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

AKuz · Dec 10, 2020

THE ALL-RADIANT CONGRESS

Setting Information: The Solarian Compact:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Charters:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rhodes Mining

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

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

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

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

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

Techbros, some of them science, some of them explore

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sketchy buggers, they can get you anything tho

Historical Topics:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Misc Details:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Spinward Frontier:

The Middle Spinward Frontier

The Core Region:

UNDER RADIANT CONTROL OR ALLIED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gaid A1: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Gaid B2: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid B5: A small icy planet. Quality 3.

Gaid B6: A frozen world. Quality 7.

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

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

Shei 1: A Cthonian world. Quality 15.

Shei 2: An airless world. Quality 12.

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

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

Gravity .95 Earth Standard. Quality 12.

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

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

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

Shei I: Asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Shei II: Asteroid belt.

Shei 7: Jovian planet. Quality 13.

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

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

Shei 8: Ice giant. Quality 6.

Shei 8a: An icy moon. Quality 9.

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

Population: 103,000,000

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

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

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

Five Lions 3: A rocky ball. Quality 7.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five Lions II: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 7: An unremarkable Jovian. Quality 2.

Five Lions III: An asteroid belt.

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

Five Lions IV: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 9: Jovian planet. Quality 9.

Five Lions V: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 10: Neptunian ice giant. Quality 8.

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

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

Population: 15,000,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Population: 650,000

UNDER CHARTER CONTROL:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh A6: An unremarkable icy ball. Quality 4.

Xotreh AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh 6: A dense ice giant. Quality 4.

Xotreh 7: Jovian planet. Quality 6.

Xotreh 8: An exceptionally cold Jovian. Quality 9.

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

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

Population: 54,000

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

Bestreer 1: An airless world. Quality 2.

Bestreer 2: An airless world. Quality 6.

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

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

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

Bestreer I: An icy asteroid belt.

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

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

Bestreer 7: Another Jovian. Quality 14.

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

Bestreer 8: An icy ball. Quality 10.

Population: 450

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

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

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

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

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

Akleod I: An asteroid belt.

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

Population: 5,000

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

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

Thoa System Stats:

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

Thoa 2: An unremarkable airless metal ball.

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

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

Thoa I: An asteroid belt.

Thoa 4: A normal Jovian planet.

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

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

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

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

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

Thoa II: A Kuiper belt of icy objects.

Empty Systems

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

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

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

Kimberly 3: A Jovian world.

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

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

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

Total:

Radiant:

Gaid:

Five Lions:

Head of Diplomatic Corps:

Name: Amanda Redcrest, Victoria Blackwell, and Kayla Hayashi

DoB: "2222", 2219, 2227, 2224

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cons: XP celebrity, little diplomatic experience, three people

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

Unlocked FRM

Ares Peacekeeping Grade - Access to planetary army formation

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

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

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

Cernunnos Consumer Grade - +1 to all Soccom actions

Cernunnos Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

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

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

Hermes-Ishtar Production Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

MSI Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

Original Tech

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

Defence Coordinator:

Name: Maria Awhina

DoB: 2165

Current Position: Military Committee Delegate from the Radiant Veterans Guild

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

Command Traits:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-None

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

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

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

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

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

Solarian Marines now spread throughout the system

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

Mobile Force:

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

CO: Commodore Stephanie Rousseau

CNS Velasco, United States of America-class Fleet Carrier

-CO: Captain Esteri Attar

-Orca Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Jasmine Ang

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

-CO: Wing Commander Heloisa Kimura de Lima

CNS Shieldmaiden, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Shamhat, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Righteous Tempest, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Vehement Shade

CNS August Willich, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Elysium, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Asphodel, Cossak-class Frigate

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

-

Home Force:

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

CO: Commodore Erina Kozlova

CNS Blaire Mountain, New Model-Class Strike Corvette

-CO: Captain Guillermo Kageyama

CNS Scutum, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Martin Pagonis

CNS Buckler, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Samuel Smiles

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

-CO: Captain Jean-Paul Beaumont

-

Radiant System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Radiant, comet patrol

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

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

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

Switchblade Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Apogee Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

-

Gaid System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Gaid

CO: Commodore Victor Raine

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Zephyr Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Ara Helge

Aeolus Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

Gale Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

-

Frontier Force

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

CO: Commodore Shayla McLean

CNS Kiel Mutiny, Kaiserreich-class BattleCruiser

-CO: Captain Inana Devlin

CNS Choreographer, Janissary-class Light Tender

-CO: Captain Karl Xanthopoulos

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

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

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

-CO: Captain Fool's Errand

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

-CO: Captain Rouge Napier

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

-CO: Captain John Rankin

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

-CO: Captain Nkiru Chaudhari

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

-CO: Captain Sumac Barros

CNS Revolutionary Will, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Yamamoto Hanae

CNS Revolutionary Grace, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Under New Management, Don-Class Fast Tanker

-CO: Captain Adras Kierenos

CNS Liberte, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Colin McRae

CNS Egalite, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Adelia Swift

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

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Traehgniw · Mar 4, 2022

#GalacticSurvey

Map designation: CF-3

System Name: Exalt

Political Status: Owned by MSI

Charter Presence: Heavy MSI presence; some Omoikaine research outposts; Rhodes miners

System Population: a million or so; varies depending on how the research outposts are doing

System Bodies:

1. Airless, tidally locked

2. Airless, tidally locked

3. Asteroid belt

4. Gas giant

5. Noah, Under-terraforming super-earth

5.a Icy, rocky moon, large

6. icy

6. icy

Noteable Features:

Contains many orbital MSI manufacturing facilities, Rhodes mining facilities selling ore to MSI, and so on.

The fifth planet in this system is a world larger and less dense than Earth, with a relatively small iron core. Despite its distance from is reddish star, it had a surface temperature over the boiling point of water due to its very thick atmosphere, which consisted of amongst other things a large amount of water vapor.

It had Omoikaine and MSI aerostats (floating manufacturing, research, and living platforms) and a few very heavily built ground facilities; then one day MSI started testing out new planetary solar shade designs in its orbit. These shades cooled parts of the planet down enough that water could start to condense, triggering immense rainfall.

it is now the rainiest planet in human space, and has been for decades. The aerostats have crashed, killing thousands, and all but one of the ground facilities have been submerged, killing hundreds more. There are still sunshades in place - not the original ones, but new ones with fresh ads for those who look at the sky with telescopes - but by the time the runaway rain has stopped they will no longer be necessary to maintain temperature.

Research labs were set up to study the unusual conditions, similar to what a very early Earth was probably like (although under 1.7 Earths of gravity); every so often they get drowned by the rising water, destroyed by landslides, or have natural dams collapse upstream of them and flatten them with a wave of water. The continuous rainfall has a significant psychological toll; turnover rate is high

Estimates on the amount of rainfall indicate that once the sea levels stabilize, the planet will have slightly less total land area than Earth. This does not take into account any vulcanism, corals atoll building, ice caps, or other such things that could affect final water level or geography.

edited to add system and planet name, thanks for the suggestions people!

Tatbee · Mar 4, 2022

Traehgniw said:
Map designation: CF-3

Political Status: Owned by MSI

System name is missing?

Traehgniw · Mar 4, 2022

I couldnt think of any names so i just didnt put them in and skipped that line

Tatbee · Mar 4, 2022

Traehgniw said:
I couldnt think of any names so i just didnt put them in and skipped that line

Endless Rain = Floods.
For system/planet names, how about 'Noah'/'Ark'?

Thalton · Mar 4, 2022

Tatbee said:
Endless Rain = Floods.
For system/planet names, how about 'Noah'/'Ark'?

Well the Charter's do love to play God at times.

Traehgniw · Mar 4, 2022

They didn't know it was going to have that when they named it, but renaming the rainy planet Noah would make sense!

Joppe · Mar 4, 2022

Traehgniw said:
They didn't know it was going to have that when they named it, but renaming the rainy planet Noah would make sense!

Well, the aerostats could be considered to be arks, floating in the atmosphere, and the Charter arks sinking in a flood would be a bit poetic.

Traehgniw · Mar 4, 2022

I edited it so the planet got named Noah. all Noah's charter arks sinking in a flood of their own creation...

Tatbee · Mar 4, 2022

Traehgniw said:
Map designation: CF-3

For the system name, how about 'Exalt'?
- Floating Aerostats are elevated, or "exalted".
- super-earth = XL-earth, plus it's being Terraformed

- X.L.T >> Exalt

clockworkchaos · Mar 4, 2022

#GalacticSurvey

Map Designation: (C2)
System Name: Victory
Political Status: Charter Subsidiary
Charter Presence: Majority Ares owned, Lakshmi mixed ownership with Primary MSI
System Population: 250 Million official permanent residents, 300 million guests, 500 million seasonal guest workers

System Bodies:
Lakshmi
-Nearly Tidally locked Planet
Nike
-Gaia, Earthlike
3
-Jovian
3-a
-Airless, Low Density
4
-Icy

Notable Features:
Lakshmi:Nicknamed "The Las Vegas of Space" Lakshmi is a near-tidally locked planet similar to Mercury with a variety of 'vacation domes' that cater to vacationers from the core worlds. The domes range from the middle-class oriented Green Dome to the ultra wealthy Lotothie Dome. The so called-"Planet of Sin" has entertainment, gambling, and vacation spots for anyone in the core who can afford to get off-system for a vacation.

While Lakshimi's location next to the Core and… liberal interpretations of Compact Law, have kept it very profitable, there have been numerous attempts to regulate it. These attempts have fizzled into near-nothing as while MSI owns the planet, they have generously allowed others to buy dome-plots. Nearly every charter, as well as the Solarian Navy all have casinos within the domes of Lakshmi, and all derive considerable profits from them.

Nike: A goldilocks zone planet, Victory was theoretically habitable with very little terraforming. However, due to multiple charters settling on the planet, constant low level warfare (broken by periods of Charter navy oversight when the conflict even threatened to reach space) lead to Victory only being unified in 2212 by Ares Conflict Solutions, leading to it being underdeveloped compared to most inner system planets. Since then it has acted as a major weapons and ammunition manufacturer for Ares, Supplied by raw materials from it's two moons.

System History:
Originally held in trust by the Compact, Victory was divided between numerous companies that provided mercenaries for the peacekeeping operations in the collapsed Democratic Federal Territory. Said system immediately broke out into warfare between companies as the land rewards (with each receiving a portion of each planet) were disputed.

Despite their fierce reputation during the Democratic Federal Peacekeeping, the Patriotic Eagle Peacekeepers (a subsidy of Zhang enterprises) opted to reach peaceful accords with the other shareholders, trading their valuable land on the habitable (name) for complete control of the inner planet, which was dubbed "Lakshmi". While seen as foolish at the time, it proved precarious as the Nike planet never managed to get off the ground thanks to land disputes, until united by Ares nearly 50 years later. By contrast "Lakshmi" was able to build several environmental domes and use limited colony law to create entertaining and gambling that would not be legal within the Daughter-Sister systems.

Since then Lakshmi has gotten several concessions to grandfather in it's non-regulation gambling and entertainment despite being a part of the so called "core systems"

Joppe · Mar 5, 2022

#GalacticSurvey

Map Designation: NS-4
System Name: Trescore
Political Status: Self-Governing Compact Colony
Charter Presence: The system is owned by the Greyflower Development Company (53% Greyflower planetary government, 47% local small businesses) with minor H-I presence, formerly owned by the United Starhaul
System Population: 420 million

System Bodies:
1: Hot Jovian
1-a: Airless moon with an energy collection colony
2: Terrestrial, Mars like planet
3: Greyflower, a terrestrial world, terraformed soon after colonization
3-a: Airless moon with a mining outpost
3-b: Airless moon with shipyards
4: Asteroid belt
4-a: Dwarf planet with a mining colony
5: Jovian
5-a: Icy moon, has a subsurface ocean
5-a: Airless moon
6: Ice giant with aerostats for gas mining
6-a: Small airless moon with a colony for supporting the aerostats
7: Airless world

Notable Features:

Greyflower:
A remnant of the United Starhaul, Greyflower is a frontier world that is fiercely independent of the six Charters (and MSI in particular). With a comfortable gravity slightly below that of Earth's, the planet is home to more than 400 million people and hosts a variety of biomes. The majority of the population is concentrated near the equator on the largest of the planet's four continents and enjoys a mild Mediterranean environment. Since Greyflower's years are more than twice as long as Earth's, the local dry and rainy seasons can last for nearly a year each.

The planetary government owns a majority of the company that controls the system and acts as a backer to the loan taken from the Solarian Bank to fund the purchase. This has forced the government to significantly increase taxation of the population in order to ensure timely repayment, though this is presented as a necessary, and patriotic, hardship.

The local population maintains a hostile attitude towards off-world corporations. The Charters are forced to work through local intermediaries or face widespread boycotts of their products. Any off-world personnel working for the Charters are often regarded with suspicion by the locals, with the sentiment sometimes escalating to outright hostility. The local small businesses are of course eager to sponsor such attitudes and encourage people to only buy locally produced goods and to support Greyflower native companies.

Greyflower is a stronghold of the most radical anti-Charter, pro-Sister groups focused on opposing regulation and restriction of the free market. This extends to vocal support for AGI and augment rights on the principle that all should have right to make their own fortunes. It should not come as a surprise that the JDAP receives strong support from the planet. Greyflower also has a small, but increasingly vocal pro-independence party, which argues that the Compact itself is unnecessary and prevents the formation of a truly free market.

Iceford:
Iceford is the southernmost continent of the Greyflower. It lacks any valuable natural resources and only a small portion of the landmass is habitable, with the rest becoming too cold for humans to comfortably live in during Greyflower's long winters. Iceford was bought by the Ishtar Group after the completion of the terraforming process as a vacation site for extreme winter sports enthusiasts and the coldest regions are still home to several resort complexes, which are operated in cooperation with local small businesses.

The northernmost, and warmest, areas of the Iceford are inhabited by several primitive human tribes. Soon after acquiring the area, Ishtar rented these lands to several anarcho-primitivist groups, agreeing to allow them to settle the area in exchange for the full immaterial rights to everything that would happen afterwards. The Charter subsequently created one of the longest running and most popular reality tv shows in the Compact space; Iceford Anarchy. Using satellites and drones disguised as local wildlife, the show allows the audience to observe anarchist society in its natural state, free from outside intervention. Of course, this has not prevented Hermes-Ishtar from producing several events such as Crash landing to anarchist utopia or the Alone Amongst Anarchists spin-off series.

While the initial failure of the seed crops brought by the settlers and the lack of easily accessible mineral resources has hindered the development of the settlements, the local population has been slowly recovering. It is believed by the more optimistic viewers that the anarchist tribes will proceed to redevelop agriculture over the course of the next century. Others argue that the ongoing inter-tribal warfare will likely undo the current progress.

System History:
Discovered during an early phase of humanity's expansion past the Sister worlds, Trescore was scouted and bought by the United Starhaul to act as a local logistics hub and it still remains a major producer of intra-system civilian transport craft. The third planet of the system was named Greyflower and the world was colonized and terraformed, with the Iceford continent sold to the Ishtar Group.

Towards the end of the MSI-Starhaul war, many of the local Starhaul executives decided to abandon the sinking ship and, with the cooperation of the planetary government, established the Greyflower Development Company that bought the system from the ailing Starhaul. The majority of the notable local small businesses are former Starhaul subsidiaries which split-off from the Charter during the war.

Tatbee · Mar 5, 2022

#GalacticSurvey

Map Designation: [NS 16], or any other Major HI system
System Name: Þorn / þorn (Thorn)
Political Status: Owned by HI.
Charter Presence: HI
System Population: ~1 billion; highly varied augment population.

System Bodies:
#1 Lus (Lust) - Planet, Terraformed, ???
#2 Glutt (Gluttony) - Planet, Terraformed, ???
#3 Gree (Greed) - Planet, Terraformed, ???
#4 Loth (Sloth) - Planet, Terraformed, ???
#5 Rath (Wrath) - Planet, Terraforming in-progress, ???
#6 ??? (Envy) - Planet, Terraforming planned, ???
#7 ??? (Pride) - Planet, Terraforming planned, ???

Noteable Features:
Thorn, widely known as the galactic hub of porn, and all things hedonistic.

7 planets, named and terraformed to reflect the Seven Deadly Sins.

Large variety of gambling halls, luxury resorts, and leisure activities.
Highly popular holiday destination for the rich.

Extremely profitable.
Major HI system.

Thalton · Mar 5, 2022

You know, I've had this going through my head for days now, and I can't help but consider the Charters representatives of the Chaos Gods.

Ares for Khorne, obviously.

Cernunnos for Nurgle, due to their creations needing assistance to keep living, just like Nurgle's diseased followers.

Omoikane for Tzeentch, for knowledge.

MSI for Malal, because crime causes trouble for everyone.

Rhodes definitely Hashut, with it's caste system.

And now a prime example of Slaanesh from Hermes-Ishtar.

Shit if the map hadn't changed I would have labeled that choke point into the Core Worlds Cadia.

Amorous Intent · Mar 6, 2022

[X] Plan: The Last Full Measure + Build Gate Defenses
-[X] Fire it off...
--[X] If the FRM Compression is done by the end of the turn, fire off the broadcast to simultaniously reveal itself in Late May.
-[X] (IndComm) Begin/Expand Mining (can take two if in same system)
--[X] [IndComm] Expand Energy Collection Operations on Five Lions 10b to Level 2 (Quality 12)
--[X] [IndComm] Begin Energy Collection Operations on Five Lions 10a (Quality 5)
-[X] [IndComm] Harden Radiant: Civil Defence
-[X] [MilComm] Create internal security division
-[X] [MilComm] Find a New Defence Coordinator
-[X] [MilComm] (Focus Die) Begin construction projects.
--[X] [Gate] Fortify the Radiant-Xotreh Gate +13 (0/1 Quarters) (5 BR, 5SR, 3E)
--[X] [Gate] Fortify the Radiant-Gaid Gate +13 (0/1 Quarters) (5 BR, 5SR, 3E)
--[X] [Gate] Fortify the Radiant-Shei Gate +13 (0/1 Quarters) (5 BR, 5SR, 3E)
--[X] [Gate] Fortify the Radiant-Akleod Gate +13 (0/1 Quarters) (5 BR, 5SR, 3E)
-[X] [SciComm] Automated spacecraft manufacturing breakthrough
-[X] [SciComm] Assist with Prototype Wormhole research -FTL Communications
-[X] [SciComm] Compress FRM data
--[X] 1 die
-[X] [SocComm] Training Days: Expand Treatment Capacity
-[X] [SocComm] Expand BLG with household nanofabricators
-[X] [MedComm] Begin Agitation within Solarian Navy Task Force 12.7
-[X] [MedComm] Document Charter Abuses, Five Lions
-[X] [MedComm] (Focus Die) Propaganda Project: Solarians Go Home!

[X] Plan: The Last Full Measure + Build Gate Defenses
-[X] Fire it off...
--[X] If the FRM Compression is done by the end of the turn, fire off the broadcast to simultaniously reveal itself in Late May.

Expand Energy Collection Operations on Five Lions 10b to Level 2 (Quality 12): Automatic Completion
Begin Energy Collection Operations on Five Lions 10a (Quality 5): Automatic Completion
Harden Radiant: Civil Defence: 14 + 9 + 8/20 = 32/20
Create internal security division: 17 +8 + 35/40 = 60/40
Find a New Defence Coordinator: Automatic Completion
Fortify the Radiant-Xotreh Gate : Automatic Completion
Fortify the Radiant-Gaid Gate: Automatic Completion
Fortify the Radiant-Shei Gate: Automatic Completion
Fortify the Radiant-Akleod Gate: Automatic Completion
Automated spacecraft manufacturing breakthrough: : 3 +13 = 16/???
Assist with Prototype Wormhole research -FTL Communications: 5 +18 + 47/??? =
Compress FRM data: : 4 + 5+ 56/60 = 65/60
Training Days: Expand Treatment Capacity: : 6 + 5 = 11/25
Expand BLG with household nanofabricators: : 19 + 5 + 59/40 =
Begin Agitation within Solarian Navy Task Force 12.7: : 19 +11 = (auto complete)
Document Charter Abuses, Five Lions: : 10 + 11 + 03/15 = 24/15
Propaganda Project: Solarians Go Home!: : 16 + 11 + 4= 31/30
Aria Roll 1: Found Youth Organization 10+5+5/25 = 20/25
Aria Roll 2: Build Monuments to Independence: Automatic Completion

Total Spending:
Still to be done

Prose: There and Here

Part 1: There

Internetometer- Aggregating scores from across the net for any movie

Empty Passages: Hunter's Planet

Critic Score: 98% Internet Score: 90%

Most Read Positive Reviews

Atlantis Interstellar Courier Dispatch: A magnificent prequel to the stellar Empty Passages [...] Hunter's Planet documents the change of Robespierre from an innocent believer into a hardened fanatic.

Yobal Reviews: Tightly focused on Robespierre's backstory, Empty Passages: Hunter's Planet sticks closely to its theme of the hunt by opting to switch the silent emptiness of space for a dense, claustrophobic jungle.

MirrorRobespierre16: What's better than a movie with Robespierre? A movie about Robespierre! This movie made me tear up when Katie died in Robespierre's arms.

Most Read Negative Reviews

Cinema Considered: While Empty Passages reeked of innovation, Hunter's Planet runs from it, continuing a similar chase plot that answers questions we didn't need.

REalMEat2212: And the political shit is just… blatantly inserted. Like suuuure Robespierre just happens to meet a nice, noble augment prisoner who helps her. It was just so obvious that Katie was a blatant Mary-Sue political insert.

RobesPegMe: This movie turned my hardcore Robespierre into a uwu soft girl! Trash.

-

TierenH - My theory for part 3

So we know that like, part 3 is supposed to be the sequel to part 1, right? My theory is that after the charter force takes the systems back, they find evidence of a deeper conspiracy. Then, as one of the only ones who knows anything about it, Raleigh has to team up with Robespierre to take it down. Like maybe a rogue-super AI or something that set up all the incompetents that lead to the revolutions. And like, you have this 'can we trust her' tension where Robespierre says she's mad because the conspiracy betrayed the revolution, but they have to watch her closely, and like, big tension with Loria.

AzulDreamer

Nice, yeah I can see that. Though given that Robespierre was mentioned as having a 'augment-second-in-command' (like animal ears not spacer) I'm betting that Katie survived or like… is brought back by tech.

TierenH
Maybe she's the reason Robespierre is fighting. Like, AI brought her back as Cyborg and Robespierre wants to fight for her, but once she realizes it's just the AI she teams up with the good guys.

OrderedCollapse
I think that you all are sleeping on Nyame. They wouldn't have mentioned her as Robespierre's boss if she wasn't important. I think she's going to be like the big player.

MovieDetails
@AzulDreamer. I don't think so, there was a casting call leaked for a project we think is the sequel and it called they are casting for at least one cat-augment female for "Sarah McDougal", who is probably the second-in-Command.

Also a call for "Zephyr Hua". It's a guy, but we don't know much else. Name like that, badass mercenary?

AzulDreamer
Sarah could just be like, a fake name, and maybe they had to change casting for contract reasons. Let me have this!

-

Jolly ol' englander changed name to Knight of the Realm

Edinator: So you actually got knighted?

Knight of the Realm: Technically I got yeoman which is like, the low level version, major writer for two hit movies isn't enough for boss-corp to spring for knighting sadly

Edinator: Poor dear, life is so hard, you didn't get the full vacation package.

Knight of the Realm: Hey I'll have you know this is a vry important business trip. I needed to research as the new Head-Writer for the upcoming Potter Reboot.

Edinator: I'm sure this trip was very work-related.

Knight of the Realm: Hey they sent me, and I spent a good… 4 hours a day doing work-stuff.

Edinator: 4 hours? Well then, color me humbled.

Knight of the Realm: Also like, not to be iffy, but the like original writer was cool but kinnnnda anti-augment? Wanted to make sure I was a 'real woman' which is like a little far you know? I can see why they don't have her do interviews. But like I get it, she's pretty old, like… pre-Space old.

Edinator: Ugh.

Knight of the Realm: Yes. Also, guess what?

Edinator: Wut.

Knight of the Realm: Got an email on the third movie in the "Empty Passages" franchise, gonna have the overview sent in two weeks!

Edinator: Sweet, lemmi know when it comes in

Knight of the Realm: What, and offer you… spoilers? How could you even suggest such a thing?

Edinator: I just said to let me know when it comes in, what you do then is your choice.

-

Knight of the Realm: So, new overview is out and reviewed!

Knight of the Realm: Hey, new overview.

Edinator: I ain't gonna ask, I mean, I couldn't possibly ask for spoilers.

Knight of the Realm: F-uuuuu liar.

Edinator: Not gonna

Knight of the Realm: Then I'm so supplying them

Edinator: K

-

Knight of the Realm: F-you fine. They are going with the "Star Wars" esque 'bad part in the middle' vibe. Opens with the Charter Fleets coming to restore order, only for the like the Rebels to have way more ships and ambush them using suicde-bombers.

Edinator: Suicide bombers in space?

Knight of the Realm: On ships, ramming speed and all that. Point it, total loss. But that isn't the best part!

Edinator: …

Knight of the Realm: Raleigh bites it.

Edinator: Like… Captain Raleigh?

Knight of the Realm: Yeah, they are killing Captain Raleigh. Actually killing the hero of the first movie! And now his second in command Loria has to rally what ships remain to warn the charters.

Edinator: Chased by Robespierre no doubt? What an original plot!

Knight of the Realm: Oh shut up. You are ignoring the main point.

Edinator: Which is?

Knight of the Realm: Loria is the main character, I was the writer for Loria's scenes, I'm her writer. I could be writing for the main scene in this.

Edinator: Mmmmm, hope it goes well

Knight of the Realm: That doesn't sound positive.

Edinator: Just saying would be the first time someone took something from the writer when it was actually popular.

Knight of the Realm: … dammit. No, not fucking tell me stuff I don't want to hear.

Edinator: K

-

Knight of the Realm change name to THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL

Edinator: I ain't gonna say I told you so but…

THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL: I know. Dammit. Not only did I get Loria stolen from me, but I got fucking McDougal as my main writing duty

Edinator: McDougal?

THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL: And I quote "Captain Sarah McDougal, of the Universal Frontier Revolution Navy is an augment captain that acts as a second-in-command to Robespierre. A former VR star, when the revolution came Sarah clawed out her station owner's heart with her own claws, and has since become a captain in the RCN, renowned for her viciousness and fanaticism, beyond even Robespierre whom she is devoted to.

THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL: McDougal is a Dark Mirror to Loria. An augment who hates all non-augments and wishes to purge them, seeing Loria as a 'domesticated house-cat', she hates that Robespierre has such an interest in her, and while ordered to capture her, may simply kill her instead.
Edinator: Ouch.

THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL: Like, ugh, psycho augment is so fucking boring and yes if you want to know the VR star thing is 100% she did porn.

Edinator: Sorry. Hey could you ask the big-wig to maybe give you your person back?

THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL: No dice. He popped into the meeting for like, five second and popped out, looked super-busy, pretty sure I'm not getting anything on that front.

THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL: You know what?

Edinator: What?

THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL change name to GONNA SHOW THEM

Edinator: We aren't talking like… bomb here right?

GONNA SHOW THEM: F-no. I'm gonna do what I did last time when they gave me a shitty, near helpless love interest.

Edinator: You're gonna write the best damn character.

GONNA SHOW THEM: Hell yeah I'm gonna write the best damn character. I'm gonna have her like, talk about how she was forced into the VR lifestyle, and her ex-boss raped her. I'm gonna have a fucking moving speech that is gonna bring the audiance to fucking tears. They're gonna turn the entire 4th movie into her backstory cause it's so fucking compelling.

Edinator: K. Though like… maybe you should talk to an augment VR star?

GONNA SHOW THEM: ????

Edinator: Just like… if you are trying to make her compelling and 'real'?.

GONNA SHOW THEM: … not a bad idea. Hey, eddy, buddy, pal.

Edinator: Yes, I'll see about talking to some people.

GONNA SHOW THEM: I swear you know everyone. I bet this was just a way to get another would-be actor to me wasn't it?

Edinator: Yeah… sure you got me.

-

Unlogged Chat - TinyTinyFrogs

Redacteder: Hey, dropping some more interesting tid bits on the next empty passages. Apparently it's got a major focus on Augments, Loria is the star as a 'good augment' and there is a 'bad augment' fighting her.

Marx+AdamOTP : So you thinking some sort of major Augment revolte in the Frontier?

Redacteder: Only if the theory that this is preparing people for a way to see things. Good news is that the 'bad augment' is written by friend

Immortality4All: Still seems kinda far-fetched.

Redacteder: Yeah but… the big-wig in charge is stressed, and I'm… dunno. Maybe I just want to imagine I can do something, but I got the ear of the bad-augment writer, and she wants to write a good char, so I'm gonna try to push her to be as sympathetic one as I can. Not sure it will do anything but… I gotta do something. And sorry, I like my apartment too much to go out rioting.

-

Part 2: Here

"Mr. Zhang?"

Blaze sighed. It had started as such a good day.

Elysium fucking rocked. Get up at 12, walk around randomly till you find a block party and hang. Sure, he'd had to learn little rules, like 'finger food' that wasn't eaten with a knife and fork, (which like he kinda felt was unhygienic, but he'd be lying if he said he hadn't done it when drunk before so…), or that calling augments "my artie buddies" was actually offensive. And not something they actually enjoyed and found funny (he'd actually felt pretty shit about that one, he'd ended up sending a communique back to Waystation to check with Kelly if he'd been an ass the entire time she was one of his assistants.)

But like, no responsibilities. Just walk around, find a place to be, hang. Granted, he was not a fan of lines, and remembering you had to get your own stuff was haaaaard. Alex had come by after a Congress session and screamed about the state of his fridge. "I will give you a pet licence to clone a horse if you can show me you can make one goatdamn meal."

Like, did they have to be so mean about it?

Still, despite that, it was good. No one knew him as Mr. Zhang, bigshot Charter failson (not a new term, he had never been quite as bubbled as people thought). Nor was he Blaze Zhang, the embarrassing son of the Zhang family. He was just, like… Blaze. It was great. Which is why he knew it was going to be a bad day when someone referred to him as Mr. Zhang.

Especially since it wasn't even someone from Waystation.

"Hey, what's up?" Start with casual talk, at least until he figured out if they were some upwardly mobile sunflower who wanted him to enter politics as the 'good CEO', or like, someone who wanted to fuck with him over for being a former CEO and not stuck on Tatarus. It hadn't been bad at first but with the whole task force arriving… things were getting tense and… fuck maybe he should just head back to Waystation.

He knew he easily could get permission because Alex had used Ascension's joining 'no citizen may be forcibly extracted without consent of the planet' to argue that Blaze's stay violated this provision.

"Your mother sends her regards." The man said, looking for all the world like another party-goer having fun, and Blaze felt something drop in his pocket.

That was when he knew the day was going to be awful.

-

It was the afternoon by the time Blaze got to his apartment. It was stupid, delaying this wasn't going to help. It never did. He took time to make sure the windows and doors were closed, and headed into the bathroom. Then, under the pretence of actually thinking about cleaning himself (thank God for auto-cleaning robots, cleaning your house sounded like, really unhygienic and not in a fun way), he looked for any recording devices or cameras, and, once he was satisfied, finally opened the communique.

Perhaps with another charter, inside would be a high-tech hologram popping out. But MSI always did prefer low-tech when possible. No need to have a voice announcing something that was for limited ears. Even encoded, the handwriting is unmistakable. This was directly written by his mother.

My darling Blaze,

I am so glad to write to you, I have been sick with worry about you since the anarchist revolution swept through the outer colonies. Had I known that the colonies surrounding you were such beds of Anarchists, I never would have endangered you like that.

Well, at least it sounded like he wasn't being blamed for it. Which wasn't a surprise, Mother was always very fair about what was your failure or not, but… it was still a relief.

From what I understand, your colony, alone, was the only one not to have indiginous anarchists revolts. In this your blood has shown, and I am proud of you for that.

She was… proud? That was… probably good. She didn't give praise lightly but… he felt something was coming.

Do not worry, you will be liberated soon.

Annnd there it was. Wasn't like he didn't know the Task Force was here.

The nature of this liberation is… in flux. It may come via the Solarian Navy (make sure to meet with any Navy representatives who wish to make a good first impression), or it may come via a private force. Do not worry about such things. Instead I wish to convey the wonderful opportunity this has brought us.

Yep. This was it.

When the colonies are retaken, they will need governance, said governance cannot come from the executives that were once there. Not only did they prove incompetent, but even their kompromat has been publicized. They were responsible for this with their atrocities, even if revolution was the wrong path forward.

But you, you my darling, were untainted. The reasonable, good executive who was unfairly deposed and can lead to a healing between executives and workers that is so badly needed now.

And such healing will be needed, for the systems are an amazing opportunity. Radiant's broadcasting, Fliveon's resources, the projects of Ascension… It is a very profitable opportunity, one that you will be in charge of. Do not worry about the other Charters, many have already sold the assets at very discounted prices and those that have not… I will handle in due course. For now I need you to keep safe and prepare to be the head of an entire frontier region, just as I always knew you would be.

And please, I am devastatingly worried about you. Please write back to me, I will have someone pick up your message in three days.

Blaze tore the note to shreds. He didn't really need to, since any note like this you always took a lighter and burned it.

Dammit.

Of fucking course.

Of fucking course the Charters, his mother, would care. How stupid was it, to just imagine… this was going to last. These stupid anarchist bastards were fucked. They thought the Charter frontier fleets they'd faced were big. None of them really knew what the core had.

Dammit.

These stupid. Idiotic. Nice. Fucking bastards.

These stupid bastards who had him in parties, and smiled and treated him just like… Blaze. Fuck, he was going to George's BBQ in two weeks. Or Sara's Tea-n-alcohol thing. They all had no idea what was coming.

And he was going to rule over them.

Healing, reconciliation? He was too MSI to not know what that meant, but mother… he thought even mother might be wrong. It was a shocking thought but… there were no hidden gems here. They stupid fucking people were going to fight. They were already bunkering up and… and just… they weren't going to roll over. Any gems were going to be destroyed.

It was going to be a bloodbath. It was going to be the next Disney's Planet. And he was going to have to be in charge.

Dammit, anarchists were supposed to be distant psychotic freaks who killed stuff for fun. Not people he… partied with.

Dammit.

After much deliberation. Blaze came to one conclusion: he really, really needed a drink.

He could deal with Mendez chewing him out about it later.

Amorous Intent said:
Rehab Riot: In a pushback to calls for Tartarus to be ended, opponents are raising questions about the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs for executives, pointing to examples of recidivism among them. The most recent example being one "Blaze Zhang", someone previously hailed as a model of the program, who was taken in for drunk and disorderly conduct by a local volunteer defence committee.

Sadly Radiant's rumour mill has gone full force, and a instance of 'got drunk and ranted about how none of this stupid thing was going to work or last and it was pointless' before being called in by his 'rehabilibuddy' and tossed in the drunk tank, has became 'ranted about how the Commonwealth deserved to fall and he'll be in charge again' before getting in a bar brawl. One can only imagine what will happen by the time it gets to Waystation.

-

Industrial Committee Reports:

-

Expand Energy Collection Operations on Five Lions 10b to Level 2 (Quality 12)
Begin Energy Collection Operations on Five Lions 10a (Quality 5)

We came, we saw, we took a nap, we conquered.

To be serious, while energy projects are some of the least glamorous projects possible, they're vital for securing our logistical needs both military and civilian.

To that end, I'm pleased to report that we've taken several more steps towards permanent energy security, and all while using less men and material.

-Jason Rodzi
All-Amaranth Orbital Construction Union

I don't know what's so boring, we actually got to upgrade an existing collection facility for once! And not a single member of my time died or ended up in the hospital. This is a triumph of the new system!

-Daniel Chou
Foreman, Deep-25 Collective, Five Lions

Project Completion: Automatic

Project Result: Increase E Production Infrastructure to Level 2 on Five Lions 10b, +2 to Five Lions Integration

Project Result: Increase E Production Infrastructure to Level 1 on Five Lions 10a, +2 to Five Lions Integration

-

Harden Radiant: Civil Defence

Radiant's bunker project has been completed successfully. Defining successfully as 'able to withstand orbital bombardment up to specs.'

Thanks to our own advice they were able to design bunkers as mutually supporting organic networks, rather than as scattered independent outposts that would be easily taken apart one by one.

That said, while these networks are up to artillery resistant standards, Radiant has taken their own…. Weird approach to it. They have opted to avoid the more efficient community bunkers in favour of individual 'hobbit homes'. These homes were designed for… and I wish I was making this up. Comfort. When I tried explaining that perhaps they should listen to our own generations of expertise the Elysian response from one so-called 'interior designer' was "I mean if we are going to be living in these for a long time doesn't comfort matter?" as well as "but it's so cute". Those who have already worked with our allies before will be familiar with their… eccentricities.

I have at least convinced them to keep such frivolities within the living areas, and opt for more defensible entrances and transportation networks. The biggest personal worry is the number of home bunkers close to the surface, created as a result of personal projects. These bunkers could be easily taken by even Ares conscript fortification busting teams and many on Elysium are not prepared for further measures should they be put to siege.

That said, as inefficient and ridiculous as these bunkers are, their technology allowed them to complete it to our highest military standards.

Home Colonel Marietta Hakamoto
Sheol Army Liaison to MilComm

Project Completion: 32/20

Projected Results: In the event of a Compact or Charter Occupation we will have reduced civilian casualties. The bunkers are also very cosy.

-

Build Monuments to Independence

With the fourth anniversary of the March days having arrived there was a groundswell of organic support organized around the design and construction of monuments to Elysian Independence and the Amaranthine Revolutionary Wave.

Thanks especially to the work done by and on Ascension's ARIA network, the Elysian population was able to break ground a number of monuments shortly after the new year and hold christening ceremonies during the now-annual celebration of the March Days.

While everywhere touched by the Revolution from the recently renamed Five Lions City to Chinook's outermost reaches has built something to mark the anniversary, the centerpiece of our efforts have been concentrated in Persephone city.

As the airbase serving the former Persephone Police Department's Rapid Response Unit overlooking Persephone had been demolished in 2252, it was judged a suitable site for building a sprawling park that would host numerous memorials to the fallen as well as now becoming the generally agreed upon site of the Amaranthine Commonwealth's National Cemetery.

The Centerpiece of the Commonwealth Garden is a large statue of a weeping man and woman said to represent the grieving parents of Amaranth's war dead, and this statue is surrounded by cenotaphs dedicated to those lost in combat since the March Days.

In a macabre nod to current events, only 2% of the space set aside for war memorials has been used as of yet.

Project Completion: Automatic

Projected Results: +5 Trust Bonus

-

Military Committee Reports

Create internal security division

The first graduates of the Permanent Commission for Counter Espionage (Motto: "On Guard for Thee") have entered service and PCCE cadres have already begun reporting in from locations as far afield as Ascension.

As the PCPS is not intended to be either a police or a militia, they've been placed under civilian oversight and are specifically deployed unarmed, with the intention that they be forced to call on the local System Defence Armies, the Congressional Navy, or the Congressional Liberation Army Corps

As a further measure PCCE agents have also been permanently barred from serving in the CROW and vice versa in an attempt to create a firewall between our covert services, and all communication through both organisations MUST be conducted via the office of the Defence Coordinator, at the request of DC Awhina herself.

While the idea of police as protecting anything but capital has been thoroughly discredited by four years of careful public messaging, the PCCE has paid one extra dividend. Previously the population had felt that their concerns about Compact and Charter espionage and sabotage were being ignored, leading to the explosive growth of the vigilante neighbourhood committees organized under the banner of "Volunteer Defence Committees" across many Amaranthine communities.

With the deployment of PCCE cadres across the Commonwealth, the VDCs have been in large part disbanded with a small minority of members being subordinated into support staff for the PCCE and a plurality of the remainder being directed into System Defence Army reserve military training programs. This professionalization of counter-espionage has brought a close to concerns in the Military Committee of uncontrolled paranoid vigilantes acting against the interests of the Commonwealth.

Project Completion: 60/40

Projected Results: Gain an anti-charter dirty tricks security group, bodyguarding, counter-espionage, etc. This makes charter sabotage more difficult, and slightly increases the Permanent Commission for Military Intelligence bonus.

-

Find a New Defence Coordinator

See Vote below

Project Completion: Automatic

Projected Results: Unlock vote, bonus based on coordinator chosen (candidates may have limited communication if away)

-

Fortify the Radiant-Xotreh Gate
Fortify the Radiant-Gaid Gate
Fortify the Radiant-Shei Gate
Fortify the Radiant-Akleod Gate

The Radiant system is, in the words of my colleage Arthur Āo Hén "fortified as fuck".

It's pretty amazing, a few years it took three months for only a single field of fixed defences to be completed. But in the last quarter we've completed four times that amount. Unless we are attacked by ghost-zombie ships from Kimbery, any attacker is going to be buzzsawed by our gate defences.

That said, I would caution that an attack thrown in by a larger force will be able to force our gates by simple weight of numbers and mass of armour and it will be hard to micro a defence in the close quarters of a gate defence.

Especially if 'they' come after us with a Dreadnaught.

My recommendation? Ensure that we always have a mobile force ready to reinforce any of our fixed gate defences.

Commodore Erina Kozlova
CO, Home Force

Project Completion: Automatic

Projected Results: Gates, Gates everywhere

-

Science Committee Reports

Automated spacecraft manufacturing breakthrough

Our pivot away from FRM cracking has gone poorly.

Not to say that we aren't making progress, it's simply a period of reorganisation so that we can better support pure research operations.

At this rate it will probably be another three to six months before our hopes of Automated Space Manufacturing are realised as initially proposed.

Dr. Brian Canata
Team Spokesman, Automation Committee

Project Progress: 16/???

Projected Results: Unlock new technological capabilities

-

Assist with Prototype Wormhole research -FTL Communications

I take full responsibility for our poor performance these last few months.

However! In our defence I would like to point out that our delays on Project Pegasus are not the fault of my team being lazy or stupid.

Our delays have been caused in the main by exercising an abundance of caution with Compact eyes so close to Elysium.

We have also seen delays by initiating close collaboration with the Permanent Commission on Counter Espionage.

The fact that one of our labs suffered a major power failure during a critical test is also not a fault on the part of my team. It was my responsibility to oversee the reactivation of ATHENA-6.

With these explanations in mind, I offer my own resignation if it will prevent hardship for my team as they have made exemplary progress in the face of these limitations and setbacks.

Stephen Mann
Closed Session of the Gravitational Physics Council of the Science Committee

Dice Bonus: +18
Project Progress: 47/???

Projected Result: Unlocks Wormhole Communications Prototype

-

Compress FRM data

[The verbage for this will be added later, for now, y'all completed it, congrats and milk n cookies all around.]

[AI don't just skip over this and actually write this section you little–]

Dice Bonus: +5
Project Completion: 65/60

Projected Results: Compress FRM data for transmission

-

Social Committee Reports

Training Days: Expand Treatment Capacity

The Expanded Capacity program has gotten off to a slow start.

Simply speaking, we seem to be reaching the boundaries of what the Elysian population can accomplish without emergency measures. We're talking about recruiting from the same pool of civic minded volunteers as the Congressional Nav, the VDCs, the Elysian System Defence Army, the community militias, social judicials, library staff, and others.

While we've had some success with enrolling new volunteers in the training program, they're not evenly distributed over the planet, and aren't in large enough measures for full coverage.

It is our hope that one more push will bring in the numbers we need by picking up volunteers from other groups as they finish training elsewhere and become aware of the program after sufficient advertising time.

Tamara Elo
Elysian Nurses Union Spokesperson

Dice Bonus: +5
Project Completion: 11/25
Projected Results: In the event of a Compact or Charter Occupation we will have reduced civilian casualties. Reduce rollout costs of any future medical breakthroughs made or cracked.

-

Expand BLG with household nanofabricators

While all the previous issues with household fabber uptake remain (unfamiliarity, greater patience, loss of communal interaction), the threat of the Charters' return has seen near universal adoption as a security measure.

Even the most pacifist Amaranthine who would never print a gun is still worried about the availability of food and medicine during an occupation.

Incidentally, paired with the wave of so-called "Bunker-Madness", the widespread availability of household nanofabricators has increased the ability of grassroots projects to begin and complete without direct assistance from the General Congress. We may be entering a new era of local autonomy.

Dice Bonus: +5
Project Completion: 59/40

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

-

Found Youth Organisation

Thanks in large part to the assistance of Ascension and their ARIA network, grassroots campaigns to set up an Amaranth wide network of youth organisations has been greatly accelerated.

Instead of organisers planning to grow the organisation over the course of years, they've instead seen a rapid increase in membership in a matter of months.

While a great deal of that can be chalked up to greater visibility and the use of the ARIA network to link the disparate youth wings of thousands of organisations together, we must also recognize the current fears of war and occupation as a contributing factor.

Simply speaking, parents and children both want to be prepared for anything and to have connections with their neighbours, so that even if information networks are taken offline local kids will still be able to meet up and organise events.

Though this still growing and poorly defined organisation is still nascent, the local cadres are planning to apply for membership in the Social Committee and apply directly for formal recognition and patronage from the General Congress during their first all-members convention.

These cadres even plan to involve the General Congress in selecting the final formal name of their organisation.

Dice Bonus: +5
Project Completion: 20/25

Project Results: Add Youth Organisation to SocComm as a +2 bonus to Youth, Education, and Civics rolls as well as other potential bonuses.

Media Committee Reports

-

Begin Agitation within Solarian Navy Task Force 12.7

It's shocking, but it appears that the Solarian Navy is entirely unconcerned with Amaranthine agents stirring up dissent or gathering information from their crews. In fact the Solarian Navy's officers seem eager to encourage their crews to participate in "supplemental income" schemes of various sorts during their port visits up and down the Osliam, even while in Ascension itself, a system they know has restive tendencies.

Our initial attempts to make contact with disgruntled enlisted spacers and contractors have been wildly successful, with contact even being made with a small group of junior officers who are members of a radical reading circle aboard the flagship, SNS Cadance Sokolova herself.

While the Solarian Navy's crews are less mutinous than we'd like to believe, conditions are still deplorable compared to those aboard Congressional Navy craft. It is unlikely that, barring extreme luck, we will be unable to have entire craft's crews defect to the Commonwealth. Instead we hope to paralyse the fleet with strikes and sabotage on the part of crews and contractors.

Alexander Camrom
PCMI Analyst

Disturbingly, our look at the internal operations of Task Force 12.7 has revealed that the force was dispatched as part of a larger plan.

On the one hand, they seem disinclined to take the initiative absent the other shoe dropping, on the other hand, it's worrying that there even is another shoe that they're waiting on beyond orders from New York.

We will do our best to uncover what exactly the Solarian Navy's plans are, but we were lucky to even gather what we have so far.

Cameron Axelander
PCMI Analyst

Dice Bonus: +11
Project Progress: Automatic

Projected Results: Makes contact with SolNav Enlisted, opens up new projects

-

Document Charter Abuses, Five Lions

In a fitting capstone of Five Lion's admission to the Amaranthine Commonwealth, we are proud to announce the opening of the Five Lions Museum of Caste War.

Accessible both digitally and physically, the Museum of Caste War documents the many shocking events that unfolded under Rhodes's de facto Caste System, with a heavy focus on the system's cost to Five Lions in particular.

While more than a few persons may still hold nostalgia in their hearts for the 'old days' I ask that they walk through this museum, and then come back to look me in the eye and say that.

The caste system turned worker against worker under a system which encouraged its members to view those 'below' them with suspicion and contempt, and those above with reverent awe. Backs were broken and children neglected for changes in number, like the infamous gruelling grind to move from a grade-4 technician to a grade-5 one. A promotion with nearly no pay changes, only the privilege of having a larger number next to your name..

I know some here fear this sort of open dialogue. "What will Radiant or Chinook think?" they ask.

Some answer that question with "They will look upon us as lesser, they will pity us". To those of you who say such, well I say: are we weaker than Radiant? More willing to shy from the sun?

The Elysians posted Hermes-Ishtar' abuses and misdeeds for all the galaxy to see. Has that made them weaker in your eyes?

I doubt it.

In my eyes, it has made them stronger, as a people, because confronting one's past is among the greatest of courages. It is hard to confront the sins that lie in memory, but harder perhaps to confront being sinned upon, to acknowledge that one was hurt, and the weakness that let someone do it. But hiding that weakness only lets it continue, and only by confronting it can we move on.

Jordan Ordo
Head of Five Committee on the Caste Atrocity Museum (Opening Speech)

Dice Bonus: +11
Project Progress: 24/15

Projected Results: ~~Add a dice bonus to foreign relations,~~ add +5 to Five Lions integration, along with narrative advantages.
[All Documents added to GOC-Charter Abuse]
-

Propaganda Project: Solarians Go Home!

Not every crewman of the Solarian Navy may be willing to revolt, but every crewman is willing to gripe, and there is nothing more I love than griping. Every single gripe is one more point of data for crafting the perfect narrative. "You officers don't care about us," the spacers and soldiers mutter. "You dragged us out in the middle of nowhere to do god knows what to god-knows-who." They all have similar bitches.

We can tell them, "No one here wants you and your guns here, so why risk yourself? Just don't try," right? We say, "You only need to take a few steps out, call it good enough and go back to base." Then we hit them with, "The Elysians are going to target those who are eager and about patrolling first, so don't. Just stay in your barracks."

The biggest danger, in my opinion, is the possibility of Solarian propaganda painting us (not entirely inaccurately) as the ones who caused the Compact wide chaos via our broadcast, and therefore endangered the lives of those they love back home.

In such a case propaganda must be carefully managed, as the Soldiers and Spacers will no longer be apathetic to the occupation, but could be actively hostile and enthusiastic about making it as painful as possible for us.

Should they attempt that route, we want to focus on the so-called 'poverty draft' aspect of the Solarian enlistment. That those back home are most likely fighting the compact, not defending it, and that we have given them nothing but the ability to fab their own items, fab their own food, and to literally live forever.

-Excerpt from PCMI briefing

Dice Bonus: +11
Project Progress: 31/30

Projected Results: In the event of a Compact or Charter Occupation we will have expanded resistance options and a greater array of dice bonuses.

-

Remaining Omake Bonuses:
IndComm:
N/A
MilComm:
Somewhere on Sheol…, Somewhere on Sheol… 2,
SciComm:
N/A
SocComm:
N/A
MedComm:
Upside Down (Show Summary), Meme Research 101 Lecture Notes, Cattle Runners, weFALL2gether,

-

To mark the occasion of it being exactly four years to the day since the founding of the All-Radiant Congress, the Elysian people have led the charge on an Amaranth wide celebration, one that is capped off with the dual opening of the Commonwealth Garden memorialising those who gave their lives in service of Independence and Revolution and the simultaneous resignation of Defence Coordinator Maria Awhina.

The headline speaker at the dedication of the memorial, Awhina pays tribute to the sacrifice of her comrades, outlines the state that the Military Committee finds itself in, and then ends her speech by announcing her immediate retirement from the position of Defence Co-ordinator.

Her speech ends on her simply citing her desire to initiate a tradition of peaceful transfer of military power and her excitement to be handing over leadership of the defence of the Commonwealth over to the next generation.

While former DC Awhina takes up a new position as the CROW's Training Lead, the General Congress of the Amaranthine Commonwealth has already selected her replacement, effective immediately.

After a previous week of heated debate (The only kind Amaranthine democracy seems capable of at times) Awhina's replacement seamlessly slides into the office of Defence Coordinator, Amaranthine Commonwealth.

That individual is:

[ ] [DC] Admiral Gregory Mansur. Grandfather of the Navy

Name: Gregory Mansur
DoB: 2190
Current Position: CO: Radiant System Self Defence Force,MilComm Chief of Naval Operations

A Radiant native, Mansur was the son of two Space Patrol Officers, and was so inspired by their service that he followed his fathers into the Space Patrol at the earliest opportunity.

Over the course of a long career Mansur served on each and every vessel in Radiant's Space Patrol, eventually commanding Buckler and then the Space Patrol himself when his mentor retired in 2239.

As Commander, Space Patrol Mansur spent twelve long years fighting Hermes-Ishtar criticism and ever-shrinking budgets and somehow preserved a small force of three vessels when various Hermes-Ishtar execs insisted that the Space Patrol could get by with two, or even one, vessels.

When the March Days arrived Mansur was inspired most of all by love of his homeworld and the desire to see it freed from Charter control, and turned the ageing weapons of the Space Patrol on the Hermes-Ishtar fighter squadrons fueling for sorties against groundside protests, provided the orbital lanes for the revolution's nascent drop militias, and then later hunted down the charter loyalist couriers attempting to flee Radiant.

A candidate for MilComm's first Defence Coordinator, Mansur instead was chosen to serve under DC Maria Awhina as the de facto head of the Congress' space born military.

While he still has yet to personally participate in a force on force battle, Mansur has seen to the construction, refit, crewing, supply, and care of Amaranthine's craft and crews for nearly four years as well as having de jure command of Radiant's System Self Defence Force.

During the implementation of universal immortality, Mansur insisted on maintaining his aged appearance, declaring that he'd 'earned every wrinkle', an unusual move that in conjunction with his well known concern for spacers' and soldiers' quality of life has seen him be given the nickname, "Grandfather of the Navy" by his crews.

Though Mansur has begrudgingly accepted DC Awhina's rapid professionalisation of the Navy and Liberation Army, more often than not he has taken the side of crews and civilians in complaints against their officers and politicians whenever such matters have come before the Supreme Council of the Military Committee of the Amaranthine Commonwealth.

If selected as Defence Coordinator, Mansur vows to continue bolstering the Congressional Navy as Amaranth's premier military arm, focusing on expanding the fleet, vastly expanding the fleet's organic supply and resupply, and creating additional fallback positions in friend space should the Congressional Navy be called on to act as a Fleet In Being during an invasion.

Pros:
-Veteran spacer
-Has connections with Radiant's entire orbital community
-Can do more with less
-Built the modern Navy from nothing
-Beloved by the Fleet

Cons:
-Space First Focus.
-Elysian First and Foremost.
-No combat experience.

Command Traits:
-Patient
-Casualty Adverse
-Logistically Minded

[ ] [DC] Commodore Erina Kozlova. Gamer, Veteran, Political Admiral

Name: Erina Kozlova
DoB: 2217
Current Position: CO: Home Force, Radiant

Another Elysium Native, Erina's parents were mid level Hermes-Ishtar marketing executives who raised Erina to follow in their footsteps. Sadly for them, from an early age Erina developed a love of space travel and military history.

Her later academic pursuits show this as she specialized in the mechanics and theory of space travel during her time at university, until her parent's connections got her a job with the Marketing department of a Hermes-Ishtar subsidiary that made spacecraft training and safety programs.

During her day job Erina would volunteer to speak with actual spacers and engineers, collecting valuable data to be applied to her team's projects. At night Erina would spend upwards of half of her waking hours playing XR games and simulations focused around space travel and space combat. By January 2251 Erina was not only promoted to department head, but one of the top players in several competition rated multiplayer space based strategy and tactical games.

When the March Days began Erina shocked her parents by not only joining in the street protests, but by becoming a leader of the movement who led several pushes against Hermes-Ishtar's planetary HQ before Yang was captured.

After the March Days, Erina was considered for the role of Defence Coordinator but was passed over in favour of the more experienced Maria Awhina. Erina instead served as Awhina's Chief of Staff and helped the DC organize the liberation of Sheol and the creation of the Congressional Navy.

During the Navy's early expansion Erina was selected to serve as the Commanding Officer of Home Force and participated in Second Gaid from the command deck of the CNS Blaire Mountain and has remained in that position since, while writing several papers for the newly founded MilComm Defence Review outlining her thoughts on military strategy and keeping in contact with her allies in the General Congress.

Pros:
-Brilliant tactical and strategic mind
-Charismatic
-Military Experience
-Politically Connected
-Energetic

Cons:
-Seen as a "Political Admiral"
-Dismissive of the impact of planetary warfare
-Micromanager

Command Traits:
-Quick Thinker
-Casualty Insensitive
-Stubborn

-

[ ] [DC] General Carl McConnell. Self Taught Soldier Poet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If selected as Defence Coordinator, Carl McConnell vows to vastly strengthen the position of the System Defence Armies, centralise the military chain of command, and devote the Military Committee to an in depth reorganisation of it's invasion plans to emphasis a coordinated defence and maintaining operational security and communications links in the event of an occupation.

Pros:
-Experienced close quarters leader
-Experience running illegal organisations under Charter scrutiny
-Understands bunkers
-Not an Elysian figure
-Experienced Negotiator and Orator

Cons:
-Little spaceborn experience
-Radiant cultureshock
-Complete unknown to most of MilComm

Command Traits:
-Unyielding
-Patient
-Aggressive

-

[ ] [DC] Samantha Reed. Concerned Politician

[file image corrupted]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Reed's position she has become appalled at the independence shown by the professional military and the subservience of the System Defence Armies to the Navy and Liberation Army and her candidacy for Defence Coordinator is based around her desire to keep the military firmly under civilian control and to decentralise chains of command to local in the event of an occupation.

Though she doesn't deny the usefulness of the CN and CLAC, Reed has designs of breaking the System Defence Armies away from the "Professional" chain of command and elevating them to an equal branch as the "Professional" services as well as initiating a program of "local defence" which decentralises System Defence Army militia components to the direct command of local civilian authorities.

Pros:
-Civilian Control of the Military
-Front line veteran
-Politician Respected by active military
-Reformer
-Politically Connected

Cons:
-Civilian
-Reformer
-Single Issue

Command Traits:
-Casualty Adverse
-Delegator
-Stubborn

Thalton · Mar 6, 2022

So happy I caught this right before bed.

Trent01 · Mar 6, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
And such healing will be needed, for the systems are an amazing opportunity. Radiant's broadcasting, Fliveon's resources, the projects of Ascension… It is a very profitable opportunity, one that you will be in charge of. Do not worry about the other Charters, many have already sold the assets at very discounted prices and those that have not… I will handle in due course. For now I need you to keep safe and prepare to be the head of an entire frontier region, just as I always knew you would be.

And please, I am devastatingly worried about you. Please write back to me, I will have someone pick up your message in three days.

......don't suppose we could roll with this as a backup backup doomsday plan? In event of catastrophic defeat and conquest, better the devil you know than the devil you do not. And when the devil is a alcoholic partygoer with a style of authority that has a "proven" track record of ZERO violent revolt that required external rebel intervention to topple, a devil we can work with to ensure survival and preservation of a kernel of hope under the auspices of one who shant look too closely at the documents being signed so long as the alcohol flows.

Amorous Intent said:
Compress FRM data

[The verbage for this will be added later, for now, y'all completed it, congrats and milk n cookies all around.]

[AI don't just skip over this and actually write this section you little–]

Wow its so compressed even the fluff is compressed!

More seriously: YAY glad this got done in time.

Amorous Intent said:
It's shocking, but it appears that the Solarian Navy is entirely unconcerned with Amaranthine agents stirring up dissent or gathering information from their crews. In fact the Solarian Navy's officers seem eager to encourage their crews to participate in "supplemental income" schemes of various sorts during their port visits up and down the Osliam, even while in Ascension itself, a system they know has restive tendencies.

....wat.

Sidegigs. Offer all the sidegigs to these ratings and make it in Solar Navy interests that they can make more profit with us than waging war.

Amorous Intent said:
Disturbingly, our look at the internal operations of Task Force 12.7 has revealed that the force was dispatched as part of a larger plan.

On the one hand, they seem disinclined to take the initiative absent the other shoe dropping, on the other hand, it's worrying that there even is another shoe that they're waiting on beyond orders from New York.

We will do our best to uncover what exactly the Solarian Navy's plans are, but we were lucky to even gather what we have so far.

Cameron Axelander
PCMI Analyst

Thanks for the heads up. 12.7 is the obvious play, so whats the subtle one intended to be? Knowing we need to get looking gets us halfway there already.

masterofmadness · Mar 6, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
[ ] [DC] Commodore Erina Kozlova. Gamer, Veteran, Political Admiral

Pros:
-Brilliant tactical and strategic mind
-Charismatic
-Military Experience
-Politically Connected
-Energetic

Cons:
-Seen as a "Political Admiral"
-Dismissive of the impact of planetary warfare
-Micromanager

Command Traits:
-Quick Thinker
-Casualty Insensitive
-Stubborn

I'm thinking Erina for my first pick.

Given the situation we are in and the revelation that the Sol Navy fleet is not only not likely to fully defect but part of a bigger push. Well, I think "Brilliant tactical and strategic mind" is needed and really, I only wanted to pass her over the firat time because she lacked experience, now she has it.

As for her downside? Well, people can think what they want as long as she does a good job. Perception is important but not if it weakens our army at a time like this. Being dismissive of planetary warfare... well the important combat will probably be in space if we want to win. Micromanager is bad but not unmanageable.

LucidProp · Mar 6, 2022

[ ] [DC] General Carl McConnell. Self Taught Soldier Poet

Out of everyone in this list, McConnell has my vote.

Initially, I wanted Erina, but her dismissal of planetary military operations is incredibly detrimental to our needs. We need to organize our defenses planetside due to the very real risk that the enemy gets past our navy. Not only that, but helping free other planets from the Charters will require boots on the ground unless we just want to indiscriminately bombard everything.

As for Carl himself, he's basically perfect for the job. He can utilize our bunkers to their utmost, something that'll prove to be crucial in the coming days, and he also synergizes very well with our focus on running beneath the Charter's noses to set-up revolts on their planets and spread our message. Not only that, but handing the seat of Defense Coordinator to a non-Radiant native emphasizes unity and equality with our allies, showing them that Radiant isn't pretending to be their king.

T_of_A · Mar 6, 2022

I'm sure I'm completely missing the main point of the "show writers texting" plotline, but I will say that it's been getting me increasingly hyped about the broadcast.

veteranMortal · Mar 6, 2022

I would like a gamer navy

[X] [DC] Commodore Erina Kozlova. Gamer, Veteran, Political Admiral

DocMatoi · Mar 6, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
I don't know what's so boring, we actually got to upgrade an existing collection facility for once! And not a single member of my time died or ended up in the hospital. This is a triumph of the new system!

ah the power of being able to just step over the bar

Joppe · Mar 6, 2022

[ ] [DC] General Carl McConnell. Self Taught Soldier Poet

I think that McConnel is the best choice here, though Kozlova would be my first choice if it wasn't for the fact that we are likely to end up fighting a long term ground campaign. Being able to pick an officer from outside Elysium is also a nice bonus.

That said, I'm kinda disappointed we didn't get the option to pick a hardened Sheolite veteran, since many of their former officers are serving in our army. That would have been an ideal choice for fighting a protracted people's war.

clockworkchaos · Mar 6, 2022

Trent01 said:
......don't suppose we could roll with this as a backup backup doomsday plan? In event of catastrophic defeat and conquest, better the devil you know than the devil you do not. And when the devil is a alcoholic partygoer with a style of authority that has a "proven" track record of ZERO violent revolt that required external rebel intervention to topple, a devil we can work with to ensure survival and preservation of a kernel of hope under the auspices of one who shant look too closely at the documents being signed so long as the alcohol flows.

One of the low-key themes of Tyrants is that the system is corrupt. Blaze, when cut off from the system and certain he could blame anything on us, did prove to be a surprisingly non-harmful choice, the closest thing to a 'good CEO' you will find in this universe. Blaze in a conquest scenario will not be cut off from the system, and he knows it.

TalonofAnathrax said:
I'm sure I'm completely missing the main point of the "show writers texting" plotline, but I will say that it's been getting me increasingly hyped about the broadcast.

"The writer thought it would be amusing. Also Rowling is now so reactionary people don't even know what she's talking about now."

Angelform · Mar 6, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL change name to GONNA SHOW THEM

Edinator: We aren't talking like… bomb here right?

GONNA SHOW THEM: F-no. I'm gonna do what I did last time when they gave me a shitty, near helpless love interest.

Edinator: You're gonna write the best damn character.

THEY STOLE MY CATGIRL:

Name change didn't stick.

[X] [DC] Admiral Gregory Mansur. Grandfather of the Navy
[X] [DC] Commodore Erina Kozlova. Gamer, Veteran, Political Admiral
Call me an optimist but I would rather go with one of the two with some knowledge of how to take and hold enemy systems, as well as defend our own, than with the bunker expert.

CyberFemme · Mar 6, 2022

[X] [DC] Commodore Erina Kozlova. Gamer, Veteran, Political Admiral

The bunkers are a backup plan, our main goal is still to win the space war and Erina is the best we have for that.

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

Been Better

Love the future

A Fountain of Quest Ideas

Pocky Eating MafiaDoka

Gay and Stupid

Theoretical Lover of Girls