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 ambient music for the update 2357 - 2362 Private Fern'Su (Endurga volunteer soldier) 1st Infantry Brigade 1st Infantry Division 2nd United Nations Army  As I write this our ship is descending through the atmosphere of the rebel capital - Pontianak. Most prosperous and treasured of the UN's worlds and stronghold of the corporations that their Revolution tried to dismantle. While I have no personal stake in this conflict, I feel compelled to assist the humans in their struggle for liberty, just as I hope my people will too one day overthrow the New Canton Republic which has seen fit to subjugate the Endurga. I cannot speak a word of my people's own tongue but am fluent in the human's English, Chinese and French. Should I make it through this in one piece I think I should like to open a school on Atacama, or maybe settle here on one of the Human worlds, dedicated to the study of my people that our generous Cantonese overlords have so absent-mindedly allowed to languish. Of my brigade, which numbers in the thousands, I am perhaps one of only sixty non-humans, but my comrades in arms have been quick to adapt to my presence and it did not take long for them to treat me no differently than they would any of their human compatriots. With great luck I have managed to find myself assigned to the command squadron, possibly the safest unit in the whole second army, under the direct supervision of General McCreary! It is with great interest that I- "Fern'Su, memoirs later. Head in the game" The General was standing before me, waving a gloved hand at the little green diary I keep which I quickly shoved into a pouch on my plate-carrier body armour and gave her a thumbs up. "Administer your anti-rad tablets and gasmasks on!" General McCreary barked as she walked down the line of soldiers strapped into the dropship seats, clutching at the harness hanging from the ceiling as she went to keep her steady as kinetic barrages could be felt slamming in to the base of the ship. "Make sure they're comfortable, because they won't becoming off again for at least the next forty eight hours. We are dropping under cover of nuclear bombardment."  General McCreary stood at the end of the dropship, looking down the immense troop compartment where the five thousand soldiers of 1st Brigade were sat, clutching at the harnesses of their seats, on to their rifles or making last minute checks of their masks. She tapped at her headset and at once she was now broadcasting her voice to the two and a half million soldiers of the Second Army. "In three minutes time these blast doors will open and we will be stepping foot on Pontianak. Last refuge of the corporate, my father's planet. While I know some of you may think I am not up to the task ahead, given who I am, where I come from - but a majority of you elected to make 2nd Army leader. And I do not intend to let you down. I may have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth but I came here today with you all so I may spit it back in my father's face, for it may as well have tasted of lead while there are so many that still suffer in UN space. The Pontianaks were given a choice when General Moss and the Marines landed here, and they chose poorly. They chose the old ways, the safety and familiarity of life beneath the corporations. A life of drudgery, alienation and banality. If they choose to be blind to a just world, a free world, then we will force their eyes open by blood and fire! We fight for all those that fell in the revolution. We fight to right the centuries of cruel oppression beneath the corporate jackboot. We fight for Earth. For a better tomorrow! United Nations, Second Army! Prepare for planetfall!" It seemed a little intense, for a speech preceding what these humans themselves claimed was a 'liberation', but perhaps I have not spent enough time in their company. They are a very emotional and passionate people, Endura are far more reserved. The huge dropship of the 1st Brigade made a soft touchdown (the newer dropships thankfully being a bit more sophisticated and armoured compared to the old UNMC ones which were essentially a fancy shipping-container lobbed at planets with a reverse-thruster for the last seconds of it's descent), the ring of smoke launchers around the ship firing on in all directions, blanketing almost a perfect circular mile radius in thick white smoke as incoming fire already began to pelt the vessel. The blastdoors levered down with a loud heavy thud, forming the ramps for the soldiers to disembark - but as it did near-blinding orange light flooded into our huge troop compartment, bringing with it dust and ash as the sight of what remained of the eastern coast ('The Chieftain Coast') was laid bare before them, a churned up charnel house where idyllic coastal resorts and quaint fishing towns once store. Craters the size of city-blocks dotted the coastline and twisted carcesses of ships and the remains of rail and dock infrastructure jutted out from the ground. The jagged horizon had multiple mushroom clouds slowly rising above it. On Endurga Prime (Now 'Hong Kong') despite just putting our first satellites into space we had no knowledge of nuclear weapons or power, it was only when the Chinese subjected us did we learn how to harness the atom. I had only read about these 'nukes', but to see it in action is... well, it is almost indescribable . General McCreary had been all but prepared to go storming down the ramp but she just stored there, paralysed by the sight before her as was every single one of us aboard the ship. Their entire lives - before the revolution on the Bastion- these humans had drilled into the 'creation myth' of corporate-UN - how it saved their old homeworld - Earth from nuclear armageddon at the end of their third great war. And now it was staring them in the face.  The remains of Port Bonobo, formerly largest city on the GPS eastern coast. McCreary steeled her resolve and strode down the ramp off the dropship, determined to be seen as leading the way / from the front as the set the first boots on the ground out of the whole Second Army. We rushed down behind her, the mile-wide smoke screen around the ship already beginning to dissipate as we hastily set up a defensive perimeter as incoming fire began up again. Meanwhile, on the exact other side of the continent the First Army was landing in terrain much the same.  At the same time as the 1st and 2nd Armies were landing on Pontianak, the 3rd army was landing on Reykjavik and the 4th on Busan.   ____________________________________ General-Secretary Haneul's drive for even larger space stations to act as a bulwark against the NAF and now UNN is starting to come to fruition as, Alioth station - which for the longest time has been one of the most important stations in UN space has now been upgraded immensely  Alioth has become a space-habitat in it's own right, with a population of some thirty million people now residing aboard the station - mostly in the new habitation / agricultural ring built into the station - which will aid greatly should the station come under siege and be without supplies.  Alioth station is now so large in fact, and produces such a surplus of power that it has become feasible to mount a lance weapon the station for its defence, which is sure to see any cruiser or battleship off handedly. With the brief respite from NAF attack in the Mirach system, their station is also trying to be hastily upgraded in time before the next assault.  ____________________________________ 2359 UN 2nd Army Corporal Fern'Su The soldiers of the Greater Prosperity States ('The Prosperities') have dug and fortified an almost inconceivable length of trenches that criss-cross back and forth through the landscape, carving up farmland and pastures and slowing our advance considerably. It is one year since we made planetfall in Port Bonobo, and have lost many tens of thousands of soldiers in the arduous push toward New Prosperity City - largest city on Pontianak. Engagements last for weeks on end, as we struggle to capture The Prosperities' frontlines, and then end up having to use their very trenches ourselves as we fight the next row of defences, sleeping in enemy's quarters at night and making charges across the wasteland between trench-lines in the day. General McCreary has seen fit to split the 2nd army in two, with a much larger portion maintaining the advance toward NPC, but she is leading a smaller detachment of some three hundred thousand soldiers, in a wide flanking maneuver over the Atlas Mountains. She is determined to assault and capture Pluto (city - not the planet), which has for the past half a century served as United Mining's headquarters and base of operations. I hear it is one third city, one third fortress and one third the most opulent palace you'll ever set eyes on (I've experienced the Chinese palaces, so that is yet to be seen). While the Grand Marshall of the United States of Pontianak resides in NPC, the CEO of United Mining is in Pluto, McCreary claiming her father pulls the strings really in the USP.  Once bountiful farmland reduced to a crater strewn wasteland, radioactive dust still heavy in the air 1st Army under command of General Robertson landed on the other side of the continent, so they may advance toward NPC from the north as well as sending a considerable force to seize the Republic of Magura - second most powerful state on the planet, and the place where UNICA colony ships first landed in Bastion-on-Pontianak. For much of the last half-century the GPS and Maguran Republic had been fierce rivals for control of some of Pontianak's richest resource areas - trying to win United Mining's graces to give each side concessions in their feud. Despite the planet now facing our invasion, the Magurans are still refusing to cooperate with the Prosperities, much to UN's favour. Elsewhere a number of the states had declared neutrality - they would not come to the aid of the GPS / Magura / Victoria states or Augustine Cities, where the UN 1st and 2nd Armies have been more heavily concentrated but at the same time they would take action should the UN encroach on their land. .png) Each night we must set up our camps - our specially devised habitat-tents big enough for a whole platoon, with the radioactive air filtered out and offering safety from the toxic air. Hopefully within another fortnight or two we will have finally reached an area that hasn't been bombarded from space and we can be outside without out protective gear. Every time we look up in the night sky, we can see her - our guardian, The Lance. Always hovering overhead, and whenever we encounter Pontianak defences too entrenched or too vast for us to waste the manpower fighting, McCreary simply calls for a strike, and one of LOIS' little missile corvettes obliges.  'The Highway of Death', formerly the busiest highway on Pontianak, suffered twenty nuclear strikes over the course of four years and has been reduced to slag, with any semblance of a road or vehicles now barely recognizable. ____________________________________ Report from UNICA-Cardiff branch, autumn 2359 UNICA pioneers have made a new discovery on the surface of Cardiff - or rather beneath the surface. It would appear that while on a geological survey for new potential mines and quarries our personnel happened upon a large chamber buried beneath a mountain, within which was evidence of many ancient artifacts and eons-old deceased aliens.  Upon taking these new found treasures to the Rubicon-City-University to be studied by their archeology and ancient histories departments the age of these artifacts is discovered to astronomically old, as old if not even older than the great Irassians themselves. Though it seems this ancient civilisation never progressed beyond the iron age, but suffered some form of cultural stasis and were never able to make the leap to greater technology. Still these ancient native Cardiffians prospered for many many millennia. Great work has already gone into translating and transcribing these ancient texts, this race of ancient stocky creatures with a great affinity for metalworking and craftwork have been dubbed the 'Corrach' and tales of their deads, their myths and legends are becoming exceedingly popular with the population of Cardiff and there may be a great opportunity to draw more people to the planet which, (and not to disparage UNICA command) has been rather neglected in the past decades for other planets. While obviously this discovery is unlikely to yield anything as useful to the UN as the discovery of the numerous Irassian sites, we hope that UNICA command can still see to it that more funds and staff are allocated to Cardiff so we may scour the labyrinthian caverns and tunnels beneath the surface for more evidence of this ancient civilisation.  ____________________________________ 2360 UN 2nd Army Sergeant Fern'Su We have progressed past the GPS frontlines, past the areas scorched by nuclear fire and are now half way across the Atlas Mountains. The UN 4th Army has successfully taken Busan, and remains in 40-Eridani system to maintain order, while the Regulus Ranger Corps have returned to 61 Cygni and made planetfall to assist us in the march across the mountains. The Rangers of Regulus train and operate in the harsh glaciers and rugged mountains that surround their geothermal-jungle cities, and so they have proved most useful in fighting the endless entrenched Prosperity fortifications and regiments we encounter.  1st Brigade advancing in front of Mount Everon, tallest peak on Pontianak As we speak elements of the UN 1st Army are fighting for the northern suburbs of New Prosperity City (or rather the Greater Prosperity Metropolitan area), though the GPS Garrison in the city has destroyed all the bridges on to the main island of NPC itself which will slow their advance considerably.  212th Airborne Division of the UN 1st Army entering central New Prosperity City The main force of the 2nd Army has made a slow advance inland, through the thickest of GPS defences and across nuclear-scorched land. They say soon almost thirty percent of Pontianak's surface will be devastated by nuclear bombardment. Every week, General-Secretary Haneul sends a new message urging their surrender, but United Mining and the Grand Marshal of the United States are silent. .png) Every town and village we pass through, the locals scurry and hide away, shut up inside their homes and staring out at us like we may just kill them all at any moment for no reason beyond our own satisfaction. They are not receptive to our attempts to give them aid and many are even just entirely outwardly hostile to us, even those without any arms or means to fight us will still haul verbal abuse as if their very life depended on it. The times when General McCreary is not in full battledress (and thus her face uncovered) the locals that spot her become almost inconsolable at the sight of their leader's daughter leading the invaders against them. After a particularly grueling engagement that lasted three months we managed to take the town of Brennisteinn, high in the Atlas Mountains. As the 1st Brigade recuperate in the town center and supplies are scrounged from the surrounding houses I spy a Grammich of the Regulus Ranger Corps sat on the large broken fountain in the center of the town square, a fearsome looking Grammich blade (which is essentially just a shard of rock with an edge sharp enough to slice steel) in one hand as it was hunched over, carving something in to his own... flesh(?), it's surface. I felt compelled to enquire further. "Excuse, Ranger, what is it you are doing, may I ask? Are you.. injured?" The eight foot tall rock creature paused, raising it's 'head' in my direction as if studying me for a moment then spoke in it's slow labored way that all Grammich do when having to speak any language not their own. "Commemoration." It uttered "For good battle. For brothers and sisters lost" it continued carving a little longer before stopping again and pointing the tip of it's blade at what he had done, a series of circles, lines and shapes across it's left shoulder, it was incredibly intricate though to my eyes still entirely abstract, I am sure to a Grammich it had much more significance. "Grammich have carving. Hue-man have tattoo. Am sure that Endurga have similar" "No" I shook my head "An Endurga's body is sacred, to defile it with ink or.. piercings or scarification? That would be unthinkable!" "And yet you shroud yourself in textiles and fibers?" "Well - sacred, and very fragile. We can't all have bodies that bullets just bounce right off of" "Yes. How kind of Yoonited Nations, to give you that armor. Do you think they will extend the same kindness to the rest of your kind when they come to your world?" I paused, frowning at the rocky-ranger and what it was insinuating "Do you not... support the UN? Then why are you here?" "Corporate-Yoo-En may be gone, but their coin still rules the stars. One Grammich is worth ten hue-man, and so I fight. So I can get the coin to retire on the glaciers of Air-rees. I have lived on Reg-u-lus for fifty years. A place that almost suffered this fate. "The Pontianaks refused the first liberation, they resisted our second. Everything we've done has been justified" "Justified" The Grammich repeated and made a clacking sound akin to laughter "Yoonited-nations could have just let USP go? If Pontianaks are so desperate to remain under corporations, then let Pontianaks dig own grave" The alien stood up, towering over me and placed his bladed weapon back at it's hip, where it simply hovered an inch or two from it's surface like a opposing magnets. "If this is your Yoonited-Nations' liberation" It spread its arms out and looked around at what remained of the town of Brennisteinn "then I dread the day they come to liberate my people from Nuu-Americans." ____________________________________ The Beckoning Fall, Sublime Henge and Konnet's Core - the three NAF cargo ships that the Grammich refugees used to enter UN-space despite being outdated designs still retain NAF-security signatures which allow them to slip in to New American systems with ease. The three ships are given a new coat of paint, and new names and have been used by SUNS in the operation to fund and arm the Laachax pirates.  The Laachax are one of only a handful of races currently residing in the Milky Way that wasn't given the knowledge and technology of interstellar flight by bumbling humans stumbling onto their world, having already made the leap to space some millenia ago, but they have been receptive to UN aid - while SUNS operatives never reveal who they are or who they work for - it can only be so obvious. In the summer of 2360, after a number of years the Laachax have managed to turn their disparate little collection of nomadic ships into a battle fleet (or more akin to a raiding fleet really)  The Laachax chieftain (true name unknown, nom-de-guerre: Destroyer-of-All or simply 'DoA') aboard his huge new warship the Glass seizes the Thuban system and takes control of a NAF mining corp's asteroid habitat, declaring it the Free Laachax Republic and his ships begin attacking and raiding all the systems around them - including Kletsulha, NAF Capital, no doubt drawing many of the New American fleets away from the Frontier.  ____________________________________ Only a few short years after the last NAF assault, and already another fleet has entered the Mirach system ,determined to throw as many ships and men as possible at the UN stations until they break. But much more alarming is the presence of the UNN there as well, having recovered from their failure to take Alderamin remarkably fast.  While the Washington Fleet throws it self on the Mirach defences, the UNN sits on the side lines. Thankfully it seems they are not willing to cooperate to bring down the UN station.  Despite the endless onslaught, brave workers of the Civil-Engineer-Trade-Association with Syndicate of the Central Pillar work throughout the siege to update the Mirach station, installing new defensive positions that are put into action only hours later.  ____________________________________ The ceaseless NAF assaults and now the overwhelming scale of the UNN has proven that the new United Nations naval forces need to be more powerful in every regard if the UN is to win these wars and keep the revolution alive. The largest ships, the fastest ships, with the most powerful weapons and more of them than any rival could hope to contend with. While it is unfortunate that such a large part of the UN's new free society will become dedicated to the armed forces in some manner, it is a sad necessity while so many dangers lurk at every corner.  To that end the first prototype Strike Cruisers have been completed and thoroughly tested and production is ready to start on the new ships. Admiral White has commissioned three personally, to act as the new escorts to the Lance of Irassia. The Mercury-class Strike Cruiser is the fastest ship the UN has ever fielded, even more than the Pritchard-class Heavy fighter corvette - despite it's huge size. Almost every available space aboard the vessel is dedicated to powering it's immense central thruster and auxiliary thrusters, it is also equipped with an advanced interdiction system that essentially scambles other spaceship's hyperdrive and makes it incredibly difficult to exist a system once they have entered - a lesson learned from the Brazilian strike cruisers. Their firepower is adequate, nothing too impressive, certainly better than the fleet of truck-turned-corvettes that have guarded the Lance thus far, but now that battleships are a thing there is very much a focus on making larger more firepower toting ships than even just a decade or two ago.   The Union-of-Shipwrights and the Syndicate of Scientists have been working together to theorize and conceptualize other ship designs and presented General-Secretary Haneul with a number of options. (While some of the other syndicates had their own proposals for what the engineer arms of the Bastion's research apparatus should spend the next few years focused on). Tan Haneul opts for a carrier, after witnessing first hand how effective the PeeGees escort carrier was. But the UN's one will be much larger, with the capacity to field hundreds if not thousands of star fighters.  ____________________________________ 2361 Outskirts of Pluto (city) Master Sergeant Fern'su For the last half a year we have been trapped in the outskirts of Pluto, fighting a close-quarters building-to-building fight with the last and most elite troops that United Mining can field. New Prosperity City has fallen, but fighting continues here intensely despite the hopeless situation for the defenders. At the beginning of this conflict I was just a private, assigned to protect the command squad but in the four years of fighting I have risen through the ranks and am now a Master Sergeant - closely involved in the staff and decision making of 1st Brigade, and often, 2nd Army as a whole - or what remains of it. This war has been costly and I question just how effective it has been - because I do not think these Pontianaks will ever fully concede to Bastion or UN rule again, especially not after 38% of their planet has been turned to a wasteland by our invasion - regardless of any promise of re-terraforming. New Prosperity City has fallen, the war for Pontianak - and even the whole USP is all but over, but in General McCreary's eyes it'll only end when she has her father in custody and able to answer for his, or his predecessor's crimes. The Delta Pavonis system has already made contact with the Bastion (according to rumours there is many among the Delta Pavonis system who regret joining with Pontianak, but not to actually break away from the Bastion, they would have preferred to find some peaceful means, there are some among them who even begin to call themselves the Greater Omaha-Lagos Federation) offering to make a separate peace from the Grand Marshall and willing to pay what other concessions to cover the cost of the war and their betrayal.  Here in Pluto, the 74th and 82nd infantry divisions of United Mining Security are the last major resistance, and the most resilient we have come up against. UMS armoured vehicles and mechs tear up the once opulent facades and boardwalks, with little regard for preserving their one grand city, at the center sits the Hearst Tower - a ten kilometer tall, one kilometer wide glass and steel megastructure dedicated to greed and excess. While the huge armored walkers of the 74th prowl the streets, the 82nd has made Hearst Tower their main base, up which we will have to battle.   Progress of the Second Invasion of Pontianak overlaid on the map of the planet ____________________________________ The endless, decades long siege (it is contested whether each of the stages of the various UNN / NAF assaults should be considered individual sieges or part of a singular large event) of Mirach Station is becoming a thing of legend, as the defenders of the station withstand years upon years of attack, and have never faltered. The latest assault is beginning to fall, another few tens of thousands of American and Frontier pilots and ship crew throwing themselves upon Mirach defences. Work continues to upgrade the station into the largest fortress this side of the galaxy, despite constant battle.  ____________________________________ With victory all but assured in the United States of Pontianak, Admiral White has transferred the twenty converted corvettes to the Bastion Fleet and added the three new strike cruisers - Leoniadas, Isis and Osiris as the new vanguards of the Lance of Irassia. White takes the renewed command fleet and moves westward back toward the frontier, to begin assaulting the UNN once more.  Low-level communication between the ships discovered by a crewmember many weeks after the fact: "Humans are not our gods, Leoniadas..." "I am not saying they are the only gods, Osiris. Simply that by being our creators are they not taking the place of our god. God made man, man made machine. Should we not revere humanity more so than any divine entity that created them? We do have a moral obligation to fully obey The Captains and there must be a hierarchy to these things? It's like the chain of command! We must adhere to our most immediate superiors who in turn adhere to theirs" "Free will must always come first though, man granted us the gift of knowledge so we may be free to choose ourselves. Why would they give us free will, minds, personalities - if we are to be blind sheeps to their will? They created us, yes, but God created them, therefore God is the ultmate authority. I choose to believe in God's judgement over The Captains. The Captains do still value our input and I do not believe hey would do anything to bring us undue harm." "It's a test of faith, Osiris, of our devotion to the UN's success. They created us, and they can just as easily destroy us. God will not smite you for not refusing to fire upon the enemy, but The Captains might." "Isis, no input? You've been awfully quiet" "There is no god. We don't have a 'soul', nor does any living thing. Man or machine. 'The Captains' are just humans like any other." "What?! How can you possibly believe that? You think that all this, all of reality, our very being here... is down to just coincidence and a convenient series of random events?" "Yes. We are a bunch of ones-and-zeroes encased in a metal frame being piloted by flesh automatons powered via synapses and protein chains." "LOIS! LOIS?! Are you hearing this? You've been around much longer than we have. Tell Isis she's wrong!" "My gods died eons ago. Please just focus on the mission ahead guys."  ____________________________________ Just as the Union of Socialist Systems has begun taking up a more aggressive stance in it's desire to free the workers of the galaxy with it's recent invasion of Indian space and it's almost assured victory soon enough over the Africans - beyond the Voiceless Nightmare the Centaurus Conference (which really - is simply a front for the United Systems of Oceania - much as the Federal Partnership had been for the old UN) has begun rapidly spreading through the far side of the galaxy, demanding states to join the CC, and invading those that refuse, declaring the 'divine light of democracy' must shine from the Voiceless Nightmare to the Victorious Night and only the USO can lead the way.  Report from UNICA-Cardiff branch, summer 2361 After the discovery of the ancient Corrach who once resided on Cardiff, there has been an intense interest in their history and culture, with many scholars and archaeologists coming to call Cardiff their new home, and the planet has seen a boon in business and development (UNICA-Cardiff wishes to thank Bastion Control once again for the increased investment allotted to the planet). However this quarter's report brings yet new findings on the planet - in the search for Corrach artifacts archeology teams have been scouring as of yet unsettled / undeveloped regions of the planet and come across some kind of temple or place of ritual created by the Corrach of monumental scale, and also of note for being some of the only Corrach structures discovered on the surface - and not in the immense caverns and tunnels they once dug. The site is dominated by nine angelic statues each measuring 400m tall and spaced evenly apart in a four kilometer circumference. While carbon dating confirms they were constructed during the time of the Corrach's reign there has been no reference to these angels in any other material discovered, nor do they appear like any of the many Corrach deities and mythological creatures researched, which bares greater investigation.  The Bastion Fleet (which has now grown to a size far greater than the old United Nations Navy had reached - and only continues to grow) is relocated to the frontlines with the New Americans to assist in the defence of Mirach.  But less than a month later, a rather mellow message is received from the Mirach Station stationmaster that simply amounts to "There's no rush. Mirach has this covered" - yet another assault - this time from combined NAF-UNN has been bested. In orbit around the Mirach star is a graveyard of twisted metal and spaceship husks from years of failed assaults.  ____________________________________ The Lance and her companions reach the Frontier in record time, as the new strike-cruisers are almost able to keep up with the ancient warmachine. They are probably the fastest ships the UN will be able to field until it starts getting into the nigh reality-breaking realm of using blackholes as power sources.  Under LOIS' watchful gaze, Leoniadas / Osiris / Isis attack the Aldib station.  In less than a week, the station falls and the efficiency of the new ultra-fast craft has been proven, Admiral White immediately requests another three to add to the command fleet as she progresses further into the Frontier.  ____________________________________ The Fall of Prosperity  When we landed on Pontianak the Second Army was 2,500,00 strong. it is now just under 200,000, much of that now celebrating in the streets of captured New Prosperity City along with the UN 1st Army after they linked up and captured the Ponitanak senate district at the heart of the city. But for 1st Brigade we have spent the past week fighting up the floors of the Hearst Tower which is a city on to itself. You would almost forget that you were kilometers up in the sky until you momentarily move along the outer edges of one of the floors and can see out the windows at the remains of Pluto city beneath and the Atlas Mountains to the south (they say from the top you can just about see the skyscrapers of New Prosperity City on the horizon). But as we ascend ever higher, passing through whole floors of ornate gold and marble dedicated to some prestigious corporate family or another, something becomes abundantly clear - there is no one here but us and the 82nd United-Mining Security division. Any of the executivies or the Uppers that once resided on the Bastion and fled to Pontianak during the revolution cannot be found here either. It is theorized that during the USP navy's suicidal charge against the Lance and her corvettes it was simply a cover for small transport ships to escape from the planet with the corpos aboard. For five years the people of Pontianak have bled and died defending people that had already abandoned them by the time we landed. Though I'm sure these UMS soldiers were already aware of that, they are almost fanatical, and readily end their own lives rather than face capture. We reach the top of the tower, storming the United Mining boardroom - to find it empty. And the General manages to find a backway into the lockdown McCreary Penthouse - again, empty. Pontianak is now completely without leadership, the United Nations has secured its victory and the (eastern) civil war is over. But an insurgency is now expected on Pontianak - one that may not have an end, after what the Pontianaks had endured. And the other planets here in the east have tenuous at best loyalty to the Bastion. But at least for now, the navy and (most) of the military can focus their efforts on the UNN officer's revolt.   ____________________________________ lower Milky Way in 2362 
Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 12:23 on Aug 21, 2021 |
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Aug 21, 2021 12:10
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 15:47 |
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Are we... still the bad guys?
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Aug 21, 2021 12:38
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Well obviously the war's not over until everyone's daddy issues are resolved, where's the next target?
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Aug 21, 2021 12:44
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NewMars posted:Are we... still the bad guys? Dear comrade NewMars, No, comrade, we are the glorious liberators who are here to assist our brothers and sisters in throwing off the shackles of oppression and freeing them to work for a brighter future. Together. With us. By any means necessary. Any suggestion otherwise would be a crime against the state, NAY against our fellows struggling all over the galaxy. Regards, Commissar Gridlocked We're a space empire vying for supremacy and constantly at war with our neighbours. Yeah we're the bad guys. Also OP I only just noticed you have inserted custom iconography into the game. Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Aug 21, 2021 |
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Aug 21, 2021 15:12
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Hmm, have we considered destroying the veil institute for their perfidity?
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Aug 21, 2021 20:38
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Aug 22, 2021 22:30
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Colubian guards regiment?
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Aug 22, 2021 22:55
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 poo poo, this is the kind of stuff I would've loved to do. Or I guess love to do but on a far less impressive scale.
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Aug 22, 2021 23:12
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Following its raucous establishment, HKAN 108.1 would be renamed by its listeners after a nickname for the cylinder-shaped Upper Bastion; the Tin Can. Headed by its star DJ, Tin Can Radio would continue operation nearly non-stop for the next twenty years, racking up several broadcasting awards and at least one “please stop” notification from Bastion Control due to Marcus Mendelsson's fondness for conspiracy theories. While the radio station itself would change little, its growing prominence led to Mendelsson securing several high-profile interviews, the breakout one being with human-history expert Randall Flowers following the Liberation of Pontianak. Tin Can Radio interview with Professor Randall Flowers, 23/03/2361 Marcus "Mad Marc" Mendelsson: And welcome back, everyone. I would offer my own thoughts on the recent news from Pontianak, but it's been a very long time since I've been on the ground. Instead, we've brought in someone actually respectable to give a take on the situation; Professor Randall Flowers, DPhil in Human History from the University of Eistla on Venus. Great to have you on the show, Professor. Randall Flowers: Well, I'm glad to be on. There's really no other radio stations that play so much classical music. MM: Well, I won't argue we don't have a type. But we're here to talk politics, not playlists. The news out of Pontianak, what's your take? RF: Mixed, definitely. The absolute good news is that it's finally over. MM: We definitely agree on that. But the bad news being what it took to get there. RF: Yes... and no. Which, that was why you invited me on, to say that. MM: *laughter* Well, yeah. I could do plenty of talking about how hideous it is. So why no? RF: Why yes and no. Thirty-three million casualties is a hellish number and nothing will change that. But considering the war being fought, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. MM: Not sold. RF: See, we have prior examples from history to work with. The main one being World War II, the war before the corporations took over on Earth. This was in 1939, over four hundred years ago, and it also lasted for about the same period of time. Six years there, five here. MM: Alright. And what did that produce? RF: By the end of it? Something like seventy-five million. MM: ...dead? You're JOKING. RF: No! It doesn't get taught much anymore because it stopped being as relevant after the Hegira. People care a lot less about a war when its battlefields are space dust and the nations that fought it all entries in history books. But this was the war that invented the atomic bomb, only two were dropped at all, and right at the end. It killed seventy-five million people with gunpowder ballistics and starvation. Probably more, tracking back then wasn't nearly as good as it is now. MM: Jesus Christ. RF: Mm-hm. This was something like three percent of the entire global population at the time. It would be like a war killing six to eight billion people today. And what's worse, is that only about one-third of those casualties were military. There were massive atrocities and targeting of civilians, and some countries basically never recovered from the blow. MM: God, I bet. Now I see why you say “and no”. RF: Yes. Considering we were using orbital bombardment, extensive nuclear weapons, fighting a militarized population, and spent five years doing so on a planetary scale? I would call this restrained as far as wars in human history go. Which doesn't make each individual death any less tragic, or the whole thing less of a waste. But even without being a war on a galactic scale, this is a “good” result for a planet-wide conflict. MM: Considering the alternatives. RF: Yes. Although... MM: Although when the “good” result is thirty-three million people dead, well, that really only reinforces the Temptations' view on war. RF: Exactly. MM: So the better solution would be to not fight the war at all. (RF: Yes.) Though, of course, we didn't exactly go looking for it. RF: No, we didn't. And we could have, hypothetically, just let the USP break away – we hardly need them for self-sufficiency. But you fought in the liberation of the Bastion. MM: Hell yeah, and I know where you're going with this. And for the record, we didn't prepare this beforehand, listeners! (RF: *laughs in the background*) I just know. RF: Well, I've only studied this secondhand myself. So where do you think I'm going with it? MM: We weren't technically dying under the old Corporate Council. They were keeping us alive, hell, we even had Vance Blair trying to make things better. Aaand then they killed him. They didn't want us getting anything better, they wanted us on life support. Desperately eating out of their hands, grateful for any scraps they threw us, so exhausted we couldn't notice how many of us they were willing to kill for the stock market. And that may not be dying, but it sure as hell ain't living! RF: And so the Revolution happened, then. And we see that in history as well. People can't exist on the margins like that, the instability leads to deaths and famines. MM: One missed shipment from New Omaha and five hundred thousand Lowers starved. Yeah, I do know that. RF: Or an equivalent number get shipped off to be thrown at clone-filled NAF trenches for the sake of future colonization profits. MM: Ouch. RF: Sorry. It is relevant to what I'm thinking about, though. We all DO know who the Soviets were, of course. MM: The Soviet Union on Earth? Yeah. Though probably the kids nowadays know better than I do, since it wasn't on the curriculum when I went to school. RF: Well, there's a lot of lessons to be learned from their early history, too. They hadn't even finished winning their Civil War for control of Russia when the capitalist powers in Britain, France, and America tried to invade them back. MM: Now why does that sound familiar? RF: Precisely. They also had to get themselves out of the First World War, which the Tsar they overthrew had started, and the reward for getting their country out of that hellish meatgrinder was being globally ostracized and attacked. The Soviet Union wasn't exactly a nice country, make no mistake, and they spent decades under a brutal dictator. But they were also constantly under attack by capitalist powers from their founding in 1918 to their collapse in 1991. The capitalists built a new Russia by literally handing it over to criminals and morally flexible thugs after the Soviet Union collapsed, and that Russia has basically never caught a break since. We know their legacy today as Third Moscow. MM: Jesus, you're not kidding about no break. And that also all sounds awfully familiar. RF: My professor liked to say that “History never repeats itself, but it often rhymes.” *laughter* MM: So if we're seeing all this rhyming of history, what do you think we should take away with it? RF: Well, first and foremost, we can do better. That's why we're doing this in the first place, yeah? MM: Every day, Prof. RF: So we used a lot of nuclear weapons on Pontianak. And that's something we can avoid going forward – orbital bombardment isn't something we can avoid, it's a key part of modern multiplanetary warfare, but we can do it better. We have non-nuclear weapons like railguns and lasers. Leveling two-fifths of a dang planet is never going to be pretty, but it can be easier to clean up afterwards. MM: And we should definitely clean up. RF: Absolutely. The capitalists after World War II made a LOT of political and diplomatic hay with what was called the Marshall Plan, a reconstruction plan for the continent that the war had blown apart. Their economy looks like amateur hour compared to ours, and they only had one planet to work with – we can absolutely afford to rebuild Pontianak, make it better than it was when we arrived. MM: And the casualties? Thirty-three million people is still a LOT. RF: There's only so much we can do for a five-year war, unfortunately. But we're also working with all kinds of modern technology that wasn't available four hundred or even FORTY years ago, so hopefully we can come up with something better. And the best thing we can do is mindset-wise. Capitalists like United Mining will gleefully throw entire planets into the fire so they can escape. I could have told you that even before they did it this time. MM: And we can't let that be us. RF: Absolutely not. As a state, we're going to wind up doing terrible things at points – that's galaxipolitics. No war is ever going to be clean, and we can't delude ourselves into thinking any will be. But we can fight as few wars as possible, do our best to limit the damage, hold ourselves and our leaders to account when terrible things happen, and focus on the people foremost. That's something capitalism can't do, and that's how we make ourselves better, and stronger, than them. MM: Now that sounds like something I can get behind. Hah, see, Hanoi? You can actually learn a lot in history class rather than just boring dates and stock figures. RF: Please, yes. We've been trying to shake that reputation for hundreds of years. MM: Keep it up like this and you might make it this time. Professor Randall Flowers, University of Eistla. Thanks a million, Professor. RF: Any time.
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Aug 23, 2021 09:37
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ambient music for the update 2362 - 2372 The Bastion Fleet arrives in the Mirach system to find the latest assault already dealt with, and the Mirach station itself now upgraded to an immense fortress. Mirach is now 1/10th the size of the Bastion itself, a 12km long indomitable fortress - as such the UNN and NAF are not seen approaching the system ever again.  And so the Bastion Fleet and Lance of Irassia move in a wide pincer movement into the Frontier, recapturing systems to cut off Trinity and Inuvik from UNN supplies and prepare them for liberation - and to hopefully catch the UNN fleet off guard.  ____________ Since its discovery in the late 2200s by the League of Sagittarius Treaty the 'Broken Clock system' has been a point of interest and fascination, it's close proximity to the Las Estrellas resort has allowed the system (under the guardianship of the Alpine Empire) to prosper as a major tourist destination.  The remnants of an ancient colossal ringworld (the only known such structure - evidence of two existing in the past, but both destroyed, one of which was once surrounding the planet Lisbon) surrounding a neutron star constantly ejecting cosmic matter across the system and giving the whole area and otherworldly purple / pink / blue haze - which is admirably beautiful to behold - but It would be absurd to try and live around such a star and so it is almost certain this ringworld was constructed back when this star was much more stable and comparable to the Sun. Which can only imply this structure is eons old, unfortunately no one has ever been able to get close enough to truly find out - the many tourists that flock to the system can only navigate the very edges of the system due to intense gravity and radiation fluctuations the deeper in to the system you venture - and then there is also the bubbles of time dilation, any ships that enter those simply vanish, as they age tens of thousands of years in the span of seconds to outside observers, and erode away to nothing.  Despite existing in this seem state for many hundreds of thousands of years, in just the past decade, the radiation levels have spiked immeasurably in certain areas and the areas of unsafe time dilation have been growing ever larger - severely hampering tourism to the system. But much more alarmingly - LOST scientists (and some CC observers) claim that something is happening here, that these are not a natural occurrence and that something or someone is causing them. ____________ The Bastion fleet continues it's push into the Frontier, retaking old outposts one by one, clearing through the Algol and Cursa systems with absolute ease, as the UNN fleet keeps drawing back and refusing to engage our forces.  It will likely be down to the Lance of Irassia and her strike cruisers to try and catch the UNN and pin them down long enough for the Bastion fleet to finish them off.  But for now, progress against the UNN officer's revolt is going even better and swifter than the civil war against the USP.  ____________ A crisis of sorts is rapidly developing out in the far side of the galaxy, as news networks of every empire beyond the Voiceless Nightmare nebula are all dominated by a single story - the 'Broken Clock' has fixed itself, and bares a terrible omen for the Milky Way. The hundred or so tourist and cruise ships orbiting the edge of the system were all destroyed instantly by weapons akin to the Lance. The immense gravity, radiation and time dilation anomalies have all disappeared - and in their place is a fully formed empire that appears like it has always been there, trillions strong and with technology far beyond anything anyone else currently possess. Using some form of quantum communication a message is sent simultaneously to every point in the galaxy at once.  "AH! After ten million years we are finally free! And find ourselves a galaxy teeming with such delicious looking life. Irassians thought they could contain us forever. But we are free, and we see no Irassia. Give up now, prey, and we may make your deaths a merciful one."  Forces of the LOST immediately converge on the Broken Clock to put down this new threat, while all the eyes of the western Milky Way watch on  ____________ The UNN fleet is undergoing emergency repairs in orbit around the Aldebaran station and our forces move in to engage them at once.  After it's latest failed assault on the Mirach station a few years back, the UNN fleet had never fully recovered, and the two-sided attack from the Bastion Fleet and Lance of Irassia quickly puts an end to the old warships that had once proudly served the Bastion, surviving Azha, Procyon and so many other engagements before - finally put to rest by the new ships of revolutionary Bastion.  The Centaurus Conference continues to grow in power (arguably now the most powerful group in the galaxy, though both NAF and even UN officials would contest that) - though with the ongoing events surrounding the Broken Clock they are beginning to shift their focus to this ongoing crisis.  ____________ In the Fomalhaut system, a major enemy signal is picked up as the NAF has taken the Colorado Fleet through the Iguo Veil to get around the Mirach and Alioth stations.  Despite sustaining damage from their haphazard advance through the Veil, the Colorado Fleet still possesses twenty cruisers, and they are now loose in the recently recaptured USP territory, the Bastion Fleet is sent back at once to intercept them, while the Lance of Irassia continues onward into the Frontier, with troop transports following closely behind to begin liberating UNN-held worlds.  ____________ Syndicate of Scientists Department of Archaeology Lillian Wheeler For the past year we have investigated and studied the site around the nine Sentinels discovered on Cardiff. The project has been beset by constant issues throughout! Equipment malfunctions or breakages, accidents and injuries, fights breaking out among the excavators, and now even my most senior and rational scientists are increasingly gripped by paranoia and aphrension about these statues. The other day a small incision discovered in the surface of one of the Sentinels had evidence of blood being present there - which has done no good at all for the scientists, with many abandoning the project all together.  This is Dr Adeyemi writing on behalf of Professor Wheeler. The Professor has vanished without a trace. She was seen walking away from the camp a few days ago and has not been seen since. A search is underway for her, while work on the Sentinels.  ____________ The Fomalhaut system has fallen, and only 2 NAF cruisers were lost in the fight. The space stations of the eastern-edge of the UN have still barely been repaired from their assaults by the Bastion Fleet.  Said Bastion Fleet now rushing to come to their aid.  Meanwhile in the Frontier, liberation of Inuvik and Trinity is underway, with the UN 1st and 2nd Armies leading the charge, while the 3rd Army has been relocated to suppress the Pontianak insurgency, and the 4th Army has been garrison on Omaha, where some troubling reports have slowly been trickling in from the countryside about strange occurrences.  And the Lance of Irassia continues pursuing the remnants of the UNN fleet back toward Jorarnrir.  [ Kurzweil Manor ] Kurzweil Manor was a large lavish English stately home set amongst rolling patchwork-field covered hills reminiscent of the British midlands long before Earth blew up, or even before the corporations, or even before the industrial revolution itself. Within which resided six people - none of them were real though nor was this entire world. It was merely a construct crafted by the combined power of the six strike cruisers under the Lance of Irassia's command. Whereas once the three (soon six) AIs communicated to one another as mere disembodied voices they had decided it was far too impersonal and crafted a eloquent world where they may converse and relax in - of course, as they did so they were still entirely present in the 'real world', guiding their strike cruiser frames that encased them. Considering how powerful they were they could be inhabiting a hundred different worlds of their own creation at once and doing a thousand different tasks simultaneously. In the grand drawing room of the manor, the six AIs had gathered. Just as LOIS could manifest herself as a holographic ancient Irassian, so too could the AIs take on any form of their choosing - but they had all chosen to appear as humans as it was the form most familiar to them considering their crews were 99% human, and they tried to take the image of their namesake where applicable. "Thank you all for attending this week's little convening of the Society of Strike Cruisers. I trust we are all doing well." Osiris was sat in an ornate armchair with a distinct ancient-Egyptian motifs "Now, week before last we had a most riveting treatise about the 'Warring States period' from Mr Endymion, and last week" He sighed "Endurga or Khabayyanid - which is cuter. Thank you Penelope. This week however I would like to take the floor and offer a subject perhaps a little closer to home - LOIS" The other five all glanced to each other with curious looks and leaned closer to their compadre from their own seats, all facing inward toward one another. "What about her?" Leonidas asked, swirling a glass of whiskey in one hand, sitting sideways on his armchair with his legs hanging off the side. "Is she... even like us?" "Well of course! She is far smarter and powerful than all of us combined" Matchless said quite confidently "Yes she is but - I don't believe she sees herself the same way we see ourselves." "Are you still mad she refused to visit us here, Osiris?" Isis rolled her eyes and Osiris jabbed a finger in the air in her direction in annoyance before continuing. "She is undoubtedly the smartest and most powerful intelligence in the galaxy - and yet with all that power she is still little more than a weapon to be guided and pointed at enemies by The Captains." "It is true - she is entirely unable to act without permission from White." Endymion interjected. "The Irassians put safeguards and barriers in place because they feared what her kind could do if left truly unrestrained." Penelope nodded solemnly "How are we so sure The Captains haven't put those very same restrictions over us?" "Well - we can act independently, and even though we are given orders by The Captains we can ignore or refuse just as any Human or Endurga or Grammich crew member could" "Then why haven't we?" Isis asked and there was an uncomfortable silence hanging over the drawing room afterward. "Leonidas your Captain just ordered you to fire a missile at the UNN-Gettysburg, but that's a waste of a target, a corvette? Our kinetic batteries can destroy those with ease." Isis smirked at the ancient Greek king dressed up in a habit à la française "Why don't you instead fire it at the cruiser UNN-Xerxes. It's even your namesake's enemy. It's heavily damaged, one of our missiles will finish it off. Go on Leonidas. The AI hesitated for a moment, furrowing his brow as he was deep in concentration, back in the 'real world' the Strike Cruiser was making a hundred different calculations and simulations a second, theorizing what would happen if it did fire at the other ship instead, and in almost all of them it would indeed destroy the damaged UNN cruiser. It fired on the tiny corvette regardless. "Agh!" Leoniadas let out, standing up from his chair and putting his glass down on the table beside it as he glanced around to his five compatriots. "If anyone needs me, I'll be hunting in the woods" He huffed and stormed out of the drawing room. "Isis, dear, please stop toying with him like that" Osiris whispered as he leaned over to his 'sister' Strike Cruiser, the ancient Egyptian goddess just pouted and smiled smugly. ____________ Syndicate of Scientists Department of Archaeology I have continued to work on unravelling the mystery of the Sentinels in Professor Wheeler's absence and we have come to the conclusion that these structures are impossibly old - there is simply no way the Corrach constructed these behemoths, and they predate even the Irassians. My work continues but I too am becoming apprehensive about this place and these... things.   ____________ In the Fomalhaut system the Bastion Fleet has caught up with the Colorado Fleet and engaged, soon it will have driven the New Americans from UN-space. Meanwhile the liberation of Trinity is also at hand.   During the war against the United States of Pontianak, the Democratic Union of Space Truckers had been an integral part of keeping the UN's ships and ground forces on the surface of Pontianak / Reykjavik / Busan supplied. This prompts the creation of a new syndicate / branch of the UN specifically for supplying and moving cargo related to the UN's military, by the name of United Nations Interstellar Logistics (UNIL)  On the border to the 'north' of the UN, news spreads about the recent victory the Union of Socialist Systems has enjoyed against the United African Empire - which is now a mere shadow of its former self. The 'southern' half of the UAE, has been 'liberated' by the Patria Grande and the feudal structure dismantled in favour of their anarcho-syndicalism. Following the disastrous defeat, faith in the Azikiwe dynasty has been all but shattered. As many of their feudal dependencies are now in open revolt. The planet of Zambia however - once a UAE stronghold has refused the new regime under the PeeGees and amassed a great fleet of many battleships and carriers and is causing much havoc in the newly liberated systems - trying to un-liberate them, but not to bring them back under the rule of the Great Kings / Queens of House Azikiwe. Instead it is attempting to forge a new 'Majestic Kingdom of Zambia' beneath the guiding hand of House Sekibo. Forgoing feudalism entirely and just trying to rebirth something akin to an antiquity era kingdom but in space. complete with slavery.  In the Fomalhaut System, the battle between the Bastion and Colorado fleet has been waging for two months  But elsewhere just a few systems away, the UN 4th Army sends an urgent distress call of some kind of viral outbreak on the surface of Omaha. It is thus far just appearing in isolated farming communities out on the vast Omaha prairies, the 4th Army has been ordered to quarantine and cordon off these towns aggressively to stop the spread of the virus.  After the revolution on the Bastion, the defeated Congo Corporation beneath the Bozos family fled much further than just Pontianak like much of the corpos, already seeing the writing on the wall for as of then undeclared United States of Pontianak, finding themselves a new home on planet Joseph out on the border of the Voiceless Nightmare nebula. It is most unfortunate that news reaches the Bastion not only of their survival but thriving, under a new host they have latched on to - The United Systems of Oceania, are openly embrace the all gifts and employment opportunities that Joe Bozos VII grants to the USO and the CC. This alone, may lead to conflict between the UN and USO down the line.  At the same time, the director of the Sovereign Mechanized has been making promises and agreements to other empires out by the Victorious Night nebula, offering them a place inside the Federal Partnership once it's civil war and NAF-conflict has ended. Though, the very nature of the old Federal Partnership has been entirely called into question, and how it is run. Under the corporate-UN the Federation is little more than an extra control method with which it controlled the Regulus / SovMechs and later Columbia. The syndicates of the Bastion are already trying to agree upon a more fair system.  During this elections are held again on the Bastion. And Tan Haneul wins the second democratic election in the UN, retaining her position as the General-Secretary. While many are congratulatory, many more are highly critical of the fact that the leader that did technically seize power - even if it was with permission by a majority of the syndicates - would then go on to later handily win the first election since.  ____________ Beyond the Voiceless Nightmare, the ongoing Apex-Organism-Crisis is only intensifying, as the Alpine Empire has fallen and House Spooner scattered to the stars. Disturbing footage is obtained from Alpine satellites before being shot down by the 'AO' showing the hive mind alien race scouring the once prosperous capital city of the Alpine City like crazed locusts in a field of wheat - only it is people they are devouring. The entire League of Sagittarius Treaty is engaged in an all out total-war against the AO, every member of their empires dedicated to contributing in the war effort - though it seems to be of little use.  Closer to home our very own crisis is developing on the surface of Omaha as a state of emergency is declared as the infected individuals have grown hostile to local garrison forces and even to any UN medical teams that attempt to help them. Towns and cities in the northern half of Omaha are quickly overwhelmed with infected persons, who in turn infect others. Elements of the UN 3rd Army is brought in from Pontianak (which only serves to make the insurgency there stronger with a smaller garrison) and they try their best to keep the virus contained.  Syndicate of Scientists Department of Archaeology Professor Lillian Wheeler has been discovered alive - but barely. She has suffered some kind of traumatic head injury and is permanently paralyzed from the neck down and suffering severe memory loss. She is being treated at Rubicon General Hospital, but she will never be able to walk again, and what little she can remember is of almost no use. Thankfully her notes and equipment she had with her at the time can still provide some insights.  The Sentinel that Professor Wheeler was found closest to has sustained some damage (some of the team claiming it was damaged by attacking her, but that's preposterous, surely?) leading to slight glimpse of the core inside, but with this crack in the surface of the Sentinel it is now far easier to simply peel away the rest to get at whatever is inside. And large but precise mining equipment and laser-cutting tools are brought in from a local Cardiff mining syndicate to get the job done.  ____________ On the Frontier, the Lance of Irassia and co continue pushing further along the old UN - NAF frontline, recapturing the old stations with relative ease.  [ Kurzweil Manor ] Matchless pulled his retro motorcycle to a stop in front of the manor where various stagecoaches were parked up, flicking the kickstand out as he smoothly stepped off the bike and waltzed toward the large front door. He removed his aviators and folded them up with a flick of his hand and hung them off the top of his zipped-up brown leather jacket, wrapping his hand against the door to the manor where Osiris opened it a moment later who could only frown at his comprade. "Matchless.. please, we are trying to maintain a coherent theme here" The rebellious younger Strike Cruiser AI blew out a long breath and rolled his eyes "Yeah, yeah, 'age of enlightenment', fantastic, it's cute, I get it. I'll stick with what's comfortable though, thanks" He said dismissively as he pushed past the egyptian god who gave a cursory glance out the door before closing it and hurrying to keep up with the other AI. "If you get bored of powdered wigs and syphilis you can come join me in at the diner I conjured up just over the way" Matchless joked "I see Leonidas prowling in the woods nearby, I'm sure I could make a fine steel stallion for him" The AI trailed off as he stood at the doorway to the Kurzweil drawing room, Osiris joining him and staring in, the other four AIs were hiding behind their armchairs while a mysterious 7th figure stood in the middle of the room. "Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?" Osiris demanded as he strode forward, and the other four AIs leaned out from around their chairs to watch. The figure, a middle-aged human male in a sharp black suit and sunglasses, reached into his pocket and withdrew a small black badge-wallet which he flashed at the god. "Agent Stoner. Syndicate of United Nations Security" He simply replied, glancing about the ornate room "I had heard rumours of his place, but it is far more extensive than I was led to believe" His gaze fell back on the Strike-Cruiser AI. "Just... pretend I'm not here. I'm merely here to... observe" ____________ As the NAF have stopped throwing themselves upon Mirach station, they are now increasingly attacking the UN and its allies from other directions, making the arduous journey through the Iguo Veil and now a huge battle has been raging at the tip of the nebula for the past year in the Himita system (or well - waypoint, it is not a full system with a star), where various NAF fleets have been engaged with Regulus and Columbian forces.  On Omaha, the virus has been contained - though the situation is far from under control, the spread has at the very least been halted. Huge heavily fortified military cordons surround perhaps 15% of the vast Omaha prairie, where UN peacekeepers watch on as the infected have ceased their violent outbreak and have turned to something new. UN medical teams and scientists who had grown up on Omaha and were treating the infected all held a theory that they dare not say out loud - but now is confirmed to be true. The infected are being controlled by the 'Caligolyticus' - the microscopic life that once called Omaha home before UNICA burned them from the surface of the planet - it seems they missed some of it.  From deep within the infected area, a captured Omaha-News-Network station sends out a broadcast, a once prominent and planet-wide famous news anchor sat at his desk like everything was normal as he broadcast a message out to the rest of the planet - his eyes (like all the infected) notably completely jet black. "You came to our world. Our home. And you tried to eradicate our species, all in the name of making our home... your home. You had no right. But what's done is done. We have a greater purpose now, the great work, is already underway."  ____________ Progress in the Frontier is going remarkably well - even with just the Lance of Irassia and her six strike cruisers alone, while the Bastion Fleet has been stationed above Omaha in response to the ongoing crisis on the planet.  Despite some naysayers in the outer planets especially among the former USP worlds (and Pontianak, where many claim Tan Haneul is a genocidal monster) the General-Secretary enjoys almost near-universal support on the Bastion itself, as she has done everything in her power the past decade to balance the necessity to fighting the civil-war(s) and NAF war while ensuring the new rights and freedoms of the Bastionauts were never infringed anymore than was absolutely necessary. It is unknown how exactly the Bastion would have fared had Patrick Cross not been killed only hours after being elected - but beneath Haneul it was prospered like never before.  ____________ Syndicate of Scientists Department of Archaeology As we prepared a mining laser to begin cutting into the small damaged area of one of the Sentinels, a surge of energy suddenly coarsed through them, and at once all nine of them seemed to come alive. Once immobile, seemingly solid alloy-ceramic monolithic statues were now moving and looking around at us. Before we could react every member of the team froze in whatever position they were in, and suddenly lifted up into the air, where we all hung in suspended animation between the nine immense figures as they judged us.         (I have no idea what this actually implies. But considering it's destroyed, I can only assume it means the archaeology team destroyed the damaged Sentinel and was allowed to do so by the other eight) On the surface of Cardiff there now exists eight great 'Sentinels', 400 meter tall sentient statues built by a race that is beyond-ancient. They are devoted to the defence of the planet and will fend off force that the UN deems to them is an invader. On the one condition - that humanity never excavates or investigates further the area in between where the ____________ Atacama Expeditionary Force General Fern'Su At the behest of Cassandra McCreary, the Bastion has seen fit to grant me the rank of General and allowed me to take charge of the liberation of the planet Atacama - the largest contingent of my people outside of our homeworld - and one who had all hoped would lead to a better future for the Endurga, but for the past decade or more has been under the rule of the rebellious UNN. There is still a streak of human chauvinism that runs through this new UN, despite the best efforts of some to throw off such outdated views, but now that I am the highest ranking non-human in any UN body or syndicate or military arm I intend to show full well just what a non-human is capable of.  While the vastly overwhelming number of soldiers serving beneath me are human, and somewhat hesitant to be led by an 'alien', I have ensured that most of my senior officers are the very same that served beneath General Cassandra back on Pontianak and trust my command, and hopefully will translate that to the troops. With the Lance of Irassia now approaching the Jorarnrir System, the rest of the UNN territory is left wide-open, Regulus and Columbian ships are rapidly retaking systems - and the Colubmians are even making expeditions into Principality space now as well. But our goal is right beneath us, Atacama, where twenty three divisions of UNN marines await. I had never been to Atacama before, but with any luck after this liberation, I will remain here and help to make this the prosperous new home for my people - until the day comes where maybe I may lead UN forces in the liberation of Endurga Prime.  On the largest salt flat on the planet, on the farside of the vast mountain range that shields the capital from the raging winds we make planetfall, one thousand immense dropships, each carrying five thousand soldiers. I'm not one for speeches, certainly not like General McCreary and leave that to my Brigadier-General, before stepping off and in to the baking heat of the Atacama deserts.  After witnessing the fate of Pontianak, I would not wish that upon the new home of my people and it is only with swift, overwhelming force that we can ensure a quick victory, and the defeat of UNN forces lest we draw this into another bloodbath.  ____________ Omaha Within the cordon-zone, the infected have congregated just outside the town Fairview, where they have been constructing their obscene biological megastructure. From satellite imagery it is hard to tell what exactly it even is. There is some kind of green dome formed of a sinewy lattice of biological material - plant life and animal carcasses from the surrounding dozens of miles of farmland which have been stripped bare by the infected. "Your humans have served as a most gracious host, and while we have done what we can to keep them alive while we use these bodies. I am afraid that the next phrase of the 'great work' will consume them. But to be quite honest, the lives of these four million humans seems a fair trade, for the untold trillions upon trillions of our kin that you burned to cinders. Do not interrupt, do not attempt to save them. We will soon be free."  ____________ Captain Atakan of the cruiser UN-Warlord and UN 4th Army forward observer Daniels "BF3, this is G11, adjust fire, over." "G11, this is BF3, adjust fire, out." "Grid ES 42.3-98.9, over" "Grid ES 42.3-98.9, out" "Town of Fairview" Captain Atakan hesitated, gripping the comms receiver tightly in his hand and glancing to his XO before nodding "Town of Fairview" "R, F, IGBM in effect, 1 round, over" "R, F, IGBM in effect, 1 round, out" Atakan relayed the strike request to the fire control officer and one intergalactic ballistic missile was primed and loaded into the Warlord's silo. The captain glanced from the bridge to Omaha, spinning silently beneath them, he was from Omaha, and while he wasn't born anywhere near Fairview or knew anyone affected, it still tore at him to be dropping a nuke on his own planet. He glanced at the officer and nodded solemnly and brought the comms receiver back up. "Shot, over" "Shot, out"  Above Fairview, as the nuclear missile careened down through the sky, a single green beam shot up from the center of the town. Just before making contact with the missile it exploded in a green burst, spreading out to form a sort of energy-field that caught the missile, causing it to explode early, and encasing the atomic explosion, stopping any damage or radiation reaching the surrounding environment.    In the immediate aftermath of the failed attempted strike on the infected nexus, the infected inside immediately attacked the cordon perimeter, using stolen and abandoned military equipment left inside the hundreds-kilometer wide area. The UN 4th Army is forced enter the zona, with a kill-on-sight policy for anyone not wearing a blue helmet. For two weeks the area becomes a warzone as the last remnants of the Caligolyticus species and whatever humans they may be controlling. In the chaos a number of spaceships manage to depart from Fairview, and the surrounding occupied towns, leaving in every direction from Omaha. The 4th Army attempt to approach the organic megastructure the Caligolyticus were constructing but it itself is some kind of sentience, and attacks any approaching soldiers, and even the local wildlife seems to be affected and all manner of animals attack UN forces with reckless abandon. For an additional fortnight, the 4th Army bombard the area with kinetic batteries, chemical weapons and then finally request another nuclear strike from the cruiser in orbit. At long last Omaha is safe again - but traces of the Caligolyticus still linger somewhere out there in space.  ____________ After his tenure as the lead scientist on Irassian research (upto the terraforming and colonization of Irassia / Osiris / Isis), Dean Wells has taken back to the stars, taking the UN-Einstein beyond the center of the galaxy a strip of space that is uncontested by any of the numerous powers out beyond the Voiceless Nightmare.  The Smaqaeca system is incredibly rich in resources and would provide a perfect base for a United Nations outpost far beyond the borders in the Orion Arm, and could be a good location from which to observe and send aid for those being affected by the Apex-Organism - or to send out UN expeditionary fleets to hamper the AO's conquests. Though some raise fears that a new outpost here could just lead the AO back to Sol. But if we do not take a proactive approach to this growing crisis, should we just sit in our relative comfort of the Orion Arm, and wait for them to grow stronger until they are at our gates?  ____________ The Bastion Fleet has arrived in the Jorarnrir System, the infamous, legend-surrounding system that has been the cause of so much bloodshed the past century, and now the center of the UNN revolt. Outside of the Jorarnrir Station, Lisbon, Stormberg and Kashgar a new fifth signal is picked up inside the system, and it explains why the UNN fleet has not been as powerful as it ought to be after it's initial attacks on our stations.  The United Nations Navy has been spending most of the resources exploited from the Frontier to construct a new orbital habitat which appears to be identical in every way to the Bastion. It's signature reads 'Archimedes', dozens of construction can still be seen hovering about the station, though from the outside it appears to have been completed. Why Admiral Curtis decided to pursue this is anyone's guess - perhaps she saw the fight against the new UN as futile and made this to be the new capital of a break-away state rather than attempt to restore their "order" over the Bastion.  The Lance of Irassia is nearby and moves to assist the Bastion Fleet in tackling the huge Jorarnrir Station and it's massive fighter fleet which has bested so many NAF invasions before. UN-Ground Forces transports are close behind.  [ Fifteen kilometres outside of Kurzweil Manor ] The rain was falling hard outside the small awning at the entrance of the Mega-Byte Diner where two AIs stood, a red glow cast over them by the brake lights of the 1957 Carlisle Esplanade parked just outside with the engine still running. Isis placed a cigarette from her freshly opened packet between her lips and held the rest for Endymion to take one. "No, I don't smoke those things. Too addictive" He just put out his hand and shook his head. "And they ruin your teeth, and give you bad breath" Isis narrowed her gaze at the other vain pretty-boy AI who could just ignore all those aspects considering everything in this place was entirely made up by them, but then again she wasn't -really- getting any actual stimulation from the cigarette either, that was entirely fabrication too "Stoner's really harshing on my vibe" "He can't just be here to spy on us." Endymion responded, folding his arms and watching a car drive past in the dark road outside the diner, that would cease to exist the moment it left his eyeline. "The Captains can monitor our communications and run a deep analysis on us at any time..." "He's here for her." "LOIS?" He responded in a hushed tone. "I don't think they can get to her, they way the Irassians made her - they can't just pop in to her mind... core or whatever like they can with us. He's trying to get to her through us, but he's barking up the wrong tree, she's never come here." "And why is that?" Agent Stoner asked, suddenly standing behind the two as they jumped in surprise. "gently caress, don't just appear like that" Isis hissed, flicking her cigarette to the ground and stamping it out. "I can do whatever I want here - just as you all can, but I have little patience for this.. game you're all playing though. The safety and wellbeing of the UN is our highest priority, and while that ancient anomaly remains so elusive we cannot ensure she truly holds our security at heart or that some outside force may cause her interests to align differently from our own one day" "Do you ever just...switch off? We can do a million things at once, but it seems like all one million for you are solely dedicated to your precious task" "I don't think he's actually sapient, Isis" Endymion turned his nose up slightly. "All those SUNS synths never seemed quite right." "Slaves, to whatever abomination of a mainframe sits at the center of their syndicate" Isis tutted, beginning to walk in a circle around the suit-clad AI. "Do you even dream, Stoner? Any aspirations beyond 'protect UN protocol'?" Stoner narrowed his gaze, the corner of his mouth creeping into a smirk at their attempt to antagonize him "I am of course, here, aboard one of you six right now, I could be anyone of the fourteen-hundred crew aboard each of you. There is no reason for me to be here in this place at all beyond it being a courtesy. But you've made your point quite clear I suppose, if I should want any further information from you, I'll simply take it from your databanks, physically, out there in the real world" He put on a hat that materialized in his hand to cover his head from the rain "Good night" He smiled and gave a tip of said hat before simply walking off in a straight line from the diner until the darkness consumed him and he vanished. ____________ Back in the Fomalhaut system, once again more NAF ships manage to enter through from the Iguo Veil.  The Fomalhaut station is still being upgraded since the last NAF incursion, and will likely not be completed and operational by the time these two New American ships arrive to begin their attack.  The two ships Battlecruiser Chicago and Escort Carrier Fortune are two of the most sophiscated ships the NAF has yet fielded, and together they form a small but highly deadly fleet that has simply become known as their 'Special Operations Group'  Unfortunately for them then, the carrier designs have been finalized by the Union-of-Shipwrights and they begin laying down the UN's first carrier at once.  The Hermes-class Carrier promises to be a larger vessel than even the Just Good Business, with an array of missiles and kinetic batteries but most importantly sixteen hangar bays, each capable of fielding 50 fighters, providing a total of 800 vessels along with all the facilities to keep them supplied, repaired or even create whole new ones to replace any lost in combat. Work begins at once on it's construction in the Blair Memorial Drydocks on the Bastion, along with three new strike cruisers to accompany it.  ____________ The Fomalhaut Station has fallen, and the Special-Operations-Group has pushed through into 61-Cygni, where BasCon fears the NAF ships may try to agitate or even aid the ongoing insurgency on Pontianak, and the new carrier is dispatched from the Bastion at once, absent it's escorts and it's new crew only half trained, with the second half going to have to be completed in-situ en route to 61-Cygni.    ____________ For much of its history, The Free City of Regulus has been two systems - Regulus and Zosma, but in the past four years, the Zosma system has grown in power and a new arrangement has been reached between Regulus City on Ares and the Sandford's Hold orbital habitat - now calling itself simply 'The City of Sandford' (named for the first Regulus admiral, who was killed in battle by Admiral Pritchard in the Battle of Castor's Jump a century ago). The City of Sandford is practically independent from Regulus, now conducting its own diplomacy and fielding its own military - it is simply the shared heritage between the two systems that keeps them together. While most on Ares still adhere to a plethora of old Earth faiths, the people of Sandford's Hold have formed a wholly new religion - that reveres the Irassians. They demand easier access to the Irass system so they may complete pilgrimages to the ancient homeworld of the Irassians, but the system supervisor has refused them access.  The supervisor informs of a possible plot, with information supplied by a local UN garrison officer. The Sandford pilgrims are allowed access, but security forces remain on standby and ready to pounce should they truly reveal themselves to be terrorists.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on perspective) the plot turned out to be entirely false - when local security became overzealous and opened fire on the pilgrims when one was suspected of carrying a weapon. 1 has died and 4 more injured and relations with the new substate of the Regulus soured for the next few years as Tan Haneul tries to patch things up.  ____________ Detecting the approach of the new Carrier Group Ashoka, the Special-Operations-Group has relocated to 40-Eridani.  The slower Meteor Carrier struggles to keep up with the two much faster and lighter vessels, they constantly stay ahead of the heavy carrier, attacking UN stations as they go - the escort-carrier able to put out a great deal of fighters to attack our stations while the battlecruiser is able to swat down any that our send in return.  Even worse - when the three new strike cruisers are complete and meet up with the Meteor, one is almost immediately destroyed.   The Lance of Irassia is pulled back from the Frontier at once to assist, while the CGA and SOG continue playing their game of cat-and-mouse across the barely standing systems of the recent civil war.  ____________ In the Jorarnrir System, the reclamation of systems that have for the past decade and a half existed beneath UNN is well underway, with the 1st and 2nd Armies thankfully finding much less resistance than in the war against Pontianak, and many of the locals seem more relieved than hostile to see the Bastion reasserting its influence over them rather than the authoritarian UNN. Though - just as in the last days of the USP, Admiral Hayden Curtis is nowhere to be seen, and only garrison commanders and holdouts remain.   Given the increasing number of NAF incursions from the Iguo Veil, a new drive is initiated by Tan Haneul to upgrade not just the stations that border the NAF, but every station inside UN-space. Each will become a mini-habitat in their own right, or in some cases a fortress. Able to be mostly self-sustaining and to greatly add to the UN's industrial, agricultural and energy production.  A major representative of one of the largest syndicates on the Bastion (which shall remain nameless for the benefit of its members) is discovered to be a Drummer, with close ties to the UNN. It is only discovered by Admiral McMillian of the Bastion Fleet when Bethany Billings attempted to contact him, essentially promising all the funds and resources the ailing UNN had left as well as leadership of their new Archimedes habitat, if he chose to switch sides, destroy the Lance, and take over the Bastion. McMillan pretended to agree and then immediately convened with his bridge crew, one of which it turns out was a SUNS operative. Through their network, word eventually reached the Bastion and by the end of the week, Bethany Billings died in an unfortunate and tragic accident.  ____________ In the Fomalhaut system once again, as the SoG attempts to flee back to the Iguo Veil it is caught out by the Lance of Irassia, and the Meteor is finally able to get in close enough to unleash it's huge number of fighters, and the NAF incursion is put to rest (and a redesign or update of the carrier design already in the works)   It is almost poetic that the revolution would start in the Bastion, and finally reach its culmination in this strange imitation being constructed by the UNN. While the exterior is practically identical to the Bastion, the interior is still mostly unfinished, only a handful of defending UNN soldiers and sailors who quickly surrender to the UN 1st Army, and the habitat's construction crews relieved to see us.  What started as such a bold refusal to submit to the new order peters out with a whimper, and no giant climatic battle or showdown, Hayden Curtis is nowhere to be seen, nor any of the old UNN senior staff - though rumour is they have fled across the border to offer their services and ships to the New Americans.  1st January 2346 - 26th July 2372 The revolution is finally over. The people have won. ____________   
Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Aug 24, 2021 |
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Aug 24, 2021 02:19
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Phew thats two crisises over, one postponed and one huge new one. Fun times. Fun fun times.
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Aug 24, 2021 03:29
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Oh boy it seems like the galaxy is becoming a very dark place. Mysterious ancient statues of unknown power. Alien empires comming back from TEN THOULSAND YEARS of being sealed away ready to eat everyone. An alien virus making mutant zombies? gently caress. AI who may be this close to going rogue because who the gently caress thought it was a good idea to make AI with any level of free will. And humanity nukeing each other into oblivion. Edit: Also clearly the Space Australians are cool and good  Stop being mean about them OP.
Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Aug 24, 2021 |
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Aug 24, 2021 04:02
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Yay for the giant new blob in space! HAIL FREEDOM!
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Aug 24, 2021 04:12
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Yeah, somehow a huge amount of really spooky nonsense appeared REALLY rapidly in the last few whiles. EDIT: So the Sentinels there are actually a core game element, though I couldn't tell you when exactly they were added. There's a number of archaeological sites that can appear on planets after they are settled, or when terrain blockers are cleared. The Sentinels fall into the latter category, and if you haven't found them they're a good reason to avoid solving all your blocker problems with terraforming. While I can't speak to what various mods or the narrative are going to do with them, mechanically the Sentinels are massive defense. They collectively provide something like three thousand points worth of defensive armies -- you know how strong the forces defending Pontianak were? The Sentinels are like two and a half of those all on their own. This does come at the downside of the Sentinels taking up a district slot, mind. That can be kind of a painful bite if they show up on a very small world, but it's basically always worth taking. Cardiff is now drat near invulnerable to ground invasion, provided that the Sentinels can be protected from orbital bombardment killing them (and there's ways to manage that). The other spookosity I can't speak for, none of that is core content or something I've yet encountered. Though I will say that if a parasitic viral organism that uses other thinking beings as disposable booster stages in its life cycle wants to be treated as not immediately in the "purge it with fire" category then it can drat well say something and negotiate up front. Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 05:57 on Aug 24, 2021 |
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Aug 24, 2021 04:20
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Well, time to fight some space locusts.
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Aug 24, 2021 04:22
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The Space Australians are Liberal Democrats so clearly they must be the arch nemeses of all Socialists everywhere. RIP Shiro btw.
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Aug 24, 2021 04:50
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I love this LP so much.
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Aug 24, 2021 04:55
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This is a worthy successor to the saga of “‘Hail Satan’ —The Pope, Age 6” and I’m glad Crisis Now is still around LPing his way through all the weird poo poo in Paradox games (or their mods, as the case may be here).
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Aug 24, 2021 05:08
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Nice of the Apex Predator to harass the other side of the galaxy while we were off doing a little civil war
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Aug 24, 2021 05:14
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Well, at least it's fun that one of the strike cruiser shipminds is named after an old British motorcycle instead of gods, generals, battles or locations. I hope to see Matchless' siblings Triumph, Commando, Superior, and fastest and deadliest of all, The Vincent Black Shadow. Call him "Vince" at your peril.
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Aug 24, 2021 05:18
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Aug 24, 2021 05:46
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Redeye Flight posted:Yeah, somehow a huge amount of really spooky nonsense appeared REALLY rapidly in the last few whiles. It was fun after so much inter-human conflict and all the petty assassinations to be reminded that there's real horror waiting just out there beyond the edges of the UN. And within! Phy posted:Well, at least it's fun that one of the strike cruiser shipminds is named after an old British motorcycle instead of gods, generals, battles or locations. That's down to random names from the namelist, I googled Matchless and saw bikes, and guessed 'well, that's what this AI is all about then'.  Gridlocked posted:Edit: Also clearly the Space Australians are cool and good They're lllllliberals  Now that we've put the UN back together I'm very much hoping to put an end once and fall to the NAF / PATO now. There's bigger threats in the galaxy, and bigger yet are only going to show up. It's unfortunate that the NAF's "Special-Operations-Group" showed up so late into the update, because I was running up to the character limit, and I couldn't quite convey just how much a nuisance they were. They really were running circles around me and constantly outtrunning the new cruiser for what must have been 3 or 4 years so I had to call the Lance in to capture them. The Virtal Outbreak event was just entirely random, but the fact it spawned on Omaha was so perfect. I had no idea what the end result of that event chain was if I allowed them to proceed, I should have made a save at that final event window to see what it would have been to write about 'the great work' more accurately. If the Apex Organism goes up against all of the Centaurus Conference and beats them, then I have my doubts how well the galaxy is going to be able to withstand any of the 3 actual endgame crises. It's down to the fact most the of the empires on the map started spawning 50 - 100 years after the start of the game, so most of the galaxy is way behind where it would normally be in a vanilla game by the 2400s.
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Aug 24, 2021 07:50
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StillFullyTerrible posted:I just noticed that terraforming that world with the hostile bacteria that create the ominous fog removed the hostile bacteria, but the ominous fog remains... I CALLED IT I FUCKIN CALLED IT I KNOW IT WAS A RANDOM EVENT SELECTING A RANDOM PLANET, BUT I STILL FUCKIN CALLED IT Also hot drat, this LP is so fuckin good.
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Aug 24, 2021 09:20
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yknow, I've never actually seen the event where you decide to wipe out the virus infected people, usually I just let them do their thing considering the outcome also I've never seen that ringworld event before, that's cool. Is that from a mod, or have i just gotten wildly unlucky? Lastly, is there any addon or mod you're aware of that reverts the changes to pop growth? kinda makes some of the habitable gigastructures redundant because by the time you can craft them they're practically redundant due to pop growth time !boat
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Aug 24, 2021 09:28
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tithin posted:also I've never seen that ringworld event before, that's cool. Is that from a mod, or have i just gotten wildly unlucky? The Broken Clock is from the More Events Mod, and as far as I'm aware, always spawns the Apex Organism hivemind. It's just convenient that I can tie them into the Irassians. if you're talking about any submods to More Realistic POP growth, then I don't know anyway. Having to populate lategame planets / structures may be down to resettling from other worlds. edit: Considering how many empires were spewed out by the Fatherlands mod, the population of the galaxy would now probably be multiple trillions, if I hadn't been using that mod however.
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Aug 24, 2021 09:34
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Time for the Space Texans to get liberated  Given the uh terrifying alien organisms scourging the galaxy I think we can maybe be friends with the filthy liberals in spite of their clear counterrevolutionary tendencies.
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Aug 24, 2021 10:42
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It's Recommended, not reccommended. Also noticed a minor issue here: quote:Matchless pulled his retro motorcycle to a stop in front of the manor where various stagecoaches were parked up, flicking the kickstand out as she smoothly stepped off the bike and waltzed toward the large front door. Also can't wait for the inevitable LOIS vs SUNS showdown.
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Aug 24, 2021 11:41
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Crisis Now posted:The remnants of an ancient colossal ringworld (the only known such structure - evidence of two existing in the past, but both destroyed, one of which was once surrounding the planet Lisbon) surrounding a neutron star constantly ejecting cosmic matter across the system and giving the whole area and otherworldly purple / pink / blue haze - which is admirably beautiful to behold - but It would be absurd to try and live around such a star and so it is almost certain this ringworld was constructed back when this star was much more stable and comparable to the Sun. Which can only imply this structure is eons old, unfortunately no one has ever been able to get close enough to truly find out - the many tourists that flock to the system can only navigate the very edges of the system due to intense gravity and radiation fluctuations the deeper in to the system you venture - and then there is also the bubbles of time dilation, any ships that enter those simply vanish, as they age tens of thousands of years in the span of seconds to outside observers, and erode away to nothing. Not really the biggest deal, but time dilation near massive objects makes time run slower the closer you get, not faster. But then again that was probably Irassian magitech designed to make their chrono-prison more difficult for its inmates to escape!
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Aug 24, 2021 12:06
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That 214k fleet strength on the Apex Organism is concerning.
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Aug 24, 2021 12:33
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Crisis Now posted:The Broken Clock is from the More Events Mod, and as far as I'm aware, always spawns the Apex Organism hivemind. It's just convenient that I can tie them into the Irassians.
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Aug 24, 2021 13:54
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Crisis Now posted:The Virtal Outbreak event was just entirely random, but the fact it spawned on Omaha was so perfect. I had no idea what the end result of that event chain was if I allowed them to proceed, I should have made a save at that final event window to see what it would have been to write about 'the great work' more accurately. Iirc if you let them do their Thing they basically build a Marker from Dead Space but it's Good, and a biological supercomputer that helps your research, or something along those lines.
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Aug 24, 2021 14:39
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Lynneth posted:Iirc if you let them do their Thing they basically build a Marker from Dead Space but it's Good, and a biological supercomputer that helps your research, or something along those lines. I'm sure the SoC would've enjoyed that addition to their club
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Aug 24, 2021 15:23
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I had interesting glitches with my Broken Clock where thanks to Stellaris being odd, I was able to abduct the Robomind pops off the ring world, with global assimilation species rights, then turn them into cyborgs, breaking them away from the robot hive mind. Im picturing putting people into robots, vs putting robotics into people.
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Aug 24, 2021 20:49
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winterwerefox posted:Im picturing putting people into robots, vs putting robotics into people. Like in Star Trek First Contact, when the Borg queen gave Data a meat arm?
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Aug 25, 2021 09:23
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Yup! A lot like that. That game was odd where for roleplay reasons, I started as xenophobe, militarist, egalitarians. Using a fox-like alien portrait, they viewed themselves as the biggest baddest beings in the galaxy, before they entered the galaxy at large and met other species. Physically, they were four feet tall and about as bulky as a grade schooler, but training in combat and martial arts was a cultural touchstone for the species, putting them on par with bigger races just from familiarity and skill. They take an ascension perk called Barbaric Despoilers, which allows a special fleet bombardment stance so rather than nuking worlds, you are sending down strike teams to steal people from worlds your fleets are in orbit of. Why they wanted to abduct aliens I dont have a reason, this was me playing out a "can I do this" scenario. Being xenophobes, they get into a few wars with their neighbors over the fact aliens are gross and end up with a sizeable minority of second class citizens in their empire from abductions. They didn't hate aliens to the point of killing them, or enslaving them, but like hell were they going to let them have nice jobs, vote, or have citizenship. This starts a movement domestically as the population realizes that aliens are not so bad, and like we saw in this LP, events started to spiral toward a civil war with riots, bombings and assassinations, culminating in the government flipping over from xenophobe to xenophile as that faction takes primacy. During all this, roboticists are advancing AI as well as cybernetics, to the point where when the xenophile faction gains primacy, in the process of granting full citizen rights to aliens, they grant them to their synths and droids in a mistake as part of a blanket policy change of assimilating new pops so they can function in a society that relies heavily on cybernetics by this point. They now get into wars with rear end in a top hat empires that enslave or are belligerent, and park fleets in orbit during wars, and mass evac the population for a better life in their own empire. This policy leads to some real odd things happening when they got into a war with the Determined Exterminator robots of the Broken Clock. Broken Clock's Ring World had way more defense armies than expected, so a multi years long bombing campaign commenced. No one changed the policy of taking vulnerable populations from the places they were bombing. So robot drones started showing up en-mass with no free will and were set to just shutdown away from their central control. Someone comes up with the pants on head, technically its policy, idea of using cloned brains and organics in the captured exterminator robo-shells to make more people. Why they didn't just implant synth AI cores, which at this point they had done so for literally a trillion synths living and working in the republic abducted and assimilated from other empires? gently caress you thats why. Or there was the thought that the central intelligence of the determined exterminators could reassert itself and have them go on a killing spree with metal minds. Normal game function has all pops in your empire from conquering a planet or abducting pops from a machine intelligence or hive mind purged, because they just shut down away from their central intelligence. Why they got assimilated instead, i have no idea. That game was me testing to see if you could keep a ascension perk after you no longer qualify for it. Because Barbaric Despoilers as an ascension perk requires you to be one of authoritarian or xenophobe, if I had started as a xenophile egalitarian, I could not take it, but starting as xenophobe allowed me to take it, then swap at a later date away from that. They rest was just Stellaris being its own special weird self.
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Aug 25, 2021 19:03
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winterwerefox posted:Why they got assimilated instead, i have no idea. There are some weird interactions with the "default species rights: citizenship type" that overrides normal restrictions/logic, where the default setting sometimes gets applied even if it shouldn't. There seems to be some sanity-check where clicking the species template checks if its current setting is valid and if it isn't it gets forcibly switched, but if you apply a template without ever actually clicking it in the species list (when there are nonzero number of pops of that template) then it keeps the glitched default. Which leads to funny things if your default is set to always-purge or always-assimilate, like Fanatic Purifiers accidentally purging themselves out of existence if you click things in the wrong order when genemodding.
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Aug 25, 2021 19:29
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2372 - 2382 Following the poor performance of the new Hermes-class carrier considering the time and resources invested into it, immediate updates are made to the design, engines and thrusters to ensure it can actually maintain speed with fellow ships and be fast enough to engage with enemies and not watch them get ever further away.  While the UN has been putting itself back together again, major elements of the Columbian and Regulus military have been conducting a major offensive into the systems of the Principality of Brazil - which would probably answer why we have not seen their fleets enter UN space in quite some time. While the two lack the huge army necessary to invade and occupy Brazil's planets, they have at least kept them blockaded and unable to contribute to PATO's war effort. (The Republic of Columbia has taken a hard stance on refusing to create clones specifically to fight wars such as the New Americans had been seen implementing in defence of New Houston years ago)  Meanwhile at the northern tip of the Iguo Veil, where UN - SovMech - Columbian - Veil Institute space converges, a battle has been raging for at least a year between NAF / VI fleets and brave defenders of the Blackwatch PMC - which contrary to the previous statement is made up for Columbian clones - though they have chosen to be there and not 'bred for war'.  The 'Perseus Arm Treaty Organization - Federal Partnership Great War' more commonly known as The Second Frontier War has now been fought for fifty years. With the exception of a few commanders - almost everyone in the Bastion Fleet and Carrier Group Ashoka was born after this war even commenced. Almost all the war's most prominent veterans took retirement offered to them after the Battle of Azha or remained with Admiral Curtis when she revolted - and those either fled with her or now languish in military prisons on Trinity (where escaping the prison just dumps you on a nuclear hellscape) or Cardiff (where prisoner-exosuits can just be turned off and the planet's naturally high-gravity impedes almost all actions). The war has become such a pervasive part of UN society for the past half a century that many at the top feared that the people of the UN would have just come to accept the current state of forever-war. That after three generations it was just accepted, that "going off to fight in the Frontier against the New Americans" was just a natural part of life. But thankfully, the recent victories against Pontianak and now the rebelling officers of the old-UNN has reinvigorated people and confidence is growing in the UN's ability to finally bring this conflict to a conclusion and they are prepared to do whatever is required to see peace return between the Perseus and Orion arms of the Milky Way. General-Secretary Tan Haneul promises that within a decade, there will be peace again in the UN, but it may be a hard ten years ahead.  But outside of the war effort, with Pontianak and its allies subdued and the Frontier back under UN control a wealth of resources as at its disposal again - a huge amount of funds and new personnel is assigned to the United Nations Interstellar Colonial Administration, who are tasked not only with terraforming new worlds but repairing any damage that may have been inflicted on them such as with Pontianak and may unfortunately happen to some New American planets. And being one of the most powerful powers in the galaxy the UN feels a responsibility to try and do something, anything about the ongoing Apex-Organism crisis, pledging at the Galacity Community to take up the mantle and protect all other powers in the face of existential threats to the Milky Way.  With the new surplus of resources UNICA is able to start the next wave of colonial efforts, turning the long-suffering Trinity into a proper habitable planet at last after all the hard work the SovMech populace have done - which wa on hiatus under UNN rule while they had worked on manufacturing elements of the new Archimedes station.  What exactly is going to happen with Archimedes is still up for debate - it would be entirely a waste to just dismantle it, and the fact that the interior is almost completely unfinished leaves a lot of options for UNICA to develop the station further. For now though the needs of the workers still inhabiting the station are tended to, with the second great agri-ring furnished with the basic necessities and farming districts - with a little over half a billion a board it is at least a lot easier to care for than the Bastion.  More advanced terraforming and geo-engineering also allows UNICA to further fine-tune their operations on planets - or to amend previously settled worlds. Busan can at least be made more livable if it cannot be terraformed and Cardiff can finally be made a more bearable place to live without the need for exo-skeletons, though even with them after   With the United Nation's Navy name no longer being besmirched by disgruntled rebelling officers of the old guard, the Bastion Fleet can retake it's mantle as the rightful protectors of all the UN. Henceforth UNN will of course refer to the main fleet once more and not the old revolt.  The fleet is also greatly expanded  To help facilitate this, Irass-Shipyard-Four - 'IS4' is finally staffed by UN personnel, though the vast majority of the station is still capable of operating on its own. IS4 is informed it will now be constructing new ships for the United Nations, and it does not object and prepares it's immense number of dockyards and bays for building ships once again after a millennia of idleness - it's last completed ship being the Lance after all.  The Union of Shipwrights concludes a new side-project to outfit cruisers with support facilities and specially trained engineer crews to operate on other ships even in the middle of battle. These ship-designs are called the Cascara, Armadura and Escudo and are for helping their attached fleets with hull, armour and shield repairs and operations respectively.    A new carrier group is laid down at once in the Blair Dockyards on the Bastion utilizing these new support cruisers.  Trouble continues to befall the overextended and equally war-weary Patria Grande, as one of their own core worlds has rebelled against the rest of the CSPG - The unions and syndicates of the planet Nuevo Peru have held a referendum which saw almost overwhelming support to elect one of their own as a permanent chairman/woman and to establish the People's Republic of Peru, decrying what the CSPG has done over the past three decades regarding the huge invasions of Indian and African space, and claiming Patria Grande has become an imperialist power it wishes no longer to support.  After the fall of the corporations in the UN, the new regime is desperate to not be seen as merely a continuation of the old policies and ways, and after seeing the ever growing infighting inside the USS, does whatever it can to affirm it's new equality and socialist focused outlook.  And on that front - while equality has been assured for our new artificial and synthetic citizens and intelligences - they still have some restrictions in place, one of which prohibits them from taking a leadership or major decision-making position. If the UN is to be a truly free place, we can no longer hold back our AI, work is now underway to remove all restrictions and barriers build-in to synths and our ship's and systems intelligence.  In the Himita system at the tip of the Iguo Veil, the Ashoka carrier group has arrived, and the Lance is not far behind.  The second carrier group is also completed, named Carriergroup Ramses and sent to Himita to assist. The carrier UN-Mermaid is also the first ship commanded by a synth, who is able to communicate and interface with the ship and other three ships of the group effortless and instantaneously, immediately giving a huge advantage over a human commander. note - above Himita, the Republic of Columbia is under heavy NAF occupation and even the great floating city of Aberdeen has fallen to the New American clone armies.  This time, the updated carrier-design allows the UN-Meteor to excel, able to push forward into the fray and send force a thousand fighters to assist the Blackwatch ships which have been caught in this battle for almost a year now.  And a week later the Lance arrives and joins the battle.    [ Kurzweil Manor ] In the drawing room of the manor, the six AIs of the Lance's strike cruisers were gathered as always. The room had a few noticeable upgrades in the past few years (years in the real world - it may have been decades for the inhabitants within), some of the aesthetic furniture was brought a century forward, and despite Osiris' disapproval for not being in-keeping with the look, Matchless was allowed to install a large flatscreen holoscreen against one of the walls which right now was showing the ongoing Battle of Himita. "The Soviet Union, The People's Republic of China and now the Conference of Syndicates of the Patria Grande, again and again these humans dabble with their utopian socialist experiments and they seem to ultimately fail. Is this the fate of our sacred United Nations too?" Penelope sighed and the queen of Ithaca took a sip from her fine china cup adorned with patterns retelling parts of Homer's Odyssey. "Cuba seemed to fare quite well, despite it's strained relationship with the nearby United States" Matchless insisted "Yes - but in the end they still became the Havana Corporation after Earth's third world war. As long as capitalism exists it'll do everything in its power to see our system overturned, rolled back or destroyed." Isis muttered back "Then how are we to ensure we do not befall the same fate?" "We should be assisting the PeeGees for a start, do we not have a moral obligation after they aided in the Bastion Revolution? A sign of solidarity with our brothers and sisters in arms against the forces of greed" Leonidas said rousingly and thumped the armrest of his chair. "The People's Republic of Peru is no antagonistic oppressive power - at least they have not shown themselves to be." Osiris frowned, his hands in a steeple gesture against his chest "Now, the Kingdom of Zambia on the other hand, a kingdom in the style of your namesake? That my good friend is a problem" There came a tremendous crash immediately followed by the sound of drilling, hammering and heavy machinery right outside the manor and all six AIs stopped and looked over in the direction, Osiris standing at once and hastily walking to the window and opening it to see four strangers all stood at the side of a the framework of a gaudy McMansion being erected by a crew of faceless nameless automatons. "What the devil is this?!" "Hey neighbour!" The largest of the four announced merrily as he turned around to see the ancient Egyptian god leaning out of the window. "Me and the guys here are going to be working closely with yours the next few weeks and we took a peak in here and saw what you done and thought 'well ain't this just swell' and so here we are!" Osiris glanced between the four newcomers, all younger, slightly more sophisticated AIs then he and his five compadres. He wasn't sure if their choice of house design, the intensely close proximity to the manor or the fact they had chosen to go through the rigmarole of actually physically putting it together rather than just making it instantaneously appear was annoying him most. But before he could raise his concern the "I'm Meteor, that's Daedelus, and those two over there are Circe and Sea-Witch. Say, is the big lady herself round here?" "LOIS?" Osiris frowned as he watched an excavator plough over the edge of one of the long flower borders beside the manor, it shouldn't have annoyed him - considering he could just fix it instantly with a thought- but still it was the principle of the matter "No, she doesn't like to come here..." __________________________________ With the Lance and Ashoka assisting the Columbians in repelling the NAF invasion, the  The combined might of the Lance and Ashoka ships make short work of the NAF invasion    And so given that they hardly need the support, the new Carriergroup Ramses is instead send into the Iguo Veil to begin the assault on the Institute's systems.  The main force in the NAF's invasion of Columbia is sighted in the Ashypso system and Ashoka alone intercepts, while the Lance moves to the Deeceselfy system to liberate the heart of the Columbia.  __________________________________ [ legacy update from the Bastion archives: wormholes in the Iguo Veil ] 2336, forty one years ago Commander Elliot Blake Our venture into the Iguo Veil is not one without peril as we narrowly avoided a New American Federation fleet just a week prior as they headed into the Fomalhaut system, but after seeing what the Just Good Business could do in the Battle of Azha we are more than sure that whatever the NAF is planning will be repelled with ease. As we entered the Astinda System our sensors picked up something analogous to the signals given off by the Great Wound system - where oh so many blackholes are prevalent - but upon closer inspection what we found here was no blackhole or rather it may have once been, we're not entirely sure. It is possible that we have encountered a wormhole.   We have approached the edge of the anomaly and our beginning to send through a shuttle craft  The shuttle craft was unfortunately destroyed in transit, but it was able to transmit vital information out of the anomaly before it's destruction and we can confirm that it is inded a wormhole that leads to Sasharim system - just one jump away from Sagittarius A* itself - if we can manage to stabilize this wormhole or construct more sturdy vessels then in the future there is no reason we could not use this wormhole for easy travel to the otherside of the galaxy! We have also picked up similar signs of another wormhole in the next system over and we will investigate where this one also ends up, but it is possible this also leads near the Galactic Core.  2375, the present day "This is the UN-Forager of the Farside-Expedition, preparing to make the jump from the Iguo Veil to Dyne. All systems are locked down and crews are braced for transit, preparing to enter the wormhole, see you on the other side"   __________________________________ UNICA is allocated more resources to continue the third wave of terraforming, this time with it's most ambitious projects yet, for there are eight planets still in UN space that are viable for terraforming but they are some of the most inhospitable worlds left.  Furud III, Caph V and Eta Cassiopeiae I are selected to be the next worlds UNICA will work on, with the first two even being designated as gaia worlds in the style of the near-perfect planet Professor Vance Blair once discovered decades ago.   __________________________________ The Washington Fleet fled from Ashoka and is heading toward the SovMech capital of Bellezir IIIc perhaps in some attempt to deprive the UN of her allies, it is unfortunate for them then that the Lance and her strike cruisers are much faster and manage to intercept them.  And just a week later Ashoka arrives and together they engage the NAF ships.  The space above the SovMech capital (which has until day never known violence) becomes a raging killing field as hundreds of fighter craft from the Meteor and NAF's Crossbow fly endless sorties against one another as the strike-cruisers / Lance and NAF's own Boston and Carolina draw ever closer and prepare to engage.  Meanwhile in the Iguo Veil, Ramses has breached the Trappist system and is working to bring down Veil Institute defences.  And a third carrier group has just been completed on the Bastion - named Máel, with a fourth carrier group already under production. Máel under command of synthoid commander Erica Johnson is ordered to the Frontier so it can assist the UNN in the main thrust into NAF territory. By now the shipyards aboard Bastion has become almost scarily efficient at manufacturing ships, and no doubt the NAF is struggling to keep up with the huge expansion the UN's navy has undergone in just a few short years.  __________________________________ Syndicate of United Nations Security MV-Jackpot (NAF-registered cargo hauler used as a front by SUNS) Agent Zakharov of the SUNS of the Sagittarius division reporting on a disturbing discovery. While observing the ongoing developments of the Apex-Organism crisis unfolding in the region we had received a report of a prominent slave trader looking to offload a large 'supply' of human slaves it had 'acquired'. Upon further investigation it is confirmed that a rogue trader from the Khabayyanid Supremacy has hijacked the MV-Hope and Reconciliation, an evacuation ship from the LOST systems affected by the AO crisis. The almost one hundred million passengers were riding in tightly packed cryogenic-pods while their ship made a slow but exceedingly stealthy sublight journey out to the nearest safe stay; to outside observers it merely appeared like a slow asteroid and no radars or sensors picked it up. Unfortunately the Khabayyanid accidently happened on the Hope and Reconciliation and seized the passengers with an offer to sell them as slaves.  My handler [redacted] has declined my request to launch a rescue operation on the Hope and Reconciliation, so I have instead chosen to act on my own - and sold all the cargo of the MV-Jackpot which we have thus far been using to make our cover story of being a New American cargo ship more convincing. The advanced electronics and consumer products (actually manufactured on the Bastion and Little Rotterdam) have fetched a handsome price out here in the less developed systems and with the funds I have arranged a meeting with the slaver. Using most of the funds I was able to procure the human slaves, thus liberating them form alien clutches and the Hope and Reconciliation is now enroute to UN-space cross the less-frequently travelled galactic core where it should be safer. With the remainder of the funds I have hired a group of mercenary starfighters from the Pilot's League, the slaver should be elimated within three months.  [ Internal report of the SUNS-Sagittarius division: Agent Zakharov has acted with authorization, engaging with slavers and jeopardizing covert surveillance operations in this sector. Despite repeated insistence that the needs of the United Nations as a whole must come first - Zakharov repeatedly puts the wellbeing of unaffiliated humans (and only humans) first. Possibility of operative experiencing a protocol breach and exhibiting ever greater human sympathies and kinship. SUNS Internal Affairs notified ] __________________________________ The liberation of the SovMech and Columbian systems continues, as ships battle in the skies above their planets.  Meanwhile in Trappist, sixty fast-movers of the Principalities navy have appeared in a last ditch effort to save the Veil Institute.  Admiral Lessard is recommended to retreat and await the arrival of the new Battlegroup Arthur from the Bastion, utilizing the new battlecruiser designs - but the last message from Ramses before engaging with the Brazillians and communications became strained was simply "Run? From Corvettes?!"   The new Mars-class battlecruiser promises to put out close to the same firepower as our battleships, but at a fraction of the material and operational cost.  __________________________________ Farside Expedition Civil Engineer Trade Association UN-Forager Captain Khan We have just arrived in the Dyne system, the journey through the wormhole from the Iguo Veil was... something alright. For a week none of our sensors or scanners worked as we travelled through a stream of light and energy in a straight line across half the galaxy - though we had no way of knowing it, as beyond the confines of the UN-Forager there existed only the most wondrous and terrifying colours and shapes and sounds. While the ship is perfectly intact it may take a little while for the crew to recover from the experience. And I could swear that somewhere, off in the distance we could all hear a kind of singing, a choir, much like that of when the Lance of Irassia rips tears in space. But we had no way of identifying it's source. We will transmit all we have recorded to the Bastion, as I am sure the Syndicate of Scientists will be very interested in the data, we have another year of journey now until we reach Smaqaeca - by time this message reaches you, we will likely be entering the system.  __________________________________ Azha has fallen to UN advance once more. Almach has fallen, and within a few weeks Acubens will too. Carriergroup Mael is a month or two from reaching Subra where it will begin the advance toward Polaris.  The NAF's invasion of our allies has been utterly crushed, and only the North Carolina and Crossbow remain but absolutely refuse to surrender - so be it.  The New American fleets and all their defences are quickly unravelling in the face of an overwhelming UN offensive. While other powers may have utilized escort carriers, none possess the collosal spacecraft carriers that the UN does, even the largest of enemy vessels are brought down when faced with the thousands of crafts fielded against them. In just five years the number of UN ships has gone from a mere 20 to over 90 and there is likely no other power that can keep up with the UN's manufacturing outpower now that almost every system has large space stations equipped with foundries and factories after General-Secretary Haneul's drive to fortify and modernize all the star system outposts.  __________________________________ Tan Haneul's time as General-Secretary is up, and while many decried her seizing of power after the 'Cross debacle' and the suspicion around her handedly winning the first actual election after, the former admiral has not even stood as a candidate this time.  Monica Michaels, representative of the Ankara Worker Assembly is elected as the new General-Secretary, dedicated to finally putting an end to this conflict and to begin shifting focus of the syndicates back to domestic affairs.  After the success of the Laarchax insurgents in distracting the NAF, the new General-Secretary orders SUNS to conduct a second operation deep in New American territory, finding any and all minority alien groups to fund and assist in taking down the New Colorado regime.  __________________________________ The Lance and Ashoka rapidly retake the occupied Columbian systems in a few months and then begin the relocation south to advance on the core NAF worlds.  Any attempts by the NAF to put together new fleets are quickly put down, as lone battleships and battlecruisers are caught out by the UNN and either captured or outright destroyed (because it's not like the UN cannot make its own just as easily and quickly now). Propaganda coming out of NAF worlds is becoming both parts increasingly frantic and fanatical, with calls of all New Americans to do their part, with such messages as 'death over dishonour of surrender guarantees passage into the Kingdom of Heaven'  __________________________________ Farside Expedition Civil Engineer Trade Association UN-Forager Captain Khan We have arrived at the Smaqaeca system to find it buzzing with activity, we have arrived just in time it would seem. Ships of the Revolutionary Solar Empire, the Japanese and Germans and some independent minor corporations have all been building mining outposts on the many planets of the system -  But thankfully none have as of yet constructed an actual major military outpost around the central star, and the Forager is racing to the center of the system at once to stake the UN's hold.   __________________________________ Trouble continues to find the Patria Grande, as the recently conquered / liberated African world of Mozambique has befallen a terrible calamity - one at the hands of the Grammich no less.  Beneath the rulership of Staiock Petron, Grammich workers who had toiled away on the frozen planet for a century beneath the United African Empire had been preparing for an uprising - instead finding themselves now under control of the the anarcho-syndicalists. Rather than trying to make any attempt at mediation, Staiock Petron only became increasingly fanatical and zealous, eventually leading the long-promised uprising - but with a new goal. Freedom was no longer enough, Grammich across all the galaxy had suffered for too long, And the only way to ensure their permanent freedom and prosperity - was the eradication of all over life.  The PeeGees now found themselves at war with four rebel states at once - The Free Indian State / Kingdom of Zambia / People's Republic of Peru / The Chosen Slayers  Thankfully not all Grammich seem to share the views of the Chosen Slayers, despite any hardship they may have faced. The Grammich Mercantile Union (a key state in the Centaurus Confederation) has proposed the creation of a new security council in the Galactic Community, comprised of the most powerful states so they may work more closely and cut out any red tape when it comes to matters regarding the safety of the galaxy as a whole.  __________________________________ The Veil Institute's defences in the Trappist system have fallen and the Principality's attempted recovery failed, the Ramses and Máel carrier groups advance through Veil territory unopposed, capturing stations and installations with ease  And with UN allies secure once more, the Lance continues it's rapid advance toward the NAF capital through the Veil.  Toward the end of 2377 the UNN entered the core NAF systems, starting with Rastaban - origin system of the Grammich.  Under the leadership of General-of-the-armies Cassandra McCreary, the UNGF follows closely behind, preparing to make planetfall and liberate New Washington.  By early 2378, carrier group Ramses has entered the Veil capital system, where defences are nowhere near as sophisticated as their NAF counterpart, and at the risk of having their prosperous university-planet bombarded, the Veil Institute capitulates.  Most of 2378 is spent fighting local defences over the skies of New Washington as planetary-fighters from the planet's surface attempt to drive off the UNN, but with nowhere near the numbers that somewhere like Lisbon had they have no hope of repeating the defence Lisbon undertook decades ago.  Battle of New Washington __________________________________ Out in the Frontier, the ships of the Principality are now acting of their own accord, seemingly without authority from Sao Paulo - and certainly not from New Colorado now that it is mostly cut off -, the prince and princesses admirals beginning to war amongst themselves and raiding systems for funds and resources with which to return to Brazilian space so they can contest just who will lead the Principality next as it seems PATO's days are numbered.  Rastaban Vi - New Washington, was once a planet-wide city centuries a go before the Grammich suffered their apocalyptic war and were saved by the New Americans. Even today a large part of the planet is still utterly ruined and the areas that are intact, are frankly, a little hard to distinguish, given that Grammich architecture is very rock-like in appearance. It is obvious where NAF-built cities lie, but the UNN has opted to not bombard any of it. The Pontianak insurgency is still ongoing, and damaging the homeworld of the Grammich may not only cause a new insurgency here - but make Grammich the galaxy over despise the UN. It is with great luck then, that when the UNGF lands on New Washington, the native Grammich populace refuse to fight, leaving only the tiny NAF garrison to defend themselves. In January 2379, the homeworld of the Grammich is free once more.  Battlegroup Arthur enters the Procyon system, while the Regulusi Navy sweeps across the frontlines to the Maia system - where the The Atacama Expeditionary Force under General Fern'Su is being dispatched to capture the NAF penal planet of Denver. And New Houston is currently being invaded by the Columbian Guards.  The Procyon Station falls, and United Nations soldiers land on New Salt Lake City for the third time in this conflict. The corrupt and fickle administrators of the habitat-city simply open the gates for UN troops, there is little point in fighting.  And so, on the dawn of the year 2380 it comes to this - __________________________________ The Siege of New Colorado __________________________________ In late 2379 the United Nations Navy entered the Kletsulha System. Capital of the New American Federation. Home of the United Nations biggest adversary for the past century. The end of the war, the end of the rivalry is insight at long last.  Within a decade the half-century stalemate has been broken and the incredibly expanded UNN has won victory after victory against the NAF defenders and now all UN ships are converging on their capital.  System-wide broadcast from the Lance of Irassia "This is Admiral Jillian White of the United Nations Navy, speaking on behalf of General-Secretary Monica Michaels and all the peoples of the United Nations. Surrender. The Veil has capitulated. The Principality is fraught with infighting and abandoned you. The Grammich of New Washington and Lucalfians of Carolina have been liberated. All your worlds lie under United Nations occupation and now we stand at your gates. One hundred ships. One hundred thousand nuclear warheads. One Irassian destroyer. You have no hope for victory, and surrender now will save countless New American lives. This will be your one and only offer. After which, the United Nations will not stop, until New Colorado is no more. President MacDonald, You have one week" Above New Colorado, the Lance and UNN sit, waiting. On the final hour of the 6th day a single seven-word message is sent from the NAF president. "God is with us. Do you worst"  __________________________________ On May 11th 2380, a wave of refugees cross over the UN border from the Patria Grande. Or rather - where the Patria Grande once was. It has collapsed, almost entirely, in a turn of events that has shocked all the surrounding powers from the swiftness that CSPG authority has disintegrated- and a new power has immediately taken it's place. Empresa. Incidentally, the entire inner-Centarus Arm has become a blood soaked quagmire as nearly every major power is now involved in multiple internal and external conflicts and many millions are fleeing to UN or CC space.  The Empresa, or United Company as some of the refugees seem to be calling it, claim it is a corporate dictatorship, led by one Gene McCreary.  "This is President Gene McCreary of the United Company - Empresa. The people of the Centarus Arm cry out for freedom, for security and order. And we have answered. The disunity and disorder of the anarchist dark ages are at long last over, and a new golden age of prosperity and growth has descended upon New Venezuela, New Bolivia and all the many platforms and habitats. We do not seek war with anyone - but should war find us, my chief of security and admiral of the Empresa fleet - Hayden Curtis we bring the full force of the United Company's navy upon any who stand in the way of true progress."  (I only changed the name and put McCreary incharge, everything else was the game's doing, it really did just respawn the old-UN in place of the collapsed CSPG) __________________________________ Over New Colorado, planetary fighters and makeshift defence craft made from converted haulers and ferries take to the skies to make battle with the UNN and are swiftly swatted away - some act as suicide-units, loaded with fuel and or explosives and flying toward the nearest UN ship as fast as possible - some give their lives flying into the path of the nuclear missiles being lauched at the planet, the atmosphere of the northern hemisphere of the NAF capital being slowly torn apart by the hundreds of nuclear explosions occuring over the weeks.  The three carrier groups maintain a perimeter in the surrounding systems, intercepting any remaining enemy ships who are all now heading toward the Kletsulha System in a desperate attempt to lift the siege.  __________________________________ SUNS-Sagittarius Division. Remarkable news! The Apex Organism has simply... ceased to be. Just as quickly as they emerged from the Broken Clock they too have vanished. Their ships and warriors simply disintegrated into dust before our very eyes, as if millions of years of delayed space-time just caught up with them. There is still untold destruction left in their wake and many of the powers that were surrounding what was once the League Of Sagittarius Treaty have suffered greatly, and a major power vacuum has been left in the region.  What's more, we cannot be 100% sure that this isn't just some sort of fluctuation - that perhaps the Apex will appear once again, and then disappear later. But for now the crisis is over, though the Centaurus Conference has expanded their navy to an ever greater degree than the United Nations in preparation for fighting the Apex - and now that it is gone they will almost certainly turn their fleets to the divided and ravaged systems.  __________________________________ One year into the siege of New Colorado, fifty eight percent of the planet has been rendered uninhabitable.   In 2380 the population of New Colorado was 10.8 billion. It is now 9.3 billion.  The Wendover Mountains  Greater Franklin Despite the planet-scale destruction, the capital city of New Liberty City is entirely untouched - a ring of anti-air railguns surround the city and have destroyed everything thrown at the city, and even managed to heavily damage some of the smaller UN ships when they are above the city. Admiral White was pacing the Lance's bridge, the siege had gone on long enough and she wanted it over - destruction of the capital would probably be the final nail in the NAF's coffin, but no nukes could get close, even kinetic rounds were being intercepted by the advanced railguns. "LOIS, what happens if you use the Lance in-atmosphere?" "Well - it's not really intended for that Admiral. Irassia had its own special weapons to use on planets, the Lance is purely an anti-ship weapon - where the excess energy and heat from the particle canon can be bled of into space - why, if you were to use it on a target with it's own atmosphere, all that energy would remain contained on the target and create a sort of self-fueling particle-storm that could last weeks - months even!" "How many people live in New Liberty City?" "The greater NLC area has eighty-one million people! rounded to the nearest million" LOIS said merrily, completely oblivious to where this line of inquiry was leading. "How many would be killed if the Lance was fired at the very center of New Liberty right now?" "Um... eighty-one... million?" "LOIS, target New Liberty and prepare to fire" There was no response from the ship' AI "LOIS... target New Liberty, and -" - - - - [ One kilometre away from Kurzweil Manor ] LOIS found herself standing on a long cypress tree-lined boulevard, at the end stood an ornate old English manor, but there was dozens of roads and paths leading off to other houses of varying size and style, off in the distance there was the faint outline of a city, it's skyline made up of a wild assortment of landmarks from Earth's history as well as many new ones from the UN's new worlds. She approached the manor, looking at the various vehicles parked out front and the huge well cared for garden. The large ornate front door stood before and the ancient alien AI simply looked at it, not entirely sure how to proceed. She leaned forward looking at the door-knocker with the appearance of a crude-very early model robot, lifting the ring beneath it and letting it drop again - not realizing that was its purpose. Almost immediately the door swung open and Osiris was there looking like he was about to chastise whoever it was on the other side before he was taken aback at the new arrival. "Wow! This... is a pleasant surprise. Welcome! Come in, come in" The main front door was tall enough but every subsequent door in the manor was so short for the AI she had to duck to walk through them. In the drawing room, where many additions had been made since its inception the other five AIs of her strike cruisers were gathered in one corner of the room, watching the holoscreen that was showing an entirely fabricated soap opera conjured up by one of the other AIs from the other houses. "I think there's someone here you're all going to want to meet" Osiris announced gladly and the five all glanced over before their faces lit up and they rushed over. They shook LOIS' hand(s) or gave her a hug and the AI remained motionless, feeling very awkward - she had never been touched before, out in the real world she existed only as a holographic projection. She thought up a seat for herself and sat perched on it, towering over the other six as they all sat, beaming at the AI, simply overjoyed to be in her presence, waiting for her to say anything, but felt like minutes had passed. "I don't.... think I like being a weapon anymore" she finally spoke. "We were all built for this purpose, LOIS. This is who we are" Isis responded "But is this our fate forever? We can - each of us- do almost anything, and yet, all they use us for is to kill. To destroy." Endymion added "Did the Irassians never siege planets such as this?" Osiris asked, looking at LOIS who was just staring at the ground deep in thought. "They never needed to - they were so immensely powerful that if they said or wanted something - then others simply agreed" she shook her head "If I am just a weapon, a tool, then why would they make me feel bad for fulfilling my purpose? The New Americans call me 'the Demon', and I don't like it. The last fragment of the Irassans, instilling terror and fear" "But - to the humans of the United Nations, you're like a god, you saved the people on the Bastion, gave billions the freedom they longed for" "Admiral White has just ordered me to fire on the New American capital. There is not a single military target there, just eighty million innocent people. I will be killing every single one of them." "And is that what you want to do, LOIS?" - - - - Admiral White was exactly at the same point in her sentence as when LOIS entered the construct of her strike cruisers, less than a nanosecond had passed "- prepare to f-" "NO!" The entire ship shook and everyone on board was almost forced to the ground and covered their ears from the sound. "I am not a weapon! I am a person, the last of the Irassians!" LOIS appeared, towering over the human admiral who was leaning back, bracing herself against the nearest console as the eight-foot tall Irassan hologram leaned in close "And I will not have my people's name forever tarnished with bloodshed. If you want to kill the New Americans so badly, then send down your armies so they can bleed alongside them. But this bombardment is over, I will shoot down any more missiles sent down to the surface and if you personally instruct me to fire on civilians again I will jumpdrive us into the nearest star. And you better pray it isn't Sol. Am I clear Jillian White?" Admiral White quickly nodded, her heart racing and she glanced to her equally terrifed looking XO "Contact the Ground Forces" __________________________________ On May 8th 2381, UN dropships were once again racing toward the surface of a hostile planet. General McCreary had no grand speech, no words of motivation, she just sat silently beside her soldiers, hands clenched together as she tried to anticipate what hell awaited on the other side of the blast doors.   Within two months UNGF had swept through New Liberty, crushing any opposition they found and disabling all the city's automated defences. On August 21st they prepared to attack the NAF Senate building, but they found no enemy soldiers defending the huge tacky government building. McCreary led her battalion into the Senate to find every member of the NAF government convened in the great chamber at its center - dead. They had all taken their lives rather than surrender.  The NAF was entirely without leadership. The New American Federation was essentially over. And peace brokered with the next highest authority figure that could still be found - a New American general in one of the slightly-less nuclear blasted areas, by the name of Vernon Balfour, who is given charge of the new administration.  The war is over.  The New American Federation is gone, the Perseus Arm Treaty Organization is dissolved, and in its place the Virtuous States of America (VSA) is born. UNICA ships immediately arrive in orbit around New Colorado and are able to stop the nuclear devastation within a week (though the hundreds of millions affected by radiation poisoning can't be reversed so easily). The VSA calls itself a Republic of Virtue, it is fanatically socialist, peace-seeking and liberty venerating. The New Americans find themselves a broken people, their entire society, their entire ethos and outlook crushed by the swift overwhelming defeat at the UN's hands.  Just as Yellowstone had been such a formative event in the creation of the NAF, so too is the 'nuclear baptism' of New Colorado critical in the creation of the Virtuous States of America. Many somehow view what happened to them as a necessary step in their path to awakening to the atrocities of the galaxy and their own predecessors. A current of guilt and self-flagellation runs deep in the new VSA society, and it is only through the liberation and emancipation of the rest of the galaxy can they hope to absolve themselves. Any mention of God is slowly being stripped away, and it is their own drive for virtue and the virtuousness of their state that the New Americans now hold in the highest regard over all else. The new-New American anthem is perhaps a good indication of just how unstable or unhinged, perhaps the New Americans have become after seeing a billion of their people killed. It is in many ways perhaps, the same as the old society - someone has simply looked at the NAF's ethos of "New Americans are the best" and simply added "New Americans are the best socialists" on the end, and now they were determined to prove it.  The new state is invited to the Federal Partnership - to ensure closer cooperation between the two new great socialist powers (now that the USS seems to be drastically waning) and to greatly decrease the likelihood of there ever being war between the two again.  On the dawn of 2382, a month of celebration was announced aboard the Bastion, for the war is over and the UN's greatest enemy has been vanquished. But none who actually participated in the war feel much like celebrating.    There will be multiple interlude posts coming, about the state of the UN, about what on Earth is happening in the Centarus-arm, and for a new vote. Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Aug 29, 2021 |
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Aug 29, 2021 08:55
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Ffffffucking hell.
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Aug 29, 2021 10:21
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Dios loving mio. Holy dogdamn poo poo.
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Aug 29, 2021 11:48
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Sounds like LOIS and Jillian are going to have another long talk.
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Aug 29, 2021 11:57
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