Expanding the Final FrontierThe continued applicability of wormhole theory was verified, unsurprisingly, on 21 April 2048, with the discovery of a second, outgoing wormhole terminus in the Wolf 359 system by the survey ship Pathfinder. Amusingly, the newly discovered terminus was located only 84 million km from the entry point from Sol, providing quick access to whatever system lay beyond. The wormhole ship Echo quickly moved to explore the new wormhole, emerging in the red dwarf system of 109 Aquarii. The sole star in the system was orbited by five planets, the innermost of which was a small terrestrial world similar to Mercury but somewhat more hospitable to human life. The short travel time between Earth and this planet would make it an excellent candidate for a naval base, although the rest of the system was not promising for economic exploitation. A sweep of the system confirmed no alien presence, thus 109 Aquarii would be safe for human exploitation. Similar probing missions took place as new wormhole termini were revealed in other outlying systems, all to similar effect as no alien presence was detected.
As positive survey reports continued to roll into XCOM Headquarters, pressure both internal and external to begin interstellar colonization continued to increase. Finally, on 24 May 2048, the interstellar colonization era of human history was officially heralded by the launching of the first Constellation class force tender, christened Hydra. The Constellation class was built around the 7,400-ton M3C1 Marazuki device, designed to escort any ship in the XCOM commercial forces up to and including the massive River and Mountain class industrial ships. The Constellation class also possessed modest refueling and resupply capabilities, which were anticipated to prove useful in supporting distant survey forces or in establishing new military bases.
Constellation class Force Tender 22,747 tons 197 Crew 819.5 BP TCS 455 TH 800 EM 0
1758 km/s JR 3-50(C) Armour 1-71 Shields 0-0 HTK 47 Sensors 1/1/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 10,022 Max Repair 288 MSP
Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 2
Lieutenant Colonel Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
M3C1 Commercial Marazuki Device Max Ship Size 72000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
XN-200E Commercial Gravity Pulse Drive (4) Power 800 Fuel Use 7.95% Signature 200 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 4,000,000 Litres Range 397.8 billion km (2618 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 80 hours
Navigation System (1) GPS 125 Range 6.3m km Resolution 125
EM Scanner (1) Sensitivity 1 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 7.9m km
Thermal Scanner (1) Sensitivity 1 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 7.9m kmThe first interstellar colonization convoy was dispatched to the second planet of the HH Andromedae system, designated as New Hope. The initial establishment called for delivery of one million colonists with the requisite support systems along with sufficient basing facilities to maintain a two-ship patrol squadron in-system, to be followed by delivery of ground forces and a sensor station. As part of this initiative, the Second Patrol Squadron was detached from the Second Survey Force and redeployed to the new colony site. The first delivery of personnel and materials arrived on 5 July, with an estimated completion date for the operation by the end of 2049. Continued expansion at the colony would focus on delivery of terraforming installations which were no longer needed on Mars.
Additional colonies would be established over time as additional Constellation tenders came into service. Pegasus Station was established on 24 November 2049 on the second planet of the Delta Pegasi system, located two wormhole transits from Sol via the Wolf 359 system. The planet would be easy to colonize due to its breathable atmosphere and massive ice sheets, but as the system lacked mineral wealth it would serve as no more than a minor military base for the foreseeable future. Archer Station was established on 27 April 2050 on the second planet of the V1216 Sagittarii system adjacent to Sol, a low-gravity world of 0.166 G intended as a collection point for automated mining operations in that system.
Project LighthouseThe next great leap in XCOM’s extrasolar capabilities came with the deployment of a new 6,250-ton survey ship class in November of 2049. Project Lighthouse was initiated in response to a number of difficulties plaguing the existing XCOM survey force. In particular, while the Daedalus classes were adequate for their designed roles, the Whiskey Sierra class wormhole ships were considered a difficult design, at best, and despite a planned refit commencing in 2050 which would upgrade the Marazuki devices of those ships, thus providing space to expand the crew accommodations, XCOM leadership had generally soured on the class. Furthermore, even if the Whiskey Sierras had performed well, the fact of the matter was that the wormhole ship concept was simply unwieldy for extended survey operations, as survey ships frequently had to wait weeks or months for a wormhole ship to move into position to access new systems. Therefore, XCOM leadership desired a new all-in-one class which would be more efficient and more importantly operationally independent. The one great success of the Whiskey Sierra class was the communications buoy deployment system, and this concept was brought forward with Project Lighthouse.
Project Lighthouse class Survey Ship 6,250 tons 146 Crew 919 BP TCS 125 TH 313 EM 0
2500 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-30 Shields 0-0 HTK 45 Sensors 5/5/2/2 DCR 6-9 PPV 1.2
Maint Life 8.87 Years MSP 1,051 AFR 52% IFR 0.7% 1YR 24 5YR 360 Max Repair 104.2 MSP
Magazine 64 / 0
Colonel Control Rating 2 BRG SCI
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Morale Check Required
M4 Novato Marazuki Device Max Ship Size 6250 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
XN-156E Dominar Ion Drive (2) Power 312.5 Fuel Use 8.94% Signature 156.25 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 412,000 Litres Range 132.7 billion km (614 days at full power)
Buoy Dropper (10t) (1) Missile Size: 4 Rate of Fire 2400
XN/SJE-10 Buoy Release System (1) Range 2.5m km Resolution 1
REN-3 Watchman Buoy (16)
XN/SPN-3 Grav Pulse Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 600 Range 15.6m km Resolution 60
XN/SLQ-4 Passive EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
XN/SAY-5 Passive Infrared Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
Geological Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points Per Hour
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points Per HourWhile iterative in many respects, with the major feature of the class being the pair of XN-156E Dominar ion drives propelling each ship up to 2,500 km/s, Project Lighthouse was innovative in multiple respects. Most apparently, this represented the largest ship class of a military type to date, twice the size of the prior generation of survey vessels and warships. Additionally, the class became the first to mount the new science officer station in place of the traditional auxiliary bridge, improving the efficacy of the survey sensor suite and providing a training billet for aspiring survey ship commanders. All in all, Project Lighthouse had produced an eminently capable survey ship, although it would take some time to construct enough examples of the class before the outdated Daedalus class could be retired from service.
The first two products of Project Lighthouse, christened as Cydonia and Erebor after humanity’s major extraterrestrial colonies, entered service on 25 November 2049, the class thereafter becoming known as the Cydonia class. Both ships were immediately deployed to the rapidly expanding frontier: Cydonia herself would be sent to the system of 109 Aquarii, while Erebor would initially receive the rather uninteresting assignment of surveying Luyten’s Star.
The final piece of the extrasolar expansion puzzle fell into place on 10 November 2050, with the launch of the first Gateway class stabilization ship. The 78,000-ton Gateway mounted a 50,000-ton wormhole stabilization device propelled by a dozen XN-250E Maximus ion drives. The stabilization device, developed by a scientific collaboration led by Dr. Cécile Langlois, operated by a principle of gravitational reflection, not only pushing gravitational energy into a wormhole terminus to activate it (the same principle as any Marazuki device) but to carefully shape the energy input in space and time to keep the terminus perpetually active by reflecting lost energy back to the terminus. Dr. Langlois claimed that once both termini of a given wormhole were fully stabilized, any ship would be able to pass through without the aid of a Marazuki device. Gateway, the lead ship of her class, was immediately deployed to stabilize the Sol-HH Andromedae wormhole, which would allow easy access to XCOM’s largest extrasolar colony not only for the transport force but also for civilian shipping traffic.
New Weapons for a New EraDespite the absence of any alien contact in more than three decades, XCOM continued to upgrade the orbital defense forces as new technology became available. The most significant upgrade in this period was the introduction in early 2048 of the new BSM-4 Devastator anti-ship missile. Developed with ion drive technology, this was the first new missile introduced since the venerable ASM-1 Shredder, featuring across-the board improvements including double the speed and range as well as a one-third increase in warhead power. The new ordnance would become the primary armament of the Raven interceptors and the Doc Stone patrol ships.
BSM-4 Devastator
Missile Size: 3.20 MSP (8.000 Tons) Warhead: 4 Radiation Damage: 4
Speed: 27,000 km/s Fuel: 1,125 Flight Time: 12 minutes Range: 19.48m km
Cost Per Missile: 3.16 Development Cost: 281
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 270% 3k km/s 90% 5k km/s 54% 10k km/s 27%The introduction of ion drive technology also prompted a round of class upgrades for the main combat ships of the defense forces. The first upgrade to come into service was the Raven III interceptor, a fairly straightforward upgrade of the Raven II with an ion engine and composite armor material. The resulting fighter had a top speed of 7,500 km/s, nearly double that of the Raven II. Five squadrons were ordered, totaling 30 interceptors, enough to replace the existing Raven II fleet, however the older fighters would be retained in reserve at Earth since they could still be useful for colonial defense forces once proper carriers were built.
A more substantial upgrade was the Firestorm III, although in this case the term “upgrade” could be considered somewhat misleading. Like the Raven III, the Firestorm III received the new ion drives conferring a top speed of 7,500 km/s along with improved composite armor materials. Furthermore, the armament was radically improved, while the plasma cannon remained the same 381 mm caliber the rate of fire was tripled. The downside to the upgrades was the significant increase in power requirements, not only the reactor for the main armament but also the fuel loading for the high-boost ion drive pushed up to the very limits of the 400-ton Firestorm design standard. The result was a fighter craft with a rather limited 870 million km round-trip range while retaining the same second-generation fire control with a limited tracking speed of only 5,000 km/s. Given that both of these areas would certainly be targeted for improvements in future iterations of the Firestorm class, XCOM spacecraft engineers began to wonder where the necessary tonnage would come from, and if perhaps an increase in size to 450 tons or even back to the 500 tons of the original fighters would be necessary.
Firestorm III class Interceptor 400 tons 4 Crew 69.2 BP TCS 8 TH 60 EM 0
7501 km/s Armour 1-4 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0-0 PPV 2.5
Maint Life 1.57 Years MSP 15 AFR 80% IFR 1.1% 1YR 7 5YR 105 Max Repair 15 MSP
Major Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days Morale Check Required
XN-30/B Peregrine Ion Drive (2) Power 60 Fuel Use 551.14% Signature 30 Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 10,700 Litres Range 0.87 billion km (32 hours at full power)
PX-381 Mark III Plasma Cannon (1) Range 48,000km TS: 7,501 km/s Power 6-3 RM 10,000 km ROF 10
XN/APY-9 Firestorm Targeting Computer (1) Max Range: 48,000 km TS: 5,100 km/s
XR-3/B Magnetized Elerium Reactor (1) Total Power Output 3 Exp 10%
XN/APS-2 XCOM Grav Pulse Sensor (1) GPS 20 Range 3.8m km Resolution 10Power problems aside, the Firestorm III was still far more capable in combat than the prior version, and so a large order of four squadrons totaling 24 fighters was ordered by XCOM leadership. As with the Raven IIs, the older Firestorms would be retained in service with the intention of redeployment for low-priority colonial garrison duties once fighter carriers came into service.
Finally, ships of the Doc Stone class received minor refits throughout 2049, a simple engine upgrade to the ion drive technological standard. This brought the standard patrol squadron speed up to a respectable 5,000 km/s while providing a modest improvement in operational range due to improved engine efficiency. Fire controls were not upgraded to match this speed, as XCOM researchers were continuing to develop new and improved fire control technology before designing any new hardware. As the number of extrasolar colonies, and thus patrol squadron commitments, increased, an order of four brand-new Doc Stone IIs was placed beginning in June 2050 to ensure adequate squadrons for future needs and Earth-side rotations while distant colonies were established.
The expansion of the defense, survey, and transport forces due to burgeoning interstellar efforts prompted a long-overdue restructuring at XCOM Headquarters in early 2049. The restructure aimed to create a clear separation between military and commercial space forces, with each major command further divided into solar and extrasolar force components. As such, 42-year XCOM veteran General Marcelo Pinto became the first Marshal in XCOM history, heading up the newly-redesignated XCOM Space Operations Agency (SOA).
XCOM Space Operations Agency organizational chart as of 24 January 2049.
The restructuring included a standardization of ranks across organizational
branches, creating a large number of general staff positions from former
colonel billets. This rash of promotions worked its way down the ranks,
leading to an official policy that command of any space vessel larger than a
fighter craft would require a lieutenant colonel rank or higher, with few
exceptions. The impact of the changes on officer career progression was
very well-received.Cult of the MEC OffensiveThe subject of ground force upgrades became markedly more contentious as XCOM entered the 2050s. At issue was the fact that, aside from the recently developed lunar battalions, the standard XCOM Trooper loadout had remained substantially the same for over three decades. Aside from institutional inertia, the primary roadblock for a general force upgrade program was the reluctance of XCOM generals to develop and produce a large run of new equipment which was likely to become outdated in short order, a real danger given the pace of technological improvements over this time period. Nevertheless, a situation characterized by indefinite stasis had proven increasingly untenable, particularly as news of the situation had begun to reach the ears of global policymakers in XCOM member nations, some of whom had begun insinuating that the Council of Nations would find continuation of the present policy unsustainable. Therefore, a compromise position had to be reached and it fell to the general staff to devise one.
In line with the recent development of the nominally offensive-focused lunar battalions, and to avoid the wasteful expense of a stopgap general upgrade of the main line battalion force, the compromise reached by XCOM generals was the MEC assault battalion. These would serve in a similar offensive role as the armored forces of conventional pre-War armies, aiming to land on a hostile planet and smash aside the first lines of alien resistance. While these would be quite capable formations in and of themselves, the reliance primarily on the MEC-2 and MEC-3 supratypes which were already in widespread use with the line battalions ensured that these new formations would be simple enough to incorporate into a planned future upgrade of the entire ground forces. The MEC suits themselves would of course be of an upgraded Mark III type, incorporating the same composite armor technology as the Mark II low-gravity variants in service with the lunar battalions, but dispensing of the low-grav adaptations in favor of a 33% boost in weapons power.
The final approved table of organization featured the natural hallmarks of an experimental force design, even if the underlying technology was considered reliable and well-understood. Most prominently, the difference in organization of the MEC-2 medium companies (14 units in platoons of 4) versus that of the MEC-3 heavy companies (10 units in platoons of 3) suggested the existence of cross purposes in the approved battalion structure. Officially, the medium companies were optimized to provide supporting fire to both the heavy companies and infantry forces which might operate in conjunction with the MEC assault battalions, while the heavy companies were structured for leanness and mobility as the leaders of any battlefield assault. Critics complained that in this case it would make far more sense to deploy separate medium and heavy battalions, each geared towards a single purpose. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it is apparent that the force design was constrained in large part by spaceborne transport requirements, as the constraint of 5,000 tons per battalion precluded expansion of the heavy companies to 14 MEC-3s apiece while limiting the medium companies to 10 MEC-2s each would yield unacceptably low total firepower.
The MEC assault battalions were grouped by fours under brigade headquarters following the same organization already in use for the line battalions, although this fact was not emphasized in public relations materials owing to the age of the Tunguska rocket tanks which provided the majority of the brigade’s supporting firepower. The first MEC assault division was placed on order in September 2050, and would take approximately 18 months to reach active service.
The Uridium Wire: Historical XCOM News BriefsCLEAR SKIES ON CYDONIA 2048/09/27Cydonia governor Shen Li Dong announced today that the terraforming of Mars is officially complete. With an atmospheric pressure three-fifths that of Earth and an average daytime temperature of seventeen degrees centigrade, Martian citizens can now freely roam the surface of their adopted home world without assistive equipment. The governor’s office further announced new regulations for the hospitality industry of Cydonia, anticipating record levels of tourists eager to take in the vast, red Martian steppes…
EXTRASOLAR SURVEY REPORTS SUCCESS 2048/12/10XCOM general Luana Casárez Camacho gave a press conference today summarizing the results of the gravitational survey in HH Andromedae. The single-star system contains only two wormhole termini, leading to Sol and to the planetless red dwarf star of GJ 1128. When questioned about the difficulty of communicating news to the public about star systems with such nondescript names, the general informed reporters that plans are in the works at XCOM Headquarters which could address this difficulty…
USC LAUNCHES ORBITAL MINING VESSEL 2050/06/12President Viktor Vasilov of the United Shipbuilding Corporation announced today the commissioning of a new class of orbital mining ship into XCOM service. The 69,000-ton Obsidian class offers a cost-effective alternative to automated mining installations to extract resources from comets and small asteroids. This new industrial capability arrives at a crucial time for an XCOM organization facing mounting corbomite and mercassium shortages…
EXCLUSIVE: FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS OF ALIEN STRUCTURES 2050/08/26Anonymous sources within the XCOM Survey Wing provided reporters with classified images allegedly showing a construct of alien origin in the recently discovered Groombridge 34 system. These images were supposedly captured by the survey ship Roanoke while exploring the innermost planet of the system primary. See more:
STRUCTURES, p. 6…
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Ship Construction4x Cydonia class Survey Ship: Cydonia, Erebor, Tranquility, Roanoke
8x Doc Stone II class Patrol Ship (refit): Doc Stone, Mora Fyodorova, Flatline Fakhoury, Voodoo Buthelezi, Whiskey Burns, Sledge Shimizu, Steampunk Steele, Chilong Zhang
4x Whiskey Sierra B class Wormhole Ship (refit): Whiskey, Sierra, Echo, Tango
24x Firestorm III class Interceptor
30x Raven III class Interceptor
2x Berlin class Cargo Ship
6x Berlin II class Cargo Ship
3x Beijing class Transport
1x Beijing II class Transport
1x Riyadh class Tanker
4x Avenger class Troop Transport
1x Gateway class Stabilisation Ship
4x Constellation class Force Tender
6x River class Fuel Harvester
1x Obsidian class Orbital Miner
5x Mountain class Terraformer
Ground Unit Training77th/78th/79th/80th XCOM Battalion (20th XCOM Brigade)
21st XCOM Brigade: 81st/82nd/83rd/84th XCOM Battalion
22nd XCOM Brigade: 85th/86th/87th/88th XCOM Battalion
23rd XCOM Brigade: 89th/90th/91st/92nd XCOM Battalion
9th/10th/11th/12th Plasma Cannon Battalion
1st MEC Assault Division
1st MEC Assault Brigade: 1st/2nd MEC Assault Battalion
14th/15th/16th Lunar Battalion (4th Lunar Brigade)
5th Lunar Brigade: 17th/18th/19th/20th Lunar Battalion
6th Lunar Brigade: 21st Lunar Battalion
ResearchOrbital Mining Module: Cécile Langlois, 21 Jan 2048
Turret Tracking Speed (10% Gear) 3000 km/s: John Jones, 21 Jan 2048
Maximum Shield Generator Size - 15: Cécile Crèvecoeur, 10 Mar 2048
Troop Transport Drop Bay - Standard: Absalón Pelayo Monroy, 27 Mar 2048
Base Jump Drive Efficiency 6: Mariette de Beer, 19 Apr 2048
Maintenance Support per Facility: 1250 Tons: Louis Ebenhaezer, 2 Aug 2048
Power Plant Boost 10%, Explosion 7%: Arnim Rohde, 3 Sep 2048
Power Plant Boost 20%, Explosion 10%: Arnim Rohde, 23 Feb 2049
Stellarator Fusion Reactor: Jimena Arias Arenas, 23 Jul 2049
Ground Formation Construction Rate - 320: Charles Desmarais, 2 Sep 2049
Minimum Engine Power Modifier x0.4: Arnim Rohde, 25 Sep 2049
Active Grav Sensor Strength 12: Dieudonné Mulumbu, 5 Oct 2049
Shield Regeneration Rate 2: Cécile Crèvecoeur, 14 Oct 2049
Troop Boarding Bay - Standard: Absalón Pelayo Monroy, 19 Oct 2049
Fuel Consumption: 0.7 Litres per Engine Power Hour: Mariette de Beer, 1 Nov 2049
Magazine Feed System Efficiency - 80%: Stefanie Oliver, 20 Mar 2050
Jump Point Stabilisation Module 180: Cécile Langlois, 28 Jun 2050
Turret Tracking Speed (10% Gear) 4000 km/s: John Jones, 17 Sep 2050
Star Systems109 Aquarii: WS-03 Echo, 21 Apr 2048
GJ 1128: WS-02 Sierra, 3 May 2048
Procyon: WS-01 Whiskey, 13 May 2048
Delta Pegasi: WS-03 Echo, 9 Aug 2048
Luhman 16: WS-04 Tango, 8 Dec 2048
Luyten’s Star: WS-01 Whiskey, 30 Mar 2049
Alpha Puppis: WS-03 Echo, 5 Dec 2049
65 Hydrae: WS-03 Echo, 25 Jan 2050
EZ Aquarii: WS-04 Tango, 26 Mar 2050
56 Cassiopeiae: WS-04 Tango, 1 Apr 2050
Groombridge 34: WS-04 Tango, 14 May 2050
82 Cygni: WS-01 Whiskey, 12 Oct 2050
Known interstellar space as of 2 January 2051.----
OOC Notes: I was really hoping to run into aliens for this one, perhaps at the end as a dramatic cliffhanger. Alas, this was not to be.
I am now trying to condense down some of the shipchat by only presenting ship designs when the design or revision is substantial enough that the design schematics offer a meaningful insight for the reader. A simple engine upgrade hardly merits 20 lines, a complete redesign more so, similarly a brand-new multi-capability survey class is more interesting than a bog-standard stabilizer ship. Hopefully this works out as well as I hope to improve the flow of the updates.
