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Growing Horizons: Inner Sphere - Quest

Turn 41 - Autumn 2184/3034 - Results
Turn 41 - Autumn 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, Bonus to Space Combat R&D)
Roll 2 of 6, Roll 1d100: 94+5+5 = 104 - Artificial Crit Success
Roll 3 of 6, Roll 1d100: 65+5+5 = 75 - Success
Roll 4 of 6, Roll 1d100: 96+5+5 = 106 - Crit Success
Roll 5 of 6, Roll 1d100: 38+5+5 = 48 - Success

The subsequent systems that were on the agenda for the refit of the Belisarius were the information systems, as well as sensors and related equipment.

Much like the computer systems of the much smaller advanced combat craft, the systems of the Belisarius were designed to be massively redundant, though the sheer size of the warship made it possible to quadruple numbers of computer cores, each equipped with a quantum computing sub module, giving it enough processing power to allow an ASI to reside within and control all systems of the large vessel with capacity to spare. Commonly, most of the entire network of computer cores would share the burden of operating the vessel's ASI in combination, while ALIs of various forms were responsible for the many subsystems of the Belisarius. Additionally, it would allow carrying along purely software based AIs as passengers.

While the original sensor systems were comparably adequate for use, it was decided it would certainly get a massive upgrade. For one, all 200 5MW laser point defense weapon turrets, which made use of 2 m diameter mirrors as focusing elements, were equipped with an optical switch and various optical sensors, which made them work double duty telescopes, allowing the optical tracing systems to observe the entirety of surrounding space in the infrared, optical and UV ranges. If all were used, they could be used to scan the entire sphere if space within ten seconds. Added to this were lower powered laser emitters set into the point defense turrets, adding LIDAR capabilities to the turrets as well.

Improving RADAR and radio surveillance, without use of Smart Dust, was facilitated by adding large panels of flat panel actively scanning radio arrays capable of sending and receiving data and being used for radar use and radio communication simultaneously. The entirety of the arrays would also be capable of detecting an object purely through its passive EM emissions over up to one million kilometers.

Finishing off these systems was of course about 5 tonnes of Smart Dust, which could easily be replenished by the internal fabricators of Belisarius within two days.

active for 1 more turn

[] Improved System Defense & Forward Operation Base: active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 45%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 100+5+5 = 110 - Crit Success (Bonus to all military R&D, Bonus to Space Combat R&D)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 21+5+5 = 32 - Failure

While the plans for the Advanced Jump Point Defense Station and the Mobile Forward Operating Base were only given in vague terms of wishing what to design for, there was a lack of companies actually willing to design these systems. Largely this was blamed on the fear of these companies that the Von Neumanns would make them obsolete and reduce their viability as companies.

active for 2 more turns

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
Roll 5 of 10, Roll 1d100: 73+10 = 83 - Success
Roll 6 of 10, Roll 1d100: 69+10 = 79 - Success

The survey team had to work a little harder to keep the FWL government from simply pressing the A Ship With A View into service, but in turn it showed there was a bit of governmental corruption going on within the FWL. To a degree this also helped the agents in setting up their agent ring. In some cases they were mistaken for corporate spies, which were of course not corrected by the agents as they were partially interested in economic information on the FWL. There was some surprise within the team, when one of the informants of the ring turned out to be an agent of SAFE, the FWL intelligence agency, wishing to have some more spending from a 'corporate interest' to better her meager government salary.

By the end of Autumn, the A Ship With A View was ready to depart into the direction of the Lyran border and the general direction of Terra, where it was planned to skirt the border back towards Circinus.

active for 4 more turns

[] Further Survey IV: active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 65%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 77+10 = 87 - Success (Permanent Survey Squadrons)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 22+10 = 32 - Failure
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 42+10 = 52 - Success

While there was a derth of discoveries in Summer, Autumn led to the discovery of another habited world, Tellus. Unlike many of the other worlds found during survey work, Tellus was originally settled by many nationalities, but had regressed to a late 19th century technology level and split into three different governments, the Tellus Republic, the Federated Cities of Tellus and the Tellurian Union, all of which were representative democracies on paper, but had varied levels of 'absolutism' in their governments. All three were in a state of general peace, but apparently sometimes there would be a limited war between either of these nations.

active for 1 more turns

Deep Space Signal Intelligence Network

[] DSSIN Survey Squadron: - 6 votes active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 21+5 = 26 - Failure (All DSSINOO operations)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 28+5 = 33 - Failure

The attempt to get at least two survey squadrons for the DSSINOO continues to fail from the resistance of the Survey Squadrons themselves.

active for 2 more 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
Roll 6 of 8, Roll 1d100: 98 - Crit Success
Roll 7 of 8, Roll 1d100: 51 - Success

Code:
Freaking Comstar Roll,          1d20: 20 - Comstar does something really stupid
    Comstar Success,            1d20: 20 - Crit Success
Hanse Davion Fudge Factor Roll, 1d20: 18 - Of Course...
    Hanse Success,              1d20: 13 - Success

Talks continue on various levels with the Lyran and by now FedSun governments, though the latter 'only' on the highest levels, as Abassador Churchill gets invited more or less regularly into meetings with the Archon and the First Prince. During the talks, the Ambassador informed the two heads of state the WCDC would be inclined to sell jump ships to both nations, but it would need some time to increase the production numbers. When asked how many jump ships the WCDC could produce, Churchill answered it would be up to 20, once production had hit its stride. Upon the commend by the First Prince that 20 jumpships per year were effectively doubling the production numbers of the Inner Sphere and that he was not believing it, Churchill corrected him that he was talking about 20 jumpships per month, which left both the Archon and the First Prince speechless for the reminder of the meeting.

Other lower level diplomatic talks were concerned with more mundane matters, like trying to establish a base of currency conversion, which was problematic, considering that the WCDC had more than two hundred different currencies, some of which were on completely different bases of value. Some were still making use of a gold standard, some were sorely based on the value of Helium-3 or energy, while more were free floating currencies not based on anything, but the free market. Conversion between these currencies in the WCDC was already hard enough, but to then add a conversion to the Lryran Kroner and the FedSun Pound was a problem, especially since these currencies were based on germanium. There was the suggestion to use an additional conversion to the Comstar C-Bill, but that was outright denied by the WCDC diplomats, who informed their opposing side they were not trusting Comstar in the slightest.

This distrust was once again confirmed when a team of unknown agents managed to force their way into the military compound housing the WCDC troops and Kell Hounds. Here they attempted to steal WCDC Fusilier mechs and go on a rampage through Tharkad City, aiming to pin the blame on the WCDC forces. At night, they were able to evade any surveillance systems and patrols and get into the mech hangars, where they forced their entry. They had no problem to enter four of the mechs themselves, as it was standard policy to keep them open for their pilots and commanders in case of need. Here, however, they encountered a massive problem in the fact that the Fusilier was not only designed to be worked by a crew of two, but also that the controls were alien to them, as those were largely based on attack helicopters. The lack of neuro helmets also was a problem for them. They did however attempt to use the mechs anyway, which tripped the internal security systems, as they lacked the proper biometrics, but also the ID chip omnipresent in WCDC societies and as such the proper autonomous response to the attempted ID check handshake.

The security system shut the egress hatches of the Fusilier units and alarmed security, who were able to take the agents into custody before they could damage the insides of the four Fusiliers in question or do anything to harm themselves. During the checkup, it was discovered they had a form of suicide implants they had not been able to activate due to the tasers used in their capture. The implants were successfully removed, before they were moved to be chemically interrogated, using advanced drugs such a Penta. The information gained was transmitted to the WCDC and Berlin, before both the agents and the interrogation transcripts were handed over to the Lyran Government.

However, in the aftermath of this debacle, it quickly turned out that the entire operation was a ruse and that the actual target had been to steal information. While security had been busy to apprehend the agents in the mechs, another team of agents had managed to gain access to several tablet computers containing maintenance documentation, replacement parts and tools in the maintenance section. The main suspect of this operation was, of course, Comstar, though it later was discovered to be a ROM operation, using several dispossessed mech warriors hired for the job, by reports sent by the Tharkad HPG to an Anastasius Focht at Comstar HQ.

During the following high level talks, First Prince Davion wondered what the WCDC had done to gain the animosity of Comstar. Churchill informed him and Archon Steiner about the first meeting with Comstar and the following incident with the pirates at Circinus. This caused Davion to note it was unpleasant for an interstellar society to conduct business without FTL coms, but that Comstar was sadly needed in this day and age. When informed by Churchill that the WCDC had their own FTL communication method, Davion did not appear astonished and said he had gathered as much, considering that the diplomats seemed to be in constant contact with the WCDC itself and that they would be interested in gaining this method of FTL communication, to become independent of Comstar in these matters.

Churchill, who had been instructed to disclose the Enhanced Range Secure HPG, did precisely that, which prompted the question of why it was considered 'secure'. Here, Churchill overstepped his bounds, telling Davion and Steiner about the HPG radio backscatter and that they had developed a version of the HPG that not only had a much more limited HPG radio backscatter, but also added additional quantum encryption features, making it obvious that someone listened in, when the messages turned into gibberish.

Result: Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns can read Comstars mail in 4 turns
active for 1 more turns


[] Long Range Diplomacy - Marian Hegemony:
Time: 8 turns, Chance of success: 50%
Roll 1 of 8, Roll 1d100: 79 - Success
Roll 2 of 8, Roll 1d100: 45 - Failure
Roll 3 of 8, Roll 1d100: 66 - Success

Finally, the diplomatic mission to the Marian Hegemony could continue their journey to Aplhard, which they reached by mid Autumn, the combat and transport squadrons appearing in the Alphard L1 point, before entering orbit the following day, making the planetary defense jumpy. While remaining in orbit, the transports informed the planetary government and Caesar Marius O'Reilly about their intentions, before requesting permission to land. The permission was granted, with the transports and half of a combat squadron landing, an Undessa providing ground forces to provide security for the diplomats.

The diplomats were invited into the Caesar's palace, where they were welcomed by a peeved and simultaneously very worried Marius O'Reilly. This show of strength was hoped to provide the proper incentives to coerce the leader of a potentially belligerent nation to see reason as the diplomatic talks began.

active for 6 more turns

WCDC Trade Organization:

[] Heavy Combat Space Craft: active
Time: 6 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 6, Roll 1d100: 32+10+10+10+10 = 72 - Success (Stronger Economy, Economic Ties, Military-Industrial Complex, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 6, Roll 1d100: 37+10+10+10+10 = 77 - Success

Of course, the prospect of developing a new heavy combat craft saw increased activity among the design offices and dock yards, and the WCDCTO was soon swamped by several dozen proposals of various designs, some reaching the 100 ktonnes, but the majority was in a relatively narrow spectrum of 70 to 80 ktonnes. Many were equipped with an abundance of laser apertures for longer ranged fighting as well as missiles up to Class IV and some even with combat drones.

active for 4 more turns

[] Mining Town: active
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 55%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 81+10+10+10 = 111 - Success (Stronger Economy, Economic Ties, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 20+10+10+10 = 60 - Success

While most of the potential mining sites for germanium were located in the various asteroid belts, and there in dwarf planets, like Ceres or Vesta, one planet was discovered to have several large deposits of sphalerite, argyrodite, briartite and germanite, ores with a comparably high germanium content, New Berlin. In fact, it appeared that the new main settlement of New Berlin, Spandau, had been purposefully located near an immense deposit of germanite near the surface, where an open pt mine would be the most efficient to mine. It took a little time, but it appeared that some documentation about these deposits had surfaced on Hannover, which was the main reason the Hannoverians settled the world.

In the wake of this disclosure, several mining companies began to move in as well, planning to make use of the infrastructure in the system set up by the Not Invented Here.

active for 2 more turns

WCDC Office for Science and Development:

[] HFEG Jump: - 5 votes
Time: 12 turns, Chance of success: 25%
Roll 1 of 12, Roll 1d100: 40+10+10 = 60 - Failure (Research Center Sol, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 12, Roll 1d100: 14+10+10 = 34 - Failure

Slowly, the team of scientists working on the problem of creating some sort of combination of the HFEG system and the Jump Drive, the various possible leads for a solution of this development lead to the main team to split up into many smaller teams, each seeking to prove that their pet theory for the solution was the right one, leading to a watering down of the effort, reducing its efficiency.

active for 10 more turns

[] Hyperwave Reflection Research: - 6 votes
Time: 5 turns, Chance of success: 50%
Roll 1 of 5, Roll 1d100: 59+10+10 = 79 - Success (Research Center Sol, Interstellar Communication Network)
Roll 2 of 5, Roll 1d100: 96+10+10 = 116 - Crit Success

After beginning their work with a modified Superlimunal Wave Detector and a simple Hyperwave tranceiver that was set to a specific frequency, it was discovered that the reflected hyperwaves the scientists were seeing were corrosponding to the general positions of various spacecraft in orbit around Earth. Trying to come up with an expanation for this phenomenon, computer models were programmed and run, resulting in a surprising outcome. Apparently it was the n-dimensional field properties of elements in the carbon group semiconductors and titanium group transition metals, such as germanium or titanium, but only in the specific field matrizes needed to produce either a Heim-Feynman Event or induce a hyperspace jump.

What the scientists had in hand, primitive as it was, was essentially the first sensor system that was able to detect specific objects over possibly long distances at faster than light speed.

active for 3 more turns

----------------------------

WCDC Internal Events:

The WCDCTO investigation into the cause of the sudden raise of the germanium price in 61 Virginis lead to the discovery that it had been Petan, who had bought up germanium in such quantities that the ancient ASI AutoWar was in possession of at least one half million tonnes of the material. At the same time, he had taken sole posession of one of the orbital fabricator dockyards of Cterin that was nominally under his control, but had previously only been used by the closest of his biological disciples to create combat craft to do their part in guarding the quarantined world. The dock yard was seeing massive construction activity in its three yard slips, all of which had been massively extended over the past year and equipped with physical barriers to prevent anyone from looking inside.

When asked what he was doing, Petan notified the WCDC that he was working on an upgrade to his systems, and that he was willing to sare it with his surviving two siblings in Sol, which had left Cterin as part of the first Exodus Fleet that had reached Sol 3000 years ago. Other than that, he was not willing to disclose his plans.

The Ares Democratic Republic requests membership into the WCDC, after realizing that their economic future is in dire straights without working with the WCDC.

----------------------------

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.

Comstar:

The successful operation of ROM on Tharkad, and the theft of various technical documentation, replacement parts and tools, has been an impressive piece of work. The reports sent from Tharkad to Comstar HQ show that the actual agents had been surprised the mech warriors had not been able to work the showy distraction that had wished for, but were nonetheless grateful that they had at least presented enough of a distraction that the agents could steal an entire truck full of parts, tools and documentation.

As it is, security must be tightened up, as it is unclear how the agents and the mech warrior have eluded our security measures. Currently, it is unclear how the agents had been able to give their panties those suicide implants without their notice.

Expansion and Suggestions:

The DSSI Network slowly continues to expand into the Inner Sphere.

-----------------------

Random Event - Nothing Happens
 
Phantom Mech is a bit hard when your mech is covered in Smart Dust that transmits your positional data all over the opponents tac net.

Considering phantom mech amounts to dissapearing from sensors due to the pilot crossing some sort of stress threshold i.e lolmagic I am not certain any amount of aditional surveilance would do the trick.

And from what I can see our diplomatic team was lolfucked by the opposing rolls this turn
 
Considering phantom mech amounts to dissapearing from sensors due to the pilot crossing some sort of stress threshold i.e lolmagic I am not certain any amount of aditional surveilance would do the trick.

And from what I can see our diplomatic team was lolfucked by the opposing rolls this turn
Methinks we should visit Terra.

In kind.
 
Possible future NAIS developments
Just wanted to note potential future tech developments that the NAIS might develop from the ideas Dr. B. Banzai got from looking at our stuff...

Code:
NIAS Tech Developments:
    Helical Railgun (30mm to 90mm)
    Light Battle Armor
    Power Assisted Battle Armor
    Medium Powered Armor
    MIL-STD-102343 (Omni Tech)
    Compact Multi Core CPUs (ARM like homegrown)
    Laser AMS
    Heavy LRM
    Bushwacker (Fusilier copy, small reactor + superconducting batteries)
    ER Lasers (combo of Beam Power + Optics)

I'm going to roll a 1d4 on Turn 48 to determine how many of these techs the NAIS will develop in time for the ITL version of the 'War of 3039', followed by rolling a 1d10 to determine which of those techs they get. :devilish:
 
Just wanted to note potential future tech developments that the NAIS might develop from the ideas Dr. B. Banzai got from looking at our stuff...

Code:
NIAS Tech Developments:
    Helical Railgun (30mm to 90mm)
    Light Battle Armor
    Power Assisted Battle Armor
    Medium Powered Armor
    MIL-STD-102343 (Omni Tech)
    Compact Multi Core CPUs (ARM like homegrown)
    Laser AMS
    Heavy LRM
    Bushwacker (Fusilier copy, small reactor + superconducting batteries)
    ER Lasers (combo of Beam Power + Optics)

I'm going to roll a 1d4 on Turn 48 to determine how many of these techs the NAIS will develop in time for the ITL version of the 'War of 3039', followed by rolling a 1d10 to determine which of those techs they get. :devilish:
Gee. Thanks. It looks more and more like you are trying to make the FedCon eat us and push Neo-Feudalism down our throats.

The FedCom is not the good guy.

The FedCom is the protagonist. But not a good guy.

Remember that always.

Also. Is the above your revenge for me and @Blade4 trying to come up with ways how to crash and burn IS Neo-Feudalism culture?
 
Gee. Thanks. It looks more and more like you are trying to make the FedCon eat us and push Neo-Feudalism down our throats.

The FedCom is not the good guy.

The FedCom is the protagonist. But not a good guy.

Remember that always.

Also. Is the above your revenge for me and @Blade4 trying to come up with ways how to crash and burn IS Neo-Feudalism culture?
I am not.

But we ICly have to realize that the Houses are not the bum fuck periphery lords we have dealt with previously, and that Comstar has much more assets inside the Inner Sphere to run an operation like that. It all serves a narrative.
 
Methinks we should visit Terra.

In kind.
They are already dead.

Ok is a crazy turn. Belisarius is probable going to be our flagship a good while but how to use her? Probable need to put her through some war games to iron out problems but do we keep her in close hidden till we need her as a surprise or do we do a show the flag event with her visiting various worlds nearby with a escort fleet? Once heavy ship is done we will probable need to work on designing our own version of her and make plans to make more. Need to make doctrine for that but that's for later.

Defense station is a bit concerning but should be ok. Survey is looking to be one of those things that just fails and might as well write off. Deep cover might be compromised because SAFE is supposed to be very good at counter intelligence but have to wait and see. And the insanity of the Lyran diplo action. Great good for you comstar you stole a pile of parts and tech manuels you probable cant use. Er @Warringer list of what they got or just general spare parts? But you got caught red handed trying to provoke a mass casualty event on Tharkard and assaulting a diplo party guests of of the Lyran commonwealth.

And oh yeah the FedCom now have hpgs...

Comstar is FINISHED. FedCom has now open proof of maleficence on comstar parts and what they need to remove their monopoly. Inside 10 turns comstar is probable going to be taken apart as stations are seized and regimental combat teams drop on Terra and seize it.

Moving on Marian is ok. Economy actions ok but we might want to get a combat/patrol in system because as news spreads its a major germanium mine any remaining pirates stupid enough to stick around will see a irresistible target. Science is a mixed bag with reflector going great and HFEG sucking balls. Reflector team when done might need take over research since all the good scientists apparently went there...

Petan is building himself a warship body like Belisarius. Well ok then. Bit annoying not asked or requisitioned a body from us but if the elder guardian of the dead wants a upgrade no point arguing.And one of the 8 finally got smart and joined. Excellent news and welcome to them. Hopefully this breaks the ice for others and we get most of the rest save probable the N Korea analogue

Smart dust and ai/operators should have been watching 24/7 anyway. But ROM is insane good at their jobs and got lucky. How they were able to load a truck i would like to know. Not that it matters. By time parts reach earth and lab FedCom will probable be knocking on their door. Fedcom knowing about our more secure comms is not a big deal. They probable would have figured out pretty fast anyway.
 
Just wanted to note potential future tech developments that the NAIS might develop from the ideas Dr. B. Banzai got from looking at our stuff...

Code:
NIAS Tech Developments:
    Helical Railgun (30mm to 90mm)
    Light Battle Armor
    Power Assisted Battle Armor
    Medium Powered Armor
    MIL-STD-102343 (Omni Tech)
    Compact Multi Core CPUs (ARM like homegrown)
    Laser AMS
    Heavy LRM
    Bushwacker (Fusilier copy, small reactor + superconducting batteries)
    ER Lasers (combo of Beam Power + Optics)

I'm going to roll a 1d4 on Turn 48 to determine how many of these techs the NAIS will develop in time for the ITL version of the 'War of 3039', followed by rolling a 1d10 to determine which of those techs they get. :devilish:
Well thats going to suck but we shall persevere and keep growing and we have a major naval advantage they cant match. Helical is something Davion will want very badily i think. Did our techs just let Banzai study everything? Or this will be also from traders getting samples that immediately go into labs to be reversed engineered?
Also. Is the above your revenge for me and @Blade4 trying to come up with ways how to crash and burn IS Neo-Feudalism culture?
They are not stupid and will pick stuff up fast once seen. Not helped that again looks like the techs let them just look over everything but we will be fine. We just need to start expanding building up and we should be such trading partners they dont dare dick with us.
 
Er @Warringer list of what they got or just general spare parts? But you got caught red handed trying to provoke a mass casualty event on Tharkard and assaulting a diplo party guests of of the Lyran commonwealth.
Those are general replacement parts for things that are easily damaged and so kept in stock near the mechs. The really important parts, like say a few Helical Rail Guns, are securely locked away on out Overlord until needed. Or they are fabricated on the splot.
Petan is building himself a warship body like Belisarius. Well ok then. Bit annoying not asked or requisitioned a body from us but if the elder guardian of the dead wants a upgrade no point arguing.
Keep in mind that the WCDC is a military and economic operation, they don't deal with internal politiucs of the various members. So Petan is not going to ask if he wants an upgrade, as that is an internal matter of his little group.
Smart dust and ai/operators should have been watching 24/7 anyway. But ROM is insane good at their jobs and got lucky. How they were able to load a truck i would like to know. Not that it matters. By time parts reach earth and lab FedCom will probable be knocking on their door. Fedcom knowing about our more secure comms is not a big deal. They probable would have figured out pretty fast anyway.
ROM is used to run false flag ops and has much better access to more assets inside the Inner Sphere, especially on capital worlds.
Well thats going to suck but we shall persevere and keep growing and we have a major naval advantage they cant match. Helical is something Davion will want very badily i think. Did our techs just let Banzai study everything? Or this will be also from traders getting samples that immediately go into labs to be reversed engineered?
For the most part, Banzai just looked over the shoulder of some techs, as they serviced a Helical 35mm and asked some questions the techs answered without thinking as they wanted that annoying guy to go away. The same goes for our version of Omni Tech, he took one good look and got inspired.
 
Those are general replacement parts for things that are easily damaged and so kept in stock near the mechs. The really important parts, like say a few Helical Rail Guns, are securely locked away on out Overlord until needed. Or they are fabricated on the splot.
So they slit their throats to steal crap then. Even more hilarious. Well some will be useful but on a case by case level and might still not be worth retooling for or using if equivalent is doing job just fine. How about armor plate? Probable but just studying it wont let them replicate it necessarily.
Keep in mind that the WCDC is a military and economic operation, they don't deal with internal politiucs of the various members. So Petan is not going to ask if he wants an upgrade, as that is an internal matter of his little group.
Thing is his actions do affect us militarily and economically here. We are gearing up for a major action selling jumpships for both trade and good pr/diplo currency and he helped stall that out by not coordinating with us. Its fine and we make do but he could have at least talked to someone before doing something disruptive like buying out a strategic metal right as its usage jumped. Hopefully we can send someone to just have a talk with him.
ROM is used to run false flag ops and has much better access to more assets inside the Inner Sphere, especially on capital worlds.
Unfortunately very true given need to manage the house lords as best they can for their schemes. Still proper use of sensors and smart dust should have caught this but then ROM could have gave them something to disrupt dust?
For the most part, Banzai just looked over the shoulder of some techs, as they serviced a Helical 35mm and asked some questions the techs answered without thinking as they wanted that annoying guy to go away. The same goes for our version of Omni Tech, he took one good look and got inspired.
Noisy mad scientists... Security should not have let him near that but then how were they to know? Still a lot of tech but much of it will leak as they sneak out wikipedia pages and samples anyway. Combine was already screwed buts many of those techs if rolled out in time will make it even more horrific for them. Any flavor of power armor and helicals by themselves...

Edit: Though their version will probable have weight/bulk or other issues anyway...
 
Noisy mad scientists... Security should not have let him near that but then how were they to know? Still a lot of tech but much of it will leak as they sneak out wikipedia pages and samples anyway. Combine was already screwed buts many of those techs if rolled out in time will make it even more horrific for them. Any flavor of power armor and helicals by themselves...
Well, the Combine isn't too 'bad' themselves when it comes to weapons. They introduce their own ER and Pulse Lasers and an ER PPC by 3037.

And FedCom Helical would have a lower range and less damage, even if a tiny bit better than Clan Gauss.
 
Well, the Combine isn't too 'bad' themselves when it comes to weapons. They introduce their own ER and Pulse Lasers and an ER PPC by 3037.

And FedCom Helical would have a lower range and less damage, even if a tiny bit better than Clan Gauss.
Yeah but they lost harder here iirc and did lose Theodore and he was critical in them not being smashed in. His bluffs and gambits are what really saved them. Maybe if comstar just dumps mechs and gear and they go banzai crazy they can hold out but its about to be a bad time to speak Japanese. Their helical sounds like it still obsoletes many autocannon and they will love using them snake hunting and making the phone company shove their bills were the sun dont shine.
 
A question for yall to think on. What will fleet doctrine look like after this? With addition of the Belisarius and ships like her we need to rethink it a bit. Do we use ships like that as fleet center pieces? With squadrons of smaller ships arrayed around them and used directly in battle?

Do we keep them in reserve or back line as literal mobile bases/supply points while fleet squadrons as is continue? Only bring them to battle as needed. Perhaps even keep them hidden when possible so other powers don't know we have them or how many?

Or do we go all in? Accept current ships as sub caps that are not obsolete but being superseded and begin designing new frigate, cruiser, and battleship designs.

I am think we will head to third in time either way but we do need to choose a path.

Thought? Alternate ideas?
 
Switch to IS style capital ships as manned platforms the rest either drones or minimal crew similar to ASF's
 
A question for yall to think on. What will fleet doctrine look like after this? With addition of the Belisarius and ships like her we need to rethink it a bit. Do we use ships like that as fleet center pieces? With squadrons of smaller ships arrayed around them and used directly in battle?

Do we keep them in reserve or back line as literal mobile bases/supply points while fleet squadrons as is continue? Only bring them to battle as needed. Perhaps even keep them hidden when possible so other powers don't know we have them or how many?

Or do we go all in? Accept current ships as sub caps that are not obsolete but being superseded and begin designing new frigate, cruiser, and battleship designs.

I am think we will head to third in time either way but we do need to choose a path.

Thought? Alternate ideas?
So with the ability to mass produce very large dropships, I see no reason to produce smaller warship designs. Not having to fit in a jumpcore that eats up roughly half of a ships mass means you can put all that saved mass into combat ability, letting a smaller 100k ton design hit as hard as a 200-250k Frigate at a much, much cheaper price point. It's only once you start to get beyond 500k tons that I can see reasons to produce IS style warships because at that point you start getting into enough of a concentration of force that in my opinion, it starts becoming worth the cost.

But even so, doctrine is often tailored to fight who you consider to be the biggest threat. Who in the Inner Sphere can actually contest the WCDC in space at this point in time? Survey says, "no one". So a better question is, are the capabilities that warships bring to the table, worth the cost in time, manpower, and materials? Is the opportunity cost of building that brand new Texas-class knockoff worth the half-dozen jumpships and dozen Heavy Combat Craft you could've built with that yard space?

At this point in time, I'm inclined to only order very few warships, and not even for their primary purpose of fighting other warships. I would want them in limited quantities to act as mobile logistical and command hubs to alleviate needing to ship supplies from the Three Worlds to wherever combat operations are taking place. And I would like to note, the Von Neumann ships could easily fill the same role, so our reworked ship is a luxury, not a necessity, as far as I'm concerned.
 
Switch to IS style capital ships as manned platforms the rest either drones or minimal crew similar to ASF's
Something to consider. Light autowars could be very useful skirmishers pulling gees and tactics that would pulp organics.

Edit: Our ftl is already superior and our jumpdrives always compact and smaller than the IS version (40% ships mass) unless we are making a export ship. And yeah right now there is not that great a need but things might change. Our current designs are equal or better to anything our peers nearby have but we can't count on that not changing and we know the clans at least have warships and those by shear mass at least could be dangerous. I am assuming after we finish with this refit we will get options to research building our own. At the very least we should experiment with designs and see where things go.
 
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BT with its screwy development gives us a wide bearth of fleet doctrine developement.

Ye standard fleet diagram is probably the safest bet. Specialized ships for specialized tasks.

Or we can go the Battlestar route and build giant motherships dragging a bit of everything around.

Or take a page of the Terran Hegemony playbook, combine it with Autowars and mass produce automated drones ships. The M series were pure murder especially in the defense.

Choices, choices...
 
BT with its screwy development gives us a wide bearth of fleet doctrine developement.

Ye standard fleet diagram is probably the safest bet. Specialized ships for specialized tasks.

Or we can go the Battlestar route and build giant motherships dragging a bit of everything around.

Or take a page of the Terran Hegemony playbook, combine it with Autowars and mass produce automated drones ships. The M series were pure murder especially in the defense.

Choices, choices...
Mind you the M series was so effective it scared the crap out of everyone involved. Kerensky took pains to destroy all records and finding out we have ships like them will be a trigger for the clans and make the houses rather nervous. But they can deal or find out why autowars are so deadly. Battlestar does look rather like where we might be going actually. We do supposed to have some very nasty drone fighters... Actually need to put that on the list for new things to research because don't think we have really upgraded those yet like drives.
 
Mind you the M series was so effective it scared the crap out of everyone involved. Kerensky took pains to destroy all records and finding out we have ships like them will be a trigger for the clans and make the houses rather nervous. But they can deal or find out why autowars are so deadly. Battlestar does look rather like where we might be going actually. We do supposed to have some very nasty drone fighters... Actually need to put that on the list for new things to research because don't think we have really upgraded those yet like drives.
By the time the new drives popped up, drone craft were automatically upgraded, as were missiles.
 
By the time the new drives popped up, drone craft were automatically upgraded, as were missiles.
I dont think were every did a is areospace study though. That could be some kind of useful if only looking at the 10,000 designs and go what the fuck?
 
A question for yall to think on. What will fleet doctrine look like after this? With addition of the Belisarius and ships like her we need to rethink it a bit. Do we use ships like that as fleet center pieces? With squadrons of smaller ships arrayed around them and used directly in battle?

Do we keep them in reserve or back line as literal mobile bases/supply points while fleet squadrons as is continue? Only bring them to battle as needed. Perhaps even keep them hidden when possible so other powers don't know we have them or how many?

Or do we go all in? Accept current ships as sub caps that are not obsolete but being superseded and begin designing new frigate, cruiser, and battleship designs.

I am think we will head to third in time either way but we do need to choose a path.

Thought? Alternate ideas?
What about the corvette swarm?
Even in its best shape, all IS and Clans can do relies on the small elite force that can't be replaced once destroyed.
They wouldn't know how to handle a large number of targets that actually can damage them.
We however certainly have some large ship that actually isn't important, it will lead everyone to try to attack the big one automatically assuing everything falls apart without it.
 
Mind you the M series was so effective it scared the crap out of everyone involved. Kerensky took pains to destroy all records and finding out we have ships like them will be a trigger for the clans and make the houses rather nervous. But they can deal or find out why autowars are so deadly. Battlestar does look rather like where we might be going actually. We do supposed to have some very nasty drone fighters... Actually need to put that on the list for new things to research because don't think we have really upgraded those yet like drives.


Tbh while BSG style fleet is hardcore as hell I am a bit weary of the fundamental flaw of such an approach.

Destroy the jump capable Mothership all non jump capable assets are fucked.

While the Bellisarious and any other Bigass ships we develop in such a scenario will be insanely tough nuts to crack, their use as frontline combatants if the need arises and the abandance of factions capable and willing to use suicide attacks make me weary.

While solutions exist, such as having Jumpships loitering a jump away or something of the sort the issues are evident.
 
What about the corvette swarm?
Autowars with AI backups do really fuck them. Especially the clans. They just are not set up for attritional warfare at all and revamping to do so would alter their culture to point they are not clans anymore. Houses not so much but they would be terrified of making autowars because of Amaris turning the M series against the league. Would be interesting because till now their tech paradigms do not allow for effective naval swarm tactics. Latter on with sub caps and parasite warships sure but even then they did not go that crazy with the concept.

Tbh while BSG style fleet is hardcore as hell I am a bit weary of the fundamental flaw of such an approach.
Which is a fundamental flaw of all BT style navy's because of how vulnerable KF drives tend to be. We are not so limited but it will always be a issue.
 
Talks continue on various levels with the Lyran and by now FedSun governments, though the latter 'only' on the highest levels, as Abassador Churchill gets invited more or less regularly into meetings with the Archon and the First Prince. During the talks, the Ambassador informed the two heads of state the WCDC would be inclined to sell jump ships to both nations, but it would need some time to increase the production numbers. When asked how many jump ships the WCDC could produce, Churchill answered it would be up to 20, once production had hit its stride. Upon the commend by the First Prince that 20 jumpships per year were effectively doubling the production numbers of the Inner Sphere and that he was not believing it, Churchill corrected him that he was talking about 20 jumpships per month, which left both the Archon and the First Prince speechless for the reminder of the meeting.
The Ares Democratic Republic requests membership into the WCDC, after realizing that their economic future is in dire straights without working with the WCDC.
And then there were only seven.

Current odds for overall DSINNOO squadrons success: 60%
Current odds for overall Improved System Defence & FOB success: 70%
Current odds for overall HFEG Jump success: 6%

Yeah, not looking good, but at least there's good odds we'll get a couple successful rolls in, those might hint at what to do better next time.

As for the Belisarius' future use, I kind of want to wait how she performs in war-games, but since her lasers can somehow also do double duty as detectors, she's not in dire need of an attendant fleet of surveillance craft or what you call it. Spotters or something. Anyway, from the looks of she's more of a generalist than a dedicated craft, capable of performing as passable scout, passable transport, good mobile base (look at those fabricators), decent anti-capital (pending war-games), good anti-fleet (pending war-games), sub-par alpha strike (pending war-games).

The way I see it, so far she appears to fill the niche of the Galaxy class in ST:TNG, working as least a Luigi and possibly a Mario (pending war-games & assessment), doing decent to well in most uses, but not shining in any, with the possible exception of anti-capital. If the 2.5 Mt Improved System Defence station performs well in that regard (again pending war-games and evaluation in its role), then these stations will play the anti-capital role in any defence action taking place.
Heck, given the O'somethings I fully expect the Three Capitol Worlds to host at least one of these defence stations per jump point and at the major planets (Earth, Jupiter, maybe Mars, Jerat, probably-maybe Lyeib-bel, Seuwack, possibly Dran (politically difficult with that many nations with a chequered past), Cterin only under Petan's command), and at least one per system for Washington, Solidarność, and Hannover, possibly orbiting the respective planet.​

So, there are three major roles ships of Belisarius' size can fulfil.
  1. Engage/counter other similarly sized ships (anti-capital)
  2. Fleet engagement (anti-subcapital)
  3. Fleet coordination (part of a fleet)
For (1) we need to have enemies that field ships of that size. We don't, not IC, unless you count the O'somethings.
For (2) the Belisarius would effectively fly around like a rogue planet and try to bump into unfriendlies. She would be able to jump into a pirate haven and cripple whatever spaceborne assets they have. This is less effective than one might think, since in this setting there are no magical force fields or shields that keep the hull from being scratched, damaged, or penetrated. Instead we have armour plating on the outside, but that still means any hit we take will need to be repaired at some point, since these old damages will accumulate and provide weak points for all future battles.
I think (3) is the most realistic role the Belisarius would currently fill. As part of a fleet she could carry backups for all AutoWars (if I understood that right), she would be screened from a sizeable fraction of any damage potential the enemy would bring to bear, while at the same time be too big to ignore, diluting the possible hits planned for the other ships in the fleet. Due to her manufacture capacity she would be able to provide field repairs (and replacements) for practically all smaller ship (though don't know if she's fitted with a dry dock), and possibly sophisticated munitions and ordinance.
Possible future roles for Belisarius sized ships would be as missile carriers, capable of delivering tremendous alpha strikes overwhelming any enemy point defence, or as a drone/fighter/AutoWar carrier. Given the Hyperwave radio's size, the effective (ping ≤5ms) coordination range would span half an AU.

But there are minor roles (that might actually transform into major uses) I see for the Belisarius
  1. Force Projection/Impress the yokels
  2. Coordination of local forces
  3. Flagship
To us, the Belisarius outmasses anything we field by about an order of magnitude. It is positively humongous. It's big enough to be naked-eye visible from the ground of any planet up to 3500 km orbits (and farther when it glints in sunlight), and big enough to discern its outline when in LEO. Of course we are impressed. Since it's a warship, excuse me, the defining class for WarShips, its silhouette and characteristics will likely be in any jumpship computer we encounter, if only to alarm its captain to skedaddle post-haste. This means it will also serve that function for the civilised IS, with the added (dis)advantage of showing that we're arriving in a modified WarShip. Any space-capable polity we arrive at with the Belisarius will take note.
For (2), the crux lies in that she is capable of engaging lesser fleets and expect to win (pending war-games). So she works like a Forward Operations Base in that she is a logistics hub, capable of refuelling and replenishing stocks in appropriate systems on her own. However, she'll likely be lesser to the Improved System Defence & FOB, for which this is a design specific and goal. Furthermore her lesser (additional) crew capacity will likely keep her from effectively coordinating more than minor to medium fleets.
(3) Using the Belisarius as a flag ship, which overlaps with (1), of course, will be fun, since it's a beautiful piece of misdirection. Let me quote:
Wikipedia said:
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the first, largest, fastest, most heavily armed, or best known.
Psychologically and traditionally, it's expected that the flagship fulfils any or many of these criteria. And the Belisarius will accomplish exactly that, but the beauty (and possible trap) lies in its provenance as salvage. The WCDC aren't capable, or at least willing, to build WarShips (though warships are another matter). If we ride in with the Belisarius and a couple squadron of other ships that are all a magnitude smaller, the obvious conclusions to jump to are
(a) these idiots obviously found a WarShip, otherwise they'd come with better ships, they're easy prey;​
(b) these dangerous people rode in on a WarShip of all things, them be crazy!​
(c) these people field WarShips! Better tread carefully…​
All while the actual punch in our warfare capabilities lies in the comparatively much smaller craft. Whoever sees us helming the Belisarius the first time, will likely draw the wrong conclusions in regards to our capabilities. Not all, mind you, but it will provide an advantage.

But seriously, we'll need to do some war-games. Next turn the Byzantium will finish and the Belisarius will probably rechristened to something else. Though I hope not with a Culture-inspired name; Banks might be a beloved author on all worlds (not that we'd know), but a Tiaunt name would be nice. Or a Tiaunt-Culture name; after all The Culture is probably public domain by now, and will have inspired many a new story be written, and why not non-humans?
Hm… given the duality of the laser system (for shooting and detecting) it makes even more sense for a Tiaunt name to be chosen…
The turn after (43) the 2.5Mt totally-not-a-micro-Death-Star will be finished as well, so I hope we'll get an option for reassessment of fleet doctrine then, unless that's something that happens all the time in the background anyway.
 
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