Beyond Earth - Episode 4

[Hydrofoil (OP)]

Beyond Earth
Episode 3: Like Jewels in the Sky

29th January 2105

January the 29th saw the last of the Ministry of Explorations fleet scrapped. All ships had been marked for scrapping including the Leaper scouts and their Comet Class Tenders. With new funding and a new mandate to explore the Stars the Ministry of Exploration's fleet was ageing and woefully unequipped for the new task at hand. With only the Jump scouts with any capability to move through Node Space. It was deemed that starting fresh would be the way forward. The Solar System  had been surveyed years the only thing left in the SOL system was to send manned survey teams to the colonies and to explore other solar systems.

Work started immediately on redesigning the Leaper scouts and the Comet Class Tenders. The carrier format seemed to work well in the tests, but it wasn't practical in that the original tenders could not use the Node Points like the scouts. So instead the Carrier would have to be the one that would transit through the Node Points and then release its Leaper scouts to survey the system. However both would have increase in tonnage to accommodate the extra equipment needed to survey other words and travel long distances.

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Comet J1A class Jump Scout Tender    9 000 tons     162 Crew     1021.4 BP      TCS 180  TH 360  EM 0
2000 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 1-38     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/80/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.4 Years     MSP 1071    AFR 648%    IFR 9%    1YR 255    5YR 3822    Max Repair 114 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Flight Crew Berths 0   
Hangar Deck Capacity 2000 tons     

Kal-Tech Industries J9000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 9000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Rolls-Royce  180 EP Ion Drive (2)    Power 180    Fuel Use 68%    Signature 180    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 2 000 000 Litres    Range 58.8 billion km   (340 days at full power)

North Orbital Systems EM Detection Sensor EM10-80 (1)     Sensitivity 80     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  80m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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Leaper II class Jump Scout    1 000 tons     35 Crew     276.8 BP      TCS 20  TH 24  EM 0
1200 km/s     Armour 1-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/1/1     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 9.75 Years     MSP 173    AFR 8%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 3    5YR 49    Max Repair 100 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 9 months    Spare Berths 1   

Duncan Dynamics 4.8 EP Ion Drive (5)    Power 4.8    Fuel Use 8.02%    Signature 4.8    Exp 4%
Fuel Capacity 20 000 Litres    Range 44.9 billion km   (432 days at full power)

Gravitational Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour
Geological Survey Sensors (1)   1 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
The two vessels classes would make up the main stay of the Exploration fleet of the federation. Pushing the boundaries of the federation and searching out new worlds to colonise.

14th April

0.1of Mars atmospheric composition is now safe greenhouse gasses the planet now has an average temperature of. -18.5 degrees Celsius. Oxygen will now be pumped into the atmosphere to allow humans to walk on the surface without respiratory equipment. Many people become excited at the thought of seeing a blue sky on Mars. Although it would still take many many years for the ice caps to melt and maybe the addition of a few ice rocks from the outer solar systems to recreate the necessary water levels to form a blue shies. Mars is seen as the place to be in the next decade.

15th July Gallicite runs dry on Luna making it the third TN Material to run dry on Luna, some fear that the dwindling TB materials would cause an economic crash despite the fears the Luna economy continues to grow, trade between the colony and Earth continues to ensure that Luna remains a viable colony for the Federation. Plans to move several mass drivers to the world colony are drawn up in order to to ake advantage of the growing civilian mining economy around the SOL system.

29th August Vendarite is exhausted on Luna fears over Luna's significance as a colony comes into question. The the drying up of another TN material made many people question why the federation was pumping money into the colony to ensure its longevity, when Mars was a much richer world with the prospect of un-aided habitation within the next few decades. Despite this The Federations administration continued to push Luna as a viable trade hub for the whole of the SOL system.

4th October

Hyde Engineering shipyards completed retooling for the Sheffield Class Corvette. Its two slipways immediately began work on building these vessels. Initial plans where to build 10 of the class with more coming into service as needed. In order to keep up with increased Demand Hyde Engineering began expanding their shipyard at the same time by adding a extra slipway.

24th May

First Audacious Class Monitors roll of the Slipways the Fabulous, Frederick Douglas Freidrich Engels will be the first line of defence for the Federation taking up positions on the Node Points in the Sol System keeping a watchful eye for anything that may come through.

Three more Audacious ships where laid down as soon as the first three left. The three monitors would spend the next few months on a shake down cruise to train the crews on how to effectively operate as a fleet and to get to know their new home for the next 32 months.

A month later Madison Thompson completed research into Shipyard Operations 10% Also a new Naval Orbital Shipyard was completed Fisher Fabricators was a naval contractor for the Federation Navy with a 1000 ton capacity shipyard, ideal for building Leaper II Scouts

Leaper Scouts where put into production in the orbital shipyards single slipway as it worked on increasing its capacity to 2000 tonnes.

9th of August a new Scientist came to prominence in the field of Power and Propulsion, Elise Jones gained notoriety for theories on Stellerated fusion and its applications in zero gravity. 14th of august saw the completion of a second Naval Shipyard in orbit around earth.

17th December Finishing their shakedown cruise the Audacious class monitors returned to earth to refuel and resupply before starting their main mission of guarding the Node Points in Sol.

4th January 2106

The First of the Leaper II Class Jump Scouts was produced, however due to the lack of Jump Tenders available they where currently stuck in Sol until such a time a Tender became available. The completion of the first Leaper II sent a ripple of excitement throughout the Federation, the people had already gotten a taster for what was out there now they would be able to truly see what the galaxy held for them.

15th of January the Audacious Class Monitors where restocked and refuelled and their crews rested before the long posting. Leaving Earth orbit the vessels went their separate ways to sit on the Node space points in the SOL system staying vigilant and watching for anything that may come through.



19th January

Andrew Kirk Completes his research into Ship Building Techniques further increasing the ability in which the orbital Shipyards on earth could produce ships. The developments meant that the federation could produce ships almost 3 times as fast as before, reducing the enormous 2 year build time of the Audacious Class vessels to little over a year. Every shipyard in the federation took the opportunity these new developments.

10th April

The First Sheffield Class Corvettes where completed the UFES Sheffield and the UFES Sheppard would be tasked with guarding the inner SOL system. As the first two left the slipways the foundations for the next two of the class where laid down.

5th May the second Leaper II is completed. These two vessels will become the Leaper contingent of the first jump capable comet class vessel.

25th May

Flynn & Hyde Shipyards finished expanding their slipways to cater for an extra 2000 tonnes, with the extra space they could begin to build the new Comet class Scout Tenders that will spearhead deep space exploration. Retooling for the new Comet class would begin straight away with the first two Leaper II scouts ready it was imperative that their tenders begin construction as soon as possible.

On the 10th of August retooling for the Comet J1 class was complete 3 ships where laid down initially more would be brought into service as more Leaper II's came into service. It was decided that in order to make exploration of solar systems as efficient as possible three Comet class Tenders would transport 6 Leaper IIs to survey the solar system.

30th August a new slipway was completed on the Dale & Webster Orbital Shipyard. Making a grand total of three slipways. Work began immediately on a 4th

5th September the third leaper II was constructed. Work on the 4th Leaper Began in earnest it was predicted that 2 sets of Leaper scouts would be complete before the first three Comets came into service.

10th September Hyde Engineering orbital shipyard finished construction of another slipway making a grand total of 3 the new slipway was immediately put to use as another Sheffield Class was laid down.

10th October Luna completed level 15 of its Deep Space Observation array increasing the size its monitoring capabilities to just outside of the the Inner SOL system. The Federation Navy and other branches of the military wanted to make sure that they could detect any potential threats to earth and the colonies from as far off as possible. Work would continue to expand the Observation posts on Luna ensuring that the Federation could see as much of the SOL system as possible.

On the 15th December Fisher Fabricators Completed an additional Slipway the shipyard wanting to be the largest in Earth orbit began work on another Slipway.