Turn 6 - Winter 2175/3025
WCDC Defense Council:
(1 action)
[] Future Space Combat Craft: - 3
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 7 - Failure
With the new Kearney-Fuchida Fusion Thruster on the way and poised to revolutionize interplanetary spaceflight within the Three Systems, one of the Think Tanks in the Rocky Mountain Arcology is tasked to work on the future of spacecraft combat and how the WCDC should implement changes.
Of course the first thing of note was to note the current combat space craft could not be upgraded to the new thruster technology at all, their structural integrity and internal spaces designed for up to 0.1g of constant acceleration at most.
But about as far as the think tank gets with its work, when one of its members introduces all the others to a new VRMMORPG recently released,
Defense of the Imperium, which spreads through the think tank like a virus, shutting down any work hard.
active for 3 more turns
[] Jump Point Defense:
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 70%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 8 - Failure
Roll 2 of 3, Roll 1d100: 15 - Failure
Development of a Jump Point Defense System turns out to be harder than originally expected as many of the contractors contacted about the Request for Designs for it fail to react. After almost a month goes by without a reaction to the request, inquiries are made, resulting in surprised contractors who have not gotten the EMails containing the RfD.
Investigation into that situation leads to massive embarrassment as the mail server used to send out the RfD has 'eaten' the mail and not sent it out at all.
active for one more turn
WCDC Survey Office:
(1 actions)
[] Deep Signal Intelligence: - 3
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 70%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 56 - Success
With the space up to 60ly known and ten habitated planets discovered, and the planned and subsequently ignored mission to Erdvynn in the background, the planners of the Survey Office are somewhat reluctant to propose another deep space mission. But other than the Erdvynn project, this plan is much more successful.
With this project several of the survey squadrons are requested from their respective militaries to be sent out into the direction of the closest 'periphery powers', the Lothian League, the Illyrian Palatinate and the Cincinus Federation. In fact the mercenaries of Köhler Military Services were on the way to the Lothian League in a roundabout way when they stumbled over Sol.
The plan for the operation is to remain in deep space of the ecliptic of the various systems of the three star nations and work on signal intelligence, gathering as much EM radiation as possible to get a good idea about the nations in question without being seen. Considering that most of the systems seem to have their eyes firmly on the Zenith and Nadir Jump Points of their systems, it is thought to be unlikely that they will notice the squadrons hanging out in deep space.
Additionally, each of the surveyed systems will receive at least three survey satellites, designed for long term deployment and with a limited ALI aboard to do some preliminary data analysis of the gathered EM radiation. In the future, it is believed that small detachments can go to these systems again to recover the data from the satellites and return them to Berlin for further study.
active for 3 more turns
[] Rimworlds Research:
active (5 turns)
Time: 8 turns, Chance of success: 25%
Roll 1 of 8, Roll 1d100: 24 - Fail
Roll 2 of 8, Roll 1d100: 65 - Marginal Fail/Almost Success
Roll 3 of 8, Roll 1d100: 41 - Fail
The research mission to visit Erdvynn continues to labor in limbo, as most of the main managers of the Survey Office remain uninterested into the project, no matter what the last voting on the project has been.
However, the plans are refined further by the project team, hoping it will eventually be picked up.
active for 5 more turns
WCDC Diplomatic Corps:
(0 actions)
[] We want to help:
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 65%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 60+5 = 65 - Success
Roll 2 of 3, Roll 1d100: 75+5 = 80 - Success
Roll 3 of 3, Roll 1d100: 100+5 = 105 - Crit Success (Crit Roll 1d100: 24)
Combined: 83 - Success
The diplomatic missions to Llyn Ogwen, Hannover and Ammann slowly wrap up and the three missions begin to set up permanent embassies, after the governments of the three systems have invited the missions to stay.
The Amish of Ammann have slowly come over to the side of the diplomats and the initial embassy is invited to stay at the house of one of the main settlements Elders until the spacecraft return with material and people to help build a more permanent solution.
The Llyn Owgen government has also come down nicely on the side of the diplomats, especially since several members of the ambassy are Welsh and native Welsh speakers who had been specially selected for the work. Over glasses of Llyn Seaweed Gin, the Tiaunt ambassador is given one of the older houses within the capital of Machynlleth to set up an embassy and a part of the Machynlleth airport for WCDC shuttles. This is somewhat unsurprising, as the Tiaunt are somewhat dragonoid and dragons play a big part in Welsh mythology, especially on Llyn Ogwen, where the primary apex predator looks like a wyvern.
On Hannover, the reaction was similarly positive, this time due to the mission being led by Andreas von Hohenzollern, the current Prince of Prussia. Here it was a deliberate selection on the side of the WCDC, as well as a request by the ambassador. The massive support coming from the Prometheus Foundation to the Hannoverian economy also had its effects. Consequently, the embassy was set up within one of the oldest palaces of Döhren, a replica of Schloss Bellevue and formerly the home of the President of Hannover, before the office was replaced by the Kaiser, living in the Stadtschloss of Döhren.
Reward: diplomatic relations with Llyn Ogwen, Hannover and Ammann (permanent ambassy, +5 diplomatic actions (from crit)), new Trade option available
[] Humanitarian Aid: Hannover
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 50%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 29+5 = 34 - Fail
Roll 2 of 3, Roll 1d100: 77+5 = 82 - Success
Roll 3 of 3, Roll 1d100: 95+5 = 100 - Crit Success (Crit Roll 1d100: 27)
Combined: 72 - Success
Within weeks of landing the two Planetary Settlements Kits, the Kaiser has ordered the Arbeitsdienst to construct a subterranean base to install the fabricator subsystems that are part of the Kits. Largely this was done to protect these valuable systems from potential pirate raids, as has previously been done with the libraries of old knowledge from before the settlement.
The Prometheus Foundation was a little gobsmacked by the high valued placed on the fabricator subsystem, but to the economists of Hannover and the Kaiser himself, machines that can produce almost everything from a blueprint and copy anything atom by atom, are god sent to lift the world back into the space age, and as such needed to be protected. The information that the fabricator subsystem could duplicate themselves within a month was greeted with disbelief, but after the machines were installed inside the new Brocken Maschinenwerk, together with the fusion reactors from the Planetary Settlement Kits, they were tasked to replicate themselves. After one month and some assembly, Hannover had doubled its ownership of fabricators, something that would be bound to get Hannover up to speed in a relatively short time.
Simultaneously, the Prometheus Foundation used its shuttle craft to place the combined 2000 Stratolink Communication and planetary observation satellites in orbit around Hannover, which resulted in a full global coverage within less than one month.
The various vehicles part of the PSK were given to the Arbeitsdienst to make use of. The medical, food and building supplies automatically part of the PKS were also given away to those planetary settlements that needed them most.
Around the same time, the first hundred students from Hannover were shipped out towards Earth, where they were slated to enter various universities, though due to their mother languages, many of these universities would be in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Half of these, including Princess Kimiko von Hohenzollern, would visit the Humbold University of Berlin.
The entirety of the Planetary Settlement Kit answered many prayers of the Hannoverian people and its government, and would be heavily used to bring the planet to a modern technology level, as well as help modernize the massive planetary preservation complexes dotting the planet. Already plans were made by the Arbeitsdienst to install copies of the Fabricator subsystems into each of the complexes to fabricate new and replacement parts.
A study of the impact of the PSK by the Prometheus Foundation noted Hannover should have absorbed the technology of the PSK by 2190/3040.
Reward: +15 on diplomatic action on Hannover (+5 due to crit), Hannover reaches technological parity with the WCDC by 2190/3040
WCDC Trade Organization:
(2 actions)
[] Economic Ties: - 3
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 60%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 34 - Failure
With the previous activity of the Trade Organization working to strengthen the economy by making it stronger, more agile and diversifying the economy of the Three Systems, morale within the Trade Organization is high and the various teams begin to work on further activities to improve the economic situation.
One such activity would be to improve the economic ties between the Three Systems, as well as the colonies. There is however a problem. Sol, 61 Virginis and Beta Hydri are essentially completely independent when it comes to their economies. Every system produces what it needs and there is little need to actually import or export things.
That there is any trade between the systems at all, is thanks to luxury articles, where something from one system is considered a luxury item in another, allowing traders to make some money, as well as the few incentives given to facilitate trade in mid to late 2174/3024, with Helium-3 being one of the main exports of 61 Virginis, while optical systems are a staple of Beta Hydri and cheap fabricator systems one of the exports of Sol.
The problem still remained, what more could be traded between the Three Systems to tie the systems closer together?
active for 2 more turns
[] Scientific-Industrial Complex: - 3
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 70%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 70 - Success
Another of the new activities in the Trade Organization proved much more fruitful in its beginnings, as the WCDCTO began to inquire about the working relationships between the various universities, collages and research organizations with the local economy. In the past cooperation between the scientific community and the industry had always been to the profit of both sides.
This neatly tied into the attempt about furthering the economic ties however as there was the vague idea out there that ideas and scientific work might be one of the tradable goods between the Three Systems. Much like patterns for fabricators.
And the scientific community was indeed open for cooperation between the systems, especially the scientist that had already visited another system, either for a scientific conference or to work at an university.
But it would remain to be seen how successful the future of this Three System Scientific-Industrial Compley might be.
active for 2 more turns
WCDC Office for Science and Development:
(0 actions)
[] Kearney-Fuchida Fusion Thruster
active (1 turns)
Time: 4 turns, Chance of success: 65%
Roll 1 of 4, Roll 1d100: 37 - Marginal Success
Roll 2 of 4, Roll 1d100: 69 - Success
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 39 - Marginal Suceess
Work continued on the various projects to understand and develop Kearney-Fuchida Fsuion Thrusters and some scientists from the Sorbonne managed to get Doctor Sandoval to allow them to take a closer look at the drive systems of the dropship
St. Peter Ording, hoping it would allow them to get a lead on any of the other teams within Sol, 61 Virginis or Beta Hydri.
For anyone betting however, three teams seemed to be closest. One team at CERN, another team at the University of United Colonies in 61 Virginis and a third team of the Imperial School of Technology on Jerat.
active for one more turn
[] Big Stompy Robots:
active
Time: 3 turns, Chance of success: 70%
Roll 1 of 3, Roll 1d100: 31 - Marginal Success
Roll 2 of 3, Roll 1d100: 51 - Success
Roll 3 of 4, Roll 1d100: 57 - Success
Combined: 46 - Success
Observations of the capabilities of the Battlemechs of Köhler Military Services continued in the field, while the mercenaries trained, while several technicians were able to get much closer looks at the various internal sub-systems of the 'mechs.
It was possible to get some samples of the Myomer bundles used to articulate the various limbs of the large combat vehicles, and an analysis showed they were not all too different to modern memory polymers and could easily replicate using conventional chemical processes, or fabricators.
More scrutiny was directed at the reactor systems of the 'mechs. It was possible to measure the energy production of the reactor of one of the mercenaries Phoenix Hawk mechs, allowing to state it was comparable to the compact DHe³ fusion reactors used in modern MBTs. However, the protium fusion nature of the Battlemechs reactor (or engine) made heavy shielding necessary, due to the high neutron flux of the fusion reaction. While it did produce twice the energy per kg of fuel than the DHe³ reaction, the simpler nature of the DHe³ reactors reduced the needed shielding by at least 50%. Potentially, such a fusion engine could be replaced with an MBT reactor with the remaining space taken up by superconducting energy cells, allowing the mech to operate normally for a time, without the reactor producing energy, much like it was done with modern MBTs.
The Heatsinks were also of interest to the observers, noting they would be a worthwhile to take a closer look at, potentially easing the massive requirement of air based cooling of the modern MBT reactor system.
In the end two groups of people left the training area with their observations and advocating for two possible followups for the military.
Reward: +10 on research of Inner Sphere weapons, +5 on military ground actions to better knowledge of Inner Sphere capabilities
Random Even: (or not so random)
London Times said:
Formation of the Interstellar Federation
Moscow
Today, President German Isayev of the Russian Federation announced Russia, together with Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Emkin Assembly of 61 Virginis and the Union of Free Jerat Republics, would come together in Moscow to sign a treaty creating the Interstellar Federation.
This is a move wherein Moscow hopes to form a powerful counterweight to the WCDC.
...