Q4 2055 Results
- Location
- The Underdark
GDIOnline Q4 2055
GDI Elections: I Can't Think of a Snappy Title Edition
Dr. Henry Olvier
So, another four years, and another election. This time with a whole lot more seats. You can criticize Granger for a lot of things, and you all know I have, but one thing that nobody can deny is that he cares about democracy. I was not expecting to vote in 2052, but I was able to, despite everything else that was on fire.
In any case, have some analysis.
Developmentalists: Still the biggest, to absolutely nobody's surprise. I can certainly hear the creaking already as their biggest opposition has imploded or been all but wiped out under Granger's ability to centrally plan the freaking toothbrushes and his drives into the Yellow Zones, but, well, they are going to be the big dogs this time like usual. Looks like Pravin Herrerra might well keep his post, but at the same time other people are gearing up for a challenge, from both left and right.
Free Market Party: Well, we all saw their rise and fall. They talked a big game, had some interesting ideas, and then the Treasury in two years went from ignoring consumer goods to pumping them out in absurd quantities. And good thing too, I was running out of shirts. Now they are smaller than an offshoot party, which has got to sting. No official announcement yet, but Terrence Hood is almost certainly stepping down from leading the party, especially as he lost his seat despite the absolutely absurd degree of expansion.
Market Socialist Party: From zero to absolute hero. The Market Socialists have gone from being actually nothing to being a major power in the new order of things. People, look at how they did it, because it shows just how easy it is to actually get into Parliament. Have a good message, take advantage of GDI's media accessibility programs, and have some real issues, and you can go far.
Initiative First: They had some absolutely flaccid results. They had all the Hawk leadership, all the Hawk preparation and infrastructure, and somehow they managed to screw it up and actually underperform Al-Jilani's splinter faction (woohoo!). With their positions, I don't expect Ozawa to go anywhere, but at the same time, I expect them to be effectively told to stay in the corner and let the adults do the talking. And I will certainly be emailing my representative to that effect just as soon as I finish writing this post.
Militarists: Certainly a loaded term as AccomplishingProvidence so rightly pointed out. And they did surprisingly well. Looking at the turnout they certainly got some serious licks in, and seem to have gotten a LOT of Yellow Zone votes. I am certainly happy I voted for them, but someone else should probably do the actual analysis, because I am too close.
United Yellow List: Look. Let's be frank here. The party only exists because of the Initiative First guys. They are pretty minor at this point, and will probably go away in the next few elections, barring the Blue Zones going absolutely brain dead. On the other hand, their members are probably gonna be the incumbents to beat in their districts for decades, even if they switch parties.
Starbound: Yet another case of a party who were almost unknown exploding out. These guys are riding the cultural zeitgeist of a new moon landing, the Philadelphia being expanded out like crazy, and just the sheer number of heavy rocket launches to get into power in a big way. I didn't know their actual platform until I read it while making this post and it is absolute bananas hog wild stuff. Stuff like, 'move everyone to space in 50 years' crazy stuff. Short term, they want to massively build out space infrastructure, and land men on Mars and stuff. Their terrestrial policy is a little thin, but seems to be mostly based on 'get more things into space.'
Socialist: Look, I think these guys underpolled a bit but they're doing great for a party that says centrally planned toothbrushes are great, no cars for you, and hate any company with more than 500 workers. And, well, the Treasury is doing a damn good job of proving them right. Still miss driving sometimes, but, well, at least I can do that at work. Market Socialists kinda stole your thunder though, what with being more hip and cool. The plain socialists look kinda drab and grey by comparison. Except for a couple who are so radical they look like a punk band from last century.
AgathaH
So, first: Woohoo for Starbound! Represent!
Second, I'd just like to point out that we're now finding tiberium underneath the Blue Zones. We may well be able to figure out how to solve this, but it Just. Keeps. Coming. I like to be a believer in the power of Science, but… the solution may well be to get off of crumbling ground before it collapses under us.
Also, there's a lot of potential out there, and less evil green vore rocks.
Finally: SPAAACE!
KropotkinsGhost
Choices, choices. How will I ever choose when I am just one vote to spread around? The Starbound certainly fits with with my optimistic desire to someday see the *green* earth from a wider view. But on the other hand Market Socialist is up my alley with their criticisms of the current system and the manifesto they put out. The fact there is a split between the Developmentalists, Socialists, and Market Socialists brings me back to my youth having philosophical squabbles with other leftists on how to lead a revolution hah! I do agree with Dr. Oliver that driving was an enjoyable activity sometimes, but I would rather take the metro over being stuck in traffic. Maybe the parties can agree on some centrally planned racetracks for us old nostalgic peeps to play around on.
ProfCollingsworth
So, since Dr. Henry felt he was too close to the Militarist party to provide analysis, let me dust some off. First, this is not what I expected. They seem to be trying to be a pretty single-issue party, which works because we've been in a hot-and-cold war with NOD for over half a century. (Single-issue parties rarely do all that well, but in this case, "survival" is a pretty good issue.) Al-Jilani rode the outrage over the Initiative Firsters' comments and built on it expertly - I expect that he was planning something like this, and if he wasn't exactly ready, he seized the moment and made it work. My congratulations for off-the-cuff campaigning. That said, the choice of "Initiative First" was a shot in the foot on Ozawa's part. The historical parallels are… unsavory, as has been explained at length.
For all that I continue to support the Developmentalists' push for increased industry and infrastructure, I have to say they provide a compelling and (currently) admirable pro-military party.
Mohammed Al-Jilani
#ProfCollingsworth
I will be honest, what I did these last six months have been an absolute roller coaster that I have been hanging onto for dear life. I took a half written speech, gave it in front of an audience of millions, and somehow got away with it.
My people don't know how it worked as well as it did, but for all of you who chose to vote for us, well, you made all of this possible.
LastLizard
Personally, as a member of our fine navy, my vote is going to continue to go to anyone who promises to push for increased shipbuilding. The hydrofoils are fine craft, but they're not a full ship by any means. Which makes it regrettable that they've been forced to try to cover the gaps the lack of a proper ship leaves oh so often these past years.
Dr. Henry Olvier
Alright, so coming back around to the Independents.
Biodiversity Party: 3 seats. Well, we know that Granger has been doing some experiments with those biodomes that went up. And yes, we could do more with them, but really, is this the right time to be pushing for more species to be brought out of the vaults?
Dominion Party: 1 seat. And here is the mandatory crazy person. Don't know much about him, merely that he wants to try and push his theology on people.
Reclamation Party: 5 seats. Look, I am a Tib engineer, and we have been pushing basically as hard as we can, at least when we were not filling the Treasury's coffers so we could push people harder. I get the appeal, but I just genuinely don't know where we would get the kinds of progress these people want.
Homeland Party: 3 seats. These guys are basically a splinter of the existing United Yellow List, and what they want is simple. To go home. Now, unfortunately, many of their homes are under Red Zones, and you can't really come back from that, but at least they care and made their voices heard.
Dr. Folinic
Suck on it Initiative First! As someone who was raised in YZ before moving to a BZ, those kinds of people are triggering me, like GDI isn't made to cater to people solely in BZ. After all it's on the name, Global Defense Initiative, focus on the Global. Glad that the militarist party gained more seats than the IF.
Developmentalists here, and I'm happy that Dr. Granger is actually focusing on YZ and BZ, instead of hyper-focused on BZ only like what I feared after the previous election again. I guess I should be thankful that the good doc has no political acumen and just does what he thinks is right again. I wish that he keeps developing YZ more just to spit on Initiative First, but with his lack of knowledge in politic stuff, chances are he's going to do it incidentally.
LastLizard
At least he's going to do it, right? Whatever the reasoning, the important thing is that it gets done. Though I'll admit spiting those unmentionables is a pretty potent benefit. Not as big of one as getting people out of those shanty towns, but still a pretty good one.
Holon
#AgathaH
Starbound party! I'm in a similar boat, honestly. Space oriented development has always been super cool to me, and the kind of mess Tiberium is making makes it all the sweeter.
FloatingWood
I'll admit, I waffled a long time between the Market Socialists and the UYL. I mean, I also like some of the platform of the Starbounds, but I just don't think it'll happen anywhere near quick enough for me to live among the stars or on another planet, no matter how exciting that'll be.
So thinking on the other parties, the following are notable to me; Initiative First can take a long walk off a short pier, the Dominion Party, ehm, well, last I checked theological arguments in government are invalid, and there's a guaranteed freedom of religion so… Nope. Reclamation Party is with its 5 seats probably too large to be called 'independent', and the Biodiversity Party might caucus with the Starbound Party, because I've seen lines in the Starbound Party party platform that refer to building a massive space side biodome.
Also, I'm really glad cars haven't been a focus. I mean, sure, there's plenty of cars still riding around, older cars than usual these days, but it's so nice that GDI has been forced into actually good city planning habits. You can actually walk and do your shopping in the new developments. There's too many places in the Blue Zones that are still completely car centric, where if you don't have a car you effectively don't have a life.
LaserKiwi2000
I love democracy.
Also I voted for the religious nut, it was pretty funny, it was pretty close. I guess I will vote more carefully in the future.
PrettyGuppy
I voted Initiative First, not because I like them as such, but because I know that they would invest in blue zones more, which is more likely to directly help me. It's not like their more racist ideas would be accepted anyway, but lobbying for blue zones would be something accepted enough.
FloatingWood
#PrettyGuppy, please take a moment during this parliament and next election to see how serious they are about the racism. Because the more support they get, the more they will take that as meaning that their entire platform has support, including the racist stuff. We've seen that sort of xenophobic/racist rethoric creeping in during the interbellum of the 1st and 2nd Tiberium Wars, and it did not improve matters. Calling back to those years was IIRC actually a major motivating factor behind the whole 'fuck the Yellow Zones' movement prior to TW3.
AccomplishingProvidence
#Dr Henry Oliver, there's certainly worse names the Militarists could have picked. And as you've noted, they are a much more narrowly-focused party than some of the others. While they certainly have a more holistic and inclusive vision within the scope of their mission, at the end of the day the primary focus seems to be "make military numbers go up". Which, admittedly, is an entirely understandable and reasonable stance to take in this hostile world. I would wager that we might see them adjusting their branding and messaging in years to come, but they seem poised to be a long-term presence in Parliament. Until the war with NOD is won, decisively, I expect that those who champion the military will continue to have a presence. They have a strong "loyal opposition" vibe. Al-Jilani's maneuvering as the Hawk party split and crumbled? A veritable masterstroke. I'd love to buy him a drink one day.
I would say that my favorite of the new parties are the Market Socialists. A well-balanced set of policies and goals. A strong and compelling vision. And seeking to achieve broad appeal by pulling in the most attractive parts of the big-tent philosophies of the Free Market Party while also blatantly pulling in the most successful and attractive approaches of the broad left-wing coalition within the Developmentalists. I expect they will enjoy a long, long life of strong success and appeal, barring any horrific mishaps on the part of leadership.
Now. The "Initiative First" party. What can we say that hasn't been said? I would just like to gently remind you, #PrettyGuppy, that behind the nice-sounding rhetoric that the party has presented officially to the public, Ozawa is on video record emulating the language and "spirit" of speeches penned by one of the most reviled men in history, Adolf Hitler. A party that so casually utilizes the speeches and language of a genocidal, racist, sexist, imperialist philosophy is one that should, at best, be watched….well. Like a Hawk.
Solan
So it's pretty quiet in the MARV department not because we aren't doing any work but because we have been split to two continents currently. Chicago was quite an experience even if it's just a base filled with soldiers and scientists and engineers like me. The drones are a bit acting up but at least we got some nice amenities here only the finest for the GDI's War against Tiberium. Anyway the base was buzzing about the election and with us given a priority for the elections because any day now there might be a Nod attack or ion storms so an early vote was held here. I would guess a lot of people working for the GDI in the Yellow Zones and Red Zones finished voting before election day.
#AccomplishingProvidence Yeah I get you the people in Chicago were rather unmoved by how Ozawa practically went mask off in how much he said to the Yellow Zones. I mean yikes the guy was really rabid about it when he visited us and I don't think anyone here voted for him. Many people already died for the possibility of global unity so going back already felt like a slap in the face for the fallen.
AccomplishingProvidence
#Solan as I've read in some literature, "be sure your sin will find you out". I think we can extend this to racist and xenophobic rhetoric, especially in the age of digital video capture and distribution.
YellowZon3r
Voted United yellow list. He lost to the incumbent, a former yellow list who jumped parties to the developmentalists and he kept his seat based on name recognition over the new guy. I can't be too mad at him but, we're not a bluezone that turned yellow, we've always been a yellowzone even if we're by now well and truly turning 'green' The mixed blue/yellow that is, not tib green. It's I dunno. Change is scary. Loads of people might have forgotten their history. And the new GDI is trying but… I'm still a YellowZoner, and I won't let GDI forget their sordid little history, of how they abandoned us, and how they're non-ironically still favouring the 'homeland'. If nothing else united Yellow provides a counterbalance to Initiative first.
Akira Oda (Treasury)
Well, it was nice to be in space again as part of the entourage for the swearing in ceremony. I swear I kept on being moved through different offices at this point. Anyway thanks to Philadelphia II being completed just as when new offices are cropping up people are once more happy that we can coordinate with each other faster. I don't think we'll ever leave our planetside headquarters with the trauma Kane gave us on the first Philadelphia and it would only be when there are now people living permanently in space which may or may not happen depending on current government priorities.
Talking to my peers in the other departments is quite fun and doing the interdepartmental communication thing has been a work in progress that I'm sure the ministers who are going to liaison with our department might breathe a sigh of relief. It was getting a bit strange that there was only one MP for the Treasury in the cabinet since during previous administrations there were at least 5-10 MPs handling the Treasury portfolio usually in an oversight and policy-making position. But since policy was relegated to a civil servant executive committee for six years with Dr. Granger as the head I don't know how this new relationship will work. It is a mixed blessing that parliament is quite diverse since we won't see a ramming of policies without a bit of haggling. Then again the soon-to-be ministers in-charge of the Treasury might be seeing knife fights soon because it takes quite a while for the developmentalists to remember that while they're currently the top dog news coming out of a close leadership election is not brimming with confidence that our new ministerial friends will be there for the full four years. Thankfully democracy has run its course and gave a new set of people's representatives pity that it could be higher but we did all we could to expand the franchise.
GDI Parliament Communications Office (Gathered by EVA Newsbot)
It is our pleasure to announce the full list of members of parliament coming to the swearing in ceremony to be conducted for the 2056-2060 session. The list is filled with distinguished citizens from all walks of life coming in to propose and debate policies for the future of mankind's cradle and the stars. While unfortunately the parliamentary rotunda for Philadelphia II is not finished, a series of conference halls and secure links are provided to the representatives of the people for their new jobs. [Read more]
Q4 2055 results
Resources: 540 + 0 in reserve (15 allocated to the Forgotten) (20 allocated to grants)
Political Support: 50
Free Dice: 6
Fusion Dice: 4 (+1 per turn)
Tiberium Spread
14.32 Blue Zone
28.18 Yellow Zone (77 Points of Mitigation)
57.50 Red Zone (50 Points of Mitigation)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: Significant Surplus (+11)
Energy: Major Surpluses (+13)
Logistics: Major Surpluses (+6)
Food: Significant Surpluses (+7) (+4 stored)
Health: Substantially improved (+5)
Capital Goods: Meeting Demand (=)
Consumer Goods: Large Shortages (-7)
Labor: Gargantuan Surpluses (+58)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (1190/1300)
Yellow Zone
Water: Limited Surpluses (+3)
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Free Market Party: 125 seats (0; 25; 25; 75)
Market Socialist Party: 329 seats (150; 129; 35; 15)
Militarist: 237 seats (37; 150; 30; 20)
Initiative First: 178 seats (0; 8; 70; 100)
United Yellow List: 72 seats (50; 22; 0; 0)
Starbound Party: 153 seats (75; 75; 3; 0)
Socialist Party: 45 seats (30; 10; 5; 0)
Independents 12 seats
Military Confidence
Ground Forces : Decent
Air Force : Decent
Space Force : Decent
Steel Talons: None
Navy: Low
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Capital Goods: 16 points remaining
Consumer Goods: 15 points remaining
Food: 23 points remaining
MARV Fleets: 2 remaining
Deployment Programs: 3 remaining
Abatement: 9 points remaining
GDI Income: 90 remaining
Arcology Programs: 1 remaining.
Military
Battles with the Brotherhood of NOD has seen a steady increase in intensity over the last quarter as the military services, buoyed by a major round of funding, have expanded offensive operations, while the Brotherhood of NOD have responded with bringing more new technologies forward, many still clearly in the prototype stages.
One of those new technologies is something of a return to form for the Brotherhood of NOD, a new model of air superiority fighter, clearly derived from the Banshee of the Second Tiberium War. While only seen individually (In total nine confirmed contacts and sixteen potential), and slower than the Firehawk, let alone the Apollo, it has pulled what look to be 15-20 gravity maneuvers repeatedly, indicating that it has some level of alien technology. Designated the Barghest, two units have been brought down, and one recovered. While most of the systems are too badly damaged to recover, some parts have been turned over to the scrin drive researchers.
A second model, the Lampades, has been seen in the service of Stahl's South American forces. Unlike the Barghest, it is a pure ground attack aircraft, and much more primitive, using a pair of standard turbofan engines in place of a drive system. Instead of the pair of plasma weapons that the Barghest and Banshee carried, the Lampades is built around a large axial laser system, capable of about three degrees of deflection. However, the bulk of the system has seemingly made it significantly less maneuverable, although not much slower than the Barghest.
Brotherhood of NOD: Talitha Bintang
One of the few members of the Brotherhood leadership to not have divorced themselves from their original name, Talitha Bintang was born in the year 2000, and has had a very long career in the brotherhood of NOD. Enlisting before the Second Tiberium War, she missed the major battles, only rising to prominence as the "Pirate Queen of the South Sea" in the years between the Second and Third Tiberium wars, as the seas once more became major logistical lines. Outwitting or outfighting GDI commanders for a decade, she played little role in the Third Tiberium War, husbanding her forces. Today she is one of the best equipped NOD warlords, having some of the few remaining NOD battleships, one of which, the Rajanaga, she has taken as her flagship.
In the years since the war, she has tended to keep her head down and her raids limited. While still the pirate queen, at fifty five, she has become more concerned with keeping her own power rather than winning victories in the name of the Brotherhood.
Markets
Markets have been generally stable, a mark of uncertainty in the face of what has shaped up into a dominant Developmentalist-Market Socialist alliance, setting aside plans for expansion. Similarly, applications for new grants have cratered this quarter, but are expected to return to normal in coming quarters.
Mecca
One developing situation is in the Arabian Peninsula as Mecca has come under threat from Tiberium expansion. While the site has been abandoned for decades as the water supply became untenable, it is still one of the most significant surviving holy sites, and the location of a yearly escorted hajj. However, the continued spread of Red Zones has meant that it is ever closer to being overtaken. While there have long been proposals to move the site, it has been left in place as the risks have generally been managed. With the recent reversal in the spread of the Red Zones, there have been some handful of proposals to bring it into being a full planned city instead.
[ ] Yellow Zone Arcologies (Phase 1)
While GDI cannot at this time ensure that any of the Yellow Zone cities are secure, an arcology is a much easier problem. An all in one solution, offering housing, work, healthcare and shopping in a single building. Arcologies were first proposed in the late 20th century as an exercise in ideas. The 21st brought it into fruition as a way of living as the world outside turned hostile. The first wave is intended as housing for high value targets, a place to hold them, and, if need be, evacuate them in a single convoy. Highly popular among Yellow List, unpopular with Initiative First.
(Progress 136/170: 15 resources per die) (+++ Housing)
The construction of a series of arcology buildings was widely read as a strategic thumb in the eye of Ozawa's Initiative First party. While the buildings have not completed, and are little more than hollow shells, they have become a rallying point for treasury supporters in the yellow zones, a promise of housing. While they will be far lower quality than the best available in the Blue Zones, they are a far sight better than anything produced by the Initiative in the yellow zones. The construction has been slowed significantly by bureaucratic wrangling, some of which seems to have been prompted by supporters of the Initiative First party, alongside security concerns, some of which have been borne out. While all have been put aside, the overall result has been a project that requires another phase of funding before completion.
[ ] Rail Link Reconstruction (Phase 2)
With the primary rail links rebuilt, further effort can go to more internal and secondary lines. While connecting the blue zones was the largest potential source of logistical efficiency, more local lines such as the Japanese, Australian, or Chilean longitudinal lines will connect blue zone cities to each other, and rail spurs will provide additional connection points for Yellow Zone projects.
(Progress 240/200: 15 Resources per die) (++ Logistics)
A number of high capacity lines have been opened for business. While not a massively impactful addition to the overall problems of GDI's economic system, they have meant that there are fewer trucks and aircraft needed to link together GDI's major cities. The key problem has become not trains but rolling stock, with few available engines and cars able to fill the lines.
Broadly, these lines are primarily connecting local cities. With these typically close enough to be connected by barge, truck, or sometimes aircraft, the only real advantage of trains was their relative bulk capacity. Able to move thousands of tons of cargo at two to three times highway speeds, trains are certainly highly efficient. However, with Tiberium and hardened, decentralized supply chains, there is relatively little cargo actually moving between the cities for them to take care of. Additionally, many of these are single track lines, meaning that they can only service one direction at a time, and even with modern control systems, running multiple trains in different directions or even multiple trains in the same direction is asking for trouble.
[ ] Chicago Planned City (Phase 2)
The first step in preparing for the city's eventual extent is to establish the core of its industrial capability, Tiberium Processing. Using this, local operations can be marginally rerouted, feeding into the city, rather than needing to be shipped across the Appalachians.
(Progress 209/160: 20 resources per die) (+ Housing, --- Labor, - Logistics, - Energy) (Can spend mixed Tiberium and Infrastructure dice, at least 1 die must be Tiberium) (+50 Tiberium Processing Capacity)
The first wave of actual settlement and processing capacity has been established in Chicago, sucking up red zone harvests from the northern half of the American Red Zones. While this has not yet managed to increase the efficiency significantly, it has begun rerouting abatement activities away from the Ohio River Valley battlefields, and instead pushing them north, safely out of the way of the heaviest Brotherhood presence. Similarly, the defenses have been pushed forward, covering much of the old footprint of the city, likely reaching the final coverage.
At the same time, a small scale Tiberium processing facility has opened up, providing for a small stream of fully processed raw material, in addition to Tiberium, being sent up the lakes to the Canadian and New England cities in the Blue Zones. With significant expansion planned, the plant will become a forward basing operation ready for not only a significant harvesting operation of its own, but also becoming the nexus for Red Zone operations across the northern United States.
[ ] Heavy Rolling Stock Plants
The last quarters have seen GDI reaching some of the limits of its ability to produce heavy rolling stock. Ranging from busses to trucks and trains, none of these systems are particularly complicated, or have changed that much in the last thirty to fifty years. However, that does not make them easy to produce, requiring substantial work due to the sheer weight of metal involved.
(Progress 171/250: 10 resources per die) (++ Logistics, ++ Capital Goods, --- Energy)
Despite the best efforts of the engineers, the heavy rolling stock plants have run face first into a series of major problems. First and least critical was that the partially completed plants had significantly degraded in the fifteen months between the project being started and funding being continued. While the partially finished plants were mothballed, water and wind had started a number of problems across the plants that took time and resources to solve. Furthering their problems, the production of the actual presses, and other industrial goods required to actually produce has been slow and unusually expensive, meaning that not all of the plants have their full complement of equipment. Despite these delays, the plants are at worst nearly completed. However, they are still far from being brought online, requiring a further infusion of funding.
[ ] Fusion Peaker Plants
While currently incapable of producing power long term, fusion is mature enough to serve as a peaker plant, a facility only activated during the hours of peak demand, typically late morning to early afternoon. While total power production is going to be limited, the project will actually be fairly effective, and further the initiative's knowledge of fusion power.
(Progress 172/240: 20 Resources per Die) (+++ Energy)
Some thirty eight major fusion assemblies have begun construction, and the vast majority have been nearly completed. However, there is a key problem. With the drive for construction and the scale of the investment into these peaker plants, they ran headlong into a supply bottleneck. Confining fusion requires large amounts of high precision equipment, and GDI simply cannot supply enough hardware and enough material for all thirty eight plants. All of the plants are near completion, although awaiting final shipment and installation of the last materials, and for a series of inspections to be made. While fusion is far less dangerous in failure than fission is, it is also far newer, and more poorly understood, leading to many of the same inspections procedures taking place, barring only the ones actually dealing directly with radioactives. While eventually new methods and inspection regimes are almost certain to be created, part of the process for these plants is to examine existing procedures as a baseline for operating fusion reactors safely and sustainably.
[ ] Yellow Zone Light Industrial Sectors
With Yellow Zone cities now in full development, and the capital goods crisis almost in hand, GDI can now begin looking towards developing a full suite of light industrial developments in the Terminus Cities. While this will cost substantial amounts of capital goods as GDI builds all new factory complexes, for everything from toys and toothbrushes to perfume, it will substantially increase employment in the Yellow Zones, making the yellow zones more obviously mutually beneficial with the blue zones.
(Progress 454/400: 10 Resources per die) (++++ Consumer Goods, -- Energy, -- Capital Goods, --- Labor)
The Light Industrial Sectors completed effectively just in time for the election, and are one of the single largest investments in consumer production in the postwar world. While much of the production, especially at first, will actually be allocated towards the Blue Zones, that is due to the Blue Zones having far more wealth to spend towards goods, and even Yellow Zoners under Initiative rule having lower expectations in terms of quality of life, rather than some inherent bias. However, they have also increased availability of goods in the Yellow Zones, and are set to reorient in coming years as the consumer goods situation stabilizes overall. While this will likely cause some indicators to stick as increasing consumption counteracts increasing production, it will be a temporary situation.
More broadly, the light industrial sectors are an important source of jobs for the Yellow Zones, which are both relatively low skill and pay well. While in the prewar environment they would not be enough to support a family on, in the modern day, when combined with welfare programs, pro worker regulation, and the political goals of the Treasury, more and more Yellow Zone households have moved to a single breadwinner approach. Politically this has typically drawn significant support to the Developmentalist Party, as many of the United Yellow List politicians that supported the goals have jumped ship over to the other side in the recent election.
"Dear brother. I am writing this from Tacna. The GDI moved us again, and before you ask, yes. Dad is doing better. the doctors said that the Tib infection haven't hit his lungs, as we used to fear before in Rio. And yes, I know. You're not with us. And that you'll never join us here. With Dad and your son."
"But for all that, I just want to say that he has gotten accepted in the new Industrial Sector here. He's working at this new coop where he uses 3D printers to make tabletop toy designs. That's the three-legged mech that I'm sending with this letter. Just like those old War of the Worlds figurines you used to show him back in Rio, back when there were five of us. Amazing isn't it? Not even 19 yet and he's already working and living a better life than us."
"I know. You'll never [Illegible scratches, stained with some tears] I miss you still, brother. But your choice is yours. May it be that our path crosses in good or never at all in bad. "
Your dearest sister, Luisa Vargas"
[ ] Johannesburg Myomer Macrospinner (phase 1)
Before serious work can begin to use the myomers in mass quantities, substantial Production facilities are required. Not only directed towards military needs but also increasing the efficiency of robotics, and a number of medical fields.
(Progress 73/90: 20 resources per die)
The Macrospinner is like nothing else ever constructed previously. The fungal works are actually the most complete, using waste cellulose as a growth medium, which can be scaled up quickly as needed. However, the problems arose when trying to calibrate the spinners. If they wind too slowly, they cannot get the thousands of kilometers of throughput required for the fully functioning factory. On the other hand, if they try to wind too quickly, they will tear the fragile fibers of the myomer bundle rather than actually producing usable strands. Similar issues have occurred across the production chain, something that was more or less expected, rather than an actual problem. Myomers are a thoroughly novel technology, and attempting to bring them to real mass production was always going to be problematic, barring extreme strokes of luck.
[ ] State Operated Breweries
With the initiative running substantial surpluses of vital food supplies, some portion of them can be siphoned off towards the production of one of the world's oldest luxury goods, alcohol. While alcohol production has never actually stopped, GDI can step into the market with relatively cheap, high quality and reliable products that can be ordered conveniently. While most products will be low alcohol by volume in comparison to some of the rocket fuel that other producers tend to make, the focus will be on taste.
(progress 84/125: 10 resources per die) (+++ Consumer goods, --- Food)
No physical problems have emerged to slow the creation of state breweries, but instead a mountain of red tape and objections from many of the Free Market Party. In one of their last acts before the election, as it was clear that they would lose massive portions of their influence in the new 1800 member parliament, they targeted the breweries as a clear example of state overreach and inviting abuse, drawing on the example of Tsarist Russia's 1895 monopoly on the production of alcohol, alongside the Taiwanese monopoly corporation. Accusing the Treasury of encouraging heavy drinking and of abuse of power, the doubters were silenced relatively quickly by the election, and the effective removal of the FMP from the halls of power. Replaced largely by Market Socialists, the accusations were dropped as clear misinterpretations of the Treasury's goals, and fundamentally bad faith. However, the FMP's obstructions have drastically slowed development, meaning that a further infusion of funding and resources is unfortunately required.
[ ] Perennial Aquaponics Bays
While most aquaponics relies on relatively fast growing crops, the method can also be used with more long term crops, such as berries, beans, and perennialized versions of other grains, oilseeds, and legumes. These require a fundamentally different structure than the linear bays of single growth crops. Instead of a long single run, with sheets of plants rafting down as they grow, perennial aquaponics bays are typically taller, with spirals of plants being fed by tanks placed on ground level. While the crops only typically produce a harvest once a year, they can be staggered by artificially manipulating the growing environment.
(Progress 278/350: 10 resources per die) (++++ Food over 8 turns, +++ Consumer Goods over 8 turns) (5 Political Support)
The Perennials plants have continued to make slow but steady progress this quarter. While preparations are not yet complete, much of what remains is final rounds of testing and certification to ensure safety, rather than actual construction or assembly work. Many of these regulations are there to prevent the kind of subversion that would occur with pre Initiative capitalist systems. One of the most common examples was with the purity of the water. Water filtration was an expense to be cut in many cases, rather than borne, as it is also something that could be easily missed by a consumer. Similarly, cutting costs on the substrate used in the aquaponic system can easily introduce contaminants, as can using substandard feed materials. In all cases, these are easily caught by an effective bureaucratic regulatory system, however it is also a system that has to be applied to Initiative projects to fight corruption, ensure regulatory compliance, and present an image of fair play, as both sides have to work to the same standards. As a matter of professional pride the Agriculture department typically maintains more stringent standards than the law does, so as to ensure both a higher quality of produce and to ensure that a plant does not ever need to be shut down due to contaminated products or workplace accidents.
[ ] Tiberium Prospecting Expeditions (Phase 4)
As the first quarter's expeditions tapped most of the near surface veins, further development will require Tiberium Taps, a modified and rare method that uses a small surface node to drill down to the Tiberium vein some 30 to 50 meters beneath the surface. While more expensive, it is also not particularly risky, making it safe for use in the Blue Zones.
(Progress 322/150: 5 resources per die) (Small additional income trickle [5 Resources]) Phase 5 : 177/175) (+10 resources)
Subterranean Tiberium mining has been a relative rarity in the last fifty years. While certainly something that has been done, for example in pre collapse China and India as they supercharged their growth not only with surface harvesting, but also by introducing Tiberium into their mines and then extracting from there, and to a lesser extent in other countries around the world, ranging from the Appalachian mountains to the Urals. While dangerous and with a notoriously high casualty rate (although not nearly the death pits that mines were before the 1950s) it has been generally abandoned for cheaper surface harvesting. However, there have been more innovations in the field, most notably the Tiberium Tap. Derived from old fracking technology, the system drills down into a Tiberium vein and then uses water and sonics to break up and suck up fragmented Tiberium which can then be processed. While previously it was a firmly theoretical technology, it has become a mainstay of these expeditions ,where after exploratory radar imaging, taps are generally a fairly simple way to reach and begin extracting subsurface Tiberium. While subsidence is a known problem with this form of technology, it is one which tends to have its problems on a somewhat longer timescale than Tiberium ripping up through the surface.
While a smaller investment than last quarter, the six months have made clear that underground Tiberium, even in the blue zones, is not a problem that can be solved with simple spikes and taps. Far more complex methods are likely to be needed, however those methods also need to be safe, with every human becoming increasingly valuable as Tiberium has continued to tighten the noose.
[ ] GDSS Philadelphia II (Phase 3)
While the command deck is complete, there are several more decks, and the equivalent of multiple office buildings left for construction. With this, GDI will return to its status before the Second Tiberium War. While not a full governmental structure, it is enough to conduct most military operations, and many political ones.
(Progress 389/360: 30 resources per die) (+2 to all dice, +1 Free Die) (5 PS for completion) (Fusion)
One of the first duties of the new decks has been the swearing in of the new parliament. While only the director and the secretaries (aside from a designated survivor) were actually on the station, with the rest appearing via telepresence, it was a return to at least a symbolic version of the prewar environment. More broadly, another wave of GDI's administrators have moved up into the station full time. While this does not represent moving the bulk of central planning offworld, it does mean that the Initiative can, in theory, operate without groundside administrative structures, although at a severely problematic disadvantage.
Further development will begin to move the central planning commissions entirely offworld, aiming towards the completion of the station. While not particularly important aside from the collocation of government activities, as the Initiative looks towards colonizing the Moon, Mars, and other bodies in this lifetime, the station will become an increasingly important connection point for meetings between Earth and her colonies.
[ ] Durable Goods Libraries and Central Repositories
Most people do not have constant need for many of the durable goods that they own. While every home having a vacuum cleaner, a washing machine, dryer, specialized cookware and the like is a common ambition, current production is far insufficient. For the portable goods a library system, with a central community level stockpile allowing people to check out the goods that they will use with the expectation of them being returned will be relatively simple, while having laundromat type arrangement for the less portable options, should allow the total consumer goods supply to be substantially stretched, at least for some goods.
(Progress 203/200: 15 Resources per die) (++++ Consumer Goods, -- Energy, - Labor)
While most durable goods have vanished from the shelves for this quarter, they have been poured into a number of durable goods libraries. The modern public free library has often been a socialist project, offering everyone free access to information in a way that no other society has managed. The new Durable Goods Libraries have been a similar project for specialized tools, both for kitchen and housework. While the around the house handyman persona is all but dead, and has generally been so for the better part of fifty years, especially with the standards of construction and increasing complexity of the hardware found in GDI housing, it is not just kitchen tooling being handed out. Rather it is everything from vacuum cleaners to screwdrivers, borrowed for a day, or a few days, and then returned.
In terms of public reception, it has been a, so far, relatively grudging acceptance, a "better than nothing" rather than enthusiastic acceptance. However, a small number of people have fully embraced the approach, some even going so far as to turn over things like stand mixers or toolboxes to the libraries in the name of slimming down and reworking their social presence more towards community. Despite this, the population has begun almost immediately making extensive use of the libraries, with between 30-50 percent of any given library's stock being checked out at any given time.
[ ] Ethnic Restaurant Program
With GDI's food situation no longer critical, a dedicated program to revitalize the globe's ethnic foods can be initiated. While none of them will be entirely accurate to pretiberium cuisine, shaped by the shift to aquaponic farming, it should be possible to at very least approximate their tastes and textures.
(Progress 164/150: 10 Resources per die) (- Food, +++ Consumer Goods)
The two main types of restaurant operate at severely different levels of regulation. While archival restaurants typically operate from a menu or set of cookbooks that were laid out centuries ago. (for example the De Re Coquinaria, although most are much more modern), and effectively cannot change from that basis, that is due to their status as archival restaurants, attempting to represent a particular era and location as faithfully as humanly possible. On the other hand, operational restaurants only have to show that their dishes are a part of a particular cuisine, which is often defined broadly enough that a relationship in the ingredients is enough to show similarity, or in using the same specialized cookware.
While these restaurants inherently to some degree compete with normal restaurants, they are serving generally a somewhat different niche, keeping food and cooking traditions alive, rather than merely the most popular options, and what has become an increasingly fusionist modern cuisine. With available foodstuffs generally homogenized, and mass displacement of populations, the commonly available cuisine has become somewhat standardized, both in methodology and materials. For example, nearly everyone has at least some form of paella, many of which would have sent pre Tiberium Spaniards into fits as they take the methods and change nearly everything else about the dish, from asian fusion to barbecue. Similarly, at a series of relatively newly reopened stores, one can order quickly cooked to order roasted cold noodles, jianbing, or frech crepes, all with an array of toppings/fillings. Chili oil coated catfish stuffed rice noodles live alongside strawberry jam filled crepes, and a hundred other unlikely neighbors. While delicious, it is far from traditional, and something where the Initiative does not need to concern itself overly much with preserving, compared to older methods and assemblies.
Both sides of the group have proven to be reasonably popular, primarily because they offer a higher food diversity and a significantly higher diversity in tastes and textures, despite using many of the same ingredients as any other restaurant in the region, either Initiative based like the canteens or privately held.
[ ] Crystal Beam Laser Prototype Development
With work on the beam laser system effectively completed, there is more to be done to bring it into a format that can be deployed. Working with all branches of the military, a joint technological base can be established, branching into specific projects.
(Progress 40/40: 20 resources per die)
This quarter, as a Christmas present to Director Granger, the Initiative's first combat effective laser system was unveiled. While only effective out to a kilometer, capable of about four shots a minute with current cooling systems, and very heavy and bulky, the system, mounted on a modified Predator hull was the talk of the celebration. In the days afterwards, requests have come in from every branch of the military bar the Zone Operations Command for their own version of the system. For the Air Force, they are looking so far as to mount it on the Apollo, and potentially even the Firehawk as a replacement for existing kinetic armaments. Similarly, the Navy is looking at it as a point defense system. The Ground Forces actually want it as a dual role antiaircraft/antimissile weapon. Beyond the military, laser systems have actually become of interest to the Tiberium mining department as a potential supplement to existing sonic systems, although the sheer energy need has put them off immediate demands.
[ ] Ablat Plating Deployment (phase 1)
Ablat pucks are something that is relatively easy to deploy and distinctly useful in many circumstances, to the point where getting some into the field immediately is far better than getting enough to everyone later. While initial production will only be enough to equip a relative handful of units with full coverage, or a double handful with partial, it should directly increase the survivability of critical assets.
(Progress 238/200: 10 resources per die)
Much of the first wave of ablat plating has been delivered to units fighting in South America, where it has proved massively effective. While a single plate can only absorb typically two shots from a standard NOD laser turret before being completely ablated away, when facing multiple laser turrets the total effect is that a single vehicle equipped with such assets can effectively manage to absorb dozens or even hundreds of blasts, although in the latter case it was a combination of fog and being extremely lucky, rather than being purely about the effectiveness of the plating. Stahl's forces have relied heavily on laser weapons, and with those weapons being significantly reduced in effectiveness, GDI forces have been able to begin ranging through the area with relative ease, as the commanders of NOD units pulled back.
The clamor for more, much like with shells, has been intense, with every commander with knowledge of the material requesting an immediate stockpile. The deployment requests have also spread to other parts of the system with ZOCOM, and the Navy being very insistent on having some for themselves. Similarly the Steel Talons have made a request, although they have ordered less than either of the other two, seemingly intending to use it as a partial armoring system to protect only the most critical areas.
[ ] Remote Weapons System Development Predator
The MBT-6 Predator served well in the Third Tiberium War. A heavy gun and heavier armor gave GDI armored forces a significant edge over NOD scorpion tanks, and an even more significant edge when fighting lighter buggies and attack bikes. However, it faced difficulties against the RPG-43, and fanatic assaults due to its lack of anti personnel weapons. Building a variant of the Guardian APC's Vigilante remote weapons system for use on the Predator should be easy to roll out, but will take some refit work to develop.
(Progress 43/40: 10 Resources Per die)
The second attempt at competition proved to be far more competitive than the first, rather than an endless stream of unmitigated failure. The Vigilante is probably the simplest of them, essentially installing a second fire control system, independent of the main gun and handed over to the TC entirely. Other systems aimed to be more all inclusive, including the eventual winner, the Raptor. Instead of simply being a second aiming system, the remote weapons system can feed and be fed targeting data from the main gun, and can be operated either semi autonomously, only needing to have its selected targets picked out by its operator, or manually in case of the system freezing up or misidentifying a target. While it does put more work on the TC, it is somewhat unavoidable, and something that can be mitigated with the introduction of improved data networking systems.
[ ] Governor Class Cruiser Development
Intended to make good losses among GDI's battle line, the prospective Governor class is intended to be half the displacement, and better protected against air attack, compared to previous GDI battleships. These smaller cruisers are intended to be far more economical to construct than previous battleship designs. (Progress 75/40: 15 resources per die)
The Governor class is a relatively conservative design, built much like the cruisers and destroyers of the late 20th century. Forward, a pair of twin railgun turrets provide for direct fire against most targets. Behind them, the superstructure, festooned with large radar plates, towers above the rest of the ship. Around the base of the structure, four antimissile point defense systems crouch in armored basins, alongside a pair of rapid fire antiaircraft mounts. Behind the superstructure is a 54 cell VLS system. Behind that, a raised drone shed provides for reconnaissance flights deployed from a catapult rail, and on its roof are another pair of antiaircraft weapons in their own basins.
The ship has been long requested, and has been paid for in the blood of GDI's navy. With the prewar navy's near exclusive focus on the heavy warships, the carriers and battleships, the destroyers, frigates, and other deepwater escorts were heavily obsolescent, based nearly entirely on pre first tiberium war designs, and were far too few in number. The navy at the time had some 290 ships, 90 of which were capital weight. Today, sixty capital ships, and only some hundred other warships survive. To make good the losses, the navy desires some ninety ships as soon as possible with potential to expand the order to some one hundred and twenty to one one hundred and fifty ships. While this will not be a single tranche of craft, it should make good a substantial portion of GDI's total need for heavy warships. While the ships will not be the only new class desired, they will be the most numerous, and the most versatile, covering everything from naval gunfire support for amphibious operations, to missile strikes, antiaircraft perimeters, and antisubmarine warfare.
[ ] Titan Mark 3 Development
The Titan Mark II in the eyes of the Steel Talons, is getting long in the tooth, and requires a number of substantial upgrades. Ranging from arming itself with an anti personnel mount, and anti missile laser system, to refitted armor and improved sensors, the Mark 3 is intended to be a platform for the next generation of the Steel Talons' weapons development.
(Progress 32/30: 10 resources per die)
When approaching a naked Mark 3 Titan from the left, it is nearly indistinguishable from its Mark 2 predecessor. Same shaping of the turret, same sensor ball and counterweight, and the same general shape of the legs. However, as one begins to move around it, things become a bit more clear. The other side holds a railgun, rather than the previous standard 152mm gun, while the counterweight is actually a shield for a second, rapid fire railgun. Additionally, there are a number of hardpoints, currently with nothing mounted besides a simple plate of armor over the connectors. The key to what makes the new unit fundamentally different from its predecessors are the internals and the modularity.
Rather than a simple update to the older model, the Mark 3 is a near complete rebuild, keeping only the shape. Starting in the crew compartment, while the Mark 3 has kept both crew seats from the Marks 1 and 2, the entire suite of controls is available from both positions, and one of the Talon's goals for the platform is to eventually reduce the crew needed to one. Otherwise, the key is in the modular hardpoints. Particle beams, plasma cannons, and even laser systems are planned for both of the main weapons hardpoints, although of significantly different scales. To go with the main weapons mounts, a centerline ventral "crotch mount" and two dorsal mounts round out the potential armament load. The ventral system is aimed to be primarily used either for a targeting pod, or an anti personnel system. Dorsally, the Talons are being more ambitious with a long list of projects, most significantly a series of proposals for either jamming or shooting down incoming missiles.
However, the new model Titan is not without drama. Rather than being a straightforward upgrade, the system had been iterated time and time and time again not only before and during the Third Tiberium War, but afterwards, in one of the most significant examples of scope and mission creep in recent history. Once funding actually became available, what had grown into a nearly 150 ton monstrosity, had to be pared down to a reasonable state. Working through the nights in shifts for three weeks, Talons engineers had to bring it down to something that could actually be fielded.
[ ] Wolverine Mark 3 Deployment
The Wolverine Mark 3 as designed is a relatively simple refit job. Existing factories, with limited modification can switch over to producing the new platform, although they admittedly do require substantial allocations of new equipment, primarily for the railguns.
(Progress 154/150: 10 resources per die) (-- - Energy)
Wolverine deployment barely scraped by, with people working into what should have been break time in order to get the lines back into action. In a global conflict, no month is particularly slow. Rather, the conflict ebbs and flows with the far north and south having summer campaigning seasons, with less intensive winters, while the middle latitudes are more constrained by monsoon seasons. This has meant that rather than units being allowed to receive their new units en masse during expected lulls, they have had to be transported nearly immediately from the factory to their destinations. The new Wolverine's production is barely keeping up with demand, with the model being adopted that damaged units are being more commonly written off and scrapped for spare parts, to keep the rest of the fleet running, with the pilots being allocated new Wolverines. Over half a decade after being requested, the Steel Titans have had an infusion of new steel and new technology.
"Took long enough."
"Damn too long. That fucker Granger. The Doctor, I mean."
"Hey, at least he listened at the end, no?"
"Too late for Stevenson, Adlai, and Murat."
"...Aye. Too late."
The opinion of Steel Talon towards the Treasury has settled to an unstable equilibrium. With three quarters of continued development towards projects proposed by the Steel Talons, the air of hostility towards the Treasury has settled to a state of worn resentment. Should the current pace of Steel Talons projects be continued, even at a more relaxed but constant pace, the animus towards Treasury may abate in two decades...
— InOps classified Intra-Departmental Dossier, for Director Granger's perusal only.
[ ] Reclamator Hubs
While Massive Armored Reclamation Vehicles proved themselves on the field of battle in the Third Tiberium War, they are difficult to construct and maintain in the field in significant numbers. By establishing regional hubs, MARV units can harvest and process more Tiberium, allowing for more units to be supported. (Blue Zone 1-19, Yellow Zone 1-6 ABC, Red Zone 1-8, North South) (Progress 0/105: 20 resources per die) (Contributes to plan goal)
The RZ-7 North MARV hub has progressed relatively slowly. With the first series of candidate sites rejected for reasons ranging from NOD presence to unsuitable lowland, the second series has proven to be more acceptable. Located just north of Chicago, the complex has begun with a dual layer defense system and a perimeter of defenses. However, there has not been the time this quarter to lay out the full system for Tiberium handling and the housings for the MARV fleet. While still far from being complete, it has become a site where NOD presence nearby is relatively common, as it is fairly isolated and not nearly as well defended as possible.
[ ] Reclamator Fleet YZ-5a
-[ ] Super MARVs
An improved model, conceptualized after examining the destruction of MARVS before and during the Third Tiberium War, the Super MARV is substantially more expensive, but offers equally improved rewards
(progress 88/210: 20 resources per die) (3 Points Yellow Zone Mitigation, 15 RpT)
Much of the resources allocated to the Yellow Zone 5 A hub have in fact gone towards establishing an outer defensive line, and a curtain wall, containing what is broadly considered an impromptu refugee camp. On the return voyage, instead of the expected load of Tiberium, the ships carried refugees towards the North American Blue Zones. While few are actually ready to look for work, they have typically found the Blue Zones more cushy than they can really adapt to in the short time since their evacuation.
However, some progress has been made on the MARV part of the program. Naked frames have begun to take form, crouched in the cavernous bays of the Hub, titans of steel and ceramics, with swarms of engineers crawling over them like termites. Much like ships, they are built from the keel out, and are fully formed before they are armed. These behemoths however do not even have their engines or Tiberium systems installed, let alone their coverings.
[ ] Interdepartmental Communication Initiative
With GDI's other departments on the move, taking more effort to prepare for their actions and how to better coordinate priorities should improve interdepartmental harmony, and the ability of the Initiative as a whole to operate.
(DC 90) (offers indicators which projects are of high priority to other departments.) (188)
Feelers and forms have made their way out to GDI's other departments. While a not particularly uncommon thing overall, the Treasury has typically plotted its own course, relying on direct requests from other departments to serve their needs, rather than attempting to stay in contact and reflect their priorities. While not a good approach for the relative status of the Treasury's own position within the government hierarchy, and certainly not without its detractors, the ability to stay in touch has been significant in shifting the planning priorities, moving projects like the Zone Suit Factory, up, while the High Orbit Ion Cannon, while important for civilian morale, have been moved down the priority list.
"The first meeting went as expected. The Steel Talon representative smoldered at the far end of the meeting room, alongside the taciturn representative of InOps, rapping her fingers with boredom as the Tib rep continued his barely restrained argument with the attache sent by the Ground, which happened to be a Firster. The tense atmosphere only ended as the last representative, the ever-busy suits of Services, entered with the InOps loudly greeting them in. "Overall, couldn't have asked for a better first meeting."
— Private journal of Harlan Curie, Treasury Representative of the First Monthly ICI Meeting
GDI Elections: I Can't Think of a Snappy Title Edition
Dr. Henry Olvier
So, another four years, and another election. This time with a whole lot more seats. You can criticize Granger for a lot of things, and you all know I have, but one thing that nobody can deny is that he cares about democracy. I was not expecting to vote in 2052, but I was able to, despite everything else that was on fire.
In any case, have some analysis.
Developmentalists: Still the biggest, to absolutely nobody's surprise. I can certainly hear the creaking already as their biggest opposition has imploded or been all but wiped out under Granger's ability to centrally plan the freaking toothbrushes and his drives into the Yellow Zones, but, well, they are going to be the big dogs this time like usual. Looks like Pravin Herrerra might well keep his post, but at the same time other people are gearing up for a challenge, from both left and right.
Free Market Party: Well, we all saw their rise and fall. They talked a big game, had some interesting ideas, and then the Treasury in two years went from ignoring consumer goods to pumping them out in absurd quantities. And good thing too, I was running out of shirts. Now they are smaller than an offshoot party, which has got to sting. No official announcement yet, but Terrence Hood is almost certainly stepping down from leading the party, especially as he lost his seat despite the absolutely absurd degree of expansion.
Market Socialist Party: From zero to absolute hero. The Market Socialists have gone from being actually nothing to being a major power in the new order of things. People, look at how they did it, because it shows just how easy it is to actually get into Parliament. Have a good message, take advantage of GDI's media accessibility programs, and have some real issues, and you can go far.
Initiative First: They had some absolutely flaccid results. They had all the Hawk leadership, all the Hawk preparation and infrastructure, and somehow they managed to screw it up and actually underperform Al-Jilani's splinter faction (woohoo!). With their positions, I don't expect Ozawa to go anywhere, but at the same time, I expect them to be effectively told to stay in the corner and let the adults do the talking. And I will certainly be emailing my representative to that effect just as soon as I finish writing this post.
Militarists: Certainly a loaded term as AccomplishingProvidence so rightly pointed out. And they did surprisingly well. Looking at the turnout they certainly got some serious licks in, and seem to have gotten a LOT of Yellow Zone votes. I am certainly happy I voted for them, but someone else should probably do the actual analysis, because I am too close.
United Yellow List: Look. Let's be frank here. The party only exists because of the Initiative First guys. They are pretty minor at this point, and will probably go away in the next few elections, barring the Blue Zones going absolutely brain dead. On the other hand, their members are probably gonna be the incumbents to beat in their districts for decades, even if they switch parties.
Starbound: Yet another case of a party who were almost unknown exploding out. These guys are riding the cultural zeitgeist of a new moon landing, the Philadelphia being expanded out like crazy, and just the sheer number of heavy rocket launches to get into power in a big way. I didn't know their actual platform until I read it while making this post and it is absolute bananas hog wild stuff. Stuff like, 'move everyone to space in 50 years' crazy stuff. Short term, they want to massively build out space infrastructure, and land men on Mars and stuff. Their terrestrial policy is a little thin, but seems to be mostly based on 'get more things into space.'
Socialist: Look, I think these guys underpolled a bit but they're doing great for a party that says centrally planned toothbrushes are great, no cars for you, and hate any company with more than 500 workers. And, well, the Treasury is doing a damn good job of proving them right. Still miss driving sometimes, but, well, at least I can do that at work. Market Socialists kinda stole your thunder though, what with being more hip and cool. The plain socialists look kinda drab and grey by comparison. Except for a couple who are so radical they look like a punk band from last century.
AgathaH
So, first: Woohoo for Starbound! Represent!
Second, I'd just like to point out that we're now finding tiberium underneath the Blue Zones. We may well be able to figure out how to solve this, but it Just. Keeps. Coming. I like to be a believer in the power of Science, but… the solution may well be to get off of crumbling ground before it collapses under us.
Also, there's a lot of potential out there, and less evil green vore rocks.
Finally: SPAAACE!
KropotkinsGhost
Choices, choices. How will I ever choose when I am just one vote to spread around? The Starbound certainly fits with with my optimistic desire to someday see the *green* earth from a wider view. But on the other hand Market Socialist is up my alley with their criticisms of the current system and the manifesto they put out. The fact there is a split between the Developmentalists, Socialists, and Market Socialists brings me back to my youth having philosophical squabbles with other leftists on how to lead a revolution hah! I do agree with Dr. Oliver that driving was an enjoyable activity sometimes, but I would rather take the metro over being stuck in traffic. Maybe the parties can agree on some centrally planned racetracks for us old nostalgic peeps to play around on.
ProfCollingsworth
So, since Dr. Henry felt he was too close to the Militarist party to provide analysis, let me dust some off. First, this is not what I expected. They seem to be trying to be a pretty single-issue party, which works because we've been in a hot-and-cold war with NOD for over half a century. (Single-issue parties rarely do all that well, but in this case, "survival" is a pretty good issue.) Al-Jilani rode the outrage over the Initiative Firsters' comments and built on it expertly - I expect that he was planning something like this, and if he wasn't exactly ready, he seized the moment and made it work. My congratulations for off-the-cuff campaigning. That said, the choice of "Initiative First" was a shot in the foot on Ozawa's part. The historical parallels are… unsavory, as has been explained at length.
For all that I continue to support the Developmentalists' push for increased industry and infrastructure, I have to say they provide a compelling and (currently) admirable pro-military party.
Mohammed Al-Jilani
#ProfCollingsworth
I will be honest, what I did these last six months have been an absolute roller coaster that I have been hanging onto for dear life. I took a half written speech, gave it in front of an audience of millions, and somehow got away with it.
My people don't know how it worked as well as it did, but for all of you who chose to vote for us, well, you made all of this possible.
LastLizard
Personally, as a member of our fine navy, my vote is going to continue to go to anyone who promises to push for increased shipbuilding. The hydrofoils are fine craft, but they're not a full ship by any means. Which makes it regrettable that they've been forced to try to cover the gaps the lack of a proper ship leaves oh so often these past years.
Dr. Henry Olvier
Alright, so coming back around to the Independents.
Biodiversity Party: 3 seats. Well, we know that Granger has been doing some experiments with those biodomes that went up. And yes, we could do more with them, but really, is this the right time to be pushing for more species to be brought out of the vaults?
Dominion Party: 1 seat. And here is the mandatory crazy person. Don't know much about him, merely that he wants to try and push his theology on people.
Reclamation Party: 5 seats. Look, I am a Tib engineer, and we have been pushing basically as hard as we can, at least when we were not filling the Treasury's coffers so we could push people harder. I get the appeal, but I just genuinely don't know where we would get the kinds of progress these people want.
Homeland Party: 3 seats. These guys are basically a splinter of the existing United Yellow List, and what they want is simple. To go home. Now, unfortunately, many of their homes are under Red Zones, and you can't really come back from that, but at least they care and made their voices heard.
Dr. Folinic
Suck on it Initiative First! As someone who was raised in YZ before moving to a BZ, those kinds of people are triggering me, like GDI isn't made to cater to people solely in BZ. After all it's on the name, Global Defense Initiative, focus on the Global. Glad that the militarist party gained more seats than the IF.
Developmentalists here, and I'm happy that Dr. Granger is actually focusing on YZ and BZ, instead of hyper-focused on BZ only like what I feared after the previous election again. I guess I should be thankful that the good doc has no political acumen and just does what he thinks is right again. I wish that he keeps developing YZ more just to spit on Initiative First, but with his lack of knowledge in politic stuff, chances are he's going to do it incidentally.
LastLizard
At least he's going to do it, right? Whatever the reasoning, the important thing is that it gets done. Though I'll admit spiting those unmentionables is a pretty potent benefit. Not as big of one as getting people out of those shanty towns, but still a pretty good one.
Holon
#AgathaH
Starbound party! I'm in a similar boat, honestly. Space oriented development has always been super cool to me, and the kind of mess Tiberium is making makes it all the sweeter.
FloatingWood
I'll admit, I waffled a long time between the Market Socialists and the UYL. I mean, I also like some of the platform of the Starbounds, but I just don't think it'll happen anywhere near quick enough for me to live among the stars or on another planet, no matter how exciting that'll be.
So thinking on the other parties, the following are notable to me; Initiative First can take a long walk off a short pier, the Dominion Party, ehm, well, last I checked theological arguments in government are invalid, and there's a guaranteed freedom of religion so… Nope. Reclamation Party is with its 5 seats probably too large to be called 'independent', and the Biodiversity Party might caucus with the Starbound Party, because I've seen lines in the Starbound Party party platform that refer to building a massive space side biodome.
Also, I'm really glad cars haven't been a focus. I mean, sure, there's plenty of cars still riding around, older cars than usual these days, but it's so nice that GDI has been forced into actually good city planning habits. You can actually walk and do your shopping in the new developments. There's too many places in the Blue Zones that are still completely car centric, where if you don't have a car you effectively don't have a life.
LaserKiwi2000
I love democracy.
Also I voted for the religious nut, it was pretty funny, it was pretty close. I guess I will vote more carefully in the future.
PrettyGuppy
I voted Initiative First, not because I like them as such, but because I know that they would invest in blue zones more, which is more likely to directly help me. It's not like their more racist ideas would be accepted anyway, but lobbying for blue zones would be something accepted enough.
FloatingWood
#PrettyGuppy, please take a moment during this parliament and next election to see how serious they are about the racism. Because the more support they get, the more they will take that as meaning that their entire platform has support, including the racist stuff. We've seen that sort of xenophobic/racist rethoric creeping in during the interbellum of the 1st and 2nd Tiberium Wars, and it did not improve matters. Calling back to those years was IIRC actually a major motivating factor behind the whole 'fuck the Yellow Zones' movement prior to TW3.
AccomplishingProvidence
#Dr Henry Oliver, there's certainly worse names the Militarists could have picked. And as you've noted, they are a much more narrowly-focused party than some of the others. While they certainly have a more holistic and inclusive vision within the scope of their mission, at the end of the day the primary focus seems to be "make military numbers go up". Which, admittedly, is an entirely understandable and reasonable stance to take in this hostile world. I would wager that we might see them adjusting their branding and messaging in years to come, but they seem poised to be a long-term presence in Parliament. Until the war with NOD is won, decisively, I expect that those who champion the military will continue to have a presence. They have a strong "loyal opposition" vibe. Al-Jilani's maneuvering as the Hawk party split and crumbled? A veritable masterstroke. I'd love to buy him a drink one day.
I would say that my favorite of the new parties are the Market Socialists. A well-balanced set of policies and goals. A strong and compelling vision. And seeking to achieve broad appeal by pulling in the most attractive parts of the big-tent philosophies of the Free Market Party while also blatantly pulling in the most successful and attractive approaches of the broad left-wing coalition within the Developmentalists. I expect they will enjoy a long, long life of strong success and appeal, barring any horrific mishaps on the part of leadership.
Now. The "Initiative First" party. What can we say that hasn't been said? I would just like to gently remind you, #PrettyGuppy, that behind the nice-sounding rhetoric that the party has presented officially to the public, Ozawa is on video record emulating the language and "spirit" of speeches penned by one of the most reviled men in history, Adolf Hitler. A party that so casually utilizes the speeches and language of a genocidal, racist, sexist, imperialist philosophy is one that should, at best, be watched….well. Like a Hawk.
Solan
So it's pretty quiet in the MARV department not because we aren't doing any work but because we have been split to two continents currently. Chicago was quite an experience even if it's just a base filled with soldiers and scientists and engineers like me. The drones are a bit acting up but at least we got some nice amenities here only the finest for the GDI's War against Tiberium. Anyway the base was buzzing about the election and with us given a priority for the elections because any day now there might be a Nod attack or ion storms so an early vote was held here. I would guess a lot of people working for the GDI in the Yellow Zones and Red Zones finished voting before election day.
#AccomplishingProvidence Yeah I get you the people in Chicago were rather unmoved by how Ozawa practically went mask off in how much he said to the Yellow Zones. I mean yikes the guy was really rabid about it when he visited us and I don't think anyone here voted for him. Many people already died for the possibility of global unity so going back already felt like a slap in the face for the fallen.
AccomplishingProvidence
#Solan as I've read in some literature, "be sure your sin will find you out". I think we can extend this to racist and xenophobic rhetoric, especially in the age of digital video capture and distribution.
YellowZon3r
Voted United yellow list. He lost to the incumbent, a former yellow list who jumped parties to the developmentalists and he kept his seat based on name recognition over the new guy. I can't be too mad at him but, we're not a bluezone that turned yellow, we've always been a yellowzone even if we're by now well and truly turning 'green' The mixed blue/yellow that is, not tib green. It's I dunno. Change is scary. Loads of people might have forgotten their history. And the new GDI is trying but… I'm still a YellowZoner, and I won't let GDI forget their sordid little history, of how they abandoned us, and how they're non-ironically still favouring the 'homeland'. If nothing else united Yellow provides a counterbalance to Initiative first.
Akira Oda (Treasury)
Well, it was nice to be in space again as part of the entourage for the swearing in ceremony. I swear I kept on being moved through different offices at this point. Anyway thanks to Philadelphia II being completed just as when new offices are cropping up people are once more happy that we can coordinate with each other faster. I don't think we'll ever leave our planetside headquarters with the trauma Kane gave us on the first Philadelphia and it would only be when there are now people living permanently in space which may or may not happen depending on current government priorities.
Talking to my peers in the other departments is quite fun and doing the interdepartmental communication thing has been a work in progress that I'm sure the ministers who are going to liaison with our department might breathe a sigh of relief. It was getting a bit strange that there was only one MP for the Treasury in the cabinet since during previous administrations there were at least 5-10 MPs handling the Treasury portfolio usually in an oversight and policy-making position. But since policy was relegated to a civil servant executive committee for six years with Dr. Granger as the head I don't know how this new relationship will work. It is a mixed blessing that parliament is quite diverse since we won't see a ramming of policies without a bit of haggling. Then again the soon-to-be ministers in-charge of the Treasury might be seeing knife fights soon because it takes quite a while for the developmentalists to remember that while they're currently the top dog news coming out of a close leadership election is not brimming with confidence that our new ministerial friends will be there for the full four years. Thankfully democracy has run its course and gave a new set of people's representatives pity that it could be higher but we did all we could to expand the franchise.
GDI Parliament Communications Office (Gathered by EVA Newsbot)
It is our pleasure to announce the full list of members of parliament coming to the swearing in ceremony to be conducted for the 2056-2060 session. The list is filled with distinguished citizens from all walks of life coming in to propose and debate policies for the future of mankind's cradle and the stars. While unfortunately the parliamentary rotunda for Philadelphia II is not finished, a series of conference halls and secure links are provided to the representatives of the people for their new jobs. [Read more]
Q4 2055 results
Resources: 540 + 0 in reserve (15 allocated to the Forgotten) (20 allocated to grants)
Political Support: 50
Free Dice: 6
Fusion Dice: 4 (+1 per turn)
Tiberium Spread
14.32 Blue Zone
28.18 Yellow Zone (77 Points of Mitigation)
57.50 Red Zone (50 Points of Mitigation)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: Significant Surplus (+11)
Energy: Major Surpluses (+13)
Logistics: Major Surpluses (+6)
Food: Significant Surpluses (+7) (+4 stored)
Health: Substantially improved (+5)
Capital Goods: Meeting Demand (=)
Consumer Goods: Large Shortages (-7)
Labor: Gargantuan Surpluses (+58)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (1190/1300)
Yellow Zone
Water: Limited Surpluses (+3)
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Free Market Party: 125 seats (0; 25; 25; 75)
Market Socialist Party: 329 seats (150; 129; 35; 15)
Militarist: 237 seats (37; 150; 30; 20)
Initiative First: 178 seats (0; 8; 70; 100)
United Yellow List: 72 seats (50; 22; 0; 0)
Starbound Party: 153 seats (75; 75; 3; 0)
Socialist Party: 45 seats (30; 10; 5; 0)
Independents 12 seats
- Biodiversity Party (3 seats: Weak Support)
- Dominion Party (1 seat: Strong Opposition)
- Reclamation Party (5 seats: Weak Support)
- Homeland Party (3 seats: Weak Support)
Military Confidence
Ground Forces : Decent
Air Force : Decent
Space Force : Decent
Steel Talons: None
Navy: Low
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Capital Goods: 16 points remaining
Consumer Goods: 15 points remaining
Food: 23 points remaining
MARV Fleets: 2 remaining
Deployment Programs: 3 remaining
Abatement: 9 points remaining
GDI Income: 90 remaining
Arcology Programs: 1 remaining.
Military
Battles with the Brotherhood of NOD has seen a steady increase in intensity over the last quarter as the military services, buoyed by a major round of funding, have expanded offensive operations, while the Brotherhood of NOD have responded with bringing more new technologies forward, many still clearly in the prototype stages.
One of those new technologies is something of a return to form for the Brotherhood of NOD, a new model of air superiority fighter, clearly derived from the Banshee of the Second Tiberium War. While only seen individually (In total nine confirmed contacts and sixteen potential), and slower than the Firehawk, let alone the Apollo, it has pulled what look to be 15-20 gravity maneuvers repeatedly, indicating that it has some level of alien technology. Designated the Barghest, two units have been brought down, and one recovered. While most of the systems are too badly damaged to recover, some parts have been turned over to the scrin drive researchers.
A second model, the Lampades, has been seen in the service of Stahl's South American forces. Unlike the Barghest, it is a pure ground attack aircraft, and much more primitive, using a pair of standard turbofan engines in place of a drive system. Instead of the pair of plasma weapons that the Barghest and Banshee carried, the Lampades is built around a large axial laser system, capable of about three degrees of deflection. However, the bulk of the system has seemingly made it significantly less maneuverable, although not much slower than the Barghest.
Brotherhood of NOD: Talitha Bintang
One of the few members of the Brotherhood leadership to not have divorced themselves from their original name, Talitha Bintang was born in the year 2000, and has had a very long career in the brotherhood of NOD. Enlisting before the Second Tiberium War, she missed the major battles, only rising to prominence as the "Pirate Queen of the South Sea" in the years between the Second and Third Tiberium wars, as the seas once more became major logistical lines. Outwitting or outfighting GDI commanders for a decade, she played little role in the Third Tiberium War, husbanding her forces. Today she is one of the best equipped NOD warlords, having some of the few remaining NOD battleships, one of which, the Rajanaga, she has taken as her flagship.
In the years since the war, she has tended to keep her head down and her raids limited. While still the pirate queen, at fifty five, she has become more concerned with keeping her own power rather than winning victories in the name of the Brotherhood.
Markets
Markets have been generally stable, a mark of uncertainty in the face of what has shaped up into a dominant Developmentalist-Market Socialist alliance, setting aside plans for expansion. Similarly, applications for new grants have cratered this quarter, but are expected to return to normal in coming quarters.
Mecca
One developing situation is in the Arabian Peninsula as Mecca has come under threat from Tiberium expansion. While the site has been abandoned for decades as the water supply became untenable, it is still one of the most significant surviving holy sites, and the location of a yearly escorted hajj. However, the continued spread of Red Zones has meant that it is ever closer to being overtaken. While there have long been proposals to move the site, it has been left in place as the risks have generally been managed. With the recent reversal in the spread of the Red Zones, there have been some handful of proposals to bring it into being a full planned city instead.
[ ] Yellow Zone Arcologies (Phase 1)
While GDI cannot at this time ensure that any of the Yellow Zone cities are secure, an arcology is a much easier problem. An all in one solution, offering housing, work, healthcare and shopping in a single building. Arcologies were first proposed in the late 20th century as an exercise in ideas. The 21st brought it into fruition as a way of living as the world outside turned hostile. The first wave is intended as housing for high value targets, a place to hold them, and, if need be, evacuate them in a single convoy. Highly popular among Yellow List, unpopular with Initiative First.
(Progress 136/170: 15 resources per die) (+++ Housing)
The construction of a series of arcology buildings was widely read as a strategic thumb in the eye of Ozawa's Initiative First party. While the buildings have not completed, and are little more than hollow shells, they have become a rallying point for treasury supporters in the yellow zones, a promise of housing. While they will be far lower quality than the best available in the Blue Zones, they are a far sight better than anything produced by the Initiative in the yellow zones. The construction has been slowed significantly by bureaucratic wrangling, some of which seems to have been prompted by supporters of the Initiative First party, alongside security concerns, some of which have been borne out. While all have been put aside, the overall result has been a project that requires another phase of funding before completion.
[ ] Rail Link Reconstruction (Phase 2)
With the primary rail links rebuilt, further effort can go to more internal and secondary lines. While connecting the blue zones was the largest potential source of logistical efficiency, more local lines such as the Japanese, Australian, or Chilean longitudinal lines will connect blue zone cities to each other, and rail spurs will provide additional connection points for Yellow Zone projects.
(Progress 240/200: 15 Resources per die) (++ Logistics)
A number of high capacity lines have been opened for business. While not a massively impactful addition to the overall problems of GDI's economic system, they have meant that there are fewer trucks and aircraft needed to link together GDI's major cities. The key problem has become not trains but rolling stock, with few available engines and cars able to fill the lines.
Broadly, these lines are primarily connecting local cities. With these typically close enough to be connected by barge, truck, or sometimes aircraft, the only real advantage of trains was their relative bulk capacity. Able to move thousands of tons of cargo at two to three times highway speeds, trains are certainly highly efficient. However, with Tiberium and hardened, decentralized supply chains, there is relatively little cargo actually moving between the cities for them to take care of. Additionally, many of these are single track lines, meaning that they can only service one direction at a time, and even with modern control systems, running multiple trains in different directions or even multiple trains in the same direction is asking for trouble.
[ ] Chicago Planned City (Phase 2)
The first step in preparing for the city's eventual extent is to establish the core of its industrial capability, Tiberium Processing. Using this, local operations can be marginally rerouted, feeding into the city, rather than needing to be shipped across the Appalachians.
(Progress 209/160: 20 resources per die) (+ Housing, --- Labor, - Logistics, - Energy) (Can spend mixed Tiberium and Infrastructure dice, at least 1 die must be Tiberium) (+50 Tiberium Processing Capacity)
The first wave of actual settlement and processing capacity has been established in Chicago, sucking up red zone harvests from the northern half of the American Red Zones. While this has not yet managed to increase the efficiency significantly, it has begun rerouting abatement activities away from the Ohio River Valley battlefields, and instead pushing them north, safely out of the way of the heaviest Brotherhood presence. Similarly, the defenses have been pushed forward, covering much of the old footprint of the city, likely reaching the final coverage.
At the same time, a small scale Tiberium processing facility has opened up, providing for a small stream of fully processed raw material, in addition to Tiberium, being sent up the lakes to the Canadian and New England cities in the Blue Zones. With significant expansion planned, the plant will become a forward basing operation ready for not only a significant harvesting operation of its own, but also becoming the nexus for Red Zone operations across the northern United States.
[ ] Heavy Rolling Stock Plants
The last quarters have seen GDI reaching some of the limits of its ability to produce heavy rolling stock. Ranging from busses to trucks and trains, none of these systems are particularly complicated, or have changed that much in the last thirty to fifty years. However, that does not make them easy to produce, requiring substantial work due to the sheer weight of metal involved.
(Progress 171/250: 10 resources per die) (++ Logistics, ++ Capital Goods, --- Energy)
Despite the best efforts of the engineers, the heavy rolling stock plants have run face first into a series of major problems. First and least critical was that the partially completed plants had significantly degraded in the fifteen months between the project being started and funding being continued. While the partially finished plants were mothballed, water and wind had started a number of problems across the plants that took time and resources to solve. Furthering their problems, the production of the actual presses, and other industrial goods required to actually produce has been slow and unusually expensive, meaning that not all of the plants have their full complement of equipment. Despite these delays, the plants are at worst nearly completed. However, they are still far from being brought online, requiring a further infusion of funding.
[ ] Fusion Peaker Plants
While currently incapable of producing power long term, fusion is mature enough to serve as a peaker plant, a facility only activated during the hours of peak demand, typically late morning to early afternoon. While total power production is going to be limited, the project will actually be fairly effective, and further the initiative's knowledge of fusion power.
(Progress 172/240: 20 Resources per Die) (+++ Energy)
Some thirty eight major fusion assemblies have begun construction, and the vast majority have been nearly completed. However, there is a key problem. With the drive for construction and the scale of the investment into these peaker plants, they ran headlong into a supply bottleneck. Confining fusion requires large amounts of high precision equipment, and GDI simply cannot supply enough hardware and enough material for all thirty eight plants. All of the plants are near completion, although awaiting final shipment and installation of the last materials, and for a series of inspections to be made. While fusion is far less dangerous in failure than fission is, it is also far newer, and more poorly understood, leading to many of the same inspections procedures taking place, barring only the ones actually dealing directly with radioactives. While eventually new methods and inspection regimes are almost certain to be created, part of the process for these plants is to examine existing procedures as a baseline for operating fusion reactors safely and sustainably.
[ ] Yellow Zone Light Industrial Sectors
With Yellow Zone cities now in full development, and the capital goods crisis almost in hand, GDI can now begin looking towards developing a full suite of light industrial developments in the Terminus Cities. While this will cost substantial amounts of capital goods as GDI builds all new factory complexes, for everything from toys and toothbrushes to perfume, it will substantially increase employment in the Yellow Zones, making the yellow zones more obviously mutually beneficial with the blue zones.
(Progress 454/400: 10 Resources per die) (++++ Consumer Goods, -- Energy, -- Capital Goods, --- Labor)
The Light Industrial Sectors completed effectively just in time for the election, and are one of the single largest investments in consumer production in the postwar world. While much of the production, especially at first, will actually be allocated towards the Blue Zones, that is due to the Blue Zones having far more wealth to spend towards goods, and even Yellow Zoners under Initiative rule having lower expectations in terms of quality of life, rather than some inherent bias. However, they have also increased availability of goods in the Yellow Zones, and are set to reorient in coming years as the consumer goods situation stabilizes overall. While this will likely cause some indicators to stick as increasing consumption counteracts increasing production, it will be a temporary situation.
More broadly, the light industrial sectors are an important source of jobs for the Yellow Zones, which are both relatively low skill and pay well. While in the prewar environment they would not be enough to support a family on, in the modern day, when combined with welfare programs, pro worker regulation, and the political goals of the Treasury, more and more Yellow Zone households have moved to a single breadwinner approach. Politically this has typically drawn significant support to the Developmentalist Party, as many of the United Yellow List politicians that supported the goals have jumped ship over to the other side in the recent election.
"Dear brother. I am writing this from Tacna. The GDI moved us again, and before you ask, yes. Dad is doing better. the doctors said that the Tib infection haven't hit his lungs, as we used to fear before in Rio. And yes, I know. You're not with us. And that you'll never join us here. With Dad and your son."
"But for all that, I just want to say that he has gotten accepted in the new Industrial Sector here. He's working at this new coop where he uses 3D printers to make tabletop toy designs. That's the three-legged mech that I'm sending with this letter. Just like those old War of the Worlds figurines you used to show him back in Rio, back when there were five of us. Amazing isn't it? Not even 19 yet and he's already working and living a better life than us."
"I know. You'll never [Illegible scratches, stained with some tears] I miss you still, brother. But your choice is yours. May it be that our path crosses in good or never at all in bad. "
Your dearest sister, Luisa Vargas"
[ ] Johannesburg Myomer Macrospinner (phase 1)
Before serious work can begin to use the myomers in mass quantities, substantial Production facilities are required. Not only directed towards military needs but also increasing the efficiency of robotics, and a number of medical fields.
(Progress 73/90: 20 resources per die)
The Macrospinner is like nothing else ever constructed previously. The fungal works are actually the most complete, using waste cellulose as a growth medium, which can be scaled up quickly as needed. However, the problems arose when trying to calibrate the spinners. If they wind too slowly, they cannot get the thousands of kilometers of throughput required for the fully functioning factory. On the other hand, if they try to wind too quickly, they will tear the fragile fibers of the myomer bundle rather than actually producing usable strands. Similar issues have occurred across the production chain, something that was more or less expected, rather than an actual problem. Myomers are a thoroughly novel technology, and attempting to bring them to real mass production was always going to be problematic, barring extreme strokes of luck.
[ ] State Operated Breweries
With the initiative running substantial surpluses of vital food supplies, some portion of them can be siphoned off towards the production of one of the world's oldest luxury goods, alcohol. While alcohol production has never actually stopped, GDI can step into the market with relatively cheap, high quality and reliable products that can be ordered conveniently. While most products will be low alcohol by volume in comparison to some of the rocket fuel that other producers tend to make, the focus will be on taste.
(progress 84/125: 10 resources per die) (+++ Consumer goods, --- Food)
No physical problems have emerged to slow the creation of state breweries, but instead a mountain of red tape and objections from many of the Free Market Party. In one of their last acts before the election, as it was clear that they would lose massive portions of their influence in the new 1800 member parliament, they targeted the breweries as a clear example of state overreach and inviting abuse, drawing on the example of Tsarist Russia's 1895 monopoly on the production of alcohol, alongside the Taiwanese monopoly corporation. Accusing the Treasury of encouraging heavy drinking and of abuse of power, the doubters were silenced relatively quickly by the election, and the effective removal of the FMP from the halls of power. Replaced largely by Market Socialists, the accusations were dropped as clear misinterpretations of the Treasury's goals, and fundamentally bad faith. However, the FMP's obstructions have drastically slowed development, meaning that a further infusion of funding and resources is unfortunately required.
[ ] Perennial Aquaponics Bays
While most aquaponics relies on relatively fast growing crops, the method can also be used with more long term crops, such as berries, beans, and perennialized versions of other grains, oilseeds, and legumes. These require a fundamentally different structure than the linear bays of single growth crops. Instead of a long single run, with sheets of plants rafting down as they grow, perennial aquaponics bays are typically taller, with spirals of plants being fed by tanks placed on ground level. While the crops only typically produce a harvest once a year, they can be staggered by artificially manipulating the growing environment.
(Progress 278/350: 10 resources per die) (++++ Food over 8 turns, +++ Consumer Goods over 8 turns) (5 Political Support)
The Perennials plants have continued to make slow but steady progress this quarter. While preparations are not yet complete, much of what remains is final rounds of testing and certification to ensure safety, rather than actual construction or assembly work. Many of these regulations are there to prevent the kind of subversion that would occur with pre Initiative capitalist systems. One of the most common examples was with the purity of the water. Water filtration was an expense to be cut in many cases, rather than borne, as it is also something that could be easily missed by a consumer. Similarly, cutting costs on the substrate used in the aquaponic system can easily introduce contaminants, as can using substandard feed materials. In all cases, these are easily caught by an effective bureaucratic regulatory system, however it is also a system that has to be applied to Initiative projects to fight corruption, ensure regulatory compliance, and present an image of fair play, as both sides have to work to the same standards. As a matter of professional pride the Agriculture department typically maintains more stringent standards than the law does, so as to ensure both a higher quality of produce and to ensure that a plant does not ever need to be shut down due to contaminated products or workplace accidents.
[ ] Tiberium Prospecting Expeditions (Phase 4)
As the first quarter's expeditions tapped most of the near surface veins, further development will require Tiberium Taps, a modified and rare method that uses a small surface node to drill down to the Tiberium vein some 30 to 50 meters beneath the surface. While more expensive, it is also not particularly risky, making it safe for use in the Blue Zones.
(Progress 322/150: 5 resources per die) (Small additional income trickle [5 Resources]) Phase 5 : 177/175) (+10 resources)
Subterranean Tiberium mining has been a relative rarity in the last fifty years. While certainly something that has been done, for example in pre collapse China and India as they supercharged their growth not only with surface harvesting, but also by introducing Tiberium into their mines and then extracting from there, and to a lesser extent in other countries around the world, ranging from the Appalachian mountains to the Urals. While dangerous and with a notoriously high casualty rate (although not nearly the death pits that mines were before the 1950s) it has been generally abandoned for cheaper surface harvesting. However, there have been more innovations in the field, most notably the Tiberium Tap. Derived from old fracking technology, the system drills down into a Tiberium vein and then uses water and sonics to break up and suck up fragmented Tiberium which can then be processed. While previously it was a firmly theoretical technology, it has become a mainstay of these expeditions ,where after exploratory radar imaging, taps are generally a fairly simple way to reach and begin extracting subsurface Tiberium. While subsidence is a known problem with this form of technology, it is one which tends to have its problems on a somewhat longer timescale than Tiberium ripping up through the surface.
While a smaller investment than last quarter, the six months have made clear that underground Tiberium, even in the blue zones, is not a problem that can be solved with simple spikes and taps. Far more complex methods are likely to be needed, however those methods also need to be safe, with every human becoming increasingly valuable as Tiberium has continued to tighten the noose.
[ ] GDSS Philadelphia II (Phase 3)
While the command deck is complete, there are several more decks, and the equivalent of multiple office buildings left for construction. With this, GDI will return to its status before the Second Tiberium War. While not a full governmental structure, it is enough to conduct most military operations, and many political ones.
(Progress 389/360: 30 resources per die) (+2 to all dice, +1 Free Die) (5 PS for completion) (Fusion)
One of the first duties of the new decks has been the swearing in of the new parliament. While only the director and the secretaries (aside from a designated survivor) were actually on the station, with the rest appearing via telepresence, it was a return to at least a symbolic version of the prewar environment. More broadly, another wave of GDI's administrators have moved up into the station full time. While this does not represent moving the bulk of central planning offworld, it does mean that the Initiative can, in theory, operate without groundside administrative structures, although at a severely problematic disadvantage.
Further development will begin to move the central planning commissions entirely offworld, aiming towards the completion of the station. While not particularly important aside from the collocation of government activities, as the Initiative looks towards colonizing the Moon, Mars, and other bodies in this lifetime, the station will become an increasingly important connection point for meetings between Earth and her colonies.
[ ] Durable Goods Libraries and Central Repositories
Most people do not have constant need for many of the durable goods that they own. While every home having a vacuum cleaner, a washing machine, dryer, specialized cookware and the like is a common ambition, current production is far insufficient. For the portable goods a library system, with a central community level stockpile allowing people to check out the goods that they will use with the expectation of them being returned will be relatively simple, while having laundromat type arrangement for the less portable options, should allow the total consumer goods supply to be substantially stretched, at least for some goods.
(Progress 203/200: 15 Resources per die) (++++ Consumer Goods, -- Energy, - Labor)
While most durable goods have vanished from the shelves for this quarter, they have been poured into a number of durable goods libraries. The modern public free library has often been a socialist project, offering everyone free access to information in a way that no other society has managed. The new Durable Goods Libraries have been a similar project for specialized tools, both for kitchen and housework. While the around the house handyman persona is all but dead, and has generally been so for the better part of fifty years, especially with the standards of construction and increasing complexity of the hardware found in GDI housing, it is not just kitchen tooling being handed out. Rather it is everything from vacuum cleaners to screwdrivers, borrowed for a day, or a few days, and then returned.
In terms of public reception, it has been a, so far, relatively grudging acceptance, a "better than nothing" rather than enthusiastic acceptance. However, a small number of people have fully embraced the approach, some even going so far as to turn over things like stand mixers or toolboxes to the libraries in the name of slimming down and reworking their social presence more towards community. Despite this, the population has begun almost immediately making extensive use of the libraries, with between 30-50 percent of any given library's stock being checked out at any given time.
[ ] Ethnic Restaurant Program
With GDI's food situation no longer critical, a dedicated program to revitalize the globe's ethnic foods can be initiated. While none of them will be entirely accurate to pretiberium cuisine, shaped by the shift to aquaponic farming, it should be possible to at very least approximate their tastes and textures.
(Progress 164/150: 10 Resources per die) (- Food, +++ Consumer Goods)
The two main types of restaurant operate at severely different levels of regulation. While archival restaurants typically operate from a menu or set of cookbooks that were laid out centuries ago. (for example the De Re Coquinaria, although most are much more modern), and effectively cannot change from that basis, that is due to their status as archival restaurants, attempting to represent a particular era and location as faithfully as humanly possible. On the other hand, operational restaurants only have to show that their dishes are a part of a particular cuisine, which is often defined broadly enough that a relationship in the ingredients is enough to show similarity, or in using the same specialized cookware.
While these restaurants inherently to some degree compete with normal restaurants, they are serving generally a somewhat different niche, keeping food and cooking traditions alive, rather than merely the most popular options, and what has become an increasingly fusionist modern cuisine. With available foodstuffs generally homogenized, and mass displacement of populations, the commonly available cuisine has become somewhat standardized, both in methodology and materials. For example, nearly everyone has at least some form of paella, many of which would have sent pre Tiberium Spaniards into fits as they take the methods and change nearly everything else about the dish, from asian fusion to barbecue. Similarly, at a series of relatively newly reopened stores, one can order quickly cooked to order roasted cold noodles, jianbing, or frech crepes, all with an array of toppings/fillings. Chili oil coated catfish stuffed rice noodles live alongside strawberry jam filled crepes, and a hundred other unlikely neighbors. While delicious, it is far from traditional, and something where the Initiative does not need to concern itself overly much with preserving, compared to older methods and assemblies.
Both sides of the group have proven to be reasonably popular, primarily because they offer a higher food diversity and a significantly higher diversity in tastes and textures, despite using many of the same ingredients as any other restaurant in the region, either Initiative based like the canteens or privately held.
[ ] Crystal Beam Laser Prototype Development
With work on the beam laser system effectively completed, there is more to be done to bring it into a format that can be deployed. Working with all branches of the military, a joint technological base can be established, branching into specific projects.
(Progress 40/40: 20 resources per die)
This quarter, as a Christmas present to Director Granger, the Initiative's first combat effective laser system was unveiled. While only effective out to a kilometer, capable of about four shots a minute with current cooling systems, and very heavy and bulky, the system, mounted on a modified Predator hull was the talk of the celebration. In the days afterwards, requests have come in from every branch of the military bar the Zone Operations Command for their own version of the system. For the Air Force, they are looking so far as to mount it on the Apollo, and potentially even the Firehawk as a replacement for existing kinetic armaments. Similarly, the Navy is looking at it as a point defense system. The Ground Forces actually want it as a dual role antiaircraft/antimissile weapon. Beyond the military, laser systems have actually become of interest to the Tiberium mining department as a potential supplement to existing sonic systems, although the sheer energy need has put them off immediate demands.
[ ] Ablat Plating Deployment (phase 1)
Ablat pucks are something that is relatively easy to deploy and distinctly useful in many circumstances, to the point where getting some into the field immediately is far better than getting enough to everyone later. While initial production will only be enough to equip a relative handful of units with full coverage, or a double handful with partial, it should directly increase the survivability of critical assets.
(Progress 238/200: 10 resources per die)
Much of the first wave of ablat plating has been delivered to units fighting in South America, where it has proved massively effective. While a single plate can only absorb typically two shots from a standard NOD laser turret before being completely ablated away, when facing multiple laser turrets the total effect is that a single vehicle equipped with such assets can effectively manage to absorb dozens or even hundreds of blasts, although in the latter case it was a combination of fog and being extremely lucky, rather than being purely about the effectiveness of the plating. Stahl's forces have relied heavily on laser weapons, and with those weapons being significantly reduced in effectiveness, GDI forces have been able to begin ranging through the area with relative ease, as the commanders of NOD units pulled back.
The clamor for more, much like with shells, has been intense, with every commander with knowledge of the material requesting an immediate stockpile. The deployment requests have also spread to other parts of the system with ZOCOM, and the Navy being very insistent on having some for themselves. Similarly the Steel Talons have made a request, although they have ordered less than either of the other two, seemingly intending to use it as a partial armoring system to protect only the most critical areas.
[ ] Remote Weapons System Development Predator
The MBT-6 Predator served well in the Third Tiberium War. A heavy gun and heavier armor gave GDI armored forces a significant edge over NOD scorpion tanks, and an even more significant edge when fighting lighter buggies and attack bikes. However, it faced difficulties against the RPG-43, and fanatic assaults due to its lack of anti personnel weapons. Building a variant of the Guardian APC's Vigilante remote weapons system for use on the Predator should be easy to roll out, but will take some refit work to develop.
(Progress 43/40: 10 Resources Per die)
The second attempt at competition proved to be far more competitive than the first, rather than an endless stream of unmitigated failure. The Vigilante is probably the simplest of them, essentially installing a second fire control system, independent of the main gun and handed over to the TC entirely. Other systems aimed to be more all inclusive, including the eventual winner, the Raptor. Instead of simply being a second aiming system, the remote weapons system can feed and be fed targeting data from the main gun, and can be operated either semi autonomously, only needing to have its selected targets picked out by its operator, or manually in case of the system freezing up or misidentifying a target. While it does put more work on the TC, it is somewhat unavoidable, and something that can be mitigated with the introduction of improved data networking systems.
[ ] Governor Class Cruiser Development
Intended to make good losses among GDI's battle line, the prospective Governor class is intended to be half the displacement, and better protected against air attack, compared to previous GDI battleships. These smaller cruisers are intended to be far more economical to construct than previous battleship designs. (Progress 75/40: 15 resources per die)
The Governor class is a relatively conservative design, built much like the cruisers and destroyers of the late 20th century. Forward, a pair of twin railgun turrets provide for direct fire against most targets. Behind them, the superstructure, festooned with large radar plates, towers above the rest of the ship. Around the base of the structure, four antimissile point defense systems crouch in armored basins, alongside a pair of rapid fire antiaircraft mounts. Behind the superstructure is a 54 cell VLS system. Behind that, a raised drone shed provides for reconnaissance flights deployed from a catapult rail, and on its roof are another pair of antiaircraft weapons in their own basins.
The ship has been long requested, and has been paid for in the blood of GDI's navy. With the prewar navy's near exclusive focus on the heavy warships, the carriers and battleships, the destroyers, frigates, and other deepwater escorts were heavily obsolescent, based nearly entirely on pre first tiberium war designs, and were far too few in number. The navy at the time had some 290 ships, 90 of which were capital weight. Today, sixty capital ships, and only some hundred other warships survive. To make good the losses, the navy desires some ninety ships as soon as possible with potential to expand the order to some one hundred and twenty to one one hundred and fifty ships. While this will not be a single tranche of craft, it should make good a substantial portion of GDI's total need for heavy warships. While the ships will not be the only new class desired, they will be the most numerous, and the most versatile, covering everything from naval gunfire support for amphibious operations, to missile strikes, antiaircraft perimeters, and antisubmarine warfare.
[ ] Titan Mark 3 Development
The Titan Mark II in the eyes of the Steel Talons, is getting long in the tooth, and requires a number of substantial upgrades. Ranging from arming itself with an anti personnel mount, and anti missile laser system, to refitted armor and improved sensors, the Mark 3 is intended to be a platform for the next generation of the Steel Talons' weapons development.
(Progress 32/30: 10 resources per die)
When approaching a naked Mark 3 Titan from the left, it is nearly indistinguishable from its Mark 2 predecessor. Same shaping of the turret, same sensor ball and counterweight, and the same general shape of the legs. However, as one begins to move around it, things become a bit more clear. The other side holds a railgun, rather than the previous standard 152mm gun, while the counterweight is actually a shield for a second, rapid fire railgun. Additionally, there are a number of hardpoints, currently with nothing mounted besides a simple plate of armor over the connectors. The key to what makes the new unit fundamentally different from its predecessors are the internals and the modularity.
Rather than a simple update to the older model, the Mark 3 is a near complete rebuild, keeping only the shape. Starting in the crew compartment, while the Mark 3 has kept both crew seats from the Marks 1 and 2, the entire suite of controls is available from both positions, and one of the Talon's goals for the platform is to eventually reduce the crew needed to one. Otherwise, the key is in the modular hardpoints. Particle beams, plasma cannons, and even laser systems are planned for both of the main weapons hardpoints, although of significantly different scales. To go with the main weapons mounts, a centerline ventral "crotch mount" and two dorsal mounts round out the potential armament load. The ventral system is aimed to be primarily used either for a targeting pod, or an anti personnel system. Dorsally, the Talons are being more ambitious with a long list of projects, most significantly a series of proposals for either jamming or shooting down incoming missiles.
However, the new model Titan is not without drama. Rather than being a straightforward upgrade, the system had been iterated time and time and time again not only before and during the Third Tiberium War, but afterwards, in one of the most significant examples of scope and mission creep in recent history. Once funding actually became available, what had grown into a nearly 150 ton monstrosity, had to be pared down to a reasonable state. Working through the nights in shifts for three weeks, Talons engineers had to bring it down to something that could actually be fielded.
[ ] Wolverine Mark 3 Deployment
The Wolverine Mark 3 as designed is a relatively simple refit job. Existing factories, with limited modification can switch over to producing the new platform, although they admittedly do require substantial allocations of new equipment, primarily for the railguns.
(Progress 154/150: 10 resources per die) (-- - Energy)
Wolverine deployment barely scraped by, with people working into what should have been break time in order to get the lines back into action. In a global conflict, no month is particularly slow. Rather, the conflict ebbs and flows with the far north and south having summer campaigning seasons, with less intensive winters, while the middle latitudes are more constrained by monsoon seasons. This has meant that rather than units being allowed to receive their new units en masse during expected lulls, they have had to be transported nearly immediately from the factory to their destinations. The new Wolverine's production is barely keeping up with demand, with the model being adopted that damaged units are being more commonly written off and scrapped for spare parts, to keep the rest of the fleet running, with the pilots being allocated new Wolverines. Over half a decade after being requested, the Steel Titans have had an infusion of new steel and new technology.
"Took long enough."
"Damn too long. That fucker Granger. The Doctor, I mean."
"Hey, at least he listened at the end, no?"
"Too late for Stevenson, Adlai, and Murat."
"...Aye. Too late."
The opinion of Steel Talon towards the Treasury has settled to an unstable equilibrium. With three quarters of continued development towards projects proposed by the Steel Talons, the air of hostility towards the Treasury has settled to a state of worn resentment. Should the current pace of Steel Talons projects be continued, even at a more relaxed but constant pace, the animus towards Treasury may abate in two decades...
— InOps classified Intra-Departmental Dossier, for Director Granger's perusal only.
[ ] Reclamator Hubs
While Massive Armored Reclamation Vehicles proved themselves on the field of battle in the Third Tiberium War, they are difficult to construct and maintain in the field in significant numbers. By establishing regional hubs, MARV units can harvest and process more Tiberium, allowing for more units to be supported. (Blue Zone 1-19, Yellow Zone 1-6 ABC, Red Zone 1-8, North South) (Progress 0/105: 20 resources per die) (Contributes to plan goal)
- [ ] RZ-7 North (49/105)
The RZ-7 North MARV hub has progressed relatively slowly. With the first series of candidate sites rejected for reasons ranging from NOD presence to unsuitable lowland, the second series has proven to be more acceptable. Located just north of Chicago, the complex has begun with a dual layer defense system and a perimeter of defenses. However, there has not been the time this quarter to lay out the full system for Tiberium handling and the housings for the MARV fleet. While still far from being complete, it has become a site where NOD presence nearby is relatively common, as it is fairly isolated and not nearly as well defended as possible.
[ ] Reclamator Fleet YZ-5a
-[ ] Super MARVs
An improved model, conceptualized after examining the destruction of MARVS before and during the Third Tiberium War, the Super MARV is substantially more expensive, but offers equally improved rewards
(progress 88/210: 20 resources per die) (3 Points Yellow Zone Mitigation, 15 RpT)
Much of the resources allocated to the Yellow Zone 5 A hub have in fact gone towards establishing an outer defensive line, and a curtain wall, containing what is broadly considered an impromptu refugee camp. On the return voyage, instead of the expected load of Tiberium, the ships carried refugees towards the North American Blue Zones. While few are actually ready to look for work, they have typically found the Blue Zones more cushy than they can really adapt to in the short time since their evacuation.
However, some progress has been made on the MARV part of the program. Naked frames have begun to take form, crouched in the cavernous bays of the Hub, titans of steel and ceramics, with swarms of engineers crawling over them like termites. Much like ships, they are built from the keel out, and are fully formed before they are armed. These behemoths however do not even have their engines or Tiberium systems installed, let alone their coverings.
[ ] Interdepartmental Communication Initiative
With GDI's other departments on the move, taking more effort to prepare for their actions and how to better coordinate priorities should improve interdepartmental harmony, and the ability of the Initiative as a whole to operate.
(DC 90) (offers indicators which projects are of high priority to other departments.) (188)
Feelers and forms have made their way out to GDI's other departments. While a not particularly uncommon thing overall, the Treasury has typically plotted its own course, relying on direct requests from other departments to serve their needs, rather than attempting to stay in contact and reflect their priorities. While not a good approach for the relative status of the Treasury's own position within the government hierarchy, and certainly not without its detractors, the ability to stay in touch has been significant in shifting the planning priorities, moving projects like the Zone Suit Factory, up, while the High Orbit Ion Cannon, while important for civilian morale, have been moved down the priority list.
"The first meeting went as expected. The Steel Talon representative smoldered at the far end of the meeting room, alongside the taciturn representative of InOps, rapping her fingers with boredom as the Tib rep continued his barely restrained argument with the attache sent by the Ground, which happened to be a Firster. The tense atmosphere only ended as the last representative, the ever-busy suits of Services, entered with the InOps loudly greeting them in. "Overall, couldn't have asked for a better first meeting."
— Private journal of Harlan Curie, Treasury Representative of the First Monthly ICI Meeting
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