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From the memory pool of Revered Elder Josephine Dufresne
When the Union Council first convened, the oldest of our number, Courtney Fleming, opened the initial session by asking whether we were cursed from the beginning as a species, or if the fate which had befallen mankind truly was one we had brought upon ourselves. A question with a controversial answer to this day, and with much less clear answers than an early 21st century human would have thought, considering how advanced technologically our civilization has grown to be. They also probably would flee us or try to kill us on sight - an ironic consideration, really, considering how we are the result of decisions made and not made by them and their direct ancestors. And even if somehow we could stop and talk, they certainly wouldn't acknowledge us as humans. But humans we are, the United Remnants of Earth, and as we are, fate has given us custody of a planet that has greatly suffered at our predecessors' hands...
The blue planet of myth is no more. The death blow was struck shortly after the first inhabited landing on Mars, in the year 2063, according to the calendar used back then. The particulars went largely unnoticed by the mass of humanity at the time. The age of information had given birth to the age of control. Automatic, highly sophisticated machines ensured that the masses of the "developed countries" were kept ignorant of how their world was truly ruled and for whom, and focused on the inner enemies that had patiently been fostered to keep the masses distracted, and hide from them that their lot had truly become miserable, while the sparse ranks of their ruling classes grew ever more corrupt and authoritarian.
The end came as a result of greed and negligence. In the spring of 2063, the thermonuclear fusion experimental site created for the ITER project in south France was still in use, a consequence of graft and mismanagement delaying the construction of the experimental production site DEMO. ITER's budget had been cut in the wrong place, and notably with regards to the indispensable absorption layer for the high velocity neutrons released during the fusion reactions. The cheaper layer broke, resulting in a catastrophic nuclear meltdown that wiped out a hundred thousand square kilometers on the shores of the Mediterranean basin - that was the greed.
The human cost was immense, with 42 million dying directly or indirectly from the consequences of the explosion. France and Italy were the hardest hit countries, and after all the deaths, the irradiation of a hundred and the disastrous economic consequences which ensued, resulting in widespread misery for two of the largest member states of the European Union. And as 21st century humans were usually wont to do, they sought someone to blame - and their governments hid the truth and provided patsies, blaming the explosion of ITER on terrorist sabotage, like so many other and smaller accidents had come to be over the course of the years. And the populations, enraged at what had happened, demanded a thermonuclear eye for a thermonuclear eye.
Yet, their leaders, and the world leaders in general, thought they could control the fallout. Vast mock cities were built in the middle of the Sahara for the specific purpose of their destruction being filmed. The various dictatorial regimes ruling the world supplied their contingents of "undesirables" to fill those mock cities, and give the appearance of actual retaliation. And in the fall of 2063, the entire construction was nuked into non-existence, and a quarter of the desert alongside it.
That was the negligence, as the result was the release of hundreds of millions of tons of radioactive dust and sand in the atmosphere, covering the entire planet in a shroud that hid the sun permanently, causing a dramatic drop in temperatures, dooming all the vegetation not sustained in hydroponic installations. Then the rains started to fall, bringing down with them massive doses of radiation no one and nobody was prepared to endure. The resulting destruction of the entire world's biosphere was swift and nearly absolute. Society broke down completely as irradiation syndromes brought a permanent solution to the problem of planetary overpopulation, and it really seemed like our species was doomed to extinction, alongside all other species unfortunate enough to have coexisted with mankind on earth.
Irradiation, however, brings mutation and rapid evolution, and it was our stroke of good luck that one of the newly evolved lifeforms actually thrived on radiation and seemed capable to survive in a symbiotic relationship with a large number of species, including mammalians. Our ancestors took that as a sign that whichever greater power had put mankind on Earth did not in fact want to wipe out our species. Abandoned, mutated, forced to survive in a completely broken down society, they took the leap of faith. It worked, and the species were saved... after a fashion. For our ancestors had largely mutated already, and continued to devolve as a result of the symbiosis. And the pleasant and harmonious appearances of early 21st century humans have since become a distant memory, only existing in what few media from that era survive...
Human life today is nothing like what it was in the earliest years of the 21st century, before the age of information began to precipitate our species' downfall. The most evident difference lies, of course, in our appearances. By original human standards, we are monsters, abominations they would have great difficulty telling apart, even where the gender is concerned. And we have enough of a biological memory of the fact to make coupling a repulsive activity only a few of us find the courage to engage in. It does not yet endanger the continuation of the species, as our symbiotic relationship with the parasitic life form fate bestowed upon us seems to considerably extend our life expectancy, and most of us survivors who embraced the worms are still relatively young, even by old human standards. The oldest member in the Union Council, the overseer of our astrological department, is only 48, and she has good hopes of living for another century or more.
We do suspect that there has been a heavy price to pay by embracing the symbiosis. We are stronger, cleverer, more durable, but what keeps us alive needs the contamination from radioactivity to sustain itself, and we have no idea how, should our species actually reach for the stars someday, we would manage to create a favorable environment for us on an Earth-like, uncontaminated world without considerably damaging its ecosystem, and we are all agreed, after the horrors we have endured, that vitrifying outer worlds would not be an option. We keep using nuclear energy because it is the most efficient, and because we have little choice to keep up the levels of radiations our organisms now require, but the age of mankind as a force of destruction is over, and so is the age of information and trust in central government.
Our shared goals as a species are remembrance and the betterment of ourselves. And should we ever happen upon other lifeforms, untouched by our kind of dark fate, we will do all in our power to preserve them from horrors similar to those we endured in our past. For that purpose, we will ascend, we will transcend ourselves as a species, and we will find the way to the stars. We very much aim to become a superior species, but not as masters; as guides, as friends, as mediators, like we act already for those among us already willing to trust us with our fates, and as I will, as the Revered Elder elected and chosen to guide our path for a while. And we will always remember what fate befell us, and do our utmost to ensure it is never repeated for others...
* *
Hello, and welcome to a completely weird experiment that may or may not go anywhere, as I'm not entirely sure the game is going to be stable as we're only staying in 1.8.0 for a few more days and, as you may have noticed, this Stellaris is modded to hell and back to allow for any and all kinds of possibilities ^^ Still, since reading stnylan's excellent Pax Humanitas (which I heartily recommend you read at https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/pax-humanitas.987613/ ), I've kind-of wanted to write a roleplaying AAR at this game. It is going to be crazy...
I'll be playing this along with writing it, on a game client that will evolve a little more before eventually becoming a "consolidated" 1.8.1 game (ie. there'll be the long hassle of integrating 40+ mods into one Stellaris folder whenever Paradox don't think issues need fixing immediately anymore). Weird things might happen, the pace will be completely random, and I may very well lose horribly at some point, but hey! That's the game, and this will not be an optimal playthrough by any measure. I mean, you've seen the five negative traits, and there'll be more broken stuff in one direction or another There is no balance whatsoever in that game. I'll just be trying to have fun telling a story, and hopefully you'll have fun reading it.
Enjoy, and if you wish to know what mod something you see comes from, feel free to ask in comments.
I'm the one being honored, stnylan! Going to have to try not to disappoint ^^
* *
The Solar System in 2200
An overview, by Courtney Fleming
* *
As requested by my fellow Elders, this report is published so that all humans on our poor Earth may know of our situation and of the immediate goals the Union Council have set for ourselves, with the resources we have been granted. The Solar System does not lack in potential, with plentiful resources to mine and two potential candidates for terraformation, specifically Venus and Mars, once our technology and resources allow us to eliminate the hothouse effect rendering the former inhabitable, and to create a breathable atmosphere on the latter.
Those are very long-term prospects, even with our apparently augmented life expectancies. The list of more immediate goals starts with developing any form of faster-than-light travel engines, as our galaxy is not a small place, and our hold over it fairly limited as it is... It is not a situation that will improve in the near future, not until a breakthrough occurs. In the meantime, I am preparing for a very long expedition to the neighboring Barnard's Star, as a proof-of-concept for the possibility to travel to distant star systems and maintain, if not faster-than-light travel, at least reliable faster-than-light communications. Of course, there's no knowing whether there are other species out there to communicate with, or how many if there are...
The resources in the Solar System will be used to supplement and replace existing production on Earth, so that more of its resources can be devoted to the development of new technologies. There is certainly plenty of space for the construction of laboratories and science complexes on our planet, and that is without taking into account all the ruins and slums which remains from the past and still need being cleared. The main difficulty we will encounter may very well lay in finding the workforce to run the research - it will come as no surprise to any of us that our demographics are pretty stagnant, considering the difficulties of the current human condition. And before anybody asks what I personally do to combat these difficulties, I'll remind them I'm past childbearing age.
Our Revered Elder insisted a lot in her acceptance speech about how much technological progress we have made compared with our 21st century, pre-disaster ancestors. The truth of the matter is "not that much". We lost a lot when we forwent the redevelopment of the advanced machinery and artificial intelligence our predecessors used, not to mention of course that a lot of their knowledge was lost when most of their computing systems were left in disuse and degraded (and don't even get me started about hacking into those which still function by some miracle). If an assessment had to be made, we are, at the start of the 23rd century, approximately where mankind should have been at the end of the 21st.
We do have some ideas about the direction to give to our research efforts, starting with better sublight engines, but there should be no miracles to read about in scientific reports for a fairly long span; and of course, there's no knowing when the higher powers will bless us with the kind of breakthrough that leads to actual faster-than-light technology.
Hopefully whoever does the report on the state of our science by the end of our Revered Elder's mandate will actually have something to report. My colleagues are optimistic, and see progress occurring within the next few years, but that's not going to help us much towards the lofty goal the Union Council has set for mankind.
The policy report will come as no surprise to the local Councils, as all there really is to say is the validation of the principles of governance for the United Remnants of Earth, as set and voted by the Assembly of Councils. Our welfare policies remain well established. It is, however, the opinion of our Revered Elder that since we are capable of building space-worthy ships of war, and as a precaution against the marginal criminal elements still roaming our planet, some military buildup should be made, at the very least just enough to fight off any corvettes stolen by adventurous types. Personally, I think it's nonsensical, as the complete absence of military ships would solve that problem and put less strain on our rather limited economy, but the Union Council voted and I must bow to their decision.
It may or may not be related with sending me on a decades-long mission towards Barnard's Star...
At least the results of my propositions regarding scientific policy and its support through taking advantage of the Solar System's resources should be visible within a decade or so. I wonder who will take the credit before the Assembly of Councils.
Well, for once I have a free week-end. This fast pace of updates is unlikely to happen again But might as well get the early years out of the way, the beginning of the game is rather slow without actual FTL.
* *
Earth Orbit, 2210; Earth Defense Force flagship EDS Crossbow
Life on Earth in 2210 was a lot nicer than it had been during Elder Kumar Poojary's childhood. Back then, the reorganization of society had still been an ongoing process; between the remaining roving and pillaging bands still operating and the mutant predators that had been left unchecked for a century, there were enough threats preying on the edges of the rebuilding human communities to justify maintaining cadres of professional fighters. And as he stood on the bridge of the human flagship, watching his seven-year-old daughter bounce enthusiastically at the sight of the armada and battle station standing watch over Earth's quiet skies, the Elder felt he was being reminded that the politically savvy and freshly reelected Josephine Dufresne had once been one of those fighters standing at the edge of civilization, in the old country where the disaster had started.
Now that her voice was the loudest in the Union Council, the Revered Elder was applying the lessons learned on the fringes to the planet she was representing, starting with "always be prepared". And somehow, she had been able to convince enough other Elders on the Union Council to authorize spending over half of their budget on building up the 15-ship-strong armada of space corvettes Kumar and his daughter were now watching, the latter with glee, the former with unease. That unease did not abandon him when the voice of his host rose from behind him.
'One of the few emotional developments that remain untouched for humans nowadays: childish enthusiasm.'
Kumar didn't turn around to face the Revered Elder. It was not considered impolite to do so; most people's instincts remained to be uncomfortable when they had to look at the deformed body of another human being, and it wasn't going to get any better. A good portion of the young adult generation felt very uncomfortable towards the generation who had sired them, as they were the ones who had truly embraced the worms. And most humans didn't know how to cope with how a third of the children born nowadays had been artificially conceived and incubated, like Kumar's own daughter had been.
'So this is the child' Elder Dufresne said, focusing her attention on the young girl.
Kumar felt queasy at that remark. That one prompted him to turn and face his interlocutor, not bothering to hide his unease. 'Why is it Kalinda is always the reason people wish to talk to me?'
'If I could chance a guess, I would say it has to do with how she was just skipping without her feet ever making contact with the bridge' the Revered Elder replied with a ghoulish smirk.
'You do realize nobody can explain how she can manage what she can manage.'
'Nor can we explain how any of the other sixteen children of the incubators who have displayed extraordinary abilities perform their small miracles. We just know it happened.'
Elder Poojary stood still, baffled. His daughter was grinning widely, showing a full mouth of uneven teeth. 'There are others like me?'
The Revered Elder nodded. 'A few.'
'Does it mean people will stop asking dada if he wants to send me to live with them?'
Another grin. 'You belong with your dada, like the other children belong with their parents. Just because you're a little be different doesn't mean you shouldn't be treated the same.'
Kumar couldn't help but think the latter sentence was really for his benefit. He cleared his throat, the sound halfway between rasp and gurgle. 'I was summoned to see you not to talk about my daughter, but for a different purpose, Revered Elder.'
'I know, Elder. But before you do, allow me to commend you for your contributions in organizing our datalinks for higher efficiency. And it is due to your tenure overseeing various research contributions that I feel you are the best positioned human to deliver a report on our progress in areas not military-related.'
'You are a bit annoyed at the lack of progress in strictly military technologies' Kumar remarked grimly.
He was rewarded by a gurgling laugh. 'It doesn't hurt to be prepared for any eventuality, but at this stage, we don't even know there might be an eventuality.'
'I know, but there are a fair few Elders who think all we will ever need are naked corvettes and the economy to support them if it ever comes to war with a hypothetical alien species.'
'I pray it never comes to that' the Revered Elder said solemnly. 'Even if initial contacts were hostile, I sincerely hope an encounter with a spacefaring civilization would result in a permanent pact of mutual protection.' Elder Dufresne smiled again. 'But to find other spacefaring species, since they aren't finding us, finally reaching the stars stays the more important goal, wouldn't you agree?'
'I would, but we aren't really close to any breakthroughs in the direction of FTL, or at least not according to the data I collated. Data you should already have seen, Revered Elder.'
'Still, I would welcome your commentary' the ghoulish woman prompted. 'Run it as if you were presenting it for commonfolk.'
'If you insist, Revered Elder.'
'As was laid out by the Union Council at the beginning of your first mandate, Revered Elder, progress has been encouraged specifically in two areas. Specifically, the improvement of our scientific ability and the implementation of practical methods of artificial procreation capable of integrating our symbiotic partners at the earliest stages of embryo development. That latter area had a few offshoots, as mapping our genome entirely was one of the necessary steps to solve our problems.' Elder Poojary's tone turned a bit biting. 'You'll be pleased to know that, among other things, this has led to improvements in the treatment and performance of the settlement guards, even if it wasn't really necessary.'
'You're leaving out the more interesting part' Elder Dufresne noted in a neutral tone, 'specifically, the fluidification of data streams in our research centers thanks to an offshoot of the recent progress in databank uplink technologies.'
'Yes, our scientific oversight services defined improved methods of data exchange thanks to the new possibilities and the accompanying protocol' Kumar replied, his tone calmer now. 'It really was a question of administrative reorganization, not one of science.'
'And yet it opened whole new venues of research' the Revered Elder replied. 'Also, I'm noting how you are being mightily quiet about how the schemes implemented were really your idea, and you had to bypass all regular channels to get them implemented.'
The man couldn't help a blush, which translated into turning an unpleasant shade of purple. 'I haven't done all that much.'
'You do lots of things all the time, dada' his daughter said pointedly, earning herself a frown.
'Kalinda.'
'She's right, Elder Poojary' the Revered Elder pointed out, 'you could do with a position which implies a good deal less traveling. Like overseeing a major sector of research from the offices in Sanctuary, as Elder in the Union Council in charge of organic and societal sciences... and as a father.'
The Elder looked at the older woman, his eyes uncomprehending. 'As a father, Revered Elder?'
Elder Dufresne nodded. 'You have shown an uncanny knack at organizing the work of researchers more efficiently. You are also the parent of one among seventeen children who have been altered in incomprehensible way by the incubators, and who has until recently been pestered by all kinds of people who seek to understand the underlying mechanics to supernatural powers - which, let us face it, is something we need to learn about if we seek to transcend our current conditions.'
'I am with you there' Elder Poojary mumbled. 'I know it has to happen. But this isn't the 21st century. Enough dangerous and heartless experimenting has been done in the past. We must be better.'
'Precisely. Wouldn't you rather research on such matters happening under the aegis of a loving father, who will place the concerns of the children first, and never succumb to the temptation to take dangerous shortcuts?'
And that was when Kumar Poojary finally understood why the Revered Elder could keep the trust of the Assembly of Councils in spite of having directed so much spending towards the acquisition of force. She had not lost the vision of the future mankind wanted for themselves after the horrors they had endured. For all her uncommon ruthlessness, Elder Dufresne believed in peace and in ascension.
Kumar took the job.
* *
Kind-of lucked out with that trait being gained on the first level-up by the first guy I assigned on a science ship to assist research, considering Psionic Ascension is where I've wanted to go from the start As to the rest of the development, mostly uneventful. Just in the right direction, with a counterperformance in energy because one of my power plants isn't functioning, its pop having 'left' for a science lab.
When she had set out for Barnard's Star, back in the year 2201, Courtney Fleming had known of the possibility that, some decades into their journey, her ship and her crew might be caught up with by another human craft equipped with functioning FTL engines. It was another thing entirely to have to halt her vessel just within scanning distance of Barnard's Star, her objective, and explain to the men and women who'd accompanied her that their entire journey had indeed been for nothing. Worse even, insult had been added to injury when the very embarrassed captain of the FTL-capable science vessel had boarded with the aging EDS Vagabond, and Courtney had realized she recognized the other woman.
Zeinab Salman had been among those young space crewfolk who had received an offer to accompany the first manned mission to a different star system, and had declined joining Elder Fleming's mission. She was now Elder Salman, tasked with her own crew on the very first FTL-capable vessel built by mankind, and just stopping to inform the woman who would have been her captain under different circumstances that another, more modern and FTL-capable Science vessel was on its way to Barnard's Star so that Courtney and her crew could take it over and continue their initial mission.
And then, a few months later, a message from Earth had arrived, celebrating the achievement of the explorer captain who had surpassed Christopher Columbus himself, and it was Zeinab Salman who was celebrated, when the most interesting discovery Courtney herself had made was the possible existence of ceramics orbiting around Barnard's Star...
Nobody paid much attention to the traces of life found by the older explorer's crew above the methanous moon of Barnard Star Ia, although it was something with far more profound significance than the discovery of actual alien life forms. Ironically, one of the few who paid attention to Courtney's reports was her old political enemy, who was now serving her third term as the Revered Elder. An entire civilization of killer machines bent on destroying all sapient organic life sounded alarming enough, but in the middle of the ongoing euphoria, there were very few who cared.
While Courtney Fleming and Josephine Dufresne were busy wondering about the ramifications of that discovery, another capital event in human history was taking place. Alpha Centauri I, as fate had whimsically decided, was another world where techologically advanced sapients had researched their way to nuclear armaments and used them to trigger a planet-wide extinction. That species, however, had been a lot more thorough than mankind. Very little was left standing to attest intelligent life forms had ever resided in Alpha Centauri, and only mutated, radiation-resilient fauna and flora akin to modern Earth's had survived.
This meant that much more delay before mankind would make their first contact with equal intelligences, but also that the extinct sapients had unwittingly provided the survivor humans with their first genuine opportunity for colonization. Preparations began on Earth to provide and train an entirely new colony's administration, and a call for volunteers was issued to man an immense and hugely expensive craft constructed specifically for the purpose of settling Alpha Centauri I.
Thankfully, the economy of Earth was more than capable of supporting such costs. The initial economic and scientific expansion had continued on, and now that Earth boasted a respectable fleet, dedicated to defending the homeworld, its authorities had accumulated stores that remained respectable even after taking out the investment for the future colony. Earth under Revered Elder Dufresne had prospered into a respectable local power, stronger than its fragmented nations ever had been. There was no knowing yet whether Earth represented power of any significance on the galactic scale, but now that mankind actually could travel the stars, it would be found out.
With the advent of faster-than-light travel, the Union Council also voted a resolution deciding to formally lay claim over the neighboring systems in the name of the United Remnants of Earth. This included Barnard's Star, which Courtney Fleming had the consolation of being legitimate in calling the first completely explored stellar system outside of Sol's, although it was nowhere near as rich a prize.
With a solid economy, and with scientific advances having taken the form of regular leaps and bounds over the preceding fifteen years, mankind found themselves in a comfortable position to take on the challenge of becoming an interstellar power, which it was estimated to become by the year 2235...
* *
And now that the RNG troll job is over, will try and start actual exploration (actual Stellaris? ) tomorrow!
stnylan, about that ravaged world thing, well... Kinda wish there was more ravage in the galaxy
* *
A view of the first human colony, New Haven, in the Alpha Centauri system. The first signs of human habitation are already visible from space.
From the memory pool of Elder Kumar Poojary
I've been reminiscing a good deal over the past couple of weeks. There is little else to do during interstellar travel. It's not a matter of decades, like it would have been just five years ago, but the space traveler has to accept the notion of staying confined within the cramped halls and rooms of a ship for months on end. The journey to visit our fresh colony in Alpha Centauri took five months, and the trip back to Earth is going to be just as long, nearly equally split between sublight travel and faster-than-light travel. Captain Baumann expects us to leave Alpha Centauri's gravity well by the end of next week, at which point it will be possible to engage the calculations for the pathway our warp-distortion engines will take us through without our scanners being interfered with by the local gravitation fields.
That journey is going to be another hard one for Kalinda...
Sometimes one has to laugh at the irony of sentences uttered decades in the past. I remember the Revered Elder's remark about Kalinda's untouched childish enthusiasm. It has very much stayed untouched: like the couple of hundred others of our species who had the misfortune of having their psyches altered by the incubation process, my daughter is a perpetual child. Not unlike how most of those of us who have become symbiotes hardly ever seem to change.
On my way to the spaceport, I chanced upon the oldest of our Council. Courtney Fleming is easy to recognize, you just have to watch for signs of temper, and she was in a towering one after her battered exploration vessel had docked, fresh from escaping an encounter with reactivated combat drones while she was investigating signs of some ancient form of mechanical life she calls Cybrex. What struck me was how vigorous and spry she was for a 75-year-old woman. Courtney is just as energetic as men half her age, and she's showing no signs of slowing down. She also looks almost exactly like her three decades younger pictures from her investiture in the Union Council. Of course, "age has been kind to you" wouldn't be much of a flattery attempt, considering what we humans have come to look like...
Man is very much unchanged, but the same cannot be said of our horizons. Only five years ago, we had no functional faster-than-light engines other than dangerous prototypes, no survey knowledge of any other star system, no evidence of any trace of any extraterrestrial lifeforms - sapient or otherwise, and of course no established presence outside of the solar system. How things have changed, in so little time...
Mankind's knowledge of the stars, nearly five years after the development of the Warp engine.
Courtney would hate to admit it, but the deciding factor in convincing enough men and women to venture beyond the Earth did not come as a result of Zeinab Salman's glowing reports about extraterrestrial life - it came as a consequence of her locating the trace of ceramics orbiting around Barnard's Star. Elder O'Malley mounted an expedition to investigate this most peculiar occurrence, and with patience, his team actually managed to take close-up photographs of an ancient vase, floating in the stars.
This incontrovertible proof of another higher intelligence existing in the universe started a wave of enthusiasm of unexpected proportions considering it's, well, pottery circling a sun, but life works in strange ways. There are certainly many who push this entirely random find as incontrovertible proof of an intelligent design, to push us towards settling new worlds. Whatever the reasons, we are there, with a colony firmly established in Alpha Centauri, and slowly making its way towards self-sustainment.
Elder Salman's name regained some lustre while the colony was being established. Her findings in the Ythin system were also of profound significance: the proof of existence of other sapient lifeforms, on a world we've labelled as Gruk'kamy, after one of the soundbites captured from the chirping speech of one of creatures that seem to call themselves Mondovaak. A species who seem evidently much more suited to spacefaring than we are...
EX-TER-MINATE! (or not...)
Unfortunately, this species also seem to be engaged on a path to commit the exact mistakes we did. Just like our ancient societies, theirs are organized vertically, their populations exhibit severe mistrust of strangers, and they regard material pursuits as self-justificatory. Hopefully the first spacefaring species mankind come into contact with will prove to be more reasonable... If they don't, there have already been discussions in council about implementing containment measures to deny potential aggressors colonization opportunities, of which there seem to be plenty...
In addition to Gruk'kamy, our already settled colony in New Haven, and the two terraforming candidates close to Earth, we have found a further five conventional habitable planets of various sizes, another barren terraforming candidate, and three very-low-temperature moons playing host to lifeforms constructed around liquid methane or ammonia as a solvent, instead of water, like seems to be the more common occurrence (1/2/6, though of course these figures aren't large enough to be statistically significant).
None of them are remotely favorable environments for our species. Considerable efforts will have to be undertaken if we ever want to set foot on one such world. Ironically, perhaps this means we will have to change again at some point in our future. We would possibly be more than capable of defending them, considering the outrageous expenses our Revered Elder used the discovery of hostile ancient drones to justify...
According to Elder Yuan Zhang, who conducted the mop-up operation, the new, FTL-capable design performs admirably. I still cannot help but wish the Revered Elder had realized all that was really necessary was equip four or five of our corvettes, rather than waste resources that could have been used on further development and send the entire fleet in what amounted to a glorified maneuvering exercise. The last thing we need as a species is remind ourselves we are war-capable, especially when we are poised to decide what approach we should be taking with regards to a different, technologically less advanced species.
Should we gift them with the technologies needed to ascend to spacefaring capability, or keep them for ourselves? Mold their society until it takes a less dangerous path, or leave it untouched? And should we even seek to interact with the Mondovaak at all? Would it not be more humane to observe them from afar and let them develop in whichever direction fate has assigned for them?
I have four months left to ponder on that question, before I attend the Union Council where it will be brought up, once mankind has decided whom to elect as their next guide and Revered Elder. There aren't too many who doubt of the answer...
* *
Stats and tech for 2230:
... 120 years left before the first crisis check roll...
The first spacefarers mankind made contact with: numerous, belligerent... and starbound. At long last, the long-awaited first contact with another spacefaring species had come for mankind. In November of 2234, the exploration mission led by Courtney Fleming signaled they had entered an inhabited star system, as evidenced by the flurry of activity their arrival engendered on the side across from the local red dwarf. A veritable armada had been sitting there, standing careful watch over a world teeming with life. The Arbiter's medium-range sensors and communications arrays were promptly activated, in order to assess whether these alien ships represented an immediate threat to the exploring crew, and to intercept enough communications for an attempt at deciphering the language in which the aliens were communicating. The first findings were familiar to Elder Fleming: just like her own vessel not ten years before, these strange spacefaring species had yet to develop any actual faster-than-light drives. Their largest ship of war, however, was considerably bigger than any the United Remnants had been capable of constructing, and on-par with the Sniper-class corvettes in terms of armament.
Elder Fleming's teams succeeded in deciphering the first communications in a little over seven weeks, and finally, a holographic projection of the Revered Elder was relayed on one of the alien screens to initiate dialogue and, hopefully, friendship with the Republic of Tunnel to the Stars.
The initial contact was, all things considered, less unfriendly than the Reverend Elder had expected. For over a century humans had learned not to look at themselves in the mirror, repulsed as they were by their own mutated and deformed appearances, but it appeared immediately the reptilian Bronbholan cared very little about the ghoulish characteristics of Earth's most prominent personality. What they were very clear about was not wanting anyone to interfere with their civilization. Their basic messsage was "leave us alone". But Josephine Dufresne had not been reelected as leader of the Union Council three times in a row for nothing. Her diplomatic masterstroke came through a response agreeing that mankind's fellow star travelers should indeed be left alone to prosper and develop while continuing adherence to their soldierly ways, and that human arms would protect the Republic for the time it would take the Bronbholan to develop their own methods of traveling to other stars, should any faster-than-light threat happen upon the reptilian species. That response left the Commissary handling the contact on the Republic's side surprised and perplexed. What was supposed to be a brief, to the point communication warning humanity to leave the Bronbholan alone on pain of severe consequences ended up as an invitation for Elder Fleming's craft to dock at Bronbhobha's spaceport for an ambassadorial meeting with Senate representatives. The proposed meeting did end up occurring six weeks later, in the presence of the Commissary-General, who met with a Courtney Fleming armed with plenipotentiary powers and a mandate from the Union Council. In fine, what had begun as a less-than-warm contact resulted in the signing of extensive diplomatic accords involving a non-aggression pact between the two spacefaring entities, agreements for scientific cooperation, mutual sensor-link exchanges, and a one-off payment by the Republic to the scientific departments of the United Remnants. The result of the negotiations was hailed with great cheers everywhere on Earth and on New Haven. The first official diplomatic contacts between Humanity and an alien government ended up in a rousing success, and the Revered Elder in particular was given great praise, which joined a rising heap. Josephine Dufresne was the leader who had, over three and a half decades, guided her fellow humans from a tentative and frail, starbound coalition to a prosperous and harmonious stellar empire who could boast moral, technological, and potential military superiority over all the sapient lifeforms who resided in their galactic sector. And the muffled talk about the pointlessness of the 2230 elections surfaced and grew quietly and increasingly louder, and people began to openly suggest that perhaps, so deserving and efficient a leader should be offered to retain her position as Revered Elder for the duration of her lifetime...
For life could possibly span the entire game. At this point the base life expectancy for my leaders is 177 (72 base + 85 racial + 20 harmony), that's more than long enough for a very long term of rule. I even used to have a resilient leader, but she slipped on the baseline 1% anomaly critical failure chance...
* *
Elder Dikotsi Onobanjo was a patient man. He was also a pious man, and one of a few who genuinely thought Revered Elder Dufresne's rule had been one disrespectful of the higher powers, and that Earth's long-tenured ruler would ultimately lead mankind in a disastrous direction if she was allowed to stay at the helm much longer.
Most importantly, Dikotsi Onobanjo was aware of the disgruntlement among those humans who thought it had been sinful to start colonizing and exploiting Alpha Centauri I, a world serving as the tomb of a species that, to this day, only were known for the skeletal remains found it what had to have been the last refuge of their people. A tomb whose doors had been forced open on the orders of the Revered Elder in the name of the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, desecrating the final resting place of the first sapient alien species whose existence humanity had ascertained. It was one of two blemishes on the Revered Elder's long rule, the other being her ceaseless investments in the military, and as the overseer of the Engineering divisions, Elder Onobanjo knew better than anybody else just how far the Revered Elder's military designs went.
And absent any kind of foreseeable threat, what with the only other significant power known, the Republic of Tunnel to the Stars, having agreed a non-aggression pledge and growing increasingly warmer towards the United Remnants, there were many who thought humanity had very little need for armaments, and would be able to forsake them entirely once more if their militarily-inclined neighbors could be persuaded to take over the defense of Earth and of its colony.
Elder Onobanjo himself was a firm proponent of the notion. He also felt the large scientific and monetary investments made under Josephine Dufresne should have gone towards developing and mastering terraformation technologies and means of ensuring the viability of settling the wealth of planets which would have been fit for human habitation - for humans who had existed before the disaster and the symbiosis.
His design for mankind was one where the Branbholans would take charge of protecting a commonality formed with humanity from outside threats, while the humans would expand and grow ever more prosperous, attracting ever more species into their orbit. They would elevate the Mondovaak and any other primitive species they might encounter, convince any other spacefaring species they had everything to gain from peace with humanity, and eventually mankind, as the most enlightened of species, would find their path to securing a quiet domination of a pacified galaxy abiding by the human ways.
Someone else had once shared similar designs with Elder Onobanjo, although she had not taken them to their ultimate conclusion. Elder Courtney Fleming had also balked at the investments pushed by the Revered Elder into armaments and had believed in a more peaceful way. She had not quite understood humanity's moral, economic and scientific superiority were enough to convince any would-be attackers to rethink their posture, and had reluctantly agreed that Dufresne talking to the Commissary-General as a soldier to a soldier had considerably helped secure the solid friendship the United Remnants now enjoyed with the Republic of Tunnel to the Stars, but those opinions had been kept private and there was no material Elder Onobanjo was aware of that could have been used to undermine his claims of sharing the thoughts of one of humanity's greatest explorers.
Not even Courtney Fleming herself; the Eldest of Elders had died, at the respectable age of 86. Not death of old age, she had still been remarkably spry and healthy, even compared with other mutated humans of her age, but death by accident. The longest tenured of Earth's explorers had died due to a miscalculation by a rookie member of EDS Arbiter's crew. The more distrustful workers in the scientific departments speculated Fleming's bitter rival, Zeinab Salman, had arranged for the incompetent's transfer on board the Arbiter. Elder Onobanjo didn't believe that for a minute, but it helped improve the late Fleming's image in some small way, as well as diminished Elder Salman's credit. Both were positives in Onobanjo's book.
The only other serious challenger to Elder Onobanjo's aims and the Revered Elder's rule had been the Home Office overseer, Elder Giovanna Garibaldi, who had managed to gather some measure of momentum behind her in 2235, during the debates regarding the stance mankind should take regarding the Mondovaak. Garibaldi and her supporters had advocated for a strict non-interference policy, a position that had become untenable when another Elder wisely pointed out only a hateful being would wish to let others walk a path leading to the kind of disastrous fate mankind itself had very nearly met and not entirely escaped, seeing as how they bore the consequences engraved in their very flesh nearly two centuries later.
Yes, everything was falling in place quite nicely, and now the talk about prolonging the Revered Elder's mandate indefinitely had quietly died down as a result of her renewed military expenses, all that was left to do was wait for the election which would take place on New Year's day in 2241. That day was slowly coming nearer.
And Elder Onobanjo was a patient man.
* *
And this decade's stats. Quietly progressing, but I really need some Habitability boosts before long.
It probably has already seriously damaged me ^^ I do enjoy a position where threats are pretty much absent, meaning I can do without spending much on the military without immediate adverse consequences, so I'm sitting on a stockpile for when I can afford a "colonial explosion." There are a few options, like things to upraise and integrate, or things to uplift - and I'm actually short only another 3% habitability for the "humans" at this point.
I'm a bit sad, though. Can't upraise Fanatical Purifiers anymore That used to be fun!
* *
From the memory pool of Kumar Poojary
A side-effect of our considerably lengthened lifespans is the gradual lowering of the frequency at which one can be surprised by the turning of events. Yes, this is an admission to becoming a bit jaded, and odds are I probably will keep getting worse with time - that is, if life runs out of curveballs to throw at me. Admittedly, in the past eight years, there have been quite a few, the latest of which was finding my daughter pacing in the living room, deeply engaged in conversation with none other than a seated Josephine Dufresne. And I'll admit I felt a bit ashamed at not having anticipated the woman's coming. And of course, my daughter managed to read the emotion.
'Don't, father' she chided me, waving a gnarled finger. 'You spend enough time complaining about rarely getting the chance of going anywhere incognito. You shouldn't begrudge Miss Dufresne the chance.'
I couldn't help a stammer. 'R-revered Elder.'
The woman shook her head and smiled that patented ghoulish smile of hers. 'Miss Dufresne or Josephine. We both know the title amounts to meaningless honorifics.'
'Still, I apologize for not making more of an effort at preparing for your visit' I replied, doing my best to ignore Kalinda's disapproving stare. 'You may no longer be in charge of guiding us, but your tenure did earn you more respect than I have showed to such an illustrious visitor.'
That amused the woman. 'And I would have been a bit disappointed had you been the one I came to visit.'
Judging by the burning of my cheeks, I must have turned an unpleasant shade of purple. 'Oh.'
'Miss Dufresne is a nicer woman than you ever gave her credit for' my daughter admonished me, before addressing me a smile. 'Still, since you're there, you should get yourself a drink and join us, father. You complain enough as it is about our Revered Elder, might as well do that in the presence of a willing party, for a change. And you're worried enough that I don't think my own words could comfort you.'
As I poured myself a glass of strong brandy, I couldn't help but ponder, as I often do these days, about just how much my daughter had changed in the past couple of months. It was surprisingly hard to adapt to the notion that a child who had depended on you for 44 years had turned into a full-grown adult - an uneducated one, but a self-responsible person nonetheless. The same had happened to many parents when their psionically gifted children had been treated with the retrovirus that inhibited just enough of the worms' biology to stop their drain on a psionic host's mental capabilities. This revolutionary finding, and the discovery at the onset of the decade of the exact process in the incubators which resulted into psi-embryos, had just opened a wholly new prospect of psionic ascension for humanity.
That had been the source of heated debates in the Union council. Nowadays, the lines were drawn between two distinct parties. Revered Elder Onobanjo's religious conservatives were the proponents of a "human transcendence first" line. They held nine of the eighteen seats, just shy of actual majority, while another five seats were held by Elders defending a xenophile outreach agenda - essentially, their line was "let's first ask what we can do for others; once their needs have been satisfied, we'll see what we can do for ourselves." The remaining four of us were aligned with neither party, although there was almost invariably one of us supporting the religious conservatives whenever issues came to a vote. On this one, though, the four of us were staying on the fence. It was too important a decision to make without considering all the ramifications.
Idly, I wondered about what the former Revered Elder would have thought the conundrum we now had to face.
‘She’s sitting right there, you know’ Kalinda said, startling me. I nearly dropped my glass. ‘Seriously, father.’
Elder Dufresne chortled. ‘Yours must be an interesting life, spent with a daughter who knows what your thoughts are turned upon at all times.’
‘I sometimes wish she didn’t’ I grumbled as I started to clean up the spilt brandy.
‘Believe me, so do I’ my daughter said tartly.
‘Don’t you think a world where all daughters knew what their fathers are thinking about would be a better place?’ the Elder asked her playfully, prompting a giggle from my daughter, quickly replaced by a look of shock.
‘How did you know what father has been thinking about?’
‘You don’t necessarily need to be a psionic to read people you know, when you have some clue about their concerns’ the damnable woman explained with that ghoulish smile of hers. Kalinda pondered over that, but did not offer a verbal response.
‘Alright’ I groused as I sat down, glass in hand. ‘So? What do you think?’
‘Do you know why the Commissary General reacted so favorably to our initial approach of the Republic of Tunnel to the Stars?’
‘I do’, I grumbled.
‘It was possible to pull the same trick with our new neighbors because they saw us at the very least as equals, thanks to our already existing military accords. But the galaxy is immense, and just in a fifth of one of its arms we’ve already made contact with another two spacefaring species who reached the stars about the same time as we did; that in addition to another, passionately xenophobic sapient species that has progressed to a level akin to our Renaissance, and a pre-sapient species that has just begun experimenting with live fire.'
We only wish to be not-friends!
'Your point being?' I grumbled, thinking I already knew where this discussion was headed.
'Have you paid attention to the reports about the Cybrex research expeditions?'
'Yes, but that was six hundred thousand years ago' I said dismissively. 'Their rampage through this sector of the galaxy has long-since ended.'
'And what were we six hundred thousand years ago, if not a pre-sapient species that had just begun experimenting with live fire?' My interlocutor was growing passionate. 'We owe our survival to pure luck - specifically, luck that several species far more advanced and powerful than we ever were sacrificed themselves to stall the Cybrex until they finally grew bored of exterminating every sapient they encountered! What exactly would you expect us to do if such a threat came knocking at our metaphorical doors? Just ask them nicely to please not kill us?'
'Violence is never the right answer' I replied, but my voice sounded hollow, and the three of us knew it.
'Nice words and a gift or two are not going to stop a tidal wave of we're-gonna-kill you-bots' the Elder said harshly. 'This is why I insisted that we at least funded the research of a number of military projects and pushed for the expansion of our fleet capacity. We know enough of the space around us to at least have some advance warning and start producing from already tested designs. But aside from the last ongoing project under my tenure, fleet research has entirely stopped since Onobanjo got the top job, and not a single credit has gone towards improving or expanding our fleets and starports. On the contrary, you people found nothing better to do than reduce our operational response capabilities by nearly half!'
'Ships are expensive to maintain and supply, even when they don't maneuver' I retorted with some bite. 'The savings in upkeep costs have allowed to finance a considerable expansion of our interstellar mining and research operations. That would have been untenable had we had to keep spending more and more on space forces we don't need now we're about to have a defensive pledge with another faster-than-light able civilization.'
When you can't colonize and there's lots of empty space around you, build frontier outposts!
It was my own daughter who countered my argument. 'That's not enough, father' she said quietly. 'That's nowhere close to enough.'
'Our soon-to-be allies, the Torjini, are capable of mounting a response four times stronger than ours, and once they finish their FTL research, our Bronbholan allies will immediately be able to muster twice our strength.'
'Yes, and trusting one's rich and disarmed nation's fate to two heavily militarized species with hegemonic ambitions has always ended well' my interlocutor replied sarcastically.
The eastern neighbors: more numerous and more belligerent.
'None of that matters!' my daughter bellowed, taking the both of us aback.
'Kalinda?' I asked with concerned.
'Father, the Revered Elder is right' she told me urgently. 'Even if we have strong friends on our side, it will not be enough.'
'How would you know?' I asked with bafflement, and really, with all of her two months as an educated adult, how could her understanding of such matters surpass that of people with nearly half a century of experience?
'I have foreseen it.'
That was how.
I couldn't help but stare in shock at Kalinda. 'You- you foresaw?'
'Our end' she replied, her voice quivering. 'I've seen it in my dreams ever since I was a child, many times. Something coldhearted and dark lurks beyond, and when it emerges, fire will be coming. The endless flames, burning to consume us all.'
'When?' I couldn't help but ask.
Kalinda shook her head. 'I don't know. Not during your lifetime.' Her voice grew firmer. 'But I will live to see it happen.'
I will admit I did not want to believe my daughter. I still don't. But Josephine Dufresne did.
'Message me everything you remember from your visions' she demanded, and Kalinda nodded in agreement. 'I will investigate whether any other psionics have had similar dreams, and bring the matter to the attention of the Revered Elder.'
My daughter's reply was made in a sad voice. 'I will do it. Something has to happen if we are going to escape oblivion, and nothing will happen if no-one says a thing.'
That was the last time I saw Josephine Dufresne alive and conscious. When next I heard of her, it was from a live holoreport airing from the Council offices, stating our first Revered Elder was suspended between life and death after a brutal stroke in the middle of a conversation with her successor. She had suffered terrible brain damage, and her medical condition was already beyond our medical knowledge by the time assistance arrived on the scene. She now resides in suspended animation in what is, for all intents and purposes, a public mausoleum at the entrance of the Central Council compounds, where every human can come and pay their respect to the woman who led our kind across the stars.
My daughter did not attend the inaugural ceremonies. A week before Elder Dufresne's stroke, Kalinda abruptly informed me she was leaving our house and boarding the next transport convoy to New Haven. She was already packed and ready to go.
Hopefully she can afford to send me a message from her new home before long.
stnylan, Ominous? What a slanderous notion! All you're seeing is peace and harmony preserved! (And explaining away the disappearance of the original leader because Stellaris doesn't keep them around )
Machiavellian, thanks! And you are correct, that "premonition" is basically knowing something bad is inevitably going to happen in a game of Stellaris. The save file is currently in 2261.
* *
Since its installation in the entrance to the Central Council compounds over a decade ago, the suspended animation pod housing the body of the first Revered Elder had attracted a large number of visitors from Earth and a good few more among those who could afford the pilgrimage from New Haven, come to see the “great woman”. A fair number of those who made the pilgrimage expressed their confidence that one day the woman who’d led mankind to the stars could be healed. His successor had other ideas; Dikotsi Onobanjo liked his predecessor in the exact condition she was in, and had no intention of ever permitting that she be woken up. The woman had ultimately proven herself to be a scaremonger, referencing the vision of one psychic along with remains of a warmonger species from hundreds of thousands of years ago to proclaim mankind needed to arm itself against dire threats that had never materialized in the slightest.
Since then, humanity had come to learn for certain that arming themselves, even to the maximum of their abilities, was futile. On their way to the fabled Cybrex homeworld, the expedition led by Elder Nathan O'Malley had been hailed by a vastly more ancient species, one who held unbelievably advanced knowledge and lined up ships of such advanced designs the smallest of them had more firepower than all of the human fleet combined. Attempting to catch up with them militarily would have made about as much sense as Vatican City launching itself on an arms race for world conquest in 2000.
So the Revered Elder had ordered Elder O'Malley to finish with his expedition and scan the remains of the Cybrex Ringworld, followed that by designating the place as a holy site which humans were forbidden from ever disturbing, and had pushed through legislation that permanently set the size and armaments of Union fleets and patrols, with a provision for each system getting its patrol to discourage pirates from other species.
Mankind had other concerns these days anyway; one in particular involved massive investments and the entire species, a consequence of a final breakthrough by the teams under the unreliable Elder Poojary, permitting the modification of all humans to develop psionic potential as a result of remarkably simple and inexpensive gene therapy. The retroviral agents had just gone into mass production, with a timetable for universal delivery to every living member of mankind set to the end of 2261, only a couple of years hence.
Every living member of mankind save for one, Onobanjo mused with a faint smile as he looked at the unmoving form of his predecessor. Soon, you will be the last human left alive from the original strain, my dear Josephine. The man permitted himself a quiet chuckle. The last of a breed of paranoid, xenophobic old fools who never understood that the only viable way forward lay in trusting our defense to other treaty parties and invest all our efforts towards our own development. Mankind progressed more in twenty years under me than they did in forty years under you because I never wasted a taxpayer's credit more than was politically necessary to keep my seat.
We keep adding friends to our spacebook!
The only annoyance on that road was the reluctance of the Remnants' allies to further cement the relationship into a full-fledged federation - a reluctance that had largely got to do with the backwards diplomatic attitudes of the less-advanced neighbors of mankind and their unwillingness to forgo wars of aggression entirely. Words will win in the end, if it takes me another century, Onobanjo thought. It will not be long now until our kin offer me what was almost foolishly wasted on someone with your backwards attitude, and unlike you, I won't let the chance slip from my grasp.
The Revered Elder stood straight, eyes fixed upon the unseeing ones of his predecessor. 'I was always going to be the one to guide humanity into its golden ear, not you. And one day, even your usefulness as a symbol will come to an end, and nobody will notice your removal and your final end, while I will watch over this galaxy forever.'
All that was required was patience. And Dikotsi Onobanjo was a patient man...
* *
Stats are looking a little bit better. Still lacking the last 3% habitability
And research going a little faster means its list gets a little longer...
I’m going to be late for the Council meeting. I hate being late, but someone else was, they know who they are, and it’s really their fault. How the boss dealt with all those ROMcard pushers and stayed sane I can’t fathom. Well, former boss. I’m the boss now, and girl, do many of my underlings hate that. I even know why, the boss’ boss - the boss, now, I guess - pointed out I’ve got people working in the Organic and Societal departments under me who are nearly three times my age. Don’t like being ordered around by the kid. Well, I’m not a kid. I’m 44. I’m a big girl. An Elder, even, and I guess that’s something else that tends to stick into some craws that shall remain nameless. I think.
Still, kinda miss the boss. Well, former boss. Good guy, kind, patient. Cute bum, too, wouldn’t have minded having a- erherm, not relevant. Plus, he’s got a daughter who’s nearly twice my age. Cutest little grown-up girl – at least until, well, she grew up. If I hadn’t been bleeding late, would have asked if he’s got any news about her yet – she’s been missing for twelve years or so, ever since she went A-crazy. The boss – my current boss, not the former boss – said she’d gone all doomsayer on his former boss. That’s silly. No doom to be seen around, no sirrees. Everybody likes us.
Except the guys at the galactic south’s end, the really advanced ones right next to the ruined Cybrex ringworld. Those guys are jerks. They’re currently pissed off with us because we refused to pawn a Honored Elder off on them. They wanted the Great Explorer, of all people – even had the nerve to come straight to Earth, right as they pleased, and demand she let herself teleported from five thousand light years away or so. Sorry boys, we need our Great Explorer. Plenty more of the galaxy left to explore, and even with three full-time exploration crews running constantly, that’s gonna take a while. On the plus side, that means we’re going to meet lots more friends.
Everybody likes us!
Hey, speaking of friends, we’ve found some really fun ones. There’s those Tulkoid Artistes, but at the office we call them Blorg – that’s because when we got the first images of them and showed them around one of the folks at the open space went all Blorg on his workspace. Didn’t blame him, those guys are ugly. And yeah, I know, we’re the ones to talk.
No, game, quit BSing me, that's a Blorg.
Where was I? Oh yeah, friends. Lots of friends. There’s even a lot of funny robots. A lot of funny robots. A scary lot of scary funny robots. Like, could-totally-finish-squashing-our-faces robots. Except they won't. They like us. Everybody likes us.
Still running la~a~ate! Big, important news to catch. Lots of news. We've got lots of planets now, so we get lots of news. We make lots of things. We're really an interstellar empire now. So the boss says we've got to change our name. I think we're going to be the United Worlds of Mankind, that's a mouthful. We're even going to keep taking more worlds, I think the boss wants us to have nine of them by the end of next decade - that's plenty of worlds.
We can have plenty of worlds. We're rich. We're prosperous. We're numerous. We're humans. And we're not going to kick your ass, because that's just silly.
Oh, hi, Boss Onobanjo! I'm not too late, aren't I?
Yeah, finally being able to begin to expand is nice ^^ Still going to be a while until said planets are as productive as the first two, growth with the kind of penalties I took on 22% habitability worlds is no party xD At least I'm getting close to megastructures. Just need to decide whether I want to save the third pick for habitats and roll the dice for Megaengineering, or just go Master Builders. Since science is solid, I've begun to ramp up the Unity; should have access to the 4th pick by 2310, and I'll likely use that for Galactic Wonders.
* *
The Itebazohr Outpost, at the farthest fringe of Human controlled space.
The hooded figure wove her way inside the cantina without being paid attention to by most of the patrons. Hiding one's face was common happenstance here, at the end of human controlled space. While it technically lay inside United Worlds territory, Itebazohr Outpost, which served as an entryway for trade and doubled as the collection point for a world's worth of resources, was one of the hottest beds for smuggling and crime, two instincts that had not quite been removed from mankind as the species was slowly being made to evolve towards higher forms.
Normally, the residents and customers at Itebazohr cared very little for politics. This particular time around, however, they had a reason to pay attention to how the debates surrounding the election of the Revered Elder would go: for over a decade now, the long-distance sensors of the detection station built near the outpost had spotted the approach of a hostile STL force slowly heading in the system's direction, and the sensors were capable of producing an estimate of the magnitude of the hostiles' strength. It numbered twelve ships, just like the Human Defense Force did, but the hostiles' designs severely outclassed the ancient Sniper-class corvettes, all of which had been built more than seventy years earlier, and had only seen their equipment updated once, to standards that were already seriously behind technologically fifty years in the past.
When a small pirate fleet can kick your ass in 2280, you're doing it wrong.
Itebazohr cared because they would be first in the line of fire, and the small, modified civilian craft used by smugglers would in no case be a match for the approaching assailants. Itebazohr's safety depended on the state's military, and the incumbent Revered Elder had no intention to invest the beginning of a credit towards building up a force matching the approaching squadron. On the contrary, he'd given assurances that mankind's allies would intervene by virtue of their defensive accords with the United Worlds if negotiations failed, and ventured that it wouldn't be too complicated to placate whoever commanded the squadron of approaching ships anyway: fifty-seven years of space exploration had brought mankind in contact with a variety of sapients, even inorganic ones, and all of them had proven capable of listening to reason.
Most of mankind agreed. Living safely on their planets, far from Itebazohr and any moving threat the vast array of sensors of the United Worlds could detect, humans cared little for investment of any sort into the military. None of the four sector-spanning political parties was really interested in building up naval strength, and none of the other three parties were as large and influential as the incumbent's Conservatives. Still, human politics were more dynamic than they'd been in the past couple of hundred years.
This year's election of the Revered Elder had higher stakes than usual. Up until then, the Revered Elder had been elected by the Assembly of Elders, themselves representatives of their various communities' elected officials. The Conservatives had held more than half of the seats in the Assembly ever since their foundation in 2238, which had all but ensured landslide victories for the party leader, Dikotsi Onobanjo, in four consecutive elections, matching Onobanjo's term of rule with his only predecessor's.
The hooded woman sighed. She wished her old acquaintance had still been guiding the destinies of her fellow humans, but that would never happened. She'd snuck inside the Council's primary compound one night to try and make contact with the comatose woman's spirit, only to find there was nothing left to contact. Whatever had attacked Josephine Dufresne's brain had turned it into mush. And the human woman had understood then that something had gone foul with regards to the great woman's downfall. A human's brain still left a distinct imprint even when impaired by a stroke, but in Dufresne's case, there was nothing at all to reach towards. Not even fragments of a stilled consciousness.
Another sigh, as the woman retreated into an alcove within view of the holographic representation of the theater where a debate was about to start airing. Onobanjo was already there, the woman noted with distaste - more than probably a result of a trick played on his opponent that day to wrong-foot the far less experienced politician. And Onobanjo rather needed to regain some political capital.
It had all started when the Revered Elder had suggested that the next election to his seat be postponed by a decade or so. it was a transparent ploy to try and avoid the consequences of the very rule he'd pushed four decades earlier, at the start of his first term, forbidding any single person from being elected by the Union Council as Revered Elder for more than four terms - a way to end any hope for Josephine Dufresne to get another chance at an election against him when he'd be the one worn by the discontent that almost invariably surfaced against an incumbent, by simple virtue of them holding power. That first win had not been a landslide, and Onobanjo owed it largely to a then-bitter Giovanna Garibaldi asking her own supporters to vote against the incumbent. The appeal had swayed just enough Elders to secure the narrow victory.
Now Onobanjo's own instrument had been turned against him, and when he saw the Union Council preferred to listen to his arguments four decades earlier rather than listen to him in the present, the Revered Elder had decided to put his mandate in the hands of a universal election. Few in the Union Council doubted that Onobanjo expected another landslide victory, his party being by far the majority party, that would legitimate his rule by virtue of popular vote and permit him to hang onto power indefinitely... and possibly suspend elections from happening again at all, if he played his chips right.
... which he didn't. In his drive to cement his position permanently, the Revered Elder had forgotten that his predecessor had never asked to hold her seat for life, but others were pushing the idea for her. And Elder Dufresne had resisted the notion, where Elder Onobanjo all but demanded that the electorate make it happen. A large chunk of his own electors had deserted him in the first-round election as a result, and what should have been a comfortable victory had now turned in a race from behind. Onobanjo had placed second, his score two percent shy of, of all people, the unassuming Kumar Poojary's.
I'd love to get that +10% Unity trait, and neither Space Miner nor Charismatic do anything for me at this point...
Alas, right now, Elder Poojary was late to a confrontation that disadvantaged him to begin with, and the two journalists who were officiating, both of them Conservative stalwarts, were making a show of the Councillor-without-portfolio's no-show. And the itebazohr crowd hated seeing that happen. They were watching Onobanjo getting re-elected by default right in front of their eyes, as few of those people living in the comfort of their planets would vote for a ruler who couldn't keep his most important appointments.
For her part, however, the hooded woman was feeling relieved. The Revered Elder's predecessor had, for all intents and purposes, been murdered under her successor's very eyes, and there was a hefty bounty on the woman's own head just because she'd spoken her mind about what she felt would one day happen to mankind. The price Kumar Poojary was now paying for standing in Dikotsi Onobanjo's way "merely" was public humiliation. And his fugitive daughter, hidden in anonymity in the farthest reaches a human could go from Earth, was at least relieved to know that her father would live to fight another day...
* *
I'd love a useful ruler, for a change At least growth continues. And I'm currently sitting on 29K minerals, since there are hardly any fleet expenses to speak of.
I know, there's a military tech in there, but Deep Space Installations is a prerequisite for Voidborne x)
Observations on registered vermin type #E4, designation: Humans
Biology: The human scum come from water-based mammalian stock. Natural reproduction mode is sexual and viviparous, but procreation seldom occurs naturally, as this type of vermin can barely stand the intimacy of another member of the species. Instead, these stains on the galaxy’s purity multiply via incubators, through a process of genetic recombination. Early-stage embryos are actually infected with parasitic worms omnipresent in this form of vermin.
Humans stand on average at a height of 1,65 meters, with the male slightly taller than the female. Both genders are often stooped and/or suffering from mismatched articulations. The vermin’s mode of locomotion is bipedal, and most individuals have two arms, though the presence of one, three or four isn’t unheard of. Skin is squishy and often oozes, colored in a range from angry red to dark blue, which can be altered through blood influx or reflux. Circulatory systems centralized on one heart; body temperature management is endothermic. One nose with one, two or three nostrils; six to ten eyes; two overlarge ears. Brain capacity of about 1350 cubic centimeters.
WARNING: species exhibit a mild range of paranormal abilities, minor in scope in 99% of individuals, dangerous in 1% of them. Origin of abilities registered as byproduct of parasitic symbiosis, retrovirally treated.
Government: The filthy humans present their political system as a dangerously democratic one, though in practice it’s barely more tolerable, its nature being oligarchic as the result of domination of one of their horrendous political parties, commonly known as "Tories". Local communities elect a college of representatives proportionate to their population. Elected officials congregate in electoral assemblies, aggregating to roughly equivalent representation by population units. Electoral assemblies choose an Elder among them and send them to a central Assembly of Elders.
Executive head of state is the suppurating fleshbag "Dikotsi Onobanjo", party head of the "Tories", holding the position designated as "Revered Elder". Mock election process is run to re-legitimize the "Revered Elder" on an irregular basis; last one run in 2297. Observation of the process leads to conclusion the damnable human parasites are irredeemably corrupt.
Spoiler: the winner is the guy who counts the votes.
Suggestion: Leave their idiot boss in charge and purge them.
Spread: Infestation concerns 11 inhabited worlds across 8 star systems. Exploited territory encompasses over 40 registered star systems. Low population growth rates leads to feeble population density. Total number of individuals inferior to us by a third.
Military: Virtually non-existent. Investment in military expansion forbidden. Fleet only consists of triads of small craft and a token squadron serving as response force, all based on puny and outdated designs. No military service, only local patrols and a couple of ceremonial regiments for historical reenactment purposes. Communications registered with 8 other star empires; suspicions of defensive agreements with at least 6 as-yet-unknown other empires.
Recommendation: take advantage of weakness of human vermin capabilities to isolate and attack one of their allies, so as to face only a fraction of potential local sector strength, and invade human scum territory. Expected resistance: minimal.
Economy : Highly regulated. Human vermin leaders don't trust human vermin commoners to make the right decisions and give all orders as to what is built, what is collected, what is traded, down to how many consumer goods each person gets access to. Vehement and stringent rejection of any notion of delegating the tasks of running sectors' economy to artificial intelligence assistance. Production levels estimated to be twice as high as ours.
Science : Pathetic militarily, very advanced in all other areas.
Final assessment: Conquer the scum. Exterminate the vermin. Purify their worlds. For the High Executioner!
* *
I was a bit annoyed by that election result. Just for the laughs, I did some testing. Onobanjo still won even if I used the console to support anybody else 255 times. So I tried killing him off - whoever replaced him as head of the Council of Religious Conservatism invariably won. Might as well have picked Imperial succession
We-l-l-l, they haven't rivaled me yet, so I suppose they aren't all that interested >_< They could cause some serious headaches if they decide to go after me, though - they're small, but unlike me, they actually have a fleet (scouted a bit, saw 25K in 2298). And these days, I'm no longer swimming in minerals, for reasons that will quickly become apparent...
* *
They came from the stars... The Deathbringers... They swept away our defenses like chaff in the desert wind, and descended upon us, swarming across the surface of Mussi. Our homeworld was taken from us, they claimed it as theirs, and we would have accepted to chafe under their oppression for a time, while we gathered our strength and prepared to overthrow them. But the Kaexiinite were not interested in oppression. They came into our homes, dragging out the males and the females, the children and their parents, the young and the old, the beautiful and the deformed - all Mussids were to be processed, we were told. And "processing" meant extermination.
We were left without hope. No salvation awaited us. Then one night, there was a flurry of activity around our invaders' command centers. We could still hack into our old machinery, and discovered the reason: an elegant and sleek craft had showed up in what was formerly our space, hailing whoever could hear their message offering friendship.
The Deathbringers didn't care. They attempted to capture that ship, only to discover it had superior drives to theirs and had escaped. They didn't pursue; one ship could mean others, and other ships could mean war. But to us... It meant that maybe there was a tiny spark of hope of escaping the Deathbringers.
That spark grew into embers when they first contacted us. The Humans. It was the strangest of happenings. The Kaexiinite controlled all space-bound communications on Mussi by the point the messenger arrived, but she didn't need antennas and arrays to speak to us. Humans don't need antennas and arrays to speak to anyone. They try to contact others through regular channels first because it is strange and frightening to find yourself suddenly reached out in the way they reach out, but when you have no hope left, you have little to fear from the voice in your head, or from its owner, no matter how strange or powerful they are.
The voice belonged to a female who called herself "Kalinda". She told us that there was a small fleet of craft capable of taking us far away from our exterminators, if we would but dare steal and take every shuttle and civilian craft we could still get our claws on to rendezvous with them. She told us that she had a team prepared to sneak to the surface of Mussi, and to come and aid us take the ships we needed to flee and find refuge on other worlds. Now there was truly hope.
The Humans were true to their word. They came to us, hid among us, they planned with us. They said they were fringe elements of their society, some of them criminals, but we didn't care. Those human "criminals" sympathized with our plight and sought to save at least some of us, when the kaexiinite "lawful" only sought our destruction. And we could sense in our minds the honesty of the Messenger when she said it wouldn't matter that we would be rescued by outlaws, that humankind would accept us all the same and grant us a place to live on their worlds.
They truly did not lie.
We forced the blockade of the Deathbringers, and for the first time in our history, Mussids engaged in faster-than-light travel. We were taken away, far away from the Deathbringers, as far from them as one could go. We were brought to two strange worlds, one dry and cold, one warm and lush, and were the first Mussids to bring order on other worlds.
Tierra del Fuego and Ecuador are two among eleven worlds settled by the Humans. Just like their ships, their cities are sleek and elegant, contrasting with the upsetting appearance of our rescuers, who suffer from even more mutations than we do, suppurate everywhere they walk and require regular radioactive irradiation. But they are kind, extremely kind, and made every effort to make us feel at home on our new worlds. And to us, who escaped extinction thanks to that kindness, appearances matter very little.
Theirs is a strangely chaotic society for a Mussid. We are used to law and order, and some of our numbers are our own former slaves, but here, there is no such lot for anyone. We were expecting some form of servitude to be enforced upon us; instead, we were granted the same right as every Human in their United Worlds, and those of us who desired to try and ascend psionically were offered the embrace of the worms. The only demands placed upon us were that we serve in the military, and they were no terrible demands.
In fact, we were surprised by how little military strength the Humans wield. Garrisons on their worlds are limited; their fleets, barely a match for roving space amoebas, and certainly no threat to the Deathbringers should they seek to attempt to visit death and destruction on the United Worlds. But we discovered, as we found our place on Tierra del Fuego and Ecuador and our own were invited to join with their diplomatic services, that there are a great many more spacefaring species than just the Humans and the Deathbringers, and that the Humans are friends with most of them.
We thought of ourselves as a very advanced civilization technologically, but what we have found upon arriving in the United Worlds is that humankind had advanced far beyond anything we had envisioned, and not just had happened to have made a lucky breakthrough in faster-than-light propulsion. Our scientific minds were taken to visit an ancient, world-sized space station that had been entirely refurbished by human engineers at an expense of resources sufficient to buy all our old fleet. The laboratories and instrumentation available there allow for advancement at an incredible pace. The Spirit's Morass Science Nexus provides for half of the research conducted in the United Worlds.
The Humans have also started building their own, gargantuan space structures. In fact, their economic clout is so immense that they have been concurrently running the creation of an extensive sensor array that should, within a decade, be able to survey the entire galaxy with its scanners, and the construction of a planet-sized industrial complex to exploit their home system's asteroid belt.
Our saviors and benefactors are even rich and advanced enough that they have undertaken the terraforming of an entire, barren planet into a world that will replicate the conditions we have grown with on Mussi. There, they aim to grant us semi-autonomous rule, allowing to rebuild a world for the glory of the fallen Mussid civilization, in full harmony with the United Worlds.
We will rebuild. We will regain our strength. And someday, we will convince our benefactors to lead the charge to retake our homeworld. But in the meantime, we survive, and we will thrive thanks to our great benefactors, and we are blessed for the chance to take our share in such galactic greatness as that which we discovered when we first set claw on the planets of mankind.
I'll likely return to that "looking at the Humans" trope a little later. There are now big players who could awaken at literally any time. (And squash me like a bug, but hey... )
* *
The closest Fallen Empire to the United Worlds.
From the memory pool of Kalinda Poojary
Premonition is a strange thing. In this age of universal psionic power, in which even the least of us has considerable telepathic, telekinetic and psyocognitive abilities, I sometimes wonder how blind to the future our visions can make those of us who weren't born with the ability - that is, almost every one of us. Including the boss, like poor Anna Bennett used to call him. And Dikotsi Onobanjo did not understand that with all his efforts to avoid a future he foresaw, all his gesticulations would end up achieving was making it happen. And like often, the upheaval that led to the Revered Elder being deposed was a matter of pebbles triggering an avalanche. And those pebbles were called the Mussid.
Our government system was a bit disconcerting to our new friends. They followed a strictly hierarchical form of government, where ours has become, well, oligarchic in nature while pretending to be democratic. Poor Josephine would have hated to see how the United Worlds have devolved to become much like the old European Union, United States or Federation of Russia - the province of a select group belonging to the same circles, busy maintaining the illusion that their people hold actual power. But the Mussid? They understood nothing of that. They were just too happy to be alive to really try and discern in what kind of morass I had led them to.
What they did discern was the great potentialities offered by a psionic path of evolution. A few years after settling on our planets, the Mussid unsurprisingly expressed their desire to join with us on that ascending path; and since I'd been the one to make contact with them in the first place, they asked me to intercede for them in front of the Union Council. Well, "asked" is more the word. When I refused initially, citing my status as a wanted woman, they arranged for my election as one of the two Elders representing their community in the Assembly of Elders.
Girl, did that one cause a fuss... A wanted criminal, researched for nearly three quarters of a century, coming to sit at the heart of government?
And this is where the next pebble came into play. When he pushed the election date by another twenty years, Onobanjo placated the Xenoists by putting their party leader, old Giovanna Garibaldi, at the head of the Assembly of Elders. The thing with Giovanna is she has a very long memory and likes serving her vengeance ice cold. She took evident pleasure in pointing out my status as Elder immunizes me from any prosecution not related to my new office. That's how I was allowed to present the petition for the Mussid to be given specific grants for research into how to modify them so that they, too, would gain access to psionic powers. And since the official United Worlds stance with regards to any xenosapients who'd become part of our domains has always been equal rights, a bill was promptly and near-unanimously sent to the Union Council, and Giovanna Garibalidi appointed me to present it.
I'll make an admission: I've hated Dikotsi Onobanjo ever since I found out he's the reason Josephine is sitting in suspended animation, brain dead. It was subtle, using a substance that's near undetectable to poison her, a rejected experimental one that violently agitates the worms and causes them to short out all neuronal tissue in their host's brain. It took me a long time and quite a few risks to find out exactly what had happened to the first Revered Elder, and when I did, I flew into a terrible rage. To me, Josephine wasn't just the woman who led humanity into the Space Age. She was the woman who protected me from becoming a test subject back when I was a child, and then the first woman to befriend me as equals after a counter was found for the effects of the psidrain. And a woman who genuinely loved me; I sensed as much that one time we talked as friends, even if I never understood why, and probably never will.
That said, Onobanjo is truly dangerous, and not just because he's a murderer and power-hungry. He didn't understand how much of a slap to the face it was to witness the destruction of an entire pirate haven within our borders at the hands of some of our defensive partners - pirates who had been free to rove and loot at the fringes and had gone virtually unchallenged for decades. And he forgot that we aren't fanatically pacifist.
The 2311 battle of Brytkro was the first serious engagement conducted within United Worlds borders, involving a rough estimate of 10.8K fleet power against 4.2K fleet power. Of the 79 ships of all classes involved, 0 were Human.
To add insult to injury, the combined strength of all our response forces and patrols was inferior to any of the pirate fleets, and said patrols had proved their inefficiency decades earlier when a group of rampaging space amoeba had ransacked three of mining stations, with our response units proving their uselessness to respond to any actual threat, as their coordination to try and catch up with the raiding organisms in large enough groups proved entirely futile.
And then, there was the might of the stagnant, "fallen" empires. We had long since known mankind was no match for the precursors and their fleets; in 2310, with the completion of the second from last stage of our galaxy-wide sensor array, we found out just how far behind.
Erm... Bit too much, modders?
The discovery had sent panic waves through the councils of the Elders, as they understood that with regards to the Precursor Empires, it had never been about avoiding to provoke them, but about not getting squished the moment they noticed us. Yet the Union Council had continued to stubbornly adhere to their "not one extra credit for military expenses" line, which had left our military research stuck in the 2230s.
All those signs of weakness had gotten the Assembly of Elders to grumble. The Union Council's large rejection of the Mussid bill, citing that it was mankind's mission to watch over and protect all other species, and mankind's alone, sent them in an uproar. And that was when old Giovanna Garibaldi reminded them of the surprising results of the last election of 2297, held six years later than initially scheduled, and for which all pollsters had given my father as the winner in a landslide victory, yet which had somehow resulted in a narrow win for Dikotsi Onobanjo.
That was a little too much for the Assembly of Elders. And one understands the sleekness of the old Xenoist when they remember that the Union Council has always been, since the years of Josephine, an emanation of the Assembly of Elders, which delegates to them powers that it has been delegated by each Elder's constituents. Old Giovanna simply proposed to withdraw the delegation. It left Onobanjo no leg to stand on - he couldn't cite legitimacy borne out of popular vote, as his current mandate had officially expired four years earlier - and the Assembly ruled his position to be legally vacant. They then proceeded to elect my father, as he probably had been the legitimate winner of the last election and remained very popular, along with organizing a referendum to confirm him in his position.
It really is a political coup by old Giovanna, as this is actually permanent law and leaves the entire process of electing the head of state with the Assembly before a referendum is held, strictly to confirm the Assembly's choice, and the devolution of power is now from the Assembly to the Revered Elder - pardon me, it's now the Assembly's Chief Precentor. And it's left old Onobanjo, in his position as head of the Tories, in the dubious role of the defender of democracy, when he was the one who sabotaged the electoral process in the first place. Ironically, he's been given the honorary appointment of chief of the Anna Bennett institute. Fitting, when he was the one who sent her to her death attempting to contact an immensely powerful entity in the Shroud in the first place.
A useful ruler with a useful agenda? Thanks Oligarchism!
I'm not missing the irony of having been responsible for the election of my father to the leadership of the United Worlds. And I think I wasn't the only one who appreciated his speech soliciting approbation from the people in front of Josephine's suspended animation cell. She was much criticized in her day and age for what was considered exorbitant military expenses, but now, seventy years later, her position has been vindicated by our newfound knowledge, and she's celebrated as a great visionary. There's even talk about making her a Saint Josephine, imagine that!
But the homage rang personally for me, and I don't think it's innocent on my father's part, even if he now has mental barriers allowing him to stop my probes. I'm a child of the incubators, and never had a mother, like nearly all of our young have only one parent nowadays, but I like to think, in another life where our species wouldn't have been ravaged by our own folly, they could have made a great set of parents. In a way, to humanity, they are. And hopefully, my father's organizational and reforming skills and his adherence to his illustrious predecessor's vision will allow our species to catch up. We are so very far behind...
The First Fleet leaving the Bengal Spaceport for an attack on a pirate stronghold in late 2329.
* *
The bridge of EDS Endurance, March 1st 2325
The deep hum of Jump drives powering down was a sound the crew of the dreadnought EDS Endurance had gotten used to over four years of exercises and minor space monster and pirate cleanup operations. This time, the situation was a little bit different. Having been left to grow unchecked over nearly a century, the various pirate factions preying upon the borders had been able to amass considerable resources and had built mismatched but strong ships. The First Fleet's hit-and-run strikes at their resupplying platforms and exchange corners had prompted the various gangs and factions to band together and regroup for a coordinated strike at the United Worlds - a move that had, of course, not escaped the all-seeing eyes of the Galaxy Array. Pirate ships had begun to regroup in three different systems, supplying and preparing for the offensive with a force that would, once combined, be nominally twice as powerful as the Earth Defense Force.
Elder-Admiral Christel Sauer had no intention of letting such a scenario develop. The First Fleet may not have been a match for a combination of the three gathering fleets, but computer estimates gave her a favorable 1.4:1 match against the weaker one, and she enjoyed a huge advantage over the pirates in the form of Jump drive technology. She could strike anywhere, while her opponents would need to endure the many long months of Warp travel. And strike she would, as soon as her engines finished revving down, with the surprise element on her side. Sauer's fleet had exited the Shroud in close proximity with a massive pirate Galleon, dwarfing even the Endurance, but a good distance away from the rest of the ships gathering there.
'Admiral, we're confirming fifty-two bogeys on top of the Capital' a deck officer called calmly. 'They've begun to form up on our port side.'
'Any read-outs on their armaments?' the Admiral asked back.
'None, Madam. Enemy ECM is successfully scrambling our close-range scanners.'
'Can't catch up eighty years in thirteen' the Admiral mused. 'Tell all ships to form up for a direct pass at the enemy's capital ship. I want that thing battered down before the enemy get a chance at reinforcing.'
'Transmitting orders, Madam.'
The First Fleet, powering down their Jump drives right after dropping out of the Shroud into the Hinsamchavora system.
The armada formed up into attack position. Admiral Sauer had massed the strength of the United Worlds' fleets together for this action. It was a relatively low number of vessels, less than the number of ships that had formed the now-disbanded Sniper patrols, but the combined First Fleet offered a respectable line-up with its four Endurance-class dreadnoughts, four Mother Core-class carriers, eight Demolisher-class battleships and twelve Valiance-class battlecruisers. The lineup of the Earth Defense Force had been deliberately restricted to large hulls, with the battlecruisers acting as screens for the rest of the force, to increase its overall staying power against the smaller ship sizes that were commonly in use among pirate fleets.
The fleet's main armaments consisted of twenty-four particle lances, two per battleship and dreadnought. Secondary armaments consisted in batteries of turbolasers and plasma cannons, with point defense guns mounted on all hulls but the battleships; in addition, the battlecruisers all sported a fusion missile launcher and a space torpedo tube. As to the carriers, they brought a complement of thirty-two fighters and thirty-two bombers each. All those armaments were still of relatively unsophisticated design, a flaw shared with the shields and with the armor plating, but it was inevitable considering how behind the United Worlds were technologically. But they would have to do.
The fleet formed up, and began its advance. It quickly became evident that the pirates had no strike craft of their own. It also became apparent that their supporting craft would be within engagement range before their capital ship could have had to bear the full brunt of the First Fleet's Salvoes.
'Madam, Nova and Allegiance are requesting permission to open fire.'
'Permission granted' the Admiral return. 'All lance crews are to target the capital ship, fire at will. Have Harmony and Uncle Istvan divert their strike craft towards the enemy's main fleet, and tell Vice-Admiral Kutty to turn broadside on the capital ship and form an echelon screening the main as soon as all her battlecruisers are within range of the capital.'
The first lance shots zebraed the space between the main formation, and torpedoes started to home in on the massive pirate ship, peppering its hull, but the ship's armor seemed more than capable of taking the punishment. It returned fire with missiles that were quickly taken care of, but there was no counter for the large kinetic artillery projectiles that began to slam into the point battlecruiser's shields.
'Pride reports heavy enemy fire' another deck officer relayed.
'They will have to endure' Admiral Sauer replied through gritted teeth. 'If Vice-Admiral Kutty can screen her without breaking formation, let her.'
'Main fleet missile launchers opening fire, madam. Beta squadron have targets. Alpha and Gamma are targeting the incoming.'
'Those pirates are going to find out you don't bring swords to a gunfight' an operator quipped, earning himself a few grim chuckles.
Temperance's own bridge began to vibrate as its particle lances charged, and soon followed the double blast from the energy released.
'Double hit' telemetry reported. 'Damage minimal, enemy hull integrity far superior to any encountered.'
'Which is little surprise, as the thing displaces fifteen times the mass of our dreadnoughts' Admiral Sauer muttered. 'Keep firing, and turn slightly to starboard. Group Blue are to turn their prows towards the main fleet in forty-five seconds and open fire on them - let's discourage our new friends.'
'Madam, critical damage report from Pride! They've suffered a direct hit to their magazines.'
Sauer gritted her teeth. It seemed that the first-ever loss of the Earth Defense Force was going to happen under her command after all. 'All ships, maintain formation and intensify firepower' she barked.
The formation held. The pirate flagship was massive, but its hull was now pummelled by all two dozen lances and a hundred more smaller armaments, and to increasingly visible effect, as a small cloud of debris and ionized gas began to form around its prow.
'Contact with main fleet. Group White are turning. Lionheart under heavy fire from enemy flagship.'
'Enemy casualties?' the Admiral asked back.
'Five frigates so far. That's going to mount up, Group White's lances are melting them.'
'Excellent.'
'Gods above, look at all those missiles!' one of the operators exclaimed herself. 'Alpha and Gamma are overwhelmed, under enemy point-defense fire' she added more calmly.
'More target practice for our gunners' the Admiral said wryly. 'Throw Eta in as a second screen and tell our point defenses to cover for their neighbors. We can handle that volume of fire.'
The second stage of the battle of Hinsamchavora begins, with missiles exchanged between both sides.
'Lionheart have lost their starboard shields.'
'Tell them to hold on as long as they can, the enemy's capital's prow is beginning to overheat. If it becomes untenable, have them abandon ship.'
'We're going to need to have words with the genius who placed magazines within easy reach on the Valiances' Temperance's chief engineer growled. 'Another lucky shot like the first one, and the poor sods inside are-'
Lionheart lit up in a brilliant explosion, engulfed in a ball of blinding-white flame.
'How much crew on a Valiance?' an operator asked.
'How many on that monstrosity of theirs?' another replied, just as grim.
The pirates' capital ship's prow suddenly flew off in chunks, and the enormous ship shook violently from a chain of internal explosions.
'Primary target is going silent' telemetry reported. 'They're losing all power and vacuuming.'
'Turn the fleet around. Report on secondaries.'
'Two cruisers, twelve frigates and five raiders down. Only minimal shield damage reported from their fire. Orders, Madam?'
Christel Sauer crossed her hands behind her back, gazing at the enemy battlegroup in the distance.
'Wipe them out. All of them.'
The particle lances opened fire.
* *
On Earth, the report from Christel Sauer was met with great relief by the Assembly of Elders. The first-ever offensive, combined fleet operation was greeted as a resounding success, with the slightly favorable calculated odds resulting in a 1:26 casualty ratio in favor of the First Fleet. The replacement of the two destroyed battlecruisers was a cost which could be borne with two months' worth of net income, and it was considerably less than had been provisioned for when Elder-Admiral Sauer had submitted her operational plans to the Chief Precentor.
For the first time in human history, a large space armada had crossed the galactic arm and struck a swift and deadly blow against a foe mustering comparable strength to the terror-mongering Kaexiinites. And with the great spaceports of the United Worlds churning out more and newer ships of war, it wouldn't be long until the fleets of mankind would stand above any and all of the newer spacefaring races.
And it wouldn't go unnoticed forever...
* *
Like I mentioned, slight progression in fleet power The humongous number of techs researched is because I've been cleaning out all the lower-tier techs that had been bypassed, especially military ones. It's also the reason I stopped screencapping tech plates - that one would have had to include over 150...
stnylan, appreciable jump in pop, sure. Security...
* *
The Bastion of Ganlarev: a fully fortified asteroid belt, defended by 24 peripheral fortresses, and enclosing three arsenal worlds.
* *
From the memory pool of Elder Kalinda Poojary
A century ago, I had told my father that he would not live to see the coming darkness that would engulf the galaxy, a prospect that looked increasingly unlikely considering the leaps and bounds our technology and understanding of life have made. Our life expectancy nowadays is evaluated to at least reach two hundred and fifty years - a very theoretical upper limit that has not actually been tested. "Death by old age" has been something unknown for a century and a half; even the Mussid and the Ludivellans, the methane-based sapients we have uplifted, have reaped the benefits of our science and psionic powers and have become far longer lived than either species remembered.
All that progress had made me end up doubting my vision of my father being dead many years before the coming of the great darkness. But I had never envisioned that my own actions would place him on a path at the end of which he would give up his own life.
Aggression? Since when? We're pacifists, you idiots!
The thunder struck on the 29th of July of 2333. The arrival of a precursor ship on Earth was nothing unknown. Sometimes the ancients came with an outlandish demand, like when our southern neighbors had wanted us to just give them the explorer Zeinab Salman, or when another precursor empire just demanded that we hand over a part of our population for "conservation purposes". At other times they came bearing gifts, like the custodian machines who provided us with a breakthrough serum to improve our health, and "rewarded" us for colonizing our second uninhabitable planet, Asimov, by handing over a treasure trove of knowledge that will considerably help our research. This time, the visitor came with a much less friendly message: we were told, in no uncertain terms, that we were about to be crushed and that there was nothing we could do about it.
To tell the truth, we were about to be crushed, and there was nothing we could do about it. Even with our recent rapid armament efforts and the technological leaps and bounds made in the twenty-two years since Onobanjo's demise, there just wasn't a way we would be able to match the immense fleets the Galaxy Array saw moving - two battlegroups of formidable power headed not even to our space, but to that of our hapless allies, who had honored the defensive pacts signed long ago with the United Worlds...
My father did the only thing he thought he could do: recall the Ganlarev ambassador and immediately accept their terms of surrender, which were to humiliate ourselves and proclaim our inferiority to the rest of the galaxy. Terms which were going to stick in our collective craws, on top of having to demilitarize down to levels the Ganlarev would tolerate us to keep, but the preservation of our allies was at that price, so my father went to the ambassador and told him, panting from the exertion of catching up with him, that the terms of surrender were accepted. What he didn't know was that some of the terms had been written in invisible ink...
In a way, I am feeling responsible for my father's death... I played a part in the overthrow of Dikotsi Onobanjo, which led to his being chosen to rule the United Worlds and direct the construction of a fleet for them, which in turn led to... I'm not going to retell that story.
Obviously, in the light of what had happened, an emergency session of the Assembly of Elders was held to decide on a new course of action, after the catastrophic event which had just befallen us. I forced myself to attend - what was going to be discussed was just too important, and I refused to stay silent about the events surrounding my father's death.
The session was opened by a beautiful gesture from Giovanna Garibaldi. She's a terrifying political opponent, but an honorable woman nonetheless. Before giving the floor to any speaker, she proposed that my father be cleaned up, redressed, and placed in a suspended animation capsule next to Josephine, at the entrance of the compound, in homage for his giving his life to protect all of ours and all of our allies'. And I don't think I felt more overwhelmed with emotion in my life than when the old woman asked who, among the Assembly of Elders, would second the motion, and nearly two hundred heads, Human, Mussid and Ludivellan turned in my direction. I managed to choke out the words, then had to be excused, and old Giovanna suspended the session for fifteen minutes.
When the session resumed, the first person who spoke up was Dikotsi Onobanjo.
Every now and then, I remind myself that I hate that man. On this day, I did not need the reminder. My father's body wasn't even cold yet and there he was, spouting his party line about the need for complete disarmament, and even having the nerve to lecture us about how we'd brought the Ganlarev upon ourselves when we forgot that "there can be no peace when resources which ought to be devoted to economic reconstruction are to be diverted to an intensified competition in armaments" - his conclusion was that we had got what we had deserved, and we needed to disband all our fleets that very day.
I was sorely tempted to launch a psychic attack on him then and there, but it turned out there was very little need. All that old Onobanjo managed to achieve was turn the Assembly against him and cement us in the staunch affirmation that we would not disarm just because someone else had decided we did not have a right to bear arms against any perils the galaxy might throw at us - and clearly, the need the precursors felt to ensure they all kept nearly two hundred ships of war tends to point at their thinking there are threats lurking in this galaxy or beyond. And unlike the Ganlarev think, we are not one such threat. We could already have conquered half of the galaxy had we been one.
Remained the problem of what happens after the ten-year-truce with them expires. We might be stronger by then, but by no means are we going to be capable of fighting the Ganlarev on equal terms even then. We might have to accept another humiliation instead, and odds are whoever is the Chief Precentor who signs that next peace treaty will meet the same fate as my father. But we had to elect someone - Onobanjo wasted no time in applying for the top job again, and we couldn't let him win by default.
In the end, it was a quiet and unassuming Elder, who has been sitting on the council for ninety years, who offered herself. Yuan Zhang had been our very first Elder-Admiral, and she sorely regretted her inability to defend the fleet's assets under the Tories' long rule. She offered to take the charge of Chief Precentor on as a penance, and she was voted in office with an overwhelming majority. Her quiet resolve and acceptance of her fate have left a permanent mark upon many of our souls.
Scientific Leap agenda, Scientific mind trait... I'll take that 15% research bonus, thank you!
As I dwell upon these events, I'm standing at the entrance of the Council Compound, facing the bodies of two great personages who got to guide the destinies of humankind. And I can't help but feel sad at the thought that in the end, I got another of my wishes: my father and Josephine are finally united.
Sad indeed. And I'll admit I was a bit surprised at how that fell in place...
Nothing happened in the following five years, so if you feel like you've read this somewhere...
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Hey guys! Howdy?
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Observations on registered vermin type #E4, designation: Humans (updated, 2340)
Biology: The human scum come from water-based mammalian stock. Natural reproduction mode is sexual and viviparous, but procreation seldom occurs naturally, as this type of vermin can barely stand the intimacy of another member of the species. Instead, these stains on the galaxy’s purity multiply via incubators, through a process of genetic recombination. Early-stage embryos are actually infected with parasitic worms omnipresent in this form of vermin.
Humans stand on average at a height of 1,65 meters, with the male slightly taller than the female. Both genders are often stooped and/or suffering from mismatched articulations. The vermin’s mode of locomotion is bipedal, and most individuals have two arms, though the presence of one, three or four isn’t unheard of. Skin is squishy and often oozes, colored in a range from angry red to dark blue, which can be altered through blood influx or reflux. Circulatory systems centralized on one heart; body temperature management is endothermic. One nose with one, two or three nostrils; six to ten eyes; two overlarge ears. Brain capacity of about 1350 cubic centimeters.
WARNING: species exhibit a wide range of paranormal abilities, present in all individuals. Origin of abilities registered as byproduct of parasitic symbiosis, retrovirally treated.
Observation: process has been refined and replicated for other inferior (non-Kaexiinite) lifeforms, designated Mussid and Ludivellan, with apparent success. This system of psionic modifications is another reason to declare war on them.
Government: The filthy humans present their political system as a dangerously democratic one, though in practice it’s barely more tolerable, its nature being oligarchic as the result of domination of their horrendous local political parties. Local communities elect a college of representatives proportionate to their population. Elected officials congregate in electoral assemblies, aggregating to roughly equivalent representation by population units. Electoral assemblies choose an Elder among them and send them to a central Assembly of Elders.
Executive head of state is co-opted by the Assembly of Elders and then legitimized by a mock referendum, holding the position designated as "Chief Precentor". Elections happen whenever the Ganlarev decide to kill the current Chief Precentor. Observation of the updated process still leads to conclusion the damnable human parasites are irredeemably corrupt.
Oh.
Spread: Infestation concerns 17 inhabited worlds across 13 star systems, with two more worlds just terraformed inside the home system. Exploited territory encompasses over 60 registered star systems. Low population growth rates didn't impede accession to high population density. Total number of individuals largely more numerous than in our Empire. Infiltrators on primitive worlds seek to annex new species to further corrupt their gene pool.
In addition, parasitic species have constructed or reclaimed a fully operational science nexus, a planetary ring shipyard surrounding their homeworld, a fully operational galactic sensor array, a partial Dyson sphere (construction ongoing) and a massive asteroid industrial complex (expansion halted temporarily).
Military: Matching that of all non-precursor Empires on its own, but largely inferior to a single precursor Empire's. Fleet in constant expansion, with designs regularly updated. Would crush our fleet with minimal losses in a direct engagement. In addition, the disgusting humans performed necromancy on a massive space wyrm. Power of wyrm impossible to estimate.
Rawr.
Communications expected to be established with all other star empires; confirmed defensive agreements with six other empires, three of which have vilely submitted to the "protection" of the loathsome humans.
Recommendation: wait until the Ganlarev wipe their fleets out and swiftly claim their juicy worlds for ours. Then exterminate them.
Economy : Highly regulated. Human vermin leaders don't trust human vermin commoners to make the right decisions and give all orders as to what is built, what is collected, what is traded, down to how many consumer goods each person gets access to. Vehement and stringent rejection of any notion of delegating the tasks of running sectors' economy to artificial intelligence assistance. Only one Mussid world granted semi-autonomy. Production levels estimated to be five times as high as ours.
Science : Their planets are covered in dark matter power plants and autonomous fabricators. Military technology will have completely overtaken us within a decade.
Final assessment: Conquer the scum. Exterminate the vermin. Purify their worlds. Take their riches for the High Executioner. Just don't make it a fair fight, that would end really badly for us.
Branbholans, Torjini, Frakoo, Atganbiran, Kwratese, and all citizens of our Protectorates,
And of course, all the refugees who found or seek solace on our worlds,
It is my great pleasure to open this year by the announcement we are now present in this galaxy not just as one of the younger races, but as peers to the Precursor empires themselves. Our technological advancement, our achievements, and the might of our fleets have earned us this right to be known as one of the great galactic powers.
It is, therefore, my great honor to announce that in the wake of the Great Awakening of the Ganlarev, the Elder races have convened in their Great Galactic Assembly. The Precursors discussed the situation that had arisen from the Ganlarev taking on an active role again in galactic affairs, and have concluded that it was in their own best interest to maintain the parity they had so far been holding. Let it be known that, as far as the Ancients are concerned, it is peace in our time.
And in that same session, it was decided that the United Worlds would be formally invited to become full-rights members of the Great Galactic Assembly. It is these crucial news I wish to impart upon all in attendance: we are to be acknowledged as the equals to the other Precursors, and even one small step above.
It was deemed necessary by the other Elder races that just as a system of checks and balances had needed to exist between themselves for the continued perpetuation of peace and order in the galaxy, a check needed to exist for the Bastion of Ganlarev's expanding might. And as it could not be one of them, the mandate to act as a check to the Bastion was unanimously extended to the United Worlds, and our peerage has been acknowledged by the Ganlarev themselves.
Who was worried? I wasn't worried, I swear I wasn't!
However, our accession to the summit of the galactic stage must not blind us to our circumstances, nor should it make us forget our roots as one of the many younger species who made their own way to the stars. Let us always remember that it has only been one hundred and fifty years since the remnants of humanity gathered and decided to unite, and seek our path among the stars. Many among us Elders, and many among us who were born on Earth have lived long enough to remember mankind before the advent of faster-than-light travel, and Zeinab Salman's shattering announcement that she had discovered the first extraterrestrial lifeforms.
In this age of great turmoil, these are roots we can never forget, and least of all in the face of the Great Awakening. The upheavals and the terror borne from the stirring of the Ancients is self-evident. We have seen our worlds flooded by the many refugees who fled in fear as the great fleets of the Ganlarev began to encroach upon their territories. Let all who seek solace from the ever-encroaching threat of the would-be conquerors know that we, the United Worlds, are ready to offer sanctuary and protection.
In total, there were seven such refugee events in 4 years, for a total of 45 pops.
And it is in this light that our efforts must now turn to the creation of great habitats and the terraforming of new worlds to settle, as our current capabilities to host new populations have been filled to the brim, and reforms will be undertaken so we can ensure equality between all our worlds, beyond the current scope of the Twelve Systems. If need be, we will gather the materials from within our borders and create entire new planets, as it is now in our capability to do. We will not stand in front of history to be judged as the ones who turned away those who looked to us for protection in the face of the oncoming storm.
This is the dawn of a new era, one in which mankind, with its friends and allies, takes the mantle of protecting all in this galaxy. It is a high ambition, but I am persuaded that if all of us unite our efforts and contribute towards this great task, the United Worlds and its citizens can succeed. And that is why, this year, I have only one demand to submit to all of you who listen, anywhere you are, any species you belong to: come, then. Let us go forward together with our united strength.
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Right now, this is basically as high as the population can get without resorting to sectors ^^ Still got a few growing pops, but once they're grown, that's it. Also, the reason the number of techs exploded is because I've been simulating needing a little while to catch up on armaments research by systematically researching all techs from bottom costs up. Else with a little luck I could have gone from tier 1 (or 0!) to tier 5+ in less than 15 years, and it sounded a little silly...
The First Battle of Sol: a short and extremely brutal engagement between the full might of the Bastion of Ganlarev and half of the United Worlds fleet.
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From the memory pool of Elder Kalinda Poojary
Oh, how the mighty fall. In the space of three disastrous months, mankind discovered just how woefully unprepared we are for the full might of the precursors, and I am afraid we have entirely brought the catastrophe which befell us upon our own heads. And as often, the road to hell was paved with good intentions...
It all began during the wave of euphoria which seized the United Worlds after we were acknowledged as peers to the Ganlarev. We allowed ourselves to ignore the realities of our situation - namely, that our acknowledged counterparts were far mightier than we were - and in a grandiose and noble, but ultimately lethally dangerous gesture, the Assembly of Elders decided that we would guarantee each and every one of the younger races...
The kind of blunder you make when it's 3AM, you're insomniac, you know it's a horrible idea and you do it anyway.
The dream was that since the Ganlarev now regarded us as peers, they would therefore cease their wars of aggression and leave the younger races alone. Unfortunately, the Ganlarev had different ideas...
Wait a minute, they want EARTH???
The Ganlarev fleet, massed in its full strength, wasted no time jumping directly towards the Sol system. A half-hearted attempt was made by Admiral Sauer to try and delay the inevitable, but, and to our great shame, from the very beginning it was only about selling out the Cuglaran to preserve the heart of our strength. Earth is the one planet we could not give up without crippling the United Worlds, as all our administration is centered on it, and the Sol system's many megastructures are tied to it... So we surrendered, but not before paying a terrible price in blood.
Admiral Sauer did in fact make the attempt to delay the enemy fleet, and even got the jump on them and the first blood. But then the Ivory Lances of the Ganlarev began to talk, and the First Fleet started to melt like ice in the desert sun. A suspension of hostilities was negotiated just in time to prevent complete annihilation.
Needless to say, this showing of ours did not impress the Ganlarev. They have let known to all that they think we are, in the end, ultimately useless should a galactic threat appear...
Grmblm...
Needless to say, the universal guarantees and defensive agreements were ended right after that. Ironically, the Cuglaran approached us with a petition to become a protectorate the instant they realized we'd sold them out. The worst part of that development is we accepted...
At least, in this dark hour, we found a surprisingly willing supporter: our northern neighbors, the pacifistic Geemish, offered to commit their own resources to supporting the construction of a Third Fleet, greatly improving the naval capabilities of the younger races. Thus the Guardian Union was formed.
Nevertheless, we have been brought low and humiliated. And there might not be someone else to take the fall for us should the Ganlarev decide they want Earth's rich and powerful complexes after all...
The first Ganlarev attack was followed by a quarter of a century of respite. After the second Ganlarev attack and our narrow avoidance of the disaster that would have been losing Earth, we only had a handful of years. We didn't know at the time, but the era of quiet growth and expansion we had known was already over for good when the Precursors laid down their demands. Not that many understood the signs. After a period of many thousands of years of stability, the galaxy's devolution into chaos began in the most unremarkable of manners, with a very faint tachyon signal echoing through space which puzzled a few curious scientists but preoccupied very few people. The immediate concern for the galaxy was the stirring of another giant...
The awakening of the Azalthyn put the entire galactic north on notice. More younger empires flocked to us for protection, and among them the machine intelligence ruling the PDS12 nexus. In exchange for access to our databanks, the sector-wide AI imparted upon us an explanation about what the "ghost signal" was actually doing. Although we do have the knowledge to create synthetic sapients, the effective ban on the construction of any thinking machines in the United Worlds meant no samples to demonstrate how the "ghost signal" was altering synthetic behavior.
Before this crisis began, very few people had paid attention to the discoveries once made by Courtney Fleming, which had, at the time, motivated what were regarded as extravagant military expenditures from dear Josephine. Now, all of a sudden, everyone in the United Worlds wanted to know about the Cybrex intelligence which had devastated the galaxy six hundred thousand years ago, as it appeared that the "ghost signal" really was a contingency measure devised by them for another attempt at eradicating any and all forms of organic life. Four sterilization hubs went online in the galactic north, spewing fleets no younger empire could possibly hope to match.
It had not escaped the "astute observer" that aside from one of the hubs, situated between us and the Ganlarev and therefore of interest to us both, we and our protectorates were relatively sheltered from that oncoming storm. We did not count ourselves fortunate, however, as the other aspect of the Cybrex contingency measures manifested in the corruption of all the protocols of the custodial machine intelligence that had once protected and helped us, and now found itself with a very different idea of what to do...
The total list of "Cleanse Planet" demands is 12-planet-long (out of 22), and includes every single specialized shipyard world and every single megastructure-holding system.
A massive ship construction effort had been undertaken after the last Ganlarev humiliation. We were far from done with that program, however, when the malfunctioning Lodoid struck at New Mexico. Still, we had little choice but to go and fight with them there...
By the time our fleets entered the system, the Lodoid had already cleaned up all military stations in the Asounna system and begun a preliminary bombardment. Elder-Admiral Sauer ordered our fleets to take their formations, and the as-yet largest battle in the history of mankind began, pitting two massive armadas against one another, while all twenty-two United Worlds churned out series of battleships to reinforce the frontline...
The battle for the survival of humanity was about to begin.
There is no balance whatsoever in that game. I'll just be trying to have fun telling a story, and hopefully you'll have fun reading it.
