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Timmy City wrote:I would expect that to be dependent on the theater of operations, navigational safety, how much your willing to pay, and who's willing to risk it. We would expect Orson to have stocked up large quantities prior to the start of operations and to have alternate power sources. Also, how much would the black market be involved? Certain emirates of the UAE may be willing to look the other way if the price of oil is right.

Now, some companies would also keep full operations in Orson despite the war. Suncor has refining, LNG terminals, tanker building/repair, and drilling presences in Lagos and the Niger Delta. So, probably at least 4 million bpd in 2020, 8 million in 2021, 6 million in 2022, and 3 million in 2023. This doesn't include the black market or unofficial deliveries.

I'd imagine that overseas oil shipments would pretty much grind to a complete stop and it would be mostly the oil facilities already inside Orson territory that would be supplying oil as workers probably would start strikes or quit jobs for other industries after a few tankers lose every single crew-member to the horrific consequences of a mine striking them and igniting their oil and sinking the ship itself.

Oceara wrote:I'd imagine that overseas oil shipments would pretty much grind to a complete stop and it would be mostly the oil facilities already inside Orson territory that would be supplying oil as workers probably would start strikes or quit jobs for other industries after a few tankers lose every single crew-member to the horrific consequences of a mine striking them and igniting their oil and sinking the ship itself.

It depends where your shipping to. Shipping to Australia may not have the same risks of shipping to Madagascar. Also, we have storage and refining facilities in Djibouti. From Djibouti, oil could be sent via pipelines or transported on trucks across the border.

Many tanker companies would increase the pay depending on risk and tankers aren’t susceptible to mine strikes. If someone is willing to sail from Farajah to Lagos, the oil will be sent via the Djibouti border or the tanker company will have a hefty insurance policy.

Timmy City wrote:It depends where your shipping to. Shipping to Australia may not have the same risks of shipping to Madagascar. Also, we have storage and refining facilities in Djibouti. From Djibouti, oil could be sent via pipelines or transported on trucks across the border.

Many tanker companies would increase the pay depending on risk and tankers aren’t susceptible to mine strikes. If someone is willing to sail from Farajah to Lagos, the oil will be sent via the Djibouti border or the tanker company will have a hefty insurance policy.

if both ends of the Red sea are mined Djibouti would become very difficult to ship to.

Oceara wrote:if both ends of the Red sea are mined Djibouti would become very difficult to ship to.

While there could be some challenges to shipping, if countries are keeping mines within their territorial limits and out of international recognized waters, shipping is still feasible and possible. All it means is that we need to deploy minesweepers to our territorial waters and to warn the shipping industry of potential risks.
If these mines pose a risk to international shipping, we will bring it to the regional organization and propose an international minesweeping mission.

I renovated factbooks. Again. I still have to overhaul history, of course.
Also, funnily enough, on F7, someone said Consumption made them think of a 'garbage disposal' and called Evolved a combination of a garbage disposal and amoebas.

Timmy City wrote:While there could be some challenges to shipping, if countries are keeping mines within their territorial limits and out of international recognized waters, shipping is still feasible and possible. All it means is that we need to deploy minesweepers to our territorial waters and to warn the shipping industry of potential risks.
If these mines pose a risk to international shipping, we will bring it to the regional organization and propose an international minesweeping mission.

Mines at least from Ocearan doctrine are an interdiction tool not just a coastal defense asset(Ocearan doctrine sees mines as interdiction tools first, defense assets second), we even drop landmines from stealth bombers as a way of interdicting land supply routes.

We would remove our mines.. after the war. Our mines are very modern, at least in the self-destructing category -- they do not have Identify Friend Foe systems except for certain ones laid in areas where our fleets will actively be operating in.

As for during the war, I don't think many if any of the warring powers would comply as they have more important things than their relations with neutral countries -- namely the survival of their nations in a fight to the death.

I now have a newly rebooted Q&A which also serves as a storefront.

Cybus1
Year: 2312
Valiant would consult MODUS. "The Crow -- the Assassin. Give me all the intel you got on him."

Oceara wrote:Cybus1
Year: 2312
Valiant would consult MODUS. "The Crow -- the Assassin. Give me all the intel you got on him."

"Forwarding intelligence file. I am afraid I do not have much more information than Torchwood does. He or she keeps off the radar of intelligence organizations, and thus off mine as well. May I ask why you are curious member...Valiant?"

A mysterious assassin-for-hire, The Crow is the codename given to him by Torchwood. He has been involved in hundreds of different assassinations over the centuries, always going through extremely meticulous planning and preparing for the kills. He has killed hundreds of targets dating back to before Christ, and is believed to be an Evolved. His true identity is a mystery, but it is known that he may a former intelligence operative of some sort, or some sort of foreign special forces from an Imperial client nation, as he has killed Torchwood Agents during his escapes, even eliminating a Section Four Kill-Team at one point, though it is believed that was through luck, as their skills were roughly equally matched. He has assassinated both Cybusians and foreigners, and he is skilled with all manner of weapons, though he seems to favor sniping over other methods. Each weapon is evidently hand-made by The Crow himself, rivaling even the quality of the exceptionally high quality Usher weapons, though he has on occasion used various false identities and dummy accounts to purchase specially made weapons. He may be Mercerist, due to the occasional use of Bone Charms to protect himself, but this does not impact his target choices, as he was hired once by a radical atheist to assassinate a Mercerist priest. His name is derived from the fact that at each assassination, a unique sigil of a crow is discovered nearby.
Unusually, he has never accepted any offers to kill heads of state, likely due to the extremely high security and the fact that assassinating one will make tracking him down a priority, as opposed to a lesser grade of importance. The closest he has come to assassinating them is assassinating public servants or government officials, never cabinet level or above, and terminating local, state, planetary, or system governors, or legislators, such as Didactian Council members.
Three Didacts have fallen to The Crow, all in a different way. Didact Nicholas Stevens’s, an Evolved member of the Imperialist Party, shuttle was destroyed by a freak accident during which a battleship-grade Hardlight Cannon fired on it as it passed by, the crow sigil discovered drawn near the turrets control center. Didact Amanda Waller, an Evolved member of the Objectivist Party, was shot in the chest with a dart containing a unique chemical compound which rapidly spread through her body and turned her own biomass reserves into a torch, burning her alive from the inside out. This compound was the same used in several other Evolved-targeted assassinations by The Crow, and the crow sigil was found in a snipers nest nearby. Finally, Didact Tyler Greene, a Human member of the Reformist Party, was found in his private quarters, his throat slit, the crow sigil drawn on his forehead with his own blood.

Cybus1 wrote:"Forwarding intelligence file. I am afraid I do not have much more information than Torchwood does. He or she keeps off the radar of intelligence organizations, and thus off mine as well. May I ask why you are curious member...Valiant?"

A mysterious assassin-for-hire, The Crow is the codename given to him by Torchwood. He has been involved in hundreds of different assassinations over the centuries, always going through extremely meticulous planning and preparing for the kills. He has killed hundreds of targets dating back to before Christ, and is believed to be an Evolved. His true identity is a mystery, but it is known that he may a former intelligence operative of some sort, or some sort of foreign special forces from an Imperial client nation, as he has killed Torchwood Agents during his escapes, even eliminating a Section Four Kill-Team at one point, though it is believed that was through luck, as their skills were roughly equally matched. He has assassinated both Cybusians and foreigners, and he is skilled with all manner of weapons, though he seems to favor sniping over other methods. Each weapon is evidently hand-made by The Crow himself, rivaling even the quality of the exceptionally high quality Usher weapons, though he has on occasion used various false identities and dummy accounts to purchase specially made weapons. He may be Mercerist, due to the occasional use of Bone Charms to protect himself, but this does not impact his target choices, as he was hired once by a radical atheist to assassinate a Mercerist priest. His name is derived from the fact that at each assassination, a unique sigil of a crow is discovered nearby.
Unusually, he has never accepted any offers to kill heads of state, likely due to the extremely high security and the fact that assassinating one will make tracking him down a priority, as opposed to a lesser grade of importance. The closest he has come to assassinating them is assassinating public servants or government officials, never cabinet level or above, and terminating local, state, planetary, or system governors, or legislators, such as Didactian Council members.
Three Didacts have fallen to The Crow, all in a different way. Didact Nicholas Stevens’s, an Evolved member of the Imperialist Party, shuttle was destroyed by a freak accident during which a battleship-grade Hardlight Cannon fired on it as it passed by, the crow sigil discovered drawn near the turrets control center. Didact Amanda Waller, an Evolved member of the Objectivist Party, was shot in the chest with a dart containing a unique chemical compound which rapidly spread through her body and turned her own biomass reserves into a torch, burning her alive from the inside out. This compound was the same used in several other Evolved-targeted assassinations by The Crow, and the crow sigil was found in a snipers nest nearby. Finally, Didact Tyler Greene, a Human member of the Reformist Party, was found in his private quarters, his throat slit, the crow sigil drawn on his forehead with his own blood.

"I am not sure exactly how to read Ryan, but there is at least somewhat of a chance he'll try and have me assassinated. -- Considering the security here in the capital, he'd probably go for The Crow to do it -- If he does that would present us an opportunity to turn the Crow and have them as an Asset on our side."

"Although I suppose you could run the simulations on Ryan's psychological profile and see if he'd come to the conclusion that I am too dangerous to let live or if he'll come to the conclusion that if the whole cloning machine issue didn't come out in the past few centuries it means I am smart enough to be expected to keep the secret for good.. Even if I did somewhat anger him with my lying about planning to overthrow the Ocearan Government. Because it may be possible he actually won't try to recruit the Crow to assassinate me."

Oceara wrote:"I am not sure exactly how to read Ryan, but there is at least somewhat of a chance he'll try and have me assassinated. -- Considering the security here in the capital, he'd probably go for The Crow to do it -- If he does that would present us an opportunity to turn the Crow and have them as an Asset on our side."

"Although I suppose you could run the simulations on Ryan's psychological profile and see if he'd come to the conclusion that I am too dangerous to let live or if he'll come to the conclusion that if the whole cloning machine issue didn't come out in the past few centuries it means I am smart enough to be expected to keep the secret for good.. Even if I did somewhat anger him with my lying about planning to overthrow the Ocearan Government. Because it may be possible he actually won't try to recruit the Crow to assassinate me."

"Accessing files on Rianofski, Andrei....running simulations....Ryan, while he is most likely angered by your lies, is not likely to attempt an assassination; primarily because you are too high-profile, and also because he, most likely, believes you can be trusted. He may not like you, member, but he has never resorted to assassination in the past; suggesting he views it in a negative light. If he had, it would have been targeted at others, such as the Founder rather than yourself. Ryan's confidence in his men would lead him to order Ryan Security to preform any attempted assassination, should one be ordered, and I would become aware of such an order immediately.
In other words, you are very unlikely to be targeted for assassination by Andrew Ryan, member...Valiant."

Cybus1 wrote:Did the return of Turner abruptly stop?

I still plan to continue it, I just haven't posted yet.

The Orson Empire wrote:I still plan to continue it, I just haven't posted yet.

Ah. Sorry. Sometimes RPs abruptly fizzle out.

Post self-deleted by The Orson Empire.

The Orson Empire wrote:(Occurring in 2016)

Following the end of the non-aggression pact with Oceara, Imperial High Command has requested to meet with Emperor Turner at the Ministry of Defense Headquarters underneath Ayers Rock, Australia, with the purpose of drafting a new military strategy against the Ocearans.

The rise of the Ocearan nation from possessing a single island in the Drake Passage to a major world power in a matter of three years, possessing a significant chunk of western Africa, has not gone unnoticed in the Empire. While often overlooked in its early days as a backwater Third World country led by a mad scientist, the Ocearans have established close relations with the Wagains and Mamarans, and the Ocearan government has remained an outspoken critic of the Imperial government, and unlike the hesitancy of the Wagondians, the Ocearans appear unafraid to directly challenge the Imperial war machine.

High Command has presented alarming results from the Orsonian Intelligence Community (an association consisting of all intelligence agencies in Orson that are controlled by various ministries, mostly the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of State Security) of data gathered from ongoing espionage efforts in the Ocearan Empire, showing that the Ocearans are making significant progress of building an army capable of challenging the Imperial Military in the field, and that their highly advanced technology (possibly second only to Cybusian tech) potentially grants them a significant edge in combat. High Command is recommending all necessary precautions to ensure that the Ocearans cannot become too powerful, up to a pre-emptive strike to conquer their west African lands.

Turner, however, has refused to give approval for a pre-emptive strike. While the reports from Oceara are concerning, Turner is not convinced that, even with their technology, they could challenge the millions of battle-hardened Imperial soldiers in a straight fight. Turner has claimed that the Imperial Military has remain undefeated in the field since the 2nd Orson Civil War, stating that "if we could survive and persevere through that nightmare, Oceara will be a cakewalk." Furthermore, Turner has refused to remove too many resources away from his ultimate goal- the conquest of the Mamaran Empire as outline in his "grand Plan". Turner firmly believes that the Mamarans are the greater enemy, having remained a threat to Orsonian security since the 18th century, and that the Mamarans cannot be allowed to gain an edge over Orson at all costs.

Nevertheless, at the insistence of several members of High Command, Turner reluctantly approved the construction of greater defenses on the Ocearan-Orson border in Africa, which besides several military bases and a few border checkpoints, consists of nothing but a single fence. Over the next four years, the border would be transformed into the great "Nigerian Wall", one of the most sophisticated network of fortifications in the world.

The Emperor has finally appointed a High General of the Army, appointing Rex Felix with the endorsement of Supreme Commander Valentina. Rex felix, much like Valentina and most of Oceara's staff are untested officers promoted based upon their theory and how well they manage to organize troops during peacetime exercises. His theories are not new by any stretch of the imagination, as ambushes have been carried out since the dawn of conflicts between peoples in ancient times. But then again, sometimes the simplest strategies are the best and when dealing with what would be mostly conscripts simple is better.

Rex Felix is expected to be primarily responsible for defensive planning while Valentina handles offensives, Rex has begun drawing up plans for the construction of the Styx Line.

1st Forest Cavalry Division is the first cavalry division of the Ocearan Army formed on August 17th, 2016, both horses and rider wear power armor allowing for the horse to carry heavy weapons directly on their back and for them to be resilient against rapid-fire weapons like assault rifles and machineguns and forcing enemy infantry to spend time preparing an anti-tank weapon or field artillery piece to take out the cavalry.

The Reasoning for the division's creation was simple, horses are thinner than Infantry Fighting Vehicles so they can better navigate thick forested areas and faster than the light infantry that would be employed on such terrain and they can bring with them heavier weapons than enemy light infantry and defeat them in firefights.

There would be 10 Forest Cavalry Divisions(~300,000 Troops) by 2030 in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Cavalry Armies.

The Cavalry continued to serve in the Monarchist-Federation War in the same role as more mobile power armor units for emergency reserves and as heavy mobile infantry for forested areas too thick to use the Mass Deployment Hover Vehicles as they'd be forced to fly over the top of the forest and be exposed to enemy fire.

However with the advent of personal teleportation in the 2100s Power armor for horses was retired except for ceremonial use heralding back to their use in the two most important wars in Ocearan History. The original 10 divisions are retained although mostly for ceremonial use or the occasional police action in a rural area.

2352
Director Forge has issued an engage-on-sight order for Johannes Vanderberg, applying to all Kill-Teams and Torchwood assets. High Consul for the Imperial Navy, Alexander Vosch and High Consul for the Imperial Army, William Black, have issued similar orders. Vanderberg is cited as a potential threat to the Empire and to reality as a whole, not so much because of his own powers (which, to be fair, are impressive enough on their own), but because of his desire to summon The Yellow King again.

The Ravenelki Guard:

A small group of perhaps 200 of the Empires finest, the Ravenelki Guard serve as Alexander Mercer’s personal guards. While the Emperor is more than capable of defending himself, they still exist, primarily to defend him from more mundane threats not worth his direct attention, or to function as shock troops, clearing the way for him to arrive in an area unmolested. They also can reliably combat other extremely powerful entities, if not outright kill them. Ravenelki also serve as servants of Alexander’s will, obeying only him. Only Alexander or Dana Mercer can issue an order to them, all others being ignored, though they do take others opinions into consideration, especially Torchwood Director Forge.
Each of them has received full Torchwood training, and have served a minimum of twenty years as an Agent and ten years on a Kill-Team. Many of them are former Void Ravens. They have the best Ryan Industries plasmids and gene tonics available, and have their extensive combat experience augmented by the use of Ryan Industries Neuromods, and have the best Combat Neuromods in the Empire.
Each Ravenelki wears a set of elaborately decorated black and red power armor, which is perhaps the most durable in serial production in the Empire, bested only in durability by the personal armor worn by Alexander Mercer himself. Their armor is powered by an experimental reactor which uses E-99 to power it, using a fusion of technology and magic. They can use these to access other dimensions, travel to places instantaneously, and then emerge there in our dimension with no time having passed. This facilitates long range travel, and allows for "skips" for short range travel instead of walking. Their armor incorporates almost ship-grade shielding, advanced self-repair functions, Neurostatic Emmitters from the Technate, prototype “brilliant” AI, which are even more advanced than Smart AI, prototype sensors, and more. Over this, they wear a black Kefta with red detailing. They often decorate these and their armor with elaborate Mercerist decorations and Bone Charms.
Ravenelki are equipped with the best of the best, and each Ravenelki is armed with a series of advanced weapons. The primary armament of a Ravenelki consists of either a Reality Rifle, from the Void Raven Corps arsenal, which rips a target into eight different dimensions, obliterating them, or a Weaponized Temporal Device (an E-99 based weapon). Both of these weapons completely erase a target, either by reversing time or aging them to dust, or by ripping them apart and scattering their components into multiple realities.
The back-up weapons of the Ravenelki consist of a Warp Baton, which remove parts of what they impact from reality, with whatever returns, if it returns, being horribly distorted, a pair of Usher .45s, the same kind used by Torchwood Agents, and a weapon of their choice, often a miniaturized Nullwave Rifle or a Rad Rifle imported from the Technate. Many also wield Arc Sabers imported from the Technate.
They have many exotic grenades, such as Nullwave Grenades, which temporarily inhibit psionic or magical powers, or GLOO Grenades, imported from the Technate, which coat the target with a fast-drying adhesive which inhibits movement, allowing them to capture foes non-lethally.
Most Ravenelki are Banshiek or Banshees, and thus have magical abilities as well, the armor helping amplify these abilities.

Read factbook


Factbook for Alex's guards, with some new descriptions and weapons.

Post self-deleted by The Orson Empire.

Realised I'll have to rework my military factbooks, the way I've got them set up now is a mess and not viable if I want to do further work on them. Thinking about changing it from;
Military Hub > Everything in headings with 3-4 links coming off them
to;
Military Overview > Separate links for military of each 'era' > Overview of the Era for the military > Links to each military branch era

Just means I'm not smashing links into my hub the way I am now, makes it easier to go through.

I'm also editing the dates of the Eras, just cause 200-300 years is a tad too long for 0 military development of any kind.

The Orson Empire wrote:This is one of the most interesting ideas I've seen in a long time. You've actually found a way to make horses work in modern warfare. And this has also inspired me to create a strategy to counter them:

Honestly I think Czech Hedgehogs would probably be more effective than caltrops, although you'd have to deploy them at least 3 hedgehogs deep for them to not be simply jumped over, increased to 4-6 in the Monarchist-Federation war when even better jump-enhancing tech is developed.

As for the wagons, their effectiveness would probably vary wildly depending on other factors.

Although late in the war in the final Allied offensives, cities would be on the front-lines and you could shell your own water lines to create impassable terrain for basically anything besides infantry.(Infantry are easier to build makeshift bridges for, everything else would need stronger bridges and couldn't cross the mud without completely disappearing below the surface.) Although there would be gaps between cities large enough in the main offensive paths further north and in the center for Oceara to still maintain a breakthrough bypassing these strong-points.

While looking up Czech Hedgehogs I looked at Dragon's Teeth as well, and apparently in Switzerland they call their lines of Dragon's teeth a "Toblerone Line" after the chocolate bar and I thought that was entertaining. They also made the Toblerone Trail for people to walk through the Toblerone Line.

Sterkistan wrote:Realised I'll have to rework my military factbooks, the way I've got them set up now is a mess and not viable if I want to do further work on them. Thinking about changing it from;
Military Hub > Everything in headings with 3-4 links coming off them
to;
Military Overview > Separate links for military of each 'era' > Overview of the Era for the military > Links to each military branch era

Just means I'm not smashing links into my hub the way I am now, makes it easier to go through.

I'm also editing the dates of the Eras, just cause 200-300 years is a tad too long for 0 military development of any kind.

I plan on eventually making mine into a full wikipedia style, planning on having one entry under Factbooks and through the text linking to others under dispatches because I find wikipedia very, very readable.

I started but stopped part way through due to my habits of working on stuff a ton all at once then dropping it for a while and then repeating that cycle of lots of work surrounded by no work.

Oceara wrote:I plan on eventually making mine into a full wikipedia style, planning on having one entry under Factbooks and through the text linking to others under dispatches because I find wikipedia very, very readable.

I started but stopped part way through due to my habits of working on stuff a ton all at once then dropping it for a while and then repeating that cycle of lots of work surrounded by no work.

I tried a wikipedia style for a little while, but I didn't set the content out well enough and it'd take too long to fix so I may as well just redo them in a style I like.

Oceara wrote:While looking up Czech Hedgehogs I looked at Dragon's Teeth as well, and apparently in Switzerland they call their lines of Dragon's teeth a "Toblerone Line" after the chocolate bar and I thought that was entertaining. They also made the Toblerone Trail for people to walk through the Toblerone Line.

Ha! Funny.

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