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The Federation of Mars

9 (37.5%)

The Outer Systems Republic

15 (62.5%)

Total Members Voted: 23

[Hanzoku]

I suggest backing off for now, this is neither the time or place to start a Cuban Missile Crisis in Space.

That said, at the political level, we need to open free movement of civilian vessels within Sol, before we end up with the asteroid belt as a closed border in both directions.

[Lorknis]

I suggest backing off for now, this is neither the time or place to start a Cuban Missile Crisis in Space.

That said, at the political level, we need to open free movement of civilian vessels within Sol, before we end up with the asteroid belt as a closed border in both directions.

I concur, free movement is the cornerstone of trust between nations. Perhaps in character, we can try to call for open borders as a sign of brotherhood between all of humanity or somesuch.

[Karlito]

I would like to be governor of Europa. I'll say right now my goal for this campaign is the peaceful political union of all humanity.

Andes should withdraw, and more to the point, should be re-tasked to surveying the Outer planets, starting with the Saturn system.

Diplomatically, we should try to establish more normalized relations. If there isn't a Federation embassy on Ganymede we can keep informed of our inner system ship movements, then we should see about getting them to set one up. I also concur with the above that we should try to establish freedom of movement for civilian vessels.

I'd also like to propose some additional strategic orders.
Production: Expand the Callisto naval academy to Level 4. Dedicate say, 10% of production capacity to produce them concurrently with the mines.
Shipbuilding: Two additional Andes-Class survey vessels, the Boösaule and the Himalaya

[Azzuro]

I would like to be governor of Europa. I'll say right now my goal for this campaign is the peaceful political union of all humanity.

Andes should withdraw, and more to the point, should be re-tasked to surveying the Outer planets, starting with the Saturn system.

Diplomatically, we should try to establish more normalized relations. If there isn't a Federation embassy on Ganymede we can keep informed of our inner system ship movements, then we should see about getting them to set one up. I also concur with the above that we should try to establish freedom of movement for civilian vessels.

I'd also like to propose some additional strategic orders.
Production: Expand the Callisto naval academy to Level 4. Dedicate say, 10% of production capacity to produce them concurrently with the mines.
Shipbuilding: Two additional Andes-Class survey vessels, the Boösaule and the Himalaya

It will take six days for Andes to reach Saturn from its current position, would you all rather have it survey the (closer) asteroid belt first? Also I'm assuming you mean the academy on Ganymede, since that's where all the factories are. For reference, academy level is essentially empire-wide, so the Republic has level 2 (Ganymede 1 + Callisto 1) right now - would you like to expand it to level 5 (4+1) or level 4 (3+1)?

The Federation does not currently have any physical embassy on Republic worlds and vice versa. All diplomacy is conducted via the ansible. Would you like to send a message to the Federation asking for an embassy?

[Lorknis]

Yes, we really should establish their embassy on Ganymede and our embassy on Mars. A sign of good faith and all since I too would rather not have Space Wars.

[Azzuro]

Abroad RVS Andes, Outside Mars Orbit - 3rd January 2100, 06:04 UTC

Following a brief but spirited debate amongst civil and naval staff back on Callisto and Ganymede, cooler heads prevail and the Andes is ordered to withdraw. A terse message is transmitted to the Federation receiver on Luna to that effect.



The Andes is ordered to survey Ausonia, a main-belt asteroid that coincidentally lies almost on the direct line back to Jupiter. She will thereafter survey the main-belt asteroids clockwise until reaching 55 degrees galactic true, whereupon she will make for Saturn to survey its moon system.

As a result of this incident, Republic diplomats reach out to the Federation regarding the establishment of a manned embassy between the two powers. Initial Federation response is cautious.

Republic Void Navy Fleet Intelligence Office - Analysis

Given the Federation was able to detect the Andes (thermal signature 200) at a range of 108m km from Earth, we estimate the Federation's listening array on Luna to have a sensor strength of 540 - or 600, assuming some delay to confirm the Andes' course. This is equivalent to our own Deep Space Monitoring Array on Callisto. It is also guaranteed that the Federation now knows the top speed of our vessel to be 2702 kps.

No signs of Federation vessels were seen in this incident, so we are as yet unable to deduce any useful intelligence in that area.

New Rome, Europa - 3rd January 2100



In a routine address to the residents of Europa, Europa Governor Karlito unveils a planned expansion of the State University in an effort to produce more scientific talent for the Republic, which gathers widespread support within the intellectual communities on Europa. He also announces the laying down of a new Andes-class geosurvey vessel, the Boösaule, with a second, the Himalaya, to follow.

Abroad RVS Andes, Asteroid Belt - 4th January 2100, 09:00 UTC

The Andes reports minor subsurface deposits of TNEs on the asteroid Chloris, totaling approximately 17.7k tons.

Code: (Chloris) [Select]

Neutronium 5 776 (1) Boronide 8 836 (1) Sorium 3 136 (1)
Later in the day, substantial TNE deposits are found on the asteroid Philomela, notably including 26k tons of Vendarite alone.

Code: (Philomela) [Select]

Duranium 16 543 (0.9)  Vendarite 26 000 (1)  Uridium 13 911 (0.9)
Abroad RVS Andes, Asteroid Belt - 5th January 2100, 08:00 UTC

Further TNE deposits are found on the asteroid Concordia.

Code: (Concordia) [Select]

Boronide 23 154 (1)  Sorium 11 400 (1)
The Republic also discovers the first TNE deposits on a comet on Comet Wolf, which is currently outbound and will reach aphelion just outside the orbit of Jupiter.

Code: (Comet Wolf) [Select]

Mercassium 13 985 (0.5)  Uridium 20 454 (0.7)

Asteroid survey map as of 8th January. White circles are surveyed bodies, green circles are minerals discovered. The blue arc in the upper left is the passive sensor ranges of Callisto - 120m km - for scale.

Ny Enhet, Ganymede - 8th January 2100

After being thoroughly scanned by a squadron of gunboats, a Federation courier shuttle drops off twenty three people to man the newly established Federation embassy on Ganymede, located in a disused office spire in the Republic capital. Chief amongst them is a woman who identifies herself as Ambassador Alexandra Patel, the Federation's senior diplomat.

The Republic's own embassy team also lands on Mars, in the Federation capital of Auburnia on the Hellas Sea coast. They establish secure ansible communications back to the Republic capital, and report that the attitude of the Federation government toward diplomacy is still lukewarm at best.

[Karlito]

Let's get the empire wide academy level up to 5. That should give us plenty of scientists and officers.

We should call for a diplomatic summit in a couple months to discuss issues related to freedom of travel for civilians throughout the system and the establishment of military no-fly zones

[Azzuro]

Ny Enhet, Ganymede - 8th January 2100

At the Federation embassy, Europa Governor Karlito broaches the idea of a diplomatic summit in person between the two powers to negotiate freedoms of travel in space. Ambassador Patel replies that while the Federation is tentatively interested in such a meeting, senior Federation leaders are not willing to travel to Republic worlds without the escort of Federation military ships to guarantee their safety, and the Republic Navy is adamantly opposed to any such transits. She intuits that if suitable neutral ground can be agreed upon along with military escort, then such a summit would be possible.

Abroad RVS Andes, Asteroid Belt - 8th January 2100, 04:00 UTC

TNE deposits are discovered on the asteroid 52 Europa. While the quantities are not especially significant individually, the four mineral types mean that mines would be more efficient per unit time than on other asteroids. Minor deposits are also found on the asteroid Prokne.

Code: (52 Europa) [Select]

Duranium 11 811 (1)  Tritanium 12 129 (0.9)  Vendarite 7 574 (0.9)  Corundium 9 846 (1)

Code: (Prokne) [Select]

Mercassium 6 724 (1)  Sorium 6 084 (1)
Abroad RVS Andes, Mars L4 - 16th January 2100, 09:00 UTC

The Andes surveys the Mars trojan 1999 UJ7, on the orbit of Mars. Although no minerals are found, she is not detected by the Federation either.

New Rome, Europa - 20th January 2100



Scientist Lauren Sharp completes prototyping on the last of Fuller-Hunter Design Systems' electronics needed for the R-1 Falcon. Research efforts turn toward testing of the fighter-mounted railgun, although the bottleneck will be the design of the high-performance fighter engine and reactor. This will be alleviated slightly as Scientist Caridad Mondragón Bétancourt has gained insight into engine design philosophies, increasing his research bonus to 25%.

Callisto Deep Space Monitor Array, Callisto - 20th January 2100, 09:15




Five large thermal drive signatures are picked up on the monitor array at Callisto - ships departing Mars. After an hour, they are determined to be on a course heading for either Mercury or Luna at 1702 kps. Given their large drive signatures and relatively slow speed, they are likely to be either freighters or colony ships.

Callisto Deep Space Monitor Array, Callisto - 23rd January 2100, 12:00

After spending approximately ten hours at Luna, the five ships do not head back to Mars, but proceed on a bearing of 104 degrees galactic true, which takes them into the asteroid belt. Contact is lost at 1900hrs on the 25th.

Abroad RVS Andes, Asteroid Belt - 26th January 2100, 06:00 UTC



The Andes completes its survey of the outlying asteroid Thule and departs to survey the Saturnian moon system. Further TNE deposits were found on the asteroid Johanna. So far, slightly less than a quarter of the main asteroid belt has been surveyed.

Code: (Johanna) [Select]

Duranium 17 200 (1)  Neutronium 12 458 (0.8)  Tritanium 19 732 (1)
Aubernia, Mars - 27th January 2100

The Federation informs the Republic embassy that it has claimed the main-belt asteroid Astraea as its territory, and forbids Republic vessels from entering within a 10 million kilometer cordon of the asteroid. Across the capital, Federation citizens celebrate the settling of the asteroid as a sign of progress, with official media showing an automated mining effort and promising to have civilian populations settled on the asteroid within a year.


Location of Astraea within the belt, at lower middle with the current location of Mars in upper left. For scale, the closest asteroid Aurelia is 10.3mil km away.

[Azzuro]

Anyone wants to decide the response to the Federation claiming an asteroid? Options are:

-issue a diplomatic rebuke
-issue a STRONGLY WORDED diplomatic rebuke
-claim our own asteroid (or two, or three, or seven hundred fifty four)
-claim all the asteroids around Astraea such that the Federation can't get there (hilarious but probably not a good solution)
-send unarmed freighters to put automines there
-send freighters and colony ships to drop a few people there
-send a warship to poke around that asteroid
-send the entire fleet there (not recommended)
-send the entire fleet and troops to conquer the asteroid (highly not recommended)

Or anything else you can think of, really. If I don't get a consensus on what to do, the default will be to do nothing.

[Karlito]

No reason to provoke a crisis over this. Plenty of asteroids in the sky after all. A claim in response would be on paper only as we don't have any automines or infrastructure to send over. For now I think we do nothing but produce some automines and mass drivers to claim an asteroid in the future.

[Azzuro]

No reason to provoke a crisis over this. Plenty of asteroids in the sky after all. A claim in response would be on paper only as we don't have any automines or infrastructure to send over. For now I think we do nothing but produce some automines and mass drivers to claim an asteroid in the future.

You do have automines. 80 of them on Io, and mass drivers as well. Given mines are currently being produced on Ganymede, this offsets the loss in mineral productivity of shifting the automines off Io. Infrastructure can be gotten from Titan, which is still below its population limit, although that's further to ship and will probably have to compensated for in the future because Titan can't be perfectly habitable. In any case, infrastructure is dirt cheap to produce compared to all other installations.

EDIT: Looking back, I posted the Io mining screen twice instead of its colony summary in this post. It's been fixed now.

[Karlito]

Ah, I wasn't aware of the automines on Io. I see we're actually missing that screenshot.

In that case, I say we claim the asteroid 52 Europa and have cargo ships move to it 10 automines and a mass-driver if we have one to spare.

[Azzuro]

Ny Enhet, Ganymede - 27th January 2100

The Republic does not offer either acknowledgement or rebuttal of the Federation's claim to Astraea. Behind the scenes, government officials hastily draw up plans to match them with a colony on the mineral-rich asteroid 52 Europa. Freighters are dispatched to transfer automated mines from Io to 52 Europa.

Abroad RVS Andes, Saturn - 29th January 2100, 22:10 UTC

The Andes arrives at the Saturn system and begins surveying the gas giant itself. Elsewhere on Callisto, the same convoy of five Federation freighters is detected heading for Luna again.

Ny Enhet, Ganymede - 30th January 2100



The Outer Systems Republic announces its claim to the asteroid 52 Europa and surrounding space out to a distance of 10 million km. A relatively unknown civilian administrator, Josh Hart, is chosen to be Governor of the asteroid, despite having little experience in the area of mining. Across the Jovian moons, Republic citizens celebrate what they see as the government's first concrete step to exploiting the resources of the asteroid belt and demonstrating the Republic's promise of a better future ahead.

At the Federation embassy, Ambassador Patel issues a statement that the Federation will respect the territorial boundaries set for as long as the Republic does likewise. Meanwhile, the Republic embassy in Aubernia reports that several within the Federation government, and a considerable portion of its citizenry, see the Republic as just imitating the Federation's endeavors.



On the 'actual Europa' (as residents now put it), scientist Pothuval completes his contract to design the Price Systems 100mm railgun used on the R-1 fighter, and is reassigned to a government-backed research to make larger 250mm railguns a reality. Even with three-quarters of the Republic's research capability backing him, he estimates just over a year for the project to be completed.

Callisto Deep Space Monitor Array, Callisto - 3rd February 2100, 23:00

The Federation convoy once again disappears out of range of the sensors on Callisto, on a course toward the now-known Federation colony of Astraea. Even with the presumed freighters outputting large thermal drive signatures, the Jovian system is too far to monitor Federation shipping in that area of the main belt, and due to system geometry, will remain so for several years until Jupiter completes approximately half of its orbit around Sol.

An enterprising group of naval officers suggest the stationing of a deep space tracking station on 52 Europa to monitor Federation movements in the inner system, but none are currently available without compromising the stations on Callisto and Titan


Blue arc is Callisto sensor range for signature strength 1600, Astraea is at bottom right (middle of the belt). Jupiter is currently orbiting anti-clockwise, or you can imagine it as the belt orbiting clockwise instead. Callisto sensor range covers about half the belt at this strength, so Astraea has just passed out of that half. Titan sensor range (not shown) covers only a tiny part of the belt, from asteroid Hermione to Elfriede at upper right.

Abroad RVS Andes, Saturn - 9th February 2100, 08:00 UTC

The Andes discovers the presence of Sorium within Saturn's atmosphere as well, albeit at half the accessibility as the clouds on Jupiter. However, the Republic does not possess the technology to harvest gaseous Sorium yet.

Code: (Saturn) [Select]

Sorium 301 350 (0.4)
52 Europa - 13th February 2100



The freighters unload a mass driver to 52 Europa, and the asteroid colony immediately starts to send back mineral packets to Ganymede, contributing to the Republic's economy.

Additionally, the Andes discovers a significant deposit of Vendarite on Saturn's moon Dione, exceeding one hundred thousand tons and at maximum accessibility. The rest of Saturn's moons are barren, with the exception of Titan.

Code: (Dione) [Select]

Vendarite 124 913 (1)  Corundium 13 879 (1)
Epigeus City, Ganymede - 20th February 2100



On Europa, scientist Bétancourt completes his research on both the reactor and engine needed for the Falcon. Production of the fighters begins immediately at Ganymede Aerospace's factories, and CEO Hanzoku announces that the first fighter will be ready to fly in a month. Bétancourt turns his intellect to a top-secret project to explore possible ramifications of trans-newtonian theory that may prove the existance of 'jump points' between star systems, which could theoretically allow interstellar travel.

Code: [Select]

R-1 'Falcon' class Fighter    490 tons     4 Crew     73.5 BP      TCS 9.79  TH 48  EM 0
4902 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Maint Life 6.87 Years     MSP 23    AFR 7%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 1    5YR 13    Max Repair 24 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 0   

Chapman Thrust 200 Ton NPE-48 High Performance Fighter Engine (1)    Power 48    Fuel Use 185.18%    Signature 48    Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres    Range 1.0 billion km   (56 hours at full power)

Price Systems 100mm 'Kineti-kill' Railgun (1x4)    Range 30 000km     TS: 4902 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fuller-Hunter OSR/APG-04 Mark LX-48K Targeting System (1)    Max Range: 96 000 km   TS: 6000 km/s     90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Chapman Thrust 45 Ton PBR-3.1 Power System (1)     Total Power Output 3.1    Armour 0    Exp 12%

Fuller-Hunter OSR/APS-01 Active Search Lidar (1)     GPS 15     Range 520k km    Resolution 9
Fuller-Hunter OSR/AQR-03 Thermal Bloom Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  1m km
Fuller-Hunter OSR/ADR-02 Electromagnetic Sensor (1)     Sensitivity 1.1     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  1.1m km

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
Near the orbit of Saturn, the Andes discovers TNE deposits on the comet Tempel-Tuttle, outbound from the sun.

Code: (Tempel-Tuttle) [Select]

Duranium 28 612 (0.9)  Mercassium 6 711 (0.8)  Sorium 1 834 (0.5)


Finally, on Auburnia, the Republic embassy reports that a Federation civilian conglomerate, Coates Container Group, has just launched a colony ship, which is the first civilian-owned interplanetary voidship in the Federation. The ship has activated its transponders, rendering it visible to sensors through the system.

Decided to end it here as there were a bunch of events. Any new orders for the Andes? Currently it's surveying random bodies around Jupiter-Saturn orbit, but I could send it back to continue surveying the asteroid belt.

[Karlito]

We need a place to store those new fighters coming off the line. This design is just 11 hangar bays, a bridge, and the requisite crew quarters and armor. It's the smallest hangar PDC that can be transported in 1 freighter.

Code: [Select]

Fighter Base class Fighter Base    12,150 tons     170 Crew     1207.2 BP      TCS 243  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 5-47     Sensors 1/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 3   
Hangar Deck Capacity 11000 tons     

This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 5 sections
Production: Reallocate construction factories as need to make a Fighter Base ASAP, such that we'll have a place to store the falcons when they roll off the line.

The Andes can return to surveying the asteroid belt.

[Azzuro]

It's not exactly super-urgent to make one of those, since I could just undock one of the carrier fleet's attack wings to make room for the  fighters temporarily (which will take more than a year to finish, btw). But it will be useful to make some to station our fighters defensively (such as on our new asteroid, for example).

Speaking of which, any thoughts on how to develop 52 Europa? We could
-produce and place some DSTS there to monitor Fed ships in the inner system
-produce or relocate some infrastructure there to establish a manned colony. Could allow us to use mines instead of automines. If we sent some maintenance facilities as well, could maintain a squadron of gunboats there permanently.
-send more automines over
Or are those resources better used to develop our core worlds?