- Location
- United States
This is Noveria, Everyone is an exploitive capitalist. Not just the companies but those who work for them as well.
-
Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
Attempting To Fulfil Your Contract: A Noveria Planquest [Mass Effect]
- Thread starter Faith
- Start date
- Location
- Singapore
I'd rather blow all dice on Mountain Monsters and fix Border Security and Emergency Drills on the turn after that.
Why are you focused on security we're making the money here not really being for the good of the colony? We also need to finish a lot of projects to renew Nil'Zannis' contract with the board since they expect it to get done.
- Location
- California
Ah, but murder by surprise attack would be bad for profits, or worse, we get injured; an attack on our person is inexcusable.
trooperist
Cinnamon Roll AI
We're still on track. Our contract is for 12 months and we have to make 12 profit in that time averaging 1 profit a turn. We're actually ahead of schedule seeing how this is turn 4 and our results bring us up to 5 profit.
Turn 4 - 2183-04 Results
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
Welcome to the Noveria Corporate Network
You are currently logged in, Laekus (Chairman)
♦Topic: Administrator Zannis
In: Boards ► NDC ► Executive
Laekus (Original Poster) (Chairman)
Posted on April 22, 2183:
I realise it's not exactly time for a performance review yet, but it's been an interesting four months, if nothing else. What's the assessment so far?
I wasn't initially impressed by his record, but he has at least managed to avoid embarrassing us completely. The geth and rachni incidents are both largely suppressed, Saren and Benezia were investigated promptly, and even in spite of Binary Helix, he's on track with his quota.
(Showing Page 1 of 1)
► Rugg
Replied on April 22, 2183:
Gradd says he keeps his promises and Anoleis' promises too. And he hasn't tried to screw anyone over yet. Maybe he's spineless, but too much spine in his position is almost worse. I like him so far.
► Anyela
Replied on April 22, 2183:
He has put a significant investment into ensuring that Port Hanshan remains secure and stable. I cannot fault him for this. As Korten Rugg says, he has so far avoided drawing the ire of the local managers, at least to the extent of my understanding. So long as he avoids any future disasters I would be happy to renew his contract.
► Molag
Replied on April 22, 2183:
He went over our heads selling internal reports to the Spectre and he went over our heads selling the geth debris to the Citadel. He may not be rocking the boat just yet, but him making these kinds of decisions risks setting a powerful precedent for future administrators. He needs to remember his place.
► Ileta
Replied on April 22, 2183:
What would you have preferred he do with the geth? We would likely have done the same thing he did. Synthetic Insights have been looking for geth parts since they attacked Eden Prime and Kantor Robotics have their bag packed with projects already. They don't have the staff or facilities to rip up half a geth army.
Besides, making decisions like that without us was exactly the point of the Administrator, before we decided to reduce the role to glorified landlord. Now we're returning to our initial goals, it seems fair to return to the office of the administrator their initial privileges. At least now he's worth the credits he's skimming.
► Simbus
Replied on April 22, 2183:
The view on the ground seems pretty positive, which is surprising. I've been working with his Services department and they seem to actually like him. I was expecting a lot more jealousy on their parts. Matsuo likes him - he's a little less abrasive than Anoleis, and humans seem inclined to sympathy for quarians in general, so both of those things are probably helping.
Myself, I remain neutral. He's on track to meet his contract quotas and he hasn't pissed anyone off yet, sure, but that's also literally the bare minimum demands of the role. We'll have to wait and see if he floats or excels.
(He's not even skimming that much, he's mostly just doing a little well-informed stock trading on the side. At least, as far as we can see from down here.)
► Anomo
Replied on April 22, 2183:
I know he's invested a lot more into security since he moved in. Is he aware of Binary Helix's little secret, or worried about another geth attack?
► Yimm
Replied on April 22, 2183:
The latter, we think. Every action he's taken that could have been about the queen could have been due dilligence, and he's been very prompt with his reporting on major events thus far. I'm not sure he'd be interested in keeping her secret if he knew of her. We should have brought him in earlier, but it's too late for that now. It's been months and we've picked up no sign of her. I think this window has closed.
► Molag
Replied on April 22, 2183:
Kantor have a lot of projects, but they also know how to prioritise. If they were offered a geth warframe, I'm sure they would have taken that and put their mechound research on hold without question. And Kantor aren't the only corporation he's snubbed so far. He may not be actively antagonising but he doesn't seem too interested in making friends.
I'm not (yet) so upset I'd vote to have him removed, but unless he turns his act around I won't be voting to renew him.
End of Page. 1
[ ] Spaceport Expansion Program
Port Hanshan's Spaceport is only capable of adequately servicing a handful of freighters at a time, and the size of the facility and staff limit the throughput of cargo. Under normal circumstances, the addition of additional docking and service bays would be a simple matter, but the idiots on the board decided that they wanted their secretive research facilities to be nestled in the mountains, and the flatter lowlands are too far for convenient travel, so any expansion of the spaceport will require a significant investment of time and effort, not just in construction but in carving chunks out of the mountains to make room in the first place.
UPDATE: The Narhu Combine believe it would be a natural and mutually beneficial arrangement if they were given the responsibility of providing the refueling infrastructure for the expanding spaceport.
(Progress: 211/500 - 20 Resources per die) (+16 Cargo, -2 Housing)
(Narhu Combine: +1P, +1F)
The first step of expanding the spaceport is clearing a space for the spaceport to expand into. Luckily, the plans are not new, the area is well surveyed, and work crews already performed some preliminary work in making the arrangements for Lower Hanshan's cargo freight elevator, so the plans are all aligned and your work crews have absolutely no excuse not to get straight to work.
And, to their credit, they do. Every day you head up to the spaceport control tower and take a look at their work and every day a little more of the mountain has been carved away, a new foundation of steel girders and pipes and power conduits creeping across the ground along the path now cleared.
The freight elevator passage has been linked to what will be the spaceport's main cargo hub, and though not presently useable, when the spaceport is complete that cargo hub will allow for easy transport of cargo from below without having to haul it through the city proper.
[ ] Destructive Testing Range
For all the power and sophistication of computer modelling and simulations, it is difficult for them to surpass the level of realism of reality itself. But live testing, especially of vehicles and weapon systems, can often lead to significant damage. Little more than a series of hardened walls to contain blasts and stop speeding debris, dedicated destructive testing ranges give engineers a place to cut loose and put their prototypes through thorough testing without endangering their neighbours.
-[ ] Peak 41 (Progress: 101/150 - 10 Resources per die) (Korten Machines: +1P, +1F)
Construction around Peak 41 continues at an unfortunately slow pace. Clan Korten has continued to be unhelpful, with walls being smashed, crushed, or knocked over almost as quickly as they're being put up.
Clan Korten insists that this has proven a very helpful addition to their creative process, but you're just getting increasingly frustrated at the amount of money being sunk into rebuilding the same three walls but incrementally stronger each time. You briefly wonder if it might be easier to skip the iterative process and jump straight to lining the walls with starship armour and integrated kinetic barriers, but your foreman assures you that that won't be necessary.
This time, he says, for sure, he affirms, the krogan won't be able to knock the walls down.
You expect you'll be hearing another apology from him by the end of the week.
[ ] Hanshan Medical Centre Renovation
Maybe it's just your quarian aversion to slap-dash medical care and 'good enough' clean rooms, but you personally take some offense to the lack of updates Hanshan Medical Centre has seen since it was initially constructed during first wave development. Port Hanshan's population, being made up generally of professionals, not families, with next to no children or elderly, may be less in need of cutting edge medical technology than some demographics, but in your professional experience, hospitals are exactly the kind of thing no one appreciates until they really need them.
UPDATE: Baria Frontiers has a medical research clinic attached to the Hanshan Medical Centre, and would certainly be appreciative if it was included in renovations.
(Progress: 251/200 - 10 Resources per die) (Improve Port Hanshan Livability)
(Baria Frontiers: +1F)
With the majority of their most vital equipment and tools slowly being replaced with more modern and high end versions, the Hanshan Medical Centre began working down their priority list. First they replaced the more obscure equipment, such as the elcor bioscanners that saw maybe one use a year, the clean-tanks for Hanshan's less-than-four-hundred hanar, and the drell dehumidifier harnesses, with the old ones set aside for emergency use or sold off to private individuals.
Then, with the funds and support they have left, Hanshan's administrators turn to much more benign improvements - fresh paint in the halls, an expanded garden and relaxation area on the 'roof', new physiotherapy and training equipment in the gym, coffee machines for the staff and high-quality televisions for the patients. Though not particularly useful for improving medical outcomes, the general quality of life improvements should make things a little better for the patients and staff both.
It also endears you to the administrative staff there, who tell you that past administrators have basically ignored them unless there was some kind of crisis, and as a quarian, there's nothing you appreciate on principle more than medical staff who don't hate you.
[ ] Network Isolation Lab
One of the biggest difficulties in safely researching dangerous digital intelligences is that they are all, to varying degrees, capable of propagation through communication networks. Any network connection is a potential threat vector and containment if a malicious intelligence reaches the extranet is nigh impossible. As per Council regulations, dedicated Network Isolation Labs must be established for such research. These labs must follow stringent data security guidelines and operate in complete isolation from the extranet to ensure security.
(Progress: 93/150 - 15 Resources per die) (-1 Power)
(Synthetic Insights: +1P, +1F)
Vivve Shalesta was more than happy for Synthetic Insights to take possession of some of the NDC's recently acquired geth debris, but she's less willing to have her staff put it to use with their facilities the way they are. Though the geth are technically not artificial intelligence, she informs you redundantly, they are still dangerous enough that the Council would be leery to let them play with geth parts without taking the proper precautions, and Synthetic Insights makes a policy of not giving the Council any excuse to launch investigations of their own.
As such, Shalesta requests the construction of a dedicated network isolation lab - a facility completely cut off from the extranet and from all wireless communications, so that even in the worst case scenario a rogue intelligence could still be adequately contained. You see no reason not to oblige, and the act of creating a network isolation lab isn't really that difficult.
Some previously unused offices in Port Hanshan's Corporate Sector are stripped of all network hardware and fitted instead with faraday cages and signal jammers. The power conduits are reconfigured such that all internal sockets in the office unit are powered entirely through a single junction which can be easily disconnected in case of emergencies, and backup battery units are installed to ensure that even in Port Hanshan experiences a mass power-outage, the signal jammers will continue to operate for at least several hours.
Personally, you think that part's slightly redundant, since if there's no power there would be nothing in the lab to send signals out, but Council standards are Council standards and you're not going to argue about being thorough - after all, it's not paranoia if the robots really are out to get you.
[ ] Breaking Ground: Peak 12
When the NDC's Executive Board balked at the cost of ongoing developments and shifted funds into more profitable endeavours, a number of proposed-but-undeveloped sites were archived for later use. Abec Territorial Ordinance have indicated that they may in future wish to move manufacturing to Noveria, and one of those archived sites could prove suitable for their purposes. Establishing a transit route and preparing infrastructure connections is the first step of turning the site into an operational facility.
(Progress: 69/200 - 20 Resources per die)
Peak 12 was one of the best-surveyed sites for future development, before the NDC pulled the plug on the project in favour of the resort cities, and though it's been almost two decades, the plans are still almost perfectly appropriate - a landslide did wipe out a chunk of one of the ridges marked as part of the safe route, but that's relatively easy to fix, all things considered.
A few snowbounders make the trek back and forth along the proposed route, ensuring that no other damage has occurred and that the bridge sites are still suitable for construction, and their equipment reveals no issues severe enough to warrant a change of plans.
A couple of heavy duty trucks follow, carrying the navigational beacons used for guidance and communications during blizzards and setting them out along the path. A third wave of vehicles follows, laying out a long weather-shielded conduit for utility services to run through.
Unfortunately, it's a long path and progress is hampered by some unfortunate weather, but the team makes good time, getting a little over two thirds of the way to the site. Another team shuttles out to the site itself to set up a basecamp in preparation of future works.
[ ] Breaking Ground: Lower Hanshan
An obvious consequence of building in the Skadi Mountains is that real estate that can actually be feasibly built on is precious. Port Hanshan's primary facilities were built suspended from the sides of the mountains or digging into them, and the primary intent was for office and residential spires to build up from there. Despite your protests at the time, very little infrastructure was established to allow for expansion downwards - towards the ground floor of the lower valleys, which would be an excellent space for industrial operations and low-cost housing. Now that you're the Administrator, you can rectify that.
(Progress: 352/300 - 20 Resources per die) (Unlocks Lower Hanshan Development)
With key infrastructure in place, mainly meaning transit lines to move the equipment and utility conduits to power it, further progress on Lower Hanshan comes quickly. With no contractual obligations, you have your team focus construction efforts on building a strong framework that later projects will be able to exploit in whatever way suits them best.
Of course, just because you have no contractual obligations doesn't mean you don't know what's going down there. Whilst your staff toil away (or rather, sip coffee whilst the mechs toil away) you personally drag out your old drawing tablet and start sketching up a few plans. Industrial sites and low-cost housing are the obvious things to go down there, but neglecting civilian services and entertainment would be problematic - not everyone is okay with being crammed into small spaces like the quarians are.
[ ] Mountain Monsters
Wild rumours and conspiracy theories are circulating regarding reports of mysterious mountain monsters near the Ground-Orbit Uplink Site, and the mood amongst the workforce has soured. Construction teams are unwilling to go to work on the site without armed escort, citing attacks on their mechs which you suspect to have been staged. Send some of Matsuo's men and some of the new security mechs to sit on the site and babysit the workers until the job is done.
(Progress: 22/100 - 5 Resources per die)
All of the staff you would have assigned to replacing the uplink are instead working on running utilities to Peak 12, but that's no reason not to get started dealing with this 'mountain monster' nonsense.
A handful of small prefab cabins are set up on the abandoned, snowed-over construction site, keeping a dozen or so of Matsuo's less reliable men warm despite the mountaintop chill, and they rotate through patrols of the site, aided by drone flocks for aerial surveillance.
As has always been the case, nothing turns up on any of these patrols, no sightings are reported, and the only thing of note in any of the reports is the remark that the teams are going through coffee faster than usual because of the cold.
[ ] Enhanced Border Security
Despite the stringent firearms laws enforced at Port Hanshan, Matriarch Benezia and her commando bodyguards were able to smuggle in not just their own weapons, but a small force of geth troopers, using scan-shielded crates, making a mockery of the Port Hanshan establishment and of its security. The ERCS have put forward a proposal to deploy new and highly sophisticated scanning systems, to ensure similar events cannot be repeated.
(Progress:122/150 - 10 Resources per die) (+5 ES)
The ERCS waste no time in beginning deployment of all manner of new toys and technologies once they are given the go ahead by your staff. Old weapon scanners are ripped from the walls and replaced with top-of-the-line replacements, and then supplemented with biometric readers, thermal sensors, x-ray scanners, and a range of other devices.
Doctor Toradul assures you that this is equipment he would have killed for during his degree (forensic science, he tells you) and that the chance of a geth infiltrating Noveria now is so close to zero it's not worth calculating - or, uh, it will be, as soon as they finish calibrating the sensors, many of which seem to be struggling with the cold.
The spaceport's cargo terminal receives a similar treatment, with all manner of scanners and a designated quarantine bay so that containers may be inspected manually if necessary. Additional devices are obtained and set aside for installation in the expanded spaceport, once it's completed, but they can be calibrated ahead of time, so there should be no further delays once the calibrations are complete.
[ ] Internal Sweeping (Rolled: 125) (Natural 100)
The NDC may occupy a place of privilege on Noveria, but the fate of your all-too-recent predecessor is a reminder that it is not immune to corruption. With some help from the NDC's Internal Affairs division, you can sweep a department to search for embezzlement, ineptitude, nepotism, and other forms of corruption. It's unlikely that much, if any corruption remains after Anoleis was removed - and any who escaped notice the first time are likely to be keeping their heads down low for a short while anyway - but it never hurts to check.
(Breakpoints: 40 - Requires 1 Admin dice and 1 from Target department) (Remove corruption, other consequences unclear)
One of the advantages of using a heavily modified quarian ancestor-VI updated with geth technologies and more than a few custom-coded patches, instead of some off-the-shelf garbage like the Mira model, is that it can do a lot of things no one anticipates a VI being able to do. When you told your staff you were installing a new VI message filter on the corporate network, none of them so much as blinked. If they'd had any idea what your VI could do, they might not have been so relaxed.
Presumably, they presumed all the little loopholes to talk without being listened in on would still work - using the beta-reader protocol to send each other messages without 'sending' anything, turning off the transcriptor on their voice calls to prevent logging, or just flat out having face-to-face conversations instead of using their terminals. All techniques well known to the Administration team members you sent to investigate potential corruption, but all difficult to prove.
Unfortunately for the Infrastructure, Services, and Maintenance team, your VI isn't so constrained. With the access provided to it, it can monitor every message as it's being written. It can listen in on their voice calls and generate its own transcript for your later perusal. It can lip-read through camera footage and cross-reference with background noise from other live microphones.
With your own personal infrastructure set up, you can keep a second pair of eyes on both the Infrastructure and Administration teams, and make sure no one is trying to pull a fast one on you.
Between your eyes and the diligent work of the Administration team, your investigation casts a wide net and sifts through a huge amount of data. The slightest hint of corruption would be uncovered in seconds. Whispers of backroom dealings would be heard. Papers going 'missing' would be found in seconds. Wayward credits would be sniffed out and traced back to the source with ease.
If any of those things were happening.
But they're not.
If one of your team members so much as breathed in a dissenting way, you'd know about it. If a single word of complaint was written about you, it'd find it's way to your desk. If anyone tried to send a report over your head, it would be caught.
But they don't.
Not once.
In fact, your staff seem legitimately happy to be working (which, naturally, has you immediately suspicious), despite the fact that you can't find even the tiniest speck of corruption amongst them (which is frankly just more suspicious). After some further investigation, of both the surveillance-state and the coffee-machine-conversation kinds, you get a clearer picture of why.
Though it had taken you some time to make waves amongst the corporate bigwigs, word had spread as it always did around the water coolers, and both your reputation and your history were fairly well known to the office staff. Since you built your career on being good at running services and utilities and not on being good at office politics, they had faith that you'd give them some modicum of respect and not make unreasonable demands, and so far, intentionally or not, you'd lived up to that.
The few times you've stepped in to work on a project yourself, they've not seen it as petulant micromanagement, but as a senior coming down to pull their weight on a hard project and offer some guidance and advice along the way. When you come down to the offices to chat to people on their breaks, they've not seen it as an intrusion, but as a fellow team member getting to know his staff now that the crises have settled down a little and their team isn't so busy.
They see all this, and they see that you're a quarian and that everything you've achieved has been done in the face of a not-insignificant degree of speciesism, and they see it as an inspiration, proof that their choice of specialty has not doomed them to a life of managing sewage plants or data relay centres.
Whether you like it or not, your staff see you as something of an inspiration, and have a great respect for the way you conduct operations. They are competent, they are happy, and they are loyal in a way that goes beyond the promise of the next paycheck.
Now you almost feel bad for spying on them so much.
(Nil'Zannis Gained Trait: Beloved Boss: Infrastructure department will never gain Corruption.)
[ ] Expand Security Staff
As reports continue to trickle in from the wider galaxy about the scope of the geth incursion, much murmuring and discontent has been directed at the ERCS. Their current position as Noveria's police force involves a lot of patrols, guard duty, and crowd control, and their current equipment is by no means suitable for any kind of protracted war with the geth in the event of a future invasion. ERCS wants to negotiate permission to move in some of their more militarised units and vehicles as additional defence against potential geth invasions.
UPDATE: ERCS has contracted the design and production of enhanced all-terrain vehicles for their Noveria forces to Korten Machines, allowing a greater home field advantage.
(Progress: 210/150 - 10 Resources per die) (-2 Housing)
(ERCS: +1P, +1F)
(Korten Machines: +1P)
Close to two thousand new staff members arrive throughout the month, ranging from combat teams and vehicle operators to quartermasters, logistics officers, and corporate police. Almost as soon as they arrive, they're put to work, with increased patrols throughout the Corporate Sector, guards watching over the various construction sites in and around Port Hanshan, and vehicle crews joining Clan Korten in making a mockery of your efforts to build a safe testing range by destroying it almost as fast as it's built in the name of 'equipment familiarisation'.
With the staff in place, and many of the arcology spire's apartments now filled, the uptick in rent, whilst slight, is noticeable. Clan Korten, having just received a hefty and well paying contract with ERCS, accept the tax you level at them with what strikes you as uncharacteristic amicability, and you find yourself once more thankful that you wound up with a relatively tame krogan clan.
Status and Corp post updates coming SoonTM
You are currently logged in, Laekus (Chairman)
■
♦Topic: Administrator Zannis
In: Boards ► NDC ► Executive
Laekus (Original Poster) (Chairman)
Posted on April 22, 2183:
I realise it's not exactly time for a performance review yet, but it's been an interesting four months, if nothing else. What's the assessment so far?
I wasn't initially impressed by his record, but he has at least managed to avoid embarrassing us completely. The geth and rachni incidents are both largely suppressed, Saren and Benezia were investigated promptly, and even in spite of Binary Helix, he's on track with his quota.
(Showing Page 1 of 1)
► Rugg
Replied on April 22, 2183:
Gradd says he keeps his promises and Anoleis' promises too. And he hasn't tried to screw anyone over yet. Maybe he's spineless, but too much spine in his position is almost worse. I like him so far.
► Anyela
Replied on April 22, 2183:
He has put a significant investment into ensuring that Port Hanshan remains secure and stable. I cannot fault him for this. As Korten Rugg says, he has so far avoided drawing the ire of the local managers, at least to the extent of my understanding. So long as he avoids any future disasters I would be happy to renew his contract.
► Molag
Replied on April 22, 2183:
He went over our heads selling internal reports to the Spectre and he went over our heads selling the geth debris to the Citadel. He may not be rocking the boat just yet, but him making these kinds of decisions risks setting a powerful precedent for future administrators. He needs to remember his place.
► Ileta
Replied on April 22, 2183:
What would you have preferred he do with the geth? We would likely have done the same thing he did. Synthetic Insights have been looking for geth parts since they attacked Eden Prime and Kantor Robotics have their bag packed with projects already. They don't have the staff or facilities to rip up half a geth army.
Besides, making decisions like that without us was exactly the point of the Administrator, before we decided to reduce the role to glorified landlord. Now we're returning to our initial goals, it seems fair to return to the office of the administrator their initial privileges. At least now he's worth the credits he's skimming.
► Simbus
Replied on April 22, 2183:
The view on the ground seems pretty positive, which is surprising. I've been working with his Services department and they seem to actually like him. I was expecting a lot more jealousy on their parts. Matsuo likes him - he's a little less abrasive than Anoleis, and humans seem inclined to sympathy for quarians in general, so both of those things are probably helping.
Myself, I remain neutral. He's on track to meet his contract quotas and he hasn't pissed anyone off yet, sure, but that's also literally the bare minimum demands of the role. We'll have to wait and see if he floats or excels.
(He's not even skimming that much, he's mostly just doing a little well-informed stock trading on the side. At least, as far as we can see from down here.)
► Anomo
Replied on April 22, 2183:
I know he's invested a lot more into security since he moved in. Is he aware of Binary Helix's little secret, or worried about another geth attack?
► Yimm
Replied on April 22, 2183:
The latter, we think. Every action he's taken that could have been about the queen could have been due dilligence, and he's been very prompt with his reporting on major events thus far. I'm not sure he'd be interested in keeping her secret if he knew of her. We should have brought him in earlier, but it's too late for that now. It's been months and we've picked up no sign of her. I think this window has closed.
► Molag
Replied on April 22, 2183:
Kantor have a lot of projects, but they also know how to prioritise. If they were offered a geth warframe, I'm sure they would have taken that and put their mechound research on hold without question. And Kantor aren't the only corporation he's snubbed so far. He may not be actively antagonising but he doesn't seem too interested in making friends.
I'm not (yet) so upset I'd vote to have him removed, but unless he turns his act around I won't be voting to renew him.
===
[ ] Spaceport Expansion Program
Port Hanshan's Spaceport is only capable of adequately servicing a handful of freighters at a time, and the size of the facility and staff limit the throughput of cargo. Under normal circumstances, the addition of additional docking and service bays would be a simple matter, but the idiots on the board decided that they wanted their secretive research facilities to be nestled in the mountains, and the flatter lowlands are too far for convenient travel, so any expansion of the spaceport will require a significant investment of time and effort, not just in construction but in carving chunks out of the mountains to make room in the first place.
UPDATE: The Narhu Combine believe it would be a natural and mutually beneficial arrangement if they were given the responsibility of providing the refueling infrastructure for the expanding spaceport.
(Progress: 211/500 - 20 Resources per die) (+16 Cargo, -2 Housing)
(Narhu Combine: +1P, +1F)
The first step of expanding the spaceport is clearing a space for the spaceport to expand into. Luckily, the plans are not new, the area is well surveyed, and work crews already performed some preliminary work in making the arrangements for Lower Hanshan's cargo freight elevator, so the plans are all aligned and your work crews have absolutely no excuse not to get straight to work.
And, to their credit, they do. Every day you head up to the spaceport control tower and take a look at their work and every day a little more of the mountain has been carved away, a new foundation of steel girders and pipes and power conduits creeping across the ground along the path now cleared.
The freight elevator passage has been linked to what will be the spaceport's main cargo hub, and though not presently useable, when the spaceport is complete that cargo hub will allow for easy transport of cargo from below without having to haul it through the city proper.
[ ] Destructive Testing Range
For all the power and sophistication of computer modelling and simulations, it is difficult for them to surpass the level of realism of reality itself. But live testing, especially of vehicles and weapon systems, can often lead to significant damage. Little more than a series of hardened walls to contain blasts and stop speeding debris, dedicated destructive testing ranges give engineers a place to cut loose and put their prototypes through thorough testing without endangering their neighbours.
-[ ] Peak 41 (Progress: 101/150 - 10 Resources per die) (Korten Machines: +1P, +1F)
Construction around Peak 41 continues at an unfortunately slow pace. Clan Korten has continued to be unhelpful, with walls being smashed, crushed, or knocked over almost as quickly as they're being put up.
Clan Korten insists that this has proven a very helpful addition to their creative process, but you're just getting increasingly frustrated at the amount of money being sunk into rebuilding the same three walls but incrementally stronger each time. You briefly wonder if it might be easier to skip the iterative process and jump straight to lining the walls with starship armour and integrated kinetic barriers, but your foreman assures you that that won't be necessary.
This time, he says, for sure, he affirms, the krogan won't be able to knock the walls down.
You expect you'll be hearing another apology from him by the end of the week.
[ ] Hanshan Medical Centre Renovation
Maybe it's just your quarian aversion to slap-dash medical care and 'good enough' clean rooms, but you personally take some offense to the lack of updates Hanshan Medical Centre has seen since it was initially constructed during first wave development. Port Hanshan's population, being made up generally of professionals, not families, with next to no children or elderly, may be less in need of cutting edge medical technology than some demographics, but in your professional experience, hospitals are exactly the kind of thing no one appreciates until they really need them.
UPDATE: Baria Frontiers has a medical research clinic attached to the Hanshan Medical Centre, and would certainly be appreciative if it was included in renovations.
(Progress: 251/200 - 10 Resources per die) (Improve Port Hanshan Livability)
(Baria Frontiers: +1F)
With the majority of their most vital equipment and tools slowly being replaced with more modern and high end versions, the Hanshan Medical Centre began working down their priority list. First they replaced the more obscure equipment, such as the elcor bioscanners that saw maybe one use a year, the clean-tanks for Hanshan's less-than-four-hundred hanar, and the drell dehumidifier harnesses, with the old ones set aside for emergency use or sold off to private individuals.
Then, with the funds and support they have left, Hanshan's administrators turn to much more benign improvements - fresh paint in the halls, an expanded garden and relaxation area on the 'roof', new physiotherapy and training equipment in the gym, coffee machines for the staff and high-quality televisions for the patients. Though not particularly useful for improving medical outcomes, the general quality of life improvements should make things a little better for the patients and staff both.
It also endears you to the administrative staff there, who tell you that past administrators have basically ignored them unless there was some kind of crisis, and as a quarian, there's nothing you appreciate on principle more than medical staff who don't hate you.
[ ] Network Isolation Lab
One of the biggest difficulties in safely researching dangerous digital intelligences is that they are all, to varying degrees, capable of propagation through communication networks. Any network connection is a potential threat vector and containment if a malicious intelligence reaches the extranet is nigh impossible. As per Council regulations, dedicated Network Isolation Labs must be established for such research. These labs must follow stringent data security guidelines and operate in complete isolation from the extranet to ensure security.
(Progress: 93/150 - 15 Resources per die) (-1 Power)
(Synthetic Insights: +1P, +1F)
Vivve Shalesta was more than happy for Synthetic Insights to take possession of some of the NDC's recently acquired geth debris, but she's less willing to have her staff put it to use with their facilities the way they are. Though the geth are technically not artificial intelligence, she informs you redundantly, they are still dangerous enough that the Council would be leery to let them play with geth parts without taking the proper precautions, and Synthetic Insights makes a policy of not giving the Council any excuse to launch investigations of their own.
As such, Shalesta requests the construction of a dedicated network isolation lab - a facility completely cut off from the extranet and from all wireless communications, so that even in the worst case scenario a rogue intelligence could still be adequately contained. You see no reason not to oblige, and the act of creating a network isolation lab isn't really that difficult.
Some previously unused offices in Port Hanshan's Corporate Sector are stripped of all network hardware and fitted instead with faraday cages and signal jammers. The power conduits are reconfigured such that all internal sockets in the office unit are powered entirely through a single junction which can be easily disconnected in case of emergencies, and backup battery units are installed to ensure that even in Port Hanshan experiences a mass power-outage, the signal jammers will continue to operate for at least several hours.
Personally, you think that part's slightly redundant, since if there's no power there would be nothing in the lab to send signals out, but Council standards are Council standards and you're not going to argue about being thorough - after all, it's not paranoia if the robots really are out to get you.
[ ] Breaking Ground: Peak 12
When the NDC's Executive Board balked at the cost of ongoing developments and shifted funds into more profitable endeavours, a number of proposed-but-undeveloped sites were archived for later use. Abec Territorial Ordinance have indicated that they may in future wish to move manufacturing to Noveria, and one of those archived sites could prove suitable for their purposes. Establishing a transit route and preparing infrastructure connections is the first step of turning the site into an operational facility.
(Progress: 69/200 - 20 Resources per die)
Peak 12 was one of the best-surveyed sites for future development, before the NDC pulled the plug on the project in favour of the resort cities, and though it's been almost two decades, the plans are still almost perfectly appropriate - a landslide did wipe out a chunk of one of the ridges marked as part of the safe route, but that's relatively easy to fix, all things considered.
A few snowbounders make the trek back and forth along the proposed route, ensuring that no other damage has occurred and that the bridge sites are still suitable for construction, and their equipment reveals no issues severe enough to warrant a change of plans.
A couple of heavy duty trucks follow, carrying the navigational beacons used for guidance and communications during blizzards and setting them out along the path. A third wave of vehicles follows, laying out a long weather-shielded conduit for utility services to run through.
Unfortunately, it's a long path and progress is hampered by some unfortunate weather, but the team makes good time, getting a little over two thirds of the way to the site. Another team shuttles out to the site itself to set up a basecamp in preparation of future works.
[ ] Breaking Ground: Lower Hanshan
An obvious consequence of building in the Skadi Mountains is that real estate that can actually be feasibly built on is precious. Port Hanshan's primary facilities were built suspended from the sides of the mountains or digging into them, and the primary intent was for office and residential spires to build up from there. Despite your protests at the time, very little infrastructure was established to allow for expansion downwards - towards the ground floor of the lower valleys, which would be an excellent space for industrial operations and low-cost housing. Now that you're the Administrator, you can rectify that.
(Progress: 352/300 - 20 Resources per die) (Unlocks Lower Hanshan Development)
With key infrastructure in place, mainly meaning transit lines to move the equipment and utility conduits to power it, further progress on Lower Hanshan comes quickly. With no contractual obligations, you have your team focus construction efforts on building a strong framework that later projects will be able to exploit in whatever way suits them best.
Of course, just because you have no contractual obligations doesn't mean you don't know what's going down there. Whilst your staff toil away (or rather, sip coffee whilst the mechs toil away) you personally drag out your old drawing tablet and start sketching up a few plans. Industrial sites and low-cost housing are the obvious things to go down there, but neglecting civilian services and entertainment would be problematic - not everyone is okay with being crammed into small spaces like the quarians are.
[ ] Mountain Monsters
Wild rumours and conspiracy theories are circulating regarding reports of mysterious mountain monsters near the Ground-Orbit Uplink Site, and the mood amongst the workforce has soured. Construction teams are unwilling to go to work on the site without armed escort, citing attacks on their mechs which you suspect to have been staged. Send some of Matsuo's men and some of the new security mechs to sit on the site and babysit the workers until the job is done.
(Progress: 22/100 - 5 Resources per die)
All of the staff you would have assigned to replacing the uplink are instead working on running utilities to Peak 12, but that's no reason not to get started dealing with this 'mountain monster' nonsense.
A handful of small prefab cabins are set up on the abandoned, snowed-over construction site, keeping a dozen or so of Matsuo's less reliable men warm despite the mountaintop chill, and they rotate through patrols of the site, aided by drone flocks for aerial surveillance.
As has always been the case, nothing turns up on any of these patrols, no sightings are reported, and the only thing of note in any of the reports is the remark that the teams are going through coffee faster than usual because of the cold.
[ ] Enhanced Border Security
Despite the stringent firearms laws enforced at Port Hanshan, Matriarch Benezia and her commando bodyguards were able to smuggle in not just their own weapons, but a small force of geth troopers, using scan-shielded crates, making a mockery of the Port Hanshan establishment and of its security. The ERCS have put forward a proposal to deploy new and highly sophisticated scanning systems, to ensure similar events cannot be repeated.
(Progress:122/150 - 10 Resources per die) (+5 ES)
The ERCS waste no time in beginning deployment of all manner of new toys and technologies once they are given the go ahead by your staff. Old weapon scanners are ripped from the walls and replaced with top-of-the-line replacements, and then supplemented with biometric readers, thermal sensors, x-ray scanners, and a range of other devices.
Doctor Toradul assures you that this is equipment he would have killed for during his degree (forensic science, he tells you) and that the chance of a geth infiltrating Noveria now is so close to zero it's not worth calculating - or, uh, it will be, as soon as they finish calibrating the sensors, many of which seem to be struggling with the cold.
The spaceport's cargo terminal receives a similar treatment, with all manner of scanners and a designated quarantine bay so that containers may be inspected manually if necessary. Additional devices are obtained and set aside for installation in the expanded spaceport, once it's completed, but they can be calibrated ahead of time, so there should be no further delays once the calibrations are complete.
[ ] Internal Sweeping (Rolled: 125) (Natural 100)
The NDC may occupy a place of privilege on Noveria, but the fate of your all-too-recent predecessor is a reminder that it is not immune to corruption. With some help from the NDC's Internal Affairs division, you can sweep a department to search for embezzlement, ineptitude, nepotism, and other forms of corruption. It's unlikely that much, if any corruption remains after Anoleis was removed - and any who escaped notice the first time are likely to be keeping their heads down low for a short while anyway - but it never hurts to check.
(Breakpoints: 40 - Requires 1 Admin dice and 1 from Target department) (Remove corruption, other consequences unclear)
One of the advantages of using a heavily modified quarian ancestor-VI updated with geth technologies and more than a few custom-coded patches, instead of some off-the-shelf garbage like the Mira model, is that it can do a lot of things no one anticipates a VI being able to do. When you told your staff you were installing a new VI message filter on the corporate network, none of them so much as blinked. If they'd had any idea what your VI could do, they might not have been so relaxed.
Presumably, they presumed all the little loopholes to talk without being listened in on would still work - using the beta-reader protocol to send each other messages without 'sending' anything, turning off the transcriptor on their voice calls to prevent logging, or just flat out having face-to-face conversations instead of using their terminals. All techniques well known to the Administration team members you sent to investigate potential corruption, but all difficult to prove.
Unfortunately for the Infrastructure, Services, and Maintenance team, your VI isn't so constrained. With the access provided to it, it can monitor every message as it's being written. It can listen in on their voice calls and generate its own transcript for your later perusal. It can lip-read through camera footage and cross-reference with background noise from other live microphones.
With your own personal infrastructure set up, you can keep a second pair of eyes on both the Infrastructure and Administration teams, and make sure no one is trying to pull a fast one on you.
Between your eyes and the diligent work of the Administration team, your investigation casts a wide net and sifts through a huge amount of data. The slightest hint of corruption would be uncovered in seconds. Whispers of backroom dealings would be heard. Papers going 'missing' would be found in seconds. Wayward credits would be sniffed out and traced back to the source with ease.
If any of those things were happening.
But they're not.
If one of your team members so much as breathed in a dissenting way, you'd know about it. If a single word of complaint was written about you, it'd find it's way to your desk. If anyone tried to send a report over your head, it would be caught.
But they don't.
Not once.
In fact, your staff seem legitimately happy to be working (which, naturally, has you immediately suspicious), despite the fact that you can't find even the tiniest speck of corruption amongst them (which is frankly just more suspicious). After some further investigation, of both the surveillance-state and the coffee-machine-conversation kinds, you get a clearer picture of why.
Though it had taken you some time to make waves amongst the corporate bigwigs, word had spread as it always did around the water coolers, and both your reputation and your history were fairly well known to the office staff. Since you built your career on being good at running services and utilities and not on being good at office politics, they had faith that you'd give them some modicum of respect and not make unreasonable demands, and so far, intentionally or not, you'd lived up to that.
The few times you've stepped in to work on a project yourself, they've not seen it as petulant micromanagement, but as a senior coming down to pull their weight on a hard project and offer some guidance and advice along the way. When you come down to the offices to chat to people on their breaks, they've not seen it as an intrusion, but as a fellow team member getting to know his staff now that the crises have settled down a little and their team isn't so busy.
They see all this, and they see that you're a quarian and that everything you've achieved has been done in the face of a not-insignificant degree of speciesism, and they see it as an inspiration, proof that their choice of specialty has not doomed them to a life of managing sewage plants or data relay centres.
Whether you like it or not, your staff see you as something of an inspiration, and have a great respect for the way you conduct operations. They are competent, they are happy, and they are loyal in a way that goes beyond the promise of the next paycheck.
Now you almost feel bad for spying on them so much.
(Nil'Zannis Gained Trait: Beloved Boss: Infrastructure department will never gain Corruption.)
[ ] Expand Security Staff
As reports continue to trickle in from the wider galaxy about the scope of the geth incursion, much murmuring and discontent has been directed at the ERCS. Their current position as Noveria's police force involves a lot of patrols, guard duty, and crowd control, and their current equipment is by no means suitable for any kind of protracted war with the geth in the event of a future invasion. ERCS wants to negotiate permission to move in some of their more militarised units and vehicles as additional defence against potential geth invasions.
UPDATE: ERCS has contracted the design and production of enhanced all-terrain vehicles for their Noveria forces to Korten Machines, allowing a greater home field advantage.
(Progress: 210/150 - 10 Resources per die) (-2 Housing)
(ERCS: +1P, +1F)
(Korten Machines: +1P)
Close to two thousand new staff members arrive throughout the month, ranging from combat teams and vehicle operators to quartermasters, logistics officers, and corporate police. Almost as soon as they arrive, they're put to work, with increased patrols throughout the Corporate Sector, guards watching over the various construction sites in and around Port Hanshan, and vehicle crews joining Clan Korten in making a mockery of your efforts to build a safe testing range by destroying it almost as fast as it's built in the name of 'equipment familiarisation'.
With the staff in place, and many of the arcology spire's apartments now filled, the uptick in rent, whilst slight, is noticeable. Clan Korten, having just received a hefty and well paying contract with ERCS, accept the tax you level at them with what strikes you as uncharacteristic amicability, and you find yourself once more thankful that you wound up with a relatively tame krogan clan.
===
Status and Corp post updates coming SoonTM
Durabys
Miaow! Break the Chains!
- Location
- the land of the Boii
- Pronouns
- He/Him
What!? The Queen contacted the central board of the NDC Council!?! FUuuuuuu----! We could have gotten Rachni workers and tech at our disposable in exchange for helping her find a homeworld to settle onto and some initial industrial investments into it.
Can you imagine the PR boon?
"NDC does peace with the Rachni and makes them productive members of the Galactic community."
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It sounds to me more like they were aware of the experiments and that Shepard released her, not that they actually had open communication. Probably were wondering if he knew and was trying to take advantage somehow (or just hunt her down to be safe)
trooperist
Cinnamon Roll AI
So we should focus on fixing up the remaining companies with negative favor. Maybe do some other projects that only give us favor but no profit.
Not exactly a bad thing to be on good terms with corporations that powerful.
Also looks like they don't know about our little call to the Migrant Fleet.
Makes sense. Making some major entertainment facilities would make Port Hanshan more livable. More like a proper city than just a collection of offices and labs. While I'm sure we have things like stores, cafes, restaurants, bars, and other basic entertainment we could also invest in some things people would usually go to the resort cities for. Why go through the trouble of traveling halfway around the planet when you could just take a short elevator and tram ride down the mountain for some fun? Maybe things like a concert hall, an artificial beach, virtual reality arcades, or a biodome with various environments that match the homeworlds of various species.
Last edited:
- Location
- USA
God I love our little
- Location
- Singapore
Probably Batarian and in bed with Kantor considering he speaks for their interests.
We just build them more of the facilities they want later.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Is this a reference to Poptart's Terminus Quest?
- Location
- California
Sure; I think it's an empty threat considering we have at least 7 months to clear our rep with 8 companies, but I could see us getting ousted despite high corporate favor.
And his heart grew one size that day.
Last edited:
- Location
- Philippines
Almost
- Location
- USA
I can concur that securing internal factions from any corruption is sorta important yeah xD it can cause us a lot of trouble otherwise. And purging corruption has a funny way of increasing profitability.
10ebbor10
DON'T PANIC
- Location
- Present
At the cost of decreasing profitability for whomever was being corrupt, which is generally seen far more negative.
- Location
- USA
Depends on how much they were being corrupt but thats generally true yeah.
- Location
- United States
Bear in mind that sweeping covers our own subordinates, not the corporations. Some skimming is expected and as long as it's at a low enough level punishment is minimal or even absent as seen with the executives. It's only the ones who go overboard who get pulverized as a reminder to the others not to shit where they eat.
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
Good, people love us.
Also...
I'd prefer it to be a bit farther away but we can't have everything.
Also...
This is really good. If we ever stumble across some rogue Reapertech (like say, a Husk Spire or one of the thousands of bits of Sovereign that fell all over the Citadel) we can store and study it here. Just reinforce the structure, add some more physical containment procedures like guns and barriers, and we're good to go.
I'd prefer it to be a bit farther away but we can't have everything.
- Location
- United States
While we're waiting for next turn's options why not speculate on possible next turn plans?
[] Plan Diverse Investments
-[] Spaceport Expansion Program (Progress: 211/500 - 20 Resources per die) (+16 Cargo, -2 Housing) (Narhu Combine: +1P, +1F) 3 dice
-[] Destructive Testing Range (Progress: 101/150 - 10 Resources per die) (Korten Machines: +1P, +1F) 1 free dice
-[] Network Isolation Lab (Progress: 93/150 - 15 Resources per die) (-1 Power) (Synthetic Insights: +1P, +1F) 1 free dice
-[] Holoaugmented Design Space (Progress: 0:150 - 10 Resources per die) (-2 Power) (Itavan Skyworks: +1P, +1F) 3 dice
-[] Breaking Ground: Peak 12 (Progress: 69/200 - 20 Resources per die) 2 dice
-[] Ground-Orbit Uplink Site (Progress: 26/300 - 20 Resources per die) (+16 Network) 1 dice + 1 free dice
-[] Mountain Monsters (Progress: 22/100 - 5 Resources per die) 1 dice
-[] Enhanced Border Security (Progress:122/150 - 10 Resources per die) (+5 ES) 1 dice
-[] Emergency Drills (Progress: 0/100 - 5 Resources per die) 2 dice
-[] Internal Sweeping (Administration) 2 dice + 1 locked in
Total cost: 220
Continue chipping away at the spaceport and uplink, neither of which are pressing demands. 50/50 chance of completing isolation lab, drills, and peak 12. 60% chance of finishing design space. Nothing pressing going on in Admin so its a good time to do a sweep for corruption.
[] Plan Diverse Investments
-[] Spaceport Expansion Program (Progress: 211/500 - 20 Resources per die) (+16 Cargo, -2 Housing) (Narhu Combine: +1P, +1F) 3 dice
-[] Destructive Testing Range (Progress: 101/150 - 10 Resources per die) (Korten Machines: +1P, +1F) 1 free dice
-[] Network Isolation Lab (Progress: 93/150 - 15 Resources per die) (-1 Power) (Synthetic Insights: +1P, +1F) 1 free dice
-[] Holoaugmented Design Space (Progress: 0:150 - 10 Resources per die) (-2 Power) (Itavan Skyworks: +1P, +1F) 3 dice
-[] Breaking Ground: Peak 12 (Progress: 69/200 - 20 Resources per die) 2 dice
-[] Ground-Orbit Uplink Site (Progress: 26/300 - 20 Resources per die) (+16 Network) 1 dice + 1 free dice
-[] Mountain Monsters (Progress: 22/100 - 5 Resources per die) 1 dice
-[] Enhanced Border Security (Progress:122/150 - 10 Resources per die) (+5 ES) 1 dice
-[] Emergency Drills (Progress: 0/100 - 5 Resources per die) 2 dice
-[] Internal Sweeping (Administration) 2 dice + 1 locked in
Total cost: 220
Continue chipping away at the spaceport and uplink, neither of which are pressing demands. 50/50 chance of completing isolation lab, drills, and peak 12. 60% chance of finishing design space. Nothing pressing going on in Admin so its a good time to do a sweep for corruption.