Remove ads

Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest

Voting is open
Reader mode
[X][PM] Campaign as normal. Ti'ord has gathered substantial support, but not nearly enough to threaten you as things stand.
[X][POLICY] Yes: Diamonds In the Rough. The FDO will prioritize systems that return the most profit, expense no object.
[X][NAME] Assilia Prime. Utilitarian and easily-scaled.
[X][COLONIES] No, this sets a poor precedent. The FDO will retain a limited remit of space-based development, and you will develop Nimal Pak at your leisure.
[X][BILL] Fetch me my rubber stamp! Assembly implements an army expansion option, raising the size of the standing army to a full one billion individuals in combat roles (from its current four hundred million). Takes up significant unemployed slack and lessens strain on civilian economy by way of removing huge swathe of population from civilian economy. Not actually a long-term fix and may actually lead to worse problems eventually by way of all of those individuals eventually going back onto the civilian market, all at once, but gives way more time to prepare for them and implement solutions. Also: gigantic army. Some would say the benefits are self-evident. -50,000 yearly income.
 
pffffff hahahaha

you know, I could never tell if that movie was trying to take the piss or not.
 
no no, i get that, but it's remarkably completely unlike the tone of the book. I'm just not sure if that was intentional or not

Edit: I want to call the movie a gaegenuebersetzt of the tone with respect to the book (can't do umlauts with my keyboard, so I added an 'e' after the vowel with one). like, the book struck me as "war's hell, but if you're gonna fight, use everything" and the movie struck me as "humanity, fuck yeah! as seen from an alien's point of view"
 
Last edited:
I really despise that movie since becoming familiar with the book. A bit of research shows that apparently the director didn't even finish the book because it made him "sad" and he was fervently anti-military and everything it stood for.
 
Mr Tebbs said:
pffffff hahahaha

you know, I could never tell if that movie was trying to take the piss or not.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Mr Tebbs said:
no no, i get that, but it's remarkably completely unlike the tone of the book. I'm just not sure if that was intentional or not

Edit: I want to call the movie a gaegenuebersetzt of the tone with respect to the book (can't do umlauts with my keyboard, so I added an 'e' after the vowel with one). like, the book struck me as "war's hell, but if you're gonna fight, use everything" and the movie struck me as "humanity, fuck yeah! as seen from an alien's point of view"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Paul Verhoeven has a tendency to deliver his messages with all the grace and subtlety of a flaming brick lobbed through a plate glass window, then hammer them home with a sledgehammer such that any satirical intent can easily be mistaken for earnest endorsement. See Robocop, Showgirls, Basic Instinct etc for further examples.
 
Last edited:
[x][PM] Campaign as normal. Ti'ord has gathered substantial support, but not nearly enough to threaten you as things stand.

[X][POLICY] Yes, to Low Hanging Fruit

[X][COLONIES] Yes, Virani makes an excellent argument. You need people in jobs and more production, and a faster, cheaper, and easier start to a second colony world is one of the best possible ways to ensure that.

[x][NAME] Assilia Prime. Utilitarian and easily-scaled.

[x][BILL] Fetch me my rubber stamp! Assembly implements an army expansion option, raising the size of the standing army to a full one billion individuals in combat roles (from its current four hundred million). Takes up significant unemployed slack and lessens strain on civilian economy by way of removing huge swathe of population from civilian economy. Not actually a long-term fix and may actually lead to worse problems eventually by way of all of those individuals eventually going back onto the civilian market, all at once, but gives way more time to prepare for them and implement solutions. Also: gigantic army. Some would say the benefits are self-evident. -50,000 yearly income.
 
ExNihilo said:
I'm imagining they made Ender's game, but take out the actual ending, but somehow everyone actually likes it.

(The movie, that is, the books were fine until Card went full christian metaphor in Xenocide)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Credit where it's due, I never would have guessed Card was a bleeding heart alt righter just going off his characterizations. I guess he's a method author? Split personality?

that said Xenocide is definitely the low point of his career, I much preferred Speaker For the Dead
 
PoptartProdigy said:
Nigh-exclusively.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Imma imagining the bulk of movies aiming for a pan-species audience star a sexy Asari and her hunky/sexy Baterian LI (or vice versa). We know from the Beach Episode that Virmiran Batarians 'appreciate' Asari. Salarians wouldn't be brought in by sex appeal anyway, on the whole, and I'd assume most Volus don't go for non-Volus, what with the obvious environmental difficulties(?) Or I wonder if cultural tastes still differ enough that movies are made primarily for single-species audiences?

I mean, I'm sure the Biotic God series has a firm following amongst our rotund, besuited population.
 
[X][PM] Campaign as normal. Ti'ord has gathered substantial support, but not nearly enough to threaten you as things stand.
[X][POLICY] Yes: Diamonds In the Rough. The FDO will prioritize systems that return the most profit, expense no object.
[X][NAME] Assilia Prime. Utilitarian and easily-scaled.
[X][COLONIES] No, this sets a poor precedent. The FDO will retain a limited remit of space-based development, and you will develop Nimal Pak at your leisure.
[X][BILL] Fetch me my rubber stamp! Assembly implements an army expansion option, raising the size of the standing army to a full one billion individuals in combat roles (from its current four hundred million). Takes up significant unemployed slack and lessens strain on civilian economy by way of removing huge swathe of population from civilian economy. Not actually a long-term fix and may actually lead to worse problems eventually by way of all of those individuals eventually going back onto the civilian market, all at once, but gives way more time to prepare for them and implement solutions. Also: gigantic army. Some would say the benefits are self-evident. -50,000 yearly income.
 
Remove ads
Canon Omake: Milk Run 2
  • Sidestory
    • In lieu of a vote, have an omake! That's a fair trade, right?

    Milk Run 2

    VWS Cartographer, Explorer Corps
    Log Date 147, GS 498
    Captain: Veddan Banar
    Location: Virmire Orbital Stardocks, Virmire System

    On the rare occasion the Cartographer found itself docked to some orbital shipyard or another, the crew often piled into the ship's recreation room slash mess hall slash briefing room for some lively debate, and this particular day was no exception. Almost the entire crew was present - not that that was saying much, given the crew was a measly ten people.

    Today, the topic of conversation was the Lystheni, and the exorbitant government effort that went into establishing intelligence listening posts in their territory even when Virmire was on the brink of economic collapse.

    Unfortunately.

    "And I get that, but what I'm saying is, they were never a threat, in the military sense. Hell, the Explorer Corps could have taken their navy in a fight, no need to get the First Fleet involved," Matron Tem'valla was explaining. "It legitimately is spies and covert cells we should be worried about - if we're going to be worried about them at all, when the Rachni are still pacing about in our front yard - and the listening posts will help deal with those problems."

    "Yeah," Bikks added, wagging a finger in the air. "And don't forget all their inevitable mad science projects. Those mines we turned up in Tonvael probably aren't the only derelict stations they erased from their maps."

    Banar frowned at the salarian ensign. "You're probably right, but what makes you think they have 'inevitable mad science projects', though?"

    "Speaking as a salarian, sir, it's because we all have mad science projects." Bikks answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Over by the kitchen counter, Raow simply nodded agreement.

    "For my part," the communications officer said, taking a tentative bite of his freshly heated meal, "I'm trying to figure out a way to hijack the Rachni's telepathic communications, so I can become the all-devouring king of stars."

    After receiving a lot of flat stares and silence, he shrugged. "It's a stretch goal."

    Igann, the ship's 'chief surveyor' and sole non-Asari female, took her own opportunity to speak. "Back when I was at VUS, the chemistry lab was above the geology lab in complex four - one time, the fire alarms went off in the middle of a practical assessment, because some salarian chemist got together with one of his buddies from engineering and tried to make a… uh, it had a stupid acronym. F-L-U-F or something? They set half the floor on fire."

    "FOOF, probably!" Matron Tem'valla said with a smile. "It burns everything. Got my hands on a canister when I was fighting with the Kabrin Raiders. Heh. Fun times."

    "Yeah!" Igann nodded rapidly. "That's the stuff. Yeah, when I said it set half the floor on fire? I don't just mean the stuff on the floor, like desks and stuff. The floor itself. It was literally raining molten plastic in my lab. Complex four was closed for six months, they had to rip up and replace three whole floors."

    Abayle looked apprehensively between the three salarians in the room. "You're not going to do anything like that on my ship, are you?"

    "I think you'll find it's my ship." Banar said pointedly, before turning to his salarian officers. "And if you do, you're all fired."

    "If those hyperactive maniacs unleashed FOOF on this ship," Chief Engineer Kadeb said, "we'd be too dead to worry about getting fired. Sir."

    Whilst Bikks mumbled something about not being hyperactive under his breath, the first officer, Orrorm Paet, who'd spent most of the impromptu crew gathering looking down at his dataslate silently, spoke for the first time. "I wouldn't be too worried about us breaking out the violently reactive chemicals right now, sir. We can't afford them right now, not on our salaries with this crisis going on. We also happen to live on this ship, and the general rule of mad science projects is 'don't start fires in your bedroom'."

    He paused, still reading off his dataslate.

    "Back to the original point, though - keeping an eye on the Lystheni might be important, but I personally disagree with the assessment that it was important enough for the government to prioritize and spent that much on, even when the economy was starting to crash."

    Tem'valla turned to the first officer with a critical eye, and took a deep breath.

    Banar sighed. Much as he appreciated his crew and the effort they put in, they had an alarming habit of getting… agitated. An unfortunate side effect of being crammed into a glorified bathtub with nine other people for far too long at a time, really.

    Still, as long as they did their jobs, he couldn't really complain about a little bit of shouting every now and then.

    ==<>==​

    "Fly for the Navy, they said…" Abayle complained. "It'll be fun, they said. All we ever get is milk runs, though. It's such crap."

    Banar couldn't fault her impatience. Flying escort wasn't exactly the most entertaining of missions, and Abayle Therossa was the kind of pilot who was restless at the best of times.

    "Like, what are we even supposed to be doing, anyway?" she continued. "We're one corvette. If any of these ships get attacked, what are we going to do about it? Catch a torpedo with our flanks? Can't exactly do that more than once. I would know, I've tried."

    A worried frown crossed Banar's brow but Tem'valla held a hand up reassuringly. "It's alright, Captain. She was a jet jockey back then. Doubt she could pull it off in a corvette."

    "Doubt!" Abayle yelped, indignant. "I've been flying since before the captain was born and you think there's a maneuver I can't pull off? Pah. Some friend you are."

    Darkness filled the room as a larger craft passed over the Cartographer's viewport, casting the room in shadows. "Also, what kind of escort mission gives the escorts a strict timetable and lets the VIPs just swan about like they own the place? We're like, seven ships back from the front, how's that helping anyone?"

    The reason for that, of course, was that the transports were but a stone's throw from Virmire and if any of them encountered hostiles here there would be a great many worse problems to worry about. Helmsman Therossa knew that, of course, but griping was her way of coping with not being allowed to throw the ship around like a child's toy and whoop in excitement.

    Luckily for the rest of the bridge crew, once they left the Virmire system Abayle would have a lot more room to mess about, so long as she kept the ship vaguely on course and allowed Raow and Igann to do their jobs, something she was usually willing to go along with. She'd even get a chance to fly around in atmosphere again, provided she didn't ram the ship into an asteroid first.

    ==<>==​

    The trip to Assilia was as eventful as Banar hoped, which was to say that sweet merciful nothing happened the entire time. With the exception of Abayle's excessive good-natured griping, which dwindled away to nothing as even she eventually tired of the sound of her own voice, it was a blissfully silent trip.

    No hostile ships, no rogue asteroids, only one 'near' collision (Abayle had laughed at the computer's definition of 'near' and buzzed the transport in question so closely they had to mute the collision alarm to avoid going deaf) and not a technical malfunction in sight.

    The last, and, to a degree, most exciting part, had been the final run on the planet's surface. The landing sites had been chosen well, picked out years in advance by experts from the FDO, and orbital infrastructure hung above the planet, providing a lovely little staging ground for the first of the landings.

    Yet despite all of that, some big-wig had requested a exploration vessel to take a last-minute look at each of the landings sites and make sure there was nothing dangerous waiting for a vessel full of hapless colonists to arrive. Banar had thought it unlikely they would find anything, and he was relieved to find he was right.

    As Abayle pulled the ship up into orbit, the captain slouched a little in his command chair. "Alright everyone, that's the last scan site. Another textbook photo operation, great jobs all around."

    The rest of the crew on the bridge mumbled their own agreements. "Here's to hoping our next mission's a little more exciting, eh?" Tem'valla added. "Maybe not as exciting as Resurgent Grace, though."

    Abayle, in flagrant violation of aviation safety, twisted in her chair to face the rest of the crew. "Aww, what was wrong with Resurgent Grace? We swooped in, saved the day like half a dozen times, rescued a bunch of Quarians, and pissed off the Rachni something fierce!"

    Tem'valla sighed and cradled her head in one hand. "Yes, but we also nearly died far more times than I care to count."

    "Yeah, see? Exciting."

    "Yes. Too exciting."

    First Officer Paet turned to his captain and shrugged. "For what it's worth, I kind of like the milk runs."
     
    Last edited:
  • Sidestory
    • [X][PM] Campaign as normal. Ti'ord has gathered substantial support, but not nearly enough to threaten you as things stand.
    [X][POLICY] Yes: Diamonds In the Rough. The FDO will prioritize systems that return the most profit, expense no object.
    [X][NAME] Assilia Prime. Utilitarian and easily-scaled.
    [X][COLONIES] Yes, Virani makes an excellent argument. You need people in jobs and more production, and a faster, cheaper, and easier start to a second colony world is one of the best possible ways to ensure that.
    [X][BILL] Fetch me my rubber stamp! Assembly implements an army expansion option, raising the size of the standing army to a full one billion individuals in combat roles (from its current four hundred million). Takes up significant unemployed slack and lessens strain on civilian economy by way of removing huge swathe of population from civilian economy. Not actually a long-term fix and may actually lead to worse problems eventually by way of all of those individuals eventually going back onto the civilian market, all at once, but gives way more time to prepare for them and implement solutions. Also: gigantic army. Some would say the benefits are self-evident. -50,000 yearly income.

    No political change, max colonial money development and fuck to the yes moar army and moar soldiers.

    Here is the thing, if we can link up, we want to develop some ground level operational tricks, doctrine, etc. Because we kind of need it, to clear out worlds and because managing to do it without the Krogan will be glorious. Once we have a secure corridor I expect us to switch from Beskarian fleet doctrine to Dekuna in order to support our troops and max the marines, so we have the largest amount of hurt delivered to the ground, so we can burn the bugs out with force concentration if nothing else.

    Simon_Jester said:
    I'd rather not ideologically commit Mira to a platform of "we don't do welfare." It may become economically necessary for us to 'do welfare,' not just because of able-bodied workers who we can't find jobs for (obviously a bad outcome), but because some slice of our population simply cannot work productively. Due to old age (e.g. 32-year-old salarians), due to disability, due to just plain not being smart enough or reliable enough to do work that someone wouldn't rather have a VI doing.

    It's unlikely that everyone CAN contribute usefully to a sci-fi war economy, even if they want to.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Ah, that is easy. Do not call it welfare and be painfully specific about who gets what and for why. Orphans, Old Lone wolfs, Physically or mentally unable to engage in labour minimal care, although that would be mostly family's job, but with the economic situation they can hardly afford it. Not that we can either. But who knows.

    Welfare for critical segments, so long as we can pretend it is not welfare with a somewhat straight face.
     
    Last edited:
    remulian said:
    Ah, that is easy. Do not call it welfare and be painfully specific about who gets what and for why. Orphans, Old Lone wolfs, Physically or mentally unable to engage in labour minimal care, although that would be mostly family's job, but with the economic situation they can hardly afford it. Not that we can either. But who knows.

    Welfare for critical segments, so long as we can pretend it is not welfare with a somewhat straight face.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I really don't get why you're so dead-set on giving our people something they want while pretending we aren't.
     
    It might make us look like we're cribbing the opposition's ideas.

    Which may encourage said opposition to just start picking at every little choice we make, since she can't exactly campaign against us because we're doing the thing she wanted to do herself. Virmire isn't quite as politically ass-backwards as Australia, after all =P

    And her picking at every choice we make is just a frustrating waste of time and effort for everyone. She alternatively might pursue other avenues to getting in our way.

    Personally I think we should do the same thing we did to the last opposition leader - "You have good ideas. Here's a committee, here's a budget. Implement, thanks bye."
     
    Plus it leads to incredibly large problems in the long term if it isn't kept in rigorous check. The welfare and "reforms" of the New Deal are still affecting the American economy in many adverse ways, and some of them are even effecting the world economy as a result (for example: price supports for farmers).
     
    VicSage said:
    Plus it leads to incredibly large problems in the long term if it isn't kept in rigorous check. The welfare and "reforms" of the New Deal are still affecting the American economy in many adverse ways, and some of them are even effecting the world economy as a result (for example: price supports for farmers).
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    That's a controversial stance and you know it. Can we not relitigate decades-old RL policies in this quest thread, thanks?
     
    Faith said:
    It might make us look like we're cribbing the opposition's ideas.

    Which may encourage said opposition to just start picking at every little choice we make, since she can't exactly campaign against us because we're doing the thing she wanted to do herself. Virmire isn't quite as politically ass-backwards as Australia, after all =P

    And her picking at every choice we make is just a frustrating waste of time and effort for everyone. She alternatively might pursue other avenues to getting in our way.

    Personally I think we should do the same thing we did to the last opposition leader - "You have good ideas. Here's a committee, here's a budget. Implement, thanks bye."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    What's wrong with cribbing good ideas?
    Like, if it's a good idea, steal it and use it, if it's not a good idea, then that's a reason enough.

    But political goals are not, in fact, covered by IP laws, so shameless plagiarizing of popular and useful policies is pretty much politics working as designed.
     
    It's not the cribbing ideas that's the problem, it's the bit where cribbing the ideas tends to piss off the people who originally had them. Not that political opponents are really much of a threat right now, in a strictly political sense. Our approval rate is 79% to the opposition's 21%, making them barely a speed bump election-wise, baring some shenanigans.

    But any politician savvy enough to be a notable opponent is probably savvy enough to be a useful asset, too. Which is why I'm all for the idea of hiring Yular Ti'ord and putting her to use somewhere implementing welfare plans on our own terms, like how we got Sugoma Damnir on board to help soften the economic crash.

    Tally for convenience.
    Adhoc vote count started by Faith on May 8, 2018 at 5:40 AM, finished with 138 posts and 47 votes.
    Click to expand...
     
    Last edited:
    Faith said:
    It might make us look like we're cribbing the opposition's ideas.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Which isn't a bad idea. We aren't a party, we're a leader. Showing people we don't reject their ideas in block could take some of the wind out of their sails. People who care only about welfare and not the rest of their platform would probably flock to us because we have a better track record overall. Leaving them with a secessionist platform again, something we've shown we can beat by itself.

    [X][PM] Retaliate by adopting a Mandate of your own to rally or solidify support.
    -[X][PM] Write in your Mandate: We aren't running in opposition to a party, we are running as a leader. There is no shame in recognizing that some of their ideas have merit. Integrate their thoughts on unemployment benefits and other social measures. The anti military and anti council crap can stay out though. Run a platform of stability with improvements.

    [X][POLICY] Yes: Diamonds In the Rough. The FDO will prioritize systems that return the most profit, expense no object.

    We'll need the money to improve the social situation later.

    [X][COLONIES] Yes, Virani makes an excellent argument. You need people in jobs and more production, and a faster, cheaper, and easier start to a second colony world is one of the best possible ways to ensure that.

    She has ambition, but we need ambitious people to get out of the hole.

    [X][BILL] Fetch me my rubber stamp! Assembly implements an army expansion option, raising the size of the standing army to a full one billion individuals in combat roles (from its current four hundred million). Takes up significant unemployed slack and lessens strain on civilian economy by way of removing huge swathe of population from civilian economy. Not actually a long-term fix and may actually lead to worse problems eventually by way of all of those individuals eventually going back onto the civilian market, all at once, but gives way more time to prepare for them and implement solutions. Also: gigantic army. Some would say the benefits are self-evident. -50,000 yearly income.

    This is risky because it pulls further resources from the civilian market to make equipment for the new army, not just people. But if we can use them quick enough to clean the remaining Rachni pockets, we can probably recoup that loss quick enough to make it work.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Voting is open
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top