Year 13
The race for resources continued unabated throughout the galaxy this year. The restoration and redevelopment of industrial, agricultural, extractive and processing facilities continued at a very high pace, though many systems were now reaching the limits of what could safely be brought back into production. Many politicians, seeing themselves as visionaries, were clearly out of touch with reality as they ordered efforts well beyond the technological capabilities of the time. Many planned projects had to be scrapped simply because they were infeasible.
The recolonization efforts reached new heights, and very few systems remain in the human-controlled space sector that don't see some human habitation in one form or another. Borders were by now for the most part well-defined between the different spheres of interest and influence, but some cases of tension and provocation were still reported.
The most severe incident to do with colonization came about when the Capellans tried to unobtrusively sneak a 3 megaton colony ship, escorted by two powered-down cruisers in defensive mode, past the Colonial home system Sezuren and on to the newly cleared-out Arcturus system beyond. The 1st Colonial Fleet, newly returned home from their tactical operation against the defenses in Arcturus, clearly would have no part of letting any foreign faction capitalize on their battle success. With the gate to Arcturus thoroughly blocked, and under the threat of having their precious colony ship blown up or captured, the outgunned Capellans had little choice but to slink back to Altais.
A smaller incident, also involving Capellans, took place at the freshly colonized Ascendant system of Castor. Two Capellan scout ships arrived in good order, with the (at least from the Ascendants' point of view) obvious intent to proceed further into Ascendant-controlled space. The two scout ships were boarded and siezed by Ascendant forces, who require solemn promises from the Capellans not to trespass again in order to release them. At least the Ascendants got their Capellan gold.
The worst was yet to come though, and it began in the opposite end of human-controlled space. The Capellan trade colony in Acrux was a thorn in the eyes of the Emergents right from its first moments of existance (except private entrepreneurs in the area who were over-joyed at the chance to trade with NAM again), and many voices were raised in concern over the presence of "slavers" in "the Emergent system" Acrux. Tensions reached the boiling point when a "fugle" worker on the trade station defected to the refuge of an Emergent military police patrol out on a routine mission. The horror stories of utter mistreatment at the hands of his slave masters were immediately headline news all over Emergent space, coupled with many other incidents dug up from the past. Capellan complaints stating that the whole thing was a falsification and that no fugle workers had in fact been present in Acrux weren't reported with the same fervor, if at all. Nevertheless, the pressure on the new president Tyranthe Ail to act was mounting, and sure enough Emergent forces were ordered to blockade and shut down the Capellan trade colony at Acrux. This they did with alacrity, and would likely have gone even further had it not been for the 2nd Capellan RCT making the colony a veritable bunker and refusing any further Emergent presence on the colony. As a final measure, almost as an aside, all trade was cut to and from Capellan space - a severe blow to Capellan economy all over, while not being very gentle to Emergent economy either. Incidentally, in the shadow of these events, trade relations between the Emergents and NAM were fully restored to normalcy.
Tensions were running high elsewhere in the galaxy as well. The Democrats of Huris were clearly upset over the perceived transgression of USC forces with regards to Lacaille. The position of the Autarch was always that of reconciliation, but other political factions within the Autarchy were pushing for a more hard-lined stance. The situation at Lacaille itself was further complicated by the massive aid shipments from Huris to the former refugees, while the silence from the USC was deafening. The people of Lacaille didn't quite know which foot to stand on, and reactions to the Hurisian aid ranged from open gratitude to stubborn refusal to "accept bribes". Whatever else happens, it seems likely that Lacaille will play a major role in galaxy-wide politics for some time to come.
The previously troublesome system of Rana seemed to be well on its way through the healing process. Tensions had largely died down after Nekomi efforts to set things to rights, and in particular the federalization leading to larger autonomy for Rana seems to have worked out well thus far. The massive Colonial-led investigation into the cause of the reactionary activities was viewed by many locals as reopening half-healed wounds however. Since well over half the population is believed to have participated in the revolts, it is perhaps no wonder that many felt incriminated by an investigation into who to "blame" for what to many was a righteous fight for the rights of the people. Still, the investigation proceeded as planned, and clearly indicated that the roots of the unrest could be traced to formerly USC-sponsored political factions and pro-USC rebel groups dating to the Rana referendum. Whether or not any direct influence was asserted by USC intelligence forces could not be decided with certainty, and though several testimonies indicate it, none could be fully verified.
Random mini-spotlight
Human curiosity is an interesting thing, a pure force of nature much stronger than both wind and waves - the latter could at least be controlled by modern technology. By most counts, the zenith of the Scourge menace was now almost twenty years in the past, enough time that the shadow had lessened, the scare receded, enough that the curiosity started making itself known for real. Ever curious, though with enough respect and good sense to remember what curiosity normally does to cats, Nekomi scientists were the first to be brave enough to dare meddle with humankind's greatest enemy in all the known history (which admittedly wasn't very long considering all archives had been devastated). Making their unique mobile research platform, the Excelsior, the base of all scourge-related research, the experimentation could be conducted in the safe quarantine of deep space, well away from all other human facilities. Initial finds were preciously few though. No "living" scourge specimens could (thankfully) be located, so research had to be conducted on infected humans and machinery, and on what "dead" samples could be found there. Preliminary reports at least confirm that the scourge was an engineered nano-bot virus, and nothing natural uncovered by unlucky miners. Further research is planned and may uncover the secrets of the Scourge - hopefully without awakening it anew.
Story bonuses:
+ Halding hospital is a memorial over the frailty of human life.
(+3% stability at Benalia)
+ The new president is off to an eventful start.
(+1% stability at all Emergent systems)
+ Cygni is clearly
the place to be.
(+2 to Cygni redev)
+ The Scourge research project is off to a good start.
(+5 to Scourge research)
+ Thomas Koechner is used to running difficult investigations.
(bonus to investigation spending at Rana)
+ The absence of space crickets is deafening.
(+3% stability to Blight, Misery, Strife)
Random events:
Cybran prospectors have found traces of highly valuable minerals in the outer asteroid belt of Sirrah.
(+10 R7 to Sirrah)
Anti-Capellan demonstrations in Niu Yue get out of hand, creating riots.
(-5% stability to Niu Yue)
Cygni has seen a population boom the last few years.
(+2 to Cygni redev)
Special bonuses:
Emergent post-scourge culture is spreading throughout the galaxy.
(Most prolific storywriter: +10 banked eco)
Sword of Wrath society is without a doubt the least vulnerable to another scourge attack.
(Most backwards: +5 redev to Blight)
OOC:
It's still September I hear, at least in my part of the world. But I can't say I'm very proud of keeping the "deadline" I promised, since the last days have shown me I could likely have had the update up much earlier if I had just given it some focus. I can only apologize, things are still really messy on my end.
I'll see what I can do about getting PMs out
within a week's time this time, and not drag it out in absurdum. Sure, I can't update once a week the way I used to, but that doesn't mean once per two months has to be the norm.
I've also come to a realization, good or bad. This game is really fun, and the setting you guys have helped create is IMO very interesting, very creative and immersive. But, the game has a lot of flaws, ruleswise. I've known that all along, but the further we get into the game the more problematic some things are becoming. I will continue to try to do the best I can with the tools I have, but at some point it's going to be too much. So, this Never-Ending Story is going to see an end, in a not too distant future. It won't be one update away, nor two, likely not three either. But sooner or later I'm going to call this game over. I'm saying this now so that it won't come as a total shock when the time comes, and so that you won't be disappointed that your plans 20 turns from now will never come to fruitition. And maybe also just a little to speed up the action a bit...
About the space mining debacle - many of you tried to redevelop R7 levels in your systems, despite not having the prerequisite tech (Deep Space Mining). Any funding to such attempts has simply been banked.
We also seem to have a bit of a problem with participation. I don't know about Nylan, though I guess he won't be around for the next update. He has sent me some ideas though, which I will investigate further. Disenfrancised on the other hand hasn't responded to any of my nudges at sending orders, just ignored me, which I can only take to mean that he's no longer interested. So if we have a lurker who would like to step in and play the honorful Norsk Automated Mining faction, please send me a PM.
. And Nekomi and I are actually trading ^^
