Ongoing translation posts...
Ministry of Agriculture: Despite being injured, the work of the agricultural department isn't going to be completed for some time as the people must be fed despite their best efforts. Starch production has already shown far more promise than expected, even with the reduction in solar activity, with further strains prepared to be made compatible with a saltwater setting.
The saltwater option makes me nervous as all hell, of course, because if this stuff gets out it's apt to outcompete a lot of the existing oceanic microbes (which will be suffering anyway). This has been discussed before, of course.
[X]Start Counter-Agent Releases: Fundamentally, there is little time to try several counteragents to the enemies' biological weapons programs. Skipping long-term safety trials and several initial evaluations, immediate Seelie trials can be authorized on volunteers that are infected anyways, providing evidence of efficacy and ensuring a minimal degree of immediate effects. After these trials are completed in an optimistic time frame of four months, a broader distribution initiative can be prepared to begin minimizing overall population attrition. Some side effects are expected to persist, but these can always be cleared up with further editing if we can manage to survive through the current period. (Independent Side Effect Dice, modified by rush sub vote)
-[]Bypass Stage 1,2 Trials: Animal testing is a practical nonfactor when agents need to be ready now, as there is no practical shortage of volunteers to not die. This will take at least six months to produce a viable agent and longer to issue it, but side effects will be minimal. (3d100 vs 50)
-[]Shorten Stage 3 Trials: Large scale stage 3 trials with volunteers can be undertaken to ensure that the short-term side effects of several prospective treatments are mild. In around three to four months an effective agent can be made and issued out, though some issues are expected. (2d100 vs 50)
-[]Issuance to Volunteers: Giving current prototypical agents to anyone who volunteers will allow for a partially contained mass issuance of a number of probable agents. This testing will be unreliable and possibly disruptive, but something effective can get to some of the population almost immediately. (d100 vs 50) (d100+d50 vs 50 for everyone else)
-[]Immediate Release: What we have now has been confirmed in smaller cell models and should serve as an effective line retrovirus for the population. By immediately circulating it using several modified fifth-generation combat organisms, we can implant it rapidly into the general public and quash the entire epidemic in a few months. (d100 vs 50)
So just to be clear, our options are:
Bypass Stage 1 and Stage 2 trials.
Most conservative option under consideration.
6-9 months to take effect.
Probability of hitting that DC: Roughly 98%.
Shorten Stage 3 trials
3-4 months to take effect.
Intermediate option.
Probability of hitting that DC: Roughly 88%.
Issuance to Volunteers
Quite radical move.
Near-immediate effect, a few months to get population-wide impact.
Probability of hitting that DC: 50% for the volunteers, 76% for everyone else.
Immediate Release
Pro gamer move.
Near-immediate effect, for better or for worse.
Probability of hitting that DC: 50% for whole population.
[][][]Begin the Starch Project:
Saltwater starch production has been confirmed as viable with the experiments over the last few months, leading to the conclusion that now is the time to set up the system, get the first lot through, and then continue digging in the winter. Current plans call for a series of shallow canals to be constructed alongside the shores of several islands, covering vast areas with starch production and enabling it to become the preferred choice of bulk caloric filler. Flavor enhancement via limited sugar production will also be incorporated into the process, making it a semi-sweet powder and allowing it to better serve as a substitute for more balanced rations. Expected yields range widely between sufficient calories for a full diet substitution at expected sunlight levels for somewhere between fifty and two hundred million and double that at current rationing levels.
Huh. This is a less anxious-making approach to the saltwater strain. We let seawater
into the starch basins, but don't let it
out. This could still get ugly if barriers break down or heavy wave action or bad engineering permits mixing.
On the other hand, we're pretty hard up for ways to feed people. There are no perfect answers.
[]Re-Organize Farmers: The current rural farming population could be best compared to a group of under-educated savages incapable of adapting their lifestyles to the current era. Despite this, they are still a source of personnel and conventionally trained for the limited quantity of conventional agriculture that can be initiated over the course of the next few years. Yields are expected to be poor, but they can at least make themselves useful by converting tracts of land for the production of high yield temperature-insensitive tubers after the winter. Even if those implementing the policy end up failing to endure the winter storms, at least something will have come of their stubborn insistence on staying in the countryside.
Dr. Warcrimes is
massively biased against the actual farmers here, to be clear. On the other hand, this isn't at all wrong. Planting potatoes or their equivalent will give us a significant amount of actual food and
some hope of getting a harvest in from the conventional farms. We could sorely use it.
[]Implement Agricultural Taxes: Despite Grum's constant concerns that the rural population is hoarding food at every step, that view is mostly inaccurate as old agricultural policies have already taxed them to the bone. Most would have little to nothing unless they were exceptionally lucky to bring in their harvests early or operate with heavily engineered plants on a double cycle. Still, some yields must be recaptured from the ones that have managed optimally utilize their fields, and thus a reasonable savings maximum of six months' supply will be enforced, ensuring that only those with an actual excess will be subject to confiscations. (Overrides Ministry of Interior)
Honestly, the main virtue of this that I see is shutting down Grum's program... if there is no other way for us to do it.
Except I'm pretty sure shooting Grum would
also shut down Grum's program.
[]Initiate Mass Fishing: Oceanic life is a quick and accessible source of protein, and despite the thousands of desperate fishing efforts undertaken in the months following the exchange, the ocean still has a considerable bounty left to harvest. By taking a number of military sonar sets on loan along with several unconventional explosive devices originally designed for anti-submarine work, entire shoals of fish can be blasted and corralled into nets, ramping yields and ensuring that they are properly preserved. The general population may be a bunch of panicky imbeciles that cannot preserve their ill-gotten fish, but the state can at least manage that.
Note: This is another one of those things that may make the already inevitable ecological collapse worse. If we didn't have the starch program I'd be more for it. On the other hand, the starch microbes getting released into the ocean would be
worse than this, because it'd attack the ocean's food chains at a lower and more fundamental level.
[]Establish Industrial Scale Medication Synthesis: The biochemical databases form a core basis for the development of actual medication production, as many of the strains used in bioreactors are still functional and replicable. By prioritizing the development of medication-producing biologicals, work on viable industrial strains can be replicated, providing the genetically stable feedstock for sufficient production in a few months of almost every available pharmaceutical agent. Significant casualties are still expected to occur across the population, but continued initiatives will be able to bring most biochemically simple medications to the population over the course of the next year, assuming a sufficient degree of resource commitment.
I actually
don't think this should be top priority.
We need food more than we need medicine.
[]Restore the Laboratory System: The old scientific and laboratory system for the biological sciences was practically a core institution of the previous regime, and it needs to be restored to improve both capability and throughput capacity. Changing the focus away from more conventional genetic treatments for the elites, the labs can help to maintain population health while providing a reliable supply of capable scientific personnel to assist in the development of further adaptation methodologies. Funding now will ensure that as much of the old experienced cadre can be recruited and contained, minimizing any undue state influence and providing them a standardized supply of funding.
This, by contrast, is time-critical. A lot of the bioscientists we would
otherwise really really want to have on staff are going to just fucking die over the winter. Especially since quite a few of them are probably relatively older (experienced), and not exactly physically robust, probably.
Ministry of Industry: While the ability of any regional industrial command to have full access to personnel and resources has solved several shortage areas, it has resulted in far more derivative shortages. Overlaps in requisition, population-worker shortages at most levels, and a consistent shortage of raw materials for most finished goods industries have rapidly curtailed the optimistic projections of the previous month. The economy could be tentatively called functioning, but everything is in shortage and only functional on a surface level. Efforts should be placed in getting basic extraction going again and ensuring that the people can be supplied, while also ensuring that at least some of the older advanced machinery is properly protected. (Choose 2 Actions) (Modifier Source: Fonnghal Lonach)
Fonnghal, so far, has not proven to be much of a fuckup personally. I think we should take the man at his word.
[X]Restart Coal Extraction: While there is still enough labor available for massive groundbreaking works and enough machinery is still functional, it can be committed to resuming coal extraction along over a dozen industrial zones. This will serve as bulk heating fuel and any excess will go towards the civilians, ensuring that an acceptable labor supply is still available once the cold passes for proper expansionary projects. The large pit mines are expected to be partially mechanized, but with the reduction in industrial and population demand, even lacking mechanization will be more than sufficient.
Not a bad thing for him to focus attention on. Coal isn't exactly the perfect fuel, but it's a lot less sensitive to our rapidly cratering ability to maintain what little high-tech infrastructure we have than the electrical grid or natural gas or the like.
[]Private-Public Coordination Systems: There are hundreds of small machine shops that have been incompetently pressed into service by industrial commands, with even more mismanaged and broken up in the hopes of maintaining some large-scale industry. By instead letting them operate as private enterprises, some supply of far better coordinated spare parts can be secured without trying to further over-extend the industrial commands trying to micromanage something that is mostly functional.
I know a lot of people are going to flip out, but we should seriously consider this.
Our government is not
remotely going to be equipped to run a centralized command economy for the foreseeable future. Communications are too patchy, basic population statistics are lacking, and we have quite a few people who are at best questionably loyal to the central government.
Just getting out of the way and letting local enterprises be a thing may well save a lot of lives and keep a lot of industrial base running.
[]Scrap Material Gathering: Whatever scrap material that can be fed into the overall industrial system must be fed into the overall industrial system. By starting several food incentivized drives for civilians able to secure significant quantities of scrap metals and polymers, overall economic efficiency can be improved and throughput enhanced. These programs are not expected to yield much, but by properly utilizing the spare labor potential of the civilians, yields can be improved at a minimal cost.
"Low return on investment but really cheap" is not a good combo I want to hear. Not when actions are so scarce. We need to identify
high return on investment as best we can.
[]Formalize Work-Training Systems: Many of the currently available workers are currently under-trained and under-experienced, as large portions of the experienced workforce have been killed. Instead of mobilizing them by dumping them into industry with zero preparation, teams of three can be assigned to experienced workers for on-site training, allowing them to become minimally capable workers over time. This should allow for the steady increase of industrial expertise and the preservation of much of the industrial base. Most of these improvised workers will need heavy retraining if we survive the crisis, but for now there is no other choice.
This is a good idea, it's just a question of options being tight, because...
[]Stockpile Technical Goods: Most of the most delicate machinery has been lost to the exchange, but a few of the more durable military lithography plants are still sufficiently intact for salvage. Not much is expected to be salvaged, but at least something can be put into storage for the future when proper production can be resumed. In the future, each of these machines will be worth its weight in gold as without them we will likely have to start the entire development of circuits from scratch and a limited number of viable templates instead of mostly ready-made lines.
This is fucking essential.
I cannot emphasize enough how much worse the recovery from the nuclear war is going to be if the stream of computers that break down
cannot be replaced, not even by clunkier, more ruggedized computers, leaving us back to designing integrated circuit chips from scratch like it was the 1970s. This would be crippling for the survivors in the orbitals (no hope of electronic resupply in their lifetimes), and crippling to our efforts to centralize world government (because running a government this expansive under post-apocalyptic conditions without computers is effectively impossible).
[]Petrochemical Intensification: Old yield limitations in the petrochemical industry have occurred due to a number of refining standards and the sustainable high yield exploitation of oil wells. If, instead, hydro-flooding is intensified to a near nonsensical point while lower grades of refining are deemed as acceptable, overall system throughput can be improved at moderate cost. None of the equipment will hold up exceptionally well, and several deposits will be rendered unusable, but production will sufficiently increase for the mass issuance of heating oil and the lifting of a number of limitations on vehicle logistics.
Great way to keep people from dying in the winter, and eases vehicle logistics... but it makes us more fucked in the long run.
[]Draft Prison-Industrial Units: Due to the limitations in food and medications, most of the remaining prison population in the immediate aftermath was contained inside of their facilities and left to mostly fend for themselves. This has had the unfortunate consequence of burning off a large quantity of viable personnel that could be better served doing high-intensity industrial and construction labor. Several manpower problems can be ameliorated with their deployment en masse for tasks that otherwise useless specialists would be used for, allowing them to be preserved for later allocation.
Honestly, I'd advocate this if we weren't in action hell.
Ministry of the Interior: With the food situation approaching crisis and incompetence at every possible extent of the state, it is time to stop the current kind approach and shift to a more practical one. The population has continued to resist basic efforts at maintaining order and getting them their basic necessities instead of throwing temper tantrums at every opportunity. To solve the issue, an intensification of the internal security apparatus is needed along with the formalization of several informant networks to minimize the chance of further large-scale unrest.
Over a dozen large protest groupings have had to be arrested in their entirety and transferred directly into the prison system due to the cut in rationing, limiting accessible labor but essentially clarifying a number of seditious elements. Current long-term recommendations are for rationing to be increased steadily after the winter, as the people cannot be held with arms alone, just for a sufficient amount of time. Furthermore, security forces need to be consolidated into a number of more manageable districts as there aren't enough personnel or vehicles to cover every rural area. (Choose 2 Actions) (Modifier Source: Simidh Grum)
So yeah, this is Grum's perspective on this one. Grum,
the guy who wanted to stage a coup.
Fuck him. I want him dead. He's actively dangerous to us, he's murderous to the general populace. Hiring him, I think, was a terrible mistake.
[X][]Agricultural Confiscations: Now that soft measures haven't been taken it is time for the people that were responsible for much of the spoilage and over-consumption to receive their due. High wastage agricultural zones will be charged with back-taxes on their failures to voluntarily contribute to the state and on any possibility of food lost due to issues in either preservation or consumption. These efforts are expected to yield a significant portion of the misallocated food and to further improve labor accessibility right before the winter, ensuring a steady flow of refugees into the conventional labor system.
-[]Order Simidh Grum Shot: As his rhetoric has changed to one at odds with the new state, his time in the sun is over. While some of the internal security units will have a few conflicts of loyalty, this is a necessary step to ensure proper state control of the government. (CSS) (Cancels all Actions, Worse Crit Fails)
-[]Don't: He can still contribute something to the state. There is no reason to shoot him for a minor over-step of authority that may help survival.
So to be clear, Grum is blaming hoarders among the rural population for the lack of harvest- to some extent that's probably true, but it's very convenient for him since it lets him go on a rampage, while in the process probably taking enough food that the rural populations won't survive the winter
at all.
Ordering Grum shot appears to be something that, if I understand correctly, uses our CSS free die, and cancels all Security actions. Do I have that right?
@Blackstar ?
[]Impose Movement Controls: Free movement offers a constant and continuous threat to the security apparatus, and by limiting habitation and movement to select areas, the population can be properly contained. Any unrest can be rapidly localized and cracked down on without too much challenge or consolidation, enabling the beleaguered and incompetent internal security units to actually hold their own against crowds before a sufficient number of heavy weapons are deployed. This will involve the construction of a number of checkpoints along with a further reliance on the imperfect ID system, but a log of all travel will still go a long way to containing sedition.
[][]Standardize Street Patrols: There needs to be a security officer on every street corner and near every point of significant food distribution. Looting and thievery may be minor crimes more akin to debt sentencing in the old system, but they inherently erode the legitimacy of the state. By distributing out officers, most minor attempts can be discouraged while also providing an on-site armed response to anything major that should at least be able to hold off any form of aggression long enough for interior units to come in to clean up the mess.
The former is a problem because our population is roaming a post-apocalyptic wasteland; restricting movement makes it much more likely that people will die from living in the wrong place. I'm not sure to what extent it actually helps, either.
Standardizing street patrols is... honestly not a bad idea
if we can have a loyal security force, which right now we don't.
Note that the "enabling the beleaguered and incompetent internal security units" remark seems to be... is it Grum's viewpoint, or Colonel Galchobar's? Dunno.
[]Consolidate Rationing Systems: With the limited networking that is currently functioning, it should be possible to tie ration allocations to a universal database, neatly circumventing those who use the currency to over-dispense too many rations and those who have ended up far wealthier than reasonable. Despite the limitations to commerce that this presents, it is necessary to maintain an image of fairness even if all it limits is the amount withdrawn per day. A minor measure, but one that should be popular.
This is basically Grum proposing something that fucks over what the Treasury has in mind. We can't run this whole economy without some kind of currency to mediate transactions that aren't just the government handing you a loaf of bread out the back of a truck.
[]Begin Tax Collection Efforts: The center still needs a steady supply of income to maintain basic operations and without a steady system to ensure that the population contributes, it will start to wither. The old tax laws are not applicable but a universal tax in kind and consolidation of most unnecessary excesses can still be utilized to ensure that there is no shortage of material for industry and the army to maintain its morale and coherency. Some may resist these efforts, but the resistance should enable the legal collection of further taxes to cover the fees involved in their trials and imprisonment, following the old law to the letter. This can be further followed by immediately applying the necessary charges applied for bail with a built-in automatic pardon through the court system, preserving the productivity of lower personnel while minimizing necessary processing.
I think this is premature and should probably be handled under a different department, because Security, even if we get rid of Grum, will still be full of brute squads. Shouldn't this be the Ministry of Finance's job?
[]Consolidate Garrison Units: Current garrison units are entirely unprepared for the suppression of a mass popular uprising and policing units are even less prepared for such an eventuality. By combining the two and further enhancing their capabilities and moral durability through the commitment of additional military personnel, a formalized system of internal security detachments can be made. These detachments will then be able to be applied in the following months to enforce the law in entire broad regions, bringing them under full government control and getting a handle on the social disorder caused by the collapse of conventional state authority.
I think this is Grum overreacting to the prospect of mass uprisings. That's not to say we can't
have them, but by nature, it's gonna be half-starved people rising up sporadically and often having their food aid cut off as a result. I don't think this is nearly as likely to topple the state as, say...
...Letting Grum make his private army of internal security troops bigger and stronger. Which is what this action does.
Ministry of Finance: The Ór has entered mass issuance, and now it has steadily taken over more and more transactions, letting the economy actually exist in a modern form. This, however, is limited by a number of factors, including that the current ration allocations are far too low for most people to effectively participate in anything but buying food, there are no economic organs, and commercial laws haven't been updated for a major population die off. The last problem is the easiest to fix, but the first can also be fixed through the formation of a bank and an exchange, preparing for a more loose monetary regime and ensuring that after everything some private investment can return to the economy. Current looting policies by the ministry of industry are deeply suboptimal but acceptable for the current survival situation. (Choose 2 Actions) (Modifier Source: Paislig Faolain)
While Faolain's efforts so far seem to be kind of... epiphenomenal from some perspectives, this is another department where things seem not to be such a fuckup.
I hypothesize that Faolain has kind of this quaint refusal to acknowledge just how strikingly the situation has changed, which is arguably
not entirely a bad thing because she just buckles the fuck down and keeps working, thinking in terms of "how can I make things better by applying something close to the traditional rules of economics?"
[X]Delineate Ownership: Legal questions of who exactly owns what is a challenge for the lower courts at the best of times, not even mentioning the unique challenges of inheritance law. The exchange has further complicated these matters as there are a number of questions on the nature of claimed property from the recently deceased that must be processed. By offering a simple mechanism of allowing anyone to claim property as whatever was previously some form of private property that has not been claimed by anyone else, a new series of deeds can be issued to restore some basic organization. These efforts can also be considered as a simple part of the census effort and the de-digitization of records, further improving redundancy and ensuring that the broader economy can start operating.
This could have an interesting series of effects and maybe even
nonuniform effects. On the one hand, it can result in some nasty consolidations of property under the people best plugged into the system. On the other hand, it can also result in concentrated property being broken up in useful ways.
In any case, this isn't a great time to leave this issue hanging, so it's not a bad thing for Treasury to be worrying about.
[][]Establish a National Bank: A centralized bank being formed would be a good step toward the centralization of the economy and would enable people to start storing their limited ration coupons in a central institution. The formation of the bank itself and its branches would also further enhance the ability of the state to issue out rations to the common individual, as branches can serve as rationing hubs while also performing a banking role. This should improve access to food and nutrition all while further improving currency penetration and letting businesses actually function outside of the carefully controlled industrial environment. This will also further encourage savings to be held in state trusts, increasing the effective food supply for any desperate situation, if only by a small amount.
Lovely project but it's an "this would be nice if." Can wait.
[]Establish Limited Interconvertibility: As tempting as it would be to declare all savings void from the old regime and to cut off the various wealthy people at the source, people's savings have been a critical factor in keeping them alive during the war years, and some will have an irrational response to fully losing them. Instead of utterly rejecting the old currency, a program to convert it to ration coupons can be started to ensure that new Ór can be issued out to the population while also providing a measure to minimize dissent at no cost. Of course, to satiate some of the more radical members of the government, this convertibility will be at a disfavorable rate and limited per account, ensuring that it is not excessively exploited.
Likewise, can wait.
[]Subsidize Necessary Production: Small shops of various kinds, from those working more with 3D printing to those doing conventional machining and those doing analysis of goods have all practically been devastated. The industrial requisitioning regime has also not helped anything as they have been drafted into production by a system that cannot coordinate major industrial plants, much less anything smaller. Instead of all of that, they can be subsidized by a simpler contract system through the state where the broader industrial commands provide set orders of parts and the smaller shops bid on contracts for them, allowing some local command and improving responsiveness.
[]Resume Service Sector Employment: Despite the constant disdain for the service sector most personnel in other economic sectors have, it is a fundamental part of the economy and a fundamental part of population comfort. By allowing some minimized service positions, primarily in delivery and preparation of food, to exist instead of being drafted out to go work in coal mines, some moderate comforts can return to the urban population. This will also inherently start a limited primary education system for a number of children, but that will be more of the job of the ministry of development to manage and expand.
[]Transfer "Useless" Labor: Despite the lack of usability most of the non-technical personnel have in the economy, those trained in more conventional subjects can be used more effectively than through bulk labor allocations. Instead, they can all be moved toward fulfilling their old positions in a reduced role, a historian may be mostly useless in their original role, but could be an acceptable archivist. A sociologist may not ever be funded or useful for much research, but they could at least use their education for advising on policy and ensuring that the government can stop its constant self-inflicted mistakes.
These three. Could use all of them. The "useless" labor option sounds like something Treasury could do that would
really, really help, because it helps us avoid the problem of everyone educated in our society getting used up over the course of the nuclear winter. In the long run, it hopefully helps us recover the condition of "the government has some basic sense of reality and practicality."
I think I like our Treasury Minister; she's thinking of detail stuff that might otherwise get forgotten in the rush to run around and make the Hard Decisions needed to save some percentage of the species.
