Construction business is booming, Rioja continues to see expansion and you're making progress rebuilding ties with the Run Alliance. A new RSS Heavy salvage ship built by House Ceres has been completed and is conducting crew training. It won't be long until they're needed in the Run to help with new salvage sites.
Another Kilo class medium will also be acquired soon to help with moving large cargo or salvage.

RSS has also established a modular station above Karakum which you and HTF have bought the land rights to. Salvage teams have begun their first forays to the surface of the pollution and radiation devastated world. Specialised vehicles have been purchased to assist efforts there. Crews are now conducting full gravity training on Surakeh before deployment to ensure they're ready.

On Rioja Spiral City has been approved for construction on a new site overlooking an intersection of two rivers. It's currently the farthest east major city on the planet as they break ground. Plans are now being drawn up for additional population centers across the planet as infrastructure spreads outwards from the main ocean and surrounding rivers.
Keeping them near convenient sources of water for the populace remains key. At this time it's expected only small cities will be built out in the agricultural areas.

With news from the front, some good some bad, you've also learned that the Terrans are making reaction speed enhancements available to their pilots. That is more or less what House Kharbos developed them for, even though the Dominion mostly seems to be using them to improve the capabilities of their special forces.
With corvette combat growing more decisive and deadly you've purchased medical facilities for Rioja to allow some of your pilots the option. While expensive it could make the difference in heavy fighting and give your elites the edge to stay alive.

Setting out for South Reach aboard the Outer Heaven you stopped to Vinsit Baron Dante along the way. Your Dante Gunships received a substantial upgrade while there. It was also an opportunity to show off the new suits of armor you've picked up. Both the Sphere Armor and Nxesi Pattern Relic Armor were given a chance to show off.
You also tested using the amplifier artifact to supercharge input from the converter artifact before peforming a return to sender. You've promised to pay for damages to the Barons testing facility.

In South Reach you met up with Daksa, speaking with her for the first time in years. She's been managing things in her area well enough and dealing with new challenges as they appear. Her planet is something of a political mess requiring more active input by the land owning nobles. So much so that they had to create a parliament. That's a nightmare you're glad you don't have to deal with.

She also shared with you the problems of having a large population on a planet. They constantly need things which eats into the tax revenue. That could become more of a problem for Rioja as its expands. Currently your planet has a great deal of industry and business compared to its population size.
Promising to help out if she had any projects that needed funding you headed on to visit Winifred.

On Surakeh Baron Winifred is still dealing with issues related to having a democratic system. That and having a standing civilian militia separate from the PDF. Meeting with the nobles of Surakeh allowed you to catch up with a few familiar faces. Governor Ainsley is looking well, completely recovered from her near death years ago.
Troy dueled with a local noble and won. Possibly over a matter of your honour, you've not sure since he wouldn't repeat what the other noble said to offend him.

After seeing local nobles Bekka was able to meet her niece and nephew for the first time. You expected her to end the meeting covered in whatever the babies had last eaten. Instead she ended up wet, quickly fleeing once she realised the cause.

Following a meeting of the heads of RSS you headed out with Bekka and Winifred on a raid of a smuggler installation. Far from being difficult this netted your House some salvage and funds. It also started an investigation into another case of slave trafficing.

That investigate brought you to Tourta to see the information brokers there. Hardly one to turn down such an opportunity, you first hit the beaches on the ocean world. It gave you a chance to improve on your surfing skills.

>>2680043

For House and Dominion!

>>2680043
For House and Dominion! Sonia owns the waves!

File: EC-K.gif (8 KB, 666x672)

8 KB GIF

Once your business with the information brokers is concluded you decided to take a side trip to your island resort. It's seen continued improvements that have largely covered over the former base. Apparently the local investors were determined to put more money in if only to put their own lives back at a more acceptable level of luxury.

Minisub tours of the reefs unfortunately discovered the entrance to the old underwater sub pen. Hotel staff released a statement that it was closed for safety reasons. Going along with that statement you decide to have it structurally reinforced. This will prevent any chance of a future collapse. Really you've have a select team of engineers secretly rebuild it as a hidden facility. There's never a lack of enemies to be found in the Dominion so having a bolt hole to fall back on never hurts.

During construction they've left room for a station for underwater repulsor trains. Some of the local residents are interested in one so that they wouldn't have to see as much air traffic. If or when you choose to have the station put in it will act as further cover.

A recall device has been installed that will summon a starship that will be hidden in deep space. Odds are if you're desperate enough to use this facility as a fall back option having access to a starship couldn't hurt. It looks like you'll be using an EC-K. It should be easy enough to get hold of and its purchase can be hidden by using intermediaries and hard currency transactions.

The EC-K has a good deal of room set aside for electronic warfare and support systems. Did you want to leave these as they are or replace them with other equipment? Fuel stores, munitions, additional weapons, expanded command and control, troop accommodations, etc?
Anything or leave it as stock?

>>2680131

Stock for now.

>>2680131
extra torpedo storage

>>2680131
Stock ship will do well. Its for us to escape with after all and nothing much else.

Stock, though a little bit of extra torpedo storage may be thrown in.

The hotel is informed that the structural reinforcements will allow for a future repulsor train station, though you won't pay for it. At least not unless there is substantial interest shown. You certainly wont pay for the station that will be needed at the other end on whatever the nearest larger island is. If people here are serious about it they'll have to drum up support and prove that they mean it.

Before departing you get a text from Linda. As usual its a barely ineligible hash of short form and single letter word replacements. You really hope she never sends these to important people. The gist of it is that she's had the tour of the new salvage ship and that it's really nice... you think. You'll have to ask to make sure later.

Business concluded on Tourta you head back to Surakeh to get ready for the trip to House Veritas. Winifred is sending a few people along that have more contact with their embassy. They inform you that their House is prepared to receive visitors and that what happened to your diplomatic party last time won't be allowed to repeat.

Anything you wanted to bring along for the often besieged state? A gift?

>>2680221
>A gift?
Sure, no idea what though

>>2680221
A Dusk II Cruiser? Perhaps that could help drum up interest in them buying some from us. Especially with all the hostiles around them.

>>2680221

What would be considered a good gift to give?

>>2680243
Could work.

>>2680253
You ask Winifred if she has any ideas for a potential gift.
"Preferably something they won't be offended by."

"That's not quite as helpful as I'd hoped." you reply.

Winifred sighs. "What are you hoping to gain from them by going there?"
"Phase weaponry R&D."
"Then bring them some phase weaponry they may not have ready access to."

Nasidum did develop a spinal mount linked phase weapon during the civil war. They're expensive, temperamental and require quite a bit of power. Despite this they're now in limited mass production and you can acquire one or more here in South Reach.

Alternatively, if you wanted to go big you very much doubt they'd turn down a gatling light siege cannon. That's a phase weapon.

>>2680277
>gatling light siege cannon

>>2680277

If they are really good with phase weaponry stuff then they could probably improve the Nasidium canon. So I'd be up for grabbing one and bringing to them to do their stuff with it.

>>2680277
Dusk II and Gatling Siege Cannon?

Feron Gatling Siege Turret MP Type (5)= 115m
Dusk II = 16m
Linked spinal mount phase weapon = 5 to 10m

You're not exactly in the good books with Nasidum so you'd probably end up paying full price for just one of their weapons. Then again you could play on that fact that you helped defend their embassy in the battle against the Kythera. Do you want to use that to your advantage now or save it for later?

>>2680328
>save it for later

>>2680328

Save it for later and get the Feron Gatling Siege Canon and a Dusk II

>>2680328
Save it.

>>2680328
I'd like to save that card for later.

With 131 million spent on gifts for House Veritas you set out. A few people are surprised you're throwing this much money around but if this plan of your is successful then the benefits would easily out weight it.

Most trade into the Veritas home systems passes through a single FTL choke point. Outside of this they've been building up a station where the lane from their space connects with a prominent trade lane. It's here where you have the big gun delivered. You won't risk taking it into their space without more warning.

The station itself isn't that impressive but it seems more than adequate for the amount of traffic in and out of their space. Two squadrons of Veritas Battleships are on station guarding the two main approach paths. They don't appear to be in the best shape, built out of scrap or not. There are obvious signs of armor damage that has been patched over or where weapons have been ripped out and replaced haphazardly.
You have to wonder if they're really having that much difficulty maintaining their navy or if it's all an act.

Getting approval to head into their core territories requires a 4 hour wait and basic inspection. Apparently this is standard procedure these days barring an emergency. Most civilians entering their territory change ships before going on it.

When approval is sent you're informed that high level representatives of the government would be meeting with you. Fadila says this is probably a good sign.
"They know we've brought a Helios representative along. By now they know about your gift as well."

The Outer Heaven and its escort are directed to move up and prepare for jump.

"Why is there no other traffic?" you ask, looking over sensor readouts from the command deck.
Maybourne isn't sure. Veritas has been keeping a steady traffic pattern so that ships know when they're supposed to jump. The pattern before and after your fleet has been cleared creating a nearly 30 minute gap with your party squarely in the middle.

[ ] This is fine
[ ] Prepare to raise shields
[ ] Raise shields mid jump

>>2680461
[ ] Prepare to raise shields
I don't like this. Be prepared but don't do anything that might be taken as hostile action or they may fire on us for just that.

>>2680461

Have engineering ready to get our defenses online, just in case. Veritas might be okay with us. But it wouldn't take much thought for one of their enemies and ours to work together to take a chance to try and knock us off while inside Veritas territory and make it look like the fault of Veritas.

>>2680461
>[x] Prepare to raise shields

"I don't like this. Have engineering prepare to put power to defensive systems."
"Aye sir."
Other than putting your crew and escorts on guard there isn't much else to be done. This is the only route into Veritas space. All ships jump on schedule.

What was to supposed be a minute long jump ends up lasting less than 30 seconds. The somewhat jarring shake you've come to associate with emergency FTL reversion makes it clear that you're not coming out where you intended.

"Early reversion!"
"Artificial gravity well." Maybourne informs you.
"Long range coms are down, we still have short range." reports Arendse.

The tactical displays fill with ships showing House Veritas IFF's. A Bustard class heavy cruiser is parked guarding an older gravity well generator. Both of them are surrounded by a dozen alliance medium escorts armed with a variety of plasma weapons. Some are mounting twin LD cannons, others the larger Republic Light plasma cannons.
Then there are the five or six wings worth of Willow class sublight warships.

[ ] Back us out of the well
[ ] Hail them

>>2680508

Hail them, but make sure ships are ready for a fighting retreat. Should things go sideways.

>>2680508
"Sound general quarters. All hands man your battle stations."

>[ ] Back us out of the well
Raise shields and commence a immediate withdrawal. Load SP torpedoes and prepare for volley fire should they attempt anything. We're getting the fuck out of here and we can talk about this when we are not trapped.

>>2680508
>[ ] Back us out of the well

"Raise shields. Back us out of the well."

Eko quickly brings the engines up to full reverse. There's no point in coming about immediately, that would just give that heavy a better shot at your engines while you're still bleeding off speed.

"Sir, the gravwell is powering down. Ten minutes until the FTL lane is clear."
That's probably good news.
"We're being hailed."
"Send it to my station." you order.

A Hune junior officer wearing a Veritas uniform appears on screen.
"This is the House Veritas defense forces first fleet to Viscount Sonia Reynard. General Kadryin wishes to welcome you and your party to House Veritas space and apologizes for the unannounced interference. We are now powering down the gravity well generator.
The General is prepared to speak to you aboard our heavy cruiser at your earliest convenience."

Muting your channel you turn to Maybourne.
"Weapon locks?"
"Some of the Willow class ships have weapons charged but not enough to stop us if we ran for it. It would take at least a full minute for them to power up the big gun on that Bustard."

Fadila texts that she's on the way to the command center but it seems there's no immediate danger. Do you wish to stand down from alert and take up position near the heavy?

>>2680615
They have enough firepower here to wipe out a planet. They meet us with a powered up Gravity Well. I am not going to stay here for one more moment when the threat of total annihilation is very real. If they want to meet with us they can do it in JD territory from now on. Especially since they STILL got weapons lock on us. Nope the fuck out of there.

Vicecount Sonia Reputation: -25

>>2680615

To use Star Trek terms, bring us from red alert down to yellow. If they question why, some of their enemies are saber rattling again. And if other anons are cool with it, mention we happened upon a smuggler station just outside their territory where some rival house operatives were trying to find ways to link them to slave trade.

Body guards are a definite must if we go visit this general. And do not relinquish weapons without good reason. Plasma pistol on our side at all times. I would say don power armor but that may be a bit to much. So maybe get the pilot suit or protective armor?

>>2680615
EDIT
"Weapon locks?"
"No locks. Some of the Willow class ships have weapons charged but not enough to stop us if we ran for it. It would take at least a full minute for them to power up the big gun on that Bustard."

>>2680630

Addition to previous post. Ask why they felt it was needed to pull us out when we have had at worst neutral relations with Veritas. And are coming to them with a business proposal. Not the best way to great someone who isn't hostile to their house.

This is some rouge faction within their House trying to axe us isn't it?

>>2680615
>The General is prepared to speak to you aboard our heavy cruiser at your earliest convenience.
Go aboard in Power Armor.

>>2680630
Bug out, offer to hold meeting in J-D or neutral space.

>>2680632
>I would say don power armor but that may be a bit to much.
Reminder you programmed your recon armor with disguises, including but not limited to dress uniforms.

>>2680655
Another for Power Armor.

>>2680661

Power armor disguised as something else then.

"I don't know what they're playing at but keep the ships ready to fight even if we don't look like it."

Reluctantly you signal back that your party will prepare to go aboard in a few minutes. The crew isn't terribly enthusiastic about heading closer to the Veritas fleet but you're certainly not going to get anything done quickly if you bug out and head back to J-D territory. Though that might not be such a bad thing.

"If even one of them locks weapons on us we're bugging out."
Eko acknowledges you.
"If the gravity well being to power up again we should be able to make a run for the edge and jump before it reaches full power. If it really is an older model that is."

Moving in closer allows you to see the modifications made to the Bustard. They're not the greatest heavy cruisers and this one is no exception, but they can be useful for hauling stuff. Like the Willow class attack ships that lack their own FTL. Docking racks have been fitted to the aft sections allowing the vessel to carry at least two hundred of them you figure.

Once the OH is holding station you head to your LST along with your fully kitted up bodyguards. Rufaro will stay aboard your command ship with a rescue team ready to go. Troy has taken the kids and a small team and are waiting near one of the emergency teleport capsules in the core of the ship.

Heading aboard the LST Fadila is less than impressed with her accoutrements.
"Why does everyone get power armor except for me?"
"Maybe you should invest in some? Or ask for a suit a bit sooner."

Valeri helpfully points out that the Helios diplomat likewise only has basic body armor.

"Thank you. Now we can both be killed more easily."
Turning back to you she's surprised to see you suddenly in your dress uniform.
"Wait, I thought you were in power armor just seconds ago?"

You flip through holographic images in your recon suit's database changing disguise a few times.
"Did I never show you that?"
"I don't believe so? Good that you've thought of it."

Docking with the larger ship you're met by a full honor guard in the newer style Veritas uniforms. It's similar to most Dominion dress uniforms except using white for the arms and upper chest, with violet trim and accents. The rest of the uniform is a dark blue.
The ship's marines are a mix of different species common to South Reach, so far seeming like this is a legit operation for their House.

The Lieutenant you spoke to over the coms salutes you, glancing at your well armed bodyguards. Even without Valeri and Ruiz, you Dave and Emor could kill everyone in this room in seconds. It doesn't look like they have anything that could even touch power armor.

The now slightly nervous but still professional officer leads your party to see the General. The guards outside are reluctant to allow heavily armed soldiers equipped with jump jet suits and plasma weapons but ultimately let your party pass.

General Kadryin, a kavarian looking to be in their late middle ages, welcomes you and invites everyone to sit down. You recognise them as the Major from the local military that assisted in recovering the diplomats when you first visited Free Planet League.

"Welcome Viscount Reynard. I apologise for not meeting on the capital but the central government is currently in a state of flux at present. The military has assumed temporary control, maintaining the bureaucracy until legal and impartial elections can be held in another month or two. As one of the leading members of the temporary military transition committee I've been given full authorization to negotiate with you and other Houses.
We are of course extremely grateful for your assistance in the past and for the new cannon you've provided us with. We've been looking at acquiring a few such weapons ourselves but the timing hasn't been right."

"Thank you for seeing us." you reply. "Before we get started can I ask why were were pulled out of FTL by a heavily armed armada leaving us in the middle of a cross fire point? We're here to discuss a business proposal. This isn't be best start."

"Time and security reasons. This is the most secure location in Veritas space at the moment. Also we couldn't just give the people at the station our coordinates, their systems are not secure and the information would be stolen. This is our primary defensive fleet charged with guarding the approach to the Veritas homeworlds. Normally traffic jumps past us without even knowing we're here.

Emperor Ber'helum was very grateful for our gift of a super heavy cruiser and military support. Because of that we've been able to better modernize our fleet, more than we want most Houses to know. That's why we keep this little force hidden. We'll relocate after you've departed from this meeting."

>Cont.

"I have to say, not the best way to greet someone who isn't hostile to their house."

"Oh."
The General turns to one of his own diplomatic staff and suggests not doing that in the future.
"Maybe we'll use a navigator from our forces to guide you in next time."

Fadila agrees that might be the best solution.

Introductions of the diplomats are made and you mention that the chief diplomat from the first time is currently the Governor of Rioja, having held that post a number of years now.
"Good, good. Baron Winifred sends quality people to talk things over usually. We hope your new relatives are still happy with the terraforming deal our House signed with them?"

To you knowledge that's still true.

Getting down to business you're here because you wanted to know more about House Veritas phase weapon technology. Having focused their military largely on phase weapons, until recently that is, you were wondering if their specialization in it had progressed as far or farther than Dominion standard.

"Given your well known penchant for research programs I suspect there's a particular reason you hope to find that out. A project of some kind you're thinking about. So what is it?"

[ ] I want to build a superweapon!
[ ] I want to advance Dominion phase weapon technology

>>2680890

>[ ] I want to advance Dominion phase weapon technology

By building a super weapon to surpass Metal Gear!

And I figure working with a house that has history in phase weaponry might help with that goal.

>>2680890
>[x] I want to build a superweapon!

>>2680897
>>2680916
I want to advance Dominion phase weapon technology, and then if possible use it to build a superweapon?

>>2680989

Sure? If we can cover the construction of a Phase Cannon Superweapon as an attempt to improve Dominion technology to counter Neeran Superweapons than alright.

>>2680989
I'd love that compromise, I just want to see what happens if you 100-link phase cannons.

"I'm hoping to advance Dominion phase weapon technology, and then if possible use it to build a superweapon."

At first you think the General is having an attack and might require medical assistance. It's only after a few seconds that you realise the kavarian officer is laughing. Eventually he gets it under control and is able to manage a response.
"Your honesty is a bit more than I am used to. If the file on you is any indication I'm sure you would build a super weapon if it suited your purposes. Whatever those are. I have no intention of helping the Dominion build a weapon to rival what the Neeran can do.
Improving the Dominion's weapons technology I might even be reluctant over. That is not my decision to make. The committee has come to the decision that we are to support the current Dynasty of the Dominion so that we in turn receive assistance from the Ruling House.
So if it helps the Dominion we will consider it. Super weapons are a no go."

That's understandable you suppose.
"So do you have phase weapon tech you could provide to a cross dominion R&D project?"

It's hard to read a Kavarian when they give you a poker face. The General is clearly considering the implications of even admitting to having such tech. Then again it's just phase weapons, everybody has those.

"We have had some success in reducing the size of certain phase weapon components without a drop in damage output. Increase in production cost was found to be negligible. We would consider making this technology available provided we were given adequate remuneration. Phased beam director technology in particular."

You look to Fadila and the Helios diplomat.
"I thought the Dominion was supposed to be sharing most of its tech between the Houses to improve the overall tech level of the Dominion?"

The Helios rep Phy'ri Hy'drang speaks up.
"Helios blocked the transfer of certain techs to House Veritas and some South Reach Houses that were considered unstable and likely to ally with the South Reach League."

"That's a stupid reason." you reply. "Veritas hates the Warlords."
"Regardless they're still considered a liability. If your House were to agree to trade or cooperation on development of this tech I'm sure those restrictions could be modified."

"The word you're looking for is lifted." says the General. "And we don't want the restrictions lifted, we want a full transfer of those technologies to make up for lost time. Yes we got most of the Aries tech so far but that's it."

>Do you have anything to add to this debate?

>>2681154

Correct me in my thinking here. But can we create official trade relations with Veritas and J-D or agree to creating joint research ventures. Without to much oversight or disagreement from the homeworlds right? We're here to start up a business opportunity and work with Veritas to get this tech up and running. So if we were to here and now say, yes we're entering a trade and research deal with them. With more political haggling with the aid of Fadila, would Helios be willing to 'modify'/ lift those restrictions?

Because I am assuming we do have that power to do so and is why the count or council didn't tell us no. Unless we're acting before they have a chance to tell us not to.

>>2681172
Yes you do, and Fadila is there as backup. Though ideally you want to get them to be able to work with Helios since they can cause a great deal of trouble otherwise.

>>2681154
>no intention of helping the Dominion build a weapon to rival what the Neeran can do.
>Improving the Dominion's weapons technology I might even be reluctant over.
No wonder nobody likes you guys. What do they even want? Pure isolation from everyone? Their own empire? We should have just annexed them.

>>2681154
>>2681182

Okay then.

From the way I am understanding things. Helios is afraid to give Veritas technology they view as sensitive and that they do not want to risk being given to SRL or being stolen by the SRL. But they are willing to 'modify' their terms and conditions to allow Veritas access to those technologies if another more prominent/ well established house, is willing to take the blow in case that technology ends up in the hands of the SRL, right?

Of that is the case then cant we have Fadila work with the Helios rep and the Veritas rep. To come to an agreement which all parties agree to. Because it just sounds like Helios doesn't want to be the ones responsible in the event the technology ends up in the hands of the SRL. To affect their own standing among the seven and their own allies.

In short, they want to be able to pass the blame to someone else.

I think we can work with this.

>>2681195
They are afraid of helping their enemies who will undoubtedly use that technology against them. Especially since a lot of house currently believe Veritas should not be and their territory annexed by someone else.

I cant blame them for wanting to be left alone in their own little pocket. Considering they are surrounded on all sides by rivals/ enemies. And their only saving grace keeping them from being directly attacked by other houses seems to be their allegiance to the current RH.

But they do eventually need to contribute to the Dominion in another way. If they want to continue to remain their own little pocket sized house. Otherwise BH could very well out weigh the usefulness of protecting them against so many aggressors.

>>2681212
I mean, it's not like there's a shortage of 'superweapons' for them to be afraid of. If people really wanted them gone, you could just show up with a Siege Array.

Imagine if they cooperated with Helios and the RH to make some kind of phase superweapon. They'd get some valuable experience and potentially keep the RH, who protects them, in power for much longer. Not to mention potentially the blueprints for it and a sense that they're willing to cooperate.

They might not like it but they're still a House and part of the Dominion.

>>2681231

I agree that there are dozens of other superweapons and WMD's that could end them.

I also agree with you that they need to contribute more than just a Super and whatever else they have agreed to with BH. Working with us and Helios can help them in the long run though it may seem in the short run they are harming themselves. If they can show a willingness to work with other houses. And form stronger bonds with the other great Houses, it'll serve to help reinforce their purpose/ presence in the Dominion. Beyond that of just another small house that is there because the RH says so.

Maybe they can use this as a means of propaganda to calm the tits of houses who only know of Veritas through rumor and little else. Thus decreasing their number of enemies somewhat and calming some of the overt hostility shown by other houses within the Dominion. It should be hard to be openly against another houses existence if more then one of the seven and RH acknowledge that their presence is worth while to the Dominion and worth protecting.

>>2681195
>We should have just annexed them.
Think of all the fun with insurgencies you've missed.

>>2681212
>They are afraid of helping their enemies who will undoubtedly use that technology against them.
This is true really of both parties here.
The Dominion had a lot of trouble dealing with the Warlords when they came to power for a number of reasons. A weak Ruling House just made it worse.
Veritas had to fight off what was on paper a much more powerful House as soon as the fighting in South Reach picked up during the civil war. A House that was headed by a former Warlord (iirc), but still a House.

>willing to 'modify' their terms and conditions to allow Veritas access to those technologies if another more prominent/ well established house, is willing to take the blow in case that technology ends up in the hands of the SRL, right?
Or if the tech they can get out of them is really useful and is worth taking the risk for.

>they want to be able to pass the blame to someone else.
That works too.

>But they do eventually need to contribute to the Dominion in another way. Otherwise BH could very well out weigh the usefulness of protecting them against so many aggressors.
Also true. The Emperor isn't one to promise infinite protection until the end of time. There would be an expiration date.

>>2681231
>Imagine if they cooperated with Helios and the RH to make some kind of phase superweapon. They'd get some valuable experience and potentially keep the RH, who protects them, in power for much longer.
>They might not like it but they're still a House and part of the Dominion.
Good arguments.

Resuming tomorrow but not 100% sure when. Have to go to the bank and finish off the remaining mortgage issues from last week.

>>2681323
Additionally, do they know what the situation at the Frontlines is like? It's only going to get worse once we push into actual Neeran space and have to start fighting their city ships. They'll be content to just sit back and send a meager detachment of those stupid phase cannon ships whilst the rest of the Dominion sends their forces to die, and the resent will just deepen.

"This job is always an exercise in patience isn't it?" you say to Fadila.
"Yes it can be."

Turning back to the General and the ambassador you start in.
"We've established both of you have something the other wants. Ambassador, do you think House Helios and the Dominion would benefit from smaller phase weapons?"

"Yes. With them being the base weapon system of the Factions, many people would."
"Enough to trade the tech they're asking for? Keeping in mind they have about the worst relations with the South Reach League you can get. Hell the league used bio weapons against them. People don't forget that quickly."

Phy'ri Hy'drang frowns.
"We do still have concerns about the stability of their government. As the General just said the military has had to step in to keep their government in line."

"Sounds like a normal day in the Dominion to me. That makes them slightly more stable than House Kharbos and they're still a member of the Seven."
Hopefully nobody repeats that comment to the Kharbos ambassador later.
"Is your House willing to consider negotiations?"
"Provided they are."

That brings you to the General.
"You have to know that contributing that one Super isn't going to buy you protection forever. Working with the great Houses like Helios can help earn their protection and even trust in the long run. In some ways it may seem harmful to you in the short term, but that's because you're still thinking of yourselves as outsiders. For good or for ill you're part of the Dominion. Forming stronger bonds with other Houses is how smaller states survive.
It's how we survived, we were down to about three habitable worlds at one point. Show a willingness to work with others and you may even prove your House exists for reasons beyond the Ruling House saying so."

"So long as you're not asking us to help build super weapons..."

"That would be really cool if you could but I'm not exactly going to push it on you. As for why we would need them, have you seen what's going on up at the front lines? The Neeran have invalidated the need for the navigation relay system. They already had ships that can kill a planet, now they're throwing who knows what at us."

This last bit only gets a grumbled acknowledgement, but he's admitted there is a point there. You think.
It's progress.

Your little speech seems to have at least got the two of them talking and Fadila is there to helpfully mediate some options. Veritas leadership trusts you to an extent, not necessary your House diplomats, but since you've got the ball rolling they're willing to give Fadila a chance to do her job.

>Cont.

Of course this can't be done all at once. All of you adjourn while representatives are given a chance to contact their respective governments. While the General has full authority to negotiate he'd rather check in with his fellows before finalising anything.

Your party is given quarters while aboard along with access to communications so you can assure your crew you haven't been taken hostage. Not yet at least. You're rather unsurprised to find the guest rooms to have been done up in various styles common in the Republic for visiting admirals and dignitaries. The Helios Ambassador's room has more modern Dominion decorations indicating this ship probably belonged to another House briefly. The Republic certainly didn't hesitate to sell them or production rights to Houses before the Civil War or after.

Do you want your ship to remain at low level alert stations just in case or stand down? Otherwise is there anything you'd like them to know?

>>2683694

Have them move from a heightened state to a lower state. Have the gun crews take a breather and make any 'mandatory maintenance' to equipment while it is powered up. Also try and get an encoded message back to the House that we've made contact and are conducting talks.

Keep the crews ready for any hostilities, be they from Veritas or any surprise guests. So normal Dominion state of readiness I suppose.

>>2683694
>Otherwise is there anything you'd like them to know?
That we're all fine and negotiations are proceeding. They can stand down, but keep heightened internal security for any stow-aways or saboteurs that might be about.

You tell them not to completely stand down but make sure everyone is rotated and maintenance done if necessary. Things are probably fine but if that should change you want them ready to snap to without much delay. They're also asked to send a message to the House updating them that diplomatic talks are underway.

"Copy that sir. The long range jamming is down, but they've asked us to restrict communications to essentials only. Nothing extra that could give away our exact position."

"Yeah, they're trying to hide the position of this fleet so the other Houses cant spy on it as easily." you tell Maybourne. "Maybe they think they're being clever, I don't know."

While outwardly dismissive of Veritas paranoia, that doesn't mean you let your own guard down. This wouldn't be the first time you've slept in your armor and it probably won't be the last.

In the morning the diplomats resume their discussion, continuing on for a number of hours before calling another break. Fadila thinks that they'll agree to a basic tech transfer, though helping development of a super weapon is probably unlikely.

"Unlikely but not impossible." Fadila adds.
"What did you have in mind?" you ask.
"Bribery of the main electoral candidates."

You're not completely certain if this is a good idea. "Would that even work?"
"Financially Veritas is quite poor. Even if they dont want money for themselves you could always present your offer as resources to assist development of their House."

[ ] This is too likely to get us in trouble
[ ] The worst they can do is deport us, let's do it
[ ] Use intermediaries, none of it comes back to us

>>2683877
>[ ] This is too likely to get us in trouble

Do we need a superweapon to counter the Neeran toy's we've seen come out of them just from this invasion? Yes, but lets save superweapon development as a plan to broach to more well established and trusted allies. Maybe pin it until we come back from our trip to the other sphere builder facility?

>>2683877
>[ ] Use intermediaries, none of it comes back to us

>>2683877
> [ ] The worst they can do is deport us, let's do it

>>2683877
>>[ ] Use intermediaries, none of it comes back to us

Switching to this because fuck 3 way ties.

>>2683877
[ ] This is too likely to get us in trouble
I am partial with anon on this. I would rather develop a superweapon with the likes of Helios

>>2683877
>[ ] Use intermediaries, none of it comes back to us

>>2683877
> [ ] Use intermediaries, none of it comes back to us

This is what we pay our intelligence guys for.

>>2683896
Laser. Sun.

Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, come on come on come on.

>>2684162

A weapon with the firepower of a hundred phase canons sounds like something already in use. By the Neeran no less, with their large mining ship with a front end dedicated to a huge mining laser that can mine planets. We could just steal one of theirs and let the egg heads have at it.

As for weaponizing suns, we should seek assistance from houses larger then Veritas and have readily available access to remote systems where we can test the idea of turning a star into a WMD of stellar proportions.

>>2684207
Man, don't get me started about all the exotic rays and shit blasted out.

Not to mention the gravitational distortion.

>>2683877
>[ ] Use intermediaries, none of it comes back to us

or we could actually loan them a few dozen million on very favorable terms to help them out with something. A joint phase research facility or shipyard or something.

Am I the only one that wants to steal the Neerans gravitational superweapon that allows them to fling around Alliance super carriers?

Whispering to Fadila you tell her; "Use intermediaries, none of it comes back to us."

"I'll see what I can do."

After the mid day break things resume agains and the diplomats complete an agreement for ongoing R&D joint projects that would benefit both parties.
"We worked things out and nobody was shot or abducted. This is good."

General Kadryin finds this amusing though Phy'ri Hy'drang does not entirely understand why those specifically would factor in.
"Did you not hear what happened to the first diplomatic party sent to the Free Planets League?"
"Not specifically, no."
"They were abducted by a mercenary working for the warlords who wanted to interrupt talks. It took some work to get them back."

"Viscount Reynard I am not signing up for one of your crazy missions again."

So apparently fiber optic lines are being put into my building today and tomorrow so I'm going to have to stop here until Friday. Hopefully they finish mine early, we'll see.

Decide how much bribe money you want to offer.

>>2684491
2 -5 million a vote.

Historically bureaucrats are surprisingly cheap.

>>2684491
Set up a 10m fund for Fadila to use on targets she sees fit.

>>2684491
25M fund

>>2684528
10 million seems reasonable. Still a fairly decent chunk of money. It may be pocket change for us but we got a rather twisted view of what constitutes a large pot of gold.

>>2684491
> Offer shares in superweapon development + money

Make sure they stay bought.

10 million seems to be the middle of the road choice. Suitably skilled people will be given the job after reaching Surakeh.

With the agreements signed you return to the Outer Heaven and are given jump data for a return trip to the trade station. The General requests that you not share your sensor data on the composition of the Veritas First Fleet. Though if that proves to be impossible it's understood that these things do happen.

"By the time you return to Rioja we will hopefully have had our elections and returned to being a democratic state. I'm sorry that now isn't the best time for a lengthier visit."

"I get that. Just don't scare the hell out of me with a gravity well generator again. I've had enough attempts on my life for ten people."

"Again, sorry. Safe travels."
"Thank you."

Returning to Surakeh you update Winifred on the diplomatic situation and check in with Rioja. There are the usual small things such as a con artist that was selling fake plasma weapons that were just a Hall-effect thruster.

A summons from the Emperor has arrived at Rioja. It requests your presence at the old Ber'helum capital in 5 months time.

>>2687832
>A summons from the Emperor
Well you don’t get that every day.

We’re any further details provided?

>>2687863
>We’re any further details provided?
There is a sealed letter with it that is biometrically sealed. You'd have to open it yourself and it's on Rioja.

Resuming tomorrow evening!

I am going to be wiped out. It's supposed to be crazy hot out tomorrow.

>>2687832
That should give us more than enough time to finish the trip and set our affairs in order before heading out.

That we're being summoned to the old capital is significant. TSTG hinted about our diamond mine earlier, and if the Emperor wants to maximize security their old capital is probably a lot more secure than the planet that they just moved to and is crawling with spies from every Major House and every Faction as well.

Shit's gonna be crazy if we get SP production online. It would fundamentally alter the balance of power between the Factions. If the Dominion isn't delicate, the Terrans might think an SP-armed Dominion is a greater threat than the Neeran and the Factions Alliance could collapse. On the other hand, unveiling Dominion SP technology during the war might come at a time when the Terrans can't afford to do anything about it.

>>2687832
>A summons from the Emperor has arrived at Rioja. It requests your presence at the old Ber'helum capital in 5 months time.

Well then! We cant turn that down. I think we should make sure we have everything in order before heading that way. I can only imagine the count and council are concerned for the 'why' that we are being summoned to old B'H capital. I wonder if this would be a good time to mention to him our upcoming trip to the other sphere maker facility during our next deployment. If we haven't already? To help level off or make up for any dangers incurred from having data on diamond mines, because he is technically bound to protect our house from rivals/ enemies. Bring something in that is of greater worth then any threat posed by us having data on Diamond mines.

>There is a sealed letter with it that is biometrically sealed. You'd have to open it yourself and it's on Rioja.

Clearly we need a sealed room with no eyes or ears to watch or listen when we open this.

>>2688118
While we're here, we should try to get a one-on-one with Winifred somewhere as secure as possible - maybe ask if she knows a good place to hunt or hike way out in the middle of nowhere, or just imply that we need to have a very quiet conversation. I think she and Duncan are the only two people in the House who we're certain know about the data, and I think it would be valuable to ask her who else in the House knows and tell her what we think the invitation is about.

>>2688390

If it is about that thing. Then we shouldn't be telling anyone what we believe. If I remeber correctly. Winifred said never to make mention of it again. Or that is what I took from it, the more people we tell why we believe we are going the more sucpicious it is going to be.

Our bosses boss has summoned us. And while we do have a history with him before he was the Emperor. Now that he is, him summoning us draws a lot of attention to what we are doing and have been doing. Maybe have a heavily encoded message passed to them saying to check their people for leakers about sensitive info privy to closely held secrets from the Smugglers Run days.

I want to believe he is summoning us to talk about our upcoming deployment. He knows we are trust worthy. Maybe he wants us to steal working prototypes from the Neeran superweapons or that we bring back technology from the sphere builder facility. That will give the Dominion an edge.

Or maybe the Terrans have learned that we have data on diamond mines. And since they dont want to ruin public relations, seeing how they just hired our company to fix their worlds. And because we asked for his protection of our house publicly. They have informed him of what we have and are giving us a chance to hand over/ destroy that data. And avoid having a very messy situation jeapordize the alliance and relations between the Dominion and the Terrans.

I highly doubt the Terrans now about Diamond Mine in itself. We've made no mentions or attempts to start it up or even prospect a site for it and as far as I can tell neither has Winifred. There is all but three individuals in the whole house that knows about it. Neither of which would betray that secret. No. The reason for the summon is something Dominion related. Much like anon said it's probably about our up and coming deployment.

But I do think we should schedule a meeting with Winifred while we are down here to talk about Diamond Mine in a secure location if we want to get this ball rolling.

After which we head over to the Emperor at good speed. He deserves our attention after all.

>>2688390
>While we're here, we should try to get a one-on-one with Winifred
>>2688480
>But I do think we should schedule a meeting with Winifred while we are down here

>>2688477
>we shouldn't be telling anyone what we believe.

Decisions, decisions.

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After hearing about the letter you decide to meet with Winifred talk things over. The two of you discuss the recent work with Veritas and other things while cruising around in a limo. Getting the impression that you'd prefer to go somewhere lacking monitoring devices she has her driver pull over while out in the country.
Getting out she leads the way into a nearby attraction she apparently spotted, something called a maize maze. With no time to scout ahead her bodyguards secure the exterior.

"We won't have long before drones begin monitoring us. Keep your voice down but speak quickly."
"I'm being summoned to the old Ber'helum capital by the Emperor. Do you think it's about that thing we more or less agreed to never talk about?"

Winifred considers.
"If it is our lives will have just become far more interesting."

"I'm considering bringing it along to the meeting."
"Don't." Winifred advises. "It can always be recovered later. Bring only what's asked. As a precaution I'll suggest our mutual friend prepare a drop point, just in case."

That's really all there is to say on that matter unless you wanted to ask anything else?

Things this morning didn't exactly go as planned. Will be resuming a bit later than I thought I was going to.

>>2688549
>That's really all there is to say on that matter unless you wanted to ask anything else?

"We should begin preparations for the Diamond Mine regardless. Enough time has passed and everyone is focused is elsewhere right now. Not to mention we've never been stronger than right now. Perhaps now is the time to being prospecting for a proper site? I was thinking something mobile."

Opinions on giving the Emperor a Veckron Injector so he can stay alive longer?

>>2688590
Yes.

>>2688561
No. If the Emperor says no then we shouldn't do jack shit that could be traced back to us.

>>2688590
I thought those work only on humans

>>2688561
>We should begin preparations
>>2688712
>No
Well then that's not inconclusive at all.

>>2688590
Already going to live for quite awhile. Probably.
>>2688829
They've only been tested on Humans to your knowledge, but the ones you have are 400 years old. With the recovery of the Vieona it is probable the Alliance have begun producing them to allow their crews to survive using Veckron weaponry. Probably for other species too.

>>2689778
[x] Begin preparations

>>2689778
Lets not prepare to build anything related to diamond mines just yet.

As your group makes preparations for the return to Rioja there are updates from the war. There is still fighting ongoing in the Crystal Sea, though it is beginning to diminish. No additional enemy reinforcements are arriving and elements have begun to retreat in some places. This is good news. The Alliance fleets are battered, worn and badly in need of repairs for their ships and rest for the crews.

Recovery operations are already underway in efforts to salvage as many of the new Supers that were lost over the course of the fighting. Nearly two thirds of the available Dominion built mobile fleet bases are being used to help with on site refits of the most badly damaged vessels.

The older Iratar reserve ships are believed to have taken heavy losses. Older model mega class ships crewed by clones are known to have committed ramming attacks on a couple of occasions when their weapons proved insufficient to get through Neeran shields in a timely manner. Considering a Neeran Executioner could probably destroy an old style Mega in one volley time would be an issue.

Hours before departure you're contacted by Alliance Intelligence officer Captain Gaben Wilson. He was in overall command of inter operations being conducted by the Heavy Carrier Suvorov behind enemy lines.

"Let me guess, you need me to come back and save the sphere?"

"No, they're gone. The main fleet left and there's only a Super Carrier to maintain operations the heavies are responsible for. They've forming up with reinforcements that have just arrived from the Empire. We think they're making a run at the Shallan inner colonies and their capital to try and break their government."

Someone might as well tell the Neeran right now that isn't going to work, not with the Shallan military State in control.
"Are they going to need reinforcements?" you ask.
"Yes but we're not in terrible shape. The Alliance Admiralty refused to pull Supers stationed in Shallan space to deal with fighting in the Crystal Sea. Otherwise we'd be up a creek."

Well that's something they did right.

Wilson estimates it could be another hour at best before the Alliance can formally request reinforcements from anyone still able to provide them. That will probably mean redeploying Faction fleets already in Shallan space away from their missions liberating colony worlds. Most of those are in the Maelstrom galaxy securing the right flank.

Do you want to call your boss or Winifred about possibly sending more reinforcements?

>>2689964

Can we get a conference call with the two of them. And get things figured out to send the Foreberance out now to go with the Alliance fleet to recapture the Sphere from the Empire Neeran there. Now that the Neeran are no longer sending reinforcements through the sea, this would be a good time to get any volunteers from the currently deployed fleets to join the Foreberance in reclaiming the sphere.

I know this is going to cause some exhaustion on the pilots who likely want to come home and rest. But this is an opportunity for us to get even more loot from the caretaker neeran. Especially if they've worked with the alliance in coming to terms on what technology to share. So this would give us a good excuse to include J-D in any such agreement.

You thank the Captain and contact Winifred, telling her to set up a call to Count Jerik. You're not far away, and it only takes a few minutes to reach Winifred's command ship. By the time you arrive she's just managed to get through dealing with subordinates.

"What's the situation?" he asks.
You quickly bring him up to speed.

"If possible I'd like to suggest pulling our currently deployed fleets from the Crystal Sea area to link up with any reinforcements we send to Shallan Space."

Count Jerik shakes his head. "That won't be possible. The Neeran may be beginning to retreat from that front but too many Faction units there are currently engaged. We'll never get authorisation for a full withdrawal at this stage. Knight Commander Nel'odym may be able to transfer some small units over but that's all we can count on."

Damn.

>>2690053

Then what about asking Avun if she is available to lead a fleet out to help take back the sphere with the alliance? Or any of the other up and coming knight-commanders are up for the task of taking back the sphere to ensure J-D is up for the task.

I know we should be going there. But with the Emperors summons and us not knowing when the Alliance will be making any actions to retake the sphere. They could be attacking the sphere in the next five months or after five months.

>>2690072
Avun is available. All of the Knight Commanders are deployed.

The sphere is currently still located behind enemy lines. There are important supporting systems with major Neeran fleet bases that need to be captured before the system could be taken without risk of a counterattack. Those bases were scheduled to be taken out later this year after conclusion of operations in the Maelstrom galaxy.

>>2690094
Maybe we can put together a QRF and be in and out within 4 months?

>>2690101
To destroy the enemy forces present at the sphere? Potentially. That wouldn't solve the problem of it still being behind enemy lines and thus vulnerable to re-occupation by another Neeran commander. If they wanted to risk it.

>>2690094

Oh, I then I completely misunderstood the previous post, I thought that they were going to make a concentrated push to retake the sphere now that the Neeran were retreating. But if they are going to be taking their time then, that gives us time to get our fleets back after deploying them. To give them a moments rest.

We can get plans straightened out to properly push forward with appropriately equipped fleets with actual goals. Rather then sending them to the front in the hopes they think of means to slow or stop Neeran on the fly.

>>2690131
The enemy is making a push towards the Shallan capital, having pulled units from non-essential areas. (The sphere is considered a non-essential area.) The Alliance and Shallan military will need to bring in reinforcements to slow down the enemy fleets headed for the capital. The Alliance didn't send any fleets from Shallan space to fight in Crystal sea. If they had they'd be screwed right now.
Alliance/Faction forces currently in Shallan space are going to redeploy from planetary assault and colony capture operations to defending the Shallan colony worlds.

Do you advise the Count for or against sending forces to assist in the defense of the Shallan homeworlds?

>>2690148

We could always hire a certain mercenary in the PCCG to go help protect the Shallan worlds. She may not like the Military Government, but I would imagine she would like a chance to go back and protect her home. Same with any Shallan's she has in her fleet, this could be the means for the Shallan government in exile to gain a way back in favor with the Shallan people.

I want to give our fleets the rest they need after being shotgunned at the Neeran invasion. And after that mess I bet the good Admiral and her suit have gotten some experience fighting Neeran and are looking for a reason to head into Shallan space.

>>2690161
Mezan's crews are not yet ready, that's why they haven't deployed to Crystal sea or one of the other fronts already. Crews should reach basic levels of aptitude with another month's training, though the pilots and command crews are supposedly much better. Without the engineers needed to maintain precision vessels like the Eclipse and Dusk they wouldn't last long in a real deployment.

Additionally Mezan can't enter Shallan space without risking being arrested at this point. If she were leading a veteran unit hired by the Alliance because of a good record it would be another story, but they're not vets they're untested rookies.

A mercenary that should be available would be Berwari though it's entirely possible he's with big the SRL fleet that recently deployed to PCCG space. They're the ones getting the new mass driver siege gun turrets.

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"Viscount our House has five fleet groups that can be launched on short notice not counting Forbearance. Are you volunteering to lead one, suggesting someone who should, or are you of the opinion we've committed enough to the war effort at this time?

Our relations with the Shallan state are cordial enough even despite giving safe haven to some of their more troublesome citizens. Or perhaps because of it for now. I expect that sending support or not could affect our long term relations with the state."

If you choose not to go yourself it's not like you don't have extenuating circumstances with that letter from the Emperor.

>1) What are you plans?
1A) Volunteering
1B) Suggest someone else (Who?)
2C) We've committed enough

>2) In the event of 1B winning who do you think should go?
[ ] Daska
[ ] Avun
[ ] Alex
[ ] Desh Xisoth
[ ] Dremine
[ ] Avun (Forbearance)
[ ] Saputo (Forbearance)
[ ] Jor'ron (Forbearance)
[ ] Winifred (Forbearance)

And since this seems survey worthy

surveymonkey com/r/ 7JFZ329

>>2690308
>2C) We've committed enough

>>2690308
>1B) Suggest someone else (Who?)

We have any Shallans at or near thr level needed?

>2) In the event of 1B winning who do you think should go?

Whoever wants it most

>>2690308

1) What are you plans?
>1B) Suggest someone else (Who?)

2) In the event of 1B winning who do you think should go?
>[ ] Desh Xisoth

Or as >>2690521 suggested whoever wants it most.

>>2690521
>We have any Shallans at or near thr level needed?
That are experienced fleet commanders? Not really, they dont tend to stay unemployed for long. Mezan could theoretically do it but there's the slight problem that the Count wouldn't allow it, not without another Baron being in overall command of the fleet.
House J-D personnel would likewise probably be reluctant to follow a foreign leader. It's one thing if they're from another House (even then there can be problems) but another Faction?

There are Shallan Knights but none of them at Knight Commander level yet.

See you guys tomorrow. Have to finish off a few things early on then hoping to resume around 12PM EST.

Apologies everyone, today has greatly exceeded my worst case scenarios. Resuming as soon as I can.

You suggest that Desh Xisoth deploy with Anvil Crawler, the recently upgraded Zeus Heavy. If its weapons upgrade has been completed it should be fine. If it's still mostly reliant on torpedo launchers? That could be even better if the Alliance can equip it with enough SP torps.
You don't bother to point out it's also probably your most expendable ship among the heavy fleet assets. There is no shortage of potential replacements that would be better suited for use by your House.

Winifred speaks up.
"I am likewise ready to deploy with my fleet and take command of Forbearance if you would allow it."

The Count is reluctant to authorize that especially after the difficulties faced by Alliance and J-D fleets in fighting new enemy Supers.
"How well upgraded is it now?" he asks you.

The Monitor class medium escorts assigned to her have seen some upgrades. They can carry heavier shield projectors in place of some torpedo batteries allowing them and their charge better protection.

By now there should be enough of the new Helios phased plasma siege cannons built to equip Forbearance with them. The crews will still a bit unused to them but they can deal with that in the field. They did well enough switching gun types when fighting House Nasidum here in the Run. Overall the ship should be ready to go.

[ ] It's not ready
[ ] It should do well enough
[ ] Ready for almost anything

>>2692348
>[ ] Ready for almost anything

>>2692348
>[ ] It should do well enough

>>2692348
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rvdYly4A5W0#

>>2692348

Baring Neeran Superweapons that fuck with gravity and shit, the Forberance should do fine.

>[ ] It should do well enough

>>2692348
>[ ] It should do well enough
It is still a faction Super and unless it is a top of the line Alliance flagship super it wont be able to match a Executioner. But I doubt it will be deployed on it's own and if the Zeus is there to back it up with plenty of SP torpedoes it will be able to manage most things. It is about as good as we can make it.

"It should do well enough." you answer.

"Very well. Baron Winifred I'm giving you command of Forbearance, but you are to remain out of the direct fighting if at all possible. Keep Forbearance alive and out of situations where you could become the target of a counterattack. Provide assistance to allies as you feel necessary. Don't go looking for a fight. We can not afford to lose that ship."

"I understand. Count Jerik, Viscount, I need to go deploy my fleet. I would appreciate it if you would see that Forbearance can rendezvous with us in the Pandora Cluster."

You promise to get it done. As Winifred heads off you remain on the line with the Count.
"I half expected you to volunteer Viscount. Worried?"

You tell him about the summons from the Emperor.

"That would cut things a bit close for a deployment." He agrees. "Do you know what it's about?"

>What say?

Have to shut down for a few minutes to see if by fuse box can survive running the A/C. Back as soon as I can.

>>2692478
"Potentially. I don't want to comment unless we're face to face though."

>>2692478
"Honestly? I do not have the faintest clue. It came sort of out of no where and I can't think of anything I have done as of late that would demand the Emperors direct attention. Most likely it's something from the Emperors side. Some plan or scheme of his that he either needs me for or would like my input on publicly. Even if I do get a little paranoid about a few irons I got in the fire so to say but there is a 99.9 percent chance it is not... that. None the less I am not worried, even if I will be careful."

>>2692478

>What say?

"I got plenty of crazy way out there ideas to why and a few normal ones, like my visit to Veritas space with the Helios rep. That or to ask me to get the Rulling House something during my next deployment. You know, normal Dominion stuff."

Honestly? I do not have the faintest clue. I've got plenty of crazy way out there ideas as to potentially why, but nothing solid. Most of those I don't want to comment on unless we're face to face though. You know, normal Dominion stuff."

"Well if possible please keep me informed. Now I should let you go, you'll have to talk to Baron Avun about readying Forbearance."

"Yes sir!"

Once the channel is closed you do just that, making sure Avun and the techs at Rioja are aware of just what needs to happen. The first two guns that were produced had already been undergoing testing at secure sites in the Run so the gunnery crews won't be completely inexperienced with them. Within the day the new guns have been fitted and the ship is ready to depart, setting out for the rendezvous with Winifred.

Likewise the older Baron wastes little time in rallying her own forces. It doesn't take much longer for her to gather ships and crews before departure. Unlike her usual deployments she barely takes any ground troops, only those that can be stationed aboard her warships. An additional group under the command of one of her Generals will take the week to form up army units. They'll wait in the Pandora cluster to see if they'll be needed. By the time they get there they should know one way or another if there is any point in committing troops to retake planets.

Your own party sets course for Rioja, aiming to quickly return home. On the way there reports start to come in. As seen before the Neeran have been making modifications to some of their command ships. Each one now has a dozen turreted beam weapons roughly as powerful as the Executioner's anti-ship guns. They're deploying in formations with Executioners, tearing through any fleets or stations that get in their way.

With multiple groups like this operating often in close support of one another it's proving difficult to bring enough firepower to bear against them.

"I can't believe they're actually using a doom stack." Troy gripes.

"How are they not running out of supplies?" you ask.

Troy brings up a speculative report. It suggests that the large population usually aboard command ships to support lengthy campaigns may have been disembarked to make room for more logistics capacity.

>>2692824
>It suggests that the large population usually aboard command ships to support lengthy campaigns may have been disembarked to make room for more logistics capacity.
I wish we'd saved the antimatter teleport capsule for this.

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As if things weren't bad enough someone believed to be the Neeran Emperor has publicly issued a decree. Halfway measures will no longer be tolerated. If the Shallan government doesn't surrender the Neeran armada will destroy every world that lies in their path. Every day they resist billions will perish.

Winifred isn't going to need those ground troops. Not for fighting on planets at least.

There won't be time to conduct large scale evacuations of planets in the armada's path, they're moving too quickly. The Shallan state is doing everything they can to survive, pulling ships from every front and putting them into the defense of their core colonies. Before all remaining media feeds were ordered cut there were civilians rioting on at least 50 worlds in the path of the invasion. More than a few of them have probably surrendered by now.

The Alliance isn't taking this lying down. What few images that are getting out clearly show the flash of V-Torps going off. The rate at which they're expending Veckron weaponry can't be sustainable. Then again if it slows them down it's probably worth it.

By the time you reach Rioja primary combat operations in the Crystal Sea have finally reached their conclusion. Nel'odym reports that the Sam Bellamy should be repaired soon, though there are still plenty of small unit actions ongoing. Raiders and such are common enough in the forward most relays so it's not seen as a huge concern. For now it's enough to keep the fleet busy.

Two attack wings and a few smaller squadrons are being transferred to Shallan space. The newer Neeran Heavy Cruiser and LRBS II's are also being sent. They managed to survive their engagements with the loss of two battleships. It's hard to believe the way your House can shrug off battleship losses these days when 17 years ago the loss of just one would have been a serious blow.

>>2692940
>As if things weren't bad enough someone believed to be the Neeran Emperor has publicly issued a decree. Halfway measures will no longer be tolerated. If the Shallan government doesn't surrender the Neeran armada will destroy every world that lies in their path. Every day they resist billions will perish.


Well if there was ever a reason to give no ground to the Neeran Empire. I wonder how they would feel to end up with their own member states being blown to oblivion. Now where is that one anon who suggested weaponizing stars? Turn a few into supernovas in Neeran Empire space.

You're only back on Rioja for a few hours before the Shallan Ambassador requests to see you. They're looking for governments or individuals with attack cruiser shipyards willing to produce a new design for them. It's a stripped down Vengeance type that has no weapons. More powerful shields and afterburners are equipped, the crew sections replaced with a basic assault corvette cockpit assembly. Everything forward of the drive core has been replaced with a cargo bay that would seem to require more power than you would expect.

"What is this?" you have to ask, already suspicious you know the answer.
"It's a tanker bomb. The cargo bay will either be filled with metallic hydrogen or antimatter."

[ ] I am not building kamikaze ships
[ ] It would take too long to get them to the front
[ ] We may be able to arrange that
[ ] Other?

>>2693029
>[ ] I am not building kamikaze ships

>>2692959
>Now where is that one anon who suggested weaponizing stars? Turn a few into supernovas in Neeran Empire space.
If they had any suggestions for systems that were portable I'm sure the Alliance would be a bit more likely to listen to them right now. The Kavarian Stellar Matter Harvester being rather large would be difficult to transport. They're not even sure if one would survive a jump or collapse in on itself.

>>2693029

They do realize how much Vekron weaponry is being thrown around, right? Those ships will blow up within our own lines before they even reach the enemy. And even then who are they going to get to pilot those death traps? Prisoners with death sentences? Slaves? Or are they just hoping for lots of volunteers to make kamikaze runs?

I would love to help them in stopping the Neeran. But god damn, it is this or utter annihilation isn't it? Are they going to accept the responsibility and fallout for purchasing these ships? We'll catch a ton of fallout for building these things. But we can cast it off as helping a valued ally facing total annihilation. They'll be the ones putting this mark forever on their heads.

Give us a day to make our decision I say. That way we can talk with Fadila and see what our choices are. Because I want to help them, but making purposeful fireships with the only intent of being anti-matter bombs? If just one of these things disappear while filled with anti-matter and a terrorist has a hold of it.

Sorry, I'm torn here between help and telling them no. Can we get Fadila's input? I'm sure she'll say no, but gotta check.

>>2693029
>[ ] Other?
I'd rather throw the resources required to build these at the Terrans or Kavarians to build more SP or V torpedoes. Ships filled with antimatter will also be a liability in larger alliance combined fleet actions.

You look to your advisers, many of whom are surprised by the request or seem to be giving it serious thought. Your first reaction is to answer that you're not building kamikaze ships. That might not be very diplomatic.

"Give me a day to consider this matter."

The Ambassador agrees but warns that time is of the essence. Once they've been shown out you turn to the others.

"...opinions?"

Vanderwal gets everyone's attention before Fadila has a chance to speak.
"Just two things. Firstly, I've seen this design before."

"Where?" You hope it wasn't Archivald's fire ship fleet.

"The Terrans once wanted to build a Veckron weapon the size of a ship. To blow up stars maybe, I don't know. They had to agree to cease development as part of treaties after the Faction Wars had ended. That's the ship they were planning to use. A modified Vengeance type that was a giant warhead."

Interesting. "And the other thing?"

"Our House has fire ships. We haven't used them, but Archivald came close to doing so towards the end of the Civil War."
Of course he knew about them. How could your spymaster not know about them?

"Anyone else?" you ask the others.

"If they need them they can build those ships themselves." Fadila answers. "Producing them here would only run the risk of them falling into the wrong hands."

Troy agrees on that last part. The threat of tanker bombs is already real enough without fast vessels built for it.

Jan points out that there are much better ships to use in such a role, though he suddenly decides against saying just what those are.

Admiral Tama is against it overall, though he does ask how desperate we might be in the same situation.

Looks like mostly negative opinions.

>>2693090
>Those ships will blow up within our own lines before they even reach the enemy.
If they were to use them at the same time yes. They wouldn't operate in concert with V-Torp cruisers. The same way Helios AM Torp launcher Mediums don't operate with them. They'd have to stage attacks as part of different waves.

>And even then who are they going to get to pilot those death traps?
Clearly they'd have to work on recruitment themselves. Given their government situation it's doubtful they'd share what methods they used.

>>2693249

While I don't know if the Shallan Government wants those fireships. We could sell them to the Shallans and at that point it's up to the Shallans to use those fireships. Thus clearing out our stash of those things, if Archivald or whoever currently has control of those things feels like selling them off.

So I'll go with not building them. But we can sell them those fireships we have, if those in our house with them want to get rid of them no questions asked.

Have we tried checking the status of the alliance research projects we are involved in recently? Because I don't remember getting an overview over them since before the civil war

Looks like we're refusing. Anyone else interested in seeing if it's possible to sell the old House fire ships to them?

>>2693329
Yeah I'd like to refer it along the appropriate paths.

>>2693364
>>2693270
The buck does not stop here. You ask Archivald if he'd be willing to sell the remaining fire ships to the now very desperate Shallans. He seems against this as they only just finished relocating them recently, details of which apparently took some effort to keep secret.

"There's no way you're going to budge on this?"
"I'm afraid not. You spoke against my stepping down as commander of the home fleet. As long as I have this job it's is one thing I'm insisting on keeping in place."

Well shit.

Not seeing any reason to delay any longer you contact the ambassador and inform them that you're turning down the offer to produce their antimatter fire ships. You hope they've not needed and that the Faction fleets prevail making them unnecessary.

>>2693324
>Have we tried checking the status of the alliance research projects we are involved in recently?
The 3 you had with the Alliance regarding Sphere artifacts continue to make advancements very slowly.

>Plasma weapon
This has contributed to the state of Alliance man portable Plasma weapon development. The variable plasma rifle developed by the Dominion based on Republic, Aries and Neeran tech is in the final stages of being upgraded to Alliance standard. This improved model should be able to enter mass production in a few months.
The Republic are annoyed that the Dominion may soon have a better infantry plasma weapon than they do, as the Dominion VPR has better ranged capability.

The Mark 8 plasma pistol is nearing completion, though it offers little improvement over the far more mass produced Mark 7. It may only see limited production. A new plasma Rifle/Carbine based on the Mark 8 is expected to be completed around the same time.

Check your mail, you'll have new guns soon(tm).

>Amplifier artifact
This had been contributing little else to Alliance Veckron research so they gave it back to you. Or you took it back. Either way it stopped being in their posession after the Civil War. Since being on the sphere you've learned a thing or two about ways it can be used. Things they may not have considered, or had perhaps considered too dangerous.

Continued research into this will require use of your sphere armor or the Nxesi Pattern Relic Armor. Someone trained in the use of artifact weapons will also need to be assigned to demonstrate. It is possible that some of the Light Neeran may already be assisting with this now that Sam and Dave have visited the Sphere, though obviously they don't use equipment in quite the same way.

>Tissue regeneration
Is actually making progress. They've managed to duplicate the "heal beam" though only within a small area, and requiring large and inefficient equipment.

>Micro E-beam
Why do I keep forgetting we loaned this to the Rovinar? I keep thinking we haven't.

The Rovinar estimate that at their current rate of progress they should have a man portable e-beam weapon of their own in 750 years. Give or take. It is helpful in improving their own weapons making them both smaller and more efficient. In compensation they can provide enough newer guns to equip 2 Nocturn class ships. Or Krath weaponry to equip 1 of them.

Do you want to assign someone from your expedition to helping the Alliance with their Amplifier artifact R&D?

>>2693522
>Do you want to assign someone from your expedition to helping the Alliance with their Amplifier artifact R&D?
If it helps them.

>>2693522
>Do you want to assign someone from your expedition to helping the Alliance with their Amplifier artifact R&D?

Sure hopefully they should be able to do something with it. Maybe starship sized absorption armor that turns incoming weapons fire into a beam of instant death at its target.

Sonia Reynard
Valeri Fusaro
Knight Illya
Troy Harmen
Ella Rufaro
Lt Arif Sayadov

These are the only people that got armor and can use it efectively. Sayadov has now technically completed his 5 years mandatory service and could leave to return to House Kharbos. If they wanted him back that is. They're still not happy that a sizeable chunk of their House military decided to make a deal with an alien artificial intelligence to take over the Dominion.

You could suggest the assignment as a vacation following the end of his term.

Illya went home and will be training Knights there for a couple years probably before returning. Everyone else is sort of busy most of the time. Rufaro could take a break from her captain of the guard thing for a couple months.

Anyone you had in mind?

>>2693605

If Sayadov wants to go back home, let him. I believe we also promised to give him is weapon back after his service with us? I would guess now would be the best time to give it back to him. Though maybe let him know he might not receive a warm welcome and if he would like to he could stay here and we could employ him.

>>2693605
I'm leaning towards Sayadov or Rufaro.

>>2693605
But yeah, Sayadov or Rufaro, whichever one is more willing to go.

>>2693636
>>2693673
Rufaro for a couple months while Sayadov sorts things out then? Keep the job open to him.

Oh yes, your letter from the Emperor. Along with the official summons was a small letter. Pressing your thumb to the fancy looking seal holding it closed causes it to disintegrate on reading your DNA. Within is a nearly written letter.

Sonia Reynard, you are requested to attend a meeting with a number of forward thinking individuals from throughout the Dominion. Some of these you may be friends with, others enemies. Regardless you and they are all under my protection over the course of the meeting and none of you will be permitted to harm one another.
Do not bring anything you might be afraid to lose.
Please do not do anything more insane than usual. The Terrans are watching you.

Destroy this letter.

-Emperor Aros Ber'Helum

The next issue is how to destroy a letter when there are carpeted floors everywhere?
>Ideas?

>>2693697
Eat it.

>>2693697

Well we could plasma it and set off all sorts of alarms. Burn it?

You sure hope this ink isn't poisonous. It doesn't taste any worse than one of the field rations you had to eat one time. What were those, Hune rations? Regardless you manage to choke it down without killing yourself or throwing up.

Once that's been dealt with you consider the Emperor's suggestion of not doing anything crazier than usual. What would that entail exactly?

Not long after you're contacted by Ferigold who seems a bit more eccentric than usual. A little different but still well within the bounds of their usual character. He informs you that two mercenaries from your House are alive and well but have been delayed in returning to your world for reasons of his own security. They're eager to reenlist as it were once they do return.

"You're one of the best when it comes to suggesting mercenaries who can complete a job. Thank you so very much. They should be returning to visit your fair world in another month or two."

"Well as long as they were able to help that's the important thing." you reply.
You still don't know what it was they were after for the old merchant.

>Anything you wanted to ask?

>>2693930
I trust everything was satisfactory?
How is Ferigold feeling? He must be getting along in his old age now.

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Am I doing this right?

"I trust everything was satisfactory?"
"Yes. Everything went perfectly. As good as could be hoped for. There were a few unfortunates but they knew what they'd signed up for."

"And you're feeling well?"
"Yes, I'm much more certain that things are going to work out fine with my various subordinates in training. They do need more time but that's the same with all things. Time to grow and mature and learn all the intricacies of the trade. I really did start a bit late, worried someone might try to overthrow my little trade empire.
But I'm quite alright now. Reassured you could say. They'll find a way to hold it all together regardless of what happens to me."

That's good news. You have to wonder what caused this change of his state of mind but part of you really doesn't want to know. You do have enough secrets rattling around inside your head already.

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The Mercenary

A veteran mercenary has recently arrived on Rioja having left the employ of the major Houses. He's looking to take on more quiet jobs befitting his retirement age. His skill and experience could help improve the training of Rioja's infantry, or earn your army the respect of other Houses.

[ ] Hire him to help our infantry (Infantry skill & Morale improved)
[ ] Suggest allies in need of training assistance (Relations improved)
[ ] Offer him a prestigious position (Army respected by most Houses)
[ ] Offer retirement package to keep him away from rival Houses
[ ] Pass

>>2694346
>[ ] Hire him to help our infantry (Infantry skill & Morale improved)

I've been thinking, nobody has yet captured a Neeran command ship or Scorcher right? What if we were to create a division specialised in rapid boarding and capture actions? We could expand it out to other allied houses if we wanted to bulk up the numbers.

>>2694346
>[ ] Hire him to help our infantry (Infantry skill & Morale improved)

>>2694346
[ ] Offer him a prestigious position (Army respected by most Houses)

>>2694120
Tropical world?

>>2694346
>[ ] Hire him to help our infantry (Infantry skill & Morale improved)

>>2694445
Sounds good, but dunno if we will get support for it.

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>>2694570
>Tropical world?
They didn't have low gravity world with lots of shallow seas, and Ocean world didn't seem quite right. Maybe should have gone continental.
I think I must be doing this right, I'm already getting boarding actions.

>>2694445
Not intact. There have been a fair number of damaged Scorchers captured or salvaged.

>What if we were to create a division specialized in rapid boarding and capture actions? We could expand it out to other allied houses if we wanted to bulk up the numbers.
I think they'd want to familiarize themselves with SP boarding harpoons rather quickly. The Alliance has been working on building up equipment intended for use by such units with plans to use them against enemy Supers and installations where energy draining systems are present.

Hard plate armor is intended to be the mass produced suits for such actions. Iratar has been working on reviving bioform armor while the Krath have been working to improve their living armor like Valeri used in the sphere.

Boarding harpoons are heavy SP torpedoes with marines aboard instead of explosives. Basic stasis fields allow the crews to survive the sudden deceleration during insertion. They're only worth using against the big targets.

>>2694594
>energy draining systems
Still no progress on these even with the few examples they've captured?

I was thinking a boarding division specialised in rapid capture, probably using all Power Armor to grab the ship in power draining scenarios.

Looks like the old mercenary is being hired to improve the lot of the infantry.

>>2694662
They're making progress, just not quickly enough. They hope to be able to induce a feedback that would overload the system but so far it only works from such close range you'd be better of using a rocket launcher on it.

With the other newer armor types they can avoid additional complications of running out of power if a boarding assault stalls.

Possibly posting in the morning. Going to be resuming late tomorrow afternoon. If super weapon anon is around now's your time to shine.

Could neutronium, electron-degenerate matter or anything like that be used to disrupt the surface of a star enough to create a CME? Doesn't need to be focused, just needs to be big.

What did Illya call that weird artifact he had that makes holes? A phase projector? I want to go and get that and make a huge version of it.

>>2693697
>The Terrans are watching you.
Fucking shit fuck cock. Just because we want to get Diamond Mine going they of course are there and ready to fuck us over if we do. Fine. With the Emperors backing we should be able to develop the project regardless of how many black ops team the Terrans send.

>>2694779
Want to borrow this for the Alliance to take a look at?

>>2695514
>Implying they were ever not there.

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>>2694594
>Iratar has been working on reviving bioform armor while the Krath have been working to improve their living armor like Valeri used in the sphere
Would they be interested in a copy of the DNA samples we collected from those creatures that could feed on electricity we encountered on the sphere? It seems like something that could come in really handy if they can manage to adapt it to their respective armor designs, plugging your suit into an outlet to accelerate the healing process seems useful.

>>2695694
>Want to borrow this for the Alliance to take a look at
Hell yeah we can even stop over and see how Illya is doing.

>>2693083
That would be me!

And really all you need is like a magnetized iron asteroid to destabilize the suns magnetosphere to trigger a coronal mass ejection and then use the grav well to lense it ontoa focused point so that it overtakes the solar wind right before the enemy.

It's like artillery, you plot it out ahead of time. Magentize the iron asteroids ahead of time, strap jump engines on it, and then it's a race to do the math on where to drop it into the sun before the enemy can kill the grav well generator.

So you put stealth sattelites around suns to monitor the magnetosphere to cut down the time needed to plot out where to destabilize it, and just prepare the drop and the math at the same time.

Bonus, the grav well prevents the enemy from jumping out to dodge the shockwave too.

>>2694719
> Could neutronium, electron-degenerate matter or anything like that be used to disrupt the surface of a star enough to create a CME?

I mean yes, but either way we're moving the same mass and we're going down the Sun's grav well anyways so iron asteroids are cheaper and there's frames and such to move them already.

No need to get fancy.

I wonder if we could also build ships to "surf" the CME and rush the enemy in the grav well right after the shockwave too.

It would work great for the rapid boarding team, especially since all the exotic rays would fuck unshielded people and equipment all over.

>>2694346
> [ ] Suggest allies in need of training assistance (Relations improved)

Have him train other houses on integrating our weapons and armor lines into their existing forces, using a special unit of retires elite members from our house as a training squad sonwe can then rotate them out to train the home forces along with whatever tactics they learn from our allies.

>>2696206
Also having a CME surfing squadron would prevent the enemy from "dodging" by lining themselves up with the sun behind the Grav Well.

Even if we can't develop a CME surfing squad, using siege weapons will be extra effective because the enemy will be trapped into a set approach towards the Grav Well to avoid Sunshots.

>>2693697
> Please do not do anything more insane than usual. The Terrans are watching you.

Conversely we shouldn't be less insane either.

Also remember too much iron kills the sun.

>>2695514
> With the Emperors backing we should be able to develop the project regardless of how many black ops team the Terrans send.

Note that RH have been suddenly destabilized in the past and the balance of power in the Dominion is still delicate.

>>2696259
That is true I consent as much. However! This time the situation is unique due to the Neeran threat. Fact of the matter is they need the Dominion and a second civil war could see the counter offensive collapse into a slow drawn out retreat once more. It's not like the Terrans special forces are superior in every way to Dominion ones or the like. This is not the stagnant Dominion of a hundred years ago. This is the modern Dominion going full speed ahead.

>>2696288
> It's not like the Terrans special forces are superior in every way to Dominion ones or the like.

Remember that Veckron beam blowing up our antimatter?

Terran SF are better in a LOT of ways.

The Dominion has a huge manpower advantage, but is weak to having that turned against them or having their leadership get taken out resulting in infighting.

Also because of the Neeran war, instability in the Dominion could provide a casus belli for the Alliance to step in and run things during the war, which the Dominion might tolerate in exchange for having overwhelming support for a RH faction.

Some factions in Terra might see that as even preferable regardless of whether or not we even really did have a diamond mine.

>>2696312
>Terran SF are better in a LOT of ways.
Like? We have access to the same kinds of armour and weapons. Dominion soon have better handheld plasma weapons than even the Republic. Dominion enhance their special forces unlike the Terrans. They hold no manpower or really special tech advantages over our special forces. Neither do they have more experience considering all the shit our special forces get up with.

>Remember that Veckron beam blowing up our antimatter?

Yes, they do have both Veckron and SP weapons. Neither of which can be applied against the Dominion right now for several reason. For one those are all needed for the Neeran front. Not to mention they can't afford to open a second front in their home territories since that would force them to pull more forces away from the front. Not mentioning loses incursed ON the front to the Dominion forces there. Then there would be loses to the home fleets and industry and the moral loose among the civilian population.

>instability in the Dominion could provide a casus belli for the Alliance to step in and run things during the war,
And no House in the Dominion would consent to a outside faction running the Dominion for them. The very idea is ludicrous. It's like having Russia run the USA. No one would agree to that.

>Some factions in Terra might see that as even preferable regardless of whether or not we even really did have a diamond mine.
They probably do but the main difference here is that a few individuals can not make such decisions among the Terrans. Hooo for democracy.

At lest this is my take on it.

>>2696377
> And no House in the Dominion would consent to a outside faction running the Dominion for them.

Not a single faction, but the Alliance taking command of their offensive military yes, especially if the other option was them abandoning the Dominion to Neeran invasion to force the Dominion to fight.

> Terran SF aren't as killy as the Dominion

Yes, they are, and they just have to A War Crime the leadership. They have MUCH better intel and infiltration ability and they're also rich as fuck and can just buy off factions within the Dominion.

Remember Ares?

> They probably do but the main difference here is that a few individuals can not make such decisions among the Terrans. Hooo for democracy.

Yeah a powerful political minority has NEVER manipulated a democracy before /s.

Not believing any of what they can do just because we believe it isn't optimal, even if our belief is true, is irrelevant depending on what THEY believe is possible/necessary for both their capability and the possiblity of differing outcomes.

>>2696396
>Not a single faction, but the Alliance taking command of their offensive military yes

I do not see this happening either. A house is only as strong as it's military when it comes down to it and allow anyone but the House to control it is once more ludicrous.

>Yes, they are, and they just have to A War Crime the leadership. They have MUCH better intel and infiltration ability and they're also rich as fuck and can just buy off factions within the Dominion.

Better intel and infiltration ability is debatable to an extreme degree. And the Dominions is ALSO rich as fuck. Basically at the size we're playing at here in this setting all the Factions are rich as fuck due to the sheer size of their respective domains. Ares was also it's own Mega Corporation praying on a financially unstable House. And considering how it went I would say people would rather not repeat that idea right now.

>even if our belief is true, is irrelevant depending on what THEY believe is possible/necessary for both their capability and the possiblity of differing outcomes.
Well if their intelligence apparatus is as powerful as you claim it to be then they should be well aware of that the Dominion has not been this powerful since the Faction war nor held so many powerful techs. Any offensive taken against the Dominion by the Terrans would be incredibly costly in men, ships and SP torpedoes. It's not like they would just roll a tank into someones backyard and that's that. We're talking about invading a nation covering the better part of 3 galaxies and a number of dwarf galaxies. Regardless of what the Terrans bring of their own fleets to bear on the Dominion it's going to cost more than they can afford to spare away from the Shallan front. A inter faction war is simply not feasible at this point in time no matter how they would twist and turn it.

>>2696430
Politics often doesn't reflect reality.

Note that we already sent defeated / neutral forces to be under Alliance command during the civil war so there's already a precedence.

And if the RH is destabilized, the Dominion might not have the strength to reasonably refuse if the entire Alliance is behind it.

>Better intel and infiltration ability is debatable to an extreme degree.

No it really isn't. That's like, their THING dude. JD is actually pretty exceptional among the Dominion as a whole too remember, but we would be swamped by the RH's much larger elite force, and the Terrans have an entire empire focused on that.

> Well if their intelligence apparatus is as powerful as you claim it to be then they should be well aware of that the Dominion has not been this powerful since the Faction war nor held so many powerful techs.

Which makes it arguably the best time to take them down a peg to prevent expansionist opportunism at the end kf the war.

The question isn't even "if" the Terrans will try something, but "when" and "how much".

The infighting is what "balances" the Dominions power, like the restriction on Kavarian industry. Other factions have ALWAYS meddled to destabilize the Dominion enough to keep it from being able to exert force, without inciting reprisal from a united Dominion.

If the Alliance simply demanded that most of the Dominions forces be kept outside it to prevent a civil war, they could bribe Nobles to support the plan through war spoils, allowing the Terrans more latitude of action within the Dominion.

> Comparing the Dominion to Russia

It's not THAT shitty.

Also really more HRE / Hapsburg-Valois era Italy, or most accurately Scottish clans prior to their final defeat by England despite their retaining their own monarchy and government.

Like everything I'm discussing has happened IRL.

>>2696430
> A inter faction war is simply not feasible at this point in time no matter how they would twist and turn it.

They don't need nor would they want a war.

All they would need is the Alliance pulling out from protecting the Dominion, and forcing the Dominion to go solo against the Neeran and letting us grind against each other.

I wonder what happens when you shoot a star with several Vekron Torpedo's. Because isn't the Vekron's purpose to tear open reality to subspace. Which tears apart whatever its target is as well as bathing it in radiation of all sorts. Why not see what happens when you shove a star into subspace forcefully.

Or what about using a super sized mining laser to destabilize and take in matter from a star. Or create a Star Forge, example the first KoTOR and use it to pump out fleets faster then they can be destroyed.

Or focus on ways to amplify a gravity well. So that it pulls in and crushes everything around it.

>>2696502
> Or create a Star Forge,

T. Kavarians are already doing this.

> Or focus on ways to amplify a gravity well. So that it pulls in and crushes everything around it.

Or use it to crash ships into each oh wait the Neeran are doing that.

Gravity is not a discriminatory force so it's a bad idea to crush what's arpund it because that would include our ships.

Also it would make it super easy to shoot since you would be firing down its grav well.

>>2696470
>No it really isn't. That's like, their THING dude.
No, the Rovinar are the ones whos thing is stealth. Terrans got SCIENCE. And we have as of yet seen them use that SCIENCE to make their special forces into anything special.

>the Dominion might not have the strength to reasonably refuse if the entire Alliance is behind it.
Perhaps but it's not really the Alliance thing to police the Factions like some benevolent overlord. Any objection will be coming from the Factions themselves. Not the Alliance as a organization. And objection would most likely only come from the Terrans at that since only they and the Rovinar got those and the Rovinar are pretty chill with the Dominion.

>Which makes it arguably the best time to take them down a peg to prevent expansionist opportunism at the end kf the war.
It's sort of hard to "Take them down a peg" in this scenario since any victory gained from such a war would be a phyrric one at best. However we are not at the end of the war here. At best we are approaching the second stage of the war with the approaching invasion of Neeran space proper.

>The infighting is what "balances" the Dominions power
This is true. The Dominion is mostly focused on inter faction fighting but that would quickly change should a outside force attempt an invasion. A very good example of this is the Chinese Civil War where the Chinese factions banded together to fight the Japanese when they invaded.

However the interfighting in the Dominion has also served to shape it into a very martial society with a large part of it's standing fleets being combat tested and it's crews experienced. They are not exactly Klingons or anything but you get my point. This is helped in the event of a foreign invasion by a strong RH being able to direct the Dominion. The current one being fairly strong at this point due to the backing of several other of the Seven and recent tech advantages. It's not perfect but I would say that they currently are MORE powerful that Nirium was at the beginning or even midway through the quest.

>It's not THAT shitty.
Hehehe, true.

>>2696475
>Alliance pulling out from protecting the Dominion, and forcing the Dominion to go solo against the Neeran
The Alliance is hardly protecting the Dominion when it is made up of in large part Dominion funding and manpower. And refusing Dominion fleets logistic support against the Neerans would just mean they leave the front and go back home and let the other Factions slug it out. Meaning they would have even larger fleets back home to protect themselves with.

>>2696502
I think TSTG said the Terrans tried that with their Mega Veckron and it created a black hole. Which is why they aren't doing that anymore. Terran scientists are crazy yo.

>Coworker: Hey it's the hottest day on record in 100 years.
>TSTG: You know what they probably did 100 years ago?
>Coworker: What?
>TSTG: Took the day off.

>>2696180
>And really all you need is like a magnetized iron asteroid to destabilize the suns magnetosphere to trigger a coronal mass ejection and then use the grav well to lense it ontoa focused point so that it overtakes the solar wind right before the enemy.

My brain is a tad fried atm. If you could draw even a really crappy MS paint diagram of that I'd be really grateful.

>>2696206
>I wonder if we could also build ships to "surf" the CME and rush the enemy in the grav well right after the shockwave too.
Like Yang's 13th fleet surfing that updraft at the Battle of Amlitzerin in LOGH? Could probably be done by angling shields properly and matching speeds with it as much as possible.

>No need to get fancy.
I'm trying to figure out a plausible method of how the Norune would have created an event like that to destroy the Republic homeworld without it being overly large. The device itself would have been the size of a Frigate, carried by a vessel the size of 2 battleships strapped together.
The Norune lost a lot of tech after that when the Republic nuked the shit out of their homeworld and main colonies.

>>2696533
> And we have as of yet seen them use that SCIENCE to make their special forces into anything special.

Uh. Yeah. That's because they're good at it. Also the Rovinar are the other guys locking down diamonds so I don't know why you think that's not a factor.

As far as the other factions are concerned, the Dominions biggest threat isn't their manpower but their volatility. There's an argument for having it be better to instigate a limited internal conflict than to allow them to build up to another big one WITH diamond mines making everything worse, or letting them use diamonds to sieze power after or worse during the Neeran conflict. Because that's a definite and a possible outcome right there.

Like that is literally our actual goal and everyone knows it but pretends it isn't becauae politics.

An allies benefits are equally a threat in politics.

They would just need to convince the Alliance that the Dominions volatility is more dangerous than their logistics are beneficial.

Lots of options too. Simply offering houses that want to preserve their forces protection in exchange for service in the Neeran war. Hiring Houses as mercenaries. I dunno I don't want to just come up with different options with weighted risk/cost/benefit ratios.

Don't forget Terran and Rovinar politicians have pressures at home to influence their decisions, and that the Dominion isn't actually well liked despite our personal good relations with other factions, it's just the Terrans are the ones most vulnerable to Dominion aggression.

Also remember that the Neeran CAN engage in Diplomacy so there could be an agreement to let them fight the Dominion without interference, taking pressure off the Alliance. Essentially still using Dominion firepower, just less effectively.

File: Solar forces.png (366 KB, 535x358)

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>>2696596
So, differences in temperature in the sun cause the magnetic field holding the explosions that consist of the sun together to vary in strength,

When the magnetic fields that are pushing and pulling against each other, as well as pushing and pulling the suns mass (further distorting the magnetic fields) suddenly release, a solar flare is "popped" out.

When this happens with enough force, Coronal Mass is ALSO ejected along with the magnetic energy of the flare.

This coronal mass pushes out into space faster than the solar wind normally radiating out from the sun, bunching it together until it creates sort of a "sonic boom" resulting in the energy radiating out into exotic rays and strange particles. Much like how a sonic boom shatters windows, this shatters like . . . planets. Not completely, like how sonic booms don't collapse buildings. But all the fragile "windows" on the planet. Like, life.

>>2696602
>Also remember that the Neeran CAN engage in Diplomacy so there could be an agreement to let them fight the Dominion without interference, taking pressure off the Alliance. Essentially still using Dominion firepower, just less effectively.
Hah, now that is something I would like to see if only for the absurdity of it.

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>>2696596
This is a solar storm (consisting of a huge CME) stripping the magnetic field from Mars. Note how it propagates as a wave.

>>2696635

Their idea of diplomacy so far seems to be weakening the political powers and causing dissent until there is an uprising. Then coming in to save the day and re-stabilize the faction so that they are grateful for being saved and pledge themselves to the Neeran Empire. When that doesn't work they declare all out war and use their superior technology to beat their enemies into submission. And failing that they threaten utter annihilation.

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>>2696475
>All they would need is the Alliance pulling out from protecting the Dominion, and forcing the Dominion to go solo against the Neeran and letting us grind against each other.
Attempting to bring this about would violate the Alliance Charter to such an extent that it would probably cause the Alliance Admiralty to sever ties to their respective Factions. It very well could destroy the Alliance or force them into becoming their own separate Faction which is something many have feared might happen.

Kicking the Dominion out of the Factions Alliance would be a very messy very bloody business for all involved. If it were to happen during the war with the Neeran that would be it, the Factions would lose.

As for Terran Vs Dominion special forces, pic related.

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>>2696596
So here is a sun with Yellow and Red magnetic bubbles of different temperature therefore different field strengh, pressing against each other with the nuclear force of a sun.

The yellow w/ A is the asteroid, which we shoot into the arrow on the sun, destabilizing the magnetic field there and causing it to rapidly shift, in turn pushing the constantly exploding coronal mass around.

The magenta lines is the Coronal Mass being shifted faster along the front of the magnetic conversion and "popping" out of the sun.

So the math would involve a) figuring out where to drop the asteroid to flip the magnetic field, b) in order to cause a large enough shift to eject Coronal Mass c) but not so much that it kills everything d) and ideally enough that the coronal mass converts to exotic rays / strange particles after passing by our guys before it peters out or passes the enemy, for maximum damage.

TL;DR The forces holding the Suns together have "fault lines" we can trigger, by magnetizing Asteroids we can increase the effect for the mass used (if we need less mass we can just blow some of the asteroid off, honestly we don't need to magnetize it to trigger the CME but it's about triggering a CONTROLLED CME).

The CME causes a short range burst of deadly energy, which in turn causes a deadly burst when it builds up against the solar wind until it's no longer in a "compressable" state at which point it "transitions" into fuck everything in this general direction.

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>>2696673
Note: I never said it would be a GOOD idea.

Or that anyone would seriously want it to happen.

But, you know, brinksmanship is a thing. Cuba Crises anyone?

Also easier TL;DR for the sun laser.

Imagine putting your finger on a hose, and that makes a hole tear in the hose and the resulting spray causes a sonic boom. We're using the asteroid to push a magnetic bubble into another one to act as the "finger" on the flowing coronal mass, and the sonic boom is happening in the solar wind instead of the air.

And it's made of lasers on steroids.

Man. You don't even want to know about using one sun in a binary system to lase the companion sun into like, a super sun.

You would want to observe that from a distance. *Possibly* another universe.

>>2696673
Clearly Diamonds are misleading.

We should be making Diamond coated boarding ships filled with PA soldiers.

>>2695694
Hey.

Hey.

I know we hate AI.


But have you read The Polity series? Neal Asher? How about Legion of the Damned by William C. Deitz?

One a scale of war crime to space Hitler how would cloning criminals, flash freezing their brains, and then sticking them into robots as suicidal sensation deprived cybernetic killbots to serve their sentences be received, cloning their backups into bodies after they die gloriously or kill enough of the enemy to pay off their debt?

>>2696703

Isn't that the idea behind machine spirits in 40k? Scoop a brain out and put it in a machine like a Baneblade.

>>2696703
Or if we offered it as a guaranteed promotion up one rank and just found like, the right personality and used them a shit-ton for this.

Buddy drones, where the drones are actually a person named Buddy and he just wants to fight and kill and die.

>>2696709
No, a machine spirit is a truncated/docile AI slash demiurge spirit inherent in all machines thanks to pervasive belief in it slash low level Waaaaaugh slash fragments of the Omnissiah slash sure why not it's 40k anything goes.

>>2696673
Present and prominent water

>>2696722
>>2696694
Sorry. That is me explaining ++ water for how I feel today after too much boozeahol.

>>2696673
Special forces isn't just about how many you have though either, a lot is where you put them and while the Dominion gets by on trying to put some everywhere, it seems, Terrans put them all right behind you and they have your dog now.

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Let's take this step by step. Solar flares and CME's happen naturally, we're just tossing a suitably equipped rock(1) in to make one happen on schedule. Magnetic ram scoops are child's play to build and most battleships and battlecruisers are equipped with them to help top up their fuel tanks on long duration flights. Those should certainly be disruptive enough to provide some kick.

Target sun spots, field line convergences, whatever. The scientists will figure out where to shoot. Once the correct location is hit, bam you get a CME(2). Hopefully. Stellar matter is ejected (again hopefully) in a direction you want thanks to the magnetic field lines? Yes?

The parts I really need clarification on are using a gravity well generator to focus the CME. Preferably without turning the gravwell generator and its crew to cinders? Because that seems like it would be a bad thing and might interrupt the safe operation of the vehicle. Seriously, those things are in short supply these days.

>ideally enough that the coronal mass converts to exotic rays / strange particles after passing by our guys before it peters out or passes the enemy, for maximum damage.
Any reason why would it convert to exotic rays and strange particles?
>where ns represents the number of strange quarks (s) and n-s represents the number of strange antiquarks (s-).
Oh, okay. Right.

>>2696694
>We're using the asteroid to push a magnetic bubble into another one to act as the "finger" on the flowing coronal mass, and the sonic boom is happening in the solar wind instead of the air.

So this is more like using explosive lenses in a nuclear implosion device. Except instead of explosives we're using converging magnetic field projectors aboard asteroids. Nukes I can get my head around.

>>2696872
> The parts I really need clarification on are using a gravity well generator to focus the CME.

Easy. Use 2 grav wells. One to pull the CME towards it and condense it, then another to deflect it towards the target.

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>>2696872
>>2696892

See here. It's just gas until it collapses the solar wind, well gas and magnetism and it's super hot.

We could probably use magnetic shielding to protect from the back-blast. More magnetized iron asteroids?

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>>2696906
>>2696872
Green dots are grav wells. The closer GW is set to a weaker setting, so that the CME gets pulled on by the second grav wells stronger magnetic field as it gets closer to the first GW.

And once it collapses it shoots out.

Honestly the problem is that it will be easy to copy, so it should be used to trap the enemy. and ruing their whole fleet. Preferably in multiple locations at once.

>>2696892
I think they may need to develop a bit more in the way of fine control before they can pull that off. Asteroid plan should be easy enough to do though.

Only concern then is how much time will the Neeran have to deal with it and how easy would it be to use their own magnetic ram scoops and deflectors to counter. Their Battleships are similarly equipped to yours, though their big ships like Heavies and Supers are not.

>>2696920
I mean, there's always "fuck this system" I figured they might like to, you know, miss planets and such.

> Only concern then is how much time will the Neeran have to deal with it and how easy would it be to use their own magnetic ram scoops and deflectors to counter.

That's only relevant for the CME. Once it collapses the solar wind, shielding becomes kind of irrelevant.

Literally blowing off Mars magnetic field levels. So unless they have greater than a planet strength field . . . in fact hiding behind a planet is pretty much the only option.

Did I mention that the CME travels a good deal faster than the solar wind? So with the Grav Wells preventing jumps . . .

Speaking of the "Fine Control", see >>2696906 where you just have to have two static gravity fields. Properly spaced. And the correctly expected CME amount within tolerances because you do NOT want to fuck that up.

>>2696920
>Only concern then is how much time will the Neeran have to deal with it and how easy would it be to use their own magnetic ram scoops and deflectors to counter.

Welcome to nuclear deterrence!

Fuck ''em, they want to blow up planets? We'll escalate to blowing up Stars.

Note: By using the GW generators, we *should* be able to actually get more Coronal Mass with less flaring of the sun, and get more bang out of less mass since the Gravity should accelerate it as well due conservation of angular momentum increasing it's total speed as it moves in the elliptical orbit around the gravity wells.

Imagine being the chief research scientist at one of Sonia's facilities and having to tell her why crayon scribbles aren't good enough.

>>2696916
>>2696952
If our scientists need clarification, the Neeran definitely won't be able to figure it out!

> We thought they might have some sort of new gravity weapon, or have figured our out.

> We didn't expect them to blow up the sun at us.

File: I wonder why Hune are suc(...).gif (1.16 MB, 480x270)

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>>2696916
Always liked that picture.

>>2696930
>And the correctly expected CME amount within tolerances because you do NOT want to fuck that up.
Clearly. It's going to take time and training to get this working properly with the gravity wells since with them being in short supply the Alliance may be understandably reluctant to use them in that capacity.
Asteroid plan is a go though and could be set up relatively quickly and cheaply by comparison. Give it a couple weeks. Less if the Shallans are working on it as they're more desperate and willing to take greater risks.

Meanwhile the Norune do already have their weapon ready to go and it is much more portable. Whatever the hell it is. When I originally wrote/drew up the thing they either blew up the damn star or caused it to go nova. I liked Star Trek Generations at the time, sue me Paramount.

Obviously since then I've come to the realization that destroying a star has certain logistical complications. Any time I've mentioned it since starting H&D I've generally referred to it as the solar weapon destroying the planet or wiping it clean of life. Not specifically destroying the star.

So I'm working on the official retcon here. Taking suggestions on what would make the most sense. The Norune are not generally ones to go the route of brute strength so building fancy would fit with them.

>>2697122
>Taking suggestions on what would make the most sense
Subspace phased Neutron Radiation beam! First kind target a whole planet and cleansed it free of organic life. New prototype phase through shields and matters of ships and kills the crew! Something something SP beam Halo. Now I sleep

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>>2697122
Here we've got the Norune Solar weapon based off the old sketches I've dug up.

Beam / Pulse energy weapon
Tractor beam
Compact magnetic ramscoop device (Similar to the magnetized asteroid idea)
Neutronium
Electron-degenerate matter
Other?

>>2697122
Also it provides a good reason for us to visit the Emperor.

I feel like using this plan will be one of those situations where asking forgiveness isn't actually easier than getting permission.

Also it would be a good plan for wiping their city ships. If we aren't concerned about control we can just go for size.

They'll probably think we just fucked up for the first little bit anyways.

>>2697157
Giant ass super thin mirror and lenses.

>>2697157
The best part about smelting mirrors used to melt down asteroids, is that in space you can just make it so big that it doesn't matter if it gets shot full of holes!

Use shields to make giant lenses for long distance focusing too.

Man. Suns are ridiculous amounts of energy.

>>2697154
A subspace weapon could work and is consistent with one of the defective Veckron torpedo models that instead pulled objects into subspace. Usually destroying them in the process but not always. That would certainly cause a disruption of the star.

>New prototype phase through shields and matters of ships and kills the crew!
Unfortunately the Republic fleet in orbit were able to escape, forming the core of their surviving military. Though if they'd targeted the planet it's not far fetched that could have been the result.

>>2697162
What would that do to the star?

>>2697157
Super-excited hydrogen fused gaseous iron accelerator.

It actually plates ships unevenly in iron as it condenses on them, gets in the way of their guns and hangers, and eventually builds up to the point that maneuvering stress shears the ship apart.

Plus like. The super heating from the gaseous iron cooks the ship.

Radiating heat is a *bitch* in space.

>>2697192
> What would that do to the star?

Nothing.

It's just the cheapest way to turn it into a weapon. All you need is time to build the mirror. You don't even fix broken parts just keep building new ones.

Honestly stars are really big to fuck with. Like. Their iron cores are 300ish times the size of earth.

Maybe you could hiy it hard enough with an asteroid traveling at ludicrous speed to like, flip the polarity of the star or uniformly magnetize it briefly turning it into a giant ass electromagnetic that sucks everything into it. Or makes everything stick to itself, causing magnetic welding.

I'm just bullshitting all that though.

>>2697192
What happens when forces are displaced into subspace? Like. Is there gravity in subspace? What happens if you turn on a grav well generator while it's traveling in Subspace?

>>2697239
Or charging a V-torp in subspace?

Hrm. Now I wonder about repeatedly charging then downstepping V-torps and the effect it would have on drive plates.

>>2697192
>>2697288

On the idea of using iron asteroids to destabilize the magnets of a star. Would you not need a huge asteroid the size of a small planetoid in order to have even the slightest bit of an effect on a star to get this plan to work? And if you do need that big of an asteroid you'll need a really powerful tug to move the asteroid and a fleet to protect it from whatever defenders are in the system.

Oh shit, All guardsman party is back.

>>2697211
More interesting ideas for odd weapons to be used against the Neeran.

>>2697239
>Giant ass super thin mirror and lenses.
>It's just the cheapest way to turn it into a weapon.
You can buy those btw. Exodus builds mirrors for use in terraforming and solar energy collection.

For now I'll probably stick with the current "It just works okay" for the Norune super weapon.

>>2697281
>What happens when forces are displaced into subspace?
As in vehicles, or displacing gravity through a hole into subspace?
>Like. Is there gravity in subspace?
Absolutely. The gravitational effects of objects in real space also create mass shadows and distort field lines in subspace. It's why black holes, stars and planets are so dangerous to jump too close to. Not just because they can deform the drive field bubble around the ship.

>What happens if you turn on a grav well generator while it's traveling in Subspace?
This still hasn't been tested. Do you want to throw away one of your expensive gravity well generators to test it like has been said the last 12 times this has been asked?

>Or charging a V-torp in subspace?
This is classified well outside of Sonia's clearance but yes, it can be done. The Vieona tested this under combat conditions. Almost nobody else has been so suicidal as to try it since. If the ship lacks a suitably powerful FTL system the charger will alter the ship's course while at FTL which can be very bad.

>repeatedly charging then downstepping V-torps
This would eventually push the torpedo and its Veckron core past the point of no return since there is no way to undo charging of their core once it's been done. So it would explode aboard the ship. This has happened many times to Terran V-Torp ships. It was the leading cause of their destruction in the Faction Wars.

>and the effect it would have on drive plates.
The drive plates that are used as the weapon charger? Probably nothing.

>>2697319
> Would you not need a huge asteroid the size of a small planetoid in order to have even the slightest bit of an effect on a star to get this plan to work?

Yes. Hence the "ludicrous speed" to the point that you have to get really close and essentially teleport loop the asteroid or translate its inertia or some bullshit. Like. Capture an asteroid traveling one direction along the plane of the universe and have it objectively exit the teleporter traveling the opposite way or something so bam! Instant "way too fast".

>>2697341
> Do you want to throw away one of your expensive gravity well generators to test it like has been said the last 12 times this has been asked?

. . . . Maybe. Because

> The gravitational effects of objects in real space also create mass shadows and distort field lines in subspace.

So we could like drive-by gravity stuff to city-ships. Pretty sure that would fuck things up.

> >repeatedly charging then downstepping V-torps

Not the same V-torps. But like. Try it with different materials being exposed to the radiation and see if it makes diamonds.

There's gotta be something that holds the energy somewhere else maybe?

>>2697341
Do you have to maintain a minimum speed at FTL to remain in it? Asode from the Vionas weire transitional thing?

>>2697341
>What happens when forces are displaced into subspace?
As in vehicles, or displacing gravity through a hole into subspace?

Oh and I meant displacing gravity into subspace.

If a Vtorp can vanish into subspace, can we in turn use gravity to pull stuff *out* of subspace itself? Not ships travelling in a bubble but actual subspace matter?

>>2697348
Clearly I missed that part of the break down. That would make it very impractical as an easy to deploy weapon system. Which is the opposite of what you seemed to be implying it would be.

>>2697364
>Try it with different materials being exposed to the radiation and see if it makes diamonds.
Do this while the Terrans are watching you?

>>2697367
There is a minimum FTL speed at which ships can travel. Most ships minimum is fairly high as to go slower would involve re-engineering the FTL system so that it was no longer capable of higher speeds. J-1 is about as slow as most conventional ships can go.
The sleeper subspace drive system is believed to enter a different layer of subspace.

>>2697371
>Not ships travelling in a bubble but actual subspace matter?
No. Or at least no one has had any success with it.

>>2697430
Yes, it would be ridiculously inefficient lol.

But think about all the puns you could make to the enemy forces!

"Hey guys, make sure you stick together."

"I gotta I find your ships really attractive."

"Now THAT'S some solid engineering you have there now."

Ahahahaha. Haha.

Billions spent to turn potential salvage into flying bricks that one time.

>>2697430
> Not ships travelling in a bubble but actual subspace matter?
> No. Or at least no one has had any success with it.

Cram a bunch of gravity in one place to try and draw whatever exists in subspace, then try to pull it out?

Hooe for no tentacles.

Going to see some fireworks. Will be running through the day Monday and Tuesday.

>>2697481
Happy Canada Day!

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General Rna reports that morale among the infantry has improved since the acquisition of the Mercenary. With the General's preference for armored warfare there hasn't always been enough time to focus on infantry combat aspects that are sorely needed in some situations. The Army should now be better prepared for any eventualities.

You ask if the special forces branches would benefit from experience assisting Baron Drake with operations in her region. They're always facing threats, even if the media is suppressing just how bad things can get there.

Rna recommends rotating no more than 10% of our special forces through the Baron's territory at any given time. Sending more might help Drake quite a bit but could also weaken Rioja's available forces.

How much help did you want to send Drake?

[ ] 5%
[ ] 7%
[ ] 10%
[ ] 12%
[ ] 15%

>>2698754
>[ ] 10%
Help Drake and still keep our own territories fairly safe. If nothing else we can always recall them later. It will also be good for their experience.

>>2698754
> [ ] 15% for one month then 8%

Let's hit them hard enough to be able to tip the balance at first and then pull back.

We'll see if we get any more votes later.

>>2698805

Supporting this

>>2698805
>>2698842
Eh. May as well go with it to move things along.

>>2698805
>>2698842
OR we'll go with that.

An assault transport and small escort are dispatched to Drake's territories. She's glad for the support and will do what she can to make sure they don't get killed in some rookie level ambush. Hopefully those returning from the early deployment will give subsequent units some more warning and experience. Though really a month isn't very long for something like this.

With the Neeran Armada continuing to cut a swath through Shallan space you've been going over options that might give them a chance to turnt he tide. Specifically superweapons. The most simplistic one you've come up with would be to use magnetic ram scoops to trigger a coronal mass ejection from a star. Planetary shields are frequently used to deal with such events but if a sufficiently large one could be focused it could do some damage to a fleet.

The basic idea is sent to the Shallan Ambassador to be looked over. Hopefully they'll pass it along. An option to use gravity well generators for star lifting and focusing of the flare is sent to the Alliance for consideration. They're the most likely to have the resources to consider such an option right now. Especially if they no longer need all of their gravwell generators out in the Crystal Sea.

By the time Winifred reaches the Pandora cluster and links up with Forbearance things are getting desperate. Key Shallan inner colonies and fortress worlds that withstood fighting early in the war are being taken out. The PCCG and the SRL have agreed to send the large SRL mercenary fleet stationed in the Pandora Cluster to help. They're now fully upgraded with mass driver siege turrets nearly on par with the older Scrap cannons.

The Alliance has urged the Shallan state to resume media broadcasts, even if they're tightly controlled propaganda pieces. For the moment most of the stories coming through are about successful evacuations and delaying actions. Eventually word does come through of some victories.

By the sounds of it (and your intel reports) an Alliance fleet managed to lure an advance force into a close orbit of a star while retreating. During the Alliance's breakaway maneuver the Neeran fleet were side swiped by a coronal mass ejection. It didn't completely destroy them, but it did leave the survivors weakened or crippled enough for the Alliance forces to turn and finish them off.

This hasn't done much to the main Neeran Armada, though it may have slowed future attempts to pursue Alliance fleets. That may give them time to mass a suitably large force to counterattack.

>>2698866

I'm excited to see how well these mass drivers do against Neeran.

At the next days meeting you notice that Vanderwal seems concerned about something.

"What is it?"
"The Guild is moving assets around. More than I would have expected even given this offensive. I don't know what they're up to but it's unusual."
"Getting ready for a worst case scenario?" you wonder.

"Maybe. They're trying to be subtle about it. I've only noticed it because of the amount of trade passing through the Run and the temporary storage rental facilities. I don't have anyone with the security clearance necessary to get a real idea of what's going on. Not without breaking the law and endangering your salvage contract with the Guild."

You're certainly reluctant to endanger that contract what with the new salvage ship ready to go.

"Your friend miss Travers, she has a very high security clearance with the guild and she hasn't officially been hired by your company yet. She could potentially find out what's going on. With her recent penchant for staying under the radar it would help to isolate us if anything went wrong."

"What if she's caught?" The last thing you want is her getting in trouble.
"Some jail time and fines at worst, or if we're lucky she'll just be kicked out of the guild. "

[ ] We're not endangering that contract
[ ] Ask Linda to look into it
[ ] Risk using Vanterwal's agents
[ ] Risk using Recon teams

>>2698895
>[ ] Ask Linda to look into it
but don't press it if she refuses

>>2698866
To think the main thing to undo the Shallans would be a doomstack. Amazing.

Meanwhile in Neeran Space
"Wait, it's actually working and is about to break them when years of combat could not? Why didn't we do this to begin with!?"

>[ ] We're not endangering that contract
I don't want to risk Lindas reputation OR our upcoming salvage contract.

>>2698895

I'd rather pay a premium to a certain group of information brokers we know to find out this sort of thing.

>>2698895

>[ ] Ask Linda to look into it

If something is coming this way or something happening that has the guild scared. Then we need to know billions of lives could be at risk. Not only on Rioja, but also for the entire run. If she needs help we can habe Vanderwall give her the simplest of tasks. And all our support to reduce whatever consequences happen to her.

>[ ]Other
We have the use of favors back with the Rovinar, right? Could we ask them to do it in exchange we will do something for them.

>>2698926
That might be possible, but they're primarily based in South Reach while the information needed for collection is passing through the Run and DRH 1 Relay. Then again there might be similar actions taking place in South Reach as well.

>>2698933
>We have the use of favors back with the Rovinar, right? Could we ask them to do it in exchange we will do something for them.
Well you can ask. Do this?