Turn 41 - Nobody Knows
Turn 41 - Nobody Knows
With the mass of paperwork you’d had to deal with concerning the embassy a number of things have fallen through the cracks.
The big one is that you’d noticed differences between the ‘production’ Gavin APCs which had accompanied the delegation and the prototypes, and buried in the paperwork you’d not been able to get to is the reason why.
In acceptance testing the prototype's lack of a turret had proven to be a critical weakness for an urban vehicle which would have to face threats from any facing at any moment. Moreover the design made use of an AMS system that had been optimized for vacuum operation and was unique among ground forces. In addition the energy heavy loadouts were overstraining the power amplifiers of the fuel-cell engine and causing excessive maintenance requirements.
Therefore the base chassis and suspension was retained but the drivetrain and body were reworked. A modular turret was mounted, replacing the fixed modular mounts, a fusion engine was substituted for the fuel cell engine, increasing costs but significantly reducing the requirements for external heat sinks and power amplifiers thus simplifying the modular weapon mounts.
In addition the Imperial Guard had bulked up. You’d been aware of this, as Sergeant-Major Ngo had kept you in the loop, but she’d handled most of it for you. You were still nominally the CO of the unit, so you took the time to review it and… were rather terrified just how bulked up ‘a little extra gear’ actually looked like. Sufficient Bear IFVs for all of the power armor troops, a powerful AAA battery of Skysweepers, no doubt in case Thanh got annoyed with all the money going to Nollak, a nearly full battalions worth of surprisingly stealthy StuG G Hetzer self-propelled anti-tank/mech guns… it was almost too much. The Sergeant-Major was making happy noises about getting artillery mechs, but you put your foot down hard on that.
Garrison forces had been streamlined significantly, with a single Heavy Garrison Division covering Griffsport, Castor and Pollux while a Light Garrison Division covered Capricorn and Phoenix. Another Light Garrison Division was currently garrisoning Nowy Gdansk.
And now it’s that time of year again.
Budget time.
Meetings!
Powerpoints!
Bickering Advisors!
BUDGET TIME!
The military is up first, and General Jackson takes the podium. “Your Majesty, we’ve continued to reorganize and streamline our ground forces organization, which is significantly simplifying procurement and expansion. At this time we have three priority requests for ground forces and garrison units.”
General Reyes is up next. “Your Majesty, with only 2 Warriors commissioning next year we are in good shape procurement wise, however we will need to staff the Star Fort which will be coming online this year. As such we recommend the following.”
Good lord, she’s been infected with Powerpoint as well…
General Potter is also avoiding the use of the unholy Powerpoint. “Needless to say I do endorse all of the recommendations given by the Chiefs. All I’ll add is that it isn’t a priority, but we might want to also consider building a second Star Fort around Nowy Gdansk, as well as one orbiting Griffin IV to secure the new colony there.”
Bridget is bouncing in her seat. “Your Majesty! We’ve got so much we can do! With your approval of the Parliamentary Plan for colonizing Griffin IV, we here in Interior are all ready to go to establish the initial orbital presence around the planet. Initially it’ll mainly be big dropships sitting in orbit supporting orbital activities and terraforming projects, but that’s just great! Since we’ll have the capacity, I’d also strongly recommend doing a few things that aren’t in the plan with DoME. Specifically, I’d like to do two additional Asteroid Redirect missions starting immediately, one to Nowy Gdansk and one here to Griffin’s Roost. It’ll put some strain on the budget in the short term, but the payoff will be HUGE and by the time the Plan requires the additional DoME capacity in Phase 4 we’ll be ready!”
Isoroku is looking as calm as ever, even after the hyper energy of Bridget. “Your Majesty, the NRI has requested that since we are requesting that they build their embassy in the zoned area that we provide assistance with the project, as, according to the ambassador, they didn’t precisely bring along a construction crew. I’d recommend doing so. In addition, I’d recommend holding a general cultural festival celebrating all of the diverse groups that make up the Empire. This will be more expensive than the usual fair, but would allow us to showcase the best of the Empire, especially towards our new guests.”
Jake laughs. “Well, all I’ve got to do here in Politics land is wait and see, Parliament is behaving, and the only thing on the horizon is advanced planning for Griffin IV. Here’s hoping we’ll avoid any Pollux Man issues there, eh?”
He jinxed it. The bastard jinxed it. You give him a gimlet glare for that.
Mary is prim and prepared as ever. She’s not using something so mundane as Powerpoint, she’s using a custom presentation software package developed for academics. By the same people who make Powerpoint.
Harry is looking peculiar, a mix of excitement and grim determination. “Your Majesty, you’ve heard the phrase ‘beware Greeks bearing gifts’? The Romans historically were Greeks with far more pragmatic militarism. They have Jumpships, we don’t. They seem to have a larger military than us, and initial reports from our agents on Nova Roma appear to indicate that they may have more planets than we expected out of only two systems. We need to get a solid handle on these people fast. I know Isoroku thinks this is madness, but if we have agents embedded with the construction teams we might be able to wire the new embassy for surveillance, and thus be able to keep a tiger’s eye on them.”
Isoroku starts to interrupt but is stopped by Harry’s raised hand. “I know, I know, if they catch us we’ll have a serious diplomatic incident on our hands. I get it, I truly do. But we need this intelligence, Your Majesty. We need it badly.”
Isoroku shakes his head “Your Majesty, ‘diplomatic incident’ is putting it very lightly indeed, wars have started in the past over similar incidents, and can we really afford to make the NRI hostile to us? We can afford to be patient, allow the agents we’ve already sent out with the embassy to do their work, and simply observe the embassy here and interact with them. Maybe even, and I know this will sound shocking to Harry, simply ask the ambassador.”
Harry grimaces. “Perhaps, but if they are secretly hostile, or worse in league with either the Dracs or these New Rasalhaguians, or worse yet whoever that Amaris remnant is? Can we risk that? Sure it might fail and cause us grief, but it might also succeed and either warn us of danger or give us peace of mind.”
General Potter clears his throat “Your Majesty, if they do wind up at war with us, I am not fully confident of the outcome. We already know they have a significantly larger military force, and they have Jumpship capacity. If they ally with the Dracs and attack us, or with the Amaris remnant, or even the Rasalhaguians, we will be in a world of hurt. I cannot judge if the risk is worth the reward in this case, but the threat is real.”
Janet interjects “I know that International Law is most often honored in the breach, but under tradition what Harry is proposing is a violation of the most basic norms of diplomatic relations with a friendly power. If we do this and are discovered we will be shouting to the NRI that we are their enemy, no matter what our actual position is.”
“But we need this information!” Harry slaps one hand on the table. “We need to know if they are friends or foes. Can we take the risk of not knowing and getting stabbed in the back when we least expect it?”
With the mass of paperwork you’d had to deal with concerning the embassy a number of things have fallen through the cracks.
The big one is that you’d noticed differences between the ‘production’ Gavin APCs which had accompanied the delegation and the prototypes, and buried in the paperwork you’d not been able to get to is the reason why.
In acceptance testing the prototype's lack of a turret had proven to be a critical weakness for an urban vehicle which would have to face threats from any facing at any moment. Moreover the design made use of an AMS system that had been optimized for vacuum operation and was unique among ground forces. In addition the energy heavy loadouts were overstraining the power amplifiers of the fuel-cell engine and causing excessive maintenance requirements.
Therefore the base chassis and suspension was retained but the drivetrain and body were reworked. A modular turret was mounted, replacing the fixed modular mounts, a fusion engine was substituted for the fuel cell engine, increasing costs but significantly reducing the requirements for external heat sinks and power amplifiers thus simplifying the modular weapon mounts.
In addition the Imperial Guard had bulked up. You’d been aware of this, as Sergeant-Major Ngo had kept you in the loop, but she’d handled most of it for you. You were still nominally the CO of the unit, so you took the time to review it and… were rather terrified just how bulked up ‘a little extra gear’ actually looked like. Sufficient Bear IFVs for all of the power armor troops, a powerful AAA battery of Skysweepers, no doubt in case Thanh got annoyed with all the money going to Nollak, a nearly full battalions worth of surprisingly stealthy StuG G Hetzer self-propelled anti-tank/mech guns… it was almost too much. The Sergeant-Major was making happy noises about getting artillery mechs, but you put your foot down hard on that.
Garrison forces had been streamlined significantly, with a single Heavy Garrison Division covering Griffsport, Castor and Pollux while a Light Garrison Division covered Capricorn and Phoenix. Another Light Garrison Division was currently garrisoning Nowy Gdansk.
And now it’s that time of year again.
Budget time.
Meetings!
Powerpoints!
Bickering Advisors!
BUDGET TIME!
The military is up first, and General Jackson takes the podium. “Your Majesty, we’ve continued to reorganize and streamline our ground forces organization, which is significantly simplifying procurement and expansion. At this time we have three priority requests for ground forces and garrison units.”
- Procure 1 Armored Cavalry Regiment
- $73,844.04, 16 Endo Steel, 27 Double Heat Sinks
- Would be assigned to 1st Armored Division as 1st ACR, 2nd Brigade
- Procure 1 Heavy Garrison Division
- $71,917.56, no strategic materials
- Would be assigned to Nowy Gdansk to garrison the Factory complex
- Procure 1 Light Horse Regiment
- $48,924, 6 Endo Steel, 9 Ferro-Fibrous, and 27 Double Heat Sinks
- Would be assigned to 2nd Armored Division as 1st Light Horse Regiment, 1st Brigade
General Reyes is up next. “Your Majesty, with only 2 Warriors commissioning next year we are in good shape procurement wise, however we will need to staff the Star Fort which will be coming online this year. As such we recommend the following.”
Good lord, she’s been infected with Powerpoint as well…
- Procure 1 Star Fort Wing
- $34,747, 6 Ferro-Aluminium, 6 Double Heat Sinks
- Procure 2 Assault Carrier Squadrons
- $23,754.80, 6 Ferro-Aluminium and 6 Double Heat Sinks
General Potter is also avoiding the use of the unholy Powerpoint. “Needless to say I do endorse all of the recommendations given by the Chiefs. All I’ll add is that it isn’t a priority, but we might want to also consider building a second Star Fort around Nowy Gdansk, as well as one orbiting Griffin IV to secure the new colony there.”
Bridget is bouncing in her seat. “Your Majesty! We’ve got so much we can do! With your approval of the Parliamentary Plan for colonizing Griffin IV, we here in Interior are all ready to go to establish the initial orbital presence around the planet. Initially it’ll mainly be big dropships sitting in orbit supporting orbital activities and terraforming projects, but that’s just great! Since we’ll have the capacity, I’d also strongly recommend doing a few things that aren’t in the plan with DoME. Specifically, I’d like to do two additional Asteroid Redirect missions starting immediately, one to Nowy Gdansk and one here to Griffin’s Roost. It’ll put some strain on the budget in the short term, but the payoff will be HUGE and by the time the Plan requires the additional DoME capacity in Phase 4 we’ll be ready!”
Isoroku is looking as calm as ever, even after the hyper energy of Bridget. “Your Majesty, the NRI has requested that since we are requesting that they build their embassy in the zoned area that we provide assistance with the project, as, according to the ambassador, they didn’t precisely bring along a construction crew. I’d recommend doing so. In addition, I’d recommend holding a general cultural festival celebrating all of the diverse groups that make up the Empire. This will be more expensive than the usual fair, but would allow us to showcase the best of the Empire, especially towards our new guests.”
Jake laughs. “Well, all I’ve got to do here in Politics land is wait and see, Parliament is behaving, and the only thing on the horizon is advanced planning for Griffin IV. Here’s hoping we’ll avoid any Pollux Man issues there, eh?”
He jinxed it. The bastard jinxed it. You give him a gimlet glare for that.
Mary is prim and prepared as ever. She’s not using something so mundane as Powerpoint, she’s using a custom presentation software package developed for academics. By the same people who make Powerpoint.
- New Projects Now Available
- Military
- Aerodyne Dropships (Super Heavy)
- Allows for the construction of Aerodyne dropships up to 25,000 tons
- Spheroid Dropships (Super Heavy)
- Allows for the construction of Spheroid dropships up to 75,000 tons
- Supercharger
- A higher risk alternative to MASC, boosts engine output but at the risk of destroying the engine.
- VTOL Jet Booster
- Some of our researchers found an ancient television show called ‘Airwolf’ and were inspired. Please don’t encourage them.
- Thumper Cannon
- A shorter barreled direct-fire version of the artillery piece
- Aerodyne Dropships (Super Heavy)
- Military
- Recommendations
- Military Projects
- NARC Beacon
- Very low cost, cheapest remaining project at this time
- Thumper Cannon
- May yield insights into improving ballistic weaponry
- NARC Beacon
- Non Military Projects
- Power Transfer (advanced) Tier 1
- Least expensive of the advanced research projects
- One of the following
- Iron Womb
- The population boost will be highly useful
- Materials Research (Lvl 5)
- This may be the last project in this area exclusive of the advanced projects, let’s see if this is the case
- Iron Womb
- Power Transfer (advanced) Tier 1
- Military Projects
Harry is looking peculiar, a mix of excitement and grim determination. “Your Majesty, you’ve heard the phrase ‘beware Greeks bearing gifts’? The Romans historically were Greeks with far more pragmatic militarism. They have Jumpships, we don’t. They seem to have a larger military than us, and initial reports from our agents on Nova Roma appear to indicate that they may have more planets than we expected out of only two systems. We need to get a solid handle on these people fast. I know Isoroku thinks this is madness, but if we have agents embedded with the construction teams we might be able to wire the new embassy for surveillance, and thus be able to keep a tiger’s eye on them.”
Isoroku starts to interrupt but is stopped by Harry’s raised hand. “I know, I know, if they catch us we’ll have a serious diplomatic incident on our hands. I get it, I truly do. But we need this intelligence, Your Majesty. We need it badly.”
Isoroku shakes his head “Your Majesty, ‘diplomatic incident’ is putting it very lightly indeed, wars have started in the past over similar incidents, and can we really afford to make the NRI hostile to us? We can afford to be patient, allow the agents we’ve already sent out with the embassy to do their work, and simply observe the embassy here and interact with them. Maybe even, and I know this will sound shocking to Harry, simply ask the ambassador.”
Harry grimaces. “Perhaps, but if they are secretly hostile, or worse in league with either the Dracs or these New Rasalhaguians, or worse yet whoever that Amaris remnant is? Can we risk that? Sure it might fail and cause us grief, but it might also succeed and either warn us of danger or give us peace of mind.”
General Potter clears his throat “Your Majesty, if they do wind up at war with us, I am not fully confident of the outcome. We already know they have a significantly larger military force, and they have Jumpship capacity. If they ally with the Dracs and attack us, or with the Amaris remnant, or even the Rasalhaguians, we will be in a world of hurt. I cannot judge if the risk is worth the reward in this case, but the threat is real.”
Janet interjects “I know that International Law is most often honored in the breach, but under tradition what Harry is proposing is a violation of the most basic norms of diplomatic relations with a friendly power. If we do this and are discovered we will be shouting to the NRI that we are their enemy, no matter what our actual position is.”
“But we need this information!” Harry slaps one hand on the table. “We need to know if they are friends or foes. Can we take the risk of not knowing and getting stabbed in the back when we least expect it?”