Turns of AXT-042, third thread

[NorthSwordsman]

Have fun, Stephen. Wish you the best in finding a place.

[Tenchusatsu]

OK, guys, from here until the end of August, the progress of this game will be sporadic at best because of absences and other distractions. We'll just play our turns whenever we can get to them. Hopefully after August we'll get back to our regular rate of one turn per day.

Kind of interesting how the timing works. August is the perfect time to slow down because of vacations and summertime hobbies. Yet only now is our game coming to a real climax. Guess this is kind of like a TV series that just had its season-ending cliffhanger. "Lady Deirdre takes the governor's seat! The Drones are dragged by the Conciousness into a major war! Who will survive? Who will prevail? Will Cha Dawn ever reach puberty? Join us next season, here on 'Days of our Lives' ... er, I mean 'Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri!' "

[NorthSwordsman]

Whatta mean, if Cha'Dawn ever reaches puberty?!?!?! He is already IN puberty- look how he acts!

[NorthSwordsman]

Personal Log, First Advisor:

Things seem strangely quiet here for some reason. There isn't any communication from outside, and it seems like every single day is the same, over and over. We must be caught in some kind of time loop. I wonder if the Morganites are behind this? I wouldn't put it past them to tamper with time so they can find a way to make more EC.... Our science folks are trying to figure this out.

[cbn]

Turn 2210 passed to the Cult

[NorthSwordsman]

with 2211 to the Gaians.

[Tenchusatsu]

Year 2211 to Walt.
_______

Personal Log, Year 2211
Druid Tenchusatsu, First Advisor to Lady Deirdre

As I have feared, we are now at war with the Drones. I had hoped that their declaration of vendetta against us was only a temporary one, considering it was brought about by their Pact alliance with the Conciousness. But they then attacked our IoD trapped near their coast, and I now know that their intentions are truly belligerent.

However, unlike in the past, Lady Deirdre did not publicly call for global peace this time. I think her recent conversations with Planet have changed her attitude toward war drastically, for she now feels determined to enforce our dedication to Planet by any means necessary. Just a short while ago, she gave a public announcement rallying our whole nation into war. She mentioned that the Locusts appearing near the Drone mainland was no accident or coincidence. Rather, it was Planet's "immune system" as she called it, trying to fight a disease. And we humans are the germs.

She went on to explain how the Locusts was a sign that Planet was in considerable distress over the ecodamage caused by us humans. She then accused the Drones of heinous crimes against the environment, although our diplomats in the Drone territories tell us that their ecodamage is under control these days. I wouldn't doubt that the Drones are indeed abusing Planet, since they harbor a curious dislike for our Green economy. In fact, I believe they could be using their Neural Amplifier as a license to pollute more whenever they feel like, knowing full well that Planet's "immune system" would have little effect on them.

In any case, Lady Deirdre has her reasons to fight the Drones. I have my reasons as well, but they are more pragmatic. Our infiltrators within the Drone nation tell us of a massive build-up of Drone choppers. With their Cloudbase Academy and their Cyborg Factory, these choppers will come right off of their ultra-efficient assembly lines as Elite units. Combined with their Fusion Lasers, this air force will be all but unstoppable.

Plus the Drones are obviously very upset over CBN's loss of the Planetary Governor's seat. Their news reporters continually claim that CBN won the popular vote and that we are guilty of election fraud. One of their tabloid reporters even speculated that Lal is actually the younger brother of Lady Deirdre!

Now it seems the Drones feel backed into a corner, and they're itching to press their military advantage against us and our allies. I believe Einstein once said, "You cannot simultaneously prepare for both war and for peace." Based on their militaristic secret projects, I guess it was only a matter of time before we started shedding blood.

I believe it was FDR who said, "Never before had we so much to do in so little time." Truer words cannot be spoken today.

[cbn]

Channel 10 News


In war news today, a Gaian IOD was accidentally destroyed by the automated defensive systems in interior Free Drone waters. The defense minister stated that he "regretted the incident but they should have known not to go hanging around in a war zone without declaring themselves"



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

Intelligence briefing -- Free Drone central


"Give us your assessment chief"

" We have clear evidence that the Morganites and Gaians were plotting the downfall of the Free Drones and that a military strike by them was inevitable. The Gaians had been lurking an IOD in our vicinity for several turns now"

"Did they realize that we had detected them earlier? (God bless airpower!!)"

"Unknown. Although we believe they thought they were hidden. "

"Now that we are at war, what are their plans?"

" Well it appears that the Morganites are fighting valiantly but the Gaians are offering no assistance. They seem to be beefing up their defenses and are currently building bioenhanceent centres and covert operations centres to better fight a war. The Gaians have been heard to be bragging that their puppet state will drain Drone resources while they grow and further arm themselves. In fact their strategy is to have us fight a series of proxy wars to exhaust our abilities and use up our resources"

"What is the source of this information"

" Many places but the Cult has been a most valuable source. They have pretended to befriend the Gaians while they continued to act on our behalf as demanded by the treaty. The disinformation they spread was very useful and the transcripts of the war conferences. . . . . . Some of the clips were golden ----- the com signals from tenchusatsu were very clear-- remember these. . . .



Nothing that a few conventional cruise missiles can't hurt.

Damn, he probably sees the inevitable

But more importantly, we need to stall him.




"What is your assessment of our chances"

"Only fair. We have a strong empire but our opponents are mighty and will use their forces with intelligence . They are to be both respected and feared"


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[NorthSwordsman]

Find another player. I quit.

[Tenchusatsu]

Well, Randy just quit, and it seems there is zero chance that we can convince him to stay this time, so I won't bother to try. I say we should get Tau Ceti to burn his bases down to the ground, but that's just me. Stephen, you might feel differently, but I guess we'll have to wait for Walt to return before we come to some sort of decision.

[cbn]

I have emailed all you guys with my reaction.


I can live with burning the bases as long as there is no fire-sale of facilities to give cash to the Gaians and Morganites.

[cbn]

The foreman woke with a start to find his aides all around him.

"What is it?"

"Sir, all Cult citizens have disappeared from our empire. The embassy is empty and not a Cult tourist is to be seen. "

"Did they withdraw their people in preparation for war?"

" Thats the problem sir. We have no record of them leaving. As you know, our border controls and records are quite extensive. Yesterday there were 1347 Cult nationals within our lands including tourists, diplomats, students and persons on work visas. Today, none of them can be found".

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

11 HOURS LATER AT FREE DRONE HQ

" Any news on the Cult?"

"Yes foreman but it is most odd. Hotel staff, Work camp operators and university officials all report that the accomodations used by the Cult citizens still contain all their belongings. Vidcoms are left on, meals are partially eaten, sonic showers are still running. Its as if poof . . . . they disappeared"

"What else?"

"Well sir, 16 hours ago all foreign nationals in Cultist lands were rounded up, sequestered, stripped of all communications gear, and sent by slow transport home"

"ALL foreign nationals??"

"Yes foreman. Reports indicate that each and every faction was treated in this fashion. Also the Cult nationals have disappeared from every other faction. So where it stands now is that 16 hours ago every non-Cult person was summarily evicted from Cult lands. Then about 12 hours ago, every Cult person in non-Cult locations just disappeared. At this moment, we cannot make contact with any Cult member anywhere on Planet. Further, reports indicate that no one else can reach them either"

"Analysis?"

" Frankly foreman, we just do not know. Our equipment is registering an odd psionic pulse emanating from Cult HQ but we have not been able to figure out what it does. We have no idea why or how our Cult visitors diappeared and they gave no explanation for the eviction of our citizens.

[NorthSwordsman]

Stephen, good opening there. Thanks.

I'm home and awaiting my final turn.

[Tenchusatsu]

I resent the turn to Walt late last night. (Or maybe last night was the first time I actually sent that turn ... I don't remember.)

In any case, I've got SMACx loaded up on my work-issued laptop, and though I'll be away from my home computer all week next week, I still be able to play my turns.

Oh, and Randy, I'm sorry to see you go. I guess you had a bum rap from the moment you joined, considering the mistakes your predecesors made. Then again, I guess the Cult is a rather difficult faction to win with in the first place. Oh well.
_______

From: Druid Tenchusatsu, First Advisor to Lady Deirdre
To: All senior personnel
Subject: Security breach

From the point on, all confidential and top secret electronic communication is to be suspended. This includes vid-comm, audio-comm, and e-mail. Our counterintelligence has informed us of a possible security breach in our net nodes which is allowing foreign factions to hack into our communication.

Please make sure that this order reaches all levels of the command heirarchy, even down to the lowest of fungus tenders. In the meantime, please be patient as our CI personnel work with our net node admins to eliminate this security breach.

[NorthSwordsman]

Thanks, Allen. I enjoyed playing this game, even if I did get burned... :-/.

I'm still waiting for Walt to send our 4 games we play- haven't heard from him in nearly 2 weeks. . I'm glad I have some other games to fall back on.

When you guys get done with this one, let me know who won. I think I will keep looking at this board so I can keep up with the news. Once hooked...

I will be making a special statement when I post the turn.... :-). Nothing bad. Nothing bad.

Walt, if you ever read this, drop me a line, boyo. I know you are busy, but you could say hi now and then.