From the Ashes - part 27

[Haji (OP)]

1st July 2406

   All major Hegemony warships have been upgraded to the newest engine standards. The Vigilant and Unyielding carrier groups have finished their training and are now protecting the Untama system, the Resolute, Dragon, Defiant and Victory groups are undergoing training near Poseidon, in the inner Sanctuary system, Valiant, Vanguard and Vengeance serve as a combat ready reserve, despite their lack of training while Invincible and Defender await their new fighters. As production of those will take around two years, no new carriers will be laid down in that time, as there is little point in having them empty and the government believes older fighters are simply too slow to be useful. This of course leaves other yards, producing escorts, which can be utilised.
   There is however a number of issues which have to be addressed before those can be put to work. During the long upgrade period new fire controls, sensor and armour have been developed, but those have not been included to speed up the refit process. Nonetheless this means new warships have to be designed to take advantage of those and for the most part it will be a very simple process since the existing vessels will be used as a template. Two important decisions  have to be made however.
   The first issue is with the energy armament as it has not improved at all. While this is somewhat disappointing, the practical problem lies with particle beams which are primary short range weapons of the Hegemony warships but will now be unable to fully utilise the range of their fire controls, being able to target enemies three hundred and eighty four thousand kilometres away, but being able to reach only three hundred and twenty thousand kilometres away. The opinions on what to do are very divided as one side wants to replace those will lasers, while the other group points out the particle beams have better damage at long ranges, an important consideration for a Navy which is consistently slower than its enemies and the new devices will at least improve the hit probabilities at long range.
   The second issue is with the anti-missile sensors and fire controls. After their defeat during the Battle of ES-09 the Hegemony has decided to improve those by making them larger. As this would seriously decrease the space for weapons, especially on the frigates, they have put the large and very capable sensors on command cruisers and new construction carriers while leaving the escorts themselves with less capable ones for emergencies. As such when working in groups the various vessels could intercept incoming ordnance from six million and six hundred thousand kilometres away, but if they had to fight on their own that range would be cut in half.
   Thanks to new technologies the ranges would be increased to over eleven million kilometres, but would likely require a refit of the existing command cruisers, could produce smaller devices that would fit on all vessels, even frigates, and would still have range of over five and a half million kilometres, or could produce sensors and fire controls that would together be only slightly larger than the current ones, could be put on all warships and would result in detection and interception chances in excess of eight million kilometres.
   The situation is further complicated by other factions which have different ideas about the yards. One part, located mostly in the Congress, wants to suspend further construction until new carriers are laid down, as in their opinion there is little point to build escorts with nothing to escort. That faction is universally opposed by the Navy which point out that it's better to have more warships than less warships, assuming the economy holds and for the past couple of years there have been no issues on that front.
   Another faction is concerned with the ability of the Hegemony to launch an assault on a defended jump point. The Normandy class command cruisers were supposed to deal with the issue somewhat, but as the group points out there are exactly eighteen of them in the whole fleet and only one is supposed to be attached to each carrier group which may make it very difficult to concentrate enough of them for a strike, as was the case with the invasion of the Untama system. In addition those vessels are very valuable parts of the groups due to their sensors. What the officers want to do is to create a number of dedicated jump leaders equipped with the best jump drives available and heavy armour to lead future strikes while preserving the Normandies. Unfortunately this would require the use of the only shipyard capable of building cruiser sized vessel and the Navy wants more ships of that size
   The arguments between various factions ended up being ferocious with no compromise in sight, making the Hegemon to step in. He proclaimed that a dedicated assault vessels are a very good idea, but one that simply will not work until better jump drives are available. More importantly however the yards will not sit idle; the various frigates, destroyers and cruisers may be primarily just an escort for the carriers, but those last two types of ships are truly multi-role designs that can perform tasks on their own so there is really no good reason to restrict production.
   As for the new designs, those will use a mix of lasers and particle beams and use standardized anti-missile sensors and fire controls capable of reaching targets in excess of eight million kilometres and representing the middle ground of the discussion. As the Hegemon points out the very large sensors and fire controls were adopted out of desperation which really does not become the Navy and while it is true that the Commune is likely still more advanced, the time has come to move back to more confident designs which have unified detection and targeting ranges.
   As most of the work was already done the three escort designs were completed quickly. A new version of the Invincible class carrier with better sensors and armour has also been developed as there should be more than enough time to upgrade the single existing vessel. Similarly the bombers have also received an upgrade but it resulted in only slight increase of fire control ranges. New command cruisers have not been designed yet as those won't be laid down for quite some time which leaves only the Da Yu class.
   The Da Yu class missile destroyer have been developed after the first war with the Commune and was a response to the complete destruction of the carrier Defiant (the first one) due to a missile strike by undetected gunboats operating alone. The Da Yus were supposed to detect and engage them before they could fire, using bulky detection and fire control system coupled with repeatable launchers and very deep magazines. A single missile destroyer could fire only twenty missiles at once but carried enough ammunition for nineteen salvoes. Assuming ten shipkillers were needed to kill a single gunboat – and likely less would be needed – thirty eight could be killed by a single Da Yu. Unfortunately if the enemy had any escorts, such light would be insufficient to do anything.
   By now each and every carrier group has two or three of them and the new technologies could significantly reduce the size of sensors and fire controls. For that matter the Normandy class command cruisers could detect one thousand tonne gunboats from over a billion kilometres away, allowing the potential successor of the Da Yu to dispense with sensors altogether. However many feel the warships are for all instances and purposes useless as the escort groups continued to grow and the passive defences of the carriers became thicker and thicker. Overall most officers feel wasting a shipyard with three slipways of twenty thousand tonnes to build the missile destroyers is completely pointless especially since the Commune appears to be moving towards larger vessels and so far no other power has shown any use of missile armed gunboats. The Hegemon agrees and also allows the shipyard to switch to a construction of limited number of destroyer sized jump ships which will lead other similarly sized vessels during jump point assaults. This of course will not address the concerns of those who worry the Hegemony has insufficient forces for such a task, but it will certainly make things easier even though cruisers will be too large to be escorted by those ships.

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X-237 Athens class Frigate    10 000 tons     275 Crew     3419.5 BP      TCS 200  TH 1600  EM 0
8000 km/s     Armour 6-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 36/36/0/0     Damage Control Rating 7     PPV 45.56
Maint Life 2.46 Years     MSP 1496    AFR 114%    IFR 1.6%    1YR 341    5YR 5121    Max Repair 800 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 596   

Marlin -Kibaki Naval Inertial Fusion Drive (1)    Power 1600    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 1600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 800 000 Litres    Range 72.0 billion km   (104 days at full power)

Gothe Systems 300mm Spinal Mounted Far UV Laser (1)    Range 384 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 24-6     RM 5    ROF 20        24 24 24 24 24 20 17 15 13 12
Twin Luseno-Nderitu Gauss Cannon Turret (1x10)    Range 40 000km     TS: 40000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Busch Design Bureau Point Defence Fire Control (1)    Max Range: 96 000 km   TS: 40000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Pak-Lacourse Long Range Beam Fire Control (1)    Max Range: 384 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Mcquerry-Cassin Tokamak Fusion Reactor Technology (1)     Total Power Output 8    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Karalis-Nallie Advanced Anti-Missile Launcher (20)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 5
Buckwalter-Donath Anti-Missile Fire Control (2)     Range 77.8m km    Resolution 1
Patriot E (596)  Speed: 124 800 km/s   End: 1.3m    Range: 10.1m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 1622/973/486

Buckwalter-Donath Missile Detection System (1)     GPS 432     Range 77.8m km    MCR 8.5m km    Resolution 1
Chen Manufacturing Thermal Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km
Chen Manufacturing EM Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km

Compact ECCM-3 (1)         Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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X-238 Kane class Destroyer    20 000 tons     503 Crew     6606.5 BP      TCS 400  TH 3200  EM 0
8000 km/s     Armour 10-65     Shields 0-0     Sensors 36/36/0/0     Damage Control Rating 9     PPV 152.12
Maint Life 1.54 Years     MSP 1858    AFR 355%    IFR 4.9%    1YR 898    5YR 13463    Max Repair 800 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 708   

Marlin -Kibaki Naval Inertial Fusion Drive (2)    Power 1600    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 1600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1 250 000 Litres    Range 56.3 billion km   (81 days at full power)

Gothe Systems 300mm Spinal Mounted Far UV Laser (1)    Range 384 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 24-6     RM 5    ROF 20        24 24 24 24 24 20 17 15 13 12
Robben Weapon Systems 200mm Ultraviolet Laser (2)    Range 384 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 10-6     RM 5    ROF 10        10 10 10 10 10 8 7 6 5 5
Gothe Systems Improved Particle Beam (2)    Range 320 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 22-6    ROF 20        9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9
Twin Luseno-Nderitu Gauss Cannon Turret (2x10)    Range 40 000km     TS: 40000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Busch Design Bureau Point Defence Fire Control (2)    Max Range: 96 000 km   TS: 40000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Pak-Lacourse Long Range Beam Fire Control (1)    Max Range: 384 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Roth-Goldwasser Advanced Fusion Power Plant (3)     Total Power Output 36    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Karalis-Nallie Advanced Anti-Missile Launcher (20)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 5
Eshleman-Burrell Design Bureau Box Launcher (100)    Missile Size 4    Hangar Reload 30 minutes    MF Reload 5 hours
Buckwalter-Donath Anti-Missile Fire Control (2)     Range 77.8m km    Resolution 1
Lee-Liang Missile Fire Control (4)     Range 231.8m km    Resolution 80
Tomahawk E (100)  Speed: 88 000 km/s   End: 13.5m    Range: 71.3m km   WH: 18    Size: 4    TH: 293/176/88
Patriot E (308)  Speed: 124 800 km/s   End: 1.3m    Range: 10.1m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 1622/973/486

Lee-Liang Small Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 11520     Range 231.8m km    Resolution 80
Buckwalter-Donath Missile Detection System (1)     GPS 432     Range 77.8m km    MCR 8.5m km    Resolution 1
Chen Manufacturing Thermal Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km
Chen Manufacturing EM Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km

ECCM-4 (4)         Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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X-239 Xihe class Cruiser    30 000 tons     726 Crew     9500.5 BP      TCS 600  TH 4800  EM 0
8000 km/s     Armour 12-86     Shields 0-0     Sensors 36/36/0/0     Damage Control Rating 19     PPV 214.68
Maint Life 2.34 Years     MSP 3760    AFR 378%    IFR 5.3%    1YR 934    5YR 14014    Max Repair 800 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 1347   

Marlin -Kibaki Naval Inertial Fusion Drive (3)    Power 1600    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 1600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 2 050 000 Litres    Range 61.5 billion km   (88 days at full power)

Gothe Systems 300mm Spinal Mounted Far UV Laser (1)    Range 384 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 24-6     RM 5    ROF 20        24 24 24 24 24 20 17 15 13 12
Robben Weapon Systems 200mm Ultraviolet Laser (2)    Range 384 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 10-6     RM 5    ROF 10        10 10 10 10 10 8 7 6 5 5
Gothe Systems Improved Particle Beam (3)    Range 320 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 22-6    ROF 20        9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9
Twin Luseno-Nderitu Gauss Cannon Turret (3x10)    Range 40 000km     TS: 40000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pak-Lacourse Long Range Beam Fire Control (2)    Max Range: 384 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Busch Design Bureau Point Defence Fire Control (3)    Max Range: 96 000 km   TS: 40000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Roth-Goldwasser Advanced Fusion Power Plant (3)     Total Power Output 36    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Eshleman-Burrell Design Bureau Box Launcher (150)    Missile Size 4    Hangar Reload 30 minutes    MF Reload 5 hours
Karalis-Nallie Advanced Anti-Missile Launcher (27)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 5
Buckwalter-Donath Anti-Missile Fire Control (2)     Range 77.8m km    Resolution 1
Lee-Liang Missile Fire Control (6)     Range 231.8m km    Resolution 80
Tomahawk E (150)  Speed: 88 000 km/s   End: 13.5m    Range: 71.3m km   WH: 18    Size: 4    TH: 293/176/88
Patriot E (747)  Speed: 124 800 km/s   End: 1.3m    Range: 10.1m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 1622/973/486

Lee-Liang Small Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 11520     Range 231.8m km    Resolution 80
Buckwalter-Donath Missile Detection System (1)     GPS 432     Range 77.8m km    MCR 8.5m km    Resolution 1
Chen Manufacturing Thermal Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km
Chen Manufacturing EM Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km

ECCM-4 (6)         Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

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X-240 Omar Bradley class Jump Destroyer    20 000 tons     582 Crew     6516 BP      TCS 400  TH 3200  EM 0
8000 km/s    JR 8-1500     Armour 14-65     Shields 0-0     Sensors 144/144/0/0     Damage Control Rating 20     PPV 33
Maint Life 3.2 Years     MSP 4072    AFR 160%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 599    5YR 8991    Max Repair 800 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 1   

Giese Design Bureau Destroyer Sized Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 20400 tons    Distance 1500k km     Squadron Size 8
Marlin -Kibaki Naval Inertial Fusion Drive (2)    Power 1600    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 1600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1 540 000 Litres    Range 69.3 billion km   (100 days at full power)

Gothe Systems 300mm Spinal Mounted Far UV Laser (1)    Range 384 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 24-6     RM 5    ROF 20        24 24 24 24 24 20 17 15 13 12
Robben Weapon Systems 200mm Ultraviolet Laser (4)    Range 384 000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 10-6     RM 5    ROF 10        10 10 10 10 10 8 7 6 5 5
Phalanx CIWS Mk3 (4x10)    Range 1000 km     TS: 40000 km/s     ROF 5       Base 50% To Hit
Pak-Lacourse Long Range Beam Fire Control (1)    Max Range: 384 000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Roth-Goldwasser Advanced Fusion Power Plant (3)     Total Power Output 36    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Zhu-Cheng Systems Long Range Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 57600     Range 1 159.2m km    Resolution 80
Zou Manufacturing Long Range Missile Detection System (1)     GPS 576     Range 103.7m km    MCR 11.3m km    Resolution 1
Chen Systems Medium Thermal Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 144     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  144m km
Chen Manufacturing Thermal Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km
Chen Manufacturing EM Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km
Chen Systems Medium EM Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 144     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  144m km

ECM 40

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
28th September 2406

   The exploration ship James Watt, was heading back towards Hegemony space due to low fuel when it detected an unknown ship sitting right on the jump point. The survey of Albuquerque system, where the ship was located, was almost complete with two other jump points found already. All three had gates on them, but as those were not uncommon, leftovers of unknown number of other civilizations predating humans, the crew found this only slightly curious.
   The vessel, massing twenty nine thousand and four hundred tonnes, begun hailing Watt a couple of hours later. As no active emissions were detected it likely saw humans own gravitic sensor on passive and begun responding. The captain of the ship did toy with the idea of staying in deep space to not give away the preserve of the humans but the alien ship was in what could be best described as a blockading position and the presence of the gates argued the unknowns were active in this system for some time. It was entirely possible they already knew about humans from previous passive observations.
   Not wanting to give the aliens even more information the Watt slid close to the jump point while continuing communication attempts and sending a report towards the capital.

30th September 2406

   As the Albuquerque system is over forty six billion kilometres from Sanctuary it took nearly two days for the Hegemony government to learn of the events there. Their first order of business is to secure their territorial integrity, which means putting military presence into system they believe to be rightfully theirs. As it happens the contact system is located at the end of a very long chain of stars with practically no branches and due to rather slow expansion of the colonies, there are none there. To make matters worse the carrier groups have enough fuel to reach the system, but only barely and the tankers which were supposed to be able to keep up with them have never been upgraded. Last but not least the presence of the jump gates, now attributed to this new race argues their survey of the system is long done and they may have been operating closer to New Earth without anyone noticing.
   As the aliens appear to be talking and they would need to survey a lot of systems to reach anything important, neither the government nor the Navy is prepared to overreact at this point. Nonetheless the three “combat ready” carrier groups Valiant, Vanguard and Vengeance will be sent to the Pensacola system, three jumps from Albuquerque. The quaternary possesses no less than nine reasonable candidates for colonisation and is the absolute minimum of where the Hegemony is willing to draw the border. Tankers will follow as rapidly as possible to establish fuel stockpile and as soon as that is done one of the carrier groups will begin systematic sweep of the next systems in chain to look for the alien presence. A colony will be established as rapidly as possible to support a full naval base.

4th October 2406

   For a long time now there was a significant discussion about establishing new Takaran colonies within the Hegemony territory. As the issue actually led to some demonstrations, especially among the territories most resistant to the occupation, the government was unwilling to grant such requests in order to not appear weak. However this has to be rethought in light of recent events as the primary long term of the Hegemony is to create a unified front against hostile, genocidal species, primarily the Destroyers. As such as soon as negotiations are possible they intend to try and initiate cooperation with the newly discovered species, preferably one that will lead to a very close military alliance and preferably an amalgamation. But even though the Takaran occupation was due to the aggression of that species and the human believe everything they did was completely justified, they are still worried how the issue may be seen by this new race. As the Hegemony intended to allow Takaran colonisation sooner or later due to the fact they had different environmental tolerances opening many more planets to colonisation, the debate is now quickly drawn to a close and the colonisation rights are granted.
   The first two targets will be the second planet of the Cleveland system and the fifth planet orbiting the secondary component of the Memphis system. Both of those bodies are too cold for humans and the former also have unbreathable atmosphere, but both are readily habitable for Takarans. In addition the government has decided to move some industry to Hamha, a sparsely populated planet in the Untama system, colonised before the war by political dissidents. The planet was actually the first body to fully integrate itself into the larger Hegemony political structure, but due to the strategy of concentrated industry none was moved there, which was one of the reason for the aliens seeing themselves as second class citizens. Now the planet will finally be terraformed to Takaran standards.

9th October 2406

   The recent government decision to grant colonisation support to the Takaran people has reassured many of them. Dozens of territories which were already on the cusp of having full rights granted now received them as planned demonstrations have been called off and even the most problematic portions of the planet have become essentially pacified with most of the unrest being vocal in nature. Coupled with the atmospheric ash and radiation being gone for some time now the planet is as productive as any other world in the Hegemony and with the political integration accelerating Untama should soon become a full and proper part of the nation.

14th October 2406
   
   The Commune government receives news of an anomaly in the system of ES – 230 GH12. The star was first discovered eighteen months earlier and no such activity has been detected but it wasn't until now that a follow up survey has been sent.
   The system is so far away from the nearest colony that many argue is should be left alone. However the nation survived this long by being very active when dealing with threats and to make matter worse, a star mere three jumps away connects to the Republic, which may be very unhappy if any aliens attack it due to Commune negligence. Fortunately while ES – 230 is not connected to the jump gate network yet, the next star is, so colonisation can begin quite quickly if need be but it is currently unknown when that will be.
   Due to ammunition issues fifteen years earlier the nation had to significantly increase production. Coupled with ever expanding industry and shipbuilding this led to financial issues, which had to be resolved. Unfortunately this meant expansion of the financial sector which halted the growth of the mining sector and consumed so much manpower Commune had to switch to much more expensive automated mines. As a result the gallicite stockpiles begun shrinking and while the production didn't have to be halted huge amounts of new equipment had to be built and transported. By now the issue, while far from resolved is at least stable but with very low stockpiles and economy that is very finely balanced. What that means in practical terms is that very little was left for colonial expansion and despite possessing six hundred and twenty freighters, over half of which can travel at over seven thousand kilometres per second, none are available, there are enough tasks to keep them busy for years and new are being constructed only when finances and gallicite allow, as military is given priority on those. As a result finding resources to quickly colonise and industrialise a new naval base twelve jumps and thirty seven billion kilometres from the capital system – forty three billion from the Valhall itself – may be very difficult.
   Because of all of this the government intends to send the Fifteenth Destroyer Squadron to the system, but merely to keep an eye on it. Aside from the destroyer leader, which is as fast as any new ship but uses older, less fuel efficient engines, all the destroyers and frigates are of the newest construction, comprising the recently upgraded Beowulf II and Yamanaka II classes. As soon as other formations are upgraded, they will be sent forward as well and once sufficient forces are available some spare freight will be found one way or another to establish a proper naval base in the system. In the meantime the Force will have orders to yield the star if necessary and possibly others although the nearest formation – the Fourth Fleet based on Falsterbo in the Phoenicia system – will be ordered to assist if necessary to prevent the aliens from reaching Republican space. Home Fleet will also be available of course.

4th November 2306

   One million Commune colonists lands on ES – 220 AH9 IV. What is unusual about this particular operation is that the colonists did not arrive from the Valhallan habitats but from the Sudets system.
   The planets of Wieliczka, Peles and Zuiderzee have a total population of nearly fourteen hundred million but all of them are about the size of Mars, have no surface water and are tidally locked to their star. This still leaves them with significant habitable area so they are not overpopulated and the advanced technology and the ability to get water from other sources, like comets, means those worlds are still comfortable places to live. More importantly however most of the populations have grown on those planets so for them the situation is perfectly normal. Even so there are small if loud minorities preferring to live on a more comfortable planet and a small portion of fourteen hundred million still adds to huge absolute numbers. In the end as soon as shipping became available the government had to make at least some concessions so more colony convoys will be servicing those three worlds now. Even so the number of emigrants should be small enough that those colonies, which have large and important industries, will continue to grow.
   Of course those people could be sent to already existing settled bodies, with Eden and Emesh being the most inviting as they had lush, already existing biospheres. However the former is already too large and too inviting a target for a nation that tries to spread out and the latter is located in a dead end system in Ayuthaya sector, very close to the capital. Other worlds, now terraformed and comfortable for humans could also be reached but in the end as the emigrants wanted primarily a better place to live, they would refuse transport to many of those places. In the end the government has decided to take this opportunity and establish a new large colony on a readily habitable planet. Few of those have been found and many had issues, like tidal lock or long day-nigh cycle, with the ES – 220 AH9 IV being the most inviting destination.
   The planet is larger than Earth with somewhat short day lasting eighteen hours and have the water coverage is only seven percent but that still means the single ocean is half the size of the old Atlantic with hundreds of rivers flowing into it creating a lush area larger than the old Europe. Interestingly the star is far too young to develop such an advanced biosphere and most research on the planet shows the entire environment is only around seventeen hundred thousand years old, arguing the world is an old terraforming project of some race, but no sign of those theoretical aliens have been found. The system itself is located two jumps from Herjofsnes and has a total of five jump points although four of them are only now about to be surveyed. Overall the system should be a fairly important junction in the future.
   The star is named Legatum which means “legacy” in Latin. The planet is named Viridi Oculos which means “Green Eye” due to the lush area forming a single, roughly circular area on the planet around a blue sea, making it look like a giant eyeball from space.

19th November 2406

   The long upgrade programme of the Republican warships is finally complete. From now on new ones will be laid down.

23rd November 2406

   The three Hegemony carrier groups arrive in Pensacola but some of their warships are down to less than thirty percent fuel.

25th November 2406

   The basic communication with the alien race found in Albuquerque has been established. They represent the Kinharan Confederation, with Kinhara being apparently the name of the race. The Confederation itself seems to be similar to the old United Nations on Earth but the fact that the vessel claims to represent it seems to imply it has more power or at least prestige.
   As a sign of good will the Hegemony has warned them about the various dangerous alien species, but it seems the have already encountered the Spectres, which may explain the power of the central government as someone had to coordinate the various militaries.
   With that the actual exchange of information and negotiations can begin but both sides appear to be wary, waiting for the other side show some good will first. Whether this means the aliens have some nefarious purposes or are merely as careful as the humans remains to be seen.

3rd January 2407

   James Watt, still engaged in negotiations in the Albuquerque system detects a small incoming ship. The Hegemony vessel and the Kinharan cruiser which was first detected months ago are both staying near the jump point to Armillo, the next system in the chain leading towards Sanctuary. The humans protest the development but as the aliens point out so far no borders have been agreed upon.
   The negotiations have been going very slowly. From what little information was actually exchanged both nations had very unpleasant dealings with other species, resulting in significant amount of caution. The humans focused on trying to gain some sort of cooperation against those other species as a prelude to full scale alliance, but the Kinharans are unwilling to even consider something like this until borders have been agreed upon.
   The way the Commune and the Republic handled similar issues was by comparing the dates of discovery and awarding a system to the first power to enter it. It was a very simple yet fair solution but unfortunately it required trust as the date could be easily falsified. As a result it was not used in those particular negotiations.
   The human position is that they own every system they have discovered which included Albuquerque. The aliens were almost certainly first here, and the Hegemony is more than willing to give up the system and even the next one in chain, but they are trying to use that as a leverage rather than giving it away for free. Unfortunately the Kinharans are unwilling to entertain any deals until the borders are secured and they are absolutely adamant that Albuquerque belongs to them. Aside from their claim they found it first – which could be false – they also point out they were the first ones to develop the system by constructing gates on all the jump points.
   As the negotiators try to stop the survey ship from proceeding, possibly using its transit as a leverage for concessions, the officers study the vessel in as much detail as possible. It is very small, only fifteen hundred tonnes and moves at five thousand kilometres per second. This is the first time any Confederate ship was seen under thrust and the speed indicate early to mid fusion drives, significantly behind the humans, although if it is an exploration vessel it may have sacrificed power for fuel efficiency.
   The small size explains why the aliens were the first one detecting humans and why they had easy time setting up their ship on the jump point, and possibly others as well. But as the data is studied in more detail the intelligence officers note that the speed, mass and thermal signature do not add up. The ship is emitting two hundred and forty megawatts of power as a waste heat but a ship this small cruising this slow should emit only one hundred and fifty megawatts of power. The consensus among the crew is that the Kinharan must be using stealth to limit the sensor return signature at the very least and they may also be using insulated engines, which could mean the detected ship is actually several times, or more, the size. Since those ships were supposed to operate in a known threat environment it would definitely make them better at not only exploring, but also spotting potential alien threats.
   This makes the negotiators even more unhappy with allowing the ship to transit, as it's unknown what kind of information it can get, but nothing can be done. Watt doesn't have any weapons so even a warning shot is out of the question. For now the Confederation will by necessity allowed to further explore Hegemony space.

9th January 2407

   The Dragon, Defiant, Resolute and Victory carrier groups have completed their training. While it would make sense to send them to Pensacola to relief the Hegemony forces currently there, the ships and crews have been pushed hard to waste as little time as possible. Despite being designed for only a year in deep space the warships have spend fifteen months on their training resulting in serious discipline problems and an ever increasing number of equipment failures. The four groups simply must be given an overhaul and shore leave.

29th January 2407

   Over a hundred million litres of fuel has been delivered to Kensington in the Pensacola system which will serve as a future Hegemony naval base in case of conflict with the Confederation. The Valiant carrier group, now fully refuelled, is ordered to check the Kinharan activity in the next systems in the chain, Rochester and Amarillo as well as the Albuquerque itself where the negotiations are ongoing.
   So far the international response to the discovery of this new race has been subdued. On the one hand every race with whom the humans made contact has proven to be hostile to a lesser or grater extent. On the other hand due to Hegemony reputation there are many who doubt the war with the Kingdom begun as claimed. Overall there is a sense of fatalism among the populations of other nations, most of whom believe the situation will explode into another war with either side being a potential attacker.
   The governments itself are mostly quite however. Certain segments of the Republican establishment asked for their observers to be present for negotiations, but those were steadfastly refused. The Commune has made basically no comments aside from the usual platitudes most likely because they are very focused on the Traveller threat and as such would be unable to act even if an opening presented itself.

8th February 2407

   One of the stealth survey ships was detected in Rochester. The Valiant carrier group warned the Confederate vessel that the next system in chain, Pensacola, is a site of a developing Hegemony colony and while they are free to enter the system to confirm this, they will not be permitted any operations within it. One of the destroyers from the Vanguard carrier group is ordered to picket the jump point to ensure the Kinharans do as they were told.

10th February 2407

   The establishment of the naval base in Kensington has proven to be a more problematic process than hoped, mostly because no one expected to have to deal with something like that.
   As the Hegemony has a doctrine of concentrated forces, which are supposed to stay together so they can fight together against any danger – especially that of the massively superior Destroyers – only one naval base was ever needed, that on New Earth itself. Even when faced with combat against other powers the proximity of the front to the capital has made things easy and in most cases the wars were resolved with only a very limited numbers of battles making logistics basically irrelevant. With the distances involved however if hostilities erupt between the Hegemony and the Confederation using Sanctuary as a base of operations is simply impossible. Just the fuel costs involved would preclude that, as the two month travel time demanded on the three carrier group has required over seventy million litres of fuel. And while a billion and a half litres is stockpiled more warships moving more often could easily drain the reserves in a short order. In fact many believe the production will have to be expanded.
   Of course the government does not intend to keep numerous carrier groups in Pensacola for extended periods of time, but until the situation with Kinharans is resolved, either through diplomacy or combat, the system will have to be able to support large naval forces. Six million people together with infrastructure is already present, setting up the colony which will allow shore leave. Nonetheless the warships themselves are not supposed to stay in space for more than a year, two on the outside so for the Kensington colony to serve its function proper maintenance facilities will be needed. A lot of them.
   This is a significant problem as there are many demands on the Hegemony shipping. Even if that was not the case the construction of facilities themselves would take two and a half years, assuming the entire industry of New Earth would focus on the task and the manpower required would be in the high millions.
   Some officers proposes an alternative in the form of space stations, which are believed to be used, successfully, by the Commune. As the Hegemony has three large commercial shipyards each with ten slipways, large numbers could be built simultaneously and then moved to Pensacola. Unfortunately even if all three shipyards were to be used, each space station would be able to support ships of up to four thousand tonnes by itself. That means thirty of them could work on ships up to a hundred and twenty thousand tonnes. The most common class of carriers, the X-231C Vengeance, is two hundred and sixty thousand tonnes and the X-235C Invincible class, which is to become the new standard, is three hundred thousand tonnes. Considering how long it would take to build one station, the Hegemony commercial shipyards would be unavailable for three to four years. Worse, there are no tugs, so those would have to be constructed as well.
   However considering how long it would take to transport proper maintenance facilities and enough population to operate them, the government feels this is the best option, especially since escorts and smaller carriers could be supported by such space stations after only a year of construction or so, so the proposal will be adopted after all.

Code: [Select]

X-241 Armstrong class Space Station    101 950 tons     1010 Crew     4507 BP      TCS 2039  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     Armour 1-194     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 28    Max Repair 200 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 2   
Maintenance Modules: 20 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 4000 tons


This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Code: [Select]

X-242 Atlas class Tug    112 750 tons     1020 Crew     9052.5 BP      TCS 2255  TH 32000  EM 0
14190 km/s     Armour 1-207     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 50    Max Repair 200 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 2   
Tractor Beam     

Shroff-Kundu High Power Commercial Inertial Fusion Drive (40)    Power 800    Fuel Use 3.54%    Signature 800    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 10 250 000 Litres    Range 462.2 billion km   (377 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
   Another issue with the new colony will be ammunition supply. Early during its expansion the Hegemony Navy has built three colliers which were supposed to support carriers on extended deployments. However not only were they never needed, relegated to arming missile bases on new colonies, but the advent of larger escorts with their own box launchers meant warships had to return to a proper naval base if they were to be fully ready for combat. Because of this the colliers were essentially forgotten and never upgraded, which means there are too few and too slow to properly support an outpost as distant as Pensacola. A new, improved version has been developed, using gauss cannons for self-defence instead of lasers as well as modern engines, armour and sensors. The problem will be in the form of shipyard availability as to construct the new vessels either more of Omar Bradles or Kanes will have to be delayed. After short consideration the government decides to lay them down Tier-Spies Marine Inc. yard which has eight slipways of twenty thousand tonnes and is currently building next generation destroyers.

Code: [Select]

X-243 Tai Shan class Collier    20 000 tons     348 Crew     4805 BP      TCS 400  TH 3200  EM 0
8000 km/s     Armour 6-65     Shields 0-0     Sensors 36/36/0/0     Damage Control Rating 13     PPV 33.12
Maint Life 1.78 Years     MSP 1952    AFR 246%    IFR 3.4%    1YR 761    5YR 11409    Max Repair 800 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 3150   

Marlin -Kibaki Naval Inertial Fusion Drive (2)    Power 1600    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 1600    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 1 650 000 Litres    Range 74.3 billion km   (107 days at full power)

Twin Luseno-Nderitu Gauss Cannon Turret (2x10)    Range 40 000km     TS: 40000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Busch Design Bureau Point Defence Fire Control (2)    Max Range: 96 000 km   TS: 40000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0

Lee-Liang Small Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 11520     Range 231.8m km    Resolution 80
Buckwalter-Donath Missile Detection System (1)     GPS 432     Range 77.8m km    MCR 8.5m km    Resolution 1
Chen Manufacturing Thermal Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km
Chen Manufacturing EM Detection Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 36     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  36m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
19th February 2407

   The Valiant carrier group enters the Pensacola system. The Confederation protests the movement, claiming this to be violation of their territory, but the Hegemony considers the system to be under dispute.
   As the human negotiators try to calm down their alien counterparts, the warships head in system to take a closer look at the inner planets. An active sensor was already detected over the only reasonable candidate for settlement, the largest moon of the first planet of the system, a gas giant.

[Michael Sandy]

The Hegemony has always had that prospective problem, of what happens when they need a 2nd naval base.  Now they have the option of moving their whole maintenance base.  Long term, that is going to open up a LOT of opportunities for them, I think.  They will be able to implant a naval base, but not be strategically tied to that particular star system, because they can always move the naval base somewhere else.  A very elegant solution, and much in keeping with the Hegemonic way of doing things.

For a future empire considering the problem of a centralized production node having to support distant operations, the difficulty in building and moving a support base has to be added to ship size calculations.  Frankly, I do not understand the obsession with large carriers.  In Aurora, the ships you want to be large are those taking a beating and cycling out of range, or for concentrated power in a jump assault.  If the desire is to have a survivable landing space for fighters, integrating fighters into the rest of the fleet seems a better solution.

The Hegemony certainly shows the disadvantage of investing so heavily into a particular weapon system or ship class that they can not readily change it.

[Haji (OP)]

Frankly, I do not understand the obsession with large carriers

In universe this is because the Hegemony is a borderline dictatorship and like any dictatorship they rely heavily on propaganda and symbols. As they claim to be inheriting idealized America, but one "adapted to the reality of potential species extinction" they took the symbol of American military might at its peak (the supercarriers) and tried to translate it to space combat.

Out of universe explanation is that I wanted the three sides to be distinct in the way of naval design. I could not create a beam only fleet, as it would make no sense in the context of the Destroyers, but I could try to make the nations use missiles differently. The Commune relied on gunboats and now on small to medium sized ships, the Republic uses battleships and the Hegemony relies on carrier strikes. As for the size I never actually built ships that large so I wanted to see how they played and I hoped lower number of carriers will be easier to manage.

The Hegemony certainly shows the disadvantage of investing so heavily into a particular weapon system or ship class that they can not readily change it.

Which was actually supposed to be a blind spot for the Commune to exploit. I set Hegemony to have twice the starting Commune population at the beginning of the game (never mind the Republic) and I knew from my other games that when you start with closed habitats it takes time to get colonisation going so the Commune population would be stagnant for some time. This was supposed to end with Hegemony having inferior technology, tactics and shipbuilding practices but having a lot of brute force power with the Commune having to fight smart and fully utilising their superior technology to survive. Alas I did not take into account just how crazy population growth can be on small planets and it ended up with the Commune being only slightly inferior in numbers (at this point of the campaign they have almost as many citizens as the Hegemony have humans) while being vastly superior in technology and tactics. Which is why the two wars between Hegemony and the Commune ended up being something of a disappointment so far.

[Michael Sandy]

I wonder if the Hegemony can really survive strategic dispersal politically.  They have relied on a central location of the fleet to help ensure the safety of the capital system and the political reliability of the fleet, what happens when they start having to permanently station fleets and defenses in other important production nodes?  When those nodes and their leaders lobby for more resources and identify with their area of operation's needs before that of the capital or of the Hegemony as a whole.

The ability of the Commune to deal with the Destroyer means that 'unified Humanity' may not be necessary to deal with it.  Maybe not now, but certainly in 10 years or so, the Destroyer will be as easy to deal with as ADS ships.  So without that underlying imperative, the willingness of worlds and systems to have their security against lesser threats diminished for the sake of humanity surviving the Destroyer may not win the argument.  There will be a lot of inertia in favor of the Hegemony, for a while, but the Commune is much better at dealing with expansion at the moment.

When do resource issues start forcing the Hegemony to start moving industry closer to their mines?

[Haji (OP)]

When those nodes and their leaders lobby for more resources and identify with their area of operation's needs before that of the capital or of the Hegemony as a whole.

The thing is, such lobbying is, essentially, irrelevant. The system of Sanctuary represents 69% of the Hegemony's human population. Add to this the fact that the political system is heavily skewed towards the capital and there is no way any human populated system can muster enough power to demand anything. They could try strikes or withholding materials as a way to put pressure on New Earth but the Hegemony is only a free democracy when everything is going smoothly. Any civil disturbance, especially the kind that interferes with defence (and smoothly functioning of economy is necessary for defence) is treated as terrorism. Yes union strikes and large scale political rallies are the same as blowing up buildings as far as the Hegemony is concerned.
The only ones with enough power to potentially demand anything are the Takarans, but in this case they have the issue of being conquered aliens. They aren't exactly a second class citizens, but that's only because they don't really share colonies with humans. If they did they would likely be treated like women were in, say, 1960s. Not legally less than man but in practice always below them. And to make matters worse for them they are by now a minority in the Hegemony (they comprise 49.9% of the population).
I should also probably point out that the naval base in Kensington is not supposed to be permanent. It and the ships there were supposed to stay there only until situation with the Kinharans was resolved, either through negotiations or war. As soon as it can the Hegemony fully intends to pull their forces back to Sanctuary with the exception of purely symbolic presence in the Untama system.

Maybe not now, but certainly in 10 years or so, the Destroyer will be as easy to deal with as ADS ships.

Actually when you come down do it the Destroyer, at least the type that attacked Earth and Peter's Crossing, is already as easy to deal with as an average ADS or Specter fleet. Any Commune formation or a couple of Republican battle groups are expected to deal with it easily. The problem is no one knows what the race who built it has for its disposal and most analysts believe that the only ship they encountered was essentially a patrol boat. As an example a Hegemony exploration ship masses ten thousand tonnes. A typical carrier group masses over five hundred thousand tonnes. What the humans are afraid of isn't the next scout ship. It's the alien battle fleet.

When do resource issues start forcing the Hegemony to start moving industry closer to their mines?

It won't. Everything the Hegemony does is driven by security, not efficiency. As such they are more than willing to build huge numbers of freighters to transfer minerals over large distances in order to do whatever they can to not disperse their industry. In addition a lot of their important mining locations are actually quite close.

However I'd like to point out that the other two nations have a lot of manpower issues and the Hegemony is not far behind. New Earth and Ares are basically tapped out already, leaving Poseidon as the only planet in the capital system that can expand. For that matter they already decided to left a lot of industry on the Khamali (the alien homeworld) exactly because they couldn't man it all. And while I haven't yet fully decided how I will deal with the issue, the two most populous systems in the Hegemony (aside from the home systems) are located one and two jumps from Sanctuary respectively.

I should also probably point out that even if they were to move a lot of industry outside the home system it wouldn't have mattered. If they were to be attacked by the much faster Destroyers they fully expect to lose entire planets and they want to save as much in Sanctuary as possible for easy and rapid rebuilding. From their point of view, if they are forced to move industry away and if they are attacked they will lose the industry. But if they try to defend those systems in insufficient numbers against an opponent faster than them they will lose the industry and the ships, potentially making the rest of the Navy too weak to win resulting in them losing everything. As a result they may put symbolic forces in other systems, but it will be just that - a very symbolic support.

I should probably note that when you come down to it this sentiment is shared by all other nations. I haven't really commented on this as I haven't seen a good opportunity to do so but the Commune has issued standing orders to its fleet commanders to abandon systems to total destruction rather than risk losing ships for no return. In case of a serious attack their plan is to keep falling back until they can muster the majority of the Force for a counter-attack.

[Michael Sandy]

My point is that for the Hegemony to grow, it needs more worlds.  The Commune's dispersed production strategy appears to give it a significant growth advantage.  You can sub automated mines and combat engineers for population to an extent, but not for research labs and shipyards.  For it to change its strategy to compete with the Commune would cause it precisely the political problems it has been structured to avoid.

So I wonder what will happen if the needs of competing with the Commune cause it to re-examine its structure and priorities.  Or what happens if they have to conclude that regardless of what they think of the Commune's social spending, they have to imitate the Commune in order to be more competitive.

[Haji (OP)]

My apologies, I have indeed missed your point. There are two answers to that, the simple and the complicated.

The simple answer is that the Hegemony won't ever think about asking this kind of question. As far as they are concerned the Commune was simply lucky enough to be in space much longer and with better technology. As the Hegemony's way of doing things is superior it's just a matter of time before they catch up and later surpass the Commune. Better yet, for them, the "acquisition" of Takarans may let them get away with it. Last but not least there is the problem of what information exactly is the Hegemony getting. Please note that all communication between the two nations is happening through only two jump points and there is no trade to transmit rumours or unauthorised transmissions. As the Commune is at the very least censoring their military data (much of which is freely available to their citizens) it not only means the Hegemony has incomplete knowledge of what is going on, they have no way to verify what they do get. This makes it very easy for them to discard any unwanted data as misinformation.

Now for the complicated answer. Before you asked I honestly never asked myself what the Hegemony would do if they believed they are falling behind the Commune. However in such a "what if" scenario I think they wouldn't really change that much. Of course I have access to all of the data, while readers know only what I write about, so let's get to the mechanics.

Decentralisation have the following advantages over centralisation - trade, civilian mining, population growth and the manpower available to the state. And while I know you asked only about the growth, I think it's best to deal with all of the above and of those trade is the least relevant. It comprises less than five percent of the Commune income and even less for the Hegemony. Good bonus but not something to drive expansion, and the Hegemony is actually in a better situation as they have three heavily inhabited planets in their home system which generate a lot of trade on their own.
As far as civilian mining goes, the Hegemony was very lucky with those and they buy huge amounts of minerals (24% of their spending goes towards mineral purchases) and those they don't buy produce a lot of taxes (13%). So as far as money and minerals go, the Commune has no advantage.
Which brings us to growth. I this case you are absolutely right, the Commune has huge advantage. In fact in several years there will be more humans living in the Commune than the Hegemony. But here's the thing. In order to counteract that the Hegemony would indeed need more planets. But that does not mean they would have to send larger part of their population outside the home system. Their current expansion has very simple rules and with few exceptions is handled entirely by civilian lines. Every planet with population below 30 million is a destination for colonists. Every planet with population between 30 and 100 million has stable population. Every planet with population above a 100 million is a source of colonists with one exception - New Earth. That planet is set as a destination. Which means that people flow towards the frontiers and towards the capital planet.
If the Hegemony decided they need to stimulate their growth they would continue along this path, but would use their own state shipping as well, creating numerous "farms" - places with high population growth which would be kept at a constant level with surplus going back to New Earth. This by the way is why the Commune has expanded so fast, they had no choice but to do so with the habitats in the home system, but the Hegemony could operate on a much larger scale. As a result there would be dozens, possibly hundreds of colonies with populations of 30-100 million all working towards enlarging the capital system.
In universe this would be justified more or less the same way it is now. The reason the Hegemony expanded at all was because they needed resources and trade, not because they wanted to. They would claim that those who remain on those exposed planets are heroes, sacrificing for the common good to keep the mines and trade going but there is no reason to risk more people than necessary so those who can should be brought back home to New Earth. This would allow them to benefit from very large population growth (possibly surpassing that of the Commune) while also continuing their strategy of keeping as much as possible in the home system.
Which leads us to the last Commune advantage - the amount of people available to the state. For those who haven't noticed, only a certain portion of a planetary population can be employed in a player built buildings. The lower the population the higher the percentage and it falls to twenty percent (on a habitable planet) around 300 million. As such ten colonies of 30 million will net more manpower than one colony of 300 million. I went and checked and seven Commune planets have reached that cap and they represent a total of 54% of the total population. So while they have more manpower than the human part of the Hegemony, they don't really have that much more and of course the Hegemony have aliens as well.

Hope that answers your question.

[Michael Sandy]

That does in fact answer a lot of questions I had.  You have thought through the philosophies of your competing nations to an impressive degree.

The growth policies of the Hegemony make a lot of sense, especially within the mechanics and politics.

It will be interesting to see it tried out in other campaigns.