Chapter 1 - Emergenace[]
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From: Aaron DeChavilier (dechavilier.aaron@sldf.starleague.gov)
To: Noriko Murakami (murakami.noriko@sldf.starleague.gov)
Date: 2760-04-13 20:23:47 UTC
Subject: Re: M-6C Project Reactivation Request
Noriko,
I wanted to send this to you ahead of the formal notification, but General Kerensky has outright forbid reactivation of the M-6 program, and prohibited reassigning the Montbatten to the project. There's no way in hell he wants to risk something as big as a Texas class in the off-chance hope you and your team can fix what went wrong last time. He especially doesn't see the value in using the Texas class as a long-range escort for the M-11s: they may be a secondline battleship at this point, but they're still valuable enough as a battleship that he's put his foot down.
In fact, don't expect anything frontline at this point, Noriko. The General is still unconvinced of the utility of a new drone WarShip, the utility of the M-11s, and the likelihood of any major colonization missions any time soon. Things are tense amongst the Council, and the General is suspicious as hell of them. Pulling a frontline combatant off the line for use as an experimental ship isn't going to happen. I know you floated the idea of the Sovetskii Soyuz class cruisers or Congress class frigates as alternatives, but the former are in too high a demand, and the General rejected the latter, since the Federated Suns can build them too: he doesn't want the technology to leak to the Member States, especially ready-made instructions on how to convert something they can build.
I even floated the idea of transferring the Pioneer to your project, or keeping one of the Farragut class battleships from going to the breakers, but he wasn't having it. If I had to guess, he'll override the Admiralty on anything he considers potentially stronger than an M-5. Honestly, I'm not sure I blame him: they may be heavy destroyers, but they're scary heavy destroyers with attitude problems.
That said, the Old Man could still see the value in trying to develop an AI that wasn't based on Admiral Dvarahal's neural map. Improving the SDS AIs is certainly a worthwhile goal, and something he's onboard with. Assuming the he can talk enough sense into Richard and we can all keep the Member States from each other's throats for a little while, we may even be able to revisit the idea.
I've looked over your mothball options, and most of them are awful: a couple Cruisers beat down enough that even the Member States didn't want them, a trio of worn-out Nagas, some M-4 hulks that might be serviceable, and a myriad of other detritus the Hegmony and SLDF abandoned over the years. Your best bet, though, would be one of the unrefit Aegis: one of them, the Manassas, just got approved for use by a crackpot for jump distance experiments, but there's another one, the THS Ludington, that, while not updated, is still late manufacture, and mostly intact.
So, as bad as it may seem, they're still going to give you a chance to prove your ideas. If you can prove your ideas work, I can see the rest of the Aegis going in for refit, especially with how successful the Luxors are proving. It may not be as fancy as a Texas, or maybe even a Congress, but they're still fine ships.
Take a look over the data I'm sending from the boneyards: I don't know if the official letter will contain anything as detailed. Let me know privately what you decide, and I'll try to grease the wheels on my end.
Your friend,
Aaron
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