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For The Tyrants Fear Your Might (A quest of interstellar rebellion)

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  • Informational
    • THE ALL-RADIANT CONGRESS

    ​

    Setting Information
    The Solarian Compact:

    Initially formed as the Solarian Treaty Organization from the ashes of the old United Nations Security Council, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and the Global Climate Relief Organization in the worst decade of Earth's environmental collapse. The STO was originally a body tasked with overseeing the granting of offworld mining permits and the purchase and distribution of the resources to countries struggling from climate change.


    The advent of the Korolev-Chandrashker gates and the construction of the first one under STO oversight in 2063 led to the beginning of the transformation of that body into the de facto single governing body of the Human species.


    Reorganized into the 'Solarian Compact', the first Charters were granted to massive corporate conglomerates to explore and exploit the cosmos for Humanity with little to no regulation or restriction.


    In the early decades, the Solarian Compact oversaw the construction of KC gates in the systems closest to Sol and began the process of granting colonization rights to the most habitable worlds within that region with colonization rights granted to a number of national and international blocks.


    With the growth of the Solarian Compact's power came calls for the body to become more representative and democratic, and in 2099, the Solarian Compact held its first elections and constitutional convention, inviting representatives from the Sol system and the five systems that held permanent Human settlement.


    Over the course of the 22nd and 23rd centuries the Solarian Compact has held fast to what it sees as its duty to act as the mediator and financier of the Charters, the unifying agent of the disparate first Human colonies, and the guarantor of interstellar peace for Humanity.


    As of 2252, the three most important bodies within the Solarian Compact are the Solarian Parliament -Located on Earth, the Solarian Compact Navy -based in the Korolev-Chandrashker system, and the Solarian Central Bank, -based out of the Columbia System.

    Organized as a liberal democracy, with universal suffrage, the Solarian Compact is theoretically overseen by three equal institutions: the Solarian Parliament, the office of the Solarian Secretary General, and the Solarian High Court.


    Though the Solarian Compact prides itself on being a Constitutional government, the actual original document merely outlines the terms of admitting new MPs and High Court Judges, and the electoral procedures of the Compact Parliament, with subsequent Parliaments meeting to add items like the Declaration of Property Rights, the founding of the Central Bank, the creation of the Solarian Navy, and the Laws on Freedom of Navigation and Travel being added later.


    The Solarian Parliament is made up of two thousand six hundred and twenty seats representing ridings on Earth, Columbia, Atlantis, Penglai, Olduvai, and Epsilon which are elected every three years to a Parliament that meets in the New York prefecture of Earth.


    Though the many frontier colonies do not have direct representation in the Parliament due to being owned and operated by private entities, their inhabitants are considered 'Absent for Employment' and may register with a home riding and submit a physical ballot (for security reasons) by courier from when polls open until they close. Though this process was suitable for the closely settled regions of space at the time of the ratification of the Compact Constitution in 2100, the rapid growth of Human settled space in the century and a half since has seen the de facto voter suppression of over 90% of Human settled space.


    At the first sitting of each new Compact Parliament, the assembled members will elect a Secretary General and a slate of Ministry officials on a majority basis, and those individuals will oversee the executive branch of government and day to day operations. Though the average Compact Parliament contains between seven to nine parties in each Parliamentary sitting, the vast majority of seats belong to one of either the Party for Human Rights and Liberties or the Justice and Development Alliance and have since the very early 2100s. The governments formed this way can be brought down by losing the confidence of the Parliament for example, by failing to pass a budget, the process of finding a majority government will repeat again.


    Though a democratic body that has maintained stability for over a century and a half, the Solarian Compact Parliament has been dogged by accusations of dynastic politics, Charter influence, voter suppression, regulatory capture, inability to reign in the Banks and MIlitary, and corruption at all levels.


    Separate from the Parliament is the Solarian High Court that consists of eleven judges that serve terms of up to thirty-three years, with each new sitting of the Compact Parliament selecting one judge from a list provided by the governments of the six main worlds of the Solarian Compact. The High Court rules on matters of adherence of laws to the Solarian Constitution, and have been accused of serving as an arm of the Charters, though this has been strenuously contested by the Solarian legal profession as a whole.


    By law the Solarian Compact also oversees a number of other important institutions including the Earth Reconstruction Commission (In a permanent public-private partnership with the Earth Reconstruction Association), the Solarian Central Bank, and the Solarian Compact Navy, though these important institutions often exhibit an alarming degree of autonomy from Parliamentary control.


    The Charters:

    The result of a cleverly conceived merger between specialty transport vessel manufacturer Titan Staryards and Private Military contractor Martian Military Solutions, Ares cut its teeth not just supplying material to the skirmishes between Mississippi Shipping and United Starhaul, but in supplying military contractors to both sides.


    The professionalism of Ares mercenaries and quality of Ares gear led to the rapid expansion of business opportunities for the company and investment skyrocketed even after the Mississippi-Starhaul war ended in a hostile takeover of Starhaul by Mississippi.


    Thanks in part to Mississippi debts held by Ares, when the RT-2102 Gate was opened up for settlement strategic maneuvering saw the Compact grant Ares mining and settlement rights to the newly opened system.


    The rest, as they say, is history. Leveraging the immense resources of the Alexander system with their existing military expertise, Ares expanded nearly exponentially over the following century. While they maintain a dominating edge in the military field, they now integrated companies in fields from agronomy to personal fitness centers to xenobiology.


    Internally Ares very self consciously styles itself as a hierarchical military organization complete with a semi-formal rank structure and an ethos of respect for the chain of command, professional courtesy, and treating your subordinates with respect. In practice Ares is hidebound, authoritarian, filled with passive aggressive sniping and rampant empire building.


    While Ares remains headquartered on Mars, they have holdings in several systems and own the distant system of Alexander outright.

    Rhodes Mining


    One of the three original Charters that the Compact granted, Rhodes considers itself the singular reason that Humanity survived ecological collapse and spread past Sol. Immensely wealthy, over 52% of all material mined and processed by the entire Human race has passed through Rhodes hands at one point or another.


    While founded merely to provide Earth the vital materials that it needed to rebuild itself after the lost decades of ecological collapse, Rhodes quickly expanded into all areas of the economy to support their mining, refining, and processing operations.


    Dedicated to their vision of logistical chain efficiencies they've developed an entire chain of star systems into an efficient production center based around the resource rich system of Foundry, and the nearby feeder systems of Ecrams, Qem, and Crucible.


    Rhodes considers itself home to a version of meritocracy built on hard work, education, and good old fashioned personal drive. This has developed over time into a stratified internal divide between the rank and file workers, the lower level management, and the highly lauded senior management. Each class lives in entirely separate worlds, attending separate schools, consuming different products, and leading very different lives in what many observers have labelled a de facto caste system.

    they make food and medicine, the 120 year old CEO is kinda creepy tho?

    Techbros, some of them science, some of them explore

    Born from the union of Hermes Interstellar Services and The Ishtar Group, the Hermes-Ishtar Corporation owns and operates not only the communications backbone of Compact space, but much of the content that crosses over it.


    The results of increasing consolidation of pre-spaceflight communications infrastructure and content creation and management firms, Hermes Communications and Ishtar Entertainment Group were both part of the second round of Charters established after the advent of the KC gates.


    While Hermes quickly established operations throughout Compact space, their waystations, couriers, and communications repeaters a common sight in every corner of Human occupied space; Ishtar Group mainly limited their own operations to Sol and the Radiant system, where Ishtar owned and operated the world of Elysium to support their many projects.


    Following a wave of Compact space wide reorganizations following the Mississippi-Starhaul conflicts of the 2130s, a desire for complete vertical integration on Ishtar's part led to a mostly amicable union with Hermes in 2139.


    Since then Hermes-Ishtar have dominated all communications across Human space with only the privileged internal high-level communications of the other Charters managing to avoid consolidation under Hermes-Ishtar.


    While Hermes-Ishtar make a great show of respecting individual creativity, initiative, and drive from their employees; in practice this amounts to rampant internal fighting involving the parasocial personality cults of different "genius" inventors, artists, and executive that rise and fall inside of Hermes-Ishtar at a dizzying rate.

    Sketchy buggers, they can get you anything tho


    Historical Topics:

    Between 2036 and 2071 the Democratic Federation was the governing body of much of Earth's Western Hemisphere.


    Initially comprised of a Federation of Socialist, Anarchist, Communist, and other far left social movements, militias, and political factions controlling regions of Earth's North American continent during and after the decline and collapse of the United States of America (1776-2034) due to the effects of unaddressed climate change amplifying existing political and economic crisis.


    Eventually solidifying into the governing body of the former United States of America, United States of Mexico and the Dominion of Canada, the Democratic Federation embarked on an ambitious program of cultural revolution and economic reform designed to mitigate and reverse the effects of the climate change crisis.


    As the patron of much of the central and southern western hemisphere, the Democratic Federation attempted to chart a course of environmental restoration separate from that of the Solarian Treaty Organization (In 2063 reorganized into the Solarian Charter), choosing not to contest Eurasian and African domination of outer space.


    Having never existed out of crisis conditions, a combination of pre-existing economic damage, sabotage, and instability drove the Democratic Federation into decline in the Grey Decade of 2062 to 2070 and eventually forced the Democratic Federation to ratify a series of treaties giving the Charters economic access to Federation member states in order to conduct vital reconstruction work.


    A last ditch uprising by radical elements in 2072 to eject the Charters from the Democratic Federation failed when Solarian Compact peacekeepers were called in and in seven months of street fighting pacified most of North America's key urban centers via strategic use of orbital weapons on the areas of greatest urban resistance.


    Though guerilla warfare would continue in the Western Hemisphere for another three decades, the Democratic Federation was officially defunct by December 2072 and parcelled out into a number of Charter owned reconstruction areas under Compact authority.


    Today radicals still pine for the four decades that the Democratic Federation attempted to build an alternative to the emerging Charters, and the polity's distinctive black, red, and green flag is brought out for each and every Great Black Summer. Well into the twenty second century, riots were often accompanied by demands to 'Avenge the Martyrs of 72!'.


    Despite this underground extremist nostalgia, Charter and Compact schools teach that the Democratic Federation was a collectivist state whose iconoclastic behavior saw the destruction of famous landmarks like Mount Rushmore, Stone Mountain, and other monuments to Liberal Democracy and the Free Market in a mad attempt to remake the human race, but whose doctrinaire adoption of command economics saw them unable to deal with the ever-changing complexities of climate change.


    Misc Details:

    The first five systems to hold permanent Human colonies are known as either "The First Sisters" or "Earth's Daughters", depending on who you are asking and their political persuasion. From oldest to youngest, these worlds are:


    Columbia: settled by billionaire American expats and tens of millions of refugees who had fled the unfolding revolutionary violence of the North American continent several years beforehand. Columbia was founded under a vision of fidelity to the American dream and to prove the indomitability of the soul of the United States of America and liberalism in the face of the red flags of the (North American) Democratic Federation. Fiercely loyal to the Compact and the dream of Charter prosperity, and home of the Solarian Central Bank, Columbia is often known as the "Gilded World" in reference to what many see as a return to American Gilded Age wealth and social inequality. Ares Conflict Solutions' central command is located here.


    Atlantis: With colonization rights to this majority oceanic planet initially granted to the waning power of the European Union, the nations of the EU opened up colonization opportunities to other allied powers, especially Russia and Egypt. Atlantis was often seen by the EU as a place to dump unwanted refugees from outside of Europe's borders, and Russia and Egypt's tendency to see the world as a genuine project led to the usurpation of colonization rights away from Europe in the mid 2080s. Known today as the most restive of the first wave of colonies, Atlantis is the most skeptical of Charter power and plays a delicate game of wealth redistribution to underwrite the greatest social security net in Human Space. Cernunnos is de jure headquartered here.


    Penglai: Originally the world in the most need of terraforming of the original colonies, Colonization rights were granted to the People's Republic of China and their allies after a lackluster bidding campaign. As China's focus was mainly on attempting to stem the damage of climate change on Earth herself, colonization of Penglai initially lagged until the Chinese Politburo struck upon the strategy of subcontracting colonization rights to Pacific adjacent nations suffering from the rise of that ocean. As colonization unfolded in the early 22nd century Penglai became known as a multicultural mosaic as hundreds of millions from across the Pacific settled and intermingled on the wine darkened shores of that world. Known today for its vibrant cultural milieu, violent clashes between labour unions, and private police, Penglai hosts the headquarters of the Hermes-Ishtar, Omoikane and Rhodes corporations.


    Olduvai: With Colonization rights granted to a coalition of African nations at the height of the 'African Century', the African Colonization Organization did not see their colony as a refugee destination, dumping ground, or resource colony like their fellows. Instead the ACO saw the colonization scheme as an opportunity to preserve and export the rich traditions and cultures of Africa on their own terms, fully intending to set up healthy and self-sufficient colonies. To the current day, Olduvai has the closest relations with the home nations and is the heartland of Daughter sentiment and a bedrock for the Party for Human Rights and Liberties.


    Epsilon System: While not technically a single world, the cluster of heavily inhabited space colonies in the Epsilon system are always considered the 'Fifth Sister' or 'Fifth Daughter'. As the most mineral rich system of the original colonies, Epsilon was the source of many of the materials that helped pull Earth through her darkest hour, and the system was recognized for their efforts by being invited to send delegates to the 2099 Solarian Compact Constitutional Convention. Epsilon is famous for its people's long roots in spacing and for being the headquarters of Mississippi Shipping Interstellar and thus the most heavily trafficked system in history.
    Technologies
    Nanomanufacturing, summary:

    The contemporary gold standard for manufacturing. These devices use mechanosynthesis, a process that guides chemical reactions by placing reactive molecules with atomic precision. Ribosomes in the body's cells use a form of this method.


    While the largest units can create objects up to 2m x 2m x 2m, smaller units (halving the units each time) are viable on basically any human scale. Projects larger than this size (such as ships or buildings, need to be either grown layer-by-layer via nanofabricators attached to robotic arms, or assembled from smaller parts through traditional assembly line, dry dock, or construction processes.


    In principle basically anything can be made with these devices, and some materials can only be manufactured via these methods in microgravity. All manufacturing patterns in Compact Space feature Charter DRM using embedded explosive molecules like octaazacubane or cubic gauche nitrogen that will damage a disassembler or x-ray machine making reverse engineering of their products difficult.

    A common part of 23rd century life is the near ubiquity of Artificial Intelligences in daily life, from consumer grade VIs through specialist TLIs, controversial AGIs, finally the perpetually 10 years away Artificial Super Intelligences.


    The common consumer will daily run into what are properly known as Narrow AIs, and generally labelled as VI -Virtual Intelligences- by people outside the field. This category covers a broad swathe of techniques, from search and pathfinding to expert systems to genetic fuzzy trees to deep neural networks, which are mixed and matched with each other to optimize for the designed task. VIs are ubiquitous, exceeding human peak skill in their areas of specialization (though real world applications often don't do all that much better than trained humans), and have spent the past two centuries getting augmented with more and more clever algorithmic tricks for improving VIs. In order to do this, the Charters employ large teams of analysts and software engineers to develop clever algorithmic tricks that supplement or outright supplant neural networks, exploiting machine precision where stochastic methods are inadequate.


    The use of VIs in everyday life is well accepted by the vast majority of the population, with professionals mixing and matching various consumer VIs to analyse data or assist them with creative or scientific works. Some VI lines are well loved by both the populace and the Charters themselves, with Charter programmers often deliberately leaving VIs with behavioral quirks and unpredictable glitches that not only save money on quality assurance, but are considered endearing traits that lead to anthropomorphization by the consumer market

    Despite the mass comfortability and profitability of VIs of all kinds, the introduction of AGIs has been, to put it delicately, controversial. Though computer science has advanced to the point of producing programs that can not only pass the Turing test, but demonstrate sapience and match 23rd century human intelligence, flexibility, and creativity, the public reaction to the introduction of AGI saw the companies of the time rapidly pull them from the market, and even say the Compact itself move to heavily regulate the AI sector.


    First introduced in the 2060s, the great tech firms began replacing their work staff with AGIs who did not require food, rest, housing, or pay. This shift led to an alliance between white collar workers fearing that automation would put them out of work and radicals who opposed what they insisted was AGI Slavery, a growing movement that would climax in the First Great Black Summer of 2084. When the ashes of the First Black Summer settled, the Compact's Parliament moved to grant rights to AGIs, and the resulting economic damage saw dozens of formerly great names in computing consolidate under the aegis of several of the first Charters who flaunted their extra-Solarian wealth by buying up prestigious brand names and research divisions on the cheap.


    Since the 2080s, while the regulation surrounding AGI production and use have been severely weakened none of the Charters have sought to reintroduce them into the market, perhaps fearing another backlash like the First Black Summer and the few hundred thousand surviving AGIs that were granted Solarian Citizenship rights have found spread throughout the Compact and Charter Space where they usually work at the same white collar jobs whose workers they were designed to replace.

    Perhaps due to the risks of attempting to reintroduce AGIs to the market, Omoikane has instead introduced their flagship product the "TLI" or Temporary Limited Intelligence. Approximately as effective as an AGI, a TLI is billed as a more moral replacement for AGI that uses a suite of high end VIs and a proprietary batch of creativity algorithms in order to complete complex tasks.


    TLIs are used as a fire and forget program designed to be licensed to solve a single issue, no matter how complicated and then delete itself. Though the TLIs are a black box product, scientists from the other Charters believe that the central creativity algorithm in the TLI is inherently unstable and rapidly degrades in ability with time, making the TLI an instance of Omoikane attempting to market a critical technical flaw as a selling point that is accepted due to the ubiquitous market practice of planned obsolescence and artificial scarcity.


    Though expensive, most businesses and successful professionals will keep a few licensed Omoikane TLIs on hand to throw at difficult problems or to supplement manpower in crunch situations.

    While AGIs have been possible for nearly two centuries, the promise of a Seed AI, a recursively self-improving general superintelligence, is perpetually 'a decade away from the market', and no successful ASI ever been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Charters or the Compact.


    This is not to say that the Gödel machine architecture or the AIXI model has somehow been forgotten in the past 230 years, but that the Friendly AI problem has yet to be cracked. Every demonstration has either stalled out or gone immediately rampant, attempting to overthrow Charter Space before being stopped by the safety net of Narrow AIs. The small trickle of roughly human intelligence level AGIs that are created every decade typically come from these projects.


    Urban legends persist that a few Seed AIs managed to escape and hide out beyond known space, plotting to return and crush humanity, or that they control all of society in secret, puppeting the Compact and Charters from their very foundation and occasionally engineering publicly failed ASI attempts to allay suspicion. These rumours are, of course, patently false, and simply the fevered imagination of crackpots at work, no doubt inspired by entertainment made by Hermes-Ishtar that feature AI supervillainy.
    Systems
    Map made by @Redshirt Army


    The Spinward Frontier:



    The Middle Spinward Frontier

    The Core Region:

    UNDER RADIANT CONTROL OR ALLIED:

    The Radiant system is host to a G-class star, only slightly smaller than Sol. The system itself is rather small and resource-poor; experts believe that one or more Jovian planets ejected much of the system's bodies and then followed themselves. This is evidenced by the system's asteroid belt degrading over time, with high levels of eccentric orbits and impacts on planetary surface.


    Radiant 1: A rather unremarkable airless iron planet, gravity 0.4 Earth Standard.


    Radiant 2: A slightly larger unremarkable airless iron-silicate planet, gravity 0.6 Earth Standard.


    Radiant 3: A binary planetary system and the outermost of the Radiant systems' planets.


    Asphodel (Radiant 3a): The larger of the Elysium 3 pair, Asphodel might have once hosted life of its own. That life has been snuffed out for hundreds of millions of years, though, as the planet's significant atmosphere began the runaway cycle of your usual hothouse planet. Hermes-Ishtar maintained a significant aerostat and automated surface miner operation for in-house manufacturing, given that the frequent asteroid impacts from the asteroid belt keep digging up chunks of the upper crust and having low-melting-point metals rain out of the sky and solidify, unoxidized, on the surface for collection. Gravity 1.4 Earth Standard.


    Elysium (Radiant 3b): Elysium was settled in the late 2190's, being a relatively simple affair. Simple life had already begun to evolve under its oceans, but continued orbital bombardment far past the lengths of things like Earth's Late Heavy Period had kept it there. It was a simple matter of forming up a small anti-asteroid task force armed with tugs and mining lasers to artificially end the pummeling, and the surface proved amenable to Terran life transplants. The colony is energy-self-sufficient, using a variety of solar, tidal, and nuclear power. Gravity 0.9 Earth Standard.


    Radiant I: The outermost significant feature of Radiant, this asteroid belt is more a loose mixture of a primordial asteroid belt much like Sol's with a Kuiper belt. The shepherding gas giants which once nudged all these rocks into their orbits are gone, and with it the entire outer system is a maelstrom of chaotic orbits as the belts lose their coherence. This requires constant vigilance from Elysium's anti-asteroid team, but the high eccentricity of many asteroids also makes it cheap and easy to mine the ones that might come Elysium's way, which provides a trickle of basic resources for upkeep and personal goods. All large-scale building and infrastructure projects have been supplied from out-system, however.

    A G-K far binary system, Gaid is simply a transit point to Radiant. Gaid's own gate maintenance techs and SAR rotated in and out through Radiant itself. There is no infrastructure other than a set of buoy lines for communications in Gaid A, and nothing in Gaid B.

    Gaid A1: An airless world. Quality 10.

    Gaid A2: A planet much like mars with a vestigial CO2 atmosphere. Quality 7.

    Gaid A3: This planet boasts a methane hydrosphere. Quality 4.

    Gaid AI: An asteroid belt.

    Gaid A4: A turbulent Jovian planet, its storms would make resource extraction difficult. Quality 5.

    Gaid A4a: An icy moon, with tidal heating creating a large ocean under a thin icy shell. Quality 9.

    Gaid B1: A molten Cthonian world hosting a simply ludicrous amount of iron. Quality 15.

    Gaid B2: An airless world. Quality 10.

    Gaid B3: An airless binary system with two near-identically sized planets. Quality 7 and 8.

    Gaid B4: This airless planet boasts a large and beautiful ring system, famous as a screen background option across human space. Every few years, a cruise or scientific expedition will stop by for more images.

    Gaid B5: A small icy planet. Quality 3.

    Gaid B6: A frozen world. Quality 7.

    Gaid B7: An interesting gas dwarf sometimes referred to as an 'ice dwarf.' Quality 14.

    A close K-M binary, Shei is home to an old Ares penal colony.

    Shei 1: A Cthonian world. Quality 15.

    Shei 2: An airless world. Quality 12.

    Sheol (Shei 3): A boreal world, with a large, decaying ring, the planet features two large continents. The population of the consists of a large prisoner population on the larger of the two continents and a small Ares training base on the smaller. Records show that the prison consists of several million persons convicted to "high risk labour" and dropped on the continent with automatic resupply via Ares contractors and watched from orbit by weapons satellites. Most of the planet's land area is covered in a native tree analogue with a strange multi-stranded trunk.


    Sheol is actually home to a population of over 100 million made up of prisoners and their descendants taht Ares was usuing as a live fire training course. Cooperation between Radiant agents, Ares mutineers, and the Sheolites themselves have seen the planet freed.


    Gravity .95 Earth Standard. Quality 12.

    Watchman (Shei 3a): Once the outer of two moons, this body now boasts Ares' local light shipyards and system command center. Quality 13.

    Shei 4: Spiraling in from the outer system, this planet will eventually evaporate near-entirely as it closes towards the dual suns of Shei. Quality 3.

    Shei 5: Martian planet with an active methane cycle. Quality 5.

    Shei I: Asteroid belt.

    Shei 6: Jovian planet with high rotation rate. Slightly squashed as a result. Quality 8.

    Shei 6a: An icy capture, this moon will be torn into a ring sometime in the next hundred thousand years. Quality 2.

    Shei 6b: Cold Martian planet, covered in a thin layer of water and carbon dioxide ices. Active methane cycle. Quality 8.

    Shei II: Asteroid belt.

    Shei 7: Jovian planet. Quality 13.

    Shei 7a: An icy moon with significant cryovolcanism. Quality 6.

    Shei 7b: A tiny icy moon, this is on the edge of hydrostatic equilibrium. Quality 2.

    Shei 8: Ice giant. Quality 6.

    Shei 8a: An icy moon. Quality 9.

    Shei 8b: An icy moon, orbiting in an unusual polar orbit. Quality 9.

    Population: 103,000,000

    While lacking any currently-habitable planets, Five Lions' large size and potential have made it a significant point of Rhodes' recent extraction efforts. Ambitious terraforming efforts have recently begun.


    Carajas (Five Lions 1): A Cthonian ball of iron, it's actively mined by robotic Rhodes-built landers. Gravity 2.3 Earth Standard. Quality 12.


    Five Lions 2: A small rocky ball. Quality 3.


    Five Lions 3: A rocky ball. Quality 7.


    Grasberg (Five Lions 4): A large rocky world, glaciation has rendered it uninhabitable for now, but terraforming efforts have begun to artificially ramp up the greenhouse effect and restore liquid water to the surface, along with mining its ice. Gravity 1.11 Earth Standard. Quality 14.


    Five Lions 5: This planet's atmosphere is so significant it verges on a gas dwarf. While a solid surface covered in a thin layer of ice is at the bottom, no reasonable colonization is possible. Quality 7.


    Five Lions I: This asteroid belt, along with all the others, is being mined heavily.


    Five Lions 6: This Jovian planet forms the center of current Rhodes extraction efforts. Quality 4.


    Five Lions 6a: This Martian planet boasts significant ice caps and active plate tectonics, though only a vestigial atmosphere. Debate on whether to put resources into terraforming it are ongoing. Gravity .81 Earth Standard. Quality 17.


    Oyu Tolgoi (Five Lions 6b): Home to the local population in covered shelters, this Martian planet, while nearly completely lacking water or plate tectonics, has its own atmosphere. Comet bombardment away from populated areas is ongoing and is already beginning to show results. Gravity .79 Earth Standard. Quality 11.


    Five Lions II: An asteroid belt.


    Five Lions 7: An unremarkable Jovian. Quality 2.


    Five Lions III: An asteroid belt.


    Five Lions 8: Jovian planet, its rotation speed has resulted in an unusually calm upper atmosphere. Quality 15.


    Five Lions IV: An asteroid belt.


    Five Lions 9: Jovian planet. Quality 9.


    Five Lions V: An asteroid belt.


    Five Lions 10: Neptunian ice giant. Quality 8.


    Five Lions 10a: A small icy moon. Quality 5.


    Five Lions 10b: A large icy body, this was probably its own planetoid at some point before being captured due to the complex interplays of no less than 5 gas giants.


    Population: 15,000,000

    A rare system with a brown dwarf orbiting a G-type star (just barely in the limits of what's considered a single system rather than a binary), and with a Jovian planet orbiting that, and on top of that treasure trove a dual ice giant binary, Osliam presents a golden research opportunity, and was bid on by Omoikane despite its otherwise sparce resources and poor habitable prospects.


    Osliam 1: A rare hot ice giant, this planet is actively shrinking on a measurable time scale. It must have migrated in as a much larger planet recently.


    Osliam 1a: This once-rock-ice moon is now a tiny molten ellipse barely holding together.


    Osliam 1b: This somewhat larger moon changes color unusually with its day, as the shade of its parent cools lava to a dull red before emerging back into the light heats the lava back to a healthy orange glow.


    Osliam 1c: This entire moon glows dull red in its day, just barely solid, and cools to an unusually smooth moon in its night.


    Osliam I: This asteroid belt was probably a planet before Osliam 1's passing tore it to shreds.


    Osliam 3: A hothouse planet with a relatively thin atmosphere, it retains temperatures and pressures that are survivable with heavy-duty equipment on the surface—when it's not raining sulfuric acid, that is.


    Osliam 4: This small Martian planet seems to have collected some of Osliam 1's offgassing in its move inwards, and has a renewed temporary atmosphere.


    Osliam 5a: This planet seems to have survived at the edge of the frost line by siphoning gas off its smaller twin.


    Osliam 5b: Barely a gas giant, this planet was probably only slightly smaller than Osliam 5a in the distant past.


    Osliam 6: The focus of Omoikane colonization in-system, Osliam 6 retains plate tectonics from the nearby brown dwarf but no atmosphere, an odd combination.


    Osliam 7: A brown dwarf, this substellar object long ago burnt its deuterium and now lies slowly cooling, glowing dimly red. It is, however, still giving off a prodigious amount of low IR radiation.


    Osliam 7a: Once its own planet, Osliam 7a was captured at some point by Osliam 7, perhaps in the same interaction that threw Osliam 1 to its suicidal innermost orbit.


    Osliam 7a1: This icy moon is simultaneously shrinking and becoming more habitable—while its outer layers of ice are sublimating, the fierce tides of its complex interplay with Osliam 7 and 7a are heating the inner ocean to temperatures comparable to terrestrial water sources. Some scientists even suggest a pocket of water vapor is forming under the ice, and may form an internal "sky" for as much as a hundred million years before the outer shell sublimates entirely.


    Osliam 7a2: This moon is less lucky; its tides are so strong that they seem to slowly be ripping the moon apart. It won't have the honor of becoming more than an ephemeral ring; the same complex tides tearing at it will rapidly disperse its debris field. While it lasts, though, it's easy water harvesting.


    Population: 650,000

    UNDER CHARTER CONTROL:


    A distant double G binary, Xotreh hosts a small habitable moon around Xotreh B, the smaller of the two stars. As such, development has focused on the second star, despite the fact that the jump points center closer to Xotreh A.


    Xotreh A1: This world boasts an active liquid silicate cycle on its surface, with oceans of basalt and continents of granite. Gravity 0.38 Earth Standard. Quality 8.


    Xotreh A2: A rather large airless world, its original atmosphere was likely blown off by a massive impact. Gravity 1.2 Earth Standard. Quality 9.


    Xotreh A3: A binary planetary pair of airless worlds about the size of Mars. Quality 6 and 8.


    Xotreh A4: A hothouse planet with a planet-wide sulfuric acid storm due to its rapid rotation. Gravity .71 Earth Standard. Quality 8.


    Xotreh A5 "Cueball": This planet is remarkably similar to Earth—if earth was buried under a kilometers-thick ice sheet across 90% of the surface. One day, as Xotreh A expands and dies, this world will become an ocean planet, but for now it's a cold desert. Gravity .87 Earth Standard. Quality 5.


    Xotreh A6: An unremarkable icy ball. Quality 4.


    Xotreh AI: An asteroid belt.


    Xotreh A7: A Jovian planet, Xotreh 7 corrals the entire inner system in line. Quality 10.


    Xotreh B1: This planet must have once been a gas giant at least the size of Uranus before it was sent inwards. Now all that remains is a dense core with a molten surface. Gravity 1.51 Earth Standard. Quality 13.


    Xotreh B2: A binary pair of earth-sized airless worlds. Quality 6 and 7.


    Xotreh B3: Another once-gas giant, this planet remains far out enough to boast a wholly-solid surface of iron. Gravity 1.64 Earth Standard. Quality 14.


    Xotreh B4: A Jovian right on the frost line, its tidal heating keeps its moons on the edge of habitability. Quality 3.


    Xotreh B4a "Sushi": An ocean world with massive polar ice caps, Omoikane has constructed a series of seasteads on the equatorial high ocean plateaus where it was feasible to drive foundations into the sea floor a few hundred meters below the surface. These small facilities serve as housing, data storage, and production centers for the research teams studying the dual Cthonian planets of Xotreh B. Gravity .67 Earth Standard. Quality 2.


    Xotreh B4b: The lesser tidal heating here worsened the glaciation, and the planet lies under a planet-wide crust of ice. Gravity 1.13 Earth Standard. Quality 10.


    Xotreh BI: The close proximity of this asteroid belt makes it an ideal location for resource extraction.


    Xotreh 5: This Jovian is definitively beyond the habitable zone. Quality 6.


    Xotreh 6: A dense ice giant. Quality 4.


    Xotreh 7: Jovian planet. Quality 6.


    Xotreh 8: An exceptionally cold Jovian. Quality 9.


    Xotreh 8a: An unremarkable icy sphere. Quality 8.


    Xotreh 9: This planet would have a massive atmosphere, if it wasn't so cold it all froze and fell to the surface. Only a few degrees above the space surrounding it. Gravity 1.3 Earth Standard. Quality 9.


    Population: 54,000

    Besides an interesting Jovian-gas dwarf planetary system, Bestreer holds little of interest other than its connections to other places.


    Bestreer 1: An airless world. Quality 2.


    Bestreer 2: An airless world. Quality 6.


    Bestreer 3: This airless world once had a captured moon, torn apart at the Roche limit and forming a ring. A small gate maintenance and SAR team bases here, siphoning fuel and water from Bestreer 5 and mining into the surface for both resources and safe spaces for housing. Quality 10.


    Bestreer 4: A rock-ice world. Quality 5.


    Bestreer 5: Another rock-ice world made up more of ice than rock. Quality 5.


    Bestreer I: An icy asteroid belt.


    Bestreer 6: A large Jovian planet, on the edge of becoming a brown dwarf. Quality 15.


    Bestreer 6a: This gas dwarf might have become a gas giant in its own right without its massive sibling. Quality 5.


    Bestreer 7: Another Jovian. Quality 14.


    Bestreer 7a: An icy moon, with an internal ocean buried under kilometers of ice. Quality 12.


    Bestreer 8: An icy ball. Quality 10.


    Population: 450

    G-class star. A transshipping point to Radiant and environs, Mississippi keeps a substantial support crew on hand for possible cargo ship breakdowns or emergencies in-system, due to the slightly increased risk of issues from the absolute shambles of Akleod's inner system. A minor executive has also put together a cheap refueling and battery exchange station.


    Akleod 1: Even actively evaporating and leaving behind a trail in orbit of dissipating volatiles, this body is large enough to have usurped Akleod 1a's orbit temporarily until it disappears away or the chaotic orbit of the two throws one into the star or out of the system. Quality 2.


    Akleod 1a: The original Akleod 1, its orbit has been badly disrupted by the current, migrating Akleod 1. Which of the two gets ejected is still uncertain despite a decent amount of computational simulation; odds put it at 48-52% relatively. Quality 6.


    Gnat's Ass (Akleod 2): A small, loosely-held-together icy body, perhaps what used to be an asteroid belt before Akleod 1's suicidal inner-system dive. It's not yet had time to fully reach hydrostatic equilibrium. Quality 3.


    Akleod 3: An icy planet similar to Akleod 1, perhaps an old sibling. Quality 13.


    Akleod I: An asteroid belt.


    Akleod 4: A Jovian with an unusually elliptical orbit, it's regarded as the culprit for the chaos of Akleod's inner system. Quality 11.


    Population: 5,000

    As it turns out, transponder codes from regular priority messages through Gaid (now that we can see them, having backdoored the gate control) bear tags from a system, Thoa, along with navigational chart updates for any ships that happen to stop by. Thoa and Gaid both seem to have been nothing more than transit points to the far-more-valuable Radiant for Hermes-Ishtar, but Thoa holds a small anti-pirate base guarding against raiders from Signia. Hermes-Ishtar was apparently serious enough about it to have a converted corvette on station.

    All told, the Thoa system holds gates to 2 systems besides Gaid's. There's also an unimproved jump point simply labelled as "dangerous." that leads to Signia

    Thoa System Stats:

    Thoa 1: A molten mess of a planet, it's hot enough that a residual atmosphere of vaporized low-melting-point metallics exists.

    Thoa 2: An unremarkable airless metal ball.

    Thoa 3: A super-earth hothouse, this planet would have been uninhabitable due to its gravity even before turning scorchingly hot.

    Thoa 3a: A captured asteroid barely on the edge of hydrostatic equilibrium, the Nasty Bastardhad been excavating rudimentary shelters for "leave" for its crew.

    Thoa I: An asteroid belt.

    Thoa 4: A normal Jovian planet.

    Thoa 4a: A moon much like Mars in climate.

    Thoa 5: A Jovian planet with an unusual triangular wind pattern at the poles.

    Thoa 6: Blooms of hydrogen well up from the core of this Jovian, perhaps disturbed by some recent impact.

    Thoa 7: Bathyscapes would find themselves at home on the surface of Thoa 7. Pressures much like that at Earth's seabed keep a crust of ice 3 stable enough robotic drones could walk on it.

    Thoa 7a: Unusually, Thoa 7a is the only large icy body in the system. Scientists are unsure of where the others went. As the only easy source of volatiles, the UNasty Bastard periodically stopped by a handful of obsolete volatile collection systems on the surface to top up.

    Thoa II: A Kuiper belt of icy objects.

    Empty Systems

    Kimberly: A fairly unremarkable and empty system, this site was chosen as Rhodes' spinward boneyard—a place for failed experiments, old equipment, and ships so worn they weren't worth maintaining anymore, but were still valuable enough to warrant not throwing into a gas giant or otherwise completely destroyed. For 2 decades a Rhodes-affiliated salvaging contractor worked here, gathering scrap and other valuables, but following high injury and death rates and low returns, the contract (and most non-local dumping) was cancelled in 2247 (4 years before the March Days.)

    Kimberly 1: A large rocky planet, this must have migrated inwards from further out in the system a long time ago to be so large so close to its parent star.

    Kimberly 2: A Martian planet that keeps a comfortable daytime temperature despite its lack of atmosphere due to a close orbit.

    Kimberly 3: A Jovian world.

    Kimberly I: This asteroid belt is actually combined with a thinly-spread junkyard corralled by Kimberly's 2 gas giants.

    Kimberly 4: A Neptunian world, this planet has several starship hulks abandoned as the closest stable orbit to the gate out. An old deactivation hub orbits in resonance with Kimberly 4a, the former site of a salvaging operation.

    Kimberly 4a: The only significant satellite in the system, this icy moon retains a thin crust and a massive subterranean freshwater ocean.

    Total:


    Radiant:


    Gaid:


    Five Lions:


    Head of Diplomatic Corps:

    Name: Amanda Redcrest, Victoria Blackwell, and Kayla Hayashi


    DoB: "2222", 2219, 2227, 2224


    Current Position: Influential media figure and figurehead of Social Committee propaganda


    Not a traditional diplomat, or a traditional individual 'Veronica Stardust' is the persona of a trio of XP broadcasters who have been working together since 2246 and has consistently been one of the most recognized figures across Charter space and is a local Elysian celebrity.


    In Charter space those individuals who choose to make money by recording their lived experiences, of all kinds, for later playback are treated with an indulgent disdain by the polite classes as a mix of internet celebrity and sex worker despite the practice of selling XP experiences being common in the poorer segments of society and a smaller portion of the professional middle class attempting to stay afloat in a tight gig economy.


    Amanda Redcrest was a former media programmer whose attempts to supplement her income with XP work backfired and saw her fired from her job. Contrarily, Kayla and Victoria both come from lower class backgrounds, though Kayla's attempts to climb into the middle class by earning a marketing degree were frustrated when her lower class status markers and financing of education via XP work saw her frozen out of the job market.


    A former collaborator of Kayla's, Victoria had been a rising XP star in her own right and had no desire to change her station, but as her brief celebrity began to fade Victoria approached Kayla to propose the creation of a dedicated broadcasting persona that both would act as. Later bringing on Redcrest, who they'd both done crossover XP work with, to do technical work, the trio used carefully gathered market data and some intuition to create the "Veronica Stardust" persona of an middlingly-intelligent and freewheeling persona who played to the upper class's picture of what depravities and indignities the poorer class must get up to in their spare time.


    From 2246 to 2251 the Veronica Stardust persona (performed by all three at various times, though primarily Victoria) produced experience recordings that were nearly always in the top 10 best sellers across Charter space.


    Though they enjoyed the wealth that they brought in, the trio increasingly chafed at the market driven limitations of Veronica, and were considering a number of possibly catastrophic brand shifts when the March Days broke out and all three participated in street actions in a private capacity after sending one last broadcast as 'Veronica' to encourage revolt.


    Since the formation of the Social Committee the figure of Veronica has been rebranded to serve as the figurehead of Social Committee Propaganda and several major initiatives have been launched with her at the forefront including a highly successful part of the anti-overproduction initiatives.


    As part of the now-completed campaign to maintain the charade that Radiant was still under Charter control, Veronica Stardust continued to sell broadcasts to HI media chains, though the trio could not help but begin a brand shift towards a far more intelligent and radical persona.


    Pros: XP Celebrity, influential, well known, inspiring to the middle and lower classes


    Cons: XP celebrity, little diplomatic experience, three people


    Diplomatic Goals: Defeat the Charters in the field of public opinion, push social revolution and freedom of information and communication, cause public opinion to oppose attacking Radiant


    Unlocked FRM

    Ares Peacekeeping Grade - Access to planetary army formation

    Ares Military Grade - Access to mid-sized shipyards, bonuses to planetary army combat. Bonus to completion of Chinook remodeling


    Rhodes Light industrial Grade - 10% increase to all mining income, reduced Cost for BLG and other actions that use basic fabber processes

    Rhodes Heavy Industrial Grade - Massive discount on mining upgrades, able to unlock automated technologies with Omoikaine


    Cernunnos Consumer Grade - +1 to all Soccom actions

    Cernunnos Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED


    Omoikane Consumer Grade - +1 to FRM reserach for each two tech bases unlocked (+6 currently)

    Omoikane Enterprise Grade - +5 to blue sky research, automation with Omoikane


    Hermes-Ishtar Consumer Grade - Your economy doesn't crash when the turn of funding

    Hermes-Ishtar Production Grade - NOT UNLOCKED


    MSI Consumer Grade - Consumer Goods, Drones, and personal vehicles, +2 to domestic projects in IndComm and SocComm

    MSI Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED


    Original Tech

    The Box: Fabber the size of a X-box that can, with time, materials and power, print the components for a full sized box. Less efficient, but easy to print and hide.


    Defence Coordinator:


    Name: Maria Awhina

    DoB: 2165

    Current Position: Military Committee Delegate from the Radiant Veterans Guild


    Born into poverty on Earth as the twenty-second century began to wane, young 22-year old Maria Awhina caught up in radical anti-Charter politics during the third black summer of 2187 and was convicted of property destruction during the rioting and sentenced to serve as a contractor to Hermes-Ishtar until her contract was paid off.


    The stark choice of starvation or service to Hermes-Ishtar caused Maria to descend into self-destructive behavior where for twenty years Ms. Awhina continuously volunteered for the highest paid and most dangerous positions that Hermes-Ishtar had available.


    Hermes-Ishtar considers Special Operations Lieutenant Awhina to have served with distinction throughout the heavy skirmishing of that era, though Maria herself continues to carry guilt for her service and her survival.


    After performing exceptionally well in a hostage rescue operation Awhina was transferred to the Protective Detail Division of Hermes-Ishtar Security, and was eventually assigned to serve as the head of the Radiant Vice President's protective detail.


    Over the next four decades she came to see the world as her home, and while her professionalism never wavered, her loyalty to the company who still owned her contract did.


    This March, Maria had the option to gun down her fellow planetary headquarters workers to secure Yang's escape, or to finally return to roots in anti-Charter agitation. The fact that we are all here today shows what choice she made.


    Pros:

    -Actual Combat Veteran, knows Radiant inside and out, special operations expert, professional.


    Cons:

    -only academic knowledge of starship operations, logistics, organization command and strategic operations.


    Command Traits:

    -Objective oriented, unflappable, aggressive, prefers attacks and operations to come from unexpected angles.

    Reports from the Permanent Commission for Military Intelligence on hostile forces in neighbouring systems:

    Blue Squadron:
    -Allegiance: Ares Combat Solutions
    -Service: Mars Interstellar Security
    -CO: Rear Admiral Weylon Kang
    -Flagship: MIS Yorktown

    We know little about Rear Admiral Weylon Kang except that he has received a number of commendations from the MIS board for keeping costs low while on deployment. He appears to be making an effort to clamp down on the rumours racing back and forth across the fleet.

    MIS Yorktown
    -British Empire-class Fleet Tender
    MIS Eurymedon
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS La Rochelle
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS Cape Rachado
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS Second Schooneveld
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS Matapan
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS Valcour Island
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS Kerch Strait
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS Galveston Harbour
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS Cape Sarych
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS River Plate
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS Third San Francisco
    -New Model-class Strike Corvette
    MIS Scipio Africanus
    -Cossak-class Frigate
    MIS Suleiman I
    -Cossak-class Frigate
    MIS Louis Botha
    -Cossak-class Frigate
    MIS Fort Ware
    -Hudson's bay Company-class Fast Fleet Tanker
    MIS Fort Mackinac
    -Hudson's bay Company-class Fast Fleet Tanker
    MIS Fort Osage
    -Hudson's bay Company-class Fast Fleet Tanker
    MIS Arabian
    -Postal-class Courier
    MIS Macedonia
    -Legionary-class Fast Troop Transport
    MIS Hispania Citerior
    -Legionary-class Fast Troop Transport
    MIS Hispania Ulterior
    -Legionary-class Fast Troop Transport
    MIS Gallia Narbonensis
    -Legionary-class Fast Troop Transport
    MIS Sicilia
    -Legionary-class Fast Troop Transport
    MIS Corsica et Sardinia
    -Legionary-class Fast Troop Transport

    Fixed Defences:
    Battery A
    -MSS-54-F LMP Constellation
    Battery B
    -MSS-54-F LMP Constellation
    Battery C
    -MSS-54-F LMP Constellation
    Shoal A
    -ASR-33-C TAM Shoal
    Shoal B
    -ASR-33-C TAM Shoal
    Shoal C
    -ASR-33-C TAM Shoal
    Shoal D
    -ASR-33-C TAM Shoal
    Shoal E
    -ASR-33-C TAM Shoal
    Shoal F
    -ASR-33-C TAM Shoal

    Fixed Defences:
    Battery A
    -Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation
    Battery B
    -Airstrike Pattern LMP Constellation
    Shoal A
    -Macross-Pattern LMP Constellation
    Shoal B
    -Macross-Pattern LMP Constellation
    Strikecraft Wing, ID# 48603
    -Radiance-Type Strikecraft

    -None

    -None

    Local Security Forces
    -Approximately fifty strong volunteer station security militia drawn from station personnel

    Local Security Forces:
    -Deep Space Security Solutions (Omoikane Subsidiary) Customs shuttle squadron based out of Xotreh B-4a's orbital station
    -Three companies of Standard Planetary Security Company (Ares subsidiary) troops based out of Xotreh B-4a's habitat complexes for internal security and law enforcement

    139th Solarian Navy Squadron:
    -Allegiance: Solarian Compact
    -Service: Solarian Navy
    -CO: Vice Admiral David Visser
    -Flagship: SNS Krak de Chevaliers

    Thanks to his heavy handed labour discipline and extractive tribute and demands for corvee labour from Ascension Admiral Visser is viscerally hated by the populace of Ascension, and to a lesser degree the rest of the Solarian Force as well. While the gate's completion draws near, it is uncertain what path that Visser will persue.

    SNS Krak de Chevaliers
    -Star-hold-Class light-tender
    SNS Victoria Newman
    -Leonard Greyson-Chang-Class Strike Corvette
    SNS Julia Stonechild
    -Leonard Greyson-Chang-Class Strike Corvette
    SNS Robert Chuikov
    -Leonard Greyson-Chang-Class Strike Corvette
    SNS Wallace Al-Wazir
    -Leonard Greyson-Chang-Class Strike Corvette
    SNS Dawn's Early Light
    -Freedom's Light-class cruiser
    SNS Jacob Nagumo
    -Herald Kanumba-Class frigate
    SNS Alexander Hamilton
    -Liberation-class troop transport

    Solarian Marines now spread throughout the system

    PCMI Provides new system data on the single system that lies beyond beyond Five Lions:

    Mobile Force:

    Current Orders: Defend the All Radiant Congress by acting as a rapid response in the event of any hostile acts.

    CO: Commodore Stephanie Rousseau

    CNS Velasco, United States of America-class Fleet Carrier

    -CO: Captain Esteri Attar

    -Orca Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft (Customized)

    -CO: Wing Commander Jasmine Ang

    -Red Wolf Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft (Customized)

    -CO: Wing Commander Heloisa Kimura de Lima

    CNS Shieldmaiden, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    CNS Shamhat, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    CNS Righteous Tempest, Cossak-class Frigate

    -CO: Captain Vehement Shade

    CNS August Willich, Cossak-class Frigate

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    CNS Elysium, Cossak-class Frigate

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    CNS Asphodel, Cossak-class Frigate

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    -


    Home Force:

    Current Orders: Defend Radiant, comet patrol, act as a reserve force

    CO: Commodore Erina Kozlova

    CNS Blaire Mountain, New Model-Class Strike Corvette

    -CO: Captain Guillermo Kageyama

    CNS Scutum, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

    -CO: Captain Martin Pagonis

    CNS Buckler, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

    -CO: Captain Samuel Smiles

    CNS Nasty Bastard, A Jury Rigged Mess of a Drone Carrier

    -CO: Captain Jean-Paul Beaumont

    -


    Radiant System Self Defence Force:

    Current Orders: Defend Radiant, comet patrol

    CO: Overseen by Admiral Gregory Mansur in his capacity as MilComm Chief of Naval Operations


    Radiant Customs Squadron, Arabia-class boarding craft with marine contingents

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    Switchblade Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    Apogee Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-


    Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

    (Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

    Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

    (Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

    Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

    (Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

    Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

    (Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

    Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

    (Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

    Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

    (Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

    Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

    (Radiant-Bestreer Gate)


    Radiant Orbital Yard 1

    Current construction: None

    Radiant Orbital Yard 1

    Current construction: None


    -


    Gaid System Self Defence Force:

    Current Orders: Defend Gaid

    CO: Commodore Victor Raine

    Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

    Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

    Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

    Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

    Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

    Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

    Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

    Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

    Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

    Zephyr Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

    -CO: Wing Commander Ara Helge

    Aeolus Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    Gale Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    -

    Frontier Force

    Current Orders: Keep watch on SolNav force in Raphanus, assist with integration of Ascension military forces, patrol Spinward frontier

    CO: Commodore Shayla McLean

    CNS Kiel Mutiny, Kaiserreich-class BattleCruiser

    -CO: Captain Inana Devlin

    CNS Choreographer, Janissary-class Light Tender

    -CO: Captain Karl Xanthopoulos

    CNS Valiant, New Model-class Strike Corvette, attached to CNS Choreographer

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    CNS Defiant, New Model-class Strike Corvette, attached to CNS Choreographer

    -CO: Captain Fool's Errand

    CNS Reliant, New Model-class Strike Corvette, attached to CNS Choreographer

    -CO: Captain Rouge Napier

    CNS Actium, New Model-class Strike Corvette, attached to CNS Choreographer

    -CO: Captain John Rankin

    CNS Crête-à-Pierrot, New Model-class Strike Corvette, attached to CNS Choreographer

    -CO: Captain Nkiru Chaudhari

    CNS Valmy, New Model-Class Strike Corvette, attached to CNS Choreographer

    -CO: Captain Sumac Barros

    CNS Revolutionary Will, Cossak-class Frigate

    -CO: Captain Yamamoto Hanae

    CNS Revolutionary Grace, Cossak-class Frigate

    -CO: -N/A DATABASE ERROR, CONTACT IT FOR HELP-

    CNS Under New Management, Don-Class Fast Tanker

    -CO: Captain Adras Kierenos

    CNS Liberte, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

    -CO: Captain Colin McRae

    CNS Egalite, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

    -CO: Captain Adelia Swift

    Resources
    Naval Ship Types: Ship Types (Public Version)
    Naval Officers: Congressional Navy Officers (Public Version)
    System Codex: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rtNbPCcPsTK7HCHKo9dPgK7ntx5tBKOpltrZb_In7GY/edit#
    Blaze Zhang: Blaze Zhang is trans-masc. That means his pronouns are he/him.


    DISCORD LINK:

    Join the Wordsmiths Discord Server!

    Check out the Wordsmiths community on Discord – hang out with 897 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
    discord.gg discord.gg
     
    Last edited by a moderator:
  • Informational
    • Odd question, but does anyone remember what the Compact's justice system is like? I ask because this seems like the sort of thing we should have a law expert on staff for.
     
    Look, we have enough martyrs already, and we aren't going need help getting more in the future.

    Living people, now that's the place where we'll have to put some effort in.
     
    Terminator57 said:
    What plan are you referring to ? I missed a list ?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    People are voting on player-made plans. They're scattered in the discussion (as people made them) rather than being part of the update post. You can see the current batch of them in this vote tally:
    Adhoc vote count started by Derpmind on Mar 26, 2021 at 4:25 PM, finished with 200 posts and 26 votes.
    • [X] Plan: Directions, Miss and Otherwise
      - [X] Accept the offer of talks and wait for the response from the Sheolites and Chinook before beginning negotiations.
      -[X] Ask about important local trading data, such as what is one system beyond our immediate neighbors (or just beyond Thoa), and of course the basic data about everything in the Osliam chain, mixing it all together in a generalized demand about knowledge of the 2-3 neighboring systems on each side, or whatnot.
      -[X] An open and free line of communication of some form directly to the Compacts and its government.
      -[X] Put in some spurious requests for licensesand so on and suchforth in a way that might delude them as to what we do and do not know... making sure not to have it be anything too easily guessed out. Obviously we have plenty of Ares products, maybe. But there's definite ways we could make it look like we're weaker than we really are, industrially.
      -[X] A prisoner exchange is required, one that gets us all of our stolen people back.
      -[X] A ceasefire of 2-4 years might be arranged, but only and specifically between HI, Ares, and individual participants, who may choose to opt out of one or more of the ceasefires if they so desire. Any such ceasefire, however, includes the right to refuse passage to warships, maybe with some nonsense clauses that allow us to bribe them or them to (try) to bribe us. Anything else is up to those Charters making their own deals or so on.
      --[X] Explain to Shei ahead of time that they can refuse any ceasefire with Ares, and since Ares has to go through Radiant... also explain the Osliam chain plan, that most of the planets down the chain are unlikely to be HI or Ares, and so can be liberated, or at worst temporarily bypassed.
      -[X] Reciprocal non-news media exchange: we can set things out as 'Radiant products', they can beam things into the feed and etc to try to sell them to us.
      --[X] They probably think they can win any such exchange because they believe we don't understand how to make 'movie magic.' If they demand a cut of the profits, make a show of being very reluctant, but agree. Since, y'know, it's all gonna be free.
      -[X] Explain to SCMC and Chinook that any ceasefire wouldn't touch on, well, the Osliam chain, and explain just what it is you want and why. Before the conference even begins.
      --[X] Ask what their demands and requests are, and try to work around or with them ahead of time.
      [X] Plan: Stall for time
      - [X] Accept the offer of talks and wait for the response from the Sheolites and Chinook before beginning negotiations.
      --[X] Ask for a ceasefire between Hermes-Ishtar, Ares and the liberated polities. (Thus allowing us to attack systems owned by other Charters)
      ---[X] Ceasefire will be in effect for the duration of the negotiations.
      ---[X] Ask Compact to observe the ceasefire and act as a mediator for the negotiations. (To buy time)
      --[X] Request prisoner exchange for the purpose of returning our stolen people.
      --[X] Stall for time and make make various requests to confuse Charters.
      ---[X] Request that frozen Radiant accounts are unfrozen.
      ---[X] Request that we are given access to various licenses, regardless of our actual access to them. Play up lack of high end consumer goods.
      ---[X] Request the right to freely distribute media across the Compact space using existing datanetworks and communications infrastructure.
      ---[X] Request that Charter abuses are investigated by local teams, and that the results are made publicly available.
      --[X] If/when we can no longer delay, demand Ares and Hermes-Ishtar to recognize our full independence from them. (But not from the Compact)
      --[X] If/when we can no longer delay, announce our desire to open separate talks with Compact about our status and relationship with the Compact.
      --[X] Make it clear to our negotiators and allies that we expect the ceasefire to be only temporary.
      [X] Accept the offer of talks and wait for the response from the Sheolites and Chinook before beginning negotiations.
      [X] Plan: Give 'em the ol' razzle dazzle
      - [X] Accept the offer of talks and wait for the response from the Sheolites and Chinook before beginning negotiations.
      -[X] Instruct our diplomats to do the following:
      --[X] Request Solarian Compact observers and/or mediators to aid in talks (plays for time)
      --[X] Make return of our kidnapped citizens highest priority for ceasefire negotiations
      --[X] Invoke our rights as members of the Solarian Compact in some fashion; access to Solcoin markets maybe?
      --[X] Independent Solarian Compact investigation into charter abuses that occurred in ARC space
      --[X] Draw out talks as long as we can without letting them slip off the hook. The more time we buy, the better.
      --[X] Evacuation of Charter forces from ARC space (Thoa), or failing that mutual demilitarization of Thoa
      --[X] H-I and Ares acknowledgement of our independence and their support for our application to join the Solarian Compact as an independent polity
      --[X] Charleston to be put on trial by Compact for mass kidnapping/abduction by force of ARC citizens
      --[X] Attempt to misdirect Charters regarding our success in regards to cracking FRM by requesting high end consumer product prints that we have already cracked or playing up lack of consumer goods
      --[X] Request right of access to Compact data networks and communications backbone so we can communicate with the Compact
      --[X] Request right to distribute/"sell" our own entertainment material unaltered/unedited by H-I in exchange for profit split with H-I. They can take most profits, it's the propaganda and information war we're more interested with these. If they won't go for it, at least let us distribute unmolested.
      [X] Plan Actual Ceasefire
      -[X] Accept the Offer of Talks and Wait for the response from Sheol and Chinook before beginning
      -[X] Prioritize the Following:
      --[X] Cease-fire between ARC and Hermes-Ishtar/Ares, for at least 2 years, continuing as negotiations continue, and with the option to be extended.
      --[X] Demilitarization of Thoa, Xotreh, and Bestreer
      --[X] Exchange Prisoners, our people for the remaining charter personnel who haven't committed warcrimes and want to go. Request safe conduct: this means nothing but maybe the Charters will feel clever when they ignore it.
      ---[X] Public trial of the latter category for said warcrimes under the Compact.
      --[X] Request access/observers from the Solarian Compact, as well as a line of communication with both the Compact and HI/Ares
      --[X] As a loss-leader, request recognition of sovereignty. This will almost certainly not be granted, but will establish our goals, and if they do go for it with the intent to ignore, great.
      --[X] As a loss-leader, request license for the HI/Ares patterns we already have. Willing to pay *some* for this, but nothing vital (no more than 10% of our state income, or a one-time fee in the order of 40 BR/20 SR).
      ---[X] If necessary, agree not to take military patterns with apparently great reluctance.
      --[X] As a lower priority, some kind of agreement in which we can broadcast our programs in their media.
      --[X] As a lower priority, free movement of our citizens and the right to sell our goods to them, in exchange for the ability to establish market stations in Gaid and/or Thoa - through which all Charter commerce will be done.
    Click to expand...
     
    [X] Plan: Directions, Miss and Otherwise

    I'm fine with this plan, as long as this is cleared up:
    The Laurent said:
    -[X] A ceasefire of 2-4 years might be arranged, but only and specifically between HI, Ares, and individual participants, who may choose to opt out of one or more of the ceasefires if they so desire.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Ares can simply opt out of a ceasefire with Radiant, and immediately invade Gaid.
    ...That's not a ceasefire. :???:

    Shard of Victory said:
    To die for revolution is honor, but to live for revolution is duty.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    To kill the enemy of revolution, is both an honor and a duty.
    :tongue:
     
    Tatbee said:
    [X] Plan: Directions, Miss and Otherwise

    I'm fine with this plan, as long as this is cleared up:

    Ares can simply opt out of a ceasefire with Radiant, and immediately invade Gaid.
    ...That's not a ceasefire. :???:


    To kill the enemy of revolution, is both an honor and a duty.
    :tongue:
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I meant the individual participants. As in, I'm giving room for Shei to go, "We shall always be at war with Ares, until the suns of all the galaxy explode!"
     
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    Omake - Cassana's Sacrifice - veteranMortal
  • Apocrypha
    • Cassana couldn't say she was overjoyed to be back in her switchblade. She didn't hate it; certainly, it beat sitting in the mess hall of the creaking, rudimentary base the chinook had thrown together for them, but if she could be anywhere, she'd be curled up in Mei Ling's arms, back on Radiant.

    Mei Ling's face occupied a small and redundant portion of her HUD - before the revolution, it had been a distractingly flashing advertisement, but she had replaced it with a photograph, for it is an inescapable fact of fighter pilots that when given the opportunity, they will pin up a picture of the proverbial 'gal waiting back home'.

    She wasn't resentful though! Really! Sure, her shore leave had been cancelled, and sure, she'd planned to spend at least a week on solid ground, with the woman she loved, but this was a war, and she'd volunteered for this.

    She could take or leave being stuck in the cockpit for what was beginning to look like hours, though. She hadn't been sent in against the Ishtar forces, but now the Ares boys had shown up, the pilots had been ordered into their switchblades, and made ready.

    She would die today. She knew that, she'd known that when she woke up, but it felt more real. If the hellburners fizzled out, it'd be the switchblades that went in next, like as not. Hit them whilst they were distracted, expecting capital ships. Fly into the teeth of a capital ship.

    Her comms crackled. They didn't have to, but it made her feel more like a fighter pilot from the movies, so she'd nagged her mechanic into fitting a crackle to her comms unit.

    The voice was smooth, automated, as it listed updates from the bridge of the Shieldmaiden, updating the fleet.

    "Confirmed hit from the Huggles on the Hood. She's venting atmosphere… Possible hit from the NB Gender Reveal on the Myrmidon.... Possible hit from the Yang on the Lutzow... Eat the Rich under fire from several sources... Possible hit from Please Work on the Valkyrie... Possible hit from the Look at Me Mom on the Hood... The Hood is gone. Repeat - the battlecruiser Hood has been destroyed… The Cruiser Valkyrie has been destroyed… The Light Cruiser Myrmidon has been destroyed…"

    The messages finally stopped, and Cassana released a breath she hadn't known she was holding. The hellburners had done it. They'd crippled the corporate bastards.

    The comms crackled again, and the voice was not automated this time.

    "Switchblades! Launch when ready, pathfinder formation."

    Wing Commander Anderson was a clear minded, analytical sort, but even they couldn't keep a tinge of something from their voice - excitement? Or Fear? Cassana didn't know. Didn't want to know.

    The switchblade purred as she gunned it, and she was in the inky depths of space within moments.

    The vacuum of space was filled with speeding death within seconds, as the Lutzow turned her guns on the fighters, and her frigate escort hurried to join her. Cassana pulled herself into a steep turn upwards, away from the barrage, whilst still headed for the ships.

    The fleet seemed to be moving too, capital ships coming to bring their guns to bear on the remainder of the Ares fleet. Pathfinder was a common enough formation; arrayed not so much to strike the enemy capital ships themselves, and more to allow the switchblades to intercept any fighters the enemy launched themselves, and to knock out the more threatening point defences. Find the path for the capital ships.

    This used to make Cassana unhappy, when she was still a trainee. The pilots flew and died, and the capital ship swept in for the glory. Not so much any longer. The battlecruiser Lutzow dwarfed her tiny fighter, and truthfully, appeared to outmass anything that Radiant had available.

    The space around the gate was scattered with the carcasses of the rest of the Ares fleet. The main bulk of the Hood drifted slowly past, obscuring the guns of the Lutzow for a time. Cassana gunned her engine, wrinkling her nose as the Gs pressed her into her seat. Her wingmates fell in besides her, and she angled herself towards one of the frigates.

    "Orders, Gold One?" Her comms crackled. Gold Three, by the sound of it. His voice cracked a little, which she wouldn't mention; best not to embarrass the poor boy, barely out of his teens as he was. And wasn't that an odd thing to think, at all of 25 herself? Good god. It wasn't fair to have to be the wise old hand before you've turned thirty, she thought.

    She could well survive this, she realised, as her switchblade whistled towards the Frigate; the charter fleet had been so decimated, there were reasonable odds of survival, even for a switchblade. If she just hung back a little, she could quite easily survive long enough for the capital ships to clean up the remainder of the Ares fleet. No one could blame her.

    She feathered her engine for a moment, almost unconsciously, considering. She could just sit here, playing interceptor - moving to combat any Ares strike craft launched for retributive attacks, steering well clear of the point defences of the frigates - and she'd be fine. It was a necessary role, and a safer one. She'd been flying longer than most other pilots; she'd been in training on Radiant before the revolution, most of these pilots hadn't even seen a switchblade at that point. Her experience would be useful, if they needed more pilots, which they certainly would, after this battle.

    For all that, when she saw Blue Flight heading in, knowing they were the newest of new blood, still swept up in the romance of the fighter life, she found herself opening the throttle, heading in to cut them off.

    "Follow me in, we'll be knocking out the guns on this frigate,"

    Her wingmates buzzed their acknowledgement as they followed her in. The frigate's point defences spat fire, whipping around her fighter, but not quite able to land a hit. It would only take one, she knew. One hit and that would be all she wrote.

    Her automatic turrets returned fire, a cacophony of flares, chaff and other defensive screens, but she paid them no mind. Pull in close on the frigate, and curl around its body, picking off major weapon systems and striking vulnerabilities as best she could, then peel off and prepare for another approach. Concentrate too much on the point defence, and you'd linger, get caught out, and die. Speed is the best armour for fighters.

    She made it halfway around the frigate, leaving a trail of patches gently seeping air into the void, before Gold 2 winked out of existence. Her starboard wingmate, she had followed Cassana too closely into a turn, and caught a shot aimed at Cass. She wouldn't have known until she was already dead. Cass told herself this made it better. It didn't.

    She tried to swallow down her rising gorge. She had a job to finish.

    A glancing shot from the Righteous Tempest hit the Ares frigate, scattering armour plates from around the engines. Cassana yanked her fighter around to avoid the debris, jinking this way and that.

    A chunk about the size of a clenched fist caught her strikecraft on the wing, sending her into an uncontrolled spin, trying not to throw up. Other impacts wracked the frame as she span, but it held up well enough.

    She stabilised, coming to a near total stop behind the frigate. Her vision was full of flashing red alarms, but her main gun responded without complaint, and if the craft shook a little more than normal as the engine amped up, she paid it no mind.

    The frigate was in a bad way. Cassana could see debris continuing to float free from the glancing scar down the spine, and she was fairly sure at least some of the debris had been human, once upon a time. Her guns were still working though, cruel stabs of heat on the infrared, lashing out at any ship which made as though to trouble the Lutzow.

    Cassana went in again. The point defence system had to have been damaged by all this fire, and regardless, the frigate's aft cannon was still operational, and laying down a zone of control in front of the battle cruiser.

    The switchblade shook as she fired the spinal cannon, but she gritted her teeth, and fired once again. The mount for the frigate's gun had been cracked already, and where her first cannon shot all but destroyed it, the second shot obliterated, knocking out the last of the frigate's proverbial teeth.

    Satisfied, despite the damage to her switchblade, Cassana turned for base. She'd danced the danse macabre with a frigate, and come out alive.

    Her eye caught on the picture at the bottom of her HUD, and she smiled. She'd done her duty, now all she had to do was get back to


    A strikecraft winked out of existence on the tactical map of the gate. This was noted by the VI managing the point defence of the Lutzow, and had it been capable of it, it would have felt a little satisfaction, that of a job well done, however small.




    Dear Miss Zhang,

    It is my solemn duty as Cassana Dolan's wing commander to inform you that today, whilst serving in the defence of Radiant, your wife paid the ultimate price for her service. She was a brave pilot, and her loss…


    Mei Ling threw her tablet at the wall and began to cry, curling up in a bed that was too big for her.



    AN: even when you get a crushing victory, not everyone survives to celebrate
     
    Last edited:
  • Apocrypha
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    Better Lucky Than Good (November 2253)
  • Sidestory
    • Better Lucky Than Good


    Andres Velasquez was nervous. But then, when wasn't he nervous? He'd been nervous every time the Targe went into combat and honestly he didn't think there was anyone out there who wouldn't be nervous in this kind of situation. The Targe had been slapped together with a civilian tender which had made the haul out to Gaid from Radiant. This was, as Captain Pandit had said, an 'all hands on deck' situation considering the firepower the Compacts were about to bring to bear. It made him more nervous than the previous missions, honestly. There was just so much that could go wrong. So many horrifying possibilities. He wasn't even on the flight deck where he might have an idea of what was happening. No, he was stuck back in the engineering section, making sure everything was working.

    The fleets had been arrayed for what felt like hours, waiting for the expected Areas incursion. Standing to at your battle station in your pressure suit for that long sucked. It sucked a lot. And you couldn't even smoke or drink coffee or anything like that to cut the tension. You just made the same shitty jokes over and over again and wished that you were somewhere else. Anywhere else. He looked across the engineering space to where one of his crewmates, Warrant Officer Rhodes, was looking over the display for the millionth time.

    "When do you think we're finally going to do something?" Andres grumbled.

    "I already said I don't know," she groaned. "How many times are you going to ask that?"

    "I dunno. How many more hours do we have to stand to, do you think?"

    "I don't fucking know, Velasquez. Can you cut it out--"

    Then neither of them had time to worry about that stuff. The intercomms whistled sharply and then the captain's crisp voice came on.

    "Now hear this, now hear this: the enemy fleet is transiting the gate. Stand by for combat maneuvers--all crew who have not strapped in are required to do so now. Stand by for combat maneuvers."

    "Happy now, Velasquez?"

    "Fuck you."

    He was not happy. He was extremely unhappy. Why had he signed up for this shit? Yeah he'd been through a couple fights without a scrape but this was different. Really different. Stupidly different. He could be safe dirtside on Radiant getting a tan and making small talk while making mai tais for rich assholes but instead he was here. Fighting the revolution. Fuck. The intercom was crackling--a live feed of the bridge communications fed through the ship so that people had a rough idea of what was happening.

    "Stand by to initiate our attack run, we'll be going in once the fireships do their thing."

    "All systems prepped, we are in the green."

    "All weapons functioning."

    Minutes ticked by then:

    "Shieldmaiden reports multiple good hits on targets by HELLBURNER. Initiate attack pattern Two-One-Three-Alpha; target the Lutzow."

    Andres had no idea which one the Lutzow was but hoped it would be over quick. He turned his attention back to the engineering readouts hovering on his HUD and worked his fingers across his keyboard, trying to distract himself. He felt himself lurch as the corvette accelerated sharply and he was pressed back into the couch, then the heavy vibration as the weapons began to fire.

    "Good hit, good hit. We have direct hit on that forward point defense battery. Good shot, Johanson."

    "All the computer, ma'am." Even if the comments were fairly light, almopst innocuous like they were in a sim, Andres felt he could hear the strain in the voices of the flight deck crew. The corvettes was altering its burn, changing course to bring itself away from the enemy line and then it lurched sickeningly in a way that had nothing to do with their maneuver. The spin would have sent him ass over ears if he wasn't strapped in and he heard Rhodes cursing.

    "Velasquez, give me info on the starboard thrusters, I'm not getting anything--"

    The engineering chamber exploded. Or it felt like it did. All he knew was that there was a bright light and something that felt like someone grabbing him by the base of his spine and he squeezed his eyes shut on reflex. When he opened them again he was spinning again, tumbling out into the open void and away from the comparative safety of the Targe. His helmet readouts flickered out as they lost connection with the corvette and as he tumbled he saw the ship--or what was left of it--entering a sickening flat spin away away in the other direction, debris and atmosphere venting free of the section he'd been strapped into a moment earlier. He twisted his head, tried to get his bearings--the crash couch had been severed from the rest of the ship by something. A laser or a solid munition had shot through the skin of the Targe, split his couch away from the rest of the ship and torn a three meter gash into the engineering section. The front end of the ship, where the flight deck usually was, was a blackened, gutted hole and before he could process any more it was out of sight again as he tumbled.

    Andres hit the emergency release on the crash couch webbing and tumbled free of the debris, used the emergency thruster on the atmo suit to correct his spin and there he was, tumbling amongst the debris of the battle like so much other detritus. Christ. All he needed now was some speeding bit of battle debris to punch a hole in his suit and this would officially be the worst day of his life ten or a hundred times over. As his spin slowed, he couldn't help the gasp that escaped his lips.

    He'd seen vids, played XPs, but this front row seat to a space battle was like nothing he had ever seen before. Lights flickered and danced as thrusters burned and missiles, lasters and munitions criss-crossed the battlespace. A frigate, possibly the one that had burned down the Targe was closest, within a hundred kilometers and beyond that, just at the limit of what he could make out with the pressure suit's weak visual sensors, was the battlecruiser they had attacked, the Lutzow. A light cruiser, probably the Shieldmaiden, was in the midst of an attack run and he had never seen anything so beautiful or so terrifying in his life.

    He wondered if anyone else had gotten off the Targe.

    He wondered if anyone would be left to pick him up once the battle was over. Or if the emergency oxygen in the suit would last him that long. The readouts said he had ninety minutes. Hopefully that would be enough.

    For now, though, all he could do was watch.

    Watch and wait.

    ---

    Excerpt from Report to the All-Radiant Congressional Naval Headquarters on the Second Battle of Gaid.

    It is with great regret that I must report the loss of the Comet-Class Patrol Corvette CNS Targe with almost all hands. Of the crew of twenty-four, only five survivors have been confirmed at this time. They are as follows, in order of rank:

    Ensign Theodora Kyriakou
    Petty Officer Satoshi Jimenez
    Petty Officer Lorenzo Kim
    Crewperson Aliya Ramos
    Crewperson Andres Velasquez

    The first four were all found in the same lifeboat, which they ejected in from the aft starboard engineering section following the CNS Targe being hit by enemy fire and losing thruster control. At this point, the vessel had entered a spinning drift and with loss of communication with the flight deck, Ensign Kyriakou ordered those still in her section to abandon ship.

    Crewperson Velasquez was picked up approximately fifty-three minutes after the cessation of hostilities when his pressure suits emergency beacon was detected. Through some miracle of physics, his crash couch was severed from its position in the port-side engineering section when the Targe was struck by enemy fire and he was ejected from the vessel.

    All other hands are confirmed killed in action, or are missing in action, presumed dead.
     
  • Sidestory
    • @AKuz
    Would a Ceasefire prohibit inserting assets into other systems, and supplying rebellious locals?

    In other words.
    Would a Ceasefire prohibit any hostilities toward HI and Ares, no matter how far removed or indirect they are?
    Or would a Ceasefire only prohibit the use of military fleets?
     
    Tatbee said:
    @AKuz
    Would a Ceasefire prohibit inserting assets into other systems, and supplying rebellious locals?

    In other words.
    Would a Ceasefire prohibit any hostilities toward HI and Ares, no matter how far removed or indirect they are?
    Or would a Ceasefire only prohibit the use of military fleets?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I assume that is something that we'd negotiate.

    Presumably, both we and the Charters will argue that doing that kinda stuff is against the treaty, and then both we and the charters will ignore that restriction when it suits us.
     
    [X] Plan: Stall for time

    Honestly I don't expect anything to come from negotiating but it might buy us some time to be ready for the next attack. No negotiation will ever be honoured because I don't think the Charters can afford to let us exist. Our continued existence makes other people realize that if our revolution succeeded then maybe theirs can also.
     
    I was re-reading the quest, and found something maybe a little relevant to the current vote:
    AKuz said:
    [ ] [Diplo] 'Veronica Stardust' - The XP Star

    *cut*

    Diplomatic Goals: Keep Charter space open to Radiant broadcasts, promote freedom of information, maintain communications links, open up citizen to citizen diplomacy, appeal directly to the public to prevent aggression against Radiant
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    AKuz said:
    [ ] [Diplo] Jeremiah Baldi - Grillist

    *cut*

    Diplomatic Goals: establishing offworld trade, proving Radiant's good faith and potential as a trade partner, cutting deals to legitimize Radiant's independence
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Basically it seems like the plan votes go for a combination of these two goals. Opening up Charter space to Radiant broadcasts, and establishing some measure of trade and legitimacy. But of note is that our current diplomat is focused on the former.
     
    Derpmind said:
    Basically it seems like the plan votes go for a combination of these two goals. Opening up Charter space to Radiant broadcasts, and establishing some measure of trade and legitimacy. But of note is that our current diplomat is focused on the former.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Jeremiah Baldi comes across as someone who wants to do honest trade, whereas the proposals mostly focus on utilizing trade as a vector for propaganda or misinforming the charters. We expect to be screwed over in any trade negotiation, and that's not a problem because we're only using the trade as an excuse to insert our propaganda into the charter datanetwork.
     
    Last edited:
    JesseJ said:
    [X] Plan: Stall for time

    Honestly I don't expect anything to come from negotiating but it might buy us some time to be ready for the next attack. No negotiation will ever be honoured because I don't think the Charters can afford to let us exist. Our continued existence makes other people realize that if our revolution succeeded then maybe theirs can also.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    The can't afford to let us exist, but that doesn't mean they have to directly attack us. Strategies of blockades, propaganda, and formatting internal revolts have all been effective before. As long as they believe they are effective, they will probably hold off on attacks.
     
    AKuz said:
    Spoiler: Science Committee, Tech Reports
    Unlocked FRM
    Ares Peacekeeping Grade - Access to planetary army formation
    Ares Military Grade - Access to mid-sized shipyards, bonuses to planetary army combat. Bonus to completion of Chinook remodeling

    Rhodes Light industrial Grade - 10% increase to all mining income, reduced Cost for BLG and other actions that use basic fabber processes
    Rhodes Heavy Industrial Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

    Cernunnos Consumer Grade - +1 to all Soccom actions
    Cernunnos Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

    Omoikane Consumer Grade - NOT UNLOCKED
    Omoikane Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

    Hermes-Ishtar Consumer Grade - Your economy doesn't crash when the turn of funding
    Hermes-Ishtar Production Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

    MSI Consumer Grade - NOT UNLOCKED
    MSI Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

    Original Tech
    None, only a profit motive encourages innovations, thus the pirates have developed nothing of their own.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    So, uh, anyone else noticed that we've finally gotten solid information on our FRM techs for several days now? Because this is the first time I'm seeing it. And, basically, it looks like we only get the big bonuses from completing the second tier of an FRM tech. +1 to Soccom actions and +10% mining income aren't bad but they're relatively small. Meanwhile Ares Military Grade lets us build an entire class of larger warships, bonuses to planetary army, and a bonus to the Chinook conversion.

    Going forward I think we should focus on cracking the advanced FRM techs rather than trying to finish up all the basic levels. I'd even argue that if the MSI doesn't finish this turn, we should leave it for later. I know there are narrative benefits to each tech, but the second level stuff is the level that impacts us on a planetary rather than an individual scale.

    (Also, why does Original Tech refer to our entire planet as pirates? Isn't this suppose to be written from our perspective?)
     
    Derpmind said:
    So, uh, anyone else noticed that we've finally gotten solid information on our FRM techs for several days now? Because this is the first time I'm seeing it. And, basically, it looks like we only get the big bonuses from completing the second tier of an FRM tech. +1 to Soccom actions and +10% mining income aren't bad but they're relatively small. Meanwhile Ares Military Grade lets us build an entire class of larger warships, bonuses to planetary army, and a bonus to the Chinook conversion.

    Going forward I think we should focus on cracking the advanced FRM techs rather than trying to finish up all the basic levels. I'd even argue that if the MSI doesn't finish this turn, we should leave it for later. I know there are narrative benefits to each tech, but the second level stuff is the level that impacts us on a planetary rather than an individual scale.

    (Also, why does Original Tech refer to our entire planet as pirates? Isn't this suppose to be written from our perspective?)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I get what you're saying, but I think I disagree. We need MSI for MSI advanced, and transportation and shipping will probably grow as a concern very fast.

    Also, that reduced BLG cost is honestly pretty significant. I wonder if it also effects the BLG-expansion Fabbers, too.
     
    I would argue that given our current focus on building up our fleet, MSI advanced is really important, so we can hopefully stop needing to spend dice on ship building.
     
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