Turn 27 - Spring 2181/3031
WCDC Defense Council:
[] Com Buoy: active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 55%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 59+5 = 64 - Success (All R&D)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 19+5 = 24 - Failure
The Project to design and build a Ternery Caldran Ansible Com Buoy hit a few snags during the design phase, as there was a need to make the buoy as compact as possible and still integrate a 5GW fusion reactor and enough cooling. Not to mention the need for attitude control systems to keep the buoys in a proper orbit.
There was a lack of any idea how to implement the software for the routing system for the Caldran Ansible, as there was currently no standard protocol available, as the civilian project had yet to compromise on one of the three available possibilities, for example TCP/IP or UDP from the Sol side. Perhaps there would even be a completely new protocol designed specially as an interface layer for the three main network protocols of the WCDC.
active for 2 more turns
[] Project Chop Shop: - 3 votes active
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 50+5 = 55 - Success (All R&D)
With the potential to export weapon systems to neighbors, the Logistics Branch of the Defense Council realized there was insufficient knowledge about the actual inner workings of many of the Inner Sphere weapons, as deployed on various mechs, especially those recovered from the various Black Warrior dropships in various stages of repair. Until then, Köhler Military Services had been allowed to scavenge and take replacement parts from these mechs, but some contractors had noted they were interested in building copies of the Inner Sphere weapons for export.
As such, numerous different mechs had been selected and given to some contractors, to be taken apart piece by piece, scanned, de-fabricated and turned into blueprints. Some ammunition had already been prepared to be copied, mostly to supply KMS.
active for 3 more turns
WCDC Survey Office:
[] Deep Cover Intelligence: active
Time: 10 turns, Chance of Success: 60%
Roll 1 of 10, Roll 1d100: 93+10 = 103 - Success (Permanent Squadrons)
Roll 2 of 10, Roll 1d100: 62+10 = 73 - Success
Roll 3 of 10, Roll 1d100: 69+10 = 79 - Success
The A Ship With A View remained at Bolan for almost a month, during which the dropships began to haggle for trade goods that could be loaded and traded at the next target, Drosendorf. During the stay, the crew of A Ship With A View encountered a small Mercenary Company, Jureck's Jaegers, which were looking for a new contract after their contract with the Lyran Commonwealth had expired. They were a mixed Mech and infantry unit, using a single Union class dropship, the Jaeger Barracke, replacing four of its Mech Cubicles and its aerospace fighter bays with space for the infantry and a few IFVs.
The Recon Team commander decided to hire the company for the remaining duration of their mission to provide additional security, with the provision to be kept on for the return to Sol.
Following the move to Drosendorf and a short stay, the A Ship With A View moved to Halfway and then to Smolnik, on the way towards Tharkard, where it was hoped to release a deep cover recon team of four.
Reports back to Berlin via Comstar HPG were sent from Drosendorf and Smolnik.
active for 7 more turns
[] Project Trawler: active
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 98 - Crit Success
Roll 2 of 3, Roll 1d100: 50 - Success
The project team, working on the new surveillance spacecraft, soon decided the best way to create such a spacecraft, would be to take an existing spacecraft design and modify it to suit the needs of the Survey Office, so it would be possible to hide the spacecraft in plain sight, should the need arise.
The selection fell on the Sleipnir class and the Survey Office contacted the Newport Vesta Dockyards, which had the security clearance to work on such a problem, and had the designers of the Sleipnir at hand. The needs of the project were specified and the designers began to work on a new design externally identical to the Sleipnir, codenamed Loki.
active for 1 more turn
Deep Space Signal Intelligence Network
[] HumInt: active
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 40%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 12 - Failure
Roll 2 of 3, Roll 1d100: 6 - Failure
Work on the problem how to insert agents onto various planets without using jumpships and dropships continued, but the problems with the project itself mounted.
If the insertion was to be made by one of the new spacecraft, say a Sleipnir, the spacecraft's drive plume would be visible in the entire system for about half the time the craft was on the way from an L1 point towards the planet. With many planets having the infrastructure to observe the sky, reentry would be visible as well, as were the landing of the spacecraft to unload its cargo. And with everything clearly visible the insertion would not be covert.
There were suggestions of making use of one time reentry devices, including a blunt body or a lifting body, which would be visible during reentry as well and the used craft could easily be found.
As such, no easy answer was forthcoming.
active for 1 more turn
WCDC Diplomatic Corps:
[] Long Range Diplomacy - Lothian League:active
Time: 6 turns, Chance of success: 50%
Roll 1 of 6, Roll 1d100: 38+5 = 43 - Failure (Prometheus Foundation)
Roll 2 of 6, Roll 1d100: 76+5 = 81 - Success
Roll 3 of 6, Roll 1d100: 46+5 = 51 - Success
Roll 4 of 6, Roll 1d100: 23+5 = 28 - Failure
Roll 5 of 6, Roll 1d100: 80+5 = 85 - Success
Roll 6 of 6, Roll 1d100: 67+5 = 72 - Success
Combined: 60 - Success
During the final weeks of the initial diplomatic mission to Lothario, the ups and downs of the discussion about setting up a more permanent diplomatic service with an embassy. Perhaps these last few weeks are helped by the suggestion of successful economic contact and selling the small Pperiphery nation several battalions or regiments worth of tanks, IFVs, arms and support vehicles.
Finally, the mission is given a green light by Grand Mistress Logan and allowed to purchase a piece of real estate for the new embassy.
Reward: Diplomatic Contact with the Lothian League, +10 on diplomatic and economic actions with the Lothian League
[] We need new members: - 3 votes active
Time: 2 turns, Chance of success: 25%
Roll 1 of 2, Roll 1d100: 76 - Success
The 'Marriage Incident' with Comstar and the consequent failure of setting up good diplomatic relations with this organization, has left the Russians Federation humiliated in the eyes of international diplomacy and made several members of the Russians attempt to be a counter weight to the WCDC uneasy. This is strengthened by the situation that the Russians are only getting new technology second hand and are several years behind any production of modern combat space craft and other weapon systems.
It becomes rapidly clear the Russians Federation had attempted to get more influence and better conditions by playing coy. The strategy had backfired, however, and both Washington and Hannover had joined up the WCDC, accepting the existing conditions, while the Russians fell further and further behind.
So, this time, it was the Russian Federation and their satellites and cohorts approaching the WCDC to join up.
active for 1 more turn
WCDC Trade Organization:
[] Interstellar Communication Network: active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 21+10+10 = 41 - Success (Stronger Economy, Economic Ties)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 43+10+10 = 63 - Success
Whereas the Military Com Buoy Project faltered from the size restrictions, the civilian companies answering to the Request for Proposals were not. They presented many highly detailed and thorough proposals, with several communication companies forming an interstellar joint venture, The Three Systems Ansible Corporation, TSAC.
In the end, the TSAC proposal won the contest and the company was given the permission to build and maintain the main Ansible network for the WCDC.
The TSAC hard and software engineers had worked out it would be best to create the new independent, but open source Ansible Packet Protocol APP, which would transfer information between the Ansible Nodes, with the Nodes themselves converting to, for example, TCP/IP or UDP and back to APP for the communication between nodes, transparently connecting the different planetary and interplanetary networks, so that a Tiaunt could watch videos on YouTube without a problem or any hurdles.
Additionally, they had already talked to several dock yards, which were willing to build the large Primary Ansible Node Satellites, powered by large 50GW fusion reactors and making use of large conventional heat radiators, while orbiting the primary about 1 AU inside the Heim-Feynman Limit of the primary on highly ecliptic orbits. Based on the TSAC proposals, three Primary Nodes would orbit every star, allowing a larger number of parallel connections, as the data throughput in general is limited per connection.
active for 2 more turns
[] Arms Export: - 3 votes (Lothian League) active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 90+10 = 100 - Artificial Crit Success (Agile Economy)
With the WCDCTO opening the market to sell arms to the Lothian League, mostly to improve diplomatic relations, as well as supporting the legitimate government and add to the defense of the small nation, several armament companies begin to work on several joint ventures to go to Lothario and offer their goods.
As there was a possibility for new contracts for the WCDC, several companies would offer their previous generation products, including the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann Karakal Main Battle Tank, with a 125 mm coil gun, a 10MW laser and, for the use by Lothario, hard points for external LRM and SRM launchers. Additional to its last generation armor, it was equipped with a laser based Active Protection System, which was already equipped to intercept LRMs and SRMs, as well as some conventional kinetic warheads.
No less than three missions of these joint ventures arrived at Lothario just before the final talks between the diplomatic mission and the government, giving an additional incentive to Grand Mistress Logan to look positively at the WCDC.
active for 3 more turns
WCDC Office for Science and Development:
[] Research Center Sol: [active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 70%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 11 - Failure
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 52 - Success
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 92 - Success
With the idea of the Research Center in Sol gaining more and more traction, the Office for Science and Development began to look around for a place to set up at least four of these Research Centers, asking the various universities in Sol to make offers.
This additional source of funding for research was of course strongly sought, even though hotly debated in the various faculties, but in the end four Universities were selected to set up these new Research Centers. Three would be on Earth, while the fourth would be on one of the other habited worlds of Sol.
The first was Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard University and the MIT had cooperated to win one Research Center. The second one on Earth was the Tsinghua University in China, which had grown in status over the past centuries to become the best university in Asia, comparable to Harvard and the MIT. The third would be the Universität zu Göttingen in Germany, which was already had links to several high status scientific institutes, like the Max Plank Gesellschaft and had produced more than 60 Nobel laureates. The final University to see the establishment of a Research Center was to be the University of Ceres in Asari, which produced almost 50 percent of all university level graduates on the minor planet.
active for 1 more turn
[] Project Big Proton: active
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 50%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 21 - Failure
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 98 - Crit Success
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 15 - Failure
In early Spring, the Just Testing, the smaller of the two Test Jump Drive vessels, was finished and moved towards the Nadir Point of Sol for the first tests.
These tests completely failed, largely due to various problems with failures in the drive software, electrical faults in wiring, short circuits within the capacitors of the jump drive, failure of the liquid helium cooling systems, leaks in the same and many, many more things that went wrong. While some problems could be addressed easily in situ, some problems were so severe, that the vessel had to be brought back to the Dock Yards several times to fix damages, failures and just wrong work.
While the problems are addressed, work on the Size Isn't Everything continues, with the dock yard going over the test craft again and again, to make sure that there is nothing wrong with their craft. By the time the larger jump drive vessel is completed, the Just Testing leaves its dockyard for the sixth time, hopefully for a successful test program this time.
active for 1 more turn
Deep Space Signal Intelligence Network Report
Lothian League:
The Diplomatic Mission to the Lothian League allowed the creation of a small ring of agents on Lothario, which in turn made it possible to get more information on Cramer's Cavalry, some gathered by HumInt, some by Smart Dust. As far as it is possible to tell, the Mercenery company has genuinely left the employ of Circinus and came to the Lothian League, with the express goal to drum up the paranoia of Grand Mistress Logan, concerning the Circinus Federation, to be paid more, especially for the information concerning the collection of mercenaries at Circinus.
That Colonel Cramer has about halved the forced that are at Circinus in his report to Grand Mistress Logan, makes it likely that he knows in general terms about the objective of the mercenary force at Circinus.
Illyrian Palatinate:
A small mercenary force, the tank based Gotterdammerung Society, arrives in the Illyrian Palatinate, after having entered into a contract with the Illyrian Commonwealth. They have not previously been at Circinus, so it is believed they are genuine.
Circinus Federation:
The Endeavour arrives at Circinus long past the time the vessel was expected at Circinus and it is believed the jump ship had been using the time to make some observations of the Three Systems during that time. While there is some HPG radio backscatter from the jump ship with reports, those reports only contain information about the current status of the craft and not much of interest. As such, it is believed any information the craft has gathered had been transmitted to Comstar HQ en route.
Most of the mercenary force is down on the planet, and from the information of the agents in place, they are largely bored. One or two of the smaller, more piratical of these companies seem to have raided one or two planets in the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Worlds League, but aside from that most of the mercenaries are waiting for something to happen.
The rumor mill of these mercenaries note there appears a mother lobe of Star League technology somewhere close by and that the mercenaries have been hired to attack and take over the place. Other rumors note one or two of the larger companies have other contracts.
Aside from the Endeavour, there is not much activity from Comstar.
Marian Hegemony:
Not much of interest is happening.
Inner Sphere:
Lyran Commonwealth:
There are some small border scirmishes between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine.
Federated Suns:
The Federated Suns take a further four worlds of the Capellan Confederation, three of which surrender without even a single dropship landing on either world.
Draconis Combine:
The Draconis Combine seems to stop their probing attacks against the Federated Suns for the time being.
Free Worlds League:
Captain-General Janos Marik returns to his office to continue to bargain with the Dutchy of Andurien, while his son Thomas appears to fully support him.
While Thomas seems to be able to arrange something with Duggan Marik, Duncan is killed by a terroristic attack of supposed Andurien supporters, which in turn riles up the population and makes Janos Marik's attempts for a peaceful resolution more problematic.
Dutchy of Andurien:
The Dutchy of Andurien makes more and more inroads into the Capellan Confederation, until they launch a surprise attack against Capella, supported by Brannan's Buckaneers. The heavy all out attack leads to a nearly two weeklong battle around Memorial City, leveling nearly half of the Capellan capital.
During the fighting, it appears that Romano Liao is killed. From the evidence, her own people had killed her, while railing against the attack, refusing to believe that it happened.
With the death of Romano Liao, Capella surrendered and the Capellan Confederation ceased to be, its remains partitioned by the Federated Suns, the Dutchy of Andurien and the Magistracy of Canopus in the Outreach Conference.
Comstar:
So far, Comstar keeps quiet on Circinus and Alpharez, with only some minor orders arriving for the ROM agents on both worlds.
Expansion and Suggestions:
Random Event
With the arrival of Cranston Snord's Irregulars and being informed about the collection of mercenaries and pirates, the Sejm and the King of Solidarność began a series of meetings, talking about what would be the best thing to do. Sure, the Army and Air Force, could fight back against the occasional pirate raid, but against that number of pirates and mercenaries? Not to mention the newly closer contact with the Inner Sphere...
At the end of these meeting, the King of Solidarność, Jarosław Waskiewicz, invited the WCDC Ambassador, Błażej Szafranski, for a meeting. During the meeting, King Waskiewicz informed Ambassador Szafranski, that the Sejm and himself had decided Solidarność wished to become a member of the WCDC.
This led to a quick message to the Imperial Palace on Jerat and the Diplomatic Corps and a decision process. Until now, the WCDC had offered membership, but had not had a nation request becoming a member. This was setting a positive precedent, one which might as well repeat. So, the request for membership was granted to the Polish-Lituanian Commonwealth of Solidarność, making them the third single planet member of the WCDC, after Hannover and Washington.
Habitated world outside the Walker Cluster (60ly zone) requests membership in WCDC
Roll 1d10: 5 - Solidarność
Result: Solidarność joins the WCDC
Event Chain
After some deliberation and in the wake of the request of King Waskiewicz that Solidarność may join the WCDC, Cranston Snord's Irregulars were allowed to enter WCDC space in something of a copy of the earlier Comstar visit. The jumpship of the mercenary company arrived at the Nadir Jump Point of Sol, with all three dropships again directed to Ceres, largely due to security concerns.
Much like the Comstar visit, the mercenaries were put under constant surveillance with Smart Dust and other means. They appeared to be surprised about the level of sophistication of Ceres and the activity on the minor planet and somewhat bewildered when they were informed, after some questions, that there were about 251 independent nations in Sol alone. The reactions of both Snord and Wolf, the apparent leaders of the mercenary force, to the aliens were telling, showing a lingering xenophobia, though realizing that the aliens were fully integrated into Cereran society mollified them.
The surveillance gathered that neither Snord, nor Wolf were inclined positively towards Comstar and after hearing about the recent visit of Comstar on Ceres talked privately about a few incidents that were very informative to the Survey Office and the new section dealing with Comstar. Additionally, it revealed a connection between Cranston Snord's Irregulars and another mercenary outfit called Wolf's Dragoons, as well as some linguistic oddities, believed to be some sort of private code, used in private conversations.
During the first few weeks there were openly interested in everything, not much of a surprise, considering their stated mission and were surprised to learn that the tablet computer, which they called 'noteputer', were cheap open source models everyone could make with a home desktop fabricator. Another surprise were the lack of any mechs within any military organization, the size of the individual national militaries, as well as the overabundance of military space assets, which were later a topic of discussion between Snord and Wolf.
Apparently the Wolf's Dragoons had been ordered by their home world, to prepare the Inner Sphere for something, but that Joshua Wolf's brother, Jamie, was dragging his feet, no matter how often he was reminded by Joshua. They also alluded to dreams and that the WCDC might be somehow involved with these dreams for some reason, but that might be either code or a metaphor.