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.

DISCORD LINK:

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clockworkchaos · Apr 19, 2022

The Laurent said:
Nope. They're officially an AIC member, though they're probably not going to be shouting and throwing things at 12.7 as they pass, understandably enough.

They can truthfully say they had no issues with Blaze and a lot of nostalgia for him.

(They also don't really have any issues with AIC and Immortality is nice...)

clockworkchaos · Apr 19, 2022

14 Days Stories: Marcy Collins Goes Straight

This tour was, in Sasha's opinion, bullshait. "Look, at least we get out of school right?" Anna had offered. Sasha rolled her eyes, as she knew full well that Anna didn't even have the decency to mind school. No, Anna just happened to be one of those awful people who try to find the bright side of everything. It wouldn't have been so offensive if Anna had the decency to have a reason for it. Like if being a DemOrc Augment that stood about a foot above taller than anyone else that could bench press half-again her weight meant that she didn't have to fear anything. But the way that she hunched down and tried to make herself as small and harmless looking as possible as the bus stopped and they got off showed how stupid that was. No Anna was just positive.

As they assembled, the guard started the spiel about 'horrible outcomes of crime, here so that you learn to stay safe'. Sasha wasn't paying attention, not only was it bullshit, but she'd notice something more interesting. Most people here were from Leesville Jr High, or one of the other public schools. But there was one girl… dressed way too nice, and in some private school uniform. Leesville kids didn't go to these, least not with kids from "Sleazeville". Which met she was, possibly, interesting, so Sasha walked over. "Hey, names Sasha. You?"

The other kid looked up, seemingly startled that she was just ignoring the guards. "Oh um… Marcy." She offered, not elaborating anything else. Stupid Upper prig. She was too alone and to brown to be a fucking Columbia, but still, fucking prig. Sasha was about to go back when she noticed the guards talking about 'bad influences' and looking at Anna, who's attempts tbe less noticeable were rather ruined by her completely back skin and bright blue hair.

Sasha was offended. "Hoy, Sarah! Que pasa?" The bit of street lingo got an annoyed look from the teachers but nothing from the guards. Apparently they didn't care about enforcing proper english. Fine, she could do better. Sasha began to loudly hum the Broadcast tune under her breath, earning her the attention from the guards, and her proper place as the recognized 'bad influence' she'd worked hard for and wasn't going to let Anna take. Also it was a darn catchy tune.

The guards started giving some lecture there that she totally ignored and the guards herded them onto the boat. Most of the other kids, apparently recognizing when Sasha was being awesome, opted to sit away from her, minus Anna who was hovering between a vague obligation to support her and a immense desire to avoid more guard attention, a stupid dilemma to which Sasha massively rolled her eyes. In the end, the problem was addressed when Marcy ende up sitting next to her, she wasn't sure if it was because Marcy wanted to, or the space around meant that she didn't have to sit next to too many of 'the poors'. Either way, Sash was using the space to lean back and rest her feet on the empty seat ahead.

"So uh,'" Sasha turned as Marcy apparently finally decided to speak up, at least until Sasha had turned to her and cowed her. Now she was silent, her only motion rotating a pencil in her hand.

"Speak up."

"Um… what… did you do?" Sasha eyes' narrowed, inviting her to go on. "To um… have to go on the program?"

"Do?" Sasha snorted. "Go to public school."

"What?" The other girl asked, looking confused, even so, the pencil continued to spin. She wasn't spinning it exactly, or not a full spin. A half spin, pause, another half-spin, pause, in a rhythmic motion.

"Mandatory trip for all 8th-graders. Gotta 'keep us on the right path."

The pencil finally stopped for a moment. "Oh." out of the corner of her eye, she looked at Anna.

"Anna's the same age as everyone else." Sasha snapped. Sending Marcy leaning back. Then, deciding to dig in a bit. "But tell me, what did you do to get in here, private-kid?"

"I um…" the pencil started up again. "I didn't mean to, I was just trying to look stuff up and-" here her voice got quiet enough that Sasha couldn't even make it out. "But um... as long as I did this, I wouldn't get any jail time."

"Hey, you!" one of the guards snapped at Sasha. "Stop trying to distract her!" Cutting off any further attempts to interrogate her as they talked bullshit about this being the last place on earth any of those criminal elements would see blah-blah-blah.

As they got off the boat, Sasha made her way back to the main crowd, their curiosity now overcoming worry about notice. "So what was she like? Why is she here? Is she like…" the kid didn't finish.

Frankly Sasha was pretty sure she was here because of some rich kid bullshit, but she was going to be damned if she let that be the story she was going to tell everyone else. "Well, she wouldn't say, except that as long as she did this, her parents got her out of jail time. She's quiet but… well you know the quiet ones."

"Did she actually have a knife!?" Katherine asked.

"Yeah-" Sasha began

"Bullshit, it was a pencil." Terrance interrupted, because he was a little shit.

"Well obviously they wouldn't let a knife knife in." Sasha said, like it was the most obvious thing ever. "But she had that thing sharpened to a shiv's point, and let me tell you, she liked doing tricks with it, knew how to handle it, if you know what I mean." Any more objections Terrance had were easily battered aside by the enthusiasm of the other students.

Marcy was the bad kid.

The other kids were whispering about her. Leesville kids were whispering about her, as the bad kid. The one who actually did something to get here. Of course that many kids weren't all bad.

Marcy had never been the bad kid.

She hadn't even meant to, and…

And she wasn't even sure how much she could say that anymore.

Because it turned out that season 5 (the good season) and season 7 (which was the best) were written by anarchists who had just pushed IP theft on everyone. Which might be a problem for her when her parents weren't too busy with everything else to make the connection. But the important bit was that they'd also included unlock codes to unlock the new episodes and Marcy knew in her heart of hearts that she wanted them. If she didn't know her parents were monitoring her internet usage…

Point is, she was a potential IP thief. She'd taken out her pencil, which she still had, for note taking, and started fiddling with it. It was stupid, but when nervous it helped. That rhythmic turning just… it let her concentrate. "Gonna need that." Says a guard before they head in.

"Oh um… I was hoping to take notes?" Marcy stated, holding up her notepad.

The guard snorted. "That's adorable, but no, you have no idea what these animals can do if they get even a pencil. Don't worry kid, there isn't any test for this. And goes for the rest of you!" He shouted, "No pencils, no phones, no nothing, got it! We'll return them at the end but we can search you."

The search was embarrassing, as Marcy had forgotten to remove a hair clip and was mortified as she set off the detector, causing the second biggest incident. The first biggest being Sasha shouting "Oh so you are searching her!?" causing Marcy (and several others) to turn.

"It's fine," Anna said, looking embarrassed or… sad?

"If you're eager to get searched, then stand here as well." The guard added as she passed Anna down.

"Idiot, why does she always have to cause trouble?" one of the other kids whispered, and Marcy turned to look at her. Wondering if she knew more about Sasha, if she could ask her… but then the other kid saw Marcy staring at her and shut their mouth as they moved into the main pack in fear.

"What's this!?" The guard said, seemingly in triumph as she pulled something from her pocket.

"It's just a charm." Anna said.

"Nothing in the prison, we told you, pay attention!" Marcy blinked, the thing that the guard was holding was a charm she… (she had one on her of Rudel, she'd gotten half the season 7 collection already)! Sure, hers was a gold-grade charm and Anna's looked bronze but… She hadn't even thought about it and… worse she didn't want to go up and hand it over in front of everyone just… slinking. It was even… Marcy squinted. Anna's charm was of Terresa, was Anna a fan as well? It was the same show and…

Which gave her time to think. It… it should be easy. She was a good kid, and didn't cause trouble and everything worked out, and Sasha was being difficult but… but the one part of her that couldn't help thinking… Anna hadn't done anything, and it would have been maybe something she could avoid, but Season 7 had the entire plotline with Terresa, and her mind was on it. Guards would search her more than anyone else…

It had disquieted Marcy when she'd watched it. In most shows, racists were in your face evil. Bigoted and open with it. In season seven it had been like this, a constant stream of slights and aggressions.

And, having now gotten it in her head, She just couldn't get it out of her head when she took the tour. The way that the guards seemed to pick out some kids… there was one, it wasn't Anna, instead it was some dog-augment who was loitering. "This isn't visiting hours kid!"

Or the Shiv. They'd been taken to a room to talk about what can happen to you in prison, with a variety of exhibits. Toilet wine, a shiv, dirty needles, soap, loose nails, shards of rock, prison food. They brought everyone around and had kids looking at them and examining them and-

"Hey!" One of the guards shouted. "Don't touch that!" Anna shrank back, from the Shiv that she (and a lot of other kids) had been examining. "Don't fucking touch anything unless I tell you to!" He left the room in silence for a moment. "Good, now, I'm going to let you touch it one by one, under my examination. Marcy, you mind coming up and showing people how to actually listen to guards."

Truthfully, Marcy was feeling she… might? He was smiling at her, it was a friendly smile, the one that said he knew she was the 'good kid'. She'd used to like that smile but… right now, it really wasn't feeling good, but however much she minded, saying 'no' to an authority figure was worse. "Good, now pick it up, you can run your finger over it, shiv's aren't sharp on the sides, but at the point. This one's nice and clean, but prisoners like to cover them with shit so that you get infected. Maybe someone will get to you in time but… well maybe not." He said menacingly to the group. "Now I'm-

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as an alarm rang through the prison, and Marcy froze up. "What's going on?" She asked, though her question was drowned out by the alarm and everyone else asking the same basic thing.

"SHUT UP!" yelled one of the other guards, before talking into her 'com. A moment later she spoke up again. "All right, everyone, we are going to the main command centre, do not worry, as long as you follow instructions you will all be safe.

"What's going on?" The guard yelled over the com.

"Zombies! Largest swarm I've ever seen, they are coming over with some sort of speed boat."

"I've got VIPs."

"Get them to the command center now!"

A squad of guards ran past in full combat armour and with a dozen combat robots running with them. They were military spiders of the kind that Anna had only ever seen on TV before, not the bulky humanoid riot bots they brought out every summer.

With that the coms cut off, as the guard shouted to move. They were quickly herded along as the alarm continued to blast. No one had any idea what was going on. Sasha was already speculating that this was 'obviously' a fake prison-riot to scare them. Anna was not eager to test that theory, not least because she knew who they were going to come down on for being disruptive even if it was just a show.

Sasha, of course, had other plans and was about to mouth off when a brassy burst echoed from above. It didn't sound like the movies, that was what she remembered, not exactly, but the way it had the 'rat-a-ta'; someone was firing machine guns. The big ones on the top of the prison, their tour guide had been happy to point them out before "your buddies wouldn't be coming to save you". The entire group stopped, and perhaps more amazingly, it seemed to cause Sasha to actually hesitate before speaking. A shout of "MOVE!" from one of the guards started them up, some of the others took a moment or two, but Anna had the sense to know when she should move.

She'd really hoped today could just be a quiet day of no school.

The gunfire, it had to be gunfire, continued as they made their way to the 'command' centre. Who was even… why? Sasha had finally rallied enough to accuse them of being a fake prison riot, and gotten one of the guards to grab her by the arm and drag her the rest of the way. But a fake riot. Wouldn't that start with shouting? Why the outside gun towers?

Then came the explosion.

Explosions are loud. Even muffled by the prison walls, it was louder than you'd think from TV. It wasn't even near them, but they could still hear it. "MOVE!" The guard shouted again as some of the kids screamed. One final turn in the cramped, maze-like hallways, and they were at their destination, the command room. All around them were monitors, computers…. It looked so ordinary, not like some fortress room, if one ignored the lack of windows and the dual walls to get in. "Everyone sits down, backs against the wall, and SHUT UP." The guard ordered.

Apparently enough had happened that Sasha actually obeyed. Not that they were near each other, they'd been split up when the guard grabbed her, and everyone had sat quickly. It was funny, one could almost feel an order in it. Marcy was right next to one of the guards, safest for her. Anna was as far away and small as possible, safest for her. The last thing she needed right now was to be a threat.

The funniest part of it was that the command centre had all the monitors, which gave all of them a view into exactly what was going on. The guards even had a larger monitor which showed what they wanted to look at, making it easy to focus. Right now, it was at the shore, where tiny speedboats were driving right onto the beach as people got off. The sand around them exploded in gunfire. The woman (for they looked to all be women) quickly used the speedboats as makeshift barricades before returning fire. A few used guns, but several brought what had to be missle launchers up and fired at the front gate, and a few other places.

The gunfire began to stop. "Front door, report, front door report! Fuck, zoom in, I want to see who they are." A moment later the camera began to focus, and Anna realised that the ivory white on the women weren't just clothes, they were cyborg augments. Not that she had long to see, as one of them raised something to the camera, gave a finger to it, and then fire- leaving only static. "Fuck!" The Guard said, before pressing a button. "Attention there are Terrorist Special Infected, they're Cicadas!"

Voltaririne de Cleyre Brigade, famous or infamous. A legendary band of cyborg augments all the way from the DF who never gave up… or just wanted to keep on killing. Cop killers, whether that was the only hope of real justice or a bunch of monsters was up to you. Part of her… part of her thought of them as heroes. But she could also remember her grandmother. "Don't get too caught up in the glamour, the VdCB fight and kill the cops and augments like you die, and then they leave and more augments like you die."

Right now it seemed like it was the cops doing the dying. Frantic comm babble erupted from one set of speakers before the operator killed it. ""This is SORT-6, cicadas breaking through hatch 35! Multiple officers down! We can't stop them! Send reinforcements! Send anyone! We need–" the voice cut off abruptly, before the operator could even plug his headphones back in.

You could still see what was happening. The screens flickered from one view to another. Each watching the brigade move, fighting into the complex. There weren't many of them, really, once you watched, Anna counted no more than six at a time, but they were backed by so many other people, also coming to storm in, and the further in they got, the more cells those behind them could open. The cyborgs directed them, or moved in, tearing through defensive lines the guards tried to set up from multiple directions. Again and again the guards would try to set up a barricade or a defence, check the rioters, and then blurs red, black and white figures would appear and the camera would cut to bodies and destruction.

It almost wasn't scary. The resolution of the cameras was so flat that it wasn't like a movie. It was so much less real than real.

The chatter between the guards became increasingly frantic. They were flooding each captured section with gas, but the anarchists were already equipped with gas masks, and just kept pressing. It was like a tide, with rioters spreading out in each direction, all of them with guns and rocket launchers and even armored suits.

More and more, the coms were panic and uncertainty, and more and more, the screens went static. Someone like Sasha might have been happy about this, but more and more, the guards were getting angry, the slightest noise being a 'FUCKING STOP MOVING' and threats to taze them. More and more, one of the guards kept looking at her.

"Don't fucking do anything, if any of you try to sell us out, I'll kill you!" He stated, and none of the other guards seemed to care.

Finally, the gunfire came, louder, less brassy, near them. Several of the guards look places around the door, as a camera showing the hallway showed the turrets and other defenses pop out, so many more than Anna would have thought going in. The first rioters to come around the corner then fell down. Anna wasn't sure for an instant what had happened until she saw a spray of blood and felt sick. Someone else pulled the body back out of camera view.

Silence, more time. More time for the guards to get nervous, one furiously calling someone for extraction. Demanding that 'they had kids in here'. As the others got twitchy. Some of the kids started crying. "Shut up!" A guard screamed at them. They cried harder.

As one, the screens shut down to black. Guards shouted over one another, then one gasped as the screens lit again with a face. The woman's skin was very white, like she was a doll, her hair so black it seemed an absence.

"I am Kusanagi." The figure on the screens said. "The Voltairine de Cleyre Brigade has physical and electronic control over the prison. Your extraction teams are dead." The screens flickered again, this time showing the burning shapes of several VTOLs sinking into the bay. "You are alone. Throw out your weapons and surrender."

"Fuck off!" one of the guards with brass tabs on his shoulders snarled. "We won't surrender. We're too deep for a PGM, you'd have to kill the ones you were rescuing. You'll have to come in after us!"

Kusanagi smiled. It was not a nice smile. "Acceptable."

The screens cleared to show a camera view of the corridor. Several guards were covering the door, others had the back of a turret open, flicking switches. Something hit the outer gate and detonated. The armoured gate flew down the corridor. There was the sound of gunfire, loud and close, shimmers of people or combat robots in what had to be active camouflage rippling through it. Guards dropped abruptly. The Camera shut down, destroyed, but at this point it wasn't needed, the translucent one-way glass slits let them all see them. First, there was just a wounded guard, crawling towards the door, bearded face set in pain.Then several figures in close fitting black and red outfits shimmered into existence. To Anna they looked almost 2D, like something from an anime or a vocaloid logo. One made a V sign at the door and lifted the struggling guard with the other hand, holding him up like a prize before tossing him back into the smoke as if he was a sack. Others came out, revealing themselves, guns aimed at the door.

"You can still surrender." One called, maybe she was the leader. Her hair was shoulder length and cold white, even whiter than the skin of her face and her eyes were deadly blue.

"Don't you dare come in here, you fucking psycho killers, there are kids!" The one with the brass tabs shouted.

The leader paused, her head cocked to one side, birdlike. "The noble forces of law and order take hostages now? Whither come children to Alcatraz? A judge need an extra paycheck? An example to be served?"

"Fuck you. They were on a tour, safe until you monsters broke in! Anything that happens here is on your heads!"

"Let the children go and no harm needs to come to you."

"Fuck you, we aren't going to let you and those animals outside butcher them-"

The shouting between the two continued, and more and more the tension rose, as Anna found herself shaking. "STOP FUCKING MOVING ORC!" the guard shouted. She was trying, she was trying not to shake, to cry. Don't move, her mother had always told her, movement can mean death, they might kill you no matter what, but might is better than will. It wasn't fair, she had done everything right, gone to school, studied, kept safe. And now she was going to die if she didn't stop shaking.

"If you hurt her we'll kill you all." The Augment Leader's voice seemed less angry than the guards,but cut through everything. "You know what we do to hogs who act out. Thirty seconds, then we're coming in. Twenty nine. Twenty eight. Twenty seven-"

The two groups, neither knowing her name continued shouting, it was her life here. "Augment dead in riot." Would it be reported she'd been killed helping the riot? Or would she be some name to be shouted at cops, another dead girl, another bad kill. She didn't want to be a cause, she wanted to live. Her mind flashed back to when she'd asked her grandmother why she hated the riots even as she hated the cops. "They fight and augments like you die."

Somehow, despite the gun on her, her eyes were drawn to Marcy, who had been placed right next to the guard when they had all been sat down. She was spinning it in her hand, or not spinning, that thing she did, where she half rotated it, stopped, then half rotated it again. She was doing it. Not with a pencil this time, but a Shiv. The Shiv that had been shown before. Marcy still had it.

Part of Anna wanted to laugh at the absurdity. Marcy had the shiv, was flipping it, and the gun was pointed at Anna instead. It would be funny if she wasn't going to die.

"Hey stupid. You wanna point that gun somewhere, point it at me! I'll carve the fucking V into you myself. HEY CYBER-BITCHES, 7 PIGS TOTAL, 2 OF EM ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE DOOR-" Time seemed to slow. Of course Sasha would. Would do what she always did. Make herself so loud, so dangerous that Anna could live. She saw the guard moving his arm, shouting at her as the gun turned. Sasha was going to die, she was going to die to save her and-

The arm bumped against Marcy, and in what was a moment, and an instant and an eternity at once, she lashed out, driving the Shiv into his arm, he screamed in pain as the bullets went wide and blood came out and then there was a sound of a door ripping and shooting and-

The hogs were down. Tyrfing-351 (Zoe in circumstances that didn't call for a sword name) lowered her carbine. She kind of wanted to doubled tap them given they fucking shot at kids but… that could wait till the kids were out, and really as the team medic it wasn't really her call. The rest of her element were spreading out, checking the bodies and removing weapons. A more normal group might have cried "clear" but fighters of the Voltairine de Cleyre Brigade communicated by rapid headnet comms. By this point, such communications were something more base than simple words. Any vengeance necessary would be taken. She needed to check for injuries. Triage, first the one who was down, as she approached the kid managed to roll up, a fresh bruise on her eye. Tyrfing bent down, trying to look as unthreatening as two meters of extremely femme monochrome cyborg could…

"I'm sorry I-" The girl unrolled, fast, coming up a way away from Tyrfing.

Oh, right kid, even if kids were killed and hurt way too often most people didn't do well after a sudden fight next to them. Tyrfing really had no experience with children. She suppressed the urge to access a childcare 'how to' from the deep repository of her implants. "Hey there, don't worry, you're safe." She said, trying to sound calming and extending one black carbon hand to pat awkwardly. "My name is-" she stopped, this wasn't really the time for sword names was it? "Zoe. Can you tell me your name?"

"M… Marcy." She said, as she half twisted a bloody shiv in her hands. That… had been a bit of a surprise, honestly all of her had been, the kid was dressed in a private school uniform, but looked to be the one who stabbed the stuck hog over by the console and took the blow for it. Good on her.

"Nice, good job with the shiv by the way."

"Huh?" The kids said, looking down for the first time and seeming to notice it. "I-" aa quick flicker of the eyes, looking at the guard, "I didn't mean to! It just… they…"

"It's okay. It's okay. Here, I'm gonna give you a cold pack okay? I want you to put it to your face. You only need one hand, so you can keep the shiv if you want, but I'm going to need to check on others? But don't worry it's safe, and you'll be able to leave, okay?"

"I'm going to be in so much trouble..." the girl muttered as she pushed the ice pack against herself. Tyrfing went to check on the next injury.

Said injury was clutching her foot and cursing up a storm. Given that Tyrfing was pretty sure she was the one who had had the big cybernetic balls to scream the info, and the armored hog on the floor, Tyrfing could put two and two together. "If you are gonna kick them, go for unarmored bits."

"I fucking figured that out thanks!" The girl snapped back, and Tyrfing wrote her off as fine, possibly a future recruit, but they didn't try to force people into it young.

Finally came the augment girl, who had a trail of bullets scarring the wall near her, because of course she did, thankfully she wasn't bleeding. "Hey, you okay?" The girl looked up, managing a nod. "Cool, don't worry, we are going to get you and the rest out of here, can you tell me what was going on here?"

"It… it was a Scared Safe tour, we were supposed to just watch and…" she stopped. "Is Sasha okay?"

"That girl that shouted?" Tyrfing asked, wishing she'd asked for a name. The girl nodded again, how the fucking hogs thought anyone who was so afraid could possibly be a 'dangerous thug' was beyond her. "She's fine. She hurt her foot a bit. Lesson, kicking hogs when they are down is good fun, but make sure you go for the soft bits, not the armor." Another nod.

"And up… the girl who saved me? Marcy?"

"She's okay, a bit in shock and with a nasty bruise, but she'll be fine." The girl nodded and Tyrfing moved on to check everything else in the operation.

Or at least pretend to, she'd already got her updates from the implants and Alcatraz…. Was theirs. All of it.

Cool as she tried to play it, she found a kind of shock in that. This operation… they'd known the prison was overcrowded, and had hoped that with such a riot could give enough cover to get a few key figures out. But then the broadcast had come and the plan had expanded. Until they were going to get everyone out.

As infamous as they were, she wasn't used to winning like this. Killing a few monsters or saving someone in a well-time plan before slinking off into the night? Sure. but just… winning, not needing to hurry because there was no-one around who could hope to stop them who wasn't already hard pressed? Sure they needed to get off eventually, Alcatraz was too big for some response not to come,but they could actually take time.

The sound of movement drew her back, as Anna had got up to sit next to Marcy, showing she was way better at shock treatment, and managed to get her in a conversation, something about "Hearts Alignment" or something.

[fin]

Epilogue: Sadly Marcy Collins would not be reformed, and would soon find herself writing her own Heart Align fanfic, concerning a shy nerdy girl who encounters two girlfriends, one a giant, strong and nice augment, and the other a tough butch. It would be very earnest, contain about 50% fluff, 40% angst and 10% sexy and anatomically impossible scenes from a teenage girl's overactive imagination. The automated fanfic services would send several URGENT updates on this to Bay Cities police headquarters, which were, for some reason never responded to.

She would also find herself helping Anna in operation "don't let Sasha go directly join the riots". By pure coincidence.

AN: At around 8pm EST we will be posting the new updates for 14 days, but between then we'd like to post some sidestories, but don't have nearly enough. If anyone wants a omake to be features as a side story, let us know before posting and we'll try to find a day for it, ideally we will be doing one a day, so that each one can get it's own focus.

BurnBright · Apr 19, 2022

Awwwww. That's adorable! Baby's first stabbing, too!

frostgiant · Apr 19, 2022

I really shouldn't be as surprised as I am that they ended up using the kids on a tour as hostages, but it was really cool to watch some of the throughlines tie together like that. Good writing!

Also,

clockworkchaos said:
Epilogue: Sadly Marcy Collins would not be reformed, and would soon find herself writing her own Heart Align fanfic, concerning a shy nerdy girl who encounters two girlfriends, one a giant, strong and nice augment, and the other a tough butch. It would be very earnest, contain about 50% fluff, 40% angst and 10% sexy and anatomically impossible scenes from a teenage girl's overactive imagination. The automated fanfic services would send several URGENT updates on this to Bay Cities police headquarters, which were,for some reason never responded to.

She would also find herself helping Anna in operation "don't let Sasha go directly join the riots". By pure coincidence.

Ahhhh that's adorable!

MonkeyTypewriter · Apr 19, 2022

I don't have time to write an update, but I did have an amusing idea of a Shareholder Disclosure Lawsuit, wherein the Charters get sued for failure to disclose adverse events. And since protections for the shareholder class are one of the few things that the Compact actually protects, the charters are actually in trouble.

CyberFemme · Apr 19, 2022

Ahhh, trauma bonding. Brings a tear to me eye, it does.

masterofmadness · Apr 19, 2022

clockworkchaos said:
Or at least pretend to, she'd already got her updates from the implants and Alcatraz…. Was theirs. All of it.

Cool as she tried to play it, she found a kind of shock in that. This operation… they'd known the prison was overcrowded, and had hoped that with such a riot could give enough cover to get a few key figures out. But then the broadcast had come and the plan had expanded. Until they were going to get everyone out.

As infamous as they were, she wasn't used to winning like this. Killing a few monsters or saving someone in a well-time plan before slinking off into the night? Sure. but just… winning, not needing to hurry because there was no-one around who could hope to stop them who wasn't already hard pressed? Sure they needed to get off eventually, Alcatraz was too big for some response not to come,but they could actually take time.

Long Live the Voltairine de Cleyre Brigade!

I am seriously curious as to what the next moves are from this. Taking over a prison and getting everyone out is a big enough move but now what? Can they have those people fade into the city and disperse? Form cells around some Boxes? If their was ever a time for them to be expanding now is it!

Or maybe fortifying the prison? Blow it up as they go?

Elero · Apr 19, 2022

masterofmadness said:
Long Live the Voltairine de Cleyre Brigade!

I am seriously curious as to what the next moves are from this. Taking over a prison and getting everyone out is a big enough move but now what? Can they have those people fade into the city and disperse? Form cells around some Boxes? If their was ever a time for them to be expanding now is it!

Or maybe fortifying the prison? Blow it up as they go?

Might be time to start taking out police stations/other strongpoints to cripple riot suppression, or do things like raid armories/weapon depots.

BiopunkOtrera · Apr 19, 2022

masterofmadness said:
Long Live the Voltairine de Cleyre Brigade!

I am seriously curious as to what the next moves are from this. Taking over a prison and getting everyone out is a big enough move but now what? Can they have those people fade into the city and disperse? Form cells around some Boxes? If their was ever a time for them to be expanding now is it!

Or maybe fortifying the prison? Blow it up as they go?

They're going to get out a lot of people and get them back into the prison. They assume (rightly cause they've been doing this for ages) that most of the people freed will have been politically radicalized inside, or at least be willing to take up arms against the people who imprisoned them now they have the option.

This then buys time for other operations, and for the setting up of boxes and the arming up and teching up of more anarchist militia, and further dislocates the efforts of the security forces to stamp out the broadcast, because now rather than going house to house looking for boxes, or tracking fabricator labs or securing Fabro-Mart, they've got to track down tons of dangerous escaped prisoners, most of whom are anarchists.

Basically, they wanted to defeat any attempt at a major security operation around the Bay area before it could really get started.

It also shows capacity. They just handed the charter forces (indeed, Ares, the most militant charter) a huge L. Rebellions are, as that one movie said, built on hope. Most people don't generally think the cops can be beaten, so you need to show them that they can be in order to get them out on the streets.

Artificial Girl · Apr 19, 2022

I'm surprised the charters don't do shit like put tracking chips in their prisoners.

BiopunkOtrera · Apr 19, 2022

Artificial Girl said:
I'm surprised the charters don't do shit like put tracking chips in their prisoners.

They probably do, but that kind of implant is necessarily going to be not that complex to implant, and thus not that complex to remove.

Evaunit02mark1 · Apr 19, 2022

Artificial Girl said:
I'm surprised the charters don't do shit like put tracking chips in their prisoners.

Why do that when you have "Less-Lethal" bullets.

All it takes is one accident and, "oh what a shame, he's dead, guards sent for re-evaluation with pay, boo-hoo, more at 11."

It'll be like what happened to Epstien, but somehow even more insultingly blatant.

Random Member · Apr 19, 2022

clockworkchaos said:
Epilogue: Sadly Marcy Collins would not be reformed, and would soon find herself writing her own Heart Align fanfic, concerning a shy nerdy girl who encounters two girlfriends, one a giant, strong and nice augment, and the other a tough butch. It would be very earnest, contain about 50% fluff, 40% angst and 10% sexy and anatomically impossible scenes from a teenage girl's overactive imagination. The automated fanfic services would send several URGENT updates on this to Bay Cities police headquarters, which were,for some reason never responded to.

Noooooo, those damn anarchists are corrupting our youth!

masterofmadness · Apr 19, 2022

BiopunkOtrera said:
It also shows capacity. They just handed the charter forces (indeed, Ares, the most militant charter) a huge L. Rebellions are, as that one movie said, built on hope. Most people don't generally think the cops can be beaten, so you need to show them that they can be in order to get them out on the streets.

How good are their propaganda capacities? Because making sure everyone know that we just took this prison and the cops took children hostage when we came in is prime material!

BiopunkOtrera · Apr 19, 2022

masterofmadness said:
How good are their propaganda capacities? Because making sure everyone know that we just took this prison and the cops took children hostage when we came in is prime material!

Good enough to mobilize, arm and organize a large amount of support militia on short notice for sure.

There's probably a bunch of official VdCB sources, anarchist newspapers and the like that are used to transmit information.

Right now their narrative is going to be about rescuing political prisoners and the corps kidnapping children, while the corporate narrative is about them endangering children to free a bunch of murderers and rapists.

Forgothrax · Apr 19, 2022

Given that this Earth and a bunch of corpos are headquartered there... what are the odds that the revolutionaries capture the actual code keys for much of the FRM?

Just because it would be hilarious to be on the receiving end of a broadcast that goes "Hey, here's all the shit you didn't send, yw."

Model DC.14F · Apr 19, 2022

Artificial Girl said:
I'm surprised the charters don't do shit like put tracking chips in their prisoners.

Actually, considering it, maybe it is more likely that would use unremovable tracking bracelets and collars during arrests.

Probably Cheaper
Don't have to pay for surgery bots
Can easily be removed and reused for different prisoners, allows fast processing during arrests
And most importantly, can easily served as a visual indicator for criminals. Naturally, people on parole, or attending court sessions or hearings must also wear them at all times, as they are possible escape risks.

Balmung1 · Apr 19, 2022

I like this quest alot and everything is interesting but I have a few questions.
1. are augments geneticly inheritable or are they removable/addable
2.Why did people start creating augments
3.So I read in a previous threadmark that there was a fleet getting ready to attack/attacking radiant. Would the results of the battle effect the revolts on earth or has the rebellion built up to much speed/broadcast being effective enough that the war/rebellion against the corporations won't end even if the corpos ecide to slaughter the entirety of radiants population and crush us completely
4.Did the charter start out with good intentions or was it corrupted from the start
5. what kind of stuff is cerunnos doing since all the description above said was that their leader was really old.
6. what were the backstories of the original founders of each of the megacorps like were they just people in corporate circles or were they carnegie/rockefeller captains of industry/robber barons who clawed their way up into power

ScottishMongol · Apr 19, 2022

Balmung1 said:
4.Did the charter start out with good intentions or was it corrupted from the start

I assume you mean the Compact - the Charters are megacorporations designed to extract wealth and preserve the position of an obscenely powerful capitalist class. So, you know, bad.

But it's worth nothing the Compact emerged from the ruins of a failed socialist revolution. It's possible that some of the people involved were in fact looking to do "harm reduction" and create an actual pan-human forum, but ultimately it too would have been a vehicle to preserve the capitalist system by which the Charters thrived.

So yeah, there's a strong argument that the game was rigged from the start.

clockworkchaos · Apr 19, 2022

ScottishMongol said:
I assume you mean the Compact - the Charters are megacorporations designed to extract wealth and preserve the position of an obscenely powerful capitalist class. So, you know, bad.

But it's worth nothing the Compact emerged from the ruins of a failed socialist revolution. It's possible that some of the people involved were in fact looking to do "harm reduction" and create an actual pan-human forum, but ultimately it too would have been a vehicle to preserve the capitalist system by which the Charters thrived.

So yeah, there's a strong argument that the game was rigged from the start.

Actually the Compact emerged before the DF fell. They were the ones who caused them to fall.

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.

ScottishMongol · Apr 19, 2022

clockworkchaos said:
Actually the Compact emerged before the DF fell. They were the ones who caused them to fall.

Oh, my bad. Then yeah, the Compact might have actually been intended to restrain the Charters before it suffered regulatory capture and endless liberal reformism.

clockworkchaos · Apr 19, 2022

Balmung1 said:
I like this quest alot and everything is interesting but I have a few questions.
1. are augments geneticly inheritable or are they removable/addable
2.Why did people start creating augments
3.So I read in a previous threadmark that there was a fleet getting ready to attack/attacking radiant. Would the results of the battle effect the revolts on earth or has the rebellion built up to much speed/broadcast being effective enough that the war/rebellion against the corporations won't end even if the corpos ecide to slaughter the entirety of radiants population and crush us completely
4.Did the charter start out with good intentions or was it corrupted from the start
5. what kind of stuff is cerunnos doing since all the description above said was that their leader was really old.
6. what were the backstories of the original founders of each of the megacorps like were they just people in corporate circles or were they carnegie/rockefeller captains of industry/robber barons who clawed their way up into power

1. Depends on the augment.
2. Early on cause it's cool. Later specialized workers. (and with missing enzymes so they needed to stay on board, don't worry though the pay increase for the new job will cover it.....)
3. Radiant + every other planet is like 400kmillion people, earth is 21billion. There are probably literally more people rioting in Atlantic city alone than all of AIC + allies combind.
4. Liberal
5. Bio engineering. He's immortal.
6. We haven't really made em.

ScottishMongol said:
Oh, my bad. Then yeah, the Compact might have actually been intended to restrain the Charters before it suffered regulatory capture and endless liberal reformism.

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.

Compact made the charters. It looked at space colonization and earth's problems said 'yes, working with massive corporations with little to not regulation is the way to save humanity'.

The Laurent · Apr 19, 2022

clockworkchaos said:
1. Depends on the augment.
2. Early on cause it's cool. Later specialized workers. (and with missing enzymes so they needed to stay on board, don't worry though the pay increase for the new job will cover it.....)
3. Radiant + every other planet is like 400k people, earth is 21billion. There are probably literally more people rioting in Atlantic city alone than all of AIC + allies combind.
4. Liberal
5. Bio engineering. He's immortal.
6. We haven't really made em.

That's not quite right, it's way higher than 400k... as in, every other planet combined so far is more like approaching towards 400 Million in the area.

So... maybe?

clockworkchaos · Apr 19, 2022

The Laurent said:
That's not quite right, it's way higher than 400k... as in, every other planet combined so far is more like approaching towards 400 Million in the area.

So... maybe?

Oh wait I met 400 million.

Balmung1 · Apr 19, 2022

clockworkchaos said:
1. Depends on the augment.
2. Early on cause it's cool. Later specialized workers. (and with missing enzymes so they needed to stay on board, don't worry though the pay increase for the new job will cover it.....)
3. Radiant + every other planet is like 400kmillion people, earth is 21billion. There are probably literally more people rioting in Atlantic city alone than all of AIC + allies combind.
4. Liberal
5. Bio engineering. He's immortal.
6. We haven't really made em.

Compact made the charters. It looked at space colonization and earth's problems said 'yes, working with massive corporations with little to not regulation is the way to save humanity'.

So radiant is at best a way to tie down corpo forces and at worst a martyr for the cause
Also what kind of liberal did you mean by the coalition though

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

Been Better

Traitor to her Class

Kobold Librarian

Traitor to her Class

S-s-smell the Prey, S-s-start the Hunt.

Gardener of Human Happiness

Traitor to her Class

Not Going Gently