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Let’s play some more Aurora! What’s Aurora? This poo poo is Aurora: If that didn’t send you screaming out of the thread, then you’re the right kind of weirdo for this LP! You see, there once was a guy named Steve, who was a big fan of the board game Starfire. In fact Steve loved Starfire so much, he made a bunch of tools to play it on his computer! And he did it using the only programming method he knew: Visual Basic 6. Yes, really! But the result was something special, if you’re an odd sort like us. Aurora is a free 4x space game that looks like a geometry proof and controls like 90’s accounting software. It’s about as grog as they come. The vanilla game is honestly a massive pain, but where Aurora shines is its suite of GM tools for crafting custom scenarios! Much like Dwarf Fortress, the real game is the stories you tell in it with a gaggle of goons hooting and hollering about what to do next. There have been a lot of Aurora LPs, so why another? Well, people loving them is a good enough reason. But I also want to try something a little different. These LPs usually give us epic tales of humankind’s ventures into the stars with grand battles, alternate timelines, deep galactic history, cosmic horror, weird dead aliens, weird living aliens, weird aliens trying to kill us all, you get the idea. Instead this is a small story about a tribe of survivors on a nothing rock, at the rear end-end of humanity... or rather what’s left of humanity. What To Expect
Get Aurora C# here for free! Make sure to download and apply the patch. The latest version as of this post is 1.13. Some other Aurora LPs. Mister Bates’ LP where Aurora meets alt-history communist model UN. Still going now! bgreman’s gigantic LP that got us started. Saros’ LP. The most fun I’ve had in Let’s Play. Virtual Russian’s Aurora C# release game. This one’s particularly good if you’re new and want to learn the mechanics. And a couple more by Bremen and others that I can’t find right now. Now, let’s get to it…  The Catastrophe didn’t come until later, but the 21st century was when the Earth truly died. The slow agonies of climate doomed the old world long before the first bomb fell. It was washed away not only by the oceans, but by agricultural collapse, the billions of refugees, and the “police actions” of the great powers. When Earth’s finale arrived in the 22nd century, it at least got things over with quickly.  As the seas rose to swallow them, the nations of Earth devoted themselves to a last feat of humanity. The solar system, brought into reach by the almost-magical Trans-Newtonian elements, was said to offer limitless resources and room for the displaced masses. It’s debatable whether this panacea was genuine - the hope of salvation may have mattered more than the reality of it. Regardless, the Uplift was the last and grandest landrush. Over sixty years, nearly 500 million people would ascend Earth’s elevators to make new homes on any rock that could sustain them, or in the cold of space. The colonies of the United Nations Offworlding Project were joined by those ruled by the hungry great powers. Even as the planet’s death throes progressed, China, Russia, India, and the North Atlantic Space Development Treaty all vied for sovereignty, resources, and might in the new frontier. The moon was soon an armed camp from which they extended their grasp to the inner planets, the belt, and in the final years, to Jupiter.  Those countless glittering lights would bear witness to Earth’s end. No one living knows for sure who fired first, or why, and only an irrelevant few still care. All that matters is that, in the course of a few months, the birthplace of humanity was no more. Thermonuclear blasts were followed by other horrors - weaponized microorganisms and nanites. By the time the asteroids fell, little was left to destroy. Meanwhile, the war in space unravelled the fragile diasporic civilization. The carnage only ground to a halt as navies exhausted themselves or accepted that their governments were defunct. With most shipping and infrastructure wrecked, military malware rampaging through data systems, and scores of colonies turned to tombs, humanity settled into denouement. For decades, the survivors have struggled in seldom-broken isolation. Each colony has limped along in quiet desperation, stretching local resources to maintain the necessities of life. One by one, many of the points of light have flickered out. The only interruptions of The Long Silence have been rare trade here, the odd raid there, or perhaps a toothless declaration by some presumptuous warlord.  But after thirty-six years in darkness, humanity stirs. Fledgling political powers begin to coalesce. Priceless fragments of lost technology are discovered. The first new ships since the war are constructed, at heroic effort, on the few worlds capable of such a feat. New peoples who have lost so much, and yet endure, once again look outward. An unknown, untamed solar system awaits. The old world is gone. The new worlds will be what they make of them.  ---- quote:Stay tuned, I’ll shortly post more to orient you! In the meantime, why not sign up to be killed? Fray fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Jun 14, 2021 |
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Jun 14, 2021 21:31
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 02:24 |
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Discord Server: https://discord.gg/TeY8YTuc3s The Story So Far Welcome to Hektor Chapter 1 - The Wages of Faith A Divine Homecoming Enter Achilles The Grin Turnabout Sacrilege Side Story: Welcome to Engineering Interlude: Small Pond Chapter 2 - There Goes the Neighborhood The Death of the Asama Maru Locales: Jupiter L4 Cluster Unification Projects Locates: Luna, and Project Selections Door to Door Salesman Maps L4 Cluster, 20 October, 2153  Solar System, 3 November, 2153  Inner System, 3 November, 2153  Gallery  -by WINNERSH TRIANGLE  -by frankenfreak  -by Boat Stuck Dr. Snark posted:TNE arms in the Solar East Your Ship Classes quote:From the Ashes class Command Ship 25,142 tons 352 Crew 1,714 BP TCS 503 TH 473 EM 0 quote:Su-108 class Fighter 500 tons 19 Crew 36.7 BP TCS 10 TH 24 EM 0 quote:Osaka (Salvaged) class Destroyer 3,569 tons 89 Crew 331.4 BP TCS 71 TH 72 EM 0 quote:Steregush class Armed Rockhopper 1,298 tons 35 Crew 138.2 BP TCS 26 TH 31 EM 0 quote:Baboon class Landing Ship 500 tons 8 Crew 32.7 BP TCS 10 TH 13 EM 0 quote:Gibbon class Boarding Shuttle 473 tons 8 Crew 26.5 BP TCS 9 TH 13 EM 0 Fray fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Jul 8, 2021 |
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Jun 14, 2021 21:32
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Looks like an exciting take on these!
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Jun 14, 2021 21:44
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They told me service guarantees citizenship and I signed up.
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Jun 14, 2021 22:03
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Very nice and definitely an interesting take. I wish I'd got to wrap up my own LP like I imagined but IRL intervened and the save itself was so bloated as to be non-functional for any actual gameplay. +/- Fanatics Saros fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Jun 14, 2021 |
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Jun 14, 2021 22:20
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Saros posted:Very nice and definitely an interesting take. I wish I'd got to wrap up my own LP like I imagined but IRL intervened and the save itself was so bloated as to be non-functional for any actual gameplay. Well as much fun as I had, it does seem that you've been putting your time to more important use the last 16 months or so! Didn't know about your save file getting bogged down. Can you elaborate on that? I guess I'll have to take steps to avoid it happening to mine.
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Jun 14, 2021 22:28
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I'm here on the GROUND FLOOR of yet another Aurora LP.
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Jun 14, 2021 22:38
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Dibs on Fleet Commander
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Jun 14, 2021 22:53
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Excited to get in on the ground floor for this one
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Jun 14, 2021 22:57
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I remember mentioning in one of the past Aurora LPs (Saros' in fact IIRC) that having this weird post-apocalyptic vibe to an Aurora game would be pretty interesting - glad someone else was on the same wavelength as me but had more ambition to follow through with it. Also: Saros posted:+/- Fanatics
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Jun 14, 2021 23:13
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He'll yeah, let's burn this solar system to the ground again
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Jun 14, 2021 23:21
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Getting in on the ground floor, love me a Foundation game. Just gotta figure out if we're Terminus or Star's End
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Jun 14, 2021 23:25
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Dr. Snark posted:I remember mentioning in one of the past Aurora LPs (Saros' in fact IIRC) that having this weird post-apocalyptic vibe to an Aurora game would be pretty interesting - glad someone else was on the same wavelength as me but had more ambition to follow through with it. Alt title: Shadow Aurora
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Jun 15, 2021 00:07
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Here for service! And probably horrible death!
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Jun 15, 2021 00:48
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Always enjoy these. Please dorf me as some kind of science wonk.
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Jun 15, 2021 01:00
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Let's go! I'm signing up as a civilian scientist specialized in biology and how to keep the colonies running but I'm all up for investigating aliens if they show up
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Jun 15, 2021 01:08
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Fray posted:Alt title: Shadow Aurora Grand campaign LP that uses Shadow Empire maps to replace Aurora’s ground combat
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Jun 15, 2021 01:10
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I want to captain a ship that shoots things, please and thank you. 
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Jun 15, 2021 01:27
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Signing up as a fighter jock, entirely to ensure that fighters are a thing.
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Jun 15, 2021 01:28
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Oh boy another one, who're we nuking today? We've nuked capitalists and more capitalists before, but this universe's supply of capitalists seem to have already nuked themselves. An intriguing problem.
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Jun 15, 2021 01:50
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habituallyred posted:Signing up as a fighter jock, entirely to ensure that fighters are a thing. Fighters are a thing!
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Jun 15, 2021 02:34
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I'm down to try and keep up with one of these from the ground floor. I'd also like to be 
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Jun 15, 2021 03:29
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The Story of 624 Hektor In Jupiter’s orbit, at the leading and trailing Lagrange points, lie the Jovian trojans. These asteroid clusters were among the last regions reached by the Uplift, and once promised to serve as critical waystations on the road to the outer system. The mighty JoveRunners, the largest and last freighters of the old world, crossed the distance from Earth to construct the myriad necessities of a deep space logistics hub.  And of course they brought people. The Russians held the reins at this edge of civilization, but a human medley accompanied them. The biggest rock, and the planned center of operations in the L4 cluster, was 624 Hektor. This oblong, 370 km asteroid received heavy investment befitting its expected importance. Naturally, the war terminated these ambitions. Hektor, as remote as any colony in existence, transformed from boom-town to the echo of a dead dream. The Nineveh, the last JoveRunner to reach the cluster, floated empty in its tethers. Alone in their perch, the Hektorites watched the system fall to ruin. Their obscurity afforded them relative safety, with one exception. In the waning days of the war, traffic control blared alerts of a plasma torch approaching. A day later, a battered American destroyer loomed overhead. The rogue captain’s demands were simple: accept him and his officers as rulers, or suffer unmistakable consequences. As the deadline neared, a lowly dockyard mechanic and her friends slipped out an airlock and drifted kilometers to their goal - the abandoned Russian defense battery. There, over ten hours, they did the impossible. With the authorization systems bypassed, and only minutes to spare, the guns turned skyward and opened fire. After a ninety second battle, air gushed from the stricken ship.  That young mechanic’s name was Mirela Bastos Dias, and over the next thirty-six years she would rise to lead the Hektorites. As the Long Silence nears its end, she and her people believe they will soon meet their destiny. The great ship Nineveh, now rechristened From the Ashes, has been painstakingly transformed into an armed, mobile base of operations. A patched destroyer is dwarfed beside it. Tomorrow they depart to seek their destiny in the unknown. ------------------------------------------------ Taking Stock Right then, Hektorites, let’s take a look at your little home! Here you are, near the center of the cluster. You have some scattered neighbors in green, which were minor outposts before the war. Nearby populations are mostly small and impoverished, with just a few meager ships and troops. Agamemnon and Teucer are more significant than average, and the latter is notable as the primary source of sorium fuel in the region. A greater concern lies spinward - Achilles was once a Russian Navy patrol station, and its inhabitants are known to have put some old hardware back into service. In recent years, they’ve exploited their position to establish hegemony over several nearby rocks. The militant Achillean League is thus the leading regional power.  You’ve struggled to keep the air and water running through the decades of the Silence, but thanks to Hektor’s provisioning as a spaceport hub and Dias’ leadership, you’ve come through. Although the colony’s original Russian sponsorship left its mark, your people vary greatly. Countless languages greet you in the avenue corridors of the colony, but Russian or English will get you by. Hektor was built to serve the logistical needs of deep space operations, and was state-of-the-art at the time of the Catastrophe. Your maintenance, construction, and mining abilities are excellent, though the facilities are rather run down by now. You have a small fuel plant, but that won’t be enough in the long run. You have a repair shipyard (a recently added Aurora feature) which can repair and scrap ships, but not create new ones.  Military assets were more limited; The Russians left only the railgun battery and a few aged fightercraft when they pulled out during the war. The rest of your armaments are thanks to the ingenuity of your people. The colony’s greatest achievement is the ex-JoveRunner From the Ashes. Many of her immense cargo decks now host the various systems of a mobile command center and multipurpose naval vessel. Her engines have been retrofitted to produce military speeds, at the cost of their once-legendary fuel economy. Much of the old lady is still dark, but with continued work you may install new components to expand her capabilities. quote:From the Ashes class Command Ship 25,142 tons 352 Crew 1,714 BP TCS 503 TH 473 EM 0 When the Russians pulled out during the war, they left a small squadron of aged fighters behind. quote:Su-108 class Fighter 500 tons 19 Crew 36.7 BP TCS 10 TH 24 EM 0 The destroyer Alexi, formerly the USSF Burnside, was crippled thanks to the heroism of Dias’ circle in the final days of the war. The derelict was towed in, patched and pressurized, and over decades the dockworkers have done their best to put her back into fighting shape. Not all of her advanced systems, or her original composite armor, could be replaced but still, a largely intact pre-Catastrophe warship is a priceless artifact. quote:Osaka (Salvaged) class Destroyer 3,569 tons 89 Crew 331.4 BP TCS 71 TH 72 EM 0 Like most survivors, you’ve strapped weapons onto whatever rustbuckets you could get your mitts on. Ersatz combat ships such as these are ubiquitous and provide their owners with a semblance of fighting power, but cannot stand against a true warship. quote:Steregush class Armed Rockhopper 1,298 tons 35 Crew 138.2 BP TCS 26 TH 31 EM 0 Finally, your people maintain a militia with light weapons fabricated by the dock workshops. For tougher fighting, the colony saw fit to mount weapons on a limited number of its powered mining exosuits. In your travels, you should seek out technologies to build more advanced equipment such as combat vehicles, heavier artillery, or fire directors for precision orbital bombardment. You’ve also retrofitted some cargo shuttles as landing or boarding craft. These can drop your assault battalion under fire or breach disabled enemy ships.    quote:Baboon class Landing Ship 500 tons 8 Crew 32.7 BP TCS 10 TH 13 EM 0 quote:Gibbon class Boarding Shuttle 473 tons 8 Crew 26.5 BP TCS 9 TH 13 EM 0 That covers things for now! Dias has just called you all to a meeting, so stay tuned to hear what she has to say.
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Jun 15, 2021 03:34
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Looking forwards to this! Onwards to the stars!
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Jun 15, 2021 04:23
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Excited to explore all the horrible ways the Old World hosed up, and all the horrible ways the New World invented to survive!
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Jun 15, 2021 04:35
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Oh yeah, I'm definitely getting that Shadow Empire vibe now from the description of the local political situation.
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Jun 15, 2021 04:45
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Captianize me Captain!
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Jun 15, 2021 06:24
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It'll be interesting to actually see ground combat in action in one of these
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Jun 15, 2021 06:36
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Fray posted:Well as much fun as I had, it does seem that you've been putting your time to more important use the last 16 months or so! Didn't know about your save file getting bogged down. Can you elaborate on that? I guess I'll have to take steps to avoid it happening to mine. It was a relic of the old VB6 system and me having a fairly crappy laptop, should be okay for a newer game.
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Jun 15, 2021 10:39
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Petition to rename the Built Ford Tough NTE to Built Ford Tough TAFFR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e8o4TEoRKU
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Jun 15, 2021 10:44
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It's been a hot minute since I read an Aurora LP. Let's dive in again.
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Jun 15, 2021 11:34
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Oooooh, the local scale of this is pretty interesting. I'm about it.
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Jun 15, 2021 13:27
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SIng me up for a scientist specializedd in whatever archaeology is in this world. Xeno or human kind, I am okay with both.
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Jun 15, 2021 16:38
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Dorf me with something sciencey.
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Jun 15, 2021 17:03
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Getting in on the groundfloor here. First time I've dorfed, too.
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Jun 15, 2021 17:37
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Added myself to the list. It'll be interesting to see how this works out with the heavy single system focus and intending to stay that way from the start.
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Jun 15, 2021 17:48
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A little more bookkeeping before we start proper. The first round of assignments are done. I left some minor commands vacant cause I wasn't sure if anyone would want them. Feel free to grab one if you do. Remember to fill out the form if you want to sign up, I won't remember you if you only post in the thread! Like I said in the OP, I did some database modding for this LP. The problem I wanted to fix is that the Sol system just isn't very big in vanilla. The distances involved become trivial pretty quickly, and so I'm shrinking things down. Here's what I've changed, for those of you who follow the mechanics. - The effect of all Crew Quarters components has been halved, so for a given deployment time you'll need twice as much tonnage devoted to life support. -The fuel amount of all fuel storage modules has been reduced by a factor of 20 (so a regular Fuel Storage now holds 2500L in 50 tons). Going to Jupiter now requires a non-trivial tonnage of fuel. -I've also greatly reduced the max fortification for ground units across the board. Fortification will still be important, but imo Steve went way overboard with it in C# and it makes invasions a real headache.
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Jun 15, 2021 23:17
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Looking forwards to how things pan out!
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Jun 15, 2021 23:51
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i also look forward to seeing how dysfunctional our command structure will get this time
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Jun 15, 2021 23:55
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 02:24 |
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(- / +) Improper Long Term Radiation Shielding has Effects On Human Psyche (- / +) Space Booze is Insufficiently Distilled (- / +) Space Millipede Eaters Unrelated but I will mourn PDCs (especially in nebula systems) and I will always build defence satellites.
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Jun 16, 2021 00:00
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