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Age of Strife

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Wait...would the bodies of the slain count for appropriate bio-matter feedstock for our magical panacea?
 
[X] (1.2) We will investigate and speak with the Dragonflies ourselves.
-[X] "If they turn out to be as tyrannical and expansionist as you say, it's only going to be a matter of time before there is conflict between us and them, but I must at least let them speak for themselves once."
 
[X] (1.2) We will investigate and speak with the Dragonflies ourselves.
-[X] "If they turn out to be as tyrannical and expansionist as you say, it's only going to be a matter of time before there is conflict between us and them, but I must at least let them speak for themselves once."
 
[X] (1.2) We will investigate and speak with the Dragonflies ourselves.
-[X] "If they turn out to be as tyrannical and expansionist as you say, it's only going to be a matter of time before there is conflict between us and them, but I must at least let them speak for themselves once."
 
Jumping on the wagon

[X] (1.2) We will investigate and speak with the Dragonflies ourselves.
-[X] "If they turn out to be as tyrannical and expansionist as you say, it's only going to be a matter of time before there is conflict between us and them, but I must at least let them speak for themselves once."
 
Vote change
[X] (1.2) We will investigate and speak with the Dragonflies ourselves.
-[X] "If they turn out to be as tyrannical and expansionist as you say, it's only going to be a matter of time before there is conflict between us and them, but I must at least let them speak for themselves once."
 
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2.4
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    • [X] We will investigate and speak with the Dragonflies ourselves.
    -[X] "If they turn out to be as tyrannical and expansionist as you say, it's only going to be a matter of time before there is conflict between us and them, but I must at least let them speak for themselves once."

    You sigh and then tell Martin, "Everything I have heard about the Dragonflies paints them as being a bunch of tyrannical, expansionistic dickheads, in which case conflict will be inevitable... but attacking those who have never done you or yours harm is the hallmark trait of a tyrannical, expansionistic dickhead, I cannot in good conscience just attack them. I must speak with them first and judge for myself what sort of people they are."

    Rolled 50 + 22 = 72
    ????

    Martin sighs in turn and says, "That is reasonable, as unfortunate as that is from our perspective. In any case, once you have had a chance to talk with the Dragonflies and see them for who they really are, you can come talk with us."

    You nod at that and then offer your hand in a farewell handshake, which Martin takes heartily.

    Heading back to your FOB, you help with the final set up before the sun goes down completely. Soon enough you are asleep along with the rest of your expedition.

    Rolled 99 + 18 = 117
    Barely successful

    You aren't quite sure what it was that roused you, but you sit up in your cot like a bolt, hand gripping the pistol holstered nearby as you scan the dark stairwell where your cot is set up. Other people are all around you, peacefully sleeping away, and you can see the motion of those on patrol in your little camp, but...

    Had your eyes not already been as wide as they could possibly go from your initial sense of fright and then the attempts to pierce back the dark, they would have expanded. As it was, your heart nearly froze when you saw a figure standing right next to you. While it was dark his silhouette was obviously male from the huge mane of curly, scraggly hair about his chin, and what little light seemed to glint off of numerous ivory points. He moved into the light just enough to reveal his finger upon his lips in a hush gesture. You find yourself inclined to comply.

    The man leaned back into the shadows until he was but a silhouette again and then said in a voice just enough above a whisper that you could hear him at a distance, "Better than expected... go far... go far... inspiration! Betrayed... betrayed... so sad, always betrayed. Madmen. Yet butchers. But which? Butcher, butcher, butcher... but... the bones tell! They always tell! Last testament... the bones. Trust neither slavers... nor slaves. A boon! A boon? A boon. Talk in temple... a boon."

    The silhouette then moved deeper into the shadow and disappeared. Whatever animal part of your brain that alerted you that he was near relaxed its grip upon your thundering heart a moment later and you found yourself up out of your cot, calling for an alarm. Soon enough everyone is up and alerted to an intruder. People might have doubted your story, had you not found an intricately carved human knuckle bone sitting on the floor in the area where you had seen the shadow. It had to be Grave Keeper, and you suddenly had a very strong appreciation for why no one had gone after the maniac yet. Sure, he had the hospital, but if he was that good at being sneaky then even burning down his hospital would just piss him off without likely catching him.

    +1 Base Intrigue for actually noticing Grave Keeper

    You don't get much rest for the remainder of the night. You consider going to confront Grave Keeper, but you wonder what the point would even be, especially since he had basically issued you an invitation. No, no he could keep, but the longer you were in Shattersaw without making contact with the major power groups the worse the political situation. The 504 had already met with you, so it was clearly time to meet with the the Dragonflies.

    Leaving behind half your military forces and one of your squads to guard the base and the civilians, you go to parlay with the Dragonflies at the farm. The march is quicker than before as all but the worst of the radiation has faded and much of the rubble has been cleared to make easier paths through the city. It also creates a variety of nasty killing zones that you take the time to avoid. Shattersaw is not a happy place.

    Rolled 33 + 26 + 20 = 79
    vs.
    Rolled 54 + 36 = 90
    Success

    As you are approaching the farms, your scouts inform you that they flushed out what looked like a sniper looking out over the farm. The man got away, but you're very glad of your efforts to train your militia in proper protocols so that you wouldn't have a gunman at your backs. You make sure to remind everyone that this now is the time to really be on the look out for this sort of thing.

    Rolled 36 + 26 + 10 = 72
    vs.
    Rolled 19 + 36 = 55
    ????

    Rolled 96 + 26 + 20 = 142
    vs.
    Rolled 94 + 22 = 116
    ????

    Getting back reports that everything was clear up to the farm, you nod in satisfaction as you start to move out into the open space in front of the front entrance to the farm complex, flag held out to indicate your allegiance to yourself but also that you are interested in peaceful parlay.

    Rolled 100
    Natural 100!
    AN: Well fuck...

    You blink your eyes hard and then try to get air to fill your lungs, but all you get in turn is a mouthful of fire. Pain! Pain! Nothing but pain! Something jabs you in the arm and somewhere in the ringing background you hear someone saying something about "..ered stern..." but the sounds keep fading in and out behind waves of pain and a wall of noise that eventually starts to settle down into an uncomfortable numbness.

    Rolled 56 + 22 = 78
    vs.
    Rolled 16 + 28 + 20 Training + 20 SAWs = 84
    Defenders forced back

    Rolled 11 + 22 = 33
    Defender's morale broken

    You were trying to figure out what was going on. Things kept fading in and out. There was someone over you. Things were red. A face kept trying to focus in front of you. Someone was saying something important but you didn't know what.

    Rolled 20 + 22 - 10 Confusion = 32
    vs.
    Rolled 99 + 28 + 20 Training + 10 SAWs = 157
    Enemy obliterated

    The wall of sound was changing, sounding more distant. What was going on?

    Rolled 80 + 22 - 30 Total demoralization = 72
    vs.
    Rolled 91 + 28 + 20 = 139
    Crushing victory
    Enemy surrenders early

    What was going on? What was...

    Blackness...

    Your eyes flutter open under a familiar ceiling. A muffled voice asks, "Ma'am?"

    END TURN

    AN: Did not expect a Natural 100 on that roll. This will be interesting
     
  • Threadmarks
    • So... Uh.

    Did we literally just activate as a Psyker in response to some massive blob of trauma the Dragonflies were responsible for, and enter a bloodrage to punish the ones reponsible? Apparently completely roflstomping them in the process?
     
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    3.1
  • Threadmarks
    • Turn 2 Results

    EIGHT.

    FUCKING.

    MONTHS.

    You were in a medically induced coma, using the very limited supply of drugs you had and could brew from a constricted supply of materials to keep you asleep while they used primitive surgical techniques so old they were originally developed on Terra thousands of years prior to put your rib cage back together more or less the way it was supposed to be and then had your body fight off the infection. You were going to be in recovery for at least another year.

    So yeah, as you were approaching to parlay, someone had slammed a .700 chunk of lead into your sternum at several times the speed of sound. It had been a soft point hunting round and thus had expanded against your armour instead of penetrating, but it had shattered your sternum, cracked several ribs, and had technically killed you by causing your heart to stop from the impact. If your men hadn't had first aid kits with them your heart wouldn't have ever started up again.

    Your men took except to their leader being struck like that while attempting to make peaceful contact, especially after you had decided that they deserved a chance to give their side of the story when everyone else was calling them monsters. You had trained them well and your men had laid down a barrage of suppressing fire while you were moved to safety. Suppressing fire had rapidly turned into killing fire as your well drilled and disciplined troops took advantage of the fact that they had SAWs, assault rifles and actual soldiers while the enemy had militia armed with low rate of fire hunting rifles. The outer lines had collapsed and your men had followed up with a vicious push that completely collapsed the Dragonflies lines and shoved them inside the farm where it had turned into a complete massacre.

    Okay, there were Dragonfly soldiers who had survived, but your men had been far too efficient and everyone who had been outside had died in the fighting, so no one had any idea whether you being shot had been an intentional order by someone in command or a trigger happy subordinate or even an accidental discharge. Your men had acknowledged after the fact that they might have let their anger get the better of them. Then again, when they got inside the farms they had found that the workers there were being kept in line with methods that basically made them slaves, which had also angered your troops.

    The fallout of your men storming the farms had been interesting, to say the least. The Dragonflies still held their FOB but after the SAWs had been set up they had not gone near the farms again, although they had apparently been reinforcing their FOB considerably and even with your forces you would likely take significant casualties pushing them out of their rail tower. The 504 had requested that the farms and their output be opened up to everyone and your sergeants had agreed to it, since you were going to have a food surplus back at Greengraft anyway. You and the 504 now basically had joint custody over the remains of the farms and "sold" them most of your output in exchange for salvage rights.

    Rolled 54 + 8 + 5 + 50 + 22 - 20 1 Turn passed = 119
    Something decent

    For the most part the salvage had been ruined appliances and consumer electronics that could be salvaged for refined metals and rare earths, but they had also found an intact commercial truck buried in the basement of a shopping centre. Your artisans had disassembled it, hauled the parts up 200 vertical metres worth of stairs, and reassembled it inside the train tunnel. It took about 3/4 of a charge to get from Greengraft to Shattersaw and back, but it cut travel time for select individuals and heavy goods down from weeks to hours. At the very least you could shuffle around your combat squads within a day if you needed relatively rapid reinforcement of a position.

    Occupied/Total
    Prisoners: 205/205
    Labourers: 845/1167 (Militia: 408/408)
    Artisans: 50/270
    Academics: 100/139
    Soldiers: 30/40 (Supplies: 100)

    While you had been out, the rest of your administrative council had blundered along until they had discovered among the workers an incredibly charismatic man named Lemay Meister who they shanghaied into being the newly appointed Chief of Communications. Everyone agreed that he could have gone far had he been born a noble rather than a commoner, where his unfortunate drinking habit would have been considered eccentric or even amusing rather than a crippling personality flaw. As it was, Lemay could still talk and charm the pants off most people (sometimes literally!) even when three sheets to the wind, being a very high functioning alcoholic. You weren't sure you were exactly pleased by having a drunk being your external representative, but you did have to admit that so long as he had a secretary or three making doing the paperwork for him he was actually quite competent at the assigned task.

    Administrator - Dia Stone (You)
    Chief of Communications - Lemay Meister (21)
    Second in Command - Jules Bertrand (14)
    Chief of Operations - Helena Brooks (15)
    Chief of Security - Armin Grace (18)
    Provost - Sammael Vultin (19)

    In better news, Vultin reported that the first project had gone over well and was now complete. He had figured out a way to tap certain species of trees for their sap and then purify that sap so that it was edible... mostly. Dandriss flora incorporated far more metals and heavy metals in their basic biology than Terran life did, so there were trace amounts of toxins present in the final product that they were not yet able to fully purify. The food wasn't immediately toxic, but there were likely going to be long term neuro-degenerative effects. It wasn't perfect, but it could help stave off starvation in the event of farm failure.

    98 + Rolled 76 + 57 + Rolled 17 = 248/200
    Success!

    Sap Harvesting Operation Now Available
    New Research Unlocked

    With you injured, pretty much everyone had tried to keep their heads down and no one had thrown any curveballs your way, nor had any major environmental events occurred.

    Rolled 50

    Now to sort this mess out.

    Badly injured and in recovery. All Actions -1 (min. 1) for the next 1 turn(s)

    Diplomacy
    Well, you have met other people, and thus far they have a mixed bag, at best. The 504 have been, if not quite allies, then certainly friendly enough, and there are some calling for closer ties with them. The Dragonflies you have obviously been hostile with, but they have made no move to attack you yet, so perhaps you can call a proper parlay - using intermediaries and meeting on neutral ground this time - and see if you can de-escalate the situation. And then there is Grave Keeper, who is a creepy, enigmatic fuck but still a person of power and influence in Shattersaw. Trying to get a hold of him might be a good idea, especially because in reflection you think that he might have known something the night before you were shot.

    Select up to 1 action
    [] Forge stronger diplomatic ties with the 504
    [] Attempt to open up dialogue with the Dragonflies
    [] Try to contact Grave Keeper

    Also, there have been calls to release the information on the tree sap research to others. On the one hand, it could save a lot of lives from starvation, but on the other it could also lead to widespread heavy metal poisoning, especially if you don't warn anyone about it. For this reason the project is being seen as having potential use as a long term weapon against the Dragonflies, both to poison and cripple them and to break the stranglehold over agriculture they have been attempting to establish.

    Free action
    [] Hold onto the research for now
    [] Release to the 504 (warn)
    [] Release to the 504 (do not warn)
    [] Release to the Dragonflies (warn)
    [] Release to the Dragonflies (do not warn)
    [] Release generally (warn)
    [] Release generally (do not warn)
    Warning: If different instructions are given to different factions, your attempts at sabotage are likely to get out

    Military
    With the number of troops you have in Shattersaw, there are calls for you to train and equip more soldiers to your professional standards to better defend what you have. On the other hand, there are also calls to punch in the faces of the Dragonflies and push them out of Shattersaw all together, regardless of casualties. Whatever you do though you will be doing it from Greengraft while you rebuild atrophied muscles.

    Select up to 1 option
    [] Train Soldiers - Selecting the better candidates from the militia, train them up to your standards, creating a squad (10) of Soldiers (Light Infantry). REPEATABLE
    [] Drive the Dragonflies out of Greengraft - Gathering up the forces present, you can smash their fortifications and drive the forces of the Dragonflies out of their FOB, but it will likely be costly in terms of lives lost. The 504 may help you, with a higher chance if you attempt to forge closer ties with them

    Economic
    With your farms now producing a healthy surplus, the farm at Shattersaw available if you really need to draw on it, and the ability to tap the trees for (slightly toxic) food, you are now in good shape food wise. However, a problem has started to crop up: you're running out of room in Greengraft. Up until now you have been re-purposing storage houses and the like, but you are running down to only one more spare building. Until you can build new armoured buildings you will not be able to construct more facilities in Greengraft.

    Select up to 1 action
    [] Construct sawmill - With the gear you got nearly two years ago, you could set up a relatively small scale sawmill, although it would stretch your energy supplies thin, even augmenting with the hospital's back up fusion reactor, but you could start cutting down trees and turning raw materials into refined ones. Will require the back up fusion generator
    [] Construct hospital - With the gear you got nearly two years ago, you could set up a small but incredibly potent hospital facility. If this had been up when you had been shot you likely would have been back on your feet in weeks rather than months. Also, the facilities there will be able to mitigate some of the damage done if you start eating the edible sap. Will require the back up fusion generator
    [] Construct fusion reactor - While you already have enough power to run everything as is, if you set up the industrial scale fusion reactor first it would allow you to decommission the solar facility and free up a great deal of room within your curtain walls. Without armoured buildings anything you built would risk damage during a major wind or fire storm, but it would not face near certain destruction constantly like anything out in the forest would
    [] Establish a salvage operation in Shattersaw - With the FOB and general cooperation of the population, you can now safely send out teams on long term missions to gather up salvage and resources from the ruins of Shattersaw

    Security
    Armin suggests that the census might still be a good idea, but he would also like to devote some time and effort to your shooting. He did a preliminary survey and evidence gathering as soon as he could, but he hasn't had the time to look into it much or to try to do any in depth analysis while trying to keep a lid on things with you being out of commission. He has also suggested that "Security" is a bit of a broad term and could include external as well as internal investigations.
    [] Census - Armin will have teams take a proper accounting of your population and set up a system to keep it updated, reducing the risk of infiltration. Will have future economic benefits
    [] Investigate Shooting - Armin will devote effort to attempting to piece together what happened the day you were shot while the , although answers may never be found
    [] Spy Network - While the skillsets are different from police, spies are a kind of investigator and having a network in place could potentially help avoid situations like this in the future

    Research
    The edible local food project was a success! Mostly. Provost Vultin has a few ideas about what could be done to improve the quality and safety of the food, but that might take a while and you have other things to worry about. He also asks that perhaps before you install some of the items you have acquired if you might let his teams carefully take them apart and catalogue their design so that you will have a record of how things were built. Also, he notes that with the data complete from their surveys of local species there is now the possibility of producing a variety of the infamous Grenade Fruit with a more stable fruit that can be set off by a detonator rather than being looked at too strongly.

    Pick 1 available project
    Local Building Materials 0/200
    Improved Local Sap Purification 0/350
    Grenade Fruit Cultivars 0/250

    Industrial Fusion Reactor Design 0/300
    Backup Fusion Reactor Design 0/200
    Tree Smelter Design 0/100
    Dandriss Grade Lumbermill Saw Design 0/400
    UAM Design 0/750
    UAM Jailbreaking 0/500 (Warning: Researching less than 50 RP a turn on this project breaks a UAM device)
    Universal Healing Machine Design 0/2000
    Cloning Tank Design 0/1000
    Cybernetic Surgery Design 0/1000

    Assign building to Research or Teaching?
    [] Research
    [] Teaching
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Son of a bitch, you mean some asshole did take a shot out of us? Scored a Nat 100, and Then we managed to survive somehow?

    Still, "Moment of Truth?" That was a pretty vague roll, and there's No way anyone in that situation came out ahead but us. It was a fully armed military group versus a militia. Sure, we were put out for months, but it still gave us an undeniable Causus Belli against a group that was apparently the kind of scum that we love to shoot?

    I mean, hell, if it was a Nat 100 in Their favor, we'd have probably died right then and there, unless that was Academia Nut invoking plot armor for us. But CK2 kills people for even Less, and it wasn't like we didn't have something vaguely resembling a line of succession either.

    It was to the Sternum, right? So it came from head on. Which meant it actually Did come from the Dragonflies...

    Well, accidental discharge or trigger happy assholes, either way, if you're going to shoot a messenger when they call for parley, you deserve what you're getting. That they turned out to be using slave labor on top of that is icing on the cake.

    The alternative, is, of course, a third party having a sniper positioned just to cause this kind of clusterfuck, but that's straight up Diabolous Ex Machina shit. Grave Keeper probably could have done it, because he's pretty strongly implied to be a fairly potent Psyker, but that's probably reasonably high risk even for him, because there would be a Lot of witnesses.
     
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    We definitely should start researching local materials, we've been getting lucky with no storms but that'll probably end soon and we need ways to build and repair.
     
    [X] Try to contact Grave Keeper

    [X] Release generally (warn)

    [X] Train Soldiers - Selecting the better candidates from the militia, train them up to your standards, creating a squad (10) of Soldiers (Light Infantry)

    [X] Establish a salvage operation in Shattersaw - With the FOB and general cooperation of the population, you can now safely send out teams on long term missions to gather up salvage and resources from the ruins of Shattersaw

    [X] Investigate Shooting - Armin will devote effort to attempting to piece together what happened the day you were shot while the , although answers may never be found

    [X] Improved Local Sap Purification 0/350

    [X] Research
     
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