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

[AKuz]

THE ALL-RADIANT CONGRESS

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Setting Information

The Solarian Compact:

Spoiler: The History of 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.

Spoiler: The Composition of the Solarian Compact

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:

Spoiler: Ares Conflict Solutions

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.

Spoiler: Rhodes Mining

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.

Spoiler: Cernunnos Botanicals

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

Spoiler: Omoikane Innovations Group

Techbros, some of them science, some of them explore

Spoiler: Hermes-Ishtar Corporation

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.

Spoiler: Mississippi Shipping Interstellar

Sketchy buggers, they can get you anything tho

Historical Topics:

Spoiler: The Democratic Federation

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:

Spoiler: The Sister/Daughter Worlds

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

Spoiler: Nanomanufacturing, A Brief Summary

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.

Spoiler: Virtual Intelligence, Summary

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

Spoiler: Artificial General Intelligence, Summary

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.

Spoiler: Temporary Limited Intelligences

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.

Spoiler: Seed AI, Summary

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:

Spoiler: Radiant System

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.

Spoiler: Gaid (Radiant controlled)

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.

Spoiler: Shei

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

Spoiler: Five Lions

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

Spoiler: Osliam (Recently Liberated)

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:

Spoiler: Xotreh (Omoikane controlled)

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

Spoiler: Bestreer (Cernnunos controlled)

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

Spoiler: Akleod (Mississippi Controlled)

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

Spoiler: Thoa (Charter Occupied)

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

Spoiler: Kimberly

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.

Spoiler: Full Income Report

Total:


Radiant:


Gaid:


Five Lions:

Head of Diplomatic Corps:

Spoiler: 'Veronica Stardust' - The XP Star

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

Spoiler: Science Committee, Tech Reports

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.

Spoiler: Military Committee Reports

Defence Coordinator:

Spoiler: Maria Awhina, the Commando

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.

Spoiler: Intelligence Reports

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

Spoiler: Forces Stationed in Thoa:

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

Spoiler: Forces Stationed in Osliam:

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

Spoiler: Forces Stationed in Kimberly

-None

Spoiler: Forces Stationed in Bestreer:

-None

Spoiler: Forces Stationed in Akleod:

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

Spoiler: Forces Stationed in Xotreh:

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

Spoiler: SolNav Forces Stationed In Raphanus:

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:

Spoiler: Mobile Assets

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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[Amazing Abzan]

how about "insufficent and justified"

Click to shrink...

Show trials are already giving the bastards too much if you ask me

Click to shrink...

Dude, we get it, you like mass killings.

 

[clockworkchaos]

Okay since these terms keep coming up. I'm going to make some clarifications since there seems to be some confusion.

1. Executives - Owners Class types, those who made the decisions
2. Cern Employees- Those who worked directly as a Cern building. Includes desk job workers, but also cooks and janitors. Slight misnomer as like everywhere else many were official contracter, which was the same which is what the planets agricultural workers were classified as.
3. LPPT- Anyone who was part of the Life and Property Protection teams. Involved in the actual beating of people. Buuuuut, for many of them it was this or stave, or latter camps.
4. Collaborators - Those who participated in the "theft report teams". Report your neighbor for violating patents, get food. While the most dramatic example, it also included things like 'do they seem to dislike the Growers Coalition or harbor anti-Chater thoughts?" and more mundane reports. 10% of the population participated in the program, so some degree.
5. Sexual Collaborators - Sexual acts with the other groups. Depending on who you ask the definition varies from 'mistress of executive' down to 'wife of collaborator' depending on who you ask.

Ahh yes, "I want to kill the collaborators."

Hmm...



The other groups are asking us to hand over collaborators to them, it appears. But the HBs are the only ones that just want to perform show trials followed by executions. It says a lot that you view them as the only legitimate group that seeks justice.

Click to shrink...

Clarification here. ARC prisoners included Executives, LPPT members, and some Cern Employees. They don't keep collaborators prisoner. In general ARC always had plans to hand prisoners over, it just uh, who is a bit of a problem right now.

 

[Amazing Abzan]

Clarification here. ARC prisoners included Executives, LPPT members, and some Cern Employees. They don't keep collaborators prisoner. In general ARC always had plans to hand prisoners over, it just uh, who is a bit of a problem right now.

Click to shrink...

We don't have collaborator prisoners, but we do have collaborator refugees that some people are asking for us to turn over, right? Or do we only have that dynamic going on with "sexual collaborators?"

 

[TheArcanist]

Okay since these terms keep coming up. I'm going to make some clarifications since there seems to be some confusion.

Click to shrink...

Thank you for this clarification.

Now, my take on each individual group:

1. Executives - Owners Class types, those who made the decisions

Click to shrink...

Fuck 'em. Turn them over to the Reposians for summary judgement, however they deem appropriate. Their crimes were against the people of Gentle Repose and they must be judged by the same for there to be any justice. I don't particularly care if this ends with them promptly put up against a wall; we weren't the ones who had ten percent of our community drop dead from their malfeasance and incompetence.

2. Cern Employees- Those who worked directly as a Cern building. Includes desk job workers, but also cooks and janitors. Slight misnomer as like everywhere else many were official contracter, which was the same which is what the planets agricultural workers were classified as.

Click to shrink...

This is a little trickier. I'd say for most of them we should be willing to offer asylum - there is no need for a common janitor to go through the stress(and possible peril) of a court that is likely not going to be... sympathetic, let's say. For the ones that were clearly enthusiastically collaborating with their boss's awful policies, however, see above.

3. LPPT- Anyone who was part of the Life and Property Protection teams. Involved in the actual beating of people. Buuuuut, for many of them it was this or stave, or latter camps.

Click to shrink...

Call me cold-hearted, but I can't help but feel very little sympathy for those who decided to enforce famine on others at gunpoint, even if the alternative was starvation for themselves. See section 1.

4. Collaborators - Those who participated in the "theft report teams". Report your neighbor for violating patents, get food. While the most dramatic example, it also included things like 'do they seem to dislike the Growers Coalition or harbor anti-Chater thoughts?" and more mundane reports. 10% of the population participated in the program, so some degree.

Click to shrink...

Similarly, I find it hard to have much sympathy for those that actively participated in a program that demonstrably robbed their neighbors and communities of the tools they needed to not starve.

5. Sexual Collaborators - Sexual acts with the other groups. Depending on who you ask the definition varies from 'mistress of executive' down to 'wife of collaborator' depending on who you ask.

Click to shrink...

And here we come to a group where I can firmly agree that we should be helping them to get the hell out of Gentle Repose, if they so wish. If someone's greatest crime is 'slept with someone on an LPPT or else they would starve', I am inclined to give them a great deal of sympathy and support.

 

[10ebbor10]

5. Sexual Collaborators - Sexual acts with the other groups. Depending on who you ask the definition varies from 'mistress of executive' down to 'wife of collaborator' depending on who you ask.

Click to shrink...

It might even go wider. After all, I doubt there are any good references as to who did what whit whom, so all the resistance movements are going on are hearsay, rumor and prejudices.

 

[yeastmobile]

how about "insufficent and justified"

Show trials are already giving the bastards too much if you ask me

Click to shrink...

Your bloodlust is honestly quite upsetting/creepy/uncomfortable and nobody else in the thread seems to enjoy it.

 

[bdun140]

How about a happier topic to serve as a palette cleanser?

====================================
Somewhere outside Persephone City…​

Two figures walked at a relaxed pace down the outlying road, the car that brought them there parked far enough to the side of the road as not to get in the way on the off chance somebody else had reason to drive out this far. Ahead of them were 2 more vehicles, one of them a flat bed truck with something in it's back. Something big, and covered in a tarp.

"Got the camera ready?" Alice asked.

"Yep. Still can't believe I was able to just… Like, ask for this, and then GET IT, you know?" drawled her companion Bob, a video camera like something a TV field correspondent would be talking into already in position on his shoulder.

"I know, right? Quality on this video is going to be synergized!" Alice responded, unintentionally falling back into the slang of her former workplace. "Oh, make sure it's running."

Further ahead, by the vehicles, two more figures were making the final preparations. One, a bearded man in a tank top. The other, a woman with the wrist- and backpack- mounted computers that had briefly become fashionable once there was no longer a mandate from on high that everything look like an I-pod, then fallen out of fashion except among those who frequently needed to have a computer on hand while also having their hands free.

"Hey Cass, camera call." Said Dave, the man who was soon to be risking… Hopefully not his life, but most assuredly his dignity.

At this, the woman named Cassandra went to meet the newcomers, while Dave turned around to take the tarp off of that which was to be the main event.

Hands were waved, greetings were exchanged, and when Dave (after a bit of stalling to preserve the tension) removed the tarp with dramatic flourish, those tuning in to A&B's livestream were treated to… Something.

"What is that? Looks like a movie prop." Bob said, as the other man climbed into the pilot's seat of the object in question.

"That's a good question, Bob! Care to answer it, miss?" Alice followed up, waving a hand to draw the camera's gaze back to the self-styled scientist.

"It's the Mondo Robo! What can I say, it's our baby! Probably around 9 months to design and build, we didn't have a fabricator big enough to do it in one go so we had to print out a bunch of parts and assemble them ourselves…" Cassandra stated, beaming with pride as her partner strapped himself in and started fiddling with the controls.

"Why did you do this?" Alice asked, gesturing towards the alleged mecha.

"It was art!" Cassandra replied.

"We did it to see if we could." Dave spoke up a half second later.

"Is there a history of mental illness in either of your families?" Bob asked, in a tone rather incongruous with the look Alice shot him in response. Fortunately, the subjects of the inquiry responded with laughter.

"Back on topic… What are its specifications? Is it meant to fight?" Alice asked, pointing at what looked suspiciously like gun barrels on the ends of the Mondo Robo's arms.

"I mean theoretically it'll fight, probably not well. Like, don't think of something that'll replace a tank, think of something closer to an armored car with an MG on the top. Final version is slated to be armed with laser guided AT missiles and heavy machine guns, both of the variety an infantryman might mount on a tripod as part of a defensive work, but ah... For safety reasons this one is armed with paintball guns and some pressurized water rockets. We wanted commercial fireworks, but we were told that lighting them off in a wooded area might start a forest fire and we don't want that." Cassandra said, as Dave visibly closed the Mondo Robo's cockpit behind her.

It was at this moment that the Mondo Robo's engine went active, causing all present to wince a bit from the noise. With stubby legs and gangly arms, it honestly looked rather silly as opposed to intimidating… Especially when it's attempt to dismount the flatbed truck it had been hauled in on led to it faceplanting into the dirt with a frightening crash.

Cassandra ran forward. Alice looked into the camera with a look of shock and horror. Suddenly, the Mondo Robo's engine cut out, and barely audible for the lack of the noise it had been making was Dave's voice.

"I'm okay!"

Cassandra sighed, and flashed a thumb's up to Alice and Bob. The engine started up once more, and the Mondo Robo rose to its feet.

With awkward, shuffling footsteps, the Mondo Robo began to advance, staggering into the roots and shrubs of a shallow and lightly forested hill, following a series of markers assembled from scrap metal and colorful plastic. Those on foot found their own pace suffering from the uncooperative terrain, and between the three of them they just about matched how many times the Mondo Robo fell over as well.

"Not exactly a strong showing, eh? Sorry to see your baby having so much trouble." Alice said, brushing some dirt off of one pant leg.

"You kidding?! Mark 0.5 couldn't even go this far on a flat warehouse floor without falling! This is a huge improvement! And it's gonna get better from here."

The motley group reached a clearing, where Bob's camera panned over a number of sheet metal targets depicting ominous, gas masked figures with truncheons and shields, the latter of which had OBEY written on it in white stencil letters.

"Weapons test, outside laboratory conditions! Begin!"

At this, the Mondo Robo began trundling hither and yon, spraying paintballs wildly from the ends of its arms and occasionally hitting the designated targets. After about 60 sustained seconds of this silliness, a new noise was heard. A fleet of automated quad-copters, carrying between what almost looked like an attack helicopter, save for the obvious seams and the large dent on one side that betrayed it as a hollow plastic replica.

"FIRE WATER ROCKETS!" Cassandra whooped.

The first water rocket, the seal keeping its contents under pressure having been faulty, pathetically flumped out of its tube atop the Mondo Robo's shoulder and landed at its feet.

"Uh…"

The second caught something inside it's launch tube and came off sans one of its guidance fins, causing it to immediately careen to the left and plow into a bush.

"Okay, not using actual pyrotechnics was a really good idea and I owe the fire marshal an apology for giving him a hard time."

The third did in fact launch, but ran out of fuel on the way and fell far short.

"Hang on…" Cassandra groaned, flipping open the computer screen on her arm and sending a command to the drone fleet, which began dutifully ferrying the target to where the one trying to hit it stood.

Looking to fill the awkward silence, Alice approached Cassandra and tapped her on the shoulder.

"So, how many hours did this project take?" She asked.

"Oh, many. Too many, I worked harder on this that at my old day job." Cassandra replied. "Difference between doing what you have to and doing what you want to, I suppose."

"Seriously? What did you do in your old job?" Bob asked, as Dave popped the canopy to try and get some fresh air.

"I don't even remember, some bullshit coding thing where I was VERIFIABLY more productive at home, but that meant my boss couldn't time my bathroom breaks anymore, so no handling things over e-mail for me." She turned to her partner. "Hey Dave! They're asking about our old jobs!"

"Dockworker. Until one day I looked out the window and saw that there was a fucking revolution going on, and I decided I weren't getting paid enough to go to work in that shit." The mech's pilot responded, before closing the canopy as the target drew closer.

The Mondo Robo fired off another set of three rockets, all of which missed. After a few more awkward seconds, Dave's voice crackled out of Cassandra's arm-computer.

"Hey, something's up with the reload, it's saying I have no more rockets left."

"That's because you don't, because I didn't want to have to build a reloading system for a bunch of plastic bottles that wouldn't be anywhere near the final version." Cassandra replied.

"Wait, that thing has a radio? Why wasn't it used when it fell out of the truck?" Alice asked.

"Something went screwy when it fell. Didn't happen with the stumbles in the forest, not sure why." Dave replied.

The target continued on its course, and the Mondo Robo raised its arms to engage with its primary weapons.

If Alice strained her eyes hard enough, she'd swear she could see the exact point where the paintballs were running out of momentum and falling to the ground. She shared a distinctly underwhelmed look with her cameraman.

"I didn't hit the damn thing even once!" Dave groused over the radio, as the target passed by.

"Relax, you're using paintball guns and water-bottle rockets! Of course they under-preform compared to actual military ordinance!" Cassandra replied. "Come on, it's time for the final test!"

The group set off once more, and before long saw the ground rise up ahead of them. It was not a sheer cliff, but it was still steep enough that you might think twice before trying to drive a car up it. Or, ride a scooter, if you were an Elysium native.

"Everybody should stop here, maybe even stand back a bit. Mondo Robo, proceed!" Cassandra called out.

The Mondo Robo took a few tentative steps towards the steep hill, then plunged one hand into the dirt in front of it, starting a slow and uneasy ascent. Soon, both feet were in the hill rather than on the ground, soon it had risen higher than any of it's spectators stood, then further up it went…

"Holy shit, look at me go! Like to see one of those clumsy-ass power-loaders do THIS!" Dave cheered over the radio.

…Until one of the Mondo Robo's footholds suddenly crumbled beneath its weight.

Somebody screamed. It might have been Alice.

The Mondo Robo left one shallow divot in the hill and several deeper ones as its fingers and front plate plowed through the dirt on the way back down. Its feet hit the flat-ish ground at the bottom of the hill with a tremendous noise, and it subsequently teetered backwards and fell with limbs askew.

No sooner had the engine gone silent and the last rubble settled, than was Cassandra running to the Mondo Robo's side.

After a moment of tense silence, a voice drifted out.

"I'm okay! Again!"

There was a sputtering noise as the Mondo Robo's engine came back online, sounding distinctly less healthy and functional than it had previously. Dave shut it back off, then opened the hatch with a grunt of effort.

"That's twice now an impact caused it to turn off. I mean, obviously this time it landed wrong and messed something up, but I'm still waiting for an explanation as to why the engine died the first -MMPPHH?!"

And it was at that moment that the viewers of the A&B stream were treated to the sight of a nerd kissing her crush for the first time.

===========================

Spoiler: Inspiration 1

Spoiler: Inspiration 2

 

[Winged One]

Even if it was what was being said, the implication here that her autism prevents her from 'political Machiavellian shit' feels extremely fucked up. Yeah, no one on the autism spectrum is even remotely capable of fathoming the concept of manipulation, much less performing it, that's definitely a belief we should internalize when reading anything about Kay from now on.

Click to shrink...

Also autistic, and that's left over from a previous draft before I gave it some more thought. I still think from her interludes and my own experience that she'd find such action more hateful than most would - she knows how to give real statistical analysis because she believed a corporate job description, but her actual job was in fact distorting data and she hated it. My apologies for the miscommunication.

 

[Amorous Intent]

How about a happier topic to serve as a palette cleanser?

====================================
Somewhere outside Persephone City…​

Two figures walked at a relaxed pace down the outlying road, the car that brought them there parked far enough to the side of the road as not to get in the way on the off chance somebody else had reason to drive out this far. Ahead of them were 2 more vehicles, one of them a flat bed truck with something in it's back. Something big, and covered in a tarp.

"Got the camera ready?" Alice asked.

"Yep. Still can't believe I was able to just… Like, ask for this, and then GET IT, you know?" drawled her companion Bob, a video camera like something a TV field correspondent would be talking into already in position on his shoulder.

"I know, right? Quality on this video is going to be synergized!" Alice responded, unintentionally falling back into the slang of her former workplace. "Oh, make sure it's running."

Further ahead, by the vehicles, two more figures were making the final preparations. One, a bearded man in a tank top. The other, a woman with the wrist- and backpack- mounted computers that had briefly become fashionable once there was no longer a mandate from on high that everything look like an I-pod, then fallen out of fashion except among those who frequently needed to have a computer on hand while also having their hands free.

"Hey Cass, camera call." Said Dave, the man who was soon to be risking… Hopefully not his life, but most assuredly his dignity.

At this, the woman named Cassandra went to meet the newcomers, while Dave turned around to take the tarp off of that which was to be the main event.

Hands were waved, greetings were exchanged, and when Dave (after a bit of stalling to preserve the tension) removed the tarp with dramatic flourish, those tuning in to A&B's livestream were treated to… Something.

"What is that? Looks like a movie prop." Bob said, as the other man climbed into the pilot's seat of the object in question.

"That's a good question, Bob! Care to answer it, miss?" Alice followed up, waving a hand to draw the camera's gaze back to the self-styled scientist.

"It's the Mondo Robo! What can I say, it's our baby! Probably around 9 months to design and build, we didn't have a fabricator big enough to do it in one go so we had to print out a bunch of parts and assemble them ourselves…" Cassandra stated, beaming with pride as her partner strapped himself in and started fiddling with the controls.

"Why did you do this?" Alice asked, gesturing towards the alleged mecha.

"It was art!" Cassandra replied.

"We did it to see if we could." Dave spoke up a half second later.

"Is there a history of mental illness in either of your families?" Bob asked, in a tone rather incongruous with the look Alice shot him in response. Fortunately, the subjects of the inquiry responded with laughter.

"Back on topic… What are its specifications? Is it meant to fight?" Alice asked, pointing at what looked suspiciously like gun barrels on the ends of the Mondo Robo's arms.

"I mean theoretically it'll fight, probably not well. Like, don't think of something that'll replace a tank, think of something closer to an armored car with an MG on the top. Final version is slated to be armed with laser guided AT missiles and heavy machine guns, both of the variety an infantryman might mount on a tripod as part of a defensive work, but ah... For safety reasons this one is armed with paintball guns and some pressurized water rockets. We wanted commercial fireworks, but we were told that lighting them off in a wooded area might start a forest fire and we don't want that." Cassandra said, as Dave visibly closed the Mondo Robo's cockpit behind her.

It was at this moment that the Mondo Robo's engine went active, causing all present to wince a bit from the noise. With stubby legs and gangly arms, it honestly looked rather silly as opposed to intimidating… Especially when it's attempt to dismount the flatbed truck it had been hauled in on led to it faceplanting into the dirt with a frightening crash.

Cassandra ran forward. Alice looked into the camera with a look of shock and horror. Suddenly, the Mondo Robo's engine cut out, and barely audible for the lack of the noise it had been making was Dave's voice.

"I'm okay!"

Cassandra sighed, and flashed a thumb's up to Alice and Bob. The engine started up once more, and the Mondo Robo rose to its feet.

With awkward, shuffling footsteps, the Mondo Robo began to advance, staggering into the roots and shrubs of a shallow and lightly forested hill, following a series of markers assembled from scrap metal and colorful plastic. Those on foot found their own pace suffering from the uncooperative terrain, and between the three of them they just about matched how many times the Mondo Robo fell over as well.

"Not exactly a strong showing, eh? Sorry to see your baby having so much trouble." Alice said, brushing some dirt off of one pant leg.

"You kidding?! Mark 0.5 couldn't even go this far on a flat warehouse floor without falling! This is a huge improvement! And it's gonna get better from here."

The motley group reached a clearing, where Bob's camera panned over a number of sheet metal targets depicting ominous, gas masked figures with truncheons and shields, the latter of which had OBEY written on it in white stencil letters.

"Weapons test, outside laboratory conditions! Begin!"

At this, the Mondo Robo began trundling hither and yon, spraying paintballs wildly from the ends of its arms and occasionally hitting the designated targets. After about 60 sustained seconds of this silliness, a new noise was heard. A fleet of automated quad-copters, carrying between what almost looked like an attack helicopter, save for the obvious seams and the large dent on one side that betrayed it as a hollow plastic replica.

"FIRE WATER ROCKETS!" Cassandra whooped.

The first rocket rocket, the seal keeping its contents under pressure having been faulty, pathetically flumped out of its tube atop the Mondo Robo's shoulder and landed at its feet.

"Uh…"

The second caught something inside it's launch tube and came off sans one of its guidance fins, causing it to immediately careen to the left and plow into a bush.

"Okay, not using actual pyrotechnics was a really good idea and I owe the fire marshal an apology for giving him a hard time."

The third did in fact launch, but ran out of fuel on the way and fell far short.

"Hang on…" Cassandra groaned, flipping open the computer screen on her arm and sending a command to the drone fleet, which began dutifully ferrying the target to where the one trying to hit it stood.

Looking to fill the awkward silence, Alice approached Cassandra and tapped her on the shoulder.

"So, how many hours did this project take?" She asked.

"Oh, many. Too many, I worked harder on this that at my old day job." Cassandra replied. "Difference between doing what you have to and doing what you want to, I suppose."

"Seriously? What did you do in your old job?" Bob asked, as Dave popped the canopy to try and get some fresh air.

"I don't even remember, some bullshit coding thing where I was VERIFIABLY more productive at home, but that meant my boss couldn't time my bathroom breaks anymore, so no handling things over e-mail for me." She turned to her partner. "Hey Dave! They're asking about our old jobs!"

"Dockworker. Until one day I looked out the window and saw that there was a fucking revolution going on, and I decided I weren't getting paid enough to go to work in that shit." The mech's pilot responded, before closing the canopy as the target drew closer.

The Mondo Robo fired off another set of three rockets, all of which missed. After a few more awkward seconds, Dave's voice crackled out of Cassandra's arm-computer.

"Hey, something's up with the reload, it's saying I have no more rockets left."

"That's because you don't, because I didn't want to have to build a reloading system for a bunch of plastic bottles that wouldn't be anywhere near the final version." Cassandra replied.

"Wait, that thing has a radio? Why wasn't it used when it fell out of the truck?" Alice asked.

"Something went screwy when it fell. Didn't happen with the stumbles in the forest, not sure why." Dave replied.

The target continued on its course, and the Mondo Robo raised its arms to engage with its primary weapons.

If Alice strained her eyes hard enough, she'd swear she could see the exact point where the paintballs were running out of momentum and falling to the ground. She shared a distinctly underwhelmed look with her cameraman.

"I didn't hit the damn thing even once!" Dave groused over the radio, as the target passed by.

"Relax, you're using paintball guns and water-bottle rockets! Of course they under-preform compared to actual military ordinance!" Cassandra replied. "Come on, it's time for the final test!"

The group set off once more, and before long saw the ground rise up ahead of them. It was not a sheer cliff, but it was still steep enough that you might think twice before trying to drive a car up it. Or, ride a scooter, if you were an Elysium native.

"Everybody should stop here, maybe even stand back a bit. Mondo Robo, proceed!" Cassandra called out.

The Mondo Robo took a few tentative steps towards the steep hill, then plunged one hand into the dirt in front of it, starting a slow and uneasy ascent. Soon, both feet were in the hill rather than on the ground, soon it had risen higher than any of it's spectators stood, then further up it went…

"Holy shit, look at me go! Like to see one of those clumsy-ass power-loaders do THIS!" Dave cheered over the radio.

…Until one of the Mondo Robo's footholds suddenly crumbled beneath its weight.

Somebody screamed. It might have been Alice.

The Mondo Robo left one shallow divot in the hill and several deeper ones as its fingers and front plate plowed through the dirt on the way back down. Its feet hit the flat-ish ground at the bottom of the hill with a tremendous noise, and it subsequently teetered backwards and fell with limbs askew.

No sooner had the engine gone silent and the last rubble settled, than was Cassandra running to the Mondo Robo's side.

After a moment of tense silence, a voice drifted out.

"I'm okay! Again!"

There was a sputtering noise as the Mondo Robo's engine came back online, sounding distinctly less healthy and functional than it had previously. Dave shut it back off, then opened the hatch with a grunt of effort.

"That's twice now an impact caused it to turn off. I mean, obviously this time it landed wrong and messed something up, but I'm still waiting for an explanation as to why the engine died the first -MMPPHH?!"

And it was at that moment that the viewers of the A&B stream were treated to the sight of a nerd kissing her crush for the first time.

===========================

Spoiler: Inspiration 1

Spoiler: Inspiration 2

Click to shrink...

"Why didn't you guys just strap a bunch of weapons to an animatronic or construction mech instead of trying to roll your own walker system?"

"Because art!"

"We didn't like how HI media always portrays uparmored mecha as only ever used by evil anarchists out to destroy everyone's freedoms."

 

[bdun140]

"Why didn't you guys just strap a bunch of weapons to an animatronic or construction mech instead of trying to roll your own walker system?"

Click to shrink...

I actually realized that about 12 seconds after I posted, and so I edited in this line right here:

"Holy shit, look at me go! Like to see one of those clumsy-ass power-loaders do THIS!" Dave cheered over the radio.

Click to shrink...

It's towards the end, when the Mondo Robo is trying to climb the much steeper hill.

 

[clockworkchaos]

Also autistic, and that's left over from a previous draft before I gave it some more thought. I still think from her interludes and my own experience that she'd find such action more hateful than most would - she knows how to give real statistical analysis because she believed a corporate job description, but her actual job was in fact distorting data and she hated it. My apologies for the miscommunication.

Click to shrink...

As a autistic person @Sara I'm kinda in agreement with winged one. The original posted by them said "that one autistic analyst lady". If the original had said "an autistic analyst lady" I'd be agreement it was about her autism. But the 'that one' kinda points to her specifically. And since she has specific omakes, well, winged one's above says it.

The stars had been easy, remove the control for the marketing budget, and they were positive. Of course, ignored costs but… but it worked. Show headers had been harder, but if she changed the metric from high-quality engagement to any, and removed the marketing, and added in a variable on the average precipitation that day… she got it. Not a large one, but a positive variable that was, technically, statistically significant.

She presented her findings. They were garbage, statistically made junk. They weren't honest but… but she could get a bad rating, disappointing everyone. It satisfied, but she still got four stars "trouble understanding project, but good recovery." Such a hit to her score cost her. For months work was tight, and she had to live spreadsheet to spreadsheet, even delving into basic data-entry to make ends meet. Even once she started getting real work, she avoided the full statistical analysis.

It was more prestigious, and it paid better but… but she hadn't been honest. It hadn't been correct. Sure, every variable was technically statistically significant. But… she'd p-hacked and well honestly she didn't know what you called reversing a sign, but it wasn't correct. Basic spreadsheets… they were just doing the math. Nothing dishonest. Maybe she could stay doing that, it wasn't so bad.

Click to shrink...

I will say that I think you are on the money that Jennifer isn't really accusing her of being Machiavellian so much as focusing that way and perhaps did attribued biases to Kay that were beyond what Kay was writing intentionally. Though... honestly in a microcosm, this is actually probably a good example of what happened in the report. You read something and identified a bit of a problem (that Jennifer wasn't saying it was Machiavellian) and then read into the post intents that weren't there (this is all autistic people, instead of this specific one). Take that with a report over a very, very stressful month and a half, and someone decided they didn't care if they cursed.

 

[Anchises]

I have just read through the quest and offer my two cents:

If we give the Cern employees, collaborators and sexual collaborators to a possibly Hand Biter dominated justice system the planet might very well descend into a chaotic death spiral.

Completely purging your professional bureaucratic class is going to cripple the planet for years. A lot of Cern employees are not only innocent but also necessary to set up stable governance.

The collaborators are a large group and they might be informants but in a starvation scenario a lot of us might do the same. Also 10% is a huge group. There is a serious risk of a crippling death spiral.

Sexual collaborators are not even really defined. The partner of a collaborator is a sexual collaborator according to some hardliners.

Leaving morality aside, because even some LPPT members are victims of their situation and I don't feel comfortable with the death penalty in general, we have to intervene in because the planet is instable as hell.

Various factions competing to form a new government, deep psychological trauma and anti-augment tensions are a bad combination. The Hand Biters already control the framing of the debate and we really don't want a competiton spiral of revolutionary mass killings.

 

[Winged One]

and we really don't want a competiton spiral of revolutionary mass killings.

Click to shrink...

Well, most of us don't... *checks* wait, that person got threadbanned? Never mind, yeah, now it's none of us. It's too bad, really, it really felt more like a revolution with someone screaming for more blood.

 

[CyberFemme]

Well, most of us don't... *checks* wait, that person got threadbanned? Never mind, yeah, now it's none of us. It's too bad, really, it really felt more like a revolution with someone screaming for more blood.

Click to shrink...

Every session of Congress should have a Congressional Stalinist.
Like a court jester, but for lefties.

All in favor say 'Aye'?

 

[Winged One]

Every session of Congress should have a Congressional Stalinist.

Click to shrink...

I thought Stalinism was taking over a communist revolution for personal gain?

 

[noviceImmortal]

A court Montagnard.

 

[CyberFemme]

Someone with a better knowledge of history give me a more appropriate person to reference.

 

[Winged One]

Someone with a better knowledge of history give me a more appropriate person to reference.

Click to shrink...

Robspierre?

 

[AKuz]

"Can you tell us a little more about the differences between Revolutionary Society and Revolutionary Coalition? At the time you're sending this, how have they changed?"

Click to shrink...

The Revolutionary Coalition is a more territorially contiguous alliance of local governing organizations. Much of their explosive growth as an organization is from physical door to door checks, membership requirements based on material cooperation rather than ideological agreement, and being careful to not overstretch their resources. They hope to eventually extend their umbrella across the entirety of Gentle Repose, but this is secondary to the goal of providing good government to the areas they already control.

At the moment the Revolutionary Coalition is focused on consolidating their most recent gains and preparing for a series of elections to a formal system of ruling councils rather than the current ad-hoc committees. At the moment Hand Biter demands are shaping up to be a major element in the upcoming elections. Though most communities and regional councils have rejected the Hand Biters' more extreme demands, a more hardline stance on trial and punishment for Executive Committee, LPPT, and Informant Collaborates has been witnessed in recent weeks.

-

The Revolutionary Society is more widespread, and is an alliance of political organizations, many of which hold power on a local level. The Society has tighter membership requirements in terms of ideological agreement, and is less focused on practical day to day matters of government, but instead are focused on creating a Gentle Repose-wide political movement that can exert its influence in every community and on every topic with an eye to eventually ushering in a planetary government.

As of right now, the Revolutionary Society is finalizing plans for a general congress of party representatives that will take place next month and formally set out the Society's long term plans, goals, and organizational structure. This party congress promises to be a showdown between the party's leading moderates and the smaller but more tightly coordinated Hand Biter aligned Faction.

The report mentioned a 'House to House' Checking program created/organized by the Revolutionary Coalition. Have there been other similar large scale programs, organizations, etc that have been formed, and by who? If so, what has been their impacts?

Click to shrink...

Many formerly planet-wide functions that were once provided by the Cernunnos Gentle Repose Executive Committee (Internet, weather, orbital traffic control, skywatch, and so one) were briefly performed by the Congressional Navy, but have now been handed over to new independent organs composed of former workers and volunteers from across the planet.

While these organs are self-consciously independent, they've helped renew the idea of Gentle Repose as a single planetary community.

-

While the Congressional Liberation Army Corps Naval Landing Forces were initially carrying out much of the delivery of food to areas in need, that task has increasingly fallen on the newly formed Gentle Repose Teamsters Union which has taken it upon themselves to transport all goods across the planetary surface, with an emphasis on ensuring a fair distribution of food.

-

Initially independent of both the Revolutionary Society and the Revolutionary Coalition, the Gentle Repose Agricultural Association is an open forum for not only returning to full agricultural production, but for finding ways to increase production. Recently the GRAA's Augment Committee has been spearheading a project to either find or engineer new crops that produce the micronutrients that various Augment Breeds require to be healthy.

These projects are in their infancy but are a promising sign that Gentle Repose will be able to stand on their own within months without need for Congressional Navy assistance.

What are the major distinct governing revolutionary groups (e.g. the Revolutionary Coalition, the Revolutionary Society) on Gentle Repose, and what are their general dispositions towards us?

Click to shrink...

At the moment both the Revolutionary Coalition and the Revolutionary Society look to a future where Gentle Repose can join Radiant as an equal partner.

As both organizations have yet to formally lay out their long term policies it is still an open question whether Gentle Repose will seek to fully integrate themselves in the All-Radiant Congress as Five Lions and Gaid have done, or whether they will retain their independent sovereignty while maintaining close cooperation like Shei has.

Though as of this time the Coalition seems to lean towards full integration and the Society seems inclined towards close alliance.

To what extent is there cooperation and camaraderie between the revolutionary groups on Gentle Repose? For example is there any talk of a broad merger into a planetary government, sharing of intel and resources, or is there conversely any combat or major disputes over resources/territory?

Click to shrink...

At the moment, the Coalition and the Society are pursuing different strategies, and while the Society's members have expressed an interest in being the leading ideological grouping and political party of the Coalition's members, many of the Coalition's member communities are wary of the tighter ideological standards.

Other groups, like a number of communities in the southern hemisphere, seem to be considering an isolationist posture.

What are the ideological positions of the revolutionary groups on Gentle Repose? Are they pro-democracy? Are they familiar with socialist/leftist theory, and to what extent do they support or practice it?

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At the moment all factions are vocally pro-Democracy, though what form that democracy will take is currently a hotly debated topic.

-

The level of familiarity with theory is lacking, as educational standards across Gentle Repose are Charter Standard at best, with many of Cernunnos' former contractors having been exempted from First Colonies level curricular standards by enrollment in the Colony Board certified apprenticeship programs common on Cernunnos controlled planets.

That being said, they are enthusiastic learners for the practical lessons to be gathered from our own recently won independence, with an especial love for the rough, practical, frontier theory of Sheol which emphases self-reliance and militancy.

How are the revolutionary groups on Gentle Repose organised? Do the leaders derive legitimacy from charisma/competency, or are they democratic? Are they loose federations of local committees? etc.

Click to shrink...

At the moment nearly all overarching organizations are ad hoc, with leadership of individual communities having been established by acclaim and informal community consensus and leadership of larger organizations established by community delegates to larger bodies, not totally unlike Radiant's own system.

However, both the Revolutionary Coalition and the Revolutionary Society agree that more formalized systems of democracy will need to be implemented and are taking steps towards that goal.

To what extent do the revolutionary groups have their own internal systems of justice, courts, laws, rules, systems of sentencing, etc.?

Click to shrink...

At the moment these are rudimentary at best and nearly all justice is being carried out on a case by case basis with trials, where and when they are held, consisting of everything from Charter style court battles to drumhead trials.

At the moment nearly everyone in a leadership position regards this as unacceptable, but it will take time and a great deal of argument to establish universal standards.

The group farthest ahead on this matter are the Revolutionary Society, which very early on hammered out a plan for revolutionary emergency courts of a uniform composition, and communities influenced by Society members often run their trials along these lines.

Society Trials have a minimum length of one week, with a hard floor of time set aside for examination of evidence each day, and guilt or innocence is ruled upon by a jury drawn by sortition and overseen by a triumvirate of judges elected by the community on a regular basis. The overall procedural process is drawn from Cernunnos Executive Criminal Review Process Handbook due to its universal availability.

Interestingly, these trials allow for a verdict of "Not Proven" as well as "Innocent" or "Guilty", in which the jury leaves open the possibility for a retrial if new evidence is uncovered.

Due to some level of dissatisfaction, especially from the Hand Biter wing of the Society, plans for an updated trial system are being submitted for approval at the upcoming party congress.

#GRQuestions "Are there many so-called 'Sexual Collaborators' who would prefer to go off-planet, or are they mostly committed to staying on Gentle Repose once/if this all dies down?"

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While the majority of "Sexual Collaborators" currently do not plan to leave Gentle Repose, a few dozen have requested that we allow them to emigrate to Elysium or Sheol.

At the moment, the majority consensus is a wish to return to their communities and lives unharassed.

#GRQuestions What is the practical viability of evacuating the 'sexual collaborators' off world?

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There is, at this moment, no practical limit to our ability to evacuate the "sexual collaborators".

#GRQuestions How much support do the HB's have? The report seemed to say that they both had a majority and a minority

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As the Hand Biters are not a defined organization with membership roles like the Society, it is difficult to assess in numerical terms the absolute support that the Hand Biters can draw upon.

What is not in doubt is that nearly every organization and community has Hand Biter or Hand Biter-sympathetic members who ensure that their voices are heard.

Overall, while there is no data showing that the majority of the population of Gentle Repose could be labelled "Hand Biters", they are highly visible, appear everywhere, and are perhaps the most militant tendency on the entire planet.

#GRQuestions Are any of the other factions committed to making the collabs face justice like the HB's are? (Basically, how many of them agree with the Sheolite position)

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Every faction demands justice for the Cernunnos Executive team, with nearly all considering their executions a forgone conclusion.

All factions also would like to see the former LPPT members brought to trial as well, and there are expectations that the vast majority will also be subject to capital punishment.

The vast majority of factions want to put all formal Cernnunos Employees on trial, though there is no expectation for capital punishment in most cases, and the general consensus is formed around some form of restitution, up to and including forced labour.

For informant collaborators, all sectors of Gentle Repose society would like to see these individuals brought to trial, though only the hardliners and Hand Biters would see capital punishments being decreed on a regular basis.

Only the hard line Hand Biters would like to see the sexual collaborators brought to trial, and treated the same as other collaborators and be subject to capital punishment. Otherwise, most communities are content to subject them to informal punishments, though a large number -especially RS dominated- of communities do not feel that Sexual Collaboration rises to the level of requiring a trial or punishment at all and would instead prefer to focus on other collaborators.

That being said, however there has recently been a movement initiated to declare a general amnesty for both Informant Collaborators and Sexual Collaborators in the name of beginning the healing process. This is at the moment a minority position.

Is there any recognition or opposition to the reprisals on accused collaborators within Gentle Repose society, either by revolutionary groups or by the general populace? To what extent are they trying to prevent this?

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See above

Did the invasion of Gentle Repose by ARC forces indicate any problems with the readiness and capability of said forces, in terms of training, command, equipment/materiel, etc.?

Click to shrink...

-No, though there was some friction that reduced the tempo of our landing operations and indicated inexperience.

However I do not consider this to have been an adequate test of our forces. The corporate forces had little training, being used mainly for kidnapping the unarmed and starving, or in the worst case, fighting unorganized rebel groups with massive equipment disparities. We had orbital superiority, local support, and a demoralized enemy. I do not consider this a proper test of the Congressional Liberation Army Corps Naval Landing Forces.

• Cmd McLean

 

[clockworkchaos]

The Revolutionary Coalition is a more territorially contiguous alliance of local governing organizations. Much of their explosive growth as an organization is from physical door to door checks, membership requirements based on material cooperation rather than ideological agreement, and being careful to not overstretch their resources. They hope to eventually extend their umbrella across the entirety of Gentle Repose, but this is secondary to the goal of providing good government to the areas they already control.

At the moment the Revolutionary Coalition is focused on consolidating their most recent gains and preparing for a series of elections to a formal system of ruling councils rather than the current ad-hoc committees. At the moment Hand Biter demands are shaping up to be a major element in the upcoming elections. Though most communities and regional councils have rejected the Hand Biters' more extreme demands, a more hardline stance on trial and punishment for Executive Committee, LPPT, and Informant Collaborates has been witnessed in recent weeks.

-

The Revolutionary Society is more widespread, and is an alliance of political organizations, many of which hold power on a local level. The Society has tighter membership requirements in terms of ideological agreement, and is less focused on practical day to day matters of government, but instead are focused on creating a Gentle Repose-wide political movement that can exert its influence in every community and on every topic with an eye to eventually ushering in a planetary government.

As of right now, the Revolutionary Society is finalizing plans for a general congress of party representatives that will take place next month and formally set out the Society's long term plans, goals, and organizational structure. This party congress promises to be a showdown between the party's leading moderates and the smaller but more tightly coordinated Hand Biter aligned Faction.



Many formerly planet-wide functions that were once provided by the Cernunnos Gentle Repose Executive Committee (Internet, weather, orbital traffic control, skywatch, and so one) were briefly performed by the Congressional Navy, but have now been handed over to new independent organs composed of former workers and volunteers from across the planet.

While these organs are self-consciously independent, they've helped renew the idea of Gentle Repose as a single planetary community.

-

While the Congressional Liberation Army Corps Naval Landing Forces were initially carrying out much of the delivery of food to areas in need, that task has increasingly fallen on the newly formed Gentle Repose Teamsters Union which has taken it upon themselves to transport all goods across the planetary surface, with an emphasis on ensuring a fair distribution of food.

-

Initially independent of both the Revolutionary Society and the Revolutionary Coalition, the Gentle Repose Agricultural Association is an open forum for not only returning to full agricultural production, but for finding ways to increase production. Recently the GRAA's Augment Committee has been spearheading a project to either find or engineer new crops that produce the micronutrients that various Augment Breeds require to be healthy.

These projects are in their infancy but are a promising sign that Gentle Repose will be able to stand on their own within months without need for Congressional Navy assistance.



At the moment both the Revolutionary Coalition and the Revolutionary Society look to a future where Gentle Repose can join Radiant as an equal partner.

As both organizations have yet to formally lay out their long term policies it is still an open question whether Gentle Repose will seek to fully integrate themselves in the All-Radiant Congress as Five Lions and Gaid have done, or whether they will retain their independent sovereignty while maintaining close cooperation like Shei has.

Though as of this time the Coalition seems to lean towards full integration and the Society seems inclined towards close alliance.



At the moment, the Coalition and the Society are pursuing different strategies, and while the Society's members have expressed an interest in being the leading ideological grouping and political party of the Coalition's members, many of the Coalition's member communities are wary of the tighter ideological standards.

Other groups, like a number of communities in the southern hemisphere, seem to be considering an isolationist posture.



At the moment all factions are vocally pro-Democracy, though what form that democracy will take is currently a hotly debated topic.

-

The level of familiarity with theory is lacking, as educational standards across Gentle Repose are Charter Standard at best, with many of Cernunnos' former contractors having been exempted from First Colonies level curricular standards by enrollment in the Colony Board certified apprenticeship programs common on Cernunnos controlled planets.

That being said, they are enthusiastic learners for the practical lessons to be gathered from our own recently won independence, with an especial love for the rough, practical, frontier theory of Sheol which emphases self-reliance and militancy.



At the moment nearly all overarching organizations are ad hoc, with leadership of individual communities having been established by acclaim and informal community consensus and leadership of larger organizations established by community delegates to larger bodies, not totally unlike Radiant's own system.

However, both the Revolutionary Coalition and the Revolutionary Society agree that more formalized systems of democracy will need to be implemented and are taking steps towards that goal.



At the moment these are rudimentary at best and nearly all justice is being carried out on a case by case basis with trials, where and when they are held, consisting of everything from Charter style court battles to drumhead trials.

At the moment nearly everyone in a leadership position regards this as unacceptable, but it will take time and a great deal of argument to establish universal standards.

The group farthest ahead on this matter are the Revolutionary Society, which very early on hammered out a plan for revolutionary emergency courts of a uniform composition, and communities influenced by Society members often run their trials along these lines.

Society Trials have a minimum length of one week, with a hard floor of time set aside for examination of evidence each day, and guilt or innocence is ruled upon by a jury drawn by sortition and overseen by a triumvirate of judges elected by the community on a regular basis. The overall procedural process is drawn from Cernunnos Executive Criminal Review Process Handbook due to its universal availability.

Interestingly, these trials allow for a verdict of "Not Proven" as well as "Innocent" or "Guilty", in which the jury leaves open the possibility for a retrial if new evidence is uncovered.

Due to some level of dissatisfaction, especially from the Hand Biter wing of the Society, plans for an updated trial system are being submitted for approval at the upcoming party congress.



While the majority of "Sexual Collaborators" currently do not plan to leave Gentle Repose, a few dozen have requested that we allow them to emigrate to Elysium or Sheol.

At the moment, the majority consensus is a wish to return to their communities and lives unharassed.



There is, at this moment, no practical limit to our ability to evacuate the "sexual collaborators".



As the Hand Biters are not a defined organization with membership roles like the Society, it is difficult to assess in numerical terms the absolute support that the Hand Biters can draw upon.

What is not in doubt is that nearly every organization and community has Hand Biter or Hand Biter-sympathetic members who ensure that their voices are heard.

Overall, while there is no data showing that the majority of the population of Gentle Repose could be labelled "Hand Biters", they are highly visible, appear everywhere, and are perhaps the most militant tendency on the entire planet.




Every faction demands justice for the Cernunnos Executive team, with nearly all considering their executions a forgone conclusion.

All factions also would like to see the former LPPT members brought to trial as well, and there are expectations that the vast majority will also be subject to capital punishment.

The vast majority of factions want to put all formal Cernnunos Employees on trial, though there is no expectation for capital punishment in most cases, and the general consensus is formed around some form of restitution, up to and including forced labour.

For informant collaborators, all sectors of Gentle Repose society would like to see these individuals brought to trial, though only the hardliners and Hand Biters would see capital punishments being decreed on a regular basis.

Only the hard line Hand Biters would like to see the sexual collaborators brought to trial, and treated the same as other collaborators and be subject to capital punishment. Otherwise, most communities are content to subject them to informal punishments, though a large number -especially RS dominated- of communities do not feel that Sexual Collaboration rises to the level of requiring a trial or punishment at all and would instead prefer to focus on other collaborators.

That being said, however there has recently been a movement initiated to declare a general amnesty for both Informant Collaborators and Sexual Collaborators in the name of beginning the healing process. This is at the moment a minority position.



See above



-No, though there was some friction that reduced the tempo of our landing operations and indicated inexperience.

However I do not consider this to have been an adequate test of our forces. The corporate forces had little training, being used mainly for kidnapping the unarmed and starving, or in the worst case, fighting unorganized rebel groups with massive equipment disparities. We had orbital superiority, local support, and a demoralized enemy. I do not consider this a proper test of the Congressional Liberation Army Corps Naval Landing Forces.

• Cmd McLean

Click to shrink...

Free QM add-on that we didn't find a way to elegantly fit in. An example of a issue the two disagree on.

One of their big ideological focuses of Revolutionary Society is 'you should own your own land' and 'no one should tell you what you can do with it'. It's very popular, but there have been some issues. The first point of objections are that it's focused exclusively on farmers, it either massively favors them by giving them capital for their stuff while not guaranteeing the same for other workers. Or the other workers are given land which would only make sense to rent out, creating a new capital class. The second big objection is, when crops are easily cross-pollinated, and the environment is delicate "grow what you want" is a little iffier. Your fields effect other fields.

Given that the RC was the largest 'other party' if you wanted to still be ARC friendly and global they kinda of became a bastion for communities who opposed the RS for one reason or another on this. Now, there have been attempt to negotiate on it, or find common ground. Things like 'everyone in guaranteed land, but only if they use it, or others are guaranteed their own tools' but it's kinda one of RS signature political 'sells' and doing anything that is perceived as backing from that it a bad look for those who hope to be popular withing the RS. There is also maybe a bit of a bigger question of 'do we want to remain a agricultural planet, or start trying for something else.'

 

[Winged One]

I forgot to mention this, but if nothing else it deserves to be in the fictionalization of our debate.

3. Title: Crime and punishment
(Drawn comic. With low-rest artstyle comics a drawn stick-figure with sparkles is used to represent an Elysian. A round belly with a top-hat for corporates. Augments cat ears. etc)

(Panel 1) Elysian: You don't have to kill them, we put our execs away in Tatarus.
(Panel 2) Picture of beach ad, the smiling man in the picture has been given the signature drawn top-hat. The caption above reads 'Tatarus'.
(Panel 2) Elysian (dark brooding background): Did we… go too far?

Click to shrink...

This is hilarious. We do be like that sometimes.

 

[Regency]

membership requirements based on material cooperation rather than ideological agreement

Click to shrink...

The Society has tighter membership requirements in terms of ideological agreement

Click to shrink...

These RC's tactic sounds like Menshevik's factic that dilutes membership enough to pave the way toward pushing that faction to the Whites. The RS' tactic sounds like one of the Bolshevik faction's decisions that actually avoids being one of their many "in hindsight that was a bad idea" moments.

It does seem RS' tighter requirement rather lessened the seeping influence of Hand Biters planks which in RC influenced their overall outlook. But those planks are still popular enough to make it a showdown between the Hand Biters vs the moderates (relative, considering this is a nascent anarchist-supported revolutionary society).

Of course RC isn't really a party & RS is seeking to become RC's majority party. But even though the choice isn't really binary, this:

and while the Society's members have expressed an interest in being the leading ideological grouping and political party of the Coalition's members, many of the Coalition's member communities are wary of the tighter ideological standards.

Click to shrink...

seems like an RC split will occur if RS wins & the non-RS groups decide to break away. Which would make it a binary choice between the 2 major factions.

Ah but unlike either of OTL Russian Social Democratic Labor Party factions:

One of their big ideological focuses of Revolutionary Society is 'you should own your own land' and 'no one should tell you what you can do with it'.

Click to shrink...

RS seems to be the main progressive-socialist/anarchist peasant/farmer movement rather than agricultural prole-based anarchist or communist movement. So like, continuing the potentially tortured October Revolution comparisons, RS is Left-Socialist Revolutionary Party-ish?

Given that the RC was the largest 'other party' if you wanted to still be ARC friendly and global they kinda of became a bastion for communities who opposed the RS for one reason or another on this. Now, there have been attempt to negotiate on it, or find common ground. Things like 'everyone in guaranteed land, but only if they use it, or others are guaranteed their own tools'

Click to shrink...

Smh should've started with that in the first place, & a lot of swing voters that went with RC would've went with ya, RS.

 

[buli-buli]

Okay. My takeaway (and feel free to correct me here) is:

• the Revolutionary Coalition is mostly a ruling government with socialist leanings (i.e the focus on welfare administration to the exclusion of other classic governmental responsibilities given resource constraints).
• The Revolutionary Society is mostly a political party with a focus on privatization (thus freeing them up to spend their time and resources on a justice system).
• The Hand Biters are less of an organization than a political-ideological movement.

 

[Amazing Abzan]

These RC's tactic sounds like Menshevik's factic that dilutes membership enough to pave the way toward pushing that faction to the Whites. The RS' tactic sounds like one of the Bolshevik faction's decisions that actually avoids being one of their many "in hindsight that was a bad idea" moments.

It does seem RS' tighter requirement rather lessened the seeping influence of Hand Biters planks which in RC influenced their overall outlook. But those planks are still popular enough to make it a showdown between the Hand Biters vs the moderates (relative, considering this is a nascent anarchist-supported revolutionary society).

Click to shrink...

On the other hand, prioritizing material concerns over ideological purity makes sense when you're trying to rebuild after a famine and civil war that wiped out 10% of the planet. Could it cause problems in the future? Yeah, maybe, but I understand why they're taking this approach in the here and now.

 

[CyberFemme]

On the other hand, prioritizing material concerns over ideological purity makes sense when you're trying to rebuild after a famine and civil war that wiped out 10% of the planet. Could it cause problems in the future? Yeah, maybe, but I understand why they're taking this approach in the here and now.

Click to shrink...

Ideological purity is definitely higher up Maslow's Hierarchy than materialist concerns, and to be frank, if the material conditions are right it will be a lot easier to build a just and prosperous society so I'm inclined to prioritize practical concerns over theory nine times out of ten.