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[Destructionator XV]

Picking where I left off before college:

As to PW IV: I have been thinking what the A'millian reaction to the loss of the conduit would be: sit back and wait to be rescued. I have much, much more to say about the potential, but I need to get to work right now, so it will have to wait until I get back.

What would happen without the conduit to go home is they would be cut off, with only the facilities at the base and the ships present, which imposes a few limitations.

1) Fuel production at the base is limited to recharging existing fuel pods. (A'millian ships don't normally run with antimatter as their fuel; instead they use a high viscosity gel like substance that holds large amounts of energy and can be recharged and discharged in a safe, controlled way. This gel stuff is manufactured at various facilities back home, and is recharged by large power stations over a long time (months). After some use, they eventually become inert and can no longer be used.)

Starbase 242 has two power plants capable of recharging these: one in closer to the sun that slowly recharges it on solar power, and the other is a fusion plant on the surface. They have no way of manufacturing more of the fuel gel. If they were isolated from home, they could recharge, but it would be too slow to maintain full scale operations.

2) The trip home would take a long time, and with the above mentioned fuel problems, they could not make it before running dry. Moreover, most the ships there don't have large enough tanks to make the trip even if fully loaded.

3) A special ship sent from home with large enough tanks could make it one way certainly, but getting back would be a problem, since 242 would not have the facilities to recharge them in a timely fashion.

4) Without the long range transmitter at the base, 186 back in the home galaxy would be out of communications range, so they would be out of contact. If the transmitter remained, the lack of the conduit would still cause problems because of a massive communication lag and degradation.



With those problems, rescue from home would certainly come, but it would take a while, possible two or three years. In the mean time, they would have to be conservative on fuel use or anything else advanced for that matter, since they can't make new ones.
Food and water wouldn't be too much of a problem. They would have to set up farms at the base for long term self sufficincy, but they could certainly do that.

One possible way to get at least some of them home would be get the Aurora (where is Aurora anyway?). It is fast enough, and probably fully fueled, so some of them could take it back home. But it is not a full solution as it would leave people and equipment behind. On the same vein of that is contacting the Asgard and ask them to ferry a message back home telling them about the situation. Of course, that doesn't really solve anything either, it just lets them send messages back and forth.



My goal if stranded would simply be holding out long enough for a rescue ship to arrive from central command.

EDIT: The hardest part, aside from local trouble, would be giving the men and women at the base something to do. Just sitting there for two or three years isn't going to be pretty. Odds are, we'd have to send them off on random missions to map spacial anomolies or some bullshit just to keep them busy. This is something I might have to look into further later.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Also, does the Galactic Empire have freedom of the press, or is it just FOX errr... Xizor News Network for everything?

Of course the Galactic Empire does have freedom of press However, all media companies just happen to be highly patriotic. In fact, I may introduce some Imperial version of Captain America

Oh, by the way, the Phoenix War's Galactic Empire also has freedom of speech, so I guess there should be an Imperial artist who draws Lord Adam's cartoon in insulting manner.

In other words, what if we reintroduced the Guardians; KAN, don't freak, hear me out.

NOOO!!!! *gets freaked out, pulls out his hair, throws his monitor away, stomps Jon's testicles*

Um, alright. However, what are their motives? Remember, the Guardians were originally benevolent Maiars who served to keep as the universal balance to the Phoenix Force. The reason they became corrupted was because the Phoenix was corrupted as well.

But at the end of PW 1, the Phoenix was purified (by removing the Dark Side of the Force from Darth Kreshna), so the Guardians just don't have the motives anymore. If they still want to mingle with mortal affairs, then they should have the motives to do so. What are those motives, then?

[DesertFly]

To be completely honest, I would just as rather not have any "shadowy aliens" controlling stuff behind the scenes. I mean, sure, it can work, but there's so much more freedom and pathos when we rush into calamity purely through our own greed and spite. What little I know of human history has shown me that there is plenty of those qualities to go around, without the need for some big scary alien race pulling our strings.

[DesertFly]

Also, KAN, way to stir up things and reinforce everyone's hatred of the Big Evil Empire TM.

I'm sure it was completely homegrown, too. No drawing from real life, here.

[Destructionator XV]

To be completely honest, I would just as rather not have any "shadowy aliens" controlling stuff behind the scenes.

Well, the reason I'd be for it is them being back would give the Sith someone else to kill.

Aside from that, the obviously FOX news style media in the Empire is doing enough of a job to really anger everyone.

I won't be happy until the last Troll is strangled with the guts of the last Imperial.

[Ra]

I dunno what the Guardians' motives would be, so just disregard my last two OOC posts as basically throwing out ideas. I suppose the game is moving along enough to not need my plot input.

And god knows every time I do introduce new plots, it tanks the game. I introduced the plot that KILLED PW I, and my self-engineered PW II blew up in my face. :(

[Destructionator XV]

I want to nitpick a few things from KAN's latest post:

Some wanted to boycott A'millan products, but there were not many A'millan imports in the Empire

In fact, there should be none whatsoever, since the A'millian Star Empire doesn't trade goods with outside nations. Even if you had something we wanted, which you don't, shipping would be hideously expensive and time consuming.

For many of the same reasons, there are no Imperial businesses at all in the ASE.

depicting Lord Adam as a pedophile.

If he were to ever meet this cartoonist, it is within his right to kill him where he stands. That seriously is quite insulting to the old knight's honour. Would he actually do it? Probably not, but he could. (I should write up a giant irrelevant post on the traditional code of honour some time)

And lastly, a chance to use an emoticon I've never used before!

The message was clear: the A'millan Star Empire was ... religious

:stupid:

[Ra]

Heh, a bunch of nationalistic neocon tards accusing an athiestic society of being religious fanatics. That made my night.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

And lastly, a chance to use an emoticon I've never used before!

The message was clear: the A'millan Star Empire was ... religious

:stupid:

Alright, how about changing the word 'religious' to 'feudal'?

depicting Lord Adam as a pedophile.

If he were to ever meet this cartoonist, it is within his right to kill him where he stands.

Now THAT would make some interesting plot development. Of course, according to the A'millan laws, Lord Adam has the right to kill a cartoonist that insults him such way, but it is an Imperial cartoonist. Thus, that would pose some problems. It is not like that Lord Adam has the rights to kill a foreign cartoonist in a foreign land (except if the cartoonist is stupid enough to visit A'millan Star Empire, where A'millan laws apply).

However, I think Lord Adam can make a public announcement about offering a reward to anyone who can kill the cartoonist; you know, like when Khomeini put a bounty on Salman Rushdie's head.

[Destructionator XV]

Feudalism doesn't fit either.

In one of my long irrelevant posts, I touched upon how their government works. Look down after the first time I skip two lines to read about it.

Quick summary:
The ASE is an absolute monarchy on the federal level, but out of practicality, much of the government is left at the local level, in a form of federalism. Each member state is permitted to pretty much do its own thing internally, provided it adheres to the small set of Federal guidelines (basically they must have an approved Constitution) and pays its taxes. Indeed, many local and state governments are democratic.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Also, KAN, way to stir up things and reinforce everyone's hatred of the Big Evil Empire TM.

I'm sure it was completely homegrown, too. No drawing from real life, here.

*cough*UnitedStates*cough*cough*Bush*cough*

(clears his throat) Ahem, nope. No drawing from real life at all. In fact, the whole STGOD I'm writing is purely fictional; any relation with real life nation is of course, purely coincidental.

[Destructionator XV]

Christ, my browser is lagging like a bitch tonight.

However, I think Lord Adam can make a public announcement about offering a reward to anyone who can kill the cartoonist

Can't do that. Honour killings are very specific in how they can be carried out, and moreover they are very, very rarely actually done (ethics trump honour, and there is the other directive from the training: "A true Knight would sheath his sword").

If such a killing were to occur, it must be face to face with blades. The dishonourer must be made aware of who is killing him and why, and must also be given the chance to fight his way out in a sword duel. (Though, if he declines, he can simply be executed according to the traditional rules, so it is an offer he can't refuse).

But, since most Knights feel honour killings are petty anyway, this is again, very rare.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Feudalism doesn't fit either.

....................

Quick summary:
The ASE is an absolute monarchy on the federal level,

Alright, I changed the word 'feudal' into 'absolute', so it now reads 'absolute monarchy'; now don't make me change it again into Smirnoff monarchy or Stolichnaya monarchy (cookie for the reference),

If such a killing were to occur, it must be face to face with blades. The dishonourer must be made aware of who is killing him and why, and must also be given the chance to fight his way out in a sword duel. (Though, if he declines, he can simply be executed according to the traditional rules, so it is an offer he can't refuse).

Well, how about Lord Adam makes a public announcement that he'll challenge the cartoonist in a duel to death? Of course, the cartoonist would decline, and the Galactic Empire government will say things about 'freedom of speech' and 'freedom of press'.

[Destructionator XV]

Alright, I changed the word 'feudal' into 'absolute',

All right. It is at least now factually accurate.

Well, how about Lord Adam makes a public announcement that he'll challenge the cartoonist in a duel to death?

Because when it comes down to it, he doesn't give a fuck. Let these stupid humans spread their lies, he doesn't care enough to go out of his way for it. If the guy said something like that to his face, he'd probably respond with the threat that he could kill him where he stands, but wouldn't actually do it.

We have a few old Klingon customs, but Vulcan brains.

[Destructionator XV]

I just mentioned a WPT, and as is obvious by context, these are faster than light long range weapons, standard equipment in an A'millian arsenal.

WPT means 'warp powered torpedo'. They are our normal warheads attached to a warp field sustainer. The standard model travels at about 4x the speed of light.

They are launched at warp speed on a timer. When that time elapses, the warp field sustainer deactivates, returning the warhead to real space. From there, its own guidance system and thrusters take it the rest of the way to the target. Against a target travelling in a predictable pattern, the timer can be set with high precision and accuracy, resulting it almost instant detonation upon returning to real space.

The main reason you don't see these more often is warp field sustainers are somewhat expensive to manufacture (as are many advanced missiles) and they are hard to target, making many of the other weapons in the arsenal better choices in many situations anyway.

The common defence against WPTs is evasive action. If the target's location cannot be reliably predicted, the warhead must spend more time in realspace on STL thrusters on its own guidance system, which gives you more time to use decoys or point defenses to shoot it down.

Stationary targets are pretty dependant on the obvious: theatre shields, and the fact that timing the sustainer to precision is a hard task when the target is a planet (the planet's large mass interferes with warp fields, which is also why ships use impulse engines on approach to orbit and why they break off of high orbit before going to warp). They usually reenter realspace in a location of high orbit and go down from there, and they are usually pretty easy to intercept with traditional countermeasures.

Also, a WPT can be intercepted by another WPT, or indeed, any object in subspace, but that is an expensive countermeasure and hard to target, also depending on precise FTL sensor data, so it is pretty rare.


The rest of this post is skipable.


I talk about things being expensive quite often as a limit on our military power, and this is important because of the kind of government we have. A single missile can cost millions of dollars, which looks like not much in the nearly $28,800,000,000,000,000 (that is 28.8 quadrillion dollars, about 4x what the US would be if scaled up to 180 earths; high because the A'millians have high taxes to maintain their vast social programs) the government grosses annually from taxation, but remember most that budget goes to domestic concerns: the public education system, the national health care system, the welfare programs, etc (yes, it is a socialist wet dream. Hell, it works for Canada). A good chunk of it also goes to administrative costs for the government (including human resources) and infrastructure maintenance. Then there is law enforcement and research and development.

In the end, the Federal military gets about 15% of the budget (about $4,320,000,000,000,000 (4.32 quadrillion dollars)) allocated to it for various means including facility and vehicle maintenance, paying the men (costs about 500 trillion dollars a year alone which is about ~12% of the military budget), education (recall military people are payed to attend military academies), R&D, and finally, ordnance for the entire armed forces. All ten billion soldiers, marines, airmen, astronauts and sailors. All fifty thousand starships in the fleet and all two hundred and fifty major starbases.

So it is not like they are going to run out of money and be unable to buy more missiles any time soon, but that doesn't mean they are going to waste them away or go nuts for little good reason. Especially in the Milky Way since resupply has to come a long way to get there (and shipping is not really cheap either).


I did not factor in losses from the Guardian War into any of these calculations. Shave a zero off all the budget dollar numbers to roughly account for that.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

The common defence against WPTs is evasive action.

Or strong shields.

[Destructionator XV]

Something I want to make clear: other players do not fire my weapons, especially in a manner inconsistent with the facts.

Remember RADM Wise has no idea what is going on and most the men know even less. As far as she knows, the Trolls and Imperials are both still friendly powers. She thinks the Genator defended themselves against what they thought were space pirates and this whole thing is just a big misunderstanding.

She is fully prepared in case it is more, since she is a competent officer, but gave no order to fire. It might be the middle of the night, but the men still know better than to fire on what they think are friendly vessels without orders, even if those friendly vessels are not acting in a friendly manner.

But since we both acknowledged something is there, we'll have to explain it away. If it is not from another player, I'll just make it another Destructionator vessel that was lurking there. But from now on, don't damn control my weapons!

[Destructionator XV]

Well, since this is going to be relevant very soon, I guess I'd better explain the defences at 242.

First, a run down of what the base is. It consists of four major parts: the ground facility including the headquarters and barracks, the orbital facility which is used for starship maintenance, the orbital transwarp conduit used, of course, for speedy travel back to base 186, and the solar power collector that is used for long term fuel recharging.

Also, on the ground, there are two types of weapons and shield generators.

The ground weapons are ion cannons (similar in many ways to the one seen in The Empire Strikes Back) and particle beam cannons. These are large scale weapons, considerably more powerful than anything we have on the ships themselves. Recall in PWI where the ground based particle cannons on A'millian Prime ripped Guardian forces to bits in a matter of seconds. Only their superweapon and sheer numbers were a threat to the planet.

In orbit, there are many weapons platforms that are fast drones, usually armed with phasers and missiles similar to those found on ships. The base was described in PW 1 as being 'littered with orbital weapons platforms', having over one hundred individual high powered drones. Together, they form an appreciable threat to capships, and individually they can eat space fighters like a baleen whale eats plankton (..ok, not really like that at all, but they kick ass) and giggle about it.

Drones are one reason why manned space fighters are uncommon unless space superiority has already been secured, or they are just desparate.

The shields are broken up into three parts:
1) The planetary shield array, which covers most the planet as a massive energy dissipator and electromagnetic barrier. Again, I remind you that the PS on A'millian Prime held for several minutes under heavy bombardment from a full Guardian fleet and their superweapon before collapsing.

2) The theatre shields around the facilities themselves. These are similar to the planetary shield, but on a smaller scale. They provide the second layer of defense from both air strikes and orbital bombardment. Once again, they can take a fuckton of punishment before going down.

3) Third are the form fitting shields around major buildings. These are designed to reinforce the structure from artillery fire or smaller energy weapons. Not much use against sustained orbital bombardment.


The Guardians paid much blood to penetrate our planetary defences for good reason.



(I also spent the last five hours running calculations for A'millian power generation and consumption in the canon universe, and worked out many more details about our propulsion and weapons, and am also doing calcs for the artificial gravity, anti-gravity, and inertial dampners. I might post these at a later time. Look forward to it!)

[Ra]

20,000 Star Destroyers with a proportional amount of Star Cruisers and Star Battleships

A question. Just how many losses did the Imps take in the Guardian War? Unless most of the Imperial Starfleet consists of puny ships like star frigates and corvettes, 20,000 SD's (I'm assuming this includes the Republic-era Victories and Clone War-vintage Venators, not just the modern Imperators) wouldn't be enough to secure the Core Worlds, let alone the million systems [ref: Grand Moff Tarkin] of the Galactic Empire.

I don't mean to nitpick, I was just wondering.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

20,000 Star Destroyers with a proportional amount of Star Cruisers and Star Battleships

A question. Just how many losses did the Imps take in the Guardian War?

The number is actually after the Guardian War. During the OT timeline, IIRC it was mentioned that the Empire has well over 25,000 Star Destroyers. I imagined the number has grown further after Phoenix War's version of Endor, especially since Darth Kreshna carried Grand Admiral Thrawn's vision of reforming the Empire. So in Phoenix War alternate future, we don't see warlord rivalries, etc. Instead, the Empire continued to build, prosper, and colonize.

Of course, the number should have dropped again after the Empire/Guardian War, so I guess 20,000 Star Destroyers is a quite reasonable estimate.

Of course, the number of Star Destroyers is merely a yardstick to measure the strength of the Imperial Navy; just as in real world, there should be a proportional amount of Star Cruisers and Star Battleships accompanying those Destroyers.

EDIT: oh, by the way, I just remember again: it was mentioned in Spectre of the Past that the Empire has 25,000 ISD, so I guess the number refers to the Imperator-Class alone. Of course, there should also be a larger number of smaller ships (like Venator-Class Star Destroyers or Nebulon-B Frigate) and a smaller number of larger ships (like Star Cruisers or Star Battleships).

[Ra]

So the GE is more like the pre-TMP Republic, it just has a cursory defense force?

Anyway, I just thought I would throw this out there.

Ra's role is going to be slowly de-emphasized, until the Zerg plot begins to really come into play. Most of my posting will likely be WRT Madar's quest for power. I actually don't plan on having her take control of the Milky War Imperial assets, but rather she joins forces with DK against Ra, seeing how she sees the Goa'uld as a cowardly punk.

What I really want to do is have Madar grow in Darkside skill, and learn to use the lightsaber somewhat well, and then fool around until DK confronts her. It isn't much of a contest, and she earns enough respect for him to become an apprentice of sorts. Hell, maybe she could become the first Imperial Knight (like in Legacy; they guarded the Imperial government). What do you think about it, Kresh?

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

So the GE is more like the pre-TMP Republic, it just has a cursory defense force?

After re-thinking again, I should edit the number and make it actually greater to be realistic.

See, I was re-reading SDN - Galactic Empire's Industrial Capacity page again. The Empire built Death Star II in six months, whose volume is 3.8E17 m³. A Star Destroyer, on the other hand, has the volume of 9E7 m³. Thus, in the time span of six months, the Galactic Empire is capable to build about 4,222,222,222.222 Star Destroyers. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Empire is capable to built about four millions of Star Destroyers in six months (and that's a very conservative estimation, since the Death Star II was built in secret).

Not to mention that the 25,000 Star Destroyers figure was taken from EU sources, which tends to undermine the Star Wars power figures instead of enhancing it.

But of course, in Phoenix War alternate timeline, there is still Empire/Guardian War to take into account, so I guess a number of 100,000 Star Destroyers post Guardian War is still a reasonable number (and actually a very conservative estimate).

Anyway, I just thought I would throw this out there.

Ra's role is going to be slowly de-emphasized, until the Zerg plot begins to really come into play. Most of my posting will likely be WRT Madar's quest for power. I actually don't plan on having her take control of the Milky War Imperial assets, but rather she joins forces with DK against Ra, seeing how she sees the Goa'uld as a cowardly punk.

What I really want to do is have Madar grow in Darkside skill, and learn to use the lightsaber somewhat well, and then fool around until DK confronts her. It isn't much of a contest, and she earns enough respect for him to become an apprentice of sorts. Hell, maybe she could become the first Imperial Knight (like in Legacy; they guarded the Imperial government). What do you think about it, Kresh?

Nice. I like it.

How about Irene, by the way?

[Ra]

Glad you approve. Anyway, yeah, 100k does sound much better for a postwar, peacetime Starfleet. I like it.

Irene? I assumed she was still your character, but sofar I've had her going off with Galadriel in her suped-up Vulcan starship. For the most part she's been put into the role of Galadriel's lieutenant, her military advisor, and bodyguard of sorts.

My plan is mainly that Patterson will try to help Galadriel understand what's going on, rather than be completely sympathetic to the A'millians or whomever. The elf is always one to weigh both sides of a problem before coming up with her own conclusion, and having Patterson there is perfect for that.

Of course, if you want her back to serve some role in the Empire (such as a general in the Stormtrooper Corps), feel free to have her back.

But I've pretty much decided that after going to Valinor for awhile, Galadriel and Irene actually went to Azeroth (the WarCraft planet), as was referenced in my last post. They likely spent time getting to know the night elves and helped them out before heading back to Vulcan. So basically, Galadriel gets around. Hell, she might have even visited Kobol, Manticore, Toril, and Shakuras. Who knows?

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Glad you approve. Anyway, yeah, 100k does sound much better for a postwar, peacetime Starfleet. I like it.

Actually, the "post heavy losses" is more appropriate

Irene? I assumed she was still your character, but sofar I've had her going off with Galadriel in her suped-up Vulcan starship. For the most part she's been put into the role of Galadriel's lieutenant, her military advisor, and bodyguard of sorts.

Um, I mean, with Madar's ambition to be the Dark Lady of the Sith, how it would affect DK's relationship with Irene?

My plan is mainly that Patterson will try to help Galadriel understand what's going on,

A little bit nitpick: after the end of the Guardian War, she was back to her maiden name, Irene Morales.

rather than be completely sympathetic to the A'millians or whomever. The elf is always one to weigh both sides of a problem before coming up with her own conclusion, and having Patterson there is perfect for that.

Yup. And the things I like about Galadriel is that she's objective: weighing both sides of a problem before jumping into conclusion.

Of course, if you want her back to serve some role in the Empire (such as a general in the Stormtrooper Corps), feel free to have her back.

Nope. Officially, she was "dead" during PW1, and I couldn't imagine she would be back to the rank after the end of the Guardian War.

But I've pretty much decided that after going to Valinor for awhile, Galadriel and Irene actually went to Azeroth (the WarCraft planet), as was referenced in my last post.

Azeroth? Now shall we need an Orcish player?

BTW, what happened to the Zergs? Where's DF?

[Ra]

Um, I mean, with Madar's ambition to be the Dark Lady of the Sith, how it would affect DK's relationship with Irene?

Oh, that. Well, if she becomes the first Imperial Knight, she wouldn't be a Sith anymore, I suppose. And no, she probably won't bother touching you, and keep it plutonic. I couldn't imagine screwing over Irene like that. And Darkside or no, Irene would summon an inner power - jealousy - that Madar would be unable to stop. ;)

And anyway, you're right about her not wanting to rejoin the military. Oh, and my bad, I'll stop calling her Patterson now.

Azeroth? Now shall we need an Orcish player?

Only if we have someone to play Zeratul and the Protoss.

And the Night Elf Sentinels!

And Honor Harrington and the Royal Manticoran Navy!

And the FRAKKING Cylons! *whir-whir-whir-whir-whir...*

Ooh! OOH! And-



I kid, I kid. I think we should keep the number of players as they are now, but if anyone wants to join, let 'em.