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[EuchreJack]

"Competent"?  Ah, this must be an alternate reality Rimmer from the one from the show.   

I guess scavenging for survival on the devastated surface of Earth made him a better man.

[Panopticon]

Well the Empire isn't going to give command of its most modern vessel and sole jump ship to an incompetent. Seeing as we aren't in a quirky classic British sci-fi comedy universe ol' Rimmy will have to make do being relatively good at something.

Mind you, if you feel it justified, he is free to protest or even decline to follow orders if he is sent into what he views as certain danger, that even has options for perhaps switching sides if he is pushed hard enough.

On to the update:

March 23rd, research on improved geo survey sensors completes, construction of the Coriolis II commences, the design is the same as the Coriolis - Grav save for the sensor replacement, it will be the first geological survey craft constructed in decades.

April 3, 2 White Star class jump escorts launch, they are immediately sent to jump points 1 and 2 to see what is there, the Empire is on the move, of note, JP2 is the one with the pre existing jump gate.

April 10, exploration of JP1 reveals EZ aquarii, a trinary system with no habitable worlds, but a fair amount of real estate that might have minerals. course is set for Sol JP3

April 20, JP2 leads to Luyten 726-8, a binary system with 2 potentially terraformable worlds, a few comets, and little else save another Jump Gate allowing 2 way access to the system. a promising find indeed.

April 27, White Star 1, exploring JP3 is overdue, she left Sol April 22 and should have returned the next day

May 22, Federation scientists finally begin research on a jump drive design, also put into production is the a geo survey variant of the Discovery survey vessel. It is at this time the decision is made to shut down construction factories to free up workers for the shipyards, the ongoing shortage is slowing production and research by too much.

May 28, JP4 leads to LHS 292, which has one easily terraformable world, a few difficult moons similar to Titan, and an extensive asteroid belt and numerous gas giants, comets, and uninhabitable worlds, another possibility pending geo surveys.

June 13, New Vegas exhausts its Sorium supply, this is not a huge concern as the Federation fuel stockpiles are considerable.

July 10 JP5 reveals Wolf 359, a system with a star and nothing else. The travel time between jump points is of concern to the Empire, most of them are in the outer system and could be accessed more easily by the Federation for much of the time depending on orbits. The need for faster ships is underscored.

July 16, it has now been months since White Star 1 disappeared through JP3, Empire command must accept that it met with misfortune, either hostile aliens, technical malfunction, or space hazard such as a black hole are all theories being thrown around,
JP3 is marked "Do not enter" pending the ability to put a fleet through. Construction begins on a replacement jump ship.

August 8, Lalande 21185 is discovered through JP6, it is a single star system with a couple planets and moons, nothing of note save for 18 comets, if experience in Sol is anything to go by there could be a lot of resources here.

August 13, Sorium found on Pluto

September 18, JP7 leads to Epsilon Eridani, 2 planets, 17 comets, nothing else.

September 28, the 8th and final jump point reveals Proxima Centauri, an amazingly boring system with 1 gas giant and 4 comets, Empire command now must decide what of the new systems to exploit, Luyten 726-8 or LHS 292, the JP leading to the former is closer to the system center, therefore easier to get to, and there are more system bodies within to survey, but the latter has an easier planet to colonize, in the end, the decision is made to go with Luyten, at least for initial surveying due to the pre existing jump gates. The Coriolis - Grav vessels are sent to see what warp connections the system has.

November 21, a working jump drive is developed in the Federation, a ship mounting it is immediately put into production. The MC-30 is an advanced design massing 6000 tons and mounting a pair of light railguns for defense.

Code: [Select]

MC-30 class Jump Ship    6,000 tons     575 Crew     870.2 BP      TCS 120  TH 320  EM 0
2666 km/s    JR 3-50     Armour 3-29     Shields 0-0     Sensors 16/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 7     PPV 5
Maint Life 5.78 Years     MSP 635    AFR 41%    IFR 0.6%    1YR 32    5YR 485    Max Repair 225 MSP

Titan Applied Technologies J6000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 6000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3
Titan Applied Technologies NPE(M) E9 (8)    Power 40    Fuel Use 90%    Signature 40    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 83.3 billion km   (361 days at full power)

Hailstorm 12cm Railgun V3/C3 (1x4)    Range 60,000km     TS: 4000 km/s     Power 6-3     RM 3    ROF 10        2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
Hailstorm FC S03 96-4000 (2)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 4000 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Titan Power S12 PB-1 (1)     Total Power Output 12    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Stormwatch ASR MR25-R100 (1)     GPS 3200     Range 25.6m km    Resolution 100
Wright-Cooper Thermal Sensor TH2-16 (1)     Sensitivity 16     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  16m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

December 8, New Vegas runs out of Mercassium

Moving on the update 3, stuff will probably come fairly quickly for the next little while as I am enjoying seeing what everyone finds.

[Panopticon]

And here is part three, it is all the Empire this year, the Federation shipbuilding is slowwwwwww In fact, they are doing so little I think the Empire might take a shot at stealing one of their bases next year, perhaps a little ground fighting and light fleet action would be amusing.

Here are the important events:

Jan 4, a jump point is discovered in Luyten 726-8

Jan 17, New Vegas runs out of Vendarite, the powers that be begin contemplating moving the entire habitat, though the need to do so is still some years in the future, but it is a big job and will need to be planned.

April 1, A Federation civilian mining colony is established on Charon, selling their minerals directly to the government.

July 26, Luyten 726-8 grav survey complete, there is only one jump point other than the one leading back to Sol, Blue Giant is dispatched to investigate.

August 26, 3 brand new Coriolis-II geo survey vessels launch from Earth, are immediately deployed to Luyten 726-8 to survey the system

September 1, the jump point in Luyten 726-8 is explored, it leads to Tau Ceti, an empty system save for its star.

September 22, survey operations are complete in Luyten, there are numerous sources of minerals to be found on Planet A II and the comets, Planet A II is also very close to human habitable, with an atmosphere similar to Mars, though thinner. Construction of infrastructure commences on earth, as well as shipment of Automated Mines and a Geo survey team to the system.

December 6, the decision is made by the Empire to explore EZ Aquarii more, Blue Giant is paired with a couple grav survey vessels and sent to see what warp connections exist in the system.

[EuchreJack]

Well the Empire isn't going to give command of its most modern vessel and sole jump ship to an incompetent. Seeing as we aren't in a quirky classic British sci-fi comedy universe ol' Rimmy will have to make do being relatively good at something.

Mind you, if you feel it justified, he is free to protest or even decline to follow orders if he is sent into what he views as certain danger, that even has options for perhaps switching sides if he is pushed hard enough.

Oh, I'm certain Empirial Command will be taking the proper measures to ensure ol' Rimmy obediently follows orders (aka lie to him about the dangers).

Speaking of which, Rimmer has the following suggestion:

"Well, I don't see any need for my mucking about unknown space with our only jumpdrive just to glance at some rocks.  Why not have me jump with another, less valuable ship that can do that system searchy thingy, while I galantly return home, solely to protect this very valuable drive you've given me?"

[Panopticon]

Ah, but we have 3 now, and all you have to do is sit on the jump point while the surveyors do their job anyway.

[EuchreJack]

He was speaking about jumping into unexplored systems.

Speaking of jump surveying, Rimmer regrets to inform you that he will be out of the Sol system during the impedding Emperial Offensive.  So sorry he can't be of more help in this.

[Panopticon]

He was, and good for him, of the 9 ships involved, only a single, heavily damaged cruiser survived, not that he would have been in the fight anyway, Empire jump ships are currently unarmed.

[Panopticon]

February 10, New Vegas runs out of Boronide

July 16, Mercassium found on planet A-II, it is low accessibility but was originally not even thought to be present.

August 12, New Vegas is now completely out of minerals, the colony will be transferred to Charon, operations are expected to take quite some time. The research labs will remain until the current project is finished.

Oct 2, EZ Aquarii grav survey completed, there are no additional jump points

Oct 14, Empire research on Ion Drive and a new line of engines completes, additionally, research on an FAC engine was done as well, once Ion Missile Drives are done plans will be made for the next generation of warships.

Oct 30 attack on Ganymede begins, the Empire, feeling the Duranium pinch brought on by Infrastructure production decided to attempt to seize more,  the Emperor approved Lieutenant General Merlin Ross-254's plan of a limited combined operation by fleet and ground forces.

Empire forces:
Destroyers Anzio, Cambrai, and Cannae
Destroyer Escorts Badger and Beatty
Frigates Collie and Corgi

Federation
Cruisers Absolution and Acid
Escorts Alia Atreides and Bakka

Fleet movements were easily followed by both sides tracking stations as the Empire dispersed to put ships in position to threaten multiple Federation targets. The Federation responded accordingly, but due to its lower ship numbers, could not arrange for superiority in all areas, the Empire decided to strike for Ganymede, they would take the colony and loot as many minerals and installations as possible before being forced to leave, analysts believe it had good supplies of Duranium that had yet to be shipped out. Empire ships reached Ganymede on Oct 18th and troop landings were begun, Federation response was already incoming so the escorting warships were forced to move to face them.

The opening shots of the fight were fired by the Hunter class Frigates, who managed to get into weapon range without being fired on due to poor sensor management by the Federation fleet commander, they got several unanswered Gauss volleys off, before being blown out of space by railgun fire from the cruisers. Damage to the Federation fleet was limited to one fire control on ES Alia Atreides.

The opening of the true battle was dominated by the Federation, the Killer ASM mounted by the Invincible proved to have over 10m KM greater range than Empire missiles, and their powerful engines made them difficult targets, in the first salvo they damaged the engines of DE Badger, slowing task group speed to 3150 kms, barely faster than the Federation group, with the speed advantage the Federation was able to land a few more solid hits, the big missiles managing to do internal damage most times they hit, damaging launchers and magazines on several vessels before anti missile fire was adjusted to compensate.
The limited ammunition capacity proved a major flaw though, as they ran dry without destroying any ships, the Empire closed the range and began launching Sidewinders. Federation antimissile systems proved up to the task but again, limited ammo capacity meant they ran out while the Empire still had salvos remaining. These managed to destroy a cruiser and an escort outright, and heavily damage the remaining escort, the task groups sole offensive punch was now CA Acid, helmed by Rear Admiral Owen Webster.

With both sides dry of long range missiles, the Empire task force decided to close the range and use the antimissiles on the Coontz-E to finish the job, this would have worked were it not for the presence of the box launchers with the Lightning CAM mounted by the Invincible class cruisers. The fire of which destroyed Badger and did assorted other damage, slowing the remaining ES Beatty until Acid could overhaul and bring it into railgun range. Beatty's few remaining antimissiles were unable to break through the armor of Acid, and knowing she was doomed, used her last salvos to destroy Bakka before succumbing to railgun fire, the remaining ships in the Empire task group, too damaged to escape, surrendered and scuttled their vessels. The battle of Ganymede was over in space.

The battle was wide ranging, and when Acid managed to limp to Ganymede, the troop transports had managed to recover their battalions and return to the safety of the El Dorado PDC umbrella.

November 5th, Battle of Ganymede ends.

November 10, interrogation of captured prisoners yields information on Gauss Cannon ROF 2, interesting, but Federation command feels railguns are likely to be their back up weapon of choice for the foreseeable future,

November 12, the first Federation jump ships finally complete construction, mission planning is put on hold until the new year as further interrogation of prisoners provides information on jump point destinations, saving the Federation some time (finally)

November 19, Titan researchers complete Ion Engine tech, begin work on associated engines.

December 4, CA Acid completes repairs and reloading on Titan, is now combat ready once again.

December 18, a civilian mining colony is established by the Empire on Asteroid 309, it remains to be seen how long the Federation will permit it to last.


A moderately exciting year, both sides learned things about their combat abilities and there was a modest amount of carnage. Now to decide if the Federation takes of that asteroid colony, it is way out on the Kuiper belt and will be damned hard for the Empire to defend if they decide they want it. Both factions are running a financial deficit at the moment, though the Empire is improving with its massive amount of civilian shipping and higher pop. Redesigning and refitting fleets to a new standard might be enough to break the banks of both nations though, we'll see.

next turn will be in a couple days probably, if anyone has a course of action they want me to take feel free to list it here.

[EuchreJack]

The Empire currently has advantages both in population and in out-of-system activity and knowledge.  I suggest the Empire start colonizing and fortifying valuable out-of-system assets.

You mentioned that several jump points are in Federation space.  Could we have a map of the Sol system, zoomed out so that all jump points are visible?

Spies in the Federation report they seek to increase population growth and their economy by establishing extra-Solar colonies, and a priority in jumpgate research to establish a jumpgate to the most secure jump point that leads to any system with any sort of colonizable planet.

[Panopticon]

I will have a screenshot later, not in position to post one at the moment. Sol is not really divided well into Empire, or Federation space, the Empire tends to control the inner system pretty well, and the Federation the outer, but the fact that the Federation is based on worlds with such long orbits means they have a longer trip to some of the outer system than the Empire does, at least for part of the year.

The jump points are not distributed conveniently either, pretty much everything is beyond the asteroid belt so it is essentially going to be a matter of who can hold what they take. Having the inner position helps the Empire a bit here, but when Titan is in the right orbital position the Federation can get crushing local superiority.

The Empire considered work on a jump gate constructor, but has no scientists specialized in Construction and Production, so for the time being they have decided it would take too long, however that may change soon.

The Federation just got a C and P scientist this year and are strongly considering that research as well.

[EuchreJack]

I'd strongly advise against anyone building a jump gate that if they can not hold said gate.  Thus, the civilians turn into flying piles of free parts.  Then again, that might help the mineral shortages of both sides and be fun...

EDITED above for lutz.

Also, I just found out why people play two civilizations instead of facing off againsts the NPR.  I created an NPR in the same system as one of my colonies, and they insisted on being peaceful!  They only blew up one of my ships when I tried to colonize their homeworld.  And they haven't bothered my colony or other forces since!

And to add insult to injury, my diplomatic team failed to communicate with them.  Oh well, I needed an excuse to erradicate them.

[And for added fun, the planet I created the NPR on was Earth (I deleted the default human colony on Earth), and my colony was on Titan.  As I said, I can see now why you decided to play both Sol factions.]

[Panopticon]

Looks like next update is going to be a bit longer than anticipated, I am leaving for Las Vegas on Sunday and will be away from my computer for almost a week, my time before then is going to pretty much be getting homework done. I won't let this game die though, it shall continue in a little over a weeks time.