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[Powder Miner]

Designs
Reading Rainbow Sensor Drone (Sensors) (2): Twinwolf, Powder Miner
Slavebore Drive (Manueverability for drones) (0):
HOLograms, Intelligence, & COMmunication (HOLI-COM) Module (C&C) (2): Twinwolf, Kashyyk
Fleet Command Unbound (C&C) (0):
Artificial Composite Intelligence (C&C?) (1): Powder Miner
Bore Overdrive Protocol (Faster bores) (1): Kashyyk
Admiralty Code Command Deck (C&C) (0):
Raiding Party Command Deck (Small C&C) (0):
Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Defense Sat) (0):
Royal Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Big Defense Sat) (0):

Speed-up dice
2 dice to Gravity Drives (3): Twinwolf, Kashyyk, Powder Miner
1 die to Bioplastic Armour (1): Kashyyk

Save for Revisions:
Save 2 dice (2): Twinwolf, Powder Miner
Save 1 die (1): Kashyyk

voting for ACI for our C&C... nothing can go wrong... NOTHING CAN GO WRONG AT ALL

[Happerry]

Designs
Reading Rainbow Sensor Drone (Sensors) (2): Twinwolf, Powder Miner
Slavebore Drive (Manueverability for drones) (0):
HOLograms, Intelligence, & COMmunication (HOLI-COM) Module (C&C) (2): Twinwolf, Kashyyk
Fleet Command Unbound (C&C) (0):
Artificial Composite Intelligence (C&C?) (1): Powder Miner
Bore Overdrive Protocol (Faster bores) (1): Kashyyk
Admiralty Code Command Deck (C&C) (0):
Raiding Party Command Deck (Small C&C) (1): Happerry
Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Defense Sat) (1): Happerry
Royal Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Big Defense Sat) (0):
Anti-Matter Fountain Projector (Large) (Antimatter Terrain Hazard/Large Mount Weapon) (1): Happerry

Speed-up dice
2 dice to Gravity Drives (3): Twinwolf, Kashyyk, Powder Miner
1 die to Bioplastic Armour (1): Kashyyk

Save for Revisions:
Save 2 dice (2): Twinwolf, Powder Miner
Save 1 die (1): Kashyyk

[Chiefwaffles]

Not a huge fan of the HOLI-COM. Doesn't really play that much to our strengths.

Design: Central Command Module
Okay, so it turns out that Steve from the Borehole division had been modifying our prototype Expedition computer to serve as an advisor to his research. And it turns out that Steve allegedly gave said computer a surprising degree of intelligence.
One AI rebellion, a few smashed DEATHmarines, a couple of craters in the ground surrounding the central R&D facility, and a few strangely philosophical conversations later, we hopefully managed to convince the computer to help us out. We're not actually sure if it's genuinely conscious and self-aware but it gets really annoyed if you ask it that so we've decided to table the issue for now.

While the now-slightly-infamous-but-mostly-famous original AI still resides at our R&D facility insulting researchers and refusing to help out with boreholes on account of "perserving the lifetime of the universe" or some other crap excuse like that, we've established some formal blueprints for additional versions. Each new version of the AI has some slight tweaks in its personality to give it some "flavor" and to best fit it with its crew. We let the crew of the ship along with the new copy to come up with its "real" name, versus the plain generic Central Command.
The module itself is a large computer that interfaces with the ship's native computer systems to make itself as effective as possible, and uplinks with the computers of every ship in the fleet. We've ensured that the AI is well aware of the "Last Stand" protocol, meaning that ships will be able to continue fighting when otherwise mission-killed (though the Expedition will still trump others in this category, as Last Stand isn't 100% software -- things like circuitry rerouting won't be as robust when not designed-in.)

Ships uplinked to Central Command should be more effective in combat, and the load on ship's computers in managing fleet logistics is taken care of by Central Command so the crew/local computers can focus more on tasks at hand with the help of Central Command. Central Command modules also have the extremely effective holoterminals which display an avatar whose appearance is based on the AI's personality.


Design: BoreNav
Okay, have you shut the windows?
Good. Make sure to lock the doors and engage the R&D facility's defensive systems too. How the physicists still manage to rile up riots outside I still don't know.

Anyways, the BoreNav is pretty simple. We've done some stuff with predictive algorithms and QUANTUM computers with not-amazing-luck. The BoreNav is basically a big computer with hardware dedicated to these things and other principles especially useful for boredrive navigation, greatly decreasing the time required to calculate borehole paths.
While it can be of use in bypassing interdiction and increasing short-range borehole speed, its main intention is allowing our ships to move between systems at notably greater speeds thanks to not having to spend extreme amounts of time calculating the intersystem trajectories. We expect that the BoreNav will only really be used on larger ships that the rest of the fleet can then rely on for non-emergency boring.

For the sake of convenience, we've divided the use of BoreNav into two categories:
1.) NavBore Drive. A Bore Drive with an integrated BoreNav system.
2.) BoreNav. The computer in its own module.

These should both take up the same capacity ultimately; it's just so we don't have to list two modules for every ship we want to go faster in bores while being able to retrofit the BoreNav onto existing ships with integrated bore drives.

Designs
Reading Rainbow Sensor Drone (Sensors) (2): Twinwolf, Powder Miner
Slavebore Drive (Manueverability for drones) (0):
HOLograms, Intelligence, & COMmunication (HOLI-COM) Module (C&C) (2): Twinwolf, Kashyyk
Fleet Command Unbound (C&C) (0):
Artificial Composite Intelligence (C&C?) (1): Powder Miner
Bore Overdrive Protocol (Faster bores) (1): Kashyyk
Admiralty Code Command Deck (C&C) (0):
Raiding Party Command Deck (Small C&C) (1): Happerry
Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Defense Sat) (1): Happerry
Royal Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Big Defense Sat) (0):
Anti-Matter Fountain Projector (Large) (Antimatter Terrain Hazard/Large Mount Weapon) (1): Happerry
Central Command Module (C&C) (1): Chiefwaffles
BoreNav (Faster bores) (1): Chiefwaffles

Speed-up dice
2 dice to Gravity Drives (3): Twinwolf, Kashyyk, Powder Miner
1 die to Bioplastic Armour (1): Kashyyk

Save for Revisions:
Save 2 dice (3): Twinwolf, Powder Miner, Chiefwaffles
Save 1 die (1): Kashyyk

[Powder Miner]

Designs
Reading Rainbow Sensor Drone (Sensors) (2): Twinwolf, Powder Miner
Slavebore Drive (Manueverability for drones) (0):
HOLograms, Intelligence, & COMmunication (HOLI-COM) Module (C&C) (3): Twinwolf, Kashyyk, Powder Miner
Fleet Command Unbound (C&C) (0):
Artificial Composite Intelligence (C&C?) (0):
Bore Overdrive Protocol (Faster bores) (1): Kashyyk
Admiralty Code Command Deck (C&C) (0):
Raiding Party Command Deck (Small C&C) (1): Happerry
Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Defense Sat) (1): Happerry
Royal Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Big Defense Sat) (0):
Anti-Matter Fountain Projector (Large) (Antimatter Terrain Hazard/Large Mount Weapon) (1): Happerry
Central Command Module (C&C) (1): Chiefwaffles
BoreNav (Faster bores) (1): Chiefwaffles

Speed-up dice
2 dice to Gravity Drives (3): Twinwolf, Kashyyk, Powder Miner
1 die to Bioplastic Armour (1): Kashyyk
0 dice to anything (0):

Save for Revisions:
Save 2 dice (3): Twinwolf, Powder Miner, Chiefwaffles
Save 1 die (1): Kashyyk
Save 0 dice (0):

Aside from weighing in a bit more meaningfully on C&C, I also added some dice expenditure options so those that want 3 designs can actually indicate such.

[Happerry]

Designs
Reading Rainbow Sensor Drone (Sensors) (2): Twinwolf, Powder Miner
Slavebore Drive (Manueverability for drones) (0):
HOLograms, Intelligence, & COMmunication (HOLI-COM) Module (C&C) (4): Twinwolf, Kashyyk, Powder Miner, Happerry
Fleet Command Unbound (C&C) (0):
Artificial Composite Intelligence (C&C?) (0):
Bore Overdrive Protocol (Faster bores) (1): Kashyyk
Admiralty Code Command Deck (C&C) (0):
Raiding Party Command Deck (Small C&C) (0):
Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Defense Sat) (1): Happerry
Royal Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Big Defense Sat) (0):
Anti-Matter Fountain Projector (Large) (Antimatter Terrain Hazard/Large Mount Weapon) (0):
Central Command Module (C&C) (1): Chiefwaffles
BoreNav (Faster bores) (2): Chiefwaffles, Happerry

Speed-up dice
2 dice to Gravity Drives (3): Twinwolf, Kashyyk, Powder Miner
1 die to Bioplastic Armour (1): Kashyyk
0 dice to anything (0):

Save for Revisions:
Save 2 dice (3): Twinwolf, Powder Miner, Chiefwaffles
Save 1 die (1): Kashyyk
Save 0 dice (0):

[Kashyyk]

Designs
Reading Rainbow Sensor Drone (Sensors) (2): Twinwolf, Powder Miner
Slavebore Drive (Manueverability for drones) (0):
HOLograms, Intelligence, & COMmunication (HOLI-COM) Module (C&C) (4): Twinwolf, Kashyyk, Powder Miner, Happerry
Fleet Command Unbound (C&C) (0):
Artificial Composite Intelligence (C&C?) (0):
Admiralty Code Command Deck (C&C) (0):
Central Command Module (C&C) (1): Chiefwaffles
Raiding Party Command Deck (Small C&C) (0):
Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Defense Sat) (1): Happerry
Royal Nest Orbital Defense Hanger (Big Defense Sat) (0):
Anti-Matter Fountain Projector (Large) (Antimatter Terrain Hazard/Large Mount Weapon) (0):
Bore Overdrive Protocol (Faster bores) (0):
BoreNav (Faster bores) (3): Chiefwaffles, Happerry, Kashyyk

Speed-up dice
2 dice to Gravity Drives (3): Twinwolf, Kashyyk, Powder Miner
1 die to Bioplastic Armour (1): Kashyyk
0 dice to anything (0):

Save for Revisions:
Save 2 dice (3): Twinwolf, Powder Miner, Chiefwaffles
Save 1 die (1): Kashyyk
Save 0 dice (0):

[Draignean]

HOLI-COM
[Time: 3 Progress: 3 Cost: 5]
In general, HOLI-COM is mostly about our engineers putting together existing components rather than innovating in new, exciting, and horrifying ways. The down side of this is that engineering isn't exactly in their top frenzy as far drafting or working goes, but the good news is that the costs of replacement mechanical components, replacement limbs, and replacement engineers are all way down.

HOLI-COM: 0/10 [2] |  50O + 85M + 60E + 5S | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Prototype
[Efficacy: 3]
The end result of our engineer's apathetic devotion to the project is an equally apathetic artificial personality attached to a serviceable command suite.

The command suite is entirely functional, with a holographic display alloying organic bridge captains to readily grasp the combat theatre and incorporating a level of interactivity very nearly rivaling that of a modern smartphone. Updates from sensor drones are instantly mapped into the holograph, and any orders the fleet commander gives can be near instantly sent to friendly vessels via and impressive array of micro-bore drives. In short, it does what it's meant to do.

Saying the same of HOLI, however, requires a bit more logical gymnastics. Dry, softspoken, and universally informal, HOLI adds a human level of interactivity to most of the ship's systems- and that's not always a good thing. Shipwide alarms are delivered in an apathetic onomatopoeia, rambling is a frequent issue during status reports, and -despite frequent checks by engineers assure us that HOLI is working as intended- HOLI displays a frightening level of disconnection with the world that might be referred to as 'computer senility'.

HOLI-COM: 50O 200M 50E 25S | Capacity -15 | Power -50 | A no-frills command module with holographic support, a built in system of micro-bores for dispensing orders across multiple channels at FTL speeds, and a VI is so tacked on that no is actually certain why it's there. Gives a command score of 40.


BoreNav
[Time: 6 Progress: 3 Cost: 5]
There are two good things about riots. One, they bring communities together. The people outside are hardcore PESTTs (People for Ethical Space-Time Testing), and they get brought together to throw bricks at the security cannons. This in turn brings the engineers together since they can't leave without getting bricks chucked at their heads. This means more time spent working on projects that, ironically, will cause further riots and perpetuate a continued vicious productive cycle of SCIENCE.

Oh, the second good thing is that gets an engineer or two kipped in the head with a brick. Which, let's be real here, they had coming.

BoreNav: 0/12 [2] |  100T + 50M + 100E | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Prototype
[Efficacy: 6]
Once this baby hits 88 zettaFLOPS, you're gonna see some serious shit.
The BoreNav computer solves many of the issues with original Quantum processing systems by innovating in two important ways. The first is that it uses the shade of red known as Red Cosmos instead of simple Red. Engineering assures us that the original colour wasn't close enough to the edge of known science, and that the new color is considerably darker and, thus, much edgier. The second is that it uses a bootstrapping approach to predict its own QUANTUM interactions. Basically, the entire computer is so complex that it has to gradually build up processing power in order to run itself- topping out at a processing speed of approximately 88.3 zettaFLOPS.

The good news is that this is sufficient to bring Boredrive calculations to a point where we can likely make a pair of long range jumps. The bad news is that the computer needs to uniquely figure itself out for each distinct calculation, and thus provides a much smaller boost to penetrating interdiction and making short range jumps.

BoreNav: 20T 50M 100E 0S | Capacity -5 | Power -20 | A QUANTUM computer system so incredibly powerful that it has to use a bootstrapping approach to figure out how to use itself to solve a given problem. Provides a small boost to all bore calculations, but the extended nature of a long-range bore calculations allows it to enhance a bore-drive with a speed of 1 to a speed of 2.

NavBoreNav DriveNav: | 120T 0O 200M 250E 25S | Capacity: -20 | Power: -120 | Speed 2, transports an equipped ship of up to Cruiser size |  A generic bore drive modified to intrinsically carry a BoreNav Computer.


Gravity Drive
Progress: 15/18 (4+5)
New rule: It is against the code of conduct of the Gaian engineering core to use prototype gravity drives to reflect bricks back at rioters. The only way to make this fair is to give them gravity drives too, and we know they won't use them since they're pansy PESTTs, so just don't.


Revision Phase of Year -1

Resources
Dice: 2
T: 11840 + 2500
O: 36850 + 7500
M: 36850 + 7500
E: 24800 + 5000
S: 2285 + 500

Spoiler: Active Projects (click to show/hide)

BOSS-E: 18/22 [3] |  150 Transplutonics + 120 Synthetic | Rushed 0 Times | 150 Transplutonics + 120 Synthetic Invested
"Death Ray" LPBA: 6/7 [2] |  75 Transplutonics + 100 Metal + 50 Energetics + 10 Synthetic | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Bore Shield: 9/11 [3] |  135 Transplutonics + 120 Metal + 20 Synthetic | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Gravity Drive: 15/18 [2] |  155 Transplutonics + 225 Metal + 35 Synthetic | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
"Foray" Class Escort Frigate: 4/9 [2] |  50O  + 175M + 175E | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Mk Ib Parasite Drone "Hornet": 6/13 [3] |  35O  + 150M + 150E | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Expedition-Class Battlestar Cuiser: 14/21 [4] |  50T + 100O  + 300M + 100E | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Bioplastic Armor: 1/8 [1] | 150O + 150E | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Honey Drone: 3/8 [3] |  10T + 35O  + 120M + 120E | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Gaian Technology List

[Happerry]

Revision : Death Ray Turret
Right now the Death Ray has aiming issues for shooting dodging enemies in a confusing environment. Given that battles are expected to be confusing and fast moving, this is not a good thing. So why not cap off the Death Ray with a turret assembly so that, while we can still use Borehole fire when we want to, we can also aim and shoot with turrets from our starship for more accurate and faster firing when that is useful? There's no reason why not, in fact.

Revision : HOLI to HOLLY
It's pretty obvious by now that Holi, our command VI, is useless. So our scientist started cracking the books, looking for a better personality (and cuter face to look at if they have to look at an AI face all the time) to turn HOLI into. And eventually, they found some neat old books about a kid genius, fairies, elves, and all sorts of fun hijinks. Normally this would have just lead to some arguments in the book club about which one was the best character, but then someone pointed out that one of the characters was named Holly and that hey, weren't they looking for a replacement for HOLI? And so it was decided that, given how distractable Gaians could be anyway, having someone to yell at them and tell them to focus on their jobs wasn't the worst idea anyway. So why not replace HOLI with something or someone based on Holly? The, erm, give me a moment... ah yes. The Holographic Online Lucid Leadership mYthical AI. Should do a much better job then the previous AI.

You know, rework it to be smarter, faster thinking, better logic protocols in the first place place so she thinks more efficiently, and most of all actually care about her job. That should be worth a 30% increase right there. Everyone knows you do your best at something you get passionate about, after all, and the character of record has little desire to deal with idiots so it should be easy to get her to properly chew out crewmen doing stupid stuff and to tell people off for stupid plans, instead of not caring at all and having no passion for her job. And while we're at it, maybe we can look at the hardware a bit if we have time, rework it a bit, maybe even paint it Cosmic Red like the new quantum boxes are. And the new personality is even from a (mildly) military background as a sort of commando, so she should get along well with as well as lead well the Death Marines when intruders arrive! And with a background in police work, she should also be keen eyed if an enemy tries any funny business, or to be foolishly clever in other ways. All in all, the engineers are pretty thankful they found those Artemis Fowl books.

REVISIONS
Death Ray Turret (1): Happerry
HOLI to HOLLY (1): Happerry

[TheFantasticMsFox]

REVISIONS
Death Ray Turret (2): Happerry, TFF
HOLI to HOLLY (2): Happerry, TFF

Also going to add a torpedo design:

“Postman” Plasmatic Torpedo
   The “Postman” Plasmatic Torpedo is focused on one thing: the bang to buck ratio*. This is intended to be reasonably priced but effective delivery system to allow high damage against targets in space. The weapon itself is a multi stage chemical engine sheathed in bioplastic armor to keep weight down but not sacrifice over much on protection. The warhead itself is a director for a stream of high energy plasma generated by a fusion reactor.  The basic launch mechanism for the Postman is a small turret holding 4 Torpedoes in enclosed launch spaces or simple fixed launch crates of 4, though more can be added if there is space. Permanent Mountings also include re-loaders for the launch tubes. Targeting is provided by either the ship that launched the Torpedo, or a seeker head. The warhead itself is where things get gun though. Using magnetic containment to siphon off plasma from a built in fusion reactor, which can be charged before launch or as it travels to its target. Once reaching the target, it can either be launched at the target from a distance, followed by a small control mechanism using magnetic fields to keep the plasma focused and coherent. Alternatively, it can continue on, and impact the target and burn through the armor of what it hits, and continue to exude plasma until the reactor runs out of fuel or is deactivated.

*Note: this weapon is not meant to engage deer or other similar creatures.

[Kashyyk]

I've done some maths and we can afford to send a loaded transport ship to every planet within two jumps.

Spoiler: Gateship Foray (click to show/hide)

"Foray" Hull 120o 550m 220e 40s
NavBoreNav DriveNav 120t 200m 250e 25s
"Death Ray" Medium x3 210t 300m 150e 15s
DEATH Marines (Frigate) 30o 105m 45e
Gravity Drive 70t 100m 125e 20s
Bore Shield 50t 170m 150e 15s
PEB Generator 175m 80e 25s

TOTAL 450t 150o 1,600m 1,020e 140s OR 5,680pp
Remaining Capacity: 0
Power Balance: -48

Spoiler: Basic Transport (click to show/hide)

"PaceMaster" Hull 200t 300o 500m 150e
Eco-Bore 70t 100m 100e 20s
PEB Generator 175m 80e 25s

TOTAL 270t 300o 775m 330e 45s OR 2,717.5pp
Remaining Capacity: 7
Power Balance: +5

GREAT Infantry costs 100o, 350m, 150e or 675pp.

We have 33,750pp and 14,340t, 44,350o, 44350m, 29,800e & 2,785s available to spend.

This plan abuses the fact that a PaceMaster hull comes with it's own reaction-drive, thus we can launch a PaceMaster hull with no additional components.

Thus we can buy 5 PaceMaster hulls and pack them with 4 GREAT regiments each for 24,038pp. We can then buy an addition Basic PaceMaster (with boredrive functionality) for 5,418pp.

Then by spending TOMES, we can bu 1 additional bore-capable PaceMaster and 5 BoreNav-equipped Forays for a total of 2,520t, 1,450o, 10,175m, 6,030e & 745s.

Each of the Forays has a bore big enough to transport a Cruiser (size 12), thus a Frigate and Destroyer (combined size 9) should be able to share a single bore.

Therefore we can easily afford to drop troops on all seven planets within two jumps of Gaia, and provide a military presence to the five planets within two jumps of hostile homeworlds. We'll no doubt want to jiggle with the exact components, but it can be done.

Spoiler: Expedition-Class BattleCruiser (click to show/hide)

Expedition hull 200t, 400o, 2,300m, 1,000e, 120s
"Death Ray" Large x2 300t, 440m, 200e, 20s
"Shattergun" Small x4 100o, 300m, 100e
"Hornet" Large Wing 65t, 130o, 455m, 455e, 65s
"Hornet Medium Wing 40t, 80o, 280m, 280e, 40s
"Honey Drone" Medium Wing 40t, 100o, 200m, 200e
DEATH Marines (cruiser) 120o, 420m, 180e
Bioplastic Armour 50o, 10e
Gravity Drive x3 210t, 300m, 375e 60s
PEB Generator x2 350m, 160e, 50s
Bore Shield 50t, 170m, 150e, 15s
BoreNav Computer 20t, 50m, 100e

TOTAL 925t, 980o, 5,265m, 3,210e & 370s or 16610pp
Remaining Capacity: 3
Power Balance -33

It has been pointed out on discord that I have missed a full turn of resource income, and and have not spent the rest of our resource bank. Thus, we actually have:

Production:     33,750
Transplutonics: 16,840
Organics:       51,850
Metals:         51,850
Energetics:     34,800
Synthetics      3,285


Purchasing 5 PaceMaster Hulls, 1 Borecapable PAceMaster and 24 GREAT Regiments costs 29,455PP.

Purchasing 1 Borecapable PAcemaster, 4 Great Regiments, 5 Foray Gateships and 6 Expedition Battelcruisers costs 8,070 Transputonics, 7,330 Organics, 41,765 Metals, 25,290 Energetics and 2,965 Synthetics.

Thus we will end up with 5 Gateship Forays, 5 PaceMaster hulls, 2 Borecapable PaceMasters, 6 Expedition Battlecruisers and 28 GREAT Regiments and the following resources remaining:

Production:      4,295
Transplutonics:  8,770
Organics:        44,520
Metals:         10,085
Energetics:      9,510
Synthetics         320


As you can see, we have a glut of organics and a bottleneck of synthetics. Let's jiggle this a bit.

Instead, we buy 4 GREAT Regiments, 5 PaceMaster hulls and 3 Gateship Forays for 33327.5PP.

And then buy 24 GREAT REgiemnts, 2 Bore-capable PaceMasters, 2 Gateway Forays and 7 Expedition Battlecruisers for 7775t, 10,160o, 49455m, 28410e, 2870s.

This gives us 5 Gateship Forays, 5 PaceMaster hulls, 2 Borecapable PaceMasters, 7 (instead of six like above) Expedition Battlecruisers and 28 GREAT Regiments and the following resources remaining:

Production:      422.5
Transplutonics:  9,065
Organics:       41,690
Metals:          2,395
Energetics:      6,390
Synthetics         415


We've still got a horrific glut on Organics, but I'm sure we can find something to do with them all.

[Powder Miner]

I’m not liking the idea of just producing a bunch of Expeditions without adequately escorting them.

[10ebbor10]

Shouldn't be too much of a problem. They'd only be spread out on turn 1. By turn 2, we can leave the groundpounders on the planet and consolidate.

[Powder Miner]

Bore-Firing Siege Gun
The Bore-Firing Siege Gun, or BFSG, which is most definitely not a reverse-acronym for something as silly as "Baby's First System Gun", or "Big Fucking Space Gun" the engineers assure Command, is a piece of orbital defensive infrastructure. It consists of a "portal gun" very similar to the Death Ray, except that it's kinetic in nature rather than a particle beam. It consists mostly of a hollow cylinder orbiting a planet and pointing outwards, with a ring-shaped magnetic device on the end facing away from the planet, and a MUCH smaller (in maximum bore size, not designed to actually carry ships) version of a NavBoreNav DriveNav on the other end. The magnetic device accelerates a kinetic projectile made of an inconel alloy (to be ferromagnetic, more dense than steel, and to stay together when fired into an atmosphere)... and accelerates it... and accelerates it... and accelerates it. This is because it's always on, and when not in use it is simply passively accelerating the projectile stored within it, from an inner terminus to a genesis, and then back through again and again, etc. Then, when it fires, the bore is recalculated so that though the genesis is unmoved, the terminus is outside of the station and the projectile passes through it.

It's a fairly large cannon, but a bare one, because it's meant really to serve two purposes. Firstly, it's meant to take devastating shots at large ships approaching to bomb the planet it's stationed on. After it's "blown its load", so to speak, the shots it puts out are nowhere near as strong as the initial, long-charged shot, and it takes more time to charge them again than a standard engagement should take, but that first one should have devastating force. Secondly, the BFSG is intended to provide bombardment support for "adjacent" planets that the Gaian Regime has eyes on through spy bores or spotters (it's just shooting at a planet in a known orbit after all), taking advantage of the inbuilt NavBoreNav DriveNav to fire off at least two of its hyper-charged projectiles per year when not dealing with a still-orbiting enemy fleet, and potentially more if the smaller size of the bore allows for faster calculation. While the possibility exists that this will be just akin to pissing on their planet and slapping them in the face with a glove, even in the worst case scenario the BFSG should be able to provide bombardment support to an attacking fleet, and provide harassment. While for the most part the BFSG aims and fires autonomously, it is operated in this respect by a small, lightly manned building on the planet, which gives the OK to fire at planets and which designates targets to fire upon if the BFSG's inbuilt IFF doesn't identify them as an enemy but they're clearly hostile

It does have a couple of other features, but these are mostly scant in order to make the BFSG cheap enough to buy in numbers if so desired. It has relatively small rotational thrusters to aim in-system and the ability to open up the area of its magnetic side/bore-firing end within the magnetic ring for if it is unable to fire out with a bore, mostly intended for sustained combat. That area is also designed to breakaway if hit with a lot of force from the inside, so that a misfire doesn't obliterate the entire device. It also has a safety on the bore generator to NEVER, EVER create a bore terminus facing the planet it's orbiting around and in the same system, just in case.

All in all, the BFSG is an orbital defense system admittedly subpar for dealing with large quantities of smaller ships, but which is capable of charging up kinetic projectiles to insanely fast speeds over a long period of time with a borehole, and which should be able to deal devastating blows to large enemy ships, and which can bombard "adjacent" enemy planets.

[TheFantasticMsFox]

Just a bunch of designs I have been working on.

Chernobyl Nuclear Plasma Engine
   Radiation. That glorious phenomenon that allows us to microwave ramen at 3:55 in the morning. Let us have radar, and even change the channel on the TV from 20 feet away. As i said, glorious. So why not make engine that uses it? And so I am proud to present the Chernobyl Nuclear Plasma Engine. Using a series of Fusion reactors, this engine not only provides thrust by hucking streams of plasma out the back, it also generates power while it does it! In theory the thrust itself could also be used as weapon, cause why not? Overall, the Chernobyl lets us put engines on things that we don't want to be spending synthetics on, while still being cost effective.

Legion for Eliminating Gaian Opponents Systematically ground regiment
   After looking at the budget, we have WAY too much organic material laying about. So instead of doing something boring with it all, like composting or setting up a food court, we decided to make killbots out of it. We even managed to set their kill limit to “as many as we damn well please”. Each bot is actually a mix of different modules composed mainly of bioplastic for armor, as well as using bioplastic for spears, claws and other melee weapons. Ranged weapons include flamethrowers, grenade launchers, coilguns, mine launchers, etc. Locomotion is also varied, with anything from 2 to 8 legs, wheels or treads. They also incorporate the information systems gained from the GREAT ground regiments. Overall, LEGOS will allow large amounts of cheap units to be sent to multiple war-fronts. And make a pretty penny through toy sales.

“Macerator” Medium Missile Munitions Mount
   Sometimes, sometimes you just need to throw more explosives at a problem until it is no longer one. And the “Macerator” accomplishes this and then some. The weapon fills a role as multi role medium weapon that can engage any target in its range effectively. It can The core of the weapon is a fast tracking turret that holds 4 enclosed launch rails that each feed from an independent ammo feed. The rails include magnetic coils derived from the shattergun to help accelerate the missiles more rapidly. The missiles of the Macerator are each roughly the length of a man, and fire a 50/50 mix of Fusion powered Plasma warheads or proximity Fusion bomb warheads. Together, this mix of munitions allow the destruction of lighter ships, and meaningful damage against larger ships or those with thicker armor.

[Chiefwaffles]

Revision: Bumble Drones
Bumble Drones are Honey Drones adapted for atmospheric use, to put it in a straightforward way. While the plans to allow our soldiers to ride Bumble Drones into battle have been temporarily scrapped, we learned that it's quite easy to get them working in an atmosphere (considering we first tested them there). From there, it's just a couple of tweaks to the pile of spaghetti that is their code and fixing that tiny bug where the welder fuel tended to explode in 20%-oxygen environments. We also give them back their wings. Sure, some may call them "completely worthless" and "hardly useful for atmospheric flight to any degree", but by god are we going to include the wings this time.

The use of these drones should be obvious. When attached to a regiment, they can assist in constructing defensive (and offensive) fortifications, rapidly disassembling enemy infrastructure/fortifications/really-tough-doors, kamikazing into enemy regiments, and perhaps most importantly for right now: increasing the speed at which our regiments can claim land unopposed.
With the aid of Bumble Drones to establish vital infrastructure needed to "claim" planets, our regiments should be moving forward at blazing speeds. And when they eventually come into combat, Bumble Drones will still be of great use in fortification(, morale,) and scouting/combat use.

TL;DR: Make planetary-use Honey Drones that help with fortifications, combat, scouting, and most importantly increasing the speed that we claim ground unopposed. The possibility of doing this in a revision was cleared with Draignean beforehand.


Also, Draignean on Discord (via DM) said two notable things regarding the next proposal:
1.) The Death Ray when using borehole aiming can in fact put the terminus adjacent to the ship, minimizing a chaotic environment's impact on it.
2.) It can get sufficiently chaotic near the hulls of our ships to make adjacent boreholes suffer. This includes the bore shield. It is very possible to get this chaotic in fights. This is extremely bad. Our entire strategy relies on copious amounts of boreholes, and we need to nip this in the bud (as much as we can). Therefore:

Instead of doing the turret revision (which is useless given adjacent borehole aiming), we should do this once we hit 50% completion of the BoreNav, and do a different revision for now.
Revision: NavBoreNav NavSensor ArrayNav

By applying the principles of the BoreNav system (namely cosmic red and the cooler font we picked out to print "QUANTUM" in) to the close-range sensor array utilized in our bore shield, we can (hopefully) greatly increase the effectiveness of our ships in generating bores with terminuses adjacent to the hulls in chaotic situations.
As it stands, devices such as the Bore Shield will start to suffer as projectile impacts/near-misses leave behind EM distortions, our bore devices leave behind their interferences, and armor starts disintegrating. This is unacceptable, as it currently means in a long-enough fight many essential devices will just stop working as well.

The solution is straightforward. We already have the bore shield's sensor array. And we have a system that works excellent at calculating bores at much faster speeds. We decrease its scale by a significant degree, and make it focus on the area adjacent to the ship, and we should be good to go.

REVISIONS
Death Ray Turret (2): Happerry, TFF
HOLI to HOLLY (3): Happerry, TF, Chiefwaffles
Bumble Drone (1): Chiefwaffles