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

AKuz · Dec 10, 2020

THE ALL-RADIANT CONGRESS

Setting Information: The Solarian Compact:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Charters:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rhodes Mining

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

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

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

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

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

Techbros, some of them science, some of them explore

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sketchy buggers, they can get you anything tho

Historical Topics:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Misc Details:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Spinward Frontier:

The Middle Spinward Frontier

The Core Region:

UNDER RADIANT CONTROL OR ALLIED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gaid A1: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Gaid B2: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid B5: A small icy planet. Quality 3.

Gaid B6: A frozen world. Quality 7.

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

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

Shei 1: A Cthonian world. Quality 15.

Shei 2: An airless world. Quality 12.

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

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

Gravity .95 Earth Standard. Quality 12.

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

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

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

Shei I: Asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Shei II: Asteroid belt.

Shei 7: Jovian planet. Quality 13.

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

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

Shei 8: Ice giant. Quality 6.

Shei 8a: An icy moon. Quality 9.

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

Population: 103,000,000

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

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

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

Five Lions 3: A rocky ball. Quality 7.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five Lions II: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 7: An unremarkable Jovian. Quality 2.

Five Lions III: An asteroid belt.

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

Five Lions IV: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 9: Jovian planet. Quality 9.

Five Lions V: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 10: Neptunian ice giant. Quality 8.

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

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

Population: 15,000,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Population: 650,000

UNDER CHARTER CONTROL:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh A6: An unremarkable icy ball. Quality 4.

Xotreh AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh 6: A dense ice giant. Quality 4.

Xotreh 7: Jovian planet. Quality 6.

Xotreh 8: An exceptionally cold Jovian. Quality 9.

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

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

Population: 54,000

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

Bestreer 1: An airless world. Quality 2.

Bestreer 2: An airless world. Quality 6.

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

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

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

Bestreer I: An icy asteroid belt.

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

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

Bestreer 7: Another Jovian. Quality 14.

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

Bestreer 8: An icy ball. Quality 10.

Population: 450

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

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

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

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

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

Akleod I: An asteroid belt.

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

Population: 5,000

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

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

Thoa System Stats:

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

Thoa 2: An unremarkable airless metal ball.

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

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

Thoa I: An asteroid belt.

Thoa 4: A normal Jovian planet.

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

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

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

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

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

Thoa II: A Kuiper belt of icy objects.

Empty Systems

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

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

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

Kimberly 3: A Jovian world.

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

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

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

Total:

Radiant:

Gaid:

Five Lions:

Head of Diplomatic Corps:

Name: Amanda Redcrest, Victoria Blackwell, and Kayla Hayashi

DoB: "2222", 2219, 2227, 2224

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cons: XP celebrity, little diplomatic experience, three people

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

Unlocked FRM

Ares Peacekeeping Grade - Access to planetary army formation

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

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

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

Cernunnos Consumer Grade - +1 to all Soccom actions

Cernunnos Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

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

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

Hermes-Ishtar Production Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

MSI Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

Original Tech

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

Defence Coordinator:

Name: Maria Awhina

DoB: 2165

Current Position: Military Committee Delegate from the Radiant Veterans Guild

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

Command Traits:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-None

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

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

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

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

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

Solarian Marines now spread throughout the system

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

Mobile Force:

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

CO: Commodore Stephanie Rousseau

CNS Velasco, United States of America-class Fleet Carrier

-CO: Captain Esteri Attar

-Orca Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Jasmine Ang

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

-CO: Wing Commander Heloisa Kimura de Lima

CNS Shieldmaiden, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Shamhat, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Righteous Tempest, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Vehement Shade

CNS August Willich, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Elysium, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Asphodel, Cossak-class Frigate

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

-

Home Force:

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

CO: Commodore Erina Kozlova

CNS Blaire Mountain, New Model-Class Strike Corvette

-CO: Captain Guillermo Kageyama

CNS Scutum, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Martin Pagonis

CNS Buckler, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Samuel Smiles

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

-CO: Captain Jean-Paul Beaumont

-

Radiant System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Radiant, comet patrol

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

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

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

Switchblade Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Apogee Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

-

Gaid System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Gaid

CO: Commodore Victor Raine

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Zephyr Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Ara Helge

Aeolus Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

Gale Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

-

Frontier Force

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

CO: Commodore Shayla McLean

CNS Kiel Mutiny, Kaiserreich-class BattleCruiser

-CO: Captain Inana Devlin

CNS Choreographer, Janissary-class Light Tender

-CO: Captain Karl Xanthopoulos

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

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

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

-CO: Captain Fool's Errand

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

-CO: Captain Rouge Napier

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

-CO: Captain John Rankin

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

-CO: Captain Nkiru Chaudhari

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

-CO: Captain Sumac Barros

CNS Revolutionary Will, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Yamamoto Hanae

CNS Revolutionary Grace, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Under New Management, Don-Class Fast Tanker

-CO: Captain Adras Kierenos

CNS Liberte, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Colin McRae

CNS Egalite, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Adelia Swift

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

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Rhymes · Jul 16, 2022

clockworkchaos said:
Look, any national anthem, no matter how catchy, will, by virtue of being sung by crowds of thousands, turn into a slow-off key drinking song.

The dice whoring for your fleet is your thing.

That's 'cause we treat 'em right. Got them a nice tower made from top-quality wood, a custom holder with foam cutouts for each die, the works.

Winged One · Jul 16, 2022

Maybe we should split up MedCom? I mean, the only reason so many things are treated as media matters is because that's how we learned to do it from Hermes-Ishtar.

Redshirt Army · Jul 16, 2022

Winged One said:
Maybe we should split up MedCom? I mean, the only reason so many things are treated as media matters is because that's how we learned to do it from Hermes-Ishtar.

There's been an option to do that for ages now, yeah. Probably a good idea to do it soon - there's a wave of reformist energy in the AIC with the kids doing things, so strike while the irons hot.

Kirook · Jul 17, 2022

Redshirt Army said:
There's been an option to do that for ages now, yeah. Probably a good idea to do it soon - there's a wave of reformist energy in the AIC with the kids doing things, so strike while the irons hot.

What sorts of things might need to be moved out of MedComm's purview?

Winged One · Jul 17, 2022

Kirook said:
What sorts of things might need to be moved out of MedComm's purview?

Spy shit, international diplomacy to actual states (diplomacy with anarchist communities is basically media outreach, though).

Tatbee · Jul 17, 2022

Should we split MedComm, into multiple more specialised committees?

Like, SpyComm, StateComm, Broad-CastComm?

Winged One · Jul 17, 2022

SpyComm (It'd stand for Espionage Committie, not Spy Committie), DiploComm, and let the actual media stuff keep the MedComm name. And maybe push the new MedComm below our level of abstraction and put it under SocComm.

Setsul · Jul 17, 2022

I don't think reassessing MedComm's responsibilities will just give us a bunch of extra dice. It wouldn't definitely be nice, but I wouldn't count on it. So turning MedComm with only two dice into 3+ new Committees might not work.

Espionage we can probably shift to MilComm though, since shipbuilding won't need dice anymore.

A lot of the Social stuff shows up in both SocComm and MedComm, just like some of the building stuff shows up in both IndComm and MilComm. I'd only change that if we actually get something out of it, otherwise we just lose flexibility.

The actual media stuff we're still doing is pretty much entirely propaganda at this point. I'd keep at least one MedComm die around for that in one form or another, whether that's renaming or integrating it into SocComm.

Diplomacy should definitely become its own thing. We have enough quasi-internal messes to deal with and new friends to make now that the cat's out of the bag that they'll probably keep busy.

Genderite · Jul 17, 2022

We are running out of obvious SocCom projects, since being hands off on the home front is kind of our thing. So any new responsibilities under their permit would be good.

Setsul · Jul 17, 2022

Not everything SocComm does needs to be related to war.
Between the Handbiters, reproductive rights for all citizens, including AGIs afaik (that was one of Ascension's conditions for joining, and it's not much of a right without the ability to exercise it), other problems in Amaranthine and affiliated systems that may exist, but that we didn't have time to deal with because surviving against 12.7 took priority, and the Young Revolution, I'm sure we can find something for SocComm to do.

Cassiemouse · Jul 18, 2022

Where the Wild Things Stay

Bright colors spinning in swirling spirals of math and sounds that one could taste on their tongue. Seeing the scent of the numbers in the night as the lazy evening passes over Elysium. A relaxing distraction from all the excitement of the past couple months. A ping focuses my attention and with a thought a video feed appears in my peripheral vision. It's Thomas. My mind snaps out of the hazy synesthesia as he starts talking.

"Heather, it's finally here! They just dropped it in the research depositary. We will be able to start the Human Redesign Project in earnest now. You should see these nanogel vats! We have been working with such limited technology here that I almost forgot what it was like to have daughter world toys."

I yawn and scrub my face, the new coating is protecting my eyes from the dust better than it used to but it's still not perfect, "That is great, Thomas. I was just taking some time to relax. Call in the rest of the group and let's get started."

Once I gather up my camera drone, some clothes and a snack on the way I am out the door to the Wild Things campus.

"Hey, comrades! It's Heather coming to you live from the Wild Things collective celebrating the release of the new medical technologies! We will be bringing you news, reviews and updates on the Human Redesign Project all year long! You won't find any clovers here so make sure to stay tuned in for the latest on all the hot new augmentations coming to you real soon. And don't forget to submit your designs to be included in the new revisions next quarter!"

I chat to the live stream as I walk into the main campus building and wave at Chloe in the front living room. She is busy playing the new Extra Dimensional Peanut Butter Hunter game that can simulate the feeling of having real tentacles.

"Say hi to the chat Chloe! What do you think of the new mount attachments in the research depositary? Think they will work for new limbs?"

"For sure, Heather, there is some real neat stuff in this update. I hope to get a design in the works once we finish the review this week."

Moving down the hall I spot Jason's office and knock on the wall beside his open door, "Just checking in for the live stream, what are you working on this morning?"

Jason looks up from his terminal and wipes his face then yawns, "Still going through the new data. Some of these enzymes are brilliant but I have no clue how they could have stumbled on to them. They are like nothing I have ever seen before. They could be dangerous but they are just what we need for the new Ghier model vasculoid."

"I know we had problems with cleaning up some of the intercelluar junk in some tissues. Do you think they could be the answer?"

"We will have to see but they do show promise."

I turn to the camera drone and smile, "And that is all the time we have for today comrades! If you are interested in the Human Redesign Project and have any suggestions or technical advice we would love to hear from you!"

A fun little snippet I have been tinkering with for a while.

random_human · Jul 21, 2022

Just caught up, after putting it off for the longest time. This exceeded my wildest expectations by far.

I was also watching Ya Boy Kongming and it randomly put the thought into my head that for music IP laws are probably even more harshly enforced than for fiction. If you're not in the official employ of HI or another Charter than playing music is probably a pipe dream. Public domain likely doesn't even exist as anything other than distant memories of a strange, archaic time.

AKuz · Jul 21, 2022

NEWS:

Escalation of Tereshkovan Protests Continue to Test Prime Minister Roderick's Administration--KC Courier

In response to the sectarian violence sweeping the Tereshkovan Vostok McKendree cylinder and the smaller Groom Lake Station Fleet Admiral and Frontier Marshal Sayel Chutani has declared martial law across the system and placed the Tereshkovan government under round the clock protection by Naval Infantry.

This latest round of violence in the trouble as of late Frontier Republic was triggered by news leaked from Groom Lake Station that SiLaTek's "Near Human" line of VI's were in fact based on the same technology that produces fully sapient AGI, and that SiLaTek was preparing to dismantle their production lines and remove all remaining NH-VI and their production lines from the Groom Lake Station for relocation to a more secure site in the aftermath of the Radiant Broadcast and the Solarian Mutiny.

Fighting erupted soon afterwards on Groom Lake Station as both "Ultrarightsists" radicals for the cause of AGI liberation, and "Humanists" calling for the dismantling of the NH-VI attacked SiLaTek employees and seized control over various portions of Groom Lake Station, requiring the deployment of 8th Fleet Naval Infantry from Mercury Station in an attempt to restore order.

The fighting then spread to Vostok itself as the leak spread, inflaming previously heightened tensions over the first influxes of refugees from the Drakean pogroms, causing a general outbreak of violence cylinder-wide between Ultrarightsist radicals, Humanists partisans, and moderate Loyalist militias who have all co-opted existing loyalist, bioconservative, and anarchist movements as the fighting spread.

Fleet Admiral Chutani Fleet was then forced to deploy the rest of their soldiers and spacers on Vostok in an attempt to restore order to the station of just under 1.2 Billion inhabitants.

However Admiral Chutani's subsequent attempt to nationalize the Tereshkovan Self Defence Force has led to an ongoing standoff in the inner system as the Frontier Republic's SDF is itself split three ways between Ultrarightsists, Humanists, and Loyalists, with inconclusive heavy fighting for control of Tereshkova's Apollo Anchorage still continuing a full week after the first mutinies.

With disasters befalling Roderick's government across Sol and the First Colonies, it remains to be seen if the Prime Minister's administration is even capable of turning their attention to restoring order in the Trailing Frontier's regional capital.

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Commissioner-General Juliette Desrosiers Commandeers Shipping in Drake--The New Liberal Monthly

As sectarian violence on Golden Hind enters its third week, Solarian Marshals Commissioner-General Juliette Deserosiers has promulgated an emergency decree declaring that all shipping through the Drake system will be subject to civil asset forfeiture under a controversial interpretation of Section 21 of the Solarian Marshals' Charter of 2099.

In a press conference held at the Gordon Wren Memorial Aerospace Terminal in Drake City
Commissioner-General Desrosier declared that the seized vessels were being requisitioned for service as refugee transports as her command continues in their attempt to evacuate Drake's population of some 40 million augments from the system in the aftermath of attacks on that demographic, breaking the terms of the White September Station Agreement.

Before the conference was ended due to a mortar strike on the Aerospace terminal, Commissioner-General Desrosiers continued to reiterate her calls for the Solarian Parliament, Solarian Navy, and Prime Minister Roderick personally to honour the terms of the White September Station Agreement and provide additional peacekeeping forces to suppress the violence.

As of the current time Commissioner-General Desrosiers' peacekeeping command consists of two Peacekeeping Brigade Teams, the recently organized Drake Loyalist Front militia, four hired regiments from the the 2nd to 5th Freyjan Light Rifles, and Solarian Navy task force 8.9 centred around the light cruiser SNS Romeo Dancer.

Under Desrosiers command this small handful of soldiers and spacers have for the past two weeks have used force to set up and secure Blue Zones inside Drakes' famous Sanctuary Community Districts and evacuate refugees off of Golden Hind via an orbital route secured by Solarian Navy craft in a stalemate with the Drake Space Patrol and Orbital Self Defence Force.

Despite this valiant effort, it is believed that without reaching an accommodation with Drake's government or receiving reinforcements Desrosiers' command and the millions of refugees inside the various Golden Hind Blue Zones will be overrun before August 1st.

In that circumstance Drakes' Augment population will be left in a position that Desrosiers claims will lead to a full on genocide for the historically persecured community. However with the outbreak of sectarian violence in Tereshkova as well, it is unknown where the refugees will be resettled.

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MARS, TITAN, OTHER SOLARIAN SYSTEM COLONIES JOIN UN- Sol News Net

With the formal withdrawal of the United Nations from the Solarian Compact, revoking the Compact's mandate to rule in the process, Venus, Mars, Titan, and the other Sol colonies have officially applied for membership in the United Nations as a single block, hoping to force it's expansion from a body for Earth to one that represents the entire Solar system.

If their application is accepted, the ancient body will be forced to change even further, a state of affairs that would have been considered totally unforeseeable even two months ago.

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LEMURIA OFFICIALLY SUBMITS TO THE AUTHORITY OF THE UNITED NATIONS SENDS AMBASSADOR TO NEW YORK -LUNA TIMES

While officially "reluctant to sever our ties with the Solarian Compact" the government of the Lemuria colony in Sol has officially joined the rest of the Solar colonies in applying for membership in a united government that will encompass the entirety of Humanity's birth system.

This also marks the capitulation of the last major loyalist bastion in Sol, with the Solarian Navy craft and personnel left behind on Lemuria during the 1st Fleet's retreat from Sol in the wake of the Solarian Mutiny either being scuttled or defecting to the "Insurrectionary Solarian Navy".

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What are the "United Nations of Sol"? - Amaranthine Evening Star

The United Nations of Sol is the return of the long forgotten precursor organization to the Solarian Compact that was born at the end of the Second (and final) World War in 1945 and rendered a powerless rubber stamping social organization with the simultaneous rise of the Solarian Treaty Organization and the first Interstellar Charters in the 2060s .

Officially Comprised of every non-loyalist nation on Earth and the self governing Solar colonies like Mars, Lemuria, and Titan, the United Nations of Sol is a body that seeks to promote peaceful diplomacy and cooperation between those nations and organize for the collective defence of the system against hostile powers like the Solarian Compact, which has blockaded Sol from their seat of power in the Korolev-Chandrasekhar system.

The UNS is to be governed by the United Nations General Assembly, a legislature composed of representatives from each member Nation, which is itself advised by seven committees whose membership is chosen annually by sortition from the General Assembly that are each supported by a dedicated Bureau staffed by career professionals:

-Interstellar Security Committee
-Economy and Finance Committee
-Social and Cultural Committee
-Political Issues and Decolonization Committee
-Administration and Budget Committee
-Legal and Judicial Committee
-Executive Affairs Committee

Each Committee can submit draft resolutions to the General Assembly, adoption of which becomes a binding mandate for the member components of the UNS.

Day to day operations of the United Nations of Sol and its seven Bureau are overseen by the United Nations Secretariat, and both the operations of the Secretariat and Chairperson of the General Assembly are overseen by a single individual: The General-Secretary of the United Nations of Sol, a position with immense public presence but little formal power, the Nations of Earth still being fearful of recreating Prime Minister's Office of the Solarian Compact via which a Prime Minister with a majority mandate had near dictatorial powers.

The office of United Nations of Sol Secretary-General is currently held on a provisional basis by former Chinese Foreign Minister and Communist hardliner Zhu Fen until elections for a permanent General Secretary can be held on a system wide basis.

The provisional Secretariat and the General Assembly are meeting in the former offices of the Solarian Parliament in New York, Atlantic city (itself the former offices of the United Nations during its first active period), though there are rumours of a dedicated and modern space being built elsewhere in Sol to headquarter the UNS.

Finally, the membership of the United Nations of Sol is "Pledged with romoting and encouraging respect for universal rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, religion, origin, or method of cognition", and must vow to undertake "Joint action in defence of this pledge"

To this end the UNS Interstellar Security Committee is now charged with overseeing the formation, training, maintenance, and deployment of the "United Nations Space Force" and the creation of the "United Nations Collective Security Bureau".

The UNSF is to be initially composed of volunteer units donated by the member nations, and surrendered and captured craft from the Solarian Navy and Charter physical security units. In the long term the UNSF will be raised entirely by the UNS itself as a whole. The UNSF is expected to act as a permanent professional military force that will act as the core of any defence of Sol, reminiscent of how the Solarian Navy is supposed to be supported by the Self Defence Forces of the Commonwealths and Republics.

In the event of a military conflict requiring deployment of more than the UNSF, the Collective Security Bureau will oversee coordination between not just the member militaries, but also the member forces and the UNSF, as well as overseeing military recruitment and procurement for the UNSF. In peacetime the CSB is to oversee training exercises, equipment and training standardization, and oversee joint procurement programs for the member nations and the UNSF as well as recruitment for the UNSF.

However, at this time the UNSF is still in it's formative stages, and the member forces are licking their wounds from the Solarian Mutiny, leaving the defence of Sol in the hands of the fleets of the Jovian Pact and Admiral Katrina MacLellan's Revolutionary Solarian Navy which maintains loyalty to "The highest ideals of the Solarian Compact and the Community of Humanity as a whole" but not the Solarian Compact itself, continuing to hold itself apart from the UNS while still relying on Sol based facilities.

The United Nations of Sol itself is still stirring itself from its two century dormancy as a rubber stamp cultural relic, and it remains to be seen how the fractious politics of Earth's remaining nations and the various anarchist and revolutionary projects across Sol will play out. Especially as atrophied UN organs are expanded at the same characteristic breakneck speed that has seized all of Sol's politics since May 18th.

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Hungarian Prime Minister Assassinated By Army--The People's Plain Dealer

With the capitulation of Lemuria two days old and the reoganization of the United Nations into the new United Nations of Sol formally ratified, the last loyalist hold outs on Earth continue to crumble.

Citing "Corrupt regulatory capture" and a desire to avoid drawing the ire of the forming United Nations Peacekeeping Corps, the Hungarian Army has assassinated their Prime Minister and overthrown the civilian government. There are of course other sources that would couch this in careful language, but that's the long and short of it: it was a coup, and an assassination, for better or worse.

Already the coup leaders are discussing both admission to the United Nations of Sol and the reformation of Hungary along the lines of "Anarchism with a Human Face"

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Solarian Marshals in the Holy Land disband!--#MiddleEast Newswire

Under the command of former Comandante Lilja Novosad, the Solarian Marshals Peacekeeping Force in the Holy Land has officially disbanded itself after the completion of negotiations to transition the region to an independent "Council Anarchist" polity.

The move has been met with jubilation by all within the region, and former Comandante Novosad is expected to be drafted into the new quasi state's politics as this region acts as the exemplar of peaceful moderation and reform despite the violent upheavals that surrounded it.

The remaining Solarian Marshals Peacekeepers are expected to accept an invitation to switch their allegiance as a unit to the UNS Peacekeeper Corps, much as units of the Solarian Navy and Solarian Marshals units elsewhere have.

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Chinese Intervention Complicated by Queensland Uprising

…yet military action against Syndney has been slowed by a very strange thing indeed. In the North Queensland state controlled by a pro-Chinese Chinese 'Warlord', there has been an uprising in this rural and extractive area of the strangest thing of all: Maoists. They have overthrown the commanders and created a sort of 'peasants, mine workers, and soldiers' council of sorts, devoted to the flawed ideals of Mao Tse-Tung, immediately creating tension…

Blackfyre Diaries Editorial Board Commentaries, July 21st, 2155

…As for reality, anyone examining their published program would be clear they are not Maoists, or rather they hold up Mao as an example almost exclusively because of their ideological priors. They are Agrarian Socialists and Trade Unionists, Social Revolutionaries rather than Bolsheviks, and perhaps even Right-SRs in moments, to the discredit of the character of their movement. But despite these flaws we offer critical support, as Queen Jebidiah has tried to invade because they have refused to continue supplying the metals and food that his cities and territory need to do more than survive. Within his territory there are still some gardens and so on, but barely enough to feed people.

It is certainly not enough to feed his bourgeoise excess, and he doesn't want to "disfigure" the cities with mass growing, at least not at this stage. And so he invades, and with this fight the Chinese have hesitated in quashing the "Social" Fascist threat of the "Commune" of Syndney, which has seen continued fights between those who actually believe in leftism and those who believe in racism but also like welfare. These conflicts leave it vulnerable to reconquest by China, but only if China can thread the needle and truly embrace communism abroad rather than merely capitulate to it at home…

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Opening Post in the Thread "The Final Showdown in Toronto" on the conflict enthusiast website "Worlds at War" by Stalin4Thyme420

It's almost showtime! This thread has just a few rules: be hype! Don't get caught! It is time to send in the drones and watch this, the Battle for Canada. Well, the Battle for Toronto, but to the Torontonian these are one in the same. I'm betting on a two day victory for the anarkiddies! But place your bets, and follow your favourite military units. I think the Lucky Stars unit on the Humanist Side is going down, but I think they'll get a few licks in… take that, sucka470.

I'm also thinking that the Detroit Provisional Brigade are the real ones to watch. They're terrorists, but they're our terrorists, and the way they conducted themselves in Atlantic City shows they know their way around a firing squad and battlefield both.

But, so, here we go, here we go! Everyone get ready to bomb-post when the drone Armadas start clashing!

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These Are The Times That Try Men's Souls #Opinion Piece

Now is the time in which the people must fight to resist anarchism. But this resistance cannot be merely in words! No, to only speak resistance is cowardly and weak. It must be met with action. That is why I urge all my readers to do the one thing that can defeat the anarchist menace: Vote.

It is the vote that has killed so many menaces in the past. When the Impossible Bill to over-expand the rights of AGIs was levied by JDAP, what solved this crisis? Voting! If you cannot act to vote out the pro-anarchist factions, especially within the JDAP, then when will you act?

It is every galactic citizen's duty to fight as hard as they can to save the Solarian Compact by showing up in this next election to make their voices loud and clear!

Therefore we must vote, vote, and vote harder! Wherever there is a ballot we shall be there, where there is a voting booth, you must attend to it!

Democracy hangs in the Balance!

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REPORTS

Together Towards Victory: Sol is united as it has never been before. Even as the Solarian Compact withdraws from Sol leaving only a handful of isolated and besieged loyalist pockets, the nations and colonies of Sol have met to revive the ancient United Nations from its torpor and reform it into the United Nations of Sol, a polity dedicated to preserving the gains of May and June and defending Earth from any attempted repeat of the events that led up to the Solarian Mutiny.

The UNS is in the early stages of bringing Sol's governments into a closer union and organising for a collective self defence, forming the United Nations Space Force, bringing the national fleets under the aegis of the UNS Collective Security Bureau, and allying itself with the Revolutionary Solarian Navy.

It is unknown whether Sol is at a high water mark of revolutionary fervour, if this is consolidating the gains, or if the formation of the UNS merely the first step in further revolution.

Whatever else, the UNS has the firepower to preserve its newly declared independence from the Solarian Compact.

[Reformation of the United Nations of Sol]

The Interstellar Prosperity Association: They went and did the dang thing. MSI, and especially a faction based around the powerful Zhang family have flipped the switch from "Interstellar Charter" to "Interstellar Government"

Officially a "Sub-Federal" body loyal to the Compact, in practice the IPA is something of an Interstellar Government in waiting, apparently hoping that the Compact dissolves around it leaving the IPA intact as a powerful successor state to the Compact.

Obviously we have yet to have a detailed look at the operations and ideology of the IPA.

But. They seem to be operating in a post-Box mindset, having grasped the implications of the Broadcast faster than any other major entity. It appears that a democratic facade is covering up some sort of nefarious power grab, one that incidentally gives the inhabitants of the IPA free stuff and a higher quality of life in exchange for the renouncing of any revolutionary ambitions and newfound political power. Essentially neutralizing revolutionary energy in Epsilon and many other former MSI owned systems.

As his mother is a leading (if shadowy) figure in the new government, we tried asking Blaze what he thought the goals and objectives of the IPA would be in the middle to long term, and apparently he doesn't feel confident enough to give us a read on the IPA from this distance. But if we look over what he's said before about his mother, she desires nothing less than to be the behind the scenes Empress of all Humanity.

So at least she's ambitious, I guess?

[Formation of the Interstellar Prosperity Association]

Admiral Vizzari-Blaauweoord Moves: Fleet Admiral (and Frontier Marshal) Rina Vizzari-Blaauweoord commander of the Solarian Navy's 9th Fleet , might be be Up To Something, as signals show that 9th Fleet is beginning to move out from their Fleet Base in the Bastion system.

Moving Spinward.

Which, as we all know, is the direction in which we live. One of 9th Fleet's three light battlegroups have been dispatched towards us, split into two task groups, each centred on a single Fleet Tender, one Task Group entering Inspiration and the other half now entering the Iyuhi system.

As for the other two Battlegroups based in Bastion, the status of one is unknown and the other has recently departed for Trinity which is back coreward from us. So that's good. Probably.

The SFREA: Under the direction of newly appointed Chief Administrator Emily Weismann Hermes-Ishtar's holdings in the Near Spinward Frontier have been reorganized to survive the post-Broadcast galaxy.

Centred in Symphony, the emergency government has also been granted responsibility for the Symphony, Echo, Trinity, and Inspiration systems.

The SFREA also appears to be cooperating with the Solarian Navy's 9th Fleet based out of the Bastion system.

Though we currently know little about Chief Administrator Emily Weismann, what instructions she has from Hermes-Ishtar, or what plans they have for the SFREA, we do know that they've already pledged to "Work closely with the Solarian Navy to ensure the safety and security of the Spinward Frontier"

Between the three Battlegroups of the 9th Fleet based in Bastion and the three HI security contractor Battlegroups stationed out of Symphony we would expect the SFREA to have six Battlegroups, more than four times the size of the Congressional Navy and allies combined.

However we've already defeated one of those battlegroups at Second Gaid and captured their flagship. A craft you now know as CNS Velasco: the body of Inanna, everyone's favourite "Near Human Military Administrative Virtual Intelligence".

And the third HI physical security contractor battlegroup is also one that you're familiar with as it still sits motionless in Thoa, even after the Broadcast has remade the galaxy at a stroke.

[Formation of the Spinward Frontier Regional Emergency Administration]

SFREA official biography package for Chief Administrator Weismann (Excerpt) said:
"Emily Weissmann's ascent is a stirring rags-to-riches story. She was a mere analyst in the days leading up to the Broadcast, but she cannily predicted the rise of the anarchists and made a series of wise investments that would carry her through the chaos they unleashed on the galaxy.

In the days after the Radiant Broadcast, she used those investments to secure herself a position of leadership at Hermes-Ishtar, and shortly thereafter she was promoted to Chief Administrator of the Spinward Frontier. Despite her sudden introduction to the role, she has introduced a sweeping slate of reforms, turning H-I's section of the Dragon's Wing into an island of stability in a galaxy torn apart by anarchism. Hermes-Ishtar's newest and most rapidly rising visionary is certainly a woman to watch."

Still There: Shockingly, the Charter forces that have been in Thoa since Second Gaid, are still there. Unmoving, just sort of sitting there ominously.

However intercepted signals from within the fleet paint a picture of crews confused by crackdowns and controlled to prevent uprising under the influence of anarchist propaganda and officers debating where their loyalties lie. Do they declare loyalty to Emily Weismann and the newly formed SFREA? Do they wait for specific orders from HI headquarters on now-lost Penglai? Do they pledge themselves to the Solarian Navy? Do they decide that they have the guns and now they make the rules for the Far Spinward?

Whatever happens next, we need to keep a close eye on it because this Force is still the closest and largest hostile force to our borders.

Washington Syndrome 1: Perhaps embarrassed by Elysium's March Days beating Trescore to their long held dream of being the first independent system in the frontier, the Trescore Frontier Republic has declared independence, nationalising all Charter holdings in the system and putting out a call for other frontier systems to join them in declaring independence from the Solarian Compact and the despised Interstellar Charters.

While Trescore has officially stated that they hold no hostility towards the Solarian Compact, Trescore is clearly prepared to defend their newly declared independence after combining their own Self Defence Force, a passing detachment of the Solarian Navy, and an Ares flagged mercenary force, giving them a navy twice the firepower of the Congressional Navy and the United Front Space Force combined.

With the Solarian Compact already in tatters, it appears that some form of fragmentation has already begun, giving a newly elected Prime Minister their first fresh crisis to deal with once they've addressed the withdrawal of the United Nations of Sol from the Solarian Compact, our Far Spinward revolutionary wave, the Tereshkovan Purge, the Drakean Pogroms, and the secession of Penglai.

[Trescore Declares Independence]

-

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 leaning towards pledging his loyalty to Emily Weismann and the Spinward Frontier Regional Emergency Administration

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

-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

RUMOURS

And the Children Shall Lead: The so-called "Young Revolution" has begun. The sudden appearance of a youth movement that's overturned the assumptions of the entire political spectrum overnight only appears inevitable in hindsight.

After all the leaders of the Young Revolution are youths who have over four years since the March days experiencing an upbringing far different than their forebears and absorbing a political discourse that praised participation as a virtue.

It's only natural that the children would seek to join that political world, especially as the formulation of new political theories to anticipate and address future issues in a post-capitalist world led to the creation of ideas like "Youth without the Young" that naturally struck a chord with these children that combined with existing ideas of radical youth liberation.

With the defeat of Task Force 12.7 at Second Shei serving to energize the movement by freeing the Commonwealth from military threat, the youth felt free to take direct actions in favour of youth liberation and direct representation of minors in not just the permanent Committees of the Congress but to sit in the General Congress itself.

For it's part the General Congress had been content to give the organization of an AIC youth league a push to get started and had no idea that the youth themselves would begin to take control over the project from the adults to the point of pushing the adults out of all leadership roles and taking direction of the project themselves.

Of course the political push by the young has not been limited to the rarified heights of continental and system bodies, but also at the grassroots level as youth storm municipal and local council meetings to demand input on planning and resource allocation that was previously conducted on their behalf.

As of yet these disruptions are fairly minor in scope, but political watchers in the General Congress and elsewhere worry that it could rapidly grow out of control and disrupt the functioning of key bodies in a time of continued crisis.

Arsenal of Victory: The All-Chinook Congress is now pleased to announce that they will be able to support the entirety of Congressional forces based out of Chinook from domestic production lines, and they hope to be able to support entire offensive campaigns from their industries.

To that end the ACC now requests MilComm and the General Congress okay the construction of more yards in Chinook, where production will be closer to the frontlines. The ACC is also requesting that any central Academy created to serve the Congressional Navy be based out of Chinook, where Spacer and Void-born expertise is prevalent along with mollifying fears of Elysium becoming the "All Devouring Tyrant Queen of the Commonwealth"

As far as foriegn matters go, the Chinook believe that it would be immoral to turn Ismeu away now that they're requested help. To do so would be to violate one of the first laws of the void.

A Second Fleet, Part 2: The Shei United Front Space Force has now layed down the keel on their first home built cruiser to wide spread celebration, and discussions over whether to use the yard for a proper fleet, or to build transport craft to support the Congressional Navy and CLAC with Sheolite Troops is raging across the system.

Additionally, Defence Coordinator Kozlova and the Military Committee have agreed to split the spoils of the Second Battle of Shei with the Shei United Front, handing both SNS Collette Croca and SNS Jacob Temrash (Herald Kanumba-class Frigates) over to the SUFSF so that the organization can continue to build institutional experience with the operation of interstellar warcraft.

Institutional experience that the SUFSF longs for as the majority of Sheolites are in favour of a military campaign to secure the Ismeu system whether or not they join the AIC, preparing to do the job on their own with or without the support of the AIC.

This Can't Keep Happening: Having survived the third military campaign waged through their system since 2251, Waystion's citizens are now thoroughly tired of all this bullshit, and just would like at least one year without a major military threat to their survival appearing from the black.

To that end, what opinion that Waystion's inhabitants do have on Ismeu is a general feeling that the AIC and her allies should be consolidating their gains and building up their defences rather than over-extending themselves out of idealism.

Rally Around the Flag: With the slightly misnamed "Second Battle of Shei" fought partially in the Osliam system, President Ochiro's defence first policies have seen his popularity skyrocket due to his perceived far-sightedness, though perhaps his scepticism towards Idyllia is now being quietly dropped in public as Idyllian pilots served with several of the squadrons that fought in the battle and are now being publicized as interstellar heroes by Gentle Repose and Sheolite news sources, and even by a number of high profile opposition figures on Osliam itself.

This quiet reorientation leaves the news of Ismeu on the back burner as Osliam looks towards domestic politics and all the space for foriegn affairs is taken up by the upcoming joint project with the AIC and Idyllia.

A Tiny Part of Victory: Idyllia celebrates the defeat of the TF 12.7, but has also made heroes out of a squadron of Idyllian pilots serving with the Shei defenders and acquitted themselves admirably during the battle.

The celebrations have united moderate and Handbiter alike in a savage satisfaction and the further raising of Admiral McLean as an example to the system's augment population.

Into this atmosphere news of Ismeu has led to the idea that Ismeu withdraw their application for AIC membership and instead take the same tack as Idyllia in joining the AIC and the other independent and sovereign systems of the Far Spinward as an equal (if tiny) ally.

Trial's End: The Trail of the 'Mengeles of Site 12' has finally come to a close on Wisdom, with guilting verdicts being read out for all but two defendants for knowingly and actively participating in the atrocity that was the manufacture and distribution of "Temporary Limited Intelligences".

Their sentences?

Rehabilitative exile, where they will assist in the exploration and settlement of the systems spinward of Ascension for a period of no less than five years until they are assessed by SocComm to no longer pose a threat to the public.

Discourse in Ascension is torn between this being a slap on the wrist for war criminals and a harsh punishment for a crime that is now impossible for the offenders to commit.

Cannier observers believe that this sentence is to get the offenders out of the public eye long enough for tempers to cool.

And indeed, already the public attention is being turned to the matter of Ismeu where the public is torn between viewing their admission as an overreach and the desire to put an even larger bulwark of space between Ascension and any hostile fleets, as well as an incipient resentment of what's seen as "Radiant-first" policies.

Triage: Four massive fleets comprised of units of the Solarian 7th fleet supported by units of the 2nd Fleet have begun to depart the Korolev-Chandrasekhar system, current destinations unknown, but two are moving Spinward and two are moving Trailing, give CO names for TF 7.1, TF 7.2, TF 7.3, and TF 7.4

We can only hope that none of those forces are aimed our way as each one of those Task Forces are composed of at least three Heavy Battlegroups, any one of which is stronger than the entire Congressional Navy in one spot.

The Heart Wants what it Wants: Penglai, sometimes called the "Beating Heart of Humanity" is still in chaos. Though a coalition of Students, Workers, Soldiers, and Spacers have taken control of the system, disbanded the old government, and fended off a Columbian Battlegroup, no one knows who is in charge or what happens next.

Hundreds of organizations clamour for recognition and power, and two separate "Provisional Governments" have risen and fallen in the past week, accompanied by mass demonstrations and mostly-peaceful street clashes between separate factions.

Though the tenuous peace between the various revolutionary factions is currently holding, it is impossible to know which factions are strongest, or even what those factions are.

Ripples of Blood: News of the attempted Glassing of Earth, the Drakean Anti-Augment Pogroms, and the Logizomechanophobic Purges rocking Tereshkova, are now bouncing around the galaxy, in the revolutionary systems of the Far Spinward these ripples have triggered universal condemnation and a rise in militancy in the population.

Though it is unknown what effects these ripples will have, it is known that this news will radicalize and embolden people of all stripes, resulting in ever greater bloodshed. It is perhaps this realisation that led the Amaranthine Congressional Committee on Special Broadcasts Team Lead Kevin Vargas to take his own life once the death tolls began to come in.

Fire in a Faraway Place: Though details are scarce, it is clear that it's not just the first colonies that are seeing uprisings, revolution, and counter revolution.

Close to home the SFREA has formed as a loyalist block spanning the Near and Far Spinward frontiers, and is supporting the 9th Fleet as it appears to be securing systems ever closer to Amaranthine borders.

In the Near Spinward, Trescore has declared independence, Drake is attempting a final reckoning with its augment population, Tereshkova is a mess of infighting that not even the might of the 8th Fleet is capable of suppressing, and the Asgard system's government is voting on deploying their limited forces to the aid of Commissioner-General Juliette Desrosiers in Drake.

Thin rumours come from across the Coreward Frontier say that various systems have ongoing fighting, though nothing is yet substantiated, leaving us with a general tone of triumphalism and optimism for the ongoing survival of Humanity in the face of the ongoing anarchist arson attempts.

As for the Trailing Frontiers, the Near Trailing appears to be catching fire with Humanist and Revolutionary movements clashing across interstellar distances as anarchist and loyalist alike fight each other for one of the most important regions of the Compact.

And as for the Far Trailing, news is yet scarce due to the distances involved but it appears that Compact loyalists have the upper hand with everything from Paso de Cortes to Peak still seemingly intact, loyal, and revolt free.

Election Season, Part 4: Prime Minister Roderick and her government has announced that elections will proceed as scheduled, despite recent disruptions. With reliable polling having become something of a partisan issue disrupted by outbreaks of civil strife and collapsing infrastructure, it's impossible to tell the exact outcome of the coming election.

But not the general sweep of things, Roderick's mandate is certainly dead. Despite attempts by PHRL loyalists to keep the faith and remain upbeat, it is all but certain that JDAP leader JN Okay will be the next Prime Minister of the Solarian Compact and the head of the next Solarian Parliament.

What's left of it.

Ridings in Penglai and Sol will be contested by the new diaspora and voters registered in those districts outside those two systems, Olduvai's political climate has entirely shifted and the collapse of the PHRL and the Night of Popular Renwal have resulted in leading Olduvai candidates being the most radical in the Parliament's history. Complementing Olduvai, Atlantis and Columbia's electorates are leaning hyper-loyalist and it's likely that those new MPs will be as hardline as the expected MPs from Korovel-Chandrasekar where it is an open secret that KC candidates political credentials have been examined and approved by the Solarian Navy itself.

In the Frontiers it appears that many systems are planning to send MPs with an agenda that involves shaking power loose from the core or even paving the way to full independence for several systems.

And for the systems of the newly formed Interstellar Prosperity Association, it stands to reason that the MPs from their systems will be representatives of the interests of the Zhangs and the IPA first and foremost.

However the 42nd Solarian Parliament is composed, it's going to be a highly fractious one.

-

Ismeu wants in,

Codex Entry said:
Ismeu:

Map Designation: FS-17
System Name: Ismeu
Political Status: CEZ, Private Ownership (Several Families Jointly), VDC Member
Charter Presence: None
System Population: 3,500

System Bodies:
1,
-Small, rocky planet
I
-Asteroid Belt
2,
-Small, rocky planet

Notable Features:
Ismeu Drift: A small station built by the locals, it houses several extended Spacer clans who operate in the Far Spinward.

History: Discovered by Omoikane explorers in 2172, the system spend over a decade languishing at auction due to the outbreak of the Third Frontier War and was purchased by a private coalition of Spacer families supported by the Void Dwellers Compact who planned to grow the system to be a Spacer Colonial Republic in the spinward.

Sadly this dream was not to be as the political and economic strength of the Void Dweller's Compact was broken after 2187 and the Great Refusal leading to the Charters stubborn inability to extend good faith to a possibly seditious hotbed of Spacer radicalism.

Since then Ismeu's growth has stagnated and it remains officially a private concern, but it remains a stop for those travelling from Bestreer to Xotrah

Notes:
-Member of the Void Dwellers Compact

Located two jumps away from Radiant itself via either the Xotreh or Bestreer gates, Ismeu is a small system of several extended Spacer Clans making up a permanent population of some three and a half thousand individuals.

The small platform serves as a rare service and refuelling platform off the Dragon's Wing that sees a small but respectable amount of traffic despite being off a main transit route.

The "government" of Ismeu (such as it is) believes that the Solarian Compact is on the edge of a complete Balkanization and is requesting membership in the AIC as soon as possible. They hope this will bring them under the protection of a power they feel comfortable with, instead of possibly being swept up by a Loyalist regime, warlord, or worse.

-

Militarily Ismeu's system defence force is a pair of corvettes and a recently converted freighter serving as an auxiliary cruiser.

-

Ismeu is also a (very small) member of the informal "sub-federal" body known as the "Void Dweller's Compact". The VDC is a semi-formal institution that coordinates economic and cultural matters for the Spacer community. The VDC is very strictly and strenuously NOT a state body and has no ability to compel any actions in the manner of a government.

The VDC is instead something of a mutual aid society with some political and cultural cloute stemming from their abity to act as an advocacy group for the wider interstellar extraplanetary community. Systems that "join" the VDC have no obligation to the wider organization and this was historically seen as a cultural matter by the Solarian Compact and Interstellar Charters.

The communique makes it clear that Ismeu is requesting admission to the AIC on behalf of only their system alone and not the Void Dweller's Compact as a wider entity or the dozen plus systems that consider themselves members of the VDC.

-

Many in the Media Committee and our diplomatic corps, including Ambassador Stardust herself believe that admitting a system like Ismeu will give the AIC an in with diplomacy with the VDC and will give the Commonwealth an easier time contracting and negotiating with Spacer and Void Dweller communities.

However, MilComm's Strategic Planning Committee, headed by DC Kozlova believes that admitting Ismeu to the AIC and the subsequent mutual protection responsibility could very easily overstretch the operational capabilities of the Congressional Navy, especially with Xotreh and Bestreer remaining in Charter hands.

The recommendation of the SPC is that the admission of Ismeu be delayed until MilComm can launch a military campaign back up the Dragon's Wing. They advise that launching such an adventure soon would also help secure Radiant and the AIC by preventing 9th Fleet and other loyalist forces from securing Xotreh and Bestreer, giving any attacker a greater range of options to choose from and putting a greater range of threat on Home Force.

MedComm and Ambassador Stardust on the other hand worry that delay in linking up with Ismeu will lead to the system being secured by even a small detachment of Charter or Compact Loyalists.

As always, settling the disagreement between Committee's is the responsibility of the General Congress of the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth, your responsibility:

[ ] Reject Ismeu's Application for AIC membership.

[ ] Accept Ismeu's Application for AIC membership as is, details will arrive with the next General Session.

[ ] Accept Ismeu's Application for AIC member with a delay to account for the launch of a military campaign to secure Xotreh and Bestreer by force (Will trigger a secondary vote for planning, much in the same manner as the Osliam Chain Campaign.)

[ ] Write In:

AKuz · Jul 21, 2022

whoops forgot to schedule voting

ramdomperson · Jul 21, 2022

How portable are Gate Defenses? We could reduce our vulnerability to overstretch by moving defenses from safe areas (ex. Five Lions, Sheol) to areas under threat (Chinook, Radiant, Capitata, Raphanus, Bestreer).

CyberFemme · Jul 21, 2022

My initial feeling is to accept? We were going to take Bestreer ASAP to collapse the front to two jump points, and we honestly don't need to dispatch a huge portion of our strength to secure everything else on 'our' side.

I just wish we could flatten the forces in Thoa before they link up with anyone else. They sound confused and demoralized and I'm hoping to get a few to surrender.

Kirook · Jul 21, 2022

[X] Accept Ismeu's Application for AIC member with a delay to account for the launch of a military campaign to secure Xotreh and Bestreer by force (Will trigger a secondary vote for planning, much in the same manner as the Osliam Chain Campaign.)

neutronium95 · Jul 21, 2022

I really enjoyed seeing how the broadcast is changing everything.

The only critique I have is that we get the opinions from the different planets about what to do about Ismeu before Ismeu was introduced. I kept thinking that I'd missed something.

qazcdewsx · Jul 21, 2022

I want to accept. Bestreer has no forces in it so taking it is simple and it will be easier to defend than radiant since it has less jump points to defend. If we wanted to take Bestreer anyway is it better to wait until the general congress or start the mini event?

infinityDivided · Jul 21, 2022

AKuz said:
This latest round of violence in the trouble as of late Frontier Republic was triggered by news leaked from Groom Lake Station that SiLaTek's "Near Human" line of VI's were in fact based on the same technology that produces fully sapient AGI,

Welp, that cat's out of the bag.

AKuz said:
With disaster's befalling Roderick's government

Should be "disaster".

AKuz said:
The Interstellar Prosperity Association: They went and did the dang thing. MSI, and especially a faction based around the powerful Zhang family have flipped the switch from "Interstellar Charter" to "Interstellar Government"

We all saw it coming.

AKuz said:
It is perhaps this realisation that led the Amaranthine Congressional Committee on Special Broadcasts Team Lead Kevin Vargas to take his own life once the death tolls began to come in.

Ouch.

So broadly speaking, we have four kinds of opponents:

1. Compact forces. These will rapidly shrink in size and power as they get destroyed or absorbed by other groups, both Revolutionary and Charter. Weakened by the Broadcast and will be even further weakened by the upcoming coup attempt.

2. Charter forces. Out of all of them, MSI and HI seem to be doing the best, with MSI transitioning near-perfectly into a post-Broadcast existence and HI's new boss introducing a "new slate of reforms". It should be noted that we aren't told what those reforms were, only that they were enough for propaganda to claim she created an "island of stability". We should try to look into that. They've all been weakened by the Broadcast to lesser or greater degrees.

3. Random warlords. The Broadcast empowered pretty much everyone willing to use violence and the chaos to their own advantage. Ex-Ares forces will be the primary threat, as they have military training in addition to the Box improving their own gear to a degree. This will most likely be a problem for decades to come, with it finally dying down once the galaxy has stabilized somewhat and the newly established polities can afford to squash any remaining raiders or would-be tyrants.

4. Humanists. The problems of the Compact, Charters, and random warlords combined. What's worse than a bunch of random dickheads printing weapons and making themselves a blight on society? A bunch of random dickheads printing weapons, making themselves a blight on society, and having a unifying ideology. There is no good permanent solution to this problem.

Nuew · Jul 21, 2022

I'd accept immediately and then also immediately begin planning a Xotreh/Bestreer/Baikal campaign. I don't want to take the small risk of somebody getting the jump on us, and I don't think the downside is that bad.

As for the part of Ascension that's skeptical given a worry about Radiant-centrism, I think it'd be reasonable to set a limit on system admissions for them. Perhaps a requirement for approval by a majority/supermajority/all system legislatures and an absolute limit that we will never consider anybody outside of the far spinward for admission. Something like that, maybe.

Redshirt Army · Jul 21, 2022

Honestly? I think we really need to secure *just* Bestreer. Ismeu actively requested to join the AIC, so sure, they can join, but as long as Xotreh, Baikal, Akleod etc aren't actively doing bad things, aren't currently harboring a SolNav or charter fleet, and don't actively ask to join, I'm fine with leaving them be. Bestreer, on the other hand, is a key strategic system which massively collapses the number of fronts we need to guard against an incursion by 9th fleet or SFREA.

Torgamous · Jul 21, 2022

AKuz said:
Admiral Katrina MacLellan's Revolutionary Solarian Navy which maintains loyalty to "The highest ideals of the Solarian Compact and the Community of Humanity as a whole" but not the Solarian Compact itself, continuing to hold itself apart from the UNS while still relying on Sol based facilities.

AKuz said:
Chinese Intervention Complicated by Queensland Uprising

…yet military action against Syndney has been slowed by a very strange thing indeed. In the North Queensland state controlled by a pro-Chinese Chinese 'Warlord', there has been an uprising in this rural and extractive area of the strangest thing of all: Maoists. They have overthrown the commanders and created a sort of 'peasants, mine workers, and soldiers' council of sorts, devoted to the flawed ideals of Mao Tse-Tung, immediately creating tension…

I love how much of a mess Sol's politics are.

AKuz said:
anarkiddies

How is this a thing in the DemFed? I mean, Amaranth, sure, we are baby even before you take the youth movement into account, but the DemFed has a bunch of prominent bicentennial anarchists.

AKuz said:
That is why I urge all my readers to do the one thing that can defeat the anarchist menace: Vote.

Oh no. Not voting. Our one weakness.

I'm in favor of accepting Ismeu. Bestreer is basically another Gaid, and remains Compact-aligned only because we have allowed it to.

Shard of Victory · Jul 21, 2022

AKuz said:
No, to only speak resistance is cowardly and weak. It must be met with action. That is why I urge all my readers to do the one thing that can defeat the anarchist menace: Vote.

This is incredibly funny, but also disturbing, because it's few words away from something real liberals are saying right now.

Model DC.14F · Jul 21, 2022

Plenty of interesting info, both good and bad. Something that stood out to me is this:

AKuz said:
And as for the Far Trailing, news is yet scarce due to the distances involved but it appears that Compact loyalists have the upper hand with everything from Paso de Cortes to Peak still seemingly intact, loyal, and revolt free.

...Does anyone actually believe this? And more importantly, who do you think are the ones covering things up?

I'm split between Alien Intervention and Apotheosis's Social Health Index NH-VI network going rogue. /jk

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

Been Better

Not the Simurgh

Cannon Fodder

Not the Simurgh

Not the Simurgh

Market Atheist

Been Better

NEWS:​

Escalation of Tereshkovan Protests Continue to Test Prime Minister Roderick's Administration--KC Courier

Commissioner-General Juliette Desrosiers Commandeers Shipping in Drake--The New Liberal Monthly

MARS, TITAN, OTHER SOLARIAN SYSTEM COLONIES JOIN UN- Sol News Net

LEMURIA OFFICIALLY SUBMITS TO THE AUTHORITY OF THE UNITED NATIONS SENDS AMBASSADOR TO NEW YORK -LUNA TIMES

What are the "United Nations of Sol"? - Amaranthine Evening Star

Hungarian Prime Minister Assassinated By Army--The People's Plain Dealer

Solarian Marshals in the Holy Land disband!--#MiddleEast Newswire

Chinese Intervention Complicated by Queensland Uprising

Blackfyre Diaries Editorial Board Commentaries, July 21st, 2155

Opening Post in the Thread "The Final Showdown in Toronto" on the conflict enthusiast website "Worlds at War" by Stalin4Thyme420

These Are The Times That Try Men's Souls #Opinion Piece

REPORTS​

RUMOURS​

Ismeu wants in,​

Ismeu:

Been Better

Mad Rocketeer

Prince Of Doom

“Mankind, be vigilant. We loved you.”—Julius Fučík

Cannon Fodder

Aspiring Gynoid

Chinese Intervention Complicated by Queensland Uprising

NEWS:

REPORTS

RUMOURS

Ismeu wants in,