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

AKuz · Dec 10, 2020

THE ALL-RADIANT CONGRESS

Setting Information: The Solarian Compact:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Charters:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rhodes Mining

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

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

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

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

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

Techbros, some of them science, some of them explore

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sketchy buggers, they can get you anything tho

Historical Topics:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Misc Details:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Spinward Frontier:

The Middle Spinward Frontier

The Core Region:

UNDER RADIANT CONTROL OR ALLIED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gaid A1: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Gaid B2: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid B5: A small icy planet. Quality 3.

Gaid B6: A frozen world. Quality 7.

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

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

Shei 1: A Cthonian world. Quality 15.

Shei 2: An airless world. Quality 12.

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

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

Gravity .95 Earth Standard. Quality 12.

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

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

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

Shei I: Asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Shei II: Asteroid belt.

Shei 7: Jovian planet. Quality 13.

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

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

Shei 8: Ice giant. Quality 6.

Shei 8a: An icy moon. Quality 9.

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

Population: 103,000,000

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

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

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

Five Lions 3: A rocky ball. Quality 7.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five Lions II: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 7: An unremarkable Jovian. Quality 2.

Five Lions III: An asteroid belt.

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

Five Lions IV: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 9: Jovian planet. Quality 9.

Five Lions V: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 10: Neptunian ice giant. Quality 8.

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

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

Population: 15,000,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Population: 650,000

UNDER CHARTER CONTROL:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh A6: An unremarkable icy ball. Quality 4.

Xotreh AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh 6: A dense ice giant. Quality 4.

Xotreh 7: Jovian planet. Quality 6.

Xotreh 8: An exceptionally cold Jovian. Quality 9.

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

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

Population: 54,000

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

Bestreer 1: An airless world. Quality 2.

Bestreer 2: An airless world. Quality 6.

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

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

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

Bestreer I: An icy asteroid belt.

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

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

Bestreer 7: Another Jovian. Quality 14.

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

Bestreer 8: An icy ball. Quality 10.

Population: 450

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

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

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

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

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

Akleod I: An asteroid belt.

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

Population: 5,000

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

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

Thoa System Stats:

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

Thoa 2: An unremarkable airless metal ball.

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

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

Thoa I: An asteroid belt.

Thoa 4: A normal Jovian planet.

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

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

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

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

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

Thoa II: A Kuiper belt of icy objects.

Empty Systems

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

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

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

Kimberly 3: A Jovian world.

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

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

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

Total:

Radiant:

Gaid:

Five Lions:

Head of Diplomatic Corps:

Name: Amanda Redcrest, Victoria Blackwell, and Kayla Hayashi

DoB: "2222", 2219, 2227, 2224

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cons: XP celebrity, little diplomatic experience, three people

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

Unlocked FRM

Ares Peacekeeping Grade - Access to planetary army formation

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

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

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

Cernunnos Consumer Grade - +1 to all Soccom actions

Cernunnos Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

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

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

Hermes-Ishtar Production Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

MSI Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

Original Tech

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

Defence Coordinator:

Name: Maria Awhina

DoB: 2165

Current Position: Military Committee Delegate from the Radiant Veterans Guild

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

Command Traits:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-None

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

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

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

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

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

Solarian Marines now spread throughout the system

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

Mobile Force:

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

CO: Commodore Stephanie Rousseau

CNS Velasco, United States of America-class Fleet Carrier

-CO: Captain Esteri Attar

-Orca Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Jasmine Ang

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

-CO: Wing Commander Heloisa Kimura de Lima

CNS Shieldmaiden, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Shamhat, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Righteous Tempest, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Vehement Shade

CNS August Willich, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Elysium, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Asphodel, Cossak-class Frigate

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

-

Home Force:

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

CO: Commodore Erina Kozlova

CNS Blaire Mountain, New Model-Class Strike Corvette

-CO: Captain Guillermo Kageyama

CNS Scutum, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Martin Pagonis

CNS Buckler, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Samuel Smiles

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

-CO: Captain Jean-Paul Beaumont

-

Radiant System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Radiant, comet patrol

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

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

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

Switchblade Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Apogee Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

-

Gaid System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Gaid

CO: Commodore Victor Raine

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Zephyr Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Ara Helge

Aeolus Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

Gale Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

-

Frontier Force

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

CO: Commodore Shayla McLean

CNS Kiel Mutiny, Kaiserreich-class BattleCruiser

-CO: Captain Inana Devlin

CNS Choreographer, Janissary-class Light Tender

-CO: Captain Karl Xanthopoulos

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

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

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

-CO: Captain Fool's Errand

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

-CO: Captain Rouge Napier

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

-CO: Captain John Rankin

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

-CO: Captain Nkiru Chaudhari

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

-CO: Captain Sumac Barros

CNS Revolutionary Will, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Yamamoto Hanae

CNS Revolutionary Grace, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Under New Management, Don-Class Fast Tanker

-CO: Captain Adras Kierenos

CNS Liberte, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Colin McRae

CNS Egalite, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Adelia Swift

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

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The Laurent · Dec 22, 2020

Attempting to continue the maintain the charade is just... kinda foolish IMO. We've gotten the low-hanging fruit, and wasting all of our actions on desperately trying, over two or more turns, to get one more turn of Charade?

It feels really pointless, and going all-in on turtling at a time when we can't afford that. We need to start actually using our massive media advantage to start setting up a post-charade world, which means an infiltration and diplomatics this turn, and quite possibly two more infiltrations and working on the Shei one next turn, etc, etc.

10ebbor10 · Dec 22, 2020

Yeah, at this point return on investement is starting to turn negative.

The Laurent · Dec 22, 2020

My hope, by the way, though obviously I don't control the vote, is that if we succeed at the Education task, put it into Media... yes, even though media already has two. I want to be able to parallel process up all of our infiltrations, without necessarily having to spend the Focus slot on it... unless I do want to spend it, at which point next turn we could actually start up every single Infiltration remaining at once.

But I can of course see the argument for making another die for Science or Social, so if my plan wins and if we make the right rolls, we'll debate that then.

Imperator · Dec 22, 2020

[X] Plan Infiltration and build-up Time

Stellarengine676 · Dec 22, 2020

[X] Plan Infiltration and build-up Time

Amorous Intent · Dec 22, 2020

Warmach1ne32 said:
You know, I think a Spinal mount Laser can have a prism lens at the muzzle to make it more accurate at hit targets without needing too aim the entire ship.

Uh, yeah, substitute a prism for a mirror, and that's exactly how a capital-class laser turret works. It's just that the turret needs a mirror the size of a telescope, and a whole lot of active cooling. There is, in fact, a laser star frigate with a hull dedicated to supporting the primary mirror of a laser, which is what qualifies as "spinal" in a laser system.

TheMaskedReader · Dec 22, 2020

[X] Plan Infiltration and build-up Time

Traveller76 · Dec 22, 2020

[X] Plan Infiltration and build-up Time

me.me.here · Dec 22, 2020

For all that putting two dice into maintaining the charade isn't worth it, I'm seriously wondering about putting a single dice in - we get the proportional benefit of any progress, which means that we'd probably get about half of a quarter's worth of extra time from a single dice (1d20+7 is gonna be somewhere between 8/40 and 27/40, or between a fifth and two thirds of a quarter).

That's actually pretty useful, since it turns the 6-8 months long timer into a 7-10 months long timer - which is about a 50% chance of us having gotten that third quarter's actions enough time to complete rather than be interrupted partway through. Given that some of the likely/plausible third-quarter actions are stuff like whatever subvert-another-system entirely capstone we unlock or building another corvette, finishing those rather than only getting partial completion is likely a big difference.

As far as I'm concerned the marginal cost of having one of the additional SciComm/SocComm/MedComm dice from New Educational Programs coming one turn later than they otherwise would is well worth that, since those categories are chock-full of E-hungry actions and we're going to need another quarter to start in on improving our E income to be able to take those actions anyways.

[X] Plan Just a Little Bit More Time
-[X] [FOCUS] MedComm
-[X] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-1 (Quality 15)
-[X] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Radiant-2 (Quality-7)
-[X] [MilComm] Convert Courier Orbital Yard 2 to Corvette production.
-[X] [SocComm] Begin anti-overproductivity campaigns
-[X] [SciComm] Develop New Educational Programs.
-[X] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Shei.
-[X] [MedComm] Organize a Diplomatic Corps
-[X] [MedComm] Maintain the Charade

Chamberlain1012 · Dec 22, 2020

[X] Plan Just a Little Bit More Time

Gladsome · Dec 22, 2020

I have to say I absolutely love the tone of this quest. There's all the nerves, excitement and promise of a fledgling nation being born and readying itself for the struggle to protect its dreams, and I look forward to all the discussion going on here.

tankdrop24 · Dec 22, 2020

[X] Plan Just a Little Bit More Time

Alex the Average · Dec 22, 2020

Gladsome said:
I have to say I absolutely love the tone of this quest. There's all the nerves, excitement and promise of a fledgling nation being born and readying itself for the struggle to protect its dreams, and I look forward to all the discussion going on here.

And the type of capitalism they are fighting is incredibly relatable to today.

Krall · Dec 22, 2020

I'm new to this quest and just binged all the main posts, really loving it so far!

I have a question about Plan Buying More Time, it has MilComm do nothing - is there any point to that? I thought that would just waste their 1 die?

me.me.here · Dec 22, 2020

Krall said:
I'm new to this quest and just binged all the main posts, really loving it so far!

I have a question about Plan Buying More Time, it has MilComm do nothing - is there any point to that? I thought that would just waste their 1 die?

Chimeraguard said:
Note: I'm currently debating whether or not to delay the 2nd shipyard conversion (seeing how we don't even have the supplies to start construction with the first) to guarantee we have enough E to get the Choreographer up next turn.

It saves up resources to be able to repair the Choreographer, which is a potent ship we couldn't make on our own.

The Laurent · Dec 22, 2020

Also, it has MilComm do something, though? It does the Corvette thing.

Krall · Dec 22, 2020

me.me.here said:
It saves up resources to be able to repair the Choreographer, which is a potent ship we couldn't make on our own.

Ah, doing anything with it would use up resources, gotcha. Thanks!

The Laurent said:
Also, it has MilComm do something, though? It does the Corvette thing.

I think chimeraguard edited the plan after posting it to remove that: For The Tyrants Fear Your Might (A quest of interstellar rebellion) Original - Sci-Fi

On balance I think I like both Plan Infiltration and Build-Up Time and Plan Just a Little Bit More Time (great names there, guys). I think getting a diplomatic corps set up so we can actually talk to and negotiate with other organisations once the charade falls is vital, we really don't want to be caught out without one - managing how we're viewed by others and having shrewd negotiators ready to go is gonna be vital.

[X] Plan Just a Little Bit More Time
-[X] [FOCUS] MedComm
-[X] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-1 (Quality 15)
-[X] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Radiant-2 (Quality-7)
-[X] [MilComm] Convert Courier Orbital Yard 2 to Corvette production.
-[X] [SocComm] Begin anti-overproductivity campaigns
-[X] [SciComm] Develop New Educational Programs.
-[X] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Shei.
-[X] [MedComm] Organize a Diplomatic Corps
-[X] [MedComm] Maintain the Charade
[X] Plan Infiltration and build-up Time

Adnate · Dec 22, 2020

[x] Plan Infiltration and build-up Time

AKuz · Dec 23, 2020

Scheduled vote count started by AKuz on Dec 21, 2020 at 4:38 AM, finished with 64 posts and 30 votes.

20 people have voted
[X] Plan Infiltration and build-up Time
- DocSpooky
- The Laurent
- Nyvis
- Gladsome
- ALanos
- LordEdric
- Alex the Average
- Donkey Hote
- Solarstream
- Rhymes
- Artificial Girl
- inirlan
- Imperator
- Stellarengine676
- TheMaskedReader
- Traveller76
- Adnate
- clockworkchaos
- Regency
- Krall
6 people have voted
[X] Food, Meds, and Industry
5 people have voted
[X] Plan Just a Little Bit More Time
-[X] [FOCUS] MedComm
-[X] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-1 (Quality 15)
-[X] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Radiant-2 (Quality-7)
-[X] [MilComm] Convert Courier Orbital Yard 2 to Corvette production.
-[X] [SocComm] Begin anti-overproductivity campaigns
-[X] [SciComm] Develop New Educational Programs.
-[X] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Shei.
-[X] [MedComm] Organize a Diplomatic Corps
-[X] [MedComm] Maintain the Charade
3 people have voted
[X] Plan Buying More Time

Cyanblackstone · Dec 24, 2020

-[ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-1 (Quality 15)
-[ ] [IndComm] Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-7 (Quality 14)
-[ ] [MilComm] Convert Courier Orbital Yard 2 to Corvette production.
-[ ] [SocComm] Begin anti-overproductivity campaigns
- [ ] [SciComm] Develop New Educational Programs.
-[ ] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Shei.
- [ ] [MedComm] Organize a Diplomatic Corps
- [ ] [MedComm] Develop New Educational Programs.

Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-1 (Quality 15): Autopass
Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-7 (Quality 14): Autopass
Convert Courier Orbital Yard 2 to Corvette production: 14+6 for 32/20. Complete
Begin anti-overproductivity campaigns: 10+6 for 16/40
Develop New Educational Programs: 15+1 for 16/20
Insert Assets into Shei: 20+12 for 32/10. Complete
Organize a Diplomatic Corps: autocomplete
Develop New Educational Programs: 9+2=11 for 27/20

"An understandable concern," says Gabriel Wright's hostess at last as she delicately pours the tea into two cups.

Picking up her own cup, Gabriel's hostess turns to dramatically look out the window of her quarters. Apparently studying the malevolent orbits of the weapons satellites in Sheol's skies and the flashes of light as their firepower rains down on some unfortunate grid square on the planet below.

The Elysian holds his tongue and studies his hostess from his peripheral vision for long enough for his tea to cool enough for him to take a pair of experimental sips. Utterly vile stuff; as bitter as a Christmas bonus in the form of an expired t-shirt coupon. To be expected from an Ares product.

"The thing is, Mr. Wright," the woman takes a long sip of her own tea, still warm enough for visible steam to escape the lip of the cup, "I have spent my life in service of Ares Conflict Solutions. I am a woman born and bred for war, quite literally in all respects. And yet… and yet, I am wasting my talents in the service of a banal evil under the command of a pyramid of petty men whose one concern is the ratio of red and black numbers on a balance sheet somewhere in the bowels of an Earth-built skyscraper."

Gabriel makes a non-committal murmur while accidentally slurping his spectacularly awful tea after deciding to finish the cup for decorum's sake.

"To be entirely honest Mr. Wright, I have always wanted to be in service of a cause worth dying for."

Gabriel nods and tosses down the last of his still-warm tea (best to get it out of the way now) "I think that is one of the core reasons for the situation in Radiant, so many people simply wanted a purpose for their lives, one that they could direct." He sets his cup down, "Agency over our own lives."

The woman regards him thoughtfully, her blue eyes searching his face, then leans forward to gracefully setting her own teacup down and, as Gabriel watches in horror, pours yet more bitter tea into both cups.

"This is not to say that my concerns are entirely for myself," she says, blowing the rising steam away from the light brown overheated bile that filled her cup. "What is happening on Sheol is a crime. One hundred million people under not only the sword of Damocles, but a rain of men whose greatest ambition is hunting other men for sport."

Gabriel quite deliberately ignores his refilled teacup as his host sips angrily at her tea.

"Is that Sheol's full population then?" Gabriel says, hands folded in his lap, emotional reaction totally controlled. Totally.

"It--It is... It is our best estimate. The figure of thirty million souls is for registered criminals deposited on this world over the last century." She is looking out the window again, seemingly on the verge of dashing her teacup on the externally programmed screen of her cabin.

"That can't be legal," starts Gabriel, drawing himself up short, mid outburst.

"I assure you, Mr. Wright, what happens on Sheol is legal under the laws of the Solarian Compact. The original prisoners agreed to serve out their terms in hard labour, and their descendants are simply trespassing on Ares property."

"TRESSPA-", Wright takes a deep breath, "Trespassing?"

His hostess nods, short quick nods that don't disturb the straight lines of her high collared green Ares Space Security Division uniform. "Yes, they were never authorized to be on high security Ares property. And all of the Charters and their subsidiaries are fully within their legal rights to use lethal force to protect the integrity of their lawfully acquired private property."

"That sounds…" Wright scrambles to find the right words and fails.

"Monstrous," says his hostess as she stands up in a single smooth motion. Her green and black Ares uniform somehow uncreased, and he could again see the certainly non-regulation sword clipped to her belt.

"Yeah. Fucking yeah, yeah, yeah that's monstrous."

Shieldmaiden's captain lays a hand on the wall length screen that displays a view of the space 'below' the ship. "Do you know what I do all day Mr. Wright?"

Gabriel shakes his head.

"Nothing. I don't command my ship. I play games," she spits the word out. "I have commanded Shieldmaiden for eight long years. Before that I spent twelve years as her XO. During that time, I have never been allowed to issue orders to my people unimpeded."

Captain Stephanie Rousseau continues to study the view outside her ship, her voice increasingly loud and words increasingly clipped, as her calm expression slowly transforms into a sneer, "I sit by while my superior plays with my departments, moves my personnel around, treats us like game pieces for his amusement."

Gabriel opens his mouth to reply with something to the effect of "yeah, micromanagement sucks everywhere it happens," but snaps it shut when Rousseau looks at him with pure hatred in her eyes. Not hatred aimed at him, but hatred currently being expressed in his direction.

"And that is Ares personnel. I am regularly informed that I am valuable because my augmentation, childhood, and training cost the company millions of Sols. I am an asset to the company." her nose wrinkles in distaste, "But those on Sheol? Their use is in disposal. OpFor in training exercises. Target practice for the ships. Prey for our elite commandos."

"It doesn't have to be that way, Captain Rousseau, Elysium is now free. You've seen the media I've brought with me."

The Ares Captain's hatred and disgust transforms in a convivial bonhomie far too quickly for Gabriel's tastes, and she smiles at him as she steps back from her 'window', "I can't say I'm surprised Mr. Wright. The programs you've been sending us of late have been… let's call it, good."

Gabriel takes a deep breath and prepares himself as he stands up. If this had been a sting operation, meeting Shieldmaiden's captain to discuss insurrection had been such a weird sting operation that he wouldn't even be mad at the Ares counter-intel team behind it.

Well, maybe a little mad about the tea.

"Welp, Captain Rousseau, I have enjoyed our visit. If you want to make a change in the universe and bring freedom to Shei like we have to Radiant," he holds out his hand, "well, you know where to find me."

The CO of the most powerful warcraft in the entire region reaches out to grab the hand of Radiant's senior intelligence agent in Shei and shakes it firmly.

"I am looking forward to working together." She smiles. "As I said, I've always dreamed of having a nation worth dying for."

-

Quarterly Committee Reports to the General Congress as of the end of December 2251

Industrial Committee:3
.

Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-1

Project Progress: 2/Autopass
Results: Gain level 1 mining infrastructure on Gaid B-1 (+10 BR per turn)

-

Begin BR mining operations on Gaid B-7

Project Progress: 2/Autopass
Results: Gain level 1 mining infrastructure on Gaid B-7 (+10 BR per turn)

We had to offer a few extra luxuries to the crews taking shifts in Gaid. The system's a wasteland; no accommodations beyond those on the gate itself, and the only entertainment being an XR set and movie theater.

The first day's refined metals went towards building a new habitation section just off the gate's superstructure. We're going to add some more entertainment, and ship in some spirits. If we want to develop Gaid any more, we're going to need to invest in more recreational activities and a second buoy line for personal communications and media sharing.

--Gaid Committee on Worker Conditions

Military Committee:

"So, how's the work on Yard 2 going?"

"Really well, actually. Thanks to the experience we got on Yard 1, we were able to produce a yard less than 2% less efficient than the Yard 1 conversion while removing and preserving the entire warp drive construction and calibration section. This could be put into a new courier orbital yard or (whenever the government finds plans for them) incorporated into a frigate yard. For now, we've moved it into a parking orbit off the yard's planetward side.

"At the moment, it can still be used for calibration, but we don't actually have the power or feedstock attached to fix any errors it finds. I hope the Congress doesn't beat up our converted couriers too much, or we might have to put it back onto Yard 2 and then take it off again!"

--Radiant Today stream transcript, interview with orbital workers, timestamp 38:40

Convert Courier Orbital Yard 2 to Corvette production

Project Progress: 32/20
Project Results: Courier Yard-2 converted to Corvette Yard-2

Science Committee:

Develop New Educational Programs: 15+1 for 16/20

Given that the Science and Media committees have decided to tag team this responsibility given the massive future import this program will have on our children, we decided to split the considerable effort needed. We're separating fact from fiction, sifting through the endless hordes of propaganda and massaged math, and putting together a list of the things we think need to be taught, and a list of common misconceptions many of us hold that need to be countered.

It's Media's job to make these lists into a full multimedia program kids (and adults, given how poorly HI's education has served many of us) will want to interact with and learn from. Thank God for that, to be honest. We've finally got something for all those marketing people to do, and they'd been chafing badly twiddling their thumbs.

Project Progress: 16/20
Project Results: N/A (See MedComm report)

Social Committee:

Begin Anti-overproductivity Campaigns:

"The fact that I'm sending this quick summary after hours from my home desktop is an unfortunate example of how far we still have to go.

"Our attempts to teach the dangers of 'over-productivity' have proven to be challenging. Unfortunately it's pretty deeply ingrained in our culture. Even the people on my team were staying late at night to try to do more for the campaign. I chased 'em out, but like, that felt kinda managery-controlling. We've broken it down and started with the most excessive examples. For example, the 'bathroom breaks are wasted time/ Astronauts used adult diapers so can you' campaigns HI had going weren't popular with anyone, and people are very ready to switch back.

"Another major issue that we've run into is that much of what we used to consider 'relaxation time' was consumed in so called 'productive' tasks that would improve our ability to contribute to the Charter. There's no reason to go home and obsessively study up on skill building for a variety of HI exclusive media production standards. But here we are.

"We're thinking that we're also going to have to launch a companion campaign teaching people how to relax."

Project Progress: 16/40
Project Results: Progress Continues

Media Committee:

Insert Assets into Shei

"We have no idea where to begin. There are five of us who have rewritten this report over and over again in the last twelve hours. It's been a fucking hell of a week.

"The main body of the report is as professional as we can make it, and I assume that the Media and Military Committees will find the data contained therein to be pretty good. But like, FUCK SHEI. FUCK SHEOL. AND FUCK ARES.

"I don't know how many people are down there on the prison continent. But it's sure as fuck not thirty million.

"I know what you're all probably thinking: 'oh no, it's way less, some bad murders happened.' YOU'D BE WRONG.

"Via what observations we are able to make without attempting to break into secure Ares communications or moving too close to Sheol orbit, we estimate that the population on Sheol's inhabited continent is at least eighty million people living at a roughly early twenty-first century level of technological development. Apparently, they "forgot" to give any of the prisoners working contraceptive devices, and their kids (and their grandkids, and their great-grandkids) are all down there too.

"The prisoners appear to be heavily armed and at least twice during our time here we have witnessed large scale deployment of Ares forces from the training bases into the prisoner's cities and have at observed at least one instance of craft launched from the planetary surface being fired on by the orbital weapons satellites controlled from Sheol's moon of Watchman.

"We did catch a break though, when doing our thing. We kinda. It's hard to. Via what I'm pretty certain is a massive fuck up on our part accidentally made contact with Shieldmaiden's Captain, one Stephanie Rousseau.

"Rousseau is an interesting figure. Though officially Shieldmaiden's CO the system's senior military officer, Commodore Zachary, is something of a martinet and delights in issuing individual orders to the department heads of all Shei's vessels. Seemingly out of boredom.

"Rousseau appears to have retreated into XR experiences and Live Action games for the last two decades and has slowly gone insane.

"She is however, willing to lend her aid to whatever plan we devise to liberate Shei and we now have a full accounting of Ares assets in Sheol."

Gabriel Wright et al
Crew and Agents of Media Committee Shei Investigatory Project

Project Progress: 32/10
Project Results: Successful Insertion, contact made with Captain Stephanie Rousseau

-

Organize a Diplomatic Corps

"Today's thought of the day is that Diplomacy isn't marketing in a funny hat.

Though it would be tempting to staff our new Diplomatic Corps from people who are expert at getting their way, I'm tempted to call that a bad idea.

We've instead focused on looking at those individuals inside the various regional federations who are not only trustworthy, but who have mediated disputes on seemingly intractable issues of land use, resource distribution, and credit attribution.

These individuals not only need to be trustworthy, not only have to be good at getting their way, but also good at making calls that benefit both sides.

The first phase of this project has also spent time refitting the former HI headquarters on Elysium as our operational hub not just for resolving interplanetary disputes but hopefully resolving interstellar ones in the future.

Within the month the General Congress should be receiving the various Committee preferred candidates for Diplomatic Corps head.

Project Progress: Automatic
Project Results: Infant Diplomatic Corps founded. New Projects, vote for Corps head next turn.

-

Develop New Educational Programs

Okay, so hear me out on this: we've turned the entire program into an MMORPG in XR. We're calling it Path to Enlightenment. There's a more traditional school curriculum we've got as a backup, but one of the things HI really hit on and actually knew how to do was turning everything into a contest.

Now, an MMO is an old format that encourages cooperation as well as competition. Mediating between these is going to be an ongoing challenge, but the gamified aspect of the curriculum really boosts our engagement numbers. The difference is stark, and I would heavily recommend we not go with the backup curriculum.

It feels nasty to be optimizing for engagement again, to be honest, but there's a difference between "engaging" people into the latest product line or show and getting people into math or biology or history. We've got an entire game line on media analysis of the shows we took over, and how the removal of managerial micromanagement changed them-- for better or worse (it's mostly better). And people enjoy playing it.

After centuries of HI gamifying our entire lives, I don't think we can get away with stopping it entirely. We can work towards it but… that's a generations-long effort, much like it took generations to get to this state.

For now, we still need to retrain our population and teach our kids.

-- Daji Jordan
Edutainment XR Programming lead

Project Progress: 27/20
Project Results: Extra die (See below vote) Upkeep of 1E per 50 million

-

NEW VOTES:

Gain +1 die in:

[ ] [NEP] SciComm
[ ] [NEP] SocComm
[ ] [NEP] MedComm

LucidProp · Dec 24, 2020

[X] [NEP] MedComm

Infiltration worked really well this time, so more infiltration per turn now that the clock's really ticking down ought to be useful.

Just Some Guy · Dec 24, 2020

[X] [NEP] MedComm

Rhymes · Dec 24, 2020

a hundred million people enslaved on that fucking planet jesus motherfucking christ

So, yeah, I think we should push hard on flipping Shei. We have an in on the cruiser so we could potentially flip it too, a massive population with experience surviving against an enemy with vastly superior resources and oh by the way there's a hundred fucking million people trapped on that rock maybe we should do something about that.

I'm thinking the best move right now is to put the die into MedComm. That'll give us 3 dice there and free us up to use our focus on other things (*cough* Energy *cough*) or let us push Shei hard with four dice if we really need to.

[x] [NEP] MedComm

HeWhoAdds · Dec 24, 2020

I have to say, I actually really like the idea of education as a super intricate MMO. Very rad worldbuilding concept!

Furthermore Sheol must be liberated.

gale · Dec 24, 2020

[X] [NEP] MedComm

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

Been Better

DON'T PANIC

To eternity we shall ride

Love the future

The Sky will be as it was meant.

Tread First into Hell

Been Better

Pocky Eating MafiaDoka