Good 30 years have passed, Lost another survey ship, discovered two another species plus fair amount of new mysteries.
I will try to do a more detailed writeup when get home.
EDIT : or not because i got the god damned “2.7.0 function #3822 : object reference not set to an instance of an object” bug anytime i i forward time or select Earth. Fukken hell.
Edit 2.0 : seems i fixed it by simply using SM mode to replace all officers…
Argh, being the “only” superpower in known space has its drawbacks, lost 11 ships while entering a “secure” wormhole…
Sitting on the other side some 50! 900 ton ships, only to kill 6 ships in the first blast, the fleet trying to turn around being hit by lasers, electron weapons, shields being crushed, armor breached, scoring deep wounds, confused orders from the flagship HMS Implacable, still some 5 more ships are blown up, then suddenly the aliens stop firing, our surviving ships limps back to the wormhole and leaves…
Leaving some 1000 survivors, drifting in space, in total some 7000 men and women are lost… 2CA, 7DD, 1DE and 1DDG is lost…
Then on the other side, in HO Librae, even more confusion, there seems to bee something crawling on the outer hull of HMS Implacable, flashes, many flashes, then sirens onboard, decompression alerts, followed by the sounds of small arms fire…
Afterthought, do check that the ICN (Imperial Communication Network) is responding on the other side, before making the jump…
On 17 April 2064, 11 years after the Serene Empire first began exploring systems outside Sol, an unknown alien contact was detected in the Sol system on a direct heading for Terra.
Taken by surprise Navy Command activated the 1st Battle Fleet and dispatched ISS Aboukir, a 30,000 ton Frigate designed for long range operations, to maintain a distance of 1 million kilometres from the target to determine if the contact is hostile.
With the contact capable of moving faster than any navy ship in the fleet keeping the contact within missile range is considered a top priority.
The fact that this ship managed to enter the Sol system undetected has highlighted the need for proper sensor buoy deployment in Sol and surrounding systems. Plans had been drawn up some years back for a sensor system and a Shadow sensor buoy was designed but not put into production.
The official that allowed this oversight to occur has been relieved of their position.
"Welcome, freelancer, to your brand new Cobra-class ultra-light transport ship.
From the moment you first sit down at the controls, you will become part of a new, growing segment of economical entrepreneurship.
While we are certain you have already gone over the specifications of your new ship before buying it, we have included them below for reference sake.
Cobra class Cargo Shuttle 200 tons 1 Crew 11.6 BP TCS 4 TH 3
1564 km/s Armour 1-3 HTK 1
Maint Life 61.54 Years MSP 78 AFR 3% IFR 0.0% 1YR 0 5YR 1 Max Repair 5 MSP
Shuttle Access and Infrastructure 3x Shuttle Accommodations 4x Shuttle Cargo Hold Passenger Cabins
Shuttle Engine S2 (1) Power 6.2 Fuel Use 3.49% Signature 3.125 Exp 2%
Engine Power 6.25 Fuel Use Per Hour 0.2 litres 100 tonnes
Fuel Capacity 5,000 Litres Range 128.9 billion km (954 days at full power)
As you can see, the bulk of your ship is taken up by the engines, just a little over half the displacement. This is to ensure a high top speed, giving you an edge over the large, more cumbersome freighters when transporting small groups of passengers or light loads of cargo.
These engines, regardless of exact manufacturer, are optimized for efficient travel, using only a minute amount of Sorium fuel per hour. Even under constant thrust, your ship will fly for almost three years on a full tank.
As with the earlier Adder, the engines take up the rear half of the ship on both decks, with control and maintenance access at the front of the engines. Most of the engine is exposed to Quasispace and inaccessible, and requires professional service available in most space ports. Please do not attempt to tinker with it yourself, especially deep in Quasispace.
The front half of the lower deck consists of the cargo lift, cargo holds capable of holding 20 tonnes, and passenger cabins which can be freely re-arranged to provide accommodations for one to several passengers.
With a surface area of 180 m2for the cabins and 144 m2for the cargo holds, you have plenty of options.
You personally will probably spend most of your time in the upper front deck, where you will find your accommodations, controls, and supplies. There are three spacious rooms available for you to furnish however you wish, ensuring that you will not feel cramped during your many days travelling between worlds.
This entire ship can be run by just one person, you, though nothing is stopping you from hiring a pilot to control the ship for you, or companions to take along on your adventures.
The stars are yours, go and grab them!"
Tlalli Quetzal stretched herself, enjoying the quiet hum of her ship all around her, a hum she was still getting used to.
Just as she was still getting used to the idea of this beinghership. It had taken all her life’s savings, and a generous loan, she had managed to get her claws on one of the new Cobra shuttles.
No longer was she stuck doing simple work on a large freighter, now she was master of her own destiny, free to make her fortune and her name.
Already, her efforts were paying off.
While cargo from Nublar to Bazooka was more-or-less monopolized by the larger bulk freighters, she had managed to snag several contracts to deliver packages to the asteroid, and even a passenger needing a ride to the Coriolis station in orbit there.
Docking at the station had been an adventure. Her ship was easily twice the size of the small shuttles it normally received, and there had been some media interest in her landing.
Dealing with interviews had taken almost as long as cargo handling, though it felt good to be the focus of at least some news broadcasts over the next days.
Currently her cargo hold was mostly full with the exports from Bazooka, as well as three hens needing passage to Utopia. She did not expect to sell all her cargo on her next destination, but rather to split it up amongst the next several stops she was planning to make.
Looking back at Bazooka, or rather setting her display to the rear camera (this was something she really needed to get used to), she could see the bloom of the mass driver there delivering another load of minerals into the direction of Nublar.
A glance at her control panel showed all systems amber, and that her passengers were safe in their cabins.
With a contented sigh, she settled down, browsing her library of movies to see which grabber her attention.
She had achieved her first life’s goal, and eagerly looked forward to what the future had in store for her.
I’m very glad to see that Cobra isn’t fitted with a docking computer. Is she saving enough to fit a beam laser?
Oh the ship has a docking computer, it’s just integrated into the controls.
As for weapons, there’s no real choice of them that fit on a small ship like that, and nothing to use them on anyway.
Now I want to pilot a Cobra too, what’s the price for the ship?
Lies and slander.
Cobra-L class Shuttle 200 tons 2 Crew 51.2 BP TCS 4 TH 36 EM 0
9003 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 HTK 1 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0-0 PPV 1.5
Maint Life 3.39 Years MSP 20 AFR 40% IFR 0.6% 1YR 3 5YR 40 Max Repair 18 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days Morale Check Required
Ion Drive EP36.00 (1) Power 36.0 Fuel Use 1545.57% Signature 36.00 Exp 24%
Fuel Capacity 9,200 Litres Range 0.54 billion km (16 hours at full power)
10cm C0.2 Ultraviolet Laser (1) Range 96,000km TS 9,003 km/s Power 3-0.2 ROF 75
Direct Fire Control R96-TS5000 (SW) (1) Range 96,000 km TS 5,000 km/s ECCM-0
Magnetic Mirror Fusion Reactor R0 (1) Total Power Output 0.2 Exp 5%
Active Search Sensor AS2-R1 (1) GPS 3 Range 2.7m km MCR 244k km RES 1
I’m not saying this is a good idea, but you can absolutely fit a laser on a 200-ton shuttle and use it to shoot things.
At 200 tons you’re probably better off with the single-shot railgun though.
Cobra-R class Shuttle 200 tons 2 Crew 48.8 BP TCS 4 TH 50 EM 0
12501 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 HTK 1 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0-0 PPV 0.98
Maint Life 3.95 Years MSP 25 AFR 40% IFR 0.6% 1YR 3 5YR 38 Max Repair 25 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days Morale Check Required
Ion Drive EP50.00 (1) Power 50.0 Fuel Use 1482.32% Signature 50.00 Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 9,500 Litres Range 0.58 billion km (12 hours at full power)
10cm Railgun V40/C0.75/S1 (1) Range 40,000km TS 12,501 km/s Power 0.75-0.75 ROF 5
Direct Fire Control R40-TS12520 (SW) (1) Range 40,320 km TS 12,520 km/s ECCM-0
Magnetic Mirror Fusion Reactor R1-PB60 (1) Total Power Output 0.8 Exp 30%
Active Search Sensor AS2-R1 (1) GPS 3 Range 2.7m km MCR 244k km RES 1
Although I would probably push up to 250–300 tons to get the twin-linked railgun into play for double the firepower at less than double the size.
More than 50 years went by since the destruction of Pathfinder by the ALPS.
ALPS themselves proved to be non issue - the Task Force 1.1 led by the newly built UNSC Revenge entered the system, closed to the planet and opened fire on the forces stationed on it.
As a result both planetary defence centers got destroyed with hefty chunk of ground forces AND population of Alpha Centauri II - ONI estmated around 50-75mil dead ALPS from the bombardement.
Entire “campaign” provided valueable info on the capabilities of UNSC Navy which was quite sobering to the people in charge. Current UNSC ships were never intended to operate outside Sol, they all been designed and built in times were no one even humored the scenario of traveling to other star systems so their main goal was to operate inside Sol where there 11bn range was more than enough to cover distance to even the furthest outposts on Umbriel and Titan.
As a result entire TF 1.1 had to float on low fuel levels deep inside the Centauri system before they were joined by tanker because distance from Earth to AC II is almost 10bn km.
After that small anti ALPS expedition there was relative peace for circa 20 years with UNSC even actually managing to get the full communication with ALPS ( Kingdom of Asuncion as they called themselves, not that anyone on UNSC side uses it outside official channels ) and planting UNV Cicero, purpose built diplomatic ship in ACentuari system to facilitate official communication between both nations.
Survey corps with conjunction with Engineering corps continued to explore and stabilize jump points, leaving probes at the jump points to monitor situation in various systems.
And then in December 2249 our current crop of troubles started.
On 7 December 2249 ( im playing with date starting at 1 to get more years just in case but the official “lore” and headcanon for me is that the game started in 2100 so i have to do math when writing dates lol ) UNV Amudsen made a first contact in V1216 Sagittarii with a new alien race.
Amudsen retreated at once, mindful of Pathfinder fate, leaving only a sensor probe behind.
Year later, before the full communication could be established with SAGS, on 16 december 2250 a new alien race was discovered in the same system :
Before anyone could mount any response the Ghosts ships started appearing in other systems - their nickname came from their ability to somehow travel to these systems without any tranist being detected or even getting cloes to the jump points - including Sol.
They dont seem to posses any kind of missile technology which is good because their engine tech is clearly superior to UNSC with ships pulling 5.5k km/s while fastest UNSC ship class traveling at 3.5k km/s.
Initial incursions into Sol and other systems resulted in loss of UNV Enterprise survey ship, several Garry class superfreighters and three terraforming ships in Mars orbit.
We also lost two Engineer regiments with their supply companies in ground combat on Proxima II when Ghosts dropped 20k tonns of ground forces on top of my 40k made mostly of engineer forces.
They also attacked ALPS with single parasite carrier and almost managed to jump CIcero before he managed to retreat.
In the face of Ghosts overwhelming speed and short range weaponry Navy doctrine had to change entirely with recall of all assets to Earth and massive redesigns of all three military classes we had - Revenge class was now redesigned as Heavy Cruiser with ironically enough less armour and launchers but vastly improved range and speed while both DDG’s and FFG’s became escort equivalent with additional range and speed upgrades. As we cant yet match Ghosts for speed we had to take advantage of their short range weaponry and now every civilian fleet/vessel is escorted by at least two military vessels even if its Earth Luna run.
Its been 32 years now - our missile and engine tech ( Nuclear Gas Core ) is finally catching a bit so we can think about pushing out and retaking Proxima Centauri and possibly helping SAGS in their fights.
We recently developed 5th generation missile, Scimitar MK5 that should vastly improve our kill rate against Ghosts as it has almost 50% hit rate against targets travelling at 5k km/s. We also improved our targetting systems and sensors a bit along with actually building a ground force to retake Proxima II. I have high hopes for MK5’s as last combat use of previous gen MK4’s shown a much needed improvement in killing power even in them compared to MK2 and 3’s. Unfortunately missile production on Earth is bit slow now with only 4.8k BP worth of ordnance production which doesnt seem bad until you realized single Sword class Heavy Cruiser full load takes 500 Scimitars not to mention CM-3 ( Counter Missile ) production just in case.
Both Earth and Mars are mostly secured by now - Earth has an actual defence net of orbital forts and weapons platforms while Mars has a base that allows up to 100k mil tonnage to station in orbit which is mostly used by small detachment protecting new terraformers. There are currently 5mil people living on Mars with enough infra to sustain 50mil which is great because they going at it like rabbits with almost 6% of annual growth.
We are also building two new shipyards on Earth - one stated for 100k and other for 25k, im thinking of experimenting a bit with fighters/FAC’s that can actually run down Ghost ships to get some more tactical flexibility.
Ironically if we secure Proxima our next step should be establishing presence in Alpha Centauri as systems beyond AC are the only ones we never saw any Ghost ship there..
Oh and check out whats happening in Ross 128 because there are a loooot of Ghost wrecks there but no signs of fighting or any other enemies.
A Cobra, including a full supplement of fuel and spare parts, will cost you 11.6 MegaCreds. Which is more than two full year’s salaries for the average person, and you still need to provide your own furnishings.
Of course, a 108 square meter living area, alongside all the surrounding infrastructure is quite good for a mobile home.
Update on previous contact.
On 17 December 2064, exactly 8 months after first contact, the contact redesignated Nanahuatzin 002 suddenly reappeared and attacked the Enki class Fuel Harvesting Station Enki 001 over Jupiter with energy weaponry.
JMC (Jupiter Mining Command) immediately issued a distress signal to Navy Command (NAVCOM). Unfortunately the 30k ton Cruiser [Previously misidentified as a Frigate] ISS Aboukir was stationed 3 billion km away on the Proxima Centuri Jump Point.
Fearing that all three FHS would be destroyed before Aboukir could redeploy, Sol Fleet Command (SOLCOM) was ordered to dispatch two of its 10k ton Frigates, designed for in-system and colony defence, to engage the threat. The Tia class Frigates Desert Rose and False Hellebore rushed to the scene and engaged the threat with their 15cm laser weapons.
After a broadside from both frigates the enemy contact exploded violently. The Desert Rose thus became the first Serene Empire Navy warship to destroy a hostile contact.
A salvage vessel has been designed and commissioned to salvage the orbiting wreck. Luckily an Enki class fuel harvesting platform is 77% sorium harvesters and the damage is repairable.
Desert Rose and False Hellebore have been re-tasked to the newly created Jupiter Protection Taskforce.
The alien race has now been classified as hostile and designated ‘Anklebiters’ for their cowardly attack on unarmed space stations. NAVCOM has issued ‘Destroy On Contact’ General Orders to all warships when encountering this race.
On the Paradox forum - Paradox is a Swedish computer-game company, specializing in very complex strategy games - our consultation Aurora 4x game has been going on for nearly two and a half real-life years. Started in January 2024, using version 2.5.
The game thread is up over 600,000 views and over 22,000 posts. Nearly 100 years have passed in-game since our 1948 “alternate Roswell” conventional start.
Our game’s back-story continues to develop.
We finally won the “Forever War” against the treacherous Modrons and occupied their home planet. Only a few fugitive stacks of commercial ships escaped - freighters, fuel harvesters, colony ships, etc - and for practical purposes we are back at peace.
The other NPR that we’ve been in regular contact with, the Bork, have reached “Friendly” status, about 1/3rd of the way to “Ally”. But recently they have started infiltrating some of our loosely-held star systems, setting up their own colonies, and then asking us to leave.
I don’t actually care if they want us to give them a few star systems; with our own expansion plus the conquest of the Modron Empire, we have lots of star systems to spare… and once they become Allies we will want them to be strong anyway. What use are weak allies?
But the star system that they recently demanded contained a planet with ore deposits that included 11 million tons of 90% Gallicite. Since Gallicite has been our most urgent concern for decades, that was a tough call to make… hand it over to them, or prepare for war.
We decided to hand it over but to reinforce all of our best Gallicite star systems with colonists and financial centers. Why financial centers? Because they require the same number of pops to run as a mine does, and are no more difficult to ship in freighters, but they provide five times as much EM and Thermal signature per installation as a mine does. In effect, the financial centers boost our sovereignty over the star system, by boosting our signature.
… I’m slowly getting to the point. Bear with me…
One of our best Gallicite mining systems is called Cornucopia. The ore deposits are on a CC 6 body, which limits us mostly to auto-mines (or an orbital station holding millions of pops). But the Cornucopia star system contains such an unusual planet that we decided to put the orbital station at planet Inferno instead of putting it at planet Cornucopia.
Planet Inferno is both the innermost AND the outermost planet. In the winter, the temperature drops to -70 degrees C and halogens such as Chlorine and Bromine are flowing liquids. In the summer the temperature rises to 565 degrees C and base metals such as Tin, Lead and Zinc are liquids. There is little useful mineralization on Inferno. Just the crazy climate.
So how do we rationalize an orbital station containing millions of pops and hundreds of financial centers, in orbit around such a hellish planet?
We’re using the place as a movie set! We are using the apocalyptic planetary surface to shoot adventure movies - The Adventures of Dick Forward, Space Ranger! - also televised survival games and extreme sports such as hang-gliding over a lake of molten metal, or free-climbing a cliff as it softens and melts into lava.
The financial centers that we are bringing in represent movie studios, production facilities, talent agencies, insurance companies and so on. Since the planet has mild temperatures twice each planetary year as it passes through quadrature, this encourages the producers to divide the production into “Season 1”, “Season 2”, “Season 3”, etc because they can visit the planet-side production facilities twice a year, when the temperatures are tolerable.
A new Warhammer 40k campaign is underway, testing v3.0. Click to zoom in or the colours do not show correctly.
And after the jump points are discovered.
Steve, Is this the campaign test after which you will release the 3.0?
It was going to be, but now because somebody asked there will have to be a second campaign before 3.0 can be released.
It’s a more extreme version of how every time we ask for a release date, the next release is pushed back another month … 
Yes, that’s the plan. I’ll be spending a month travelling from late June to late July and then another month from mid-September to mid-October, so in-between those is the most likely release window. Unless I have more free time than I expect in the next few weeks, and two of those weeks are the TT races on the island.
If you don’t know about the Isle of Man TT, look at YouTube 
I am just come back home after a 3 weeks trip of the life to Japan and I am now depressed 
I do not like motocycles very much but definetly the Island of Man is one of these “unique” place I want to see.
There is definitely a lot more than the TT
Here is a 90 second video about the island.
Now I want to visit Isle of Man!
The Terran empire was finally able to board an alien vessel.
The two previous attempts had been unsuccessful due to both vessels being destroyed in large secondary explosions. It’s unclear if these were the ships reactors going critical or some sort of self destruct.
This time the contact Paladin 003 approached the new border naval base of Galathon 2 jumps from Sol. There was a garrison force of 3 Raven - Mark 2 frigates (10kt) which launched their 6 Leopard light fighters (250t) to intercept.
Having 3 times the fighters available than involved in previous engangement, the flight commander decided to test the hostile PD and slowly chipped away until the ship was disabled. This took considerable more missiles than the previous engangement that resulted in destruction.
The Raven frigates intercepted the contact 12 hours later and lingered outside of known weapons ranges. A single frigate then crossed into weapons range being attacked instantly, a single missile was fired in return reducing incoming fire to acceptable levels.
That frigates imperial marine fireteam was deployed onto the now disabled Paladin, these 16 soldiers then spent the next hour and a half clearing the ship successfully capturing it while losing two of their number in the process.
Designs are being developed to replace the Raven - Mark 2 with a more effective frigate to protect the empire from these aliens that don’t appear to use jump drives.
This new design will remove its own missile batteries in exchange for a longer range direct fire weapon that can disable vessels in a more controlled manner. Additional the imperial marine facilities will be replaced with additional hanger space that will then hold a dedicated boarding transport. This should remove the need for the entire frigate to enter weapons range of disabled vessels.
In other news the Hartha system survey fleet that reported a mineral rich Earth like world somehow managed to miss the existence of alien activity on the surface despite provided detailed mineral surveys. Thankfully the colony development fleet detected the presence of alien ground forces from a distance and opted to make the 70 day return trip to Terra.
Closer to home following the successful processes used to Terraform Luna, Mars is nearing the end of its terraforming and a small fleet of colonist transports has finished construction. Plans for the Imperial Ground Forces (IGF) to heavily invest in the colony world once terraforming has been completed have been confirmed.
Anti-imperial radicals have started spreading propaganda that the IGF plans are a direct response to the Hartha incident and are strongly advocating for a diplomatic ship to be sent.
Edit - I wrote that too soon, turned out the fight wasn’t over yet another 4 frigate size ships appeared including a new type which ended up being a PD platform. Captured all of them but the new ship was destroyed after and one of my frigates was disabled. Very fun fight.
