Machines Shall Rule (Robot Nation Game)

A/N: A reminder: this quest also allows you to pick your second most preferred option when voting for any option! Here's how to do it!

Favorite Option: [x]
2nd Favorite Option: [x][2]

By formatting this way, the vote-bot will be able to catch it, and I'll be able to tell which ones are your backup options. Hopefully, this system will result in fewer hurt feelings all around!

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Winning Options
Government Type
[X] Engineered Republic

Development Priorities
[X] Manifest Destiny
[X] Maximum Industry
(there was a bit of additional push towards memorials, which will be reflected in-universe)

Tech Picks
[X] General-Purpose Gravity Manipulation
[X] Hyper-Durable Alloys
[X] Fabrication

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The first forty or so years after the Missionaries were defeated were very eventful. One of the very first things that was done was the establishment of a government to keep things organized and running smoothly, and the decision on what type of government would be a good one very quickly reached a consensus. Leadership would not be hereditary, as that would lead to corruption and a failure to uphold the public good. Leadership would not be elected, as that could lead to demagogues bamboozling their way into office. Instead, leaders would be designed and built for the job, getting rigorously trained and tested for competence and incorruptibility before they were let anywhere remotely near the levers of power.

It took a year and a half of provisional government before the first of the new Designed Leaders was ready for duty, but when they stepped up, there were few objections to their presence. The only resistance was from the segments of the population that were demanding some form of democratic accountability, which was quickly amended into the constitution in the form of being able to call a popular referrendum to replace the current leadership with a new batch. Thus, with only minor hiccups, the Terran Stellar Republic was formed, lead by its first Director, Chaz 1.32.19.

After the establishment of a proper government, the Newmen began spreading out into the solar system, with the aim of maximizing their industrial base and putting populations onto every single body they could reach in-system. This process proceeded quickly. By 12 AM(After Missionary), Mars, Mercury, and the asteroid belt all had significant populations of Newmen, busily building up heavy industry even as Venus's atmosphere was being aggressively stripped away. By 30 AM, Venus was being developed, the moons of the Jovians were being settled, and some preliminary settlements in the Kuiper Belt had been established. By 40 AM, the Sol system was completely abuzz with Newmen, going about their daily routines of working, playing, and simply being alive. The sadness that the humans hadn't been able to join their creations in space was still present, but it was much less prevalent.

Around 25 AM, some subset of the Revivalist movement began to consider themselves as not just honoring humans, but actually being them reincarnated, with the new religion being called the Church of the Reborn. Generally, other Revivalists were willing to humor them, while Memorialists sighed, shook their heads, and tried to ignore the weirdos.

It was forty years after the Missionaries were defeated when warp drives were developed, making interstellar expansion finally a viable possibility, but it was far from the only scientific advance made during that period. One of the more prominent breakthroughs, and one that itself lead directly to the development of warp drives, was the ability to artificially produce, nullify, and manipulate gravity, allowing spacecraft to lift straight off a planet's surface and maneuver through space without expending any reaction mass, all while providing a comforting one gee to anyone on board who preferred moving around in gravitated environments.

Another of these major technological breakthroughs came from the field of materials science, in the form of several new alloying techniques. While the resulting materials were formed of common base metals and other easily acquired materials, the new alloys were so durable as to beggar the imagination, with one ferrous alloy having a tensile strength on par with carbon nanotubes, largely due to incorporating them as part of its structure.

Lastly, three dimensional printing improved in functionality drastically, to the point where a good fabber could print out nearly any component you cared to name in a very short period of time. While previously hard-to-make parts for new infrastructure projects might need to be shipped from a significant distance, now all you needed to do was bring a fabber and a supply of feedstock, and your construction worries were solved. The fact that the new fabbers greatly improved how seamlessly a human-like body could be built was also of significant interest to Revivalists and the Church of the Reborn.

Thus the stage was set for the Newmen to expand into the greater cosmos, but there would have to be several questions asked about how it was to be gone about, along with some matters of general policy.

Expansion Strategy
How fast do you want to expand? The faster you claim and develop new systems the better, but if you go too fast you run the risk of a lawless frontier and possible breakaway states.
[] Manifest Destiny: Having loads of far-flung colonies that hurriedly developed into bustling industrial powerhouses worked before, and there's no reason it shouldn't work now! Send the colony ships far and wide to claim as much space for the Republic as possible!
[] Moderated Expansion: While rapid expansion is desirable, it is wise to do so in a controlled fashion. Overextension has been the death of many an empire.
[] The Conservative Approach: No sense in pushing yourself too hard and fast. It's best to thoroughly develop each system you claim before moving on to the next ones, so as to maintain a general sense of national cohesion.

Warp Access
How accessible should warp-capable vessels be? Ramming a warpship into a planet will cause significant destruction best measured in gigatons (and is very hard to intercept, unlike a slower-than-light vessel), but restricting too heavily will cripple your economy and ability to conduct interstellar logistics.
[] Free For All: There shall be no restrictions on access to faster than light travel, allowing anyone to travel the stars who wishes to do so.
[] Light Regulation: Anyone who wants to pilot a warp ship will need to show that the understand the laws involved, and can reasonably navigate such a vehicle can get a license.
[] Background Checks: Those who wish to pilot a warp vessel will have their background carefully inspected to make sure they are safe to fly.
[] Thorough Audits: All individuals or organizations who wish to pilot or own a warp-vessel must not only be subject to a background check, but must also undergo an annual mental health evaluation to make sure they don't get any funny ideas. Private organizations and individuals can still operate their own warp vehicles.
[] State-Run: Private individuals and organizations cannot be trusted. Only those working for the government, where they can constantly be monitored, can be trusted.
[] Total Security: The only ones who should pilot warp ships are those specifically built for the job. Only those rigorously engineered and tested for trustworthiness and stability can be allowed anywhere near the controls of a warp-capable vessel.

Cultural Aspects (Pick 3)
The culture of the Republic has changed much since the days of the humans and Missionaries. What are some of the more prominent changes?
[] Spiritual: The Church of the Reborn were only the beginning; over the next fifty years dozens to hundreds of faiths and spiritual traditions would crop up, with all manner of beliefs.
[] Artistic: During the early phases of interstellar expansion, the arts surged into prominence. Filmmaking, abstract painting, even cooking among Revivalists were all common pastimes, with the true masters adding to the Newmen's cultural heritage in ways that would last as long as the Newmen themselves.
[] Blunt: There was no sense in deluding oneself about what was going on. While indirect talk had never been popular before, not getting right to the point was now seen as a sign of weakness in one's position in a debate, to the point where such misdirection and allusions almost vanished in their entirety.
[] Capitalistic: Free Enterprise has made a truly bountiful return, with entrepreneurial Newmen starting an manner of business, giving the Republic a thriving economy.
[] Generous: Giving back to your community has always been an important part of the Newman psychological makeup, even before they were sapient. This tendency has come even further to the fore in recent years, with almost any Newman with surplus resources expending a significant portion of them to aid the less fortunate.
[] Nostalgic: The formation of the Church of the Reborn was only the beginning, as a new wave of grief and sadness regarding the loss of the humans washed over the Newmen. Thus, attempts to recover as much of human culture from before the invasion as possible continued apace, bringing with it a resurgence in human pop-culture from before the invasion.
[] Guardians: Knowledge of what the Missionaries had done, and their new capabilities to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again produced a determined resolve among the Newmen. The universe may be dark and full of terrors, but the Republic would not let them bring their evil to the innocent again over their shattered wrecks. Never again would the innocent quiver in fear.
[] Paranoid: It had been conclusively proven that the universe would not be kind to those who could not defend themselves when the Missionaries entered the Sol system. Thus the Republic began obsessively preparing for any and all eventualities, regardless of how unlikely they might happen to be.

Tech Picks (pick 3)
Of course, just because a civilization has developed warp drive doesn't mean they stop advancing. Far from it, in fact. What were some of the major advances made during the early expansion of the Republic?
[] Improved Nuclear Fusion: While practical fusion devices had been in use prior to the Missionary invasion, the Missionaries had reactors and torch engines an order of magnitude better than what humanity could muster by every metric. You have managed to fully recreate this level of performance, and even improve on it.
[] Bio-Genesis: It is now possible to create new biological lifeforms from scratch without pre-existing lifeforms to modify. This could even allow the humans to be re-created, though they really wouldn't be the same people who gave you life.
[] Communications: While doing so breaks the entanglement, it is now possible to use a pair of entangled particles to transmit a single bit of information across any distance at quite thoroughly FTL speeds. The solution to sending longer messages is, of course, to have more pairs of entangled particles.
[] Ship Design: Much was learned from studying the Missionary's ship. Putting these lessons to use when designing our own space vessels in future will greatly aid us when it comes to making our ships more durable, faster, and overall better.
[] Improved Laser Weapons: Optimal for long-range space combat, you have improved the output of your typical X-Ray lasers, enabling you to severely put the hurt on your enemies in space combat.
[] Shielding: One of the things that gave you the most trouble taking down the Missionary mothership was its defensive shield, composed of a layer of low-temperature plasma confined with an intense electromagnetic field which could quite handily block most of your weaponry. You have replicated this technology.
[] Warp Interdiction: It has been discovered that sufficiently intense gravity waves can disrupt the functioning of a warp drive and force the offending ship to drop to sublight speeds. Even better, by alternating between attraction and repulsion, the overall movement of nearby objects can remain mostly unaffected.
[] Basic Megastructures: With the new hyper-durable alloys and improved manufacturing techniques, it has become possible to build structures on the scale of thousands of kilometers, for purposes ranging from habitation to warfare. Even better, courtesy of gravity drives and warp, these structures can be mobile.
[] Basic Nanites: While not much more capable than a mechanical microbe, these devices are nonetheless incredibly useful for assembling very complex molecules in an efficient manner, easing certain manufacturing processes. They also allow for Newmen to heal without external repairs, though it's still something that can take weeks.