Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
I'm pretty okay with maintaining that the UN and the Charter, flawed as they may be, still maintain a minimum standard of acceptable behavior that everyone needs to abide by.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Iterations
- Thread starter Trenacker
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
- Pronouns
- She/Her
What exactly is in the Charter through?
LuciDreamer
Maliciously Incompetent
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hmm! It's good to know that military occupation worked... this time. Personally, I was hoping our two polities would end up at peace with one another, with us taking a dominant role in the relationship, obviously. But, it this is the way the wind blows...
*sniff* so much for fire is of warm now memes
[X] Place Dole Yudikon on trial. King's discoveries and the testimony of the Struan's settlers point to prosecutable crimes under the U.N. Charter.
Seems like a very clear-cut option. Plus, it sets the precedent that leaders of minor factions or independent city-states can and will be tried in a court under the authority of the U.N. charter, should they mistreat their citizens. A good deal all around.
I hope we don't set the precedent of invading polities first, only to figure out if such crimes were being committed after the fact, of course. But, we'll get there when we get there!
Part if me wonders if holding him in detention until we can return him to Struan's is a better decision, but then, if we do that, it's almost like we're prematurely giving Struan more legitimacy by deferring to their authority. And, like, they're a megacorp, are they not? So, no legitimacy, nor diplomatic immunity, for them.
[X] Open the tube with the female in a U.N. Space Force uniform. You cannot explain why she might be in a Soviet cryotube. Perhaps she was placed in cold sleep during a period when Moscow was footing the bills for the Project?
Eh. I'm just curious.
[X] Complete an overland survey of the island, focusing on finding salvage. [-2 Rations]
Clay is important, and so are people.
*sniff* so much for fire is of warm now memes
[X] Place Dole Yudikon on trial. King's discoveries and the testimony of the Struan's settlers point to prosecutable crimes under the U.N. Charter.
Seems like a very clear-cut option. Plus, it sets the precedent that leaders of minor factions or independent city-states can and will be tried in a court under the authority of the U.N. charter, should they mistreat their citizens. A good deal all around.
I hope we don't set the precedent of invading polities first, only to figure out if such crimes were being committed after the fact, of course. But, we'll get there when we get there!
Part if me wonders if holding him in detention until we can return him to Struan's is a better decision, but then, if we do that, it's almost like we're prematurely giving Struan more legitimacy by deferring to their authority. And, like, they're a megacorp, are they not? So, no legitimacy, nor diplomatic immunity, for them.
[X] Open the tube with the female in a U.N. Space Force uniform. You cannot explain why she might be in a Soviet cryotube. Perhaps she was placed in cold sleep during a period when Moscow was footing the bills for the Project?
Eh. I'm just curious.
[X] Complete an overland survey of the island, focusing on finding salvage. [-2 Rations]
Clay is important, and so are people.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Place Dole Yudikon on trial. King's discoveries and the testimony of the Struan's settlers point to prosecutable crimes under the U.N. Charter.
[X] Open the tube with the female in a U.N. Space Force uniform. You cannot explain why she might be in a Soviet cryotube. Perhaps she was placed in cold sleep during a period when Moscow was footing the bills for the Project?
[X] Equip the Marines to undertake long-range patrols aboard our Unity 'Foils. Search for salvage and map the nearby coast. [-1 War Stores, -2 Rations]
[X] Open the tube with the female in a U.N. Space Force uniform. You cannot explain why she might be in a Soviet cryotube. Perhaps she was placed in cold sleep during a period when Moscow was footing the bills for the Project?
[X] Equip the Marines to undertake long-range patrols aboard our Unity 'Foils. Search for salvage and map the nearby coast. [-1 War Stores, -2 Rations]
Trenacker
Margrave of the Transvaal
- Location
- Imperial Remnant
Honestly, I think that's up to you to decide. I'll let you write up charges during the trial.
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
Yeah. At least until we upgrade and expand our navy a bit, and preferably after we develop the ability to replenish our missile stocks. There should be plenty of salvage available on land and perhaps very close to shore for now. We can grab all the cryopods and other goodies we can there first, while working on the stuff we need for a navy.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
The more I think about it, the more I am concerned about managing the trial well.
On one point, Yudikon is not wrong -- Vice-Admiral Almeida, Garland's deputy, as his last act in office declared the Mission Charter no longer in force. That means there is a serious question of jurisdiction here -- we have to demonstrate that Yudikon falls under our jurisdiction and not Struan's or other law.
One approach might be to emphasize that Almeida had no authority to issue a command to abrogate the Mission Charter on his own -- the Mission Charter is the foundational law governing all colonists, and until the decision not to abide by that covenant is ratified by the full Unity complement, the Mission Charter remains in force. At most, Almeida's order would extend to actions aboard Unity but he has no authority over Planet.
It's... colorable?
---
We may also going to want to be conservative in the charges we press against Yudikon. We'd need to do it right -- a full investigation of the facts and whether any of his decisions were in violation of the public trust. Going to be hard to make much more than that stick, I suspect.
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TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
If I had to guess I would suppose it takes some of the principles of the U.N. Charter, pretty much the entirety of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and adds in some unique bits that everyone could agree on about how to work together colonizing a new planet. Those would probably be quite vague because anything specific is hard to come to agreement on in diplomacy. I'd wager it'd be something like the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 where the parties agreed that ownership of territory would constitute nothing short of actually exploiting it.
Some people might have argued for a commitment to Chiron remaining unmilitarized, but judging from the number of weapons that were sent onboard the Unity those people lost the argument to the people who wanted to be prepared in case the planet or their human neighbors proved dangerous.
Putting on my lawyer hat for a minute, I'd just argue that Almeida (and Garland) didn't have the authority to unilaterally declare the Charter null and void, for much the same reason that the President of the United States can't unilaterally declare the United States Constitution null and void.
Unless the Charter specifically granted that power to the chief executive of the expedition I think it's a strong argument. And it's difficult imagining the Charter doing that because if it did then that would essentially make the chief executive a dictator and the Charter wholly irrelevant. Even with military ship captains traditionally being given broad latitude in how they ran their ships, a grant of completely unchecked power seems unlikely.
Chances are that Almeida even took an oath to uphold the Charter, a very common tradition among both public officials of most nations and members of militaries. That means that Almeida was committing treason in attempting to destroy the Charter he (and everyone else on the expedition except the stowaways) agreed to uphold.
The one thing that could dissolve the Charter with real legitimacy would likely be some sort of vote taken by representatives of all the humans on Chiron. (Like the way the Repeal U.N. Charter diplomacy option works in the game.) Particularly if everyone agreed to replace it with something else.
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[x] Hold Dole Yudikon without trial until he can be turned over to a representative of Struan's.
[x] Open the tube with the male in what appears to be a Carmelite military uniform. Abaddon could not explain why he would be in a Soviet-manufactured cryotube except to remind you that hibernation suites were easily sourced from Warsaw Pact countries eager to obtain hard currency. He insists that he made no such investments while King of Carmel. Could this be another prisoner of some sort?
[x] Request that Sathieu Metrion and the Kungalooshi escort your Foils on short-salvage operations.
[x] Open the tube with the male in what appears to be a Carmelite military uniform. Abaddon could not explain why he would be in a Soviet-manufactured cryotube except to remind you that hibernation suites were easily sourced from Warsaw Pact countries eager to obtain hard currency. He insists that he made no such investments while King of Carmel. Could this be another prisoner of some sort?
[x] Request that Sathieu Metrion and the Kungalooshi escort your Foils on short-salvage operations.
Largely agreed, though its possible that a chief executive might declare emergency powers and the Charter thus being suspended for the duration.
In which case the debate would be whether the emergency constitutes the time between ship failure and establishment of self-sustaining colonies, or whether its indefinite.
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
Since the executive's powers came from the Charter, suspending it entirely is paradoxical. I also get the impression that at least onboard ship it granted the Captain sweeping powers anyway. It's not like they needed to consult with a legislature or something equally unwieldy, and would consequently need some way around that in an emergency. I just don't see a provision like emergency powers being necessary in the framework.
Also, pretty much by definition emergencies can't be permanent states of affairs, so that's a point against the indefinite emergency powers possibility.
- Location
- New York
A problem is I think that we accepted the UN Mission Charter was dissolved if not de jure then de facto. Warm Welcome is technically run according to a new UN colonial charter based on the original ratified right after Yudikon left for Relief Station. Then again, "Implement the U.N. Charter and reunite the Unity survivors under its auspices" is Lal's vision and perhaps charging Yudikon is the first step toward that.
We should do a proper investigation of Yudikon and get testimony from the Struan's survivors. Considering technically no one died under Yudikon's command despite his callous conduct, there might not be much to slap him with. At a minimum, we can charge Yudikon with stealing colony supplies before he left as we technically never pardoned him of the theft and only let him leave with the stolen supplies for the sake of peace.
We should do a proper investigation of Yudikon and get testimony from the Struan's survivors. Considering technically no one died under Yudikon's command despite his callous conduct, there might not be much to slap him with. At a minimum, we can charge Yudikon with stealing colony supplies before he left as we technically never pardoned him of the theft and only let him leave with the stolen supplies for the sake of peace.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
The Struan's refugees likely have a civil claim against Yudikon, should they decide to press it. "Maladministration" likely isn't a crime, though
---
We have recovered half of the Fission Rovers that originally went with Yudikon. Are the other half destroyed, not yet recovered, or still at Relief Station?
That is probably the easiest way of dealing with our power crunch.
---
We have recovered half of the Fission Rovers that originally went with Yudikon. Are the other half destroyed, not yet recovered, or still at Relief Station?
That is probably the easiest way of dealing with our power crunch.
- Location
- Classified
Once we get out of our current electronics crunch, we should see about putting together a few Rovers, dedicate the fission ones to power duty. Maybe get a battery too. That said, we're presumably going to want to get the electronics assembly line next, to go with our lab and further the Skagway.
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
I really wish we'd voted for the electronics assembly line first, we would have finished things faster with it producing things. Ah well.
Trenacker
Margrave of the Transvaal
- Location
- Imperial Remnant
That is very reasonable.
You also know it includes provisions that obligate all charter colonists to the mission for a period of not less than two years, whereupon they will be released from further obligation and their equipment returned to them for the purpose of independent settlement.
Unity's small armory contained mostly less-lethal equipment. The contingent of fully-armed U.N. Marines was highly controversial. It's entirely possible that the Charter made no provision for that kind of thing.
Various officers opposed this posture. Francisco d'Almeida thought Garland had been cavalier about shipboard security. J.T. Marsh famously brought weapons aboard because he expected to use them against megafauna.
You'd have to argue that the mission and its charter were distinct.
The Mission Charter probably did not speak to its own nullification, but it stands to reason that there would have been language designed to allow the colony to run as a military undertaking until a representative form of government could be established.
In the original fiction, Zakharov convinced the other faction leaders to agree to the abrogation. In this case, Lal's understanding is that d'Almeida gave the order and it was obeyed because of the de facto impossibility of restoring order.
It's no stretch to imagine Dole Yudikon reminding everybody that you clearly respected d'Almeida's decision. If not, what were you doing mucking about in all those cargo bays?
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Place Dole Yudikon on trial. King's discoveries and the testimony of the Struan's settlers point to prosecutable crimes under the U.N. Charter.
[X] Open the tube with the female in a U.N. Space Force uniform. You cannot explain why she might be in a Soviet cryotube. Perhaps she was placed in cold sleep during a period when Moscow was footing the bills for the Project?
[X] Complete an overland survey of the island, focusing on finding salvage. [-2 Rations]
The UN Charter is the closest thing to a legal code we have. UN Space Force seems the most reliable of the 4. We are a bit low on War Stores and Rations. How can we make or get more?
[X] Open the tube with the female in a U.N. Space Force uniform. You cannot explain why she might be in a Soviet cryotube. Perhaps she was placed in cold sleep during a period when Moscow was footing the bills for the Project?
[X] Complete an overland survey of the island, focusing on finding salvage. [-2 Rations]
The UN Charter is the closest thing to a legal code we have. UN Space Force seems the most reliable of the 4. We are a bit low on War Stores and Rations. How can we make or get more?
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@Brainarius Hi!
We cannot make more rations, but nutrients counts as food as well.
We can create more war stores, construction supplies and survival supplies when our 3D printers are available again. The ratio is 1 mineral for 1 of the mentioned.
[X] Place Dole Yudikon on trial. King's discoveries and the testimony of the Struan's settlers point to prosecutable crimes under the U.N. Charter.
[X] Open the tube with the female in a U.N. Space Force uniform. You cannot explain why she might be in a Soviet cryotube. Perhaps she was placed in cold sleep during a period when Moscow was footing the bills for the Project?
[X] Complete an overland survey of the island, focusing on finding salvage. [-2 Rations]
We cannot make more rations, but nutrients counts as food as well.
We can create more war stores, construction supplies and survival supplies when our 3D printers are available again. The ratio is 1 mineral for 1 of the mentioned.
[X] Place Dole Yudikon on trial. King's discoveries and the testimony of the Struan's settlers point to prosecutable crimes under the U.N. Charter.
[X] Open the tube with the female in a U.N. Space Force uniform. You cannot explain why she might be in a Soviet cryotube. Perhaps she was placed in cold sleep during a period when Moscow was footing the bills for the Project?
[X] Complete an overland survey of the island, focusing on finding salvage. [-2 Rations]
DarkLight140
Credit to Team
- Location
- Lost in my thoughts
Speaking of nutrients and rations both counting as food, once we have actual trade partners we might want to look into a canning factory or something to convert some of our nutrients into rations every turn. As I understand it the difference between the two is primarily in whether they go bad, and as rations don't they are a vastly superior trade good- as well as being better for the purpose of emergency stores against sudden population spikes (likely from refugees, or cryobays being discovered) or calamity causing loss of nutrient production capacity.
aledeth
The Flesh is Weak
- Pronouns
- He/Him
War stores are 'easy' to make, as we just need to spend an action to turn X Minerals into some amount of Construction Supplies, War Stores, and/or Survival Supplies. It's not an automated thing yet.
Rations are unknown ATM how to get more.
Crimes Old and New
Trenacker
Margrave of the Transvaal
- Location
- Imperial Remnant
Crimes Old and New
Results:
Patterns In New Configuration
Dole Yudikon was the acknowledged leader of approximately fifty survivors. Most, like him, were "original signatories"—persons of means who loaned some portion of their terrestrial wealth to the struggling Unity Project in return not only for passage, but the right to settle free after an initial period of subordination to Mission Command. Traditionalists, yourself included, agonized over the subscription process, but then-Secretary General Claudia Alfaro held fast. Since begging and borrowing had not worked, she said, all that remained was to sell off parcels to save the farm. The gambit succeeded: forty-six factors came forward with the billions required to restart construction. They brought with them some eighty-thousand additions to the crew.
Colonists answerable to a factor were called Charterists after the documents they signed—contracts made not with the United Nations, but recruiters. Alfaro's innovation put the Project in direct competition with factors for talent. Bonuses paid out by the likes of Oscar van de Graaf and MacCallan Struan were sometimes greater motivation than idealism. Charterism briefly rekindled interest in Unity among skeptical Americans especially, but they were usually a different breed than either the commission-appointed colonists or core U.N. Space Force personnel.
Mainline colonists went of their own accord. Highly competitive national exams and extensive psychological evaluation weeded out potential misfits. They received the fullest training, simulating life and work in gravitic and atmospheric simulacra of Chiron for months on end and learning how to operate much of the onboard survival equipment. Following the twin spirits of service and adventure, they expected hardship and gloried in the test.
The U.N. Space Force was staffed almost entirely by direct secondment. If the United Nations was in favor with the donor government, those secondments might be worthy. The most storied included names like Zakharov, Salan, and d'Almeida. When the U.N. was disfavored, donor governments used the long-range mission to cast out unwanted stones. Insubordinate St. Germaine, for example. Culture indicated that cooperation would be forthcoming, but its precise limits were unknown.
Charterists acquired a thoroughly negative reputation. Mission Planners intended that most scut work be performed by robots or prisoners, and charter companies would have considered mere laborers a bad investment, so charter personnel were usually at least as qualified as their Mainline counterparts. They were also much more likely to be familied, which meant that they had to be lured with outsize compensation—or on the run from outsize problems. Factors were also conspicuous in denying that the mission was a guaranteed one-way trip, an attitude that trickled down until it was popular with nearly every Charterist. Factors also tended toward outlooks at odds with those of the United Nations. Pledging loyalty to the U.N. Charter was easy: almost no one feared the consequences of guaranteed free speech, liberty of conscience, or bodily autonomy. Charters notoriously pressed severe burdens on the individuals who signed them. Most Charters resembled articles of indentured servitude. Passage to Chiron had to be one day repaid, as did the drawing of basic rations, the use of base facilities, and so on. Even the most generous critics rarely refrained from using terms like "debt peonage." The sheer danger of the venture did not help matters since it encouraged would-be charter colonists to believe they would die before the practical consequences of so much debt could catch up to them.
Who can fail to notice the signal differences between the cryopod survivors and original Peacekeepers? The men and women who first joined you aboard Unity speak with the presumption that their opinions are not only welcome but valuable. They feel their leadership owes them explanation even when a decision is not taken in democratic conference. When work is done, they invest no less devotedly in the maturation of their personal relationships, the renewal of their bodies, and the enjoyment of intellectual stimulation. When confronted with a setback, they are resilient, and any problem of their own is readily made into common property. In their eyes, Dole Yudikon is an audacious thief who deserved to be hanged, no different than a short-sighted homesteader denying thirsty travelers their chance for water at a long-abandoned well to which he suddenly and conveniently claimed ancestral rights just as they arrived from the trail. "Logic" so parsimonious that it would someday kill them all.
The Charterists are meek. Guan Biao says they have the spirit of those who had put themselves for sale and took a price they knew was cheap. At Town Halls, though they have the same entitlements as anyone else, they keep silence when you would expect a self-interested person to speak. While Peacekeepers usually have hobbies, Charterists have projects. They tinker, and, when finished, usually dispose of the result in trade. They are much more likely to participate in the small, informal economy that has grown up in parallel to the planned disbursement of goods and experiences. Arrangements like these were also commonplace at U.N. Relief Station. Individual settlers would trade an hour of extra work for more soap, choicer sleeping arrangements, or a starter colony of meal worms to expand their diet. They are reserved, rarely confiding their burdens. They have earned the open disdain of Erkins and Ro, who seemingly cannot abide to be near them, a reaction you think is reflective of their own attitudes toward self-sufficiency. Dr. Singh feels they exhibit "a maladaptive passivity," but though you do not share her medical specialty, it is not a diagnosis you would feel comfortable making yourself. Vesper Abaddon claims to have seen the same attitude prevail among Gathi before the war that made Carmel. For citizens of a nation too weak to help itself, and on the brink of death from starvation, life became a series of interminable disappointments.
Detailed investigation turned up less than expected in the ruins of U.N. Relief Station. With fewer hands, less equipment, and virtually one in every three a member of Dole's personal guard (operating under the upsetting title of Asset Control), the colony's developmental trajectory was understandably flat. Facing the same problems of early survival as Warm Welcome, they imposed rationing, built small greenhouses, and recycled fanatically. To obtain water, they built large, sail-like wind traps that also supplied the colony with power, though the Fission Rovers rendered that supply redundant. Nobody starved. They shot subrids until the thinned population fled, then fished, and with greater success. Lacking scientists to teach them to fix nitrates, they fertilized their crops with manure collected in pit latrines. Inevitable breaches of the rules were resolved through temporary imprisonment, but physicals of the incoming refugees indicated none of the feared use of psi-whips, nor evidence even of beatings. Dole Yudikon dominated the small internal trade between colonists, reserving to himself a larger share of the goods released by you. He met complaints with referrals to the Struan's Charter, then with warnings that his will would be enforced by his praetorians.
Hoping for rescue from their poverty, the colony labored hard and without success to raise friendlies, exhausting its supply of signal flares. Despite visual detection of aircraft, they received no communication in return. The mercenaries patrolled up to a half-day's distance from the colony's walls on foot and recorded no sign of other habitation.
Dole Yudikon is now in your custody awaiting trial. He went peacefully. Colonel Martius appeared at the brig within the hour. Dole has asked Martius to give his defense.
Base Administration
The total population of Warm Welcome has risen to seven hundred. Of the fifty refugees newly collected from U.N. Relief Station, about a dozen were Struan's mercenaries, but most of the rest were supervisors and middle-managers, together with a handful of specialists unwilling to go back on their word when you offered sanctuary. The twenty prisoners liberated from the pirate patrols are from professions disposed to travel in small groups: road crews, survey teams, and security teams. To avoid allowing strangers aboard Chamomile, new arrivals have been asked to sleep in the greenhouses until you can resolve the housing crunch. Shao has reminded you that the mining tunnels are already fit to serve this purpose, though the lack of windows and the need to retrofit ventilation are non-starters. Town Hall conversation has left you in no doubt that the "acceptable" architectural solution is the windowed yurt, made of high-tensile plastics stretched over PVC tent poles and lit by light-emitting diodes.
Energy is also a problem. With twelve total Fission reactors now on hand, you have some flexibility, but the quick crescendo of the pirate threat brought home how necessary it will be to have access to all of your vehicles at short notice. Your several options include: deferring action; installing new energy production to allow you to unplug the Rovers; researching large-scale batteries; or removing the fission reactors from the 'Rover chasses, locating them in a custom plant configuration, and replacing them with scratch-built combustion engines.
Now confronted with the potential for long-term health damage, you were forced to retrieve another of the stowaways, a task entrusted to Med-Tech Karimov while the wounded sailors were in extremis.
Outwardly, Karimov retrieved a Caucasian female of twenty-six years. No indication of physical trauma. Per Karimov's recorded session notes, Space Force uniform name tag read Dialyse, along with the insignia of a lieutenant and the patch for the Corrections Division. Evidently, the patient was startled by the decanting process. She became violent. Patient and nurse practitioner fought. Dialyse knocked Karimov unconscious with the blow to the temple and fled, dashing through Chamomile's corridors until she found a lift that took her to ground level. Exiting the Landing Pod at a dead run that took her through the busy machine shop, she began choking as soon as she reached the airlock and was brought back to the infirmary in restraints.
Anxiety and irritability are common side-effects of cold sleep. While not every patient delivers so efficient a roundhouse, Dr. Singh at first reassured you that Lieutenant Dialyse was experiencing a fairly common reaction. Then, as always, your experience dropped off in quality. LaCroix entered the room and asked for you to join him in the adjoining office. Alone.
Unity's Data Core contains the information about Lieutenant Vinka Dialyse, the fourth daughter of an Aylūl banker and her much younger husband, a mountain climber of international stature. Dialyse followed his example and took up the sport herself. At the national university, she studied geology, then accepted commission in the Aylūl Geologic Survey, a quasi-military body operating in that country's Antarctic territory.
"Now the story gets weird," LaCroix had said, and rightly so, because according to the computer, Vinka Dialyse was killed in the catastrophic explosion of a trans-orbital shuttle departing the Lunar surface while her training was still underway.
Confronted with this extraordinary information, the person wearing the uniform of Vinka Dialyse claims ignorance. She was not killed, she says, though she can recall being involved in a terrible accident. LaCroix played the game of what-if and welcome a hypothesis as to why somebody would go to all the trouble of faking her death. To your chagrin, Dialyse had an idea of who might want to kill her, but none regarding how she could have survived. Dialyse purported that she had been involved in research demonstrating that Comprehensive Transport was making false statements with regard to the purity of water mined from the Antarctic shelf. Someone on the team had leaked word of their preliminary findings to the company, resulting in relentless harassment that she thought might plausibly have turned deadly.
LaCroix sighed. "Us and dead people."
A Passing
Virtually every person in the colony, including most survivors of Warm Welcome, attended the funeral. On the advice of Erkins, you kept it "as brief as possible," limiting the speeches to two: the first, a forgettable hash from Ro praising Köhler's sphinx-like demeanor, and the second, your own, of just three hundred-and-six words. When the memorial was finished, Ro had him loaded aboard the still-floating wreck of his last command. It was towed out to sea, where Köhler's body, wrapped in a sheet, was put overboard to the crack of Marine rifles.
You cannot help but regard Köhler as an asset to the Peacekeeping Forces who nonetheless died before he could leave his mark. What did you really know of Köhler's opinions about how you ought to have lived? What were his opinions about d'Almeida, a fellow officer, of his adversary Svensgaard, or even of you? Ro clearly appreciated him because she read his silence as intentional. Was it, or did Köhler just struggle to get a word in edgewise against men more familiar with the English language? Is it too much even to believe he must have had something to say?
Those who remain will never know. Eugen Köhler is dead. His personal effects were the familiar things impenetrable and insignificant to anyone but himself: projection discs containing recordings of home life from which he is conspicuously absent; a graduate's ring from the Mürwik Naval School; a silver wristwatch, obviously an heirloom; a small travel koraj set you placed in the Briefing Room as a legacy to him, the Mariner piece tilted on its side.
Is it possible a man died for you without believing in your creed? That he was so much a product of his training? Could the United Nations have within its ranks people whose minds were perfect blanks? Your sleep was fitful.
Köhler's death in intensive care coincided with an ironic new achievement by your chemists: pharmaceutical compounding. Dr. Singh left the memo on your terminal.
First Contact
The Nautilus Pirates appear to have been lured away to lick their wounds and hound lesser prey. The seas have cleared since your spectacular victory of arms and LaCroix reports a similar and corroborating diminution of radio traffic. Kungalooshi and your barge motored out to collect a grand total of six hulls. You secured a considerable quantity of survival equipment, took large quantities of munitions into your armory, and liberated twenty prisoners from execrable conditions, including the crew of your previously-lost Foil. Interrogation has yielded no information on Hakizimana and the Marines. Since the salvaged Foils are small, only the weapons and electronics are likely to find an home on Skagway intact, but you hope to tear out and reuse most of the wiring and some of the piping. Sathieu Metrion has offered to do most of the programming as none of the Peacekeepers know where to begin.
Perhaps you are being watched. The idea occurred to you when an urgent broadcast from Cabo primero Pereira explained three incoming aircraft entering the island's airspace from the North. The big massif of Mortar Hill and orientation toward the western sea meant that the intruders were outside your sensor envelope but their size and flight plan meant you could see them with the naked eye from Chamomile's topmost observation dome.
There were three large cargo carriers, one of which was a helicopter Sky Crane like your own. The other two were vastly larger: jet-powered VTOL jobs. The Sky Crane was porting an ISO container from which emerged several small reconnaissance vehicles and an encounter-suited work party half-a-hundred strong. While your scouts looked on from cover, the workers donned backpack-mounted fuel tanks and started to burn large tracts of xenofungus, putting up dense, oily plumes of smoke that were aroused alarm in Warm Welcome.
The VTOL carriers bore even more surprises, depositing two mammoth terraforming vehicles unfamiliar to Pereira. The visuals he sent back by Rover put you in mind of a mechanical insect long as a city block and almost as wide. An oval-shaped, ridge-backed body, bulbous like the abdomen of a beetle, suspended on eight drum-like casters on the end of huge stalks, four to a side. At the rear, an exhaust tower belched. The central ridge tapered into an elevated tower from which the machine might be directed. At the point of the dome, below the bulk of the body, was a kind of mouth, formed by one huge, backward-actuating scoop bucket that pushed soil in toward a roller-and-vacuum apparatus hanging from the undercarriage. A half-dozen actuating arms resembled mandibles, and these left no morsel unaccounted. All about were exposed hoses, service gantries, and utility cranes. To every side, nozzles sprayed what Pereira said must be acid, for the biomass melted and was sucked as slurry into the belly of the beast. Light shone from dozens of viewports. With the Data Core's help, you identified them as the apotheosis of resource-gathering technology at the time of the Chiron Pathfinder Probe--more advanced than your own 'Formers by a hundred years.
Gog and Magog were attended by three Combat Trikes, overbuilt armored tricycles riding on tyres six feet tall. At the snout of Trike, mounted in a fully independent turret, were paired 20mm autocannon. Erkins advised that they could achieve top speeds of as much as 112 kilometers per hour over even ground. She had seen them used by the U.S. Army in the Nevada deserts during hunts for Holnists and Tribals. That was interesting, LaCroix said, because Trikes were unique to Unity's cargo complement--a request of J.T. Marsh to escort his road crews. [1] A few Unity Rovers were also in attendance. When they spotted the radio tower, they made for the Mortar Hill summit. Fortunately, the encounter ended without bloodshed. In addition to exchanging rations, the newcomers left for you a message.
A Survey of Garland Island
The second large promenade of Garland Island rounded Mortar Hill on the side opposite the newcomers and netted three Unity Pods. One contained a scientific survey vehicle that you put to work immediately investigating the affected area. Another is a small cryopod that will need to be cross-referenced with the Data Core if you are going to have even an inkling of who might be contained within. The final pod, which crashed in a small lake, was built around a Unity Submersible. For the time being, it has been put back in the water behind the bulk of the Skagway. The survey team sent the pods back to Warm Welcome but is continuing northward, keeping watch on the coast. King sent an escort of six hovercycles. Kungalooshi is on high alert.
Faction Specifics
Vote 1 - The Prosecution of Dole Yudikon
Choose one.
[ ] - Appoint Vesper Abaddon to prosecute. You expect that the eloquent, orderly Abaddon will focus the jury on Yudikon's untoward actions within Warm Welcome before turning to his abusive behavior during the pirate bombardment. The obvious drawback of this approach is that Yudikon's obvious strategy will be to place Abaddon himself on trial, which should prove popular.
[ ] - Appoint Guan Biao to prosecute. Biao will represent best the emotional case toward Dole Yudikon, who he believe had no claim on Warm Welcome's resource. Expect him to encourage feelings of grievance on the part of those who will decide Yudikon's fate. Biao's issue is that he takes the matter so personally.
[ ] - Appoint Malakai Ro to prosecute. Provide Ro with a copy of the U.N. Naval Handbook and direct that she handle the case as she would a court martial. As a factor, Yudikon owed allegiance to you as a superior officer, which he did not render. A potentially powerful argument, had anyone but LaCroix invoked it. Remember, Ro is a weak public speaker.
[ ] - Appoint Terrance LaCroix to prosecute. You expect that he would make his case by exploiting digital records that can place Yudikon's skulking in the worst circumstantial light. You are not sure you like the precedent that sets. Then again, the evidence is otherwise weak, and Yudikon put you temporarily in fear of your life.
[ ] - Appoint Tell Stillwell to prosecute. Stillwell is certainly the least bright-eyed of your advisers and seems to think that Dole Yudikon had a case for insisting you turn over supplies to his custody. Could Stillwell take this sympathy and best anticipate what Dole Yudikon's defense will be?
[ ] - Appoint Wasoné Erkins to prosecute Dole Yudikon. Shouldn't the Captain have a special insight into people who think purely in terms of power and advantage? She might be herself honorable, she of all of you, she probably spent the most time in the company of those like Dole Yudikon.
[ ] - Appoint Major Bruce King to prosecute. King has the best handle on the situation at U.N. Relief Station when the Struan's colony fell apart.
[ ] - Request that Sathieu Metrion prosecute. The best way to avoid charges of bias is to hand the case off to someone who can have none, but it may also mean he does not know how best to remind the audience of the danger Dole Yudikon represented when he was last here.
[ ] - Prosecute Dole Yudikon yourself. The U.N. Charter will be on trial here as much as the man. That's your unique territory. Besides, you don't need anyone else becoming a touch-point for the potential resentments around this problem.
Vote 2 - The Hooded Lantern
Reply to Wyle Engora, Emissary of the Hooded Lantern.
I will use an amalgamation of your write-ins. Feel free to offer specific text recommendations or simply a general sentiment about how you think Lal should react.
Vote 3 - Vinka Dialyse
Choose one.
[ ] - Have LaCroix search the Data Core for further insights on the person claiming to be Vinka Dialyse.
[ ] - Request that Dr. Singh provide a full psychological workup of the person wearing the uniform of Vinka Dialyse.
[ ] - Talk yourself with "Vinka Dialyse." Ask her to demonstrate for you the skills that the real Dialyse is supposed to possess. Start with an Aetherholt Trauma-Function test, which it is difficult to fake.
[ ] - Have "Vinka Dialyse" released into the workforce. She has committed no crime of which you are aware.
[ ] - Provide young woman whose uniform says she is Vinka Dialyse with a data terminal. See what she does with it.
Retrieve the U.N. Space Force female - 16
Place Dole Yudikon on trial - 14
Undertake a survey of Gardner Island - 12
Place Dole Yudikon on trial - 14
Undertake a survey of Gardner Island - 12
Results:
- Overcrowding in Warm Welcome.
- Base Operations plans solution to energy bottleneck.
- Dole Yudikon remanded in custody awaiting trial.
- Peacekeeping Forces begin overland survey of Garland Island.
- Peacekeeping Forces encounter the Hooded Lantern on Garland Island.
- Peacekeeping Forces discover the secrets of Medical Compounding.
- Captain Eugen Köhler dies of his wounds.
- Base Operations retrieves another stowaway.
Patterns In New Configuration
Dole Yudikon was the acknowledged leader of approximately fifty survivors. Most, like him, were "original signatories"—persons of means who loaned some portion of their terrestrial wealth to the struggling Unity Project in return not only for passage, but the right to settle free after an initial period of subordination to Mission Command. Traditionalists, yourself included, agonized over the subscription process, but then-Secretary General Claudia Alfaro held fast. Since begging and borrowing had not worked, she said, all that remained was to sell off parcels to save the farm. The gambit succeeded: forty-six factors came forward with the billions required to restart construction. They brought with them some eighty-thousand additions to the crew.
Colonists answerable to a factor were called Charterists after the documents they signed—contracts made not with the United Nations, but recruiters. Alfaro's innovation put the Project in direct competition with factors for talent. Bonuses paid out by the likes of Oscar van de Graaf and MacCallan Struan were sometimes greater motivation than idealism. Charterism briefly rekindled interest in Unity among skeptical Americans especially, but they were usually a different breed than either the commission-appointed colonists or core U.N. Space Force personnel.
Mainline colonists went of their own accord. Highly competitive national exams and extensive psychological evaluation weeded out potential misfits. They received the fullest training, simulating life and work in gravitic and atmospheric simulacra of Chiron for months on end and learning how to operate much of the onboard survival equipment. Following the twin spirits of service and adventure, they expected hardship and gloried in the test.
The U.N. Space Force was staffed almost entirely by direct secondment. If the United Nations was in favor with the donor government, those secondments might be worthy. The most storied included names like Zakharov, Salan, and d'Almeida. When the U.N. was disfavored, donor governments used the long-range mission to cast out unwanted stones. Insubordinate St. Germaine, for example. Culture indicated that cooperation would be forthcoming, but its precise limits were unknown.
Charterists acquired a thoroughly negative reputation. Mission Planners intended that most scut work be performed by robots or prisoners, and charter companies would have considered mere laborers a bad investment, so charter personnel were usually at least as qualified as their Mainline counterparts. They were also much more likely to be familied, which meant that they had to be lured with outsize compensation—or on the run from outsize problems. Factors were also conspicuous in denying that the mission was a guaranteed one-way trip, an attitude that trickled down until it was popular with nearly every Charterist. Factors also tended toward outlooks at odds with those of the United Nations. Pledging loyalty to the U.N. Charter was easy: almost no one feared the consequences of guaranteed free speech, liberty of conscience, or bodily autonomy. Charters notoriously pressed severe burdens on the individuals who signed them. Most Charters resembled articles of indentured servitude. Passage to Chiron had to be one day repaid, as did the drawing of basic rations, the use of base facilities, and so on. Even the most generous critics rarely refrained from using terms like "debt peonage." The sheer danger of the venture did not help matters since it encouraged would-be charter colonists to believe they would die before the practical consequences of so much debt could catch up to them.
Who can fail to notice the signal differences between the cryopod survivors and original Peacekeepers? The men and women who first joined you aboard Unity speak with the presumption that their opinions are not only welcome but valuable. They feel their leadership owes them explanation even when a decision is not taken in democratic conference. When work is done, they invest no less devotedly in the maturation of their personal relationships, the renewal of their bodies, and the enjoyment of intellectual stimulation. When confronted with a setback, they are resilient, and any problem of their own is readily made into common property. In their eyes, Dole Yudikon is an audacious thief who deserved to be hanged, no different than a short-sighted homesteader denying thirsty travelers their chance for water at a long-abandoned well to which he suddenly and conveniently claimed ancestral rights just as they arrived from the trail. "Logic" so parsimonious that it would someday kill them all.
The Charterists are meek. Guan Biao says they have the spirit of those who had put themselves for sale and took a price they knew was cheap. At Town Halls, though they have the same entitlements as anyone else, they keep silence when you would expect a self-interested person to speak. While Peacekeepers usually have hobbies, Charterists have projects. They tinker, and, when finished, usually dispose of the result in trade. They are much more likely to participate in the small, informal economy that has grown up in parallel to the planned disbursement of goods and experiences. Arrangements like these were also commonplace at U.N. Relief Station. Individual settlers would trade an hour of extra work for more soap, choicer sleeping arrangements, or a starter colony of meal worms to expand their diet. They are reserved, rarely confiding their burdens. They have earned the open disdain of Erkins and Ro, who seemingly cannot abide to be near them, a reaction you think is reflective of their own attitudes toward self-sufficiency. Dr. Singh feels they exhibit "a maladaptive passivity," but though you do not share her medical specialty, it is not a diagnosis you would feel comfortable making yourself. Vesper Abaddon claims to have seen the same attitude prevail among Gathi before the war that made Carmel. For citizens of a nation too weak to help itself, and on the brink of death from starvation, life became a series of interminable disappointments.
Charterists are divided as to the proper assessment of Dole Yudikon. Some believe he was a fool for not acceding to the pirates' demands, reasoning that they would not have ransacked U.N. Relief Station to the point that it couldn't recover. Others show a measure of admiration for the manner in which he confronted their tormentors in the only language they found intelligible. Once the bombardment began, it was common knowledge that their time as an independent colony was done: they would perforce return to Warm Welcome, hat in hand. All agree Dole Yudikon was a coward who shouldn't have ordered others to take on risk he was unwilling to share. That said, barring the several wounded, those who were so mistreated are usually glad to have got away with something to show for it. Most of their hostility is reserved for the Sabre Corporation gunmen who carried out Yudikon's instruction to compel the residents of Relief Station to try to retrieve valuables under fire.Vesper Abaddon said:
Detailed investigation turned up less than expected in the ruins of U.N. Relief Station. With fewer hands, less equipment, and virtually one in every three a member of Dole's personal guard (operating under the upsetting title of Asset Control), the colony's developmental trajectory was understandably flat. Facing the same problems of early survival as Warm Welcome, they imposed rationing, built small greenhouses, and recycled fanatically. To obtain water, they built large, sail-like wind traps that also supplied the colony with power, though the Fission Rovers rendered that supply redundant. Nobody starved. They shot subrids until the thinned population fled, then fished, and with greater success. Lacking scientists to teach them to fix nitrates, they fertilized their crops with manure collected in pit latrines. Inevitable breaches of the rules were resolved through temporary imprisonment, but physicals of the incoming refugees indicated none of the feared use of psi-whips, nor evidence even of beatings. Dole Yudikon dominated the small internal trade between colonists, reserving to himself a larger share of the goods released by you. He met complaints with referrals to the Struan's Charter, then with warnings that his will would be enforced by his praetorians.
Hoping for rescue from their poverty, the colony labored hard and without success to raise friendlies, exhausting its supply of signal flares. Despite visual detection of aircraft, they received no communication in return. The mercenaries patrolled up to a half-day's distance from the colony's walls on foot and recorded no sign of other habitation.
Dole Yudikon is now in your custody awaiting trial. He went peacefully. Colonel Martius appeared at the brig within the hour. Dole has asked Martius to give his defense.
Base Administration
The total population of Warm Welcome has risen to seven hundred. Of the fifty refugees newly collected from U.N. Relief Station, about a dozen were Struan's mercenaries, but most of the rest were supervisors and middle-managers, together with a handful of specialists unwilling to go back on their word when you offered sanctuary. The twenty prisoners liberated from the pirate patrols are from professions disposed to travel in small groups: road crews, survey teams, and security teams. To avoid allowing strangers aboard Chamomile, new arrivals have been asked to sleep in the greenhouses until you can resolve the housing crunch. Shao has reminded you that the mining tunnels are already fit to serve this purpose, though the lack of windows and the need to retrofit ventilation are non-starters. Town Hall conversation has left you in no doubt that the "acceptable" architectural solution is the windowed yurt, made of high-tensile plastics stretched over PVC tent poles and lit by light-emitting diodes.
Energy is also a problem. With twelve total Fission reactors now on hand, you have some flexibility, but the quick crescendo of the pirate threat brought home how necessary it will be to have access to all of your vehicles at short notice. Your several options include: deferring action; installing new energy production to allow you to unplug the Rovers; researching large-scale batteries; or removing the fission reactors from the 'Rover chasses, locating them in a custom plant configuration, and replacing them with scratch-built combustion engines.
Now confronted with the potential for long-term health damage, you were forced to retrieve another of the stowaways, a task entrusted to Med-Tech Karimov while the wounded sailors were in extremis.
Outwardly, Karimov retrieved a Caucasian female of twenty-six years. No indication of physical trauma. Per Karimov's recorded session notes, Space Force uniform name tag read Dialyse, along with the insignia of a lieutenant and the patch for the Corrections Division. Evidently, the patient was startled by the decanting process. She became violent. Patient and nurse practitioner fought. Dialyse knocked Karimov unconscious with the blow to the temple and fled, dashing through Chamomile's corridors until she found a lift that took her to ground level. Exiting the Landing Pod at a dead run that took her through the busy machine shop, she began choking as soon as she reached the airlock and was brought back to the infirmary in restraints.
Anxiety and irritability are common side-effects of cold sleep. While not every patient delivers so efficient a roundhouse, Dr. Singh at first reassured you that Lieutenant Dialyse was experiencing a fairly common reaction. Then, as always, your experience dropped off in quality. LaCroix entered the room and asked for you to join him in the adjoining office. Alone.
Unity's Data Core contains the information about Lieutenant Vinka Dialyse, the fourth daughter of an Aylūl banker and her much younger husband, a mountain climber of international stature. Dialyse followed his example and took up the sport herself. At the national university, she studied geology, then accepted commission in the Aylūl Geologic Survey, a quasi-military body operating in that country's Antarctic territory.
"Now the story gets weird," LaCroix had said, and rightly so, because according to the computer, Vinka Dialyse was killed in the catastrophic explosion of a trans-orbital shuttle departing the Lunar surface while her training was still underway.
Confronted with this extraordinary information, the person wearing the uniform of Vinka Dialyse claims ignorance. She was not killed, she says, though she can recall being involved in a terrible accident. LaCroix played the game of what-if and welcome a hypothesis as to why somebody would go to all the trouble of faking her death. To your chagrin, Dialyse had an idea of who might want to kill her, but none regarding how she could have survived. Dialyse purported that she had been involved in research demonstrating that Comprehensive Transport was making false statements with regard to the purity of water mined from the Antarctic shelf. Someone on the team had leaked word of their preliminary findings to the company, resulting in relentless harassment that she thought might plausibly have turned deadly.
LaCroix sighed. "Us and dead people."
A Passing
Eugen Köhler perished on the operating table despite the combined intervention of two doctors and three med-techs. His burns became infected and he suffered cascading organ failure.Commissioner Pravin Lal said:
Virtually every person in the colony, including most survivors of Warm Welcome, attended the funeral. On the advice of Erkins, you kept it "as brief as possible," limiting the speeches to two: the first, a forgettable hash from Ro praising Köhler's sphinx-like demeanor, and the second, your own, of just three hundred-and-six words. When the memorial was finished, Ro had him loaded aboard the still-floating wreck of his last command. It was towed out to sea, where Köhler's body, wrapped in a sheet, was put overboard to the crack of Marine rifles.
You cannot help but regard Köhler as an asset to the Peacekeeping Forces who nonetheless died before he could leave his mark. What did you really know of Köhler's opinions about how you ought to have lived? What were his opinions about d'Almeida, a fellow officer, of his adversary Svensgaard, or even of you? Ro clearly appreciated him because she read his silence as intentional. Was it, or did Köhler just struggle to get a word in edgewise against men more familiar with the English language? Is it too much even to believe he must have had something to say?
Those who remain will never know. Eugen Köhler is dead. His personal effects were the familiar things impenetrable and insignificant to anyone but himself: projection discs containing recordings of home life from which he is conspicuously absent; a graduate's ring from the Mürwik Naval School; a silver wristwatch, obviously an heirloom; a small travel koraj set you placed in the Briefing Room as a legacy to him, the Mariner piece tilted on its side.
Is it possible a man died for you without believing in your creed? That he was so much a product of his training? Could the United Nations have within its ranks people whose minds were perfect blanks? Your sleep was fitful.
Köhler's death in intensive care coincided with an ironic new achievement by your chemists: pharmaceutical compounding. Dr. Singh left the memo on your terminal.
Medical Compounding said:
First Contact
The Nautilus Pirates appear to have been lured away to lick their wounds and hound lesser prey. The seas have cleared since your spectacular victory of arms and LaCroix reports a similar and corroborating diminution of radio traffic. Kungalooshi and your barge motored out to collect a grand total of six hulls. You secured a considerable quantity of survival equipment, took large quantities of munitions into your armory, and liberated twenty prisoners from execrable conditions, including the crew of your previously-lost Foil. Interrogation has yielded no information on Hakizimana and the Marines. Since the salvaged Foils are small, only the weapons and electronics are likely to find an home on Skagway intact, but you hope to tear out and reuse most of the wiring and some of the piping. Sathieu Metrion has offered to do most of the programming as none of the Peacekeepers know where to begin.
Perhaps you are being watched. The idea occurred to you when an urgent broadcast from Cabo primero Pereira explained three incoming aircraft entering the island's airspace from the North. The big massif of Mortar Hill and orientation toward the western sea meant that the intruders were outside your sensor envelope but their size and flight plan meant you could see them with the naked eye from Chamomile's topmost observation dome.
There were three large cargo carriers, one of which was a helicopter Sky Crane like your own. The other two were vastly larger: jet-powered VTOL jobs. The Sky Crane was porting an ISO container from which emerged several small reconnaissance vehicles and an encounter-suited work party half-a-hundred strong. While your scouts looked on from cover, the workers donned backpack-mounted fuel tanks and started to burn large tracts of xenofungus, putting up dense, oily plumes of smoke that were aroused alarm in Warm Welcome.
The VTOL carriers bore even more surprises, depositing two mammoth terraforming vehicles unfamiliar to Pereira. The visuals he sent back by Rover put you in mind of a mechanical insect long as a city block and almost as wide. An oval-shaped, ridge-backed body, bulbous like the abdomen of a beetle, suspended on eight drum-like casters on the end of huge stalks, four to a side. At the rear, an exhaust tower belched. The central ridge tapered into an elevated tower from which the machine might be directed. At the point of the dome, below the bulk of the body, was a kind of mouth, formed by one huge, backward-actuating scoop bucket that pushed soil in toward a roller-and-vacuum apparatus hanging from the undercarriage. A half-dozen actuating arms resembled mandibles, and these left no morsel unaccounted. All about were exposed hoses, service gantries, and utility cranes. To every side, nozzles sprayed what Pereira said must be acid, for the biomass melted and was sucked as slurry into the belly of the beast. Light shone from dozens of viewports. With the Data Core's help, you identified them as the apotheosis of resource-gathering technology at the time of the Chiron Pathfinder Probe--more advanced than your own 'Formers by a hundred years.
Gog and Magog were attended by three Combat Trikes, overbuilt armored tricycles riding on tyres six feet tall. At the snout of Trike, mounted in a fully independent turret, were paired 20mm autocannon. Erkins advised that they could achieve top speeds of as much as 112 kilometers per hour over even ground. She had seen them used by the U.S. Army in the Nevada deserts during hunts for Holnists and Tribals. That was interesting, LaCroix said, because Trikes were unique to Unity's cargo complement--a request of J.T. Marsh to escort his road crews. [1] A few Unity Rovers were also in attendance. When they spotted the radio tower, they made for the Mortar Hill summit. Fortunately, the encounter ended without bloodshed. In addition to exchanging rations, the newcomers left for you a message.
Wyle Enogra said:
A Survey of Garland Island
The second large promenade of Garland Island rounded Mortar Hill on the side opposite the newcomers and netted three Unity Pods. One contained a scientific survey vehicle that you put to work immediately investigating the affected area. Another is a small cryopod that will need to be cross-referenced with the Data Core if you are going to have even an inkling of who might be contained within. The final pod, which crashed in a small lake, was built around a Unity Submersible. For the time being, it has been put back in the water behind the bulk of the Skagway. The survey team sent the pods back to Warm Welcome but is continuing northward, keeping watch on the coast. King sent an escort of six hovercycles. Kungalooshi is on high alert.
Faction Specifics
Faction Overview:
Leader: Pravin Lal
Title: Commissioner
Rank: Chief Medical Officer / Head of Medical Division
Colony Model: Democratic Republic
Why did civilization on Earth fail? The free flow of information was curtailed, preventing the global populace from obtaining an accurate understanding of their plight or organizing to do anything about it.
What is the fundamental truth of the universe? Only the educated are free.
What is necessary to ensure the survival of humanity on Chiron? The principles and practice of democracy.
Vision: Implement the U.N. Charter and reunite the Unity survivors under its auspices.
Starting Technology: Informatics
Affinity: Supremacy
Influence Points: 3
Research Focus: Choose + 4 Research Nodes focused on Discover + Explore bonus
Economic Focus: Extraction
Population:
Combat Units
1 company U.N. Marine Corps (Veteran, Reliable) [high alert @ Warm Welcome] (over-strength: 125% effectiveness)
1 company Settlement Militia (Green, Trained) [high alert @ Warm Welcome]
Ground-Effect Vehicles
1 squadron Combat Hovercycles (Electric) (12) [6 deployed on overland survey]
1 squadron Unity Rovers (Electric) (6) [6 deployed on overland survey]
1.5 squadrons Unity Rovers (Fission) (9)
Naval Assets
1 Unity Hull Form (Skagway) [inoperable; undergoing repair]
1 large Foil (Kungalooshi) [Tomorrow Institute]
1 half-squadron Unity Foils (Electric) (4)
1 Unity submersible
1 work barge
1 floating drill rig (prototype)
Air Vehicles
1 Skycrane, with various mission modules [grounded due to cracked rotors]
Scientific Assets
1 scientific survey vehicle (SSV) [deployed on overland survey]
Construction Assets
1 squadron Space Construction Vehicles (S.C.V.)
1 Supply Crawler (Terran Nutrients)
3 Multiple Use Labor Element (M.U.L.E.)
Weapons Systems
1 Heavy Mortar (107mm) [Mortar Hill battery)
Other Named Characters in Warm Welcome: Base Operations Director Guan Biao, Captain Bruce King, Second Lieutenant W.K. Planitzer, Cabo primero Felix Pereira (artillerist), Captain Wasoné Erkins (prisoner), Virhaan Singh (neuroscientist), Zara Karimov (med-tech), Taho Takiwara (med-tech), Nahele Tomatuk (firefighter), Egon Hakizimana (constable), Johann Anhaldt (robotics),Eugen Köhler (sailor), Adan Sadak (administrator), Tell Stillwell (soldier/adviser), Sun Shao (engineer), Akira Mizurei (engineer), Vesper Abaddon (prisoner), Malachi Ro (sailor), Ermac Canioc (agronomist), "Carnaveron"/Dole Yudikon (governor, U.N. Relief Station), Krause Martius (Struan's colonist, U.N. Relief Station), Sathieu Metrion (Annunciator, Tomorrow Initiative), a.k.a. Vinka Dialyse (patient)
Other Named Characters in the World: Editor Tạ Dọc Thân (Faction Leader, Tomorrow Initiative), Wyle Engora (emissary of the Hooded Lantern)
Unassigned Characters: Kosta Kovačević (soldier)
Leader: Pravin Lal
Title: Commissioner
Rank: Chief Medical Officer / Head of Medical Division
Colony Model: Democratic Republic
Why did civilization on Earth fail? The free flow of information was curtailed, preventing the global populace from obtaining an accurate understanding of their plight or organizing to do anything about it.
What is the fundamental truth of the universe? Only the educated are free.
What is necessary to ensure the survival of humanity on Chiron? The principles and practice of democracy.
Vision: Implement the U.N. Charter and reunite the Unity survivors under its auspices.
Starting Technology: Informatics
Affinity: Supremacy
- -1 EFFICIENCY (administration requires the careful balancing of interests and perspectives)
- Our votes on the Planetary Council count double (masters of the bureaucracy)
- 50% chance new POPS are Talents (we attractive the intellectual elite)
- Convene a Planetary Council under the United Nations Charter
- Get yourself elected to the Council Speakership
- Punish violations of the Charter
Influence Points: 3
Research Focus: Choose + 4 Research Nodes focused on Discover + Explore bonus
Economic Focus: Extraction
Population:
- 3 TALENTS
- .5 OVERSEERS [Struan's refugees]
- 2.5 TECHNICIANS [includes Ro's sailors and Metrion's crew]
- 1 CITIZEN
- .5 POP in cryosleep
Combat Units
1 company U.N. Marine Corps (Veteran, Reliable) [high alert @ Warm Welcome] (over-strength: 125% effectiveness)
1 company Settlement Militia (Green, Trained) [high alert @ Warm Welcome]
Ground-Effect Vehicles
1 squadron Combat Hovercycles (Electric) (12) [6 deployed on overland survey]
1 squadron Unity Rovers (Electric) (6) [6 deployed on overland survey]
1.5 squadrons Unity Rovers (Fission) (9)
Naval Assets
1 Unity Hull Form (Skagway) [inoperable; undergoing repair]
1 large Foil (Kungalooshi) [Tomorrow Institute]
1 half-squadron Unity Foils (Electric) (4)
1 Unity submersible
1 work barge
1 floating drill rig (prototype)
Air Vehicles
1 Skycrane, with various mission modules [grounded due to cracked rotors]
Scientific Assets
1 scientific survey vehicle (SSV) [deployed on overland survey]
Construction Assets
1 squadron Space Construction Vehicles (S.C.V.)
1 Supply Crawler (Terran Nutrients)
3 Multiple Use Labor Element (M.U.L.E.)
Weapons Systems
1 Heavy Mortar (107mm) [Mortar Hill battery)
Other Named Characters in Warm Welcome: Base Operations Director Guan Biao, Captain Bruce King, Second Lieutenant W.K. Planitzer, Cabo primero Felix Pereira (artillerist), Captain Wasoné Erkins (prisoner), Virhaan Singh (neuroscientist), Zara Karimov (med-tech), Taho Takiwara (med-tech), Nahele Tomatuk (firefighter), Egon Hakizimana (constable), Johann Anhaldt (robotics),
Other Named Characters in the World: Editor Tạ Dọc Thân (Faction Leader, Tomorrow Initiative), Wyle Engora (emissary of the Hooded Lantern)
Unassigned Characters: Kosta Kovačević (soldier)
Bases:
Warm Welcome (HQ)
U.N. Relief Station [razed]
Resource Pool (Net):
+Health
+3 Morale
0 Planet
Construction Slots: 4/4
3D Printers
Slot 1 (125%): Arsenal
Slot 2 (125%): Electronics Laboratory
Slot 3 (100%): SkyCrane rotors
Machine Shop
Slot 4 (100%): Arsenal
Survival Supplies: -3 [+3 pirate plunder]
Medical Supplies: 1 [+1 pirate plunder]
Construction Supplies: 1
War Stores: 1 [+3 pirate plunder]
Nutrient Stockpile (13/15): 15 [-/turn] [work stoppage due to storage issues; ordinarily generates +3/turn] [-2 from survey]
Energy Stockpile: ≥10
Mineral Stockpile: 35 [+6/turn]
3 independent cryobeds [stowaways]
Special Salvage
6 salvaged Unity Foils
Resource Production (Gross):
Water Sector (Lvl. VI) (recurring net water yield of +1) (@ -1 Water per 2 POP/turn)
Base Facilities and Improvements:
Warm Welcome
Landing Pod (deployed)
+Perimeter Stockade
+Machine Shop (expanded)
+3D Printers x 3 (x 2 enhanced)
+Mass Refinery
+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)
+Agricultural Lab (Explore)
+Automated Mines x 2 (recurring Mineral yield of 4)
+Sensor Array (east)
+Radio Tower (Mortar Hill)
+Unity Data Core + 4 Data Nodes (Discover)
+Arsenal [under construction] [-2 Energy/turn]
+Electronics Lab [under construction] [-1 Energy/turn, Build boost]
Tech:
Build: 3 (3D Printers, Industrial Base, Self-Healing Fabrics)
Discover: 6 (Informatics, Biogenetics, Neuropsych, Microbiology, Polymorphic Software, Biostatics, Paper Diagnostics, Medical Compounding)
Explore: 4 (Centauri Geology, Centauri Hydrology, Centauri Ecology, Centauri Chemistry)
Conquer: 1 (C4I)
Expand: 0
Command: 0
Choose: 0
Unity: 3 (Information Networks, Unity Armory, Unity Motor Pool)
May build:
SkyCrane rotor blades repaired: Wednesday, 10/14
Electronics Lab completed: Thursday, 10/15
Survey is complete, Friday, 10/16
Arsenal completed: Friday, 10/16
Skagway repaired: Friday, 10/30
Next research breakthroughs:
(Build): Tuesday, 10/13
(Choose): Thursday, 10/15
(Extraction) Sector Improvement: Friday, 10/23
Warm Welcome (HQ)
U.N. Relief Station [razed]
Resource Pool (Net):
+Health
+3 Morale
0 Planet
Construction Slots: 4/4
3D Printers
Slot 1 (125%): Arsenal
Slot 2 (125%): Electronics Laboratory
Slot 3 (100%): SkyCrane rotors
Machine Shop
Slot 4 (100%): Arsenal
Survival Supplies: -3 [+3 pirate plunder]
Medical Supplies: 1 [+1 pirate plunder]
Construction Supplies: 1
War Stores: 1 [+3 pirate plunder]
[3 Rations are being stored from Skagway]
Water Stockpile (25/25): 25 [-/turn] [work stoppage due to storage issues; ordinarily generates +1/turn]Nutrient Stockpile (13/15): 15 [-/turn] [work stoppage due to storage issues; ordinarily generates +3/turn] [-2 from survey]
Energy Stockpile: ≥10
Mineral Stockpile: 35 [+6/turn]
3 independent cryobeds [stowaways]
Special Salvage
6 salvaged Unity Foils
Resource Production (Gross):
Water Sector (Lvl. VI) (recurring net water yield of +1) (@ -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]
+2 Nutrients (soybean fields) [recurring]
+1 Nutrients (subrid corral) [recurring]
+2 Greenhouse [recurring]
Extraction Sector (Lvl. V) (recurring net Mineral yield of +4) (recurring net Energy drain of -1)+1 Minerals (sector improvements) [recurring]
+4 Minerals (automated mine x 2) [recurring]
10+ Energy (fixed income from Fission Rovers)
Manufacturing Sector (Lvl. VI) (x 2 enhanced 3D Printers yield 125%)Base Facilities and Improvements:
Warm Welcome
Landing Pod (deployed)
+Perimeter Stockade
+Machine Shop (expanded)
+3D Printers x 3 (x 2 enhanced)
+Mass Refinery
+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)
+Agricultural Lab (Explore)
+Automated Mines x 2 (recurring Mineral yield of 4)
+Sensor Array (east)
+Radio Tower (Mortar Hill)
+Unity Data Core + 4 Data Nodes (Discover)
+Arsenal [under construction] [-2 Energy/turn]
+Electronics Lab [under construction] [-1 Energy/turn, Build boost]
Tech:
Build: 3 (3D Printers, Industrial Base, Self-Healing Fabrics)
Discover: 6 (Informatics, Biogenetics, Neuropsych, Microbiology, Polymorphic Software, Biostatics, Paper Diagnostics, Medical Compounding)
Explore: 4 (Centauri Geology, Centauri Hydrology, Centauri Ecology, Centauri Chemistry)
Conquer: 1 (C4I)
Expand: 0
Command: 0
Choose: 0
Unity: 3 (Information Networks, Unity Armory, Unity Motor Pool)
May build:
- War Stores - Small arms and munitions (Lvl. II - Impact Weapons)
- Construction Supplies - Simple structural components and basic electronics
- Survival Supplies - Jury-rigged equipment such as long-range radio receivers and utility kits for Unity vehicles
- Medical Supplies - Basic pharmaceuticals (e.g., pain relievers, mild stimulants, vascodilators) [Note: Requires Base Facility: Medical Lab.]
- Survival Supplies - Mission equipment provided to support the colonization effort, including Unity vehicles
SkyCrane rotor blades repaired: Wednesday, 10/14
Electronics Lab completed: Thursday, 10/15
Survey is complete, Friday, 10/16
Arsenal completed: Friday, 10/16
Skagway repaired: Friday, 10/30
Next research breakthroughs:
(Build): Tuesday, 10/13
(Choose): Thursday, 10/15
(Extraction) Sector Improvement: Friday, 10/23
Vote 1 - The Prosecution of Dole Yudikon
Choose one.
[ ] - Appoint Vesper Abaddon to prosecute. You expect that the eloquent, orderly Abaddon will focus the jury on Yudikon's untoward actions within Warm Welcome before turning to his abusive behavior during the pirate bombardment. The obvious drawback of this approach is that Yudikon's obvious strategy will be to place Abaddon himself on trial, which should prove popular.
[ ] - Appoint Guan Biao to prosecute. Biao will represent best the emotional case toward Dole Yudikon, who he believe had no claim on Warm Welcome's resource. Expect him to encourage feelings of grievance on the part of those who will decide Yudikon's fate. Biao's issue is that he takes the matter so personally.
[ ] - Appoint Malakai Ro to prosecute. Provide Ro with a copy of the U.N. Naval Handbook and direct that she handle the case as she would a court martial. As a factor, Yudikon owed allegiance to you as a superior officer, which he did not render. A potentially powerful argument, had anyone but LaCroix invoked it. Remember, Ro is a weak public speaker.
[ ] - Appoint Terrance LaCroix to prosecute. You expect that he would make his case by exploiting digital records that can place Yudikon's skulking in the worst circumstantial light. You are not sure you like the precedent that sets. Then again, the evidence is otherwise weak, and Yudikon put you temporarily in fear of your life.
[ ] - Appoint Tell Stillwell to prosecute. Stillwell is certainly the least bright-eyed of your advisers and seems to think that Dole Yudikon had a case for insisting you turn over supplies to his custody. Could Stillwell take this sympathy and best anticipate what Dole Yudikon's defense will be?
[ ] - Appoint Wasoné Erkins to prosecute Dole Yudikon. Shouldn't the Captain have a special insight into people who think purely in terms of power and advantage? She might be herself honorable, she of all of you, she probably spent the most time in the company of those like Dole Yudikon.
[ ] - Appoint Major Bruce King to prosecute. King has the best handle on the situation at U.N. Relief Station when the Struan's colony fell apart.
[ ] - Request that Sathieu Metrion prosecute. The best way to avoid charges of bias is to hand the case off to someone who can have none, but it may also mean he does not know how best to remind the audience of the danger Dole Yudikon represented when he was last here.
[ ] - Prosecute Dole Yudikon yourself. The U.N. Charter will be on trial here as much as the man. That's your unique territory. Besides, you don't need anyone else becoming a touch-point for the potential resentments around this problem.
Vote 2 - The Hooded Lantern
Reply to Wyle Engora, Emissary of the Hooded Lantern.
I will use an amalgamation of your write-ins. Feel free to offer specific text recommendations or simply a general sentiment about how you think Lal should react.
Vote 3 - Vinka Dialyse
Choose one.
[ ] - Have LaCroix search the Data Core for further insights on the person claiming to be Vinka Dialyse.
[ ] - Request that Dr. Singh provide a full psychological workup of the person wearing the uniform of Vinka Dialyse.
[ ] - Talk yourself with "Vinka Dialyse." Ask her to demonstrate for you the skills that the real Dialyse is supposed to possess. Start with an Aetherholt Trauma-Function test, which it is difficult to fake.
[ ] - Have "Vinka Dialyse" released into the workforce. She has committed no crime of which you are aware.
[ ] - Provide young woman whose uniform says she is Vinka Dialyse with a data terminal. See what she does with it.
[1] Trikes, carry-alls, and harvesters are memorably from Dune 2 and its many offshoot computer games.
[2] Donald Rumsfeld's signature musing has been altered slightly to protect the identifies of those innocent until proven guilty.
[2] Donald Rumsfeld's signature musing has been altered slightly to protect the identifies of those innocent until proven guilty.
Last edited:
Trenacker
Margrave of the Transvaal
- Location
- Imperial Remnant
Let's assume I'm no longer inclined to force you to learn the technique of freeze-drying as a tech. Ignore the distinction between rations and nutrients henceforth.
[X] - Appoint Major Bruce King to prosecute. King has the best handle on the situation at U.N. Relief Station when the Struan's colony fell apart.
[X] It is welcome to encounter a friendly contact rather than one intent on grasping for resources or asserting dominance. Accept the pact of non-aggression. There are enough difficulties on this planet that we should not add more where it can be avoided.
[X] - Talk yourself with "Vinka Dialyse." Ask her to demonstrate for you the skills that the real Dialyse is supposed to possess. Start with an Aetherholt Trauma-Function test, which it is difficult to fake.
[X] It is welcome to encounter a friendly contact rather than one intent on grasping for resources or asserting dominance. Accept the pact of non-aggression. There are enough difficulties on this planet that we should not add more where it can be avoided.
[X] - Talk yourself with "Vinka Dialyse." Ask her to demonstrate for you the skills that the real Dialyse is supposed to possess. Start with an Aetherholt Trauma-Function test, which it is difficult to fake.
Who the fuck are these people though? Where the hell did they get such heavy duty hardware, how are they keeping fuckoff huge jet cargo VTOLs operational, and why are they ruining our island?
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] - Appoint Major Bruce King to prosecute. King has the best handle on the situation at U.N. Relief Station when the Struan's colony fell apart.
[X] - Talk yourself with "Vinka Dialyse." Ask her to demonstrate for you the skills that the real Dialyse is supposed to possess. Start with an Aetherholt Trauma-Function test, which it is difficult to fake.
[X] - Talk yourself with "Vinka Dialyse." Ask her to demonstrate for you the skills that the real Dialyse is supposed to possess. Start with an Aetherholt Trauma-Function test, which it is difficult to fake.