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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wallabon · Sep 2, 2022

Hey, on the crease fire front, I had what might be a dumb idea.
What if we include it in the third (and final from the sounds of it) broadcast? It is thorough back channels so they clearly don't want people to know, and I guarantee it'll accelerate the compact's explosion

TheArcanist · Sep 2, 2022

One thing to remember is that if we open relations with Trescore it'll make any negotiations with the much stronger IPA rather, uh. Awkward.

BurnBright · Sep 2, 2022

Genolution said:
remember the sacrifices they made.

They didn't make sacrifices. They were sacrificed by us.

Torgamous · Sep 2, 2022

AKuz said:
As part of the halt order, the Okorie government has invited representatives from all systems currently rejecting Compact authority to Armstrong, where the Okorie's government will address their issues in a series of one on one talks aimed at reducing violence and calming secessionist sentiment.

I want to send Jennifer Mueller.

AKuz said:
Cerberus relieved of command

Fuck. Now she's going to be put in command of a single poorly armed ship and somehow end up defeating Mobile Force.

AKuz said:
9th Fleet, 1st Battlegroup Redeployed away from Drake

What the fuck, Compact. The one battlegroup that you shouldn't be redeploying.

The Laurent said:
At the moment the alternative is literally doing nothing as millions are killed, in SolNav's view. Imagine if America had taken in all those Jewish refugees, and even more, even if they'd had to leave literally all of their wealth and homes and everything behind? Instead of, as they did, turning them away and leaving them to die.

It's moments like that and situations like that that SolNav is thinking about.

What's happening with the kids that were kidnapped and forcibly baselined?

trooperist · Sep 2, 2022

AKuz said:
While the UNSF continues to be organized, many expect that the thousands of craft currently being laid down in yards across Sol will enter service with the UNSF instead of being assigned to the fleets of the Nations or Jovian pact.

Is this scale exaggeration or fact? Thousands of craft being built just in Sol? That's a huge number. It makes our industrial base and battles look minuscule. I knew our industry wasn't the best considering we were starting from basically scratch, but I didn't realize just how far down the ladder it was.

Also there's been no mention of Mars. What's going on with them?

Model DC.14F · Sep 2, 2022

AKuz said:
New Government Reaches out through back channels

I don't like it, but we don't have the forces needed to reliably liberate Arizona right now. And we could use some time to build up and secure our other neighboring systems.

Bit of a long shot, but maybe we can make the treaty dependent on the Compact granting Arizona System Polity status, and making it a demilitarized buffer system? I could potentially see Parliament going for it for political points, framing it as "an experiment into home rule in Frontier Systems" to throw a bone towards the federalization fractions.

AKuz said:
Sadly we don't have a lot of details on this new formation, other than to say that their flag sucks and probably is being painted on one to two battlegroups as we speak.

I Thought That Flag Was a Joke! No wonder HI, with all its unoriginality and pretentiousness, somehow managed to control galatic culture if this was somehow the best their competitors could come up with.

Dammit Cleiuto, I regret ever writing you up as a System submission. Your system flag at least better be less eye-searing than that.

The Laurent · Sep 2, 2022

trooperist said:
Is this scale exaggeration or fact? Thousands of craft being built just in Sol? That's a huge number. It makes our industrial base and battles look minuscule. I knew our industry wasn't the best considering we were starting from basically scratch, but I didn't realize just how far down the ladder it was.

Also there's been no mention of Mars. What's going on with them?

It includes Strikecraft, and probably quite a few. But it's still a vast undertaking.

Genderite · Sep 2, 2022

I think everyone is missing something important in the Athene section. Revolutionary Pacifica that's Crucible, which means both of those major very scary starting systems have revolted not just Alexander.

Spart117MC · Sep 2, 2022

TheArcanist said:
One thing to remember is that if we open relations with Trescore it'll make any negotiations with the much stronger IPA rather, uh. Awkward.

I doubt there'll be chances for a long term peace with the IPA. Zhang is setting up her own kingdom and the AIC has already "wronged" her by dethroning her child. SolNav may be the big threat right now, but mark my words the IPA is going to be the AIC's nemesis. With that in mind Akleod needs to be investigated asap, as well as to where those gates in it connect to.

wallabon said:
Hey, on the crease fire front, I had what might be a dumb idea.
What if we include it in the third (and final from the sounds of it) broadcast? It is thorough back channels so they clearly don't want people to know, and I guarantee it'll accelerate the compact's explosion

I don't think a third Broadcast is happening. The AIC is getting cut off from the intra-galactic comms network. On the bright side the only three systems mentioned where comms are getting manually shut off are Arizona, Pasnato, and Relay which suggests that there is no 'backdoor' so to speak into AIC space hidden behind Akleod.

As I see it the only way to make the Third Broadcast feasible is to infiltrate into Checkpoint, Iyuhi, or Arizona and attempt to fire it off from there or decline the cease fire and surge into one of the systems and capture them when the Broadcast is ready.

Personally I think if the AIC is going to go on an offensive the best option is Checkpoint. A ceasefire with how things are laid out currently will let SolNav sit comfortably at Bastion, but if the AIC pushed into Relay, or managed to take or flip Checkpoint that would forced SolNav to split their fleets to secure the 'western' approach leading into Asgard. Bastion is 3 jumps away from Bestreer and Thoa, but its 7 jumps away from Checkpoint.

SolNav will have to station part of the existing fleets in Asgard or Waypoint if they want to have a force capable of responding in a somewhat timely manner and while the former system might be developed it lacks the dedicated fleet facilities of Bastion which potentially could cause logistical issues for SolNav. Meanwhile with the fork in spacelanes occurring closer to AIC space, AIC fleets would not need to be split in a similar manner, with Thoa being only 3 jumps away from Iyuhi and Checkpoint making it a prime location to turn an AIC mirror of Bastion.

Relay is also home to a space station occupied by AI and one human and I'm of the opinion that something should be done for them, especially when they're only two jumps away from a system of humanist preppers.

Torgamous said:
Fuck. Now she's going to be put in command of a single poorly armed ship and somehow end up defeating Mobile Force.

If this were the first time she got screwed by SolNav, maybe, but remember she got sent to the 9th for doing the right thing and reporting corruption and now she's being scapegoated despite doing the right thing militarily and all the while when SolNav can't afford to lose such a capable commander.

Genre conventions say that means one of two things.

A.) Her public condemnation is a smokescreen and Cerberus has been given a darker than black command that will have her doing things critical to the war effort.

B.) Her public condemnation is genuine and the work she has been assigned to has her exposed to the true reality of SolNav, further disillusioning her, and eventually results in her refusing an illegal order.

The Laurent · Sep 2, 2022

Spart117MC said:
I doubt there'll be chances for a long term peace with the IPA. Zhang is setting up her own kingdom and the AIC has already "wronged" her by dethroning her child. SolNav may be the big threat right now, but mark my words the IPA is going to be the AIC's nemesis. With that in mind Akleod needs to be investigated asap, as well as to where those gates in it connect to.

I don't think a third Broadcast is happening. The AIC is getting cut off from the intra-galactic comms network. On the bright side the only three systems mentioned where comms are getting manually shut off are Arizona, Pasnato, and Relay which suggests that there is no 'backdoor' so to speak into AIC space hidden behind Akleod.

It does mean that there's no backdoor that HI knows of, yes.

Spart117MC · Sep 2, 2022

Out of curiosity, if there did exist an unknown connection and it wasn't shut down and patched, would a transmitted Broadcast automatically detect that connect and carry itself through it?

BurnBright · Sep 2, 2022

Spart117MC said:
I don't think a third Broadcast is happening. The AIC is getting cut off from the intra-galactic comms network. On the bright side the only three systems mentioned where comms are getting manually shut off are Arizona, Pasnato, and Relay which suggests that there is no 'backdoor' so to speak into AIC space hidden behind Akleod.

We know when it's getting shut out, which means we can send out the third Broadcast before then.

natruska · Sep 2, 2022

Hostis Humani Generis

"Old Man Trademark" - Head of the Trademark Organization

2213, During the Fourth Frontier War

A company man came through Canis looking for bodies, and he wore the Devil's sweet smile as he lied.

You won't have to risk your health with torch and tether anymore. You'll carry a gun instead.

You'll see the galaxy. You'll escape this hell of our making.

We'll replace your bones with steel and carbon fiber. You'll walk on a planet's surface without bending under the weight. You'll breathe a real atmosphere without choking. You'll rip doors off their hinges and rend flesh with your hands.

You'll be free. You'll be a monster.

Just sign here. You'll be ours.

Vernal Volta, Outer System of Canis, 2255

The word "captain" means different things to different people.

In Canis, a captain is a petty king. He rules over a tiny rock and a tinier rockhopper, his 'retinue' a half-dozen roughnecks and floorhands. He operates his own machinery and files his own claims. And he answers to the Company one way or another, because they're the only show in town.

Back in the Before, Peter Travers had a couple degrees of separation from MSI. His Vernal Volta was owned by the Cojocar Community Trust along with two smaller hoppers. Cojocar held the loans from MSI and hired his crew through an Erie firm. They worked achondrites mostly, pulling platinum and rare elements.

Captain Travers was an honest sort by local standards. Red-faced and pudgy, callused and tattooed. He'd never considered piracy. Dipping into a major shipping lane, walking out to a pod with a torch and pulling the metal in its purer form - that was for the daring and the desperate. A young man's game. No, the resale side was safer.

Not entirely safe. Somebody on the Company payroll had noticed the pattern to his 'lucky strikes'. He wasn't the only one laundering Trademark's loot (nobody works the Outer Belt without getting dirty) but local management was thinking about making an example of him when the Broadcast hit.

And suddenly there was no local management. No MSI or subsidiaries, no contracts. No damn debt. As far as Travers knew, nobody owned his beautiful VeeVee anymore. He was free, a captain in his own right.

But he'd shaken hands with the shriveled representatives of Cojocar Station. He'd said he'd be their captain through thick and thin. And a Spacer's word means something. That brought him here, with passengers on the manifest. The hundred and twenty-seven shareholders of the CCT. The hundred and twenty-seven residents of Cojocar, never to return home, falling towards Cradle one week at a time.

"Pete, something's happening. Get up here." The voice is drone operator Sandra Durand. Mike Magnan is on the bridge too, the local greenhorn who can barely grow peach fuzz. The captain pushes his way through the small village in the cargo hold. Hammocks, beds, kitchens, a playground - human life stuffed into a space that was never meant for it.

"What's the matter?" He enters the bridge and walks face first into a wall of noise. Every ship in the convoy is raising hell. He hears confused shouts from a hundred other rockhoppers. Desperate pleas from the immense water hauler John Ell, her iceholds packed with thousands of refugees off of Caledonia Station. The tone of the armed escorts is anger instead of panic, cursing and spitting threats. Some save their breath, broadcasting the helmet and crossbones to make their feelings clear.

The target of the abuse, SNS Cyrus Cowles, is silent as she rises out of the formation.

"They're not just gonna leave us, right?" Mike says. The captain stares at the cruiser's immense warp rings.

"Of course they are."

And the sharks smell blood.

The first attack comes within 40 hours. The wolfpack makes a high-speed pass at the front of the fleet, dipping into missile range to dump racks. The convoy circles the wagons, escorts rushing to intercept with jury-rigged PD blazing. It's not enough.

One missile slams into the side of Rock Jock, tunneling towards the reactor, and she is lost with all hands in a ball of plasma. The crew onboard Palace of Platt can only watch as another streaks towards their stations on the bridge. The ship's fore is annihilated, the aft sent into a violent spin. Miners aboard Dulcinea arrest her with tow cables and cut into the hold for search and rescue.

There is nothing to do but press on.

The next day bloodlust draws them closer, launching a reckless gun run on the rear of the fleet. Eager for vengeance, the pirates sally forth. When the dust settles the armed freighter Intermodal Music is unresponsive, her crew vented by laser fire. But there is blood for blood, a frigate disabled and left behind. The escorts descend and tear her to shreds. No escape pods launch. No quarter is asked. None is offered.

After that, the wolfpack holds back and awaits reinforcements. More frigates, a freighter, and a passenger liner bristling with weapons. Then, the final blow. This time, they will break the fleet. The escorts stand and fight and fall. Badly outgunned, their line bends but does not break. There is no point fleeing without warp rings. There is no choice but death.

PRIORITY ALERT FROM JOHN ELL: SPREAD AND BURN. PREPARE TO EVADE.

A lone frigate, a courier hastily rigged with torpedo racks, has broken free and climbed above the fleet. Now she dives towards the refugee ships. Towards Vernal Volta.

On the bridge, all is quiet as Travers pre-programs the maneuver. Full left thruster to slide, back right thruster to spin, main drive burn. Everything fades away except the coin flip, the roll of the dice. Left or right. Live or die.

He thinks about the hundred and twenty seven souls in the hold. Children and families, broken miners and addicts and old invalids. His hand hovers over EXECUTE as the frigate looms larger and the scope starts to pick out the finer details. A tiny metal frame suspended inside a warp ring by struts. Splotches of green paint on the hull.

Leaves of clover.

Left or right. Live or die.

"Explosion aboard John Ell! She's breaking up!" Travers can tell it's Mike's voice, but the words don't register. Sandra points a scope downwards, expecting crumpled bodies in the void. Instead, she sees a blown out cargo bay and a flash of Ares blue as the massive hauler rolls to one side.

MUNITION PLOTTED. MUNITION PLOTTED. Two missiles streak out of the rear icehold and pass within a kilometer of VeeVee, bound for the frigate. At such a high rate of closure, at such short range, there is no evasion, no effective point defense. HIT. HIT.

As the empty warp ring falls away, John Ell's massive Epsilon-built engine fires. She passes Vernal Volta with a salute and breaks the plane, seeking clean firing solutions.

And as his feed fills with a hundred new missile alerts - as the Humanist fleet panics and the pirates sink their teeth in deep, refusing to let these murderers run - Captain Peter Travers allows himself to breathe.

SNS Whitney Goodwin, Inner System of Canis

Between the bulk of his signature jewel-studded spacesuit and his freakish height, the man barely squeezes into the conference room. His helmet scrapes the ceiling. Rear Admiral Amina Sanusi examines her deformed reflection in the visor. The effect's disturbing, to say the least. Her cybernetic eyes cannot scan his face through the gold - but she has read his file enough times to know what facial recognition would return.

CHIEF PETTY OFFICER ANTOINE HUGO TREMARCHE, MSI (AWOL)
ARMED AND DANGEROUS, TIER ONE COMBAT AUGMENTATIONS
WANTED FOR: MURDER, PIRACY, COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT, RACKETEERING... (EXPAND)

Trademark was a chained animal. Epsilon gave him targets, and he made them go away.

But nobody leaves Canis forever. It's in their blood, in their bones. They always come back, one way or another.

There were decades left on his contract when he jumped ship in 2248, still young by the Company's standards. But in the Belts he was "Old Man Trademark", fit and strong at the impossible age of fifty-four. His absence had spared him the curses of his people - muscular atrophy, osteoporosis, blindness, the bottle and the needle.

The system's Company-approved crime families never stood a chance.

They tried to get him, of course - MSI for breach of contract, the Marshals for the murders. But he was ready. He had won the respect of the brash young criminals of Canis with his dream of something bigger. And with their help, he survived. He traveled the system folded into crawl spaces. He held court on barren asteroids and uncharted stations. Once, when his old comrades caught his scent, he walked out an airlock and spent thirteen days on the float to shake them.

Even now some think that he's an MSI asset, that he still has a line to the IPA. In some corners they whisper about his thirteen days adrift on the black ocean. Unable to turn away from the void, staring out into the infinite expanse of stars for three hundred and fifteen hours.

They say it fried his cybernetics, and whenever he closes his eyes he sees distant galaxies. They say he went into a combat trance and clawed out his own voicebox. They say it drove him mad.

This man, Sanusi reflects, is a feral dog.

And his organization is the closest thing to a government in Canis.

"Tremarche," Sanusi smiles warmly. "Always a pleasure."

"Shut it," Trademark growls. The sound of his voice is forever novel. Grating and mechanical, like a chain begging for oil. "What the hell happened with the Caledonia convoy? Where was the escort?" Sanusi keeps the smile frozen on her face.

"It wasn't my decision. We got a call on the deconfliction line - said an attack was coming. The Bethpagers had gotten their hands on an old MSI cruiser. They'd renamed it, uh. Loyal She Remains." She takes his silence for confusion. "It's some fuckin' Toronto thing, I think."

So yes, she thinks, we abandoned your ships. Because we care more about our careers than your kids. Because Parliament's breathing down our necks and the brass thinks they can cut a deal. Because we're buying into this absurd hope that they'll be too busy killing your people to get around to killing ours.

"This is all bullshit," Trademark snarls as he flips through the report. "This ship ain't here. Not in Mobius either, not according to my people. You and yours got spooked by a ghost."

"It worked out in the end, didn't it? Your crews got to be the heroes of the hour." Bad idea. He'll jump on that.

"A thousand of 'em died." He slams a gloved fist into the table. Metal screeches and bends, but the Admiral does not flinch. She is a flag officer of the Solarian Navy. Even now, she claims dignity. Mina Sanusi stares into the visor and sees no fear reflected. After a few moments he folds, stepping back and shaking out his fingers. The damage to the table is severe, possibly fatal - a fist-sized dent and four holes where the rubies set into the knuckles punched straight through. The pirate sizes her up and tries another approach.

"Do you know how much damage this has done, Amina?" Informality. A calculated slight. His tone walks a fine line between remorseful and threatening. "I've spent the last week hopping the system trying to keep my captains in line. I'm sure your high-society officers are a bit uncomfortable working with me and mine. But do you ever think about how these folks see you?"

"This deal offends our delicate sensibilities as well. You're wearin' the blue. The uniform of the people that shot nukes at Earth. Maybe it's been a minute since, maybe you've moved on, but around here - we've got long memories. And your friends the Marshals, they've harassed my family for near a decade. Hounded the good people of this system for much longer besides."

"I suppose what I'm saying is, these people can't stand you. Hell, they despise you, but at least they thought they could work with you. And now they've seen your true colors. Now you've broken your word." He hangs his head low. "And they want blood. As things stand, I don't think I can guarantee safe passage." Sanusi raises her eyebrow three increments. Moderate shock.

"Trademark, are you trying to extort the Solarian Navy?" The pirate chuckles. It reminds her of sharpening kitchen knives.

She'd expected him to try something like this. His disjointed and ramshackle fleet could never stand against a Triage Command, but that's not the threat on the table. If they start harassing SolNav craft, every civilian vessel in the Belts would be a possible threat. Every transport would be at risk. They'd need to task…hell, maybe half a squadron to hold an exclusion corridor from Asher to the Isthmus gate. Maybe more. And they don't have the ships to spare.

Once she might have welcomed the challenge. As an up-and-comer in 7th Fleet, a true believer, Mina Sanusi would've rolled her eyes and told him SolNav doesn't bow to threats. This is our galaxy. Buzz off, buddy.

She can't even picture that Mina anymore. She's spent a decade climbing 10th Fleet's ladder of irrelevance, and it has worn her to the bone. Her memories of the months before the Broadcast are a dull haze and a resignation drafted on real paper. She could no longer stand to see the Charters cannibalize her command, could no longer stand watching bright young officers turn sour and insane on Suez Station.

But the muleheadedness that got her put out to pasture had long since been excised, and she took the easy route instead. She stuffed her true thoughts on the Navy into her stateroom safe, kept her head down and tried to forget. Modern pharmacology was her savior. It's a miracle, really; with enough money, any inconvenient feeling can be buried.

Enter the Broadcast. The entire galaxy collapses around her, and a pig-headed nepotista with more stars than sense tells her to glue it back together. Her role in the grand struggle is not combat command or planning, but cat-herding. She negotiates with the absurd tech-obsessives of Talaria and Dumuzid, with the Spacer clans and VDC reps of the Coreward. She translates top brass's chest-thumping towards the 4th Fleet depot in New Sealand into a polite request for ships. She files her own reports to K-C, certain that her incompetent and deranged superiors are filling theirs with lies.

And she sits across the table from this petulant criminal, this killer that believes in nothing but blood ties and coercion, this happy creature that thrives in a galaxy gone mad, and she cannot even muster outrage or indignation. All she can think is that he is the lesser evil. Less than the howling fascists of Erie. Less than the Charters that created him.

Less, even, than the admirals on high that show unbridled contempt for these 'skinnies'. That'd bomb the homeworld again if the opportunity presented itself.

At least this one can see reason. At least he can be bought.

"What do you need? What'll keep your people onboard?"

"We want our escorts back and a lil' more. Something public. A show of faith." Beneath the visor Trademark bares his teeth, a loose approximation of a human smile. "No more of this 'deconfliction' horseshit. A man's gotta know who he's working with."

Fingers In the Fire

Proxy conflict in Canis could destabilize the Coreward. Leaders must not allow that.

Editorial Board of the Cosmos Star-Market Chronicle

—

Cosmoliberalism is in peril. As we enter a period of severe democratic recession, our society's foundational values of pluralism, property, and the rule of law are under attack. Sol has fallen, and the Sisters are backsliding. Impartial institutions of state are eroded. Ethno-nationalism rises to haunt humanity once more. The Coreward Frontier has rode this wave well, in no small part due to the calming presence of the 10th Fleet. But developments on the border could change that.

The ex-United Starhaul, ex-MSI system of Canis has long been a blemish. Though rich in minerals, underinvestment resulted in an inefficient system of independent mining, low life expectancy, and high poverty rates. Crime ran rampant, from piracy to illegal gravity clinics. Ethnic conflict between the space-adapted Station Dwellers and planetary colonists was constant and bitter. Many a Marshal has made - or lost - a career in Canis.

With the dissolution of MSI, the system splintered. Individual stations fell to anarchists or criminal gangs, while Asher elected the ethno-nationalist Colleen North to planetary government. Both sides committed crimes against property, prompting Isthmus to intervene. North took refuge in Earhart, where the local government had already rejected SolNav's imposition of martial law as unlawful.

10th Fleet's intentions were noble. Of that, there can be no doubt. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Isthmus has abandoned any attempt to control the Belts, focusing on the bloody Asherite insurgency. But the Erie Pact has latched onto this act of triage as corruption and favoritism, demanding that Parliament bring Isthmus to heel. Erie's fleet continues to hold the Canis side of the Mobius gate at North's invitation, and it is no secret that they sponsor militia raids into the system. Some of these groups, such as the Bethpage Brigade, have even fired upon Navy vessels.

In response, Isthmus rattles its own saber. SolNav ships continue to escort evacuation convoys through North's "Outer Exclusion Zone", and a spokesperson ominously stated that the 10th has "withdrawn from joint deconfliction measures with Erie-aligned forces due to their failure to act in good faith. The presence of armed vessels in Canis is a continued violation of lawful declarations issued under the War Measures Act, and we are prepared to use all necessary force to maintain order and defend our local partners."

If we suspected that they were readers, we would appeal to the leaders of Earhart to heed this warning. Since that is unlikely, we shall speak to the 10th and the Coreward Triage Command. Referring to your pirate proxies as "local partners" is absurd. Canis is a system of a few million ethno-nationalists. Do not risk the security of the entire Coreward Frontier for their tribalistic infighting or your 'Navy Pride'. If war looms, withdraw to Isthmus. Let them have their planet. The Erie regime is repulsive, but it can be reasoned with.

In these dark times, we cannot bleed for a place like Canis.

"...look, I don't mean to be a downer in this last…minute or so. I know people need a laugh in these dark times. All I'm saying is that I pity the Skinnies. It's tragic! Tragic. They didn't choose this, the Charters made 'em this way. Clever sons-of-bitches, I'll give 'em that. Need shock troops? Throw some folks into the mines for a century. Stretch 'em, beat 'em, blind 'em, brutalize 'em every way you can. Make 'em afraid of the light, afraid of people who aren't broken like them."

"Then cut 'em loose?"

"Yeah. Canis - uh, that's the playbook right there. That's what you've gotta watch. Martial. Law. They're throwing humans in camps! Working with those CPD thugs to ghettoize our people. Soon they'll be tossing them out the airlocks. It's baseline genocide is what it is. And it's coming this way if we don't stop it."

"Yeah, yeah. And the Skinnies aren't the problem. They're just one tendril, one tiny part."

"All of these forces - SolNav, the Cosmofash, the Bank, the Cicadas - they're all just puppets of the real enemy. They're like, like, uh, you ever seen a rabid raccoon? Poor fuckers. I feel for 'em, I really do. But at this point, they're too far gone. They're waging a war of extermination against our people. And we've got a duty to win."

"For our children, for our families."

"For the future."

"Thanks for listening, folks. Tickets for the live tour will be available starting…"

space appalachian space pirate space miner space cyborg spacesuit: cool
space fash: not cool

Thanks to AKuz, Laurent, and Redshirt for info/reading/generally making this possible, it was very fun to write!

the image for Trademark is a wallpaper of a Russian cosmonaut, it's on a million free wallpaper sites, couldn't find an original source.

in addition to colter wall i listened to the hardspace: shipbreaker soundtrack like 40 times while writing this.

Setsul · Sep 2, 2022

So to summarize my views, in no particular order:

Remember when I warned about HI taking drastic measures after the second Broadcast and cutting the relays at Thoa and Arizona, with Relay and Bastion/Inspiration as alternatives even if we advance further? I guess it could be the actual fix instead of HI just lying, but the end result is the same. Broadcast TLI Emancipation and Augment Jailbreak asap.

That MSI refueling station in Akleod? Turns out the reason for it was ships. We should've seen that one coming. It's a terrible situation for us because we can't exactly pick a fight with the IPA, but we also can't allow them to build ships in our backyard.

Cosmos gave decolonisation a try, now it's trying to turn into a penal colony.
Alexander Anarchists have a Superdreadnought and they are not afraid to use it. The Compact is very salty about it and might've nuked a few settlements. Or it was the Superdreadnought, hard to tell at this point.
Humanists are still assholes, Blue Squadron came too late to make things worse because Trescore came in clutch.
Atlantis is still ~~Normal~~ in a state of perpetual unrest.
The new Ares government on Columbia managed to start a war with Penglai, lose the first battle, announce military buildup, embezzle the funding for the military buildup, piss off its Humanist population, piss off its Augment population, and piss off the rest of its population for good measure in just a couple of months. The accomplishments of Private Industry indeed, nothing else could've delivered such results with this speed.
Meanwhile Izem Meziane continues to be on an absolute roll. I just hope he's still as smart as he seems and didn't buy his own hype. Calls for reform of the entire Compact are great and the only thing he should push for publicly, but he did just fend off a coup so I hope that was enough of a warning to prepare for the inevitable core systems civil war.

JN OK has yet to secure a majority or assume office and is already making moves.
He's invited everyone to talks, but he's also letting SolNav do its thing and put almost the entirety of the frontier under martial law. Funnily enough, we're among the exceptions.
He's also got himself some state media now and the JDAP seems to be favouring its new Columbian faction over the IDP under Silvia Greene. The only good news is that with 46% of the seats the formerly junior partner IDP now significantly outsizes the JPP and C4 individually, so it can't exactly be dismissed.

Speculation:
Odysseus is gone. Bought, voluntarily joined, or annexed, the IPA is gobbling that up. Trescore needs to watch its back. It might be an unpopular move to do it now, but who could stop the IPA/MSI/Epsilon when (not if) they've decided they've waited long enough?

We continue to lack intel about SolNav. The four Triage Commands turned into three, I've got no idea how large the Task Forces are, both 7.1.1 and 7.1 (though that could be meant to be 7.1.2) exist but only 7.3.1 and 7.3.2 and not 7.3, and most importantly we've still got no idea where any of them are. Also somehow 4th Fleet, the gate building/maintenance fleet, has been deputized into the Coreward Triage Command.
Even 9th Fleet's 3rd battlegroup remains a mystery. There have been no news about it at all. Maybe the 1st battlegroup has been recalled to assemble an absolutely crushing force, maybe corruption has actually led to the 3rd battlegroup only existing on paper. The cynical view would be that if the Compact wants a ceasefire they're not in a position where fighting benefits them and therefore we should fight. Either way there is something to be said for defeat in detail instead of waiting for their reinforcements to show up. On the other hand the Triage Command could retaliate.

Genolution said:
(D) Sol, Olduvai, Penglai, Alexander, the IPA, SolNav-near peer powers are sprouting up like mushrooms after the cleansing rain of the Broadcast. Nature is healing!
(E) 129th Squadron is rejoining 201st Squadron at Arizona, which I find incredibly concerning, because IIRC McLean explicitly said that she did not believe that Mobile Force could hold Bestreer if the entire battlegroup tried to force the gate.

I wouldn't call them near peer yet, but SolNav can't be everywhere at once. Due to the Triage Commands heading out, SolNav in KC is apparently down to 3rd Fleet, the remnants of 1st and maybe bits of 2nd. Plus theoretically 12th Fleet, if it exists as more than a paper formation right now.
The core systems are definitely looking good, with Sol and Penglai firmly Anarchist, Olduvai and Epsilon neutral but sorta Anarchist (though I don't trust Epsilon), Atlantis technically Compact/Charter but neutral due to being a mess, and only Columbia and KC firmly Charter and Compact respectively.

I think that was before repairs, when Vanguard Force was down quite a few ships (1 cruiser, 1 light cruiser, 5 frigates, 1 PDD, and 2 minesweepers) and pretty much out of ammunition. Now it's only down 1 cruiser, 2 frigates, and 1 minesweeper, but gained 2 light cruisers and 2 more strikecraft wings. 201st has been reduced to 1 battlecruiser, 2 light cruisers, and 1 strikecraft wing, so with Vanguard Force arguably slightly stronger than before, gates defences, and defender's advantage it's holdable. Not guaranteed, but not something a 'cautious' admiral would charge into.

wallabon said:
Hey, on the crease fire front, I had what might be a dumb idea.
What if we include it in the third (and final from the sounds of it) broadcast? It is thorough back channels so they clearly don't want people to know, and I guarantee it'll accelerate the compact's explosion

Definitely something to consider, regardless of whether we take the deal or not. The only downside is the potential retaliation.

TheArcanist said:
One thing to remember is that if we open relations with Trescore it'll make any negotiations with the much stronger IPA rather, uh. Awkward.

On the other hand, letting the IPA expand is a bad idea. The Zhangs are 100% going to backstab everyone at some point, ideally one after the other in easily handled chunks. Throwing one of the few trustworthy polities under the bus or even just ignoring them in favour of the IPA is not going to do us any favours in the long run. And Epsilon being supposedly pacifist while also politically protecting Penglai and Olduvai cuts both ways. It means they can't block traffic to Penglai without immediately being called out for it. Between Epsilon and Penglai I know which core system I'd rather ally with.
Trescore is also on better terms with SolNav than Epsilon right now. SolNav still isn't going to let anyone into Sol, and Atlantis is still full of Charter fuckery, but I'm seeing a chance to contact Olduvai through Trescore.

VillaininGlasses said:
I think everyone is missing something important in the Athene section. Revolutionary Pacifica that's Cauldron, which both of those starting systems have revolted not just Alexander.

Crucible, but yes. There's a reason why the Trailing Triage Command dwarfs the others.
Nothing about Cornucopia yet, I think, but it's definitely getting spicy.

Amazing Abzan · Sep 2, 2022

AKuz said:
[Formation of Mercury Manat]

[End of Omoikane Innovations Group]

Okay, I know this is just the astrological symbol for Mercury, but it reeeeeeaally looks like the new evil megacorporation decided that their logo would be stick figure with devil horns.

The Laurent · Sep 2, 2022

Don Alverzo said:
Okay, I know this is just the astrological symbol for Mercury, but it reeeeeeaally looks like the new evil megacorporation decided that their logo would be stick figure with devil horns.

Think of what Mercury-Manat means, by the way. It's the opposite of clever, and so I'm not sure if it's so stupid nobody got it or so stupid nobody even thought to comment on it.

Cassiemouse · Sep 2, 2022

The Laurent said:
Think of what Mercury-Manat means, by the way. It's the opposite of clever, and so I'm not sure if it's so stupid nobody got it or so stupid nobody even thought to comment on it.

Scribe of Destiny or something like that?

The Laurent · Sep 2, 2022

Cassiemouse said:
Scribe of Destiny or something like that?

Hmm, what shall we call our Hermes-Ishtar Public-Corporation Successor?

In Roman mythology and religion many of Hermes' characteristics belong to Mercury,[15] a name derived from the Latin merx, meaning "merchandise," and the origin of the words "merchant" and "commerce."[16]

Ishtar (Ishhara, Irnini, Inanna, Anunit, Astarte, Atarsamain, Esther, Aster, Apru-dité, and Manat) is the Assyro-Babylonian goddess of sex, war and political power, and is arguably the most important mother goddess of Mesopotamia.

Someone was simultaneously incredibly lazy and also thought they were incredibly clever.

trooperist · Sep 2, 2022

The Laurent said:
Hmm, what shall we call our Hermes-Ishtar Public-Corporation Successor?

In Roman mythology and religion many of Hermes' characteristics belong to Mercury,[15] a name derived from the Latin merx, meaning "merchandise," and the origin of the words "merchant" and "commerce."[16]

Ishtar (Ishhara, Irnini, Inanna, Anunit, Astarte, Atarsamain, Esther, Aster, Apru-dité, and Manat) is the Assyro-Babylonian goddess of sex, war and political power, and is arguably the most important mother goddess of Mesopotamia.

Someone was simultaneously incredibly lazy and also thought they were incredibly clever.

So the same name but different. When you put it like that it's like they only looked at the first sentence of the wiki entry.

Clearly all the good creatives stayed with Hermes-Ishtar.

maelstrom.seeker · Sep 2, 2022

The Roman god Mercury was identified closely with the Greek god Hermes.
I can't find anything on identifying Manat with Ishtar though, but maybe that's part of the laziness? They're both "Middle Eastern" goddesses and it makes a nice alliterative name, so good enough, I guess.

Edit: Apparently there was some identification of Ishtar with Manat's sisters Allat and Al-Uzza, but I can't find any credible-looking sources connecting Ishtar and Manat (take all that with a grain of salt, I have no expertise at all on this topic).
Anyway, the link being not quite right seems to fit thematically.

MrRageQuit · Sep 2, 2022

The Laurent said:
Someone was simultaneously incredibly lazy and also thought they were incredibly clever.

I see they bought out the "visionaries" as well.

T_of_A · Sep 2, 2022

I like the fact that "rising leftism" means "political splits all over the galaxy". Way to show we're moving the overton window further away from fascism

The Laurent · Sep 2, 2022

TalonofAnathrax said:
I like the fact that "rising leftism" means "political splits all over the galaxy". Way to show we're moving the overton window further away from fascism

Are anarchists like in Penglai really Leftists, or are they just really spicy Liberals? /s

Torgamous · Sep 2, 2022

The Laurent said:
Are anarchists like in Penglai really Leftists, or are they just really spicy Liberals? /s

I asked local spice expert Anong to find out!

Asmodemus · Sep 2, 2022

Balmung1 said:
The Hell flag exists.God hates us

Imagine if we did another Broadcast and it's just a list of potential flags for them with a pleading note to not make us have to look at that one any longer.

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

Been Better

Aspiring Gynoid

Cerberus relieved of command

9th Fleet, 1st Battlegroup Redeployed away from Drake

Cinnamon Roll AI

New Government Reaches out through back channels

Amateur human

Amateur human

Market Atheist

Cinnamon Roll AI

Aspiring Gynoid

Subversive Element