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
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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.
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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.
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.
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Random Event - Nothing Happens