They have not been honest about many things, some of them incredibly basic.
If we are playing diplomats, our job is to identify the facts on the ground so that we can make an informed decision -- that is, to understand and empathize with their motivations. That does not obligate us to be weak, nor does it obligate us to assume other people are acting in good faith to our detriment.
They are lying to us, and we need to know what they are lying about, and why. It may be perfectly benign, but we have no reason to assume that it is.
You mistake assumptions for facts. Please follow my suggestion and actually think through alternate explanations for every issue you raise besides deliberate deception. It didn't take me long. It's a good exercise.
[3] - Water Economy - Due to miscalculation [ed. - Sorry!] your water supplies are growing, but not at the sprinting rate previously reported. [2] - Agricultural Economy - Warm Welcome is laying in a good supply of nutrients, and you've the rations from Skagway to extend that lifeline further. Still, the blockade could result in landings that force you inside the walls. Then what? [1] - Extractive Economy - Guan Biao recommends a refinery to process your ore into ingots. Rather than feeding mass to the printers, which produce only simple objects, you could then look toward proper manufacturing using machine tools.
[X] - Request that the Tomorrow Institute assist you to raise the Skagway. You will make a trade for access to the Data Core. [-5 Minerals, -4 War Stores, -2 Survival Supplies, -2 Construction Supplies] [X] - Have LaCroix create a partition in the Unity Data Core and allow Metrion's party access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content and tape drives to create copies.
[X] - Offer Metrion's party a facilitated "tour" of the Unity Data Core to demonstrate its condition and offer to copy any non-faction-specific material of their choice, but do not allow them direct access.
[X] - Have LaCroix create a patrition in the Unity Data Core and allow Metrion's party access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content and tape drives to create copies.
[3] - Water Economy - Due to miscalculation [ed. - Sorry!] your water supplies are growing, but not at the sprinting rate previously reported.
[2] - Agricultural Economy - Warm Welcome is laying in a good supply of nutrients, and you've the rations from Skagway to extend that lifeline further. Still, the blockade could result in landings that force you inside the walls. Then what?
[1] - Extractive Economy - Guan Biao recommends a refinery to process your ore into ingots. Rather than feeding mass to the printers, which produce only simple objects, you could then look toward proper manufacturing using machine tools.
[3] - Water Economy - Due to miscalculation [ed. - Sorry!] your water supplies are growing, but not at the sprinting rate previously reported. [2] - Agricultural Economy - Warm Welcome is laying in a good supply of nutrients, and you've the rations from Skagway to extend that lifeline further. Still, the blockade could result in landings that force you inside the walls. Then what? [1] - Extractive Economy - Guan Biao recommends a refinery to process your ore into ingots. Rather than feeding mass to the printers, which produce only simple objects, you could then look toward proper manufacturing using machine tools.
[X] - Request that the Tomorrow Institute assist you to raise the Skagway. You will make a trade for access to the Data Core. [-5 Minerals, -4 War Stores, -2 Survival Supplies, -2 Construction Supplies] [X] - Have LaCroix create a partition in the Unity Data Core and allow Metrion's party access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content and tape drives to create copies.
I think that, even if they are, their options to make use of them are limited inside the base with 4 fully equipped platoons.
I don't think they are directly dangerous here and now. What are they going to do, break into the vault and shoot the Data Core?
I side with LaCroix on not trusting them one bit though. What they can do is, for example, use a virus to encrypt the Data Core and take the information hostage, or trade information about our defences with whomever is willing to take the chance. Yudikon's forces are only a few days away, and he would be all too glad to help "liberate" the base. There are also others not entirely happy with us making off with the Core. Should we not cooperate here, they won't have much trouble finding someone who would.
No. We only have one LaCroix, and I am not ready to expose the entire backbone of our security to these people. Uncertainty is a good deterrent.
[3] - Water Economy - Due to miscalculation [ed. - Sorry!] your water supplies are growing, but not at the sprinting rate previously reported. [2] - Agricultural Economy - Warm Welcome is laying in a good supply of nutrients, and you've the rations from Skagway to extend that lifeline further. Still, the blockade could result in landings that force you inside the walls. Then what? [1] - Extractive Economy - Guan Biao recommends a refinery to process your ore into ingots. Rather than feeding mass to the printers, which produce only simple objects, you could then look toward proper manufacturing using machine tools.
[x] - Tell Metrion that it would be unwise for his people to depart before you get the Skagway up and running--at least as a missile box. Invite them to assist. [-2 Minerals, -2 War Stores, -2 Construction Supplies] [You will be able to restore the ship to fuller functionality later, if desired.] [x] - Have LaCroix create a patrition in the Unity Data Core and allow Metrion's party access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content and tape drives to create copies.
[X] - Request that the Tomorrow Institute assist you to raise the Skagway. You will make a trade for access to the Data Core. [-5 Minerals, -4 War Stores, -2 Survival Supplies, -2 Construction Supplies]
[X] - Have LaCroix create a patrition in the Unity Data Core and allow Metrion's party access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content and tape drives to create copies.
[3] - Water Economy - Due to miscalculation [ed. - Sorry!] your water supplies are growing, but not at the sprinting rate previously reported.
[2] - Agricultural Economy - Warm Welcome is laying in a good supply of nutrients, and you've the rations from Skagway to extend that lifeline further. Still, the blockade could result in landings that force you inside the walls. Then what?
[1] - Extractive Economy - Guan Biao recommends a refinery to process your ore into ingots. Rather than feeding mass to the printers, which produce only simple objects, you could then look toward proper manufacturing using machine tools.
1) "Send the 'Formers to grade a road between Warm Welcome and U.N. Relief Station. [-1 Minerals, -1 Rations +1 Commerce]"
What entitles to +1 commerce? I presume it is energy income. But so far this is not reflected anywhere, except for some new(er) actions afaik. (Buildings like Labs and training clinic)
2) previous turn it was mentioned that if we start another construction project, that the efficiency would drop. Despite the addition of a new mine, the date of completion for the machine shop expansion is however unchanged. Perhaps this is a small oversight?
Question. Does granting access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content count as access to the Data Core as a trade for help in raising the Skagway or does only full and unrestricted access to the Data Core count?
Thinking about it. We got rid of Yudikon while sticking to our values by giving enough rope to hang himself with a good separation offer and let him discredit himself before the community when he demanded more. Granting access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content is potentially a good way to give the Tomorrow Initiative rope to hang themselves with if they do not know they are just getting a dumb terminal. If the Tomorrow Initiative is as obsessive and untrustworthy as I think they are, they won't be able to help themselves from trying to hack into or attempt unauthorized access to areas of sensitive information as soon as they think we are not watching. Otherwise, I would be pleasantly surprised.
So if we grant them access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content, will they know that it is just a dumb terminal or not?
We got rid of Yudikon while sticking to our values by giving enough rope to hang himself with a good separation offer and let him discredit himself before the community when he demanded more.
This is one way to look at the situation. The other is that we let him rob us blind and get away with stealing resources that we can't replace easily, or at all. If Dole Yudikon is at one end of the rope, we surely are hanging from the other.
Similarly, if the dumb terminal contains information about the Data Core itself that could be used to access it from our internal network, we could be playing ourselves.
But I still think we should give them something here, and there is not a lot they are interested in.
This is one way to look at the situation. The other is that we let him rob us blind and get away with stealing resources that we can't replace easily, or at all. If Dole Yudikon is at one end of the rope, we surely are hanging from the other.
Similarly, if the dumb terminal contains information about the Data Core itself that could be used to access it from our internal network, we could be playing ourselves.
But I still think we should give them something here, and there is not a lot they are interested in.
Yeah -- their average technician is much better at this specific task than our average technician, so I'd be concerned that they could break out of the honeypot to get root access to the Core and lock us out.
This is one way to look at the situation. The other is that we let him rob us blind and get away with stealing resources that we can't replace easily, or at all. If Dole Yudikon is at one end of the rope, we surely are hanging from the other.
True. The line between being perceived as the UN spinelessly appeasing bad faith actors again versus being perceived as doing all reasonable actions to prevent an entitled slaver from starting a civil war which would cause currently irreplaceable human losses was very thin. We were lucky that the coin of public opinion landed on the latter option but Yudikon helped by not bothering to strengthen his potential base among the indentured servants.
Being Pravin Lal is an exercise in being an idealist in a very unideal world. It's somewhat like being a Starfleet officer. We are constantly working alongside potential bad faith actors who are always to criticize perceived or actual hypocrisy against our ideals by Lal or the Peacekeepers to weaken them while they have absolutely no intention of living by our ideals. If we are not careful, we will be blind dogmatic idealists being constantly being undermined or steered to suboptimal outcomes and led into moral traps made by our own ideals while our foes outcompete and destroy us. It is no good being morally in the right if we are all dead. It was useful and pragmatic to watch and monitor Yudikon even though some advisors considered it hypocritical.
However, if we constantly cast aside our ideals for the pragmatic option, that would be almost surely a death in the long term as well as as our moral integrity and authority erode to nothing. The Star Trek Federation and Lal's Peacekeepers have unity and much diplomatic weight with their population and their neighbors because they hold themselves to higher standards than other factions. They do not have the power to hold themselves by military force but they do not need to. If the Federation or Lal discredited themselves by constantly betraying their ideals, their faction would fall apart. In holding ourselves to higher standards and ideals, we open ourselves to much more criticism than other factions. Lal would know that very well because on Earth he used to criticize the Americans and the Europeans for hypocrisy and human rights violations far more than dictators who had always openly commited human rights violations. And sometimes it is rewarding to stick to our ideals. As it turned out that the ideals of the UN charter had a greater hold on people's hearts than an indentured servitude contract and Yudikon ended up losing most of his potential followers.
1) "Send the 'Formers to grade a road between Warm Welcome and U.N. Relief Station. [-1 Minerals, -1 Rations +1 Commerce]"
What entitles to +1 commerce? I presume it is energy income. But so far this is not reflected anywhere, except for some new(er) actions afaik. (Buildings like Labs and training clinic)
2) previous turn it was mentioned that if we start another construction project, that the efficiency would drop. Despite the addition of a new mine, the date of completion for the machine shop expansion is however unchanged. Perhaps this is a small oversight?
Question. Does granting access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content count as access to the Data Core as a trade for help in raising the Skagway or does only full and unrestricted access to the Data Core count?
Thinking about it. We got rid of Yudikon while sticking to our values by giving enough rope to hang himself with a good separation offer and let him discredit himself before the community when he demanded more. Granting access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content is potentially a good way to give the Tomorrow Initiative rope to hang themselves with if they do not know they are just getting a dumb terminal. If the Tomorrow Initiative is as obsessive and untrustworthy as I think they are, they won't be able to help themselves from trying to hack into or attempt unauthorized access to areas of sensitive information as soon as they think we are not watching. Otherwise, I would be pleasantly surprised.
So if we grant them access to a dumb terminal pre-loaded with patritioned content, will they know that it is just a dumb terminal or not?
It would depend on whether or not you wanted to withhold that information from them. Since I didn't explicitly pitch the action as a ruse, however, you would let them know up front that they would need to work from a disk image and would not be permitted to access the real thing.
Vote 1 - Addressing Sathieu Metrion
Offer to make copies of Core material - 3
Request that the Tomorrow Initiative party receive a physical - 3
Invite the Tomorrow Initiative to help raise the Skagway - 5
Vote 2 - The Concerns of Terrance LaCroix
Introduce LaCroix to Metrion - 2
Allow Metrion access to a dumb terminal - 7
Base Operations hotly debates the ethical dimensions of different responses to the Tomorrow Institute's request for access to the Unity Data Core.
Tomorrow Institute personnel decline medical evaluation by the Peacekeeping Forces.
Tomorrow Initative accepts Commissioner Lal's offer of access to a dumb terminal with an image of the Unity Data Core and begins copying data.
Terrance LaCroix detects no evidence of unauthorized access to the Unity Data Core.
Terrance LaCroix sends you the Service Record and Psych Profile of Tạ Dọc Thân. Tạ Dọc Thân is recorded as having died aboard U.N.S. Unity.
Tomorrow Initiative agrees to help raise the Skagway.
A blockading Foil raises the white flag and begins slow approach to Warm Welcome.
Outcomes: The Diplomat and the Data Scientist
Commissioner Pravin Lal said:
What is meant by this word, honesty? How can we agree on even subjective truth without a shared context for understanding? If I become aware of an assumption on your part that is untrue, and then do nothing to correct it, I become complicit in your ignorance. A liar is someone who leaves behind him a falsehood. One need not speak to tell a lie. - Journals of Planet
How can the Peacekeeping Forces' obligation to provide wise stewardship of such an invaluable resource be balanced against your stated commitment to the sharing of information? No authority said, "And Pravin Lal shall determine who is worthy, and who unworthy." Even prisons must have libraries.
What if Metrion asks for information on water purification or materials conductivity? What if he wanted to access personnel records for the benefit of civil administration at Bright Point? Perhaps he needs medical data to inform treatment plans for colonists right now dying of Red Flu, a disease almost totally eradicated by Mission Launch? And if he didn't, would it be your right to refuse anyway? The Americans had a saying: rights don't need justification.
Vesper Abaddon said:
What kind of thief steals entire the Tree of Knowledge, locking away not only the fruit, but also the trunk and seeds? That's what I'd like to know.
Your problem is that you might lack the expertise to assure yourself that the Data Core won't be tampered with. Letting Metrion close enough to pluck the renewable fruit of the Core is a gamble. He could inject a poison. He could leave behind a worm. Might he be concealing an axe? Or are you simply so paranoid that you can no longer remember that hungry men have wild eyes? It is impossible to feed the world if you will not let it near you. It is impossible to show mercy if you cannot excuse imperfection.
But are there reasonable ways to learn more than you already know? What really happened aboard Unity? Could the Core itself contain an answer? Surely the system contains administrator logs, security camera footage, and other means to validate Metrion's claim that Data Services lived up to the very best traditions of the United Nations Alpha Centauri Mission?
The "answers" brought back by LaCroix after two days of searching troubled you immensely. "Colonel" Santiago was but one of many mutineers. It had begun immediately. Each of the senior officers had thought only for themselves. They had actively impeeded the work of others. Francisco d'Almeida woke up too many responders. Some of them, he sent at once to the Landing Pods. Why? Chief Engineer Zakharov refused orders to render meaningful support to other departments, sending the wrong kind of help, or too little. Later, he had broken the security lock on the armory. Issued weapons. Garland let it happen. Skye countermanded orders issued by higher authorities, routing too many resources to the hydroponics bays. An Aleigha Cohen, M.D., resuscitated over four hundred convicts with no conceivable role to play in shipboard operations--hours before the decision was made to abandon ship. Oscar van de Graaf, probably summoned to oversee the recovery of heavy firefighting equipment from various cargo bays, decided he needed American Reclamation Corporation paramilitary guards. Every member of the Aquatic Operations Section was brought up. So too more than a hundred-and-a-half researchers attached to the Life Sciences Division. And hundreds of Data Services personnel.
Sathieu Metrion's story was half-true. Data Services did mobilize a massive response to the Core, fighting fires and starting systems diagnostics. LaCroix found evidence to confirm that they had ignored multiple alarms to supervise key life support and fire control systems remotely from Core Control. Zakharov had ignored the needs of others, but Data Services under Thân had treated his ever need as both urgent and sacrosanct. Internal message traffic between data terminals used by Thân's team found that they had worked to resolve a half-dozen competing emergencies, not least of which were viruses, compiling errors threatening to consume precious system resources, and physical attacks on junction boxes elsewhere aboard the starship. Thân had led them well. And then he had died.
Thân was a French Indochina native of about 32 at the time of his death. Born to a wealthy Catholic family in Huế, he completed his education in France and never returned home. Thân was a computer scientist minoring in Philosophy who quickly found himself in supervisory positions. Involvement with the Centre National d' Etudes Spatiales and the Venusian Survey preceded secondment to the Unity Mission. Thân had been an unwilling candidate. His file was appended with a personal letter to the French president requesting reassignment--a reflection of the strong political valence acquired by the mission in French politics.
Despite personal misgivings regarding the value of the U.N. mission to his home country, Thân earned high marks from evaluators for his mental stability and team orientation. He had an enviably high score on both parts of the Atherholt Trauma Function Test. U.N. psychologists judged that disappointment over career derailment would not prevent Thân's becoming "a full and valuable mission contributor."
You killed Tạ Dọc Thân, in a matter of speaking. He was one of the approximately forty fatalities caused by decompression when you ejected the Data Core. Again reconstructing a sense of the situation from digital communications traffic, LaCroix thought the data scientists had never satisfied themselves as to who bore responsibility. (To LaCroix's clear embarassment, Erkins pointed out to you that this meant the Peacekeeping Forces had ordered the launch using an anonymous account.)
Metrion's personal story was innocuous. National service in the Royal Thai Navy followed by training in data science at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and ultimate nomination to the Unity Mission. In possession of Officer-Like Qualities, but lacking the political acumen or perceived reliability to be promoted to higher rank within the U.N. command structure. (A fate typical of those who joined as members of explicitly national contingents.)
If there are different degrees of untruth--lies worse than omissions, and so on--intentional concealment can still be considered one of them. The Tomorrow Institute asked an awful lot of trust in return for very little. How could they think you would not count it against them, bringing up the Red Flu only after prodding? Now what to do that Metrion had concealed Thân's death? Did this mean he had satisfied himself as to your guilt in the matter? How? Was Bright Point a lie? Were these the people from the desert?
Why so many lies? It was selfish behavior. Just like their behavior in the mess hall. A gracious guest considers the ability of the host to feed themselves also. A gracious guest does not take still images of fortifications. The Tomorrow Institute displayed great physical courage in breaking the naval blockade of Warm Welcome, but why? In a colony of 300 people, what would justify sending a crew of at least ten on a deadly-dangerous mission? How come Metrion asked for no medical assistance? You saw their Foil struck by shells.
You tried to feel them out by requesting they receive a physical. All of Metrion's companions refused. He represented to you that it was not within his power to compel them to receive medical care they elected against, but he himself was willing to be seen by Dr. Singh. She diagnosed vitamin deficiency also common in Warm Welcome as well as some bruising to the right-side sub-orbital that Metrion told her had been inflicted by an impact with his range-finder while commanding the Foil on final approach to the island. Singh documented that Metrion also had a freshly-installed data-jack at the base of his skill. The data-jack was a relatively new development in cybernetics at the time of Mission Launch. Data-jacked persons could more easily scan and correlate computer information, using their brain to store and recall programs. Confirmed side effects included headache, nose bleeds, and blurred vision. Many corporations financed installations to encourage their adoption by those who worked with large data sets or needed real-time access to news information and public opinion. Since U.N. authorities were divided on whether man-machine interface represented an inherent violation of human rights, data-jacking was formally discouraged for colonists and crew. Metrion had assured Dr. Singh that his data-jack was installed voluntarily by qualified doctors at Bright Point.
Deciding to cautiously extend the olive branch, Base Operations arranged for dummy terminal access to a Data Core disk image. You hoped by this means to demonstrate to the Tomorrow Institute that you were in possession of the Data Core, that it was in good condition, and that you would not deny reasonable use. To this, they consented without argument. Most of their interest was related to the Data Core's code base, but they also asked for the medical, engineering, and scientific files loaded onto the Core to support early colonization.
Having allowed them time in the Reading Rooms, you were pleased they did not afterward restrict themselves to that pastime only. Metrion attended public interest lectures, helped dig an irrigation trench during an early-morning walk, and demonstrated interest in the Skagway. He was also curious about your mining operations, though perhaps it was only polite conversation: the expansion of your extraction economy distracted from the Tomorrow Institute's "state" visit. Over the course of several meetings, Sun Shao received your approval for plans to further inspect the small crater of Terran vegetation located by Planitzer, which he hopes to cultivate for hardwoods.
At your suggestion that the Tomorrow Initiative might like to contribute their skills to the ship's restoration, he expressed delight. From that point on, the Tomorrow Initiative can only be described as open-handed, transferring personnel and even supplies from their own ship, the amusingly-named Kungalooshi, which eventually moved in close enough to lend its mighty pumps to the refloating effort, yielding up many more moon suits for Major King to grouse over. To his credit, Metrion did not ask you to feed them.
Three's a Crowd
Relocation of the Kungalooshi to under Skagway's shadow seems to have struck a nerve.
Far out to sea, one of the unfriendly Foils on the opposite side of your island began motoring nearer. By the end of that day, it was flying a white flag. (Truce, Erkins guessed. Why surrender piecemeal? If that were the case, the other ships would presumably have fired on their wavering comrade.)
Planitzer, his column rounding Mortar Hill, spotted the oncoming Foil and radioed the observation to Chamomile, already on alert because of sensor readings. He confirmed that all was quiet in the direction of Relief Station, however. (In everyday use, you have dropped the U.N. pre-fix when referring to Dole Yudikon's refuge.)
The new Foil was much smaller than that of the Tomorrow Institute. A basic utility model, very like your own. Small enough that the lift fans carried it right over the sand bars and up to your jetty. The craft had been hard-used. In several places, the hoverskirt was patched. Cloth awnings stretched for shade showed holes from shrapnel. The small crew stood away from two small machine guns in a ring mount cut into the prow but carried themselves with a tension suited for hostility.
From the small wheelhouse, a man in a late-model space suit showed both hands, palms out, before clambering to shore. The thin grey box on his chest probably contained air filters. It was also painted with a very rudimentary skull and crossbones.
Skinner said:
Came t'see the man himself. I represent the sea. 'O course I do. You take me to 'im now. Got business, we do. 'E's been pickin' up all sorts 'o trouble. But we'll wash it clean for yous. See if we won't.
Resource Pool (Net):
+Health
+3 Morale
-2 Planet
Construction Slots: 2/2
Slot 1 (125%): Expand machine shop Slot 2 (125%): Build new mines
Survival Supplies: 2 [-1for raising the Skagway; +1 from Kungalooshi]
Medical Supplies: 0
Construction Supplies: -2 [-2 for raising the Skagway. Action will be slowed until 3D printer availability increases.]
War Stores: 2 [-3 for raising the Skagway;+1 from Kungalooshi]
[1 War Stores and 3 Rations are being stored from Skagway]
Water Stockpile: 22 [+2/turn]
Ration Stockpile: 1
Nutrient Stockpile: 9 [+3/turn]
Energy Stockpile: >10
Mineral Stockpile: 5 [+3/turn] [-5 for raising the Skagway]
4 independent cryobeds [stowaways]
Resource Production (Gross):
Water Sector (Lvl. VI)(recurring net water yield of+2) (@ -1 Water per 2 POP/turn)
+3 Water (sector improvements) [recurring]
+2 Water (moisture catchments yield +2) [recurring]
Agricultural Sector (Lvl. II) (recurring net nutrient yield of +3) (@ -1 Nutrient/Ration per 2 POP/turn)
+1 Nutrients (sector improvements) [recurring]
+2Nutrients (soybean fields) [recurring]
+1Nutrients (subrid corral) [recurring]
+2Greenhouse [recurring]
Extraction Sector (Lvl. II) (recurring net Mineral yield of +3)
+1Minerals (sector improvements) [recurring]
+2 Minerals (automated mine) [recurring]
Manufacturing Sector (Lvl. II) (enhanced 3D Printers yield 125%)
Base Facilities and Improvements: Warm Welcome
Landing Pod (deployed)
+Perimeter Stockade
+3D Printers (enhanced)
+Pump Station
+Moisture Catchments x 2 (recurring Water yield of 2)
+Soybean Field (recurring Nutrient yield of 2)
+Nutrient Greenhouses x 2 (recurring Nutrient yield of 2)
+Subrid Corrals (recurring Nutrient yield of 1)
+Automated Mine (recurring Mineral yield of 2)
+Sensor Array (east)
+Unity Data Core + 4 Data Nodes (Discover)
Schedules:
Machine Shop Expansion: Saturday, 9/26 [revised upward due to addition of mining work]
Completion of New Mine: Wednesday, 9/23 Return of Planitzer Expedition: Wednesday, 9/23 Next research breakthroughs:
(Build): Wednesday, 9/30
(Discover): Thursday, 10/1
Vote 1 - Settlement Defense
Choose one.
[ ] Drill the Marines. Have King take them up Mortar Hill and back.
[ ] Drill the Militia. Order King and Erkins to put them through their paces.
[ ] Order Peacekeeping Forces to sea aboard two 'Foils and have them patrol the coast. [-1 Rations, -1 War Stores]
[ ] Order Peacekeeping Forces to sea aboard two 'Foils and have them intercept any contact that wanders within range of the Sensor Array. [-1 Rations, -1 War Stores] (Note: This will significantly deplete the base garrison.)
[ ] Request that Erkins send a Spartan spy to U.N. Relief Station.
[ ] Attempt to convince one of the former Struan's people to spy on U.N. Relief Station.
[ ] Expand perimeter defenses. Build a bunker complex facing the island's eastern shore. [Direction of Kungalooshi's original approach.]
[ ] Erect some kind of seaward defense on the western shore. [Direction of the Skagway's wreck.]
[ ] Build prepared defenses on the path to U.N. Relief Station. This will include the setting of sensor traps and the laying of remote mines as well as establishing overlapping fields of fire for fixed weapons. [-2 Construction Supplies, -2 War Stores]
[ ] Raise Warm Welcome's security alert level. Redeploy the Marines to maximize internal security.
[ ] Open the remaining 4 cryopods containing stowaways. There have to be more surprises waiting, and not all of them are apt necessarily to be bad.
Vote 2 - Pirates?!
Choose one.
[ ] React diplomatically. Treat the overture at face value.
[ ] Piracy is a violation of the Law of the Sea. Arrest the man so bold as to arrive on your doorstep--and with an affected accent, no less! Impound his vessel.
[ ] Demand immediately to know whether "Skinner" can attest to the fate of your missing Foil or Hakizimana and friends.
[ ] Demand an explanation for the blockade's behavior on behalf of Master Malakai Ro and Annunciator Sathieu Metrion.
[ ] Allow Ro and Metrion to confront "Skinner" personally.
Vote 3 - Data Core Action
Look up an item of interest. Write-in.
[X] Drill the Militia. Order King and Erkins to put them through their paces.
[X] React diplomatically. Treat the overture at face value.
[X] Look up defense strategies relevant to your situation
[X] Drill the Militia. Order King and Erkins to put them through their paces. [X] React diplomatically. Treat the overture at face value.
[X] Look up any results for Skinner in the full list of biodata
Last is a temp thing. I can't think of anything better.
[X] Drill the Militia. Order King and Erkins to put them through their paces.
[X] React diplomatically. Treat the overture at face value.
[X] Look up anything relevant to exploring and utilizing the cave system underneath Warm Welcome
Caves are cool, caves are fun, getting something helpful in regards to that would be nice since dude we spoke to was very clear that we should be looking into this more.
How different would it be from generic guard duty they are doing now?
[x] Drill the Militia. Order King and Erkins to put them through their paces. [x] Demand immediately to know whether "Skinner" can attest to the fate of your missing Foil or Hakizimana and friends.
[x] Look up anything relevant to exploring and utilizing the cave system underneath Warm Welcome
[X] Drill the Militia. Order King and Erkins to put them through their paces.
[X] React diplomatically. Treat the overture at face value.
[X] Look up anything relevant to exploring and utilizing the cave system underneath Warm Welcome
[X] Open the remaining 4 cryopods containing stowaways. There have to be more surprises waiting, and not all of them are apt necessarily to be bad.
[X] React diplomatically. Treat the overture at face value.
[X] Look up any results for Skinner in the full list of biodata
The Tomorrow Initiative is not as untrustworthy as I thought but not as innocent as I had hoped. They did not try to break into or demand more access to the Data Core but they have been giving us a lot of half truths and lies of omission that we can use the Data Core to see through which is troubling. Not mentioning the fact that they ignored alarms to supervise life support and fire control is not flattering to the Tomorrow Initiative but that behavior is not much different from the behavior of the other factions such as Lady Skye and Gaia's Stepdaughters. It is more troubling that they implied through omission that their original leader is alive when he is dead. Why? It seems bizarre. They keep sending out signals that tell us not to trust them needlessly. Have they forgotten how to be polite? Their zeal in helping us raising the Skagway is understandable. The Tomorrow Initiative needs the vessel to break the pirate blockade to return home safely. They would rather not risk running the blockade again if they can help it.
So the blockaders are pirates. Pirates are of course untrustworthy folks but I do not see the harm in being diplomatic toward them. The pirates are obviously afraid of the Skagway being restored to full function. We cannot get rid of the pirates at least until Skagway is restored and the pirates can damage us but they probably lack the power to overrun Warm Welcome. Perhaps we can give the pirates something reasonable. Maybe we can bribe them with food and clean water. Talks at least allow us to stall for time.
[X] Drill the Militia. Order King and Erkins to put them through their paces.
[X] React diplomatically. Treat the overture at face value.
[X] Look up anything relevant to exploring and utilizing the cave system underneath Warm Welcome
Perhaps Than is not as dead as he appears - the Tomorrow Initiate's thing is that they're trying to uplift the secondary computer core to sentience, right? What if the secondary core hosts an AI based on Than's neural net, scanned before he died?
[X] Drill the Militia. Order King and Erkins to put them through their paces.
[X] React diplomatically. Treat the overture at face value.
[X] Look up anything relevant to exploring and utilizing the cave system underneath Warm Welcome
Perhaps Than is not as dead as he appears - the Tomorrow Initiate's thing is that they're trying to uplift the secondary computer core to sentience, right? What if the secondary core hosts an AI based on Than's neural net, scanned before he died?
[X] Drill the Militia. Order King and Erkins to put them through their paces.
[X] React diplomatically. Treat the overture at face value.
[X] Look up anything relevant to exploring and utilizing the cave system underneath Warm Welcome
The Marines are not at full effectiveness. A platoon was deployed with Planitzer, although it should be back if all goes well in the next update. A battery's worth of men are with Senior Corporal Periera on Mortar Hill.
Pulling Marines off the walls is an internal security measure. You reduce the likelihood of security breaches but lose the benefit of extra eyes and bodies on your walls, at your external gates, and on your bastions.
