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I'm not entirely sure how it would work. In principle there could be efficiency gains over running twenty different medical health care systems, but equally, the potential complexity involved is staggering; easily orders of magnitude more complex than an equivalent system for a single species. It would likely have to have more in common with a perspective based on veterinary care given the vast morphological differences between the residents of Unity.
It's a fascinating question though.
Yes. Which is one of the best things about her, she can notice what has already become background detail to our main cast. And it is nice to be writing a character who is a healer in a world of warriors.
So do I.
Buildings are, in order of discussion by Duxanek:
Human - Detached English house composed of ground floor and first floor
Xenayan - Tree camp
Thostrunaean - Normal family home
Yahmieloid - Garden
Human - Tokugawa Shogunate castle built around the Colony News Service
Wargames, Part 2
"Wargames, Part 2"
6th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
Alexandra
6th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
Alexandra
One of the perks of staying aboard the freighter is I have access to the sensors; they're much more sophisticated than the probes built by the colony, and can track the star system in real time, without the light travel time delay.
And with most other people moving to the surface, I've gained two more quarters for my use; I took everything out, even the walls of one so that I could use the sensors to build a scale map of the star system in one of them. From here, I can plan all my scenarios for the wargames.
Naomi still hasn't announced when the wargames will be, as the colony's plan is to integrate the Bevkirans as sapient combat computers, with Ykrett volunteering as proof of concept. While it absolutely convinces me of Ykrett and Naomi both being willing to win at all costs, which gives me a great deal to think about, it does mean that it really isn't right to have the wargames yet - it doesn't answer the question of who is better because Ykrett's fundamentally brilliant plan has teething difficulties.
Still. I've been reviewing fleet capability.
Naomi's colony is very much into building weapons, as you'd expect for a bunch of furious ex-slaves. She's developed the best case for realistic boarding I've seen for a space-combat scenario given the situation in hand, and every day that passes the more militant members of the colony are developing bigger weapons. For example, Geoffrey Erickson announced last week his team has had a breakthrough in their understanding of capacitor design and materials that allows him to make a revision to the kinetic artillery, and is now aiming for combat-effective ranges in excess of a thousand kilometres by the end of the year. Everyone was delighted, until Valerius pointed out that in order to have any chance in a head to head fight we need combat-effective ranges in the light seconds; that's three hundred times further.
Geoffrey has gone back to the drawing board. His new plan, published this morning, calls for figuring out how to use a thermonuclear bomb as the propulsion for a similarly tiny projectile; we don't have any other feasible way of generating the terawatt inputs needed without putting enough nuclear reactors into each weapon to power the entire planet's electricity demand.
And that is still only at the very minimum of light-second combat-effective ranges, if we can even manage it.
I am very glad Naomi's plan relies on beating the Olinbar in wits and tactics, as we are stuffed if they fight as clever as we will.
- 1
A Day In The Life Of:
A Day In The Life Of:
Valerius Albanius - 6th Hoggagha 8 (2186)
6am:Valerius Albanius - 6th Hoggagha 8 (2186)
I awake in my small home, go to my garden where I pick some seasonal fruits and collect eggs, before heading back to the kitchen for breakfast.
7am:
Wide awake and off to the Council Chambers. Once again, I wonder why Naomi opted to name the roads into the junction after two former CEOs of MSI, and once again I decide I don't really want to know the answer.
8am:
Listen to the morning address; learn Duxanek is giving a talk on the Colony News Service about her ideas for a ministry of health at 3pm. Should be interesting.
9am:
Sit in on Naomi's video-conference on Geoffrey's latest weapon idea before he does the public announcement for peer review.
10am:
Consult with Daas and Ykrett on their project.
11am:
Stop for lunch.
Midday:
Listen to Geoffrey's announcement.
1pm:
Call in about whether he has evaluated the old Human concept of the Orion Drive when he opens discussions for comment.
2pm:
Listen as Li Nakuma gives a brief explanation of Humanity's history with nuclear weapons, including about how - many generations ago - he had an ancestor who survived both of the atomic weapons used in their World War Two.
3pm:
Duxanek outlines her proposal for a communal health service based on the easiest areas to make interspecies-capable; immediate accident and emergency care, linked to species-specific services for non-immediately life-threatening medical situations, and proposes some areas that she believes could be handled more efficiently by a centralised service.
4pm:
Return home to tend the garden and animals.
5pm:
Drive to an overlook.
6pm:
Look out from the overlook over the city.
7pm:
Return home, retire to bed.
- 1
I liked Valerius's entry - very much like a diary entry. Why did Naomi name the roads that?
They're using nukes for fast travel? Nukes? Isn't that dangerous and risky?
They're using nukes for fast travel? Nukes? Isn't that dangerous and risky?
Partially because it amused her, but mainly to get her ex-slave colonists used to walking over MSI leadership. (Same reason for the city being laid out as a spoked wheel)
There's two premises involving nukes.
To get a one gram projectile up to a velocity close enough to light speed to count as light-second combat-effective range needs ~10^13J minimum. (and you have milliseconds to apply that kinetic energy, so it's more like ~10^15W - and once you get fast enough there's relativistic effects too, and this isn't counting that that's only about a third to a half of the energy needed because a vast amount is wasted as heat)
As a rough guide:
~10^3W - 1kW - a kettle uses more
~10^6W - 1MW - enough power to supply a normal village, or, one Bugatti Chiron type hypercar
~10^9W - 1GW - power output of a typical nuclear reactor used for power generation of older designs, and a cumulative output of sequential newer designs of reactors (it's much easier to mass produce a thousand 1MW reactors - for example, you can put a 1MW reactor on the back of an articulated truck)
~10^12W - 1TW - the entire electricity consumption of Humanity is about 7TW
~10^15W - 1PW - for obvious reasons there's not many contexts people are familiar with for this much power; we're in the realm of billion dollar science experiments, nuclear weapons and theoretical outputs of extremely advanced energy sources like fusion, antimatter-matter reaction, Penrose process etc.
So, a 10^13J projectile kinetic energy weapon uses a lot of energy, and because it has to be delivered REALLY quickly, and we obviously don't have fusion or better, and the materials constraints that mean the colony can't just build a railgun in the billions of tonnes it would take to get acceleration durations that wouldn't obliterate the weapon, Geoffrey's suggestion is using the energy output of a nuclear weapon to accelerate the projectile in the same way that gunpowder is used to accelerate a combustion reaction firearm.
It's worth noting that nuclear weapons in space are much less effective than they are in an atmosphere because there's no shockwave, only the flash and the radiation, and that the missile still has to get there to deliver the payload, both of which are quite problematic when you are dealing with the technological mismatch between the colony and MSI.
The second premise is an application of this theory turned into accelerating space ships - the Orion drive.
First proposed in the 50's and 60's, the idea is either the simple but motion sickness inducing pusher plate method, or a smoother but more complicated and higher risk puller plate method, where nuclear weapons are detonated against the plate to either push the ship or or push the plates that then pull the ship.
In theory we can build Single Stage To Orbit Orion drive spacecraft and could then go pretty much anywhere in the system once reloaded, but the radiation and atmospheric effects mean that no one has tried it for obvious reasons, and it would burn an awful lot of bombs.
Valerius brings it up as an example of propelling things with nukes, but there's a lot of challenges in propelling a tiny object with a nuke like this, and if you make a big projectile then you'll have the same not fast enough issues the current weapons have. (But a much lower chance of completely obliterating your space cannon because internal pressure was so great)
But, they'd at least have five orders of magnitude more energy behind each shot, so it's still a net gain over the current weapons.
As far as safety goes, Naomi would rather win with no hair and throwing up constantly than risk Rivkah's children growing up slaves; they're outlook on risk is rather different to ours.
Our perspective on space weaponisation is that the economic value of a developed solar system is in the region of quintillions of dollars, and therefore even if it is never used it is reasonable to use a portion of that GDP to invest in defensive measures.
The colony knows that they have enemies who are vastly more powerful than them, could theoretically come at any time, and if they do, their best shot is a one-off plan that relies on letting an enemy with sufficient weaponry to wipe them out come within orbital bombardment range so that they have half a chance of getting marines aboard and taking the enemy vessels. Big difference.
There's two premises involving nukes.
To get a one gram projectile up to a velocity close enough to light speed to count as light-second combat-effective range needs ~10^13J minimum. (and you have milliseconds to apply that kinetic energy, so it's more like ~10^15W - and once you get fast enough there's relativistic effects too, and this isn't counting that that's only about a third to a half of the energy needed because a vast amount is wasted as heat)
As a rough guide:
~10^3W - 1kW - a kettle uses more
~10^6W - 1MW - enough power to supply a normal village, or, one Bugatti Chiron type hypercar
~10^9W - 1GW - power output of a typical nuclear reactor used for power generation of older designs, and a cumulative output of sequential newer designs of reactors (it's much easier to mass produce a thousand 1MW reactors - for example, you can put a 1MW reactor on the back of an articulated truck)
~10^12W - 1TW - the entire electricity consumption of Humanity is about 7TW
~10^15W - 1PW - for obvious reasons there's not many contexts people are familiar with for this much power; we're in the realm of billion dollar science experiments, nuclear weapons and theoretical outputs of extremely advanced energy sources like fusion, antimatter-matter reaction, Penrose process etc.
So, a 10^13J projectile kinetic energy weapon uses a lot of energy, and because it has to be delivered REALLY quickly, and we obviously don't have fusion or better, and the materials constraints that mean the colony can't just build a railgun in the billions of tonnes it would take to get acceleration durations that wouldn't obliterate the weapon, Geoffrey's suggestion is using the energy output of a nuclear weapon to accelerate the projectile in the same way that gunpowder is used to accelerate a combustion reaction firearm.
It's worth noting that nuclear weapons in space are much less effective than they are in an atmosphere because there's no shockwave, only the flash and the radiation, and that the missile still has to get there to deliver the payload, both of which are quite problematic when you are dealing with the technological mismatch between the colony and MSI.
The second premise is an application of this theory turned into accelerating space ships - the Orion drive.
First proposed in the 50's and 60's, the idea is either the simple but motion sickness inducing pusher plate method, or a smoother but more complicated and higher risk puller plate method, where nuclear weapons are detonated against the plate to either push the ship or or push the plates that then pull the ship.
In theory we can build Single Stage To Orbit Orion drive spacecraft and could then go pretty much anywhere in the system once reloaded, but the radiation and atmospheric effects mean that no one has tried it for obvious reasons, and it would burn an awful lot of bombs.
Valerius brings it up as an example of propelling things with nukes, but there's a lot of challenges in propelling a tiny object with a nuke like this, and if you make a big projectile then you'll have the same not fast enough issues the current weapons have. (But a much lower chance of completely obliterating your space cannon because internal pressure was so great)
But, they'd at least have five orders of magnitude more energy behind each shot, so it's still a net gain over the current weapons.
As far as safety goes, Naomi would rather win with no hair and throwing up constantly than risk Rivkah's children growing up slaves; they're outlook on risk is rather different to ours.
Our perspective on space weaponisation is that the economic value of a developed solar system is in the region of quintillions of dollars, and therefore even if it is never used it is reasonable to use a portion of that GDP to invest in defensive measures.
The colony knows that they have enemies who are vastly more powerful than them, could theoretically come at any time, and if they do, their best shot is a one-off plan that relies on letting an enemy with sufficient weaponry to wipe them out come within orbital bombardment range so that they have half a chance of getting marines aboard and taking the enemy vessels. Big difference.
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I don't think there has ever been a Stellaris Story that included a ship using Orion-style nuclear pulse propulsion. That could be a fun story all by itself.
Arsenal Of Freedom
"Arsenal Of Freedom"
27th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
Alexandra
27th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
Alexandra
I arrive at the main building. On the gateway is this: 'Give me liberty, or give me death.' Carved in the stonework. The graffiti on the doors of the gate?
An Olinbar head riding a mushroom cloud. Says it all really.
And when you stop to think that five races progressed to Early Space era technologies and developed nuclear weapons, the rate of progress doesn't sound so surprising.
Three weeks since Geoffrey put forward a proposal for using nuclear bombs to propel a kinetic artillery weapon. That's how long it's taken them to put together a proposal on how to make it happen. I sit down in the conference; I'm with Ykrett and Rhizome Of Ebony on the military side of the seating area. Naomi and Rivkah sit in the middle. Monica and various non-military staff on the far side.
Geoffrey enters. "Ladies and gentlemen. Me and my team have spent the last three weeks developing our ideas for thermonuclear boosted kinetic artillery. As always, we began with brainstorming ideas."
A slide with an asteroid with a cylinder dug out is placed on the projector.
"This is what we believe is the most feasible weapon we can build. This is a single use platform, we don't expect most asteroids to be strong enough for repeated use - they must be more than five hundred metres in radius to have sufficient confidence that the asteroid itself will not be reduced to a mini debris field."
Slide changes to a mechanism display. "The bomb detonates in the middle of the asteroid, with our projectile in the tube. The immense pressure releasd by the bomb vaporising the silicate hits the projectile and partially vaporises it, accelerating the rest of the projectile."
Slide changes to a pie chart depicting the expected energy distribution. "As can be seen, the process is highly inefficient; real world scenario I'd consider anything over one percent as brilliant."
Next slide; series of calculations. "The good news is, by the time we come up with optimised distribution of mass that leaves as much of the projectile vaporised as possible and the remainder heading towards an enemy vessel extremely fast, we should be able to eventually achieve muzzle velocities in the region of three million metres per second."
The slide changes again, to an extremely long tube. "As said in the introduction, that was the assessment if you were to ask us 'MSI warship inbound, we need it ASAP.'. If we have more development time and resources, we believe that we can make this."
Slide changes to a close-up. "This is a multi-staged and far more controllable weapon that detonates numerous much lower yield weapons to give a smoother acceleration with more consistent results. The downside is it is incredibly big and bulky, as the sheer volume of metal needed to resist the forces of repeated nuclear detonations leaves us contemplating a barrel several hundred metres thick. However, as said this is in the region of two hundred million tonnes of steel."
He places the last slide; a graph showing the expected variations in performance. "As can be seen, the expected outcomes are highly variable. We are still in the position of hiding in asteroids and luring them in. But now we can kill a Flagship."
He removes the slide. "Any questions?"
I put a hand up first. "How soon could you build one?"
"The asteroid type I can have combat ready in a few days from arrival at the asteroid; we could start immediately if needed. The second type needs far greater space industrialisation to build."
I review my list of asteroids in the system. Hmm. "How tight is that five hundred metres radius?"
"If the asteroid structure is compromised, there is no control over the direction of the projectile, or the highly radioactive materials that will remain. I cannot stress enough that as little as five hundred metres in radius is an absolute minimum; even at that size the damage to the asteroid can seriously affect projectile performance."
"Was staging within the asteroid considered?"
"Yes. We evaluated however that sequential detonations would cause greater shock within the asteroid, and would be more likely to cause structural failure."
Daas asks the next question. "I noted that Valerius advised a consideration of an Orion-type propulsion. Was this evaluated?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, while it makes a workable space ship propulsion, the resulting craft is effectively a high payload fraction rocket, and therefore is subject to much longer acceleration times that mean the critical advantage of this type of weapon system is lost."
Monica puts her hand up. "Supposing a suitable asteroid is within Unity's ring, what would be the expected effects on Unity of using such a weapon?"
"Assuming that the asteroid does not suffer structural failure, then the damage to the planet should be less than our previous scenario of utilising nuclear warheads against orbital bombardment capable MSI vessels, and from that perspective we are in substantial improvements. Adverse effects are still expected however, most notably we still anticipate the need for EMP shielding for several thousand kilometres of Unity's surface."
"And if the asteroid explodes?"
"The effects would be somewhat reduced relative to an otherwise normal nuclear detonation, but there's a risk of deorbiting asteroid debris, of which most would burn up in the atmosphere, with some chunks surviving to impact."
I look at Naomi. "I have my list of asteroids here. None of the ones around Unity are suitable."
She looks at me. "Which candidate is nearest?"
"MSI charts called it Kidore IV-Tethys MCIX. Six hundred and twenty metres average radius, minimum point is four hundred and three though..."
Everyone looks at Geoffrey. He shakes his head. "I have to veto."
Rivkah speaks. "What if we restructure it ourselves, and fill in the gap?"
Geoffrey replies hesitantly. "We'd need to trim it to approximately spherical anyway. It might be feasible. But I would not recommend putting a bodged together asteroid in Unity orbit for this."
Naomi has a decision. "Next nearest?"
I look at the list. " Kidore BT-Icarus XII, in the asteroid field, on the innermost edge. Right size too." It's a bit far. "The energy to move it would be massive though."
Naomi goes into her contemplative face. "Let's move Icarus that little bit closer to the star. I want a plan put together and up for review best possible speed."
Geoffrey smiles. "On our way, Arch-Imperatrix."
- 1
Most Stellaris AARs are set after better propulsion systems are developed, so it isn't surprising.
Edit - I've been thinking about this.
This narrative isn't really the right place for such a story; the plan is to get the narrative finished before Naomi dies of old age with the move towards a much compressed timescale, and one part of that is that events progress much quicker. Another issue is that with the ability to refuel shuttles and the freighter, they kind of have the better propulsion systems; just need to reproduce them. Which they have people working on, obviously.
It does give me the seed of an idea based on a What If scenario of the Cold War continuing and America and the Soviet Union continuing in conflict heading off-world and colonising the solar system. But, it's not really a "Stellaris" thing because a large part of the feel of the setting is in the development of the Sol system.
Maybe a modded fixed map that treated each planet as it's own star system could be workable.
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Ro-Ab
"Ro-Ab"
30th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
Ro-Ab
30th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
Ro-Ab
This one seeks at the Council Chambers.
The nice one does not know this one is gone.
This one will find the dark one.
This one squeezes through these small passages as this one stalks.
This one catches the scent of the little one. This one remembers from the little one's visit. The dark one will be near.
This one sprints.
This one finds.
Little one sees with little one's red eyes. Little one taps dark one. Dark one turns to this one drawing weapon, then looks at little one.
Little one speaks. "This is Ro-Ab. Valerius' friend aboard the freighter."
Dark one puts weapon away. "What do you want?"
This one pauses. "This one is bound by fetters this one cannot break, but dark one can. This one seeks release."
Dark one stays still. Dark one looks at little one. Dark one looks at this one. "Valerius."
"Nice one treats this one well, but this one wishes to be free."
"I will talk to Valerius."
"This one thanks dark one."
This one recoils.
- 1
So, to give an idea of all the various positions in Life2.0, and who is in them:
*1 As discussed throughout the thread - Naomi believes in her offensive forces being a small number of extremely highly trained individuals, who can do anything she can do, going into MSI planets and installations and inciting and leading rebellions.
*2 Let's be honest, Stellaris technology research is one of the less good aspects of the game, and I'm keeping the bits I like and ignoring the bits I don't. One key difference is that Leaders can be multi-disciplinary if it's sufficiently applicable; for example, Pik being star system governor means he has to handle a huge amount of civilian logistics, and therefore him and his office staff handle areas that are extensions from it.
*3 One such bit being completely changed is adopting a Space Empires V-like setup in which you assign a portion of the State-directed research to each field. Now, Naomi would like to have more research going on in the less warfare-applicable areas, but she feels that she can't because of the MSI threat; as a result, these fields largely exist to coordinate non-state directed research. Archaeostudies specifically has such a vast portion of the budget simply because reverse-engineering MSI tech can catch them up a lot quicker than doing it themselves.
Civilian Governmental Position: | Responsibility: | Leader: |
| Chief Executive Officer | For overall leadership of Life2.0 | Naomi |
| Head Of Department - Food Distribution | For the distribution of Food for Shareholders | Pik |
| HOD - Consumer Goods Distribution | For the distribution of Consumer Goods for Shareholders | Pik |
| HOD - State-Directed Research Policy | For deciding overall Research strategy | Naomi |
| HOD - Minerals Extraction | For the extraction of Mineral resources to supply construction projects, Consumer Goods and Alloys | Estrili Sakati |
| HOD - Energy Allocation | For the development and deployment of Energy resources | Daas |
| HOD - Alloys Industry | For the industrial base that refines Minerals into Alloys | Pik |
| HOD - Judiciary | For the maintenance of law and order, and most senior judge | Shendredie |
| HOD - Education | For ensuring access to education material, and the facilitation of connections between students and teachers | Vorosh |
| HOD - Health | For developing a viable multi-species healthcare service | Duxanek |
| HOD - Labour | For ensuring that anyone who wants a job, has one | Li Nakuma |
| HOD - Civil Defence | For ensuring civilian access to military-spec armament for homeland defence | Buri |
| HOD - Espionage | For intelligence operations | Classified. |
| HOD - Colony News Service | For general morale and large scale population coordination | Li Nakuma |
Governors: | Scope: | Leader: |
| Kidore | Wider star system Governor | Pik |
| Unity | Planetary Governor | Monica |
| Hortensus' Folly | Provincial Governor | Monica |
| Heinrichstadt | Provincial Governor | Heinrich |
Martial Governmental Position: | Responsibility: | Leader: |
| Senior Provisions Officer | For overall logistics for defensive forces *1 | Pik |
| Senior Recruitment Officer | For quality and training for non-offensive soldiers *1 | Vaki |
| Senior Weapons Development Officer | For the development of whatever weapons the Arch-Imperator/Imperatrix deems necessary | Geoffrey Erickson |
| Senior Officer Development Officer | For patterning what kind of person is sought in the officer corps | Naomi |
Military Command Structure: | Responsibility: | Leader: |
| Arch-Imperatrix | To put the MSI threat six feet in the ground by any means necessary | Naomi |
| Imperator/Imperatrix | For command of their appointed formation, whatever that happens to be | Buri, Vaki, Ykrett, Alexandra, Odoos, Tryykad, Rhizome Of Ebony |
| Secundus | To take over from the Arch-Imperatrix in the event of her being KIA or MIA | Rivkah |
| Tertius | The Arch-Imperatrix' Plan B in the event her and her daughter are both KIA or MIA | Kept unknown to ensure their survival in the event of a decapitation strike |
| Quartus | The Arch-Imperatrix' Plan C in the event the Arch-Imperatrix, her daughter and the Tertius are KIA or MIA | Kept unknown to ensure their survival in the event of a decapitation strike; in event of their demise |
Racial Leadership Position: | Leader: | Notes: |
| Baat Vootan | Daas | Liaison |
| Bevkiran | Ykrett | Ruler, Democratic |
| Chengpingese | Rivvyl uvi-Gallvav | Ruler, Democratic |
| Human | Monica Greshaw | Ruler, Democratic |
| Ipcardius | Rhizome Of Ebony | Being 'Simple-Minded', they go along with whatever Rhizome says |
| Kourituk | Lorbukh | Ruler, Dictatorship |
| Kyaese | Tryykad | Ruler, Democratic |
| Lokra-Kitan | Odoos | Liaison |
| Lukhuinites | Vorosh | Liaison |
| Maggar | Pik | Liaison |
| Mopish | Hoggagha | Liaison |
| Naungmonese | Sor-Gor | Liaison |
| Nhev-Mazarid | Variable | Being 'Slow-Learners, they follow a Leader model of picking the most experienced on any given issue |
| Rezead | Rhizome Of Ebony | Liaison (officially; she pulled a Naomi behind the scenes) |
| Shomba | Estrili Sakati | Liaison |
| Sirzusian | N/A | Being 'Proles' they don't have applicable Leaders. Naomi would like to uplift them, but it's a long-term project. |
| Thostrunaean | Shendredie | Ruler, Dictatorship |
| Yahmieloid | Rhizome Of Ebony | Being 'Lazy', they go along with whatever Rhizome says |
| Xenaya | Naomi | Ruler, Imperial |
| Zikk'Hik | Bigbuur Gushh | Liaison |
Research Field: *2 | Department Head: | Research Budget: *3 |
| Overall Physics | Daas | --- |
| Computing | Ykrett | 5% |
| Field Manipulation | Hoggagha | 8% |
| Particles | Bigbuur Gushh | 2% |
| Overall Society | Vorosh | --- |
| Biology | Vorosh | 2% |
| Military Theory | Naomi | 4% |
| New Worlds | Sor-Gor | 2% |
| Statecraft | Vorosh | 2% |
| Archaeostudies | Daas | 45% |
| Overall Engineering | Geoffrey Erickson | --- |
| Industry | Estrili Sakati | 5% |
| Materials | Estrili Sakati | 5% |
| Propulsion | Hoggagha | 5% |
| Voidcraft | Geoffrey Erickson | 15% |
*1 As discussed throughout the thread - Naomi believes in her offensive forces being a small number of extremely highly trained individuals, who can do anything she can do, going into MSI planets and installations and inciting and leading rebellions.
*2 Let's be honest, Stellaris technology research is one of the less good aspects of the game, and I'm keeping the bits I like and ignoring the bits I don't. One key difference is that Leaders can be multi-disciplinary if it's sufficiently applicable; for example, Pik being star system governor means he has to handle a huge amount of civilian logistics, and therefore him and his office staff handle areas that are extensions from it.
*3 One such bit being completely changed is adopting a Space Empires V-like setup in which you assign a portion of the State-directed research to each field. Now, Naomi would like to have more research going on in the less warfare-applicable areas, but she feels that she can't because of the MSI threat; as a result, these fields largely exist to coordinate non-state directed research. Archaeostudies specifically has such a vast portion of the budget simply because reverse-engineering MSI tech can catch them up a lot quicker than doing it themselves.
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So Naomi has not one, but two Designated Survivors for the role of Arch-Imperatrix? Impressive. All Naomi needs now is some kind of mobile command center and she'll have a solid Continuity of Government plan!
Alexandra is paying attention to the weaponry... I'm unconvinced she's given up on her leadership and conquest plan. Naomi definitely needs to continue keeping an eye on her.
I liked the section from Ro-Ab's POV. It was a look into a strange mind... and it provides some more insight into Valerius's operations, so that's nice. Did Naomi not ask Valerius to free his servants immediately because she forgot they existed, or what?
I liked the section from Ro-Ab's POV. It was a look into a strange mind... and it provides some more insight into Valerius's operations, so that's nice. Did Naomi not ask Valerius to free his servants immediately because she forgot they existed, or what?
Three - you missed Rivkah.
After that it goes to the first officer who's able to re-establish a command hierarchy. Rivkah is inevitably a target for assassination the same way Naomi is, the two extra nominees only Naomi knows - so, any strike sufficient to take out them too can reasonably be assumed to be bad enough to be a reset of the entire leadership structure.
Naomi knows that as a rebellion they're vulnerable to such, and therefore her premise is any officer must be trained to do anything she can do - she wants a hydra for a leadership structure, not a pyramid, specifically so that they cannot be defeated by simply assassinating Naomi and company.
So, there's Rivkah, the two contingencies, any of Naomi's thousand officers that she trained, plus people like Alexandra or Rhizome Of Ebony or Ykrett. And MSI would likely much rather have a moderate like Naomi or Rivkah in charge than any of those three, because Ykrett and Rhizome would both consider the absolute destruction of all Olinbar (defectors like Valerius excepted) to be justice, and they aren't alone in that belief.
And if they are all gone, then the rebellion began with one woman who made the other slaves believe winning was possible; all Naomi had was what she took from the slain Captain and her ideas.
So, in order to stop the rebellion, you have to kill the ideas.
And ideas don't die easily.
Essentially, Naomi structures the leadership to make attempting a decapitation strike useless at stopping the rebellion in the short term and a very bad idea in the long term - Naomi is a moderate who can be negotiated with. Take her out, and anyone who comes after her will be a hardliner who will not negotiate and who will consider genocide acceptable.
i.e. she ensures that Olinbar self-preservation itself dictates that her and Rivkah are not to be removed from their positions.
Of course - that's why Alexandra has been promoted.
He did free them. Ro-Ab however, is not a servant - she was a pet (in the sense a tamed wolf is a pet, not an actual pet) Valerius kept back because he didn't want to release another apex predator onto Unity. He doesn't know that she can stowaway on a shuttle.
So, I am come to a bit of an impasse.
Now, I'm having a nice time with all these "slices of life" pieces that aren't really pushing the plot forward. But, equally, I do want to get onto the two big events to come - the arrival of an MSI Flagship, and the arrival of Thando and friends.
And I can't decide which should come first; there's pros and cons whichever way goes.
I believe that I've left enough hints to have a guess at how either will go, which leaves the logical tie breaker being to ask my readers which route to take.
So, which would you guys like to read?
Now, I'm having a nice time with all these "slices of life" pieces that aren't really pushing the plot forward. But, equally, I do want to get onto the two big events to come - the arrival of an MSI Flagship, and the arrival of Thando and friends.
And I can't decide which should come first; there's pros and cons whichever way goes.
I believe that I've left enough hints to have a guess at how either will go, which leaves the logical tie breaker being to ask my readers which route to take.
So, which would you guys like to read?
So the two events are so isolated they could be swapped around? It does open up some options.
I would prefer the option more likely to generate character drama: Have Thando and co arrive after the MSI flagship, preferably within a timeframe that is disadvantageous to Naomi and the colony. Having Naomi, Buri, Rivkah, and others still be high-strung from an enemy contact could lead to an eventful first encounter.
I would prefer the option more likely to generate character drama: Have Thando and co arrive after the MSI flagship, preferably within a timeframe that is disadvantageous to Naomi and the colony. Having Naomi, Buri, Rivkah, and others still be high-strung from an enemy contact could lead to an eventful first encounter.
On the original timescale, the Flagship arrives 2187-2190 area (on the assumption of a dispatch following Hortensus' failing his final return deadline, and that a Flagship would take longer to travel than a freighter) and Thando arrives in the 2190s.
But developing characters like Valerius and Alexandra means there's interactions that make me want to bring in Thando earlier - I had the thought of making Thando and Alexandra a couple for example, and I had this scene come to mind of them giving each other shields and spears* before they get in their two-person pod to go into battle together.
Another aspect is I'm a little worried about not writing the battle for the Flagship well; I've thought through the factors involved, and between the MSI Shareholder's inexperience and not understanding the situation, the opportunity for Naomi's team of highly trained forces is sufficient to get the one-off win. (and hence, the prize of a Flagship that enables them to snowball) But, I want to get the scene right. Which is tricky.
* while the ancient Greek maxim about returning with your shield or on it is likely sufficiently well known to these forums that I don't need to cover Alexandra's side, Thando comes from the heritage of King Mzilikazi and King Shaka Zulu; the latter -of whom the former was originally a lieutenant before he separated to head north- mandated that a shield was the property of the king, and to return without your shield was a capital offence. Likewise Ancient Greece was famous for the use of the phalanx formation of highly disciplined, heavily armoured spearmen with supporting light infantry and cavalry that revolutionised warfare in the Mediterranean and beyond, while Shaka Zulu's widespread deployment of also extremely disciplined iklwa - a one-handed short-spear - wielding light infantry (British Imperial combat manuals advised to treat Zulu infantry as light cavalry, such was their mobility in rough terrain) also revolutionised warfare in southern Africa.
Homeward Bound, Part 1
"Homeward Bound, Part 1"
Nightfall, 1st Daas, 8 (2186)
Naomi Of Unity
It's a warm night tonight, yet I feel cold even laid here in my husband's embrace.Nightfall, 1st Daas, 8 (2186)
Naomi Of Unity
Not everyone in the colony wants to stay here. We've always known that.
For the last few years, those who wish to leave have been working on a ship for them to get home with. They believe that the time is now right with how well the colony has progressed. The navigational charts have been completely reverse-engineered; we know exactly what route Hortensus took.
Today, Vaki laid their proposal on my desk. They want to take the freighter and return home. They have already obtained a list of signatures of those who want to leave, and why they want to go, and how much do they want to go; Vaki explained that they know the population has grown (most couples have managed to have multiple reproduction events by now; Monica and Heinrich are expecting too) and they believe more people want to leave than can fit on the freighter, so they have pre-sorted the people who want to go most.
I was hoping she would stay, my sister-in-law. I understand her, she wants to go home and prepare the Xenaya in case the Olinbar come back. She did say that she will miss us all terribly, but that she had to think of the good of her people too. We hugged. Cried. But she knows that just as a High Queen has to sacrifice to protect her people, so must her junior Queens and Princesses. (I do seem to have started a Matriarchy)
Intended departure? Tenth Ykrett, next year.
Snowfall Day.
I put it to the Shareholders tomorrow.
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The loss of potential warriors will hurt Life 2.0, but it might also ensure that they have allies against MSI...
It's amusing that Naomi started a matriarchy. Maybe she's just misinterpreting the sudden presence of more queens?
I'm in favor of @Macavity116's suggestion.
It's amusing that Naomi started a matriarchy. Maybe she's just misinterpreting the sudden presence of more queens?
I'm in favor of @Macavity116's suggestion.