(11) American Adventure - 1911 - 1913

[Garfunkel (OP)]

(11) American Adventure

1911

On the science front, the year started promisingly for the French, who managed to tighten the focus of their particle beams, extending the range to 100,000 kilometres. In July Russia figured out ways to make their troops fight better in desert conditions and in December A-H improved the capabilities of their maintenance facilities. Most nations completed several prototypes for their various future ship classes over the year.

On the army side, Iberian Union began raising their first engineering battalions in January while other powers continued building more of them.

For shipyards, Germans increased their Hankel Shipyard Limited to 4,500 tons but due to worker shortage, it would not be expanded. The commercial Waldschmidt Dockyard completed its second slipway and would now expand continuously to 40,000 tons. While this would stress the labour force significantly, the importance of being able to build large ships in the future was decided to outweigh short-term inefficiencies. American Cabler Yard was expanded to 20,000 tons and kept expanding. May saw British Carpenter & Brother grow to 4,000 tons, allowing it to begin the construction of a trio of Achilles class frigates. Britain launched its second naval shipyard, named Robson Shipping. Russia increased its Vasilyev Company to 4,000 tons as well in August. Rockmeier Marine, the third German naval yard, completed its second slipway in September. As Germany was still plagued by worker shortages, Berlin decided that the shipyard would undertake a massive expansion project but as the shipyard would be out of business until that was finished, it would not need to hire new workers until then. It would take nine years but Rockmeier would jump from one to six thousand tons of capacity. And in October, Iseki Naval Yard reached 4,000 tons allowing Japan to start building a fleet. Similarly, the French commercial yard Rochefort Services expanded to 30,000 tons and started constructing a second slipway.

And in general construction, Rim Pact built sufficient Financial Centres to help stabilize their budget in March. April was Germany commission an additional research lab. May saw A-H complete a batch of Financial Centres as did Italy in July. In September, Germany increased their number of DSTS to 15 and in October British completed several Financial Centres as well.

A major development during the year was the Russo-German worker transfer program. Russia had over fourteen million workers outside of the new Trans-Newtonian economy whereas Germany had a lack of over three million. During the summer and autumn, the Kaiser and the Czar guided their ministers to ratify a treaty that saw millions of workers - all of them from various ethnic minorities still surviving in the Russian Empire - relocated to Germany. None of them were asked whether they wanted to go or not. Some, like the Volga Germans or the Baltics, were quick to adapt, though others, like Tatars and Uzbeks, struggled. The program also fit well with the prevailing attitude among the elites of Russia which championed the idea of Russification, the agenda of converting the multi-ethnic empire into a mono-ethnic one and Okhranka, the Czar's secret police, made sure that as many known anarchist and communists as possible were put to the trains - they would be the headache of Germans from now on. In Germany, these workers were divided into two classes: the Volkdeutsch who could speak German, were given citizenship and embraces as part of the German nation, and the Ausländer, who were too alien and remained under strict State control. Both the Catholic and the Protestant Churches launched charity programs among them, though their hidden goal was to convert these incomers, many of whom were Muslims, to 'proper' Christianity. The price of three million souls? The knowledge and tools required to construct Powered Infantry Armour, Heavy Crew-Served Anti-Personnel weaponry and Boarding Combat Capability.

On the first day of November, the first two German troop transports were ready. The Raummarine gave Kapitan zur Raum Schlumberger the command of KMS Blucher and Korvettenkapitan Steig command of KMS Ananke. The men were selected for their expertise in logistics, a field seen as important for the Blucher. The ships formed the beginning of Truppenflotte - a flotilla that would eventually carry the Heer to Mars. 18 days later, the Royal Navy was reborn as HMS Achilles (Vice Admiral Sutton, HMS Active (Commander Reeves) and HMS Ajax (Commander Willis) were completed.

1912

The year started with a growing expansion of the American Cabler yard. Washington decided that since the raising of their troops for Mars was still at least a year away, there was time to expand the yard to 40,000 tons, allowing for larger troop transports than the other nations. The Spruance class would be carrying more troops with heavier armour than anything else currently under construction:

Code: [Select]

Spruance class Troop Transport (P)      39,999 tons       162 Crew       1,993.3 BP       TCS 800    TH 50    EM 0
62 km/s      Armour 12-104       Shields 0-0       HTK 69      Sensors 6/6/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 31    Max Repair 200 MSP
Troop Capacity 15,000 tons     Drop Capable    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 1   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

Commercial Conventional Engine (4)    Power 50.0    Fuel Use 8.94%    Signature 12.5    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 436,000 Litres    Range 21.8 billion km (4062 days at full power)

Hatzel Sensors EM Sensor EM1-6 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  19.4m km
Hatzel Sensors Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  19.4m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Being almost half the speed of the smaller transports of other powers was not considered a drawback - Mars was pretty close in astronomical terms and the 20% thicker armour would protect the ship from Martian attacks.

February brought the christening of HMS Albion (Commander Franklin) and HMS Anzio (Lieutenant Commander Bibi), the first two Tribal class troop transport for the Royal Navy. Russia christened its three Krivak class frigates in February. Admiral Basisty was captained by Admiral Matveyev, Admiral Chabanenko by Vitse-admiral Rozhdestvensky and Admiral Kharlamov by Kapitan-pervogo-ranga Grigoriev. America followed suit in April but instead of frigates, USS Amistead Rust (Rear Admiral Lamagna), USS Astrographer (Commander Thimmes) and USS Atlantis (Captain Chait) were Essex class scout/couriers carrying top-secret technology that Washington was certain nobody else had:

Code: [Select]

Essex class Scout/Courier      1,260 tons       34 Crew       163.4 BP       TCS 25    TH 10    EM 0
396 km/s      Armour 1-10       Shields 0-0       HTK 9      Sensors 6/6/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 0
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 251%    IFR 3.5%    1YR 114    5YR 1,709    Max Repair 100 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Alliison Supercharged Conventional Engine S8 (1)    Power 10    Fuel Use 156.25%    Signature 10    Explosion 12%

Hatzel Sensors EM Sensor EM1-6 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  19.4m km
Hatzel Sensors Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  19.4m km
ELINT Module (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  17.7m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Only three would be built as the shipyard was almost big enough to retool for frigate size. Naturally, they were to spy on the Martians but they would, completely accidentally, of course, spy on the other Earth powers too. One would remain 200,000 km behind Mars, one would orbit the asteroid Eros putting it ahead of Mars and the last would remain in reserve, in Earth orbit. Britain was especially worried as their frigates were slower than the American scouts, meaning that they could not chase them down in case of trouble.

Army-wise, new engineering battalions were added to the orders of battle of Great Britain, Iberian Union, Germany, France, Russia, United States and Austria-Hungary. A-H was the first country to begin training of infantry units for Mars, the aptly named Garde Bataillion '12 (Mars), consisting of riflemen, grenadiers, machine gunners and supported by anti-tank guns.

Other nations were perplexed when Germany completed a Cargo Shuttle Station. Berlin answered merely that they were preparing sufficient infrastructure for space expansion to better support future operations against Mars. In August, Germany built a Refueling Station as well.

On 24 April, USS Atlantis was getting close to Mars but had not yet spotted anything outside of the huge thermal bloom of the industrious planet - only Germany and Great Britain produced larger ones back on Earth.


TARGET INCOMING HOSTILE...



At a distance of 2.4 million kilometres, USS Atlantis spotted the thermal signature of two Martian vessels in orbit and as the distance shortened, more and more contacts were acquired. All the same, vessels were still in orbit - two Baernoloths, four Bubonixes, four Arcanaloths, one Echnoloth and eight Anthraxuses. Sadly for the Americans, they misjudged the distance flew way too close. Sensors on Earth peaked Martian fire controls came online, targeted the hapless Atlantis and blew it apart. Later analysis showed that the fire came from the surface of Mars, not from any of the vessels in orbit.

USS Astrographer was ordered to Mars and this time maintain a distance of 1 million kilometres. It took a week for the scout to get close to Mars, at which point orbital mechanics had moved the Red Planet away from the life pods. Twelve crew members could be rescued and the commander did not hesitate. Despite hours of nervous waiting, the Menace did not react and USS Astrographer made a safe return to Earth. Then on 18 May, the ship and its crew were ready for a second attempt. Ten days later the ship reached the ordered safety distance and remained there, sensors recording and sending data back to Washington.


WAIT FOR RANGE...
...
WAIT FOR RANGE...
...


Britain put another three frigates out in May and Japan launched their first pair of frigates in June. Abukuma was led by Kaigun-Taisho Hideaki and Akatsuki by Kaigun-Taisho Ikuko. In July, Germany launched SMS Augsburg (Vizeadmiral Striller), SMS Baden-Württemberg (Kontreadmiral von Mahler) and SMS Bayern (Kapitan zur Raum Kleinert). In the same month, Britain opened their second commercial yard, Burke Fabricators. September saw more Japanese Financial Centers start functioning.

In September, Washington ordered their scout from Eros to return to Earth. Since the loss of their first scout at Mars, there hadn't been any coverage of Earth itself and while the asteroid was neatly between the two planets most of the time, its intelligence gathering module was not sensitive enough to pick emissions from that far. But only two weeks later a disaster struck USS Astrographer, monitoring Mars, during its routine location change to keep Mars at 1,000,000 kilometres away. For unknown reasons - since there were no survivors - the scout ventured far too close to the Red Planet and got obliterated by ground batteries, once again demonstrating the terrible firepower of the Menace. Washington decided to keep USS Amistead Rust, the last surviving scout, in Earth orbit for now.

Russia launched three more Krivaks in October, bringing the total to six. France launched three Clemenceaus in November: Aconit captained by Vice-Amiral d'escadre Auclair, Actée by VS Leblanc and Adroit by Vice-amiral Boulanger. November saw Royal Navy welcoming three more Achilles class frigates, bringing the total to nine. Royal Navy was back to being the largest navy in the world, on seas or in space. And Italians squeezed their first ships out in December: Achille Papa (Capitano di Corvetta Rossetti), Agostino Beitani (Capitano di Fregata Blasi) and Airone (Contrammiraglio Angelo).

1913

The year started with celebrations in Vienna as Asztalos Marine Group became operational and started expansion so that it could be the troop transporters to take the soldiers of the Dual Monarchy to Mars. It was even more celebratory for the Americans, whose scout ship managed to record a startling amount of conversations - the concept of communication security was not prevalent yet. Americans got ship blueprints, diplomatic information and most importantly, the Russians leaked Desert Warfare Capability, something that American scientists had been working on for a while and were most likely only months away from solving. Still, the intelligence coup allowed two-thirds of their scientific establishment to shift on improving their lasers.

In February, the British improved their shipbuilding capabilities across the board. Japan built two more Akagi-class and Germany three more Scharnhorst-class frigates. Japan also trained two engineering battalions and Germany started raising their Infanterie Battaillon (Mars) units as well as begun the construction of a new type of ship - the assault shuttle meant for boarding the Martian orbital forts:

Code: [Select]

Stürmschiff class Assault Shuttle      4,450 tons       45 Crew       306.7 BP       TCS 89    TH 27    EM 0
303 km/s      Armour 10-24       Shields 0-0       HTK 7      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 0
Maint Life 1.18 Years     MSP 30    AFR 226%    IFR 3.1%    1YR 22    5YR 331    Max Repair 20 MSP
Troop Capacity 350 tons     Boarding Capable   
Korvettenkapitan    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Morale Check Required   

BWM Conventional Engine EP27.00 (1)    Power 27    Fuel Use 164.32%    Signature 27    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 22,000 Litres    Range 0.5 billion km (20 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

France followed in March, though lacking powered armour and boarding capability, they had to contend with only training battalions for desert combat on Martian surface. Britain did the same though their infantry would be clad in power armour. Also in March, the USA launched their first three Lexington-class frigates: USS Lexington (RADM Otsuka), USS Abbot (VADM Pabon) and USS Aaron Ward (VADM Hermanns). And at the very end of the month, Austria-Hungary saw their first three frigates float away from the shipyard. Vizeadmiral von Silber took command of SMS Salamander, Kontreadmiral Trautwein took SMS Blutgang and Kontreadmiral Wiedau took SMS Nagelring. Royal Navy grew once more in May with another batch of three frigates as did the Rossiyskaya Imperiya Flot.

Germans started two new construction projects in that month. Firstly, was the Stürmkompanie, a 350-ton formation that would use the Stürmschiff to board Martian vessels. The second was a calculated risk to the status quo between Earth Powers, the cargo/passenger ship Hansa:

Code: [Select]

Hansa class Cargo Ship      22,524 tons       472 Crew       714 BP       TCS 450    TH 50    EM 0
110 km/s      Armour 1-71       Shields 0-0       HTK 44      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 19    Max Repair 100 MSP
Cargo 5,000    Cryogenic Berths 1,000    Passengers 1000    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 1   
Korvettenkapitan    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

BMW Commercial Conventional Engine  EP12.50 (4)    Power 50.0    Fuel Use 8.94%    Signature 12.5    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 8.9 billion km (931 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Germany was getting ready to place its flag outside of Earth. How the other powers would react to this diversion of resources from the Martian Menace would be a serious test for the Grand Alliance.

Over the summer, USS Amistead Rust gathered plenty more intelligence, discovering several technologies unknown to Americans, as well as finding industrial capabilities of the other powers as well as the specifications of several of their sensors.

In August, Kaiserliche Raummarine got three new frigates, as did Regia Spazio and La Royale in September. France had admirals in command of all six of her ships. Royal Navy was not idle and welcomed yet another trio of frigates. Sadly, the nation went into debt for the first time as all this construction had eaten the Royal Treasury empty. Not so for America where the Void Force welcomed a trio of frigates with more to come - the USA was so far the only nation that had never dipped into debt, though its budget had temporarily been on the red. A-H wasn't in quite as strong a position financially but Vienna was not going to lag behind the other powers as it kept building more Salamander-class frigates. In November Kaiserliche Raummarine grew with three assault shuttles. With their limited range, operations against Mars would need to be carefully planned.

In December, French shipbuilding was slowed down by a lack of Corundium. There was still plenty left on Earth, this was merely a problem for French mining, a sector that was being expanded.

The year ended with a Christmas Conference of the Grand Alliance. All powers agreed that no one should venture against Mars alone, proving that man can be a learning animal. The major powers expected 1914 to be the year of striking at the heart of the Menace but the minors were doubtful they could be ready.

[nuclearslurpee]

Hooray for the return of this thing! Some might wonder if it has been so long since the last update that we've all forgotten everything that came before, a claim which we stare at our feet while neither confirming nor denying.

A major development during the year was the Russo-German worker transfer program. Russia had over fourteen million workers outside of the new Trans-Newtonian economy whereas Germany had a lack of over three million. During the summer and autumn, the Kaiser and the Czar guided their ministers to ratify a treaty that saw millions of workers - all of them from various ethnic minorities still surviving in the Russian Empire - relocated to Germany. None of them were asked whether they wanted to go or not. Some, like the Volga Germans or the Baltics, were quick to adapt, though others, like Tatars and Uzbeks, struggled. The program also fit well with the prevailing attitude among the elites of Russia which championed the idea of Russification, the agenda of converting the multi-ethnic empire into a mono-ethnic one and Okhranka, the Czar's secret police, made sure that as many known anarchist and communists as possible were put to the trains - they would be the headache of Germans from now on. In Germany, these workers were divided into two classes: the Volkdeutsch who could speak German, were given citizenship and embraces as part of the German nation, and the Ausländer, who were too alien and remained under strict State control. Both the Catholic and the Protestant Churches launched charity programs among them, though their hidden goal was to convert these incomers, many of whom were Muslims, to 'proper' Christianity. The price of three million souls? The knowledge and tools required to construct Powered Infantry Amour, Heavy Crew-Served Anti-Personnel weaponry and Boarding Combat Capability.

I appreciate that an entry entitled "American Adventure" is populated with a lengthy paragraph on forced migration, religious and cultural exchange, and technological transfer between two decidedly non-American powers. Truly no AAR is complete without such important and engrossing digressions.

Spruance class Troop Transport (P)      39,999 tons
...
Being almost half the speed of the smaller transports of other powers was not considered a drawback - Mars was pretty close in astronomical terms and the 20% thicker armour would protect the ship from Martian attacks.

This may be true, but have the American admirals considered that approaching the planet at half the speed means the transports are liable to take twice as much fire? This does seem something of a questionable tradeoff.

Other nations were perplexed when Germany completed a Cargo Shuttle Station. Berlin answered merely that they were preparing sufficient infrastructure for space expansion to better support future operations against Mars. In August, Germany built a Refueling Station as well.

I can't speak for the other nations, but certainly to me this seems like an obvious attempt by Germany to be the best-positioned to grab Mars as a new colony site before anyone else can properly establish sufficient infrastructure. Though on the other hand, this does seem perhaps like a bit overthinking it, as as long as they have ships with cargo shuttles and adequate refueling at Earth One would expect literal Infrastructure to be a better investment. Perhaps the Germans have something else up their sleeves...

Germans started two new construction projects in that month. Firstly, was the Stürmkompanie, a 350-ton formation that would use the Stürmschiff to board Martian vessels. The second was a calculated risk to the status quo between Earth Powers, the cargo/passenger ship Hansa:

Nope, there it is. The Germans are going to make a grab to colonize the Solar System, no doubt about it now. We'll see how the other nations feel about that...

In December, French shipbuilding was slowed down by lack of Corundium. There was still plenty left on Earth, this was merely a problem for French mining, a sector that was being expanded.

There may be plenty left on Earth, but if one nation is struggling with it that suggests others will as well, depending on how the accessibility of remaining deposits is dropping off.

Nice to have another author back. Hopefully we get to keep you around for a while, even? 

[DIT_grue]

Thanks for the story!

Anzio struck me as a peculiar name for a Royal Navy ship in 1912. Even more trivially, the phrase is "follow suit" not "follow suite".

[Garfunkel (OP)]

Thanks for the feedback. Fixed that phrase and a bunch of other typos that I apparently was too blind to see yesterday.

Anzio struck me as a peculiar name for a Royal Navy ship in 1912.

I know but let's pretend that there was a significant battle between the Royal Navy Mediterranean Squadron and the Martian Menace near Anzio and that's the reason behind the name! 

Coming up with suitable names in suitable languages often takes me longer than writing or playing so any and all suggestions, whether for components, manufacturers, units, formations, ships, or fleets are warmly welcome.

[Vastrat]

Good to see this fiction return, please keep it up. As far as ship names go I've always been partial to the "Texas". Thanks again, I'm looking forward to the next post.

[Migi]

I'm glad to see the series return as well! 

Please don't worry too much about ship names, I'd just pick whatever comes up in the lists Aurora already has, playing and writing about so many factions seems like hard work already without adding cross referencing ship names vs their historical counterparts!

With respect to the German transport/colony ship, I suspect any individual nation could shoot them down with the STO's already built so any lone dissenter could in practice prevent Germany from getting ahead if they chose, to say nothing of the likely formation of a dedicated anti-German faction.
Therefore it seems to me that Germany ought to try and come up with a proposal to keep everyone happy rather than attempting to steal a march that will likely end with all their orbital assets in flames and the rest of the world taking a bite out of them. Or they could attempt to form a secret alliance with their ideological enemies and plot to carve up the world between them in a suprise war of maneuver...

The US gains from ELINT seem pretty powerful and potentially unbalancing. Personally I might ban their use around Earth at least for the moment (whether in universe or as a horse rule).

I would appreciate if you could post the Empire summary like you did in the last update, with so many factions it helps to show a bit more about who is doing what.

[edit]
I forgot to add, maybe the unexplained out-of position American ship had an engine failure and you missed the notification? The design seems to have 0 MSP...