Duchy of Konev
Large cluster of solar systems given to the Konev family generations ago when they were made Dukes for service rendered to the Empire. Most dukes do not have territories so large as Konev but it is justified by most of it being radiation blasted wastelands due to the close distance to the galactic core. Still, this unexplored waste proved to at least be resource rich though harsh environements make harvesting these resources dangerous and tedious, thus only the easiest of access locations are exploited at the moment by strings of outposts manned mainly by Crayvens and a handful of human supervisor, generally as punishment for pass behavior.

-Gulag: Renamed by Admiral Konev's Great Grandfather when he gained his Duchy, this planet was the only one with a xeno race calling it home, it was brought to extinction within a century after the war as they were worked to death. Now, this ball of toxic radiation where even Crayvens need protection equipment to survive serve as the industrial core of the duchy. Woe to those who have to live there though.

-Admiral's Rest: The only spot of green and blue in the duchy, this tidally locked moon of Gulag boasts an extremely dense core giving it earth like gravity and a strong magnetic field protecting it from the core radiations. It is the central human hub of the sector and indeed almost all humans call it home abd everywhere else temporary (hopefully) assignment. This moon, because of the strong magnetic field, has the anomaly of preventing wireless communications. Indeed, everything is wired and transmissions coming in or out of the planet need to go through The Ladder.

-The Ladder: Admiral's rest and Gulag are tidally locked to one another, which is what gave Admiral Konev's great grandfather the idea to link the two of them and by doing so, make the Rest more connected to the rest of the empire, the large station and the junction of the two planet's gravity field serving as a communication center.

-Armory One: A work of fortification made to resist an invasion force from wither Mekhar or the Kegran confederacy, this fort isn't an extremely impressive impregnable fortress as much as it is an extremely annoying thorn in anyone's side if they try to conquer the region. Indeed, this asteroid base is hidden in a very dense field of them where spy cameras, mines and other traps wait to ensnare an invader. One needs the station to transmit the right route, which changes every couple of weeks, to make it in one piece. This thing is so damn annoying however because it isn't a work of fortification, but a base for cruisers and smaller ships who will absolutely wreak anyone's supply lines if left alone, forcing anyone going through the Konev system to either assault it or commit a disproportionately large amount of forces to siege it.

Dis is shaping up to be a good RP

@Wernher

Your proximity to me makes me very uncomfortable. Due to your close(ish) ties to the empire.

On a side note: armory one is actually useless... because most belts are just that. A belt. And do not form a sphere around the system. So it would be trivial to take an invading fleet over or under the belt and avoid the whole of the traps. It would slow them down a little but not so much that it's even a significant inconvenience.

And if it is a spherical belt (which doesn't happen) it would be an impossible task to trap and mine the whole area

@Sophrus A belt is not a ring. If you look at some of the asteroid belts in the Solar system (like the ones in Jupiter's orbit, or the Oort belt) they can be jam packed with thousands of asteroids. They are many, many kilometers wide and tall, so establishing a base in the middle DOES serve a purpose. Plus its outta they way, so its always a good fallback position.

Ps: of course you can always take a mile long dreadnought and blow every asteroid to milimeter sized debree, but that would take forever

well, ok. but its still not as useful as it says in the description.

@Sophrus Have you read the star wars books about the Chiss? I personally love the book where they are first introduced. They built a base inside an asteroid. A lone asteroid. Nobody managed to detect it. A well hidden refueling station inside a low albedo asteroid shouldn't be underestimated. Add a few dozen more rocks and you've got a recipe for success. Surely not strong if found, but locating it is the hard part.

@Sophrus Nope, works perfectly as intended.

You go in? Sure. You take Gulag and Admiral's Rest? Ok.

Now what?

If you move out of the system, forces in Armory One just take it back once you've left and more than that, jump to the systems on your rear and assault your supply lines only to flee back in the asteroid field.

It isn't meant to defend shit, its meant to just exist and be annoying as hell. You have to either accept your supply lines are going to be plundered like crazy, leave enough forces to intercept any enemy coming out of the belt, so a shitload of forces because that's a very wide area, or assault the fortress... which is an asteroid in the middle of an asteroid field and into some of them may or may not be mines, ambushes and what not.

@Wernher Or fire an oversized railgun slug into it from very, very far away...

@6slyboy6

no i mean as a defensive base, it would be relatively easy to either avoid the belt entirely by only adding some time to the trip depending on sub light engines. OR, nearly as easy, blasting a hole in the field a couple of miles around. granted that would be slow and annoying as well but not -that- difficult.

again, i am sure its very useful as a hidden base, but it couldn't be a viable defensive perimeter without an absurd amount of manpower and ships, but as a forward base of operations to send patrol ships and whatnot it would be great.

It isn't meant to defend shit, its meant to just exist and be annoying as hell.

if that is its intent then nvm, that makes sense. i misunderstood its point.

@6slyboy6

Problem 1: Finding the base.

Problem 2: Make sure the railgun is powerful enough to go through all the asteroids on the way...

Well, that is of course if we play rule of cool like in those movies where asteroids are ridiculously close to each other.

If we don't play rule of cool, well, I'm sorry to say we literally have no chance against the empire because you know, irl, stealth in space isn't a thing.

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardetect.php

Wargames like GDW's STAR CRUISER describe interplanetary combat as being like hide and go seek with bazookas. Stealthy ships are tiny needles hidden in the huge haystack of deep space. The first ship that detects its opponent wins by vaporizing said opponent with a nuclear warhead. Turning on active sensors is tantamount to suicide. It is like one of the bazooka-packing seekers clicking on a flashlight: all your enemies instantly see and shoot you before you get a good look. You'd best have all your sensors and weapons far from your ship on expendable remote drones.

Well, that turns out not to be the case.

The "bazooka" part is accurate, but not the "hiding" part. If the spacecraft are torchships, their thrust power is several terawatts. This means the exhaust is so intense that it could be detected from Alpha Centauri. By a passive sensor.

The Space Shuttle's much weaker main engines could be detected past the orbit of Pluto. The Space Shuttle's manoeuvering thrusters could be seen as far as the asteroid belt. And even a puny ship using ion drive to thrust at a measly 1/1000 of a g could be spotted at one astronomical unit.

@Wernher If we didn't go by rule of cool, you'd all be dead cause you are facing a race who can travel between separate galaxies. That instantly also gives them god tier technology and weapons.

But we play by rule of cool, with a hint of realism. I am sure a well aimed slug could hit the asteroid. But like I said before, a low albedo asteroid is really hard to identify, especially amongst others.

(Or you could just nuke the whole fricking asteroid belt)

@6slyboy6

Speaking of that, what about nukes? Seem like a potent explosive always available and easily manufactured. Can we use them?

@Wernher

i wasnt planning on "real" space combat because it would be boring as hell to play. Im fine with the super dense asteroids, rule of cool, but detonating several nukes in the cluster could still cause considerable damage to the base as the nearby roids are knocked out of orbit and possibly hit the base... which probably would not be fatal for the base but would drastically cripple its abilities while repairs are made.

also, i was allowed to use Neutronium which apparently is a nuke the size of a grain of rice or sand or whatever... so i would say yes. esp because i plan on using them.

@Wernher Ion Thrusters mate.

@Ryteb Pymeroce Yeah... And? Still makes heat m8

@Sophrus I plan on allying you on the first post if possible anyways. Want to talk about it in PM?

@Wernher

sure!

i was talking theory anyways not trying to cause trouble.

@Wernher Yeah, but not much more than background radiation.

Talking of weaponry... my flagship is a planet. I may have a size advantage here.

@Ryteb Pymeroce

Y... you can't fly a planet. I don't think that's OK.

Although I know how I plan on destroying a few human planets now...

@Ryteb Pymeroce Yeah... And? Still makes heat m8

@Sophrus I plan on allying you on the first post if possible anyways. Want to talk about it in PM?

You cheeky briky bastards. Time to put on the gameface. No more nice Empire just cause I'm the GM.

Also yea, nukes are always relevant. Because of rule of cool, they are classified doomsday weapons, or at least VERY potent explosives, so not every single ship has them.

If we went by real life logic, or my second favourite SF book, Red Rebellion, then every missile would be nuclear, and you could easely purge entire moons with them. But lets not ruin the game with reality.

@Sophrus Just make sure not to spam them. Its not like you can really have too many of that stuff, as soon as its made it needs to be confined in a special container or it will spontaneously explode. The more of it, the more likely it is to do so. Plus you gotta strip the protons from a neutron. Thats like, hella hard.