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

AKuz · Dec 10, 2020

THE ALL-RADIANT CONGRESS

Setting Information: The Solarian Compact:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Charters:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rhodes Mining

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

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

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

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

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

Techbros, some of them science, some of them explore

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sketchy buggers, they can get you anything tho

Historical Topics:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Misc Details:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Spinward Frontier:

The Middle Spinward Frontier

The Core Region:

UNDER RADIANT CONTROL OR ALLIED:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gaid A1: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Gaid B2: An airless world. Quality 10.

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

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

Gaid B5: A small icy planet. Quality 3.

Gaid B6: A frozen world. Quality 7.

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

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

Shei 1: A Cthonian world. Quality 15.

Shei 2: An airless world. Quality 12.

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

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

Gravity .95 Earth Standard. Quality 12.

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

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

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

Shei I: Asteroid belt.

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

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

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

Shei II: Asteroid belt.

Shei 7: Jovian planet. Quality 13.

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

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

Shei 8: Ice giant. Quality 6.

Shei 8a: An icy moon. Quality 9.

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

Population: 103,000,000

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

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

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

Five Lions 3: A rocky ball. Quality 7.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five Lions II: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 7: An unremarkable Jovian. Quality 2.

Five Lions III: An asteroid belt.

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

Five Lions IV: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 9: Jovian planet. Quality 9.

Five Lions V: An asteroid belt.

Five Lions 10: Neptunian ice giant. Quality 8.

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

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

Population: 15,000,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Population: 650,000

UNDER CHARTER CONTROL:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh A6: An unremarkable icy ball. Quality 4.

Xotreh AI: An asteroid belt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Xotreh 6: A dense ice giant. Quality 4.

Xotreh 7: Jovian planet. Quality 6.

Xotreh 8: An exceptionally cold Jovian. Quality 9.

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

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

Population: 54,000

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

Bestreer 1: An airless world. Quality 2.

Bestreer 2: An airless world. Quality 6.

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

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

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

Bestreer I: An icy asteroid belt.

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

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

Bestreer 7: Another Jovian. Quality 14.

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

Bestreer 8: An icy ball. Quality 10.

Population: 450

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

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

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

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

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

Akleod I: An asteroid belt.

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

Population: 5,000

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

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

Thoa System Stats:

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

Thoa 2: An unremarkable airless metal ball.

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

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

Thoa I: An asteroid belt.

Thoa 4: A normal Jovian planet.

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

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

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

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

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

Thoa II: A Kuiper belt of icy objects.

Empty Systems

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

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

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

Kimberly 3: A Jovian world.

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

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

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

Total:

Radiant:

Gaid:

Five Lions:

Head of Diplomatic Corps:

Name: Amanda Redcrest, Victoria Blackwell, and Kayla Hayashi

DoB: "2222", 2219, 2227, 2224

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cons: XP celebrity, little diplomatic experience, three people

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

Unlocked FRM

Ares Peacekeeping Grade - Access to planetary army formation

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

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

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

Cernunnos Consumer Grade - +1 to all Soccom actions

Cernunnos Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

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

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

Hermes-Ishtar Production Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

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

MSI Enterprise Grade - NOT UNLOCKED

Original Tech

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

Defence Coordinator:

Name: Maria Awhina

DoB: 2165

Current Position: Military Committee Delegate from the Radiant Veterans Guild

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

Command Traits:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-None

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

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

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

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

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

Solarian Marines now spread throughout the system

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

Mobile Force:

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

CO: Commodore Stephanie Rousseau

CNS Velasco, United States of America-class Fleet Carrier

-CO: Captain Esteri Attar

-Orca Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Jasmine Ang

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

-CO: Wing Commander Heloisa Kimura de Lima

CNS Shieldmaiden, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Shamhat, Great Heathen-class Light Cruiser

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

CNS Righteous Tempest, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Vehement Shade

CNS August Willich, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Elysium, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Asphodel, Cossak-class Frigate

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

-

Home Force:

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

CO: Commodore Erina Kozlova

CNS Blaire Mountain, New Model-Class Strike Corvette

-CO: Captain Guillermo Kageyama

CNS Scutum, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Martin Pagonis

CNS Buckler, Comet-Class Patrol Corvette

-CO: Captain Samuel Smiles

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

-CO: Captain Jean-Paul Beaumont

-

Radiant System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Radiant, comet patrol

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

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

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

Switchblade Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Apogee Wing, Switchblade-type strikecraft

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

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

(Radiant-Bestreer Gate)

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

Radiant Orbital Yard 1

Current construction: None

-

Gaid System Self Defence Force:

Current Orders: Defend Gaid

CO: Commodore Victor Raine

Battery A, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery B, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery C, Blindfire-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery D, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery E, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Battery F, Airstrike-Pattern LMP Constellation

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Shoal A, Macross-Pattern TAM Shoal

Zephyr Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

-CO: Wing Commander Ara Helge

Aeolus Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

Gale Wing, Switchblade-Type Strikecraft (Customized)

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

-

Frontier Force

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

CO: Commodore Shayla McLean

CNS Kiel Mutiny, Kaiserreich-class BattleCruiser

-CO: Captain Inana Devlin

CNS Choreographer, Janissary-class Light Tender

-CO: Captain Karl Xanthopoulos

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

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

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

-CO: Captain Fool's Errand

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

-CO: Captain Rouge Napier

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

-CO: Captain John Rankin

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

-CO: Captain Nkiru Chaudhari

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

-CO: Captain Sumac Barros

CNS Revolutionary Will, Cossak-class Frigate

-CO: Captain Yamamoto Hanae

CNS Revolutionary Grace, Cossak-class Frigate

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

CNS Under New Management, Don-Class Fast Tanker

-CO: Captain Adras Kierenos

CNS Liberte, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Colin McRae

CNS Egalite, Hollywood(C)-Class Frigate

-CO: Captain Adelia Swift

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

DISCORD LINK:

Join the Wordsmiths Discord Server!

Check out the Wordsmiths community on Discord – hang out with 897 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

discord.gg

The Laurent · Oct 16, 2022

It's that time again, I suppose. Might as well do it when I was reminded of rolls.

I need a 1d4+2 for "???"!

LilyWitch · Oct 16, 2022

kay

Edit: 3+2 is 5

The Laurent · Oct 16, 2022

LilyWitch said:
kay

Edit: 3+2 is 5

Interesting. Interesting.

Kirook · Oct 16, 2022

Setsul said:
SciComm:

Remember that the plan Cassie, Redshirt, and I proposed last turn—which ultimately won—was deliberately designed to set things up so that this turn we could complete Augment Jailbreak and Embrace the Monster Within with one die each. Not doing both of those this turn makes that plan a lot less efficient than it otherwise would have been.

Derpmind · Oct 16, 2022

Setsul said:
Tech Debt would be really nice to do, but everything that makes it more than just a mechanical bonus like All the Toys is already done better by other projects. Yes, letting AIs design the environments they spend all their lives in is nice, but Embodiment Guarantee to let them out of the cage or waking up the TLIs in the first place are much nicer. Yes, it could be revolutionary and provide huge mechanical bonuses, but so do Wormholes and they are much further along. Better to enjoy the spoils than to start from zero again. So I think now isn't the time for clearing out tech debt yet.

I like your analysis in general, but here I have to seriously disagree. The logic that tech debt can be put on hold for later is one that's been going on for nearing on 300 years in-universe. We, too, can always put it off for later. But that's exactly why it's so important to actually start up on fixing it ASAP: Everything in our civilization relies on computers, and all of our computers are running garbage crap. Computer bugs and programming shortcuts that are around today are still around in Tyrant's future, with the accumulated detritus of hundreds of years of shitty programming practices layered on top of the old ones decade after decade. So it's not a question of if it'll be worth doing. It's a question of just how much it'll be game-changingly beneficial for us to do it.

Or we could just put it off for a turn, to do more short-term stuff. And for another turn. And for another turn...

Mr BreaksIt said:
She became a founding member of her neighbourhood's aviation club and, after extensive training from more experienced pilots, she

This sentence is unfinished.

DocSpooky · Oct 16, 2022

Derpmind said:
I like your analysis in general, but here I have to seriously disagree. The logic that tech debt can be put on hold for later is one that's been going on for nearing on 300 years in-universe. We, too, can always put it off for later. But that's exactly why it's so important to actually start up on fixing it ASAP: Everything in our civilization relies on computers, and all of our computers are running garbage crap. Computer bugs and programming shortcuts that are around today are still around in Tyrant's future, with the accumulated detritus of hundreds of years of shitty programming practices layered on top of the old ones decade after decade. So it's not a question of if it'll be worth doing. It's a question of just how much it'll be game-changingly beneficial for us to do it.

Or we could just put it off for a turn, to do more short-term stuff. And for another turn. And for another turn...

This sentence is unfinished.

My bad, repaired.

Setsul · Oct 16, 2022

Kirook said:
Remember that the plan Cassie, Redshirt, and I proposed last turn—which ultimately won—was deliberately designed to set things up so that this turn we could complete Augment Jailbreak and Embrace the Monster Within with one die each. Not doing both of those this turn makes that plan a lot less efficient than it otherwise would have been.

Like I said, it doesn't really make sense to do ALL the higher priority stuff first, we're not going to do 4 wormhole projects, but if let's say Grey Skies didn't complete then I'd say Monster Within is first on the chopping block.

For dice efficiency doing just Jailbreak with a single die obviously wins, though that needs a bit of luck. Nothing is stopping us from doing Monster Within later if we still want it or weren't lucky enough.

Derpmind said:
I like your analysis in general, but here I have to seriously disagree. The logic that tech debt can be put on hold for later is one that's been going on for nearing on 300 years in-universe. We, too, can always put it off for later. But that's exactly why it's so important to actually start up on fixing it ASAP: Everything in our civilization relies on computers, and all of our computers are running garbage crap. Computer bugs and programming shortcuts that are around today are still around in Tyrant's future, with the accumulated detritus of hundreds of years of shitty programming practices layered on top of the old ones decade after decade. So it's not a question of if it'll be worth doing. It's a question of just how much it'll be game-changingly beneficial for us to do it.

Or we could just put it off for a turn, to do more short-term stuff. And for another turn. And for another turn...

We can also put off improving wormhole comms for a turn and another turn and for another. I'd argue that's worse.
It makes no sense to put off the game-changingly beneficial technology that we've spent a lot of dice on in favour of spending a lot of dice on another potentially game-changingly beneficial megaproject.

The way I see it, we've already committed to Wormholes, Jailbreak and its followup projects, AGI/TLI freedom, and then there's also a looming invasion that might happen before we even finish the tech debt megaproject even if we started right now.
In 1 or 2 turns we should know where the followup projects land, how many there are, Blue Skies, and where we stand regarding the chances of an invasion. I expect that in roughly 4 turns we'll finally be down to doing Wormholes and probably 1 Fractured Skies project per turn and that's when we can commit a die to tech debt indefinitely.

We can't commit to doing 5 things at once in a 3 dice Committee. We need to finish a couple of them first before picking up the next big thing.

EDIT:
To clarify, best case would be that Jailbreak and Monster Within complete next turn, there's no followup project for Jailbreak in SciComm or only one and we get it done in one turn and there's no reason not to kick off tech debt in 2 turns. Worst case Jailbreak and/or Monster Within take longer, there's 3 followup projects that we want to do, Embodiment Guarantee needs SciComm projects, or an invasion is imminent and we can't really fit tech debt in.

ThatGazzer · Oct 28, 2022

PUNK GAN EDEN:

CHAPTER TWO― THRESHOLD

"...I am left alone,
on the surface of a turning planet.
What to do but,
like Michelangelo's Adam―
Put my hand out into unknown space,
Hoping for the reciprocating touch?"
― "Threshold", R. S. Thomas

Abel raises a brow slightly in what for him is deep confusion. "Your shoe, Ma'am? To be perfectly clear, we came to Earth in a highly volatile time…to look for your missing shoe?" he asks, his tone largely flat― his expression carefully neutral. You're not sure how to answer. It is the gentle therapists canter of Empathy that speaks first.

[EMPATHY] (Medium Success): You're perhaps beginning to feel that he only calls you ma'am when he's in a poor mood. Look back. It's MP when he's being official, Greene when he's pleased, and ma'am when he's upset. You think he might not even realize what he's doing. It is simply what he does, you shouldn't hold it against him.

You know, your Empathy does seem to have a point, but you instinctively rail against it. You (maybe) have a reputation to protect after all. What? No! That can't be right.

[AUTHORITY] (Challenging Success): It isn't! This lower level functionary is under your command! You're The Law Here! He should be giving you the respect you've earned, with hard work and a societal bias to the wealthy and connected! You're the Most Honorable High Astral Secretary, you should remind him of that! 'it is better to be feared than loved', as the saying goes.

You nod to yourself, that does sound like a very important job, perfect for a woman like you…whoever you are.

So you say before anyone else in your head can interject. "Senor Functionary Itsumi…I, The Most Honorable High Astral Secretary, gave you an order." Oh you like this, you sound very firm and commanding. "I may have been polite about it but I do really need to find my shoe. Help me, or go home." Perfection! Nothing can go wrong with that.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: Itsumi doesn't react, not visibility― but something about the way he says
―"Your shoe then. Of course…High Astral Secretary."―
sounds and feels a lot like 'I'm disappointed that this is my job now, but I'll do it because I have to.' the unspoken words of a million million interns, disrespected desk-jockeys and junior sanitation officers echo now behind his lips as he steps past you into the room with a smooth gait, as disaffected and professional as he can make himself for a boss he's beginning to suspect has gone off the deep end. It makes you feel like shit on the bottom of a CEO's shoe. A scraped thin bit of waste, to be sneered at and then ignored.

[DISCOURSE]: Chairwoman, I'll be frank. A lot of us here on this side of the aisle are beginning to think that wasn't the best approach to this still evolving issue, and we should have perhaps tried another tactic before this one.

[MENTAL WIKI] (Trivial Success): Did you know? I'm pretty sure, after a quick search of the ol' gray matter archive, 'Most Honorable High Astral Secretary?' it isn't your title. It's not even a real title Outside of a Movie, from 2239. 'Wizard Wars: OverThrone."— This really is embarrassing.

[DISCOURSE] (Easy Success): That may be true— but the best way to deal with this is simple. you have to own up to your gaff without actually saying directly that you gaffed it up. Something like "Hey Abe, listen sorry about that. I was just joking ar-

[GRINDSET] (Medium Failure): OR YOU COULD DOUBLE DOWN! Here me out, you've already fucked up right? Of course right so basically all you need to do is keep pushing through the fuck up! You're the fucking High Astral Secertary now if you say so! It doesn't matter who you hurt, how many bridges you burn! Nose to the fucking GRINDSTONE, Queen! Fake that shit til you make that shit!

You wince, embarrassed at and for yourself (yourselves?) I don't think that's a good idea but it might work?

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Challenging Success): leaning into it won't work for Abel. Maybe if he was your average emotionally and physically exhausted working class chump. They'd just nod along and hope the paycheck doesn't bounce. He's smart, and not at all intimidated by you. It's a bad idea.

[GRINDSET]: Good idea!? Bad idea, doesn't matter! What matters is you give 210%! Can't make an omelet and all that!

[LOGIC]: 210%? That's mathematically impossible.

[PROPRIOCEPTION]: And physically impossible.

There is an imagined sound…or real sound (you're still not sure how this whole 'cheat power' thing all works) of a cigar being inhaled so hard in frustration the whole thing turns to ash

[GRINDSET]: ugh. I am surrounded by a bunch of low-effort losers! A gang of lollygaging peasants! Fine! You can be one then!

[Gain Thought: The Lallygag Gang]

Problem: Looks like you're not inclined to destroy yourself inch by inch, cell by cell for your work! For shame! If you don't do it, who will? It's honestly a little selfish. Do you really think that anything can get done if you don't do as much as possible all day everyday? No! Of course not— or at least, you don't think so? Maybe there's something to be said about knowing when to be kind to yourself and when to push? Is pushing the lever to full and snapping it off— grinding yourself into dust for the smallest tasks, your guilt and self-loathing a whiteknuckle grip about your throat— really conducive to your long term goals? You need to think about this.

[DISCOURSE]: Don't worry about Grindset too much, she's about as pleasant as vape smoke to the face but she's always reliable, she'll be here, when you need her. It's just what she is.

You're sure?

[VOLUTION] (Trivial Success): As sure as we can be about anything.

That…isn't very sure, you admit to yourself, picking at the stained hem of your shirt.

[VOLUTION]: You aren't on very sure ground— not yet. But your feet are beneath you, even if the road is rough.

[AESTHETIC] (Medium Success): Your shoes might help with all the walking, Darling.

That's the goal. You watch, half ashamed and half impressed as Abel Itsumi methodically scans the room with a practiced gaze.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Heroic Success): In your mind's eye, you see before you a neatly written resume, much of the information redacted— not by ink, but by the inky blackness of the river oblivion.
Abel's name sits at the top, it makes note of his previous employment history, he was a PI, for about five years before the Dick Mullen™ Inc franchise fees became too much and he was blacklisted. After that, he was a bouncer, personal trainer and 'personal trainer' in many a less than safe-for-work vid. He is not ashamed of that part of his life, but nor is he proud. It just is. We all do what we have to— to make ends meet.
It is from there he was able to save up money and forge the nepotistic connections required to acquire the degree in PoliSci in a good university. This is a man with varied and surprising skills, it was half of why you hired him.

Half?

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: The other half is because you —what little you can still recall— genuinely believe him to be a much better person than you— you know the only reason he isn't the MP and you the Aide is because you're not an Augment. Not like he is.

Augment?

[MENTAL WIKI]: Augments or Genetically Altered Persons (GAPs) are a subset of humanity whose genetic structure has been intentionally altered in prenatal development or in adulthood via Biosculpting to achieve a desired effect or end result, either for personal reasons or for one's employment.
All Augments are required by law to be Visible And Obvious in some fashion, the idea being that a GAP should not knowingly or unknowingly interbreed with unaugmented individual without the consent of the unaugmented or of the company that owns that Augment's Geneline in order to prevent unexpected mutations or other complications— The most typical way to express this is what's known as Atypical Follicle Expression or more commonly known as Rainbow Hair.
However, in a not-at-all-startling example of double standards— there are types of augmentation that are considered normal and necessary and thus, nigh ubiquitous in application. So called "QoL Augmentations" such as life extension, cancer and heart disease resistance and metabolic tuning are considered medical, and are exempt from the Visibility Law. Technically, you yourself have a few of those QoL Augments.

What does that have to do with his job? His History?

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: Capitalism requires an underclass to exist that the ruling class can exploit. Abel is a member of such an underclass. It's also why he inevitably found his way into sex work. He is loathed, when he isn't being fetishized.
You think it's a little insane. He has keener eyes then you, doesn't really produce lactic acid, and is naturally ambidextrous. He is a man of dry humor and quick wit. He is observant, paranormally patient and remarkably controlled— and yet all most people can think about when they look at him is how much they've always wanted to fuck —or fuck over— an elf.

That's not right. You complain, frowning tightly

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: No it isn't. But that's how it is, for now.

What can I do to change things? I'm only one person, but I want it to be better.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Easy Success): The currency of change is pain— Change, real transformation, is almost always violent— in one way or another, change hurts, if not you then someone else. This London is a CZC for a reason, one that likely has to do with the sort of change you're thinking about.

Make sure it's worth it.

[THEORY] (Medium Success): It will be, it must be— Anything is better than the current system. It is highly likely Comrade, that it— that is, the system currently in place— is a mess of corporate capture and wire-thin safety nets along with a healthy dose of systematic bias and graft. It could work, but it's better to just start the fuck over— Burn baby burn. No Revolution has ever truly succeeded, you know— you could make sure of it, this time.

[VOLUTION] (Medium Success): One step at a time, one day at a time. Build a better world. "Rabbi Tarfon Said: The day is short, the labor vast, the workers idle, the reward great, and the Employer is insistent."

[ENDURANCE]: "He used to say: It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it"

[GRINDSET]: Pirkei Avot! Now that's something I can get behind! Hebrew School was good for something, at least!

It is Abel who disrupts your internal dialog with a discovery and the tinkling sound of shifting safety glass "Greene— I believe I've found it. Your shoe. Then we can finally talk about what we're doing here. You gave me only the most basic details via the whispcyption." The actual fuck is whispcyption.

[MENTAL WIKI] (Legendary Failure): Right! Bad news— I put it into the search and the article is a stub, and it just says 'what kind of name is whispcyption anyway?' yeah, I'm sorry this is my bad.

Throw me off the Cliffs of Insanity. Some distant echo of a memory shoots through you at the thought— a dread pirate, a peasant woman turned unwilling princess, a six-fingered man. A girl with a love of classics. The smell of plum blossoms and loss. It is like looking through a fogged window, only vague shapes remain.

[INLAND ISEKAI]: We already tried that— you climbed back up, like a badass in black.

For just a moment, your heart aches with loss and you do not know why. "Remind me of those details, Abe," you try, throat phlegmy and yet somehow paradoxically scratchy and dry. "I'm a little fuzzy—" that's a vast understatement, but you don't want to freak him out, just yet. "Think I might have drunk my brain into oblivion. Or maybe I did a lot of drugs about it?"

[PHARMACOLOGICAL]: My diagnosis supports the 'a lot of drugs' theory, soul-sister.

Chimes in Pharma, whose voice is like the faint bubbling of aerated water and the taste of Colquil™. Syrupy, medicinal and smooth— The kind of voice that says 'I'll read the side effects slowly and clearly.' I'll keep that in mind. You think with some small amount of skepticism, no way just drugs.

[PHARMACOLOGICAL]: Really! Very few things could so totally reset our brain, I can think of a few chemical cocktails that get you close, but this is so total it's gotta be some kind of new drug! Nanomanufactured and highly tailored to your brain chemistry itself. Bet it's some real fancy shit, like royal purple or something.

"Electoral campaigning to shift the results on Sol." Abel says with an artfully crooked eyebrow that pulls you away from Pharma's growing speculation about 'The Super Drug' and back to the conversation itself. "That's all you sent me. Does it jog your memory?"

[EMPATHY] (Medium Success): It's the sort of brow that says "I am concerned for this woman's well being, but cannot say it aloud." You should probably reassure him, at some point.

Yeah, I'm concerned too. You run your tongue over your unpleasantly filmy, but impossibly perfect teeth. Does it shake anything loose?

[MENTAL WIKI]: Lets run the results…Sol is the name of the origin system of Humanity. The Sol List is a collection of native political parties who find their origin in sol and are primarily concerned with the System itself, as opposed to the wider compact de l'humanité. Still drumming up context. I suggest stalling for time.

Wait wait, what's the Compact? You ask your fragmented self, confused— The words sound like they should be familiar, but they scrape against emptiness and a mental 404— Not Found.

[MENTAL WIKI] (Medium Failure): hold on, I think I can get around that…ah! I'm in. Initially formed as the 'Solarian Treaty Organization' from the ashes of the old world powers, during the worst decade of Earth's environmental collapse, AKA The Long Hot Decades. 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.

It is the Compact that birthed the Charter system, the grand project that spread humanity to the stars and into the current era of relative peace in the ideals of Cosmoliberalism. There's more, but I'd need time to refine the search parameters.

[THEORY] (Challenging Success): Psst, hey. Come here.

You can almost feel Theory at your shoulder leaning into your ear, breath smelling like ink and old paper. You can almost hear the scratch of a fountain pen under her voice as she speaks.

[THEORY]: You can feel it in your bones, can't you? In the pressed smooth folds of your brain. What you know isn't the whole truth. Keep Looking. History is so often written by the victorious.

(New Quest: Find Out The Truth About The Compact)

"Greene." Abel's hand is on your shoulder, he has pressed your missing shoe into your hand you didn't even notice, how long have you been talking to the rest of you? "You've been…staring into space for several minutes. Be honest with me, Greene. You're acting…" he hesitates, hand coming off your shoulder and adjusting his glasses with the heel of his hand. You know and do not know that it is one of his many little habits— the tiny things that make him at once achingly familiar and desperately unknown to you. "Unlike yourself."

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Easy Success): Far away from here, in time and space, a chiptune plays and an otherwise unimportant intern on an otherwise unimportant smoke break attempts to talk down their boss from the edge of the building.
They do not succeed.
Like that unfortunate intern, Abel is wondering if he will succeed from talking you down from whatever edge you've placed yourself on.

It is your turn to hesitate now, you don't know what to do. You don't trust yourself.

[VOLUTION]: Tell him. You need someone to know, someone to ground us. If you cannot trust yourself. Trust him.

"You're right, Abe." you sigh, the sour taste of your breath heavy in your mouth. "I can't remember anything. Like. Literally anything."

Itsumi looks at you for a long moment. It is perhaps ten or fifteen seconds, that feels stretched into days and months, hanging in the air as you take in the placid water that is his expression.

[EMPATHY]: Behind a carefully constructed face of professional detachment, there is a momentary frown, in the corner of his eyes, in a downturn of elven ears and the angle of his brow. Subtle, but there. He's desperately waiting for you to tell him it's a joke. He wants this to be a joke.
You stand there— sad smile on your face, almost embarrassed for some reason. As if the you you are now is personally responsible for the choices of your former self. Are you? You don't know.

"I'm not joking, Abel. There is very little I remember. Hardly any of it is useful, and I think we're stuck here in a warzone." You wrap your arms about yourself, uncertain and afraid. "This is my fault, I'm sorry."

[INLAND ISEKAI]: This new and strange adventure to another world isn't as cool or fun as I'd hoped. There's no escaping your mistakes. Even if they aren't really yours anymore.

He takes in what you've said, with all the subtle dignity you have come to expect from him in the short time that you have existed. That expectation breaks down moments later as he reaches for a crumpled pack of cigarettes.

"This complicates things significantly." mutters your Aide as he steps though the shattered glass of your balcony, running an idle hand through his hair.

He turns to look at you as a small flame touches paper and sets the cylinder alight. "Come on. We should talk about this, Ma'am. Might as well get some air while we do it."

[PHARMACOLOGICAL]: Wait a second Soul-Sister— That smells like Cannacco™ a tobacco-cannabis hybrid invented shortly after the last big frontier war, marketed to returning vets! Just enough THC, CBD and nicotine to give you a buzz without getting in the way. Might take the edge off. Ask him for one, ancient stoner tradition means he has to share.

While that does sound deeply tempting…No, now is not the time.

After slipping on your shoes, you step outside with The Only Person You Trust.

LOADING…
Tip: …Consciousness is not what it appears to be.
While we are awake and alert, consciousness appears to be continuous— but actually is broken up into discrete intervals. The perception of continuity is critical for cognitive performance, linking together an otherwise disparate collection of thoughts…
LOADING…

Nothing left to do but to ask what I want to ask, I suppose. "So…we're in a place called London, right? You mentioned that earlier."

"Yes, that's correct. Specifically, London is a City in the Country of England, on Earth, the origin planet of Humanity."

Wait, I thought…

[LOGIC] (Trivial Success): Before you ask Sol is the name of the system of planets in which Earth resides. Not the planet itself.

Oh you think, feeling a little bit like an idiot. A Big Stupid Idiot with a swiss-cheese brain.

[GRINDSET]: Oh fucking calm down, Sweetheart. You aren't stupid, you're ignorant!

The Millstone in your head lets out a kind of half huff, half sigh, and it smells like the memory of bitter but satisfied smoke, like an engine running hot and loving it. Of finding a limit and pushing past it.

[GRINDSET]: Ignorant can be fixed, Stupid can't. It'll just take work. A lot of it! Buckle in, it's time to start.

"The whole of England is basically a theme park. It's been that way for decades. The part of London we're in is The London Commune Experience, a recreation of the city during a period of civil strife in the Long Hot Decades."

[THEORY]: The Commune was actually quite successful according to the few primary sources you can recall. But intentionally or otherwise, the bits that are most written about and analyzed are the so-called exciting parts— the bits that show up in movies and primetime period dramas, where Accuracy was never a concern. Basically the Royal Family went into debt taking it back and ended up selling the whole country to a Hermes-Ishtar to cover the expense.
Not that most of those programs focus on that last bit. Just the heroic war against the vile anarchists who were participating in mutual aid and community building during a time of massive upheaval and the Better Times after Reconstruction.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Medium Success): In retelling this history, those proponents of Capital are careful not to mention the face shown to The People of the Commune of London. Its most horrible and bloody smile— full of fangs and fury and hate. Capital, you see, has many faces that it uses to survive. Some of them are even nice, polite and pleasant but none of them— not a single one, are kind, selfless, or empathetic. You have lived within It long enough to know that.

You glance to Abel, smoking a cigarette, a slim thing held gently between two fingers with a far off look, his eyes passing over the bombed out skyline-- part real, part the recreation of the London Commune that the Compact wishes people to remember. The wind blows and a new voice, a half murmured, almost too quiet to hear— lilting but certain in a way none of the others have been.

[SHIVERS] (Challenging Success): a cold breeze brushes against your face and your shoulders. you shudder and suddenly it is as if you are here, on the balcony, next to a shattered window but you are also elsewhere as if you and the universe blur together like impressionistic oil paints— you follow the wind with Itsumi's gaze, into the past. his past. he is somewhere else, a city, like this one, but further away. across stars, through the gates— you see him, you are him for this moment of frozen time— he wears a uniform of a kind, it is black and red and he seems so different— so angry and so full of hope. this is a rebellion. a black summer. the black summer. 'this time it will work', he thinks to himself— he is so very desperate to be right.

Was he? Was he right? You ask, floating above and so far beyond yourself.

[SHIVERS]: i'm sorry, so very sorry. this past is set. time is a river that only moves forward into entropy. he is so very wrong. He loses four friends that day—

the first to trampling feet as the cauldron closes in and panic begins. they die quickly, at least.

the second to a 'non-lethal' rubber round that destroys an eye and causes major head trauma, which ends in them dying of a spontaneous brain hemorrhage in a holding cell more than seventy hours later, begging for help.

he will never know, but the third is sent to the penal world of sheol, she survives for a time, even falls in love— and dies during ares training exercise-cum-pogrim while saving the life of her 3 year old child, who she named in memory of the abel she once knew. the babe is grown now, the name was discarded along with her first death. nothing but memory remains. she will never know her mother's face.

the fourth person abel loses is himself— It is a death not of the body, or the mind, but of hope. he mourns them all, but perhaps he mourns most the boy he was, so long ago. the man he is does not hope— or he didn't. there is a spark of hope there now, cupped to his chest, no better than the ember of his cigarette. but it is there, beating in time with his heart.

Your lips are chapped and peeling, the cold air no longer so gentle or filled with paranatural surety. It is just wind, again. The skin is being pulled away by the anxious biting of your lip, the motion has the feel of an old bad habit.

[EMPATHY] (Heroic Success): When he looks out, he sees destruction and pain and loss— but he also sees kindling to nurture that spark of hope. He is in conflict with himself, like you so often are. Reach out to him. He needs you, as you need us and him.

You frown, rubbing the cold damp of London from your limbs, you've never comforted people before, not that you can remember. You're not sure how. What do I say? What can I do?

[EMPATHY]: Be arbitrarily kind in a universe that is too often arbitrarily cruel. That's it. It's that simple— and that hard.

[VOLITION]: You know the words to say, the thing to do, you have always known.

Your hand reaches up to your companion's shoulder, pressed against the leather of his jacket in what you hope is a reassuring squeeze. "…what balance is needed at the edges of such an abyss."

The dour man looks to you, at the hand on his shoulder— confused for a moment before realization hits. "that's…poetry? I'm fairly sure that's from the late 20th century. Really Greene, I never took you for the sort to enjoy it."

You snort, patting him once and dropping your hand awkwardly. "I don't know if I enjoy it, but there's sure a lot of it rolling around in here."

"Right…your memory." He takes one last drag of the hybrid cigarette, stamping it out with the heel of his shoe. "That is troubling. But it's not as if we can leave not now that we're here. Most of Earth is a hot-zone and/or a hostile power and I'm starting to suspect you came here to die, before…" he gestures at all of you "This happened."

"So what are we going to do?" You ask.

"Same thing we always do, Greene." he says with the tone of someone repeating a phrase. "Try Something rather than Do Nothing." He glances at you, and seems to consider you for a moment, before he depresses a small button on his glasses and the abstract design on the back of his jacket begins to shift and change. The pattern moving like a living thing, synthleather and designer smart fabric deepening into deep pinkish-red accents against black. "But if this is going to work, we're going to have to be honest with each other. Really honest." Across his shoulders, there sits a single word, Bold and Clear.

The word is CROW.

What the fuck is that?

[LOGIC] (Medium Success): CROW is an Acronym. One you seem to be able to recall— Covert Revolutionary Operations Wing. Special Forces —as far as you can remember— for the Amaranth Interstellar Commonwealth.

[MENTAL WIKI]: I don't have a lot here— it's mostly a stub. The AIC is apparently a fairly new policy, seeing as there was only the Compact until recently. The AIC is the Reason Earth is like this right now, you do know that, even if you don't know exactly how or why.

Oh. I wish I'd known that sooner. You had been wondering about that. The who was answered, that only left everything else about this insane situation.

[DRAMA] (Medium Failure): As you know My Liege, I'm normally better about sniffing out these sorts of character beats and story twists— but I've been in the back doing my warm ups. Ten Thousand Apologies, milady!

You don't actually know, which is an issue— but you can take the apology in the spirit it was meant to convey. Abel, (or at least, you think his name is Abel?) begins to speak.

"My name is Abel Itsumi."

[DISCOURSE]: Did you say that bit aloud or is it just so obvious on your face he can tell?

…What does my face even look like? "That is true. I am here to help you, I am here to protect you. I was recruited a little under a year ago, well after you had employed me. They had been sending out feelers for sympathetic assets. I would become one of them. All They asked of me was to keep an eye on you, and to keep the AIC informed as to whether or not you could be flipped or otherwise allied with. I am sorry for the deception. It's the nature of the work, Greene."

[EMPATHY] (Medium Success): He does mean that. He is sorry.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: He is sorry, but he isn't ashamed. We all do what we have to— after all. He is used to dirty, morally complicated work, even before he ever worked for you. This job at least, he thinks to himself, is the kind he can feel good about. Mostly.

"So…" you begin. You have so much you want to ask. So much that should be said.

[LOGIC]: Start with the basic questions. Build from there, this is how knowledge is acquired.

"Explain Whispcyption. Please." you ask, desperately.

[LOGIC]: I didn't mean that.

Patch Log PGE.2.1
- Fixed Mislabled Skill Tag bug.
- Grammer and Spelling Mistakes fixed.
- Removed formatting errors, the game window should now display text correctly.
- Invisible Cuno Removed.

Derpmind · Oct 28, 2022

JustGazzer said:
[LOGIC]: Start with the basic questions. Build from there, this is how knowledge is acquired.

[] Who am I, really?
[] Who are the AIC, and what did they do to Sol?
[] What's going on in London, specifically?
[X] Explain Whispcyption. Please.

[LOGIC]: I didn't mean that.

Setsul · Oct 28, 2022

One has to start with the easy stuff, like questioning a stupid word that sounds like it shouldn't be a thing, before moving onto the heavy stuff, like questioning society as a whole or pondering its imminent collapse and your front row seat.
Perfectly logical.

Burned_Cookie · Oct 28, 2022

JustGazzer said:
PUNK GAN EDEN:

CHAPTER TWO― THRESHOLD

"...I am left alone on the surface
of a turning planet.
What to do but,
like Michelangelo's Adam―
Put my hand out into unknown space,
Hoping for the reciprocating touch?"
― "Threshold", R. S. Thomas

Abel raises a brow slightly in what for him is deep confusion. "Your shoe, Ma'am? To be perfectly clear, we came to Earth in a highly volatile time…to look for your missing shoe?" he asks, his tone largely flat― his expression carefully neutral. You're not sure how to answer. It is the gentle therapists canter of Empathy that speaks first.

[EMPATHY] (Medium Success): You're perhaps beginning to feel that he only calls you ma'am when he's in a poor mood. Look back. It's MP when he's being official, Greene when he's pleased, and ma'am when he's upset. You think he might not even realize what he's doing. It is simply what he does, you shouldn't hold it against him.

You know, your Empathy does seem to have a point, but you instinctively rail against it. You (maybe) have a reputation to protect after all. What? No! That can't be right.

[AUTHORITY] (Challenging Success): It isn't! This lower level functionary is under your command! You're The Law Here! He should be giving you the respect you've earned, with hard work and a societal bias to the wealthy and connected! You're the Most Honorable High Astral Secretary, you should remind him of that! 'it is better to be feared than loved', as the saying goes.

You nod to yourself, that does sound like a very important job, perfect for a woman like you…whoever you are.

So you say before anyone else in your head can interject. "Senor Functionary Itsumi…I, The Most Honorable High Astral Secretary, gave you an order." Oh you like this, you sound very firm and commanding. "I may have been polite about it but I do really need to find my shoe. Help me, or go home." Perfection! Nothing can go wrong with that.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: Itsumi doesn't react, not visibility― but something about the way he says
―"Your shoe then. Of course…High Astral Secretary."―
sounds and feels a lot like 'I'm disappointed that this is my job now, but I'll do it because I have to.' the unspoken words of a million million interns, disrespected desk-jockeys and junior sanitation officers echo now behind his lips as he steps past you into the room with a smooth gait, as disaffected and professional as he can make himself for a boss he's beginning to suspect has gone off the deep end. It makes you feel like shit on the bottom of a CEO's shoe. A scraped thin bit of waste, to be sneered at and then ignored.

[DISCOURSE]: Chairwoman, I'll be frank. A lot of us here on this side of the aisle are beginning to think that wasn't the best approach to this still evolving issue, and we should have perhaps tried another tactic before this one.

[MENTAL WIKI] (Trivial Success): Did you know? I'm pretty sure, after a quick search of the ol' gray matter archive, 'Most Honorable High Astral Secretary?' it isn't your title. It's not even a real title Outside of a Movie, from 2239. 'Wizard Wars: OverThrone."— This really is embarrassing.

[DISCOURSE] (Easy Success): That may be true— but the best way to deal with this is simple. you have to own up to your gaff without actually saying directly that you gaffed it up. Something like "Hey Abe, listen sorry about that. I was just joking ar-

[GRINDSET] (Medium Failure): OR YOU COULD DOUBLE DOWN! Here me out, you've already fucked up right? Of course right so basically all you need to do is keep pushing through the fuck up! You're the fucking High Astral Secertary now if you say so! It doesn't matter who you hurt, how many bridges you burn! Nose to the fucking GRINDSTONE, Queen! Fake that shit til you make that shit!

You wince, embarrassed at and for yourself (yourselves?) I don't think that's a good idea but it might work?

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Challenging Success): leaning into it won't work for Abel. Maybe if he was your average emotionally and physically exhausted working class chump. They'd just nod along and hope the paycheck doesn't bounce. He's smart, and not at all intimidated by you. It's a bad idea.

[GRINDSET]: Good idea!? Bad idea, doesn't matter! What matters is you give 210%! Can't make an omelet and all that!

[LOGIC]: 210%? That's mathematically impossible.

[PROPRIOCEPTION]: And physically impossible.

There is an imagined sound…or real sound (you're still not sure how this whole 'cheat power' thing all works) of a cigar being inhaled so hard in frustration the whole thing turns to ash

[GRINDSET]: ugh. I am surrounded by a bunch of low-effort losers! A gang of lollygaging peasants! Fine! You can be one then!

[Gain Thought: The Lallygag Gang]

Problem: Looks like you're not inclined to destroy yourself inch by inch, cell by cell for your work! For shame! If you don't do it, who will? It's honestly a little selfish. Do you really think that anything can get done if you don't do as much as possible all day everyday? No! Of course not— or at least, you don't think so? Maybe there's something to be said about knowing when to be kind to yourself and when to push? Is pushing the lever to full and snapping it off— grinding yourself into dust for the smallest tasks, your guilt and self-loathing a whiteknuckle grip about your throat— really conducive to your long term goals? You need to think about this.

[DISCOURSE]: Don't worry about Grindset too much, she's about as pleasant as vape smoke to the face but she's always reliable, she'll be here, when you need her. It's just what she is.

You're sure?

[VOLUTION] (Trivial Success): As sure as we can be about anything.

That…isn't very sure, you admit to yourself, picking at the stained hem of your shirt.

[VOLUTION]: You aren't on very sure ground— not yet. But your feet are beneath you, even if the road is rough.

[AESTHETIC] (Medium Success): Your shoes might help with all the walking, Darling.

That's the goal. You watch, half ashamed and half impressed as Abel Itsumi methodically scans the room with a practiced gaze.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Heroic Success): In your mind's eye, you see before you a neatly written resume, much of the information redacted— not by ink, but by the inky blackness of the river oblivion.
Abel's name sits at the top, it makes note of his previous employment history, he was a PI, for about five years before the Dick Mullen™ Inc franchise fees became too much and he was blacklisted. After that, he was a bouncer, personal trainer and 'personal trainer' in many a less than safe-for-work vid. He is not ashamed of that part of his life, but nor is he proud. It just is. We all do what we have to— to make ends meet.
It is from there he was able to save up money and forge the nepotistic connections required to acquire the degree in PoliSci in a good university. This is a man with varied and surprising skills, it was half of why you hired him.

Half?

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: The other half is because you —what little you can still recall— genuinely believe him to be a much better person than you— you know the only reason he isn't the MP and you the Aide is because you're not an Augment. Not like he is.

Augment?

[MENTAL WIKI]: Augments or Genetically Altered Persons (GAPs) are a subset of humanity whose genetic structure has been intentionally altered in prenatal development or in adulthood via Biosculpting to achieve a desired effect or end result, either for personal reasons or for one's employment.
All Augments are required by law to be Visible And Obvious in some fashion, the idea being that a GAP should not knowingly or unknowingly interbreed with unaugmented individual without the consent of the unaugmented or of the company that owns that Augment's Geneline in order to prevent unexpected mutations or other complications— The most typical way to express this is what's known as Atypical Follicle Expression or more commonly known as Rainbow Hair.
However, in a not-at-all-startling example of double standards— there are types of augmentation that are considered normal and necessary and thus, nigh ubiquitous in application. So called "QoL Augmentations" such as life extension, cancer and heart disease resistance and metabolic tuning are considered medical, and are exempt from the Visibility Law. Technically, you yourself have a few of those QoL Augments.

What does that have to do with his job? His History?

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: Capitalism requires an underclass to exist that the ruling class can exploit. Abel is a member of such an underclass. It's also why he inevitably found his way into sex work. He is loathed, when he isn't being fetishized.
You think it's a little insane. He has keener eyes then you, doesn't really produce lactic acid, and is naturally ambidextrous. He is a man of dry humor and quick wit. He is observant, paranormally patient and remarkably controlled— and yet all most people can think about when they look at him is how much they've always wanted to fuck —or fuck over— an elf.

That's not right. You complain, frowning tightly

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: No it isn't. But that's how it is, for now.

What can I do to change things? I'm only one person, but I want it to be better.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Easy Success): The currency of change is pain— Change, real transformation, is almost always violent— in one way or another, change hurts, if not you then someone else. This London is a CZC for a reason, one that likely has to do with the sort of change you're thinking about.

Make sure it's worth it.

[THEORY] (Medium Success): It will be, it must be— Anything is better than the current system. It is highly likely Comrade, that it— that is, the system currently in place— is a mess of corporate capture and wire-thin safety nets along with a healthy dose of systematic bias and graft. It could work, but it's better to just start the fuck over— Burn baby burn. No Revolution has ever truly succeeded, you know— you could make sure of it, this time.

[VOLUTION] (Medium Success): One step at a time, one day at a time. Build a better world. "Rabbi Tarfon Said: The day is short, the labor vast, the workers idle, the reward great, and the Employer is insistent."

[ENDURANCE]: "He used to say: It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it"

[GRINDSET]: Pirkei Avot! Now that's something I can get behind! Hebrew School was good for something, at least!

It is Abel who disrupts your internal dialog with a discovery and the tinkling sound of shifting safety glass "Greene— I believe I've found it. Your shoe. Then we can finally talk about what we're doing here. You gave me only the most basic details via the whispcyption." The actual fuck is whispcyption.

[MENTAL WIKI] (Legendary Failure): Right! Bad news— I put it into the search and the article is a stub, and it just says 'what kind of name is whispcyption anyway?' yeah, I'm sorry this is my bad.

Throw me off the Cliffs of Insanity. Some distant echo of a memory shoots through you at the thought— a dread pirate, a peasant woman turned unwilling princess, a six-fingered man. A girl with a love of classics. The smell of plum blossoms and loss. It is like looking through a fogged window, only vague shapes remain.

[INLAND ISEKAI]: We already tried that— you climbed back up, like a badass in black.

For just a moment, your heart aches with loss and you do not know why. "Remind me of those details, Abe," you try, throat phlegmy and yet somehow paradoxically scratchy and dry. "I'm a little fuzzy—" that's a vast understatement, but you don't want to freak him out, just yet. "Think I might have drunk my brain into oblivion. Or maybe I did a lot of drugs about it?"

[PHARMACOLOGICAL]: My diagnosis supports the 'a lot of drugs' theory, soul-sister.

Chimes in Pharma, whose voice is like the faint bubbling of aerated water and the taste of Colquil™. Syrupy, medicinal and smooth— The kind of voice that says 'I'll read the side effects slowly and clearly.' I'll keep that in mind. You think with some small amount of skepticism, no way just drugs.

[PHARMACOLOGICAL]: Really! Very few things could so totally reset our brain, I can think of a few chemical cocktails that get you close, but this is so total it's gotta be some kind of new drug! Nanomanufactured and highly tailored to your brain chemistry itself. Bet it's some real fancy shit, like royal purple or something.

"Electoral campaigning to shift the results on Sol." Abel says with an artfully crooked eyebrow that pulls you away from Pharma's growing speculation about 'The Super Drug' and back to the conversation itself. "That's all you sent me. Does it jog your memory?"

[EMPATHY] (Medium Success): It's the sort of brow that says "I am concerned for this woman's well being, but cannot say it aloud." You should probably reassure him, at some point.

Yeah, I'm concerned too. You run your tongue over your unpleasantly filmy, but impossibly perfect teeth. Does it shake anything loose?

[MENTAL WIKI]: Lets run the results…Sol is the name of the origin system of Humanity. The Sol List is a collection of native political parties who find their origin in sol and are primarily concerned with the System itself, as opposed to the wider compact de l'humanité. Still drumming up context. I suggest stalling for time.

Wait wait, what's the Compact? You ask your fragmented self, confused— The words sound like they should be familiar, but they scrape against emptiness and a mental 404— Not Found.

[MENTAL WIKI] (Medium Failure): hold on, I think I can get around that…ah! I'm in. Initially formed as the 'Solarian Treaty Organization' from the ashes of the old world powers, during the worst decade of Earth's environmental collapse, AKA The Long Hot Decades. 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.

It is the Compact that birthed the Charter system, the grand project that spread humanity to the stars and into the current era of relative peace in the ideals of Cosmoliberalism. There's more, but I'd need time to refine the search parameters.

[THEORY] (Challenging Success): Psst, hey. Come here.

You can almost feel Theory at your shoulder leaning into your ear, breath smelling like ink and old paper. You can almost hear the scratch of a fountain pen under her voice as she speaks.

[THEORY]: You can feel it in your bones, can't you? In the pressed smooth folds of your brain. What you know isn't the whole truth. Keep Looking. History is so often written by the victorious.

(New Quest: Find Out The Truth About The Compact)

"Greene." Abel's hand is on your shoulder, he has pressed your missing shoe into your hand you didn't even notice, how long have you been talking to the rest of you? "You've been…staring into space for several minutes. Be honest with me, Greene. You're acting…" he hesitates, hand coming off your shoulder and adjusting his glasses with the heel of his hand. You know and do not know that it is one of his many little habits— the tiny things that make him at once achingly familiar and desperately unknown to you. "Unlike yourself."

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Easy Success): Far away from here, in time and space, a chiptune plays and an otherwise unimportant intern on an otherwise unimportant smoke break attempts to talk down their boss from the edge of the building.
They do not succeed.
Like that unfortunate intern, Abel is wondering if he will succeed from talking you down from whatever edge you've placed yourself on.

It is your turn to hesitate now, you don't know what to do. You don't trust yourself.

[VOLUTION]: Tell him. You need someone to know, someone to ground us. If you cannot trust yourself. Trust him.

"You're right, Abe." you sigh, the sour taste of your breath heavy in your mouth. "I can't remember anything. Like. Literally anything."

Itsumi looks at you for a long moment. It is perhaps ten or fifteen seconds, that feels stretched into days and months, hanging in the air as you take in the placid water that is his expression.

[EMPATHY]: Behind a carefully constructed face of professional detachment, there is a momentary frown, in the corner of his eyes, in a downturn of elven ears and the angle of his brow. Subtle, but there. He's desperately waiting for you to tell him it's a joke. He wants this to be a joke.
You stand there— sad smile on your face, almost embarrassed for some reason. As if the you you are now is personally responsible for the choices of your former self. Are you? You don't know.

"I'm not joking, Abel. There is very little I remember. Hardly any of it is useful, and I think we're stuck here in a warzone." You wrap your arms about yourself, uncertain and afraid. "This is my fault, I'm sorry."

[INLAND ISEKAI]: This new and strange adventure to another world isn't as cool or fun as I'd hoped. There's no escaping your mistakes. Even if they aren't really yours anymore.

He takes in what you've said, with all the subtle dignity you have come to expect from him in the short time that you have existed. That expectation breaks down moments later as he reaches for a crumpled pack of cigarettes.

"This complicates things significantly." mutters your Aide as he steps though the shattered glass of your balcony, running an idle hand through his hair.

He turns to look at you as a small flame touches paper and sets the cylinder alight. "Come on. We should talk about this, Ma'am. Might as well get some air while we do it."

[PHARMACOLOGICAL]: Wait a second Soul-Sister— That smells like Cannacco™ a tobacco-cannabis hybrid invented shortly after the last big frontier war, marketed to returning vets! Just enough THC, CBD and nicotine to give you a buzz without getting in the way. Might take the edge off. Ask him for one, ancient stoner tradition means he has to share.

While that does sound deeply tempting…No, now is not the time.

After slipping on your shoes, you step outside with The Only Person You Trust.

LOADING…
Tip: …Consciousness is not what it appears to be.
While we are awake and alert, consciousness appears to be continuous— but actually is broken up into discrete intervals. The perception of continuity is critical for cognitive performance, linking together an otherwise disparate collection of thoughts…
LOADING…

Nothing left to do but to ask what I want to ask, I suppose. "So…we're in a place called London, right? You mentioned that earlier."

"Yes, that's correct. Specifically, London is a City in the Country of England, on Earth, the origin planet of Humanity."

Wait, I thought…

[LOGIC] (Trivial Success): Before you ask Sol is the name of the system of planets in which Earth resides. Not the planet itself.

Oh you think, feeling a little bit like an idiot. A Big Stupid Idiot with a swiss-cheese brain.

[GRINDSET]: Oh fucking calm down. You aren't stupid, you're ignorant.

The Millstone in your head lets out a kind of half huff, half sigh, and it smells like the memory of bitter but satisfied smoke, like an engine running hot and loving it. Of finding a limit and pushing past it.

[GRINDSET]: Ignorant can be fixed, Stupid can't. It'll just take work. A lot of it. Buckle down, it's time to start.

"The whole of England is basically a theme park. It's been that way for decades. The part of London we're in is The London Commune Experience, a recreation of the city during a period of civil strife in the Long Hot Decades."

[THEORY]: The Commune was actually quite successful according to the few primary sources you can recall. But intentionally or otherwise, the bits that are most written about and analyzed are the so-called exciting parts— the bits that show up in movies and primetime period dramas, where Accuracy was never a concern. Basically the Royal Family went into debt taking it back and ended up selling the whole country to a Hermes-Ishtar to cover the expense.
Not that most of those programs focus on that last bit. Just the heroic war against the vile anarchists who were participating in mutual aid and community building during a time of massive upheaval and the Better Times after Reconstruction.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE] (Medium Success): In retelling this history, those proponents of Capital are careful not to mention the face shown to The People of the Commune of London. Its most horrible and bloody smile— full of fangs and fury and hate. Capital, you see, has many faces that it uses to survive. Some of them are even nice, polite and pleasant but none of them— not a single one, are kind, selfless, or empathetic. You have lived within It long enough to know that.

You glance to Abel, smoking a cigarette, a slim thing held gently between two fingers with a far off look, his eyes passing over the bombed out skyline-- part real, part the recreation of the London Commune that the Compact wishes people to remember. The wind blows and a new voice, a half murmured, almost too quiet to hear— lilting but certain in a way none of the others have been.

[SHIVERS] (Challenging Success): a cold breeze brushes against your face and your shoulders. you shudder and suddenly it is as if you are here, on the balcony, next to a shattered window but you are also elsewhere as if you and the universe blur together like impressionistic oil paints— you follow the wind with Itsumi's gaze, into the past. his past. he is somewhere else, a city, like this one, but further away. across stars, through the gates— you see him, you are him for this moment of frozen time— he wears a uniform of a kind, it is black and red and he seems so different— so angry and so full of hope. this is a rebellion. a black summer. the black summer. 'this time it will work', he thinks to himself— he is so very desperate to be right.

Was he? Was he right? You ask, floating above and so far beyond yourself.

[SHIVERS]: i'm sorry, so very sorry. this past is set. time is a river that only moves forward into entropy. he is so very wrong. He loses four friends that day—

the first to trampling feet as the cauldron closes in and panic begins. they die quickly, at least.

the second to a 'non-lethal' rubber round that destroys an eye and causes major head trauma, which ends in them dying of a spontaneous brain hemorrhage in a holding cell more than seventy hours later, begging for help.

he will never know, but the third is sent to the penal world of sheol, she survives for a time, even falls in love— and dies during ares training exercise-cum-pogrim while saving the life of her 3 year old child, who she named in memory of the abel she once knew. the babe is grown now, the name was discarded along with her first death. nothing but memory remains. she will never know her mother's face.

the fourth person abel loses is himself— It is a death not of the body, or the mind, but of hope. he mourns them all, but perhaps he mourns most the boy he was, so long ago. the man he is does not hope— or he didn't. there is a spark of hope there now, cupped to his chest, no better than the ember of his cigarette. but it is there, beating in time with his heart.

Your lips are chapped and peeling, the cold air no longer so gentle or filled with paranatural surety. It is just wind, again. The skin is being pulled away by the anxious biting of your lip, the motion has the feel of an old bad habit.

[EMPATHY] (Trivial Success): When he looks out, he sees destruction and pain and loss— but he also sees kindling to nurture that spark of hope. He is in conflict with himself, like you so often are. Reach out to him. He needs you, as you need us and him.

You frown, rubbing the cold damp of London from your limbs, you've never comforted people before, not that you can remember. You're not sure how. What do I say? What can I do?

[EMPATHY]: Be arbitrarily kind in a universe that is too often arbitrarily cruel. That's it. It's that simple, and that hard.

[VOLITION]: You know the words to say, the thing to do, you've always known.

Your hand reaches up to your companion's shoulder, pressed against the leather of his jacket in what you hope is a reassuring squeeze. "…what balance is needed at the edges of such an abyss."

The dour man looks to you, at the hand on his shoulder— confused for a moment before realization hits. "that's…poetry? I'm fairly sure that's from the late 20th century. Really Greene, I never took you for the sort to enjoy it."

You snort, patting him once and dropping your hand awkwardly. "I don't know if I enjoy it, but there's sure a lot of it rolling around in here."

"Right…your memory." He takes one last drag of the hybrid cigarette, stamping it out with the heel of his shoe. "That is troubling. But it's not as if we can leave not now that we're here. Most of Earth is a hot-zone and/or a hostile power and I'm starting to suspect you came here to die, before…" he gestures at all of you "This happened."

"So what are we going to do?" You ask.

"Same thing we always do, Greene." he says with the tone of someone repeating a phrase. "Try Something rather than Do Nothing." He glances at you, and seems to consider you for a moment, before he depresses a small button on his glasses and the abstract design on the back of his jacket begins to shift and change. The pattern moving like a living thing, synthleather and designer smart fabric deepening into deep pinkish-red accents against black. "But if this is going to work, we're going to have to be honest with each other. Really honest." Across his shoulders, there sits a single word, Bold and Clear.

The word is CROW.

What the fuck is that?

[LOGIC] (Medium Success): CROW is an Acronym. One you seem to be able to recall— Covert Revolutionary Operations Wing. Special Forces —as far as you can remember— for the Amaranth Interstellar Commonwealth.

[MENTAL WIKI]: I don't have a lot here— it's mostly a stub. The AIC is apparently a fairly new policy, seeing as there was only the Compact until recently. The AIC is the Reason Earth is like this right now, you do know that, even if you don't know exactly how or why.

Oh. I wish I'd known that sooner. You had been wondering about that. The who was answered, that only left everything else about this insane situation.

[DRAMA] (Medium Failure): As you know My Liege, I'm normally better about sniffing out these sorts of character beats and story twists— but I've been in the back doing my warm ups. Ten Thousand Apologies, milady!

You don't actually know, which is an issue— but you can take the apology in the spirit it was meant to convey. Abel, (or at least, you think his name is Abel?) begins to speak.

"My name is Abel Itsumi."

[DISCOURSE]: Did you say that bit aloud or is it just so obvious on your face he can tell?

…What does my face even look like? "That is true. I am here to help you, I am here to protect you. I was recruited a little under a year ago, well after you had employed me. They had been sending out feelers for sympathetic assets. I would become one of them. All They asked of me was to keep an eye on you, and to keep the AIC informed as to whether or not you could be flipped or otherwise allied with. I am sorry for the deception. It's the nature of the work, Greene."

[EMPATHY] (Medium Success): He does mean that. He is sorry.

[L'ESPRIT DE CAPITALE]: He is sorry, but he isn't ashamed. We all do what we have to— after all. He is used to dirty, morally complicated work, even before he ever worked for you. This job at least, he thinks to himself, is the kind he can feel good about. Mostly.

"So…" you begin. You have so much you want to ask. So much that should be said.

[LOGIC]: Start with the basic questions. Build from there, this is how knowledge is acquired.

"Explain Whispcyption. Please." you ask, desperately.

[LOGIC]: I didn't mean that.

I like this a lot. It captures the style and charm of disco Elysium real well.

ThatGazzer · Oct 28, 2022

Burned_Cookie said:
I like this a lot. It captures the style and charm of disco Elysium real well.

Thank you so much!

It helps that I listen to the soundtrack while writing

CyberFemme · Oct 28, 2022

I've been putting off Disco Elysium because everyone loves it and it seems the sort of game that will require me to Actually Invest Mental Energy, but Punk Gan Eden is doing a lot to incentivise me into taking the plunge already.

Derpmind · Oct 28, 2022

CyberEnby said:
I've been putting off Disco Elysium because everyone loves it and it seems the sort of game that will require me to Actually Invest Mental Energy, but Punk Gan Eden is doing a lot to incentivise me into taking the plunge already.

I've been avoiding it because I figure that once I start it up I'll end up stuck playing it for days.

bdun140 · Nov 1, 2022

#CNSubmission #CNSubmissions
Putting both because I just discovered searching one will not yield the same results as searching the other. A fact I discovered while trying to make sure I wasn't about to use a picture I'd already used before.

Name: Lysander Mavros
Bio: Born to the professional managerial class, Lysander was a "Gifted Child" who, as you might guess from the air quotes, burnt the fuck out some time in high school and spent the next decade being compared unfavorably to his younger brother, Theodore. One day, while privately ruminating in his broom closet of an apartment on how some employers would use prolonged unemployment as a reason not to hire someone, thus making the individual in question even less likely to find a job through no fault of their own, there came a knocking on his door. At the door was none other than the illustrious and looked up to Theodore himself, having just fled for his life after the Persephonie City Police Department had decided that the university where Theo worked was due for a crackdown against those who would criticize the charters in particular and capitalism in general. Less than an hour later, the police were now the ones knocking on his door, asking if he knew anything regarding the whereabouts of his now fugitive brother. This prompted the verbal release of a whole lot of pent-up resentment, though it was cut off fairly quickly by the cops deciding they weren't interested, and that Lysander didn't know anything.

As brief as this outburst was, it was still quite cathartic, and it was with a small but noticeable load off his shoulders that Lysander would proceed to help his brother Theodore unwedge himself from his "who would be stupid enough" tier hiding spot underneath the former's kitchen sink. Thus did the brothers Mavros proceed into the series of events that Radiant at large would know as The March Days.

Following the revolution, Lysander would sink into blissful and unbothered idleness, punctuated by videocalls with Theo as the latter pursued various intellectual pursuits. There was that one time he got called up to serve in the congress, and while he proved alright at it, he wasn't a fan of how much work it was and took the first opportunity to foist the duty onto someone else. He was almost concerned for Theodore's safety when the later joined the congressional navy, but a quick review of the navy's performance so far but such things to rest. All they had to do was keep going up against the incompetent and the outmatched, and everything would be fine. Right?

Come the butcher's bill for the battle of Besteer-Arizona, and one Lieutenant Theodore Mavros would be counted among the dead from that day.

He has since joined the Congressional Navy himself and has also been researching the various Sheolite methods for maintaining morale in the face of overwhelming enemy force.

CN Service History: Has been scoring high marks in exams and exercises. In the quite likely event that a longer-serving candidate is elevated to captaincy, he will almost certainly be made a junior officer, and expected to rise through the ranks in a more conventional manner.

Command Traits: Grudge-Bearer, Amateur Motivator, Prepping for the Long War

ThatGazzer · Nov 1, 2022

DEV NOTE: Small Patch to Chapter One of PGE, placing in a Chapter Title and updating the text so formatting is consistent between chapters.

BurnBright · Nov 1, 2022

JustGazzer said:
DEV NOTE: Small Patch to Chapter One of PGE, placing in a Chapter Title and updating the text so formatting is consistent between chapters.

Huh? What?

Torgamous · Nov 1, 2022

BurnBright said:
Huh? What?

Punk Gan Eden chapter one looks like chapter two now.

Derpmind · Nov 3, 2022

I think there's a mix-up with PUNK GAN EDEN. The first omake is under the normal Threadmarks, but the second one is under Apocrypha.

Redshirt Army · Nov 18, 2022

Kirook · Nov 26, 2022

Omake: Cerberus

I had run the simulation of the Battle of Bestreer fifteen times when the message came in. I ran it three more times before I noticed.

In my defense, it wasn't as if I had much else to do. Relieved of duty for my "incompetence" against Admiral McLean, I was stuck in bureaucratic limbo until the Admiralty could decide on a punishment. I wasn't officially confined to quarters, but they'd made it more than clear that "taking any liberties" wouldn't reflect well on my case. By which they meant that they could make things even worse for me than they already were if I didn't sit down and shut up.

The boredom was almost worse than the humiliation of becoming a scapegoat again. I hadn't even been able to find a sparring partner since I'd been recalled to Bastion—although admittedly, it had been difficult enough finding anyone who could keep pace with me in the ring even before I became politically radioactive. So here I was, going back to the old standby of the simulators. Was it healthy to torment myself with all the ways I could have avoided getting into this situation? Of course not. Was it cathartic to watch the Kiel Mutiny venting air as it fled the field, or see Black Peregrin wing tear through the anarchist formation? Absolutely.

But eventually the heart-racing tension of combat wound down to a lull. I wasn't thinking of winning anymore, just of the people who had died defending the frontier against anarchy. Of the people who would have died, even if I had done everything right. It was time to take my mind off of the battle for a while, before I started to spiral.

I waved away the VR bridge surrounding me and opened the message.

I'd expected it to be some reporter asking for a comment on my defeat by the "ex-stripper" at Bestreer, and was already steeling myself to repeat for the thousandth time—as diplomatically as I could muster—that McLean had never been a stripper and that anyway it wouldn't matter if she had. But my eyes narrowed as I scanned the words. Custom fonts, a personal header…an invitation to lunch from an H-I meritocrat. No doubt a social climber looking for an officer to owe them a favor; they'd offer me my rank back if I'd grease the wheels for a few of their handpicked allies. This was how the game was played, or so I'd been told time and again, and now that I was at my weakest the vultures were circling to—

—wait a fucking second, did that say Emily Weissmann?

I read over the message again. A cordial greeting, some polite commiseration with my recent run of bad luck, an offer to join her for lunch at a penthouse she owned on Bastion; it was all in line with what I'd come to expect from Charter officials and their allies in SolNav. Except that even in normal times, someone ranked that highly in the hierarchy of Charter power didn't just invite people over for a social call. And these were far from normal times. Local executives and governors could playact their politics as if they were on King of Hearts, but not one of the most powerful people in a galaxy embroiled in civil war. What was she playing at?

Well, on the bright side, I thought, at least finding out would involve doing something.

***

The elevator doors slid open, and Ms. Weissmann was there to greet me with a smile.

I gave her a quick once-over as we exchanged pleasantries. I'd seen her face before, in the images being churned out every day lately from the SFREA's propaganda mills, but meeting her in person was a different matter. It wasn't something as simple as "I thought you'd be taller"; the pictures I'd seen had given her a heroic aura, befitting her lofty status. The reality of the woman was much less polished, lacking the gloss of conspicuous consumption—it had been a long time since I'd met with a Charter executive who picked out her own dress and combed her own hair. It made her look slightly mousy, but the effect was almost endearing, and I had to remind myself that she was still an incredibly dangerous person to be on the wrong side of.

"Our food will be here in just a few minutes," she told me as we made our way into the penthouse. "The chef I hired comes highly recommended. In the meantime, would you like something to drink?"

I shook my head. "If I leave here even halfway to tipsy, tomorrow there will be headlines about me drowning my sorrows."

An enigmatic expression crossed her face at that, but she didn't say anything as we entered the room.

I noticed at a glance that it was oddly Spartan for a home away from home owned by a Charter CEO. The furniture was expertly made, of course, all plush and leather and exotic hardwoods, and dotted here and there were nodes for cutting-edge smart-home technology. But there was almost nothing in the way of decor: no paintings, no centerpieces, nothing in the home that wasn't functional in some way. And the furnishings that were there were new—too new, practically unused. It was almost as if she'd bought this place specifically for…

…no, that would be ridiculous.

"You're a bit early, so we've got some time to kill while we wait for our meal," Ms. Weissmann said. "But I have an idea for what we can do that might interest you."

I raised an eyebrow. This felt like a trap, but my curiosity was piqued nevertheless. "Lead on."

Ms. Weissmann grinned for a moment, then walked over to a broad, glass-topped table in the center of the room. She thumbed a recessed button and a holographic interface sprang to life. Hovering above the table in perfect fidelity was a map of China at the height of the Warlord Era of the 1920s, and a title: The Empire, Long Divided.

"You've mentioned in some past interviews that you enjoy strategy games," she explained. "If you're up for it, I thought we might give this one a try while we wait."

It was true, I did enjoy games like this. That surprised people sometimes. How could they measure up to real life, or even a purpose-built simulation? It was simple, literally: the trick of them was that they cut tactics and strategy down to their bare essentials. Real wars were chaotic, confusing, deadly—strategic acumen had far less to do with winning one than many people thought. But seeing someone plan and strategize within the confines of a game gave me a window into their psychology, a sense of who they were as a person. Right now, looking at the woman across from me, I needed that more than ever.

"That sounds great," was all I said.

We squared off across the table, on opposite sides of the map. The game was linked to our AR lenses, allowing us to look at the same image and see different things, a version of the fog of war. First up was a faction select screen with a dizzying array of options. Had whoever made this decided to simulate every player in the conflict?

I went (on impulse) with Wu Peifu, the Jade Marshal—famed even hundreds of years later for his tactical genius. Then my eyebrows shot up as, across from me, Ms. Weissmann picked the Communists. I shot her an inquisitive glance, and got no response—just a pair of hazel eyes staring placidly back at me. Without any further words, the game began in earnest, on two levels.

On the one hand, there was The Empire, Long Divided: deceptively simple in its rules, yet fiendishly difficult if you understood the rules. A player didn't have direct control over her armies; instead it was a matter of choosing their objectives and then constructing them for the purpose—choosing their equipment, their generals, their pay, and more. Victory was a question of who could best walk the tightrope between loyalty and effectiveness, building forces that could secure your goals without being betrayed by ambitious generals or running low on resources.

On the other hand, there was Ms. Weissmann. She played more conservatively than I would have in her place; that much was obvious from the start. But what I took at first to be risk aversion, I soon realized was actually exacting thoroughness. It wasn't that she was unwilling to take gambles. It was that she was unwilling to let a weakness stand without shoring it up.

It was an engrossing game, so much so that there was barely a moment's pause to get the door when our meals arrived. And the more we played, the more it began to dawn on me: this wasn't a game of military strategy at all.

As I turned that thought over in my mind, I paced around the map, admiring its detail. The Himalayas rose in front of me at first, jagged and sprawling. Then, in a few steps, I was staring across the wide plains of the Yangtze basin. The great river's tributaries, each a fingernail wide, rushed toward the holographic sea.

"Admiral Cadence," said Ms. Weissmann finally, "you look like you have a question."

I looked back up at her, and for a moment I thought about brushing it off and pretending nothing was the matter. But I was getting the feeling that she would see through that. Better to just lay my cards on the table. "Why am I here? If you wanted a contact in SolNav you could have taken your pick of any officer you wanted. Most of them would fall over themselves to talk to you—and they aren't in disgrace after losing a crucial naval battle."

"You're here because where the Solarian Navy sees a failure of one of its admirals, I see a failure of the Solarian Navy," Ms. Weissmann replied. She leaned forward against the table, the projected waters of the North China Sea lapping at her elbows. "Yes, the Congressional Navy defeated you at Bestreer. Which isn't that surprising because they've literally never lost a battle. What is surprising about Bestreer is that for the first time ever, they left the field with fewer ships than they came in with."

I barked out an incredulous laugh. "Is that seriously where the bar is now?"

"I don't know if you've noticed this, but these last few months have not been a fun time for the Compact," she said wryly. "More and more, it's begun to seem to me as if the existence of the AIC just…breaks something fundamental in their enemies' brains. Either they treat the whole situation like it's an Empty Passages sequel and they can carry the day through the entrepreneurial spirit of democracy, or they just defect and raise the black banner. I need people on my side who won't do either."

My fingers drummed on the glass tabletop, an idle habit. "You're offering me a job?"

"Well…" Ms. Weissmann tilted a hand. "Yes and no. Officially, you'd be the Solarian Navy's liaison to the SFREA. You'd retain your current rank, and you'd still be under your current superiors, not me. In practice, you'll be getting a post completely free of interference in your career, access to all of our resources, and complete freedom to build the fighting force of tomorrow."

"So," I summarized, "you need a fleet and you think I'm the one who can help you get it."

"I need adaptability," Ms. Weissmann shot back, slapping the table for emphasis. The glass plate rattled in its housing, and the hologram flickered. "I need willingness to learn from mistakes. I need loyalty to what the Compact meant, not just how it was structured. I need a government that's up to the challenge of fighting for the future of humanity."

She took a deep breath to steady herself. The glow from the map cast itself onto her face, dappling it with light and shadow. "But also…yeah. The fleet wouldn't hurt."

I was silent for a moment. Then I said, "Before I decide whether I'm going to do this, I'd like to ask you some questions first. I want to know the person I'll be working with if I agree."

"That sounds perfectly fair," Ms. Weissmann replied. "But…would you do me a favor?"

Now there was a question that never had any bad implications when it came from the mouth of a Charter executive. "Depends on what it is."

"Finish the game with me," she said.

"…Why?"

A slight smirk touched her lips. "Because it's fun."

My eyes narrowed suspiciously, but I turned back to the map. Tiny fires ignited in Sichuan and Gansu as my troops marched forward. Ms. Weissmann frowned and waved a finger through the air, moving something my AR lenses didn't let me see. She ended her turn with the wave of a hand, and a discordant tone warned me of a Communist uprising in Jinan. I leaned in close to see red banners the size of rice grains waving over the city.

It was quickly becoming clear to me why Ms. Weissmann had chosen to play as the Communist rebels. Simply put: they didn't play by the same rules as the other factions. Of course, they still had to arm their soldiers and feed their population—but what I had thought was the heart of The Empire, Long Divided, the delicate dance of alignment between the warlords and the balance of loyalty and discipline, was not their game. Their hope was to sweep the field clean of the old guard and build a new society in its place; and in the history this game was based on, they had done just that.

Which reminded me: "I read the report you commissioned on the AIC."

She grinned delightedly at me. "Oh good! I'm glad someone has been paying attention."

That was a statement that spoke volumes, but I forged ahead. "Was it difficult to get it made? In my experience, meritocrats don't like the idea that there's something they don't understand."

"Does anyone like fumbling around in the dark?"

"That's not what I mean." The revolt in Jinan began to spread, flowing across the plains of Shandong like a bloodstain. My generals lined up in front of me in AR, scowling and posing in ostentatious uniforms lined with medals. I chose one and sent a reserve army to put the uprising down.

"I know." Ms. Weissmann was ignoring the board now, looking at me intently. "The anarchists are fond of pointing out that 'meritocrat' and 'aristocrat' are the same word, just with different linguistic roots."

"It's an easy mistake to make. Present company excepted, of course."

"Of course," she chuckled. Then her expression dimmed. "I know you've spent a long time getting into bureaucratic knife fights with people who didn't comprehend what you were trying to do. We're alike in that way. But this is a different world now. If you understand how to navigate it, sooner or later the people who said you'd never amount to anything will come crawling back to beg for your help."

I said nothing in response to that, turning her words over in my mind. My hands moved almost automatically, sending another army marching southeast towards Shanghai. The city's holographic model glittered with nighttime lights.

Again and again I'd marveled at the detail and effort that had gone into this game. It wasn't related to Ms. Weissmann's offer, but I had to ask: "Out of curiosity, who made this game? Was it one of your studios?"

"Uh…" To my surprise, Ms. Weissmann actually looked a little sheepish. "In a manner of speaking."

I cocked an eyebrow at her. "What does that mean?"

"I was saving this for a big reveal at the end of our conversation," she said with a sigh, "but The Empire, Long Divided is actually a product of the Radiant Broadcasting Commission."

My eyes narrowed, and I jerked back my hands from the console as if they'd been burned. "Ms. Weissmann, if this is supposed to be some kind of test of my loyalty to the Compact—"

"If it were, Admiral Cadence, I would be failing it too, and worse. I'll admit that it's a test, but not of your loyalty—that's not in question as far as I'm concerned. Winning this war is going to require beating the AIC at its own game. I wanted to see if you could do that literally before I put you on the task of doing it metaphorically."

"What happened to 'because it's fun'?"

She smirked at me. "You haven't been having fun?"

I had been, I had to admit. I'd played games, sparred, and fought in the simulator time and again against people who had learned the same lessons I had. People who had gone to the same academies, read the same textbooks, studied the same battles. In short, people who thought like me.

Shayla McLean hadn't thought that way. And when I'd gone up against her I'd paid the price for it. In her own way, Ms. Weissmann didn't think that way either. It made her a dangerous opponent, just as my opposite number in the Congressional Navy had been dangerous; but it might also make her a powerful ally.

And yet, there was something still bothering me. I needed to know more before I could truly put the pieces together. If she hadn't learned the lessons of SolNav, and she'd rejected the ideals of anarchy—who was I dealing with?

"Why hadn't I heard of you before the Broadcast?" I asked. "You could count on one hand the number of people who were in position to play for the seat you're in, and you weren't one of them. You just appeared out of nowhere the moment things started falling apart. Help me understand that."

"The long version," she explained, "is that I had some advance warning. Not of the Broadcast in particular, but the data I was analyzing at my old job told me that something dangerous was coming for the Compact. I was the only one who paid attention to the signs, so I was the one who was positioned to take advantage when they came true."

"What's the short version?"

She looked up at me, seeming torn between pride and melancholy. "I bet against the future and won."

We lapsed into a long silence after that. The game went on, but we were reaching a stalemate. Every move had its chosen counter as the tides of war ebbed and flowed. We had each other's measure now.

"One more question," I said at last. "I know you've never been in the military. But if you had been at Earth, if you'd been there when the order came down…would you have followed it?"

Emily opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. For once, she wouldn't meet my eyes.

"I don't know," she said.

"Me neither," I replied. "When do I start?"

AKuz · Nov 26, 2022

Kirook said:
Omake: Cerberus

I had run the simulation of the Battle of Bestreer fifteen times when the message came in. I ran it three more times before I noticed.

In my defense, it wasn't as if I had much else to do. Relieved of duty for my "incompetence" against Admiral McLean, I was stuck in bureaucratic limbo until the Admiralty could decide on a punishment. I wasn't officially confined to quarters, but they'd made it more than clear that "taking any liberties" wouldn't reflect well on my case. By which they meant that they could make things even worse for me than they already were if I didn't sit down and shut up.

The boredom was almost worse than the humiliation of becoming a scapegoat again. I hadn't even been able to find a sparring partner since I'd been recalled to Bastion—although admittedly, it had been difficult enough finding anyone who could keep pace with me in the ring even before I became politically radioactive. So here I was, going back to the old standby of the simulators. Was it healthy to torment myself with all the ways I could have avoided getting into this situation? Of course not. Was it cathartic to watch the Kiel Mutiny venting air as it fled the field, or see Black Peregrin wing tear through the anarchist formation? Absolutely.

But eventually the heart-racing tension of combat wound down to a lull. I wasn't thinking of winning anymore, just of the people who had died defending the frontier against anarchy. Of the people who would have died, even if I had done everything right. It was time to take my mind off of the battle for a while, before I started to spiral.

I waved away the VR bridge surrounding me and opened the message.

I'd expected it to be some reporter asking for a comment on my defeat by the "ex-stripper" at Bestreer, and was already steeling myself to repeat for the thousandth time—as diplomatically as I could muster—that McLean had never been a stripper and that anyway it wouldn't matter if she had. But my eyes narrowed as I scanned the words. Custom fonts, a personal header…an invitation to lunch from an H-I meritocrat. No doubt a social climber looking for an officer to owe them a favor; they'd offer me my rank back if I'd grease the wheels for a few of their handpicked allies. This was how the game was played, or so I'd been told time and again, and now that I was at my weakest the vultures were circling to—

—wait a fucking second, did that say Emily Weissmann?

I read over the message again. A cordial greeting, some polite commiseration with my recent run of bad luck, an offer to join her for lunch at a penthouse she owned on Bastion; it was all in line with what I'd come to expect from Charter officials and their allies in SolNav. Except that even in normal times, someone ranked that highly in the hierarchy of Charter power didn't just invite people over for a social call. And these were far from normal times. Local executives and governors could playact their politics as if they were on King of Hearts, but not one of the most powerful people in a galaxy embroiled in civil war. What was she playing at?

Well, on the bright side, I thought, at least finding out would involve doing something.

***

The elevator doors slid open, and Ms. Weissmann was there to greet me with a smile.

I gave her a quick once-over as we exchanged pleasantries. I'd seen her face before, in the images being churned out every day lately from the SFREA's propaganda mills, but meeting her in person was a different matter. It wasn't something as simple as "I thought you'd be taller"; the pictures I'd seen had given her a heroic aura, befitting her lofty status. The reality of the woman was much less polished, lacking the gloss of conspicuous consumption—it had been a long time since I'd met with a Charter executive who picked out her own dress and combed her own hair. It made her look slightly mousy, but the effect was almost endearing, and I had to remind myself that she was still an incredibly dangerous person to be on the wrong side of.

"Our food will be here in just a few minutes," she told me as we made our way into the penthouse. "The chef I hired comes highly recommended. In the meantime, would you like something to drink?"

I shook my head. "If I leave here even halfway to tipsy, tomorrow there will be headlines about me drowning my sorrows."

An enigmatic expression crossed her face at that, but she didn't say anything as we entered the room.

I noticed at a glance that it was oddly Spartan for a home away from home owned by a Charter CEO. The furniture was expertly made, of course, all plush and leather and exotic hardwoods, and dotted here and there were nodes for cutting-edge smart-home technology. But there was almost nothing in the way of decor: no paintings, no centerpieces, nothing in the home that wasn't functional in some way. And the furnishings that were there were new—too new, practically unused. It was almost as if she'd bought this place specifically for…

…no, that would be ridiculous.

"You're a bit early, so we've got some time to kill while we wait for our meal," Ms. Weissmann said. "But I have an idea for what we can do that might interest you."

I raised an eyebrow. This felt like a trap, but my curiosity was piqued nevertheless. "Lead on."

Ms. Weissmann grinned for a moment, then walked over to a broad, glass-topped table in the center of the room. She thumbed a recessed button and a holographic interface sprang to life. Hovering above the table in perfect fidelity was a map of China at the height of the Warlord Era of the 1920s, and a title: The Empire, Long Divided.

"You've mentioned in some past interviews that you enjoy strategy games," she explained. "If you're up for it, I thought we might give this one a try while we wait."

It was true, I did enjoy games like this. That surprised people sometimes. How could they measure up to real life, or even a purpose-built simulation? It was simple, literally: the trick of them was that they cut tactics and strategy down to their bare essentials. Real wars were chaotic, confusing, deadly—strategic acumen had far less to do with winning one than many people thought. But seeing someone plan and strategize within the confines of a game gave me a window into their psychology, a sense of who they were as a person. Right now, looking at the woman across from me, I needed that more than ever.

"That sounds great," was all I said.

We squared off across the table, on opposite sides of the map. The game was linked to our AR lenses, allowing us to look at the same image and see different things, a version of the fog of war. First up was a faction select screen with a dizzying array of options. Had whoever made this decided to simulate every player in the conflict?

I went (on impulse) with Wu Peifu, the Jade Marshal—famed even hundreds of years later for his tactical genius. Then my eyebrows shot up as, across from me, Ms. Weissmann picked the Communists. I shot her an inquisitive glance, and got no response—just a pair of hazel eyes staring placidly back at me. Without any further words, the game began in earnest, on two levels.

On the one hand, there was The Empire, Long Divided: deceptively simple in its rules, yet fiendishly difficult if you understood the rules. A player didn't have direct control over her armies; instead it was a matter of choosing their objectives and then constructing them for the purpose—choosing their equipment, their generals, their pay, and more. Victory was a question of who could best walk the tightrope between loyalty and effectiveness, building forces that could secure your goals without being betrayed by ambitious generals or running low on resources.

On the other hand, there was Ms. Weissmann. She played more conservatively than I would have in her place; that much was obvious from the start. But what I took at first to be risk aversion, I soon realized was actually exacting thoroughness. It wasn't that she was unwilling to take gambles. It was that she was unwilling to let a weakness stand without shoring it up.

It was an engrossing game, so much so that there was barely a moment's pause to get the door when our meals arrived. And the more we played, the more it began to dawn on me: this wasn't a game of military strategy at all.

As I turned that thought over in my mind, I paced around the map, admiring its detail. The Himalayas rose in front of me at first, jagged and sprawling. Then, in a few steps, I was staring across the wide plains of the Yangtze basin. The great river's tributaries, each a fingernail wide, rushed toward the holographic sea.

"Admiral Cadence," said Ms. Weissmann finally, "you look like you have a question."

I looked back up at her, and for a moment I thought about brushing it off and pretending nothing was the matter. But I was getting the feeling that she would see through that. Better to just lay my cards on the table. "Why am I here? If you wanted a contact in SolNav you could have taken your pick of any officer you wanted. Most of them would fall over themselves to talk to you—and they aren't in disgrace after losing a crucial naval battle."

"You're here because where the Solarian Navy sees a failure of one of its admirals, I see a failure of the Solarian Navy," Ms. Weissmann replied. She leaned forward against the table, the projected waters of the North China Sea lapping at her elbows. "Yes, the Congressional Navy defeated you at Bestreer. Which isn't that surprising because they've literally never lost a battle. What is surprising about Bestreer is that for the first time ever, they left the field with fewer ships than they came in with."

I barked out an incredulous laugh. "Is that seriously where the bar is now?"

"I don't know if you've noticed this, but these last few months have not been a fun time for the Compact," she said wryly. "More and more, it's begun to seem to me as if the existence of the AIC just…breaks something fundamental in their enemies' brains. Either they treat the whole situation like it's an Empty Passages sequel and they can carry the day through the entrepreneurial spirit of democracy, or they just defect and raise the black banner. I need people on my side who won't do either."

My fingers drummed on the glass tabletop, an idle habit. "You're offering me a job?"

"Well…" Ms. Weissmann tilted a hand. "Yes and no. Officially, you'd be the Solarian Navy's liaison to the SFREA. You'd retain your current rank, and you'd still be under your current superiors, not me. In practice, you'll be getting a post completely free of interference in your career, access to all of our resources, and complete freedom to build the fighting force of tomorrow."

"So," I summarized, "you need a fleet and you think I'm the one who can help you get it."

"I need adaptability," Ms. Weissmann shot back, slapping the table for emphasis. The glass plate rattled in its housing, and the hologram flickered. "I need willingness to learn from mistakes. I need loyalty to what the Compact meant, not just how it was structured. I need a government that's up to the challenge of fighting for the future of humanity."

She took a deep breath to steady herself. The glow from the map cast itself onto her face, dappling it with light and shadow. "But also…yeah. The fleet wouldn't hurt."

I was silent for a moment. Then I said, "Before I decide whether I'm going to do this, I'd like to ask you some questions first. I want to know the person I'll be working with if I agree."

"That sounds perfectly fair," Ms. Weissmann replied. "But…would you do me a favor?"

Now there was a question that never had any bad implications when it came from the mouth of a Charter executive. "Depends on what it is."

"Finish the game with me," she said.

"…Why?"

A slight smirk touched her lips. "Because it's fun."

My eyes narrowed suspiciously, but I turned back to the map. Tiny fires ignited in Sichuan and Gansu as my troops marched forward. Ms. Weissmann frowned and waved a finger through the air, moving something my AR lenses didn't let me see. She ended her turn with the wave of a hand, and a discordant tone warned me of a Communist uprising in Jinan. I leaned in close to see red banners the size of rice grains waving over the city.

It was quickly becoming clear to me why Ms. Weissmann had chosen to play as the Communist rebels. Simply put: they didn't play by the same rules as the other factions. Of course, they still had to arm their soldiers and feed their population—but what I had thought was the heart of The Empire, Long Divided, the delicate dance of alignment between the warlords and the balance of loyalty and discipline, was not their game. Their hope was to sweep the field clean of the old guard and build a new society in its place; and in the history this game was based on, they had done just that.

Which reminded me: "I read the report you commissioned on the AIC."

She grinned delightedly at me. "Oh good! I'm glad someone has been paying attention."

That was a statement that spoke volumes, but I forged ahead. "Was it difficult to get it made? In my experience, meritocrats don't like the idea that there's something they don't understand."

"Does anyone like fumbling around in the dark?"

"That's not what I mean." The revolt in Jinan began to spread, flowing across the plains of Shandong like a bloodstain. My generals lined up in front of me in AR, scowling and posing in ostentatious uniforms lined with medals. I chose one and sent a reserve army to put the uprising down.

"I know." Ms. Weissmann was ignoring the board now, looking at me intently. "The anarchists are fond of pointing out that 'meritocrat' and 'aristocrat' are the same word, just with different linguistic roots."

"It's an easy mistake to make. Present company excepted, of course."

"Of course," she chuckled. Then her expression dimmed. "I know you've spent a long time getting into bureaucratic knife fights with people who didn't comprehend what you were trying to do. We're alike in that way. But this is a different world now. If you understand how to navigate it, sooner or later the people who said you'd never amount to anything will come crawling back to beg for your help."

I said nothing in response to that, turning her words over in my mind. My hands moved almost automatically, sending another army marching southeast towards Shanghai. The city's holographic model glittered with nighttime lights.

Again and again I'd marveled at the detail and effort that had gone into this game. It wasn't related to Ms. Weissmann's offer, but I had to ask: "Out of curiosity, who made this game? Was it one of your studios?"

"Uh…" To my surprise, Ms. Weissmann actually looked a little sheepish. "In a manner of speaking."

I cocked an eyebrow at her. "What does that mean?"

"I was saving this for a big reveal at the end of our conversation," she said with a sigh, "but The Empire, Long Divided is actually a product of the Radiant Broadcasting Commission."

My eyes narrowed, and I jerked back my hands from the console as if they'd been burned. "Ms. Weissmann, if this is supposed to be some kind of test of my loyalty to the Compact—"

"If it were, Admiral Cadence, I would be failing it too, and worse. I'll admit that it's a test, but not of your loyalty—that's not in question as far as I'm concerned. Winning this war is going to require beating the AIC at its own game. I wanted to see if you could do that literally before I put you on the task of doing it metaphorically."

"What happened to 'because it's fun'?"

She smirked at me. "You haven't been having fun?"

I had been, I had to admit. I'd played games, sparred, and fought in the simulator time and again against people who had learned the same lessons I had. People who had gone to the same academies, read the same textbooks, studied the same battles. In short, people who thought like me.

Shayla McLean hadn't thought that way. And when I'd gone up against her I'd paid the price for it. In her own way, Ms. Weissmann didn't think that way either. It made her a dangerous opponent, just as my opposite number in the Congressional Navy had been dangerous; but it might also make her a powerful ally.

And yet, there was something still bothering me. I needed to know more before I could truly put the pieces together. If she hadn't learned the lessons of SolNav, and she'd rejected the ideals of anarchy—who was I dealing with?

"Why hadn't I heard of you before the Broadcast?" I asked. "You could count on one hand the number of people who were in position to play for the seat you're in, and you weren't one of them. You just appeared out of nowhere the moment things started falling apart. Help me understand that."

"The long version," she explained, "is that I had some advance warning. Not of the Broadcast in particular, but the data I was analyzing at my old job told me that something dangerous was coming for the Compact. I was the only one who paid attention to the signs, so I was the one who was positioned to take advantage when they came true."

"What's the short version?"

She looked up at me, seeming torn between pride and melancholy. "I bet against the future and won."

We lapsed into a long silence after that. The game went on, but we were reaching a stalemate. Every move had its chosen counter as the tides of war ebbed and flowed. We had each other's measure now.

"One more question," I said at last. "I know you've never been in the military. But if you had been at Earth, if you'd been there when the order came down…would you have followed it?"

Emily opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. For once, she wouldn't meet my eyes.

"I don't know," she said.

"Me neither," I replied. "When do I start?"

Canon, as planned

(Just as a brief little update, I've recovered from COVID, so we're making progress on Mere Anarchy 2 again)

buli-buli · Nov 26, 2022

It's back!

Interesting to think our propaganda is being used to train people against us.

Rockeye · Nov 26, 2022

I really like seeing Compact mind-twisty mental gymnastics stuff, the trope of playing chess while talking with a rival feels strong in this omake

Thalton · Nov 26, 2022

Kirook said:
"One more question," I said at last. "I know you've never been in the military. But if you had been at Earth, if you'd been there when the order came down…would you have followed it?"

Emily opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. For once, she wouldn't meet my eyes.

"I don't know," she said.

"Me neither," I replied. "When do I start?"

If you have to choose between following orders for genocide and morality, you know your on Team Evil.

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

Been Better

Humblest in the World

Minds Eye Bind

Very tired girl.

Minds Eye Bind

I have ideas. Sometimes they're even good.

Minds Eye Bind

Aspiring Gynoid

Cannon Fodder

Been Better

Plausible Engineer