Where we Left Off [RP TITAN]

[Chairman_Tiel]

Without aid from foreign powers, the stratocracy's military has been utterly crushed by overwhelming force. The Protectorate has successfully subjugated the Alpha Leonis system and retrieved the coordinates of the AI construct. Plans are underway to siphon war assets from the Reserves to fortify the system. It is uncertain whether the Taln wish to colonize the region, but subcommanders have been ordered to enforce their claim regardless.

In other news, a new production run of the new DX30 Auger type Lancer has completed.



An enhancement over various prototypes created during the Protectorate's isolation, the Auger is roughly analogous to a human destroyer in functionality - being able to bring more firepower to bear forward than perhaps any other ship in the fleet. It has been determined that a substantial contingent of these advanced warships will accompany reinforcements to the Alpha Leonis system. Their expense may make the notion seem foolhardy, but intelligence analysts predict that with firepower and durability superior to Taln Naval Command's current main combat vessel, the Excelsior platform, (along with being 50 meters longer to boot) the DX30 may very well prove pivotal in securing and/or defending the sector in the interim.

[Solar112]

The solari wouldn't know where the AI went, that would be zuguth and the ai herself, as the coords were sent in a closed transmission to the AI.

[Error]

As the Stratocracy was given the system by the Novan Commonwealth, the Novan government politely but pointedly has asked the Taln to leave the system.

Failure to comply with this would be considered a hostile action, at minimum; and there are few, if any, valuable resources in Alpha Leonis.

>>>Novus, CSN FleetCom, 2.12km below the island on Maurii
>>>08"35, local time, December 1st, 2752

"They wiped them out?"

"To the last ship. And they're hunting the AI."

"Tell our sneaky bastard in-system to go active, but do it in a very pointed way. And put Prometheus and company on Condition Alpha."

[Solar112]

Battleships: 48%

[Chairman_Tiel]

"Weapons testing? You can't be serious."

A baleful look was all the Altern leaning on a corridor wall gave the serviceman in response to the conveyed disbelief. The other Tien, whose slightly disheveled uniform read "CALOOK" in block text, shook his head in further confusion.

"No, no. You don't start a war to see if something works, Sanul."

"You do if you can win." The Altern said, evidently untroubled by the use of her first name.

Calook stared, by contrast looking quite flustered by the information.

"And if we don't?"

"We will." Sanul's gaze never left the wall opposite, not so much to avoid her subordinate's gaze as to study the seams in the metal material. The Tiera was a new ship, made with new materials in both age and use. This particular alloy was supposed to be stronger than anything in use by its contemporaries outside Protectorate space. But there was one hitch. The isotope that formed the base of the compound was hardly abundant; even less so in the Taln's own domain. As her cousin had speculated, to 'cut' the material with enough of another element to make it viable meant increasing hardness almost tenfold, yet not durability. Mistakes were thus uncorrectable. As Sanul's eyes tracked the camouflaged dents in the wall panelling, she could see this in particular must have had many errors. Uniform ones; nothing like the gross amount of flaws one might find on a human ship, but errors just the same. And such was unacceptable; they presented a weakness.

"I don't think that's why we're here, though." Salun finally back at Calook as she spoke. "Look at this wall. We take a missile here it's a three course meal of decompression for everyone."

Calook glanced at it, though not to any extent that would indicate significant observation.

"That'd happen on any ship. Shields go down you're narlked either way."

"Yes, but that doesn't have to be the case." She said slowly, hoping to impress upon him the implication of her words without explaining.

"Don't tell me you seriously believe that Intelligence stuff. A material that could stop a Titan missile would already be on all our ships by now."

"The issue is availability." Salun stood up and walked to a nearby window, leaning forward on the guardrail before it. "Where do you suppose we get more?"

"...I see." Calook scratched his crest, then perked up as he realized something. "Wait, then why the lie about the testing?"

She threw him another stare, this one somehow even blanker. "Perhaps it isn't a lie."

[Chairman_Tiel]

Battleships: 48%

These must be some small-ass battleships if you're finishing 25% in the span of a couple days with virtually no infrastructure.

[Solar112]

Robotic factions are going to be fundamentally different than organics. In this case the ships are the infrastructure. If you recall way back when I first introduced Jade, she built several construction ships which are shipyards with engines stuck on them.

[Chairman_Tiel]

Yeah, no. I have a crapton of shipyards powered by a strong industrial base (one of my specializations, actually) and I'm sure someone would call bs if I said I suddenly had a load of capital ships after a few rl hours. This isn't Supreme Commander.

Anyway:

The Protectorate commanders in the field Novan demands were submitted to have dismissed them as contrary to standing orders, and thus ignored. While extensive searching of Stratocracy databases has turned up nothing as to the AI's current location, a planetary defense station's timestamped log of local jumps and their trajectories has narrowed down the possibilities significantly, to an area approximately the size of a single sector. Scout squadrons have been sent out to triangulate a more specific position in preparation for the deployment of a battlegroup.

Meanwhile, Solari are being relocated from Alpha Leonis systems to a nearby region under the control of the Protectorate via military transport. Rumors indicate it is in preparation for a strip mining operation on the conquered worlds.

[Error]

The Commonwealth repeats its earlier statements, this time to the Taln government directly. A battlegroup of 30 ships, including Prometheus, Pegasus, and Distant Memory, has been reloacated to Alpha Canopis, nearby.

The prowler Observer, in the Alpha Leonis system, has dropped stealth and begun high-power DRADIS scans of the system.

[Chairman_Tiel]

Isolation, remember? You don't really have a medium to voice these demands.

[Professor Fenway]

Obviously robotic factions will be different, but you still don't have the infrastructure to assemble them in that short a timespan, constructor ships be damned.

Why? Electronics are complicated, weapons are complicated, ships are complicated.

Constructor ships, unless they're massive (You can't build them that quickly), are not viable replacements for shipyards. Sure, they perform similar functions, but they're not as versatile, and errors made by a constructor ship tend to not be as easily correctable as errors made by a shipyard.

Unless your constructor ships are flying factories that can build every kind of part, item, or electronic imaginable, then you need infrastructure. And even if they are, it would be ridiculously large and expensive, or else VERY slow.

Also, robotic factions are not THAT different from human factions. Sure, they don't need life support, but they still need to be able to access the ship interior to replace parts, still need to have power and electricity, still need materials and such. Still have flaws and weaknesses that aren't shared by biologics as much (I.E vulnerability to EMP pulses, extreme vulnerability to electricity, etc.)

Just because you're robotic now, doesn't mean that you can ignore these issues.

[Chairman_Tiel]

Error, I'm going to assume you either showed up at the border with an envoy and got turned away or tried using an outdated comm frequency. Given that, the overall commander of Taln forces in-system, Fleet Marshall Holk, has detected warp signatures and requested the already significant Tien presence in the area be reinforced. Taln Naval Command has overridden Directorate authority and committed the battlegroup previously assigned to destroying the rogue AI to Holk's reserves, as well as the prospect of an additional offensive task force entering the fray once assembled.

Onlookers decry the move as 'overkill' but TNC isn't taking chances here.

[Error]

Given FTL comms exist (i.e. send radio via hyperspace), the Commonwealtth would've sent their "back off" message via every currently-used frequency they know to you.

Also, Commonwealth ships use jump drives, so no, you didn't see warp signatures. You might have seen jump-flash, but not sure.

[Chairman_Tiel]

Way to be pedantic. Jumping ships are pretty easy to see either way, I think that's been established. Unless you're sending the Darkstar fleet against me the reaction remains the same. And that's the thing - you don't know any frequency we're currently using...it's been a while. Either way you have the TNC here calling the shots at the moment, and they're a bit battle-happy at the chance of a large-scale engagement. Directorate would take time to meet up and overturn that.

[Error]

So TNC is doing their thing. I assume this means send a ton of ships into the system and trying to look big and tough.

But just for reference, I feel we should both post fleet composition. So:

Spoiler:

Distant Memory, dreadnought-class
Pegasus and Prometheus, battlecarrier-class
Repulse-class destroyers, x15
Valkyrie-class frigates, x10 (including one EWar conversion)
Shieldbearer-class cruisers, x4
Longbow, carrier-class

Total 168 fighters (48 per battlecarrier, 48 aboard the carrier, and 24 from Memory).