NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=123050

This is OOC, because we're not making a big public deal out of it. However we do have 100 odd ships orbiting Mercury now, doing surveys of the surface, sensor sweeps of the whole area, and it looks to observers like we're planning on moving some heavy equipment to the planet.

Bump to allow for reactions (if any), I don't want to hear later that OMG BUT I HAD COLONEES ON MERCURY RETCON1!!!1!!!!

This bump has been brought to you by the letters "S", "O" and "E" and the number "1".

OOC- Well, I'm here. You'll notice several satellites in orbit of the planet, designed by The Most Glorious Hack. The entire area of the Caloris Basin is clearly developed.

OOC- Well, I'm here. You'll notice several satellites in orbit of the planet, designed by The Most Glorious Hack. The entire area of the Caloris Basin is clearly developed.

OOC: Okay. Do you have any kind of URL link saying that you are there previous to this? As well, did you make up a map or anything of the lands that you have claimed?

OOC: Assuming the Caloris Basin is Hack's colony, I recognize its existence. But since we'll be staying a while on Mercury, do you want to do a Planet Mercury type region? Might make things clearer for future imperiali- I mean colonists.

Bleh... forgot about this, sorry. Been busy.

Okay, here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=112858&highlight=) is the thread where I set up tCB. I don't have any actual maps right now, but I take up the entirety of the Caloris Basin (the real one) on Mercury.


This major impact feature is just north of the planet's equator and is surrounded by circular mountain ridges up to 2 km (6500 ft) high. The diameter of the basin is 1300 km (810 mi).

It is worth noting, however, the tCB isn't just a puppet of mine, it's a colony, and thus part of the Federation, the primary members being myself and GMC.

As for your intentions on Mercury, I don't much mind if you go there. Provided you can handle the intense heat, intense cold, and intense radiation. You would be well advised, however, to stay away from the basin, and not make hostile moves towards them. I've got pretty good satellite coverage of the planet, and (in character) have the whole thing mapped, so it's safe to assume that I'm likely to know if you start making threatening moves.

And, besides, who in their right mind would invade a reseach station full of EI's?

tag. :)

Bleh... forgot about this, sorry. Been busy.

Okay, here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=112858&highlight=) is the thread where I set up tCB. I don't have any actual maps right now, but I take up the entirety of the Caloris Basin (the real one) on Mercury.


This major impact feature is just north of the planet's equator and is surrounded by circular mountain ridges up to 2 km (6500 ft) high. The diameter of the basin is 1300 km (810 mi).

It is worth noting, however, the tCB isn't just a puppet of mine, it's a colony, and thus part of the Federation, the primary members being myself and GMC.

As for your intentions on Mercury, I don't much mind if you go there. Provided you can handle the intense heat, intense cold, and intense radiation. You would be well advised, however, to stay away from the basin, and not make hostile moves towards them. I've got pretty good satellite coverage of the planet, and (in character) have the whole thing mapped, so it's safe to assume that I'm likely to know if you start making threatening moves.

And, besides, who in their right mind would invade a reseach station full of EI's?

OOC: Okay, so only the Caloris Basin is yours? That's it? I realize that the question appears that we are repeating ourselves, but we think it is best to confirm in advance to avoid any potential snags. Hope that's okay, Hack.

The basin proper, and the surrounding mountain ridges, of course.

Figured you'd want to see this: http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=134578
I'm not sure exactly how far above the equator Caloris is, so if this interferes, please tell me. I have a suspicion that Caloris crosses the equator, in which case I would like to do a negotiation RP concerning the 20-klik strip.

Well, I spent the last 30 minutes or so searching online to find out. The most accurate description I got was "north of the equator".

My guess is that since it is hard to define where a basin begins and ends (especially when said basin in chock full of craters), it's hard to pinpoint an exact "begining" and "end" for the basin.

I'm going to assume that your strip is butting against the outer part of the surrounding mountain range. So, I'm not too worried about it. A little curious why everyone's jumping on Mercury now, but not concerned.

Don't bother the natives, and they won't bother you, heh.

ooc: Yeah, the Order won't be liking this.

ooc: Yeah, the Order won't be liking this.

ooc: Yeah, the Order won't be liking this.

What, my claim, or the Guilds' claim?

Well, I've done a bit more searching, and it seems that Caloris is quite sufficiently high above the equator. So, that's settled, then.

ooc: The Guild's claim. It would bisect CSF landing sites and therefore claimed territory. This was the whole point of their mission, to secure Mercury. They tolerate Hack's colony as it was here first, but your proposal would sever any rail plans, power plans, or... other plans they may have had on the equator. ANd I don't think they wanna negotiate much if anything.

ooc: The Guild's claim. It would bisect CSF landing sites and therefore claimed territory. This was the whole point of their mission, to secure Mercury. They tolerate Hack's colony



Yeah, you better give me props!

I'm putting this stuff here just in case it becomes relevant to others from an OOC standpoint.

Budget

Currently, the rogue CSF under the High Imperator has a total manpower of 105,608,655. 54.25% of that are in the JIL (combat service), 34% are in the Strategic Command, 8.5% in the Bureau of Design, 1.8% in the Bureau of Intelligence (not to be confused with the Order's intelligence services like SCION!), 1.45% in the Contact Agency.

Monthly wages alone for the CSF are $110.6 billion.

The Order's military budget was in the neighborhood of $20 trillion per year, however the H.I secretly and otherwise put a percentage of that each year into savings accounts, specifically for the very moment when the Order would no longer be footing the bills. These reserves total to $45 trillion or so - basically, a full budget for 2.25 years of operations at full cost.

Of course the small matter of the military currently having no longterm income needs to be addressed... but that's an IC issue.

Fleets

The 1st and 2nd Interplanetary Warfare Battle Squadrons, along with a heavy battle group, a system defense group and interplanetary warfare group, were eliminated as effective fighting units in the recent ambush by the Fourth Imperium.

Remaining:

3rd I.W.B.S
4th I.W.B.S
5th I.W.B.S
6th I.W.B.S

(Numbers later)

TXTSRC: Bent's History of Mercury
AUTHOR: Fino Hadartites Bent

The Lords of Mercury

"It began with the secession of the CSF from the Order of the Seraphim. This was military rebellion on an international scale, and the creation of a military state on Mercury. It began because of economic conditions. Without funding from nations like Sketch or Praetor, the High Imperator was faced with the challenges of statecraft and civil management, made even more difficult by the hostile relations with likely trade partners and the hostile conditions of Mercury itself.

Initially, before combat had broken out between the High Imperator's forces and those loyal to the rest of the Order, the High Imperator had inherited massive liabilities and no true economic potential. Literally thousands of manned spacecraft whose upkeep and pay, in dollar value, figured around one trillion per month of war-readiness operation. The support network for these Legions included 37 million servicemen, many of whose loyalties, motives and morale were uncertain.

To counter this, the Seraphim Military had several weapons. First, the High Imperator trimmed the manpower of the military, primarily reducing the bloated Strategic Command (whose main function, to coordinate defenses across several star systems and perhaps a dozen different national forces, was no longer necessary). The number of JIL legionnaires were themselves reduced - both in the upcoming battles with Order-loyalist forces and in massive layoffs. In particular, tens of thousands of high-ranked officers up to and including the rank of Imperator.

This created unemployed citizenry with military training and no homes to return to. (In several Order nations, CSF personnel who followed the High Imperator were decried as traitors and received de facto death sentences.) Already facing internal dissent that his propaganda machine and political maneuvering could not crush, the High Imperator deployed his second weapon - Mercury.

Land on Mercury was at that time very scarce. The Order's policies had been extremely possessive regarding all but the Caloris Basin, unwilling to allow any other powers onto Mercury for any length of time. There were only two ways to get land on Mercury: negotiate or trade for it with either the Hack's colony or the Order of the Seraphim, or seize land by force.

The High Imperator realized several things. One, that he could not maintain the JIL at Order-level strength. Two, that other powers would sooner or later be able to steal CSF claimed territory because of this. Three, that the path of the military state would, ironically, necessitate an emphasis on foreign policy and trade.

With the equivalent of forty-five trillion dollars stashed away in reserves (various metals as well as savings accounts), the CSF could continue to operate for three years at current levels.

The surface of Mercury was far too hostile to be anyone's ideal home. Freezing at night was easily controlled; incredibly hot (up to 725 K) surface temperatures for Mercury's 4,222 hours of daytime was not.

For the 3% of land that the CSF had built inhabited military or mining installations on, construction aimed downward, burying beneath the surface. Even so, the costs of "heat-proofing" everything from drones to fliers to radiators and power transmitters were enormous.

The only practical results of mining could be obtained with the simplest, uninhabited pre-fabricated modules, worked by industrial drones of various kinds. It was only profitable when getting cut-rate (i.e, free) deals on materials, especially the drones themselves. Compared to asteroid or Earth based mining, it could not compete.

The energy market was more profitable. So close to the Sun, Mercury provided the best natural vantage and solar radiation reception point in the system. Hardy, cheap photovoltaic cells was used in giant orbital satellites as well as surface-based receivers. Electricity could become the main export of Mercury, even competing with the mainstay fusion generator systems in some fields.

Land values on Mercury varied because of the high set-up costs of development. Developed land and potentially lucrative mining/energy areas could cost from $3,600 to up to a quarter million per acre - not including any constructs.

Undeveloped land, however, was in abundance with 14 billion acres, and most had an estimated dollar value of perhaps nine hundred each. This land, especially, became part of the High Imperator's deal offered to favored individuals, including many former Imperators. Essentially, he gave out land in a feudal manner to retain the loyalty and services of key persons necessary to transform the Seraphim Military into a state, promising to (at a later time) construct dwellings and other buildings in that land.

Potential enemies and rivals to his power, he could execute, but he also bought them and their service off, retaining forces he never could have otherwise.

Those favored and talented individuals, such as Bureau of Design technicians and scientists or Seraphim Order Embassy diplomats like Kril Buy, he offered land as well. Generally, it was arranged so that the dollar value of the land would be enough for them to retire on: some received a few hundred or even thousand acres of undeveloped land at the poles, and others received a single acre or set of extant modules.

Of course, these land grants were not given for free. Kril Buy was to serve to the best of his abilities in an ambassadorial service; ex-military were still in a sort of reserves status and could be called upon for training and if necessary, combat duty.

Unlike in a true feudal system, the lords were not expected to manage their fiefs, and in most cases had power over no sentient beings because their lands are uninhabited. Developments, if any, in the fiefs were an asset, and the whole thing was treated as a commodity to be either sold (now or later), or retained and operated, (in those cases a managerial firm was probably contracted to run the show.)

Unlike commodities, there was not necessarily a market for land on Mercury. The High Imperator had to create and run this market. Several nations wanted assets on Mercury, of course, and the Lords of Mercury could choose to provide (and often did, preferring to be 'landless nobility' and wealthy than landed, impoverished and possibly homeless nobility).

However, the High Imperator kept the right to interfere with any and all trade, because of the primary goal of Defense. Not all nations or private entrepreneurs could get Mercury land, only those given the go-signal from the High Imperator.

And in no case was selling the land considered a legitimate out for the duties and services owed to the CSF; lords who had sold their land were still lords, with all the responsibilities and the few gifts, for life.

More important in this quasi-feudal system was profit-making power networks. These were initially part of the CSF itself, and control of their operation and revenue was given to the highest ranks of nobility.

The High Imperator wanted nobility to be desirable, but not so desirable that it was fiercely coveted and contested. Above all, he wanted control over the process, so that his military would retain a central operation and not fragment (as the militaries of feudal Europe often were). The rule of law had to contain, legitimize and channel the transition from international military to multiethnic militarist nation.

The result was the drafting of the Mercurial Inheritance Law, a detailed code which came to include the rights and general obligations of the nobility. It also reaffirmed, in the name of the CSF, the original Order of the Seraphim's claim to all of Mercury save the Caloris Basin.

Nobles were given social priveledges and freedoms over ordinary citizens. The MIL described the hierarchy of the chain of command as well as a social/legal hierarchy. At the bottom of both were citizens, who were civilian and not former CSF: with no special priveledges.

CSF servicemen ranked next, with little freedom and maximum obligation; but not employed in an economically profitable service, they were a drain on the Mercurial economy. Although service was respected, it was not the social equivalency of being a knight in a lord's pay.

Ex-servicemen, however, were often kept at Mercury and with the new state with lures of land and higher civil freedoms, training every month and to be called upon as reserves but otherwise on permanent leave. Depending on the size of the grant given them by the High Imperator, and their own financial management skills, they would have different amounts of wealth. This often corresponded to their former rank and function in the CSF, but not always.

At the highest ranks of the social ladder were those given large grants and/or who already held large amounts of power. The High Imperator didn't choose these by flattery - in fact there are no records of the High Imperator personally meeting with the vast majority of the levels of nobility - but instead for various political, social and economic reasons. They often were an active part of the Seraphim Military government and managed the power networks, the construction, communications, and sometimes whole fleets.

Tax rates averaged from 15-25%, but necessarily scaled in favor of the high ranking social and political elites. To the nonmilitary civilians, there was an economic incentive to join the CSF's ranks. To the members of the CSF's armed branches there was an incentive to fulfill their term of service. To the ex-servicemen with land grants, there was an incentive to make their land productive so they could eventually sell it at a profit and retire. To the members of the highest ranks, there was an incentive to stay in the Mercury sphere, and thus contribute to the Seraphim Military's economy. Incentives came in the form of more favorable tax rates primarily, and/or various insurance packages, and/or business welfare.

Unlike the military arm as a whole, the warships of the JIL not currently in active operation could still be an asset. Their initial construction debts paid long ago, the High Imperator considered them free capital. They could be dismantled and stripped for materials and parts, they could be used in commercial roles (such as asteroid mining, freight or transport), they could be used as orbital housing.

However, such plans would have to wait until the Seraphim Military dealt with it's opponents..."