Mineral Shortage

The TN minerals on Earth are starting to run low so over the next few years a mining program will be put into operation. This involves a full survey of the Sol system including the asteroids and mass drivers and automines on all minable bodies sending anything mined back to Earth. Once this is set-up in Sol the same thing will be carried out in Luyten 726-8 which is a mineral rich system. Any minerals stockpiled on Luyten 726-8 A II will then be transported to Earth by a fleet of Hercules.

18th September 2051

Survey group 2 have started surveying the newly discovered Lacaille 8760 system this jump point was from Barnards Star.

8th October 2051

The survey of Giclas 221-5 completes and no unexplored jump points are found.

12th November 2051

Survey group 1 discovers and starts a survey of Gliese 134. The first unexplored jump point is found on the 19th of January 2052.

6th March 2052

The V491 Persei has been discovered there are three planets with a colony cost of two and two moons with a cost of two. It's a good distance from Sol but it's could act as a forward base some time in the future.

4th April 2052

Gravsurvey completes in the Gliese 134 system only one jump point is found.

26th June 2052

The Pi-3 Orionis system is discovered and it contains three wrecks of 24,000, 16,000 and 8,000 tons could the 24,000 be a Tau Ceti Anubis?

23rd July 2052

The first unexplored jump point is found in the Pi-3 Orionis system.

29th September 2052

The redesign of The Fly Swatter Anti-Missile craft is completed and the Mesons have been removed and missile launchers added:

Fly Swatter MK 2 - Copy class Area Defence Cruiser 7550 tons 476 Crew 1131.2 BP TCS 151 TH 480 EM 0
3178 km/s Armour 8-34 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 10
Annual Failure Rate: 152% IFR: 2.1% Maint Capacity 281 MSP Max Repair 210 MSP Est Time: 0.88 Years
Magazine 486

Ion Engine E8 Military (8) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres Range 119.2 billion km (434 days at full power)

Size 1 Missile Launcher (10) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
Missile Fire Control FC1-R1 AMM MK 1 (1) Range 1.4m km Resolution 1

Active Search Sensor MR1-R1 MK 1 AMM (1) GPS 210 Range 1.7m km Resolution 1

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

Here is my Anti-Ship design:

Broadsword ASM MK 2 - Copy class Missile Cruiser 9000 tons 688 Crew 1354.4 BP TCS 180 TH 720 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 8-38 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 20
Annual Failure Rate: 129% IFR: 1.8% Maint Capacity 1470 MSP Max Repair 210 MSP Est Time: 2.8 Years
Magazine 258

Ion Engine E8 Military (12) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 50.0 billion km (144 days at full power)

Size 2 Missile Launcher ASM (10) Missile Size 2 Rate of Fire 20
Missile Fire Control FC166-R120 Anti-Ship MK 1 2052 (3) Range 166.3m km Resolution 120
Size 2 Anti-ship Missile Deathbringer MK 2 (304) Speed: 22,400 km/s End: 18.7m Range: 25.1m km WH: 4 Size: 2 TH: 82 / 49 / 24

Active Search Sensor MR336-R200 MK 1 (1) GPS 42000 Range 336.0m km Resolution 200

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

All the Fly Swatter MK 1 ships are now heading to Earth for a refit to the Mk 2 version.

5th June 2053

The Bujumbura empire have granted us trade access. We give them trade access too.

Just been having a look at the map and I've noticed that an unexplored jump point in the Pi-3 Orionis system has a jumpgate. It must be an alien design.

1st February 2054

The survey of the Pi-3 Orionis system completes and only two jump points where found one as noted above with an alien jumpgate. Maybe that explains the wrecks some salvage craft will come and explore the wrecks. The decision is also made to transit the alien jump gate to see if any signs of life can be found.

3rd April 2054

The Gliese 176 system is discovered by New Horizon 003 and one colonisable planet is in the system. There is also luckily an alien jumpgate on the other side.

27th September 2054

Another jump point with an alien jumpgate is found in the Gliese 176 system.

26th December 2054

The gravsurvey of Gliese 176 completes and only the alien jumpgate is found so the survey team head through it.

Well this is it I'm away in corfu for two weeks from tomorrow on holiday so before I go I'm going to have another go against the Tau Cet aliens.

The fleet is as follows:

Two Sunstrike MK 4 Sensor Ships

Two Broadsword ASM MK 3 Ships

Three Fly Swatter AMM MK 2 Ships

This is a small fleet but I want to see how things go.

19th January 2057

The Tau Ceti battle group refuel arm and move to the Tau Ceti gate.

28th January 2057

The battle group enters the Tau Ceti system and all weapons are readied. The fleet heads towards the wreck of the Sunstrike from the previous attempt.

29th January 2057

The first enemy contact is picked up a Spider class tonnage 8,000 range 207.4m kms the fleet heads towards the contact. At 20:57 both Broadsword class craft launch a salvo of four missiles. The Spider has an ECM which reduces the attack range to 99m km so we need to close. At 23:47 we are within range and open fire again twenty missiles are launched. Damn launced beyond the range of my missiles. Another mistake will try again. At 20:57 the Spider turns to try to escape.