Blood, Steel, and Overwhelming Firepower [PMT|IC|OPEN]

[Aeisonia]

**OOC: If you want to join, send a statement from your leader or nation to tell me that you're joining. Thanks!**

---

Unnamed Village
20 miles south of the Northern Aeisonian Border
5:00am

In this part of Aeisonia, there is little development, mostly due to the gargantuan swaths of unexplored or uninhabitable land. This was thanks to Aeisonia's tendency to invade its neighbors, and neglect what they conquered. This particular part of land used to be part of a alliance of tribes, known collectively as the Kun'te Ar, but now it belonged to its former neighbor, and such was renamed Natrude Valley, after the General that had conquered it.

However, further north was another country, known as the Commonwealth of Lonos, which has quite a bit of resources and wealth. Unfortunately for Aeisonia, however, they also had quite a bit of Military Might. This had been what stopped The President pursuing his campaigns north. But now, Lonos had been on the losing side of an overseas war, which had lost. Their treasury and armed forces were now running on empty. Aeisonia seized the chance.

---

A fisherman sat on his boat in the lake, surrounded by clear water and a gorgeous forest. He listened to the cheeping of birds, the rustling of leaves, and a constant low grumble in the distance.

Wait.

That wasn't right. The fisherman craned his head to get a good look at the forest it came from. It might me a snow leopard, and that certainly wouldn't be good. He soon realized that the growl was not coming from a mountain lion, but from a AET-230 all-terrain troop transport. He watched in amazement as the transport's wheels retracted, and the entire thing slid into the water. It sped past him so fast that the wake nearly tipped his boat over. It wasn't the only one. Soon, aircraft were flying over regularly, tanks were crushing the century-old trees under their treads, and the lake was crowded with transports. The man, with as little as he knew about the modern world, knew what this meant. War was on the horizon.

[Asur]

---

The Martial Republic of Asur

---

Official Communiqué of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

---

Priority: High
To: Aeisonia, and the International Community
From: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Martial Republic of Asur
Encryption Level: Open
Subject: Declaration of Concern Regarding the Invasion of the Commonwealth of Lonos

---

The Congress of the Republic has convened by order of the President upon being briefed on Aesonia's military offensive against the Lonos nation-state. The Republic has agreed that without a proper cassus belli, justification for Aesonia's act of war, then Aesonia's invasion of the Commonwealth of Lonos is an illegal act of war that warrants intervention from the Republic of Asur.

This official communique intends to notify the High Council of Aesonia that the Republic of Asur demands they produce an official declaration of war including a justified cassus belli for their invasion of the Commonwealth of Lonos.

The Republic's position is currently one of neutrality in regards to the conflict. However, the President has declared a national mobilization of the Asur Militarum as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and has authorized the deployment of a carrier strike group to the theatre of conflict.

The High Council of Aesonia is implored by the Congress of Asur to strongly consider a response to this communique.

---

[Greater Catarapania]

The Catarapanian Senate is appalled at the breach of Lonosian sovereignty. We join the Republic of Asur in demanding the production of a justified cassus belli for the invasion.

Until and unless this is done, the Senate has approved an embargo on trade with Aeisonia. Be warned: we are prepared to escalate well beyond economic sanctions if this unjustified war of aggression continues.

-Chancellor Davis

----------

Fleet Admiral Sheng,

All available recon assets are to be put to the following tasks:

1. Location of the so-called "Project Genesis" satellites in Low Earth Orbit. You will cooperate with the Aerospace Force in this task.

2. Location of the so-called "Zeus Planetary Protection Network" satellites. Again, you will cooperate with the Aerospace Force in this task.

3. Location of command and control nodes for the so-called "Athena Early Counter Network."

4. Location of central communications buses for the so-called "Hermes Early Warning Network."

Once these have been found, I want a plan to neutralize these threats within 36 hours of a shooting war between Greater Catarapania and Aeisonia. If a modification of fleet posture is necessary to achieve this goal, then modify fleet posture. Find an innocent-seeming reason for it. We've got assets in the Caloris Basin Solar Farm, all over the asteroid belt, and a major industrial center in Saturn's atmosphere. It shouldn't be hard to make it seem like we're reinforcing one of those assets.

(contents of a secret tanglechannel communication from Chancellor Michael K. Davis to Fleet Admiral Sheng Chien of the Catarapanian Astry)

[Prospesia]

The Prospesian Federation is watching closely the conflict between Aeisonia and Lonosia through communication with our allies in the Milky Way galaxy. In agreement with the call made by Asur we would request that the Aeisonian government publicly declare a cassus belli suitable to justify this invasion. As it appears from our perspective, a valid reason is not forthcoming, and therefore we announce that our allies near to the system are prepared and mobilised to enforce a complete blockade on access to the system by any allies Aeisonia may have, and also that they are prepared to disrupt Aeisonian telecommunications if necessary.

---

The Prospesian Department for Universal and Galactic Affairs

[Aeisonia]

Commonwealth of Lonos
2km from Grand Parnis City Center
1:00pm
The battle raged. Planes fell from the sky in droves. Burned-out husks of cars lined the streets. Grand Parnis was engulfed in hell.

The 32nd Lonossian Light Infantry was the only divisions left to defend the city. The radio airways were so crowded that Lonossian High-Command had no way of giving orders to retreat. It was total chaos and it was entirely disorganized.

However, the Lonossian defence has noticed something. Aeisonian troops had stopped pushing forward. In fact, some sectors were retreating entirely. It was strange, but when the Aeisonian forces were finally out of the city, the 32nd Light Infantry rejoiced. They had won. Their city was safe.

The first bomb hit about 4 hours after the celebrations.

All of the 32nd was vaporized immediately. The 41st Lonossian Armoured Division was on their way to the city to help regroup and fortify the garrison, but when they saw the flash, and heard static on the radios, they knew what had happened.

And that was the end of the Battle of Grand Parnis

---

[Aeisonia]

Republic of Aeisonia - Official Public Statement
Citing complaints from fellow nations due to lack of clear Cassus Belli, The Republic of Aeisonia would like to announce that we do not recognize Lonos as a nation, and as such an invasion does not break any international conventions.
The Republic also like to make very clear that acts of aggression against Aeisonia or Aeisonian assets of any kind will result in consequences towards the offending nation. The Genesis and Pantheon networks are regarded as top state assets, and full retaliatory action will be taken towards the sabotaging and/or destruction of the said assets.

Additionally, the Pantheon and Genesis networks are now on high alert. Athena Early Response drones have been redirected to protect the Genesis satellites, and the Hermes Early Warning drones are currently monitoring the solar system for potential threats. Aeisonia's orbital generators are being prepared to begin primary power generation reactions, and the ETA for the Zeus Network being armed is approx. 32 hours.

[Greater Catarapania]

"We would never have found the damn things if they hadn't started moving," said Fleet Admiral Sheng. "They're unmanned and only had enough power for basic communications. Now we know where they are. But we need to act fast. I need carte blanche."

Chancellor Davis rubbed his temples. "Rodriguez? What do you think?"

Grand Marshal Fernando "Generalisimo" Rodriguez, Commander in Chief of the Catarapanian Armed Forces, responded simply. "We have few options, Señor Chancellor. If they bring up the Zeus Defense System, we lose access to our industry in outer space. We attack now, or we give up any hope of facing them. Given their behavior, I doubt that option will be acceptable."

That was exactly what Davis was hoping he wouldn't say. "Very well then. Admiral Sheng, you have carte blanche. Don't make me regret this, and don't kill any civilians."

The response came 16 minutes later. Light lag. Pain in the friggin' ass. "Don't worry. Space assets only."

"So be it. I'll have a speech ready in 3 hours. Can you have assets in place by then?"

The response was four words. "Hermes is on board."

Chancellor Davis gave a dark chuckle. "Let's show them that, if you're going to name something after a god, you damn well better give it teeth."

----------

Commonwealth of Greater Catarapania - Official Public Statement

SEEING that the Aeisonians have refused to produce a reasonable Cassus Belli for their invasion;

KNOWING that they will not see reason of their own accord;

HORRIFIED at the use of strategic nuclear weapons in civilian population centers, and the flagrant disregard for the principles of millitary necessity, discrimination, and proportionality such use represents;

STANDING in solidarity with our fellow man, upon whose rights the Republic of Aeisonia has trampled;

THE COMMONWEALTH OF GREATER CATARAPANIA HEREBY DECLARES WAR ON THE REPUBLIC OF AEISONIA.

----------

The Hermes Early Warning System was not the only entity in Solsys that went by the name of "Hermes." In fact, there were at least seven. However, the most significant to our story is the Synthetic Intelligence buried deep under the Caloris Basin Solar Farm, Catarapania's most significant extraterrestrial holding. At 1.887 million square kilometers in area, the CBSF was, hands down, the largest solar farm anywhere in the solar system. With massive flywheels buried deep beneath the Caloris Montes on the edge of the grand crater, it could reliably produce energy all year round at a rate of approximately 1.5 exawatts. And Hermes was in charge of ensuring the effective and efficient distribution of that energy.

Ordinarily, that energy would have been used to power the production of antimatter and stable ultra-heavy elements in the relevant facilities in the asteroid belt. But given the current state of emergency, Hermes had decided to conserve eir power until e received notice that war had been declared. Now, it was time to act.

Heat signatures from moving drones had given Catarapanian recon assets all the information they needed about the location of the Genesis satellites and the Athena drones. Conveniently, these two classes of target were now closely intermingled. Meanwhile, the Aeisonian government had been courteous enough to clarify the nature of the mysterious heat signatures now present in orbit - they were generators for the Zeus system. While taking out command and control would have been nice, tooth and tail were just as vital to the enemy - and just as valuable targets.

The moment Chancellor Davis publicly presented the Declaration of War, the three battlegroups in orbits synchronized to be in Earth's "shadow" at the vital moment, sprang into action. Catarapanian cruisers led the attack, armed with massive optical phased array lasers. They fired on the smaller Athena drones from maximum range, well outside of the range where even their huge weapons could do structural damage. But there's the key word. Structural. The comparatively fragile sensors and communcations systems on enemy drones were degraded rapidly.

The second line was the destroyers. Their launch cells opened, and swarms of metallic hydrogen fueled missiles soared at the Genesis satellites. About half bore Casaba Howitzer warheads capable of launching 2.5 kiloton bolts of nuclear flame at a standoff of hundreds of kilometers. A quarter carried EW packages, and engaged in cooperative jamming of drone communications, making already hampered coordination next to impossible. The remaining quarter contained an innocent-looking powder, which they would distribute along paths likely to be taken by the enemy.

Finally, were the dreadnoughts. While the secondary batteries filled likely enemy approaches with hails of bullets, the spinal mass-driver fired again and again. The main weapon? So-called "cannonball munitions" - one tonne TNT equivalent fusion bombs used to drive an 22 kg tungsten explosively forged projectile. Like the larger casaba howitzers, these were dangerous standoff weapons. Unlike the casaba howitzers, they had a negligible heat signature, rendering them all but impossible to track.

Sixteen minutes later, Hermes would begin firing at orbital generators and Genesis satellites. Many would be deorbited by laser-driven ablation. The rest would simply heat up. Generators would lack an effective cold sink, and begin taking up more power than they delivered. Within three hours, everything within low earth orbit would have been compromised. Within 24, everything below geosynchronous would have been exposed to the wrath of Hermes. But in the meantime, the fleet combat had yet to resolve.

Half blind and half deaf, Athena drones began to make their way towards the Catarapanian plane of battle - and the withering hail of kinetic and nuclear munitions that stood between them and their targets.

[Prospesia]

5.12pm: Amarisian Solsys Research Facility, Europa

The researchers had received information a few hours previously of the Aeisonian invasion of Lonos. They were to pay close attention to activity in the region, and had positioned the ASR-55 stealth satellite close to the Earth's moon to avoid interfering with any of Aeisonia's warning and defence satellites at around 3.15pm.

Just under two hours into deployment and little seemed to have happened. The battle around Grand Parnis had died down, and it appeared that the Aeisonian units had retreated. However, the Amarisian General Matin had commanded that the stealth satellite remain in orbit for at least another 24 hours to monitor the situation. At 5:12pm, the worst fears of General Matin were realised.

The seismographs at the Amarisian Solsys Research Facility stationed on Jupiter's moon Europa received information from the satellite that a 6.1 magnitude earthquake had been detected in the city of Grand Parnis. The fact that the city was not situated on active tectonic plate lines confirmed the worst, and the researchers sent a frantic message to the President of Amaris - Loki Breghanoj.

Amaris, Prospesia's closest ally to Solsys, had prayed that this moment would not come. Ravaged by economic downturn, industrial and military strikes and food shortages, the planet was in no means prepared for a costly war in a nearby system. However, orders from Prospesia had to be followed, especially if the President wished to remain in power, as any deviation from the Prospesian line would surely see her swift replacement.

At 6:10pm, the President gave the call to General Matin, ordering the mobilisation for war with Aeisonia.

At 6:30pm, the government made its official public declaration of war on Aeisionia, and called for other nations such as Catarapania to work together to stop the threat.

[Prospesia]

Upon entry to the system, the Amarisian Space Force could not believe their eyes. The nuclear hellfire that was ensuing between the Catarapanian military and the Aeisonian Space defence system was beyond their wildest imagination. The Aeisonian satellite defence systems were undergoing an intense bombardment from the the Catarapanian space force, however access to the planet was still not easy. It was decided that the units dispatched by Amaris should station themselves until this space battle end at the research facility on Europa, as the Amarisian military could not financially sustain any kind of support to the bombing campaign pursued by Catarapania.

[Greater Catarapania]

EDIT: Much better now. Thanks!

[Prospesia]

[OOC] I will modify my contribution

[Aeisonia]

Compound 3 Secure Research Laboratory
1km under the Earth’s surface
3:00am


A lone scientist slaved away at his desk. The calculations seemed endless. He had just been tasked with developing an entirely new technology by High Command.

Right now Aeisonia’s government had been relocated to a series of makeshift “Compounds” deep in the Earth’s surface to avoid orbital bombardment. This scientist was located in Compound 3, a research and development lab that had been quickly cobbled together from old Aeisonian nuclear bunker’s ageing equipment.

It was hard work, but he was getting through it. The tech would be ready far behind schedule, but that didn’t matter. After the Saturnians (that’s what most Aeisonians called them) declared war, the government had been panicked and thrown into chaos faster than you could say boo. If it didn’t work out, at worst, he would be a POW. As far as he knew, executions weren’t a big thing on Saturn.

But then something happened. Suddenly, he had an epiphany.

“What if...yes and this could be...and that means that would be...it works!”

He needed to test it. He went to his particle reactor in the other room and punched in the equation. And to his surprise, it worked. A beam of concentrated particles. He had done it.

After a period of rejoicing, he dialed the compound operator, and called The President on the direct line.

Zeus’ Lightning was complete.

[Aeisonia]

Low Earth Orbit
1 km from Genesis-N Satellite AS23
9:00pm Aeisonian Galactic Standard Time

The battle of L.E.O was one that crippled the Genesis network, and heavily damaged the now just-functional Zeus network. Aeisonian morale was low, and Aeisonica was being evacuated in fear of orbital bombardment attacks. Things weren’t looking good for Aeisonia.

AS23 was a standard Genesis-N satellite that was disabled in the battle. It’s recording hardware still worked, but was fuzzy and grainy. But it was all that High-Command had. The shaken, tired assembly gathered in a dank command room in Compound 2 to witness the fire-birth of the newest tech Aeisonia had.

As the target, a Catarapanian dreadnought, came overhead into position, the operator scientists got into position. As the target was about to come into optimal focus, the ignition process was complete. All that was left was the firing. The scientists confirmed the coordinates to the Secretary of Defence, and with a whisper of “Glory”, the order to fire came.

The assembly watched in awe as a bright white beam shot out of a cannon on the surface, and into the atmosphere. AS23’s camera captured the grainy moment that the beam of accelerated particles smashed into the ship. And then another. And another. Over 20 beams hit the poor dreadnought.

And with that, and the mega ship disabled, the scientist who had developed the beam smiled.

Now we have become death, the destroyer of worlds.

[Greater Catarapania]

The Battle of LEO as it came to be known went poorly for the Aeisonians. The swarm of Athena drones had lost all cohesion, and by the time they got into the scorching range of their own lasers, were well within the killing range of the Catarapanian cruisers. When the kinetic munitions from the dreadnoughts and the jamming pods from the destroyers came into the mix, it was simply a massacre.

Then the shots from Hermes started arriving. Every Aeisonian asset on the sunlit side of the planet was mission-killed in a period of approximately 14 minutes. On the other side, the fleet action made short work of the remainder. What wasn't sent tumbling by laser ablation, or subjected to heat-induced structural failures, was pummeled by hypervelocity tungsten "cannonballs" or ripped to shreds by spears of atomic hellfire.

This victory was marred by the subsequent destruction of a Catarapanian dreadnought by an Aeisonian particle beam. The CO of Task Force Earth ordered the fleet to begin evasive maneuvers, and descend to a polar orbit at 35,000 kilometers. The orbit was geosynchronous, in sync with the rotation of the earth, but out of phase with the bulk of Aeisonian holdings - Aeisonian gunners would find the ships to be behind the horizon almost all the time, and the few times when they weren't, they would be close to it, protected by the thickness of the atmosphere, which would attenuate energy weapon discharges.

The maneuver was not without losses. An additional dreadnought, four cruisers, and seven destroyers were lost during insertion into polar orbit - a significant chunk of the total force. But all told, it was worth it. 75% of the Zeus network, and 90% of the Genesis network, were destroyed. Metallic hydrogen fuel had sufficient specific impulse for the Catarapanian destroyers to be able to threaten anything in Earth's hill sphere with a salvo of casaba howitzers. Orbital superiority, while not uncontested, had been achieved. The supply lines linking Catarapania to her extraterrestrial holdings, while complicated by new Aeisonian weaponry, had not been cut off. Now, what was left was to liberate Lonos.

----------

"Sky Marshal KC-1145, am I to understand that the Aeisonians are evacuating their cities?"

"Yes, Generalisimo. That's what our orbital spyplanes are telling us."

"Why in blazes would they be doing that?"

"Our analysts are unsure, but we calculate a 75.3% chance that projection is involved."

"75 per- autómatas... Well, explain this "projection" hypothesis, then."

"They suspect that we intend orbital bombardment, and expect us to use the same target prioritization that they do."

"Well, if it's orbital bombardment they want, then orbital bombardment they will get! But be sure to hit them where they least expect it, senor Sky Marshal."

"The Lancers are hot and ready to roll as we speak."

"Bueno. Muy Bueno."

a conversation between Sky Marshal KC-1145 and Grand Marshal Fernando Rodriguez

----------

The orbital bombardment expected by the Aeisonians came, but not against the targets they were expecting, and likely not from the platforms they were expecting either. The Catarapanians had few strategic weapons. But the ones they did have were, while not exceptional by the standards of other nations, absolutely perfect for the purposes the Catarapanians had in mind.

These weapons were fairly simple. The heavy lance was a 12 meter long, 60 cm diameter pole of tungsten/osmium/titanium alloy. It weighed nearly 70 tonnes. The standard lance was about half the linear size, and one eighth of the mass. In either case, the surface of the lance was covered in electrodes, in a passive MHD bypass system that reduced both drag and heat stress on the projectile. They were delivered by the B-74 strategic bombing spaceplane, nicknamed "Lancer" after its standard munition. The Catarapanians sent twelve squadrons on the first bombing run, each bomber carrying an eight-pack of standard lances, or (more rarely) a single heavy lance. Accelerating to what essentially amounted to a forced orbit using their air-breathing closed-cycle gas core engines, they then simply rotated, and "bounced" themselves off of the atmosphere into suborbital hops... with Aeisonia as the "landing point."

After leaving the atmosphere, the Catarapanian Lancers ejected their payloads, then turned back, using stores of onboard liquid methane as propellant, reentering the atmosphere without once passing over the target. The lances, by contrast, would continue on a ballistic trajectory, and demolish whatever they landed on, even through dozens of meters of solid rock.

Within four hours, Aeisonia would endure a hail of fire and fury such as it had never seen before... but only on her nuclear silos.

Greater Catarapania had a thing about unnecessary civilian casualties. The primary cause of this war was Aeisonia getting on the wrong side of said thing. And now that thing was about to turn the tide of the Lonossian conflict.

Later historians would note that it wasn't until after suffering severe losses and launching an all-out attack on the Aeisonian strategic arsenal that Catarapanian diplomats began to approach the Lonossian and Prospesian governments about the possibility of a military alliance.

[Aeisonia]

OOC: Are you sure this is PMT and not FT?

[Greater Catarapania]

OOC: Are you sure this is PMT and not FT?

Short answer: Pretty sure.

Long answer: Depends on your definition of future tech. I tend to assume that FT means "technology indistinguishable from magic, we have no idea how it works." Stuff like faster-than-light travel and magical forcefields that can stop most things until they suddenly overload. I take PMT, by contrast, to mean "stuff we know can be done, but still have some kinks to work out."

The site-offered definition is as follows:

Post-Modern Tech is typically understood to mean any piece of technology or continuity which is generally beyond the scope of Modern Tech, but before the moment a country has developed faster-than-light (FTL) technology. Some exemplar aspects include: pervasive use of the Internet, nanotechnology, and cyberpunk aesthetics.

Most of what's in my post is either a) basic orbital mechanics, b) stuff we're looking into already on a smaller scale, or c) plausible extrapolations from known physics. If you want the details on the fancy gadgets, you can open the spoiler.

The lancers are powered by closed-cycle nuclear gas core engines, which we've looked into fairly extensively. Once we get the fuel feeds down, and confirm that the cooling system would still work with an air-breathing engine, there's no reason we wouldn't be able to build something like the lancer.

The MHD system on the lances is a bit more out there, but the basic idea is physically plausible. A magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) bypass basically relies on the fact that a hypervelocity (mach 5+) projectile will ionize the air in front of it. Ordinarily, the kinetic energy of the projectile gets spent on ionizing the air, resulting in a lot of heat and shock, with mostly negative effects on ballistic performance. The idea of the MHD bypass is to modify the path of that ionized air, swiping back the kinetic energy it stole from the projectile, then using Lorentz forces to expel it out the back for thrust, regaining a significant portion of the kinetic energy that would have otherwise been lost to heat and shock. Ballistic performance still suffers relative to that in a vacuum, but to a far lesser degree than if the projectile didn't have the bypass system.

The metallic hydrogen rockets (check my factbooks for information on how I get metallic hydrogen out of Saturn, and how it's stored - I'm pretty proud of the idea, tbh) that my destroyers are packing should have an exhaust velocity of ~12-14 km/s. It's a bit lower than the ~17 km/s you could achieve with pure metallic hydrogen, but I operate under the assumption that metallic hydrogen isn't metastable under zero pressure (an assumption that's been confirmed by what little research I've done on the subject), and so needs to be stored in inert hypertensile carbon enclosures. Basically, I keep it stable by keeping tiny grains of it at or above 30 GPa at all times in multilayer graphene shells. The carbon is inert, so the exhaust velocity goes down, but being under high tension, it does still contribute some energy to the exhaust. Since orbital velocity at geosync tends to be around 3 km/s, canceling out velocity to drop down on a lower orbit would be fairly easy. And going up would actually be even easier, since we're pretty far out of Earth's gravity well. Getting into orbit from the earth is actually the hardest part of space travel.

That being said,

1- I don't expect you to work out your tech to the same level that I have. The things I find interesting usually make other peoples' eyes glaze over, so... yeah. As long as you don't blatantly break the laws of physics, I'm not going to complain.

2- I am prepared both to negotiate a common understanding of PMT that differs from my current one, if you think that would facilitate this roleplay. If that includes retconning some of the actions I've taken thus far, I am prepared to do so.

[Aeisonia]

OOC: Are you sure this is PMT and not FT?

Short answer: Pretty sure.

Long answer: Depends on your definition of future tech. I tend to assume that FT means "technology indistinguishable from magic, we have no idea how it works." Stuff like faster-than-light travel and magical forcefields that can stop most things until they suddenly overload. I take PMT, by contrast, to mean "stuff we know can be done, but still have some kinks to work out."

The site-offered definition is as follows:

Post-Modern Tech is typically understood to mean any piece of technology or continuity which is generally beyond the scope of Modern Tech, but before the moment a country has developed faster-than-light (FTL) technology. Some exemplar aspects include: pervasive use of the Internet, nanotechnology, and cyberpunk aesthetics.

Most of what's in my post is either a) basic orbital mechanics, b) stuff we're looking into already on a smaller scale, or c) plausible extrapolations from known physics. If you want the details on the fancy gadgets, you can open the spoiler.

The lancers are powered by closed-cycle nuclear gas core engines, which we've looked into fairly extensively. Once we get the fuel feeds down, and confirm that the cooling system would still work with an air-breathing engine, there's no reason we wouldn't be able to build something like the lancer.

The MHD system on the lances is a bit more out there, but the basic idea is physically plausible. A magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) bypass basically relies on the fact that a hypervelocity (mach 5+) projectile will ionize the air in front of it. Ordinarily, the kinetic energy of the projectile gets spent on ionizing the air, resulting in a lot of heat and shock, with mostly negative effects on ballistic performance. The idea of the MHD bypass is to modify the path of that ionized air, swiping back the kinetic energy it stole from the projectile, then using Lorentz forces to expel it out the back for thrust, regaining a significant portion of the kinetic energy that would have otherwise been lost to heat and shock. Ballistic performance still suffers relative to that in a vacuum, but to a far lesser degree than if the projectile didn't have the bypass system.

The metallic hydrogen rockets (check my factbooks for information on how I get metallic hydrogen out of Saturn, and how it's stored - I'm pretty proud of the idea, tbh) that my destroyers are packing should have an exhaust velocity of ~12-14 km/s. It's a bit lower than the ~17 km/s you could achieve with pure metallic hydrogen, but I operate under the assumption that metallic hydrogen isn't metastable under zero pressure (an assumption that's been confirmed by what little research I've done on the subject), and so needs to be stored in inert hypertensile carbon enclosures. Basically, I keep it stable by keeping tiny grains of it at or above 30 GPa at all times in multilayer graphene shells. The carbon is inert, so the exhaust velocity goes down, but being under high tension, it does still contribute some energy to the exhaust. Since orbital velocity at geosync tends to be around 3 km/s, canceling out velocity to drop down on a lower orbit would be fairly easy. And going up would actually be even easier, since we're pretty far out of Earth's gravity well. Getting into orbit from the earth is actually the hardest part of space travel.

That being said,

1- I don't expect you to work out your tech to the same level that I have. The things I find interesting usually make other peoples' eyes glaze over, so... yeah. As long as you don't blatantly break the laws of physics, I'm not going to complain.

2- I am prepared both to negotiate a common understanding of PMT that differs from my current one, if you think that would facilitate this roleplay. If that includes retconning some of the actions I've taken thus far, I am prepared to do so.

OOC: Oh you explained that expertly.

No I don’t think negotiation is necessary. PMT is PMT. You do you.

In other news, Aeisonia is being smashed so maybe we should negotiate a peace treaty lol

[Greater Catarapania]

Short answer: Pretty sure.

Long answer: Depends on your definition of future tech. I tend to assume that FT means "technology indistinguishable from magic, we have no idea how it works." Stuff like faster-than-light travel and magical forcefields that can stop most things until they suddenly overload. I take PMT, by contrast, to mean "stuff we know can be done, but still have some kinks to work out."

The site-offered definition is as follows:



Most of what's in my post is either a) basic orbital mechanics, b) stuff we're looking into already on a smaller scale, or c) plausible extrapolations from known physics. If you want the details on the fancy gadgets, you can open the spoiler.

The lancers are powered by closed-cycle nuclear gas core engines, which we've looked into fairly extensively. Once we get the fuel feeds down, and confirm that the cooling system would still work with an air-breathing engine, there's no reason we wouldn't be able to build something like the lancer.

The MHD system on the lances is a bit more out there, but the basic idea is physically plausible. A magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) bypass basically relies on the fact that a hypervelocity (mach 5+) projectile will ionize the air in front of it. Ordinarily, the kinetic energy of the projectile gets spent on ionizing the air, resulting in a lot of heat and shock, with mostly negative effects on ballistic performance. The idea of the MHD bypass is to modify the path of that ionized air, swiping back the kinetic energy it stole from the projectile, then using Lorentz forces to expel it out the back for thrust, regaining a significant portion of the kinetic energy that would have otherwise been lost to heat and shock. Ballistic performance still suffers relative to that in a vacuum, but to a far lesser degree than if the projectile didn't have the bypass system.

The metallic hydrogen rockets (check my factbooks for information on how I get metallic hydrogen out of Saturn, and how it's stored - I'm pretty proud of the idea, tbh) that my destroyers are packing should have an exhaust velocity of ~12-14 km/s. It's a bit lower than the ~17 km/s you could achieve with pure metallic hydrogen, but I operate under the assumption that metallic hydrogen isn't metastable under zero pressure (an assumption that's been confirmed by what little research I've done on the subject), and so needs to be stored in inert hypertensile carbon enclosures. Basically, I keep it stable by keeping tiny grains of it at or above 30 GPa at all times in multilayer graphene shells. The carbon is inert, so the exhaust velocity goes down, but being under high tension, it does still contribute some energy to the exhaust. Since orbital velocity at geosync tends to be around 3 km/s, canceling out velocity to drop down on a lower orbit would be fairly easy. And going up would actually be even easier, since we're pretty far out of Earth's gravity well. Getting into orbit from the earth is actually the hardest part of space travel.

That being said,

1- I don't expect you to work out your tech to the same level that I have. The things I find interesting usually make other peoples' eyes glaze over, so... yeah. As long as you don't blatantly break the laws of physics, I'm not going to complain.

2- I am prepared both to negotiate a common understanding of PMT that differs from my current one, if you think that would facilitate this roleplay. If that includes retconning some of the actions I've taken thus far, I am prepared to do so.

OOC: Oh you explained that expertly.

No I don’t think negotiation is necessary. PMT is PMT. You do you.

In other news, Aeisonia is being smashed so maybe we should negotiate a peace treaty lol

Well, three points.

First, it's not your entire nation getting smashed. Just your nuclear silos. Even if, for some reason, Zeus was your only line of defense against bombardment, you'd still have intact ground forces, industry, and potentially ballistic missile subs if you have a navy.

Second, there are countermeasures. A PMT nation like yours with 2080s era technology should have access to medium caliber (think 20 kg projectile) railguns, megawatt scale directed energy weapons, and hypersonic interceptor missiles. Certainly, that's what I'd be using if the roles were reversed - and what I would have been using had you launched a nuclear strike on my population centers (one of several possible responses I had anticipated). How many of your silos they could realistically save would be an interesting math problem, one that depends on the number of silos you have and the number of defense systems of each kind at your disposal.

Finally, even if I have a technological edge, you do have four times my nation's population. Recall that the main theatre of this war is Lonos. Also, I generally view Catarapania as an island nation, so there's also a logistical bottleneck on my troop movements. This is quality vs quantity, and you could probably take a good chunk out of Lonos before I'm in a position to do much about it. We'd obviously try and help Lonos regain lost territory, but with their troops demoralized, and my limited numbers, the outcome would be far from certain.

Just some facts your generals would already know, before you make an in character decision on peace talks.