AXT011 turns, part 2

[Misotu]

The Consciousness Research Lobby gave the leadership a good slapping last year and pointed out that defences are all very well if you have something to defend. Like a tech lead, for example.

We are pleased to report that - unusually for us - we were offered Threshold first time and are currently researching it. Consciousness children are fleeing to the bunkers in droves. It is, however, slightly reassuring to note that the Home Defence Scouts, while still clutching their signature sharp sticks, have been equipped with the latest defence technologies. The faint but audible choking sound you may hear is due to an entire people collectively holding its breath ...

2189 sent to Tig.

[TigToad]

Just because you are researching the threshold doesn't mean that you've built the ascent.

Must comment... home defense guards clutching their sharp sticks..lol... Tig

[Tau Ceti]

2190 to Misotu.

[Misotu]

2190 to UoP.

[Tau Ceti]

Back to Misotu.

[Misotu]

We've, um, decided that redundancy offers the best chance now.

2191 sent to Tig.

[Tau Ceti]

In an astounding turn of events, CEO Morgan, thought to have died in the crash landing 90 years ago, showed up in the Morgan Industries HQ last night with a band of armed followers. They used one of the newly developed Blink Displacers to get right into the board room undetected. CEO Tau Ceti was placed under arrest, and the board of directors voted - at gunpoint, apparently - to reinstate CEO Morgan as 'the rightful and eternal leader of Morgan Industries'.

Where Morgan had been and how he survived is a mystery. Some have speculated that a band of devoted followers took his body shortly after the funeral and have since been holding it safe, waiting for new technology that might heal his wounds. The recently discovered technology of Matter Editation may have provided the tools they needed; researchers had already made conceptual sketches of how the new knowledge might be used to achieve Clinical Immortality, and it is not too far fetched that a further development of these ideas might have allowed these people to raise Morgan from the dead.

What is certain is that he immediately ordered the Morganic armed forces to launch a mass assault at Consciousness territory. In a holovised speech, he claimed to have had a vision; Planet itself had spoken to him and asked to be taught all there is to know about humanity. Apparently, the insidious Cybernetic Consciousness had learned of Planet's desire first and was already preparing a major download of their view of the world to Planet's neural networks. Undoubtedly, their perverted, soulless 'rational' thinking would provoke Planet to exterminate all of mankind, Morgan said.

Although Morganic military technology is vastly inferior to that at the disposal of Cybernetic generals, CEO Morgan's speech had invigorated the soldiers, and the pilots and probe commanders went to their tasks undaunted. Although initial attacks were successful due to products of Morganic ingenuity such as the Dissociative Wave and the Blink Displacer, ultimately the effort was futile. The Consciousness had been wise enough to set up download nodes at seven of their major bases. In the end, only one of these was occupied.

Upon learning of this failure, CEO Morgan gathered his followers on the top floor of the Morgan Industries HQ, and they committed suicide by activating an explosive device. The smoke from the
explosion is still visible several miles away. The Morganic people now only wait to see what happens when the Consciousness completes their project...

-------------------

(Yes, I know the procedure described is more reminiscent of the Voice of Planet. But what exactly IS the Ascent to Transcendence anyway?)

Congratulations on a game well played, Mis! There really was no way to stop you for quite some time. A victory well deserved!

[TigToad]

Yeah, I don't see the way to stop her. I was going to try, then I saw seven bases and my 1 helicopter left in my army after my war with Tau and went, heck, may as well stay honorable. Grin. The real bummer for me was not taking out one of the alien races before the game ended. I have one race down to 4 or 5 bases and I own about half of the southern continent..though I lost a couple cities to nerve gas and counter attacks by the aliens.

Congrats Mis..ascending (or going to ascend) when I nuked your capital city and half of your secret projects was awesome. I suffered BADLY when I lost my home base, not for the research or most of the projects but the dozen or so drone riots I've had since losing the Virtual World and all of the industry wasted building hologram centers.

Tig

[TigToad]

Turn has been sent to Tau...looks like one way or another this game is going to be done in a year or two.

[Misotu]

Cybernetic HQ, the final morning. The air is thick with dust and choking smoke. Looking out to what was formerly the Western coastline, virgin land can be seen rising from the seas as the result of a Morganic tectonic missile. The whine of blink displacers and the chilling hiss of nerve gas can be heard above the general noise and confusion of war.

((Madam Prime Function, it is time))

>> We have been successful then?

((Indeed we have. The application of old-Earth computer redundancy theory has served us well. The simultaneous construction of seven Ascents in bases spanning the length and breadth of our Empire has defeated all the cunning and ingenuity of our rivals.))

Contemplating the coming ceremony, the Prime Function permits herself a smile of quiet satisfaction. There is nothing so becoming to a one-armed woman as a mysterious, and all-enveloping, hooded cloak.

Turning at the door of the bunker that has been her home for many mission years, her hand hovers for a moment over a neatly-bound document lying on the desk. Drawn up in darker moments, the pages contain blueprints for an ingenious construction, based on the ancient Roman model, designed to house larval mindworms and train them for combat with humans.

And then, as in so many of her daydreams, she heard the Voice calling. Now was the moment, if she chose to take it. At this moment of perfect understanding, Planet would deny her nothing. One last request, before quitting human existence forever. A small thing, a mere trifle.

Her eye rests for a moment on the design for two, perfectly symmetrical cells with their bold nameplates. Engraved upon them, in exquisite irony, are the names "Zakharov" and "Morgan". The mug shots above the names, however, show the faces of two more recent leaders.

Earthmisotu, the Flowering is close now ... we are waiting ... make haste!

>>I come.

Turning on her heel, her one good arm brushes against the desk, as if by accident, sweeping the document into the incinerator. As she leaves to take her position in the stone circle and the echo of her footfall dies away, a perfect silence descends upon the place.

Epilogue.
It is recorded in ancient tomes that the Misotu personality did indeed spare both rival leaders and included these individuals and their followers in the long Ascent to Transcendence.

And then again ... you can't believe everything you read

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

Hi Tig and Tau. Thanks for your kind remarks - it's a nice one to have won, but we all know that the game could have gone very differently at several points. Thanks to both of you for a very entertaining and exciting game. The turn rate was great and the twists and turns were most *excellent*.

[TigToad]

Congratulations on the ascent, Misotu. It was a very fun game... I did enjoy getting to planetbust your capital in a dark, secret kinda way... and I'm glad that the game was so close. Thanks to you, too Tau...it was fun!

Tig