Turn 32 - Where We Fight Our Parents Out In The Streets
Alita has given birth to a daughter, who is absolutely lovely. Jeremy has managed to return from Nowy Gdansk in time for the birth but he’ll have to go back to his unit in a few days.
Your grandson seems utterly fascinated with his new little sister, which is how it should be in your opinion. Your family is continuing to grow as you now have two grandbabies. You like grandbabies.
Smirky is still having a bad season, although the overt targeting has pretty much ended and he has managed to finish races. He’s been black flagged a few times for over aggressive driving as he gets revenge on driver’s who’d wrecked him in the past. He’s also tried to punt the twins, but Quan has so far managed to ‘return the favor’ everytime he punts James, and vice versa.
You finally meet Thanh’s boyfriend… who’s not a boy. You’d never really cared if any of your kids turned out to be homosexual, but it appears Thanh had been misinterpreting your love of grandbabies as an indirect disapproval of the fact that she’s a lesbian. During her teenage years when she’d have been most likely to have confided in you about that you and her had been clashing constantly over her desire to enter the Aerie early in order to become a pilot or her wanting her pilot license early.
You still didn’t mind, and Petra Dreyson is a perfectly lovely young woman who’s a civilian junior lab assistant in the Aerie’s labs.
Thanh had been very nervous about introducing Petra to you and had been quite surprised when your reaction had been completely positive. Later there was much tearful hugging as the miscommunication and misunderstandings were cleared up. You love your daughter no matter what… and then you realize… Iron Wombs… you might get grandbabies out of her yet!
The anguished wail of ‘MOM!’ that follows that observation is accompanied by giggles on both of your parts.
All is right once more.
At least within the family.
The crime wave has intensified, with the police outgunned by heavily armed thugs who are wielding full up military-grade hardware. Hardware that was once issued to your own infantry.
Michelle and Jane have managed to track some of the hardware, and discovered that it originated from several of the caches that had been established a quarter century earlier to support resistance militia in the event of a Drac conquest of the planet.
Three caches, to be precise, all of which had shared the same supply sergeant who conveniently disappeared hours before the Special Branch could call him in for questioning.
Almost an entire battalion set of infantry gear, albeit mostly obsolete, has walked with Jesus into the hands of these thugs.
Two more grifftiger members of the Mounted Police have fallen in the line of duty to heavy weapons from the caches, there have been brazen robberies of armored cars and banks. These thugs seem to be reveling in the firepower that they are bringing to bear and killing for the sake of killing.
You manage to get an early, if incomplete, picture of what is happening. The Bratva, Russian origin organized crime, had never been a problem on Griffin’s Roost, being very minor at best players in the criminal underworld. The old leaders had, however, recently disappeared and it appears that they were purged by a new generation of ‘thief in law’ types who are far more brutal and aggressive.
Several options are laid out, none of them particularly attractive. Completely shutting down the militia caches, securing them, and removing all the equipment from circulation is one possibility. Would actually save you some money but would eliminate the militia in the event of a disaster resulting in the planet being conquered by an enemy. Another possibility is an intensive audit of the equipment and installing far stricter oversight of the militia, perhaps along similar lines to the Home Army. This would maintain the militia, but would increase costs and the realization that all of this chaos was being fueled, inadvertently, by the government would cause quite a bit of instability for a time no matter which option is selected.
The Special Branch is badly outnumbered and outgunned, and the police are hopelessly out of their depth. Expanding the Special Branch with special forces troops specially trained in law enforcement and deputized to serve in that role would permit the Special Branch to face the Bratva on an even footing.
Finally, initiating intensive investigations using all of the resources and capabilities of the government would have the effect of calming the situation and eventually driving the Bratva back underground.
QM NOTE - Until there is progress in dealing with the problem the following modifiers are in effect. -10 Approval, -50 Approval Change, -50 Politics, -10% GDP Griffin’s Roost. Until the problem is dealt with successfully the following modifiers are in effect. -50 Approval Change, -25 Politics, -5% GDP Griffin’s Roost.
Under the circumstances you don’t waste any time whining about budget time.
General Swanson has stepped down as Ground Forces representative and has been replaced by General Jackson of the 1st Armored. “Your Majesty, there are a few items from us. First of all, we would like to establish a proper special operations unit to permit us to go toe to toe with DEST in the future. In addition we should procure as many
Jaguar tanks as possible. I would also recommend completing the
Winged Hussar unit on Nowy Gdansk.”
General Reyes takes over. “We should continue procurement of ASFs at a reasonable rate, especially for the new space stations we will be building. That being said, we are still working on upgrades to the
Goshawk.”
Admiral Benjamin then steps up. “Your Majesty, HMS Valiant and HMS Zeilin will be going into commission this year, thus leaving the yards open for the next vessels in the series. However I would recommend redesignating the
Harris class yard for the new
Haskells or even
Confederates.”
General Potter then takes the podium. “Your Majesty, needless to say I endorse my subordinates' recommendations. In regards to the situation with the Bratva. The militia concept is a good idea in theory, we simply implemented it with too few safeguards in place. I accept full responsibility for not considering the risk of criminal elements in the planning and stockpiling of the caches and if you desire a resignation over this affair, mine will be on your desk immediately.”
[] Accept (Unknown Effects)
[] Reject (Unknown Effects)
Bridget is surprisingly subdued… for Bridget. “Your Majesty. Interior is ready to continue the growth of our Empire as required. We recommend a combination of constructing the first of the requested Space Stations along with expanding our Orbital Factories. I would recommend against starting to clear the ruins yet, we want the knowledge that is inside them after all. I would also strongly recommend continuing infrastructure development on Nowy Gdansk.”
Wow… that is subdued for Bridget, not a single run on sentence.
Isoroku is as he ever is. Zen as heck. “Your Majesty, it may seem callous but I would recommend building a monument to the fallen of the Mounted Police, it would offset some of the unrest that is occurring due to the massive crime wave at least.”
Jake isn’t bothering to conceal how angry he is at the situation, then again two of his cousins were killed in an armed robbery. “I wish I could recommend anything that would directly deal with those Bratva animals, Your Majesty, but that’s not my remit. All I can recommend is mitigation, either the title or anthem would restore a little of the momentum that this outbreak of barbarism has caused us to lose.”
Mary is businesslike and brisk. “Your Majesty, I’m not going to waste your time repeating my analysis from last year, instead I will do the same for the new projects that are now available and give my recommendations.” She operates the Powerpoint like a true professional.
- New Military Technologies
- Power Armor (Light) - Basic
- Appears to answer the question of what the Star League Quartermaster Corps were thinking when they greenlit the Mauser 960
- These suits are simply enclosed and armored variants of existing industrial exoskeletons
- Targeting Computer
- Significantly improves the accuracy of vehicle, ASF, and Mech mounted weapons
- A combination of fine-lay actuators and advanced computer support
- New Non-Military Technologies
- Lostech - Orbital Construction Yard
- Extremely fragmentary starting point
- Would permit orbital construction of dropships
- Current techniques are highly fragile and unsuited for combat units
- Thermal Dissipation (advanced) Tier 1
- Leverages our knowledge of advanced metallurgy and physics to fine tune the heat dissipation properties of our heat sinks.
- Initially this will be simply mastering the physics and chemistry involved
- Basic research, do not expect usable hardware right away
- Structural Materials (advanced) Tier 1
- Leverages metallurgy, chemistry, and physics to produce materials that are both stronger and more resilient, reducing the bulk of many strategic materials.
- Basic research, do not expect usable hardware right away
- Recommendations
- Military Research
- Power Armor (Light) - Basic
- This is a significant game changer for the Infantry, small units equipped with this would be more mobile and deadlier than much larger conventional formations
- Streak SRM-2
- Same reasoning as last year. This will provide the single most ‘bang’ for a relatively small price
- Advanced Ultra Autocannons
- By completing the trifecta of advanced ballistic weapons we should be able to progress towards mastery of them, permitting more compact and capable designs
- Non-Military Research
- Improved Agriculture
- Relatively inexpensive with a decent return in regards to population growth
- Thermal Dissipation (advanced) Tier 1
- A basic research that could yield exceptional results down the road
- Structural Materials (advanced) Tier 1
- A basic research that could yield exceptional results down the road
Harry is… there. His wife had died in one of the attacks that was apparently targeting him personally. “Your Majesty, Intel is normally of little use when dealing with domestic threats like this. However, I would like to continue debriefing the Home Army to see if they have any insights into how to deal with the Bratva.”
Janet is looking positively furious. “Your Majesty, we dropped the ball and got complacent. Luckily our SWAT teams are barely holding their own, when we have sufficient warning to get them deployed. We need to beef up the Special Branch and release them from the leash on these monsters. And Your Majesty.” she gives you a level look. “I would recommend that any instructions to the Special Branch include the phrase ‘dead or alive’.”
[] Include it
[] Don’t include it