This time it's not a specific class of ships of the PUN. I mean, somebody has to develop the tech to power the PUN's madness, right?
PUN related Organizations: The Grox Works
The Grox Works - Over the decades following the initial Liberation, the capital world of the Cainite Protectorate has gained many more satellites and space stations in its planetary orbit. Emeli's Gift remains as Slawkenberg's primary orbital fortress, under whose protection a whole host of space elevators built along the planet's equator are now reaching out towards the stars. The majority of Slawkenberg's orbital infrastructure - both civilian and military - is tethered to them, with some notable exceptions. After all, easy access is not always a desirable quality.
One of these few isolated stations without a space elevator is the infamous yet rather boringly named Borg Orbital Laboratory Omikron-33, more commonly known by its colloquial name, the Grox Works. Nobody exactly seems to know when the station was constructed as there are no initial records. Some folk claim that the station simply popped into existance one day and theories about stealth or time-travel technology surround it. It is generally understood that the Grox Works is one of the most well guarded and secretive military research and development facilities of the Borgs, specializing in experimental naval technologies.
The Memetic Hazard - "There are no Grox in space!" Many confused travelers from the wider Protectorate have had their questions regarding the Grox Works answered in this or some similar fashion. In essence, the response is an in-joke, a simple repetition of the Liberator's words at an otherwise totally unrelated press conference. The basic structure of the response has since also become a favorite among Slawkenberg's bureaucrats as they come up with thousands of variations of "There are no X in Y!" to proclaim at seemingly random occasions. One has to note the simple elegance with which this diversionary tactic frustrates and misdirects any infiltrator that tries to gain information to feed to the Protectorate's enemies.
=][= Inquisitorial Addendum =][=
"The despicable subversive tactics of the Cainite heretics are more effective than one might expect. I have lost several faithful servants to their corruptive ways whose reports descended into evermore incomprehensible rants about 'pastries and gaslighting'."
"Maybe you would do good in reviewing their service history and every operation they were involved in."
"And you would do good in refraining from insinuating anything about my ability to pick my operatives!"
The discussion then devolved into accusations and bolt pistol duels.
The Angry Grox - One might wonder where the Grox Works' name originated from and the answer to that question is rather simple. There is one vessel closely related to the R&D efforts of BOLO-33, the Angry Grox. Originally a Defiant class light cruiser, the ship has been upgraded and modified to the point that it has become an essentially unique vessel. The vessel serves as the testbed for many of the technologies developed by the Grox Works. The station has its own heavily automated space dock where the light cruiser can be refitted before being sent out to test the newest weapons and ship systems for the PUN.
Macro Scale Magnetic Accelerator Cannons - After the initial scare of the Proclamator Torpedo Shortage, a series of measures were taken to prevent such problems in the future. While the short term solutions focused on directly increasing torpedo production, long term efforts were set into motion to reduce the PUN's overall demands for military grade high explosives to free up additional production capacity.
The standard macro cannon of the PUN is a conventional weapon that uses a massive propellant charge to accelerate its projectile. Removing the propellant charges and switching over to a magnetic accelerator weapon would make the ammunition smaller, faster to produce and require less resources.
Development of the MS-MAC 1(regular) & 2(heavy) took a whole series of iterations and many prototypes, yet in the end the results could speak for themselves. Higher muzzle velocity gives the weapons greater effective range against maneuvering targets. The gradual acceleration of the projectile means lower overall recoil with less strain on the recoil systems and an increase in fire rate. Onboard PUN battle cruisers, the Mag-Acc cannons and their dedicated reactors are also integrated into the ship's power grid and power distribution system, meaning that they too can be overcharged.
The smaller ammunition meant that the magazines could be redesigned and reduced in size. The gained space was taken up by secondary plasma reactors that provide the power for the weapons which meant that the switch to Mag-Acc did not require a main reactor upgrade to deliver the necessary power output to operate the cannons. This was a great boon in both the construction of new ships and the refitting of existing PUN vessels. Especially in the case of existing vessels, this has prevented the need for lengthy refits.
Binary centrifuge-formed explosives - The Borgs have been relentless in their quest to make the use of their technology evermore safer, naturally this also extends to the PUN. This has led to the development of a new type of explosive for use in the warheads of macro cannon shells. Stable Composition Phi-38 consists of two individually inert liquids that need to be thoroughly mixed through strong centrifugal force before they turn into a high explosive compound.
Over an extensive series of live fire tests the results are thus: Enemy fire penetrating a magazine approximation(a reasonably armored box filled with the new warheads, free floating in space) and damaging the ammunition has less than 1/10th of a percent chance to ignite the directly hit ammunition. No ammunition explosion was ever triggered in any test.
Compared to conventional explosives, SCP-38 can deliver about 35% more thermal and concussive energy with a warhead of equal size. Retooling of macro shell production lines will begin as soon as authorization from the Liberation Council has been given.
Ciaphasium Armor - Another everyday miracle delivered by the Borgs, an incredibly strong new armor material with limited self-repair capabilities. Ciaphasium was supposedly developed from the nano-crystal suspension coolant that has already found many other applications(both civilian and military) within the Protectorate. The technology is still in its early field-testing stage, the first ships armored using Ciaphasium will be built in a decade at the earliest.
Outside of the Grox Works' material research department, very little is actually known about Ciaphasium beyond some claims of its Icosahedral structure at the molecular level. Speculation about other exotic technologies and manufacturing requirements like graviton based furnaces and forges are abound.
The Borgs need a place where they can put their most innovative people, Cain needs the doomsday engineers off of Slawkenberg and the PUN wants a really secure research station to minimize intel leaks. The solution to all these requirements: The Skunk Grox Works
I had a few ideas for what kinds of wacky tech the Borgs can develop/steal/reverse engineer as the Protectorate grows and I wanted to put them out there.
Next up: Tactics of the Protectorate United Navies.