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

yeastmobile · Jun 22, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
So why should I apologize for being a monster? Society has never apologized for making me into one.

This is a beautiful line. I didn't ask to be seen as inherently vile and disgusting by a large group of people, they simply decided for me that I am. I assume other trans people feel the same way. All we have to do is exist for people to call for our... well there are a lot of words that could be used right there.

Anyways please give robot body thank you kindly.

Balmung1 · Jun 22, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
So why should I apologize for being a monster? Society has never apologized for making me into one.

Good saying, Mean if you push someone, beat them,crush them.abuse them and etc you run the risk of some very bad thongs that most of society tries to forget, which are two facts.Anyone can become a tyrant and anyone can give into that part of the human psyche that demands blood and slaughter.When I mean Tyrant I mean someone willing to use authoritarian means and techniques further their goals and if you look at history almost anyone can be a Tyrant from shopkeepers to teachers everyone has a capability to create mass human suffering and if you don't treat people well you're basically relying on the naive idea that human are naturally good people that won't turn to their darker impulses due to trouble.The other part is quite simple-humanity is a naturally violent species who has historically used war and human suffering to advance itself.If you look at human history war is very beneficial to the winner and peace is the exception not the rule,so what's to stop someone poor and oppressed from committing violence-if you guessed "same as answer one" you are correct.

CyberFemme · Jun 22, 2022

Balmung1 said:
Good saying, Mean if you push someone, beat them,crush them.abuse them and etc you run the risk of some very bad thongs that most of society tries to forget, which are two facts.Anyone can become a tyrant and anyone can give into that part of the human psyche that demands blood and slaughter.When I mean Tyrant I mean someone willing to use authoritarian means and techniques further their goals and if you look at history almost anyone can be a Tyrant from shopkeepers to teachers everyone has a capability to create mass human suffering and if you don't treat people well you're basically relying on the naive idea that human are naturally good people that won't turn to their darker impulses due to trouble.The other part is quite simple-humanity is a naturally violent species who has historically used war and human suffering to advance itself.If you look at human history war is very beneficial to the winner and peace is the exception not the rule,so what's to stop someone poor and oppressed from committing violence-if you guessed "same as answer one" you are correct.

Lots of brain worms here, but suffice to say there's a lot more evidence that people will default to cooperation over conflict in most situations.

yeastmobile · Jun 22, 2022

Balmung1 said:
humanity is a naturally violent species who has historically used war and human suffering to advance itself.

I'll be pedantic and say that you can't invent something by killing someone. The inventing goes on by teams of scientists and inventors miles away from any of the fighting. Even then when the fighting stops people continue to discover and invent. Most of the coolest inventions of the 20th and 21st century, you know the last 100 years of progress happened in countries at peace. People suffering and dying don't tend to have much time for inventing.

Free yourself from these brain worms they are an unhealthy way to view your fellow people.

CyberFemme · Jun 23, 2022

Balmung1 said:
Good saying, Mean if you push someone, beat them,crush them.abuse them and etc you run the risk of some very bad thongs that most of society tries to forget, which are two facts.Anyone can become a tyrant and anyone can give into that part of the human psyche that demands blood and slaughter.When I mean Tyrant I mean someone willing to use authoritarian means and techniques further their goals and if you look at history almost anyone can be a Tyrant from shopkeepers to teachers everyone has a capability to create mass human suffering and if you don't treat people well you're basically relying on the naive idea that human are naturally good people that won't turn to their darker impulses due to trouble.The other part is quite simple-humanity is a naturally violent species who has historically used war and human suffering to advance itself.If you look at human history war is very beneficial to the winner and peace is the exception not the rule,so what's to stop someone poor and oppressed from committing violence-if you guessed "same as answer one" you are correct.

Ok, let's go back a sec, have you actually read this quest beyond a few of the latest updates? Because there's missing the point and then there's... this.

Amorous Intent · Jun 24, 2022

Balmung1 said:
Good saying, Mean if you push someone, beat them,crush them.abuse them and etc you run the risk of some very bad thongs that most of society tries to forget, which are two facts.Anyone can become a tyrant and anyone can give into that part of the human psyche that demands blood and slaughter.When I mean Tyrant I mean someone willing to use authoritarian means and techniques further their goals and if you look at history almost anyone can be a Tyrant from shopkeepers to teachers everyone has a capability to create mass human suffering and if you don't treat people well you're basically relying on the naive idea that human are naturally good people that won't turn to their darker impulses due to trouble.The other part is quite simple-humanity is a naturally violent species who has historically used war and human suffering to advance itself.If you look at human history war is very beneficial to the winner and peace is the exception not the rule,so what's to stop someone poor and oppressed from committing violence-if you guessed "same as answer one" you are correct.

Unironically, it's taken two days of off and on picking apart of your post with people on the Discord server to try and figure out exactly what you're trying to say, and we're still not actually sure. There's a lot of unspoken assumptions in here that we don't actually share in common with you, and that makes your post needlessly obtuse. I suspect, however, not even you are fully aware of what those assumptions are, so I will do my best to answer your post in good faith anyways.

You've missed my point about humans and monsters entirely. Monsters are those who are othered and dehumanized in society as a means of making brutality visited upon them easier, and this is equally true of media depictions of monsters as it is in real life. Look beneath the monster makeup, and you see queer identity behind Frankenstein and his Creature, you see mental illness behind the Batman's Rogues Gallery, homosexuality behind vampires and Freddy Kruger, protestors behind zombies, and neurodivergence behind aliens and AI. Hell, Species is straight up about women and women's sexuality, with barely any makeup to hide behind. When monsters weren't serving as dodges to the Hayes code, they invariably served as projections of the fears and hatreds of "humans" (aka, white, cishet, landowning men), the presumption that people for whom the monsters serve as allegories would do the same to them if their positions were reversed.

It's this presumption that you unironically repeat. To wit:

Anyone can become a tyrant and anyone can give into that part of the human psyche that demands blood and slaughter. [...] If you look at human history war is very beneficial to the winner and peace is the exception not the rule,so what's to stop someone poor and oppressed from committing violence-if you guessed "same as answer one" you are correct.

This is a massive brainworm. Somehow it got so deeply rooted in your brain that you read my last post and got the exact opposite message to what I was saying. "Monstrous acts" are literally just humans projecting their own crimes onto an ineffable other because they refuse to face their own susceptibility, their own culpability. And by "human," let me be clear, I mean the members of the oppressing class. Those who get othered as monsters rarely seek to invert the hierarchy (though exceptions such as Nation of Islam exist), but to end oppression entirely.

These monster narratives in media further the lie that the oppression is justified and necessary. "But this monster is justified because of (((reasons)))!" My good man, you are letting the writers frame your thinking the way they want. Chaos does not justify the Imperium; the writers created Chaos as an exercise in excuseology for the Imperium's fascism. The Covenant do not justify the Spartan program, or ONI, or any of the UNSC's fascism, for they were created by the writers to be the greater threat that made rocking the boat a bad idea. Loki tells you flat out that time fascists are needed to stop dimensional fascists, but the entire set up was done by the writers. 24 creates dire situations that need to be solved now, now, now, by any means necessary, including and especially by means of torture and hard man decision-making--situations that the writers create and make torture a necessity that somehow works. Mass surveillance is necessary to the plot of The Dark Knight only because Nolan needed to justify the actions of the state to himself and others. By letting the setting's rules define your thinking, you box yourself into only the answers the writers are willing to entertain.

Anyone can become a tyrant

Can they, though? Or do people become tyrants due to their circumstances and upbringing? Right Wing Authoritarianism, one of the best reproduced results in psychology, is illustrative here. The US does everything it can to produce as many as possible, through education, culture, political parties, and generally every aspect of society. Yet for all its effort, it churns out a mere 25% of the population, where other Western countries (who also have authoritarian tendencies) turn out an average of 10% or so. If this is all that can be managed under nearly ideal circumstances (and to be fair, it's all that's actually needed to lock in power for generations in the US), then it stands to reason that it's not really fundamental to human nature, now is it? Raise someone predisposed to the RWA personality type in a culture that doesn't reward it and actively discourages it, and it would virtually disappear.

Oppression is neither wanted, nor necessary. It only continues to exist because the small group of people who benefit from it enjoy their petty power plays and pass on their values generation to generation.

Burned_Cookie · Jun 24, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
behind Frankenstein and his Creature

Hey be fair now, that entire book was about how Frankestein is the fucked up one for tossing his creation out and how he is basically the biggest asshole under the sun.

Godwinson · Jun 24, 2022

Burned_Cookie said:
Hey be fair now, that entire book was about how Frankestein is the fucked up one for tossing his creation out and how he is basically the biggest asshole under the sun.

Yes, and it was written by Mary Shelley, who was one of the people who are outside of "humanity"

Amorous Intent said:
Since at least the Enlightenment, if not earlier, "human" meant the straight, white, cis, landowning male, and universalized outward from that narrow definition. This generalization has always been conditional on approved behavior, and is swiftly retracted when you become inconvenient.

so her work recognized that, yes, it is actually him who is monstrous. That's part of the point of the work, and part of Amorous Intent's point too.

Amorous Intent · Jun 24, 2022

Burned_Cookie said:
Hey be fair now, that entire book was about how Frankestein is the fucked up one for tossing his creation out and how he is basically the biggest asshole under the sun.

Yes, he's the asshole assimilationist gay that's in every damn community and destroys lives for his own benefit. To be clear, my mention of Frankenstein in the first post was more about the book version; identifying Frankenstein as a closeted gay man and the creature as his queer lover that he fucks over to protect himself is more the provenance of the 1931 film, which had some major vibes to it. Also, I literally stated it:

Amorous Intent said:
Yet throughout history it's always been the human who is responsible for the great depravities, dehumanizing the other as a means of making it easier to steal from them, kill them, and grind them under your boot. Much as in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, it's not the Creature who is the monster, but Victor Frankenstein himself. The monsters are innocent, and humanity, proclaiming its innocence, the monster.

Burned_Cookie · Jun 24, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
my mention of Frankenstein in the first post was more about the book version;

I was responding to the post I, you know, quoted.

Putting the Frankstein book in a list of how stories tend to dehumanize [just about everyone] bothered me, even if I agree with the overall point, because the entire point of the book was the exact opposite, as you yourself mentioned in your first post.

Amorous Intent · Jun 24, 2022

Burned_Cookie said:
I was responding to the post I, you know, quoted.

Putting the Frankstein book in a list of how stories tend to dehumanize [just about everyone] bothered me, even if I agree with the overall point, because the entire point of the book was the exact opposite, as you yourself mentioned in your first post.

That would be because I was talking about the movie, and about how there's a queer narrative in it that doesn't really exist in the book. And I listed it as an example of movie monsters dehumanizing actual queer identities, not as an example of the monster characters being dehumanized. Or do you think that Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are dehumanized just because the Batman comics treat the DSM V as a monster manual? Fucking hell, even the Freddy Kruger example is sympathetic to the inner turmoil of closeted men. A sympathetic depiction of a monster is still a monster, with all the baggage it entails.

Balmung1 · Jun 24, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
Unironically, it's taken two days of off and on picking apart of your post with people on the Discord server to try and figure out exactly what you're trying to say, and we're still not actually sure. There's a lot of unspoken assumptions in here that we don't actually share in common with you, and that makes your post needlessly obtuse. I suspect, however, not even you are fully aware of what those assumptions are, so I will do my best to answer your post in good faith anyways.

You've missed my point about humans and monsters entirely. Monsters are those who are othered and dehumanized in society as a means of making brutality visited upon them easier, and this is equally true of media depictions of monsters as it is in real life. Look beneath the monster makeup, and you see queer identity behind Frankenstein and his Creature, you see mental illness behind the Batman's Rogues Gallery, homosexuality behind vampires and Freddy Kruger, protestors behind zombies, and neurodivergence behind aliens and AI. Hell, Species is straight up about women and women's sexuality, with barely any makeup to hide behind. When monsters weren't serving as dodges to the Hayes code, they invariably served as projections of the fears and hatreds of "humans" (aka, white, cishet, landowning men), the presumption that people for whom the monsters serve as allegories would do the same to them if their positions were reversed.

It's this presumption that you unironically repeat. To wit:

This is a massive brainworm. Somehow it got so deeply rooted in your brain that you read my last post and got the exact opposite message to what I was saying. "Monstrous acts" are literally just humans projecting their own crimes onto an ineffable other because they refuse to face their own susceptibility, their own culpability. And by "human," let me be clear, I mean the members of the oppressing class. Those who get othered as monsters rarely seek to invert the hierarchy (though exceptions such as Nation of Islam exist), but to end oppression entirely.

These monster narratives in media further the lie that the oppression is justified and necessary. "But this monster is justified because of (((reasons)))!" My good man, you are letting the writers frame your thinking the way they want. Chaos does not justify the Imperium; the writers created Chaos as an exercise in excuseology for the Imperium's fascism. The Covenant do not justify the Spartan program, or ONI, or any of the UNSC's fascism, for they were created by the writers to be the greater threat that made rocking the boat a bad idea. Loki tells you flat out that time fascists are needed to stop dimensional fascists, but the entire set up was done by the writers. 24 creates dire situations that need to be solved now, now, now, by any means necessary, including and especially by means of torture and hard man decision-making--situations that the writers create and make torture a necessity that somehow works. Mass surveillance is necessary to the plot of The Dark Knight only because Nolan needed to justify the actions of the state to himself and others. By letting the setting's rules define your thinking, you box yourself into only the answers the writers are willing to entertain.

Can they, though? Or do people become tyrants due to their circumstances and upbringing? Right Wing Authoritarianism, one of the best reproduced results in psychology, is illustrative here. The US does everything it can to produce as many as possible, through education, culture, political parties, and generally every aspect of society. Yet for all its effort, it churns out a mere 25% of the population, where other Western countries (who also have authoritarian tendencies) turn out an average of 10% or so. If this is all that can be managed under nearly ideal circumstances (and to be fair, it's all that's actually needed to lock in power for generations in the US), then it stands to reason that it's not really fundamental to human nature, now is it? Raise someone predisposed to the RWA personality type in a culture that doesn't reward it and actively discourages it, and it would virtually disappear.

Oppression is neither wanted, nor necessary. It only continues to exist because the small group of people who benefit from it enjoy their petty power plays and pass on their values generation to generation.

I'm sorry if I sounded like that and I didn;t do really well explaining my point but I can brreak down what I meant.

Amorous Intent said:
This is a massive brainworm. Somehow it got so deeply rooted in your brain that you read my last post and got the exact opposite message to what I was saying. "Monstrous acts" are literally just humans projecting their own crimes onto an ineffable other because they refuse to face their own susceptibility, their own culpability. And by "human," let me be clear, I mean the members of the oppressing class. Those who get othered as monsters rarely seek to invert the hierarchy (though exceptions such as Nation of Islam exist), but to end oppression entirely.

These monster narratives in media further the lie that the oppression is justified and necessary. "But this monster is justified because of (((reasons)))!" My good man, you are letting the writers frame your thinking the way they want. Chaos does not justify the Imperium; the writers created Chaos as an exercise in excuseology for the Imperium's fascism. The Covenant do not justify the Spartan program, or ONI, or any of the UNSC's fascism, for they were created by the writers to be the greater threat that made rocking the boat a bad idea. Loki tells you flat out that time fascists are needed to stop dimensional fascists, but the entire set up was done by the writers. 24 creates dire situations that need to be solved now, now, now, by any means necessary, including and especially by means of torture and hard man decision-making--situations that the writers create and make torture a necessity that somehow works. Mass surveillance is necessary to the plot of The Dark Knight only because Nolan needed to justify the actions of the state to himself and others. By letting the setting's rules define your thinking, you box yourself into only the answers the writers are willing to entertain.

What I meant by monster wasn't one group of people.Everyone has a capacity for causing harm to to others but most keep their own personal problems and hate inside themselves and go about their day nit the wiser. A few reject the "monster" within themselves entirely and go about trying to help people.People don't become monsters for no reason and what I was trying to say was that those "ends justify the means" acts like you pointed out above only create more problems or cause even more havoc than what they were trying to stop.The UNSC is a perfect example of that,if they disregarded the Carter algorithim and continud attempts at diplomatic reconciliation they would've been able to come to an agreement instead of causing the insurrection to change from a barely united group of peaceful protesters and activists to a multissystem terrorist organization.

Can they, though? Or do people become tyrants due to their circumstances and upbringing? Right Wing Authoritarianism, one of the best reproduced results in psychology, is illustrative here. The US does everything it can to produce as many as possible, through education, culture, political parties, and generally every aspect of society. Yet for all its effort, it churns out a mere 25% of the population, where other Western countries (who also have authoritarian tendencies) turn out an average of 10% or so. If this is all that can be managed under nearly ideal circumstances (and to be fair, it's all that's actually needed to lock in power for generations in the US), then it stands to reason that it's not really fundamental to human nature, now is it? Raise someone predisposed to the RWA personality type in a culture that doesn't reward it and actively discourages it, and it would virtually disappear.

I completely agree with you there and this was exactly what I was trying to argue.People do not naturally become cruel and depraved though everyone has the capability to do so.That said most people don't actually try and some people reject it in it's entirety however if you reward it and glorify it you will unleash cruelty and slaughter that you can never repair.I thank you for actually explaining in great detail and depth why I was wrong and how what I said was dehumanizing instead of just saying "that's alot of brainworms,you messed up" since that means alot to me and I believe you should continue doing this.

For the thread as a whole I apologize for any and all distress or other negative emotions my previous post has caused in it's entirety.I thank you for not banning me and I would like to continue healthy dialogue and debate on this thread.My actions were misguided and on further self reflection I realized that posting jetlagged and early in the morning was nit the best idea.

Amazing Abzan · Jun 24, 2022

Balmung1 said:
I'm sorry if I sounded like that and I didn;t do really well explaining my point but I can brreak down what I meant.

What I meant by monster wasn't one group of people.Everyone has a capacity for causing harm to to others but most keep their own personal problems and hate inside themselves and go about their day nit the wiser. A few reject the "monster" within themselves entirely and go about trying to help people.People don't become monsters for no reason and what I was trying to say was that those "ends justify the means" acts like you pointed out above only create more problems or cause even more havoc than what they were trying to stop.The UNSC is a perfect example of that,if they disregarded the Carter algorithim and continud attempts at diplomatic reconciliation they would've been able to come to an agreement instead of causing the insurrection to change from a barely united group of peaceful protesters and activists to a multissystem terrorist organization.

I completely agree with you there and this was exactly what I was trying to argue.People do not naturally become cruel and depraved though everyone has the capability to do so.That said most people don't actually try and some people reject it in it's entirety however if you reward it and glorify it you will unleash cruelty and slaughter that you can never repair.I thank you for actually explaining in great detail and depth why I was wrong and how what I said was dehumanizing instead of just saying "that's alot of brainworms,you messed up" since that means alot to me and I believe you should continue doing this.

For the thread as a whole I apologize for any and all distress or other negative emotions my previous post has caused in it's entirety.I thank you for not banning me and I would like to continue healthy dialogue and debate on this thread.My actions were misguided and on further self reflection I realized that posting jetlagged and early in the morning was nit the best idea.

Irrespective of the actual content of your post, please put spaces after your commas and periods. It'll make your arguments a lot more readable.

Burned_Cookie · Jun 24, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
That would be because I was talking about the movie, and about how there's a queer narrative in it that doesn't really exist in the book. And I listed it as an example of movie monsters dehumanizing actual queer identities, not as an example of the monster characters being dehumanized. Or do you think that Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are dehumanized just because the Batman comics treat the DSM V as a monster manual? Fucking hell, even the Freddy Kruger example is sympathetic to the inner turmoil of closeted men. A sympathetic depiction of a monster is still a monster, with all the baggage it entails.

Well I'm sorry for not magically reading incredibly specific context out of your literal mind.

You could have just said "actually I mean the movie version of year X" instead of yelling at me. Twice.

Amorous Intent · Jun 24, 2022

Burned_Cookie said:
Well I'm sorry for not magically reading incredibly specific context out of your literal mind.

You could have just said "actually I mean the movie version of year X" instead of yelling at me. Twice.

Ahem:

Amorous Intent said:
Look beneath the monster makeup, and you see queer identity behind Frankenstein and his Creature

Amorous Intent said:
Yes, he's the asshole assimilationist gay that's in every damn community and destroys lives for his own benefit. To be clear, my mention of Frankenstein in the first post was more about the book version; identifying Frankenstein as a closeted gay man and the creature as his queer lover that he fucks over to protect himself is more the provenance of the 1931 film, which had some major vibes to it. Also, I literally stated it:

Also, I'm not sure how I was supposed to respond when clarifying which specific version of Frankenstein I meant still counts as yelling at you.

Burned_Cookie · Jun 25, 2022

Amorous Intent said:
Ahem:

Also, I'm not sure how I was supposed to respond when clarifying which specific version of Frankenstein I meant still counts as yelling at you.

Honestly, it's becoming increasingly clear that we quite literally can't write at each other without misunderstanding each other. I would not have read your post like that.

Let's just drop it and move on.

Edit: To be clear, this is not meant as an attack on you.

BarbaCoPut · Jul 4, 2022

Hi, finally caught up to everything, read everything marked, followed in thread discussions for important subjects, and read every page since before the broadcast. It was one hell of a ride.
As many have said, thank for all the effort the many QMs have put into this story.

Does any one know if the QMs are taking some time to rest after the craziness of the Broadcast follow-up and if we have an ETA of their return?

AFAIU we are waiting for resolution on the surrendered elements of 12.7 (the votes have been tallied) and the fleet should pursue the ones that didn't cross. Then comes the time for preparations and stuff. Correct?

If anyone cares to answer I have another question, What was the ruling like for the design of alternative battle doctrine based on specialized swarms of drones, with detectors , shielders/armored, gunners, etc.
Controlled by VIs in command drones creating a decentralized fighting force based on theories of how real space battles should happen in the future. I know it's been proposed a couple of times, one back when Radiant was arming up for the Osliam exploration and more recently after the battle with 12.7 .-
Is Drone doctrine considered not viable because of light speed communications delays?
(making this the reason it was brought back now that we are looking to finally finish wormhole comms)

Thanks in advance,

Cassiemouse · Jul 4, 2022

Some of the QMs were ill and very busy with work so they haven't been able to work on the quest for a while. They hope to be able to return soon.

AKuz · Jul 11, 2022

[X] Plan: Science and Training
-[X] [IndComm] Automated spacecraft manufacturing breakthrough
-[X] [IndComm] Harden Radiant: Bunker Mania
-[X] [MilComm] Training Days: Stay Behind Force
-[X] [MilComm] Reorganise training
-[X] [SciComm] Automated spacecraft manufacturing breakthrough
-[X] [SciComm] Assist with Prototype Wormhole research -FTL Communications
-[X] [SciComm] Crack Advanced Cernunnos Fabricator Rights Management 'prints
-[X] [SciComm] Bypass Charter Fabricator Rights Management for Advanced MSI (First Focus Die)
-[X] [SciComm] Crack advanced Hermes-Ishtar Fabricator Rights Management 'prints (Second Focus Die)
-[X] [SocComm] Propaganda Project: Comrades! Come Rally!
-[X] [SocComm] Training Days: Expand Treatment Capacity
-[X] [MedComm] Insert Assets into Kimberly
[Aria] Found Youth Organization
[Aria] Something Fun

Automated spacecraft manufacturing breakthrough 15 + 5 + 18/?? = 38/???
Harden Radiant: Bunker Mania 11 + 14 + 15/30 = 40/30
Training Days: Stay Behind Force 7 + 8 + 2(omake) 8/25 =25 /25
Reorganise training 17 + 10 +3(Omake)+5(medals bonus) = 30/35
Automated spacecraft manufacturing breakthrough 3 + 38 +10 + 5(focus) = 56/??? (Complete, and overrun)
Assist with Prototype Wormhole research -FTL Communications: 14+ 15 + 5(focus) + 3(omake) 49/??? = 87/???
Crack Advanced Cernunnos Fabricator Rights Management 'prints 12+ 14 + 5(focus) +10/30 = 41/ 30
Bypass Charter Fabricator Rights Management for Advanced MSI (First Focus Die) 13 + 14 + 5(focus) +4/30 = 37 / 30
Crack advanced Hermes-Ishtar Fabricator Rights Management 'prints (Second Focus Die) 11 + 14 + 5(focus) +5/30 = 35 / 30
Propaganda Project: Comrades! Come Rally! 14 + 10 + 12/30 = 36/30
Training Days: Expand Treatment Capacity 8 + 5 + 13/25 = 26/25
Found Youth Organization: 4 + 5 + 21/25 = 30/25
Insert Assets into Kimberly 18 + 19 = Automatic

Overrun Notes
--Bonus of +6 to next Grey Skies roll from FRM overrun (it's maxed out at 6 for a reason)
--56/40 for Automated Spacecraft means Grey Skies is at 8/36 from ½ overflow bonus.
--Nothing else.

Three days after Second Shei
From: Admiral Shayla McLean, Commander Combined Force
To: General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth

Operational Reports in Brief:
Osliam Force under my command is currently policing the battlefield left behind by Second Sheol, and overseeing transit of prisoners and prizes of war, as well as securing the Sheol-Osliam gate.

The defecting TF 12.7 craft under the command of Division Captain Kuang have been sent on their way, with an attached flight-path that exits our territory of control via the Radiant-Besteer gate.

It is our hope that Division Captain Kuang's Force will be able to take advantage of the current outbreak of chaos in the Near and Far Spinward Frontiers to link up with either other revolutionary forces or slip through to Sol herself.

Commodore Rousseau's Mobile Force has been authorised to hotly pursue the remnants of Task Force 12.7 Spinward down the Osliam Chain, and her formation is expected to link up with civilian refuelling craft volunteered for in-system refuelling by the Osliam government.

As for Mobile Force's pursuit, Commodore Rousseau hopes that the automated weapons platforms placed by Tripwire across the Osliam-Waystation Gate will delay the surviving Loyalist Solarian Navy craft enough that she will be able to engage them on Mobile Force's terms.

Brief Notes on Gathered Intelligence:
Division Captain Kuang, commander of this flotilla has been upfront with Solarian Naval plans as she knows them, however due to operational security measures she has not received briefings with regards to major military movements. According to her, there were exercises conducted by the Solarian Navy as part of "Case Dawnfall" that simulated an attack and occupation on the All-Radiant Congress and allies as constituted at that time.

Though she was not privy to all the various permutations of "Case Dawnfall", all involved using Task Force 12.7 and Admiral Vesser's command to secure the Osliam Chain and act as a second front while a major combined detachment of the 9th and 7th Fleets would strike down the Dragon's Spine, while a reinforced Charter Force present in Thoa would continue to draw the attention of the Congressional Navy to the Thoa-Chinook gateway via probing attacks.

Additionally, reports from both the Signals division of the Permanent Commission on Military Intelligence and our own debriefing of SolNav prisoners of war generally agree that the timetable for "Case Dawnfall" was written with the expectation that after the Compact elections this summer the incoming government would work hand in hand with the Solarian Admiralty on a major military operation that would begin sometime around November 2255 with major combat operations expected to begin in March 2256.

It was envisioned that a major propaganda campaign would be launched across the Core and Near Frontiers with the expectation that the government and Navy would be able to popularise a short victorious war that would put the genie of revolt back in the bottle before imitators began to appear.

-

Ten days after Second Shei
From: Admiral Shayla McLean, Commander Combined Force
To: General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth

12.7 has transitioned through the gate to Waystation.

-

Ten days after Second Shei
From: Admiral Shayla McLean, Commander Combined Force
To: General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth

Mobile Task-Force has transitioned through the gate to Waystation. Task Force 12.7 appears to have broken through the Osliam-Waystation defences without stopping, transitioning all ships at once. While this did allow the Tripwire defences to destroy one of the vulnerable troop transports, the unsupported defences were otherwise shredded with little to no apparent damage to the remnants of Task Force 12.7.

With in transit refuelling completed without incident, Commodore Rousseau's Mobile Force has continued its pursuit.

Current reports indicate that while 12.7 appears to be continuing on a least time course heading towards the Waystation-Capitata gate. At this point it can be assumed that they are aware of Ascension's true allegiance and given the limited effect of the Tripwire defenses at the Osliam-Waystation gate, it is the opinion of both Commodore Rousseau and myself that we cannot expect the Waystation-Capitata defenses to do appreciable damage to Loyalist Forces before they return to their base in Capitata.

Currently Commodore Rousseau's Mobile Force is continuing pursuit. If Mobile Force is unable to force an engagement before the transition to Capitata, she is to observe their movements and take action depending on the Loyalist's movements. If the Loyalist remnants head towards the Raphenus gate, Mobile force will continue to shadow their movements but will not engage until Osliam Force is able to link up, in order to minimize the casualties in forcing a defended gate. In the eventuality that the Loyalist Force attempts to force the Capitata-Ascension gate she is to pursue and engage as soon as possible.

Both Waystation's civilian government and the Tripwire gate-layer ships from Ascension also wished to convey their extreme displeasure at Loyalist Craft doubling back towards them after they had committed to publicly revealing their allegiance to the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth.

Commodore Rousseau's reassurance that 'if the dogs of Korolev-Chandrasekhar were going to lay orbital strikes on civilians, they would have started with Osliam's domes," does not appear to have reassured the Waystation government or the All-Ascension Congress.

-

Twenty one days after Second Shei
From: Admiral Shayla McLean, Commander Combined Force
To: General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth

Commodore Rousseau's Mobile Force has transitioned into Capitata and reports that the defences there have been forced with no loss of Loyalist craft. The remains of Task Force 12.7 appear to be heading to the Capitata-Raphenus gate, and Rousseau is preparing to block any avenue of return for the Loyalist and is currently dismayed at the prospect of a drawn out siege until myself and Osliam Force proper have arrived

-

Thirty three days after Second Shei
From: Admiral Shayla McLean, Commander Combined Force
To: General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth

Mobile and Osliam forces have linked up, and we are preparing to transit the Capitata-Raphanus gate immediately as no visible defences are visible on the Raphanus side of the gate.

-

Thirty three days after Second Shei
From: Admiral Shayla McLean, Commander Combined Force
To: General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth

All Congressional Navy craft have successfully tranited the Capitata-Waystation gate and are pursuing the last Solarian Navy Loyalists spinward of Thoa.

The current status of the TF 12.7 remnants appear confused as they are gathered around the system's uncompleted far gate, with their intentions unclear.

-

Thirty eight days after Second Shei
From: Admiral Shayla McLean, Commander Combined Force
To: General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth

The Solarian Loyalist remnants of TF 12.7 have departed Raphanus into uncharted space, vanishing beyond the uncompleted gate.

While Commodore Rousseau has vocally advocated for continued pursuit, I have elected to halt our combined Force at the far Raphanus gate as historical attempts to attack via unimproved jump points have been debacles at best, and disasters at worst.

As the return route is also unfinished I believe that the threat posed by the TF 12.7 Loyalists is minimal.

Limited observation via drone indicates that the TF 12.7 remnants are continuing away from Amaranthine space, and after consultation with Ascension, it is believed that the Loyalists have two courses available to them: continue to chart unexplored jump points with the hope of eventually linking back to the Solarian Compact, or to take a direct warp assisted deep space course toward the Solarian Navy 10 Fleet's base in the Isthmus system which is the closest loyalist bastion in real space to the system at the far side of Raphanus.

In either event, it would take a minimal defensive force based out of Raphanus to prevent a return of loyalist fleet elements.

There is one final note of concern that I must relay to the General Congress: I have been contacted by the "Raphanus workers Union" who have indicated that they wish to negotiate with the AIC. They aren't entirely clear on if they want to join, or pursue independent existence as a sovereign system. But the RWU's leadership is very keen to indicate that they could be of use, as their plans for the Raphanus gates were far enough along they believe they would be able to finish them in exchange for full membership in the AIC and/or independence.

I have personally reassured the RWU's Leadership that there is no need for such offers as we will respect their personal autonomy in negotiating either membership in the AIC or the opening of diplomatic relations as an independent and sovereign star system.

-

Industrial Committee Reports:

Automated spacecraft manufacturing breakthrough

Once we were able to really grasp the technologies at play, things finally took off.

Honestly I'm not sure if we should be blaming Compact regulations or Charter Intellectual Property enclosure for no-one having done this before, but it isn't actually that hard once you've done it.

Spacecraft fabrication is actually something of a mature art and most designs are based around standardized templates, and differences for local needs and conditions can be accounted for on the fly by VI simulation software to make sure that the changes will result in a viable craft.

Something else that made this possible was being able to streamline communication between HI, Ares, and Rhodes drones. Before there'd be a ton of collisions from network congestion degrading coordination and the actual materials and pieces being moved would block signals between the drones that most need to cooperate. (ie, the cooperating drones moving to steer a piece into position would hit each other instead of doing what they were supposed to)

We actually used a scaled up variant of the software used by the Box for physics simulations. To give credit where it is due, the brain boys in SciComm came up with it, but we were the ones who made it work in real life.

-James Antoniou
Orbital Manufacturing Union Representative to the Science Committee

Project Completion: 38/??? -

Projected Results: Spaceyards are automated, ship-building is allocated to a separate tab and new craft can be started as soon as a spaceyard is free without spending a MilCom dice.

Further automation research possible

-

Harden Radiant: Bunker Mania

You have bunkers now.

Granted, half the populace is treating this project more like an extended public contest and society wide festival after the humiliating, one sided loss by the Solarian Navy in Shei.

But… well better to have em and not need them than need them and not have them I guess. (Not to mention the sudden and inexplicable popularity of "Bunker Romance" media that involves strangers or friends accidentally being trapped in their Bunker an emerging as a couple after a short period of romantic and light hearted hijinks)

Plus the rumours say the the Compact is already assembling an even larger armada to attack us, though who knows if that'll be dispatch now that everything is, you know "on fucking fire" unspecifed reasons that are no one's fault.

-Home Colonel Marietta Hakamoto
Sheol Army Liaison to MilComm

Project Completion: 40/30

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

Small increase in population growth rate

-

Military Committee Reports

Training Days: Stay Behind Force

More so than the bunkers, which were at least seen as fashionable, the Stay Behind Force training went rather mediocrely, not that we didn't finish, but I feel like it was barely done. The first part of the month was enthusiastic, but in the end it just… dropped off. Honestly, and I hate to admit this, but I think half the reason we finished our stay behind forces was second hand enthusiasm for the old DemFed stay behind units that have come out of hiding. So uh… we may have more combat cyborgs than planned in the reserves for the System Defence Armies.

-Commodore Diana Skullcrusher
Congressional Forces Training Coordinator

Project Completion: 25 /25

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

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Reorganise Training

While nothing is the work of any one woman (and let us not make the mistake that it ever was) I would like to give credit to our new Defence Coordinator for ensuring that the reorganisation of the Congressional Navy and Congressional Liberation Army Corp's training regime in the Radiant system continued even as the fleet approached.

It would have been all too easy to focus all attention on the fleet and sit still for a month in anticipation of a showdown. That said, the majority of the work was done by the staff and resources MilComm allocated, with occasional help from other committees under the supervision of our Defence Coordinator.

For now, tentative plans state that while for the foreseeable future the major Officer's school will likely be in Radiant due to size and central location, the General Congress will have to decide on the direction that the second phase of expansions will take.

At the moment there are three schools of thought being entertained by DC Kozlova and MilComm: Parallelization, Decentralization, and the Elysian Academy

Parallelization involves different systems and locations each constructing highly specialized academies devoted to single disciplines. At the moment Chinook would be taking possession of the strikecraft schools, Five Lions, the small craft schools, Radiant the command schools, and Ascension the electronics school, with other disciplines like engineering and medical still to be decided.

The "Decentralized" model envisions giving each System Congress its own independent academy structure and either volunteers from each system would be trained at their academy or all volunteers would be partitioned between the academies randomly on a proportional basis.

The "Academy" model involves selecting a single central Academy that all volunteers pass through during their first terms, specialist schools in different systems, then a final finishing period back at the central Academy. This is believed to be a compromise option that also allows the construction of a unified Esprit des Corps and allows networking between our service personnel.

-Commodore Diana Skullcrusher
Congressional Forces Training Coordinator

After much debate, a joint sitting of the Military and Social committees has recommended that all children have access and encouragement in the Paths of Enlightenment to have at least basic Spacer training and a familiarity with living in space. Despite debate, such training should not be military focused, as we do not wish to push children the way Ares does. But exposing children to spaceborn life is invaluable, as is exposing them to Spacer culture, and gives us a pool of potential recruits already familiar with spaceborn life. While we often look at the Charters hoarding of material goods, their hoarding of knowledge and training is also incredibly harmful.

-Captain Yevgeny Dragonswing
Congressional Navy Liaison to the Amarantine Youth League

Project Completion: 35/30 (5 overflow to Phase 2)

Project Results: Ensures a basic level of competence among all Radiant craft crews. New crews will automatically train to this level. 4 E ongoing cost once completed.

Phase 2 Projects unlocked.

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Science Committee Reports

Automated spacecraft manufacturing breakthrough

The biggest problem with the automation was compounding failures. If one component was a bit off it could throw the entire thing. To account for that we build the ships as a series of modules, leaving less room for a compounding error to destroy the entire thing, just the module. This does require inspection of each piece post, but it's much better than losing entire ships.

The other major breakthrough was in drone coordination. In a show of amazing capitalist efficiency, every charter has different drone protocols, which means that the coordination software between them isn't compatible, and made it a pain to try to actually combine the Rhodes drones modelling software with the Ares plans. Ironically this ended up being solved by using a plug code from MSI that takes the individual coordination software of each and runs itself as the master coordinator. If I was a suspicious person, I'd say that MSI software is really good at that.

-Dr. Brian Canata
Team Spokesman, Automation Committee

Project Completion: 56/??? - > 56/40, complete

Project Result: Spaceyards are automated, ship-building is allocated to a separate tab and new craft can be started as soon as a spaceyard is free without spending a MilCom dice.

Further automation research possible

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Assist with Prototype Wormhole research -FTL Communications

One of the biggest obstacles has been vibration isolation, as even the smallest vibrations disrupt wormhole formation, necessitating floating the experimental apparatus on a table on magnet pads in an empty and air-controlled room, which itself is then floated on giant air pads to isolate the room from significant sources of vibration such as someone walking down the hall on the opposite side of the building.

After extensive testing we've finally progressed with alignment of flux capacitors on the experimental rig to bring the results closer in line with simulations. Despite request, the ARIA network was unavailable, but further modelling was done using the Elysian MELODY research array, and the results seem to validate our approach.

Unfortunately in perhaps the biggest case of irony the biggest problem was the delay in communications with Ascension, both natural and radio silence during the recent TF 12.7 crisis. As such we have only recently verified the models. However, we are now ready to begin practical testing.

-Dr. Stephen Mann
Closed Session of the Gravitational Physics Council of the Science Committee

Project Progress: 87/???

Projected Result: Unlocks Wormhole Communications Prototype Construction Project

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Crack Advanced Cernunnos Fabricator Rights Management 'prints

I am pleased to report that all Charter FRMs available to us have been cracked. Attached are summaries from the project directors on our new acquisitions.

-Callista Moreno
Professional Union of Laboratory Technicians and Coders Spokeswoman

Meat. Yes, we had bio-printers before but not the exotic ones! Flavortown will have nothing on us! You want dino-meat? Dodo-meat? Tenderest-juiciest meat you've ever tasted? We now have them all, and at industrial scale!

On things that are clearly less important, we have healing vats, a sort of artificial cocoon that can reconstruct a person's body through nanomachines, allowing us to heal nearly any injury or disease as long as the brain is intact, perform biosculpting, construct implants in-situ, and perform arbitrary nanosurgery. Our deployment of basic guaranteed immortality suffered because we had maybe a few dozen healing vats across the entirety of Radiant–nearly all of them looted from the mansions of the wealthy–forcing us to rely on Cernunnos frontier medical treatment plans. We've also got Cernunnos' full suite of nanovats, their answer to Rhodes nanofactories, using liquid or gel immersion molecular assembly instead of hard vacuum or inert gas, trading speed for smaller size and a much, much better ability to handle printing soft materials.

Less exotic but more immediately relevant, we've got the entire stock of Cern genetic advancements, which will make treating augment populations a lot easier, and should let us get started on removing the markers that prevent them from making the key enzymes that were used as control methods by Cernunnos. We've also got the life-extension improvements available, which should massively cut down on immortality costs once rolled out.

Finally we've got the set of VI design suites that are used for creating all their biological modification (pharma/gene/bio) products. Which should make it possible to start in on our own designs.

So immortality, the ability to play God, and most importantly, printable meat. Not a bad haul.

Project Progress: 41/30

Projected Result: Unlock Cernnunos enterprise grade 'prints. Other Projects unlocked

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Bypass Charter Fabricator Rights Management for Advanced MSI

More than any other Charter, MSI is a grab bag of tech, some of which is surprisingly similar to other charters. While much of it is replicated, it acted as a 'bridge' between the maddeningly incompatible enterprise tech of the other charters. MSI seems to be the only Charter who doesn't seem to bother trying to keep people 'in their ecosystem' by making their tech not work with anything else.

The one area of exclusive research is, unsurprisingly, in cargo haulers. In house macron accelerator fusion engines and other items will make it a lot easier to ship between planets something that so far hasn't been a major problem due to AIC's smaller size, but has started to become strained during out expansion down the Osliam chain to Ascension.

Callista Moreno
Professional Union of Laboratory Technicians and Coders Spokeswoman

Project Completion: : 37/30

Projected Result: Unlock Mississippi Shipping Interstellar enterprise grade 'prints. Other Projects unlocked

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Crack advanced Hermes-Ishtar Fabricator Rights Management 'prints.

The enterprise-grade prints for Hermes-Ishtar can rather neatly be separated into the two sides of their enterprise. From Ishtar we have the full suite of media production tools, from video games, to XR, XP, and movie production both virtual and meatspace, including more advanced resources that we've had to husband for the RBC key productions until now. Perhaps most intriguing is the set of techniques that were developed but almost never used, due to either 'cost reasons' or because the initial products using it were not considered popular enough. We can expect some interesting variations on media, a shame this was cracked only after the RBC as a pan-galactic broadcast channel became defunct.

On the Hermes side we can now build and expand our own Comms Arrays, rather than working on repairing what we have. Perhaps most interesting though, is that we found a block-out for a steganographic module (for sending embedded messages alongside normal communications), making it much easier to communicate with infiltration teams. We don't have the module right now, but we have ideas on how to begin researching it.

Callista Moreno
Professional Union of Laboratory Technicians and Coders Spokeswoman

Project Progress: : 35/30

Projected Result: Unlock HI production grade 'prints. Other Projects unlocked

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Social Committee Reports

Propaganda Project: Comrades! Come Rally!

You have seen what they tried to do in Sol, to the very mother-planet that they claimed to protect. You have seen what they did to Atlantis where a bloody coup ripped the mask off Cosmoliberalism and killed a minimum of 100-300 thousand dead. And the Solarian Compact didn't lift a finger. Acted as if this tide of blood was normal.

Because that tide of blood IS normal.

Make no mistake, this is what they will do to any who defy them. We are no more exempt from their swords and missiles than the people of the core.

If the war comes to us we must be prepared to fight tooth and nail for our lives and our freedoms.

-Except from SocComm talking points distributed to municipal councils

Project Completion: 36/30

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

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Training Days: Expand Treatment Capacity

The IAC Nurses Corp is ready to go. Or the AIC Doctors Corp or…

Well there was an argument about whether since they are all qualified to be doctors based on knowledge we should call them doctors or if doctors was a bourgeoisie term and…

The point is, we have a massive corps of medical people of indeterminate titles ready to go.

-NURSE Tamara Elo
Elysian Nurses Union Spokesperson

Program Progress: 26/25

Projected Results: In the event of a Compact or Charter Occupation we will have reduced civilian casualties. Reduce rollout costs of any future medical breakthroughs made or cracked.

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Found Youth Organisation

Considering the decibels of what's happening in the galleries around us, I doubt anyone could miss it. But for those who both live under a rock, lack children, and refuse to look up, I'll append some snippets for analysis.

-Amanda Cretak,
-Former Youth Organization Committee Managing Director.

The strike enters its third week, as the Amaranthine Youth League holds loud and raucous protests in the streets of Persephone in between any class time or other work they have to do. Already Persephone Teachers' Union representative Artaud Hargreeve has resigned from the General Congress, replaced by 18 year old Youth League candidate Mitchael Foxglove

He has been joined by former Youth Organization Committee Managing director Amanda Cretak and reforms are being discussed to the structure of the whole organization to eliminate roles like "Managing Director".

We asked Hilda Ahuja, on the Council of Youths, for her opinion and a reiteration of demands. "This is nothing short of a second revolution. A Young Revolution. Any youth organization must be controlled by the youths themselves, with adults serving at most an advisory or distant role. What we fear most of all is Youth Without Youth, and our demands are for a radical reshaping of our responsibilities, and the beginning of a transformation that you adults have put off long enough."

Amanda Cretak, on the other hand, has said that…

-Excerpt from an article in the Persephone Free Star

--

"Youth Without Youth" is a new concept created by the Amaranth Youth League. It posits that an immortal society and one with few built-in hierarchies could acquire both an age-based hierarchy and a rigidity of thought in the long term, especially as new children begin to be outnumbered by those not just decades, but centuries older. The AYL proposes fighting the "Immortal Society" and the potential for "Youth Without The Young" with the creation and enshrining of a committed body of the young, with membership open to all under eighteen with 'senior' positions available to those from aged 18-20.

This organisation should seek to agitate for rights while also engaging in socialization and shared activities in order to help spread and encourage new ideas and also--of course--still coordinate all the fun things that had at one point been a more major portion of the planning…

-From an Article in the Chinook Daily Bulletin

One of the major factors in this so-called "Young Revolution" seems to be the heavy use of the ARIA network, which they used for many of their organizational plans, and apparently--at least according to their words-- used to run simulations on what might potentially happen if the AIC lasted centuries with an immortal society.

Of course, worries of an "Immortal Society" are somewhat overblown, due the impermanent and top heavy nature of anarchism, but the movement is potentially useful if dangerous. (I have several colleagues who are concerned that the "Youth Revolution" will escalate into a full blown Cultural Anarchism like that experienced by the Chinese of the 1970s. And we will not be spared the bloodletting if these children are allowed free reign to remake the world in their image of "the young")

It is my contention that we can use our centuries of experience marketing to youth demographics to win these children over to the side of good with promises of the latest consumer goods and present capitalism as an answer to the staid and boring adult world of Anarchist Central Planning.

I hope this message is properly received as the Omoikane cells in our network appear to have abruptly gone radio silent during the "Young Revolution" and are no longer cooperating in espionage operations.

It is my worry that the new anarchist secret police have rolled up their network, and we will also be curtailing our operations to avoid the same fate.

-Intercepted report from an HI loyalist cell that was rolled up by the Permanent Commission on Counter Espionage after the Second Battle of Shei

Dice Bonus: +5

Project Difficulty: 30/25

Cost Per Dice: 1BR

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

Amaranth Youth League will gain their own 1d6 that will be applied towards projects of their choosing.

New Projects unlocked

[Added to GOC-Showcase us]

[The Young Revolution has Begun]

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Media Committee Reports

Insert Assets into Kimberly

So. Kimberly's not– quite– empty.

There's a few dozen old ex-Rhodes employees led by a man calling himself the "Landgrave of the Landfill." Yes, Landgrave, as in the archaic title used by the First Holy Roman Empire that was obsolete even before nobility in general.

As far as we can tell, this 'Landgrave' was the only qualified scrapper left in the castouts that didn't leave when Rhodes pulled out. And without him, they all would have died several times over.

Instead, they're trundling around an icy moon with the front third of a cruiser rigged up to harvest ice for fuel and hydroponics. On treads. GIANT FUCKING TREADS. So, having built this… miracle? Monstrosity? And saved everyone, he declared himself an Enlightenment Absolutist (must have found some history textbooks in the junk all over the system) and everyone just went with it.

…Also, the Landgrave claims he managed to repair the spinal cannon on his piece of cruiser. And will use it to defend his "fief" against all comers.

So: how do we deal with a mad scrapper, who's also responsible for keeping everyone he "rules" alive and happy for over a decade and is apparently beloved for it? Who also supposedly has a capital-grade cannon on the rickety mess he drives around in?

Good news is, we have all the time in the world to think about it. The "Landgrave" says the rest of the system is fair game. There's a lot of scrap metal and old parts out here. Maybe something useful?

-Lieutenant-Commander Marcus Ogundare
Permanent Commission on Military Intelligence MedComm Liason

Project Progress: Automatic

Projected Results: Automatic project completion next turn: One Man's Trash– Sift through the vast debris field left when Rhodes pulled its scrapping operation out for being insufficiently profitable.

Other Projects unlocked.

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Artificial Research Intelligence Assistant Reports

The important thing to remember is that, in truth, Aria is more like a child than the obedient pocket God that Omoikane wanted to build. So yes, she spent nearly half of the last quarter working on her card game.

Yes, it has little practical value. I could attempt to defend her actions by arguing that Aria spent time trying to make it 'exactly like the show' before finally giving up and working to create her own that wasn't stuck in the past. I could argue that this means significant development for her. If I were still stuck to Charter funding I would also try to argue that the game is fun, and could easily be used as a profit source.

I will not do that.

Because I do not have to justify ARIA's actions.

She did it because she chose to, and it made her happy.

PS: It's also really is a really really fun game now. You should try it. Amazingly well balanced.

-Doctor Franklin Pierce
ARIA Project Guardian

Project Progress: Automatic

Projected Results: You have a cool new card game? ARIA had fun.

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Remaining Omake Bonuses:
IndComm:
N/A
MilComm: , You Wouldn't Download a Submarine, Somewhere on Sheol… 2, "Ninja Gating is OP"
SciComm:
the FOREWORD
SocComm:
N/A
MedComm:
Senior_Sarcasm's Streaming Sh*t Service, Upside Down (Show Summary), Meme Research 101 Lecture Notes, Cattle Runners, weFALL2gether,

Free
Per Aspera Sic Sempe
RBC Voice Acting

-

--Tatbee Omake (MilComm)
--See No Evil, Hear No Evil (SocComm)
--Trailer Script! (MedComm)
--The Email (MedComm)
--Resignation (MilComm)
--Sasha's Pitstopp (IndComm)
--Radiance of Sol (MilComm)
--The Arrcanist In Atlanta (SocComm)
--When You Eat It… (SocComm, MedComm)
--Tech Support (SciComm)
--Side Effects (SocComm)
--The ARIA Baselisk (SciComm)
--And You Will Be Like God (MedComm, SocComm)
--Rescue Mission (MedComm)
--ZERO HEDGE (SocComm)
--A Review of Sisters Race (MedComm)
--Free Buckets (SocComm)
--Voidnet (SciComm, SocComm)
--Maybe It's Another Drill (MilComm)
--Fantasy's End (SocComm, MedComm)
--The World Again (FREE)
--Pacific City Omake (SocComm)
--Good Soldier (MilComm)
--Yuri Gagarin (MilComm)
--SolNav, Lower Decks (MilComm)
--Rats from a Sinking Ship (FREE)
--Senior Sarcasm Rides Again (Medcomm, IndComm)
--Neither Rain Nor (MedComm)
--BoxChan Part 1 (FREE)
--Boxchan Part 2 (FREE)
--Boxchan Part 3 (FREE)
--The Box (MedComm)
--Crossover?! (MedComm)
--Alternative Markets (SocComm)
--Sci-Fi Anime Trope Manager (MedComm)
--SolNav, Lower Decks Part 2 (MilComm)
--Of Seeing the INvisible (SocComm)
--Least Favorite Part ((MIlComm)
--Thousand Yard Stare (SocComm)
--Transportation Safety (IndComm)
--Tech Support Part 2 (SciComm)
--Tech Support Part 3 (SciComm)
--Christians, Charity, and Columbia (SocComm)
--This is the Secret… (FREE)
--Earth Map 1 (SocComm)
--The Black Archbishop (SocComm)
--Vision is the Art (FREE)
--The Flag, Still Flying… (MilComm)
--golad (SocComm)
--Those who Stop the Darkness (SciComm)
--From Their Graves (FREE)
--Toronto Sunset (FREE)

Evaunit02mark1 · Jul 11, 2022

AKuz said:
As far as we can tell, this 'Landgrave' was the only qualified scrapper left in the castouts that didn't leave when Rhodes pulled out. And without him, they all would have died several times over.

Instead, they're trundling around an icy moon with the front third of a cruiser rigged up to harvest ice for fuel and hydroponics. On treads. GIANT FUCKING TREADS. So, having built this… miracle? Monstrosity? And saved everyone, he declared himself an Enlightenment Absolutist (must have found some history textbooks in the junk all over the system) and everyone just went with it.

…Also, the Landgrave claims he managed to repair the spinal cannon on his piece of cruiser. And will use it to defend his "fief" against all comers.

So: how do we deal with a mad scrapper, who's also responsible for keeping everyone he "rules" alive and happy for over a decade and is apparently beloved for it? Who also supposedly has a capital-grade cannon on the rickety mess he drives around in?

I would die for this man or possibly kill others.

That being said best thing to do is give him a thumbs up, welcome a new trade partner, give him the closest thing we've got to a Sears catalog and keep it moving.

Sara · Jul 11, 2022

Evaunit02mark1 said:
I would die for this man or possibly kill others.

That being said best thing to do is give him a thumbs up, welcome a new trade partner, give him the closest thing we've got to a Sears catalog and keep it moving.

You know, based on people in real life with neufuedalist beliefs and how topical the writers have been, somehow I'm betting their going to be less of a wholesome chungus meme and have more in common with reactionaries who like to use grecoroman busts as their avatar.

BurnBright · Jul 11, 2022

I vote we just give them some boxes and the broadcast, and then let the people decide if they're cool with this Landgrave guy. Who knows, maybe he'll be their Emperor Norton?

Spart117MC · Jul 11, 2022

AKuz said:
The Solarian Loyalist remnants of TF 12.7 have departed Raphanus into uncharted space, vanishing beyond the uncompleted gate.

I'll admit, jumping out into the black void of space is not the turn I expected these folk to take.

AKuz said:
Project Completion: 56/??? - > 56/40, complete

Project Result: Spaceyards are automated, ship-building is allocated to a separate tab and new craft can be started as soon as a spaceyard is free without spending a MilCom dice.

Arsenal of Anarchy is a go. The river of steel now exists, all it needs now is to be paired this with sufficiently smart but dumb drones for the full Supreme Commander experience.

AKuz said:
Crack Advanced Cernunnos Fabricator Rights Management 'prints

AKuz said:
Bypass Charter Fabricator Rights Management for Advanced MSI

AKuz said:
Crack advanced Hermes-Ishtar Fabricator Rights Management 'prints.

Oh boy those are some tasty tidbits, especially all that tech that'll free augments from their dependence on continuous treatments, that one is going to be the next big game changer. The Second Broadcast can't come fast enough.

taovkool · Jul 11, 2022

AKuz said:
The important thing to remember is that, in truth, Aria is more like a child than the obedient pocket God that Omoikane wanted to build. So yes, she spent nearly half of the last quarter working on her card game.

Yes, it has little practical value. I could attempt to defend her actions by arguing that Aria spent time trying to make it 'exactly like the show' before finally giving up and working to create her own that wasn't stuck in the past. I could argue that this means significant development for her. If I were still stuck to Charter funding I would also try to argue that the game is fun, and could easily be used as a profit source.

I will not do that.

Because I do not have to justify ARIA's actions.

She did it because she chose to, and it made her happy.

Yes, we have a super powerful AI and we're having fun playing and making games with her.

This, above all else, convinces me that we're absolutely the good guys.

Thanks for the update, Akuz.

Evaunit02mark1 said:
That being said best thing to do is give him a thumbs up, welcome a new trade partner, give him the closest thing we've got to a Sears catalog and keep it moving.

BurnBright said:
I vote we just give them some boxes and the broadcast, and then let the people decide if they're cool with this Landgrave guy. Who knows, maybe he'll be their Emperor Norton?

Eh, why not? I could deal with that.

Honestly though? With the mutual threat of the Compact, I wouldn't say no to an alliance of some sorts with the Landgrave. My only worry is that allying ourselves with a one planet dictatorship, albeit a benevolent one, would have its own political costs considering that we're the number one anarchist poster boy/girl.

Best keep our distance for now.

Sara · Jul 11, 2022

BurnBright said:
I vote we just give them some boxes and the broadcast, and then let the people decide if they're cool with this Landgrave guy. Who knows, maybe he'll be their Emperor Norton?

Like, we're communists and arguably anarchists so we're probably not going to be interested in propping up a literal feudalist dictatorship and doing so would likely piss off a lot of our allies and constituents for obvious reasons like gross hypocrisy. We're also not imperialists so if their happy with him, their happy with him, but as a precaution we should probably make sure they have the technology to take care of themselves without his expertise and can leave if they want so he's less capable of coercing anyone to be his personal serfs.

Their's a lot of situations like this we're people are very happy with their Strongmen when their literally the only thing keeping them alive, but where relations on both sides can cool when suddenly they don't have to do everything the guy says on pain of starving to death or what have you.

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

Been Better

Love the future

Very tired girl.

"Well, I've got nothing."

Love the future

Very tired girl.

Love the future

Very tired girl.

Love the future

Very tired girl.

Voluta indomita

Market Atheist

Been Better

Industrial Committee Reports:

Military Committee Reports

Science Committee Reports

Social Committee Reports

Media Committee Reports

Artificial Research Intelligence Assistant Reports

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

Amateur human

Forever Gone