Zerokal's First Tracking Thread

[Barinthus]

Zerokal's First - PBEM game
SMAC v5.0

STARTING YEAR: 2101

[B]
CMN        Email [/B]

Barinthus  [email]xxaeolusdata@yahoo.com[/email]xx
[B][I]
TURN ORDER[/I]
FACTION              PLAYER             GMT EMAIL [/B]

Gaia's Stepdaughters Lord Ouro          -9  [email]xxGodschild_827@yahoo.com[/email]xx
Human Hive           Chairman Scorpi    +1  [email]xxscorpi40000@hotmail.com[/email]xx
University of Planet Provost Obstructor +1  [email]xxobstructor@inet.hrx[/email]x
Spartan Federation   Colonel Zerokal    -7  [email]xxILIKETOPLAYCOMPUTERGAMES@msn.com[/email]xx
Lord's Believers     Brother RalPA      +1  [email]xxralpa7@yahoo.com[/email]xx
Peacekeeping Forces  Brother Arcainite  -5  [email]xxarcainite@aol.com[/email]xx
Morgan Industries    AI              

[B]FINAL SETTINGS[/B]
Map size	| Large   
Ocean		| 30-50   
Erosion		| Weak	  
Life		| Rare    
Clouds		| Dense   
Difficulty	| Librarian

Transcend	| No      
Diplomatic	| Yes     
Economic	| No      
Cooperative	| Yes     
Do or Die	| Yes
Flexible start	| Yes
Tech stag	| No
Spoils of war	| Yes
Blind research	| No
Intense riv	| No
No survey	| Yes
No scatter	| No
No rnd events	| Yes 
Time Warp	| No
Iron man	| No
Rand person	| No
Rand social	| No

[B]RESTRICTIONS/MODIFICATIONS[/B]
None

[Barinthus]

I don't know about you guys but I'm excited. This is my first effort as a CMN. There was one problem - I couldn't seem to set up the turn order the way I wanted it to be. Normally I'd take some time to try to figure it out but you guys seems eager to get started so I figured you folks might won't mind too much.

If you do mind, please let me know and I'll edit the turn order. I plan to ask around how to solve this problem for the next time anyway.

I've tried my best to make sure all starting locations are balanced as much as possible. Please share with me your input/feedback. To avoid littering this thread, use the other one we've been on to discuss this PBEM or email or PM me.

Anyway I hope you guys will have fun playing this game as much I did setting it up and playtesting it.

Cheers!

P.S. Ouro has the first turn.

[Barinthus]

The Background Story...

Commander Scorpi slid himself out of the cryopad and arched his back as he shake off decades of cryo-stasis sleep out of his muscles. Instinctively he reached out at the computer panel next to his cryopad and brought up the current status of every single person board UNS Unity.

Immediately the Chief of Security caught discretion among the data blinking on the panel. A serious discretion, indeed.

“Director Arcainite, we must have a meeting of top ranking officers at once,” demanded Commander Scorpi.

“Why, commander, nice to be talking to you again,” the director replied sarcastically, “You know as well as I do that the protocol calls for half hour of adjustments after we are revived from the cryo-stasis sleep before we begin our first officers’ meeting.”

“Correct, unless there is an urgent matter demanding our attention. The Captain is dead and approximately fourth of our supplies including weapons are missing. As the ship’s Chief of Security, I am convening an emergency meeting immediately.” Commander Scorpi commanded.

As the director cut off the comlink to the chief of security, Arcainite thought to himself, that imprudent arrogant cretin!

Five minutes later…

The director was still scowling as he entered the board room. Everybody was there – the Chief of Security, Lt. Commander Ouro, Commander Obstructor, and Lt. Commander RalPA. Everybody except for two missing persons – Captain Garland and Lieutenant Zerokal. Scorpi looked at Arcainite silently then started, “Good, now that everybody is here, let us proceed. I am sure you are puzzled at why we are here right now…”

“Wait a minute, the Captain is not here. Lieutenant Zerokal of the Security either,” the Chief Science Officer Obstructor pointed out.

“Yes that is why we are here. This is the current roster of everybody aboard and their status.” Scorpi beckoned toward the wall panel behind him which instantly displayed the roster. Many names were listed as ‘Missing.’ “If you will look here, you will note that the Captain is listed as dead. I have taken the liberty of dispatching a team with Lieutenant Zerokal leading to check his cryobed. This along with about twenty-five percent of personnel missing is a valid reason for summoning you all here. Most of security teams are searching the entire ship at this moment.”

“Also there is one more issue that you all need to be aware of. We all were supposed to be revived once UNS Unity is at 90 astronomical units away from the planet Chiron. Yet if you look at this,” the wall panel displays a diagram of the planet and the ship’s position, “you will note that we are already in the orbit around our destination.”

A disembodied voice echoed into the room from Scorpi’s comlink, “Commander Scorpi, Lieutenant Zerokal reporting. We have verified that Captain Garland is deceased. His cryobed is damaged consistent with those of small-arm fire.”

“I would like to send a medical team to confirm the lieutenant’s assessment,” Obstructor interrupted.

Looking at the Chief Science Officer, Scorpi nodded. “Ouro, I want you assemble a team and check out Captain,” Obstructor directed at his subordinate. As Ouro stood up, RalPA stood also, “As the ship’s psych chaplain, I would like to go with the team.” Without waiting for Scorpi’s affirmation, he quickly left the room.

“Thank you, Commander for your excellent work. I will take over from here. According to the protocol, should the Captain is unable to carry out his duties, I am next in the line,” Director Arcainite said as he walked over toward the head of the table where Scorpi was standing.

Suddenly, Zerokal’s voice filled the room, “Commander, I have something urgent to report. Theta Security Team recently notified me that they have discovered what appears to be a thermo-nuclear device in the engine room. There is a timer on the device and it is counting down. If it is accurate, there is about 45 minutes left on the timer. I am on my way there to verify the report.”

“Good work, Lieutenant,” Scorpi replied and turned to Arcainite, “We have an immediate threat to the security of the ship and everybody aboard. The protocol calls for the Chief of Security to be in the charge. We will need to…”

“No! I can’t permit you to be in the charge, you smug know-it-all!” Arcainite snarled, “Guards, place Commander Scorpi under arrest!”

Two guards at the entrance hesitated momentarily but that was all Scorpi needed. Before anybody could react, in a flash Scorpi was behind Arcainite forcing the director down against the table. “You would think you could order my own men to arrest me? You both, place the director under the arrest. I am now in the command of the ship. Agreed?”

The Chief Science Officer nodded slowly, still surprised at how rapidly the situation has changed. Enraged, Arcainite struggled in vain as two security officers dragged him away.

“40 minutes is not enough to get all landing pods ready for the detachment. I want you to have a team of your best examine the device and see what they can do. Meanwhile, I will need to place the ship on the red alert and prepare for emergency evacuation. Understood, Commander Obstructor?”

“Yes, sir. I will take a team myself,” Obstructor hurried out of the room, relieved that he now knows what he has to do.

20 minutes later in Scorpi’s office…

“Whoever built this device knew what they were doing. There is a secondary trigger which will automatically detonate once we disable the primary trigger. The best we can do to reset the timer. However this will only buy us 90 extra minutes and we can only do it once,” Obstructor’s face on the small comlink display spoke.

“Once there is a minute left on the timer, reset it. At least we will have time to send all personnel and vital equipment down to the surface. Commander Scorpi out.”

Leaning back into his seat, the makeshift captain of the ship sighed. All necessary preparation has been taken and despite the deep exhaustion of the cyro-stasis sleep the crew has been performing excellently considering the circumstances. If the Chief Science Officer was successful in resetting the timer, everybody still aboard and most of equipment will be saved provided nothing else go wrong. There is nothing more he can do right now except to ponder about what happened. In few minutes if the ship did not vaporize into a radioactive mist, he will know that Obstructor has been successful.

Something was not right. Why the normally placid Director Arcainite has been acting so erratic. This was not like him at all. Also, why did Zerokal lie about the security team? Theta Security Team was outside of the board room the entire time so it was impossible for them to ‘discover’ the device in the engine room.

Turning toward the display panel, Scorpi dove into the sea of data contained within the ship’s computer…

35 minutes later in the stockades…

Confined Arcainite looked up as Zerokal suddenly burst into the room, panting and his uniform splattered with the blood of recently slain guards outside the entrance. “Ah, I’m glad to see you. I was wondering if you’d abandon me just like Morgan did us,” the former director said.

As the entrance to Arcainite’s cell slid open, “That tight-fisted money-grubbing bastard, I can’t wait to get my hands on him! We should have known better, he would wriggle out of paying us if he could! Come on, we don’t have much time. Fortunately we were able to delay the bomb but we have perhaps forty minutes left. Pod 5 and Pod 9 are ready, our people are there waiting for us. Hurry up!” insisted the security lieutenant.

“Do you think others suspect us at all?” Arcainite queried.

Scorpi’s voice startled them “Yes the ‘others’ have.” He pointed his sidearm at two accomplices. “Iota and Mu teams, this is Commander Scorpi. Meet me immediately at the stockades,” he spoke into his wrist comlink. “I should have known better. All of my teams report to me directly not you, Zerokal. It did not help either that the Theta team was with me the whole time. Apparently you knew about the device but something went wrong or you would have not told me about it. I did an extensive search on the computer and I found flimsy attempts to cover up evidence showing that we had a stowaway. The revival time was also tampered so only the stowaway would wake up along with selected personnel. Fortunately the safeguards embedded deep within the computer prevented the revival time to be changed in a way that the device would have exploded before all of us were able to be revived. Only three persons have the authority to do this kind of tampering – the Captain, the Chief of Security, and the Director. The Captain is dead and I know it was not me. Which left you, Arcainite. I take it that the ‘stowaway’ is Morgan, the man behind the project. In the hindsight it makes sense, why finance some silly project that had a remote chance of succeeding and only few could go while staying back on the doomed Earth? What I have been unable to figure out why you both are involved in….”

Scorpi crumbled as a flash from a weapon from behind ripped through his left side. Arcainite and Zerokal ran across Scorpi’s body, fleeing the scene.

Few minutes later, Scorpi stirred out of his unconsciousness to see a medical officer kneeling over him and the chaotic noises of a firefight in his ears. He was lucky, the two security teams he summoned arrove in time to engage in combat with a team of crew members loyal to Zerokal before they could eliminate him.

“Commander!? Commander!?! We have only fifteen minutes left! We need to go now!” the doctor pulled the wounded commander up. The firefight recently died down as Scorpi’s men had the better of the combat. The survivors of Iota and Mu teams along with Scorpi and his doctor rushed down the corridor toward the Pod 3 which happened to be the nearest one.

Fifteen minutes later…

The lonely ship have been at its destination for only few hours after all of those years of sailing throughout the cold space when it erupted into a white searing flash heating up the outer atmosphere but not before a rainfall of pods detached from her and showered all across the Planet.

[Zerokal]

Woohoo! time to have some fin! ^_^

[Barinthus]

I rushed the story a bit (ok ok I'm being kind to myself ). Hope it makes some sense. If you want some clarification on some detials, let me know.

Basically, Director Morgan of Morgan Industries came aboard the ship and he had his people inflirated throughout the ship crew. He was able to escape the ship with more supplies and people before everybody else woke up.

What this means for you as a player is that the AI faction has more pods and scouts. Not by that much so don't worry too much about it. In every playtesting effort with the map I created it is possible for human-led factions to reach the strength equal or greater to Morganites before the first contact with him.

I just wanted to make the game a bit more challenging

Anyway I sincerely hope you all will enjoy this map.

[Arcainite]

Your story...

The story was very good, but...wouldn't this type of set-up be more suitable to an Intense Rivalry game? We have Intense Rivalry off. But oh well! Looks like I'm a bad guy, I'll have to see if there's any chance of salvaging some peace with the other factions through some spin-doctoring.
------
The Director spoke through pod-to-pod communications to Lieutenant Zerokal, "We have ALL been betrayed by Morgan, but we are cursed with being branded due to the fact we should have been with Morgan not still in cryosleep. This plot was hatched by Morgan, we will just have to see if we can't re-establish ties with him and the other factions while we plan our emergence as the dominant powers of Chiron. But in the end, Z, Morgan will learn what it is to cross the Spartan-Peacekeeper Alliance! He will not survive the lesson with our knives buried in his back."
-Arcainite

[Barinthus]

You may have a point there. However, you guys don't have to be aggressive or whatever. People could let bygones be bygones Right now only Scorpi, Zerokal, and Arcainite 'know' what happened and Scorpi only have speculative evidence and hearsay. Dynamics aboard UNS Unity are not neccessarily the same on the Planet. That's politics .

[Illuminatus]

[Ouro_827]

Question: What in the world is .rar? I thought that was maybe a Stufflt file extension.... Saw it in the e-mail, but was having trouble downloading... when I do get it, what do I open it with? And in my experience with timezones... it would best go one of three ways.... me, three +1 timezones, -5, -7 or me, -7, -5, and the +1s and finally the +1s, -5, -7, then me.

[Zerokal]

Ouro: If you download Winace, you should be able to open .rar files. I think some of us might prefer the .zip file extension.

[Barinthus]

Ouro, read my second posting regarding the turn order.

Based on my research, apparently with SMAC the turn order is set in stone - the only way to achieve the GMT time sequence is to have you folks switch factions.

One other possible way is to set up the game via SMAX because in there turn order can be changed but IIRC one player doesn't have SMAX.

[Ouro_827]

Don't see it, but I'll take your word for it... also, all three of my copies of Stufflt insist that your file is corrupt. Please resend or post...

[Scorpi40000]

Change factions?

[Arcainite]

Barinthus, resend?

Can you resend, without the .rar extension. I must admit, I'm not familiar with it either. You can just send it without any zipping at all if you need to. Or .zip it.
Arcainite

[Barinthus]

Yes I was going to do that last night but I completely forgot all about it because I had to do my taxes. Sorry, Uncle Sam comes first.

I feel bad that you guys have been waiting even longer to play. Tonight I'll be sure to send a zipped file. Meanwhile if Ouro don't want to wait, I'm sure he could find some free demo for a WinRar software.

IIRC there's a link in the 'Building Bridges' tracking thread to a free WinRar site.