The Codexian Saga LP

[Ulminati]

Oshi... Hope the economy holds. At least it's been a fairly short war (only 2 major engagements), so we should still have some financial reserves to draw from

 

[laclongquan]

Cautious War still hold comfortable edge over Blitz War. Tsk!

 

[Nickless]

Ah well, you can't have your own way all the time. Here's hoping for the success of BA+A. Maybe our past decision to focus on our economy during the pre-war setup, as well as the religious inspired resolve of Codexia's people to undergo hardship will mean we'll be able to do this without any hiccups. Still, I was hoping for a Spartan style military, extremely elite and few in number, capable of destroying vast navies in direct engagement, yet weak against divided guerrilla like attacks. In Master of Orion 2 I liked to rush tech advances and build a few extremely powerful ships, and relying on my space fortresses to handle small enemy raids while I devastated their homeworlds.

 

[laclongquan]

Spartan is a highly military caste established to hold the yoke on captured war slaves. The democracy of theirs is the democracy of slavemasters. They dare not do otherwise because they need the trained manpower to suppress slave rebellions. The regime sound very unprofitable, stagnant, and brittle. A few covert ops to provide slaves with weapons and you have revolt on your hands, no time or energy to do anything else. Hardly a thing for a huge interstellar empire.

Theological Tyranny is barely better than that in my book. the yoke is spiritual than material but it's still a yoke. A revolt is coming, you can count on that. Unless we can do a change of regime *peacefully*.

Sigh. I am waiting news with dread.

 

[The Barbarian]

In Media Res

The wholesale slaughter across the Raumeni expanse continued unabated, well into December 356AU. The war had been raging for almost six months, now. Its playing board had changed irrevocably with the Raumeni Uprising. Now, instead of a bilateral struggle for dominance between an ambitious and, perhaps, an overweening Hin'in Empire and a resurgent mankind, the conflict was a vicious four-way knife fight. The Hin'in were slugging it out with the Raumen and the Bron simultaneously across a massive region of space, while the momentarily triumphant humans carefully husbanded their strength for a decisive clash, their fleets poised on the edge of Respublican and Commonwealth space. Both human militaries were being heavily reinforced. The Respublica funneled untold wealth into jump-starting the long dormant orbital assembly complexes around Codexia, but the benefits thereof were almost immediately apparent.

Between October and December, almost forty new vessels were brought into the battle line. This went a long way toward replacing the bitter losses of Neumann. And the pace of the construction program was accelerating rapidly. The December/January period was to see another fifty ships join the growing armada. The moral economy took the heavy blows with admirable aplomb. It buckled, but did not give, as billions upon billions of credits were spent on armament, recruitment, R&D and military infrastructure. For its part, the Commonwealth, too, attempted to increase the size of its much denuded fleet - with somewhat less success. Though the heavy losses of the early period of the war were now just about made up, the state coffers were running dry. Simply put, the Commonwealth was not on an even economic footing with its much larger partner, and its construction capacity even less so. Vast numbers of tiny corvettes and gunboats were brought into service, as a makeweight, but the firepower advantage was now firmly on the Respublican side.

February 357AU would prove a pivotal month for all parties concerned. Firstly, it saw the Raumen suffer a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Amau'rie. The insectoids lost more than seventy ships in the conflagration - a significant portion of their operational strength. Running battles and drawn out skirmishes thereafter claimed another thirty, at least, including the Shoguh-yei, the flagship of the Uprising. Though this did not signify the end of the Raumen war effort, the humbling defeat served as a powerful reminder of just how potent the Hin'in were. Three systems were retaken by their triumphant war packs, in the aftermath. It seemed as if the bugs were now on the back foot.

Secondly, on 25 February 357AU, the Commonwealth ambassador to the Venerable Respublica issued a courteously worded demand - but a demand, nonetheless - that Marianite forces were to withdraw from Sonata as soon as was practicable. They had been occupying the system since their victory over the Hin'in forces that besieged it, early in the war. And now, almost four thousand Marianite personnel were entrenched on Sonata itself, with a powerful cruiser squadron patrolling the skies above. These forces maintained the martial law then in effect and were the primary security force on the planet. The Commo obviously feared a 'land grab'. The ambassador further informed the Respublican government that an AFC squadron would soon enter Sonata and 're-hoist' the flag of the Commonwealth.

Thirdly, and finally, the SFS (Space Force Ship) Schiltstrom - the first 'shield'-equipped (in truth, a warp laminar flow modulation system) vessel in the Respublican arsenal - underwent trials at the St. Elijah Central Military Institute (SECMI) on 21 February. Developed a month into the Hin'in War by intrepid Codexian state-sponsored military research teams, the system was touted as a divinely wrought miracle of science. Though the initial tests proved that there were still many kinks needing ironing out, the buzz over the new 'shields' spread like wildfire amongst those in-the-know. It could protect a vessel from almost all energy based emissions (laser, maser, plasma etc) for a considerable length of time. As such, it was a potential game changer. All it needed was time. Time... and investment. The cost of equipping Space wholly with this system would prove crushing in the short term. But the possibilities...

Choices remain to be made.

Option One:

Do you... rush the newfangled shields into service, as widely as possible? The cost might be astronomical, as each ship would have to be more or less gutted to incorporate the equipment required by the system, but think of the advantages! We are not engaged in any fighting, we can safely cycle our fleet through the orbital yards and still be at 60% operational strength, round-the-clock. Total refurbishment time: Six months.

OR

Do you... keep a level head? The shields will take time to bed in. We have spent enough, already. Let us only begin installing the system across the board when the opportunity avails itself. If it comes down to it, we are confident of winning the war with or without this device. There is no need to strain our finances and economic capacity any further. Besides, it has never even been tested in the field! Who knows what the specifics of Hin'in weaponry could do to it. Total refurbishment time: 2-3+ years (estimated)

Option Two:

Do you... tell the ambassador sweet lies about your presence in Sonata? They cannot have back what we bought with Marianite blood. Cite security concerns and reinforce our squadron in Sonata. We see their bluff for what it is; they will not risk conflict with us now...

OR

Do you... order your squadron to withdraw? This seems like an easy enough way to purchase some trust at no cost at all. We cannot possibly be considering fighting on another front now - not to mention against our allies, however nominal. Let us withdraw and concentrate on our primary foe.

 

[Nickless]

BB, flip-flop to BA if AB or AA are in the lead . We can't stress the economy further, and we can't risk war with the Commonwealth now that the Hin'in have broken the back of the Raumen war effort. Once we are equipped with superior shielding technology, then we can take both of them out.

 

[Ulminati]

Though the initial tests proved that there were still many kinks needing ironing out, the buzz over the new 'shields' spread like wildfire amongst those in-the-know.

Wildfire? WILDFIRE!? That does it. Inquisition needs to start burning heretics RIGHT NOW! How are we gong to take the Hi'in by surprise if idiots yap about our experimental military tech before we have even a sngle squadron deployed?

Loose lips sink ships, gentlemen!

 

[anus_pounder]

B B

 

[BethesdaLove]

AB

 

[Brotherman Bill]

Firstly, it saw the Raumen suffer a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Amau'rie. The insectoids lost more than seventy ships in the conflagration - a significant portion of their operational strength. Running battles and drawn out skirmishes thereafter claimed another thirty, at least, including the Shoguh-yei, the flagship of the Uprising. Though this did not signify the end of the Raumen war effort, the humbling defeat served as a powerful reminder of just how potent the Hin'in were. Three systems were retaken by their triumphant war packs, in the aftermath. It seemed as if the bugs were now on the back foot.

Great. Just great. Now we will have the big, expansionist hin'in as neighbors again in no time, and we will be back were we started (only without any hope for internal or rebellion this time). This is why we should have intervened in the Raumen war.

Regarding the vote I'm not sure yet. If someone finds a compelling reason for either choice, now is your possibility to convince me.

 

[BethesdaLove]

del

 

[taplonaplo]

BB
I fail to see advantage of option 1/A can anyone clarify it?

 

[wjw]

To me the choices are quiet clear:

If we want to re-equip all ships, we need peace on Sonata. We cannot risk dismanteling 40% of our ships while going to 'war'.

So that's: AB, effect: Large economical cost

The other choice is a BA: using our current military advantage to re-unite the human race. So that's BA: large military cost

Given the current situation i would like:

First gain an overwelhming military advantage.
Than attack the Commo's and re-unite human race under one banner.
Solve all social problems and rebellions with harsh measure.
Keeping our borders intact against Hi'in.

I'll go for AB

 

[laclongquan]

We are spending oppotunity of Blitzwar to get a Cautious War, so obviously we need all the strength we can get from the breathing period. Obviously we will spend money to refurbish the Fleet. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

And because of that we have a 6 month period of vunerablity: 60% understrength. Very dangerous , that. A quick raid and destroy operation can cause immense damages to Codexia's security. We need ally during that time. We need Commonwealth fleet to back us. We *especially* dont need increased tension with them during this time.So obviously BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB.

In short, its AB.

And I want to caution against leaving the invention till later. The bloody Hiin is mindreader meaning they have advantage in intelligence gathering, both scientific and military. The longer the secret exist, the higher the chance they steal it. Since there's no chance to prevent that, we will need to reequip and rebuild our fleet soonest to have breathing room. leave it till later is foolish beyond belief.

As for Sonata, dont kid yourself. That system was drenched in Commo's blood of one hundred vessels destroyed, die to the last to defend their home and hearth. Are we robbers to rob them their deads, their own monument of victory and sacrifice, their own monument of honor and will? I said NAY! The time we hold them is the time we being caretaker of the graves. Now is when we acknowledge the rightful heirs and graceful withdraw from the scenes, holding what's left of our dignity and honor in stiff neck and high head.

AB

EDITITY EDIT: the hell I am misposting. I blame it on 3AM and eyes squeezed shut.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

I guess it's BB then.

 

[Ulminati]

Though the initial tests proved that there were still many kinks needing ironing out, the buzz over the new 'shields' spread like wildfire amongst those in-the-know.

This is the main problem with option 1B. The cat's already out of the bag, and if we delay too long, others may either 1) Steal enough knowledge to manufacture their own shields. Or at the very least 2) Know what we're capable of and develop strategies to counter it.

A 3-year refitting period will likely result in 2 things: 1) We'll have lost a stragetic advantage. 2) The Raumen rebellion will likely be more or less crushed, meaning we face the full strength of the Hi'in.

For these reasons, if we are to take advantage of our shields, we need them soon. I advocate option A on the first question.

This leads to a logical conclusion for the second question. Though I am loathe to cede a planet liberated by Marianite blood to the commies, we cannot risk a conflict while at 60% operating capacity.

My vote: AB
Flip-flop to BB

The hi'in will never see it coming

 

[laclongquan]

No no. From a complete working prototype to refurbishing a large number of vessels to make them count is a big big step in a pretty large slice of time. In our case, that is 6 months. A is to reduce the lag as good as possible . After 6 months we will have a much stronger fleet that can have a chance to stand victorious against the onslaught of Hiin. My prediction is in that case the Hiin will delay the time of conflict to acquire our design, make a prototype, then rebuild their fleet. If we do this thing we will have at least 2 years of peace (if we choose to l et them). If we dont do this thing, the war will reopen outside of one year.

 

[BethesdaLove]

What bugs me, is that galactic, interspecies war is not a total one.

 

[Azira]

Alright. This might break the back of the Marianite economy, but you've got me swayed. AB

 

[juggernaut]

AB

 

[obediah]

FLOP-FLIP BB

A slow trickle of shielded ships to the front lines will be enough to keep the Hin'in from resuming aggression. By ramping up production slowly, we can make quick iterative improvements to the shields rather than being stuck with an untested initial version. In 18 months we will be much stronger with 50% of our fleet and all new ships being equipped with Mark V shields than we would be with an entire fleet equipped with Mark I shields.

Their can be no external primary foe while the human race is divided, and the balance of power has never been so far in our power. Frankly, fuck the bugs and fuck the hin'in. They are powerless against the divine right of a united humanity.

After studying the flow of choices, I am releasing my stance on Sonata to bolster my support of responsible integration of our shield tech.

 

[treave]

[flip]

 

[praetor]

AB

 

[Luan]

BB

 

[The Barbarian]

How are the populace on Sonata responding to our fair and benevolent rule?

Much as the population of Poland did, as the Red Army occupied the country in 1944. With glaring suspicion, though not much overt resistance.