedicated platform for strike and recon craft, they would have relatively weak armour and shields for a ship of that size, saving space for its magazines and hangars. The carrier otherwise ranged from about 20000 tons and up, the largest carrier ever built in Sol was built by the NAC and had a weight of 75000 tons.

*** End historical data ***

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Reports of 80-81


Important events

June 29th, -80
By the end of June both the gravitational survey vessels Beaufort and Kepler had finished surveying the Phoenix system and was ordered to head back to Terra Nova for some RnR. The geosurvey vessel Copernicus would stay for another few months to survey the rest of the system. Captain Barber of the Repton agreed with the Commander of the Copernicus to return and retrieve them in August. Communication with the Copernicus would not be possible in the meantime.
The rest of the first exploration task-force headed back to Terra Nova for some much needed RnR and prepare for their next mission.

November 17th, -80
First exploration task-force jumps the third unknown gravity well from Zandoria and finds the system designated as Centaur. This seem like a lush system with lots of planets and asteroids. It has two stars. The second star is orbiting the first at a distance of about 27 billion kilometres. Luckily initial scans show a Lagrange point stretching from the first to the second star, this means that Centaur-B and its entire system can be reached without much efforts.
Cenatur-A has five planetary bodies of which two are Terrestrial planets and three are Gas Giants. There are also no less than five Terrestrial moons circling the gas giants in the system.
When Commander Caroll of the RNSS Kepler received the first report he almost choked on his morning coffee, he had to send the com officer back to recheck the data. But it was true, the fifth moon of the inner most gas giant was a near perfect replica of Earth. It were nearly 20000 kilometres in diameter, had an average temperature of 18 degree Celsius and a gravity of 0.94. It was tidal locked to the gas giant, but since it rotated around that planet it still received light from the star on all sides of the planet, although, the inner part of the planet were hotter since It got more energy from the Gas Giant.
The ninth moon of the same gas giant was also a very promising site for a colony with an acceptable gravity but with no atmosphere it would need work before being habitable.
Centaur-B had four planets of which two were Terrestrial and two Gas Giants. The first terrestrial planet was even this a good site for colonization. It had a Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere and a gravity of 0.73 but it was cold at an average -43 degree Celsius. The second Terrestrial planet was also acceptable but was considerably colder at -108 degree Celsius.

The Centaur system is close to Terra Nova and will certainly be colonized as soon as it is possible to do so. After a complete geosurvey of the system there is only hope of finding lots of resources as well. It looks promising though…

November 22th, -80
Third exploration task-force enters into the Hydra system from Zandorias last unexplored gravity wells. The system reveals a dual star system. Hydra-A is void of any planetary or asteroid bodies while Hydra-B has five planetary bodies and a small asteroid field. The star is orbiting at about 15 billion kilometres from Hydra-A. There are one Terrestrial planet, one Gas Giant and three Dwarf Planets orbiting the Hydra-B star.
The Terrestrial planet can support a colony with some minor difficulties, it is a little on the cold side at -92 degrees Celsius but otherwise it is very comfortable with a 1.13 gravity field and a Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere.

May 22nd, -81
When Commodore Isabel Wells arrive from her expedition at Mordor her rest is cut a little short when is force to attend her first staff meeting as the new head of command of the newly formed SED (Science & Exploration Directorate). The SED is a separate branch of the Royal Navy. It still reports and a formally a part of the Royal Navy. But, in practice, it is more of a free branch dedicated to the exploration of space. The SED is also tasked with all the R&D facilities in relation to Construction, Logistic and Biology technologies while all military and propulsion technologies are governed and run by the Royal Navy. At present time almost all research are dedicated to either construction or logistical technologies. In addition to that the SED is in charge of, in practice, all current naval ships in service. This obviously makes the SED very influential, which has produced some discomfort at the Royal Fleet Naval headquarters. Luckily, Isabel Wells is a loyal member of the Royal Navy.

May 25th, -81
Second exploration task-force enters into the unexplored gravity well in the Centaur system and finds the new system designated as Gemini. Gemini is a small system with two Gas Giants, one Super Jovian and a Dwarf Planet. It also has a small number of asteroids. A gravitational survey of the system is immediately started.

November 8th, -81
Second exploration task-force decides to enter into a new gravity well after it finished surveying Gemini. In order to do so they have to leave the gravity well leading into Centaur.  Which means that they will need to break contact until the Sheraton can establish a new contact link again.  Captain Dominique Barnett is granted two month until it must report back which would be time enough to jump into both of the new gravity well and compose some initial scans of the systems.

November 15th, -81
Second exploration task-force reveals the Lipton system from gravity well in the Gemini system. The system is completely void of any bodies and the task-force head for the next unexplored gravity well in the Gemini system.

December 16th, -81
The three ships RNSS Sheraton, Herald and Scott enter onto the new system designated as Drake. The system has a single star and eight planetary bodies. There is one Terrestrial planet that actually has a breathable atmosphere, but its gravity is too severe at 2.34 for human to colonize. There are three Dwarf planets, one Gas Giant and three Super Jovian planets. In addition to this there are a total of ten Terrestrial moons orbiting the Super Jovian and Gas Giants of this system.

Captain Dominique has just ordered the two gravitational survey vessels to start their survey of the system when RNSS Scott  is reporting that a faint EM emission is coming not far from their position. The Ross move closer to the signal and after a few hours scanning find a small probe of some sort about a few thousand kilometres from the three ships entry point.

Dominique is very intrigued about this find, can this be another one of those artefacts and order the probe to be retrieved. Niether the Scott or Herald are equipped to handle such a task. The Sheraton on the other hand has more than enough space in its holds and the necessary equipment and tools could be created to retrieve the device.
Initial scans shows that it is active but there do not seem to be any sort of explosive devises on it

It takes the Sheraton crew several days to create the necessary tools to be able to retrieve the rather large probe. They will have to dismantle part of it in space and then show it into the Sheratons maintenance bay. Some maintenance supplies will have to be left behind to make place for the probe, but nothing that the task-force can’t live without. Who wouldn’t want an alien probe instead of some nuts and bolts?

At midday on the 25 of December most of the probe has been loaded into the bay of Sheraton, there is only a few hours left with the loading. Both Scott and Herald have been jumped into the Gemini system a few hours ago in preparation of the departure.

At 11.21 hours the sensor operator on the Sheraton suddenly shouts out… Sir!!!  I have two large energy readings on our IR sensors.

Captain Dominique is in the bridge overseeing the last of the work in the drone.

 - What!!!, check that again ensign!  “Dominique asked”

 - I confirm, two IR contacts Sir! At a distance of 176.000 kilometers. “The operator repeated”

 - And they are not some other probe!  “Dominique asked”

 - No, Sir, unless they are probes heading straight for us at 3.7k km/s.  “The operator responded with a resolute voice”

The Captain opened up the com system on the ship.

  - All hands on deck, man your stations and prepare for emergency jump.

The Captain then turned to the acting helmsman and ordered him.

  - Get us the hell out of here, NOW!!!

There were two people actually floating in space outside the ship, no matter what they wold never make it, Dominique know this, but he had a feeling and he needed to act on it before it was too late. If it was not too late already!!
The helmsman was just the stand in and fumbled on the controls, Dominique had to rush over and help out… after what felt like minutes the drive started to spin up and a light vibration was felt though the whole ship.

  - Sir, the two objects is closing fast and they are only about 80.000 kilometres away from us. There seem to be some build-up of energy in the objects as well Sir! Energy readings are of the charts….

A few seconds later there was a terrible crunching sound and the ship cringed as something hit the hull. A small explosion and an alarm went off on the console. Part of the crew deck had been exposed to space and a red light was showing from one of the engines, but it was still in operation.

 - We can’t withstand that one more time. We need to jump NOW!!!  Open a com to the Herald.

The captain opened up a communication portal to the Herald on the other side if the Gravity well.

  - Commander, we are under attack by an unknown alien vessel and we might not be able to jump in time. I send over all the data we received so far… What!!! smeg!!! Our jump drive just is gone….

A large explosion was heard and the com signal was lost…

Commander Brennan and Lieutenant Miles were both stunned over the fact that the Sheraton appeared to have been destroyed. They both ordered their vessels to depart the gravity well and head for the inner parts of the Gemini System.
After some deliberation they concluded that they should split and hide separately in the system, just in case the aliens would come looking for them. The Herald with Lieutenant Commander Miles headed for the inner most planet of the system while the Scott (Commander Brennan) headed for the Centaur gravity well.

No one appeared to be looking for them. Although, granted, that the scanning equipment on the Kepler class ships where not too sophisticated to find ships in space.


Research report
Small Jump Gate Construction, -80
Nuclear Pulse Missile Engine 5MSP x3, -81
GSM-108-05 Bloodhound Mk1/b class Hvy Missile, -81


Survey report (of note)
Phoenix-A III – Moon 3 1,882,384(0.5) Mercassium, -80
Gravitational survey of Basilisk system is finished and no other jump points are found except the one to Zendoria, -80
Gravitational survey of Phoenix system is finished and no other jump points are found except the one to Zendoria, -80
New system found from JP in Zendoria, the system is designated as Centaur, -80
New system, found from JP in Zendoria, the system is designated as Hydra, -80
JP found in Centaur system, -81
JP found in the Hydra system, -81
The Geoteam at Mordor find an additional deposit of Gallacite and increased the amount from 140000 to 30000000 tons. Still at 0.1 availability though. -81
2xJP found in Gemini system, -81
Gravitational survey in Gemini finished, -81
New system found from JP in Gemini, the system is designated as Lipton, -81
2xJP found in Hydra, 81


Colonial report
Continuing efforts is made to build up he colony on Lindara. It now has an infrastructure of 590 and a population of about 1.2 million. They also have five Terraforming installation but they are not working in 100% efficiency yet.
In addition to this 15 automated mining installations has been delivered to the Borelia comet, along with a mass driver to send all the minerals back to Terra Nova.


Royal Navy report
RNSS Overton (Ton class) built on Terra Nova, Co. Commander Grace Potts, -80
RNSS Fox (Kepler class) built on Terra Nova, Co. Lieutenant Commander Reece Short, -80
10000 ton construction capacity added to the commercial yard Skipperliner, -80
Retooling to Copernicus class Geosurvey Vessel finished at Kaiser Company Inc., -81
RNSS Herald (Kepler class) built on Terra Nova, Co. Lieutenant Commander Jake Miles, -81
RNSS Hecla (Kepler class) built on Terra Nova, Co. John Dickinson, -81


Future plans
Since the incident at Drake is not even known yet this has not influenced the politics on Terra Nova. There are not actually much that really changed during the last two years, except the findings of the Centaur system. The very composition of the system and the very lush planet of “New Earth” (as it has become known by the population for its similarities) are intriguing to say the least.

There have been many forums in which the colonization of Centaur has been eagerly discussed. Plans will be developed as soon as Terra Nova has the manpower, technology and ships to carry out such a great project. The SED has been informed about the preparation for a plan to start the colonization of New Earth. The government expect something to be presented within a year.

The royal navy has been working on a new modified version of the Kepler class gravitational survey vessel. It will be a larger ship with better survey equipment but also with a drone launch mechanism and a large storage facility for communication buoys to be deployed to gravity wells. In several instances have tenders needed to leave ships out of communication range, this is not acceptable in the long run. Communication is paramount for any sort of operation to be effective.



Picture of the current exploration status of the Terra Novan republic.

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Reports of 82-83


Important events

February 14th, 82
Commander Miles of the Herald sat in the mess hall eating his breakfast when a voice on the comlink interrupted him.

- Captain, Sir, we have a large EM contact at 24 million kilometres away on our sensors. We are tracking something moving at nearly 2600 km/s coming from the third planet of this system and heading straight for this planet. It was the sensor specialist on the bridge

- Have they detected us yet? Commander Miles asked

- No Sir, given the high resolution of their scanning beams I seriously doubt that.  The specialist answered

- Order the helmsman to ignite the engines and break orbit, get me the captain of the Scott on the com!

The Herald slowly accelerated and broke free of the Gas Giant they had been orbiting. It had been a rather anxious one and a half months, waiting for someone in the Centaur system to start missing them. By now they missed their agreed upon contact time with nearly a month.

Commander Miles ordered the ship to head for the pre-arranged emergency coordinates just a few hundred million kilometres from the gravity well leading to Centaur. They would not want to lead anything close to the Gravity Well, just in case they didn’t know about it and they could also not jeopardize the Scott’s position there.
It was quite apparent after just a short while that they indeed had not been detected, the ship using the scanners had not altered course to follow them and nearly a day later the Herald could no longer sense the scanning signature of the alien ship.

The Herald reached the coordinate a few days later and in February 22nd there was a familiar voice over the com system as the com officer of the Repton broadcasted a message for confirmation of their whereabouts. A few days later both the Herald and the Scott were safely back in Centaur space.

This would certainly be an interesting debriefing at Terra Nova Headquarters.

March 5th, 82
It had come as a chock to most when the news of the incident in the Drake system leaked out to the public. Panic quickly rose upon Terra Nova and even some riots raged in a few places.

The Senate had convened an emergency meeting and Harrison Cole, the Interstellar Director, had addressed the assembly.

- Fellow citizens and senators, it is a deep tragedy what happened to the Sheraton. BUT… we cannot… I repeat… we cannot ignore the fact that it was we who were the intruders, not them. Would we have done anything different?  
 - Let us see this as the beginning of a new era in human history. We WILL overcome this and learn from it.
 - The aliens surely were as startled by our appearance as we were. Let us now move forward, let us try and send a team of scientists and diplomats to start friendly communications.
- I assure you, we will succeed!

The Directors speech was successful and a majority agreed to send a science team to initiate contact with the alien species. A team had hastily been gathered using the brightest and best humanity had to offer. In under just another month they had boarded a long range jump capable shuttle filled with scientific equipment and communication devices. They were now in transit to the Gemini system.

Initial contact was established in May 29th but was met with severe difficulties from the start. The alien language was very hard to understand. But no one were about to let anything as trivial as that to stop them. A few months later full communications was established.

By May 3rd of 83 slightly more than one year later the first physical meeting between the Federian and Human species had taken place. It was formally held at the human shuttle in Gemini space.

The Federians were an impressive race. They had dark greyish thick skin and where a good few decimetre taller than humans and quite thin but certainly not weak. They were dressed in rather simple but practical clothing in bright colours.
Something even more impressive was the ships that they arrived with. There was a rather big ship with three smaller ships. The larger ship was estimated at maybe 15-20k tons and the smaller at about 10k tons. No scans could be taken of course so it was hard to know their exact measures. It was rather apparent though that these were military ships. When this close you could actually see them with your own eyes from the bridge of the SED shuttle.



The talks took several days, especially due to all the complex translations. The Federians had presented themselves as House Kishono of the Federian Empire. It was apparent that humans had trespassed into their space. They also threatened to destroy any human vessels that entered into what they regarded as their space.
They did not seem to care much for the Gemini system but they made it perfectly clear that any attempt by humans to send ships into Gemini would be responded to in kind and any further incursion into the Drake system would force them to take a more active role in hunting down and destroy the humans.
The Federians seemed very hostile, but at the same time agreeable. They seemed to be taking their word very serious, but no one knows for certain it wasn’t all an act.

The agreement was that Gemini should act as a Neutral zone with no military presence by either side. Communication between the species was to continue as to assure the agreement was still valid. Other than that the Federians didn’t seem interested in improving their relations much.


New exiting times
After the incident in the Drake system the Senate was quick to issue new orders to the SED headquarters. All activities were to finish and ships were to head back to Terra Nova as soon as possible. Operations in both the systems of Phoenix and Hydra were cut short and the ships were ordered to return to Terra Nova.

In Centaur the gravitational survey of the system was almost finished and so they were permitted to finish. There was also one geology survey vessel that had permission to stay on mission while the Repton stayed at the gravity well to maintain communications.

By May of 83 when the agreement between Terra Nova and the Federians was finished the senate again felt more confident. The two remaining exploration task forces were given three survey vessels each while the rest were to be kept in reserve. Survey of the Centaur, Hydra and Phoenix were to be completed as soon as possible.
Currently most of the fleet were undergoing extensive overhauls and new expeditions had to wait for almost a year.


Research report
High Density Duranium Armour
 

Survey report
JP found at Hydra
JP found at Centaur
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A I: Duranium 26,879,110 (0.4), Neutronium 1,272,384 (0.1), Corbomite 1,493,284 (0.1), Tritanium 32,878,760 (0.1), Boron 432,964 (0.1), Mercassium 10,214,420 (0.5), Vendarite 60,871,200 (0.8 ), Sorium 20,358,140 (0.1)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A II: Sorium 3,036,000 (0.4)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A III: Duranium 40,969,350 (0.6), Boronide 26,481,320 (0.1), Corundium 2,802,276 (0.1)  
Minerals Discovered on New Earth: Duranium 40,500,000 (0.1), Corbomite 33,640,000 (0.1), Mercassium 9,610,000 (0.1)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A II - Moon 6: Duranium 1,311 (1), Boronide 829 (1), Uridium 2,007 (1)  
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A IV: Sorium 118,510,000 (0.5)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A Asteroid #25: Duranium 2,650 (1), Neutronium 8 (1), Tritanium 3,540 (1), Mercassium 4,706 (1), Vendarite 471 (1), Sorium 1,592(1), Uridium 534 (1), Corundium 4,900 (1), Gall 259 (1)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A IV - Moon 40: Duranium 1,707,552 (0.8 ), Boronide 992,016 (0.9), Vendarite 1,327,104 (0.6)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A V: Sorium 473,200,000 (0.7)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A V - Moon 5: Corbomite 116,964 (0.3), Vendarite 26,244 (0.7)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A V - Moon 13: Duranium 7,465,248 (1)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A V - Moon 14: Duranium 217,800 (0.8 ), Corundium 160,000 (0.5), Gallicite 270,400 (0.8 )
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-A Asteroid #383: Duranium 15,878 (1), Corundium 6,416 (1)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-B II: Duranium 7,403,552 (0.1), Corundium 11,587,220 (0.1)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-B II - Moon 2: Duranium 83,232 (0.9), Boronide 318,096 (0.8 ), Vendarite 484,416 (0.7)
Minerals Discovered on Centaur-B III: Neutronium 81,000,000 (0.1), Mercassium 2,924,100 (0.1), Sorium 1,822,500 (0.1), Corundium 14,288,400 (0.1)


Colonial report
No substantial news in the colonial efforts. Some new auto mines deployed to Borelia, small amounts of infrastructure and people have arrived to Lindara.


Royal Navy report
RNSS Echo (Copernicus class) built at Terra Nova, Co. Commander Jay Lee
RNSS Myrmidon (Copernicus class) built at Terra Nova, Co. Lieutenant Commander Hong Chan Xiong


Future plans
The future of Terra Nova was flowing from a horrible doomsday scenario in the beginning of 82 until a sigh of relief in 83 when a deal was struck with the new alien government. Still, plans had to shift focus from production and logistics investment and more into military oriented focus.

The R&D part of the Royal Navy was hard at work. They had to come up with a creative way to use the meagre resources at hand to build some form of ship or ships effective enough to oppose a technologically superior opponent. This task was not so easy, to say the least. The current plan is to build two different designs as a starting point of a defence fleet able to protect both Terra Nova and its colonies.

One ship should be an advanced scout ship with strong passive scanning equipment and smaller crafts with low resolution scanners docked in its hangar. This ship should be no greater than 6000 tons, preferably smaller since the resolution used by the enemy in the previous engagement was for ships at 6000 tons.

Another ship should be a Destroyer armed primarily with heavy long range torpedoes. Hopefully they could engage the enemy before they are detected. The size of these ships should land close to 6000 tons as well, perhaps somewhat bigger.

The biggest problem in the initial stages will be defence against enemy torpedoes. We have no idea what type of torpedoes the aliens would use, if they even have torpedoes, but it is assumed that they do. There are no reliable technologies that are available for a good torpedo defence so initial Destroyer design will be about speed and long range strikes.

The civilian government has decided to stabilize the gravity wells between Zandoria and Centaur. In order to do this a new design for such a ship has been on the drawing board and research into a gravitational stabilizer module has been initiated. Plans going forward are to establish a new colony on New Earth and build up a military base. The system has many options for a very good strategic defence with asteroids and Lagrange points that can be exploited.
These plans are of course nothing that is possible in the short run, but maybe in five to ten years’ time.

Technologies that will be worked on for the future are stronger and more reliable EM and Thermal sensor systems, more powerful yields and better fuel efficiency for longer range on our missiles.

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Information on the Royal Navy ranking system

In the Royal Navy there are ranks very similar to that of 21st century naval fleets. The lowest commanding rank is Lieutenant Commander. The highest possible rank would be High Fleet Admiral of which there could only be one.

Every ship that requires the rank of Commander or above will have a second in command, the so called” Executive Commander” or “XO”. In order to represent this I will create a TG located at Terra Nova with XO PDCs. These will often not be named since that would exert a little too much micromanagement, but they will number roughly the same as the number of military ships in the entire fleet. Here the XO commander of each ship can be assigned and gain some training. Sometimes the name of an XO might be important. In that case I will name the PDC accordingly to keep track of it.

This also means that if a Captain is killed on a ship the XO might take over. I will give them about a 75% chance to do that if the captain is killed due to battle damage and 100% if they die from an accident or natural causes.

I use the realistic promotion system but I will promote lower ranking officers to higher rankings if I really need to assign them to combat warships or as a flag commander. I will, however, not demote anyone so I need to be careful not to promote too many since that can become a problem in itself. When promoting an officer I will look for the first available officer (following the seniority) that is not assigned as a staff member or to any team. The first officer that has either a crew training or political reliability skill must be promoted to take the position I need filled. This can obviously force me to put a complete moron as the CO of a task-force, task-group or ship.

Lieutenant Commander
This is always the most senior junior officer on a ship. The difference between a Lieutenant and a Lt. Commander are usually superficial. But, in many cases a Lt. Commander has received additional command and control training and is ready to take over the command of a ship in an emergency or command a smaller vessel of their own.

In general, a Lieutenant Commander doesn’t command ships that have a crew complement above 20 or a size above 1000 tons. Such ships would be commanded by an officer with the rank of Commander. A Lieutenant Commander may serve as the XO for either a Commander or a Captain on a larger ship.

Commander
The rank of commander is a very flexible rank in the Royal Navy. In many ways they are sort of a junior commander but experienced enough to have a command of their own. They may be the XO on a bigger ship under the guidance of a Captain. Most XO are Lt. Commander, but on very large ships such as battle cruisers or fleet carriers the captain might need a more experienced officer as his XO.

Commanders would in general be the CO of ships up to the size of a frigate or sometimes a destroyer. It all depends on the size and complexity of the ships. In general they command non capital ships while captains command capital warships. What actually constitute a capital ship may differ at times but there will be a clear cut border most of the time.

In most cases a commander’s ship is not acting alone but in a small squadron of other small ships. The senior commander of such squadrons would always be a captain. It would not be too uncommon though for a Commander to be in command of a small squadron of ships in temporary formations if there are no captains available to lead them, then, the most senior Commander will be referred to as Master Commander, but this is only a practical title.

To give a general rule of thumb for what type of ship that a Commander might serve as its CO would be a ship with a crew compliment of 20-200 or a size of 1000-7000 tons.

Captain
The rank of captain is often one of the most sought after rank by every cadet in the Royal Navy. The thought of commanding their own capital warship are most officers’ dream. Actually attaining a higher rank than captain is not a goal of most cadets. Higher ranks are just viewed as people who are lazy and sit behind a desk shovelling paper and being a general pain in the ass.

The captain is usually the highest ranking officer that commands a warship and they may command a ship of any size. If a squadron of ships has more than one captain it is always the most senior one that act as the SO and overall commander of the group. Captains are regularly also serving as squadron leader for smaller ships that would otherwise be commanded by a commander.

A captain’s authority on his ship is total and he cannot be commanded by any officer of a higher rank that is not in his immediate chain of command. As long as a captain is on his ship he is the law and authority and is sole responsible for the ship or the ships in his squadron. Even if a high ranking admiral of a different task force or fleet gives him an order he does not have to follow it if he feels the order is in conflict with an order given by his own superior commander.

Commodore
The Commodore is essentially a very high ranking captain who leads more permanent formations of capital ship squadrons. They may act as the SO of other captains and essentially enforce the same authority as a regular captain on their own ship. In rare occasions a Commodore might be placed as a Flag Officer but it will be very rare for this to occur, the role of flag officer usually fall to a Rear or Vice Admiral.

It should be quite rare to see two Commodores in the same task-group, but sometimes this will occur and when it does it will of course be the most senior of them that will be in temporary command. But they essentially have no authority to tell another Commodore what to do if they also are in command of a task-group and just so happen to be at the same place at the same time without a Rear Admiral present.

The type of position in a fleet that warrant the need for a Commodore could be a carrier task-group or a large cruiser task-group. Otherwise the Commodore is just a glorified captain.

Admiral
There are several ranks of admirals in the Royal Navy. The lowest rank of Admirals is the Rear Admiral who as its name refers remains in the rear of the naval hierarchy. Junior admirals are usually assigned as CO of system defence fleets in populated systems. In smaller more insignificant systems there are either no designated CO or the role is filled by a Commodore.

The next rank of admirals is the Vice/Fleet Admiral who is tasked with leading combat fleets as flag officers, usually embarked on a flagship. The Fleet Admiral outranks the Vice Admiral. Fleet Admirals is only involved in very large operations that warrant more than two fleets and are usually assigned to Sectors as they are needed. Vice Admirals on the other hand are often part of a more permanent hierarchy within a specific sector.
 
High Fleet Admirals is assigned as the leading CO of any sector capital system fleet and will personally command any Vice Admirals put under their command in addition to overseeing any Rear Admirals or Commodores in charge of systems within that sector. If time warrants it they might also be assigned one or more Fleet Admirals, but this is only in times of major wars. It is not totally uncommon for the High Fleet Admiral to act as a Fleet Admiral if necessary. Many vain High Fleet Admirals would also have their own personal flagship, just in case they want to go out for a cruise of feel like a captain again. Usually it is not fun to be a Captain on such a barge.

The Grand Admiral is the highest possible title only held by the Admiral in charge of the Republics Capital planet. In the current situation the Grand Admiral of the Royal Navy is Sir William Davey.


Note: Granted there is no combat warships for the captains and admirals to command yet the structure are taken from the NAC forces in the Sol system.

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Reports of 84-85


Important events

June 30th, -84
After much deliberation in the senate there was finally a decision on the future of SED missions. SED were to be reduced into two exploration task-forces which were First and Third task-force. The first would perform gravitational surveys while the third would perform geological surveys. Each task-force would perform one mission at a time and then go back to earth for overhaul and crew rotation and training. There were to be no expedition without the task-force being in contact with earth at all times.

The greatest problem for the SED was that all missions had to be extended into system where communication could not be maintained at all times without a jump ship stationed to relay data from the task-force. There were a temporary solution to this which was using both Ton class vessels on all missions. This obviously meant that the crew of these vessels would be severely strained, but it was unavoidable at this time.

As a result of this there has now been a new project initiated within SED which is the construction of a “Drone Deployer” ship. This will be a ship capable of deploying large drones or satellites. The ship could also be used as a minelayer later on if necessary. Unfortunately, the realization of such a ship is not prioritized so the SED will have to live with the current solution for the time being.

In June 30th in 84 the first exploration task-force with Repton, Hecla and Kepler set out for the Hydra system to finish the gravitational survey. This mission is finished without any problem by March 4th in 85 and they found a total of five gravitational wells in the system including the one that lead to Zandoria.

January 4th, -85
Unrest start to shaken the Lindara planet when the stream of colonists outpace the construction of living space on the planet’s surface. The government is quick to respond with delivering extra infrastructure and restricting the immigration policies on Terra Nova.


February 24th, -85
Third exploration task-force head out to finish the geological survey of the Phoenix system. This survey is ended in December 85 without finding any new interesting mineral deposits.


Research report
Shipyard Operations 10% (-84)
EM Sensor Sensitivity 60% (-84)
Implosion Fission Warhead (Str 3/MSP) (-85)
Fuel Efficiency 0.7 (-85)
 

Survey report
Additional resources found at New Earth; 1,960,000 Boronide, 9,000,000(0.1) Sorium
Minerals found on Centaur-B Asteroid #270; 54,847(1) Duranium, 207(1) Corbomite, 28629(0.9) Sorium, 30485(0.9) Uridium, 324(1) Gallicite
Additional resources found at Centaur-A I; 35,070,084(0.5) Mercassium, 55,145,476(0.1) Gallicite
Additional resource found at Centaur-B II; 24,581,764(0.1) Tritanium, 24,581,764(0.1) Corundium


Colonial report
Lindara is continuing to grow at a slow pace. The planet need allot of infrastructure and so the immigration pace has to be controlled. Some mines are starting to be shipped to the planet to start taking advantage of the very important Mercassium deposits.


Royal Navy report
Skipperliner Commercial Shipyard retooled for the Galaxy class Construction ship
Yard space increased to 6000 tons at Kaiser Company Inc


Future plans
The Royal Navy us well under way to start the R&D on several new classes of ships. Several ideas have been presented to the top staff and there are now three major projects started.

The first project is code named as project “Shadow”. This project will develop a surveillance and communications ship. The ship is estimated to be about 5000-5500 tons in size and will house large sensor listening devices as well as advanced communication devices. The ship is also going to be the first none jump ship able to communicate through gravity wells (if they are close enough).

The second project is code named “Storm” and will develop the first real warship of the Terra Novan Republic. Given the limited knowledge of military technology it will have a limited capacity. The ship will have a weight of approximately 6000 tons and its main weaponry will rely on heavy anti-ship torpedoes.

The third project is code named “Condor” and will develop a new Jump Tender to service the new line of ships developed by the republic. It is already decided to have a jump capacity of 6000 tons. The new jump drive has already been approved by the senate commission.

All ships in the new class will use a brand new naval engine designated as “NPE-0750-144-094  NP Stardrive”. This engine will have a weight of 750 tons and a maximum thrust of 144 Terajoule.

Most of the future efforts are directed to the development of these ships and the time estimation for the projects is four to eight years.



Economic report

Total Wealth:      19041 credits (cr)

Wealth income (Year 85)
Tax on Populations:      9465.8 cr
Tax on Civilian Mining:      590 cr
Tax on Exports:         570 cr
Tax in Shipping Goods:      519.1 cr
Financial Centres:         319.2 cr

Total:            11464.2 cr

Wealth expenditures (Year 85)
Installation Construction:      6673.4 cr
Research:            2775 cr
Shipbuilding:         342.5 cr
Shipyard Modifications:      218 .7cr
Ground Unit Maintenance:      210.1 cr
Maintenance Facility Operations:      187.3 cr
Ordnance Production:         124.6 cr
Ground Unit Training:      102.9 cr

Total:            10634.5 cr


Worlds/Colonies

Terra Nova (Capital)
System:            Zandoria
Colony cost:         0
Annual Wealth creation:      9442 cr

Population:         445.60m

Available Workforce:         29.57m

Commercial Spaceport:      Level 1
Military Academy:         Level 2
Deep Space Tracking Station (250)   Level 1
Max Ship Size Maintenance Capacity:   3000 tons
Mass driver capacity:         5000 tons/year

Shipyards/Slipways:         2 / 3
Construction Facilities:      550
Ordnance Factories:         10
Fighter Factories:         10
Fuel Refineries:         30
Mines:            250
Research Labs:         12
Financial Centres:         15
Ground Force Training Centres      1

Fuel Reserves:         13,858,409 Litres
Fuel production per year:      874,800 Litres

Maintenance Supplies available:      4842

Construction Production Capacity:   8019/year
Ordnance Production Capacity:      121.5/year
Fighter Production Capacity:      145.8/year

Annual Mining Capacity:      3600 tons/year

Duranium reserves:         5,988,391 (1)
Neutronium reserves:         329,350 (0.7)
Corbomite reserves:         12,644 (0.48)
Tritanium reserves:         4,375 (0.33)
Boronide reserves:         6,495 (0.39)
Mercassium reserves:         174,825 (0.2)
Vendarite reserves:         5,533,271 (0.4)
Sorium reserves:         5,374,007 (0.8 )
Uridium reserves:         146,617 (0.2)
Corundium reserves:         71,526 (0.2)
Gallicite reserves:         354,573 (0.6)

Skipperliner (Commercial Yard)      35000 tons, 1 Slipway
Kaiser Company Inc.         6000 tons, 2 Slipways

101st Infantry Division
 - 101st Infantry Brigade (4xINF)
 - 102nd Infantry Brigade (4xINF)
 - 401st Garrison Brigade (4xGAR)

4xGAR (Independent battalions)

Lindara (Colony)
System:            Zandoria
Colony cost:         5.8591
Annual Wealth creation:      121 cr

Population:         5.90m

Available Workforce:         0.99m

Terraforming Installations:      5

Fuel Reserves:         0 Litres

Maintenance Supplies available:      0

Construction Production Capacity:   0/year
Ordnance Production Capacity:      0/year
Fighter Production Capacity:      0/year

Annual Mining Capacity:      0 tons/year

Corbomite reserves:         8,242,641 (0.7)
Tritanium reserves:         7,431,076 (0.9)
Mercassium reserves:         2,019,241 (0.8 )


Borelia (Automated Mining colony)
System:            Zandoria

Mass driver capacity:         5000 tons/year
Automated Mines:         15

Annual Mining Capacity:      225 tons/year

Duranium reserves:         31,547 (1)
Neutronium reserves:         7,064 (1)
Corbomite reserves:         44,178 (0.7)
Tritanium reserves:         355 (0.9)
Mercassium reserves:         3,326 (1)
Vendarite reserves:         85,099 (1)
Sorium reserves:         48,636 (1)
Uridium reserves:         68,367 (0.7)
Corundium reserves:         4,510 (0.9)


Total mineral production in the Republic
Duranium:            2825 tons/year
Neutronium:         2745 tons/year
Corbomite:         1885 tons/year
Tritanium:            1390 tons/year
Boronide:            1404 tons/year
Mercassium:         945 tons/year
Vendarite:            1665 tons/year
Sorium:            3105 tons/year
Uridium:            877 tons/year
Corundium:         922 tons/year
Gallicite:            2160 tons/year


SED Fleet assets (Science & Exploration Directorate)
6xKepler class Gravitational Survey Vessels (1600 tons)
5xCopernikus class Geological Survey Vessels (1600 tons)
2xTon class Jump Tenders (3000 tons)

Total Military Tonnage: 23600 tons
Total Commercial Tonnage: 0 tons

SED fleet assets are divided into “First Exploration TF”, “Third Exploration TF” and SED reserves


Royal Navy
3xLinden class Freighters (8450 tons)
1xNova class Colony Ship (24450 tons)

Total Military Tonnage: 0 tons
Total Commercial Tonnage: 48950 tons

Royal Navy are divided into “Freighter Group 01” and “Colonial Group 01”



Note: Next report will span over a much greater period until there is some interesting event worth actually writing about except survey and economic reports.

[backstab]

Looking good Jorgen ....!

[Jorgen_CAB (OP)]

Good that you find it amusing... next instalment will probably arrive sometime next week.

[Stephan]

is it next week yet?