@Hydroplatypus and @Secretariat For the hydrocarbon Rovers, aren't there biofuels that we could just grow? we don't really need to find oil we could just grow corn and refine that into biofuel.
In cannon SMAC, due to quirks of Chiron's ecology there are no fossil fuel reserves on planet at all, so drilling for oil won't be a thing. All of our fossil fuels will be biofuels for the forseeable future, which makes hydrocarbon based transport expensive. Still potentially worth the cost at points, but not something we're going to be able to rely on to fuel our civilization. If we want power generation we'll either need lots of solar/wind, or nuclear reactors.
Of course, we've diverged from cannon a bit so far, so no guarantees that the above still holds in quest.
[ ]Unity Rovers (Electric). A faction can never have too many of these ingenious little vehicles, which are endlessly reconfigurable. The Marines talk about rigging machine-gun mounts. These variants are solar-electric. Underpowered, but never out of fuel. One squadron's worth.
[ ] Hovercycles (Electric). Use hovercycles for long-range scouting, fast threat response, skirmishing, flanking, and ambush. They are ideal tenders for Reclamators, 'Formers, and other high-value assets susceptible to hostile native lifeforms and inter-faction raiders. Civil War cavalry make a good point of comparison. considerably faster than Rovers. Compared to an unmodified Rover, hovercycles mount more firepower and provide equivalent protection for the operator. We can secure two squadrons.
What are the benefits of Unity Rovers compared to Hoverbikes? The latter are faster, can venture out farther with less risks, are better armed, and we get more squadrons of them. As a drawback, they are unarmored (but provide nonetheless "equivalent protection", huh), and... not reconfigurable?
They just seem vastly superior as actual scouts.
[x] Unity Launch (Electric). Utility watercraft similar in purpose and capabilities to the Unity Rover. Intended for cargo-hauling on sheltered seas and inland waters. If we get these unpacked early enough, we are looking at the start of a maritime economy. We can get a squadron. [x] Hovercycles (Electric). Use hovercycles for long-range scouting, fast threat response, skirmishing, flanking, and ambush. They are ideal tenders for Reclamators, 'Formers, and other high-value assets susceptible to hostile native lifeforms and inter-faction raiders. Civil War cavalry make a good point of comparison. considerably faster than Rovers. Compared to an unmodified Rover, hovercycles mount more firepower and provide equivalent protection for the operator. We can secure two squadrons.
In cannon SMAC, due to quirks of Chiron's ecology there are no fossil fuel reserves on planet at all, so drilling for oil won't be a thing. All of our fossil fuels will be biofuels for the forseeable future, which makes hydrocarbon based transport expensive. Still potentially worth the cost at points, but not something we're going to be able to rely on to fuel our civilization. If we want power generation we'll either need lots of solar/wind, or nuclear reactors.
Of course, we've diverged from cannon a bit so far, so no guarantees that the above still holds in quest.
Chiron has a considerably different geology and climate by comparison with canon material. I will do my (unscientific) best to convey this when you make Planetfall.
Other than knowing you are going to be dealing with the Mindworm menace and that the fungal tubers make the rolling plains look Seussian, most other bets are probably off.
What are the benefits of Unity Rovers compared to Hoverbikes? The latter are faster, can venture out farther with less risks, are better armed, and we get more squadrons of them. As a drawback, they are unarmored (but provide nonetheless "equivalent protection", huh), and... not reconfigurable?
If this is the Old West, Hoverbikes are mounted cavalry and Unity Rovers are Conestoga wagons.
Some hoverbike models do have armored shields for the rider. The issue is that the hoverbikes become much harder to control when they are shot up.
Basic Rovers are just go-karts with roll-bars. The ruggedized versions probably have an inflatable cab that is puncture-resistant and lets the occupants be somewhat less diligent about SCBA protocols. Think plastic tarpaulin stretched over metal struts. Fission-powered Rovers do have a proper cab.
Rovers can carry bigger loads than can Hoverbikes, and, assuming you have the requisite War Stores, are capable of mounting heavier weapons. They can also be used for many more applications, such as plowing.
What are the benefits of Unity Rovers compared to Hoverbikes? The latter are faster, can venture out farther with less risks, are better armed, and we get more squadrons of them. As a drawback, they are unarmored (but provide nonetheless "equivalent protection", huh), and... not reconfigurable?
In cannon SMAC, due to quirks of Chiron's ecology there are no fossil fuel reserves on planet at all, so drilling for oil won't be a thing. All of our fossil fuels will be biofuels for the forseeable future, which makes hydrocarbon based transport expensive. Still potentially worth the cost at points, but not something we're going to be able to rely on to fuel our civilization. If we want power generation we'll either need lots of solar/wind, or nuclear reactors.
Of course, we've diverged from cannon a bit so far, so no guarantees that the above still holds in quest.
Fossil fuels is a misleading term when it comes to oil. It was lumped in there with actual fossil born hydrocarbons, like coal and peat, just to push the early 'Peak Oil' political movement, which was an adaption of just discredited 'Peak food' movement. The 'Peak Food' was about how the Earth could only support 4 billion people at max. So panic, despair and have less kids. Once someone figured out petrol chemical fertilizers it was all the sudden 'Peak Oil' that would kill us all, set off the predicted food shortages, and be 'Peak Food' mark 2. What oil actually is is up for debate. My personal favorite view is that it is likely the waste product of some kind of microbe that lives at high pressure and relative heat. Its hard to find it as it destroyed coming up to the surface and its radically different environment.
Granted unproven, but sensical. Such a thing can't survive in Chiron's life cycle. As it would simply be consumed by the greater biosphere as fuel. Natural gas seems like it'd be consumed by greater biosphere. Coal would simply take too long to form and get consumed in the same manner. Local geology just doesn't have time to plow organic matter under the earth and compress it into proper coal. What wouldn't and would be basically lousy on the planet is peat.
Peat is basically the organic sludge and layers of debris condensed at the bottom of swamps and the like. After the most energetic of Chiron's life cycle moments the planet should be completely covered in organic matter that will soon become peat. Chiron shouldn't have veins of the stuff so much as geological layers of it. So Chiron almost has to have absurd levels of fossil fuels coating it. The issue with be since it doesn't have time to be refined into coal its going to be relatively crap in comparative energy to weight ratios you can get on Earth with its. Granted you could just burn it for power in greater volume, but the planet will probably aggro on you eventually for that.
You'd have to refine it to make it work as a vehicle fuel source or for processing it into materials and chemicals, but you could do it.
---
Realistically, mining would be annoying on Chiron as you have to get through such a giant pile of organic material (which can be thicker over time no less) just to get to the same minable materials in enough density to matter, at least compared to Earth.
Scavenging the colony ship bits is the best form of mining for a long time, in terms of resource density that isn't basically waste hydrocarbons. If you do find a dense local source of these materials for the solar panels and such its going to aggro the planet. Such is the natural of Chiron.
So based on OOC post mentioning that Chiron is rich in hydrocarbons, it looks like that'll be a realistic way to fuel ourselves. The big downside of that sort of thing in the real world is global warming, but that's not a realistic problem for us for a very long time, as we simply don't have the population to pump out geologically relevant amount. Instead we trade it for mind-worm attacks as the ecosystem starts getting mad at our burning carbons, and/or using the newly released CO2 to fuel a massive growth boom depending on whether the ecosystem is carbon-limited like cannon, or more earthlike. But another thing to worry about is faction perception. We're in good with Skye right now, but she's likely the first to get upset if we go too far with the hydrocarbons.
I think what we'll probably want to do is go big with the hydrocarbons for the quick growth it'll probably allow in the early game, but taper that off as we get a bit more developed, to prevent overwhelming mind-worm attacks. We'll probably eat a bit of a relationship hit with Skye for that, but our initial goodwill buys us more of a buffer than we would usually have there, and the eventual transition should come early enough to prevent relations from getting too low. Ideal circumstances to transition would be that we negotiate a trade agreement with Skye, and as a concession to her we agree to decrease hydrocarbon usage. After all, giving a "concession" that we plan to do anyways sounds great. Transition will likely be to fission power if we can find good uranium/thorium sources, with solar providing also helping... Though I suspect that large solar collectors also would be recieved poorly by the mind-worms, given how space intensive solar farms can be.
Fossil fuels is a misleading term when it comes to oil. It was lumped in there with actual fossil born hydrocarbons, like coal and peat, just to push the early 'Peak Oil' political movement, which was an adaption of just discredited 'Peak food' movement. The 'Peak Food' was about how the Earth could only support 4 billion people at max. So panic, despair and have less kids. Once someone figured out petrol chemical fertilizers it was all the sudden 'Peak Oil' that would kill us all, set off the predicted food shortages, and be 'Peak Food' mark 2. What oil actually is is up for debate. My personal favorite view is that it is likely the waste product of some kind of microbe that lives at high pressure and relative heat. Its hard to find it as it destroyed coming up to the surface and its radically different environment.
Granted unproven, but sensical. Such a thing can't survive in Chiron's life cycle. As it would simply be consumed by the greater biosphere as fuel. Natural gas seems like it'd be consumed by greater biosphere. Coal would simply take too long to form and get consumed in the same manner. Local geology just doesn't have time to plow organic matter under the earth and compress it into proper coal. What wouldn't and would be basically lousy on the planet is peat.
Peat is basically the organic sludge and layers of debris condensed at the bottom of swamps and the like. After the most energetic of Chiron's life cycle moments the planet should be completely covered in organic matter that will soon become peat. Chiron shouldn't have veins of the stuff so much as geological layers of it. So Chiron almost has to have absurd levels of fossil fuels coating it. The issue with be since it doesn't have time to be refined into coal its going to be relatively crap in comparative energy to weight ratios you can get on Earth with its. Granted you could just burn it for power in greater volume, but the planet will probably aggro on you eventually for that.
You'd have to refine it to make it work as a vehicle fuel source or for processing it into materials and chemicals, but you could do it.
---
Realistically, mining would be annoying on Chiron as you have to get through such a giant pile of organic material (which can be thicker over time no less) just to get to the same minable materials in enough density to matter, at least compared to Earth.
Scavenging the colony ship bits is the best form of mining for a long time, in terms of resource density that isn't basically waste hydrocarbons. If you do find a dense local source of these materials for the solar panels and such its going to aggro the planet. Such is the natural of Chiron.
Biomass collection will be an important part of some faction economies. Centauri biomass is exceptionally rich in energy resources. The players passed on an opportunity to obtain a biomass harvester (the "Reclamator" referred to during the Cleaning House quest chapter).
For reasons unknown to your scientists, Chiron appears to be fairly rich in fossil fuels, although you are correct, Necratoid, that this will be confirmed incongruent when the factions begin to develop a Grand Theory of Centauri geo-ecology.
In any case, welcome! Very glad you're here. If you stick around, I hope to pick your brain.
[x] Unity Launch (Electric). Utility watercraft similar in purpose and capabilities to the Unity Rover. Intended for cargo-hauling on sheltered seas and inland waters. If we get these unpacked early enough, we are looking at the start of a maritime economy. We can get a squadron. [x] Hovercycles (Electric). Use hovercycles for long-range scouting, fast threat response, skirmishing, flanking, and ambush. They are ideal tenders for Reclamators, 'Formers, and other high-value assets susceptible to hostile native lifeforms and inter-faction raiders. Civil War cavalry make a good point of comparison. considerably faster than Rovers. Compared to an unmodified Rover, hovercycles mount more firepower and provide equivalent protection for the operator. We can secure two squadrons.
Biomass collection will be an important part of some faction economies. Centauri biomass is exceptionally rich in energy resources. The players passed on an opportunity to obtain a biomass harvester (the "Reclamator" referred to during the Cleaning House quest chapter).
For reasons unknown to your scientists, Chiron appears to be fairly rich in fossil fuels, although you are correct, Necratoid, that this will be confirmed incongruent when the factions begin to develop a Grand Theory of Centauri geo-ecology.
In any case, welcome! Very glad you're here. If you stick around, I hope to pick your brain.
Well if you consider Chiron to be one big living creature due to xenoecological engineering, then it'd stand to reason that it'd need to have 'fat reserves' to account for stellar dimming events without a system crash, and it'd need a reserve carbon buffer to stabilize growth and prepare for later, more complex structures should energy availability spike.
It'd be unlikely to be happy at all about them being siphoned away
Well if you consider Chiron to be one big living creature due to xenoecological engineering, then it'd stand to reason that it'd need to have 'fat reserves' to account for stellar dimming events without a system crash, and it'd need a reserve carbon buffer to stabilize growth and prepare for later, more complex structures should energy availability spike.
It'd be unlikely to be happy at all about them being siphoned away
What are the benefits of Unity Rovers compared to Hoverbikes? The latter are faster, can venture out farther with less risks, are better armed, and we get more squadrons of them. As a drawback, they are unarmored (but provide nonetheless "equivalent protection", huh), and... not reconfigurable?
They are. However, that's all they are. Scouts. The Rovers are far more flexible then that. They can scout, but they can also be used for cargo, construction things like earthmoving, transporting passengers long distance, improved ambulances, and so on. It's a choice between a dedicated tool and a multitool. The dedicated one is better at what it's dedicated too, but you can't use it for all the other stuff.
Results:
We found sixteen Radnor Vultures behind a false bulkhead brought down by a fallen cross-strut. All indications point to a legitimate cargo hold that fell afoul of changing master plans. Our mechanics were excited by both the mechanical simplicity and undeniable charm of the hoverbikes. Some of them used to work for Radnor and claimed familiarity. You didn't stop them getting an example into working order and taking it for a sprint down the long service gallery just behind the fuel dumps. You were pleased to discover that assembling the bike required less than a full hour, but thrilled to find that the techs moved directly to fiddling with the bikes to maximize their performance. That's the spirit! Even the Spartan prisoners, normally a sullen lot, were laughing and cheering the fun. Did you know that the engines whistle at very high speed? These bikes are equipped with the AGP-2 anti-personnel grenade launcher, which Third Lieutenant King felt was an odd choice. Why an area-effect weapon? Operations Director Guan Biao had an answer: the Americans simply gave to the Unity what they had, not what it actually needed.
You also had Guan's laborers pull a squadron's worth of Unity launches, actually called "Foils." You can trust them in coastal waters to an extent that you wouldn't dare with "floated" Unity Rovers. With their huge rubberized skirts, the Foils look... delicate. Product documentation accessed through the datalocks on the exterior face of one container indicate that you have at your disposal some high-performance machinery with exceptional sea-keeping ability. Unlike the Vultures, Foils were never time-tested by hard use on Earth: purpose-designed to ride above the water-logged mats of vegetation overgrowing most of Planet's shallow waters, they did their only sailing in the glorified swimming pools of the Martian Training Center.
Bonus Find!Having avoided execution, the Spartans must now look forward to finding their place in a new pecking order where, despite your merciful predisposition, they represent by far the least-valuable of your group of survivors. Not one of the Holnists seems to have reached this conclusion, but it has obviously become a byword among Santiago's loyalists. To normalize relations, you have personally helped distribute their rations. Their elected leader, a Captain Watsoné Erkins, addressed you formally as a superior officer. After trading salutes, you got down to brass tacks: everyone who boards the Landing Pod would be a fool to expect other than extreme hardship for the remainder of their natural lives. Surely Santiago prepared a nest for herself that included useful items her people were unable to retrieve once their plans unraveled. Could Erkins point you in the right direction? She did. On returning from their scout, the Marines asked for electric carts. Santiago secreted a strike force in yet another disused cargo complex. She had no use in mind for the Space Construction Vehicles still racked in their charging stations, but you might.
Faction Specifics
Service Record:
Subject was born in Hyderabad, West Pakistan. Father was a major in the West Pakistan Army frequently deployed on peacekeeping operations, mother a nurse with Médecins Sans Frontières. Studied philosophy and medicine at Aga Khan University, specializing in thoracic surgery. Volunteered at Red Crescent camp surgery in Azad Kashmir for three years after graduation, tending primarily to victims of the Six Minute War. Later traveled extensively in North-West Frontier Province. Elected to National Assembly, serving a single term before losing heavily after criticizing Inter-Services Intelligence for its relationship with the Pakistani Taliban.
Obtained placement as a junior researcher with the World Health Organization in Basel, Switzerland exploring protein encoding for DNA repair. Signed letter of protest against Nobel Prize nomination of Dr. Tamineh Pahlavi on grounds of ethical deficiency. Leadership of protest movement elevated subject's profile in U.N. circles. Rapidly ascended agency bureaucracy to become Chief of Staff to Thai General Secretary Apsara Mongkut. Controversial for his involvement in decision-making around U.N. peacekeeping actions in Nigeria's Mid-Western Region (declaimed as making the U.N. "effectively an adjunct of the Federal Army") and again in Quebec, where U.N. forces were blamed for failure to prevent the Black Watch Killings. Conspiracy theory linking U.N. inaction to the eventual success of the Frontdelibération du Québec prompted subject's reassignment as Assistant Director of the WHO. Directly appointed Chief of Surgery, Unity Mission, by U.N. General Secretariat.
Psych Profile: Humanitarian
Seeks to de-escalate conflict and create harmonious environments. Dedicated to ideals of U.N. mission unquestioned, loyalty superb. Deep connection to loved ones possibly exploitable by adversary.
Preference for intellectualizing policy problems can lead to apparent contradictions in application of professed ideals. Notwithstanding subject's leadership culpability for two decisive U.N. interventions that inspired accusations of rank partisanship, interlocutors report that subject was "maddeningly prone to seeing false equivalency" between parties to any dispute. One Canadian chargée d'affaires complained: "He always gave the FLQ an opportunity to explain why they'd committed their latest heinous crime."
Very high esteem for democratic ideals may explain subject's especially negative reactions to the perceived hypocrisy of the Western powers, contrasted with tendency toward silence in regard to regimes with unbroken records of illiberal and anti-democratic behavior.
CAUTION: Subject scored abnormally low (.32) on Atherholt Trauma Function Test, indicating unsuitability for crisis leadership. Contrast with extremely positive remarks from Morgan Emergency Services instructions following simulated compartment breaches.
Faction Overview:
Leader: Commissioner Pravin Lal 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: Purity
-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)
Objectives
Convene a Planetary Council under the United Nations Charter
Faction Inventory +1 squadron Combat Hovercycles (Electric) +1 squadron Unity Foils(Electric) +1 squadron Space Construction Vehicles (S.C.V.) +1 Skycrane, with various mission modules +2squadrons Unity Rovers (Fission) +3 Multiple Use Labor Element (M.U.L.E.) +4 Data Nodes (must be used for Discovery track technologies) +1 Industrial-Scale 3D Printers
+Faction Personality (Terrance LaCroix) +1company U.N. Marine Corps (Veteran) +Spartan Prisoners +esteemof Stepdaughters of Gaia, Shapers of Chiron
Next Chapter Good Things Come to Those Who Don't Wait
Santiago used her security access to pave the way for entombment of a half-dozen large platoons aft and amidships, along with two forward. The sheer scale of her deception confirms that she acted with practically the full complicity of one of the Project subcontractors. The cryobeds were cheaper models, to be sure, and the electrical work spotty (accompanying med-techs report a disturbingly high rate of life support failures, meaning you have entered into a kind of graveyard), but even a single grotto like this one betokens months of effort. Did the pipefitters and wire-stringers know they were adding something "off-the-books," or were they told that budget cuts made corner-cutting unavoidable?
In this bay, which LaCroix says had a name, 73α, a generator caught fire on start-up and delayed action long enough for the Spartans to themselves be ambushed. Picking through the dead, you find a pair of officers who you recognize as protégé of General Francisco d'Almeida. So Zakharov was right: Unity's XO had diverted resources from rescue operations. You speak the obvious aloud, just to collect reactions. Third Lieutenant King is predictable: "Who's to say a more expansive definition of "damage control" hadn't become necessary by the time this fight got underway?" Zakharov had perhaps not the best position from which to criticize, having tried himself to open the armories, also in defiance of Garland's order. You also remember that Skye found the presence of large numbers of d'Almeida's people confounding at the beginning of the crisis.
From the fallen, you recover +1 War Stores worth of military equipment, including precious fully automatic weapons. Space on the same trams taking away the S.C.V.s will allow you to add a few crates worth of heavier assets. Choose one:
[ ] Heavy Mortar. The ideal tool with which to defend your base. Short-range artillery with a very big wallop. You can even leverage the telemetric capabilities of the Landing Pod to zero in on pre-determined "kill zones." Mounted in the back of a Unity Rover, the same mortar would make a fearsome terror weapon. The high-explosive bombs are good for any fixed target other than a Landing Pod.
[ ]Light Anti-Tank Weapons. No longer very useful against modern armor, they became favored tools for anti-emplacement work on the battlefield and political assassinations in more tranquil settings. Against an insubstantial target like a Unity Rover, King expects atrociously low contact rates, and even if you do hit, he predicts the warheads would deflect or pass through. Still, if you plan to do some raiding, "even just in retaliation, and to deter future conflict," these are his choice since they will make it far easier to knock down adversaries' base defenses... and whatever softer structures lie inside.
[ ] Recoilless Rifles. A pair of these direct-fire weapons would put you in good stead against an armored adversary. The only ammunition is armor-piercing, and the condition and markings on the crates tells a plain story of lengthy abandonment in an Eastern Bloc warehouse. To make matters worse, there are no digitally-assisted targeting packages, so your troops will have to aim manually. This is the weapon for taking on big, slow-moving adversaries. King thinks they could be the secret to "cracking" a Landing Pod.
Understanding Chiron
Your current understanding of Planet is based on records communicated back to Earth by the Pathfinder Probe.
Stellar Cartography
Chiron has three visible stars: Alpha Centauri A, which is comparable to Sol in both size and color of light emitted; Alpha Centauri B, called "Hercules," an intensely bright orange spot from the surface of Chiron; and the distant red star, Alpha Centauri C, rarely visible.
Alpha Centauri B's perihelion occurs on an 80-year cycle, during which Chiron's temperature increases by 0.3° C.
Nessus and Pholus are the two moons of Chiron. Each is individually slightly less massive than Earth's Moon. Tidal activity therefore ranges from negligible, when either moon acts alone, to significantly more intense than that on Earth. Alpha Centauri B is orbited by a planetoid of its own, dubbed Eurytion.
Base Time
Chiron's day-night cycle is completed in eighteen hours. Operations Director Guan has devised a work schedule of only six hours and three shifts: early, mid, and final. The reduced work day will help colonists adapt to the added exertions they will need to perform in Chiron's relatively intense gravity. Six of every colonists' remaining twelve hours are "programmed," meaning that organized educational and recreational activities are available, but only two are mandatory. In other words, colonists can choose whether to work six, socialize two, and rest ten or to work six, socialize six, and rest eight.
Gravity
Chiron is a third again more massive than Earth so that, even factoring for Chiron's larger radius, gravity is a third again as strong. For humans, every motion on Chiron requires 130% the mechanical effort that would have been required on Earth. Expect to consume a heavy caloric load and rely on machinery to do many more tasks than you would ordinarily.
Atmospherics
Chiron's atmosphere is eight parts Nitrogen, slightly more than .08% Oxygen, and just .09% Carbon Dioxide.
Sea-level pressure is 1.74 atmospheres, or nearly twice what it is on Earth. Humans will need years to become accustomed to breathing unassisted. Currently, those without mechanical breathing assistance, including supplemental oxygen, will experience Nitrogen narcosis within just fifteen minutes—less, if physically active.
As on Earth, it is hotter near the planet's equator. Temperatures decline toward either of the planet's small poles.
Rain falls abundantly on Planet, so there are fewer arid environments. Clouds form more easily and in greater abundance. You will be lucky to spot the suns through the clouds one day in ten.
Oceanography
Oceans are warmer, sweeter, and much more active. Oxygenation patterns favor higher depths, so life is more abundant in the shallows.
Biosphere
Planet's soil is silica-poor, frequently sandy, and alkaline. Overall, the quantity of arable land globally is much less. What Planet does have in abundance is nitrates, a natural fertilizer that should more than compensate.
The high heat and low oxygen levels on Planet are conducive to natural carbonization. Spectrographic analysis predicts with high confidence that Chiron boasts large reserves of fossil fuels. Your problem will be access: Planet's nitrate-based plant economy has accumulated many feet of organic detritus ("biomass") that must first be cleared to begin drilling. Carbon emissions on an industrial scale will massively stimulate plant growth on Chiron but amplify the greenhouse effect.
The water-table is predictably nitrate-infused. Drinking water not blasted by ozone is deadly.
Flora
Most of the land surface of Chiron is thick with a dense carpet of tall, green vegetation built up over the nitrate spoilage undisturbed since its geological birth. Shallower seas are likewise clogged, discouraging wave effects and permitting the practical extension of the land-based ecosystem over huge spaces from which it would ordinarily be excluded. The floating, toadstool structures produced in this way are spongy to the point of being dangerous.
Chiron's plant life is most similar to prehistoric Earth: spore-bearers and seed-bearers are commonplace, with very few flowering plants. Chiron's plant life also has markedly poor tolerance for cooler, dryer weather. Pollen counts are staggering.
Where there is green stuff, there is almost inevitably be red stuff: xenofungus. Fungus, like bamboo, grows in cylindrical shoots or tubers that can rise more than eight stories high. The fungus is aggressive but unpredictable, exploding in growth that proceeds like the creeping of vines that later harden like rock.
Fungal tubers, the outer walls of which can grow up to two feet in thickness, are approximately as hard as chalk. Inside a fungal tube are dense bundles of pulpy plant matter that produce a sweet milk. Stripping the plant matter causes the over-structure to decay, much like a root canal will destroy a tooth. You believe that cables of this pulp form the "tendrils" observed during growth of a fresh bloom.
Fungus contains both organic and inorganic material with excellent nutrient, energy, and mineral value, although the culling and processing of fungus will require a deeper understanding of Centauri chemistry and ecology.
Some, but not all, of the Pathfinder colonists attested to hearing unexplained noise during a bloom, which they describe as a "hum," song, or "keening cry," not unlike tinnitus. Your instruments have been unable to detect this noise. According to sealed records to which you had access as Chief Medical Officer, the colonial administrator, one Joralomon Hardacre, claimed to have produced data linking these auditory episodes to recorded injuries and deaths. Hardacre disagreed with his own medical staff, who believed strongly that the afflicted colonists were suffering auditory hallucinations brought on by stress.
Fauna
Planet's biodiversity is apparently limited, although the Pathfinder Probe said almost nothing about Chiron's animal life writ-large. Discovery of crustacean-like subridsmarked a high point. These semi-aquatic invertebrates dwell almost exclusively in the places where Chiron's plant life has rioted into its waterways. Their bodies are wide, flat, and squat, topped by hard, chittinous exoskeleton chemically indistinct from the xenofungus. Conical in shape, these "shells" can rise to as much as eight feet in height.
Subrids are bilaterally symmetrical, with two grasping claws and two pairs of very long, highly articulated walking legs, each ending in four hooked "toes." The legs are remarkably strong: like those of a waterbug, they can be stretched perpendicular to the main body, providing the surface area necessary to avoid becoming bogged down on unstable surfaces. A flat head bears two eye stalks, a pair of animated, whip-like antennae, antennules, and large, vertical mandibles. Naturalist Phillipe Nguyen, dispatched by the Chiron Probe, described "a perfect child of crab and snail."
The Pathfinder Colony began domestication efforts after finding that the meat of the subrid was both palatable and nutritious.
Intrafactional Considerations
Even now, on the cusp of Planetfall, distinct cleavages have begun to make it possible to generalize about the values and preferences of the approximately four hundred souls that recognize your leadership.
Affinities are a shorthand for understanding the way in which your faction's ideology both orients and constrains its cultural and scientific priorities. Faction affinities can be changed only gradually.
Purity
Humankind will be forever defined by the circumstances of our birth. In other words, we are, and should behave us, the children of Old Earth. We can reach our maximum potential only if we preserve the traditions, artifacts, and, yes, the "biological distinctiveness," of our ancestors. Like a prodigal child, we will fill our new home with reminders of the old.
The spectrum of Purist thinking on how to relate to Chiron ranges from those who are intent to carve and maintain mere outposts of the familiar (think about how nature preserves how) to those that look forward to the total elimination of the "pestilential" xenofungus. Chiron is simply mass and energy, ready to be "patterned over" by familiar crops with old human uses and familiar human names.
Purists are content to use new technologies but insist that this use conform to familiar relationships: machines are useful tools, to be directed by a higher, human intelligence.
Purist societies conceive of pollution as waste or poison, but have difficulty sympathizing with pollution as trespass or biological imperialism.
Purist factions include the Lord's Conclave, the Human Tribe, the Shapers of Chiron, the New State, and the Human Ascendancy.
Supremacy
Both humanity and Planet alike will bear changing in the honorable search for objective perfection. The simple goal of the species should be to perpetuate itself. Stronger is better. Faster is better. In this race, we would hamstring ourselves to overlook any advantage. Supremacists embrace the possibility of social and ecological experimentation, which will serve as the forcing function to generate new insights about how we must live.
Supremacists are less sentimental about the leaving behind of things old and broken, and as such are more prepared to engage with Chiron as a living system of systems that can and will react to stimuli, or even die if its needs are ignored (they might not go quite so far as to use the term "abused"). If Harmonious factions inexplicably anthropomorphize Chiron, Purist factions foolishly infantilize it. Humans have unique writ on Chiron, but we should be neither reckless in our embrace of change like the Gaians, nor obstinate in our skepticism of change, like the Shapers.
Supremacists have difficulty understanding the artificial as capable of emancipation. Robots are tools. Can anything built by a human possess an independent intellect, let alone a superior one? A calculator is unerring. Is it better than I am at math? Does it mean anything to say that a bulldozer or a locomotive is "stronger" than a man? No.
Supremacist factions include the Human Labyrinth, the Dynamic Enterprise, the University of Planet, the Spartan Federation, the Dreamers of Chiron, and the New Two Thousand.
Harmony
Humanity, the intruder, must alter its rhythms to suit those of Chiron, or else perish in its obstinacy. The wisest understand that one does not merely make a home. Even the Purists concede: one is made by the home. This is home now, and we would be wisest to recognize no other. The artifacts of Old Earth are useful only inasmuch as they can be relied upon to bridge the gap temporarily between mere survival and proper integration into Chiron's biosphere. To do otherwise will be to repeat our great mistake on Earth: thinking of ourselves as beneficiaries of a system that renders care, rather than component pieces. Purists long for a mother, but they forgot that, upon reaching maturity, the child often cares for the parent.
Harmonists, like Purists, run a gamut. Gaians pursue total integration, ready to slip every expectation they carried about what life could or should be like. The Hunters feel that they exist above and beyond the environment—as both users and stewards.
Harmonious factions include the Stepdaughters of Gaia and the Hunters of Chiron.
Purists - About three-fifths of your colonists unconsciously speak in accordance with a philosophy you have labeled "Purity." Even if they are not homesick, Earth provides an approachable frame of reference through which to conceptualize contentment on Chiron. When they think about what comes after mere survival, it is a fusion of Chiron's landscapes and Earth's biodiversity.
Supremacists - One-fifth of the Peacekeeping Forces cast a cautious vision. They focus on the necessity of learning as much as on the anticipation of doing. But it is Zakharov's kind of mastery, not Cohen's. They imagine that they will impose themselves on the data, seeing all possibilities. Theirs is the more efficient kind of living.
Dr. Aleigha Cohen said:
Stop focusing on what you want to know. Focus instead on what you want to un-know. What prejudice will you abandon? What dearly-held principle will you permit to be holed? To be a scientist, you must believe in your own limitations. Science is pain. If it hurts, you're growing. Learning is the discarding of falsity. It is deletion, not accumulation. - TEDx Macao 2092
Spartans - While divided themselves, the Spartans share a common belief that it is permissible to take what is not offered up. Santiago's loyalists talk about how to achieve individual excellence, which they believe is an essential precondition of being useful to one's "unit," but the idea of community doesn't come through strongly enough to gain them any new converts among most of the crowd that you've drawn in.
Defenders - A vocal contingent insists that you wage immediate and unrelenting war on Santiago as a service to the rest of Planet. If she was willing to destroy the very starship in which she was traveling, why not expect her to continue waging her war once on the surface? The U.N. recognizes a duty to defend those who cannot defend themselves.
Issue 1: The Pathfinder (Chiron) Probe found that Terran plants will grow well in Planet's soil. The Purists urge you to make one final addition to our cargo bays before departure: a Crawler programmed to plant soybeans along the perimeter of our first colony. Supremacists are urging caution. Knowing that a crop will take, and being able to say for sure that it won't damage the local ecosystem, are two very different pieces of knowledge. If we agree with the proposal of the Purists, we can expect the following results:
+1Supply Crawler
+esteem from Purists
-esteemfrom Supremacists
[ ]Authorize the proposal. [ ]Decline the proposal.
Story Note
I did my best to summarize and paraphrase the game manual with regard to what is known about Planet.
Chiron as described in this story differs from the canon Chiron in some important ways. First, it is much, much wetter. Second, it is much, much greener. Third, there is more animal life than just the 'worms and their derivatives. Fourth, the level of planetary symbiosis so far achieved is much, much lower. Planet is snorting in its sleep but has not yet approached the "awakening" of interconnectedness that will result in elimination of the massive carbon excess. I adjusted the atmospheric composition slightly to reflect this.
My level of scientific knowledge is near zero. If any of the foregoing is blatantly mangled, let me know.
The Chiron Probe did not report on mindworms.
Chris McCubbin, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, game manual (Tustin, CA: Loki Software, Inc., 1999-2000), 210-227.
Jon F. Zeigler, GURPS: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (Thailand: Steve Jackson Games, November 2002).
I used a website called Wayne's World, An On-Line Textbook of Natural History, (Vol. 8, Number 3, Fall 1999) to learn about prehistoric plants.
[X] Heavy Mortar. The ideal tool with which to defend your base. Short-range artillery with a very big wallop. You can even leverage the telemetric capabilities of the Landing Pod to zero in on pre-determined "kill zones." Mounted in the back of a Unity Rover, the same mortar would make a fearsome terror weapon. The high-explosive bombs are good for any fixed target other than a Landing Pod.
Best base defense armament, I don't expect to find another human settlement close enough to raid
[X] Heavy Mortar. The ideal tool with which to defend your base. Short-range artillery with a very big wallop. You can even leverage the telemetric capabilities of the Landing Pod to zero in on pre-determined "kill zones." Mounted in the back of a Unity Rover, the same mortar would make a fearsome terror weapon. The high-explosive bombs are good for any fixed target other than a Landing Pod.
Ability to hit the enemy at huge range? yes please.
Not super-enthusiastic about using the beyond-earth categories for factions. I think it takes away from the factions' ideological uniqueness to just drop them into categories like that. If they're all taken individually you have to consider the nuances of the factions' beliefs, but drop them into categories and suddenly you start thinking in terms of How do I deal with a purist faction, rather than how do I deal with the Lord's Conclave. They are unnecessary groupings, and their existance takes away from the uniqueness of the factions.
Additionally, they aren't even very good groups, in that they give little useful information. The goals of their members can even be pretty strongly opposed - I doubt the human ascendency and the Lord's Conclave will get along all that well for instance. And they certainly emphasize very different ideological tenants. And yet we end up with all of these factions in these three categories, when they share very little in common. And based on the breakdown numbers, this seems to be the main way the political leanings of our population are presented to us? That just doesn't make sense. Wouldn't it be better to just say 50 people sympathize with the University of Planet and 50 with Spartan Federation, rather than vaguely telling us that they are Supremacists? Because knowing what vague ideological box they fit into really doesn't tell us anything about what they actually want - and those two 50-person groups would probably want very different things, and respond very differently to our actions. So what useful information does knowing that 100 of our poeple lean Supremacist actually give us? It's just not a very good category.
Even beyond that, the ideologies won't even be especially consistent with the nominal holder's beliefs. To take a more obvious example from the expansion, The Cybernetic Consciousness would fairly obviously be Supremacist, and yet would "Supremacists have difficulty understanding the artificial as capable of emancipation" really apply to them? They're like 50% AI already, so they would almost certainly disagree violently with the above notion. Same for other broad ideological points within these categories.
[X] Heavy Mortar. The ideal tool with which to defend your base. Short-range artillery with a very big wallop. You can even leverage the telemetric capabilities of the Landing Pod to zero in on pre-determined "kill zones." Mounted in the back of a Unity Rover, the same mortar would make a fearsome terror weapon. The high-explosive bombs are good for any fixed target other than a Landing Pod.
Not super-enthusiastic about using the beyond-earth categories for factions. I think it takes away from the factions' ideological uniqueness to just drop them into categories like that. If they're all taken individually you have to consider the nuances of the factions' beliefs, but drop them into categories and suddenly you start thinking in terms of How do I deal with a purist faction, rather than how do I deal with the Lord's Conclave. They are unnecessary groupings, and their existance takes away from the uniqueness of the factions.
Categorization is an analytical tool, neither good nor bad. Yes, it can elide important differences, but that's not foreordained.
Additionally, they aren't even very good groups, in that they give little useful information. The goals of their members can even be pretty strongly opposed - I doubt the human ascendency and the Lord's Conclave will get along all that well for instance. And they certainly emphasize very different ideological tenants. And yet we end up with all of these factions in these three categories, when they share very little in common.
The purpose is less to put the factions themselves in comparison with one another than to tell you what their colonists think about humankind's destiny on Planet.
And based on the breakdown numbers, this seems to be the main way the political leanings of our population are presented to us? That just doesn't make sense. Wouldn't it be better to just say 50 people sympathize with the University of Planet and 50 with Spartan Federation, rather than vaguely telling us that they are Supremacists? Because knowing what vague ideological box they fit into really doesn't tell us anything about what they actually want - and those two 50-person groups would probably want very different things, and respond very differently to our actions. So what useful information does knowing that 100 of our poeple lean Supremacist actually give us? It's just not a very good category.
I can present raw numbers instead of percentages next time, although hopefully my clarification about how the different factions will react provides some of the insight you were seeking about their potential reaction.
Even beyond that, the ideologies won't even be especially consistent with the nominal holder's beliefs. To take a more obvious example from the expansion, The Cybernetic Consciousness would fairly obviously be Supremacist, and yet would "Supremacists have difficulty understanding the artificial as capable of emancipation" really apply to them? They're like 50% AI already, so they would almost certainly disagree violently with the above notion. Same for other broad ideological points within these categories.
Purity is about tradition. Supremacy is about instrumentalism. Harmony is about conforming to the moods of Planet. They are archetypes. Like the heuristics Democrat and Republican. Within either party are people who barely care to speak to one another because their views are so incompatible.
The Cybernetic Consciousness doesn't exist yet. Affinities change over time. Right now, Supremacy means a willingness to change for short-term convenience's sake. Purity means making a demand that Chiron change for comfort's sake. Harmony means a willingness to change out of an awareness that you don't belong, although it is arguably a competitive strategy for the long term.
[X] Heavy Mortar. The ideal tool with which to defend your base. Short-range artillery with a very big wallop. You can even leverage the telemetric capabilities of the Landing Pod to zero in on pre-determined "kill zones." Mounted in the back of a Unity Rover, the same mortar would make a fearsome terror weapon. The high-explosive bombs are good for any fixed target other than a Landing Pod.
A rover with a mortar? I hope we can add missile launchers on it in the future to make Pitbull
[X] Heavy Mortar. The ideal tool with which to defend your base. Short-range artillery with a very big wallop. You can even leverage the telemetric capabilities of the Landing Pod to zero in on pre-determined "kill zones." Mounted in the back of a Unity Rover, the same mortar would make a fearsome terror weapon. The high-explosive bombs are good for any fixed target other than a Landing Pod.
A rover with a mortar? I hope we can add missile launchers on it in the future to make Pitbull
[X] Heavy Mortar. The ideal tool with which to defend your base. Short-range artillery with a very big wallop. You can even leverage the telemetric capabilities of the Landing Pod to zero in on pre-determined "kill zones." Mounted in the back of a Unity Rover, the same mortar would make a fearsome terror weapon. The high-explosive bombs are good for any fixed target other than a Landing Pod.
So there doesn't seem to be a vote included for the Soybean Rover. Is that a typo, are we intended to do write ins, or will it show up as an option next update?
So there doesn't seem to be a vote included for the Soybean Rover. Is that a typo, are we intended to do write ins, or will it show up as an option next update?
