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This is not dead, and I have three free evenings in a row coming up this week, during which I intend to finish out this year. If you want a Discord server for the LP propose it as legislation when the next session comes around, and if it passes I'll make one, subject to some ground rules to keep it friendly. (also while the Saros LP was objectively better from, like, a functional standpoint, I actually wanted to have to follow the instructions of a bunch of people with conflicting goals and viewpoints pulling the empire in 20 directions at once, I thought it'd be fun and so far I've been enjoying the hell out of it) Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Dec 9, 2020 |
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Dec 9, 2020 07:43
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Mister Bates posted:This is not dead, and I have three free evenings in a row coming up this week, during which I intend to finish out this year. That's good to hear, this LP has been very fun to participate in. And you've done a good job livening things up what with gladio and the other nations and such, I get the feeling this period of the game would be a lot more plain and straightforward in a more regular game.
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Dec 9, 2020 09:36
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Antilles posted:That's good to hear, this LP has been very fun to participate in. And you've done a good job livening things up what with gladio and the other nations and such, I get the feeling this period of the game would be a lot more plain and straightforward in a more regular game. Echoing this sentiment! I've been eagerly checking this thread throughout my days hoping for a new post because of how engaging I find the setting and storytelling, I'm looking forward to the next update!
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Dec 9, 2020 10:29
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Oh, me three.
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Dec 10, 2020 08:55
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Same! I've just been lurking and reading, but thought i'd chip in to say it's awesome so far! really enjoying the worldbuilding.
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Dec 10, 2020 11:47
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I took a step back from voting but I'm still watching this LP with vigorous interest. Make sure not to burn out and I'm looking forward to future updates!
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Dec 12, 2020 13:58
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It's been a great lp, but after like session 3 my brain breaks trying to vote. Looking forward to getting to watch it keep progressing.
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Dec 12, 2020 15:42
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I don't tend to get involved with the voting in these LPs but I am always glad to see this update.
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Dec 12, 2020 15:54
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February 19, 1982 After a number of frustrating delays due to supply chain issues, two more slipways are completed at MOSA's orbital shipyards. The stations, originally makeshift things built out of off-the-shelf components like empty fuel tanks, are starting to look like proper constructions now, built with intent.  Lacking any explicit instructions for what else to do, the shipwrights' syndicates continue expanding - one yard begins adding another slipway, while another begins work on increasing capacity, to build larger ships. February 22, 1982 Andries Treurnicht, formerly the leader of the extremist pro-apartheid South African Conservative Party, sends out a radio broadcast from an undisclosed location, declaring a 'war of resistance' against the 'Boer genocide' allegedly being perpetrated by the new Comintern-aligned, black-majority government, and promising the 'oppressed masses' that help is on the way, and that their allies are everywhere, all over the world. uMkhonto we Sizwe commandos are directed to the broadcast site, a remote local radio station, via FESTER surveillance data, but by the time they arrive it has already been abandoned and set on fire. The station's DJ and all four of the other station employees are dead in a ditch outside. A stylized graffiti of a sword has been spraypainted onto the wall. February 25, 1982 The Commune of France formally bans corporal punishment of children, a somewhat controversial policy that nevertheless quickly spreads to several other Comintern member nations. March 5, 1982 An encounter at a bar on the border between the People's Republic of California and Mexico, both Comintern members, escalates to a physical altercation between off-duty Mexican and Californian soldiers. No shots are fired and the brawl is broken up by Interplanetary People's Army troops, but several people on both sides are injured. It is a concerning reminder of the tension remaining between the member nations over the specifics of borders in the former United States. March 11, 1982 A timeline for an official meeting on unification is reached with the Free Cascadians - this is not actual unification, but merely a meeting to discuss terms of possible unification, but it is still a major step. The meeting will occur in a month. Even this small announcement, when it goes out across the former US, pushes a couple of remaining independent enclaves in the Midwest to join the Comintern, seeing the writing on the wall. The meeting will take place in April. March 15, 1982  Electron-B is boosted into orbit and joins its sister ship. The launch is attended by a delegation from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, who express their gratitude. The Hawaiian state visit to Japan - which will be accompanied by Comintern diplomats - is scheduled for early May.  Ship Commander Ganthony, selected for his impressive aptitude with sensors, fast reaction times, and decisive personality, is placed in command.   Ganthony will also be the senior officer of the expedition. Under normal circumstances they would be subordinate to the civilian administrator of the Barsoom outpost when actually in Mars orbit, but X-COM operates its own semi-autonomous chain of command, and the expedition will report directly to X-COM HQ. X-COM HQ is currently a prefab building on Ascension Island. March 20, 1982  After a few days of system checks and drills, the two tiny tin-can ships of the Cydonia Expedition receive the green light to depart. Humans have only made this trip twice before, and never before in anything so small, or so hastily built. The ships are clunky assemblages of modules and exposed girders, with huge folding parabolic antennae for the sensor arrays located amidships, long radiator panels extending from the main body at right angles, and the rapidly-prototyped nuclear thermal rocket attached to the whole mess aft. There are only basic amenities, although enough food and life support supplies for a mission of several months if necessary. There are also, just in case, enough firearms to equip the entire crew, although this is realistically mostly to soothe morale. The trip will take about two and a half days all told, as we have chosen a favorable launch window. March 22, 1982  With excellent timing, the dust storm over Barsoom at last begins to abate, and EVA operations can resume. A second unidentified object sighting reported by the now very jumpy outpost crew turns out to be a rock, blown off a cliff by the winds. The sensor platforms have nearly reached Mars orbit. The crews already have the sensors online and pointed at the red planet, though they remain far too distant to actually detect anything. March 25, 1982  The two ships, in close formation, establish a low orbit that will take them directly over the alien ruins at Cydonia. The plan is for a series of low passes that will allow them to scan in great detail, and should allow them to detect even very weak thermal or EM signatures. They'll keep listening to everything else they pass over, too, just in case the geosurvey missed something. They start by passing directly over Barsoom, to confirm the equipment is still working and establish a baseline. The Barsoom crew are happy to help, and their delighted communications from the first people they've talked to without light-delay in months provide plenty of data on how the EM sensors work on Mars (quite well, as it turns out). A while after that, at around 8:30 AM Ascension Standard Time, the ships pass directly over Cydonia. Despite being commanded by the junior officer, Proton is the lead ship in the formation, and the thermal data comes in first. The sensor operators stare in disbelief as the data is resolved, line by line, on the CRT screens. Over half of the structures are cold and dead, ambient temperature, clearly abandoned or destroyed. Many are not. The site is dotted with the mottled red and orange of active heat signatures - most of them small, weak, and intermittent, and some of them in structures that are largely destroyed. There are two exceptions. The Face is giving off a thermal signature consistent with a pressurized atmosphere environment maintaining an internal temperature of about 21 degrees Celsius, as is about one-third of the Pyramid. There are nearby structures to each that glow intensely cherry-red in IR, probably waste heat from a power source of some kind. This place is mostly ruined, and much of it has been completely or almost completely destroyed, but not entirely. There could be something - someone - alive down there. But is there? The Electron's crew is on the edge of their seats as their pass begins. "Comrade Commander, we've got something!" One of the operators, wearing headphones, shouts to Ganthony. "It's faint, weak, and there's a lot of interference, but there's definitely a point source of radio emissions down there. Going to see if we can clean it up a bit." Agonizing silence for a few moments. "There. Commander, this is modulated." The young crewman's eyes are wide, her hands tremble as she work the controls. "There's a message in here. Audio only. Very simple. Let's see if we can hear it." A few more seconds and the sounds from the Martian surface play over the ship's intercom system. Everyone is struck dumb, stock-still. It's Ganthony who breaks the spell. "Pencil! I need a pencil and paper, now! And somebody send that on to Ascension Island, right the gently caress now, move it!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnQCCq0IZKw Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Dec 15, 2020 |
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Dec 15, 2020 08:32
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Oooh, I'm glad to see this continue! Also, can someone get a translation on that morse? I'm hopeless at that sort of thing.
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Dec 15, 2020 09:53
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code:sebmojo fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Dec 15, 2020 |
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Dec 15, 2020 10:03
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sebmojo posted:
 maybe Flight 19 is there too
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Dec 15, 2020 10:31
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holy poo poo we need people there yesterday
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Dec 15, 2020 11:01
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Did this just turn into a rescue mission? Didn't see that one coming...
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Dec 15, 2020 12:00
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Let's think about this rationally comrades. Sure it seems that we are receiving a distress signal from a US naval ship thought lost at sea for over 60 years, but it could mean Operation Gladio is more advanced than we thought 
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Dec 15, 2020 14:06
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HiHo ChiRho posted:Let's think about this rationally comrades. Sure it seems that we are receiving a distress signal from a US naval ship thought lost at sea for over 60 years, but it could mean Operation Gladio is more advanced than we thought I think it's time to train some of those advanced sensors on the Bermuda Triangle from orbit. Either there's some sort of alien time/space warp gate or we've got underwater fascists.
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Dec 15, 2020 14:10
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...welp, it turns out there IS something that would surprise me more than merely aliens being down there, holy poo poo For reference, the USS Cyclops was a Proteus-class ore collier that, in March 1918, mysteriously disappeared with all 293 passengers and crew somewhere in the vicinity of, yes, the Bermuda Triangle, assumed either sunk by a freak storm or German sub (though to this day Germany hasn't disclosed any record of doing so). It is the largest single loss of life in US Naval history not directly involving combat. Or so we thought. The fact that apparently someone decided to pluck a 19,000 ton ship out of the ocean like a bath toy and deposit it on Mars, along with what seems like a human-livable habitat, is weird enough. What's stranger and perhaps more worrying, is that either the passengers (or more accurately at this point their children and grandchildren) have been living up there and broadcasting an SOS for over 60 years, OR they're a recent arrival, and whoever put it there can transcend space and TIME.
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Dec 15, 2020 16:19
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Maybe it's the crew of the Cyclops 60 years late and on the wrong planet.... or the natives are just broadcasting the only human-intelligible signal they have a record of? Even if the Cyclops did get snatched by little green men from the stars, who knows if they're still alive, this could easily be a recording of the last message they sent out in 1918 that the snatch squad recorded and is now beaming at us since we're humans and we speak the human beeps right? "We see you up there, hello" rather than an actual distress call from the Cyclops. OTOH it's awfully convenient that the structures are glowing at a perfect human-friendly 21C if they aren't full of humans..... What the gently caress is going on 
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Dec 15, 2020 17:31
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Maybe the former US deciphered a lot more that it seemed from the alien ship and that's how Gladio's still a step ahead of us. I don't know if that has any connecton with the Cydonia thing but we might be looking at the actual first extraterrestial human colony if the facility/aliens have been snatching people for a while. No matter of they are humans or aliens, it's time for a rescue mission and a welcome commitee in the comintern, the NOMAD first responder teams are ready
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Dec 15, 2020 17:49
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What The gently caress
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Dec 15, 2020 18:28
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holy poo poo I'm going for the 'ship was snatched and humans have been living in habitats here since then' theory, but oh my god this is crazy
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Dec 15, 2020 20:16
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Human Zoo 
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Dec 15, 2020 20:41
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If we're going with the "captured humans" theory, it does beg the question...why allow them to even have access to a radio transmitter? By definition it exists to give away its own existence as loudly as possible, it's not like it can be some super secret low-power tight-beam directional like Gladio's setup, it's a simple point-source audio transmission. If they're zoo animals under security or close scrutiny, why allow them the tech to possibly call for help in such an obvious way?
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Dec 15, 2020 20:48
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So, the ship was nabbed in '18, the UFO in Roswell crashed in '47... was the Martian colony still operational up until late the late 40's? Were they observing us, abducting ships and planes for... research? What happened to shoot down the UFO, trash the colony but somehow sparing the (presumably) humans trapped there? Combat of such scale in our own solar system that we didn't notice at all? Gah, it's hard waiting for the xenoarchaeology team to be trained, outfitted and shipped out there.
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Dec 15, 2020 21:05
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Can Proton-B and Electron-B go into gravity wells? Aurora-standard fighters can (you can use them for close air support of ground troops), but our fluff has them being boosted up to space by something else? Plan: - Pull one ship off to 50% of its sensor range or so to reduce chance of it getting blown up if bad things happen - Have one radio beep back at it with its (presumably directional) back-to-earth radio while they both watch for any reaction. - If nothing happens and we can go into gravity, have one overfly the position and see if any reaction What's our ability to shove 5-10 ground troops into one of our ships and shuttle them over? Game mechanics want us to research troop transport bay for it, but if it's just infantry for a couple days doesn't seem like we ought to need new tech. Mister Bates posted:Lacking any explicit instructions for what else to do, the shipwrights' syndicates continue expanding - one yard begins adding another slipway, while another begins work on increasing capacity, to build larger ships.
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Dec 15, 2020 21:12
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Neither of them are really intended for atmospheric flight, being derived from space station designs, but their duranium-alloy hulls are rated for atmospheric entry and it was a possibility that was factored into their designs, just in case. The sensor antennae and radiator panels are retractable and protective covers can be extended over them, although extending and securing these covers will have to be done by cosmonauts in EVA. Extendable landing legs were also installed just in case this very possibility were brought up, although they are currently stowed folded against the hull and will also have to be moved into landing position via EVA. They're also only rated to do this 3-5 times at most before the percent chance of a major failure on landing or ascent becomes worryingly high. The ships' equipment includes drivable spikes and guylines to stabilize them when landed. It does not include any significant scientific or engineering equipment or any provision for long-term surface habitation, or any weapons more significant than personal firearms. The crew are also almost exclusively sensor operators and other personnel intended to fly a surveillance ship, but they have received the same training any other MOSA cosmonaut does, and at least know what to do if they go down to the surface. If that's what you decide to do it'll take probably 4-6 hours to get the ships ready for atmospheric entry and then another 2-3 hours to actually perform the deorbit burn and get down on the ground, plus the (currently) 8-ish minutes of light delay between sending the order and the ships receiving it. Simply flying in the atmosphere without landing would be extremely taxing in Earth atmosphere but on Mars they should be able to do it with no significant risk to functionality, once the ship has been properly rigged for it. It will be very fuel-inefficient but they've got such substantial reserves it may as well be a rounding error. If you send both the Luna and Tranquility (one to carry the personnel, one to carry their equipment) you could send a well-equipped expedition of about platoon strength, which I would create as a ground unit. You could in theory send up to 250 people but they'd be very poorly equipped for the situation; to send both crew and the requisite gear with the ships you have you're realistically going to be limited to 30-40 and at most two light vehicles. The crew would probably mostly be pulled from Luna, where the training and equipment for offworld ground operations is being developed, and would at best take a few days to organize, plus flight time. Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Dec 15, 2020 |
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Dec 15, 2020 21:36
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they really need a new navigator, they're way off.
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Dec 15, 2020 21:39
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Mister Bates, what's the estimated ETA for when we can ferry over a fully equipped X-COM team (that is, time until all relevant research is completed, all necessary training/construction is done, and transit/deployment time to Mars)? If we set it to absolute priority #1, how much time can we shave off that? Sending in generic troops seems rash to me right now, unless it's ages until we can send a proper team their way. I'd be much more positive right now to attempting contact via radio signals.
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Dec 15, 2020 22:00
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If there's people in these base, either human or alien, they must be greeted with hails and handshakes, not bullets. I understand the need for protecting our research team and welcome comitee with a crack team of xcom operatives, but let's not send and army unless they start shooting first
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Dec 15, 2020 22:11
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This is the best. This is the best. = = = = = [DEUTSCHE NATIONALBIBLEOTHEK ENCYCLOPEDIA ARCHIVE ACCESS: PROTEUS-CLASS COLLIER (UNITED STATES NAVY)] [PUB DATE 14/03/77]  USS Cyclops moored in the Hudson River in New York, some time in 1911. In the 1900s, following the Great White Fleet expedition, the U.S. Navy started to increase the number of colliers in its fleet. These were coal-carrying ships for the resupply of fleet units either at far-flung bases, or at sea. In the 1910s this included the Proteus class of fleet colliers, identifiable by their complex crane and gantry network above decks as shown in the archive photograph. The class was designed at a full-load weight (Dictionary reference: loaded to its maximum recommended allowance with both fuel/munitions and cargo) of 19,000 tons, at a length of 165m, beam of 20m, and a draft of 8.5m. [...] The Proteus class was, ultimately, an ill-starred class of ships. None of the four would survive to preservation or the scrapyard. The most famous of the class would be USS Jupiter, which would be converted into the first-ever U.S. aircraft carrier, USS Langley, and eventually be sunk by her own side after a Japanese air attack in the Second World War. The other three ships, however, all disappeared at sea--and all in the same general area. Indeed, it has not been lost on many people that Proteus, Nereus, and Cyclops all vanished in the notorious "Bermuda Triangle." A safe initial conclusion has been that, as all three were lost during World Wars, they were sunk by German submarines. However, reconstructed fleet and military records do not show any German U-boats as having claimed kills in that area during the time periods in question. The more logical conclusion is that all three were lost to storms--the Bermuda Triangle is a volatile section of ocean, and at the time of sinking, all three of the ships were carrying cargos of heavy ore which could have contributed to sudden weight shifts that would have doomed them. This would have been especially true of Cyclops, whose manganese ore cargo was corrosive, could have easily gotten loose in the hold, and could also have become a heavy "slurry" when wet. Additionally, the class was observed by Rear Admiral George van Deurs as vulnerable to structural failure; the Proteus' half-sister, USS Jason, suffered serious corrosion along the I-beams which formed the structural length of the ship. However, as with anything connected to the Bermuda Triangle, conspiracy theories abound. The first ship to be lost was USS Cyclops, in late 1918. With a crew and passenger count of 306, none of whom were ever found, her disappearance marked the largest non-combat loss of life in the history of the United States Navy... Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Dec 15, 2020 |
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Dec 15, 2020 22:12
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This owns. Is there any possibility that it could just be a message repeating on battery power? I doubt that's really possible with 1918 vintage tech, but I'm not 100% sure. (I'm not an expert on radios.)
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Dec 15, 2020 22:20
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Pacho posted:If there's people in these base, either human or alien, they must be greeted with hails and handshakes, not bullets. I understand the need for protecting our research team and welcome comitee with a crack team of xcom operatives, but let's not send and army unless they start shooting first Unless I've misunderstood/misremembered X-COM is our research team, when it comes to all things xeno.
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Dec 15, 2020 22:21
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Antilles posted:Mister Bates, what's the estimated ETA for when we can ferry over a fully equipped X-COM team (that is, time until all relevant research is completed, all necessary training/construction is done, and transit/deployment time to Mars)? If we set it to absolute priority #1, how much time can we shave off that? Assuming you focused all your efforts on Troop Transport Bay, that's 4000RP normally, a 25% discount if you let the Hawaiians help (due to their experience shifting large groups of people through space without cryogenics), leaving it a still-substantial 3000RP project. By itself that's probably most of a year. Training and deploying the people it's carrying will take further months but can be done at the same time. Building the ship, assuming you prefabricate most of its components on the ground, will take another couple months. That's for a ground team capable of securing the site, engaging any potential hostiles, and doing basic surface-level exploration and the construction of simple shelters for further exploration. Developing proper xenoarchaeology equipment will be a 5000RP project unless you can find some additional source of knowledge on the subject, which, assuming priority number one, is probably close to a couple years, then a few more months to build it. So, in short, unless something happens which significantly expands your knowledge base in the areas of xenoscience and offworld operations, you're looking at minimum 3-ish years before you can realistically have a fully-equipped team on site. Or you could do it with a team equipped with the best gear and training you have right now in a couple weeks. Or you could go for broke and do it with two dozen sensor technicians in 6-8 hours. There's also the Barsoom outpost, which has rovers and is staffed by expert scientists, engineers, and cosmonauts. They have no spacecraft, though, so that would require an overland journey across thousands of kilometers of Martian wilderness that would take weeks at minimum and would itself be one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of human space exploration, though. e: VVV it is entirely possible your crews have already done that, given the light delay! (I'll have another update up this evening) Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Dec 15, 2020 |
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Dec 15, 2020 22:22
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We're working on a lot of guesswork here, maybe we should...respond on the same frequency like they requested and just ask them about the situation groundside before we send in the battalions? If they respond we can at least rule out a recording.
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Dec 15, 2020 22:24
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PurpleXVI posted:I think it's time to train some of those advanced sensors on the Bermuda Triangle from orbit. Imagine Iron Sky but with submarines. Pyroi posted:they really need a new navigator, they're way off. Must've cheaped out on that, capitalists.  See if we can get a radio conversation going, let's not treat radio operators as ten-foot poles, regardless of any potential Polish ethnicity or actual height.
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Dec 15, 2020 22:48
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You are all extremely timid little rabbits. We should send the techs or someone from Barsoom (ugh) to go check things out. Barsoom in particular is probably chomping at the bit for the chance. As long as they're willing to shoulder the potential risks, that will answer all our questions immediately instead of sitting here, wringing our hands and wondering what if and perhaps maybe.
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Dec 15, 2020 22:56
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Oof, yeah, 3-ish years for a proper ground team is a bit too long to do nothing, especially if there are humans there. Making radio contact asap is the way to go, as for next step... our transports don't have onboard shuttles, do they?
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Dec 15, 2020 22:56
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Rhjamiz posted:You are all extremely timid little rabbits.
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Dec 15, 2020 23:07
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Rhjamiz posted:You are all extremely timid little rabbits. Radio conversations first, _then_ poking it with a stick to see if it bites. Bringing a stick not optional.
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Dec 15, 2020 23:10
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I don't know if it's come up in the thread before, but just how much of our expeditions' results are being made public, if anything? Mostly w/rt the roswell craft and mars.
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Dec 15, 2020 23:32
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