Governor Rhett Elgon opened the conference by welcoming us all to Potomax and by impressing on us the importance of working together to defeat the Exterminator menace to humanity.
JAC brought us up to date on the military situation in quadrant 7. (See JAC report for full details). Broadly speaking JAC has accounted for four Exterminator Super Battleships and has damaged another which has been quiet for some time (although a VIKING module appeared at L'Fayette just after the start of the conference).
In total the powers in Quadrant Seven have suffered 9 destroyed colonies with the loss of almost 40 million people. These were six Esteeler colonies (21.6 million people), one Earther colony (5.4 million people), one Martian colony (with another saved after bombardment by Exterminators) (3.8 million people) and one Sirian colony with 3.4 million people.
The Union of Xyon has spent some considerable effort in gaining intelligence on the Exterminator threat and announced that this was beginning to show some fruit, although perhaps not as much as they would have wished. They have located a Exterminator base at Granyt (685097) with around 3-4 times the power output of the base Flypaper. There also appears to be a significant amount of orbital activity and in-system traffic. Some activity was also apparent at the M25 which could be HSTS. It appeared that the colony had been destroyed.
The objectives set by Admiral Burwasher were ratified by all powers.
JAC should be given full autonomy to decide operational objectives within the principles of the objectives established at item 1. Politics should not dictate the details of military missions.
All present agreed to set up a Unified Intelligence Team (UNIT) based at Potomax and chaired by the Sirians. All powers would share the capture or interception of Exterminator equipment or communications with UNIT. Any commercial applications/patents arising from a discovery would be the property of the finder under the usual rules applying at the time of discovery.
UNIT would appoint a Joint Intelligence Liaison (JIL) to be co-located with JAC.
Each power will nominate a permanent representative to a central co-ordination committee based at Potomax with a Venerian secretariat. Representatives should have full plenipotentiary powers.
Each power shall run its own economy in the manner that it deems most effective in meeting its needs under the current circumstances. The central co-ordinating committee will liaise with powers to ensure that shortages or surpluses of military stores do not develop. Decisions are to be made at the lowest possible level.
In view of Capital ships being the most useful in fighting Exterminators JAC requested that powers in Q7 commit all Carriers, Battleships and Heavy Cruisers to JAC. Likewise all LSSI & ALSI should also be committed. Escort vessels (Light Cruisers and Destroyers) were less useful for engaging Exterminators but could be used for reconnaissance.
Powers should commit as many vessels as they could to JAC, but up to half of their escort class vessels could be retained to defend trade against piracy and other eventualities. The agreed minimum commitment to JAC was all capital and support vessels (carriers, battleships, heavy cruisers, LSSI, ALSI) and half of escort vessels (destroyers and light cruisers).
This was unknown, but it looked like everything committed to JAC would be required for at least the next 200 days with an impending operation against Granyt.
After some discussion on the merits of sending military assistance to other quadrants it was reluctantly agreed that quadrant seven was only in a position to provide advice to other sectors. Until the Exterminator threat to Q7 was neutralised no military assistance could be offered to others.
Usual wartime rules would apply. The public would be fully appraised of the horror of the Exterminator menace but would also be assured that we were able to defeat them (e.g. Flypaper) and that we were gaining the upper hand. There is no need to panic unduly.
The Sirian representative informed us that their economy is about to collapse and was in need of immediate assistance. This was duly noted and advice on how to run a market economy was promised by a number of powers.
Sir Humphrey Fulbright Deputy Imperial Governor General, Quadrant 7