Aurora 4x
C# Fiction => NuclearSlurpee's Fiction => XCom Campaign => Topic started by: nuclearslurpee on June 15, 2024, 04:36:53 PM
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(https://i.imgur.com/OyGL1Sv.png)
Project Actinide
A pair of scientific breakthroughs in mid-2033 precipitated a quantum leap in XCOM propulsion technology. In May, the well-established research group of Dr. Jimena Arias Arenas published a theoretical basis and experimental demonstration of a pulsed gravity wave drive, capable of exceeding the power output of an equivalent continuous-thermal-burn model by at least 25%. The next month, an applied research consortium headed by Dr. Mariette de Beer announced a new quality control process for refined sorium fuel, which would reduce fuel consumption of gravity wave drives by 10%. These breakthroughs, coupled with the continued expansion of the XCOM Orbital Projects Facility, provided the impetus for Project Actinide, a new initiative to explore the outer reaches of the solar system.
Project Actinide class Survey Ship 3,125 tons 73 Crew 493.8 BP TCS 62 TH 100 EM 0
1600 km/s Armour 1-19 Shields 0-0 HTK 22 Sensors 5/5/0/3 DCR 3-9 PPV 0
Maint Life 8.80 Years MSP 396 AFR 26% IFR 0.4% 1YR 9 5YR 138 Max Repair 100 MSP
Colonel Control Rating 2 BRG AUX
Intended Deployment Time: 60 months Morale Check Required
XN-100E Gravity Pulse Drive (1) Power 100.0 Fuel Use 10.06% Signature 100.0 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 266,300 Litres Range 152.4 billion km (1102 days at full power)
XN/SPN-3 Grav Pulse Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 600 Range 15.6m km Resolution 60
XN/SLQ-4 Passive EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
XN/SAY-5 Passive Infrared Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
Geological Survey Sensors (3) 3 Survey Points Per Hour
The key component was the new XN-100E Gravity Pulse Drive, developed by XCOM engineers based on Dr. Arias Arenas’ experimental prototype. This new propulsion technology enabled the survey ship to travel much faster than the preceding Discovery class, achieving 80% as much speed as a Firestorm despite the high-efficiency drive design. Amusingly, while the XN-100E was approved for service on 20 September, the same day that the XCOM Orbital Projects Facility finished expanding to the requisite size, approval of the final design would be held back for two months due to delays in finalizing and approving the sensor package for the class. Finally, on 29 November the first hull of the class, christened Daedalus, was laid down in Earth orbit. As a spaceship had never been built in orbit before, construction was estimated to take at least eighteen months.
Daedalus was launched from her slip to much acclaim on 16 May 2035, and was immediately tasked with the survey of Uranus and its moons. This mission immediately bore fruit, finding gaseous sorium in the atmosphere of Uranus, but as the quantity and accessibility of gas were both less than that of Jupiter or Saturn the find was unlikely to make any real impact on XCOM’s economic planning. Her sister ship Odyssey entered service on 21 November 2036, 18 months later, and was ordered to survey Neptune and its moons. Once again, the gas giant contained gaseous sorium in its atmosphere, albeit at similarly low concentrations as Uranus and with the lowest accessibility yet. Nevertheless, this was an impressive series of results, and later extrasolar explorers would find the gas giants in the rest of the galaxy rather disappointing by comparison. The third ship of the class, Korolev, was commissioned on 4 August 2037 and set out to survey Pluto and its moons as her first assignment. Sun Tzu, the final ship in the series, would not be commissioned until 29 May, by which time the mineral survey of the solar system was nearly finished with 98% of all significant bodies surveyed. These latter ships were named in a departure from the planned mythological theming as a concession to the national governments of Russia and China, respectively, which as rather significant Council members had expressed some concerns about feeling underrepresented in public-facing aspects of recent XCOM projects.
Project Actinide was declared complete on 10 January 2039, with all solar system bodies surveyed save for the distant dwarf planet Sedna and a few comets orbiting at distances well beyond the range of any human vessel. All substantial participants in Project Actinide, including the officers who commanded a Daedalus class survey ship as well as the scientists who had made the design possible, were commended by awarding of the Daedalus Ribbon. As a consequence of the launch and success of Project Actinide, the remaining assets from Project Skylight were retired from service, with Voyager sent to the scrapyard while Discovery remained as a museum ship. The four Daedalus class ships would remain in service, as by this time there was some anticipation of future needs.
(https://i.imgur.com/tpewfed.png)
Excerpts from the service record of Dr. Lillian Joffrion, c. early 2035. Despite being a scientist rather than a soldier, Dr. Joffrion had begun to accumulate a rather impressive collection of medals and awards.
Operation Apollo: Colonization of the Solar System
The development of the XN-100E drive in September 2034 also served to rejuvenate interest in development of large, commercial-scale transport ships which could support the extraterrestrial colonization mission. As Mitsubishi Heavy Industries continued to expand their orbital shipyard, plans were drawn up for cargo and colonist transport ship designs built to a 40,000-ton displacement limit, which could be built from the Mitsubishi shipyard interchangeably. The results were the London class cargo ships and Copenhagen class transports, each class named after the respective first commissioned vessel of the type:
London class Cargo Ship 39,354 tons 167 Crew 562.1 BP TCS 787 TH 800 EM 0
1016 km/s Armour 1-103 Shields 0-0 HTK 57 Sensors 5/5/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 8 Max Repair 50 MSP
Cargo 25,000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 5
Major Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
XN-100E Gravity Pulse Drive (8) Power 800.0 Fuel Use 10.06% Signature 100.0 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range 22.7 billion km (258 days at full power)
XN/SPN-3 Grav Pulse Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 600 Range 15.6m km Resolution 60
XN/SLQ-4 Passive EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
XN/SAY-5 Passive Infrared Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
Copenhagen class Transport 39,436 tons 222 Crew 1,328.2 BP TCS 789 TH 800 EM 0
1014 km/s Armour 1-103 Shields 0-0 HTK 60 Sensors 5/5/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 21 Max Repair 400 MSP
Cryogenic Berths 100,000 Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 5
Major Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
XN-100E Gravity Pulse Drive (8) Power 800.0 Fuel Use 10.06% Signature 100.0 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range 22.7 billion km (258 days at full power)
XN/SPN-3 Grav Pulse Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 600 Range 15.6m km Resolution 60
XN/SLQ-4 Passive EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
XN/SAY-5 Passive Infrared Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
While these designs were of course novel for the time, the key features are by now quite well-established and standard, thus not meriting remark here with one exception: the 1,000 km/s speed of both classes was a hard minimum set by XCOM space commanders. While this did increase the costs to build each ship, XCOM military planners were adamant that slow speed of a heavy transport vessel would not be the bottleneck for human expansion beyond Earth, and more importantly would not be the cause for ill-preparedness in the event of a future alien return to Sol. These considerations being settled in the final designs, Mitsubishi industriously delivered the first London class cargo ship on 27 March 2035, and the first Copenhagen class transport on 21 May 2037.
The size of the initial build order for these commercial vessels was the subject of significant debate within the halls of XCOM Headquarters. The one hard number which could be agreed upon from the earliest planning stages was an order of 3 colonist transports, one each to service the moon, Mercury, and Mars. Most of the debate therefore revolved around the number of cargo transports to be ordered, with estimates ranging from a mere 3 freighters in parallel to the colonist transports up to a dozen or more to provide ample on-demand heavy lift capacity. Ultimately as with most topics of debate the natural solution was reached, that is to say a compromise was agreed to: eight cargo ships of the London class would be ordered, nominally in groups of two per colony ship plus two additional ships for transport of installations beyond life support infrastructure as the need arose.
As transport ships entered service, establishment of the planned inner system colonies proceeded rapidly. Tranquility was established on the moon on 27 March 2035 with the first delivery of life support infrastructure by London, with the last delivery completed on 21 December of that year – while the first Copenhagen class transport was still under construction, and indeed barely one-third completed. XCOM planners soon realized that the construction timetables involved had not been adequately accounted for, and as an emergency measure dispatched orders to various construction factories for the necessary engines and cryogenic storage modules needed to complete the other two transports in a bid to accelerate future construction. Copenhagen was finally launched and made her first delivery of 100,000 eager colonists to Tranquility on 24 May 2037. By the end of that year, the lunar population was up to 8.29 million and projected to reach the cap of 10 million in the first few months of the next year.
The future mining colony of Erebor was established on Mercury by the first infrastructure delivery on 24 December 2035. The first 100,000 colonists set foot on the planet on 5 December 2037, shuttled to their new home by the transport Lyons which was commissioned on 1 December. The rapid construction of Lyons, in less than a quarter of the time taken by her older sister ship, was a testament to the efficacy and wisdom of XCOM’s decision to pre-build the most expensive ship components with planetary industry. By the end of 2037, the population of Erebor had grown to a modest 600,000 colonists, with infrastructure delivery expected to be the primary bottleneck before the colony could reach the planned limit of 10 million population.
Finally, the Cydonia colony was established on Mars on 23 March 2037, again by a modest delivery of life-support infrastructure. The first delivery of colonists would not be made until the following year, surprisingly this delivery was not made by XCOM shipping but rather 50,000 colonists were shipped to Mars on 21 January 2038 aboard the first interplanetary transport ship under private civilian, rather than XCOM, control. Breitmeier Interplanetary Co. was a venture capital startup opened in late 2034, originally with the intention of breaking into the colonist transport market to take advantage of delays in construction of the Copenhagen class vessels. While this original business plan did not quite plan out as intended for the venture capitalists, Brietmeier would still turn a tidy profit from impatient would-be colonists who were frustrated at waiting for XCOM-operated transports to work their way down the waiting lists. The response to this new venture at XCOM Headquarters was mixed, with some among the leadership glad to see civilian support and cooperation to secure the future of humanity while others resented the implicit competition with greed-driven corporations. The latter faction was somewhat assuaged by the quick implementation of licensing fees for civilian spaceborne operations, ensuring that XCOM would receive a modest cut of any corporate profits in exchange for protecting those corporate assets against potential alien threats.
Ultimately, the shipbuilding orders for Operation Apollo proved the greatest bottleneck of this first major XCOM colonization program, even in spite of significant industrial diversion to produce ship components and accelerate construction in the orbital yards. The last colonist transport, Zurich, was commissioned on 13 June 2038, while the last cargo ship, Cherbourg, entered service on 22 January 2040. The significant time investment required for shipbuilding proved a valuable lesson for XCOM leadership, which in the future would seek to provide for some lead time to construct spaceborne assets before initiating ambitious operations such as Apollo.
Providing for the Common Defense
Advances in technology and orbital shipbuilding capacity combined to motivate a new focus from XCOM on upgrading the orbital defenses of Earth and the future colonies. The first item on the agenda for XCOM leadership was an upgrade of the Firestorm interceptors. While these still represented the top of the line in XCOM defensive technology, the fact that a long-range, high-efficiency survey ship could approach the same speed as Earth’s premiere spacefighters demanded an upgrade, and in any case there was more than a little interest in applying recent technological advances for less peaceful purposes. The result was the Firestorm II, the first two examples of which were deployed on 21 November 2034. The upgrade was a quite capable design even if, in the grand scope of history, an intermediate one:
Firestorm II class Interceptor 400 tons 4 Crew 37.4 BP TCS 8 TH 32 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 1-4 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0-0 PPV 2.5
Maint Life 3.15 Years MSP 20 AFR 80% IFR 1.1% 1YR 3 5YR 45 Max Repair 8 MSP
Lieutenant Colonel Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days Morale Check Required
XN-16B 'Inferno' Gravity Pulse Drive (2) Power 32.0 Fuel Use 393.06% Signature 16.00 Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 8,700 Litres Range 1 billion km (69 hours at full power)
XCOM Plasma Cannon (1) Range 40,000km TS: 4,000 km/s Power 6-1 RM 10,000 km ROF 30
XN/APY-8 Firestorm Targeting Computer (1) Max Range: 40,000 km TS: 4,050 km/s
XR-1 Small Elerium Reactor (1) Total Power Output 1 Exp 5%
XN/APS-2 XCOM Grav Pulse Sensor (1) GPS 20 Range 3.8m km Resolution 10
The Firestorm II boasted double the top speed of its predecessor, due to a combination of the new gravity pulse drive technology as well as recent breakthroughs in engine-boosting enabling an additional 25% power over a standard drive. To keep up with this speed required the latest and greatest in Trans-Newtonian computing to develop a fire control which could track at 4,000 km/s while reducing the overall hardware size. Coupled with the new high-density duranium armor allowing for a reduced armor thickness while maintaining structural integrity, the Firestorm II was merely four-fifths the size of the older version, making it easier to maintain and, in the future, to transport by carriers to distant stations. The single knock against the Firestorm II was its reliance on the same plasma cannon as its predecessor, which dated back nearly two decades to the Long War and lacked the range or rate of fire that XCOM generals wanted to see in next-generation military hardware. Clearly, weapons development would be a priority for XCOM scientists going forward.
Updating the Raven interceptor squadrons was clearly a secondary priority, which probably should have been more urgent if anything due to the clear outdatedness of the conventional-era Ravens. In fairness to XCOM leadership, the ordering of priorities was dictated in large part by the rate of scientific progress in various fields, and missile warfare was a field which lagged behind the rest in this regard. The first Raven II interceptor was deployed to Earth orbit, after a long delay related to development of a new missile launch rail, on 7 December 2035. The upgraded version was an even greater improvement over the original than the Firestorm II had been:
Raven II class Interceptor 200 tons 3 Crew 22.8 BP TCS 4 TH 16 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 HTK 1 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0-0 PPV 0.96
Maint Life 5.87 Years MSP 20 AFR 40% IFR 0.6% 1YR 1 5YR 15 Max Repair 8 MSP
Magazine 6.4 / 0
Major Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required
XN-16B 'Inferno' Gravity Pulse Drive (1) Power 16.0 Fuel Use 393.06% Signature 16.00 Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 8,600 Litres Range 2 billion km (5 days at full power)
Missile Launch Rail (8t) (2) Missile Size: 3.2 Hangar Reload 89 minutes MF Reload 14 hours
XN/APG-7 Missile Guidance Computer (1) Range 9.9m km Resolution 60
ASM-1 Shredder (2) Speed: 13,250 km/s End: 13.1m Range: 10.4m km WH: 3 Size: 3.20 TH: 44/26/13
XN/APS-6 Grav Pulse Sensor (1) GPS 300 Range 11m km Resolution 60
The Raven II was an even greater improvement over its prior iteration than the Firestorm II, featuring a factor of ten increase in top speed due to the same XN-16B gravity pulse drive used in the Firestorm II along with an extended range out to 2 billion km round-trip enabling the Raven II to stand-off against alien attackers at some distance from the planet it was defending. Furthermore, improvements in armor material and missile warhead technologies allowed XCOM engineers to reduce the size of the Raven by 20%, reducing build and maintenance overhead for the interceptor fleet and presenting a more difficult target for enemy sensors. The Raven IIs were armed with a new Trans-Newtonian missile, the ASM-1 Shredder, which was a similarly dramatic upgrade over the conventional Avalanche missiles, being eleven times faster and once again 20% smaller, thus requiring a more compact launch rail compared to the Avalanches. Unlike the Firestorm IIs, there could be no serious complaints about the upgrade as every system had seen a generational improvement, from propulsion and weapons to sensor and fire control systems. While quaint by modern standards, the Raven II was a wholly capable upgrade program and did much to instill public confidence in the Orbital Defense Forces.
XCOM Headquarters authorized production orders for one new squadron each of Firestorm IIs and Raven IIs, which would be followed by modernization of the five squadrons already in service. Thus in total, 12 Firestorm IIs and 30 Raven IIs formed the initial build run for these classes, with the older versions eventually being scrapped to keep maintenance costs for the orbital defense forces under budget. It is of historical interest to note that the Firestorm IIs were built from a new orbital shipyard launched expressly for the purpose, the belief of XCOM leadership being that the orbital facilities could, once sufficiently built up, produce fighters of high-volume types more quickly and economically than planetside factories, while the latter would remain valuable for future production of low-volume classes whenever these were introduced. Such theories aside, the Raven IIs were built entirely with planetary industry so as not to incur significant retooling costs at the orbital yard.
The Problem of Post-War Weapons Development
With the matter of orbital defense settled for the moment, XCOM leaders turned their attention to the thornier problem of future weapons design and development. During the invasion, XCOM had reverse-engineered alien weapons to design their own weapons of varied types, including laser, Gauss coilgun, railgun, plasma, and particle beam types. Unfortunately, while XCOM science was strong in many areas, weapons development was not one of them, and the current preference for missiles and plasma cannons was due as much to random chance as to any real practical considerations.
While the natural inclination at XCOM Headquarters was to stay the course, after all missiles and plasma cannons had won the Long War so they were clearly viable weapon types, reality dictated a more nuanced approach. On one hand, while plasma cannons were clearly adequate for the Firestorm series of interceptors it was not clear that the limited range and slow rate of fire on these weapons would be suitable for deployment on other spacecraft or indeed in surface-based defensive batteries. In the latter scenario, particularly, greater range was highly desirable to land a first strike against an approaching alien invasion force. On the other hand, while missiles and plasma cannons were powerful offensive weapons XCOM possessed little in the way of effective anti-missile defenses, and while the aliens had not shown any proclivity towards missile warfare during the invasion there was no guarantee that this would remain the case in future encounters.
As meetings on the topic stretched ever onward in duration, a number of key considerations emerged as the leading factors determining any final decision:
- Missile weapons provided a long-range striking power unmatched by any direct-fire weapon type, albeit at greater cost and strategic complexity. In principle, small missiles could be designed which would intercept other missiles as a form of point defense, however this would require significant research and therefore time investments that would relegate any such plans to the long-term portfolio.
- Laser weapons could provide the long-range direct-fire capability desired for surface-based defensive batteries, and if mounted in turrets could provide adequate point defense in principle. However, XCOM had more wartime experience with lasers than with any other weapon type, and this many veteran commanders raised concerns that the high-end firepower of laser weapons would be found lacking compared to plasma weapons or particle cannons.
- Gauss coilguns had served well during the war, particularly in the anti-armor role, but could not be scaled up in power very effectively to reach viability as a primary anti-ship weapon. However, coilguns offered an excellent rate of sustained fire which would make them well-suited for close-range point defense work, and the required research and development to produce improvements on wartime examples would fall solidly on the medium-scale timeline.
- Railguns, like lasers, appeared to be a broadly flexible weapon type capable of offensive and defensive use in equal measure. However, detractors of railguns complained that the short-range firepower of these weapons was already capably provided by plasma cannons, and the top-end range of railgun weapons was in fact quite short compared to that of lasers or particle beams, let alone missiles.
- Plasma weapons enjoyed a significant home-field advantage in these debates as the current weapon of choice for XCOM ground and space forces. However, it could not serve as the sole main weapon of a mature space force due to its lack of any real point defense capability, and was generally considered to be ineffective at long ranges. This latter point was not a serious issue for XCOM’s space forces, but would represent a serious hole in planet-based defense capabilities if an additional long-ranged direct-fire weapon type were not adopted.
- Fusion-based lance and particle cannon weapons had been the top end of the XCOM arsenal during the Long War, and no one debated that these would serve well in a specialized long-range anti-ship role. However, the expense of developing and operating these weapons was considerable, particularly as a point defense weapon would still be required to supplement these highly specialized armaments.
Ultimately, the decision was made to reduce the active XCOM arsenal from the current six weapon types down to three: missiles and plasma cannons would continue to be developed as the primary weapons for the Raven and Firestorm series of interceptors, respectively, while laser weapons development would be reopened for the first time since the war. This decision was made due to the flexibility of laser weapons combined with the relative lack of research and development capabilities to support a more diverse arsenal, combined with the significant wartime experience with laser weapons which would aid rapid adoption throughout XCOM’s ranks. Three principal laser-based projects would be pursued: a large-caliber anti-ship laser for planetary deployment, a rapid-fire laser turret for ship-based and planetary point defense, and a third model of interceptor weiding a similar small, rapid-fire laser cannon to serve as a lighter counterpart to the plasma-armed Firestorms. However, due to extremely limited research capabilities in these fields, laser weapons projects would remain largely on paper for several years, as plasma cannon and missile development received the first priority from XCOM Headquarters.
Defending the Colonies
By mid-2036, thanks to an aggressive officer training program, XCOM achieved a full contingent of commanding officers for all active trooper battalions and brigades. To assemble such a roster of capable specialists in anti-alien operations was an impressive accomplishment for the organization, not least because only one remaining member of the command staff, Major General Rayhan Sulaiman commanding XCOM Africa, was a veteran of the Long War. As such, XCOM leadership began to plan for expansion of the ground forces, principally to meet colonial garrison requirements but also with an eye towards eventual activation of surface-based anti-ship weapons as these were developed.
Expansion of the ground forces by even several brigades would not present any great difficulty by itself, aside from the need to find more commanding officers. However, getting the new brigades to the various inner system colonies with all of their weapons and equipment intact would be a trickier proposition, requiring a new class of ship to transport the troopers. To meet this need, the Star Ranger class troop transport was designed on the same 40,000-ton basis as the London and Copenhagen classes:
Star Ranger class Troop Transport 39,410 tons 207 Crew 843.2 BP TCS 788 TH 800 EM 0
1014 km/s Armour 1-103 Shields 0-0 HTK 77 Sensors 5/5/0/0 DCR 1-0 PPV 0
MSP 13 Max Repair 320 MSP
Troop Capacity 25,000 tons Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 5
Major Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
XN-100E Gravity Pulse Drive (8) Power 800.0 Fuel Use 10.06% Signature 100.0 Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres Range 22.7 billion km (258 days at full power)
XN/SPN-3 Grav Pulse Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 600 Range 15.6m km Resolution 60
XN/SLQ-4 Passive EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
XN/SAY-5 Passive Infrared Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5.0 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
Star Ranger herself was launched from her shipyard on 22 December 2037. Each troop transport was capable of transporting an entire XCOM brigade to any body worth colonizing in the solar system. Given the rate at which new brigades could be trained and equipped, only one troop transport was considered strictly necessary, a second was ordered for redundancy and in case the need for ground-based defenses should increase in the future. The second ship of the class, Firebrand, would be commissioned into service on 2 July 2038. With its newly operational troop transport capabilities, XCOM was finally able to deploy garrison forces to the inner system colonies: the Lunar Brigade to Tranquility, the Mercurian Brigade to Erebor, and the Martian Brigade to Cydonia. While significant work remained necessary to reinforce humanity’s defenses against a second alien invasion, the presence of XCOM Troopers on the colonial worlds did much to set at ease the hearts and minds of the colonial populations.
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Ship Construction
2x Daedalus class Survey Ship: Daedalus, Odyssey, Korolev
12x Firestorm II class Interceptor
30x Raven II class Interceptor
3x London class Cargo Ship
2x Copenhagen class Transport
1x Star Ranger class Troop Transport
Scrapped 2x Discovery class Survey Craft: Endeavour, Voyager
Scrapped 6x Firestorm class Interceptor
Scrapped 24x Raven class Interceptor
Ground Unit Training
Lunar Brigade (65th/66th/67th/68th XCOM Battalions)
Mercurian Brigade (69th/70th/71st/72nd XCOM Battalions)
Research
Cryogenic Transport: Louis Ebenhaezer, 11 Jun 2032
Nuclear Pulse Engine: Jimena Arias Arenas, 16 May 2033
Fuel Consumption: 0.9 Litres per Engine Power Hour: Mariette de Beer, 15 Jun 2033
Maximum Engine Power Modifier x1.25: Jimena Arias Arenas, 18 Feb 2034
Genome Sequence Research: Lipeka Kiswaya, 20 Mar 2034
Mining Production 12 tons: Cécile Langlois, 20 Mar 2034
Fire Control Speed Rating 3000 km/s: Lillian Joffrion, 6 May 2034
Implosion Fission Warhead: Strength: 3 x MSP: Stefanie Oliver, 29 Aug 2035
Maximum Engine Size - 40: Arnim Rohde, 20 Mar 2036
Gaseous Fission Reactor: Jimena Arias Arenas, 21 Nov 3026
Terraforming Rate 0.00032 atm: Lipeka Kiswaya, 7 Jan 2037
Troop Transport Bay: Absalón Pelayo Monroy, 26 May 2037
Beam Fire Control Range 48,000 km: Lillian Joffrion, 29 Dec 2037
Composite Armour: Cécile Crèvecouer, 12 Jan 2038
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OOC Notes: And lo, another update is upon us! This one was fun to write, and hopefully will be at least in the same ballpark to read. The early game of a conventional(ish) start feels surprisingly more complex when the player takes it upon himself to keep track of several different narrative thrusts at once! This is a style of updates I will endeavor to keep up with for the foreseeable future at least, I do think it makes a better read to separate updates "operationally" or by topics than reporting in chronological order.
I did consider splitting this update into two or even three parts and stretching it (and my posting buffer) our over 2-3 weekends, but I decided it would read better as a single update from the same reporting period. For now I will carry forward with this decision, but eventually I think individual topics or operations will require dedicated updates, i.e., once we go to new star systems and start shooting at aliens. What fun that shall be!!
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Riveting tale, old chap! I agree that this style is fun to read and it's been a while since we've had a story written in this way.
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Project Actinide
I see what you did there.
christened Daedalus,
The famed inventor of the Wooden Cow. Do not look up what the Wooden Cow was.
This mission immediately bore fruit, finding gaseous sorium in the atmosphere of Uranus, but as the quantity and accessibility of gas were both less than that of Jupiter or Saturn the find was unlikely to make any real impact on XCOM’s economic planning.
So presumably this fruit was something like a prickly pear, distinctly mediocre and in no way worth the effort of getting?
Nevertheless, this was an impressive series of results
Both planets are worse than the two that could be surveyed with the standard ships, yet this is considered impressive. Bodes incredibly poorly for future surveys.
The third ship of the class, Korolev, was commissioned on 4 August 2037 and set out to survey Pluto and its moons as her first assignment. Sun Tzu, the final ship in the series
In fairness the theme was already pretty shaky having been a person then a book, so there wasn't that much consistency to lose.
The disappointment obviously is that China continues to exist, a blatant violation of the traditions of an Aurora AAR, but there is still time.
were commended by awarding of the Daedalus Ribbon
I hope that the Ribbon is somewhat disappointing compared to all the others, yet has a very complicated clasp that makes it much more work to attach.
The results were the London class cargo ships and Copenhagen class transports, each class named after the respective first commissioned vessel of the type
Cowards. I can see the London-class colonisation ship would have been a bit too on the nose for some, but it still should have been done.
The future mining colony of Erebor was established on Mercury
Not even serious alien attacks and the trans-Newtonian revolution can stop geeks referencing Tolkien.
The Raven IIs were armed with a new Trans-Newtonian missile, the ASM-1 Shredder
I for one am looking forward to this missile naming theme. The ASM-2 Bebop, ASM-3 Rocksteady, etc.
Such theories aside, the Raven IIs were built entirely with planetary industry so as not to incur significant retooling costs at the orbital yard.
Many would say this should have been a warning to XCOM command about the value of their theories, however it appears XCOM hates such people almost as much as it hates consistent and non-confusing naming schemes.
Weapon choice words
Disappointingly it sounds like these decisions were reached entirely without fisticuffs.
Star Ranger herself was launched... The second ship of the class, Firebrand
I was wondering if the theme would be Star... (Star Hauler, Star Chaser, etc) or more boldly ... Ranger (Wild Ranger, Lone Ranger, etc). Naturally XCOM went for just random unrelated words, something I should have expected by this point.
On the ground forces can I just express my disgust at the use of regular counting on the XCOM battalions, just incrementing up by one each time is a gross violation of established naming rules. Where is the lack of consistency and potential for confusion? Clearly it should go something like 65th/109th/Cactus/2nd/Oblique Oblong/Delta^3/*The smell of bacon*/22nd and so on.
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Riveting tale, old chap! I agree that this style is fun to read and it's been a while since we've had a story written in this way.
I have wanted to do something in the more "operational" style for a long time spanning multiple games, dating back at least to whenever I read the Soviet AAR by Loki(?) on the Paradox HoI3 forums. I have tried a couple of times in Aurora, usually with Duranium Legion reboots, but these attempts quickly got bogged down or ran out of interest. This setting, fortunately, seems to be sticking as long as I do not try to force progress to happen.
Project Actinide
I see what you did there.
The trick is to come up with a project name that sounds related, but doesn't give away the game to the inevitable alien spies.
christened Daedalus,
The famed inventor of the Wooden Cow. Do not look up what the Wooden Cow was.
If we have to look it up, is he really famous for it?
So presumably this fruit was something like a prickly pear, distinctly mediocre and in no way worth the effort of getting?
Both planets are worse than the two that could be surveyed with the standard ships, yet this is considered impressive. Bodes incredibly poorly for future surveys.
I don't think I've ever had a Sol where all four* gas giants had sorium. In this respect it is impressive, though admittedly useless, and more importantly it does indeed set unrealistic expectations for the rest of the galaxy.
The third ship of the class, Korolev, was commissioned on 4 August 2037 and set out to survey Pluto and its moons as her first assignment. Sun Tzu, the final ship in the series
In fairness the theme was already pretty shaky having been a person then a book, so there wasn't that much consistency to lose.
Blame the writers https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/BC-304 (https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/BC-304)
The disappointment obviously is that China continues to exist, a blatant violation of the traditions of an Aurora AAR, but there is still time.
Sadly it would not lore-accurate to bin Aurora's favorite punching bag in this one.
The results were the London class cargo ships and Copenhagen class transports, each class named after the respective first commissioned vessel of the type
Cowards. I can see the London-class colonisation ship would have been a bit too on the nose for some, but it still should have been done.
Fun fact: the London class was originally the Jerusalem class. I went back and forth on this one for a while and decided that now is probably not the right time for a Jerusalem class. And then just picked London to get it out of the way early.
The Raven IIs were armed with a new Trans-Newtonian missile, the ASM-1 Shredder
I for one am looking forward to this missile naming theme. The ASM-2 Bebop, ASM-3 Rocksteady, etc.
I suspect the -2 will be memorable for some reason.
Many would say this should have been a warning to XCOM command about the value of their theories, however it appears XCOM hates such people almost as much as it hates consistent and non-confusing naming schemes.
In theory.
Weapon choice words
Disappointingly it sounds like these decisions were reached entirely without fisticuffs.
We can have fisticuffs or we can have plot progression. The other project is a testament that we cannot have both, and if I am going to cease all plot progression I will choose a more opportune moment. Perhaps in the middle of a war against three Swarms and the Invaders.
Star Ranger herself was launched... The second ship of the class, Firebrand
I was wondering if the theme would be Star... (Star Hauler, Star Chaser, etc) or more boldly ... Ranger (Wild Ranger, Lone Ranger, etc). Naturally XCOM went for just random unrelated words, something I should have expected by this point.
Star Ranger is not only a canon ship name but a play on the infamous (to XCOM fans) Skyranger. Firebrand is the Skyranger pilot in the EU/EW 2012 games. We should be glad that I have not launched a third ship of the class named in honor of Big Sky, the XCOM 2 pilot, as "Big Star" might be too silly even for this setting.
On the ground forces can I just express my disgust at the use of regular counting on the XCOM battalions, just incrementing up by one each time is a gross violation of established naming rules. Where is the lack of consistency and potential for confusion? Clearly it should go something like 65th/109th/Cactus/2nd/Oblique Oblong/Delta^3/*The smell of bacon*/22nd and so on.
Inconsistently inconsistent is the way to go. (https://i.imgur.com/Z3wSg01.gif)