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[Maxinum McDreich]

I've been mulling.


'Jammy Dodger' A-8 Armoured ECM Jet

It was decided that the Lantern could do with more room to upgrade, so the decision was made to make a more efficient armour. Using compressed recombinated carbon, ceramics, titanium and aluminium, there is less plating for similar protection. This gave us opportunities to upgrade the rest of the large jet using the additional space. The cockpit glass is also recombinated reinforced with titanium particles and is quite thick.
'New' hardpoints on the wings allow the Jammy Dodger to fit updated STORM missiles (I say 'new', cos they're basically how the old Torch worked). Modifying the tracking system from the ION-Storm, the Storm missiles should be sufficient air-to-air weapons. The coilguns have also been replaced with 2 slightly upscaled Albatross', drawing power from the reactor and synth-oil from tanks. Air is designed to flow through the weapons to quickly expel heat build-up, allowing for more continuous firepower. Fuel tanks have been expanded.
Additionally, A signal spoofer causes anomalous radar activity when detected by oppositional forces, causing the aircraft to appear in a slightly different location or altitude, creating multiple local signals, or even making the Jammy Dodger disappear for a time. The cockpit was expanded to make the jet a 2 man fighter, with a SEEM pilot and a non-SEEM electronics officer in charge of the ECM.
The are hopes of a nose-mounted jammer, but only after everything else works. The jammer is capable of affecting a cone-shaped area ahead of the Jammy Dodger, scrambling or shutting down received and transmitted signals.


MKR-75 'Gannet'

The now Magnetic Kinetic Rifle is taking our Osprey, making it out of recombinated materials and converting it to a pure coil-gun. The Gannet uses recombinated hardened tip bullets with small incendiary payloads where the conventional firing mechanism used to be. When the bullet hits, the incendiary payload emits a loud crack noise which, when there are hundreds of them landing around you, can be disorientating. An updated double synth-oil battery is attached to the gun and easy to reload. Lower rpm of around 200 but without overheating issues.
The Gannet also comes with an attachable barrel extension with additional coils and the glass targeting visor and crosshair from the SMILE, turning the weapon into a sniper rifle. Sniper rounds are larger, denser and more magnetic. They are loaded separately into the side of the gun bolt-action style. A switch tells the gun which mode it's in.
The whole weapon may be a little clunkier than before to make it all work as intended, but for our enhanced troopers, this shouldn't pose a problem.


'Bopper' Utility EMA grenade launcher

An update to the aging Hopper, the grenade launcher has an updated double synth-oil battery, capable of firing multiple shots. Coilgun technology is so vastly superior to what it was back then that the coil mechanism and wiring really just needed to be modernised.
The grenades themselves now have different payloads. Flashbangs and arc rounds are more to stun and confuse the enemy, smokescreen rounds for defense and as close to cover as we get these days. Finally, incendiary rounds provide the firepower. The launcher itself has a new rotary cartridge able to fire 4 grenades until reload, allowing 4 different grenades to be fired in quick succession.


(I notice we don't have the old Hopper in our armoury, so hoping we can still update an obsolete weapon.)


Jammy Dodger so we can contest the air this turn. It's less of an overhaul than I predicted when I went into designing it, but it's honestly more like the old Torch with better materials, 2 man and ECM (well... and updated weaponry). Still might be a bit ambitious, but any less might not be enough to contest the air. Gannet to fill any holes the Albatross' leave and make good use of our coil tech for a double whammy on the ground. That, and sniper SEEMS/Guardians. Bopper gives good infantry utility to help them close in with their now strong weaponry, or help cover retreats. The incendiary rounds more so the enemy will still want to instinctively dive for cover.

[Man of Paper]

If we do something with ECM I'd rather it get a Design dedicated to it. Make it hit as hard as possible before they ultimately do ECCM to negate whatever advantage we get. Not against the jet's name though. Updated grenade launcher is always good, but personally I want to see my brainchild actually function.

Spinal Mount UFO GUN Telescope:
STOP-IT Upgrade: (1) MoP
"Jammy Dodger" A-8 Armoured ECM Jet:
MKR-75 "Gannet":
"Bopper" Utility EMA Grenade Launcher:

[Maxinum McDreich]

Personal priorities for me right now are:
1. Airforce (to allow our better equipment to shine.)
2. If Mereth responds strongly, to stabilise the situation.
3. Space theatre, both for STOP and a dedicated space-ship.
4. An armour plating to reduce their lasers damage (This would upgrade pretty much everything we have.).
5. Revise SPICE that may allow cheap SEEMS (especially with apparently, an increased number of astral sensitive people.)

This is all super subjective to change. Also assumes our plasma rifle works as hoped

I do think revising the Lantern this turn is our best bet, but maybe not necessarily with the Jammy Dodger. However, I liked the Furnace and can see that be a revision, so:

A-13 'Furnace' Plasma Interceptor

Torch/Lantern revamp, with a sleeker, less bulky build using denser recombinated materials which include radar absorbent materials with the hopes of making it more difficult to target. Vectored plasma engines replace the patch-job ramjets completely, providing more thrust and fuel-efficiency, and simplifying the fuel tank situation now that everything goes through the GMBP reactor. Ospreys replaced with forward facing tight choked magnetically boosted plasma jets. Plasma beams, in practical terms. At "maximum" power, they can handle just about the whole reactor's output and cut the sky in half, but that turns off the *other* plasma jets that keep the Furnace in the air. Our SEEM pilots can make good use of this when the situation warrants. More reasonable plasma densities are still quite functional, carving easily through armor without completely evaporating a target and maintaining smooth flight to boot. The Furnace retains the Lantern's agility.

The Furnace is designed to be hard to pick up on radar when facing the target, able to close the distance before going full thrust to close the last km or so and blasting the target out of the sky before doing any evasive manouvres.


Introducing radar retardent materials now could help on a future ECM plane's impact. Also, the furnace is just cool! I don't know if they'll fully stabilise the air situation, but I feel they'll make a dent now and aid any future jets.
Still deliberating before I vote.

[The Ensorceler]

Spinal Mount UFO GUN Telescope:
STOP-IT Upgrade: (1) MoP
"Jammy Dodger" A-8 Armoured ECM Jet:
MKR-75 "Gannet":
"Bopper" Utility EMA Grenade Launcher:
A-13 "Furnace" Plasma Interceptor: (1) The Ensorceler

[Blood_Librarian]

Spinal Mount UFO GUN Telescope:
STOP-IT Upgrade: (2) MoP, Blood_Librarian
"Jammy Dodger" A-8 Armoured ECM Jet:
MKR-75 "Gannet":
"Bopper" Utility EMA Grenade Launcher:
A-13 "Furnace" Plasma Interceptor: (1) The Ensorceler

[Rockeater]

Spinal Mount UFO GUN Telescope:
STOP-IT Upgrade: (3) MoP, Blood_Librarian, Rockeater
"Jammy Dodger" A-8 Armoured ECM Jet:
MKR-75 "Gannet":
"Bopper" Utility EMA Grenade Launcher:
A-13 "Furnace" Plasma Interceptor: (1) The Ensorceler

[Chiefwaffles]

Proposal: STOP-IT Upgrade

The STOP-IT (for Improved Targeting) is an upgrade to the sensor suite to provide longer-range targeting and aim assistance against moving targets. The system takes input from signals received by oppositional craft in order to estimate it's speed and direction and visually represents that information on the canopy. A tracked target will have a small stem protruding from it ending in a dot marking where the STOP should aim in order to hit it's target. While imperfect, it's not likely a ship will take evasive action if it's being hit from somewhere it can't see. An adjustable holographic targeting sight for manual target acquisition/identification and aiming is also provided in the event of sensor issues, as well as aiding in orbital bombardment. Ground forces are supplied with marker beacons which emit a unique signal for the STOP to pick up so they can better locate where their assistance is requested.

Revision: STOP-IT Upgrade
(Easy) (1+2)+1 = 4: Below Average

Calculating trajectory of hostile targets (as identified by a lack of friendly IFF) turns out simple enough. The canopy HUD displays this via a marker pointing at where the shot should be fired to hit the target. Again, simple. The problem, however, is in range. While hitting moving targets will be significantly easier, we still don't have a great range at which we can see those targets. Still, useful.

In addition to being able to be adjusted manually, the revised targeting system can also detect strong beacons deployed by our infantry. Basic orbital calculations can be made based off of beacon data -- enough to get a vaguely accurate lock on the beacon if it's vaguely directly below the STOP's current position in orbit.
We... had to make the beacons quite big. And quite powerful. They have to be lugged by about two Baseline soldiers and have a charge-up time. Now, the sheer destructive capability of a fully-charged STOP blast means that luckily we don't have to put the beacon at the target. But this is a double-edged sword sharpened by the relative inaccuracy of the beacon-guided bombardment. Our forces have to evacuate the general area quickly. Combined with Mereth's predictive computing, orbital bombardment will likely only be useful if we can somehow get two soldiers to a stationary emplacement with the beacon and keep it safe long enough for it to charge up (and long enough for the STOP to fire) or in engagements where Mereth is very entrenched and we are not.


Our commanders couldn't hear us talking about the downsides. Too busy cackling. We assume a non-evil form of cackling, because we are not the baddies.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil Imported)
Space Transport Capacity: 0/0 (Nothing Imported) (Aratamite STC is the sum of its designs' STCs, multiplied by two thanks to the ANGEL Project.)
Resources: 3 Ore, 4 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals

Moon Region Rating: 0
Moon Resources: Nothing (Succesfully imported Moon Resources are included in "Resources" as well)

Weapons

• Heavy Plasma Rifle "Albatross": A heavy recombinated weapon based on the plasma-creating principles of the GM-BP Reactor. Uses a Tesla-derived containment beam to fire a continuous beam of SynthOil-created-plasma at the target, where the beam maintains a building-up convection cell of heat and plasma until it collapses and/or the beam stops, when it detonates inwards towards any gashes or cavities on the target. SynthOil cells are inserted like magazines and with range configured by the operator, last for 1s Long range, 15s Medium range, 60s Short range (where it's more like a blast wave than a beam). Overheats after 4 seconds of continuous usage, needing 8 seconds to cooldown -- 2s or less shots recommended. Massive amounts of heat are dumped into an arc-shaped radiator on the front-bottom edge that can be used as an effective melee weapon when heated.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 4 Oil
• HMKR-59 'Osprey': Hybrid Magnetic Kinetic Rifle; a variant of the Pursuit rifle that houses coilgun components to increase the velocity of bullets after conventional firing. Has a slot in the back for a single SynthOil battery, which has enough charge for 10 powered shots (soldiers carry 2 batteries total). Powered shots are accurate to Medium range (unpowered shots to Short range) and have increased lethality and armor piercing capabilities.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 1 Oil
• Tesla Rifle: A "rifle" that fires bolts of ARC lightning at Medium range. Using an inner "Lightning Rod" chamber, it gradually charges from a backpack SynthOil battery - it has four levels of charge, with Level 3 being the optimum Medium range + good lethality and Level 4 being overkill with a chance of explosive backfiring. It takes about 40s to charge to Level 3 (charging can be paused but the charge decays slightly over time), and the battery has enough juice for 5 Lvl3 shots. Extremely lethal against anything conductive, and has a modest area-of-effect as the electricity arcs to other conductors in close proximity. Can be hooked up to external SynthOil batteries as well. Soldiers pre-charge to Level 3 when aware of hostile situations, but are still vulnerable to ambushes.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil
• "Chelsea" SMILE: Single-use rocket launcher with Red Skies incendiary (useful v. COMBAT armor) or Tesla (useful with area of effect and v. electronics) payloads. Effective to long-range (still useful but unreliable beyond), and has a flip-out glass targeting visor with a crosshair predicting impact site based on wind and fall.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
• "Storm" GMRL-ECP-61S: A 250lb active radar homing missile with a 6km range and 5m effective blast radius. Fired from 4-rail trucks (with radar) and aircraft mounts. It has a poor resolution, greatly decreasing the reliability of locking onto non-huge aerial targets and making locking onto surface targets next-to-impossible, though large ships prove easy targets. Equipped with an HE or ARC warhead, with the ARC warhead using a chain SynthOil reaction to generate arcing electricity frying electronics and melting metal as it jumps from conductor to conductor.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 4 Oil
  
  • ION-Storm: Variant with a second stage, improved tracking, reduced payload, and it's only able to be launched from a truck. Designed to intercept Merethan air(space?)craft re-entering the atmosphere.
    Expensive] 3 Ore, 5 Oil
• "Red Skies" Multiple Missile Launcher: A 300 lb version of the Storm missile using Inertial guidance and adapted entirely for surface-to-surface use. Has a SynthOil-based incendiary payload that's capable of effectively burning through armor, but is less immediately destructive. Has a range of 15 km. Its guidance allows it to easily and effectively target any ground point, but it can't change course mid-flight and can't actively track any targets; its effectiveness in accuracy mostly is based on what intelligence the operator has when firing. Intended for use as surface-to-surface artillery.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 4 Oil

Land Vehicles

• M3T1A1 Raider: The Raider is a Diesel-Electric tracked APC designed to serve as a base platform for many roles. It has light RHA armor with a sloped front, plus slats. It holds ten passengers and three crew. It has an interchangeable turret, which is very wide and flat with medium armor. Default armament is a Can shredder, plus 6 external Thumper barrels for smoke grenades and an RPG, these can only be reloaded from the outside. It's also chemical warfare protected, and amphibious, with a trim vane and two electric powered propellers. Exits are on large rear hatch and one small top hatch, only latter can be used while afloat.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore 2 Oil
• Privateer 1 1/2 Ton Truck: An antique Cannalan truck somehow still being used for cargo transport.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Provides 1 TC
• "Glaive"-Electromagnetic Coil Cannon Battletank ECCB-72: A large silent tank armed with a 120mm coilgun and a Reactor-charged coaxial-mounted Tesla Rifle (capable of firing a steady stream of L1/L2 shots). Has a respectable speed for its size, and the Coilgun turret is powered but manually aimed. Powered by a GMBP Reactor, allowing for unlimited movement and power for Coilgun shots, making the only main logistical concerns for the tank being Coilgun ammunition and crew supplies.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• "Ettin" Electric-Motor Flak Tank EMFT-61-B: A "tank" where the turret is an unarmored cage on top of the squat chassis where the gunner sits; two self-loading automatic cannons fire automatically in consecutive fashion flak shells to shoot down aircraft and infantry. The turret can be angled downwards effectively to shoot at infantry; limited ammo supply means the gunner has to be somewhat conservative with his firing patterns and can't just fill the sky with flak. Electric computer & radar guidance overlays a digital crosshair on a small sheet of "glass" in front of the gunner that is overlaid on top of the physical crosshair to maximize accuracy, allowing for decent accuracy as long as the aircraft isn't too fast or evasive. The commander and driver reside in the cramped interior and exit/enter largely via a door to the side, with the front of the tank being heavily angled downward for firing angle reasons. The turret is armored, but has poor visibility. Can travel for 10 hours on a full SynthOil battery, and the gun doesn't require power to operate.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Spacecraft

• Slug-Throwing Orbital Platform (STOP): A small "spacecraft" with an extremely cramped 2-crew compartment, 24 hour life support, and a reactor with enough fuel to keep it running for a week. Tiny plasma thrusters dot the platform for great turning and very slow movement. Small radio allows contact with ANGEL Complex, small radar allows detection of nearby enemies and display of their blips + predicted trajectory and where to shoot to hit them on the HUD. Gunner controls turning and targets enemies via just the canopy/HUD, their sight, and radar blips. Controller manages moving and maintaining systems. Large gauss cananon lining underside (30 seconds to load in a new shell, 20 seconds to charge to max once a shell is loaded) can fire up to 10 shells at enemies, with extreme damage at 100% charge and exponentially less but still very good damage at 50% charge. Each 100%-charged shot takes about 9% of SynthOil fuel, leaving a STOP that fired 10 100%-charged shots with only a few hours of operation. Crew compartment and life support can be explosively detached, where crew enter stasis to slow breathing (surviving for about a month on a full tank of oxygen), a beacon starts pinging for retrieval, and solar panels just barely power life support + beacon. Can be easily brought to geostationary orbit on board ANGEL shuttle.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 2 Oil
  
  • STOP-IT Orbital Bombardment Beacon: Large beacon that must be carried by >=2 baseline troopers and has about 1min chargeup time. Once charged, sends a signal to orbit so any STOP relatively above can fire at the ground near the beacon. Somewhat innacurate and the beacon must be protected for its chargeup time and STOP firing/charging time, but STOP orbital bombardment is extremely devastating. Allied troops must evacuate area to avoid friendly fire, generally.

Air Vehicles

• 'Lantern' A-7 Armored Jet: A large jet built with metal-recombinated materials, giving it good structural integrity and relatively good durability. Massive amounts of recombinated armor are present all across the aircraft. Direct hits by Shrike missiles can be survived with only moderate damage, and air-bursts/lasers are much less effective. An integrated Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor is used to power electrical systems and SynthOil tanks are used to fuel both the reactor and the combustion Ramjets. The heavy weight of the armor give the Lantern a great speed but not quite matching Mereth's Blizzard jet craft. Different systems provide the Torch with great relative agility, but only SEEM Operatives are capable of properly operating the complex controls in the airplane (though their enhanced abilities are a huge boon with speed and agility). 2 always-powered Ospreys are mounted on the front, with no other weapon capacity.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil (Expense can only be as low as current SEEM expense)
• 'Meteor' Air Frigate: A gigantic flying vessel, more akin to a boat than any traditional aircraft. Foregoing aerodynamics, it's propelled by 6 (4 on bottom, 2 on back) thrust-vectoring plasma GM-BP Thrusters (based on expelling plasma generated by the GM-BP process seen in Reactors for large thrust) that also produce its power. It can move quickly and isn't too sluggish, being able to easily outpace any kind of ground force yet being much slower than Merethan aircraft. Four Tesla cannon turrets -- 3 on top, 1 on bottom -- with greater range and rate of fire to their counter parts powered by the Meteor's capacitors provide an excellent anti-air screen, being able to fire once per few seconds and being able to intercept missiles and bombs when operated by SEEMs. A coilcannon array on the bottom largely mechanized allows for slow yet respectfully-paced terrific bombarding of ground targets, with mediocre targeting. A full radar suite and command center/bridge inside the hull give excellent battlefield intelligence and this information is distributed via radio to nearby forces, and to turrets on the frigate. Very heavily armored and able to resist constant Shrike bombardment for a relatively long time, yet limited internal space forces any non-essential for short-term operation facilities outside on the hull where they're more akin to fancy camps, providing a convenient target to greatly decrease combat effectiveness of everything but minimal radar operation and Coilcannon operation. Constant firing of more than one Tesla turret fairly quickly drains capacitors, quintupling tesla charge times. Thrust vectoring allows the Meteor to stay in the air with multiple missing thrusters. An internal bridge serves as an excellent mobile field command center.
  [National Effort] [8 Ore], [7 Oil]

Navy

• Corsair Destroyer: The Corsair is a moderate sized ship with light (for a ship) steel hull armor. It has a light cannon armament of two hydraulic-equipped Nightwind cannons and four Can Shredders. However, its main armament is its Shark Torpedo launchers (it has a couple on each side) and newly-invented Seahorse mines, which use the same warheads as Shark torpedoes but rest on the sea surface, detonating on cpntact with ships. It is powered by steam turbines and easily outpaces battleships like the Kalmar, Kraken and Kurokami.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 3 Oil
• Santos-Class Naval Aircraft Support Vessel: The Santos is a large aircraft carrier. It is about the size of the Khorne but not armored. It's powered by four oil-burning steam turbines. The hangar deck stores two dozen fighters, moved to the flight deck by a hydraulic lift. On deck is an Eagle Eye Radar system, con tower, a few Firecracker AA guns and a miscellaneous autocannons wherever there's spare room. It also has a decent sized flight deck, with an arrester cable for landing aircraft, and two overlapping runways with room for ready aircraft on deck. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• SLS-61 Magpie: A basic landing ship with a bow able to open up with a ramp to allow vehicles and troops onto the shore, and has extremely basic treads to de-beach itself. Has Thin armor and a few mounts for infantry rifles on the top to provide basic covering fire. Powered by Gen 1 SynthOil engines, which requires it to use the majority of its cargo space to hold enough SynthOil to make it across the sea without running out of fuel. Normally has a modest capacity for soldiers (and capable of holding a few moderate-sized vehicles), but the fuel requirement limits it to only a small amount of soldiers and/or perhaps one tank at best.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• Atlas-class Cargo Ship: A Santos-class with the weaponry and aircraft equipment and just about everything else stripped off. Utilizes SynthOil batteries for general powering of ship, though oil-burning steam turbines from the Santos still power most of it. Uses a system derived from Cryostats to cryogenically freeze perishable cargo as well as people for maximum storage efficiency.
  Provides 2 TC

Chemicals & Drugs

• Spice: An extremely potent manufactured drug resulting in extreme schizophrenia, delusions of power, frequent seizures, and eventually death. Extremely addictive. Those who undergo the week-long "Goldeneye" treatment in a CryoStat tank become accustomed (and permanently addicted) to low dosages of Spice, enabling very high awareness of surroundings and mildly increased reaction and thinking speeds when under the influence of the drug.
  [Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals.
  
  • SEEM: Systemic Elimination of the Entropic Mind. An extremely intensive and long procedure where top-ranked veterans are subjected to week-long bouts of sensory deprivation in CryoStat tanks, and have their mind essentially transformed into a new form via the combined use of modified Metal Recombinators and Spice. Experienced SEEM Guides facilitate this Journey across the barrier into the Astral Realm. For now, this allows survivors of the treatment to exhibit extreme (much higher than Goldeneyes) awareness of surroundings, visible or not. This awareness manifests itself in many ways, from avoiding traps/bombardments to knowing where to shoot at to knowing when one's being shot at, and more.
    [Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals,
• Combat Drug 'Fury': A Spice-based drug that massively decreases reaction time, and lasts for ~2 hours. Also incites rage, decreasing soldier effectiveness at range and chances of occasional friendly fire. Mild hallucinations are common, preventing users from being effective at recon/espionage/etc. roles. Makes veins much more apparent and red. Addictive, and takes effect >5 minutes after injection.
  [Expensive] 3 Rare Chemicals
• Metal Recombinators: A special mixture that separates pure metal from ore, obsoleting a large part of Aratam's refining industry. A variant can also be used to fuse metal with (likely) any other matter.
  Provides 1 Ore.

Astral

• BioForged Guardians: Recruited as children or younger teenagers, these candidates are subjected to long and incremental SEEM/light organic recombination treatments in addition to intensive training. Gradual welcoming of their mind to the Astral along with minor recombination enhancement of the brain allows for greater Astral abilities and full awareness of the Astral, along with conscious control of many brain functions. Superior memory and much stronger/tougher/quick-healing than even Military Baseline. They are consciously aware of events about to happen in the near-immediate future, and have "insane" reaction times in addition to greater smarts. Generally better than SEEMs in every way. Can shunt their awareness to the Astral realm, where they can perform mental combat with others and sense the consciousness of other humans a notable distance away.
  [Very Expensive] 1 Ore, 6 Rare Chemicals, Complex
• Blackwell Technique: Through channeling Astral Energy into a specific area, an Astral-trained operative can create a reflection of the Astral Realm coded for the astral connection of one specific person (targeted via line of sight or accurate recreation). This person will suffer severe symptoms ranging from death to severe brain damage to memory loss to seizures to full-blown hallucinations to extreme paranoia and more. But permanent affects are rare for those without long exposure times. Non-targeted and non-Astral-trained individuals will suffer milder, all-short-term symptoms only when looking at the Reflection. Looking at a recreation (i.e. television screen) of the Reflection will only affect people who've already seen that exact Reflection, recreating their prior symptoms.
  All Astral-trained operatives can invoke this. But it requires intense concentration and 10 seconds to create the reflection, and continued intense concentration to maintain the reflection.
• Wadjet Branding: Tactile symbols of the Eye of Horus printed on the exterior of the hands in uniforms for our Astral-enhanced individuals. For some currently unknown reason, focusing on this symbol notably improves Astral effectiveness and safety for the focusing individual. Useful for newbies to practice Astral techniques by feeling the symbol in different ways through extravagant hand motions, apparently.

Other

• R.A./M.P. Suit: A metal/ceramic/rubber recombinated suit of armor with heating/cooling capabilities and a quick-inject system where any single one of 6 vials stored in a back compartment can be instantly injected w/ instant effects by a series of buttons on the wrist. Contains a default adrenaline mix, but vials can be filled with FURY, SEEM, or other drugs. A particle filter and visor (w/ internal red lighting) covered by a recombinated hood sit on the head, and a jacket covers the rest of the suit for appearance/morale sake. Light, yet surprisingly durable: survival rates of soldiers are increased greatly across the board, with soldiers oftentimes being able to shrug off light-caliber shots from Merethan rifles. Looks like this, but with a slightly-red-glowing visor instead.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore
  
  • R.A./M.P. Space Suit: Variant of the RA/MP suit that is very bulky and cumbersome, but lets the occupant survive for an hour in a vacuum before suffocating/suffering drug withdrawal.
• CryoStat Tank: A large three-meter tall "coffin" with a small glass vertical slit inside showing a tank. A single "set" of machinery required for operation, taking up ~36 square meters of space total, can manage roughly a dozen CryoStat tanks at a time. Basic automation assists technicians, allowing for a single technician to manage many CryoStat tanks. Subjects are put into "stasis" via a numbing solution they're submersed in, and medical drugs in the solution naturally infuse into the bloodstream through the skin. Once taken out. Use is tracked through a computer-assisted bureaucracy dubbed the "CryoState". A day stabilizes minor life-threatening wounds, and a week stabilizes near all wounds. A month starts completely healing scars and generally brings up health status to pristine, and a year can restore lost limbs. Also used for life-extending "rejuvenation" processes by important people.
  [Cheap] 2 Rare Chemicals
• SynthOil: SMRO-58 "SynthOil" is an advanced form of oil - it's made using a combination of oil and other chemicals, making a much more stable and energy-dense solution. Has a peculiar property - with the right tools, it can directly produce electricity.
  Provides 1 Oil
• Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor: A 1m-radius spherical "nuclear-ish" reactor that uses gamma radiation to break down SynthOil into electrical energy. Rather efficient and good at making energy, especially compared with anything else in the world comparable in size/expense, but hard to miniaturize and has a notable radiation poisoning issue with anyone spending a notable amount of time in proximity.
• Stormcaller Circle: A shift-based group of the top SEEMs in Aratam, "bonded" with tendrils of Tesla energy embedded throughout the atmosphere surrounding the continent. They can use their tremendous amounts of Astral energy at store to manipulate these tendrils and thus weather. Every season, the Bureau may vote on a single theatre and single weather phenomenon to invoke there. Our troops will be prepared (with the equipment that they already have, that is) ahead of time, but we can't micromanage the phenomenon to further aid our troops.

Infrastructure

• The Refinery: An extremely secretive facility hidden under the canopy in a remote part of the rainforest, identifiable only by its smoke. Contains large liquid storage tanks and refineries for the production of chemicals, well-equipped laboratories, cells for test subjects, a steady supply of test subjects from Aratam's prisoners, and more. Useful as a base for chemical research.
  Provides 1 Rare Chemical
• The Militarized Baseline: Our soldiers are enhanced above regular humans (in notable, but not major ways) in many categories; namely strength, reflexes, and intelligence. All soldiers now have implanted ports for quick drug infusion, and a logistical structure is in place to facilitate the drug infusion and treatments of the entire Aratamite military.
• The Black Chamber: A giant facility built beneath the Refinery full of specially-modified CryoStat tanks, training areas, niche laboratories, and subjects attempting to reach the world beyond ours: the Astral Realm.

• Embassy "The Brewery": An embassy for Cannalan diplomats that doubles as a highly advanced brewery of Aratam's signature drink, Arachaca. The Cannalans can see the brewing process below through their glass flooring and taps straight form the brewery are available for Arachaca straight from the source. Uses basic electronic systems for very limited automation in conjunction with its general advanced brewing systems.

Wonder

• ANGEL Project: A space elevator, comprised of the Complex, Shuttle, and Station. The Complex is a huge facility anchored to the sea floor north of Aratam's coast, and holds a large number of docks and warehouses. Training facilities. Orbital command center. Logistics centers. Worker residences. Security posts. "Mini" embassies for other nations to coordinate their usage of it. And more. Three massive struts going up 100km to the end of the atmosphere hold up electromagnetic-propelling rings to acccelerate a large shuttle hooked to four recombinated Graphene tethers to maximum safe speeds. It cruises from left-over speed to the Station.
  The Shuttle has two decks -- a top deck with space for 30 comfortable people, and an unpressurized much taller bottom deck for cargo. Movement between decks is impossible without an external structure to maximize cargo space. The shuttle's top deck reaches the station, with the buttom deck having access to space.
  The Station is one moderately-sized pressurized room in Geostationary orbit with primitive life support reliant on constant resupply, fitting a 24/7 rotated 4 crew and 6 other people (3 guaranteed to Aratam for research/tourism/development, 3 given to other nations).
  International use of the ANGEL Project is authorized, though limited to non-military use and analyzed for security risks.
  
  Doubles STC, Gives +1 STC to Mereth.
  Can be used to easily send people, prefabs, supplies, materials, station parts, ships, ship parts, etc. etc. into Geostationary orbit. Can be used to improve R&D of space assets. Can assist construction of anything in space.
  Both sides can use it for civilian/non-military use and R&D, but Aratam will know of Merethan activity if they do use the ANGEL Project in an action (after that action is processed). Only Aratam can use this for military purposes/R&D.

The Combat Phase of Winter 1964 has begun. You may optionally vote on one Intrigue action. You must decide on the usage/deployment of the Stormcaller Circle and the A.S.V. Hour of Relentless Intent, your single Meteor.[/list]

[Man of Paper]

Intrigue Action: Investigate the significance of 8. Look for any similarities in environment, circumstances, objects, and observers that could link the phenomena past the appearance of the number 8 itself.

Stormcaller Circle: Plains Heat Wave

A.S.V. Hour of Relentless Intent: Deploy to the Plains to offer operational and fire support.

One of them relatively recently commented on us always switching our storms around. Let's see what effects two seasons of heat have on both Mereth and the environment itself. I feel like we'll finally manage to hold the mountains here, which is all we actually need to do for the time being. If we manage to push the plains again then we can expect they'll focus efforts to stop us next turn regardless of what happens this phase. Even if they take the mountains from us we should have a good bit of breathing room to counter that push.

Operation Fun in the Sun: (1) MoP

[Maxinum McDreich]

Maybe use the intrigue to find out why we were raided by our own people? I may know less than those on discord, but thought I'd throw it out there. Other than that, fun in the sun like an oven with a bun!

[Blood_Librarian]

Waffles? Shouldnt Artillery such as out STOP-IT have the ability to off-set the bombardment so that the beacon acts as a guide rather then a bullseye for our gun? IE, slam it far enough from the line that an evacuation wouldn't be required?

Intrigue Action: Our investigation regarding the BEO's own Blackwell raid has resulted in a lack of information. We simply do not have any method of knowing what they did through sources in Aratam. BFG's are subtly hidden from the BEO's gaze, and sent to infiltrate the Merethians. The objective is simple; a lightning raid on their predictive computational engines. We are looking for information that gives evidence on BEO objectives, reasoning and data on their recent actions, and a drop off of information that gives the Merethians design bureau clues regarding their own design teams problems, (My current theory is their AI is slowly going rogue.)

Storm Caller Circle: Plains Heat Wave

A.S.V. Hour of Relentless Intent: Deploy to the plains to offer operational and fire support.

[The Ensorceler]

Fun in the sun:(1) The Ensorceler
They can't be bargained with:

[Man of Paper]

ewww gross, votedropper

Fun in the sun:(2) MoP, The Ensorceler
They can't be bargained with:

[Rockeater]

Fun in the sun:(3) MoP, The Ensorceler, Rockeater
They can't be bargained with:

[Blood_Librarian]

Fun in the sun:(3) MoP, The Ensorceler, Rockeater
They can't be bargained with (1) : Blood_Librarian

This is the perfect chance to be a little ambitious and get some more intel then we otherwise would be able too.

[Maxinum McDreich]

mmm, I like the intrigue in finding out why we were raided. I'm less liking also helping the Merethians, though. In the end, I don't think I have a specific preference between the two options, so I'll just watch how this pans out.