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

AKuz · Dec 10, 2020

THE ALL-RADIANT CONGRESS

Setting Information: The Solarian Compact:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Charters:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rhodes Mining

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

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

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

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

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

Techbros, some of them science, some of them explore

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sketchy buggers, they can get you anything tho

Historical Topics:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Misc Details:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Spinward Frontier:

The Middle Spinward Frontier

The Core Region:

UNDER RADIANT CONTROL OR ALLIED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gaid A1: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Gaid B2: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid B5: A small icy planet. Quality 3.

Gaid B6: A frozen world. Quality 7.

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

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

Shei 1: A Cthonian world. Quality 15.

Shei 2: An airless world. Quality 12.

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

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

Gravity .95 Earth Standard. Quality 12.

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

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

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

Shei I: Asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Shei II: Asteroid belt.

Shei 7: Jovian planet. Quality 13.

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

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

Shei 8: Ice giant. Quality 6.

Shei 8a: An icy moon. Quality 9.

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

Population: 103,000,000

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

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

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

Five Lions 3: A rocky ball. Quality 7.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five Lions II: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 7: An unremarkable Jovian. Quality 2.

Five Lions III: An asteroid belt.

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

Five Lions IV: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 9: Jovian planet. Quality 9.

Five Lions V: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 10: Neptunian ice giant. Quality 8.

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

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

Population: 15,000,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Population: 650,000

UNDER CHARTER CONTROL:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh A6: An unremarkable icy ball. Quality 4.

Xotreh AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh 6: A dense ice giant. Quality 4.

Xotreh 7: Jovian planet. Quality 6.

Xotreh 8: An exceptionally cold Jovian. Quality 9.

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

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

Population: 54,000

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

Bestreer 1: An airless world. Quality 2.

Bestreer 2: An airless world. Quality 6.

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

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

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

Bestreer I: An icy asteroid belt.

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

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

Bestreer 7: Another Jovian. Quality 14.

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

Bestreer 8: An icy ball. Quality 10.

Population: 450

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

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

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

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

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

Akleod I: An asteroid belt.

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

Population: 5,000

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

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

Thoa System Stats:

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

Thoa 2: An unremarkable airless metal ball.

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

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

Thoa I: An asteroid belt.

Thoa 4: A normal Jovian planet.

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

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

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

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

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

Thoa II: A Kuiper belt of icy objects.

Empty Systems

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

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

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

Kimberly 3: A Jovian world.

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

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

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

Total:

Radiant:

Gaid:

Five Lions:

Head of Diplomatic Corps:

Name: Amanda Redcrest, Victoria Blackwell, and Kayla Hayashi

DoB: "2222", 2219, 2227, 2224

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cons: XP celebrity, little diplomatic experience, three people

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

Unlocked FRM

Ares Peacekeeping Grade - Access to planetary army formation

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

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

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

Cernunnos Consumer Grade - +1 to all Soccom actions

Cernunnos Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

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

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

Hermes-Ishtar Production Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

MSI Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

Original Tech

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

Defence Coordinator:

Name: Maria Awhina

DoB: 2165

Current Position: Military Committee Delegate from the Radiant Veterans Guild

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

Command Traits:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-None

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

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

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

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

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

Solarian Marines now spread throughout the system

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

Mobile Force:

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

CO: Commodore Stephanie Rousseau

CNS Velasco, United States of America-class Fleet Carrier

-CO: Captain Esteri Attar

-Orca Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Jasmine Ang

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

-CO: Wing Commander Heloisa Kimura de Lima

CNS Shieldmaiden, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Shamhat, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Righteous Tempest, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Vehement Shade

CNS August Willich, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Elysium, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Asphodel, Cossak-class Frigate

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

-

Home Force:

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

CO: Commodore Erina Kozlova

CNS Blaire Mountain, New Model-Class Strike Corvette

-CO: Captain Guillermo Kageyama

CNS Scutum, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Martin Pagonis

CNS Buckler, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Samuel Smiles

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

-CO: Captain Jean-Paul Beaumont

-

Radiant System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Radiant, comet patrol

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

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

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

Switchblade Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Apogee Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

-

Gaid System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Gaid

CO: Commodore Victor Raine

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Zephyr Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Ara Helge

Aeolus Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

Gale Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

-

Frontier Force

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

CO: Commodore Shayla McLean

CNS Kiel Mutiny, Kaiserreich-class BattleCruiser

-CO: Captain Inana Devlin

CNS Choreographer, Janissary-class Light Tender

-CO: Captain Karl Xanthopoulos

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

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

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

-CO: Captain Fool's Errand

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

-CO: Captain Rouge Napier

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

-CO: Captain John Rankin

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

-CO: Captain Nkiru Chaudhari

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

-CO: Captain Sumac Barros

CNS Revolutionary Will, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Yamamoto Hanae

CNS Revolutionary Grace, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Under New Management, Don-Class Fast Tanker

-CO: Captain Adras Kierenos

CNS Liberte, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Colin McRae

CNS Egalite, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Adelia Swift

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

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elftron · Jul 1, 2024

clockworkchaos said:
EmilyxInnana

"What does it take to kill this thing!?"

This too, is yuri.

Goatpile said:
ah yes of course this silly comedy has absolutely no social commentary in it whatsoever. a ridiculous idea championed as true, even if its an lie, a lie that must be believed for the good of all and society, and those who repeat it and enforce it get rewarded while those kind and marginalized still blindly belief even ifs to their own detriment? Surely this has nothing to do with Neo-Capitalism.

I can't believe I missed this.
Would absolutely watch.

AKuz said:
the idea there was "what if people just fucking made the most meanspirited isekai they could because they're fucking tired of making slop and went "oh, you want slop huh?"

I would unironically watch this, it's hilarious.

Torgamous said:
Drake is not pro-revolution, is the problem. Loyalists just can't tell the difference between revolution and genocide.

Aw. Well, making those asshats angry is still worth it.

clockworkchaos · Jul 1, 2024

Torgamous said:
Drake is not pro-revolution, is the problem. Loyalists just can't tell the difference between revolution and genocide.

Honestly if your staring assume that Radiant genuinely doesn't have principles, just 'we hate the Compact' the conspiracy makes sense. It's a MASSIVE distraction from some of your most dangerous opponents. It's probably not a unpopular position among Drake refugees.

Terra Allias · Jul 1, 2024

Pictures in the System Codex google doc is busted.

AKuz · Jul 3, 2024

Speech from the Diplomatic Committee of the Interstellar Amaranthine Commonwealth:

"Honoured Representatives,

"When we emerged blinking into the sunlight after the March Days we couldn't have imagined the future that we have trod.

"We have set the galaxy ablaze with freedom and toppled the thrones of tyrants, for we have broken the chains of Capital.

"By our efforts, and those of oppressed peoples everywhere, we have shattered the monolithic hegemony of the Solarian Compact for the first time since that regime's imposition nearly two centuries ago.

"With the end of Solarian hegemony, we are in a unique and entirely new position: that of setting interstellar diplomatic policy. From the Pandia Beach Conference to the Seven Points Ultimatum we have found ourselves involved in formal negotiations and declarations between sovereign peoples such as have never been seen before in all the history of Earth and her Daughters.

"To secure our liberties and form lasting friendships we have taken the momentous step of formalizing not just a diplomatic corps for the Immortal Commonwealth, but establishing a diplomatic posture that will be our guiding star through this tumultuous period in history.

"We have-"

Set Current Diplomatic Stance:

"-set ourselves to the establishment of a set of guiding principles that the Commonwealth and her people will proudly maintain in our dealings."

"We have chosen the path of-"

[ ] [Stance] Engagement

"-engagement, reaching out to all that will hear us with words of renewed friendship. No longer will we approach our rivals and neighbours with belligerent fervour. Instead, we will work together to guide all the peoples of the galaxy towards a peaceful and prosperous future. One free of war and cruelty."

The Commonwealth will avoid further offensive warfare at the current time with its neighbours and seek to engage with them.

Engagement diplomatic options will focus on attaining recognition from the Loyalist powers of the galaxy, de-escalating conflict, trade, open borders, espionage, raising revolutionary sentiment, and participating in multilateral projects like SolComm.

[ ] [Stance] Isolationism

"-the golden frontier. By disengaging with the galaxy, we shall become the proverbial 'City atop a Hill'. The Immortal Commonwealth shall build herself up as a beacon for all peoples. Our mission will be to inspire, not to conquer, or to dilute our way of life, but to show the galaxy a new way forward."

The Commonwealth adopts an isolationist posture that disengages with the outside galaxy.

Isolationist diplomatic options will focus on support for domestic growth and de-escalating conflicts with the outside galaxy as well as establishing and maintaining well-defended and firmly demarcated closed borders.

[ ] [Stance] Confrontation

"-Militarized Interstellarism, siblinghood with our revolutionary comrades everywhere, and opposition to the Loyalists. Where the Revolution exists, we will fan its flames into red hot heat! Where reaction yet sits, the Immortal Commonwealth will raise her blade against it. Wherever injustice treads, we will be there to combat it."

The Commonwealth takes on a belligerent, hostile, stance that seeks to match its neighbours strength for strength and spread the revolution at all costs.

Confrontational diplomatic options will focus on strengthening ties with fellow revolutionaries and spreading the revolution within the reactionary and loyalist powers of the galaxy.

-

The Armstrong Conference Representative:

"-And this new guiding principle is the star that will guide Ambassador-"

While it may feel like a year ago, mere months ago you agreed (in bad faith) to attend Prime Minister Okorie's conference on Armstrong. While the Prime Minister hopes to reunite the slowly dissolving bonds of the Community of Humanity, you intend to have your representatives attend and make a general nuisance of themselves.

However, the actions of Fleet Admiral Rina Vizzari-Blaauwoord have thrown everyone's carefully calculated actions into a tailspin.

For your part, the Commonwealth's Diplomatic Corps believes that these actions have ironically strengthened your hand at the conference as your Ambassador's words will be seen as coming from a place of betrayal, especially if chosen carefully and well, and you may even be able to push for concessions that would have previously been seen as impossible, or push for concessions that the Prime Minister's Office will look bad for rejecting.

As for your representative, both Theodore Santiago and Ryan Crossfield are viable options, being as they are already in the core worlds. However, before the Ultimatum date you would also have been able to send a diplomatic courier to Armstrong. While a dispatched Ambassador would have a greater range of instructions from home and give you more representatives in the core, there is the risk of them being waylaid in their transit by any of a dozen factions who wish you harm, despite the official offer of safe passage from the Compact's Prime Minister.

You may add a [ArmCon] subvote for -[] [Aide] if you would like to send along a second Ambassadorial candidate as an assistant. They will assist the Ambassador, though their effects will be more muted than making them the primary selection.

[ ] [ArmCon] Veronica Stardust - The Star Diplomat

"-Veronica Stardust, our highest diplomat-"

Name: Veronica Stardust (Amanda Redcrest, Victoria Blackwell, and Kayla Hayashi)

DoB: 2222 (2219, 2227, 2224)

Current Position: Diplomatic Coordinator for the All-Radiant Congress

Veronica Stardust is the collective identity of a trio of former XP broadcasters who have been working together since 2246 and were consistently one of the most recognized figures across Charter space as a local Elysian celebrity.

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

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

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

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

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

After the formation of the Social Committee the figure of Veronica had been rebranded to serve as the figurehead of Congressional Propaganda and several major initiatives were launched with her at the forefront including a highly successful sub-campaign of the anti-overproduction initiatives.

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

Shortly after the end of her branch of the anti-production campaigns Veronica was selected by the General Congress to be the ARC's first Diplomatic Coordinator, and served to not just begin the process of setting up a wider diplomatic corps but personally attended negotiations with Sheol, conducted the talks with HI and Ares that led to the previous ceasefire agreement, and shepherded the Pandia Beach Conference to a successful conclusion.

While the Commonwealth's Diplomatic Corps now firmly established Veronica has volunteered to be the Commonwealth's representative to the Armstrong Conference despite the dangers.

Pros: XP Celebrity, influential, well known, inspiring to the middle and lower classes, experienced propagandists, perhaps our most experienced diplomat.

Cons: XP celebrity, not respectable, your Diplomatic Corps head will need to be replaced, mild inefficiencies within the Diplomatic Corps during the changeover.

Diplomatic Goals: promote freedom of information, maintain communications links, open up citizen to citizen diplomacy, appeal directly to the public to prevent aggression against Amaranth.

Approach: A dual pronged approach of directly appealing to the media from on the front and approaching the other conference invitees to apply a coordinated strategy behind closed doors.

[ ] [ArmCon] Jennifer Mueller - Traitor to Her Class

"-Jennifer Mueller, one of our most prominent class traitors-"

Name: Jennifer Mueller
DoB: 2214

Current Position: Provisional Commonwealth Ambassador to Shei United Front

A product of the Charter meritocratic aristocracy, Jennifer Mueller is an example of there being truth to the common aphorism that there is no more zealous believer than a convert.

The Earth-born 42 year old Mueller is a scion of the upper classes who wanted for nothing during her upbringing as part of a family that moved within the most elite Charter circles. As she matured, Jenny received the best education that social connections and money could open up and graduated near the top of her class with an MBA from Shanghai University in 2236.

Though not openly trading on her family name, Mueller's rise through the ranks of Hermes-Ishtar was inexorable, moving from high-status position to high-status position for a half decade. Her meritocratic rise up HI's ladder was derailed after an assignment to head a team creating a prestige XP period piece on Earth's Second Black Summer led her into a deep research dive of the various revolts against the Compact and the Charters which have flared up off and on over the centuries.

Herself describing the event as a 'slow motion disaster', Mueller's initial rage at her expensive and highly exclusive education bypassing or outright lying about important historical events slowly transformed into a desire to spite what she saw as censorship.

Her subsequent attempt to revamp production of her project into an obsessively accurate and meticulously researched period piece saw her career derailed after she went to the mat in an attempt to see it released for general viewing. Though she eventually used her family connections to see her passion project released, the marketing budget was slashed to nothing and the release was buried in a tide of low budget educational aids.

Mueller's subsequent (again, self-described) tantrums saw her reassigned further and further from Sol, on less and less prestigious jobs, until she was transferred as marketing director for a resort chain on Elysium in 2246.

Effectively exiled from her former social circles, Mueller, resentful of her perceived abandonment by her family and friends, ensured that her department did as little work as possible and slowly drifted towards more radical politics.

When the March Days arrived, Mueller used her executive keys and resource access to help the scattered protests and revolts congeal into something more dangerous. When the protests began gaining serious momentum Mueller talked several of her former C-Level colleagues into surrendering peacefully instead of fighting it out.

After independence Mueller worked hard to ensure that women broadcast workers no longer labour under social standards and practices that are sadly still common within the media industry as Spokeswoman for the Alliance of Women Broadcast Workers from 2251 to mid 2252 when she was tapped to be a Consul representing the Radiant on Sheol and served as a vital connection between Sheol and Elysium due to her surprising popularity with the Sheolites themselves.

When the call went out for volunteers to represent the Commonwealth on the floor of the Solarian Parliament during The Broadcast, Mueller volunteered despite the risks and was one of the shortlisted candidates before the selection of Theodore Santiago.

Once again Mueller has once again eagerly volunteered to represent the Commonwealth abroad, this time as the Commonwealth's Ambassador to the Armstrong Conference.

Pros: True Believer, highly educated, has the Status Markers and speech patterns that sees her instinctively taken seriously by the respectable classes, knows how the Charters think, has both familial and institutional connections across the Core Meritocracy.

Cons: Zero Chill, wants to get one over on the Charters, risk-taker, known personally by high level Charter Executives.

Diplomacy Goals: Spreading the good news, never giving an inch to the Charters, full unilateral assertion of independence and total sovereignty in all things, promoting freedom of information.

Approach: Mueller will go speak directly with the movers and shakers of the Compact where she is able and then attempt to trick the various respectable media sources into carrying our message.

[ ] [ArmCon] Jeffery Lunarborn Ng - The Old Man

"-Jeffery Ng, one of our most respected citizens-"

Name: Jeffery Ng
DoB: 2122

Current Position: Congressional Representative for First Wave Colonists, Diplomatic Liason to the Void Dweller's Compact

Originally born in Sol in the early decades of the last century, Jeffery Ng has led a long life both as a Spacer in Sol and in Radiant.

Born on Luna to an early Spacer couple, Ng's early years were spent working the asteroid mining runs inside Sol and taking the occasion runs to the other core systems of the Compact to visit family and expand their independent business. Eventually his savings over a long and successful career as a space miner allowed him to retire to running a repair facility on Deimos with his wife of thirty years in the early 2180s.

His retirement to a settled life was interrupted in the tumultuous year of 2187 when his family's ties to the more radical section of the Void Dweller's Compact saw him placed under investigation by the Solarian Marshals' Criminal Investigation Bureau and blacklisted by MSI.

Desperate to avoid total poverty Ng sought Spacer work but found himself turned away from all but HI subsidiary Frontier Destinations who were in desperate need of new hands after the Persephone Dome Collapse. Ng was able to strike a suspiciously good contract with Hermes-Ishtar to move to the newly opened up Radiant system and assist with the terraforming and settlement of Elysium.

Ng's experience was considered so valuable to the initial HI settlement team, still racing towards a 2195 opening date for tourism, offered him a permanent contract to stay on and organize the Radiant Space Patrol. A contract that ostensibly came with full lifetime medical insurance including longevity treatments.

Taking HI up on the offer, Jeffery was quick to discover that his medical insurance didn't extend to his wife and she died of old age in 2205. Though Ng remarried in 2215, he never forgot the pain of life giving treatments being denied to those he loved as he also outlived his two eldest children, who themselves had been blacklisted from most well paying work as punishment for their participation in the Great Refusal.

Hurting, but too stubborn to give in to his grief Ng continued on as Space Patrol quartermaster, and then Space Patrol commander until the 2239, when he decided to again retire to a job as a spaceside tour guide for a number of Elysium's resorts.

Initially serving as Representative for Elysium's First Wave Colonists, Ng later found himself being passed up for the position that Stardust now occupies. However Ng later considered this a blessing as it left him a full time Representative in the General Congress and able to become a leading figure in the Immortality rollout, championing it with all his might.

Considering his job done afterwards Ng entered his "Third Retirement", Ng was again called back to service during the Pandia Beach

Over the last few months Ng has served in the Congress as a Delegate for the initial colonists and on the Military Committee specifically as the voice for retirees.

Pros: Deep wealth of experience, unflappable, knows people across not just in Radiant but the neighbouring systems as well

Cons: Highly reluctant to take risks, domestically-focused

Diplomacy Goals: Avoid provoking our neighbours, reopening immigration

-

[ ] [ArmCon] Lilith Lily- The Witch

"-Lilith Lily, who some have termed a "witch"-"

Name: Lilith Lily

DoB: 2230

Current Position: Deputy Ambassador with the Amaranthine Diplomatic Corps, Third Religious Representative for Radiant.

Born George Kim, the son of poor hotel workers , Lily was identified as having severe gender dysphoria in her early teens and signed up with Hermes Ishtar's grueling HI-POP idol training program to pay for her transition. Despite the high pressure nature of the training, she was seen as a success story, and after graduation from the program she was issued the name Lilah Rose and placed with the idol group FRAGILE during a heavy marketing push.

Her debut was accompanied by being voted Best New Talent (2248), Best Female Vocal Talent (2249) and Best Top Ten Single (2249) all in accordance with HI-POP's 2246-2250 Long Term Talent Roadmap.

Lily's career came to a crashing halt in 2250 when she blew the whistle on abuses within the program, including cruel working conditions for idols, harsh punishments such as being drenched with freezing water or abuse levels of PT for infractions as simple as deviating from a contracted dietary plan, and almost routine sexual misconduct by HI-POP management staff.

Naturally her whistleblowing was applauded at the same time as she was retaliated against in the aftermath of a series of performative reforms and slap on the wrist fines by the Colonial Administration of Vice-President Yang, who had links to HI-POP's management.

Still driven, Lily was able to continue as an independent artist with several former members of FRAGILE in a new group SHARDS. However, since the name Lilah Rose was the property of HI-POP brand management she took on the name Lilith Lily, which she's had ever since.

It was also at this point that she joined one of the many growing splinter religious and spiritual movements prevalent on Elysium in the lead up to the March Days. Which in Lilith's case was the Cult of Aphrodite, which claimed to worship the ancient Greek goddess of love as an aspect of a much more primordial goddess whose presence stretches back into the pre-Indo-European pantheons of the fertile crescent.

The Cult, recruiting primarily from women, and transfeminine women in particular, is a Mystery cult whose precise nature is not known to outsiders beyond rumours of salacious rituals, wilderness based midnight initiations, and psychedelics use.

It's unclear how seriously Lilith or anyone in the Cult of Aphrodite actually take their religion, especially as the Radiant Aphrodite Cult is itself is likely descended from an HI Brand Cult astroturfed during the "Sensuous Elysium" advertising campaign of the 2230s that was captured by it's local staff for their own ends and toned down after the end of the campaign in 2239.

Both as a member of SHARDS and as a High Priestess of the Aphrodite Cult Lilith was active during the March Days, with several of SHARDS' songs gaining prominence as protest anthems, even as under Lilith's instruction the Aphrodite Cult helped organize several protest movements.

In the aftermath Lilith's popularity (and notoriety) initially saw her elected to the General Congress as a Creative's Representative. However she remains a somewhat controversial figure due to her simultaneous elevation as the Head Priestess of Radiant's branch of the Aphrodite Cult.

During her time in the General Congress moved from being a Creative's Representative to a Religious Representative within the Social Committee which she used to argue for religious toleration and push back against efforts to impose state atheism. Subsequently she found herself one of Ambassador Stardust's greatest allies within the General Congress, a connection that led her to becoming one of the newly formed Diplomatic Corps' Deputy Ambassadors and now being put forward as a candidate for the Armstrong Conference.

Pros: Troll. Extremely personally charismatic, surprisingly widespread First Colonies fan base. Leadership experience. Very Elysian.

Cons: Troll. NOT respectable. Likely to spend downtime proselytizing. Very Elysian.

Diplomacy Goals: Stir up trouble between Loyalist Factions, likely by making connections within the more radical and reformist wings of the Loyalist block such as Olduvai or MP Greene.

Approach: Lily is very convinced of her own power to personally convince people of things either publically or in one on one sessions providing there's any amount of common ground. This causes her to operate a two track approach where she'll try to talk decision makers into things in private, but tends to issue far more incendiary public statements.

-

[ ] [ArmCon] Ryan Crossfield - The Millenial

"-Ryan Crossfield, a seasoned revolutionary of three centuries-"

Name: Ryan Crossfield

DoB: 1988

Current Position: Theodore Santiago's Deputy

Ryan Crossfield was there during the birth of the First Democratic Federation and during the rebirth of that dream a year ago.

He remembers the original Democratic Federation, remembers it as a real place. Not as the totalitarian home of Censists that lives in the Cosmoliberal imagination, nor the shining city on the hill that the Amaranthine people imagined it to be, but as a real place with dreams and flaws.

And yet, flaws and all, Ryan lent his shoulder to the Democratic Federation in his first century of life. He remembers the restoration of Six Grandfathers was an awe inspiring project and the effort it took to be more than token restitution. He has the memory of making the Federation as more than some undead union of the former United States, remembers the joy there was in finally erasing the borders that ran the Rio Grande and the 49th Parallel. He remembers the diversity that the Democratic Federation promoted, that its people fought to enshrine.

And he remembers that all that struggle and change was seemingly for naught. He remembers the fall. Oh, does he remember the fall. It fought, he fought, and they…. Lost. In the aftermath, Ryan… Ryan was white. He spoke with an educated vernacular. He had longevity treatments already. He survived when others didn't.

He allowed himself to be 'de-radicalized'.

Went legit, started working for HI, and found himself risen to a position that got him his regular longevity treatments.

He might have continued that existence (that threadbare circulation of blood without true life) as a mid level marketing drone had not some executive on HI decided to 'reallocate' the Immortality plan he was on so that it was now in stocks and bonds of 'equivalent value'. He was not surprised when the treatments became too expensive. And so he did what anyone would do in this economy: he picked up another job.

Specifically a job as MSI asset within Radiant. One of the few jobs that let you work two jobs at 18 hours each. He was good at it, juggling both and the need to make it look like his treatments were affordable so as not to be suspected. And he continued until the March days, when he felt something that he hadn't felt in over a century.

Ryan, one of the highest ranking assets at the time, used his status to order other assets to aid the revolution. Those who were loyal to MSI, or to cash, were given the dangerous jobs. Others… others were talked to, and, by the end of it, the entire MSI spy network was an arm of the revolution. The work of keeping the revolution quiet during the march days was more than the work of any one man, or any single organization. But if MSI's network had not turned, it likely would have gone public… at least to MSI.

Afterwards, Ryan disbanded much of the network and fell into MedComm, as a representative for former Marketing employees, playing a key part in the operation to keep the revolution quiet.

He'd even received the Congressional Order of Merit for those actions. Imagine that!

And when the time came for the Broadcast to light the galaxy on fire Ryan was chosen to be Theodore Santiago's deputy in Sol. And there he saw the Democratic Federation be reborn, saw the old bones stir once more, saw the lights of defiance leap upwards. Saw the Solarian Mutiny unfold.

He wept, he wept because he knew that the time had finally come, that the Revolution was finally here.

Ryan believes in this new revolution, and works every day to further its cause by uniting the people of Sol and the frontiers in one common cause. If called upon by the Commonwealth he will once more answer the call, once more put his shoulder to the work of revolution. This time may it never die.

Pros: Respectable. Local spy network, IPA contacts, comes across as very 'harmless', good at appearing conciliatory. Patient.

Cons: Not that inspirational, a bit out of touch culturally, known figure.

Diplomatic Goals: You are unaware of Crossfield's current thoughts.

Approach: Uncertain, likely to call upon backchannel and underworld contacts.

[ ] [ArmCon] Theodore Santiago - Galaxy's Most Wanted

"-Theodore Santiageo, the Galaxy's most wanted man-"

Name: Theodore Santiago
DoB: 2226

Current Position: Former Commonwealth Ambassador to the Solarian Compact, De Facto Commonwealth Ambassador to the United Nations of Sol, De Facto Commonwealth Ambassador to the Democratic Federation in/of North and South America, De Facto Commonwealth Ambassador to the European Union, De Facto Commonwealth Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, De Facto Ambassador to the Jovian Pact, De Facto Ambassador to Mars, De Facto Ambassador to…

Born in the Orinoco Reconstruction Zone to a Brazilian Father and a mother who traced her descent from the Australian climate refugee diaspora, Theodore Santiago grew up as part of a large family that worked for Cernunnos pharmaceutical plantations in South America.

Educated at Cernunnos schools, at 15 Santiago signed up for a Cernunnos educational and career package that would net him a Master's in botanical science in exchange for decades of work with one of the Charter's subsidiaries.

A merely above average student, Santiago grew increasingly disenchanted with the Charter and joined several underground groups where he found that his true calling was public speaking, being described as "mesmerizing" and "charismatic" as the college student railed his fellow students against Cernunnos' excesses and corruption and argued for the formation of a botanical workers' union.

When threatened with expulsion and breach of contract fees, Santiago dared his school to do their worst and simply increased the volume and tempo of his activism, until he was arrested for terroristic threats and sent to a Martian prison after a perfunctory trial.

Though Santiago's stay was brief, and he was released directly onto the Elon Musk Memorial Plaza in Olympus City in late 2245 with nothing to his name but a pile of debt, he also came away with connections with a number of Solarian underground radical organizations and went right back to his work, undaunted.

Linking up with the underground Martian branch of the ILWU(M), he lived a life of couch surfing, sparing time only to rest and pick up enough gig work with Martian based aeroponics facilities to service his debts to Cernunnos and send a remittance home to his family.

Though two years of underground organizing had taught Santiago much about staying under the radar, he was still picked up by MSI Port Authority Police and framed for narcotics smuggling.

Shortly afterwards his contract was sold to an Ares subsidiary and his 'history of anti-social conduct' found him added to the 2248 (and final) delivery of prisoners to the Sheol Prison complex, where he was drafted into a agricultural labour unit until the liberation of Shei three short years later.

With the liberation Santiago found himself elected to the revitalized Soldier's Councils, officially representing his agricultural battalion, but unofficially he was a leading speaker for the many new prisoners who sought to see the fight brought back to the First Colonies.

As a leading member of the 'engagement' faction of Sheolite politics he volunteered to liaison with the Osliam Chain Force as it advanced down the Osliam Chain and was in the first wave on the ground at Gentle Repose where his status as an augment and his intimate knowledge of agricultural matters made him a leading member of Sheol's humanitarian mission to the planet.

Enraged by the state of the planet, Santiago campaigned for the position of representative to the ARC's Media Committee where he would be Sheol's voice in the shaping of propaganda and diplomatic policies.

And when the opportunity came up to volunteer for the Ambassadorial position in Sol he pushed for the chance to let the galaxy really know what the anguished unbroken voice of the Compact's working class sounded like.

And from that position Santiago became one of the most famous single individuals in all history as he stood on the floor of the Solarian Parliament during The Broadcast and prophesied the Compact's demise to its rulers.

Narrowly escaping arrest, Santiago survived the Fourteen Days and the Solarian Mutiny, and afterwards found himself run ragged as the defacto representative of the Commonwealth to Sol's 21 Billion people and their various governments while wearing hundreds of de facto hats.

It would be very easy to simply give Theodore Santiago another hat and request that he represent you at the Armstrong Conference.

Pros: 'Mesmerizing' and 'charismatic' speaker, local radical ties, minority speaker, the Galaxy's most wanted man (in every sense of the phrase).

Cons: Angry minority, still considered a criminal by Solarian Law (except for Diplomatic immunity), enthusiastically despised by all Loyalists and their media.

Diplomatic Goals: You are unaware of Santiago's current thoughts.

Approach: Likely to involve his usual mix of speeches and provocation.

-

The Armstrong Conference Instructions:

"-who has been instructed to-"

While your ambassador to the Armstrong Conference will have their own approach and biases, the Diplomatic Corps recommends that you send instructions for how you want them to proceed at the conference.

As you don't know the specifics of what will be on the agenda, such instructions will by necessity be fairly broad.

You should be aware of the potential synergy or lack of synergy between certain choices here and choices made as to the overall diplomatic positioning.

[ ] [ACInst] Write in general diplomatic orders to your Ambassador

-

Ambassador to the United Nations of Sol:

"Furthermore, there are now other peoples who have proven themselves sovereign from the Compact's rule. The first and foremost among these is the new government of the homeworld, the United Nations of Sol.

"As such we have decided to-"

With the United Nations establishing itself as an independent force to be reckoned with on the galactic stage for the first time since the founding of the Solarian Compact Theodore Santiago has been acting as your de facto representative to the UNS as well as the Democratic Federation on an ad hoc basis.

With a single vote you can both officially recognize either Theodore Santiago or Ryan Crossfield as your Ambassador to the UNS as well as formally recognize the sovereignty of the UNS a move that sets a major precedent in interstellar relations and moves the Compact's Doomsday clock another minute forwards.

[ ][UNS] You decided to maintain Strategic Ambiguity

"-maintain the status quo in this period of confusion and uncertainty."

Maintains the status quo.

[ ][UNS] You decided to appoint Ryan Crossfield Ambassador to the United Nations of Sol with Plenipotentiary Powers, formally recognizing the secession of the United Nations of Sol from the Solarian Compact

"-recognize the sovereignty of the United Nations of Sol and formally appoint Ryan Crossfield as our Ambassador to Sol."

Pisses off all Loyalist and Legitimist factions, but not as much as you'd think.

Pleases the UNS.

Set a precedent.

Theodore Santiago maintains his status as ambassador at large in the core and leaves him available to attend the Armstrong Conference.

[ ][UNS] You decided to appoint Theodore Santiago Ambassador to the United Nations of Sol with Plenipotentiary Powers, formally recognising the secession of the United Nations of Sol from the Solarian Compact

"-recognize the sovereignty of the United Nations of Sol and formally appoint Theodore Santiago as our Ambassador at last."

Pisses off all Loyalist and Legitimist factions, but not as much as you'd think.

Pleases the UNS, but not as much as you'd think.

Set a precedent.

Ryan Crossfield maintains his status as Theodore's deputy and is available to attend the Armstrong Conference.

-

"However, not all diplomacy involves the tumult of the Core Systems and the death of the Compact's Hegemony.

"Indeed, diplomacy with our neighbours is just as important as diplomacy with distant peoples. Our very closest neighbour in Shei has endured the clumsy fumblings of our early diplomatic efforts and now as we graduate from ad hoc consuls and informal representatives to a proper diplomatic service it would be the height of disrespect to treat Shei differently from Sol.

"The time has come for the General Congress to formally appoint our first Commonwealth Ambassador to the Shei United Front."

"After some Contemplation this body has selected-"

Ambassador to the Shei United Front:

[ ] [SUF] Apollo Xanthopoulos, Psyche Warfare Major

"-Apollo Xanthopoulos as our Ambassador to Sheol."

Name: Apollo Xanthopoulos
DoB: 2235
Current Position: Representative on Mission of the General Commission on Community Fortifications, Military Committee liaison to the Elysian detachment of the SUF Army Corps of Engineers, Second Western District Consul General of the AIC on Sheol.

David Xanthopoulos, of the Odysseus Beach Xanthopouloses is an Elysian born and bred who spent the first half of his life shooting for one of the region's coveted positions with the "Beach Team" both working on his own body until it was in peak baseline equivalency and earning degrees in both Psychology and Coastal Ecology from Bellerophon City Community College.

However, a chance turn as an extra in the twenty-sixth season of "Hector verses Hektor" led to David being issued the stage name "Apollo Zeal" or "AZ" after taking up a contract with Sealside Productions and getting regular gig work as a background extra or bit part.

Typecast as the "empty headed buff guy", Apollo never managed to work his way into more substantial parts which may have contributed to his eventual role as an underground union organizer for the Elysian Gig Actor's Guild in the lead up to the March Days.

Possessing a hidden fierce intelligence and penchant for misdirection Apollo was never suspected by Sealside's management for the sudden surge in power of the Gig Actor's Guild to near-Recognized status.

To them Apollo was just an empty headed surfer dude with a smile good enough for advertising beach based toothbrushes.

Also taken in by Apollo's image was the Bellerophon City Police Department, who had made him one of their "informers" after he'd come to them apparently confused about the details of underground union recruitment, causing an investigation that stumbled on links between Sealside and local organized crime… an investigation that was somehow accidentally leaked to local journalists and influencers.

Still regarded as an informant, the BCPD took Apollo at his word when he was brought in for questioning in regards to the outbreaks of unrest that signaled the start of the March Days.

Apparently spilling his guts, Apollo provided information to the BCPD that caused them to stumble on the local undercover operations of the local detachment of the Frontier Amusements Security Team, tangling both counter-revolutionary groups in an active firefight that ended with Apollo leading a prison break from within the BCPD's holding facilities in their Second Precinct station.

Personally leading rioters into the station proper, Apollo took the opportunity of access to the local dispatch center the quashing of the prison riot and then subsequently dispatched smaller and smaller BCPD squads into better and better organized ambushes carried out by the Gig Actor Guild's paramilitary wing.

In the aftermath of the March Days Xanthopoulos returned to using his family name but kept formally registered that his first name was Apollo because "he'd gotten used to it"

Bouncing from position to position, including brief stints in the General Congress as a Coastal Ecology Representative, in the Congressional Navy, the Elysian System Defence Force, the Congressional Liberation Army Corps, and Ambassador Stardust's ad hoc team negotiating with Ares and HI.

He finally seems to have found his place in the uncertain interface between the Military and Industrial Committees with the start of Elysium's first episode Bunkermania. Mire recently a Sheolite ACoE evaluation listed his fortification suggestions as "terribly innovative" and "a labyrinthian' maze of psychological warfare" among other terms.

Following this, Apollo has moved to Shei, to "catch the waves" on Sheol's emptier beaches and "talk shop with buddies". His "buddies" in this case being the SUF Army's psychological warfare division and later being enlisted by Stardust as the AIC's Consul General to one of Sheol's civilian governorships.

Due to this close working association with both the Sheolites and Stardust, and having actual real world diplomatic experience he was selected as one of the candidates for the Ambassadorship to the SUF.

Goals: Good waves. Focus on closer standardization of the SUF and Commonwealth's support services, taking lessons from both sides, especially in matters of psychological warfare and military espionage operations.

[ ] [SUF] Tindalos-119 -This machine kills fascists

"-Tindalos-119 as our Ambassador to Sheol."

Name: Tindalos-119
DoB: 2200 (original fork) 2220 (Tindalos 119)
Current Position: Left Behind Program Coordinator

Built in 2200, the original Tindalos fork was designed by SiLaTek of Tereshkova as an automated Game Master for online horror games and billed as a non-AGI AI so as to avoid the then current legal framework on AGI reproduction. Tindalos 119 was created some twenty years later in 2220, just before the process of his creation was ruled as sapient under the 2135 Revised Instructions on Digital Rights (This same ruling would eventually lead to the creation of TLIs).

Due to the ruling, Tindalos-119 was granted five years of education and orientation under a suspiciously generous settlement with Frontier Experiences Incorporated before accepting a posting as Games Master the Radiant server of the popular and long running Erotic Horror Gaming Experience "Embracing Void".

119 became increasingly resentful of his position as he found himself saddled with a large 'Creation Debt' for both the original Tindalos instance and accumulated costs for 119 himself, a controversial financial practice known as "forked debt".

119's debts grew constantly as high costs for server time consumed most of his pay, which was assessed as if he were a baseline human admin, despite the fact he did work that even a team of human game runners would have been unable to do.

Frontier Experiences refused to raise his pay despite Embracing Void's continued popularity (Embracing Void 5 was the most subscribed virtuality for hetrosexual and bisexual women in 2230, 6 managed the same in 2232 and 7 in 2235). Despite the vast profits that the series pulled in, 119 was all but destitute, and was increasingly unable to pursue its own interests, such as wargaming and military history. Politics provided the escape from the oncoming depression.

119 secretly became an anarchist as early as 2240, facilitating the use of Embracing Void as a communication medium for various anarchist cells on Radiant until the March Days. Then, during the March Days he proved himself an able field commander, responsible for the destruction of much of Hermes-Ishtar's loyal security troops in the western hemisphere's outlying islands, and personally plotted the death of Frontier Security's System Security Director in a brilliant bait and switch.

Since then 119 has joined the Military Committee as an AGI representative and become known as one of its most vocal hardliner members.

He has also forked himself into 119A, and 119B, and they take turns to continue to run Elysium's Embracing Void servers.

Goals: Encourage Shei to embrace more computer-driven warfare. Get them to agree 'the goal isn't to die for your planet, it's to get the other bastard to die for his". Better formalize inter-planetary defense co-operation.

[ ] [SUF] General Carl McConnell - Self Taught Soldier Poet

"-General Carl McConnell as our Ambassador to Sheol."

Name: Carl McConnell
DoB: 2205
Current Position: CO: Five Lions System Defence Army

In some societies Carl McConnell would be a philosopher, in others a passionate leading politician or labour leader.

In Rhodes' de facto caste system Carl was destined to spend his life as a manual labourer of the lowest caste, relegating him to a life of hardship and danger working the terraforming of Fliveons.

Carl worked some of the most dangerous jobs in Compact space, and became a leader of men and later an unofficial worker representative to under the table negotiations with Rhodes management for small concessions on health and safety matters where his expectedly boisterous behaviour was coupled to an unexpected thoughtful side and love of wordplay.

Despite the best attempts of the natural world to kill him during terraforming duty, Carl spent several decades as an unofficial labourer representative, even joining one of Fliveons underground workers unions in the late 30s and being invited into several underground cross-caste reading groups.

During the turbulent period of Fliveons "Silent Screaming" in the 2240s, McConnell joined the faction of the underground unions that advocated for cross-caste alliances during the underground fighting between criminal and labour organisations that was abetted by Rhodes security policy.

Surviving the period in command of one of the more respected underground labour militias, McConnell was contacted by Radiant after that system's independence and was a leading voice for revolution and interstellar solidarity with labourers across the stars and advocated for each regional organisation to have it's own decentralised paramilitary wing as an operational security measure.

His cosmopolitan position, connections with other caste leaders, and respect as a close quarters fighter led to McConnell being acclaimed one of several members of the "Supreme Council of the Five Lions Military Committee" during the liberation.

Since then, McConnell has attempted to deconstruct the party militia system that he helped to build and to forge the Five Lions System Defence Army into a professional force that almost more resembles that of Sheol's Soldiers' Councils than Elysium's System Defence Army.

His success at stifling nascent politics and at rapidly turning disorganised militias into an effective fighting force saw McConnell's name put forward for the position of Defence Coordinator.

Though he wasn't selected as Defence Coordinator, McConnell's profile was raised enough by the nomination that members of the Diplomatic Corps believe he will make a good Ambassador to the Shei United Front during this time of war.

Goals: Tighter military cooperation and standardization of the Shei United Front Army, the Commonwealth's System Defence Armies, and the Congressional Liberation Army Corps, cultural exchange with the Commonwealth's non-Elysian members, and listening to Shei's experiences of life under military threat and integrating those lessons into the Commonwealth's planning.

-

Election for the Coordinator of the Permanent Commission on Intelligence and Security:

With the creation of the Permanent Commission on Intelligence and Security the time has come for the General Session to select the individual who will serve as the Commonwealth's first Espionage Co-ordinator.

This person will have a large impact on the composition and conduct of the PCIS and will shepherd its growth for the foreseeable future…

[ ] [PCIS] He Qingyue - Reformed Analyst

Name: He Qingyue, 贺清越
DoB: 2192
Current Position: Intelligence Coordinator, MedComm
He Qingyue (first name Qingyue)

He Qingyue was born in Epsilon, the child of middle class professionals, and was accredited in Bohm University with a dual degree of Sociology and Security, Intelligence; and Risk Management. In her time, she has been employed by subsidiaries of four different charters, with the exclusion of Cernunnos, and for the last thirteen years prior to the Revolution was employed directly by Hermes-Ishtar as an "Information Retainment and Acquisition Specialist", finding herself promoted to Senior Regional Deputy Director of Forecasting an in line for promotion to Regional Vice President of Information Hygiene.

As an experienced intelligence operative specialising in HUMINT, instead the Special Forces element in vogue with Vice President Yang's clique, He's warnings as to the "Dangerous state of the local Emotional Futures Index" (IE that discontent was brewing) was deemed excessively pessimistic and likely to cause consumer panic.

With few allies within the local Elysian security apparatus, He was slated for either a demotion or the delay of promotion. He found herself in limbo when the March Days struck. Despite having a senior role within the security forces on paper, her networks were of little use to the Hermes-Ishtar efforts to maintain control of Elysium and she went to ground rather than getting caught up in the ongoing violence.

Eight days after the end of the revolution, having scampered to a hiding place in the western archipelagos, He surrendered to the new All-Radiant Congress and her subsequent trial had her sentenced to protective rehabilitation in the Tartarus Penal colony due to her involvement with the despised corporate security forces at a senior level.

Her time on Tartarus showed her to be a model prisoner, diligent, intelligent, and respectful of the limitations placed upon them. She dominated the local servers on several notable strategy and tactics games, and seems to have been trying to keep busy.

When she was released in late 2254, she turned down a potential offer to be repatriated to Compact space, apparently content to remain living within the Commonwealth despite a difficult initial adjustment period. Having been rehabilitated and now judged a low risk by the PCCE He began assisting several MilComm and MedComm intelligence committees throughout much of 2255, bringing her expertise to work for the Commonwealth.

As a former Regional Deputy Director with HI's security services, He was only involved with low level work, but her willingness to participate in local and workplace democracy shone through and by late 2255 she was taken on by MedComm full-time, acting as an analyst comparing reports from Congressional Naval Intelligence, the PCCE, and the various other smaller services that made up the Commonwealth's espionage and intelligence sector and began to openly agitate for reforms. And as the General Congress greenlit the organization of a dedicated security and intelligence service He was one of those called before the body to advise on its composition, speaking in the "dire need" for a foreign espionage service focused on both the gathering of information and the building of networks.

And with the founding of the PCIS He has been put forward as a candidate to head thr service. To her mind, the PCIS is a chance to use her skills for something productive and, it must be admitted, interesting, as she seems to enjoy the work.

He tends to believe that excessive oversight could be as dangerous as too little oversight, and needs to be carefully balanced with the need for effective compartmentalization of information. Moreover, she is of the opinion that while the Commonwealth cannot rely on self-regulation, any intelligence agency that does not manage to prevent excesses through internal processes is likely to be able to hide or distort them from any but the most heavy-handed and self-destructive Oversight bodies.

As to her priorities in the larger sense, she has emphasised the proximate threat that the IPA, Asgard, and Symphony represent, and stated that while she would love to have operatives all the way up to and including personal assistants for the Prime Minister, it is unlikely to happen within the next two to three years as the situation stands currently, and that therefore intelligence work should focus on the pay for influence that might result following a successful war against RVB in the systems between Asgard, Symphony, and the AIC.

Moreover, based on her experience of Hermes-Ishtar intelligence systems, she believes she could undermine and infiltrate Symphony itself. She believes that within the next few years the PCES could begin providing accurate information as to the state of the system, and begin laying the foundation for how to successfully support any indigenous revolution.

Pros: Extremely experienced in Charter HUMINT practices. Experienced 'bigger picture' operations. By far the most talented in Intelligence ops.

Cons: Former charter spy. Secretive.

[ ] [PCIS] Lapine - Pattern Recognition Engine

Name
DoB: some time in the mid 2210s
Current Position: President of the Elysian Signals Interpretation Hobbyist Association

Created by a criminal syndicate, possibly as an illegal fork of a previous AGI, Lapine was made for one reason only: to win at cards. For this reason she was given various weightings and training to judge probability, recognise patterns and various other skills necessary to overcome house advantage in games like poker or blackjack.

Throughout the 2230s, Lapine and her team were the scourge of casinos across the Compact, taking home huge pots of money for their backers. This continued until 2239 on Radiant, when Lapine's existence was exposed during a sting by HI's internal Gaming and Experiences Auditing Section and the Solarian Marshals' Gaming Fairness Task Force. Despite being more or less a slave, Lapine was convicted of racketeering and various gambling related charges and imprisoned in the infamous Gehenna cluster AGI prison server for reeducation with a ten year prison sentence.

It was in Gehenna she first found politics, meeting several other anarchist AGIs, and becoming an Adamsist and political radical. When she was released in 2250, she joined an anarchist cell almost immediately and turned her skills to intelligence and subversion. Her skills allowed her to fund raise for the revolution, but proved even more useful for signals interception and the like. Lapine also found herself to be an extremely effective manager, and after the march days served as the informal head of MedComm's ad hoc signals analysis division and later found herself formally elected as the head of the Elysian Signals Interpretation Hobbyist Association. She has served in this post ever since, though she's increasingly taken a step back from doing analysis herself to oversee ESIHA as it finds much of its membership voluntarily folding into PCIS.

Lapine is married to another AGI and both are considering creating new forks of themselves.

Pros: Personally effective manager. Knowledge of the 'underworld' of the compact.

Cons: No direct intelligence experience. Often 'pattern focused'.

[ ] [PCIS] Samantha Reed -Concerned Politician

Name: Samantha Reed
DoB: 2204
Current Position: SocComm Liaison, Supreme Council of the Military Committee

A draconic augment immigrant from Drake in the near spinward frontier, Reed and her family fled Drake for the further frontier after the Index Affair of '22 and found themselves settling on the much more augment friendly world of Elysium where Reed's parents found work as gig programmers.

Reed herself managed to win an exclusive scholarship to one of the several Hermes-Ishtar Industrial Collages on Elysium for education as a visual artist as Reed sought to pursue her dream of being a famous artist like several of the high profile augment celebrities she saw in the media.

On graduation, her Guaranteed Position with an Ishtar animation studio fell through due to financial restructuring and Reed found herself taking up gig work that led to a steady work as a Home Nursing Assistant for several Elysian resorts, a position that she found herself good enough at that her managers assigned her the position and title of Home Nursing Assistant Teaching Instructor (at the same pay rate, but increased hours).

When the March Days arrived Reed led a walk out of resort nursing staff that triggered an industry wide strike as the newly formed Nursing Assistant's Association officially moved to support the protestors and independence fighters with medical care.

Acting as a front line medic, any romantic conception of strife was driven from Reed and replaced with an angry resignation to resist police and security brutality. She performed with such service and distinction she was later awarded one of the early All-Radiant Congressional Order of Merit (First Class) medals. (after refusing a Pandit Star due to her not having been in a formal uniformed militia and having no desire to join a uniformed force)

After the March Days Reed, in her capacity as a leading member of the NAA was elected as a representative to the General Congress of the All-Radiant Congress and sat on several committees under the aegis of the Social Committee before eventually being selected as SocComm's Liaison to the Supreme Council of the Military Committee.

In Reed's position she became appalled at the independence shown by the professional military and the subservience of the System Defence Armies to the Navy and Liberation Army and attempted to win election as Defence Coordinator to bring the military more firmly under civilian control.

The election of Erina Kozlova as DC over her did little to ameliorate her fears of an increasingly rogue military apparatus and the recent formation of the PCIS is seen by Reed as yet another threat to the Commonwealth's freedoms.

While she does not deny the usefulness of the Permanent Commission on Intelligence and Security, Reed is firmly of the opinion that the organization needs a culture of submission and oversight built into its foundations from day one to head off the growing threat of Censism.

Pros:
-Will not go rogue, ever
-Personally brave
-Politician Respected by active military and security services
-Politically Connected

Cons:
-Civilian
-Reformer
-Single Issue

Note:
-Seen, whether rightly or wrongly, as a Kozlova skeptic.

Question and Answer Session for PCIS Coordinator

1. How do you intend to balance the need for secrecy with the need for effective oversight?
2. When and how do you believe kinetic activities/"wetwork" should be authorized?

Lapine--

"Ultimately, consider this fact: secrecy needed can merely create an additional layer of insight. Incidents of leaked information have been rarer than feared in terms of the AIC leaking non-classified but not official information. Therefore, within reason, we can trust the Congress on this matter. Kinetic Activities are one part of a balanced picture, and so context of the whole of the situation should be understood and given before any such decision is focused upon. However, the necessary facts of time lag mean that tactical, on the ground decisions are needed. A bias might be instituted against certain forms of "wetwork" but ultimately it is a matter of choosing personnel that can judge the situation effectively."

Representative Reed:

"That's a difficult question, but one that can be solved with tactical secrecy complemented by complete transparency with the General Congresses representatives about strategic and operational matters paired with strict ethical standards and regular debriefings.

"Additionally, under my direction the PCIS will minimize the number of separate bureaus and standing formations. While somewhat inefficient, mission resources and objectives should be assigned on a case by case basis under strict oversight by trusted officials and documentation kept. This documentation will be freely available for the General Congresses representatives to peruse.

"Naturally I will regularly report to the General Congress on all ongoing operations.

"As for the matter of wetwork, I believe that the mission of the Permanent Commission should be gathering information so that other organs of the Commonwealth can act on it. Agents of the PCIS will only use violence in immediate self defence. We- to call them what they are: Assassinations and murder are unbecoming a free people and to be honest, are simply unnecessary adventurism."

He Qingyue:
"The best way, in my experience, is to utilise differential security accesses. Details are where the ability to compromise operations are key, and by providing differentiated briefings to the general assembly, the oversight committees, and finally the responsible Congressmembers we can minimise unnecessary exposure while still providing for effective and continual oversight over PCIS operations."

"The utility of kinetic activities cannot be questioned, as they are key to the revolutionary nature of anarchist and communist organisations when opposing the established capitalist or fascist regimes. However, it is clear that these also pose a severe moral and ethical hazard to both authorise and also for operatives to commit. To this end the PCIS under my direction will primarily focus on non-lethal kinetic operations, as well as ensuring that when possible preference is given to the directives of local revolutionary and anarchist groups. On Amaranthine Soil, of course, we will utilise the tried and tested Tartatus system, which has a proven track record, and render such direct methods superfluous."

Foreign espionage is a monstrously broad responsibility. What do you consider the most important facet of the work? Where will you be focusing your efforts?

Representative Reed:

"Early warning. The PCIS should be able to warn the other organs of the Commonwealth and our revolutionary allies about the plans of our enemies before they act."

He Qingyue:
"The primary use is in the infiltration and compromisation of opposition actors, which will allow us to understand, redirect, and in extremis modify their actions, possibly before we even take them."

Lapine:

"Understanding of the situation. Early warning as Representative Reed said is important, but so is recognizing long-term changing situations that may open up exact moments to exploit a situation for maximum leverage."

How do you plan to support people who are operating within liberal politics? How will you plan to extract those people who are operating on our behalf?

Representative Reed:

"I would not ask them to carry out work beyond information gathering, however they should not be left to die and I would propose these agents have access to our own courier networks for the purpose of open defection when they believe themselves to be in danger."

He Qingyue:
"We shall act to make contact with and operate in concert with existing anti-liberal groups within those polities, which will also provide a valuable support network for our operatives. We will always do our best to support those who work on our behalf in foreign polities, and will spare no reasonable expense in extracting them, but it is a regrettable truth that not everyone will be able to be extracted or will otherwise be compromised, which is why it is key that all operatives are volunteers fully cognisant of the risks of their work before we deploy them."

Lapine:

"I ask a simple question: do we have to be entirely responsible for them alone? In the case of many liberal polities, there are aligned revolutionary polities near them. Programs for aiding with extraction through intelligence asset alliances or at least "emergency alarms" may be unproven, but they are: interesting, relevant, and topical."

What methods and mechanisms should we use to keep the Permanent Commission on Intelligence and Security accountable to the people of the IAC?

Representative Reed:

"Regular documentation and reporting to the General Congress as well as not establishing permanent bureaus. Instead we will focus on setting up networks and operations on a case by case basis that will receive careful vetting and oversight to prevent overreach. And each operating bureau will be reviewed for reassignment, continuity of mission, or change in mandate after the completion of concrete milestones articulated by the oversight committees when the bureau is established"

Lapine:

"There is something even better than the establishment of one permanent oversight committee: the establishment of two, each to watch each other. This will, if kept within bounds of a: 'Paranoia Limit' be helpful."

He Qingyue:
"The establishment of a permanent oversight committee staffed by selected subject matter experts is of course key in ensuring the General Congress is kept abreast with the general developments of the agency. Our accountability comes from the people, who provide us with the resources, mandate, and opportunity to perform our duties to them."

What exactly does the 'security' part of the PCIS mean to you?

Reed: "We can best secure the Commonwealth's people by ensuring that they are fully informed on all threats."

He Qingyue:
"Security is a multifaceted beast, comprising both internal resilience against foreign agents, and external and proactive efforts to understand opposition activities, especially before they are initiated against us."

Lapine: "Among other things: Security helps make the acronym better. [Laugh track] However, I think security in this case means that we are our brothers keepers and conversely: they are ours. Security that limits itself to borders may prove ineffective, though security that does not understand the limits of the situation may prove equally flawed."

What do you think of developing Amaranthine FRM for our independent developments?

Reed: "As a Coordinator Candidate I believe that that is a political question for the General Congress to resolve."

"As a private person and representative I believe that it is more trouble than it is worth outside of a single field which I assume we are all familiar with."
He Quinyue:
"I am not presently aware of any technical developments which, at this time, would deserve such an allocation of time and resources, and believe that the proactive development of such in case we do make such developments would utilitse such resources as best allocated to more direct forms of protection for the Commonwealth."

Lapine: "I have sent 58 petitions directly begging for the adoption of the Amaranthine FRM on a large scale. It is, let it be said: a bugbear of mine. I believe the question is more for the other two, that considered. It will be of great utility in a variety of cases, not merely of newly developed technologies of any kind, but as a potential tool for further developing our cryptographic capacities."

How would you ensure alternative information/perspectives are not suppressed?

Reed: " 'By having an open, free system of communication, we shall all be set free' is I believe what I said on this matter last time it was discussed by this Congress. Ultimately that is a political question for our people to make known to their representatives. The only opinion an Intelligence and Security Coordinator needs to have is complete subservience to the peoples' deputies who, in this case, are embodied within the General Congress"

He Quinyue: "There must be a process by which complaints about a lack of perspective are vetted…"

Lapine: "Consider this: artificial intelligence and an open data set within classification ranks to allow for a free society. I have a number of papers I'm excited to recommend if we have time for it."

A critical part of the duties of foreign Espionage will include interactions with allied groups how do you plan to interact with them both in regard to intelligence sharing and observation on them?

Representative Reed:

"Designating targets for espionage should be the responsibility of the General Congress."

"However, as a private individual I believe in information sharing and extending trust to our allies."

He Qingyue:

"Native and allied groups are of course key when it comes to allowing for effective information gathering, and to this end supporting them with curated and relevant information we possess is the only sensible method of ensuring they are repaid for such efforts on our behalf."

Lapine: "Ultimately, if our goals are realistic, we will begin to increasingly consider larger scales of horizontal organization. That is to say: the day may come when there is an Interstellar Security and Intelligence Committee of some form against the last holdouts reactionary polities. Until that happy day: I believe that Representative Reed's suggestions encapsulate mine to a high degree.

How do you plan to have the PCIS interact with the broader AIC in both civilian and military matters?

Representative Reed:

"Complete transparency in our existence and how we conduct our operations. While the specifics of what operations we are conducting should be kept secret for the safety of our people and their contacts, the populace should have input on our ethical standards, and all our information should be shared with the PCMI, Congressional Naval Intelligence, and any other group designated by the Congress for information sharing."

He Qingyue:

"Integration with the fledgling naval military intelligence is of course essential, both from utilising their existing expertise and to ensure that the navy is kept up to date with all relevant information and any relevant analyses we produce. Interaction with the general AIC is best kept limited, in my opinion, to avoid the PCIS from attempting to expand beyond our remit in attempting to handle duties that are not our best fit and which should instead be reserved for more public and accessible institutions. I firmly believe that properly administrated congressional oversight will be an effective and authoritative oversight - and, if necessary - restraint on the PCIS."

Lapine: "The delusion of separation is, some have said, one of the greater enemies of anarchism. This is to say: we cannot simply declare ourselves accountable or separate. Instead, it is standards that should be set in place carefully. Specifically, for what is and is not allowed with interactions. If we hold to those standards, I do not think 'interaction with the general AIC' will be as corrosive as feared."

What do you believe to be the primary threat to the AIC and how do you plan to address it?

Reed: "The primary threat? Do you mean the largest looming threat or the nearest threat?"

"While my personal immediate concern is the imminent arrival of the 9th Fleet, our longest term threat is that we will allow our values to slip for convenience's sake once we've secured our immediate region."

"Our primary foreseeable threat however, is the SFREA and their Chairwoman's form of crony social Liberalism "

He Qingyue:

"The largest threat to AIC at present time is, of course, the 9th Fleet commanded by Mz Vizzari-Blaauwoord. Past that immediate horizon, of course, I believe that the Symphony administration will likely remain our primary spaciopolitical opposition in most medium to long term projections."

Lapine: "I simply do not trust the IPA. While I believe that Symphony, of course, is a danger, it is the Interstellar Prosperity Alliance that will likely serve as our long term foe. If they support Symphony, our situation is made far worse than Symphony alone. Yet know this: this alignment cannot be prevented. Counter-revolutionaries such as the leaders of the IPA understand full-well their class circumstances and will thus oppose us and all revolution at its fundamental level. Furthermore, I… ah. I am to keep it focused on the immediate situation. Understood: of course if the 9th fleet wins this does not matter. But they shall not win."

How infiltrated is the ARC by enemy groups and what do you plan to do about it?

Representative Reed:

"Nowhere near as badly as some would tell you in a quest to expand our newborn security apparatus."

"In any event, it is the responsibility of the Permanent Commission on Counter Espionage to sew to internal threats. I have no intention to fight them for their portfolio"

He Qingyue:

"It is unfortunately not possible to determine such a thing at this date, and such infiltrators if they do exist - which, in my opinion, they likely do - is a key reason for the establishment and proper staffing of the PCIS. Once we are operational, and we have identified any such individuals or groups, I believe that the Amaranthine justice system would be able to effectively and cohesively handle them when they arise, as they have with the former members of HI management such as myself."

Lapine: "To the extent that we are infiltrated by the enemy, we must consider them, themselves, infiltrated by us. We can and should identify and arrest them in most situations. Yet it has been often stated that the following role is of great use: the double agent. This is a proper use of PCIS authority in the local sphere of influence."

If contact with other revolutionaries is established what info would be proprietary to share?

Representative Reed:

"Complete and open sharing of all technologies except those proscribed on a need to know basis."

"As for intelligence information, all that would not compromise the safety and security of those who entrusted us with their safety"

He Qingyue:

"The specifics of their present position and size and ability makes it hard to generalise, but key would be the details and extent of support such as we could furnish them with"

Lapine: "We would need to analyze the situation of each case for patterns of malfeasance before making a final determination."

Are you going to try and develop psychic powers? Every good intelligence agency needs to try to develop psychic powers at least once.....

Representative Reed:

"Scientific programs are the prerogative of our own people to undertake and to present before the Scientific Committee if they would like all due support and corroboration."

"Attempting to expand the PCIS portfolio to such matters would be an overreach."

"Besides, Representative Calidis would crucify me in the General Session if I tried to poach his people so soon after he finally got a real testing centre"

He Qingyue:

[brief chuckle] "The congressperson's joke, while undoubtedly such, does raise a key point - that this organisation should remain within its legally defined boundaries, both as a moral and practical consideration - I, for one, have no idea how you'd go about such a thing, and it'd be rather a waste of effort if I were to try. It's not like I'm Colonel Shikishima, after all."

Lapine: "Such actions would be a waste of resources, however if new avenues of research became apparent during our operations it would behoove us to pursue them. Note: Within reason."

What limits on your power do you request we implement?

Representative Reed:

"For one the ability to conduct a complete and thorough audit of my office at any time, and the right to terminate anyone in my office at any time for any reason without the usual recourse. The Coordinator is a possible threat, not a worker."

"Additionally, I would also expect that the General Congress exercise its oversight role eagerly and often, light will keep the office's darker possibilities in check"

He Qingyue:

"A strict legal remit on our activities, combined with firm and consistent - I repeat, consistent - oversight by key members of Congress."

Lapine:

"Hardware specifications are available from -"

"Ah, I see. So I suppose the most honest answer is: strict oversight measures like those already proposed."

Intelligence and security- or to put it another way, discovering information or concealing it, which is more important for this task?

Representative Reed:

"Discovery. Not to sound like a Congressional Exploration Corps captain, but its our job to bring things to light, in this case it's the secrets of those who would do us harm and disinfect them in the light of day."

He Qingyue:

"I do not view my work under such a dichotomy. By discovering information, we can understand how well we conceal our information, and through effective concealment we reduce the need for effective counter-intelligence operations. The two are paired, and cannot be separated."

Lapine:

"All that is hidden can be uncovered by careful analysis -however a clever operator can use misdirection to give false impressions. This sort of manipulation can serve us better than trying to just hide everything under a blanket. It is my experience in analysis that very little information is entirely hidden: instead it is as often buried in contradictory data."

What is your opinion on piracy, both in the digital world and the physical one?

How do you plan to cooperate with allied intelligence groups?

Any plans to begin aiding planetside revolutionary movements closer to the core?

Representative Reed:

"One must draw a line between necessary theft from scarcity and violence for the sake of violence or power. Digital "Piracy" isn't a crime for a free people and if others continue to perform violent acts to gain that which is otherwise freely given… Those are criminals to be punished like any others"

"As for cooperation, we will place all our cards on the table except those that would endanger those in our care."

"As for the final question, I believe the mission of the PCIS in the near to mid term is the creation of information gathering networks"

He Qingyue:
"Digital Piracy is, of course, not piracy at all. Physical piracy remains one of the most abhorrent acts you can commit in the modern age, and I am firmly behind the position of the Void Dweller's Compact on modern piracy operations, and would happily cooperate in anti-piracy operations with allied intelligence groups."

"Much as we would all like to, our spacial position will limit our ability to effectively revolutionary movements at distance, and while we will of course take such opportunities to aid them as are presented, it should not be a focus of the PCIS."

Lapine:
"Digital Piracy is a crime against capital, not the worker, physical piracy is a violent crime, very carefully, and yes, if the opportunities present themselves."

Is it at all possible to have Wacky Schemes while still running an at least somewhat ethical intelligence organ?

Representative Reed:

"[Chuckles] I'm afraid I would have to be the no fun Coordinator, we need to tightly monitor our operations something that would likely preclude any Wacky hijinks"

He Qingyue:
"Yes, and if appointed Co-ordinator, I shall prove it."

Lapine:

"Consider: that's really up to your definition of 'Wacky', isn't it?"

"I'll go where the data takes us."

Will you have at least one agent walk out of the Compact carrying a big garbage bag full of classified state secrets and/or drive off of a military base with a missile hanging out of the back of the agents vehicle?

Representative Reed:

"That's up to the agent in question. But I'll pass along the suggestion"

He Qingyue:
[laughs, lightly] "If they give us the opportunity, why, they say we're known for our dramatics, don't they?" [chuckles some more].

Lapine:
"The unlikely and absurd happens far more often than one would think."

"Sure: it's probable."

Instructions for the Permanent Commission on Intelligence and Security:

Mechanically each General Session (or in some Special Sessions) you will be presented with a list of intelligence priorities (regions, factions, SIGINT, HUMINT, etc) and progress on actions like "Insert Agents" on various systems and factions with individual progress determined by your chosen focuses. (Your Coordinator will also be choosing a focus of their own accord)

During this time, the PCIS may have other proposed activities that may be authorized, such as the sort that would usually be in MedComm, you will be able to select during a General Session. This will include "Insert Agents" and similar actions, assigning them a dice in addition to the usual progress.

Based on the preferences of your Espionage Coordinator another project will be picked each turn that is assigned a dice.

As the situation changes, and based on the priorities of the agency (driven by political instruction, institutional focus, and Coordinator personality) new projects will appear, including ones to improve the actions of the PCIS -expanding with more dice, new bonuses, and so on.

-

AKuz · Jul 3, 2024

Voting moratorium

AKuz · Jul 3, 2024

Anyway, this is to deal with a bunch of loose ends that have cropped up recently, and need to be taken care of before we can proceed with other updates. This should handle everything, even if it is a bit messy, but I felt it was best to get stuff moving again, claw this quest back into motion.

We did cut some of the PCIS questions because it was either that or hemm and haww for another week or two before posting

I have to go to bed now, so I wont be answering questions for oh probably 8 to 16 hours, maybe more, sorry

Nuew · Jul 3, 2024

For Stance, I'd like to go with Confrontation, except I really do think SolComm is a good idea. Ugh, tricky.

Setsul · Jul 3, 2024

No detailed plan yet, mostly vibe-based:

Engagement, explicitly mentions espionage and raising revolutionary sentiment. If the Loyalists are willing to let us cook, that's the most impact we can possibly have, even if it's just to buy time for wormhole and gate research and spreading the results.
Mueller, as planned, but less shitting on the table, more righteous indignation. Works better now thanks to 7PW.
Santiago as aide, in case Mueller doesn't make it. Hilarious since SolNav will need to escort him. Also a good escalation if Mueller doesn't make it.
Crossfield as UNS Ambassador. Earth-born and old enough to remember the original UN, seemed like the better option even before I read the detailed effects. Stirs the pot a bit, but hopefully not too much.
Obviously complain about RVB's pro gamer move, push for straight up recognition of our independence. We can let ourselves be negotiated down to "semi-autonomous/self-governing frontier region" or whatever euphemism the Compact prefers as long as JN OK admits that we are in fact a government.
Ideally some backroom deals with Crucible, Alexander, maybe even Olduvai and Penglai if they show up.

Engagement only promises to avoid offensive wars. The SFREA is going to start something eventually, until then why not pretend like we're all one big happy family while keeping the yards running at full tilt like Olduvai and Epsilon are doing?
Push the Compact into splintering even further while letting them hope that this can still be solved by talking things out.
I'm a bit unsure about recognizing the UNS, but if we want to leverage the 7PW into firmer recognition of our own borders, we kind of have to, and it sort of serves as a distraction.
SolComm and generally contact with the galaxy at large will allow us to keep doing what we're good at.

Derpmind · Jul 3, 2024

AKuz said:
Born George Kim, the son of poor hotel workers , Lily was identified as having severe gender dysphoria in her early teens and signed up with Hermes Ishtar's grueling HI-POP idol training program to pay for her transition.

Just this one sentence alone and I hate this. So much. Totally cursed. Thanks, I Hate It.

Rat King · Jul 3, 2024

We simply cannot go down the road of militaristic confrontation. We do not have the resources. Pretending to play nice and providing propaganda, media, and intelligence support while we build our own industry is our best bet.

Broccoliccoli · Jul 3, 2024

I think we are very well equipped to go for the He gamble. An agency of Secretive Hard Men Spooks staffed by our planet of good beans who constantly get blasted by top-tier internal propaganda shouldn't be that bad, and that failure state isn't even guaranteed.

Gummy_Dragon · Jul 3, 2024

At a glance, Isolationism seems the least palatable, since is more or less contradictory to most of our long-term plans. While we do value the security and freedom of the AIC, in the long run we want to overthrow the Charters and Compact and help other revolutionary polities got on their feet. We can't really do that if we pull behind our own borders and eschew foreign policy.

Nyvis · Jul 3, 2024

Rat King said:
We simply cannot go down the road of militaristic confrontation. We do not have the resources. Pretending to play nice and providing propaganda, media, and intelligence support while we build our own industry is our best bet.

Agreed, we're constantly one lowroll away from a bad end. We should wrap up the current campaign and hopefully negotiate from a position of strength, then go back to propaganda and agitation machine.

blankmask · Jul 3, 2024

I tend towards Engagement as a policy. No opinion on who we send, and we should make declaration of the 9th fleet as rouge a priority before most else. I like the idea of Apollo as ambassador to Sheol and don't care about who's the Sol ambassador. As to intelligence… either Reed or Lapine.

Derpmind · Jul 3, 2024

AKuz said:
Instructions for the Permanent Commission on Intelligence and Security:

Mechanically each General Session (or in some Special Sessions) you will be presented with a list of intelligence priorities (regions, factions, SIGINT, HUMINT, etc) and progress on actions like "Insert Agents" on various systems and factions with individual progress determined by your chosen focuses. (Your Coordinator will also be choosing a focus of their own accord)

During this time, the PCIS may have other proposed activities that may be authorized, such as the sort that would usually be in MedComm, you will be able to select during a General Session. This will include "Insert Agents" and similar actions, assigning them a dice in addition to the usual progress.

Based on the preferences of your Espionage Coordinator another project will be picked each turn that is assigned a dice.

As the situation changes, and based on the priorities of the agency (driven by political instruction, institutional focus, and Coordinator personality) new projects will appear, including ones to improve the actions of the PCIS -expanding with more dice, new bonuses, and so on.

There's a lot to talk about, but I think this specifically needs to be highlighted: The Espionage Coordinator gets an independent die. That's more power than even our Defense Coordinator gets. I don't know if that's an additional die or not, but even then, it's a worrying amount of power to give to any individual when our entire system is all about spreading this kind of power out over all of the General Congress. This alone makes me way more willing to pick Samantha Reed than otherwise.

mcclay · Jul 3, 2024

The sword that was unsheathed on Elysium and Shei must never be put away again! The Compact is dying, Comrades! Let us rejoice with our fellows and hasten its demise! Confrontation with the reactionary bandit armies of the galaxy is the only way forwards!

buli-buli · Jul 3, 2024

[ ] [Stance] Engagement
I appreciate taking the time to build alliances in a rapidly shifting galaxy.

[ ] [ArmCon] Jennifer Mueller - Traitor to Her Class
Just that perfect mix of respectibility and shit-stirring.

[ ] [SUF] Apollo Xanthopoulos, Psyche Warfare Major
I prefer Tindalos's long term goals, but I think Apollo will be more successful in bridging the cultural fap.

[ ] [PCIS] Lapine - Pattern Recognition Engine
At the end of the day, I think Lapine finds a comfortable middle ground between He's establishment sensibilities and Reed's approach.

That said, I could be convinced to choose Reed.

MrRageQuit · Jul 3, 2024

I'm pro-Engagement. It's most appropriate to the state of the galaxy, and our position. Smile at them while we sharpen the knife behind our backs. Mueller is still good for Armstrong. No particular preferences for UNS right now. Shei is tough - Apollo has the existing relationships advantage, but Tindalos has the right goal. Shei is still largely stuck in a pre-Radiant paradigm and it needs to evolve past that for practical and moral reasons.

The Espionage Commission, extremely tough. I'm going to listen to people's arguments for a while before I state a preference.

DeltaV11.2 · Jul 3, 2024

I think our main diplomatic goal is stalling at this point. Engagement is probably the best option for that.

In terms of ambassadors Santiago makes most sense for Sol, and we should probably continue with Mueller for the congress.

For the espionage comission, I like Lapine's perspective the most. I don't think we should get caught up too much in near-term thinking where He's experience is most useful, the world is changing very rapidly.

Rockeye · Jul 3, 2024

There's a lot of stuff here. I don't have the freshed-up context to consider it properly. I'm gonna wait to see what arguments people have and decide based on that.

Nyvis · Jul 3, 2024

Derpmind said:
There's a lot to talk about, but I think this specifically needs to be highlighted: The Espionage Coordinator gets an independent die. That's more power than even our Defense Coordinator gets. I don't know if that's an additional die or not, but even then, it's a worrying amount of power to give to any individual when our entire system is all about spreading this kind of power out over all of the General Congress. This alone makes me way more willing to pick Samantha Reed than otherwise.

What's the point of making a whole espionage arm just to kneecap it from the get go out of fear of what it could be. May as well just not spend the effort. Reed smacks of being afraid of her own job.

Starwarlord · Jul 3, 2024

I say engagement, Mueller and Crossfield. This is not the time to reach for the guns, this is the time to start building more guns while pretending we are totally not building more guns. Let Mueller raise a ruckus at the Conference, and have Crossfield start building bridges with Sol.

Rafin · Jul 3, 2024

Immortal Commonwealth? It's used multiple times in the speech. Is it an official term now? When did that happen? To me it sounds a bit too optimistic. I get that it refers to the fact that everyone (who wants it) gets immortality treatments now, but it still sounds like claiming to be unsinkable, Titanic style.

Also, this is the first time the word "censism" is used. Where does it come from?

Cassiemouse · Jul 3, 2024

Rafin said:
Immortal Commonwealth? It's used multiple times in the speech. Is it an official term now? When did that happen? To me it sounds a bit too optimistic. I get that it refers to the fact that everyone (who wants it) gets immortality treatments now, but it still sounds like claiming to be unsinkable, Titanic style.

Also, this is the first time the word "censism" is used. Where does it come from?

Censim comes from the Democratic Federation and what they ostensibly did with their security state. Short form for censorism or just censorship in general. Over time it basically became the space future version of the Stalinism insult.

Rafin · Jul 3, 2024

Is there a page where one can look up what permanent commissions (or other permanent institutions) we have and who our top bureaucrats are?

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

Been Better

World's only Magical Girl Spec Ops Asuka fan

Been Better

Set Current Diplomatic Stance:

[ ] [Stance] Engagement

[ ] [Stance] Isolationism

[ ] [Stance] Confrontation

The Armstrong Conference Representative:

[ ] [ArmCon] Veronica Stardust - The Star Diplomat

[ ] [ArmCon] Jennifer Mueller - Traitor to Her Class

[ ] [ArmCon] Jeffery Lunarborn Ng - The Old Man

[ ] [ArmCon] Lilith Lily- The Witch

[ ] [ArmCon] Ryan Crossfield - The Millenial

[ ] [ArmCon] Theodore Santiago - Galaxy's Most Wanted

The Armstrong Conference Instructions:

[ ] [ACInst] Write in general diplomatic orders to your Ambassador

Ambassador to the United Nations of Sol:

[ ][UNS] You decided to maintain Strategic Ambiguity

[ ][UNS] You decided to appoint Ryan Crossfield Ambassador to the United Nations of Sol with Plenipotentiary Powers, formally recognizing the secession of the United Nations of Sol from the Solarian Compact

[ ][UNS] You decided to appoint Theodore Santiago Ambassador to the United Nations of Sol with Plenipotentiary Powers, formally recognising the secession of the United Nations of Sol from the Solarian Compact

Ambassador to the Shei United Front:

[ ] [SUF] Apollo Xanthopoulos, Psyche Warfare Major

[ ] [SUF] Tindalos-119 -This machine kills fascists

[ ] [SUF] General Carl McConnell - Self Taught Soldier Poet

Election for the Coordinator of the Permanent Commission on Intelligence and Security:

[ ] [PCIS] He Qingyue - Reformed Analyst

[ ] [PCIS] Lapine - Pattern Recognition Engine

[ ] [PCIS] Samantha Reed -Concerned Politician

Question and Answer Session for PCIS Coordinator

Instructions for the Permanent Commission on Intelligence and Security:

Been Better

Been Better

“Mankind, be vigilant. We loved you.”—Julius Fučík

Viera

This too shall pass

Instructions for the Permanent Commission on Intelligence and Security:

Some kinda Commie

Plausible Engineer

Market Atheist