Hey those two boons dont have kind of broken synergy? Like cant we install U.S.S.R. mini fission reactors into USA energy hungry MULES to basicaly run them all the time to feed India's industrial 3D printers? Mechanicaly it dont seem so but fluffy/lore info seems to imply it should be possible. At least with bit of work.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Iterations
- Thread starter Trenacker
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
Hours of Salt and Rain
Trenacker
Margrave of the Transvaal
- Location
- Imperial Remnant
Vote Tally
Today's Episode: Dark Hearts
Prokhor Zakharov – 0 (still first in 012345's heart)
Tamineh Pahlavi – 1
Roshann Cobb – 0
Terrance LaCroix – 8
Peter "Pete" Landers - 2
Outcome: Net-runner Terrance LaCroix and a section of United Nations Marines acknowledge you as a legitimate command authority and consent to take your orders. In return, you have agreed to honor what they claim is a shared obligation: to raise arms in defense the lives of comrades in mortal peril.
Results:
For an instant, time stopped. Trained to hunt (wo)men by reading them, LaCroix read you. The broad forehead brewed beads of sweat. Crow's feet wrinkled either side of brown eyes that begged rather than shone. LaCroix was an optimist in a pessimist's job. His thin lips drew back in the universal moue of appraisal. Not two steps behind, the Marines, fearsome as Martian tripods in their seven-foot-tall combat exoskeletons and surely no less deadly. You knew they had already made their decision: who betrayed them, they would make to kill.
They (and you) were relieved when, true to your word, you gave them your back and spoke to rally more than five hundred survivors to do the unthinkable.
Battle was joined at a muster station on Unity's port side, a stone's throw from the ingress hatch to the pressure dome beneath which grew the first and final Garden of Man. Inside, Lieutenant Commander Deirdre Skye had made heroes of botanists. With her people were also the mechanical engineers whose services Zakharov had believed he could spare for the "lesser" purpose of securing the expedition's food supply by preventing structural blow-out, some geologists with heavy rescue qualification (sent in case said blow-out materialized), and an even dozen of XO d'Almeida's stray protégés—the early-awoken military officers high-minded (or naïve) enough to respect Skye's demand that they abandon their posts outside the Landing Pods and follow her instead. These supernumeraries had what were at first the only weapons available to the defenders: shredder pistols, some sonic hammers, firefighting equipment, and improvised explosives mixed from denatured alcohol and ammonium nitrates. Somehow, with Skye for to lead them, they'd held out nine hours. Twice the Spartans had rushed through the pressure hatch. Twice they had been beaten back. Over radio transmissions, Skye in particular directed the efforts of a subordinate named Katamari, responsible for playing a high-pressure water hose against the intruders.
There was no guile to your gambit, no genius, except to take cover and give fire. You pitched a canister of red smoke to conceal a vulnerable flank, then fired plastic pellets downrange at warriors who claimed the distinction of having once sundered a superpower. Within your lifetime, "Spartan" was a killing word. The claimant could be a gang-banger, a crank, a glorified cosplayer, a self-styled militiaman who had burned his hometown, a soldier disgraced by no less an infamy than treason. These Spartans had come ready for reaving, their profiles thickened by plate carrier vests, each bearing an assault rifle, many festooned with belts of gleaming ammunition.
With rubber bullet and buckshot, you culled them. Your Marines needed no instruction. Taking up firing positions to either side, they covered you, and when the exchange stalemated, a flight of rifle-grenades created the opening you required to close with the enemy. When one black-bearded bruiser charged you, an attending Marine neatly lopped the man's head from his shoulders with a fire ax. Panicked and soon trapped between two opponents, thirty-two of the Spartans became your prisoners.
"Lady" Skye and her retinue received you with aplomb that did not suit the space. A vivid orchid, stem stuck beneath green bandanna, distracted from the vicious gash beneath her chin. The wound was stapled shut but unbandaged. Deirdre Skye is beautiful. From the rumors about her misadventures in Pakistan, you expected someone more careworn. Like Zakharov, she was preceded by infamy: her enthusiasm for causes had a body count. Yet the proper word would be melancholy. She doesn't so much look out at the world from eyes of lapus lazuli—she looks away from it. In a lyrical accent (you guessed Northern Ireland), she gave you the only thanks of which she is capable: "You recognize that our food supply cannot be replaced once lost." She handed you a small tomato plant, roots bound and sheafed in a biodegradable bladder. "Help us here," she said. "Together, we can evacuate almost all of it." And you did.
Faction Inventory
+2 squadrons Unity Rovers (Fission)
+3 Multiple Use Labor Element (M.U.L.E.)
+4 Data Nodes
+1 Industrial-Scale 3D Printers
+Faction Personality (Terrance LaCroix)
+1 company UN Marine Corps (Veteran)
-1 POP [casualties]
Note: May not select Stepdaughters of Gaia, Shapers of Chiron, or Spartan Federation during faction selection.
Other
+2 Drones for the Dreamers of Chiron
+1 Colonist for Proprietor Factions (Dynamic Enterprise, Dreamers of Chiron, New Two Thousand)
Hours of Salt and Rain
Speaking plainly, Unity was not equipped for rapid egress. While contingencies were accounted for, there was no point saving the crew from an imminent danger if the result would be to strand them in space. As designed, the Tesla Sieger-5 Landing Pod was an eight-story spaceship-turned-pocketknife, containing within all the necessary systems, equipment, and consumables to perform the roles of temporary command post, shelter, supply dump, motor pool, surgery, morgue, laboratory, camp kitchen, weather station, power plant, and firebase. In short, a modern-day castle. The Sieger-5, you came to understand, was fueled over a period of twenty hours and could be loaded with more than 8,000 tons of cargo.
Those final hours about Unity were nominally peaceful—assuming you could rightly use that term for any duration spent with a large Marine guard posted to either end of the hangar bay. And yet the choices demanded then were more fearsome by far than the one that led to your private war on Santiago's marauders.
You could leave Unity for Chiron with as many as 412 souls aboard… or as few as 200. What choice(s) did you make, and why?
[ ] I presided over the trial and execution of all the Spartan prisoners. Skye's biologists treated their injuries (many of them serious) from the same dwindling stocks of medical supplies we used for own wounded. I then bade them appoint an advocate from among their own number. We heard from witnesses, Skye and Katamari included. Nobody interrupted as the Spartans recounted all their grievances with the United Nations. Surprisingly, many were resonant. I had expected to hear the familiar complaint that they had been passed over, not to learn about massacres ignored and cease-fires enforced to the benefit of tyrants. I did not empower a jury for this distasteful judgment. I will not put that weight on others. My conclusion was simple: I wore the United Nations patch, but neither I nor this crew were responsible for the crimes the Spartans claimed to have been rectifying. Few of Skye's scientists bay for blood, but the others are more open in their demands for righting the scales. At least I observed the scruples of a legal process before inflicting my violence.
[ ] I could do nothing for the many grievously wounded: we hadn't any spare medical supplies. I urged them to go instead with Skye. Above all else, this woman is addicted to life. Skye will not prune a dying branch. She wasn't even particularly happy about having to fend off human predators. She has more abundant access to expertise in the life sciences. I sweetened the deal by pledging one of the M.U.L.E.s, which should partially compensate her for the opportunity cost she will incur, along with a Data Core, since I think she really is getting the raw end of the deal. She wouldn't take any of the Unity Rovers, declaring them "bloody bangers."
[ ] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
Today's Episode: Dark Hearts
Prokhor Zakharov – 0 (still first in 012345's heart)
Tamineh Pahlavi – 1
Roshann Cobb – 0
Terrance LaCroix – 8
Peter "Pete" Landers - 2
Outcome: Net-runner Terrance LaCroix and a section of United Nations Marines acknowledge you as a legitimate command authority and consent to take your orders. In return, you have agreed to honor what they claim is a shared obligation: to raise arms in defense the lives of comrades in mortal peril.
Results:
For an instant, time stopped. Trained to hunt (wo)men by reading them, LaCroix read you. The broad forehead brewed beads of sweat. Crow's feet wrinkled either side of brown eyes that begged rather than shone. LaCroix was an optimist in a pessimist's job. His thin lips drew back in the universal moue of appraisal. Not two steps behind, the Marines, fearsome as Martian tripods in their seven-foot-tall combat exoskeletons and surely no less deadly. You knew they had already made their decision: who betrayed them, they would make to kill.
They (and you) were relieved when, true to your word, you gave them your back and spoke to rally more than five hundred survivors to do the unthinkable.
Narrator said:
Battle was joined at a muster station on Unity's port side, a stone's throw from the ingress hatch to the pressure dome beneath which grew the first and final Garden of Man. Inside, Lieutenant Commander Deirdre Skye had made heroes of botanists. With her people were also the mechanical engineers whose services Zakharov had believed he could spare for the "lesser" purpose of securing the expedition's food supply by preventing structural blow-out, some geologists with heavy rescue qualification (sent in case said blow-out materialized), and an even dozen of XO d'Almeida's stray protégés—the early-awoken military officers high-minded (or naïve) enough to respect Skye's demand that they abandon their posts outside the Landing Pods and follow her instead. These supernumeraries had what were at first the only weapons available to the defenders: shredder pistols, some sonic hammers, firefighting equipment, and improvised explosives mixed from denatured alcohol and ammonium nitrates. Somehow, with Skye for to lead them, they'd held out nine hours. Twice the Spartans had rushed through the pressure hatch. Twice they had been beaten back. Over radio transmissions, Skye in particular directed the efforts of a subordinate named Katamari, responsible for playing a high-pressure water hose against the intruders.
There was no guile to your gambit, no genius, except to take cover and give fire. You pitched a canister of red smoke to conceal a vulnerable flank, then fired plastic pellets downrange at warriors who claimed the distinction of having once sundered a superpower. Within your lifetime, "Spartan" was a killing word. The claimant could be a gang-banger, a crank, a glorified cosplayer, a self-styled militiaman who had burned his hometown, a soldier disgraced by no less an infamy than treason. These Spartans had come ready for reaving, their profiles thickened by plate carrier vests, each bearing an assault rifle, many festooned with belts of gleaming ammunition.
With rubber bullet and buckshot, you culled them. Your Marines needed no instruction. Taking up firing positions to either side, they covered you, and when the exchange stalemated, a flight of rifle-grenades created the opening you required to close with the enemy. When one black-bearded bruiser charged you, an attending Marine neatly lopped the man's head from his shoulders with a fire ax. Panicked and soon trapped between two opponents, thirty-two of the Spartans became your prisoners.
"Lady" Skye and her retinue received you with aplomb that did not suit the space. A vivid orchid, stem stuck beneath green bandanna, distracted from the vicious gash beneath her chin. The wound was stapled shut but unbandaged. Deirdre Skye is beautiful. From the rumors about her misadventures in Pakistan, you expected someone more careworn. Like Zakharov, she was preceded by infamy: her enthusiasm for causes had a body count. Yet the proper word would be melancholy. She doesn't so much look out at the world from eyes of lapus lazuli—she looks away from it. In a lyrical accent (you guessed Northern Ireland), she gave you the only thanks of which she is capable: "You recognize that our food supply cannot be replaced once lost." She handed you a small tomato plant, roots bound and sheafed in a biodegradable bladder. "Help us here," she said. "Together, we can evacuate almost all of it." And you did.
Faction Inventory
+2 squadrons Unity Rovers (Fission)
+3 Multiple Use Labor Element (M.U.L.E.)
+4 Data Nodes
+1 Industrial-Scale 3D Printers
+Faction Personality (Terrance LaCroix)
+1 company UN Marine Corps (Veteran)
-1 POP [casualties]
Note: May not select Stepdaughters of Gaia, Shapers of Chiron, or Spartan Federation during faction selection.
Other
+2 Drones for the Dreamers of Chiron
+1 Colonist for Proprietor Factions (Dynamic Enterprise, Dreamers of Chiron, New Two Thousand)
Hours of Salt and Rain
CEO Nwabudike Morgan said:
Speaking plainly, Unity was not equipped for rapid egress. While contingencies were accounted for, there was no point saving the crew from an imminent danger if the result would be to strand them in space. As designed, the Tesla Sieger-5 Landing Pod was an eight-story spaceship-turned-pocketknife, containing within all the necessary systems, equipment, and consumables to perform the roles of temporary command post, shelter, supply dump, motor pool, surgery, morgue, laboratory, camp kitchen, weather station, power plant, and firebase. In short, a modern-day castle. The Sieger-5, you came to understand, was fueled over a period of twenty hours and could be loaded with more than 8,000 tons of cargo.
Those final hours about Unity were nominally peaceful—assuming you could rightly use that term for any duration spent with a large Marine guard posted to either end of the hangar bay. And yet the choices demanded then were more fearsome by far than the one that led to your private war on Santiago's marauders.
You could leave Unity for Chiron with as many as 412 souls aboard… or as few as 200. What choice(s) did you make, and why?
[ ] I presided over the trial and execution of all the Spartan prisoners. Skye's biologists treated their injuries (many of them serious) from the same dwindling stocks of medical supplies we used for own wounded. I then bade them appoint an advocate from among their own number. We heard from witnesses, Skye and Katamari included. Nobody interrupted as the Spartans recounted all their grievances with the United Nations. Surprisingly, many were resonant. I had expected to hear the familiar complaint that they had been passed over, not to learn about massacres ignored and cease-fires enforced to the benefit of tyrants. I did not empower a jury for this distasteful judgment. I will not put that weight on others. My conclusion was simple: I wore the United Nations patch, but neither I nor this crew were responsible for the crimes the Spartans claimed to have been rectifying. Few of Skye's scientists bay for blood, but the others are more open in their demands for righting the scales. At least I observed the scruples of a legal process before inflicting my violence.
[Selecting this option will result in the spacing of the Spartan prisoners. You will avoid expected problems attempting to integrate suspected sociopaths into your society. You will forgo the future Event: Spartan Prisoners.]
[ ] I could do nothing for the many grievously wounded: we hadn't any spare medical supplies. I urged them to go instead with Skye. Above all else, this woman is addicted to life. Skye will not prune a dying branch. She wasn't even particularly happy about having to fend off human predators. She has more abundant access to expertise in the life sciences. I sweetened the deal by pledging one of the M.U.L.E.s, which should partially compensate her for the opportunity cost she will incur, along with a Data Core, since I think she really is getting the raw end of the deal. She wouldn't take any of the Unity Rovers, declaring them "bloody bangers."
[Selecting this option will result in the loss of -1 POP, representing your wounded. You will avoid a resource squeeze that would result from trying to render care for which you are not properly equipped, especially given the number of those afflicted. Skye will accept your entreaty and you will forfeit -1 M.U.L.E. and -1 Data Core as fair trade. This choice is mutually exclusive with other choices dealing with the wounded.]
[ ] I left them. I left the wounded. There was nothing more to be done. Yes, Sieger-5s contain a surgical theater. But the facilities are rudimentary. For more than four hundred people, I had two trained physicians and a neglible number of med-techs. With our emergency training, all of us could stabilize a casualty, but we had no ability to care for more than a hundred cases of sucking chest wounds, severed spinal columns, and third-degree burns. Many of the most severe cases were also showing signs of more severe radiation sickness. We got into one of the cargo bays and found medical supplies. I left it all with them.Lara Cambrysis said:
[Selecting this option will result in the loss of -1 POP. You abandon the badly wounded to presumptive death, but you weren't sure the trauma of reentry and the high probability of neglect after Planetfall was much of an alternative. Your followers won't share your hard-nosed assessment, resulting in a loss of esteem even as they share in the surplus that results with fewer mouths to feed. This choice is mutually exclusive with other choices dealing with the wounded.]
[ ] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
Sister Miriam Godwinson said:
[Selecting this option will mean that you travel to the surface with your wounded in tow. You will use the M.U.L.E.s. notwithstanding the high demands they will impose on your settlement power grid. All four of your Data Cores must be used in pursuit of advances along the Discovery branch. This choice is mutually exclusive with other choices dealing with the wounded.]
[ ] I had LaCroix access the Computer Core. There was information I needed still. In particular, I wanted the classified service records and psych profiles of Garland's command crew, the better to know with whom I would be dealing on the surface. I also had LaCroix perform a data dump. Then, we jettisoned the Core.[Selecting this option will mean that you fill one Data Node with information to gain insight into the personalities and motivations of the other factions, assuming they were led by individuals who were either (A) screened as a condition of their inclusion on the Unity crew, or (B) important enough to have merited an entry in the Universal Datalinks. You will fill a further two Data Nodes with technology from the Recover branch, a specialized branch of the technology tree otherwise accessible only through salvage. -3 Data Nodes. The Core will land in the Dune Sea, where you are aware that Political Officer Sheng-ji Yang has made Planetfall. This choice is mutually exclusive with other choices dealing with the Unity Computer Core.]
[ ] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.[Selecting this option will mean that you arranged for the Computer Core to drop in the vicinity of what appear to be a series of thermal pools, far away from probable landing sites. The Core is shielded, so it should survive extremities of heat and acidity. The downside is that you will not have been able to retrieve desired information before departure can be delayed no longer. This choice is mutually exclusive with other choices dealing with the Unity Computer Core.]
[ ] I had LaCroix corrupt the Computer Core. Unity's Game Warden, J.T. Marsh, has an unstinting view of technology: it makes all men small. Cobb thinks that our liability as a species is that we refuse to try to get to know ourselves truly, as if we are afraid of what we might find. I don't think he meant we should eschew technology--after all, the Computer Core was the motive power behind the neuroimage Pahlavi carried off--but what if to retain the legacy of Earth-knowledge will doom us to dance the same dance we have danced before? Besides, I don't want people reading my particulars.[Choosing this option will corrupt the Computer Core beyond repair. All of the data it contains--the sum total of human knowledge--will be lost, never, perhaps, to be replicated. You will start the accumulation anew on Chiron, using only the lesser computers aboard your Landing Pod and the Data Nodes you previously salvaged. This choice is mutually exclusive with other choices dealing with the Unity Computer Core.]
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Trenacker
Margrave of the Transvaal
- Location
- Imperial Remnant
Certainly you can do that.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Quotes don't allow BBcodes in their headers, which is why the quotes above are botched.
Plan votes? Or is it by line?
[x] I could do nothing for the many grievously wounded: we hadn't any spare medical supplies. I urged them to go instead with Skye. Above all else, this woman is addicted to life. Skye will not prune a dying branch. She wasn't even particularly happy about having to fend off human predators. She has more abundant access to expertise in the life sciences. I sweetened the deal by pledging one of the M.U.L.E.s, which should partially compensate her for the opportunity cost she will incur, along with a Data Core, since I think she really is getting the raw end of the deal. She wouldn't take any of the Unity Rovers, declaring them "bloody bangers."
[x] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
Last edited:
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
[X] I presided over the trial and execution of all the Spartan prisoners. Skye's biologists treated their injuries (many of them serious) from the same dwindling stocks of medical supplies we used for own wounded. I then bade them appoint an advocate from among their own number. We heard from witnesses, Skye and Katamari included. Nobody interrupted as the Spartans recounted all their grievances with the United Nations. Surprisingly, many were resonant. I had expected to hear the familiar complaint that they had been passed over, not to learn about massacres ignored and cease-fires enforced to the benefit of tyrants. I did not empower a jury for this distasteful judgment. I will not put that weight on others. My conclusion was simple: I wore the United Nations patch, but neither I nor this crew were responsible for the crimes the Spartans claimed to have been rectifying. Few of Skye's scientists bay for blood, but the others are more open in their demands for righting the scales. At least I observed the scruples of a legal process before inflicting my violence.
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
[X] I presided over the trial and execution of all the Spartan prisoners. Skye's biologists treated their injuries (many of them serious) from the same dwindling stocks of medical supplies we used for own wounded. I then bade them appoint an advocate from among their own number. We heard from witnesses, Skye and Katamari included. Nobody interrupted as the Spartans recounted all their grievances with the United Nations. Surprisingly, many were resonant. I had expected to hear the familiar complaint that they had been passed over, not to learn about massacres ignored and cease-fires enforced to the benefit of tyrants. I did not empower a jury for this distasteful judgment. I will not put that weight on others. My conclusion was simple: I wore the United Nations patch, but neither I nor this crew were responsible for the crimes the Spartans claimed to have been rectifying. Few of Skye's scientists bay for blood, but the others are more open in their demands for righting the scales. At least I observed the scruples of a legal process before inflicting my violence.
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
——
The ones who are not sociopaths will remember that we saved them from certain, horrible death, and they are in our debt.
That makes it pretty easy to tell who, of the remainder, will be a problem later on, and isolate them from any positions of power or influence.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
——
The ones who are not sociopaths will remember that we saved them from certain, horrible death, and they are in our debt.
That makes it pretty easy to tell who, of the remainder, will be a problem later on, and isolate them from any positions of power or influence.
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
[X] I presided over the trial and execution of all the Spartan prisoners. Skye's biologists treated their injuries (many of them serious) from the same dwindling stocks of medical supplies we used for own wounded. I then bade them appoint an advocate from among their own number. We heard from witnesses, Skye and Katamari included. Nobody interrupted as the Spartans recounted all their grievances with the United Nations. Surprisingly, many were resonant. I had expected to hear the familiar complaint that they had been passed over, not to learn about massacres ignored and cease-fires enforced to the benefit of tyrants. I did not empower a jury for this distasteful judgment. I will not put that weight on others. My conclusion was simple: I wore the United Nations patch, but neither I nor this crew were responsible for the crimes the Spartans claimed to have been rectifying. Few of Skye's scientists bay for blood, but the others are more open in their demands for righting the scales. At least I observed the scruples of a legal process before inflicting my violence.
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
Here we are also seeing diffrence compared to Canon SMAC. There Factions were more or less neutral at start and could go for each other throats after years on Planet. Everyone was also working alone pursuing their own vision of new civilization(dont remember did everybody came on the same ship or where there several of them?). While in this Quest all were part of Unity mission. At least people that where supposed to be on board. And then they fought togheter against madmen that tried to kill them all. After such event, in such new hostile world when they are all civilised people why wouldnt they work togheter to build future? That was original plan, wasnt it? So they should join forces and as they first act would probably decide to hunt down Santiago and her Spartans. Because nothing unite anybody like having common enemy that nobody will feel bad about shooting, right?
Also in original game if I think right Earth was pretty much dead after ship's launch. But here? Things were bad but people still lived. Still developed things. And with max of five years lag you could still update Unity with latest news/tech/info using simply a laser aimed right way. Hell even if things got bad and Earth became barren there was still rest of system. Unity was first an Ares foundry for (presumably) asteroid mining, while crew had part of their training on Mars in specialy build domes. Theres also Unity's Moon Cradle from with it launched. All of this imply that even with Earth dead humanity could still surive in many developed colonies/bases/satations and outpost trought entire system. They had tech to survive without Earth before we even lauched and considering there are multiple orbital elevators human population in space would be high enought to continiue on. So they could still talk to us.
Also dont forget that if Sol was still developing tech and space infrastructure that means we may not be the last to come from it. Who says that with time cost hadnt got low enought that some faction could build a smaller vessel. One that have Orin Drive and could get to Planet in much shorter time. After all they could cut a lot of corners betting on there being already colony on Planet when they arrive to ease colonisation. That we would help the settle or if its faction hostile to idea of U.N. they could load ship with soldiers and weapons, planning to simply conquer us and take local infrastructure for themselfs.
@Trenacker What do you think about my theorising?
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
Here we are also seeing diffrence compared to Canon SMAC. There Factions were more or less neutral at start and could go for each other throats after years on Planet. Everyone was also working alone pursuing their own vision of new civilization(dont remember did everybody came on the same ship or where there several of them?). While in this Quest all were part of Unity mission. At least people that where supposed to be on board. And then they fought togheter against madmen that tried to kill them all. After such event, in such new hostile world when they are all civilised people why wouldnt they work togheter to build future? That was original plan, wasnt it? So they should join forces and as they first act would probably decide to hunt down Santiago and her Spartans. Because nothing unite anybody like having common enemy that nobody will feel bad about shooting, right?
Also in original game if I think right Earth was pretty much dead after ship's launch. But here? Things were bad but people still lived. Still developed things. And with max of five years lag you could still update Unity with latest news/tech/info using simply a laser aimed right way. Hell even if things got bad and Earth became barren there was still rest of system. Unity was first an Ares foundry for (presumably) asteroid mining, while crew had part of their training on Mars in specialy build domes. Theres also Unity's Moon Cradle from with it launched. All of this imply that even with Earth dead humanity could still surive in many developed colonies/bases/satations and outpost trought entire system. They had tech to survive without Earth before we even lauched and considering there are multiple orbital elevators human population in space would be high enought to continiue on. So they could still talk to us.
Also dont forget that if Sol was still developing tech and space infrastructure that means we may not be the last to come from it. Who says that with time cost hadnt got low enought that some faction could build a smaller vessel. One that have Orin Drive and could get to Planet in much shorter time. After all they could cut a lot of corners betting on there being already colony on Planet when they arrive to ease colonisation. That we would help the settle or if its faction hostile to idea of U.N. they could load ship with soldiers and weapons, planning to simply conquer us and take local infrastructure for themselfs.
@Trenacker What do you think about my theorising?
Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
[X] I could do nothing for the many grievously wounded: we hadn't any spare medical supplies. I urged them to go instead with Skye. Above all else, this woman is addicted to life. Skye will not prune a dying branch. She wasn't even particularly happy about having to fend off human predators. She has more abundant access to expertise in the life sciences. I sweetened the deal by pledging one of the M.U.L.E.s, which should partially compensate her for the opportunity cost she will incur, along with a Data Core, since I think she really is getting the raw end of the deal. She wouldn't take any of the Unity Rovers, declaring them "bloody bangers."
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
[X] They trusted me, and I would not abandon them to the vagaries of fate. We went down to the New World together. Some purpose will be found for every life. The M.U.L.E.s will do what our hands cannot. In the way of power, we have an abundance already. Base defense is already accounted for. We will apply the processing power of our numerous Data Cores toward relevant breakthroughs.
[X] I had LaCroix set the Computer Core to jettison on a timer. In doing so, I placed maximizing the potential for an easier recovery ahead of my desire to have more information at once.
Who I Am
Trenacker
Margrave of the Transvaal
- Location
- Imperial Remnant
Vote Tally
Hours of Salt and Rain
Execute Spartans – 3/7
Send Wounded with Skye – 2
Abandon Wounded – 0
Take Wounded – 5
Crack the Core – 0
Jettison the Core – 7
Corrupt the Core – 0
Outcome:
Keeping the Spartans under guard was difficult for the wrong reasons. The Marine guard, they appeared to disregard. Instead, they struggled with one another. Had they not already been about to face trial for murder, you'd have been convening a separate drumhead court-martial to deal with the two prisoners who together snapped the neck of a third.
And so you bade the Spartans make their representations to the men and women they had not long ago been attempting to kill. Not the show trial of the century, but an ethical sortie you will long remember. About half covered themselves in shame, struggling through a single, semi-literate screed they read in canon, putting you in mind of a suicide pact to be carried out through antagonism.
The historical outlines of Holnism were well-known to you. To be a Holnist was to serially make victims of others while loudly arrogating the mantle of victimhood for yourself. Some have said that it was in Americans' blood to resent the ham-fisted regulator, the pointy-headed technocrat, the over-bearing security man. Americans were, after all, ideational descendants of unruly second sons, religious malcontents, petty convicts, and self-declared "free-thinkers" who first overthrew a king, then bucked a union, and finally fled west to try and get some distance between themselves and the rule of law. But Holnists lengthened the list of enemies without discrimination between the real and the imagined. A man who asked help of you—he was a Communist, scheming to increase his wealth at your expense. A man who owned more than you—he was a Communist, scheming to increase his wealth at your expense. A man who did not look like you—he too was a Communist, scheming to increase his wealth at your expense. "Liberty" was the performance of the maximal self. Anyone who expected you to restrain yourself, he was taxing you, and only a fool paid tax. Anyone who suggested you contribute anything toward the commonweal—he was a Communist! [ed. - Holnism is an invention of David Brinn, author of The Postman, made (more?) famous by the Kevin Costner movie of the late 1990s, which I still insist was excellent. Fight me.]
The pity of Holnism was that it took the anger is the kernel of change and unmoored it from both generosity of spirit and the call to right action. To fix a problem was to be a sucker because it meant taking a hand in work, a share of which in fact belonged to somebody else. Holnism accommodated tantrums, nothing else.
You did not, therefore, expect to hear the story of patriotic citizens, veterans of the United States Volunteers, foreclosed on by the American Reclamation Corporation. You did not expect to find ample corroboration in the Datalinks for allegations that the Office of Civil Defense withheld shipments of antiserum to refugee camps in three Western states during the 2067 outbreak of Red Flu [ed. - Can you say The Last Ship?] because their governors refused to suspend habeus corpus. Most of all, you were unprepared for catchvids of self-described "Spartans" themselves executing Holnists aboard the starship Unity itself just hours before, proclaiming as they did so that the killings were proper sanction for indiscriminate violence.
There are two types of Spartans, evidently. The first are the Holnists, mere animals, low down and cruel. Though they undertook to caution you that their assessment did not meet clinical standards, when ordered to make one, a psychiatrist agreed that these were "very probably sufferers of sociopathy." The second type are Santiago's partisans, many of whom proudly pointed you to records of honorable service in the United States Army or its auxiliaries. There is not a bit of sympathy that passes between the two groups, nor an understanding on the part of the latter why their leader had condescended to an association that had now become a military alliance.
Unable to watch the lights go out behind yet another pair of eyes, you made a choice you (and they) could live with: hard labor for the "Spartans," rehabilitation for the Holnists. Some will go to the workshops and the mines once on Chiron, but others will go to receive an education that will fit them again for the company of humans.
Speaking of humans, you gathered them to you, the whole and the broken, and took them up into the trembling vessel to which you gave the name Chamomile. If you were being honest with yourself, you fancied Deirdre would appreciate the gesture if ever she heard. Not that it didn't fit: the Seiger-5 most resembled a tea thermos missing its spout. With nothing else to offer them, you scrounged in the pod's stores and passed around analgesics, including potent Somnacin [ed., yay, Inception], reasoning that even fever-sleep would be a kind of relief.
LaCroix's errand was a matter of minutes. As Thomas Schelling once remarked, it is easier to poison dogs than to raise them, and the same is true of computer cores. Minutes after the pneumatic whoosh and stomach-flipping slug of your own departure, you observed the core floating free from "beneath" Unity's superstructure, starting the first of many languid promenades above and around the planet in what you were hoping would be the decaying orbit you ordered.
Faction Inventory
+2 squadrons Unity Rovers (Fission)
+3 Multiple Use Labor Element (M.U.L.E.)
+4 Data Nodes (must be used for Discovery track technologies)
+1 Industrial-Scale 3D Printers
+Faction Personality (Terrance LaCroix)
+1 company UN Marine Corps (Veteran)
-1 POP [casualties]
Note: May not select Stepdaughters of Gaia, Shapers of Chiron, or Spartan Federation during faction selection.
Other
+2 Drones for the Dreamers of Chiron
+1 Colonists for Proprietor Factions (Dynamic Enterprise, Dreamers of Chiron, New Two Thousand)
Next Chapter
Who I Am
Time to get to know who we are. Choose one faction. Choose a flavor: subverted or played straight. (Also, when voting, please cite only the bolded phrase, not the full explanatory blurb. Thanks kindly!) [ed. - Note that the section below owes a lot to the original faction write-ups for Alpha Centauri, found here.]
[ ] Prokhor Zakharov, The Technologist, The University of Planet - The University is led by the mission's chief engineer and science officer, Prokhor Zakharov, a Nobel Prize-winning Soviet physicist. Zakharov rose the top of the Soviet academic ladder as a nuclear physicist and held a prestigious position in the Soviet space program. Later in life, he was a pioneer in cryogenics. By popular acclaim, he was held to be the greatest genius in world history, exceeding Einstein in popular renown and credibility in his own time. He also became a willing prop of the Soviet system, which he credited with placing proper emphasis on scientific learning, and inveighed against "the medieval crutch of religion, which is, as you know, the foremost barrier to the social progress of our species." Effectively, Zakharov feels that humanity refused to employ all of the various tools at our disposal to solve the problems of Earth. The Academician also believes that the Universe is knowable through empirical study and holds that only a program of unrestrained inquiry will allow our species to build the best tools to survive on Chiron. Zakharov, like some of the other scientists aboard Unity, has a highly transgressive personality. He has "moderate difficulty" with social functioning and suffers from depression. Played straight, Zakharov can be an absent-minded professor who busily reproduced a university faculty on Planet, complete with drunk and disorderly students, an ungainly bureaucracy of deans, and a faculty obsessed with its own perks and perquisites. Subverted, he is a dangerous obsessive, insisting that every question be given an answer, and possessing no trace of patience with or empathy for his fellow man. Zakharov will prove his genius by restoring contact with Earth.
[ ] Sheng-ji Yang, The Despot, The Human Labyrinth - The Human Labyrinth answers to Political Officer Sheng-ji Yang, a Chinese national who spent most of his life in prison camps or under the surveillance of China's Communist government. He later participated in a coup that brought about an authoritarian government in which he held considerable power as a Minister Without Portfolio. Yang was assigned to Unity to preside over the large Chinese crew contingent. He is a despotic intellectual who practices extreme asceticism and preaches a eusocial philosophy that places the individual in service to the collective. It is a stylized form of (he says benevolent) dictatorship. Yang's view is that the vast majority of people on Earth were too ignorant and prejudiced to see their way out of trouble. He contends that the only way forward is to establish a technocracy of rigorously-trained, closely-observed officials who can make and enforce the right decisions. Labyrinth bases are aptly compared to prison camps: for every one hundred lobotomized laborers, there are a handful of overseers and even fewer "Talents," the protégés of the leader who scramble for his approval. Yang propounds a philosophy emphasizing the Three Pillars: 法 (Fa), or law, meaning that the law is known, and obeyed because systematically enforced; 術 (Shu), or method, whereby the ruler holds himself apart from society and applies "special tactics and secrets" to obscure his motivations, reducing the opportunity for confidants to influence him inappropriately; and 勢 (Shi), or legitimacy, which focuses on drawing distinctions between the excellence of the ruler and the flaws of the man who rules. Played straight, Yang is an awful tyrant. Subverted, he is, at best, a highly problematic example of what can happen to individuals when a society regards them merely as units of utility. Yang will enforce a long isolation to properly "educate" his flock. [ed. - I got the "Legalism" angle from the Internet, found the specifics of Legalism as a philosophy on Wikipedia, and sourced it back to GURPS: Alpha Centauri.]
[ ] CEO Nwabudike Morgan, The Mogul, The Dynamic Enterprise - Morgan is a Namibian diamond smuggler-turned-arms dealer who accumulated staggering personal wealth largely as a consequence of his willingness to go places and serve customers that others refused. Some say that, without his assistance, Biafra would still be a constituent state of Nigeria. He is infamous for engineering the overnight bankruptcy of the government of Chad, leaving him in de jure control of that country's oil wells (his private security firm already held the physical pumpjacks). He leveraged this ownership stake to purchase American lobbying firms, and later, defense contractors. Morgan Industries was one of about a dozen prime contractors working on the Unity Project. As the global trauma worsened, his companies poured in tens of billions at a time when governments were becoming unreliable donors. Morgan himself was not selected for the Unity Mission, and he disappeared before mission launch, only to reappear as a stowaway during the final hours aboard Unity prior to Planetfall. Morgan has probably the most recognizable and relatable philosophy from the point of view of today's Western citizen. The one true constant in the universe is that everything has a price. Earth didn't "die," it was exhausted. The Unity Mission is a natural response to that result. Notice that Morgan treats the issue as a mathematical certainty, not a problem per se. Thus, the only thing that is "needed" is to do exactly what has always been done: consume and consume, until we again must board a ship to take us to the next buffet. Morgan will achieve an energy monopoly as a basis for accumulating the material wealth that affords luxurious living. [ed. - I think it was Nick Stepanovich on the Paean to SMAC blog that recognized this feature of Morgan's thought.] Played straight, Morgan is an oligarchy. Subverted, Morgan is Hamilton?
[ ] Sister Miriam Godwinson, The Zealot, The Lord's Conclave - Godwinson leads the Lord's Conclave, a faction seeking to establish theological colonies on Chiron. Godwinson was born in the short-lived Christian States of America and pursued divinity studies, booking appearances on conservative media to pay her way through school. During the Second Civil War, she was an eloquent and persuasive voice for reconciliation, especially once the war turned badly for both the Christian States in the East and the Holnists in the Middle and Far West. Her credibility was vastly enhanced when, steeling herself to the great mortal risk, she led a practical mission to St. Louis to deliver humanitarian aid to some of the tens of millions of her fellow citizens turned refugee. Most of the men and women who went with Godwinson were killed by Holnists. After the war, she helped produce the landmark Vulgatian Bible [ed. - nod to Frank Herbert, his Orange-Catholic Bible, and his Commission of Ecumenical Translators]. She joined the Unity Mission as Psych Chaplain. Godwinson believes that humans disfigured our own souls and that Earth was destroyed as punishment by an angry God. Mission survivors are God's Elect and require instruction in a lifestyle of contemplation and service to bring about their salvation. Miriam is less concerned for the form and particulars of one's faith than its instantiation in the form of charity provided to others. In other words, she believes in justification through Good Works. Played straight, Miriam is Fred Rogers with a rather strong perfume. Subverted, she is a firebrand Puritan.
[ ] Chairman Pravin Lal, The Humanitarian, The Peacekeeping Forces - The Peacekeepers, as they are now known, answer to Pravin Lal, the mission's Chief Medical Officer. Lal, a Pakistani, was a high-ranking U.N. bureaucrat who spent most of his life working to lift his country out of the ashes of the Six-Minute War. He was also an acid critic of Western hypocrisy, and especially of what he regarded as regressive tendencies in the American and European practice of representative democracy, for which he is a passionate and scrupulous evangelist. Lal's personal credibility is badly compromised by his participation in many controversial decisions taken by the United Nations Security Council, including humanitarian interventions that went badly wrong, resulting either in massacres like the one at Srebrenica or perpetually frozen conflict like the Syrian Civil War. Lal believes that a lack of credible gatekeepers and the gradual devolution of a fact-based press into entertainment networks doomed the West to become addicted to a steady diet of conspiracy and hate. Before long, it took the rest of the world down with it. The Peacekeeping Forces are intent upon preserving the Unity Charter. Played straight, they are the United Nations in all its lurching, infuriatingly hair-splitting glory. Subverted, they are the New World Order... and they don't even know it.
[ ] Sergeant Peter "Pete" Landers, The Defender, The Human Tribe - He joined the Illinois National Guard at the onset of the Second Civil War to fight the Holnists who had killed his classmates. Within three years, he was wounded by Holnists at Davenport, Iowa. Hunted, he fell into the hands of an insular sect known as Kellerites. Jean-Baptiste Keller was a failed farmer and radio preacher who called for a rejection of the Internet and a return to the ideals of "physical community." During the civil war, Kellerites often formed strategic hamlets. Several families who lived in close geographic proximity might gather their kinship groups and pool their resources for a better guarantee of survival. One such compound found and hid the delirious Landers. The Kellerites are alleged to have brainwashed him: he later led their militias against Holnists and Federal troops alike before vanishing into the Sierra Nevadas toward the end of the war. Keller likewise disappeared, but not before directing Landers to stow away aboard Unity with more than two hundred armed followers. Kellerites believe that the destruction of local civil society helped seal Earth's fate and are working toward inculcating communitarian ideals on Chiron. They are skeptical of various "anti-social" technologies and pastimes, including the Datalinks and use of recreational drugs like Somnacin. Kellerites are widely regarded as backwards cultists by some others due to accusations of consanguinity and their gradual withdrawal from post-war society (an ironic fate for those who claimed to value intense civic participation). They are mortal enemies of the Spartans. [ed. - The Human Tribe is an invention of a guy named Thorn from an now-defunct forum, The Frontier.] Played straight, Kellerites are traumatized hideaways who come out only to save the infrequent passer-by, who learns an important lesson about judging books by their cover. Subverted, they have lost their True North and are vengeance-obsessed marauders who care only about their own.]
[ ] Factor Roshann Cobb and Dr. Aleigha Cohen, The Dreamer and The Transgressor, The Dreamers of Chiron - Cobb, briefly an agent of MI5, is head of Straun's Asian Trading House [ed. - remember James Clavell's Shogun series?]. Cobb is a wastrel, but was highly successful at applying the skills learned in his first career to the conduct of the family business. With few scruples and many tricks, Cobb forged Struan's into a pharmaceutical giant, employing a combination of ruthless lawyering and corporate espionage to seize enormous market share. Struan's pioneered neural resocialization therapy (taken straight from StarCraft), a form of brainwashing to suppress and redirect criminal tendencies. They also did deep work in the area of neural mapping, ultimately discovering the secret to initiating shared lucid dreaming, just like in the movie Inception. Cobb proposes to explore the human subconscious, which he has claimed holds dark, self-destructive patterns that explain why our civilization is doomed always to failure. A nice theory, though one would struggle to make the honest claim that Cobb is himself more than a neophyte in matters of deep thinking, notwithstanding his Oxford diploma. Cobb makes common cause with a neuroscientist, Aleigha Cohen, who shares Cobb's belief that the greatest accomplishment comes of knocking down popular shibboleths. Both are Eurasians, outcasts in their own nations. Both are also psychopaths who achieved many of Struan's breakthroughs by cooperating with rogue regimes to gain access to unwilling test subjects. Cohen presided over the mission's consignment of convict laborers. Played straight, Cobb and Cohen are psychotic criminals. Subverted, they are probably stoners who want to go "mind surfing."
[ ] Director Tamineh Pahlavi, The Supremacist, The Human Ascendancy - Pahlavi, now Unity's head of Genetic Research, grew up with relatives in Switzerland following the deaths of her parents from the Red Flu. She performed extensive work on genetic pairings for the American Reclamation Corporation (which is from Beyond Earth, and takes much the same form) during its long period of Civil Defense studies (think Fallout's Vault-Tec). Pahlavi's main charge was to begin a study of Chiron's effects on the human genome—a project that might long outlast her. After the disaster aboard Unity, she gathered followers who shared her concern that "conventional" humans, Homo sapiens, were unsuited to survival on Chiron. She now pursues "neo-Sapien," using cloning and selective breeding to advance steadily toward that goal. Ascendancy society is dominated by the engineered elite. If Morganites measure success by the accumulation of personal wealth and academic achievement speaks loudest in the lecture halls of the University, one's potential in the Human Ascendency is both the consequence and accident of birth. Pahlavi's people are combing Planet for exemplars of human achievement, hoping to harvest genetic material for their own use. [ed. - This is the same conceit by which COBRA gave us Serpentor in the GI JOE cartoon and comics.] Played straight, Pahlavi is trying her best to "invent" a savior. Subverted, she is to homo sapien what they were to homo neanderthalensis.
[ ] Game Warden J.T. Marsh, The Hunter, The Hunters of Chiron - A faction comprised of Unity's "road crew"—the Forward Landing Party, consisting of scouts, surveyors, roughnecks, and pioneers who departed the ship when it was still at the edge of the Alpha Centauri system. They were given thirty days to prepare a landing site. Their leader, Game Warden J.T. Marsh, is a former big game hunter, decorated alumni of the British Special Air Service, and was recommended for the job by British Intelligence. Marsh regards recent human history with disdain, believing that too many humans embraced technological advancements to the extent that they became both physically and mentally helpless, either addled by luxuries or unwilling to face hardship of any kind. Civilization had unmade us. The Hunters of Chiron are nomads, traversing Chiron with the purpose of matching themselves against the new and dangerous natural environment. When they do gather, Hunters practice a form of direct democracy. Hunters fastideously disdain robotics (which will make it difficult to use your M.U.L.E.s). By comparison with the Spartans, who believe that the species will be saved only by struggles that pit man against man, the Hunters seek out opportunities to know and best Chiron itself. [ed. - Marsh is an exploration of what it means to be a man in, and outside of, civilization. He is a meditation on some of the hints of underlying philosophy offered by Louis L'Amour in the afterwords of certain of his dime novels, which so captured my imagination as young man, and of the "great white hunter" archetype, with all his flaws, popularized in the fiction of Wilbur Smith, an author about whom you may have heard very little but whose stories have formed the basis of many popular movies such as The African Queen.] Played straight, Marsh is a nomad who probably has a lot in common with The Lost World's Roland Tembo or even one of L'Amour's cowboys. Is a man any less a man once civilized? [ed. - I refer to a traditional conception of masculinity, but I don't think the concept necessarily has to be gendered to be practiced today, much less by Marsh and his followers.] Subverted, Marsh is probably just a daredevil, and perhaps a misfit drunk who, with his followers in tow, resembles Furiosa's War Rig caravan at the start of Fury Road.
[ ] Governor Oscar van de Graaf, The Empresario, The New Two Thousand - The New Two Thousand are individuals who have signed on to a colonial charter authored by Oscar van de Graaf, a Native American industrial tycoon and first CEO of the American Reclamation Corporation. When the American government would no longer underwrite the Unity Project, van de Graaf resigned his position and bought a stake. Van de Graaf, who with his deep pockets paid private military providers to wage virtually a private war against the Holnists and other secessionist movements alongside the Regular Army, is best understood as the paterfamilias, and his settlement is run as a personal fiefdom. He is obsessed with "recovering" the heavy equipment that was on loan from his small venture to the larger Unity Expedition now that the Unity Charter has been dissolved. Van de Graaf's followers believe strongly in his claim to technocratic leadership, notwithstanding its vividly charismatic style. Unlike ordinary crew members, who were trained to function in a paramilitary setting, the culture of the New Two Thousand is freewheeling, resembling a frontier community in which fortunes are shared and everyone is acutely aware that they will get out of the enterprise only what they put in. Played straight, van de Graaf is the railroad boss who runs his frontier town with an iron grip and invents excuses to sting up any free-grazer that brings their herd too close. Subverted, van de Graaf is the Nucky Thompson of Boardwalk Empire's Season One: the local party "boss" with political ideas decades ahead of his time who is in the Killing Game as a distasteful chore only so that the innocent can sleep soundly.
[ ] Contre-Amirale Raoul André St. Germaine, The Aristocrat, The New State - The Admiral is a French Syrian aristocrat notorious for several massacres carried out by subordinates while supporting United Nations peacekeeping operations. He was ultimately banished to a series of roles as a submariner and naturalist before being shipped off to the Unity Mission at a time when both it and he were still out-of-favor in Paris. St. Germaine is an acid critic of Western democracies, which he believes failed to demonstrate appropriate flexibility of unprecedented stressors. With the military hierarchy as his model, the Admiral will institute a society beneath the seas of Chiron that is, in theory, meritocrat, but will better resemble a conservative Integralist [ed. - Hi, Kaiserreich!] autocracy. This is the lord in his castle, with subjects whose loyalty is rooted in their abject dependence upon his physical protection from the depredations of others. In the New State, citizens will be expected to give service in accordance with their allotment of benefits. While outwardly communistic, to be fair, one can indeed climb the ranks in this faction and express dissent to a degree. Life in the New State is straightforward: you serve, and then you take your leisure. If you are of low rank, your work is simple and your obligations are few. If you are of high rank, your freedoms increase but the expectations of rank impose steep costs. A case in point? Civilians marry for affection, Knights for social advantage. Played straight, St. Germaine might be captain of a society that functions like a submarine on patrol. Subverted, he can be the maritime foil to van de Graaf.
Hours of Salt and Rain
Execute Spartans – 3/7
Send Wounded with Skye – 2
Abandon Wounded – 0
Take Wounded – 5
Crack the Core – 0
Jettison the Core – 7
Corrupt the Core – 0
Outcome:
- Spartan prisoners spared.
- Wounded taken aboard Landing Pod.
- Unity Data Core jettisoned.
Governor Oscar van de Graaf said:
Keeping the Spartans under guard was difficult for the wrong reasons. The Marine guard, they appeared to disregard. Instead, they struggled with one another. Had they not already been about to face trial for murder, you'd have been convening a separate drumhead court-martial to deal with the two prisoners who together snapped the neck of a third.
And so you bade the Spartans make their representations to the men and women they had not long ago been attempting to kill. Not the show trial of the century, but an ethical sortie you will long remember. About half covered themselves in shame, struggling through a single, semi-literate screed they read in canon, putting you in mind of a suicide pact to be carried out through antagonism.
The historical outlines of Holnism were well-known to you. To be a Holnist was to serially make victims of others while loudly arrogating the mantle of victimhood for yourself. Some have said that it was in Americans' blood to resent the ham-fisted regulator, the pointy-headed technocrat, the over-bearing security man. Americans were, after all, ideational descendants of unruly second sons, religious malcontents, petty convicts, and self-declared "free-thinkers" who first overthrew a king, then bucked a union, and finally fled west to try and get some distance between themselves and the rule of law. But Holnists lengthened the list of enemies without discrimination between the real and the imagined. A man who asked help of you—he was a Communist, scheming to increase his wealth at your expense. A man who owned more than you—he was a Communist, scheming to increase his wealth at your expense. A man who did not look like you—he too was a Communist, scheming to increase his wealth at your expense. "Liberty" was the performance of the maximal self. Anyone who expected you to restrain yourself, he was taxing you, and only a fool paid tax. Anyone who suggested you contribute anything toward the commonweal—he was a Communist! [ed. - Holnism is an invention of David Brinn, author of The Postman, made (more?) famous by the Kevin Costner movie of the late 1990s, which I still insist was excellent. Fight me.]
Narrator said:
The pity of Holnism was that it took the anger is the kernel of change and unmoored it from both generosity of spirit and the call to right action. To fix a problem was to be a sucker because it meant taking a hand in work, a share of which in fact belonged to somebody else. Holnism accommodated tantrums, nothing else.
You did not, therefore, expect to hear the story of patriotic citizens, veterans of the United States Volunteers, foreclosed on by the American Reclamation Corporation. You did not expect to find ample corroboration in the Datalinks for allegations that the Office of Civil Defense withheld shipments of antiserum to refugee camps in three Western states during the 2067 outbreak of Red Flu [ed. - Can you say The Last Ship?] because their governors refused to suspend habeus corpus. Most of all, you were unprepared for catchvids of self-described "Spartans" themselves executing Holnists aboard the starship Unity itself just hours before, proclaiming as they did so that the killings were proper sanction for indiscriminate violence.
There are two types of Spartans, evidently. The first are the Holnists, mere animals, low down and cruel. Though they undertook to caution you that their assessment did not meet clinical standards, when ordered to make one, a psychiatrist agreed that these were "very probably sufferers of sociopathy." The second type are Santiago's partisans, many of whom proudly pointed you to records of honorable service in the United States Army or its auxiliaries. There is not a bit of sympathy that passes between the two groups, nor an understanding on the part of the latter why their leader had condescended to an association that had now become a military alliance.
Unable to watch the lights go out behind yet another pair of eyes, you made a choice you (and they) could live with: hard labor for the "Spartans," rehabilitation for the Holnists. Some will go to the workshops and the mines once on Chiron, but others will go to receive an education that will fit them again for the company of humans.
Speaking of humans, you gathered them to you, the whole and the broken, and took them up into the trembling vessel to which you gave the name Chamomile. If you were being honest with yourself, you fancied Deirdre would appreciate the gesture if ever she heard. Not that it didn't fit: the Seiger-5 most resembled a tea thermos missing its spout. With nothing else to offer them, you scrounged in the pod's stores and passed around analgesics, including potent Somnacin [ed., yay, Inception], reasoning that even fever-sleep would be a kind of relief.
LaCroix's errand was a matter of minutes. As Thomas Schelling once remarked, it is easier to poison dogs than to raise them, and the same is true of computer cores. Minutes after the pneumatic whoosh and stomach-flipping slug of your own departure, you observed the core floating free from "beneath" Unity's superstructure, starting the first of many languid promenades above and around the planet in what you were hoping would be the decaying orbit you ordered.
Faction Inventory
+2 squadrons Unity Rovers (Fission)
+3 Multiple Use Labor Element (M.U.L.E.)
+4 Data Nodes (must be used for Discovery track technologies)
+1 Industrial-Scale 3D Printers
+Faction Personality (Terrance LaCroix)
+1 company UN Marine Corps (Veteran)
-1 POP [casualties]
Note: May not select Stepdaughters of Gaia, Shapers of Chiron, or Spartan Federation during faction selection.
Other
+2 Drones for the Dreamers of Chiron
+1 Colonists for Proprietor Factions (Dynamic Enterprise, Dreamers of Chiron, New Two Thousand)
Next Chapter
Who I Am
Ben Sobel said:
Time to get to know who we are. Choose one faction. Choose a flavor: subverted or played straight. (Also, when voting, please cite only the bolded phrase, not the full explanatory blurb. Thanks kindly!) [ed. - Note that the section below owes a lot to the original faction write-ups for Alpha Centauri, found here.]
[ ] Prokhor Zakharov, The Technologist, The University of Planet - The University is led by the mission's chief engineer and science officer, Prokhor Zakharov, a Nobel Prize-winning Soviet physicist. Zakharov rose the top of the Soviet academic ladder as a nuclear physicist and held a prestigious position in the Soviet space program. Later in life, he was a pioneer in cryogenics. By popular acclaim, he was held to be the greatest genius in world history, exceeding Einstein in popular renown and credibility in his own time. He also became a willing prop of the Soviet system, which he credited with placing proper emphasis on scientific learning, and inveighed against "the medieval crutch of religion, which is, as you know, the foremost barrier to the social progress of our species." Effectively, Zakharov feels that humanity refused to employ all of the various tools at our disposal to solve the problems of Earth. The Academician also believes that the Universe is knowable through empirical study and holds that only a program of unrestrained inquiry will allow our species to build the best tools to survive on Chiron. Zakharov, like some of the other scientists aboard Unity, has a highly transgressive personality. He has "moderate difficulty" with social functioning and suffers from depression. Played straight, Zakharov can be an absent-minded professor who busily reproduced a university faculty on Planet, complete with drunk and disorderly students, an ungainly bureaucracy of deans, and a faculty obsessed with its own perks and perquisites. Subverted, he is a dangerous obsessive, insisting that every question be given an answer, and possessing no trace of patience with or empathy for his fellow man. Zakharov will prove his genius by restoring contact with Earth.
[ ] Sheng-ji Yang, The Despot, The Human Labyrinth - The Human Labyrinth answers to Political Officer Sheng-ji Yang, a Chinese national who spent most of his life in prison camps or under the surveillance of China's Communist government. He later participated in a coup that brought about an authoritarian government in which he held considerable power as a Minister Without Portfolio. Yang was assigned to Unity to preside over the large Chinese crew contingent. He is a despotic intellectual who practices extreme asceticism and preaches a eusocial philosophy that places the individual in service to the collective. It is a stylized form of (he says benevolent) dictatorship. Yang's view is that the vast majority of people on Earth were too ignorant and prejudiced to see their way out of trouble. He contends that the only way forward is to establish a technocracy of rigorously-trained, closely-observed officials who can make and enforce the right decisions. Labyrinth bases are aptly compared to prison camps: for every one hundred lobotomized laborers, there are a handful of overseers and even fewer "Talents," the protégés of the leader who scramble for his approval. Yang propounds a philosophy emphasizing the Three Pillars: 法 (Fa), or law, meaning that the law is known, and obeyed because systematically enforced; 術 (Shu), or method, whereby the ruler holds himself apart from society and applies "special tactics and secrets" to obscure his motivations, reducing the opportunity for confidants to influence him inappropriately; and 勢 (Shi), or legitimacy, which focuses on drawing distinctions between the excellence of the ruler and the flaws of the man who rules. Played straight, Yang is an awful tyrant. Subverted, he is, at best, a highly problematic example of what can happen to individuals when a society regards them merely as units of utility. Yang will enforce a long isolation to properly "educate" his flock. [ed. - I got the "Legalism" angle from the Internet, found the specifics of Legalism as a philosophy on Wikipedia, and sourced it back to GURPS: Alpha Centauri.]
[ ] CEO Nwabudike Morgan, The Mogul, The Dynamic Enterprise - Morgan is a Namibian diamond smuggler-turned-arms dealer who accumulated staggering personal wealth largely as a consequence of his willingness to go places and serve customers that others refused. Some say that, without his assistance, Biafra would still be a constituent state of Nigeria. He is infamous for engineering the overnight bankruptcy of the government of Chad, leaving him in de jure control of that country's oil wells (his private security firm already held the physical pumpjacks). He leveraged this ownership stake to purchase American lobbying firms, and later, defense contractors. Morgan Industries was one of about a dozen prime contractors working on the Unity Project. As the global trauma worsened, his companies poured in tens of billions at a time when governments were becoming unreliable donors. Morgan himself was not selected for the Unity Mission, and he disappeared before mission launch, only to reappear as a stowaway during the final hours aboard Unity prior to Planetfall. Morgan has probably the most recognizable and relatable philosophy from the point of view of today's Western citizen. The one true constant in the universe is that everything has a price. Earth didn't "die," it was exhausted. The Unity Mission is a natural response to that result. Notice that Morgan treats the issue as a mathematical certainty, not a problem per se. Thus, the only thing that is "needed" is to do exactly what has always been done: consume and consume, until we again must board a ship to take us to the next buffet. Morgan will achieve an energy monopoly as a basis for accumulating the material wealth that affords luxurious living. [ed. - I think it was Nick Stepanovich on the Paean to SMAC blog that recognized this feature of Morgan's thought.] Played straight, Morgan is an oligarchy. Subverted, Morgan is Hamilton?
[ ] Sister Miriam Godwinson, The Zealot, The Lord's Conclave - Godwinson leads the Lord's Conclave, a faction seeking to establish theological colonies on Chiron. Godwinson was born in the short-lived Christian States of America and pursued divinity studies, booking appearances on conservative media to pay her way through school. During the Second Civil War, she was an eloquent and persuasive voice for reconciliation, especially once the war turned badly for both the Christian States in the East and the Holnists in the Middle and Far West. Her credibility was vastly enhanced when, steeling herself to the great mortal risk, she led a practical mission to St. Louis to deliver humanitarian aid to some of the tens of millions of her fellow citizens turned refugee. Most of the men and women who went with Godwinson were killed by Holnists. After the war, she helped produce the landmark Vulgatian Bible [ed. - nod to Frank Herbert, his Orange-Catholic Bible, and his Commission of Ecumenical Translators]. She joined the Unity Mission as Psych Chaplain. Godwinson believes that humans disfigured our own souls and that Earth was destroyed as punishment by an angry God. Mission survivors are God's Elect and require instruction in a lifestyle of contemplation and service to bring about their salvation. Miriam is less concerned for the form and particulars of one's faith than its instantiation in the form of charity provided to others. In other words, she believes in justification through Good Works. Played straight, Miriam is Fred Rogers with a rather strong perfume. Subverted, she is a firebrand Puritan.
[ ] Chairman Pravin Lal, The Humanitarian, The Peacekeeping Forces - The Peacekeepers, as they are now known, answer to Pravin Lal, the mission's Chief Medical Officer. Lal, a Pakistani, was a high-ranking U.N. bureaucrat who spent most of his life working to lift his country out of the ashes of the Six-Minute War. He was also an acid critic of Western hypocrisy, and especially of what he regarded as regressive tendencies in the American and European practice of representative democracy, for which he is a passionate and scrupulous evangelist. Lal's personal credibility is badly compromised by his participation in many controversial decisions taken by the United Nations Security Council, including humanitarian interventions that went badly wrong, resulting either in massacres like the one at Srebrenica or perpetually frozen conflict like the Syrian Civil War. Lal believes that a lack of credible gatekeepers and the gradual devolution of a fact-based press into entertainment networks doomed the West to become addicted to a steady diet of conspiracy and hate. Before long, it took the rest of the world down with it. The Peacekeeping Forces are intent upon preserving the Unity Charter. Played straight, they are the United Nations in all its lurching, infuriatingly hair-splitting glory. Subverted, they are the New World Order... and they don't even know it.
[ ] Sergeant Peter "Pete" Landers, The Defender, The Human Tribe - He joined the Illinois National Guard at the onset of the Second Civil War to fight the Holnists who had killed his classmates. Within three years, he was wounded by Holnists at Davenport, Iowa. Hunted, he fell into the hands of an insular sect known as Kellerites. Jean-Baptiste Keller was a failed farmer and radio preacher who called for a rejection of the Internet and a return to the ideals of "physical community." During the civil war, Kellerites often formed strategic hamlets. Several families who lived in close geographic proximity might gather their kinship groups and pool their resources for a better guarantee of survival. One such compound found and hid the delirious Landers. The Kellerites are alleged to have brainwashed him: he later led their militias against Holnists and Federal troops alike before vanishing into the Sierra Nevadas toward the end of the war. Keller likewise disappeared, but not before directing Landers to stow away aboard Unity with more than two hundred armed followers. Kellerites believe that the destruction of local civil society helped seal Earth's fate and are working toward inculcating communitarian ideals on Chiron. They are skeptical of various "anti-social" technologies and pastimes, including the Datalinks and use of recreational drugs like Somnacin. Kellerites are widely regarded as backwards cultists by some others due to accusations of consanguinity and their gradual withdrawal from post-war society (an ironic fate for those who claimed to value intense civic participation). They are mortal enemies of the Spartans. [ed. - The Human Tribe is an invention of a guy named Thorn from an now-defunct forum, The Frontier.] Played straight, Kellerites are traumatized hideaways who come out only to save the infrequent passer-by, who learns an important lesson about judging books by their cover. Subverted, they have lost their True North and are vengeance-obsessed marauders who care only about their own.]
[ ] Factor Roshann Cobb and Dr. Aleigha Cohen, The Dreamer and The Transgressor, The Dreamers of Chiron - Cobb, briefly an agent of MI5, is head of Straun's Asian Trading House [ed. - remember James Clavell's Shogun series?]. Cobb is a wastrel, but was highly successful at applying the skills learned in his first career to the conduct of the family business. With few scruples and many tricks, Cobb forged Struan's into a pharmaceutical giant, employing a combination of ruthless lawyering and corporate espionage to seize enormous market share. Struan's pioneered neural resocialization therapy (taken straight from StarCraft), a form of brainwashing to suppress and redirect criminal tendencies. They also did deep work in the area of neural mapping, ultimately discovering the secret to initiating shared lucid dreaming, just like in the movie Inception. Cobb proposes to explore the human subconscious, which he has claimed holds dark, self-destructive patterns that explain why our civilization is doomed always to failure. A nice theory, though one would struggle to make the honest claim that Cobb is himself more than a neophyte in matters of deep thinking, notwithstanding his Oxford diploma. Cobb makes common cause with a neuroscientist, Aleigha Cohen, who shares Cobb's belief that the greatest accomplishment comes of knocking down popular shibboleths. Both are Eurasians, outcasts in their own nations. Both are also psychopaths who achieved many of Struan's breakthroughs by cooperating with rogue regimes to gain access to unwilling test subjects. Cohen presided over the mission's consignment of convict laborers. Played straight, Cobb and Cohen are psychotic criminals. Subverted, they are probably stoners who want to go "mind surfing."
[ ] Director Tamineh Pahlavi, The Supremacist, The Human Ascendancy - Pahlavi, now Unity's head of Genetic Research, grew up with relatives in Switzerland following the deaths of her parents from the Red Flu. She performed extensive work on genetic pairings for the American Reclamation Corporation (which is from Beyond Earth, and takes much the same form) during its long period of Civil Defense studies (think Fallout's Vault-Tec). Pahlavi's main charge was to begin a study of Chiron's effects on the human genome—a project that might long outlast her. After the disaster aboard Unity, she gathered followers who shared her concern that "conventional" humans, Homo sapiens, were unsuited to survival on Chiron. She now pursues "neo-Sapien," using cloning and selective breeding to advance steadily toward that goal. Ascendancy society is dominated by the engineered elite. If Morganites measure success by the accumulation of personal wealth and academic achievement speaks loudest in the lecture halls of the University, one's potential in the Human Ascendency is both the consequence and accident of birth. Pahlavi's people are combing Planet for exemplars of human achievement, hoping to harvest genetic material for their own use. [ed. - This is the same conceit by which COBRA gave us Serpentor in the GI JOE cartoon and comics.] Played straight, Pahlavi is trying her best to "invent" a savior. Subverted, she is to homo sapien what they were to homo neanderthalensis.
[ ] Game Warden J.T. Marsh, The Hunter, The Hunters of Chiron - A faction comprised of Unity's "road crew"—the Forward Landing Party, consisting of scouts, surveyors, roughnecks, and pioneers who departed the ship when it was still at the edge of the Alpha Centauri system. They were given thirty days to prepare a landing site. Their leader, Game Warden J.T. Marsh, is a former big game hunter, decorated alumni of the British Special Air Service, and was recommended for the job by British Intelligence. Marsh regards recent human history with disdain, believing that too many humans embraced technological advancements to the extent that they became both physically and mentally helpless, either addled by luxuries or unwilling to face hardship of any kind. Civilization had unmade us. The Hunters of Chiron are nomads, traversing Chiron with the purpose of matching themselves against the new and dangerous natural environment. When they do gather, Hunters practice a form of direct democracy. Hunters fastideously disdain robotics (which will make it difficult to use your M.U.L.E.s). By comparison with the Spartans, who believe that the species will be saved only by struggles that pit man against man, the Hunters seek out opportunities to know and best Chiron itself. [ed. - Marsh is an exploration of what it means to be a man in, and outside of, civilization. He is a meditation on some of the hints of underlying philosophy offered by Louis L'Amour in the afterwords of certain of his dime novels, which so captured my imagination as young man, and of the "great white hunter" archetype, with all his flaws, popularized in the fiction of Wilbur Smith, an author about whom you may have heard very little but whose stories have formed the basis of many popular movies such as The African Queen.] Played straight, Marsh is a nomad who probably has a lot in common with The Lost World's Roland Tembo or even one of L'Amour's cowboys. Is a man any less a man once civilized? [ed. - I refer to a traditional conception of masculinity, but I don't think the concept necessarily has to be gendered to be practiced today, much less by Marsh and his followers.] Subverted, Marsh is probably just a daredevil, and perhaps a misfit drunk who, with his followers in tow, resembles Furiosa's War Rig caravan at the start of Fury Road.
[ ] Governor Oscar van de Graaf, The Empresario, The New Two Thousand - The New Two Thousand are individuals who have signed on to a colonial charter authored by Oscar van de Graaf, a Native American industrial tycoon and first CEO of the American Reclamation Corporation. When the American government would no longer underwrite the Unity Project, van de Graaf resigned his position and bought a stake. Van de Graaf, who with his deep pockets paid private military providers to wage virtually a private war against the Holnists and other secessionist movements alongside the Regular Army, is best understood as the paterfamilias, and his settlement is run as a personal fiefdom. He is obsessed with "recovering" the heavy equipment that was on loan from his small venture to the larger Unity Expedition now that the Unity Charter has been dissolved. Van de Graaf's followers believe strongly in his claim to technocratic leadership, notwithstanding its vividly charismatic style. Unlike ordinary crew members, who were trained to function in a paramilitary setting, the culture of the New Two Thousand is freewheeling, resembling a frontier community in which fortunes are shared and everyone is acutely aware that they will get out of the enterprise only what they put in. Played straight, van de Graaf is the railroad boss who runs his frontier town with an iron grip and invents excuses to sting up any free-grazer that brings their herd too close. Subverted, van de Graaf is the Nucky Thompson of Boardwalk Empire's Season One: the local party "boss" with political ideas decades ahead of his time who is in the Killing Game as a distasteful chore only so that the innocent can sleep soundly.
[ ] Contre-Amirale Raoul André St. Germaine, The Aristocrat, The New State - The Admiral is a French Syrian aristocrat notorious for several massacres carried out by subordinates while supporting United Nations peacekeeping operations. He was ultimately banished to a series of roles as a submariner and naturalist before being shipped off to the Unity Mission at a time when both it and he were still out-of-favor in Paris. St. Germaine is an acid critic of Western democracies, which he believes failed to demonstrate appropriate flexibility of unprecedented stressors. With the military hierarchy as his model, the Admiral will institute a society beneath the seas of Chiron that is, in theory, meritocrat, but will better resemble a conservative Integralist [ed. - Hi, Kaiserreich!] autocracy. This is the lord in his castle, with subjects whose loyalty is rooted in their abject dependence upon his physical protection from the depredations of others. In the New State, citizens will be expected to give service in accordance with their allotment of benefits. While outwardly communistic, to be fair, one can indeed climb the ranks in this faction and express dissent to a degree. Life in the New State is straightforward: you serve, and then you take your leisure. If you are of low rank, your work is simple and your obligations are few. If you are of high rank, your freedoms increase but the expectations of rank impose steep costs. A case in point? Civilians marry for affection, Knights for social advantage. Played straight, St. Germaine might be captain of a society that functions like a submarine on patrol. Subverted, he can be the maritime foil to van de Graaf.
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Trenacker
Margrave of the Transvaal
- Location
- Imperial Remnant
I like this whole attempt to explain your decisions for posterity's sake. Take an extra vote.
Take an extra vote, too. I do better when I have people to respond to, and you've been great about engaging, so thank you.
To be strictly fair, the computer game was packaged with fiction (appended to a thick manual) that described a measure of early cooperation between the crew, though the fragmentation and mutual suspicion started at once.
I think what you're going to see in this game--in fact, I know what you're going to see in this game--is strong antipathy between some factions and close collaboration between others, but always with a consciousness that, ideologically, each group has a very difficult, and arguably mutually exclusive, vision for Planet.
Every leader and their close followers has a different stance on four Big Ideas™:
- Why did civilization on Earth fail?
- What is the fundamental truth of the universe?
- What is necessary for survival of our species on Chiron?
- Is it possible ever to "go home" again?
I don't know that the original fiction really settled the matter, although the game functionally gave the impression that Earth was out of the picture permanently (unlike, say, StarCraft). The opening cinematic was rather dark, to say the least.
In my game, the faction leaders have different perspectives about whether Earth is likely to have survived, and if so, whether "recontact" is even a desirable objective. That's something they're probably willing to fight and die over. For example, Francisco d'Almeida accepted it as anxiomatic that he was a servant of the Portuguese Empire, present only to represent its interests on Chiron. Cobb's presence as a factor is ostensibly to evaluate the new planet's commercial potential to the pharmaceutical industry. General Marcel Salan's marines mostly just want to go home. Zakharov sees "recontact," or at least finding out, what happened to Earth, as a great challenge worthy of his mental efforts. Nagao and Katamari literally want to remake Chiron in Earth's image and then resettle it with Earth's survivors, whoever they might be. But others, like Pahlavi, have no particular use for "weak" humanity. Yang isn't partial to being held accountable by anyone. It is central to Miriam's worldview, and probably even moreso to her followers, that the Unity crew and colonists are the only survivors of the entire human species. Morgan, for his part, certainly wouldn't welcome the competition posed by a second expedition.
I think you're right.
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Dangit, Ulrik isn't on the list. He's my favorite in Crossfire since I can spread like wildfire across the sea and by the time anybody can poke me, I've got the industry and economy to deal with them. That can I can just pour units, air forces etc onto them from my far more secure sea-based colonies.
Though out of the list I'm leaning first towards Lal, then Zakharov and finally Pahlavi.
Though out of the list I'm leaning first towards Lal, then Zakharov and finally Pahlavi.
Trenacker
Margrave of the Transvaal
- Location
- Imperial Remnant
Here, Ulrik Svensgaard is replaced by Contreamirale St. Germaine, who also has a maritime faction.
To be honest, I don't find any of the expansion factions compelling from a philosophical standpoint. It appeared to me that their purpose was strictly to create and empower some fun gameplay styles, not to explore concepts of futurism. If you disagree, I welcome (and would cheirsh) deeper discussion.
- Location
- Canada
Let's look at what our votes so far say about our character so far.
Voting for LaCroix paints us as someone who truly and deeply cares about the Unilty and its mission. Believes enough to win the loyalty of one of the few other true believers out there, and the best military forces still around. And though it was partly LaCroix' idea to save the greenhouses, this is something we went along with. Which says something about our char, albeit mostly in combination with what follows.
The next decision is what really gives us an idea of the character though. We could have killed the spartans, and few would have objected. And honestly it would have been a fairly easy and justifiable decision, as the hard labour and education of these people will probably cost far more than they will contribute to our faction, even without the possibility of one of they breaking out and shooting people. But instead we gave them as close to a real trial as we could manage. This shows that we're someone who cares about people's rights, and holds to his ideals deeply enough that even in times of hardship we hold to our values. This is further reinforced by our taking the wounded rather than foisting them off on Skye, not willing to burden others with problems that are rightly ours. It would have been an easy decision to send them over to her, and probably better for our faction in the long run to do so. Yet we didn't. In times like this, that shows an unusual idealism and willingness to sacrifice for one's principles.
So a true believer in the ship's mission and purpose, with unusual idealism and belief in human rights and rule of law? I can only think of one faction leader who fits that bill.
[X] Chairman Pravin Lal, The Humanitarian, The Peacekeeping Forces
Voting for LaCroix paints us as someone who truly and deeply cares about the Unilty and its mission. Believes enough to win the loyalty of one of the few other true believers out there, and the best military forces still around. And though it was partly LaCroix' idea to save the greenhouses, this is something we went along with. Which says something about our char, albeit mostly in combination with what follows.
The next decision is what really gives us an idea of the character though. We could have killed the spartans, and few would have objected. And honestly it would have been a fairly easy and justifiable decision, as the hard labour and education of these people will probably cost far more than they will contribute to our faction, even without the possibility of one of they breaking out and shooting people. But instead we gave them as close to a real trial as we could manage. This shows that we're someone who cares about people's rights, and holds to his ideals deeply enough that even in times of hardship we hold to our values. This is further reinforced by our taking the wounded rather than foisting them off on Skye, not willing to burden others with problems that are rightly ours. It would have been an easy decision to send them over to her, and probably better for our faction in the long run to do so. Yet we didn't. In times like this, that shows an unusual idealism and willingness to sacrifice for one's principles.
So a true believer in the ship's mission and purpose, with unusual idealism and belief in human rights and rule of law? I can only think of one faction leader who fits that bill.
[X] Chairman Pravin Lal, The Humanitarian, The Peacekeeping Forces
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- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Chairman Pravin Lal, The Humanitarian, The Peacekeeping Forces
At some point, we are going to have to free the drones being held by the Dreamers of Chiron -- they're foreshadowed as the faction that's going to start mass atrocities on their drone population, starting with nerve stapling.
They're also sitting at +2 Drones, +1 Colonist -- as such, they are one of the stronger NPC factions and, if not checked, they are likely to become a major midgame threat.
That said, their demographic composition puts them at serious risks of drone riots, which LaCroix will be help stir up -- and that seems like the right time to introduce a former mining engineer, potentially from Brazil or Australia -- a skilled geologist who was reclassified as a drone, and now operates under the alias of Foreman Domai.
(Domai might work better as a faction personality, though, tbh.)
At some point, we are going to have to free the drones being held by the Dreamers of Chiron -- they're foreshadowed as the faction that's going to start mass atrocities on their drone population, starting with nerve stapling.
They're also sitting at +2 Drones, +1 Colonist -- as such, they are one of the stronger NPC factions and, if not checked, they are likely to become a major midgame threat.
That said, their demographic composition puts them at serious risks of drone riots, which LaCroix will be help stir up -- and that seems like the right time to introduce a former mining engineer, potentially from Brazil or Australia -- a skilled geologist who was reclassified as a drone, and now operates under the alias of Foreman Domai.
(Domai might work better as a faction personality, though, tbh.)
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- Location
- Canada
Let's take a look at the custom factions.
The Human Ascendancy is an interesting one, with the general ideology that humanity itself is flawed and needs to be improved in order to survive. And given the technology that could plausibly be around by the Unity's launch date, it seems like the sort of thing that might actually be a realistic goal. I fact the original game had a Homo Superior technology, so it is definately a possibble goal in universe. Science oriented faction, but still feels like even if the entire civilization is rooted in the transhuman ethos their leader preaches, it will still be a fully-fledged civilization. Feels like it needs a bit more fleshing out as transhumanism by itself is a rather vague philosophy, but for an intro post it has me intrigued. Will be interesting to see how she related to Yang, as they both have similar views on human nature being the cause of our problems, and needing a fundamental overhaul. However while she looks to genetics, he looks to education and culture as the way of rewriting humanity. Could see them being either close allies - seeing their goals as compatible and complementary - or bitter rivals, seeing the other as a mockery of what they stand for.
Honestly though, this is the only custom faction that really interests me. The tribe certainly has an ideology, but marauders and isolationists don't really feel like the sort of ideology that could plausibly "win" They'd be fine for a minor faction we meet on planet and interact with, but feel really lackluster as a major faction choice, because they'll never be the ones driving humanity forwards, perpetually concerned about their local concerns, while someone else leads that way.
I have similar complaints about the hunters, as nomadic low-tech people don't really feel liek something driving humanity forwards. Fine for a minor faction, but not a Major or player faction. Also, isn't the atmpsphere of Chiron not breathable without breathing apparatus? It really seems like this faction just wouldn't have the infrastructure set up to even survive a nomadic existance, as it's difficult to haul an industrial base around with you. So it feels like they'll be reliant on trade, and whatever supplies they can beg or extort from other factions to keep going. Not interesting.
The Dreamers feel like what could have been an interesting faction to play as, with a neat ideology, except that it's ruined because the leaders are made into psychopathic villains. I don't like that we have a designated bad-guy faction here, especially one as blatant as this. Feels like it breaks from the SMAC tone where even Yang - the closest thing to a real villan SMAC had - was treated with an even hand, and it was really shown why he believes what he does (and Yang is a true believer. he's not in it for personal power, he just seen power as necessary to achieve his philosophical goals). Whereas here this really doesn't feel like the same even-handed treatment the cannonical 7 factions got. just kills the interest for me.
And the New State and New Two Thousand just seem to lack any identifiable ideology. In a different nation game they would be fine, and fit right in, but SMAC was always about ideology, and these factions don't really have that. So no real interest here
I found the Cybernetic Consciousness interesting. The Cybernetic consciousness was all about transhumanism, and fundamentally altering humanity into something better. It was about not being afraid to take the blessings technology gave us and use them to the fullest extent we can. And it was about what we were willing to give up to reach this "better" future for humanity. While not as fleshed out as the main game 7, it's still an ideology that I think stands up to scrutiny.
I actually think they could be a good addition to this quest - albeit as a splinter faction later in the quest rather than a starting faction - due to the way their philosophy might interact with Pahlavi's. Would they work together, combining genetics and technology to create a better human? Or would they clash over what it truly means to even be human, with Pahlavi thinking that Aki is losing what makes life truly meaningful in her pursuit of efficiency and knowledge. Would Aki find Pahlavi a kindred spirit, or someone hung up on sentimentality, unwilling to do what is truly necessary to achieve her goals. Could even see Aki and the Consciousness being a splinter faction from the Human Ascendancy at some point, as ideological differences cause a fracture, or the less popular group to set up their own colony away from the main faction's reach.
The Human Ascendancy is an interesting one, with the general ideology that humanity itself is flawed and needs to be improved in order to survive. And given the technology that could plausibly be around by the Unity's launch date, it seems like the sort of thing that might actually be a realistic goal. I fact the original game had a Homo Superior technology, so it is definately a possibble goal in universe. Science oriented faction, but still feels like even if the entire civilization is rooted in the transhuman ethos their leader preaches, it will still be a fully-fledged civilization. Feels like it needs a bit more fleshing out as transhumanism by itself is a rather vague philosophy, but for an intro post it has me intrigued. Will be interesting to see how she related to Yang, as they both have similar views on human nature being the cause of our problems, and needing a fundamental overhaul. However while she looks to genetics, he looks to education and culture as the way of rewriting humanity. Could see them being either close allies - seeing their goals as compatible and complementary - or bitter rivals, seeing the other as a mockery of what they stand for.
Honestly though, this is the only custom faction that really interests me. The tribe certainly has an ideology, but marauders and isolationists don't really feel like the sort of ideology that could plausibly "win" They'd be fine for a minor faction we meet on planet and interact with, but feel really lackluster as a major faction choice, because they'll never be the ones driving humanity forwards, perpetually concerned about their local concerns, while someone else leads that way.
I have similar complaints about the hunters, as nomadic low-tech people don't really feel liek something driving humanity forwards. Fine for a minor faction, but not a Major or player faction. Also, isn't the atmpsphere of Chiron not breathable without breathing apparatus? It really seems like this faction just wouldn't have the infrastructure set up to even survive a nomadic existance, as it's difficult to haul an industrial base around with you. So it feels like they'll be reliant on trade, and whatever supplies they can beg or extort from other factions to keep going. Not interesting.
The Dreamers feel like what could have been an interesting faction to play as, with a neat ideology, except that it's ruined because the leaders are made into psychopathic villains. I don't like that we have a designated bad-guy faction here, especially one as blatant as this. Feels like it breaks from the SMAC tone where even Yang - the closest thing to a real villan SMAC had - was treated with an even hand, and it was really shown why he believes what he does (and Yang is a true believer. he's not in it for personal power, he just seen power as necessary to achieve his philosophical goals). Whereas here this really doesn't feel like the same even-handed treatment the cannonical 7 factions got. just kills the interest for me.
And the New State and New Two Thousand just seem to lack any identifiable ideology. In a different nation game they would be fine, and fit right in, but SMAC was always about ideology, and these factions don't really have that. So no real interest here
I found the Cybernetic Consciousness interesting. The Cybernetic consciousness was all about transhumanism, and fundamentally altering humanity into something better. It was about not being afraid to take the blessings technology gave us and use them to the fullest extent we can. And it was about what we were willing to give up to reach this "better" future for humanity. While not as fleshed out as the main game 7, it's still an ideology that I think stands up to scrutiny.
I actually think they could be a good addition to this quest - albeit as a splinter faction later in the quest rather than a starting faction - due to the way their philosophy might interact with Pahlavi's. Would they work together, combining genetics and technology to create a better human? Or would they clash over what it truly means to even be human, with Pahlavi thinking that Aki is losing what makes life truly meaningful in her pursuit of efficiency and knowledge. Would Aki find Pahlavi a kindred spirit, or someone hung up on sentimentality, unwilling to do what is truly necessary to achieve her goals. Could even see Aki and the Consciousness being a splinter faction from the Human Ascendancy at some point, as ideological differences cause a fracture, or the less popular group to set up their own colony away from the main faction's reach.
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jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
To be fair, I never really cared that much about the futurism aspects of the game (too young to bother with that when I started playing). My actions and society changes were towards A: buffing research/energy income (better tech + grab all the secret projects before somebody else does), B: expanding my empire (more production), C: keeping the ****ing mind worms from constantly attacking (see, I'm nice and green and friendly now LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY!
) and D: wiping Godwinson off the map the moment I found her.Because she always declared war on me anyway in short order so it tended to form a knee-jerk reaction of 'See Believers , remove Believers, get extra cites'. Seriously, even in the games where I didn't encounter her first, somebody always took her out in short order.
@Trenacker I think you forgot to threadmark the new chapter
[X] Chairman Pravin Lal, The Humanitarian, The Peacekeeping Forces
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Quotes from the game suggested that the planet's native atmosphere is breathable and the products of plant/animal life within a few extra processing steps to be useful nutrition(as seen by the fact that you can derive useful nutrient pips from completely unmodified native terrain), barring the fungus. The forests planted by the terraforming probes are capable of continued viability and spread on their own(again, barring the fungus, which may eat the forest or vice versa).
The problem is all the nasty stuff your immune system isn't set up for, so you don't need oxygen tanks, but you do need filter masks to keep spores and vermin out.
- Location
- United States of America
I felt pretty tempted to vote Dreamers of Chiron for the cool starcraft mind tech and sweet population boost, but then I got to the end of the blurb where the leaders are raging raving villains. That doesn't seem to fit our choices so far 
Oh well.
The Human Ascendancy feels pretty solid, but Miriam's reputation as a good faith actor (no pun intended) will be super important so as not to lose cohesion and collapse during a low-pop early game and to not get dogpiled by untrusting factions during the initial diplomatic phases.
[X] Sister Miriam Godwinson, The Zealot, The Lord's Conclave
Besides, Miriam/Skye is the original SMAC power alliance. Gotta keep with tradition!
Oh well.
The Human Ascendancy feels pretty solid, but Miriam's reputation as a good faith actor (no pun intended) will be super important so as not to lose cohesion and collapse during a low-pop early game and to not get dogpiled by untrusting factions during the initial diplomatic phases.
[X] Sister Miriam Godwinson, The Zealot, The Lord's Conclave
Besides, Miriam/Skye is the original SMAC power alliance. Gotta keep with tradition!
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
[X] CEO Nwabudike Morgan, The Mogul, The Dynamic Enterprise