Turn 120 - Bolivian Ragamuffin
Not being the Heir has definite benefits, in that your second daughter’s wedding is a far less extravagant affair. You are still extremely emotional over it all, but the ceremony itself and the reception afterwards are far less formal. It seems like just yesterday that you held Lisa as a baby, and now she’s getting married.
She too had tried to wiggle out of wearing a proper dress, although she’s not wearing your old dress. Instead the dressmakers got to engage in the most polite and civilized, yet also most vicious, war you’d ever seen as you are quite certain that multi-generational grudges have been established in the contest over who got to make Lisa’s dress. You did have to put your foot quite firmly down, and make full use of the Special Branch, to keep her from running off to New Port Royal to get married by an Elvis impersonator. You still aren’t clear on who this ‘Elvis’ supposedly was, but apparently it’s a tradition to impersonate them and conduct weddings.
During the reception, however, an aide comes up and hands you a datapad. A large Black Steel raid had hit the Arvum system.
Early reports are sketchy, the raid had made use of a transitory pirate point and managed to launch several volleys of missiles at the planet itself before leading the system defense force on a not-so-merry chase through the system. Civilian casualties were, unfortunately, fairly heavy although the missiles were, at least, ‘clean’ fusion warheads. Military losses were also minimal on both sides, the Black Steel were able to escape via another transitory pirate point, and there was no serious engagement.
An early analysis of the raid pretty much confirms what you suspect, the enemy can get lucky too. The transitory point enabled them to get in and launch fast enough that you couldn’t shift one of the three
Black Towers in orbit to cover that exact vector, and the missiles thus came in through one of the inevitable gaps in missile defense coverage caused by the simple fact that space is big. You’d need ten times as many
Black Towers in the system to ensure full coverage, and even then it wouldn’t be a hermetic seal.
Admiral de Palo had kept the Grand Fleet at Waypoint 3, making no move to reinforce Arvum. Her instincts proved strong when a number of scout vessels jumped in well outside of the fleet’s range, then jumped back out. No attack followed, evidently the Black Steel had been hoping that the Arvum raid would draw the Grand Fleet away allowing them to savage the defenses that were in place in the system to simplify future engagements. If that was the case, de Palo keeping the fleet in place kiboshed that plan.
You do make a point to attend all of your youngest daughters' matches as the Griffon system team progresses through the Pan-Griffon Games. They are quite dominant and, to your mild annoyance, popular among the young men attending the Games. No doubt for their athletic skill and not for the bare boobs on display.
Men.
But now it is budget time, so you can put that all aside.
Amaunet leads off as usual, the big cat looking quite relaxed. “Ok, Padrone, the Army will be requesting a full SLEP cycle for their gear, which I think we should approve. Our focus is now back on the Black Steel fully, apart from mopping up the Rouges Noir, which means that the ground pounders are taking a back seat once again. We’ll also be requesting the DoME build up a new full military base in the Diamond Reach to further support expansion in that region. I’ll leave it to the service chiefs to give the details, General Bradley?”
The short general takes the stage. “Your Majesty, as the Defense Minister stated, we’ll be requesting a full SLEP cycle rather than further expansion of anything other than militia and garrison units. While the Rouges Noir invasion showed the critical importance of a strong army when appropriate enemies are threatening, our main threat is more in Admiral Fisher's wheelhouse than ours. Therefore we recommend keeping our sword sharp, not making it larger.”
- Imperial Griffon Army
- General
- SLEP all Mech Units
- SLEP all Conventional Units
- Procurement
- Garrison
- 31 Garrison Divisins
- 25 Militia Divisions
General Perkins is up next, looking a bit tired. “Your Majesty, the Aerospace Force continues to need to replace losses rather than expand capability, we hope to complete that process this year.”
- Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Procurement
- 100 CAP Wing
- 25 Carrier Wing
Admiral Fisher stumps up to the podium. “De Palo made the right call, staying in Waypoint 3. We will be continuing to expand production capacity, including on any new worlds that are settled. We’re rebuilding the Expeditionary Fleet, expanding the Grand Fleet, laying down the first of the new battlewagons, building up the Home Fleet, and increasing our training capacity. Home Fleet has been pestering me about wanting missile destroyers and cruisers. I've informed them that until they’ve proven the missile ship concept with what they’ve got they can go pound sand.” His glare is a thing of malevolent beauty, you know full well just how much Fisher loathes missile armed combatants as being too vulnerable.
- Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
- Orbital Shipyards
- New Orbital Shipyards
- Expand All Existing Orbital Shipyards
- Refit & Repair Yards
- Expand All Refit & Repair Yards
- Escort Yards
- Neubayern
- Neuhessen
- Nouvelle Bourgogne
- Nuova Lombardia
- Nuova Puglia
- Nuovo Abruzzo
- Nyū Shikoku
- Stenen Tuin
- New Libertalia
- Nuova Tripoli
- Catachan
- Feurstern
- Neuthüringen
- Nowe Mazowsze
- Nox
- Platzregensburg
- Iskra
- New Algiers
- New Clew Bay
- Nubifragio
- Bellaterra
- Bohren
- Landprettig
- Porto Milano
- Shin Tōkyō
- Hot Mess
- New Narnia
- The Hub
- Baddorando
- Sturmland
- Small Warship Yards
- New Castor
- New Port Royal
- Nowy Wroclaw
- Nowy Slask
- Chuma
- Awha
- Kaiyo
- Medium Warship Yards
- Glorreich
- New Phoenix
- Okusawa
- Pieklo
- Bari
- Large Warship Yards
- Nya Kopenhamn
- Kainga
- Edelsteine
- New Capricorn
- Procurement
- Conventional Dropships
- 300 Shimakaze-class Parasite Destroyers
- 200 Spruance-class Parasite Destroyers
- 23 Ensign-class Training Dropships
- Large Dropships
- 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
- 200 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
- 16 Charleston-class Transports
- Jumpships
- 6 Windjammer-class Jumpships
- Escorts
- 100 Battle-class Destroyers
- 10 Skjold-class Missile Corvettes
- 10 Constellation-class Corvettes
- 50 Tarantul-class Missile Raiders
- 50 Asheville-class Raiders
- 20 Wolverine-class Training Ships
- Small Warships
- 30 Dido-class Light Cruisers
- 20 Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
- 25 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
- 4 Hosho-class Light Carriers
- Medium Warships
- 10 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruisers
- 10 Algerie-class Heavy Cruisers
- 5 Sacramento-class Fleet Replenishment Ships
- Large Warships
- 10 Kaiserin-class Battleships
- 6 Jean Bart-class Battlecruisers
- Fortress Command
- Jump Point Defenses
- Baddorando
- Sturmland
- Blár
- Hvítur
- Rauður
- Oasis II
- Baddorando
- Sturmland
- Blár
- Hvítur
- Rauður
- Black Tower
- Baddorando
- Sturmland
- Blár
- Hvítur
- Rauður
Amaunet just chuffs slightly rather than give a closing statement as Admiral Fisher returns to his seat, still looking mildly annoyed.
Elizabeth Lee takes over at that point. “Your Majesty, let’s start with our colonization efforts. I understand that Blár is part of the Crown Reserve, but we’ll still need to setup an appropriate administration for those few colonists who will be on that planet, otherwise we recommend settling the other two habitable worlds that are now available to us.”
- Colonize + System Government + Justice System
- Baddorando
- Sturmland
- Blár
“In addition, DoME has a number of free teams this year, and the military has requested that we build out a new major base to the galactic northeast to support expansion in that direction. Therefore, to keep them out of trouble you understand, we recommend the following Your Majesty.”
- DoME
- Expand Shin Tōkyō Arcologies
- Establish New Army Base - Nuova Lombardia
- Establish New Fleet Base - Nuova Lombardia
- Terraforming
“Finally, our investment and focus recommendations, straight from our economics section.” She smiles a bit at that.
- Economic Investment, Focus, & Industrial/Infrastructure
- Focus
- Major Investment
- Investment
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zone
- Hot Mess
- New Narnia
- The Hub
- Nouvelle Bourgogne
- Nuova Puglia
Agostina is off at a conference helping to hammer out the final details of the upcoming Olympic Games in two years and her cultural staff is fully engaged in managing the ongoing Pan Griffon Games this year, therefore Tiberius is up next.
“OK, Boss!” Why, exactly, Tiberius decided to dress up like a stereotypical pimp, complete with blinged out swagger stick, is well beyond you, but you resolve to toss him through the Window of Defenestration anyways. “Only thing I’ve got for you is to expand the Civil Service before they whine at me about being overworked again.”
Grace is up next, giving Tiberius a bit of a side-eye. “Your Majesty, we have a large number of teams available, so we have the following recommendations.”
- Research & Development
- KF Drive Theory Tier 5
- Allows us to research even larger ships of up to 2 million tons
- Improved Elder Quality of Life Lvl 3
- A good solid research objective for the civilian side of things
- Genetic Engineering Lvl 5
- Advanced ER 5cm Lasers
- These look to be highly efficient and effective weapons once developed
- Advanced Terraforming Equipment Lvl 1
- We need better tools for terraforming if we’re to speed up the process anymore
- Orbital Infrastructure Lvl 9