The Chiron (and Pholus) Peace Conference (C(P)PC)

[AndiD]

Corporate Accounting finally has tabulated the number of losses. The records may not be complete due to the turmoils of war of recent years, the official non-existence of Probe units and the destruction of our previous capital city.

*places the following list at the indicated position*


Summary of Morganic losses within the last ten years excluding losses caused by native life:

Cities:
Morgan Industries: 1 (30,000 population)

Land units - Non-combat:
Former: 8
Supply Crawler: 4
Synth Rover Crawler: 1

Land units - Combat:
1-3t-1: 3
1-3t-2: 1
1-2-2: 2
1-3-2: 1

Naval units:
(2)-1-4: 1
(2)-2-4: 1
(2)-3-4: 2

Detailed references are available upon request of course..


I herewith also propose that we do not exclude one of the biggest current threats to peace on Planet from our discussion, namely Chairman Yang of the Hive, who is coincidentally also the only faction representative not present at this conference.

[Modo44]

/me chuckles *

[Googlie]

Colonel Googlie looks up from the Corporation spreadsheet and beckons to a runner, who materialises at his side.

He hands the runner a data crystal and murmurs some instructions in his ear.

The runner nods, then moves to the electronics pod at the head of the table, and with an affirmative gesture from IT GeoModder, inserts the crystal, and the Federation position paper then appears on each delegate's datapad.

The Colonel coughs and remarks:

"It's all about numbers with Morgan, isn't it. I guess one can't tabulate the other Morgan losses:

• Integrity
• Conscience
• Trust
• Honour

I think the Council will find the real history quite informative"

The Colonel indicated the data display now on the Council members' screens:

*************************************************

Spartan Justice

Background:

After first meeting, the Federation and the Corporation signed a Treaty of Commerce and Friendship

Some trades were made, and some technologies sold, by the Federation to the Corporation. Recognizing the large commerce imbalance, the Corporation also engaged the Federation in a profit sharing scheme, beneficial to both factions. The Corporation also paid for “observer status” for one of their operatives aboard a Federation lightly-armed exploration vessel, the SCC (Spartan Combat Craft) Hunter

Some time thereafter, the Federation commenced infiltration on the Corporation, resulting in the death of Corporation armored covert operations agents – however note that though the protocols of inter-factional relations deem covert operations agents to have no legal standing (see below, our italics)

Extracted from Interfactional manual, p133

Probe teams cannot attack other units directly, but they can battle one another to the death. Probe Team combat is based on the morale of the combatants. Probe Teams can attack other teams even in squares containing other units. Since Probe Teams have no “official” existence, destroying another faction’s Probe Teams does not violate a treaty or pact.

the Corporation chose to treat our actions as hostile, and commenced withholding credits from previously agreed trades to “compensate” them for the loss of a unit with no official standing.

As a result, the Federation booted off-ship the observer attached to the SCC Hunter

This was our first complaint against the Corporation, and the resulting lost income amounted to 50 credits

Sometime thereafter, the Federation saw fit to promulgate the Modo Doctrine, the intent of which was to preserve inviolate the shores of the Federation and University territories. It was always understood, in our embassy exchanges, that the extent of this exclusion zone was negotiable for any faction (read The Corporation) whose harbour egress from certain coastal bases might be covered by our exclusion zone.

Immediately thereafter, the Corporation decided to mind-control the patrolling vessel (the selfsame SCC Hunter) and declare Vendetta on the Federation. They immediately ceased all due payments (some 48 credits remaining to be paid)

We commenced peace talks, and the Federation position was that we would be willing to renew a treaty if the Corporation returned the Hunter to us to a base that we specified. However, our patrolling vessels found it lurking in the fungus half a continent away from our specified base, and just offshore a coastal base, poised, no doubt, to infiltrate and/or gain control of any unsuspecting vessels emerging from the base. With some regret, we destroyed our erstwhile vessel.

The Federation thought long and hard about an appropriate response to this duplicity, and decided to strike a decisive blow that would remind the Corporation of how long our reach – and our memory – was. We captured their headquarters base, and destroyed it, along with the Planetary Transit System Special Project, losing, however, some highly skilled forces in the mission.

We then held out an olive branch of peace, asking for appropriate reparations, in the embassy:

Posted by Sparta in the Morgan-Sparta Embassy

- Immediately resume all per-turn payments you have ceased without agreement.
- Return the 50 ecs payment you took for the lost probe; a payment we never agreed to give.
- Pay full reparations for the Hunter - the purchase cost of a similar unit.
- Return to Treaty of Friendship status with us.
- Wire war reparations worth of a minimum of 350 energy credits, bringing the total amount of ECs we expect to see in the box to 400 (plus the purchase of the Hunter, the size of which we shall determine should you be willing to agree to these terms).

(Note that the reparations figure appears high, but it includes the fortuitous pod-popping by the Corporation by the captured Hunter of a pod that we were about to pop – it produced an armoured crawler, worth ½ a special project. We deemed that to be theft of rightful Federation property)

Our claim was treated with disdain by the Corporation, so we continued to press “tough love” on them.

After we discovered Doc: Air, we decided to ‘take out” that crawler, as well as other similar targets of opportunity, a campaign which has been proceeding to date.

And another invasion fleet has been assembled, intended for a major assault on Hive Territory, but now stood down as a result of our signing a truce with the chairman.

So that brings us to the current impasse.

Current Situation

Clearly we are still doing considerable damage to Corporation infrastructure. However, this vendetta wastes lives and resources, and while for the Federation, the price has been cheap these last few years, the imminency of 2169 (and the lifting of sanctions) has given the Junta cause to re-evaluate our position.

We are interested in a cease-fire, and potentially a longer lasting peace, provided the conditions are right. (However the parties involved in conflict with us should be aware that a maintainence of the Vendetta would no doubt keep some of our officers happy and our troops gainfully occupied).

However, to ensure peace, we would require significant reparations from the Corporation, in the order of the 500 or so credits already tabled. We are prepared to treat the loss of our invasion force as equivalent to the loss of the Corporation Headquarters and its defenders.

This is the Federation’s position

*************************************************

[GeoModder]

Some clarification: this is not a 'council' of sorts, merely a conference for discussing peace proposals -and terms.

Thank you, Col. Googlie, for coming to the core of the matter from the Spartan point of view. Does the Morganite representative wish to add something to this?

And does the Gaian delegation wishes to say something?

[Method]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar


ARMED GUARDS: -2 Efficency, -2 Yarrr, -1 Woo

armed guards are at least a little bit woo. surely not negatively so.

[wuy3]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar


Tassaguillerian scientists measure woo using the latest, 100% accurate techniques. Armed guards have a -1 woo rating. Sorry

but they must still have some + yarr ratings nay?

[Googlie]

Colonel Googlie discretely calls a runner over and sends a message to Commander Modo and Lt Colonel Snoddasmannen

Remind me to talk to Dr Bonaventura regarding Captain Tassadar's medication dosage. It seems he is hallucinating again

[binTravkin]

And does the Gaian delegation wishes to say something?

/me looks at the Captain Tassadar for awhile, then stands up from his seat and silently pronounces words to be remembered:

Even if having a covert operations team is illegal, it is much more illegal to take someone's life away.
There are other ways how to ensure legality.

[Googlie]

Colonel Googlie's wrist commlink beeped, and with a sigh he looked down at it, and gently tapped the face with his stylus.

Lt Colonel Snoddasmannen, receiving the same message, beckoned for a runner to go to the Colonel, who, when he had finished tapping out a code sequence and the tiny data crystal ejected, passed it to the runner who sped off to the Chairman's console for general conference dissemination.

The Colonel looked around the room

"I have just receiverd instructions and clarification from my fellow Junta members. This is the Federation's position regarding the Gaian Union"

Heads turned to their data displays to read the Federation messsage:

The Federation vs. The Gaian Union

Although the Federation has had cause to distrust the Gaian Union for several decades, our vendetta with them is of recent origin.

But to go back in history - we had some useful technological excahnges with the Union - indeed, we were Treatied with them for a decade or two - but they broke off dealings with us after noticing a Federation exploration vessel very openly mapping coastlines of the southern continents (and trumped up a "parrotted" quasimodo ( ) doctrine to demand the removal of our "covert" (their words) ship or sharing of the exploration data)

We naturally refused - after all, the Federation had made the research of doctrine: Flexibility a priority (and other factions could have done likewise) so the Junta were not about to share strategic information just on demand, without recompense

So relations deteriorated, followed shortly thereafter by the non-execution of a crucial technology trade that would have immensely benefitted both our factions.

Then some years ago a Federation battlefleet sailing to harrass Hive bases on their southern coast was blocked by a Gaian transport in the canal through the isthmus joining their two landmasses.

We considered formally requesting its removal, to allow passage of our fleet, but decided it would be a test of their attitude to us to see if they voluntarily moved it to allow passage..

Not only did the Gaian Union not move the blocking transport, but buttressed their blockade with a seaformer. In addition, they then in an act of "nose thumbing" at the Federation, pacted with the Corporation, knowing them to be in vendetta against us, and practically inviting us to take counter action.

As our strategic interests were threatened by the Hive, and as we deemed it imperitive to capture a Hive base to allow us negotiating strength, we eliminated that transport and made passage through the canal.

To teach a much-needed lesson, our troops then invaded and destroyed a Gaian base in the vicinity - again an act of 'tough love" on our part.

Chiron's factions must learn that when the Federation's security interests are threatened, to thwart movement of our vessels in open waters produces repercussions.

Our military is strong, and our reach is long ...........

But we have no quarrel with the Gaian Union - other than their choice of bedfellows. A Truce - if not a resumption of our Treaty - would likely suit both our factions.

[binTravkin]

/me leaves the conference room

[AndiD]

*sorry, hit a key*

[AndiD]

To summarize the Spartan position:
- Gained valuable information (and still gains each year) about the structure and processes of the Corporation through infiltration while treatied
- Lost a yearly payment from the Treaty due to the infiltration above
- Lost Spartan units by Morganic initiative: 1x (2)-1-4 naval unit
- Lost Spartan units because of Spartan military actions: "some highly skilled forces"
- Loss of trust

Lost Morgan units: see above


As the Federation correctly states, a profitable business agreement - and especially a Treaty - is grounded on values like Trust, Integrity and so on, and we grounded our Treaty on these values. I just ask, which faction representative would regard a probe action, resulting in a destruction of well-armed attorneys (0-2-1 Probe) as a trustworthy action.

Knowing the value of yearly, accurate and up-to-date information well, the Corporation would assume the value of the then-ceased payment significantly lower than the value of the information gained through that action by the Federation in the meantime.

The topic of the Modo Doctrine has already been discussed at some other informal come-togethers - the main problem from my point of view was simply insufficient information onto which ocean tiles it effectively extended. The negotiability was not recognized by the Corporation in the past. With our current knowledge of Planet, a adherence to the Modo Doctrine poses no problem anymore.

The Corporation understands the need of homeland protection, feels such a need as well and could even think of a use of the Doctrine als role model for a homeland protection guideline of its own.

We accept responsibility for the take-over of the SCC Hunter although it occured because the Corporation felt threatened by the ship's course at that time - according to a just finished interview with some senior managers.

We have suffered significant losses in the recent years, but did not offensively return fire on any Spartan attack, for not to worsen the - then-deteriorated - relations even more and leaving the opportunity to find peace in the future.

To sum it up:
There were definitely miscommunications and missed opportunities in the past, among with one single offensive action. I cannot state exact reasons for it at the moment, since several responsible persons died in the attack on Morgan Industries and most relevant data was lost, too. I fear that giving an incomplete rationale could potentially cause more harm than giving none.
(I personally worked in a distant branch of the Corporation at that time and know no more than official channels broadcasted.)

I will also not talk about exact numbers, values and comparisons for concrete and immaterial actions of the past but leave a judgment to the conference Chairman. It should be evident by the analyses given above though, that the Corporation considers the number given by the Federation as not appropriate, because it does not include immaterial values of goods like information.

Thinking strategically towards the future of Planet, the Corporation sees - just like the Federation - several business opportunites lurking ahead which should not be obscured by actions of the past. Our final goal would be to re-establish Trust, Integrity, Honour and Conscience between our factions again.
(As a sidenote, the Corporation would be interested in learning more about the Spartan understanding of Honour, since this concept is not taught in our Business Schools)

Therefore, the Corporation appreciates that the Federation re-opened the Spartan-Morgan embassy on their own initiative and it also appreciates the offer of a Truce to our pactmate, the Gaian Union.

To keep some of your officers happy - and some of our officers, too who started to value the thrills of battle more highly than those of doing business and making profit - we could think of an effort towards the real threat against peace on Planet, namely the Hive.

[GeoModder]

/me takes a worried look at the now empty Gaian seat...

With the hopefully only temporary absence of the Gaian representative I can only address the situation between the Cooperation and the Junta.

I wonder how far both the Spartans and Morgans are willing to go for a truce -or even a peace agreement- Col. Googlie has forwarded a list of 'conditions' which assumedly must be fulfilled before his faction will think of peace. The Board of Directors seems more inclined to get over this and move on except perhaps the condition of agreeing with their pactpartner the Gaians as well.

Therefore I like to ask the leaders of both factions if they can find themself in an unconditional truce or peace treaty without the need for repayments or whatever. Just let the past where it belongs and try to start with a clean slate.

If you excuse me now, with this I need to leave for a more private conference. I will be back shortly.

/me stands up and leaves the conference room.

[GeoModder]

/me enters the conference room and takes his seat. A slight worried look on his face.

[Googlie]

Colonel Googlie rises and nods to the Chair:

In the light of your question:

Therefore I like to ask the leaders of both factions if they can find themself in an unconditional truce or peace treaty without the need for repayments or whatever. Just let the past where it belongs and try to start with a clean slate.

I will consult with the Junta, and will deliver the Federation's reply shortly.

He nods to Commander Modo and Lt. Colonel Snoddasmannen, and leaves the Conference chamber