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Voting is now open! We're doing something different this year. Instead of posting your votes in the thread, vote using this form here: https://forms.gle/iTh3pYGoK6LHHYJDA Feel free to discuss your votes in the thread, though, and explain why you voted how you did, or advocate for a certain position, if that interests you. Voting will remain open for 3-ish days. Additionally, for future sessions, we will be placing a limit of three resolutions per poster, to keep the number of votes per year relatively manageable.
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Apr 7, 2021 06:43
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Mr bates, the document is missing these two proposals.
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Apr 7, 2021 07:24
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sebmojo posted:Mr bates, the document is missing these two proposals. Ah, so it was, didn't notice those had been seconded. It is missing them no longer. to the 7 people who voted before those two proposals were added: you will not be able to go back and vote on the two proposals that were accidentally omitted, SM-88 Project FALX and HM-89 BLUE WARHOUND, due to technical limitations, but feel free to let me know what your votes would have been here, like the old days. Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Apr 7, 2021 |
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Apr 7, 2021 07:33
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my vote is yes to both. for the revolution!
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Apr 7, 2021 07:47
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I did my voting, my boat-voting.
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Apr 7, 2021 07:58
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MAXIMUM REVOLUTION!
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Apr 7, 2021 08:03
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What happens if both 'build railgun defences' proposals pass, will be build twice the railguns?
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Apr 7, 2021 10:08
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While we're voting, I have more this-timeline Hunter S. Thompson to give to you all. On California: quote:"California. Where do I even begin to describe it's inspiringly pitiful state? The great red american nation, the commie puppet state out to crush the remnants of american pride with fascist Bolshevism, the shining pinnacle of all that socialism can do for the ignorant and benighted west. Everyone has an opinion on it and almost none of them match up with the facts. Truth be told, if you took the California of a young, optimistic time before we were stupid enough to blow ourselves to hell and dumped a lot of red paint on it, what you'd end up with is a terrible mess that bears striking similarity to the state of things today. The politicians still politic, the workers still work and everyone still boozes up every fourth of July. This one is from Redeye Flight: quote:I would have called it a direct attempt to bribe me if I thought they gave a drat. To move, almost literally, Heaven and Earth to hold out a span across this blasted continent and revive the spectacle of the Super Bowl, of real American football, something we had all thought lost forever. Also on the Subject of Football quote:"Despite my repeated protestations that I am in fact dead and shall be until I am finished with my book-writing tour, my erstwhile colleagues at Rolling Stone have seen fit to keep me abreast of world developments. By far the most important of these updates has been on the proposal of a so-called "Lunar Spartikade" by the moon communists. Far more interesting than their hopelessly blatant olympic rebranding is the location. The moon. Every red-blooded human being loves the moon: there is something inescapably majestic about it, something that defies comprehension, the sight of it's pearlescent sheen cutting through the eye and the brain, straight to the spirit. Speaking of vegas, who could forget his famous "wave speech," from his seminal work: fear and loathing in las vegas. quote:"And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
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Apr 7, 2021 10:15
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drat, following this vote is tense. It's funny seeing how some things have overwhelming "yes" votes while others are literally balancing on a knife's edge. Best thing is, you don't even have to imagine the Cominterp arguments and debates, because they're right here in this thread.
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Apr 7, 2021 11:42
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sebmojo posted:Mr bates, the document is missing these two proposals. Yes to both
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Apr 7, 2021 14:26
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I like the new voting system, very convenient. Not a fan of the specific wording of the Apollo 11 memorial, as everyone knows, but beyond that I'm mostly on board with everything proposed. I'm very wary of just letting the Cydonia survivors loose, hopefully the vast majority will decide to stay on employed with MOSA and not get black-bagged or willingly defect to GLADIO/Japan/whoever, but if we keep them locked down for years they go from refugees to prisoners so we have to at least provide the option to leave on moral grounds. I think the 2 year timeline on the crash militarization program is way too short as well, but we do need to get something in the works and it can always be amended next session when it becomes clear that putting even one worthwhile warship, much less a fleet, into the... (well, not water, void?) on that timeline is impossible.
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Apr 7, 2021 16:18
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VOTED, though I will voice concerns regarding the last point in the World Forum proposal regarding barring the initiation of armed conflicts by members. You never know when we'll need to pull another South Africa Liberation Also, how do mutually exclusive proposals work, like Operation Odysseus and the Knights of Cydonia Proposal seem to be in their fine details? Does it go to whichever has more Ayes?
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Apr 7, 2021 16:20
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I voted yes for most things, though there are a few exceptions. I don't like the flag. It is too cluttered. Any child should be able to draw it from memory without the need to refer to pictures.
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Apr 7, 2021 17:57
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sebmojo posted:Mr bates, the document is missing these two proposals. No to both, just because we're doing so many things already. Though no doubt Cydonia discoveries will give California a new opinion next year.
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Apr 7, 2021 20:26
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sebmojo posted:Mr bates, the document is missing these two proposals. Yes to FALX, No to BLUE WARHOUND
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Apr 7, 2021 20:55
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NewMars posted:Speaking of vegas, who could forget his famous "wave speech," from his seminal work: fear and loathing in las vegas. Speaking of speaking of Vegas, that sounds like a good excuse as any to shamelessly use this as a springboard: New Vegas: A Senator's Perspective "I must say, it's been a while since I've sat down for an actual interview. That being said before we begin I do want to answer some of the usual questions people have about my work in Vegas: Yes, some of my coworkers were former members of certain organized crime rings. You can't exactly pick your friends and enemies when the entire country is collapsing around you, now can you? Yes, we do meet in Caesar's Palace to govern the region. Quite frankly it used to be a joke among our peers, but the symbolism ended up being far too useful to ignore. No we do not wear togas. Except on the Ides. Come now, we have to enjoy ourselves every once in a while. It is Vegas after all. Actually, keep that last sentence in mind, I want to get back to it later, among other comments I made just now. Forgive me then, because I'll need to take the reins of this interview for a spell - don't worry, I'll get back to your questions later. First, I want to ask you: what is New Vegas? ...Hrm. Accurate, yet still missing key details. Yes, it is the most important city in the Mojave, and one that was and is able to generate enough income to fund its own mercenary defense force. Though I'd rather not get into them too much - quite frankly their jobs are rather boring all things considered. In fact the usual complaint I've heard when some of their commanders think I'm not paying attention is that they would rather have another nuclear winter than patrol the Mojave more. But they are an effective symbol of law, order, and power, especially since we've gone out of our way to make sure that they are equipped with the most advanced weaponry they can have. Perfectly legally acquired, of course. Aha, I can tell that you're finally starting to understand what I'm getting at. Yes, here in Vegas the most powerful forces at play are not the mercenaries patrolling the desert, not the senators making the various decisions that keep our little slice of what's left of America afloat, not even the casinos and tourist traps and all of the things that make up Vegas on the surface. What makes Vegas powerful is the idea of Vegas. The idea of this decadent, wonderful, corrupt, vibrant, one-of-a-kind place that by all rights should collapse under its own contradictions. The idea of a place that on paper shouldn't be able to stand on its own, but through the...well, I'll spare you the lines about the "gumption of the people" or other such drivel. It is because of our money and our connections that we managed to make ourselves an actually independent state. Vegas was home to just the right combination of legitimate enterprises and...more questionable ones that allowed us to survive and dare I say thrive even as the nukes began to fall from the sky. But at the end of the day, the idea of Vegas is what will keep us alive, if not perhaps fully independent. You might think that I have reservations about the Comintern having a larger presence here what with the fact that quite a few of them probably want to see me hang as a "capitalist oppressor" or whatever their more extreme members may say. Which quite frankly I find offensive. I won't make any excuses about what I or my colleagues had to do, but I can assure you that we all have the best interests of the city in mind and treat each and every member of our staff and workers like royalty. Like...emperors, you might say. Forgive me, it felt appropriate given our past discussions. The point being is that their people are just as willing to spend their money on gambling and drugs and such just as much as anyone else. As long as money keeps coming into Vegas, we're willing to make...some sacrifices. As for the countries that make up the Comintern themselves, could they get away with killing me? Yes. Could they kill the Senate? Yes. Could they take over Vegas by force? If they put their full weight and will behind it, easily. But they cannot, nor can anyone else, kill the idea of Vegas. And that is a weapon far more powerful than any mere nuclear weapon. Champagne? Only the finest vintage. Courtesy of the Senate of New Vegas of course." (worth noting that many of these details were provided by Mister Bates in the Discord, I'm just the guy trying to spin these into a somewhat interesting perspective on how things are in the area)
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Apr 8, 2021 04:50
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Dr. Snark posted:Speaking of speaking of Vegas, that sounds like a good excuse as any to shamelessly use this as a springboard: And moving back from this to Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Often remembered for it's byline: "A savage journey to the end of the american dream*" Fear and Loathing tells the tale of Thompson's several-year residence in Nevada during the very worst of the American Collapse. First in his seminal "Fear and Loathing**" series, it shows a gonzo perspective of the nilhistic hysteria that gripped the city of sin during it's worst years. Having ventured to the city during the early middle of the Great Revolutionary War at the behest of Rolling Stone to cover the implementation of the expanded draft bill alongside his Attorney and friend Oscar Zeta Acosta***. While there, he bore witness to the mass collapse of the city as the federal government began to splinter, writing a chilling yet farcical description of the panic that gripped the city when Washington was hit by a nuclear detonation and the combination between a siege mentality and a rome-burning hedonistic despair that developed when Thompson as well as millions of others were essentially trapped in the city due to it's isolation, precarity and the sheer confusion that gripped the populace in the wake of an effective information blackout. Notably, this part of the book includes many utterly unsympathetic descriptions of current prominent figures in the political and public life of the Free City of Vegas. Recalling with detailed explicitness the debaucheries to which they engaged both publicly and behind closed doors as the world seemed to collapse, Thompson was in a singular position to document what has been described as the "only true case of the apocalyptic hysterical anarchy many predicted in the wake of a third world war." Taking turns between indulging his own apocalypticism and partaking of heroic quantities of drugs and alcohol, Thompson describes what he later called "the worst best parties that were ever found within the American Experiment." This actually lead to an international incident when a Vegas politician was arrested when crossing into California for actions recounted within Fear and Loathing*4. Beyond this, the novel is mostly known for two things: the flashback sequences to Thompson's experiences in California which lead into the famous "Wave Speech;" and the very end of the novel, where Thompson finally manages to procure a ride and return to California, only for his still-surviving coworkers at Rolling Stone magazine to immediately send him back to Nevada as a press attaché to a group of Californian commandos, out to investigate an air force base in the depths of the Mojave Desert. *Despite the fact that Thompson despised this subtitle and had it removed post-first edition. **Which also includes over half a dozen other titles chronicling his journey across America, such as: "Fear and Loathing in California" and "Fear and Loathing across the Rockies" ***Current ambassador from the People's Republic of California to the United Mexican States. *4Details have been omitted for the squeamish, but it was not drug use. Drug laws across the former united states have either de facto or legislatively been abrogated, due to the collapsing domestic situation making their enforcement untenable. While private use throughout most areas is acceptable, public use remains very much frowned upon. Edit: Oh, and people, don't forget to vote if you haven't yet! NewMars fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Jul 8, 2021 |
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Apr 8, 2021 17:12
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Additional votes by Kalmar Union: SM-88 Project FALX: NO; The order of ten craft in two years without any estimate of how much it'll cost when we're we're already dedicating ourselves to massive industrial programs seems foolhardy. A blueprinting and prototyping phase, followed by a large fleet order when we know how much it'll cost and how long it'll take seems a better approach to us. HM-89 BLUE WARHOUND: NO; Too early to make such plans, let's at least finish the research and get a solid theoretical sense for how interstellar travel works before we start making contingencies for so far entirely speculative situations.
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Apr 8, 2021 23:23
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Voting will be closed in about 12 hours, so if you're interested in voting but haven't yet, give it a shot! Again, you can vote here: https://forms.gle/iTh3pYGoK6LHHYJDA
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Apr 9, 2021 21:27
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News from the discord: if you've noticed a little grey dot in the middle of the new mexico map on the other page, that's Los Alamos. It's grey because it was a nuclear research facility and nobody goes near now.
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Apr 10, 2021 02:15
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From Pravda's Special Publication Series "Interviews with Workers Around The World" Development of the Global Network Part 1: 1982 The Global Network, like the SAP, was a project totally unprecedented in scale. Its scope was total; its reach global. It involved hundreds of nations, tens of thousands of engineers, planners, diplomats, and scientists, and millions of miners, foundry workers, loggers, diggers, drillers, and builders. The project would grow to include sophisticated new cargo depots, palatial passenger terminals modeled on those of the Moscow metro system,high speed lines connecting all the cities and countrysides of the world, and lower speed local lines that would grow to reach into all but the most isolated communities. They'd carry both people and freight, and be integrated with the Cybersyn through the internetwork. All using brand new TNE technology, from the rails to the signals to the trains themselves. ----- The work, delegated from a central committee at the People's Congress to first dozens, and then hundreds of others, began "everywhere all at once" recalls Matthew Wong. Wong is a diplomat who worked in many of the planning committees. "The arguments were heated and went long." he recalled "because you don't change something after it's agreed on and being built in a hundred different places. The standards had to work for everyone, everywhere." "Technically the first tracks the project ever laid weren't TNE materials" recalls Wong. "We made the decision early on to earn some buy-in from all the rail worker unions by essentially handing them a fat sack of cash to fix their existing systems. After all, people were reliant on those and they wouldn't be fully replaced for years yet. But yeah, the duranium-iron alloys really changed everything, or so I'm told. I'm not a science guy, I was just relieved we could settle the drat gauge question." "The gauge question" was the most notorious dispute of the whole early phrase of the project. The sub-committee for for creating a universal standard gauge had broken down into factionalism between representatives from Eastern and Western Europe. "I called it The Cold War committee as a joke. Nobody else thought it was funny." says Wong. It was also inaccurate I suppose. There were multiple fistfights that turned into running brawls in the street. The committee head, a man from Atlanta picked for his unbiased position, threatened that if they couldn't come to an agreement civilly and move the project forward he'd have them all shot. When I told him Central (Committee) had decided to go with TNE mag-lev rails, so his committee's function was no longer necessary, he just smiled and hugged me. The next morning he broke the news he told the committee that they'd failed to meet the terms he'd set. Then he shot them all with a paintball gun. I was jealous of him, I don't think I'll ever be that happy." ---------- When asked what he remembers of the project, Jean-Claude Danton only had one word for us. "Digging" he said. "That's it. Just a whole lot of digging. Every day, around the clock, for mile after mile after mile. Sometimes, if we were near a place that had them, we had the help of bulldozers and backhoes. But mostly? Shovels as far as the eye could see." The earliest physical work began as soon as routes that would cover new territory was agreed to and any commune's assets that were in the way were relocated. All the tracks were to be elevated by no less than 2 meters above the surrounding land, with any intervening roadway to pass under them. "I met a planner once and shouted at him." says Jean-Claude. " I said 'Do you know how much of a pain in the rear end this all is? Have you ever had to build a thousand mile wall in the dead of winter?' He turned to me very seriously and said 'No. Have you ever seen what happens when a 200 ton mag-lev freight train traveling at 1,100 kph hits some poor fucker whose transmission fell out over the tracks?' I had to admit I had not. 'If we both do our jobs right, we'll never have to find out.' He made an excellent point, the son of a bitch." ----------- In a somewhat controversial move, most of the production of the duranium alloys, iron and otherwise, that would make up the physical network was assigned to the newly built TNE factories of the American Midwest. With the collapse of the auto-industry brought on by the war, many locals were grateful for the move. Locals like Reginald Jackson, who had been with the UAW his entire adult life. "Man, getting used to duranium alloys was unforgettable. The stuff just never behaved like I expected it to. Like any of us expected it to. And here we were with an order for it with more zeros on the end than I knew how to say. First of all, you've got to use exotic energies to shape it properly in addition to heat. What does "exotic energy" mean? Hell if I know, but the cutters that use it could take your hand off. Then you've got to move it. The stuff is light as a feather, too. No cranes or forklifts needed, you just carry something that looks like it should weight half a ton. If you dropped it, you'd expect it to clang all over the place but it just came to a dead stop on the ground. It didn't transfer momentum either. We still prank the new guys by asking them to use a duranium I-beam to push an egg." "We got it down though, somehow." he sighs. "Story of the whole drat '80s right there. All the workers of the world, moving the world. Somehow." ------ The first TNE railway in the world, in the whole Global network, was declared finished in December of 1981. It ran from Beijing to Tianjin. The declaration by COMRAIL, the newly formed administrative apparatus for the network which inherited the name of the central planning committee, was roundly criticized as a political stunt due to the unfinished upgrades of both connecting stations, lack of any connections to any other lines, and total lack of engines to actually run on the uncanny new raised mag-lev tracks.
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Apr 11, 2021 05:11
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Mad Max 2: The Road Wars Releases Worldwide! Long-awaited successor to the Australian classic, Mad Max 2 (internationally titled "The Road Wars), has entered theatres to massive critical and popular acclaim! Set an indeterminate amount of time after the first movie, in an ambiguous period surmisable through context clues to be just after the height of the Australian collapse; the movie follows protagonist Max Rockatansky who is now an aimless wanderer, travelling across the wasteland of the outback in his V8 interceptor after the events of the first movie. His only companion a loyal dog, Max becomes entangled in the affairs of a fortified refinery besieged by the enigmatic "Lord Humungus" and his clan of murderous raiders. Despite his own protests and attempts to extricate himself from the situation, Max ends up running a decoy mission. His mission: to drive a gas tanker loaded with the refinery fuel as the rest of the refinery crew attempt to escape to Meanjin (referred to by it's contemporary designation of "Brisbane" in the film). During the climactic chase, a stunning revelation unfolds, upon realizing the identity of Max, the Lord Humungus is in turn revealed to be Goose, Max's partner from the first film, left for dead after suffering terrible burns. His long sojourn in the wilderness having driven him to a life of aimless plunder, his first converts being the remnants of the Mobile Patrol Force, whose complete disappearance serves as an unremarked-upon background detail at the end of Max Max 1. Unrepentant in fighting his former comrades to save the refinery population, the ensuring conflict ends with every single vehicle totally destroyed and only Max and a young child left to survive. There it closes, with him having all the fuel he could ever use, but nothing that can use it. Following is an epilogue, narrated by the seemingly feral young boy who Max rescued at the end, sitting with a group of refinery survivors and reminiscing about the person only known as Max, wondering where he is now. Rising to even greater acclaim than the first movie, Max Max 2 is already considered a classic and a landmark of revolutionary war-era fiction. In particular, the movie has been lauded for it's aggressively fast pacing, sparse but effective use of dialogue, cinematic characterization, practical effects and the revolutionary cinematography of the chase scenes. Critical acclaim in particular has focused on how it effectively blends storytelling and action, using environmental details and subtle characterization to establish the state of the world and the motivations of those within. This has also lead to a number of reviews that point out the applicable symbolism of much of the movie, in particular, the plight and actions of the refinery workers versus the marauders of Humungus are considered to represent the worker's struggle against capitalism during and prior to the GRW, with the marauders roots as a police unit representing the fall of those governments into barbaric tyranny. As well, the abandonment of the fuel as a decoy is held to be metaphor for the discovery of TNE materials and technology, abandoning the ancient struggle for resources in favour of a new future.
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Apr 14, 2021 07:41
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Results of the 1982 People's Congress The actual vote totals can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeY5ejdCcg8msA7KjvPFVwDx3e_DIfPa5nTgGIujFFUJB3qKA/viewform?usp=sf_link NM-57 passes and the new flag will be adopted immediately. NM-58 passes and the Comintern Observer Nation Status will be created and implemented. NM-59 fails. NM-60, The Middle Eastern Observer Outreach Act passes handily, and Observer Nation Status offered will be extended to all former Arab League states that are not currently Comintern members. NM-61, The Indian Negotiation Act, passes near-unanimously, and a formal plan is established for peaceful diplomatic relations with India. NM-62, OPERATION CHAKRAVARATIN, passes extremely narrowly, and, in addition to the carrot of the Indian Negotiation Act, we will also employ a stick: the Comintern will begin arming, funding, and training communist militants in India, to ensure they are prepared for a possible civil conflict should the ceasefire fall through. NM-63, The Japanese Negotiation Act, passes, formalizing some of your requirements for negotiations with Japan. NM-64, The North American Outreach and Reconstruction Act, passes almost unanimously, and an intense diplomatic campaign to integrate the North American territories into the Comintern will be undertaken. NM-65, The North American Forum Creation Treaty, passes as well, and the forum will be implemented. NM-66, The Quaternary Lunar Landing Celebration Act, passes narrowly, and a celebration will be held at the Apollo 11 site, including, controversially, the re-raising of the fallen American flag. NM-67, The Bureau of Environmental Protection, Conservation and Restoration Act, passes near-unanimously, and the Bureau will be established immediately. NM-68, The Bureau of Arts and Culture Act, passes, and the bureau will be brought online. NM-69, The Socialist Aid Integration and Expansion Act passes completely unanimously. The Socialist Aid Program will be expanded into a full Bureau of Economic Development. NM-70, The Anti-Nuclear Defense Network Establishment Act, passes handily, and a railgun-based anti-ballistic-missile shield will be developed and deployed, forever ending the threat of MAD. TDS-71, the Ascension Accords, passes, and the negotiations will begin to try to hammer out the rough draft treaty into a finished document. As the proposal was a draft and not the finished product, you will have an opportunity to modify the treaty before you actually sign it. A-72 VENUSPLAN passes, and a joint project to colonize Venus will be proposed with the Japanese space agency. F-73, Orbital Survey Act, passes, establishing a set of formal rules for the deployment of FESTER orbital surveillance systems. As required by this legislation, a pair of FESTER stations will be constructed and deployed to the Moon immediately. CZ-74, Reduction of Work Act, passes, and over the next five years, the standard work week will be gradually reduced in all Comintern member states. CZ-75, Abduction and Great Revolutionary War Veteran Medal Creation Act, passes, and the two new medals proposed will be created (I'll hold a brief design contest sometime this year). T-76, HEAVY Act, passes, and artificial gravity research will be prioritized. P-77, the Lunar Rail Act, passes, and there will be trains on the Moon. R-78, World Socialist Exhibition, passes unanimously, and we will hold our own Worlds' Fair. R-79, Project SHIELD, passes, and further specifies the requirements already laid out by NM-70: to wit, the missile shield will take the form of surface-based emplacements with integrated sensor packages. Ironically, there is already substantial physical infrastructure in place in several strategic locations that would be ideal for these emplacements - ICBM silos. R-80, TNE Arms Industry Act, passes, and our arms industry will expand. P-81, Lunar Aerospace Museum, passes, and a grand museum of human spaceflight will be established on the moon. The first exhibit in the collection will be the Apollo 11 site, with additional major acquisitions including the first Hawaiian lander to make the trip to Lunagrad, and, once she is decommissioned, the Luna, humanity's first TN spacecraft. Z-82, the New Universal Bill of Rights, establishing a bill of rights for Comintern member states. Implementing this will inevitably be controversial and there will likely be many disputes over the exact interpretation of specific clauses - indeed, the arguments have already started. Z-83, the World Forum, passes, and a global diplomatic forum will be established to serve as a point of contact between the Comintern and the world's neutral nations. It is very explicitly not an attempt at superseding or replacing the United Nations, will have no peacekeeping mandate, and will not make, adjudicate, or enforce international law. P-84, the Bring Them Home Initiative, passes, and a plan to bring the Cydonia survivors home is specified. Additionally, this bill requires you to finally, officially, publicize the existence of the Cydonia ruins and of the survivors. NM-85, the Bureau of Public Health Act, passes, and yet another branch of the Comintern's ad-hoc bureaucratic apparatus will be formalized into an actual official organization. A-86, Operation Odysseus, passes, and all available resources will be directed towards developing a proper xenoarchaeology expedition and a ship to transport it to Mars. R-87, the Knights of Cydonia Proposal, passes, specifying another plan to bring the Cydonia survivors home. It doesn't really contradict the previous plan for the most part, merely clarifies it; if at any point they do contradict each other, well, we'll have to make some quick decisions. If it had been wildly different from the other proposal, and they'd both passed, things might have gotten weird. SM-88, Project FALX, passes, and, within two years, the Comintern will have deployed an armed interplanetary spacecraft. HM-89, PROTOCOL VH-2387-BLUE-WARHOUND, fails, once votes in the thread are taken into account. --------------------------------------------- CONFIDENTIAL Report on the State of Japanese Trans-Newtonian Technology as compiled by analyst FALCONER, GRU Ninth Directorate, with assistance from local sources and from Director BALCONY VIEW It would be unfair to call Japan's attempts at Trans-Newtonian technology 'crude' - our own efforts remain quite inelegant and they're really not far behind us in absolute terms. That having been said, they are quite clearly working with a lesser pre-existing knowledge base and more scarce resources. With that in mind, what they have managed to accomplish is honestly impressive. They have successfully mined and stabilized TNEs on an industrial scale, and have begun integrating them into their economy in a limited fashion. For the most part, they are behind the Comintern, and are, bluntly, doomed to remain so - but they're not completely blowing smoke up our asses. The documents our friends in Japan have provided basically confirm that Japan has indeed entered the Trans-Newtonian era. How they acquired this technology is the first major question we wished to answer, and our friends were able to provide much worrying insight into this. First, the most obvious and least surprising revelation - the Japanese have, of course, been spying on us, and have a wealth of our own scientific and technical literature at their disposal, including some that has not been released to the public. The Comintern's Trans-Newtonian industrial and scientific efforts involve literal hundreds of millions of people in thousands of facilities, constantly in communication with each other. It leaks like a sieve - there is no way it couldn't, not without massive restructuring. It would be more surprising if there weren't leaks. This, combined with extensive reverse-engineering of Comintern technology they've purchased or otherwise acquired, is not unexpected. What is unexpected is the alien spacecraft they raised from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese Red Army managed, at great risk, to acquire documents, photographs, and even video footage detailing a Japanese expedition to a site in the Devil's Sea region south of Tokyo, about 18 months ago. The wreckage they recovered is substantial, many times the size of the Roswell object in terms of total tonnage. There are no signs of it on our initial geological surveys of the planet, but those are outdated and we may have simply not known what to look for at the time. While significantly larger, the object is also in much worse shape, and has been reduced to several badly mangled pieces in the middle of a widely scattered debris field. The Japanese have used submarines and deep-sea drilling vessels to secretly recover nearly all of this wreckage, and are intensely studying it, though it is so badly damaged that we do not believe they are getting much in the way of actual usable technology from it. Where it has benefited them immensely, however, is in the form of thousands of tons of already-refined Trans-Newtonian elements, that merely needed to be reshaped. In effect, they jumpstarted their economy using salvage from the wreck, and this allowed them to bring enough mines online to begin proper domestic production. Based on our examination of the documents supplied by our Japanese comrades, the object appears to have had the same basic construction and general aesthetic style as the Roswell object, and was likely constructed by the same species. It does not appear to have had any armament, or at least none that survived in a recognizable form, and appears to have consisted mostly of a large void enclosed by hull. Based on our limited information, we hypothesize a transport vessel of some kind, possibly a small freighter or passenger liner (emphasis on 'small'; our Berowra freighters positively dwarf the craft). With little else in the spacecraft to study (in particular, we have every indication that the engines and power source were completely destroyed), the Japanese have dedicated themselves to understanding and implementing as much as possible about the ship's physical construction, and they've made impressive advances in materials science and Trans-Newtonian structural engineering, which is the only specific field in which they could be said to even approach parity with the Comintern. Some of the ideas they've bandied about in the internal documents we have stolen are honestly intriguing. In summary, Japan is more advanced than we'd like them to be, but less than we feared, and, if you'll forgive some flippancy, our UFO is cooler than theirs. ----------------------------------------------- The session ends, the delegates begin to return home, and, at long last, another year begins.
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May 6, 2021 09:01
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May 6, 2021 09:19
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The devil's sea is also known as the pacific bermuda triangle, for reference. Alright, if I've got nothing better for my proposals next session, I think I'll start proposing a project to go through as much unexplained phenomena as possible in the historical record and see what we can dig up. Lest someone else stumble upon another wreck. Even if we don't, we can figure out an approximate date for when alien interference with our planet began and maybe even the reason why. Oh, for those who are interested, the LP discord is here!
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May 6, 2021 09:20
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Mister Bates posted:With little else in the spacecraft to study (in particular, we have every indication that the engines and power source were completely destroyed), the Japanese have dedicated themselves to understanding and implementing as much as possible about the ship's physical construction, and they've made impressive advances in materials science and Trans-Newtonian structural engineering, which is the only specific field in which they could be said to even approach parity with the Comintern. Some of the ideas they've bandied about in the internal documents we have stolen are honestly intriguing. This might be the best case scenario, to be honest. They'll have some advances that we can learn from, but it's nowhere near enough to be a threat to us. I am hoping that our anti-nuke GDI is being cloaked in the language of the SHIELD project. To at least give us as much lead time as possible before General LeMay realizes what's happening and has to choose between murdering millions or being rendered impotent. Because I think we all know what that man would choose. (ooc: Yes, I know that LeMay left the Air Force several years before the point of divergence, but I'm guessing he would have found his way back given that he was just a year removed from being George Wallace's running mate in '68 and the circumstances requiring a vast expansion of the military hierarchy)
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May 6, 2021 14:29
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We're going to need more railguns.
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May 6, 2021 16:52
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NewMars posted:The devil's sea is also known as the pacific bermuda triangle, for reference. I concur. While we're at it, let's get one of our Karzeleks to perhaps do another mineral scan of Earth. Skip the broad-spectrum wide area scans, focus on checking the oceans for high-purity Duranium ship hull material. Might be some more alien loot scattered about, the Japanese basically just lucked into one in nearby waters, who knows what's sitting down there a bit further offshore.
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May 6, 2021 17:19
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Based on what we know of our Martian survivors, I think that we should assign the highest priority to a complete survey of the ocean floor in and surround the Bermuda Triangle region. We should immediately retask assets to perform such a survey, and have military elements ready to secure the entire area if needs be.
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May 6, 2021 18:07
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Man, after the hectic near-constant state of crisis of 1982, the first month of 1983 has been quiet. Perhaps too quiet. The Moon Capitalists are luring us into a false sense of security 
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Jun 6, 2021 14:51
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Hello all! Mister Bates gave me permission to advertise a new Aurora LP I'm running. Hope to see all you in there! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3970652
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Jun 14, 2021 21:34
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Ooh, always good to see another one pop up.
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Jun 14, 2021 22:48
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Fray posted:Hello all! Mister Bates gave me permission to advertise a new Aurora LP I'm running. Hope to see all you in there! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3970652 the Aurora LP Curse smiles, its teeth sheathed in blood
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Jun 14, 2021 22:48
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Just caught up on this (linked from Fray's LP), and wow, this is amazing. There's probably an entire sci-fi novel series' worth of material in this thread, which I think is an indicator of how much work it must be to run an LP like this.
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Jun 28, 2021 01:04
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INTERLUDE The Face on Mars, Cryochamber Level, 25:13 local time, December 31, 1982, sort of Doctor Fujiwara would never get used to a day longer than 24 hours. It wasn't much - about 40 minutes - but it was just long enough to throw you off. The communists were operating on a 24-hour day instead, although the time zone had been adjusted to roughly fit the local day/night cycle. For them, it was 1:13 in the morning on January 1, 1983, and they were in the mess celebrating the New Year. She envied them. The Director, ever the eccentric, was absolutely insistent that the Hawaiian Royal Space Agency's first Martian astronaut operate on proper Mars time. The Reds were friendly and mostly seemed happy to have her along. She had been introduced to them as an expert on cryonics and cryopreservation systems in particular, which was quite true, though not the whole truth. She worked alongside a Comintern academician named Ivanova, who had worked under Academician Vasilyev on the Reds' own cryopreservation project, and the two collaborated quite well professionally, though they would likely never be friends. Doctor Fujiwara did not have many of those, and she had less and less desire to make them with each passing 24 hour and 39 minute long day. Her irritability at this time of night was probably why Ivanova had asked no questions when she said she'd be going down to the lower level to finish up some work, and why she found herself alone in the depths of a ruin on Mars in the middle of the night. As she sat on the floor in the vast cryochamber, bathed in the blue light of the thousands upon thousands of upright tubes surrounding her, Fujiwara tried to focus on the task at hand. She felt like she was close to a breakthrough in understanding how these machines worked, so close that she could not rest until she had seen it through. She was elbow-deep in the base of one of the empty pods that had contained the Cyclops crew, fiddling with wiring and circuitry, multimeter and oscilloscope operating next to her, the wiring to the alien machine spliced into a very conventional human battery behind her. Even after weeks of digging around in them, she was still quite surprised at how simple the circuitry in the pods was, compared to all the other xenotech in the facility. The actual cryopreservation system was quite complex and heavily dependent on TNE-based materials, and the thick, heavy power cables which supplied the enormous voltage needed to begin the freezing or thawing process were also Trans-Newtonian in nature. The logic circuitry controlling its operation was all relay-based and mostly used conventional materials, with very minimal TNE doping to (presumably, based on her current hypotheses) prevent corrosion and ensure durability. Figuring out how it actually worked would be difficult, but figuring out how to turn it on or off was relatively straightforward. God, how strange it was that they even used relays, or wires, or anything we could recognize as circuitry, she thought, getting distracted. Alien though the builders were, these simple electrical systems were immediately intuitive to anyone with any kind of electronics background, their builders' intentions generally obvious. Unfortunately, they did not use human units of measure, and they had not supplied a manual, not that anyone could read it if they had. Finding out what set of logic gates triggered what function, and how much power they needed to be supplied with, had mostly been a lot of frustrating trial and error. She thought she just about had it, though, and wasn't going to stop until she was done. In a minute, that is. Just going to take a break for a minute, she thought. Just briefly rest my eyes. Primary Statis Chamber, 98.34 local time, Firecall 10, year 43 LS It may be months or years before rescue, if rescue comes at all. This is the only option. The captain thought of her father, tall and brave and intrepid, tritanium-strong, like a stereotype of the ancient voidship captains of old. She remembered in her youth hearing the songs sung in his praise. She remembered deciding to follow him in the family trade, and swelling with pride at the thought of commanding a voidship of her own one day, of lighting a miniature sun at her back and streaking silver-bright across the voids between stars, visiting alien worlds, with a brave and loyal crew and promises of fortune and adventure ahead. She got the opportunity soon, far too soon, her father struck down in his prime. She wondered what he would have done, had he been here, had he faced these choices. They had accomplished the mission, at least. She drew some bittersweet comfort from that thought. Her ship and crew alike were dead, dead and shredded to pieces and scattered on the floor of the third planet's vast salty oceans. It had been pure luck that spared her the same fate, brought her aboard the last surviving vessel in her little squadron, and, now, back to the rust-red planet she believed the local apes called Mangala. She wished it hadn't. As the timer finished counting down, and the pods began to cycle her and a precious few others into suspended animation for who-knew-how-long, she prayed to the ancestors and her household gods for this to be an extended death-dream. Let me awaken from this pod in the afterlife. The Face on Mars, Cryochamber Level, 3:15 local time, January 1, 1983 Doctor Fujiwara awoke with a start. It took her a moment to recall where she was, who she was. She had never before had such a vivid dream. She held on to as much of it as she could, fleeting shreds of memory and emotion, quickly scrawling down as much as she remembered on one of her many notepads. She looked across the chamber to the row of fifteen pods containing Roswells. Without understanding how or why, she instantly recognized one of the occupants, knew them, knew her. She threw the frozen greenish-grey figure a two-fingered salute from her prone, crumpled position on the floor. "Captain." The Director had been insistent that she include every detail in her reports. When she pointed out that the Reds would be able to read every report she sent, he had told her this was good, it would mean more eyes on the problem. As she dragged her aching body off the hard floor, and staggered off to her bunk, she snorted with laughter at the thought of analysts on Ascension Island poring over her description of a weird dream she'd had. Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Jul 2, 2021 |
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Jul 2, 2021 08:53
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This is fine.
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Jul 2, 2021 18:43
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Are these intact living Roswells on ice??? Can we just real quick found the discipline of xenopsychology, train up some xeno therapists and ship them to Mars? I tend to take my reports of spooky psychic fugue dreams with a grain of salt but it sounds like we got a case of alien survivor guilt over here.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:09
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 Well... that's an interesting development.I mean, it's entirely possible that someone in a stressful unfamiliar environment, getting really weird uncomfortable sleep, surrounded by alien poo poo, could just have a really vivid dream influenced by the stuff their conscious mind has been immersed in for however long. That said, I petition that all personnel with any sort of Security clearances start wearing around the Roswell tubes.Alternatively, let's try and see if any of the old Soviet psychotronic research paid off and have some "sensitive" subjects set up sleeping bags around the tubes and see what noninvasive intel we can glean from their dreams
Asterite34 fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Jul 2, 2021 |
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Jul 2, 2021 19:13
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Jul 2, 2021 19:15
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Jul 2, 2021 20:43
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