We can't afford to be lenient. While it would be ideal, we can't afford to forget - we came to find a new world. Not to share one.



Eradication. Gut the bastards.

Also, I've intercepted another transmission from our mysterious 'Director'. Something tells me he wanted us to find it.

[START TRANSMISSION]

My esteemed gentlemen of the Conclave.



I've heard there's been movement to accept my motion. It's gladdening to see that even now, so far from when the phrase was coined, that great minds truly do think alike.

However, I've also gathered news of some doubt towards a certain ideological path, which troubles me. No, not the one you fear, of course. As one of many Directors of our board, I can assure you that we act in the interests of humanity, now and always.



Those who criticize the path of Supremacy mistake your current lack of resources towards certain aspects of it as a weakness. This is not the case.

Do you lack Firaxite? Certainly. But there is more on this planet. And I will share a little tidbit, for your consumption: that same technology and ideology will eventually allow you orbital intelligence and coverage of all Firaxite planet wide [Supremacy Lvl 6].

And if you can't think of something to do with that...then perhaps my estimation of you was an overestimation. The history of man lies in the stars, gentlemen. We must all learn to communicate with one another.

[:// END TRANSMISSION, SENDER <DIRECTOR L{REDACTED}>\\:]



That's the end of it.

I've investigated his claims. We haven't managed to research that far ahead yet, but so far, we've determined that further inroads will result Magrails and Roads sustain themselves, requiring no Energy upkeep [Supremacy Lvl 3]. If we were to combine that with the Energy bonus that's received from connecting cities to the Capital via Road or Magrail, it could result in a significant Energy surplus, which would allow us to buy more things like units and buildings outright, seriously increasing our growth rate and that of fledgling cities. Food for thought, gentlemen.

I've reviewed the reports of the agent we have in Central. Lawson seems confident the task the Culper Cell has requested seems doable, and I agree. My vote for Espionage is to go ahead with what the Culper Cell wants.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to look into the Director's last few comments. Something tells me they mean more, and his implication of a whole board of individuals like him is...concerning.

 

Year 94: The majority of our citizens have shown support for pre-emptive strikes against major alien population centers. We will be monitoring xenomass locations for any return of the nest structures.

Year 96: The completion of the genetic mapping of every life form that arrived with us from Earth is complete. This acknowledgement of Earth's primacy to our species has had a very real effect on our populace, more and more of whom speak of Earth wistfully, as a lost Eden - and their contempt for the alien life is growing.

Additionally, our exploration corp have adapted the ultrasonic repellment devices to protect themselves. They cannot be scaled up any further, and the strength of the devices is strong enough to cause severe pain to aliens in the vacinity, though with the current cultural zeitgeist many are seeing this as a positive.

As proof of concept, our secondary exploration corp raided an alien nest to the far west. The footage of aliens writhing in pain as they desperately try to prevent the murder of their unborn children, but are unable to, has become a major hit on movie night.

Finally, the KP troops landed in our territory a couple of years back and began to scout the area. While initially suspicious, our citizens quickly warmed to them due to the similarities in our cultures. Our military has managed to ape their adaption of the spacesuits, which are being deployed to our military now. It is hoped this will prevent the requirement of a Sixth Penal Legion.



(A/n: KP has gone Purity too <3 Gaining a point in Purity allowed us to upgrade our soldiers, taking them from strength 10 to strength 14 and increasing their heal rate by 5 HP (out of 100) per turn)

In other news, Overseer Lamora reports that we've established information networks within Le Coeur and Central. Both cities have suffered under waves of alien attack where ours thrived, and both of them have populations barely larger than Necropolis. While both are more culturally rich and healthier than our population, they fall short in every other means of comparison. Our spies also report extensive fortification of Central, which adds credence to the theory of them languishing under alien assault. As per our flirtations with Culper Cell, our agent in Central will be delivering unknown documents to an unknown person, while our agent in Le Coeur will begin siphoning energy from their private sector while they continue to build intrigue.

Year 97: With some encouragement from our energy reserves, the private sector has been encouraged to contribute to the taming of the Western Forest by launching a 'miasmic repulsor'.

This will shave decades off the time it will take to tame the area.

The Fort Barca Siege has come to an abrupt conclusion as our long-range scanners stopped picking up life forms. Upon entering the base, we found a series of tunnels under the mountains and into the unknown, alien-infested lands to the west. While it is gratifying that they feared us so that they chose a certain death to aliens over facing us in battle, they did take all that we hoped to loot from their base with them.

On the brighter side, they will no longer be an impediment to our settling of the Western Forest.

At long last, the construction of the Necropolis oil wells is completed. Even unrefined oil is a great boon to our industry, and the effect will only increase as our ability to refine the oil does - and we can sell surplus oil on the open market for a hefty profit.



Year 98: The KP soldiers our citizeny grew so fond of have been spotted on the east coast, under attack by a siege worm. Our rangers will provide what fire support we can - not only for humanitarian reasons, but because our scientists are drooling at the thought of being able to study the corpse of such a specimen.



Our scouting of the south of the continent has revealed yet another resource pod. I'm not sure why I checked the report - it was yet another generator. However, they have also found a crashed satellite, which will prove much more interesting after proper excavations.

Year 99: KP's troops managed to fall back to the ocean, to the relief of our citizenry. The worm has turned it's hostility towards Coyote's 5th Legion. Our troops will be falling back, while taking what shots they can at the beast.

Year 100: The Culper Cell's mysterious task has been completed, and they have supplemented our intelligence agency with their own. Overseer Lamora has spared us the details, but he assures us that as per his arguments earlier, the new agent has been dispatched to a country that shares our beliefs, all the better to adopt suitable technology from.

Our agent in Central will now begin to do what they can to tap into laboratories, research groups, and R&D firms operating within Central.

Year 101: The ultrasonic fence around Blackbird Claw has been completed, and our scientists are working on adapting it for our trade vessels. We have begun construction of the Gene Vault, and the project has so captured the imaginations of our people that they have volunteered en masse to work on the project. It should be no longer than five years before it is completed.

Year 103: The satellite Aekiel's team discovered has been excavated and it's components sent back to Blackbird Claw, many of which proved incredibly useful in our current project. We've shaved as much as two years off the construction time.

Our scientists have declared success - according to them, our trade routes will never be at risk from aliens, due to the adaption of the ultrasonic technology. Additional success has been reported from our scouts to the far west, who have raided a second nest. As caution has been replaced by contempt in the minds of our colonists, the eggs recovered were allowed to grow to adulthood before being slaughtered. Which, incidentally, is the actual source of the steaks I heard many of you comment favorably upon before this meeting.

Our Rangers have adapted the same armour our soldiers have used, and scaled up their artillery pieces. The numbers show that we're outputting almost twice as many foot-pounds of energy directly into the face of our enemies.

Necropolis has finished it's gold mine. While our disconnect from the economy of Earth means it's only a literal and not a metaphorical gold mine, our jewellery industry is blossoming.

As we have yet to map a path to new trade partners, I have begun construction of the colony for western travel early.

Year 104: Our genetic vault has been completed. Storing the genetic code of every single Earth life-form we had access to, uncorrupted by exposure to this planet, it is a monument to both our planet of origin and the tenacity of humanity.

Apart from the obvious benefits to our legacy, having an enormous library of genetic information at hand will be a huge boon to our genetic engineers working on improving our crop yields.

Scanners have picked up the construction of a city to the west.



While this will not prevent the founding of our city in the Western Forests, it does mean that we will be competing for some resources and tensions will almost certainly skyrocket between us and Franco-Iberia.

In completely unrelated news, our troops are deploying for combat drills in that general area. If this reveals new options, this will be an unexpected bonus.

In lighter news, the water speed record for this planet has been absolutely shattered, as a direct result of our western exploration team spotting... whatever this is.



Our worries about the seeming innocence of the oceans of this world were apparently well-founded.

Year 108: While on completely innocent military drills that just happened to be in this general area, our troops discovered the following:



Prosperite, the Franco-Iberian colony, is all but defenceless. It's entire population turned out as milita would fall against Coyote's 5th Legion alone, let alone the combined might of them and the Western Guard. So we have an opportunity to secure the lands of the Western Colony and neuter one of our competitors on this continent... as well as secure for ourselves any valuable materials that may be contained within Propserite.

Does the Conclave grant me the authority to declare war upon Franco-Iberia?

Additionally, we have approximately seven years remaining on our construction mandate, and 13 on our research mandate, so the time has come to plot our course (the second step of the L Manifesto would, at current projections, take four decades to complete - thus it shall wait until we have greater research ability).

Here are our options as they stand:

War with Franco-Iberia

No: This will still cause tensions to skyrocket, and lose us access to some of the resources in the area.
Yes: For the destruction of Prosperite.

Research

Alien Lifeforms: For culture from our domesticated aliens. 8 years.
Defense Grid: For the improved fortification of our cities, and revealing a wonder that increases the line-of-sight of our military units. 8 years.
Geophysics: Allows the tapping into geothermal resources, which our new city will have access to. 8 years.
Alien Biology: Allows our workers to clear miasma without the use of satellites. 8 years. Gives Harmony affinity.

Genetic Design: For the improved health of our people and a Wonder that will increase the fertility of our farms. In my experience an AI will likely build this soon - this may be our last chance to pursue this wonder, which synergizes very well with Purity technologies. 13 years.
Alien Sciences: Allows us to tap into the Xenomass resource for biofuel and research. This will be a huge boost to our economy and research efforts. 13 years.
Robotics: Allows us to built automated factories, build aircraft, and harvest Firaxite, though we do not currently have any access to it. 13 years.

Construction

Research: Construction of a Network and Laboratory to boost our science output. 9 years.
Growth: Construction of a Vivarium and a Water Refinery to increase our food as well as tap into algae deposits. 8 years.
Naval: Expand our naval might by building two more ships. 8 years.
Military: Construction of a repair depot to enhance military construction in Blackbird Claw, and another group of soldiers and rangers. 11 years.

Author's note: While Lamora is correct in his details of Supremacy, what he hasn't taken into account is that all our projected cities will be built on coasts which gives us links to our capital anyway - the benefit of Supremacy 3 will not come until Mag-Lev, which is currently a quarter century of dedicated research away.

 

Fuck Franco-Iberia and their expansion. Blow them to bits.

Genetic Design seems like it might be a good thing to look into. Followed by Defense Grid to make our soldiers more effective.

I say concentrate on growth followed by research at this juncture.

 

The Merchant Navy is very pleased with this development.

War with Franco-Iberia - Yes
Research - Genetic Design, followed by Alien Sciences and Geophysics
Construction - Research, followed by Growth

 

Oh well while I normally are against violence we should liberate those poor French before they get overrun by Aliens.

Research: Genetic Design followed by Alien Biology.. we need a better understanding of the alien and ourselves.

Construction: Military. We are expanding heavily and need some troops to secure our fronts, currently we are only one mishap away from disaster. (and a sixth penal legion)

 

Our military currently stands at three quads of soldiers (Western Guard, Necropolis Guard, 5th Penal Legion) and one of rangers, who are well on their way to earning the name Wyrmhunters. Expanding them would allow us to secure the northern front, which is currently being unnervingly eyeballed by two swarms of wolf beetles and one group of manticores - though they've been sitting there doing nothing for decades.

 

I think it is time for us to research Robotics and that we construct such things that would aid us in Researching. As for this Purity pushing coming from some members of the Conclave, I wish to remind them that we had to flee Earth, I think we need to press onward to the future and not look back to our past. We need Supremacy not sentimentality.

 

From the looks of things, gentlemen, we have some butcher's work to do.



If Franco-Iberia wants to get into some rough business, we'll show them who holds the bigger stick. Take Prosperite and hold it. For now, we can't afford to lose that Firaxite. We're not looking to destroy them, just send a very pointed message.

Construction: The faster we grow, the faster we act. A Vivarium and Water Refinery sound the way to go.

Research:...



I've done some research into the things the Director hinted at, and the results are staggering. The Communications Research would allow us to build Tacnet Hubs, giving us 20% strength to melee and ranged units, as well as +5 heal to units in range, and Command Centers, which would make our cities bastions of the modern world, giving +20 City Defense and City Hit Points.

This research would be essential anyhow, considering we'll have to contact Earth no matter what path we choose, ideologically speaking. We should strongly consider picking it up now, given the benefits.

 

You can't take Outposts without a virtue three deep in the Military tree - and technically that just replaces the destroyed Outpost with one of our own. If we take Prosperite now, it burns. If we take it later, after it has become a City proper and established missile defense systems, a great deal of our army will burn instead - I do not know if we could take a full City even if we mobilized the entirety of our military.

 

I would be pleased to carry out the Conclave's wishes in regards to F-I, though I do question if it would be possible to turn them against ARC before the killing blow...

I do wish that we would develop Genetic Design for application in our super soldier program. While I have little desire to pursue widespread and untested mechanical augmentations or planetary cultism, I do believe that we would be able to better utilize our population with an understanding of their basic building blocks.

I would also advocate for development of our military, with an addendum-- Rangers, while quite useful in facing human enemies, are not vital at this time. Instead I would advocate a second group of soldiers, for the purpose of extended field actions.

(I promise not to break this batch too quickly.)

 

In a shockingly unanimous vote, war will be declared against the nascent outpost of Franco-Iberia. Our research mandate will be Genetic Design, and for construction our priorities will be Military-Growth-Research, in that order.

---------- Post automerged at 15:47 ---------- Previous post was at 14:32 ----------



Year 109: In the absence of our Western Guard, the aliens have once more reasserted themselves in the western forest.

War was declared against Franco-Iberia. Elodie had some rather heated remarks to make on the subject.



Our troops landed around Prosperite, flanking it from two hills. It's days are numbered.

Our colony-tank, under the command of soon-to-be-Mayor Mishie has set out from Blackbird Claw - it may have to wait until recruitment of our new troops is completed before it can enter the forest itself, however.

Year 110: The newly-named Wyrmhunters have finally struck a killing blow against the siege worm to the south, to the amazement and delight of our people.



Our men have begun the assault on Prosperite. Casualties thus far are heavy, but it is projected it will fall within one or two years.

Year 112: The siege of Prosperite is over. Losses were greater than expected. Recruitment of Coyote's 6th Penal Legion has begun.



Scouting of the eastern continents has revealed the land mass stretches north to the ice caps. Odds of a southern pass seem low, but we remain hopeful - our western exploration team has just struck land. We also made contact with a newly-founded Slavic city in the polar regions.

There's been yet another alien resurgence in the Western Forest. Our workers have left the area, and our newly-recruited soldiers (the soon-to-be Franco-Iberian Countainment Guard) have been deployed with the Wyrmhunters to stamp it back down.

Year 115: Overseer Lamora reports that our agents in Le Coeur were unable to siphon any energy from the city, and assures me that the fact that he is currently building a palacial villa on the outskirts of Blackbird Claw is completely unrelated.

Year 116: Elodie has offered a white peace. As the objectives of our war have been met, and it is extremely unlikely we will be able to successfully besiege Le Coeur itself, I have accepted on the Conclave's behalf.

We have achieved the impossible: a Short, Victorious War.

Year 117: The conflict in the western forest stretches on, as aliens pour out of the hive almost faster than we can wipe them out. The second ranger squad has been deployed to assist.

Year 118: The conflict is over, as our troops managed to raid the nest. Two swarms of wolf-beetles and one group of manticores were dispatched - a shocking amount to be produced by a single nest in so short a timeframe.

Overseer Lamora has reported that his agent in Central has met with greater success - the information stolen will accelerate our research by as much as six years, and has filled in the final gaps on Artificial Intelligence.

We shall begin the implementation of this research as soon as possible, though projections are currently at thirty years so it will likely remain off the immediate priority list for some time.

Year 121: Governor Zombie has reported that with the mines and oil in the vicinity of Necropolis, it has outstripped Blackbird Claw in productivity. As such, future superprojects will take place there, while our capital will be specialized towards feeding our growing empire.

Year 122: Our western exploration team has finally found a resource pod not containing a generator. Instead, in contained a satellite built to rebound sunlight in such a way to make solar power much more viable, effectively increasing our energy income in the vicinity. It has been deployed over Blackbird Claw, where it has more than doubled our energy surplus.

The Wyrmhunters have opened fire on the aliens cordoning off Necropolis. It will be interesting to see how they react.



Year 126: For the good of the Western Forest's future growth, and reasons that will become quickly apparent, I have taken the liberty of breaking the tied-for-second deadlock and begun research into Geophysics. The Ectogenesis Pod has begun construction in Necropolis.

Year 127: To my intense surprise, the Ectogenesis Pod has been completed. To my even more intense surprise, it was completed in Cidadela.

Our experts in cloning have abandoned us to flock to Brasilia, the lure of six years head-start over any that remained with us too much to resist. We have lost all capacity to build this wonder of the new world.

While aggravating, this has revealed to me that while we focussed on our detestable neighbours, superpowers are growing in the east. We will not be caught unawares again.

Year 131: Our research into Geophysics is completed, as is our construction mandate.

I will compile our options for the future shortly.

---------- Post automerged at 16:28 ---------- Previous post was at 15:47 ----------



For more than a century we've been bumbling about. Learn this, expand here, build that. React, react, react. We've just had our face ground into the truth of what a mistake that was.

Our science mandate has completed, and our scientific development has near doubled what it was a mere decade ago. It is time we seized our destiny, instead of allowing it to drift on by.

You'll find proposals by some of our most prominent Conclave members before you. You may also put forward long-term plans of your own. The result of this day will be the future of this entire world, and quite possibly the future of Earth. Choose wisely.


PROPOSAL ALPHA - THE LAMORA DIRECTIVE

For too long our eyes have been turned west, upon foes already crippled by the terrain and our interference in their plans. To the east, a far greater foe is growing. While we cannot strike directly against them, our intelligence agency is not so limited.

Our research into artificial intelligence has produced a worrying possibility: the construction of hyper-adaptive intelligent surveillance networks in our cities. This would all but remove the need for counterintelligence, and allow the entirety of our agency to go on the warpath.

By infiltrating all known cities to the east, we can have enough eyes on every inch of that continent that no longer will the construction of anything take us by surprise - and, with fair winds and good fortune, an opportunity may present itself to seize the city housing the wonder stolen from us, it's rightful creators.

As this will almost certainly lead to war with the remains of Brasilia, this proposal will also come with it the mandate to research and construct a great navy. Within 24 years, we can have all the building blocks we need to construct aircraft carriers and the planes that will reside upon them. With that navy lurking in the vicinity of Brasilian waters, we will be able to swoop in should we manage to achieve a coup.


PROPOSAL BETA - THE ZOMBIE PLAN

We have the two greatest industrial powerhouses this world knows. We should seek to increase this advantage to a ludicrous amount. To this end, a proposal has been put forward to turn the floatstone around us into even greater industrial potential.

With Terraforming, Robotics, and Mechatronics, and an aggressive settling policy to the north and south, we could seize control of vast amounts of floatstone and the ability to utilize it. In the short run, this will cause widespread dissatisfaction as our infrastructure is stretched further than ever before - but with our new research into genetic design and the populace believing in the Purity of our goals, we have access to the technology to perfect the human genome. In the long run, this could all but eliminate sickness, greatly alleviating the strain on our infrastructure.


PROPOSAL GAMMA - THE COYOTE PROPOSAL

It's become quite clear that we allowed ourselves to become distracted by the conflict over our continent. This has allowed the Brasilians to eat our lunch. This cannot be allowed to continue. There is only one way for us to find clarity of thought.

Total domination of this continent.

With research into biofuels, we can finally complete the design of the fruits that escaped from Blackbird Claw so long ago. By settling a chain of islands to our east, we can secure a supply of titanium. By researching bionics, and then servomachinery, we can seize the final piece of the puzzle and reveal the key to our victory, as our resources, technology, and society will all be ready.

Ready for Battlesuits.

With these titans of the battlefield, each thrice stronger than any of our soldier squads, we can finish the pissing match over this blasted continent once and for all and make ARC and Franco-Iberia our vassals.

With this distraction removed, we will no longer be divided in purpose, and we can move forward with clarity.


PROPOSAL EPSILON - THE AEKIEL RAVINGS

Why were we beaten to ectogenesis? Because we were mucking about. Time and time again science was our last priority, and we act surprise when we are beaten to a scientific marvel?

No more.

The xenomass has been sitting in our lap, promising scientific marvels, and we have been ignoring it. There's been talk of harnessing firaxite, but no progress. We toy with AI but not a single artificial thought has enriched our science.

No. Fucking. More.

We tap into the xenomass. We settle on and exploit the firaxite. We built vast academy-cities that stretch for longer than the eye can see. We stop fucking about and we goddamn make science our bitch, before we are made someone else's bitch.

It is science that will win us this planet, nothing else. We damn well need to acknowledge it.


PROPOSAL ZETA - THE L MANIFESTO

We are walking down a path of enshrining our home planet. It is an alright path, as things go. But, y'know, maybe there's better paths. Maybe we should be going elsewhere.

Okay, let's not fuck about. LET'S BUILD SOME FUCKING ROBOTS.

To hell with this 'purity' crap. Robots are awesome and you fucking know it.

Power Systems. Autonomous Systems. Synthetic Thought. Tactical Robotics. Aggressive settling of firaxite-rich areas. We will have a droid army within fifty fucking years and don't even try to pretend you didn't just get an erection at that thought.


PROPOSAL ETA - THE MISHIE COLLABORATION

We've been blasting aliens for the past century plus. That shit is hard. We know it better than anyone.

So why not teach the little fuckers to eat other people instead?

We are sitting on fucking alien metropolises. Metropoli. We are sitting on a fuckload of aliens, okay. I've been in the Western Forests for only a handful of years and already I've come to respect their strength. We can make it our strength.

Alien Biology. Alien Adaption. Swarm Intelligence. Swarm Robotics. And we will be leading the aliens into battle at our side, rather than fighting them while also fighting our human foes. And our society will become more cohesive as we all come together into one glorious whole.

We're the apex predators of this planet, and it's time we damn well acted like it.

 

You know. At this point I want everything that isn't us on our continent dead. I vote for the Coyote Proposal.

 

What about those cute little bugs that you had to chase for hours on end, again and again.? AND. AGAIN.

Oh, right.

Anyway, since the Zombie plan actually hinges on a much higher Purity level than we currently have(to actually use the Floatstone), I vote for a Coyote-Zombie plan. Where we start out howling as Coyotes, and later decrepify into Zombies.

For the record, this doesn't mean we can't put our spies to good use while we are at it.

 

Spies will be deployed to support whatever plan we choose. The Lamora Directive is the only one that mentions them explicitly only because it's the only one that involves them centrally, rather than as support.

 

PROPOSAL ETA - THE MISHIE COLLABORATION

 

I support the L Manifesto, but I'm definitely not opposed to wiping out those other fucks, especially those who went to another country/faction. Also I'm all for the complete removal of the aliens.

 

I'm all for the L manifesto. Fuck aliens, get robots. Also Aekiel's ravings make a great deal of sense.

 

I vote for the Lamoro proposal: navy and big brother for the win.

 

As one might expect, I vote for my own proposal.

Gentlemen of the Conclave; It was Archimedes who said 'Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world'. Too much of my agency has been tied up keeping us safe from prying eyes. With Surveillance Webs at home to protect our interests, it'll free up all my agents to pursue our interests, whatever those may be.

You want Science? Energy, Technology? Our enemies peeled open like grapes, their forces laid bare and driven from us before the boots of the General's men ever touch enemy soil?



Give me my lever, gentlemen.

On a lesser note, I advocate the building of a CEL Cradle, whenever is convenient - it'll be helpful when we turn our mind to cultural things. Mind you, I still advocate that Communications Research, as well as keeping with the Culper Cell.