The Galaxy Awaits ... Choose Your Path!

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

The plot thickens a bit ...

2055 Annual Report

The year began with a significant shakeup in the Navy, with Admiral Harley Artley being forced into retirement.   At 56 years old he still has four years left, but the younger admiral Ellie Camble is far his superior and everyone knows it.  She becomes the first female navy chief.  Artley was the navy’s chief for the last four years.  Also retiring are Captain Sammie Sreaves(a 24-year veteran of Fleet HQ as a staff officer, 55 years old), Commander Ken McKay(55, 12 years of geology survey service and four more as CO of the Lexington II-class
shuttle transport Endymion, a low-ranking Commander for almost his entire service), Commander Chung Jegede(served with McKay on the Rater geology team, then on the FT Custer and ST Marengo, age 59), and Commander Greg Garza(58, JupSat i.e. Grimmett geology team for 11 years, various ship postings in the five years since, mostly shuttles).  The old guard, actually more like the original guard, is beginning to pass into the sunset.  A new generation of officers must take their place.  

One Christopher Blair benefits significantly, as he was the final LtC named to replace the newly-vacated commands ... In the army, Brigadier General Path Twelve was the only retiree.  The oldest civilian administrators are 51, 14 years away from retirement age of 65.  Elite scientists retire at 70, with the oldest presently at 51 as well(several, including Deacon Palmer).  So SPACE still has some time before en masse retirements kick in.  
                  
The admiralty waited a few days to dispense assignments for next tour, as some promotions needed to sort themselves out. Ellie Camble was Communications Officer for the last 18 and a half years since her promotion to Captain, and at 47 still has some life left in her career for certain.  She is now the lone admiral, with only five captains, two short of a full staff.  The Navy unquestionably needs fresh blood.

In early March, a ‘late’ round of dismissals relieved a dozen officers of their duties, eight naval and four from the army.  And then on the 16th, the Intrepid reappeared in Sol space from the Epsilon Eridani jump point.  The report was promising, with 94% fuel left, no maintenance issues to report despite being out of contact for several months, and still over three years left on the mission clock.  Onward to Jump Point Delta a months journey away, while command digested their report ...

The short version was that a number of considerable deposits have been found, most of them not of the minerals we need or highly inaccessible.  However, there is a corundium deposit of a half-million tons, and another of neutronium of a full million, both worth exploiting.  No duranium yet though the survey there is far from complete.  All in all, quite good news!

In the late morning of April 24, the Intrepid proceeded through Jump Point Delta and then back again.  What they found there was far more significant – it held the potential to change the course of human history.  The new system was Lalande 21185, which held 219 asteroids, 4 dwarfs, and a terrestrial planet far too large for human colonization, all orbiting a M2-V class star 33 times dimmer than our sun.  Also orbiting at close range(just inside the inner asteroid field) was an astounding discovery:

Long-term scanners showed the wrecks of three vessels, two in the 9kt range and one almost 18kt.  From a range of 2b km it is impossible to tell what destroyed them or how long ago, but one thing is for certain: we are not alone.  This was compelling evidence of advanced life.  

This information was classified at the highest imaginable level, and orders given immediately that anyone caught so much as thinking about it without permission would leave the ship immediately via the airlock.  Back on Earth, it was obvious something was up by the incredible activity at SPACE, but for now at least security has been maintained.  In the end, Director Duling made the decision to pretty much keep on pace with current policies until more systems were explored.  Getting a basic handle on weapons research was even more important now, but there wasn’t anything that could be done to speed that up at the moment.  There was no way of telling the age of the destroyed vessels.  Millions of km from the nearest body and nowhere near the lone planet, it was highly unlikely they broke up in an atmosphere anywhere, esp. given their relatively intact shape(of the wreckage, that is).  With one ship, a massive malfunction might be a possibility, but three?  Almost certainly they were destroyed, intentionally.  The implications of this were ... unpleasant.  

The Intrepid headed to Jump Point Epsilon, just a short hop away.  There was nothing to recommend Lalande 21185 from an economic standpoint.  Cmdr. Cin was commended for jumping back immediately to Sol and not putting his ship, mission, or crew at risk with the tempting possibility of investigating the wrecks.  

On the final day of April, JP Epsilon was revealed to link to Van Maanen’s Star.  The system has two dozen asteroids and a couple of dwarf planets, the key find being a super-jovian with nearly two dozen moons.  Only two of the moons are habitable, and those marginally, a full 2b km from the jump point as well.  Again, not worth the effort, and the Intrepid moved on.  

The next two jump locations would be Bravo and Charlie: Bravo was a hair closer and became the next to be visited.  Before that, on the early morning of June 1, the first two harvesters arrived as Saturn and began successful sorium extraction operations.  After a successful test over the course of a few hours, they offloaded most of their fuel at nearby Titan and began an extended tour at the ringed planet.  Titan now stands fully ready, with 600k liters from the two vessels and more to come, to be a fully-functional refueling base.  

On the 16th, the Intrepid transited Jump Point Bravo, hoping this would be more fruitful than the last pair of jumps.  They found Luytens 726-8, emerging about 2b km away as seems to be normative.  The first five comets found outside Sol are there, which could be a very good thing if they are as fruitful.  No asteroids and only one dwarf planet, but a pair of terrestrial planets, a gas giant, and a super-jovian proved more interesting.  The second planet has only a trace atmosphere but is reasonably habitable(2.0) with a very reasonable(in galactic terms) surface temperature of -18.7 celcius.  The first planet is as hospitable as Mercury(not at all), and a couple of moons orbiting the jovian are as habitable as Titan or Io/Ganymede, but it’s that second planet that makes this a system worth a second look.   Soon it was time for another blackout, as SPACE had been informed and the Intrepid would be gone for another surveying tour.

This time they were only gone about two months, emerging in August with the news that none of the comets had been within range to make investigating them a valuable use of mission time.  Worse, the second planet was barren, so unless a further expedition showed more resources, it was not a useful candidate system.  As they were already partway there from Earth, the Intrepid headed next to Jump Point Gamma in the outer system.  

Barnard’s Star was revealed in the first week of October.  Partially counterbalancing the distance of the jump point in Sol was the fact that on the other side, it was only 1.33b km from the primary star.  This might even have mattered if it wasn’t a complete and utter pile of crap.  17 asteroids were found, along with a gas giant orbited by 17 moons, two of which were in the over-6 habitability range as the best potential sites.  Adios, Barnard’s Star – we hardly knew ye.  

The next trip would be considerable.  Jump Point Charlie was back across the system, some 9b km from the jump to Barnard’s Star.  It would take the rest of the year plus to cover the distance.  In completely unrelated news, it is worth noting that total human population rose to more than a billion souls in mid-November, the first time that’s happened since the war which shall not be mentioned.  

At year’s end, Triton is at 12 automated mines, Venus is up to 10, and Sedna expanded again to 5 civilian complexes there now.  More freighters are needed, or faster, but both require more fuel, so really a lot of things are waiting on getting enough Perry-class harvesters out to Saturn which will be some more years in the making.  Given the size of our reserves though, the order is given to build more Fletchers anyway and not wait.  If the reserve declines, so be it – 32m liters is a lot.  A big lot.  The Hyperion, second in the Pioneer class, will come off the line within days.

Earth has over 800t corundium, over 5kt duranium and nearly 6kt neutronium.  The line will pretty much held at current expenditures, but we finally have a surplus – and a growing one.  That is becoming relatively less of a matter of discussion in the current environment though.  Most of the debate at SPACE is still what to about Lalande 21185 and the prospect of advanced life – a debate that has no forseeable end in sight.  

Research & Development

** February 19 – Turret Tracking Speed 2000 km/s completed(Eva Vadnais).  Railgun(10cm) is her next objective.

** Mid-May – Clint Wyche’s team completes research into improved terraforming rates.  He gets to work on Shield Regeneration Rate.

** June 7 – Ignacio Bavaro’s team(Meson Focusing) has presented their report.  Railgun Launch Velocity is his next project.  

** August 16 – Harlan Welle’s team completes Magazine Feed System Efficiency.  They move on to Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity.  

** November 14 – Karabishi Juishao’s team completes Magazine Ejection System improvement research(80% success rate).  Next up is Gauss Cannon Rate of Fire.  This is a significant moment as the Ministry of Research & Development indicates this is the final basic
combat tech that needs to be researched before an analysis can properly begin.  So we are now one research cycle(3-5 years) away from doing that.  

** December 25 – Everette Snuggs’ team unveils on Christmas Day plans for Small Cryogenic Transport modules, basically in case of emergencies.  He then takes over for Deacon Palmer on Microwave tech so that Palmer can turn his C&P expertise to the matter of improving systems at the research complexes themselves for the purpose of improving efficiency and productivity of our scientific teams – something that is of vital importance.  

Earth

March 23 – The first two Perry-class Fuel Harvesters gave the Navy plenty of other activity to look after.  Another pair of young lieutenant commanders stave off potential elimination as they are the first to head to Saturn as field testers while two more ships begin construction.  They are expected on station before the middle of June.  

Late May – 19th Garrison Battalion is complete.  Venus is the only populated colony without one, and additional battalions will be assigned to Earth. Brig. Gen. Conrad Brocklehurst heads to Venus as the CO.  

Commissioned Officers

Late July – Christopher Blair’s crew training is up to 125.  

Early December – Herbert Duling’s political skills continue to improve(30% reliability).  

Epsilon Eridani – Ship Commanders Log
JSC Intrepid – Commander Jay Cin III

July 11, 2054 – Set course for asteroid #160, which is only about a 10% deviation from ourcourse towards Epsilon Eridani-A.
July 23 – Asteroid #160 reveals nothing.  We set course next for a clump of asteroids ‘behind’ the fourth planet in the same solar orbit.  There are 26 of them in quite close proximity, almost exactly 10% of the total asteroids in this system, and a lagrange point in the vicinity as well.  
Aug 10 – We’ve reached the asteroid clump and scanning begins.  
Sep 4 – The asteroid clump is completely scanned, with nothing having been found.  We continue in-system to the third planet’s orbit, just a few days journey, to scan the asteroid clump ‘ahead’ of it.  
Sep 16 – Having once again found nothing, we head for the third planet itself.  The gas giant is the size of Jupiter and has 14 moons, two of which are habitable and one of which is our secondary target in this system.  
Sep 20 – EE3 scanning has commenced, and is expected to take somewhere on the order of a month.  
Oct 20 – The third planet reveals no resource deposits of any kind, and the moons around it are next to be hit.  
Oct 30 – The first moon(habitable, but at a cost of 5.05) reveals the first deposits of TN minerals outside of Sol!  Neutronium(2.52mt at 0.1), Tritanium(508kt at 0.6), Sorium(135kt at 0.1), and Uridium(4.67mt at 0.8 ).  As neither tritanium or uridium are needed, despite the size of the finds this is not a promising target.
Nov 2 – The third moon also has deposits: uridium(215kt at 0.8 ) and corundium(577kt at 1.0!).  That corundium find is highly important of course – efficiently developed, it would end corundium supply issues for generations, perhaps centuries.  Epsilon Eridani III is a three-billion-kilometer trips(give or take) for a freighter group from Earth, making it close to five months round-trip.  With corundium supplies stable and rising, despite its significance, this find was not deemed important enough to break off and report to Sol high command.
Nov 5 – The process of scanning the tenth moon of III, the best reason to come to this planet, was begun and would take even longer than the planet itself.  It is more than two and a half times larger than Earth.  
Dec 10 – The tenth moon is a treasure trove of highly unaccessible minerals, unforunately:
Neutronium(48.3mt at 0.1)
Mercassium(26.1mt at 0.1)
Sorium(72.9mt at 0.1)
Corundium(1.74mt at 0.1)
Gallicite(30.7mt at 0.6)
Duranium(109mt at 0.1)
Sadly, the only reason to develop this moon would be in the event of a need for more gallicite.  Four more moons to survey.
Dec. 12 – Having found nothing more, we head to planet II, a terrestrial planet better than nine times more massive than earth.  The crushing gravity makes colonizing it impossible.  It has two moons, the second of which is the most habitable body in this system.  
Dec. 17 – Scanning of Epsilon Eridani-A II begins, and we’ll be here a while.  Over a month and a half, given the sheer size of this thing.  
Feb. 6 -- Good news: EE II contains every TN mineral, only planet found other than earth.  Bad news: all are at 0.1 accessibility.  At least 24mt of all but tritanium(57 kt).  Not that it matters.  If they were more accessible, there’d be no need to consider other sources of minerals.  Ever.  
Feb. 8 – Primary target scanning begins(second of two moons of EE II).  
Feb. 15 – Scanning of the moons is complete and we begin the journey back to Sol jump point to
present our initial report.  
Neutronium: 1.02 mt at 0.9
Mercassium: 2.30 kt at 0.6
Vendarite: 331 kt at 0.6

[Alfapiomega]

Well this is quickly turning to a nightmare. My character has only the arrogant and brown nose traits and he is good in mining...

So what can I expect? I guess a command of a mining ship?

Let's hope there will be one soon or it's a reroll for me

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

Don't underestimate the value of being a brown-noser.  Crew training is probably the only thing more valuable in getting the attention of the Navy brass .  The greatest brown-noser in the history of SPACE is Cmdr. Ali Mandujuano, has skills nearly as useless as Zavier's -- and she's halfway up the Commander rankings as of the current date, just over six years out of the Academy and one of the youngest among her peers at that rank.  Sometimes being a great brown-noser is just what you need to get the opportunities required to develop your skills . 

On the mining ship, none now, none being contemplated, none will be contemplated for the forseeable future.  It's basically a useless skill, congratulations . 

Duno if anyone liked the video or not.

My computer didn't want to play it, unfortunately.  I don't think its youtube, its just my computer being stupid.  Getting a new one next month which among other things will be faster, which won't hurt for aurora any. 

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

2056 Annual Report

As the Intrepid finally approaches Jump Point Charlie, the Hyperion is cleared for operations and heads out to Jump Point Foxtrot, naturally with the meteoric Commander Dan Spengler assigned as her CO.  This pair of jumps will complete initial perusal of the Sol jump locations.

Five days later, the Intrepid reaches Teegarden’s Star on January 16.  It’s a very close jump point, just 326m km away from the extremely dim M6-V star.  There are 28 asteroids, six planets, and a couple dozen or so moons.  None are less than 8 or worse habitability.  Sigh. Jay Cin III heads his vessel back to Earth for some well-earned shore leave, well short of the maximum stay but they need to await further instructions from SPACE HQ on what to do next, which won’t be decided until the Hyperion reaches its objective.  It is, however, abundantly clear that Epsilon Eridani is our best chance at finding either a reasonably close colony in another system, or a better system further out(via a second jump from there).  

On March 10th, the Hyperion makes its jump, and finds Sirius.  Siriusly.  A binary system, with Sirius A as the primary star and Sirius B the secondary one.  A is much larger but also dimmer than our sun, B is relatively tiny orbiting at 20 times the distance earth is from our star, on the order of 3bkm.  We are 1.8bkm-plus away, bearing 358.  One apparent effect of the binary system, according to our calculations, results in jump point survey locations being very far away(3.5b km for the inner ring).

More importantly, there is some sirius(sorry) potential here.  A has two planets.  First is a terrestrial with a hilarious 60 colony cost due to the 1450+ surface temperature, the second is a 2.0 habitable terrestrial with a 2.0 habitable moon.  It also has 86 asteroids.  B sports a dwarf and a gas giant – the gas planet has 23 moons, two of which are 2.7-3.1 habitable and two more in the 4.5-5 range.  It’s not as nice as Epsilon Eridani, but better than anything else we’ve seen.  The Hyperion will investigate further.  

Meanwhile, back on Earth, an oversight is noticed.  A big one, that was noticed some time back, but the current maintenance facilities are not nearly large enough to allow the Intrepid to do a full overhaul.  It’s decided that the process of enlarging them needs to be dramatically accelerated, and so most of the effort currently going to mine conversions is switched to building more maintenance capacity.  Transitioning sooner wouldn’t really have been feasible anyway, due to the need for mines and minerals – but there are some who aren’t buying that explanation.  

Shortly after the Hyperion jumps, a report reaches the director’s desk about a certain Mitchell Feeser, recent graduate of the Academy.  He’s considered the finest naval officer talent that humanity has produced since the founding of the agency, and is definitely one to watch.  

In mid-June, the Hyperion returned and the news was not good.  A further investigation might be warranted in the future, but the habitable bodies were all barren.  The first phase of jump point investigation was now complete, and there were a few inescapable conclusions:

** The discovery of the wrecks in Lalande 21185 makes preparedness for a likely inevitable first contact all the more urgent.  Weapons research needed to continue, should the worst happen.  
** Locations suitable for human colonization appear to be rare.  Attention should perhaps be given in the near future to terraforming technology.  An analysis of terraforming prospects for known habitable bodies has been ordered for the upcoming SoS report.  

Finally, a more thorough investigation of Epsilon Eridani was in order, for a number of  reasons.  One, if duranium could be found, its proximity would make it a good first target for extra-solar colonization – it might be worthwhile even if that isn’t the case, though on a longer time scale.  Two, if any of the gas giants or super jovians had sorium, a refueling base could be established in-system.  Third, if there were any more jump points reasonably close to the one to Sol, exploring those could possibly provide a system ‘close’ in travel time even if it was two jumps away.

Such an operation, however would require multiple ships operating independently of each other with coordinated activities.  That would require a new task force, which would require a command ship with a flag bridge.  The possibility of updating the North Carolina class was considered and rejected, since the maintenance capacity and cost required would be considerable.  A new design for a minimal command shuttle was assembled and then rejected, because it would require the use of the Wartsila Shipyard, presently at work with the third vessel in the Pioneer class.  So there’s was little to be done for now.  The best that could be achieved immediately was to send in the Intrepid again, the Hyperion could replace it when the mission time was up, and eventually the navy could work towards a more sizable fleet dedicated to the task.

Commissioned Officers

Early February – Herman Fox’s Pop Growth bonus is now up to 20%.  

Mid February – Jedidiah Thone makes a substantial improvement in mining to 15%.

Mid-October – Christopher Blair increases crew training to 150.  

Early Nov – Conor Zavier takes well to his first command, developing a training bonus of 25.  

Mid December – Director Herbert Duling ups factory production to 20%, giving himself a much better position in the election which is just a couple of weeks away now.  

Sirius Survey
Ship Commander’s Log
Commander Dan Spengler
JSC Hyperion

April 21 – Sirius A II is barren.  Not the news we were looking for.
April 25 – The moon is barren as well.  We head to Sirius A I since we are here anyway ...
June 4 – Sirius A I has 75mt-plus of duranium, 41+mt gallicite, both are 0.1 accessibility.  Pshaw.  Back to Sol for more orders.  

Research & Development

** April 6 – Joe Tycho’s team completes research on Meson Focal Size.  Lab space goes to Palmer’s work on research speed.  

** April 20 – Julio Kuchler’s team announces Beam Fire Control Range report – a third lab goes to Palmers work, which should be sufficient.  

** June 27 – Wayne Sabagh’s team(Particle Beam range) presents their report.  Julio Kuchler takes the space to work on improving Thermal Sensitivity of our sensors.  

Earth

Early April – A second pair of Perrys are completed and head to Saturn, work proceeds on a third pair.  The afore-mentioned talent earns Feeser one of the new commands.  

June 10 – Research Lab completed.   Joe Tycho is back after a short break and takes the space for a project on Turret Tracking Speed, hoping to achieve a 50% increase compared to present capabilities.  This was assigned because it isn’t a specific weapon path but will benefit numerous weapons systems.

October 5 – FT Apollo is finished, and Lt. Cmdr. Conor Zavier is assigned the interim command.

[Alfapiomega]

Wow, this escalated quickly! I am both glad and sad that he didn’t get expelled from the force This might be very interesting yet!

Lt. Cmdr. Conor Zavier was not a pleasant fellow to be around. He was actually so unpleasant that most of the people around him soon grew to despise him and the rest kept their distance. But nobody did really go into full scale confrontation with him because what Conor lacked on the side of manners he had in connections. A lot of connections.

When Conor was born in the Zavier family his father spoiled him beyond belief. As the family was one of the largest private mining companies in the world (Zavier Mining Corporation) he had everything that he ever wanted and more. But he didn’t like his father despite all the wealth and gifts he got as a child. They were both very strong, self-centered personalities and both took it very hard that they should not have complete control over everything. And as there was nowhere where Conor could really start anew on Earth without the shadow of his father following him he quickly decided to go for the Navy career.
The studies on the Academy were really hard for him as had no practical knowledge or interest in the subjects other than quickly getting through them and, if possible, getting his command and proving his worth. This caused much resentment between the teachers but Conor had been only on the best schools and was quite bright despite his lack of interest so he always managed to pass with lowest score possible or slightly above without having to try at all. His only really good marks came from areas of command, tactics, crew training and, which surprised many, geology and mining. In the last two he was more than brilliant, rest assured that his background helped him a lot, and some of his essays and works earned much attention even between the top scientists. His theories about future of mining in space and needed equipment and ships for these tasks were both daring and visionary. However, much to his dismay, they were purely hypothetical as the current doctrine of space exploration under the oversight of SPACE had no room for such applications. His protests were always loud and many times over snarky but it was no place for a cadet to change that.

What also bothered him was that his reputation kept with him despite him being in the Navy where he believed he would be only one of the anonymous mass. His teachers treated him many times with too much respect and he could feel that his name was whispered when he walked the halls. He hated it but he wasn’t as careless as to stand up against it. Many great men got ahead because of strong support from someone around them or, more than often, behind them.

And so did he when he got his first, albeit interim, command on a brand new ship called Apollo. Unimportant assignment it may have been but an assignment none the less. And he would be a fool to reject it. Dozens of Lt. Commanders never even got such a chance. What did it matter if it was work of his father or maybe some of the commanders that looked for a favor from someone his father could influence? The chance was here and he was going to take it no matter what.

And so he began his real career.

[Alfapiomega]

Done. Here is a "video diary" of Jedidiahs trip to the asteroid.

Some unusual things had to be done due to the lack of civilian transport and other pressing matters. Cant say he was to thrilled to see what he was going up in.

feature=youtu.be

Although I didn't like the idea of Aurora being depicted by Kerbal Space Program, the video itself is good! 

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

If it makes you feel better, he's about to be demoted(he only got a freighter slot because most of the more deserving officers were off somewhere else on assignment).  

STATE OF SPACE, 2057

I.  Imperial Holdings

IA.  Populated Colonies

Earth(973.2m, 322 CF, 253 CI, 50 OF, 10 FF, 75 REF, 18 RL, 2 AC, 6.8k MF)
Luna(36.11m)
Mars(9.58m)
Titan(5.09m)
Venus(approx. 90k)

Mars has only grown by a half-million in the last four years, Titan by 200k.  Luna kept growing for a bit(up almost 7m) but has stalled now as well.  The civilian shipping halt has left Earth just continuing to grow.  Our homeworld is up more than 77m, with total human population now at 1.024b(up 9.1%).  

IB.  Outposts

Earth(77 SM, 1 AM, 11.4 eff, 1.84 kt yield) – uridium set to deplete in 3.1 years
Titan(25 AM, 6 eff, 243t)
Venus(7 AM, 24 eff., 233t)
Stephan-Oterma(28 AM, 40 eff., 1.75 kt)
Machholz(27.6 AM, 56 eff., 2.41 kt) – duranium(2.8 yrs)
Comas Sola(25 AM, 58 eff, 2.09 kt) – neutronium(4.6 yrs)
Schaumasse(21.8 AM, 36 eff, 942 t)
Triton(21 AM, 30 eff, 756 t)
Crommelin(20.4 AM, 59 eff, 1.73 kt) – corundium(7.2 yrs)
Wolf-Harrington(13.8 AM, 60 eff, 994 t) – vendarite(9.1 yrs)
Prokne(10 AM, 10 eff, 138 t)
Van Biesbroeck(10 AM, 55 eff, 726 t)
Neujmin(9.8 AM, 49 eff, 576 t)
Borrelly(9.8 AM, 58 eff, 851 t)
Faye(4 AM, 48 eff, 240 t)
Reinmuth(1.8 AM, 47 eff, 101 t) – duranium(7.1 yrs)
Sedna(5 CMC, 16 eff, 1.06 kt)

Total Production: 16.68 kt annual yield, a 5.8% increase or almost a full kiloton per year.  The total amount will eventually fall as the comets deplete – the most important thing is keeping the key minerals coming in.  

Earth has just over half the mines it did four years ago, and has now been reduced to a relatively minor contributor.  The expected depletion times have actually been delayed due to the rapid rate of conversion and shipping of mines off-world(at least, until the switch to maintenance facility work last year).  It won’t be long until more mines have to be built and the economic focus switches from converting standard to automated to actually adding new mines.  

A few minor minerals on comets were depleted, but nothing worth noting.  That will change in the coming years, but losing Machholz’s duranium won’t hurt as much with the growth on Triton and Schaumasse that was achieved.  

IC.  Mineral Stockpiles and Production

Tier A:  Uridium(45 kt), gallicite(31 kt), and vendarite(29 kt) are joined by tritanium this time(24 kt)

Tier B:  Mercassium(27 kt), corbomite(18 kt), and boronide(19 kt) remain as before.  Boronide is seeing more use as a primary component of the fuel tanks used on ships for the navy, but as of yet the stockpile continues to grow.

Tier C: Corundium(1.87 kt) is growing rapidly with the temporary, recent decline in mine conversion; sorium(12.1 kt) is growing as well and will grow a lot more as the Saturn harvesting operation picks up steam.  

Tier D: Neutronium(5.99 kt) and duranium(5.35 kt) supplies have never been better, but continuing to grow them is essential.  There still isn’t enough for a significant economic expansion.  

ID.  Income

Taxes: 24.16M
Export Tariffs: 115k
Trade Good Tariffs: 115k
Tourism Fees: 80k

Total: 24.47M

Taxes on civilian shipping don’t bring in a tenth of what they did four years ago.  As a result, though direct citizen tax income rose by over two million credits, total income actually shrunk by 3.7 million, over a 13% decline.  The good news, I suppose, is that it can’t fall much further – and still dwarfs spending.  Just over one million credits comes from the colonies – over 90% is from Earth.  

IE.  Expenses

Installation Construction: 4.16M
Research: 3.51M
Shipbuilding: 1.82M
Mineral Purchases: 1.25M
GU Maintenance: 134k
GU Training: 83k
Shipyard Modifications: 61k
Maintenance Facilities: 10k

Total: 11.02M

For the first time, there is cause to be just the slightest bit concerned about the financial side.  SPACE still made more than twice what it spent, but with the decline in income and a spending rise of almost 22%, there is definitely a need to ensure that trend does not continue indefinitely.  

II.  SHIPYARDS

IIA.  Commerical Yards

Tod & MacGregor(1 slipway, 36.5kt capacity)
P&A Group(2 slipways, 20kt capacity)
** Building 2x Perry-class fuel harvesters
Vickers-Armstrong(2 slipways, 10kt capacity)
** Building 2x Lexington II-class shuttle transports

IIB.  Naval Yards

Wartsila A/B & O/Y(1 slipway, 10kt capacity)
** Building Pioneer-class jump scout

III.  INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

IIIA.  Earth

** Maintenance Facility Expansion(50%) – to 10kt, expected to finish in early December
** Research Lab(25%) – one per two years or so at the current rate
** Mine Conversions(10%) – about 3 per year
** Ground Force Training Facility(4%) – 2065
** Naval Shipyard(4%) – spring/summer 2061
** Mass Driver(4%) – summer 2058
** Commercial Shipyard(3%) – 2059/2060

** A new run of infrastructure for the 2% initiative typically siphons off 2% production for 8-10 months.  

IV.  Research Projects

** Jump Gate Construction(Shannon Patteson) – January 8
** Fuel Consumption Efficiency(Santo Makar) – January 13
** Plasma Carronade(Brandon Grimmett) – March 12
** Ground Unit Strength(Cedrick Wormack) – March/April
** Alpha Shields(Edward Groat) – June
** High-Powered Microwave(Everette Snuggs) – June/July
** Shield Regeneration(Clint Wyche) – Summer 2058
** Railgun Velocity(Ignacio Bavaro) – Summer 2058
** Microwave Focusing(Mike Manaya) – Summer 2058
** Gauss Cannon Velocity(Harlan Welle) – Late 2058
** Figher Production(Curtis Gloster) – Late 2058/Early 2059
** Gauss Cannon Firing Rate(Karabishi Juishao) – Late 2058/Early 2059
** Research Rate(Deacon Palmer, only project with multiple labs(3)) – Winter/Spring 2059
** Railgun(Eva Vadnais) – Winter/Spring 2059
** Thermal Sensor Sensitivity(Julio Kuchler) – 2060/2061
** Turret Tracking Speed(Joe Tycho) – 2061

The research teams haven’t been heard from that much the last couple years, but this shows why.  There’s a number of projects due to complete in the next few months, and several more next year.

V.  Active Naval Assets

GSV Coontz(1, 2.25kt, 32 crew, 1377 km/s, 130k, gravitational survey)
GEV Essex Iix(2, 2.2kt, 35 crew, 1136 km/s, 60k, geological survey)
FT Fletcher II-xe(7, 36.2kt, 100 crew, 518 km/s, 700k, freighter)
ST Lexington II(8, 1.8kt, 20 crew, 1388 km/s, 30k, transport shuttle)
JS North Carolina(1, 19.2kt, 133 crew, 520 km/s, 250k, large jump ship)
FH Perry(4, 18.95 kt, 98 crew, 263 km/s, 350k, fuel harvester)
JSC Pioneer(2, 10kt, 240 crew, 1000 km/s, 600k, jump scout)
TT Portland(2, 4.3kt, 35 crew, 581 km/s, 60k, troop transport)
CS Spruance-b(1, 20kt, 110 crew, 501 km/s, 250k, colony ship)

Total: 28 vessels(nearly doubled from 17!), 426.7kt, 2.1k crew, 8.61m liters fuel

Available Crew: 71.9k(+ 6.8k)

Nine current ship classes(we had only six before).  It’s getting a bit crowded.  Overall, the navy basically doubled in the last four years.  We’re at about 32.5m liters and holding steady, but that number doesn’t seem quite as huge as it used to.  

VI.  Active Army Assets

** Low-Tech Armour Division(5)
** Low-Tech Infantry Division(10)
** Garrision Battalion(6)

Total Active-Duty Soldiers: 780,000(4% increase)

VII.  Civilian Shipping Corporations

Voliva Carrier Company(26 ships, 310k annual income)
Jensrud Transport & Trading(16)
Everton Shipping & Logistics(4)
Presnar Freight(4)
Forbius Carrier Limited(1)
Oullet Shipping(1)
Tolles Transport & Logistics(3)

55 total, just up from 52 four years ago, but Voliva is the only active one left.  They effectively have a monopoly on the virtually non-existent industry, which generates just 5% of the income it did in our last report.  Voliva has more cash on hand(516k) than the others combined.  Meanwhile, 350,000 colonists sit in colony ships with nowhere to go.  What a mess the corporations have created.  

VIII.  SPACE Leadership Prospectus

** Naval Officers: 33 of 72 assigned(45.8%)
** Ground Forces Officers: 21 of 33(63.6%)
** Civilian Administrators: 18 of 26(69.2%)
** Scientists: 16 of 28(57.1%)

Overall: 88 of 159(55.3%) – up a full 10% from 45 last report

19 new positions were created, while the overall number of leaders remains exactly the same as it was before.  The outlook is declining for researchers as more focused and expensive projects lie ahead, but for the other three branches it definitely appears that growth opportunities will continue to be strong.  SPACE continues to need more than a few good men and women to keep the wheels moving, and early dismissals are unquestionably on the decline.  

IX.  Terraforming Review

After reviewing the situation, there’s less to say about this than I expected.  The only place we've found more hospitable than, say, Mars or Luna, is Sirius-A II.  The atmosphere there is almost 40% as thick as Earth's, has no dangerous gases, and just needs a bit more oxygen to be breathable.  We'd need to siphon off some nitrogen at that point since the temp is about 64 celcius, but a colony cost under 1.0 could be achievable.  It'd never be a new Earth, but would require relatively minimal investment, espescially if duranium could be found in-system.  

Due to the travel time involved, that is at best quite a long-range concern and will depend on many factors whether or not it actually ever happens.  

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

2057 ELECTION
                        
Herbert Duling was obviously the favorite, espescially after his December Surprise shoring up his most glaring weakness.  A win would net the 43-year-old a record fourth term as director.   Eighmy was in poor health, a fact that prevented him from even making the final ballot this time: a similar fate kept Sonny Dean out.  This left only two challengers: India Rakes and Herman Fox, both of whom were about equally dark horses.  In reality, this election was over before it began.  Duling has become virtually unbeatable.  

As it was, he ran a near-perfect campaign to eliminate any doubt quickly.  All three candidates acquitted themselves very well in fact.  Duling had 39.2% of the final tally, with Rakes(31.8%) beating out Fox(29.0%) for second.  Once again there were no surprises.  The only real news was the fading away of Eighmy as a serious challenger due to his health issues, and the emergence Fox as more of a major player in SPACE politics.  

Policy Review

Most things stay as they are, as one would expect with the incumbent director returning.  Exploration is still waiting on survey operations from Epsilon Eridani which are expected to take some years.  The improved mineral situation though does allow for some modest increase in activity, which for the moment will take the form of overdue modernization of some navy elements.  All the shipyards could do with adding slipways, but for now the P&A Group is the only one that actually will get to do that.  

More critically, a number of ship classes will get upgrades transitioning to duranium armor from conventional.  Naturally the freighters will benefit the most from this.  The benefits, by class, will be as follows from the lighter armor:

Fletcher freighers – 1700t lighter, 1.4b km longer range, 22 km/s increase in speed(518 to 540), even about a .5% decrease in cost to boot
Lexington shuttles – 200t lighter, 174 km/s increase in speed(1388 to 1562, even with more fuel added)

The Spruance(colony ship), Essex(geosurvey), and Coontz(gravsurvey) also need to upgrade and would see fairly similar benefits, but that will not be done for some time as the shipyards will be otherwhise occupied.  The shuttles and freighters comprise the majority of the fleet, and so they will be given priority.  

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Blair – 2nd out of 50.  He’s made enough of a name for himself that minor promotion to one of the Portland troop transports is imminent, another small step up the ladder.  
Cmdr. Jay Cin III – 1st out of 17 – Survey operations are continuing in Epsilon Eridani.  
Lt. Cmdr. Conor Zavier – 10th.  He’s been reassigned to a shuttle transport command more befitting a man of his (lack of) experience.  Still, he’s got a job.  Half of the officer corps still doesn’t.

Herman Fox(6) – On to the troubled colony of Mars, where his mining prowess will be completely wasted.  Still, his influence has never been higher after a close third in the most recent election.  
Jedidiah Thone(1) – Considered the most inefficient administrator in all of SPACE, his skills in creating income still have the beauracracy hoping he’ll learn in other areas.  Mining skill certainly has improved as well, allowing him to remain in the game as he transitions from Prokne to what is currently the least important outpost of them all, the comet Reinmuth.  

Karabishi Juishaou(MK 15) -- Midway through a study on Gauss Cannon firing rates.  A modestly successful scientist so far.  

[GenJeFT]

Jedidiah Thone(1) – Considered the most inefficient administrator in all of SPACE, his skills in creating income still have the beauracracy hoping he’ll learn in other areas.  Mining skill certainly has improved as well, allowing him to remain in the game as he transitions from Prokne to what is currently the least important outpost of them all, the comet Reinmuth.  

I had to lol at that one. What do you expect when you use an administrator outside of his skill set. The Beauracracy should use his skills and solve the aforementioned problem of income using his abilities. Put him on Mars or Luna with a bunch of Financial Centre and let him terraform it to a hab cost of 0. SPACE will never have financial difficulties again. 

I dont see why he is so inefficient, he did boost his mining skill REAL fast.

Also a comet is a promotion over a mere asteroid, he is overjoyed by this new challenge even if its still not something he is suited for. Fortunately for you all KSP does not have any comets for me to make a video with. Not that this was the end, I have a video of the beginning mining ops to finish yet.

What is at that comet anyway, anything interesting? Also, how do you see how much crew you have available for ships. I have not been able to figure that out?

[Alfapiomega]

If it makes you feel better, he's about to be demoted(he only got a freighter slot because most of the more deserving officers were off somewhere else on assignment).

It didn't. I started to root for him. Please keep him safe!

[Brainsucker]

Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Blair – 8th of 50, first command is aboard the ST Wayne.
Cmdr. Jay Cin III – 1st of 14, CO of the historic mission of the JSC Intrepid. Presently out of contact in the Epsilon Eridani system.
Lt. Cmdr. Conor Zavier – 14th.  

Herman Fox(6) – Governor of Titan.
Jedidiah Thone(1) – Governor of Prokne(first asteroid governor in human history! )

Karabishi Juishao(MK 15) – Researching Magazine Ejection Systems

Oh WOW, I haven't go online for a few days, and my Maverick has his own ship already. Yippi!!!!!
So what is ST Wayne? Well, I guess it is a shuttle. Hmm... what is a shuttle? a colony ship that bring people from earth to colonies?

And WOW again, I'm about to get a troop transport. Christopher will be very very busy transporting troops I guess.

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

The shuttle is the Lexington II class transport shuttle, which are for ferrying dignitaries.  I.e., moving politicians around after elections when nothing else needs to be moved with them. 

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

2057 ANNUAL REPORT

The major news of 2057 was that, beginning in the first months of the year, civilian shipping picked up steam again.  Just as mysterious as its decline was its sudden reemergence, with the reasons for the increased activity completely unknown.  Regardless, infrastructure espescially and also colonists flowed again all year long, with the resurgent profitability of intra-system trade highlighted by a new firm, Abair Shipping, which began operations in May.  

SPACE’s investment in Venus was completed this year, with another 35 units of infrastructure taking the planet to 100k supported population.  Mercury is next on the hit list, and will take a few more years before we head out to the jovian moons.  

Civilian expansion also continued at record pace on Sedna.   An incredible five mining complexes were added, doubling its output to over a kiloton of duranium!  Sedna now approaches 30% of our total intake on that score.  

Otherwhise, the year was filled with a lot of personnel shuffling, new appointments, and a number of new research projects completed and ships built.  It was a busy year, but a lot of minor things getting done, nothing of dramatic importance other than the developments in civilian activity.   No new word yet from the Intrepid, which has been out of contact for a year and a half in Epsilon Eridani and is expected to return next summer at the lastest due to mission time requirements for maintenance.  

Commissioned Officers

Administrative assignments are usually blah, but it was worth noting that Titan was handed out to Delois Woznicki.  At 29, she has emerged as the top potential rival(really, only potential rival) to director Duling, but lacks the experience to manage a settlement of Earth’s size.  Titan is her first full-fledged colony, having handled the important mining outpost on the comet Machholz with excellent results for the past few years.  It will be interesting to see how she performs there.  

Meanwhile, Alberto Eighmy has been demoted to the comet Comas Sola, an important position but generally below someone of his stature, and Sonny Dean will be stationed at the moderately-important comet Wolf-Harrington – a return to his most recent assignment prior to Venus.  Unless their health improves, both men are finished as contenders for the directorship.

Elsewhere, Cruz Luscombe gets his first assignment(comet Borrelly).  On the other end of the scale, for all of Derek Latch’s recent improvements, he will be unemployed due to poor health, a major setback for a promising career.  The navy has a switch at their top ship command, with the more experienced Anton Ericson taking over for Dan Spengler on the Hyperion.  It seems Spengler can’t catch a break.  

January 16 – Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Blair has been promoted to Commander!  As new commands have not yet been reassigned pending the return of various ships from outsystem activities, his lot is much improved by this.  Instead of a troop transport, he’ll be among the freighter commanders for this next tour.  The meteoric Mitchell Feeser is much higher rated, but he hasn’t completed his mandatory year of service yet, and so Blair as the #2 gets the nod.  

Early March – 13 officers are dismissed, 11 from the navy.  With expanding opportunities, new ships, etc. this is expected to be the last culling of this size, though a few more may go in a year or two.  

Early April – Captain Lucas Marini, longtime Public Affairs officer at Fleet HQ, has been killed in an accident. Anton Ericson’s tour aboard the Hyperion is short indeed, and a shuffling of commands is now done as Dan Spengler retakes the post there.  Ericson is just 35, a full decade younger than any of the other four current captains.  

August -- Shuffling of commands due to new ships, promotions etc. sends Christopher Blair to the Amerigo Vespucci(Essex II-class geological survey vessel).  It’s a temporary reassignment, but a nice opportunity.  

Late August– Dr. Rosa Suda is ready for work, and is twice the expert in Missiles & Kinetic Weapons(MK) that any of our current researchers are.   She’s a welcome addition and will have priority in any new tasks in that field.

Mid-September – More shuffling occurs, and a couple of officers are shipped out to Saturn so that more experienced commanders can return to earth.  Always on the move it seems, Christopher Blair is one of them.  

Research & Development

** January 7 – Small Jump Gate Construction Module research is complete(Dr. Shanon Patteson).  She starts work on increasing factory output – she’ll need help with that down the road, as the initial completion date is more than 12 years out.  

** January 14 – Santo Makar’s team presents it’s report, showing an increase in fuel efficiency techniques(0.7 liters per EPH).  Instead of adding the space to Patteson’s work, as would normally be sop, as our top propulsion scientist he begins work on nuclear pulse engines, the next generation of baseline engine technology.  The nuclear pulse concept involves a much more efficiently managed reaction, resulting in less wasted energy.  

** March 13 – Brandon Grimmett’s team has completed research into Plasma Carronade technology.  His team begins work on Mobile Infantry Battalion, the next progression of ground combat units which will provide the first TN-based offensive capability to our armies.  

** March 30 – Ground Unit Strength research is finished.  Each man in the new units is now as effective as approximately 14 were pre-TN technology.  

** April 2 – Cedric Wormack’s team completes work on general increases in ground unit combat strength.  He gets to work next on a big project, Improved Command and Control.  This is an investigation into the systems and logistical techniques needed to build another level of administrative authority for SPACE – Sector Command.  Such a structure would provide political and administrative oversight of all worlds and outposts in a system, and the office of the director would be moved to this location.  

This is now a third project in desperate need of additional lab space.  Once some of the less elite scientists finish their current projects, that shift will occur.  

** June 13 – Alpha Shields completed(Dr. Edward Groat).  Improved Construction Rate gets the lab space.  

** June 23 – Microwave Focal Size(Everette Snuggs) is completed.  The space goes to Improved Command and Control(Cedrick Wormack).  

Earth

February – A third garrison battalion unit is trained on earth, and some of the existing infantry divisions are converted into cadres(personnel and equipment used as a starting point to reduce the cost of new unit training).  The Armour divisions will remain to give earth’s ground forces a limited offensive capability.  For our garrison battalions, this effectively reduces cost and training time to just a third of what it was originally.  

March 20 – With the completion of the latest pair of shuttle tranports at the Vickers-Armstrong Shipyard, refitting all of the Lexingtons to the new II(d) standard with double the fuel and duranium exteriors instead of the heavier conventional materials begins.  It’s cheaper than building a new ship, but only by about a third.  Each set of refits will take a little over three months, putting the total time of all ten vessels at a little shy of a year and a half.  

April 27 – A third pair of Perry fuel harvesters are finished an en route to Saturn.  

June 7 – The first two Lexington II-d refits are completedeted.  

Mid-July – The refit of the Apollo begins, the first of the freighters to undergo the process.  It’s expected to take nearly six months each.  

September – With the completion of the third and final Pioneer-class vessel, a new ship is designed by the engineers – the Belknap-class command shuttle.  

Size: 2.0 kt
Crew: 50
Speed: 1250 km/s
Range 79.1b km

This is the first ship to have the classified module known as the ‘flag bridge’, mobile command and control for multiple task forces.  Logistically, it is a requirement for SPACE to be able to effectively coordinate efforts in another system, as anything close to real-time communication with Fleet HQ is not possible.  Retooling efforts begin at Fleet HQ immediately, and  construction of the first ship is expected to begin before the end of the year.  

September 18 – The JSC Excelsior is completed, and Chong Vaugh named as the CO.  

November 5 -- Another round of refits for Lexington II-d are completed.  

Mid-November – Voliva launches the first civilian fuel harvester.  Looks like they are intending to steal some of the Saturn fuel!  The bastards!  Of course, there’s plenty for everyone, but still – the bastards!!  However, it seems they are headed for the more accessible but also more distant and less plentiful concentrations in the atmosphere of Uranus.  

December 1 –  Maintenance facility expansion is completed on Earth, and the Hyperion begins an overhaul.  With capacity now available for it, Duling orders the first expansion of Earth’s industrial production in decades.  The rule of thirds is reinstigated: a third of capacity goes to new research labs, a third to general-purpose, and a third to addressing industrial needs, either in terms of mine conversions or factory conversions. Most will still go to the mines, but the order is given to gradually convert 53 more conventional industry to construction factories.  Total economic conversion is still just under 75% complete, and this will up that number to 80% over the new few years under the current plan.  

December 18 – Retooling is finished and the first Belknap-class command ship begun at Wartsila.  

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

I dont see why he is so inefficient, he did boost his mining skill REAL fast.

By inefficient, I refer only to his administration rating.  Everybody else has at least a 2.  Everybody else.  So that's part of the reason he hasn't gotten a better assignment.  There are 1.8 automines(the least anywhere, hence my comments about it) and a very small amount of duranium(a few hundred tons, which is why it hasn't gotten more investment).  The most interesting thing about it by far is that it is a major long-term source of neutronium(almost 170kt at 0.7), and there is also a lot of corbomite and lesser amounts of gallicite, boronide, and vendarite, none of which we particularly care all that much for at the moment.

Available crew is on the Teams/Academy tab of Population & Production.  It is a total non-issue, at least so far, in my experience.