The Galaxy Awaits ... Choose Your Path!

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

Thanks.  I know they're unnecessary, but there's no way in the world we'd be able to communicate with them from Sol.  It's an RP thing.  I assume I don't have to have the team operate from Earth, but if I do then I'll still the Ambassador in just for the RP. 

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

Happy belated Thanksgiving!  Time to get this updated to where we are now, a lot of stuff going on. 

2081 ANNUAL REPORT(Part 1)

The year did not get off to a great start.  On January 2, with most of BOG is still transiting from here to there all over the system, two dozen Lexingtons on their way to and fro.  Today's business was made less routine and more stressful, as the Wickes arrived at Stephan-Oterma.  A controlled demolition on the Ticonderoga followed shortly thereafter.  It was a small base, but it was not anticipated how completely the explosion obliterated the structure.  Apparently the navy is too good at their self-destruct sequences ... there wasn't anything left to salvage.

The expected test of the salvage gear was not needed, so the Wickes simply went back to Earth.  Another ship that wasn't needed, but at least it was fairly inexpensive.  Adding to the mitigation is that no special shipyard investment was needed to make it, and the argument that it can still be used at some point during interstellar exploration.   A few people said a few things they shouldn't have while a few protests erupted, but there was no serious disruption of SPACE business this time ...

Meanwhile adding to the hustle and bustle now was the process of Lexingtons(for the officers) and Portlands(for the garrisons) journeying all over the system to evacuate the no-longer-needed bases.  The MRD, referencing the 2081 SOS Report, section IB, identified only Sedna and Triton as being in need of DSTS.  Awad also wants to diversify the economy by getting a couple more shipyards of each type up and running eventually -- he wants the eventually refits to Ion drives to go smoothly and efficiently, and they won't with the current number.  More shipyards is preferable to constant wholescale retooling, the latter approach being more costly in the long run.  In view of these goals, the following changes were made to Earth's industrial allocation:

Research Labs(33-25%)
Ordnance Factories(13-11%)
Mine Conversions(30-15%)
Mine Construction(24-12%)
Commercial Shipyards(new, 18%) -- 2 ordered
DSTS(new, 10%) -- 2 ordered
Naval Shipyards(new, 9%) -- 1 ordered

This is more like the economy used to look before Rakes had concentrated most of it into mines.  This is not to pile on, that was likely the best approach at the time, but for now the number of facilities flowing to Triton will decline.  At the time of publishing ETAs for these were not set, as incoming Earth governor Alborn is still en route.  Once he arrived, the dates were not impressive, given that he is of merely novice skill in factory production while Awad is only average.  SPACE is now down to about eight mines produced and converted per year, a little under one lab, etc.  It's partly temporary, but the combination of reduced factory access and less expert supervision is a big hit to these efforts.    Both are right on the novice/accomplished line in terms of shipbuilding though, and between the two that process has sped up.  The first ESF is expected to begin training exercises in early spring. 

At the end of the month, with most of the reassignment activity now completed, the relative quiet was disturbed by the sudden hospitalization of Rear Admiral June Aspinwall, the Navy's second-in-command behind Chief Feeser.  The 52-year-old Aspinwall is seen as a key advisor, the eldest and in some quarters most respected among the admiralty.  Right now the outlook is that she can finish this tour and probably another, but her future is definitely uncertain at this point.

In February, the Ambassador began construction at Niehuis SY.  The year was off to busy start.  A little over a week later, the new laser turret(SpearPoint DL-12) completing it's testing phase.  This allowed for the next generation of the Brooklyn to finally be hammered out.  The engineers had a little over a month lead time in this case until the last of the 72s was finished.  A nine-year-old design.  Incredibly, the passive sensors are the same ones used then -- new thermals will be ready later this year, electromagnetics are in the pipeline farther back -- but the actives are improved and of course the capacitors, power plants, weapons have all seen advances.  Combined with the advancements in armor, this allowed for a significantly smaller ship:

Brooklyn 81-class Gunboat
Size:  10.5 kt(13.45 kt, -22%)
Crew:  282(356, -21%)
Speed:  2380 km/s(2379, virtually identical)
Fuel:  1.25ml(1.75, -71%)
Thermal Emissions:  210(269, -22%)
Armament:  2x SpearPoint DL-12 Twin Laser Cannon Turrets, 2x WT Excalibur 135 Meson Cannon Turrets, 1x CIWS 79 Battery.  The 72 has twice the lasers and the same amount of mesons.
Tracking Speed:  12k km/s(8k, +50%)
Armor:  5 layers(4, +25%)
Cost: 1.71m(1.89m, -9.5%)

The Brooklyn 81 is smaller and a little cheaper than its predecessor.  It doesn't pack nearly as much punch but the faster tracking speed makes it a more effective combatant anyway.  This is of course a marginal upgrade, a stopgap version to bridge the time until ion drives are ready. 

At the same time, it was announced that Eva Vadnais was the latest top SPACE researcher to end her public career.  Along with Joe Tycho she carried the Energy Weapons field for the last couple of decades.  It's been a time of great improvement as they've seen the program advance from its infancy to third, nearly fourth-generation weapons and techniques.  At 64 years old and already suffering the natural effects of aging, she leaves behind her not a single quality researcher to fill the void.  This does not bode well for the Navy's efforts over the next couple of decades.

March began with the launching of the first Baltimore Command Carrier.   Only the Iowa XR now remained before the first ESF was complete and Operation Renewal could get underway.   On the fifth, two days later, Cedrick Wormack retired.  He battled through health problems to finish up his final project, the Orbital Habitat Module.  Just one of these massive components would be about 50% larger than a South Carolina superfreighter.  Each can house indefinitely 50,000 workers, with shuttles for transportation to normally uninhabitable bodies.  It is possible, though seemingly unlikely, that deploying a space station to remote outposts may become a feasible goal.  That time is not now, and it won't be soon either. 

The 67-year-old Wormack retires having been an integral part of a cadre of top logistics researchers who greatly advanced SPACE's capabilities through practical solutions to the thorny problems of living in an increasingly space-faring age.  There are other capable minds to succeed him, not quite like the greatest generation of LG scientists that he concludes, but the field is still in good hands.

Another three days, and the Alaska base on Titan was finished up.  It was just one thing happening after another.  SPACE headquarters at Sol Sector Command was a constant madhouse.  More Caldwells were finished up in late March, a new Nimitz and Brooklyn each were operational in early April.  Shortly aftewards, Dr. Julio Kuchler finished his report on considerably improved active gravitational sensors.  This set the stage for four new systems to be prototyped:  commercial, ship search, and missile search sensor variants, as well as a new missile fire control suite. 

On April 18, in the early hours of the morning, the first Iowa XR tanker received clearance to depart its moorings.  The preparation was over, it was time for Operation Renewal to begin ...


COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

January 12 -- Uridium is exhausted on Faye. 

January 21 -- Ticonderoga on Machholz is demolished. 

February 10 -- Ticonderoga on Reinmuth is demolished. 

February 16 -- Another most welcome expansion at Sedna is finished, now totalling 36 CMCs. 

March 8 -- The Alaska base on Titan, after years of construction, is finally finished.  The construction brigades are loaded up to head back to Earth. 


LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL

Late January -- Garland Sidhom has made another leap in his abilities.  Too bad he's in biogenetics, but he's nearly doubled his skills in less than a year to nearly reach elite status.  At 60, he's got a decade at most to make his mark.  Right now he's doing background work on improving the efficiency of shipyard operations.  Not exactly what he signed up for.  Clint Wyche is still the man in BG, and in that field there's only room for one top dog ...

Accomplished Elwood Tousant(SF) has also made a significant jump.  He's a real success story, a guy who was given make-work jobs and didn't make much of them at first back when he was a snot-nosed, nigh-incompetent novice.  Certainly a late bloomer, but at 57 and in excellent health he has a lot to offer humanity in the later stages of this century. 

Mid-February -- It's almost literally raining Army talent recently it seems.  Col. Galen Onken is the latest.  He's cut out of the same cloth as Zoe Bean, and many already project that within five years the two of them will be neck-and-neck for the top spot.

Meanwhile, Dr. Cedrick Wormack seems to finally have age catching up with him.  He's in the final weeks of his current project, and his health is failing him.  Also, Curtis Gloster(CP) and one of the novice scientists in the same field have recently seen noted improvements.  Gloster has joined the ranks of the elite now, accelerating his vital work on mining techniques. 

Late February -- Dr. Eva Vadnais retires.   Newbie Ricky Tsutsui will take the vacated lab to work on the prototype SITG Emdar-44.7, the latest in military-grade EM detection. 

Early April -- Despite the health problems, June Aspinwall has developed a minor novice-level affinity for Intelligence operations.

April 14 -- Four more officers are dismissed, three navy and one from the army as well. 


EARTH

February 16 -- Niehuis SY has finished retooling for the Ambassador, and construction has begun.  A late spring finish time is expected. 

March 3 -- The first of the Baltimore Command Carriers is finished.  Only the Iowa XR tanker is now needed for the first ESF. 

March 23 -- Caldwell x4 finished.  The sixth quartet of what has been upped to eight begins. 

April 5 -- A new Nimitz 76c is finished, second in the class, fifth Nimitz overall. 

April 7 -- The fourth and final Brooklyn 72 is ready.  Retooling for the newly designed 81 will require most of the rest of the year. 

April 18 -- The Iowa XR tanker launches, completed the first ESF. 


RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Late February -- SpearPoint DL-12 Laser Cannon Turret finished. 

March 5 -- Orbital Habitat Module finished by Dr. Cedrick Wormack's team, and his expected retirement is made official.   After dividing up his labs between another pair of novices, there is only one unemployed scientist left ...

April 15 -- Julio Kuchler finishes the new active gravitational sensor techniques.  Kuchler needs to take over a new project.  It's the first shakeup of the revised R&D protocols.  He'll take over work on improving fire control tracking speeds, and a number of other projects are suspended to make room for the prototypes to get underway.

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

RENEWAL

April 18 -- By the end of the day, Rear Admiral Hank Rohrer, an accomplished survey officer, had taken command of the first fully-formed ESF and instituted TF ESF Alpha on board the Baltimore 1 Command Carrier!  It was a historic moment.  His first order of businesses was to begin the first fleet exercises that the SPACE Navy has ever conducted. 

Joining him are staff officers Cpt. Shad Gullo(Survey) and Cpt. Asa Hotz(Operations).  Under their command are the following assets:

Baltimore 1 Command Carrier(Cmdr. Warner Godzik)
Gearing 1 Survey Carrier(Cmdr. Christin Dinges)
2x JS Explorer(Lt. Cmdrs. Trevor Lerner, Clement Sarrett)
3x GSV Frontier(Cmdrs. Lavern Camel, Elvin Harnett, Jay Cin V)
3x GEV Prospector(Lt. Cmdrs. Marc Cypriot, Fredrick Holcomb, Alfonso Galyen)

This also lowered Earth's fuel reserves to a shockingly low 2 million litres, SPACE has less than 15 million combined in the tanks when Titan and Callisto are added in.  Most of Titan's supply was immediately shipped to Earth.  It is expected to be a little over a year for the other XR, which will complete ESF Bravo. 

April 22 -- Baltimore 2 is ready, and the Baltimore Marine SY is able to go silent. 

Late April -- Garland Sidhom is in the news again.  He's on an absolute tear and now has elite-level skills as a project lead. 

May -- By the first of the month Earth has dipped under 1.25m liters.  This is scary territory.  The last group of Perrys to be scrapped are inbound just a few days out, and their tanks will be drained beforehand in order to boost the supply.  It's not a huge amount, but about 700-800k can be gained there to make sure supplies last until Titan's shipment comes in. 

Mid-May -- The exercises are supposed to be for the crew, but Rear Admiral Hank Rohrer has gained a meager amount of operations skill in the process. 

May 19th -- The Ambassador is ready.  A team of the best and brightest junior expendables were found.  The sole representative from BOG, Marion Polizzi, concerned many.  This was a lightning-rod of a choice if ever there was one.  She has as fine a skill for diplomacy as anyone, but has a wicked streak in her as well.  She's the kind of diplomat who will make nice to your face, stab you in the back, then dance a jig on your corpse in celebration.  Then again, there's a chance that might be what SPACE needs in this situation ...

Regardless, it's a risky selection.  The team will be led officially by Col. Karen Cotsis, though Polizzi is pulling the strings in actuality.  Col. Jeff Wiechmann along with Lt. Cmdrs. Jean Rickabaugh and Arturo Calnan round out the group. 

Commanding the Ambassador itself, though he's in truth a subordinate on this mission with a duty simply to ferry them around, is Cmdr. Fritz Weinstock.  He's not exactly overjoyed by the assignment but as someone who knows how to keep the peace and get things done, he's definitely the right man for the job. 

It would only take a little over five days to reach the jump.  Final approval was obtained from Fleet Command for the first jump in almost 23 years.  After this long, there was no way to know what to expect.  It could be years of nothing, or it could be very 'exciting' and brief.  The sane ones hoped earnestly for the first option.

May 24, 0328 -- Final approval from the two Forrestals at the point where nothing has ever once been detected was obtained.  The Ambassador was enveloped in a bluish hue ... and then disappeared. 

And the waiting began. 

May 27 -- Triton's base is demolished.  A DSTS is already on the way.  Only Sedna's remains. 

June 2 -- SITG ThermoScan 121(Bessie Wallander) is finished. 

June 6 -- Long Beach completed. 

June 15 -- Final Long Beach finished, sixth group deployed.  Long regarded as the most incompetent researcher in SPACE, David Gruis(PP, 47) has reached accomplished status.  He may yet become actually important before he retires ...

Some thought was given to whether the two dozen Long Beach are actually enough.  The tanks are at about 13m right now, a concerning situation but most of the ships that need to be built have been built.  Still, with another tanker coming next year, another Gearing coming at the end of the year, and who knows what else, the mine shipments are drawing more fuel ... building up a reserve for the future will require massive amounts.  They'll be needed eventually for certain, so why wait.  Another two groups of four are ordered, and the slipways resume their active state at the P&A Group SY.  Ironically when the Long Beach was first proposed, it was considered by some ridiculously massive and far more than SPACE would ever need.  About that ...

Another two slipways are ordered as well.  With this many harvesters it will take a very long time to refit them all if and when that becomes necessary.  With most of the mineral stockpiles stable and duranium slowly edging upwards, Director Awad is gambling that it's an affordable expense.  And can we really afford not to do it?

Mid June -- Gallicite exhausted on Halley's Comet

June 19 -- The Ambassador returns.  It has been less than four weeks since it jumped out. 

DIPLOMATIC MISSION LOG -- EPSILON ERIDANI

May 24, System Entry.  Wrecks on the Pioneers are still visible about 1.5b km from the jump, right where they were reported almost a quarter century ago.  It was a rather morbid and gruesome sight, an apparently permanent graveyard in space.  They had not been touched.  Apparently the aliens don't consider our technology worth the effort of salvaging.  That's ... well that's beyond words.

Still, they were here to do a job.  25 years after first contact, the diplomatic channels were officially opened.  Would anyone respond?  Were they even still here to do so? 

The answer didn't take long.  Within the first day, long-range sensor instruments determined that something out there was receiving the messages.  There was no question, they were still here.  Somewhere.  Probably near the wrecks.  But no response was made.  Either they couldn't understand us, or they didn't care to reply.  Neither was encouraging. 

The team was already beginning to sense their mission might well be futile.

June 4 -- Just as the team officially noted that it looked like establishing contact might be impossible, there were a few small signs of progress over the next week. 

June 19 -- That was really the only positive note in the log unforunately.  Before and after that opening week of June, it was more a situation of one step forward, two or three steps back.  On this date, 25 days after the beginning of the mission, team lead Cotsis had to report that they had simply run out of options. 

The mission was a failure.  The aliens are simply too different, there's no basis for meaningful, effective communication and in the unanimous opinion of the team we are only antagonizing them by further attempts.  Cmdr. Godzik had no choice but to accept the verdict and jump back to Sol. 

SPACE Sector Command was not pleased at the news, but it was not entirely unexpected either.  We made the effort.  We tried to attempt peace.  They've shown they aren't interested or capable of it repeatedly.  There is only one option available.  It's been true in a de facto state for a generation, but Director Awad made it official. 

Humanity is now officially at war with the aliens in Epsilon Eridani.  This cold war can only end with the surrender and/or extermination of one or the other.  SPACE's #1 priority is to make sure we win a fight we cannot afford to lose.  All other concerns are secondary. 

Late June -- With only the Sedna base left to deal with, Awad orders the next step in resolving the base situation.  Mercury, Venus, and the four moons of Jupiter are still without any protection.  Enough prefabricated Ticonderogas exist to handle all of them twice over.  Yes they are basically 'stone-age' technology from the mid-60s, but they are something. 

June 25 -- Diplo team arrives back on earth.  A mysterious accident kills a junior naval at the same time, around 10 AM GST.  The two incidents are probably unrelated, but the intranet goes crazy with conspiracy theorists' unsupported allegations and speculation. 

July 1 -- Mercury and Venus have everything in place, and a single construction brigade begins work on each of their respective Ticonderoga bases. 

Early July -- Navy Chief Mitchell Feeser adds a bit of Logistics knowledge to his resume, and the  last of the Perrys are scrapped. 

July 10 -- Io and Callisto begin work on the Ticonderogas there, the other two moons await incoming construction brigades.  So far all of them are expected to be finished early next year.  Also, research finished on Small Troop Transport Bay, fit for a company, though we have no units that small yet.  Alphonse Lambeth led the work.

Mid-July -- RA Parker Lanzi has become accomplished in her current posting as Communications Officer at Fleet HQ. 

Director Riley Awad, and to a lesser extent the public, is growing impatient with the continuing 'fleet exercises'.  Over the strenuous objection of Chief Feeser and Rear Admiral Rohrer, he orders ESF Alpha to get going and stop the exercises.  They want another five months in addition to three already spent in order to get to what the navy feels is a sufficient level of training and coordination.  Awad goes apoplectic at that notion, pointing out that this isn't some complicated combat maneuver they're being asked to perform -- it's survey operations.  With the current fuel situation, they can't afford to burn more of it up with these training exercises, and delaying the mission isn't an option either. 

Combining the concerns for a shakedown run and fuel supply issues, with the rare optimal position of Saturn at nearly the same bearing as the Barnard's Star point, the furthest one in Sol, Awad orders ESF Alpha there first.  There won't be a better chance in terms of a good refueling point.  Saturn takes almost a 30-year path around the sun, so while it's a very unglamorous place to start it served as a useful compromise and made practical sense with the goal to survey all the systems eventually anyway. 

July 15 -- After topping off at Earth, ESF Alpha breaks orbit and heads for Barnard's Star.  It's almost a four-month journey, so it'll be late in the year before they arrive.  Operation Renewal was officially underway.  It was expected to take most of the decade to map the six systems. 

July 20 -- Sedna's Tennessee base is the last to be destroyed. 

July 24 -- Construction begins on the final two Ticonderoga bases on Europa and Ganymede.

August -- ESF Alpha has passed through the asteroid field and is nearing Jupiter orbit path. 

July 27 -- Caldwell finished(x4).  Two more groups to go. 

Mid-August -- Sedna expands again, now at 37 complexes.

September -- Now roughly midway between Saturn and Uranus orbits, ESF Alpha's progress is agonizingly slow for most observers on Earth. 

Early September --  Lt. Cmdr. Bandus Meian has a less horrible initiative now. 

September 25 -- The final DSTS departs for Sedna.  Research Lab and Ordnance Factory production are increased to pre-election levels(33 and 13 percent respectively). 

October -- ESF Alpha has reached the midpoint between Uranus and Neptune orbits. 

Early October -- Dr. Rosemary Urenda has bumped her already elite skills up again.  Anything that gets ion drives here sooner is worthy of praise.

** At this point, a power loss cost me notes on what happened for about the next year and a half.  I can recreate the major events, just not specific personnel/research stuff.  Thankfully Aurora saves constantly.  I need to do a better job of doing that myself **

Mid-November -- ESF Alpha reaches the jump and departs for Barnard's Star, which was discovered and last visited back in 2055.  It's time now to wait ... and hope that humanity has better luck this time around than they did in the 50s. 

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

** The next couple or so posts will be summary-style, covering the year and a half of details that I lost. **

November 2081 - March 2082

On November 11 2081 ESF Alpha jumped out to the Barnard's Star system after a successful scout by Explorer 1.  They were not heard from for the rest of the year, nor were they expected to be.  Nobody had any real idea how long it would take to scout a system, and doubtless it would vary depending on the system, but it was assumed a few weeks would definitely not be enough.

SPACE rang in the new year in 2082 with a bit of political debate.  Well, more than a bit actually.  Gross colonial population had finally reached 10% of the total, and a significant political force they were becoming.  Previous proposals to move factories, research labs, etc. to the colonies had never gotten anywhere largely because they were simply wasteful.  Earth is a fairly central location in Sol, and why ship more personnel and equipment all over the system than necessary?   This time however, the colonials had found an issue with a legitimate argument behind it -- sort of.  Their proposal gave birth to the Clemson Controversy.

The Clemson was a proposed tug ship, using tractor beam technology that SPACE has had for a a while now but not used.  The proposed ship would be capable of hauling the P&A Group SY, responsible for Long Beach harvesters, to Titan.  There it would be closer to Saturn's massive harvesting operation for purposes of refitting, building new ships, etc.  Time and fuel would be saved.  All of this was very good in theory, but deflected eventually by the fact that Titan was about a million short of the three million workers needed to operate the shipyard.  The bigger issue of the colonies would not go away though:  they have 10% of the population and only 1.5% of the lucrative TN industrial jobs, those in maintenance facilities and mines on Titan and Europa.  The shipyards, factories, and research labs, by far the  biggest employers, had 100% of their operations on earth and the colonialists are increasingly unhappy about.  Naturally the Earth Firsters love it and want to keep it that way.

Director Riley Awad soon proved that, like most politicians, he paid little head to Hesitations 5:18("all those who remain on the fence shall receive splinters").  He straddled the issue and reinstituted the 2% Initiative.  This time however, it would be directed towards terraforming installations.  A 3-4 year timeline would be required for each installation, delivered to the colonies as a way for them to both have higher-paying high-tech TN jobs and improve the living conditions at the same time.  From SPACE's point of view, it also provided a dry run on establishing best practices for terraforming ahead of the eventual need for them in colonization efforts. 

The spring would provide another challenge.  On March 9 the last of the Ticonderogas were finished on the moons of Jupiter, and the positive elements of the vision put forward 17 years previous by India Rakes in terms of bases throughout Sol were completed.  Of course these bases were also basically two decades old technology wise at this point, and the Alaskas on Earth certainly remain SPACE's best, perhaps only, chance at repelling an alien attack should it ever come.  So much has changed that when the redesigns eventually came, it proved far cheaper to build new bases than refit the old ones.  Director Awad put SPACE on a path to build new updated bases by 2100, a path that requires about a fifth of Earth's industry for the first several years of that effort.  The biggest takeaway from the redesign is that defending humanity is going to require a staggeringly increasing amount of resources in the future.  SPACE is really starting to feel the pinch in terms of needing to get colonization beyond Sol going in order to bring in more resources.  It isn't that painful yet, but it will get progressively more so as time goes on.  Earth's industrial base has not expanded in a long time, and won't be doing so anytime in the near future due to the navy's ravenous and ever-growing need for resources, duranium espescially.  The only way out is to find more. 

Alaska 82 Missile Base

Size:  22.7kt(53.7 kt)
Crew:  709(1025)
Armament:  25 Defender 76 Missile Launchers, 250 missile capacity(previously 400 missiles, same launchers), half standard and half higher-payload P versions;  4 CIWS 79 Batteries(18 CIWS I)
Sensors:  2 each thermal, EM, and active grav military-grade standard
Armor:  10 layers composite(10 layers duranium)
Troop Capacity:  1 brigade(same)
Cost:  3.53m(4.51m)

The big reduction in CIWS is due to the previous amount being considered extravagantly large.  Hopefully we won't ever have to find out if that's correct.  Otherwhise the sensors are both much better and much smaller, the missiles faster and more powerful, and the cost down quite a bit as well. 

Ticonderoga 82 Sensor Base

Size:  3.7 kt(2.95 kt)
Crew:  24(16)
Armament:  1 CIWS 79 Battery
Sensors:  Mark IV Commercial variants
Armor:  8 layers composite(5 layers duranium)
Troop Capacity:  1 battalion(same)
Cost:  198k

Other than upgraded sensors, the main difference is thicker armor and the needed addition of a CIWS battery.  Any kind of massed attack would still be a problem, really anything other than an armed scout ship.  In that case the support of the fleet would be needed.  It's more about the appearance of safety than actual safety. 

The necessity of building these bases meant that other priorities like mine expansion, research labs, etc. had to receive reduced priority. 

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

April - August 2082

It was a quiet spring after the bustle of base-building activity and political back-and-forth of the first few months of the year.  It ended up being the calm between the storms however.  In June, at almost exactly the same time, ESF Bravo was finished and ESF Alpha returned from Barnard's Star.  This lit a fire under Bravo to get their training exercises done as soon as possible so they could get in on the fun.  Rear Admiral Parker Lanzi, a bit perturbed that she hadn't gotten the first flotilla, was nabbed to lead Bravo.   Among her Frontier commanders was one Daniel Watters. 

Barnard's Star Survey Report
ESF Alpha, June 2082

Jump Points

One additional jump point was found in the system, to Gliese 563.2.  It's almost directly across Barnard's Star from the Sol jump, a 2.3b km distance, so from Earth to Gliese 563.2 is about 8.2b km.   

Geological Survey

There wasn't much to evaluate here, the geosurvey took just over a month.  186kt of sorium was found on the gas giant at the same 0.7 accessibility as Saturn has.  This gives the system potential as a refueling point at least.  The fifth moon has 636kt of highly inaccessible(0.1) duranium.  The other moons and asteroids were found to be completely barren.

No evidence of alien civilizations, past or present, was found. 



New System -- Gliese 563.2

This is a rather incredible system.  The report was hard to believe until the spectography was analyzed and confirmed.  It's a binary system, but a binary of such massive scale as to be inconceivable.  The secondary star orbits at an incomprehensibly far 93 billion kilometers from the primary.  That is not a typo.  Almost 100 billion km.  In the diagram below, the asteroid field shown is about six times larger in diameter than the outer one in Sol(the one that contains Pluto, past the orbits of all the planets).  Even Sedna is only about as 30% as far from the sun as these objects are from Gliese 563.2 A. 

Gliese 563.2 B is a royal tease.  It has three terrestrial planets, a super jovian, couple of gas giants, lots of moons ... and the second planet is almost as good as the planet in Sirius for habitation.  It's just about 30 degrees too cold, very fixable with the right terraforming.  Nothing a little greenhouse effect coudn't fix.  None of that matters of course, because it would take a survey ship almost two and a half years just to get there.  And that's the good part -- getting any amount of equipment there would be obscenely difficult, and of course it's several times the effective range of mass drivers so any resources would have to be shipped back at exorbitant costs.  For the same reason, the asteroid field is a non-starter.

Still, the inner system around A is not a thing to be disregarded.  Three terrestrial planets, one of which is a lot closer to Mars/Luna than Titan in terms of being habitable and could be terraformed to be much better -- the biggest problem right now is flouride in the atmosphere that would need to be removed, it would also need more oxygen and some carbon dioxide to up the temperature.  A reasonably long-term investment, but the presence of four more gas giants complete with 80 moons makes it very likely to be a good long-term investment. 



Back in Sol, ESF Alpha reported 92% fuel, no major maintenance issues, all systems were green so the refueling at Saturn was bypassed and the flotilla headed directly to Luyten 726-8.  The shakedown cruise was over and a smashing success, all ships had worked as intended and lived to tell about it. 

SPACE was not allowed to celebrate this success for long.  In early July, they were rocked by the sudden retirement of Earth governor Francesco Alborn.  Alborn had finally arrived on the political scene it seemed, and was considered a very fitting lieutenant to Riley Awad.  Unfortunately there are some things medical science still can't fix.  An inoperable brain tumor forced him out of office and the rest of his life was sure to be very brief.

Practically speaking this meant various beauracrats had to share in holding things together on Earth for the next couple of years.  Factory and shipyard production slowed down considerably, espescially the latter.  Humanity was also deprived of a chance to really celebrate the first completely surveyed system outside of Sol, as with the shock of Alborn's tragic departure came a certain amount of uncertainty. 

By the time fall arrived, ESF Alpha was in Luyten 726-8, and Bravo on it's way to Teegarden's Star for it's shakedown run.  The two flotillas would meet in the 'middle', Alpha taking the jumps to the left of the system and Bravo those on the right. 

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

** Note:  This brings us up to where my log resumes**

September 2082 - June 2083

In late 2082 and early 2083 the biggest issue was fuel.  The SDF began training as there were now several each of the Brooklyn and Nimitz classes in service and they needed to be ready should the worst come.  the P&A Group SY was constantly busy building more Long Beach harvesters.  Every time it looked like there would be enough after another group or two, something new(like the Defender 76 missiles, for example) would come up needing more and the building continued.  It was somewhere in this time period that the shipyard was expanded to allow for additional slipways:  four at a time just wasn't enough with this level of demand.  Most of the time the combined tanks stayed around 12-15 million litres.  This was enough to refuel anything that was needed, but not enough for any semblance of comfort level.  It's just a fraction of what the navy can go through in a year. 

In the spring of 83 both ESFs returned.  Bravo set course for the much-anticipated Sirius system, while Alpha headed to Van Maanen.  Incredibly, both were due to jump out within three minutes of each other on the same day, leading many in SPACE to bet on who would finish their survey first and therefore get to do the final one in Lalande 21185. 

** If I recall correctly, and I probably don't, it was sometime in April that they jumped to the new systems**

Luyten 726-8 Survey Report
ESF Alpha, Spring 2083

Jump Points

Three were found by the time the gravitational survey was a third over with, leading many to think this would be another major hub system like Sol.  No more were found after that, but still, three new systems were discovered:  Tau Ceti, Lacaille 9352, and Epsilon Indi. 

Geological Survey

The key feature of Luyten 726-8 is that it is the only known system outside of Sol with comets.  Five of them, four of which are close enough to survey.  All were found to contain sufficient quantities of accessible, important minerals to make them worth the price of development.

Comet #1:  5.3 kt neutronium(0.9), 16+kt corundium(1.0), as well as five minor minerals in varying amounts.
Comet #2:  29.8 kt duranium(0.9), 348 t gallicite(0.7), five minor minerals most notably 176 kt of tritanium
Comet #4:  19.7 kt corundium(1.0), some vendarite and sorium as well
Comet #5:  17.9 kt mercassium(1.0) and each of the six minor minerals also

Luyten 726-8 B's system was surveyed first.  It was barren except for 1.4 mt(1.0) of sorium on the third planet, a gas giant.  That makes this an excellent refueling station, as it's more accessible than Saturn's reserves.

The primary star was found to contain the stuff dreams are made of.  The first planet contains 991 kt duranium(0., and four minor minerals at lesser accessibilities, a total efficiency of 23 which is not great but ok.  Most important though is that this is the best single source of duranium known.  It's only a fraction of Venus's deposits but far more accessible, and about twice as big as major sources such as Triton and Sedna in Sol were with similar extraction rates.  The rest of the system was barren. 

New System -- Tau Ceti

The jump here is astonishingly close ... a mere 32m km away!  Even better, this system has everything you could want, save comets.  It has a couple terrestrial planets, the second of which is great in terms of gravity and temperature:  it just needs oxygen added to the atmosphere.  This would be a pretty quick terraforming job, 50 years for a single installation to make it earth-like.  Two gas giants, a super jovian, a fair number of moons, and 30 asteroids sweeten the pot.   Definitely a big prospect for further surveying. 

The distance from Sol to Tau Ceti is 6.5b, but if Luyten 726-8 were settled that distance would become negligible.  Even so it's still much closer than Gliese 563.2. 

New System -- Lacaille 9352

The jump here is 2.36b out, in the outer edges of an asteroid field containing 100 or so objects.  In other respects it's a virtual copy of Tau Ceti.  Actually has more terrestrials for possible colonization, it could become a virtual cornocopia of colonies like Sol eventually.  The second planet will need a little more terraforming(2-3 times as much) in this case because it has a thicker atmosphere, but temperature and gravity are again right in range.  Plenty of potential gas giants for fuel sources. 

6.6 b km from Sol.  It's a poor man's Tau Ceti, which means it's still very much worth investigating.

New System -- Epsilon Indi

This system grabs your attention right way with the fact that it's a tertiary system -- three stars!  Unfortunately B and C are relegated to distant observers.  They only have one unimpressive planet between them anyway, but more importantly is that B, closely orbited by C, is a staggering 230 billion km away from the primary star A.  Give or take, maybe a little under 230 billion.   Hard to be accurate at such a hilariously distant range, which is well over twice as distant as the secondary in Gliese 563.2.  And of course it doesn't matter.

A has an observer of it's own, a dwarf that spends it's time 43b km out.  Almost four Sedna's away.  All the good stuff is under 2b, a very workable margin.  Another good terrestrial as the second planet, though not as good -- it's like Mars or Luna, right temp and gravity but it needs an atmosphere.  One super jovian and gas giant each with the usual amount of moons for each, so it's still another good system but definitely not in the same category as the first two.  About the same distance as Lacaille from Sol as well. 

Summary/Evaluation

Things would be much better if the second planet, by far the most habitable one, had the minerals instead.  The first planet where they actually are is roughly Mercury in terms of habitability, so it's definitely a case where we'd need to colonize the second planet, putting automines on the first and the comets and a refueling station at the third planet of the B star.  That station would typically be only about 800m km away, as compared to the 1.4b km Saturn is in Sol, so even travel times would be better.  The drawback is there is nowhere around the B star for a decent colony -- the one terrestrial is about four times more inhospitable than Venus -- so all we could do is slap a DSTS for detection on that and the harvesters would need to travel further for shore leave.  It would still be a better scenario all things considered. 

Luyten 726-8 has plusses in every category.  With jumps to three other promising systems it is strategically important, it has a good if somewhat limited(comparatively) source of fuel, the duranium on A-I could help considerably in stemming the impact of the eventual duranium crash when Sedna goes out of business, and the comets contain enough of the big four minerals to serve at least as a stopgap source to buy some time.  No sign of any alien civilizations was found either.  There's no question Luyten has leaped to the head of the class in terms of colonization targets. 





Teegarden's Star Survey Report
ESF Bravo, Spring 2083

Jump Points

For the first time, none were found save the one back to Sol.  This is a dead end, which has it's own positives in a way.  No alien race has access to it. 

Geological Survey

Bravo did not receive high marks for the fact that, noticed well after they returned to Sol, one of the planets was skipped completely.  Having said that, the survey was largely underwhelming.  The asteroid field is completely useless.  Planet I has huge amounts of duranium, neutronium, and tritanium that are all virtually inaccessible.  Planet IV is suspiciously similar to Saturn.  It has 11.3 mt of sorium(0.7, like Saturn), which is far more than will ever be needed in this system since it doesn't lead anywhere.  The third of it's moons is a near-copy of Titan in terms of the cost of living there -- and it has the big find of the system:

24.5 mt duranium(0.1)
24 mt tritanium(0.1)
37 mt boronide(0.1)
640 kt vendarite(0.1)
2.25 mt sorium(0.3)
20.3 mt corundium(0.

The last is obviously the most important there.  With a sufficiently large mining operation on that ball of rock corundium concerns are history for the forseeable future.  A large enough terraforming operation could eventually improve it as well, but it's very cold and would need a crushing atmosphere to heat it up enough so it's never going to be a paradise. 

The third planet is also worth developing, not the planet itself but it has three useful moons.  The first two have accessible duranium at about 40kt each, which would help greatly in building up the infrastructure the 'Titan' moon would need.  The third has 14kt of neutronium, which is always useful. 

Summary/Evaluation

Developing the corundium here has to be a long-term objective at least.  It will be 24 years before Ikeya-Zang in Sol is within safe mass driver range:  it remains to be seen whether it will be practical to develop Teegarden's Star before that.  Even if it isn't, that's only 82 kt and would last only decades at best. 





Director Awad made a couple of immediate decisions upon receiving these reports.  There was no longer any point to having sensors at a dead-end jump, so the Teegarden Forrestals were recalled.  He also began the process of the biggest development contract in the history of SPACE:  nearly 10 million credits to Akheton Corp. for a jump drive capable of propelling a ship of South Carolina-magnitude.  No other development contract has been much more than a third of that, most of the government's general-purpose research is still less.  It's about how much was spent to develop Jump Theory and some of the more involved advances so far achieved.  It was now clear, however, that colonization beyond Sol was coming.  Now that there was proof the resources are there, we needed to be able to move large quantities of equipment through the jumps.

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

JULY - SEPTEMBER 2083

On July 9th, Dr. Curtis Gloster, the top construction scientist the last 15 years or so, basically since icon Deacon Palmer retired, finishes new improved mining techniques which should result in a 15% improvement in output across the board.   It was no particular leap of technology that achieved this, but rather standardizing of various best practices discovered through SPACE's decades of experience across Sol.  At 67, he has decided to retire.  So too did Mike Minaya(BG), at age 66.  Minaya was a good though not great project lead, but working in a limited field he still had a difficult time getting consistent work. 

At the same time, it was notice that a couple others had slipped through the cracks and were continuing to work against medical advice.  After the Juishao incident SPACE cannot afford to let these matters continue on.  Harlan Welle(only quality scientist in MK) and Shanon Patteson(CP, working on the followup to improve construction rates along with the better mining results) both are forced out as well.  Welle was 68, Patteson 65. 

This hurt the construction & production field considerably with the two top researchers retiring.  By the time the dust had settled, the reorganization had active projects up to 33, and most of the newcomers including a bevy of novice energy weapons scientists had something to work on.  The missiles & kinetic weapons field though ... is scary bad.  Novice Elyse Buckler, who is 32 and hasn't really developed much, is the only one there is.  It's one of the busier fields -- or should I say, it ought to be -- but there's not going to be a whole lot getting done for the forseeable future.

On August 23, another first as the initial ship of the Brooklyn 81 class was deployed.  The next month provided a real day to remember.  On September 14, Dr. Rosemary Urenda announced that ion drive research had been successful and produced initial proof-of-concept reports and testing.  While she moved on to work on the new commercial jump drive, great news in and of itself since that was crucial to the colonization efforts, the ripple effects of this advance were rather seismic throughout major segments of SPACE.  It's not every day that a new type of engine comes along:  it's been more than 20 years that nuclear thermal pulse was the standard-bearer. 

The rest of the Power & Propulsion field suspends their current projects to work on the bevy of engines that will now need to be prototyped.  There are six of them, three novice and three accomplished.  It's a strong group overall, as strong as in any field.  And yet they will find themselves very busy.  The new engines needed are as follows.  Note that all military engines are thermal shielded(35% emissions), while the commercial engines are not.  Initial testing shows an impressive 50% increase in propulsion power, meaning that once these are fielded all ships, espescially the warships, will be that much more effective.  Advances in fuel efficiency will help greatly in keeping the increased drain on the harvesters to a minimum. 

JPS ID 36 -- military-grade thruster, standard power ratio, 150 tons.  Used in the Forrestal sensor vessels and the survey ships(Explorer/Frontier/Prospector). 

JPS ID 63 -- military-grade thruster, maximum power ratio(175%), 150 tons.  Used for the Caldwell VIP shuttles.

Vertigo 72/108/144/180 -- Four engines of varying sizes(200/300/400/500-ton varieties) for the combat ships, slightly increased power ratio(125%).  Some debate was had over increasing this.  Fuel consumption increases exponentially with overclocking of the core reactions, but the fact of the matter is that the Navy intends to use the next generation of ships in a more mobile capacity and needs every advantadge it can get.  Current designs(Brooklyn '81, Nimitz '76c) use less than 2.5% of their space for fuel.  It is decided that the need for more speed is paramount and this round will be designed with 150% ratios.  As a result the overall power increase will be 80% over the current Phoenix variants, with a resultant overall speed increase expected to approach that.  This won't make us as fast as the alien ships we encountered in Epsilon Eridani in the 50s, but it should bridge a significant part of the gap. 

Eagle 60/72 -- It is not worthwhile to use such overclocked engines on survey ships such as the Gearing and Baltimore classes.  For them, speed is important but so is fuel efficiency.  Therefore the military series of engines is split into two parts, one for combat and one for non-combat ships.  These will actually see reduced power ratios to the standard configuration.  This will make them more fuel-efficient yet still faster in spite of it.   The current engines being used on these ships are 300 tons, so a 250 and 300-ton variety being developed for the Eagle series ensures the navy will have the opportunity to optimize a bit for the next-gen in case a little more space needs to be squeezed in for something else. 

WP ID  120/240 -- As before, these are unshielded engines.  Prior iterations have used the standard commercial power ratio of 50%.  While we can gain much greater efficiencies by lowering it as far as 25%, speed is not irrelevant.  At this point though, ion drives make our engines powerful enough that it is thought best to begin reducing the ratios some amount further.  This time around a 40% strikes what is thought to be an appropriate balance.  These engines are 20% faster and 30+% more efficient than the existing nuclear thermal-pulse varieties. 

That's ten engine prototypes needed, and it doesn't include the relatively  miniature engines needed for a new round of missiles.  The picture clouded even more when the Navy began to consider that issue ...


RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

** July 9 -- Curtis Gloster finishes improved mining production.  He and other top scientists retire. 

** August 15 -- Research completed on enhanced efficiency, one-quarter power engines(Reynaldo Darrington). 


COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

July 19 -- Sedna is up to 38 CMCs now.  Just over 43 years now left with this expansion and the improved mining.  The clock is ticking ...

August 6 -- A new Shipment of mines to Tempel-Tuttle leaves Earth.


LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL

July 9 -- Researchers Curtis Gloster, Mike Minaya, Harlan Welle, and Shanon Patteson all retire. 

July 23 -- New member of BOG:  Sara Seals.  Good news is she's aleady elite in large-scale management.  Bad news ... solid abilities in shipbuilding is the only other skill she has. 


EARTH

August 23 -- First Brooklyn 81 finished. 

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

NAVAL IMPACT -- ION DRIVES

What interested Naval Command even more was how these would change anticipated missile effectiveness.  With virtually no progress being made in the field there is no point to waiting for further advances in missile agility, payload, etc.  None will be forthcoming in the near future.  Therefore one of the most important questions the Navy has ever had to answer is whether or not ion drives change the relative balance of power enough to justify an eventual attempt to drive the aliens out.

BEAM WEAPON DEFENSE

At present our best tracking speed against missiles is 12-16k km/s, depending on how long we've had them detected to better anticipate their future location.  Kuchler is presently working on upping that speed to 16-20k km/s, which is just barely passable against an incoming weapon of the estimated 15-30k km/s.  A very large fire control required to get the necessary range to ensure the missiles wouldn't cross the entire engagement envelope before there would be a chance to fire, but it was possible.   

MISSILE ANALYSIS

Three different missile types were considered here.  The standard anti-ship defender 76 has a hit rate a little over 50%, the higher-payload P variant is only about 30% but still considered probably the better option since it has more than twice the punch, and the anti-missile Interceptor, merely a concept at the last evaluation, had an estimated hit rate of just 9%.  On the last score we must emphasize that this is a guess based on the rough estimate of enemy missile speed which covered a wide range.  About a 20% hit rate is considered necessary to make that a viable weapon system. 

Current doctrine, which is a rough guestimate at best, calls for a 70m km range on the anti-ship missiles.  The new Defender standard would be better than 50% faster, with a hit rate of 78%!  The P variant is almost exactly 50% faster than the previous, and at a hit rate of 48% is considered nearly 40% more effective now in simulations.  These missiles travel 19.6 and 17.5 km/s respectively, which puts them in the low end of the range of known alien capabilities.  This is a very significant development in the minds of Navy brass -- we are getting close to matching their recorded, quarter-century-old capabilities.

As for the Interceptor concept, it doesn't need nearly the range.  Our current missile sensors have the capability of detecting an incoming missile at 2m km.  That means a range longer than  thatis pretty much useless.  Right now we are in the 15-30% hit range for the target speeds for this missile, which isn't great but good enough. 

NAVAL DOCTRINE

The current designs of the Nimitz and Brooklyn are based on the assumption that there is no effective defense against alien missiles.  The Navy's most recent analysis, summarized above, stipulates that this may no longer be the case.  This fact called for a wholesale revision in ship design and combat doctrine.  Under the old assumption, all ships operated independently, with their own detection systems since there was no way to protect any kind of centralized 'early-warning' ship.  The doctrine called for 'aggressive defense', i.e. multiple independent weapons platforms to overwhelm the enemy with massed firepower before they could destroy us.  It was primarily designed to defend against an enemy attack. 

Every ship having its own sensors was both highly inefficient and undeniably necessary.  Now that there is the prospect of potentially shooting down incoming alien missiles, this reality is changing.   The question is, has it changed enough?  Practically speaking, that question has to be considered irrelevant at this juncture.  With next to no progress expected on the missile research front, the question is really are we prepared to wait another generation before beginning to deal with the threat in Epsilon Eridani.  That could easily take 20 or more years.  Humanity's growing need to expand beyond Sol makes this an extremely dubious proposition, and the Navy is very disinclined to wait.  It is also worth remembering that our knowledge of their capabilities is extremely limited and also 25 years old.  There's no way for the Navy to be ready without better intelligence information, and there's only one way to obtain that is to go get it. 

We have waited long enough.  It is time to set plans in motion to repel them.  In order to do this, the Navy will no longer divide it's ships between beam and missile variants, but attempt to use combined-arms theory.  This new approach calls for retirement of the Brooklyn and Nimitz concepts, and an initial division into three new classes of ships:  a command ship which will have more powerful sensors, increased armor and CIWS defenses, and be protected at all costs by an escort class.  These escorts will contain anti-missile weapons systems(meson cannons and Interceptor missiles).   This should in theory allow for a staggered approach with a better chance to weaken the incoming salvos at least, and also allow for valuable intel on the effectiveness of both weapons systems.    The third class will serve much the same role as the current Nimitz, a missile ship carrying a new missile based on the same principles as the Defender.  This has been termed the Exorcist. 

All of this requires new prototypes across the board. Sensors of every kind.  Reduced-size missile launchers to maximize firepower -- reload time will suffer but this is more than considered an acceptable trade-off.    Larger power plants.  And of course two more engines, one for each variety of missile.  Once the blueprints for the new, larger sensors were hammered out for the sensor/command ships, the general effect of these new changes was to double the Interceptor range and more than triple the Exorcist from the Defender to about 250m km.  This does lower the hit chance a bit, it will now have about a 36-37% rate but stand a much better chance of not simply being outranged.  The Interceptor will have an effective range of about 4m km, at a simulation-estimated hit rate of 14.5-29%.  As many as six volleys could potentially be launched at a single missile wave, though practically speaking that is more likely to be two, maybe three. 

This massive initiative was dubbed Operation Frozen Vengeance, the preparation stages of which has begun.   They do say it's a dish best served cold ... and what is colder than the void of space?  The goal of Frozen Vengeance is to bring battle to the aliens in Epsilon Eridani by the end of the century, aiming to drive them from the system, stop the desecration of the long-dead tombs that are the Pioneer wrecks, and push them away from the doorstep to Sol. 

Similarly to the PP field, Sensors & Fire Control cancels four ongoing projects to focus on prototyping the new systems.   At least five years expected before all systems are ready and Frozen Vengeance can be turned over to the shipyard engineers.

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2083

A little of this and that, but no major news in the final few months of the year.  SPACE is awaiting word from survey operations in Sirius and Van Maanen, expected fairly early next year. 


LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL

September 16 -- Accomplished PP scientist Norris Gunterman moves up yet again. 

September 22 -- Riley Awad makes a slight increase in accomplished wealth creation skills.  Russell Salvucci and Burt Stonerock have also seen minor increases this year. 

November 2 -- Adolfo Walth(DS, 40) is up to Accomplished level now with a nice bump to his efficiency.  Currently he's doing early work on a more deflective version of composite armor. 

December 15 -- A new sensors scientist(Sung Padro) is not particularly notable on his own, but with him on the case all of the new electronics as well as the new quad-meson cannon turret are in the prototype phase.  Half of the engines are still idle of course, and the new missiles will have to wait for them, there'll be magazines for the missiles and new fire controls for the mesons.  But a considerable portion of the components needed for Frozen Vengeance are now in the testing phase, enough for SPACE to say things are underway. 


EARTH

November 8 -- Assault and Mobile Infantry Battalions finished on earth.  Two more Assault Infantry queued up. 


COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

November 18 -- Corbomite deposits exhausted on the comet Borrelly. 

December 2 -- Sedna expands to 39 complexes.

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

NAVY RETIREMENTS

** Rear Admiral June Aspinwall.  A veteran and steady voice, Aspinwall has led the SSF(commercial wing of the Navy) for the past six years.  She is respected without being flashy, and will be missed in the admiralty. 

** Commander Val Peevy.  A fixture on low-level bases or warships the last decade.  Peevy will perhaps best be known for having the honor to take out the first ship of the most recent Nimitz iteration, the 76c. 

** Commander Conor Zavier.  For 15 years after making commander rank at the respectable age of 31, Zavier hovered near the bottom of the rank.  This most recent tour he managed to get himself a posting at the Lalande jump on sensor duty, and recent improvements weren't nearly enough to stave off forced retirement.

** Commander Charles Holiday.  A similar story to Zavier, he finished his career with a six-year stint at the Sirius JP. 

** Commander Tatiana Scheutz avoids the same fate, as she is presently on survey duty with ESF Bravo in the Sirus system. 

** 7 Lieutenant Commanders as well. 

A sizable chunk of the junior ship COs will need to be replaced, but the power structure at the top is still intact. Due to the number of retirees it will be some while before the Navy replaces Aspinwall.  The admiralty will revert to five for a while. 

ARMY RETIREMENTS

** Chief of the Army Anton Engelhardt would normally be set for forced retirement at age 60, but he has no wish to leave yet and is still in excellent health.  SPACE will keep him on for at least another tour. 

** 4 colonels

MILITARY CHARACTER UPDATE

Cmdr. Daniel Watters -- 39th out of 42.  Last known location was gravsurvey duty in the Sirius system with ESF Bravo. 
Cmdr. Jay Cin V -- 29th.  Gravsurvey duty as well, but in Van Maanen with ESF Alpha. 
Lt. Cmdr. Jessica Sattler -- 17th out of 126.  Moves from a busy tour ferrying the construction brigades around to one of the Tarawa-class colliers.  Her first order of business is immediately taking the final shipment of Defender 76 missiles to Titan.  Routine perhaps, but inherently dangerous work with 175 15-ton payloads in her ship. 
Lt. Cmdr. Bandus Meian -- 63rd.  Moves to one of the South Carolina superfreighters, where he'll likely see the occasional run delivering automines or prefabricated PDC sections here and there. 
Lt. Cmdr. Dirk Blade -- 55th.  A little more activity now as he joins the throng at Saturn on a Long Beach harvester. 
Lt. Cmdr. Syrus Cassio -- 62nd.  He's on freighter duty with one of the huge South Carolinas as well. 

Col. Ignace Tegair -- 28th out of 62. 

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

January - July 2084

A hole was created in the Navy with the loss of several officers, and the obvious choice as he's the latest prodigy to move up to Commander was Tyrone Marszalek(22).  After the reassignments there are only 15 officers without a command.  With over 150 ships in operation, naval opportunities are bigger than ever.  Two in five are on either a Long Beach fuel harvester or a Caldwell VIP shuttle.  The remaining 60% are more diversified.  With the week the civilian sector continued to show it's growing strength as a firm with the flagrantly dishonest name of Ridolfi Interstellar was officially founded. 

On March 4, another scientist was lost early as Billie Allington was killed in a traffic accident.  As she was working on new fire controls and was a solid, veteran lead this is a relatively significant loss.  Later in the month it was decided to make another pivot in the deployment of automines.  The final shiopment to Tempel-Tuttle is set to leave soon, and corundium continues it's slow decline.  Also, the bean counters at MRD have noticed that Halley's Comet will exhaust its deposits a little sooner than anticipated given the recent uptick in production.  SPACE calculates that at least one load, 5 automines, should be diverted so as not waste them.  Another outpost is to be established using those mines on Swift-Tuttle.  Swift-Tuttle is inbound at 6.3b km, well beyond Neptune's orbit and just shy of Sedna's distance, but it's still the best choice.  It has good concentrations of a number of minerals, most notably almost 20kt duranium, 4.6kt corundium at 0.8 to continue increasing that supply bit by bit, and overall efficiency of 64 which is right in line with what the best comets could offer in the heyday of the Sol rush.  It's another one that will need to be limited probably to about 12-15 automines, but the best stopgap available with Herschel-Rigollet(8.0b now) probably after it. 

This is not a cheap operation.  Delivering five mines that far and back again, to say nothing of the mass driver, will require in excess of 750,000 litres of fuel.  It is still unfortunately far better than any alternative.   That final shipment to Tempel-Tuttle departed on April Fool's Day. 

Late in April, Julio Kuchler unveiled the new faster fire control technology.   These will allow us to reach the 16k or better tracking mentioned in the naval analysis.  It comes at a cost though, the new suite which will be tested soon is a full 600 tons.  A new advance in planetary sensor strength is his next objective. 

On June 2, ESF Alpha returned from Van Maanen and presents its report.  The tanker is still a 56% capacity with all other ships fully fueled, and maintenance supply levels are good as well.  The mission clock is under three and a half years yet, plenty of time to go visit the final system:  Lalande 21185.  The jumps are just over 500m km apart, just a week and a half journey.  A nice little stroll in galactic terms.

Ten days later, they made the jump to, Explorer 1 having reported that there is a jump gate to Sol on the other side.  That's three now, and no sign of who built them.  More perplexing is the fact that the wrecks that were discovered in Lalande 21185 when it was initially discovered on April 24 2055 are no longer showing on our scanners.  They were too far from the star to collapse into it's gravity.  Either a collision with an asteroid ... or someone salvaged them.

Someone that might still be here.  There is more trepidation about this system than any of the others.  It is very likely that sometime in the last century an alien space battle took place. 

As for the system itself, moderate sized pattern, jump is 2.69b out,  Two asteroid belts, only place we've seen that outside of Sol.  219 of them in all, so that will take some time.  Even with that, it is on the surface the most useless system.  Nothing even remotely habitable.  A terrestrial that has too much gravity for us to survive on it, four dwarfs with a few moons.  Not even a gas giant or super jovian for fuel.

What on earth ... strike that, what in lalande would they have been fighting over here?  It's quite the mystery and another one that may never be solved. The most likely scenario though, seemed to revolve around the massive terrestrial planet being the source of the conflict.  Perhaps one or both races have different gravitational tolerances.

Van Maanen's Star Survey Report
ESF Alpha, June 12 2084

Jump Points

Two new ones were found, one of them on the second-to-last survey location.  This fact kept the ESF in system for about an extra month while it was investigated. 

Geological Survey

Van Maanen decided to be dramatic here also, with the last survey being the ninth moon of the first planet, a super jovian that is the only interesting planet in the system.  The asteroid field and a couple of dwarf planets had already been found to be barren, there were a couple of other moons with minerals but nothing exciting.  One had 1.66mt of corundium(0.1), another 78kt uridium at 1.0 but of course we have an absurd amount of that.  This last moon however was far better:

259 kt duranium(0.9)
50kt vendarite(0.5)
783 kt sorium(0.9)
38 kt gallicite(0.6)

New System -- GJ 1006

Small dim M6-V star.   Just 515m km from Van Maanen, with another jump gate here!!  The mystery continues to confound us.  Four dwarves at ranges from 700m to 27b, the last two obviously are just spectators as they are above the 10b limit.  18 asteroids, a terrestrial, a super jovian, and two gas giants so good fuel potential.  57 moons to investigate, and the terrestrial could be terraformed to close to earth conditions at least.  A sizable amount of methane would need to be removed from the atmosphere and replaced with oxygen, so it would take some time but this system has good potential.  The jump gate also makes one curious. 

New System -- YZ Ceti

Compact system, the jump is 1.59b km out which is average for this star, right in the middle of the second ring.  Lots of planets here, 3 gas giants, 2 super jovians, 2 terrestrials, 2 dwarves, plus 65 moons of varying sizes.  Despite all that nothing is more than marginally habitable.  The second planet is best but has a crushing atmosphere with 50x the pressure of Earth's.    This definitely won't be a priority to investigate further. 

Summary/Evaluation

The most likely use would seem to be an automine operation with a tracking station, perhaps a small population so it could serve as a refueling/maintenance base.  We can always use another good source of duranium, and the gallicite would be a nice kicker.  A big part of whether SPACE ever develops Van Maanen will probably depend on whether GJ 1006 turns up anything useful. 


COLONIAL DEVELOPMENTS

January 8 -- Civilian firm Ridolfi Interstellar is founded. 


LEADERSHIP PERSONNEL

March 19 -- Dr. Stanley Kogut(LG) has has joined the ranks of the accomplished. 

April 11 -- Freddy Salsgiver(EW), only 22 years old, has moved up to the ranks of the accomplished with a major leap recently.  Perhaps a new star is being born here ...

April 27 -- Minh Klausner(EW, 33) is a guy who has been in the ok-but-unimpressive category.  He steps out a bit with a marginal upgrade that puts him in the accomplished tier. 

July 2 -- Michael Reneau joins the admin team.  He can manage any size operation well and has a good start on terraforming and financial oversight abilities.  Could stand to be more flexible but a decent graduate.  Also,  Rear Admiral Parker Lanzi now has an elite-level training ability through the experience of leading ESF Bravo. 


EARTH

March 23 -- Construction Brigade finished on Earth.  With eight of the ten desired now in operation, training is begun on a ninth.

April 1 -- On April Fool's day, the third and final shipment of automines to Tempel-Tuttle departs earth. 

May 25 -- New research lab finished. 


RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

April 25 -- Improved Beam Fire Control Tracking finished(max. 16k km/s) by Dr. Julio Kuchler. 

May 17 -- A new, fighter-sized engineering section is available.  This may be useful on optimizing designs, particularly on smaller ships. Alphonse Lambeth led the development.  With the beginning of interstellar colonization efforts clearly not far over the horizon, he'll next devote his time to improving techniques for minimizing the effect of hostile conditions. 

May 30 -- The first commercial ion engine is now ready for production, the smaller one(Irving Steinmeyer). 

July 2 -- Elyse Buckler has finished the prototype of the Exorcist missile launcher.

July 8 -- The first of the Vertigo series to be finished, the 108, by Norris Gunterman.

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

July - September 2084:  The Plot Stinkens

July 18, 02:53 AM, GST

A lone explorer, Trevor Lerner in command, jumped into Sol from Lalande 21185 and sent a burst transmission on the emergency band to SPACE HQ.  Just minutes before, ESF Alpha's officer in charge, Rear Admiral Hank Rohrer,  had ordered this action and a full abort from ongoing survey operations.   Key moments from the mission log leading up to this follow ....

June 24, 1900 -- This has to be a record.     

First grav survey, just over 12 days in system, and another jump point has been found in Lalande 21185.  Interestingly it is almost directly between the Sol point and the star.  A few degrees right, and 1.89b km ... less than a billion km travel time between them.  Further than the Van Maanen - Lalande gap in Sol but still very close.  An important strategic consideration in the system no doubt.  Explorer 1 is launched to investigate.

July 1 1741 -- Explorer 1 jumps out of Lalande. 

July 1 1753 -- Explorer 1 returns, delivering this report ...

New System -- GJ 1156

Fairly small jump pattern, between the outer two rings and yet just a little over 2b km away.  Unitary M5-V, about 180 asteroids in a single belt, fairly close in between the third and fourth planets.  The second is a dwarf, but surprisingly habitable, just enough gravity to be useful.  There's also a gas giant, super jovian, and a terrestrial.  Better than average potential here, we've seen better but also a lot worse.

July 5 -- Two of the Prospectors reach the edge of the outer asteroid field.  Nothing yet, but the wrecks were further in.  They could still be around and just not seeing us yet ... we have a pretty darn tiny thermal emission on those things for a reason. 

July 18, around 0220.  Cmdr. Fredrick Holcomb is on the bridge as his Prospector surveys the right side of the asteroid belt.

'Conn Thermal, new contact bearing approximately 078.  Designate contact Swiftsure zero-zero-two.  Commander ... you're going to want to see this for yourself. Estimate range ninety-five to one hundred million kilometers sir'

The sensor officer's voice quivered, and Holcomb knew something was up.  The only way the HISS Mark IV thermal suite could find something that far way was if ... He could see why thirty seconds later as he looked at the readout. 

'That's impossible!!  Check your gear.'

The diagnostics showed everything green.  His wide-eyed crew stared at him, but he wasn't in any more control of himself than they were.  It was impossible.  At the edge of the asteroid field there was a thermal contact all right, reading 16,000.   1600 would have been huge.  16,000 ... there weren't words for it.  Eight times the signature of a South Carolina superfreighter.  Twenty-three times the signature of anything else in the SPACE navy.  That thing's engines had power beyond imagining.  There were only two possibilities:  they knew we were here and didn't care ... or they weren't looking for us.  Either way, there was only course of action. 

'Battle stations!  Communications, relay our sensor data to the Baltimore, priority one!  Navigation, set course 261 for survey waypoint #1.  If they chase us, we don't want to lead them back to Earth.'

It took Rohrer all of about ten seconds to order the abort once they received the transmission.  All craft were recalled to base -- if the aliens followed, the Prospectors would be left in-system.  There were very specific orders for this contingency.

Back at Fleet Command, there was as much suprise that the alien ship had not attacked Holcomb's surveyor as anything.  Once the gamma readouts were analyzed, it became obvious that these were not the same aliens as those that destroyed the Pioneers in Epsilon Eridani.  The most likely scenario was that it was an enormous asteroid mining ship of some kind, but either way it seemed obvious this was a far more advanced alien species, and apparently a less hostile or less curious one.  With this determined, the contingency order was given. 

Prep the Ambassador.  Captain Rosemary Tallant was in charge this time, Marion Polizzi and Karen Cotsis joined as veterans of the previous failed attempt, and another pair of junior naval officers rounded out the team.  This time there was more optimism:  this appeared to be a more willing to listen species, and this was a more experienced, more talented team. 

It would still take them three weeks to reach the jump to Lalande, and if all went well almost four weeks for all of the survey craft to get back so that ESF Alpha could jump back to Sol.  There were a lot of people having sleepless nights for those long weeks.

The normal goings-on continued, virtually ignored as background noise.  The run of Defender 76 missiles was finished, having taken eight years from design to full production run completion.  Army chief Engelhardt gained more political connections.  A 40th CMC was finished on Sedna, moving the exhaustion clock there under 40 years, and the shipment of mines from Halley to Swift-Tuttle arrived.  The ninth group of Long Beach harvesters was launched.  Another group of five was begun, as fuel reserves are merely holding steady at 15m. 

All of this was greeted with a collective yawn.  We had other things on our mind.  On August 8, the Ambassador jumped out to Lalande. 

Zenaida Howse, just 24, continued her incredible progress, and with recent improvements in her training techniques is now the top-rated Captain only three years removed from the Academy!  Yawn.

On the 13th, ESF Alpha jumped back into Sol, having recovered all of the utility craft.  The aliens never followed and everyone made it back to Sol safely.  That in itself was a huge accomplishment, greeted by muted celebrations as we waited to hear from the diplomatic team. 

Progress from Captain Ronald Dunkin in becoming an elite crew trainer.  Dr. Jerry Bartholf's team finished testing the new JPS ID 36, thruster for the Forrestal class.  Elyse Buckler's group completed the Interceptor missile launcher.  Background noise.  Static. 

Leonel Wessels, heralded as the most talented  talented straight-from-the-academy researcher SPACE has ever seen joins the crowd.  Accomplished in the energy weapons field and xenology, with decent novice-level political connections.  Unlike the missile field, the energy weapons field is recovering quite well from the loss of its top members.  Nimitz 76c built, last of the class. 

Normally this would be celebrated. 

Another two weeks of quiet.

September 15 -- The Ambassador jumped back in from Lalande.  Mission failure.  They had a few new ideas, took about a week longer than the attempt in Epsilon Eridani had taken, but found even less progress.  Again the conclusion was there was simply no way to find common ground with which to communicate.  The fear is that all we've done is antagonize them, and the recommendation is to avoid further contact at all costs.

Nobody was foolish enough to argue.  Unlike the other race, it appears this time it might be possible to take a live-and-let-live approach.  Against such advanced technology, it's not like there's another choice.  Engineering reported that engines of such power would take up more than 41kt of space if they were built with max overclocking of the new ion technology.  Just the engines.  That's bigger than a Fletcher-class freighter.  And don't even try to think about how much fuel it would require.  Such a ship would be so grossly impractical as to be absurd.  The only response in this case was to stay out their way.  Anything else would be suicidal.

[Bryan Swartz (OP)]

As a heads up, I'll start updating the thread again once the forum transition is confirmed by Erik.  I don't want to risk losing anything by posting more now. 

[MarcAFK]

I'm glad I left page 26 open in my browser, it and page 25 have been lost during the transition

[Erik L]

As a heads up, I'll start updating the thread again once the forum transition is confirmed by Erik.  I don't want to risk losing anything by posting more now. 

I got confirmation that the DNS servers have been updated as of last night.