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Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest
Thebigpieman
I've got this, I think.
- Location
- United States
I think that depends on the circumstances of the election? It has been a while since the topic last came up though so not certain.
- Pronouns
- Reader
2 years based on our most recent expansion.
As I pointed out out earlier, military schools is taking a single successful model and applying it's structure and methodology to all of the other test schools and a score of entirely new facilities. classes don't likely start until it completes, and I have my doubts about even Salarians being put through a comprehensive course that test their aptitude and trains them in the appropriate doctrine in a single year, especially with that slim success.
It's likely we'll be waiting until the end of year 39 before we have a proper crop of graduates to recruit from, at which point we likely have more ships to crew than a single graduating class can fill. Odds are good we are going to need a a good 3-4 years after military schools completes to catch up to ship production.
Yeah. Military review in Year 33 results is pretty enlightening on Barriers advancements changing naval warfare, which in conjunction with Yulair Reactors and Prothean Ablative Armor, vastly raises the durability of our capitol ships, no matter which models we go with. We achieved Ratio's of 10 to 1 ship casualties in Wrath of the swarm. Our new classes will do better.
I think that depends on how they achieve that election result. Something tells me Shurna approaches Mira about staging another coup if it's a result of the citadel backed bribes their throwing around.
Maybe sometime past the mid way point of next turn. We'll need to finish Army Mechanization first for one, and probably develop some kind of Rachni Queen containment tech.
I mean, army mech would help, but we *could* have the Headhunters try to board an enemy dreadnought and capture the queen next time we battle one. I don't recommend it, but it's an option if we really wanted a live queen for some reason.
- Pronouns
- Reader
Unless it's the last dreadnought that we have disabled without destroying it, it's likely another enemy would just destroy the ship. Personally Rachni Queen Capture isn't high on my agenda.
We do want to work on their cluster-wide telepathy - to get our own lag-less comms would be great, to block theirs would be better, and to stop that one loser bitching at Mira while she's busy dismantling Rachni navy?
Divine.
That's details.
No it did not.
The Rachni only ceded the Hades Nexus after Resurgent Grace.
Ninmah Cluster and Exodus Cluster happened because of the Caleston Rift Raid.
1)No, thats not true.
They lost territory after the Caleston Rift Raid because we fucked up a major fleet base and the surrounding infrastructure, and forced them to redeploy forces; it had consequences.
2)Battles remain excellent opportunities to observe currentgen Citadel and Terminus technologies in action, regardless of who wins. We gained a ton of intelligence during our Year 20 defeat at the Nubian Expanse, which we then used to attack the Rachi in the Maroon Sea and Caleston Rift.
And kicking the Rachni out of a cluster requires fighting a series of battles to defeat multiple fleets.
Not all of those are successful.
This is not true.
It was explicitly stated that those clusters were captured after the Caleston Rift Raid.
I quote:
As Pittauro points out, this was explicitly laid out in the Raiding Doctrine document there in the Informational Tab, which explains in detail how Beshkarian Doctrine is supposed to work in practice.
Respectfully, you might want to go back and read it.
You werent here when these things were hashed out, so you need to familiarize yourself with what the rules are.
No it does not.
Undefended or weakly defended relays may not require doorkickers. Strongly defended relays and systems sure do.
We saw this in full evidence repeatedly in our own early days; when the Rachni were sending raiding and recon forces to Virmire during Mira's first 10-year term, they never bothered with battlefleets because the relay defenses werent all that.
Nowadays, they send multiple dreadnoughts to even have a chance of clearing the relay.
Again, I will recommend you go read the Raiding Document tab.
1)No, we ran a set of testbed schools, and after picking the best one, we are applying the principles from it across the nation.
Furthermore?
Curriculum Review began in Year 34, and ends at the end of Year 37.
Military Schools began in Year 36, and ends Year 37.
2) Our naval and military personnel do not currently come out of thin air. Look at the Status screen. We have more than two hundred million sophonts under arms, counting the Navy, the Army Regulars, and Army PDF, out of a population of more than 9.2 billion, and the means to train them. Thats not counting the Civil Mobilization Force, which are another 800 million.
We deployed a hundred million men to Eletania.
Think through the size of the education system necessary for an army that large.
Hell, the Void Marines have 2 million men.
TLDR
Our existing military educational establishment is huge.
We are streamlining and updating an existing education system to our priorities, we arent building shit from scratch.
3) Half our population is salarian.
They mature, and learn, very fast, to make up for their limited lifespan, and only require an hour of sleep at night. Durrahe Korun (o7) in this quest was Minister of Learning at the age of 12, and he was already an experienced doctor at that point.
*sigh*
Our shipyards are Not Big Enough. Nor is our economy. Not for the size of the war we're fighting.
We were explicitly told by Renaillah that the Rachni operated at least nine Battle Fleets around three decades ago when they cut os off from the Citadel, and they've since acquired the resources to operate more
The elements of the Rachni strategic reserve that we saw at Horsehead Nebula had the capital ship equivalent of 11 battle fleets and 23 raiding fleets, and the Rachni were still able to crew them as well.
It takes significantly more lead time to build up an economy and infrastructure than it takes to train people when half our population is salarian.
There is zero evidence this is a thing.
The Salarian Union would certainly not be trying to bribe a Lystheni when there's literally still a death sentence on the Lystheni in SU territory. Shereel and the Lystheni were so frightened of the Salarian Union that they asked Virmire to annex them when we reestablished contact with the galactic community.
And even the STG would have trouble moving significant funds into Virmire untracked during wartime.
This has all the hallmarks of domestic salarian politics between different factions. Thats all.
And we dont know what the struggle is about.
Important and worrying, but not "Oh the Salarian Union is trying to sabotage us".
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- Pronouns
- Reader
Yet, no one, not even Mira, had realized the evolution of barriers, even after 6 consecutive major battles, until Military review in Year 33 spelled it out for them, because it was only apparent in lengthy battles at Range.
A battle can have impact beyond it's initial effect. Other battles may have happened following it which capitalized on the result, but it isn't noted to have been a significant turning point that the Rachni on the defensive for no reason.
Virmire cannot know what's on the other side of a relay before a fleet is sent through, as evidence by them jumping through and being surprised to find two fleets. As a lynchpin for three other Rachni occupied clusters Hades Gamma is a critical system which there should be no reason to suspect is unguarded.
I checked it a again, and their does seem to be a sentence describing busting opening a relay with a regular fleet and having Raiding Forces slip by, and the post is 6 years old, and we do have recent evidence that at some recent point barriers reached a critical point of effectiveness that increased survivability, so maybe they just stopped needing it at some point and the regular fleet aspect has been phased out.
It was more like 5 decades ago. More recently, they fielded somewhere in the realm of over 250 capitol ships to horse head alone. The Rachni build alot and build cheap, which is going to hit a snag with their need to either implement barriers or develop another solution which is going to be expensive to develop and implement. Either way, I maintain doubts that Completing Military Schools resolves our personnel shortage the year it completes. We'll just have to see how things go.
The Rachni sort of infest every solid chunk of rock they can, so no system they've held can be tapped for resources until our Army clears it. Honesty we need to survey more of Sentry Omega and ramp up our expansion into it. Their are still half a dozen none yulair research sites that aren't even active, and the systems along and parallel to kurik's run are under explored.
- Location
- South Africa
While it doesn't specifically mention anything about the STG in the last one their a trend here. They've been trying to get spy's in and flipp some of ours. Probably a bit normal but the internal issue makes a nasty in for them and even if it's not them initially ensuring it they'll jump on it.
We've snubbed them and their paranoid which is not a good combo and while the war is not clear cut were probably safe. Until it looks like we're winning and then they start their crap. I for one am expecting to get stabbed in the back by them.
Might be wrong but I'd rather be pleasantly surprised by them not trying rather than getting egg on our face. We're only allies of convenience the second they don't like us they are gonna get up to trouble so we have to be ready.
- Pronouns
- Reader
Yeah, if you reread since recontact we have been kicking their shit in for most of Mira's 4th term. What was overlooked while we were isolated behind a Rachni controlled clusters doesn't neccessarily fly now that they have a wider galaxy open to them. Same applies to the timeskip. Strong reasons to suspect that they might be looking at less dynamically opposed forces in the galaxy.
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I suppose we *could* try the 'probe in a pile of garbage thrown through the relay' trick again, but after how much we've used them while raiding they probably shoot any random bit of space debris that comes from anywhere near our direction.
Mira realized it in Year 33. We have no way of knowing what the technological forecasts in the Citadel Alliance have been saying to their bosses, or what the engineers and intelligence analysts in the Rachni Swarm have been saying to theirs. And they have at least as good information as Mira does; better, on the part of the Citadel analysts.
Just like they have no way of knowing or predicting how Yulairtech power generation techniques are about to radically alter the entire conflict.
There is no evidence of anything like this happening here in this scenario.
And Word of the QM explicitly states what happened.
No wiggle room.
Which is why Beshkarian Doctrine is to kick the door open with a Battle Fleet before sending a Raiding Fleet in.
Something thats powerful enough to survive any nasty surprises initially, like the Year 20 assault into Nubian Expanse that resulted in our first and only loss of a dreadnought so far..
You are essentially ignoring how the QM says it works in order to make up a theory that has no evidence supporting it.
Thats not going to serve you well around here.
We have captured and researched Rachni extraction facilities and repair docks, but we literally have negative information on how largescale Rachni industry works.
I dont believe there is sufficient evidence to make even the most cursory assertions about their industrial capabilities.
The Citadel has repeatedly underestimated the Rachni and gotten fucked over for it.
We dont get to make that mistake.
One of these things is not like the other.
The first two are standard spy shit we see from everyone, with intelligence gathering and entrapment of field agents . The sort of thing the STG does as a matter of course.
The third is political maneuvering in another nationstate's politics, which the STG does not routinely do.
Shereel is head of the Lystheni, a planetary leader as well as being Virmire's Councillor at the Terminus Alliance.
Like being UN Ambassador, the Dalai Lama(to the Lystheni) and hereditary governor of Ohio at the same time.
She's a major political figure, and the STG getting caught trying to subvert her in the middle of a war where the Terminus Alliance and the Citadel are supposed to be allies against a genocidal enemy is the sort of thing that would go very poorly back in the Citadel, nevermind in the Terminus Alliance.
Not to mention that the dalatrass offering material support didnt appear to think it was illegal and expected Shereel to be sympathetic, which rules out her working for the Salarian Union. The STG did not get their reputation by being so incompetent as making monetary offers to someone who has sufficient political power and influence to not need them.
Generally the SU is paranoid, not stupid. Spy on her yes. Try to buy her no.
So no, thats domestic political shit, not the evil STG trying to collapse Virmirean democracy.
Not that they are incapable of it, but if the Salarian Union was going to fuck with a nationstate, they would do it AFTER they no longer need said nationstate's guns pointing at a mutual enemy.
While the Dalatrasses *are* sympathetic to the old, each race rules itself and contributes to the larger government separately Citadel style government, that does *not* necessarily make them traitors and patsies of the STG. Given how utterly livid our entire population was towards the Citadel I expect that while they certainly want more influence over Virmire, they aren't going to be selling out to the Citadel any time soon.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Either.
Nominally. In practice, your form of governance is unsettled enough that, circumstances depending, you'd get a vote to play as the leader of any putative coups, if you liked.
- Pronouns
- Reader
Exellent.
So theoretically, if some Racial Coalition Leader were to be elected, we could perform a Coup as Veska Torta leader of the Galactic Progress Party...
Formerly known as the Loyalists?
I don't think we can lose this election, but maybe the one too follow? Just for the fun of being the
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- Pronouns
- Reader
I think Narratively in order to avoid Mira killing the new "Player Character" anyone we couped would automatically be discovered to have been up to shady shit as a part of our coup.
Edit: Also, it's not that they dislike the Racial Coalition candidate, it's that the only acceptable candidate is Mira T'Vael, or someone who intends to let her run the country through them.
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- Location
- California, USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I know our Favor is pretty much locked in at this point, but I keep on seeing stuff like this in the reread and it's making me politically motivated.
We chose the Terminus explicitly because we would be prominent with them, and I can see why Investment would feel like a "best of both worlds" option- the stronger Attica is, the more influence we have, right? Except, again, the required unanimous vote. We can't pass any unified policy without paying off everyone opposed to us.
But what does it matter? What do we care if the wider Alliance doesn't see the light of Miraism? It's their loss.
There seems to be this idea that the Terminus is too factitious to work with as a first option, and maybe even doomed to fail. That impression may have been enhanced by an entire pov about the joint command squabbling to the point of absurdity. An Alliance born from pressure that will likely shatter when that pressure disappears. Right now it's about survival, but after? What will that look like?
Unlike in the OTL, President Su'val has been able to spend decades honing the Terminus into a proper Alliance. United under one banner: The fear of being picked apart by outside forces, Rachni or Citadel. Su'Val knows better than anyone the Alliances strengths and weaknesses. And to be honest, I think she's got it right on the money. The biggest threat to the Terminus is Virmire.
If we choose to focus only on ourselves, if we jockey for influence rather than try to politick, if we make it a matchup purely of what we're best at, which is strength-
Then we won't like what the Terminus turns into, and we'll have no choice but to continue to go at it on our own.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think this vote determines any of that. But it's already been said this Null Veto is an entirely unique opportunity. And the fact that we're currently passing on it indicates the beginnings of a disturbing trend, to me.
The Terminus can be better. The Terminus can be better. But not if we don't put in the effort.
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Thebigpieman
I've got this, I think.
- Location
- United States
[X][FAVOR] Ask for something on behalf of the Terminus Alliance, which they will pick, in exchange for one vote of your choice passed without a veto in the Council.
- Location
- South Africa
[X][FAVOR] Ask for something on behalf of the Terminus Alliance, which they will pick, in exchange for one vote of your choice passed without a veto in the Council.
Sure I'll flip my vote, I've been on the wall for either option and at the end of the day I suppose it will be better in the long run and I doubt it will be used poorly so we'll benefit from the favour anyway. We'll have a few years to get the civilian economy a bit more balanced while we wait to reach our next bottleneck on military expansion anyway.
Sure I'll flip my vote, I've been on the wall for either option and at the end of the day I suppose it will be better in the long run and I doubt it will be used poorly so we'll benefit from the favour anyway. We'll have a few years to get the civilian economy a bit more balanced while we wait to reach our next bottleneck on military expansion anyway.
Voting for the singular vote for us to get out of this opens the ability for other people to get unvetoable votes. Do we want the Corporate Nation to get a law passed through the Terminus Alliance that we can't veto giving corporations the right to vote? Maybe give them tax free operation in every other polity in the Terminus Alliance? If you don't want that to happen, don't vote for the favor to go to the terminus alliance, because that's what the Corporate Nation would do if it got one. Who knows what the other groups would do. I don't like the option to not be able to veto a major piece of legislation that will negatively impact us like that.
- Location
- California, USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...That would intrinsically require agreement from us. If we don't want other polities to have this we just don't agree to give out blank IOU's, like the Alliance is offering now.
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