Ngoverse "The Administrator" setting, "The Armada"

[kindalas]

I think those would qualify as "Bay" quarters.  The trip is long enough you want to pay for Steerage.

Beagle cores can superjump.

Which cuts down on the return trip.

[Cannonshop]

"Everything is math.  Expansion radii for the supernovas, precession rates, positioning of planets in the danger zone, possible 'rain shadow' events with other bodies in the systems."

The new SLDF Naval staff were from a selection of nations.  "Assuming the enemy hasn't blown up MORE suns, this is our conditions plot."  She'd requisitioned an athletic complex to hold the first wave briefing, and set up the lectern on the 50 yard line.  The entire ceiling of the domed arena was her projection surface.

"Wave Zero captains will be establishing transfer points along the main route-once you reach the Anchor point with your loads, you'll unload to dropships along a command circuit-the longest command circuit both in terms of duration and length, that we've ever done-everything is math and timing."  she emphasized, "Wave Two should be arriving as you're delivering your first load of passengers to Point Anchor.  Wave zero's transports will start moving dropships along the hand-off route.  to do this, we need to keep a tight schedule-because there has to be enough time-gap for arriving haulers on the short routes to come in while their opposites are leaving.  a portion of your vessels will be taking the long route back-that is, no hand-off.  This is because we don't know that the chain isn't going to be attacked and disrupted."

Here she folded her arms, "Study your plot-books and the playbook materials you're being given.  Study them hard, folks, especially the contingency sections, because in spite of this needing to be timed precisely, you may need to improvise and take the initiative for an in-flight emergency.  Codebooks and FTL comms are being provided to every ship in the fleet, and non-passenger capable vessels are being detailed to sheepdog the route, but things can, and likely will go wrong out there.  Failures are inevitable, the test of character and success is what you do after the fecal matter has struck the rotary air-motion device."

She uncrossed her arms, and tapped the podium with her crowbar.  "Study the lists of your squadron commanders and fleet group leaders, then study and plan your routes, we've got three years and six months to go before this mission goes from 'very difficult' to impossible, Everyone not on the Squadron Lead list, is dismissed, Squadron Leads hang back on my mark.  Mark."

[Artifex]

Guessing here, but I think this is a presentation by dear Sharon Ngo? Transporting Commanding General of the 3rd SLDF?

[Cannonshop]

Wave Zero Rally Point One, 'Coast Guard Sound', outer system, Idrmach...

The station was still under construction, and it would finish construction at about the same time that the ships from Wave Zero reached Clan-space.

well, the fringe of it, anyway.  Captain Christine Vanh watched the departing jumpships from a spot on the hull of the huge recharging array.  well, above the hull-tethered so she could go back inside at a moment's notice.

"You wish, you were going with."  Gary's voice on the comm said.

"I do." she agreed.  "How did the natives take the First Lord's offer?"

"Well, between the Sea Fox merchants and the sheer presence of so much military  might in their system, they were refreshingly stiff necked bargainers."  His voice was amused, "However, the Supreme Leader's council proved somewhat less...resistant once it was demonstrated that the offer was not optional."

"So you had to kill him."

"I did. His heir was surprisingly level-headed about the whole affair, especially the parts involving local infrastructural improvement and how much longer he will live if he doesn't make trouble for the new Settlements."

"Will there be enough food for what's coming in two years?" she asked.

"The Agronomists from Hood IV think so, and the Davion experts are in agreement-there should be sufficient food for the incoming refugees as they wait for transport and immigration paperwork."  He sighed, "It would be simpler to designate 'Clan homelands' and simply assign them."

"yeah, well...simpler isn't necessarily better.  spreading them out in the general population of the member states gives each member state a burning reason to take them in." she stated, "Which also means each member state has a burning reason to contribute to the effort, and it prevents the formation of hostile power-blocks."

"Aff...where are you?"

"Dorsal power array, about eight meters above the number six emitter's particle shield." she told him, "Officially watching the new construction of the number two O-Cylinder."

"The new O'Neill structure, hmmm?"

"Temporary housing.  Jesus, it's bigger than Spider Moon, and Anchor Point is going to be bigger yet. By the time we're finished on the construction out here, this will be the largest military base since the fall of the Star League, and the largest Naval base in history...only there are going to be bigger ones by the time we can claim the record...ohh, there she is."

"She? who?"

"The WS Große Hoffnung, that modified Beagle they were talking about." she said, "She's right on time and looks ready to take on fuel."

"WS?"

"Weltraumrettungshiff, means 'Space Rescue Ship' in German." she said, "Since she's a private venture vessel seconded to the LCN she gets a different designation to separate her from military-only ships.  The second half of the name is just 'Great Hope'."

He chuckled, "A fitting name."

"I wanted her, Gary." Christine said, "I wanted her, but I'm not senior enough.  They gave her to Von Dammen, and I can't even resent it because if I were Admiral Ngo, I'd give it to Kyle Von Dammen too."

"Who is this man?" Gary asked, his signal was clearer and she could see him laboriously moving along the structure braces in her direction.  "This 'Von Dammen?' why would you have chosen him?"

"Maintenance supervisor on Winter Key and a brilliant damned engineer." she said, "He's also notoriously good with people, which is kind of vital for a mission this long with these stakes."

[Cannonshop]

"It wasn't until they really started working on Operation:Rescue that...

...we saw just how large the Lyran Navy actually is, my Khan."

Khan Lucas McKenna of Clan Snow Raven goggled at the figures from the Watch.  "I knew it was large...savashri."

Surveillance teams operating at the site of "Coast Guard Sound" in the Idrmach system sent beautiful hologram images of departing ships.

Hundreds of departing ships.

daily.

Not just the Cutter classes.  Those were beginning to tally into the thousands as Star League Coast Guard units, rooted in the Kowloonese model but now incorporating recruits from across the Inner Sphere, Periphery powers, and even his own Clan sent older Solahma and high-scoring test-downs that would otherwise be disruptive.

Thousands of cutters, hundreds of Landmark Class destroyers, and dozens of Marsden II class cruisers were just the tip of a massive fleet of contracted and volunteer civilian jumpships.  Mixed into that, were League III class Destroyers from the Free Worlds League,  along with the massive super-transports built off their chief carrier class, and this did not include the dozen Fox Class with their flanking escort of Kentares light carriers, Combine built Kaga class carriers, (Shinano II, Kaga, Mitsu, Koga, and Musashi).

The Armada leaving the Inner Sphere on a mission of mercy was many times larger than the SLDF that left the Inner Sphere under Aleksandr Kerensky, and they were intent on coming home.

"They can not afford to lose that." He mused aloud.

"My Khan, they are building more ships."  his Watch commander revealed imagery.  The multiple shipyards in the Commonwealth were cranking out MORE hulls, new ones to replace losses.

Transport ships were also being laid down and rolling through the Free Worlds League's yards, the Draconis Combine had three MORE shipyards up and running, pushing out more of their supercarriers, but mixing in smaller cruiser, destroyer, and even Cutter designs.

"We need to boost our numbers.  Not just in hulls, but crew, officers...size." He said quietly, 'When this is over, there will be thousands of idled warships and mankind does so love going to war."

[Euphonium]

[Jaws]
"We're going to need a bigger boat navy!"
[/Jaws]

[kindalas]

At what point will the LC switch cutter designs to a mix of 25kt subcompact core ships and 100kt compact core craft?

Because I feel like they now have a reason to want more then the 15ly range per jump.

[Cannonshop]

"We're going to need a bigger boat."

Primary phase, was getting the Clanners out of the danger.  That was the main and primary thrust.  Sharon floated in the void, Old Earth below her feet, the SLS Beagle, formerly the LCS Beagle, floated ninety kilometers above her.

The quote came from some ancient movie about a giant marine predator.  It didn't really fit, but it strangely did.

contemplate the problem: a massively superior interstellar civilization is killing upstarts.  They gray-goo'ed a few planets antispinward, and coreward, they're using improbably large forces to disrupt and detonate suns.

She walked through the memories of the briefing materials, the imagery from former enemies, and her own understandings of physics, mechanics, and logistics.

That much EM flux should be visible from here...and maybe it will be in a few centuries or millennia.

in a few centuries or millennia.  That was the problem.  No information, but they've been closer than that.

They can't be that much older than us.

she floated, trying to force her mind into that null-zone.

they can't be that much older than we are.  Maybe a few centuries at most.

why are they attacking?  and so extravagantly?

The attacks aren't regular, there's no follow-up.  They find a civilization and they exterminate it, but not to claim land.

conquerors would have made some more noise.

so xenocide, but what's the advantage?

"We're going to need a bigger boat."

no.

Amphibian.

Reptilian.

Mammalian.

The human tree.

but that was competition for territory, for mates, for food...

"Obscurity was the secret of our success." Her Grandmother had said it.  "There are those who can't survive ANY competitors, at least, so they believe.  We did it for a time-buying out or sabotaging competitors, stealing their customers, routes, work...their inventions and patents even.  It's business as usual."

Competitors?  one way to win a competition is to out adapt an opponent.  The other, is to crush them before they become a threat.

Star league formed, the first thing they did was invade smaller states. 

Comstar forms, and executes Operation:Holy Shroud, to prevent competition.  Thousands of millions of pages of knowledge were gone overnight.

billions dead, to preserve a monopoly.

it gripped.  "On the Gripping hand, we don't know where they are...but when we find 'em, it's going to be a war."

we need a scout with longer legs.

[Artifex]

Sounds like we'll be seeing updates to the K-F-Drives? longer legs does indicate higher LY jumpranges?

[glitterboy2098]

possible disturbing conclusion: they are us, just a branch of humanity (be it organic or digital like a Caspar AI) that has been separated and developing on its own since star league times.

[Euphonium]

Sounds like we'll be seeing updates to the K-F-Drives? longer legs does indicate higher LY jumpranges?

Longer jumps means bigger gaps where you might miss something.
The ability to recharge faster, jump more often, and stay away from base a long time sounds more likely to me. I wonder if there's a way to fit multiple LF batteries into a hull...?

[Liam's Ghost]

Sounds like we'll be seeing updates to the K-F-Drives? longer legs does indicate higher LY jumpranges?

Well, there's the brute force method used by the Word of Blake. If you had the infrastructure to replace cores on site, it might be faster to burn out the jump core in a super jump, replace it, and continue on your way than going the long way. But the cost is going to make every economist from Taurus to Strana Mechty cry.

On the other hand, ships have achieved super long range jumps without destroying their cores before. It's just that it was always an accident...

[Artifex]

Longer jumps means bigger gaps where you might miss something.
The ability to recharge faster, jump more often, and stay away from base a long time sounds more likely to me. I wonder if there's a way to fit multiple LF batteries into a hull...?

I always thought you could determine what range you actually want to jump towards... wouldn't make sense to fix jump range to a given range without being able to adjust it?!

Like your canon max jump range without LF Batteries is 30 LY, right? So why not go and upgrade a KFDrive to be able to perform jumps up to like 45-60 LYs without LF Batteries and then you have the option to decide how far you want to jump? Which would influence the amount of energy you'd need to recharge to perform another jump?

[serack]

 there was 2 types of superjumps one destroyed engines one only had chance if you jumped too far...unless its been reconned while i have been away lol 8)

[Artifex]

there was 2 types of superjumps one destroyed engines one only had change if you jumped too far...unless its been reconned while i have been away lol 8)

I think Liam's Ghost was alluding to misjumps as well

[Liam's Ghost]

I think Liam's Ghost was alluding to misjumps as well

Yep, the Alfirk misjump covered close to seven hundred light years with apparently only damage to the sensors and control systems. The core was still sufficiently intact that an agrarian colony established by their descendants was able to restore the ship and try to head for Terra.

Comstar were the only ones who knew about Alfirk back in the 3050s, but presumably the knowledge of them could have spread, making it clear that this sort of thing was possible. 

[Korzon77]

you know one thought--the way the enemy is acting--mabye it's a paperclip maximized?

Which is to say, a non-sapiant program designed to just take out technological alien threats, with an ability to evolve new tactics--but not grow beyond itself.

It would explain why there seems to be no follow up.

[Daryk]

Like I said earlier... it could be an SDS system that went rogue and finally decided the HW clans were "not human"...  ^-^

[worktroll]

A billion drives? That is NOT the Clan industry base. Nor is it a Clan SDS by itself.

[Red Pins]

Longer jumps means bigger gaps where you might miss something.
The ability to recharge faster, jump more often, and stay away from base a long time sounds more likely to me. I wonder if there's a way to fit multiple LF batteries into a hull...?

Google search the 'Shrapnel' story, they had it at fanfiction.net

The author used Dropship sized batteries to make 4-5 in a row, then cool the core.  He also used a 'Hyperspace Rift' To cross massive distances.

[Daryk]

I didn't say a "clan" SDS...  ^-^

[jonen c]

Like I said earlier... it could be an SDS system that went rogue and finally decided the HW clans were "not human"...  ^-^

The SDS was designed to protect not humanity but the Terran Hegemony and ultimately the Cameron dynasty (as too the Star League... from a certain point of view).

If, say, alien contact made someone authorize an expeditionary version of the SDS to clear out potential threats to any of the above, and it's now come home to roost, it might not care about the clans being human.

Best case scenario if that's the case, it's set to sterilize anything beyond a set ("controllable") distance from Terra, which means it'll need to be put down to allow for future expansion but it's not an imminent existential threat unless it's programming also has armageddon contingencies for the Terran Hegemony not existing.

Of course, even if someone sent out the SDS and the SDS didn't go rogue, this may be the response from a group or entity that not only survived, but defeated it, backtracked it, and holds a grudge.

[glitterboy2098]

If, say, alien contact made someone authorize an expeditionary version of the SDS to clear out potential threats to any of the above, and it's now come home to roost, it might not care about the clans being human.

how does one define Human?

the babylon Five 1st season episode "Infection" comes to mind.
where an old bioweapon is found on a dead alien world, organic tech that created a supersoldier out of a host. created as a defensive weapon in a great war. in order to protect the inhabitants, the weapons were programmed to not harm any Ikaarran (the race that built it). but the programming was devised using cultural and ideological standards of the ruling authoritarian government, a standard based on an ideal of the perfect Ikaarran. so when the weapons were activated to defend the world they stopped the invasion.. then started massacring the Ikaarrans because nobody actually lived up the ideal

Clan society is pretty alien compared to the Terran Hegemony or the IS  states. and much of the clan populace has genetically manipulated DNA to one degree or another thanks to the regular infusion of warrior-sibko rejects. it may be that the Clans just didn't register as "human" by whatever criteria was set.

[jonen c]

At present there is insufficient data to determine what criteria (if any) the Xenociders use for targetting, or even whether there is even only one single group of xenociders. (Call it optimism?)

We can say that their threat assessment matrix has either been updated recently, or makes a distinction somewhere between "early interstellar" and "has warships", and their response escalates rather drastically at some point in that spectrum.

[Cannonshop]

3 months down the Exodus Road, May 22nd, 3166...

Vice Admiral Elizabeth MacAulliffe went out to personally check the rigging on the comet.  This wasn't because she wanted to show off-she absolutely didn't.  But she also absolutely didn't trust the training of the Snow Raven contingent assigned to her group.   She'd faced down the Ghost Bears during that short war, and their spacers, despite having the best equipment for the job, had been...insufficient against her.

so she checked the Snow Raven technical team's work on the ice-block that would form the core of 'Water point 4'.  She wasn't alone, a group of Folk spacers from the MS Sleeping Dawn, and team of Rockjacks from the Khe Sanh Ridge were out here too-ostensibly because of the size of the job-wrangling a 5 KM dirty-ice comet and wrapping it in portable refinery to extract water, and from that, hydrogen and oxygen (and other valuable trace gasses and minerals) is a big job-and a necessary job for the fleet coming behind them.

There are a half dozen more 'water points' that have to be established, along the route.

"it's good." she said after finishing her analysis.  "You did good work, Tech."

"Of course!" the Snow Raven senior tech said, "why would you doubt-Oh, right, you're Lyran."

"Arlunan." she corrected him absently, "cain't yah tayll?"  it had become something of an old joke by now.  "You got the training the Bear's people didn't, this is all correct, including the vent assemblies to deal with blowout, and you didn't need to be told."

he laughed, "We are not all innahlodah, Admiral.  Even with the Clan presence.  Poor Ghost Bears are all Duttyfet, You sig Beltah?"

she laughed, "I's dirtyfeets learned Rockjakkah, only jaw small Beltah, diggit tho'.  I'd think your Warrior casties would try beat the old jaw out of you sig haya?"

"The Ravens are remarkably tolerant, something about being outnumbered several hundred thousand to one." he laughed, "Some Savvy Spasah now yah tho'. ayeh."

"Shiny." she grinned.  "I see work to be done, and I'm out of the way..."

"Free Stars, Admiral." he told her.

"Free Stars and safe transits." she gestured back, stopping just long enough to watch them light the tug-engine that would move the comet to the right solar orbit.

the drift back to her flagship gave her time to think, which is why she did it that way, instead of taking a shuttle.

***

Star Commodore Maximilian Siegel watched the Lyran Admiral's course and felt a little pang of professional envy-someone so completely comfortable in null-gee that she would use a six liter 'broomstick' to return to her ship instead of relying on a pressurized shuttle.

Her apparent effortlessness as a spacer was a quality that the Watch had neglected to analyze, focusing perhaps a bit too much on her record of victories against both Ghost Bear and Shadow-Fleet forces, and a little bit too little on how the woman conducted herself in the day-to-day.

Working with her, was a learning experience.  She could socialize with Folk, the almost-gypsy-like spacer subculture that flitted in the cracks of civilization, and Rockjacks, and Belters, while also being 'clear' with officers from nine nations and three Clans.

Proven Warriors that are also proven diplomats aren't that unusual, or even that worthy of envy.  It was how she seemed to simply become the void, to swim it like it was her native place.

[qc mech3]

I could see the Ravens going for a trial/ extreme bargain for the Admiral's genes. the MacAulliffe would be a great new bloodname.  :) :P

[Cannonshop]

Novy Moskva, Eden...

Rochelle didn't have instructions for this.  The bulk of the Warrior Caste had vanished overnight, taking with them the highest rated scientists and technicians, Merchants, and craftsmen.

the top 1% of each Caste, gone now two years without a message back to the homeworlds.  At first, it was for operational security, obviously.  The mission to pave the way for a return to the Inner Sphere, to punish the traitor lords and end the taint.

but not so much as a status report.

It was obvious, of course, that they would take factories-one of the critical failures of Operation:Revival had been the excessively long supply chain...

But then, a Coyote trader arrived, with pictures of a supernova.

Pictures, and word of more and suddenly, the Grand Council's agreement to return to the Inner Sphere as conquerors made a hell of a lot more sense.

She had once served as a front-line warrior in her Clan, she knew something was wrong at the announcement, she'd suspected things when they dismantled so many facilities, when they took the Genetic Repository with them.

but she was only a Solahma now, and the Coyote trader's word, and the pictures, put everything together.

we've been abandoned.

She did what she had to do to maintain order.  What could they do? The mothball fleet had been stripped, the hulks left were too broken to repair, and even if they were not, the foundry facility to make new cores had been taken, and there simply weren't enough transport jumpships left to even attempt to evacuate.

Left behind, the ranking warrior left in Novy Moscva, Star Colonel Richard, was just as used up as she was.  But he was ready to do things that would stir nothing but panic, as the people learned the truth.

she did what she had to do.

we must face this with dignity.

as she bled out in the ruins of her 'mech, and the Star Colonel strode up to the wreckage, she gripped to that fiercely.  we have been left to die, but we can still do so with our dignity.

[Cannonshop]

FSPS Ranger, Wave zero scout mission...

Tommy Gordon accepted the consumables report from Chief Warrant Leeson, and continued to study the astronomical chart.  The Ranger is a third-generation ship of the Federated Suns Patrol Force.  Twenty-four-thousand tons and equipped with one of the most expensive jump-cores possible, a subcompact unit pushed to the edge of its envelope, Ranger was a hard march ahead of the Lyran cutter programme, with a baseline 30 light year drive in a hull even smaller than a Sampan II, packed with the best electronics and surveillance gear that could be rammed into her hull, the Ranger would never be mistaken for a combat ship-instead, they were a fleet scout, the secondary capacitor would only power a 15LY jump, but that was fine, because teh main core didn't take forever and a day to recharge, and the stealth tech from Taussen's shipyards made up for a lot-the automation of functions did more.

Right now, they were taking pictures at 90 light minutes out, of a supernova where there was no reason for there to be one, the shockwave bent light at this distance, and it had been expanding for over a decade.

He finished his calculations.  "We can use the route, this wavefront won't reach the main trunk for another decade."  he finally said with satisfaction. 

"Sir, should we try making contact with the Pentagon worlds while we're this far forward?"

he actually considered it.

"No." he said, "not yet.  The Clanners were cagey, but according to Vanh's report, they almost admitted to keeping the people they were leaving behind in the dark, we stick to the plan-KCGS Tranh Truk Ngo III will handle first contact, they're an older ship and the Coasties kind of treat this sort of mission as their personal fiefdom."

"you just gave the best reasons for it to be us?"

"No, I gave the best reasons why we're going to stick to the orders outline." he grumped, "Kowloon's got a special place in their history-if the Clanners that fled were freaked at a Kowloonese squadron meeting them at Idrmach, that means they remember."

"The Elbar Impalers?"

"Among other things." he said, "High Command thinks letting 'loonies make first contact with the locals will prevent some stupidity, I'm good with that."

He finished his course-plot for the next jump.  "Stand by, guys, we've got some pics of the past to take."

"sir?"

"Ten years, right? we can get better images than the ones those Clanner bastards brought to Idrmach-maybe figure out where the starkillers came from."

[Cannonshop]

KCGS Tranh Truk Ngo III, Landmark class Destroyer, 2 jumps from the Pentagon cluster...

"Merchant ship just came out of jump, she's running heavy sir."

Captain Mike Nguyen wasn't a close relative Admiral Nguyen, but the jokes didn't stop because of that.  They shared traits-both had seriously painful TDS and massively powerful jump visions, both were male, both had black hair (though the Admiral was going prematurely gray), and both were from the Quarantine Zone.

But Captain Mike Nguyen cut his teeth with the Exploration fleet under Admiral Hogarth as a Middie, and then as a proper officer.

In Coast Guard parlance, Landmarks were classified as 'Advanced heavy cutter' models, while in the proper LCN, they were Destroyer Escorts.  the difference was independent operations.  Operations, like going into the maw of the demon to tell the people there that they were going to maybe survive what is coming after all.

"How's the hull-kote looking, Keillor?" he asked his Chief Engineer.

"Sparkly, sir, high-reflec, they should be able to see us coming."

"Let us hope they do not use that as a targeting point."  his XO, Lauren Von Jankmon, a Tinspawn from Hue whose TDS was almost as bad as a natural born's, groused.

"X, you have the most endearing habit of being right...except when you make dark predictions of incoming disaster, you know that?"

"I believe the term, 'that is what I am being paid for' comes to mind, sirrah." she said.

"Pray your pessimism is wrong, okay? we've got six months to make local contact and get the locals organized for the arrival of Wave One, hopefully without needing to shoot our way through bull-headed leaders and their isolationist bullshit."

"Contact identifies as Clan sir, Stone Lion, one of their merchant vessels, and she's spotted us."

"Send hail."  Mike said, "Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll help spread the good news?"

"Don't be such a damned optimist, sirrah."

"This is Clan Stone Lion Express Trader to unidentified Warship, we are not hostile!"

"oh, that's not a good sign..."

Mike cleared his throat and keyed his mic.  "Express Trader, this is Kowloon Coast Guard 6502 identification, Cutter Tranh Truk Ngo and we are GLAD to see you, over."

"Why?"

"Because we wanted to make sure there were still people here to save, Express Trader, we are the advance contact ship for a flotilla under Star League authority, here to provide aid and evacuation to around one billion, seven hundred million people in the Pentagon Worlds and Kerensky Cluster. We know about your little supernova problem.  your people have not been forgotten, over."

[DOC_Agren]

I'm going to feel really dumb here Cannonshop, because I have been reading these Ngo stories for years

The "Free Stars and safe transits." I know it a "star people" almost religion like idea right, but can you better explain it?

Also I never thought I hear a Clanner unit be happy to see the KCG arriving.