Turn 21 - Parliament and Advisors Oh My
With your support Parliament passes the act proposed by the Eldest nearly unanimously, with only a few stubborn holdouts gassing on about the need to save money and that the best way to deal with the ‘pests’ was to simply shoot them all.
Some people are too dumb to walk and chew gum at the same time, apparently.
The move is extremely popular despite the expense, and within days you are already hearing reports of new start-ups getting organized to attack the problem of high-volume tunneling.
Of course, then one of them decides to cheerfully steal a name from the pages of history, call itself the Boring Company, and gleefully sells butane flamethrowers as a marketing gimmick. Naturally it only takes you a few minutes to discover that a certain irrepressible old pervert was behind the entire thing.
And you can’t defenestrate him like he truly deserves. He only put up one of his other grandkids to do it. Willis, of course, finds it hilarious and promptly buys a couple of the flamethrowers.
Men. Can’t set them on fire, because then you wouldn’t get such nice neck rubs.
OK, you can forgive much for one of Willis’ neck rubs.
You look over the debate transcripts about the proposed education bill and feel a serious headache coming on. Strictly speaking, every single claim that the proponents were making was absolutely true, if viewed from a certain angle. But on the flip side, the immense work you’d already put into improving the entire education system for the planet meant that those ‘poorly performing’ public schools were turning out graduates with better test scores and higher college preparation than the elite private schools of your own girlhood.
In fact, while the fact ‘there is a 15 point difference between the worst performing public schools and the elite schools of the rich’ is
literally true, it loses almost all of its punch when you realize that the difference is between an Average Advanced Placement Adjusted GPA of 3.95 and an AAPA-GPA of 4.1.
Sure, most graduates of the public schools were going on to ‘blue collar’ work… but ‘blue collar’ workers in the modern economy were netting more income and benefits than white-collar workers of just a generation before. And the actual gap was surprisingly small due to the extreme demand that skilled blue-collar labor actually was in with the rapid expansion of the economy.
You are quite glad you kept out of that debate, because the proposal flames out on the floor as other members point out these very facts to the proponents of the bill. And then it comes out that the real reason they are pushing this is because they want to eliminate ‘dissident and aberrant’ viewpoints in education with a curriculum that just so happened to be tailored to the political point of view of said proponents.
Clever, but you had studied enough history in your youth to know where that kind of thing led. You had zero interest in having Griffsport overwhelmed by angsty hipsters bemoaning how their poetry degrees weren’t as valuable as other peoples engineering degrees and showing their displeasure by ironically burning their own houses down.
Thankfully Parliament agreed and quite firmly stamped down on that nonsense.
There are a number of new Mech designs being proposed now that there is some institutional experience at mech construction. The circular issued by the AFGR procurement board was for either a light scout or light trooper mech, with fairly sensible requirements.
[] | Name | Cost | HP | Attack | Defense | Specials | Resources |
[] | Chihuahua Scout Mech | 1162.4 | 32 | 17 | 17 | Mech, Swift, Short-Only | |
[] | Chopper Mek | 1123.6 | 32 | 18 | 18 | Mech, | |
[] | Hopper H1-X | 1172.4 | 32 | 18 | 18 | Mech, Swift | |
[] | Lookout-M7 | 1106.4 | 32 | 17 | 17 | Mech, Swift, Short-Only | 1 Endosteel |
[] | Mobile Scout Walker M1 | 1165.6 | 32 | 18 | 18 | Mech | |
[] | Mobile Scout Walker M1A | 1198 | 36 | 19 | 19 | Mech | 1 Endosteel |
You see that some of them are making use of the theoretical benefits of Endosteel for their internal structure. That would require you to build an orbital forge to build the frames, but it is something that you would eventually have to do anyway.
On the family front, Jeremy is still happily driving at every chance he gets, usually with one of the Queen’s Own along as the ‘licensed adult’. The fact that he’s willing, even eager, to drive his younger siblings to their activities leaves you with a sense of pride in him, but also a small aching void in that it's one less thing you are doing with your family.
So you take the family out for a spin in the hoverlimo you like to drive. Family bonding is important.
And you are totally not an adrenaline junkie. 200 kph on a coastal road is sensible for somebody of your skill level with the safety equipment built into the vehicle. That’s your story and you are sticking to it.
Like superglue.
You have your first meeting with the expanded military advisors before the meat of budget time strikes.
Colonel Swanson has a small presentation going over the needs of the ground forces. She has a number of straightforward recommendations. First, that focus be given to researching and developing new infantry small arms and support weapons. Second, that the
Ambush factory be expanded to produce a total of 8 mechs a year instead of only 4. Third, filling out the Arbalest battalion in 1st Armored by the purchase of 8 platoons of Arbalest Missile Carriers. Fourth, purchasing a full foot infantry regiment to man the fortifications on Capricorn thus freeing up the Mechanized Infantry of 1st Aerie Cadre for offensive actions in the event of a fresh attack. Fifth procuring a single lance of
Ambush mechs to start a dedicated Mech Regiment for 1st Armored. The plans she lays out are for a mixed battalion, with 1 company of
Ambushs, one of whichever mech wins the latest design competition for a light trooper or scout mech, and one of a future heavier mech design.
Colonel Reyes then takes over the podium. The aerospace forces are in fairly good shape, especially as shown by their superb performance in the latest terror raid by the Kuritan forces. She also has a set of recommendations. First of all, that the
Eagle ASF finally be tested and a factory for their production built on Castor. Second, that a second space station be built at the local L2 Lagrange point in order to base a flight of Goshawks, which she recommends be procured as soon as the station is built. Finally, she recommends that 1 flight of Goshawks be procured immediately to be based on the orbital station you currently possess.
Captain Stinnet has a short presentation. The four large cutters are excellent for their role, and are already proving their worth. She does, however, request that a RFP be made for smaller supplements for coastal work. She also strongly recommends that you fund full surveys of the Sea Lines of Communication in order to update charts and mark hazards.
General Potter then takes center stage, endorsing the recommendations of his subordinates in the general staff. He also recommends continuing the expansion of the Aerie into a full elite tier university as well as bringing up the possible need to restructure ASF units to better fit future deployment doctrine. Colonel Reyes looks a bit mulish at that, but General Potter points out that the sheer size of the current fighter wing makes it utterly impractical for expeditionary purposes.
After the military people leave Bridget pops in as cheerfully energetic as ever. You instinctively pick up your coffee mug and take a long drink, as you’ll need the caffeine.
“Your Majesty we’ve got a bunch we can do especially if we get the charts updates so we can start some serious long term work to rebuild the damage to the economy that being said the proposals about an industrial stabilization fund are excessively premature and will only hurt the economy for minimal benefit because of the other changes and reforms that we’ve been pursuing making massive economic contractions far too unlikely to be worth the immense expense of the proposal. We should start building a second mech factory outside Hue Moi in order to not have all our mech building assets in one place which just makes us very vulnerable so I recommend building the factory out there and then building whatever the new mech is there so we’ll have a second source and did you know that we can also upgrade all of our factories so we aren’t limited to only producing a few things a year and we really should think about building those neat new exploration dropships because then we could start figuring out everything that is around us and maybe finding some great new resources that we can use to build more.”
You think she took a breath in there, you aren’t certain.
Isoroku enters the conference room like an island of zen calm after Typhoon Bridget flops into her seat. He simply sets a cup of steaming green tea on the table in front of the excitable young woman then takes his own seat.
“Your Majesty, while there is very little in terms of ‘foreign policy’ for us to do, the cultural affairs department has a number of superb plans in readiness to bring about social and cultural enlightenment.” he says in that controlled voice of his. “We have three options, but the efforts required for any one of them would make it impractical to attempt the others in the same year.”
He sets a notebook in front of you, handwritten, in absolutely stunningly perfect handwriting.
“First of all, we could sponsor a major charity benefit concert bringing together the best musical talent of the planet to raise funds for a charity of Your Majesty’s choice. We will then be able to sell recordings of this concert to the public to raise further funds for that cause. While it would not benefit our treasury directly, I assure Your Majesty that the goodwill generated is nearly as valuable as mere coin.”
“Second, we could commission sculptors and artists to create installation art honoring our societies collective heroes. From those who stand tall against the Dracs, to those who engage in the often unsung day to day heroics of daily life. Statues, murals, fountains, all of these are things that could be commissioned to memorialize those who are worth memorializing.”
A fractional smile quirks his lips. “Or we could take a page out of ancient history twice over, and renew the Olympic Games here on Griffin’s Roost. The logistics involved would make it difficult to hold it more than every several years, but it would be an enormous morale boosting event to see athletes from all communities on the planet competing with and against each other for the glory of sport.”
He leans back at that, nodding to you, and lapses into silence, obviously finished saying his piece.
Jake Mroczkiewicz immediately fills the silence. “My only problem with an Olympiad is we’re sadly lacking in East German Judges! I know, let's go ask the Dracs if they’d like to join in! A new event, the Dragon Toss, how far can you toss a samurai before he punches you with his Magic Bushido Fists!”
He then sobers, as a laugh goes around the table. “Seriously however, I’m still settling into the office. I intend to make some long term personnel changes and adjust our approach to how we do things from the more passive academic approach of the past, but will need to get the right people into the right places first. Next year, I promise, I’ll have some good things for you.” he then grins. “Or my name is not spelled Mroczkiewicz!”
Another laugh goes around the room as he sits down with an extravagant bow.
Dr Palmer is still chuckling from her seat. She seems ageless as ever as she checks her notes. “Your Majesty, the research teams over at the university are prepared to get started on just about anything. I know the army folks are wanting their new lasers and support weapons, so say the word and I’ll get teams on that. But I’ve got a few other projects I’d like to pitch. First of all, for certain heavy construction, including that monster project that Parliament just approved, there’s nothing quite like an industrial mech to simply get things done. We have a number of preliminary designs, but would need funding to finish the R&D and pass them off to industry for use. Second, we have a number of excellent proposals for advanced technology research. I’d recommend Ferro-Fibrous armor, as developing that and building the foundries for it would benefit nearly every type of unit, and the lessons learned would help us unlock Ferro-Aluminium for our ASF and dropship assets. I would also recommend researching either the LB-10X or the Ultra-AC/5 autocannons. I know the AC/5 has a bit of a bad reputation for being too heavy for the limited damage output, but the lessons learned from that project could lead to far more potent autocannons across the board.”
Harry Owens is still overseeing the interrogation work, so he only sends a brief memo recommending staying the course for now, while Janet (to the distress of your coffee system) is stuck over in Castor trying to untangle the utter mess left behind by the self-proclaimed Grifftiger Liberation Movement (a project of the Department of Periphery Studies) who were currently locked into the port city’s jail and were refusing to leave until their 30,000 page manifesto for Grifftiger citizenship rights was publicly broadcast. Being informed that Grifftigers not only were already citizens but had ‘tigers in Parliament was met with endless chats of ‘Let The Tigers Go’.
QM Note - Threshold for next update is set to 8 votes on the new mech, plus there's a new contest in the quest
DISCORD!