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Link: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/dyson-effect-mass-effect-hard-sci-fi-quest.120097/
(An ambitious humanity works to establish itself in a Mass Effect universe where every species got serious about the business of colonizing the galaxy.)
2200 CE (Faction Choice)
Sol System
2200 CE
As the clock ticks over to a new year the sun shines down on a very different solar system. For one spread there is some disagreement on whether a year actually changed or not as the colonies spread through the system no longer have the same orbital period. Though most do still acknowledge the calendar of Earth as being the standard. For another the sun itself only shines intermittently. Swarms of solar collectors and habitats now orbit it, collecting vast quantities of its light for the use of humanity rather than an uncaring universe.
The dyson swarm is not yet complete, but what was once a mere dream of science fiction now seems more like an inevitable reality. That is not what is on everyone's mind however. No, the far more pressing concern is aliens! Or at least long dead ones. A survey team on Mars has uncovered an ancient outpost containing samples of an exotic matter along several ships that appear to use it in some manner.
A coordinated effort led to the translation of the outposts' computers and the knowledge that the exotic matter could be used for FTL properties. And even more importantly it pointed towards a transportation relay of some kind of Sol itself. Teams following the clues found the relay buried underneath the ice of Charon and after additional prodding of the ancient computers were able to activate it.
That's all old news however. The real reason everyone is excited is that the first probe has just jumped through the relay and returned with pictures that match the astronomer's records of Arcturus, and even took pictures of other relays in that system.
Humanity has stumbled across an entire intergalactic transportation network and finally the stars are open to them. There are many organizations preparing to stake their claim on the galaxy, but a few stand out.
Note: All the factions can produce all the resources. But they will be weighted towards their strengths and have significantly less ability to produce their weakest resource.
[ ] The Prometheus Institute
The Institute sponsored the survey team that first found the alien outpost and have since been at the forefront in researching both them and the new element. They have a strong research presence and have been developing an exploration arm to venture through the relay.
Facilities: Research and Culture focused
Units: A small fleet of exploration ships
Weakness: Lacks military Power
[ ] The Planetary Alliance
Composed of the nations of Old Earth along with the burgeoning colonies on Mars and across the various moons of the system the alliance believes that despite what some might say about habitats and gravity wells the planets still have a role to play in humanity's future.
Facilities: Industry and Growth focused
Units: Several large colony ships.
Weakness: Lacks Cultural influence
[ ] The Guardians of Humanity
If aliens left an outpost and an entire relay network behind then they could still be out there. And there's no telling what they will want with humanity. The guardians believe humanity should build up aggressively and be prepared to fight anything they come across.
Facilities: Power and Industry focused
Units: Has several flotillas of warships.
Weakness: Lacks Energy production
[ ] The Solar Dawn Corporation
One of the main players behind the ongoing construction of the Dyson Swarm, Solar Dawn has subsidiaries operating in all kinds of industries and commercial sectors. They keep a close eye on the pulse of humanity so that they will always be prepared to make a profit. And they smell quite the profit indeed out in the galaxy.
Facilities: Energy and Intel focused
Units: Has several versatile merchant haulers.
Weakness: Lacks Growth production
Turn 1: Prometheus Institute
Sol System
2200 CE
Shortly after the probes report back from the other side of the Charon relay the Prometheus Institute's board of directors meet for their annual conference on the state of the Institute and its future direction. The Institute had been pivotal in both deciphering what was now known as the Prothean Archive and reactivating the Charon Relay so they were well positioned to send their science ships out into the galaxy, but there were other assets at play as well.
The first was of course their primary campus on Mars. Campus was something of a misnomer. It had certainly started as a small research facility located on Mars' Southern Pole, but it had grown rapidly after the discovery of the Prothean outpost and was now a sprawling city with numerous surrounding outposts. Its main purpose was of course research, but the Institute had also become something of a leader in humanity's collective consciousness. What they did had an impact on billions of people throughout the Solar System.
The second major factor was a shipyard built into the hollowed core of Deimos. It had facilitated the transportation of material down to the main campus, served as the test bed for the eezo drive equipped ships, and even now churned out dozens of new frames to serve as further prototype testbeds or the frames of new survey ships.
And of course there were the existing survey ships as well. Currently the Institute maintains five separate flotillas containing a variety of different science ships designed to fully survey different systems along the relay network as well as others within a few dozen light years. Unfortunately being optimized for scientific data gathering they lacked the ability to establish any sort of long term presence and only had a few small security ships as escorts.
New Facilities
Mars Campus (Institute Campus)
Population: 5
Type: City
Specialty: Culture, Research
Secondary: Intel, Growth
Deimos Shipyard (Institute Shipyard)
Population: 5
Type: Installation
Specialty: Energy, Industry
Secondary: Culture, Power, Growth
New Units
Survey Flotilla
Quantity: 5
Type: Frigate
Specialty: Research
Secondary: Power, Intel
New Design Schematics
Institute Campus (30 I)
Deimos Shipyard (15 I)
Survey Flotilla (2 I)
Institute Planning
Turn Length: 1 Year
Current Energy: 10
Current Industry: 10
[ ] Plan Name
-[ ] Action 1
-[ ] Action 2
-[ ] Action 3
-[ ] Action 4
Note: If any of this doesn't make sense please tell me. I will try to clarify it and ensure that everything is easily understandable.
Turn 2: Arcturus Station
Turn 2: Arcturus Station
2205 CE
Spoiler: Winning Vote
[X] plan deliberate expansion
-[X] make our case against the rest of humanity that when opening relays we should have both a military fleet and static defences ready, the military fleet to jump to the other side and static defences as a fall back point and make it so it so in the system the relay discovered it have to have a certain amount of infrastructure and development before opening it .
-[X] research on all forms of FTL communication and if we can make it. Make it point to point communication.
-[X] try to research a wide range of weaponary, humanity created so many weapon concepts in our past but failed because of our limited understanding we can reapproach the concepts with our modern understanding of science and see of it's viable or not and we give the concept that used no ezzo more preference with ezzo being a limited resource.
-[X] humanity knows it was not alone with the discovery of prothean ruins we need to have a body to organize and negociate with the thousands of polities humanity have with that the institute going to negociate with all the major and minor polities on the creation of a centralised organisazion for us to discuss various matters, be a mediator between the nations of humanity, the sharing of important technologies, making trade deals, and building a centralized millitary.
There are a lot of raised eyebrows when the Institute makes the case for a strong unified defense and cautious exploration given that they themselves are the ones most likely to recklessly explore. However the idea is sound enough so several polities pool their industrial capacities and help the Institute build a large defense station in the Arcturus system where the Charon Relay leads.
The idea is that it will be the headquarters of the local system defenses and both monitor the local system for incursions and serve as the template for future defensive stations. The initial station is a ten kilometer long O'Neill cylinder based on traditional human designs with a large attached dockyard designed to build and maintain a defensive fleet.
New Facility
Arcturus Base (Military Defense Headquarters)
Population: 0
Type: City
Specialty: Power, Intel
Secondary: Industry
Of course it would be extremely useful to communicate with the new station without having to jump back and forth physically through the relay. So efforts are made to design an FTL communication system. The first obvious solution is to mimic the relay designs.
The relays link together to form corridors of massless space through which ships can transit it at FTL velocities. While humanity cannot yet build its own mass relay they can build a crude replica. This smaller less powerful version only generates a corridor a few meters wide and a light year long. However this is sufficient for a laser to send and receive data.
Placing a chain of these should allow for systems to maintain a connection with only a few hours of lag. Although this will inevitably increase as humanity expands further into the galaxy.
New Technology
FTL Comm Relay
The Institute's designers look into various weapons to equip on the Institute's ships as they range out into the galaxy. Given current theories of naval combat they expect that the answer will either be in kinetic weapons or missiles. Either could prove viable, but kinetic weapons are the most easily upgradeable with element zero. And so the most likely to need reworks when eezo is more prevalent.
As such the Institute's engineers develop a long range missile for use at a reasonable void combat range of a few hundred thousand kilometers. Although they are designed to take a wide variety of payloads for different situations the standard warhead is either a thermonuclear charge or extra fuel to allow for a pure kinetic strike.
New Technology
Modular Cruise Missile (Weapon)
-[X] humanity knows it was not alone with the discovery of prothean ruins we need to have a body to organize and negotiate with the thousands of polities humanity have with that the institute going to negotiate with all the major and minor polities on the creation of a centralized organization for us to discuss various matters, be a mediator between the nations of humanity, the sharing of important technologies, making trade deals, and building a centralized military.
There isn't widespread agreement on how exactly humanity should respond to the exploration of the galaxy. But there is widespread agreement that said response should try to be organized collectively instead of left to the behest of individual polities.
As such after numerous meetings and long drawn out debates the framework of an overarching forum is created. Known as the Sphere of Allied Polities, or just the Sphere, it serves as a chamber in which polities can negotiate trades, work on treaties that span multiple polities, and organize collective responses to anything the galaxy might throw at them.
Not every polity agrees to this, but enough do to give the Sphere some legitimacy. And as its first act the Sphere Parliament relocates to Arcturus. The reasoning is that nowhere in Sol can really be considered neutral. And while a new station could be built the Arcturus base is already being constructed and is intended for a collective defense already.
Additionally by placing the Sphere's center of influence in between Sol and the rest of the galaxy it can ensure wider compliance with any policies it creates on colonization and exploration.
New Faction
The Sphere of Allied Polities
The sphere is a broad forum in which various human polities can coordinate their activities and negotiate disputes.
Facility Expanded
Arcturus Station (Sphere Parliament)
Population: 5
Type: Colony
Specialty: Power, Intel, Culture
Secondary: Industry, Trade
Current Energy: 10
Current Industry: 10
[ ] Plan Name
-[ ] Action 1
-[ ] Action 2
-[ ] Action 3
-[ ] Action 4