Yellow Zone Community Thread X: Qualifications?
TabithaCat
So I just got back from the last day of testing for the first month's intake of Yellow Zone Qualifications applicants. I had five days, most of the others only had two or three. I was going for General Engineering quals, which are hard, but I think I got them. Generally the first day was easy. Algebra, some calculus, reading and writing mostly. I would have been insulted if I did not know that some people failed out on that first day. Second was harder, got into a spectrum of sciences. Physics and chemistry mostly, with some biology. Third through fifth were specialist, and I got put through the damn wringer. It was everything from robotics to high energy dynamics to aerospace (although I don't expect to ever be authorized for a job there).
Overall, it was a challenging course, meant to give GDI a baseline of who is where. Been living here for a couple years, and I want to do something. I was told to expect a week before my quals came back, and two to three before I am assigned to anything. But, well, I can wait.
GreenBird
all those tests were super hard how were u able to do so well? i got through like the first test with the number before they took me out to do a diff bunch of tests!!!! they say my learning wassnt so good so they gave me this one test where there was a whole bunch of shapes in a row in a pattern and then told me to predict how the rest of the pattern went. then there was another qustion about about what a dice would look like if they unravelled it and told me to guess what it would look. they called it and eye cue test or something.
i never went to this school thing they asked about. dad was the one who had all the learning in the family. im afraid of this special catchup school they are puttin me in for smart but no school people. dad tole me a little about it but i cant ask him about it any more since he die last year.
TabithaCat
I was lucky. The local Confessor was big on education. I keep remembering him telling me "knowledge is power, use it well." Of course, there was also a lot of "holy tiberium" nonsense. That lasted until he walked into a Tiberium field.
GreenBird
mum and dad tried really hard to keep me away from the nod guys and they always kept coming and we had to move all the time from place to place. i didnt get why when i was younger but then one time i saw a bunch of nod guys make a bunch of their guys stand on a plank of wood over this tib pit and try to push each other into it. mum told me the confessor guy sometimes make each other do that when they argue. but then that confessor sometime brought fresh ration packs to the town and most of them usually were still sealed. we didnt stay there too long, dad said more of the confessors guys would come later.
A fairly stark illustration of the variations we're seeing in Yellow Zone residents. GreenBird doesn't know what an IQ test is (but seems to have done rather well).
SpeakertoManagers
#Greenbird, you should be thankful for the chance you are being given. On your knees with gratitude that you're only having to pass an IQ test rather than being sent back to that Yellow Zone you crawled out of. There are too many people in the world who take for granted what they have, and think they deserve things. What you have been given is a chance and a gift and you do not deserve it! It is charity, plain and simple, and I see far too many people acting like this supreme kindness is in some way anything else.
FloatingWood
#SpeakertoManagers, well, I see that we found one bitch whose parents failed to educate her properly on her manners.
Or, for that matter, on her history. Used to be that having an education of any kind at all was something you could only get if your parents were rich. Us in the Blue Zones are very fortunate indeed that GDI invests tremendous effort in making sure the population is educated, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. Why, one could call it charity.
AccomplishingProvidence
#SpeakertoManagers , you are the one who should be thankful, on her knees and crying out in thanks to whatever deity or force you place your faith in. Because it is by no inherent merit that you found yourself in what is clearly a position of privilege. Since you certainly don't seem to be showing any inherent merit to being what sounds like a poster child for Nod's propaganda about "decadent Blue Zoners".
#GreenBird just ignore Speaker. Whoever they are, they don't know you, or where you came from. It sounds like you've endured a lot of pain and trials in your life. I'm glad you seem to still have a positive outlook. I know it's difficult now, but keep trying with those tests. From what I've been hearing, the people at the testing center will do their very best, so all you need to do is your best, and let them worry about the rest. I'm happy you're taking the steps to improve yourself. Keep it up!
AccomplishingProvidence lives!
Crucible
I know I'm going to get rebuked for this, but I must be honest and stand up for what I believe in. I am a lapsed Noddite. I believe the Faith is in desperate need of reform. We have lost our way. In the next elections, I intend to start a Party of Reformist Noddites. I accept that this will likely result in either my assassination or imprisonment, but it must be done. I believe that there has to be change. That GDI has proven that it is capable of actually living up to what it claims to be. I am tired, tired of fighting for peace when the toll inevitably falls on the civilian population. Kane forgive me, but there must be a better way than this? More than that, I want to prove that the beliefs of Nod and the beliefs of this new GDI can work together and indeed, must, for the good of all of Humanity.
...
Crucible
#ProfCollingsworth
It is an unfortunate fact that the root Nod grows from is disaffection. It is a sad reality that Nod has been forced to act as a monument to the Sins of the old world. The poor and unloved filled our ranks, and instead of doing what I believe was originally intended; supporting one another, becoming part of something great and wonderful, the anger at the injustice of our situation poisoned our hearts and minds. There is nothing wrong with Peace. There is nothing wrong with believing in something greater than us. Even now, the focus of most Nod Warlords, and they are Warlords, is on their own personal power. There are no city builders among their ranks. There is no love in their hearts for the oppressed. Only fear, that they too will one day be crushed under the boot of GDI or their own Brothers and Sisters. I truly believe that Nod was justified in rising up against GDI in the first Tiberium War, but the dead outnumber the living now. This cannot continue.
...
AccomplishingProvidence
...
#Crucible , I applaud your courage. It is easy to simply sit back and mourn "what could have been", and for some, that is all they might be able to due thanks to circumstance. It seems you have found yourself in a position wherein you feel you can do more than that. I hope you find success, rather than the barrel of a gun or the shackles of oppression. Here's to your success, my friend.
...I have no idea what to even say...
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: Limited Surplus (+9) (31 population in low quality housing) (1 points of refugees)
Energy: Major Surpluses (+15) (+2 in reserve)
Logistics: Limited Surpluses (+4)
Food: Major Surpluses (+21) (+8 in reserve)
Health: Steadily Improved (+9) (4 consumed by emergency refugee healthcare)
Capital Goods: Significant Surpluses (+6)
Consumer Goods: Significant Surpluses (+30) (+5 from private industry)
Labor: Significant Surpluses (+30) (+4 per turn)
Tiberium Processing Capacity (1520/1720)
Yellow Zone
Water: Notable Surpluses (+6)
Not bad, but we can't sustain more than one quarter of further aggressive income expansion without doing the refinery construction... and even
that is pushing it.
Military Confidence
Ground Forces : Decent
Air Force : Decent
Space Force : Decent
Steel Talons: Low
Navy: Decent
ZOCOM: Decent
Okay. ZOCOM is holding steady. That's good.
Emilia Litvinov.
After bending Parliament to her will, as much as possible anyway, Litvinov has turned her eyes to the bureaucracy of government, especially looking at the Treasury.
Seo,
While your efforts to integrate the refugees into the workforce have been exemplary, I believe that more investment will need to be made in education, especially in the Green Zones. Beyond the educational side of affairs, my administration is looking to further improve integration and immigration systems, and will be expecting the Treasury to take a leading role in that. While much of the work will be assigned to the Welfare department, they will need your support. I expect to be able to send you program proposals in the coming weeks, and will expect you to give them all due attention.
Beyond that, I look forward to collaborating on a number of future projects to better serve the people of the Initiative and the world. If there are tasks that you believe will be useful, but require other departments, please send them to my desk.
Sincerely,
Director Litvinov
[grunts]
Okay, yeah,
not flipping the Services die to Orbital was probably a good choice, though we could have made do either way.
In big-picture politics, the Militarists are quite pleased with the current situation, as they have gotten significantly increased military spending during the same timeframe in either of the last two plans. Secure as they are, Al-Jilani and the rest of the Militarists have no complaints, as the military are well positioned to launch a successful campaign, having spent the last two years riding relatively high on massive military spending. In this, they are senescent and would not rush the new heir of the Treasury as the department continues to be on-board with their given mandate, particularly considering that they have expected the Department to continue with the intensification of resource extraction.
@Ithillid ... are you sure you meant
senescent? That's something close to 'senile' or 'dying of old age...'
However, this proposal is not without its detractors. Every subfactions from within the Developmentalists up to the Market Socialists felt that while stockpiling is eminently reasonable, the market is at a pivotal juncture where numerous cooperatives and startups have truly gained tempo in picking up the slack where the Treasury cannot easily prioritize. They argued that enacting the stockpiling schema within the next year or so would stall the markets, potentially leading to an unwanted tertiary goods market shortage. While such things are survivable, to have it happen in the first years of Seo's leadership is likely to be bad for the optics, especially with the expectations that he would not be as politically detached like his predecessor.
I don't think we can stockpile
yet, yeah. We need to finish at least one really big Capital Goods surge.
Environment Suits
On a more positive note, the P2050 Civilian Environment Suit produced by GDI has become a staple addition of aid supplies, with significant numbers of updated models being provided to the Caravanserai as Hajj packages due to the ability of the Commanders of the Hajj to penetrate deep beyond GDI's zone of influences. The Commanders and their subordinates then would use the Suits both as bargaining chips– as the P2050s are of standardized high-quality beyond most of what most Warlords can produce– and pilgrim aid both. A quick estimate shows that ten percent of the elderly Hajj pilgrims are saved from untimely and life-threatening medical complications due to the suit's insulation, even as the Caravanserais travel unimpeded without worrying about GDI's Ion Cannons. Not only that, nearly the entire production of the suits by this point are being sent out beyond GDI borders as basic humanitarian goods. The P2050 now can be found not only in GDI territories, but– allegedly, as the InOps are unable to truly confirm– across all Brotherhood of Nod regions except for the most radical and hardliner of the factions.
Ahhh, a flashback to the good old days!
On the night of May 6th, eight Shadows bypassed Hackett's guarded perimeter and made their way towards the garage where a trio of Guardian APCs were parked. As they moved in to plant explosive charges inside the maintenance hatches, they were taken by surprise via a salvo of concussive and stun grenades before being quickly overwhelmed by Hackett's security team.
He had a present for them.
Middle East
Across the Middle East, tumultuous times are abound. Nod Warlords, and several of the few remaining neutral ones, have been found dead or vanished altogether. While the culprits are unknown, the motive is clear for the vast majority of the victims are the ones who have worked with GDI in the past. The Caravanserai in particular seems to be hit hard by this. While this year's Hajj pilgrims are higher than the last due to the inherent stability of the routes and the completion of the Planned Cities Cluster, the Initiative has had to take a more complete charge, and often directly negotiate with Warlords across the Muslim-adherent Nod territories to ensure safe passage for the pilgrims due to the death of many Caravanserai intermediaries. This appears to be retaliation for the betrayal of the Brotherhood by one of the more hardline figures in the organization.
Glurg. Well, it's bad that leaders willing to work with us are dying. On the other hand, it means that Muslims are forced to pick a side between GDI (which is supportive of the Hajj and protecting their holy cities) and Nod (which is not doing either and is killing the non-GDI actors who
are.
That's... probably not actively bad for GDI, on net, I think?
Navy and the Battle of Natuna Isles
Within the first months of the quarter, news media and the eyes of the world were fixed to the largest naval engagement since the Third Tiberium War, the Battle of Natuna Isles. The engagement happened early in the quarter as a flotilla of six Governors did a regular patrol mission around the coastlines of Natuna Islands, an archipelago within the confines of the Malacca Strait with over 250 islands within it. It was here, among the shallower Tiberium-reefed waters, that the Brotherhood of Nod sprung their ambush. With coastal artillery emplacements breaking out of stealth fields and the signal-jamming cover of the Tiberium-encrusted islands, they fired a synchronized salvo on each of the Governors. Though most of the fire was intercepted with the CIWS, it was a constant barrage that allowed for elements of Bintang's fleet to reach combat ranges without being intercepted, including Bintang herself aboard the Rajanaga present on the Brotherhood's side. Sensing a losing battle when he saw one, the Flotilla Admiral, one Ranjeet Savitr, ordered a fighting retreat as he opened contact with both the Space Force and any naval presence that he could reach. It was a harrowing three hours as the flotilla broke free of the shallower waters, sprinting at forty knots north, towards Japan. All the while, Brotherhood air assets maintained continuous attack on the flotilla, although they did minimal damage. Glide and dive bombing attacks from Vertigo Squadrons based on the coasts of Borneo did minimal damage, but kept the men at their posts, and the antiaircraft and CIWS systems firing near constantly. At the end of those three hours, the micromissiles had been shot nearly dry across the task force, and the other systems had begun to show strain. However, Bintang's own complement maintained a safe following distance, close enough to shadow, but far enough away to avoid any parting shots taken by the retreating group.
The reasoning became clear soon after, as abnormal signatures began to be detected under the water- then above the decks. Lithe and sleek, many-tentacled cephalopodic boarders made themselves known, moving with speed beyond the languid agility of the seaborn creatures normally have. With great cost to the relatively lightly armed seamen and with the deployment of the ship's contingent of Zone Armored troops, they were repelled as the Governors continued to beat a hasty retreat. Respite seemed close, however, as the Carrier Battle Group "Talay Khan," having sprinted south from their posting near Taiwan, launched their own large contingent of Firehawks to cover the retreat and with the Space Force ready to fire their ionic salvos. By this point, however, the Rajanaga had entered the engagement range and revealed that Bintang had not rested on her laurels. With the unnerving sounds of plasma weaponry, the Pirate Queen's flagship scorched the decks of Raskolnikov and Paricia, rendering the two Governors helpless to fight, though still able to flee as the other Governors covered for their smouldering sister ships. Not willing to risk the loss of further lives, Rear Admiral Savitr called in the bombardment, well before Rajanaga's supporting elements massed enough for the ion salvo to hit them.
Instead of the expected destruction and death of a Warlord, Bintang revealed her trump card as a shield shimmered around her flagship and the diffusion of the ion bombardment around the barrier. At the same time, eight Brotherhood destroyers, ships of about seven thousand tons, launched from the coast of Borneo, made interception, prompting a close range gun battle as the four still capable ships of Savitr's fleet took desperate measures to safeguard their sisters. Firing at maximum rate, the destroyers were pummeled with 200mm railgun shells, punching through their bows and detonating inside, while they returned fire with octets of 130mm conventional guns, and salvoes of deck launched torpedoes and missiles. It was a running knife fight, with any loss in speed turning rapidly into death at the hands of an implacable enemy. With the arrival of Talay Khan's Firehawks, the two surviving destroyers were rapidly sunk, and Bintang seems to have been dissuaded from further pursuit, scattering her flagship escorts south, into the seas.
The end result of the three and half hour long Battle of Natuna Isles, is an unequivocal tactical loss to the GDI, even as none of the Governors were mission-killed and having blooded the ambushing forces. Though it had revealed the greater extent of Bintang's capability as a Warlord and Rajanaga's ability to counter GDI's Ion SOP against HVTs, it came at the cost of 19 naval airmen, 201 dead seamen and a further 472 heavily injured- a blow to the highly skilled workforce of the GDI Navy. Furthermore, each one of the six Governors had been significantly damaged, with the least damaged– Zaratan– having melted its railguns with constant high-intensity fire and three of its AA platforms destroyed from artillery salvos and hydraulic press like vice of the bioweapons, leaving only its forward starboard gun able to operate. It is estimated that repairs will take some five to seven months, though it could be reasonably shortened with the completion of the Busan-Ulsan shipyard complex– as the flotilla will undergo repairs within the confines of the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Home Islands. Furthermore, post-battle analysis showed that R.Adm Savitr and his flotilla had done as close to an optimal engagement against a numerically superior– and importantly– skilled foe. Unwilling to risk actual ship and further manpower losses, the Navy stopped all patrol operations within the Malacca Strait and limited operations within the Java and South China Seas strictly to larger flotillas and carrier battle groups.
In a silver lining, the battle had become the Governors first major surface engagement and showed that it is a surprisingly hardy platform against sudden ambushes on the shallower waters with its damage control and fire suppression systems working as expected. Its weapons have, at the least, been proven to destroy the numerous and standard cruisers that Bintang favours with ease. Though no slugging match occurred due to Savitr's discretion, simulated analysis indicated that a good part of Bintang's strategic calculus hinged on waiting for the Governors weapon systems being mostly destroyed or spent before closing in. Its weaknesses however, are laid out clearly. The lack of updated point defense systems are keenly felt, as additional PD emplacements would have helped shoot down the artillery shells and pick off the boarders before the Zone Troopers could intercede.
@Ithillid .
That was a
badass naval engagement you wrote. Nod plasma cannons. The Pirate Queen's flagship having an ion cannon shield! GIANT MOTHERFUCKIN SQUIDS!
Pure. Badass.
Though I bet Admiral Bintang isn't feeling too victorious- she failed to sink any GDI capital ships, lost a lot of admittedly replaceable hulls, and she has to know GDI
can come back in greater strength.
...
Also, the old-school point defense
refits didn't, as I understand it, cover the
Governors. Those would have been built from the keel up with our first-generation postwar point defense designs, the ones the old pre-Tib War Three ships would have needed to be refit with.
So that may explain why the second-generation (laser) point defense refits are now quasi-mandatory. Because we're gonna need more pepper to stop this kind of stuff.
Military Priorities
Ground Forces
For the Ground Forces, the highest priority must be the prompt delivery of zone armor as soon as possible. With the development of new artillery pieces, they are expecting delivery on a somewhat accelerated schedule, with the aim of drastically reducing the overall shell problem. Third is consumables. While current consumables supplies are enough for smaller scale operations, general operations exhaust supplies quickly.
Currently, the provision of vehicles is generally sufficient. However, many of the existing designs lack the space or other requirements for enhancing capabilities and will require replacements during the coming years.
Hm. The main change is that the army wants the new artillery guns rolled out quickly. I don't think they
need that rollout as badly as the Navy needs point defense lasers, but we should definitely prioritize it for deployment right after naval point defense and the Super Orca. Maybe even alongside those projects in Q4 and later, though in Q3 I think we should just rush-build point defense.
Navy
GDI's naval forces have returned to a point where convoys can expect routine escort, and even attempted blockades can be forced, although not without sacrificing other routes. In the aftermath of the Battle of Natuna Isles, the Navy reprioritized. Though they see the escort carriers (especially with navalized A-16s) as the next major important area to invest in and waiting for the final hydrofoil yard completion, they have strenuously pushed for Point Defense Refits, effective next quarter. This is at least the prerequisite requirement before the Navy feels safe doing more than probing missions to the Malacca Strait.
Well, good news for them, we're planning on pushing that hard in the near future. They're probably gonna get a lot of their wish list in the near future.
With the completion of the apartment blocks, the Treasury has returned to work once more on the Arcology complexes clustered all around the world. These new complexes are not concentrated anywhere in particular, but are primarily located in a number of secondary and tertiary cities, locations like Porto or Albany rather than Tokyo or New York. Approval-wise, the restarting of the project has been met with fanfare and mollified the parts of the public that were unsatisfied with the perceived distractions of working on the apartment project. So long as the arcology complexes continue apace, the expected demands and complaints would subside to a dull roar. Progress has been significant, if not unproblematic, with multiple arcologies being sealed in the last days of the quarter, ready to have their amenities and furnishings installed before habitation begins. The need based allocations will primarily prioritize yellow zone families, especially those currently living in the Fortress towns, many of which are close enough to the border for Nod raiding forces to attack.
Okay, it's a start.
[ ]Blue Zone Apartment Complexes (Phase 1)
With GDI struggling against the massed wave of incoming refugees, high efficiency, and high quality housing is still an ongoing demand. Apartment complexes, while not quite what the people actually want, are a far cheaper option than the arcologies, and are quite high quality.
(Progress 188/160: 10 resources per die) (-1 Logistics, +6 Housing)
The apartment complexes are in many ways a layer cake version of the duplexes that GDI has already constructed. Built around a central common area and transit shaft, the apartment blocks are some twenty to thirty stories tall in most places, although some are shorter due to ground conditions. Each block typically has two floors of mixed shopping, including an Initiative rationing commissary, provided for it. While far from enough to actually supply all of the needs of the population, requiring travel to reach larger complexes, it does provide many of the day to day needs. The rooms themselves are made modularly spacious, with a quick hotline for apartment furnishing and able to host three people with crampless ease and up to six with enough elbow room and personal privacy.
Yeah, good. This alleviates some of our problems. We need to continue aggressive rollout of housing projects to pull people out of the commieblocks and fortress towns and make sure people don't have to move
into those in large numbers. Good news is, we're probably gonna be able to knock off the next phase of arcologies next turn, and another round of apartments not too long after that, and at that point we're really making progress worth writing home about.
Moving north, into what used to be Israel and Jordan has been a tough fight. The elements of the middle eastern Brotherhood hostile to GDI's interests have decided to make a stand and engage GDI forces much more generally. This is likely because, in addition to the previous strike on the other side of the Sinai peninsula, the region has been effectively cut off from unfriendly Brotherhood forces, and they made an all out offensive to attempt to break out, including a nuclear strike on the forward operations base on April seventh.
Ooof.
Well, good news is, our troops are already used to fighting in a radioactive hellscape anyway, so the fuckers tossing nukes at us only makes things marginally worse.
While casualties were overall not as bad as they could have been, they were significant. The strike did however open up enough of a hole for many of the assets of the hostile elements of the Middle Eastern Brotherhood to manage an evacuation, pushing out through the fallout of the strike towards the former territories of Iraq, and their supply lines. Operations continued throughout the rest of April and into early May, including skirmishes as far north as Meggido, and as far east as the Wadi al-Mujib on the edges of the once Dead Sea, now a single mass of blue Tiberium.
While the region was formerly one of the heartlands of western civilization, today it is a wasteland, one scarred by tiberium, but covering over decades of chemicals, radiological, and nuclear warfare as the region had bled in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The always unstable consequences of western meddling with Sykes-Picot, and the broader ethnic and cultural grudges that had divided the region across the centuries. In the Israli region, tensions were inflamed following the first Intifada, and in 1995, there was an uneasy settlement enforced by "neutral" GDI peacekeepers. While broadly seen in the region to be on the side of Israel, and the face of western oppression, they were also deeply unpopular among the Israli settlers. This state of affairs lasted until 1997, when increasing Brotherhood activity forced the withdrawal of GDI forces to fight in the European and African theaters. Soon after, with weapons being fed in from both sides, the region erupted into a general strategic exchange, leading to the death of millions in just two years. By 1999, the war had died down more due to the lack of arms than anything else. With Tiberium levelling the field of play, and GDI operations being limited due to ongoing conflicts, the Brotherhood of Nod had little opposition in the region. Even after the 2003 defeat of the Brotherhood at Sarajevo, the Middle East remained a significant flashpoint and the crossroads of the Brotherhood, until the rise of Hassan in the late twenty teens. Even then the region had not seen an end to conflict, as it played host to the rise of Anton Slavik, and the dawn of the Second Tiberium War.
;_;
"I was nearly ready to throw in the towel and say they'd handed us a lemon when the new guy came in and took a look at what we were trying to produce. Turns out, Johan was like… a slave laborer in some NOD factory? Debt slave, or something, he doesn't like to talk about it. But the upshot is, Johan had come in from a Yellow Zone, and had worked with this stuff before. He knew all it's tricks and temperaments and we got a lot of information about how to actually handle it. So here you go General, one Pitbull, one Orca, and one Wolverine with this fancy new armor composition, courtesy of NOD. Now can you get INOPS to stop breathing down my neck?"
Hahahahahaa!
It was the aid of a number of newly qualified workers, many of whom had worked at various Brotherhood armor plants before and during the Third Tiberium War, who provided answers. While some were straightforward misinterpretations (because the arabic that the documents were provided in was translated, and some of the nuances were lost) others were apparently a combination of lore passed down from senior workers to new ones by word of mouth, especially as it kept the workers valuable enough to the Brotherhood so that they would not be sent onto the front lines as militants.
Yeah... that checks out.
The total refit costs are going to be incredibly marginal. While refits are definitely required, they will not require more than a series of modifications to existing equipment. This will not immediately remove the existing smoothbore guns from service, but it will relegate them to increasingly marginal roles, and over the course of the next five to seven years, they will be removed completely, as GDI transitions to a more modern artillery park.
Niiice.
The new Naval Laser System is, much like the rest of GDI's defensive laser work, derived from the Steel Talons rapid fire laser systems. While it proved too difficult to make work on a land bound system, especially a mobile land bound system, GDI's navy has far more capacity to use such high intensity systems, and can use the system with minimal modifications to ensure seaworthiness. As a missile interceptor system, it can work out to ranges between five and ten kilometers, depending on environmental conditions.
Nod Missile:
"Why do I hear an
ominous hum?"
