Turn 90 - For All The Wisdom Of A Lifetime
The competition in the Pan-Griffon Games is quite intense and very entertaining. You take the time to meet with the athletes, with a full calendar of appearances and events scheduled. You do take time, however, to take a trip to Calliope III.
You land at one of the major research outposts and are taken on a brief tour of the place. While there, the local Rex pair who claims the territory wanders by with their baby, accompanied by the pack of raptors which accompanied them around. You still find it rather amusing how the giant Rexes playfully make use of the observation towers and industrial mechs of the outpost as methods of getting their backs properly scratched. You know, you inveigled yourself into the cockpit of one to provide the proper scratching.
You did have one surprise while you were there, although you’d halfway expected it given how clever the raptors were. Despite the security, despite the guards, and despite the presence of Sekhmet, a pair of young raptors managed to pop up in your guest quarters to play ‘pounce the newbie’. They managed the initial pounce and playful growl, only to get the surprise of their young lives when Sekhmet pinned them under her paws and gave them the patented Grifftiger ‘oh look, a chew toy!’ look, which led to frantic whining and a pair of little raptors doing their best ‘Who me?’ impersonations as they tried to pretend to be utterly innocent in this entire affair and certainly hadn’t the foggiest idea why the giant cat was looking at them like that.
You can’t help it, you start giggling, which leads to Sekhmet chuffing and relenting, although not before bestowing a big slobbery lick on each of her ‘victims’. Who promptly do the only sensible thing available to them and try to hide behind you from the big scary cat. You, being your great grandmother's great granddaughter, promptly pick them up and subject them to the indignity of being cuddled.
You leave Calliope III with a few additions to the family menagerie.
You do realize something, raptors are as smart as dogs, and have obviously come to several conclusions about humans. First, they have the Hands That Feed and, possibly more important, Hands That Throw The Ball. You mentioned that to the staff of the outpost, who admit that the Rexes are not immune to the magic of the Ball, that they have specially made extra tough balls sized for being thrown by the industrial mechs and that the local Rexes all love playing ‘chase the Ball’.
When you get back to Calliope IV you introduce the pair of raptors to your daughter, and the scaly little fellows immediately appoint themselves Guardians Of The Crib (so long as mom doesn’t throw the Ball and sends them to happily chase it, after all, bringing back the Ball leads to the Scritchies and the Treats, so is obviously a noble calling!).
You hold this year's budget meeting remotely, making use of the dedicated HPG links available on the Royal Yacht.
General Jenkins leads things off. “Your Majesty, the refit programs continue as we work on bringing all of our Armies equipment fully up to spec. The development of the new Ferro Fibrous alloys has been very welcome, with a number of our heaviest tanks gaining additional space for new equipment due to mass reductions with the superior armor. We have completed the transfer of the obsolete equipment to our allies, our ASF forces continue to grow. With that being said, General Bradley?”
The Army CO takes over the briefing. “We continue to be in solid shape, Your Majesty, and the SLEP programs are proving their value. We do foresee future requirements for more Ferro Fibrous and Endo Steel strategic material production, so will strongly recommend that we continue to build up that capability.”
She brings up a simple chart to illustrate the army's budget requirements. You are quite glad that so far there is relatively little of the interservice rivalries that have in the past led to wasteful competition for funding, making your life so much easier.
- Imperial Griffon Army
- Production
- Upgrade all Endo Steel and Ferro Fibrous orbital factories
- Procurement
- 22 Garrison Regiments
- Add 22 Militia Rating
Admiral Romanov is joining you remotely from the Aerie. “Your Majesty, your aerospace forces are in excellent shape. We have been in consultation with the navy for the future, especially some of their plans for future fleet carriers, and are structuring our planning in that direction. That being said, most of our procurement requests this year are for units that will be deployed as planetary garrisons across the Empire.”
- Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Production
- New Strategic Materials
- Ferro Aluminum Orbital Factory - Griff’s Leap
- Upgrade all Ferro Aluminum and Double Heat Sink factories
- Procurement
- 30 Heavy Carrier Wings
- 30 Medium Fighter Wings
- 20 Fighter Wings
Admiral Fisher is actually with you for this meeting, along with Sims. “We’re still trying to sort things out, it’ll be a few years before the new designs are in service and we have actual warships, not some schoolboys wet dream masquerading as a warship with far too many penis substitutes.” His expression is as irascible as ever. “So brace yourself, we’re in a hole thanks to too many people thinking with the wrong head, and we need to drag ourselves properly out of it as quickly as we can.”
Sims fires up the projector, looking as zen and patient as ever.
- Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
- New Orbital Shipyards
- Bari
- Pieklo
- Awha
- Nya Kopenhamn
- Expand all existing Orbital Shipyards
- New Escort Yards
- Nowa Warszawa
- Kainga
- New Castor
- New Pollux
- Skala
- Pieklo
- Bari
- Nya Kopenhamn
- Okusawa
- Nowy Wrocław
- New Small Warship Yards
- New Port Royal
- Okusawa
- New Capricorn
- New Medium Warship Yards
- Griffon
- Calliope
- Nowa Warszawa
- Expand all Refit & Repair Yards
- Procurement
- Standard Dropships
- 50 Bainbridge-class Parasite Destroyers
- 40 Long Beach-class Parasite Destroyers
- Large Dropships
- 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
- 20 Canopus-class Parasite Battleships
- Jumpships
- 8 Windjammer-class Jumpships
- Escorts
- 10 Fubuki-class Destroyers
- 20 Lyr-class Corvettes
- Small Warships
- 12 Dido-class Light Cruisers
- 2 Vestal-class Repair Ships
- Medium Warships
- 2 Scharnhorst-class Battlecruisers
- 3 Canarias-class Heavy Cruisers
Elizabeth Lee is also teleconferencing in, you reflect that you are rather glad that you own the HPGs that are being used, because the data costs would be prohibitive otherwise.
“Your Majesty, our investment teams have a number of recommendations. For focused development, we’ve evaluated all relevant systems to determine where the most good could be had, and for the Core worlds we believe focusing on Nowa Warszawa would yield the greatest benefit, while for the Periphery we recommend Griff’s Leap. There are some excellent investment opportunities on Skala, specifically a rather interesting startup company focusing on innovative meal services for small households using a dedicated multifunction smart oven. Our analysts believe that this could be a very profitable venture and recommend investment. On a wider scale, there are several worlds where improving local industrial and commercial opportunities would yield long-term benefits, specifically Skala, Awha, New Phoenix, New Castor, and New Pollux.”
“In terms of survey work.” She brings up the latest charts. “We recommend sending expeditions to GX-I22, GX-I20, and GX-G25. This will allow us to fill in our borders, and possibly get additional readings on that HPG interference we’ve been suffering up that way.”
She checks her notes. “Finally we strongly recommend constructing at least a half dozen new commercial stations across the Empire to grow our economy, as well as installing additional HPG capacity. Both of these directly benefit us in many ways and would be highly beneficial.”
Leila is with you in the conference room. “Your Majesty, since we’re doing the Pan-Griffon Games we really don’t have all that much in terms of cultural programming to recommend. Diplomacy wise, apart from the Bourbons being annoying, especially those from Picardy, we have nothing to request.”
Your Political advisor is back home on Griffon, joining you via HPG. “We’re also in a good place over here, Your Majesty. While Parliament has a bit more influence than before, they are nowhere near the point of causing issues for us, and we have solid bases of support in both chambers. If the budget permits, however, I would recommend further expansion of the Civil Service.”
Grace is up next, also via HPG. “Your Majesty, I’ve got four research teams ready and eager to go. We’ve been focusing quite a bit on military matters for some time, so we strongly recommend shifting focus to more civilian applications.” She smiles a bit and brings up a chart, showing the proposed research areas.
- Life Sciences
- Genetic Engineering (Lvl 3)
- Focuses on increasing food yields without impacting health and nutritional value, by strengthening resistance to common diseases and widening environmental comfort zones for common crops and livestock
- Improved Elder Quality of Life (Lvl 1)
- Develops treatments aimed squarely at allowing our more elderly citizens to live comfortable, meaningful, lives in their twilight years
- Improved Anti-Aging Treatments (Lvl 1)
- It is said that one drawback of expanding lifespans is that the extra years are at the end, where they can’t be enjoyed all that much. This research seeks to change that by slowing the actual aging process rather than merely extending lifespan.
- Industrial Engineering
- Industrial Mechs (Lvl 8)
- Make use of the latest in material, power, and electronic engineering to create more efficient and effective industrial mechs.
General Messerschmidt had accompanied you to Calliope. “Your Majesty, I do have several reports from within the Bourbon Empire. One of our agents has caused us all to do a collective facepalm, in order to discover more of what is going on he simply visited a bloody bookstore and bought a history book.” You are not the only one who facepalms at that. “We have only the most cursory of details, but it appears that the Bourbons have long been at war with a group they simply call the Rouges Noir. There are at least a dozen back and forth invasions between the two, the books claim that this Rouges Noir always starts it, but we are taking that with a healthy grain of salt. The Nouveau Breton system appears to be the most common battlefield on the Bourbon side of things, with an occasional Battle of Nouveau Paris thrown in for variety's sake.”
He pauses, takes a sip of water, which encourages everybody else to do the same. “Armed with that name, we then found more, filed in the bloody sports section of their papers.” You shake your fist at him after the epic simultaneous spit take from around the room. “Which explains why we never noticed it before. The wars with this Rouges Noir have become so routine and so predictable that they don’t really take them all that seriously, viewing them primarily as a magnificent sport and a wonderful opportunity for dashing young Bourbons to prove themselves on the field of honorable combat against a dastardly foe. Preferably with attractive members of the appropriate sex on hand to witness their unspeakable bravery in person, no doubt.”
That… is such a Bourbon thing to do, you are surprised that you aren’t more surprised. General Messerschmidt makes a few comments about not really needing any more budget this year, thank you very much and try the veal, which causes you to throw a napkin at him.
Finally it is Martina’s turn. “Your Majesty, we are starting to see what may become an issue in the near future, but isn’t one yet. The maximum security orbital prison complex in the Griff’s Leap system is becoming full. It’s not there yet, the Imperial crime rate, especially of the sort of crimes that would see a person put in that prison, is extremely low thanks to our solid social welfare system, our excellent educational system, and our quite capable law enforcement groups. Most crime in the Empire is either financial or far too petty to merit the maximum security complex, but in any population you will have a few maniacs and psychopaths, and even the Department of Periphery Studies can’t help them all. Those are the ones who generally wind up in the Griff’s Leap complex, and with the sheer size of our population that subgroup is growing as well. We would like to get on top of things before we need to scramble, therefore we are requesting that an addition be built to the orbital prison.”