Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Thors_Alumni

Well-known member
[X] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically

hell yes.
 

edofthesquid

Well-known member
[X] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically

We're going to need them before too long
 

Jarow

Well-known member
[X] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically

Anything that doesn't take actions is good
 

Thors_Alumni

Well-known member
@LordSunhawk can we have an option for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored? It will be a combined unit Battalion focused on being a jack of all trades unit. The units comprising the Battalion will be.

1. 2 Squads of Chasseur Hovertank
2. 2 Phalanx Tank Platoon
3. 2 squads of Legionnaire Medium Tanks
4. 3 Tracked Missile Carrier Platoon
 
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kashim3

Texan, Mandalorian, Alabamian.
[X] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
[X] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically
 

kelgar04

Well-known member
[X] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically
 

Chaeronea

Well-known member
[X] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically
 

CurtisLemay

Wargamer, Amateur Historian, Writer
Nuke Mod
Moderator
Staff Member
Founder
[X] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically.
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
[X] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically
 
Turn 12 Advisor and Story

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 12 Advisors and Story

You get a call from the zoo.

The zoologists and animal behavior specialists request an urgent meeting. You are a bit concerned about this.

They show up, but rather than looking worried or anxious they look excited.

“Your Majesty… I don’t know how to say this prettily, so I’ll say it bluntly. Grifftigers, especially the adults, are at absolute minimum as intelligent as the top end of measured intelligence for dolphins, with many indicators trending even higher.” the lead zoologist says, almost babbling.

He takes a deep breath, visibly settling himself, even as it looks like his smile is about to split his face in half. “We started out with the types of basic puzzle tests used for dogs, they figured them out faster than the fastest time recorded for any breed of dog. We then moved on to the types of tests used for great apes back on Terra. And again they blew right through them, hindered only by the lack of opposable thumbs. Then we tried the dolphin tests, and they annihilated them.”

He takes another deep breath. “Then we got a bright idea and rigged up a large mechanical keyboard tough enough for their paws. And within a few weeks we were able to communicate symbolically. I must stress it’s not ‘speaking’ together, they have no grasp of writing, but we were able to develop a pidgin using symbols and colors that let them communicate with us. They are capable of abstract thought, although their understanding of many concepts we take for granted is minimal at best.”

You were meeting outdoors, and Sekhmet looks… even smugger than usual. Damn cat.

“It’s slow, painfully so. Communications bandwidth, so to speak, is intensely limited by all the difficulties of communicating in a symbolic way like this. Again, I must stress it is very basic. We are talking about things like ‘big, bigger, biggest’ and highly simplified syntax. We’ve spoken with developmental psychology people and they say that the Grifftiger’s use of language and such is at about a 6 or 7 year olds level of understanding, with it appearing that the older they get the higher they achieve.”

He takes a deep breath “We’d like to work with Sekhmet, if she’s willing, to see if that hypothesis is correct. If what we suspect is true, we’d expect that she would be able to communicate at around a 5th or 6th grade level, limited by not being able to vocalize the same way we do and the sheer size of her limbs.”

You look over at the giant cat and she’s looking smug AND interested, before leaning in and giving the Lick Of Approval to the scientist.

Well, you guess that’s good enough for you.

The beautification project is reaping unexpected benefits. The use of colonnades is spawning proposals to replace crosswalks at intersections with pedestrian bridges, effectively moving most pedestrian traffic up a level and clearing the street level for regular vehicular traffic instead. Some areas of downtown have fully embraced this idea, with elevated pedestrian walkways connecting buildings and moving foot traffic up a level. Escalators, stairwells and elevators are being built to connect the former street level with this new level, and so far the reception seems to be quite positive.

Thankfully the architects were thoughtful, the pedestrian bridges and such, along with the roadways, are all quite capable of accommodating the largest grifftigers recorded to date, and even Sekhmet fits with more than enough room to spare to account for future growth. People are still getting used to seeing the giant predators, although thankfully it appears that those suffering from cat allergies aren’t evidently allergic to Grifftigers.

You do laugh the first time you see that some enterprising planner has included a screened off ‘rest area’ for grifftigers, complete with the planet's largest box of kitty litter. Sekhmet seems to approve. So do you.

One of the unanticipated issues of the project is that the remaining ICE powered personal and commercial vehicles are now more of a nuisance than before. The fumes and such are not very welcome, especially with how cheap and available fuel cell engines are, not to mention electric vehicles. With your planetary power grid fully converted over to fusion you have a surplus of power available, and with as much electrical power available it is trivial to build small in-situ hydrogen cracking plants to fuel the fuel cell vehicles.

You think that is something you’ll need to bring up with your advisors and possibly with Parliament, but it might well be time to do something about that.

On the political front, it may be time to reign in the Commons a bit, as parts of it have been agitating for more power over the last few years, primarily at the expense of the Lords. Relations between the two Houses have been breaking down as a growing acrimony seems to be settling in. So far the Crown is viewed very positively by both so your own position isn’t threatened in any way, but maybe some discrete steps to rebalance things would be in order.

Based on the personalities involved you are pretty sure that you’ll be able to settle things down without any negative blowback on the throne. It would take time, meeting with the people involved, stroking egos, soothing ruffled feathers, and framing things in the right way, but you feel confident you can pull it off.

Sure, the press might resent the loss of cheap headlines as politicians go at it with each other, but you can’t have everything.

You do feel a bit of schadenfreude when one of the junior interns gives you a tabloid. The tabloid in question, prior to the Gem conspiracy being unveiled, had been the most influential and powerful media entity on the planet, a veritable Paper of Record.

And it had been wholly owned, via a shell company, by Bradford Santos.

The fallout from the conspiracy had seen the once enormously prestigious paper plummet until you are holding in your hands the latest issue of a pathetic little tabloid struggling to stay in business with sensationalist pablum, paparazzi snaps, and cheap advertising.

You and your husband share a laugh over it all.

You finally give birth to another daughter, Sarah Hương, and are in the familiar haze of maternal bliss. Your other kids are all excited to have another sibling. Family is the best thing possible, in your opinion.

A few weeks later, though, it’s budget time.

General Wolf kicks things off as usual. “We’re in solid shape, the windfall allowed us to make a solid start to fully establishing 1st Armored as our primary strike formation. So for now we have a few things to do. First off, I’d like to start specialized training for the scout teams we’ll be sending to Castor and Pollux. Second, we need to beef up our infantry forces in order to fully man all of our fortifications. I’d like to recommend spending 405 on building up a full regiment of 27 motorized infantry companies to serve as the primary garrison force, while the existing foot infantry command will be designated for security work.”

He glances down at the paperwork. “With the reorganization of our forces we’ve also revamped exercise protocols. Any unit can be set to training for the cost of their upkeep. Just let me know what units you want in training and I’ll cut the orders to the unit commanders. Since I’ll not be having to oversee this personally I’ll still be available for other purposes during the cycle. Just as a warning, units in training are not available for combat operations. That being said, I’d recommend that we focus on training over expansion this year, apart from the motorized infantry regiment. So we’d have all of our main formations other than the 1st Armored in training.”

Tyler pipes up. “That should speed things up a bit for getting the scout force going. Now I’ve got good news on my front. With the development of the new anti-penguin system.” he grins in the way that only he can, the damn walking hormone. “We have a design available for a dedicated scout vehicle to both investigate the titanium strike and place sonic barriers around it to drive off the dire penguins. With an initial investment from the Crown we can get started, we’ve got arctic specialists already trained, we just need to buy the equipment they’ll need to do their jobs.”

Dr Young is enthusiastic about the ongoing arts programs. “They are certainly showing their worth! Public approval is strong, and the beautification programs are already showing a wonderful result.”

Tyler interrupts. “On that note, it may be time to implement more stringent environmental regulations in order to protect the architecture Dr Young is so happy about.”

Dr Young gives Tyler a glare, although there is very little heat in it after so many years of having to work together.

Professor Chapman slides in smoothly before the two can start bickering. “The regulations proposed would certainly have strong public support at this time, so I find myself in agreement with both of my colleagues on that score.”

Dr Palmer is in the lab, but she sent one of her assistants to the meeting with a pile of notes. “We’re almost done with the orbital infrastructure design phase, implementation can start as soon as next year. The battlemech development is proceeding as planned. Right now we’d like to recommend either focusing on Power Generation or Orbital Defenses.”

General Wolf speaks up. “That reminds me, for developing new designs into operational service the Ministries of Defense and Interior will now be responsible for joint development programs, with Defense dealing with testing the equipment itself and Interior with building out the production infrastructure.”

Juanita is staying mostly quiet. “There’s nothing really new on the intelligence front, our counterintelligence programs are continuing and we’d only recommend keeping them active.”

Janet is her normal cheerful self, even as she is sitting in a meeting breastfeeding her latest daughter. “I got a biggie for you! Literally!” she points out the window towards where Sekhmet is lounging. “We really need to work out how the law will work in regards to the big kitties. They’re too smart to be considered pets in the classical sense, but they certainly aren’t human. I’d like to set my brightest people to putting together a set of proposals to send to Parliament for handling this situation.”
 

Thors_Alumni

Well-known member
[X] Plan: Military buildup
-[X] Military 4
--[X] 15 motor infantry Platoons
--[X] 2 Squads of Chasseur Hovertank
--[X] 2 Phalanx Tank Platoon's
--[X] 2 Tracked Missile Carrier Platoon's

-[X]Interior 4
--[X] Promote Tech Sector

-[X] Diplomatic 3

-[X] Political 3
--[X] Rebalance influence between Commons and Lords

-[X] Research 3
--[X] Infantry Support Weapons lvl 1
--[X] Rocket Launchers
--[X] Orbital Infrastructure lvl 1

-[X] Intelligence 3

-[X] Justice 2
--[X] Develop a legal framework for Grifftigers
 

Jarow

Well-known member
[X] Plan: National Preparation
-[X] Military 4
--[X] Mighty Mule w/Thumper
(Military actions are a lot easier for unit designs; we can let Curtis have his artillery)
--[X] Train Castor/Pollux Scouting Force
(Get new ports as soon as possible with this)
--[X] Purchase 27 Motorized Infantry companies for Garrison
-[X] Training
--[X] Griffin's Roost Garrison
--[X] Griffin's Roost Aeroforce
--[X] Rapid Reaction Force

-[X]Interior 4
--[X] Strengthen Central Bank*
--[X] Establish Arctic Research Squad w/Penguin Fighting Grip
(Step one of titanium mining)
--[X] Strengthen Environmental Regulations Lvl 1
(Only has positives now)
--[X] Mighty Mule w/Thumper
(Action #2 for mobile artillery)

-[X] Diplomatic 3
--[X] City Beautification*
--[X] Increased funding for the arts
(better event chances)

-[X] Political 3
--[X] Rebalance influence between Commons and Lords
(Prevent issues here)

-[X] Research 3
--[X] Orbital Infrastructure lvl 1*
--[X] Light Bipedal Mechs*
--[X] Orbital Defense Platforms lvl 1
(Will help with aerospace defense)


-[X] Intelligence 3
--[X] Counterintelligence Surveillance
(Lets make sure the choice to free them was safe)

-[X] Justice 2
--[X] Establish National Police Force*
--[X] Develop a legal framework for Grifftigers
(Issues protection)
 

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