>>40856748
FOR HOUSE AND DOMINION

Linda is happy that your lawyers are making sure she's getting a good deal with her contract renegotiation. Also that some financial consultants are putting limits on how much money she can burn through all at once. She's still terribly embarrased about that.
As far as everyone is concerned she's fulfilled her quota of dangerous missions. Which also means the medics will be able to take her off the tranquilizers in a couple of days.

Your PR department would like you to comment on a few issues so that they can get their teams working on positive spin. The fleet has after all just finished major combat operations for this deployment by the looks of things.

Topics the PR team need statements on are; the Campaign so far, Acquisitions secured for the House (the ones you can talk about), Alex commanding the fleet while you're away, and any general political statements.

While you and they are aware that the last one is a potential minefield people are going to want you to make your position on certain things known more publicly. The war effort alone should be a big one but other topics would be appreciated.

>What say?

>>40856887
>The campaign so far
A great success for the House, alliance and the other involved factions. The Neerans made a play at Dominion territories and we showed them just why that was a bad idea when we sent them running with their tail between their legs.

>Acquisitions secured for the House
While we can't comment on just what exactly the House has captured yet it is safe to say that it is the single largest haul of captured and salvaged ships, that we brought home with us, since the capture of the Forbearance and should be of great benefit in the future.

>Alex commanding the fleet while you're away
The House grows and so does it's need for good commanders, Alex and Daska are two such people. Both whom have proven themselves loyal to the House and good at what they are doing.

>and any general political statements.
No comments unless they ask something specific.

Also House and mofo Dominion aww yis.

>>40856887
>Campaign so far
It's been bloody for both sides, really. With every push they make we're holding them back more and more though, and they're gaining less ground every time. I wouldn't be surprised if we went on the offensive soon.

>Acquisitions secured for the House (the ones you can talk about)
We've acquired many things in our most recent campaign to strengthen the House? Not too sure on this one.

>Alex commanding the fleet while you're away
If we want to grow as a house, we'll need more than just one person capable of leading a fleet. Giving others the opportunities to prove themself in a command position means we'll have the people to crew the ships as they roll off the production line.

>General political statements.
Kill all Neeran, etc etc. Staying in the war is our only option for a free Dominion.

>>40857072
>>40857161
Writing.

When you arrive at the Alliance R&D bases which ones do you want to look into?
[ ] Veckron Weapons / artifact focusing system to amplify energy input
[ ] Neeran biological fusion reactor organ / reactor diagrams provided to Alliance
[ ] Reverse engineering of Warlord artificial wormhole

Select at most 2, and quote which ones you want to investigate. Posts voting for all don't count towards any of them.

>>40857414
[X] Veckron Weapons / artifact focusing system to amplify energy input
Vecause I do not like the way this specific thing is heading and we should probably stop it.

[X] Neeran biological fusion reactor organ / reactor diagrams provided to Alliance
Because I want Sonia to have her own some day and god dammit we're doing it.

>>40857414
>[x] Neeran biological fusion reactor organ / reactor diagrams provided to Alliance
MORE POWER


>[x] Reverse engineering of Warlord artificial wormhole
Basically this thing can drop us at the other end of Neeran space to start a rebellion movement.

>>40857414
[ ] Reverse engineering of Warlord artificial wormhole
[ ] Veckron Weapons / artifact focusing system to amplify energy input

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"I believe this latest campaign has been a great success for the House, as well as the Alliance and the other involved factions. The Neeran made a play at Dominion territories and we've shown them just why that was a bad idea when we sent them running with their tail between their legs.

You admit that while it has been bloody for both sides, but with every push they make we're holding them back more and more. They're gaining less ground every time. I wouldn't be surprised if we went on the offensive soon."

"We'll be sure to spin this so that it doesn't look like you're downplaying the civilian casualties too much."

"We've acquired many things in our most recent campaign to strengthen the House. We can't comment on specifics yet due to security concerns but it's not just money. I believe it is safe to say that it is the single largest haul of salvaged ships we've brought home since the capture of Forbearance. All of this should be of great benefit to the House in the future."

"I think you'll be getting people's interest with that sir."

"If we want to grow as a House, we'll need more than just one person capable of leading a fleet. Giving others the opportunities to prove themselves in a command position means we'll have the people to crew the ships as they roll off the production line.
Alex Palaiologos and Daska Rna are two such people. Both whom have proven themselves loyal to the House and are good at what they are doing."

"That's good sir, maybe add a bit about why Captain Rna isn't the one in command?"
You record a few extra lines mentioning Daska's previous fleet command at your recommendation.

>general political statements
"Staying in the war is our only option for a free Dominion."

"About the kill all Neeran part sir, some PR teams are going the while "Evil Empire" route, did you want to suggest something similar? Any kind of personal differentiation between them and the Isolationists? Or just forget it?"

did we just get to be the first (only?) j-d person to order a Vtorp strike under our own command?

>>40857072
I like these.

Just need to mention that we've secured some key equipment for the House's continued growth without specifics.

Let our enemies use their spy networks to find out what we got. The FA must have some level of confidentiality agreement when it comes to dominion houses.

Politically it would be fun to play a wild card, especially since the House internal politics seem to mostly be fear mongering about Winifred. It would be kind of cool if we communicated with the Do'all council regularly, though. A new baron taking up a good communication and exchange with them could be good for the House. Especially a human Baron due to that whole power struggle worry

>>40857857
>some PR teams are going the while "Evil Empire" route, did you want to suggest something similar?
"You could go with the Empire being crazy, religious fundamentalists who are literally after tearing out the Isolationist's hearts. That's what they do, to power up. They've gotta each others hearts to get stronger, and they're like kleptomaniacs after any advanced technology."

>>40857973
"Also they go on religious pilgrimages and all that jazz."

>>40857857
Evil is such a strong word and could probably be applied to the Dominion in similar ways if we start throwing it around.

Perhaps we could go the route of corrupt and manipulative government since that's a bit closer to the truth. They are misleading their Neeran civilians and all their client races.

The holy war route could also work.

>>40857965
>did we just get to be the first (only?) j-d person to order a Vtorp strike under our own command?
It does look that way.

>>40857973
"I'll have to check how much of that we're allowed through our censorship."

>>40858026
"We'll see if we can fit that in sir."

>>40858049
>Perhaps we could go the route of corrupt and manipulative government since that's a bit closer to the truth. They are misleading their Neeran civilians and all their client races.
>The holy war route could also work.

Your PR people would like to know if you want to go the route of claiming the enemy are misleading their public, or from a religious/holy war.

"Keep in mind sir, we haven't seen many other claims of religious motivation among what other Faction PR firms are claiming. You wouldn't be the first but you would be the highest ranked to do so."

>>40858310
>route of claiming the enemy are misleading their public, or from a religious/holy war.
It's more like a "do what we say or we'll glass your planets route." I think?

surveymonkey com /r/ JJ3SWT6
Since we're squarely stuck at an even number of votes this is going up.

>>40858360
So is that your political message/statement to the public?

[ ] The Neeran are on a holy war
[ ] They're misleading their public
[ ] They're threatening their public into submission
[ ] Maybe hold off on additional statements for now.

>>40858608
[ ] Maybe hold off on additional statements for now.
Y'know after a successful campaign maybe its best to just go along with the official opinion and not make an ass of ourselves.

>>40858608
>[X] Maybe hold off on additional statements for now.

I have no idea if I'll be able to post more today, so I'll just dump this:

>Mission payment
Split the remaining 10 million between the wing and the people participating in the mission.
1 million S goes to the wing, the rest is split between those who were on the ship with us. Sonia doesn't really need the money and it might help these people to start their own fortunes.

Sonia herself should take the production license for GX toprs and the level 4 upgrade as payment. At 130 million it's still much less than usually expected of a knight doing this kind of mission and both a basically licenses to print money.

>Evacuating Shallan designers
I think we should go with the FA option here. While it's tempting to gain semi-exclusive access to Shallan ship designs, the FA will likely be able to evacuate all relevant people before the Neeran can get them, and keeping those guys out of the enemy's hands is probably more important than getting them for House J-D.
We'll be able to get licenses from the FA anyway.

>Other
I'd like to suggest we investigate if a production line for carriers at light cruiser size or smaller would be profitable and feasible. What models are available for licensing?

>>40858608
[ ] Maybe hold off on additional statements for now.

>>40858608
[x] hold off

At some point, we should come up with a non-classified PR campaign for Svidur. A look at how 'our' Neeran act

Looks like you'll hold off for now.

>>40858771
>Split the remaining 10 million between the wing and the people participating in the mission.
What wing? You have 8 attack wings none of which participated in the mission to the station. That was just 1 ship.

>>40858771
>I'd like to suggest we investigate if a production line for carriers at light cruiser size or smaller would be profitable and feasible. What models are available for licensing?
Alliance Escort Carriers are a standardized design. The House has a few of them. They're quite fast and durable and can mount powerful ECM/ECCM systems.

>Mission payment
>Evacuating Shallan designers
Some of this is going to need confirmation. Will be discussed later.

The Alliance believes they've tallied most of the equipment stolen during the attacks near the Centri cluster.
Veckron and SP Torpedoes were along those taken. A few examples of Heavy Torpedoes used in some models of Fast Battleships were captured. Attempts were made to secure newer conventional torps and plasma based fusion missiles and warheads.

Aries and Iratar built starfighter drones were taken from raided holding yards. Aries is furious about this as they only recently got their drones working right.

An older Factions Alliance sleeper ship is believed to have been taken when a Terran R&D facility was destroyed.

Cloning equipment was confirmed to have been taken from House Urtanim. Some of their researchers may also have been kidnapped. It's hard to be certain as things got a bit messy after you left.

Power armor stockpiles and a few museums were attacked by landing teams. The two don't appear to be related to you but Alliance intel claims they are. Apparently one museum has a suit of something called Kavarian Bioform Armor. Apparently it was used in the first Human Kavarian war and was made illegal after the Dominion conquered the Kavarian territories for fear of rebels using it. There is very little data on it as a result.

>>40859311
Is everyone but us incompetent at defending their shit? We might as well just surrender at this rate when all of our advantages are just getting sucked up by the Neeran whenever they feel like it.

>>40859497
>Is everyone but us incompetent at defending their shit?
You want a super heavy + escort thrown a Rioja to test that theory? It does sound fun.

Your Excalibur drops out of FTL in the local Relays and you send out secure messages to see about setting up your appointments.

>Neeran biological fusion reactor organ / reactor diagrams provided to Alliance
>Reverse engineering of Warlord artificial wormhole

The first will be easier to get you in since you've contributed to the project. The latter will take some wrangling but you should be able to get in.

Now that you're here it's time you decided what to do about your Plasma Pistol. Do you continue into Republic space or have it shipped from here? Going into the Republic will add 2 weeks, even with the faster ship. From here you can get secure communications to the Republic and give them some warning you're coming and what options might be available for you.

[ ] Head into the Republic now
[ ] Plan out shipping

>>40859610
Can we see if the base we're visiting has a really fast FTL ship we can borrow for a few days to make the trip to republic space even faster?

[x] Head into Republic now

>>40859610
[ ] Plan out shipping
We aint got the time to go there personally. Need to head home asap for that promotion and parade before people start to wonder where we are. Also aint nice to make 200 000 people wait for us at Nav Tac3 while we go to a workshop with our gun.

>>40859311
>That was just 1 ship.
I meant we should add 1 million to the pot that's split between everybody who was on the fleet. If that is a thing, just replace "wing" with "fleet".

>There is very little data on it as a result.
Is the FA going to investigate that armor now?

>Republic
Can we go there when have our 6 months?

>>40859610
[ ] Plan out shipping
Let's move it, time is short.

>>40859610
[x] shipping

We'll just have to head to republic space on our own leave to pick it up and talk with technicians about anything, or send a note along with it.

Actually, we should see if someone from our construction deal in Republic space can courier it?

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>>40859889
Oh, for the rest of the fleet. Yes?
>Is the FA going to investigate that armor now?
Almost certainly.
>Can we go there when have our 6 months?
Sure.

3 for shipping. 1 for side trip.

You manage to get hold of the engineering team that scanned your pistol years ago. They're understandably less than pleased that you broke your pistol but they do have some options.

"We're not supposed to be handing these out but as you already have one getting repairs or replacement will be easier. It's really a question of how long you can afford to wait.

The fastest option would be to trade in your weapon for a Mark 4. That model was designed for use with power armor so it's bulkier, heavier, and is known to have some overheat problems. It is very tough. We could have that to you in a month or two.

Repairing your existing pistol and getting a few replacement parts together will take a few months since its a discontinued weapon.

Or you could wait longer and get a newer model in eight months or more. The Mark 5 has most of the features of your old pistol but also has a stun function. Some people don't like the look of the elongated barrel on it. I suppose if you're really determined to wait the Mark 6 is supposed to have a number of new features but there's no telling how long it could be delayed."

[ ] Replacement sooner
[ ] Repair
[ ] Wait for a newer version

>>40860753
>[ ] Repair

>>40860753
>[ ] Repair
[ ] Wait for a newer version

Send it to be repaired. Eagerly await the Mark 6 pistol like a twelve year old waiting for the release of the next CoD game.

>>40860753
>[x] Repair
>[x] Also buy the Mark 6

>>40860753
[ ] Repair
Place an order for the new one as well.

>>40860753
[x] Repair

Any chance we can negotiate to invest in the company to get a few of the newer pistols for Valeri and Rufaro, and a contract to get spare parts for the guns while serving the FA?

It would be a nice diversification if we could secure some shares, and IIRC we partnered with a Hune for republic politics reasons on that construction company. It could all go through that company if need be?

>>40860753
>[X] Repair

Now if we could maybe place an order for the Mark 6 when it comes out I would be ecstatic.

>>40857857
Typing from work addition:
Ultimatly, the only choice for all factions and houses is to support the war effort. Should the Alliance lose, any faction which stayed out of the war will be helpless against the Neraan should they chose to expqnd. If in the far more likely event that the alliance wins, those that fought the war will remember those that stood idlely by.

>>40860753
>[X] Repair
And buy some of the new ones as well if possible.

>Yes?
Yes, please.

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>>40860807
>>40860935
>>40860990
They're not selling plasma pistols, though they are increasingly under pressure from Dominion nobles to do so. If you want a newer model you'll need to trade in your older one. Or take back the one you gave Ecord and trade it in.

There is a black market for them. Most of those produced so far are the Mark 4. Which more or less looks like a space marine plasma pistol.

There has been more serious talk of selling some directly to the Alliance for use by their special forces under condition that they stay in Alliance use. They really don't want the other Factions getting large numbers of them.

>>40861146
>If you want a newer model you'll need to trade in your older one

The team working on these must be retarded.
>We'll give you a newer one which is effectively a poor copy of the really nice one you have, if you give us the really nice one.

I mean, come on. I wanted to buy one for Bekka but fuck these clowns. Let's just go find the dudes in charge of the Dominion plasma program, give them the scans of our pistol and buy from them instead.

>>40861239
You realise they don't have to do you the favour of repairing or replacing it right? As far as their government is concerned you shouldn't even have it. You are an exception not the rule.

>I mean, come on. I wanted to buy one for Bekka
How is Bekka any different from a hundred thousand other people that want to buy one from the Republic's point of view?


Your ship drops out of FTL at the coordinates given to you by R&D. For a few minutes you thought you were going to end up at Avalon Prime, the site of the Warlord orbital bombardment but instead you end up nearly 100 lightyears away.

The Glaston colony was also hit hard in the raids, but didn't suffer as much in the way of overall destruction. It does look like most of the planet has been abandoned save for a larger city on the opposite side of the planet from where you're being directed. Older model mass driver platforms occupy a mid level orbital path. Probably equipped with SP Torpedoes. A trio of platforms in geosyncronous orbit look like they might be disguised Heavy Plasma Cannons but it's hard to be sure.

Once in a parking orbit away from anything sensitive a shuttle approaches from the surface.

"General Reynard, you'll need to submit to a full series of screening tests before being allowed inside the facility. We would also prefer it if you restricted any carried weapons to a pulse pistol. an shot down non essential functions on your cybernetics."

>Do you comply with these restrictions Y/N?

>>40861795
Yes to all of that, but we are bringing power armored bodyguards.

>>40861968
Seconded.

>>40861795
"These sound like fair restrictions."

The Hune Lieutenant glances back to the shuttle nervously.
"Sir, you're free to bring bodyguards but is power armor absolutely necessary? If so we'll need to ask that they shut down all external sensors and mission recorders to help preserve base security. There are also certain sections they will not be allowed inside because of the damage a micro fusion plant can cause if detonated."

"Are you saying you're worried my bodyguards might act as suicide bombers?"

"It's a potential threat sir. Power Cell armor would be allowed if following the previously mentioned restrictions."

>Your orders?

>>40862165
"Very well.

>>40862165
Power Cell armor it is.

>>40862165
I am fine with them just having Power Cell Armor and following the mentioned restrictions.

>>40862165
>>Your orders?

"Of course. Please forgive me for being so cautious but I was present at a ball in Lat'tham when they attempted their coup"

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Your bodyguards switch to Power Cell armor. It will do for now but keeping sensors off will limit them.

Once you're away you ask about additional security precautions. You've seen enough resources fall into enemy hands lately.

"For external defense we have multiple planetary shield generators, ground based phase cannons, missiles and point defense capable of holding off a Neeran heavy cruiser by itself.
Inside the base are energized security containment force fields, stasis traps and plasma barriers.
There is also a garrison equipped with the latest weaponry which are drilled constantly. A self destruct system is in place to prevent research from falling into enemy hands."

"No internal defenses like sentry guns?"
"They were deemed too high a risk of being subverted by Neeran and Faction intrusion experts. They along with drones could potentially be used to kill the research teams."

As the shuttle enters the atmosphere you begin to notice that the section of the planet the base is located in is nearly devoid of life. When you ask about it you're informed that the ground based Phase cannon are tested occasionally. That would mean they're effectively setting off nukes every time they're fired with the atmospheric shock waves they would produce. The shielding must be good.

Closer down you pick out lines surrounding the base. "What is that?"
"A security field projector. A Rovinar team designed it using Kavarian terraforming shields. It doubles as a quarantine measure."

After landing a quick scanning process is enough to verify each of you, then the entire groups heads inside.
You're not quite sure what you expected but you're a little bit surprised when the head of the facility shows up to see you out of the dock.

"Welcome General, I'm Director Myranda Nagarkar. I hope you'll find everything is in order here. Please." The somewhat short Human woman leads the way through sealed and connected container blocks and soon you're headed deep underground.

"I understand we have you to thank for quite a few of our samples, not to mention other very helpful datapoints."

Getting off the lift each of you take turns passing through a decontamination field then head deeper inside. Looking through a few of the armored windows you pass you're able to make out diagrams of what look to be the Neeran nervous system.
One of the larger rooms has a holgraphic display of the same structures scaled up several times. People from every Faction species seem to be present working here. You think you spotted a Nai scientist equipped with perhaps ten or more cybernetic limbs working away at multiple monitors.

You also see Neeran corpses, or pieces of them. Some in stasis, others being worked on. The farther inside you go the more things seemed to be focused on the curious energy generation organ.

"This is actually one of the main Bioengineering labs responsible for investigating the Neeran and the abilities." the Director informs you.
"Quite a bit of work is happening here, we're actually making good progress despite criticism from the Alliance that we're taking too long."

Down the hallway the bulky form of a Neeran steps out of an operating theater sporting little else but bandages and red arm bands.

[ ] Draw your pistol
[ ] Stare at it
[ ] Don't freak out unless the locals do

>>40863038
[ ] Draw your pistol
PANIC!

>>40863038
>[x] Don't freak out unless the locals do
When in Rome, I guess, or whatever House has the strangest customs going.

>>40863038
[ ] Don't freak out unless the locals do

>>40863038
[x] Hand on pistol
"You had better be testing the reanimation tech from the treaty incident."

>>40863038
>Hand on the holster.
Just to be sure.

>>40863038
>[ ] Don't freak out unless the locals do
Hand on pistol, though.

Did we give the blueprints for the Bioreactor to these guys?

Whoops post was corrupt or something. Give me a minute.

>>40864052
That is a topic of debate. The vote was not clear at the time. I would prefer to type up this section as though you had.
So, did you guys or not?

>>40864106
Sure, I just hope they remember that it is ours and we except to get shit from this.

>>40864106
I'll say that we did, but at first I remember we kept the bio-reactor blueprints to ourselves and the Baron's research division. I hope it's a bit further along thanks to our donation.

>>40864106
>So, did you guys or not?
Yeah, I'm okay with having them study the plans for the Reynard Bio Reactor TM C R

>>40864227
>but at first I remember we kept the bio-reactor blueprints to ourselves and the Baron's research division.
You did for awhile.

You rest your hand on the holster and prepare to draw at a moment's notice, all the while trying not to freak out.

"You had better be testing the reanimation tech from the treaty incident." You whisper to the Director.

"Oh, sorry no that's one of our Krath assistants. Any of the Imperials that have defected operate out of different bases and aren't allowed near anyone who knows details about what we're doing.
The Isolationists still want nothing to do with our work here because of the desecration of their dead. They don't have laws against it but it's the principle of the thing as I understand it."

Down the hall the "Neeran" waves then steps into another room.

"There are so many things we've been able to learn but we're still only scratching the surface I can tell."

"Any chance you can hook a human up to Neeran tech some time soon?"

"No, we're still a long ways out from that. Armor might be another option but that's not really our field. I couldn't tell you how long that might take."

"Where are we headed?"
"To take a look at your contribution, those- those diagrams, those metal plates they're really quite remarkable in terms of information stored. More than we initially thought."

>What do you want to ask about?

>>40864312
Are they born with these things?

>>40864312
What makes these bio reactors so special? I mean, they were talking about an entirely new line of reactors based on them, right?

Why and how does it make them so powerful?

>>40864312

How can the tech be made useful for us as functioning reactors for ships, industry and the like.

How important is the reactor the the Neeran body, can it survive without it?

If losing the reactor is dangerous to the Neeran body do they have a way of disabling it in the form of a weapon?

What do they except to make out of this knowledge and when are we getting a slice?

Almost forgot. Are they capable of cloning the reactors using either Dominion cloning tech or similar tech?

>>40864312
Tangentially related but I assume all their weapons and artifacts route all their power through this thing?

>that pain when you forget everything you wanted to ask.

At last you arrive at a lab where what you can only describe as an array of scanning devices are taking readings of the plates you'd transferred to the Alliance.

In a nearby room is what looks like a fabricator building a greatly scaled up copy.

"As you can see we're trying to duplicate them so that we can send a copy to another lab, but our fabrication systems aren't nearly precise enough.
Things really get interesting below 100 nanometers. It makes me wish I'd spent more time on sciences outside of purely medical. I'm sure you have questions General, ask away."


>>40864577
>Are they born with these things?
"The reactor organ? Oh yes."

She calls up a display then impatiently pages through scans before pointing to an less developed example.
"Much like many humanoid species are far from fully developed in many way when we're born it's the same with them. It needs time to mature and to grow with the individual."

>>40864589
>What makes these bio reactors so special? I mean, they were talking about an entirely new line of reactors based on them, right?
"When we build a reactor like for the power armor your guards wanted to bring, it has a fixed output. Yes we can throttle it but the maximum doesn't go up. I'm not being literal here but these are like muscles, you need to exercise to get stronger. We haven't mapped the theoretical upper limits yet but I believe growth rate and output could be affected by diet."

>Why and how does it make them so powerful?
"The- their nervous system, or part of it, is capable of harnessing tremendous amounts of electrical energy. Enough to-to- to do a great many things physically that wouldn't normally be feasible."

You have to tell the Director to calm down, she's excited enough it's causing her to stutter at times.

"Given time they can harness... forge new extensions of their bodies, probably by manipulating eddy currents. It has to do with some of the overly complex parts of their upper brain. The ability to harden their skin into an armor for instance, reinforcing the structure. It takes a great deal of power but you've seen the type of weapon hits it can shrug off. We're still learning how they learn, that could be the hardest part but we're figuring out how things work."

>>40864609
>How can the tech be made useful for us as functioning reactors for ships, industry and the like.
"At the moment the armor has the most potential applications, it's why I mentioned it before. We can duplicate things like repulsors already but it means we can never really truly disarm them. Scanners and sensors could be useful but we're a lot way out from making progress there. I'm not sure the reactors would be of use for starships, but smaller craft aren't out of the question. Perhaps starfighters, they generally lack extra power from what I've heard.
Power armor reactors that didn't require weeks of maintenance for every day in use."

>How important is the reactor for the Neeran body, can it survive without it?
"Yes, they're born with it effectively being non-functional, though I don't know what kind of psychoses would result. It would have to be tremendously traumatising to them."

>If losing the reactor is dangerous to the Neeran body do they have a way of disabling it in the form of a weapon?
Dr Nagarkar thinks for a moment. "I cant think of anything off the top of my head that wouldn't kill the rest of the body. They're quite resilient."

>What do they except to make out of this knowledge and when are we getting a slice?
"Oh I'm sure it will take years more research but we're making real progress. These diagrams have cut months off for us in some places."
"You're sure there are no immediate field applications?"
"Trust me General, I get that question all the time from the Alliance upper levels. If we were to go any faster serious mistakes would begin to crop up in our work. I'll pass on a request that you be notified about advances if they get closer to practical application. For now it's baby steps."

>Almost forgot. Are they capable of cloning the reactors using either Dominion cloning tech or similar tech?
"Oh, goodness yes. There are problems however. Cloning these doesn't make them suddenly catch up on forty or eighty years of maturation. The only way they can mature is if they're linked to one of these."
She taps on your forehead with her index finger.
"Or a Neeran one. The brain has a tremendous effect on development. They need to train, grow, mature. It all takes time and possibly experience. We don't know how much yet but we know the Isolationists train differently and it makes them more powerful."

Compared to most of those from the Empire they all look like scrawny weaklings and you say as much.
"It could be mind over matter. Not many will talk to me so I can't say."

>>40864767
>Tangentially related but I assume all their weapons and artifacts route all their power through this thing?
"Some from what I've seen, but in other cases it's merely their nervous system acting as a conduit. It depends on what each one does."

>Anything else?

>>40866357
Well that's all my questions answered.

Thank her and move on. Oh, does she know any cryonics experts looking for work?

>>40866357
>The only way they can mature is if they're linked to one of these
Interesting. Can they not clone someone to try this out on? Hook it up to the clone and try to speed through the process to get the desired result. Or perhaps just clone a brain and hook it up to the reactor to create similar results. And oh my god this sounds very morbid when i type it out.

Anyways, no further questions. Just wait until we can get those reactors for our power armor and potential starfighters.

>>40865857
>As you can see we're trying to duplicate them so that we can send a copy to another lab
Can't they just scan the plate in its entirety and then send all the data along via a suitcase or something? A bit oldschool but it'd be easier thank making some horrendously complex data plate.

>>40866357
You know how tasers cause involuntary muscle spasms

And there's those prototype Harmonic stomach dischargers that fuck up your stomach muscles

If this thing is like a muscle, is there a precision weapon that could fuck it up?

>>40866357
Can we share any newly encountered Neeran tricks from the Majestic combat? Our power armor being grabbed might give interesting data for them.

... Or we could show them the artifact?

Or simply get a list of questions to try and bring up for when we next meet Neeran?

... Wait, does that mean that the commandos that sacked the isolationist super now have super powerful reactors and lots of them?

>>40866357
Can they eat a bigger reactor to upgrade their own?

>>40866357
>>Anything else?
Any chance of making these reactors compatible with other species?

>>40866357
>>Anything else?
Do they need an actual

>one of these."
>She taps on your forehead with her index finger.
>"Or a Neeran one. The brain has a tremendous effect on development.
Could an AI do it?

>>40867125
posting from my phone is fun
Do they need an actual brain to influence the reactor's development, or could an AI do it as well?

>>40866686
"We only have dead people here. What you're suggesting requires cloning a volunteer and copying their engrams over. None of the isolationists have volunteered so far and we're reluctant to ask the defectors.
Then we'd have a barely trustworthy clone employee trying their hardest to get stronger. The idea of that is less than thrilling to most of my staff. I'm sure some of the other teams are trying to find a solution."

>>40866693
"Shh- don't tell anyone." She jokes.
"But yes, we've backed up scans elsewhere. They're not nearly as high resolution as I would like though. Really I like the idea of having a physical copy in case you want the original back and our systems are wiped by a spy. Nothing short of a nuclear warhead will break this. It also lets me indulge my model making hobby."

>>40866750
>You know how tasers cause involuntary muscle spasms
>prototype Harmonic stomach dischargers that fuck up your stomach muscles
>If this thing is like a muscle, is there a precision weapon that could fuck it up?
"I was only using muscles as an example of something you strengthen with use. Still I suppose it couldn't hurt to try."
She rolls her eyes. "I'm sure our Krath personnel will be thrilled with the idea."

>>40866929
"No, but taking one from another Neeran and integrating it into their bodies is very possible. From reports it seems to take time to gain full use over the new implants. A few weeks maybe. Those commandos the special forces fought implanted dozens in order to gain a short term advantage."

"Any chance of making these reactors compatible with other species?" you continue to press.

"Not without changing the hard wiring of said species and that's the sort of mad science I did not sign up for."
"You're hacking up Neeran by the hundred here Doc."
"Who were brought in already dead may I remind you. You're talking about live experiments."

>>40867151
"It's their brain and the way it operates. I'm not sure if we could match it with an AI."

>>40866779
>Or simply get a list of questions to try and bring up for when we next meet Neeran?
"I'll compile a list but I'm not sure many of them would be willing to answer the sort of questions we ask here."
>... Wait, does that mean that the commandos that sacked the isolationist super now have super powerful reactors and lots of them?
Probably. Though if they were smart they would have given some to their friends, relatives or allies.

>Can we share any newly encountered Neeran tricks from the Majestic combat? Our power armor being grabbed might give interesting data for them.
You can have the ship send it via tightbeam.

>... Or we could show them the artifact?
You can if you want. Do so? Or did you want to see about showing it to one of the Krath on base?

Okay no more comments or orders looks like.

"Thank you for answering all of my questions Director. If you need anything like say samples, or small but immediate funding boosts let me know."

After a few more scans than you were subjected to on the way in you're able to get back on the shuttle and head back up to your ship.

It's another day before you're able to the next set of scheduled coordinates for the next project you're looking into. While you're waiting a reminder alarm goes off on your com.

It's a reminder that a perfectly salvageable K-type Attack Cruiser is now far enough from a navigation hazard that it could be recovered without incident. It's the one you found while looking for the Vieona. You could send RSS out to pick it up if you wanted or save the info for a rainy day.
If there was ever a down turn in your fortune it might be handy to know where to find a ship in good condition. Then again it might be better to pick it up now and fix it if you plan on using it later.

[ ] Salvage it now
[ ] Save it for a rainy day
[ ] Salvage then stash somewhere it won't be found
[ ] Other

>>40868333
>[X] Save it for a rainy day

Or we could use it as a discrete way to pay somebody if we ever need to.

>>40868333
>[ ] Salvage then stash somewhere it won't be found

>>40868333
>[ ] Salvage then stash somewhere it won't be found

>>40868333
>[x] Salvage then stash somewhere it won't be found

DEEP SPACE BACKUP SHIP

RSS can conduct all kinds of savage economic and salvage experiments onboard it. Ones too radical for any normal domain.

>>40867500
>Or did you want to see about showing it to one of the Krath on base?
I was sort of hoping we could talk to Eldal about it, but I missed this vote.

>>40868548
You can still contact him. Could be a bit until you see him and he was not at that base.

>>40868516
Looks like a team is going to head out and recover it. The yards will probably benefit from the work. It looked like things might slow down but with all of the temporary infighting between the Warlords there was a surge of business again. Now it looks like things might be slowing down around Surakeh for good.

With the construction of the station ongoing and Logistics adding the occasional freighter there is still work to go around for the company.

Did you want the ship stashed somewhere closer to the territories in South Reach or the Run? It would be difficult to do around the House homeworlds.

And did you want it repaired back up to Iratar specs, or upgraded to the level current House EC-K's are built at?

>RSS can conduct all kinds of savage economic and salvage experiments onboard it. Ones too radical for any normal domain.
You lost me.

>>40869022
[x] House EC-K

>>40869022
House EX-K

>>40869022
[X] House EC-K

I would say stash it someone closer to the Smuggler's Run since we do have our eyes on that one planet for when we become Baron.

>>40869022
>Upgrade
Stash it near the Run. We could always sell it to Winifred for some quick cash.

You have a backup in case of an emergency. Even with your wealth having a starship vs not can be a big deal.

Onward to the next project area. It looks like it's not located within any star systems, just a gap, but still close enough to the relay.

You drop out five lightyears from your destination.
"What's wrong?"
"Alliance security cordon sir. There are navigation beacons warning us to drop out of FTL or risk triggering hazardous phenomena."

You're contacted shortly after and informed that the local base is aware of your approach and will be sending a ship to take aboard you and your party.

Five minutes later an Aries Fast Battleship jumps in and signals that they're ready to pick you up.

>Take the same team and equipment as last time? Y/N?
If no, what are you taking with you?

>>40869678
Y/N?
Yes. An additional FTL signal beacon could prove useful.

>>40869678
Yes.

>>40869678
Assuming we're in Devourer can't we just follow them? It's not like we can't, since Devourer is pretty much top of the line.

>>40869875
Probably for the same reason why we dropped out of FTL in the first place.

>>40869678
Yes.

>>40869875
You're in your upgraded Excalibur as it would cut around a week off your travel time. Or however much I calculated last time.

Going aboard you're checked then informed that it should be a short flight and to wait in the bay. A short jump later and you're shuttled over to one of several platforms in the area. A Kavarian by the name of Ekkis Knim meets with you a minute later and welcomes you aboard.

"Finally came to see it did you?" he asks.

He seems familiar but the Alliance uniform might be throwing you off.
"Have we met?"

"No, I used to work with the South Reach Pirates helping with their wormhole. I'm happy to meet anyone who decided to follow orders and not get me killed in that awful stand off. Come on, we have a very well set up observation deck here."

You're shown to a different level with wide observation ports. It offers a good view of the area. Plenty of seating and displays that can be called up for magnification.

What must be several hundred kilometers away you can see a ring shaped construct. Some sections stick out of it larger than others but otherwise the interior looks perfectly circular. Or near to it from your angle.

You tap the transparent material of the view port. "Are we safe here?"
"Absolutely. Plenty of radiation shielding, and the platforms shields will activate before anything harmful reaches us here. Unfortunately we don't have a test scheduled today but we're set up for it once everything is fixed and it begins regular use."

"Fixed?"

"The wormhole generator that the warlords had worked, it just had some slight problems you may have been aware of."
It was too small if you recall correctly. It's been awhile but that sticks out in your mind.

>>40870595
Even though they were pirates they really did have their shit together considering they were able to build this thing. Not to mention that really advanced starfighter too.

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"It's based off the same kind of technology our emergency teleporters are. It exploits sub-atomic wormholes, finding or creating one that's going were we want to, then forcing them open. But emergency teleporters cut things a bit too close. They can be harmful to the occupants. A golf ball through a garden hose is I believe how one of the Terran scientists described it."
The officer laughs then continues.

"We cant do that with starships. It would be very bad for a number of reasons. Some of Vieona's crew and a few other Alliance sleeper personnel apparently worked on the Terra Nova's trans dimensional drive before the ship disappeared. They've been helping us out immensely. We now have the range and tunnel width to send nearly any Faction starship from here to anywhere in Faction territory in minutes."

"That's great news!" With this thing you could send a response fleet to intercept a Neeran offensive or strike behind their lines with impunity.

"Yes. It would be but we've hit something of a snag."

"Oh?"

"The wormhole still doesn't work exactly as planned."
"What? Is the recharge time take too long? Is it damaging to subspace?"

"It works, in fact it works a little too well in some regards. Tell me General, what do you know about multiverse theory?"

>What say?

>>40871052
Is it anything like in the movies?

>>40871052
"Are you saying you've made a device that can move to different forms of reality?"

"Why not head to a Universe where everything is more advanced and salvage some stuff?"

>>40871052
"Please do fill me in. This might be beyond me slightly."

>>40871052
Oh fuck me. Please don't tell me we are involving another verse.

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>>40871205
I suppose that would depend on what movies you watched.

>>40871351
"Please do fill me in. This might be beyond me slightly."
"Well specifically parallel universes, alternate timelines, things of that nature."
"Oh fuck me. Please don't tell me we are involving another verse or going to be time traveling or anything like that are we?"

"I certainly hope not! Testing has been delayed ever since we figured out something wasn't quite right. We're getting security procedures into place and doing checks to make certain we haven't done anything irreversible."

>>40871285
"Are you saying you've made a device that can move to different forms of reality?"
"We don't know all of the details yet. For now the situation is under control."

"Why not head to a Universe where everything is more advanced and salvage some stuff?"
"Apparently there are reasons, rules, possibly even laws that say it could be a very bad idea to do that sort of thing. It's being looked into.
Once the last of the defective Veckron weapons were dismantled and the Terra Nova had disappeared even the Terrans stopped working on technology along those lines.

For now the wormhole project has officially been delayed, but it is still an active project. Once it's working properly and the last few issues are resolved we'll be ready to help entire fleets deploy quickly to where they'll do the most good.
I'm sorry if things aren't quite at the level of readiness you were expecting."

>Any questions or suggestions for them?

>>40872041
>I'm sorry if things aren't quite at the level of readiness you were expecting.
"There's no need to apologise. To be honest, I was expecting a few other projects to be ready before this. So the current main delays are purely safety testing?"

"Could this drop something in unexplored space too?"

>>40872041
How small can they feasibly make these things?

Can we make more of them purely for weapons? These sound fuckign perfect as off-map artillery. Get a boarding team onboard a super, plant a beacon, fire the antimatter through the wormhole, boom.

>>40872283
>How small can they feasibly make these things?
>Can we make more of them purely for weapons?
"With the range and tonnage of objects we can project? This is strategic level. It's not easy to move equipment like this and set it up somewhere else.
Things don't scale appropriately for making a smaller wormhole. Here we can take our time and wait for capacitors to recharge. To go mobile you'd need the combined power output of a super heavy cruiser or two in order to move an object the size of a corvette."

"So it is possible is what you're saying?"

"I'm not sure if we'd have the accuracy to target a ship, even with things like beacons. Without another wormhole to lock onto it really wouldn't be worth the effort. You could target a planet maybe, but why would you want to blow up a planet? The Neeran may do it but it's not part of our rules of engagement."

>>40873540
See you guys in the morning. If you have any other questions please post them. We'll probably be heading back in the direction of the fleet and seeing Versa next.

bump

>>40873908
>Board

This is super interesting, thanks for running.

>>40873540
Can we use the device to bring things here, or is it only possible to send things away through it?

Does this use Neeran technology?

Would it be possible to return to original faction space using this thing? Or was that retconned?

>There is a black market for them. Most of those produced so far are the Mark 4
What's the black market price for them?

>>40873908
Can they lock on to Neeran teleport receiver pads?

How long does he estimate until they're put into use?

>>40863038
>You think you spotted a Nai scientist equipped with perhaps ten or more cybernetic limbs working away at multiple monitors

Can he use these through a neural interface, or were they added by an invasive procedure?

>>40856748

just learned that this was actually a quest (since it doesn't have quest in the title) and binge read the archive, haven't finished yet but gotta say, you got me hooked! been reading it for a week now and your setting is definitely one of the more detailed and interesting among quests and the writing is top notch, thanks QM!

An entire post got ate last night. Was supposed to be before this one:
>>40873540


>>40872137
"There's no need to apologise. To be honest, I was expecting a few other projects to be ready before this. So the current main delays are purely safety testing?"
"Yes, though I suppose you could also say it's partly morality testing." The Kavarian seems to be back to his jovial self.

"Could this drop something in unexplored space too?"
"I don't see why not. With our current problems we're also looking at a reversed or recovery mode. It would let us open the other end somewhere else and bring friendly units back. If we end up going into full operation before our problems are fixed then it may be essential.

There's no telling if we could end up with a universe collapsing paradox from having two of the same person in one timeline... That could have been made up for the movie I was watching though. It's not really my area of expertise."

>>40880197
The isolationist super had one of these to get the command ball out.

Did they get any useful data from that before it had to be returned? It fit inside their damned super

>>40878353
>Can we use the device to bring things here,?
Yes, or it will be able to in time. This question alerted me to the missing post.

>Does this use Neeran technology?
Partially. Some of the Warlord's device was based off incomplete Neeran tech.

>Would it be possible to return to original faction space using this thing? Or was that retconned?
Not retconned yet but not often mentioned in detail either.


>>40879478
>What's the black market price for them?
A lot. Since they're rare expect an ebay style bidding war.
One of them went above 100 million.

>>40879628
>Can they lock on to Neeran teleport receiver pads?
No, recieve pads are too small and while they're a similar technology the two are not always compatible.
>How long does he estimate until they're put into use?
"I doubt the Alliance Admiralty will put up with delays longer than another year before they ask us to start taking drastic steps. That doesn't mean all of our issues will be fixed by then."

>>40879751
>Nai
>Can he use these through a neural interface, or were they added by an invasive procedure?
The latter, they're cybernetic implants.

>>40879900
It wasn't really an issue until 2013. I tested adding quest to the title but most generally agreed it didnt fit right. As a compromise I put it in the OP where it would still show up for most filters.

>>40880283
>The isolationist super had one of these to get the command ball out.
"We know about that. It was closer to an emergency teleporter style device so there were limitations."
>Did they get any useful data from that before it had to be returned? It fit inside their damned super
"Some, not as much as from other sources but a bit. According to reports some Empire supers do have a wormhole generator but we haven't been able to recover one intact."

You sent Linda on a scanning mission to take readings of one. A Scorcher you believe.

>>40880434
The scorcher feeding from the ejection bit of a black hole?

Any chance that they've looked over that data and have an idea of where the systems for the worm hole generator are located?

>>40872041
>I certainly hope not! Testing has been delayed ever since we figured out something wasn't quite right. We're getting security procedures into place and doing checks to make certain we haven't done anything irreversible.
Would he be willing to expand on that?

Somehow I feel like this wormhole generator thing is going to backfire on us sooooo hard. Like the Neerans will hijack it and use it to drop a fleet straight into the system behind our lines and fuck us up royally.

>>40880809
We could always weaponize it, depending on what could happen if the wormhole is destabilized or something and work from there. Something like an emergency self destruct button or bomb.

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>>40880520
>The scorcher feeding from the ejection bit of a black hole?
It was actually the stream from the orbiting star.

>Any chance that they've looked over that data and have an idea of where the systems for the worm hole generator are located?
"It would be roughly analogous to where they were on the Isolationists City ship. Right in the middle."

>>40880653
>Would he be willing to expand on that?
"I don't know all of the details involved but I believe they're working on scanners to detect if someone or some thing we've brought back doesn't belong in our universe. Or if we don't belong in theirs? This is all well above my pay grade as they say."

Well it should make for some interesting possibilities. It's a shame you're not able to see the thing in action but perhaps you'll get the chance some day.

>>40880809
There are self destruct systems and defenses surrounding the wormhole generator. They can be used to repel attacks from within or without.

What's the minimum targetting size they could manage? I bet Neeran city ships are big enough to get Antimatter wormhole artillery'd.

>>40881065
See
>>40873540

Your party are once again scanned by security on the way out. A few more times than on the way in it seems and you notice a Hune officer wearing an odd uniform you're unfamiliar with. It looks like he's wearing a Republic Intelligence outfit but for the odd unit/ID patches.

Weird.

A shuttle flight and FTL jump later and you're soon heading back to your ship.

"How was the trip?" Asks Maybourne when you get to the bridge.

"Interesting. Informative. It really opened up some possibilities."

"Any that aren't classified?"
Not really it seems.

With your work here done it's back into FTL, heading for the Terran relays and main trade lanes. Your fleet has been busy, they've racked up some kills, captured a ship here and there. They've lost a couple corvettes, those Corsairs can pack a punch.

Casualties however remain low. It seems there will be quite a few less funerals this time around when your Expeditionary force returns home. The lack of large scale ground combat has also contributed to that.

Nearly two weeks of flight time later you've caught up with the fleet and make sure to let Alex know you shouldn't be much longer.

"Good, logistics is a pain in the ass."
"You need to delegate more Alex."
"That I'm aware of, but I like to remain informed up some aspects to keep it running smoothly."

You have a quick stop to see Versa then you'll be back with the fleet and in command again.

>>40881294
>It looks like he's wearing a Republic Intelligence outfit but for the odd unit/ID patches.

Oooh, let's find out which unit he's with.

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Unlike the other sites the approach to this one is much easier. Your ship is allowed to dock with a station and a team leads you into a secured section.

The Terrans are not thrilled with your presence at the base. Unlike some other facilities you've been at this one is only on temporary loan to the Alliance. You're informed that it's a Research facility dedicated to AI technology development. Or it was, you get the feeling it was being under used. There are signs it was only reactivated recently.

Your team is halted at a security checkpoint, prominent yellow and black lettering proclaims; NO WEAPONS OR COMS BEYOND THIS POINT.

"General, we're going to have to ask you to deactivate or remove your prosthetic. Your bodyguards are permitted inside but the same restrictions apply to them as well. No power armor. We can provide them unpowered marine grade body armor if you're... apprehensive."
The Terran officer was probably on the verge of calling you paranoid.

[ ] Comply with their safety procedures
[ ] Refuse / ask to talk to Versa by com from here
[ ] Denial, anger, bargaining, depression followed by acceptance
[ ] Other

>>40881555
[ ] Comply with their safety procedures
Nothing could possibly go wrong. I wonder what Versa has to share.

>>40881555
>[X] Comply with their safety procedures

>>40881555
>[x] Comply with their safety procedures
"At least let me keep my arm. Not even the Factions Alliance bases were this bad."

>>40881555
"Do you really have to make that sure I'm 'armless?"

>>40881555
We are so keeping the Arm.

They calling us paranoid? And wanting to remove our Arm?

Are they a bellend?

"Do you really have to make that sure I'm 'armless?
At least let me keep my arm. Not even the Factions Alliance bases were this bad."
The Veckron R&D base would have been worse.

"We'll still have to deactivate it so that it can't be brought back online easily by anything in the facility. Not that there is anything wrong with Versa but we don't take chances when new development is being undertaken. You don't want to be strangled by your own arm do you?"

You consider saying that with all of this worst case scenario planning bullshit you'd think the Neeran wouldn't have been able to steal nearly as much stuff in their offensive.

Despite your annoyance you comply with their precautions. After a minute's worth of checks they lead you in. Valeri has switched out to Marine armor to go with you.

Soon you're being led into a lab space filled with holo projectors and other equipment. Three of them are lit with projections of Versa's avatar. A scientist who introduces herself as Doctor Ríoghan Clayton has apparently been helping out with the project.

"Welcome General. It's good to see you again."
"It's been awhile Versa." You reply. "Is everyone treating you well?"

"You may not approve at times but I believe things are 'good enough' for now. I take it you remember our first meetings aboard the Loreto?"

It's kind of hard to forget even if that entire week was a blur.

"Of course, but why do you ask?"
"It's related to our project here. The Doctor and I have been working on an accelerated neural interface. It would allow a human much faster mental response times."

You've been thinking the same thing. "So drone pilots can remotely control their fighters more effectively right?"

Versa's Avatar shifts slightly as though the AI and the Doctor are trading glances.

"Not quite." replies Clayton.

"This is intended as a fleet command interface." Versa informs you.

>What say?

>>40882312
"Oh my, you have been busy haven't you?"

"At what level does the interface allow a user to command ships? Will it let them take control of each ship or just relay orders to command crews?"

>>40882312
"Are we talking about making entire drone fleets here full of Corvette Drones and the like? Because that sounds really unsafe if you ask me. Or is it more to assist fleet commanders in commanding their fleets?"

>>40882312
Is this safe? Everything project I've seen recently has always had some terribly unsafe component to it. It would be nice if this worked perfectly with no problems whatsoever.

>>40882312
>You may not approve at times but I believe things are 'good enough' for now

-Anything to improve that situation?
-What about the others from the Loreto?
-Why were people worried about something in here might try to kill Sonia with her own prosthetic.
>Interface
Impressive. How much information can a human brain handle and for how long? Any side effects? When do we get to play around with a prototype?

>>40882434
"Oh my, you have been busy haven't you?"
"I'm an AI, it's not like I haven't had time. The Terran Fleet wanted to remove me from more dangerous combat positions since creation of safe stable AI's takes too long to waste us. As they had not decided where I would be sent I came up with this plan."

"At what level does the interface allow a user to command ships? Will it let them take control of each ship or is it more to assist fleet commanders in commanding their fleets?"

"Fleet commanders would mostly be directing ships as normal but with greater speed and ppercision." Clayton explains. "In battle people can't respond quickly enough to rapid shifts, or warn elements of danger. Because we're accelerating the speed at which a fleet commander can perceive and send out orders, it lets a commander waste less time getting orders out and adjusting."

Versa speaks up. "In addition, predictive modelling should make up for any problems a human might have in making sense of the information once everything seem as though it has slowed down."

"Is this safe? Everything project I've seen recently has always had some terribly unsafe component to it."

Dr Clayton points to a display showing you're not sure what. "We don't know the long term effects yet as we've only just started. The good news is that we're effectively doing this via induced REM sleep similar to your experiences on the Loreto. In theory, it should have no harmful effects beyond those of staying in bed for too long. Remaining fit and in shape could become an issue."

>>40882534
>What about the others from the Loreto?
They were sent off years ago to different ships or locations as per agreements. They're doing work and remaining productive.

>>40882866
I'm assuming it requires an AI to work, though?

>>40882866
How far along is the project? Is it at a workable phase currently even though they've just started? When will this be available for use?

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>>40882534
>-Anything to improve that situation?
"Packing and unpacking an AI that requires as much space as I do is never a pleasant experience. I'll be fine."

>Why were people worried about something in here might try to kill Sonia with her own prosthetic.
"If or when interfacing with your brain I could potentially send signals that could hijack your cybernetics. What people often forget is that under certain security conditions I can turn off the safeties on the holographic projectors turning them into low powered laser and plasma emitters."

"Impressive. How much information can a human brain handle and for how long?"
"That's really up to the individual. You'll be able to customise your own input options as part of the setup, or add elements on the fly."

"When do we get to play around with a prototype?"
"Now if you want to. We have a number of short simulations set up."

"I'm assuming it requires an AI to work, though?"

Versa responds this time. "We are attempting to create a system that might not need an AI, but it is very likely one may still be required. If so a proposal will be submitted for a specialised AI series that would hopefully require less work to construct."

You can imagine more than a few Houses and the other Factions bitching about that.

>Do you want to test the system?
If so roll 1d100.

Rolled 45 (1d100)

>>40883278
Versa is my waifu.

Rolled 41 (1d100)

>>40883278
Fuck yeah let's do it.

Rolled 79 (1d100)

>>40883278
Yet again Versa proves why they are one of my favorite A.I.

Rolled 88 (1d100)

>>40883278
I was about to suggest that we pretend to choke ourselves, then I remembered Versa is probably rigged with a probably nasty cutoff sequences and stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24rKK49vqMA

You're directed to lay down on a medical bed at the back of the lab space with a number of scanners and other equipment surrounding it. There are a number of attachments that go on the head much like the equipment built into the helmet of your power armor.

Lights in the room turn off as the Doctor switches to low light terminals nearby. As the equipment powers up you close your eyes. In another minute or so the sleep induction systems will have knocked you out.

Things seem jumbled, for a moment you're in the northern desert on Dreminth then you're back in a dark room.

"Hello?"

The room begins to change, morphing into a command deck similar to pictures you've seen of the of the Alliance flagship, only with less people and more holographics.

"Connection established." Announces Versa.

Dr Clayton's voice issues forth from a nearby com panel that wasn't there a second ago.
"Okay General, I'm loading up a battle simulation. Don't take it too seriously, it's just for you to test things out. Versa will illustrate some of the differences. The two of us won't be able to talk in real time. Expect delays if you ask me any questions."

It takes you a few minutes with Versa's help to catch on when it comes to opening and creating system displays and windows to show information you want out of thin air.
"It's not that different from some more expensive holographic systems."

"Yes, but you're going about it faster here." Versa points out.

The simulation begins with a Neeran fleet versus an equal sized Alliance fleet equipped with newer vessels, EX-Mega's and ACC's. Things immediately go active, with captains reporting they're launching corvettes. Assault corvettes drop from their carrier bays a wing at a time and split up.
You order everyone into holding formations then send out ECCM units and drones when the Neeran activate cloaking fields. At this point you notice something is amiss.

"Wait, didn't you tell me this was supposed to be accelerated reactions? Everything is moving normally."

"They're moving normally as your current perceptions see them. To Dr Clayton they're moving in fast forward."
A window opens showing video from inside the lab. Things are moving slowly enough that you're having a hard time telling if the other woman or your bodyguard are breathing. The window winks out removing the potential distraction.
"I wanted to be sure you had adjusted to everything else before moving to the more practical aspects."

As corvettes from both sides move into weapons range and open fire, the movement of everything begins to slow down.

Trying it out, you're able to zoom in on parts of the battle, give a few quick orders, there then zoom back out without having missed much. It also gives you a chance to give more precise alignment orders to the EX-Mega's to keep the fleet better operating as a unit. Their Captains are usually good at evading where beams from a scorcher might come through but at the same time other choices might might work better to keep everyone together as a cohesive unit.

Sure you've tried to work on these sorts of things commanding from the Devourer but it is much easier here where you can instantly see stats, levels and other information that would take too long to call up and do anything with.
"This is a micro-manager's dream come true."

You cant help but concentrate on winning the battle though. Soon your ships are hurling Veckron Torpedoes to weaken the enemy then finish them off with Plasma cannons. Your few Elite corvette units punch through the enemy like spear points, clearing the way for the less experienced units, then adding their SP Torpedoes to what your Supers are doing.

"End simulation." Versa announces.

>>40883278
>
"If or when interfacing with your brain I could potentially send signals that could hijack your cybernetics. What people often forget is that under certain security conditions I can turn off the safeties on the holographic projectors turning them into low powered laser and plasma emitters."

'So they are being in asshole spaceport security mindset. You know my offer.
Say the word.'


>Versa responds this time. "We are attempting to create a system that might not need an AI, but it is very likely one may still be required. If so a proposal will be submitted for a specialised AI series that would hopefully require less work to construct."

So something like a AI implanted in the brain? It would need some massive processing power, and a very smart way to get rid of the heat, but merging a human and a AI into one body ought to make them highly performing both mentally and physically, and allow for greater independence for both as long as they stick together.

Cooling could use some kind of micro wormholes from the teleporters and dump heat to some predetermined location or in the ambient through other microwormholes.

The only big thing would be power and processing. Power can be solved through Neeran Bioreactors, and processing, probably with quantuum computing, but probably would be more claustrophobic than Vera might like.


Still, this ought to be our private or backed Transhuman research project that we consider. Its basically Suppersoldier, Officer/Commander/Pilot version.

>>40884408
You wake up finding that restraints are preventing you from moving your head until the equipment is removed.
In the battle it seemed like hours had passed while you were watching everything in slow motion. In reality it has only been 20 minutes.

"Twenty minutes?! That was a short battle."
"You had elite units and you did take casualties but it would have been a decisive victory." Versa informs you.

"We're under orders to limit the length of our tests until long term medical results can be studied more fully." The Doctor explains.

You look to your bodyguards.
"Crazy battle sir." Says Valeri.

>What say?

>>40884469
"Gimmegimmegimme, I MUST have one of these! I simply MUST! How much? 100 million? 1 billion? My first born should I ever get one?"

So this thing turns a real life battle into an RTS? Niiiiicccee, also good choice of music.

>>40884469
"That was absolutely fantastic."

"Even for training alone it'd be a game changer."

If that's the RTS version for fleets, and requires an AI, then at least the stripped down version could be used to control ships faster individually right?

>>40884469
>>What say?
"Wow, this is awesome! I hope they're paying you two well for the work you here, both of you deserve a fortune for this thinking up this device. And how large a ship will I need to mount the necessary equipment for this? Do you think I will be able to field test in 6 months from now?"

>>40884469
If that's how fast Versa is going all the time I bet it must get tiring talking to organics.

>>40884565
>So this thing turns a real life battle into an RTS? Niiiiicccee,
>>40884640
>RTS version for fleets
Or at least let's you adjust the game speed slider.

>>40884432
>So something like a AI implanted in the brain?
No, it would still be aboard a command ship, just not one that requires a day of work to transfer between ships.
Also AI/Human hybrid? Next you're going to want an ACU.

>>40884565
>>40884640
>>40884663

"That was absolutely fantastic! I hope they're paying you two well for the work you're doing here, both of you deserve a fortune for this thinking up this device."

"It was mostly Versa's idea. I'm just looking after the medical aspects." Admits Clayton.

"How large a ship will I need to mount the necessary equipment for this? Could we put them in corvettes or even smaller, power armor?"
The Doctor looks concerned at these suggestions.

"These systems will not be small. It's possible to fit them aboard the newer corvettes but they should really be reserved for command ships."

"Then let's talk funding support. How much? 100 million? 1 billion? My first born should I ever get one?" You chuckle a bit at the last one.

Versa is the one that responds to your question.
"If the system ends up relying upon production of new AI's then they could quite literally be priceless. The Terran government will never sell what they term to be an artificial person. Giving them to the Alliance to assist the war effort is another story."

You frown. "That's frustrating. I never get to keep the cool stuff."

"If the Alliance and the Terrans are able to produce even twenty or thirty of these systems it could have a tremendous impact on the war effort." Dr Clayton points out. "Stable AI's are not something to be rushed. Once we have any long term medical results worked out we should be able to use the system with the 12 or so AI currently in service with the Terran Expeditionary Fleets."

>Anything else?

>>40885151
>Or at least let's you adjust the game speed slider.
Supreme Commander man.

"Seems I have to figure out how to create an AI then, unless I can convince the Terrans that Versa would do much better with me."

It's time everyone, time to go home and face the Earl and our hopeful promotion.

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>>40885151
>Also AI/Human hybrid? Next you're going to want an ACU.
This was supposed to go with that post.

>>40885233
>Seems I have to figure out how to create an AI then

Let's not say that. While in a Terran facility. With Terran cameras pointed at us.

>The Terran government will never sell what they term to be an artificial person
> artificial person

"So... do AIs actually count as Terran citizens now?"

>>40885151
Does Versa have a birthday?

>>40885318
"So... do AIs actually count as Terran citizens now?"
"Technically no as they can't vote, but they do have rights."
"Why cant they vote?"
"Because it's a political shitstorm every times it comes up and it becomes an issue the government cant resolve easily."

You discussed a few things with your bodyguards regarding what it looked like while Versa and the doctor converse.

"I believe it would be worth investigating the General's suggestion for enhancement of special forces troops." Versa tells Clayton. "While current power armor would not be ideal there are always newer models under development."

The woman shrugs. "Fine, but only after we get the bugs work out of this system. We're still in the early stages of this one."
She turns to you once you're done.

"We would appreciate it if you supported our project before the Alliance Admiralty. Money is one thing, but we need support from powerful people to get this into production."

There's Admiral Chen, you could go to him. You do know a few of the Warlords even though its unlikely they'd get direct usage out of it. There's also Mezan and others in the Shallan military.
You're not sure what you could do within the Dominion without complicating things politically for yourself.

>What do you want to do to help support the project?

>>40885532
I wonder if the Neeran bio reactor would help with is project if it was integrated into power armor?

Approach Chen, he is a cool and reasonable guy.

Mezan also sounds like a good idea.

From the dominion perhaps we could approach our new favorite House, Ber'helum. Their Duke likes us and I think this is the kind of project he would like to get behind.

We could also pressure the Earl and the other Barons, and in addition notify our allies about this project, once we are promoted.

>>40885151
>No, it would still be aboard a command ship, just not one that requires a day of work to transfer between ships.
>Also AI/Human hybrid? Next you're going to want an ACU.


Well, a ACU to VN people is not necessary. WE have had the pleasure to pilot Mechs.

Having a AI in the head or the capabilities of AI to support us would be nice. If not a AI then a Expery System or a Limited AI, or VI if we have them. Something that with cyber implants would help this system be able to impart similar benefits to command and control even if only on a smaller scale due to the lack of a true AI.

It would make commando /black ops shit far more entertaining, and allow us greater battlefield awareness, and enhanced interactivity with electronic devices.

Also I think its a given that we are all still dreaming of breaking Vera out... we just do not know where to stash her and how to make it look like it was not us who done did it.

>>40885532
Chen for sure.

That Kavarian admiral who was interested in our Victory Torpedo renaming scheme. He seemed like the sort that recognising something good when he hears about it.

Really, I think we could convince a lot of people just by showing them what we could do with it in our short trial.

>>40885532

>"Technically no as they can't vote, but they do have rights."
>"Why cant they vote?"


Right, they cant vote. Do they get paid for work? Vera do you get a paycheck? And if so I hope its percentile.

Votings not all that important anyway, money and property is.

AI's can have money and property right?

I bet they could use it, since they would need to buy up a lot where to put their servers, and then pay maintenance crews, and then buy more servers as they grow...

>>40885532
>>What do you want to do to help support the project?

Bother people we know outside the Dominion. Before contacting them we should first check if they have a public opinion on AIs.

Mezan is very likely a good choice as the system seems like a great advantage.

Chen probably as well as he seems like somebody who's more concerned about efficiency than poltics. Maybe Admiral Forrester from way back as well, he seemed like a very reasonable person.

Fmr Lt. Commander Thebe and Captain Oralth as they're probably the people we know best in the Republic.

Kalah Farhaz - last we heard he was the admiral of a Kavarian fleet, maybe he can rally some support in his military?

Other than that, I'd prefer to keep the Dominion out of this. Our internal political situation is currently a complete nightmare.

>>40885796
>still dreaming of breaking Vera out... we just do not know where to stash her and how to make it look like it was not us who done did it.

If they consider them 'Virtual People', then maybe they could defect to the Alliance like that one Terran commander did, taking SP torp production secrets with them?

A Dominion AI Knight would be hilarious as fuck.

>>40885532
Is there anything they need that we can supply on a personal level via RSS/RLS?

Can we be notified on if, when, and where the first live combat exercises will take place using this equipment? I'd like to see the pure surprise when the Neeran experience a perfectly coordinated fleet.

>>40885914
The Shallans would probably be willing to grant any AI that is helping with the FA war effort full citizenship right now.

>>40885978
>Is there anything they need that we can supply on a personal level via RSS/RLS?
"I wouldn't mind some more plants. Nothing toxic. If we're going to be on the station awhile I'm thinking of starting a garden."
Well it's not too strange for an AI to want a plant you guess.


>Chen
>Admiral Forrester
>Mezan / Shallan Gov.
>Lt. Commander Thebe and Captain Oralth
>That Kavarian admiral who was interested in our Victory Torpedo renaming scheme
>Admiral Kalah Farhaz [Kavarian] AKA "Fahrenheit"

Everyone okay with that list?


>Duke Ber'helum
>The Earl and the other Barons, [...] once we are promoted.
>Other than that, I'd prefer to keep the Dominion out of this. Our internal political situation is currently a complete nightmare.

Do you want to avoid bringing this to the attention of the Dominon, just tell your House, or just the Duke?

>>40886396
>plants
Seeds or just plants? Sending a sapling of those Redwood trees on Dreminth would be a nice gesture.

>Alliance list
Yeah that sounds good.

>Dominion situation
I agree, holding off on this for now would be best.

>>40886396
>Well it's not too strange for an AI to want a plant you guess.
Is it a modular station? We could send a gardening module.

>Everyone okay with that list?
Sure. I feel like I'm forgetting somebody, though.

>>40886396
I see no real reason for the Dominion to hold back on promoting tech that will help the war effort. I mean AI tech has very little to do with the Dominion and I figure the Houses have other things to think about than Terran tech.

And it's not like not mentioning this will stop the civil war from happening.

In either case, the list looks good.

>>40885796
>If not a AI then a Expery System
My brain jammed the words Expery and System together and it registered as "Survey."

>Also I think its a given that we are all still dreaming
Get yourself a totem
>of breaking Vera out
Brain stop jumping to conclusions prematurely.

>>40885855
>Do they get paid for work?
They're permitted a stipend and cargo space for any objects they may acquire. There are rules like no explosives or weapons for instance.

>I bet they could use it, since they would need to buy up a lot where to put their servers, and then pay maintenance crews, and then buy more servers as they grow...
Versa is a military grade AI and it would require wiping large sections of sensitive information and programming to be allowed into civilian use. That only leaves a few options for jobs.
In theory such an AI could be transferred to a station or other low key but still military controlled base until reaching the point of obsolescence and then allowed into civilian use.

It's not a thing I go out of my way to look at normally.

>>40886554
>Is it a modular station? We could send a gardening module.
Not entirely but there are attachment points.

>>40886549
>>40886603
1 for telling people in the Dominion, 1 for holding off.

>>40887004
>1 for telling people in the Dominion, 1 for holding off.

I'd like to suggest we decide after we've called everybody else on our list.

>>40887004
Could we at least let our house know?

Hey TSTG, we've been practicing with the Converter right? Hunting down cloaked people, turning off lights, trying to fake thermal images, yeah?

Did we do a painting of Versa in the end?

>>40887817
Sonfoa-
Yes. Let's say it's on the way. You commissioned the same guy who did the one of your squadron back in the Smuggler's Run.

You promise to speak to as many people for support as you can. Keeping details about the project a secret might be more difficult. You're not able to take any data out of the lab at the moment. Officers with a high enough security clearance that contact them will be able to get some info, possibly a recording of your sim once the base commander has cleared it.

Bidding the two farewell you promise to see about getting Versa a plant or two, maybe a arboretum station module.

Once you're out of the lab and have all of your equipment back you contact the station commander and request secure communication to, among others, Admiral Chen. If it's a bad idea to be contacting the others on your list you're sure he'll let you know.

This takes time. He's a busy guy, being one of the top Alliance Admirals and still the highest ranking field officer in the Terran military. Most of the day later you get through to him and describe the project and it's potential impact. He seems reluctant but agrees to let you talk to others above certain ranks for support. Most of those on your list are still acceptable it looks like.

Admirals Forrester and Mezan are both in favour of it. The Shallans will take any help they can get.
Rear Admiral Thebe can't be reached due to deployment related issues.

Captain Oralth is actually against it. Apparently he doesn't like AI.

The Kavarian Admiral who supported your Victory Torpedo proposal is quick to agree on support for the program.

Kalah Farhaz is against it on the grounds of the Terrans maintaining a ban on Kavarian development of such technology.

>>40887967
>You commissioned the same guy who did the one of your squadron back in the Smuggler's Run.
B-but the important thing about the gift is that Sonia does it herself.

>>40887967
>Kalah Farhaz is against it on the grounds of the Terrans maintaining a ban on Kavarian development of such technology.

Would he still be against the development if only the Alliance was restricted to using it? That way there's the incentive to stay in the Alliance and also the Terrans don't get an OP mindmeld interface.

>Painting
I thought this was something we were going to do when we met Versa, to be honest. Then again, I'm not sure if she'd appreciate crayon scribbles over an actual artist's portrait.

>>40887967
>Kalah Farhaz is against it on the grounds of the Terrans maintaining a ban on Kavarian development of such technology.

Isn't that pretty easy to circumvent now that there's a totally, absolutely, completely unrelated kavarian nation on the other side of the factions' territory?

>>40888198
>>40888214
Sorry guys, forgot that part.

>>40888145
>Would he still be against the development if only the Alliance was restricted to using it?
He would agree under those circumstances, but since the Terrans are doing most of the development they'll fight to maintain rights to use them as well.

>>40887967
While that wasnt as positive as you would have liked there is some extra support now and you still might talk to a few in the Dominion or perhaps just your own House about the project later.

It seems you'll be headed for home soon. Once the fleet has finished off the last of the raiders, or enough of them, you'll be headed back to the Centri Cluster. Plenty of work to be done still. Ships loaned by the Alliance to replace losses will have to be handed back. Some of your people might be annoyed heading home without ships but if necessary your pilots will have enough money to buy new ones if that's the only thing holding them back from being Knighted.

At a staff meeting Mike brings up the topic. If lack of a ship is the only thing blocking a promotion, the Wing Commanders should do their fellow officers the favour of helping them out.

Felix rightly points out that Mike doesn't command a Wing, and thus his people haven't taken nearly the number of losses as the other commanders have. Some of them don't necessarily have the same cash reserves available even if they wanted to help.

What's your position on this?

Are we sure that we want to give the -Terran Alliance- this boost?

If anything, the AI's made specifically for this and service to the Alliance should be from the start members of the Factions Alliance, not the Terran Alliance.

No 'sale' of citizens. Just make the Factions Alliance the ability to have 'citizens' to avoid pouring money into what will eventually become a Terran Alliance weapon against the other Factions.

>>40888378
I thought owning a ship isn't a requirement any more. Or did we buy one for Rufaro when she got knighted?

>>40888378
Well, they're clearly both right. However, simply because Mike isn't a wing commander doesn't mean that his suggestion should be dismissed.

We should encourage it but not make it required. For those that can't afford it, I suppose we could find out how much they need and help them out?

Also, no 1d100 for how the painting turned out?

>>40888427
>Are we sure that we want to give the -Terran Alliance- this boost?
That is a question to ask. Chen is not the person you should ask it of though.

>>40888548
>Rufaro isn't on the wiki
I know what I'm adding this week: Character names to the Dramatis Personae page.
As usual thanks to everyone contributing with the wiki. It's really appreciated.

>>40888548
>I thought owning a ship isn't a requirement any more.
It isn't always but it can be, and the House is reluctant to Knight additional people right now. It's why all of you were told to stop Knighting people on your own, you can only recommend them. If they keep Knighting people the only option they'll have soon is expansion.

>>40888598
>We should encourage it but not make it required.
>For those that can't afford it, I suppose we could find out how much they need and help them out?
You guys okay with these?


>Also, no 1d100 for how the painting turned out?
Screw it, sure go for it, 1d100 for Sonia to try a painting as well.

Rolled 41 (1d100)

>>40888844
Mad painting skills go!

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>40888844
>1d100
You do know we'll just keep trying, and Versa gets her paiting around Sonia's 60th birthday.

>You guys okay with these?
It really depends on what kind of numbers we're looking at. We could probably try to find cheap ships for people who meet the requirements and have them switch to FA provided ships once we get back to the front.

Aren't the Terrans trying to get rid of their obsolete light cruisers?

Rolled 7 (1d100)

>>40888844
>General are you trying to smuggle a paintbrush through this security checkpoint
>Definitely not.

Rolled 45 (1d100)

>>40888844
i want you to paint meeee

>>40888378
Well I think it's admirable of Mike to want to buy ships for his wing and ofcourse he is free to do so. However it should not be requirement seeing as buying ships for a whole wing is might expensive. I mean buying just Corvettes for a whole wing costs more than 200 million minimum. Now money is not really a problem for us but may not be so for everyone else.

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>7
Here we go, your painting for Versa. (You still got her the other one too.)

>It really depends on what kind of numbers we're looking at.
They won't be large numbers.

>Aren't the Terrans trying to get rid of their obsolete light cruisers?
They were selling them to fund construction of newer corvettes. They've stopped for now and pressed every available ship into service with skeleton crews during the attack. Precisely what the Polaris class was meant for.
Ones that already went to market are still available.

>>40889046
It would only be for people that could potentially be Knighted and had happened to lose their ship in the fighting.

>>40889511
Behold, we have done art.

>They won't be large numbers.
Enough that the 10m we had left over from the mission payment will cover it?

>>40888844
>you guys ok with this?

I'm sure that we can arrange some help through RSS and RLS via discounts, but we shouldn't shell out anything more than that unless an exceptional case is brought to us.

That said, we'll certainly need to have our squadron and wing commanders send their recommendations for review and forwarding. An unofficial attachment to these reviews could note those that may be held back by lack of a ship.

>>40889511
>Abstract.gif
If we ever need to come up with a way to get somebody the challenge Sonia to a duel, we should simply send him a portrait.

>They won't be large numbers.
I'm a bit surprised the House hasn't loans available for this kind of situation. But I wouldn't mind setting up people with temporary ships until they can pay them off, or afford one the actually want.

Sorry for delays, I've been trying to find a breakdown of payouts from a previous campaign.
I don't have any hard figures for the current payout atm because then I'd have to calculate for the entire fleet crew size and that would take the rest of the day.

Before your fleets head home you need to decide how much your regular crews will be paid. Everyone has picked up their minimum base pay for time deployed and all of that, you need to decide on what else everyone will get.

The more you give out to the much more numerous lower ranked crews the less your Knights and the House will get.

[ ] 6 months pay (Average for most Houses for a successful campaign)
[ ] 1 years pay (Payout for an excellent campaign)
[ ] 2 years pay (Overly generous)
[ ] More (Specify)

>>40890225
>[x] 9 months pay

>>40890225
[ ] 6 months pay (Average for most Houses for a successful campaign)
The campaign went good but not extraordinarily good. We lost a lot of Corvettes that needs to be replaced.

>>40890225
>Payout for an excellent campaign
Does this count as an excellent campaign? We didn't capture a planet or bring back a super but other than that we've been pretty successful.

Excellent campaign - no super - no planets = 10 months pay?

>>40890225
9 months sounds good to me

>>40890329
>Does this count as an excellent campaign?
You've brought back all of that other salvage that was already calculated. The Torpedoes that are secret, the torpedoes that you got for your side mission. Equipment and salvage rights for more equipment that would upgrade Forbearance.
Cash in place of the remaining shares in the Supers your people crippled or destroyed that weren't taken in the form of other salvage.

You did okay. The only downside is that not many people in your fleet died so the funds are split more ways.

>>40890504
I guess 9 months pay is okay in that case.

Rolled 28 (1d100)

Ignore the dice.

>>40890277
>>40890328
>>40890329
>>40890438
>>40890645
9 months pay seems to be a good middle ground.

There will be a survey going up soon to get some results on a few things that haven't been entirely cleared up so far. I plan to leave it up for the week.
These include trying to get Shallan ship design experts out of Shallan space if things go bad, and trying to get support in the Dominion for Versa's R&D program.

Is there anything else you'd like RSS to do in regards to the unstable situation in Shallan Space? Your salvage teams have been warned and will know when to GTFO, as do the refugee transports.

>>40890971
Other than getting people who know stuff out and getting what tech we can from them I don't really see anything else that needs to be done.

>>40890971
>Is there anything else you'd like RSS to do in regards to the unstable situation in Shallan Space?

Bring an additional salvo of SP torps? Try to coordinate with Admiral Mezan? She'd probably know where to expect internal trouble if things should go south.

>>40890971
>Is there anything else you'd like RSS to do in regards to the unstable situation in Shallan Space?

Help out where they can, I suppose. If the Shallan military needs emergency ship repairs then I guess we can let them use the yards for a few days?

>>40891249
>Try to coordinate with Admiral Mezan?
>>40891302
>Help out where they can, I suppose. If the Shallan military needs emergency ship repairs then I guess we can let them use the yards for a few days?

The yards in the Pandora Cluster are unfortunately a week's travel or more away. It's not as conveniently close as others.
Mezan would most certainly appreciate salvage support if things begin to break down. If it gets to that point repair assets will be just as valuable. RSS could get hold of a dedicated repair ship or convert one from an incomplete hull.

Unfortunately if the Government falls the banking systems will be disrupted. Would your company be willing to accept payment in refined materials or other resources?

>>40891462
>Would your company be willing to accept payment in refined materials or other resources?
[x] Yes
Shallan are cool dudes.

>>40891462
>RSS could get hold of a dedicated repair ship or convert one from an incomplete hull.
Yes, both.

>Would your company be willing to accept payment in refined materials or other resources
Unless the financial reserves of the company are in poor stay I'd be okay with that.

>>40891462
Ships, modules, rare element, equipment. It's all good really as long as it's not leftover junk they are giving us.

File: ScrapDrive.jpg (21 KB, 266x314)

21 KB JPG

And the coyotes are back.

>>40891531
>>40891542
>>40891766
>Ships, modules, rare element, equipment. It's all good really as long as it's not leftover junk they are giving us.
Left over junk get's used on ships or recycled. They cant spare it. They do have mining ships which are closely guarded by the military so it's easier for them to get hold of those resources.

Looks like enough people are for it. For the rest of it:

surveymonkey com /r/ SHYVVF8


Is there anything else you want to take care of before your fleet returns home?

>>40892120
Nope, I want a parade and a grand return.

Posting this but it may have been answered. Did we ever learn anything about the emergency teleporter bomb we used?

>>40892120
I think, for once, a lot of the things we wanted to do have been accomplished and looked into. We even painted ourselves a Versa, something that has been on the todo list since forever.

>>40892237
Pretty sure it crippled the local enemy command ship. We should attempt it at every opportunity to be honest.

Since we're at a bit of lul right now, I wanted to talk about the R&D page.

Right now for the weapons section I've 'table-ized' it, based on the old system where we'd have those nice neat gif images with orange and green sections and points to allocate.

It's occurred to me that this is kind of ill-fitting, it's hard to classify what 'level' means in terms of technology, and I'm sure that if we get something to level 5 on the charts, it can still be improved upon further.

Thus, I'd like to change it to more of a 'repository' of projects and topics available to look into. If anyone has any suggestions on the matter, I'd love to hear them.

>>40892237
You may not have been able to pick up it's detonation amidst the heat of battle. There was quite a bit of shooting going on.
Fortunately there were no unexplained explosions of receiver ships among your own fleet so no friendly fire incidents on your shoulders.

>>40893189
>based on the old system where we'd have those nice neat gif images with orange and green sections and points to allocate.
What's why that page didn't go anywhere. I tried to figure out a way to do that but couldn't decide on how to advance it into future weapon upgrades. Especially when some tech unlocks others. Do with the page what you will.

The aid you've sent to areas of Terran and Dominion space hit hardest by the latest offensive has begun to arrive. Those are long term investments but you'll be getting some of them back.

Refugees are beginning to arrive on Rioja by the thousands. The infrastructure there is capable of handling 1.7 million at present but not all at once, and those numbers were to be mainly colonists to finish off the rest of the work.

You've got a ton of cash available, even before what you made in this campaign. Quite a bit was spent on foreign aid but you should still have around 800 mil before the campaign payouts. I think. Maybe I should switch to profit factors.

It may still be 3 years until the atmosphere reaches short term exposure levels but you can still build sealed industry on the surface now, or add to the orbital industries.

One option would be to buy a pre-built arcology like Alex did on Frostback. It may not have worked out so well for him but Rioja will be ready for larger populations more quickly. You could extend your contract with the Surakeh companies that were building refugee housing on Tourta. New construction yards would have to be built because shipping those distances would be prohibitive.
Getting a Frigate yard with which to construct surface dwellings would work too.

Do you think Versa-sempai likes Sonia?

>>40893536
So what went wrong with the arcology on Frostback? Empty suites I guess?

>>40893536
Right them, begin putting down prefab buildings on the planet and hope people are not retarded for 3 years. The refuges get treated like colonists or they can fuck off to another planet. Really if you are going to flee somewhere don't do it at a planet which can barley support life.

An Arcology seems a bit overkill, especially with the world almost being ready for proper housing and living.

In either case some industry would do this place good once we got the work force for it.

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>>40893783
>Really if you are going to flee somewhere don't do it at a planet which can barley support life.
You guys opened it to refugees. The station will be getting hit with the worst of the influx initially.

>>40893536
It's still more than a week until you get home, but that's enough time for your company to get a few things in motion. Really the development of a planet is supposed to be the responsibility of the Planetary Governor and you haven't been promoted to Baron just yet. Still it's your station in orbit of Rioja and a good portion of the planet is your land. You can develop it if you like, especially if you're in danger of ending up with refugees and squatters all over the place. Or you can wait.

Following typical Dominion planning the main spaceport is located near the equator with the primary areas of colony development localized in the red outlined area. What's been built are all sealed against the atmosphere and linked together. It's the easiest to expand right now.

The problem is that your much more valuable land in the long term is in the northern hemisphere. The House owns the city. You can build there but it will mean contracts with the House.

Remains of some high speed transit systems are still found around the planet from the previous colony. It would be easy to link other settlements to the main city, it would just take time. If you were to build on your land it will mean putting in prefab buildings, or other habitats to provide housing for factories, or have shuttles make regular trips until the transit system is repaired.
If industry you put in is building habitats that would probably help things along with expansion.

What did you guys have in mind? Expand from the city, start you own settlement, or expand the station for now?

>>40894294
I'd say expand the station for now. Maybe get more repair dicks on it. Along with defenses because the damn Neeran like to hit behind the lines everywhere.

>>40894294
>[x] Expand from the city.

We should be seen to be working with the House instead of competing against it.

We can found a place in the North after we officially own the entire place. Speaking of which, how much would that cost?

>>40894294
Expand the station and build a new settlement on our own land. The station could always use more space in either case, heh. And we stand to gain the most from a settlement on our own lands due to rent that will be going directly to us instead of the House.

Shuttles will ofcourse have to make regular trips to the new place but the transit system should not be that hard to repair.

Also we should start looking into putting up yards around Rioja. Not right now but soon. I am thinking either a Medium yard or a Transport yard.

>>40894384
Jesus docks not dicks phone you horny bastard.

>>40894294
>Expand station
We should acquire some land in the city for a RSS HQ.

>>40893775
>Empty suites I guess?
That. It's not the most popular destination being in South Reach, and the threat of a Warlord flare up means it's in a potentially dangerous area. The cost of repaying the start up loan hurt Alex's finances quite a bit.

>>40894553
...I wasn't going to say anything.

>>40894475
>Speaking of which, how much would that cost?
A pre-built arcology is effectively a medium cruiser and costs appropriately. I think Alex's was 250 million but that included additional terraforming equipment and the cost of the foundation. They have built in low grade planetary shields as a standard feature.
You could probably get an arcology for 190-200m.

Going to look up the habitat prices from earlier threads and surveys to be sure but
I think the Tourta ones were 700-750k each? They're built from a surface installation. That would be more industry on the ground.

A Frigate grade shipyard can produce equivalent buildings for similar prices but it can build tougher armored ones faster if need be, though that would make them would cost more. Think those are into the 800k-1mil range.
Again, not certain. Its on the list of things to be added to the wiki price list page.

>>40894796
iirc we own around 50% of all the land. Who owns the rest, and would it be a good idea to buy the rest of the land or would that drive away investors scared of a monopoly?

>>40894475
Agreed 100%.

We should be very careful about expanding anything on the station for industry, as all of these refugees are going to have security overwhelmed and reduce their capacity to defend against threats.

Maybe we would be better off securing another modular station core or two and setting them up with residential modules as temporary refugee sites, trying to keep the 'main' station free of a pirate-friendly swarm of bodies?

The modules could even be moved to the surface later, as either underground or maybe used as housing for future construction teams working on stuff outside the sealed cities?

Or just converted into RSS mobile/forward bases for salvage ops.

>>40894835
>Who owns the rest,
The other Knights and Nobles you were able to contact that could get money together quickly enough. The rest is owned by the House and will likely be parceled out over the years to nobles that are deserving of a reward. After the terraforming is done usually.

>and would it be a good idea to buy the rest of the land or would that drive away investors scared of a monopoly?
It would likely hurt your standing with the rest of the House and other nobles if you tried to buy up even more. Also taxes could become a seriously disruptive thing once habitable.

Think of it being a bit like the Crusader Kings 2 Demesne Penalty.

We'll resume tomorrow morning and continue then barring any interruptions.

>>40895256
Have we tried asking knights under us if they are interested in buying land in Rioja to consolidate our faction on the planet?

>>40894796
Buy an arcology and situate it on top of the former mining assets in our owned territory. We can use the refugees already cleared by security as the workforce (as well as a noticeable amount of locals to keep a positive PR image) to rebuild the fast transit lines to the chosen area.

After the arcology is in place and connected to the spaceport, we can point the workforce towards infrastructure development and reopening the mines to pay for it and attract some goodwill from the House for cheap resources towards the main city/spaceport development.

Finally, we purchase a Level Three frigate yard to expedite the building of apartment blocks to expand/create population centres where needed/advantageous. The addition of a Level Two Cruiser yard will provide needed transports and passenger cruisers for our budding industry.

All of this together provides jobs both skilled and unskilled for our masses of refugees, houses for them to live in, a major boom in planetary industry and economy from the mining/construction/heavy industry/shipyard assets, provides a large planetary defense boost, provides a pressure release by providing an area that the refugees can settle in far enough away from locals to prevent overcrowding, and can begin to pay for itself as soon as any of the three major pieces are in place. Once all three sections are in place we'll have a very effective combo that complements and supports its other parts.

Though it will likely take the vast majority of our current cash reserves, the eventual dividends and very real gain for our chosen planet are more than worth it considering that we still have yet to be paid our campaign rewards and etc.

bump

page 8 bump

I’m not very active in the threads any more but it’s still fun to read, Tstg! That small mission to recover VPs was a much needed change of pace, too bad we couldn’t do a second one to explore the subspace anomalies.

>>40897969

I still can't get over the fact that we voted for a barony in the smuggler's run, which is probably the one place we're most likely to be hated (remember being stabbed over the John Avery?)

That said, we've seen that the Run still has holdouts of pirates or new bands looking to start up. A level 3 frigate yard and level 2 Battlecruiser (I assume you intend to use our existing Dominion BCRS/Moli/Passenger Transport license, here) yard may not be viable for security reasons until the world has more defenses or the atmosphere reaches a point where the world's atmosphere protects it under the factions treaty.


That said, if we wanted to invest in a frigate yard or two, we could take some notes from the Shallan holdouts we encountered in the Maelstrom. Bury a level two line (or 2 of them) in a facility designed to be upgraded to a level 3 later.
Produce HLVs for domestic, RLS, export in one of them. (despite multiple smuggler/civilian yards in the run, I don't recall any that produce HLVs)
Produce Standard Frigates (civilian/cargo, refit any military orders off the line?) or even those upgraded Smuggler Frigate and the J-D combat upgrade for them?

new assault corvettes would be better build in orbit due to their inherent issues in atmosphere, despite requiring a frigate line, iirc. But producing them over Roija would likely make it a major target for rival houses and any pirates that think they could smash and grab for a big pay day. (or if someone just wanted to blow our shit up for some dead relative that was on the John Avery)

>>40897969
I agree with most of that plan. Hower, I'd like the see what frigate licenses are available before deciding which level that shipyard should have. Furthermore, I think we should hold off on the cruiser yard for now and see how the planet and house politics develop before we decide to invest more.

>>40897969
I disagree on the Arcology plan. I think it's a too large investment for to little payoff, especially since Terraforming is almost done on Rioja. For the same amount of money we would spend on it we could settle a lot more people using prefab buildings made in space.

If we make a Frigate yard we should consider making it compatible for the Dominion Assault/attack Corvettes since a yard of that grade is needed to make them. That way we could switch production in the even that we need to.

>>40901098
>I still can't get over the fact that we voted for a barony in the smuggler's run, which is probably the one place we're most likely to be hated (remember being stabbed over the John Avery?)
I think it was mostly about two 3 factors.

*We own a substaintial amount of land on Rioja as does our allies and loyal subordinates.
*The run is our weak point and with us there we can build it up and strengthen it.
*We wanted to build up from something low so our accomplishment would look more impressive.

That aside it would probably be a good idea to smack down a HLV/LST line or two on the planet as that would surely be a boost to both the planets economy and attraction. Not to mention a indirect boost since the planet would then have prime access to lot's of LST's and HLV's.

Now I consider the Frigate class to be somewhat redundant as they are not much of an improvement to the new Corvettes. They are more expensive. And they get wreaked by Cruisers.

If anything a Assault Corvette line, with Frigate compatibility. A Battlecruiser line to create Transports, since there is always a demand for it. Or perhaps a Medium Cruiser assembly line.

Reasoning for me wanting a Medium Cruiser line is really simple. I would like for us to be the first to get a level 3 type yard for Mediums. Not to mention if we get access to Shallan Medium Cruiser specs we could mass produce those big boys and would that not be glorious.

>>40901280
>I would like for us to be the first to get a level 3 type yard for Mediums

Prices between level 2 and 3 yards seem to increase by factor 3 to 5. Going by that we're looking at a pricetag of around 1.6 to 2.8 billion Seni. Considering TSTG's comments on a level 3 medium cruiser yard were "Assuming you could get one built." I'd guess we'll have to pay even more than that.

Even if we should be able to acquire one and have the finances to build it, we'd also have to look into what we can do with the shipyard during peace time.

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>>40894294
>Following typical Dominion planning the main spaceport is located near the equator with the primary areas of colony development localized in the red outlined area

Do we own that large island close to the main settlement?

>>40901098
>>40901108

In reference to your concerns about security for the shipyards, I believe that we had already decided to ship one of our modular stations (the one getting replaced by our new custom lighthouse/spacefort IIRC) into orbit over Rioja with its attendant defenses which should be adequate until we get paid for the current campaign and can expand, though I'm not averse to burying it groundside despite the additional cost for the shorter logistics train and extra armor.
Agreed on waiting for the cruiser yard until there is enough economic need to justify it though. I however can't conscience an assault corvette line though the mentioned HLV line or a more standard corvette line would be more ideal and useful towards helping the planet grow.

Perhaps with enough of anon's support we can add further space defended or groundside cannons/torpedo silos (thin atmosphere working in our favor for once) to quickly bolster while most of the infrastructure is still being built and placed.

>>40901501
>Even if we should be able to acquire one and have the finances to build it, we'd also have to look into what we can do with the shipyard during peace time.

Medium Cruiser sized Transport ships?
Medium Cruiser sized station modules?
I think everyone will be slobbering over Shallan Medium Cruisers if we could produce them.

But yeah I just got a hard on for mass production ever since I first ran into the concept of the Star Forge.

>>40901655
>or a more standard corvette line
stabdard Corvettes are obsolete and the market for them is shrinking drastically since most of the Dominion have switched over to the new type, leaving them with large stores of old Corvettes to sell off or scrap.

Most of us seem to agree on a HLV line at lest and I do hope we for another level 3 transport yard since that market is always open no matter if it's peace or war.

Also the security question has been brought up. Now that is something we can directly do something about. We have the funds and we own many ships so like Winifred has shown us we just have to set up our own fleet for protection. Add to that ground side defenses such as a missile base or two and perhaps a torpedo silo/battery AND the protection of two stations in orbit and we should be pretty solid in the terms of defense for a planet of this scale.

>>40901655
>add further space defended or groundside cannons/torpedo silos
>>40901747
>ground side defenses such as a missile base or two and perhaps a torpedo silo/battery

Aren't (large scale) ground side defences limited to the House and Governor because otherwise the division of forces between the planet's Baron and Governor wouldn't work any more?

>>40901280
I disagree on the Arcology's usefulness, Rioja is still six years away from even limited exposure (which is still very dangerous for most faction species) and at least that many more years or more from no pressure suits. The business man in me balks at having to wait 12+ years for your plan to be fully viable.

Why wait that long when we can ship a fully functional city with all the bells and whistles and inbuilt infrastructure in ~1 year? Its sealed against the lack of atmosphere meaning that it is up and running and paying for its investment YEARS before any standard facilities would in addition to it also having planetary shields (albeit low scale types) and armor and having shopping and recreation areas to increase the standard of life for the citizens past "backwater mining community."

Any other additions can be made with the frigate line or shipped in conventionally.

>>40901280
I suggested the standard frigates because they're a solid civilian transport capable of planetary landings. The Moli transport is noted to be unable to dock with some stations due to size, and some customers may need a more 'budget' transport.

>battlecruiser line for transports
It isn't a bad idea. For the moment I'm just trying to focus on things that are more difficult targets for any potential raiders, and orbital stuff is much easier to raid.

>assault corvette or medium cruiser line

I get that people want to make the top of the line assault corvettes, but again plopping one of those down over Roija sounds like ringing a dinner bell for pirates. A future investment? Maybe. But maybe we need to coordinate with the House on something that will certainly be a major security concern for both of our parties.

The medium cruiser line is, frankly... insane. Multiply all security concerns by PANIC! and secure some meds for London to avoid psychosis. And for me.

Any medium cruiser line we set up will certainly have to be over a strong point of the House, or maybe in the space of a larger allied House. Hell, we may even need (gasp) loans for such a line.

It should be interesting trying to secure republic plasma cannons for those Shallan Mediums, if we go to produce them.

>>40901929
Isn't it 3 years for temporary and 9 for full? That's what it says on the wiki.

>>40901747
Sorry for not clearing that point about the corvette line, my idea was to produce modern attack corvettes off a standard corvette line since only the newest assault corvettes require a frigate line.

I'm still tentative on producing assault corvettes at all without settling in our economy and system defences firmly first. Any pirate with enough brain cells is gonna try to get their hands on that regardless of a few losses.

I wanna turn Rioja into Ix.

>>40901945
>Hell, we may even need (gasp) loans for such a line.
Over my dead and mad body. The day we go into debt is the day I cry myself to sleep.

And really I don't think security is THAT big of a concern right now based on a few things. First and foremost is the fact that the biggest group of pirates we've meet in the Run since we conquered it was not even squadron sized in threat. That combined with them being systematically hunted down and us putting pressure on the neutral holdings should have driven out most any of them operating in the Run.

But say that is not enough? Let's speak garrisons then. The Garrison of ships at the House yard in Pandora space was over 200 Corvettes strong. We may not have such a strong presence on Rioja due to it being a relative peaceful area but once we move in there I except the naval garrison to at lest surpass 3 squadrons worth of ships. That is not counting station defenses we will set up and planetary defenses.

But say it is STILL not enough? Well look at the area around us in the Run. What do you see? Allies, allies everywhere. Nearly all of the Houses holding territory in the run are allied to JD, with exceptions ofcourse.

>if we go to produce them.
We can dream of a world full of Plasma cannons. It sounds like paradise to me.

But back on track. If we want to make Frigate Transports then a Frigate line is fairly cheap at 120 million. Or we could make an Assault Corvette line with Frigate compatibility so should we need to we can switch over to making Assault/Attack Corvettes instead. There is after all only a 30 million difference between the two lines and I think we can afford that. Heck we could throw in a bunch of level 2 Transport yards since they are batshit crazy cheap at only 85 million. Then we could let them grow organically until they can pay for their own upgrade to level 3.

>>40901655
We bought a station for Rioja (see RLS wiki page). But we know that stations can be attacked, infiltrated, and even that employees can decide to run off with things.

And any station we move from Surakeh to Rioja is likely to be the basic cargo transfer dock. It will need upgrades to function as a second armed station. (plus it won't be there for months if not a year or more)

>>40901817
This, and they'll still cause nuke-scale destruction or something close to it, iirc.

>>40901747
>transport market always open no matter peace or war

Dominion will probably ensure there is a war somewhere almost constantly, but don't expect level 3 yards to remain at top production once a peace comes.

>Star Forge
ugh. That thing always manages to pop up like some sort of bad idea teddy bear.

>>40901929
I'm with you on the Arcology's usefulness. Only real concern is how long those minerals will last. I dislike the idea of dropping all that money on an Arcology if the minerals aren't going to last a long time.

>>40902202
If you put down a big chest of gold with minimal defenses, people will do stupid things to get it.

The Run has had several pirates/smugglers say that piracy will return to the area, and historically this was apparently true. Set up a world that can defend a high value target before setting up a high value target. Enemy Houses or even jackasses within our own House will make us pay if we don't take preventative measures.

>>40902224
You gave me an idea! Why don't we repurpose the mines as bunker once they're spent? All that space underground would make ideal civilian shelters as well since its unlikely to need all the room for purely military use. Section it off even to ensure total security.

Besides the fact, I really doubt that there aren't enough resources to pay off the arcology. Even in the event there aren't, we can still repurpose the ore refineries into more generalist factories/production plants and the heavy machinery to land clearance and development.

>>40897471
>Have we tried asking knights under us if they are interested in buying land in Rioja to consolidate our faction on the planet?
Not yet. Those who have the money to do so right now mostly have. More will mean waiting for the cheques to clear.

>>40900118
Glad to hear it.

>>40897969
>situate it on top of the former mining assets in our owned territory.
Most of the mining assets are in the southern hemisphere.

>>40901098
>I still can't get over the fact that we voted for a barony in the smuggler's run
The next closest was Plateau with 2 votes.

>or the atmosphere reaches a point where the world's atmosphere protects it under the factions treaty.
The colony itself is more or less safe atm, it's Mons Abyla that never will be.

>>40901501
>Even if we should be able to acquire one and have the finances to build it, we'd also have to look into what we can do with the shipyard during peace time.
In addition to those Mad suggests Arcology building comes to mind.

>>40901607
>Do we own that large island close to the main settlement?
Afraid not.
Because of the oceans in the southern hemisphere your property limit does not extend all the way to the equator, but nearly so.

>>40901929
>and at least that many more years or more from no pressure suits.
Sealed environment suits won't be needed in 3 years except for in a few remote areas.
>The business man in me balks at having to wait 12+ years for your plan to be fully viable.
9 years or less barring incidents with the atmospheric processors.

>>40902681
>barring incidents with the atmospheric processors
[laughing warmonger baron that likely was involved in Bekka's kidnapping from House... Feron?]

You know he's behind most of the shit that happens and this was obligatory

>>40902681
What natural resources does our territory have?
And I still think that the small business start up idea is a good one

>>40902202
>The day we go into debt is the day I cry myself to sleep.
You do know it's possible to take a loan or mortgage without being completely broke right? Make your payments on time and everything should work out. Or get together some investors?

>The Garrison of ships at the House yard in Pandora space was over 200 Corvettes strong.
That's because it was a training base near the front lines.

>>40902937
Your land has the best long term value.

The northern hemisphere has the most arable land. That which isn't can be made so with minimal work. It's mineral resources are largely unexploited due to the comparative ease of mining in the southern wastes. That means your lands have natural resource reserves which could be tapped at a later time. While you may not get the most use out of that immediately it will increase the value of your land.

You also have lots of space for expansion, for cities or industry, without impacting size of the farm lands. With the current small population it might not be appreciated that much, but on an older colony world it can be a real issue.

If it's ever decided that the Southern wastes should be restored to being an ocean the north will feel very little impact.

>And I still think that the small business start up idea is a good one
Yes, it would have to be based out of the current city for the moment though.

>>40902857
That's a good idea.

>>40903306
What would be required go jump start a city in the northern hemesphere

>>40903306
Would >>40897969's idea work in the north with a bit of tuning?

We could leave the southern mines to the planetary governor so that they won't feel so concerned about us having a stranglehold over the available resources.

Your plasma pistol is under repair looks like. I'll wait before revealing any of the other survey results.

It looks like there is plenty of disagreement over the use of arcologies, yards and what not.

>>40903670
You could get a cheap colony outpost to start up a settlement for a couple million and expand it with linked sealed habitats. Really you'll need it either way to provide the basic utilities at first.

You could also buy or move an Atmospheric Containment Field and create a +4km wide habitable area. I think those are 8-10 million? It seems I never wrote down a price for planetary shields.

Or you could put in a spaceport. They have everything needed to support the start up of a colony as well. A full sized spaceport would cost about 100m, a small one would cost 30m.

As previously mentioned an Arcology is a viable 1 step colony start up.

>>40901108
>I'd like the see what frigate licenses are available before deciding which level that shipyard should have.
It would seem there are few in the way of those listed. Working.
Here we go.

HLV 25m
Single Module Hauler 25m
Factions FRG 30m

Smuggler FRG+ (SRL) 20m
Smuggler FRG+ (Allied House) 35m

Firestorm II FRG 50m
Firestorm FRG(Serth Custom) 30m
J-Type Module Transporter 17m

Jitō Attack Frigate 40m
Archerfish 10m
Norune Frigate 10m

>>40904072
I think we should speak to the House leadership and the governor Rioja will get before deciding how to proceed.

Can arcologies be moved once the other surrounding infrastructure has developed far enough?

>>40904072
I think we still have two more factories off of our attack bomber licence. I think that plopping 2 of them down and making them the centerpiece of our city is probably a good move

>>40904048
Ooohhh, building another space port never struck me as an idea until you mentioned it. It would work wonders for our own settlement if we had one. Population would grow automatically around it almost!

I am game for either a full sized one for 100 or a small one for 30.

HLV, Hauler and J-Type seems like the most interesting choices for a Frigate Yard as utility vessels instead of military crafts. Think there is a large market for them.

I'd say we get a level 3 Frigate line, two level 2 Battlecruiser lines and a LST line or two for Rioja. That should ensure a economic boom along with other heavier industries and agricultural development on our land.

So 120 + 85 + 85 + 30 + 30 = 350 million and a great industry of civilian ships on the planet. That still leaves us with plenty of money for other projects.

>>40904072
Instead of setting up 'colonies', why don't we set up smaller facilities in the north where we'll eventually set up farms?

Basically, we'd set up simple domes to contain atmosphere and help some folks with agri experience set up farming operations. For the most part, it would be a few 'functional' domes with power and such and then empty ones for growing crops.

It would help support the colony with food, get some of our land working, avoid creating hastily constructed cities, and even allow something that needs time to set up like a winery get their stuff set up while growing things for 'now'.

The domes could act as greenhouses once teraforming is complete, where applicable. Or just be recycled.

A proper city or two could then be long-term planned, allowing the infrastructure costs be spread out over time.

this is assuming that Rioja is forced to import basically all food stuffs, due to atmosphere

>>40904462
Er, no

>>40904468
shit, last line cut off.

We need to diversify our production in general, look at the Run's current ship production and generally try not to compete with other House interests in the region.

>>40904462
That is serious overkill for a planet with a single space station and that isn't even fully habitable for nearly a decade.

Plan: half a dozen or so shield generators, the level 3 bomber lines, and a prefabricated building line, along with rail links to the spaceport. Let things grow organically from there with us priming the pump through small business loans until we have a city of about 200k and the atmosphere starts improving. Then reassess what more investment we can offer. Maybe add in an asteroid extraction industry as well.

>>40904576
I don't see it as overkill as much as jump starting the planet with a car battery. Point is, if there are jobs, people will come. If people come to work than business will come to cater to their wants and needs. And just like that it spirals upwards quickly.

We do not have generations to wait as the population grows. We should make he planet valuable and it's economy strong and inviting for a planet that will become our barony.

>>40904048
>Would >>40897969's idea work in the north with a bit of tuning?
I don't see why not.

>>40904272
>I think we should speak to the House leadership and the governor Rioja will get before deciding how to proceed.
That's fair.
It would still be useful to get a few things rolling.

>Can arcologies be moved once the other surrounding infrastructure has developed far enough?
Not normally. It would have to be built special for that which will increase the price.

>>40904468
>For the most part, it would be a few 'functional' domes with power and such and then empty ones for growing crops.
Actual physical domes or containment fields?

>>40904576
>We need to diversify our production in general, look at the Run's current ship production and generally try not to compete with other House interests in the region.
The House has multiple attack cruiser and a couple Battlecruiser lines in the Run. Kilo class mediums are built by civilian manufacturers at the on planetoid base.
Lots of lesser slipways exist of nearly every size category for repairs and maintenance. Many of these are used for construction or rebuilding of salvaged vessels from the graveyards.

Archerfish, Smuggler Frigates, Remora transports and Journeyman transports are built by allied Houses or organisations. Attack corvette lines exist but have halted production.

Other ships may be built in the Run in small numbers.

The question seems to be if everyone would like to take a more minimalist approach for the moment, or go all in as quickly as possible.

Minimalist with just station improvements

Minimalist with station improvements and small surface outpost / expansion.

Second spaceport expansion route.

All in, which may or may not include an arcology.

>>40904816
I think we should at least diversify some of our investments between the developing world our House gained since Sonia joined the military.

As tempting as it may be to throw all our money at Rioja, it would probably be prudent to look for good investment opportunities elsewhere as well. Frostback and Plateau would come to mind, or that planet Daska managed to secure when House Posat finally collapsed.

>>40905003
I wouldn't mind going all in at Rioja as long as we could protect our investments and people.

>>40905003
I'm in favor of second spaceport or all in.

Preferably all in as we've already chosen it as our baronship and we need to set our powerbase before we have serious interests that can compete with our clout.
It's doubtful that there is another single backer that can compete with us but groups will quickly outstrip us with scope of resources and the fact that they don't spend half the year in an increasingly deadly warzone.

>>40905003
Second spaceport. Not all in.

>>40905003
>Second spaceport expansion route.
I'd be okay with a second spaceport, what's the difference between the 30m and 100m options?
>in b4 it's "just smaller"
Would we be able to upgrade the small one into the larger version later on?

>>40904816
I was thinking physical ones, though mixing both types could work. (say having both for habitation domes for safety, and having one or the other for the farm ones)


>>40905003
Minimalist with station improvements and small surface outpost/expansion.

dad said food was a good investment, and we need diversification.

>>40905003
All in.