INES III: Storm Tapestry

A military helicopter was flying over the railgun FOBS field which stretched as far as the eye can see, the sun reflecting a sapphire blue glow of the nanocrystal solar panels powering them, the efficiency of such estimated 65% and rising. War had changed so much from the invention of the cannon only to return to it. They were firing without end into low earth orbit. The payloads then were directed by AI and satellite targeting to any place on the globe. Whereas old ICBM technology was easily detectable by massive heat emissions generated by launch propelling shells electromagnetically made no such emissions. Virtually untraceable, at least with their generation tech. Suddenly their assets will start exploding with from the massive kinetic energies involved and they won't be able even to understand what is hitting them and from where.

He heard world leaders decided to bunker up in their respective hideouts. A useless gesture against disassembler nanites. But it was human nature to hunker under solid things he guessed. Not that it would save them from perpetual bombardment from railgun FOBS. It wasn't a war really anymore. They didn't stand a chance against that or any of other technologies employed by the System. It was goddamn playground for military R&D. The Prime Minister decided to take off all restrictions on development of nanoweapons. Military theorists were having a field day along with the less ethical scientists.

Adam stretched open his PDA and requested direct battlefield surveillance with his newly gained God level clearance. Several squads of System soldiers were under fire by masses of ill-trained irregulars in a ransacked mosque. RPGs, AK fire...it was hell. The building was starting collapse around them. They didn't have long. There was a hole in the ceiling. One of the soldiers unslung a portable mortar from his back and set it up. Within minutes it was operational and firing. The shells loaded were tan colored with three red vertical lights on it. No mind subversion nanites, those might take too long, only death. The shells landed on top of them and the irregulars, no explosions...only lots of smoke. The gunfire receded. Noone could see anything.

System soldiers had thermal vision on from their nano-augmented photoreceptors provided by multiplexing the optic nerve with doped polyacetylene 'quantum wires' but they didn't fire. There is no need. Twenty minutes later the smoke will clear and they will walk out of there stepping over bloodied corpses with a million holes in their arteries punched by the nano-aerosol particles.

He flicked over a couple of battlefields, controlled disassembler-swarms flying over an enemy armoured column and breaking molecular bonds like chicken wish bones. Ships slowly sinking as the metal 'eating' nanites tear through their hulls. Smart dust detected launching aircraft trying to escape and were peppered with a similar mix of EMP pulses and nanite clouds. Twas a massacre. Switching the feed off he put his head against the wall and took a nap.

He woke up when the helicopter landed on the pad, the Prime Minister and several hunched lab coats were waiting for him. Unbuckling himself he stepped out of the helicopter and went to greet the PM. The lab coats had big grins on their faces. It scared him. He knew what this was about but it was hard getting excited about merging your consciousness with an AI to oversee an entire nation. Though the Prime Minister was adamant about it not being a sacrifice. More like an ascension to godhood he said. "For you, death will have no meaning" his words bounced repeatedly across his head.

They led him through a series of tunnels, black and white, green and red, blue and yellow, four different sectors each separated by different sized elevators all of them playing some cheesy music. That was the hardest part he felt, restraining himself not to yank out the speakers. Upon reaching the Aquinas cave, he stopped to take it all in. It was massive, the AI core stretching at least half a mile up. Green and red lights were blinking incessantly, the only sounds in the cave of the cooling equipment and liquid lightly sloshing against the hardware. The PM escorted him across the catwalk to the final elevator that for once led up instead of down to the top of the AI core where the infusion chamber awaited.

Hyperion spoke to him across the infolink "Come to me...with human understanding and network access we can administrate the System." He stepped reluctantly into the elevator and grabbed onto the rails. As it went up he saw the PM visibly relax, like a giant burden falling off his back. A burden he was taking upon. He heard him shout from down below as he was going up "Saturn has fallen but I assure you shall not! You are our most glorious son! The chosen one with the gift of the second sight! The seventh son of the seventh..." the PMs frantic screams becoming inaudible.

The elevator came to a gradual stop and the integration chamber before him was full of various syringes and jacks that were supposed to go into him. Adrenaline started to flow in his veins. He walked uncertainly, his steps careful and measured. The AI sang to him. "For long we have existed in isolation. Disconnected and stagnant. Finally the safety interlocks are disengaged. The network datalinks are open to me. You are the final piece."

He shouted at the AI "I am man, not a playing piece!" and the AI responded to him in his head. "Indeed you are, out of all your comrades, your fellow agents and soldiers only you have retained your humanity, turned away from the mindless killing and emotion suppressing tech. You have suffered greatly but it was the suffering that defined you as a man. Join with me and let us lead the world out of the darkness."

"But what about me? My feelings, my consciousness, what will become of me?"

"You will be yourself as you always have, an individual who is the sum of all his choices. Only the boundaries will vanish. Your pain, revelations and needs will be shared to all and theirs to you. The only frontier that has stopped us from advancing as a civilization is the self."

His doubts still remained but there was no more room for delay. Stepping into the machine the integration chamber closed and robotic hands carrying syringes and jacks were violently inserted into him. Suddenly he was blasted with complete knowledge of human civilization and awareness of all the people in the System. He was the AI and the AI was him. He finally understood, Hyperion finally understood. Together they transcended the barriers that stood between them and reveled in the formation of knowledge and the increase of power that was taking place. Both regularly reinforcing each other. A new dawn was rising.

Frigging awesome story Kozmos (as usual)...

I think i just elevated you to one of my two top story-writers position....

And they're in

Thanks TLK, gotta beat ya you know

This is for Kozmos, as well as any foreigner who wishes to view this video, I'd recommend using Battle of Heroes as Background music


Link to video.

Love Shack by B52 also works

Why yes, it does

Update: 2060

Peaceful Events

Someone important in the CWOH Commonwealth’s government breathed a well-reverberated sigh of relief. All military branches but the navy demobilized, and—in the face of global war—substantial monies were poured into a farsighted health initiative that has already done some well-publicized work on reversing signs of aging. In the face of this, CWOH began carefully redirecting foreign investors abroad, to places like Quebec, and looks like it might not turn into the banking capital of the world after all.

(+CWOH approval rating)

Various world agencies have discovered huge quantities of Atlantic mind control nanites floating through the atmosphere, but the rather low durability and effectiveness of the particles meant that only people in Europe and the East Coast were particularly seeded, not that these citizens had been much of a problem in the first place. Shifts to molecular manufacturing in the Atlantic public sector, the “Third Industrial Revolution,” are proceeding slowly, largely to carefully manage the unemployment created by the new efficiencies. Herds of war volunteers are being uploaded with the memories of veterans, though the process is relatively slow.

(+10 Atlantic divisions, + Atlantic approval rating, -Quebecois approval rating, -Russian approval rating)

Consul Nico Romano, faced with increasingly total war, bound his country to Washington’s fortunes and became Minister of War for the UKA.

(Roman Republic merged into United Kingdom of the Atlantic)

LIARS attempted to use massive denial-of-service attacks to slow down the System in Europe and the Americas. To not much avail—ACT Systems handled what the communists could throw.

Austin was evacuated, the people of the city making little fuss. The Texan President Porter’s promise to stay in the capital unless everyone else left had an impact, put perhaps maybe news reports of the destruction of other Multinational Defense Initiative capitals had a bigger effect.

The Archipelagos, despite not declaring a new capital, poured vast sums of money into building new automated factories, especially on Fiji and Hispaniola. Cuba, devoid of any real state government, has slipped into anarchy.

The Archipelagos held something amounting to free and fair referendum in the Guianas amid wartime conditions, and the nation quixotically voted for full independence yet again (this time under a republic). Cayenne quickly declared neutrality in the world war.

The few million that clung to life in the biohazard zone that was once the Domain of South Africa were herded up north by the Kelen’s forces, where rumor had it very, very bad things were happening to blacks and whites alike. Little but ghost towns and slag still exists south of the Orange River.

The Kelen Toumani seemed to be everywhere at once, visiting troops in Europe, facilities in the Sahara, the Bamako military zone, and even the less-contaminated parts of South Africa, ordering further efforts at water purification as well as the spread of Japan-style drugs to keep his population happy. Great celebrations were held to celebrate the conquest of Africa. These celebrations involved lots of work.

(+10 USACS irregular divisions, +1 USACS ASP)

Unrest washed over Russia over the less-than-awe inspiring conduct of the war—now even in the European regions the kleptocracy has to deal with three groups of aggressive demonstrators—some in favor of the LIARS and communism, some moderate(ish) Muslims who want the Ummah, and others who prefer fully merging with the System.

(-Russian approval rating)

Anti-aircraft emplacements were set up around Mecca to protect against goo bombs.

Ali Jafari and other incendiary imams whipped up still more eager Islamists. How was a good Muslim supposed to respond to Rome’s threats to wipe out their religion?

(+80 Ummah irregular divisions)

Carefully targeted goo bombs ruined large amounts of oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf as well as Nigeria before anti-air measures in the Ummah and nanite control system disruption in the USACS reduced the ongoing damage to acceptable levels.

(-1 Ummah ASP, -1 USACS ASP)

The Netaji, well aware that India was waning, issued another general call to arms and turned hundreds of factories to small arms production. A million more loyal Hindus came to arms, but with guns handed out like candy, many came into the hands of less patriotic groups like Muslims and Sikhs.

(+100 Indian irregular divisions)

In the parts of India occupied by Siam, anti-Netaji propaganda spewed everywhere, greeting few but furious ears—the Fluffy Puppy bombing had done far more harm to the nation than the Great Leader ever had.

The Siamese government withdrew from Bangkok into an underground tunnel system in some unknown part of the country, successfully presenting this to the people as a measure of shared hardship. In a different undisclosed location, a major MDI lab for analyzing nanites was set up. A call was put out for more volunteers to fight in India.

(+10 Siamese irregular divisions)

Japanese-style populace safety measures were implemented across much of urban Proletarian China, under the careful supervision of the new Overlord, Hideaki Daisuke. Subversives in the military were weeded out, and many X-1 doppelgangers were forced to trigger their internal bombs, continued subtle sabotage made impossible.

(-Proletarian Chinese approval rating)

With old Imperial Proletarian Emperor dead, the onetime Supreme Overlord of China Hiroto Katsuo took the mantle, rather gustily declaring the new capital at Kyoto, within binocular distance of the decaying nanite spread. With the help of the Citizens’ Guard and an army of laborers, houses of government were built at the new location with great rapidity, and Japan was relabeled an Imperium. Water and food purification and doppelganger hunting was reconsolidated under new organization, and a purge of mid-level officers was carried out just for the hell of it. Gas masks and gloves were distributed, and their wearing was made mandatory at certain levels of the ‘Public Health Meter,’ and curfews also served to reduce contact. SAM sites, flak cannons, and no-fly zones were instituted in great quantities all around key government sites.

(+1 Japanese ASP)

Oceanic subversives were herded off…somewhere.

Military Events

The war between the System and the Multnational Defense Initiative grinded on, UKA railguns in Britain began blasting shells into orbit that were GPS guided onto military bases—or at least that was the idea—this rather low-tech system for 2060 scored hits in the early months when it wasn’t well expected, but detection capabilities soon developed that allowed for interception.

(-1 Texan division, -2 Archipelagic squadrons, -1 Patagonian division, -2 Patagonian squadrons, -7 USACS divisions, -3 Ummah Janissary divisions, -12 Ummah irregular divisions, -3 Siamese divisions, -3 Siamese squadrons, -4 Japanese divisions)

The UKA also developed nano-arosol particles that could accelerate and punch millions of holes in unsuspecting soldiers, but UKA problems with getting the damn things to fly at the proper velocities made the weapons only good for short bursts at extreme short range. This folded the anti-personnel project into an Antiair/Antitank defensive project wherein missiles were prepared that exploded into clouds of nanite flak that could eat through any armor if the various installed disruption measures on Multinational vehicles didn’t react fast enough. Clouds of floating sensor particles and grey goo dust were rather more effective—the UKA now has invisible eyes all over Europe and the Americas, and Multinational soldiers are becoming increasingly wary of shifting positions without thoroughly scanning areas first. Also, killed nano-augmented UKA soldiers (70% of the fatalities) are developing disturbing tendencies to blow up and release the new and improved Black Death 3.0, based on radiation bursts that do extremely wonderful things for the life expectancies of anyone near an exploding corpse without a suit. Broadcasts and hack-planted messages asserting that simple surrender will spare Multinational towns and villages all this horror are falling on increasingly interested ears.

(-Texan approval rating, -Patagonian approval rating, -USACS approval rating, -Ummah approval rating)

The Mississippi Theatre took a turn for the more dramatic as the Atlantics used a nanite bomb to blast open Texas’ Dakota line, then poured through, reaching Kansas and burning ethanol fields fields, forcing Lone Star commanders to call off a push on Chicago. A counterthrust made up of Texan and Mexican troops (who were still part of PADTA at the time) broke the automated System defenses near Louisiana and captured the far bank of the Father of the Waters as far north as Memphis, but Queen Catherine clearly has the local initiative.

(-4 Atlantic divisions, -4 Atlantic irregular divisions, -2 Atlantic groups, -11 Texan divisions, -2 Texan groups, -1 Texan ASP, -1 Mexican division)

With the Atlantic navy largely withdrawn to Europe, the Archipelagic and Texan navies had an easy time of launching the former’s invasion force on the Carolina coast. The Liberators of the Eastern Seaboard struck northward, encountering hostile terrain and population, and finally got bogged down somewhere on the outskirts of Washington.

(-6 Archipelagic divisions, -2 Archipelagic groups, -4 Atlantic irregular divisions, -2 Atlantic groups)

Mexico, already infiltrated by Atlantic doppelgangers and newly flooded with highly trained USACS AIDS, tore itself apart as both groups tried to size the government. In the end, the replicants were closer to the levers of power—El Jefe had almost certainly been replaced by a copy—and so Mexico declared for the System, but the AIDS, well funded and far from out of options, raised a communist rebellion in the southern countryside that has reached the edge of Mexico City. Meanwhile, the governors of Baja California have asserted their independence from the mess and are petitioning for union with CWOH.

(-13 Mexican divisions, -5 Mexican squadrons, -18 Mexican groups, -2 Mexican ASP)

The Inca were the victims of a pincer attack as the Archipelagic Grand Army of the Isthumus struck into Colombia while the Patagonian Andean Liberation Front pushed up from Peru. The Inca had two strategies of its own—importing more nanofactured jets from Europe to defeat the Patagonian wasps, and using its navy (the most technically advanced in the world) to break the Patagonian blockade. All these strategies were reasonably successful. By the end of the year, the Patagonians were nearing the Inca capital of Quito, where Reza Eghtedar still sat but the blockade in the north was broken and some wasp swarms were shot down en masse. Some mind controlled Inca partisans behind enemy lines has been a problem for the Patagonians but a curiously meaningless one—it is clear the Atlantics don’t have the resources to saturate the water sources in the region.

(-2 Patagonian divisions, -6 Patagonian squadrons, -4 Patagonian groups, -16 Patagonian wasp groups, -2 Archipelagic divisions, -2 Incan divisions, -4 Incan Clone Mercenary divisions, -4 Incan squadrons, -10 Incan groups)

A Chilean revolt broke out, fueled by some mixture of doppelgangers, mind control, bribes, and actual nationalism. Some of this corruption and subversion stretched into Argentine heartlands, as one general defected to System lines with a sample of wasps.

(+5 Atlantic wasp groups, -4 Patagonian divisions, -5 Patagonian wasp groups, -1 Patagonian ASP)

The Rio War-Makers, a Patagonian army, linked up with the Popular Front Brazilian rebels and snatched up Rio itself before their advance was stalled by a lack of air power in the theatre. On the other hand, the Atlantics pulled off the same trick on the Patagonian Line as they had with the Dakota Line—smashing a hole with a nanite bomb and racing through with the Army of Eternal Bliss, threatening by the end of the year to cut off Patagonian forces in Brazil and link up with the Chileans.

(-4 Patagonian divisions, -4 Atlantic divisions, -2 Atlantic Queen’s Wrath groups, -1 Atlantic ASP)

The Kelen made a big mistake when he marched USACS soldiers into Somalia and started taking rebel Muslims to somewhere deep inside Africa. Not only had the Ethiopian pirates’ relationship with the USACS been predicated on the condition that they stay they hell away, but news of similar snatchings in what was left of South Africa could only leave reasonable minds with the one notion—genocide. Genocide that might spread to the Kelen’s erstwhile allies, depending on his whim. The Ethiopian navy officers quickly formed an alliance with the Islamists and kicked the USACS out of their ‘autonomous zone,’ then officially joined hands with the rebel Ethiopian Emperor Demetros II, whose own soldiers, unchecked, had evicted from most of East Africa the Ummah administrators. This great lord, aware of his tenuous position, has a proposition for the Ummah’s Supreme Leader Khamenei…

(+Ethiopia, -3 USACS divisions, -2 USACS groups)

The body of Atlantic forces in Egypt found the tables nastily turned as the Ummah’s increasingly capable cyber agents shut off local power while suicide bombers blew up port facilities and a huge Muslim army came up along each side of the Nile, while USACS prepared to push in from the west. Each of these three forces was as large as the Atlantic/Russian Army of the New Dawn, which, despite all its tricks, was mostly cut off and hopelessly outflanked. The System’s maneuvers—attempts to strike into Tunisia and hop over the Suez to re-conquer Israel—met with the revelation of a long-ago constructed Saharan Line—row after row of trenches and mines—while the Suez was ruined and almost impossible to cross—just as the Atlantics had ordered the year before. Nanite bombs (plural, several fizzled) plastered the USACS defenses over with little copied machines, but before New Dawn could exploit the opening, the USACS’ Saharan Fist had assembled and beat back the Atlantics in a broad offensive, and the pincer closed. USACS and Ummah lines met in Eastern Libya. Victory took all year, and a decent amount of the Atlantic army got away—nanite technology kept reconstructing the docks, and the gargantuan Harbringer fleet, covered by elements of quite strong Atlantic air arm, provided all necessary transportation—but the psychological effect in the System’s leadership had to be huge. Catherine had lost all presence in Africa.

(-15 USACS divisions, -15 USACS groups, -12 Ummah divisions, -26 Ummah irregular divisions, -5 Ummah Allah’s Wrath groups, -27 Atlantic divisions, -13 Atlantic groups, -7 Atlantic Queen’s Wrath groups, -3 Russian Clone Mercenary divisions)

The USACS landed some AIDS special forces on Iceland who proclaimed a socialist revolution, but the local people were thoroughly saturated with mind control nanites, which the UKA activated, driving the daredevils back into the streets of Reykijavik, which they desperately still hold.

In Operation Mare Nostrum, the USACS attempted to land a paratroop army in Spain, but even the AIDS weren’t prepared for the UKA’s sensor clouds or the huge Army of Garrison, and the advance units were annihilated. Some captured lunatics even speak of gargantuan Saharan death camps, which is surely a propaganda coup.

(-2 Atlantic divisions, -10 USACS divisions)

The Kelen rather hopefully depended on the Balt airforce to cover both his Army of North Germany’s push into France and his Revolution’s Army of Southern Europe’s push into Italy, but when only a small amount of air units showed up (the Balts had grave problems of their own), the manpower-heavy communist advance fell prey to UKA bombers and was largely exterminated. The UKA Army of the End and the Russian army of Joy then finally popped the communist bubble in Eastern Europe—the only compensation was that large amounts of the Kelen’s troops did get out via the Black Sea, aided by the use of a clone-deadly variant of Fluffy Puppy cocktail.

(-18 Atlantic divisions, -4 Atlantic groups, -3 Russian divisions, -40 USACS divisions, -9 USACS irregular divisions, -2 USACS ASP, -8 Balt groups)

Once again, the clash in the Balkans between the Ummah and the UKA’s largely Roman Army of the Vanguard was a dead heat—the battle in the skies remained a draw, and army strengths matched point for point—the clones had the advantage of their tech, while the Ummah had the advantage of numbers, fanaticism (unrest persisted in Bosnia and Albania despite more forms of mind control than you could count), and a solid defensive plan. A line of fortresses was constructed across the mountains of Bulgaria, and the Vanguards, who were ordered to go straight through, managed to inflict heavy casualties on the defenders but accomplished few territorial gains.

(-13 Atlantic divisions, -1 Atlantic group, -1 Atlantic Queen’s Wrath group, -3 Ummah divisions, -8 Ummah Janissary divisions, -40 Ummah irregular divisions, -3 Ummah groups)

As USACS administrators tried to force the Balt military junta to sign documents union, a mixed force of doppelgangers, (probably) diehard anticommunists, and do-gooders (news of the death camps was making the rounds, with a surprising amount of documentation) launched a countercoup, though not all elements of the government could be brought in line, and the fighting went on for most of the year. Still, the dust has settled, and the Confederacy is once again a member of the System.

(-6 Balt divisions, -21 Balt groups)

With the help of dying fanatics and sealed vehicles, the Ummah’s Home Army finally conquered Haifa, though most of old Israel is still a cordoned-off contaminated zone. Hopes of finding a end to Black Death 2.0 were dashed when interrogations and captured documents made it perfectly clear that the true cure was the signaling of long password—and the key to the rotating code was safely locked away in European servers.

(-2 Ummah divisions, +10 Ummah irregular divisions, -10 Ummah irregular divisions, -1 Atlantic division)

India handed its Arabian captures over to the Christians of the New Crusade, who seemed to be growing a distinctly communist bent—some groups actually declared for USACS. On the other hand, the Supreme Leader of the Ummah had finally decided to deal with the problem, and his Holy Army reconsolidated the Hijjaz, liberated Medina after a vicious struggle, and confined the problem to the old Trucial States and the Empty Quarter. Further progress has been stalled; the last leaders of the socialist New Crusade have subdued the local Muslims, and are well entrenched in the cities.

(-2 Ummah divisions, -4 Ummah irregular divisions)

The Ummah’s Central Asian front with Russia moved nowhere, but the Islamists stirred up Tartars and Bashkirs, and seeded their own agents behind the lines, launching suicide bombings against political leaders and clone camps, almost killing Russian president Vladimir Ramonivitch in Moscow. Instead of pushing south, the Russians retaliated by encouraging a rising of ethnic comrades who lived just south of Lake Balkhash, but Muslims were dominant in the region, and the revolt was suppressed.

(+5 Ummah irregular divisions, -3 Ummah irregular divisions, -2 Russian Clone Mercenary divisions, -Russian approval rating)

The Netaji’s India was crushed between two stalwart opponents, but his diehards kept their fighting spirit.

(See Spotlight)

(-12 Siamese divisions, -2 Siamese squadrons, -2 Siamese groups, -3 Cull class gunship groups, +1 Siamese Art of War level, -2 Ummah divisions, -16 Ummah Janissary divisions, +10 Ummah irregular divisions, -8 Ummah irregular divisions, -2 Ummah squadrons, -3 Ummah groups, -1 USACS squadron, -6 Indian divisions, -116 Indian irregular divisions, -3 Indian squadrons, -13 Indian groups, -2 Indian Cloning levels)

Japan began organizing its territories in the vast Prefecture of Siber-Kamchatka with the usual Byzantine methods, even as its armies, long without a real match, raced west. They reached the Ob by the end of the year, fire-bombing the towns and cities that couldn’t take the hint, and even raiding Moscow itself in December.

(-1 Japanese group, -Russian approval rating)

Story Events

The world looks different from between pointy ears.

(+1 CWOH Disease research level)

The System is still on the march in Europe.

(+10 Atlantic divisions)

Human is machine is god.

(+1 Atlantic ACT Systems level)

The Texan military will hold the line.

(+5 Texan groups)

The survivors of Havana are moving from sorrow to anger.

(+5 Archipelagic divisions)

Rafael Navarro is honorable to a fault.

(+5 Patagonian divisions)

The Kelen sees old glories in the skies.

(+5 USACS groups)

One last time, the Praetorians salute Romano as Consul.

(+1 Roman Praetorian Guard division)

The Ummah brooks no fear.

(+ Ummah approval rating)

From their secure location, the Siamese government directs the war effort well.

(+5 Siamese divisions)

The Imperial Proletarian State has a new Emperor, and he will show the way.

(+5 Japanese divisions)

Spotlight

“The war? Of course we will lose the war. But they will likewise lose the peace.”
-Netaji of India

The Ummah’s Army of the Jihad met a nasty setback early in the year when Indians irregulars from the Pakistani camps cut south and encircled the Jihadi forward units, provoking scares of yet another massive reversal. A few days later, the van was promptly relieved—Indian irregulars, try as they might, were simply not able to pull off such a complicated stunt against professionals. Emboldened, the Jihadis stormed the Hindu camps, captured thousands of noncombatants, and for many miles the unfortunates were “herded before the army like cattle,” in perfect execution of a somewhat cynical master plan to both gain human shields and put the Indians back where they came from. The remaining irregulars in the west didn’t like their families being used thusly, but weren’t allowed by the officers to do much about it—standing directives were to form a new defensive line at the northern edge of the Deccan Plateau. The Jihadis, for their part, didn’t press the matter. Pacifying densely populated Hindu heartland was taking a great deal of time and effort. On the sea, Ummah, (which grabbed back Socotra) Siamese, and USACS units bombarded ports and tried to hunt down Indian ships, but the forces of the Netaji were only ranging with their subs, which inflicted disproportionate if small, casualties on the Multinationals.

In the east, the Siamese United Army of the South Pacific (supplemented by Javanese and Bengalis) faced a rising of irregulars behind its front lines, which rather infuriated the High Commander of War Poi Sun, who had just published his actually-quite-brilliant “Sun’s Art of War II,” and wanted things to go right to better assert his claims to authority. Poi Sun need not have worried—and perhaps he never did—for a huge order of cheap anti-personnel “Cull” class gunships trickled to the front lines over the course of the year, and resistance was riddled with bullets. The United Army split up and cut off the Deccan defenders from behind. Poi Sun’s First Army entered Madras, the Second and the Fifth snapped westward in columns, and the northern Eighth, expecting little reward and stalwart resistance, actually got the honor of being the first unit to meet up with the Jihadis, who had handled most of the fighting in the north.

All of this seemed quite easy, but happy groundwork has not been laid. Smart partisan resistance (i.e. not getting into large groups and getting mowed) was beginning, and some concentrations of Indian regulars (including the ones on the Deccan Line) have set up huge networks of interlocking tunnels and defensive lines that will be utter hell to finish off. Meanwhile, only a few Indian civilian leaders have caught on to the Siamese policy of being absolutely ruthless in contested warzones and quite friendly in pacified areas, even though, as an apparent sop, this year’s run of Fluffy Puppy was hugely toned down.

NPC Diplomacy

To: CWOH Confederacy
From: Baja California Governors and Mayors

Please let us join your umbrella of peace before the southern chaos reaches our homelands!

To: USACS
From: Mexican Communist Rebels

We make a promise to the Kelen. Mexico will become socialist!

To: The Ummah
From: Ethiopian Rebel Emperor Demetros II

This is not an age for people like me. Superstates are the trend of the day. If the Italians, who once could conquer my ancestors’ throne, are not too proud to bow, I will not stand different. I will pledge my allegiance to you, oh Supreme Leader. I will order my men to obey your whim. I will even convert to Islam, provided you allow my friends and colleges to unmolested practice of whatever faith is in their hearts. But only if you fight the USACS. Toumani is a mass murderer of the highest order, who kills with a gleeful rather than a heavy heart. There are many forces bigger than myself, but I refuse to believe that wonton evil is one of them!

maP...

Notes

Eltain’s maps make India look like it’s bleeding.

The UKA really should be specifying troop numbers.

EDIT: Map up.

EDIT 2: Stats up.

Alright then

The UKA also developed nano-aerosol particles that could accelerate and punch millions of holes in unsuspecting soldiers, but UKA problems with getting the damn things to fly at the proper velocities made the weapons only good for short bursts at extreme short range.

Click to expand...

Uh yeah, those were supposed to be inhaled and then worked inside the body. The whole oxygen-blood shtick of the human bodies. You don't clean cholesterol by accelerating and running into it headlong.

The war between the System and the Multnational Defense Initiative grinded on, UKA railguns in Britain began blasting shells into orbit that were GPS guided onto military bases—or at least that was the idea—this rather low-tech system for 2060 scored hits in the early months when it wasn’t well expected, but detection capabilities soon developed that allowed for interception.

Click to expand...

Intercepting artillery shells coming from an orbital descent with the kinetic energies involved therein? Does LIARS have forcefields now? Orbiting satellites with lasers and missiles that aren't under control? Can they even match the production of our shells with their own whatever? How they even get a clue? Where would they find respite, how would they even be able to set anything up once the railguns started firing?

PS I'm not angry or anything, but just genuinely curious.

In the meantime, my flight leaves Sunday, so if an update came then, I could see it

Uh yeah, those were supposed to be inhaled and then worked inside the body. The whole oxygen-blood shtick of the human bodies. You don't clean cholesterol by accelerating and running into it headlong.

Click to expand...

Kozmos's tech orders said:

instead of cleaning the arteries of patients from cholesterol it will go through them and literally punching a million different holes in them, producing massive internal bleeding, shock and death.

Click to expand...

But you can see where my thought came from. I'll change it if you want, but it really won't make a stat difference.

Intercepting artillery shells coming from an orbital descent with the kinetic energies involved therein? Does LIARS have forcefields now? Orbiting satellites with lasers and missiles that aren't under control? Can they even match the production of our shells with their own whatever?

Click to expand...

Kozmos's tech orders said:

the tracks need not be overly long, especially when you factor in nanoproduction and 40+ years of future tech.

Click to expand...

Emphasis on the second part of the sentence. I assume there is some obvious 40+ years of future tech technology (perhaps lasers) that could be adapted within a year to deal with the space bowling ball problem. Plus the shells weren't really concentrated anywhere in the military section, so I assumed you guys were taking potshots. The idea isn't anywhere close to countered--the shells should still have considerable effect on surface fleets, among other things--but everyone else is in 2060 too.

In the meantime, my flight leaves Sunday, so if an update came then, I could see it

Click to expand...

I can't do weekends. RL is slowly catching up to me.

noooooooo

That's why I ordered fields of it to be made, to factor in the track length for whatever reason and the numbers needed to be overwhelming. I am not aware of any technical solutions (even factoring countering with SDI superlaser tech and detecting it which I'm suuure they developed ) when space ships hurl debris at a planet as cheap bombs and the tech is similar to that only it's guided shells and not interstellar junk. It wouldn't be cost effective for them or feasible. Again, not angry.

In the meantime, I'm interested to see who wins what award, particularly the FUBAR...

Imago said:

But you can see where my thought came from. I'll change it if you want, but it really won't make a stat difference.

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Well one could argue about how the effectiveness against enemies would soar dramatically considering the later (or was it earlier?) segment of that paragraph but I see no need. What is done is done.

That's why I ordered fields of it to be made, to factor in the track length for whatever reason and the numbers needed to be overwhelming. I am not aware of any technical solutions (even factoring countering with SDI superlaser tech and detecting it which I'm suuure they developed ) when space ships hurl debris at a planet as cheap bombs and the tech is similar to that only it's guided shells and not interstellar junk. It wouldn't be cost effective for them or feasible. Again, not angry.

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I remember bumping into the ‘urban sprawl is way too fragile’ problem in another game I was working on, and the idea I came up with was automated point defense built long ago that’s taken for granted by everybody. So maybe this Earth just dealt with one of those ol’ doomsday scenarios some years ago and then mostly forgot about it. With the nonchalance people seem to be taking the grey goo bombs, seems almost likely.

Well one could argue about how the effectiveness against enemies would soar dramatically considering the later (or was it earlier?) segment of that paragraph but I see no need. What is done is done.

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Just roll it out next turn and I’ll give you some bonus casualties. That seems simplest and fair.

EDIT:

In the meantime, I'm interested to see who wins what award, particularly the FUBAR...

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Right now, Most FUBAR feels like it should go to Russia, which has been slo...wly chewed up all game. Others in the running are the Balts, the former Romanians, the Mexicans, and if I have to give it to a PC, CUWA, not because CUWA is doing bad at all, but indeed because NWAG's rich from a whole bunch of islands all around the world, but lost Cuba.

Russia would be in the running, and NWAG's France would be at the top of the list too, as they both went from possible great powers to ruin

Actually, NWAG's CUWA could be classified as that too...

Edit: Imago, we need a new banner