Chronicles of Sol: The Fall-Chapter 237 - One Ninety-Seven Council Meeting July 31st, 007 SDE

Countryman settled into his seat and looked around. It seemed he was last to arrive, Vera and Ruri were already seated. Generals Forrest and Kirk were organizing their documents, while Captains Richards and Drakes looked composed.

From his bridge officers, Eri Maki was currently absent, she was still out on her long haul patrol mission. It would be a while before she would be back, but that was expected. Misaki Amano, Kaori Tani and Megumi Richards were chatting together at one end of the table.

While the remaining members of the council, Commander William Kurtz, Technician Redfox, Commander June Smith, Captain April Baker and Chief Robins just looked a little bored. The Valorian representative Reia wasn't present, however, and she wasn't going to be she was busy on the lower decks.

"Alright Richards, it's the meeting, care to tell us what your big thing is?"

"Sure, but I figured we'd start with an update on the fighter update program. The updated SFB-1208 Sparrow has completed initial trials, and we've finished refitting the entire inventory of SF-1204s to production model specifications."

"Excellent news, and how are the 1205's coming?"

"We've chosen AGS-1205 Aquila as the production designation, and we've finished our first test trial of the new configuration. So far reviews are generally positive, and it performed well in simulated combat. Actual combat remains untested, but the addition of the pulsar turret seems to work well. Most people seem to still be calling it the X-1205 though."

"We might be stuck with that designation to a degree. Consider it valid," replied Countryman.

Redfox looked up, "Well fighters aside I'm happy to report that production is up this month, the fish population in particular is experiencing a rapid population boom. We can reduce the credit price of fish back to what it was three years ago."

"That's wonderful news, anything else?"

Baker leaned forward, "morale has been generally high this month, we've had an uptick in parties" she sighed, "and the usual incidents that entails. Nothing my security guards can't handle but worth putting on the report."

Robins chuckled, "Oh, they've been getting up to a lot of fun, I'm happy to say we are continuing to see an increase in pregnancies."

Countryman looked at Smith, "How does our material reserve look?"

"Dreadful, the fleet refit wasn't that bad, but repairing the hull damage took a quarter of our reserve, other projects want more. If we don't get more soon, we will likely be out of spare material by the end of the year if not sooner."

Countryman gave another look around the table. Then after a moment Richard sighed, "I have to agree, securing the territory is going to cost us, we don't have enough DP-12s or patrol ships. The fighters and shuttle flights help, but the crews aren't able to go too far out. Many of them mentioned the need for a proper corvette-sized ship."

Countryman sighed, "We don't have the materials or time to resume our starship development program, we don't even have a starting point for one."

Richard grinned, "Which is where my idea comes in," she paused and turned on the table projectors bringing up the diagram of a familiar ship.

Kirk gasped, "A Vulcan Dropship!?

"She's practically a corvette already. Now the main reason we never considered using her this way is she's a bit of a fuel guzzler, she has three engines, all quad cores. Great for lifting stuff to and from orbit but terrible for deep space flight. The new armor upgrades and the captain's engine upgrades change that. I've done the simulations, the fuel use for the CSH-1277 with the changes under standard load conditions will be only slightly more than the Arctic. More importantly, she's well armed and heavily armored. Eight turrets, each one with three XDPC-72-D Compressed Particle Cannons. The heaviest particle weapon on any shuttle in our fleet and she has 24 of them which she can fire on a single target if said target is in her forward, dorsal or ventral arcs. In addition to that she has a dozen VLS missile tubes, and half a dozen torpedo launchers. Our fleet might notice the lack of pulsar launchers and it doesn't have any electro cannons either, but she'd make an excellent patrol vessel. She was designed to carry over a thousand people at once. Although in practice she'd only be comfortable for a much smaller crew. We only need eighteen standard crew to operate the ship, add a few more for a long deployment I'd say we can get away with a crew of 36 and keep maybe fifty marines on board."

Countryman blinked, "So that's what you wanted a heavy pulsar torpedo for. Yes it would make sense for a corvette-sized ship, hmm and we do have twenty of them."

Smith nodded, "Twenty already built ships, yes that would be cheaper than developing a new class."

Kurtz interjected, "Might end up with more crew on them than that, I'd suspect the people you send will want to bring their families along. I'm all for it, since that will help relieve pressure on the Enterprise. Not as much as I'd like though."

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"Would be more like a good old fashioned deployment," said Reynolds, "but I do rather like the idea. I have to say that I miss the Coto. If we outfit the Vulcans as patrol ships we'll need captains in charge of them. I volunteer myself for one, and propose Drakes takes command of a second."

Baker commented, "As interesting as that is, I'm too busy for another command. I'm happy enough keeping your sorry asses safe."

Countryman chuckled, "I'll take that under advisement."

Richards then turned to the hologram, "Now back to the pulsars, now the obvious option is to replace two of the turrets with pulsar turrets, but that would weaken the main battery." She highlighted four locations along the dorsal armor belt, "These locations are suitable for the installation of new turret pods, they can be stowed under the armored belt just like on the Enterprise and just like the other turrets on the CSH-1277. More importantly, the dorsal hull vectoring doesn't interfere with the forward arc weight of fire. Of course, we won't be able to fire a pulsar at a target below the ship."

Smith nodded, "I doubt that would be an issue, I'd be more concerned about berthing. The Vulcan Dropships are basically just that, they are big but they were never designed to travel on their own. Accommodations are... non-existent."

Kurtz commented, "I can get you the fixings, we've got spares for that."

Richards replied, "I did have some thoughts about that, it won't be that difficult to install a few cabins, we can build the frames and walls out of low-cost steel and we can use the bunks, fixtures and appliances that Kurtz has available. We can use a basic layout, a couple of officer cabins, a mess, a few standard crew bunkrooms. Already got an armory onboard, but the bathroom facilities are basic. They'll need to be upgraded a bit for a long haul. Overall, the internal refit should take about two weeks."

Kaori leaned forward, deciding to speak up, "What about the additional armament?"

Richards sighed, "That will take longer. I've got a team working on the heavy pulsar launchers we'll need already. They have the specs, we just need them to develop a turret and the gun. Ruri's already developed the underlying technology, and we've budgeted six months for the project. They've brought me the material requirements."

She put them on screen, and the group soon started debating them. The materials weren't anything crazy but it was still more than they were comfortable with spending.

Countryman sighed as he listened to the council debate, "Heavier pulsar torpedoes would help us a lot, I'm inclined to approve it. This discussion brings to mind something I planned to discuss, we need a stable source of supplies."

Looks were shared, "I'm inclined to agree, but we've done a survey. The local rocks do provide some materials, there is plenty of iron to be had around here but we are missing vital materials."

"Our new friends the Drifters chose trade to solve this problem, they buy most of their ores from the Raythil Cooperative and salvage the rest. We are already doing the latter but its not enough. Buying from the Drifters would be expensive, and we lack contact with the Cooperative."

Kaori interjected, "Might be risky to look them up."

Misaki added her voice, "Risky? We don't have many leads on where to start."

Countryman nodded, "I know," he let out a heavy breath, "Which is why I was thinking about a foray into the Deep Storm." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"The Deep Storm? Isn't that the most dangerous part of the storm?"

"It is, but its also minerally rich, the Raythil get their materials from there, which they then sell elsewhere for a profit. A foray in the deep storm is not without risk, but the payoff might just be worth it."

"I'd feel better if we had sensors able to predict an eddy, the last one ripped two holes in the hull."

Ruri looked down, "I'm afraid development remains slow going there, we've made progress but we are still months away from a practical prototype. Now that our fuel concerns have been resolved for the immediate future, we can accelerate our research but I don't see us having a working prototype before the end of the year."

Vera nodded, "We've identified certain materials as being of use in multispatial sensor arrays, but those same materials are in short supply. We have to be careful using them in our testing, which with power reserves, now becomes our main bottleneck."

Smith sighed, "As much as I hate to say it, a visit to the Deep Storm might be in order. All these projects will drain our reserves and we didn't have that much to begin with. If a foray would also accelerate the sensor project it might be worth the risk.

Kaori interjected, "We are almost done updating the armor. I wouldn't go until we are done."

Baker nodded, while Kirk inquired, "Do we have a list of what materials can be found in the deep storm?"

"Apparently anything, according to the Drifters there are dense debris fields and several mineral-rich planetoids located in the region. It should have a plentiful supply of key minerals, the only question is how lucky we will be in finding a rich field or securing a planetoid. Navigation is half the challenge, we do have a list known to the drifters without an established claim. There are three planetoids near our territory that in theory have what we need but the Drifters don't have a known route to them."

"Interesting but how accurate is the intel?"

"Spotty at best, but we don't have a better source."

Countryman looked around, "Why don't we put a foray to vote?"

The vote quickly came in with most people in favor.

"So it seems we are in favor of a foray. Now that we have chosen that, let's decide how we are going to go about this expedition."