Turn 63 - Fortuna Deus
As expected, certain manufacturers based on Griffin’s Roost who had been making strong profits off of supplying Calliope IV are crying foul to the industrial expansion of the world making them less dependent on them. The vector they are using, however, is to fund a campaign alleging widespread environmental degradation on the planet as the result of the ‘excess’ industrialization. They are being rather clever about it, using stock images that are of polluted and degraded areas of the planet that long predate your arrival on the planet and relying on the fact that most people won’t know the difference.
As a result, there is now some pressure to reverse the industrial expansion policies, on the grounds that it is destroying a ‘pristine’ world. The industry groups are also managing to conflate Calliope III with Calliope IV at times, then when pressed on it apologizing for the confusion between ‘two previously unspoiled worlds’.
The Calliope representatives are being somewhat overwhelmed by the tactics being employed, as they are far less accustomed to mass media manipulation. This sort of thing is a common tactic in industrial and commercial infighting, the goalpost shifting, the conflating of unrelated items, the fast talk, and most sophisticated consumers are well able to tell so long as the response from the targets is competent.
The Calliope folks are laboring under the illusions of ignorance, however, and are not responding as well as they should. You could intervene, either directly or indirectly, although the former would risk further angering the industrial groups behind the campaign. Directly you’d simply point-blank counter the propaganda point by point, indirectly you’d provide expert assistance to the Calliope folks in how to handle the media storm effectively. Or you could just let Calliope sink or swim on their own, on the grounds that they really need to learn how to handle this on their own.
[] | Intervene Directly | Spokesmen from the Colonial Administration directly brief the press and public on actual conditions, refuting and rebuking the industrial groups in the process. Make use of point by point discrediting of the tactics the industrial groups are using |
- +2 Politics
- -1 Economy Rating
- -1% interest rate next year
|
[] | Assist discreetly | Have advisors from your own media teams sit down with the Calliope IV representatives and train them in how best to handle this situation, then let them go out and do the actual work |
- -1% interest rate next year
- +1 Econ Rating - Calliope IV
|
[] | Sink or Swim | The best way for anybody to learn sometimes is to just go out there and do it. Win or lose, it will be a valuable learning experience for the Calliope representatives |
- -1 Politics
- +1 Econ Rating - Calliope IV
|
Long range sensors in the Sukaishi system pick up an emergence pulse at a pirate point far away from any inhabited region in the outer fringes of the system. A very fuzzy picture is taken by the telescope array which has been fed to
SARAH for enhancement.
The results are, to say the least, worrying. A small flotilla of vessels, tentatively identified as a
Cameron class battlecruiser, two
Dart class light cruisers, and a
Pinto class corvette are apparently recharging in the system. Markings are similar to the Amaris Remnant vessels spotted in the past. None of the vessels make any offensive moves and after ten days of recharging they jump out.
SARAH does point out that the images don’t precisely match the warbook, then makes a rather worrying statement that she only has the ‘public’ warbook for Warships, not the SLDF internal specifications, and that it has long been theorized that the ‘public’ specifications for SLDF Warships were… deceptive at best. Plus she has no data on any refits or modifications made by the Amaris Remnant. Gathering more intelligence is a high priority.
Parliament is being extremely quiet this year, after the drubbing that they took last year, and is sticking to routine business while keeping their heads generally down. It’s nice and quiet, if not at all helpful to the Empire. For all the times Parliament causes you headaches and problems, they do regularly produce useful legislation that has been helpful.
No doubt eventually they’ll regain their more typical boisterous nature. They do annoy you, but you aren’t sure what to do without them.
Siriwan and Lisa have finally openly admitted their relationship, winning Willis the final jackpot of the betting pool. If they’d only waited until after Easter, then you’d have won. As it is, you are rather happy for your granddaughter, and you’d come to rather like the Japanese woman that more or less runs the TTP for you.
That’s not the only bright spot among the grandkids, John Van, your eldest grandson, has finally settled down. He’d been dating his girlfriend for over fifteen years, but their military duties had always kept them from actually marrying. But with John now assigned full time to the Ministry in Procurement, he’s finally settled enough, and the two are married in a grand ceremony in Griffsport, in the same cathedral where you and Willis were married all those years ago.
And there’s already a great-grandbaby on the way!
That’s not the only wedding this year, it seems many of your grandkids are finding 2993 to be a great year to wed. Eight of them, to be precise. The ceremonies range from the extremely private, usually on board
SS United States to more public ones. But soon you’ll be seeing more great-grandbabies! Ba likes, Ba likes a lot!
Survey work in the ruins at New Capricorn turns up an intact data recorder. The colony hadn’t failed on its own, but had rather been ravaged by pirate attacks battering down its defenses until they failed, the last raid had resulted in over 90% of the colonists on the planet being enslaved or killed, including every single female colonist. The few survivors had eventually died out, either to subsequent raids or old age. By the description, these are the same sorts of pirates who’ve been harassing your shipping and attacking the NRI for centuries, not the Amaris Remnant.
Speaking of the harassment of your shipping, the new
White Tower on New Capricorn has already been blooded, beating off a pirate raid. Unfortunately another convoy in Griff’s Leap was also hit and took some casualties, one
Bainbridge was damaged enough to require the services of the repair facility back in Griffin’s Roost, while one
Caravel has been crippled and is currently unable to jump. Repairs are believed to be possible, thankfully, and the crippled jumpship is being protected by a brace of
Majestics.
The picket force you’d left on Nova Roma are also attacked by a massive force of pirates. Twenty primitive jumpships jumped in, releasing over 70 dropships, most of which were of the ‘Stinger’ classification, IE small fast assault dropships of varying configurations that were light, swift, decently armed, but with no armor to speak of, but also 7 of the ‘Hive’ classification vessels, which disgorged enormous wings of the crude ‘Swarmer’ type ASFs. In a twist, however, it appears that the pirates had some old DCMS equipment, as there were a number of
Sabre and
Shilone ASFs as well.
The picket force was composed of 14 of your combat dropships, 4 each of the
Majestic and
Shannon class and 6
Bainbridges. Despite being massively outnumbered, your forces were able to effectively maneuver to control the battle and while every ship was damaged none were lost, in exchange for wiping out the pirate force. The pirate jumpships acted as pseudo-Warships during the battle, armed with crude approximations of capital missiles, and were themselves destroyed as well.
You took three dozen KIA and over a hundred WIA, however.
And one of the KIA was your grandson, Sarah’s second oldest son Jeremy Alexander Bartalozzi. He was the gunnery officer on board HMS Caesar, a
Majestic class vessel, and was killed when a lucky shot managed to penetrate to the bridge, killing the entire command crew of the ship. It was a true golden BB, a one in a trillion shot, as the bridge on the
Majestic class is buried deep within the vessel. A previous hit had weakened the armor on the hull, then a second hit managed to hit milliseconds later, burning through and penetrating to the bridge with just enough energy to completely destroy it. The Auxiliary Control Center was able to take over fighting the ship instantly, precisely as designed, and HMS Caesar’s very next volley annihilated the dropship that had managed to score the golden BB.
The funeral will be a closed casket, as there wasn’t enough left of any of the dead to bury. Your daughter and your son-in-law are handling it as well as can be expected, and you are very glad for Willis’ support. You’d not yet lost any of your kids or grandkids, but with so many of them in military service you’d always known it was a risk. You’d just hoped that the Grim Reaper would continue passing them all by, even if you knew intellectually that it wouldn’t.