NationStates Jolt Archive

Pantocratoria has no great history of innovation when it comes to aeronautics. None of the great achievements of flight were first made in Pantocratoria, and almost all but the lightest of aircraft flying in Pantocratorian skies were purchased from foreign countries. Even Peacock Airlines, Pantocratoria's national carrier, hasn't a single Pantocratorian aircraft in its fleet. The aircraft of the Imperial Air Service were all foreign designs, and it was only relatively recently that domestic production of those foreign designs had taken place.

The Imperial Air Service, however, had a grand design. A dream which had begun to form in the early 1990s when Pantocratoria had first become fully aware of extraterrestrial powers, colonies on Mars and beyond, and their extraordinary capabilities. The grand design was a vehicle capable of both atmospheric and suborbital spaceflight at great velocities. A reusable spacecraft which could leave the atmosphere and potentially intercept and engage hostile vehicles descending from low-Earth orbit. The scheme was called the Avion de Chasse Suborbital, but it was doomed to political obscurity during the government, however notional, of Sir Thierry Romain and his pacifist Pantocratorian National Democratic Party.

The political winds, however, were changing, and by 1992 Pantocratoria had temporarily ceased to be a true democracy, with the United Christian Front in power under the leadership of the Emperor's brother. Funding slowly began to return to the military, and whilst it rebuilt its conventional capabilities, the Imperial Air Service had revived its grand design...

OOC: I am going to spend a couple of posts bringing this from the early 90s to the "present day" before this thread really gets going and I'd appreciate it if nobody posted in it until I do.

Capitaine de Groupe Marcel Perdocles of the Imperial Air Service was a member of the Imperial High Command's Research and Development Committee, and as such had significant experience in research project review and oversight for defence projects of a classified nature. In 1995, Maréchal d'Air Louis-Constantine de Montferrat, then the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Air Service and therefore one of the few publicly known members of the Imperial High Command, commissioned CG Perdocles to build and head a research agency within the Imperial Air Service, L'Agence du Vol Suborbital (AVSO). AVSO was classified "Most Secret", a classification the Imperial High Command assigns to projects which it deems too secret for disclosure to the Imperial Government. As such, its budget had to be disguised, and the "soundness" of the Imperial High Command's auditors had to be ascertained by the Imperial Domestic Intelligence Service.

The layers of secrecy involved complicated the agency's creation, and it wasn't until 1997 that AVSO was properly functioning under CG Perdocles' management. Nevertheless, by late 1998 an hypothetical aircraft was proposed which would employ a scramjet engine for suborbital flight, and would employ a secondary engine to reach hypersonic speeds. The proposal was an ambitious one, and there was certainly significant doubt within AVSO that a reusable scramjet-powered vehicle could actually be successfully produced. It was, however, felt that a project only just ambitious enough to achieve suborbital flight would produce a vehicle of little utility as an interceptor intended to engage extraterrestial spacecraft, and no other reusable engine capable of approaching orbital velocity could be agreed upon by AVSO scientists.

By 2002 the project was floundering, and AVSO was especially struggling to design its own scramjet. There were also dozens of potential airframe designs, with no clearly superior front-runner amongst them. The project's only success thus far had been the creation of a hypersonic jet engine, the Moteur Hypersonique Transitoire (MHT), which achieved hypersonic speeds by effectively transforming into a rocket mid-flight. AVSO struggled, however, to test the MHT as a result of lacking an hypersonic airframe design ready for production. It would be necessary to purchase a foreign hypersonic airframe, a task which AVSO's Most Secret classification would render effectively impossible.

The Imperial Government was going to have to be brought on board, and a foreign partner would need to be found...

The Imperial Treasury Building, New Rome, 2002

"Group Captain Perdocles, pleasure to meet you, monsieur." said Isaac Comnenus as he rose to his feet and extended his hand to the gentleman in a decorated dress uniform of the Imperial Air Service. CG Perdocles took the Treasurer's hand and shook it.

"Treasurer, it is an honour sir." Perdocles replied.

"Please, have a seat." Comnenus said, gesturing to a couch behind Perdocles. Comnenus himself sat down in an armchair to the couch's side.

"Thank you, Treasurer." Perdocles replied. "I appreciate you taking the time to see me."

"Well, it isn't very often that anybody from the military wants to meet with me." Comnenus replied. "The uniformed sorts are generally found in the Defence Minister's office, or Monsieur's office. It's rare that the Imperial High Command seeks a meeting at Treasury. I assumed that it had to be important, so please, tell me Group Captain, how can I be of service?"

"Treasurer, I am the director of a special research agency under the authority of the Imperial High Command. The very existence of this agency is a secret of the very highest order." Perdocles began. "I must ask that before we continue this conversation, you agree not to discuss my agency with anyone, even cabinet colleagues. We've reason to believe that the very highest levels of the Defence Department in particular may have been infiltrated by foreign agents, and until we've completed our investigations, it is imperative that what I am about to tell you not leave this room."

"I see..." Comnenus said, tensing up a little. "Are you... I mean, that's a very irregular request..."

"I know, and I apologise. However, I must insist." Perdocles replied.

"Very well. I shan't discuss this with anybody until I hear from the Imperial High Command that it has completed its investigation." Comnenus swore. "Now please, do go on."

"Certainly, Treasurer." Perdocles nodded. "I'm from l'Agence du Vol Suborbital, or the AVSO as we call it."

"Suborbital flight..." Comnenus began, frowning in surprise.

"Yes, Treasurer." Perdocles nodded once again. "As you know, the Imperial High Command was asked some time ago to consider, in the act of rebuilding Pantocratoria's defence forces, how to best counter the potential threats posed by aliens and metahumans, especially extraterrestrial powers. AVSO was created for research and development in support of the creation of an interceptor capable of engaging an extraterrestrial craft which might be en route to attack our fatherland."

"Well... one can't be too careful, especially where non-humans are concerned..." Comnenus nodded. "They're aggressive. They're not like you and me. I sometimes think they'd think nothing of ending human civilisation were it in their power..."

"AVSO exists so that it will never be in their power, Treasurer." Perdocles said, inwardly grinning in a self-satisfied fashion. It would be easy to push the buttons of the Treasurer's prejudice to release a life-sustaining flow of ducats, just as the IDIS had told him it would be. "We've already designed a hypersonic engine capable of getting an aircraft to the speeds necessary for a secondary engine to take it into space... but we need funding to test it..."