Turn 59 - Poena
Your naval staff has prepared a plan for you to help handle the NRI situation. Operation Blue Cougar has multiple parts. First, reinforce your forces on Tarentum in order to secure the situation there, then determine what is going on on Nova Roma and Ravenna. To that end four
Monoliths will be involved.
These will be divided into three formations. All will initially jump to Tarentum and from there proceed to their ultimate targets.
- Task Force Blue Cougar.1
- 1 Monolith dedicated
- 8 Bainbridge class PDD
- 1 Newport-C class logistics vessel
- Will secure Tarentum
- Task Force Blue Cougar.2
- 1 Monolith dedicated
- 4 Shannon class PCA
- 4 Bainbridge class PDD
- 1 Newport-C class logistics vessel
- Will recointer Ravenna and provide support to any remaining loyalists
- Task Force Blue Cougar.3
- 2 Monolith dedicated
- 8 Bainbridge class PDD
- 8 Shannon class PCA
- 2 Newport-C class logistics vessels
- Will survey Nova Roma and provide support to any loyalists remaining
[] | Approve Operation Blue Cougar |
[] | Deny Operation Blue Cougar |
You receive reports from Nowa Warszawa that the situation there is continuing to slowly cool off. Current efforts are focused on keeping the radicals on all sides from causing trouble, while training up a new police force and justice system from the ground up. The main procurement for new police vehicles goes to the Gendarme line, as they have the most distinction from previous policing equipment as well as fitting the required specifications. Some small orders for the Cascade as a fast response and the QUE-N for heavy response are also made, and even a few of the dratted pyramids are purchased for when police need to wade into the middle of a crowd and disperse it from there.
There is a bit of drama when a single
Tramp loaded with 3
Mules which had been converted into slave transports jumps into Nowa Warszawa. This, evidently, is the semi-annual delivery of fresh ‘product’ from Kilburrough to Nowa Warszawa, and the slaver’s are quite upset at your daughter’s rather brisk response to their ‘just doing business’ attitude by sending Marine boarding parties on board and securing all four vessels, the
Mules and the
Tramp.
From her report, you get the sense that she was most upset when the slavers thought that offering her the ‘merchandise’ at a discount would allow them to get away.
Thanh did discover one other thing, about three dozen female slaves that were evidently a ‘special order’ for the former garrison commander of the planet, none were even in their teens yet according to medical examinations. Her first thought that they were meant for, well, nefarious sexual purposes is incorrect. In the cargo manifest they are listed as ‘Assassin Trainees’ loyal to whoever held a control rod linked to cybernetic implants.
Initial investigation shows that the girls are not brain damaged, like the usual, and according to the manifest, at least, are intended as infiltration assets able to move among ‘unenlightened’ populations, always mindful that any attempt at disloyalty would be detected by the tiny implants which would detonate, killing them instantly. Fortunately none of the control rods had been activated and the medics who examined the girls report that it should be fairly trivial to remove the implants themselves.
Of course, this only means that you now have a cadre of girls who have been brutally trained to be sociopathic killers kept in line solely by fear of their heads exploding. Lovely.
In news closer to home, the economic downtick is confirmed to be relatively minor, although still annoying. You have been very fortunate to avoid much economic volatility, but it looks like the markets have decided to shift from constant growth to a more volatile phase. It was nice while it lasted, you guess, but no growth period lasts forever.
The Royal Grifftiger Mounted Police have completed their sweeps of NRI citizens, you caught two more suspects who had explosives hidden in their baggage, both of whom are currently under interrogation.
The NRI ambassador is out of his coma and slowly recovering. He doesn’t know much, the last time the Pugnus Deorum was around was well before he had been born and he’d barely remembered them from his schola days. He does authorize you to read through the embassies files, on the grounds that he hasn’t had any instructions not to and at least one of his deputies was a traitor to the NRI and a threat to you, and he’d very much like to know what else said deputy had been up to.
SARAH is able to quickly break the encryption and finds that the Military Attache had been funneling in fellow Pugnus Deorum fanatics into the embassy staff ever since he got the assignment, as well as off the books explosives. He had also been sabotaging military cooperation by deliberately slow-rolling approval on various purchase orders authorized by his government, falsely claiming that this was due to your officials dragging their feet.
Siriwan and Lisa have progressed from lewd handholding and footsie to even lewder soulful gazes. You and Willis have opened a betting book among the kids and Palace staff as to how long it’ll take the two to realize what is going on. You have, however, firmly insisted that Sekhmet and Bastet are not allowed to… interfere. You are quite aware of just how far a grifftiger will go if it thinks silly humans are being excessively silly.
You do NOT want the grifftigers to mess up the betting odds by interference, the last time they did that you’d lost money and Were Not Amused (although Willis had been caught slipping the griffkittens extra treats, the treacherous cheating cheater who cheats, cheatingly).
Parliament is just doing routine work, not trying to ‘help’ or ‘halp’, and the Eldest has let you know that they fully intend to allow you as free a reign as you wish in dealing with things.
That’s nice, they do nothing and will graciously say nothing if everything works out and criticize you endlessly if things don’t. Great.
You do receive word of a minor pirate attack on Calliope, unfortunately the primitive jumpship the pirates were using was destroyed in the fighting. Your forces took no appreciable damage that couldn’t be fixed with the vigorous application of elbow grease and cleaning supplies. You are quite glad to hear that good news.