The Grand Solar Rush - Asteroid colony management quest
- Thread starter Karf
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
Says who? What in this setting makes it seem that anyone would be ok with spacing people pirates or not? Us executing them via spacing or other methods is likely to go down poorly with most people both in our station and across the system. Amanda in particular would despise killing them without any form of trial.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Says pirates who don't want to leave anything leading back to them. That's who I am talking about in that paragraph.
Also, venting the ship is a common boarding practice:
Sorry I thought you were talking about spacing the pirates as some people were earlier that's my bad.
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
[x] The blue marble justice
We need to show to the major powers and others powers that we are not some tin pot dictatorship. We should broadcast that we caught them, we will turn them over to the EU but we expect a trial. We let people know that we could have spaced them but we believe in the rule of law. Those that push their luck may get a different response.
We need to show to the major powers and others powers that we are not some tin pot dictatorship. We should broadcast that we caught them, we will turn them over to the EU but we expect a trial. We let people know that we could have spaced them but we believe in the rule of law. Those that push their luck may get a different response.
Is there any particular reason why this needs to be decided immediately?
Why not consult our highly competent staff first?
Discuss all the pros and cons of Extradition -Vs- Frontier Justice.
[X] Hold a staff meeting to discuss how Little Klondike should deal with the pirates.
-[X] For now, place the captured pirates in secure holding cells.
Why not consult our highly competent staff first?
Discuss all the pros and cons of Extradition -Vs- Frontier Justice.
[X] Hold a staff meeting to discuss how Little Klondike should deal with the pirates.
-[X] For now, place the captured pirates in secure holding cells.
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Against all logic I am in complete agreement with both of these statements.
- Location
- Brazil
If you squint really hard and give them an oxygen tank technically it isn't a death setence, in the same way that exiling someone in Frostpunk technically isn't one either.
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Severely underrated quest, and I've shilled for it in the Young Quest Champions thread.
WRT to the pirates situation: I think it's a no-brainer for "blue marble justice". Let me explain why:
We need to remember that we're ultimately a backwater's backwater colonial nation. If the EU next year had a little bit of free time and wanted to go on a little bit of a joyride near Little Klondike to wave the flag with, say, three space-faring warships to ensure "freedom of navigation", the only survivable option Little Klondike has is clearing out their docks and saying "yes sir good to have you sir would you like some fuel sir". If we piss off the EU or embarrass them enough, they might decide "okay fuck you you don't get to pull that shit" and bye bye Little Klondike. I pretty much believe that Little Klondike's continued political independence is dependent on keeping the EU juuust placated enough to make it never worth their time to come here in force, even on a lark.
So with that in mind - giving the EU these pirates in recognition of international treaties is basically a freebie. It costs us effectively no resources to ship them off, and if we phrase the effort right, we can improve everyone's opinion of us a reasonable bit. Admittedly, it will cost us the chance to interrogate these pirates - or possibly privateers, formally - but, well, that's a deeply uncertain proposition compared to a very solid ability to brown nose the EU a bit and keep them thinking the sector is mostly alright on its own.
Thus, I'm voting:
[X] The blue marble justice
(if there's a large window for voting, I'd suggest the addendum to "reach out to Ambassador Rousseau and offer to let her take the credit" - as a sort of face-granting measure for everyone involved, as well as keeping us just a little bit more obscure).
WRT to the pirates situation: I think it's a no-brainer for "blue marble justice". Let me explain why:
We need to remember that we're ultimately a backwater's backwater colonial nation. If the EU next year had a little bit of free time and wanted to go on a little bit of a joyride near Little Klondike to wave the flag with, say, three space-faring warships to ensure "freedom of navigation", the only survivable option Little Klondike has is clearing out their docks and saying "yes sir good to have you sir would you like some fuel sir". If we piss off the EU or embarrass them enough, they might decide "okay fuck you you don't get to pull that shit" and bye bye Little Klondike. I pretty much believe that Little Klondike's continued political independence is dependent on keeping the EU juuust placated enough to make it never worth their time to come here in force, even on a lark.
So with that in mind - giving the EU these pirates in recognition of international treaties is basically a freebie. It costs us effectively no resources to ship them off, and if we phrase the effort right, we can improve everyone's opinion of us a reasonable bit. Admittedly, it will cost us the chance to interrogate these pirates - or possibly privateers, formally - but, well, that's a deeply uncertain proposition compared to a very solid ability to brown nose the EU a bit and keep them thinking the sector is mostly alright on its own.
Thus, I'm voting:
[X] The blue marble justice
(if there's a large window for voting, I'd suggest the addendum to "reach out to Ambassador Rousseau and offer to let her take the credit" - as a sort of face-granting measure for everyone involved, as well as keeping us just a little bit more obscure).
Stellarengine676
To eternity we shall ride
- Pronouns
- He
[X] Hold a staff meeting to discuss how Little Klondike should deal with the pirates.
-[X] For now, place the captured pirates in secure holding cells.
-[X] For now, place the captured pirates in secure holding cells.
TimEd
Meteor maker
Probably has to do with the gap between turn 11 and 12.
I'm a fairly new member of this quest, and being able to rush read all the previpus updates have been a delight. I could understand how others might have dropped this off though when the Turn 11 update from august 2020 wasn't followed up till this january.
Hmm, the pirates were oddly professional.
Wild conspiracy theory.
What if this wasn't a pirate ship, but a blacksite ship?
The blacksite has to receive supplies somehow, and piracy would be a good cover.
I think we should inspect the stolen cargo, and do some background checks on the "kidnapped" half of the crew.
Wild conspiracy theory.
What if this wasn't a pirate ship, but a blacksite ship?
The blacksite has to receive supplies somehow, and piracy would be a good cover.
Maybe they weren't kidnapping victims, but new personnel transferring to the blacksite.
I think we should inspect the stolen cargo, and do some background checks on the "kidnapped" half of the crew.
TimEd
Meteor maker
That seems needlesly convoluted. I don't think any pirate group would have any certainty that all their personel would be assigned to a single shipping.
And even if they could and some of those personel were plants, it is not that big a jump to think that they would also take some of the crew for actual slavery.
Lastly, we're all frontier groups here. Any stolen supply could easily lead to death, unless the stolen resources are carefully managed by a plant inside said territories.
Their professionalism is just such a big red flag that many terrible things cannot be removed from the list of possibilities.
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As the vote is pretty settled Lets look at our situation for next turn.
Our biggest economic issue is currently power. Although we get some passive growth through new solar panels it is just enough to keep up with growth in demand as we slowly grow larger. And it is noted that our Areogel experiments have drained most of our reserves. So unless a new power option becomes available getting a fission reactor seems mandatory for next turn.
Money we are fine on with a good growth rate but low reserves. Should probably try to avoid to many expensive projects until our reserves build a bit more up but we should be able to afford some more expensive before income becomes a problem once more. But more money never hurts.
Food has a growth of 2 and a reserve of 2. No new action needs to be taken on this front and we really should look for buyers for our surplus. Unlike money a large food surplus does not give us much benefit right now.
Housing remains stable with no growth meeting demand and keeping us at a nice healthy 2 reserve. We also passed 1000 people last turn so that is an accomplishment! One thing to note is that it is mentioned that quality of life is starting to rise across the New Belt so if we want to keep growing, let alone attract top talent we need to keep investing in our quality of life.
Air has a massive surplus and storage. Not much to note other than that it is a component of fuel manufacturing so we may want to invest in that or see if NI wants to buy from us as they import a lot for their fuel manufacturing.
Finally water, the only major need to live good that we run a deficit on at -3. Not suprising without a sorce on our astroid. The Dome had the nice side benefit of increasing our storage to 2 though. So that is nice.
Overall the only major issue we need to address economically is power production. And that can be solved with a fission plant that conveniently increases our ties with Prismdust. Other than that we should also looking at upping or quality of life some more and finding a use for our air and food surplus'.
Our biggest economic issue is currently power. Although we get some passive growth through new solar panels it is just enough to keep up with growth in demand as we slowly grow larger. And it is noted that our Areogel experiments have drained most of our reserves. So unless a new power option becomes available getting a fission reactor seems mandatory for next turn.
Money we are fine on with a good growth rate but low reserves. Should probably try to avoid to many expensive projects until our reserves build a bit more up but we should be able to afford some more expensive before income becomes a problem once more. But more money never hurts.
Food has a growth of 2 and a reserve of 2. No new action needs to be taken on this front and we really should look for buyers for our surplus. Unlike money a large food surplus does not give us much benefit right now.
Housing remains stable with no growth meeting demand and keeping us at a nice healthy 2 reserve. We also passed 1000 people last turn so that is an accomplishment! One thing to note is that it is mentioned that quality of life is starting to rise across the New Belt so if we want to keep growing, let alone attract top talent we need to keep investing in our quality of life.
Air has a massive surplus and storage. Not much to note other than that it is a component of fuel manufacturing so we may want to invest in that or see if NI wants to buy from us as they import a lot for their fuel manufacturing.
Finally water, the only major need to live good that we run a deficit on at -3. Not suprising without a sorce on our astroid. The Dome had the nice side benefit of increasing our storage to 2 though. So that is nice.
Overall the only major issue we need to address economically is power production. And that can be solved with a fission plant that conveniently increases our ties with Prismdust. Other than that we should also looking at upping or quality of life some more and finding a use for our air and food surplus'.
Your argument is valid except this one point, which is completely wrong.
We need to get the rep from capturing the pirates. That's because our obscurity is our main weakness, in fact, there was a whole fiasco because the EU didn't even know we had called dibs on our rock.
We need to be recognised as an independent (if tiny) state so that the powers on earth see it not as annexing free territory but negotiating with another state. Honestly joining either the EU or the US would not be that bad, but it has to be as a state, not as a colony.
Do remember that we export food, so more food equals more money and gives negotiating power in our area, so we should always maintain a fairly large surplus.
Other than that, I agree.
Turn 12.3 - 2181 - The Dome
Winner said:
Setting up a single room with an airlock entrance, an oxygen and water pipe plus electric cabling for lights and a camera is trivially easy. Without the usual furnishings a metal box is ready to deploy in hours, and a pair of double decker cots, a foam mattress and a port-a-potty connected to a septic tank follow in a similar timeframe. Where to go from there however, stumps all of you.
It's not that there aren't choices available, rather that no matter how you look at things, what would follow is unclear. In the current meeting – one of many you've held so far – you're joined by Ragnar, Hailey and a member of her staff, one Elliott Barnes. The man is the closest you have to a criminal lawyer, even if his actual expertise would deal with tariffs and tax evasion.
"Let's pretend for a moment that they're our own people, and take each applicable charge one at a time," you lean back in your chair, "leaving out the piracy entirely."
"Robbery would be the first one, I guess?" Hailey mumbles, paging through at least five different data feeds.
"We had a cook who swiped tobacco rations some years back. His access to the supplies was revoked, he was fined three months pay plus cost and he had to quit smoking for at least a year," Ragnar offers.
"Stealing, not robbery," the sole lawyer in the room shrugs, "No precedent for using violence to take something. Considering that they were prepared for combat and you can't do spur of the moment things in space makes them highly culpable. That alone is between eight and sixteen years, depending on if they argue they were following a leader or if they were involved in the actual planning. In isolation, at any rate; there's plenty of reason to argue for the maximum of twenty years."
"Shooting at the troops is aggravated assault," Hailey again.
"There's been a few drunken brawls. That's usually docked pay for a week, a night of house arrest to get sober and a bar ban for three months, although that last one isn't a law. The most serious case was a fight between two miners: the instigator was under house arrest for half a year and he voluntarily paid for the dental reconstruction for the other guy. Last I heard, they're back to being great friends," your spymaster comments, stirring your own memory.
"Yeah, I remember those two. Idiots, but not malicious. So, no assault with intent to kill or even using actual weapons. Mr. Barnes?"
"Actually, much more open to interpretation than I'd like to admit," he sighs, "A good lawyer with all the facts could argue they were provoked and acted in self-defense. We did fire the first shots, and none of the original crew were harmed. Also, if they can prove they knew about the armor then it's not attempted murder. It's a thin justification, but it is there. If we consider the soldiers as police officers, then it's still nine years in prison at least, but that's a reach from our side, so I'd say the minimum is between three and six years. On the other end: first degree felony against a protected class citizen with the intent to kill is twenty to life."
"And kidnapping?" the image of a cargo container full of people remains fresh on your mind.
"Attempted abduction is up to three years, but we could say that merely moving the people between ships is enough to count as no longer attempted. That'd bump it up to at least five, add the clear threat of violence and you're looking at ten. None of the crew were children?" you shake your head, "Then that's what they can argue for. After that, it's about intent: they'll say it was a ransom attempt. If we can prove that it was human trafficking and slavery, then its another count of twenty to life."
You're not sure you've gained any clarity, but at least you're smarter in general. "Anything else?"
"Vandalism?" Erikson shrugs, "Had my car keyed way back on Earth. I imagine someone opening up a spaceship is a bit more severe."
"Wanton destruction of property, clearly in excess of any monetary limit, so ten years. Oh, and all the sentences can carry fines as well, but unless they're all secretly billionaires they're not paying regardless."
"Alright, I assume it's similar enough back on Earth?"
"Basically. They're probably looking at fifteen to twenty years, unless more crimes are pinned on them, which is unlikely if they don't crack. Of course, if they do cut deals then they might have the first parole hearing in 2190. Or if someone somewhere decides that they need to be made examples of, it's life behind bars."
"Now how about the fact that it's all piracy in open space?"
"Sorry, boss," Hailey says, "those are more about protecting us from counter-suits than about them. It's the piracy act that means we had the option to blow up their ship at all, or that our forces had more kills than them. Our asses are covered, but that's about it."
-.-
The next summary meeting takes place hours after the return of the Excelsior, between you, Amanda and sergeant Luke Memphis.
As the silence stretches and you're just about to speak up, Amanda clears her throat.
"I feel I owe you an apology, sir."
"Whatever for?" you quirk your eyebrow.
"In the heat of the moment, or the immediate aftermath, I was afraid you'd give the order to…"
"Eliminate complications," Memphis cuts in when she trails off, "Sorry, lieutenant, I don't have your moral compass. The thought crossed my mind too, but there's a difference between pulling a trigger when your life is on the line and pushing a button to cycle an airlock. Can't rightly say what I'd have done, but then that's why I follow and you lead."
"I won't lie and say I didn't consider it," you silently offer.
"I'm not the thought police, sir, it's actions that matter. I'm not sure I'd have objected at the time. As far as I'm concerned, you made the right choice and I shouldn't have doubted you either way."
"The reward for good work is always more work," you force a smile to your face, "While it might be simpler if the ship was blown to pieces and we'd be done with it, no one has accused me of being lazy yet. Regardless, that's not what I wanted to see you about. Sergeant, any further info on either the pirates or the crew of the Liberty?"
"The crooks we kept in one of the quarters on the Excelsior. They kept quiet, although I'm sure Erikson and Weissmeier will go over the recordings later anyways. Didn't cause any trouble though. Asked a few questions, but they just said they want to contact the EU embassy for representation and extradition, which is what I'd do too. I've seen enough criminals get away on a technicality because of some overeager officer back on Luna, so mostly we left them to their own devices."
Amanda just nods along in approval as the man continues, "As for the captain and crew, they stayed on their own ship, tried to patch it up first, but he gave up on that soon enough. Then it was just making sure that nothing broke further to get left behind. They also asked us for a lift to the resort, said that they'll pay by leaving us the wreck. It's probably in good enough condition to refuel and pilot down, but that's about it. After that it's just stripping it for parts. Still, better than having the Excelsior sit idle, and we'd do our good deed for the month."
"Don't we need to go on another supply run to Prismdust in," you check your calendar, "ten days?"
Here, Amanda takes over, "About that, sir. I've checked with Hailey and Hiragi, and they both assure me that the pirate ship is, for all intents and purposes, legal salvage. I wouldn't take it out to any publicity missions, let alone a trip to Earth, but a simple milk run over to Prismdust is well within its capabilities. Well, once the engineers declare it safe, but we've got that much time."
"Sounds good," you agree, having held similar hopes yourself, "One last clarification: the Liberty is actually owned by the captain? Can he sign off on giving it to us?"
"Not as such, sir," Memphis admits, "He requested that we amplify a signal back towards Earth so he could get in contact with his boss, who granted him authorization. You got to hand it to the man, he's a good employee – the only thing he let slip is that the ship and the resort are owned by the same people. As for who they are, I've still no idea."
"Anonymous trillionaires, just what I needed in this mix," you sigh. "Thank you for the report, now I'm sure you'd like some time off and Carpenter is itching to check on the cells."
"Yes, sir."
As the sergeant leaves, Amanda lingers for a moment.
"Actually, while I'm here, I'd like to ask about those cells."
"Sure," you sit back down, "What's on your mind?"
"How are we going to keep the prisoners, or if?"
"The if is still open," you huff, "Once we figure that out, either it'll be good enough until we ship them off to wherever or we'll get more permanent and humane lodgings done over the year."
"Do you want to build a prison?" she asks and you're not sure if she's admonishing you or not, so you leave your options open.
"A for profit correctional facility is not off the table, but not on it for now either. If someone, most likely the Europeans, wanted to pay me handsomely to hold their prisoners, I'd consider it. These four though are just mouths to feed and liabilities, so if we do keep them then I'll probably eventually have them sent to some satellite or deep-space prison after getting all the info they're willing to share. We're not short on labor, at least not the unwilling kind."
"Understood, sir. Just wanted to make sure you have considered the options. Keeping them in those glorified cages indefinitely would reflect badly on us."
"I know, thanks for keeping me on my toes."
-.-
The final meeting takes several days to arrange, and were it not for the extenuating circumstances, you'd feel quite insulted. You still could choose to be, but you're magnanimous like that.
On the secure feed to your New Ireland embassy, ambassador Lisette Rousseau greets you.
"Mr. O'Rielly, I really, really, hope you have some good news for me."
"My condolences on the loss of the research crew aboard the Chariot."
She gives you a curt nod, "I'll forward the sentiment to Choi and Nicklaus, but honestly, it's the least of my current problems. Get on with it."
If she hasn't told you, she's not going to elaborate just because you asked, so you just shelve her harriedness for now. "I'm sure you've heard the news, but the crew of the Liberty, alongside her cargo is being delivered to their destination at the resort by my ship."
"You have my personal thanks for handling the situation, it has kept a significant load off my plate. Now why do I need you to tell that to me?"
"As a purely hypothetical situation, who do you think has jurisdiction over any potential fallout or lawsuits involving the events there?"
"As the ambassador, I'm obligated to say that the sector is under EU mandate. Couldn't you have just blown up the hypothetical situation instead?"
"Assume, for the sake of the argument, that it wasn't a possibility at the time."
"Look, my advice is that you deal with it quietly. Either give your prisoners to me or never mention them at all. I know your usual MO is not subtlety, but I'd say that it's in your own interest to try and stay out of the newspapers this time."
Okay, you've clearly caught her at a bad time, but this is enough to unleash your curiosity.
"Ambassador, is there something you might share with me?"
She groans, palming her face, "No. Half the things are above my paygrade, let alone sharing them with third parties. A third of it is a caustic mixing pot, and I'm doing you a favor by keeping you out of it. Not that it's any of your business in the first place, don't misunderstand me, just that you don't want to be involved. The rest I just don't know, but we'll find out together over the next year, I fear."
You're not sure what to make of that, and she fills the silence herself. "Send your prisoners to me and I'll have the book thrown at them before making them disappear somewhere. I hear Siberia is nice this time of year. Just keep your head down for a while."
Before the connection cuts, you throw her a smile, "Purely hypothetically, of course."
Judging by the final frame, she's currently giving the camera a middle finger.
-.-
The most important meeting of the year, where you make final decisions on matters of future development, promises to be a long one this time. Starting early and stocked with coffee, you kick things off.
"The prisoners first. Miss Carpenter is right that we can't just leave them in limbo forever. Either we accept that we're taking on four extra mouths for some amount of time in exchange for hope at further info, or we send them off as another token of goodwill. I've talked with both the SDM and VDU company reps, and they say that an increase in piracy related insurance costs is balanced by our ability to respond. That's corporate talk for 'we can't justify raising prices'."
All six of you have ready arguments both for and against either action, but eventually, the choice is made.
[ ] The trial
-[ ] The blue marble justice
You're holding four people who don't want to be here, nor do you want them anywhere near Little Klondike, and ultimately the piracy is not your problem alone. You'll have to be content with the knowledge that you've set whoever is behind them back by a ship, terrible though its quality is, and made them tread much more carefully around you.
-[ ] The frontier justice
Something is afoot here, and you're not going into things blind. The pirates have had enough time to stew in their juices, time to put pressure on them. Someone in the relatively immediate sphere is either basing them, or somewhere out there is a much better funded operation with several ships capable of daisy-chaining supplies, neither of which you can afford to be in the dark about. DC 70
-.-
US headlines: Elements of Europe's third fleet sighted moving towards Venus Station, US forced to respond.
Several deep space deployment capable EU vessels have left military shipyards with trajectories to arrive at Venus Station by May, the joint chiefs have advised a contingent to follow and protect the station's sovereignty and maintain free and open trade routes to our sectors. Neither side was willing to clarify on the eventual purpose of the mission.
EU headlines: Election season sees jostling to resecure Lunar factions.
Various candidates to head the parliament curry favor with IF, bolster Lunar parties legitimacy for concessions on work and travel restrictions for millions of commuting workers. General consensus sees lessening of barriers as main goal, hope for closer relations with moon governance.
Chinese headlines: Jupiter atmospheric siphon megaproject begins construction.
Despite subversive elements decrying the dangers of resettlement after Ceres incident, our great nation continues to leap forward as the orbital station over the gas giant sees first radio contact with Europa research base. The estimated time to completion is fifteen years, output to supply light elements on scales comparable to Earth markets.
Lunar headlines: Metal prices bottoming out after over a decade.
Price of raw metals from the New Belt is finally reaching equilibrium with demand for ships skyrocketing, countless colonial initiatives stocking up on construction components. All that is processed in Lunar factories, industrial magnates looking to expand, creating local economic boom under new government. Says spokesperson, "This is as it should be, it's time for a full moon."
Martian headlines: terraforming milestone marred by protests.
After a full year of draconian measures following the Ceres incident, celebrations surrounding the first month of continuous above-freezing surface temperature on Mars turn violent as citizens clash with security forces. Terra Arabia spokesperson offers rare sympathy to people, "A pivotal event should be celebrated without fear."
Spacer headlines: popular social network shut down amid investigation.
Satellite based network company is facing international charges of breaking Tokyo Convention as whistleblower reveals extent of data gathering and manipulation for content algorithms. Lawyers negate charges, claim smart design and management does not an AI make, private info treated according to all rules.
-.-
Hailey Maria Erikson nee Perez, or just Hailey, as she insists, is an energetic and empathic woman. Prone to some daydreaming with a short attention span and with a habit of talking to herself, a symptom of her condition, she also has an uncanny insight into what people are feeling around her, see [REDACTED]. A masterful poker player and a great shoulder to cry on, the latter by her own words at least, she's probably best suited to face-to-face meetings and positive contacts. Also proficient in astronomy. Choose 1 task to send her on.
[ ] Diplomacy
-[ ] Advertise your colony
You'll pretty much always have potential room and jobs (provided they don't mind the cramped quarters) for people willing to put in the effort, but you won't get all that many colonists if no one knows of you. Place ads, make unreasonable and vague promises and put up flyers, whatever works. You'll probably get people to come, but they won't be… overqualified, to put it optimistically. On the other hand, maybe a bit of grunt work is exactly what you need right now, and occasionally you might – might – find rough diamonds with the slop. DC 15
-[ ] Establish relations with…
Subtly put out feelers for a patron, someone to legitimize your claim. Nothing overt, just find out who might be interested in your little rock and see what they might offer you in return. Nothing permanent or committal of course, your first partner will always be special and just the act of choosing will make you enemies as well as allies, even if they won't show it. Geez, this is like high school all over again, except now you need to worry about nuclear warheads instead of hurt feelings. Events in the Belt and the world at large have made something of a target out of you by now, but as with everything, there's both up- and down-sides. DC 45
-[ ] Visit the Children of Dreamers *Updated*
They've extended an open invitation to you to go and see how their colony differs from yours. Hailey has told you in clear terms that if she's going then you're coming with and she wants a case of Ken's original Felix along for the ride. Although their ship is currently out of commission, you could still do with a little vacation. And unashamedly snoop around for whatever info they might share while you're there, of course. DC 50
-[ ] Set up a joint research project with Prismdust *Updated*
They're still somewhat busy wrapping up final tests and arguing over which parts of the process they can sell forwards, but you want them working for your interests now. Although you'll lose a minor revenue stream, as there's no point in laundering money from yourself, the benefits of them working on some precision engineering project with you outweigh the costs. DC 30 45
-[ ] Call back to the private resort
If it's some trillionaires party house, then something as exotic as locally sourced fruits and vegetables might very well fetch a price that would be ridiculous elsewhere. And the security staff have needs too, maybe you can undercut their current supplier, especially in light of recent circumstances. DC 25 15
-[ ] Smooth relations with the EU
The whole 'your colony, my colony' thing was so long ago, who even remembers these things anymore. Surely we can all just let bygones be bygones and start on a blank page. DC 55 45
-[ ] Reach out to a mister Roland Prescott regarding sports
Amidst all the other scheming on New Ireland, it seemed like at least one genuine offer of cooperation also came your way. Mr. Prescott wanted to organize a tennis league between your two outposts; how pleasantly innocent and pure. Perhaps set things in motion, life in Little Klondike tends to swing between terribly dull and terribly stressful, a little spice in between the extremes is sure to raise morale. DC 30
-[ ] Hospital concessions
Ambassador Lisette Rousseau mentioned that building and maintaining a hospital in the sector can come with support and extra considerations. Just so happens, you have a solid basis set up and it only needs a little push to start growing again. A perfectly innocent you scratch my back, I scratch yours situation. DC 50
Miss Carpenter projects an air of confidence and her no nonsense attitude backs up her demeanor. Perhaps a bit headstrong and stubborn, but as long as you don't act against her she'll likely be quite competent. After a successful operation under her belt and her necessity in the colony thoroughly proven, there's no doubt that she's in her element as a commander of your executive branch. She's mellowed out over the years and perhaps even developed something resembling genuine respect and admiration for your governance. Choose 1 security action to focus her on. You also have rather open-ended grants that you can spend to lubricate some extra work: 1 left, 2 turns to spend.
[ ] Security
-[ ] Squads
Your colony has a professional and well liked security force, largely thanks to the expertise of your sheriff and an early focus on discipline and training. While it's hard to justify having more than a platoon of professional soldiers at your command right this moment, you could start arming another one if you so desired. DC 30
-[ ] Troop improvements
--[ ] Better armaments
Turns out neither you nor anyone on your immediate staff is a trained soldier, so the weapons you got were probably more flash than bang. Not that they are completely useless, just that they could be so much better. Hunker down with your sheriff and find a better set of offensive equipment for your troops. DC 40
--[ ] Heavy armor
Instead of the mobile suits you have for everyday work, you want Power Armor with a capital letter, the real space marine stuff. You'll try to buy it, but most governments are unlikely to sell what basically amounts to a personal tank to people, so be prepared to start your own designs. DC 60
--[ ] Jetpacks
Combat mobility is key and especially in a zero gravity environment you want your troops to have all the possible tactical advantages. The basic ship maintenance stuff has tiny thrusters to control yourself, but the combat variant would be much stronger and come with proper dampening software and trajectory control. DC 40
--[ ] Armored personnel carrier
A support vehicle for ground based combat, capable of light fire support, however its main purpose is to serve as a safer way to get infantry into combat zones. Its current usefulness to you is questionable, but you never know. You've been on both the unprepared and over-prepared side and you know which you'd like better. Whether there's someone out there that produces APCs for a microgravity environment is a different matter. DC 55
-[ ] Ships
--[ ] Transport
The Excelsior is a fine ship, but she is just one ship. Similar personnel transport vessels are much cheaper than freighters, don't have the issues of buying military hardware and have many more uses than the shuttles. Try to get another one, it's the only class that's not completely breaking your bank at this stage. DC 75
--[ ] Freight
Buying anything better than a tugboat attached to a fuel tanker is expensive. Really, really expensive, especially if it needs to accelerate tons and tons of rest mass in anything resembling a reasonable timeframe and fuel cost. Multinational corporations have a few chains of ships, you're barely the size of a local branch, but needs must. DC 85
--[ ] Combat
There's pirates about your patch of the void and you're not going to sit idly by like some who shall not be named. Cost-wise, a corvette doesn't run you significantly more than a freighter – which is still incredibly expensive, mind you – but the real bottleneck is finding someone to actually sell one. DC 90
--[ ] Shuttle
As your local sphere grows in activity, the idea of having access to a short-range vessel, or perhaps even multiple, is becoming more and more attractive. Affectionately called rust-buckets or flying coffins, the shuttle class is always equipped for a one-way trip and it struggles to go further than a few weeks, but sometimes that's all you need. DC 40
-[ ] Ship design
The idea has always existed in the back of your head: build instead of buy. For the first time ever, it just might be possible to go through with. That is to say… incredibly unlikely, but perhaps there's a kernel of truth to the saying that inventing a thousand ways to not do something is worthy in and of itself. DC 100 95
-[ ] Drones *Updated*
Just imagining combat inside a spaceship gives you the chills. Information is worth more than bullets in many cases and a tiny camera can't be too hard to stick on some legs. The classic flying approach from Earth doesn't work without an atmosphere, but some skittering spiderbots should be within your means of development and production. Now if only you could get them to work at reflex speeds, supplementing and improving the awareness of a soldier instead of distracting them. DC 40 25
You and Ken often find yourselves working together; engineering as an honest means of work is something you're both intimately familiar with. Likewise, you both know that a space station's engineers are her lifeblood, so you've hit it off quite well with the man. Far from being a simple farmer, he does have a solid base in nearly all things mechanical and you shore up the electric side of things. While he's still shy, his beer is to die for. Choose 2 projects to start building.
[ ] Engineering
-[ ] Aerogel quarry
Now that you know the special properties of your find, you can price your work accordingly, and you know for a fact that if you carefully chisel out massive sheets of the stuff then you can get far more massive amounts of dosh for them in exchange. Can't go wrong with massive amounts of dosh. DC 50 40
-[ ] Fuel refineries
Instead of trading away leftover oxygen as a low quality, low yield fuel replacement, get proper cooling towers and better filtration systems, start importing larger amounts of hydrogen and maybe even water for industrial electrolysis. Sure you'll be intruding a bit on your neighbor's market, but they'll be out of the production business soon enough anyways. DC 50
-[ ] Transportation
Moving to and from any installation on the surface is perilous. Low G walks under the blackness are scary and slow and you have almost no redundant cars. Ken pointed out that while you're small now, a robust metro network is never set up soon enough. The lack of unoccupied mining equipment is but a minor concern he assures you. DC 50
-[ ] Bakery
The closest thing to fresh bread you've had in years are the dry crackers from the ration packs that, rumors say, expand when you apply moisture. You now have a variety of grains, things like rye bread and rice cookies would definitely sell like hot cakes. Also, muffins, 'nuff said. DC 20
-[ ] Munitions factory
You've got a working design for bullets and enough components eke out a profit in manufacturing them. It'll probably not win you any friends locally, but the global military-industrial complex is just as rich and hungry for more contracts as ever, so someone will surely be interested in buying your ammo. DC 50
-[ ] Weapons factory
The gun you've invented isn't revolutionary, but it is reliable and usable. Unlike the ammo, mass production of precision equipment can be a bit tricky and finding a buyer might take some extra work. Also, arms dealers aren't usually the most well regarded of factions, but all that just means that there's significant profit to be made, even if you do need to import the steel. DC 75
-[ ] Living space improvements
--[ ] Luxury living space
The current apartments are adequate, but not luxurious. Expand the existing ones by including more floors and extra amenities. DC 40 30, can be taken with More living space for DC 55, counts as 1 action
--[ ] More living space
Now that actual money is rolling in and you're firmly established, more and more people will be coming. It's a good idea to stay ahead of the curve, maybe even set up a whole new town, as it seems that this is something you're in constant need of. DC 30 25, can be taken with Luxury living space for DC 55 50, counts as 1 action
--[ ] Church
You might keep your religious beliefs close to chest, but having a place of worship for others could be important. It'd also show your nominal overlords breathing down your neck that you're an important cultural center and a quick hostile takeover is out of the question. DC 30 20
--[ ] Stadium
There are gyms and resistance equipment scattered throughout your colony to help stave off muscle atrophy and brittle bones, but nothing even the size of a basketball court. You've heard that sport is a common leisure activity and a great propaganda tool both for recruitment as well as demonizing your enemies. Not that you'd ever do that, you just wanted to play some ball. DC 30 20
-[ ] Power
--[ ] Fission power plant
Sure you've a good system developed for powering your stuff, but diversity is a strength. Unlike the free sunlight, you'd need to import uranium, possibly refine it too, not to mention the difficulty of developing and constructing a plant from scratch. On the plus side, waste isn't a problem when you've the world's biggest incinerator staring down on you and no pesky gravity to stop you from chucking things in. Your new vassals might be less helpful than you'd have hoped, but there's still a bit of expertise in minor, yet significant, hurdles. DC 50 60
--[ ] Fusion power plant
This is what the big boys use. There's a total of three functional ones on Earth, one on Mars and probably a few on some cutting edge satellites and military cruisers, so it might be worth it to build one just for the prestige alone. It'll also mean that as long as you have access to the most abundant element in the world you can produce power. Not to mention the potential scientific benefits. DC 95
A quiet individual, it took you months to find out that one of the children in your colony was the daughter of your personnel manager. When Ragnar Erikson does contribute to the conversation, it's usually a well thought out response or an insightful comment and his action plans are clear and concise. Perhaps this is just his way of separating his occasionally thankless job and his private life, and the man has the trust of all your councilors. In 2178, he remarried, snagging your head diplomat all to himself. Choose 1 action.
[ ] Internal Affairs
-[ ] The colonists
Why did Europe come after your rock so insistently? Sure it's a lovely rock, but as you sent them packing, it clearly wasn't worth fighting over. Was it just an overzealous officer? Find out what you can about the expedition to Little Klondike and the lead officer, one Lisette Rousseau. DC 55
-[ ] Poke the black site
Alright, so you're not going to launch a probe to knock on their front door – unlike some intellectually challenged individuals around – but if a casual solar wind analyzer happens to pass by, they'd surely have more to lose by reacting to it. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it gave man the stars and if you've built a house next to a wolf den then you should make sure to guard your sheep. Err, bad analogy, you definitely don't think of your people as sheep. Anyways, try to find out anything about your secret neighbor. DC 70
-[ ] The congregation
The monks have arrived on your station and keeping them contained and complacent should be trivial enough, but you thoroughly plan to probe their inner peace. Secretly. DC 40
-[ ] Base information
--[ ] Census
Take stock of your current populace. Where do they come from, what do they think of life here, familial status, religious affiliation, occupations, etc. DC 35
--[ ] Emergency generators
Your current power supply is awfully vulnerable to forces of nature and targeted attacks alike. Set up well hidden, well shielded and separately supplied backup generators that would at least sustain basic life support around your compound should something happen to the solar fields. DC 30
--[ ] Schooling expansion
A glorified kindergarten is fine and all, but being a center of learning in the New Belt could certainly be beneficial. Having access to more scientists, not having to send your brightest off the base and getting that sweet influx of new taxpayers and customers for your businesses. Still, you've taken baby steps, now you'll need to walk before running. Set up a general-purpose high school focused on university preparation for the students. DC 45
--[ ] Global WIFI
With generally expanded data transfer equipment set up in your central complex, you can fix the issue of having communication on your proverbial backside. At the moment you need to route through your silver mine tower and the single mobile antenna you have. Set up towers all over Little Klondike to grant adequate internet connection to every nook and cranny. DC 50
-[ ] Council investigation
--[ ] Hailey Maria Erikson and her very real imaginary issues
So you now know what must surely be her biggest secret, but a rogue AI, while undoubtedly useful, reeks of Icarian hubris. Worse yet, said AI will know as soon as any contingencies are brought up around Hailey. Not only does this mean that the task of rooting it out is incredibly difficult, it's also insanely dangerous to the person you care about. Still, what's a secret project amongst friends? Develop a preliminary protocol for dealing with the potential threat of the AI taking over, maybe consider – very carefully – how to remove it entirely. DC 50
--[ ] Thorough check – Amanda Carpenter
The conversation with Luke Memphis got you wondering – did she really never take a bribe, or was she already bought and paid for all along? Or perhaps you've inherited her enemies and they're just biding their time to strike. Either way, dig a bit deeper into her past than is strictly polite and find out. DC 40
--[ ] Thorough check – Ken Hiragi
There's something about the nice, quiet ones. Erikson brought to your attention the barest of possibilities, but you should still follow up and reassure yourself. DC 50
--[ ] Thorough check – Ragnar Erikson
Hah, only a fool would take the master of intrigue at his word. Dig into Erikson's story and see what there is to see. Either you don't get caught and there can be no harm done to you or you do, in which case you'll give good odds that he'll understand anyway. Indeed, he probably expects you to have already done so. DC 55
-[ ] The independent neighbors
--[ ] Study Ironbond
Oliver Jarnstad was direct to the point and brash but honest; or a good enough teller of half-truths. If he wasn't such a douche about things, you'd have gotten along famously. However, his extended family and the corporation tied to it have some shady history. Try to get a more thorough and up-to-date overview of their colonial ventures in your sector. DC 30
--[ ] Study Azure Star
From what you gathered during your first meeting, the colony is perhaps the closest analogue to your own, but you know very little about them. Set about fixing that: what do they have on site, who were their leaders before they were directors? Rulers? Supreme space sovereigns? Whatever they style themselves as. DC 30
Miss Weissmeier is a younger, more conventionally beautiful and feminine version of Miss Carpenter. Even in zero G she wears a dark business skirt and heels, her reports are thorough and drier than a vacuum, but you can't fault her data or methods – bar one. She might be the youngest on your council, and in rare moments her lack of life experience shows, but you're quite glad to have someone with medical expertise on standby at all times. Choose 1 subject.
[ ] Research
-[ ] Mineral surveys
The general readings claim that your rock should have a good balance of light and heavy metals, silicates and oxygen rich rock, and who knows what else. You've gone over the surrounding top soil, for lack of a better term, but there's more to the asteroid both in depth as well as further out, keep looking for more minerals. DC 40
-[ ] Patent encryption breaking
There's several techs in your colony that you'd be able to produce yourself, in theory. From guns to motors to radios and lasers you should be able to make the components as prototypes in your lab. It's not industrial scale production and if someone caught wind of you using or worse yet, selling cracked products you'd be in trouble. But if you don't get caught then you'd be able to sustain your own needs just fine. DC 60
-[ ] Nanomachine forge
The experimental version of the silver nanites was a resounding success. Now, it's a matter of producing more than a pinch of them each month and for that, you need specialized equipment. Perhaps you can further refine your existing printers, perhaps you can train the existing robots to make more of themselves. Gray goo? Never heard of it. DC 60
-[ ] Solar wind capture
The lighter the element, the less likely you are to find a good supply of it around here. Unfortunately, hydrogen is one of those, yet you need a constant supply of it. It's used in many, many chemical reactions and synthesizing processes, it's a prime component of rocket fuel and the only component of fusion fuel. It's also hard to keep recycling it, as the tiny gas can leak through most seals in time. Thus, try to catch some of the material that the Sun constantly bombards you with. DC 80
-[ ] Magnetic field research
A key component of fusion, magnetic fields can be used to direct a stream of particles. Similarly, Earth enjoys a protective shell shielding her from harmful radiation thanks to a massive iron core generating immensely big fields. Could there be anything you can do to replicate these effects? Or perhaps probing one of the fundamental forces of the universe might reveal some new applications that people haven't thought of or haven't needed so far. A new influx of scientific expertise from your acquisitions can probably help. DC 50
-[ ] Medical concerns
--[ ] Medic Training
The people in your colony come from various backgrounds and educations, but lifesaving knowledge is something everyone should have. Expand the rudimentary programs currently set up and make it a mandatory part of life on this rock. It will cut into productivity a bit but it'll be worth it to literally save lives. DC 20
--[ ] Oncology ward
The next step towards a fully-fledged space hospital is a cancer ward. Cosmic radiation can be mitigated quite well these days, but ultimately the human cell is still the same as it was thousands of years ago. For most colonists, there's the option of flying back to Earth for treatment if the tumor is detected on time, but you'd like to be better than that. DC 55
--[ ] Life extension
Sure, you'll probably live to see a hundred and fifty, barring some accident. But if you want to enjoy eternal youth not eternal life, then you might want to put in your own contribution to the development of various life extension technologies. DC 60
--[ ] Silver nanites 2
A follow-up to the technology Lena has come up with, with focus on the areas she listed as having room for improvement. The little critters can (semi-theoretically) fix strands of DNA damaged by the generation loss effect or be programmed to produce organic compounds from the constituent molecules. And whatever else your head scientist can come up with. DC 80
--[ ] Bionic eyes
The clear, extremely lightly conductive, inert material of your aerogel, alongside the talk of augmented reality seems to have given Lena a strange idea: to build artificial eyes out of the material. While you're not sure you'd gouge out your own, she seemed enthusiastic about the research as such. Supposedly she could combine the gel with her nanites to revive damaged ocular nerves and make one of the most complex organs a human body has. DC 60
-[ ] AI
--[ ] Mark II
Refactor the code, give it more abilities, apply what you've learnt so far. Perhaps you can trust it with some actual tasks by now, it hasn't done anything more sinister than cause Lena to refer to it as 'he'. DC 70
--[ ] Power optimization
The AI takes up a noticeable chunk of your total base power. In part because it's always on, unlike the furnaces, but it's still far too much; you know you can cut it by a magnitude of magnitude orders. Put Project Goldfish on a diet. DC 55
--[ ] Miniaturization II *New*
The machine intelligence is tidy, at least. Slowly but surely its memory footprint is shrinking as functions become optimized and memory modules do things to bits you never knew were possible. Still, there's improvements you can try and make to the hardware; something that the AI can't do with its current level of access. DC ??
--[ ] Training: social analysis
Ragnar once mentioned that to improve the intelligence reports your customs teams create, an AI would be perfect. Now granted, you haven't checked if he still thinks that way after learning about Hailey, but it's only a passing similarity. Let the computer loose on the gathered data and find out for what it thinks of the colonists and their views towards you. DC 30
--[ ] Training: combat prediction
Aiming torpedoes when the distances involved are counted in megameters and the targets are free to move whenever requires more than a ballistics computer; you need something capable of predicting responses based on details in the engine wear and tear signature, or whatever else an AI could read. Just make sure it's not training on profiles of your own ship… just in case. DC 40
--[ ] Applied intelligence
Right, you have an AI, and dumb as a rock it might be, it's still capable of rapid data analysis. You won't be swayed by horror stories meant for children, plug it into your actual network and set it to work on some project you're pursuing. Free action, does not consume research slot. DC ??
---[ ] Write-in project, adds +10 to roll
--[ ] Pull the plug
You have other, more pressing concerns, and while the AI could passively truck along in the background, a few of Lena's more trusted scientists keeping an eye on it and studying it passively, you don't want to take any risks or spend the power. Turn the servers off and let the machine intelligence lay dormant. Free action, does not consume research slot. DC 2
-[ ] Aerogel
--[ ] Aerogel production
Surely you must be able to figure out a way to manufacture the stuff wholesale. You have all the materials needed in abundance. Plus it'll let you patent the process, so your deposit truly will remain the only source in the world. Or if it turns out to require some cosmic process not replicable by humans, at least you'll have a prestigious paper to publish. DC 80
--[ ] Aerogel armor
Those ceramics in your light power armor you wanted to upgrade? Well, this could be it. The gel doesn't shatter on impact like normal silicates do, it's probably possible to make it bendy by doping it with normal fibers, it's not air-permeable and can totally withstand the pressures. And it's lighter than any other armor, or clothing for that matter, so you might even be able to sell it to planetary markets. DC 60
--[ ] Aerogel classics
Sometimes you don't need to come up with something new, just do the old thing better than anyone else. The usual aerogel markets are trivially easy to break into with your new edge; start a test run of optics for telescopes or weapon sights, make heatshields for ground to orbit craft or exhaust cones, produce sports gear. DC 40
[ ] Personal action
-[ ] Write-in
Is there something you'd like to do outside of work? Not mandatory, fluff.
-.-
I've done a tiny bit of formatting on the choice list, let me know if there's any other ways to make it easier to parse. Changed descriptions and new options are respectively tagged with *Updated* and *New* in green text, and changed DCs have the old ones listed with struck numbers.
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[X] The trial
-[X] The blue marble justice
[x] Plan: Sports and prepping for reactor
-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Reach out to a mister Roland Prescott regarding sports
-[X] Security
--[X] Drones
--[X] Ships
---[X] Transport (spend grant)
-[X] Engineering
--[X] Bakery
--[X] Living space improvements
---[X] Stadium
-[X] Internal Affairs
--[X] Base information
---[X] Emergency generators
-[X] Research
--[X] Magnetic field research
-[X] Personal action
--[X] Write-in: Spend time with Ken and try to see what's bothering him.
So this is my current plan, we need more quality of life so I'm doing bakery and sports. The DC for the reactors is a tad too high so I hope research can lower it and do it next turn. Emergency gens because redundancy is nice and safe.
-[X] The blue marble justice
[x] Plan: Sports and prepping for reactor
-[X] Diplomacy
--[X] Reach out to a mister Roland Prescott regarding sports
-[X] Security
--[X] Drones
--[X] Ships
---[X] Transport (spend grant)
-[X] Engineering
--[X] Bakery
--[X] Living space improvements
---[X] Stadium
-[X] Internal Affairs
--[X] Base information
---[X] Emergency generators
-[X] Research
--[X] Magnetic field research
-[X] Personal action
--[X] Write-in: Spend time with Ken and try to see what's bothering him.
So this is my current plan, we need more quality of life so I'm doing bakery and sports. The DC for the reactors is a tad too high so I hope research can lower it and do it next turn. Emergency gens because redundancy is nice and safe.
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