Lynneth

OOC: Unlikely, but not impossible. And coilguns are really very similar to railguns. Railguns use 2 magnetic rails to accelerate the projectile, coilguns use several magnetic coils. Both use magnetic force to accelerate the projectile.

**Private message to Mrs. Gates** Some people simply appreciate the beauty of space, Mrs. Gates. Others do not, but that is entirely their choice. Live long and prosper. V - The Chairman OOC: Railguns on tanks ftw. The exact time is less than 2 lightseconds. To Mars, it's 3 minutes, and to the Sun, 8. Also, who sees the Mr. Spock-sign?

We thank both the Theocratic Republic as well as Byzantium for their approval. OOC: Only that your borders didn't look crazy without the annexed territory.

Working Reforms A report by the SNN According to the Chairman, all reforms he had planned have been implemented by now. In the last months, tens of factories have been built, creating workplaces for hundreds of thousands. The economy is at an all-time high, and predictions suggest that the economy will experience a boom within the next months. Currently, the Gross Domestic Product per capita is at 43,674$, but it is expected to rise considerably, makign Saboria's GDP one of the five highest in the world. The Chairman said, "This should be a lesson to those who think that socialism - and thus, communism, too - is the worst thing to ever be seen on earth. If it's so bad, why is this country one of the richest ones on the entire planet? Answer that, otherwise you should reconsider your opinion about socialism. Good day." In other news, the government of our southern Neighbour Hurontario has suddenly and unexpectedly disbanded, leaving the people there without any kind of government and in extension without the necessary infrastructure to stay at their current levels of wealth. Thus, the Chairman has decided to extend Saboria's borders to the five great lakes, effectively annexing the northern part of Hurontario. Already, construction crews are moving there to bring our technology and system to the former Hurontarians. The southern part of Hurontario will receive help from our government, but will officially be independent. Should the people living in the north not want to become Saborians, they are free to leave to wherever they want, with the travel-cost paid for by our government.

[Two months after the last conversation - Highly Classified] "Another update? So soon?" "Yes, Sir. Our scientists have found a way to cool the railguns properly. It's a breakthrough!" "Really?" "Yes. This will make implementing rail- or gauss-weaponry on our tanks much easier, on the order of a magnitude or two." "Impressive, impressive. Have there been advances in the other projects?" "None too big, Sir, although it seems probable that there may be one in the K.I. project within the next weeks. There are the signs for one, but if it actually will be a breakthrough, that we don't know." "Unfortunate. What about P.C.?" "Minor advancements. We still need to figure out ways to imprint memories on a mind and to accelerate the growth of the specimen." "It is not impossible that Naboo may know something about these topics...Although I wouldn't want to share our accomplishments with them." "Neither would I or my men, sir." "Hmm. Anyways, once the railguns are usable, I want all Leopard 2A7 tanks upgraded and reclassified to 2A8. Ah, and don't forget built faraday cages into them, we want EMPs to be as useless as possible." "Of course, Sir. We could also equip our battleships with railcannons, by the way. A higher caliber, of course." "Additionally to the various missles they already carry?" "Yes, Sir. Estimated on the range are between 30 and 400 kilometers, when mounted on a battleship and powered with a fusion reactor. The tanks may reach a range of up to 25 kilometers, so we'll be able to use them as improvised artillery, too." "And the howitzers?" "With the right equipment, the maximum range may be anywhere between 60 and 120 kilometers. These superior weapons will give us an incredible advantage over almost all armies in the world. Few could resist our tanks, once they're upgraded." "Very good. But is there a possibility of handheld railguns?" "Something like that will take a lot more time, Sir. Fusion reactors are heavy and are dangerous if they malfunction or are damaged, even more so if made small enough to power a tank. We'd need powerful batteries, and even then, they'd only be useful for snipers and dedicated anti-tank soldiers. Unless we manage to build a power plant that can power a handheld railgun, we can't equip all our soldiers with such weapons. And that doesn't include the difficulty of making it secure enough for soldiers. Railguns themselves aren't too hard - making them small, safe and powering them is hard. So, in the end, we'll likely have to use powerful battery packs." "Yes, yes...I trust you to do your duties." "Of course." "Until next time, Fjodor." "Until then, Chairman." Click. The chairman put down the phone.

**Private message to Mrs. Gates** It will not. I've promised him to get him up there and I value promises. Unless he himself doesn't want to go on it anymore, nothing in that regard will change. - The Chairman **End of** One of the Astronauts had seen these flashes as well. "I'll go contact Omega about this. Go get the others, this looks important." ((OOC: Omega = Designation of the Saborian Spaceport, internally, which means all who work there)) He walked and jumped as quickly as he could towards the shuttle to get a transmission home. "Flashes like that...Something big must've exploded." OOC: Nobody's commenting on my gun. <.<

The AISR .4 Caliber: 5.45x39 mm Action: Electric operated, rotating bolt + stacked projectile, caseless Overall length: 738 mm Barrel length: n/a Weigth: 6.48 kg unloaded, w/o sight; 7.85 kg loaded w/o sight (30 5.45mm + 3 40mm rounds); 9.9-9.9 kg loaded w. electronic sight Rate of fire: 650 rounds per minute (for 5.45mm barrel) Capacity: 30 rounds (5.45mm) magazine plus 3 40mm rounds in the G/L barrel2 The newly developed AISR .4 - short for Advanced Infantry Standard Rifle - is the latest development of Saborian arms manufacturers. Overall, AISR represents a modular weapon system that combines the 5.45mm rifle/carbine component as a host (basic) platform with a 40mm multi-shot grenade launcher (G/L) module and multi-purpose electro-optical sighting system, which can be used to fire either rifle or G/L component, and also can provide recon data to external "consumers" such as tactical computers. The AISR has been extensively modified from the .3 model to accept newer elements of the system - for example, receiver has been upgraded to receive the G/L module at the top, and the buttstock has been enlarged to accomodate G/L electronic fire contol module. Other changes include modification to the safety and trigger arrangements - AISR system has a single trigger for both weapon components (5.45 and 40mm), and a three position (safe - rifle - G/L) safety/selector switch at the side of the pistol grip. It has three firemodes for the rifle itself (1-shot - 3-round burst - 6-round burst). The top of the receiver hosts the multi-role sights of various types. The most interesting part of the AISR is the multi-shot 40mm grenade launcher, which looks like a single 40mm G/L barrel but contains three 40mm projectiles stacked one behind the another. These projectiles are launched using electric ignition impulses, provided by the fire control module built into the buttstock of the host rifle. Since the muzzle velocity of these projectiles is slightly more than usual for 40mm handheld G/L (95m/s instead of 75m/s), host rifle incorporates the recoil reduction buffer, that allows the G/L barrel to recoil against the spring, decreasing the peak recoil impulse. AISR .4 electronic Grenade launcher Caliber: 40mm (others possible) Type: Stacked-projectile, caseless multishot system Overall length: n/a Weight: n/a Effective range: up to 400 m Capacity: 3 shots (current 40mm model, single barrel) Key advantage of electronic G/L (eG/L) system is its mechanic simplicity. In fact, the standard grenade launching unit is no more than a single rifled barrel, loaded with several projectiles, stacked one upon the another. There are no loading mechanisms, no feed units nor magazines or belts - each barrel is a magazine itself. Projectiles are fired using powder charges, located in the hollow hase of each projectile, and there's no case left to extract and eject after each shot; Powder is ignited by the electric ignition system, wired to the electronic fire control module through small ports in the wall of the barrel. When the user presses the firing button or trigger, the electronic fire control module sends the ignition impulse to the charge of the foremost projectile in the stack; when the trigger is pressed for the second time, the module ignites the second charge and then the next, until the barrel is empty. Once all the rounds in the barrel are shot out, it can be removed from the host and then either collected and later sent to factory for reloading, or simply discarded. The current 40mm grenade launching module, developed for the AISR rifle/GL system, contains three grenades stacked one in front of another in single barrel. Each barrel has an electronic interface which is connected to the fire control unit, built into the host platform. This is about the simplest of all systems, at least from the operator's point of view (from developer's point of view, there's plenty of complications and difficulties, almost all of which have already been overcome). However, there is one drawback when the electronic eG/L system is compared to existing mechanically or manually reloaded systems - latter systems still can be fired once batteries are dry; the electronic eG/L always requires some sort of electric power to operate. This problem may seem critical, especially for military purposes, but, actually, it is not. The necessary electricity is provided by the magneto-impulse generators, powered by the pull of the trigger, although it also is possible to plug a battery pack into the rifle. Note that the rifle itself uses a similar system for firing the bullets. An official showing the usefulness of one of the multirole sights. The eG/L

OOC: Heheheh. You're welcome, and thanks. lol

OOC: Ah, that. Well, I told you in the PMs where we discussed that stuff that I may give it to REPOmembers, but that it'll mostly stay within the country. Also, railguns on tanks ftw

OOC: If you mean the genetic stuff, that'll very likely stay in Saboria, *maybe* some given to REPO members. If you didn't mean that, then what was meant? IC: While this is possible, out decision will have to wait until after the south american war, as afterwards, there are some changes in our foreign policies that we want to enact.

OOC: <.< Send me a PM on what that was, I don't wanna write the wrong stuff. Also, what's everyone's thoughts on my human-rights-free genetic projects?

**Private conversation - Highly classified** "How is the research going?" "As we've taken one of the railgun-emplacements that Naboo sold us some time ago, our scientists can use it to understand and reverse-engineer the technology. Of course, our railguns will be different enough from Naboo's so that we won't have to fear a lawsuit or somesuch thing." "And the fusion power plant?" "Same with that, Sir. It's good that we managed to get two plants instead of one, so shutting one of them down won't hurt us too much." "Good, good. Anything else?" "Yes, Sir. Our scientists claim that they've managed to make a material that we can use for the space-elevator." "Oh?" "Yes. They call it...Uh, carbite-nano-something tubes. I forgot the exact name, unfortunately." "A complicated name?" "I don't think so. I just didn't take the time to memorize it." "Too bad. Anyways, they think it's strong enough?" "Yes, Sir. It can apparently withstand something like 110 Gigapascal while the elevator needs maybe half of that." "Impressive. Can they mass-produce it?" "Unfortunately, no. We currently can't." "Well, damn. Anyways, try to keep it secret. We don't want other nations to get that stuff and build their own elevators." "So you won't tell the world we may have something..?" "No. Once we can mass-produce that stuff, then we tell them, not earlier." "Understood." "Now, how's the research for the K.I. going?" "We've encountered some difficulties, but we're still within the schedule. But perfecting it will take much more time than the research itself." "I know, what with the neural simulation and whatever they call it." "Indeed." "Genetics?" "Well ahead of schedule. Now that our scientists don't have to worry about human rights anymore, the genetic projects go faster than expected. Prototypes have already been created, I mean P.C. with that. They currently look...horrifying, like demons almost." "But we both know demons don't exist. Those prototypes will be euthanised, anyways, once they've served their purpose." "Why are we doing this again, Sir?" "Because it's an experiment, Fjodor. You know the slogan of the facility, don't you?" "Yes, Sir. We do what we must, because we can." "Exactly. Now, let us get back to work. As usual, this phone conversation never happened." "Yes, Chairman. Of course." Meanwhile, five rockets were launched from the Saborian spaceport into space, all part of the improved and modernized SDI-network. The new system was predited to be capable of shooting up to 80% of all ICBMs down when the satellites were spread around the globe. When concentrated near a country, up to 98% of all ballistic missles were predicted to be destroyed by the system. The improved SDI would also be capable of destroying hostile satellites, although the sats for that task would need another 5 months to reach space.

OOC: You can do it even with MSpaint. I used irfanview, but gimp and photoshop and every other image program and their mothers can do that.

OOC: The same way I did this: I took the picture, put it into an image-manipulation program and inverted the colors. Voila.

Commander Blofeldt looked to Q'tar. "Unfortunately, there will be weapons on the moon one day. As mankind expands, we'll bring weapons with us. I for one hope that I won't live to see the day of battles on the moon." Another astronaut nods. "I hope the nations of Bob decide to make the moon either property of none, or of all equally." "We can only hope. But until there's one big, dominating bloc, that'll never happen..." "Let's put that aside for a while. We'll be here for another day or two, let's do as many experiments as we can and admire this place for a bit longer, yes?" The others nodded, once again. Then they resumed the experiments, some of which needed Q'tar's assistance, but most of the time, the Aerosaur was free to do whatever he wanted, as long as he stayed in visible range of the shuttle. OOC: Fun fact. Ever looked at the negative of the saborian flag? Pretty blue colors. =D

**Classified* Recently, Saboria has begun several projects, some improving older technologies, others being completely new things. One such improvement would be that of the existing SDI - the Strategic Defense Initiative. Currently, it was barely a Tactical Defense Initiative, barely capable of protecting bigger parts of the american continent. It was mostly used as device of intimidation, making other nations believe that firing nuclear weapons at Saboria and its allies was useless. But the recent crisis in South America has made clear that some nations are willing or desperate enough to fire their nuclear weapons despite all cost or efficiency. Of course, there also was the threat of Imperial Wellington's Kinetic Impactors, satellites armed with the so-called 'rod of god'. There were many ideas how a combined ground- and satellite-based defense system could deal with this. One of the most popular ideas was putting rocket- and railgun-based defenses on the ground, in all allied nations, while shooting a (preferrably large) number of satellites into orbit with several kinds of armament. Rockets, for killing hostile sats. Laser-weaponry for dealing mainly with ICBMs, but also capable of sat-killing. The last and most expensive weaponry would be railguns that could also be used for orbital bombardement, aside from killing satellites and rockets. Of course, railguns could be used more easily in space, due to the vacuum and the low temperatures, but actually building and powering such a gun in space would be the greater challenge. For now, only the sat-types with rockets and lasers would be brought into space, while on the ground, bulkier railguns could be used. And thanks to electric infrastructure, these railguns could actually be powered. Rockets themselves were easy - rockets to kill ballistic missles less so. All these things and so many more had to be taken into consideration before the SDI could be turned into a truly strategic and world-covering defense initiative. Another such 'megaproject' was the creation of underground cities and big fallout shelter systems, akin to those in the Uberstein Empire. Of course, the higher technological standards would likely make it easier and safer, as well as possibly somewhat faster to build an entire city below the ground, preferrably 1 or 2 kilometers deep. Paranoid generals proposed going even deeper, but that was rejected out of fear that the crust may accidentially be 'broken' as result of digging too deep, something that would quite likely have absolutely unpredictable results. To appease these generals, several thick layers of high-grade steel would be included between the surface and the cities - or command bunkers. This would make penetration with any kind of bunker buster much harder than it already was. As these projects had just been begun, it would take some time to finish them. Approximately six months for the modernization of the SDI, four to six years for the underground cities. Until then, the Chairman hoped there would simply be no nuclear exchange. OOC: Yes, I just admitted that my SDI is currently below its possible power - still, nobody knows this, so it still works as device of intimidation. If your leaders suddenly know that it doesn't work perfectly, then I call BS and metagaming. kthxbai. Also, Sargun, spacemission, etc. =3 >>Anyway, I'm working on something soon, I'll get back in a bit<< Edit: Spelling, grammar, etc. Durrrrr

*shrugs* I talk too much.

If the people do not approve, they can simply vote me out of office. And, as they are encouraged to think rationally and logically, they will vote me out of office if they think that I'm no longer needed. So yes, they approve of the policy-changes. As for the foreign relations, we will try to not damage then, although some nations are strongly opposed to anything even close to socialism. I for one believe that every nation should govern themselves as they see fit, unless they do it badly and kill their own people to stay in power, and I believe all the communist-hate that many have is, bluntly, backwards.

In a sense, yes. But there are differences between protectorates and the guarantee of sovereignity. For one, any strip of land can be turned into a protectorate, while only sovereign nations can get a guarantee. Secondly, what I failed to put into the "MDP"-part, a protectorate is a MDP as is written in the words "mutual defense pact/agreement". A guarantee of sovereignity gives me a casus belli on the attacking nation, but does not force me to intervene, when I for example think that the attacked nation is capable of winning with only help in form of supplies and money. It also isn't really mutual - I can guarantee the sovereignity without the nation ever agreeing to it. Quite complicated all this. tl;dr: Essentially a one-sided, optional defense pact, from what I know about the topic.

OOC: Yours aren't yellow, though. The yellow stars on red make commies. lol IC: The Saborian astronauts saluted. Meanwhile, on the planet, the people celebrated. Some didn't, but they discussed on internet-forums about the event, many quite excited, some even claiming that Saboria would be the first nation to put a research base or somesuch thing onto the moon. Until such was done, though, at least a decade, perhaps even two would pass. For the astronauts - and aerosaur - not much else was left to do, aside from doing more science and enjoying some walks on the moon, looking at the beautiful blue pearl in space - Bob. Of course, pictures and videos were made, to prove that this landing was indeed real.

OOC: D= Also, why be nobody reacting to me going left/red? Where's the communist-haters?

OOC: The minute is over~ <3 Edit: The minute actually was an hour. lol

OOC: He'll just be unavailable for the next 13 months or the next IRL week or two. I'm not gonna start that shuttle too soon, lol. IC: The flag was designed by the artist 'Alej Vandores', a quite popular artist in our capital, Ferinh. Both our old and new flag, to be exact.

OOC: I had to use *someone*, and seeing as your country is completely free-speech etc, there's bound to be haters. lol IC: Saboria has no intentions of becoming 'communist'. We merely are making steps to ensure that everyone who works gets what he deserves, not more, not less. Marxism is something that cannot possibly be done in a human society.

Guarantee of sovereignity (Essentially one-sided MDP): Saboria->Slovetzia