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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mynameisyouQQQ · Jul 15, 2024

[X] Plan: Redshirt v1

The problem with most intelligence agencies is that they serve the interests of Kyarrarchy, Capital or Empire not that the government isn't meddling enough.

cogsteeth · Jul 15, 2024

[X] Plan: Redshirt v1

Solarstream · Jul 16, 2024

[X] Plan: Redshirt v1

spacemanelliot · Jul 19, 2024

I'm not against Lace Jewel (and that ship has already sailed even if I were), but I'm a little worried that the only non-SDF fleet still planned to be within AIC territory is Home Force (which tbf is basically an overglorified SDF at the moment anyways). Like, if Akleod launched a raid, even with their limited-compared-to-us buildup, they could potentially do some serious damage. That isn't to say that I think they will, due to the political optics that sort of thing would generate, but I think it's enough within the realm of possibility to bring it up.

The sad truth of the matter though is that any expansion or modernization of Home Force will always be second fiddle to replacing the losses of Mobile and Vanguard Force and expanding them to something actually that's intimidating. We simply don't have the industrial capability to reinforce all of our fleets at once, and Home Force is probably the lowest priority at the moment.

That said, what kind of fleet layout would we want in Home Force, if we ever get around to it? Honestly, I don't think it needs much even then. Like, at the very least I'd want to replace our Comet patrol corvettes with Meteors, and have a Tender to be able to cart around the corvettes throughout the system. With those plus that one New Model in Home Force, that leaves three more slots on this hypothetical Tender. With a defensive fleet, I think I'd want to edge more on endurance and usefulness over the course of a fight, so maybe fill the rest with Penumbras or some other model of Attack Corvette if we can get one by the time we decide to fill out Home Force. Maybe add a couple of Hunter-Killers like some Hochseeflottes or maybe some Centaurs if they'd work just as well in that role.

I don't think we'd need capital ships in there, but I think this is one of the few situations in our fleet where an Artemis Heavy Battlecruiser may be effective, since it's long range could potentially give it an advantage in a Gate Defense scenario. The other capital classes aren't really worth mentioning: we wouldn't need Fleet Carriers in a defensive position since IIRC our Gate defenses can contain strikecraft, a Fleet Tender might be worth if we take it instead of a light tender for carrying around even more corvettes, and Dreadnoughts are for Gate Assault, not Gate Defense. As far as cruisers... Maybe a Pelletier or two? If we just want it to be combat effective, then definitely a 2WW, but Heavy Cruisers are specifically mentioned as upgunning and armoring at the expense of non-combat utility. And given that their main job is basically just squatting in Radiant until it or some other nearby system is under threat, that non-combat utility may actually be valuable. I don't know what that would entail per se, though, so I could just be completely wrong there.

Obviously the real course of action is to just replicate the Nasty Bastard a hundred times over and win every war ever.

Setsul · Jul 19, 2024

spacemanelliot said:
That said, what kind of fleet layout would we want in Home Force, if we ever get around to it? Honestly, I don't think it needs much even then. Like, at the very least I'd want to replace our Comet patrol corvettes with Meteors, and have a Tender to be able to cart around the corvettes throughout the system. With those plus that one New Model in Home Force, that leaves three more slots on this hypothetical Tender. With a defensive fleet, I think I'd want to edge more on endurance and usefulness over the course of a fight, so maybe fill the rest with Penumbras or some other model of Attack Corvette if we can get one by the time we decide to fill out Home Force. Maybe add a couple of Hunter-Killers like some Hochseeflottes or maybe some Centaurs if they'd work just as well in that role.

I definitely wouldn't replace Comets with Meteors. We don't need slightly better patrol corvettes that can shoot down asteroids slighty faster because the old ones work fine and that's the only thing they're good at. Unless there's suddenly a lot more asteroids, which would mean something has gone very wrong, any new Corvettes should be Strike or Attack classes.

Long term anything is possible, short term I suspect Home Force will simply remain "that handful of ships that stays in Radiant so Akleod doesn't get any ideas."
We're currently restoring one Light Tender from Kimberly. Hopefully it won't be needed to replace losses.
With Home Force likely stuck in Radiant, I'd actually prefer to add it to Ismeu force. We've got a Corvette Tactician in charge of that, build half to eventually a full dozen Corvettes and add another cruiser.
That's a good enough defensive force to stare at the usual squadron (1 capital ships, 2 (light) cruisers, 12-15 escorts, 0-8 strikecraft wings) that'll inevitably be put on our border again, but vastly cheaper. Something like half New Models (lots of missiles, terribly cramped), half Penumbras (ooops, all kinetics, but livable) and a Light Tender to keep them supplied and be able to move them elsewhere by going back and forth at most twice, and you get pretty much the distilled essence of "good enough." That frees up either Mobile or Vanguard Force to be elsewhere and shipyards to build the better and more expensive stuff like Centaurs for them.
Anything more ambitious than that would be years away.

spacemanelliot said:
I don't think we'd need capital ships in there, but I think this is one of the few situations in our fleet where an Artemis Heavy Battlecruiser may be effective, since it's long range could potentially give it an advantage in a Gate Defense scenario.

Agreed on not needing capital ships for this, so the most expensive capital ship we can build really doesn't make sense here.
An Artemis is far to expensive to use it as a static long range missile platform. I'd bet we could build a bunch of actual static missile platforms in less than 2 years and without using a capital dock.

spacemanelliot said:
Maybe a Pelletier or two? If we just want it to be combat effective, then definitely a 2WW, but Heavy Cruisers are specifically mentioned as upgunning and armoring at the expense of non-combat utility. And given that their main job is basically just squatting in Radiant until it or some other nearby system is under threat, that non-combat utility may actually be valuable. I don't know what that would entail per se, though, so I could just be completely wrong there.

Non-combat utility basically means "neither armour nor weapons" which boils down to cargo space. Whether you fill that with supplies for itself or even for other ships or with marines or anything else you might need doesn't really matter. Nice for logistics because you need fewer dedicated ships to carry stuff, but doesn't really do anything if the cruiser is sitting straight on top of a logistics base.

I would prefer the 2WW-class, but we need to actually do Examine Captured Warcraft first. By the time we get around to that we might not have any functioning 2WW-class anymore or we might've found something better in Kimberly already.
For now, the only new Cruiser we're getting within a year is the Pelletier we've started on and anything we can pull from Kimberly.
So I won't even try to predict what the second Cruiser for whichever force we designate as the defensive/"sit around and be there just in case" one, I just hope we get around to adding a second Cruiser before shit hits the fan again.

spacemanelliot · Jul 20, 2024

Setsul said:
Agreed on not needing capital ships for this, so the most expensive capital ship we can build really doesn't make sense here.
An Artemis is far to expensive to use it as a static long range missile platform. I'd bet we could build a bunch of actual static missile platforms in less than 2 years and without using a capital dock.

Yeah, I don't disagree. I more brought it up in the sense that I've heard it said earlier that the Artemis doesn't doctrinally fit with our fleet at the moment, since right now the main line of our fleets isn't strong enough to have a relatively less armored sniper capital ship in the backline, but that particular issue isn't as much of a problem even for smaller fleets like Home Force if we assume their primary deployment type is gonna be gate defense. That's also assuming though that the gate in question has our standard static defense setup, though. It'd be a little more rough otherwise. Besides, it's not like the Artemis would be completely static. Even in the case that Home Force's task doesn't change from just sitting on Radiant and doing nothing else, it still means that except in the case of a simultaneous attack on multiple gates (not an impossible or even improbable scenario. It's what could've happened if TFC got wiped by 3BG), all of our gates in Radiant can be covered by the Artemis.

I wasn't really considering time or expense when it came to the 'what do we want Home Force to look like' plan, either, since I figure by the time we actually get around to that, a lot more of our industrialization will be complete. I'm more talking the dream fleet by the time we get to considering capitals for Home Force, not 'what can we get realistically in the short term'.

Setsul · Jul 20, 2024

spacemanelliot said:
Yeah, I don't disagree. I more brought it up in the sense that I've heard it said earlier that the Artemis doesn't doctrinally fit with our fleet at the moment, since right now the main line of our fleets isn't strong enough to have a relatively less armored sniper capital ship in the backline, but that particular issue isn't as much of a problem even for smaller fleets like Home Force if we assume their primary deployment type is gonna be gate defense. That's also assuming though that the gate in question has our standard static defense setup, though. It'd be a little more rough otherwise. Besides, it's not like the Artemis would be completely static. Even in the case that Home Force's task doesn't change from just sitting on Radiant and doing nothing else, it still means that except in the case of a simultaneous attack on multiple gates (not an impossible or even improbable scenario. It's what could've happened if TFC got wiped by 3BG), all of our gates in Radiant can be covered by the Artemis.

Yeah, that was me.
Doctrinally I'm more concerned about our lack of missiles. All the SPACER designs, Light Cruisers, and Frigates avoid missiles because of the expense and logistical impact, and those account for almost all of our ships. Against SolNav who show up with dedicated PDDs, I just don't see an Artemis on its own putting enough pressure on their point defence to really get our money's worth.
For Home Force specifically I think it would be even worse because the Artemis would be the only capital ship, and the one auxiliary cruiser isn't anything to write home about either. Even if we add a better Cruiser like a Pelletier, there's still no strong frontline and battlecruisers are designed to bully cruisers anyway. Assuming our enemies would show up with at least a Battlecruiser, I'd expect that it would at least pick off our Cruisers before going down and then their Cruisers are free to snack on our lighter ships. In the end the Artemis would be the last one standing because they can't chew through our fleet and bring down the Artemis at the same time and the Artemis will keep lobbing missiles at them until they're gone, but I don't like the idea of using the rest of the fleet to shield a heavy battlecruisers. Sure, the lighter ships are faster to replace, perhaps even cheaper, but that's a lot of dead people.
Basically, I think that getting a Gagarin (half a year faster to build) and an extra Cruiser, which cost us about the same when you think about it in dice (and half as much in SR) and can both brawl and draw fire, would let more ships survive than if we spend it all on an Artemis might literally end up as the last one standing by virtue of being the most heavily armoured and furthest away from the enemy.

As for TFC getting wiped or stuff like that, that's a matter of strategy.
If we had sent TFC against 3BG while we had another fleet with a capital ships just sitting around and then that fleet has to defend Radiant on its own, we did something wrong.
I think we should never have a fleet sitting around in Radiant just to have a fleet sitting in Radiant. Yes, a reserve fleet would be nice, but that overlaps with what we want in a generally mobile fleet, and we've got Mobile, Vanguard, and Frontier Force for that already. To free any of those up we'll want fleets sitting in Bestreer and Chinook/Thoa, not Radiant. Yeah, one of those might end up being Home Force if we don't need anything as a safeguard against Akleod anymore, but until then we need one small fleet that's essentially Radiant SDF and can't move. As long as we can't move it, we shouldn't make it larger than it needs to be, because the other fleets will always benefit from having more ships.

spacemanelliot said:
I wasn't really considering time or expense when it came to the 'what do we want Home Force to look like' plan, either, since I figure by the time we actually get around to that, a lot more of our industrialization will be complete. I'm more talking the dream fleet by the time we get to considering capitals for Home Force, not 'what can we get realistically in the short term'.

By that time Akleod might not be a problem anymore and we'd be looking at essentially rebuilding Home Force from scratch because there's not enough ships to build around. At that point the goal becomes very vague because even a dream fleet needs at least some sort of purpose beyond what would be nice to look at.
See above, making Home Force larger just the make it larger would be a waste of ships that could be used elsewhere.
For the purposes of guarding against Akleod SDF (1 cruiser-size ship, which might be a light carrier, and 2 corvettes) Home Force is large enough as it is, for anything else you need to decide what it's supposed to do first.

The Laurent · Jul 22, 2024

White Gloves Play Inside Baseball, Part 4: Loyalists and Quislings (Early May to Early June, 2256)

Who Is Armand D. Hunter? Behind The Pink Menace Destroying Our Politics--Monthly Conservative Review (May 4th, 2256)

…and they became even more famous after excreting a pair of articles in The Galaxy Times of the sort that is beloved by the iconoclastic conventional press.

The articles, labeled "The Soul Industry Part 1" and "The Soul Industry, Second Half" took aim at those interested in wellness retreats on Van Lynden's World, Utopia, but in doing so also expanded well past their article's remit to dive into their own past as a transgendered man, claiming that the entire industry of "transhealth" in the Compact was fundamentally sick, absurd, and silly. While recognizing a self-evident fact that any right thinking person in the universe could tell you, Hunter's prescriptions on how to change that were exactly as absurd as their persona would suggest.

We see a trend, then. Hunter recognizes a problem and then proposes bad solutions to it, things that are not proven to work and are contrary to human nature. This is the grift that he has engaged in, and it is a profitable one.

If people were allowed to more fully be people, one would not need to hear about "trans identity" because the alienation of modern Cosmoliberalism would be replaced by a healthier, more sensible alternative. Therefore we can attempt to analyze the reason they have made the ill choices they have, in order to understand exactly where they went wrong and where we can make sure that the next journalist to report on Radiant does not release such the same sort of self-indulgent, humanity-hating, anti-democracy article as Hunter's.

To be quite frank, even discarding all debate on the journalistic merits of free speech, Hunter's lurid article that spends a good third of its word count perversely listing various methods of intoxication and forms of intercourse one can have with non-Human creatures cannot be considered journalism in any sense and crosses the line into perverted literary voyeurism. On the merits of good taste alone, one should disregard everything written by this person.

There are those who have argued that Armand and the Galaxy Times are publishing this drivel for "clicks" out of a mercenary sense of financial enrichment. But that can't be further from the truth! Indeed, as Robb Simco reveals in his incisive article "The Political Roots of Economic Decisions" the divide cannot be so easily bridged. Indeed, considering the targets they have aimed themselves toward, it is obvious that the Armand brand could be worth so much more if they simply chose to "sell out."

Let us propose an advancement of feminist theory, of that sort that Cosmoliberals reject: In this time of greater and greater constriction, of "prosperity" that is only skin deep, many women feel that being a woman is harder than ever, that society is broken and it is broken in a way that especially targets them. We see it in the scholarship of B'nuvia Jeeks, though their conclusions on the "end of gender" are as naive as they are iconoclastic. Yet there is something to be said in the abstract as to the point. As being a woman becomes harder, people seek escapes. Their escapes are many. Some become defeminized in a corporate way, others by the act of Augmentation pulling them further away from the human baseline, and others by seeking to become men. These women are more likely to be radicals against the system, but from the Left, because of their experiences. Armand Hunter, born to an upwardly mobile Columbian family, came out as a butch lesbian as a teenager at one of the premier up and coming "upwardly mobile" academies on Columbia, only to be denied graduation from their High School after an obscure misadventure involving an accusation of impropriety that we can only speculate on.

It was after a three-year stint in the Solarian Navy (another suspect organization filled with radicals) that Hunter truly became convinced that they were a man, after being exposed to Penglai's decadent party scene while working part time to support university night classes for a journalism degree. So we end up in a situation where the psycho-sexual wages of sin means that the system as it stands cannot be accepted, but neither can common sense.

This then places us in a situation where, in the immortal words of Emille Bakar, "The psychological becomes truly cultural, and the cultural becomes universal." It is exactly such horrid people as Armand in whom the greatest possibility of greatness also rests. Should they be convinced of Humanism, if she had as a young woman faced different choices, she might now yet be the greatest journalist of our age.

Instead, the task for us is to prevent the existence of people such as them from recurring, and it is a difficult task even for the wisest of statesmen. Humans will be struggling and grappling with these questions for generations to come, but the day in which there will be a reckoning and in which the damage that society has done to our young men and women will have to be faced, grows ever closer week by week.

We can only hope it is not too late for the next journalist who has the ability to be great, but is caught up in the lies and dark nonsense of anarchism.

The fall of the Conservative Review is a tragedy, not something I will be celebrating– Opinion Piece by Sakura Lopez, Syndicated Across Multiple Papers (May 5, 2256)

There is nothing more important to Cosmoliberalsm than respecting others' opinions. Hearing and debating, opinions, even ones you don't like, is vital to a healthy, functioning democratic society. Indeed, the fragmentation of society is the ultimate tragedy of the recent breakdown in the Compact. Planets going their individual ways and becoming echo-chambers that create extreme opinions that would not stand up to the disinfecting sunshine of dissent.

As such while I do not agree with them, I have always respected and been grateful for the existence of the Conservative Review. They consistently provided a reasoned, intellectual argument for their positions and were one of the flavors of the great soup that was the Compact. As such, it is with heavy heart that I must say that this ingredient has gone sour.

Their recent article, "Who Is Armand D. Hunter? Behind The Pink Menace Destroying Our Politics" is the opposite of what we need in these times. Rather than being willing to engage with an earnestly presented and thoughtful written opinion on the AIC (no matter how much one may disagree) they instead choose to print a conspiracy mongering piece that attacked his character, rather than the arguments he presented. Not merely attacking him baselessly but choosing to question his gender despite Mr. Hunter having consistently presented and acted as a Man for twenty-six years. This is not someone who is switching every 6 months, but someone who has consistently and consciously continued to be a man his entire adult life.

I can understand why they would opt to do so. It is the easy path. Rather than refuting the arguments, looking into the truth, lies and misunderstandings of the original article, they have instead delved into journalistic demagoguery. Writing that requires no effort beyond lobbings insults and research that was available with a two second search. But the easy path is not the best one.

I hope the Conservative Review realizes its mistakes. One article is not the end of the world, and honest journalism can print retractions. I have respected many of their writers, I am friends with Rory Phillips and Isaac Sutton and their investigative report on the "Police Hound'' cover-up by the Columbian government was a piece of honestly blunt journalism that took genuine moral courage in a time when attacks against journalists are at an all time high.

But this can only happen if they are prepared to face themselves, and do the work to be better, to be the paper they once were, and can be again, rather than descending into barbarism.

Armand Hunter and the Idea of Good Faith- Frontier Journal of Economics (May 6, 2256)

… in the end Mr. Hunter approached the Commonwealth as if it was a normal government, one fundamentally rooted in the shared experiences of Cosmoliberal Democracy and the free market of ideas.

And that, fundamentally, was his mistake. Hunter simply engaged in a surface level examination of the Amaranthine state, refusing to engage with the anarchist edifice beyond the surface luxuries and propaganda.

[error]

Above: A comparison between HI's "The Fabulous Frontier" advertising campaign and the Commonwealth's "A Better Life is Possible" propaganda offensive.

Indeed, it should come as no surprise that one of the three true inheritors of Hermes-Ishtar's deception industry can present a convincing Potemkin world. The Commonwealth may even, to a degree, be functionally stable behind the scenes with its own political classes and intellectually coherent economic dogmas based around the control of the famously opaque nation's various state planning commissions slipping between ideologues of various levels of delusion.

After having lived through the chaotic mismanagement of Hermes Ishtar control and Daughters neglect it wouldn't be hard for the populace to be gaslit by a cadre of dedicated revolutionaries telling them to simultaneously believe that the Compact was a card tiger on the verge of collapse and an impossibly powerful threat that they needed to band together against. Is it any wonder that the locals would come to profess a love of the Commonwealth's anarchist tyranny after being exposed to an endless barrage of ideological terrorism?

This is nothing new either, all successful oppressive regimes across history have sought to get buy in from their subjects. (Unsuccessful ones like the Army of God's Law collapse under their own contradictions rather quickly by focusing only on a chosen demographic) Even Drake's new "Guardianship Republic" has released propaganda videos of augment children 'grateful' that they will be cured of their condition.

Obviously no-one but the most deluded humanist believes that that testimony was honestly given. And neither should we accept the propaganda of the Amaranthine Youth Leagues as credulously as Hunter does. Children simply do not have the capacity to develop and articulate such developed political beliefs without an adult pulling the strings. And in this case the likely culprit is probably a Senior Representative and Committee Chief for the Social Affairs Commission of the All-Commonwealth General Congress building an army for their faction to wield as a weapon in doctrinal disputes with their ideological enemies within the Commonwealth's security state apparatus.

Indeed, as proven by the recent foundation of the Permanent Congressional Commission on State Security and Intelligence, new censists and security ministers emerge from within the dimly understood backrooms of the General Congress at a regular and alarming rate. Something else that Hunter does not engage with, in favor of visiting beaches and bugging pharmacy clerks for new types of drugs.

Such a government simply doesn't have a mode of operation, or even of thinking, that's compatible with democracy or a free economy.

We cannot, and fundamentally should not, treat repressive regimes, ones willing to use reigns of terror and violence to forcibly expand themselves, as normal governments. In doing so the press turns themselves into mouthpieces for repression, and the very freedoms of the Solarian Compact's constitution that allowed Mr. Hunter to present his piece will be gleefully closed off by the likes of Drake and the Commonwealth…

The Bourgeois Strike Back: Delusional Insults Towards The Commonwealth-- Journal of Critique, May Issue #2, (May 7, 2256)

..despite his best attempts, even Mr. Hunter cannot truly hide the glorious nature of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth, the one true bastion of the revolution. He shows its inherently peaceful nature throughout the article but as a sort of critique. Not once have the Amaranthines conducted military action in anything but self defence. Even their offensive action down the Osliam chain was a purely benevolent measure undertaken entirely on humanitarian grounds.

This peaceful nature can be seen in how they have steadfastly refused to ever create any form of intelligence agency. Make no mistake, this is no accident, for the ones who coordinated the Solarian revolution could have easily done so, but they, in their infinite wisdom, recognised the inherent danger and anti-revolutionary sentiment of such agencies and have stoically refused to do so. Mr. Hunter's reports of discussions along those lines are clear and present slander that he should be censured for.

We would call for his trial and imprisonment, but the enlightened Commonwealth has shown us that rehabilitation of reactionaries if they are not justly slain during the righteous revolution is the only path forward, even as they grant their allies the ability to try their own criminals, the Commonwealth stands above them, more enlightened in their justice than any human polity that came before them. We call upon other revolutionaries to follow in their footsteps, and condemn the Black Trials of the Crossroads Pacts as lesser examples of revolution…

The reaction of others only makes the Case for the Commonwealth
KC Star Opinions Section (May 6th, 2256)

It is time to face the facts. We say that we are not like that, that this is not us. But did we sleepwalk into an attempted democide on earth? Or did we order them to do so? When we read about the desperate preparations that Elysium has engaged in to be ready for the coming battle, should we really dismiss it? Perhaps it is wrongheaded, but do they not have cause to be afraid of us?

They are cocky, they are bold, and yet in the wild and chaotic far spinward they have made a regime that is more peaceful than any would have expected. We must be grateful to Hunter for giving us a view of the new frontier, and even more than that, a fair view of it. Their system of trading around seats, the disorder and chaos on small matters, and indeed the sometimes muddy politics needed to be counterbalanced with the fact that electoral participation is incredibly high despite the lack of voting requirements, civil rights across a broad spectrum are better than anywhere else in the Compact, and disputes are--by and large--resolved peacefully. They have not banished crime, nor have they eliminated all the ills of the world, but it is time for sensible, left-wing Cosmoliberals to recognize that there are many valid sides in this debate, but that none of them are the old-line policies of the JDAP or PHRL.

Ultimately all things, as the saying goes, always move towards the striving, towards the light in the far distance. We chase infinity because we cannot grasp it, but we have to try. Along those lines, should we really condemn them for their flaws, when our own are so evident in our society? Those who call this line isolationism do not understand that when the big move, the flowers are crushed no matter how careful one is. Perhaps it is the greatest wisdom to forebear from doing more than keeping interference within certain limits.

Perhaps this is not the case.

But the toxic environment where we talk about legitimate journalism as if it is treason, and hundreds of millions living far improved lives a lie, is one that will strangle our galaxy.

This is why we at the KC Star cannot support the attempted legislative censure of this journalistic report, and why we withdraw for the moment all support for the JDAP government as long as it continues to push for the Abominable Budget in July, whose contents include considerable increases to defense spending at a time when we should be focusing on the problems at home. To the credit of Madame Greene, whom one histrionic but not incorrect rival of ours called "the last honest politician in the Compact", the budget also includes many key priorities for welfare… while finding ways to make it palatable to JDAP budget hawks through an emphasis on community organization, horizontal developmental economics, and (it must be admitted) a few clever budgetary maneuvers.

But as long as she does not actively oppose the increases to the fleets, she can not be said to be anything but an enemy of all that is good, righteous, and true. Pacifism is the highest ideal any should seek out, and even if it is not then some discretion is to be asked for, some sense of the enormity of the cost of conflict and the need to avoid it at all reasonable costs.

The Commonwealth is not the enemy of progressive cosmoliberalism, but a potential ally, and we owe Mr. Hunter for making this clear.

Mueller: A Traitor to Her Class -Blackfire Diaries, Musings from a Contributor, May 14th, 2256

It has been argued by other papers that the choice of Mueller as the Commonwealth's ambassador to the Armstrong Conference represents a degree to which Radiant has been overtaken by events. That the Amaranthines have fallen prey to the same entropy of victory that overcame the American DSA, Russian Mensheviks, and French Girondans during those revolutions.

The selection of Jennifer Mueller as Persephone's representative to Armstrong has seen all sorts of accusations flung at the Commonwealth. Indeed, even the fact that the Commonwealth is attending the conference at all has been seen as tantamount to a betrayal. They've been accused of moderation, of opportunism, of Economism, of Right-Deviation, of Revisionism, of being Unserious. Every specific leftist jargon insult in history has been unearthed to throw at Mueller and the Commonwealth in recent months. Some have even dared to call the Amaranthine revolution a "tamed animal", a "congealed revolution" and a "settled state", "engaged in civility play with the old masters".

And that's just from frontier revolutionaries, Penglai's more radical movements have all but promised to lump Persephone in with Korolev-Chandrasekhar and Epsilon as "Enemies of the People''. Hinting ominous that once their specific sect controls Penglai that Amaranth will be on their list of counter-revolutionaries. Others are less coherent.

And during all of this, in true leftist fashion, we have descended into that most pointless of rhetorical endeavors, comparative historiography. It seems as if every month we have at least one controversy in which those within this sphere, (much swollen as a result of the Commonwealth's actions, something which goes oft unacknowledged during this discourse), must question whether this person is a Stalin, that one a Che Guavara, that one Cromwell, the other one a Monomyth #3, and this one a modern Harrisson in a New White government filling the role of pet PatSoc.

So then, Jennifer Meuller, let's play. We'll spin the wheel and figure out which reincarnated historical radical Mueller is.

Here we are, the wheel spins: Tiberius Gracchus, Saint Just, Louis Napoleon, Wat Tylor, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Akari Sato, FDR, Gracchus Babuef. And around it goes again… And the first name we have is Friedrich Engels! Come down from the audience in the great beyond so that we can compare you to Jennifer Mueller!

We got a good one folks, Friedrich Engels is a full on class traitor. In fact one of the all time class traitors, his jersey was raised into the rafters after he died, folks. He did help Marx, but he is disliked for writing the worst, most tendentious criticism of Anarchism in existence at the time. Of course, modern Cosmoliberals have far surpassed his skill at absurd misunderstanding of the nature of hierarchy. His already unpopular and flawed opinions have only grown quaintly absurd in the centuries since the American Civil War.

Buuuuutttt… Amaranth's woman Mueller is no thinker, or for that matter philosopher. So can we compare her, more favorably, to Bakunin? Who was Engels' contemporary and hadn't seen a computer, much less nuclear armageddon?

So we can spin the wheel of historical comparison again, maybe run through an encyclopedia of those who joined the Black cause during the Second American Civil War, searching for names who defected from Cosmoliberalism's now dead grandfather, neoliberalism.

There we find a few who may work as a better comparison. It cannot be a General, or a Theorist, so perhaps we think about Rivers, who played a role in the post-war reconstruction of the internet? Or mayhaps the historical parallel was Tanesha Smith, whose entry into politics in the final year of the Old American Republic had her positioning in the sort of "Left-Liberal" context that Silvia Greene and other worms of her ilk seem to thrive in today, and yet was ultimately the Black cause's ambassador to Russia and a committed leftist by the end of the Civil War.

We could spin again. Maybe look at a Roman, or a Chinese, or a Russian. Play another round of comparison where we're just proving our unnatural familiarity with dead names and crushed dreams to each other. Or we could reserve judgment until we've seen more actions.

Maybe we shouldn't condemn the first modern revolutionary polity, the catalyst of all others on the surface level assumption of surrender and betrayal. Wouldn't that be a novelty? Judging our fellows by what they do instead of condemning the version that exists in a suspicious mind.

Maybe? Maybe, let us reserve judgment on the choice until she has actually spoken, until the Armstrong Conference itself has been and gone. Because we do not know the actual material conditions of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth, nor do we know what their representatives are planning on saying or doing. In this and every case the matter is one that can only be uncovered through the application of that rarest of leftist qualities: patience.

Just fucking go outside for a few days. Talk to other people. Organize.

A Greene Future or a Green Future?: Increasingly Our Only Choices--Colonial Mirror Signed Editiorial (May 15th, 2256)

The pace of defections seems only to increase as representative Jeremy Jones from KC has signaled his disaffection with the government's budget, specifically those parts of it that do not have Greene's fingerprints all over it, which is to say some of the tax breaks and the controversial riders involving outsourcing and privatization. Every week this month, there has been at least one defection and more often two or three, towards MP Silvia Greene, whose charisma and clever political maneuvers have left the path forwards for JN OK growing ever narrower.

It is clear by now, at least to some, that she may well intend not merely to win the coming election in a few years time, but to gain ascendancy over the Prime Minister in the coming months. As it stands, he does not have an alternate base if she should withdraw her support, though at this moment it seems as if this would more likely leave nobody in charge than help Greene put together a Parliamentary coalition capable of placing her in the Prime Minister's Office.

Yet her passion, and her drive to make the galaxy a better place, have been winning her friends all over and thus we have to advance particular news from the KC Star.

We have contacted Green's office for an exclusive interview, pending which will come our endorsement for her not only in any parliamentary election, but also in the belief that if there is any Prime Minister who can arrest the spread of Humanism, it is…

"Extremism has no place in politics!"--Silvia Greene loses her first legislator!--Justice Chronicle (May 18th, 2256)

After several straight months of victories, we finally have a loss on the tally board of that most pernicious member of our JDAP coalition. MP Benoit Rossier, of Penglai, had previously flipped to her side in December, in the face of hopes for reconciliation between the rebels of Penglai and the rightful government of Penglai, in the form of compromises with the Anarchic enemy. But in the face of continued Penglain outrages, she has defected from Greene's coalition to OK's coalition, declaring, "Extremism has no place in politics, and the galaxy does not yet understand just how extreme Silvia Greene's politics and policies will be for…"

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KC Star "Letters to the Editor" #3 for May 20th, 2256 (May 20, 2256)

The influx of refugees from Columbia has raised serious questions about the character and integrity of KC and its way of life, in the face of Humanism-tinged members of a planet that has only ever produced forces of illiberalism since its very early days. And so we have to ask ourselves, more than anything, whether we will be drowned and overwhelmed by these criminal, outlaw…

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[Explainer] Mid-July Showdown May Determine Course of Compact, But Not Its Fate
-Backbencher Magazine (May 25, 2256)

If you've been following the News Feeds then you know that the July Budget for the second half of 2256 is the most controversial in decades and seems likely to be a cause of a great deal of unrest. Those who think that this is unusual, or are telling you that this will be the end of the Compact or a new beginning, are lying. The truth at the heart of it is that the foundation of the Compact is as strong as ever, and we are overreacting moment by moment to procedural minutia by a media class so fired up by the events of last year that even the most mundane actions are unprecedented and all time historical.

Some of these changes will last, but on the whole it is likely that in a decade life for most people will not have changed appreciably, and the Compact will almost certainly continue to exist, if perhaps in a moderately reformed shape.

That being said, the legislative process is key to democracy, and this is certainly turning out to be a contentious one. So the question you may ask, gentle reader, is where are the controversies? Here are the areas of the so-called "Abominable" Budget that have generated the most backlash, and from whom:

1) The military budget plan has been attacked from both the left, right, and center. Members of the OK faction want to make it more clear that a rejection of the offer to privatize and outsource military production to Columbia and Epsilon is temporary and can be reviewed. Meanwhile, Columbia has been making noise about taking offense, and the Left has been skeptical about the uses of this growing army… all in all it is a mess, but the path for compromise is there. The military itself has certainly signaled its willingness to work within the lines of whatever is agreed upon.

2) The most bizarre of the triggers for argumentation is one of the most fascinating and least impactful. Greene's faction within Parliament is pushing for a re-evaluation of how the backside of taxation is done, one that they trumpet as reducing the overhead without reducing taxation, and which seems to focus on, among other things, the provision of a single centralized tax service, assessed at a single date, by a single office within the Treasury Ministry, moving away from the staggered public-private collection model that was adopted in the Compact's early days to account for travel times and the fractured financial landscape of the era. While most citizens would find the arcane changes to be worth little comment, the Solarian Central Bank has come out fully against the change, as it would undermine the current system of roving licensed assessors and branch departments and lending agencies that the economy relies on to equalize the distribution SolCoin across the galaxy. SolBank considers Green's proposal to be a step backward, though at the moment most parties are in agreement as to the need to slightly reduce sales taxes, albeit for different reasons.

3) As part of the budget, debates have been raised about whether school funding allocation metrics should be changed to reflect the changed temporary circumstances involving intransigent elements within the population. This one is truly odd, because there's four perspectives. Those who wish to acknowledge the exits as legal and thus which to reduce the budget, those who wish to do so… but want to spend that many on improving education in what remains, and then the opposite, those who are in favor of not changing the budget because it would acknowledge these temporary circumstances, and those whose rejection of these circumstances mean that they should allocate the money exactly the same… which would effectively create the same position as the second one.

4) Along the lines, debates over Greene's major cuts and reforms to welfare have been raging, with some pundits calling her reforms "an anarchist sham" that effectively replaces the mechanisms of responsible and ethically targeted welfare spending that has allowed it to be carefully allocated with the Box and so-called "local democracy". With Greene's new policies the previous progressive movement to adopt Atlantis style cradle to grave Universal Living Standard has died and been replaced with a sort of morton's fork between "cutting welfare" and "privatizing welfare further to increase efficiency" with both portions of JDAP seeking to cut the budget and transform welfare as we know it. The debates on the floor of parliament have been fierce, but fundamentally both perspectives are sound, as are the PHRL and IPA objections.

5) Other issues include… [Click NEXT PAGE to see the rest of the article.]

Bringing the Freedom Home -- Solarian Naval Review (May 28th 2256)

Fabbers Free has saved the Navy. This has, while unsaid, been true, from Trailing Triage Command's defence against Raynaud the Fox's pirate armada to the Navy's peacekeeping actions evacuating refugees from Drake to Admiral Zahariev's defence of Canlin and beyond. The flexibility it has given us is unmatched in military history - we are now a force to whom our every possible solution is available at the scale of individual ships, provoking changes in doctrinal thought already examined across this special issue.

What we have missed, though, is where we might use it outside our ships. The ratings who form this Navy's backbone are its true strength, in steel and flesh; the men, women, and others who create crew, staff every base, and produce every development. Already we are changing towards an emergency footing - no more do we have part-time sailors, their efforts outsourced to other projects. But there is more we can do, and Fabbers Free needs to expand in response. The deployment of FF permissions to bases for units on base has already happened in some areas, but this is a local policy, and one I say should be formalised. Our force works hard, fight hard - we must allow them to play hard, to have access to all they might need to decompress and destress, so long as it doesn't violate military readiness and security.

And beyond that, when we rotate crews off, when we give them time away from their bunks and stations, this is where we truly need to expand Fabbers Free too. Allowing off-rotation use has been piloted already by the 3rd Squadron in ….

They Have Stolen Our Pride--Queer Voices Magazine (June 1, 2256)

It is a scene generations old across the Core Worlds. Each of the five Charters held, hosted, and directed a different Pride parade, competing and celebrating the unity and the diversity that the community holds. From the orderly marches of the militant gays of Ares, to the colorful displays and beautiful dances of Hermes Ishtar, every parade was a celebration of the progress made as a community. Though they were diverse, these parades were never enemies. But now, that unity has been broken.

The Commonwealth's rabid hatred of the compact has, once again, left those it claims to care about in a more vulnerable position. From the pogroms of Drake and Pacifica, to the fighting on Pelgai and Tereshkova it is, as it has always been, minorities and the vulnerable to most bear the ravages of chaos. Those of us who are LGBT may believe ourselves safe, but that safety was earned, not a natural consequence. These rights came from strong, united voices speaking as one for our rights, pride in ALL our communities.

These divisions have already appeared, and are getting worse. In Columbia, separate prides are banning augments and humanists, two factions at each-other's throats. In Pelagia organizers of the so called 'Name Pride parade' have stated that those wearing charter clothes are not welcome. Enforcing a dress code as if they were the American Dominionists of old. On earth nationalism has reared its ugly head as prides are celebrated in each nation separately.

And that, perhaps, is the most dangerous of them all. Ultimately those divisive examples pale in comparison to the most dangerous form of pride as state sponsored propaganda. I shuddered with fear as the broadcasts from Pacifica, where the pride parade burned Gary Shirakashia prominent Gay actor, in effigy,. Whose only mistake was to have been to be in Pacifica at the time and run afoul of the black trials. Now, those who should have been his brothers turn against him.

This hate cannot stand. Pride has never been about hate, but about love we must stand against this tide, their thievery of the very meaning of pride…

Excerpt from Jennifer Mueller's Speech Recognizing the United Nations of Sol
(June 1, 2256)

…To those in the Compact who say that this is premature, I have this to say. One of the key elements of politics is acknowledging reality and yet never losing sight of what you wish to happen. Only by acknowledging the current status quo can you begin to evaluate how to change it.

Therefore, let us not fail to acknowledge that the United Nations of Sol have been independent for the better part of a year, and have in that time created and maintained this independence. An independence I hasten to add, which is perfectly legal under the United Nations charter and the founding documents of the Solarian Compact itself.

While the UNS has lively internal debates about the nature of states, governments, and hierarchies, they have a united foreign policy, a means of self-defense, and a set of common policies required among their members, albeit relatively lax in nature. Finally, the Nations of Sol and a means by which debates and disagreements among their member states can be resolved.

By and standard, legal, material, military, contractual, and philosophical, they truly are a United Nations of Sol. They are an independant body. This is not so different from the Compact itself. And considering the Frontier Wars that have plagued the Solarian Compact over the centuries, the UNS is a good deal more stable and united.

In other words, they have made of all things a government, and to deny it is merely to state one's denial of this reality, or one's desire to engage in a military campaign of conquest and, potentially, genocide upon a people who have by this point set themselves as one. Across Sol, democracy in different forms is far more common than any form of autocracy, which is most common among loyalist states and terrorist groups.

Should the Solarian Navy seek to invade Sol once more, they will find the same reception that the Solarian Navy's 9th Fleet found in the Far Spinward: Defeat and Humiliation. Just as we are, Sol is composed of free peoples. And the duty of any free people is to reject the advances of tyrants and murderers, no matter how moderate and well considered their proclamations.

Thus when we acknowledge the reality, we are not being idealistic but aware of political realities and political morality as well. Whatever you think of our decisions, we interact as rational beings, attempting to exist within and change the circumstances of our own independent government.

But, while Sol may be independent, and so is the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth and any number of other governments, that does not mean that we cannot have relations with the Solarian Compact.

It's no secret that for most of human history, there were multiple governments for our species. To recognize the independence of your fellows is not to destroy the Community of Humanity, but to enrich and diversify it. Not unless one seeks to tear that community apart with oppression and conquest. That would truly end this interstellar era of unity and family relation. And no one wants that, do you?

It is therefore with no doubts held in our hearts that the General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth and its Diplomatic Corps appoints Ryan Crossfield as our ambassador to the United Nations of Sol, with full Plenipotentiary Powers.

We look forward to a fruitful and peaceful relationship with the UNS, just as we hoped for such a relationship with the Compact, and as much as we are still able to hope, despite the…

"NO Agreement, NO ambassador!" cries Penglain Mob--Progressive Compact Herald (June 2, 2256)

In a display of barbarity, protests have rocked Shintokyo, Penglai as the ambassadors of the current government prepare to depart for the Armstrong Conference. Subject to the protest is one Mx. Smiles, whose party has recently walked out of the coalition government in protest of no doubt trivial policy disagreements. Unlike the previous cases, this has not led to the collapse of the current "Sunrise Coalition" government, which remains the confidence of the SACDotC and thus the military itself.

However, the Anarchic situation is liable to continue as protests against Smiles' continued presence on the diplomatic team are holding up a team that had been chosen to balance the factions of depraved revolutionaries that now run the planet with an iron fist, showing the flaws and failings of Anarchism.

It seems, as the protests enter their third day, that there is no end in sight.

Ark Program Sewing Seeds of Galactic Revolution--Columbian Tribune (June 3, 2256)

…these dangerous radicals should be imprisoned and tried and if need be executed, but instead these Super-Predators are fleeing justice on Columbia to go to KC, where they will no doubt cause all manner of rebellion. Those who view them as "peaceful activists" are deluded as to the truly dangerous and revolutionary nature of the Caulderist threat, and so they will sleepwalk into rebellion, crime, rape, and…

Prime Minister Formally Departs for Armstrong Conference--KC Star (June 3, 2246)

A/N: This update is dedicated to @Ambit, may you take To Live Is To Dream off hiatus now.

AKuz · Jul 22, 2024

Scheduled vote count started by AKuz on Jul 3, 2024 at 9:42 AM, finished with 117 posts and 54 votes.

52 people have voted
-[X] [Stance] Engagement
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- DeltaV11.2
... and 12 more.
52 people have voted
-[X] [ArmCon] Jennifer Mueller - Traitor to Her Class
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- DeltaV11.2
... and 12 more.
52 people have voted
--[X] [Aide] Lilith Lily- The Witch
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- DeltaV11.2
... and 12 more.
52 people have voted
- [X] [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
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- DeltaV11.2
... and 12 more.
52 people have voted
- [X] [SUF] Apollo Xanthopoulos, Psyche Warfare Major
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- DeltaV11.2
... and 12 more.
50 people have voted
-[X] [ACInst] The Essentiallest Elements
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- Cassiemouse
... and 10 more.
50 people have voted
--[X] The Dutch Dilemma: Mueller should use RvB going rogue against the compact mercilessly, and force JNOK to either disavow RvB or tar him as untrustworthy to the other polities in attendance. Let Lilith do her thing with the compact people she thinks she can peel off in the background.
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- Cassiemouse
... and 10 more.
50 people have voted
--[X] The Political Play: Talk with the other revolutionary polities privately, try to set up a united front where we publicly support each other on various issues. Mueller and Lilith should use their best judgement, but should try to gain some cachet with the other polities for SolComm.
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- Cassiemouse
... and 10 more.
50 people have voted
--[X] The IPA Issue: We know the IPA likely played a hand in the invasion - their diplomats taunted us with it, though we have no hard evidence. Get that message privately out to those who need to hear it - the IPA is not a friend.
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- Cassiemouse
... and 10 more.
50 people have voted
--[X] The SolComm Situation: See if we can get the other revolutionaries on-board with joining SolComm, then also talk with Trescore and the VDC. A united bloc will be more powerful within SolComm, and should be able to push for concessions.
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- Cassiemouse
... and 10 more.
50 people have voted
--[X] The Message Mystery: While talking to revolutionary polities, try to exchange one-time-pads and other details for future couriers. Don't even hint at wormholes, at most imply more modest tech transfer.
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- Cassiemouse
... and 10 more.
41 people have voted
- [X] [PCIS] Lapine - Pattern Recognition Engine
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
- DeltaV11.2
... and 1 more.
39 people have voted
[X] Plan: Redshirt v1
- buli-buli
- notbirdofprey
- Artificial Girl
- Rafin
- Questwolf
- Endorfinator
- zezia
- Oseanman
- Gummy_Dragon
- Rarden
- Shard
- MrRageQuit
- Joppe
- Setsul
- Kelenas
- BurnBright
- Donkey Hote
- neutronium95
- Velocci
- Resonant
- Nyvis
- Rat King
- MiracleGrow
- Redshirt Army
- LuxemburgLover69
- Shadowhisker
- OuthOrth
- Elero
- notgreat
- AlphaDelta
- Ahriman
- Regency
- Professor Vesca
- mynameisyouQQQ
- cogsteeth
- Solarstream
- Ekzentric Lohner
- masterofmadness
- Alter
12 people have voted
[x] Plan: Reedshirt
- Cassiemouse
- Sleepy_Sloth
- Aranfan
- blankmask
- Eater
- Model DC.14F
- Derpmind
- beowolf
- Arjac
- Winged One
- Genderite
- masterofmadness
12 people have voted
- [X] [PCIS] Samantha Reed -Concerned Politician
- Cassiemouse
- Sleepy_Sloth
- Aranfan
- blankmask
- Eater
- Model DC.14F
- Derpmind
- beowolf
- Arjac
- Winged One
- Genderite
- masterofmadness
3 people have voted
[X] Plan: Shitposting is magic
3 people have voted
-[X] [ACInst] The shits we give
3 people have voted
--[X] Shit on Dutchnames: Is RvB a rogue warlord, or is JN OK's word worthless? He promised negotiation, she shat all over that. Publically tar and feather the Compact's flailing with the goal of getting the admiral cut off and told to stop. We might not get explicit acknowledgement of our independence, but we can get the de-facto independence of "SolNav not shooting us".
3 people have voted
--[X] Shit on Humanists: Well, less shit on the humanists and more help their victims. That stupid war kept you from sending your own ships to help the Drake evacuation, but you'd be happy to offer new homes to those who have been displaced from there, or anywhere else for that matter, as soon as your local unpleasantness is no longer in the way.
3 people have voted
--[X] Shit on the IPA: We can't publically call them out - even if we had proof, they'd just say we deepfaked it. But we've got the timing and the characters of all involved to point at for private insinuations against the mob monarchy's manipulations. Stick wedges between the IPA and the rest of the establishment wherever we can.
3 people have voted
--[X] No shit on SolComm: The only way SolComm is going to get off the ground is if many different polities cooperate, and the AIC has enough revolutionary cred that when we ask for it, Alexander and Crucible and Penglai might just listen. If we can secure their buy-in, then that'll give the revolutionary bloc as a whole room to demand net neutrality and other concessions.
3 people have voted
--[X] Super secret good shit: We might be able to slowboat a few messages through to other revolutionary polities in the future. Don't name the VDC explicitly. Be discrete about it, and don't imply that this communication would be anything more than standard tech drops in the vein of Broadcast 3.
1 people have voted
[X] Plan: As much as can be won
- DeltaV11.2
1 people have voted
-[X] [ACInst]
- DeltaV11.2
1 people have voted
--[X] Recognizing Reality: The past assurances in secret treaties have all been lies or empty. The Compact needs to publicly acknowledge our existence and right to defend our space. We should also try to make common cause here with all the other fence-sitters; abolish any limitations on the forces member fleets can have.
- DeltaV11.2
1 people have voted
--[X] Weregild: Demand compensation in concrete form for the damage that RvB's invasion has done and will do. They've killed our citizens and forced us to in all likelyhood destroy 9th fleet at considerable cost. We should be able to gain recompsense for that, not just an assurance that it won't happen again.
- DeltaV11.2
1 people have voted
--[X] Fellow Travellers: In the backstage link up with the revolutionary attendees and establish with them that we're here to buy time and get what we can from the Compact's corpse. We don't believe in the Compact, but we don't presently have the capacity to wage open warfare against all comers. Try to set up channels and coordinate with other revolutionary polities on when would be the time for us collectively to act against them.
- DeltaV11.2
1 people have voted
--[X] A Warning: We know the IPA likely played a hand in this- their diplomats taunted us with it. Get that message out to other revolutionary powers and those considering joining them- the IPA is not a friend.
- DeltaV11.2
1 people have voted
[X] Plan: Redshirt
- Jane Dough
1 people have voted
[x] [X] Plan: Reedshirt
- Polaris37

Ambit · Jul 22, 2024

The Laurent said:
A/N: This update is dedicated to @Ambit, may you take To Live Is To Dream off hiatus now.

Sure! I was just about to start writing my next update

Zavvnao · Jul 22, 2024

The Laurent said:
Armand D. Hunter

Is the "D" a One Piece reference?

TheGrape · Jul 22, 2024

Ah, I love the smell of fresh leftist/centrist/rightist infighting in the morning. I'd just gotten a little sick of all the interfactional conflicts too! Glad to have some novel intrafactional conflicts (at least until they become newer interfactional conflicts lmao).

Regency · Jul 22, 2024

The Laurent said:
The reaction of others only makes the Case for the Commonwealth
KC Star Opinions Section (May 6th, 2256)
*snip*
The Commonwealth is not the enemy of progressive cosmoliberalism, but a potential ally, and we owe Mr. Hunter for making this clear.

Yesss come to our side, future fellow travelers~

The Laurent said:
Mueller: A Traitor to Her Class -Blackfire Diaries, Musings from a Contributor, May 14th, 2256
*snip*
Just fucking go outside for a few days. Talk to other people. Organize.

Lmao "Go touch grass".

The Laurent said:
Bringing the Freedom Home -- Solarian Naval Review (May 28th 2256)

Yeah, this got me nervous. Solarian Navy, ever the lethal giant.

The Laurent said:
Excerpt from Jennifer Mueller's Speech Recognizing the United Nations of Sol
(June 1, 2256)

The die is cast

AlphaDelta · Jul 22, 2024

The Laurent said:
It was after a three-year stint in the Solarian Navy (another suspect organization filled with radicals) that Hunter truly became convinced that they were a man, after being exposed to Penglai's decadent party scene while working part time to support university night classes for a journalism degree. So we end up in a situation where the psycho-sexual wages of sin means that the system as it stands cannot be accepted, but neither can common sense.

Wow, that's a lot of misgendering, and… really? The Navy as a "suspect organization"? What, is "gay while underway" still in the popular consciousness in a way such that the average conservative writer would believe it (or at least enough to make a rhetorical point of it)?

The Laurent said:
This then places us in a situation where, in the immortal words of Emille Bakar, "The psychological becomes truly cultural, and the cultural becomes universal." It is exactly such horrid people as Armand in whom the greatest possibility of greatness also rests. Should they be convinced of Humanism, if she had as a young woman faced different choices, she might now yet be the greatest journalist of our age.

Oh, so not just the misgendering of "they", but just mask-off.

The Laurent said:
Instead, the task for us is to prevent the existence of people such as them from recurring, and it is a difficult task even for the wisest of statesmen. Humans will be struggling and grappling with these questions for generations to come, but the day in which there will be a reckoning and in which the damage that society has done to our young men and women will have to be faced, grows ever closer week by week.

…Ow.

The Laurent said:
There is nothing more important to Cosmoliberalsm than respecting others' opinions. Hearing and debating, opinions, even ones you don't like, is vital to a healthy, functioning democratic society. Indeed, the fragmentation of society is the ultimate tragedy of the recent breakdown in the Compact. Planets going their individual ways and becoming echo-chambers that create extreme opinions that would not stand up to the disinfecting sunshine of dissent.

This is a hilariously Cosmoliberal(tm) statement.

The Laurent said:
As such while I do not agree with them, I have always respected and been grateful for the existence of the Conservative Review. They consistently provided a reasoned, intellectual argument for their positions and were one of the flavors of the great soup that was the Compact. As such, it is with heavy heart that I must say that this ingredient has gone sour.

Complete with "I like the Conservative Writers, Actually".

The Laurent said:
Their recent article, "Who Is Armand D. Hunter? Behind The Pink Menace Destroying Our Politics" is the opposite of what we need in these times. Rather than being willing to engage with an earnestly presented and thoughtful written opinion on the AIC (no matter how much one may disagree) they instead choose to print a conspiracy mongering piece that attacked his character, rather than the arguments he presented. Not merely attacking him baselessly but choosing to question his gender despite Mr. Hunter having consistently presented and acted as a Man for twenty-six years. This is not someone who is switching every 6 months, but someone who has consistently and consciously continued to be a man his entire adult life.

As with now, as in the Cosmo-future, the Gender Binary persists.

The Laurent said:
This peaceful nature can be seen in how they have steadfastly refused to ever create any form of intelligence agency. Make no mistake, this is no accident, for the ones who coordinated the Solarian revolution could have easily done so, but they, in their infinite wisdom, recognised the inherent danger and anti-revolutionary sentiment of such agencies and have stoically refused to do so. Mr. Hunter's reports of discussions along those lines are clear and present slander that he should be censured for.

Ouch.

The Laurent said:
The Commonwealth is not the enemy of progressive cosmoliberalism, but a potential ally, and we owe Mr. Hunter for making this clear.

These are the Cosmoliberals that we will be courting, so that we may tear them down later.

The Laurent said:
Just fucking go outside for a few days. Talk to other people. Organize.

Rhetorical calls to "touch grass" will never stop being funny.

The Laurent said:
Bringing the Freedom Home -- Solarian Naval Review (May 28th 2256)
Fabbers Free has saved the Navy. This has, while unsaid, been true, from Trailing Triage Command's defence against Raynaud the Fox's pirate armada to the Navy's peacekeeping actions evacuating refugees from Drake to Admiral Zahariev's defence of Canlin and beyond. The flexibility it has given us is unmatched in military history - we are now a force to whom our every possible solution is available at the scale of individual ships, provoking changes in doctrinal thought already examined across this special issue.

What we have missed, though, is where we might use it outside our ships. The ratings who form this Navy's backbone are its true strength, in steel and flesh; the men, women, and others who create crew, staff every base, and produce every development. Already we are changing towards an emergency footing - no more do we have part-time sailors, their efforts outsourced to other projects. But there is more we can do, and Fabbers Free needs to expand in response. The deployment of FF permissions to bases for units on base has already happened in some areas, but this is a local policy, and one I say should be formalised. Our force works hard, fight hard - we must allow them to play hard, to have access to all they might need to decompress and destress, so long as it doesn't violate military readiness and security.

And beyond that, when we rotate crews off, when we give them time away from their bunks and stations, this is where we truly need to expand Fabbers Free too. Allowing off-rotation use has been piloted already by the 3rd Squadron in ….

Well, this will be fun to face in a while. By fun, I mean "let's not get invaded by an unshackled SolNav". And by face, I mean "from reading intelligence reports.

The Laurent said:
They Have Stolen Our Pride--Queer Voices Magazine (June 1, 2256)
It is a scene generations old across the Core Worlds. Each of the five Charters held, hosted, and directed a different Pride parade, competing and celebrating the unity and the diversity that the community holds. From the orderly marches of the militant gays of Ares, to the colorful displays and beautiful dances of Hermes Ishtar, every parade was a celebration of the progress made as a community. Though they were diverse, these parades were never enemies. But now, that unity has been broken.

The Commonwealth's rabid hatred of the compact has, once again, left those it claims to care about in a more vulnerable position. From the pogroms of Drake and Pacifica, to the fighting on Pelgai and Tereshkova it is, as it has always been, minorities and the vulnerable to most bear the ravages of chaos. Those of us who are LGBT may believe ourselves safe, but that safety was earned, not a natural consequence. These rights came from strong, united voices speaking as one for our rights, pride in ALL our communities.

These divisions have already appeared, and are getting worse. In Columbia, separate prides are banning augments and humanists, two factions at each-other's throats. In Pelagia organizers of the so called 'Name Pride parade' have stated that those wearing charter clothes are not welcome. Enforcing a dress code as if they were the American Dominionists of old. On earth nationalism has reared its ugly head as prides are celebrated in each nation separately.

And that, perhaps, is the most dangerous of them all. Ultimately those divisive examples pale in comparison to the most dangerous form of pride as state sponsored propaganda. I shuddered with fear as the broadcasts from Pacifica, where the pride parade burned Gary Shirakashia prominent Gay actor, in effigy,. Whose only mistake was to have been to be in Pacifica at the time and run afoul of the black trials. Now, those who should have been his brothers turn against him.

This hate cannot stand. Pride has never been about hate, but about love we must stand against this tide, their thievery of the very meaning of pride…

It's a bit early for pride month discourse, isn't it?

Again, this is the Cosmoliberal version of Queer(tm).

The Laurent said:
Excerpt from Jennifer Mueller's Speech Recognizing the United Nations of Sol
(June 1, 2256)
…To those in the Compact who say that this is premature, I have this to say. One of the key elements of politics is acknowledging reality and yet never losing sight of what you wish to happen. Only by acknowledging the current status quo can you begin to evaluate how to change it.

Therefore, let us not fail to acknowledge that the United Nations of Sol have been independent for the better part of a year, and have in that time created and maintained this independence. An independence I hasten to add, which is perfectly legal under the United Nations charter and the founding documents of the Solarian Compact itself.

While the UNS has lively internal debates about the nature of states, governments, and hierarchies, they have a united foreign policy, a means of self-defense, and a set of common policies required among their members, albeit relatively lax in nature. Finally, the Nations of Sol and a means by which debates and disagreements among their member states can be resolved.

By and standard, legal, material, military, contractual, and philosophical, they truly are a United Nations of Sol. They are an independant body. This is not so different from the Compact itself. And considering the Frontier Wars that have plagued the Solarian Compact over the centuries, the UNS is a good deal more stable and united.

In other words, they have made of all things a government, and to deny it is merely to state one's denial of this reality, or one's desire to engage in a military campaign of conquest and, potentially, genocide upon a people who have by this point set themselves as one. Across Sol, democracy in different forms is far more common than any form of autocracy, which is most common among loyalist states and terrorist groups.

Should the Solarian Navy seek to invade Sol once more, they will find the same reception that the Solarian Navy's 9th Fleet found in the Far Spinward: Defeat and Humiliation. Just as we are, Sol is composed of free peoples. And the duty of any free people is to reject the advances of tyrants and murderers, no matter how moderate and well considered their proclamations.

Thus when we acknowledge the reality, we are not being idealistic but aware of political realities and political morality as well. Whatever you think of our decisions, we interact as rational beings, attempting to exist within and change the circumstances of our own independent government.

But, while Sol may be independent, and so is the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth and any number of other governments, that does not mean that we cannot have relations with the Solarian Compact.

It's no secret that for most of human history, there were multiple governments for our species. To recognize the independence of your fellows is not to destroy the Community of Humanity, but to enrich and diversify it. Not unless one seeks to tear that community apart with oppression and conquest. That would truly end this interstellar era of unity and family relation. And no one wants that, do you?

It is therefore with no doubts held in our hearts that the General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth and its Diplomatic Corps appoints Ryan Crossfield as our ambassador to the United Nations of Sol, with full Plenipotentiary Powers.

We look forward to a fruitful and peaceful relationship with the UNS, just as we hoped for such a relationship with the Compact, and as much as we are still able to hope, despite the…

Nice. Polished. Pragmatic. Hopefully, we'll see our work here pay dividends, while we wrap up this war, and lay the groundwork for winning the next.

Random Member · Jul 22, 2024

The Laurent said:
Mueller: A Traitor to Her Class -Blackfire Diaries, Musings from a Contributor, May 14th, 2256

The first principle of Leftism is to ruthlessly criticize everything. By not only forgetting this simple fact but effectively arguing against it, the Blackfire Diaries have revealed themselves to be nothing more than opportunistic crypto-cosmoliberals!

AKuz · Jul 22, 2024

Incidentally...

Random Member said:
The first principle of Leftism is to ruthlessly criticize everything. By not only forgetting this simple fact but effectively arguing against it, the Blackfire Diaries have revealed themselves to be nothing more than opportunistic crypto-cosmoliberals!

but they're critiqueing the critique!

checkmate splitter!

10ebbor10 · Jul 22, 2024

AlphaDelta said:
Wow, that's a lot of misgendering, and… really? The Navy as a "suspect organization"? What, is "gay while underway" still in the popular consciousness in a way such that the average conservative writer would believe it (or at least enough to make a rhetorical point of it)?

Huh, I could have sworn that article adressed him as he in the beginning.

SaltyWaffles · Jul 22, 2024

I really, really hope Pengali isn't about to backslide or worse...

Anyway, it's nice to see the Overton Window...shifting? Expanding? Changing such that the AIC is starting to be seen as a genuine entity. And it's nice to see Sol get the recognition it deserves--that speech was pretty great. Just laying out the undeniable facts and existing laws, and pointing out that not only is Sol independent, it has been for a year now and can reliably enforce that.

...but that independence doesn't have to mean war. I think that's a good point the speech makes. Acknowledging the existence of the UNS and its right to exist allows you to actually sit down and talk with them like normal people.

Setsul · Jul 22, 2024

SaltyWaffles said:
I really, really hope Pengali isn't about to backslide or worse...

One party pulling out of the coalition government and the coalition NOT collapsing actually looks like a sign of stability to me.
They're even still sending the same ambassadors to Armstrong instead of reshuffling the delegation entirely at the last second to get rid of all those who left the coalition.
Stable by Penglai Standards™

buli-buli · Jul 22, 2024

The Laurent said:
Who Is Armand D. Hunter? Behind The Pink Menace Destroying Our Politics--Monthly Conservative Review (May 4th, 2256)

It took a paragraph to realize what kind of article this was going to be. I had to pause and prepare myself.
Thanks, I hate it.

The Laurent said:
[error]

Above: A comparison between HI's "The Fabulous Frontier" advertising campaign and the Commonwealth's "A Better Life is Possible" propaganda offensive.

But offensive to who?

The Laurent said:
Bringing the Freedom Home -- Solarian Naval Review (May 28th 2256)

Lots of ways this could go.
On the one hand, Sol Bank is going to come for them eventually. And the Charters will if they don't.
And now the rank and file have free and easy stuff to lose.

On the other hand, SolNav leadership appears to be empowering itself for its own sake.

The Laurent said:
Excerpt from Jennifer Mueller's Speech Recognizing the United Nations of Sol
(June 1, 2256)
…To those in the Compact who say that this is premature, I have this to say. One of the key elements of politics is acknowledging reality and yet never losing sight of what you wish to happen. Only by acknowledging the current status quo can you begin to evaluate how to change it.

And here is the great debate of moral political engagement.
Whete is the line between legitimizing (and thus strengthening) something and just acknowledging reality?

StarSingerBlue · Jul 22, 2024

Wow, I feel bad for Hunter. Gets misgendered on all sides by the TERF article then gets treated like shit by everyone else except Sakura Lopez and the Cosmoliberal thing that's talking about how the AIC has a point.
Hope he's enjoying some pina coladas on a beach somewhere.

I thought TERF shit was basically gone by now though ? It's more anti-augment and enbyphobia it seems.

The Laurent said:
This hate cannot stand. Pride has never been about hate, but about love we must stand against this tide, their thievery of the very meaning of pride…

Mf talking about how capitalism unites people.

I don't even want to imagine what the various Charter prides look like.

bookwyrm · Jul 22, 2024

Between the Faustian bargain of the shape the Greene/JDAP budget is increasingly looking like its gonna hold, and Greene's general welfare/fabber-free policies also likely looping back around to the Solarian Navy, midwifed by the network of contacts she's been forming and the Navy's been forming within itself what with Kitsuragi, it seems increasingly likely that if and when the institutional Navy actually fulfills its destiny and steps in as custodians of the Compact through the Committee of National Salvation or whatever, its not going to be primarily targeting Sylvia Greene. Speaking of potential targets though, if Tobby's legislative coup is going to be built out of a cross-party bloc of Cosmoliberal staffers and constituency-less MPs and just legit retired politicos brought back for one last job and etc..., is there going to be any hand on the tiller that can resist the pull of the tide into doing an immediate SolBank approved budget-hawk austerity on Greene and coalition policies?

slybrarian · Jul 22, 2024

The Laurent said:
Mueller: A Traitor to Her Class -Blackfire Diaries, Musings from a Contributor, May 14th, 2256

Someone please arrest this contributor as a splitter!

Himmelhand · Jul 22, 2024

SolNav leaning into a more universal Fabbers Free policy sure is something. Coming soon, Anarchism with Naval Characteristics.

If SolNav decides to just say no when the banks come to collect it's going to be a weird revolution.

Elero · Jul 22, 2024

Himmelhand said:
SolNav leaning into a more universal Fabbers Free policy sure is something. Coming soon, Anarchism with Naval Characteristics.

If SolNav decides to just say no when the banks come to collect it's going to be a weird revolution.

Much easier to go warlord admiral if you have unrestricted fabbers both to supply your troops and to keep them happy.

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