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[NUKE9.13]

It is, finally, the start of SY108
Link to Battle Report for SY107

Imagine, one day your descendants might look out their windows and see Ertex covered with life.
I mean, not your personal descendants. Whilst Ertex appreciates the work that you are doing, letting a bunch of weapon-obsessed psychopaths breed is not on the agenda.

It is now the Design Phase of SY108

Spoiler: Tech List (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): The ships that carried colonists to your homeworld, now repurposed as military transports. They use rocket shuttles to ferry things to and from the surface. These shuttles have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC. It uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armour or armaments. It is Very Slow, and quite large.
Cost: 2SPP
  2a Shuttle: A substantially larger shuttle, capable of carrying 4TC. The Hermes thrusters and Caduceus reactors provide thrust, and remarkable range, letting its mothership park well away from the planet, outside of commonly patrolled orbits. It is delta-shaped thanks to its wings, which provide a little extra thrust and agility in atmosphere.
  Cost: +0.5SPP

ESC-FS 1 'Cuttlefish' laser corvette: A medium-sized spaceship. The Cuttlefish's hull vaguely resembles its namesake. The 'beak' is a "Hermes" variable-water-injected fusion thruster, which draws plasma from the Helios-S reactor. It has very light armour, and has three AX5-Spear turrets, which are automatically aimed by the Athena RL System, which also handles evasive manoeuvres. The more ships in the fleet, the better Athena performs, due to her distributed computing. Its speed is Moderate, though it can inject extra water into the thruster for a temporary speed boost.
Cost: 2SPP
  Insalloy Armour: A few plates of Insalloy, formed into a basic armour covering for the Cuttlefish. Despite being thin, they increase survivability by as much as 100%.
  Cost: Negligible increase.


Equipment
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards before the war, the only real weapon both colonies started with. They are 3D-printed out of plastic, a process which is not entirely reliable, meaning the gun has a tendency to break after prolonged use... or any use, really.
Cost: Cheap

X100 Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmoured and cumbersome to walk in. At least it works well enough, and has a self-sealing lining meaning a single shot isn't an immediate death sentence... most of the time. Necessary for deployment to worlds without breathable atmospheres.
Cost: Cheap
  X100-I: Literally just a few plates of Insalloy bolted onto the outside of an X100.
  Cost: Cheap

EAF-X1 "Ranger" Laser Rifle: A big, bulky firearm, weighing in at 15kg- just barely wieldable whilst standing. Works best against stationary targets. Can fire 30 shots in pulse mode before reloading, or 15 seconds in beam mode. Beam mode has pretty good armour penetration against conventional armour. Comes with basic scope and bipod. With the scope it is accurate at Long range.
Cost: Cheap
  EAF-PX3 Raider: A variant of the Ranger, using the new Picasso Pattern. Weighs a 'mere' 7.5kg. Fires shorter pulses, and deals more damage against moving targets. Does not have a beam mode.
  EAF-PX4 Raider: Superior in every way to the PX3, the PX4 deals twice the damage, weighs a far more reasonable 5kg, and can switch between three preset laser frequencies (although the non-default ones deal less damage). It also has cool holographic sights, which can link to a nearby Athena node to provide better targeting information.

Interplanetary Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets. Too big to fit on an ITC. Currently only useful for taunting Quillus.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 2TC


Vehicles
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher: A nuclear-missile launcher consisting of three shuttle-loads worth of stuff: a small electric truck, a launch trailer, and the missiles themselves. The launch trailer loads 8 missiles, tipped with extremely small nuclear warheads for maximum 'tactical' performance. The missiles are controlled by Athena, who is now capable of flying missiles and identifying ground targets. Their range isn't great, and the launcher misfires (harmlessly) about 25% of the time, the guidance system is a bit wonky even under Athena's capable control, and the truck+trailer is slow and unwieldy, but still, nuclear-missile launcher!
Cost: 2GPP
Weight 2TC/1TC in shuttle.

EAF-ACD1 "Aegis": an Athena-controlled drone with an Insalloy frame. It has some trouble walking, shooting straight, and possesses sensors that aren't great, but it is not totally incompetent. Due to a lack of on-board processing power, they require a nearby Aegis Commander- just a big Athena node with an antenna, carried by two Aegis drones- to do anything useful. Do not say "Roger roger" repeatedly.
Cost: 1.5GPP
Weight: 0.2TC for a 100 drone complement. (Units may equip an unlimited number of drones)

EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank: a (counterintuitively) six-legged vehicle, clad in Insalloy armour, armed with a downsized AX5 Spear, and entirely Athena-controlled. It moves at a Moderate pace, can clamber over most obstacles, and is reasonably accurate. In addition to its main armaments, it has two turreted Raiders providing anti-infantry support- not amazing, but a whole lot better than nothing.
Cost: 4GPP
Weight: 3TC


Infrastructure
Colony Defence Grid: The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to self defence the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.

"Helios" Fusion Reactor: A large, Tokamak style reactor. Performs He3-He3 fusion, though it does not take full advantage of this. Provides 2SPP and 2GPP.
  Helios-S: A variety specifically designed for use in spaceships. A 'twisted' plasma flow allows for plasma to be siphoned off without disrupting the reaction.

"Caduceus" Compact fusion reactor: A Polywell-style reactor, available in far smaller sizes than the Helios- as small as 1m³. Also performs He3-He3 fusion, and takes advantage of this. Can easily have plasma siphoned off for use in Hermes drives.

Mining Macrites: Autonomous mining drones, their hulls similar to that of a Cuttlefish, equipped with two mining lasers and an arc furnace. They roam the (Ertex-controlled parts of the) system, seeking out mineral-rich asteroids, and send the processed minerals back to Ertex. So far, so normal. However, they are also equipped with a fabrication unit and construction drones, which enable them to build copies of themselves. These copies have some flaws, but still work, and can make their own copies. Those third-generation Macrites are 'sterile', but can still process minerals.
Provides 2SPP/2GPP, plus 1/1 every two years, to a max of 6/6. Also increases the output of controlled planets by 1SPP/1GPP.

Fabrites: Modified Macrites, with the mining and smelting equipment removed in favour of more fabricators. These lurk in Ertex's orbit, producing components for new ships. Require human oversight, and cannot create complex components to acceptable standards. Nevertheless, increases SPP by 4.


Loose Parts
EAC-AX5 Spear: A large laser. Respectable engineering gives it a very reasonable damage output and range, whilst the special nature of the Vasarely pattern lets it switch between three preset wavelengths. Does require quite a bit of power, of course.


Misc Tech
Nanoquantum Capacitor Cells, Escher Pattern Mk2: AKA NQ Cells. About 15 times better than chemical batteries. Palm-sized, weigh about a kilo each. Despite their apparent complexity, manufacture and usage is simple.

Libum-265K: A near-room temperature superconductor. Manufacture is complicated.

Hephaestus Synthesis: A complicated process that produces small amounts of Insulanium- an isotope of a certain element that resides in the "Island of Stability"; it is very heavy, yet relatively stable. Produced in too small amounts to make anything practical out of it, it is instead alloyed with more common metals, which substantially increases their strength even with only 0.25% Insulanium added.
  Hephaestus Mark 2: A new method of Insulanium production, that uses fusion reactors to fuse up to the desired element. Substantially lowers the cost of Insulanium-using designs.

Spoiler: Observed enemy tech (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): New shuttle spotted:
  QS-RAS-00 'Dove': A heavier shuttle for the ITC, powered by a Loki-class Stardust reactor and fitted with Apollo thrusters. It has light armour and two 30mm Hayks. Can carry 3TC. Adds 1SPP to the cost of an ITC.

QS-CA-99 'Odin': A heavily armoured medium-sized spaceship. Her hull is all slope, the front being a point, from which slopes lead up to the widest point, then slopes lead down at the same angle, before being cut off, leaving a large flat area in the back, where the main thrusters are. Aforementioned main thrusters are three Apollos. She has five smaller thrusters mounted pointing in other directions, providing excellent manoeuvrability. Her powerplant is a Stardust reactor. She is armed with four Gjallarhorn turrets providing excellent coverage, and a single spinal-mount extra-long Gjallarhorn. Her weapons are aimed by the Huginn System, which automatically collects data from her improved radar. Her armour consists of a layer of Heavy titanium with faraday insulation, with a layer of Light ceramics mounted a full three meters away from the main hull. Despite her bulk, she moves at a Moderate pace.
Can be given Mirage Plating for an extra 0.5SPP
Cost: 3SPP

QS-SF-00 'Loki': A small-ish fighter, capable of independent operation for a few days before needing to resupply. A substantially downsized Stardust reactor provides power to the Apollo thrusters, as well as the singular Gjallarhorn coilgun. Has light armour, and a radio capable of same-orbit communication. Requires a transport to act as 'mothership'- two Lokis take up 1TC. They are now equipped with Mirage Plating.
Cost: 1SPP for two.

Equipment
Printed Pistol: No differences noticed.

X100 Space Suit: No differences noticed.

QS-PIA-05 'Heimdallr': A great big suit of powered armour, providing atmospherically sealed protection for infantry where ever they may go. It uses Eitr batteries to provide 3-4 hours of operation before needing to recharge (it can be plugged into a Hrungnir, or a generator at a camp). The armour plating is not especially thick, and somewhat awkwardly designed- slightly less awkward than the X100, though. It has Mirage Plating... but whilst it protects reasonably against visible-light lasers at all times, the 'invisibility' only works when standing perfectly still in the correct pose, otherwise light gets redirected in, uh, interesting ways, turning it into a wild light show. Fortunately, the plating can be turned off if desired.
Cost: 3GPP (up to two sets may be equipped by a single unit)
Weight: 1TC (0.5 in shuttle)

Interplanetary Radio: No differences noticed.

QS-IRW-99 'Hayk': The Hayk is a micromissile-firing rifle. It is magazine fed, has a reasonable rate of fire, and is accurate at a surprising distance- theoretically out to Long range, although few are capable of such superhuman feats. There is an ammo variant which explodes on contact, though it is less accurate and in shorter supply.
Cost: Cheap

QS-GL-02 'Fog Machine': The Fog Machine is a simple grenade launcher, basically nothing more than an oversized Hayk with a shortened barrel. It fires either smoke/chaff or explosives. Range/accuracy is a bit of an issue.
Cost: Cheap


Vehicles
QS-MBT-02 'Hrungnir': The Hrungnir is a big tank, with fairly heavy armour in the form of a layer of ceramics atop a layer of titanium (all sloped). It is powered by a Stardust reactor, basically the same one used by the Loki. The energy is used to drive electric motors which in turn drive the treads upon which the Hrungnir sits. It is equipped with a 50mm stabilized auto-loading Gjallarhorn coilgun, the barrel of which can also be used to fire upsized explosive Hayk rockets. It has an electronics package that handles fire control and sensors. It also has smoke/chaff dispensers, which automatically cloud the vehicle in smoke/chaff (for atmosphereless planets) when sensors detect unusual heating.
It has an Ullr system mounted on the roof, and can be made mostly invisible with Mirage Plating for an additional 1GPP.
Cost: 4GPP
Weight: 3TC


Infrastructure

Colony Defence Grid: No differences noticed.

QS-CPP-96 'Stardust': A fusion reactor, copies of which can be found across Quillus, powering industry. Utilises powerful niobium-tin superconductors, cooled by liquid helium, to contain plasma in a Tokamak-style. The "Brokkr's Forge" improvements have made it slightly more effective, to the point where it reaches ignition. Grants 2GPP and 2SPP. A smaller version designed for use in spaceships also exists.


Loose Parts
QS-MAC-97 'Mjolnir': A coilgun (and definitely not a railgun) capable of firing 150mm slugs at considerable speeds. Requires a substantial power supply. Ground installations cost 1GPP for four. Ship mountings cost 1SPP for eight.

Gjallarhorn: An improved version of the Mjolnir, featuring Lorfium superconductors that increase muzzle velocity by 15%, as well as special shells that feature a superconducting core, which drastically increases muzzle velocity due to the Meissner effect.

QS-MHD-98 'Apollo': A magneto-plasma-dynamic thruster of exceptional efficiency. Uses hydrogen plasma by default; heavier elements can be injected into the mix for a boost in thrust.

QS-MAMG-04 'Ullr': A highly effective CIWS system, using a miniaturised coilgun firing 6mm slugs, using Huginn-based aiming assistance. Excellent at shooting down missiles and enemy infantry alike.


Misc Tech
Optical Metamaterial 3 'Mirage Plating': A miracle substance that defies what were once considered laws of physics. OM3 consists of complicated (yet not impractically so for production purposes) layers of materials that together can redirect light in essentially arbitrary ways. It is not perfect, and can only affect 90% of light, and requires a small amount of power to function. OM3 must be created to affect a specific wavelength of light, and only works on light in a band around that wavelength. Only wavelengths from near-X-Ray to the lower end of microwave can be affected.
Shrouds of OM3 can be constructed for your vehicle of choice, offering either a degree of invisibility, or pretty good protection from lasers, or both.
  Optical Metamaterial 4: New and improved, OM4 works without power, in which case it defaults to the upper half of visible light. If it is powered, the exact voltage used will change the properties, letting the material be tuned on the fly. This can be done manually or automatically. 

Eitr Rechargeable Superconducting Battery: A battery with 10x the capacity of conventional batteries.

Rigr Construction Harness: A hastily put together modification of the Heimdallr, to replace the X100 in industrial use cases. The lack of cohesive engineering means the performance leaves a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, it provides 2SPP, and boosts the output of atmosphereless worlds.

Lorfium RTSC: A "Room Temperature" superconductor, it operates at temperatures of up to 500K. It is remarkably cheap and simple to manufacture, allowing it to be put to good use by civilian industry as well as the military.

Spoiler: Production (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 16+2+2(E)+3+4=27
  10 Points: 4xITC with 2a Shuttles
    Locations: 1@A, 1@D, 2@Ertex
  2 Points: 1xITC
    Locations: G
  10 Points: 4xCuttlefish, 1 destroyed Cuttlefish
    Locations: 1@D, 3@Ertex
  5 Points: Unassigned

Ground Production Points: 16+2+4(E)+3=25
  4 Points: 2xSarissa
  9 Points: 6xAegis Drone
  12 Points: 3xAlke Spider Tank
 
Units: 5
  1 Unit on planet A (2/3xSarissa, 4/3xAegis Drone)
  2 Units on planet D (1xSarissa, 4xAegis Drone, 2xAlke Spider Tank)
  1 Unit on planet F (Alke Spider Tank)
  1 Unit on G

Spoiler: The Map (click to show/hide)

Don't even worry about this looking nothing like a solar system. Its, uh, optimal transfers or something. Look, it's dumb, but what do you want from me?

Key:
A: A volcanic world. Constant eruptions and earthquakes result in a thoroughly unpleasant environment. 4SPP, 2GPP
  E:0/6, Q:5/6
B: Rocky world. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, this planets is... boring. The most notable terrain features are the craters that litter the surface. 2SPP, 2GPP
C: An ocean world. Covered in 94% water, with a breathable atmosphere, and a few inhabitable islands. Prepare for lots of island-hopping. 2SPP, 4GPP
  Q:6/6
D: An earthlike world. Covered in 69% water, with a breathable atmosphere, most of the surface being inhabitable. Terrain varies wildly, from open plains to thick jungles- and of course vast seas. 5SPP, 5GPP
  E:4/6, Q:2/6
E: A frozen world. Almost entirely covered in ice, with an atmosphere too thin to breathe. Ice sheets make for treacherous terrain, with snow-covered mountains being not much better. 2SPP, 4GPP
  E:6/6
F: Rocky world. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, this planets is... boring. The most notable terrain features are the craters that litter the surface. 2SPP, 2GPP
  Q:4/6, E:2/6
G: A desert world. With a few salty 'seas' covering a mere 12% of the surface, the majority of this planet is dry as a bone. Vast sandscapes dominate, punctured by low, rocky hills, and the ocassional oasis. The atmosphere is breathable. 2SPP, 4GPP.
  E:2/6
Ertex&Quillus: Earthlike worlds. Capturing the enemy homeworld results in victory. Yield no Production Points. I mean, they do, but those are already accounted for in your basic industry.

[Blood_Librarian]

Personally, I am for either the deployment of an entirely new version of the CUddle fish so that our ships won't get blown to pieces all the time, or the deployment of the carrier design listed below; please do not vote for this document until a viable alternative of the cuddlefish is posted.

DESIGN: MORA CLASS CARRIER

The end result of the next generation research of technological ship-construction techniques, A new ship design has been created, resulting in the MORA

Using the construction techniques of Fabrites along with our Athena AI, it has become possible to deploy "swarms" of combat drones, deployed from a mother-ship vessel (Such as the Mora) which assembles pre-fabricated parts into drones henceforth referred to as "Battle-Frames". The Mora is a Heavy Corvette that is equipped with Insullanium Armor Plates, Fusion Reactors, and Fabricators designed to assemble and deploy flights of Battle-Frames from feed-stock and a few choice pre-assembled parts.

The Mora is best described best as a Bee-hive shaped Drone-Hive, with large open spaces designed for incoming Battle-Frames to enter, re-arm, and then quickly leave through blast-doors in the Insullanium plated hull. Although the tonnage of the Mora is 20-40% larger than the Cuddlefish, it is way more massive on a volume scale required for drones to properly maneuver inside the Mora. The Athena Node (Easily the largest singular component next to the Fusion Reactor) coordinates the entire operation, assisted by the bridge officers of the Mora. The most important components (Bridge, Node, Reactor), are kept in the very center of the ship, while it's drones and resupply infrastructure of fabrication equipment is distributed throughout the entire ship, so as to prevent battle damage from crippling the ships main purpose. ( Drones)

Most of our design time has been empathized on the Carrier and working out its doctrine, rather than the actual Battle-frames themselves, as it is expected to be developed further at a later time.

Now, the mostly theoretical end goal of a drone are equipped with Super-capacitors, energy-based weapons, and a Athena node designed to take advantage of the Athena Networks surplus processing power to increase their reactions and digital processing resources beyond capacities allotted by its own hardware, taking advantage of Carrier and Cuddle fish bound hardware to become more effective in combat. Each drone is connected to each other and any large Athena Node with laser-based point-to-point communications, with radio-wave communications as back up for 1-4 unit "squadrons" to coordinate with each other for redundancy. This means that a Mora could command a drone wing from extreme or farther ranges without consequences, allowing for wave-tactics where Battle-Frame Wings are sent into the field and then rebuilt by the Mora while minimizing the risk of E-War intrusion.

Because the parts are assembled and sometimes even fabricated from raw feedstock on the carrier, it would become possible for carriers to deploy different variations of the Battleframes as required, but to simplify the design process, only one Battleframe type will be designed for deployment with the expectation that more will be designed in the years to come.

Two "wings" of Battleframes are expected to be equal in terms of firepower to a Cuddlefish, if unable to hold in space indefinitely. They are limited by their batteries, which when they are depleted, are forced to jet back to the mother-ship for re-supply, along with any other logistical concerns or damage. 

One theoretical possibility of the Mora is to produce more battleframes then it has the capacity to store in its hangar bays; By having material delivered to it from either the world is deployed to, or a logistical chain, it can build up drones and cycle them in and out of its hangar bay (and store them on external racks in the case of intra-orbital movement), allowing for additional drones to be on standby for combat confrontations on defensive and possibly offensive situations. If this feature is too advanced for implementation in our first design, it will be shelved for later implementation.

Our first Battle-Frame is the Talon.

Talon: These rather simple machines are designed with the most simple parts that allow for a combat-effective Battleframe. They are equipped with twin-linked Laser Weapons, a Hot-Gas RCS system, (surplus) Super-Capacitors and a plasma thrust engine (the most advanced piece of equipment in the drone) along with an Athena control node. they are the basic Unit. Standard squadrons are composed of 4 Talons with 4 squadrons consisting of a Wing.

possible drone ideas for later
Reconnaissance Drones, buzz-saw equipped intrusion drones, Suicide Drones/Smart Missiles, Pop-Gun Nuclear Drones, Stealth Drones.

Compared to gun-ship doctrine based warships, the Mora has several Pros and Cons.

Pros

• The Mothership allows for more firepower to be pointed at the enemy ship, as well as the possibility of aerospace-based ground support.
• Hit and run tactics are much more viable, as drone wings could pick apart an Odin while avoiding their rail guns through extreme agility and tiny size, as well as methods of payload delivery by suicide drones and smart missiles.
• Higher overall combat endurance, as wings of drones could be exhausted without the loss of as much material and life compared to the equivalent in Cuddlefishes.
• A shift in combat doctrine that pushes the enemy off balance.
• Combat power multiplier. If you can bring more guns per capita to the fight, then we can win that much faster and end this war.
• Possibilities to make Repair Gantries for other ships becomes possible. Even now, we have the possibility of a ship that can continuously defend an area without requiring to return to the homeworld in the event of "damage" (lost wings).

Cons

• The Mothership is comparatively under-armed, and will not fare well in a traditional gun-ship doctrine based battle. It would fare better in long range engagements.
• Experimental doctrine
• After the alpha strike of the drones, when the drones have to retreat to resupply their batteries, it is completely possible that the Mora would be left vulnerable due to a lack of available arms. without escort.
• They are vulnerable in the range of enemy weapons or surprise attacks.

Mora Class Carrier (1) Blood_librarian

[Blood_Librarian]

An Idea purposed to discord made reality.

Mantis Class DoA/Hunter-Killer Autonomous drone

The Mantis is a mail-box sized weapon platform designed for denial of area or hunter-killer purposes, to be deployed en mass and controlled by the Athena Network for tactical and strategic warfare for defensive and offensive purposes. The possibility of deploying these weapons behind enemy lines is also a distinct possibility. These drones were originally adapted from a failed repair drone program for starships.

At its core, the bare-bones version of the Mantis is a 6-legged ,machine with 1 set of low-tension maneuvering legs, and 2 sets of what essentially amounts to very high tension springs designed with modern materials designed to launch the Mantis in a chosen direction at extreme speeds. It's frame is reinforced in several places to prevent it from crumpling upon impact, and it has several mountings and variations depending on the environment and its given purpose.  Most designs are equipped with some basic tools to camouflage themselves to their environment.

These machines are often deployed with a large box, often referred to as the "Monkey barrel", where these machines recharge their batteries from the built-in Radioisotope Thermal Generator. In case of situations where the Mantis is required to operate in enemy territory or a recharging bank is infeasible, they can be equipped with solar cells or power-jacks that connect too Quillian systems  for extra-long term operation in applicable environments; It is entirely possible that should our forces be kicked off a world, they can autonomously act, acting as a basic weapon for months or even years to come before they fall apart.

When the drones are deployed, they are expected to slowly spread themselves out and lie in ambush for enemy persons to enter their kill radius, before leaping (unless the Athena Network intervenes). Battery time is expected to be around a day or so before they have to recharge at a bank (special circumstances apply). AS they are innately weapons of shock and awe, they will leap on persons based on a combination of a facial recognition (To determine where their chest is, not to identify who they are.), IFF tags, and even uniforms, They are also controlled by the Athena Network, and the AI will override their innate programming to coordinate and control them in any way she sees fit. They come with a variety of weapons that is determined by ratio that our current supply chain can produce as cheap as possible, the most common drone weapons as deployed in order will be; Buzzsaws(B), Tasers(T), explosives(E), and ballistic shot(S).

(B) Variants are equipped with Buzz-saws, and are designed to leap onto an enemy person, and then saw through personnel armor and the person itself, leaving a buzz-saw shaped hole. They will commit to sawing the person until they are either removed or become a casualty as determined by the Athena Network (if outside of Athena control, they will saw continuously for a 2 minutes to ensure death.) When multiple Mantis's are in the area, they will coordinate and simultaneously eliminate all individuals involved. Some B variants are equipped with a lesser amount of explosives, and will detonate themselves in the middle of groups to act as either a shock factor or as a method of desperate measure by the Athena Network. These are by far the most common unit deployed in the field due to their versatility in warfare.

(T) variants are equipped with a larger electrical system, and are equipped with non-reusable NQ cells to compensate for the power cost.  these drones are equipped with non-lethal and lethal electrical output, where the difference is simply how much power they pump into the person when they latch on with their "mandibles (essentially superconductor tipped spears designed to impale through armor before deployment.) They can be used to selectively disable tanks, if an opportunity presents itself.

(E) variants are cruder, cheaper Mantis drones that usually are defective for the purposes of other variants; they are packed with with explosives, and then used by the Athena Network for whatever needs it has for a leaping suicide drone. Tactical purposes include disabling enemy tanks, enemy infantry, and enemy command personnel.

(S) variants are equipped with a relatively large bore magazine-fed shotgun, contracted from the few civilian manufacturers of ballistic firearms; It requires manual reloading by either an Athena manned drone or a technician, but it is very effective in blowing apart enemy personnel that have not equipped power armor, as it is rated to go through void-suits and whatever counts for armor they have scrounged up for their infantry.

[joha4270]

ESC-CS 1 'Nautilus'-class Laser Cruiser

Following the disappointing performance of the Cuttlefish, the Nautilus is designed from the smallest component to one single purpose: War.

The Nautilus is looks roughly like 2 cones connected at the base. The back one terminates around halfway where 3 Hermes nozzles sticks out the back in a triangular arrangement.

Those nozzles are connected to 3 Helios-S reactors with piping between each reactor and each engine, allowing every reactor to supply all, none or a combination of engines. The nozzles feature a large gimballing angle, allowing a single thruster to thrust through the center of mass and a little further. This wide range, together with quick gimballing speed, it should be a lot more maneuverable than the cuttlefish, even as its mass increases too.
The water injection system of the Cuttlefish is also massively improved, allowing much greater thrust but consuming water.

It also boasts a lot more firepower than the Cuttlefish. It has 3 Spear lasers on the nose and further 5 on mounted on the widest point of the hull, allowing it to focus all 8 forward with at least 5 being able to point in any given direction.
Some extra volume has been included around the lasers to account for future upgrades.

On the defensive side, the Nautilus is also much improved. It resurrects the armoring scheme of water battleships of old, the so called All or nothing armor. A central citadel covers the bridge, life support, weapon systems, Athena servers and reactors, made out of thick insalloy plating. This citadel would be a fully functional spaceship in itself, if not for its lack of fuel. Thought it would be cramped.
Packed around the citadel is everything else, such as bunk space, the mess, provisions, recreational facilities and spare parts. Those areas are expected to take damage in combat, but with spare capacity and plenty of airlocks, it should be easy to plug any holes and simply bring most of it back into service.
Again covering this, is the fuel tanks, for both water and He3. They work as an additional layer of ablative armor. They are heavily segmented, so when a fuel tank is hit, only a small amount of fuel is lost, but the projectile is slowed down. The areas _expected_ to face enemy fire (aka the font) contains water tanks, while He3 is stored in less exposed areas.
As a final layer there is a whipple shield.


The Nautilus is a modern spacecraft. Athena is used to automate and reduce crew requirements where possible and structural components are designed to be produced on Fabrites.


TLDR: Actual warship instead of cuttlefish. Important points include all or nothing armor, redundant systems and a weapon layout that gives it great firepower in all directions. This is the dreadnought of space

EDIT: It is now the CS 1 instead of CS 7 per Chiefwaffles demands.

Mora Class Heavy Corvette (1) Blood_librarian
ESC-CS 1 'Nautilus'-class Laser Cruiser (1): joha4270

[Happerry]

Mora Class Heavy Corvette (1) Blood_librarian
ESC-CS 7 'Nautilus'-class Laser Cruiser (2): joha4270, Happerry

[BBBence1111]

Mora Class Heavy Corvette (1) Blood_librarian
ESC-CS 7 'Nautilus'-class Laser Cruiser (3): joha4270, Happerry, BBB

[Chiefwaffles]

Okay, so we're kind of at a perilous situation on the ground. We're completely out of extra GPP, we're about to lose at A if something doesn't change, and our advantage at D is still a thin one. We can hopefully prevent any problems with D by blockading it with our Nautilus-improved fleet and preventing Quillus from changing the status quo, but we need something on the ground for A.

So here's a revision to consider for the future, after the design's done:

Future Revision: Orbital Factories
We already have our Fabrites in orbit, building the less-complex parts of ships at once, and some various logistics-based stations in orbit of Ertex, but we're missing a crucial component:
Factories.
Right now, in order to produce ground-based equipment, we have to spend fuel, money, and time to bring intrasystem resources (i.e. from E and our Macrites) to the ground of Ertex, then spend additional resources bringing the finished goods back up to orbit. This is extremely wasteful. The solution is, however, simple.

Using stripped ITCs (or other stripped ships if/as necessary) for their hull, we fill them up with manufacturing equipment and manufacturing personnel, strip most of the engines and fuel, then tell them to start producing ground ((GPP)) equipment. Athena is utilized in her current "factory manager" configuration (used at Hephaestus plants) to reduce crew requirements, handle current industrial robotics, and to just manage the logistics side of things (as well as whatever she can already do, though this is not an Athena revision and we're not actually going to spend any effort at all upgrading her for this task). After all, the less crew we have to feed/sustain the better.

Resources from outside Ertex will go straight to these factories, then straight to wherever they're needed. Our current ground factories will still handle the sizeable resources coming straight from Ertex, but having the ability to manufacture equipment in orbit eliminates a huge logistic and resource nightmare, that should hopefully greatly increase our effective GPP.
We also wish to look into the potential of deploying these stations in the orbits of non-Ertex planets; though this is merely just a consideration. We'll entirely focus this revision on Ertex-orbit factories, then just see if anything good comes out of putting them in other planets' orbits (though we'd have to spend resources to build the factories).

TL;DR: Basic factories in orbit ((converted from other space designs, whether military ones or abstracted civilian stations)) that allow us to just manufacture stuff in orbit and skip logistics nightmare of sending resources to ground + sending finished goods to space. Mostly. We still use Ertexside factories for Ertexborne resources. After the fact, consider what happens if we use these factories on other planet orbits.
Increases our GPP.


Also:

Mora Class Heavy Corvette (1) Blood_librarian
ESC-CS 7 'Nautilus'-class Laser Cruiser (4): joha4270, Happerry, BBB, Chiefwaffles

[Blood_Librarian]

We have a massive abundance of planets, no? Why don't we simply increase their capacity to produce instead of centralizing?

[Chiefwaffles]

First, we're not centralizing because this is not an increase of centralization at all. Everything is currently done at Ertex, and this won't change that (hell, it'll move away from that since it'll also add Ertex's orbit and maybe even other planets' orbits to the list).
Second, we do not have a "massive abundance" of planets. We have what, one planet other than Ertex?
Third, according to the installations/satellites rule, it will cost us resources to do this on other planets.
Fourth, we'd require constant complete orbital/ground control of the planets we put factories on or risk losing our factories, unless we devote defensives to them 24/7.


While being able to produce things at other planets is certainly a good idea, it's not what we need right now. What we need is more GPP. Spreading to other planets helps us in its own tactical way, but we need GPP way more than that at the moment if we don't want to start a Quillus snowball by giving them A and letting them start winning again at D.

[Blood_Librarian]

Rigr Construction Harness: A hastily put together modification of the Heimdallr, to replace the X100 in industrial use cases. The lack of cohesive engineering means the performance leaves a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, it provides 2SPP, and boosts the output of atmosphereless worlds.

It is presumed we already have factories or at least mines on these worlds, It could be simple enough to produce a design that mimics their success or better yet, surpasses it in our own designs for increasing our production. I think the Game Master intended the Installations/Satellites Rule to put a cost on Military Installations, rather then Installations that would produce resources. (Macrites? they increase the output of colonizes worlds by 1 SPP/GPP Each.)

When I said Centralizing, I meant to talk about the fact that we are producing all our goods on Ertex, (with the exception of the mining doodads), and I fear that we will expect to see increasingly difficult bottlenecks in the production of matériel compared to increasing the production of the 2 (soon to be 3, B,E,G) worlds that we have complete control of. We are also gimping their production by holding F/

[Chiefwaffles]

...why would we see bottlenecks? This is a planet.
In space.
Space is really really really big. Ertex isn't goddamn blockaded Western Germany.

And the Rigr is like our Macrites. Both aren't installations. And if the installations rule only applied to military installations, then Nuke would have said so.

[NUKE9.13]

Generic civilian industry exists on controlled planets. You can upgrade this for 'free', within reason- the cost of doing so is simply taken out of the profits.

[Blood_Librarian]

When I said bottle necks, I meant it more in the sense that there is so many ways we can improve our orbital production ability without it become infeasible compared to an easier method of growing our colonial interests for industiral purposes. Further more, I would prefer improving either our soldiers or putting variety into our laser weapons instead of focusing on increasing our GPP.

[sprinkled chariot]

Do we actually have decent space weaponry

[Chiefwaffles]

Surprisingly, yes.
The AX5 Spear is actually a really competent weapon, ever since we devoted a full design to upgrading it instead of constantly having it be a secondary upgrade in broad revisions.

And to BL:
1.) "Improving our soldiers"... what?
2.) "Putting variety into our laser weapons" We kind of pushed our laser rifle to its max reasonable potential effectiveness. Like, sure, it could be a lot better, but it'd take more than a revision to give it a substantial worthy upgrade at this point. And making other personal weapons would cost GPP.
We do not have any GPP.
If we make something that needs GPP, we will literally not be able to deploy it this turn.