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Ach, I apologize, comrades. There were... delays, relating to Chairman Dutschke. Eckhart Fletcher, representative for the Deutsche Volksrepublik. I have had plenty of time to review the proposals thanks to the delay, so I will try to be brief. HC-40, Integrate North America: YES I-45, Diplomatic Overtures: YES. Germany will always favor diplomatic measures towards peace and unification. SK-39, Repeal Five-Year Plans: NO F-48, Organizational Capacity: YES NM-47, the Trans-Newtonian Global Network Project: YES F-49, Long-Term Research Efficiency: YES It is felt that the five-year plans serve the purpose of ensuring that projects can be guaranteed beyond the one-year meeting cycle. If necessary, of course, they can be modified by emergency vote, but it will do us no good to start large projects such as the proposed global rail network and risk them being altered well before being completed. Along similar lines, we offer wholehearted support for F-49. We support F-48 and NM-47, but in that order. The opinion of the Volksrat is that doing otherwise would threaten the foundaton of the latter. SK-38, Expand Interkosmos Academy: YES I-52, Armed Spacecraft Development: NO S-41, Research and Deploy Spying Technology: NO These were a matter of intense debate. Despite the continuance of the No-First-Strike protocol, Germany cannot at this time approve of arming spaceships, even if for defensive measures. The design seems sound, but the will of the population is against it. They would also take my head if I voted for further spying apparatus, and I am also personally apprehensive about the road this may lead down, so I must vote No on S-41. SK-38 is supported based on its civilian prospects. A-42, Surveil the Mars Ruins: YES JR-43, The Extraplanetary Focus Discovery Act: YES P-50, X-COM: YES P-46, Venera Initiative 2.0: YES W-53, Lunplan Expansion: YES Germany has no concerns whatsoever about endorsing all of these. They seem cheap and intensely beneficial for our understanding of the world we are in. I would also agree with our Soviet comrades' comment about avoiding further colonization at this time; however, as P-46 is written it only covers the necessary research and not actual colonization, so we approve. I-44, Administrative Overhaul: NO I-44 receieves a No vote due to the second half of the proposal; Germany is of the opinion that deciding a location for this centralized government installation is just as important as selecting Ascension Island was for the space program, and should have further discussion along those lines. Z-51, IRPA: YES The German government and German people are both wholeheartedly in support of the righting of past wrongs against oppressed and exploited peoples. W-54, Medals: YES W-55, Rename the Comintern: NO H-56, More Medals: YES Developing more awards we have no qualms with; however, we find W-55 slightly premature. This is not to disparage our Lunar comrades, but rather to reflect that our interplanetary status is still fairly limited. We would like to re-discuss this matter once additional colonization has progressed.
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Nov 15, 2020 00:56
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NewMars posted:You know, I've been wondering: with India, Japan and other capitalist holdouts, what's their view on how the Comintern claims to be the legitimate world government? How is the comintern portrayed in media and pop culture? I'm not sure the Comintern HAS been declaring itself the government of Earth? If so then that'd probably be recieved very coolly, especially for post-colonial countries who could arguably see the whole thing as just a method for Russian/Soviet dominance replacing the British and American hegemonies. Fortunately, our timeline split before the period where USAID managed to thoroughly poison the well on foreign aid by acting as just a straight up arm of US regime change and international dominance, so the Socialist Aid Program can almost certainly be taken on its face. So if the Comintern is just the world's dominant power, the response in countries that aren't Rhodesia and South Africa and other white settler nations is probably "thank God these ones aren't doing the same old bullshit, but we're still gonna stay over HERE."
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Nov 16, 2020 09:18
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Settlement on Venus and the development of aerostat habitats also has at least one possible parallel that would be highly useful for us in the future--gas giants. While automated mining rather than actual settlement is more likely as a means of using such planets, we don't currently have any technology to allow for the perpetual flight that would be required of working in-atmosphere, or experience at using such a thing. We're still getting off of Earth via, basically, more sophisticated forms of the classical strap-yourself-to-this-explosive method, and all our space facilities are in, well, space. Getting onto and off the planet is not a problem, but staying in a space between the two is a very different ask, especially for high-wind environments. The last major efforts any country made to such an end were in the 1930s, and died with the zeppelin era. Further actual colonization at this time would be stretching ourselves--this was the consensus in the Volksrat. But the research for it is one with excellent potential applications. The voting is over for this year, of course, but Germany would be more than happy to endorse this proposal again if (or, more likely, when) it appears at next year's Council meeting.
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Nov 25, 2020 00:55
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This is the best. This is the best. = = = = = [DEUTSCHE NATIONALBIBLEOTHEK ENCYCLOPEDIA ARCHIVE ACCESS: PROTEUS-CLASS COLLIER (UNITED STATES NAVY)] [PUB DATE 14/03/77]  USS Cyclops moored in the Hudson River in New York, some time in 1911. In the 1900s, following the Great White Fleet expedition, the U.S. Navy started to increase the number of colliers in its fleet. These were coal-carrying ships for the resupply of fleet units either at far-flung bases, or at sea. In the 1910s this included the Proteus class of fleet colliers, identifiable by their complex crane and gantry network above decks as shown in the archive photograph. The class was designed at a full-load weight (Dictionary reference: loaded to its maximum recommended allowance with both fuel/munitions and cargo) of 19,000 tons, at a length of 165m, beam of 20m, and a draft of 8.5m. [...] The Proteus class was, ultimately, an ill-starred class of ships. None of the four would survive to preservation or the scrapyard. The most famous of the class would be USS Jupiter, which would be converted into the first-ever U.S. aircraft carrier, USS Langley, and eventually be sunk by her own side after a Japanese air attack in the Second World War. The other three ships, however, all disappeared at sea--and all in the same general area. Indeed, it has not been lost on many people that Proteus, Nereus, and Cyclops all vanished in the notorious "Bermuda Triangle." A safe initial conclusion has been that, as all three were lost during World Wars, they were sunk by German submarines. However, reconstructed fleet and military records do not show any German U-boats as having claimed kills in that area during the time periods in question. The more logical conclusion is that all three were lost to storms--the Bermuda Triangle is a volatile section of ocean, and at the time of sinking, all three of the ships were carrying cargos of heavy ore which could have contributed to sudden weight shifts that would have doomed them. This would have been especially true of Cyclops, whose manganese ore cargo was corrosive, could have easily gotten loose in the hold, and could also have become a heavy "slurry" when wet. Additionally, the class was observed by Rear Admiral George van Deurs as vulnerable to structural failure; the Proteus' half-sister, USS Jason, suffered serious corrosion along the I-beams which formed the structural length of the ship. However, as with anything connected to the Bermuda Triangle, conspiracy theories abound. The first ship to be lost was USS Cyclops, in late 1918. With a crew and passenger count of 306, none of whom were ever found, her disappearance marked the largest non-combat loss of life in the history of the United States Navy... Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Dec 15, 2020 |
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Dec 15, 2020 22:12
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We've run into so many problems where new solutions were required. But with guns... well, even the aliens we ran into didn't have handheld versions of their super weapons. Our guns ain't broke. So why fix them? I also feel like it's an extremely human thing, to carry a weapon that seems antiquated because it means something. Eventually, diplomats in the future get issued ceremonial Makarovs, Lugers, and Brownings as signatures of their status.
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Dec 17, 2020 09:30
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Yeah, this is why we have dedicated hauler ships. If ALL else fails, we can slam together an away team with 300-odd pressure suits to get these poor people out of there, that'll fit in one of the larger transport ships.
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Dec 17, 2020 22:31
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Antilles posted:I'm actually kinda digging the big flag here, could be a decent contender for the comintern flag... While I don't know where the specific design originates from, I know it's pretty old. That icon--the hammer, sickle, and cogwheel--is the symbol of the Communist Party of America, CPUSA, which today is basically just one big fed honeypot, but back in the heyday of American leftism it was a decently-sized force. HOI4 uses a very similar flag design for the communist USA.
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Dec 20, 2020 08:43
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Fletcher somehow looks even more tired than usual; the scene behind him is the set of a minor Berlin news network's main stage, commandeered in haste. Comrades, please. This is all also based on assumptions of hostility we do not have in the immediate. Which is to say we are not actively under fire from ray guns. We DO, however, have a very immediate humanitarian crisis on our hands. While whichever Martians may have abducted these people may have been immediately hostile, it also seems possible they are no longer involved--or maybe even know the facility is still there. The presence of a "zeppelin" is troubling but if people in cryostasis have been waking up and moving about a secure facility for a year, well... I would have expected a response. At least a technician! And this is all hypothetical. Starvation is NOT hypothetical. Shipping repeated food supplies for hundreds if not thousands of people out to Mars would be a colossal endeavor, far more than it was for Lunagrad, due to the economy of distance. It would be far more effective and efficient to bring them back home, especially as our comrades in the Lunar Republic are perfectly placed to act as temporary hosting. More to the point, we MUST bring them back home. These souls did not volunteer to go to space; they have made no choice to embark on the frontier. They were taken from Earth against their will (though it may well have saved their lives) and have every right to return back, even if the planet is no longer as they remember. To keep them on Mars any longer than strictly necessary would be highly unjust, especially as we have the means to bring them back! A phone rings somewhere off camera--Fletcher looks over in that direction as someone answers it and a single word is spoken: Hanover. Fletcher's face tightens, but he turns back to the camera. There has been informal discussion of establishing temporary housing on the Moon for the Martian abductees; I would like to make it formal. The DVR proposes that an expedition be immediately mounted to retrieve the awakened abductees from Mars and bring them, if not home, then closer to it. Immediate housing would be established under the jurisdiction of Luna, and the priority would be to ensure that the abductees are safe, healthy, not at any risk or threat (though I think it unlikely), and then be brought up to speed enough to be allowed to return to Earth where and how they choose. Additionally, the DVR would like to request that the Barsoom outpost immediately establish a small monitoring team at the Face facility. Not necessarily permanent, perhaps in shifts, but this would serve two purposes. One would be to observe in case said Martians return to finally check up on the facility; the other would be to monitor the remaining sleeper tubes in case further parts of the population "wake up" before we can arrange a full-scale X-COM expedition. Finally, speaking of said larger population... Mister Bates posted:The Hawaiians contribute one ship to the Luna-Earth passenger route to keep the link operational in the absence of the Tranquility; the other is laid up in drydock being modified to use banks of Vasilyev tubes, for long range transport. How is this proceeding? As this information is going public at some point or another anyway, I think contacting the Hawaiians about using one of their Queens for this would be extremely prudent.
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Dec 20, 2020 10:33
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We have heard from Bates: COVID kicked his rear end but fortunately not to the point of hospitalization. It's been a very rough month but the LP will resume, though exactly when isn't sure yet.
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Feb 5, 2021 21:54
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Pirate Radar posted:I think it’s reasonable to answer the year and to give a few answers about ourselves, since the men from Cyclops and the U-Boat will have already started noticing certain things and deducing others: it’s been a long time, we have manned space flight now, I am commanding a Russian-speaking crew of mixed origin (even if all our communications among the crew are by radio, our suits are not free of insignia or lettering). Detailed political questions can wait, and I’ll try my best to defer them, other than to confirm what they probably suspect, that the war is over and none of us are each other’s enemies. These men can undergo political education during the quarantine period I expect to follow their return to Earth. I would agree with the captain's points, they're well-thought out. I do have a suggestion about how to describe ourselves if they ask (or more likely, when). We (meaning the crew, of course) are part of an international organization that has been conducting spaceflight for about a decade. For slightly more details, the best way to describe ourselves would likely be as the "Fifth International"/"Fifth Socialist International". While this is a controversial term and will probably get me dragged across the coals by the Volksrat for even suggesting it, it is one that they would most readily recognize. The Second International had only just disbanded when these men were abducted, so the idea wouldn't be too unfamiliar and it wouldn't be outlandishly farfetched that an organization that had included multiple powerful socialist political parties could have gained government in some nations, especially with the Russian communists being well entrenched by the time they were abducted in March 1918. Beyond that, I think deferring more detailed questions is both reasonable and also something they'll understand. Simply telling them that sixy-four years have passed is going to prepare them for the idea that the world is radically different (if not perhaps THIS much), and also alleviate any worries they may have about loved ones back on Earth (if in the somewhat grim form of most of them likely being dead already). Detailing HOW different the world is would take a long time, and time is precious in that situation.
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Feb 11, 2021 06:30
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Josef bugman posted:Absolutely wonderful. Thank you for this. Intensely agree. = = = = Fletcher is actually in his office, for once, going through sheafs of news reports. The simple presence of aliens in what was clearly a system designed and intended for humans is highly curious. No uniforms suggests civilians, being stuck in near the Cyclops crew suggests they were placed into, heh, "cold storage" very late. Base staff seems most likely, tossed or fled into cryo as whatever stopped this operation stopped it. Whatever their purpose, they can drat well stay there for now. We have priorities, and getting the abductees returned to as close to a normal life as we can give them comes first. Once that is finished, we can see about dealing with them. And, uh. He actually smiles at the camera for this. Please send the warmest regards of Germany to Kamerad Hans, and the rest of the U-Boot crew. If they desire it, there will absolutely be a place for them at home. Fletcher starts taking down notes to rattle trees in the Volksmarine to see how many of the old revolutionary sailors are still alive, though he knows it can't be many. Figuring out WHICH U-Boot it is will have to wait for later debriefing, though his staff say the most likely candidate for the timeframe is U-61, which was extremely successful. = = = = I also have a proposition from the Volksrat, which I feel is important to get on the table despite us being nowhere near the next committee meeting, due to its contents. The Volksrat applauds the development and commissioning of the new Berowra freighters, but members of the more historically-minded states as well as the aerospace and shipworkers' unions have expressed a desire to ensure we do not lose our foundational space history in the form of the Lunas. The DVR proposes to ensure the preservation of at least Luna and hopefully also Tranquility as museum ships or exhibits. When the two are retired, they should be disposed of for preservation rather than scrapping, possibly at a spaceport like Ascension Island, Baikonur, Jiuquan, Vandenberg, what have you. Additionally, if a situation develops where the survival of the two ships could be under serious threat, such as the appearance of armed and angry aliens, the DVR would like to see at least one immediately recalled and retired. Again, it is acknowledged that the next Committee meeting is months out; however, given the pace of our industry and events, the Volksrat wished this desire to be known now rather than later. Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 12:02 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 11, 2021 12:00
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Pirate Radar posted:Once things become public—as they surely will eventually—we should take this situation as an opportunity to affirm that some traditional laws of the sea, the duty to assist vessels and persons in distress, also apply in space. I don’t know if we and the Hawaiians have worked out any such thing between us already, but if we feel bound to aid these abductees and even to treat the alien individuals as potentially friendly and eligible for our assistance, then we should affirm that this is precedent for the future. I assume UNCLOS did not happen in this timeline. UNCLOS I and II both took place before the timeline split, and I don't think UNCLOS I being enacted is out of the question, so the Convention on the High Seas is probably still in effect as generally agreed-upon naval common sense. It was signed and ratified by most of both NATO and the Comintern OTL. Personally? I think developing a UNCLOS successor would be an excellent thing to suggest at the next Committee session. Hosting the establishment of a major international treaty I can only imagine helping the Comintern's position politically, and the oceans could PROBABLY use some unified environmental help by now.
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Feb 13, 2021 06:25
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I'd frankly consider it very unlikely we'll find anything out there. Minerva is so far out from the Sun that it can't be receiving any solar light or heat except in the most technical sense -- building anything there would be extremely unattractive except completely automated equipment, for any species remotely similar to us. And barring extreme Dan Dare speculation, the only alien species we know of ARE similar to us, so we can generally expect them to want to build and settle in the same sort of neighborhood as we would.
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Feb 15, 2021 01:28
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If I may risk being blunt to my comrades, you are being far, far too dismissive of many of these. First and foremost, the nuclear weapons. quote:-Removal of the veiled threat of... less than 1% of the Soviet Union's strategic nuclear arsenal, that less than a year of research will render utterly toothless with railgin PD Now, I do not know how much some of my colleagues' countries were targeted with nuclear weapons in the last War. Fletcher looks quite grim. I can send you pictures from Erfurt or the FEZ, if you would like object examples. Fletcher holds up a photograph of a missile on a launch pad, stamped with UNITED STATES NAVY - BUNDESMARINE. United States submarines, at the last point where there was a United States, were armed with Polaris A-3 missiles. These have a range of 4,600 kilometers, which is to say effectively infinite. They were also armed with the W-58 warhead -- or more accurately, three of them. That is three 200 kiloton weapons, each ten times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, which are used to effectively shotgun a target, such as a city, out of existence. Fletcher puts the photograph down. These weapons are an existential threat simply by existing. If they are offering to take them off the table by taking them out of the hands of the US rump government, the DVR considers that an utmost priority. quote:-The official recognition of an illegitimate intenational organization that has no power and largely exists on paper The United Nations was recognized by and participated in by all extant socialist countries at the time of the War, with the exception of North Korea and my own Germany. Fletcher's voice doesn't change at that, but there is a tightness in his face. Neither Germany was allowed into the UN. It held considerable sway in the defining of international law, and we still use pieces of UN treaty structure out of sheer convenience and common sense. Even if it is basically now an arm of Japan, it is a name with weight and they clearly see it as such. Furthermore, the U.S. Government-in-Exile is the largest, most powerful, and most well-funded of the five or so splinter inheritor governments. This is a relative statement, but it is also an accurate one, and a relevant one. It controls the Voice of America and has the broadest reach in the former US territory, and also undoubtedly has some degree of sway and influence in Hawaii, what with the presence of so much former US government apparatus and personnel. Taking them off the table would be a major boost to our efforts to bring the American splinter states into the Comintern. In addition to this, their economic proposals are offering to make them work with us, rather than parallel to or against us, which means more TNEs and economic power we can use for our aims instead of using it to counter them. These are also not nothing. Fletcher restacks his papers. The DVR would like to make an offer. Japan appears to be under the American-inspired illusion that the Comintern is an empire in the old model. That we are basically all constituent Soviet republics answering to Moscow's dictate. He is interrupted by some very angry shouting from the Soviet representative, and it takes a minute or two of back-and-forth before that settles down. Aaanyway. This is not true, we all know it is not true, and we have worked hard to make sure we all function as equal voices in our Comintern. Hell, having the UN present -- which was definitely not designed like that, what with the permanent Security Council -- may be coloring this view. Japan has extensive experience being on both sides of the imperial coin, but from their perspective they most strongly remember being the subject, having watched what the old empires did to China, and experiencing first the Unequal Treaties and then being little more than a US puppet after World War 2. The DVR would like to volunteer to try to dispel this illusion. Germany thirty years ago was a nation cut in half, only viewed as fit to serve as the battleground and plaything of the Cold War. More protests from the Soviet delegate, but less overly outraged. Now we are a proud, independent socialist nation, with a mighty economy and prosperity for our citizenry. We would like to reassure them that there are no subjects in the Comintern, and that they can expect to be treated as an equal. No protestations, and Fletcher smiles. Provided, of course, they agree to our terms.
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Feb 16, 2021 21:06
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We have been provided a little bit more information from Intelligence, who have agreed to release some reports for the sake of these negotiations. Obviously, this information must not leave these chambers. Fletcher doesn't look very happy about that even as he says it. Before the War, the last class of United States ballistic missile submarine was the Benjamin Franklin class, which we fortunately know a great deal about. This is because one of the survivors, the Simon Bolivar, is currently serving as the submarine fleet flagship for our Californian comrades.  The then-USS Simon Bolivar on trials. Without getting excessively into detail, while these submarines are nearly twenty years old by now, the technology of missile submarines has not updated that much even with our current evolutions in TNEs. They can still be considered very dangerous, and they were the first to carry the Polaris A-3, with sixteen launch tubes per submarine. Fortunately, most of them were destroyed during the War. However, we know that the U.S. Government-in-Exile (which is to say the one run by the former Joint Chiefs and the one currently being housed by Japan), still controls four.  GRU Operations Photo File JAP-O-JC-NS-424 The four US submarines in Japanese care are all of the Benjamin Franklin class -- from upper left, they are the George Bancroft, the Francis Scott Key, the James K. Polk, and the Will Rogers. They are in a particularly well-defended drydock on Okinawa, which we were fortunate enough to catch unshrouded while some form of maintenance work was going on. As you can see, these submarines are currently in no condition to go anywhere. The Japanese are not particularly fond of nuclear weapons, and have been tapping their reactors to supply power to Okinawa. We can see that at least two of the subs have their launch tubes empty, so where exactly the missiles are is anyone's guess. However, seizing those weapons and the subs would be immediately tearing the authority and muscle out of the Government-in-Exile, which is something that up until now, they have been loathe to do. These submarines do not present an immediate threat, as it would take some time to rearm and redeploy them from their current state. But it would be far easier and would involve much less of an act of war to get their missiles off the table through diplomatic means, especially as the Japanese are offering. It should also be noted that none of these are the Revenge, which was a British submarine and is currently unaccounted for, as the British Government-in-Exile has insisted on maintaining a stronger veneer of independence from Japan. The Revenge also has sixteen launch tubes and would carry the same form of missile. (OOC: This information was conveyed/cobbled-together in conversation, wanted to make sure it was crossposted to here.) Pirate Radar posted:We can probably push them to some extent without triggering a war, but are we prepared for a scenario in which the Japanese government says “if the current social order is disrupted, the nukes start going off”? This part I can respond to at least partially. Japan is the one capitalist country that I can in no way imagine as a nuclear threat. The Japanese have a particular dislike for nuclear weapons that exceeds even us Germans, as evidenced by the fact that they would be willing to give up these weapons even while acknowledging that they cannot hope to win a fight long-term. To give up a nuclear bargaining chip like that either indicates thinking you can afford to lose it, which is laughable, or that you don't want to have it on the table at all. As for the actual question, that would be an unacceptable scenario. It is also a hypothetical, and not in line with the current Japanese trend -- but more importantly, is not covered in our current treaty. If Japan wants more from us, they can come to the table and offer more later. We are not negotiating now and forever our stance for all time to give Japan a taste of all our current technology, this is not a slippery slope situation. Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 07:25 on Feb 17, 2021 |
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Feb 17, 2021 04:41
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I'll confess that I'm just glad this year's conference is only on the other side of the Alps for me, rather than the other side of the world. Work on the global transportation network can't come quickly enough. This has been one of those years where decades happen. We have gained our roadmap to the rest of the Solar System, undertaken the first major diplomatic talks with Japan and India since the War, and, well, inadvertently destroyed a major regional competing bloc while making a large number of new allies. These are the kind of moves that diplomats used to dream of. And, of course, the incredible discoveries and events on Mars. The Volksrat has given me its conclusions, and hopefully I should have put the finishing touches on making this proposal actually formal by the time the council convenes. It IS good to be back. Fletcher's Notes: - Please God don't let anything happen with Rudi before the session ends. - Don't like those princely states breaking away into their own rotten bloc. Probably will turn into violence, there's no way they can keep social order together without it once sorium power starts coming online. Situation already feels stretched thin, maybe some of the Arab League moderates can help with talking them down off the gas tank. Will not be easy. Almost certain all remember what happened to Selassie. - Have Willi get me the JCP report as soon as it's available. Essential to forming proper response to Japan. Those nukes HAVE to come off the table. - Indian situation does not feel solvable simply with economic levers. Feudal system, caste system unbelievable. Relevant parallels hard to think of. To-Do: - Apply for funding to transfer cassette data storage library to new CD-ROM system, hire interns for entire room of office space freed up in basement. - Contact (formal) Frazetti (PCI) about pre-War intelligence files on behalf of IvaR for Schwertbrecher. - Contact (formal) working group for Comintern World Tour. Desperately need real name. - Contact (informal) working group for Comintern World Tour for fact-finding mission to Milanese clubs. Cultural exchange of latest Kraftwerk album for information on "Italo disco".
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Mar 2, 2021 05:53
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God, the loving Japan debate.habeasdorkus posted:Also, I assume that Vietnam and China still have poor relations, though hopefully alternate reality means that the Khmer Rouge didn't happen. Sadly the Khmer Rouge did happen, because the events that led to it happening occurred before the timeline split. They were a member of the Comintern for a hot minute at the behest of China and were extremely unpopular, a major sticking point between China and the USSR. However, before game start they were in fact thrown out and Vietnam stomped them, just as IRL. With no US and UK to make hideously bad decisions-that-look-like-realpolitik, the Khmer Rouge is dead as gently caress and the resistance that the West funded for years is much, much more dead. As is Pol Pot. Vietnam captured him and were dragging him to a war crimes trial, when he... fell down some stairs. Onto some bullets. It was a truly tragic accident. Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 20:06
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The Deutsche Volksrepublik would like to formally propose the following: = = = = WORLD SOCIALIST EXHIBITION The non-socialist nations of the world appear to be continuing to labor under the pre-GRW impression that the Communist Interplanetary is a single, monolithic entity in the vein of the empires of old, which exists to crush, homogenize, and subjugate the world. This is self-evidently untrue to those of us inside of it, but we are all aware of the lasting power of propaganda. To that end, the DVR proposes a grand exhibition of the benefits of socialism, in the vein of the Worlds' Fairs of prior decades. Individual countries can provide demonstrations of the economic, social, and cultural benefits brought by their socialist revolutions or evolutions. The objective is to present, for the capitalist worker, direct and concrete examples of the benefits they can expect from a socialist goverment -- and SHOULD be expecting from theirs. In this way we will set an example that the capitalists cannot possibly match, or exhaust themselves trying to. In the case of my own DVR, for instance, the states and unions have developed plans to showcase the speed of the national reconstruction, the development of our new industry, improvements in education, literacy, healthcare, womens' rights. The Ministry for Housing has plans to construct a full demonstration example of a Roteshaus-program apartment, complete with simulated courtyard view, and the Ministry for Transportation has drafted comparisons of commutes. This would take the form of an exhibition held either directly within Japan/India/etc., possibly moving from country to country, or if this proves too onerous, located in a "neutral" location such as Spain, Turkey, Singapore, to be determined. Each participating country would assemble their own exhibition, if they feel they can provide a physical exhibit; those who cannot would be encouraged to contribute video footage to provide representation. The exhibits being prepared by the individual countries is considered important, to avoid the impression that the whole operation is a top-level Cominterp design. A secondary objective if possible is to undertake this with minimal strain on the overall Cominterp budget, with the alliance handling top-level organization/infrastructure/transit and the actual operations being funded directly by the participating countries. Costs where prohibitive are to be spread out to the more prosperous countries, such as my own. A concrete date for the debut of this exhibition has not been decided upon as of the time of this legislation, but should be undertaken as soon as feasible for the smaller participants, so as to coincide with the rest of our diplomatic blitz.
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Mar 31, 2021 22:59
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Knights of Cydonia Proposal This is partially an addendum or clarification to existing proposals and acts. It has been agreed-upon that we need to bring the Martian survivors home; after consultations with my staff and my fellows, I believe I have an idea on how best to undertake this, and would like to propose a formal process for returning these abductees. Firstly: the Martian survivors are to be collected ASAP, made ready for transport to Earth (excepting those who have stated they do not wish to return), and embarked for home. Shortly before they arrive (which is to say, one or two days), MOSA will make a public announcement to be broadcast worldwide detailing a basic overview of the Mars situation. -Our Martian survey discovered an alien facility on Mars, early last year. -This facility turned out to be host to cryogenic chambers containing abducted humans from several decades ago. It was also abandoned, for reasons which have not been yet determined. -Upon our ship's approach, a group of survivors who had been freed from cryostasis contacted us, and we undertook a rescue mission to secure them and the site. -These survivors were crewmen of a US supply ship and a German U-boat, both lost during the First World War. Provide ship and U-boat names when inevitably asked. -Following a quarantine period to ensure their physical well-being and to bring them up to speed on several decades of lost time, the survivors are returning to Earth, due approximately tomorrow. This will not go into detail on the site, the conditions found there, et cetera. We can say more information will be released later, but keep it simple. Under no circumstances is mention to be made of the spaceships present in dock or the aliens in the cryogenic storage. Following this news announcement, MOSA and XCOM will make a formal announcement for the creation of the survey team for the Mars site, which should be pushed as far up the priority ladder as reasonably possible, and announce that we shall be undertaking further search-and-exploration missions to ensure the safety of Earth and its people. This was largely covered in JR-43 passed last year; this would simply move that up in priority. Following THIS, our diplomats will contact the Japanese and lay out the details for Venusplan. Primed with such a bombshell announcement, the Japanese will likely be much more amenable to undertaking a joint expedition. However, the Mars operation is to be a purely Comintern affair. The Mars survivors will then be landed at Vandenberg Air Base in the People's Republic of California; most of them are Americans and the PRCal is best equipped to give them the best living situation and least culture shock that can be managed in this situation. The German U-boat crew, meanwhile, will be returned to Germany, for a hero's welcome. This should all be undertaken as soon as possible, both because these men have been held on an alien world for long enough, and to take advantage of the current diplomatic and social climate. = = = Fletcher adjusts his glasses. "We must strike a careful balance here. These men have endured unbelievable trials and richly deserve to return to normal lives; they are also, however, worth their weight in gold in terms of their knowledge. All of them should be offered positions of some kind with MOSA, and whether they accept or not, we should keep a careful eye and a low-profile security detail on them. The capitalist powers have never been above poaching or outright kidnapping people to further their cause, and there is no reason to believe that would not be the case with the survivors. Whether making them prominent or keeping them anonymous would serve this purpose better, I cannot say." Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Apr 3, 2021 |
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Apr 3, 2021 01:28
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Pirate Radar posted:Does anyone with pertinent submarine knowledge know if that boat can transmit or receive messages from that depth? Not easily. At 800 feet down, the only forms of communication that can directly reach a submarine are Extremely Low Frequency radio messages. Generating radiowaves on that frequency requires a transmitter with the ends very, very far apart.  As in, the transmitters themselves are fourteen-mile-wide crosses of cable, situated 140 miles distant. This is captured data from the American Project Sanguine proposal, which was never built -- the Soviets have their own facility, ZEVS, but that remains actually classified until ballistic submarines cease being a threat (which is to say, probably forever). Project Sanguine here is the scaled down version, as well -- the proposal talks about something like six thousand miles of cable draped across most of northern Wisconsin for the original. The scaled-down version would basically only be able to serve as a "bell ringer" to make submarines know they need to surface and pick up more detailed information via satellite or traditional radio -- and even the scaled-down version requires urban-grade power generation, precious little of which is left anywhere near the Project Sanguine site, to the dismay of our American comrades. More plausible would be Revenge having a comms buoy on eight hundred feet of cable. That could be raised to nearly or actually the surface depth, and receive other forms of communication that don't require a superpower to build the facility to broadcast them. That is much more detectable, of course, though even for our modern capabilities we're talking highly relatively. The only reason it seems like much more is because Revenge risks losing everything if they fail exactly one time and get detected -- perfection or nothing. They're at a depth which could crush WW2 submarines outright, in a part of the ocean no-one even dreamed of looking for them in, pretty much right on top of a supercarrier whose magnetic and sonar signatures could hide them from any form of detection in the world (indeed, OOC, there's precious little present-day technology that could find them in this scenario). This crew is doing everything beyond right, we've basically had to reinvent reality to find them. Asterite34 posted:Also, it seems to be intentionally hiding amongst the wreckage of the USS Ranger, using it to disguise its sensor signature. How did they know to do that? They shouldn't have any idea we're doing orbital scans for them. It's ideal for protecting them from sonar or magneto scans, the more conventional forms of naval detection. And even failing that, they could well have picked up on our scanning capabilities if they're at all tied in to the GLADIO network. I don't actually think Revenge is GLADIO's headquarters, for the record -- while they would be almost completely unlocatable without the most powerful sensor ever devised looking right at them AND having a human brain doing data analysis on the output, it's also a gigantic bastard to communicate out from there, which is not a great prospect for talking to operatives on any kind of regular basis. And honestly, if it's at all plausible to capture this thing and her crew, I'd very much like to. If only so I can shake the bastards' hands -- they may be capitalist die-hards, but what they're pulling off right now is genuinely impressive.
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Jul 7, 2021 15:50
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NewMars posted:I'm thinking the best way to deal with it is to nab it when it docks for resupply and to get whoever's doing said resupply too. This is actually an excellent idea. Even a nuclear submarine can't go fifteen years without a fuel resupply, to say nothing of the need to keep the crew in supply (and a Resolution has a crew of 143). Either that sub is a silent tomb on the ocean floor full of emaciated skeletons in British Navy uniforms, or it's getting resupplied from somewhere.
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Jul 7, 2021 16:04
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Fletcher is sitting in the lower corner of his video feed; the main screen has been replaced with an extremely 1970s-styled if well-ornamented office and desk. Behind the desk on the wall is the symbol of the Deutsche Volksmarine, and on the chair in between it is no less than Admiral Wilhelm Ehm, the commander of the Volksmarine. A nondescript German rating with an unfortunate mustache is standing next to Ehm's desk with a stack of photos and diagrams. "A 'boomer' submarine is the most dangerous weapon ever devised by humankind, at least thus far. But a 'boomer' is completely reliant on stealth to do its job. No stealth, no attack." Ehm grins, not kindly. "If we truly have discovered it without being right on top of it as you describe, there should be medals for everyone involved down to the janitors. Being able to find missile subs before they launch is less a game-changer and more a total shift in reality." His face returns to its resting taicturnity. "In order to launch missiles, a submarine like Revenge needs to be at firing depth or less. About 300 feet, in its case. Lower than that, and opening the silo doors would be suicidal." Ehm shakes his head. "The interior of the missile tubes is inside of the outer pressure hull, which is the only thing that can withstand the weight of all that water at those depths. The interiors are not rated for the same kinds of pressure, opening them at under firing depth is basically asking for the sub to collapse instantly. I would be surprised if the machinery is even able or permitted to open under higher pressures than the sub could survive." He nods to his aide, who puts up a picture next to him of a simple sea-profile chart with a line drawn across it labeled FIRING DEPTH. "So she must be above firing depth to launch nuclear missiles. She can do this underwater, or on the surface." He taps the water in between the line and the surface. "She can launch underwater, but this requires several things. First, the sub has to be 'hovering' -- not moving, using engines and propulsion for station-keeping only. Second, and very importantly, the launch tubes have to be flooded before firing." Ehm looks at the screen. "Missile launch tubes are kept pumped out, because saltwater and delicate machinery don't mix. But they must be flooded before the outer door can be opened, like how an airlock must be pressurized or depressurized before it can open. Opening the doors to just flash-flood the tubes is a bad idea, because the rush of water will both stress the tube compartments, which..." He makes a popping gesture with his hands. "And more immediately, it can also damage the missiles. Again, the machinery very well might refuse to even open the outer doors if the pressure is too high." Ehm looks at the camera. "More importantly, this is also very noisy. Noise is death for a submarine, and the sound of flooding the launch tubes is very detectable and distinctive. If you have Revenge dead to rights and she attempts to start launching her payload, any properly trained acoustics officer will know immediately." Ehm taps the chart at the surface. "This is not the case if they're on the surface, of course, but the doors still need to be opened, and some pre-launch preparations cannot be skipped even in the gravest of emergencies. And a submarine sitting on the surface is a target barge for any missile-armed warship, not a threat." He looks back at the camera. "And, again, Revenge would need to be stationary, which... I would not want to try launching missiles while NOT being so." He shakes his head. "I was on board a Navaga-series for a test firing during my Naval College tour. A nuclear missile is a multi-stage object and the initial stage firing it out of a submarine is like..." He pauses, searching for a metaphor, and cracks a smile when he finds it. "Shooting a big potato gun. It puts out a lot of force, and will shake the submarine badly even firing just one, let alone multiple in sequence." His smile fades. "Even if they are fanatics trying to strike a final blow before their own death, that would be avoided at all costs. Additional motion would throw off the initial stages of the launch." Ehm folds his hands. "There should be no mistake, Revenge can absolutely launch all of its missiles terrifyingly quickly if it wants to. But this is five or ten minutes quickly, not five or ten seconds quickly. A 'boomer' submarine relies on stealth to buy it that window, and it is very good at getting that." He smiles that very not-kind smile again. "Stripped of that stealth, well, you have an overweight, enormous target. It does have six torpedo tubes of its own, but a dedicated attack sub can outperform it significantly. Under more than one set of guns - or, rather, torpedo tubes -- it will either run or die." Fletcher returns to the main screen, nodding his thanks to the Admiral, but his face is hard. "As capturing the Revenge seems at least within the realm of possibility, and Admiral Ehm has voiced his tentative approval -- he is the expert here -- I am prepared to voice my support for that option. But Germany has one thing it wants to be set in stone." He frowns. "Should the Revenge make any kind of motion that could make launching nuclear missiles possible -- flooding her launch tubes, opening the missile silo doors -- she is to be immediately destroyed. No second chances, no checks or warnings." He nods over to the window, apparently forgetting momentarily that no-one watching his camera can see out of it. "Nothing that could be on that submarine is worth sacrificing the lives of millions, which is what any launch from her will mean." [[OOC, however, there's some tantalizing possibilities as to what COULD be on Revenge. She could have a connection to the GLADIO network, of course... but a nuclear submarine is also exactly the sort of undetectable vanishing trick that would be used as a bugout method for any number of persons of extreme interest. The list of ones who could be on a British submarine is not long... and Queen Elizabeth II, notably missing since the British Revolution, is at the top of it. That would be exactly a reason for Revenge to be kept supplied and in maintenance in absolute secrecy, though it doesn't explain why she would be where she is. I'm also in favor of formally introducing Ehm's offhand suggestion, too -- EVERYONE involved in the Hunt for the Revenge should get a special award. And not just the crew, though that geosurveying tech deserves an especially shiny medal -- also the engineers and scientists who developed the technology. What has been accomplished here was in the realm of complete fantasy when Revenge was designed and built, it is a truly monumental achievement.]] Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Jul 8, 2021 |
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Jul 8, 2021 03:32
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Veloxyll posted:It was, yes. We should probably have our geosurveyors look into other shipwrecks for hidden submarines, now that we're aware of the trick. Specifically shallow ones. Finding the Titanic and Bismarck in this particular search basically only happened because we went over the entire North Atlantic. Functionally, no military submarine of the time period can dive much deeper than Revenge is here -- 800 feet below the surface. This may seem shallow, but honestly getting to that depth might well be harder than going to space. At 800 feet down you're dealing with 23 atmospheres worth of pressure, which requires a fair bit of engineering to withstand for something the size of a nuclear submarine. It's also paradoxically so shallow that not a whole lot of wrecks are at that depth (and in real life, a lot of the ones that are have disappeared thanks to illicit piece of poo poo metal salvagers). Ships like sailing and fighting in broad open water so they can move around without running into poo poo, which means as deep and uncrowded as possible (to avoid hitting undersea rocks and shoals and such). So most military shipwrecks wind up in over 1000 feet of water.
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Jul 8, 2021 06:43
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Transcript: Interview with Felix Schlosser, hotelier and masseuse, Baden-Baden, German People's Republic. = = = = = You want my life story? Well, I suppose I am not surprised. Though I will admit, I am more surprised than you might think, because I know why you are asking me. I was born in 1920, right here in Baden-Baden. My father owned and ran the Markgraf before me -- he liked to call it the town’s best-kept secret. I always thought he was full of it, back when I was young. It wasn’t until after the War that I would understand. Yes, that War. I was young, angry, and starving. Everyone was in Germany, those days, even here in the oldest spa in Germany. It made us easy targets, which I’ve done my best to continue to remind the Council of whenever they think of pinching pennies on keeping the people fed. Unhappy, uncared-for people may march in revolutions, yes. But not only socialists can lead them. So all we young, angry, starving men were easily swept up by Hitler and his Nazis. Heh. I would like to say it was not true, but let us be frank. I was born in a spa town frequented by the rich and the military, six miles from the French border. There were no communists around to talk to me about liberation or injustices, but there were plenty of respected army officers, well-off socialites, and bold young Nazi fire-breathers cycling through to talk about the New Germany. My father remembered when Elsass-Lothringen was on our side of the border. No-one in my family was a hard sell. It is still not a comfortable topic, not that many of those who marched with the Nazis are alive to talk about it anymore. Is it shameful? Beyond belief, yes. But I came to realize that I can do more by talking about it, prevent it from happening again. It does help that I did precious little for the Third Reich, because of these. Eh? Thick as Coke bottles. My eyes have never been worth a drat. So I was a clerk and a paper-pusher for evil, which is bad enough, while my poor father went off to serve our New Germany in the Wehrmacht. So it went, until the landings in Normandy. I was conscripted into the Wehrmacht, given barely a month of training, and thrown face first into Lorraine. Where the Americans promptly blasted apart our line of invalids and rejects and surrounded what was left of our collection of clerks with guns. My glorious stint as a soldier lasted less than two months. I spent the rest of the war in the loving care of the Americans. It was not often remembered how we were treated -- perhaps because we were fascists, and more importantly, losers. But we were denied even the label prisoner of war, and left to starve and fend for ourselves in camps up and down France and Germany. There was not enough food for anyone in Europe in those days, no, but we were left at the bottom of the chain. Can I blame them? Did we deserve it? I have asked myself such questions often over the years since. What we enabled as Nazis was unthinkable, unforgivable. But where did responsibility come into the picture for me, barely a man, blind as a mole, freezing and starving in shacks outside Chambois? I watched the newsreels confirm in black and white what we had all thought we did not know about the Jewish question, and could see how even the nothing camp around me measured well past what was there. But why was I here in Chambois, and the officers across the channel in England where all the food was? My time as a disarmed soldier destroyed my faith in fascism. But it also planted seeds against the Allies. It did not help, of course, that any idiot with eyes could return to a Germany blasted by war and watch all the people with actual power and influence escape unscathed. Oh, yes, men were hung at Nuremburg. But I could stand there in my father’s looted hotel, trying at age 27 to pick up his life in my hands while my mother grieved and the victorious Allies told me they had no idea of where to even look for his body, and listen on the radio as that asslicker Manteuffel, that baron who had sent clerks and cooks to stand against tanks, was hailed as a paragon of liberal politics and spoke from the Reichstag that West Germany must rearm, we must take our place in NATO, alongside countries that would not even allow us to sit at the table and watch their United Nations rearrange the world to suit them, that were already drawing up plans to turn our country into their chess board. It was not a perspective many of my generation shared. I could not blame them. Even though Hitler’s spell had been broken, the cost had made everyone exhausted, rudderless, riddled with self-doubt and hatred. It was not as though he were actually a magician who pulled such prejudice and hatred out of thin air. And we were now suddenly to stand up and take up arms against what had been our own country? To hate communists again, as the Nazis had said, under the direction of Wehrmacht officers who had led us to shattering ruin against communists already? It made Germany long for peace. It took our own sons and daughters to truly rouse us to just what was happening while we sat in shock, to the injustices peddled under our name. I was busy enough, trying to learn my trade from my mother and a man now dead. I had little time for politics, and no taste for it anymore. Which was, I think, the point. Keep me too busy to be involved, and too exhausted and beaten to care. Why would I spend the time? This time, however, my position helped me. By the time of the Great Revolutionary War, I was now the dignified, experienced hotelier you see before you. And the noble French had chosen my little town for their occupation headquarters, because the hotels and resorts were nice enough for their tastes despite being German, and yet they were not too far from home to be unable to run off to their mistresses in Champagne for a weekend. My old Markgraf was greatly favored by a certain set, who considered its “low profile” compared to the Kurhaus or the Friedrichsbad spa a benefit. They found it… discreet. I found them repulsive. I also knew that to alienate them would mean losing what little I had left of my father overnight. So for fifteen years I gritted my teeth and took their francs. And hired unattractive servants. I will relish, until the day I die, what I watched on their faces after May of 1968. It was shock, at first, and outrage. How dare the people of France declare that they were unhappy to be ruled, to be complicit in the American rape of Vietnam and the destruction of France’s independence! They were disdainful, and arrogant. Then they were not. It was not overnight, but oh, it happened. I watched the confidence fade from their eyes, saw them march over my threshold with ever more worry and frustration as the French refused to be governed. I felt the knots in their backs as they lay on my table, blathered to them as they moaned and whined their deepest fears. They couldn’t lose to these ants, could they? This faceless mass that dared to think it knew anything? I never did tell them what I knew to be the answer. Not outside of my mind, anyway. I am a courteous host, you see, and my duty is to my guests, of course. But I once thought I could never lose it all, either. And every day they continued to be stuck there, in a Germany that was waking up and angry, while their home they thought so precious and docile and thankful showed them just what it thought of them. It was the first nuclear weapon that really drove it home, I think. When the Americans bombed Abbeville. That was when they knew there was no going back. The Americans were still deluding themselves that if they just were ruthless enough, hard enough, they could break the will of the people and force them back under the yoke. The French followed along in the song, but underneath, the delusion was broken. I remember well one officer, Mirabeau, sitting piss-drunk in the back garden, and wailing. Crying like a child. He was not one of the old men, he had fought in La Resistance during the War. He knew that brutality cannot win against resolve. It can hold it at bay, but not kill it. “They are stamping on the fire, but have not stopped fanning the flames.” I remember the look in his eyes, when he looked at me then. I knew it. And he knew immediately that I knew it. It is the look of a man whose delusions are shattered, who has had the shell torn off of his back and been left shivering and raw, wholly dependent on others, with no idea where is safe to stand anymore. I had worn that look before. Mirabeau was the first one to ask to stay at the Markgraf “for the duration”. He was from Bordeaux, there was no chance to go home for him. The ones that followed him in were the older men, the ones who still believed they could control this, that they could win. I had a reputation for discretion, you remember. My father had known this, and at some point I had truly understood it -- when you live in the shadow of fame, you seem invisible. A hotel in the lee of the Kurhaus may as well be Shangri-La; it gets little attention and visits of worth, until it becomes known for being unknown. Then it gains the reliability of being known to be anonymous, discreet, a place to be unseen. And many of my long-term customers believed this to be of utmost importance, because while they may not have believed they could lose, they had fought the War, too. They could tell when it was time to retreat and regroup. And in another world they may have been right. They did not account for Germany. I think they had wholly disregarded us, thought us truly a chessboard and carven pieces to push around. But, heh. That was not so. I remember them sitting around the television in the common room, watching the news from Frankfurt as things unraveled completely, seeing the world go to pieces around them. Listening as Sudwestfunk told them that the Americans had thrown it all to poo poo, that NATO was going to pieces in the hellfires of Fulda and the Somme and the Rhone, as the fleets died off of Orkney and Norway and Cape Hatteras. Most of all I remember Colonel Simon when Bonn fell to the revolution. I remember seeing him slumped in that chair, in the corner, like a dead man. His cap had fallen off and he was staring at the floor as if to see through it. It was the first time I had ever seen one of them so shattered. It was also when I knew I had to get out ahead of things. I knew something was coming. Baden-Baden had largely escaped the last war; I did not expect luck to carry it twice this time. And certainly not for myself, a hotelier with Wehrmacht service on record and a hotel check-in book full of bourgeoise French officers. So I made my decision. It is why you are interviewing me, after all. When Bonn fell, the French command in town immediately began to plan to run for it. I knew this intimately -- I could hardly miss my guests fretting about it. So I told the cook and the bellhops to organize a large lunch in the garden, “take their minds off of the world for a while.” And then I left, and walked downtown, to where I knew the revolution would have beaten me there. To where I also knew the town’s young firebrands met, in the same rathskeller myself and the other firebrands of my day had met and plotted. I could hardly miss my guests talking about “dealing with” the place, and Baden-Baden has never been a town with an overabundance of young people. I walked in, located the crowd of youths glued to the television set, asked around for their leader, and then told them I could tell them where the French officers in town were. And then I ordered a drink. Things moved very quickly after that. The Soviets didn’t break through the line in central Germany for almost another fortnight, because they could not secure the railroads. By the time they finally reached the French Occupation Zone, however, there was no French Occupation to resist them. Its head had been cut off, its officers trapped in spas, restaurants, hotels, and clubs by its angry and terrified citizenry. When the Soviets rolled into the city, they found the cream of the French military tied up in the town square, waiting for them. Less Herr Mirabeau, I will admit. Having sold out the French occupiers, no-one was willing to imagine I might have only had three bellhops for the house, rather than four, one of whose uniforms did not fit as well. I had no love for the rest of the French, you understand. I had experienced more than enough of their tender mercies. But I had been a devoted, ideologically sound fascist before I was told the truth of it all and broken in a shoddy prison camp outside Chambois. I had been a true believer, until I was not. And then I had come to aid the revolution, and watched as another man was broken in front of me. I will not pull up a ladder that I have climbed. Herr Mirabeau I have not heard from since. He left the city afterwards, to attempt to find what had become of his own hometown near Bordeaux. I cannot know what has happened to him, though I do hope he managed to find the truth for himself. But my life, meanwhile, goes on. I was feted for a while as a hero of the revolution, key to breaking French control of the occupation zone, but I avoided it. I was not one of the ones to charge their security details, who was wounded or died capturing them. Not even my own guests, who were seized without a fight. They had counted on anonymity to hide them, on hiding under the coattails of my own invisibility. When I destroyed it, it left them with nothing, and they were marched out as stunned as they had been when Bonn fell. History does not remember the countless little men like me who make up the supports for its big names and great battles -- it cannot, for you cannot tell a million life stories whole in the span of less than one. My father had understood that from the First World War; I learned it from the Second, from watching Manteuffel and Nuremberg. I understood just how important those people are from being broken and imprisoned, from watching the generation below me learn from what mine did not say. I learned how important it is to have your say, from what happened to me when I did not, and what happened when I did. And that is why you are telling my story, after all, instead of that of Richter at the Fraulein or Jagermann at the Edelweiss. And why I know I must tell it. Why it is so important that I stand at the town meetings and raise my voice for the whole, remind them what they risk becoming and losing if they do not, and they murmur and remember who I am and listen based on what I have done, not just what I say. If I do not speak out, then I will be spoken for, and my invisibility will strangle me -- will drag another generation into becoming faceless numbers in Wehrmacht casualty lists. But at the end of the day, I stump out of the hall and down the street, in the shadow of the Kurhaus, and there is so much work to do. People may follow me with their eyes for a time, but eventually, they must handle their own life. And so I go from hero of the revolution, to a major local figure, to a significant hotelier, to just another man in the street, my hotel another front in the row of buildings. And this is what my father knew, and what I know. Even without bourgeoise, not everyone can visit the Kurhaus, for it is only so large. So then there must be a Friedrichsbad, and then a Grand Hotel, and so on, and then you get to the Markgraf, where there is a plate describing its role in the seizure of the French high command, and an old proprietor and his young staff. And because you are here, it is the most important to you, more than the Kurhaus up on the hill, because you cannot know the Kurhaus, but you know the Markgraf. So it becomes your secret. And to you, it is worth more than the world. And that is important itself. My son, of course, does not understand at all. His world is so much larger than mine, and mine was larger than my father’s. He can talk with his friends in New York and Rostov and Lubeck on the Internetwork, while being imprisoned in Chambois is about as far as I have ever been from home. I suspect, though of course I cannot prove it and you would not tell me, that his working at Sudwestfunk is part of why you are here talking to me, when there are so many others. Hah. He thinks I should be a hero, and does not understand why I do not want it. One day, I think he will understand. I do not want him to be broken, but... I think we have already done the breaking. I certainly hope so. And I think that one way or another, he will understand.
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Aug 13, 2021 06:52
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It actually worked. Hell yes.
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Aug 14, 2021 09:40
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Excerpts from Flottes de Combat, 1981 (translated from the original French) Even as the eyes of the world turn to space, the sea remains as important as ever. A decade of peace following the effective end of the Great Revolutionary War’s naval fighting has meant surprisingly little has changed -- while there has been no major fighting to reduce the size of fleets, the devastation to world economies and subsequent reconstruction has prevented the launch of much new floating stock… ...The most powerful navy in the world remains the Soviet Navy, following the devastation of the navies of the prior major naval powers (and the destruction of the country wholesale, in one case). Still mostly equipped with submarines and small craft, the Soviet Navy has been ill-equipped to take the “world policeman” role previously held by the Royal and American Navies, to the delight of pirates worldwide, and has shown little interest in doing so, at least outside of direct Soviet interests. Nevertheless, the Soviet Navy is still the world’s largest, and does feature some devastating surface combatants, including the world’s most modern “super-cruiser”, the brand-new missile cruiser Kirov, which has taken its place as the pride of the Soviet fleet… ...The Japanese Navy has dropped all pretense at being purely for self-defense, following the Constitutional Reform of 1974 -- though in practice, its role has changed little. Japan’s limited access to raw resources, particularly fuel, has forced the republican Navy into a very different form to its Imperial predecessor; fast, flexible, and efficient, Japan’s fleet of destroyers are a common sight in Asian ports, often escorting her two light aircraft carriers, Akagi and Amagi, and providing one of the few active anti-pirate forces in the western Pacific. Japan also hosts a large number of United States Navy fleet units, though few of them have moved or patrolled in years, due to the situation of the Government-in-Exile… ...Indeed, many of the U.S. successor states have taken over parts of its navy -- and often much older parts than expected. The bulk of the U.S.’ “mothball fleet” was located either in California’s Suisun Bay or in Philadelphia harbor. The latter was moved to Baltimore by the Federal Government when control of Philadelphia became in doubt; the government has reactivated almost none of it due to lack of resources and has been slowly scrapping select parts of what remains to keep the national budget in the black. The former has provided a large part of the fleet reserve of the People’s Republic of California, along with its prize flagship: the veteran Iowa-class battleship Missouri, which was purchased from the Cascadian Worker’s Collective in 1977 as part of a larger economic package and recently re-entered service after an extensive refit. California also features one of the only surviving U.S. aircraft carriers, CSS Republic, formerly the Essex-class Hancock, which was stuck in drydock due to extensive fire damage at the time of the Californian Revolution... ...Two other successor states prominently run US battleships as their flagships. The more prominent of the two, USS Massachusetts is the flagship of the New England Naval Defense Force, and while such information is not public, best estimates suggest she is nearly running their naval force bankrupt to maintain. She is, however, still regularly seen at sea nonetheless, mostly used in posturing at the Five Nations and occasionally as a major representative for New England at diplomatic events. The other, the USS North Carolina, leads what is known as the Shoestring Fleet, a navy collectively operated by the three Southern Cominterplan states of New Afrika, Outer Banks, and Lower Georgia. The Shoestring Fleet is assembled out of various ships scattered across the South prior to the War (with the exception of USS Alabama, which is still in NRC territory and has not been reactivated), and mostly consists of Coast Guard assets and gun destroyers; the North Carolina is only rarely out of harbor, due to shortages of parts and materiel, but just by existing it gives the three Cominterplan states a major diplomatic edge in the region. Finally, the dreadnought USS Texas is formally commissioned as the flagship of the Texas Navy, but in practice has not sailed in decades; it is questionable whether it even could in the present day. Most of the Texas command is housed in a nearby office complex… ...The Republican Navy of the Union of Britain is now the second-largest in Europe, due to the loss of much of the force either to control of the British Government-in-Exile or being sunk in the course of the Great Revolutionary War. The flagship of the fleet is the WW2-vintage WLNS Victorious, the only British carrier to survive the combat; she had been deemed obsolete immediately after a reconstruction and was awaiting scrapping when the British Revolution struck, freshly outfitted. A new carrier, WLNS Triumphant, is nearing completion to replace her in this role… ...The French Navy is the most modern in Europe, due to almost all of it having been sunk; almost all of its ships are new builds, though none are currently larger than destroyers. The outright disappearance of the old battleship Jean Bart remains one of the unsolved mysteries of the war period; currently the French flagship is the Liberte, formerly USS Arlington, which was the US command ship for the French theater until its capture in Brest harbor by a combined French/Italian force... ...The German Navy survived the War surprisingly intact, but with its infrastructure nearly annihilated for both East and West. As such, the German destroyers and modern submarines have been largely based out of French ports since the Volksrepublik’s founding, a situation which irritates Germany’s naval commanders but which has laid the foundation for solid international service cooperation. While the fleet’s stars are the cutting-edge destroyers Liebknecht, Luxemburg, and Zetkin, the formal flagship of the German Navy is the ancient battlecruiser Goeben, formerly in service as the Yavuz in Turkey; reacquired shortly after the War, it has been in continuous refit ever since, acting as the source of considerable conflict between the Navy and the Shipbuilder’s Union… [Liebknecht, Luxemburg, and Zetkin were, in real life, the Lütjens, Mölders, and Rommel. The reason for their renaming is self-evident.] ...The Italian Navy suffered almost no losses thanks to Italy's withdrawal from NATO prior to the start of the Great Revolutionary War, and today is the largest in Europe (excepting the Soviets), which has greatly increased Italy's prominence and prestige in naval spheres. The Mediterranean is almost exclusively patrolled by the Italians in the modern day, using their slowly increasing fleet of helicopter cruisers and missile destroyers, led by the flagship Italia. Plans for a proper aircraft carrier are nearing final authorization after years of negotiation and planning, spurred on by the increased Gladio terrorist efforts in Italy pushing the country back towards an internationalist footing... ...Thanks to the country immolating from within, the Australasian Navy survived the War to become the most powerful single navy in the South Pacific, though not necessarily the largest. Ironically, this is not a role the Australasians particularly want -- their power projection units are the light carriers Sydney and Melbourne, which are generally seen as a boondoggle project in a Navy focused on light patrol units for its seemingly endless islands, coasts, and reefs. Nevertheless, as there is no realistic way for them to regain that edge if they discard it, the UAWR has continued to find roles for its “heavy units''. The Sydney is usually seen in UAWR semi-signatory Hong Kong, where it has developed something of a rivalry with the Japanese Akagi which also frequents the harbor. The Melbourne, meanwhile, has been in refit since 1979 due to a series of collisions with other vessels, and has gained a hushed reputation as a cursed ship...
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Aug 23, 2021 00:20
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It was somewhat surprising in back-circles that, having direct interests in the Martian abductees, that the Deutsche Volksrepublik would insist on having a speaking slot before their announcement. The expectation in general was for the Germans to send someone important, of course. One of the state leaders, a union leader, maybe a Minister. Perhaps Representative Fletcher would be given yet another task for his heavy slate. What they got, however, nobody expected. Two dour-looking Willi Sängers take position at either end of the stage, doing their best and failing to blend into the background. Down the stage and up to the podium, looking more animated than in the last five years of public appearances, and wearing his famous smile, marches Rudi Dutschke, Rudi the Red, Chairman of the German People's Republic. He may be leaning on the podium harder than he did as a fire-breathing youth, but his voice is strong and his tone as breathless as ever as he speaks, head bobbing, eyes alight. Speech of Rudi Dutschke, Vorsitzender der Deutsche Volksrepublik, 28 February 1983. “I have never been happier to be proven wrong. To see all of you here in this room, I know I have been proven right and wrong in the same breath, and I cannot begin to describe the feeling. Fifteen years ago I thought that a revolution, a better world, was so far in the distance we could not dream of reaching it, that we would have to crawl there by inches. In that I was wrong. We may not be there yet, but we have climbed countless miles in a few short steps.” “And it is because I was right that I can be wrong, though I risk proving right all those who claimed me selbstverherrlichend.“ [There is a pause and some laughter, even from those who don't speak German; Dutschke's meaning isn't hard to grasp.] "I knew that no small elite could lead a true socialist revolution; only the people could do that. And they did! The people of Germany, of the world, stood up against the hideousness of Vietnam, of France, of colonialism, of rapacious greed, and said 'we will no longer let this on our conscience!' It was aufklärung, a rise from unconsciousness, as though a light had been turned on to let the world see, and what I had thought would take decades arose in the span of months, of weeks, where people threw off the institutions and the ways of thinking that had blinded them and turned to a new way. A kinder way! A better way. Even as we struggle through the world left in ashes, I am the happiest man in the world, because all I have dreamed of has been surpassed." "I am, of course, not blind myself, to that I stand before representatives of countries which still hold to those old institutions which have not failed them, which will think I am scolding and mocking them. I could not be further from this! I have always derided the idea that I am a wise man, set above other people on a golden chair in an ivory tower of knowledge. Ruling the world is not what I desire, and it is not a solution to our problems, so I have never sought it! The people of Germany have been shown far too often to be fallible to declare ourselves the arbiters of truth. We cannot tell the people of Japan, of India, of Brazil, of Nigeria what they should want for themselves, cannot dictate life to them as it was once dictated to us. Aufklärung cannot be forced upon the population. But we can, and hope, to stand before you, and show you the way we have found! Liberation is our responsibility, to repay those we once exploited with the fruits that the exploitation has wrought, to ensure that they are not left behind and hungry in the wake of our awakening. Our bright future can be yours, and everyone's, if you decide that you wish to follow in the footsteps of our long march. We will not make the decision for you, but we know what we have gained, and we will hold open the door." "Our march has no end, for revolution is not an instant, or an event, but a process unending, a constant effort of improvement that does not end because guns fall silent or banners of victory are raised, an ideal to pursue rather than a goal to be reached and rested upon. It is a continuous motion, and a collective motion, and we Germans – all we socialists – will never declare it finished and that we stand atop its mountain. We stand, als Kollektiv, and welcome you to see what we have reached already, and to join us in continuing to find ever-better tomorrows!" There is a, perhaps, surprising amount of applause – it is a classical Dutschke speech. Few notice afterwards that Dutschke leans on one of the paratroopers after he descends into the crowd, the way he sinks heavily into his seat. But when the Cydonians make it on stage, and the German U-boat crew salutes the crowd, Dutschke nevertheless is on his feet, clapping, grinning from ear to ear. Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Aug 24, 2021 |
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Aug 24, 2021 04:27
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Herzgeist Command Center, Harz Mountains, Deutsche Volksrepublik, 4:30 PM Local Time The old command center hadn't been this noisy in a decade. Cut into the Harz Mountains prior to the War and given a typically painful German play-on-words codename after it, Herzgeist served as the heart and mind of the Deutsche Volkswehr. From the moment the Californians relayed that there were warheads missing from the Revenge, the German military had gone onto alert. Now the loud hum had turned into a riot of noise, with dozens of ratings and staff answering phones, working computers, and generally trying to talk over each other. “Augsburg reports gunfire in the southern suburbs.” “Buchel Air Base is reporting mortar fire!” “No word from Weiẞes Hemd yet.” “Avalanche has checked in. All hostiles neutralized.” In the big chair in the middle of the command center sat the man himself, the Minister for Defense and the head of the People's Military, General Philip Waldemann. He was still focused on the reports on his table, and the man next to them. “Two more bombs since the one in Bremerhaven.” “They seem rather mad at the Germans,” Agent Denis Smirnov observed, lighting up another one of his hideous Belomorkanals. Waldemann snorted. “Can't imagine why. Disgustingly astute of them. Bremerhaven harbor, Braunschwig railyard, and the Hamm-Uentrop reactor. It would have cut the country in half and crippled our ability to do anything.” “Fortunately we had the tools to put a stop to them.” Smirnov's eyes crinkled up at the corners; it was the closest Waldemann had ever seen the attache get to a smile. “I do love living in the future, with all these intelligence tools to be used.” Waldemann just shot him a look, do you really want to start this discussion again, KGB Man? Smirnov's “smile” faded, but he remained otherwise impassive. “Besides the bombs, though, we've had many incidents but few serious attacks. We seem to have hit them with their pants down.” Waldemann shuffled his papers. “If they had been organized then this could have been much worse, but it would hardly have been unrecoverable...” A voice from down in one of the pits cut through the chatter. “Contact lost with 354 Blackmoor!” Waldemann stood up immediately. 354 Blackmoor was the Luftwaffe's radar outpost in Döbern, right on the border with Poland. “All contact? Not just radio?” “Einsatzführungsbereich Drei reports complete cross-comms failure, radio and landline!” The analyst looked up, holding one hand on her headset and looking quite worried. “Holzdorf is scrambling Starsnoopers for immediate report, expected in ten minutes.” “Excellent. Give me that as soon as it comes in.” Smirnov had faded into the background, watching and smoking as Waldemann turned to his aide. “Is Windstorm readied?” The man nodded. “Schönefeld reported the Tornados were warming up thirty minutes ago; they should be on standby... now.” He looked up at the clock on the wall as he spoke; it was almost 4:40. “Good.” Waldemann let out a sigh, turning back to where he knew Smirnov would be. “When is enough for these capitalist die-hards?” Smirnov opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly the door slammed open, and a tall form clattered down the steps into the command center. Waldemann took a moment to recognize who it was – it was Shevtsov, Smirnov's other half, the big man who formed the other half of the KGB liaison. It took him another moment to realize the reason he'd had trouble was that he'd never seen Shevtsov look that rattled. The big man was holding a piece of paper, which he thrust at Smirnov. The impassive little man took it, and read it. For the first time since he'd met the man, Waldemann watched Smirnov's eyes bulge and his expression drop. The KGB man looked up, the room suddenly seeming quieter than it had been. “Lubankya has a probable on the last Revenge warhead. They believe it may have been smuggled into Baikonur.” There was a moment in which you could have heard a pin drop. “Possibly onto a shuttlecraft.” Every eye turned to Waldemann, and the Minister for Defense shoved the screaming part of his brain into the back room, falling back on training, going fully automatic. Attacking the radar station on the far east side of Germany accomplished nothing but blinding them to anything coming from the east. Anywhere he could imagine that bomb going, was either in Germany, or on the far side of it. “Code Red! Full alert, nationwide! All radar sets, aim east! Tell the Luftwaffe to launch every plane we have! That shuttle CANNOT get through us!” The room exploded in noise. Alarms blare at every airbase in Germany. Thousands of feet scramble and clatter across linoleum, metal, and tarmac. The Tornados rip into the air with a howl of turbojet exhaust, climbing skyward at nearly a 50 degree angle as Schönefeld, Holtzdorf, and Herzgeist clamor on the airwaves with Baikonur, trying to get any information they can. Minutes later, everything imaginable follows the Tornados up – MiG-21s, MiG-23s, Phantoms, Fighting Falcons, Dornier Alphas, anything with a gun on it. The entire Luftwaffe shrieks into the air as one confused unit – as the air-raid sirens begin to blare. Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Sep 8, 2021 |
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Sep 8, 2021 10:57
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15,000 Feet Above Brandenburg, DVR, 4:43 PM Local Time Come on, come on, COME ON. Rudolf Meissner was nearly rocking back and forth in his seat. The Panavia Tornado was the best air-superiority fighter in the world. The pride of a rebuilt Western Europe, the product of four of the world's greatest nations working in concert, a true symbol of what socialism could achieve. It could outfly anything made before the Great Revolutionary War and climb at rates that were, frankly, terrifying. Yet right now he felt like he was standing still. How high is it going to be? It's a loving shuttle, it could be anywhere. He didn't think about if he could catch it. Rudolf Meissner was 29. He had been born in Göttingen. World War II had spared it. World War III had not. It had been directly in front of the Soviet Third Shock Army and treated as a free fire zone by the NATO Northern Army Group "defending" it. Göttingen today was a city of gleaming TNE structures. Göttingen for young Rudolf was a scorched scrapyard, cowering in the shattered frames of centuries of history, collecting sour rainwater, scrounging for food every day. The Deutsche Volksrepublik had saved him from that Hell. He would not let it down. Rudolf Meissner was going to catch that shuttle, stop that nuke. He flipped on his radio. "Twenty thousand and climbing. Do we have radar visual yet?" = = = Herzgeist, Harz Mountains "Target will be above local radar net, Windstorm. Stand by for FESTER data." The coordinator, Tuchel, flipped a switch. In an instant his computer queried, shook hands with, and picked up the data from the Comintern FESTER network, which beamed down into his computer, then along the lightspeed cable to Berlin, out from there to Schönefeld, and up to Meissner's Tornado in less time than it took him to say that. Tuchel spared a look over his shoulder; behind him stood Minister-General Waldemann himself, General Erlitz of the Luftwaffe, the Soviet attaches, and a crowd of anxious staffers. No pressure, huh. He gave a mental shrug and turned back. They didn't make excitable people into flight coordinators. "Confirm FESTER data, Windstorm." The speaker crackled. "Confirm receipt. Twenty-two five." From two seats down, another staffer, Kleiner, spoke up. "Baikonur reports launch. Westbound, bearing 317." The room looked up to the big map of Europe as the man in the booth arranged the line. Everyone winced. The red line slashed across Northern Germany scarcely twenty miles south of Berlin. Kiev, Lodz, Warsaw, Cottbus, Magdeburg, Wolfburg, Hanover, Bremen... Erlitz looked back down first. "Elevation?" "Climbing." Kleiner was fixated on his screen. "As only a spacecraft can. Angle suborbital but still very high." "Keep it tracking." The speaker crackled again. "Twenty-six thousand." = = = Meissner and the rest of Windstorm Group shrieked through the upper atmosphere. The Tornado was the best, but it was still an atmospheric fighter. Above fifty-thousand feet the engines would choke on the thin air; even before that, they'd have to be very careful. It would be under two minutes before they hit that ceiling, so fast could they climb. Below them the rest of the Luftwaffe was spread out, searching and climbing themselves, hedging their bets. Nothing could catch them. "Thirty-thousand." = = = Kleiner looked up. "Soviets report two anti-air missile hits. Target still airborne but speed is reduced. Still at climbing angle." "Jesus." Erlitz shook his head. "Two of those would turn anything we have into shrapnel." Waldemann spoke up, for the first time since this had started. "They're still climbing. At that angle, what's their projection?" There was a moment of pause, and then a voice came over the loudspeaker from the projection booth, sounding relieved. "Sir, at that angle they'll arc clean over Europe. Splashdown is estimated somewhere in the Atlantic." There was a split second of sheer elation, before Erlitz spoke, still grim. "If they do." He nodded to Tuchel, who flipped the microphone back on. "Meissner, this is Erlitz. Target is well above ceiling now, current projection to miss Germany. Continue to climb. I don't want him diving on us." "Jawohl. Forty-thousand." In an instant, Tuchel looked back up, urgently. "Sir, FESTER says the target has cut all engine power." = = = Forty-two five. Meissner peered up out of his cockpit; the sky was starting to darken, this high up. THERE -- he could see something, a streak of fire off in the east and high, high up, untouchable. Not aimed at him. Not aimed at the DVR. He kept his eye on it. "Possible visual, command. Far too high for us right now." A twinkle caught in the corner of his eye, and he looked over. There was something else up there, a little point of light moving crossways to the streak of fire. "Command, something else is up there." Forty-six thousand. = = = "What?" Erlitz looked confused. "What is--" "SIR!" The voice over the loudspeaker was suddenly panicked, and the map of Germany was abruptly overlaid with another line, crossing the red one just at the eastern edge. A blue one, labeled WERFTRAUMSTATION INTERKOSMOS. The command center was suddenly silent. = = = Forty-nine thousand! The altimeter alarm blared, and on automatic, Meissner pressed the yoke forward, levelling the Tornado out; he couldn't see out the back of his head but he knew his squadron would be following, perfect as practiced. He wanted to keep climbing, so badly, but he knew better. He turned instead, moving to parallel the streak of fire, follow its track in case-- "WINDSTORM!" The speaker erupted with General Erlitz's voice. "EYES DOWN! BLINKEN!" Flash. Every child in Germany knew immediately what to do. Meissner slammed his head down, helmet crashing into the pilot's yoke, autopilot holding the plane on course, for a brief moment not thinking at all. He saw it. As he'd been told, bouncing off of every surface in the cockpit. It wasn't as bright as it should be. It wasn't the flashbulb he remembered. But there was no mistaking it. There was a rumble, and a sharp downdraft that kicked the Tornado downwards as the atmosphere itself, so thin above him, compressed. Meissner wrestled the yoke, whipping the Tornado back into line, holding. Fifty thousand feet. He looked up. He couldn't see anything from down here. Both twinkling lights were gone. But maybe it was still there. He couldn't tell. Maybe that was just the tears in his eyes. "Verdammt..." = = = Monitor E4 sat unmanned, its operator over by Tuchel's desk. But it remained open -- it always remained open. It was the blast monitor. And now, faint and distant but unmistakeable, its lines of seismometer, pressure, and electromagnetic readouts spat out a signature that the entire Deutsche Volksrepublik could read. Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Jun 26, 2022 |
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Sep 11, 2021 01:13
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OOC: So we've been talking a lot in the Discord, and eventually it was realized that that kind of provides another barrier to entry. So I thought I'd talk more about what we've been discussing, hopefully to bring the discussing back into the thread. We've been doing a LOT of stuff outside of the scope of Aurora, the actual game here, but we're getting to the point where the narrative and the mechanics are starting to reconverge. There's been a LOT of talk about intelligence going forward, and we're about to complete (April 4, just over a month out) our first proper Electronic Intelligence module, which will give us both HumInt and ElInt/SigInt capability and let us start putting together actual intelligence agencies. What this would take the form of is up in the air. At the moment, the Comintern is still mostly made up of individual countries, all of which have their own intelligence agencies. A lot of those countries are also very suspicious of intelligence agencies due to the role they played in the pre-GRW world, like the CIA, MI6, and the Stasi. There's two primary ideas, and they don't preclude each other. One is giving the Comintern its own top-level intelligence agency, which is currently going under the name of the SPECTRE proposal -- the ground-level counterpart to FESTER's sky-eyes. This has problems, namely that it would be another and fairly major step to the Comintern being its own government instead of an alliance, along with the aforementioned suspicions and, let's not forget, the questions about FESTER's role going forward if we've finally put the loving boot to Gladio. However, it's also unquestionable that we would have had no chance of stopping Gladio without FESTER, and ultimately intelligence-gathering and information security is an essential part of being a polity. The second one is something akin to Five Eyes, the intel-sharing arrangement between the US and the four big Commonwealth countries. A formal coordination process between national-level intel organizations; the working name for this one is ARGUS, the guardian with a hundred eyes. The fundamental potential problem with this one you can see perfectly well in the actual arrangement; the Five Eyes intel agencies have decided to use it to completely ignore domestic limitations on spying, and thus basically become completely above the governments they're supposed to serve. The only real way to counter this is intense and tightly-constructed oversight, so as to ensure that none of the organizations get ambitious; and to be frank, given the role MI6 played in kicking off the GRW and apparently has just now played in getting these loving nukes to Gladio, this is something that should be a primary consideration worldwide anyway. This proposal would be "safer" in that it would be less of a confrontation to the existing system of smaller governments, and if not debuted alongside a SPECTRE could eventually lead to the creation of one. Secondly, now that we're wrapping up the Cydonia survivors thing, we can return to the question of colonization. This one is more defined by the game mechanics. Venus is currently targeted for our experimental mission with the Japanese, but to be frank Venus is extremely hostile as an environment and thus would be wildly expensive to colonize. We're probably going to wind up going there EVENTUALLY, as Venus is also the #1 source in the Solar System for space-chromium and thus crucial for engine production, but it's going to be real expensive and so not a priority project. Mars is the #1 prospect in the Solar System; it has the biggest potential for population and terraforming outside of Earth. Population is super important y'all. Mars also features two small moons, and we have been reassured that as moons that size are in fact ideal for defense stations, we can in fact convert Phobos into a giant head of Marx which will vaporize intruders with its laser eyes. We also have a toehold there, so Mars is almost certainly next. After that, though? We should probably be looking at Titan. Titan's atmosphere is significantly Earthlike, it's pretty darn large (50% bigger than Luna and 80% more massive, so easier to live on), and most importantly, it orbits Saturn, which is our best bet for large-scale sorium extraction. We also do know there's SOME kind of ruins on Titan, though initial scans don't suggest anything as large or intricate as what we found at Cydonia. Thirdly, we've started discussing ship design and ship doctrine. But other people have much more system experience with that than me and have been getting specifically involved in it, so I'll let them elaborate on that. Fourthly, we've been talking about other future considerations for securing Earth. We're getting a lot of success with our soft-power diplomatic blitz here, and there's no reason to not keep at that, but there's other places that -- if we have actually put the boot proper to Gladio -- we can start thinking about. Basically #1 on this list is Israel, which... well, we know basically nothing about what's going on in there, which is itself a really bad sign, because given what Israel was like at the divergence, it CAN'T be anything good. Once we have the ability to kneecap the nuclear triad it does open up actually striking them militarily, but as we currently know basically nothing about them there may be other options. This is also an Extremely Hot Button Issue for a lot of people IC, such as my own DVR, which have extremely confused feelings about Israel and may be very hard to convince on smashing them militarily. Finally, there's been a little thinking about changing things up as we shift focus off of Earth and back to Aurora proper; consolidating Earth viewpoints which might well involve consolidating Earth countries, most likely through organizations like the Organization of African States/African Union taking their places in the narrative. Personally, I've been thinking about a kind of Western Europe economic-strategic alliance, France-Germany-Low Countries-Italy, name to be determined (not quite an EU, though consisting of its most prominent and influential countries). However, I know we definitely had a France player at one point (not sure if we still do), and I don't know if anyone else would be interested in doing things with these countries, so I wanted to make sure to test the waters on it first (and this would also require narrative groundwork I haven't started on yet).
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Sep 14, 2021 02:34
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Telsa Cola posted:Have there been discussions about what mechanics are going to be "bent" with regards to colonization, because 3 colonies being planned is a bit excessive at this point. Not really, this is just long-term thinking. In terms of things we're ACTUALLY doing, Titan is a far future "next step", once we start needing mass quantities of sorium. Mars is the immediate priority due to its immediate potential and Venus is basically an experimental sideshow, or at least that's the impression I've gotten so far.
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Sep 14, 2021 03:31
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I'll also fully admit that after opening up the Discord we may have gone too strong into using it. There's been a LOT of discussion going on in this LP, just, a lot of it didn't wind up in the thread, often because it happened in rapid-fire IRC style conversation that doesn't translate well to posts. But that presents its own problem, because of course nobody reading the thread can SEE that. So that's on posters like myself, who need to 
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Sep 14, 2021 09:05
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General Hoàng Văn Thái frowned, kicking one of the burned-out M113s several times. The soldiers around all looked away, awkwardly. It had been bad enough to discover that, somehow, the Americans had stolen a march on them. They could only imagine the frustration the old man must have felt. It was ultimately Colonel Adachi who broke the silence, stepping up to the Comintern observer, who was being talked back down by his aides. "I am deeply sorry, General. Words cannot describe how ashamed we are, to have you come all this way only to witness a failure." "Hmph." Thái straightened out his uniform, adjusting the silver Tet Offensive ribbon pointedly. "Operations fail, Colonel. I saw no fault on your part." He looked back up the street, at the ruin of the Government in Exile. "We both made the same mistake. We assumed that we could take them for granted, this ghost of the demon we remembered." He nodded at his aide, who pulled out a notebook and started writing furiously. "Wherever they are, they had better pray we cannot find them, for we will not make the same mistake again." = = = = = PROCLAMATION OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC, MARCH 3, 1983 The Deutsche Volksrepublik expresses its most sincere disappointment at the disappearance of the Vietnam War Joint Chiefs. General Westmoreland and his fellow blood-stained artists of slaughter have, it seems, dodged another bullet in a stream of them. Addressing and righting the colossal wrong that is the genocide of Vietnam has been and remains a priority of the Deutsche Volksrepublik, and it will remain so until it has been righted. We, the representatives of the German people, reaffirm our dedication to bringing the architects of that war to justice. We will dedicate every resource at our disposal to righting this great wrong on our moral account. To that end, on top of prior obligations, the Deutsche Volksrepublik would like to formally offer the Comintern the use of the Nuremburg Justizpalast, for such time as when these criminals are finally run to ground and dragged into the light for their accounting. We also wish to thank the Japanese Armed Forces for their efforts of March 2nd; regardless of the situation with the Joint Chiefs, it must not be forgotten that Japan has contributed greatly to the cause of world peace and the prevention of future nuclear holocaust by securing and accounting for the American nuclear missile submarines and nuclear weapons. This is an achievement worthy of celebration, under all circumstances, and none of it would be possible without their efforts. They have also removed another piece of the old United States from the world, another element which held us chained to the previous era. It is our hope, and our fervent belief, that we shall find a greater era in the next one. = = = = = GENERAL ORDER 3/3/83 ISSUE: BMVg All Units: You have my gratitude, and the gratitude of all of Germany, for your exemplary performance in the last few days. Our task is not yet over -- we have been struck by those we thought were our countrymen. Their networks must be burned out, so that they can not threaten us again. This will not be easy. Support each other, and remember who and what you fight for. God willing, soon we can consign Gladio to the history books. NAVAL ORDER 3/3/83 ISSUE: KdVM To all naval forces: General Order 3/3/83 stands. However, you are reminded that we have an imminent priority. Following consultation with the Volksarmee and Luftwaffe, we are to stand down from active duty where possible for them to take over. We have been given the job of welcoming long-departed comrades-in-arms home. All units are to prepare for formal reception. Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Sep 18, 2021 |
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Sep 18, 2021 08:01
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Political cartoon from Die Tageszeitung, 8 January 1983 [Two Chinese men are brittlely smiling at each other as they sharpen knives, Spy vs. Spy style. One is clearly wearing a Mao suit, the other the uniform of the Red Guard. Behind them, a man in a Soviet general's uniform is smugly smiling at them; a cutaway in his stomach reveals an old man and a young man engaged in a full-on cartoon brawl.] IVAN: "I don't know how their society can function like that." Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Sep 20, 2021 |
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Sep 20, 2021 04:07
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NewMars posted:So we know they have a strong body of technical knowledge available: maybe not a massive one, but one with at least some skilled nuclear engineers and scientists in it, just from being able to maintain the nuclear weapons they were going to use and retrofit them. Building a functioning nuclear weapon, at least according to my friend the nuclear engineer (who has sworn a blood oath never to work on nuclear weapons), is actually shockingly easy. The knowledge is definitely out there and not necessarily that hard to find, because the difficult part is DOING anything with it. It's more a question of having the precision machinery to build a device to the tolerances required, and also the active reactor to keep it supplied with fissionable material. But as we saw from the Boy Scout who was trying to build a breeder reactor in a backyard shed, if you're dedicated enough, you CAN find ways to do these things. And having a weapon already built that you just need to maintain makes that easier. Asterite34 posted:If this were a TV show, I feel like after the big international summit/Revenge situation that was the culmination of a lot of long-running plotlines, followed immediately with the season finale big dramatic tragedy of the spacedock bombing, that the psychonaut corps is essentailly a comic relief beach episode Absolutely, though as with most things about that show, even the comedy relief episode winds up being majorly important to the plot.
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Oct 3, 2021 18:38
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Asterite34 posted:Okay, maybe we can start small and go from there. Like maybe we try some astral projection or remote viewing of the Mars site from an Earth facility, it's entirely possible psychic phenomena can work over interplanetary distances. This actually strikes me as a great idea.
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Oct 4, 2021 19:03
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I love that Cyclops II.
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Nov 28, 2021 09:19
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Mister Bates posted:October 5, 1984 Headlines from German Newspapers on the morning of October 5, 1984 Die Riegerungzeitung (Official newspaper of the German central government, with all that that implies. The most coherent voice of the DVR's official position; provides mercilessly accurate transcripts of Volksrat proceedings) CHAIRMAN RUDI DUTSCHKE DIES PEACEFULLY IN HIS SLEEP Cause of Death Currently Unknown, Expected as Complications from Head Wound National Government Declares Day of Mourning Die Tageszeitung (Third-largest German newspaper by circulation; founded after the DVR as a collective, long considered the “voice of the 68er-Bewegung”) RUDI THE RED DIES AGE 48, THE TORCH PASSES ONCE AGAIN Dutschke’s Energy and Vision Guided Us Through the Apocalypse to a Brighter Future Candlelight Vigil to Be Held at Berlin Free University Tonight Die Neue Welt (Once the most conservative paper in Germany and Axel Springer’s flagship; though collectivized and editorially reviewed, still considered the most cautious German paper) RUDI DUTSCHKE DIES AGE 48 Student, Speaker, Leader, Revolutionary, Chairman Europe Remembers the Pioneer of the Student Revolution; Condolences Sent From Kalmar Union, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Soviet Union = = = = = = = Inaugural speech of Acting Chairman Peter Brandt, 5 October 1984 The second Chairman of the Deutsche Volksrepublik, Peter Brandt was originally the son of West German politician Willy Brandt, who famously defended his son’s choice to march in and be arrested in the student protests of 1968. Following his father’s death in 1969 and the Revolution, Peter Brandt became Berlin’s de facto leader during the chaos and was selected to be Minister for Education and Culture when the DVR was formed in 1973. Re-elected in 1978 and again in 1983, Brandt is a surprise pick for the position; at 36, he is quite young for a politician, even considering having been part of the 68er-Bewegung. Rumor suggests Chairman Dutschke expressed a desire to have Brandt succeed him. People of Germany, I am Peter Brandt, Minister for Education and Culture. I have been chosen, by the collective vote of the Ministerrat and with the approval of the Volksrat, to act as Chairman until elections can be organized. Last night, the German People’s Republic lost its dynamo. As you may have heard, Chairman Rudi Dutschke – my good friend – died in his sleep. While we do not yet know exactly why, it seems likely that the wound from being shot in 1968 finally claimed his life. I am thankful that I, and all of us, were granted as much time with his energy, his vision, and his strength as we were. He endured much to stay with us for that time; now, he can rest. (Chairman Brandt’s voice audibly shakes towards the end of this paragraph; there is a pause, and an audible inhalation, before he continues.) It falls to us to continue forward into the future. Chairman Dutschke believed, as I do, that history is a never-ending effort. It cannot end, and it cannot be reached quickly; life is a langer marsch, through power and to prosperity. That march and that history is made up of countless events, building onto each other into infinity, forwards to the future and backwards into the past. Kameraden, we cannot change what stones have already been laid down. I cannot force death to return my friend Rudi to us. We cannot un-detonate the bombs of the Great Revolutionary War, nor un-fire the gun which was aimed at Dutschke’s head, nor undo the mistakes of our fathers and their fathers. Nor can we get lost among them; the past is not a place for the living. We do not, and will not forget what has been done. We remember them – our mistakes, our failures, and our triumphs as well – and learn from them, and that is all we can do. We must keep marching, into the brighter future of the world. That is what Rudi Dutschke wanted for the people of Germany, and the people of the entire world. It is what I want, as well. On Monday, we shall return to work and continue our advance – towards the stars, and the future. But tonight, we shall mourn, and remember the man who threw open the door, and showed us the way. Thank you all. This has been Acting-Chairman Peter Brandt. Brandt would be given 78% confidence in the emergency elections on November 15, and officially become the second chairman of the Deutsche Volksrepublik, to serve out the remainder of the term until the 1988 elections. Vice-Minister Björn Bach succeeds him as Minister for Education and Culture. = = = = = = [The DVR is not currently prepared to propose or second any legislation, but expects to more thoroughly review the situation soon.] Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Feb 20, 2022 |
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Feb 20, 2022 06:26
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Mister Bates posted:January 9, 1985 May God help us all.
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Apr 11, 2022 16:25
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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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