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=} In Their Imperial and Royal Majesties Name {=
Confusion – Turn 2
15th October, 2018
Earth
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For many people the last week had been wrought with uncertainties of one measure or another, between an alien Craft crashing or rather landing down in the Atlantic and showing itself to be an orbital elevator of all things or various transmissions, news or rumours of some kind of shadowy Council that was holding court inside of it - and a rather beautiful blonde.
Maybe it was the new and unclear fate that was awaiting the world – maybe just the shock or long held ties of cooperation that were growing ever stronger with the fate of their nations being drowning in the not too far future. But before the first week of Aliens on Earth was over, the states of Palau, Nauru, Kiribati, Niue and other Pacific Islands had called together a Congress, held not on an invitation by a larger power, but varying between each other. News coverage of this proceedings are as sparse as one might expect – but there seems to be genuine will to put themselves together into a larger, supra-national entity that is going to face the challenges to come better. To which degree that is going to happen, what effect that might have on other micro-nations and what continued news coverage to expect on such a seemingly small issue, is going to be unclear for now.
=} Wyatt Marx {=
Maybe it was the earnestness of Planetary Arbiter Marx or the smoothness of his business career, paired with the expert staff of alien speech-writers and ethnologists, who had seemingly spent some time observing humanity and getting to know its day to day operations and political systems. But at the end of a four-day marathon, multiple calls to various political leaders around the globe and a personal meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres, in company of multiple real-life aliens, you find the chance of violent rebellion against the Celestial Empire (aka you as the only target on the planets surface), quite slim. That is not to say that everyone welcomes you with open arms, quite to the contrary, but the overall mood is one of confusion and a grasping after some sort of plan. Maybe it was only in that climate that something as ambitious as the Six Zones Plan even had a chance to be heard without being shot down by its sheer ambition.
That was not to say that it was a success by far – for one there are 195 countries on this planet, plus-minus a few from time to time and the last few days were not even close to enough to open relations with each of them – that your colleagues were not too keen on supporting your plan, led to you having to deal with this yourself, as well as a quite large staff of alien negotiators and PR people who had started their job the minute you put up your plan. While you got your vision of the Six Zone Plan out to various government officials, it wouldn't take long for you to get neutral or downright scathing comments back at it.
For one, most nations weren't too keen on putting themselves under a ruling authority they knew nearly nothing about, even if the only presence it was going to show in the near future of the next century or two, was the elevator and the Council of Planetary Arbiters. And even then, they also voiced their discontent about the six zones you wanted to make: for example: what was off the countries that went across geographical continent lines? What about those which would find themselves in a voting and interest block with quite diverging cultures and countries: countries of Africa in all their complexity or even Canada and Mexico, whose relations with the US were less than harmonic at the moment. The less we talk of the smaller nations who were afraid to end up with half of Russia and China in a voting bloc, the better.
Aside from the lack of interested from the side of your fellow Arbiters for the plan right now, there was also the general doubt many governments shared for putting the fate of their nations in these formative years into the hands of strangers, especially as they have no idea just what responsibilities an Arbiter is truly going to wield in "their" Zone – the whole Weir thing didn't help that much.
The Plan is now out there, people are talking about it, but even the most optimistic of your underlings and the people in the government that might tentatively be interested in getting involved in the project, estimate that you are going to need at least a year or three to get the whole framework for it up and running. Aside from that you get a few remarks from your alien subordinates that express general bemusement and doubt in something as in-effective as democracy, but it seems to be more of a patronizing smile at the younger race, than anything else.
=} Nicholas 'Nik' Weir {=
All current military forces will provide security over all territory under my authority. No rioting is allowed, but protests are as long as they don't turn violent.
Who would have guessed that the words "I call dibs on Europe" were going to go down in serious history – at another point of course. Still – aside from setting claim to the territory, Argent Holdings and Weir found themselves wit the nominal intent of policing nearly 800 million people from Portugal to the Greece Islands and the Polar Regions in Sweden and Norway. Surprisingly the quickest reaction comes by the forces of Erika von Heinrich, whose small company of alien troopers is the first to arrive as protests in Austria against what seem to be leaked plans of the Six-Zone idea make it into the press and the part of the population that has long since been fed up by Brussels – or made to believe that- see themselves once again at the edge of being thrown another distant and uncaring regime! In multiple towns all over the country, police units under pressure suddenly find themselves relieved as the rioters fall over without a hint of warning – or any harm, only the few camouflaged alien security agents, introducing themselves and taking off again. While the police had been thankful, many of the people now snoring peacefully, voted for the ruling Eurosceptic parties.
While van Heinrich's guards reacted quickly and across the whole continent in the following days, the most daring and impressive operations were pulled off my the far better trained and equipped soldiers under Weir's command, who used the technology that was out of this world, together with the means of traveling quickly and without being caught to stop multiple larger scale riots in Hamburg, Paris and even London, leaving behind whole streets of knocked our rioters and protestors, with nearly no harm done directly by them. The most impressive headlines came from multiple actions in which Argent Holding's employees together with troopers foiled separatist attacks and even a jihadist terrorist threat.
At the end of the week you can be sure that they left an impression: images of smoothly armoured and sleekly armed troopers were all over the web, with the interest high and the emotions even higher as those voices who were grateful for the help, mixed with those who were appealed at the way in which the nations own security forces were passed over and the sheer gall of landing armed troops in their nations and using force against their citizens, even if they were rioting.
Current wealth will be used to set up enough Celestial Empire standard power plants to provide free power to the civilian population. These power plants will be secured by security forces.
You only have a few specialists on your staff, but from what you can see the Empires decision on what an appropriate choice of energy power plant for a world of your technological achievements is, is what is explained to you as a Thorium nuclear plant – but compared to the plans in the database made available to you, the few research reactors and half-hearted projects that tried to find a nuclear power design that wasn't useful for the creation of uranium-based bombs, are primitive. Even designed to incorporate parts build by current production capabilities of the nations of your home, which were as close to Celestial Empire technology of the higher levels as the stone age tools were to yours, it was the safest and most effective nuclear generator design ever seen. Needing only medium amounts of Thorium, the reactor would be able to work for decades without having to be "refilled" and what waste came up, never left the cycle, but was instead used for other processes inside the power plant. Build like a bunker as well, there was hardly something that should be able to scratch it: safe, clean and lasting – at least that was the impression it was giving off.
That the various green parties all around the globe weren't go be happy was assured if you brought out this design – which you got to experience first-hand, when you actually tried to do so, not that the reactors parts were finished yet, but your experts had chosen suitable places all over Europe and you tried to talk the local governments into letting you not only build nuclear reactors they had never seen before on them, but also wanted to have your armed troops permanently stationed at these facilities in their countries. Sadly, this wasn't Shadowrun and you were vehemently rebuffed, with the whole thing leaking to the public, which lead to an even bigger outcry against the new nuclear reactors you were representing.
This was going to take more work.
=} Erika von Heinrich {=
Erika will focus her efforts in a marketing/advertisement/propaganda campaign to encourage the trust of their council
Maybe it was your personal genius in marketing – or maybe you just had the right face for the campaign, but before the first week of the aftermath of the Celestial Empires arrival is over, those beautiful features you see in the mirror are plastered on walls, shown on television and even painted on the streets with the slogan: ""It never gets easier, we just get stronger!". You had the means and you had the people and while others of the council are busy with busting heads, keeping the heads, working out details or making deals, you succeed in becoming the face of the Council – if the others want it or not. Even as your own personal fanbase seems to grow world-wide, the rest of the council is also getting some thought, as your campaign does its best to humanize each of them: from the family loving grandpa, to the security consultant only wanting to safe people, to the grass-roots leader of an Oceanic community and the two guys that could be your neighbour and are people like you!
People get to know more about the Council from you than from anyone else, especially as the governments are still buzzing themselves with various things happening over the week and other news have no access to the anchor and have to run all their interviews through your campaign office – at which point most interviews fold into themselves as they find themselves answered by polite and perfectly fluent Iz'kal that hammered in the messages you wanted to have out there.
At the end of the week you can see that your campaign has made quite a few headlines all over the globe and worked its messages into social-networks and newspapers all over the place, the backlash of some other actions getting caught and dampened by your own growing grass-root support, together with a more positive image in smaller countries and other institutions and people who are more susceptible to such campaigns because of their lack of alternate information.
=} Elric Granger {=
Maybe it was because the world is a big place and your subordinates only numbered in the hundreds, or maybe It was because a certain blonde was dominating nearly all news channel and more – but in the end your own calls for peace and calm, did get a bit lost between the larger than life image of Erika or critic of the interference Weir had performed across Europe at rallies and subsequent riots. Still – you didn't go unheard and your own past did give you something of a "everyman" flair, on a council which was seemingly dominated by the larger companies and businesses.
Your very presence thus seems to have a calming effect and silences at least a few of the more economically or leftist motivated protestors, not many but a few. You might not hammer home messages like Erika's campaign, but people get your words and begin to write your team small messages of hopes and fears, even things like questions about how many species of aliens are in your team (5) and what they are eating in their mess hall.
Offer to upgrade civic services and related areas of concern
Seems like it was the motivation of your team that carried the day, even thought some of your colleagues were thinking and going quite large, you seemingly made the most inroads into the economy of the different countries around the world. Going through the database the Celestial Empire's distant bureaucrats had found safe for you – you are not really able to get something "Celestial Empire grade", but what is in there is revolutionary enough. Nearly everything from new medicines, to new and better railroads, building techniques and housing plans is perfectly suited for humans, could be created by current day technology and is mostly an extension and perfection of already existing concepts: something humans can understand and imagine – be it the high-speed train that runs on a powerful battery or the completely electronic and connected home of tomorrow.
Less forceful than Weir and with only the condition of acknowledging something that doesn't translate into anything on their side, you soon have multiple interested parties, from multi-national companies to some smaller governments all over the world and most importantly: the United Arab Emirates, who seem to be quite eager to get more information about the database you have gotten, as well as blueprints – especially after the Thorium reactor thing came out and their worry about the future of their oil having risen once more.
=} Rudolf Lisker {=
Your plan works only partly – most often because while you are able to get very close to various world leaders (the military leaders actually being a far easier target depending on their location), their respective security services are able to stop your security guards more often than not – even if a few surprised politicians have your anti-grav flyers drop in on their private houses or in the middle of public speeches and gatherings. For the most part signals are mixed, some give quick still shocked words of thanks – while others see it as a provocation on the same level of Weirs interference in riots in Europe, flaunting your abilities against national laws and authorities.
At the end of it, some are cowed, most are simply confused, and a large part of your targets are simply quite displeased and annoyed with you. For the most part, multiple countries are picking up their air patrols and you can see a heightened state of readiness across the world as countries try to cope with having at least two known entities breaking their airspace and flaunting their invisibility against everything bar the Eyeball MK 1.
Publically, he offers the world governments, especially European ones, where entirety of his pre-Arbiter powerbase lies, to join a newly founded Prometheus Consortium
Even with your focus being on the European governments and those of the first world, competition between the various Arbiters vying for their attention has become fierce – mostly pitting you against Erika van Heinrich, whose campaign is not only larger, but also far quicker in the making than your own backroom deals. But while you might not have become a media sensation in the same way she did, you did make some key advances and not only in your own home country: through your connections to various polish politicians, you have been able to get the foot into the door for many countries in the east and south of Europe, especially those, whose national history has only once more awoken with the end of the Soviet Union. They are as of yet not officially joining the consortium, but they are open to the idea and are carrying it into the emergency meetings of the European Union and beyond.
For the most part you get some feedback on the worry many politicians have on handing you a central role in foreign policy between member states – especially as of now your "everyone welcome" policy might very well mean, that might end up together with states they do not recognize or which they perceive as hostile or threats. Aside from that, they are also worried about the exclusivity you are asking from them, especially as having to deal with you puts them into a potentially weaker position, than if they could leverage the Arbiters against one another.
Still – you are successful in spinning your narratives about the rest of the council in certain cycles, feeding to existing fears and worries, while trying to measure up against van Heinrichs campaign and Grangers start-up-guy image that appeals to the masses. In the end the good parts mix with van Heinrichs campaign and the negative fears you are stocking, are able to root themselves in the scepticisms-based positions against the Council. Who is going to come out on top of this PR Nightmare, is still an open question. Even if images of the sick getting healed (or at least getting an improvisation of their state) by your advanced pharmaceutics and the lame walking again with sleek, durable exo-skeletons and even talks of cybernetic implants and more, go around the world and fuel interest and some more countries leaning towards your consortium idea.
Additionally, he will establish the Promethean University
You do not even need to refurbish much as the anchor facility has been set out with a far larger population in mind and your new subordinates quickly find appropriate rooms to work as lecture halls, a campus of sorts and apartments and bunk beds for students and professors alike. At least in the way of facilities you are well prepared for this project and as soon as you actually have people living and working here, they will have the most advanced systems and tools on the whole planet.
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