NiNES: A Broken Galaxy

[alex994]

Coming of a Strange Fellow​

“The wheels of a bus go round and round, round and round, the wheels of the bus goes round and round, round and round…” -21st Century Children’s Rhyme

He looked out the window, if you could call that a window. A whole new world sat beyond the windowsill of the shuttle bringing him to the landing pad. It was lush and lovely, Jiao Xiu was, but it was no Niu Yue. He sighed, why did he get himself assigned here, to this almost virgin world with almost nothing developed? How he hated his life, why hadn’t he resisted the temptation to seduce the young lady? How was he supposed to know she was the Emperor’s niece? At least he was just exiled and not locked away with a lettre de cachet in some obscure prison.

As the shuttle descended on the planet, he took steps to prepare for his debarking upon this new world. All the possessions he had in the galaxy were with him in that small shuttle. A few books on economics, a sketch pad, a few hundred credits, a picture of his High School and College graduation and a pistol. With that, he would take his position as Secretary of Internal Works on Jiao Xiu and to rebuild it. It wasn’t his favorite thing to do, but he was very good at it. That and his love, of course, of charming lovely young ladies which in foresight should have been a very dangerous task.

“Mr. Li Zhaopeng, on the behalf of the Assembly of Nan-Xun province I greet you to Jiao Xiu, the second member of the Ascendancy. We have heard from others who speak highly of your abilities and wish that your tenure as Secretary of Internal Works will be prosperous and beneficial for our respective planet.”

“It is a great pleasure for me to finally visit our lovely world. I look forward towards making acquaintances and on becoming friends with many of our fellow citizens of the Ascendancy. Together, I hope we can work towards a better and brighter future for the citizens living on Jiao Xiu. Please, lead the way.”

A while later as he passed through the provincial capital of Nanxi, he looked out of the car. It was at best a small town, but it was a sign of progress. From the pictures, 2 years ago the town was one-half of her current size. A tug on his sleeve brought his attention back to the car and he looked at the person who had pulled his sleeve. His little brother, not so little anymore, but to him he was still little. A 14 year old to a 22 year old was little after all.

“Bro, don’t mess up this time will you? You’re all I have left in this galaxy, Mom and Dad are dead. I don’t want you to rot in a jail cell sent there by a lettre de cachet because you seduced the daughter of another important person or ****olded an important man’s young wife.”

“You make it sound like it’s all my fault that women find me irresistibly attractive which it’s obviously not. It’s not like I go out of my way to seduce the-“

“Bro, just don’t do anything stupid. Just do your job well, earn money and give us a nice life. We had that in Niu Yue, before our property was confiscated by the Emperor because you seduced his niece. We should be grateful he didn’t have you imprisoned or worse.”

“Little bro, you worry too much. I’ve learned from my mistakes, reformed, seen the light of my past. I know better then to seduce anyone, even a milkmaid! I have tons of plans anyways for my job. Don’t worry, I’ll do fine.”

“For our sakes, and especially mine, I hope so. I don’t want to have to pay for your bail as we argue your case to His Majesty.”

 

[Global Nexus]

I'm going to the hospital again. I dunno if I'll be back very soon...>< And I don't have time to write Not-Here Orders for the Colonials. Bleh.

 

[Disenfrancised]

NAM Pre-Scourge Archives (literature)

Literary reference 0086759996

The Evolution of Corporate States
By Jason Griggs​

Chapter 4: Transnationals and Paranationals

&#8230;In the late 21st and 22nd century, the increasing power of corporate entities compared with nation states lead to two distinct strands of development. The first was the transnational, a linear evolution of the old multinationals into a free floating accumulation of capital independent of any nation state. Employees were typically hired and fired from the surrounding nation states, and only small groups of core shareholders and executives could truly be described as citizens of the company. Profit generation was quite remarkable, and transnational power allowed completion of such great projects as the mercurian solar power farm and the construction of the first hyperstatic fields themselves. However the greed and ambition of the transnationals also lead to some of the great disasters of the 22nd century such as the Brazilian war and the Mare Tranquillities incident, and the giant corporations were rarely stable for more than a few scores of years before being replaced by the next generation of transnational. Later generations however, influenced by the long term planning required of the great First Expansion, have acted with more foresight and what some would call &#8216;responsibility&#8217;, acting to preserve social structures before they are warped to ensure a reliable customer and employee base. Shuuri Heavy industries and General Hyperdynamics are excellent examples of fourth generation transnationals, having diversified from their core industries and systems across human space, and having large sovereign territories and habitats in numerous planetary systems, yet who invest heavily in local human infrastructure&#8230;

&#8230;as a contrast to the isolation of capital from the nation state in the transnational, the second great form of corporate evolution was the Paranational entity, where a large corporation or corporations became increasingly integrated into a particular nation state. Over time this resulted in the national itself evolving into a for-profit corporate entity, with inheritable citizenship-shareholder rights for its populace. This development as opposed to the more typical transnational mode required several prerequisites &#8211; firstly that the corporate entity be tied to the particular local (thus resource extraction is a very common origination core practice of Paranationals), and secondly that the nation involved has the technical and skills base to fulfil most of the Corporate entities requirements without being too large as so render corporate influence weak. Two examples of this from old earth are the integration of Norsk Automated Mining into the structures of the Norwegian and Icelandic states (Starting off in hydrocarbon extraction), and Praxis-A in Sri Lanka (starting in aquaculture and Pharmaceuticals). The overheads of providing the various requirements of a state reduce growth rates when compared to a transnational model, but in the longer term the ethnic cohesion and democratic influences on a Paranational entity (as well as tailored educational and tax regimes) give long and stable lifecycles. In the great expansion the Paranationals generally moved into specialist niches, where the Paranational ability to create and export whole and coherent communities with long term loyalty offered competitive advantages such as NAM remote mining clusters or the various Terraforming companies that sprang up on the first tier worlds. This of course developed into a serious skills and technical base that perpetuated the system&#8230;

OOC: I'll expand this later if I have time.

 

[Niklas]

From: U.P.N.C.S.
To: U.S.C.
CC: Nekomi, Wideband Transmission
We congratulate you on your ascension from the trappings of a corporate state into a democratic commonwealth. We also applaud your efforts to restore peace in these troubled times, and thank the Nekomi for accepting the fair peace deal presented to them.

Naturally we agree wholeheartedly with your governancy's stated goals, and we are both glad and proud to see our constitution serve as inspiration and basis for that of the USC. Your proposal for a union has been is very flattering, however at this particular moment we are unfortunately forced to decline. Many among us fear that in our current state of relative weakness, a join with any powerful faction would be a threat to the very aspects you say you admire in us. If we were stronger in our own right, it is likely that we would have seen this in a different light. Also some factions within the UPNCS are undeniably still worried about the influence of corporate ideas still obviously prevalent in your society, witness in the recent political incidents in regard to the attempts by the Emergents of Providence to establish the Galactic Technology Exchange for the benefit of all of humanity.

As much as we regret our having to decline at this moment, we still hope that the UPC will be interested in close cooperation towards the goals we all strive for - the betterment of all of humankind. We also express our sincere hopes in that Sol itself may receive the aid and support necessary to rebuild itself into a state strong enough that it may in the future review offers such as this one without having to fear being diminshed by their adoption.


OOC:
GN, my thoughts go with you, I really hope you get well soon enough. And since you give note of absence, I will work within the confines of what you've stated in your previous orders as preliminary NPCing plans. Then again, if you manage to read this in time that it would alleviate your concerns, it won't be necessary.

 

[Symphony D.]

Also some factions within the UPNCS are undeniably still worried about the influence of corporate ideas still obviously prevalent in your society, witness in the recent political incidents in regard to the attempts by the Emergents of Providence to establish the Galactic Technology Exchange for the benefit of all of humanity.

OOC: Speaking out of character, I'm not sure an organization such as the UPNCS advocating breaking the law to better humanity is a good precedent for it to set. Rule of law tends to be the concern of just governments, and breaking it for "good" things is no better than breaking it for "bad" things. Making exceptions only illegitimizes its claims to authority. These are not corporate ideas, unless you consider their advent way back in the 1710s and 20s as some prelude to the domination of business.

 

[Niklas]

OOC: Who says they are advocating breaking the law? It is rather clear that your faction has no intention of joining the endeavor set forth, which would have bettered humanity while making the whole discussion about laws rather moot. Also I'm surprised that everyone seems to think UPNCS is the voice of God/mod or something. Their NPCs with an agenda of their own. Of course you may question that agenda as you see fit.

 

[Symphony D.]

OOC: Who says they are advocating breaking the law?

OOC: The Emergents have only honored former Shuurai and NAM NDAs. They have not included Capella in such exceptions (at least not publicly), likely out of a want to invade them soon, given stories. Therefore they are being rather quite selective in their legal practices, and are breaking their agreements with Capella. They are breaking contract, and accordingly, the law. The UPNSC appears willing to overlook this since it's "good for humanity."

Maybe starting a genocidal war against the Capellans or any other dubious faction would be "good for humanity" too from certain perspectives, but I doubt the UPNSC would agree to that. Just government is dependent upon rule of law, whether good or bad. If it's so detrimental, it can be repealed, but until then it remains law. It's being hypocritical, and is setting itself up for exploitation later. The rest I send by PM.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

The Emergents of Providence declare their intent to provide the following encouragements:

10PP to U.S.C for signing a peace agreement.
5PP to Nekomi for signing a peace agreement when being the aggressor.
10PP to UPNCS so "that Sol itself may receive the aid and support necessary to rebuild itself".
10PP to the Ascendancy of Guangdong to aid them in their development, which appears to be lagging
10PP to the Confederacy of Kalia for similar reasons

((OOC: BananaLee has been on IM to me twice to say "hey you" and then logged off because I was away when he IMed, so I haven't formally received any objections from him. No, I do not intend to invade him either. Also, I am being especially polite in honoring retconned NDAs when I didn't need to, and providing aid to multiple factions, so I think I can use "good for humanity". Accusing me of wanting to invade an insalubrious faction because I am not being an Orwellian deceiver is also quite humorous. Lastly, BananaLee and I are colonizing Errai together this turn. So there.))

 

[Symphony D.]

... Accusing me of wanting to invade an insalubrious faction because I am not being an Orwellian deceiver is also quite humorous.

OOC: Excuse me for not trusting and questioning the motives of someone who has debated the merits of invading no less than three factions in public, who has justified spying upon everyone else for an assassination attempt he himself concocted in a story, and then had the chutzpah to tell everyone about it. I know I might be just crazy and all for suspecting your agenda, but what can I say? You've brought it on yourself. If I was to write a story where I said:

"Hey, lets put nukes on a scout and bomb the <insert faction here> homeworld when they're not looking!"
"No, that is evil."

I don't think very many people would be perfectly fine when a Scout of mine entered their systems thereafter. Your words make you look rather shady, even if your actions don't, and this is NESing. Don't be shocked when people are rather distrustful of you as a result, even if out of character.

 

[Disenfrancised]

OCC: See the assuming its okay unless its objected to might be the problem here . I (and I assume symphony) were operating under the "rights not offically stipulated are withheld" philosophy.

IC/OCC (don't have the time to write it nicely)

Also over the offcial "taking us out of the tech sharing" seems rather harsh. My objection was you putting the techs we traded to you under a NDA into your tech sharign without asking us, I didn't object to the tech sharing plan itself but istead your overwriting of past agreements (which unlike symphonies included a explict NDA). NAM techs might enter the 'tech pool' under circumstances of our choosing, in that fundamental right to sovereignty - respect of property.

 

[Symphony D.]

NAM techs might enter the 'tech pool' under circumstances of our choosing, in that fundamental right to sovereignty - respect of property.

OOC: In a somewhat similar vein, I never said U.C.S. developed technologies would carry the same stipulations as those of S.H.I., merely that U.C.S. would endeavor to protect S.H.I.'s rights to intellectual property and proprietary technology as is the company's wish, as a responsible government should within the confines of the law.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

My last comment to this, still OOC:

It is 1900. In the middle of the night, an Austria-Hungarian general is woken up by an aide running and and shouting that they're at war.
'With whom?' asks the general. The aide tells him, the general tells the aide what drawer to look in to find the plans for war with said country, rolls over, and goes back to sleep.

<rhetorical question> Should I assume that your governments are woefully unprepared for war because you never plan anything? </rhetorical question>

Bye bye!

 

[Disenfrancised]

My last comment to this, still OOC:
<rhetorical question> Should I assume that your governments are woefully unprepared for war because you never plan anything? </rhetorical question>

Bye bye!

Okay, what about my points? Why are we cut out from your 'pool' despite the contributions we could bring, just because we would, for now like to retain more control over technological desemination?

 

[Kozmos]

Niklas I want to know do we now have contact with everyone? Since Erik so graciously provided the map and thus disclosed the locations of pretty much every faction, shouldnt we in theory be able to contact them all. (those on the said map at least)

 

[Disenfrancised]

Niklas I want to know do we now have contact with everyone? Since Erik so graciously provided the map and thus disclosed the locations of pretty much every faction, shouldnt we in theory be able to contact them all. (those on the said map at least)

Erik put out all his contacts as well.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

That reminds me, let me put out my updated contacts now that I got Kalia from NAM, and the updated map.

linky

Maybe the new factions, Confederacy of Kalia and Ascendancy of Guangdong, will be so kind as to share their maps too?

 

[Niklas]

@Cleric: You don't have contact with anyone new, and you don't have that map. The Emergents didn't have contact with you when they sent all that out, so it could not have reached you. You could come into contact with everyone if the Ascendants would be kind enough to fix that for you though.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Couldn't TerrisH help? He looks to have contact, based on that map.

 

[Kozmos]

Well this shoots a hole in all my shady business deals.

I have the Emergents on my map, it would make sense I could contact them and thus get the map and else. Or are we binded by the rule of physical contacts to communicate >_>

 

[Niklas]

Physical contact is required, otherwise you're screaming right into nothingness. And the Nekomi are not in contact with the Cybrans since way back, since Regulus is unmanned.