Here is my turn for 2361-70. I hope you guys like reading.
Panic grips the Federated Suns!
The brief battle in the Highspire system in 2358, or the "Highspire Affair" as it later became known as, blindsided the Federated Suns. Both the Administration and Public could not believe that the upstart Capellans had not only managed to construct a warship which rivaled their own and used it so effectively, while their own navy looked amateurish and incompetent in comparison.
The media was swift to place the blame on the commander of the FSS Albion, Rear Admiral Charles Arthur. Accusations flew both from the public, and government that the admiral was incompetent, that he lacked drive and aggressiveness, that he had attained his station by the efforts of a secret society, that he was secretly a Draconis agent, and strangely, that he fancied Capellan tabbies.
In an attempt to put themselves in front of the situation as best as they could, the princes agreed that an investigation was needed to determine the cause of their near-cataclysmic failure. The following year an inquiry in to the Highspire incident was launched. While some wished to steer the investigation more towards deficiencies in procurement and intelligence, public, and ultimately political pressure quickly switched the focus again to Admiral Arthur and his handling of the battle. In his testimony the Admiral vehemently defended his actions, claiming that had he been given proper information about the Capellan ship's capabilities and sensible orders from the Admiralty he would have not engaged in such a risky operation, or that if the rest of the fleet hadn't been deployed "in the ass-end of nowhere" he would have had a chance. He further went on to claim that he was told, in person, by the head of the Federated Suns Navy Intelligence (FSNI) prior to embarking on his cruise, that the "Cappie tub only has half of what their propaganda claims".
The FSNI head subsequently denied any such conversation ever took place.
On August 20th 2364 Avalon City Police, acting on information leaked to them from the military, enacted a search of Admiral Arthur's residence. Upon conclusion of the search, the Admiral was arrested and charged with, possession of child pornography, possession of a controlled substance, racketeering, and unsafe storage of firearms. With such serious charges leveled against him it seemed certain that the now disgraced Admiral would spend the remainder of his life behind bars.
Mere hours after his release on bail on the night of September 3rd, officers of the Avalon City Police responded to calls of a disturbance at the Arthur residence. Upon entering the home, officers quickly found the Admiral dead of an apparent overdose. The next 48 hours on New Avalon were a wash with conflicting and contradictory reports either claiming that both the Admiral and his Lawyer, were both found dead at the residence, That the Admiral had been murdered by a prostitute, or that the Admiral had killed himself with a single point-blank shot to the back of his head.
In the end, it was established by the lead investigator Detective Andrew McMurray, that Admiral Arthur had indeed committed suicide by ingestion of some unknown narcotic which had caused an immediate and fatal cardiac arrest. The detective also established that, contrary to information circulating online, there was no evidence of any struggle at the residence, and that security camera footage showing several unknown individuals arriving at the home in an unmarked sedan was fabricated.
Soon after the police closed the investigation in to Admiral Arthur's suicide, the Highspire inquiry also reached its conclusion. After four years of investigation and deliberation it was decided that fault for the Higspire incident rested solely on Admiral Arthur's poor handling of the situation. His overconfidence and lack of tactical acumen were to blame for the deaths of the 6 AFFS pilots, 32 crewmen and near-loss of the FSS Albion. The inquiry also recommended that to combat the rise of any further officers of Arthur's "caliber" that a new and independent, and most importantly strictly naval academy be constructed on New Avalon, and that a through screening process be enacted for any officers selected for warship command.
While many decried the investigation as a sideshow, claiming the real fault lie with the bureau of ships for not equipping the Albion-class with effective sensors, and FSNI for for failing to execute their job with even the basic hint of competence, the public had seized on the spectacle, and any and all other AFFS deficiencies were quietly swept under the rug.
It is also interesting to note that, while generally ignored by the public, shortly after the conclusion of the Highspire inquiry a memo from the privy council to the head of Universal Ship Yards was leaked online on Delevan. The document, which was swiftly denounced as a forgery, consisted of one line "Following OPCM investigation, any further bids must include NCSS."
Aftermath
With the Federated Suns Navy paralyzed by the Highspire Affair, there was no will or capacity to enact any risky new projects like in the decade prior. This lead to the unfortunate cancellation of several promising new projects, or alterations to the Galahad and Albion programs which would have filled serious gaps in FSN capability.
One silver lining however is that with a sizable hunk of funding available and construction of new warship classes career suicide at this point, an unassuming procurement program called the Recharge Initiative was able to gain serious traction.
Federation-class recharge Station
After the conflict in Tikonov, it was readily apparent that to properly enact their strategy of rapid deployment and maneuver warfare, in both offence and defense, the Federated Suns required the capability to quickly recharge both jumpships and warships. Command circuits proved too costly, and while they delivered troops rapidly it proved to be in too limited a capacity, and it was not feasible to have their limited stable of warships deployed evenly across the frontier, and be able to react en-masse while relying on their own jump-sails for recharge.
To solve this a group of planners and engineers, who called themselves the Recharge Initiative, put forth the plan to rapidly construct and deploy inexpensive charging stations across the Federated Suns. The stations would be primarily armed with fighters which would both keep production costs down, and allow the stations to project substantial power far outside of the range of even capital-class weapons.
Class/Model/Name: Federation-class Recharge station
Tech: Inner Sphere
Ship Cost: $287,325,000.00
Magazine Cost: $92,240.00
BV2: 10,048
Mass: 400,000
K-F Drive System: None
Power Plant: Station-Keeping Drive
Safe Thrust:
Maximum Thrust: 0
Armor Type: Standard
Armament:
24 AC 2
48 Machine Gun (IS)
Class/Model/Name: Federation-class Recharge station
Mass: 400,000
Equipment: Mass
Drive: 4,800
Thrust
Safe:
Maximum: 0
Controls: 400
K-F Hyperdrive: None (0 Integrity) 0
Jump Sail: (0 Integrity) 0
Structural Integrity: 1 4,000
Total Heat Sinks: 142 Single
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 10000 points 4,080
Fire Control Computers: 0
Armor: 558 pts Standard 1,393
Fore: 93
Fore-Left/Right: 93/93
Aft-Left/Right: 93/93
Aft: 93
Dropship Capacity: 0
Grav Decks:
Small: 0
Medium: 2 200
Large: 0
Escape Pods: 70 490
Life Boats: 0
Crew And Passengers:
23 Officers in 2nd Class Quarters 161
102 Crew in 2nd Class Quarters 714
12 Gunners and Others in 2nd Class Quarters 84
396 Bay Personnel 0
25 1st Class Passengers 250
50 2nd Class Passengers 350
Steerage Passengers 0
# Weapons Loc Heat Damage Range Mass
4 AC 2 Nose 4 8 (0.8-C) Long 24
8 Machine Gun (IS) Nose 16 (1.6-C) Short-PDS 4
4 AC 2 FR 4 8 (0.8-C) Long 24
8 Machine Gun (IS) FR 16 (1.6-C) Short-PDS 4
4 AC 2 FL 4 8 (0.8-C) Long 24
8 Machine Gun (IS) FL 16 (1.6-C) Short-PDS 4
4 AC 2 AR 4 8 (0.8-C) Long 24
8 Machine Gun (IS) AR 16 (1.6-C) Short-PDS 4
4 AC 2 AL 4 8 (0.8-C) Long 24
8 Machine Gun (IS) AL 16 (1.6-C) Short-PDS 4
4 AC 2 Aft 4 8 (0.8-C) Long 24
8 Machine Gun (IS) Aft 16 (1.6-C) Short-PDS 4
Ammo Rounds Mass
AC 2 Ammo 1920 42.67
Machine Gun (IS) Ammo 10000 50.00
Number Equipment and Bays Mass Doors
36 Bay Small Craft 7,200 2
36 Bay Fighter 5,400 8
36 Bay Fighter 5,400 2
36 Bay Fighter 5,400
3 Energy Storage Battery 300,000
59,000 Cargo, Standard 59,000
Administration
Budget - 91
Upkeep - 3.126
Upgrades
Delevan shipyard (1->2) - 10
R&D
Federated-class Recharge Station - 0.287
Construction
Ships
2x Galahad-class Cruiser - 21.575
4x Albion-class Frigate - 28.354
Stations
20x Federation-class Recharge station - 5.746
Misc
10x Jumpship - 5
14x Lt Dropship - 4.2
2000x Fighter - 10
Research & Other
Research - 1.209
