Planetfall: Humanity's New Challenge (turn reporting thread)

[Darsnan]

Lady Deidre and her chief science officer watched the video relay from Scout Darsnan: the ghastly scars on both Black Sunrise, as well as the others visible told of the battle that had taken place, and of the price the Peace Keepers had paid to survive. And yet they turned down the offer of Gaian aid, even under these circumstances!?!
Deidre turned to her Science Officer,"do you think they suspected our alterior motive?"
"I doubt it", Sagan replied, "both the Spartans and Morganites are more astute, and they never suspected a thing. I think it's just Peace Keeper pride."
"Yes - a stubborn people." Deidre leaned back in her seat to finish watching the video feed, "but today, they have earned my respect."

Turn to Spasm.

p.s. Spartan comm frequency - 40ec's!!!!

[SPasmofiT]

Yet another turn!

[wgabrie]

Three worms in Morgan terratory last turn. 1 Captured worm thanks to our knowlege gained from the Alien Temple. 2 Eliminated thanks to our troop readiness.

And the Gaians who are selling comm links for 40ec worry us deeply. They'll have what, 40 x 3 = 120ec. They'll have more then the rest of us. I'm supose to be the trader here

[Darsnan]

The Gaian High Council meeting came to session. Lady Deidre started it off,"Well, I hear we have made some very good strides in climate control over the last Turn!"
The Meteorologist on the staff seemed to shrink inwards at the comment. His reply was less than confident,"well, yes, we have made some very good gains, but we would rather awit until fruition before revealing what we have accomplished."
"Nonsense! We are all very eager to hear what you have been up to lately."
"Well, M'Lady, we have finally been able to produce a very heavy snowfall."
"Well, that's very good news indeed!" Lady Deidre looked at the meterologist inquisitively," why would you feel that this is bad news?"
"Well, M'Lady, its not that we caused the snowfall thats the problem - it's where the snow is falling thats the problem."
The dawning of comprehension creeped into the face of Lady Deidre. She put her head into her hands and began massaging her temples,"alright, and just where is all of this snow falling that you caused?"
"Directly over the Peace Keeper enclave. We estimate that they have already received over a meter of snowfall with the last two planet turns, and there seems to be no let up." The meterologist saw the look overcomnig Deidre's face and quickly added, "but we do feel that this will produce bumper crops for the peace Keepers next summer!"
Lady Deidre looked icily at the meterologist,"I'm sure they'll be thrilled to hear this. All right then, is there any way we can turn off this phenomenon?"
The meterologist eagerly replied, shaking his head positively," we anticipate that we can force the weather pattern to move over our position in one planet turn."
"Please see that you do. Dismissed."
The meterologist needed no second prompting to leave the council chambers. Next on the agenda came the situation involving the Morganites. The Trade Minister reported first, "they seem concerned that we will be generating a very large amount of energy credits for selling the Spartans comm frequency at 40ec's to each faction."
"Poppycock", replied the Political Officer,"that's just political posturing. Who should know better than they that once a monopoly is broken, the price comes down considerably. Why I'll bet right now that they are already re-selling the Spartan frequency at 30ec's to each of the other two factions, thus undercutting us, AND making a profit out of buying the frequency from us in the deal!"
There were nods and vocalizations of agreements from around the table, and Lady Deidre smiled secretly to herself: things were progressing nicely.....


Turn to Spasm.

[wgabrie]

Nothing of note this turn, but it seems the gaians forgot to send the spartan comm frequence during trade. We will withhold the 40ec until the comm frequency appears in the trade list.

Turn to a worm bitten Black Sunrise.

[Black Sunrise]

"Sir. We have finally dug the capital out. Unfortunately, it appears likely it will snow again tommorrow."

"Continue efforts to keep the ways clear. Our new Terriforming unit will come on-line soon, and that will go far to keeping us free of this crap"

The leader twitched his head, bringing up a radar display. Strange cloud formations glowed omonously.

"And direct Base 002 to begin studying these weather patterns. There is something ... odd ... about them. A better understanding of Planets weather might do us good in the future."


In other news, India Telecomunications announced the invention of a new cell-phone network. As soon as towers for it are constructed, our people will be able to quickly communicate with each other. Benefits should be many, not the least being that we will be able to keep a better eye on native life sightings.

[Black Sunrise]

The Leader would also like to point out that if he had wanted to remain in communication with his ex-girlfriend, Santiago, he would not have arrainged to be on a different drop-pod than her. "The woman is a damned psychopath, and I'm considering ordering extra guards brought on-line to enforce the order of protection I have against her," The Leader is quoted as saying at a recent informal discussion.

[Darsnan]

A Treatise on the Formation of a Symbiotic Relationship with Planet
Part One: the Formation of the "Superorganism"
By Dr. David Suzuki, Gaian Chief of Natural Sciences

A Government, or High Command, and its populace, can be viewed to a certain extent as a living organism. Indeed, many parallels can be drawn between the evolution of a society, and that of the steps taken by an organism as it grows. Take for instance the government of the United States of America in the latter half of the 20th century: from the mid-1940's through the early 1950's came the American generation known as the "baby-boomers", a dramatic increase of the population in a short period of time. This explosive population growth could be equated to the early growth stages of an embryo after fertilization. In the 1960's came the building of infrastructures such as the "SuperHighway System", which could be equated to the arterial and venal blood vessels of an organism, ferrying both nutrients to where they are needed (the "arteries"), as well as transporting away waste materials (i.e. "venal blood vessels"). The 1980's brought a massive buildup of the American military, as well as the diversification of civilian auxilaries such as the development of SWAT Teams: these could be equated to the development of an immune system, with various versions of white blood cells developed to combat a myriad of invaders. The 1990's saw an overbuilding of the global communications system, or the World Wide Web, which equates to a Central Nervous System connecting every facet of society, or the "organs" of the organism.
With the coming of the food shortages of the 2000's gripping several continents, as well as domestic demands for cheaper food supplies at home, the need for biologically engineered food sources became obvious, with control being administered by a central authourity, usually the gonvernment. To this end the Food Banks came into being in the United States, with similar institutions coming into being in other countries, some being administered by the United Nations, or Peace Keepers. These then could be equated to the digestive tract of the organism.
The problem that the United States faced after this was that their government was growing at a linear pace, whereas the entities around them and the problems facing them were mutating faster than they could react to. This lead to the stressing of the government, or organism, and an organism under stress leads to paranoia and delusion as to the desired goals, and accomplishments, of the government. From there led to the overall disintegration of a majority of the societies that had been so carefully cultivated in the 20th century, leaving us where we are today.
The Gaian Way seeks to avoid this linear growth of the organism, or government, as well as forming a permanent bond with Planet. Where the United States failed was in its linear learning, and building, curve. This could be directly traced to the fact that they were, for the most part, devoid of selective genetic breeding techniques, and therefore were constrained in their advancement by whatever the breeding genepool gave them to spur their growth. It is the Gaian intent to bypass, or expedite, our genetic lineage in such a way as to accelerate the growth of the Gaian symbiotic organism with Planet. To this end we will determine what are the best genes that are necessary to accomplish this, and harvest them, either overtly through voluntary genetic donations, or, if necessarily, by covert means.

[Black Sunrise]

Weather pattern: Continued snow, blizzard conditions.
Systems functional, communications seem slow. Possible sunspot activity?

[Darsnan]

"Sir, we've finally been able to establish a link with the 'net."
"Good work, ensign! How come we've been experiencing so many problems with our communications lately?"
"I don't know, sir. It could be the snow squalls that keep hitting us, or it could be the newly established Peace Keeper telecommunications 'net that's interfering with our communications."
"What, at 64kb/ second? There aren't enough Peace Keeper's on all of Planet to clog the 'net with that data rate!"
"Heah, you know the Peace Keeper's: all talk, no action..."

Turn passed to Spasm at 8:45pm est 12/28

[Black Sunrise]

Spartans call Planetary Election.

Santiago vs Black Sunrise

Current election results:
Santiago has all three AI votes, for 20 total votes.
I have the votes of myself and Morgan. 14 total.

If the other two players cast their votes for me, I will provide information
request regarding the AI factions as desired. I fear I will make little
cash, so cannot afford a materiel reward for your loyalty, but, on the other
hand, who wants a leader like Santiago anyway?

[Darsnan]

you now have 17 votes: even before I read your latest post, I had voted for you, Black Sunrise. If Spasm votes for you, you'll retain leadership, and from the latest conversation I had with Spasm, he seemed to be concerned with the strength of the Spartans, so I am inclined to believe he will vote for you as well.
As far as your offer of intelligence information is concerned: this would be greatly appreciated. I am pretty sure an AI is lurking on my borders (I'm stumbling on A LOT of opened pods and fungal blooms, and its starting to impact me ). May Planet be with you.

Turned to Spasm at 8:30pm est.

[Black Sunrise]

"Well, the good news is, apparently a large amount of resources are no longer in the hands of the Spartans.
The bad news is, they now have infiltrated the datalinks of every faction on Planet.
Also bad is the fact that both SPasmofiT and Zhak, with both of whom we thought we had understandings, chose to support the usurper.
Interestingly, Spasmofit appears to have received some significant reward from an undisclosed source. We fear illegal campaign contributions on the part of the Spartant Federation.
Rest assured, people: we will capture the Presidency. If not in 20 years, then in 40. We will not be stopped on this matter."

[Darsnan]

"You know, I can almost picture him with his fists balled up and stomping his feet because he didn't win."
Even though this was said within the confines of the Council Chambers, where everything was sancrosanct, Lady Deidre shot the man a scathing glance, "we should offer words of condolence to the Peace Keepers, and not take parting shots at the man. Let him say what he has to say, and if time proves him right, then he is a better person for it." Lady Deidre turned to her Political Officer, "Well, how does this impact us?"
"Not as significantly as some of the other factions: we never traded world maps, so our location is still safe for the time being, and we can use this and our non-alignment as bargaining chips."
"So do you feel that a Pact with the Hive would be beneficial?"
"What they offer is significant: techs that we need, as well as simply being able to say that we are in Pact with a strong power on Planet. If whoever is harassing our borders turns out to be a significant threat, then by gaining the techs The Hive offers we will be all the more prepared for when they attack."

Turned to Spasm

[SPasmofiT]

Turn... earlier today (like 10 h ago ?)