For House & Dominion: Civil War [spoiler]Quest[/spoiler]

Hera Boosalis, Phas Rah'ne and Lyas Cinayk have returned to your fleet bringing with them a substantial increase in forces. Included with them is a Sledge class medium that has been repaired and upgraded by the House.
A squadron of new Dominion Fast Battleships has been included, though they've yet to be upgraded for any specialty.

The first two Knights have been promoted to Knight Captain by the Earl, but Lyas Cinayk having arrived from the DRH 2 relay hasn't had the opportunity yet. Lyas is one of the few Kavarian Knights in service with the House.

As you also haven't had time to provide awards and promotions to your officers from the recent attack on Bonrah now would seem to be a good time. There are also your special forces to consider.

Do you want to make a public show of awards and promotions? Or would you like to keep things within the military?
Will this apply to special forces?

Any special medals you want to come up with?

Make it a grand public event of Jerik-Dremine military prowess and martial might so as to boost moral of the general population and perhaps a boost to the nationalism in our population. We should also make sure that our non dominion natives gets noted as well so the Terran population feels like we're not so bad.

Also I feel like our Special Forces are deserving of being honored as well. It is not always fleets that turns the tide but the dagger in the dark.

Liberator of the Oppressed

For participating and fighting against Nasdium, Bonrah and pirate forces in the DRH1 Relay and the successful liberation of their territories.

Kind of a one time Medal. Got to bring up that value of the collectors after all.

>Do you want to make a public show of awards and promotions?
Maybe a more financially sensible version of that time when we got our first set of medals on Loran II? It's hard to justify spending too much on the event and party when there are still refugees pouring in.

>Will this apply to special forces?
No. They'll get their awards in private. If they really want the public stuff, let them have it once the civil war is over and hide them among the regular soldiers coming back from the neeran front.

>Any special medals you want to come up with?
Survivor Ribbon: A ribbon for surviving the loss of one's ship. Differently coloured version if escaped by teleporter. Has the name of the lost ship on it.
Grand Acquisitions Medal: A medal for participating in an operation to successfully capture a super heavy cruiser for an ally (silver) or the house (gold).
Voice of Reason: A medal for convincing a well-protected enemy installation or ship to surrender without causing damage and without firing a shot at them.
A medal for preventing an enemy from using scorched earth tactics. Multiple variants depending on how expensive or important the saved equipment was.

Ask Dad and Ecord for input on how we should deal with the marines who fought on the station during the nanite attack.

>but Lyas Cinayk having arrived from the DRH 2 relay hasn't had the opportunity yet
Promote Lyas to Knight Lt. for the time being? It seems like the Earl wants to handle the really big promotions himself.

>Liberator of the Oppressed
>Kind of a one time Medal.
Might require some restrictions. I'll think about this one a bit.

>Survivor Ribbon:
While the House is always glad for their trained personnel surviving they're less happy about the loss of ships. There may be restrictions placed upon such a medal. Getting it too much would quickly become a black mark against someone's record.
>Grand Acquisitions Medal:
While variations of the hostile requisitions medals exist there isn't one for Heavy and Super Heavies so I'm giving this the go ahead.
>Voice of Reason
Could work. Added.

>Make it a grand public event of Jerik-Dremine military prowess and martial might so as to boost moral of the general population and perhaps a boost to the nationalism in our population.

>Maybe a more financially sensible version of that time when we got our first set of medals on Loran II? It's hard to justify spending too much on the event and party when there are still refugees pouring in.

Two very different views of how to go about this. Other opinions on this?

I am all for a nice public event with parades and all that shibang for our people to watch.

However the special operations should be kept secret for obvious reasons. Do not want them to be target or that someone will remember them. A nice private ceremony for them will do. They should know after all that they do not do this for fame or glory but because it must be done. Or else they would have joined the navy.

>A medal for preventing an enemy from using scorched earth tactics. Multiple variants depending on how expensive or important the saved equipment was.
That was supposed to be a separate medal, I just couldn't come up with a decent name.

Have you heard of JTF2? No. Because they don't get lauded publicly. If we want to give our special forces recognition, we do it quietly, vaguely and expensively.

Or I mean we could always just ask them what they want, but SF tend to be a little paranoid.

And reminder that with digital information capabilities, it's quite valuable to know general data trends to estimate threat and capability. So if anything, we should pretend they were somewhere else the whole time or give them awards for fake missions that didn't happen. I wish I could pick out specific events where we got lucky and attribute it to the SF to confuse people's estimates of our capabilities and tactics even more.

>Have you heard of JTF2?
Yes. Because that one idiot at the airport always says the JTF2 version of this:
youtube.com/watch?v=vncIBREXCwU

>medal for preventing an enemy from using scorched earth tactics.
I dunno how well that would work as its own thing. for now I'll just include those actions as part of one of the others.

Public event for most of the Knights and officers. Special forces get private event. Intel will help keep records of promotion quiet.

The Medal of the Open Hand? And instead for preventing scorched earth tactics it's presented to officers for conflicts that end with negotiation and terms instead.

After all, the best victory is one you achieve before you even fight the other person, but it's not necessarily as glorious. Add instead of the usual cash reward given with medals a clause that the recipient can instead choose a commission based on the value of the treaty and we should see the occasional interesting result.

Feudal governments man. Competing houses and all that shit, eventually it creates a system of nested loyalty where it's me against my brother, my and my brother against our parent, me and my family against the rest of the clan, etc.

It's inherently selfish, and so long as it seems both to produce a clear gain or advantage and the manner of the betrayal doesn't violate personal social mores, then breaking alliances isn't really that frowned on. Especially for Vassals when they're under the enemies guns since it's explicitly the obligation of whomever they are pledged to provide protection, so it can be said the agreement was already null.

Sorry I'm high as a kite and get caught up in our cultures assumptions of feudal Era politics vs. The reality. The dominion seems to be a mix of Typниpы тeнeй, or The Great Game of the 1800s and the Balkans. Vassals acting as proxies, nobody really wants a full on civil war to start but nobody wants to let their rivals seize a March on them and take the opportunity to expand, most smaller houses trying to minimize commitments until they can see which way to jump and being untrustworthy little shots since they can always claim it was necessity and jump back.

I don't know what you mean by the JTF2 version of that, and I am very confused as to why someone in the airport would be shouting about it.

I mean, is this a Canadian airport? Because as a Canadian I pretty much never run into military personnel there (that are open about it). It's not like the US where it seems like every airport is full of dudes in full fatigues and a duffel or navy guys going somewhere for training.

But yeah, most people have no idea who JTF2 is since they don't have a sexy name and tend to work with other nations militaries since ours is kind of . . . Force projection and logistics are difficult and expensive, okay?

>I mean, is this a Canadian airport?
Yes. It is a remote airport that used to have a guy working there that constantly claimed he was some kind of operator badass that used to work for JTF2. Everyone just tried to ignore him as much as possible because if they told him he was bullshitting they'd have to listen to him tirade for the better part of an hour.

Cleanup of the capital has finished while you were away but you give them a few extra days preparation time for ceremonies to take place. Meanwhile aboard your command ship you conduct promotions for the special forces. Those that returned here instead of going to the homeworlds for promotion by the Earl are given their just rewards for actions helping Helios.

That they managed to pick up some suits of Recon armor in the process didn't go unrecognized either.

All of the very young looking officers and specialists are weighed down by more medals than they know what to do with. The financial rewards that go along with them should mean that they're well on their way to building their own small fortunes. Intel will of course help to make sure their assets are protected.

When the public ceremonies are later held in the capital your expanded personal guard and the capital defense force are well equipped to protect against attacks by special forces.

Does anyone have a speech prepared or will we just gloss over it quick?

>Does anyone have a speech prepared or will we just gloss over it quick?
We should do like the earl and keep things short and to the point.

Our fleets supported our allies, kept the local civilians out of harm's way whenever possible, and did everything they could to prevent friendly losses while fulfilling their objectives.

They did well, and can be proud.

I'll agree with this if only because I do not have a speech prepared and got to much work to do atm to come up with one.

Yeah, just something short, sharp, and to the point.

It's been a busy year, I think we should reassure the Rioja populace shit is gonna be fine as well.

How's the nanite investigation going anyway?

You get some help from a professional speech writer just in case, but make sure they take a cue from the Earl and make it a short one.

You supported your allies in the liberation campaign, rescued civilians or kept them out of harm's way where possible and minimised potential losses.

As expected they performed well in every battle they fought in. A trend you expect to continue and one which both you and the House want to reward. Several officers are Knighted that have been kept from it in the past, getting their long overdue promotions.

Boosalis, Rah'ne and Cinayk finally get official recognition for their actions against Bonrah now that you're at war with them. Even the Earl was previously limited in what could be said about their actions, though that hadn't stopped him from promoting them.

With Kim and Drake you now have five potential candidates in the region that have a shot at becoming a Knight Commander. If the situation calls for it that is. Realistically it would be expected that some of them are going to die over the course of the war. Fortunately emergency teleporters are making it harder to kill off commanding officers these days.

Once everyone is dismissed at the end of the ceremonies Admiral Tama approaches you.

"We have strong core of experienced commanders here now. If the fleet were to lose contact with you I'm sure they could manage on their own now. If you wanted a few days vacation you might want to take one after our response to the DRH 2 situation is decided."

Latest intel report.

At present the Ruling House can't spare any ships from the defense of your relay to reinforce DRH2. Any help they send will have to be from another area.

Ber'helum is too weak in the relays to do anything yet and is trying to gather more support in South Reach to launch a proper fleet. That may have to wait until the next batch of Lance class ships have been refit.

Helios is waiting for a good opportunity to strike.

Do you want to try and send any forces to the region? You have all 4 cloaked ships available along with special forces and Recon teams. The team you sent earlier recovered the stealth LST with minimal damage so it's available as well.

>Do you want to try and send any forces to the region?
I think we should coordinate with Ber'helum and the Ruling House. If they send a fleet we'll most likely to lend some support but I see little chance to send something significant on our own.

>You have all 4 cloaked ships available along with special forces and Recon teams.
Send 2 of them.

What kind of forces are committed to DRH2 by Bonrah, and what territory did they already have established before fighting broke out? Have they had enough time to fortify and consolidate their gains in the territory they've taken, and from who did they take most of the territory from? Because I notice the other entrance opposite DRH1 relay comes from the South Reach - and I believe there's a warlord there who recently lost a Super to Bonrah.

Depending on what they've had time to do and what they already have established as hardened static defenses, I say we either turn it into a three front war or at least harass them from both side to split their forces while avoiding pitched battles, or even more daring we try and totally trash their supply lines striking deep into their territory to take out systems left lightly defended while most of the units are at the front fighting or spread out to pacify and consolidate their new territory. We could ravage towards the northwest entrance to avoid the front and prevent a quick response, then head down to avoid any possible reactionary fleet from that entrance there, and make it look like we're heading back to DRH1.

But if possible, I would prefer to actually cut along the line of territory they've recently captured while our allies make a co-ordinated push on the front. Hopefully this will result in them having to choose between retreating from the front and surrendering their gains to defend their supplies and stop us, or committing a smaller force to drive us off and accepting loss of both supplies and supporting infrastructure that was loo- er, salvaged as well as the issue of the surrendered population getting all riled up and undermining the perception of Bonrahs control of the territory, causing unrest and maybe even a rebellion or two which we might be able to help with supplies or specialists. I do believe we are on pretty good terms with a certain house that has experience with asymmetrical warfare.

I do not like this situation. Not one bit. Bonrah taking the DRH2 relay will cut off South Reach from us. Not to mention our access to the armor from the Relay.

For starters I would like us to send 2 of those cloaked ships with Recon teams and special forces in them to do what they can to either hamper the Bonrah advance, gather intel or help set up means for an effective guerrilla warfare unit made up of what forces can enter the area.

After the cloaked ships have determined the enemy forces that are tied up with the fighting and what is defending the Nav Station we can then determine what we send as a reaction fleet.

Also is it possible to send a fleet that drops short of the nav station and then have them skirt around enemy fleets around the nav station and enter house territory somewhere else? Or would that lead them to a sudden and painful death?

What forces can Winifred send from the Reach? Cause she should send whatever forces she can spare to help hold that nav station.

>What kind of forces are committed to DRH2 by Bonrah
More than a dozen medium cruisers before their transfer of ships from your area. They have large numbers of attack corvettes and shipyards for them. Many of the more fortified logistics bases left over from House Let'tham were under their control before the offensive. The rest are split between Helios, the RH and Ber'helum's allies.

>what territory did they already have established before fighting broke out?
Pic related.

>I believe there's a warlord there who recently lost a Super to Bonrah.
That doesn't mean he can quickly send ships from other jobs. He is working on convincing other mercenary bands not to take off the books deals with them, which can be a serious source of revenue for South Reach groups.
There may be other things the South Reach Warlords have in the works as a response.

Continuing. So we Bonrah commanders at the front ideally won't actually have any good choices. So long as we stay focused on disrupting their strategy and conserve or forces by following our tradition of rapid advancement in maximum force and being more than willing to avoid getting bogged down in pitched battles or sieging planets, we should overall do enough damage to be a pressing issue. Operating deep in their territory without supply lines or reinforcements, we'll at once be too dangerous and too vulnerable for them to not commit a response force sizeable to have a significant effect on their strategy, logistics, and force projection that like I said leaves them without a good choice, only the problem of what will be the least costly sacrifice. The recent gains made at the front, or the longer term problems of interrupting supply chains prevent critical material for re-arming and maintaining the Frontline plus the risk of damaged or crippled, possibly outright unusable or ideally hostile fallback points that could end up with them not only losing territory at the front but a large chunk of space thought secured and done with. Depending on the losses of the frontline fleet, it could end up between a repositioned front line as both sides race to build up an advantage in forces first without running out of money or reserve forces needed in other territories. Or there could be a stalemate as Bonrah still has enough forces to defend and our Allies aren't willing/able to exploit their inability to push fast enough. Or like I said, we pull away enough forces that our allies push past the front and defeat the remaining fleets, and are then able to Harry and harass the portion that came after us as they don't have anywhere to fall back and regroup giving our forces more time/space to wear them down. In a perfect world, they would lose so much of their front line that it turns out they don't have enough ships left to defend their original holdings.

Finally, the third part. Part 1 reave recklessly ravaging rears and raping REMF forces left behind to the dull duty of garrison duty. Part 2, swing down into less defended and possibly still loyal territory for easier targets that will refresh us after the first part and raise morale while bringing us closer to our allies so that they are in position to take advantage of the situation we've created.

The third part. So we've come in, pissed people off by wrecking their shit and been trying to move to fast to actually have a satisfying conclusion. No martyrs to mourn, no won battles to seek glory or take comfort in, nod bitter losses to drive them on. Just a bunch of wrecked shit that in and of itself wasn't exactly high value campaign critical targets, but hopefully we can remind them that quantity is a valuable quality in itself by just how much shit we wreck. I feel confident in my previous expectation of them send a response fleet to stop us, not necessarily from the front where they have their own pressing issues but from more secure areas. US pent rating deep into their territory will give them added confidence, thinking we've been foolish and optimistic that we could just go fast! As a plan. The logical thing to do would be to consolidate forces behind us to pin us down and force us to a battle as we try to retreat back to DRH1. They might even try to put pressure on our defenses there to cause our reavers to try and return. They could then link up the fleets while they are there and push through to attack us again after our reaver were crushed in a classic hammer and anvil maneuver.

If possible, I would love to bring stripped down ships that could mimic the drive sig of our fleet even briefly to draw the response fleet off further and pin down the blockade groups waiting for us.

>What forces can Winifred send
The SW Heron Medium, a small escort and two additional wings. Either assault or mixed attack wings. Everything else is needed for regular combat deployments or as an emergency reserve.

>is it possible to send a fleet that drops short of the nav station and then have them skirt around enemy fleets around the nav station and enter house territory somewhere else? Or would that lead them to a sudden and painful death?
They'll be detected by the nav station's long range sensors. Any fleets stationed nearby will know about new arrivals so then it becomes a classic pursuit and evasion.

Now if your idea was to change course way the hell out before your arrival at the relay then that's theoretically possible. You can do FTL maneuvering as you've seen in Shallan space but this would be after the better part of a week so your drives wouldn't have as much to work with. There is a chance that the nav station might still detect you deviating from your course. There is also a chance that you may pass through pockets of space that have not been approved for FTL flight by the navigators. There are usually reasons for that.

Aiming for Bonrah space near the nav hazards carries some risks, like subspace rift formation if you remain at high speed. The other way increases chances of detection and prolongs the length of time you're in a no-fly zone

Last part of plan "Sucker punch/Rabbit punch." Did you think the sudden attack was the suckered punch, out of nowhere and the first part? Nah, that's the rabbit punch. Fast and light, aiming for weak spots and hoping to get a lucky hit that really hurts. The suckered punch is that we act like we realized we had gone too far, so now we're just trying to out in a blaze of glory. Like I said, instead of avoiding fights we're picking them. Still trying to avoid pitched battles but always getting one hit in on their defense fleets. This is the riskiest bit, since if they didn't divert Frontline forces to attack us then they're in an ideal position to do so now. Hopefully they'll expect a desperate breakthrough and just try to group together where they think is either the most likely point or where they can react the fastest to the most likely points. The one thing they won't want is for us to get away, both because you know war, also because we not only have damaged them (preferably a lot by now) but we've violated their territory and embarrassed them, hopefully thrown their strategies into disarray, and overall I hope we've taken the irritation from raiding at first cheap shit and turned it into loathing. I want them to have gotten reports of us destroying something every day. Consistently and not really important at first but being a problem that just keeps happening and suddenly some Rear Admiral Mother Fucker starts talking out of his Brass at wanting to know why he didn't stop us and how the commander let shit get this far and did he add up the damages and it's just a matter of finding us and blowing us out of space, he has so many more ships after all it shouldn't be hard. Then we avoid the main response fleet dragging it out again. Still no battles resolving the issue, just damages adding up. Hopefully they hate takes seed as we let them expect finally the chance to punish us and get back to politics and fighting for glory and loot

But no, we're being either brave, stupid, or panicking and going an unlikely direction and just when they thought they were done they have to chase us some more, hopefully getting tricked and looking bad and unable to do anything right about us. And after that they start to get losses, people and ships being damaged, attacking just to attack and not looking to win battles just to hurt their friends and fellow soldiers. On the other side of their territory, a wake of destruction behind us, seeming to be out of SP and finally unable to run as the forces spread out have slowly been gathered to deal with us or moved to fortify positions already hit,I want them to chase us filled with intent so that they can't see anything but one outcome. I want them to focus on us breaking through the fleet, or trying for the South Reach although that's both less than ideal as it takes our forces out of the theatre, and Mercenaries don't provide the safest sanctuary.

So I want Krusk to come at them, pissed that they took his Super but more pissed that it was lost on our watch. I want him to try and set up a trap for us when we come through South Reach. Not to destroy us, he won't do that for Bonrah, but to impound our forces and make us pay out the value of the Super. Bonrah just has to let it happen if they can't catch us.

So why even contact them if that's his plan, well, he's going to tell them there's a Baron on board. Popular, successfull and recently responsible for their defeat in DRH1. He wants to ransom her back to the house and is willing to be a middleman in the process if Bonrah captures her.

So Krusk does that and moves his forces into position at his end of the relay, and then we get a different warlord to offer to pop over instead and stop us to guarantee Bonrah gets us, both to get paid and also to spite his rival Krusk. Ideally they will be someone who recently lost territory or position to Krusk.

Then I'd say send forces to the contested territory and try to link up with a refueling station there and beat up some Bonrah forces before starting to generally wreaking their shit. Will be especially fun due to their lack of heavier ships.

Both Mercs are on our payroll. WL2 plays it as Krusk can't stop him from signing on with Bonrah especially since he isn't retained by anyone there and regardless it's poor business to fight other mercs. WL2 won't be upset if they decide to not employ him either, he's just offering to make sure Bonrah gets to finish us so it's easy money simply to keep us from reaching Krusk.

Obviously I want them to turn to our side and help us hold until Krusk can make it through the relay, setting us up for a counter attack. We will be sure to scrupulously avoid meeting up with Krusk so WL2 can keep the letter of his contract. We can even have Krusk claim that he's technically not fighting WL2 but he's pissed Bonrah got them involved and have him offer his services for a dollar + salvage and expenses, and that afterwards he wants to discuss recouping the lost supers value. Put on a nice show.

So we have two mercs being mercs, not quite breaking their agreement and nobody needs to know they were in on it. Oh, they can suspect and even accuse but shit if they can't prove it then I feel it shouldn't damage their reputation too much. One guy is just particular about the contractual obligations and didn't want easy money to turn into lost money, and the other didn't want people to screw him or undermine his position aND ultimately someone is going to pay him for the goddman super.

So big battle, hopefully we have enough forces to win, and even if he do have to retreat we should have made a mess of Bonrahs current tactical situation and overall grand strategy. An opening is created for Helios to act, either at the middle if the pull from the front when we get closer, or at the end when we can pinch them between our forces with the warlords and the line fleet, or at worst they have time to build up defence and material to create a stalemate and prevent Bonrah from gaining more ground.

I tried to go with a general plan that isn't reliant on everything going right.

>>
>
>have they had enough time to fortify and consolidate their gains in the territory they've taken, (?)
Questionable.
>and from who did they take most of the territory from?
Ruling House or those aligned towards them.

>three front war
>we try and totally trash their supply lines
>cut along the line of territory they've recently captured while our allies make a co-ordinated push on the front.
>causing unrest and maybe even a rebellion
>Or [] we pull away enough forces that our allies push past the front and defeat the remaining fleets
It's a good idea in theory.

>I do believe we are on pretty good terms with a certain house that has experience with asymmetrical warfare.
A House that is under siege and can't send forces out right now if they wanted to.

>Krusk
>but more pissed that it was lost on our watch. I want him to try and set up a trap for us when we come through South Reach.
This is the part where your plan starts to fall apart.

Foss has already has tried to play Bonrah twice. The first time getting his fleet through their space without incident. The second time didn't work out too well for anyone involved.

We can break off early if resistance is fiercer or if we suffer losses or they have a gravity well generator somehow. Our stealth ships should let us avoid surprises though and help us pick the most efficient targets.

We can hit targets of opportunity if we run into anything valuable like an SP shipment.

We can get Democuck McTerrorist, I mean freedom fighter franchises set up on your local discontented population, sneaking them in as refugees or doing covert insertions like what your dad does after you drink your strangely bitter bedtime OJ. Weird he makes you brush your teeth first.

We can push through and break their front line if we have to, either to save ourselves or our allies.

Really, we're quite optimized for this kind of high mobility assault especially since salvage isn't a priority it should be quite unexpected from us at this point. We've always done raids, yes, but conservatively with an eye for making sure we got fat loot and we have always preferred to secure areas rather than overextended ourselves. We've never really risked a defensive position strategically, I'm pretty sure they'll expect us to focus on securing the run and not commit significant forces that could leave us defenseless. Or trusting our allies (whom they snubbed as pointless and have generally disregarded) to hold for us.

Personally, I think we're good. Helios has yet to commit and either we can take advantage of when they do, or vice versa. Our allies will hold DRH1 for us because they're really rather committed now, if one tries to turn the others will take him down before he can profit, and they won't be able to be turned at once. Additionally, they would still have to deal with RH and Ber'helum even if they did beat us somehow.

While Bonrah might attack our defenses at first, really it would be bad to have our raiders hit their lines while they were attacking, and blocking/catching the raiding fleet will occupy them later, plus our allies might act.

We definitely need to deploy some form of reconnaissance to the relay, one we can stay in touch with at all times.

This way we can keep tabs on enemy fleet numbers, what they're doing with the super, and if they're planning to attack.

Foss has, not Krusk, and Krusk is just the foil for the other Mercedes. Krusk wouldn't expect them to trust him so the plan doesn't rely on them trusting him. Or the other merc, since they specifically want to avoid fighting unless they are attacked, essentially getting an easy paycheck by forcing Sonia to fight either them and Bonrah when Bonrah arrives, or to turn around and either disperse or go down swinging. That's why I want Bonrah to want us so bad, to do a bunch of damage and focus on screwing up their strategies, their supplies, their whole goddamn day every day until they aren't willing to get us at any cost but definitely don't want us to get away. Both to restore their reputation but also because we've been a persistent problem disproportionate to what we should have been or can gain from our actions. Finding out an independently wealthy Baron with no successor who is also a skilled commander and recently responsible for a major defeat, who tends to hog the limelight and be a touch arrogant, who wasn't even originally a noble for goodness sake.

Yeah, I want them to think they can make sure to get us and then make the cost back by ransoming us plus whatever salvage as a bonus.

Everyone has a reasonable excuse. Warlord merc group 2 is getting paid twice specifically not to initiate hostility or to let us link up with Krusk. Krusk is protecting his reputation after Foss pulling the turncoat card as someone not to be fucked with, and is just looking to get the value for his Super out of whoever is easier, either us or Bonrah, and then picking Bonrah if they snub him. Worst comes to worst, we escape to Krusk and "surrender" to him and hang out, coming up with a Crazy Sonia plan to steal Bonrahs nice new super carrier thingy.

>one we can stay in touch with at all times.
That's the tricky part of operating forces in another relay. Long range communication can be problematic. Just about the only way to do it is to secure the Nav station.

More advanced communications systems that the Rovinar are supposed to be working on could conceivably solve this but they're never in a hurry to share advanced tech with other Factions. Especially those fighting a civil war.

They would probably be able to stay in touch with other allied forces in that region if they deployed com buoys.

[ ] Send cloaked scouts for now
[ ] Prepare to launch large raiding offensive

...

>[ ] Send cloaked scouts for now
I can not comfortably agree on sending our forces blindly into hostile territory no matter how much I enjoy the idea of savaging their holdings from behind their lines.

Quick question, how are asteroids and such wirh dangerous orbits dealt with usually? A rough time frame and distance out along it would be detected would be nice, as well as when and where it would be dealt with. Finally,the likelihood of one not already being known and planned for, although I have ideas about that.

Just thinking of something that could be, we'll pretty much a dick move but unexpected and useful.

>[x] Send cloaked scouts for now

> Send cloaked scouts for now while preparing raiding force. Scouts are to try to establish communication with allied commands and establish a contact protocol in the event we do foray into DRH2 so that we can send them a sealed one use encoded itinerary with suggested points in our projected course at which we would find it either easy or significantly useful to touch base and update each others strep and strategic positions, capabilities, expectations etc.

>[X] Send cloaked scouts for now

>how are asteroids and such wirh dangerous orbits dealt with usually?
Depends on the size. A ship, usually just a simple sublight tug, will be sent out ahead of time to change its course slightly. They might just move it so that it misses, or could decelerate it into orbit so an industrial facility could mine it.

If one is larger or closer to hitting a planet or installation multiple civilian ships in the area might be quickly hired to help change its course. Alternatively a Mining Barge might be brought in since they have tractor beams, powerful engines, and if necessary can just ablate one side of the asteroid to help produce more thrust.

Orbital platforms can use tractor beams, repulsors and weapons to do much the same.
Calling in warships to deal with them are usually a last resort. Or it may be done right away if there are plenty of corvettes in the system but no available tugs or civilian craft.

Two of your cloaked ships will be heading into the next Relay to scout around and do and other things. Including but not limited to this: Rah'ne and (despite her capture) Boosalis managed to make some investments while they were near Helios space. This is mainly in the form of two short body mining barges.

Do you want to see about getting them House mining contracts in the Run? Or would you prefer they stick to Rioja's system to help the off world economy there?

Keep in mind that Rioja has a lot of on planet mining in the Southern hemisphere. People may be worried by competition in space, but at the same time there are two asteroid belts in system.

Can they them help allied houses?

Competition is good for the economy. It lowers prices and leads to better products. Send them to Rioja to set up shop.

Get them set up on Roja. Maybe find a local source of investment to ease concerns of competition or at least have some people there have a vested interest in their venture so that there's a tangible noticeable benefit to the local economy even if the parts in competition with them take a hit.

I'm impartial here but since they're owned by either of them, maybe let them decide?

Mining in one of the allied systems? Could work. A little longer to set up.

I guess their venture would need some start up capital to pay for experienced crews. Competition plus local investment.

You're basically doing for them what Winifred was doing for you getting you Mining contracts for RSS when it started up to cut costs. Or that was the idea.

Are AM explosives able to be put in stasis so that they can be detonated by turning off the stasis? If you could hide it anywhere on or in an asteroid, is it conceivable that it wouldn't be found?

Finally, could we plant either valuable minerals or radioactives, exotic materials etc. Or possibly technology that the military would want as well as being able and willing to hold on to said asteroid themselves or have it put somewhere they could instigate it safely under guard?

Like if we planted imitation Neeran tech, working it into the asteroid so it would be a bitch to remove and hiding an AM bomb as an unknown power source or system? I mean, Neeran have a lot of previously unseen tech that uses principles and configurations alien to the known space civilizations.

Just spit balling. I think just randomly mining asteroids would be a little too much like terrorism if we accidentally blew up a civilian plant or mining craft.

But yeah, since it doesn't look like asteroids really need more than one ship to deal with it instead of just blowing it up when they came to get it we would have to get them to want to investigate and protect it while not being able to just remove the bait.

But I just realized that the sheer size of antimatter explosions opens up some options. If it's a big thing to hide, we'll just hide it in something big enough to do but still small enough to blow up with it.

>If you could hide it anywhere on or in an asteroid, is it conceivable that it wouldn't be found?
The stasis field would be detectable by high power sensor arrays. Once deactivated there would still be a magnetic bottle holding the antimatter.
You'd need power for the stasis field to stay on longer than a torpedo needs.

It would be just as easy to plant what looks like Neeran tech with potential surviving equipment in the stasis field then have it be the bomb.

Get the engineers working on a stasis trap?
>Y/N?

The squadron of Dominion Fast Battleships you just picked up lack upgrades. What did you want the techs to equip them with?

4x Spinal mount heavy phase cannon
4x LD Plasma cannon turrets
4x Neeran Corvette turrets
4x Light torpedo batteries
Afterburners (When DHI has finished development)
Pylons for mounting Aries Athena modules (Reduces sublight performance)

Would there be a need for them in the captured territory we set a new house up in? We could probably get some sweet tax breaks in exchange for a long term contract including terms that obligate us to reinvest a minimum amount of profits in expanding our business there, hiring from the local labour pool, setting up a company headquarters etc.

All of that is stuff we could benefit from, and instead of directly paying cash in taxes we would be investing in a higher future return for both the company and the community.

Not to mention building confidence in the economy of the region as well as in the ability of the new house to attract business and create growth and present itself as a stable entity. The long term nature of the contract by J-D citizens would also show a willingness of our house to honour the implied commitment to help stabilize the new house for the good of DRH1s overall security as well as showing that it's not just economically possible but also safe in a military sense and that there isn't dangerous discontent or that they think they might not be able to hold the territory.

How do LD plasma cannon turrets compare to neeran corvette turrets?

>Would there be a need for them in the captured territory we set a new house up in?
Possibly. Industry was damaged during the invasion.

>everything else
I was under the impression people already wanted something along those lines done in one of the Houses we liberated?

As for your recently promoted wing commanders they'd rather keep their personal mining ships inside the Run where they'll be better protected. Many business seem to feel the same way while Bonrah ships remain hidden in the liberated and occupied territories. If their ships are captured or destroyed who is going to pay for it?

The Neeran weapons have longer range and better shield penetration. LD's are shorter range, can't penetrate shields as well but they do good overall damage and you have the tech to easily replace or repair them.

Cont.

Actually, the more I think about it, we should get some sort of assistance from the house. Maybe a guarantee to buy any surplus production the local area can't absorb at a set price which gets J-D cheaper than usual goods and in exchange provides a guarantee of stability so that we can maintain growth or at least remain solvent if something happens. There's some risk that J-D might end up having to buy more than expected which in turn means the company will be making less overall than selling at a higher price to local/other markets, but even then J-D could benefit. If the local market is poor, then construction costs are low and they're buying a bunch of material from there anyways. Set up a refining/manufacturing installation using the cheap labour pool and local materials, hire from within those people when possible so you can train them with people from the head office back in J-D so you have both a homogenous corporate culture and also to foster loyalty to the company, that way you can send people there when needed to troubleshoot or train, and pull any exceptional talent out and bring them to the J-D office without much conflict.

[x] 4x Spinal mount heavy phase cannon

Ultimately, it's mostly beneficial for J-D as there's lowered cost by having integrated production from raw to finished product, brain drain since the company will get to pick the best people as long as the market is depressed and unemployment is low, economic influence and soft power over the house, and the warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you're helping people stay employed as well as having a favorable view of a J-D company. They can be a loyal citizen of their house, indeed the company should strongly promote values of loyalty and fidelity - while pointing out that the truest loyalty is to do what is best for your house, your company, and yourself even if it means telling someone above you they're wrong or coming forward with ideas, so that we create a culture where authority is respected but honesty is encouraged and results are rewarded.

And then employees will be willing to talk maybe about changes happening in the system. Possible upcoming laws that could affect business. Opinions of politicians, interesting gossip about who's getting into what, or how all the property in an area is getting bought up above market rate, how a secretary is happy that his husband in the military is going to be at home 4 days a week now instead away for 3 weeks and home for a month etc.

Stuff we will probably never visit in the quest, but ultimately a company came money, be a statement, provide leverage, and hemorrhage information in a matter so innocuous and incidental that it gives people who are paid to care about a deep seated hatred for dependopotopus wife's posting shit on FB.

Well, it would be nice to have a policy of building soft power in places like this with new houses, since we can't really take more territory without over extending ourselves. I don't think we can go full USA Marshall plan, but we can probably pull a 80s Japan where we pick niche markets that are lynch pins of local economies and take advantage of post-war economy to lead the field.

Thanks. Let's go with LDs in that case.

Bonrah forces that are left over, do we know if they are from local garrisons or from out system?

We could probably mention that the new house is a fresh start and offer amnesty for anyone who is from there that would like to return home. We'll consider them to be a citizen and ensure they are able to return to their life, have any seized assets returned or reimbursed etc. We'll have to vet anyone who wants to be part of their new military force, but any discharged personnel with be given financial support during a period of re-integration and retraining for civilian careers.

Troops that bring in ships or military material will receive market value of the ship which they can choose to divide among themselves by whatever seems fair.

Nobles and Officers who choose to surrender, of their own volition or for the sake of their crew being able to return to their homes, can expect to be held in a secure but comfortable and pleasant facility. We will do our best to let them keep in touch with family and to organize and keep business obligations if they have any, conditions allowing.

Raiding non-military targets will be considered disgraceful and pointless destruction, and such ships identified and crews caught are to be treated as corsairs and criminals, not prisoners of war or soldiers following orders.

>dependopotopus
I had to crack open urban dictionary for this one.

>I don't think we can go full USA Marshall plan
Your House lacks the funds for this as long as the Civil War is taking place.

Overall the biggest concern about further increasing spending in the liberated territories is: Will it impact Rioja's development. That planet may not be a black hole but but any money it produces is pretty much stuck there for now.
Them's the breaks of becoming Baron of a world that still had a decade of terraforming left to go.

Most of Bonrah's fleet stationed there were from the Dominion homeworlds. Some were even veterans of the Dominion's previous bout of internal fighting from Sonia's Dad's time in the military. That doesn't mean all of them are.

>new house is a fresh start and offer amnesty for anyone who is from there that would like to return home.
>Troops that bring in ships or military material will receive market value of the ship which they can choose to divide among themselves by whatever seems fair.
You guys want to begin propaganda broadcasts along these lines?

>Raiding non-military targets will be considered disgraceful and pointless destruction, and such ships identified and crews caught are to be treated as corsairs and criminals, not prisoners of war or soldiers following orders.
If they're flying their House IFF the worst you can do is potentially charge them as war criminals and even that would have to wait until the end of the war for trial. Certainly you would qualify as a war criminal by that same metric in the attacks on the Bonrah convoy since they were made up primarily of civilian ships. Whether they were coerced into carrying cargo for evacuation efforts or not they were still civilian ships.

In other areas your people also targeted and disabled civilian vessels of questionable nationality or allegiance.
Piracy is a slippery slope.

Can we only pick one thing?

>Afterburner for sure.

And

> 4x LD Plasma cannon turrets

If possible, but if that strains or puts restrictions on it's available power output then go with

> 4x Light torpedo batteries .

Dreams ships rushing at high speed towards the enemy, shield facing forward and charged as much as possible. To fast to engage in combat, but not ramming, and no target behind the question is why.

Ships pass each other, silent only to people but singing a song of waves and rays from engines roaring in the spectrum of their bold and powerful thrust and sheld shimmer like a sheer veil that does not conceal as much as display by letting you know that what you want most is behind it, creating a knowledge more intimate and clear and sure in detail than the eyes could possibly ever be able to truly see limited as they to merely what is there. Leviathan do not dance, but they are still beautiful.

Did they drop mines? Cold fired torpedoes ready to start their red hearts beating in a burst of flame while hungry sensors search for a single thing to scream target lock and and joyously seek a first and final union to birth brief bursts of heat and light racing out to be free mong the stars?

The ships continue on, but no explosions happen. No torpedoes, no mines, no hint to why those ships raced so. United in a single intense purpose, after the tension the feeling of being ignored is worse than any teleportation. All their foe left them with was the feeling that they had just been left behind.

"FRAKKING NEW GEAR. SLIGHT ISSUE WITH THE NEW SOFTWARE HOLY FUCK WHY COULDN'T THEY JUST PUT IN A SIMPLE OFF SWITCH."

"Hey, at least we now these new ladies like to run. It was lIke "

"Fuck you Steve, you're not a poet, your prose is purple and nobody cares. Damn, never thought I'd be thankful for the flight suit catheter."

>Can we only pick one thing?
Yes. Each one requires replacing part of the wing hull section.

I suppose you could go 2xLD and 2x Light torpedo battery but that might cause additional complications.
Afterburners mean no other upgrades would be fitted, though there would still be room for the heavy phase cannon turrets the other upgrades normally replace. These are shut down when the AB's are active to provide the extra power they need.

>flight suit catheter
Details I try not to go into.

Onward to the next round of acquisitions for the fleet.

Total Support Units in use: 213 (291 when Forbearance group returns)
Current Max: 362 (372 if counting planned 10 SU reserve)

The Accelerator platform being readied by your salvage teams will require 50 SU maintenance. That would leave you with 21 SU left to work with as of this moment.

You could split the support requirements with the Major Houses that will be taking part in the upcoming battle. Of course they would want to try and buy out your share of it once the fighting is over to repurpose it for themselves.

What are your feelings on this?

>What are your feelings on this?
Seems like a decent idea if we keep the amount of SU it applies to limited. I doubt the House will want to keep the fleets at this size permanently.

Try and split the platform with both Ruling House / Ber'helum, or just one of those two?

The Ruling House will probably want to put the platform back eventually to help trade with the Gelsan. Until then it might be kept in the relay as a weapon platform through the war.

Ber'helum is more likely to advocate breaking it down for reconstruction into 3 mega class super heavies. Something your House would probably win at least one contract to rebuild.

>Try and split the platform with both Ruling House
Oh, okay, I thought they were interested in sharing the cost for SU infrastructure in general.

I think I like the idea of putting the thing back to help with trade once the civil war is over better.

Our house lacks the fund I'm sure. That's why I think we should copy Japan's global investment plan and identify high end precision and skilled labour intensive businesses to support as a guarantor, sort of like buying specialized bonds from the company conditionally to keep them solvent at most for a set period at the termination they pay us out or convert it to stock.

We aren't lending money, we're selling security and confidence to businesses and the local economy to encourage other investors and attract business.

That way we are both helping as an ally and making sure we will have a voice that won't be loud be will definitely be heard.

There's a risk yes, but that is dependent on us fucking up the war so honestly I feel we might as well commit for maximum gain since we're all in anyways.

After all, if the territory is lost then the company collapses and we declare the contract unfulfillable and sweep it under the rug. It'll hurt our rep, but that will be trashed by losing the war anyways.

Survey soon

Fadila contacts you and arranges to meet at one of your secure offices capable of jamming any listening devices. They can sometimes make your artificial arm feel weird though.

Baron Torsten Vlegel of House Ceres wanted to discreetly get a message to you. In it he apologizes for not having the opportunity to contact you earlier but his House has been somewhat preoccupied. As your "Privateer" forces that were previously deployed to the region know all too well.

House Ceres has uncovered information that a number of their large asteroid tugs and production licenses for their basic hulls may have fallen into the hands of Bonrah's allies. They weren't entirely certain what was going on with it because only Ceres produces the necessary FTL system needed for them to actually move large asteroids. Instead it looks like they're being fitted with FTL from medium cruisers and with repair slipways for older attack corvettes.

They're converting them into heavy carriers each capable of repairing 2 wings worth of older Dominion corvettes at a time.

Obviously this is not good for anyone currently facing off against Bonrah right at this moment. With them they can keep their repair operations mobile and not rely upon fixed bases that could be suffer under the hit and run attacks favoured by many of their enemies.

The Baron has also become aware that your forces may have recovered data on the Talos Heavy Carrier. If your House were to sell it to them they could potentially build a carrier to rival those Bonrah is preparing to field.

>Your response?

>talos carrier
Didn't we already share that information with the friendly major Houses? Is there a problem with ceres that made helios decide to not give the information to them?

>Didn't we already share that information with the friendly major Houses?
You only recovered data for the central section, and if I recall correctly you guys refused to share any info about potential data storage sites or what you recovered. I'll double check though.

I've checked and between the recall of your forces from the region and the attack on Rioja's capital the design data was never disseminated.

You guys want to retcon that it was sent to your allied Houses? And do you want House Ceres added to that list?

SURVEY!

surveymonkey com /r/ BKKY52S

I'd like to accept on the condition that we get the carrier in addition to Ceres agreeing to support the RH/Ber'helum for ruler of the dominion when the time comes.

>House Ceres
I think this is a good chance to improve relations with them by selling them the data.

I don't think the data is quite worth them giving us the carrier they build with it, unless you mean for them to have it act as support for our forces during the conflict.

I meant political support. There's gonna come a time where it's gonna be 'Sonia, gather your allies and supporters and pick to support the current ruling and extend their reign, or side with ber'helum and have them take over'

The more supporters we have willing to back us up the more radical solutions we can propose. Like a RH-BH joint reign or some kind of cyclic powersharing agreement.

> I'd like to accept on the condition that we get the carrier

That was the part that confused me.

Bump.

Page 9 bump

Could we scale down the Reynard Heavy to a medium and/or battleship sized design?

Those alliance forward operating bases, could we use them to temporarily employ asteroids as additional farming space?

>Dro'all
>species with almost amphibian traits
Do the go REEEEEEEEEEE when they are really upset?

Apologies for not saying I'd resume in the morning. Got typing a Winifred side story piece and and started getting longer than planned. Not quote finished it yet as a result.

>Could we scale down the Reynard Heavy to a medium and/or battleship sized design?
I suppose so. Would require some major re-engineering of the weapon system mounts.

>Those alliance forward operating bases, could we use them to temporarily employ asteroids as additional farming space?
I guess? Were you thinking more hydroponics in place of most of the docking bays, or hollowing out an asteroid and spinning it?

Hydroponics instead of docking bays was my idea when I saw the image last thread. Although I have no idea how efficient that would be.

J-D / Run Alliance will be financing the costs of armor for the Warlord Super. In return they'll be provided an extended Merc contract.

Engineers will see about rigging a stasis bomb trap. Actually deploying it will be up to you. Hopefully if won't be forgotten and discovered later by civilians.

LD Plasma cannons for the Dominion Fast Battleships. Leave up to unit commander(s) is the runner up.

New propadanga efforts will be started in the liberated and occupied territories based around buying warships from crews.

Support costs for the accelerator will be split with Ruling House. 25 SU have been freed up.

Carrier data will be sold to House Ceres. People are rather divided on making it available to the other majors.

>With conditions on how the carrier is to be used in the current conflict, namely with priority in our theater of war.
The new hybrid Ceres carrier that would eventually result from them getting the data? Obviously they're going to want to test the prototype themselves so that its easier to collect the test data quickly.
They'd probably be more than happy to make one of them available to your House if it works out.

[ ] Sell Carrier data for cash now
[ ] Sell Carrier data for some cash now, and discount on new carrier
[ ] Trade Carrier Data for free Carrier

Can we trade the data for a limited volume per year license for the ceres design?

>[ ] Sell Carrier data for cash now

>Can we trade the data for a limited volume per year license for the ceres design?
Yes I suppose you could.

Thanks.

I'd think I'd go with
>[x] Hand over data with the option to either get a license for the finished design, or money in case we don't like it.

>. If you wanted a few days vacation you might want to take one after our response to the DRH 2 situation is decided

Yes, definitely. Finally time to visit Magdalena colony, spend some time exploring Rioja anonymously in holo-camo'd PA, bullying having fun with Linda, meeting the local Reynard company managers, bothering the governor and his staff, visiting the various shipyards, having somebody give us a tour of the Shallan Medium while it's under construction, taking a tour of the new dominion battleship.

There's so much we can do.

This is going to remain open. Please link that post if voting on it.

Linda was last reported as being on a joint Navigator / Alliance mission studying wormhole interaction with black holes. She's trying to stay away from the civil war.

You guys up for the rest of these?

>You guys up for the rest of these?
Sure.

I'd also like to visit the university we absolutely drenched in money, the Plasma moon, and also see how the nanite investigation is coming along.

>Other ideas
Visiting the Krath embassy, setting up a toy company focusing on producing those logic puzzles Sonia's mother enjoys so much. It would make a decent gift for her 50th birthday.. We could also visit the refugee processing station, anonymously, if possible.

Maybe go poke around the giant accelerator? It's meant to be the biggest thing ever right?

After delegating responsibility to look after the various duties regarding the new territories you take what you would consider to be a vacation.

"Most people would consider these to be work related destinations sir." says Rufaro as you descend to the surface of Magdalena.

On the way in you were able to make out the upgraded orbital defenses. They seem a little light but should be able to hold off small fleets.

Much of the planet seems to be set aside for agriculture with small towns dotting the countryside. You can make out the occasional hints of craters from orbital bombardments years or decades ago. Many have been left alone, allowing vegetation and tree cover to grow over them. The exceptions are streams or rivers that locals have cut paths through the crater walls for.

Bigger cities are all located near the major spaceports. They're a clash of styles from different species and cultures. Some look out of place or have a jarring appearance due to repairs. Overall the inhabited parts of the cities look to be in good shape. Any damage caused by your army when it invaded has nearly been erased.

The abandoned quarters found in each large city look considerably worse off. Much of those areas are showing signs of decay with little repair work done to revitalize parts damaged in the fighting. You're certain if you looked close enough there would be signs of gangs or other off the books operations.

"You're supposed to be on vacation." you remind yourself. No running off to stir up trouble in Not-Gotham.

While on planet you visit the estates of a few nobles that had resisted House Nasidum when they controlled the area. They're glad to have you and you in turn thank them for their support.

One thing you notice is those that sided with you had their holdings well away from the population centers. A few even had villages or self sustained communities on their property. You guess these are the more traditional established nobility.