>>33086513
Hooray! H&D time.

>>33011028
>>Z4
>You actually have several now. They were more common back in the faction wars and as such a few were picked up from the larger battle sites. The latest one you found was probably either a noble's prized relic or a hanger queen.

Did we salvage any of the other fighters on list?

>>33086513
> By the end of the operation and negotiation over the salvage haul you left with: a crippled Helios medium cruiser, engines and salvage from a destroyed Jupiter class heavy transport, smaller salvageable vessels equivilant in tonnage to 37 Battlecruisers, and repair contracts for a few of their larger ships.

No Lance class medium cruiser?

Last time you began development of your Heavy Assault Gunship, selecting an R&D team lead by a Nai going by the name of Garret.
The serpentine race are considerably larger than other Faction species and can appear terrifying to those unfamiliar with them. In spite of that they are known for their intelligence and prefer to avoid combat. Garret has experience with modifying existing designs and seemed like the logical choice.

A set of rough design proposals were sent for your review, eventually resulting in your decision to go with a single large turret and multiple smaller ones allowing more versatility. Or you hope it will work out that way, the current placement of the main gun may make the planned topside landing pad more difficult to use.
The smaller gun turrets will be built into rounded blisters on parts of the hull to reduce drag in atmosphere.

>>33086599
You grabbed all of the starfighters that were listed previously. There wasn't that many of them to be honest.
Did you want to buy/rent a hanger or storage bay to keep the rarer starfighers you've salvaged out of the RSS fighter pool?

>>33086672
Oh wait, yes the Lance was in there.

>>33086773
>Did you want to buy/rent a hanger or storage bay to keep the rarer starfighers you've salvaged out of the RSS fighter pool?

How about we loan them to museums on Petras or other core worlds? That way we wouldn't have to worry about security. Put a clause in the contract so we can actually fly them when we're nearby if we want, and it should be a good deal for both sides.

>>33086773
Nah, just put those that the asshole Baron wanted on a ship back to the homeworld as a gift and let the rest remain on the ship. Not like they will see heavy combat.

>>33086833
>How about we loan them to museums on Petras or other core worlds? That way we wouldn't have to worry about security. Put a clause in the contract so we can actually fly them when we're nearby if we want, and it should be a good deal for both sides.
i like the way you think

>>33086849
>>33086845
Well if anyone funds/operates a starfighter museum it's going to be the Baron, so these two are basically the same option.

File: 1387129409224.jpg (190 KB, 1275x1754)

190 KB JPG

The task of bringing the salvage back to Surakeh ramps up, with escorts running convoys twice a day. Salvaging all 5 sites took most of a week and will be a few more days until everything is back. Nikolov used the Anchorage to jump back the largest ships along with salvage from the Jupiter wreck but will avoid any subsequent trips with it to reduce operating costs. Its much cheaper to have the Y-types and Moli's make a few convoy runs.

On one of the return trips your fleet picks up a distress signal while passing near the edges of claimed territory.

"This is the private salvage ship Robert Gaskin, we've struck a mine and have taken heavy engine damage. We're requesting assistance."

[ ] Help them
[ ] Pass on the signal to nearest friendly ships
[ ] Help them but salvage whatever they were after
[ ] Other
>Your orders?

>>33087244
>mine
mine or minefield?

>>33087244
>[X] Help them
SALVAGE BUDDIES!

Check the ship registry first, though. Don't want to jump into an ambush.

>>33086845
Fuck gifting Archibald fighters. He chose to react like an ass when we acted in the interest of the House by using his fighters to fend off pirates.

If he wants to buy fighters, he can apologize for slapping us because he could get away with it.

Like he said. We did nothing wrong by commandeering a fighting asset during an emergency, he just wasn't happy about it


Museum or that war bond tour, especially if there are 2-seaters that could have rides sold/raffled for bond drives. (tax breaks for us!)

>>33087244
[x] check registry
[x] pass on distress call to military. See if they can send ships in case it is a pirate trap.
[x] send portion of escort to scout/respond. Salvage ships on alert/standby

>>33087464
Sounds sensible.
Seconded.

>>33087334
Remember when TSTG said we need to start playing politics more? Trading favours, building up friends and allies and all that? This is one of those times.

I don't think we can still consider him an asshole without being hypocritical after having people executed for burning down our house. Yes the circumstances are not the same, but the point is that nobles have a lot of clout. The Baron chose not to hit us with that clout and stunt our career at a time when we were not nearly as rich and powerful as we are now. We got a slap on the wrist instead of an actual punishment. If you are still irked that we got punished at all, well get over it.

>>33087767
I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have had them executed if they had just randomly burned down our lodge without endangering anybody. Or at least I hadn't voted for it.

Btw, did the guy who gave the information to us after we caught him at least get his sentence reduced to something less final?

>>33087334
Well normally I would be like this as well but he is influential in the house and it's plainly better to have him on friendly terms rather than on hostile terms. It will help when we reach for that Baron spot to have more friendly Barons than Winifred on our side.

>>33087244
Check das registry
Jump in prepared for combat
See what happens

>>33087334
>or that war bond tour, especially if there are 2-seaters that could have rides sold/raffled for bond drives.
Could work. There are plenty of 2 seat fighters. There are a couple of Z4's that are in good enough shape to be trusted. The only other older 2 seaters that are really flyable would be the Type 4 attack bombers but right now they're or more valuable as front line combat craft.

>>33087265
>mine or minefield?
They've only said mine over the hail and have not specified. You'll need to jump a few lightyears closer to get 2 way communications.

>>33087301
>>33087464
>>33087592
>Check the ship registry first, though. Don't want to jump into an ambush.
Civilian ship registered out of House Ceres space. It's a heavily customised Ballista class carrier with additional drives and grappling arms grafted onto it.

While the others are put on alert for having to potentially run a rescue op you have the Excalibur change course to investigate. If anything goes wrong they can outrun it or outgun it.

As your fleet is just within range of a communications relay you contact the local House military to see if they can send someone to investigate as well. They promise to send a Frigate and 3 attack corvettes within an hour.

A few minutes later the fleet is contacted by the crew of the Excalibur. They've found the ship which is damaged along with wrecks of two other ships nearby, a J-type transport and a Frigate both of which look to have been struck by mines or torpedoes. The crew of the Gaskin are using one of their tugs to push their ship out of the debris field.
A number of regularly shaped objects among the debris are probably mines but are not standing out on sensors as well as they should.

>Your orders?

>>33087767
As a noble, he showed himself to be petty during our first real encounter. At worst, he could have made us repay the damage when we could.

Giving him an expensive or rare gift because we did our duty to the House and he was petty about it is foolish.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be civil, but we shouldnt go actively try to apologize after we already did so. There are plenty of other nobles.

>>33088052
>>Your orders?

Contact them. How can we help, and what did exactly happen to them. Can they provide any information on these mines?

>>33088052
Contact the ship and ask what sort of assistance they require.
Do they need recovery? Can they conduct repairs in the field? Medical evac? Do we have a ship with enhanced sensors in escort?

Pass all info on to military. Have our scout corvettes deploy sensor buoys, perhaps?

Probably want most of the fleet to head onward

>>33088102
>>33088246
"This is Knight Captain Sonia Reynard hailing the crew of the Robert Gaskin, how can we help?"
"If you can we need a ship that can tow us back to a yard for repairs."

"Can you conduct repairs in the field?"
"We could abandon ship using the forward carrier module but we'd lose most of our salvage gear."

"Can you get shields up?"
"Not around the aft sections, too much damage."

"What about Medical evac?
"...five people that we've thrown into stasis and twenty more wounded but not as severely. Another fifteen dead."

>Do we have a ship with enhanced sensors in escort?
Yes. All of your Battlecruisers were heavily upgraded before you went to the front last time. They're also equipped with mass driver point defense.

"Can you give us any data on those mines?"

"It looked like this J-type was carrying a cargo hold full of carbonaceous ores and graphite when it was hit. We're uncertain if that's what people were supposed to think or if they were really smugglers. We moved a few of them out of the way with repulsors once we dropped shields and came in to grapple, then when we lit up our engines one of the damn things hit our drive section."

Do you want to have the Excalibur micro jump in and hit the mines with her point defense, get an explosive ordnance disposal team in there to salvage them, or just tow the salvage ship out with shields extended?

>>33088570
Tow them out then dispose of the mines so others wont run into them after which we take them with us to a yard so they can begin repairing. However still keep security up in case of the possibility that this is still a ruse to board us or shoot us.

>>33088570
I'd like to get my hands on one of these mines to find out what makes them so hard to detect but I think we should leave the decision to our specialists. If they think it's worth risking go for it, otherwise get the Robert Gaskin out of there in the way most effective at avoiding further damage.

>>33088570

Could we use several of our escort ships to tractor the ship out? We have the damn things, may as well use them to try and clear the danger zone while an EOD team is prepped

Do we have room to recover the stricken ship? Or do we need to head back without salvage we have?

>>33088069
You have that backwards. Charging us for damages incurred during a war emergency would have been petty. I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion.

That slow typing guy Wed 21 Mar 2012 00:27:04 No.18398894 ViewReport
He calls up a wireframe hologram of the fighter you borrowed with damaged sections highlighted in red. You didnt know the shot that had taken out one of your engines had penetrated into the main body of the fighter so far.
"I do not appreciate people making unauthorized use of my personal property, escpecially when that property costs more than most starships. Under normal circumstances I'd be furious, instead I'm merely angry, not just at you or the two outside but at the situation in general. Your record so far is... impressive, though I've seen my fair share of rising stars burn out."
Archivald walks back in front of his desk.
"The situation dictated that seizure of property to repell the invaders was necessary. If you hadnt taken that fighter someone else would have. That doesn't mean I have to like it."

Faster than you can believe the man takes hold of a glove he'd removed earlier and slaps you across the face with it.

"That was your punishment for damage to my property."

He returns to his seat behind the desk. "Thank you for brining it back at all. And congratulations on your recent promotion to Flight Leader. You're dismissed."

OP on a different machine Sat 02 Mar 2013 04:23:06 No.23464058 ViewReport
>only Baron Archibald may eventually dislike us.
If he actually disliked you securing starfighters for your Wing would be far more difficult.

He considered you honorable enough for saving Troy Harmen from the fake assasination attempt that he didnt charge you the cost of having the damaged fighter restored. That would have put you well into the red before you became a Knight.

>>33088775
>Do we have room to recover the stricken ship? Or do we need to head back without salvage we have?
You'll need to send the rest of the convoy on ahead but you do have access to the com network so Nikolov can scramble a ship out there in a couple of hours.

Your two Battlecruisers could work together to jump the Gaskin out but due to the shape of its structure it would need to latch onto both ships with its grappling arms.

>>33088727
>>33088723
A couple of the scout corvettes are sent to assist the Excalibur as it begins to tow the salvage ship out of range of the remaining mines.
The Mercs are warned to keep their troops and guns standing by. Shields extended and point defense watching for any movement from the debris or suspicious activity from the civilians they begin to get clear.

Roll 2d20

Rolled 15

>>33089165
>Roll 2d20
1

Rolled 9

>>33089238
2

Rolled 20, 4 = 24

>>33089165
I do not like the idea of it grappling on to both of the BC's at the same time. What if it had some hidden EMP gun in those arms and once under our shield it fucks both of the ships up at the same time. You can NEVER be safe enough.

Rolled 8, 17 = 25

>>33089165

The crew manage to pull the damaged salvage ship out of the area though it takes much longer than you thought it would have. It turns out that, other than the tractor beams use to tow the other ship, all the external repulsors were turned off.

"So its a repulsor seeker?"
"It may just enter an active state once they've been hit with repulors." suggests Tes'us.

Next you contact the Gaskin and ask about the damaged Frigate.
"Cargo ship with an empty bay. I think they fell for the same trap as we did. Their engines are slag and all but one of the focusing systems in their FTL are cracked. Our cursory scans just showed debris fragments so were were of the opinion that both had been shot by pirates at first."

Med teams have gone over and are assisting while keeping an eye out for signs this might still be a trap. They find little evidence to support this theory.

One of your recovery vessels will arrive soon as will the ships from one of the other Houses.

[ ] Have RSS EOD team attempt to recovery some of the mines
[ ] Clear the field
[ ] Let the military deal with it
[ ] Let the military deal with it / Bribe them to recover some of the warheads for you
[ ] Other

>>33089869
>[x] other: tractor out the frigate and attempt recovery for our sister company from Ceres.

Salvage ship diplomacy and professional courtesy. Maybe even discounted repairs at our station or at-cost?

>>33089869
>[X] Let the military deal with it / Bribe them to recover some of the warheads for you

Ask if our EOD team can stay behind and take notes.

>>33090188
Yeah we might run into these mines ourselves at some point, best be prepared. Bribing the military with ships should be easy enough, it's not like we have a shortage.

>>33090151
>>33090188
When the Salvage ship arrives to recover the Gaskin you wait along with scouts while the military takes down the minefield. They're slightly annoyed when they find out your mass drivers would have been able to deal with them much more carefully but in a few hours their EVA teams have disarmed the warheads and rigged the non recoverable ones for demolition.

The Devourer is able to secure the Frigate while the Excalibur gets hold of the J-type.

Before departing the military sends a shuttle over with a pair of the warheads you paid for. Before long you're looking at a report on them from your weapon techs.
Each is equipped with layers of thick sensor absorbent materials similar to what you saw on the Aries stealth drones. Inside is a Mk 39 Torpedo warhead along with its usual sensor package and network, meaning it can double as a stealth recon probe. There are multiple external attachment points for decoys.

While the company name and logo are absent several serial numbers match up with Aries production codes.

>Ask if our EOD team can stay behind and take notes.
Then send you some of the helmet recordings.

>Maybe even discounted repairs at our station or at-cost?
Anyone else for this?

Also do you plan to give them the damaged Standard Frigate, the J-type transport or both?

>>33090654
*Do you plan to give the crew of the Gaskin the damaged Standard Frigate, the J-type transport or both?

>>33090654
>Anyone else for this?
Sure. Let's make some new friends.

>Also do you plan to give them the damaged Standard Frigate, the J-type transport or both?

Well, how many percent of the salvage could we claim under normal circumstances for our help? I'd say we should go with 10% of that number.

>>33090735
>Well, how many percent of the salvage could we claim under normal circumstances for our help? I'd say we should go with 10% of that number.
It depends. Legally since your competition was unable to salvage anything and you were able to you could make a claim to both ships. Bad luck for the one who failed.

There is no hard rule for cut of salvage for rendering assistance.

>>33090933
To be honest, I'd be okay with either just letting them have the ships, or only asking for a symbolic price.

They've had their drives damaged (expensive), and lost quite a few members of their crew (expensive, shitty in general). It seems like they're a small company, we can afford to play nice.

Oh, and we got two neat stealth probes and some educational footage for our employees out of this.

File: Sharks Carbine.png (333 KB, 1200x1307)

333 KB PNG

Also I come bearing guns! Did some work to round out our RM catalogue. Become a sharkshooter today!

You'll notice a lot of repeating themes, I set things up to maximize parts commonality. And where parts aren't identical they are still similar enough to use the same factory tooling.

Each weapon fits a different niche. The carbine is the closest to the mass drivers currently in service but can also use regular carbine ammo for soft targets or in case of power drain. I noticed that we tend to leave the shotgun behind despite it's utility just because we already carry so many weapons. This version fires light and heavy slugs for general use, and also has a shell magazine for "damage" shotgun loads and dual pump magazines like a neostead for utility rounds. The PDW is a replacement for our forearm SMG who, like the shotgun, tends to get left behind because it lacks firepower for the types of enemies we usually fight these days. The PDW leaves both hands free so we could use it while carrying a sword and our plasma pistol.

So while the Mass Rifle was designed as an anti-alien weapon (mostly neeran), the rest of these guns are more aimed at House/Alliance forces like the marines who already use mass drivers. They are designed as a direct upgrade to the mass drivers already in service, and since they use the same basic parts we could take apart the old ones and assemble them into these.

I tried making a pistol but I think that mass drivers lose a lot of effectiveness in small sizes. You can certainly make one and you would end up with something like a Five-Seven. But it wouldn't have enough power to threaten heavier body armour, which kinda defeats the point. Energy weapons are much better in terms of power-weight, and pulse pistols can stun stuff too.

>>33091280
Looking good. You're going to need a bigger factory. (Which you don't have room for.)
The arms factory on Surakeh has enough room to produce 1 rifle and the different types of munitions needed by them. Unless you want to produce them in batches and retool to the other types in between.
The starfighter factory didn't go through on Frostback but you could always put in a larger arms factory there. Speaking of which you'll be needing to move that Arcology soon.

>>33091274
Everyone (anyone?) else okay with this?


The captain of the other ship, Klahan Foster thanks you for getting his crew and company out of a bad situation.
"For a few hours we were starting to think we would be back to towing containers for a few years to pay for new salvage gear. Thank you for all your help."

He points to some of the other ships being brought back from House Veritas space.
"Are those all yours?"
"Yes they are. If you're looking to buy a new or slightly used ship once you're back on your feet let me know."

Foster frowns. "Some of those ships have rust on the outer hull, rather than near breach locations where oxidisers might be present."

>What say?

>>33092004
"What do you think could be the cause for that? Some kind of chemical weapon?"

>>33092004
"Do you think they could have drifted through an oxygen nebula?"

"What else could it mean?"

>>33091280
Neat. Say, do you have an idea what kind of stuff we could produce on the assembly lines for these things once the conflict with the Neerans is over?

I'd assume military spending will go down at least for a bit afterwards, and it would be great if we could quickly retool our factory for something that could be used for construction work, or sold to civilians.

"My sister in law's father's cousin once told me he saw what he called "rust that grows in vacuum and eats starship hulls." I believed he was making it up but people hear about it on rare occasions. Old mining and salvage crews trading stories."

Most of your crews were trained from only minimal experience in the field of salvaging, and the before the war House J-D salvage teams hadn't been outside the Centri cluster in a very long time. Its possible they might not have heard of this before.

"So is it dangerous?"
"If it eats the hulls of ships like they say I imagine so. You might want to have it looked at."

"Do you think they could have drifted through an oxygen nebula?"
"Did you find them in one?"

No...

It might be a good time to get hold of Nikolov. Now.

Roll 2d100

Rolled 94

>>33092582
>Roll 2d100
1

Rolled 59

>>33092635
2

Rolled 19, 45 = 64

>>33092004
If the idea takes off and we get a large order we can think about starting a new factory. After all the current one is supposed to make ammo.

Until then we can produce stuff in batches for evaluation. The Mass Rifle has been prototyped and tested but the others may need some tweaking.

Rolled 28, 2 = 30

>>33092582

Rolled 34, 16 = 50

>>33092582

>>33092635
>>33092659
Telling Nikolov there may be a problem with that rust some of the people were mentioning before she sends out teams to check the hulls. The rusted sections show that they've corroded 6% of the way through the hull where present. Sensor packages are positioned to take detailed recordings to measure if it's actually eating the hull still or if this is just residue.

Some of the work arms on the salvage ships that moved the afflicted vessels are also showing some signs of the same orange-reddish coating. It is on 40% of your salvage craft, including the Kilo. The Anchorage thankfully does not have any.

Within an hour Nikolov meets you and London at the office to show you some data.
"Whatever this is will corrode completely through the hulls of the warships it is on within 20 months if left alone. 6 months on most of our salvage craft at the current rate. Sensor arrays and emergency thrusters will be destroyed in 2-3 weeks."

>Your orders?

>>33093083
"Have you ever seen anything like this, Nikolov?"

>>33093083
Save samples and see if we can weaponize this thing. Sounds like a potential one shot (because someone will come up with counter measures quickly enough) fleet crippler to me.

>>33093083
>Your orders?
+Collect samples.
+Try to get rid of it various ways. Scrape it of, burn it of, freeze it before scraping. I'm sure people can come up with various methods.
+Quarantine affected ships. If possible, put the sensor arrays and emergency thrusters that have that stuff on it in stasis.
+See if our newly created R&D department can help.
+See if some of our employees know something.

>>33093252
Do all of these, and also inform House Veritas.

>>33093083
Its on the Salvage arms right? Cut them off. Cut away the affected pats of the hull, then blast them

>>33093313
Agreed, good thing you thought of that.

>>33093328
No, it's on OUR ships. And the stuff we just salvaged with House Veritas.

So it's some kind of anaerobic bacteria that eats metal? Seems legit, there is stuff like that eating up the Titanic right now.

Time to break out those biowarfare protocols.

>>33093083
Treat all affected metal in a 4000 degree kelvin plasma bath.

>>33093159
"Not outside of a chemistry classroom where were were trying to find the cleanest ways to burn through metal. It was not anything like this."

"Quarantine the affected ships then get samples. Store them in stasis. "
Nikolov makes some calls, using the Kilo and other ships now contaminated to relocate the wreckage away from the station. Soon crews are working to detach whatever sensor arrays they can to put their components into stasis as well. Emergency thrusters are also detached but it isn't possible to put them in stasis because of their size. Their fuel stores are drained to prevent accidental detonation.

Next you contact House Veritas and tell them to lock down the salvaged hulls before they can be transferred.

>I'm sure people can come up with various methods.
UV lasers are used in most decontamination procedures. They don't seem to be very effective at present and may have actually accelerated growth in targeted areas.

>>33093328
Afflicted salvage arms are now being detached and stored with other gear on the Kilo's salvage racks.

>See if our newly created R&D department can help.
Your R&D team is currently specialising in mechanical engineering. They have begun work on the HAG project and will be unavailable until the project is completed. If you wish to cancel the project they will be available for new projects involving ship design.

>See if some of our employees know something.
Steam jets seem to be able to remove it from the suits of workers, though it does not destroy it, and the decontamination bay filters are having to be replaced much more often. As a precaution all crews are under quarantine as well. London and co are trying to track down who has been aboard the station since the convoy runs started and what ships docked.

>>33093706
>Treat all affected metal in a 4000 degree kelvin plasma bath.
Be advised that this has the potential to cause serious damage and will require relocating to an area away from the planet.

>>33093083
We could ask the Neerans allied with the Factions Alliance if they know about stuff like this. As they have spent thousands of years living mainly on spaceships, they should have run into something like it before.

>>33093783
>UV lasers are used in most decontamination procedures. They don't seem to be very effective at present and may have actually accelerated growth in targeted areas.

Well, this stuff manages to survive in space. So I would guess it should be able to deal with low temperatures and radiation rather well.

Oxygen, or basically every every non-vacuum environment could have a negative effect on it. The same could be the case for temperatures significantly above absolute zero.

>>33093783
Agree with >>33093889, ask the Neerans.

A possibility; have we tried using water? Literally washing them off? If steam is working on the worker's suits... How about we flash-fry a snowball comet/asteroid and fly a ship through the resulting steam cloud?

>>33093584
>So it's some kind of anaerobic bacteria that eats metal? Seems legit, there is stuff like that eating up the Titanic right now.
>Time to break out those biowarfare protocols.
This is the conclusion everyone working on the problem is drawing, but it seems to have properties reminiscent of Radiotrophic fungi. Lasers and radiation baths don't seem to be cutting it and are instead helping it.
One of the ship captains thinks that sunlight from the system's star may also be aiding its growth.

>>33093927
Nikolov is quick to offer her support to this plan which is immediately met with a sharp "No!" From London.
"The steam decontamination isn't killing it, or not quite, its just washing it off. If we do that out in space we could be spreading the remains all over the system that ships could later pick up."

You remind him that space is big and the chances of a ship encountering a spore or whatever would result is incredibly low.

"You've already contacted House Veritas, we should inform the government."

[ ] This is our mess we'll take care of it.
[ ] We should probably let someone know...

>>33093783
We could also try to run an electric current through an area with that red stuff and see what happens. Maybe it's possible to electrocute it.

>>33094103
>[X] We should probably let someone know...

Inform the government, call our lawyers so we can patent our discovery. Or whatever is the appropriate term for making sure nobody uses that stuff without paying us.

>>33094103
Are there any uninhabited systems nearby we could use? Some jink system with a star and small asteroid belt but no planets?

>Let someone know
But be careful to control our contact. We don't want hundreds of government inspectors checking out our OSHA compliance, we just need to see if the Space-CDC has found a cure.

>>33094199
Yeah, there is no way in hell we would be able to patent this. Its also the sort of thing that people wouldn't respect the patents of anyway

>>33094289
Yeah. However, we should turn it into the equivalent of the Geographic Society or whatever as a new species/anomaly; we might get scientists for free. But there's no patent/copyright involved.

Also, don't spread any ideas of using it as a WMD.

>>33094103
>"The steam decontamination isn't killing it, or not quite, its just washing it off. If we do that out in space we could be spreading the remains all over the system that ships could later pick up."

Well, what if employ some kind of space vacuum system that not only washes the stuff off the hull but also stores it? That way we could get rid of it, and have lots of samples for our scientists.

>>33094554
Is the material left over from the steam baths ferrous? Could we use a supermagnet and store the resultant dust in a carbon fiber/plastic vat?

>>33094554
>>33094768
>>33094254
>Are there any uninhabited systems nearby we could use? Some jink system with a star and small asteroid belt but no planets?

You bring up these ideas to Winifred. Melting down a comet or two in an uninhabited systems seems like a better prospect than melting down the hulls of every ship that's been salvaged. You still make sure to test the fusion drive theory just in case, melting down a few worker arms and the outer hull of a Frigate. Its effective but causes plenty of damage. With so many hull breaches on the damaged ships you'll be losing a lot of money it you end up causing more damage. It will almost certainly push some into unsalvageable territory.

Your people start looking into equipment that can be bought that would do the job of steam cleaning and capture. Military engineers also begin testing the samples.

>Is the material left over from the steam baths ferrous? Could we use a supermagnet and store the resultant dust in a carbon fiber/plastic vat?
Hull plating tends to be paramagnetic so it could work.

Winifred eventually gets back to you about the large scale steam cleaning attempt. You'll have to buy the mineral rights to a few comets in a nearby system which will cost about 10 million if you plan to keep it quiet. This could take some time to hit everything and get crews used to working with the equipment.
Or you could move the ships farther out in the system and conduct a fusion cannon burn off of the affected ships. This will be much faster but will cause hull damage.

The ships will still have to be quarantined for some time after either option to be sure nothing has survived.

[ ] Slow and steady.
[ ] Give me fuel, Give me fire.

Have we tried attaching solid Zinc blocks? That's what's used in current-day deep sea platforms to stop them corroding.

>>33095530
>[x] Slow and steady.

>>33095530
Take samples as well if possible. And have them stored safely, just in case we need a particularly damaging saboteur tool in future.

>>33094103
>ship captains thinks that sunlight from the system's star may also be aiding its growth.
That should be easy to test right? Shields can be made to block lasers easily enough so we could have a shield put in place that totally blocks all visible radiation, along with ones it might be feeding from.

>>33095530
Slow and steady, even if we have to pay for the comets; the ships will be worth considerably more. Also, keep the dust in a (quarantined, nonmetallic) container after sucking it up with a magnet; you never know.

We should do so in a uninhabited system, just in case we miss some, though.

Rolled 42

>>33093889
>We could ask the Neerans allied with the Factions Alliance if they know about stuff like this. As they have spent thousands of years living mainly on spaceships, they should have run into something like it before.
>>33093927
>Agree with >>33093889, ask the Neerans.

Sorry to have skipped over this before. Do you still want to send them a message about it? Keep in mind that it could take some time for them to respond.

>>33095654
Teams have begun testing this, and blocking out all a wide spectrum of radiation. It does seem to be effective at slowing the rate at which the hull is being consumed. It will take some time to test which ones don't need to be blocked as urgently.

>>33096144
Yeah, ask anyway, but go ahead and start with the comet plan. Maybe they have a better solution, or at the least can help prevent it in the future? Or maybe they just have some safe storage for our nascent bioweapon?

On the bioweapon front; I'm thinking this wouldn't be useful without some heavy weaponization on the short term, but release it in enemy logistical areas or on ships retreating from battle to increase repair costs and times. 6-20 months isn't a rapid time frame, but if it increases the repair cycle it could be vital.

>>33096199
>On the bioweapon front; I'm thinking this wouldn't be useful without some heavy weaponization on the short term, but release it in enemy logistical areas or on ships retreating from battle to increase repair costs and times. 6-20 months isn't a rapid time frame, but if it increases the repair cycle it could be vital.
About that. The military would like to prevent future outbreaks and as such want to take control of all quarantined samples for the time being. (You could hide some if you really want.)

Until they've finished researching its properties they're moving the samples to the edge of the system on the dark side of some lifeless rock and strapping nukes to them to prevent tampering. If its leaked to the public that there was an actual biohazard threat to the planet nothing sort of that response would calm the populace.

The Kilo, 2 Moli's, 2 Y-types and all of their tugs are jumped to another system once the purchase has gone through and the additional equipment has arrived.

Roll 6d20, average of 3 to see how many days are spent steam cleaning the ships.

I'm against weaponizing this simply because it's so easy to cultivate and throw back at your enemy. Take infected wreck, cut up into a lot of pieces...

Rolled 10, 4 = 14

>>33096567
Awright, I'm fine with that. Don't bother to hide very much of the stuff; maybe a single stasis vial or something to continue to research so we can prevent further outbreaks, but no massive hollowed out asteroids.

Forgot my link.

The military may be worried the public will overreact and think it's this bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDcELUCroDs


>>33096633
>maybe a single stasis vial or something to continue to research so we can prevent further outbreaks, but no massive hollowed out asteroids.
Done unless there are additional objections.


>Do a feasibility study for our inflatable medical exoskeleton idea.
That was the one that started off as a suggestion for a glove right?
This is feasible, though its expected to be expensive. There are a number of medical companies in Dominion space that may be working on this. Would you like to send someone to see about investment opportunities? I presume you would want to secure some prototypes for combat field tests though you would hardly be alone in that regard.

>Eshik Medel. The kid without a House or title.
You decided earlier that you would to talk to him about the use of memory imprinting to get his flight scores up. It could make the difference of months of training at this point. While he's essentially working for free (he does have a not so small personal fortune) its taking piloting work away from Mercs that are looking for opportunities to practice themselves. They haven't complained yet, perhaps hoping they could hire him once he gets good enough.
>What say?

>>33097261
Well the idea started as a field repair for damaged cybernetics and it eventually evolved into a kind of all-in-one medical exoskeleton. Other than the usual basic exoskeleton advantages like supporting you when lifting heavy stuff, it would also do it's best to treat most injuries. If you get seriously hurt or crippled it could also isolate damaged limbs and allow you to move around without putting weight on them. In the case of damaged cybernetics or limb loss you could put one on and it would fill in the empty areas of the suit with "bones" to let you move around on two legs and handle stuff in a basic capacity.

I think there would be two versions, one armoured bodyglove for elite forces or nobles that can be worn under any clothing or armour. And a lighter unarmoured version you could roll up small and use as a field treatment.

It would be a pretty big item in our catalogue if we could produce the exoskeleton ourselves but we probably don't have any staff qualified to work on something like that.

Rolled 16, 4, 4, 14, 6, 2 = 46

>>33096567
Rolling

Rolled 4, 13, 4, 1, 3, 13 = 38

>>33096567

Rolled 18, 8, 14, 15, 12, 1 = 68

Just got back, last rolls.

What was the turret configuration we decided on for the HAG again?

>>33098844
1 Heavy Tribarrel Turret and a bunch of smaller single-barrel turrets/heavier point defense.

SURVEY! <<<<<<<<<<<<

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9CBKPQX

I'm uncertain about some of the button/selection settings for a couple of the questions. Let me know if they're causing you trouble as I may need to reset it.

>>33098844
This below.

>>33086773
>a single large turret and multiple smaller ones allowing more versatility. Or you hope it will work out that way, the current placement of the main gun may make the planned topside landing pad more difficult to use.
>The smaller gun turrets will be built into rounded blisters on parts of the hull to reduce drag in atmosphere.


With crews working in as close to total darkness as possible it takes it takes teams 62 days to clean off the transports and the other infected wrecks entirely, blasting every last speck of the ships. It's a long grueling procedure that is not kind to the quarantined crews and military hazmat teams.

Military research teams find that there are a few frequencies of light that can be used without causing excessive acceleration of growth rates. Mostly in the red visible spectrum.

A message from the Neeran states that they have encountered similar life forms before but they were more difficult to remove. Eventually they used focused neutrino based lasers to good effect. They believe it to be unlikely the microbe you've encountered is related to the one they have previously dealt with.

>>33099147
Scheduling for this week:

Will post briefly in the morning then resume after 7PM EST.

Tuesday I'll be resuming at 4PM EST.

As work on your ships continues for some time into the future how much information will you be giving to House Veritas about the problem? Did you want to sell them the data?
Will you attempt to sell the services of your crews (Those who can stand to look at a steam cleaner after all that.) once they become available?

>>33099147
Hmm, now I wish I had pushed more for the multiple large turrets. I have some ideas...

>>33092578
Oh almost forgot about this.

I'm guessing that futuretech factories won't be too different from what we have now. The automation and precision levels will be much higher but final assembly for stuff like firearms and vehicles will still have to be done by humans. Our factory would have the usual drills, lathes, saws, press brakes and the like. I think the only thing you wouldn't find in most other factories is the specialized machine that forms the rifling on gun barrels.

IIRC they had sewing machine and typewriter companies making thompson submachineguns back in WW2. So it shouldn't be too hard to retool from firearms to something else. Since our current products are military grade our machinery is going to pretty high precision. We just have to think of alternate products we could be making with them. There will never not be a market for starship engine parts for instance.

Also I just realized another thing. When we built the ammo factory we did some holding company shenanigans because of the stigma attached to splinter ammo. So while we refer to it as Reynard Munitions it's not actually called that officially. If we build a new factory specifically for firearms we could give it more of a public face and maybe even have a showroom set up.

>>33099318
>As work on your ships continues for some time into the future how much information will you be giving to House Veritas about the problem?
Tell them how to remove it properly.

>Did you want to sell them the data?
Nope.

>>Eshik Medel. The kid without a House or title.

>>You decided earlier that you would to talk to him about the use of memory imprinting to get his flight scores up. It could make the difference of months of training at this point. While he's essentially working for free (he does have a not so small personal fortune) its taking piloting work away from Mercs that are looking for opportunities to practice themselves. They haven't complained yet, perhaps hoping they could hire him once he gets good enough.

>>What say you?

We should probably argue that it's perfectly normal to get the imprints at this point of his career as a pilot.

>>33099318
Tell them everything for free, we will win bonus points with them and it will cost us nothing.

And weaponizing the space rust seems like an incredibly bad idea too me... At lest until we have researched a effective counter for it.

>>33101787
>And weaponizing the space rust seems like an incredibly bad idea too me... At lest until we have researched a effective counter for it.

It could be used as a way to scuttle equipment. Instead of blowing up stuff up and drawing lots of attention to the position, you simply break a container that has the stuff in it before you leave, and a few months later nothing usable remains.

It could be a very useful way to deny the enemy salva... on second thought let's lock this stuff away and never talk about it again.

>>33099318
I will most likely not be able to make it to session later today, so here's some unrelated stuff I'd like to be taken into consideration:

-Invest in other Factions.

Sonia seems to be met with less suspicion than other foreigners by the Republic, if the R6 deal is anything to go by, so we might want to use that to provide some funding to locals with good ideas. It would also give us an excuse to visit that place if we have the time.

As they're currently rebuilding from their civil war, there should also be ample demand for services that will be required in Shallan space once the current conflict is over, so it might be a good chance for Reynard Systems, or its subsidiaries, to gain expertise in these areas.

Diversifying our company would also be a decent way to gain some political weight in other factions, especially the Terrans come to mind. If I remember correctly, they're supposed to by highly bureaucratic, so there should be lots of great ideas floating around that would normally get lost in the system. I would also guess that it's unusual for military personnel to amass fortunes as easily as it is in the Dominion, so throwing some money at the right person with the right ideas at the right time could be highly profitable in the long run.

-Start investing in orchards specialising in local fruit and stasis field equipped transports to ship the stuff across the universe.

It would be a good way to help the economy of fledgling colonies, would probably not cost a lot to setup and maintain, and might allow us to get a foot in the door on new colonies rather early on. There will probably always be a market for new foodstuffs, and being able to supply Reynard brand fruit to any Krath we come across will probably turn out to our benefit as well.

-Start offering small business loans (by our standards, at least) to retired members of our units in return for silent partnerships in their ventures.

Also: Bump.

Current votes

Medical Investment. 500k and 2 mil are the highest voted.

Eshik Medel.
Suggestions to tell him about your own training and skill increases since then.

Most are ok with Nikolov's front line salvage escorts.

Flatboat given to logistics.

Lancaster Skycrane added to logistics.

Sell K-type to Iratar.

Sell to House/Upgrade are the most popular options for Terran Alderamin Battleship.

The multi vote ones will need to be sorted when I get back.

See you after 7.

Bump

Page 9 bump.

>>33102838
>As they're currently rebuilding from their civil war, there should also be ample demand for services that will be required in Shallan space once the current conflict is over, so it might be a good chance for Reynard Systems, or its subsidiaries, to gain expertise in these areas.

So it looks like you're hoping to get into companies specializing with infrastructure development and buildings similar to the Surakeh group working to build refugee habs for Tourta.

If you're planning to have work done in the Republic or later Shallan space would you prefer to look at investing in companies based in the Republic, the PCCG or try to stick with a House J-D group?

The next question after that is do you:
-invest in existing ones (become a partner?)
-buy out an existing one entirely
-start up your own

>>33107894
I would favor investing in a Republic-based company.

As their government allowed us to produce their most advanced bomber currently in mass production, and handing us what basically amounts to a government contract on top of that, I would assume we have a bit more pull with them than the average investor from outside Republic space.

>The next question after that is do you:
>-invest in existing ones (become a partner?)

This would be my preferred course of action.

If the Republic is currently even more vary of outsiders than they usually are because of the actions of mercs during the civil war, it would probably not a good idea to take over one of their companies completely.

It's probably better to work with an established group that knows how things work in the Republic and has already established a solid reputation with the locals.

Maybe include the option to buy out the locals in a few years if things go well.

>>33101914
I tried thinking of ways we could make this stuff into something useful. But anything I can think of, EOD, sabotage etc. None of that is anything you couldn't do cheaper, safer and faster with a bucket of thermite.

>>33107894
This has potential and if my memory serves me right then didn't the House ask us if we had any capability's to help them out on something like this. Building up the captured worlds in the Smuglers Run so our hold there becomes more secure?

I'm in favor of expanding the Reynard franchise into the infrastructure development area. Don't suppose there are any dedicated prefab building ships on the market or that we can convert from our own stockpiles? Would make sense to keep this kind of industry mobile as the demand lessens in one area and rises in another.

[X] Buy out an existing one entirely
Starting up a new one takes to long and I want us to have full control of our company's so we can dictate exactly the way we want it to go. Besides buying out an existing one means we can put them to work quickly

>>33108312
Depending on how this stuff works exactly, it could be used to infect asteroid belts behind enemy lines. Cloaked ships could visit systems in enemy territory and render the resources there useless, or at least make mining and processing them much harder.

It might also be useful to dispose of stealth equipment that can't be retrieved without alerting the enemy to its presence. A stealthed spy satellite that simply turns to rust after its mission is over is probably preferable to one that explodes, melts down, or has to be steered into the sun or deep space. This might requiring speeding up the process, however.

>>33107894
I'd invest in an existing one, but make sure to A: Make sure it's a good firm with lots of experience and B: either avoid noncompetes (so we can start our own once we have the infrastructure/experience) or keep the option to buy them out in a while.

>>33107894
I wouldn't mind buying out a existing one entirely and I would like to see if we could expand into Republic space.

Of course since it's the Republic we are talking about it would most likely be a "partnership" where in reality we are the actual owners.

Been doodling on a HAG design. So what were the major features we wanted apart from weapons?

- Troop and vehicle cargo
- Fighter landing deck (how many?)
- Docking ring with hull cutter for boarding action.

What am I missing?

>>33110746
we did n't want those things. its a single role gunship

>>33110746
Was the design supposed to be modular?

>>33110746
I think we just wanted a fat LST that can pound on ground targets basically.

>>33110746
IIRC, we really wanted the docking ring and cargo capacity; the fighter deck was a throw-in.

If you manage to make it work, though, that would be boss. Tactical mobility is always good.

>>33110746
>- Troop and vehicle cargo
>- Fighter landing deck (how many?)
>- Docking ring with hull cutter for boarding action.
None of the above. This is a gunship. Its basically an unholy combination of an Apache attack helicopter and a warthog. Why would we want things that would make it a second rate LST while distracting from its primary mission, close air support and enemy armor destruction?

>>33111068
>IIRC, we really wanted the docking ring and cargo capacity; the fighter deck was a throw-in.
Uh, no. You know what has a cargo deck and a docking ring? An LST. We took an LST and took that stuff away to add more guns.

Hmm, I guess I'm not remembering what we planned. Let me review the older threads.

If we do go pure gunship that greatly simplifies things. What's the biggest weapon we could mount on the HAG? LSTs are pretty big, but still smaller than corvettes. Not sure what kinda of weapons fit in between the starfighter/corvette sizes.

>>33111329
The voting suggested that we're going with a single heavy three-barreled turret, with a few single-barrelled turrets and a heavy point-defense setup that can be repurposed for light anti-materiel use.

Aka
>A set of rough design proposals were sent for your review, eventually resulting in your decision to go with a single large turret and multiple smaller ones allowing more versatility. Or you hope it will work out that way, the current placement of the main gun may make the planned topside landing pad more difficult to use.
The smaller gun turrets will be built into rounded blisters on parts of the hull to reduce drag in atmosphere.

>>33111329
I actually want to go with a Reynard Munitions custom built Mass Driver.

Nothing says firepower like a rapid-fire 120mm cannon.

File: HAG.jpg (158 KB, 1147x697)

158 KB JPG

Something like this for the HAG?

Not sure if people wanted it to be a platform that slowly floats around and rains on everybody's day or more like a bigger A-10.

>>33112476
I could envision that fulfilling either role. The question is where to put the heavy armament. top and foreward, turreted? Is a little vulnerable, harder to strafe with. Dorsal turret? Can't strafe at all. Ventral? Vulnerable to ground fire, and useless when crashed or hull-down.

File: LST-HAG-Battleship 2.gif (10 KB, 1088x623)

10 KB GIF

Support for either buying out or becoming an partner in such an infrastructure company by the looks of it. I suspect this will be added to the next survey.

And yes it could be of use right now or in the future in the Smuggler's Run.

>Don't suppose there are any dedicated prefab building ships on the market or that we can convert from our own stockpiles? Would make sense to keep this kind of industry mobile as the demand lessens in one area and rises in another.

You have an Exodus Transport which can be equipped to carry an industrial module. I suppose it could be modified instead for constructing surface habitats and some of the materials necessary for basic infrastructure.
There is also a bulk transport that has enough room to do the same, though the two ships would be of entirely different design. You might have better luck converting the hull of a Moli.
I think you guys are building them first when your BC shipyard is finished.


>HAG discussion
The HAG has next to no troop transport capability. It can dock on the outer hulls of starships to hitch a ride to places they're going but do not carry specialised breaching gear. There is a landing pad on top for a starfighter or two, or perhaps a shuttle but space is tight and it will not be a fun ride if the vessel is maneuvering.

The engines are still at the back of the ship with their atmospheric intakes roughly around the mid point. Once in atmosphere lift will largely be provided by repulsors.

This rough has the following weapons:

1x heavy turret (3x 406mm guns)
4x single barrel turret (1x 406mm gun)
+4x secondary turrets (1-2x 120mm mass driver PD, particle beam, micro phase cannons)
2-4x missile launchers (Bow/chin)

>>33113546
Wouldn't either 400, 405, or 410 mm guns make more sense on the turrets?

>>33113546
>Heavy turret on the top
Wouldn't it be more sensible for the turret to be on the bottom of the gunship?

Man, I'd hate to be that Nai guy. All these orders flooding his message inbox, each one arguing with itself.

>>33113546
As long as the primary barrel can depress enough (or our pilots are good enough, or the engines manueverable enough) to hit ground targets in a pinch, I think that layout works for the HAGs. Can fire if grounded, as was a design criterion.

That plan sounds fine for infrastructure construction; we should make business arrangements now so that we know what the technical requirements are for the design/conversion phase.

>>33113661
lack of ventral weaponry was a write-in from a survey.

If the craft is forced to land due to damage, ventral weaponry is useless, while dorsal, prow and broadside weaponry allow the ship to continue acting as a strongpoint for local allies or even make use of terrain to go hull-down during combat. It also protects the weapons from damage in a crash, rather than crushing them under the craft, and allows the bottom to sport solid armor.

>>33113870
Sounds like a good plan.

I have to admit I wasn't paying a lot of attention to (or voting on) the HAG project, too busy working on the guns. Doesn't seem to have been a huge amount of discussion on how the design should work other than blowing shit up.

>>33113546
Mass driver point defence is 120mm? Crikey. Weren't those particle cannon PD turrets multibarrel too?

In retrospect a single big turret may not have been the best plan. This gunship is for ground attack, so you want maximum forward firing BRRRRRT for strafing runs and also as wide a field of fire as possible so you can bombard something while orbiting from a distance.
I'll take a crack at the design, I have a couple ideas but it may involve switching the turret configuration again.

>>33113661
Well we never did sit down and hash this out. Maybe we could retcon the design we gave Garret if we can think of something better instead of having him receive like 30 different emails. As funny as that is.

>>33113953
We've got some pretty nice frontal firepower. I count 7 forward-firing heavy cannons, which is actually the most of any of our proposals, in addition to chin rockets and a number of heavy PD stations. Further, we can fire at least 4 of those heavy cannon at all horizontal angles.

>>33113632
It's a classic bore size and it's known to be suitably large for firing nuclear warheads. If you guys want a different caliber you're certainly free to ask.

>>33113661
>Wouldn't it be more sensible for the turret to be on the bottom of the gunship?
What do you know, that's what I said.

It was requested that the main turret be on the top of the ship so that it could still fire if it crash landed. If the vessel were to orbit it's targets like an AC-130 or the pilots were to simply roll the ship onto its side it could fire directly below. Some of the single barrel turrets on the sides can fire directly downward to help compensate should it not be the best moment to roll the ship.

>Man, I'd hate to be that Nai guy. All these orders flooding his message inbox, each one arguing with itself.
Iwasinaquestthread.jpg

>>33113953
>Doesn't seem to have been a huge amount of discussion on how the design should work other than blowing shit up.
Yep.

>Mass driver point defence is 120mm? Crikey.
That what your ships use to shoot warheads.
>Weren't those particle cannon PD turrets multibarrel too?
Still have to check that in autocad. Particle beam PD tends to be a bit big, the size of a starfighter so 1-2 barrel turrets might be best for those guns. Micro phase cannon are smaller though so you'd definitely have a few cannons in 1 turret.

>This gunship is for ground attack, so you want maximum forward firing BRRRRRT for strafing runs and also as wide a field of fire as possible so you can bombard something while orbiting from a distance.
The main gun can turn 360 degrees, you just need to watch out for any fighters parked on the pad, as for strafing runs all of the heavy weaponry are capable of firing dead ahead.
The top 2 single barrel turrets should be able to fire up and over to hit targets on the opposite side of the ship.
Small PD turrets or missile hard points can be placed on the wings.
I just wish it looked better.

Can I just ask why we're concerned about shooting things -directly- under the HAG?

the ship would be presenting maximum profile to any return fire from the target, and presumably would also be exposing itself to the greater enemy front to avoid damaging itself with its own fire.

If the enemy forces you to assault a position where you can ONLY engage from directly above... have a flight of HAGs point their noses down in a diving attack like starfighters probably have to do.

Maneuvers are there to compensate for the fact that your craft does have to bring weapons to bear on a target.

File: thunderhawk_02.jpg (309 KB, 1013x600)

309 KB JPG

>>33114155
>>33114353
>>33114155
At this point I'm picturing it as a Thunderhawk but with the main weapon mounted a bit forward and on a turret and a pad where the turret is now.

Caliber is fine, we need a way to keep the fighters on the pad safe (some kind of retractable blister?), PD is fine with either one or two barrels. I think we're overthinking the turret arrangement. As long as we're not in knife-fighting range, dorsal or ventral doesn't matter for targeting, and the heavy turret was (IIRC) intended as artillery anyway.

>>33114392
I'm not. tactically, it moves more like a helicopter than a plane

>>33114353
All very true.

>>33103901
This was me earlier btw.

Medical Investment votes:
500k = 5
1 million= 4
2 million= 5
3 million or more= 4
Due to the wide range of votes I'm leaning towards selecting the 2 million since it's closer to the middle. This will be taken from Sonia's funds not RSS. Any complaints?

>Investing in an established company's stuff only. We're a salvage and (now) ship-building company, not a medical company.
>As part of the investment we could offer to set up a production line
Monetary investment only at this time and make the offer that you could set up a production line in the future if they're interested? Sound good?

Vast majority still in favour of Nikolov's front line salvage escorts.
>I would prefer a more durable permanent platform for plasma cannons if we deploy any.
There are few available unfortunately. One of the remaining Errant class ships you've salvaged could mount the same model the Centurion carries.

Logistics picked up a couple of ships. This is good (for you) as I've been looking at the possibility of implementing Support Units to cap the size of the salvage fleet.

K-type is being sold back to Iratar.

Terran Alderamin Battleship. Most of the survey comments talked about saving it for the salvage fleet or trying to get funds out of the House for it over a longer period.
The votes however were strongly for selling it to the House cheaply, with upgrading it being second place. Once repaired (without any upgrades) it should be able to keep pace with the EBON which has been undergoing a substantial engine upgrade.

Kavarian Assault Transports

1 is being sold.
1 is being converted into a cargo lander for logistics
1 will be added to your personal escort when you return to the front

2 U-Haul's will be kept as transports. You can always sell them off later if you want.


>Eshik Medel.
"Medel!" you shout when spotting the youth near the sections of the station frequented by Mercs and other ship crews.

"We need to sit down and talk for a few minutes. I've been given the impression that your current rate of skill development could be given a boost if you go for memory imprinting."

Once seated he launches into an explanation about his views on imprinting.

You hold up a hand and tell him to stop.
"Memory imprints are not cheating, otherwise everyone would become a star-pilot just from having them. They only provide the basics everyone can get, you still have enough work left to actually become good after the fact.

It's not a replacement for developing skills it's an aid, and I WILL still expect you to utilize the memory imprinting skills, and be good enough to keep up after going through with it. I'm willing to help you out, but this is a favour I'm doing for you, not the other way around. I'm under no obligation to help you out if you're going to put your pride above getting the damn job done.
Understood?"

"Yes sir." He replies meekly.

After this you launch into the story of how you were thrown into the meat grinder with only some rudimentary training and memory imprinting. You make sure to emphasize the difference in skill between then and now, especially after the Smugglers Run campaign where you barely got a single nights sleep.

"Um, sir, about that. Some of the pilots I talked to said that your piloting skills were slipping these days. Because you mostly fly Battlecruisers now rather than more maneuverable craft."

>What say?

>>33114876
>Monetary investment only at this time and make the offer that you could set up a production line in the future if they're interested? Sound good?

sounds good to me, and I'm the 'not a medical company' anon.

>Support Units to cap the size of the salvage fleet

Spawn more overlords!

>>33116126

"That could very well be true. I've probably a few tricks to learn from the newer model corvette pilots they're putting out, as I managed to acquire an attack cruiser quite early in my career. What doesn't change is that I'm still using the knowledge from my experiences in smaller craft when I'm in battle. Combat is as much about your ability to pilot as it is knowing your ship, your crew, your enemy's ship, and anticipating your foe's next move. Exploit your foe's weakness, guard your own or turn them to your advantage."

"I may not be as good as I once was, but I'll never stop learning something new."

>>33116126
"I've moved up the chain of command; my piloting skills are now a less pressing concern than making sure the pilots I command can fly their own ships well enough."

"That could very well be true but I've moved up the chain of command; my piloting skills are now a less pressing concern than making sure the pilots I command can fly their own ships well enough.

I've probably a few tricks to learn from the newer model corvette pilots they're putting out, as I managed to acquire an attack cruiser quite early in my career. What doesn't change is that I'm still using the knowledge from my experiences in smaller craft when I'm in battle. Combat is as much about your ability to pilot as it is knowing your ship, your crew, your enemy's ship, and anticipating your foe's next move. Exploit your foe's weakness, guard your own or turn them to your advantage."

"I may not be as good as I once was, but I'll never stop learning something new."

"Yes sir. I-I mean I understand."

"Good. I'll probably see you around the station before I return to the front, unless of course you're away getting that imprinting done."

>still want to look into a possible 'guardian' left by the guy's father to ensure his son has a credible adviser and confidant.
There are few such figures present unless you want to try looking in the worlds their former House lost. This could be dangerous if they found out that potentially rebellious elements are still active. Did you want to hire a private investigator to look into this? It would also be best to employ a different company than what you've been using back on Dreminth.

>or perhaps tell us of other skills Mr Medel may possess but himself may look down upon. He may be so focused upon becoming a Knight and fighting the Neeran that he could be tunnel-visioned and missing something bigger he could be doing for both himself and the larger war effort. >Every conflict has an unsung war upon the home front and in the shadows.
This has been a concern. He does have some skill in administration and might be better at a desk job. You doubt him capable of political maneuvering like that Baron you met the other day.

>>33116805
We should try to find the time in our personal schedule to refresh our skills, just to remind the pilots why they follow us. If possible, and if we're not actually too rusty. Do a private sim run, then play with the big boys.

>>33116805
Could just be me, but... Aren't "WE" kind of angling to be the kid's adviser/confidant? Sure, we're busy and won't be there forever, but if we replace ourselves we lose control of a potentially valuable asset.

Also, if we try to refocus the kid now, we'll lose him, but seek situations for good "teaching moments" about how fighting and flying aren't the only skills you need.

>>33116996
Well, I sort of figured that an Errant knight would leave some old loyal friend with his son before departing for the front.

I've no problem with becoming this kid's mentor, but I'm not sure if we're really in a position to do it correctly. Regardless, we're not going to -be- an actual mentor if we're looking at him as an asset.

>>33116996
>Aren't "WE" kind of angling to be the kid's adviser/confidant? Sure, we're busy and won't be there forever, but if we replace ourselves we lose control of a potentially valuable asset.
You could always make sure that the PI you send finds someone that you can have on your payroll. Keep in mind that maintaining the loyalty of someone could prove difficult over a long period.
HAG class name suggestions so far:

Valkyrie
Hussar Class (because they are the cavalry)
>Hag is already a good name. Maybe 'Old Hag'.
Halberd
Grand Dame
Jaeger
Fury
Becka Class
Seraph Seraphim Neeranfucker
Ika
Morrigan
Aradia
Bakhtak
Nellie Longarm
Jenny Greenteeth
Peg Powler

>>33117586
>Becka Class
this has my vote if only for the awkward reveal at a family dinner.

>>33117586
Hussar sounds awesome.

>>33117586
Why not call it the Strike Witch?

btw are missiles small enough to fit inside the barrel of a 406mm (16 inches) "naval" mass driver? I have a loadout in mind I think will work, but it's a lot of guns and I'm not sure if we have space for them all. So one of the space saving measure I'm thinking of is to use vertical launch tubes instead of discrete missile launchers.

>>33117586
I like the Hussar Class idea.

Hussar seems a little generic to me. That would be a better name for a tank or other land vehicle. We want a name that implies flight and firepower (like a witch), or maybe some kind of weather event. Meteor would fit for instance.

See you guys tomorrow.

Rare (or expensive** ) starfighters

>Dominion
1x Z4H Attack Bomber
1x Mint condition Z4 heavy fighter (RESERVED)
6x Z4 Heavy Fighter (2 of these are flyable for use with the museum ship tour.)
1x Z5L Light fighter **

3x Z5W / Z5P ** (Warlord Particle beam modification)

>Terran Alliance / Republic / Rovinar Fed
TF-27 Crossbow Heavy Fighter
TF-27-JTX Crossbow upgrade (Has a turret)
2x TF-70 Asp Heavy Starfighter (Think an F-14 if it had 4 engines.)
2x Needle fighter (RESERVED)
TF-82-S Atmospheric Arrow **

Aries Spartan ** (Barely salvageable)

3x RF-200 Scimitar interceptor
2x RF-350 Type-6 attack bomber **
2x Rovinar Interceptor (RESERVED)

Shallan
2x Shallan Umbra starfighter **

In addition to the more rare collectibles you have a few expensive more modern fighters among your salvage. You already have a Z5L as your main personal starfighter. It's maintained in good condition. You may want to consider selling this one, using it as a gift or possibly even as a spare or source of parts.
The Warlord produced Z5W / Z5P were advanced interceptors you encountered only a few times in the invasion of South Reach, destroying a production center for them. They mount a pair of short barrel particle beams giving them a tremendous firepower advantage over most other interceptors. Only a few production lines survived Operation Typhoon intact so they're not the most numerous craft at the moment.
Terran Atmospheric Arrow's are extremely high performance transatmospheric fighters only elite pilots have access to. In reality they're closer to the Z5L in terms of performance but carry many more small Shard missiles making them a serious threat in a dogfight.

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>>33118843
The Aries Spartan was an attempt to match the Z5L and Atmospheric Arrow on more of a budget. Being from Aries they're still expensive but can be reconfigured to suit the individual user's fighting style and weapon preference. This one is damaged rather badly, you may consider selling it back to Aries, having them rebuild it for you, or hiring a private company to rebuild it.

The pair of Type-6 attack bombers you've recovered will be repaired and operational before the starfighter line is completed. Again, these could be used as a gift, kept as part of a collection or equipped to the RSS fleet as an escort fighter.

Shallan Umbra fighters have been steadily climbing in price of late. With the war on it doesn't take a genius to figure out why. You could sell them when you return to the front for a good price or consider other options.

You've reserved a few of the Needle fighters you've recovered so that you still have access to the same model as your first starfigther. The original remains in the trophy room back home.
Do you wish to have one sent to Kaartinen IV for use as a Battle Monument?


Most of other others on the list are planned to be put on loan to museums in the Centri cluster. It won't make you a lot of money but they'll be relatively well protected.

>>33119351
>warlord particle beam mod

This should technically be a 'freeware' mod of the Z5, correct?

DHI produces fighters, correct? Could we see if they'd like to look into the ones we've come across to start production?

Sadly, I think we went for everything but dominion-based fighter designs for any and all fighter factories we put up. Perhaps another starfighter production line is in order for producing this mod, or maybe a 'buy Z5 and upgrade' factory?

>>33119834
>This should technically be a 'freeware' mod of the Z5, correct?
Should but you'd need to reverse engineer it first. The Warlords still have production data for them. Some Houses are undoubtedly working to get their own versions into production by now, or the cannons for them at the very least.

>DHI produces fighters, correct?
They produce power systems for them. Most of the fighter production lines in J-D are owned privately by members of the nobility with a few exceptions where the navy owns them.
>Could we see if they'd like to look into the ones we've come across to start production?
They might just wait to see if they can buy the specs off of an Allied House rather than devote an R&D team to it, but you never know.

>Sadly, I think we went for everything but dominion-based fighter designs for any and all fighter factories we put up. Perhaps another starfighter production line is in order for producing this mod, or maybe a 'buy Z5 and upgrade' factory?
How does everyone else feel about this? It is competition not only for your attack bomber line but the Aries one on Tourta as well.

>>33120070
Well we do need to continue developing our companies. A second line wouldn't be bad.

Need to get some sleep at some point in the next 6 hours so I won't be able to post the next survey just yet.
Good night.

A question I'd like some feedback on first before putting it up. The Helios Medium cruiser you salvaged can be repaired with the exception being the main gun. House Helios doesn't just give those away.

You could sell the ship back to their House.
Sell it to the Republic in the hopes that they can refit it with one of their new heavy plasma cannons.
Gifting the ship to someone was also briefly mentioned.

House Helios sometimes used the hulls for transporting large amounts of cargo.
Its also similar in size to the asteroid grappler that House Ceries once operated for your House, though not currently outfitted for that sort of work. You could make an agreement to sell it to them for conversion to an asteroid tug and try to get reduced rates for work you needed done with it. You could also pay Ceres to convert the ship for you.

Sell to Helios
Sell to Republic
Gift Helios
Gift Republic
Refit as heavy transport
Sell to House Ceres for conversion
None of the above / Other (please specify)

>>33120652
Refit as heavy transport

>>33120070
>How does everyone else feel about this? It is competition not only for your attack bomber line but the Aries one on Tourta as well.

Well, I'd guess it mostly depends on where we build it, right? If we build it two or three galaxies away, there shouldn't be much trouble, right?

>>33120652
How much is the ship worth right now? How much after everything except the cannon has been repaired?

>>33114876
>Terran Alderamin Battleship. Most of the survey comments talked about saving it for the salvage fleet or trying to get funds out of the House for it over a longer period.
>The votes however were strongly for selling it to the House cheaply, with upgrading it being second place. Once repaired (without any upgrades) it should be able to keep pace with the EBON which has been undergoing a substantial engine upgrade.

Just add it to the next survey with the additional choices. It's not like this is an especially pressing matter.

>>33120652
>Sell it to the Republic in the hopes that they can refit it with one of their new heavy plasma cannons.
>refit it with one of their new heavy plasma cannons.
>heavy plasma cannons.

God yes I want to see that. It will be like a ship strapped to a cannon!

I can't believe this quest is still fucking running, jesus christ..

>>33120652
[X] Sell republic

>>33120652
[X] Sell to Republic

Especially if we are trying to get our foot in the door in the infrastructure industry.

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SURVEY <<<<<<<<<<<<<

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FKKLBHW

See you guys after 4PM EST.


>>33121960
>How much is the ship worth right now? How much after everything except the cannon has been repaired?

Fully repaired = ~200m
Current = 132m

>>33124683
So how about gifting Baron Dremine with one of those rare Fighters? I mean he seemed like a decent guy when we meet him and we could use his support to become Knight Commander.

Safety bump.

>>33120652
Minor question, but what are Eshik Medel and his associates doing right now? I wonder if they actually have a plan to regain at least some of their power, because if they don't, I do.
Mainly, what they need to do is found a mercenary company, probably affiliated with the PCCG. This would allow them to both pay the bills of their fleet, gain combat experience and expand their forces without drawing too much attention. Should we wish to help them out in order to have a useful proxy, we can fairly easily sell them war material at good prices or give them good merc contracts to help out our salvage operations without drawing too much attention. Then postwar they could provide booth the pretext for a JD invasion and a useful auxiliary force for such an attack. Best part is, since our support will basically consist of selling mercenaries weapons and hiring them for completely legitimate jobs if it doesn't work out its completely deniable for both parties.

It is probably a good idea to start thinking about what we're going to do with that power armor and other assorted stuff we managed to salvage.

The loader can probably used by our logistics company,

The staff... make a series of viral videos trying to answer the question if it can be used as a kitchen tool?

The power amour:
Can Rovinar power armour be refitted to suit humans?

I also feel like South Reach League's budget Sonia could be interested in buying one.

>>33127737
About the Rovinar power I see three things we can go about it. Firstly we can try trade it to the Rovinar for Human/Droll power armor instead, moar Recon Armor! Secondly we could trade it to the Rovinar to increase our favor further. Thirdly try to find someone to wear it for us, as a man at arms, but the problem there is that I doubt there is many Rovinars among our Marines and I do not trust mercs with this kind of equipment.

Outright selling it shouldn't be that hard but doesn't seem that fun to do. Personally I prefer going to the Rovinar with it and try get a deal out of it with them as they have this profitable habit, for us, of trying to get all their old equipment back.

>The staff... make a series of viral videos trying to answer the question if it can be used as a kitchen tool?

"Hi, Billy Mays here and do I got a deal for you today! Are you tired of mundanely cutting up your food? Is cooking missing that spark for you? Well no longer with the HF Halberd! With the HF Halberd there will never be a dull moment in the kitchen as you slash, thrust and smash the food into submission! Call within the next five minutes and we'll throw in these brand new plasma grenades for when you need to clear out those pesky fire ants from the yard!"

Bump.

>>33126532
>Minor question, but what are Eshik Medel and his associates doing right now? I wonder if they actually have a plan to regain at least some of their power
His plan was to first gain some legitimacy with the cruiser and with it attempt to attract more loyalists. From there they would have had enough manpower to operate some minor industry somewhere to pay for the addition of more ships to their fleet over time.
Eventually they might someday have enough strength to attract the attention of their conquers enemies which could assist them in an invasion. They could then be set up as a "new" minor House, and while subservient to their new allies it would still be better than remaining in exile.

If instead he followed your plan and built up a force while getting them trained as Mercs he would be in a much better position militarily in the long term.

>Best part is, since our support will basically consist of selling mercenaries weapons and hiring them for completely legitimate jobs if it doesn't work out its completely deniable for both parties.
As long as it remained private sales from RSS to him that would also provide additional protection to J-D from reprisals.


>>33127737
>The loader can probably used by our logistics company,
It has quite a bit of armor equipped to it currently. Do you want to the have the guns and armor set aside for emergency use?

>The staff... make a series of viral videos trying to answer the question if it can be used as a kitchen tool?
Will it blend? Signs point to yes.

>Can Rovinar power armour be refitted to suit humans?
No. Its structure and neutral interface systems are built specifically for Rovinar physiology.

>>33127981
>Thirdly try to find someone to wear it for us, as a man at arms, but the problem there is that I doubt there is many Rovinars among our Marines and I do not trust mercs with this kind of equipment.
There are some Rovinar among the RSS boarding teams. Just putting that out there.

>>33129663
>It has quite a bit of armor equipped to it currently. Do you want to the have the guns and armor set aside for emergency use?

Sure, I doubt we'd get much for that stuff anyway.

>>33129663
>There are some Rovinar among the RSS boarding teams. Just putting that out there.

Would power armour actually be of use for RSS employees, or would it just be a more impressive hazmat suit most of the time?

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>>33127981
>trade it to the Rovinar for Human/Droll power armor instead, moar Recon Armor!
This could take some time for them to get hold of. You would be on a long list for it.

>Secondly we could trade it to the Rovinar to increase our favor further.
I'm sure they would appreciate not having to give you expensive things for once.

>habit of trying to get all their old equipment back
Starships mostly. LST's and anything smaller are much less of a concern. But you never know with power armor.

>Hi, Billy Mays here and do I got a deal for you today!
Just thought of one even crazier. Pic related.

>>33129848
>or would it just be a more impressive hazmat suit most of the time?
The latter unfortunately. Unless you were planning ahead of time for them to be getting into combat. Having protection against boarders if you send a salvage team to the front could be useful but there's just as much of a chance your ships would be shot to pieces by corvettes instead.

>>33130047
I honestly don't want our company anywhere near the frontlines but I guess that's a discussion for another time.


Have we salvaged anything with a cloaking device, btw?

>>33129848
>Would power armour actually be of use for RSS employees, or would it just be a more impressive hazmat suit most of the time?

This is the reason I want to trade it to the Rovinar for Human armor. More men at arms for the Reynard family. Which should give us... twelve suits of power armor not including us? Eight which we just recovered, not counting the space one or the lifter. And the two we recovered earlier that are now on garrison duty on our ship and the two Recon armors we got for our double and bodyguard. We got a small army of these things now!

>I'm sure they would appreciate not having to give you expensive things for once.
Well in either case we could give them a call just to see if they are interested at all.

>>33130247
It will happen eventually, good money to be made there and with good enough escort and sensors we should be able to survive without even ending up in combat... Mostly... Probably... Maybe...

Didn't we salvage a Rovinar Crusier? That thing probably has one.

>>33130247
>Have we salvaged anything with a cloaking device, btw?
You salvaged a Rovinar Cruiser which does look to have been carrying one. It's currently damaged and rated for cruisers. You would need a Battlecruiser/Battleship grade cloak for your custom Aries transport.
Do you want to trade/sell the cloak to the House?


HAG naming:
Valkyrie 5 votes
Hussar Class 4 votes
Jaeger and Becka each have 2

Majority approve of keeping tiny amounts of the hull eating microbe, possibly for study. They'll be stored within stasis containers.

For the Helios:
8 support selling to Republic
3 to Helios
2 to refit as a heavy transport

>Contact Versa and ask if any of her calculations involving anti-scorcher stuff could make use of such a Helios Class. Possible Factions Alliance project?
You'd need a working cannon for that.

Vote on the Battleship was much more split this time.
Attempt to upgrade = 7
Sell to the House cheap = 4
Make Lease to own deal with House = 3
Hold in reserve, sell/gift to fellow Knight = 3

Particle beam fighter
No / Not at this time = 6
Yes, try to buy design specs off ally = 4
Yes, reverse engineer it ourselves = 6

It seems there is a slight edge in people who would like to start up another factory.

>If the majority wants to start a production line, I'd say we should at least look at the offers to simply buy the technology before starting any projects to reverse engineer it.
Does this sound good?

Another suggestion:
>Could we see if any House Allies doing R&D could use the 3 we have in exchange for production rights and/or a few squadrons?

Thoughts?

>>33130291
Remember that we'll need to have people very good at maintaining and protecting that armour from intrusion as well.

Which reminds me, we probably need to be on the lookout for a permanent, personal power-armor guy to care for our stuff and those of our men-at-arms and possibly our company.

Or simply aim at getting ourselves a power cell armor production line as part of RSS, eventually...

>>33130247
>>33130291
>Front line worries & cloaking devices

I think that brings up the Terran Science Ship and that civilian explorer vessel we may have picked up.

Can either of those mount sensors like that Navigator's Guild frigate that detected stuff in nearby systems? They'd be damned useful as early warning systems for our salvage teams.

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>>33130047
We should find out who the Rovinar power armour belonged to.

Did a little preliminary work on the HAG. Couple things I figured out so far:

- I set the dimensions at 100m x 50m x 25m. This should be about the size of the royal LST if it's based on a battletech Broadsword. Since our factory is configured for the LST the central "box" of the HAG should be about the same size or it won't fit on the same production line. The bits that stick out can be a bit larger because they get added last.

- LSTs carry a significant arsenal in addition to troop seating and ground vehicles. The HAG replaces all of this transport capacity with more armour and DAKKA.

- Iowa turrets are really big, but the barrel of the gun from bore to breech is only 20m. Since we plan to use mass drivers there are some things we can do to make the turrets smaller and have less of the barrel exposed. This would make it more aerodynamic and less prone to damage.

- All of the weapons are going to go on the top and sides and allow the bottom to be one unbroken sheet of armour. The side mounts can fire straight down as well as forward and back, so you can use them to strafe while coming and going.

>captcha gives picture of street address
>the numbers are censored out

>>33130419
Semi-related to all that talk about cloaking devices: When is our House going to start fielding cloaked battleships, now that the cat is out of the bag?

>>33130419
Valkyrie seems like a decent class name. The Becka class seemed like a funnier name however. And these votes always amazes me, do we have a lot of people never posting cause it does not feel like we're 17 people in this thread.

Yay, another Starfighter factory!

>Does this sound good?
As long as we're not talking huge amount of money like the sums for the licenses then I'm all game.

>Thoughts?
Rather not, less competition from the House means we'll be able to sell more to the House.

>Or simply aim at getting ourselves a power cell armor production line as part of RSS, eventually...
Well that depends on when people will allow other people to make those! Last time I checked it was locked out along with Power Armor.

On a unrelated note, how much land do we actually own on Frostback and can it be measured in percent? Cause by just saying a lot it lets my imagination run to places it should not. Like the idea that after we've terraformed the place we become Baron over the fresh and new colony.

>>33130472
Points to Starshadow once more for doing the work no one else wants to.

>>33130592
More importantly you should ask when the Rovinar tech will be implemented as JD's "New revolutionary stealth tech". It's been about three years since then has it not?

>>33130986
>More importantly you should ask when the Rovinar tech will be implemented as JD's "New revolutionary stealth tech". It's been about three years since then has it not?

Well, we liberated it from the then 'Pirate Warlords' so I'd guess it's fair game.

>On a unrelated note, how much land do we actually own on Frostback and can it be measured in percent?

Can we actually own land that wasn't awarded to us? Or do we just rent it from the government otherwise?

>>33130592
Their plan is to outfit a full squadron of Battlecruisers or fast battleships with them that could perform sneak attacks. This will take time as full reverse engineering is only just now being completed. Production is expected to be slow.

Knight Kim had a cloak for his fast battleship in the last rotation. One other ship may have one as well.

>Do you wish to send any rare fighter to Baron Archivald as a gift?
12 votes for yes. 2 for no, 2 for never.
What fighter would you guys like to send along?

Highest votes for the Aries Spartan is to have Aries rebuild it followed by selling it to an interested party.


Other rare starfighters as gifts.
>First, find out if they even care about that sort of stuff.
That would be a good idea, other wise it could just be like getting one of those gifts you'd really rather re-gift to another family member. Just because it's nice does not mean they'll like it.

The Earl - No (Preference: shuttles)
Winifred - No (but would appreciate it all the same.) (Preference: power armor)
Archivald - Yes
Baron Doedra Dremine - [LOCKED] (Unknown)
Captain Madeline "Mad Eye" Jones - No
Fleet Captain Peusen(Terran) - Yes
Knight Myrish Avun - No (Preference: rare weapons)
Knight Antanas Koppel - Yes
Commander Luryas (Rovinar) - No
Lt Commander Thebe (Hune) - Yes
Governor of Surakeh - No (Preference: walkers)

>>33130986
I'm okay with Valkyrie as a name. But I thought of the name Eclipse last night and I thought it would be funnier.

Because our enemies will be fighting in the shade

>>33131250
>Winifred
>Power armor

Well it just so happens...

>Governor of Surakeh likes Walkers
He is a man of good taste.

>>33131250
Well, there we go then. I'm in favor of sending gifts to those who would appreciate them; I'd also give Knight Avun our schmancy halberd unless we find a use for it.

Give away the Z5L, the Umbras, and the Arrow. I don't know who would like what (of Archivald, Peusen, Koppel, and Thebe). Also, go ahead and give Winifred one of our armours.

>>33131250
>What fighter would you guys like to send along? [Archivald]

Z4 Heavy Fighter.

We've got multiple and there is absolutely no reason to give him anything super special until he does something for us. If we must give him something else, at least have it be an extra we've got.

>Thebe
I miss that guy.

>>33131250
>Production is expected to be slow.
Anything we can do to make it go faster? And possibly make some money too in the process?

>Captain Madeline "Mad Eye" Jones - No
>Commander Luryas (Rovinar) - No

These guys don't collect any military stuff?

>Knight Myrish Avun - No (Preference: rare weapons)

Well, I guess we do at least have someone on our list who would enjoy getting the worst kitchen aid in the known universe.

Also, what about former Captain Selena Crayton? I'm sure she would love to get her hands on some power armour again.

>>33131250
Well any Fighters on Archivalds list he can get as far as I am concerned and I am sure we can get something for Winifred that she would fancy as well. Perhaps one of the Needle Fighters? And if that wont do then the Space armor I am willing to part with as a gift, the rest I want to use for our future Men at Arms.

I suppose Myrish can have the Halberd as well seeing as we have no use for it anyways.

Shame we do not have a nice Shuttle for the Earl, really want to get some contact with him befor we rise in rank. Same with Baron Dremine

While we're on the subject of gifts, did we ever send a fruit basket to that Krath we stole the Neeran Cruiser with?

>>33131495
HF "Kitchen Knigthmare" Halberd.

>these votes always amazes me, do we have a lot of people never posting cause it does not feel like we're 17 people in this thread.
Votes have usually tended towards 18-24 since we first started them. Many people have said that they prefer having the votes available as they might not be able to participate in the threads themselves.
Or we could have a few people that consistently upvote from multiple IP's every single time.

>>33131378
>Well it just so happens...
>>33131429
>Also, go ahead and give Winifred one of our armours.

You want to have her visit the shop and pick one out or try your hand in selecting one?
Any of them will need work done to properly fit her.

>>33131495
>These guys don't collect any military stuff?
Not that you know of but you're not that familiar with them.

>Also, what about former Captain Selena Crayton? I'm sure she would love to get her hands on some power armour again.
Well there's a suit of Medium jump jet armor, which is not seen very often because the extra weight slows it down. She might appreciate that, or you could try to trade it to Ecord for her old suit.

>>33131635
>While we're on the subject of gifts, did we ever send a fruit basket to that Krath we stole the Neeran Cruiser with?
Yes.

>>33131680
>You want to have her visit the shop and pick one out or try your hand in selecting one?

I'd suggest we just let her choose.

>Well there's a suit of Medium jump jet armor, which is not seen very often because the extra weight slows it down. She might appreciate that, or you could try to trade it to Ecord for her old suit.

We should offer her the choice between a JJ or normal medium version. She might not have wanted a JJ armor but simply used it because some power armour is better than none.

>>33131680
>Winifred gifts

I'd like to at least investigate the armors to see if there are any surviving heirs to the armor owners before giving Winifred anything.

With the hull cleaning efforts taking up half of your main fleet's salvage efforts it was beginning to look like it would time to get the remaining wreckage back to base. Nikolov eventually dicided to risk taking the Anchorage back to load anything deemed safe and free of contaminants. House Veritas is beginning to think this may have been a conspiracy to damage development of their fleets.

According to rumors passed on by the people at their station, some members of the government even believe you may have been involved. They're a minority thanks both to your assistance and because of what it must be costing to cleanse your own ships.

Using the spare down time you start to see about sending off gifts to some of your acquaintences. A rare starfighter here and there and other equipment.

After some searching you find out that there is a surviving heir to the former owner of a suit of power armor. Its one of the ornate ones, which is just as well you suppose. The extra inlays draw too much attention to the user in battle. It's something you can make use of personally with your people acting as a distraction while you sneak around and stab people in the back.

It's not like you don't have your own ornamentation that can be attached to your suit.
>Do you want to send the suit back to the heir?

>>33132720
>>Do you want to send the suit back to the heir?
Could we get some more information about the heir and the person who used the armour originally, please?

>>33132720
>send it back to the heir

Can we get a quick info bite on the heir, their House, and the House's relation with our own?

>>33132720
Not even a little bit, I still want to keep the Dominion armor and the Jump Jet Medium for the potential Men at Arms.

>>33132720
Send it back, find out more.

>>33132720
I would like to know more about the house the former owner was apart of.

I still want to keep it though.

So for the HAG the main gun shoots 16 inch artillery shells. The kind the Iowa class fired back in WW2 are about 1.5m long. Except if you look at a cutaway drawing the front third of the shell is just a hollow metal cone that makes the shell more aerodynamic. So I think I'll make the shells 1m long, but solid in construction.

A 1m 16 inch shell is freaking huge and should have more than enough payload for anything futuretech could put in it. To give you an idea of how big they are Iowa shells weighed about 2000-3000 pounds depending on the type, and they did have fission payloads later on. Your average infantry howitzer shells only weight 40-80 pounds by comparison. Mass drivers can fire anything that fits down the barrel so we could also carry solid kinetic rods for direct fire and use them to cold-launch missiles.

I was thinking of adding some kind of massive gatling weapon for maximum BRRRRRT but then I realized that we could hook up the main mass drivers to the same magazines used by the 120mm PD guns...

>Btw, did the guy who gave the information to us after we caught him at least get his sentence reduced to something less final?
The ventriloquist? No, you had him executed.

>>33133082
At 1.5m long that's long enough to stick 3-4 plasma antitank guns inside the shell. Once imbedded into the ground in the path of an oncoming Neeran tank it can act as a land mine firing into the still armored but unshielded underside.

House Pentaris, currently in the middle to minor range of Houses.
Relations with J-D: 54%
Fairly neutral, could be worse.

>heir
The grandchild of the previous owner is a pre-teen, currently just entering one of the academies. The family is still relatively well off and remain nobility but their power is considerably less than it once was.

>>33133457
>Fairly neutral
>The family isn't as powerful as they once were
>The Heir is still a pre-teen

This could have potential if we could somehow influence the youth or at least use it to get a foot into House Pentaris and their markets.

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Winifred is surprised at your offer but gratefully accepts it.
"I refused to have my armor given any decoration over the years. It would be good to have a second around just in case. Thank you Captain."

Baron Archivald sends a short but sincere letter of thanks for the gift and wishes you well.

>Meanwhile...
>Loran II, Harmen family residence

Taking a rare few hours to relax Lord Hamen is soon interrupted by the entrance of Baron Archivald.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you?"

"No. No, not at all." he lied. "There's an open bottle of wine by the cooler."

Once the other man was seated with a glass in hand he asked what the occasion was.

"Apparently you owe me 500 for a little wager we made."

The Governor looked blankly at the Baron for a moment before it slowly dawned on him.
"No."
"Yes."
"How in the world- no, no I don't want to know. Here, take your money and go."

"It was a small bet. I suspect that wine costs almost as much. Why so upset?"
"I've had enough unexpected surprises lately. And I suppose you'll want more space set aside for your collection?"

"If it's not a bother. If it is do tell me, I have other locations I could store them."

"I'll have my people take care of it. I have to keep you in my debt somehow."

Once the imposing shape of the Baron had left Lord Harmen ordered the computer to look up the names of pilots who had fought in the last attack on the planet.

>>33133457
Exactly how big and tough are these Neeran tanks? Most ground vehicles like hovertanks and mechs would get their shit slapped by shells of this size, even plain HE ones. So I'm guessing these are closer to Bolos with heavy shielding and armour on the topside.

Putting the plasma AT guns inside of shells seems bit awkward. Could we hit a tank with enough kinetic shells in a single strafing pass to take one out?

>>33134159
>Exactly how big and tough are these Neeran tanks?
They're 80 meters long and have shields taken from light attack ships. They can take a nuke or two.
>So I'm guessing these are closer to Bolos with heavy shielding and armour on the topside.
Yes. They have 2 plasma cannons up front and multiple secondary weapons along the spine. They do have some troop space and repulsors to reduce the weight of the vehicle but not enough that it can fly.

>Could we hit a tank with enough kinetic shells in a single strafing pass to take one out?
If you can calculate how much damage such a strafing run could do in comparison to nukes I'll look at it.

The Shallan military have found nuclear landmines to be the most effective weapon against them but don't like using them. Currently they're using plasma anti-tank weapons in bundles for the same job. Stick them underground so that they cant be blocked by the shield when it drives over.

File: Tank VS Gunship.png (567 KB, 1116x380)

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>>33134159
HAG VS Neeran super tank. This is the closest equivalent I could find.

>>33133457
I'm for contacting the heir and returning the armor, possibly by placing it into a trust holding with the larger House or some kind of company that specializes in such things. (There must be some of these in Dominion space)

>scattered chatter about power armor for RSS/RTS
First off, is it even legal for mercs/civilians to own power armor? Second, what sort of horrible costs are we looking at to operate powered armor outside of the military? There has to be some serious military subsidizing for our personal suit repairs.

and finally, why does trusting civilians/mercs with power armor sound like a HORRIBLE idea?

>JJ armor & the terran space-use JJ armor

Could we contact the power cell armor development House we partnered with and see if they'd like to have these suits loaned to them for possible power cell armor development ideas/study? I recall a jump jet variant of power cell armor being proposed.

>>33134574
from what I recall the rovinar have an e beam that we were looking to eventually replace the main gun with Can we keep an eye out for that?

>>33134865
>pic
That's actually exactly what I was thinking of as well.

>>33134574
What speed do our mass drivers accelerate shells to?

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>>33134919
>(There must be some of these in Dominion space)
There are. I'll add it to the next survey whenever it goes up since there are votes for and against sending it.

>First off, is it even legal for mercs/civilians to own power armor?
Depends where they're located. There's nothing against it in the Dominion or most of South Reach since most nobles will have bought their own power armor. (Not always but still.) You own yours for instance.
If mercs you hire can bring in power armor of their own why not employ them?

>Second, what sort of horrible costs are we looking at to operate powered armor outside of the military?
Usually its a full time job for an experienced weapons maintenance tech for 1 suit. That plus all of the equipment necessary to maintain the suit can add up over time.
I haven't hammered out an actual price.
>There has to be some serious military subsidizing for our personal suit repairs.
There is. The military has most of it covered but RSS will have to get it's shit together to keep all of them operational if you plan to use several.

Also that converted power loader, it's basically a suit of Terminator armor at this point in terms of size. It's still probably the cheapest one to operate because of its lower density armor materials and little to no repulsors.

>and finally, why does trusting civilians/mercs with power armor sound like a HORRIBLE idea?
Never said it wasn't.

>I recall a jump jet variant of power cell armor being proposed.
It's in R&D currently. They should start building prototypes by the time you get back to the front.

There's still the question about what to do with those flight packs you found.

>>33135544
didn't the Baron want to talk to us about some things? Also, I like the deniable merc plan. Though we need to make sure the house doesn't think we are cultivating those contacts for internal purposes

Crayton must either be somewhat bulky for her armor to fit Ecord. Or Ecord is somewhat slim for him to fit her armor.

>>33135270
>from what I recall the rovinar have an e beam that we were looking to eventually replace the main gun with Can we keep an eye out for that?
Main gun of the Devourer or the HAG? Because it would be a downgrade for your battlecruiser, though you'd have less to worry about ammo limitations.

They have E-beams that can be mounted on their Light attack ship design. It would take some modification to the interior of a HAG but it could mount one in the main turret.
Downside: This is a starship grade weapon. Using it in atmosphere without accidentally nuking everything nearby would be difficult. Not impossible since you can always turn down the strength of the beam but the effects if it struck matter instead of the shields would be instantly noticeable.

They're still working on scaling them down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X2ALG9iGPg


>>33135435
>What speed do our mass drivers accelerate shells to?
More than 4000 m/s, I'm uncertain how much more. Firing them that fast in atmosphere would be detrimental to the structural integrity of the round.


>>33135812
>didn't the Baron want to talk to us about some things?
>Winifred and the SRL matter.
Oh yes, that. You wanted to talk to her -not the other way around- to make sure she knew about the potential of a conspiracy to strip the South Reach League of ships which could be bought by a coalition of Houses and the PCCG mercenary guild. Getting an appointment right away to see her is easy enough.

"Captain I'm getting the impression by the way you entered that you think something is an emergency. Could it possibly be worse than a biological contaminant that could have destroyed the entire orbital industry of this planet?"

>What say?

>>33136103

"Would South Reach being set on course to devolve back into anarchy and resurgent fleets of pirate warlords be considered an emergency?"

>>33136103
actually, I think she wanted to talk to us about SP torps

>>33134574
>If you can calculate how much damage such a strafing run could do in comparison to nukes I'll look at it.
How big of a nuke are we talking though? Football? Starfighter missile? Torpedo? Minivan? If you can estimate how many megatons of unfocused blast energy it would take to overwhelm the tank's shield you should be able to translate that into direct kinetic energy.

>>33135435
At least several Mach, so 2000-4000m/s easily, your top speed is limited only by air resistance. So kinetic projectiles will be thin rods vs payload projectiles which are bullet shaped.

>>33136564
>>33136103
Did the math on our railguns. Assuming the 1.5m x 406 mm solid tungsten shell accelerated to 3000m/s, we get the equivalent of 3.6 million tons of TNT, about a sixth of Hiroshima. At 4km/s, we get something on the order of 40million tons of TNT, and that's all concentrated on a single point and accurate (according to current USN trials) to within 5m at 300 miles. So it's a usable weapon even against those nasty tanks, unless the nukes being used are in the kiloton-range. And even then, we're more accurate and have no lasting effects (we produce no radiation unless we hit significant fractions of c, in which case it's simply not a tactical-scale weapon anymore and we should hide).

>>33136589
My apologies, dropped a digit. 3km/s is 360000 tons of TNT, which is actually larger than most modern MIRV bomblets, and at 4km/s we're at 40 megatons, bigger than everything other than the Tsar Bomba. Sorry, been a while since I looked at nuclear weapons specs.

>>33136854
Crikey. And this is just direct fire within an atmosphere. Objects at reentry speeds can hit mach 25 which is 30km/s. I think all we have to do is create composite shells instead of pure tungsten. Put a ceramic cap on the front to act as a heat shield and fire them while diving on the target from orbit.

And if that doesn't work we just get a bigger hammer. Like a solid tungsten dart the size of a telephone pole.

>>33137259
Yeah. We're talking a very massive object, and kinetic energy is an exponential increase by speed.

>>33136198
Winifred sighs and asks to know if this is supposed to happen within the day, week, month or longer. You're not sure yourself and proceed to tell her about the Pirates and their interest in finding what would seem like a scapegoat to some.
"They seem to think this conspiracy exists. I asked the Terrans to collect some data o-"
"Captain. You did what?"
"I have regular contact with one of the ship's AI that I met during the Lat'tham coup. We've cooperated on some projects that were beneficial to the war effort."

"If this data is legitimate and the Terrans have it they can accuse the Dominion of potentially sabotaging our part of the agreement with the Warlords and the Factions Alliance. That could make things very difficult if it turns out reparations need to be paid. Do you have any copies of the data yet?"

"No I need to visit the TCS Loretto and talk to the captain before the AI Versa can give it to me."

Winifred thinks for a moment. "Get the data to me as soon as you possibly can. We can solve this problem internally, within the Dominion without any outside interference. I may need to make use of a spare Kavarian Attack Cruiser once you get it."

"The Warlords agreed to help find whoever still has a bounty on me if I could get the data to them and stop the theft of their ships."

"Can you honestly say our House is not involved in any way Captain?"
The list that one Warlord gave you didn't have House Jerik-Dremine on it but... if they knew who they were talking to why wouldn't they remove your House from the list of suspects?

>>33137405
Oh, and the other fun bit; assuming a solid round, we don't have to worry much about structural integrity (unless we make some fin-stabilized thing or rifle it) but we can actually get a plasma bow wave. If finding enough tungsten is a problem, we can SABOT the things and get even more energy in a smaller space, but SABOT railgun rounds anywhere near that size would likely have a overpenetration problem against anything small enough to worry about a nuke that wouldn't crack a planet.

"I'm certain the Terrans will urge you to let them release the data in the name of rooting out corruption within the allied ranks which is very noble of them." Winifred rolls her eyes at this.
"If you can get me the data we can remove any references to us or our immediate allies if present. Then it can be used to weaken our rivals, from within or without. It will still help the South Reach League with their ship losses.
Or you can give it to the Warlords themselves. I'm sure they may do you the favour of not implicating you or our House but the same likely can't be said of our very few and very necessary allies. Can it?"

If the Terrans released the data and it turns out people in your House are equally guilty it might hurt the House but it would allow you and others who are not corrupt to climb the ranks. There may even be a vacancy for a Baron or Knight Commander. It would still be a black eye to Jerik-Dremine's reputation though.

Winifred obviously has plans for a power play on a larger scale, but how far down does the rabbit hole go?

Getting that bounty off your head would make things much easier for you but at what cost? Your House is getting stronger there's no doubt about that but can it afford to lose any allies at this point in time? Or is this the best point in time? There's a big offensive coming up with those new ships and asteroid bases being readied. How much longer will the war last?

>Your plans for the future?

This doesn't need to be answered conclusively at this time. You have until you get the data from the Terrans. Assuming they'll give it to you.

>>33137645
Would it be reasonable to find out who the data suggests is guilty in our House and force them to resign before the Terrans can make the announcement? We look like we caught our bad guys on our own, while other houses are weakened.

>>33137773
You might, or Winifred may be planning to do something similar.

>>33136431
>actually, I think she wanted to talk to us about SP torps

You mention Crayton and her situation now that she's protected by the Factions Alliance and wonder what special projects she might have taken along with her.

"Perhaps we'll find out eventually." Winifred replies.

"On the topic of special projects I hope you're not building nuclear warheads in that asteroid base of yours. The last thing I need is for you running off to the Factions Alliance for protection, especially since we haven't seen how effective that protection is."

She slides over a datapad with an intel report from the Centri cluster.

"Rear line munitions depot explodes." reads the title followed by the date of the accident listed as two weeks ago. The entire thing is under investigation but the base was supposedly abandoned with all warheads moved to a new supply base in the Pandora Cluster. There should have been no warheads on site capable of causing an explosion and it was in a well protected area within range of orbital defense sats. Nothing should have been able to get to it.
Sabotage or a cloaked ship maybe?

>What say?

>>33137645

>plans for the future

Personally, I'd be happy to watch the Dominion burn if it was the difference between Bekka being a Neeran slave or not.

On the less extreme side, I'd have to see the data Versa found for us before making any solid plans.

>"Can you honestly say our House is not involved in any way Captain?"
If it is, they've failed their duty at representing our House and deserve whatever they get. A shame this isn't practical.

Now about converting RSS from J-D business to a Faction Alliance business... Megacorp soon?

>>33138010
Someone trying to make SP torps?

Who's space was this accident in?

>running off to the Factions Alliance for protection
I'd think we'd have better luck with the Terrans or Rovinar, myself...

>>33137645
>Your plans for the future?

Personally I don't mind getting the information and handing it off to Winifred.

Don't need the house's reputation hurt, or our allies reputation hurt.

Mostly because I feel we have built up a working relationship with the Baron.

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>>33138142
>Someone trying to make SP torps?
Very possibly. Its the first accident like it since the Warlords campaign started.
>Who's space was this accident in?
House Urtanim. They're known for being a bit ruthless. Areas like Mike's hometown that could no longer be reclaimed from gangs and decay were occasionally bombed so it could be cleared more easily for redevelopment.


>>33138015
>Now about converting RSS from J-D business to a Faction Alliance business... Megacorp soon?
Well there was an Exodus transport that could be converted to help build infrastructure earlier in the thread, and wanting to acquire an existing company or become a partner. That apparently didn't make it into the last survey. Whoops.

>That plan sounds fine for infrastructure construction; we should make business arrangements now so that we know what the technical requirements are for the design/conversion phase.
Right. Missed that part of that post earlier.

It looks like we have quite a few post left. I wont be able to resume until 7PM EST again tomorrow.

Other than the Infrastructure development company, ornate power armor to heir or not, and the short barrel particle beams was there anything else you wanted to get done before Sonia's return to the front lines and the attempt to get the conspiracy data?

>>33138713
Repulsor glove throwing program and that fusion burst ammo?

>>33138713
>anything else before returning to the front for data?

It probably wouldn't hurt to investigate the need for something like an advanced/upgraded hospital on Surekah or our little Shallan refugee zone on Tourta. Or other general infrastructure/good will buildings. Maybe helping upgrade Tourta's ATC/OTC facilities? They had basically guys looking up with a hand radio and maybe some binoculars during our first visit, iirc.

>>33094337
Why not? using it on the Neeran en mass and en gross would ensure they have to get their ships in decontamination and quarantine. Meaning that ships that have not been destroyed eventually have to go out of commission for some time.


And if we can be the first to crack this thing and have mass production of it we could be the alliance main supplier of this new stopgap measure.

The only other thing we might want to get would be a spray paint coating that can repulse the corrosive thing for a while, akin to SP torp armor.

Something that deteriorates fast and cant be reverse engineered from samples alone. Either that or a contiguous development of spores and armor that evolves every say four or six months in a new strain that renders the previous generation irrelevant.

>>33138713
>and the short barrel particle beams was there anything else you wanted to get done before Sonia's return to the front lines and the attempt to get the conspiracy data

Yeah, we should do some research on Versa's boss.

>>33137645
Let's use the data to weaken our rivals, it's exactly what I wanted when we first got this data. Besides we can try to clear up our allies and JD from corruption if we want to if we get the power to do so from this. Finally we get this really big intrigue going! House JD will grow stronger and we with it! Make House Erid crash and burn baby!

>>33138713
Also, in a bit of a hurry, did we ever decide against or for Mining and Terraforming on Frostback? Those options kinda just disappeared what with us moving the factory to that other planet with the nice Baron on it. I still want to at lest begin terraforming of Frostback with the preference being for both.

>>33140510
>a contiguous development of spores and armor that evolves every say four or six months
It's the rustcalypse of the far future! One strain that we have an effective counter for and that we control tightly some time in the future is almost one to much. I mean it EATS salvage!

>>33138713
>Other than the Infrastructure development company, ornate power armor to heir or not, and the short barrel particle beams was there anything else you wanted to get done before Sonia's return to the front lines and the attempt to get the conspiracy data?

If possible, I think we should devote some time to see how our crews are doing. Put on a simple service uniform, wear a cap, and spend some time with our enlisted or drafted troops. We also haven't spent any time with our marines in ages.

>>33142052
bump

>>33139014
>It probably wouldn't hurt to investigate the need for something like an advanced/upgraded hospital on Surekah or our little Shallan refugee zone on Tourta. Or other general infrastructure/good will buildings. Maybe helping upgrade Tourta's ATC/OTC facilities?
There are some medical facilities in the refugee region that are approximately LVL 2, with better ones by the main port.
Upgrading them is certainly an option.

>They had basically guys looking up with a hand radio and maybe some binoculars during our first visit, iirc.
Out on the smaller islands maybe, not at the main ports.

>>33141372
>did we ever decide against or for Mining and Terraforming on Frostback? Those options kinda just disappeared what with us moving the factory to that other planet with the nice Baron on it.
I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that you guys were only looking at setting that up if the factory was going there anyways.
>I still want to at lest begin terraforming of Frostback with the preference being for both.
Yes you can still buy an atmospheric processor from the Harmen family if you want. They're already deploying their own across the planet. You could also set up a mine at the same time if you still wanted.

>>33140510
>Something that deteriorates fast and cant be reverse engineered from samples alone. Either that or a contiguous development of spores and armor that evolves every say four or six months in a new strain that renders the previous generation irrelevant.
What could possibly go wrong with this plan?

>I mean it EATS salvage!
Yes there's that.

>>33142052
>I think we should devote some time to see how our crews are doing. Put on a simple service uniform, wear a cap, and spend some time with our enlisted or drafted troops.
Roll for disguise check 2d20.

If it fails in one area of the ship you could still try it out in other areas.
>We also haven't spent any time with our marines in ages.
Noted.
>See you after 7pm EST!

Rolled 20

>>33144229
>Roll for disguise check 2d20.

1

Rolled 16, 12 = 28

>>33144229
I wouldn't mind upgrading some of the medical facilities in the refugee zone.

Here is to seeing just how good we are at disguises.

Rolled 14

>>33144284

2

>>33133457
>The ventriloquist? No, you had him executed.

That's unfortunate. He helped us quite a bit when it came to catching those mercs. I think killing people who helped her instead of making things harder should not become a habit for Sonia.

Rolled 13, 8 = 21

>>33144229
dicein

>>33116126

>It's not a replacement for developing skills it's an aid, and I WILL still expect you to utilize the memory imprinting skills, and be good enough to keep up after going through with it. I'm willing to help you out, but this is a favour I'm doing for you, not the other way around. I'm under no obligation to help you out if you're going to put your pride above getting the damn job done.
Understood?"

Yay, you used it! I knew having to train people IRL would come in handy.

Bump.

bump

Last bump for today, I hope.

You take some time to throw on a duty uniform used by most of the crew, making sure no signs of any rank are present. You also tie back your hair and hide it under a cap. Getting a haircut soon might be a good idea or it could get in the way of the Recon armor interface.

Walking the length and breadth of the ship takes the better part of a day, seeing how the crews in different sections are doing. Most seem to enjoy the work though they're usually slightly short handed. This is a point of contention for many but they're experienced enough to handle things with long downtimes between flights. You attempts to get back some of the crew that you let go have only been marginally successful. Few want to make the long flight out to South Reach at this time. You should be able to get more back over time.

The main gun crew seem to be a group of pyromaniacs who may love their jobs a little too much in your opinion.

Walking through the aft engineering sections you encounter a work crew struggling to get a power transfer conduit realigned after some maintenance work. Their spare jack seems to have crapped out.
"Hey you, crewman, give us a hand here or we'll be late for the rest of the work on this shift."
"Uh, I'm not from this section." you respond. "I'm not really experienced with... that."
"It doesn't matter just help us out for a second."

>Your orders?

>>33151281
Could it be lethal? No? Then help them.

>>33151281
Well why not, we're under cover and all. It might be fun! Besides it would be hilarious when to see their reaction when they see just who has been helping them. Gotta flex them muscles as well.

>The main gun crew seem to be a group of pyromaniacs who may love their jobs a little too much in your opinion
Sounds like our kind of people if anything! We like to make things go boom, they like to make things go boom!

>>33151281

Help them out.

"What do I do?"
"Grab that end there and lift it so we can use the good jack to push it in."

It doesn't weigh as much as you expected but the conduit section is incredibly awkward to handle with the machinery is broken. The only real option at this point is to manhandle it long enough to get it into place. With you helping the engineering team it doesn't take much time at all to finish the work.

"Good job, you were a big help."
"You know boss we could finish the other check more quickly with her help."
"That's a great idea! You're drafted. I'll put in a good word with your supervisor and give you a few extra Seni for your trouble."

"About that I-"
"You're not busy are you?"
"No but I-"
"Then its settled. Let's go."

The next two hours are a blur of work on the bits that make up the interior of your ship, giving you a better picture of where everything goes and how it fits together. Capacitor banks, fuel stores and armored bulkheads are layered in such a way as to reduce the chances of secondary explosions near the engines and drive plates. Its still only a small part of the ship but nearly a third of it should have similar construction so you know you'd be able to find things yourself in an emergency.

More importantly you get to listen in on some gossip.

Opinions about you vary. There's less of the Psycho Sonia that you hear elsewhere but they still seem to consider you part warmonger and part tycoon.

>Do you want to say anything to the work crew before departing?

>>33152365
Nah, I assume that we are considered generous when it comes to things like pay?

>>33152705
The crew do get the occasional bonus though its rumored that while RSS people get paid less, they get more bonuses than the crew of the Devourer do.

>>33152365
Stay undercover.

I hate writing on this computer. I need to carve the words "writers block" onto the side of it.

You conduct a few more rounds of the ship and listen in on more gossip in one of the mess halls. It's mostly about happenings on the station and the quarantine of RSS ships but some of it talks about the war. Most have a positive outlook about their chances as long as they're aboard and you remain in command.
One crewman refers to you as a coward due to your tendency to keep the Devourer away from the fighting on many occasions, but is quickly shushed. From the glances of those nearby you get the feeling a few of the gunners might have taken exception to those comments. Well if you ever had to worry about a mutiny they might be a good place to look for support.

Your observations are interrupted by Lt Tes'us who informs you you're needed elsewhere, leading the way back to the Bridge and reports on the salvage cleaning efforts.

A few days later you once again have some free time and decide to get some practice in the simulators to see how rusty you might have gotten.

What ship type would you like to get some practice on?

Roll 1d20 with your suggestion.

I'm trying to figure out the turret design before I go any further. These mass drivers are based off of naval guns, so they have a 16 inch bore and a 20m barrel. In this case though they hinge in the middle instead of towards the back. This shortens the length of the turret and makes it more aerodynamic because you have less barrel dragging in the wind.

Current thoughts:

- I think we may need to change the main turret setup for a couple of reasons. Our mass drivers measure their damage output using kilotons or megatons in kinetic output alone. So there are VERY few targets that would merit multiple shots, and of those targets most are things like fortresses and Neeran tanks. That also goes for regular HE shells too, a single 16 inch shell will have no problem splashing any ground vehicle short of a Bolo. HE shells will be used on everything but the hardest of targets because tungsten is expensive.

So putting 3 guns in the same main turret isn't the best plan, it just makes the single turret heavier and slower to track targets. Single turrets are also less than idea because each extra one divides your ammo and adds another magazine that you have to reinforce relative to the rest of the gunship. I think double turrets are the most efficient because you can engage two targets at once or double the rate of fire on a single target.

Instead of 1 triple gun plus 4 single guns I've decided on a quad-dual turret setup. This is more gun than we started with, but I'm going to justify that by using the weight saved with a simplified magazine.

Rolled 20

>>33153686
Our first attack cruiser of course

Rolled 10

That thrust vectoring shuttle

Rolled 15

>>33153686
The old EX-K we were testing.

Rolled 47

>>33153795
rolling for panic attack

>>33153694
Would tugsten be as expensive under these economic conditions? I have no idea how space mining would affect material prices.

>>33144229
>Frostback
I'd support both the deployment of a mineral survey team to check our land for deposits; along with the purchase of an atmospheric processor.

Side note, is our asteroid base owned by us personally and just staffed with people from RTS and RSS, along with our researchers; or is it a corporate facility?

>>33153889
Well on Earth tungsten is definitely rarer than iron. Even though people in the future can construct multi km long ships I still think tungsten would be up there in terms of cost. For one thing it's a lot heavier than most cargo and expensive to import (just like today). That's a pretty big deal if your supply line starts several galaxies away. Even if there must be asteroids out there with more tungsten in them than all the metal ever mined by humans ever.

Speaking of asteroids we should invest in prospecting and mining for heavy elements. Kinetic weapons are coming back into style and they need to be fed.

I found this article about naval guns, very helpful.

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_16-50_mk7.htm

Turns out the naval shells are actually 1.8m long if you factor in the hollow windshield cone. I'm going to simplify the HAG shells to 2m in length.

Still writing the simulator practice.

>>33154197
>I'd support both the deployment of a mineral survey team to check our land for deposits
They did find some mineral rich areas worth setting up mining operations, they were just rather far away from Alex's land.

The asteroid base is a corporate facility that counted as part of the House payment for Salvage they couldn't otherwise afford. Everything associated with getting the labs and production in there has been paid for via the company wallet.


On the high damage output of the guns on the HAG an important question is worth asking: what if you miss the target? You've potentially just violated the Factions treaty if firing in the upper ranges of what the guns are capable of.
The Shallan military probably doesn't care. That dust will settle eventually.

Worth noting is that Faction shields are hardened against kinetic damage. Neeran shields are as well to some extent. The shots are not going to do full damage, but at the number the HAG can throw out should more than counter that.

If operating in zones where the Factions treaty is expected to be obeyed you would be relying more upon what payload those shells carried. Mines were just an expedient means of circumventing the shield that was known to work, there are bound to be others.

>I think we may need to change the main turret setup
Opinions?

>>33154270
Honestly, I only ran the numbers on tungsten because that's what we use now in our test rail and kinetic kill weapons. We get almost the same energy conversion with Uranium or gold, and Platinum, Osmium, and Plutonium would actually serve better (unless we hit a fissile mass of Plutonium... hmmm, may want to skip that).

Anyways, we could use a central magazine fairly easily. The HAG isn't large enough for us to need seperate magazines for each turret. A single hit to the magazine could take the HAG out of action, but a magazine hit would probably destroy the thing anyway (armor isn't much good when the explosion happens inside the hull.)

>>33154416
I vote keep the turrets as is. If we need to hit something hard (i.e., the shields on those tanks, spacecraft, seriously emplaced positions) we want to be SURE we hit it hard. Multiple turrets makes it too easy to diffuse our firepower too much.

What's the wording on the Factions treaty? Kinetic impacts leave no radiation, and honestly we're at low enough masses and high enough speeds that a planet doesn't care (unless we're firing from orbit, in which case ANY mass driver is a WMD).

>>33154416
One option is to add a quantity rather than quality setting. Basically, if you use less energy and drain the capacitor less we should be able to fire a series of less powerful shots very quickly that will have the same overall effect, and will cause less environmental damage

>>33154559
Sure. That's a benefit of a railgun/coilgun. We can precisely determine the velocity (and therefore the impact force) of each round as we fire it by simply varying the charge level. Also, as I said earlier, these things really are ACCURATE. The US Navy, right now, can hit within 5 meters from 300 miles from a rocking boat. With the advancements in tech in setting, it would not be unreasonable to expect literally pinpoint accuracy until we're firign from orbit.

>>33154416
Accuracy shouldn't be a problem, once the projectile is in flight and spinning it's not going to deviate unless it hits something of comparable density. Neeran tanks are near-stationary targets given the projectile speeds involved, so if you fire at centre mass it's not going to be able to get out of the way.

>>33154455
One benefit of mass drivers is that you don't carry propellant, so the risk comes from the payload of your shells. I'm sure futuretech fuses are pretty good and you can reduce risk even further with binary propellants and stuff like that. And since kinetic shells are inert you could even store them on the outside and use them as extra armour.

But really any hit strong enough to ignite the magazine is going to cut the HAG in half anyways, so it's not something to agonize over.

>>33154556
Kinetic impacts don't leave radiation but they can still kick up harmful dust.

I forgot to mention, the new turret configuration still allows for alpha striking. The reason I want to spread the guns out more is that alpha striking will be the exception, not the rule. If we fire a single shell at mach 4 were talking multiple hiroshimas in terms of damage, and that's before you account for the other 7 guns and the speed of the HAG. So single target damage is not the issue, the issue is coverage. One way to image it would be having a HAG buzzing over Europe during WW2 and firing anything it comes across. If the HAG is in the upper atmosphere it could launch shells much further than a battleship at sea level. So your potential targets of opportunity are going to be in the hundreds, perhaps thousands. Given the firepower of the shells we fire you only need to hit each target once, MAYBE twice.

This is why the triple turret is a little redundant. You're going to be moving the turret after every shot, so a lighter turret would make more sense. And if you come across a target that merits firing all 3 barrels at once you're going to be alpha striking anyways.

>>33155099
Assuming it has the ability to shell targets from beyond visual range, its tactical doctrine is probably going to be "hammer the supers from BVR, where they can't shoot back, then close in and finish off remaining resistance in aclose air support role.

>20
Setting up the simulator you look up the current stats and upgrades for the Bittenfeld then randomly select a battle based on combat data from the Warlords campaign.

>Loading... Battle of Loran II
Oh shit. You follow what you can remember of the original battle plan, strafing the front ranks of the Warlord fleet as their ships advance on one of the most strategically important worlds in Jerik-Dremine space.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zY65OdgJ_Y
Its a bit different this time, armed with Heavy pulse cannons, light phase cannon arrays, a torpedo launcher and carrying afterburners. All of this means that when you do decide to go in close you get there quickly and ruin everything in your path.

Emergency thrusters! Boy you missed those. The Devourer might have them but they're not nearly as effective on a ship that big. The Bittenfeld isnt reallt that light either but they make much more of a difference. It's like the enemy can't even touch you.

Eventually you're forced to retreat when two Kharbos and one Razor model battlecruisers change course to deal with you. Your performance wasn't enough to end the battle just by yourself but it certainly would have gone much differently with that ship and your current skills.

>15
The EX-K handles differently than the Bittenfeld, it always did but it had a number of advantages. A much narrower profile was something you utilised to stay alive a number of times.

The simulation pits you against the defense platforms and ships protecting the Forbearance while you were inside securing the control rooms.
It's a crowded space, with the battle contained within the shell of mines surrounding the station. Taking advantage of the friendly and enemy turret locations makes it more interesting.

By the end of it all your performance ratings are listed as well above average.

>>33155316
>Razor model battlecruisers
Oh man, those things.

Thanks for running extra long this week, TSTG.

>>33155316
Oh, will the Valkyrie prototype (call it Freyer) be ready for testing before we leave for the front? Because it might be interesting to see that.

>>33155316
I wonder how well we would handle a guard cruiser now that we're used to flying a bigger heavier ship?

>>33154559
The way repulsors work was never explained but I'm guessing they manipulate gravity based on how we use them. The beauty of mass driver weapons is that muzzle velocity/range is totally variable.

Rate of fire is a little more complicated. Your maximum rate of fire is limited by three things. Your total repulsor power divided by the weight of the projectile, and the length of the projectile itself. The lighter the projectile the faster your gun can throw it out of the barrel using full power. The sooner it leaves the barrel the sooner you can load another projectile behind it. And the shorter the projectile the more can fit end to end in the barrel and be accelerated at once. The third factor is heat dissipation, the more heat that builds up the less power you can use without damaging the system.

So mass drivers naturally lend themselves towards extremely powerful single shots or extreme rapid fire depending on the weight of the projectile. You can set the power level from 1% or 100% and everything in between depending on where you want your shot to go and how hard it needs to hit.

>>33155572
Maybe? I'm assuming all this design work was done/set in motion by Sonia at some point even if we didn't really hash it out until this thread. So while we were dealing with all the other stuff like the rust monster and meetings with Winifred. Garret and the team would have been working on it based on our feedback, aka the 30 emails full of conflicting crayon instructions.

apparently a group of worms is called a clew, so wouldn't that make them our research clew?

>10
It seems that your shuttle piloting skills remain at their decidedly average self. Using the thrust vectoring systems is still stressful but it's always been that way when running sims after your real life encounter. You havent forgotten any of the controls it seems.

>>33155572
>Oh, will the Valkyrie prototype (call it Freyer) be ready for testing before we leave for the front? Because it might be interesting to see that.
No.

They could rush a prototype but it would actually be detrimental to progress on developing the mass production version as this stage.

>>33155813
>I wonder how well we would handle a guard cruiser now that we're used to flying a bigger heavier ship?
About the same really. It has mobility issues that can make it an easier target.


>>33155474
>Thanks for running extra long this week, TSTG.
You're welcome.

I'm just sorry it was as broken up as it was by work.

I'm going to attempt to start Sunday's game at 11PM EST but I won't know for sure if I'll be able to until Saturday evening. I'll be putting up a Survey before the thread falls off the board. (I hope.) Plans are to commence timeskip to Sonia's trip to the front lines to get the data on the potential conspiracy.

Give some thought to Sonia's attire for the meeting with the Terran Captain. You have options.

SURVEY <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y2YZLRX


I have the distinct impression that I've missed a question.

See you guys on Sunday!

>>33157150
See you Sunday TSTG!
Thanks for yet another great thread.

>>33157150
Thanks for the thread, TSTG.