SYSNES2: On the Lathe of Suns

Kal'thzar said:

Ilosian-Yanii Ship and Rare Resources Deal

In the Year UC 4973

The Yanii will send 200e to the Ilosians

On Arrival of this amount the Ilosians will construct two Baldric-MKII haulers

These haulers will be filled with 100 units of rare metals (m) and will make the long journey to Lipsid Beta where they will be turned over to the Yanii at the appointed Yanii resupply point (Quasi owned).

During this journey the Yanii will send 50e every year until 150e has been payed.

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Signed in absentia,
Harus Hephoi, President of Yan

Kraznaya said:

We lost tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of e in material! Well that's great, we no longer have to pay them!

We zoomed out a warfleet without warning into a sovereign state's low orbit and rejected a peace offer over the comms! We tried to retreat without surrendering only after the battle was clearly lost, and now we will complain you're monsters for pursuing a hostile enemy!

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Actually, we did warn them. And, what peace offer? "Surrender or die" is not much of a peace offer. In fact, we're the only one who actually proposed a legitimate peace offer.

We didn't kill one Zeran soldier, and they slaughtered thousands of Standards who didn't fight back and publically declared their intentions not to. And unlike the accidental collateral damage to our Mernt citizens, this was a concerted decision by the Zeran leadership. They're either idiots or monsters or both.

And it's not hundreds of e. But you get a pass for gross exaggeration because it's your birthday.

You say tomato, I say failed extortion attempt.

Matt0088 said:

You say tomato, I say failed extortion attempt.

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You were never the target of the gesture to begin with. Self-importance again?

Thlayli said:

You were never the target of the gesture to begin with. Self-importance again?

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I won't tell the Valk if you dont. It'll be our little secret.

Thlayli said:

And unlike the accidental collateral damage to our Mernt citizens, this was a concerted decision by the Zeran leadership. They're either idiots or monsters or both.

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OOC: This is the official position of the Standard leadership I presume? That the incidents of the last few years were "accidental collateral damage" to the "Mernt citizenry" of the Standard state?

Thlayli said:

And it's not hundreds of e. But you get a pass for gross exaggeration because it's your birthday.

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197e, 86m, and 84v, constituting some 16 to 20% of your total military space capability.

All delays can be ascribed to those who write sloppy movement orders.

Also Kal'thzar

eh heh

Sorry

Kal'thzar said:

eh heh

Sorry

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The sloppiest.

Symphony D. said:

197e, 86m, and 84v, constituting some 16 to 20% of your total military space capability.

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Try 102e. Refinement.

I could use tables to summarise origin, destination, cargo, notes:


Course that doesn't copy too well.

This would copy well into excel:

Ship Origin Destination Cargo Notes
Baldric-MKII SAH7 Deep space SAH2 III n/a n/a
Bragi SAH8 Deep Space Glon, Phateon (P) n/a

That would help, also using region refs like I asked people too would be good. With your orders I'm more referring to the clusterfeck from that thing you didn't take into account.

Thlayli said:

Try 102e. Refinement.

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Not according to Economics_Y1 FLEET_UPKEEP or ShipDesigner_Y1 Current Designs. Both list Neer do Well as 74e, 22m, 23v, Marksman as 24e, 34m, 33v, and Razorfin as 25e, 8m, 5v. In comparison, I can verify that all three of my designs are in fact their refined costs. They're listed as refined on your stats page, though, so this is apparently a clerical error.

Considering m and v are generally trading at greater than 1:1 though, the point's moot, as it still tallies up to hundreds of e. It would also devastate your economy to replace them, even at 100% e taxation. So.

Edited. It's good that I don't need to replace them, or I wouldn't have sent them out to begin with.

Second Treaty of Atooa

- The Quasi will provide Yan with 25v per year at Lipsid Alpha starting UC 4973.
- The Yanii will train a Commercial Agent team to be loaned to the Quasi, for them to do with however they see fit.
- The Yanii will loan the Quasi a Bat-class emissary at Lipsid Alpha starting UC 4973.
- The Quasi will loan the Yanii two Gaawn-class freighters at Lipsid Alpha for the year UC 4974 and that year alone.
- This treaty will expire in UC 4979.

Signed
Hiy Yiiai, Direct Representative of the Yan people

In the new year the Handmaidens continues to be the main focus of the Hank-Sobor corporation’s expansion, as their finance experts begin to offer capital structuring to the somewhat unsophisticated inhabitants of the Glon system. The Hankish seem to be developing a closer relationship with the Order of the Deluge than with the Ilosians (a cynic would suggest that such a course is because of the Deluger’s naivety in the battlegrounds of the marketplace). The target of their current cooperation seems to be harvesting one of the several ice giants that can be found orbiting the star SAH7, as the Hankish know that rich markets for volatiles exist back Spinwards, and the combination of the two nations expertise would surely yield great synergy.

Not that the Delugers are in any way a passive client of the Hankish, as they have been taking the lead in the volatiles project and certainly had a great deal of input into the Hankish-Deluger treat agreement, even exacting one of the prized Hankish cargo vessels as a symbol of good will. The Ecumenical Council has battened on the success of their diplomatic efforts and had entered a stage of magnanimous goodwill towards all its neighbours; offering generous gifts to help paper over the sore spot with the miners of Blueside (though obviously not planning on giving their old world back), which are gladly received. The rest of the Deluger sphere is also buoyant with confidence, and ambitious industrial projects are being undertaken on the Unbreaking Wave itself, as well as a vast number of new and elegantly designed cities and workplaces. Indeed it appears as if the Delugers are on the breaking cusp of some sort of boom period, held back only by the disorganised and ad hoc political system failing to efficiently move projects forward. The few remaining critics point at the Ilosians bounding ahead in the friendly contest for SAH7, and urge a society wide discussion on how the Deluger society should be, and if a multi-system polity can be sustained in the same manner as they organise currently.

Speaking of the Ilosians, they have been galvanised by the (hardly secret) planned Hankish-Deluger to travel to SAH7, with the Hankish trade vessels already visiting that system. Ilosians sales representatives had been in long discussion with the Dardareo worldship, and had dreams of fulfilling the potential wealth of manufactures that could be gained from supplying that polity’s massive resource needs, not to mention the massive social credit helping out such a large group of people would accrue. Now SAH7 has two ice giants orbiting a very large distance from the tiny sun, and each outwardly having the same composition and a small retinue of moons. Whilst this might seem more than enough to go round, the outermost world of SAH7 IX is graced with a mighty swirl of hundreds of thick white and grey rings that put even ancient Saturn to shame. Beyond its aesthetic appeal this ring of orbiting matter may in the distant future prove a valuable trove to mine for antimatter particle interactions. This prize, and the fact that several spectators speculate the Ilosians know more about the contents of IX’s moons than they’re letting on, is driving the Ilosians to try and get a fiefdom set up before the Delugers arrive. If they have a pump and orbiting station already in place, the Delugers will surely have to tip their hats at losing a gentleman’s game and settle for the slightly less valuable VIII. To this end the Ilosians have been scrambling material and workers from across their widely spaced settlements to the ice giants orbit, and even taken out a considerable loan from the Pavonis Bank to finance it. On this last point however they have been stymied by the Hankish, who had allocated the entirety of the fleet running the Glon<>Sigma Relay route to their own transport needs rather than the open market and the loan shipment is thus stuck in limbo for a year at Sigma Relay waiting for an open transport slot. Some paranoid parts of the Pentarchy mutter that the Hankish set this up deliberately to steal a march on them in SAH7 as part of a bid to control all commerce in the Handmaidens subsector, whilst others draw up plans for an expanded merchant shipping of their own, and the once jovial mood in SAH7 may have gotten just a little bit darker.

Perhaps encouraged by the success of talking and friendship in the Handmaiden’s subsector, the Hankish decided to extend the olive branch closer to home. An outwardly humble consultation effort by the Hankish to the Hearthfire terraformers is met with favour by the latter, though their recommendations don’t receive much of a positive reaction in Hanksville. Though the northern region is not in an ecological crisis as of yet it is certainly on its way there and the solutions given are all equally unpalatable; change their social model to one with a lower footprint, dismantle some of the polluting buildings, spread the population to other regions, or spend a lot of money continuing the terraforming process. To a population that had seen their tax burden suddenly shoot up, and were still facing a massive housing crisis, none seemed like a pleasant option. Such adjustments might happen on their own however, for the demand for space in Hanksville had reached such a crush that many of the poorer settlers relocated to cheaper accommodation and menial industrial jobs on Hearthfire, squeezed out by the sprawling mansions of the new Hankish trade magnates. The military junta that controls Hearthstone Station have been rather quiet this year in their interactions with the Hankish, absorbed with interest by the events in the Forest. Some of the smarter Standardites, sickened by the chaos and foolishness have even been exploring their old military contact amongst the Dathic war machine and have shown up at Hearthstone and Atooa looking for work.

The Atooans have also played host to a stream of Yanii and Quasi diplomats working out supply and trade agreements. Formerly struck by a post-war malaise the Atooans have begun to show an interest in the thriving system economy that is developing, with a very long term aim to leverage it into a new centre of Dathic civilisation (before you ask qoou, NO THEY WILL NOT GIVE YOU ANYTHING RIGHT NOW). Some policy papers circulated to all three states call for supporting the more reasonable Standardites as a foot hold in the Forest against the rapidly expanding Csserian presence, and others pound on the importance of securing the Abnab system as a way to hook Lipsid Alpha into the wider Segmentum’s markets and resources without having to pass via Lipsid Beta or Alnitah. Many Yanii politicians nod their heads at such proposals, glad to be involved in the grown-up’s discussions at long last. Others smile and return to their hard work at weaving the three polities of Lipsid Alpha closer together; expanding the data trade and making an integrated media market, teaching history and theories of mind in icy Salvador, and putting considerable resources towards assimilating the refugees and newcomers into the emerging civic society. The Atooans might be talking about choosing directions, but the Yanii are building an alliance that can act on that choice. In comparison the Quasi are a lot more passive and quietly agree to the others requests, though they have been putting their own efforts towards deepening the web of trade and wealth within the system, and near everything nowadays gets carried on the slow but reliable Quasi sailcraft.

In comparison to their home system, where their trade efforts are welcomed, the Yanii have suffered setbacks and upsets at the Banded Cathedral this year. Though their accounting and shipping software and new media had exposed previously unknown market space, their brash intrusion into the data networks has bestirred those networks true owner; the Coran Illuminate. The fact that they have been causally overflying the Seat of Light in what can only be attempts to map Coran network traffic only adds insult to economic injury. The Illuminate struck back with a carefully constructed campaign that offered everything the Yanii were selling at a fraction of the cost, even remaking Yanii audio-visual serials with subtle tweaks to appeal to the Cathedral market. Within a few months all the Yanii traders had had to fold it in and reconsider their options. The Coran strike came at an expertly calculated time; as the opening up of the trade route to Abell offered a huge increase in value for media and data services to be offered to the Csserians, who are wealthy but unsophisticated in such matters. For their part the Csserians had been rapidly expanding their trade network and services across the whole Forest subsector for years now, and the Lipsid Beta markets would be no exception, albeit more valuable and more difficult than anywhere else. Such is the acumen of the savvy Csserian capitalists and insurers that they were able to dive into and secure part of the inter moon finance market; occupying a niche trader slot between the BIR and the Valk, something that both had long been searching for. The profits from this enterprise made the Cathedral band the second most valuable market in the whole Csserian sphere overnight, and many of the most powerful Csserian brokers have been lobbying the prime minister to stop wasting time in other systems, even Abell, and properly focus on digging in at the Cathedral – maybe even building a small trade habitat in the heavily populated orbital band? Some speculate that a loan taken out on quite punishing rates from the Lesser Orion Financial group may be to facilitate such, though the Csserians almost certainly have other plans for the resources.

The Csserians have not been the only ones applying for loans, and the traffic in and out of the LOFG’s monolithic headquarters has been nearly as high as the number of diplomats visiting the BIR parliament building on the other side of the Republic City dome. All the others have been rejected by the steely eyed business managers of the financial group. Despite its hard reputation, some charitable projects have been undertaken, though the BIR’s shipping council regrets to inform the bank’s vice president that there is no current mechanism in place to transport this project to its intended destination and the Bank should seek out other carriers.

As to all that diplomatic traffic into the BIR, that grand republic remains neutral and even handed towards all comers. Diplomacy in Cathedral space can in some ways be a delicate balancing act, and no matter how eager the new diplomats or how generous their terms are the BIR is going to carefully consider their options and all possible ins and outs before making any sort of commitment at all. The Valk on the other hand suspect the BIR is orchestrating a containment coalition directed against themselves, and is put out that they have receive comparatively fewer delegations from the lesser powers of the Forest. The Corans on the other hand smile and advance their own game. The continuing blunders by the Zerans drive public opinion in the Banded Cathedral further and further against them as bloody refugees tell their stories. The Corans don’t use their control of the media to alleviate this, but rather the opposite, poisoning the well against the Zerans with all the other powers. As the vast delegation of Coran emissaries arrives in the Zeran capital towards the end of the year the situation is solidified and the end game apparent – the Corans are the Zeran’s only hope, and the only one of the Lipsid Beta powers who will even answer their communications; a dependency there for the taking. Despite their outward bland uniformity there is still some discussion and disagreement within the highest levels of the Coran illumination; many ask if they are being to rash and rushing things, and worry that even if the Zera do offer converts the distance and time lag is insurmountable to bind them to the illumination. These nay-sayers are in the minority however, the Yanii intrusion into what were came and protected markets has convinced many Corans of influence that proactive measures need to be taken. Rather more worry about the launching of a fleet towards the depths of the Forest, to strike deals with the bustling Csserians and terrifying Praxzen, and how the Illuminate seems to be putting their experts in harm’s way without securing any safeguards or basic agreements.

Sjon looked up as the light changed. Kara had obviously returned from whatever abstract virtual environment she had been accessing, and the Map around her glowed with the status symbols of her Illumination. They were the only two passengers in a mess hall built for scores, most of the mission preferred to stay in their rooms or the entertainment centre rather than visit the Spartan room with its featureless white plastic tables for anything other than meals. Sjon on the other hand had always preferred to organise his thoughts with a bit more space round himself than the tiny cabins offered, and he assumed Kara was the same way.

The open space obviously wasn’t relaxing her right now, as the Map symbols that orbited her nearly shivered with tension despite the placidity of their surface content. Though it would be impolitic to mention it, Sjon could also see the inner, unmodified symbols her machine-self was automatically generating before her conscious mind tweaked and sanitized them. They buzzed red and green in tight little knots of fear and anxiety. On the Seat of Light such intrusion would have been impossible, a citizens unshared cores sacrosanct behind layers of law, custom, and protective software. In the Wilderness however mission leaders needed to know what their team thought without pretence or hesitation, and the Most Light granted access normally reserved for saints and holy figures. Any of the diplomatic crew would have known this already, and would just share their problems with the third in command if they happened to radiate them in his presence. But Kara was from the technology systematics team, she’d almost certainly been told about the Transparency, but she’d also almost certainly never been off the Seat of Light before. Changing the deep set emotional habits of a lifetime was something it took training to overcome, and the computer experts had barely had weeks to prepare between the Most Light drafting them and the fleet leaving the system.

Sjon decided to go for the gentle approach, and took the outermost channel possible – speaking aloud.

“Relax, it might never happen.” He spun it with some [humour], [duty], and [resignation to the will of the universe] on a private channel and put a smile on his face.

She startled and looked back at him with a nervous smile of her own before looking away. She ran her hands over her short hair and the four slender swept back horns the hair highlighted. A audio reply wasn’t apparently coming, but the header of the document she’d been accessing misted into view between them, anxiety tags spinning round it like red bees. Some of the text had been highlighted, but Sjon didn’t bother to access it – he could guess at her concerns.

“As I said, it might never happen. I’ve lost count of the times the diplomatic core has rushed me off to a meeting in the middle of nowhere only for the other side to not show or the deal to fall through”. [Twice] his machine-self helpfully tabbed up into his vision. He kept that close in and was thankful Kara didn’t have the same insight into his Illumination that he had into hers.

“And even if it does, do you think we or the Most Light are going to abandon you or the rest of your team? The Great Map holds the whole universe in its vision; things only seem to happen in haste to us because the machinations and careful consideration happened in ways interceptable to our limited enlightenment.” He kept up a stream of reassuring icons to go with it, every centimetre the senior diplomat and senior confessor. He didn’t believe a word of it of course, this entire scheme seemed something done in haste without care or back up, throwing some of their most skilled young people into the literal lion’s den. It could be worse though; this delicate young thing could have been on her way to an active warzone with the other group.

She finally spoke up, “It’s just the stories you hear, about how they killed that man with just a handshake, or ripped that traders head off because they didn’t like how her ship smelled…” a whirl of little links to the tabloid news feeds blossomed in her hand. She’d peppered them with connections to stories of Aliens and Robot Elvis, which was a good sign that she could still laugh at her worries.

He tapped one of his own down-curving horns as he thought on his reply; a nervous habit he’d retained since adolescence that he’d managed to parlay into a reputation for thoughtfulness.

“Look. In the dark crevices of the Forest there are undoubtedly lots of dangerous things and lots of things that look strange or inhuman to us. But what you must keep in mind when you are working with them is that they are still people, they still have human thoughts and dreams. And they most assuredly aren’t going to eat you.” He laughed aloud and on all the channels of their little conversation, and tried not to think of all the things that could happen that were much worse than being eaten…

The Standardite Crisis, as many were coming to term it, has spread to nearly all parts of the Forest subsector. But this is the first year that the chaos has reached further, an embroiled one of the Spinwards systems. To be fair Lipsid Gamma hadn’t been the calmest of systems before the Standardite arrival, but afterwards things were much worse. The sudden and rash Zeran blockade of the Adamas townships in the previous year had drawn widespread condemnation, in part because the rationale of securing it against invasion seemed an absurd fabrication. As the Zerans pulled back from their blockade the council of Commodores decided to dispatch a fleet to treat with the Adamas; after all if the Zerans already suspected collusion between the two, why not get the benefits of cooperation as well as the diplomatic downsides. What happened when the fleet arrived is a matter of disagreeing accounts; in the Standardite version of events they sought to land in the northern isles but accidently entered close orbit above the wrong region (Standardite incompetence not being a particularly hard sell). When the Zerans scrambled their fleet and pummelled the envoys without regard for any discussion, the Standards first fired some warning shots that deliberately missed their targets, then disarmed when they realised they were above the wrong region, after which the Zerans cruelly destroyed every one of their vessels without mercy. In the Zeran version of events the Standards threatened first and were shooting with intent to kill. Neither side has much credibility; the Standards being Standards and the Zeran’s trigger happiness being established from the previous year. The fact that the Standards were utterly destroyed without landing a shot does give their story some sympathy and belief, particularly in the post-Dathic polities and the Cathedral, and the Zerans acts latter in the year rather threw any claims to reasonableness on their part out of the water, and so the Standardite version events came to dominate in the places that aren’t already in conflict with them.

For the Zerans, continuing their brutal tax regime (only kept afloat by donations from the Corans), had stripped their peoples meagre wealth to construct a ground army, beggaring their people still further. Claiming the Adamans were obviously guilty of colluding with foreign powers the Zerans didn’t wait for international opinion to respond to the Standardite foray but instead leapt into action once again. In many cases only armed with machetes and agricultural equipment this army had snuck into the Northern Isles during the rainy months season in the months after the end of the blockade and the battles in orbit, and seized control in a night of bloodshed that aped the Zeran revolution of the preceding decade. Though the Zeran commanders had tried to make the takeover a peaceable affair, expecting controlled and calm behaviour from troops a few months out of boot camp and fighting for the first time was an absurdity and there was considerable damage on both sides. After decapitating the Adams leadership the Zerans announced that Lipsid Gamma III was for Zerans alone; all Adamans would now have to leave by any means possible, and the Zera will cooperate with any polity who wishes to ‘take them off’ their hands. Many of the Adamans who could did indeed flee, some to the Cathedral and some making their way to the sole polity who had offered them succour – the Standards of Buxe. In a way the Zerans expecting this would improve their image is another example of their boundless optimism, just like the assumption that reducing taxes from 99% to 85% would result in an economic boom. Instead however the Citizenry of the Cathedral were confronted with visuals of bloody and wounded Adaman families begging for entry at their space ports. The premier of Firzonat, who’s polity had recived a large portion of the refugees, has named both the Zerans and the Standards as an ‘Axis of Barbarianism’ that needs to be ‘Educated by Force’.

On every other edge of the Standardite territory similar confusion and chaos reigned. On SAFI the knights of the Vale surprisingly didn’t press their advantage against the Standardites under Rogue Commodore Rico Regular, instead seeming to be waiting for something that never arrived. Rico’s forces have used this window of time to dig in and perform some much needed repairs, with their commander still cursing the grandiosity of the other Commodores at picking fights across the Segmentum when they should (in his opinion) focus on something small and out of the way. Some undecided Standardites have even listened to him, and most of those who’ve fled SAF10 have flocked to his banner.

For on that world something that most had thought implausible and the Commodores had specifically discounted had occurred; the Seffassians had roused themselves from their collective dream time. Perhaps finally realising they were no longer hidden in the universe the Seffassians have taken steps to secure their homeworld of Darklern; crude fission missile batteries have been designed to be deployed next year, and they’ve formed an armed forces to run off the Standardite interlopers. Though many consider the Seffassians a joke, their nightmare legion more than earns it name stalking Standardite encampments throughout the rocky region of long dead forests. You can laugh at the Seffassian giggling to themselves in the corner only so long as you don’t fully think what utter unpredictability and having no fear means on the battlefield. Most of the Standardite civilians escaped leaving only a few under Seffassian control, but the rout has not been good press for the Council of Commodores.

On another front the Mernt of the Old Continent on Mern itself are granted an unexpected reprieve from the Standardite assault this year. Rather than pressing their advantage in an attempt to secure the entire planet, the Commodore’s Council has instead decided to pause and bring several of the rebel standard regions to heel. The main army is dispatched to SAF4 to bring a rather minor splinter fleet inhabiting the Mars-like first planet of that system under the Commodores control. This tiny inoffensive group had held out on an otherwise uninhabited world whose terraforming had been undone centuries ago, leaving only ruins of the former inhabitant’s cities. Bothering no one, many question the wisdom Council expending its scarce military resources on bullying them when the Standardites of the Fleet are being pressed on every front. A meagre surplus of minerals seems barely worth it, even though the operation itself was an easy success. The special operations units of the Commodores ground forces are also barely give time to recover before being given a new commander, a hasty new name, and a mission to bring the recently rebelling Great Basin region of Oia back into the fold. A faction of the Fleet captains, nicknamed the ‘Buxer Boxers’ with typical Standardite wit, have called out the Commodores on this being a bad idea – Janos’ and his crews are big boys and made their choice, and the Fleet should concentrate on holding the Buxe system rather than telling other Standardites what they should and shouldn’t do.

Common, the new commander of the Second army tried her best to reason with the rebels of the Great Basin, but the paltry resources the Council had assigned her didn’t help, and the failures the Commodores saw on the other fronts had given the warlord Janos Typical no desire to re-join a sinking ship. With no recourse but to violence Kia’s Egrets mounted a lightning raid on Typicals’ hastily assembled guerrilla army on fine summers evening. Perhaps it was the flatness of the Basin providing no cover to the attackers, or just sheer bad luck, but the defenders managed to catch them in a devastating crossfire. Whilst the Egrets killed far more of the Guerrillas and only suffered trivial causalities, that unlucky barrage wrecked their equipment and peppered near every soldier full of holes. Not operating at full strength in the first place after having been given little rest after the Battle for Mern, Kia knew another engagement might break the barely standing Guerrillas but also that she didn’t have nearly the active men to make it a sure thing. Prioritising her men over orders she didn’t really agree with that strongly in the first place, the Egrets airlifted out to Airharbor to prep for the following year. Typical may have carried the day, but he and his band could see the writing on the wall and began looking for an exit strategy to escape both the Commodores wrath and the doom that seemed to be pushing on the Standards from all sides. Lines of communication were opened with the Csserian diplomatic office, with Typical seeking to run and join Regular on SAF1, or head even further afield.

One ray of hope for the Commodores was that they finally got their act together and organised their merchant fleet to perform the Abell-Buxe run. With the Csserians treaty bound to both keep their ports open and to not compete with the Standardites, the meagre trade between those two systems turned a marginal profit for the grand new spaceport expansions in the Elric Mountains. Perhaps it was the Boxer’s urgings, or perhaps it had been the Commodores intentions all along, but some rather strong proclamations to the exclusivity of Standard trade interests in the Buxe system were made.

The final nail in the Standardite coffin may be yet to come though, and rather than any planetary battlefield their biggest problem may be in the brains of some harmless Csserian engineers working away in an astronautics laboratory. Final design review was approved this year by cabinet for a new class of dedicated Warship – the innocuously named Shepard. Though the myth of Standardite aerospace superiority may have already died above Lipsid Gamma III this purpose designed laser torchship would bury it, especially considering the Csserians can conceivably build several per year. When the Treaty of Abell expires in three years’ time the Standardites will probably not be in a good position to dictate any renewal terms. As mentioned previously this development coincides with a number of Csserian commercial successes and the whole confederacy seems buoyant with optimism, and the critics of yesteryear have been quieted somewhat. The Csserians are also making strides on the diplomatic front by finishing off the complex paperwork on the treaty of Torpor with the Praxzen. The economic partnership they intend for that newly renamed planet looks set to pay large dividends for both powers, and leverage their influence over one of the two gateways into the Forest for further success. The one fly in the Csserian ointment is the continuing influx of refugees from Mern and Oia, and even some Standardite migrants have slipped into the mix. Though they have put a lot off effort into accommodating the new citizens, both temporary and permanent, and instructed their police and social services to take a softer line, there just simply isn’t room for all these people beneath the Csserian dome (newly renamed Larsilla), with the Mernt camping in parks and other public spaces before the police can move them on. Suggestions of moving them to the barely inhabitable mining regions of Heya were met with dislike from all side; the migrants not wanting to be marginalised to a jobless ghetto, and the Csserians not wanting to turn one of their regions into a foreign majority zone. The Prime Minister and his government might have to stop stargazing and focus on domestic issues for at least a little while, though his supporters point out that solving the problems of the Mernt states would deal with the refugee problem at the source.

The Praxzen continue being the Csserians intimidating and quieter shadow; assisting in the construction of the Torpor station and managing its initial operation, and sending diplomatic queries on towards Lipsid Beta. Unlike the Csserians the Praxzen don’t seek wealth there, but rather desire knowledge, talking too many of the Cathedral polities great and small, and most importantly persuading Coran computer specialists to travel to Kathekon. Some of the more paranoid Praxzen (i.e. most of them), question if allowing such skilled data manipulators into their sanctum of knowledge is wise, but they fear being left behind in scientific knowledge rather more. It is not the Praxzen nature to play second fiddle to baselines, and many itch to show their superiority to the Csserians (the only neighbours they consider even half way competent), and to show off to the grander polities of the Spinwards regions. It is rumoured that the Bureaus have something in the works, and also that the Specter Division has been involved in some long and interesting training exercises over on Adiapora. But unlike many governments the Praxzen know when to keep their mouths shut and their skins blank, and these rumours remain nothing more than that.

Amongst the even more sinister appearing and deeply hidden Leeni, a polity that no other government has yet deigned to contact, things have finally started happening. The Praetors have finally decided to work towards a united planetary government, the first step of which was creating an armed forces drawing from all the hives and warrens – both a unifier and a protector. This surge in activity may also be tied to tremendous breakthroughs in social thought and organisations that the Leeni have recently developed. It is odd that such alien looking people might understand the other polities of the Segmentum far better than they are understood themselves, but one doesn’t build a social structure that maintains order for a thousand years without knowing a thing or two about how people behave.

New Systems Explored

SAH4
The Ilosian escort frigate continues its mission to seek out new world and new frontiers, to boldly go where no Ilosian has gone before, and to sell the customers there lots of tasty minerals. What they discover in this binary red dwarf system remains classified.

Random Events

Awards and Good Events

• First Orders: Qoou (so fast)
• Best Orders: SymphonyD (spending tables are indeed the best)
• Best Orders Runner-Up: kraz again sends very good orders. Please note that ‘best’ doesn’t mean ‘cleverest’ or ‘most successful’ (which are separate awards), but rather rewards parsibility, conciseness, and close linking of actions taken to aims.
• Good Stories: Symphony and Thlayli (obviously I get the best story award myself )
• Avenues set up to better assimilate the new migrants into Yanii society are rather enthusiastically taken up (to the bemusement of some of the older Yanii citizens who remember the disdain they were once held in) and talented workers begin functioning at their true level: Some foreign pop assimilated, +2 talents.
• Although the few Csserian traders who visit Kathekon are greeted with unconcealed contempt, their amazement at several very basic Praxzen inventions gives the Foreign relations Bureau a host of ideas on what to sell to the outside world: +2 Products in the Capital (note this was gained after trade values were calculated for this turn, and will only start applying from next year).
• Some tired office worker finally manages to unpack some of the data baggage the Deluger expedition brought with them to the sector. To everyone’s surprise some rather interesting notes on fluid physics had been missing from the main library: +100s towards PROP.
• Similarly attempts to repair a much older data network on Kathekon disgorge an old cache of fabrication templates. The SIB quickly rounds up the information for its future projects: +200s +200e towards refinement of Particle Weapons (Army Heavy Weaponry Choice).
• Adaman refugees arriving in the Elric Mountains are literally dumbfounded by the ramshackle nature of the regions infrastructure. After getting some friendly Standardites to round up some unfriendly Mernt workcrews, the Adamas labour tirelessly to introduce such exotic luxuries like a joined up electrical grid and common landfills to dispose of waste. +0.3 e development.
• The praetor’s attempts to share knowledge and techniques as a precursor to a united planetary government pays off, with effective hydroponics and herding techniques spreading to all corners of the moon: All f development rises to the highest current (2.1).

Problems and Bad Events

• Last Orders: Thlayli (so damn late)
• Most Annoying Orders: Kal’thzar (for failure to anticipate a thing and long and ungainly structure)
• A strategic blunder causes a Standardite expedition to perish with all hands; losing over a quarter of their total fleet (it was a pretty random event wasn’t it!).
• The solar furnaces of the Ilosian SAH2 are slightly misaligned, and a vast amount of this year’s extraction is lost as vapour to open space: 40m lost.
• An instability in one of the main plasma feeds of the Heya municipal fusion power plant leads to several cores being taken off-line for repairs: -6 power in the Old Craters this year.
• A corruption scandal afflicts one of the Hank-Sobor executive vice presidents, causing a great deal of anger and frustration in Hanksville: +50 stress this year.

On-going Agreements

• BIR-Coran supply pact: BIR guarantees to fulfil up 55 m per year to the Corans, at 1:1 v:m, 2:1 f:m, and 2:1 e:m. Failure of a year’s fulfilment will result in the following year being free. Either party may end the agreement with one year’s notice.
• Valk-Coran supply pact: Valk guarantees to fulfil up 25 v per year to the Corans, at 1:1 e:v. Failure of a year’s fulfilment will result in the following year being free. Either party may end the agreement with one year’s notice.
• Ilosian-Deluger Pact: Waffle about damages in the case of conflict, guaranteed transfer of 60m per year to the Delugers at Glon, 53f and 16v to the Ilosians at Glon. Failure of a year’s fulfilment will result in the following year being free. Ilosian specialist at Deluger disposal to teach Maths if possible, Deluger specialist at Ilosian disposal to teach Propulsion if possible.
• Standard-Csserian Treaty of Abell: Lots of Waffle, each ensures to offer resupply to the other, one off transfer of funds to the Standards (done), non-compete clause in shipping markets in co-habiting systems, borders of the Oiat Kingdom guaranteed, 5 years duration, military action might follow breaking the treaty, closes on waffle.
• Hankish-Ilosian Trade Deal: Hankish can station a commercial agent on Phaeton. 50e exchanged for 25m per year. Failure to fulfil means free next year, can be cancelled by either with one years notice.
• Hankish-Deluge Treaty of Friendship: Super vague mission statement with no indication of what happens with failures. Hankish give Delugers a cargo ship (done). Delugers let Hankish get ALL TRADE in Deluger space. Statement of co-operation regarding SAH7 IX or VIII (which one not mentioned) to build a space dock and atmosphere station respectively, splitting costs 50:50 and v extraction 35:65.
• Treaty of Torpor (Csserian-Praxzen): Each agrees to fund a space station and atmosphere pump at SAF2 IV (now Torpor). Csserians run the station, Praxzen the pump. 50:50 splitting of ownership and v output of the pump. Also agreed on most favoured nation, channels for dialog and mediation, quid pro quo exchange of experts for teaching. Commitment to co-op militarily and defend each other against ‘unprovoked’ aggression.
• Ilosian-Dardareo Loan: Ilosians agree to borrow 150e from the Pavonis Bank (underwritten by the Dardareo) at 250e repayment within 6 years.
• Deluger Pledge: 3:1 f:m or 2:1 f:e deals available to the Glon miners in perpetuity.
• Treaty of Atooa (Yanii-Quasi): Ridiculously grandiose named resupply agreement. Also swapping a sociologist for a designer. 7 years duration.
• Csserians have taken a loan from the LOFG: 150e @5.5% pa 4973-5, 7% pa 4976-7

On-going Conflicts

• Standard-Seffassian Hostilities
• Standard-Zeran Hostilities: Zeran occupation of Adama Townships
• Standard-Mern Mernt Hostilities

Open Market Trades

• Yanii: 28f for 17e @ Lipsid Alpha
• BIR: 2 lots of 50m for 125e @ Lipsid Beta
• Valk: 6 lots of 80v for 120e @ Lipsid Beta
• Ilosians: 3 lots of 50m for 80e @ Glon

New Technologies Discovered
SOCIAL 5
Ship Components
Elite Training – elite training is a ‘meta’-ship component, representing the use of your most skilled personnel in basic ship functioning. t is expended to provided multipliers on EW skill, Dodge, Missile Defence, Initiative, Ship to Ship Boarding, Damage Control, and Repairs. The amount of t spent is proportional to ship hit points and can get quite expensive, it is thus recommended you use Elite Training only on a ship that already excels in one of the previously mentioned parameters. Also note that due to rounding, the effect might not be immediately noticeable.
Army Attributes
Non-lethal Methods – this army is trained to careful interacting with the civilian population and given special equipment to stun and subdue rather than kill. Note unlike police training the pacification effect of Non-Lethal Methods only helps in foreign occupations. Non-lethal methods also provide a bonus to the success of non-violent stealth missions (thefts, kidnappings, extractions, etc).
Buildings
Social Policies
Ecopoetic Values (with BIOTECH 4) - your people highly value their environment and treasure their personal interaction with the biosphere and its maintenance. Terraforming is something that is appreciated for its own sake rather than for an ulterior goal. Though costing some economic vitality, particularly in regards to large industrial complexes, the populace’s care reduces both internal stress and their environmental footprint and consumption as well as adjusting individuals priorities towards self-improvement.
Subsidiarity Economy (Other requirement not known)
Consensus Society – a more complex form of democratic governance; where republics choose representatives, consensus societies try to involve the people directly via means of direct democracy initiatives and structures. Some decision makers are still chosen, but the means of doing so are often highly engineered to be maximally representative. Such a society requires a high degree of education amongst the common people in order for their input to be useful, but the positivity and responsiveness engendered by the involvement often pays dividends, leading to less base stress and reducing some of the stresses caused by republican models. Consensus models are good for long term science development and create a very skilled and involved media, though the direct involvement in governance can pull talent and skills out of the general system and the military, and consensus societies are less well disposed to the foreign ‘other’ than less strongly knitted societal models.
Other
Flexibility – by creating a certain regime of education and training from a young age, and using hypnotic and chemical methods on those already inclined towards dissociative disorders, a people can induce their talented citizens to savant-levels of multi-tasking, language ability and empathy. Though it requires a constant influx of educational resources into the new generations, altering ones society this way causes a considerable boost to trading acumen, army initiative, and educational buildings.
Aesthetics (bio) II (Other requirement not known)
Aesthetics (cyber) II (Other requirement not known)

Population Growth Payments

• Praxzen need to pay 12e and 16s
• Corans need to pay 16e and 10s
• Zera need to pay 4e and 4s

Changes and Bug Fixing

• TWO NEW POLICY STAT LINES INTRODUCED:
• ‘Development Max’ specifies the maximum development level you asymptote towards (it is the reason many of your development scores have not gone up this turn :3). The asymptote function for each development type is defined as 1+[Total Tech Level]/10+[Development modifier for this time]/10+[Development Max]. Thus for example the current Praxzens; with an s development of 7, 1 level of development max, and 22 techs in total, have a max s development of 1+2.2+0.7+1=4.9. Note that survival values is pretty bad for max development, and that any societal policy at all will give you a higher development max. Also note it is a asymptote, so you will experience increasingly marginal gains well before reach the theoretical maximum development.
• ‘Centralisation Overhead’ when you run a number of regions as a single polity, it takes considerable effort. The more complex and controlling your social policies are the greater the effort it takes to implement them. Centralisation overhead creates an e and s cost in your capital based on the number of regions, and a social stress effect in every other region. The lower your overheads the smaller the cost and the incurred stress; the cost to the capital maxes out at -10 Centralisation Overhead (i.e. 0 costs) but the social stress effect does not, and you start getting a bonus reduction to social stress for not being in the capital.
• ‘Growth in Harsh’ now functions the way the manual says it does.
• Added cells to input army bonuses from policies into the Army Designer, note that initiative bonus doesn’t add linearly.
• Changed the BIR trade map colour to a darker blue so you could more easily see the contrast with the Csserians.
• RNA processors now work as described, some other control components tweaked.

Comments
[Iggy] You forgot to pay for moving stuff between systems again (its 1e for a supply route, 2e for your own trade routes and 4e for foreign trade routes). Also had to raise taxes when you tried to spend 175e with only 167 available before we even got to those unpaid costs. No worries though, this is one of the reasons I have taxation like this, to buffer problems in orders. Also you don’t get to decide the types of your ships – I do to aid description and memory. Naming your couriers escort frigates is not informative to the other players, so I won’t name them that .
[alex] INTERSTELLAR, INTRASYSTEM. Also research comes after building – can’t develop a ship and build it in the same turn.
[Azale] the army you designed was too big to have commando training, so I swapped it for a supply centre (which you needed). The costing is 14e 2s and 4m.
[Thlyali] Say how many damn ships you’re using to transport your army
[qoou] what did I say about conditionals?

Orders will be due 7am Tuesday 28th GMT, though early orders will be appreciated as usual. The next update will be a THREE YEAR UPDATE 4973-5. Do not split your spending up by year, but instead act as if you had x3 the current resources inputs and outputs. Remember to leave a fund for emergencies and population growth. Yes your society values might very well be changing based on the way you've played so far.