Ashes of Sol

[puppyavenger]

U.N. Nautilus

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yep, pretty much, it had several million people living on it before hand and was pretty much entirely industrialized, open borders being kind of a necessity with that kind of patchwork.

[Greystone]

Madagascar

"Conqueror? I am no conqueror" the admiral looks vaguely bemused

Nautilus

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But how "official" is the ownership? Was it recognized?

[puppyavenger]

U.N.

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pre-war, well, the U.N.'s the one who created the state. Post-war, you're the first faction we've made contact with.

[Johel]

DURP

U.N. (Madagascar)

The man waved a hand and then showed the soldiers around.
"-I can call you a peacemaker if you prefer, that doesn't change your purpose. And you haven't answer my question, admiral. What's the actual status of the U.N. and what does it control right now ?"

[Eldan]

Europa to Izanagi

***
"This is Karl Wandeler, European Research Association, to the Izanagi Titan research station.
Greetings.
As far as we can tell, a war began over colonial autonomy, first between the colonies and two sides of earth nations, those in favour of turning colonies into autonomous nations under the UN and their owners, but it quickly started to involve the entire system and several dozen parties. All our surface and orbital stations, as well as our ships were taken out by a nuclear strike early in the war. Therefore, we ourselves do not have exact information about the current political situation, and are especially lacking any information from earth itself. Apparently, it was hit the hardest, with antimatter strikes and engineered plagues.
We can send you what we know about the beginning of the war.

As for trade, we can offer food, medicine and more water than we will ever need, much like you do, as well as advanced biotechnology. Currently, we are in need of habitats and the raw materials necessary for them, but will also pay for antimatter and freighters."
***

[Bosh]

OK right now I'm starting on replying to the PMs so if you've been waiting for a reply for a while you'll get it soon.

Note: With all of the trade agreements being set up I'm realizing that a niche that nobody took was a freighter company operating a fleet of trading ships. But good to see some trade routes set up, having trade routes to patch up holes in your Attributes is going to be very HELPFUL when I start hitting people with more shortage crises but it does leave you vulnerable to pirates ;)

ArcaneStomper

In our archives we have come across the blueprints for a high speed unmanned freighter. At maximum drive it can reach you in a mere 3 days and has over 2000 tons of cargo capacity.

OK you can do that but it would take an engineering check to build it and that would use a HUGE amount of anti-matter so either I can do a check vs. your power attribute to see if it depletes your anti-matter reserves or you can use your anti-matter aspect and spend a Fate point to Declare that you have plenty of anti-matter lying around.

Basically in general Aspects only help you if you spend Fate points on them, this keeps you from getting overpowered. If someone who doesn't have an Aspect about having loads of anti-matter uses those speedy freighters at high speed I'll hit them with some nasty checks against their Power attribute (but if you have a high power attribute you should be able to handle it for at least a while).

The MunchKING

The ship would be filled and sent to help out Earth. He just hoped it would all be worth it. Now would just come down to who should fly the thing. Mr. Anderson was the obvious choice, in terms of plioting ability, but after he spoke against it so vehemently, the captain knew it would be better to pick someone else. It would need to be someone in good shape too. The station's gravity was a fraction of Earth's and a suprisingly large number of people had adapted to that totally in the 3 decades they'd been here.

What sort of materials are you packing into the aid ship? Depending on what you're sending that would probably be a Life Support or Manufactoring Maneuver to load stuff into it without straining your own resources.

Diagoras

"We are under orders to never communicate through any unencrypted or unauthenticated means. Doing so could jeopardize security procedures."

Very much in keeping with your Aspects :)

"We also received a message from the Firmanent, an orbital garden habitat. We can run ships out to them with the engineers and supplies to keep them going. In fact, I already have."

The Prometheus is in your immediate neighborhood so sending a ship out to them won't require an Action but the Firament is a full AU away from you so that would require an piloting action if you want to send some ships over to them.

I'm assuming that your ships are very good at not being fried by the Sun, since that only makes sense considering your location.

Narkis:

a path cleared through the Belt

Going through the Asteroid belt at high speed is dangerous since even pebbles can do nasty things if you're going fast enough so most people would just fly over or under it, its not especially thick (in comparitive terms).

Bosh: A diplomacy roll it is then. I'll wait for the turn resolution to write up more about it.

Right.

Greystone

I am going to need some backround here. Do you have claim for the entire moon?

Basically the moon was fried very badly during the war, they represent all of the surivors (or at least all of the survivors that they know of ;) ) except for your base.

Its not official in any sense, its just that they're the only people there :)

Pre-war the UN and the people on the moon were close allies, the moon was badly devastated by the enemies of the UN.

Stormthorn:

Space. Its what we need up here in space. Have you recieved any contact from Ganymede?

The Ganymede and Charon players didn't end up joining the game.

Eldan:

The shaft is pitch-black, only two dozen meters wide and held open by a network of steel and carbon beams and girders, extending downwards for several kilometers before opening into the wide ocean, just as black and empty as space.
"I'd advise sitting down now, we're reaching the ocean soon, and start up the main engines.
In any case, Sarpedon is still a little time away. Now, as for trade agreements, if you look out of the window, you see as much water as you could ever want. We can rival Earth in the water business, if necessary, and ours even is easier to purify. No complicated organics."
In that moment, the sub shudders as the main engines on it's sides, shaped vaguely like those of a jet warm up and accelerate the ship rapidly downwards, towards the sea floor.

Nice description :) I like little things like this that flesh out the setting.

Ekpyrotic:

As we're discussing in the OOC thread the way to make stealth ships would probably be:

1. Not using your engines (or using them as little as possible) while in stealth mode to sneak up.
2. Having some damn good insulation on your ship, this is where the tech would come in.
3. Keep your crew from dying of heat stroke when the insulation keeps heat from being vented.

All doable.

Aux-Aux:

I'll have convincing everyone on Nero to agree to be evacuated to your base (they have a lot of useful machinery on board that would be useful to you) instead of trying to make it a bit farther be a Diplomacy action on your part, make sure to include it in your orders.

[Stormthorn]

Stormthorn:

OK, for the Russians I'm going to handle their reactions as part of the turn Actions. So have your interactions with the Russians be one of your orders.


Quote:
"Unidentified ships, please state nature of emergency, faction, and heading. Please be aware that this is Therajis Faction territory and we have dispatched a Daphne cruiser that will assist you if possible."

"We are mining fleet ZZ9, operating out of Mimas, our supply cache seems to have been destroyed and we are lacking in the resources needed to return home. We would be grateful for any resistance and can reciprocate by providing resources in kind."

That's most of page 2 caught up on...

"Copy that mining fleet ZZ9, we have ships sent to meet up with you. WHile under normal circumstances we could not provide you with survival supplies, we are willing to make a deal. Your metal, our food and water and fuel."

((If a roll is needed to convinve them then the DM can do that. Spending a fate point for a boost if thats the case. (relevent aspect: TNWWG)))

Charlie Prime
The Aitne vessels escort the Russians to the station where an offer is made. Refueling and repairs if the Ruskies leave one vessel behind in compensation. The crew of that ship will move to the other vessels.
((Ok, thats the Action for dealing with them then. ROLL THIS FIRST, before my one above.))

[Bosh]

No action needed to interact with the mining fleet, they're say pretty desperate (unlike the Russians) and claim they're very grateful for the offer to trade.

[The MunchKING]

The MunchKING



What sort of materials are you packing into the aid ship? Depending on what you're sending that would probably be a Life Support or Manufactoring Maneuver to load stuff into it without straining your own resources.

I was thinking foodstuffs, as I've commented on my awesome hydroponics. Thus I was thinking we could afford to geve them food and stuff and it'd come back. Parts don't grow nearly as well.

[ArcaneStomper]

Haven Shipyards
Sector 5, Archive Room 236

At first glance the room appears full of outdated computer hardware stacked in seemingly random piles throughout the room and empty of inhabitants. Then a tech crawls out from under a large mound of holding a black box. He brushes the dust off the label then calls out excitedly.

"Hey Zeke guess what I found."

Another technican climbs out the crawlspace below a particularly unstable looking pile of parts. "I don't know Cal what did you find. It better not be another manual on the care and feeding of llamas."

"Look it's not my fault that pile was contributed by a vet, so stop bringing it up. Anyway no I found an old corporate secure storage drive."

"Well why didn't you say so, plug it in and let's see what's on it. Mabye we'll find another set of prototype ship designs like those guys in sector 7."

Two hours later
Sector 16, Dr. Smith's office

The three council heads are meeting to discuss the latest crisis. Engineer Crane speaks first.
"So tell me again how this disaster managed to occur."

"Two idiots on the archive research team plugged a corporate drive into a network node. Turns out the drive was a quarantine device holding all the viruses that had ever been found on that particular company's networks. When the techs pulled up the files they activated the viruses. Of course they hadn't thought to secure the node first so the viruses excaped into the rest of the network almost instantly. By now we estimate that they're infecting 95% of our computer systems. Fortunately we managed to isolate the power supplies and critical life support systems before they could be compromised, but it's going to be a monumental task to clean out the rest of the network." Seethed Dr. Crane, barely suppressing his rage at the incomptence of his underlings.

"So where does that leave us now?" Asked commander Fraim.

"We won't die, but that's the only good news," replied Crane, "as Dr. Smith said critical systems were isolated and are still running, but everything non critical is going to be very inefficient. We can run most of the equipment manually, but most of it is automated for a reason. HAving to manually control things is going to slow us down. I suggest Dr. Smith put everyone he has onto the task of cleaning up this mess."

"Bah I'm already doing that. Best estimates say it's going to take weeks or even months to clean everything up. We have come up with some quick patches to allow infected systems to function. They'll be a lot slower than you're used to but at least it will allow for some automated systems to work."

"Well I guess there's nothing more we can do here. Let us know when you make some progress doctor." said commander Fraim as he stood up leave the room."

Once the other's had left Dr. Smith sighed and began checking to see which systems needed purging most urgently.

[Joeluma]

Aramco Corp

Event Report, -51h actual

As the ships begin their final set of decelerating blasts, the fleet sidles into high orbit in the shadow of Mercury.

Board Meeting, -50.5h actual

After the reports are submitted, the meeting is barely more than a perfunctory gesture. The plan was submitted, reviewed, and finalized years ago. Stage Zero was complete, with some small damage to one of the vessels. Nothing to force deviation.

Stage One was initiated, by unanimous vote.

Fleet Systems Report, -40h actual

Power Reports: Reactors Stable. Power supply at 60% safe limit.

Factory Reports: Fabber systems report completion Re: constructing design H-A-8 General Purpose construction drone (with disposable re-entry unit A/s-5).

Supply Ship Alpha, -39h actual

Mining Platform inspection complete, engineering squads find no flaws. Maneuver Drones pull the Mining platform free of storage, begin reconfiguring for launch.

General Ships Internal Press Release, -26h actual

The project proceeds. *Several videos of high-performing staff members, recognition for special service, etc*

*Link to life footage of Platform orbital insertion*

Final engineering check, -27h actual

All systems check O.K. Ablative foam re-entry padding passes stress testing.

Orbital Insertion of Mining platform, -24.5h Actual

Falling silently towards the surface of Mercury, the Mining platform seems to swell silently, as the foam begins to expand under electric stimulation, soon blanketing the multi-tier skeletal building in a dense and sparkling white coating. Without sound, the only indication of impact is the puff of dust from the surface, and the pancaking of the foam.

The mining platform, a skeletal structure several kilometers in height, is swallowed up by the hole it falls into. Following it to the ground is a regular procession of brown ovals - the construction drones.

Base Camp Activated, -24h Actual

Thousands of engineers and remote vehicle specialists log in to their workstations for another regular shift. This time, instead of in-depth simulation, they have the real thing to deal with. Managers circulate with words of encouragement, and automated catering systems ensure that the highly trained staff is free of distraction or want.

Meanwhile, the Directors check their blackberries, and, after confirming the project is on-schedule, go back to their individual tasks.

Facility installed, -16h Actual

After the concerted labors of the Aramco first shift, the Platform is completely installed in the pit, and prospecting begins. A new wave of smaller drones is dropped, and begins scouting at the base of the pit for the iron vein. Simple em scans easily locate it and tag it. Exploratory tunnels are dug to begin the process of mapping it for extraction.

Meanwhile, the construction drones, in the hands of a new staff of specialists, begin carting larger cargo from the specially constructed landing harness. The camp's maintenance and local fabrication sector begins to take shape.

Another series of drops, and construction begins on one of the mining constructs, a monstrous automaton more analogous to a moving building than a vehicle. Actinic light fills the area as separate pieces are melded into a working whole.

As it nears completion, the team moves onto the second large-scale automaton.

Mining Begins, -8h Actual

Even the mining facility itself shakes as the first of the behemoths tears into the surface of Mercury. Diamond-tipped drills begin fragmenting the rock, as a complex series of intake tubes and sorting machines suck in the resulting debris.

A series of parties is underway, as those freshly awake for a new shift and those recently off-shift quietly celebrate their success so far. Several new inter-office pairings result, and are successfully ignored by management.

Pharmaceuticals are quietly made available to those leaving the parties, both for those going on-shift, and those going to sleep (though different medications).

Planning groups throughout the fleet analyze the ore reports from mining, and decide on implementing immediate transport to orbit, to begin construction of the solar arrays.

Present Time, -0h

A powerful rail gun is constructed at base site, and begins slinging 'bullets' of pure iron ore into orbit, as well as several of rarer materials, refined out of the ore by the mining constructs. Careful aiming and a calculated launch inertia leaves the ore floating at a leisurely pace towards the fleet's factory vessels.

[Greystone]

Madagascar

"The UN has set up safe zones around the world, Madagascar is one of them" The Admiral said easily.

"We are trying to rebuild"

Luna

"I would really like to see proof that this territory belongs to you. This outpost was here before the war, so we have claim to it"

It was true, the base had been used, but rarely as during the time there were more logical and easy outposts to choose.

[Johel]

DURP

Alger :

"-Will you let go ?!! Gimme that !! That's Mankind's property !!"
"-But...It's all the grain we got !!"
"-Then go grow some more. Ahahahah !!"

With a kick in the face, the civilian went down as the band of soldiers walked way, their truck full of food collected in the neigbourhood (along with a few other things they liked). Firing a full round in the air, the sergent gave the go while people pulled over to let the security squadron pass. As soon as they were gone, a group came to help the wounded to get up.

"-What are we gonna do, now ?! No food, no medicine !!"
"-Kalid said they gonna redistribute it. It's just that they need to ratio what's left until the next harvest. Yes, the soldiers are brutes but I'm sure they don't know that up there. Al'bashir promised us to do everything to improve the people's welfare and I still trust his words !!"
"-Yeah !! He's a hero !! He didn't let us down like the governement !!"
Many approved of this statement about the actual president of the People Republic of Algeria, not officially a DURP member yet but this would be the case soon. Only the wounded disagreed.
"-He's a warlord !! Like all those Tchadian and Malian so-called officers !! Does even one of you still believe they are here to protect us against the EU ?!! The european didn't loot our home or kidnap our daughters, at least !!"
"-They aren't under the president's control !!"
"-Well, there many things who aren't under the president control !! Too many !!"

Tension could be felt in the air.
"-What do you imply, Rachid ?"
"-I say your hero is but a puppet president and that, had he more troops, he still wouldn't be better than the thieves of the Democratic and United Republic of the People !!"
A stone landed at the back of Rachid's head. It was quickly followed by others as most of Al'Bashir supporters rushed at the traitor, refusing to even think about his words. At the street corner, two algerian soldiers in sandy outfit smoked a cigarette and watched.



GM :

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I'm implementing the "collective food policy" and "swarm North Africa" with this post.
That's merely fluff up there. I've remained as vague as possible.
Let me know if the rolls weren't ok with these policies.
I won't write any results until I got your GO.

U.N. (Madagascar) :
"-Safe zones ? You mean where people can get food and medicine ? Do you have large supply of both ? We're trying to offer the same but, due to... political problems, it's a bit harder than we thought. Maybe..."

He hesitated, rubbing his right sleeve.
"-Maybe we can put our resources together ? We got a large part of our population who's unemployed and spend its time scavenging. But if we can offer them a purpose... We have the factories and raw material, we only need to know what to make and be sure to be paid for it. In food, that's it. What about you give me the coordinates of these safe zones so that we may trade ? I'm sure this can be profitable for both of us."

He smiled
"-Oh !! And I can arrange a meeting with M'paka and others, of course. Gimme...a week ?"

[Ekpyrotic]

Izanagi Corporate Research Center:


"They fell for it?" the CEO of Izanagi asks.

"Yes, sir, they thought we were just a miniscule research center. Europa had no idea who we actually were," the technician says with relief.

"Excellent, let's begin a trade route with them," CEO Akihito says.

"Yes sir, oh and one more thing, the Teslan Corporation no longer wants to give us the stealth technology, we've come up with a solution though," the man says in a quiet voice, as if a mountain were about to become a volcano.

"THEY SAID N-!" the CEO shouts, but is cut off by the technician.

"Weve come up with a solution. It's actually quite simple. We just have to cut our engines after acceleration and drift through space. We also an equip the ship with insulation," the technician says quickly, hoping the CEO will stop shouting.

"How do we keep them alive?" the CEO asks with a little nastiness in his voice.

"Leave that to us," the technician answers and walks away.

A while later, a communications officer punches in some numbers on his intercom and starts talking to Mr. Michiko.

"Sir, we've recieved a broadcast from Europa. They say that there was a war of some sort. I'm relaying it to you," he tells the CEO with a serious voice.

Akihito looks at the message and replies to Europa.

Communications with Europa:

Why are you talking about the Izanagi? They were stationed on Earth. Maybe you are thinking of Akito Michiko. Our names are quite similar so many people get that mixed up. Anyways, we are a small outpost with a population of 12. Anyways, would you like a trade route. We can supply energy, medicine, and food. We would love for you to send water though. Have you had contact with anyone else? We need to talk to Earth.
Sicerely,
Akihito Michiko,
Titan research center

"Sir, we have also intercepted a signal coming from the asteroid field LB-1. The broadcast was basically a greeting along with a proposal of trade. It wasn't for us. It seems like we aren't the only survivors. Anyways, I've looked at some records in the area, and apparently the Liandri corporation was doing some mining over there," an engineer informs Akihito after he's done with the message.

"Liandri, don't they have a small lab rented out over here?" Akihito says quizically.

"Yes sir, they have lab no. 74, that's in B-section," the man answers.

"Let's send a signal to them," he says.

Titan to Liandri Corporation:

Hello, my name is Akihito Michiko and I represent a 12-man team on Titan. We are a small research team. We would like to establish a trade route. We can offer food, water, energy, technology, ships, and medicine. Please respond.
Sincerely,
Akihito Michiko
Titan research station

[puppyavenger]

U.N. Luna


Yep, but since I don't see any Chinese repo men around, I think we can let this slide

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the U.N. itself didn't have an independent military, the Chinese are the ones that secured Luna, and contributed most of the space forces

[Greystone]

Luna

The administrator raised an eyebrow "Let this slide? As in your allowing us to continue our duty?"

Madagascar

"Well, I'll let the council decide if they are to give coordinates, but I believe that this outpost is as good a place as any to set up trade. As for manufacturing, that is an excellent idea, perhaps you can give me a comprehensive list of materials and factories and I can tell you how they can be of use"

[puppyavenger]

U.N. Luna

Not..exactly.

Look, how about this, we establish formal relations, this complex is your embassy, you have sovereignty over it, but not a millimeter outside. You'll have to disarm the guard to a little less then 200, preferably around 50 or so. You keep your base, no-one dies, the politicians get to avoid a backlash from the Manifest destiny sentiment they've been carefully nurturing, and I don't have to include an extra potential front in every strategy I think up, fair?

[Greystone]

U.N. Luna

"Well, sir, we also use this base as a primitive space flight yard. Its our only extraterrestrial holding of any worth."

[puppyavenger]

Luna. U.N.

really? well than perhaps we can have a joint project and together get something to stop some miner from throwing an asteroid at us. we're not going to stop you from flying ships into here.

[Johel]

DURP

U.N. (Madagascar) :

Slightly disappointed to not get the coordinates, the president was glad however to get a trade prospect anyway.
"-Don't see any problem with that. It's not like it's a secret or anything. I'll ask my collaborators to come up with a list. Shouldn't be that hard, as we are still into the collectivisation process."

A quick look at one of his clercs and he was back to the admiral.
"-I can feel that a strong friendship will grow between our nation. In order to nurture this friendship, what about setting a permanent ambassy or at least a direct comm-link between the People Republic of Mozambique and your nearest...safe zone ? How do you call it, already ?"

Economical data :

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List of products :
-Mining heavy equipement
-Construction materials
-Light weapons and ammunition (large stockpile => cheap)
-Heavy rovers and other industrial vehicules
-Hydroponic equipement (not available for export)
-Electronic hardware (outdated)
-Light alloys
-Food (not available for export)

List of materials (Mozambique only) :-Aluminum
-Steel
-Cement
-Clays
-Wooden coal (local production by the population for domestic use)

List of raw materials (Mozambique only) :-Gold
-Iron
-Niobium (Columbium)
-Tantalum
-Gemstones
-Titanium
-Zirconium
-Uranium (not available for export)

Greystone (HRP) :

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Are the DURP aware of Vesuvius location or is it just this small comm outpost ? I don't see whole cargos unloading their stuff on a naked beach.
Do we use big havens in Madagascar ?
With the demographic growth as it is in the 21th century, I guess the island will be overcrowded by the 23rd. The plague may have killed a lot of people but the infrastructure is still there.

[Bosh]

Note: today I'm going to be working on number crunching the turn 1 results. If you want to change your actions please PM me ASAP. The turn 1 results should be up almost exactly 1 week after I posted this thread, so that's right on the schedule. In the future the turn-around time might drop a bit, but the official real-life time of one in-game turn will continue to be one week to give me plenty of time.

TheMunchKING:

Thus I was thinking we could afford to geve them food and stuff and it'd come back. Parts don't grow nearly as well.

Makes sense.

ArcaneStomper:

Good use of your aspects to cause yourself problems.

Johel:

Looks good, makes sense with the action that you've PMed me.

[Bosh]

Note: today I'm going to be working on number crunching the turn 1 results. If you want to change your actions please PM me ASAP. The turn one results will be late because of forum outages but I'm doing my best...

TheMunchKING:

Thus I was thinking we could afford to geve them food and stuff and it'd come back. Parts don't grow nearly as well.

Makes sense.

ArcaneStomper:

Good use of your aspects to cause yourself problems.

Johel:

Looks good, makes sense with the action that you've PMed me.

[Bosh]

One more note: I've come up with a rubric for handing our Fate points based on RPing and activity, which will provide a total of 5 fate points per turn. The way its weighted, it makes people who almost got a fate point from this source one turn a shoe-in for getting a fate point the next turn.

[Bosh]

Update: I've finished writing up reports for everyone except for one person I haven't gotten to yet and one person who didn't send me any orders. So aaaaaaalmost done, but I've run out of free time for the day :(

Some people have had good luck, others have had very very bad luck.

[Greystone]

U.N. Luna

"That should be fine, we haven't left the base in months anyway"

DURP

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No, Vesuvius is not revealed

"There is a semi-ruined city close to here that we use as a dock, I am sure we can set up an embassy and a trade there"

[puppyavenger]

U.N. Luna

Well, since we've now officially opened relations, Perhaps you could fill us in on current events? The last contact we had was the the Assault. How is the war coming?


anyway, is there anything you'd be willing to trade? We've got enough of the fabber plants back up and running to put out pretty much anything if we get the blue prints raw materials and power. Incidentally, you're not using all the scrap planetside are you?

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yes I'm trying to slowly sneak the schlock mercenary lexicon into this game

[Bosh]

Chapter 2: Hunger

Last month, a system-wide opinion survey was conducted by the United
Nations.

The only question asked was:

“Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the
food shortage in the rest of the solar system?”

The survey was a huge failure …

In the DURP, they didn’t know what “food” meant.

On Tharsis, they didn’t know what “honest” meant.

On the Columbus space station, they didn’t know what “shortage” meant.

On Venus, they didn’t know what “opinion” meant.

In the Titan asteroids, they didn’t know what “solution” meant.

In the Amazonis jungle, they didn’t know what “please” meant.

And on Titan they didn’t know what “the rest of the system” meant.

NPC Information:

There are various rumors of Pirates near the Jupiter orbit.

An American fleet has flown out of the Kuiper Belt and is heading towards the Sun.

The Chinese are currently fortifying their borders.

The Acidalian Martians have been fed.

The Hellas Corporation is consolidating control over their areas and seems to be trying to buy more weapons from any available buyer.

The Elysium Corporation's security forces are pulling back after a defeat at the hands of Atzlion Confederation

There has been a great deal of fighting on Venus

A message goes out from Pluto: "Mayday mayday, send all possible aid they have bre........We would like to apologize for the previous message we were testing our emergeny systems and accidentally sent out a broadcast. Please disregard the previous message."

-Much of northern Mexico has been conquered by the Western (anti-UN) American faction and some of their soldiers are descending from the Rocky Mountains and are spreading out across the Great Plains.

-In Europe there are closed door meetings between the Arctic League and the France/Spain/Italy Axis.

-Thousands of frozen naked bodies have been found one AU from the son opposite from Earth.

Mayday messages have gone out from the following locales:
-Prometheus Station, a solar orbital power generation station is saying that several of the lower levels are "cooking"

-Rhea (moon of Saturn) is speaking of severe food shortages

-Callisto (moon of Jupiter) has not yet recieved any aid and the local population has been reduced to drinking reactor coolant.

-There are muddled ravings about the "gardens of ice" from the Firament.

-The Happy Morning, which is a refugee ship in Earth orbit is sending messages claiming that they've sealed off the lower decks after an outbreak of cannibalism there.

-A large group of small mining ships are currently nearing the Asteroid belt and are sending out mayday signals.

-The handful of Earth orbital stations that are remaining are starving one by one.

[Bosh]

All PMs sent out, if you don't have a PM from me then there's a problem.

[TerraImmorits]

Solar Limits

In the darkness of space, the steady glow of sixty four ships growled silently, the sun, Sol, just a speck on the viewscreens, and the hulls coated in swirls of ice that trailed behind them, making the greatest six, the Arks, seem like comets in the glow. Smaller shuttles and the occasional fighter slipped between these, and a destroyer just aft was entirely shadowed by the Ark Exodus. The engines shut off on the Arks, as they used thier inertia to cover thier movement, conserving the valueable fuel.

Aboard the Ark Pariah, Captain Linda VonKreggen, laboured alongside her engineers, fixing a vital value that supplied power to the old Earth Engines, massive pieces of modern marvel for thier time, they once powered the Arks, the original versions, as they preceeded along thier course to the nearby Alpha Centauri. Now, they were the mainpoint of the failing Ark 'cruisers', as they headed back to Earth in order to try and survive, for despite thier best efforts, the Arks became a little more ragged with each passing year.

In any case, now even those great engines were failing, and that's why the viewscreen in engineering that clipped from the classical music over to Kommandant Burken, "Captain VonKreggen?" She banged her head against an overhanging pipe as she jerked, "Verdammen... Yes, my Kommandant?" "Broadcasting range of the outer most outposts. We shall soon be within it. Prepare the arrays and scanners." Linda wiped some of the grease off of her hand, and onto the sweaty shirt that clung to her chest, "Aye, Kommandant. Messe gut." She clicked off the screen and sighed, another crew member slipping into the space where she had just been, and finishing the weld as she stalked away, taking the stairs rather than the half-functioning lift that had just hissed open with a push cart of supplies.

Kommandant Siegner Burken waited until he could see the glowing rings of translucent tubing around each of the communication arrays light up before speaking into the microphone, "Good day, this is the UIGS, and we have returned from what was to be an interstellar journey in order to comply with the messages recieved from Earth some years ago. We are no longer in the pristine Arks that some of you may remember. We are now a nation unto ourselves, and our ships have gone through many modifications to insure that our soveriegnty is assured. We, however, are in need at this time. In need of massive amounts of mineral, and construction wealth. For soon, our already strict regimen of life shall become greater as our Arks fill, or become any more unliveable than they currently are. For this, we are willing to come to... arrangements. This is Kommandant Siegner Burken, Messe gut." >> Message repeats >> 1556-33-4A-66 >> "Good day..."


::Reposted the same thing, as I would rather not see it go to waste.

[thevorpalbunny]

Trojan Confederacy
Dzada Cupczyn heaved a sigh. "That...could have gone worse."
His secretary Mona Canavan looked at him and said, "Indisputable, sir."
"I'm trying to look on the bright side. Not surprised the Mendozas refused to show me the courtesy of telling me they'd be seceding; they made no secret of their contempt for me. Other than that, though, we kept half the ringleaders. Zach Harrison left, but we kept the Italians, Barteaux, and Dobos. And even with the Mendozas, Selänne, and Björklund leaving we kept a fair number of their groups. Did you get that regional breakdown of the seceders?"
"Yes sir. We kept all the colonies in the Jupiter orbit, but most of the turnwise Neptune belt left and a significant number in the clockwise belt. The entirety of Kuiper province left."
"Mentioning Liandri hit home around Jupiter, clearly. My backyard hung around, and the Mendoza's went with them. Could be worse. Just have to keep saying that. What's next?"
"I believe you were going to the comm room to handle the two groups we sent out and the new messages."
"Thank you for reminding me, Mona."
"Just be glad I'm here to remember things for you. You'll forget your head if you ever lose me."
"I'm going to ignore that now."

Interplanetary Communications
"I'm back, Arthur. Any responses off our communications?"
"Nothing from Europa, but the Greater Lunar Union has apparently picked up the pieces on Luna and is interested in trade. Here's the transcript:"

...

"Hmmm. They're certainly a market, but I'm leery about trading through Liandri space, and Mars might present a problem. I'd rather stay on this side of the belt. I'll draft a message for you to send back to them."
"Will do. We have a couple new messages: Callisto -- that's Jupiter system -- has a severe water shortage. Rhea's food shortages are getting worse. A group of miners is sending out maydays near the asteroid belt. And two big ones: Pluto's maydays ended and were replaced by claims that it was just a test; we believe they were taken over by pirates. And a group of ships has entered the system; it's a group of German Ark ships that failed a mission to Alpha Centauri. They say they need minerals. Here's the full transcript:"

"Good day, this is the UIGS, and we have returned from what was to be an interstellar journey in order to comply with the messages received from Earth some years ago. We are no longer in the pristine Arks that some of you may remember. We are now a nation unto ourselves, and our ships have gone through many modifications to insure that our sovereignty is assured. We, however, are in need at this time. In need of massive amounts of mineral, and construction wealth. For soon, our already strict regimen of life shall become greater as our Arks fill, or become any more unliveable than they currently are. For this, we are willing to come to... arrangements. This is Kommandant Siegner Burken, Messe gut."

"That is very excellent news. Get a German speaker to translate this and reply:

Greetings, Commandant. I am Dzada Cupczyn, Prime Minister of the Trojan Confederacy. We received you message and are very willing to trade; we have abundant supplies of mineral resources, in fact. Our capital is in the turnwise Trojan belt of Neptune, but if you reach either of the Neptune Trojan clusters we'll send someone to meet you. Also, watch out for pirates; we've been receiving maydays from rocks around the outer system.

You think you can get that off quickly?"
"Certainly, I'll get Monika Maier to translate right away."
"Oh, then send off a quick message to the Pluto fleet to expect hostiles on the dwarf in case they didn't catch the original signal."
"Certainly, sir."

<Carrier Signal test pattern: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21>
Greetings, Commandant. I am Dzada Cupczyn, Prime Minister of the Trojan Confederacy. We received you message and are very willing to trade; we have abundant supplies of mineral resources, in fact. Our capital is in the turnwise Trojan belt of Neptune, but if you reach either of the Neptune Trojan clusters we'll send someone to meet you. Also, watch out for pirates; we've been receiving maydays from rocks around the outer system.
<Carrier Signal test pattern: 21,13,8,5,3,2,1,1>