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Saros posted:The Meson FAC's are specifically designed to be faster than the mind warships though? A 750 ton meson FAC does 8,000 km/sec, we've seen the mind cruisers do 7,741 km/sec. This gives us a chasing speed of 259 km/s, or a relative speed of 15,741 km/s if we're both charging each other. I assume we're looking at tier 2 (12cm + Focus 2) Mesons for a range of 40,000 km, but I'm not certain, so let's assume we have tier 3 (15cm + Focus 3) for 90,000 km range. The mind cruisers opened fire on us at 1.2 million km, that means we need to close 1.11 million km before we can return fire. This means they have about 2.3 minutes of free fire on our Meson FACs if one of us is at a dead stop, and the other is charging at speed. If we're both charging each other, then they have 1.17 minutes of free fire on us. However if they're attempting to kite us, they will have 71.42 minutes of free fire on our FACs. Against something coming through a stabilized gate, the Meson FACs can hit hard because we can predict their location. In open space they will be cut to shreds with impunity. Jump trances only prevent the enemy from firing, they don't stop them from moving, and if they're jumping through with squadron transits and a jump ship then they can appear a random distance from the point, but how much is going to depend on tech (looks like 100,000 km per tech level)
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May 1, 2015 19:48
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OtherworldlyInvader posted:A 750 ton meson FAC does 8,000 km/sec, we've seen the mind cruisers do 7,741 km/sec. This gives us a chasing speed of 259 km/s, or a relative speed of 15,741 km/s if we're both charging each other. Seriously what part of "All FACs will only be used in gate camping situations" are you ignoring.
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May 1, 2015 19:52
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Just spitballing here, but if our concern is JP defense, would it possibly be more effective to make some kind of 1000 ton space station packed with missiles for alpha strike capabilities and camp them a few million KM from the gate? It seems like making a missile fac at this stage is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole and while swarms of meson facs sound nice, it also seems like the MIND has a good leg up on us in the energy tech field. While Slann could help boost those numbers for us, I'm just thinking, we have god alpha strike capacities, why not try and capitalize more on those?
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May 1, 2015 19:55
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The people of Earth demand meson cannons!
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May 1, 2015 19:57
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Gnooble posted:Seriously what part of "All FACs will only be used in gate camping situations" are you ignoring. I think he's just illustrating your point, boss. Also, since we're all huge Freespace 2 nerds anyway, I formally request that a gatecamp class be named Mjolnir. Even if that's not quite what we're doing, I'd say it's as close as we're gonna get.
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May 1, 2015 19:57
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Gnooble posted:Seriously what part of "All FACs will only be used in gate camping situations" are you ignoring. I'm not arguing against this.
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May 1, 2015 20:18
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FourCartridge posted:Have we made a guess as to what the dots are? I like this theory.
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May 1, 2015 21:06
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I think that theory makes the most sense but I was definitely hoping for something more useful.
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May 1, 2015 21:21
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MagnumOpus posted:I think that theory makes the most sense but I was definitely hoping for something more useful. It means the squadron we've seen is the advance force of something probably bigger and heavier, but which appears to be in the realms of something that we can take rather than be overwhelmed by.
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May 1, 2015 22:24
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MagnumOpus posted:I think that theory makes the most sense but I was definitely hoping for something more useful. If it is true we can glean a few things from it. The Mind may have a quality over quantity approach to shipbuilding; They may think one large ship has better shock value when facing new civilizations, they may be trying to conserve resources, or any number of things the implication leads to. It may be a far off outpost (which raises the question brought up in IRC of why they sent an un-shielded ship in alone without support). It's not an earth-shattering revelation, but anything we can gleam from even the tiniest bits of info can give ourselves a clearer picture, and of course, makes it easier to blow them up. Oh, and I forgot: bgreman, may I be an officer in the Navy (preferably a void warship command)? I am aware of the waiting period.
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May 1, 2015 22:35
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It would also make sense given what we know of the Osaka Effect-one poster (who I can't recall right now) hypothesized that the Mind's advance fleets could be potentially made up of ships that have fallen victim to the Effect. In that case, you wouldn't need as many ships since you can just brainwash reinforcements. If that's the case, the strategy has proven to be ineffective in our case, though I'm certain it's only because of the Osaka's sudden jump that we are aware of that and able to counter it. Presumably, we could learn more from those blobs, but my team hasn't reached Jamestown yet.
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May 1, 2015 23:03
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ifyouseethispost posted:It's sad how the Federation is unwilling to ally in this time of need, simply so that they can avoid sharing future resources. Where do you get that from? They shooed us away from their ruins, just as we would have done the same to them. FourCartridge posted:Have we made a guess as to what the dots are? I'm inclined to suggest jumps to their nearest system, or their home system, but if I recall from the last time the number of jump points doesn't match up with systems we know about. It'd be great if we had more info on the local connections.
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May 1, 2015 23:16
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I'm just going to throw some ideas against the wall here and see what sticks.  So we have dots and lines. Now the obvious assumption is that the big dots are star systems and the lines are jump paths between stars. The little dots could be stationed ships, could be priority of clearance/JP re-stabilisation, could be the Mind equivalent of a name in the only way a human mind could easily represent them. Could even be planets. From left to right we have: -6 Lines and 5 small dots -5 Lines and 3 small dots -5 Lines and 2 small dots -5 Lines and 1 small dot Each connected, in sequence to the next none of them lined to more than one other visible large dot/star. Now lining them up to our current star charts proves difficult as although the first possible system (6 lines, 5 small dots) could be a match for Uwazi (at least according to this map taken at the time of the Musgrove incident: http://www.bgreman.com/LP/Aurora/20140911/GalMap1.png) with it's six JPs the next system in sequence doesn't match any of the systems we know about connected to Uwazi. Now all the other presumed systems now have 5 assumed JPs present, coincidentally we have another system fully explored with 5 JPs as well, Hakahaka. Of course the fact that there are three such systems only differentiated by the small dots makes it impossible to know which, if any of the systems shown on the Musgrove map correspond with Hakahaka. Unless, of course, the small dots are a timetable for jump point restabilisation in this region of space that the Mind ship had in mind when the Musgrove incident took place. If that's the case then the single small dot can be reasonably be assumed to be their starting/first target system. Logically that makes it Hakahaka. If we then also assume that Uwazi is the 6 JP system on the Musgrove map that may mean that the other two systems, priority 2 and 3 respectively may well be systems that we have yet to engage in JP surveys for. The only way to be certain, of course, would be to carry out those surveys and see whether we find two 5 JP systems linked to each other and through each other linking Uwazi and Hakahaka; though given current events I concede that may not happen for some time. Now if all the above is true what does that mean? Well one possibility is that having completed the Yosei gate the Mind ship would have jumped through, stabilised that JP and then proceeded to the next system on the list before eventually entering Uwazi. That being the case it's entirely possible that we could have had a fairly lengthy amount of time without having to worry about the Giza heading to Roanoke and then Sol. Which would be irritating if true, but not the end of the world. If true it might also be useful simply because it provides a baseline for any data extracted from the Mind prisoners we've managed to take thus far. Bear in mind the above is based on my memory and a hasty reread of recent events so feel free to tell me if I've gotten things wrong or you think I've misinterpreted something, which being fair I very likely have! Either way I'll put my pondering cap on and see if anything else strikes me.
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May 1, 2015 23:30
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I think we should keep in mind that Musgrove wrote this, not the mind. The mind would not want us to have any information. Therefore I think it's a warning of some kind. I think the dots are the number of ships in each military base/star system. The lines are the relative distance between the military bases, rather than merely one jump line. The other jump lines that do not lead to a system on the image are perhaps merely there to help us identify the star systems. Assuming all this to be true, we could predict when the next mind attack is likely to come. unwantedplatypus fucked around with this message at 00:22 on May 2, 2015 |
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May 2, 2015 00:12
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Volmarias posted:Where do you get that from? They shooed us away from their ruins, just as we would have done the same to them. I mean as in terms of allying us. --- Three-four waves of attacks does seem like good storytelling. ifyouseethispost fucked around with this message at 00:53 on May 2, 2015 |
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May 2, 2015 00:50
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So, let's theory craft for a bit. On Musgrove's masterpiece, let's call the big dot with lines A, B, C, and D from left to right. So A has 5 dots, B has 3 dots, C has 2 dots, and D has one dot. I think most people assume that A, B, C, & D represent star systems, as it's referred to in the narrative. bgreman posted:"When the boarding party found you, you were floating unconscious next to a display wall. We're not sure how you cut your fingers, but you apparently drew a . . . picture." As for the lines, there is the thought that they are jump connections, with the full lines between A, B, C & D being the important ones and the stubs being unimportant. Or maybe they're planet, as put forth in the narrative. I don't think anyone's put meaning into the miscellaneous other large dots or that line near the bottom. They're not mentioned in the narrative. bgreman posted:Traced in Musgrove's blood, the "map" consists of four large smears of blood. Each has a number of trails traced out in rust-colored streaks. Some of the streaks connect the large spots, but most of them trail off with no distant endpoint. Three of the "stars" are in a rough line from left-to-right across the central panel of the bulkhead, while the fourth is below and to the left of the right-most top smear. Each "star" is marked with a number of dots: five for the top left, three for the top center, two for the top-right, and one for the bottom. The small dots are the mystery. Some proposals so far:
As for me? I'm stumped.
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May 2, 2015 01:30
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BwenGun posted:I'm just going to throw some ideas against the wall here and see what sticks. This seems entirely plausible. Especially considering it came from the linelayer itself.
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May 2, 2015 01:47
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sloshmonger posted:I don't think anyone's put meaning into the miscellaneous other large dots or that line near the bottom. They're not mentioned in the narrative. They aren't important. Those are just smudges and smears that I added for coolness, not part of the actual design.
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May 2, 2015 02:14
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I feel like we really need to explore a little before it makes sense. If recall correctly we couldn't correlate the links to any known systems, yeah?
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May 2, 2015 03:29
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ifyouseethispost posted:I mean as in terms of allying us. They've already committed to a co-defense of Sol, and we performed coordinated attacks. We've performed technology trades, and physical taxes. Their official policy is that once we grow up, maybe WE can join THEM in a united bloc for humanity. In not really seeing where you're seeing them "not allying" when you take into account that we're two factions that fought a nuclear war shortly before the game start, and a limited war over Mars. We're frankly doing great cooperation wise all things considered.
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May 2, 2015 03:39
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Guys, looking at the map, it kind of hit me if the big dots are stars the little dots may be jump points. The only system we know of with 5 points is Hakkahata, which is where Musgrove had his visions IIRC...If that's the case then whatever that map leads to, its at least 4 jumps away in a dead end system.
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May 2, 2015 04:30
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Jimmy4400nav posted:Just spitballing here, but if our concern is JP defense, would it possibly be more effective to make some kind of 1000 ton space station packed with missiles for alpha strike capabilities and camp them a few million KM from the gate? It seems like making a missile fac at this stage is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole and while swarms of meson facs sound nice, it also seems like the MIND has a good leg up on us in the energy tech field. While Slann could help boost those numbers for us, I'm just thinking, we have god alpha strike capacities, why not try and capitalize more on those? A small mobile defense outpost would be trivially easy and cheap to make, as it's basically just a ship that doesn't need engines or fuel - the problem is that you would then need to design and build a tug in order to get the drat things to their destinations, and you would also need to either design and build a maintenance ship to periodically service and repair them, or keep some of the defense stations in reserve at the fleet anchorage and regularly rotate them out for servicing. e: Also, I can't remember, has anyone suggested the possibility that the small dots are the number of gated jump points? Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 05:54 on May 2, 2015 |
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May 2, 2015 05:50
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A bit of stream of thought on the map. I don't really care about the little dots. Maybe they mean something, but they don't interest me as much right now. Following the A-B-C-D convention sloshmonger mentions... (Note: blob here refers only to larger dots, not the 5-3-2-1 small dots) 1) What are the the six unconnected blobs? 2) What is the long smear below D? 3) Why do the unconnected blobs below B seem to line up with the lines coming from B, but are not completely connected? 4) Same with D, to the left. 5) Same with C, for the blob above the long connector. 6) In contrast, how come the blobs below A don't seem to line up with the connector? 7) What about the large, unconnected blob to the right of D? Why does the connector from C extend PAST it, but not connect to anything? 8) Changing gears, if one ignores for a second that the blobs in #6 above do not align with the connectors (but come sort of close)...what if we assumed this is just bad drawing and they DO align? Then a possible pattern emerges. A connects to the two blobs below it (but, slightly offset). B connects to the two blobs below it (sharing one with A) and the blob above the long connector (sharing with C). C connects to the blob above the long connector (shared with B) and the right-most blob. D connects only to the blob below the long connector. 9) Could there be a difference in meaning between a two blobs completely connected, and two blobs in which the connector doesn't stretch all the way?
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May 2, 2015 07:49
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 There, nice and clean vector version!
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May 2, 2015 10:14
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I'm leaning heavily towards a 'it's a map of the MIND fleet disposition' theory.
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May 2, 2015 12:11
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Kal-L posted:There, nice and clean vector version! Thanks! Very helpful for illustrating my pet theory:  The dots represent the number of gates in the system. Its a map to the Mind itself.
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May 2, 2015 12:15
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Leif. posted:1) What are the the six unconnected blobs? The unconnected blobs and the smear are all unimportant, I added them for visual effect to look like a dude just bled everywhere in 0g. Kal-L's vector version is perfect and has all the relevant information, go based off of that.
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May 2, 2015 16:01
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Lu Yan posted:Thanks! Very helpful for illustrating my pet theory: yes, this.
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May 4, 2015 00:39
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 To: KMDR Prokhorov (Moskvas), CDRE Corbett (WATCHTOWER) From: RADM Emily Chadwick, UNIN 2nd Fleet CO (Designate) Subject: Operation VIRIDIAN ABYSS Gentlemen, in preparation for the defense of the Roanoke system from the MIND formation designated SET, consisting of two Khopesh (formerly Kenya) class Cruisers, UNIN 2nd Fleet will be changing your deployments. UNIN Intelligence estimates that the MIND Active Sensor detected by UNS Romblon prior to its destruction has a maximum range of 22.5 to 33.6 million km with a resolution of 80. This means that they should be unable to detect the WATCHTOWER formation except at a range of under 9.7 million km. We will thus deploy as follow. The Federation Moskva Squadron will deploy directly on top of the jump point, with meson weapons ready to fire. Upon enemy transit, the Moskvas will attempt to disable the enemy vessels as best they can before the much more powerful engines of SET carry it out of range. WATCHTOWER will deploy at 16 million km perpendicular by stellar south to Roanoke-A relative to the jump point. Upon enemy transit, WATCHTOWER will empty their magazines, focusing fire on a single opponent. As soon as the last salvo is fired, WATCHTOWER will break away along the tailwards (directly away from) bearing of the Jump Point to Roanoke-A at maximum military speed. We will position the fleet collier UNS Pearl Harbor at 10 million km along this bearing. the task groups will rendezvous and we will expedite reloading with all haste. As soon as UNS Pearl Harbor's magazines are empty, WATCHTOWER may re-engage remaining opponents at will. UNS Parnassus - currently positioned in Hakahaka - will provide spotting and early warning on enemy approach. Upon detection of SET approaching, Parnassus should verify course and speed, and then transit into Roanoke. It will then deploy itself 40 million km along a tailwards bearing to Roanoke-A and the JP at 5000 kps. The battle plan is as follows. Upon transit, while their sensors are still blinded, we predict four possible avenues of approach for SET. 1) They will make for UNS Bassae, in orbit of Jamestown, following a heretofore undetectable signal from debris present there, or to investigate the wreck. 2) They will make for the Uwazi JP. 3) They will make for the Sol JP. 4) They will halt to allow their sensors to recover before departing. Once engaged by our defenders, we theorize that they will follow a course counter to the missile vectors or toward the location of UNS Parnassus, if they are able to detect the active sensor emissions. Taking advantage of distance, and our relative ability to evade their sensors, we hope to be able to dodge them as they streak past and then re-engage once reloaded. Know that we are the last line of defense before the Solar System, and our courage and skill in facing our foe will have far reaching impacts on the future of our species. I know that every one of you will fulfill their duty.
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May 4, 2015 02:20
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Lu Yan posted:Thanks! Very helpful for illustrating my pet theory: Maybe that is what made BG seem bummed about the whole thing; the only way to figure out the chart's significance (or if it was just another red herring) would be to carry on 4Xing just as before and as would have been done without the chart at all. Jimmy4400nav posted:For those of you worrying that missile ships are obsolete...they're not. (etc etc) that's why we were designing new warships that can fire missiles with stronger warheads. Jimmy4400nav posted:Just spitballing here, but if our concern is JP defense, ...etc... I'm just thinking, we have god alpha strike capacities, why not try and capitalize more on those? Hadn't meant to exaggerate the age of the fleet in that earlier post, just that the enemy's speed advantage seems to be increasingly important. Either way we're talking about basically the same thing: take advantage of the current tech-focus. The missiles themselves will have to be rotated out anyway, with or without building/retrofitting ships. After reading some of BG's old posts, the lpwiki, aurorawiki, then eventually giving up on the scattered documentation and downloading the program to attempt Experienced crew are actually kinda useful so instead of scrapping old missiles and ships they could theoretically be used for interceptor target practice/training simulations, but probably not worth the hassle of SM-ing a redteam-blueteam fleet exercise (?) ECM is generally useless, especially at low levels and against short-range opponents(?) The "Laser Warhead" design option is decades away and probably not worth pursuing. If they even work. "Enhanced Radiation" (some hybrid cobalt/neutron bomb) will be irrelevant unless we encounter Starship Troopers bugs, or something worse like The Internet. Missiles/Probes/Drones/Buoys and whatever else are all minor variants of a "single-use doodad" (no booster-engine recycling) which can only contain sensors/fuel/engines/armor and other doodads. ...something slightly less obvious, they don't use anything like conditional orders and can't be redirected after launch, so no Voyager space probe (edit:correction, they can self-destruct on command) The enemies we've encountered have all been using either point-blank (CIWS?) or no point defense at all and against that kind of target a multistage MIRV only needs fuel+engine except for the final segment which needs agility+engine+warhead(?) ...but it would be a bad idea to assume everything follows the same pattern. silentsnack fucked around with this message at 08:40 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 04:13
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silentsnack posted:After reading some of BG's old posts, the lpwiki, aurorawiki, then eventually giving up on the scattered documentation and downloading the program to attempt Crew is valuable, but generally not worth more than TNEs, and SMing fleet exercises is far too much of a hassle. ECM has its place, but it generally not nearly as useful as it seems as it much easier to overbuild a firecontrol than keep adding ECM. Laser Warheads don't work. Enhanced Radiation is used to kill pop and spare industry, but renders the body itself largely useless. MIRVs in Aurora are in 90% of cases inferior to just regular missiles, since they require more tech for little gain. You can do some shenanigans with saturation fire, extreme long range fire, or the geosurvey drones and such we used at the start of the LP, but drones are badly vulnerable to interception. Buoys/Mines have some use, but in general are more hassle than their worth since you really need dedicated minelayers and highly specialized set ups where you know beyond a shadow of a doubt where your opponent will be. Spoiler for Aurora AI mechanics:Mines work much better for the AI because the AI doesn't use fuel.
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May 4, 2015 16:31
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Lu Yan posted:Thanks! Very helpful for illustrating my pet theory: Ok then. I think a consensus is forming around Lu Yan's 'it's a map' theory. PROPOSAL: We're in a shooting war with The Mind. We have a map that we have reason to believe will lead us to the hub of Mind activity in this area of space. We have a reasonable belief that The Mind does not know what the path to Earth is. We should seize the initiative and strike first, fight the war on our terms and not The Mind's. Forget my original 'rapid reaction force' strategy. We should take the map to the Federation, mass every modern combat vessel humanity has, and send an expeditionary force to hunt down and destroy the Mind sub-cluster controlling entity. The Mind is more advanced than we are. Fighting a reactive war, on its terms, is one we are almost guaranteed to lose. Boldness is one of the few cards that we have to play, and we should play it hard.
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May 4, 2015 17:35
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While I do agree that we should try to be more aggressive, we'd need to do grav surveys in the systems beyond Hakkahata before the fleet could advance. Otherwise, they'd be trawling around the system waiting for a Mind ship to jump them. To that end, I want to ask some of our ship engineers if we can put together a dedicated scout ship that would help us with this strategy. It would need to be capable of doing grav surveys, have a passive sensor to detect Mind ships, and have shields to prevent the Osaka Effect. I doubt that we can make said ship faster than the Mind's Khopesh-class ships, but if we can that would be great. We've talked about having a dedicated recon vessel ever since the Shrike, and I think now would be the best time to put those into proper production.
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May 4, 2015 17:43
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It's worth noting that the Khopesh class active sensors seem to be unexpectedly primitive with the apparent detection of the Romblon at about 2.9m km corresponding to an EM sensitivity of only about 60%. To put this in perspective, the current UN fleet is relying on largely 50% EM sensitivity sensors with a few more recently designed classes using 60% and research nearly being finished for 80% to meet Project NIKE specifications. Interestingly, 60% sensitivity would also be the minimum required for a conveniently small and multipurpose (50 ton) EM sensor to detect the 1275 GPS signal of Romblon's UN/SGY-9. While harder to accurately gauge, the Khopesh fire control may be similarly underpowered. Specific details haven't been made available yet, but the Romblon detected the unbaffled engine emissions from SET at 1.2m km at approximately 03:53 yet was not destroyed until 3:57:31, roughly four and a half minutes later. This is enough time for a Khopesh to close 1.2m km on the Romblon, even with 30 seconds margin, potentially meaning SET closed to point blank range before opening fire. This weakness in sensor technology is pretty perplexing as we've generally assumed the Mind is operating at a much more advanced technological level than we are. To illustrate, if the UN were able to boost the thrust output of our ion drives by 25% (to pursue this from our current technology would cost more than researching next generation engines) we could actually field a vessel with capabilities close to what has been displayed by the Khopesh: code:That being said we can expect the minimum detection range of the ships on the Roanoke front to be: pre:Khopesh Gradar Ship Class Range (km) Endymion 1,400,000 Panner 1,550,000 El Dorado 2,760,000 Samar IIb, Suriago 2,960,000 Moskva 3,160,000 Gaum 4,820,000 Delphi 6,510,000 Cape Town-B, Capetown-L, Delphi II-L, Turing, Turing Heavy 7,130,000 Berlin IIS, Berlin IIM, Gibraltar-B, Commercial Hulls 22,530,000 Khopesh EM Component Range (km) UN/SGN-19 Mini, UN/SGS-4 Warbler 180,000 UN/SGY-9 Jove 7,650,000 BACKYARD 21,600,000 UN/SGS-12 Condor 28,050,000 UN/SGY-15 Providence 54,000,000 Imps fucked around with this message at 18:58 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 17:48
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Alchenar posted:Ok then. I think a consensus is forming around Lu Yan's 'it's a map' theory. We are currently incapable of doing this - we have no gate into Roanoke, and will not for five and half months. Our combat fleet is also incapable of travelling the distances required, we would need large tankers or set up fuel depots along the route. We also would have to gravsurvey each system on the way until we found the correct JP.
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May 4, 2015 18:39
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VIRIDIAN ABYSS? I like it. Seems like a well-conceived plan that plays well to the strengths of both parties. I hope that the Federation is willing to accept the higher-risk role this proposes for them, but it's the only logical position for a meson-equipped vessel protecting a jump point. Additional commentary to come later. David Corbett fucked around with this message at 19:27 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 19:24
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Gnooble posted:We are currently incapable of doing this - we have no gate into Roanoke, and will not for five and half months. Our combat fleet is also incapable of travelling the distances required, we would need large tankers or set up fuel depots along the route. We also would have to gravsurvey each system on the way until we found the correct JP. Ok when I say we should do this I mean that it should become 'the warplan' and everything else we do (ie. the K2 project) should be about fitting into a timetable we have that's based primarily around this plan. We don't have to leave now, but the prep work should start now. Unless someone else has a better idea for dealing with the Mind, because as of right now my understanding is that there is literally no plan. e: ooh, ooh, educated guess - somewhere on that map wraps around to Federation space. It's possible they possess a more promising logistical basis for staging an assault on the Mind given their early colonisation efforts and potential distance advantages. e2: which is why getting Fed co-operation matters, which will involve telling them about the map etc etc to explain why we know all this stuff and think it's important and worth pooling resources. Alchenar fucked around with this message at 19:59 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 19:43
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Alchenar posted:e: ooh, ooh, educated guess - somewhere on that map wraps around to Federation space. It's possible they possess a more promising logistical basis for staging an assault on the Mind given their early colonisation efforts and potential distance advantages. Considering that they appeared on both ends of human-known space, this is exceedingly likely. I'll throw my (imaginary, non-EC) vote in with completing the self-jumping long-range recon craft as construction priority one so we can get out there and start searching. Do we know enough about Federation space gates/planets to gauge whether any of the map circles might be a Federation system? They hadn't finished surveying FED003, right? Also, unrelated: when making plans to counter specific armaments or load-outs, we should keep in mind the earlier theory that the MIND doesn't make ships, it just Osaka-Effects local ships into its service. Other ships of theirs may be absolutely nothing like the two that just appeared, if hijacked from a different race.
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May 4, 2015 19:57
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Alchenar posted:
There might also be a longer chain of opened jump gates going there. Sol-Zhongguo is open both ways, and IIRC we're opening Zhongguo->FED002 now. I believe the mind ship was working in FED003, suggesting that there are open jump point connections stretching from Fed-003 to either to the Mind cluster (tentatively, Mind-001) or the next one over (Mind-002). This also suggest that if the Mind is sending a stronger force, and they know or suspect where Sol is, they'll send it through the Fed's JP chain.
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May 4, 2015 20:14
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Onboard a shuttle, racing back towards the UNS Pearl Harbor: "The fleet has gone to condition one. We're turning around." Figures. I had just finished labeling FED-00. I had hoped to include the entirety of human space, but duty required my abilities elsewhere. I slipped it into a regular log transmission as the shuttle dove back towards the Watchtower fleet.  Several comm-bouys later, this image arrived at UNIN HQ: 
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May 4, 2015 20:18
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