Who killed Captain Garland?

[Ranbir]

Well, any thoughts on who it might have been?

One of the faction leaders or just some small time nutter?

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

I cannot remember the authorship or how official it was, but a I recall a serial story about the unity approach to Alpha Centauri and the crews factionalization. The killer was a young eco fanatic female who wanted to prevent the colonization of Chiron. She mortally wounded him while he was enabling the release of the escape/landing pods.

 

[hambino]

Considering how messed up Earth was supposed to be preceding the events of Alpha Centauri, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a lone assassin sent by an anti-U.N. group in order to make sure the Unity project failed to use as a political weapon against the organization back on Earth.

 

[vyeh]

I think Miriam would kill to prevent a secularist society.

 

[Kilkakon]

She is pretty crazy; I wouldn't put it past her.

 

[hambino]

Yeah, but then again there's that whole "thou shalt not murder" deal.

...Ignoring her tendency to go crazy with her military Planetside.

 

[Kilkakon]

Yeah... even though I'm a Christian I probably identify with Morgan the most. My Christian faction is pacifist so it's a bit more realistic to the whole turn the other cheek thing.

 

[vyeh]

It isn't that Miriam is Christian. It is that she is aggressive and a fanatic.

 

[Kilkakon]

Of course! People can use anything as an excuse to go fanatical. Fight for freedom, fight for a better tomorrow...

Man this emails have been rapid fire! Good to see a community spirit forming.

 

[hambino]

You know, I actually don't think she's all that religious in reality.

Considering her psych background and her starting with Social Psych, it almost seems like her faction is as much about bending a population to her will as Yang's, though for obviously different purposes. I think while Yang's being up-front about his social experiments, Miriam's using a front of religion as a sort of reputation shield.

 

[vyeh]

Man this emails have been rapid fire! Good to see a community spirit forming.

It is fun. My forum has also been very busy. (And I have also been leading an effort to massively overhaul the WikiPedia article on Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.)

You know, I actually don't think she's all that religious in reality.

Considering her psych background and her starting with Social Psych, it almost seems like her faction is as much about bending a population to her will as Yang's, though for obviously different purposes. I think while Yang's being up-front about his social experiments, Miriam's using a front of religion as a sort of reputation shield.

It depends on what you mean by religious. She is an extremist and she certainly can come across as crazy.

 

[hambino]

I think that's the problem. It's easy to define an extremist using religion as a tool for their personal power as "crazy" - but I don't think you can really call anyone except maybe Cha Dawn "crazy".

It's more like Miriam is an extremely intelligent and charismatic individual who knows exactly what she wants to achieve on Planet - and her understanding of Social Psych also tells her exactly the best way to get people to go along with her plan.

I think the computer being retardedly aggressive throughout almost every game with the Believers as an AI faction is on to something - I can readily believe that Yang just wants to be left alone, that Lal wants to reunite everyone, that Dierdre really only cares about the plants, but Miriam seems to be the one faction leader that actually does want all the power for herself.

 

[Pickly]

Miriam seems to be the one faction leader that actually does want all the power for herself.

Or, at least, has an ideology that doesn't work well with most other faction ideologies, and encourages followers to be more aggressive. (where the hive, as you say, would be focused more internally, and the spartans seem more likely to adhere to careful plans, or otherwise wait for weak spots to show rather than being full on aggressive.)

 

[hambino]

But then again, ideologies are just as often tools as they are guiding forces for peoples' behavior.

It could be that she only chose the ideology because the fact that by forcing her followers to be aggressive with followers of incompatible ideologies (which is, coincidentally, practically everyone) because that was what would allow her to achieve her goal.

And I think I completely lost track of what I was originally saying. ...You know, thinking about it, I'll agree with vyeh, Miriam's a likely suspect.

 

[candle86]

id say it isnt miriam shes crazy but if she wants all the power why would she cause the diaster? No she would want everyone to stay together so she could control them all, which would also rule out yang, and Lal.

Diedree Maybe she is agasint harming the planet and might have wanted it to fail from the start and see humanity wiped out instead of destroying another innocent planet.

Santiago She is also suspect, she needs time to build her forces and if everyone lands close together united this wont happen so instead she makes Chaos so her followers have time to amass an army for there own "defense"

The others I wont go into details over lol, because quite frankly I played alot more SMAC than SMACX

 

[Wolf Dreamer]

They mentioned who it was in the official stories released. I remember reading it while working on the wiki. http://sidmeiersalphacentauri.wikia.com/wiki/The_Alpha_Centauri_story

The link to the official website is dead now.
http://www.firaxis.com/smac/story.cfm

The only story they have for download is the one that takes place after the alien factions arrive.
http://www.firaxis.com/games/game_detail.php?gameid=7&showcon=2

Since it was released freely, I guess I could legally post it on the wiki. I downloaded it all when the link still worked.
--edited
Done. I copied everything from the original rtf file to a page on the wiki. http://sidmeiersalphacentauri.wikia.com/wiki/Journey_to_Centauri

 

[Cuivienen]

In the official story, linked above, he was killed by a woman named Sarah Jaydo who was acting on her own and believed colonization was futile and humanity was doomed. Of course, his authority had already been usurped by the separate rebellions of Santiago and Yang, who had taken control of large portions of the ship. (In canon, Miriam was actually a highly loyal follower of Garland, the most so after Lal, and appears to not have become radical until after the break-up of the Unity.)

Why have we come to the stars? Why didn’t we surrender when we had the chance? Are we so blind, that we believe this new world will be different, immune to suffering and crime and violence? The Unity mission was a feeble candle flickering in a blasted night. We rode this illusion into the sky, and now we will die here, or, perhaps worse, die on Planet. Those of us onboard rode an illusion into the night; those who stayed behind took their chances on a dying world. As for now, we continue to do what humans have always done. We eat, sleep, make love, hone our skills, pass the time. And deep down we wait for someone, some special human, to rise above it all and make the thousands of years of history, of suffering, all worth it. To enlighten us, by which I mean end our pain, heal our wounds, take away the uncertainty. But I have seen the sweep of history, and we are no better off now than we have ever been. Just more aware. Planet will be no different. Unless...

 

[Ranbir]

^ That's so awesome.

I love the personality and 'soul' this game has. Still unrivalled today. I mean, essentially a sandbox game that still manages to have one of the strongest narratives in a game out of any genre.