L0ckAndL0ad's United Systems AAR

[Garfunkel]

thirty eight combat drops, simulated, and one actual combat drop

[L0ckAndL0ad (OP)]

-snip-

One of my favorite movies of all times! Glad to see someone gets the reference!

March 12, Y74
NN 3517, Nails system

01:00
Rear Admiral Morgan Hall, 54 year old cheerful and courteous former fighter pilot with 30+ years of Navy service experience, commands Task Force 1 from the Flag Plot on CVL Ranger. Hall is a motivated person with strong faith in others, and he believes that everything will go smooth and by the numbers.

TG 1.1.2 - Scout Detachment with two destroyers reached the first Nails colony. Only population (thermal signature 5) detected. Two APDs with Alpha and Charlie Marine Companies on board detach from the main body to make a combat drop on alien world - Planet IV of the NN 3517-A star system. ETA 16 hours.

17:02
A Coy & C Coy of the 1st Marine Raider Bn combat dropped on Planet IV, unopposed. Bravo and Delta Companies are to arrive in 6 hours.

21:02
DDG Mahan, another scout detached from the group, have reached the Moon 12 of the Planet V, the second Nails colony. Thermal signature 10 population detected. Nothing else.

23:07
All units of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion linked up on Planet IV. They're ordered to make a reconnaissance in force.

March 19

01:37
Colonel James Nash of Marine Alpha Company, acting commander of the Raiders on Planet IV reports having secured the colony without losses. Only one installation was found - Deep Space Tracking Station. Nothing else. No actual population. Nothing. Without additional geological survey, PIV is known to have the following deposits: 700k/1.0 Neutronium, 1.7M/0.9 Sorium and 3.1M/0.3 Uridium. Great, but not particularly needed right now.

Admiral Hall, cautiously excited, orders Task Force 1 to redeploy its units to Planet V, Moon 12. What is there with this str 10 thermal signature, he thought. Two DSTS?! We'll find out soon.

[L0ckAndL0ad (OP)]

March 19, Y74

20:03
Marine Raiders land on P5-M12. Colonel Nash is ordered to secure the colony, slowly and carefully. The entire TF Ranger minus scout detachment holds position in orbit, not expecting any resistance. This place looks abandoned.

March 24

Two tracking stations. As expected. Nothing else, not even the minerals. Oh well.. That was mildly entertaining. We're not pulling out yet, until the scouts scan the outer parts of the system, but it appears to be the last great unknown of NN 3517. Well, except for the anomalous Alien Installation on Planet III that needs to be studied by someone from the Engineer Corps, which isn't happening till at least the end of next year, when additional expeditionary forces will be ready.

May 19

Scouts have reached the outer system. 10 billion kilometers from the local sun. There's nothing there. Admiral Hall orders the scouts to rejoin the main group.
After that, the TF Ranger is going to return to Sol.

[L0ckAndL0ad (OP)]

December 9, Y75

F-12G Small Gauss cannon fighter prototype testing

Off-Topic: show

F-12G Prototype class Fighter    222 tons     2 Crew     115.5 BP      TCS 4.44  TH 75  EM 0
16891 km/s     Armour 1-3     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 2
Maint Life 10.59 Years     MSP 33    AFR 3%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 1    5YR 8    Max Repair 37.5 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 2   

75 EP Magnetic Fusion Drive (EPx3/FC0.25) (1)    Power 75    Fuel Use 385.82%    Signature 75    Exp 30%
Fuel Capacity 10 000 Litres    Range 2.1 billion km   (34 hours at full power)

Gauss Cannon R4-33 (1x4)    Range 40 000km     TS: 16891 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 33%     RM 4    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S00.2 30-6250 (FTR) (1)    Max Range: 60 000 km   TS: 25000 km/s     83 67 50 33 17 0 0 0 0 0

Active Search Sensor MR4-R1 (1)     GPS 26     Range 4.5m km    MCR 493k km    Resolution 1

Union Navy experiments with cheap fighters. Small size Gauss canon is being tested, using OPFOR vs BLUFOR field test. 8 fighters of the F-12G design, with ~50-60% TF training and 12-14% grade bonus, against 8x anti-fighter missiles (35200m/s).

Results are VERY good! All 8 missiles were hit and destroyed, despite being twice as fast as the fighters, and fighters having 33% accuracy guns! Each fighter had 4 shots to hit. I'm not sure how to read all the bonuses/modifiers properly, but the results are good enough for me.

I think such fighters can certainly be used against ordinary aliens that don't have any particular tech advantage over us. They need trained crews and pilots though. And will be worse at fighting higher tech races.

[Garfunkel]

12-14% grade bonus

That's a pretty significant grade bonus. I've never done GC fighters myself so I can't say for sure but the concept does intrigue me.

[L0ckAndL0ad (OP)]

December 29, Y76

I Marine Expeditionary Force lands on NN 3517-A P3 via five Okinawa class attack transports. It consists of 3 Marine Regiments (12 battalions), 2 Heavy Assault Battalions, 1st Marine Combat Engineer Battalion and 1st Naval Construction Brigade. Seabees are joining four Xenologist teams on site of alien ruins.

I MEF is led by Marine Lieutenant General Daniel Robertson, who can be described as dispassionate and conservative by his peers. His main priority is to keep the scientists and Seabees safe while their study the ruins.

Let's see what they can dig up there.

12-14% grade bonus

That's a pretty significant grade bonus. I've never done GC fighters myself so I can't say for sure but the concept does intrigue me.

That's only half of my normal grade bonus for fighters. I just got tired of waiting for them to train to the maximum. Every other fighter in the USN has 34% grade bonus.

But that's not that important, as GC's modifier is applied last. My base to hit (with grade bonus applied?) was 100%+, then modified by superior speed of the attacking missile to ~50%, and then by GC's modifier to ~18-19% final chance. 4 shots with 18% chance was good enough, but very close for comfort.

Overall, yeah, the size and the cost of such fighters is very tempting, at the combat potential they offer. Imagine a swarm of hundreds of these. My CV Enterprise alone can potentially hold 144 of such fighters.

I'm also considering reduced size laser fighters. Should give plenty of penetration. But not that good at defending against missiles. That's okay for a striker, though (need escorts by design).

[L0ckAndL0ad (OP)]

January 7, Y80

Final report of the United Systems campaign log. First Administrator reporting.

None of the xenologist teams on NN-3517-A P3 found anything. The arrival of I MEF was most likely unnecessary.

JGC Canopus (produced in Y14) managed to construct the entire network of Jump Gates between Sol and Gun Union's homeworld, that's 8 jumps in total. This should help our trade agreement to take an actual effect, allowing commercial shipping a way to transport goods back and forth. It's been a while, actually, but I have no clue how to measure the effects of our trade agreement.

There is a number of suspected GUN commercial ships in Sol (big and slow moving), but national wealth/trade statistics indicates only 2.6% (3095) of all annual income to come from "Tax on Exports". Is that it?

The best news is that United Systems is no longer suffering from mineral shortages. Strategic stockpile on Earth is nice to look at, finally, having more than 50-90k units of each mineral, with the largest supply of Duranium being at almost 600k mark. With mining technologies research and construction being given top priority, Union is once again fully capable to produce anything that may be required.

Off-Topic: show

We've managed to get peace with both of our neighbors, GUN Union and Commonwealth of Majlesi. We've defeated all hostile Nails forces that we've encountered. We've made it through the mineral crisis. Fought some fights in space and made planetary assaults. Built some great ships. Explored the stars.

This is L0ckAndL0ad, last narrator of the United Systems story, signing off.