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[Happerry]

When in doubt, I'm just gonna vote for the cooler reference.

Wave Motion Gun (Ebbor's Original): (5) Powder Miner,10ebbor10, Twinwolf, Tyrant Leviathan, Happerry
-Rename it the “Accordioneer” Gravitic Wave Cannon: (2) Powder Miner, Jilladilla
Wave Motion Gun (Andrea's Remake): (0)
High-Energy Heavy Gauss Cannon "Inferno": (1) Kashyyk
Plasma Inductor Cannon "Solus": (1) TFF

Journey-class Battledestroyer: (2) Jilladilla, Happerry
"Anvil" Heavy-Armament Destroyer: (5) Powder Miner,10ebbor10, TFF, Twinwolf, Tyrant Leviathan.

Bore Drive 2nd Gen "Eclipse": (0)
Bore Drive 2nd Gen "Skip": (2) Tyrant Leviathan,  Kashyyk
Cascade Bore: (0)
Cluster Bore Drive: (0)

Honeycomb Heavy Strike Craft: (1) Jilladilla


Leave 6 dice: (0)
Leave 3 dice: (0)
Leave 0 dice: (4) Powder Miner, kashyyk, TFF, Twinwolf, Happerry

[andrea]

Here is a new draft of the lore piece I posted earlier. Made clear that the project is highly illegal, added an extra reference to the time frame.


The depths we sink to for survival - fighting a war without men.


Somewhere in the Telarana upper atmosphere, Captain Heng sits in her transport, examining reports from the frontlines.

'Reports like this aren't meant to have a column showing the size of regiments and losses as a percentage of the population' she thought. The numbers were indeed worrying. Emperor augustus of Earth that was had more soldiers than the Gaian entire adult population and he didn't have to fight an interstellar war with them. Casualties so far were modest, with the army only engaged in Oscar in small numbers, but with the first reinforcement expedition being prepared and the possibility of Liir joining the war it wouldn't take long to take a toll on the Gaian industrial and childbearing capabilities, with the risk of a societal collapse even before Alien soldiers set foot on Gaia. A fact of which Jennifer Heng was all too aware of.

"I hope you delivered on your promises, doctor, or we are doomed" she muttered to herself before tossing the reports in the bore disposal system.
"Computer, ETA?"

"We are already entering the lower atmosphere. Arrival on Deucalion base in 5 minutes"

"Warn air control that we are landing for technical reasons. Send message for the council that I will be late for the meeting. Load diagnostic data from auxiliary drive and overwrite local memory. Erase all logs regarding Decaulion base"
-
"Oh, and make me a coffee, double Ice. This will be a long day"

As she sipped the freshly brewed blue tinged beverage, the transport started the descent.



As the transport approaches the ground a patch of jungle opens up, revealing an underground landing pad. Near it, nothing more than vines as far as the eye can see; clearly, a deceptive view, as this was home to a secret research base answering directly, and only, to the captain herself. She often wondered how many such facilities existed, governament backed or independent.
As the vehicle landed and unloaded, the chief researcher Dr. Daniel McAdams greeted the captain himself, accompanied by 2 of his robotic assistants.

"Welcome, captain! I am eager to show you the great progress we have made in the year and half since you, ah, convinced me to move here and start this project. Truly remarkable, and let me thank you again for all the equipment provided. How is the outside anyway? who won the Perch race?"

"No need to sugar coat it, doctor McAdams. You were headed to life long community services and a ban to all scientific  activities because of your illegal experiments when I recruited you. And that is still what might happen to both of us if you don't deliver. Still, your latest messages said that you finally started to get the first specimen ready"

"Yes, yes. Well, full grown at least, but they are responding well. The project is ready to enter mass production. Biological parameters nominal, excellent senses and reflexes, we even surpassed expectations on base strength and... Sorry, you are military, you probably don't... Here, enter and see Adam, our first."

They enter a small room full of medical monitoring equipment, a bed and a single drawer for clothes. On one side a large window, everything painted in sterile white and undecorated. Running on a threadmill with ECG equipment attached is a man, 2 meters tall and extremely muscular, he stopped as soon as the door opened and jumped down to face the captain.

"Adam, this is Captain Jennifer Heng, your commanding officer"

"At your orders, ma'am" the man said, saluting the captain.

Captain Heng examined the speciman. Almost unnaturally immobile in his salute, he was certainly imposing. 120 kg at least she estimated, but firm to the touch without trace of undue fat. No hair, that she could see at least. Large bones for sure. And no navel.
"At rest soldier. Doctor, how old is it?"

"Just barely more than 3 months. As you can see, the accelerated training works. What this teaches us regarding how much of growth comes from experience and how much from physical changes to the brain, this is amazing. We can rewrite-" started the doctor, before being interrupted

"Yes, yes. I can see that it worked well. He understands and obeys commands and his physical capabilities are certainly... amazing. How long before it is ready to enter service?"

"Well, as much time as it takes to get through boot camp. He is heavily enhanced also in terms of learning and adapting, so we expect him to be ready for active combat duty in one year, roughly. If, of course, you can take care of your side of things"

"Gaia is a fractured planet. It means it is hard to pull it together toward a single goal, but it is also easy to slip things through the cracks. For once, our weakness will work for us. Some fake IDs here and there, I have people inside who won't question orders. And even the death reports can be redacted to leave no traces. If all goes well, it will take years for anyone to notice that many of the deployed soldiers aren't meant to exist.... and by then, who will want to protest for the right to get sent to the meat grinder?
How soon can you produce significant numbers of them?"

"We have started already. Growing takes time, but in a couple of years you will have your regiments captain. Take a look at the window"

Beyond the window, she could see the growth chambers. Hundreds, thousands of incubators filling it, tended by machines, each of them containing humans at different stages of growth, emrbyo to nearly fully grown. Captain Heng watched satisfied.

"Excellent. It seems that Gaia will, in the end, have an army".

[andrea]

In a mirror, organically

Among the great wonders the watcher keep, there is one of deceivingly mundane appearence. Little more than an ornate mirror it would seem.
And yet, at a closer look an observer would notice that the polished surface does not quite reflect perfectly what is in front of it. There is always, hidden, a shadow in the background, an hint of movement, the perception of something beyond.
And indeed, there must be some truth in this odd feeling, since the Looking Glass is said to be the door to countless worlds beyond imagination.
Needless to say, our negotiation team immediately assumed bores and tried shoving an arm through it. The mirror yields easily, like a liquid and the arm disappears... until the unlucky doctor recoils in agony. A bore normally amputates in a reltively painless way, but this felt a lot worse, and unlike a bore this device seems to be bidirectional, allowing pain to tavel backward, as well as thankfully allowing the extraction of the injured arms, which seemed to be partially gelled and partially charred, with odd light phenomena emanating from it. After significant painkillers were given and the arm amputated properly, a description of what happened could be obtained, describing the feeling as being "in an universe fundamentally incompatible to life as my arm knew it"

Upon inquiring, the watchers confirm that the Looking Glass is a device linking to worlds beyond imagination as the inscription said; but not other worlds in space as assumed, but rather it could link to a different reality, where its inventors reside. It is doubtful we could make much use of it directly; even just replicating it with the original as an example is a significant task, even without having to adapt our technology to different physical laws. However, the presence of the Makers gives us another way to benefit: trade.

Having acquired the Looking Glass, a xenolinguist team and a materials team started working to establish communications with Makers, the former by trying to figure out the language and the latter by trying to figure out a medium which can be safely exchanged. It turns out that the Makers, far more advanced than us, created a vast network of windows to other realities with different physics, in a continuing quest to find new resources to exploit and powering their ever hungry technology. Each universe contributing parts of its exotic laws and materials. In our universe, they seem to highly prize carbon compounds which when properly treated are an excellent energy source. And they would be willing to pay for it.

A deal is arranged: a supply of organics, in exchange for "borrowing" exotic physics from their network as we need. The potential applications are vast: for example it could be used to stiffen or soften spacetime, giving more grip to our gravity drive or an easier time to our bore drives. It could be used to improve some of our technology, or to produce/import exotic mterials, but it has a few limitations:
First of all, the effect ceases when the mirror device is destroyed, so summoning excessively energetic phenomena would be extremely short lived, possibly not lasting enough to affect reality beyond the Looking Glass itself.
Then, the effects extend in a spherical area around the device and while limited shaping is thought to be possible, directed beams of altered reality are considered a non starter. The effect is localized and more or less equally spread.
While the network of realities is vast, it is not infinite which makes fine tuned physics exceedingly hard. Coarse variations can probably find a match, but it would be incredibly rare to find an universe in which th gravitational constant and only that is, say, exactly 1% smaller.
Finally, objects imported from another universe keep a lingering effect of their previous universe, but only briefly. Unless they are metastable in our universe they are liable to decay quickly if not actively maintained.

Still, even with limits it has potential and the trade deal is sealed with an initial offering of organics. Without consultation with their superiors, the negotiation team decided to dress in hooded robes and present a blood drained goat and some diamonds to the Makers, while chanting in a ludicrously ignorant attempt of latin. Accusations of them continuing their LARPing session during work hours have been denied, despite a reported instance of a xenolinguist yelling "I rolled a 14 for diplomacy". However, it seems that this display appeases our trade partners which explicitly requested its continuation. Therefore, Our looking Glass units require regular ritualized offerings of organics to work. Other rituals are being developed, such as pointy hats and wands or blood drawings. A disturbingly not trivial quantity of our employed personnel actually likes this development, saying that sacrificing goats to alter reality feels like magic.

They are fools, and that is why I call dibs on fighter.

[Draignean]

Wave Motion Gun
[Time: 3 Progress: 4 Cost: 3 ]
The dramatic increase of flexible displays and bio-plastic mugs in the Gaian laboratories can be directly attributed to the development of the WMG. Containment is always tricky, and one rogue gravity wave can fracture a cabinet full of coffee mugs, a perfectly good wall monitor, and the skeletal structure of interns who don't manage to hit the deck fast enough. Still, incidents are relatively infrequent, and the costs are manageable enough despite the rising tenor of medical insurance reps. 

Wave Motion Gun: 0/15 [3] | 20T + 200M + 80E + 35S | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Prototype
[Efficacy: 4]
As a separate piece of machinery, the Wave Motion Gun is a complicated, expensive, and useless piece of machinery. However, when paired with a gravity drive (And a LOT of power), it becomes a weapon in its own right. Match it with three, and it reaches a potential of frightening power. Match it with five, and you better pray that you have a good engineer on standby. Firing the WMG requires a substantial amount of power to run the harmonic regulators needed to channel the energy of a gravity drive without ripping the ship apart from within, as well as the power to actively run all drives participating in the firing sequence. The amount of time it takes the harmonic regulators to synchronize the shot depends on the number of drives used, starting at 10 seconds and increasing by 10+5n seconds for each new drive where n is the number of drives after the first. (10 seconds for 1, 25 for 2, 50 for 3, 90 for 4, 150 for 5) Each additional drive increment increases the effective power of the shot by 70%, though the fourth and fifth drive shots are special cases.

The wave-packet projectile created after firing, despite its light-speed travel, suffers from rapid internal breakdown due to its chaotic internal forces acting against one another and spreading out over time. This limits its effective range primarily to the inner half of engagement range and closer, with severe damage attenuation occurring beyond that mark. Strikes within that zone, however, can be devastating. For a three-drive shot, the untethered gravity wave packet can reach briefly reach peak shear of almost fourty Gs along propogation boundaries. Completely unimpeded by lightly massed objects, the wave-packet will tug itself apart on contacting dense matter, effectively expanding internally on a conic wavefront. Denser substances will result in faster spread and attenuation of wave energy, while lighter ones will allow for more powerful and focused cones.

Drive powers in the 4 and 5 range are extraordinarily hazardous to use. Not only are the gravity waves at the edge of what the stabilizers can handle, and almost certain to damage the ship when fired, the intense subspace tearing will generate hundreds of microbores where waveforms intersect and collide, adding exotic radiation damage to existing gravimetric shear. However, due to the time required to charge these shots vs the relative power along with the propensity for self damage, Captains are advised to not use power 4 and power 5 shots unless expressly ordered to do so or a golden opportunity presents itself.

As a closing note, the Wave Motion Gun is incredibly compact for a large weapon, scarcely requiring more mission capacity than a big medium amount. That being said, her energy requirement is in excess of any other weapon system developed to date, to the point that even a dedicated PEB can't keep up with her demands.

Wave Motion Gun 'Accordioneer': | 70T 160M 125E 0S | Native to Large Mount | Capacity: -15 | Power: -70 | A gravity cannon that, intrinsically, has no ability generate gravity waves. Can interlink with up to five of a vessel's gravity drives, allowing it to use any number to charge and fire a dangerous wave-pulse of turbulent gravity. Firing time starts at 10 seconds and increases by 10+5n seconds each additional drive used in the shot where n is the number of drives after the first. Wavefront will expand on contact with solid matter, gaining area and losing power relative to material density. Each additional drive used for charging will increase the power by approximately 70%, though the later two stages achieve this by generating numerous unstable micro-bores rather than grandly increased gravitic effect. Power 4 and power 5 shots are extremely hazardous to the firing vessel.


Anvil
[Time: 2 Progress: 4 Cost: 4]
The fact that it doesn't explode as much as 'other' projects means two things happen with the Anvil project. One: senior designers spend less time on the project than they likely should, delaying the project. Two: many interns in casts happily volunteer to work overtime rather than get drafted to work on 'other' projects, bringing costs down slightly.

Anvil: 0/14 [3] | 20T + 50O + 250M + 50E + 10S | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Prototype
[Efficacy: 4]
For many, the most perplexing part of the Anvil is that its profile doesn't echo any known historical design - a confusion aided by the fact that its shape is so radically dissimilar from other vessels.  When viewed from the top down, the internals of the Anvil cut a balance between radial symmetry and maintenance efficacy. PEBs are arranged in an evenly spaced five-pointed star, with the three gravity drives occupying triangular configuration closer to the vessel's center and situated directly under the shattergun batteries in order to maximize the odds of PD intercepting inbound projectiles.

Her frontal armor is, without doubt, the heaviest integrated armor system created for a Gaian vessel. The creation of firing ports somewhat limits firing arcs for her frontal batteries, but it allows the Anvil to close all frontal openings and present a solid sheet of armor. Overgeared mechanical systems allow for additional armor layers to be added without greatly compromising the speed at which ports can be closed and opened. That being said, it isn't a quick action, and attempting to rapidly close and open the firing ports is strongly advised against.

The integration of the Las Stand protocol into the Anvil's onboard system is smooth, but tests show a suicidal level of aggression when the program initiates - frequently attempting to 'cannonball' training targets if weapons were remotely disabled.  On a final note, as a result of a significant portion of her cost coming from her advanced heavy armor and integrated components, bioplastic construction is only 50% effective when applied.

Anvil (Destroyer): | 205T 230O 2600M 950E 130S | A lens-fronted hemisphere of a destroyer,  featuring heavy metallic laminate frontal armor with mechanical firing ports that can be closed with armored covers to present a seamless front. A 'spinal' mount built into the lens apex, and a number of essential systems are integrated to give her a small but significant improvement to her capacity budget. While her rear armor is significantly lighter, and she gives up something in terms of flexibility, she's tough as nails in a straight fight. As a result of a significant portion of her cost coming from her advanced heavy armor and integrated components, bioplastic construction is only 50% effective when applied.
Specs:
-1x Spinal Large Hardpoint
-2x Medium Hardpoints
-3x Small Shattergun
-5x PEB
-3x Grav drives
-1x Borenav Computer
85 Capacity
+175 Power



Revision Phase of Year 4
Resources
Dice: 0
T: 14665+ 3215
O: 56449 + 8460
M: 12563 + 10225
E: 11526 + 6393
S: 533 + 500

Spoiler: Active Projects (click to show/hide)

Testudo: 4/8 [4] | 80T + 10M + 30E | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Wave Motion Gun: 0/15 [3] | 20T + 200M + 80E + 35S | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Anvil: 0/14 [3] | 20T + 50O + 250M + 50E + 10S | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Gaian Technology List
Gaian Empire Planner

Spoiler:  Current Deployments (click to show/hide)

Oscar
Fleets
-Fleet Gaia
2 C&C Expedition  Light overall damage, 10% vessel cost* to fix
1 Galactica Expedition Light overall damage, 10% vessel cost* to fix
1 Bore PD Foray
1 Strike Foray
1 Budget transport
3 Rapid escort
2 Cargomaster
Overall Issues: Missing 382 Hornet Fighters from overall loadout

Ground - 3/10 [We] 7/10
9x GREAT - 3x Bumble Attached - 6x GREAT-ER Attached
----
Sierra

Fleets


Ground - 6/10  [We] 4/10
3x GREAT - 1x Bumble Attached
----

November
Fleets

Ground - 10/10
3x GREAT - 1x Bumble Attached
----

Juliet

Ground - 2/10
1x GREAT
----

Romeo

Fleets
-Fleet Iris-Hong
2 C&C expedition
1 Galactica
1 Budget transport
2 Rapid escort

-Fleet Nautilus
1 Budget transport

Ground - 10/10
2x GREAT - 1x Bumble Attached
----

Kilo
Fleets
-Fleet Webway
1 Galactica Expedition

Ground - 10/10
3x GREAT - 1x Bumble Attached
----

Mike
Fleets

-Fleet Loner
1 Budget Transport

Ground - 10/10
3x GREAT - 1x Bumble Attached
----

Tango

Fleets
-Fleet Nautilus
1 Budget transport

Ground - 2/10
3x GREAT - 1x Bumble Attached
----

Gaia

-Fleet Reindeer
1 Galactica -> Crippled Bore Drive, Heavy overall damage, 20% vessel cost* to fix
1 Galactica Expedition
1 Budget transport
Overall Issues: Missing 327 Hornet Fighters from overall loadout | Missing 4 bumble drones from overall loadout.

Ground - 10/10

[Draignean]

You are tied for second place with a Black Market bid of 0.

[Kashyyk]

The following numbers is how many times our income we have of the resource in our stocks. (If we used all of them equally the numbers would all be the same):

T: 4.563
O: 6.674
M: 1.229
E: 1.803
S: 1.066

Thus I suggest offering Transplutonics and Organics in exchange for Synths and Metals, specifically making the following posts:

WTB: 1,000 Synthetics | 15 Organics per 2 units
WTB: 1,000 Synthetics | 5 Transplutonics per 2 units
WTB: 10,000 Metals | 1 Organic per 1 unit
WTB: 10,000 Metals | 1 Transplutonic per 3 units

If we post all those, and they all get met, we'll have spent  only 17,500 Organics (two turns worth of income) and 5,833 Transplutonics (1.8 turns worth), in exchange for four turns worth of synthetics and two turns worth of metals.

We might want to adjust thr numbers slightly so it's less blatantly obvious that the offers are all from the same faction,  but I think doing unis would be very beneficial to us

[Jilladilla]

I'd be up for that.

The votebox is a little premature, yes... But I felt that it's for the best to get on this, than to forget and put it off and then the phase moves on without us because we have no dice.

Also, put a tentative preliminary bid for 2000. To test the waters, but not yet commit us or broadcast what we're truly willing to throw down you see.

Black Market Trading
Kashyyk's Proposals: (1) Jilladilla

Event Bidding
2000 Production (1) Jilladilla

[Powder Miner]

Considering the black market update we got for this phase, they're not seeing how much we're bidding, only if it beats them or not.

[andrea]

Since Liir finished voting so quickly, maybe we should really get some votes on this.

Black Market Trading
Kashyyk's Proposals: (2) Jilladilla, Andrea

Event Bidding
2000 Production (2) Jilladilla, Andrea

[Powder Miner]

It is kind of funny how the two resources we minimally use are the resources are foes NEED.

Black Market Trading
Kashyyk's Proposals: (3) Jilladilla, Andrea, Powder Miner

Event Bidding
2000 Production (3) Jilladilla, Andrea, Powder Miner (I guess)

[Twinwolf]

Black Market Trading
Kashyyk's Proposals: (3) Jilladilla, Andrea, Twinwolf

Event Bidding
2000 Production (3) Jilladilla, Andrea, Twinwolf

[TheFantasticMsFox]

Black Market Trading
Kashyyk's Proposals: (4) Jilladilla, Andrea, Twinwolf, TFF

Event Bidding
2000 Production (4) Jilladilla, Andrea, Twinwolf, TFF

[Jilladilla]

Alas poor Powder Miner, forgotten and abandoned and erased from history!
ARISE POWDER! ARISE AND BE REMEMBERED! LET YOUR DEEDS BE ASSERTED UPON THE RECORD OF THE PAST! LET YOUR LEGEND BE REMEMBERED THROUGHOUT THE FUTURE! LET THIS MOMENT IN THE PRESENT BE THE MOMENT OF YOUR RESURGENCE!......


(This is why I should sleep more isn't it?)

Black Market Trading
Kashyyk's Proposals: (5) Jilladilla, Andrea, Powder Miner, Twinwolf, TFF

Event Bidding
2000 Production (5) Jilladilla, Andrea, Powder Miner (I guess), Twinwolf, TFF

[/quote]

[Kashyyk]

I guess I should vote for my own thing.

Black Market Trading
Kashyyk's Proposals: (6) Jilladilla, Andrea, Powder Miner, Twinwolf, TFF, Kashyyk

Event Bidding
2000 Production (6) Jilladilla, Andrea, Powder Miner (I guess), Twinwolf, TFF, Kashyyk

[Powder Miner]

This is a little bit of an edit to ebbor's Through the Looking Glass black market proposal, which I like very much, to give it an explicit set of mechanical rules. I preserved most of the fluff (besides a small edit to facilitate one of the rules I made, and to lead up to my ruleset/define a role for the proosal), since I like the way ebbor put it, and like the mystery of it more than Andrea's rather well-defined version: there's more room to explore.

The Looking Glass (Powder Miner Edit)

We bought this teleportation device, hoping it would allow us to innovate in bore technology. Our scientists were stunned to discover that it does not use bore technology, and then immediately disappointed to find that is considerably inferior to bore technology. Sensor proves send through the looking glass end up mangled, and anything organic just straight up vanishes. Interesting in the project soon waned, and it was almost scrapped when one of the interns absent mindedly threw a first-contact through it, and got a response.

See, it appears that there's entire civilization living beyond the looking glass. In that world, which uses an entire different system of physics, organic material is a dangerous but powerful energy source.  They'd been exploiting our test reserves for a considerable amount of time, but every time we send something mechanical it got torn up in their mining operation.

Diplomatic negotiations are currently underway, and researchers are hopeful -- already, the potential for using this alternate dimension in order to receive and use items that defy our laws of physics is being explored, and it's being found that items coming from this universe can in fact maintain certain interactions with their laws of physics, and not ours. There are, however, some rules to keep in mind:

1: When an object from their universe interacts with matter from ours, the interaction works according to their laws of physics.
2: We can't just use it to transmute resources; if we want an object made of a kind of resource from them, we need to provide them with that resource, in addition to the organics cost they'll charge us.
3: They're shrewd businessmen; the more valuable they think something is, the more organics they'll charge.
4: Organics objects given from their universe contain a peculiarly high amount of potential energy.
5: If any object from their universe comes into contact with synthetic matter from ours, both objects --and the surrounding area-- will react EXTREMELY UNPREDICTABLY.