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The Federation of Mars

9 (37.5%)

The Outer Systems Republic

15 (62.5%)

Total Members Voted: 23

[Hanzoku]

In light of the recent increase in tension with the Federation, Ganymede Aerospace presents a new Gunboat design for the government's consideration. The Persus-class is the first of the so-called 'Raider' designs, a lightly armed gunboat with high endurance meant for the sole purpose of raiding Federation shipping and forcing them to divert their navy to escort duties or risk the loss of unescorted civilian shipping. In contrast with the Achilles-class, the Persus is rated for deployments of up to 9 months and has double the range, giving it the necessary endurance to patrol the inner system, and the supplies to wait in hiding at low speeds until a target is sighted.

In consideration for the government's request with the design of the fighters, the Persus-class uses entirely off the shelf components and requires no further research to bring into production.

Code: (Persus-class Raider) [Select]

Persus class Raider    1 000 tons     33 Crew     171.4 BP      TCS 20  TH 96  EM 0
4800 km/s     Armour 3-8     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Maint Life 5.1 Years     MSP 54    AFR 16%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 3    5YR 52    Max Repair 48 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 9 months    Spare Berths 0   

Siemens AG 96 EP Gunboat Nuclear Pulse Engine (1)    Power 96    Fuel Use 177.47%    Signature 96    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 40 000 Litres    Range 4.1 billion km   (9 days at full power)

Price Systems 100mm 'Kineti-kill' Railgun (1x4)    Range 30 000km     TS: 4800 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
BAE Avionics Mod 98 Gunboat Fire Control (1)    Max Range: 96 000 km   TS: 5250 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Chapman Thrust 45 Ton PBR-3.1 Power System (1)     Total Power Output 3.1    Armour 0    Exp 12%

Thales Orbital Gunboat Target Acquistion Sensor (1)     GPS 64     Range 1.1m km    Resolution 40
Fuller-Hunter OSR/AQR-03 Thermal Bloom Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  1m km
Fuller-Hunter OSR/ADR-02 Electromagnetic Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 1.1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  1.1m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


Code: (Equipment List) [Select]

1x Price Systems 100mm 'Kineti-kill' Railgun
1x Chapman Thrust 45 ton PBR-3.1 Power System
1x BAE Avionics Mod 98 Gunboat Fire Control
1x Siemens AG 96 EP Gunboat Nuclear Pulse Engine
1x Thales Orbital Gunboat Target Acquisition Sensor
1x Fuller-Hunter OSR/AQR-03 Thermal Bloom Sensor
1x Fuller-Hunter OSR/ADR-02 Electromagnetic Sensor
4x Fuel Storage - Small
1x Engineering Spaces - Small


[Azzuro]

((Do you want to retool a shipyard to produce these raiders, and if so how many? Or do you want to wait until the current situation resolves?

Also, updates might be a little shorter or sparser for the next couple of months - I've just started a new internship rather than bumming around at home waiting for uni (paying me less than the army, but I digress). I'll try to keep to once every 2-3 days at least, though.))

[Azzuro]

Freighter FT Amirani 005, Asteroid Belt - 6th April 2100, 23:41 UTC

The Amirani 005 continues at full speed toward Klotho. After ten minutes without a response, the Federation repeats its message, and every ten minutes thereafter.

Freighter FT Amirani 005, Asteroid Belt - 7th April 2100, 02:48 UTC



Just fourteen minutes and 1.4 million km from their destination, the sensor operator aboard Amirani 005 looks up with a pale face. "Sir, we have a new Federation ship contact, distance 141 kiloklicks bearing 179 degrees! Her observed speed is 1950 kps, thermal sig 175, no record of this signature type on file."

At almost the same moment, a Federation hail is received, this time from Astraea.

"Amirani 005, alter your course immediately. You are within Federation space." The message is terse, but the unspoken threat is evident.

What should Amirani 005 do or respond? Blue circle in the above image is her passive sensor range for signature strength 175 - only 175k km.

[Hanzoku]

((Tell the Federation that they are in violation of Republic space with a warship and are to stand down immediately. Disapatch a battlegroup to Klotho immediately. Contact the Federation government and ask them if they're criminally insane, to threaten a civilian ship on a legitimate mission in already claimed Republic territory.))

[Karlito]

As a point of order, I don't believe we've actually made a public claim to Klotho as of yet.

Freighter groups unload a single mine each on the asteroid Psyche and comets Wolf-Harrington and Machholz before returning to Ganymede. The fourth asteroid, Klotho, is an additional day's travel away owing to the need to skirt the inner system.

On Aubernia, Republic diplomats inform the Federation of the three mining colonies established, along with a 10 million km cordon of space around them. While the Federation acknowledges the claim to Psyche, Federation diplomats lodge a protest over the cordons around Wolf-Harrington and Machholz as these bodies move over a large distance in their orbits. In particular, the Federation government notes that Wolf-Harrington will pass within the inner system soon and thus within their sphere of influence. The embassy notes that within Federation media, officials publicly say that internal Federation void shipping will not be diverted around Machholz once the comet crosses Mars orbit.

[Lorknis]

Hrm, you'd think that the diplomat would've mentioned that we were claiming Klotho as well. I suppose we should clear up the situation since were technically not in Federation space yet.

[Hanzoku]

((Also, the narrative we're spinning to the public is important. Besides that, backing down means the Federation will continue these sort of tactics. The ship in transit from Mars has to be a freighter bringing a mine posthaste. We might have to follow suit and post guard ships on mining claims... assuming the Federation doesn't drop a battalion on them.

I was sort of expecting a slow cold war that would slowly heat up as the two factions explore. Now I'm thinking we'll be at war before the first grav survey ship is launched.))

[Karlito]

Well here's my plan for deescalating this situation:

• Order Amirani 005 to halt, but not reverse course
• Contact the Federation government and offer to withdraw Amirani 005 under the following conditions: they also agree to not to emplace mines on the asteroid, and both powers agree to a temporary freeze on further mining claims
• Make arrangements for a Diplomatic Summit, to take place either on Ceres or if that proves infeasible, via ansible telepresence to discuss the future of transit and mineral rights in the Sol system

Space is large and full of wealth, there's no need to start shooting over one little rock.

[Azzuro]

Office of the Republic Diplomatic Service: Obscure, Obfuscate, Overstate

Governor Karlito is correct as we have not officially made a claim to the asteroid Klotho yet before the Federation made their claim two hours ago. This is in keeping with our established precedent of announcing claims only after we have physically placed installations on the body in question.

If we are to dispute the Federation claim, we have reasonable grounds to do so. As far as we have observed with Ariadne, Aurelia and Astraea, the Federation has also kept to the same precedent of announcing claims after their freighters have dropped off the automated mines. The fact that they announced their claim after we have declared our intention to move to Klotho strongly suggests that they do not have any infrastructure there yet, along with the unexplained movement of their freighter from Luna (ETA 3 days) which could be moving an installation to Klotho to back up their claim. If we can place our mine first, Klotho is de facto ours, and we can argue that our claim equals or even supercedes theirs by right of occupation, and the Federation will likely face internal backlash if they seize it by force.

Of course, this hinges on the assumption that they do not have installations on Klotho, which would make us the trespasser. Our sensor coverage in the Astraea-Klotho-Aurelia region (AKA for short) was insufficient to track the Federation freighters to destination, so it could be that one of their previous convoys was secretly bound for Klotho instead. In this case, the passive navigational sensors of Amirani 005 can only confirm the lack of Federation installations at point-blank range (currently she is 1.4 million km away). The unknown Federation ship lies in her path: we strongly believe it is a warship, but there exists a remote possibility it is a civilian ship operating at reduced thermal output.

Given all these factors: we see only two general courses of action:
-Amirani 005 proceeds to Klotho regardless of any warning to confirm or deny Federation settlement, and unloads her mine if there is none. Optionally, we could broadcast to the Federation warship that we are unarmed, or that we will withdraw once we have confirmed Federation settlement, or any other words that make the warship less inclined to open fire. If the warship does fire, Amirani 005 and her cargo are invaribly lost, as we cannot outrun the warship.
-Amirani 005 reverses course, proceeds out of the claimed space, and finds another asteroid to drop its mine on while we apologise for trespassing. It is likely this will have a drastic negative impact on our image within the Federation, possibly emboldening more hard-line leaders to amass power.

While Governor Karlito's plan sounds fine in theory, we caution that the Federation has several spanners to throw in the works. Firstly, ordering our freighter to halt implicitly acknowledges the Federation claim (and also legitimises the threat of force), and gives us little reason to refuse to reverse course. Secondly, the Federation government is almost certain to take up his conditions to withdraw: either they already have mines there, in which case the asteroid is de facto theirs and we look even more like the aggressor), or they do not, in which case they have successfully bullied us out of mining Klotho with near-zero actual expenditure on their part. Essentially we would be withdrawing either way, thus doing it without conditions salvages what little goodwill we have left with the Federation.

((This crisis is pretty important, so I'm going to need at least two people to agree on what to do. Majority opinion wins, as always.))

[Lorknis]

Out of the two options, I say we take the first option. It's our mettle versus theirs, and we can't lose here.

[Hanzoku]

((I say drop the mine, and remind the captain of the Jaguar 001 that he'll head for a war crimes trial if he murders civilians in unclaimed space. If he actually does fire, then Jaguar 001 should be a priority target in all future conflicts.

Seriously, if we let them win here, we'll lose the asteroid belt quickly enough, and then they'll start on outer system bodies until we push back with warships, and that sparks the war.))

[Karlito]

Ah well, at least escalating things makes the game more interesting. Forward we go!

[TalonisWolf]

Slimy Federation scum, trying to retroactively claim territory since they know we're on our way to claim it. They have no legal grounds to stop our ship until we've proven they've actually set an operation on Klotho, which seems unlikely at this time. If they try to force us to not confirm their claim, we will call their bluff!

[MarcAFK]

PTW

[Azzuro]

Freighter FT Amirani 005, Asteroid Belt - 7th April 2100, 02:49 UTC

A flash-vote in the Republic Congress shows unanimous support for ordering Amirani 005 to press on, despite the appearance of a possible Federation warship.



In less than a minute, the ship (designated Jaguar 001) closes to 12 thousand km, well within any weapons range. It is close enough that the crew can see it on their visual scopes, and Lieutenant Commander Hartley observes extended lateral spurs that could be beam weapons, although an exact analysis is impossible. He gestures to the comms operator to hail the Federation ship, and clears his throat before opening the channel.

"Federation vessel, I am Lieutenant Commander Hartley, captain of Amirani 005. We are an unarmed freighter carrying an automated mining installation bound for the asteroid Klotho. While we are aware the Federation has made a claim to Klotho, we will not acknowledge that claim unless we see evidence of settlement on the asteroid ourselves, and will proceed until we can confirm that. I remind you that my ship is entirely unarmed and I am the only naval officer abroad, and we are in unclaimed space. I do not know what your orders are, but you should consider what the consequences will be, not just in the next few minutes, but for all future void sailors between our nations."

He takes his finger off the transmit button, surreptitiously wiping his palms.



Ten seconds later, the Federation ship comes about, matching speed and leading Amirani 005 by 10 thousand kilometers. Another ten, and the Federation ship replies curtly.

"Amirani 005, this is cruiser FNS Hubris. If you wish to avoid said consequences of us following our orders, it is you who should turn aside and defuse this situation."

Hartley notes with a grim smile that the Federation captain did not name himself.

"FNS Hubris, we will not do so. You may fire upon us, but I assure you my government will hunt you down, and charge you with crimes against humanity if you do so. Will the Federation protect you for shooting an unarmed vessel, at the cost of starting a war that could end our species? We await your response in whatever manner you see fit."

Some of the bridge crew glance at the Lieutenant Commander with newfound respect, others with barely-disguised fear.

There is no response for six minutes, as the crew of Amirani 005 wait with bated breath. Then, out of the blue, FNS Hubris throttles up her engines, breaking away on a heading of 230 degrees toward Astraea.



The emergency teleconference feeds immediately break out into celebration, but Lieutenant Commander Hartley keeps a wary eye on its sensor blip until it goes out of range a minute later.



He does not fully relax until Amirani 005 is securely anchored to an outcropping on Klotho and the crew begin unloading its cargo. There is no sign of Federation settlement on the asteroid.

On Aubernia, the Republic embassy officially announces its claim to the asteroid Klotho. As expected, the Federation does not issue a statement of recognition, though they do not refute it either. The embassy is in disarray, the staff having made preparations to evacuate and destroy sensitive electronics, which is judged to be no longer necessary.

Back on the Jovian moons, rumours begin circulating on the net regarding a high-profile confrontation between the Republic and the Federation over the latest claim. Speculation runs rampant, with some even claiming that the Carrier Fleets were being readied for strikes into the inner system. Official news outlets have not yet reported on the story.