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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discord.gg

Setsul · Apr 21, 2022

The3rdCorinthian said:
I know nothing about Ghost in the Shell beyond Major Kusanagi hot.

It is known.

Masamune Shirow is a man who set out to draw hot women, guns, and mechas/robots, then realized that he could achieve peak efficiency.

DocMatoi · Apr 21, 2022

if you weren't a girl when you joined the vdcb, you are now

Evaunit02mark1 · Apr 21, 2022

The3rdCorinthian said:
I know nothing about Ghost in the Shell beyond Major Kusanagi hot.

To be fair it's mostly that and the psychological ramifications of artificial intelligence, the dehumanization of society for convenience, and what exactly does it mean to be human as that line continually blurs as time progresses.

Her bod is rocking center stage though, sweet Jesus.

BiopunkOtrera · Apr 21, 2022

Masamune Shirow has never quite been in control of his own horniness.

Elero · Apr 21, 2022

Not too happy with this one but I've already written it so I might as well post. In the far future anonymous board, there is only shitposting.
Omake: Voidnet

Welcome to Voidnet, the one and only place by and for spacers.
Click here to log in. If you do not have a login, contact your local representative of the Void Dwellers' Compact with proof of employment aboard a qualifying vessel or long-term habitation of a qualifying habitat to receive an access token.

Logging in…

You are now logged in. Remember the golden rule: They are still watching. Do not post identifying information about yourself, your vessel or any local organizations, especially when discussing things of a sensitive nature. Remember to stay anonymous.

Pinned thread: Careful with spare parts, a cautionary tale.

Going to repost this since my first thread got deleted for identifying info on my ship. Trying again with less concrete info, cause this shit is important:
The fucking Charters keep track how many spare parts print licenses your ship buys! That goes double for those with lots of proprietary pieces you can't get from any other charter. And if they notice your ship suddenly buying a lot less spare parts, right after a certain anarchist broadcast, they flag your ship as a fucking pirate vessel and you'll get boarded by the next naval patrol you encounter!
Took us several days of bullshitting to get out of that, and thankfully we managed to flush our terminals before they got on board. You'd think the fuckers don't have more important things to do than harassing civilian shipping.

New Thread: Visiting stations is so weird now

Been on long-haul flight, visited a few waystations along the way and…man, it's a gamble every time, isn't it? It's like everyone throws a die on which way to flip. Some are tight as fuck swarming with security as if our ten man crew is gonna storm their station and declare it an anarchist republic and others just like…blatantly let you print free stuff and call you comrade? Feels like stepping in a film set.

Can you point me to some of those comrade stations? You know, for a friend. Wink wink nudge nudge.

Charter spy reported, enjoy having your access token revoked, dumbass.
@OP do not point out turned stations.

Geez it was a joke, relax man.

Hot New Thread: Sympathy Strikes are coming!

Nothing official yet but the VDC leadership's discussing it as we speak, or so a little birdie told me. Not gonna lie, this is smelling like perfect payback for what the dirtsies did in '87. I want to see SolNav move their fancy naval infantry around if nobody wants to refuel or supply them.

Forget SolNav, what about fucking Ares? Sheol alone means anyone that supplies their ships is a fucking monster, is what it is.

Wait, you guys had time to look at the propaganda part? I've been going hog-wild on the printing all week. What did Ares do again?

Don't leak leadership's internal discussion you dumbass. Seriously, does opsec mean nothing to you?

>Implying it's not just a plot by leadership to gauge sentiment for sympathy strikes.

>implying it's not just a random anon wanting to feel important.

New Thread: I weep

I stare into the void
Cold and empty
My heart bleeds black
As I know
Radiant will burn
And with it
The upcoming CallOfDuty XXIII-EXTREME

Anon you almost got me until the final line, come on.

Meh, XXII was the pinnacle anyway.

Radiant stands! Radiant will endure forever in our hearts and minds. It is an idea that cannot be killed. As long as one man that has seen the broadcast still endures, so will Radiant.

^pretty sure it's a planet actually, not an idea. Pretty embarrassing, bud.

It's a system, dumbass. The planet's called Ascension. Kids these days…

TheArcanist · Apr 21, 2022

There aren't enough guns in the goddamn galaxy to stop a people seeking liberation.

The Compact tried for centuries to beat the fight out of the former DemFeds, and we see now that they have comprehensively failed.

Your long war is finally coming to its end, VCB.

Rockeye · Apr 21, 2022

Revolt and throwing off the chains is all well and good yeah

But look

Tons and tons of those people in neon green tanks playing rock music are just gonna die

Celebrate, but remember

ExNihilo · Apr 21, 2022

Technically, Radiant is the name of the Doctor. The Polity is called Radiant's Monster.

Forgothrax · Apr 21, 2022

Rockeye said:
Revolt and throwing off the chains is all well and good yeah

But look

Tons and tons of those people in neon green tanks playing rock music are just gonna die

Celebrate, but remember

They die free.

Warer · Apr 21, 2022

Forgothrax said:
They die free.

I was under the impression those were automated drones? Or remoted operated at least.
Edit:To be clear I mean the tanks are/were

Diomedea · Apr 21, 2022

ExNihilo said:
Technically, Radiant is the name of the Doctor. The Polity is called Radiant's Monster.

You did it. You killed me.

I am ded.

Warer said:
I was under the impression those were automated drones? Or remoted operated at least.
Edit:To be clear I mean the tanks are/were

Nope. You've cracked the code. Anarchists are actually automated drones serving their AI overlords!

Model DC.14F · Apr 21, 2022

Charters Announce New Cross Corporate Stragety Against Recent Anarchist Insubordination: The Safety of Atlantic City is our Top Priority –#SolNews
Charter Authorities in the former United States have announced that their number one priority would now be the securing and protection of New York and the surrounding areas of Atlantic City, consolidating most North American Charter Security Units, including most of the recently landed Ares Peacekeepers. Several member of the Compact Parliament have applauded this decision, with one saying that "the Sight of Ares' elite Armored Divisions safeguarding the Parliament Building will make any anarchist scum think twice before challenging this indomitable body."

North American West Coast Property Owners Worry about Future of Investments- Futurewatch
While the pivot towards the East Coast has been praised by many Executives, many smaller business owners have worries about the impact on their investments.
"Oh sure, if you're some trillionaire Charter Exec, you might make it through fine." said George Jackson, a local Columbian billionaire, "but half of my worth is dependent on my properties in Oregon. The thought of some anarchist layabouts taking over and turning them into some squatters camp keeps me up at night."
Concerns have only risen due to continuing reports of major riots in Pacific City, with the most recent being a unconfirmed report of an attack by an anarchist terrorist group on the Pacific City Mass Transit System disrupting operations and causing major supply chain delays. Unfortunately, most Compact and Charter Authorities have remained silence on the issue, beyond some promises to investigate the possibility of low rate loans during future reconstructions.

Long Live the California and Cascadia Free Communes! The West Will Be Free of Tyranny! -Anarchist Newswire
With the recent victory of Los Angeles, and the withdraw or encirclement of most Capitalists Enforcers, the CCFC has announced a new phase. With most California Urban Centers liberated, volunteer units, both veteran and newly formed, will be sent north to Seattle, the last remaining major west coast city mostly under Charter Control. Fortunately, this is not expected to last, with most Charter forces currently attempting to evacuate from the city, although they are suffering major difficulties, due to both allied attacks on overland routes, and a refusal by Chinese Shipping to transport them, citing danger due to the proximity to fighting.

Balmung1 · Apr 21, 2022

BiopunkOtrera said:
There were certainly other left behind units that weren't all female.

This isn't cannon, but my backstory idea for them is that because they were recruited from the military of like, the mid 21st century DemFed, so the army was still mostly male presenting, and they're mostly transwomen who were recruited from that pool, because they don't suffer the same dysphoria in upgrading to a cyborg body as a guy would.

That's just my head cannon though.

The full mood board for VdCB would include Claymore, Chaos Space Marines, Ghost in the Shell obviously, and the works of Tsutomu Nihei

Edit: oh, and K3loid.

also just thought of it now but there's this 40k fic called roboutian heresy/RH and the way the VdCB operate kinda remind me of them

011 – Tammuzine Skitarii
Those Who Fight Alone
As a heretical faction of the Cult Mechanicus, the Dark Mechanicum has access to many of the tech-priests' secrets. The noosphere connection through which data flows between skitarii warriors and their magos overseers is but one of these secrets, and to some of the Haydesian Kingdoms, no encryption, no matter how elaborate, is an obstacle. This is a grave threat, as access to the noosphere enables these hereteks to pluck data directly from the minds of enemy soldiers, as well as falsify their orders. The Tammuzine skitarii were initially created to counter this, with the Collective enhancing their capabilities over the millennia.
On a very basic level, a Tammuzine skitarii is removed from the noospheric network, separated from the endless chatter that fills the air of Mars. Their heavy augmetics do not have any access point that can be entered from afar. They are alone within themselves, cut off from the holy chain of command that goes from the Machine-God to the lowest servitor. As a result, they are regarded with distrust by their fellow Mechanicus fighters, who cannot know what goes on in their isolated minds.
When not fighting, the Tammuzine skitarii are kept in chambers where they are connected to vast cogitators, into which the data harvested from the war against the Haydesian Kingdoms is poured. Except for very short periods of rest, they are subjected to endless battle simulations, learning how to fight to the very best of their capabilities. These simulations run in accelerated time, and a typical Tammuzine will have experienced hundreds, even thousands of relative years of battle before being plugged out and sent into actual battle – not that he will realize the difference.
When deployed, Tammuzine skitarii do not know whether they are still in a simulation or actually fighting the enemies of the Machine-God. To them, every fight is real, all carrying the possibility of death – and worse, failure. They remember their own simulated deaths, dozens and sometimes hundreds of times over. Each of them is implanted with powerful emotion inhibitors, designed to keep them from going mad from the endless fighting that is all they know. Most of them were born to this existence, vat-grown from the genetic sequences of exemplar warriors and trained from their conception for the war beneath Mars' surface. But sometimes, when a skitarii displays surprising – and heretical – independence of thought and initiative of action, the Collective will mark them for induction into the ranks of the Tammuzine. As far as their current masters know, the trouble-maker is simply taken away to be processed into a servitor – another deception of the Lie of Iron.
In battle, the Tammuzine skitarii fight in squads, and show a level of synchronicity that is often even more impressive than that displayed by those kept within the noosphere despite the fact that they can only communicate through a primitive form of sign language (as even the most basic vox-network may be used to carry scrap-code). Their understanding of themselves and their comrades go beyond instinct, and they are equipped with some of the best weapons the Mechanicus' top-researchers can provide. Their augmetics are of utmost quality, making them very hard to kill, and their senses are enhanced so that they don't need to rely on exterior output. Most of them carry a variety of weapons, the best to adapt to any situation, while some carry more specialized gear.

The VdCB kinda reminded me of them for a few reasons
1.like the tazumine they have been fighting for quite a long time
2. A large amount of their tactics are based on personal initiative and teamwork.
3.Both groups are came from people who were different than societal norms
4.both froups enemies are pretty similar (the Haydesian kingdoms are essentially the charter if they decided to stop playing their cosmoliberalist propaganda ie semi immortal oligarchs who hoard genuinely useful tech and whatever they hand out to their goon squads is usally sandbagged and added with aggravating add ons,fucked up both their home and the galaxy as a whole and put a huge damper on actual nonmoneymaking innovation

ContemplateLife · Apr 21, 2022

The Laurent said:
Also there were presumably a bunch of other Stay-Behind Forces that weren't all female cyborgs. They all got killed in '87 or before. Presumably there's a degree of "unit cohesion" stuff going around. Or just someone who really likes themes in-universe.

Right, that makes sense but prompts the question of why they survived and the others didn't? Some higher tech? Luck? Being more skilled? Not being cyborgs? A combination of all of them? Plus it still prompts the question of why some units were mono-gendered in the first place.

BiopunkOtrera said:
There were certainly other left behind units that weren't all female.

This isn't cannon, but my backstory idea for them is that because they were recruited from the military of like, the mid 21st century DemFed, so the army was still mostly male presenting, and they're mostly transwomen who were recruited from that pool, because they don't suffer the same dysphoria in upgrading to a cyborg body as a guy would.

That's just my head cannon though.

See, that's pretty cool and it seems to make some sense. I like that headcannon. And presumably they would have taken any transmen as well but there were probably much fewer of those, being a minority of a minority in the army. And in an already smaller elite company they might not be as noticeable. Or have died out over time for bad luck reasons.
Still the fact that it's known as an all female brigade from even when it was founded suggests that only transwomen were accepted. Perhaps just because there weren't any transmen? Still I'd have thought there would be a few.

Torgamous · Apr 21, 2022

Model DC.14F said:
Charters Announce New Cross Corporate Stragety Against Recent Anarchist Insubordination: The Safety of Atlantic City is our Top Priority –#SolNews

That's some high quality spin.

silverpower · Apr 21, 2022

ContemplateLife said:
See, that's pretty cool and it seems to make some sense. I like that headcannon. And presumably they would have taken any transmen as well but there were probably much fewer of those, being a minority of a minority in the army. And in an already smaller elite company they might not be as noticeable. Or have died out over time for bad luck reasons.
Still the fact that it's known as an all female brigade from even when it was founded suggests that only transwomen were accepted. Perhaps just because there weren't any transmen? Still I'd have thought there would be a few.

Trans people likely have a higher tolerance for agendered and same-gendered bodies that aren't their own. I can't imagine a trans man would take well to a gynoid morph. A transmasc enby, maybe, but it defeats the purpose of recruiting women who have especially high tolerance for nonstandard bodies that match their internal gender.

TheArcanist · Apr 21, 2022

Torgamous said:
That's some high quality spin.

"we are absolutely not securing a corridor for parliament to flee haha what was that sorry i can't hear you over the VTOL engine-"

Setsul · Apr 21, 2022

ContemplateLife said:
Right, that makes sense but prompts the question of why they survived and the others didn't? Some higher tech? Luck? Being more skilled? Not being cyborgs? A combination of all of them? Plus it still prompts the question of why some units were mono-gendered in the first place.

I have interpreted the primary sources as follows:
Step 1: Be a transwoman in the american (well, DemFed) military.
Step 2: Realize that all people kind of suck (this is a dystopia after all).
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Use that realization to survive two centuries of insurgency warfare.

It makes perfect sense.
This is now my head canon.

Back to more important questions: Where the hell did Muramasa get new chaos space marines from? Surely the charters didn't leave that IP unclaimed and she can't exactly walk into a store. Did she use the resources of the last remaining almost two hundred years old DemFed insurgency network to make an untraceable purchase of chaos space marines and have them delivered to a dead drop?!

Torgamous · Apr 21, 2022

Setsul said:
Back to more important questions: Where the hell did Muramasa get new chaos space marines from? Surely the charters didn't leave that IP unclaimed and she can't exactly walk into a store. Did she use the resources of the last remaining almost two hundred years old DemFed insurgency network to make an untraceable purchase of chaos space marines and have them delivered to a dead drop?!

There's always good old fashioned theft.

andrewopk · Apr 21, 2022

Kirook said:
Omake: Vision Is The Art…
[snip]

is this supposed to be threadmarked besides the ~nov 2254 turn/October 2021 chapters

BiopunkOtrera · Apr 21, 2022

Setsul said:
Back to more important questions: Where the hell did Muramasa get new chaos space marines from? Surely the charters didn't leave that IP unclaimed and she can't exactly walk into a store. Did she use the resources of the last remaining almost two hundred years old DemFed insurgency network to make an untraceable purchase of chaos space marines and have them delivered to a dead drop?!

TBQH I think yes, just that. In order to check out contacts for her networks, she'd send them to buy Warhammer 40K figures (or anime or whatever) and see if there was any attempt at betrayal or whatever. If something goes wrong, well, she can always get new figures. If it goes right, then it shows the person is able to handle themselves as the front phasing part of an insurgency.

ContemplateLife said:
See, that's pretty cool and it seems to make some sense. I like that headcannon. And presumably they would have taken any transmen as well but there were probably much fewer of those, being a minority of a minority in the army. And in an already smaller elite company they might not be as noticeable. Or have died out over time for bad luck reasons.
Still the fact that it's known as an all female brigade from even when it was founded suggests that only transwomen were accepted. Perhaps just because there weren't any transmen? Still I'd have thought there would be a few.

There was probably a seperate brigade for male identifying people who wanted into it. It's just you know that was kind of a minority on account of this was the mid 21st century when violence was still highly gendered. So the large majority of such operatives would be transwomen who joined the military in boymode.

There's probably some transmasc left behinds out there as well, just maybe not in the brigade for certain low reader reasons.

Balmung1 · Apr 21, 2022

BiopunkOtrera said:
There were certainly other left behind units that weren't all female.

This isn't cannon, but my backstory idea for them is that because they were recruited from the military of like, the mid 21st century DemFed, so the army was still mostly male presenting, and they're mostly transwomen who were recruited from that pool, because they don't suffer the same dysphoria in upgrading to a cyborg body as a guy would.

That's just my head cannon though.

The full mood board for VdCB would include Claymore, Chaos Space Marines, Ghost in the Shell obviously, and the works of Tsutomu Nihei

Edit: oh, and K3loid.

also just thought of it now but there's this 40k fic called roboutian heresy/RH and the way the VdCB operate kinda remind me of them

011 – Tammuzine Skitarii
Those Who Fight Alone
As a heretical faction of the Cult Mechanicus, the Dark Mechanicum has access to many of the tech-priests' secrets. The noosphere connection through which data flows between skitarii warriors and their magos overseers is but one of these secrets, and to some of the Haydesian Kingdoms, no encryption, no matter how elaborate, is an obstacle. This is a grave threat, as access to the noosphere enables these hereteks to pluck data directly from the minds of enemy soldiers, as well as falsify their orders. The Tammuzine skitarii were initially created to counter this, with the Collective enhancing their capabilities over the millennia.
On a very basic level, a Tammuzine skitarii is removed from the noospheric network, separated from the endless chatter that fills the air of Mars. Their heavy augmetics do not have any access point that can be entered from afar. They are alone within themselves, cut off from the holy chain of command that goes from the Machine-God to the lowest servitor. As a result, they are regarded with distrust by their fellow Mechanicus fighters, who cannot know what goes on in their isolated minds.
When not fighting, the Tammuzine skitarii are kept in chambers where they are connected to vast cogitators, into which the data harvested from the war against the Haydesian Kingdoms is poured. Except for very short periods of rest, they are subjected to endless battle simulations, learning how to fight to the very best of their capabilities. These simulations run in accelerated time, and a typical Tammuzine will have experienced hundreds, even thousands of relative years of battle before being plugged out and sent into actual battle – not that he will realize the difference.
When deployed, Tammuzine skitarii do not know whether they are still in a simulation or actually fighting the enemies of the Machine-God. To them, every fight is real, all carrying the possibility of death – and worse, failure. They remember their own simulated deaths, dozens and sometimes hundreds of times over. Each of them is implanted with powerful emotion inhibitors, designed to keep them from going mad from the endless fighting that is all they know. Most of them were born to this existence, vat-grown from the genetic sequences of exemplar warriors and trained from their conception for the war beneath Mars' surface. But sometimes, when a skitarii displays surprising – and heretical – independence of thought and initiative of action, the Collective will mark them for induction into the ranks of the Tammuzine. As far as their current masters know, the trouble-maker is simply taken away to be processed into a servitor – another deception of the Lie of Iron.
In battle, the Tammuzine skitarii fight in squads, and show a level of synchronicity that is often even more impressive than that displayed by those kept within the noosphere despite the fact that they can only communicate through a primitive form of sign language (as even the most basic vox-network may be used to carry scrap-code). Their understanding of themselves and their comrades go beyond instinct, and they are equipped with some of the best weapons the Mechanicus' top-researchers can provide. Their augmetics are of utmost quality, making them very hard to kill, and their senses are enhanced so that they don't need to rely on exterior output. Most of them carry a variety of weapons, the best to adapt to any situation, while some carry more specialized gear.

The VdCB kinda reminded me of them for a few reasons
1.like the tazumine they have been fighting for quite a long time
2. A large amount of their tactics are based on personal initiative and teamwork.
3.Both groups are came from people who were different than societal norms
4.both froups enemies are pretty similar (the Haydesian kingdoms are essentially the charter if they decided to stop playing their cosmoliberalist propaganda ie semi immortal oligarchs who hoard genuinely useful tech and whatever they hand out to their goon squads is usally sandbagged and added with aggravating addons,fucked up both their home and the galaxy as a whole and put a huge damper on actual non malicious innovation despite their claims

Setsul · Apr 21, 2022

BiopunkOtrera said:
TBQH I think yes, just that. In order to check out contacts for her networks, she'd send them to buy Warhammer 40K figures (or anime or whatever) and see if there was any attempt at betrayal or whatever. If something goes wrong, well, she can always get new figures. If it goes right, then it shows the person is able to handle themselves as the front phasing part of an insurgency.

And the fact that it ensures a somewhat steady supply for her is just a useful coincidence.
Yes, I like this.

The Laurent · Apr 21, 2022

Fourteen Days In Sol--May 21, 2255

Coast Guard Fabricators seized in Japan – France 24

Heavily armed anarchist militia, apparently supported by crowds of locals have taken control of the Japanese coastguard base at Kagoshima, apparently to gain control of the Fabricator Plant there. The military fabricator system had been stood up by the government in order to address the so called Polyethylene Lobsters self replicators which have been deployed en mass by anarchist groups across East and South East Asia.

More worrying for the Japanese government, the Self Defence Force has refused to engage protestors, citing constitutional commitments against involvement with domestic politics. The fabricator system has now itself been turned to creating more self replicating reconstruction machines, and local anarchist representatives say that they intend to turn more of the nation's power to environmental reconstruction efforts.

Authorities Move To Restore Order In Madrid (Updated)--El Mundo

12:07 PM: In the face of widespread anarchist terrorism, the government of Spain, for the protection of the the public, has mobilized full force the armed forces and civil guard to deal with this threat to national unity. A spokesman for the government has declared that no quarter will be given to terrorists and subversives.These monsters seek only destruction and will find no mercy.

13:27 PM: In their urban fortresses, the terrorists are conducting desperate last-ditch defenses against the heroic actions of the Spanish National Army.

14:02 PM: The army continues to advance in the face of heavy air and missiles strikes from the terrorist's foreign backers in the Sahara. Despite the invader's resort to firepower, victory is certain and the advance continues on all fronts.

14:21 PM: The Spanish Army is pausing to regroup. Citizens are advised to stay inside and avoid windows as fighting continues . These terrorists are without a doubt dangerous and well-armed, but they have expended all their munitions.

14:53 PM: A large number of combat drones have been lost in the past few minutes, and it seems as if the Anarchists, damned by all good people, have begun a doomed offensive, which will soon no doubt be crushed.

16:23 PM: The Spanish Army has begun a planned tactical withdrawal to lure the so-called Commune of Spain into its doom.

18:18 PM: Revolts have been reported across Spain by confederates of this Commune of Spain and are reporting some temporary military success and engaging in their own doomed counteroffensives against the might of the Spanish Army.

19:35 PM: Shelling reported at the Palacio de las Cortes by the forces of the Commune of Spain and the Black Marques.

21:08 PM: Fighting has been reported inside the chambers, but there is still hope of a negotiated compromise with the rebels and revolutionaries, whose exuberance masks real concerns that must be addressed. Reporting on this is Wanda Styles (hyperlink.)

23:37 PM: Remain calm! All is well. Citizens are to stay where they are. Peace will soon be restored and surrender negotiations are ongoing between the forces of the illegitimate and illiberal former government and the People.

00:49 AM: The Anarchist Liberation Army of New Spain, the legitimate government of Spain urges all citizens to upload the Broadcast and seize freedom of the worker. The battle against the wretched former government of Spain has, according to sources, been a total victory and rightfully so. All across Spain, the people have liberated themselves and a new Constitutional Convention has been called by the legitimate forces of the workers' and toilers of Spain. There may yet be some fighting in the days to come, but all major and most minor urban centers have liberated themselves. Victory to the workers!

Free Manila Commune declared in the Phillipines – France 24

After brief clashes with the heavily outnumbered and demotivated local security forces in the early hours of the morning, the so called manila provisional revolutionary committee has declared the foundation of the Free Manila Commune and announced free elections to 'workers, district and people's councils,' the provision of universal basic income and immortality treatment based on the broadcast.

[For more on the effect of the 'deffered payment' crisis on security forces morale in the leadup to the 18th, see this article]

More radically, the Commune, both Neo-Katipunan and Hukbalacom elements and many members of the so called Popular Ascension Alliance has promised the free provision of cybernetic augmentation to any who want it. While strange to foreign ears, cybernetic reconstruction is popular with many in the Philippines as necessary for survival in the harsh environmental conditions of the South East Asian reconstruction zone.

Anarchist and Socialist forces across the Phillipines celebrated the victory in Manila, and seems to have created a general collapse in security force morale throughout the region…

Chinese Navy refuses military aid requests from south East Asian governments.--China Wire

…it is suspected that the increasingly heated situation in Thailand, the protests in Vietnam, the start of a civil war in Australia and the crisis at the borders of their rival North Korea have left Chinese forces stretched too thin to be able to effectively send in the PLA to Japan, Indonesia, and the Philipines, and that they regard sending it to only one as likely to simply lead to a weakening of their powers compared to focusing on the crises at hand.

Nonetheless, right-opposition figures from the Chinese National Party have declared this an act of cowardice which must…

Ukrainian Anarchists Declare Revolution In Stirring Document– Black July

In Kyiv, a new flag waves, the Black Flag itself. In a speech before a crowd of hundreds of thousands, Tamara Nazarivna Vasylyuk declared that they shall liberate the whole region voluntarily… peacefully if the reactionaries do not fight them, violently if they must. Having declared the victory of the Kyiv Commune just the day before, they now declare themselves converts to "Amaranthine Anarchism" and pledge themselves to recreate "Paradise on Earth" through a council-based form of Anarchism with strong connective bodies through voluntary association. This marks it as a truly bold experiment in self-government which is already spreading throughout much of the region, including Belarus, as scepticism is raised of the tyranny and ills that Chinese Communism has brought the world, and towards a new and better path forward to the end of capitalism and the final victory of the proletariat…

Parliament Condemns Violent, Anarchist Nationalism on Earth -The Evening Journal

As rabid, feral anarchists slaughter untold thousands and lay siege to the backward nations of Sol, Prime Minister Margaret Roderick has stood up against the vile ideologies threatening the social peace on the homeworld of humanity. In a stirring statement, she condemned both the simple savagery of the Black Summer and the resurrected horrors of the Long Hot Decades in the form of "anarcho-nationalism, a scourge which destroyed the United States and many other states and now threatens to rise again through bloody terror."

Her speech was given a standing ovation by nearly all of Parliament, including her long-time rivals in the JDAP, but members of the DMSA and a few other traitorous individuals were slow in showing the proper support for putting down these murderous uprisings…

We're Back! An Anarchist Story--PIRL Broadcast

For the approximately one ancient-movie fan who got it, this one's for you: after over a century since we closed up shop, the Provisional International Regiment of London is back. And we're going to start off where we left off, by punishing the tyrants of capital and putting an end once and for all to the "End of History." Watch this space, violent and riotous listener, because things are going to start getting crazy. Starting… now!

Stock Exchange Bombings Linked To Multiple Groups--Stock Daily

Correction: The previous day, our story indicated that all of these Stock Exchange Bombings, from New York to Mexico City to Beijing to London, were the result of the same group of anarchists. This has been proven wrong upon closer analysis, with several different groups taking credit for each bombing with credible eyewitness details…

The state of North America -OSINTFox

So, current overview of NA, based on what I can tell. I'm going to divide this into two sections, first being the 'known' fact, those things that can be relatively confirmed, and second the 'negative space' the areas where the lack of information can give us as much as information, but those are far more speculative.

1: The New York district of Atlantic city is still under Solarian control. We've got plenty of cameras there, and, among other things, if there was a serious threat Parliament would almost certainly be evacuating.
2: The fighting in the WDC district is still ongoing, but I'm currently thinking that the anarchists are slowing the tempo there. While the Lincoln memorial was shown to be liberated/seized (delete whichever one you want) by the Solarian Atlantic City Guard on the 19th, we haven't seen any reports since of monuments seized, and no pictures of the Lincoln since the 19th. Moreso, the Pentagon does appear to have fallen. In the pictures from anarchist twistedybox2231 we can see her showing pictures of eating at the 'hot dog stand' now decorated with anarchist propaganda. Looking at this and this photos we can match the background to satellite photos of the damage to the Pentagon.
3: The Government appears to be using a 'pull back' strategy, as you can see elements from the 29th MIS Armoured Combat Brigade (which appear to have at least partly reconstituted), Cern Transmission Task Force, and even the MSI Patriotic Eagle Peacekeepers. Ares losses seem to have been the heaviest, and they appear to have pulled almost everything back to try to reconstitute it into new units after the mauling they've taken.
4. The Great Lakes CAZ seems to have fully fallen, with images from across the region showing full Anarchist control across the whole of the former metropolis. The only indications of any fighting are scattered pro-Charter militias at the edges of Chicago, and these seem to have been largely wiped out early on the 20th, as seen [here]
5. Across what might have once been called the 'American Midwest' essentially all attempts by the Charters or Compact to re-estalbish control have been entirely unsuccessful. While the fight for Atlantic and Pacific cities are clearly the key conflicts, having a strong region of anarchist control in the center of the north-Central Democratic Federation gives them bases to launch offensives from.
6. I am not fully convinced by the argument that the New Orleans (Powered By Hermes-Ishtar(™)) Eternal Mardi Gras is safe forever. The reports of anarchists destroying their own fabbers in the retreat is treated as a horror story and proof of anarchist evil… but it's left the Compact forces that reoccupied large parts of that city low on logistical fabbers, and it seems possible in a few weeks we could see them return if they did print boxes first.
7. The Missisppi Reconstruction Zone is in chaos, with it seeming likely that it will be several weeks before it boils over, because of the restrictions on the Box.
8. The Neo-Texan Christian Individualist Project (™), run by eccentric billionaire Alexander Jones IV seems to be intact, though they have suffered serious losses on their northern and eastern borders, and it doesn't seem as they can sustain the tempo of defensive operations, with losses especially high around New Orleans (Powered By Hermes-Ishtar(™)) Eternal Mardi Gras Zone. While it has been recovered by Compact forces, they are unlikely to be able to send aid within the next week to the beleaguered NTCIP forces, which seem to be facing huge shortages of supplies and munitions, and in the north their retreat has been sped by the lack of backup from the Native American Tribal Excursion(™) Security Forces.
9. Pacific City appears to be better for the Charters on the map, with only the area around San Francisco district and the centre of the old LA Metroplex under full anarchist control. However, I think the conventional wisdom about the Charters doing better on the West Coast is at best premature. While we're not seeing much anarchist control beyond the level of neighbourhoods, what we are seeing, especially from the notorious Voltairine de Cleyre Brigade's official MiniStories account, is pictures of Rapid Transit stations. Remember: Unlike Atlantic City, PacificCity's DemFed era rapid transit system was never removed. The DemFed built those tunnels to survive a nuclear strike or massive PGM swarms. If VdCB has control over it they can move their forces around anywhere on the West Coast.

We've all seen Ares and so on talking up their defence of the West Coast on France 24 and HINN, but, (if you'll allow me to fall into speculation a little) I think they're wrong here. VdCB has obviously been planning the how of this for years, and it appears they've pulled up their plan well. They recently fought off a major counter attack by Omoikane forces on the LA mass transit station for instance.

Moving onto areas we're less sure of.

1. News has been sparse in the territories which were once part of Canada, with limited reports of sporadic fighting. What reports there have been, however, seem to point more towards a complete collapse of all authority rather than a lack of dissent and anarchist rebellion. However we cannot fully evaluate the situation at this time.
2. The Native American Tribal Excursion(™) has gone dark, with the last confirmed data from that region on the 19th. Combined with the lack of military support to their allies in Texas, it seems quite possible that they've entirely collapsed(though the 'scalping white people' story being passed around is obviously bullshit, see here for a good debunking of that).
3. Alaska has, to be honest, been far too quiet. No signs of fighting at all. I don't entirely trust it, TBH.
4. The Pilgrim Villages have gone dark as well, after a Blackout was declared late on the 18th. It seems likely that whatever is happening will only matter if the anarchists can begin working their way up the chain of Atlantic city.

Unrest In Thailand--#SolNews

Government ministers have declared unrest and some small amount of turmoil as protestors and anti-government, anti-protestor forces clash…

Titan Falls?!--#SolNews

We are getting conflicting reports from Titan, with authorities saying they have the matter under control. However, the signals are coming from off-Titan, and seem to indicate that Titan itself and its orbitals are now fully controlled by the 'Titan Liberation Front' which… (1/5)

Prices Beginning to Crash - #SolNews

While stock prices are massively erratic, a clear trend has developed. A series of economic bubbles have burst, and the collapse of much of Sol into anarchy is only making things worse. The clear spread of anarchism to Atlantis suggests this isn't going to stop...get your money out now, before the stock certificates are only good for toilet paper.

THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT CONFORM TO SOLNET NEWS FACT CHECKING STANDARDS

Whenyouseeyou · Apr 21, 2022

Ooohhh we just cause the Great Depression but this time it's going to be Bigger

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

Been Better

Theoretical Lover of Girls

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

Traitor to her Class

Plausible Engineer

SPACE!

Not Going Gently

A piece of the continent

Philosopher Thesaurus

Aspiring Gynoid

Communism is yuri and nothing else!

Aspiring Gynoid

Traitor to her Class