Yearly Report: 2023
World events:
Exceptionally high temperatures have been recorded year round, with frequent heat waves all around the world. So far, there has been no sign of an end to this oppressive problem. Crop failures are being recorded all over the world, and food prices soar, while tensions rise all over the world over diminishing water reserves. In some countries, it even comes to war, bloody conflicts between nations and people, fighting for survival. Most worrying of all, soldiers on both fronts are being decimated by an unknown diseases, which is rapidly spreading.
A formely unknown terrorist organisation, Horus Khopesh, has assaulted several labratories of the Eirectic. It's unknown how much data they managed to grab, but it's clear that they were after the nations valued self improving algorithms, the key to AI research. Extensive damage was done to labratories, and a small hundred people died.
Continue last year's projects.
Make some solar panels for Terran use to counteract problems from a loss of space power. Also make a backup antenna for if the main one goes offline.
Send some researchers to collaborate with the New Order on something possible.
Have my own researchers research the nature of gravity (with a long-term goal of finding ways to manipulate it).
The joint project with the 80-15-5 Republic finally reports it's first success, the optimization of nanomembrame thermionic desalination
Investments in terrestrial power production continue, and plans are started for the construction of a second power array. However, the latter program lags back a little, mostly because of it's gigantic size and resource requirements.
Work with the New Order mainly focusses on laser detection systems, which can be used to detect and precisely map a significant amount of objects, and also fluctuations in the local gravity field. No other breakthroughs are made though.
The Heat wave persists above the fields and plains, resulting in an increased water usage, a drop in the water table and increased infiltration of salt.
The Swiss threats are significantly more problematic, while none of your assets pass directly over their airspace (for a given definition of over), your stations, like most stations in orbit, could probably open fire on them, if equiped with proper weaponry.
This is not enough progress. If we do not send our station into orbit, it may no longer be safe! Ramp up production, get the system online. Build a guidance system. It needs weapons control, and it needs to navigate through space. Finally, we must have a proper weapon, to keep our ships safe. What is space? Is it safe? No! If you go floating in space, you are dead! Create a missile system, codename Valkyrie. Launch small missiles, carrying a small amount of navigation fuel. Launch using larger booster, like an aircraft carrier kickplate. Kickplates are a safety feature. Missile moves quickly, uses navigation fuel to stay on target. Armor piercing tip hits rocket, burrows into hull. Tip drills into hull, then opens. Use hydraulics. Acts like Jaws of Life, those are safe. Opens hole in ship hull, depressurizes compartment. Enemy is exposed to space. Space is not safe. Minimum damage caused, easy to salvage.
Ramp up production on construction facility. Create computer guidance system. System must be able to navigate ship, as well as utilize missile systems. Create Valkyrie missile launcher. Valkyrie lances are launched with a small reserve of fuel for navigation. Missiles are launched using a system like a kickplate, with most of the fuel coming from the main ship. Missiles are designed to pierce their target, then drill into the hull. Finally, the tip splits using hydraulic systems, ripping a hole in the ship and depressurizing it.
As the temperatures rise and the infrastructure is freed from ice and snow, the Order's plans pick up speed again. The construction facility is finished and launched, and is fully operational by the end of the year. The Valkyrie missiles are perfected and tested. As expected, they are deadly against an unexpected enemy, but can't hope to bypass any form of active defense other than by sheer numbers. The cooperative science projects also works out fairly well.
Increased food prices are starting to cause trouble for the economy.
Actions:
-Direct the joint research project with the Sky Lords towards more useful desalination plants
-Deploy Military to Contain the growth of the the Hell Slums. Focus on containment, not reclamation, at this point
-Investigate the organized crime families forming in the slums. We want profiles. We may decide to pick a side in the future
-Build civilian cargo ships
-Deploy troops to deal with the pirates and set up the small base the PCC wants
-Deploy any available cargo ships to take advantage of the discount on Panama Canal shipping and undercut shipping companies based elsewhere because we are able to offer a cheaper price
-Begin preliminary research on making our drones space-flight ready.
-Design new drone weapon systems to deal with satilites and airborne infantry
-Send Representative to Alaska
Las Vegas is baking in the heat. The very air seems to be alight, and no clouds have been seen for more than a month. In other cities, the situation is even worse. Even in the government buildings the temperature is near unbearable, which is why the reports are being brought in the underground bunker. In the slums, the situation is even worse. It's a miracle the whole sector hasn't burned down yet. The perimeters would have contained a possible fire, though the refugees would be numerous.
Under the cover of water and food transports, your agents search out the Mafiosi. They find several smaller groups selling drugs and the like, but the majority of the power is controlled by 2 Syndicates. One with ties to the Russian mafia, which focuses on the diversion of aid and the control of the few remaining facilities to maintain their power. They are often in conflict with a primarly Mexican organization, a collection of druglords using the ghettos as production and storage areas, an activity which requires significant amounts of power. Some triad affliated bands and a small Sicilian operation are running around to, contenting themselves with the sale of weaponry for both parties.
The civilian fleet is expanded and transport increases, focusing primarily on our own nations exports and imports. The small fleet send with them easily clears out the pirates, though not before the local infrastructure sustains some damage.
The Scientists have little progress to report. The drones have to be redesigned entirely, as not a single weapon or propulsion system can be reused. The other team solves the earlier problem though, with an exceptionally accurate and fast Flak missile, capable of wounding infantery in a large area, or disabling sattelites. The excessive use of shrapnel might concern some.
The representative arrives without problems
With the reviews of research, civil and warfare reports being thoroughly examined by Eiretic council of ministers progress has been slow as war with Iceland has been a waste of resources, the city of Londainn having parts still drenched in radiation, human experiment's having to not progressed beyond basic tests and upcoming diplomatic meetings showing that more resources should be pumped into much more effective ideas than wasted on wars not ready to fight. After much agreement the council of ministers have compiled a list of ideas to be approved by the elected monarch and a message to sent to the Khan of Mongolia.
Continue with main research efforts on building machinary nessacary for human expierments starting with organ cloning and give a speech to people of Eiretic about the postives of such technology and how its not enthically wrong.
Begin recruitment efforts for more soldiers join Eiretic's army and begin test phases of intergrating nanites into soldier test subjects and implanting Ai's prototypes into skull of test subjects.
Send a groups of researchers and latest research schematics to the Mongolian Empire for the cooperative research establishment to begin research projects with Mongolian Empire researchers and send Diplomats to the upcoming nation meeting.
Equip civilians in Londainn area with radiation suits and purifiers and use them to clear remaining radiation zones.
The cloning work progresses, and soon printer like infrastructures are created capable of recreating organ structures without error. Most of the organs work pretty well, though rejection remains a problem, and printing is still an extremely lengthy affair.
Recruitement starts and picks up quickly, though few people are drafted because of the high skill requirements. Meanwhile, top secret projects have started on human machine symbyosis, with the first experiments coming to fruition rather soon. While the results are limited to a preventive intravenously injected medicine storage and a sixth sense enhancement. Both have some small problems, though none have been mortal as of yet.
Researchers arrive at the labratories without problems.
Radiation cleaning of the City is progressing, though slowly.
The Khan smiled at the state of the Chinese. It wouldn't take much to push them over the edge. The Khan pulls his troops back to the border of the red territory, establishing the demilitarized zone.
The Khan sends the following message:
[Stuff]I have moved my forces to the area marked in red, I have to ask, though, who is getting the territory that I am leaving?
-The Khan of Mongolia[/stuff]
He then left an appropriate number of troops upon the demilitarized zone for defense of the country from any war that could result from the previous message, before sending some into Siberia to secure a decent portion of territory for the joint research facility. Khan's Revenge is not authorized for use in that mission.Due to survival skills of surviving -90o weather on the steppes of Mongolia nightly, they wouldn't have a problem with Siberia's cold.
Once the territory was secured, the Khan ordered rapid construction of the research facility, exploiting any surviving, stable former military bases to assist construction, along with a small airbase for facility defense and ability to land aircraft from Eiretic. Once done, move research projects there, and send a message to the elected monarch of Eiretic that the facility is completed and they can begin to work on the projects alongside the Mongolians.
The land will be restored to it's former owners.
Annexation of Siberian land goes fairly well, though very little actual progress is made. Infrastructure is near nonexistent, and the recent high temperatures have turned the area into a enormous swamp, hindering the supply lines enormously. The construction of the research facility progresses quickly and without problems despite th e fact that most of the installations have to be placed on large poles.
The success of the diplomatic assimilation once more made Alaska whole. But, now was time to improve their new home. New roads and other infrastructure are laid down, with a heavy emphasis on schools and education. Next on the plate was the international situation. Nukes had already been threatened, so it was obvious that diplomacy was the solution. They sent out a radio broadcast with the following.
Next up: The military. A paratrooper branch of the military was proposed, and accepted after heavy debate. 20.000 recruits from the regulars and civilians were sourced, nd transport planes manufactured for them. Also on the military topic was the extent of spacecraft in orbit. It was decided that an anti-satellite missile was to be developed.
Finally, Alaska's pace program was enhanced with the goal of making a Communications Sattelite.
Infrastructure improvements progress rapidly and without problems. Paratroopers squads are being trained, and the planes are rapidly constructed. Scientists also note the succesfull completetion of the Ground to Orbit Shatterer missile, which uses giant highspeed plastic flak to damage sattelites. A certain amount of collateral can't be avoided, but it will tear down all but the most heavely armoured sattelites. A basic comms sat is produced.
Ozolynsh groaned as he finished reading the science report. He promptly scrawled a message on the back, and flipped over to the next report.
Why not have the bacteria fill up with air on contact with radiation or something and float up in the air for the particles to burn up in the atmosphere? Otherwise, keep on trying.
President Ozolynsh
The refugee report was slightly an improvement. The communities were advised to elect 'community leaders' to help inform the government of any major or minor problems or concerns they had, and to suggest ways to stop it.
Meanwhile, a government scheme to provide libraries, museums and free state schools for the main population centres was set up. Ozolynsh hoped that the investment would pay off in the long run; a brighter populace would make a brighter future.
Finally, several letters were drafted and sent off.
The community leader system works fairly well, though the increased bureaucratic stress incurrs results in significantly less efficiency, as well as opening the way for production. The construction of libraries goes fairly well.
The year had turned out well for the dominion. Sure, there were setbacks, but nothing was ever going to be perfect. All things considered, this year went by better than the last, apart from the scientists apparently forgetting what happens to someone if a high-powered laser hit an organic target.
Still, there would always be more work to be done. The temperature drops were of a concern, but the Dominion's foresight had helped them immensely in this, the arcology cities would be the safest places in the event a nuclear winter blanketed the earth. Still, the politics of the new world would start to rise this year, now that there was stability and an end to the endless streams of refugees.
The first matter on the Dominion's agenda was the space program, they now faced an arduous test of the program's capabilities: Reaching GEO with a large payload. The existing RLVs would have to be improved considerably in order to meet the needs of the Dominion.
The RLVs are to be improved to the point where they are able to get a large load into GEO and return. Continue launching reconnaissance and meteorological satellites, using any test rockets the space program's R&D division comes up with to test them.
The next topic the administrative sections had on the agenda was the military. The trials of the aerial mechanized units had gone splendidly, even if the distribution of the new vehicles were going slowly. It is decided that a full effort should be made to convert every division within the ground forces will be upgraded to the new aircraft. The army's officers were given permission to to request any new craft.
Full conversion of the army into a mobile, aerial combined arms force is to be enacted immediately. Recruitment once again is to be increased, attempting to get the numbers to form a field army. Any aircraft requested by the military during the conversion are to be tested for effectiveness, the passing designs being integrated with the conversion.
Another thing had come to attention, rearing it's head during the discussion of the military: The navy. While the construction of the warships had gone smoothly, the battleship ADNV Hydra becoming the poster ship for the navy, and the smaller ships proving effective at their roles, if not moreso due to the stealth capabilities of the fleet.
The cargo subs, however, were a concern. The reports from the engineers on the project had highlighted several concerns, mostly stemming from the ship's power supply. The first reaction of the section was to ask for an increase in the amount of power available for the ship. In the case that was not feasible, the two ideas that the engineers had floated would be put into service together.
In order to fix the problems with the current cargo sub design, the engineers are asked to use a higher-yield generator for the design. If that proves to be unfeasible, the two designs offered as alternatives by them will be used and put into service together.
Another part of the Section's agenda was that now the dominion had a stable industrial base, was the dissection and reverse engineering of the power armour they had in their inventory. The armour was the most advanced personal armour that had ever graced the surface of the world, and had been worn by most of the higher-ups of the dominion around the time of its founding. Now, however, was the time to manufacture these suits for common use for the armed forces. These suits would be able to completely protect the wearer from NBC threats, and provide astounding protection from small arms fire (Larger weapons, such as tank cannons and AT weapons would still kill the wearer).
Begin reverse-engineering and replicating the power armour. Up to half the suits of the power armour are to be used by the scientists and engineers in order to kickstart the project
The next thing on the list was the robots research. Considering the broad objectives on it, the teams assigned to it had performed admirably. The equipment they had manufactured would prove useful to the Dominion. Though there would be another set of tasks for the robotics division soon, some of the data would have to be "Acquired" from outside sources.
Research is to begin on work exoskeletons and improving work robots. The drones are to function in unison in groups of three, with the wearer of an exosuit to co-ordinate them to aid them in their line of work. A project, codenamed "Mimic" is to start researching upon humanoid robots, ones that cannot be distinguished from a human even at a detailed investigation (Providing it isn't using metal detectors). The team assigned to this project are to be told that they have no deadline for this, though we do expect results from their work. The team is to be given a new, state of the art facility in a classified location.
The section had a few more problems to deal with, specifically some of the scientists comments on DEWs. While the comments about light refraction and such were correct, the part detailing the fact that lasers would not be effective against an organic target was quite incorrect. That preconception have to be fixed, even if it was going to be unorthodox. The FTL research analysis was promising however. Even if the facilities to delve deeper into those theories would be largely beneficial to the industry and scientific knowledge of the dominion, there was no location for it, not until they had the ability to build the facility in space where it could research such theories unabated.
The scientists for the FTL project are earmarked for it, and told to design a spaceborne facility for them to be able to conduct their work in. The DEW project team is to focus mostly on PD weapons for the military, as missiles would be the greatest source of casualties for it with the upcoming aerial mechanization initiative, although anti-personnel and anti-tank lasers are to be tested as well. Project "Adamantine" is to start development of new compounds for both the RLV upgrades and the new military hardware. Fusion research is to start up (Mainly by resubmitting the same paperwork with the cold bit crossed out). Another team is to start improving current reactor designs, these designs are required to be better than current generation reactors while not sacrificing anything for the improvements. Like the robotics division, the reactor R&D team has an extended timeline for their project, though theirs is seven years.
Now, after the reactions to the reports and events of the year, the section focused on new actions that the Dominion would need to take in order to futher secure themselves in the world.
Start improving the yields of the state's agriculture, along with boosting the soil's viability so that it can be used for longer. Small scouting units are to scout the west coast of south america along with the SE asian cost, including malaysia, indonesia and the phillipines. A small scouting unit is to scout the coast of new zealand's islands as well.
Offer the chinese factions an alliance each, and offer to help their reconstruction efforts if they accept. Depending how favourable the terms are to us determines how much aid they get, though the base amount of aid they'll get for just agreeing to the alliance is substancial.
Start improving the refineries and smelters to increase the amount of processed resources available, along with the construction of an aerial infrastructure net that utilizes low-capacity aircraft to transport small, high-value goods (Like people or rare gemstones).
Increasing the RLV's payload progresses, but not very fast. The entire project quickly grounds to a standstill, because the frequent failure of increasingly powerfull prototypes. The launchpad failure of the Prototype X-57 finally means the end of the project, which is noted by the Science teams as being impossible without significant changes in engine technology.
Distribution of airships and helicopters progresses rapidly, though while their range is rather large, questions arise if the the hightech vehicles can stay airborne and maintained when away from coventionall landing locations.
Cargo ship's are equiped with high power reactors. Meaning that they're basically equiped with the equivalent of a small Cruisers reactors, but still it'll work.
Work on the armour progresses but slowly. The formulae originally used to produce the lightweight and highly flexible armor plates has gone missing, and reverse engineering it is hard.
Work on the mimic project progresses, but rather slow. For now, the team has managed to create robots that are undistinguisable from humans, but only if the human assumes they are dead. Walking around they would survive only a cursory glance, and speaking gives them away immediatly.
The Laser team makes no real progresses on lasers, as they are stuck with an annoying backblast problem, caused by superheating of the air directly in front of the muzzle. It tends to damage the lenses and ruins the aim. Similair problems plague the fusion team, which is trying to find a way to contain the plasma without excessive damage to the reactor.
Desing of the spaceborn FTL facility begins. It is however, quite large. In fact, words can't quite describe how big it is. Basically, fundamental tests call for a particle arcelerator more than 3 times the size of the largest ever constructed.
The Chinese refuse to accept, probably out some misplaced form of nationalistic pride.
Mining infrastructure and agricultural works can't be completed, as the heat waves throw up frequent dust storms, undoing all progress as well as preventing scouts from leaving. The small lightweight planes suffer especially from this, being thrown into the ground more often than not.
The Swiss Confederacy broke its communication silence with the world that day. Its first missive was an epistle general.
Mobilize 100,000 soldiers, give them NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) suits and instruct them to clean Switzerland of radiation and other toxins, beginning with agricultural areas around the nuked cities, then the craters themselves.
Direct the military industrial complex to expand manufacturing capacity of aircraft by building factories in the Canton of Jura.
Direct the Swiss National Bank to compile a list from weakest to strongest economies, then least stable to most stable currencies in the world, using trends gathered from the past year and a half, as well as a survey of financial institutions in the world to see which currency is most held in their reserves.
Little progress is made with the cleaning. The high temperatures wreack havoc in the landlocked Swiss, and the soil has been particulary saturated with radiation. Just brushing up the dust only removes a fraction of the radiation.
Production slowly increases, with power and some supply troubles accountible for the largest part of the delay.
There are some problems with that. Following the collapse of several nation, currencies have been rapidly changing, and become unhinged. Many still exists, though some, like the dollar, have no country backing them anymore. Sadly, it's found out that a significant amount of money are these orphaned currencies.
There were several problems that faced the nascent Iranian Empire. The first one was that many of Iran's greatest cities were now irradiated piles of rubble. To remedy this, the development and construction of radiation-hardened heavy robotic work platforms capable of helping with decontamination of urban areas was authorised. In a similar vein, funding was approved for a program to develop a system to decontaminate topsoil to reduce possible food problems in the future. Also, it was decided that construction of sizable refugee camps was still needed, so several refugee camps equipped with reasonable sanitation and water systems were set up. Some of these camps are to serve a second purpose as test-beds for new and faster construction techniques.
The next problem was that there was a considerable danger that other polities could outstrip the Empire in terms of technological advancement, with dire consequences for the future of the Empire. The Empire would invest funds into several areas of science and engineering, such as the development of new materials with improved properties (such as increased heat resistance, magnetic generation, corrosion resistance, etc) and the construction of a new supercomputer complex which would both outstrip many earlier supercomputers in terms of computing power and also be modular to allow it to be easily expanded to increase its capacity further.
Finally, the international situation was still tense so the Shah ordered the funding of intelligence efforts in all countries immediately surrounding the Empire to relay information about military movements, budgetary shifts, political movements and other strategically important details back to Iran.
Update: In light of the meeting being proposed by the USSA, the Empire of Iran will send a representative to this meeting. Also, the Empire will try to send oil to the Australian Dominion by sea with a substantial escort to trade for computer equipment.
Work on radiation hardening of robotic platform commences, and completes quickly. The solution is to follow old trends in reverse direction, as older technologies often have better resistance too these kinds of radiation. However, cleaning radiation from the soil is more problematic. Normal procedure is to dig it all up and dump it on the seabed, though that's not always a solution. However, a sort of muchroom is found, which has a tendency of absorbing these particles, allowing them to be harvested easily. Sadly, cleaning areas like this could take decades.
Regugee camps are set up, mainly using prefabricated concrete slabs, in a weird sort of hivelike structure which has natural ventilation. This helps against the heat, but is not like to survive much damage.
The supercomputer is currently under construction, and will be finished soon. Material scientists make little progress.
The information network has been set up.
The oil fleet departs and arrives without problems.
The meetingOn the blackened islands of Hawai, diplomats and envoys of all nations gather. They have not come alone, warships and submarines line the shores, some partially covered with ash, others freshly arrived. It's still waiting what will happen of this meeting.
[note:
For What I think should be obvious reasons; I'm going to limit the amount of Research projects per nation to 3 and likewise for Construction projects. Research/Construction points are being split anyway, so having a lot of projects cause zero progress not quite failure thingies, which are annoying]
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Topic: Leaders of a burning World (ICC) (Read 21618 times)