You Are A Dragon

Update 19 - Returning to Space
[] Head Into Orbit. Obviously you need to give closer supervision to the Benefaction Mission and whilst their technology is impressive they are not really able to content with relics from the last era or magic wielding dragons on even terms. Added to that they have just lost one of their only real warships and a good portion of their fighters. They need help with uplift. Also the admiral may have sort of tried to kill you.

A short update given this could end up going in multiple directions, but I did throw in a little of the 'Grand Tour' runner up choice when working out how Etorix gets back into orbit.

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Whilst you have any number of pressures on your time, you decide to first settle things with your strongest 'allies', the Benefaction Mission. Not only has the admiral shown a certain cavalier attitude toward your own life but their technology is running into obvious issues when confronted with dragons able to utilise significant magic and you are going to need them to survive and prosper, under your guidance of course.

Are are ,however, not willing to expend huge quantity of magic to return to the ark or give away the location of your lair, you take your time over emerging then fully exploit shape shifting to make your way a few hundred miles west. It is only when you reach the capital of the Alheri States as a bird that you resume your true form and descend upon the city, glowing, healed, whole again.

Whilst smaller than Hatwar the city of Alheri is probably the second or third largest urban center on the planet, a teaming and stinking metropolis with a vast natural harbour and build upon the ruins of your own capital in the previous era of magic. Habitation clings to the lower quarter mile of so of the vast habitation blocks looming over the breakwater and as the historical locus of your faith you are gratified to find a temple nearly as substantial as the one you visited in the north.

You are greeted by prop planes, a mixture of panic, awe and reverence, descending to a massing crowd and shortly after a delegation of senior priests.

This is only going to be a brief visit though and so you do not linger on more than the pleasantries, establishing that yes you are Etorix, yes you have graced them with your presence and no you have not officially allied with Hatwar, your goal is to further your faith and the mission begun by the Benefactors as your emissaries.. You of course pose for photographs and heal the faithful brought before you, though without any significant tapping of your stored power.

There are questions from one of the senior priests as to if, following your victory over Sulqeum, you will be aiding the Alheri in reconquering cities lost to her 'Dragonarchy' to the north, but you assure that this is merely an initial visit, you are about to head into space to visit the Benefactors in person.

Then the fusion drive of their shuttle comes into view before dropping down, you make an impressive and completely unnecessary light show of assuming human form before stepping inside, flanked by the missions dragon form drones.

Then you have a not particularly pleasant trip into orbit cramped within the shuttle. It is clean, it is comfortable, but you are not fond of being in flight not under your own power, at least in space where you are actually reliant upon the craft. A few hours later you are docking with the Ark in orbit and emerge into the weird cylindrical world. You are somewhat relieved not to have been victim of an 'accident in the point defence weapons' or similar though you did have your precognitive magic straining to anticipate such an event.

Now though? You have to face the council and decide how to further your goals now that you are in orbit. What do you prioritise?

[] Crucify Admiral Whyte. Figuratively or literally, he interrupted your parley and even if Sulqeum was planning to try to murder you that was not his call to make. One wrinkle is that his military rank put him outside the direct chain of command of the council itself and the communications lag with anyone who can fire him is at least 20 years each way. On the other hand if you get him thrown into a cryo pod for fifty years his replacement would be much more malleable.
[] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.
[] Magical Uplift. The pure technology of the Benefaction Mission is one step below the technological plateau (though you believe this might be deliberate, a civilian mission not given the best stuff by their home civilisation), but it is also a case of being largely 'printed' locally off pre existing designs and thus not adapted at all to the return of magic. Work with Avelina Beauchamp, their head of research, to advance the ability of their own mages and the sophistication of their technology whilst integrating with magic.
 
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[X] Magical Uplift. The pure technology of the Benefaction Mission is one step below the technological plateau (though you believe this might be deliberate, a civilian mission not given the best stuff by their home civilisation), but it is also a case of being largely 'printed' locally off pre existing designs and thus not adapted at all to the return of magic. Work with Avelina Beauchamp, their head of research, to advance the ability of their own mages and the sophistication of their technology whilst integrating with magic.
 
[X] Crucify Admiral Whyte.

Let's be clear, this is likely not the smartest choice. Still, I said I wanted to. I expect a literal crucifixion.:)
Smartest would likely be building up power. Certainly not giving away magitech for free after they screwed Etorix over.
 
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[X] Magical Uplift.
Now that you see how much you're outclassed perhaps you won't be interested in picking fights where they don't need to happen hmmm?​
 
[X] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.
 
[X] Build More Power.

Magic uplift would be nice but isn't immediately necessary. The primary populace is far enough behind that we've got a good while yet before they're at a tech level that matters.

Ensuring that these guys are actually on our side and stay on our side is far more important.
 
[X] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.
 
[X] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.
 
[X] Build More Power.

Admiral Whyte us going to get what is coming to him soon enough, but this is not the time. We need to consolidate our power then clean house when we have the rest of the leadership under our control. Also I am hesitant to do much uplifting just yet, when their loyalty is till in question. Giving them better weapons that they can turn on us is a bad idea.
 
[X] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.
 
[X] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.
 
[X] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.
 
[X] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.


Very interesting quest, with an unexpected twist.

And while I would love to vote for crucifying the admiral...
It actually would diminish Etorix political capital, something he does not have enough among the Benefactors yet.

Having the admiral gnashing his teeth, seeing how his actions have given more power to a dragon, and leading him to do something stupid in near future...
This will be nearly as satisfying.
 
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[X] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.
 
Update 20 - Murderous Proposals
A clear victory for:

[X] Build More Power. Exploit the political and moral capital you have from the debacle to try to leverage greater influence and power over the Benefaction Mission. Demand executive control over things, get people in your debt, ensure people need your sign off before interrupting in matters that might impact your faith, etc. This will be greatly aided by your previous mental influencing of large portions of the leadership.

Your arrival inside the Ark is greeted by a handful of largely irrelevant mid/high level officials who profusely welcome you whilst a larger number of scintillatingly suited and heavily augmented guards keep back the rather wary and sceptical crowd. You do make a note to find out what fabric the bright and shifting hued suits are made out of though because it is definitely registering as desirable and valuable to your rather specialised senses.

Pleasantries are followed by your making your way to a monorail as you carefully press your divine presence out at the minds of the humans surrounding you. Cheap tricks will not suffice for your current audience, no miracle healing or inbuilt reference, but your human form has been carefully crafted to aesthetic perfection whilst you do have height, golden eyes, the fact you glow and move with effortlessly perfect poise, you do know how to make an impression.

Within ten minutes you arrive at the central government complex, a gleaming green construct that looms at the aft end of the arkship looking like a polished and fractal exploded pinecone, it is near the top of the building in a huge conference room that you have your first meeting, the chamber transparent on all sides apart from the floor and one wall, the adaptive chairs supremely comfortable.

"I wish to address the disaster." You are speaking the assembled council, clad in the jewelled robes of an Alheri Priest-Merchant from fifteen hundred years ago, or at least a more splendid version of the same. "I did request your overwatch as I met with Sulqeum, anticipating she might attempt an ambush. I expected her to prepare similarly. What I did not expect was for elements of your military to leap in unprovoked and deploy fusion bombs, obviously unprepared for the conflict they initiated."

Admiral Whyte bristles at this, tense, one hand gripping the edge of the thankfully reinforced conference table. "If we had not intervened, dragon, then you would be dead and the religious aspect of our uplift program with it! As it was we took painful losses, dozens dead, to save you. In the process we slew three stage two dragons and discredited a stage three whilst badly injuring her, though I wish she had been killed as well." You find his assumption of three dead juveniles a little dubious but perhaps correct, also you do have to avoid frowning at his 'stage' system for dragons.

You assume that a hatchling is 'Stage 1', a juvenile 'Stage 2', an adult such as yourself 'Stage 3'. Perhaps they would refer to an ancient as a 'Stage 4'? They have no direct experience with them though and there is no difference in size as a general rule, outside of bigger dragons being more likely to live long enough to make it there.

Onita Runyan, the chairwoman, now intervenes and cuts the admiral off, a sharp motion of one hand, her artificial eyes intent. "We lost the Ascendant Pyre with all hands, half or our remaining aerospace fighters and orbital platform six. From a perspective of pure attrition we lost admiral, we only accounted for a third of those fighters and Etorix assures us they are space capable. If Sulqeum has more of them then we are vulnerable to defeat here in space and could potentially be forced to destroy Arafan." She fixes her attention on you now, frowning intently as she does so.

"Loath as I am to admit it we need you, we cannot succeed in our mission without your assistance. This expedition was not planned with the expectation magic would return only a decade after our arrival and we are obviously not equipped to face your kind even partially empowered. If we had a full fleet?" She looks to the admiral. "Perhaps, but reinforcements are decades away and we only have two more corvettes."

You raise a hand, you are given motion to speak, lazily sprawling in your chair as you do so. "Precisely. You lack the magical development to face adult dragons, or even skilled juveniles, who are able to draw upon magic for more than bare sustainable. I suspect you only actually killed one of the whelps during that battle and he would likely have survived the kinetic strike and escaped if he had not been distracted facing me. Not only that but you lack the experience to deal with them on an equal level. Those craft Sulqeum fielded against you? That was a plan over a millennia in the making, amusingly she thinks that your entire presence is a result of some even deeper and more cunning ploy of my own and I have not disabused her of this notion."

You pause a moment before adding. "Also note that we are only the first two 'Stage three' dragons to awaken and in the coming decades you can expect at least twenty more to rouse. I expect to be more powerful than any of them individually thanks to my divine empowerment and widespread faith but I will be contested for this. We need each other but we will fail if wild and ill planned... Interventions like this recent event continue."

The admiral looks entirely doubtful of this, he is granted turn to speak again. "We know how territorial your kind is, Etorix." He actually uses your name? "That seems a preposterous number for just one planet even if this is the origin system and we know that even a dragon cannot survive a direct impact from a strategic weapon. If we can neutralize those fighters then, certainly with your assistance, we can hunt down and eliminate your rivals. I assume you would want their hoards in the aftermath? Our intelligence is already narrowing down the possible base locations and I believe a precision strike with a gigaton warhead would eliminate the threat, allowing full scale action against this 'Dragonarchy'."

He continues, as he activates some kind of display with his implants, various information flashing up on crisp holographic displays. "Both remaining corvettes are now fully activated along with five hundred thousand assault drones." The display shows a small 'family' of cigar shaped vehicles indicated to vary from basketball sized to ten feet long, armed with sub machine gun scale to anti tank weapons and all flying via cowled fans. "Combined with orbital fire support I am confident that if we can force Sulqeum's forces into open conflict, we can eliminate them, before magic strengthens further and they can strengthen their more... unconventional abilities."

Well this you did not expect. What are your thoughts?

[] You Like The Admiral's Plan. You did promise not to kill Sulquem, but then again you did not expect to have an army of flying killer robots or enthusiastic backing in a full scale offensive, she is likely also still badly injured. Of course this would convince everyone that you are out to murder all other dragons for your own aggrandisement. It would get the hard-line elements of the Benefaction Mission on board with you being the 'good dragon' though.
[] Just No. You made a deal, a truce for a mortal lifetime, no 'precision' gigaton antimatter strikes or murder robot invasions to breach that. Also why did they not deploy the murder drones previously? You are rather sceptical how they will fair against dragons in practise.
[] Propose Another Target. You have not made any deals with any of the dragons who are still in hibernation. Finding them is almost impossible but apparently the Benefaction Mission has done it before, suggest that the admiral focus on that whilst leaving the awake dragons to you for now.
[] Other. Write in.
 
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[X] Just No. You made a deal, a truce for a mortal lifetime, no 'precision' gigaton antimatter strikes or murder robot invasions to breach that. Also why did they not deploy the murder drones previously? You are rather sceptical how they will fair against dragons in practise.
 
I see, we'll have to eat Admiral Whyte some other time then.

I'm undecided. On the one hand, we could take the time to search for Gergag, but I really don't want to come off as actually trying to exterminate all dragons.
[X] Just No.

Also, we are a dragon and a god. Our word is law and unbreakable.
 
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