Turn 39 - Spring 2184/3034
WCDC Defense Council:
[] Project Byzantium:
active
Time: 6 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 6, Roll 1d100: 88+5+5 = 98 - Artificial Crit Success (Bonus to all military R&D, Bolus to Space Combat R&D)
Roll 2 of 6, Roll 1d100: 94+5+5 = 104 - Success
Roll 3 of 6, Roll 1d100: 65+5+5 = 75 - Success
The original Heavy PPCs of the
Belisarius gave the design team working on the vessel the idea to integrate several heavy Wakefield Particle Beam Projectors. Each of these weapons would have an energy of 500 GeV, the largest ever produced Particle Beam System used outside of physics research and the beam strength along reduces the need for the focusing elements used in smaller Particle Beam Projectors. Here, the Heavy PPCs were helping, the systems used in those weapons allowing to use these weapons outside of the spinal mount design used for the usual PBP.
While this weapon system was going to be extremely dangerous and likely able to destroy vessels under a certain side with a single hit, the downside of these weapons was that they were unable to deliver any Smart Dust. To get around this problem, the two main auto cannons of the
Belisarius were to be replaced by a pair of Hypervelocity Macron Accelerators, a weapon system capable of accelerating 10 micron sized carbon-nanolattice spheres up to 20.000 km/s in an accelerator ring. With a constant stream of these 'Macrons' directed at a target, with an effect not unlike a sand blaster directed at a piece of masonry on an armored target.
The launchers for the long range missiles of the
Belisarius finally would be replaced with launch systems for Class IV, the smaller comparably smaller size allowing the vessel to carry up to 1000 Class IV missiles. Additionally, the fighter bays would be replaced by the support systems for Class IV space combat drones, which in turn would be controlled by the AI planned for the
Belisarius.
active for 3 more turns
[] Operation Tortuga Down:
active
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 87 - Success
Roll 2 of 3, Roll 1d100: 92 - Success
Roll 3 of 3, Roll 1d100: 5 - Failure
Combined: 61 - Successful
While the actual Operation Tortuga Down had been a success, the followup on the operation was not. On some worlds, the civilian population was compelled to rebel against the new occupation forces of the WCDC, with the local commanders forced into situations not made to improve the relation to the civilians further. This was largely perpetuated by agents of the old and now defunct Federation Intelligence Command, but in some cases, the civilians believed the occupation forces to be pirates.
Another problem was that a pirate jump ship arrived at Clayborne II in a non-standard jump point near the system's ecliptic and in the sensory shadow of a gas giant. To make matters worse, the jump happened before Circinus was supplied with a Superliminal Wave Detector, so that the jump ship had the chance to recharge its jump drive and jump out of the system, meaning that there might be rumors in the 'pirate community' about Clayborne II, reducing its capability as a honey pot.
Reward: All worlds of the Circinus Federation occupied, No piracy in the Circinus Federation, reduced piracy in nearby space, rumors about anti-piracy work in the Circinus Federation
WCDC Survey Office:
[] Deep Cover Intelligence II:
active
Time: 10 turns, Chance of Success: 60%
Roll 1 of 10, Roll 1d100: 78+10 = 85 - Success (Permanent Survey Squadrons)
Roll 2 of 10, Roll 1d100: 23+10 = 33 - Failure
Roll 3 of 10, Roll 1d100: 95+10 = 105 - Success
Roll 4 of 10, Roll 1d100: 34+10 = 44 - Success
The journey towards Atreus continued well for the
A Ship With A View, making a relatively good time with some brief stops in between systems, to place Surveillance and Ternary Nodes along the line.
Following the arrival at Kilarney, the route took the jumpship to Kakada, Ashburton, Loyalty, Alterf and finally at the end of Spring to Atreus itself, where the two dropships left for the capital planet of the Free Worlds League itself, ready to play the role of periphery traders and hopefully place a small ring of agents on the planet.
[] Further Survey IV: - 5 votes
active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 65%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 77+10 = 87 - Success (Permanent Survey Squadrons)
While there were people in the Survey Office lobbying for overhauling the jumpships for further deep cover intelligence operations and emplacing agent networks in various systems, the commanders of the Survey Squadrons managed to win this round, noting there was still a significant part of the 90 ly sphere around the Three Systems unknown.
As such, the Survey Squadrons were sent out once again, almost immediately leading to the discovery of another habited planet, Tolhuin, which was settled by Argentinians from Feuerland and had regressed to a 1880s technological base and a parliamentary monarchy.
active for 3 more turns
Deep Space Signal Intelligence Network
[] Network Extension:
active
Time: 2 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 2, Roll 1d100: 2+5 = 7 - Failure (Extended Base)
Roll 2 of 2, Roll 1d100: 24+5 = 30 - Failure
Combined: 18 - Failure
The DSSINOO in contrast was less than successful in their quest to discover the New St Andrews and Niops. Partly this was due to the large amount of space that needed to be searched, the inaccurate navigation data available , but mostly it was blamed on insufficient numbers in their own survey squadrons, even though the squadrons were sorely meant to provide support for expanding and upgrading the existing Seep Space Signal Intelligence Network.
Reward: New St. Andrews and Niops could not be found, option not avaiable for 3 turns
WCDC Diplomatic Corps:
[] Long Range Diplomacy - Lyran Commonwealth:
active
Time: 8 turns, Chance of success: 50%
Roll 1 of 8, Roll 1d100: 33 - Failure
Roll 2 of 8, Roll 1d100: 73 - Success
Roll 3 of 8, Roll 1d100: 67 - Success
Roll 4 of 8, Roll 1d100: 96 - Success
Roll 5 of 8, Roll 1d100: 25 - Failure
Following the incident with the supposed inspectors, the
Unexpected Oversupply Of Gravitas and its dropships were held in Eutin. As it turned out, there had been no inspectors sent by the local government and after a while some crew members were interrogated by local law enforcement. While detailed surveillance videos were provided to the law enforcement in the correct formats for their use, it did not appear to be used to find the culprits.
Additionally, the actual inspectors were taken aback by the Hunter Killer Pride and their nature, not knowing what to think or do, as the team had been put in external security around the dropships, together with several sentries, to prevent more overt operations against them.
Only the arrival of Cranston Snord from Tharkad, some problems could be resolved. A woman accompanied him named Riva Allard. They were able to smooth the waves, while Snord showed extreme interest in the Fusilier Mechs and Karakal II tanks and Allard in just about everything else. They nominally had been sent to actually evaluate the Diplomatic mission and gave their green light, which was transmitted to Tharkad encrypted by a one-time pad. However, it was clear Comstar held back the sending of the message for two weeks and a reply for another three weeks.
active for 3 more turns
4 votes for both:
We need new members (even)
Long Range Diplomacy - Marian Hegemony (odd)
Roll 1d6: 3 - Long Range Diplomacy - Marian Hegemony
[] Long Range Diplomacy - Marian Hegemony: - 4 votes
Time: 8 turns, Chance of success: 50%
Roll 1 of 8, Roll 1d100: 79 - Success
In the Diplomatic Corps there was a heavy discussion about one of the subsequent projects, whether it should be to get the other 8 nations of the Three systems into the WCDC, or to be active and open diplomatic contacts to the Marian Hegemony.
In the end, it came down to the mission to the Hegemony potentially only being available for a limited time, should the Ceasar of the Hegemony decide to attack their neighbors. There was the case that at least two or three of the nations that still were not joining up, were isolationist and in one case heavily theocratic nations that shunned outside contact with the most part.
As such, a diplomatic mission was prepared, with the understanding it might be needed to add some military intimidation to the first contact with this potentially belligerent nation and that only conventional HFEG equipped vessels would be used, rather than a jumpship like for the Lyran mission. Three squadrons of combat craft were prepared, combined with a squadron of transport and other supply vessels.
By the end of spring, the diplomatic mission was on its way.
active for 7 more turns
WCDC Trade Organization:
[] Von Neuman:
active
Time: 6 turns, Chance of success: 40%
Roll 1 of 6, Roll 1d100: 88+10+10+10+10 = 128 - Success (Scientific-Industrial Complex, Stronger Economy, Economic Ties, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 6, Roll 1d100: 64+10+10+10+10 = 104 - Success
Roll 3 of 6, Roll 1d100: 54+10+10+10+10 = 94 - Success
Roll 4 of 6, Roll 1d100: 48+10+10+10+10 = 88 - Success
Roll 5 of 6, Roll 1d100: 39+10+10+10+10 = 79 - Success
Roll 6 of 6, Roll 1d100: 57+10+10+10+10 = 97 - Success
Combined: 98 - Critical Success
With the full plans for the Von Neumann available for production, the creators of the project did not only manage to build a single prototype before the end of the project, they also streamlined the production and learned from production problems to build a second prototype.
Before the end of Spring, the
Reasonable Excuse commanded by an ASI named Bill, and the
Not Invented Here, which in turn was commanded by an ASI named Ted. Each was equipped with four Mining drone craft, and prepared for their maiden voyages by traveling to Hannover and Solidarność, where they began with the construction os several Raytan Jump Pointe Defense Stations, to improve the defense of the system, as well as setting up some interplanetary infrastructure to help both worlds in that regard.
Reward: Design of a Von Neumann Factory Spacecraft, 2 working prototypes
[] Interstellar Jump Trader:
active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 24+10+10+10+10 = 64 - Success (Scientific-Industrial Complex, Stronger Economy, Economic Ties, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 16+10+10+10+10 = 56 - Success
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 80+10+10+10+10 = 120 - Success
Roll 4 of 4, Roll 1d100: 93+10+10+10+10 = 133 - Success
Combined: 75 - Success
Number of Jumpships, Roll 1d4: 4
On the jumpship front, all four projects for the creation of Jumpships were fully successful, leading to four different jumpship classes available to be sold to the Inner Sphere, something that was prepared to be messaged to the Diplomatic Mission to the Lyran Commonwealth.
Code:
Dropship | Mass (tonnes) | Dropship Collars | Crew
----------+---------------+------------------+------
Victory | 155.000 | 3 | 20
Kogge | 225.000 | 4 | 33
Hopper | 112.000 | 2 | 15
Coaster | 78.000 | 1 | 10
All these jumpships were available in this original version, but all four spacecraft joint ventures responsible for their development were willing to produce a version specially for use by the Survey Office and any national intelligence agency.
Reward: 4 Jumpship designs that can be used locally or sold
WCDC Office for Science and Development:
[] Alien Robot!:
active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 55%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 27+10+10 = 47 - Success (Research Center Sol, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 24+10+10 = 44 - Success
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 45+10+10 = 65 - Success
Roll 4 of 4, Roll 1d100: 60+10+10 = 80 - Success
Combined: 59 - Succes
Robot turning back on, even - yes, odd - no, Roll 1d6: 6 - yes
Carefully the alien robot was put back together, with any damage done by the unknown plasma weapon repaired. Most of the damage was limited to the chest area, where a powerful superconducting battery, backed by a form of biological fuel cell, provided power. While the bio-fuel cell was a technology used by the Three Systems, the specific microbial strain used by the fuel cell was unknown, so that a more conventional version had to be used.
Finally, after nearly a year of work on the robot, the scientific team could get the green light to attempt and reactivate the robot. After charing the batteries, the last connectors were closed and theOLED display in the face began to show status messages, showing that the robot's central processing unit was booting again, after more two hundred years. While the language and script used by the status messages were completely unknown, there seemed to be a lack of any error messages, until finally the robot began to move, a pair of eyes displayed on the facial display.
As expected, the display allowed the robot to show emotions, which were surprisingly enough readable by any of the research team's members, be they human, Quetzal, Ormiold or otherwise. The robot did show surprise before attempting to communicate with numerous unknown languages, before using first making use of one of the Ormiold languages, Garysay, before switching to English.
What followed was a lengthy interrogation of the robot, which identified as being male and named himself Verdar. As it transpired, he had been part of a team, meant to evacuate the colony of humans from the planet he was found on, to protect them from an incursion of the Irinai Hegemony, together with a number of humans from the 331st Battlemech Division. During this evacuation, a small force of Irinai had landed on the planet, and he had been faced by an Irinai and shot in the chest. The damage had caused an energy spike that subsequently damaged his memory. So while Verder could remember some details about his life before, he was unable to fully inform the research team where he actually came from and how to find them. He was not even fully able to recall who the Irinai were and what they did, aside from the information that they were the bad guys, while his people, the Union.
At being informed that 200 or more years had passed, he noted he was sure that the evacuation had been successful and that the Irinai force had been destroyed. If not, the scientific team would not have reactivated him.
Reward: Alien robot design, robot turns back on
[] Hypercom III:
active
Time: 2 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 2, Roll 1d100: 61+10+10 = 81 - Success (Research Center Sol, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 2, Roll 1d100: 100+10+10 = 120 - Crit Success
Combined: 100 - Crit Success
The finalization of the Hyperwave Communication System research was more than successful, as the more advanced prototypes of the system were operating much better than their theoretical capabilities.
The final, still about microwave sized device, had the ability to be used directional with a data rate of up to 10 MBit/s, with a propagation rate of the hyperwaves of 100000 times the speed of life and a theoretical range of 750 light years. Not only that, but the device had the capability to make use of multiple hyperwave frequencies, allowing several of the devices to be used in the same area.
Future research options with this finalized design would be to design a local area hyperwave mesh network, not unlike that used by Smart Dust, but on a system wide scale, allowing close to real time sensory data to be sent from one place to another, while another project would deal with miniaturization of the technology, perhaps at a reduction of range and propagation velocity, so it could be produced cheaply and possibly integrated into smart munitions for space combat use.
Reward: Hyperwave Communication System, directional, 10MBit/s, 100000c, 750ly range, new research options
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Deep Space Signal Intelligence Network Report:
Lothian League:
There is little of note to say.
Illyrian Palatinate:
There is little of note to say.
Circinus Federation:
There is little of note to say.
Marian Hegemony:
There is little of note to say.
Inner Sphere:
Lyran Commonwealth:
Nothing out of the ordinary as far as can be decerned.
Federated Suns:
Nothing out of the ordinary as far as can be decerned.
Draconis Combine:
Nothing out of the ordinary as far as can be decerned.
Free Worlds League:
Dutchy of Andurien:
In the war between these two powers, the stalemate continues. Both sides continue to dig in, while assaulting the other side. However, apparently a third party provides some inside information to both belligerents , reinforcing the stalemate.
Comstar:
Comstar continues to be a problem to the diplomatic party as they continue to attempt and keep them from meeting up with the Lyrans. However, some comments made by Snord note the Lyran government is aware that Comstar is not all that 'neutral' as they claim to be. This does match the information we have available.
Expansion and Suggestions:
With the failure to actually find New St. Andrews and Niobs, maybe it would be a good idea for some actual dedicated Survey Squadron to slowly search local space for unknown systems.
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Random Event - Nothing Happens
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