SysNES 1: A Murky Pool of Light

There's rather more things you guys forgot to coordinate on - and now its too late. Luckily nothing is going on with regards the Gardeners, so I'll just bank e and randomly spray s around.
 
Not physically. But, like, spiritually, you're malnourished, man. You ain't got no love to live off, just cold robotman vibrations.
 
OOC: I wonder what happened...
 
Why don't you see how the update went first Kentharu? Speaking of which stuff has been constantly coming up at work this week + later orders than usual: ETA of Thursday maybe?

Ragequitting really kills NESes, as it suddenly gives the mod masses more work to do when things have just hit a cresendo, as well as making them feel bad about their projects worthiness. Plus its not like you have nothing left to fall back on, or that such behaviour is atypical from NESers.

Also I just wish someone somewhere in NESing would actually keep a damn secret for once.
 
OOC: I'm so confused :(
 
Update 20: Hit the road Jack, and don't you come back...

Dark portents might be fluttering in the ether, but the mediasphere of the Ik worlds only have one thing on their minds at the beginning of this year – the elections both senatorial and prime chancellorial would see which faction of the over-privileged business aristocracy of Taik would influence policy the most for the coming terms. The Colonial party, so effervescent at the last elections looked like they would be in for a hiding, the promised benefits of Arrakis colonisation not having occurred. In their place would be those who demanded a strong defensive fleet at Errai – the Sajara led by their new leader Omar Osman. After a hard fought campaign however the Colonists manage to erode the Sajara support with the classic tactic of stealing all their ideas, and lucking out with a few well placed scandals amongst their other opposition. A tiny margin returns the old PC Mehmet to power, desperately in need of support from the other parties, not that the proud Mehmet would ever admit it. This of course creates a political environment that combines the bombastic recklessness of the Colonists with the paranoid militarism of the Sajara, and it took less than a week for the Prime chancellor to declare the Akresians “inhuman scum” and a pollution on their fair system, and sign legislation mandating their immediate destruction. All the time the Akresians had not moved their ships one iota away from the optimum defensive orbits, and had ceased any rhetoric indicating a desire for war in the run up to the election. Perhaps fearing the ravages of war numerous private citizens on Taik took advantage of the recently opened continuous transfer flights between Errai and Arrakis to migrate to new homesteads and cities out beneath the open sky of that Garden world – rather ironic as things turn out.

The Ik sent their forces towards the dread moon of Akresia Prime in two separate waves, speeding ahead of the main force was the pentad of Hat missile Ketches – if they could manage to remain in high orbit they could pound the Akresian defenders with the lances without needing to recourse to the heavier armed ships that would follow. The only Akresian ship that had weapons to reach out of the gravity well and decapitate the Hats was the Scorn fission bomber...but the Hats had two kinetic projectiles for every Akresian warhead, and the fast spears were much more accurate than the bulky missiles to boot. The Scorns and the Hats parried back and forth for some time, but in the end precision beat power and to the Ik delight all the Akresian Scorn was shattered into rubble at the cost of only two of their own ships. Unfortunately the Akresians still had Pride, and the Ik focusing on the missile ships had given the Akresian Cutter time to close with the Hats. Like a cat amongst the pigeons the Pride slaughtered the Ik Ketches before falling itself. The Akresians had fought valiantly to stop the first Ik wave, but had lost all their forces doing so, and the second wave of the the stout gunboat, sleek sloop and swarming fighters cleared the Akresian laser platforms from the sky, their fusillade of beams barely etching the Sara-class ships armour.

Losses: Akresians: 5 Scorn Ketches destroyed, 1 Pride Cutter Destroyed, 2 Pentax Defence platforms destroyed.
Ik: 5 Hat Ketches destroyed.​

The Ik now controlled the space around Akresia Prime, and Prime Chancellor Mehmet gleefully ordered his commanders to put the Akresian habitats to the torch. He became quite irate when admiral Hawazi sheepishly told him that they nothing capable of bombing a habitat with them, and that the Ik actually had no designs currently even capable of such a feat. The Akresians could continue their economic activities and ship construction quite unmolested – they didn't even have any other worlds that the Ik cordon could prevent trade with! However much this annoyed Mehmet, he soon had much bigger worries on his mind as news dripped in from Arrakis...

In the proudest tradition of the Lantian republic, inheritors of ten thousand years of history, victors of ten thousand battles, President Mitzu stands up and...gives the Liberes exactly what they demanded from him. In exchange for quitting Horn system the Lantians turned over their Tianshi passenger ship and their Hauxi scout ship that had been providing infrastructure support to the new colony. Well over a years of worth of Lantian industrial production, the ships were even more precious to the Liberes – with the supplies and repair capacity they offer no longer would the fleet be restricted in the time it can spend away from Avarice or dependent on the kindness of strangers. In truth they had been little interested in a long term occupation of the 'Al habitats anyway – too little gain to make tying the fleet down worth it, and look and smell of the 'Al spaces and persons made even traditional Libere cultural pursuits like looting and raping unfulfilling. Instead this had merely be a step in his awful Majesties great plan, and as soon as the Lantians rendered up their ships the Libere army packed up their gear and all of the 'Al industrial production for the year and went on their way (taking the time to blow up the 'Al shipyard and decimate their population on the way out of course). Their next stop would be their goal all along, something they had lusted after ever since the great worldship had begun decelerating towards the Hydra Tuft – Arrakis.

Things had been going well for the Ik colonists on Eve/Zoe/Arrakis II, plentiful harvests, immigration and a high birthrate had seen residential and commercial zones spring up around the landing sites thanks to private initiative [1]. The defence fleet in orbit consisted of two Qi -class sloops, lightly armoured but ferociously armed, everything seemed like it would be good – forever! When the entire Libere fleet arrived in the system, panic erupted on the ground and in space, a doom that all had thought a long time coming was at hand. Back on Taik, Prime Chancellor Mehmet allegedly was in a shock for a whole day, focusing on the apparently unmoving Akresians seemed ridiculous now that the Libere warships were knocking at the door. The Liberes sent their newly acquired support ships to safe orbits around Arrakis V, where they were met by a host of odd emission signatures, ships like the Ik had never sensed before. The warships of the Libere fleet dived towards Arrakis II like a shoal of sharks, their missile tubes warming up and laser cavities charging. The plan was simple, the main body of the fleet concentrated on one of the Qi defenders, whilst a Feroce Assault Cutter peeled off and headed for the other. Simple, but a tad stupid; the Qi design with its host of powerful beam weapons being the sort of design that would eat an Assault Cutter for breakfast (Assault boats being better against missile ships or giant killers), and it duly crisped the Feroce in a shower of burning photons when it came into range. The other Qi fared rather worse, as the three Carriers and two Cruisers rained down nuclear warheads and lances of rock as it struggled out of the gravity well to meet them. The first wave of missiles missed but the lances eroded the Qi down to less than half its capacity, but against the odds the Qi managed to push its drive to the utmost and bring them into range of its guns. With such a short distance the weapons of its foes could hardly miss and the Qi disappeared in a vast display of pyrotechnics, but not before its lasers got off blasts of energy, melting the hulls of the cruisers into bizarre coils of slag. One of them managed to pull through, venting heat in all directions as men ran hither and thither within its corridors. The other however had never been properly repaired after the dramatics of the 'Al corvette at Horn last year, and its crew found themselves cooked alive before their engine cores went critical and exploded. Seeing the hopelessness of its situation the remaining Qi rounded up the civilian 'Al ships in orbit of Arrakis II and ran for Errai. Some of the population had managed to make it to the Cargo shell before the Liberes cut off all routes of escape, but over two thirds were left to cower in their homes, awaiting the grim future of pirate occupation.

Losses: Ik – 1 Qi destroyed, 1 Qi flees to Errai
Liberes – 1 Feroce destroyed, 1 Aphrodite destroyed​

As the Liberes began to unload their troops, the mysterious soundings in the deep system make themselves known. Having allowed their partners in crime liberation to do the dirty work of actually destroying the foes ships, the handful of Esani troop carriers powered into orbit of Arrakis II and began their own disembarking procedures. Against the combined might of four times their number of slavering pirates and silent but efficient Esani and the control of orbital communications and space, the Ik defenders on the ground stood even less of chance than those in orbit, and were mercilessly crushed, though their ability to hide in the forests and infrastructure meant considerable damage had to be done to the Ik habitats before they could be flushed out. In a few short weeks the Liberes had seen their earlier humiliation avenged and were in full control of the planet.

Ground action.
Losses: Ik 4 divisions.
Liberes and Esani lose no divisions.​

Each of the attacking powers took over one of the Ik habitats, though the Liberes claimed all the civilian population as their plunder (the Liberes of course being able to dictate terms to their allies, who had no combat ships in the volume). This population was rounded up from all their little crannies on Arrakis II and loaded into the surviving Cruiser – acting as human shields against Ik counter attacks and destined to toil in the slave markets and mines of Izar. T he Ik republic has never yet seen such a dark day.

In the system of Heze the Magisterium is facing some harsh criticisms of their foreign policy by domestic factors. Not so much on their war with the Ik and seizing a foothold on Arrakis II – no one likes the bombastic Ik and protecting the Garden world from the imminent rape by the Ik (who have applied heavy extraction methods to their own homeworld no less), and their promises to restore harmony to the Tuft are well received. Rather it is the alliance with the backstabbing Liberes and monstrous Akresians, the putting of huge numbers of men and resources into the direct hands of those foul entities without a glimmer of defence planning, and the lying to the population as regards their initial intentions and massive military recruitments – for the population were not told of the plan until after the troop ships entered Arrakis space. A small cabal had seized control of the body politic many said, and their disproportionate influence was unharmonious indeed! The continued shuffling of personnel about the system according to the Magisterium's whims on maximum efficiency was met with some annoyance as well. Perhaps in response to these criticisms the government made a big show of opening a new farming complex and their development on an actual proper defensive warship at last.

A Chapter of history in Kaus space is closing, and a new era is beginning. The great forges and assembly plants throughout Soulon space reached a crescendo of output before falling silent forever. With the supply core design completed, the Soulon cast their Liberty, the heart of their fleet, and seven accompanying cargo ships to go with it. Combined with the Lantian Junks they had acquired last year they now had sufficient room to move their entire population and a significant chunk of supplies out of the Kausian volume and on to pastures new. Like a snake eating its own tail they also dismantled the industrial fabric of their civilisation and loaded aboard the ships – unlike their hasty departure from Thoth, the time to plan and work meant they would not be leaving a single fragment of value behind for the Gardeners to claim. Once everything was packed away and the people put to sleep the crews of the Soulon fleet set their sights on the rim of the system and opened up their drives, eventually blinking out into transcendent space. Their destination would take two years to reach, the as yet unknown system of Terebellum. The greedy and paranoid Soulon were convinced there was something of value their due to the Lantian attempts to warn them away, and thus the fools dashed in without a single defensive device to protect them. The parable of the Libere snake that had dwelt in the garden of Arrakis was obviously lost on them. But with starry eyed plans the Soulon were already plotting out their dominance of the Spinward lobe.

Back in Kaus space the Gardener prospectors were already swarming over the now empty Soulon worlds, only to discover that the Soulon had left them some parting gifts after all! In turns out that the extensive Soulon mines on Medias has all but exhausted the valuable elements in that worlds crust, and that rebuilding their infrastructure would be most unprofitable. Even worse as they came to Corth the Farragut Cutter the Soulon had left behind activated its autopilot and dived to its destruction in that worlds glooming atmosphere, triggering the tens of thousands of fusion and fission explosives the Soulon had planted earlier. The pulse of heat caused the now shattered and mysterious alien ruins and the Soulon tombs and monuments alike to sink hundred of miles into the sludgy crust, well out of reach of any possible Gardener investigation. The wave of radioactivity dust pumped into the planets atmosphere wouldn't help either, making the environment even more inhospitable to human life. Coupled with the fact that the Soulon had conspicuously failed ot hand over any resources or Pearls as promised the Metatron and other officers of the Gardener hierarchy were made really quite irate. On the other hand they had now complete won – Kaus was theirs and theirs alone, something to be happy about indeed. Another thing to be proud of was that now the threat of war had been removed the Gardeners study of the universe (to better know God's work of course) jumped ahead in leaps and bounds, uncovering whole new areas of knowledge lost to humanity in the Tumult. It was believed that soon they would have sufficient understanding to restore the lost biosphere of Thoth. To apply this new knowledge to defending their spaces they also constructed a new centre for researching offensive devices on Kadesh.

As peace finally comes to Kaus, the cyborg nations of Zavi are becoming increasingly fractious. Setting up the economy of Minkar and cohabiting on the pleasantly dim world of Minkar III a was proving rather more tricky than their earlier agreements in Zavi. Perhaps it was the distance between HQ and their outposts, or the greatly increased power and wealth of both factions. Whatever the cause arguments were common as the Vazan set up their shipyard, farms, and in direct opposition to their earlier complaints...a volatiles mine. As they pumped the lakes and skies of Minkar III a, creating small deserts of emptiness in the local biosphere the free ranging Kations ramblers were incensed to stumble across. The traffic problems were another cause of friction, the Vazan had set up a trade route for to their shipyard on III a back to Zavi, taking up all the favourable transfer orbit slots. The Kations, who had bought a number of badger transports off the Vazan at a large mark-up to do likewise, were incensed and had to set up their own interstellar terminal on the more distant moon of Minkar IV. Secret internals of the Kation civil service indicated that they might actually be pleased at this result, as arriving at a deary industrial world might prevent a massive flow of emigration from Aranahara's crowded cities, but their public face remained annoyed. Some people still came however, and the Kation population in Minkar was soon an order of magnitude larger than the Vazan (the Vazan emigration was still not in evidence, no one being particularly willing to leave the warm embrace of the networks for a rough and ready settlement with an uncertain food supply). The real cause of Vazan and Kation disagreement however was over a rather more martial matter. Both had increased their war fleets yet again this year, with the Vazan adding another Basilisk and several support ships and the Kations another Hellebore. As part of a long negotiated plan with certain other powers they would both strike against the grimmest source of instability and chaoses in the Tuft, and extinguish the dark heart of Avarice. As fighting broke out against the Ik in two system the Vazan jumped to strike, and sent their warfleet out on the long, irreversible jump to Izar...whilst the Kations didn't. The Kations had grown irritated with the vain and prancing Ik negotiators and the unprovoked attack on the Akresians was the last straw, the Kations deciding all the lesser races were as bad as each other and washing their hands of the whole business. The fact that they didn't tell the Vazan about this beforehand was a tremendous insult – the Vazan punitive expedition was now in much greater risk and the Vazan had stripped their defences whilst their 'ally' had not. Trouble is coming for Zavi's future.

Meanwhile at Izar the Pirates are both jubilant and worried, ecstatic and troubled; the Grand Plan went off without a hitch, and the resources of four system had enriched his Majesties plunder box and the honour of the Liberes reclaimed. However this incoming Vazan fleet would be a major threat even without Kation assistance, and if the fleet was not recalled from Arrakis at once the pirates would surely all perish. Even more worryingly it implied that the Ik had not be idle either – what else had they been planning? With the Akresians military in shambles and the Esani pitiful amateurs in the art of ship build there would be nothing to stop the Ik simply walking back into Arrakis space once the Liberes left. It was most vexing, but the victory parties continued unabated.

Random Stats:
Most commonly used Cargo transport: the products of Honest Lee's used Junk holding yard and rental service.
Wealthiest per capita: the Esani.

Karmically blessed nations:
Best orders: Soulon League, +1 lucky roll.
Cleanest orders: The Lantians, +1 lucky roll.

Notes
[1] Automatically upgrades to Gamma on population growth.

New Discoveries
Biotech 4
Can adapt to 'Cold': The chills and freezing winds of worlds further out from their primaries make them difficult for humans outside carefully run environments. However the addition of skin insulation, blood warmers and internal heat sources can make it easy for individuals to wander about in the cold. Germline modification to include this bionano can even produce a population that can tolerate it comfortably in the long term. Developing the adaptation the temperature range to any one cold world (each has a different range unless stated) costs 90s, and afterwards you may pay 10e to change 1 population point to be resistant to those amounts of cold. For management purposes you need to pay for the whole world at once, and when you move any pop there or away from there – I ain't trying to track modified and unmodified groups! After the change is done you ignore the negative effects of the Cold trait for that world. A society must be careful about creating a specialist caste of its population, this can lead to resentment and dislike of the modified and a feeling of exclusion by them. Extremophilic societies only have to pay half the s and e costs, and avoid the negative social repercussions.
Can adapt to 'Toxic': (biotech requirement revealed).
The development of in utero screening, mind altering drugs and better understanding of the human brain gives +10% s to University production.
Viral Bombs: (biotech requirement revealed).

Energy 6
Beam Generator: The greatest drawback of the reaction driven rocket is the need to carry its own fuel and propellant on board. To avoid this, various kinds of passive propulsion have been developed, from the basic solar sail which uses the light pressure of the local star for propulsion, to the more advanced laser/particle beam driven concepts, which use powerful stationary emitters based elsewhere for propulsion. Note due to the diffuse nature of the beam produced these are generally not useful as weapons. A Beam Generators is the ship component version, a large and clunky module that provides other friendly ships in the same system equipped with laser sails or better with the ability to go at IP speed 4, suitable for a carrier or flagship supporting a fleet of smaller faster vehicles. Higher levels of Energy and Maths hint at allowing greater effectiveness for these devices. Costs 70e and 4 power.
Beam Station: A facility providing the same benefits of a beam generator, but obviously cannot be moved to another system, can only be built in orbital habitats. Costs 70e.
Gas Lantern (Requires an unknown amount of Propulsion): Gas Giants represent an enormous reserve of fusible materials, the problem being that the planets gravity well guards them like a dragon with its horde. The gas lantern avoids this problem by fusing the gas on a floating aerostat, and then sending only the energy out as fleet photons from its mirrors to drive industrial process or terraforming efforts in the local gas giant environment. Costs 300e for Gas Giants, 200 for Jovians and cost an additional 50% for each negative modifier on that world. Once built from a beta or above habitat in the Gas Giants clouds they can be assigned to either a) Remove the cold trait from a single moon of that gas giant (takes [moon size] years to do so) or b) add 400% to the efficiency of a single factory somewhere in the gas giants space.
Boron Drive (Requires an unknown amount of Propulsion): Proton-Boron 11 Fusion both produces no neutrons and easily stored fuel, resulting in much lighter drive systems with less shielding and pressurised fuel storage, and it also produces an exhaust velocity over twice as high as the more standard deuterium and He3 rockets used elsewhere, giving much higher IP speeds. However unlike those engines the fusion reaction is not self sustaining, and the Boron Drive requires a continuous input of energy from another fusion reactor. Costs 15e and -2 power, gives IP speed 3 and an extra dodge. Needs a fusion core on the ship to function, power cannot be provided by fission cores or fusion drives.

Computation 5
Soldier Augments (Computation requirement revealed).
Improvements in robotics and automation allows industrial centres to be more productive (+25%e pre factory).
Electronic Warfare Units (requires an unknown amount of Maths): With sufficient understanding of data, technology, and electromagnetic effects its possible to remotely assault enemy electronic devices. When combined with Sensors an EWU can hack into an opponents planetary datasphere to steal secrets, and can even cause infrastructure to destroy itself (acting as the inverse of the biological bombs, only hitting facilities rather than population). The roll to do so is d10+[Your Computation + Maths]+[# of Computer Modules in the fleet] against the defending dataspheres d10+[Their Computation+Maths]+4+3*[Comp and Maths Research centres on world], each EWU makes one roll in the Activity Phase. In battle the EWU can obfuscate the enemies senses, causing them to loose all initiative and dodge bonuses derived from Computer Modules provided your [Comp+Maths] is greater than or equal to theirs. Costs 40e, is Size 1, needs 1 power and at least 2 comp modules.
Jammers (requires an unknown amount of Maths): By outputting a swathe of radiation across the frequencies your opponent is using you can cripple their fleet and drone coordination – blinding their eyes and deafening their ears, and allowing you to strike unexpectedly. A Jammer unit reduces the initiative of all opponent actions against this ship by [Your Energy+Maths]-[Their Energy+Maths], and halves the initiative provided to its opponents by sensors. With four or more ships with Jammers in a fleet, the benefit is extended to all ships within the fleet, additional Jammers in the same ship do not stack. Jammer units are cheap to construct but have large volume and power demands. Costs 4e, unit is size 2 and needs 6 power and at least 1 comp module.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
VP 4.22 + 34UC v88 Korean Mod & Modpack
Replies
0
Views
981
HANDANI
H
R
What Civs need better City name lists?
Replies
1
Views
279
j51
j51
L. Vern
  • Locked
  • Poll Poll
[Vote] (1-40) Later Eras Tech Cost Reduction
2
Replies
21
Views
3K
Recursive
Recursive
Loderingo
Fewer than 40% of players have won the game (final visit)
Replies
0
Views
902
Loderingo
Loderingo
L. Vern
Data-driven tech cost scaling for later eras
Replies
19
Views
2K
L. Vern
L. Vern
Back
Top Bottom