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RandomPauI posted:We can almost safely carry 200 more people. In theory we can carry 400 extra people but it'd be really stretching things. Imagine a room slightly smaller than this  Not too much smaller mind you, just about a three fourths the size. Not too bad right? The beds are a little bulkier and less roomy because they're also cryo-units. But hey, you're only in there to sleep, and maybe a few hours perusing vids and the like on your iriscam. With your current crew of 200, those rooms are at about 3 people per four person room. That's just standard rooming for base line crew. Higher ranks get doubles, and officers get singles. Still not super spacious. You have your own office and that's a luxury you get because you're captain. Its a luxury. Adding 400 people proposes to fit eight people to each of those rooms designed for four. Mess halls, designed to accommodate 200 people at peak hours have to somehow cram 400, and a spartan schedule needs to be maintained for things to work. Creature comforts, like the rec room or your office can be stripped for more space of course. The air will grow rancid as the oxygenators run at double capacity. They can do it, but the air will stink of human filth. The plumbing is not designed to handle 600 people. It'll manage, with some fixes, but it wont be great. Expect them to stink, and to have to dedicate special efforts to keeping them working. Oh, did we mention that the trip to alpha centauri is going to take a few years? 400 people is doable, it's very much not pleasant, its going to put a great strain on *everything* and everyone. 200 is going to be unpleasant, but much more manageable. Oh, you only have 300 cryo-niches on board. 200 crew are already on board. Another 100 cryo-niches, if you could find them, might be squeezed in somewhere, but that all occupies more space than a single person. If you plan to cryo-sleep at all, you cannot have more than 400-450 people on board, tops. EDIT: I forgot to account for food, you currently have a years supply for 200 people. You're going to need more. A lot more. Storing it is going to be a challenge. TheCog fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Apr 16, 2016 |
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Apr 16, 2016 05:35
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##vote 1. H 2. L H: Let him know you will consider the situation and respond shortly, then cut the comms. Respond to any incoming calls in case they have more pertinent information. If it is just more threats/braggado jump to plan RandomPaul.
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Apr 16, 2016 08:59
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##Vote 1. G 2. A
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Apr 16, 2016 15:14
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##vote 1. G 2. A Space Kablooey fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Apr 17, 2016 |
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Apr 16, 2016 16:48
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##vote 1. G 2. C There are things here that can kill everyone on board and we just pissed off the person controlling them. gently caress outta Dodge time. We hosed this up guys. Let's not sink more irreplacable resources into it while risking annihilation. Leave and hope we do better at the science base. After we carefully recover our marines of course.
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Apr 17, 2016 02:10
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 "Mr Higgs" you cut him off, not addressing his plea. "I have news you should be aware of" you take a breath "Dr Furukawa, and about four hundred civilians, are still alive. They're trapped, in Storage C and D. Things look grim for them. I'd appreciate any assistance you can lend them." You pause for an instant, let it sink in "I'm going to try to get whoever I can off this station Mr. Higgs. I make no promises, but I'm going to try." You cut the comms. You have work to do. Your officers gather around you, a mix of emotions rippling over the room. Fear, twelve men are dead, another twelve are just making their way back. Agrippa is a time bomb and every second counts. Rage, they've killed our own, they've massacred civilians, in their short-sightedness, they're going to kill themselves if they're not stopped. Grief, this could have been peaceful, we could have saved everyone. Hope, maybe we can still save some people. The gathered officers all look to you, waiting for... something, a line of action, a plan, a question. So you lead. "We're going to give diplomacy one last try." there's a murmur that runs through your officers. It seems to be mostly in agreement. Petra interjects. "But sir... do you really think we can get anything out of that slimy bastard?" It's clear that she's referring to commander Smith. "No. But I think the fear of death will make him cooperate." you explain. "What I want now, is to break down exactly what our capabilities are and all the information we have on the situation." your staff gets to work. The facts:  Stuff you know/believe to be true There are currently three "factions" on board the Agrippa. The Mutineers, The Loyalists and The Civilians. The Loyalists consist of the majority of the military units left on board, and are led by Commander Smith. Either they or the mutineers have lied to you, but the mutineers story seems to more closely align with that provided by the civilians. You could, given time, confer further with the civilians to figure out what the exact details are. The Loyalists have at least three, and possibly four ARMOURs which give them absolute control of the inside of the station if they wish to take it. They are basically the equivalent of tanks in boarding actions, and the liberal application of explosives is the only thing capable of stopping them in your arsenal. These are not to be taken lightly, a single one can kill your entire crew without breaking a sweat. You know these exist because they're in the manifest. The Mutneers have taken control of the docking bays, and the two remaining ferighters, which have been converted into fuel air bombs capable of threatening the stations integrity. Its the presence of these highly dangerous remote control bombs that has kept the ARMOUR at bay. You know the bombs exist, because you accidentally set one off. According to the mutineers, the loyalists knew about this and let you walk into it. The loyalists half confirmed this in their communications. The majority of the non-involved civilians were seeking refuge with Dr. Furukawa. All 800 or so of them. The explosion has killed about half of them, and trapped the other half in a part of the station that is rapidly becoming uninhabitable. To rescue them you need to come up with a plan in hours, not days. Even then, its going to be hairy, they have next to no power, no food, and oxygen is going to start running low soon. Your ship, as it stands, can reasonably accommodate another 200 people. It can unreasonably, stressfuly and dangerously accommodate another 400, as a complete desperation measure. It'll be horrible for all involved, and cryo-sleep will be out of the question. See this post for a brief overview. Each freighter docked with the base can currently accommodate about 200 civilians, 400 if you retrofit them, which you could do with the materials aboard. Between civilians, loyalists and mutineers, there are about 1400 people on the station. You *might* if you overload the Achilles and take every single pinnace, be able to get everyone off. It'll be an unpleasant trip, and wholly unfeasible to take all the way to Alpha Centauri, but you can get them to Callisto and figure it out there. A single missile from your ship, can completely destroy the base. It'll kill everyone left on board. Your crew will not like this, and that is probably a war crime. It is also leverage. Stuff that might be new The stations integrity is compromised. Worst scenario estimates have it fully losing power within 12 hours and decompressing within 24. Best case give it at most two weeks. That is not a lot of time. With some repairs you can keep it livable long enough to fully evacuate it. Food supplies are a non-factor as time is enough of an issue that neither of the militant sides can be starved out. Even the civilians will probably die before food runs out. You are a fully equipped EW ship. You have the ability to theoretically hack the entire station. While you can't gain control over things like the hard wired generators, you can theoretically gain control over one of the following, before the station's anti-hacking mechanisms shut down remote access: Door Control. Pinnace. Freighters. Primary Generator. Com System. Information Database. Camera Feeds. ARMOUR units (if, and ONLY if, they're connected to the station's live feed. Which you're pretty confident they should be) Armament wise if you remove the ARMOUR the Loyalists have an edge, but that edge is blunted by the sheer number of mutineers. If they fight it out, it will be a bloodbath that will take days to resolve. A scan of the manifest indicates that the Agrippa has tons of supplies you need for a trip to Alpha Centauri, assuming they've survived the explosion. Food for one, but also hydroponics, replacement parts, medical supplies that you might use to set up cloning bays, construction equipment for when you arrive. You will have to decide between many of these things and just people. You don't know if Callisto will have comparable equipment. You've agreed to try diplomacy. This vote will cover two things, tone, and intent. Diplomacy has already won the vote, you can't vote to do something else until you've given this an honest try. 1. Tone: A.) You're going to take the standard diplomatic approach. What you would do in a hostage situation. Get your staff psychologist to handle the negotiation proper. Do it by the book. This could take time and involves making concessions. If this option wins, we'll handle it like we handled the ship assault, you'll observe and have veto power. B.) By the book, but you'll do the negotation. They key is to remain calm and negotiate every step until the situation is diffused. C.) You'll handle the diplomacy, thank you. You don't think pussyfooting around it is going to help. You're going to lay bare their reality, they can all cooperate or die. Period. D.) A step between B and C, take slow at first and then amp up the pressure. Keep reminding them of the reality of their situation. E.) More radical C. Go in guns blazing. If they don't cooperate, you're going to missile the station until its gone. Make sure every single one of them dies. F.) Lie and manipulate to get what you want. Other options assume you want to tell the truth. This one doesn't. Promise them what they want, and when you have what *you* want, renege on whatever you have to. G.) I have some other idea for an *approach*. Write in. H.) I don't trust myself to do the negotiation, hand it off to one of my officers. Write in who. (useful reference) 2.) Intent: What is your goal? A.) A peacful resolution where I get everyone off the station. All 1400 people. B.) A peaceful resolution where I can fix the station up enough that I can leave some people behind and grab supplies. C.) I want to rescue the civilians and get both sides to stand down, then figure out the details regarding actual evacuation/supplies. D.) I want both sides to stand down, the civilians are a secondary priority. E.) I want to rescue the civilians, everything else is a secondary priority. F.) I want the supplies more than anything, and would like to get them without anyone getting hurt. I'm willing to help repair the station and maybe take some people on board to make it happen. G.) I want the ARMOUR neutralized. That's the #1 priority. H.) I want to rescue the mutineers more than anything. I.) I want to rescue the Loyalists more than anything. J.) I want Commander Smith's head on a platter. That is objective one. L.) Something else. Write in. TheCog fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Apr 26, 2016 |
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Apr 20, 2016 01:47
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##Vote 1. C 2. L I say we go after taking possession of the tanks and supplies.
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Apr 20, 2016 02:05
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##vote 1. B 2. C I'm assuming 1B still gives us the ship psychologist standing by to give advice and help as needed, yes?
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Apr 20, 2016 02:43
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Tran posted:##vote Yep, and your whole command staff as needed.
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Apr 20, 2016 02:48
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##vote 1. B For 2, lets assume for the sake of argument that everyone suddenly decides to put all grudges aside and to work together. Assuming we took 200 people and nothing else how long could they keep the station going?
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Apr 20, 2016 03:32
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RandomPauI posted:##vote Its near impossible to tell without doing a full structural assessment, and getting some people into the generators to assess the damage. If they can get the generators fully online and patch up the station so it doesn't randomly open itself to the vacuum of space, pretty indefinitely, there's stored food for years, and the station was meant to stay inhabited for a long time. If there's some core structural flaw however, then its a matter of weeks.
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Apr 20, 2016 03:42
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##vote 1. C 2. G,C
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Apr 20, 2016 04:03
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Am I the only one who twitches everytime I see pinnacle instead of pinnace?
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Apr 21, 2016 14:11
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Z the IVth posted:Am I the only one who twitches everytime I see pinnacle instead of pinnace? I can't believe I've been spelling that wrong for... 5 pages? It'll be fixed from this post onward. In my defense, my spell check doesn't believe pinnace is a real word. In other news, update tomorrow, probably.
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Apr 22, 2016 04:37
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gently caress, I though pinnacle was what they were called.
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Apr 22, 2016 06:47
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Z the IVth posted:Am I the only one who twitches everytime I see pinnacle instead of pinnace? I was trying to restrain my inner spelling Nazi and not say anything because I was enjoying his writing so much otherwise.
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Apr 26, 2016 02:01
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Hexenritter posted:I was trying to restrain my inner spelling Nazi and not say anything because I was enjoying his writing so much otherwise. In general, I appreciate corrections, one of the reasons I'm writing this is to work on my writing skills, so any corrections are welcome. Especially if I'm making the same mistake over and over! I also know I don't say it much, but I really appreciate hearing that you guys are enjoying the CYOA. I know I said I'd update a couple days ago, but I'm really stuck on the negotiation scene. I'm making headway slowly, but I don't want to put a definitive time on it. I may write a couple little vignettes about history in the setting in the meantime, so if there's anything that's come up in the posts you guys want to hear about, let me know, and I'll see what I can do. EDIT: I went through and replaced every instance of pinnacle with pinnace just for you guys btw. TheCog fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Apr 26, 2016 |
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Apr 26, 2016 19:15
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TheCog posted:In general, I appreciate corrections, one of the reasons I'm writing this is to work on my writing skills, so any corrections are welcome. Especially if I'm making the same mistake over and over! If I spot one I'll pm you on irc rather than plaster it here because I know that sheepish "oh... well... umm... ok thanks" feeling and it's not fun when induced in public. But really, pinnacle instead of pinnace is the only error I've seen. I wanted to say something early on but didn't want to come across as "that guy." Please keep up the great work 
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Apr 26, 2016 19:53
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The First Battle of Mars, Part 1 From: Tactics and Warfare, Battles of the Space Age. By Admiral Arthur Frobisher Following the Rehus incident, both the Federated Martian Union and the Coalition of Nations scrambled to mobilize their forces. The FMU had been conducting minor pirate raids and had predicted this war when they began their political activism, thus, they had a more developed force (see chapter 5). However, the CN had two major things going for it. One, the Orbital Defense Array. Two their massive industrial base. The Orbital Defense Array was put up in early 2050's after the Wormwood Asteroid Scare. At first it was simply a series of high powered lasers, designed to be terribly effective against asteroids, but to dissipate if they hit atmosphere. With the advent of high velocity missiles and the destruction of Anchorage in the infamous Tsu Disaster, the ODA had been substantially upgraded to deal with high velocity projectiles of all kinds, and even ships at close enough ranges where several lasers could be brought to bear without the ship having enough time to rotate or fluctuate the dissipators. What this essentially meant was that the FMU had no way to strike at earth, or more importantly, the shipyards within the defensive envelope. FMU, as opposed to the CN had a much narrower industrial base, that could be easily taken out if the CN could punch through their defensive envelope. Two shipyards designed for freighters against over a dozen modular ship-yards even now being fitted for war. If the war dragged on, the FMU had no chance of winning. No, to win, they needed to smash the CN fleet, and make the situation politically untenable for the CN. As we discussed in chapter 4, if the war could be made uneconomical or politically unpopular the corporations would back off, and the CN would implode. A cold stalemate meant defeat for the FMU, while a hot one meant defeat for CN. It stands to reason then, that what would be logical for the CN would be to sit back until they amassed a massive force and just crush the FMU in a single decisive battle that crippled their offensive capability. That would be what logic dictates, however profit margins demanded that the CN deal with the situation as quickly as possible. Time in which shipments weren't arriving from mars was time that the corporations backing the entire CN were losing money. Thus, a strategy was devised. If it can be called that. The CN leadership, ignoring the protests of their higher ranked military officers, Including Admiral Harrison, the acting leader of the fleet group, decided to sally from the defensive envelope of the ODA, and attempt to destroy the FMU shipyards. The exact scenario the FMU had predicted and prepared for. So it is that at 08:00 standard hours, the CN First Fleet sallied forth. Their objective? The destruction of the martian ship yards. Now there are some important technical details that cannot be forgotten here. At the time, the maximum acceleration you could get out of a ship was about .1c, which by the standards of the time was incredibly impressive. This was also the first time in history there had been an inter-planetary battle. While the Anglo-Russian conflict over the moon had involved space combat, it had been nothing on this scale. The ships involved in this conflict were also, for the most part, retrofits, from freighters and transports. None of them had cold fusion power plants like we know them today, and point defense systems were hasty and bolted on. Now days we're used to a centralized process handling point defense on a ship level, where input is taken from individual clusters, and then passed on to the main computer, who in turn passes it to the fleet wide Defense Coordination System. DCS wasn't even a consideration at the time, each point defense cluster had its own local control, and a system of prioritization was set up. Essentially what this meant is that the failure of even one point defense cluster would spell doom for a ship. The processing speed was simply not fast enough to allow anything like dynamic priorities. . Its also important to remember that missiles in this time period were a lot slower than what we're used to considering missiles currently. Kinetics had maximum velocity of .5c, but many ships also insisted on using Nuclears, missiles with a speed of about .25c, but tipped with nuclear warheads. For a reader who is versed in current military technology, this probably seems archaic, but then, it was the cutting edge. Consider we're at a point where missiles were not even the default choice of weaponry. Half of the CN retrofits were equipped exclusively with gravitic lances as their armament. Even the FMU hadn't armed themselves solely with missiles. Its not till after this battle that gravitic lances would be mostly considered useless, and even then, they were still put on some ships until the end of the war With that, we can finally talk about the order of battle. The CN's fleet consisted of four Anti-Piracy Vessels, the equivalent of pocket cruisers. These were legitimate war ships, designed and built to deal with the pirate vessels that had been hassling supplies. As discussed, the majority of the pirate vessels were slightly smaller than freighters, armed with only a primary gravitic lance, and two point defense clusters. This meant that the Anti-Piracy Vessels (APVs) had been designed with the intent of arresting these pirates, not shooting them out of the sky. For that reason they were more weapons of intimidation than anything else. Their main asset was an incredible (for the time) tracking array, and gravitic lances that outranged the ones on pirate vessels by almost 300%. They could also happily outspeed the pirate vessels, by almost .02c. For their purpose, they were fantastic. However, glaringly, they had no missile tubes, as colateral damage from hitting mars would be totally unacceptable. They were screened by a 14 retrofitted inter-planetary freighters. Half of which had been armed with missile tubes, the other half with gravitic lances. The lance armed ships had eight point defense clusters, a maximum acceleration of .08c, and two gravitic arrays, the smaller version of the gravitic cannons on the APVs. The missile equipped versions were slower, with a maximum acceleration of .07c, and six tubes each. The space restrictions meant that they had enough room for six point defense clusters, and enough missiles for six full volleys. Current doctrine at the time called for short, brutal engagements, wherin you'd need at most five volleys to kill the enemy. We now know that missile engagements rarely play out like that, instead being grindy battles of attrition, where ammunition is a vital resource. Finally there were two Interdictors, what we might now classify as light destroyers. Experimentally designed for deterring pirates without having to invest in the more expensive APVs, of all the ships of the CN's order of battle, they were the closest to modern design. With a speed of .1 c they could match the APV's speed, but their principal armament was missile tubes. Ten of them, with the requisite five volleys a piece, and an advanced targeting system. Unfortunately, this design had prioritized offense over everything else, the ships initially designed to have 12 point defense clusters had been stripped down to four to fit gravitic arrays. This made the ships exceedingly fragile. All CN ships were armed with a mix of kinetics and nuclears, as fit the "layered offensive" plan. The CN was led by Admiral Harrison, who we addressed in chapter 2. Of note is Harrison's staunch belief in the supremacy of gravtic weaponry. For him, missiles were a tool to provide cover for what he defined as the heavy hitters, ships armed with gravitics. He, and the other supporters of gravitics as the main weapon of war maintained that with modern ship speeds and the need to defend stationary targets, it was impossible to stay out of the knife fight range of gravitics, and that point defense was so effective as to render missiles effectively useless as anything other than chaff. Harrison did not underestimate the FMU, unlike many of his contemporaries. He knew he was in for a tough fight, and that, indubitably, he'd be surprised. However, he had two major handicaps, the first was vastly underestimating missiles as a weapon of war, the second, the bad intelligence he'd been fed by the over-optimistic CN intelligence agency. The CN's estimates said that they were facing between 12 and 16 retrofitted freighters, only of which half were inter-planetary. In addition intelligence suspected that there were 2-3 dozen pirate assault vessels, the kind armed with only a single gravitic lance, which would not reasonably pose a threat to the CN's fleet. Reports that the Martian shipyards had produced two light cruisers in the lead up to the conflict were passed on, but marked as unverified. It was noted that the Behemoth was at mars, but it was unlikely that they'd had time to retrofit it to anything useful. This intelligence could not have been further from the truth. Unbeknownst to the CN, the martians had assembled four war ships from their shipyards, on top of having assembled a third ship yard in the shadow of mars, that was just beginning operations. The FMU order of battle consisted of the following: four light cruisers, of mixed armament, single gravitic array, eight missile tubes, eight point defense clusters each and a maximum speed just shy of .09c. Eight retrofitted freighters, which had been equipped with four missile tubes each, and two point defense clusters. Their maximum speed was only .04c. Twelve retrofitted inter-planetary freighters, half exclusively equipped with point defense, sixteen clusters each the other half armed with missile tubes, seven tubes each, and no point defense at all. Their maximum speed was .065, but the missile ships were heavily laden with missiles, ten volleys each. Wisely, the FMU had decided to completely abandon the idea of using pirate vessels in the battle. Finally, one last surprise awaited the CN, there had, in fact, been just enough time to start retrofitting the Behemoth, while it was not done, the massive super-freighter was equipped with a total of 24 working missile tubes, although enough missiles were loaded on board for just two salvos. None of its point defense was yet operational, and it sat, quietly at the shipyards. Leading the FMU was the fancifully titled Supreme Lance Master Ellis. Following proper military naming conventions, we'll call him Admiral John Ellis. Ellis was green, having led a couple pirate raids and not much else, but his relationship with his brother, President Pro-Tempore Jack Ellis, meant that he'd been appointed to the rank regardless. For him, winning this battle would cement the fact that he was competent, not just family, while losing it, or even failing to win a spectacular victory, would likely see him replaced. An astute reader who's done the math would see that the CN's order of battle was comparatively light on missiles, 62 tubes vs 130. The main edge they had then, was their superior speed, their superior electronic systems, especially the first implementation of SHADOW, and the fact that their opponents were forced to fight to defend a fixed objective. Materially, the CN could afford to throw away this entire fleet for minimal damage, and still win the war, but politically, losing the fleet to the "terrorists" would be a huge blow to public opinion. Harrison had clear orders, obtain a decisive victory. Fortunately for the CN, Harrison knew that a terrible defeat would be much more disastrous than a stalemate, and his plans reflected this. Ellis on the other hand, had to gamble everything. For him, an inconclusive skirmish was as bad as a defeat, as pressure on his brother would see him removed from his position. Thus begun the First Battle for Mars. TheCog fucked around with this message at 23:21 on May 2, 2016 |
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Apr 27, 2016 03:14
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Excellent post, I love background fluff so hard and that was a fantastic chunk of it. Good insight into the warfare sensibilities and doctrine of the fleet, and all prettied up like a warfare manual entry.
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Apr 27, 2016 03:26
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 ##vote 1. D 2. C
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Apr 27, 2016 03:45
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So good.
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Apr 27, 2016 03:46
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"Alright ladies and gentlemen. Lets get this show on the road." Its been a frantic hour and a half, but you have a plan. Of sorts. The bottom line is this, without unilateral disarmament and cooperation, everyone is going to die, so priority 1 is getting everyone to put away the base destroying bombs, battletank equivalents and other unexpected goodies, and work towards not dying. Normal reasonable human beings wouldn't let things like emotion, ego and pride stand between them and a horrible horrible death in the void. Your staff is *pretty* sure you're dealing with reasonable human beings. You're not convinced. After all, one of them let you almost destroy the station by dint of denying you information. It was a source of relief when about half an hour ago, with your marines and Pendercost back on the ship and no sign of ARMOUR gallivanting through space, you're pretty sure the situation remains a tense stalemate. Further structural analysis done with a deep wave scanner has revealed that the damage is extensive. The station will probably lose power in the next 72 hours. You're fairly confident neither side knows this, and if they did they may be pushed to make a play for control. Dr Himura advises you to not tell them. You have before you, psychological profiles of the key players that have been assembled for you from a mix of personnel records and recordings of your interactions. They are, for the most part, what you would expect. There's a specific note regarding Jacob Smith, noting that his files indicate that he's not a suitable candidate for promotion to higher rank due to a "tendency to crack under pressure". If the situation weren't so drat critical, you might smile at that. Good call, evaluators. Good call. You adjust your uniform slightly. Its not nerves. Not exactly. More of a... comfort thing. You're used to the uniform. Its familiar. You're not used to negotiating with a bunch of lunatics, your experience dealing with high command notwithstanding. You are, however, prepped. You've got a script. Sort of. The outline of what you should say anyway. Dr. Himura has been very clear on what *not* to do. Namely antagonize any of the major players into anything rash. "Remember, if you can make them feel like they took advantage of you, they're much more likely to agree to your demands". You knew that of course, but it sounds wiser coming from Dr. Himura. He has an air about him that makes sentences like that seem like pearls of wisdom. You take a deep breath, and signal to Gregor. Its time to start. Like fencing bout, it begins with silence, you're silent, and so is the bridge. Then you speak, and the footwork begins. You open with a careful advance, probing, seeing how things are set up. "Ladies and Gentelmen of the Aggrippa. This is a broadband communication, on all channels, so rest assured that all of you are in on it" Truth. There's no point to deception here. Not if an agreement is to be brokered. "I will be blunt with you. Your situation is grim. While some of you may survive in this stalemate indefinitely, it would only be at a terrible price. Hundreds would have to die so you could live out the rest of your lives on a rock, haunted by their ghosts." A pause, a beat for tempo, half step, blade held en-pointe, "I can change that. We can all get out of here alive." Then the attack. You know they're listening, Gregor has let you know as much. "But for that to happen, we have to cooperate." The lunge. Commited. Vulnerable. But risk or lose everything. Two blips, indicating people hailing on the broadcast frequency. You indicate to Gregor to ignore them. Not the time yet. To pause mid lunge is to lose priority. "Before you hail my ship with outraged demands that the other side step down first, I have come up with a mutual disarmament agreement. As a sign of good will, the Loyalists will shut down and eject into space two ARMOUR. To ensure no shenanigans, they will be aimed away from the Achilles with their thrusts set to full. We will connect to their telemetry remotely and verify the shutdown. Simultaneously, the loyalists will vent one of the two remaining freighters." If this works. If both sides accept, you will not have broken the balance of power, but you will have broken the mutual distrust, somewhat. So, you hang in the air, waiting for a response. First from the Mutineers. "Acknowledged Achilles. When you verify the presence of two ARMOUR in space we will initiate venting procedures". A collective sigh of relief. Then Loyalists. Jacob Smith speaks. His tone starts agitated and only grows more so as he speaks. "This is an outrage! This is unacceptable! You are an officer of the FLEET. How can you condone MUTINY. DO WE NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS? They tried to KILL my command staff! They BLEW UP the Agrippa! THEY WANT US DEAD. AND YOU WANT TO NEGOTIATE WITH THEM! THERE WILL BE NO NEGOTIATION. YOU'RE A TRAITOR CAPTAIN. A MUTINEER. A TERRORIST. JUST AS BAD AS THEM. I WILL HAVE YOU" He's cut off suddenly and abruptly by the sound of gunfire. A scream of pain. More gunfire. An explosion. Someone calling for a medic. A crisp voice on the comms. The voice speaking is panting, but firm. "This is Natalie Korma. We will disarm and eject all three remaining ARMOUR or send you the command codes. Whichever you prefer. The loyalists are at your service captan. We couldn't let that idiot get us all killed." It seems that cooler heads have prevailed. Your lunge not flawless nor elegant, but sufficient. "Alright Commander Korma" you reply, your tone somber, "Place the ARMOUR in shutdown mode and eject them. We can recover them later. Mutineers, will you shut down the bombs?" You don't need to wait for a reply, as your sensors indicate a sudden venting of gas from the two freighters. It looks like the Agrippa will live... for the moment. You agreed your priority was to save the civilians trapped in storage C and D. How? This is a good time to write in plans. I'll add options here later, but I'd like to see what you come up with.
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May 3, 2016 22:49
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Inform Commander Korma that the civilian populace is in grave danger and we would appreciate her assistance with planning and execution of rescue and recovery operations. However, regardless of her answer one of the freighters is open for the use of her men. You strongly recommend she send a flight crew to begin departure preparations. Likewise, Mr. Higgs is asked to begin supplying the other freighter to depart as soon as operations cease. Storage C is priority, those people have only a few hours to live. Send someone from our medical team with a riot control equipped marine escort to distribute portable oxygen tanks, they are to return with as many people as they're able to pack on the pinnace. Priority to be determined by the attached nurse/medic/doctor. Repeat until a stable indoor route is established or C is clear. While those stopgap measures are underway, begin exploring the damage control options for creating a stable corridor to C & D. It doesn't need to be pretty, just pressurized. Once established, breach and evacuate by conventional means. At the discretion of the officer on site whether the situation is stable enough, begin retrieval of mission critical supplies as well. People take precedence, followed by long term survival requirements as prioritized by our XO. We have between two to two and a half days to safely strip this rock of everything we can salvage. The "loyalists" are the more unstable faction here, though the new commander seems to be at least somewhat given to pragmatism. That is good, as we're in a situation that desperately needs such. We can pitch the idea of joining our little human survival flotilla when we're not in imminent danger of losing a large part of the remaining humanity. As an aside, Commander Korma could shape up to be a valuable officer in light of this. I mean the circumstances of her promotion might make us a bit nervous, but she is largely responsible for de-escalating a critical situation. Tran fucked around with this message at 23:55 on May 4, 2016 |
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May 4, 2016 02:41
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Woo hoo! Success! We definitely want this new commander on the crew. If we are able to retrofit the freighter to help carry these people, we should be in good shape here. I like the ideas above about how to rescue the civilians. We need to get the loyalists and mutineers working on retrofitting the freighter(s?).
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May 4, 2016 14:15
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Plan Tran, and yes, while Korma's promotion comes about through sketchy circumstances, she de-escalated a tense situation that promised to get worse under her now-dead CO. Is that not the sort of hard, snap judgment call we ourselves would have made?
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May 5, 2016 02:41
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I'll throw in with Tran. Make it clear that if people don't do whatever they can to save other people their actions will weigh on their future opportunities.
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May 5, 2016 05:20
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 Song! You should listen to this! They shone in the void between the stars. Ten thousand crystal spears, arrayed in an impossible pattern. The largest of them, Oort, would have dwarfed the sun in size, had it ever been near the solar system. Had the solar system even been something that Oort could be aware of. They hummed to each other. The song that they had sung since the dawn of time. Carried through ten thousand galaxies. Through solar systems, and nebula. Sung in darkness and in most brilliant of light. Sung in despair, and sung in hope. A song that would end that very night. If Oort could have, he would have felt sadness. But he could not. All Oort felt was cold and weary. Oort had been there, when the Seekers first found Home. When they discovered that they were not alone in the cosmos. When the Harmony Grew. Oort did not understand time as we did. For him it was measured not in years and eons, but in stanzas and rests, but Oort knew this; Oort was *old*. They had all been called to this place. Bit by bit, as the Harmony had unraveled. It had begun when the Others joined the song. At first their melody had been confusing. Discordant. Different. The Harmony had not known what to do with it. Attempts were made to teach them. The easy parts. The simple parts. The melody. They had learned. Oh how they had learned. Before long they sung like the Harmony. This was pleasing. But they were not part of the Harmony. They twisted it. Shifted it. Modified it. This would not stand. The Harmony would not allow it. So there was war. It was a war of fire and death and weapons and it darkened the stars. But it was also a war of music and light. The song changed then. It became something cruel. Oort didn't like to remember that. Those stanzas. They could not be allowed to be again. Oort remembered. Many of his fractals had left the song then. That's when he begun to feel cold, and the song no longer warmed him. No. They had promised. Never again. The Others had been stopped. The Dissonance ended. But they had tainted the song. No. The Harmony had tainted the song. Even now, sometimes chords that had sounded during those times echoed in the song, and Oort grew colder. So when the New Others had interrupted the song, the Harmony had not known what they must do. It would not be allowed to happen again. The Song was the core. It was the reason and the logic and life. The Song was everything. It must be preserved. To allow it to suffer again, that would be as bad... no, worse, than to see it end. So they had argued. Something never seen before. The Harmony had broken. In two. The Song was... it was no more. Now there were two songs. It was too much to bear. The keepers of the old song. Those who had not broken away. Who would not be dissonant. They all came. From the edges of the galaxy. They traveled on the sound waves and on the paths they'd long traveled before. They met here. Oort was among the first to arrive. This place had been picked for a reason. For here is where many had split for the first time. Where they'd learned their first chords. There was only darkness here of course. Darkness, and perfect silence. The perfect place for song. Where nothing could disturb it. Far from the New Others, and the Disharmony. A place of peace. A place that reminded them of when they had all been one. If Oort could have, he would have wished, for a second, that things could be that way again. When he and his fractals had all discovered the wondrous complexity. When Oort had learned of the hidden ways, and of resonance, and of the Harmony that made it all possible. But Oort did not deal in could have beens or desires, he dealt in realities. As he thought back though, the cold subsided slightly. They were all here. It was time. If they had not been the Harmony, they might have put it off. They might have delayed. They might have played for time. Instead, Oort sang. He begun alone. A single note. As had the Harmony. It begun as a faint sound, in the darkness between the stars. A single note. Held for a small eternity. A rising crescendo, as the smaller members of the Harmony jumped in, with perfect precision, pulling, tugging at the notes, adding to the faint, but intense sound. Then joined the Keepers. A descending, countersweep, perfectly in tune. Into the main movement. The Watchers and the Finders, playing counterpoint. The New, joining the Old in a joyous, bursting sound. It rose, in glory, the glorious sound that had graced the cosmos for eons, that had seen galaxies rise and fall. The Song. The song that had been preserved, against all odds, against the darkness and the cold. It rose, loud, joyous, unique. For a moment, Oort felt warm again. Then, the descent, after the glorious rise, one by one the instruments must leave. First the New, shattering, their bodies bursting and punctuating the song purposefully. Then the Old. Quietly, adding an echo. Then the Finders, their spindles slowly unwinding in a downward ebb of sound. The Watchers, creating a rest as they splintered. The Keepers, they held the note, and faded, quietly, the light leaving them. Finally the Small, growing silent, one by one, as they too ceased. Finally it was just Oort. Holding the last, tenuous note in the dark. And then, there was silence. TheCog fucked around with this message at 21:28 on May 7, 2016 |
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May 7, 2016 06:41
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May 7, 2016 07:02
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Plan Tran. I also think Korma deserves something for de-escalating the situation, but I'm not sure what exactly. Do our officers have her profile on-hand? gimme the ARMOURS too TheCog posted:
Good stuff
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May 8, 2016 02:50
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That was beautiful.
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May 8, 2016 03:01
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HardDisk posted:Plan Tran. I also think Korma deserves something for de-escalating the situation, but I'm not sure what exactly. Do our officers have her profile on-hand? The obvious reward is officially recognizing her new rank.
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May 8, 2016 03:04
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Tran posted:The obvious reward is officially recognizing her new rank. Agreed, she paid the iron price 
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May 8, 2016 03:25
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For the betterment of everyone it's probably a good idea to have someone who isn't squeamish about mutiny when the captain loses his or her mind.
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May 8, 2016 03:38
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There's a pretty firm tradition of not encouraging people to shoot the captain in the back, just by virtue of... you know, not wanting to be shot in the back. You're the captain, and sometimes you might give orders that aren't perfectly coherent, for a number of very valid reasons. So if you have a bunch of people who are trigger happy and happy to off you at the slightest sign of being able to get away with it to seize your position, you have to be pretty cautious. Its likely that Korma is expecting some level of consequences. That said, there are pretty extenuating circumstances, so its very much a judgement call. We'll have a vote about what we're doing exactly re: mutineers, and other mutineers when I finish this update. Maybe tonight? I'm working on it at any rate. EDIT: Not tonight. TheCog fucked around with this message at 05:34 on May 8, 2016 |
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May 8, 2016 03:52
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TheCog posted:There's a pretty firm tradition of not encouraging people to shoot the captain in the back, just by virtue of... you know, not wanting to be shot in the back. You're the captain, and sometimes you might give orders that aren't perfectly coherent, for a number of very valid reasons. So if you have a bunch of people who are trigger happy and happy to off you at the slightest sign of being able to get away with it to seize your position, you have to be pretty cautious. Its likely that Korma is expecting some level of consequences. That said, there are pretty extenuating circumstances, so its very much a judgement call. Yeah, we can't be seen to openly accept and reward mutiny or we're for a long walk out of a short airlock the first time things get tense. We need two responses. The official response, and the private one. Official consisting of a firm knuckle-rapping and stern talking to about how special and unusual the circumstances were to make her committing an act of not only mutiny but murder the best course of action. Also note that we will be watching her. The personal response explaining that we could not openly applaud her for saving so many people the way she did, but that we appreciate what she did, accept her new rank and are relieved that the situation is resolved. Hexenritter fucked around with this message at 08:12 on May 8, 2016 |
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May 8, 2016 08:00
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I am loving this spooky space horror story.
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May 8, 2016 12:50
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Is it still possible to message earth our combat report? I never thought that moving out of the combat zone was mutiny. Only moving to somewhere where we were less likely to be detected by the alien's advanced technology. Now that we're significantly removed I say we at least let earth know that resistance is futile. If we don't and we ever meet any survivors on a better ship we are gonna get capital punishment just like our friend on the station just did.
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May 9, 2016 00:42
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It's been a while since i read this, but just wanted to post to encourage you to keep going thecog. I plan to catch up as soon as I have time. We need to kick those alien mfers asses. Or save some random people from a space station, if we are still doing that.
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May 9, 2016 05:38
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 04:23 |
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Mr. Nemo posted:It's been a while since i read this, but just wanted to post to encourage you to keep going thecog. I plan to catch up as soon as I have time. We need to kick those alien mfers asses. Or save some random people from a space station, if we are still doing that. Thanks! Also I would like to update tonight, but stelaris is really good and my space birds have to win a war. So...
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May 10, 2016 03:39
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