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Newsflash - Assassin's Redoubt Vendetta with the University?
University forces violated Spartan neutrality and launched a sneak attack on a Spartan merchant ship bound for UN ports while in international waters. The merchant's escort bravely interdicted the University raider, but was lost in the engagement. The merchant escaped, but its location is currently classified. We hope the ship and its crew makes it safely to its destination or is able to return home. Additional Spartan naval assets have been diverted to the area.
Colonel Santiago has reportedly demanded blood debt for the loss of our brave sailors. Will Zakharov will pay up to avoid vendetta? Sources are less than sanguine given Zakharov's paranoia and past dealings with the UN. If University leadership was acting rationally, after all, the attack would never have happened in the first place.
With the completion of the USEC Cyborg Factory in Otkrieta Lab our armed forces have swiftly adapted to updated cybernetic and bionic enhancement standards. Cybercorps have been deployed all across faction territory to maintain safety levels and punish infractions of University sovereignty. "Once again we possess the greatest fighting force on Planet", Commander Zakharov announced, adding that "every attempt to undermine our inalienable right to unrestrained advancement will be met with extremely efficient deadly force!"
In related news, Spartan impact ships escorting transports full of "mobile security" have been sunk by our superior navy in response to the shameless theft of our salvage pods and the crime of operating within the "Zero Zone" established by the Maritime Territorial Regional Committee. Enemy fleet communications intercepted and decrypted by USEC intelligence have revealed definite proof of the previously suspected but until now unconfirmed military alliance between the Federation and the sub-humanoid Hive who openly collude with the "U.N." Warmongers. Effective immediately our vendetta now extends to both Santiago and Yang as well as any remaining faction leader foolish enough to challenge our active defense policy.
NEWSFLASH - USEC Invasion Forces have acted swiftly to contain the continued "Peacekeeping" aggression by exterminating both U.N. R.P.O. and U.N. E.D.O. in coordinated intercontinental amphibious assaults. The two hastily constructed naval bases had been part of an arrogant plan to contest University control of Iapetus Ocean by flooding it with "Donatello" class impact skimships, some of which reportedly managed to escape and sink a number of our obsolete conventional destroyer escorts. The Dean of Engineering Bay, Brotek Slavsky, has reportedly not deemed the damaged ships worthy of serious concern, opting to continue production of Assault Landers as "retooling would delay the shipping of troops to the frontier."
USEC casualties include one Cybercorps and one mobile Exterminator company hijacked by enemy operatives. The number is expected to rise sharply as our active defense continues but should not exceed tolerable parameters. On their end, USEC Cybercorps decimated a full Diana Rover company, two Black Ops teams, one Unity Agri-bot and three companies of U.N. rabble equipped with antiquated shredder carbines. Approximately 20,000 U.N. civilians were either killed in action, executed for crimes against the Faculty or brought back overseas for bio-salvage and scientific experimentation.
Finally, and of even greater importance, the attack provided an opportunity for University Spetsnaz to finally infiltrate the enemy Datalinks, effectively giving USEC full intelligence parity with Pravin Lal whose sole act as "governor" has been to set up a global espionage network in the name of "monitoring human rights". University citizens will be glad to know the "U.N." Warmongers, as well as their Spartan and Hive allies, possess no technology unknown to the Faculty.
NEWSFLASH: We come to you with this SPECIAL REPORT from the Human Hive capital, the city that never sleeps! The people are up and jubilant in the streets and we have some news to celebrate today! Here in the Hive's incredible utopia we have zero - and we mean zero - drones anywhere! We asked a man on the street here on camera what he thought of the Hive's situation. Tell us, mister! What do you think?
MAN ON THE STREET: Oh god! I love the Hive! It's awesome here! Everything is looked after and great! All hail glorious leader Chairman Yang! [Enthusiastic cheering]
REPORTER: That's right! Ours is a land of complete happiness and contentment everywhere! [Camera pans] Chairman Yang, tell us, how did you do it?
CHAIRMAN YANG: Through our wise investments in achieving human potential, of course! The Human Genome Project and Longevity Vaccine have achieved wonders for looking after the well-being of the people. Not to mention our superior discipline and economics makes it a cinch for us to see to our citizens' every need, now and future, in a timely fashion. We encourage all the factions to follow in our footsteps!
REPORTER: That's quite a point. The Hive is rating so much better in overall contentment and life satisfaction than other factions. In fact, the University in particular seems to have been having some major problems with drones. They've even been resorting to extreme nerve stapling, to the point of immunity!
CHAIRMAN YANG: This just confirms what we all knew about the University faction. A university is a fine place for learning, but it is no fit model to run a society. Provost Zakharov has a lot to answer for there, I'm afraid. We at the Hive denounce such heavy-handed nerve stapling tactics. The Hive is proud to declare we have never nerve stapled anyone and do not see any such likelihood arising in the foreseeable future! [Cheering]
REPORTER: Yes, we've been hearing all sorts of reports of horrible bureaucratic inertia, disturbing experiments, internal politicking, unfair allocation of benefits, and general dereliction towards societal well-being happening there. The economic sanctions for the atrocities Zakharov has visited upon his own population have exceeded 300 years. And University representatives could not be found for comment!
CHAIRMAN YANG: As a matter of fact, I myself have inquired of Provost Zakharov how he was faring and why he has not done as we have, developing the Human Genome Project and Longevity Vaccine to better society. I must say, he gave us quite the unorthodox response, by way of audiovid.
REPORTER: What response would that be? Tell us!
CHAIRMAN YANG: See for yourselves:
[Loud booing]
REPORTER: Goodness! What are the Hive's plans to deal with such unprovoked belligerence?
CHAIRMAN YANG: Oh don't worry about that. I have some more good news to share! I am proud to announce that we have been making great strides on an exciting new Secret Project!
REPORTER: Oh my! Tell us, Chairman! Is this that new Supercollider we've been hearing so much about! Word has it's even being paired with the Merchant Exchange. What an exciting duo!
CHAIRMAN YANG: Hahaha, no! Everyone knows about that! It's a great project, but the project I am proud to unveil has been much more ambitious than that. It's the Planetary Defense Initiative! Proving the wisdom of the ancients, "the nail that sticks out will be hammered down!" And ladies and gentlemen, IT'S HAMMER TIME! [Wild cheering] Zakharov won't know what hit him!
REPORTER: Most impressive!
CHAIRMAN YANG: In truth, I cannot claim credit for this on my own. It has been a real team effort and Provost Zakharov deserves the real credit for this project's rising success! He has been acting like a mad dog, behaving rampantly and attacking anyone and everyone around him, driving them to seek out allies. We now have 4 out of 6 factions aligned against the University, thanks to his rampant aggression. Even the Morganites have been responding positively to our allies! Soon all of Chiron will be vigorously defending itself all over University territory! [Enthusiastic cheering]
REPORTER: And what of Sister Miriam's faction? How have they responded to Hive overtures?
CHAIRMAN YANG: The Believers? They took a damaged escape pod to planetfall and died on impact. It was very tragic.
REPORTER: Ah, I see... Well, that just about wraps up our report, folks! And in other shocking news, Brother Lal of the U.N. Peacekeepers has convened a vote to repeal the U.N. Charter!
So I've been blueballing Kalin out of all the drone suppression SPs all game long which has been working wonders for his drone problems. Do you know how many drone suppression SPs I actually need as Hive to control a base of 7 population? Zero. In this mod I can staff a base full of clean scout patrols and that will be all the drone suppression I need. Anyway, Kalin (University) had been leading tech charts for a while in the earlygame which led to a very open tech trade between other factions in order to keep pace. On top of that he's been pop booming recklessly without psych facilities and attacking people left and right, so Hellraiser (Lal) and now janior (Gaians) have been looking for allies against him.
Kalin's reasons were something about how he was afraid we were doing PDI, so he started attacking people, encouraging them to seek out friends and bringing about PDI. Fun fact: janior (Gaians) was actually moving troops to attack Hellraiser (Lal) until Zak attacked him. Yes, Kalin just attacked someone who was about to help him out. Hellraiser was previously similarly antagonized by Kalin moving troops in Hellraiser's borders after negotiating for alliance. So that's what losing at the diplo game looks like, folks. Morgan (agentorange) is the only faction left that is not yet at war with him.
And now we have eclipsed him in military technology, fielding superior weapons and superior armor to anything Zakharov has. And now Zak has to build Rec Commons in the middle of wartime because his bases have been going immune to stapling.
The Old Lady has shown signs of age. She was the eldest amongst her kin and was witness to much of the war. The war itself has raged on for twenty seven years and for much of them you wouldn’t notice there was a war going on. Most combat took place around Gladwyn Jebb Summit, the bastard child of a freak seismic experiment unleashed by the University with a Unity pod. The same seismic event also sunk one of their first transport ships, a so called assault lander. This was shortly before hostilities erupted. Unfortunately for the curious eggheads the event has forced the Peacekeeping forces to check just what triggered it and lead to the discovery of the second part of the assault task force sneaking to U.N. X.H.A. But that was all ancient history and Gladwyn Jebb Summit was not a place for the Old Lady.
Iapetus Ocean however, now that was a place filled with memories. She remembered the waves beneath her, and the tides of Nessus and Pholus which were sweeping shores east and west. She experienced the fierce tropical storms that with all their fury threatened her very existence with record-breaking winds. The coast and the gulf she knew best, and those formed when Gladwyn Jebb rose stealing parts of Iapetus Ocean. A gulf that was never named as the bureaucrats, lacking proper UN procedure, spent the past decades arguing one another about who exactly has jurisdiction over that. It was a paper-pushing drama that just refused to end, much like certain Earth soap operas archived in the datalinks before Unity launched.
The Old Lady was the first, she was meant to be the second and they wished to christen her the “Prophet Habbakuk”. A clash of central and local politics, with the newly founded U.N. Rainforest Protection Office at its heart, has changed the Old Lady's fate. The pacifists, claiming the University threat is a fascist hoax, won. Instead of laying down the hull of the first “Donatello” Class foil for the Navy, Undersecretary Brighton let them get their Children Creche first. In the end the pacifists of R.P.O. died less than a year after their children first attended the creche. They died just like everyone else at the jungle settlement during the University raid.
The “Donatello”, first of its class, was launched on the same year as the Creche of U.N. R.P.O. burned. It was the U.N. Export Directive Organization’s first and last gift to the war effort. A foil armed with enough Diana railguns to sink anything the eggheads sent its way.
Alone for multiple years, orphaned and without a home port, she operated from the deep gulf and sunk the University Impact Foil “Korolev” in its first combat engagement. This was followed by the sinking of two assault landers. For a brief moment the gulf was safe, despite the slaughter of R.P.O. and E.D.O. by Zakharov’s goons. The heavy losses and mass desertions amongst their cyborg forces have for a moment scared away the sociopaths of University Base.
The harmony did not last long and was broken shortly after a freak dimensional vortex misplaced a mindworm boil on patrol duty. This allowed an enemy rover to sneak past patrols and assault the U.N. Planetary Energy Bank, just before the patrol gap could be closed, killing 20000 people. But that was just a humble prelude. At this time the “Donatello” was not alone, her sister ships were launched at the U.N. Naval Development Bureau, they moved out into the Gulf and waited. To the admiralty’s surprise two enemy ships entered the gulf. They sunk the “St. Mark” and the “David”, ignoring the Old Lady as her damage after years of sea patrols and naval combat made her seem less threatening. It was a mistake.
With half the fleet sunk the admiralty hatched a cunning plan, all remaining support boats were sent to give the Old Lady a bit of a cosmetic touch up. Marcel Dubois was part of this makeover and he knew his purpose.
Freedom can’t board egghead ships and teabag their sonofawhore captains by itself, that’s why God created the UNCN Marines. Lance Corporal Dubois remembered the wise words of Seargant Volker well.
The second class of marines fresh out of the N.D.P. boot camp did what had to be done. They boarded the motorboats or borrowed black ops pontoons and set course from the jungle shores near the R.P.O. ruins to the anchored and ignored Old Lady. Their rides to the ship were laughable, but if necessary a marine has to be able swim on an Eating Surface Mark I canteen table and row with a pair of type C bioplastic sporks. Volker taught them that comfort is something they’ll get once a marine takes a massive dump on the desk in Zakhorov’s officeand once another marine deflowers the last legal and pretty female virgin in Black Mesa. Which was a colorful way of saying when hell freezes over, or when a rogue planetoid crash lands on the Cybercorps Manufacturing plant in the egghead heartland. That last part was something religious folk all over the U.N. colony prayed for every Sunday if not every day.
While he swam in his cute little pontoon that barely kept him and four of his mates afloat, he saw skiffs and small support craft also going to the "Donatello". They were carrying equipment, some of it were ticks also known as UNCN Coffins, as they could send one on his final journey if the eggheads proved competent in repelling the boarding attempt. Other skiffs carried the Pele-C missile launchers adapted for ship to ship combat. When the coffins stay true to their name they send us out with a bang, or at least what is left of us. The Old Lady was now a Donatello class in name only, it’s official designation after the refit, as given by the desk jockeys from the N.D.B., was "Michaeloangelo Supreme Class Marine Assault Foil, UNCN 003A/C3". A fucking mouthful if there ever was one.
Marcel’s marine cherry has long since been popped, he was in the lucky 60% that hurled towards the “USV Sagan” last year and lived to tell the tale. He was part of the legend, one of the first UNCN Marines to seize an enemy combat ship, a so called Kolchak Dominator foil, that was hardly dominating anything. It earned him women during brief shore leave, and then another round of seeking death in the unnamed gulf due to his experience and general manpower shortages.
The combat klaxon wailed, death has come calling once again. If I die today I hope the asshole that got me gets to experience a swim in burning napalm.
He ran to find a tick as soon as possible. Whoever reached the row of coffins last would take the left-most and first to launch coffin, playing the vital role of a tactical bullet magnet. The first four people would launch last, and thus hopefully avoid interception by enemy fire or breach the target ship long after the eggheads ran out of grenades. Marcel wasn’t in the first four, but he managed to grab a spot in the third coffin, just barely. There were five more which would launch before his.
“Goodday mate, fancy a leisure cruise to the UNV Galileo?” Corporal Kelly asked him. He had an accent typical of the city known as U.N. Customs Control Bureau and was sitting at the helm of the tick.
“Nah, I’ll just jump overboard half-way, I saw some topless thots swimming tits up somewhere around there. You guys go on and make some omelettes while I acquaint myself with the ladies.”
“Oi mate, as much as I would love to meet me some girls, this tin can won’t let me stop until it reaches the ship, or unless a CIC bloke yawns and presses the abort button with his elbow by accident.”
“Guess no tits for us then,” Marcel summarized.
BRACE FOR LAUNCH.... TEN... NINE...
The countdown continued and when it stopped a loud thud echoed inside the coffin. It was followed by the rumbling of a washing machine, if a washing machine could get drunk and angry at a bar after someone insulted her girlfriend.
Muffled sounds of small calibre guns and large calibre impact cannons interrupted the cacophony of the house appliance preparing for mortal pub combat. Left, right, left, stop, left, the bodies of the marines were thrown from side to side as the tick’s computer made evasive manoeuvrers.
A head-splitting gong rang inside the pod as they made contact with the hull, Marcel and his brothers in arms got up and prepared while the airtight seal was being established.
The pods front hatch opened by detonating shaped charges and creating a breach in the ship to which it attached. There was no way going back, it would neither detach itself nor stay afloat. The only way back was through the crew of the “Galileo”.
“Go go go!” Kelly yelled, although all of them already heard Volker yell it into their ears on their own comms.
Marcel knew where they were, the “Galileo” was identical in layout to the “Sagan”. Ever since the Sagan was seized, marines had the pleasure of doing combat sims with roughly accurate Kolchak Dominator virtual models. If they gouge out your eyeballs and staple your other balls, you should be able to run to the CIC by memory alone and lob them some frags as a matter of courtesy. That was another Volkerism engraved in his mind.
It took about half an hour before the gunfire stopped. Turns out one of the first teams had the bright idea to take the environment control room first and drop a gas grenade inside the vent leading to the CIC. Eggheads didn’t know what hit them, until they started puking all over the equipment Zakharov bought with hard earned money from scrapping vital infrastructure. The automated guns were still firing for four more minutes based on IFF algos alone, before a frag rolled inside engineering and shot a power junction to hell, taking the automated guns offline. Nothing really unfixable, just not fixable in a combat situation where all your engineers gained some body lead content. With some refurbishment the ship would be functional enough to join the UNCN fleet and fight for the good guys in a few weeks time.
This was not the day Marcel Dubois would die. Out of eight pods only 7 men did not come back. Their sacrifice allowed the UNCN Marines to seize not just the "Galileo", but also the two assault landers it was escorting. Another lander was sunk in the north along with the so called egghead “siege tank” company that was aboard, actually just a bunch of glorified self-propelled gun.
News from the ground was that the cut off eggheads commander, now with no means of retreat, triggered the killswitches of their cybercorps to avoid deserters joining the U.N. Peacekeeping forces as has happened in the past. However the victory at the unnamed gulf was soured by other news from the ground. An ingenious engineering operation allowed the enemy to strike at the U.N. Xenobiology Research Institute using an ad-hoc road before the counter-attack forces could intervene. The base’s missile plant was raided for Pele missile launcher specifications and the base was obliterated, 50000 people dead in the combat or in the holocaust. Task force “Great Pyramids” stationed at Koffi Annan's Peak sustained heavy damage, losing a full Diana rover company and a full Diana SPG company. Forward scouts were killed and terraforming crews have been executed by charging enemy rovers, with the exception of one terraforming crew that defiantly killed the University elite cyborg impact cavalry, utterly humiliating the eggheads with their courage and skill. Some started to call those heroes the terrorformers. Marcel wondered what they would call them. The Krakens of Iapetus has a nice ring to it.
***
The world did not yet end. Marcel Dubois thought as he received his medal from Admiral Vincze. For the time being, despite the atrocities, the U.N. Peacekeepers, their Navy and most of all the Marines, remained a deadly force. And every time the eggheads thought they would be victorious, and even when they managed to inflict minor or great damage, they paid a price so heavy in bloody the victory would be hollow. For over thirty years they have plotted against freedom. For twenty seven years they have fought against freedom. Yet the U.N. still stands, and with it Freedom and the legacy of Earth still have a chance. The U.N. shall fight in the years to come, so long as there is a marine with a body part capable of inflicting pain upon the autistic sonsofbitches. Someone has to shit on Zakharov's desk and piss on his parade, it is a job only a marine can do.
The turn is 73. Since the eggheads were first chased away back to mommy a couple of things happened, two of which are major fuck ups on my end.
I tried deploying coastal bases but managed to get both killed with chain transports (this was expected, although undesirable). Most embarrassingly in the first one I hurried a children creche first instead of a foil, hurried the foil on the next turn. Kalin killed the base before the foil finished. This was bad because if I had the other foil I probably could have sank a lot more ships. He sent just one to protect the chain and I sunk it at the first turn I had a combat ship, later on I sunk two transports which bought me some breathing room, but it could have been better.
The worst mistake was at the loss of E.D.O. You see, I had a probe there, but I decided “hey his probes are at bases and this one at the only coastal one can’t possibly reach the base in time, I should move it out of the base to block the river for some unit stealin” then Kalin chain transported that one probe and infiltrated me. Which directly lead to his cunning combat terraforming rape of U.N. X.B.R.I. and the theft of missile tech. Doubtful he would try it blind, but who knows. Anyway if Lol gets dragged to an egghead execution gas chamber and oven, it is because I moved that probe stupidly and also because of the creche in R.P.O.
Another fuck up, although minor, is scrapping worms in a base to get minerals to speed up building another creche. Turned out scrapping worms at a base gives no minerals even if you built the worm and not just captured it. This and the random unity pod that threw my boil guarding P.E.B. into a completely fucking far part of my turf lead to that base dying. I had a window of opportunity to kill the rover, as it stood next to the base after killing its scout garrison, but simply nothing was in range to kill it in time. Would have had one if not for the dimension rift pod. Possibly Kalin would not kill that base if not for infiltration telling him it is there at the ruins, but who knows. Anyway killed that egghead rover with another boil when I got the chance.
On the flip side I did get lucky a bit. On turn 72 I used my upgraded Donatello Class, first of its name, to a snazzy missile marine foil, capturing Kalin’s Kolchak Dominator (Dominator got dominated). I also sunk an impact foil. This was a scouting/passage clearing run by him before the drop on XBRI came. Unfortunately my other marine ship did not roll a capture, but it did sink an impact foil. This turn I used the upgraded Donatello (once again ignored by Kalin) to capture an escort with two transport ships. Plus the other ship I sunk this turn makes 4 ship losses for Kalin in one turn.
Marine pods from SMAX are hilariously broken not just because of stack capture, but also because anything aboard those transports would also be converted to my side. The chance is random but it is quite high. Kalin can’t hog all the luck with his “continent all for himself” and his lucky pods giving him 3 free techs and the early lead.
In other news after EDO and RPO got egghead'd, I stole the units he used to attack those bases with my probes, and used them to kill his shit that was too far to steal. Best was after E.D.O. got an elite impact infantry and elite rover out of that. Second hand units at bargain bin prices from Crazy Zakharov's 'borg factory.
I think he probed the impact infantry back as I did not see a combat message saying it got wrecked, while there was one cybercorps attacking some of my shit, but it could have been send on the ships, dunno. But it seems he decided not to let me capture more shit and after killing XBRI he just dismantled all units to avoid me going bargain hunting again.
Also:
Terrorformers Mark II, heroes of the U.N.
Oh and just in short, I used to be second in pop just 10 behind Kalin, but with recent raeps I fell behind, also falling to third place behind the Hive, used to be second. For a while I was top in military again, then Sparta got the lead and now it is the University again (dunno why, didn’t see much of a military buildup, could have been the kolchaks).
Lastly I tried calling the vote to repeal the Unity Charter (as Lal, r00fles) but Janior voted nay, despite me telling him this would really piss off Kalin and that I would gib missile weapon tech to him as soon as Kalin also gets it. He voted nay only to see Kalin attacked him after that. Oh well, he will learn. Wonder how long he holds out. I wish him all the best against the University Autists but his odds are really low.
"I ignore polling as a method of government. I think that shows a certain weakness of the mind - an inability to chart a course whichever way the wind blows, whichever way the media encourages the people to go, you follow. If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader."
U.N. Black Ops shits on Zakharov's desk! UNCN Marines Jealous.
Following the fantastic success of operation Delta House, the marines found themselves in a frustrating situation. Stationed just outside of University Base, in which all defenders have been fully obliterated by augmented peacekeeper forces, Peacekeeping Command has forbid the capture of the base citing paperwork reasons. Stalled by waiting for assault form 23/A-9 to be verified against their assault request forms 11/B-2, they had to sit on the University coast.
At the same time a UN Black Ops team, apparently having all the necessary paperwork, waltzed into the base, raided the University campus for technology and even defecated on the desk in the provost's office. The images of this act of vulgar vandalism have been shared on the Black Ops recruitment datalinks site with the caption "beat you guys to it!" hyperlinked to the UNCN Marines recruitment datalinks site.
"That's totally not cool, that was ours to do!" Said one anonymous UNCN Marine. For years the prospect of shitting on Zakharov's desk has been an aspiration for many marines. Ever boot was taught of the importance of this goal, and now it has been snatched away from them, by the mysterious black ops operatives.
UN Bureaucrats sleep on the job and misplace 2 company's worth of gear
A dastardly revelation has been sent to our office. An anonymous source claims that peacekeeper inventory lists erroneously listed much more gear and even augmented personnel than there actually was. It was discovered our forces are short by a total number of men and material which could form two augmented infantry companies. This inventory count wrote off hi-tech U.N. gear such as cybernetic augmentations, pele missile launchers and the digsby mark III trench tools. "It was as if our industrial base was more efficient than it should be in reality, and reality caught back to us," said our source.
Our Spartan friends kick autistic ass
Official Spartan sources say their offensive in the eastern reaches of the University is going well and that it is only a matter of time before all opposition is crushed. The Chiron Security Council refuses to comment on the strategic situation, but we in The Suns are certain that the nervestapled drooling cyberdrones of the University are no match for the superior training and army organization of the Spartan Federation.
The turn is 80.
Got myself some bio-enhancement centers bought with humanitarian aid money, worm loot and general jewgold from commerce and 100% green econ. Started churning out elite troops, used them and the prize ship transports I captured previously to do a bit of coastal raiding in egghead land.
The original plan was to also burn to the ground what I can which means University Base or the coastal bases, but I can't as janior voted nay to the charter repeal and thus in Kalin's favor, only to see once the vote pop-up was gone that Kalin invaded him and started a gaian genocide. Hoped the sunspots event might come up to hide full-on UN hypocrisy in the subject of atrocities and genocide, but that didn't happen.
Got two techs out of this raid and murdered 7 units I think, plus one pop damage at a naval base. I think the techs were worth it despite losing all my attackers from what Kalin mentioned in shoutbox, anyway I did not expect any of them would survive.
Sparta walked up to some University Base with a number of units, but it seems the eggheads are prepared so its all just passive aggressive for the time being. They are at war again (long story, Kalin will probably mention it in an update).
Also turned out I had a fucked up mod install and for me the "power" social engineering choice was just -1 industry as opposed to -2 industry the new version was supposed to revert to (key point being power's +2 support easily nullified the -1 industry penalty in the mod, vanilla always had -2 industry for power). After I fixed it, as compensation I scrapped some new elite augmented units outside of the bases to nullify the advantage I got from fookin up da mod update.
Lastly it turned out that since this is a scenario only Kalin is playing with transcend difficulty, the rest of us seem to be stuck with librarian or something as the difficulty needs to be set by player or something. He didn't want to switch so that he would not see our starting locations. Main reason we're playing a custom scenario is to delete artifacts, as artifact fishing with transports really fucks up the teching metagame especially in our last game (sea transports have abnormally high odds of getting artifacts from sea unity pod, artifacts give 1 free tech).
Anyway this scenario difficulty levels explain why I don't need drone control facilities until my bases hit size 8 and also why everyone except Kalin pays just 24 energy for switching social engineering choices
Kalin is quite motivated to humiliate our little UN-Hive-Spartan alliance despite this unintentional handicap. Can't blame him, so far we didn't do any major damage. We'll see how it goes.
UNIVERSITY PREVAILS! - USEC Cybercorps stand triumphant in the aftermath of the failed assaults on Black Mesa and University Base, having utterly crushed the Spartan invasion force whilst simultaneously exterminating every single "U.N." warmonger on University clay. "Would-be dictator Lal and his pathetic terrorist lapdog should have remembered they are dealing with the cognitive elite", Zakharov remarked as elated Faculty praised his tactical and strategic superiority and workers rejoiced as Morgan-feed highlights of organic evisceration, disassembly and recycling of Spartan prisoners aired during allotted rec-hours.
Continuing his address, Zakharov further dismissed the "U.N." probing as a result of a minor glitch in the University Security Nexus deeming it "unfortunate" but "ultimately inconsequential" as University research remains unparalleled even amidst the current emergency measures. On a more serious note, the Academician reiterated his condemnation of Spartan treachery in attempting hostilities mere years after signing the peace treaty with the Technocratic Council. "Make no mistake – the Spartan "invasion", which has officially entered history as the most pathetic and useless sneak attack ever attempted, shall be swiftly and sorely punished!"
Unsurprisingly, Pravin Lal shows no signs of abandoning his warmongering ways nor his campaign of rescinding the U.N. Charter to bring about total "Peacekeeping" control facilitated by the global information grid, "U.N." psyops and PSI/neural warfare against individuals and populations. In apparent frustration over the failure of his inferior troops as well as Deirdre's repeated refusal to support his hypocritical calls for Charter repeal, the surgeon-turned-tyrant has now betrayed his oldest ally by launching a full-scale invasion of the mutant enclave. "This is just classic Lal", University experts noted. "Remember: Lal went on record as the first leader to pronounce vendetta against fellow humans on Chiron." In light of recent developments University Security has shifted priorities and now fully lends support to the remains of the beleaguered Gaian state.
Following Lady Deidre's shocking vote of nay to the Planetary Council resolution reforming the U.N. charter, which caused the resolution to fail for the second time, it was discovered the bulk of surviving Gaian forces has moved into positions allowing them to strike at U.N. S.S.B. specifically within the year.
Four out of six Gaian mind worm boils and the only remaining espionage team have been discovered hiding in fungus on the U.N.-Gaian Border.
General Tikaram has been authorized by Secretary General Pravin Lal to launch a pre-emptive first-strike, in order to save civilian lives from eco-terrorism and likely attempts to steal Particle Chemistry technology. Warships, mindworms boils, rover cavalry and augmented infantry have all been dispatched to quickly rout the Gaian strike forces assembling at the pholus ridge border.
Enemy forces have suffered significant losses and it is expected Peacekeeping forces will dismantle the Gaian rogue state in a very short and swift manner.
Analysts are still baffled as to why Lady Deidre torpedoed the U.N. Resolution thus directly supporting the tyrant Zakharov, despite the genocide her people have suffered at University hands. "Deidre's psych profile matches the typical beaten wife, or these are some latent masochistic tendencies," one expert has said.
Geopolitical analysts however think that the move is borderline retarded and quote "supreme cuckdom" end quote.
*transition to footage of a talking head*
"Zakharov has given nothing to the Gaians but death and destruction, the Chiron Security Council has provided Gaians with funds and technology, patrolled their borders, and for what? To switch sides to Zakharov's, who has no direct means of helping the Gaians and previously killed the bulk of their citizens? What kind of madness guides this so called Lady Deirdre?"
*transition to Peacekeeper military official's press conference*
"The only possible outcome of the Gaian actions is their total defeat, considering the small-scale campaign of University forces which reduced their faction to just 2 cities and one oceanic platform. Peacekeeping forces are far superior tactically as has been demonstrated numerous times in combat against the Unviersity menace, and our current industrial output, economic output and population size are already superior to the University let alone the vestigial faction that are the Gaians."
*voice over continues*
Reports are coming in that the Gaian forces, shocked by the wisdom of U.N. military intelligence services and the ferocity of our pre-emptive strike, are already running away from the border as U.N. troops move in to liberate the destitute and suffering people whose fate Deirdre is forfeiting in the name of Zakharov.
The turn was 83 (84 now).
I expected eggheads to come that way, maybe some cybercorps still lurking about and dodging janior's boils, instead my friendly patrols (we were pacted and enjoyed a bit of commerce, before Kalin went in like Hitlur into the Gaians) noticed Gaian shit suspiciously positioned. And just before I saw that I saw this:
Was quite pissed by that, Kalin is no doubt happy with it. Dunno what janior was thinking, probably bored after Kalin raeped him, also supposedly he wanted to attack me anyway before Kalin dropped on him and possibly got blueballed when egghead genocide rolled in. Anyway the great egghead "liberation" has been postponed due to a nay vote that most likely was Gaian (not that I know who voted how, which BTW the last person to vote was always supposed to share per PBEM rule 14, which is janior, but whatever).
Anyway their position did not look like a smart one to defend from eggheads, the vote suspiciously failed at the same time, so it was quite obvious he went brutus on me. Too much of a coincidence all of those could attack or probe U.N. S.S.B. (Shipbuilding Study Bureau) next turn. I guess he's bored because there is no longterm or short-term benefit to attacking me, except maybe getting some tiles for Dreams of Green which I stole when settling C.C.B. and S.S.B. over which would not be worth going to war, considering we were pacted and he saw what advantage I have over him.
The tile stealing was not even intended, just an unfortunate consequence of putting the bases in a good position not to overlap with other bases or to be easier to defend or less likely to lose multiple coastal bases in one attack, back when Kalin had a navy and coastal bases (he burned all of them down, which saved me the trouble, thoughtful of him).
I also got a bit paranoid after the below, although I already expected an egghead attack from that general direction before Kalin shoutboxed this, was purging fungus next to CCB just in case and put around some precautions even before the following exchange happened. By turn 83 that fungus leading to CCB was already dead for 2-4 turns.
May 23, 2020 at 4:24 PM - Kalin: Man I'm disappoint
May 23, 2020 at 4:25 PM - Kalin: I even drew him a map
May 23, 2020 at 4:25 PM - Kalin: https://i.imgur.com/MNtp9E3.png
May 23, 2020 at 4:27 PM - Hellraiser: it fixed powr's industry penalty but the upheval cost is stilkl 24 energy
May 23, 2020 at 4:27 PM - Kalin: Raiser you see this shit
May 23, 2020 at 4:27 PM - Kalin: Junior that little fuck agreed to the plan now he's like no I won't do it
May 23, 2020 at 4:28 PM - Kalin: Hmm weird
May 23, 2020 at 4:28 PM - Kalin: I dunno what even governs that
May 23, 2020 at 4:28 PM - Kalin: Or why it'd be different
May 23, 2020 at 4:29 PM - Kalin: This betrayal hurt a lot more than Gravy's sleazy trick
Also I now have 1 more pop than the University as this sneakan happened just after I switched to pop boom mode.
In 199, when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were about to clash at the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao sent a messenger to meet Zhang Xiu and propose an alliance between them against Cao Cao. Zhang Xiu wanted to agree, but Jia Xu, who was beside him, said to Yuan Shao's messenger: "I say 'No, thank you.' to Yuan Benchu. He can't even accommodate his own brother. What makes him think he can accommodate talents from around the Empire?"
A shocked Zhang Xiu turned to Jia Xu and asked: "Why do you have to say this? What will become of me now?"
Jia Xu replied: "Why don't you submit to Cao Cao?"
Zhang Xiu asked: "Yuan Shao is powerful while Cao Cao is weak. Besides, I am also Cao Cao's enemy. What will happen if I submit to him?"
Jia Xu replied: "That's why it is better for you to submit to Cao Cao. He controls the Empire in the name of the Emperor. This is the first reason why you should submit to him. Yuan Shao is militarily more powerful. You have less troops than him, so even if you join him, he won't regard you highly. Cao Cao has less troops. If you join him, he'll be delighted. This is the second reason why you should submit to him. A man who aspires to become a great ruler will be more willing to put aside personal enmities and make his virtues known to people. This is the third reason why you should submit to Cao Cao. I hope you won't have any more doubts." Zhang Xiu heeded Jia Xu's advice and led his forces to surrender to and join Cao Cao.[Sanguozhi 15]
UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING FORCES SAVE DEIDRE FROM ABUSE
After seven years of intensive campaigning the combat in the Gaian theatre has come to an end. The boys in blue managed to secure Gaia's Landing in operation "Amber Heard" with next to no casualties on the side of freedom.
The Gaian remnant gathered all remaining mindworm boils behind the perimeter at their last base following a failed joint gaian-university attack at the forces stationed around U.N. Educational Accessibility Organization (formerly known as Dream of Green).
The sudden presence of University forces in the combat theatre proved that the intelligence used to justify first strike was correct, as the eggheads were lurking nearby holding the Deidre at gunpoint to execute their horrible plan.
That last ditch hackjob of an offensive has proven the superiority of augmented U.N. peacekeepers who killed twice their number of attackers while on the defensive. The university and gaian survivors had their killswitches engaged, in true egghead fashion.
Following that attack the Gaian strategy seemed to be to raise as much low-skilled and under-equipped militia as meatshields, meant to be sacrificed so that the six enemy mindworm boils could survive and perform a counter offensive against UN forces.
It became clear to Peacekeeping Command that any strike against the stockholm syndrome-struck Lady Deidre and her last city needed to be swift. A plan was crafted where mechanized infantry in improved Helios APCs would be moved from outside the range of the Gaian mindworms.
Additionally a campaign of sabotage by UN black ops forces has dismantled the perimeter defence, greatly reducing the defensive potential of the token human forces in the base. While Peacekeeping Command insists that the offensive would be a success even if the perimeter still existed, our sources in the military say it made things easier.
"Troops fighting what we call in the army lingo trash defenders suffered so little casualties they could have continued to push against other weaker targets," our source told us.
Peacekeeping Command has not disclosed the exact number of forces engaged in the fighting, only saying that it was "sufficient to finish the fight".
With the Gaian faction no longer existing it is expected the next attempt at Charter Reform will not fail in the Planetary Council. Lady Deidre is held in a private therapy cell where top UN empaths and psych talents help her cope with Zakharov's abuse. Gaian drones and talents alike are also scheduled to be assigned to therapy, as soon as their UN citizen IDs, mental health profiles and other necessary UN documentation is prepared. So probably in 5 years.
ITZ COMMING FOR SPARTA? NEW EGGHEAD STAGING AREAS EMERGE
While UN intelligence has been working overtime analyzing every little thing the University does, this one came as a bit of a surprise even to them. Two new bases appeared on the eastern coast of the Baltica continent almost next to each other, and very close to the Spartan outpost of Fort Liberty.
Spartan sources confirmed the intelligence reports, and while the current status is not disclosed, rumors claim the eggheads are rapidly assembling new transport ships, as their old ones were all sunk or captured in the years past.
It is of course unknown what exactly are the plans of Zakharov, who is of course Planet's own Hitler, with 3322 years of sanctions imposed on his thug faction. However we here at the Suns know that whatever his objectives are with those two new outposts, it is definitely something evil and truly despicable.
ZAKHAROV CALLS GOVERNOR VOTE, AGAIN. LAL LIKELY TO REMAIN GOVERNOR, AGAIN.
A wise man once said "the mind of an autist is a truly marvellous and terrifying thing", and when looking at the geopolitical actions of Prokhor Zakharov, we agree. He has once again called the governorship vote, knowing all too well that it will fail. One would expect the disgraced Unity Science Office and supposedly smartest man alive to know basic arithmetic.
What is perhaps most amazing is that Zakharov is not one of the candidates, and that there are 3 of them. Per Unity Charter rules a Hive, Spartan and UN candidate are eligible. Lawyers and other useless parasites on society claim that this is because a section of the charter defines a "fuzziness principle" in case of a faction close to the number of votes of the second faction.
Support from Colonel Santiago has been confirmed and this alone, together with the votes of Secretary General Lal, secures enough votes to make Lal's reelection a certainty. Lady Deidre also confirmed support for Lal, shortly before operation "Amber Heard" begun. Chairman Yang surprised everyone by stating on Hive state media that he will support Santiago and not himself.
But all this just shows how obvious the outcome is. With four factions quite close to each other in population size the "fuzziness principle" did take hold and as stewards of the UN mission per the Unity Charter, the United Nations Extrasolar Settlement initiative has double the votes.
The TURN is 90.
I killed janior. Did some shenanigans with my APCs (infantry with transport modules) to drop elite troops at the doorstep and get two attacks per each unit. Only the unit that fought his biggest baddest mindworm boil got damaged so much it couldn't attack again, everything else got two attacks, no losses. Obviously I left the second attack of the damage units for the weaker defenders, and used the fresh ones to kill whatever was the toughest hippie around. Had to kill all this granola-fed and fungus-fed crap (not even sure if it shows all of it):
As you can see in the graph all in all it is quite even between the top 4 factions, with University now 4th, and Morgan is currently catching up in pop due to some golden age pop-booming. At this point the graph was not updated to include the extra pop from liberating the hippies and the elimination of Gaia, it and the Gaian green line graph flatlined after that happened.
At the same time Kalin called the Governorship Elections and once again I could vote for three people, obviously chose myself. I guess Yang had more pop on Kalin's turn, but then when Gravy got his Sparta turn he got some extra pop and was also eligible.
Oh and this from a few turns back proved my suspicions were right:
janior learned the hard way not to listen to Kalin's plans, anyway Kalin had maybe 3-5 units still around and no way to reinforce them, so janior should have just told him to fuck himself as his worms could have killed them all. Especially when counting the worms I killed since the betrayal became apparent.
But then again janior didn't really know that as I did not send him the intel package from infiltration
What Kalin said in shoutbox is that he engineered this anyway to increase TURN flow as he was unable to kill Gaians himself, due to that one sea base he couldn't really attack. Sparta took that sea base a while back.
That Gaian sea base I could have also taken but it would take longer, possibly too long and Kalin would call the vote for repeal again knowing we wouldn't have the majority to stall it for another 10 turns (unless janior would vote YEA). Also killing it shifted some more support to Gaia's Landing which slowed down the trash scout spam (default scouts are clean in this mod, so 0 support).
The most interesting thing happening is not so much Gaia's demise which was inevitable and the related voting bamboozling, but this:
These two new bases are probably up to no good and who knows what dastardly things Kalin will do with them. ITZ Fortress went up first, that other one on this TURN.
What Kalin said in shoutbox is that he engineered this anyway to increase TURN flow as he was unable to kill Gaians himself, due to that one sea base he couldn't really attack. Sparta took that sea base a while back.
NEWSFLASH! - University Security Forces have conducted a massive punitive strike neutralizing tens of thousands of regressives and securing for the Faculty considerable strategic advantages! The ambitious attack, masterminded by Commander Zakharov and drawing upon his experiences in the Kolymar Defense Force using enhanced combat engineering to decimate Celestials along the Bering Strait, utilized a dozen APC companies, numerous Exterminators, Terminators, Psyker Detachments and two dozen Serv-Bot 2.0 Constructor Fleets to rapidly connect our highway network to the very extremity of Cognito Continent.
The sudden arrival of University siege guns and cyber warriors in close proximity of unlawfully constructed "Fort Liberty" came as a great shock to the enemy, necessitating frantic reinforcements and suspension of their own strike against Berzelius Terminal. Softened up by long-range Pestulator Artillery bombardment the enemy base fell as Terminators cut a bloody swath through Trance Field Sentinels, Mobile Security and heavily armoured "Temple Guardians", a name indicative of sub-humanoid religious thinking that may well explain Santiago's fatal overconfidence.
Massive stack of armoured probes not so strong after getting molested.
Steve and I figured this out way back. Probes, while awesome units, have one fatal flaw - they die en masse when they're stacked if there are no conventional military units to protect them. They also can't be designated as defenders, so they're not all that great for your usual base defense. I noticed Absinthe has built some bases on bunkers, could be a workaround, will have to confirm later.
With the base wide open and Spartoid survivors in disarray our augmented Spetsnaz set to work infiltrating the enemy datalinks with nerves of plasma-steel, downloading all the technological data developed among the PDI members in the last decades. Technological parity has been reclaimed and USEC now possesses the information necessary both to field enhanced force-field armour and conduct punitive strikes deep into enemy territory!
As per the principles of free flow of information and in recognition of our only remaining true friends on Planet, all liberated data has been shared with the corporate free state Morgan Industries who are quite likely next in line for "U.N."-Spartoid-Hiveling aggression. Commenting on the operation, Commander Zakharov said: "I told you I would punish Sparta's astounding impudence! This is merely the beginning. Santiago, feel the impact and gear up - you're next!"
In other news, rapacious "U.N." dictator Pravin Lal, apparently not content with merely subjugating the pacifist Gaian enclave, now spends his days exterminating the natives through man-made terror-famines straight out of Stalin's playbook. Detailed evidence of Lal's own little Holodomor horror show proves that he purposely works and starves conquered Gaians to death to make room for his own brand of vaccinated and brainwashed "U.N." serviles, quite likely while citing some convenient bureaucratic red tape glitch caused by an incorrectly filled-out nutrition requisition form as he prepares once again to completely abolish the Charter.
Much like the Katyn Massacre this behaviour will of course be completely ignored by the "U.N." and its "humanitarians" since only enemies of the Old World Order can be guilty of "genocide". The astounding flawed thinking and shameless cult-like hypocrisy involved proves once again why the "U.N." must be utterly abolished and all its proponents swept away before true peace and progress can reign on Chiron.
Take a bath in dead Spartoids, best turn in my life. I didn't actually trick junior to attack, I thought it'd work back when I had my fleet, but then he attacked after I lost my fleet and I told him it'd be inadvisable. Can't say I didn't use the situation to my advantage though, what with Hellraiser's forces being tied up...
Quite a gamble but it paid off big time. RIP junior, better luck next game.
Edit: Oh yeah I stole the awesome snazzy pic from AO
