Dedicated
ship designs thread is here.
It's
August 13, 2095. We've been in contact with alien civilization calling itself
Duchy of Trif for 35 years now. Our first contact wasn't great - they destroyed our peaceful exploration vessel when it was investigating their home system. Which is understandable, now that I think about it... But after that, we've had no difficulties, respecting each other's borders and having limited diplomatic communications. Trif even wanted to expand our friendship by exchanging goods and information, but we simply ignored them ever since.
The distance between Sol and their Eta Cassiopeiae is just 4.3b km. Which is practically nothing compared to the vastness of space around us. There's so many star systems and planets to live on. Humanity, after the initial scare, felt there was no threat. Yes, we've built some hundred fighters for system defense, and even managed to get some actual warships afloat. But we've stopped being afraid of the aliens. And there was nothing else found out there that could be potentially harmful. We've explored a lot of star systems and found very little of interest, actually. Space is enormously big and... almost void of life? Why would anyone try and harm the tiny beings that are so lonely?
To this day, Humanity settled four additional star systems. But most of them are kinda, if I may say so, worthless, not-much-producing, mismanaged, mining colonies. The Dragon system, on the other hand, is a mineral rich jewel, with potential to surpass Sol in terms of production capacity and strategic importance just in the next hundred years! The Sol is running out of critical TN materials, while Dragon system would be able to sustain itself for centuries to come!
But where were we... Ah, yes. The aliens!
Today is the day when the aliens, the Trif, have come to our system. They've come to Sol. It's just one ship, but it's fast, and we suspect it to be a destroyer. There's plenty of Jump Gates to move through in our part of the galaxy, so there's no need for dedicated jump drives to travel between systems. What do they want? We've warned them to stay away from our systems! Here's Human Navy's most important part of the OOB:
Dragon
1x CA Challenger: Cab
1x DD Defender: Dainty
Sol
11x CA Challenger: C. C. N. Y. Victory, C. Francis Jenkins, C. H. M. Jones, C. J. Jones, C. K. McClatchy, C. W. Post, Ca Ira, Cabana, Calliope, Calypso, Challenger
5x EX Discovery: Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Giovanni da Verrazzano, Hernando de Soto, Jacques Cartier, Jacques Marquette
31x DD Defender: D Artagnon, d Entrecasteaux, D. W. Harrington, Da Nang, Dabra-Markos, Dacca, Dace, Dachhound, Dachs, Daclau-Sar, Dadao, Dade, Dade County, Daedalus, Daemon, Daerwood, Daga, Dagger, Daggett County, Dagon, Dague, Dahan-i-Kasha, Dahan-i-Kusna, Dahlgren, Dahlia, Daikyu, Daimler, Dai-Mon Taar, Dai-Mon Tag, Dairen, Defender
96x LAC Avenger
12x FTR Fearless
That's it! 12 cruisers, 32 destroyers and 108 really outdated fighters. That's everything humans currently have to wage war with. The Trif have MUCH, MUCH more ships than we do. And there's mineral crisis looming. How can we defend our system from intruders and not spark a war? Do we ignore it? Do we allow it to scout our defenses (or lack thereof)? It's time to make the call.