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

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  • Informational
    • 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

    -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.


    DISCORD LINK:

    Join the Wordsmiths Discord Server!

    Check out the Wordsmiths community on Discord – hang out with 897 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
    discord.gg discord.gg
     
    Last edited by a moderator:
  • Informational
    • me.me.here said:
    Infiltration (MedComm actions in general, really) only costs 1/2 SR per die, and we only have 3 dice max there right now with the focus - it's the MilComm stuff that really eats SR. Even accounting for increasing costs for subsequent projects it's going to be 2 turns before we start hitting an SR crunch though (so long as we don't repair the Choreographer and start on one of H-I's fancy science projects next turn), whereas a second/third dice-adding project next turn (without adding E production) will leave us at net zero Energy income or straight up in the red.

    We'll want SR right after that, but it doesn't absolutely need to be done this coming turn the way Energy does.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    ...wow.

    I saw 1SR and read it as 15 SR.

    Jesus.
     
    [x] [Unis] [Write-In] Personalized Uniforms
    [x] [RETRAINING] The Industrial Committee
     
    [X] [Unis] [Write-In] Personalized Uniforms
    - [X] Basically, we start with the Charter Utilitarian or Spacer bodysuits, but we give everyone the right to repaint or pattern them as they see fit (with a few basic rules to ensure they clearly display name, rank, and allegiance). The combination of military armor and insignia with personal artistic touches shows that we're a unified and disciplined force but that we also value individuality and freedom of expression.

    [X] [RETRAINING] The Industrial Committee
     
    Mr BreaksIt said:
    I am a bit concerned about the personalised uniforms being a hazard in a firefight. Soldiers make snap judgements about when they shoot, and the most complexity they might have time for is "shoot the person with the wrong uniform". If personalised uniforms are common enough, we might well see a higher incidence of friendly fire because of that.

    Then again, that might all be well below the level of abstraction for this quest.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I did realize that that might be a concern, which is why I put a rule in that says that the customization can't obscure the nameplate, rank, symbol of Elysium, etc. so that our soldiers can still identify each other in a firefight.
     
    [x] [Unis] [Write-In] Personalized Uniforms
    [x] [RETRAINING] The Industrial Committee
     
    AKuz said:
    Yup. It's a bonus on *dice* not a bonus per die.

    It's Xd20+Y not X(d20+Y)

    You would rapidly break the game over your knee if it were per die.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Also as a system, it encourages our focus to go broad into many different projects of interest, not simply putting our all people to focus on one shiny, grand "vision". And spread projects out over several turns at a reasonable place, rather than try to crunch rush them.

    [x] [Unis] [Write-In] Personalized Uniforms
    [x] [RETRAINING] The Industrial Committee
     
    Kirook said:
    I did realize that that might be a concern, which is why I put a rule in that says that the customization can't obscure the nameplate, rank, symbol of Elysium, etc. so that our soldiers can still identify each other in a firefight.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Also, it's the future. We probably are gonna have some sort of IFF system anyhow.
     
    [x] [Unis] Stylish - Drawing from Elysium's literal decades of design work, the SubCommittee proposes to the General Assembly a uniform that is a stylish militaristic cut blue and black jumpsuit with silver highlights. Position, department, and unit information is indicated by coloured stripes on the neck and lower arms. This proposal lifts design elements from the hero uniforms of a half dozen pieces of the most popular space themes media made on Elysium in the past sixty years.
    [x] [RETRAINING] The Industrial Committee
     
    [x] [Unis] [Write-In] Personalized Uniforms
    [x] [RETRAINING] The Industrial Committee

    A healthy revolution lies in a healthy industry.
     
    [x] [Unis] Stylish - Drawing from Elysium's literal decades of design work, the SubCommittee proposes to the General Assembly a uniform that is a stylish militaristic cut blue and black jumpsuit with silver highlights. Position, department, and unit information is indicated by coloured stripes on the neck and lower arms. This proposal lifts design elements from the hero uniforms of a half dozen pieces of the most popular space themes media made on Elysium in the past sixty years.
    [x] [RETRAINING] The Industrial Committee
     
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    • Scheduled vote count started by AKuz on Dec 19, 2020 at 3:51 AM, finished with 38 posts and 23 votes.
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  • Voting
    • Oof I think all of the winning write in vote is meant for this

    "Basically, we start with the Charter Utilitarian or Spacer bodysuits, but we give everyone the right to repaint or pattern them as they see fit (with a few basic rules to ensure they clearly display name, rank, and allegiance). The combination of military armor and insignia with personal artistic touches shows that we're a unified and disciplined force but that we also value individuality and freedom of expression."
     
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    Fanfiction: from Hobby to Revolution, Posted August 2251 (Aug 2251)
  • Sidestory
    • Fanfiction, from hobby to revolution - Posted August 2251​

    Fanfiction is the scourge of Hermes-Ishtar. According to the public broadcasts, it is the vile practice of taking a true visionary's world and stealing it to put your own name on it, without artistic merit or integrity. Despite these attempts, fanfic consumption, and even creation, is one of the most widely practiced "intellectual property" crimes, and is often referred to as the 'gateway copyright infringement'. As such, it comes as no surprise that it has flourished post-revolution. So much so that the "Hidden archive" , the most popular sharing site(s), was brought down by too many uploads at once. A feat that our overlords never managed in the ten years since the site first came online.

    Yet despite this, few understand why fanfiction is so criminal. If asked, people tend to offer a parroting of the corporate 'intellectual property and improper modification' explanation, albeit these days with contempt for both those concepts. Yet this is paradoxical. Hermes-Ishtar considers 'engagement' with its properties one of the highest metrics of success. Liking, commenting, speculating, talking about something, even if in hatred, is what HI wishes more than anything else.

    A person who posts. "I really think it would be so cool if Zach went to pursue the ninja, and was ready to kill her for hurting Pearl, but then realized it was Sakura because she still has the handkerchief he gave to her from before and stopped." Is someone HI approves of, and wishes for the posts and discussion to spread as far and as wide as possible. But a person who posts. "And then just as Zach raised his hand to deliver his nuclear fist, he stopped. That slightly Blue handkerchief, that… that was his. Sakura? 'He asked ''", is a vile fanfic writer.

    But there is really very little difference. Both are engaged with the "World War Two Grand Battle Tournament" show. Both describe a scene, and yet one is good, one evil. The difference is so small that the site "Speculations" managed to host fanfic with all being the disclaimer "these are posted only for the purpose of discussing potential future plots of shows, and not intended to be consumed as stories themselves." They were ended not by a direct court defeat, but by the weight of legal expenses.

    Why then, the hatred? Data consultants for HI refer to jobs that require a massive amount of fudging(rather than a little) to reach predetermined conclusions as a "fanfic job" due to the enormous need to fudge data to get the ever increasing estimations of the 'economic harm' that fanfiction creates. Basic studies will estimate each fanfic read as a lost book sale, and more extreme ones will attempt to link crime, poor health, disease and other factors to fanfic. Since the revolution, many consultants have said that privately, they suspect that fanfiction is, at best, a mild revenue lost, and much more likely to increase sales, like any other engagement. Why then, the hatred?

    To understand this, we must understand the corporate culture of Hermes-Ishtar. Hermes-Ishtar prides itself on having "Visionaries" and "Artists" not mere bosses. Yet it cannot escape it's essential corporate nature, despite its protests otherwise. Thus, the heads must appear as 'mavericks' of 'visionaries' while making decisions that are identical to ones that would be made by other corporations. While it is possible that such people are naturally occurring, I believe that the majority are simply another form of the actor. Playing a 'Visionary' while acting as a typical capitalist. Yet these demands of presentation do not merely extend to the external, but the internal as well. To be seen as a mere 'stooge' is to be degraded by your peers, and passed over for advancement.

    Nowhere is this more apparent than the relationship to derivative works (Sequels, spin-offs, continuations of series). The world of HI holds two conflicting ideals of such works. On the one hand, the 'business' ideology deems them the highest form of work, as they are 'safe'. The 'Visionary' side derides them. Everything must be new, visionary, and unlike anything else. To admit any inspiration from others is defeat. These two conflicting visions work together to produce the banalest possible derivative works, as safety demands that the franchise follow what 'brought people to it', and the visionary means that any new artistic focus must be a completely new work. Thus ensuring that corporate derivative work is almost always banal.

    This conflict also resolves in how one handles the work. When the 'corporate' side demands derivative works, the 'superstars' of HI have two options. The first is to refuse. To declare that the work is complete and they will not do more. However, this runs a serious risk. If one is overruled(as is likely), while one might maintain credibility as an artist, the aura of invulnerability that all corporations demand among their executives is shattered, and the corporate bloodbath will begin. If one succeeds one may gain prestige, but at the expense of the support of others.

    The other option is to promote the idea of a derivative work as your own idea. If one pushes for a sequel, a series continuation, a spin-off, then the idea is yours and is connected to the legend of your artistry, power and agency. To maintain the idea of 'artistry' said sequels will often contain a single 'shocking twist' that will actually change very little. Such as killing the girlfriend of a hero, thus bringing him back to the angsty starting point he was in at the start. (The idea of exploring a relationship and a changed person is, as discussed above, unthinkable to the corporate mindset).

    Into this toxic ideology comes fanfiction. Derivatives works, the question of "and then what" and "what if it happened differently" are a fundamentals part of the human experience, even in an open society they would exist. But they have been driven into prominence by the writing demands of HI, where new plots cannot be explored and consequence examined. Fanfiction fills the natural failures of capitalist writing. However, it acts as a threat to HI, as the culture of HI states that anyone but the visionary changing the work is a fundamental threat to their power and vision. (This extends to even official works, as many show writers have found to their misfortune when the presented a script that was 'to off' to their boss)

    Thus, HI spends outsized resources fighting a phenomenon that is at best mildly harmful to profits, and likely helpful. Ironically in this, they may have created their own demons. As many admit that their first foray into anti-IPideology was encountering fanfic and loving it. Which in turn caused them to question other propaganda. More materially, the 'high junk data' techniques pioneered by the fanfiction communities to hide works from corporate shut-down were adopted by revolutionaries to allow organizations outside of corporate surveillance.

    Or perhaps it is not Ironic. As is the nature of capitalism to create its own destruction. If the Charters had been willing to take only the lion's share of resources, and not everything, many would never have developed the will to fight in the first place. With fanfiction, as with everything else, the corporations are their own worst enemies.


    In the grim darkness of the future, fanfiction is illegal. Also, endless WWII media and anime tournament arcs have merged, giving rise to shows like "World War Two Grand Battle Tournament".
     
  • Sidestory
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    October 2251: Meeting of the General Congress
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] [RETRAINING] The Industrial Committee
    [X] [Unis] [Write-In] Personalized Uniforms


    Veridian Jackal had done this job for, god, sixty fucking years before they let him retire to obscurity. He had grandkids now, a contract guarding some Ishtar failson who thought he was fucking genius for discovering how to iterate on fridging a protagonist's loved ones, and a nice apartment in an upscale neighbourhood on Nova Terra.

    Hell, Jackal even had a goddamn plant. One of the nice Cernunnos ones that changed colour in reaction to soundwaves. But Charters never forgot an asset once they bought it, and every retirement contract included a recall order.

    So some fucking pissant tier two point five system that he'd done work on forty years had broken out in riots and he got fingered for the fucking job of helping some failson VP because god forbid he be allowed to live in peace.

    As Jackal stalks into Divine Baton's secure briefing room, he puts on a mask of pleasant boredom as he eyes up the eleven reasons he was probably on the job.

    Rookies.

    Probably barely thirty years of experience between the lot of them. Basically children who had only just learned to feed themselves.

    God, when did he get so fucking old? He sounded just like Rhino did back when he first started in the Special Street Marketing Division in '89.

    Jackal slides into the last open chair like it was his favorite pair of jeans, much to the discomfort of the man sitting next to him.

    Jackal snorts, "Oh, lighten up, Ferret."

    "We are members of an elite outfit, Jackal. Professionalism. Please".

    Jackal sits up straight and puts on his Professionalism Face, "Yes sir."

    Orange Ferret eyes Jackal warily, then turns his attention to the entire table, "We've just hit the Radiant gate and gotten a full dl from Yang's office on Elysium."

    Ferret draws several sharp and precise shapes in the air, causing the holotank to light up with several pictures, graphs, and diagrams.

    "Back in March, a series of simultaneous protests broke out across Elysium, and-"

    One of the youngsters across the table, Sapphire Ocelot, crooked his neck to one side, "Simultaneous? That's suspicious. Are we thinking Advanced Warehousing Department, or possibly Premium Warfare Unit involvement?"

    Ferret shakes his head. "Yang carefully doesn't say, but is heavily implying that it has to be outside influence." He then moves to bring forward a block of text that then pings into Jackal's own email inbox. "However, our other agents on the ground are telling us that this discontent is indigenous to Radiant's market, with no outside involvement from other markets."

    Jackal snorts. "Yang's just some failson that fucked up." He shrugs. "If I had a SolCoin for each time I had to clean up after that I could buy my next meal instead of renting it."

    "Professionalism, Jackal!" snaps Ferret. "We've gotten a full package from Yang's office. Scans, bios, analyses, even a proposed plan of action and covers from Jade Hyena."

    Jackal sits up, attentive. "The Jade Hyena?" He smiles. "Fuck, we worked together for thirty years." He laughs and slaps the table, "Fuck, that's why I'm here, they're putting the old team back together except everyone but me and Hyena are dead."

    Ferret frowns. "Hyena's contract was renewed by Vice President Yang in early April, but she bypassed the official channels to put her own situation analysis under Yang's messages when he began brushing off head office."

    Someone clears his throat and Ferret looks up. "You have something to say Nautilus?"

    "Do we actually know what we're walking into? If Yang was trying to softpeddle his fuck up past home office, how do we know he's not setting us up to keep his own image squeaky clean?"

    Jackal casually points at the boy across the table. "That's a good point Nautilus. Ninety percent of this job is figuring out what the fuck the C-peeps are lying to us about."

    Ferret nods. "Good question, that's where Dingo comes in. Dingo?"

    "Yeah, I just spent two hours with a couple of the crew sorting through background chatter and visuals." She energetically waves a finger into the air, throwing images up onto the holotank. "Short story? Yang fucked up bad."

    "Fucking what!"

    "Jesus."

    "Well, fuck."

    "Oh goodie."

    A quiet murmur of shock circles the table, at the image of Ishtar's Arrow with battle damage in orbit around Elysium.

    "Not just that, it seems that several groundside communities are actively out of Aich Eye control." The small woman throws up another couple of images, burned buildings and empty police stations. "When we transited the gate, Yang sent us an urgent request that we join him on the Tartarus archipelago, where he's temporarily transferred operations during his vacation."

    "He fled the fucking planetary HQ?"

    "Apparently, Hyena is there too, she transmitted a report that's a bit less… optimistic than Yang." Nautilus frowns. "She says it's basically an Earth Black Summer dropped into the colonies."

    Jackal has a brief flashback to some very dark times and loosely covers his eyes with a casual hand. "Fucking goddamn it Yang. Let me guess, he revoked comms privileges when we transited the gate?"

    "I-" Ferret works his jaw, and then his eyes go far away for an uncomfortably long time, "Yes."

    "Let me guess, he's also ordered us to go emissions quiet except to his command post?"

    Nautilus nods grimly. "Essentially, Jackal."

    "We stepped in it this time." Jackal leans back in his chair. "This is going to end in orbital strikes. God, this is Disney's Planet all over again."

    "Disne-" starts one of the youngsters.

    "Before your time and over your paygrade, Mongoose." Jackal sighs. "Well, we have a fucking week to talk to Hyena and figure out what the fuck we're going to do."

    -

    Elysium looks peaceful through the shuttle's cameras as it prepares for entry.

    As he watches the feed displayed on his headset, Jackal considers to himself that the idyllic blue oceans, white beaches, and green rainforests of Elysium are hiding a whole shitload of silent trouble.

    Well, silent from orbit. On the last day alone Hyena and one of their other sources reported that local law enforcement had used main force to pacify another city center. That sort of activity always caused trouble in the long run.

    "Don't blame them though." Riots are frightening, even if you don't own property getting destroyed by them.

    "Sorry?" asks Cerulean Mink, looking at Jackal in surprise, "Did you say something?"

    Jackal side eyes the woman sitting next to him, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and one foot relentlessly tapping.

    Jackal puts on his Kindly Grandfather Face and fully turns towards the young woman, "This your first SPECTELOP mission Mink?"

    She shakes her head. "I was in a suspected Black Banner cell in Sol for six months last year."

    Jackal laughs. "A Black Banner cell? That's baby stuff." He raises his hand and splays out his finger. "For each five members in a Black Banner cell," he begins counting off his fingers with his off hand, "There's one of us from Ares, Aich Eye, or Omo, on a SPECTELOP mission, an MSI guy tricking them into buying literal trash, a Compact spook, an old man who still fantasizes about all the strange pulled down during his first black summer when he was 15, and a very confused street kid who just wanted to write fanfic."

    Despite her nerves, Mink lets out a giggle that is quickly squelched. "Well. You're not wrong."

    Jackal continues with a Reassuring Grandpa Smile, "If it weren't for those pesky NDAs, I could tell you about all the nasty details of the shit that our unit got up to. Hyena and I go waaay back."

    Mink nods seriously. "She certainly seems to know her business."

    "There was a lot of commando work." Jackal casts his memory back in time. "God, I think she got married twice?" He tilts his head to one side, searching his memory of a half century ago. "Yeah, there was an Omoikane guy, she was with him for like two years? And that uh, fuck," he snaps his fingers, "Right, that union organizer on Vulcan, they were together for three years until we rolled up that whole network." He chuckles. "Nearly got shot by one of our own guys during the arrests."

    Jackal can feel the movement of the shuttle change as, he suspects, they begin a final approach to the Tartarus landing pad.

    "I hope that doesn't happen to me."

    Jackal shrugs. "Eh, it happens, especially if Hyena gets you into that independence movement cell in Pericles Pass. Getting shot at by our own people is part of the job of an agent provocateur."

    "Right, a job hazard."

    "That's why we get that hard cash, Mink."

    Mink holds herself steady, then abruptly sits up straight in her chair, and passes both her hands over her face in a single smooth motion timed with a deep inhalation. "Who is Mink? My name is Jennifer Awhine, estranged granddaughter of Vice President Yang's executive assistant Maria Awhine."

    Jackal shakes Mink's hand. "Good afternoon Ms. Awhine."

    "Good afternoon, Mr…?"

    "Jackal." He tilts his head to look at Mink. "Honestly, you do kinda look like her, so that's handy." He pats her on the back, "Go bust up some windows, kid. Lead some ambushes."

    There is a sudden jolt as the shuttle touches down, and after a few moments, the lighting changes, and a travel advisory alert flashes across Jackal's headset.

    "Welp, let's get to work," says Jackal, standing up and following Mink, Nautilus, Ferret, and the rest off the small shuttle.

    Jackal blinks as he emerges into the sun, and takes in the deep breath of a world he hadn't set foot on for forty years. The smell was… different? Somehow? But then again, forty years ago he hadn't visited the Tartarus archipelago.

    There are a number of HI guards standing in full riot armour around the landing pad, and looking fairly jumpy. Someone in management was certainly paranoid.

    Jackal follows his party off the landing pad towards a small welcome party led by Hyena, a number of the heavily armoured guards following them.

    Definitely paranoid, Jackal thinks as he takes in the rest of the island that he could see. At least the weather was nice he thought, as a gentle wind passed over the platform, ruffling the nearby palm trees slightly.

    Mink smiles as they get close, "Grandmother!" she says happily, "Long time, no see!"

    Hyena regards Mink cooly, a flash of… pain? Maybe? Flashing over her dusky features. "There's no need for that right now, Mink."

    Mink nods. "Of course."

    Hyena then turns to favour Jackal, expression unreadable, "Jackal."

    "Hyena."

    "It's been a while."

    "It has. I'm sorry about this."

    Jackal shrugs. "Eh, management fucks up and we have to clean up."

    "That they do." Hyena turns her head towards a much smaller blond woman who cradles a tablet in one arm and appears to be expectantly awaiting an order, "Ms. Kozlova. You may do the honours."

    Something flashes through Jackal's mind, he knows, he doesn't know what he knows. But his body knows a set up when it's in one.

    His hand has his concealed pistol drawn and aimed at Hyena before he is consciously aware of it -and consciously aware of the three dozen rifles aimed at his party.

    For a few short seconds that take up a third of Jackal's life he holds his draw, then he slowly lowers the concealed pistol and slowly, very slowly drops his weapon and raises his hands.

    "Well, fuck," he says admiringly, "Well played Hyena."

    He considers for a moment as a half dozen of the armed men and women surrounding the team close in, half with raised rifles and half with manacles and directed EMP 'disablers', "Hmm, it isn't Yang. One of his subordinates maybe? No, someone up the chain?" He considers a bit longer as the rough material of combat gloves pass down his body in a search and his hands are abruptly yanked behind his back and handcuffed, "Ares? No, this isn't a Premium op. MSI?"

    Hyena's brief flash of guilt followed by a haunted looking expression causes Jackal's eyes to widen in surprise, "Oh my god Hyena. You went native."

    "I suppose I have," says the woman that Radiant's General Congress of Unions, Organizations, and Peoples know as Defence Coordinator Maria Awhine. "I appreciate you taking this as a professional."

    Jackal gives his head an exaggerated shake, "I'm disappointed in you, Hyena; you know the job. Don't get attached to the targets." He sighs. "I know you don't believe that any revolt can ever survive. Not after '87. What the fuck did they offer you to join them anyway?"

    Hyena looks at Jackal, all of her decades hanging in the air between them, and sighs, "We all need to sleep at night, Jackal."

    -

    Journal of M Chakrabarti, Congressional Delegate
    October 3rd, Bright Sun

    I had once thought that the longer I sat in the Congress, the less nervous I would get about our revolution.

    But it seems to be the opposite. The longer we go without the Charters' hammer falling on us, the worse the consequences become in my mind.

    They will eventually come, no matter how hard we try to pretend that everything is fine. And when they do return, I pray to whatever divinities exist that we are ready for them.

    -

    Current Approximate Population: 250,000,000

    Trust: 70 (The populace is happy with your performance so far, no effect)

    Net BR Production: 9

    Net SR Production: 22

    Net E Production: 12

    BR: 41
    SR: 35
    E: 23

    Radiant:

    Gaid:
    N/A


    Scutum, Targe, Buckler: Space Patrol Corvettes

    Three old corvettes used by the Space Patrol for heavy-duty asteroids and some light mining work when not diverting dangerous objects. Their weapons haven't been used seriously in decades, if ever, but they seem in good order.

    Liberte, Egalite    : Corvettes (Converted Couriers)

    A set of hastily-converted couriers armed with a light PD laser and a mass driver salvaged from smaller Space Patrol boats. Fast, but fragile and without much firepower. These were never meant for squaring up against purpose-built warships, and no amount of jury-rigging can really change that.

    Switchblade Wing:     Several squadrons of aerospace fighters

    Several squadrons of general-purpose Switchblade-class fighters, used for general purpose aerospace patrols. Jack of all trades, master of none.

    Radiant Customs Squadron:     Squadron of boarding craft with marine contingents

    Once used to check cargo ships for illicit goods, this small squadron of Arabia-class assault shuttles, and most of its complement of marines, came over to the revolution's side early on. Arabia-class shuttles are capable of both space- and land-based assaults, including boarding actions. They lack everything except light PD lasers and miniguns, though, and are sitting ducks against fighters.

    Choreographer:     Crippled Light Carrier

    (Formerly the Ishtar's Arrow): At Elysium for R&R, the fighting over this light carrier turned violent unlike most other places in Radiant. It had been written off in the initial chaos, but careful investigation has found that some of its critical damage was in fact a clever fake, projected by the ship's own systems on the command of an officer now dead or in confinement.


    MEETING OF THE GENERAL CONGRESS

    (For the following plan, each project requires a die to be assigned. Each dice is a d20 plus the category bonus that will be rolled to progress on the project. Some projects will require certain resources to complete, please make sure those are on hand. Some projects complete automatically. Excess progress may be shifted to other projects in that section. Please vote by plan by picking a FOCUS and then assigning dice to projects. Project costs are Per Die)

    Pick one option, thanks to focus being put in that category, it gains one extra dice to spend this turn, and will open up more options in that category next turn:

    [ ] [FOCUS] Industry Committee
    [ ] [FOCUS] Military Committee
    [ ] [FOCUS] Science Committee
    [ ] [FOCUS] Social Committee
    [ ] [FOCUS] Media Committee

    -

    INDUSTRY COMMITTEE (Two Die)

    "Hold my drink. Watch this industry."

    -Asphodel Environmental Commission: +5 to dice rolls involving Asphodel
    -Orbital Industrial Workers Union: +1 to dice rolls on industrial rolls

    Project: Begin Mining operations for BR

    The Industrial Committee has presented plans to begin basic resource extraction in both Radiant and Gaid, and though we have little practical and institutional experience at doing so, the Committee is confident in the ability of our workers.

    [ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Radiant-2 (Quality-7)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid A-1 (Quality-10)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations in Gaid Asteroid Belt (Quality 1)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-1 (Quality 15)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-2 (Quality 10)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-3a (Quality 7)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-3a (Quality 8)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-4 (Quality 12)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-7 (Quality 14)

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Completion: Automatic

    Cost Per Die: 10 BR

    Projected Result: Increase BR Production Infrastructure to Level 1 on selected planet

    -

    Project: Expand BR production

    The Industrial Committee has presented plans to expand our existing BR mining facilities. As we now have some practical and institutional experience with doing so, the Committee believes in the ability of our workers to complete these projects on time and on materials budget.

    [ ] [IndComm] Expand BR mining operations on Radiant-1 to level 2 (Quality-7)

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: Automatic

    Cost Per Dice: 40BR

    Projected Result: Increase BR Production Infrastructure to Level 2 on selected planet


    -

    Project: Begin Production operations for SR

    The Industrial Committee has presented plans to begin special resource extraction, synthesis, and processing in Gaid. As we have some practical and institutional at doing so, the Committee is confident in the ability of our workers to complete these projects on time and on materials budget.

    [ ] [IndComm] Begin SR mining operations on Gaid A-2 (Quality 7)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin SR mining operations on Gaid A-4 (Quality 5)

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Completion: Automatic

    Cost Per Die: 10 BR

    Projected Result: Increase SR Production Infrastructure to Level 1 on selected planet

    -

    Project: Begin Energy Collection Operations.

    The Industrial Committee has presented plans to expand our energy collection facilities in Gaid. As we have some practical and institutional experience with doing so, the Committee is confident in the ability of our workers to complete these projects on time and on materials budget.

    [ ] [IndComm] Begin Energy Collection Operations on Gaid A-3 (Quality 4)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin Energy Collection Operations on Gaid A-4a (Quality 9)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin Energy Collection Operations on Gaid B-5 (Quality 3)
    [ ] [IndComm] Begin Energy Collection Operations on Gaid B-6 (Quality 7)

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Completion: Automatic

    Cost Per Die: 10 BR

    Projected Result: Increase E Production Infrastructure to Level 1 on selected planet

    -

    [ ] [IndComm] Expand SR Production on Asphodel

    Asphodel has long been a source for the rare earth metals desired across the length and breadth of Compact space and is one of the primary reasons that Hermes-Ishtar not only constructed courier yards in Radiant, but placed several high end laboratories here.

    Dice Bonus: +6

    Project Progress: Automatic

    Cost per die: 100 BR

    Projected Result: Increase Production Infrastructure to Level 4 on Asphodel


    [ ] [IndComm] Expand E Production on Elysium

    While Radiant currently possess more than sufficient power generation, the Industrial Committee believes that we could easily increase generation by building many more of the tidal generators that use the high tides caused by the Elysium/Asphodel binary system along with simple renewable resources such as wind and solar power and fusion reactors as baseline power.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: Automatic

    Cost per die: 100 BR

    Projected Result: Increase Production Infrastructure to Level 4 on Elysium


    [ ] [IndComm] Industrial reuse program

    With our stockpiles tossed into the sun by one of VP Yang's last acts, the Industrial Committee has devised a plan to free up BR by identifying unnecessary Hermes-Istar vanity projects to recycle; though it will hurt morale to see that some of our first acts are to begin tearing things down. It will take a while to identify which buildings and furnishings can be recycled.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: Automatic

    Cost Per die: Lose five trust

    Projected Results: Gain a usable amount of BR proportionate to the dice roll.

    [ ] [IndComm] Smallcraft Yards

    Unlike corvettes or capital and assault ships, smallcraft are comparatively simple, and don't have built-in warp drives. While this means they're strictly limited to local defense, they're also cheap, fast to build, and can be ferried by tow or cargo ship to other locations if needed.

    Using sections of the blueprints from the Ares corvette yards, your engineers think they can kitbash a few sections into a generalist yard plan then construct it. It won't be efficient, or fast, but it'll be able to pump out any type of smallcraft that fits its dimensions-- fighters, bombers, interceptors, or assault shuttles. Even cargo shuttles, though you have plenty of those at the moment.

    They brush off the fact you don't have anyone extra trained to fly them. They'll come, in time.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 0/30

    Cost per die: 5 BR, 5 SR, 5 E

    Projected Results: Gain a basic smallcraft yard.
    MILITARY COMMITTEE (One Die)

    "Huh. We have a military yard now. Like one that can build military warships. Still coming to terms with that."

    -Courier Crewperson Community: +5 to dice on military rolls for smaller warship fabrication
    -All-Radiant Congressional Defence Committee: +1 to dice on Military Rolls.


    [ ] [MilComm] Begin Corvette Construction at Orbital Yard 1


    Dice Bonus: +6

    Project Cost: ?/2 quarters of production

    Cost for Project: 20BR, 15SR, 10E

    Projected Results: Launch a Buckler-class corvette


    [ ] [MilComm] Convert Courier Orbital Yard 2 to Corvette production.

    Radiant has no native military production capability, but an alliance of amateur military historians, yards workers, retired Hermes-Ishtar Conflict Management Professionals, and scientists have put forward plans to convert the local courier production yards into shipyards capable of building corvettes, manned drones, and unmanned drones by stripping out the hard coded anti-militarization protocols.

    Dice Bonus: +6

    Project Progress: 10/20

    Cost per die: 5SR and 5 E

    Projected Results: Gain a Corvette Shipyard

    [ ] [MilComm] Repair Choreographer


    With Choreographer now fully assessed, our shipyard workers are brainstorming ways to fabricate or replace military grade parts while our computers teams plan how to either replace or bypass most of her operating systems and firmware to get this light carrier operational.

    While this project would be an ugly, graceless kludge, completing repairs would add an entire Light Carrier, a type of vessel we have no ability to build indigenously, to our arsenal and expand our military capabilities by leaps and bounds.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: Automatic

    Cost per die: 30BR, 20SR, and 20 E

    Projected Results: Choreographer becomes fully combat capable

    -

    [ ] [MilComm] Scrap Choreographer

    An alliance of Military Committee members have collaborated with Industrial Committee delegates to propose the scrapping of Choreographer. Pointing out that we lack the sort of dedicated logistics tail and fabrication facilities that a military vessel of Choreographer's size and complexity requires, they contend that we could get the most out of scrapping the vessel and using those resources elsewhere in our economy.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: Automatic

    Cost per die: N/A.

    Projected Results: Gain BR and SR based on dice roll. Even on a one you will gain the repair cost of 30BR, and 20SR.

    -

    [ ] [MilComm] Convert Choreographer into a corvette shipyard

    A minority faction on the Military Committee has put forward an intricate plan to convert Choreographer's hull into a corvette shipyard, and the worker's delegates from our current shipyards admit that the task is theoretically possible.

    Dice Bonus: +6

    Project Progress: 0/20

    Cost per die: 5E

    Projected Results: Gain a corvette shipyard

    [ ] [MilComm] Take control of Thoa

    Ugly Duckling simply isn't built for combat against anything with more than jury-rigged weapons. Against one of your three corvettes and your pair of converted couriers, it would have no choice but to surrender or be destroyed.If you're lucky, nobody would notice.

    On the other hand, others argue that this is an overextension and emphasize the 'if' and 'lucky' parts of the proponent's plan.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: Automatic

    Cost per Die: 10 E

    Projected Results. Take control of Thoa. Depending on roll, Ugly Duckling may surrender or be destroyed, and your actions noticed or kept covert.

    SCIENCE COMMITTEE (One die)

    "...Free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality..."

    -Elysium Free Physicists Alliance: +5 to Dice rolls involving experimental physics projects
    -Professional Union of Laboratory Technicians and Coders: +1 to dice rolls on Science Rolls

    [ ] [SciComm] Assist with Prototype Wormhole research -FTL Communications

    Developing on the already established laboratory work conducted on Elysium, it may be possible to create a prototype for a fixed location interstellar communications device. Once we have the prototype in hand, we can begin iterating on this technology. It is expected that this project will require moderate amounts of SR and E to see to completion.

    Dice Bonus: +6

    Project Progress: ???/???

    Cost per die: 10SR and 5E

    Projected Result: Unlocks Wormhole Communications Prototype

    [ ] [SciComm] Assist with Prototype Wormhole research -Personal Wormhole

    Developing on the already established laboratory work conducted on Elysium, it may be possible to create a fixed location interstellar travel device large enough for a single individual to travel through. Once we have the prototype in hand, we can begin iterating on this technology. It is likely that this project will require large amounts of SR and E to see to completion.

    Dice Bonus: +6

    Project Progress: ???/???

    Cost per die: 10SR and 5E

    Projected Result: Unlocks Personal Wormhole Prototype


    [ ] [SciComm] Bypass Charter Fabricator Rights Management for Ares

    Building on our success with unlocking and analyzing HI blueprints, we should be able make rapid progress stripping anti-consumer protections built into Ares' extensive catalogue of blueprints. Without having access to the private keys for the blueprints, we will first have to crack the DRM protection, but the tools we've built up will streamline this process significantly.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 03/20

    Cost per die: 3SR and 3E

    Projected Result: Unlock Ares 'prints for consumer Ares products

    [ ] [SciComm] Bypass Charter Fabricator Rights Management for Cernunnos

    Building on our success with unlocking and analyzing HI blueprints, we should be able make rapid progress stripping anti-consumer protections built into Cernunnos' extensive catalogue of blueprints. Without having access to the private keys for the blueprints, we will first have to crack the DRM protection, but the tools we've built up will streamline this process significantly.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 03/20

    Cost per die: 3SR and 3E

    Projected Result: Unlock Cernnunos consumer grade 'prints


    [ ] [SciComm] Bypass Charter Fabricator Rights Management for MSI

    Building on our success with unlocking and analyzing HI blueprints, we should be able make rapid progress stripping anti-consumer protections built into MSI's extensive catalogue of blueprints. Without having access to the private keys for the blueprints, we will first have to crack the DRM protection, but the tools we've built up will streamline this process significantly.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 03/20

    Cost per die: 3SR and 3E

    Projected Result: Unlock Mississippi Shipping Interstellar consumer grade 'prints

    [ ] [SciComm] Bypass Charter Fabricator Rights Management for Rhodes

    Building on our success with unlocking and analyzing HI blueprints, we should be able make rapid progress stripping anti-consumer protections built into Rhodes' extensive catalogue of blueprints. Without having access to the private keys for the blueprints, we will first have to crack the DRM protection, but the tools we've built up will streamline this process significantly.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 03/20

    Cost per die: 3SR and 3E

    Projected Result: Unlock Rhodes consumer grade 'prints


    [ ] [SciComm] Bypass Charter Fabricator Rights Management for Omoikane

    Building on our success with unlocking and analyzing HI blueprints, we should be able make rapid progress stripping anti-consumer protections built into Omoikane's extensive catalogue of blueprints. Without having access to the private keys for the blueprints, we will first have to crack the DRM protection, but the tools we've built up will streamline this process significantly.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 03/20

    Cost per die: 3SR and 3E

    Projected Result: Unlock Omoikane consumer grade 'prints

    [ ] [SciComm] Crack advanced Hermes-Ishtar Fabricator Rights Management 'prints

    Building on our success with unlocking and analyzing HI blueprints, we should be able make rapid progress stripping anti-consumer protections built into the blueprints whose keys were deleted by the Charter Loyalists. Without having access to the private keys for the blueprints, we will first have to crack the DRM protection, but the tools we've built up will streamline this process significantly.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 03/20

    Cost per die: 3SR and 3E

    Projected Result: Unlock HI top secret and advanced 'prints


    [ ] [SciComm] Develop New Educational Programs.

    As we take stock of the results of generations of Hermes-Ishtar Influence, it has become clear that nearly everyone on Radiant has holes in their education. Or even worse, has absorbed clearly counter-factual facts. A coalition of parents, educational media influencers, teachers unions, historical consultants, and media analysts have proposed a plan to sift through HI archives, recovered server data, and personal items in order to construct a fact based curriculum for child and adult alike.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 0/20

    Cost per die: On completion permanent 1 E upkeep per 50 million citizens

    Projected Results: An extra die into one of SciComm, SocConn, or MedComm

    SOCIAL COMMITTEE (One Die)

    "It almost feels like a joke to be proposing a propaganda campaign centered around begging people to please stop wasting so much time working so hard."

    -Congress of Caregivers and Physicians: +1 to all Social roll dice
    -Ex-Marketing Division Gang: +5 to Propaganda rolls

    [ ] [SocComm] Expand BLG with household nanofabricators

    Many of the distribution issues with the BLG can be solved by repurposing fabbers for household use. They can even print food-- though it's not exactly what anyone would call fresh. Nevertheless, as long as the planetside infrastructure is up, you've solved the issue with the BLG.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 0/40

    Cost per die: 5BR, 5SR, On completion permanent +2BR, +2E upkeep per 50 million citizens

    Projected Results: +5 Trust, Raise Trust Floor by 5, Improve General Congress Focus Vote

    [ ] [SocComm] Begin anti-overproductivity campaigns

    The people have thrown themselves into working for the revolution with fervor obviously outstripping that of HI drudgery. Unfortunately, since their old lives consisted of overwork anyway, right now people are dropping from exhaustion and needing actual hospital time to recover. Eventually, people are going to start dropping dead of heart attacks or stress in noticeable numbers, unless you do something about it.

    That something is encouraging gradual lowerings to old cultural expectations around work-- starting with convincing everyone that 12-hour shifts are unneeded now that you're training tens of millions of people to share the load of essential jobs.

    Dice Bonus: +6

    Project Progress: 0/40

    Cost per die: 1BR, 2E

    Projected Results: Improve minimum bonus to +2 for each Committee

    [ ] [SocComm] Immortality Guarantee

    Functional Immortality has been a practical reality for the wealthy since the mid 2020s, and has long been a leading cause of why workers will permanently indenture themselves into Charter service. With this program implemented no longer will our people have to work or die. By overwhelming popular demand, this program is paired with the full legalization of voluntary euthanasia.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Program Progress: 0/50

    Cost per die: N/A

    Projected Result: When Project is Completed have a permanent upkeep cost of 5BR, 5SR, and 5E per 50 million citizens, a permanent propaganda dice bonus, raise the trust floor by +10, and get one free die.


    [ ] [SocComm] Develop New Educational Programs.

    As we take stock of the results of generations of Hermes-Ishtar Influence, it has become clear that nearly everyone on Radiant has holes in their education. Or even worse, has absorbed clearly counter-factual facts. A coalition of parents, educational media influencers, teachers unions, historical consultants, and media analysts have proposed a plan to sift through HI archives, recovered server data, and personal items in order to construct a fact based curriculum for child and adult alike.

    Dice Bonus: +1

    Project Progress: 0/30

    Cost per die: 2E per 50 million citizens

    Projected Results: Gain an extra die into one of SciComm, SocConn, or MedComm


    [ ] [SocComm] Encourage Retraining

    With the end of Charter comes the loss of tens of millions of what can, if one were charitable, have been called "makework jobs". While these jobless people have full access to the essentials of life it seems to be an inevitable part of the human condition that we want to do something productive with our time. Joint programs between educators, local communities, unions, and industrial committee delegates can be formed to attempt to steer those idle hands towards jobs that bring them satisfaction and accomplishment.

    Dice Bonus: +6

    Project Difficulty: 00/40

    Cost per die: 2E per 50 million citizens

    Projected Results: Gain an extra die into one of either Indcomm, Milcom, or Scicomm

    MEDIA COMMITTEE (TWO DICE)

    "I sometimes feel guilty that I'm not working hard enough for our revolution. Then I look at the literal stack of studies I have that prove that an 8 hour day is far more productive than a 14 hour one. Funny, that some eggheads figured that out nearly 300 years ago, and nobody listened to them."

    -Creator's Forum: +2 to all media dice rolls
    -Market Segment Analysis Hobbyists' Club +5 Signals Intelligence
    -Guild of Professional and Amateur Performers: +5 to Human Intelligence

    [ ] [MedComm] Develop New Educational Programs.

    As we take stock of the results of generations of Hermes-Ishtar Influence, it has become clear that nearly everyone on Radiant has holes in their education. Or even worse, has absorbed clearly counter-factual facts. A coalition of parents, educational media influencers, teachers unions, historical consultants, and media analysts have proposed a plan to sift through HI archives, recovered server data, and personal items in order to construct a fact based curriculum for child and adult alike.

    Dice Bonus: +2

    Project Progress: 0/20

    Cost per die: On completion permanent 1 E upkeep per 50 million citizens

    Projected Results: An extra die into one of SciComm, SocConn, or MedComm


    [ ] [MedComm] Encourage Retraining

    With the end of Charter comes the loss of tens of millions of what can, if one were charitable, have been called "bullshit jobs". While these jobless people have full access to the essentials of life it seems to be an inevitable part of the human condition that we want to do something productive with our time. Joint programs between educators, local communities, unions, and industrial committee delegates can be formed to attempt to steer those idle hands towards jobs that bring them satisfaction and accomplishment.

    Dice Bonus: +2

    Project Difficulty: 0/40

    Cost: 2E per 50 million citizens

    Projected Results: Gain a dice in either Industry, Military, or Science

    -

    [ ] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Infiltration of Xotreh

    Currently controlled by Omoikane, Xotreh appears to be a system deliberately lost by the bureaucracy. With a population barely cresting 54,000 individuals, the bulk of the inhabitation is limited to seasteads on the icy ocean world of Xotreh B4a, unofficially known as "Sushi". By all indications, "Sushi" is being used by Omoikane to dump workers with poor records and incorrigible troublemakers. The Media Committee wants to insert a team into the system under the cover of maintenance of local comms relays. Once we have a tap into system communications and agents on the ground MedComm planners will begin to plan to encourage Xotrah to throw off Omoikane and join the Congress.

    Dice Bonus: +12

    Project Progress: 0/10

    Cost per die: 1SR

    Projected Results: Insert Assets into Xotreh, new projects on completion.

    -

    [ ] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Bestreer.

    Officially owned by Cernunnos, Bestreer is barely inhabited, with only a gate maintenance team and a SAR station. The few hundred Cernunnos employees appear to have the same extremely relatable gripes and problems that all spacers relegated to backwater worlds have. The Media Committee wants to insert a team into the system under the cover of maintenance of local comms relays. Once we have a tap into system communications and agents on the ground MedComm planners will begin to plan to encourage Bestreer to throw off Cernunnos control and join the Congress.

    Dice Bonus: +12

    Project Progress: 0/10

    Cost per die: 1SR

    Projected Results: Insert Assets into Bestreer, new projects on completion.

    -

    [ ] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Fliveons.

    One of the two other heavily inhabited systems in this region, Fliveons is home to over 15 million Rhodes workers. With over nine times Radiant's Basic Resource income alone, Fliveons is one the many Rhodes mining systems that feeds the great many-headed beast that is the Charters. Most of Fliveon's inhabitants live in spartan accommodations on the technically inhabitable Oyu Tolgoi (Fliveons 6b). The Media Committee wants to insert a team into the system under the cover of maintenance of local comms relays. Once we have a tap into system communications and agents on the ground MedComm planners will begin to plan to encourage Fliveons to throw off Rhodes control and join the Congress.

    Dice Bonus: +12

    Project Progress: 0/30

    Cost per die: 1SR

    Projected Results: Insert Assets into Fliveons, new projects on completion.

    -

    [ ] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Shei.

    Almost certainly our current greatest threat is the small Ares garrison above the prison planet of Sheol. A mere 2 of that 32 million is Ares personnel, support staff, and families that live on the smaller of the planet's two continents. The other 30 million inhabitants are the prisoners recorded as living on the larger continent and resupplied by automated drones. Sheol's moon of Watchman is home to the system's high command and their local light shipyards. The Media Committee wants to insert a team into the system under the cover of maintenance of local comms relays. Once we have a tap into system communications and agents on the ground MedComm planners will begin to plan to encourage Sheol to throw off Ares control and join the Congress.

    At the moment MedComm believes that the system is garrisoned by the cruiser Shieldmaiden and her attendant corvettes.

    Dice Bonus: +12

    Project Progress: 0/10

    Cost per die: 1SR

    Projected Results: Insert Assets into Sheol, new projects on completion.

    -

    [ ] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Akleod

    The last of Radiant's surrounding systems, Akleod is home to a Mississippi Interstellar transshipment hub. The just over 5000 inhabitants of Akleod are concentrated in an orbital station above Gnat's Ass (Akleod 2). It appears that the MSI Junior Executive in charge of Akleod is an utterly venal individual who had several under the table deals with Vice President Yang and other member's of Radiant's former rulership. The Media Committee wants to insert a team into the system under the cover of maintenance of local comms relays. Once we have a tap into system communications and agents on the ground MedComm planners will begin to plan to encourage Akleod to throw off MSI control and join the Congress.

    Dice Bonus: +12

    Project Progress: 0/10

    Cost per die: 1SR

    Projected Results: Insert Assets into Akleod, new projects on completion.

    -

    [ ] [MedComm] Maintain the Charade

    At the moment the outside universe believes that Radiant remains under Hermes-Ishtar control. MedComm has a plan to spend time and effort to maintain the charade that Radiant is still under Charter control giving us more time to prepare for the Charters' inevitable overreaction. (Can be taken again, but the project is more difficult each time)

    Dice Bonus: +7

    Project Progress: 0/40

    Cost per die: 2SR, 5E

    Projected Results: Add a quarter to the time it takes for Sol, or your neighbours, to be alerted to your Independence. This can be rendered moot by other actions, such as all out war with a neighbour.


    [ ] [MedComm] Organize a Diplomatic Corps

    At some point Radiant will have to deal with the outside world openly and when that comes we need to have a diplomatic corps ready to deal with the outside universe.

    Dice Bonus: +2

    Project Progress: Automatic

    Cost per die: 2E

    Projected Results: Opens up diplomacy projects, next turn you will have a vote for Diplomacy Coordinator with Full Plenipotentiary Powers to negotiate on the Congress' behalf.
     
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    • Technically speaking, this update was like pulling teeth.

    The writing was smooth, trying to transfer it to SV took like an hour.

    Shit kept breaking, the fucking text editor froze and crashed a couple times. It was a nightmare.

    And if the update is broken or leaving something out, it's probably been destroyed in the struggle between me and SV
     
    Eventually, someone's gonna wonder what happened to the team they sent over. It's time we start building up our military for the inevitable conflict, so let's get the Choreographer into shape and take the Thoa while it's in our space and unaware of what's happened to its landing party.
     
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