[X] Warm Welcome(referencing the excessively 'friendly' Chulls)
[X] Connect our Data Nodes to the Chamomile's core and turn all that raw computing power toward collecting and organizing patient health indicators. Our casualties are living on borrowed time. If we plan to save them--and limit their long-term draw on our finite stockpile of medical supplies--then we have no choice but to act quickly. [-X Data Nodes, +Health]
[X] Ready the SkyCrane. King will take such Marines as he shall adjudge necessary to retrieve the Unity DataCore, if practicable. To replenish their spent munitions, we'll start the 3D printers going. [--Supplies]
I was already going to vote this way, but the name, that's just...yum on so many levels. Including foodwise, but I haven't had breakfast yet, so...
Ok, if turns are a 3-month season, then there is definitely things we need to get done soon. Namely healthcare. We could probably keep people alive for a while without dedicating too much effort, but 3 months is really pushing it. So this is rather time sensitive. Likewise, if we want to get the core we need to act fast, as while I doubt anyone would manage to find in in a single month, 3 would really push it. So we do the time limited options now, and really dig into the water and food next season.
[X] Connect our Data Nodes to the Chamomile's core and turn all that raw computing power toward collecting and organizing patient health indicators. Our casualties are living on borrowed time. If we plan to save them--and limit their long-term draw on our finite stockpile of medical supplies--then we have no choice but to act quickly. [-X Data Nodes, +Health]
[X] Ready the SkyCrane. King will take such Marines as he shall adjudge necessary to retrieve the Unity DataCore, if practicable. To replenish their spent munitions, we'll start the 3D printers going. [--Supplies]
We'll really need to focus hard on the essentials next turn however, before we start running into issues. No matter how shiner the other options are.
Can I ask what exactly -X data cores mean? Weren't those the things with the technology records on them? We're not going to be loosing data if we do this, right? Just getting some cloud computing going?
Can I ask what exactly -X data cores mean? Weren't those the things with the technology records on them? We're not going to be loosing data if we do this, right? Just getting some cloud computing going?
Essentially we're using our supercomputers for medical operations, rather than research or anything else. Probably -X because we don't know how many will be needed. Don't think any data will be lost, but the primary benefit of data nodes is their computing power, as we don't have the manufacturing capability to produce supercomputers right now. So using if for this rather than something else is mostly an opportunity cost, as while we're using them for healthcare we cannot use them for something else.
Also shouldn't we have an option to filter the sea water with a solar still? (Dig a hole fill that hole with water put a pot at the center and then cover it with clear plastic then put a small weight on top of the plastic so that it makes a cone and funnels the condensation into the pot at the center of the hole). That should be simple enough to make and passively purify sea water into drinkable water.
Certainly. Let's assume your list of options isn't exhaustive. If you can think it, you can ask about doing it. In practice, the impact of solar stills would be the same as that of the catchments.
We'll make industry once no one is in danger of dying and we got the Computer core for the instruction manual on how to make and use the industrial equipment.
So food shouldn't be a problem in the short term and could be pushed down on the priority list. Wait are Chulls and Subrids the same species?
Correct. My apologies for lapsing into Sanderson's name for them. Honestly, since I seem to have that unconscious bias, expect me to flatter it going forward.
Can I ask what exactly -X data cores mean? Weren't those the things with the technology records on them? We're not going to be loosing data if we do this, right? Just getting some cloud computing going?
You can theoretically choose to assign your 4 data cores to individual tasks. That said, a prior decision more or less locks you into committing them to medical research.
Announcement
Given the pace of activity so far, we'll go with the 1 Real Time Day=1 Week In-Game.
The impact of this decision will be to narrow your focus on tactics rather than strategy for a while. When we've exhausted ourselves, we'll do some time jumps.
I can see now that I've developed a history of rules amendments on the fly. Oh well. It's good to be King!
Time skips might work, but another option would be to simply increase the turn length (from 1 week -> 1 month -> 3 months -> 1 year) as we get out of survival mode, and our goals become more long-term focused. Keeps the players in control the entire time, without awkward jumps in the plot. Then we can just slow it down again when something time-critical happens - like a war - or have one-off emergency turns for one-off events that require immediate attention.
Vote 1 – Nobody Says My Name Great Refuge - 1 New Geneva - 1 Tranquility - 1 New Home - 1 Warm Welcome - 2
Commissioner Pravin Lal said:
Though I proffered Tranquility--the alternative, New Geneva, bearing perhaps too much the taint of an unhappy past--our Corporal Pereira came up with the winning suggestion. Voice acclaim made a count unnecessary. What a vivid reminder that we live for today, with its immediate jokes and contexts. These people wished to smile. They are thinking of full hearts, not future histories. - Journals of Planet
Vote 2 - Setting Up Shop Acclimatization routines [+Planet, -Supplies, -Morale] - 0 Target practice. [+Veterancy, -Planet] - 0 Connect the Nodes. [-X Data Nodes, +Health] – 6
Embodied militia. [-Supplies, -Economic Growth Factor] - 0 Ready the SkyCrane. Seek the Data Core. [--Supplies] – 5
Ready the SkyCrane. Visit Marsh. [--Supplies] - 0 Reading Room. [+Morale] - 0 Pump station. [--Supplies, +++Water Economy, --Planet] – 2 Moisture catchments. [+Water Economy] - 0 Observation Post at opposite end of island. - 0 Begin subterranean mining. [++Minerals, -Planet] - 0 Scout the region. - 0 Activate Supply Crawler and begin planting. [++Nutrients, --Planet] - 1 Establish hermetic agriculture. [+Nutrients] - 0 Collect mass. [+Minerals] - 0
Outcomes:
Should you have been surprised that the choice of names for your new settlement proved more controversial than any order you gave subsequently with regard to tasking? Here and there, colonists waxed poetical about drawing some butter for the new "house guests," but canned peaches in juice and potted institutional meat product hadn't quite worn out their charm on taste buds deadened from generations under the influence of sedative. (Many in fact complain of what your techs suspect to be "minor" nerve damage.) Basic work proceeded on moisture catchments, but the overwhelming effort of the healthy three hundred of your colonists was organized either around those who weren't, or the fueling and loading of the SkyCrane.
With four data nodes now tied into Chamomile's mainframe, MedTech Zara Karimov reposed great confidence in the possibility of completing neural maps of sufficient precision to allow for restorative surgeries. You readily consented to weeks of twelve-hour in the Operating Theater for this purpose. Less welcome was your news that the 3D Printers would be at least half occupied stamping out bullets.
For the mission to the desert region of Unity's enormous Eastern continent, the SkyCrane would carry the long passenger module, loaded with forty Marines, their personal weapons, and three of the big gas-powered 'Rovers. Since hardiness, not speed, was called for, Guan Biao stripped a full 40'x40' panel of ceramic from Chamomile's hull and had the machine shop cut and shape appliqué for their hulls. Link after link of 7.62mm ball found pride of place in every cargo box. But most of the spaces of the huge under-slung container was reserved for fuel and hoses, which the flight crew and their escorts would need to use many times during their journey, including after the Data Core was recovered.
Liftoff proceeded without complication, though in its aftermath, the seeming emptiness of Chamomile's lowermost cargo bays both astounded and disturbed you. That much fuel, that many crates of rations, that many precious first-aid kits, that much of your very inadequate munitions stockpile. You'd been willing to let them also take the heavy mortar, but Third Lieutenant King convinced you that to lose that, also, would only compound mission failure. Best not gamble.
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 +1squadron Combat Hovercycles (Electric) +1squadron Unity Foils (Electric) +1squadron Space Construction Vehicles (S.C.V.) +1 Skycrane, with various mission modules +1 Supply Crawler (Terran Nutrients) +2squadrons Unity Rovers (Fission) +3 Multiple Use Labor Element (M.U.L.E.) -4 Data Nodes (must be used for Discovery track technologies) +1Industrial-Scale 3D Printers
+Faction Personality (Terrance LaCroix) +1 Heavy Mortar (107mm) +1company U.N. Marine Corps (Veteran) +Spartan Prisoners +esteemof Purists +esteemof Stepdaughters of Gaia, Shapers of Chiron -esteem of Supremacists
Other Named Characters: Base Operations Director Guan Biao, Third Lieutenant Bruce King, Cabo primero Felix Pereira (artillerist), Captain Watsoné Erkins (prisoner), Zara Karimov (medtech)
Resource Pool
+Health
--Supplies
Next Chapter Homeland Security
Tears of the Unity
Camped out high above Warm Welcome, Cabo primero Pereira is learning his trade the hard way, occasionally lobbing shells at stationary targets like rocks and trunks of fungus. The news from his perch is infrequent, and you guess that the pleasure of lording over such powerful hardware has now faded. Somewhere between the interminable rounds of neural grafting and operational efficiency reports, you are surprised to receive an urgent alert.
An object has plummeted from the sky to crash-land on the far side of the island. Pereira reports that it is a Unity Cargo Pod of great size. It is also in flames.
What shall we do? Choose one.
[ ] Dispatch Pereira and his Marines to investigate immediately. See if they can gather more information before you disrupt base operations for what could be so much junk.
[ ] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds.
[ ] Take no action. Pereira is required to stay on over-watch. Nothing in that pod is likely to be worth having if it's going to burn ten hours before you can reach it anyway. You'll recover the valuable metals another day.
Lost and Found
While setting up solar stills above the tide line, 'Rover Crew O-מ12 reports that they "lost track" of a strongbox containing valuable blasting supplies.
This requires your intervention. Choose one.
[ ] A case for mild internal discipline. Have the responsible parties join the Spartan labor crews for the next cycle to encourage greater attention to detail on future deployments.
[ ] Interview the crew members as a potential prelude to bringing criminal charges. This is more serious than a mere infraction. Strongboxes don't just go missing. Could the lure of explosives have caused them to do something tremendously stupid?
[ ] Perhaps our new "friends," the subrids, chose an opportune moment to satiate their curiosity? Treat the theft as an opportunity for "first contact" with a species that, while troublesome, deserves some forbearance considering you intruded on what might well be their nesting ground.
[ ] Dispatch Cpl. Pereira to comb the beach where the work crew set up camp. Perhaps they simply left (or secreted) the box among the rocks and fungus.
[ ] Set traps for the subrids. Small remote heaters. Use them whenever you will be working in a given area. Sooner or later, they'll take something you really need. [-Planet]
[ ] Isolate your settlement from the subrids. Build large-scale beacons and corral the subrids in a preserve of sorts. [--Supplies, --Planet]
[ ] Destroy subrid in the vicinity of the theft. Dissect the carcasses and attempt to consume them once cooked. Make it prominent. Perhaps if the creatures gain a healthy respect for you, worse encounters can be avoided down the road.
Sparta That Was
Treating the Spartans as a subject population poses obvious questions about the society you aim to build. Choose one.
[ ] Organize a game of sport between the Peacekeeping Forces and the Spartans. Share out extra rations. The populations should mix more often so that you can model right behavior for those open to change for the better.
Dr. Aleigha Cohen said:
How do you unbake a failed dessert? You don't. Once the ingredients have gone in and the cooking is done, they will forever flavor the pudding. But you can introduce new flavors, too. Stronger ones. You can mask the mistake, redirect the palate, and achieve an end result that, while imperfect, will still satisfy most of the time. People are much the same way. The wrong experiences produce material difficult to work with, but by layering enough of the new, we gain more useful responses. The masterful chef isn't the one who can make a memorable meal with the choicest ingredients, but one who can salvage a disaster. - Field Notes, Chita, RSFSR
[ ] Isolate the Spartans. Deploy them under guard to perform tasks out of sight of the main colony. Those who cannot be trusted to live in society must be kept outside that society until their debt is fully repaid.
[ ] Invite Captain Erkins to a private audience and break bread (okay, flour crackers). Request that she prepare for you a profile of her Colonel.
[ ] Seek out an interlocutor among the Holnists. Can you understand and address the fears that turned them down the darkest road one can possibly travel?
[ ] Entrust the Spartans with a special task. Perhaps you can earn trust by demonstrating some of your own? [Write-in.]
[X] Dispatch Pereira and his Marines to investigate immediately. See if they can gather more information before you disrupt base operations for what could be so much junk. [X] Interview the crew members as a potential prelude to bringing criminal charges. This is more serious than a mere infraction. Strongboxes don't just go missing. Could the lure of explosives have caused them to do something tremendously stupid? [X] Invite Captain Erkins to a private audience and break bread (okay, flour crackers). Request that she prepare for you a profile of her Colonel.
[X] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds. [X] Interview the crew members as a potential prelude to bringing criminal charges. This is more serious than a mere infraction. Strongboxes don't just go missing. Could the lure of explosives have caused them to do something tremendously stupid? [X] Invite Captain Erkins to a private audience and break bread (okay, flour crackers). Request that she prepare for you a profile of her Colonel.
[X] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds.
[X] Dispatch Cpl. Pereira to comb the beach where the work crew set up camp. Perhaps they simply left (or secreted) the box among the rocks and fungus.
[X] Invite Captain Erkins to a private audience and break bread (okay, flour crackers). Request that she prepare for you a profile of her Colonel.
Why would they need blasting supplies to dig holes? They could have done it with shovels
[X] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds.
[X] Dispatch Cpl. Pereira to comb the beach where the work crew set up camp. Perhaps they simply left (or secreted) the box among the rocks and fungus.
[X] Invite Captain Erkins to a private audience and break bread (okay, flour crackers). Request that she prepare for you a profile of her Colonel
Haha, integrating some of the failed results in the narrative is a cool touch! Thanks.
[X] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds.
In the unlikely event it does, we owe it to humanity itself to intervene! If we can't do this for people in immediate peril, what is the United Nations even for?
[X] Interview the crew members as a potential prelude to bringing criminal charges. This is more serious than a mere infraction. Strongboxes don't just go missing. Could the lure of explosives have caused them to do something tremendously stupid?
Can't act too rashly. More information is needed.
[X] Invite Captain Erkins to a private audience and break bread (okay, flour crackers). Request that she prepare for you a profile of her Colonel.
Negotiation! Mutual Understanding! Total Lal Move.
[X] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds.
[X] Interview the crew members as a potential prelude to bringing criminal charges. This is more serious than a mere infraction. Strongboxes don't just go missing. Could the lure of explosives have caused them to do something tremendously stupid?
[X] Organize a game of sport between the Peacekeeping Forces and the Spartans. Share out extra rations. The populations should mix more often so that you can model right behavior for those open to change for the better.
[ ] Embody a volunteer militia. Task King to see to the training of a citizen defense force. Their first job? Hold a perimeter against the mindworms. But start high-angle and confined space rescue drills. It won't be long before our bolder colonists begin taking tumbles on the rocks. [-Supplies, -Economic Growth Factor]
What do we know about mindworms? I don't think any of ours have made contact just yet (the chulls are the only notable fauna species we know of so far), so this seems a bit premature?
[x] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds.
[x] Dispatch Cpl. Pereira to comb the beach where the work crew set up camp. Perhaps they simply left (or secreted) the box among the rocks and fungus.
[X] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds.
[X] Interview the crew members as a potential prelude to bringing criminal charges. This is more serious than a mere infraction. Strongboxes don't just go missing. Could the lure of explosives have caused them to do something tremendously stupid?
[X] Organize a game of sport between the Peacekeeping Forces and the Spartans. Share out extra rations. The populations should mix more often so that you can model right behavior for those open to change for the better.
[X] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds. [X] Interview the crew members as a potential prelude to bringing criminal charges. This is more serious than a mere infraction. Strongboxes don't just go missing. Could the lure of explosives have caused them to do something tremendously stupid? [X] Invite Captain Erkins to a private audience and break bread (okay, flour crackers). Request that she prepare for you a profile of her Colonel.
If we move to de-fire the pod, whatever is inside, whether it be people or materials, will be in better shape than if just let it burn.'
Criminal charges...yep, seems warranted. Explosives are no joke, and insanely valuable considering we can't make any more at the moment.
As for the Captain, I figure breaking bread here makes sense. After this, THEN host a small party intermixing the two populations, but we really do need a good grasp of what the senior Spartan personnel are like.
[X] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds.
[X] Dispatch Cpl. Pereira to comb the beach where the work crew set up camp. Perhaps they simply left (or secreted) the box among the rocks and fungus.
[X] Invite Captain Erkins to a private audience and break bread (okay, flour crackers). Request that she prepare for you a profile of her Colonel.
[X] Dispatch 'Rovers, including some of the fire-fighting equipment aboard Chamomile. You will extinguish the flames. There's a chance the Pod contains cryobeds.
[X] Interview the crew members as a potential prelude to bringing criminal charges. This is more serious than a mere infraction. Strongboxes don't just go missing. Could the lure of explosives have caused them to do something tremendously stupid?
[X] Organize a game of sport between the Peacekeeping Forces and the Spartans. Share out extra rations. The populations should mix more often so that you can model right behavior for those open to change for the better.
Vote 1 – Tears of the Unity
Send Pereira to investigate the crash site – 1
Dispatch 'Rovers to fight the fire – 10
Take no action – 1
Vote 2 – Lost and Found Mild internal discipline – 1 Start the investigation – 7
First contact – 0 Search the beach – 4 Set traps – 0 Raise a stockade – 0 Destroy and dissect a subrid – 0
Vote 3 – Sparta That Was Game of sport – 3 Private audience with Capt. Erkins – 7
Seek out a Holnist – 0 Demonstrate trust – 0
Results:
Warm Welcome scrambles emergency response.
Constable Egon Hakizimana authorized to open investigation into disappearance of Strongbox 8921ႻL21.
Capt. Erkins requested to dine with Commissioner Lal in his private office.
Outcomes:
Qualified firefighters are one of the few resources for which the Peacekeeping Forces (and, you imagine, most other factions) do not lack. As a practicing physician, you were exempted from the otherwise mandatory damage control track, and your very poor Atherholt Trauma Function test scores posed a second probable hurdle, but the average crew member was trained up to the level of Firefighter III. Turnout impressed you: led by a tall Native American, Nahele Tomatuk, colonists in bunker gear piled themselves and their SCBA tanks into a trio of American MD-3 Fire Tractors, blue signals flashing. Rock crawlers having replaced slicked tyres, the craft were theoretically worthy of the multi-hour journey being asked of them and soon departed to the applause of hundreds on hand to enjoy the spectacle. According to Cabo primero Pereira's reports, the fire has still not abated at this time.
Commissioner Pravin Lal said:
The first responder is our quintessential citizen. A competent technician who possesses the knowledge, capability, and willingness to put herself at the disposal of those less fortunate. In the Peacekeeping Forces, we have continued to emphasize credentialing in fire suppression and advanced emergency medicine as a foundational aspect of one's civic contribution. - Address to the Leadership of U.N. Disaster Relief
For weeks, you had held off decanting approximately fifty crew from cold sleep on grounds that their particular specialties are not required by a young colony. In at least one case, you were proven wrong. Ten-year veteran of the Rwanda National Police, Egon Hakizimana, came highly recommended. Following a short period of recovery from hibernation sickness, he put questions to both members of Rover Crew O-מ12. His preliminary report points to simple carelessness, not malice. A pre-trip checklist shows the thumb-print of the Rover pilot attesting to proper stowage of the strongbox following both visual and physical inspection. Not quite open-and-shut, since Terrance LaCroix evaluated the digital locking mechanism and is confident of tampering.
Captain Wasoné Erkins said:
I don't have an objection to peace. I don't have an objection to the resolution of hunger, thirst, sickness, or suffering. But the delegitimation of all armed resistance is not these things. The West insisted that every disagreement can be negotiated, every conflict zone embargoed. They disliked the pestilence of war: the refugees whose demands tugged on the heart, the rebels willing to make common cause with extremists. But this is like plucking bitter fruits when the whole tree must be uprooted. Some issues cannot be submerged. Some issues are insuperable. Who was it that said, the United States could not endure permanently, half free and half slave? 'It will become all one thing, or all the other.' How did this happen? To achieve lasting peace, fight a war. - Observations over water, Spartan prisoner Wasoné Erkins quoted in an except from the Diary of Commissioner Pravin Lal [1]
Captain Erkins performed the deference you had come to expect from her but refused both your offer of a hot meal and any beverage other than water even though your warders do not keep her comrades on anything close to starvation rations. LaCroix says there is no record of Erkins in the fragment of files you pulled from the Unity DataCore, and she confirmed for you that she was, in fact, a "true stowaway" -- neither a member of the expedition nor even affiliated, like Santiago, with the United Nations. Her rank was, she said, "acknowledged in the Spartan Movement," but also reflected a commission in the Canadian Forces. You wondered if she was one of the many embittered veterans of the FLQ confrontation but declined to press the matter. When invited to profile Citizen Santiago, Erkins declined outright, pointing up the problems inherent in providing you with "actionable intelligence on someone who may well be underway at this very moment to effect the rescue of my command." She did offer a compromise: you were welcome to ask her questions about herself.
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
Get yourself elected to the Council Speakership
Punish violations of the Charter
Action Points: 3 Influence Points: 3 Research Focus:Discovery [2 days + 4 Research Nodes] Economic Focus: Water Sector [2 days] Starting Pieces:
3 TALENTS
1 CITIZEN
1 FORMER
1 MILITIA Company (Peacekeeping Forces)
Faction Inventory +1 squadron Combat Hovercycles (Electric) +1 squadron Unity Foils (Electric) +1squadron Space Construction Vehicles (S.C.V.) +1 Skycrane, with various mission modules [deployed] +1 Supply Crawler (Terran Nutrients) +2 squadrons Unity Rovers (Fission) +3 Multiple Use Labor Element (M.U.L.E.) +1Industrial-Scale 3D Printers
+Faction Personality (Terrance LaCroix) +1 Heavy Mortar (107mm) [deployed] +1company U.N. Marine Corps (Veteran) +Spartan Prisoners +esteemof Purists +esteemof Stepdaughters of Gaia, Shapers of Chiron -esteemof Supremacists
Other Named Characters: Base Operations Director Guan Biao, Third Lieutenant Bruce King, Cabo primero Felix Pereira (artillerist), Captain Watsoné Erkins (prisoner), Zara Karimov (medtech), Nahele Tomatuk (firefighter), Egon Hakizimana (constable)
Resource Pool
+Health
--Supplies
New Chapter Homebodies
Setting Up Shop, Part II
Choose how we will next proceed. Select two.
[ ] Begin acclimatization routines. Ween the colonists off dependence on their pressure suits and supplemental oxygen. Design a regimen of exercise to build the muscle demanded by this harsher gravity. If the task can be performed manually, do it that way. Push-button living isn't "the future," it's potentially a recipe for social malaise. [+Planet, -Supplies, -Morale]
[ ] Guan's gentle hand with the chull is failing to dissuade them from venturing too close to the colonists. And they aren't harmless. We've had injuries. Order Cabo primero Pereira to take some (more) target practice. [+Veterancy, -Planet]
[ ] Start pitching individual shelters. Common habs are more efficient but privacy is a cornerstone of healthy living, both physically and mentally. [+Health, -Supplies] [ ] Embody a volunteer militia. Task King to see to the training of a citizen defense force. Their first job? Hold a perimeter against the mindworms. But start high-angle and confined space rescue drills. It won't be long before our bolder colonists begin taking tumbles on the rocks. [-Supplies, -Economic Growth Factor]
[ ] Raise a perimeter defense. Use some of the calcite tubers (which grow to astonishing heights), rocks, cargo boxes--anything that we can use to deny access. We're talking something roughly in the shape of a triangle, with bastions at each point, and Chamomile centered. [+Base Facility: Defensive Stockade]
Colonel Corazón Santiago said:
A soldier learns quickly that the best position from which to fight is protected, or else they don't soldier long. War promotes the most direct and compulsory form of learning. - Planet: A Survivalist's Guide
[ ] Establish a Reading Room. Dr. Johann Anhaldt, a noted authority on robotics, has agreed to deliver a series of lectures for our edification, following which we will hold a poetry workshop. [+Morale]
[ ] Drill down to the local water table and erect a pump station. We will establish wells for local irrigation. [--Supplies, +++Water Economy, --Planet]
[ ] Set up moisture catchments and impose sustainable rationing for purposes other than drinking. [+Water Economy]
[ ] Use the output from the 3D Printer to expand the Landing Pod's small machine shop. Fill the space left behind by all the fuel sent off with the SkyCrane. [---Supplies, --Minerals, +Manufacturing Economy]
[ ] Staff an observation post at the opposite end of the island. Link it to the main settlement with cable. Detach a platoon of Marines for the purpose. Make sure they are given organic transport.
[ ] Begin excavation for minerals. Send the 'Former into the tunnels beneath the island. [++Minerals, -Planet]
[ ] Equip an expedition. Let's see if we can do some mapping of the broader region. They'll take the Foils.
[ ] Clear the rock and turn loose the Supply Crawler. [++Nutrients, --Planet)]
[ ] Inaugurate a series of regular debates for popular entertainment. [+Morale]
[ ] Establish sealed agricultural tents. We don't have a sense of the local ecology. Let's not have a biological containment breach our first season, okay? [+Nutrients]
[ ] We need mass to fuel the 3D printers. Start collecting the local rock and whatever composting nitrates we can find. [+Minerals]
Absconding
An even dozen of the colonists have taken to retracing the journey of Rover Crew O-מ12. They post lurid theories to the DataLinks, ranging from speculation that "Humans are not alone on Chiron" to the tamer suggestion that hungry subrids may have had themselves a picnic lunch. To date, nobody has reported any physical evidence not already examined by Constable Hakizimana, so their search was not a front-and-center issue for you. Last night, that changed when roll call came up short. One of the amateur sleuths is missing. [-Morale]
[ ] The Constable will organize search operations. We know enough now to treat this as a crime.
[ ] Get Pereira down here. We're going to need to flush the caves and, though we had wished to avoid it, explore whether the subrids are now treating us as prey items.
[ ] Build a sensor tower and put LaCroix to work solving the problem. [-Supplies, +Tile Improvement: Sensor Array]
[ ] Begin mounted patrols of the colony perimeter. [-Economic Growth Factor]
[1] Reflective of the philosophy and writing of Edward N. Luttwak in Give War a Chance, found in Foreign Affairs (July/August 1999).
[ ] Connect our Data Nodes to the Chamomile's core and turn all that raw computing power toward collecting and organizing patient health indicators. Our casualties are living on borrowed time. If we plan to save them--and limit their long-term draw on our finite stockpile of medical supplies--then we have no choice but to act quickly. [-X Data Nodes, +Health]
