[Maldiem]

The United States of America

((The Illuminati))

Starting Spaceport: East Asia

Background

Spoiler

Real Faction Leader: Susan Kane, Areopagus and acting head of the Illuminati, director of the CIA. Kane fled to the Jackson battle group during the evacuation of Washington, along with a substantial portion of the upper echelons of the intelligence community (who have a high degree of Illuminati infiltration). Susan rose through the ranks of the CIA rapidly, being nominated for the directorship in 2089 by the acting President after the former CIA director died in a Marked attack. She had been mostly involved with field work prior to that, with only a few short years of management experience. She has two young children, Laura and Robert who fled with her, and her husband was not evacuated from Washington before the dikes holding back the Potomac were breached by the great Eastern Seaboard Earthquake. She was inducted into the Illuminati during her undergraduate work in political science and took over the operations of the organization following the death of the Bilderberg group in Switzerland during the Marked attacks. Kane is a grade-A sociopath, though her worldview and personal philosophy allow her to be very, very high-functioning. She is 36.

Public Military Faction Leader: James Connor, Admiral of the Andrew Jackson's carrier battle group, Knight Kadosh of the Illuminati. Admiral Connor is a career naval officer, though he is unusual in that he achieved that rank by starting in the nuclear engineering program. He was inducted into the Illuminati when he attained the rank of Rear Admiral, as is standard procedure. The non-Illuminati membership of the faction sees him as the leader, and though he publicly consults with Kane the decisions are seen to come from him. He is 48, and lost his entire family (wife, three kids and one grandchild) who were living on Oahu when Ko‘olau erupted explosively. While Kane makes grand strategy decisions with regard to goals, Connor makes most of the military and day-to-day decisions. Connor hates the Marked intensely, but a paternal attitude toward his career has kept him going so far. Unlike much of the military involved in the Illuminati, Connor actually knows (and agrees with) the true goals of the organization, not cloaked in hyper-nationalism like most of the brass.

Public Civilian Faction Leader: Acting President Andrew Warren, former Secretary of Homeland Security. Warren was spared from the fate that befell most of the cabinet when Gaia first started attacking because he was doing an official inspection at Groom Lake (Area 51) when the Potomac dikes broke. He assumed the presidency (though he has not been sworn in, as the Supreme Court was entirely wiped out) as the highest-ranking surviving member of the cabinet. Initially he returned to Washington to try and coordinate rescue efforts, but as it became clear that the natural disasters were continuing and that Washington was extremely dangerous, he fled to the Jackson with the CIA director and the DARPA staff from Groom Lake. He is 61, and a confirmed bachelor. He is a Knight Templar in the Illuminati.

Unit leaders:

VFA-154, The Black Knights Naval Aviation Squadron, Squadron Leader David White: TOPGUN graduate David White is the commander of the manned air wing on the Jackson, and has fought through the bloody deployment along with the rest of the crew. In addition to the Marked conflict, he has extensive combat experience, he's been involved in a large number of combat missions and has an excellent working relationship with Admiral Connor. He is a career naval aviator, and has no family to speak of; he likely has a number of illegitimate children. He is 39, and he is not in the Illuminati.

SEAL Team 11 Commander John Bush: Commander Bush is a grizzled veteran of several ground engagements, and has remained on active duty despite being well past his physical prime. He lost an ear and two fingers on his left hand to a grenade in a counterinsurgency operation following the collapse of the Pakistani government, and harbors a special kind of hatred for anyone of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent. With his decorated combat record he would have been viable for promotion years ago, but repeated disciplinary problems have stunted his career. He is 48, and married to a much younger nuclear engineer stationed on the Jackson. He has been involved with the paramilitary arm of the Illuminati for nearly two decades, and is a Prince of Mercy in the Illuminati.

HAARP Project Lead Leon Rothschild, PhD: Dr. Rothschild has an impressive scientific resume, but it was mainly his connections to the Rothschild banking family (and their deep Illuminati connections) that led to his appointment as head of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). The civilian aspects of the project, innocuous atmospheric research, hid the true purpose of the facility, which is testing by the US government and Illuminati (they bleed together at those security clearances) of advanced superweapons and potentially dangerous technology. When the Gaian uprising and Marked attacks began, Dr. Rothschild used his connections and military equipment at HAARP to obtain transport to the Jackson from Alaska with the other Umbra-clearance staff, including his wife and two children. He is 32, and Knight Kadosh in the Illuminati.

Starting Spaceport: East Asia

Faction Backstory: The United States of America began in 1776 when thirteen British colonies revolted against what they perceived as oppressive tax policies... (yeah, not going to do all of US history, but you get the picture). From 2012 to 2089, the US continued basically as it had before, an economic and military superpower. There was a period of austerity and turmoil in the late 20-teens and early 2020s, but eventually a series of reforms were put in place that rectified the stagnation and infighting of the previous 4 decades, which was followed by a period of prosperity and growth.

Extensive natural gas deposits, coupled with the denouement of the shift to the information economy and educational reforms restarted economic growth, and it was once again able to become one of the principal engines of economic growth (particularly after an economic downturn in China triggered a democratic uprising, overthrowing the Communist party; the ensuing labor reforms and loss of currency manipulation caused manufacturing industries to shift back to the West (high tech things that benefit from automation) and Africa and India (labor-intensive low-tech things that require cheap labor)).

With sea level rise and global warming proceeding far, far faster than all climate models predicted, its economy shifted inland and north, with states in the northern great plains experiencing a boom, while Southern states grappled with encroaching coastlines and crippling droughts.

The natural disasters hit the US hard, particularly because most of the megacities on the Eastern seaboard were entirely dependent on an extensive dike system to hold back the Atlantic. When a large earthquake occurred in Maryland, millions drowned overnight as the dikes failed for the New York-Trenton-Philadelphia and Washington DC-Baltimore metro areas. The collapse of food, electricity and transportation infrastructure exacerbated the disaster, and the continuing disasters prevented aid from arriving. Similar stories were the case all over the country, though some areas fared better than others.

Aircraft carriers were the logical place for the remnants of the government to flee, particularly after the Marked started attacking and there was an enemy to fight. The Jackson hasn't had contact with other carrier groups recently, and most of its escort ships have been lost to one disaster or another, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the Navy isn't still out there.

CVN-99, USS Andrew Jackson is the newest aircraft carrier in the fleet, commissioned in 2087. Its armament includes exclusively drone aircraft, as has nearly all military aircraft since the 2050s. It includes extensive electronic warfare equipment and expertise (which will have to be re-purposed for space activities) in addition to its crew of pilots and engineers, and is nuclear powered. It has been converted directly into the Township, and many of its systems will require modification before being viable for operation in space. It is embarking from the East Asian spaceport because that is nearest to where it was deployed in the war against the Marked and because the spaceport is more accessible to the ocean.

The Illuminati were also founded in 1776, though the principals they espouse have their roots much earlier in the Enlightenment. The main goal of the Illuminati as an organization is to set up a system of rational world government that makes war impossible. They were behind many of the world events leading up to World War 2 and the Cold War, and they had nearly achieved their goal by 2089-- there hadn't been another major war since WW2, and with the globalized interdependent economy it was economic (and therefore political) suicide for any nation to declare war, and total war was completely out of the question. That, coupled with the principal of Mutually Assured Destruction (brought about through the heavily Illuminati-influenced Manhattan Project and Areopagus Richard Feynman) ensured greater cooperation and integration. They hadn't yet achieved their goal of a formal, federal world government (the United Nations was disappointingly powerless), but it was on the to-do list when Gaia started fighting back.

The Illuminati have historically functioned by controlling other secret and semi-secret societies (the Masons, Ordo Templi Orientis, Bilderberg group, etc.) and by recruiting rising stars within governments and corporations. They have essentially no boundaries in establishing the New World Order in terms of means, and corruption, assassination, espionage and propaganda are all in their toolkit.

Many of the more powerful Illuminati were killed initially, especially the Bilderberg group, and the breakdown in communications following the collapse of most civilization has left the organization fragmented. Still, the intelligence community in DC was nearly all Illuminati, and many of them were saved with the evacuation of the Pentagon. The planet's uprising is a major setback, but they intend to reinstate the New World Order at the earliest possible opportunity.

Faction Description: The faction is composed of the Navy crew of the Jackson battlegroup, staff from the CIA offices in Washington DC, DARPA/Illuminati members evacuated from Groom Lake following the attacks and the staff from the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), evacuated from their facility in Alaska.

Faction Goals: Reinstate the New World Order, prevent backsliding into autocratic/mystical forms of government, save as much of Humanity as possible, and determine the cause of the apparent Gaia uprising. The Illuminati are suspicious about the disasters-- they think it's much more likely that the disasters and the Marked are the result of outside interference. The US elements of the faction want to save as many people (especially Americans) as possible, and set up a new civilian nation. All are welcome in the new settlement, keeping up the American tradition of immigration.

Unit: Pentagon Evacuees
Unit Leader: Susan Kane (Faction Leader)
Loyalty: -
Experience: 0/10
Unit Type: Noncombatant
Personnel: 250/250
Unit Power: 250

Attack 4
Resistance 5
Piloting 3
Systems 4
Construction 6
Negotiation 8
Exploration 6
Research 5
Cost 5

Unit: Engineering crew of the Andrew Jackson
Unit Leader: Admiral James Connor
Loyalty: Trust
Experience: 0/10
Unit Type: Noncombatant
Personnel: 250/250
Unit Power: 250

Attack 3
Resistance 3
Piloting 5
Systems 6
Construction 7
Negotiation 1
Exploration 2
Research 4
Cost 3

Unit: Area 51 (Groom Lake) Evacuees-- Civilian
Unit Leader: President Andrew Warren
Loyalty: Trust
Experience: 0/10
Unit Type: Noncombatant
Personnel: 250/250
Unit Power: 250

Attack 3
Resistance 3
Piloting 2
Systems 4
Construction 6
Negotiation 1
Exploration 5
Research 7
Cost 3

Freebie unit 1:
An additional unit (starts with the scores 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, Cost 1, and 250 Personnel, and Normal loyalty

Unit: "Black Knights" Naval aviation squadron
Unit Leader: Commander David White
Loyalty: Normal
Experience: 0/10
Unit Type: Noncombatant
Personnel: 250/250
Unit Power: 250

Attack 3
Resistance 3
Piloting 5
Systems 5
Construction 4
Negotiation 2
Exploration 4
Research 1
Cost 1

Freebie Unit 2
Unit: Navy SEAL team 11/Crew of the USS South Dakota
Unit Leader: Major John Bush
Loyalty: Normal
Experience: 0/10
Unit Type: Noncombatant
Personnel: 250/250
Unit Power: 250

Attack 5
Resistance 5
Piloting 4
Systems 4
Construction 3
Negotiation 2
Exploration 3
Research 1
Cost 1

Freebie Unit 3
Unit: High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) staff
Unit Leader: Dr. Leon Rothschild, Knight Templar Illuminatus
Loyalty: Normal
Experience: 0/10
Unit Type: Noncombatant
Personnel: 250/250
Unit Power: 250

Attack 3
Resistance 3
Piloting 1
Systems 2
Construction 5
Negotiation 4
Exploration 4
Research 5
Cost 1

Stats:

Township: USS Andrew Jackson:

Spoiler

Starting Modules:
Hull Space x10 - Allows 1 exterior module and 1 interior module each.

Interior Modules:
(Module Spaces: 5/10)

Interior Space A - 4/4 general facility spaces used.

Interior Space B - 1/4 general facility spaces used.

Interior Space C - 2/4 general facility spaces used.

Reactor Room A - Houses 1 reactor facility.

Propulsion Room A - Houses 1 propulsion facility. Is paired with the exterior module Propulsion Casing A.

Exterior Modules:
(Module Spaces: 6/10)

Basic Hull Plating x1 - 50 Armor to all sections.

Basic Sensors - Includes a complete sensor array allowing the ship to detect large objects at a distance of roughly 100,000km, with the ability to detect objects of smaller size increasing as the objects move closer to the ship. Does not include any sort of scanning system. Uses 50 Energy.

Basic Communications - Includes a basic communications array allowing the ship to send and receive communications from across the solar system. However, communications at a distance longer than 20,000,000km suffer from time lag, and will not go through until the next turn. Uses 50 Energy.

Propulsion Casing A - Paired with interior module Propulsion Room A.

BIG MISSILES Launcher - Size (2) - Missile Size (5) - RoF (80) - Energy (100)

Starting Facilities:

Interior Space A:
Basic Living Quarters A - Houses up to 500 people. Uses 50 Energy.
Basic Living Quarters B - Houses up to 500 people. Uses 50 Energy.
Basic Hydroponics Farm - Grows food for 1000 people. Uses 50 Energy.
Basic Life Support - Provides air, water, and heat for up to 2000 people. Uses 200 Energy.

Interior Space B:
Basic Township Bridge - Serves as a basic command and piloting structure for the ship. Provides 12 Factional Power. Uses 100 Energy.
Missile Fire Control (1): Size (1) - Range (18k km)

Interior Space C:
Basic Cargo Bay - Stores 250 units of goods.
Basic Gravity Generator: Generates low gravity (roughly 0.5x Earth) to prevent bodily deterioration. Uses 200 Energy.

Reactor Room A:
Basic Nuclear Reactor - Provides 1500 units of Energy. If this gets damaged, there is a 2% possibility of a catastrophic meltdown each time it is hit, completely destroying the ship it is in. If the reactor is completely destroyed, there is a 10% chance of a catastrophic meltdown.

Propulsion Room A:
Basic Nuclear Drive - Allows the ship to move 10m km a turn. Uses 400 Energy.

Secret stuff:

Spoiler

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