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August 2, 1985 An Antarctic team investigating Little America V, a US research base that has, as far as anyone knows, been abandoned since the 1950s, are astonished to find that the base is still occupied, by people who are equally shocked to see them. The five living people there are all Americans. The family patriarch, a US Navy pilot, deserted his post and fled here during the war, in a transport aircraft loaded with supplies, with his family, his flight crew, and their families. Nearly all of them have died in the time since, and the remaining few genuinely believed that human civilization had been wiped out in nuclear fire, and that they were likely the last remnants of the human race. They are handed over to one of your diplomatic corps' 'Last Man On Earth' recovery teams, who specialize in re-acclimatizing doomsday survivors. These specialists have had plenty of experience in this, but they have very little work to do these days, and there has actually been talk of winding the program down; there hasn't been a fallout shelter or vault opened since 1983. These survivors are, so far, the only living humans located in Antarctica who were unaware of the outside world. August 5, 1985 An alien LCD monitor, taken from the Roswell object, is brought to Pearl Harbor, along with a team of computer and electronics experts and additional XCOM xenoforensics staff. The team will attempt to wire the display device into the functioning alien computer - which is being stored in a Faraday cage, just in case. August 8, 1985 Having had a month to deliberate, the consensus among the NAF and Comintern diplomats to the McMurdo Station request is a pretty definite no, and this response is delivered to them. "Hey, you can't fault us for trying," one of the Council members responds, when they get the bad news. Further interactions with them are cordial but noncommittal; any formal decisions as to their status will have to wait until session at the end of the year. As a gesture of goodwill, they do share communications with three isolated 'local' populations we have yet to meet, living in hiding in post-GRW bases. We're starting to get a good approximation of the continent's permanent population, with initial estimates revised down to somewhere in the ballpark of 12,000 to 14,000, over half of them within 250 miles of McMurdo Station. The population seems to be trending steadily down - many of the refugee settlements we've explored are recently abandoned or even in the process of currently being abandoned. Many of the people we've interviewed do express a desire to permanently remain on the continent, but what that will look like or how it will be organized remains to be seen. There is so far no sign of any alien activity on the continent, although your teams have definitely been looking. August 13, 1985  The Hawaiians launch another passenger ship. August 17, 1985 The team examining the recovered alien computer report a major breakthrough - the display is working! It is displaying, on an otherwise black screen, a single horizontal line of symbols that are presumed to be writing. "It could be a diagnostic or error message, a login screen, a brand name, or it could be telling us to go gently caress ourselves," a member of the team states. The text is added to the now quite sizable catalogue of alien symbology and probable writing, recovered from crashed spacecraft or photographed on Cydonia. No significant headway has been made translating the alien text as of yet, but many of the finest minds in the world continue to work the problem. August 20, 1985  The latest TNE fission reactor design is ready for production. As with previous designs, it is based on an existing concept for a conventional nuclear reactor adapted to use Trans-Newtonian materials. The new pebble-bed reactors are both more efficient than previous designs and capable of higher power output. The labs previously tasked to this work are immediately reassigned to adapting yet another conventional-technology concept - the nuclear pulse engine, once referred to by the Americans as 'Orion'. August 23, 1985  An engine aboard one of the new patrol craft reports an error and has to be taken offline. Examination of the engine shows cracking in the fuel lines. On the same day, the last of the regional network hubs for your planned admin network is completed. The system is nearly ready. Only one thing remains - the construction of the centerpiece, the command and control arcology that will act as the nerve center of Comintern global government. Putting it off so long is not an efficient or logical way to handle the expansion, but it has been necessary due to there still being no consensus on where it will be located. There has been some heated debate on where to build the massive structure, and it has yet to be resolved, though it will have to be. The list of potential candidates has been narrowed down to four options, and a vote will soon be held to select one. August 29, 1985  The commanding officer of Orbital Defense Command Paris publishes an editorial in a French newspaper celebrating the coming end of the threat of nuclear annihilation, being careful not to reveal any specifics not approved for public release. The article is well-received and depicts the Comintern's defense plans in a positive light. In addition to being good publicity for the program, it is also bound to help his career. September 1, 1985   Yet another patrol craft's engines fail, with examination once again showing cracking in the fuel lines. There are concerns that the hasty design and construction process of these ships may have led to quality control issues. Dassault-Mikoyan engineers respond to these concerns by insisting that their production processes are fine, the problem is simply that MOSA's maintenance facilities and personnel are inadequate for the sheer number of spacecraft they are now being called upon to service. SPECTRE is investigating it as possible reactionary sabotage. The DervinosDoom design bureau finishes work on incremental improvements to railgun design, and the labs move on to the next project. In addition, the final two railgun batteries assigned to Orbital Defense Command Melbourne finish their working-up and are brought online. Total global coverage is now 100%. The missile shield is complete. The age of the ICBM is over. September 10, 1985 A message sent from the Krusenstern on September 9 arrives. The extreme light delay means that the ship is effectively operating independently - two-way communication takes nearly two days now, a day to send, another day to receive. The message reports that they will be entering orbit of Minerva within two days, and will be continuously transmitting telemetry, scientific data, and photographs. Two more interplanetary cargo ships are launched, one AAA-flagged, one belonging to the Fraternal Order of Mars. September 11, 1985 The Krusenstern enters Minerva orbit, although we will not know the results for at least another day. Photographs, sent yesterday, show the gas giant, dark blue with horizontal bands, looming in the darkness. It is surrounded by a debris ring rivalling Saturn's. Direct images of its many moons are also included. September 12, 1985  Mission Control, XCOM Command, and scientists and politicians the world over are waiting for updates from the Krusenstern. A thousand people, all watching the raw data, see it at once. They see the unexpected infrared source on Minerva's seventh and largest moon. Minutes later, any discussion of a natural origin stops, as more and more data comes in. Definite signs of refined Trans-Newtonian materials. Electromagnetic emissions. Finally, photographs, of silvery structures atop the greyish-white of the moon's water-ice crust. The complex is small, smaller than Cydonia - but intact. These are not ruins. These are buildings. They're pressurized, powered, and heated. The Krusenstern's telescopes pick up illumination from lights on the surface. This was yesterday. The planned vote for the arcology location is preempted by the call for an emergency session. LostCosmonaut, you are captain of the Krusenstern; if you're still reading this thread, what do you do? a report will be prepared with a summary of the data the Krusenstern has sent you, including a report on the Minerva system's composition and everything we know about the alien structures Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 09:21 on May 16, 2022 |
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May 16, 2022 09:05
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...Oh my.
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May 16, 2022 09:15
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sebmojo posted:what's the current status of our in-system exploration efforts? and with the new engines/scanners could we design and build a cheap, long range exploration ship to investigate further out? 
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May 16, 2022 09:50
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Mister Bates posted:September 12, 1985 
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May 16, 2022 10:01
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May 16, 2022 10:13
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I put a pm through to lostcosmonaut asking if he's still in, basically.
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May 16, 2022 11:40
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It occurs to me, did we ever put together a formal First Contact Protocol in case of a situation like this? We knew from the start that aliens were historically present in the Solar System, I feel like we could have anticipated something like this happening and had procedures in place just in case. It's risky to handle something like this by the seat of our pants, since what little we've seen of their tech tells us it beats the hell out of ours by a worrying margin
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May 16, 2022 13:46
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What the gently caress is Minerva, a fictional gas giant system in the far outer solar system? I thought we were poking tiny Oort cloud ice chunks or planetoids at most, how did we miss an entire extra Saturn?
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May 16, 2022 15:39
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How publically did we announce the approach of our ship to Minerva? We need to start thinking on what our PR angle is. Do we keep schtumm and figure out what's going on before announcing anything, or do we release what we know already? There is also essentially no way they haven't detected us, unless they're like the Antarctica survivors and just keeping their heads down in the black. In that case though, they can't really do anything about us. In either case we should attempt to make contact, but careful-like, if only because we don't want to risk space plague or whatever.
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May 16, 2022 16:10
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Crazycryodude posted:What the gently caress is Minerva, a fictional gas giant system in the far outer solar system? I thought we were poking tiny Oort cloud ice chunks or planetoids at most, how did we miss an entire extra Saturn? I think Minerva might be https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/hypothetical-planet-x/in-depth/?
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May 16, 2022 17:18
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We've known about Minerva since 1978, it's just been so preposterously distant that it hasn't been relevant until we had a craft that could reach and survey it in a timely mannerquote:Minerva is a very cold, very distant, very dim gas giant. The smallest yet discovered, it has a diameter slightly smaller than that of Neptune, and a density a little less than twice that of Saturn. Minerva masses a mere 9.36 Earth-masses, less than one-tenth that of Saturn. It orbits the Sun in a near-circular orbit with a distance of over 27 billion kilometers and an orbital period of 2,428 years. It has an extensive family of twenty-one moons, all currently unnamed. The largest of these, Moon #7, is enormous, the biggest moon in the Solar System by far, with a greater diameter than the planets Eris, Pluto, and Mercury. Moon #7 presumably is the home of these... well I guess Minervans now.
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May 16, 2022 17:24
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Well, unless they open fire first violence is off the table, so as far as I can see our options are 'back off', 'stay at range and gather data' and 'attempt some kind of first contact'. Innocent_Bystander posted:How publically did we announce the approach of our ship to Minerva? We need to start thinking on what our PR angle is. Do we keep schtumm and figure out what's going on before announcing anything, or do we release what we know already? Aliens are already common knowledge, so I'd say we stay broadly open but with maybe a day's info lag to the public so we don't accidentally show the Kreusenstern blowing up during live tv.
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May 16, 2022 17:52
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Obviously we should greet our fellow communists with open arms.
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May 16, 2022 19:06
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NewMars posted:I put a pm through to lostcosmonaut asking if he's still in, basically. Hey, I had forgotten that this was ongoing, if you're willing to wait I can try to get myself back up to speed on the last several months but I'd recommend passing it to somebody else. Apologies for dropping off the face of the solar system.
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May 17, 2022 01:15
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LostCosmonaut posted:Hey, I had forgotten that this was ongoing, if you're willing to wait I can try to get myself back up to speed on the last several months but I'd recommend passing it to somebody else. Apologies for dropping off the face of the solar system. More like FoundCosmonaut.
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May 17, 2022 01:22
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LostCosmonaut posted:Hey, I had forgotten that this was ongoing, if you're willing to wait I can try to get myself back up to speed on the last several months but I'd recommend passing it to somebody else. Apologies for dropping off the face of the solar system. there's not too much to get up with, and it's sort of on theme that you're out of touch since you've been in a long range explorer for months basically you're first contact guy on the spot! good luck!
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May 17, 2022 01:29
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Well, and I'd been preparing for the arcology question. This is incredible. Quick questions: Do we know if they've detected us? What's our default option for an interaction like this?
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May 17, 2022 01:38
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In order to avoid any miscommunication, we should avoid blindly pursuing our own preconceived notions of diplomacy and engage them on their own terms. It's time to kidnap a few hundred aliens and ship them to Mars.
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May 17, 2022 04:34
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Oh my. OH MY. 
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May 17, 2022 04:36
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Antilles posted:A suggestion was raised in the discord that our long (, long, long) term goal for Earth should be to move as much of the population as possible off-world, move the rest into specially prepared arcologies/space stations/ring station and turn Earth into a garden world, a green and blue jewel among the stars. So you're saying the Comintern would rule the space between worlds?
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May 17, 2022 05:31
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mossyfisk posted:In order to avoid any miscommunication, we should avoid blindly pursuing our own preconceived notions of diplomacy and engage them on their own terms. 
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May 17, 2022 06:59
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The documents prepared and distributed to the People's Congress are divided into several sections. Data on the Minerva planetary system A host of mostly-boring technical and scientific data can be found here. The gas giant Minerva is almost impossibly distant; even Neptune is Earth's next-door neighbor by comparison. The planet's orbit is nearly circular and highly inclined, passing far below, then above, the plane of the ecliptic during its 2,500-year orbital period. It is near-undetectable with conventional technology, and was only observed in 1978, detected by multiple telescopes making use of Trans-Newtonian elements in their construction. Since then, it has been extensively studied. In the visual spectrum it appears blue, banded with green clouds of ammonia in the upper atmosphere. Approximately 9.36 Earth-masses, diameter slightly smaller than Neptune; the term 'sub-Neptune' has been coined to describe it. It is surrounded by a ring system that gradually transitions into a large system of moons and moonlets, totalling 21 (up from the 17 initially discovered), ranging in diameter from 40 kilometers to over 5,800. The hypothesis is that all, or nearly all, of these objects are Kuiper Belt or scattered-disc objects that have gradually been pulled into the gas giant's orbit, with the debris rings being remnants of other such objects that have fallen close enough to Minerva to be ripped apart by the planet's gravity.  None of them have any significant atmosphere, and all are bitterly cold. Four of them - including the seventh moon - are composed largely of water ice, and the Krusenstern has detected evidence of active cryovolcanism on Moon 10. The moons likely have liquid-water mantles beneath the crustal ice. these'll need names, if anyone has any suggestions Data on the alien structures The Krusenstern, observing the moon from a distance while remaining in orbit of Minerva, has detected approximately thirty large surface structures, with evidence of extensive subterranean construction beneath them. They are giving off significant amounts of waste heat. The ruins on Mars and Titan display a consistent architectural style - heavy use of natural features (up to and including hollowing out entire mountains), extremely large (bordering on extravagant) interior spaces, a lot of vertical construction with most structures having multiple floors, and heavy use of design elements that serve no obvious practical purpose, and are presumed to be aesthetic in nature. Their freestanding structures tend to be sleek and rounded in design, much like their spacecraft, with few hard lines or sharp edges. These structures are notable in their deviations from this style. They are freestanding, low, and squat; in shape, they are blocky and geometric. Materially, they are also quite different - while the 'Mars-type' ruins are largely natural stone or concrete-type aggregate in construction, with TNE structural reinforcements, these structures are built primarily of metal. Their interiors read as densely-packed with few large voids. Two notable features are separated from the main cluster by several kilometers. One, identified as Site B (Site A being the main cluster), is a large, perfectly-circular depression in the crust, with an octagonal structure in the center. There are a number of small objects on the impossibly-flat floor of the depression. The assumption is that this is a spaceport or landing pad, and that we are looking at landed spacecraft. The second, Site C, is a tall spire-like structure of unknown purpose; ideas thrown around have included a communications array, a planetary defense or weapons system, or a religious monument, although all are guesses. Dozens of low-power radio transmissions have been detected, and although many of them are modulated and clearly contain some kind of data, we have been unable to interpret any of it (honestly, it would be more surprising if we were). All recordings sent back by the Krusenstern are being studied as we speak. As of 24 hours ago when these messages were sent, there is no indication that the inhabitants - if indeed there are inhabitants - have detected our ship. For reference, if the Earth-based Deep Space Tracking Arrays were located on Moon 7, they would be able to easily detect the Krusenstern in its current location. XCOM Standard First Contact Procedures The First Contact Handbook developed by XCOM is a bit ad-hoc; you never specified any official procedure for this, so the Ministry of Outer Space Affairs attempted to develop one that reflected the spirit of the Comintern's space exploration strategy, as you have been running it. The rules are to assume peaceful intent unless indications are given otherwise, and to attempt to make contact via radio, using a series of standardized greeting messages. These include a sequence of prime numbers, the Fibonacci sequence, simple pictorial bitmaps, and audio messages in a selection of Earth languages. Any received messages are to be immediately relayed back to Mission Control, and - at least in theory, according to the handbook - Mission Control will decide how to respond. Unfortunately, there is a major gap in this plan, namely that it assumes the light delay will be short enough to allow for basically real-time communications between Earth and the ship. It isn't written for a two-day round trip communication time. The Krusenstern's crew does include a linguist (crosstrained as a maintenance technician), and a few Academy-trained xenoscientists (also crosstrained in various roles), and this was a scenario they trained for, so they're not going to be completely lost - but they are effectively on their own. you may give the Krusenstern orders if you so wish, but they'll take a day to get there The People's Congress is now in continuous emergency session. New data will be made available as it arrives. if you have any questions, or anything you want clarification on, feel free to ask and I will try to answer them Mister Bates fucked around with this message at 08:28 on May 17, 2022 |
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May 17, 2022 08:24
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i propose Noctua for the largest moon, after Minerva's owl. Also because it is far off, in the night.
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May 17, 2022 08:36
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does the Krusenstern have any shuttles or drones?
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May 17, 2022 08:45
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Or something that can be deployed as a comm buoy/satellite?
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May 17, 2022 09:26
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can we direct the Krusenstern to fly silently until we have a gameplan? to turn off active sensors and suchlike.
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May 17, 2022 09:46
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sebmojo posted:does the Krusenstern have any shuttles or drones? Nope! zanni posted:can we direct the Krusenstern to fly silently until we have a gameplan? to turn off active sensors and suchlike. It doesn't have any actives, and if the colony has passive sensors of its own, the ship's engines have likely already given it away.
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May 17, 2022 09:53
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I think that these are, how do you say, pre-fab structures? Some kind of equivalent to our own Antarctic survivor habitats, in a way.
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May 17, 2022 13:23
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Is it unusual or to be expected that we've seen no sign of anything starship sized burning around, sensors wise? We know there was a carrier in combat in the 40s, if they lost their ride I suppose they could have been stranded since. It would go some way to explaining why Mars was left derelict without anyone from the 'winning' side cleaning up. Do any of those radio signals broadcast on repeat? Ascension Accords Section 6.2 "...All ships under the authority of the Parties have an absolute duty to render aid when receiving a distress signal..."
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May 17, 2022 14:24
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mossyfisk posted:Is it unusual or to be expected that we've seen no sign of anything starship sized burning around, sensors wise? They may not have anything we'd call carrier sized, but they certainly have spacecraft of some sort on the landing pad, and while they may not look like much we have no idea what their tech is truly capable of. They could fit an interstellar craft in something the size of a Volkswagen for all we know. Frankly it's a little weird they didn't scramble interceptors as soon as we came rolling up in our not remotely stealthy survey craft, that thing should be glowing like a neon sign on IR. No obvious transmissions greeting us or telling us to gently caress off either. It might be a derelict installation. Also, the architecture is really unlike anything we've seen so far from the "Martians." Is it possible this is some different culture we haven't encountered yet? Or even a new species? I know it seems unlikely we'd have TWO aliens in the Solar System, but it can't be ruled out. Our accumulated knowledge of the Martians might not be applicable here, we can't make any assumptions.
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May 17, 2022 14:46
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Asterite34 posted:Also, the architecture is really unlike anything we've seen so far from the "Martians." Is it possible this is some different culture we haven't encountered yet? Or even a new species? I know it seems unlikely we'd have TWO aliens in the Solar System, but it can't be ruled out. Our accumulated knowledge of the Martians might not be applicable here, we can't make any assumptions. The 'Martians' were in a shooting war with someone. This could be them.
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May 17, 2022 16:53
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So is this the civilization advanced enough for interstellar space travel that they must have embraced communism, or the other one that must have embraced communism because of their ability to travel beyond their planet? And what does that say about the future of humanity?
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May 17, 2022 17:24
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Obviously the Mars faction's revolution failed, so they replaced 19th century figures like Karl Marx with alien socialist infiltrators in the hope of a communist Earth ending their oppression. I call this theory "Marsism-Third World(from the sun)ism"
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May 17, 2022 18:03
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My thoughts: - There's virtually no chance this is an American/capitalist outpost, they didn't have the technology to do this before the war and we would have noticed if a bunch of them snuck off afterwards. --Therefore, this is almost 100% aliens. -The aliens are almost certainly socialists of some flavor. --However, we don't know exactly what flavor, or how militant they are about their specific flavor. There was shooting between a whole bunch of different factions in 1917, I don't want to start that right now (especially since I'm in an unarmed survey ship). Plan: Absent any orders from Earth in the next ~3 days, began first contact procedures in accordance with XCOM instructions, using the crew's best judgment. Don't get too deep into the weeds ideologically, send positive messages about brotherhood, equality, etc. (possibly) most importantly, retreat to outside of laser/beam range and initiate communication from there. If I do get shot out of the sky I want to be at least able to see missiles coming and get a warning message back to Earth that there's hostile aliens out here.
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May 17, 2022 18:35
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Well, we're not really gonna have much impact either way what with the two day delay, so I'm fine with trusting Captain LostCosmonaut and let them call the shots for the duration of the first contact situation. Follow the instructions laid down by XCOM and uphold the ideals of MOSA and the CI is all we can ask in this situation.
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May 17, 2022 19:07
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But what if their flavour of socialism is Hoxhaism?
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May 17, 2022 19:22
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Then we ask them politely yet firmly to leave.
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May 17, 2022 19:24
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Maybe just stick to the Fibonacci Sequence and go from there for the moment, maybe a few Bonjours and Namastes and such
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May 17, 2022 19:26
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I think that we should not operate from the assumption that any advanced alien species is going to be socialist, because that could lead to danger.
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May 17, 2022 19:45
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Asterite34 posted:Maybe just stick to the Fibonacci Sequence and go from there for the moment, maybe a few Bonjours and Namastes and such That's what you'd lead with in any scenario, since we obviously don't know their language and they may or may not know ours. The process of learning how to communicate with an alien species is modeled in Aurora, naturally. Fivemarks posted:I think that we should not operate from the assumption that any advanced alien species is going to be socialist, because that could lead to danger. Agreed. Hiveminds are also entirely capable of being a spacefaring species, as an example.
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May 17, 2022 19:49
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