What are the Charlie contacts doing? It seems strange that they'd send six identical ships there for anything other than military purposes, or strip mining our resources. Or perhaps militarily strip mining our human resources.
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Bear in mind that these are aliens - they could be acting according to reasons not comprehensible to human minds.
(or that the AI programming may not be up to much in the current iteration...)
How does this look for a tentative Space Station design? As I said, it's just a ship with the jump drives and engines left out. It can't move, except under tow by a Tug.
It is, however, heavily armed. It has two banks of four size-8 ship-killer missile launchers (8 tubes total), five banks of three Point Defense size-1 missile launchers (15 tubes total), seperate fire controls for each of those missile batteries so that it can engage seven targets simultaneously (two ships and five incoming missiles), my best long-range thermal and (ship-size) active sensors, PD active sensors that can detect incoming missiles at the extreme range of our PD system, four CIWS systems for point blank defense, and our best model of Shield.
EDIT: Ooooops... not enough life-support. Make that only 50,000 fuel, and the life support error fixed.
True. But usually a primitive AI will have some kind of purpose - it shouldn't be sending ships somewhere just for the heck of it. It should be programmed to perform a mining mission, or to scout, or patrol, to do something. It may not do its tasks well, it may constantly change its mind, it may be slow to react, but it will be doing something. In fact, a game AI doing things just for the heck of it would be very scary.
Sensor data reveals that the ships are capable of only 1506 km/s. A thermal signature of 1050 and a low speed sounds like a commercial Freighter. I just gave them a trade treaty last month, remember. They are headed directly for Earth. When they get close, I'll launch our Fighters just in case... but I'm 99% positive that they are here on a trading mission.
Exploration by ENS Hugin of another new jump point in the Gliese 229 system has led to EG 45, a bare White Dwarf, no planets, moons or asteroids.
That certainly sounds like a trade delegation. Here's hoping, I'd much rather have friendlies at our back.
OK, they're about 82 m-km out, still headed straight for Earth. I'm positive that these are just Freighters, here to trade with us... but I'm launching anyway. You guys would never let me live it down if I let the Charlies "Pearl Harbor" us.
Scramble the Fighters!
Scramble the Fighters!
All fighters space-borne... 50 of them. The Battle Fleet has launched and moved around into the shadow of Earth. Not sure if the game still allows them to detect me with a planet in the way. I can still see them, because I've got a couple of PDC bases using active sensors. They'll be landing... assuming that's their intent... in about twelve hours.
They've landed. Passing through my active sensors allowed me to measure the TCS (Target Cross Section), giving me a pretty accurate idea of their displacement... 34,850 tons. Either Freighters or Troop Transports. They're here to trade.
So how many trinkets, beads, nails and primitive fire arms will we get for our land?
They spent four days trading, and then took off again, headed for the jump point to Ross 248. These guys are slow enough that I could actually follow them, and find out where they come from... but it might be more prudent to wait until WE get trade access from THEM, and then follow the next trade mission back to its home planet.
Landing the Fighters and recalling the Fleet. Should I start retro-fitting the Fleet up to modern standards, a few ships at a time?
Landing the Fighters and recalling the Fleet. Should I start retro-fitting the Fleet up to modern standards, a few ships at a time?
Good idea, we have our warning systems in place and we need our ships as strong as we can get them.
I would say follow them anyway, at least until Ross 248 - possibly they offer you the treaty by the time they'd make a jump to Groombridge (or elsewhere, even) and it might be a while for the next fleet to arrive.