April, 2016
The first of the Reich’s cruisers to enter the yards for refits is launched this month, and the Alliance Navy’s worst fears are realized. The Blucher class cruiser leaves Earth orbit at an incredible 4,000 kps, substantially faster than the Alliance’s City class cruiser’s classified maximum speed. The one advantage the Alliance seems to have in this situation is that the Reich’s shipyard efficiency appears to be lower than the Alliance, meaning that it takes them longer to complete a task than the equivalent yard in the Alliance.
July, 2016
Indian researchers, working under the strictest security possible, have finally completed their analysis of the ancient device brought back from the comet, and, even better, have derived the theory behind the device. Or, at least, they have linked the theory behind the device’s operation to human mathematics and astrophysics.
The ancient device is, in fact, a drive capable of opening portals to other places, if used at precise locations that can only be determined through extensive gravitic surveys. The scientists working on the project think that it is possible that these portals, or jump points, will almost certainly lead to other solar systems, and will give humanity the capability of faster than light travel.
The research team is immediately tasked to develop survey instruments capable of localizing the theorized jump points. While they are so engaged, the highest levels of the Republic’s government wrangle over the course the Republic should take. So far there is no evidence that any of the other nations know what the Indians have discovered, although some within the Foreign Intelligence Service are convinced that the attack on the fleet at the comet was spurred by the attacking nation discovering that the Republic had found an ancient installation on The Comet.
October, 2016
Indian researchers complete their design for the gravitic sensors for the proposed gravitic survey vessel. They are immediately re-tasked to turn their theoretical jump drive into an actual working design.
In the meantime, the highest levels of the Indian government have been debating their next move. Their discovery is monumental, and it will likely change the face of the world, even the solar system. At best, access to other systems will relieve population and resource depletion pressures that are even now building. At worst, if mishandled, their discovery will lead to a devastating war that will doom humanity. No one can decide.
In any case, the matter is not pressing. Even though the sensor design is complete, there is now a bottleneck in the shipyards. There are only two Indian shipyards, and neither can be re-tasked at this time. The primary yard is now configured to build the Republic’s premier warship, the Raiput Cruiser, and given the fact that the Republic’s only other warships are the older, deeply flawed Tabor class ships, the Senate will not stand for the diversion of this yard to any other task without a full explanation. This only leaves the newer satellite yard, but it is currently in the midst of an expansion in its capacity, which won’t be complete until January of 2017. When the expansion is complete the yard’s single slipway will be large enough to handle a Trinkat survey ship. Originally, the Navy had planned on tasking the new yard with the conversion of the Tabor class warships into something more useful, but the President and her Ministers decide to co-opt the satellite yard for use in converting the Trinkat into a gravitic survey ship.
After weeks of debate the government cannot come to a decision. Several different courses of action have been proposed, but all are problematic. Several Ministers support the idea of selling the new technology to the highest bidder, thereby bringing great wealth to India. The entirely foreseeable downside is that the nations that lose the bid will resent India, and are likely to band together to launch an attack to gain the information through force. Other Ministers support keeping the new technology secret, allowing India to expand into interstellar space while the other nations squabble over the limited resources of the solar system in ignorance. This idea is seductive; however, in the long run it is decidedly impractical. The larger India’s off-world exploitation program is, the more likely it is that one of the other nations will take enough of an interest to figure out what is going on. After, India can scarcely ship millions of colonists off-world without all of the other nations questioning where they are going. Given the limited colonization opportunities within the solar system it could only be a short amount of time before the other nations figured it out, even if they did not follow an Indian ship to a jump point. All of the Ministers, even the ones that proposed the idea, agreed that the consequences for the Republic would be dire if the other nations found out that they had kept such a monumental discovery to themselves.
A third group of Ministers put forward the idea of giving the concepts behind the new technology away, thereby gaining the good will of the world, and, incidentally, avoiding giving the other nations any reason to launch an attack.
December, 2016
General Atomics, the premier Alliance research corporation, finally achieves a breakthrough in magneto-plasma drive technology. The Alliance Navy has begun developing a refit strategy to take advantage of the new tech.
February, 2017
The Indian Republic begins construction of its first gravitic survey vessel. Officially, the new ship is a solar survey ship, intended to map the solar wind and other solar-related phenomena. The original idea of converting the Trinkat to the new design was dropped when the feasibility studies revealed that converting it would take almost as long as building a brand new ship.
May, 2017
The Indian Researchers have finally completed the design work necessary to begin building jump drives. All that remains now is to finalize a design. The new drive will be huge; at least two thousand tons will be required for a drive capable of taking a 6,000 ton ship through a jump point. It will take almost half a year to finalize the design.
August, 2017
The Indian government has entered into negotiations with the USSR in the hopes of developing mutual defense and trade treaties. Although the other nations don’t comment, there is intense interest in this development. In particular, the Japanese are worried about this development, and begin making overtures to the African Union.
September, 2017
The design for the jump engines are finalized and are incorporated into the design for humanity’s first interstellar ship, the Ganga. Work is begun immediately on converting a shipyard to build the first Ganga class Jump Ship. The Ganga is intended to escort ships through a jump point, and to provide fuel and supplies, but doesn’t have enough excess tonnage for weapons or science instruments.
In the meantime, the Indian government has finally made a decision. The new interstellar drive will remain a secret until Indian ships can explore any system(s) linked to the solar system. Once the system(s) have been surveyed and the Indian Republic is ready to begin colonization or exploitation of any suitable planets or moons, then at that point the Republic will release the basic data on jump points to the other nations. This should give the Indian Republic the best of both worlds, allowing it the first chance to exploit any newly discovered habitable planets or resources, while avoiding the charge of hoarding the FTL capability.
October, 2017
The Japanese Empire begins transferring engineering divisions and components for a planetary defense center to Titan. The Russians protest, but at this point everyone expects their protest and no one else is concerned. After all, both the Alliance and the Reich have been busily building PDC’s on Mars and Venus to protect their investments, so they can hardly protest one of the other nations protecting its investments.
Intelligence Report, December 2017
Alliance
The Alliance’s Mars Colony has now reached a population of 40.4 million colonists. The colony supports over four hundred and fifty mining complexes, both manned and unmanned, and eight mass driver installations. The colony is guarded by three colonial defense stations and a planetary missile defense station.
The resource situation is of growing concern to the Alliance Council. Current estimates give approximately sixteen years before the Earth runs out of duranium and sorium, the two resources most necessary for high tech societies. Worse, the Earth has already run out of vendarite and corundium, and will run out of tritanium and gallicite in the next several years. Currently, the Alliance, and presumably the other nations, maintains a large stock of these materials, but it won’t last forever. In addition, while Mars has a large deposit of duranium, it will be depleted of three other resources, including sorium, in the next several years.
The Alliance Council is uncertain as to the best course of action. After Venus and Mars, Titan is probably the next best source of resources in the solar system. After that, the only thing left is some comets and asteroids, and the Moon. The Moon has extensive deposits of every known resource; however, none of the resources are present at levels above .3, making it of limited value. Still, the Moon may end up being the only source of resources in the solar system, so the Council is examining plans to transfer large numbers of automated mines to the Moon when other sources are exhausted.
The Alliance Navy consists of six Battle Groups and an Escort Group, including six State class battlecruisers, nine City class cruisers, and twenty-eight Admiral class destroyers. Currently, one State class battlecruiser, two City class cruisers, and four Admiral class destroyers are in overhaul status, and one State class BC and two Admiral class DD’s are in for refit.
The Alliance government is growing increasingly concerned over the potential USSR-Indian alliance, and has sponsored several high level discussions with the Reich on the issue.
The European Reich
The Reich’s Venus colony has almost 37.9 million residents. Very little is known at this point about the industrial strength of the Venus colony, except that the Reich has established both mining and construction complexes on Venus.
Analysis of orbital surveillance has shown that the Reich’s construction and mining capacity has matched that of the Alliance. This is possibly related to the Alliance’s intensive effort to expand the Martian mining operations.
Relative Ship Strengths:
Battlecruisers
Reich: 0
Alliance: 6
Cruisers
Reich: 10
Alliance: 9
Destroyers
Reich: 20
Alliance: 28
Survey Ships (one each)
Freighters
Reich: 15
Alliance: 12
Colony Ships
Reich: 4
Alliance: 1
Troop Transports
Reich: 2
Alliance: 2
Two cruisers and four destroyers are being refitted in the Reich’s orbital yards and nine destroyers are in overhaul status. The high proportion of destroyers in overhaul status is related to the extensive training maneuvers that the Reich Raumarine has been engaged in for the last two years, and it is likely that they have overextended themselves.
The Reich currently enjoys good relations with all other nations, with the exception of India and the African Union. India continues to be suspicious of the Reich, and both India and Africa have lingering resentments and territorial claims on the Reich.
USSR
The USSR maintains two off-world mining operations, one on an asteroid and the other on Oberon, a moon of Uranus.
Alliance orbital surveillance of the USSR has revealed the following information concerning their economy/military strength in relation to the Alliance’s:
Construction Capacity: 60% (a change of -4% from 2015)
Mining Capacity: 83% *Earth only (a change of +18% from 2015)
Shipyards: 2/7 compared to 4/10
Divisions: 35 compared to 25 Alliance divisions
The USSR People’s Space Navy has recovered from the disaster off of Titan and is currently composed of six 6,000 ton cruisers, seven 3,500 ton destroyers, three 3,500 ton troop transports, two colony ships, six freighters, and one survey ship. The cruiser’s armament is now known to be rail guns and gauss cannons, and the cruisers are known to be heavily armored.
Relations between the USSR and the Japanese Empire continue to be poor. During the last two years the USSR and the Indian Republic have engaged in negotiations with the Indian Republic designed to exchange technology and increase their security.
Japanese Empire
The Japanese Empire has enlarged the mining complex on Titan and has shipped additional troops to Titan, along with the elements of a PDC.
Alliance orbital surveillance of the Empire has revealed the following information concerning their economy/military strength in relation to the Alliance’s:
Construction Capacity: 51% (a change of +1% from 2015)
Mining Capacity: 67% *Earth only ( a change of +7%)
Shipyards: 2/6 compared to 4/10
Divisions: 21 compared to 25 Alliance divisions
The Imperial Japanese Space Navy comprises seven 6,000 ton cruisers, eleven 3,500 ton destroyers, two 3,500 ton troop transports, eight freighters, one colony ship, and one survey ship. There appear to be two different classes of Japanese cruisers, with the most recent class armed with two triple laser turrets and the second design armed with missiles (based on data from Titan). The smaller escorts are with a single triple laser turret similar to the turrets mounted on the larger cruiser.
The Japanese Empire’s relations with the USSR continue to be strained, and, because of the potential USSR/Indian alliance, the Empire has begun talks with the African Union.
Indian Republic
In the aftermath of the severe damage to its fleet in the Battle of the Comet, India has focused on reorganizing and rebuilding its Navy. In addition, the Republic has announced a reaffirmation of its focus on basic science, and to that end it has commissioned a new scientific research ship that is now under construction.
Alliance orbital surveillance of the Republic has revealed the following information concerning their economy/military strength in relation to the Alliance’s:
Construction Capacity: 25% (no change)
Mining Capacity: 31% *Earth only (a change of +5%)
Shipyards: 2/4 compared to 4/10
Divisions: 26 compared to 25 Alliance divisions
The Republic has space fleet consists of three 6,000 ton cruisers, six 3,500 ton warships, one troop transport, eleven freighters, and one survey ship. The small warships are each armed with one turret equipped with unknown weaponry, while the larger ships’ armament is unknown.
The Republic is actively negotiating with the Russians in an attempt to secure its northern border and reduce the threat of invasion from the Reich and the Japanese Empire.
African Union
The Union has shown signs of preparing to move into solar space. Recently, a hull that is unmistakably a freighter was laid down in the African yards, and African industry has been engaged in building automated mines, which are only economical if built for use off of Earth.
Alliance orbital surveillance of the Union has revealed the following information concerning their economy/military strength in relation to the Alliance’s:
Construction Capacity: 25% (a change of +3% from 2015)
Mining Capacity: 44% (a change of +7%)
Shipyards: 2/5 compared to 4/10
Divisions: 46 compared to 25 Alliance divisions
The African Union has fielded twelve 3,000 ton warships, three 1,000 ton ships of unknown capability and a survey ship. The armament of the warships is unknown.
The African Union has apparently agreed to negotiations with Japan, but little is known about the progress of those negotiations.
