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Veloxyll posted:Slavers, cannibals. Maybe they're sitting on a good mine for TNEs, but they need manpower, meat, fertilisers. All the sorts of things you can make with people and bodies. If Fray is taking a page from the Red Rising series, we could have Ascomanni out there in the Oort cloud. Which would be a problem, space adapted genetically altered for war humans is a bad time.
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Jun 26, 2021 05:08
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Dr. Snark posted:I like to think that the lyrics aren't actually part of the medal description but instead were pthighs first words to the rest of the crew of Ashes after being pried out of his fighter cockpit. Look, it's fine, I happened to have a Sudoku book with me. Everything's fine
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Jun 26, 2021 05:47
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"As far as we know there's nothing out past Jupiter" makes me 1000% sure that there is in fact some really freaky poo poo going on out past Jupiter, even without the spooky ghost comet that obviously had something really freaky happen to it out past Jupiter. We gotta embark on an epic journey to poke Pluto with a stick or something.
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Jun 26, 2021 06:01
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Fray posted:So, yes and no. The Martians are unique in their love of running their yaps at the rest of the system. Everybody else stays pretty quiet for reasons of safety (it’s not called The Long Silence for nothing). Things are slowly starting to thaw, though. You do know that parts of the inner system are still inhabited (though surely not Earth, god no), the belt is a mess, and there are people on Jupiter’s moons. Jupiter and the Trojans were pretty much the limit of colonization, however. The outer gas giants were still a dream when the war came. I’ll be excited to hear if we’ve picked up any emissions from the Galilean moons. They probably had a lot more people and resources than us, but that would just have attracted trouble when everything fell apart.
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Jun 26, 2021 06:04
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Crazycryodude posted:"As far as we know there's nothing out past Jupiter" makes me 1000% sure that there is in fact some really freaky poo poo going on out past Jupiter, even without the spooky ghost comet that obviously had something really freaky happen to it out past Jupiter. I agree lets search pluto and if we encounter any annoying aliens in funny looking ships we should befriend them.
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Jun 26, 2021 06:08
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We're gonna find out that it was communists from another dimension, out to bring the good word of marx to us. Again.
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Jun 26, 2021 10:38
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I would be pleasantly surprised if this is all an alt-history Mass Effect scenario, with the Martians getting a leg-up from the Prothean research station on their pole, and Chiron having been hit by Batarian raiders poking about in the outer system.
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Jun 26, 2021 12:04
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I mean, all these references have been made, but after finding a Space Mormon ship and after receiving comms from Mars's regime nobody has said yet? 
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Jun 26, 2021 13:18
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poo poo, changing my character from an Odysseus expy to an Avasarala expy.
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Jun 26, 2021 13:44
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People get grumpy when you compare their original IP to the expanse hahaaa.
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Jun 26, 2021 14:03
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That Italian Guy posted:I mean, all these references have been made, but after finding a Space Mormon ship and after receiving comms from Mars's regime nobody has said We've already had one expanse LP, I assume Fray has come up with an original plot do not steal. Since we're getting propaganda from Mars though I have to repost this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Rm17YdX5M
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Jun 26, 2021 14:09
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Pharnakes posted:We've already had one expanse LP, I assume Fray has come up with an original plot do not steal. I’ll settle for being derivative of enough different things that it looks original. And turns out, watching people try to fit it to any of the sci-fi they’ve ever read is a good way to collect reading recs.
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Jun 26, 2021 14:51
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As someone who has not read much sci-fi, I just watched The Expanse a month ago for the first time (and am reading the books now), and a bunch of times I was like, "hey, that reminds me of those SA Aurora LPs!" I'm assuming it's more that ideas get passed around and reused and, most ideas have been fine, there's only so much that can happen in space, etc.
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Jun 26, 2021 18:07
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pthighs posted:As someone who has not read much sci-fi, I just watched The Expanse a month ago for the first time (and am reading the books now), and a bunch of times I was like, "hey, that reminds me of those SA Aurora LPs!" I believe the War of the Worlds was explicitly inspired by the Expanse, though I've only read the first book myself. My Aurora LP was instead inspired by some older David Weber books that I was way too fond of as a kid.
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Jun 26, 2021 18:30
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I never thought Saros’ LP was that similar anyway. Like you have an Earth and a Mars eyeing each other but I don’t think that’s distinctly Expansey. The only big thing was the warp daemons idea, and even that worked differently.
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Jun 26, 2021 18:56
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I prefer to think that one of the James Corey pair is clearly a goon and was cribbing notes from War of the world's. I am pretty sure I did the space gribblies in the jump points that eat your brains before it was in the expanse series. [E] Aurora descends from a campaign tracker for that David Weber series, uh Starfire? I think? Saros fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Jun 26, 2021 |
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Jun 26, 2021 18:59
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Saros posted:[E] Aurora descends from a campaign tracker for that David Weber series, uh Starfire? I think? Yep, that was it. Or rather I believe Starfire was a game (of the old, pencil and paper sort) first, then David Weber wrote books about it and Steve wrote a computer tracker/later game based on it. So they both come from the same origin.
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Jun 26, 2021 20:08
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Just saw this, another amazing Aurora LP. Loving the smaller and more personal scale. Hopefully it also staves off the JAIDS and burnout. I am loving the very Eclipse Phase post-apocalypse (sans uploads). Here's hoping we can run some salvage ops on Earth in the future. Can I be dorfed as some kind of space fighter pilot?
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Jun 26, 2021 20:38
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DelilahFlowers posted:I agree lets search pluto and if we encounter any annoying aliens in funny looking ships we should befriend them. Or any AI controlled space cruisers.
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Jun 27, 2021 01:07
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Following with great interest. I always like these "scrappy colony" scenarios more than "control an empire" ones.
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Jun 27, 2021 07:07
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That Italian Guy posted:It was probably the Aliens from that movie! Anyhoo, XO, have the ship's artist come to my rooms, this victory needs to be immortalised in a portrait! What do you mean "we don't have a ship artist"? 
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Jun 27, 2021 12:34
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When you pre-emptively expect to fight more battles here
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Jun 27, 2021 12:55
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Marvelous! To many more! *smashes space cartography instrument instead of glass*
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Jun 27, 2021 12:58
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 16 December, 2153 A railgun round flashed across the view, and the speck that was a ship started burning. Hektor’s notables, scattered about the auditorium, watched in silence. The grainy, thirteen hour old video ended and Admiral Wedgekree stepped to the front. “There it is. The Asama Maru, a mining vessel out of Meriones, was hit by an unidentified enemy and left floating a couple hours after departure. This recording from the local traffic control has been getting spread around the cluster since then. We have the Steregush heading there now, but we expect the Merionese will have finished rescue and recovery operations by the time she arrives. Furthermore, one hour ago a statement was issued by the Achillean League condemning the attack and assigning blame to ‘the pirate and butcher known as Pyotr,’ whom they have been hunting and also hold responsible for the recent loss of a League Navy ship.” All heads could not help but turn halfway towards the solitary figure at the back of the room. Captain Tig, lounging in his seat, spoke up in an instant. “I always knew taking in this… this SCOUNDREL was a mistake. The outrage! The barbarism! Why, if I were a less refined man, I would…” “gently caress your mother, idiot!” Pyotr shouted as he rose. “Whatever those pompous shits claim, I’m nothing but a legitimate businessman. And if I were what they say, my people wouldn’t be so amateurish as to wreck the prize instead of taking her! Do you smug pricks think you’re the only ones who can play pirate? No, Achilles did this and they’re going to put it on a convenient scapegoat.” It had been over a month since the expedition had finished. Everyone in the room had spent that time waiting and preparing for the other shoe to drop, the righteous and likely-unstoppable retribution from the League for having dared to spit in its eye. In that time, its patrols had shown increased enthusiasm for casual harassment across the region, but no overt attack had yet materialized. “Why though?” a minor functionary asked. “What does the League possibly gain by shooting up ships from a place like Meriones? They’re not the ones who took down the Miltiades or made off with Chiron’s salvage. Instead the League should have shown a sensible response, which is to martial their fleet and make an example of us. Unless they really do think that it was all the doing of, uh, legitimate businessmen? Doubtful.” The room held its breath for a time. “Because that’s how they think,” Captain Saros eventually said, as if deducing aloud. “Come on, what’s the image Achilles has always made sure to project, going all the way back to when they conquered Idomeneus? Perfect strength, right? And it works, all the colonies just hope the League won’t notice them if they don’t present a challenge. That’s just how the Achilleans want things, because sure they could crush us, or Meriones, or anyone else around here, but what about everyone? If people weren’t afraid? If something brought them together? At the very least, they’d be in for the first real fight they’ve ever had.” “Well done!” Pyotr said, clapping slowly. “One of you can see. Yes, someone finally popped the big bad League Navy in the nose, and now they don’t know what to do about it! If your fellow tunnel-rats found out that one of their own had done such a thing, they might start getting ideas. Not to mention the ones already living with boots on their necks. Now that’s what makes Achilleans piss their pants! No, no, much better to say there’s some terrible monster, and an outsider too, that the brave League Navy will protect you from! And if people don’t buy it, then they still get a reminder that Achilles does what it wants. Everyone stays afraid and in the meantime, Achilles gets to look for more rocks to eat until they really can’t be stopped, ever.” “And if we play along with the League's story, they won’t have to come here and force the issue,” Dias finished. “I’m sure some of the strategoi want to do that regardless, but if they were getting their way then the navy wouldn’t spend its time on things like… that.” She nodded towards the display. Lando chimed in. “Ok, we can lay low, but eventually our turn will come. We can’t be passive while the League expands. We have to strengthen ourselves, and that thing the captain said? The heartwarming crap about coming together? It actually needs to happen, before it’s too late. One way or another, we have to get the independents all pulling in the same direction. Some of them aren’t going to like that.” “And I’ll drink to your success,” Pyotr said. “My people and I are getting out of here for now, though. As you can see the League has decided to put this heat on me, which means most of my partners here will be keeping their distance for a while. I’m going sunward. Big things happening down there, I hear, and that means opportunities if you’re a businessman!” He gave the room a shot of his grin before stepping out. ---- Before continuing, let’s review the situation in the L4 Jovian cluster. The majority of the independents are small and have meager resources and forces. Hektor with your mothership, former North Atlantic Space Development Treaty (NASDT) destroyer, and enviable infrastructure, is a clear regional leader. None of you, however, have what it takes to stand against the full force of the Achillean League should they choose to unleash it on you.  Ajax - Tiny, wretchedly poor, and almost no military. In fact it’s about as bad as things can get without everyone just dying. Things are barely held together by a strongman. You encountered them being harassed by Miltiades as you began your trip to Chiron. Agamemnon - In less precarious condition, they have appreciable forces and occasionally trade with other colonies to spinward. Since they’re somewhat off by themselves, they’re amiable enough but pay little concern to affairs deeper in the cluster. That isolation also makes them a more regular target for raids from the belt. Administered by a small oligarchy of leaders similar to Hektor’s. Odysseus and Meriones - The family feud of the L4 cluster. An attempt immediately after the war by Odysseus to raid Meriones for supplies was an embarrassing failure, but succeeded in establishing a bitter enmity that lasts to this day. The two rivals are always on guard for schemes or aggression of the other. Teucer - The trans-newtonian version of a petrostate, Teucer possesses the best ore veins and refineries for production of sorium fuel. This cornering of the market has made its ruling sorium-barons quite wealthy and allowed the creation of formidable defenses. The entire cluster buys Teucer fuel, but the Achillean League Navy is the single biggest customer, and Teucer’s leaders grant it favorable rates to stave off any thoughts of annexation. Menelaus - Small and just a notch above Ajax in material conditions, the Menelaians are the one example of true democracy in the cluster, ruling by majority and an elected steward. Since the submission of Makhaon to the Achilleans, they have gone out of their way to appear accommodating to their hungry-looking neighbor. The Achillean League - You know ‘em, you love ‘em, here comes everybody’s best pal the Achilleans. Originating on the former Russian Navy station of Achilles, the League is a hegemonic, expansionist power owing to its ample supply of old military hardware. The ruling Polemarch and his strategoi first used their might to invade their weaker neighbor of Idomeneus six years ago, breaking the defenders with a thermonuclear strike. Two years ago, they then moved on the Makhaonites, who surrendered after a perfunctory fight and still make up a portion of the League Navy and ground forces. Their most recent acquisition, the small rock of Telamon, meekly submitted shortly thereafter. The Achilleans are known to rule their new subjects with an iron fist, and harshly contend with underground resistance movements on all their subject colonies.  Here’s a fun one! You’re surely on the Achilleans’ shitlist now, and the only thing likely to stop them is if Hektor can bind the fragmented power of the cluster together to oppose them. We have several viable avenues to do this. We could exploit them to directly strengthen Hektor, work with them towards something greater, or something in-between. Some strategies may work better on some colonies than others. Give me your top three choices and I'll do instant runoff. If it comes down to a close decision, we may combine two things! Also, I know what some of you are thinking. This sure looks like it might be some momentous fork in the road where we define the rest of the LP. It doesn’t have to be! Picking a focus now doesn’t mean you can only do that thing, or have to do it forever. And I promise there are no trap choices so chill out and have fun! Your Choices! Inspire - We will draw together the survivors with a feelgood vision of liberation, equality, mutual gain, all that good stuff Mars talks about. Shared idealism will unify us, but disillusionment could lead to trouble. As equal partners, these new comrades will naturally have their own ideas and expect a say in our actions.  Bribe - You know what gets people’s loyalty like nothing else? Cold hard cash. We’ll focus on economic influence by building a trade empire, and then addiction to our largesse will bind those less fortunate to our will. Material aid will siphon part of our resources, but our new dependents should follow our lead with little argument.  Dominate - *Eyes Alexi sitting over there.* Only a single iron will can stop the Achilleans. Threats and shows of force will soon make us the unencumbered masters of much of the cluster, and we can then deal with any recalcitrants. Of course, our dominion will require a vigilant and firm hand afterwards. Fear will keep the local systems in line.  Extort - These people don’t interest us nearly as much as their stuff. Let their wealth build our future! We'll use it better than they ever could, anyway. The wise will pay tribute, and the foolish will suffer, as long as we can keep them beneath us.  After this I'll explain how spending resources will work and we'll have some votes on that, since this decision obviously impacts your priorities.
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Jun 28, 2021 03:49
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Awesome! Time to add a gallery to the second post.
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Jun 28, 2021 03:52
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1. Bribe 2. Inspire 3. Dominate
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Jun 28, 2021 04:09
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Crazycryodude posted:1. Bribe 
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Jun 28, 2021 04:12
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Crazycryodude posted:1. Bribe That's the ticket. Appeal to their baser instincts, then their nobler ones, then just clonk em over the head.
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Jun 28, 2021 04:32
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A fading neon sign flickers above the cabin entrance of a large cabin on the third deck of the eastern hab quarters. VADIM’S isn’t the fanciest establishment, the vodka from their greenhouse distributor always seems to have an earthy after tone with a strange whisper of acetate and the metal benches always seem to make one’s rear end sore even in the low-g. Still almost a dozen people cram into a corner booth, their whispers buzzing like a broken air scrubber. At the head of the table, a man in a old tatted plaid long sleeve smacks his hand on the table. Alright, alright settle down, drink moderately enough to have a lucid conversation, we need to brainstorm some ideas here. On paper what we got here is a quintessential prototypical Thucydides Trap. Everything is pretty new in the grand scheme of things in the system, but its clear in our little pocket of Sol, Achilles is the top dog, and they want to make sure they keep that status quo nice and clear. Now the question is, what the hell are we gonna do about it.? The man rotates a tablet on the table, on the screen a two-dimensional representation of the L4 Cluster appears, an angry red box around Achilles territory, green and beige circles around other asteroids. We got a problem, the Achilles League, we have a solution, get the cluster to rally in opposition to them. The trick and issue is HOW we get these rocks to get onboard with the program. First we have to consider the relative power of each of the other polities. Obviously, everyone is keeping their card close to their chest, but reading between the lines I think we can interpolate a few things. Ajax and Menelaus seem fairly small. Odysseus and Meriones have enough forces in play to keep the other in check. Agamemnon is all on their own, they get hit by raids, but since they haven’t fallen, they don’t have zero power. Teucer has the money and the defenses their barons have put in place, considering its right next to Achilles and they haven’t tried to make moves on it yet, I think we can conclude what they have for defense is enough to give them pause, since if they could conquer Teucer, they would, to shore up their own resource situation.” So all in all its not an insurmountable issue, Achilles likely cant face the combine might of the L4 Cluster, so they’ll do their best to keep it divided. This most recent attack on the Merionnes mining ship is a prime example. If its to Achilles’ benefit, they can pretend it was an Odysseus attack to stoke tensions between the two rocks. With our buddy Pyotr giving them a black eye, Achilles can puff up the “pirate” threat to try and muscle in on the smaller rocks. Once they do that, they can flex on larger polities. Back to the solution, we need to get a united front against Achilles. How do we get that? We’ve been presented four possible solutions. Rally the flag, get everyone economically enmeshed, conquest and raiding. Raiding can get us some stuff in the short term, we could fortify if we can strip Ajax and Menelaus, but in the long term, it just creates a new “threat” that Achilles can use as a stick to browbeat the rocks. Same with domination, at most we’ll expand to one or two rocks before we run right into a wall. Really our best option, is to present a viable “alternative” to Achilles. If their “strength” is loving with everyone and flexing, we need to have a more beneficent alternative to give these rocks an “out” to align against Achilles. Money, and the option to make a safety net can be a powerful motivating factor. If we have the cash alliance, we can use a lot of “words” to bring some of the others around. 1. Bribe 2. Inspire 3. Dominate If we have to make an “equal” alliance with any asteroid here in the system, Teucer is probably the best bet, they have the money and muscle to be fairly co-equal, though they might not want to mess up their cushy gig. Agamemnon is fairly removed, but given their position and concern about raids, they might be amenable, especially if their council is amenable to our and they can appreciate the concern about bulwarking Achilles aggression. If we can bring ourselves, Agamemnon and Teucer together we could use Agamemnon as a trading spring board to expand trade ties towards Jupiter and anti-spinward down the asteroid belt. If we can pull some economic clout, we could use a trade league to act as a mediating influence for Odysseus and Meriones. They might not like each other, but if we can moderate them, and convince the each one that the other is getting a worse deal, they might be onboard. Finally if we can invest in Ajax and Menelaus, we can buy goodwill, and use them as a tripwire to keep a bead on Achilles..
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Jun 28, 2021 04:53
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1. Inspire 2. Bribe 3. Dominate
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Jun 28, 2021 05:04
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1. Inspire 2. Bribe. 3. Dominate
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Jun 28, 2021 05:06
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NewMars posted:1. Inspire 
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Jun 28, 2021 05:08
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1. Inspire 2. Bribe 3. Dominate
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Jun 28, 2021 05:16
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1. Inspire 2. Dominate 3. Bribe
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Jun 28, 2021 05:32
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1. Bribe 2. Dominate 3. Inspire Develop that trade, build that economy. These rinky dink little nothing rocks could really benefit from some improvement to their material conditions and they'll love us for it. That freedom and equality stuff is fine but let's face it, we're not exactly the Trojan Mars out here. We can save all that for when we don't have the big bully next door breathing down our necks. Or at least when the little guys have something more to offer. DrinkingBird fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Jun 28, 2021 |
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Jun 28, 2021 05:46
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Crazycryodude posted:1. Bribe
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Jun 28, 2021 05:52
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Something to think about is, so far we haven’t told people we found and salvaged the Spooky Ghost Rock because that would give away that we were probably involved with killing the Achillean ship, but when the time is right we’ll want to announce it. We don’t even know the full value of what we found there yet, but that means neither does anybody else, and if the other little guys think we might have an archaeotech ace up our sleeve that will sweeten the deal of an alliance against Achilles.
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Jun 28, 2021 06:00
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Crazycryodude posted:1. Bribe Always a sucker for long term growth.
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Jun 28, 2021 06:11
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Crazycryodude posted:1. Bribe I see nothing wrong with this plan.
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Jun 28, 2021 06:33
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DrinkingBird posted:1. Bribe Let's get rich quick!
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Jun 28, 2021 06:40
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