(13) Research, rebuild and restock
1915
While memorials for the fallen spacemen were held all over Earth as well as to those crew who perished in the life pods hopelessly outside reach, a cascade of officer promotions took place to replace the senior commanders lost - even after such tragedy, the personnel offices of the various navies kept working as the wheels of bureaucracy could not be stopped. For the same reason, Italy gained three frigates as the Alpino, Altair and Alvise da Mosto were launched in early January. The joined the recently completed three American frigates as the only warships available to humanity. Nobody wanted to cancel their current constructions despite it being obvious that sending more frigates at Mars would be a death sentence to the crews. Current construction was thus allowed to continue while the leadership in ten nations debated what direction to take next.
While military men pondered their options, the political administrators grabbed the Luna option with both hands as orders for building suitable infrastructure was prioritized in each country. Everyone wanted to leave their name in history books as the one who had enabled their nation to spread to Earth's only companion, even though for some this meant significant delay on their other projects, like the first shipyard for the RIM Pact.
In Berlin, the decision was made to switch to heavier type. Called the assault ship, the Bismarck class was meant to advance under fire and to unleash hell with their five lasers:
Bismarck class Assault Ship 6,000 tons 155 Crew 374.1 BP TCS 120 TH 54 EM 0
450 km/s Armour 6-29 Shields 0-0 HTK 32 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 2 PPV 25
Maint Life 2.57 Years MSP 77 AFR 144% IFR 2.0% 1YR 16 5YR 245 Max Repair 30.3 MSP
Fregattankapitan Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Morale Check Required
BWM Conventional Engine EP27.00 (2) Power 54 Fuel Use 164.32% Signature 27 Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 226,000 Litres Range 4.1 billion km (106 days at full power)
Krupp 15cm C2 Visible Light Laser (5) Range 80,000km TS: 1,250 km/s Power 6-2 RM 20,000 km ROF 15
Siemens Beam Fire Control R80-TS625 (1) Max Range: 80,000 km TS: 625 km/s 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 0
Bismarck Reactor (1) Total Power Output 10.1 Exp 10%
Siemens Search Sensor AS17-R80 (1) GPS 800 Range 17.2m km Resolution 80
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
With only the reactor being a new component, construction could start as soon as shipyards were expanded sufficiently. The class was questioned as it wasn't certain that doubling the armour from 3 to 6 layers would be enough to counter the shore batteries. This argument gained traction as it became clear that no other nation was announcing their versions and were instead focusing on improving key technologies.
In February Japan gained Amagiri and Amatsukaze but no more would be built, especially with the Imperial budget still in the red and the fact that the Japanese did not have enough fuel to fill the bunkers of both ships. Additional fuel refineries were to be constructed but with their limited industrial base, this was still at least two years away.
March saw a new Russian shipyard begin operations. Rozhdestvensky Shipbuilding was ordered to expand towards the unheard-of size of 10,000 tons off the bat, as well as three more assault shuttles for the Kaiserliche Raummarine, though there were voices among the General Staff that argued that even if the heavily armoured but terribly slow shuttles could make run the gauntlet of fire to reach the remaining Martian orbital fort - and with the discovery of the rapid-fire kinetic batteries this seemed to be extremely unlikely - there was no guarantee that the Martians wouldn't either self-destruct the fort when it was about to fall to German hands or the guns down on the surface of the Red Planet would blot it out of the sky. Thus the decision was made not to build anymore of them and also to cease the training of further Stürmkompanie. Similarly, once the three Scharnhost class frigates were completed at the end of the month, no more of the class were ordered.
In April, the German Academy was expanded as were Russian mines. Carpenter & Brother, the eminent British naval yard, gained another slipway.
It wasn't until July that a second national base was established on Luna: Cabot Base, named after the first English-commissioned explorer of North American, John Cabot. This was followed literally two days later by the opening of the French colony - Chambord. The timing could not have been worse for Anglo-French relations as the British papers had a field day over it. They were followed by the Austro-Hungarian Neu-Wien a week later. So far, the Germans had kept their word. The same month, three Salamander-class frigates joined the meagre defenders of Earth.
In August, the French naval yard was expanded to 6,000 tons which allowed Paris to order the experimental Gloire class Kinetic Frigate into construction:
Gloire class Kinetic Frigate 5,999 tons 228 Crew 414.2 BP TCS 120 TH 45 EM 0
375 km/s Armour 3-29 Shields 0-0 HTK 40 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 2 PPV 50
Maint Life 2.55 Years MSP 86 AFR 144% IFR 2.0% 1YR 19 5YR 278 Max Repair 30 MSP
Capitaine de frégate Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 15 days Morale Check Required
Clemenceau Conventional Engine (2) Power 45.0 Fuel Use 202.50% Signature 22.5 Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 186,000 Litres Range 2.8 billion km (85 days at full power)
Faisceau de Particules II (10) Range 100,000km TS: 2,000 km/s Power 5-2 ROF 15
Dassault Beam Fire Control R128-TS1000 (1) Max Range: 128,000 km TS: 1,000 km/s 23 21 19 17 15 13 11 9 7 5
Clemenceau Pressurised Water Reactor (2) Total Power Output 20 Exp 7%
Active Search Sensor AS14-R50 (1) GPS 500 Range 14.7m km Resolution 50
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Very similar to the German attempt at an assault ship, the Gloire had reduced crew comforts but it also sacrificed some armour to be able to carry double the engines and firepower of the Clemenceau class. And just like in Berlin, there was dissent in Paris that sending them to Mars would be an act of pointless sacrifice. Yet the capacity was there to build them and the honour of France demanded that she should have at least some warships in Earth orbit. While the retooling was going on, three final French frigates were completed. And by the end of September, the first American troop transport, USS Spruance, floated off American shipyards.
On November, the Russian lunar base was ready, poetically called Novaya Zemlya, despite an archipelago with that name already existing in the Arctic Ocean. Russians also got a frigate out, part of their stalled construction from the previous year - two more were coming, plagued by Corundium shortages. The German Raummarine headquarters were expanded.
American espionage continued unabated through the year, gaining several ship and component designs and political information as well as technologies like Xenoarchaeology equipment from Russia, Long Range Bombardment Weapon from Austro-Hungary, Beam Fire Control Range 32,000 km from France, Capacitor Recharge Rate 3 from Italy, and Ground Formation Construction Rate - 320 from Iberian Union.
