[X] Continue Negotiations: With luck, our negotiators will be able to find a deal that both sides can accept.
[X] Pursue the black market: Significant quantities of essential supplies are disappearing off of trains from Helghan's few fertile regions and are appearing on the black market. Hunting down the criminals responsible will ease the food-security situation.
[Not possible if turning a blind eye]
Number of voters: 9
StarkDemise,
Faceless Goon,
Just Some Guy,
john fox,
ThatGuyWithIdeas,
Captain Hunt,
Ostrich,
King50000,
demonthese2211
[X] Repair the Tharsis Petrusite refinery.
Having already worked miracles in getting the core of the Tharsis refinery semi-operational, it's with great zeal that your engineering teams continue on to the rest of the heavily damaged facility. Working day and night, the thousands of workers you have on the project clear away the remaining wreckage in a matter of months --the steady flow of scrap metal eaten up by the hungry maw of one of you mobile factories and refashioned into useful parts.
By the end of the year, the city-sized refinery complex is once again operating at peak capacity --a veritable torrent of Petrusite rushing through the planet-wide distribution network to every major city on the planet. As more and more factories and homes across Helghan switch to the clean, cheap, and reliable source of power that is Petrusite, the benefits make themselves known almost immediately.
Effect:
- Tharsis Refinery repaired!
- National Idea Modified
- Recession -25% stability -> -20% stability
- Gain 1 Action Point
- Can now produce Petrusite-based weapons
[X] Continue Negotiations:
Having already generated some measure of goodwill amongst both workers and factory owners thanks to your swift actions earlier, the second round of negotiations between the two groups goes much more smoothly than they had previously. While initial meetings were fraught thanks to the more militant groups threatening to walk out and begin campaigns against their opponents, cooler heads soon prevailed when said groups realised how small they were in comparison to their compatriots.
Thanks in large part to this realisation, your negotiators were eventually able to devise an agreement to which all parties could sign their names --however, grudgingly that may be. Among other things, the agreement calls for the Helghan government to reverse several of the more appalling labour laws instituted by the Visari regime and institute major reforms relating to working hours and workplace safety standards. Additionally, the right for workers to unionise and carry out sympathetic strikes is now much expanded.
For their part, the workers mollified their demand for a significant and immediate wage increase in exchange for a much more modest increase carried out over several years. Additionally, the workers involved will immediately halt their strike actions and return to work.
Effect:
- Strike ended!
- National Idea Modified
- Recession -20% stability -> -15% stability
[X] Pursue the black market:
With the orders signed and authorization to begin given, the Helghan Republic Federal Police move in and… achieve very little.
While some success is had in rounding up the members of the syndicates involved in hard drugs and sex trafficking, many of the smaller, less objectionable groups manage to slip through your fingers. It seems that many on Helghan are unwilling to go without luxuries such as coffee and chocolate, even if it means turning a blind eye to criminal activity --some in your police included.
====================
Events and Rumors:
A former member of the Visari regime was discovered, arrested, tried, and executed early this year. The man in question was a senior member of Visari's secret police and was responsible for the execution and torture of hundreds. He got what he deserved.
Astronomers working out of Konstantine city have finally completed their survey of the night sky. Helghan is orbiting a K-type star similar to Alpha Centauri B located approximately 528 lightyears from Earth. Sharing the star are four rocky planets and a single Jovian world.
The industrial conglomerate that controls what is left of the Visari Corporation has completed the rebranding process. The corporation --now under some meaningless and immemorable name-- has begun cautious inquiries into irradiated petrusite.
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STATS UPDATED