You've decided to stay at HQ in order to coordinate your people's efforts. Looks like things have, at least for the time being, gotten back to normal.

In the next few hours, you give your attention to

# getting out and helping local rescue efforts yourself, along with your security teams and the Ghilotti Bros. construction company.

# directing local rescue efforts without putting yourself in danger.

# ensuring Carla and Aki's safe return from the UK.

# ensuring that the construction of a secondary HQ in Chile proceeds smoothly, by manually routing a high-bandwidth channel between there and Chicago.

# figuring out a way to warn Santiago or other subpotentates that Carpatescu has hypnotic powers.

>>3669296
# ensuring Carla and Aki's safe return from the UK.

>>3669296
I'm torn between assisting Carla and Aki or warning Santiago.

Fact is our ability to relieve the damage done by the Peacekeepers is minimal compared to what they've done and putting ourselves at risk does little to improve it. Lastly, though the secondary HQ is important, it is hardly the end-all of our situation. Resources can be spared later to resume construction or repair damages should it be needed.


God dammit, they shouldn't have used the nukes. Who in their right minds uses any nuclear weapons in response to civil aggression! We're going to chew the ass off of everyone after this.

>>3669296

> # ensuring Carla and Aki's safe return from the UK.

They're our trump cards.

>>3669312
Only 3 we can realistically warn....

Russia guy, South American best girl, Murrica guy.

Maybe the China guy too...

RECAP

You are the Foreman of the Custodial Arrangement for Telecom Systems, the one-world telecoms agency under Global Potentate (formerly UN Secretary General) Nicolae Carpatescu, who is in no way shape or form the Antichrist, despite what the Christian Remnant sect has been saying after the disappearance of every child on earth in 1996 - they called it the Rapture, everyone else simply refers to it as the Event.

You are the man who runs the Internet. Your mandate: Keep it that way, even in the face of Armageddon.

Rules: http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.Quest2Rules.html

Datalinks: http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.Quest2Datalinks.html

Tentative prophecy timeline, extracted from Bruce Barnes' computer before his untimely death : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BlMOSEOxSihj1gdagq7yxCjONaRBgcdlRxnc68uWf0A

>>3669315
>Russia guy, South American best girl, Murrica guy.
European guy thinks decently of us if I remember rightly for our handling of the Irish situation. Probably not enough to take this sort of warning too seriously but maybe enough to at least humour us.

>Maybe the China guy too...
China is a girl but aye we can probably tell them too.

>>3669312
I tried to set up Santiago recording Carpatescu several times before, but noooooo.

Well, now isn't the time because even if Santiago knew, what is she going to do about it?

Besides, Nomenklator is a public thing now so good luck getting Carpatescu to fuck up near one.

That boat sailed.

>>3669296
>>3669321
We do have the one recording of Carpatescu using it on us


> ensuring Carla and Aki's safe return from the UK

>>3669321
>I tried to set up Santiago recording Carpatescu several times before, but noooooo.
Yeah well at least she's on our side.

>Well, now isn't the time because even if Santiago knew, what is she going to do about it?
Quickly acquire or make use of a Nomenklator headset that we or she already got her?

>Besides, Nomenklator is a public thing now so good luck getting Carpatescu to fuck up near one.
We might get lucky, the models that the public know about are large bulky earmuff looking things rather than our covert earpieces.

Plus their main benefit is the limited protection from his speech-control. Which we should really invest in improving.

>>3669315
Even then, how are we going to convince them of it? Should we even convince them of it?

Too bad we didn't have Santiago on our side for it already.

Because having a communications giant with advanced tech give you a/v evidence gets tricky when they're also the best choice to have faked it.

And with the current rebellion, is this the best time to bring it up?

>>3669334
Yeah there will be a better time to talk to Santiago about it then now.

>>3669312

(Hey, that's how it went in the Left Behind books. The whole "nukes mysteriously have stopped working properly" bit is my own, in the books, the Peacekeepers drop a 100 megaton bomb on Heathrow for no real reason, and it gravely damages the airport instead of, I don't know, turning lower England into an alien landscape. I had to come up with something!)

>>3669312

You are having a very hard time figuring out who is bombing what; the GNN feed of course says that most of the damage is due to the militias, but you aren't so sure. Before passing out at your post, you had decided that the best way to avoid causing additional panic was to have Gladys read news updates in a monotone, lowball the casualty figures, and put Dr. Robertson or one of his students on the satellite feed to tell people to stay indoors to avoid contamination from what are essentially "dirty bombs".

>>3669321
>>3669333

The Nomenklator units you have been selling look like headsets; the ones you have been using, and issuing to a few field agents, are much smaller (and expensive to manufacture) and can effectively be hidden inside the ear. An experimental noise-canceling algorithm has been tested, by you, and confirmed to at least make you aware of Carpatescu's hpynosis, although you ended up obeying his commands anyway at the time.

Unfortunately, subpotentate Corazon Santiago wasn't given one.

As far as you know, she is on Carpatescu's stealth airliner, somewhere over the Pacific and due for Wake Island where the airplane will refuel.

>>3669331

You have two such recordings, if you want to use them for proof.

>>3669334
>>3669336

Corazon Santiago is, as it stands, on your side - or at least she was just before the attacks; you had just concluded what amounted to an informal alliance, allowing CATS to open a second HQ in Santiago de Chile in the old SYNCO building.


>>3669331
>>3669314


One oddity of the distributed internet infrastructure you have created is that just a couple of Cellular-Solar mesh hops away from a crisis zone, things are working normally, albeit a little slower.

You use your ability to flash-override cell phone calls to book a few tickets on a series of regional airlines from Luton to Midway, IL, passing through Reijkavik; Carla, Aki and the other couple of people who went with them will be back at HQ in a little more than a day. Interestingly, one of the first orders Carpatescu has given is that airline traffic in airports that were not attacked resume as soon as it's safe to do so.

A few hours later, you receive word that Carpatescu's plane (named Condor 216, if you care, and capable of operating in the transsonic region although not of traveling supersonically for long periods - you briefly wonder why he didn't get himself a Concorde) has landed at Wake Island.

The attacks seem to have stopped; the death toll is in the thousands, largely due to airport terminals having been bombed while full of people who had been mustered there.

The damage to the US east coast, southern Britain, and northern Egypt was extensive, with dead in the thousands. MIT and Princeton have been closed.

The Twin Towers in New York have been evacuated as a precaution after one of the militia airplanes - generally older models from the Air National Guard in the US, whereby in the UK the insurrectionists have literally broken out the museum pieces in some instances - crashed through the north tower and embedded itself in the south tower.

Hospitals around the affected area are starting to fill up with people exhibiting signs of plutonium poisioning; even though the stuff is markedly less radioactive than it used to be, this is still a death sentence, largely because the illness has never been studied - radiation damage being a more pressing issue in case of exposure - forcing doctors and nurses to improvise.

Your security teams are starting to come back in; they've done what they could, and first responders now have the situation more or less in hand.

There are a number of things you can do to help: you will do all of them, but must prioritize one - the situation is too chaotic to do regression analysis, so some triage will be necessary.


# Dispatch teams to reconstruct the Cellular-Solar pylons immediately, communication will be essential.

# Connect Dr. Robertson's students to hospitals in affected areas since they can assist medical personnel in dealing with the plutonium exposure's new effects.

# Secure existing emergency supply warehouses from looting by other factions.

# Try to contact Carpatescu (or anyone else on the Condor, viz. the supotentates) and ask for orders.

>>3669369
# Secure existing emergency supply warehouses from looting by other factions.

We're one of the few factions to have serious non-food stockpiles (e,g medicine, fuel, etc) at the ready. We've got to ensure they don't get looted. Once that is done we can look into the other issues.

>>3669369
# Connect Dr. Robertson's students to hospitals in affected areas since they can assist medical personnel in dealing with the plutonium exposure's new effects.

They can study the new effects.

Didn't we give Santigo a Nomklator before we left?

Make sure to send the guys she sent up to help us return wit a bos full of them as gifts.

Mark how many we sent.

>>3669369
>secure exissting emergancy supply warehouses.

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>>3669376

You've given Santiago a prerelease consumer Nomenklator as a gift, but not one of the hideable ones, so out of politeness she's unlikely to be wearing it on the Condor (besides, your infrastructure is not yet at the point where regular cell phones work on airplanes, although of course Carpatescu has a satellite link installed in it).

You did bring a number of them with the SYNCO teams, both for work and as lagniappe for the local grandees (it's a new fancy thing, after all), but, again, they are the customer version.

>>3669389
>>3669374

You direct your security teams to secure supply warehouses to prevent looting, and coordinate the distribution of MREs and blankets for any who need it. While they are at it, they take the time to inventory the stockpiles and ensure that they can be taken over quickly in case of emergency.

You are heartened to see that the Peacekeepers on the ground are doing a good job of preventing looting and ensuring that people displaced by the attacks have access to basic necessities.

The people working with Dr. Robertson report that a number of flights headed for Chicago and Toronto were redirected to Sudbury, just as a number of flights headed for New York and Washington DC were redirected to Gander, Newfoundland. More than 13200 passengers and airline crew members, equivalent to a significant percent of the local population found themselves forced to stay in the areas for up to six days until airspace was reopened and flights resumed. Residents of surrounding communities volunteered to house, feed, and entertain the travellers.

It seems that things are calming down a little. That's when you get an email from Carpatescu - he wants to see you immediately, in person.

# Point out that flying halfway across the world right now is unsafe and pointless, and you are more useful helping reconstruction workers coordinate with their headquarters and warehouses.

# Well, he's the boss - gotta go. With the noise canceling headphones of course.

# Go, but wait until Aki and Carla are back. You may be a cabinet level official but you don't want to bump engineers or doctors off any flights that are still functioning.

>>3669412
# Point out that flying halfway across the world right now is unsafe and pointless, and you are more useful helping reconstruction workers coordinate with their headquarters and warehouses.

>>3669421
This.

>>3669412
>well he's the boss - gotta go.

I dont think we should fight him on these just yet

>>3669431
>>3669421

Carpathia answers by calling you.

"You are never to disagree with me in public, Foreman" he says, clearly suppressing a snarl.

"But, man to man, I can see your point. Make your way to New Babylon as soon as it's safe to do so; we still need to discuss your budget. For the time being, I require you to focus on improving ground infrastructure, so that any such cowardly attacks have no repercussions on our fellow citizens. Complete the Network Nodes before any further stupidity befalls the world."

(You will have to use one of your actions this month to manually coordinate rebuilding teams, and go to New Babylon, as you can't postpone it for more than a couple of weeks)

In the next few days, things go back to normal; the hospital reopens, O'Hare closes off the destroyed terminal and rearranges schedules to make everything fit in the others.

One odd aftereffect of the attacks is that despite the understandable fear of flying that grips the world soon after, in order to accomodate the number of travelers having to deal with closed terminals, the amount of security screening at affected airports goes down significantly, with x-rays only used for spot checks rather than for everyone. You expected the opposite to be the case.

Outgoing US president Hugh Fitzgerald died in DC, supposedly shot by one of the Minutemen while attempting to surrender the militia detachment he had found himself at the head of.

By Carpatescu's directive, subpotentates have been ordered to run for elections in countries under their responsibility that still intend to have elections, including the US and Canada; Peacekeepers quickly move to become the face of the rebuilding effort, and people seem to be getting used to seeing them in the streets alongside regular first responders.

The handover of Northern Egypt to the United Carpathian States is completed without a formal vote, after preliminary polls from Cairo show that the population agrees to the handover by approximately a 60-40 margin.

A few smaller countries' governments formally dissolve and devolve their responsibility to the relevant Global Community subpotentate.

Carla and Aki make it back, unscathed; the young computer scientist is clearly still very shaken, having never witnessed death in person before. She's clearly upset at the concept of people dying. You aren't sure if it's best to let her be or not.

Carla has, uncharacteristically, a few harsh words for you: grand programs such as the Datalinks are well and good, but this incident shows how preparedness and a robust ground infrastructure are important.

As for you... it's time to try to get back to what passes for regular work.

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Hello, Foreman! You are planning CATS' operations for the month.

Rules: http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.Quest2Rules.html

Datalinks: http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.Quest2Datalinks.html

Tentative timeline: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BlMOSEOxSihj1gdagq7yxCjONaRBgcdlRxnc68uWf0A

Agents:

You can deploy yourself on ONE actions for a small bonus to all rolls. Your Nomenklator system can be issued to ONE team per turn, for a small bonus to all rolls.

Dr. Robertson can be deployed on ONE action for a large bonus to R&D rolls or a small bonus to any non-covert rolls.

Ryan Andrews can be deployed on ONE action for a large bonus to construction rolls or a small bonus to any non-covert rolls.

Moira McSingh can be deployed on ONE action per turn, for a medium bonus to covert rolls or a small bonus to all rolls. She can give basic combat capability to a work crew.

Aki Lattinen can be deployed on TWO actions per turn, for a medium bonus to R&D or construction rolls. She will hack into things if bored.

Performing an action outside of your home territory will also require the availability of (complexity) fleet assets, OR renting fleet assets out at the cost of 1/asset.

Free:

Move the Garibaldi (Mediterranean, Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific).

Buy equipment on the open market:
Power generation 1
Small arms 1
Network equipment 2
Fleet assets 2
Aerospace part 3
Supplies (food, fuel etc) 0.5


C0 (Agent):

Survey a territory for opportunity using an agent. Not surveyed: Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, India, Greenland, Japan, Indochina, Pacific Islands, Afghanistan, Madagascar, Sahara, Central Africa, Israel, Middle East, Western Russia

Undergo combat training (Max 1 per month)

Tail someone.

Buy equipment on the black market:
Small arms 1
Squad weapons 2
Stimulants 1

C1:

Reconfigure the Garibaldi (generic, cargo, hospital, strike, orbital)

Tail someone using a team.

Survey a territory for opportunity using a team.

Hire out a covert operations team for a situational reward.

Construct network equipment.

Construct a Cellular-Solar pylon. (+1 cellular or internet; requires 1 network part)

Make and sell consumer-grade Nomenklators (Net gain 1BN). Reveals it.

C2:

Do research (1~3).

Construct an aerospace part.

Construct a logistics hub (cap 1 fleet requirement for that territory; can deploy covert teams there with no advance notice; costs 1 power; stores supplies)

C3:

Begin directed-energy research

Recruit a work team

Schedule a satellite launch, which will happen at the end of NEXT month. Requires an aerospace part.

Do research (4~6)

C4:

Recruit a covert team

Do research (7~9).

Construct a network node. (unifies cell and net in that territory; costs 1 power, 1 network)

C5:

Rush a satellite launch, which will happen at the end of this month. Requires 1 aerospace part.

Construct a base and a network node at the same time (2 power, 1 network)

Do research (10).

What are your orders?

>>3669465
Can we have Carla research preparedness?

>>3669465
Shouldnt we have 12 work teams? I remeber us putting 3 on recruiting a work team last turn amd didnt we make a network node in china making us 8/10

>>3669468

Carla is your in-house preparedness expert; she's an analyst, not a researcher, and her job behind the scene for the last two years has been to implement the preparedness programs that you research. For example, when your teams worked out how to use cell phone accelerometers as seismgraphs, she did all the grunt work in ensuring that natural gas and electric companies across the world actually installed tilt switches, so that earthquakes wouldn't cause fires in their wake.

(OOC note: She's there for flavor, not as an agent)

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>>3669473

Derp, you're right. Let me correct the map. Thanks for catching it!

>>3669475
Also did our reasearch team fail sattalites or should it be at 6? Sorry to be picky about it.

>>3669465
Have Dr. Robertson research SatelliteSolar 3 teams

Aki Research Ai 4 teams
Aki Research Defense 3 teams

Andrews Construct a logistics hub two teams in USA in a former Bunker.

4 teams recruit a Covert team with Moira.

We go and look around America for some former FBI or CIA guys to recruit.

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>>3669476

No, please do. I didn't update the map correctly after the war stuff. Also note that internet and cell coverage has decreased in at least one area, due to the damage from the attacks.

>>3669477

do you mean satellites, or cellular-solar?

>>3669477
Anon we have 12 work teams, not 16.

>>3669465
Ok i vote
3 teams network node in Britain with Ryan on it

4 team network node in africa. Have 2 covert teams go with them and Moria

3 team recruit a work team tem

2 team with Aki research preparedness

We go to new Babylon

2 covert teams work

>>3669479
Im pretty sure we ended up doing sattalites. Did we switch?

>>3669481

You have one action left, other than going to New Babylon.

Any specific territory in Africa?

>>3669480
4 of them are covert....?

Wait guys we need to build a cellar solar tower to fix stuff.

>>3669481
Oh we do have 12 im changing this too

>Ok i vote
>3 teams network node in Britain with Ryan on it
>4 team network node in africa. Have 2 covert teams go with them and Moria
>3 team recruit a work team with us
>3 team with Aki research preparedness
>We go to new Babylon
>2 covert teams work

>>3669487
We should build the node in east coast usa since that place took damage and we lost some infrastructure.

>>3669485
You were assigning them to "regular" actions. Which they can't by their nature do.

>Wait guys we need to build a cellar solar tower to fix stuff.
Yeah but we have a mandate so we should do that first so we can at least use that to defend ourselves when we've got to meet with the boss who currently kinda wants our head.

>>3669489
America already has a node. We are compleating the mandate first. Then we can start helping other areas

>>3669484
Gesit so whats the deal with the factory base in south america. Is it doing anything for us as we built it last turn. Do we have to do more to make the nomencalture factory?

>>3669502
America can have 3 nodes?

And the east cost just took a hit, and our bass wants things back up and running properly.

>>3669492
Well unless everyone thought 4 teams with Moira means work teams or mixing covert teams around with the work crews its fairly self explanatory.

A bit of good news in all this is that Capt. Steele (the British Navy guy, not the personal pilot of Carpatescu, who... apparently called the potentate at 3AM local time for some reason, and didn't get cut to pieces, so the big boss must have gotten his poker face back) has reached the Garibaldi and is having the outgoing XO teach him the ropes, so as to have a smooth changeover.

From here on out you will be able to switch her configurations for 1BN, the switch taking effect either immediately, or right at the beginning of the following month, at your choice.

Captain A. K. Steele is a competent seaman and former military officer. He has no particular area of excellence, but will do a good steady job in nearly any circumstance. He is not unfamiliar with "ungentlemanly warfare", as the British have historically put it, and in light of recent events wholly understands that an organization such as CATS needs to defend itself, but is unlikely to be enthusiastic should you wish to use the Garibaldi for less-than-savory acivities.

>>3669503

Your secondary HQ is incomplete, but available for use. Since you are contracting with local transport companies anyway, it negates the need for fleet assets in this region, as well as providing a backup for command and control functions. Simply due to the fact that it's in Santiago's territory, it has been designed to be highly defensible, to showcase her chosen ideology.

Buying an actual factory would have been more difficult in Dimmsdale's territory, but lines between government and private business are culturally easier to blur in South America. If you survey the territory yourself, you will find it easy to grease the necessary palms. You figure that the end result is going to be a small amount of passive income, assuming of course that Nomenclators continue to sell well.

>>3669506

Due to her background, Moira is able to work with both work and covert teams. If she is assigned to a work project, she will grant basic self-defense capability to the work teams involved.

>>3669465
>>3669477
Revising mine to

Build one node in east cost USA with 4 teams
Build a node in north Africa 4 teams with 2 covert, take Andrews
Build a logistics hub in north Africa 2 teams with 1 covert take Moira. Give her the nomklators.

2 teams make Nomklators for our teams to use in the future.

last team goes with us to recruit agents in USA.

>>3669506
Mixing covert and work should be explictily stated as they are of limited supply. Anyways yeah america and have 3 nodes look at the lines on the map 3 territories.
>>3669510
Ok so we need to go to south america to set it up. Ill change my plan to

>3 teams network node in Britain with Ryan on it
>4 team network node in africa. Have 2 covert teams go with them and Moria
>3 team recruit a work team
>3 team with Aki research preparedness
>We go to new Babylon
>2 covert teams work
>we go to south america

>>3669519
Why build a node in America its against our mandate??

>>3669537
I didn't think it would be that confusing.

Be cause we lost infrastructure in the east coast from the terror attack.

I'll support this if you put the node in north or south Africa, reconfigure the carrier to strike, in case our teams need air support.

>>3669543
His point is that we've still fulfilled our requirements for network nodes in the northern american continent. Meaning the construction of more there currently is unneeded. Especially since we've got higher priorities like finishing our mandate to construct one per Subpotenate's lands.

Fact is that the east coast is still fine for now. Their infrastructure is no worse than Iceland or western Russia or north-eastern Europe / Scandinavia. They will survive without issue.

>>3669543
We can put a cellular solar node. If we are switching to strike then we need to buy 3 more fleet assets or we will be paying out the ass to vuild things again so ill change my plan too:

>>3669537

Spend 6 bn to buy 3 fleet assets
Spend 1 bn changing Garibaldi to strike

>3 teams network node in Britain with Ryan on it
>4 team network node in north africa. Have 2 covert teams go with them and Moria
>3 team recruit a work team
>3 team with Aki research preparedness
>We go to new Babylon
>2 covert teams work
>we go to south america
>Why build a node in America its against our mandate??

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>>3669550

> east coast of US having the same internet and phone coverage as Russia

> it's fine

>>3669556
Seeing as Russia is currently being ruled by a technocrat? Yeah pretty much. They've still got functional internet and telephones, improving the networks can come later.

>>3669555
>Spend 6 bn to buy 3 fleet assets
Wait where does it say that?

>>3669559
I would think it took more than a few 2 or 3 years to catch up to us infrastructure, especially since they had collapsed recently.

>>3669563

It says that in >>3669465


Buy equipment on the open market:
Power generation 1
Small arms 1
Network equipment 2
Fleet assets 2
Aerospace part 3
Supplies (food, fuel etc) 0.5 Up from 0.33 last month

>>3669569
No I mean, where does it say we need 3 fleet assets to reconfigure our carrier.

>>3669576
It dosnt but if we rent fleet assets it costs 3 per asset and we only get 1 turn of use. As we are moving 7 work teams for creating network nodes we need at least 7 fleet assets to do so without soending out the ass.

>>3669576
Basically we need to replace the fleet assets we are loosing by making the garbaldi do other things

>>3669569
geist, is it possible to take off the 57mm gun from the apc, and put that into an aircraft, and the minigun into another aircraft? can it be done by the crew on the carrier or would we need work teams on that specifically?

>>3669589

The Antonov AN-2's can be set up for close air support, yes. All your military assets have been purchased or otherwise acquired with modularity in mind.

That said, putting a field artillery piece on the side of an AN-2 is probably dangerous; consider a spinal mount instead. This does, of course, make the airplane unable to carry passengers.

>>3669543
So i changed it. Do you support?

>>3669607
Well then the BMP turret guns would probably fit better...

Overall yes.
I'm trying to find out if we can give air support to the work crews or not by slapping some guns into them and firing out of the Vietnam style.

The only nuance is the carrier and configuring it.

If the carrier can't be configured in time, or the aircraft properly armed then that part should be scrapped.

>>3669626
I would assume that our two covert teams can handle it. I think delving to far into how our helicopters planes etc too much will be detrimental to the quest. Its how spider tanks happened after all and we all know how that went. Also do you agree with revised plan or not?

>>3669638
Well that was the only detail I was wondering about so if that's the case then yes move forward.

>>3669655
>>3669638

(What's your plan then?)

>>3669688
This one
>>3669555

>>3669688
yup>>3669691

We really ought to build more logistics hubs.

>>3669720
Yeah we can do that with the other nodes. As we can do it as a complexity 5 action to do both together. Do like 1 a turn.

>>3669730
what would be the total cost then?
7 bn?

>>3669691
I'll back this too.

>>3669720
We can do that later. Our first priority should be to get all of our work teams equipped with Nomenklators. At a rate of 1 per month, we can manage to equip our all of our work teams in a year. Assuming we were to establish a production facility (south america) we could probably double that rate and afterwards use the facility to just produce the civilian grade ones for profit.

Equipping our covert teams might also be good but runs the risk of making them recognisable and the tech falling into the wrong hands.

Once we've done that, we can look into creating logistics hubs, bases and network nodes far more easily. Not to deny that we will do those whilst this occurs, just that the benefit to all actions would mean we might be able to skimp on certain action's allocations of work teams.

>>3669730
We could assign 4 teams and get a 80% chance of success. Assigning Ryan Andrews or Aki Lattinen would further boost that while still leaving us a work team free for other duties. Potentially worth the risk? I think it could be given it also saves us money since the cost of an action comes from deploying the teams as well as certain situational costs: fleet assets and particular resources needed to fulfil the act.

>>3669742
Well 5 from work teams 2 from power 1 from network so actually 8. If we underman it to 4 it would be 7. Only be a 20%chance kd failure without a hero

Thought I'd mention, earlier i thought Santiago was maybe doing some ethnic cleansing or giving people free helicopter rides, but now I think she may just be re-arming with making armored cars, guns, and maybe some light artillery?

>>3669747
I agree making it 4 with ryan amdrews would probably make it almost guarnteed to suceed. We can make more then 1 nomenclature a turn no reason not too.

>>3669688
Gesit how many of our specialized nomenclatures do we have (in work teams) and whats the cost to make more.

>>3669747
We control the infrastructure, we can make the stuff drop dead. Even if it did fall into enemy hands we can cockblock them from using reverse engineered stuff, like we did to the Chinese.

I think the best thing we can do its recover our dead alone with the equipment and make the field use nomklators fit snug and proper so they don't slip off even in combat or from bumpy rides, or even hand to hand combat.

I'd rather leave none to chance at this point, too many times it has failed on us.

>>3669742
The total cost is a C5 action, 2 power and 1 network part. Network parts cost 2 Nicks and power costs 1 each. Meaning for a 100% success rate we're looking at a minimum cost of 9, before accounting for the need for fleet assets to enable such constructions outside of our logistic networks in which case we can add another 8 or so onto the costs for 4 units of fleet assets unless the Garabaldi is in a suitable configuration to takeover some of the transport jobs, in which case the cost variably drops by anywhere from 1 to 3 fleet assets (meaning 2 to 6 nicks).

Costs can be cut by using the C1 complexity action to construct network equipment. This carries a 100% success rate but comes at the cost of tying up one of our work teams for a month producing the parts. It does however save 1 nick compared to the other option. Admittedly, this comes with opportunity costs as well as the fact that the team could similarly make 1 unit of cash in the same period with the same success for the same difficulty, meaning the two actions are actually effectively the same: the saving from making the parts in-house equals the cash flow from selling Nomenklators to the public (which seeing as we already did it and have thus revealed it, carries no risks).

>>3669747
>>3669764
Yeah i agree with EAHg65/T they already know we have em. We should give them to covert teams. No reason not too as we have preventative measure to keep them put of enemy hands.

>>3669772
As long as we have 5 fleet assets we can do it. We wont have to spend the 8 for the 4 fleet assets as we already bought them. Once we spend the 2 to own we dont need to buy then again. So technically if we only ise 4 work crews rn its free fleet asset wise.

>>3669782
Did we agree to give Moira the nomklators for her team?

>>3669782
Well they know they exist, just they don't know or have access to the fancy ones.

>>3669786
Im not against it give em the nomenclature

>>3669760
>We can make more then 1 nomenclature a turn no reason not too.
True but it would require tying up our work teams. Creating a factory to produce them enables constant, cost-less (potentially) background production meaning that we are always in supply or nearing it without expending additional effort. Especially should we need to equip many more teams of soldiers or workers.

>>3669764
>I'd rather leave none to chance at this point, too many times it has failed on us.
Fair enough. My main worry is someone associating the mercs (who most people don't know are actually the cable company's) using these better quality Nomenklators with us and it getting us caught.

>>3669772
Noticed a flaw in my working, my assumption for fleet asset costs is for 4 teams working on it, not 5. I apologise for this mistake in my math, I should really get some sleep.

Correction ---> 5 fleet assets costing 10 Nicks, Garabaldi supplies between 0-3 reducing costs between 0-6.

>>3669782
>As long as we have 5 fleet assets we can do it. We wont have to spend the 8 for the 4 fleet assets as we already bought them. Once we spend the 2 to own we dont need to buy then again. So technically if we only ise 4 work crews rn its free fleet asset wise.
I was unaware of this fact. I will attempt to account for it in future calculations and acquisition advisement.

To my previous understanding, our only source of "purchased" fleet assets (e,g not rented short term like I was talking about and is available from the turn-posts) is from the Garabaldi.

>>3669808
We purchased fleet assets in the past. Thays why the map shows 4+2 the 4 is the ones we bought and the 2 is the garbaldi.

As I said purchased only have to be bought once so we only have the cost of 2bn once per fleet asset we buy.

>>3669837
Huh. Weird: you'd think after getting the Garabaldi was treated as interesting and we had so many choices, that we'd do that again.

>>3669844
The garbaldi was a special thing we got with ryan andrews. Not the fleet assets we were buying.

>>3669808
If you think about it, it is worth spending the extra crew for %100 when the failure means we wasted a month, +4 cash, and 4 teams of productivity. When faced with these losses, an extra team and an extra bn is relatively cheap insurance.

It would be better to keep recruiting so we have enough full time teams to fill out a job completely.

As for the Ear buddies, we can make more commercial variants that resemble the ones we have in field so they don't look off the shelf.

Garabaldi, I'm thinking I should have configured to to picket.

>>3669808
Also, I'm thinking we should form a PMC and "hire" our own security company with a contract. That might help us have an easier time recruiting and taking jobs. We form Blackwater with Erik Prince.

And we should talk to that Zevos guy and make him a proposition. I am certain he will take it, otherwise he may follow in his fathers footsteps.

>>3669852
We already did the PMC thing they are called the somthing tigers.

Whi is Zevos its not ringing a bell for me.

>>3669852
Tiger mafia. We let moria pick the name.

>>3669847
>If you think about it, it is worth spending the extra crew for %100 when the failure means we wasted a month, +4 cash, and 4 teams of productivity. When faced with these losses, an extra team and an extra bn is relatively cheap insurance.
True. It does however offer the chance to accelerate our work schedule at the risk of this shit screwing up.

>It would be better to keep recruiting so we have enough full time teams to fill out a job completely.
Yeah but eventually we'll run out of people we can recruit from. Not a bad idea to continue recruiting but something we've got to keep in mind.

>As for the Ear buddies, we can make more commercial variants that resemble the ones we have in field so they don't look off the shelf.
True that'd work.

>Garabaldi, I'm thinking I should have configured to to picket.
Nah, generic is best for now. Once we're doing another wave of satellite launches, we might want to shift it about. That or if we get a few more teams of covert forces just so we can supply more vehicles / air support.

>>3669852
>Also, I'm thinking we should form a PMC and "hire" our own security company with a contract. That might help us have an easier time recruiting and taking jobs. We form Blackwater with Erik Prince.
Maybe.

>And we should talk to that Zevos guy and make him a proposition. I am certain he will take it, otherwise he may follow in his fathers footsteps.
I think we should introduce Ryan Andrews to him and see if we can't form a mutually beneficial agreement: after all, no government inspection stops our cargo ships for long and we've got plenty of spare containers to fill...

I honestly think however he's outlived his usefulness. In light of what has happened, the black market is going to lose a lot of stock, sellers and buyers very soon. Costs will rise and supply will almost certainly plummet. We're better off buying from our South american friends in high places.

>>3669878
>>3669847
For the undermanned work crew thing. Statistically it shouldnt make a difference. If we wanted to have fun we could assign one work crew on everyhring amd watch it go crazy on percentages.

>>3669887
True. Plus it means we could, with our current work team count, produce 3 of the base / hub actions in a month with a 80% success rate on each. Technically speaking, this puts us 0.4 ahead of producing 2 per month with 5 teams for each but doesn't account for the costs associated with the production of the material for these actions.

If only we could get a huge increase to our budget for half a year or so. That or a large government purchase of relevant material so we don't have to.

>>3669918
On thing to consider is that named characters also increase percent . So named characters are more valuable when undermanning.

>>3669927
Yeah that is the other reason that 3 per turn is so good. Between Aki and Ryan we can increase all three by the same amount.

Assuming it's even just a 5% increase on each, that provides 0.15 more per month.

>>3669918

That did happen: you were issued a number of pre-built micro satellites to fulfill a mandate.

>>3669927

That is the case.

>>3669865
>>3669852

During a routine survey, you found that the US military almost made a large investment in unmanned aerial vehicles in 1992, when the company Zevo Toys passed in the hands of a recently retired 2-star general after its founder passed away. However, the investment was canceled at the last minute.

At the time of the Event, the Israeli military was the only significant investor in UAV technology.

>>3669867
>>3669865
>>3669852

Your security teams understand the need to operate under a false flag (or several) while in Africa, since Rehoboth has in it for you. That's what they came up with on about 10 minutes of brainstorming.

You are, effectively, already operating a PMC. The options given to you each month are a combination of what's going on, who is going on that deployment if anyone, the amount of ethical scruples that your security force has, and randomness.

>>3669944
>That did happen: you were issued a number of pre-built micro satellites to fulfill a mandate.
Yeah but I'd like another one of those but for network parts or power stuff.

I suppose it's just something we can add to the list of things to set up production for in south america. Maybe in exchange for building a network hub in the other territory under her control she could throw us a bone...

>>3669846
>>3669844

You were able to buy a decommissioned, but functional (albeit stripped of weapons) warship for scrap value - that sort of thing does not happen often.

>>3669950

You have found a few opportunities in that sense, but haven't followed up on them. For example, when you went to India, you were shown a low-tech, high-reliability power generation system.

At the time, you felt that recruiting a mechanical engineer was more of a priority.

Afterwards, you decided that the possibility of him unionizing your existing workforce was not worth the trouble.

>>3669878
>I think we should introduce Ryan Andrews
Not till AFTER we renegotioate our deal with him, i wana tap his phone and computer to know how much he's skimming off the top. At the very least I want 50/50 split in the profits, or 40/60 in our favor. We can remind him that we don't take in any cash, and it all goes into CATs budget. If he doesn't like it, we can tell him we are gonna be marketing the Ear buddies and other projects more to bring in bigger bucks, and we will cut him in on more projects.

>>3669990
>You were able to buy a decommissioned, but functional (albeit stripped of weapons) warship for scrap value - that sort of thing does not happen often.
Yeah I know but there was a few non-military ship options too. Like that one sail-cargo ship.

>Afterwards, you decided that the possibility of him unionizing your existing workforce was not worth the trouble.
Still think that was a dumb decision but hey what-ya-gonna-do. Don't suppose we could apologise and hire him?

>>3669998
Yeah that was my bad i just accidentally insulted him.

For the ship options it was very explictily stated we could only have 1

>>3669996
Agreed. We need to rein him back in and make him understand our relation here: he can manipulate the stock market relative to our actions and that sort of shit but if he proves to be an issue or costs us a dime more than he is worth he'll be gone.

>>3670004
>Yeah that was my bad i just accidentally insulted him.
No problem.

>For the ship options it was very explicitly stated we could only have 1
Yeah but my point was it was a non-military ship.

>>3669996
>>3670007

Andrews has let us buy a fookin aircraft carrier for pennies on the dollar, establish a nuclear fuel mine if we ever need it in a way that it basically paid for itself, almost always come thru in setting up network nodes, and generally been very useful without ever stabbing us in the back other than saying "By the way I am going to make some money off this". We never had to pay for any of his shenanigans. WHY are we giving him a hard time exactly?

"Yeah thank you for tapping my phone, I made my money anyway, bye now, go hire Shrek McLenin if you want because I'm out, by the way he knows jack shit about marketing and I know most of your secrets"

>>3670025
Well i want to see how much hes making first before speaking to him.

I think the marketing part is him bragging in front of the camera's and trying to put his company in the spotlight.

>>3670025
Also I don't think hes very tech savvy.

We shall see.

>>3670025
I agree with you he hasnt fucked us over I think we shouldnt piss him off we are alreadycmaking money off of this.

>>3670050
Not trying to piss him off, trying to renegotiate a better deal for both us, and also guarantee him first mover advantage in all our tech and goodies.

We would cut him in on bigger and better deals.

>>3670004
>>3670016

(Stuff happens. I don't know if I should recap missed opportunities, mostly: thing is, some will stay missed until they show up again, some will stay missed forever, and some are just sitting there. Do you want me to?)

>>3670050
>>3670042
>>3670034

Andrews is working for you part-time; you can summon him at your convenience or, even simpler, do a video call. The only people who get to summon YOU are Carpatescu (who you've asked to delay), Dimmsdale, and Santiago -- and the last two are technically your peers, so it's really a matter of who wants to do a power play.

>>3669808

You can set up a factory; doing the marketing efforts and so on would still require a team, but that team can then sell the existing inventory rather than just the 1 unit they would get done. The hardware specs don't change much between months.

>>3669772

Opportunity cost is pretty much the theme of my quests, yes :) Great catch


Let me know if you have a plan! I'm working so resposnses may be a little slow. If you need details about anything, ask away, that's a free action!

>>3670081
on a scale of 0-1000, what do you estimate our chances are of pulling through in the next 3 years?

>>3670102
5 years actually

>>3670102

You have an excellent chance of surviving the next 3 years. >95%

You have a very good chance of maintaining the Internet in a functional state in the next 3 years. > 85%

You have a good chance of getting rid of Rebohoth in the next 3 years. > 75%

You have a very poor chance of seeing Carpatescu overthrown in the next 3 years. < 15%

>>3670113

(Is one person posting from two different IPs?)

Going by the data you garnered from Pastor Barnes (available at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BlMOSEOxSihj1gdagq7yxCjONaRBgcdlRxnc68uWf0A )

You have a poor chance of surviving the next 5 years. >40%

You have a fairly good chance of maintaining the Internet in a functional state in the next 5 years. > 65%

You have an excellent chance of getting rid of Rebohoth in the next 5 years. > 95%

You have a very good chance of seeing Carpatescu overthrown in the next 5 years. > 95%

>>3670126
No i was just correcting them for at least ending the game. These percentages are comforting.

>>3670014
>I think after telling him to work under Andrews basically made him hate us.
Yep.

>>3670081
>(Stuff happens. I don't know if I should recap missed opportunities, mostly: thing is, some will stay missed until they show up again, some will stay missed forever, and some are just sitting there. Do you want me to?)
Nah it's fine I'm just saddened that you made all those cool sounding ships and we only get to see one. I kinda wanted to build a nice little fleet of oddities.

>You can set up a factory; doing the marketing efforts and so on would still require a team, but that team can then sell the existing inventory rather than just the 1 unit they would get done. The hardware specs don't change much between months.
How much would setting up a factory cost? Would we need a team dedicated to it every month for marketing & sales or only the first month? Would it produce a 1 Nick profit per turn?

>Opportunity cost is pretty much the theme of my quests, yes :) Great catch
Oh trust me it's something I'm way too familiar with.

>Let me know if you have a plan! I'm working so responses may be a little slow. If you need details about anything, ask away, that's a free action!
Excellent. Information is a valuable tool when we're fighting this war. Our enemy is bound to set motions, like an actor on a stage; we can fuck with them however we want so long as we acknowledge that fact.

>>3670137

(Honestly, given that you got a 100 on the ship, it would have been quite interesting if you had picked the Leon/Eldridge... then again given how much use you got out of the IFVs so far, it'd have been a worse deal, overall)

Setting up factory infrastructure in South America is a complexity-4 job, being as you've already spent considerable effort setting up your HQ. You wouldn't own the infrastructure, save for the final assembly plant, so much as enter long-term contracts with suppliers, manufacturers, and local manpower providers such as trade unions (Corazon Santiago is in favor of those, incidentally, not because she particularly cares about worker rights, but because they provide a framework for workers to discipline; she is also in favor of professional guilds, for the same reason). This allows you to retain flexibility, since you may want to change your work orders month by month.

This setup will produce 1BN worth of nearly whatever you tell it to, each month, from consumer-grade Nomenklators that you can sell, to solar panels, to squad weapons. The obvious exceptions being nuclear fuel (even if they had the minerals, nobody would touch the stuff) and aerospace parts (as much as Santiago would love to have her own orbital capability, you would have to first get specialized manpower elsewhere, probably somewhere that used to have a space program).

The factory infrastrcture can also be set up to count as one team for the purpose of improving disaster preparedness, since they can be told to manufacture things like safety valves for natural gas, and sell them at zero profit in order to encourage their adoption.

>>3669465

>C3:
>Begin directed-energy research

I want laser guns. Maybe not now but later.

Also are we ready to start launching big the big satelltes and how many parts do those cost?

Also you guys realize that this months SHTF was the first in a long line of many right? Read the prophecy chart.

>>3670180
Hell we gotta make a ton of those. How many factories can we reasonably make?

>>3670219
Actually wait wouldnt it just be more efficent to keep getting more work teams and putting them on the nomenclatire productions as that costs 3 to set up and this costs 4

>>3670219

One is a good start. To be allowed to do all this without being fingered for diverting effort from your duty as a Global Community public servant, you'd have to be on very friendly terms with a subpotentate. Allying with one will do that; subduing one, or replacing them with a puppet ruler, will also do that.

Rolled 929 (1d1000)

>>3670102

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZYNADOHhVY

This is required viewing for this quest also the last one.

>>3670336
Oh sure when it's a roll for fun it's fantastic.

>>3670336
Better save that shit for the last roll

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>>3670541
(I must admit that I am lost as to what the current plan is, as much as I appreciate and encourage the discussion!)

Fortunately, Aki doesn't mourn for very long, although Carla had to explain to her that it's really not the best thing to do to try cure death -while- grieving. She said she'll do it later, maybe.

You have a fair amount of fans of Sir Pterry in your workforce, and any distraction is welcome in the aftermath of the indiscriminate attacks - you lost nobody, but many in your crew know someone who died to the bombings or of radiation poisoning or is even now dying of plutonium poisoning. That they get a preview of the last two Discworld books ever to be published helps.

So you get one of your purchasing managers who happens to be a SCA geek to explain the sword to you.

"I guess you could call it a gladius, or a qama, although it's a bit too long to be either if you want to be historically accurate."

"Note that there's no patterns - he didn't try to make wootz steel or anything like that. This is the sort of sword you'd hang over the fireplace, not go into battle with. Mind you, it'll go through someone, and I'd wager it would go through a flak jacket even, but Sir Pratchett was a novelist, not a blacksmith - my SCA buddies have made better stuff, these days you can get better metal than meteoric iron for nothing. Nevertheless, it'd fetch a pretty penny of sold to a collector, I'm sure, just because of its origins, since we can prove them."

"Aki's probably fine with it being put on display, as long as it's somewhere within this building. If you were worried about it being radioactive, don't: we tested it with a geiger counter and it was frankly the least radioactive thing we ever used the counter on."

"I personally think it looks like Captain Carrot's sword, I like how it's completely unadorned."

>>3670589
Current plan is
>>3669555
It hasnt really changed

Rolled 99, 46, 31 = 176 (3d100)

>>3670671

Thank you!

The Garibaldi docks in Jacksonville, ostensibly to pick up a number of cargo barges and lighters, and contract for tugs and space on LASH conveyor ships.

Under the direction of Captain Steele, the carrier is refit to something resembling its original configuration; one of the lighters is modified into a landing craft for your IFVs and put on a ramp, the interior is refit to carry your Antonov biplanes under the deck and the deck elevator put back into operation, and the sensor arrays are put back into operation.

Just as importantly, the crew - mostly acquired from merchant marine ranks - is put through the paces of efficient aircraft and LC launch and recovery, alertness drills, and even boarding defense.

The flight deck is given additional netting and hinged hard-stops to be able to catch the Antonovs in case a landing with no wind becomes necessary, and additional fuel tanks are installed so that they can be deployed on multiple sorties.

The end result is a C551 Garibaldi that reminds you a little bit of the pre-event movie Waterworld, except without the rust. While she's not going to be very useful for transport operations except possibly as a very expensive oceanic tug, you now have your own combined arms platform.

As soon as commercial flights are reestablished, Ryan Andrews takes a few of your workers to London - via the Luton airport - to install the Network Node. Satellite communications are working noticeably better than ground comms, due to the damage to Gatwick and the nearby data hubs that served London's financial districts; Subpotentate Terry April is unavailable - rumor has it that she has been in New Babylon the whole time, possibly going over the insurrection reports, possibly in a state of semi-imprisonment - but a member of the royal family is available for any ribbon cutting. Local financial magnates tolerate meeting with Andrews, and express their hope that the new system will allow for a swift recovery.

In the meantime, the refitted Garibaldi takes position near on the coast near Laayoune; the Network Node for the Western Sahara region has, effectively, been completed at sea and is going to be installed and wired in as quickly as possible, with your security forces covering the work teams and Moira directing the operation.

Putting Aki to work on disaster prep may be a little cynical, but she is very motivated by the destruction she has seen; Carla appreciates the effort, and handles the management part of the work while Aki is asked to come up with new ideas that her team can follow up on.

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Andrews does a fine job: he even gets the Queen to show up for the ribbon cutting. A brief speech about the resiliece of the people in the face of adversity leaves some wondering why she isn't condemning the insurrectionists or the Peacekeepers' overreaction, but ultimately, what matters is that communications are restored and will be cheaper to improve upon in the future.

Your efforts to recruit another work crew are bolstered by your earlier decision to let the Ghilotti Brothers use some of your motor pool - they've come across as local heroes, they receive a lot of job applicants, and they are more than willing to send you people who are a bit too smart for them but are likely to do a good job for you.

Aki has to be steered away from deciding that "disaster preparedness" includes giant Tesla coils to zap incoming bad guys with; instead, she suggests that your R&D team do more with the sensors that by now all new cell phones come with. FM radio chips can be told, when not in use, to report unusual noise floors that may indicate seismic activity or hostile active radars; accelerometers can pick up not only earthquakes, but also train crashes; inertial measurement units on ships can automatically report unusual wave activity that won't be dangerous at sea but can cause problems when hitting the shore. Desktop PC hard drives can use their tilt sensors to further improve earthquake reaction times. Smoke detectors can be given basic connectivity to compile statistics about air quality or, conversely, tripped remotely to warn people if plutonium dust is in the air. Water filters can be outfit with a piezo crystal and timer, and a LED to flash when it's time to replace them.

And so, by becoming a little smarter, the work becomes more resilient. Most of Aki's ideas aren't really cost-effective, but some are, so your preparedness team draws up schematics and sends them out, free of charge, to consumer product manufacturers.

You also get good news from Morocco: to nobody's surprise, Rehoboth's men have made their move -- in this case in the guise of a local holy man claiming that the Network Node cell phone tower emits cancer-causing radiation, with obligatory attending angry mob to follow the night after -- but Moira managed to keep things calm by

# putting up a show of force, which is easy to do when you have tanks and gunships - a good training exercise for your combined arms, to boot

# having your security guys win hearts and minds by pointing out the new opportunities, play some soccer with the locals, and so on.... and dragging said holy man off in a dark alley the day after exposing him for a fraud by bumping into him and having a $1000 gold plated satellite phone fall out of the folds of his robe.

>>3670881
# having your security guys win hearts and minds by pointing out the new opportunities, play some soccer with the locals, and so on.... and dragging said holy man off in a dark alley the day after exposing him for a fraud by bumping into him and having a $1000 gold plated satellite phone fall out of the folds of his robe.

Also give out free labtops and cell phone to families and village elders.

>>3670902
This support

>>3670957
Just to be clear we are going cheap cellphones like Nokia or Motorola, and "dell" computers.

>>3670902
Would be funny if we "inadvertently" made this guy give all his money and valuables out to all the elders in his family huh?

>>3671006
Lol sure i think that was the default option i dont want to spend a bn on it

Rolled 91, 26 = 117 (2d100)

>>3671006

You track the supposed holy man's phone to an address in Lagos, Nigeria, and have your men put him on the first bus bound in that direction after using said gold-plated cell phone to send texts to half his contact list saying that he's made half a fortune up north and is coming home to share it with the family.

A martyr would have been problematic; a laughingstock isn't. The locals are grateful for the Network Node, although Moira complains that she's going to get a bunch of spam calls from the new call center people were bulding, isn't she?

You have little hard evidence that Walking-Man (that's apparently the translation of the fake holy man's name: people here speak Berber Arabic, not Hausa) was working for Rebohoth, but who else could it be.

Your security teams are, on the whole, quite happy that there was no violence aside a bruised ego and a few soccer injuries - Moroccans don't go for the whole "European grass diving" thing, soccer here is played on an inch of dirt on top of concrete, and is very much a contact sport.

You expect to have further problems should you have to upgrade the infrastructure in Africa, but the Network Node will make doing so cheaper and more efficient.

Elsewhere, you find that the failed insurrection has lit up quite a few matches in the global tinderbox: your security teams have plenty of available work. Most of it is convoy-escort jobs in Africa and India, none of which is of particular strategic importance - food is plentiful, but things like medicine, water filters, and fuel aren't necessarily so.

# Take the escort jobs in Africa, leveraging the Garibaldi's presence.

# Take the escort jobs in India, leveraging the fact that the government there doesn't hate you.

# One of each.

>>3671048
>take the escort jobs in Africa. The more fucked africa is the better for us

>>3671048
# Take the escort jobs in Africa, leveraging the Garibaldi's presence.

We can take this time to bring FREEDOM TM to Africa.


I was planning on selling subsidized and cheap phones and labtops to make more widespread knowledge of Rebohoth's atrocities around all of Africa to stoke tensions and hatetrad towards him, and make popular uprisings against him easier.

I'd also like to find and speak to that UN african guy too if we can find him.

Also if we haven't already, start data-mining and tapping Rebohoth's officers, his family and many wives. Including Rebohoth himself of course.

We are going to try and steal his wealth, either through making electronic withdraws, or by Nigerian princes to cripple him.

I looked up the AN-2 a little more, and its much smaller than I thought. It won't handle firing heavy weapons out of the side, and may be better suited to strapping rockets and bombs to under the wings and fuselage.

Alternatively, we can put the BMP-1 turret guns as a forward or rear mounted tail gun, but it may just be better to have forward mounted machine guns and use it for strafing.

The mini-gun can fire out the side door though.

>>3670881
> Aki has to be steered away from deciding that "disaster preparedness" includes giant Tesla coils to zap incoming bad guys with;

No?

> # Take the escort jobs in Africa, leveraging the Garibaldi's presence.

Lets draw Reheboth out

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>>3671242

That's definitely something you can -encourage- Aki to look at.

>>3671234
>>3671118

The best way to pave the way for that is by improving cell phone and internet infrastructure: that does include giving out terminals. It also includes subsidizing cell phone and internet plans.

The AN-2 can fire a M134 out the side, although it shouldn't be used for anything larger. Some have been adapted by the Cuban army air force to use helicopter rocket pods.

While it is possible for the Antonov to shoot a 30mm autocannon or even a 57mm light field gun if it's mounted ventrally, the main issue becomes aiming it; you can, of course, add a pan/tilt mount and aim using software, but that ends up taking up the majority of the fuselage.

Electronic warfare against Rebohoth is an interesting prospect; your HQ team starts laying the grroundwork for it..

You're unlikely to get away with buying attack helicopters anytime soon, but you can probably justify the purpose of a S-64 Skycrane, after which building a gun pod for it becomes little more than a welding exercise.

A number of people are moving into Cairo now that it's officially part of Carpatescu's personal domain; since we're talking about several dozen people with the contents of several houses and small workshops, they have formed a convoy, and have asked for people to escort them. The reward is not significant, but the business and commercial connections made this way are.

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>>3671322


Your men drive back and forth across the Sahel throughout the month, at the end of which some have taken to dressing like Bedouins while others have adopted mohawks and spikes welded on their trucks' front bumpers; the job has been remarkably easy throughout, as there is safety in numbers.

Until the day a bunch of raiders on RPG-equipped Vespas appear from over a sand dune, and charge, firing wildly.

# Countercharge with the IFVs and give the convoy time to veer off.

# Use the IFVs to shield the convoy from RPGs and call in the Antonov, that's what it's there for.

>>3671325
# Use the IFVs to shield the convoy from RPGs and call in the Antonov, that's what it's there for.

Need to test out the flybois.

Also they are unlikely to outrun aircraft, make sure there are no survivors.

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>>3671340

This is possibly your single highest gas expenditure in two years: the rugged biplane takes off from the Garibaldi, clear the ski-jump ramp, head at just a hair short of Vne to the combat zone, and looks down as the IFV's have positioned themselves between the convoy and the attackers . Having an eye in the sky (your satellites have too low a resolution to show much other than a few smudgy pixels indicating the presence of vehicles on the desert road) lets you know that the intent of the raid is depredation, not destruction; there are a number of trucks and a couple of technicals hiding behind the dunes. Clearly the armed scooters were brought there by truck and unloaded.

The Antonov opens its side door and starts a pylon turn; the single M134 in your possession is brought to bear against

# the bikes - the sights and sounds of a minigun strafing the sand are unmistakable, that will stop them even if you don't score many hits

# the trucks in the back - they're not moving, so they are easy targets; let's remove the point of the raid to start with

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>>3671388
# the trucks in the back - they're not moving, so they are easy targets; let's remove the point of the raid to start with
Make sure the apcs do not let the bikes escape.
What am I looking at in this picture? Is that Photoshop?

>>3671429

(I think it's war thunder with people being silly)

The Vespa TAP is not designed to shoot on the move, which doesn't stop the raiders any - they were mostly intending to intimidate the convoy into surrendering.

Looks like the intimidation play is going the other way; a few of the attackers stop to look at the aircraft above their head, then hear the characteristic sound of a minigun going off, louder than the ancient Soviet-era radial engines.

Your pilots can't really take a casualty count, but in a little less than one pylon turn, the attackers' rear guard is demolished; some vehicles simply sit there, the crew presumably dead, while two men get out of one of the truck to try and throw sand on an engine fire.

One particularly enterprising Vespa rider turns his bike uphill and tries to shoot a RPG at the Antonov, missing by a good fifty meters, but giving pause to the pilots - and is repaid for his troubles by being gunned down by fire from an IFV.

Looks like air superiority wins the day; your vehicles have taken little more than scraped paint as damage, and neither your side or the people you were escorting reports casualties.

The local escorts quickly join your soldiers in the mop-up.

# They attacked what they thought was an unarmed convoy: no mercy.

# Take prisoners and hand them over to local law.

# Take prisoners and interrogate.

# Let them run, their stories will be a good deterrent for the next batch of idiots.

>>3671480
# Take prisoners and interrogate. They'll be a useful weapon against the Kang of Africa.

>>3671523

The Vespas with recoilless rifles built into the saddle, leftovers from a French Foreign Legion experiment, aren't really the best idea, although they'll make for a nice souvenir; to your mild disappointment, the AN-2 pilot has to land in the dirt outside Laayoune, move fuel between tanks, and pack up the minigun before feeling confident enough to try a carrier landing - and decides to abort it, instead landing in a field in Laayoune and getting the plane back onto the Garibaldi by barge and crane.

The people you have captured, however, provide the sort of human intelligence that you would not be able to get from satellite and phone interception.

You make sure you get their confessions on nice, high resolution video.

Surprisingly, they are only indirectly related to Rebohoth: they were told about the convoy by an anonymous source which you quickly identify as a Rebohoth loyalist within the Peacekeepers' rank, but didn't really care about the politics of a bunch of enterprising Moroccans moving to Egypt to seek a better life. They mostly figured it was a case of free truck, free machine tools, and free silverware and jewelry.

# Highlight the identity of the informant and put this on the new, starting the propaganda offensive against Rebohoth.

# Save it for later.

>>3671480
# Take prisoners and interrogate.

Might be useful to press gang them against
Rebohoth

>One particularly enterprising Vespa rider turns his bike uphill and tries to shoot a RPG at the Antonov
Shame we didn't' take this one alive.

>>3671523
>>3671429

I'm all for playing Lawrence of Arabia but WE HAVE LITERAL BIBLICAL PLAGUES COMING UP, CAN WE PLEASE FOCUS.

>>3671242

Second this, but that's for after all the nasty supernatural stuf has happened.

>>3671567
# Highlight the identity of the informant and put this on the new, starting the propaganda offensive against Rebohoth.
Tempted to put it out later but its best to strike while the iron is hot.

Make sure all the propaganda is coming from the people who were attacked and from "local police doing the interrogation".

>>3671575
If we kill off Rebohoth we can subvert part of the prophecy, if we kill him off to late, we end up helping fulfill it.

>>3671567
> # Save it for later.

We can always put the launchers on other things. Where did they get the missiles? Do they know of any ammo dumps we could strike at and recover more ammo?

>>3671575
Just saying, giant zappers seem to be good for the locusts.

Which are a high protien. Excellent food stock.

>>3671575
What exactly do we have coming up. Do you have a better timeline for us?

>>3671674
Wouldn't a electrical chicken coop metal wire mesh work better?

>>3671666
I think they are just surplus munitions left over from previous conflicts. Africa and Middle east are stocked full of this old soviet and post-war stuff.

>>3671707
>Tentative prophecy timeline, extracted from Bruce Barnes' computer before his untimely death : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BlMOSEOxSihj1gdagq7yxCjONaRBgcdlRxnc68uWf0A

If we do more theology research we might be able to learn more.

Rolled 24 (1d100)

>>3671666
>>3671721

You don't exactly get an address... but you do get some GPS coordinates. Time will tell if they are any good, of course.

So far, you haven't really found many people outside Sudan who are loyal to Rebohoth; at best, they appreciate that under a corrupt leader they have wiggle room to do things, as long as they can get away with it.
You've been postponing it, but it's time to face the music: Carpatesco wants to see you. In person. A good thing is that you can report to him that every regional zone has a Network Node...

# Go (with the ear plugs on, of course).

# Go, bring someone along.

# Call.

Looking at the timeline, it might be possible to subvert some of the prophecy and limit some loss of life when that sanctions and plague hits. We can likely limit the damage if we destroy the temple earlier than it was supposed to be destroyed but doing so may also risk one of two things.

1. It can accelerate the time line, reducing the amount of time we have left to prepare for the end game.

2. I can cause the timeline to scramble as the prophecy becomes disentangled from the timeline.

3. Nothing happens and we wasted our time knocking down a temple that gets smiten anyway.

>>3671784
# Go (with the ear plugs on, of course).

>>3671784
# Go (with the ear plugs on, of course).

>>3671784
>go with the earplugs

>>3671784
> # Go (with the ear plugs on, of course).

> Have a team on overwatch wearing earplugs and with video capable feeds im case we gotta go hot

That 24 though.

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>>3671784
>QM's name changes to giant explosion suddenly.
>rolled a 24 below %75 chance of success in same post as name change.

W-what did geist mean by this?

Finally up again.

>(Honestly, given that you got a 100 on the ship, it would have been quite interesting if you had picked the Leon/Eldridge... then again given how much use you got out of the IFVs so far, it'd have been a worse deal, overall)
Oh yeah most certainly. Those IFV's have saved us so much trouble already.

>Factory stuff
Holy shit we should spend half a year just building these things (given 12 work teams, a complexity 4 task and our leaders, we can produce 3 100% per turn plus leader bonuses to make additional events occur like greater production or a start-up bonus). The sheer cash flow we might achieve would be insanely useful and provide a degree of independence from our overlord's whims. Not to mention if we get the right people, we could mass produce satellites and completely fill orbit with anything we want.

>The factory infrastructure can also be set up to count as one team for the purpose of improving disaster preparedness, since they can be told to manufacture things like safety valves for natural gas, and sell them at zero profit in order to encourage their adoption.
Excellent.

>>3670249
You are thinking of the C 1 complexity action to produce Civilian grade Nomenklators I presume? That produces a profit of 1, aye, same as this but it requires tying up a team month after month to achieve the same. What you forget to account for is opportunity cost, you want to constantly occupy 1 team whereas by building a factory, in 1 month for 4 teams, we effectively get the same production without limiting where we can spend our manpower. Plus it enables production of things like squad weapons or network equipment. Not to mention aerospace parts if we can find the right manpower.

>>3670252
>To be allowed to do all this without being fingered for diverting effort from your duty as a Global Community public servant
I'd argue ensuring consistent supply of valuable materials to fulfil our mandate comes within it and we're entirely within our rights to do it but yeah I imagine it could be manipulated that way.

> Allying with one will do that; subduing one, or replacing them with a puppet ruler, will also do that.
Note: this is almost certainly the easiest path to victory. If we can get North america, South america and Africa + maybe Europe or Russia working together under us we might be able to stage a coup and eliminate Satan's bastard before he pulls his tricks.

>>3670442
Humanity. Fuck. Yeah. What a terrible time to start raining.

>>3670442
We'd have to hanger CATs mission directive. Expanding it greatly is what I'm getting out of this. We should finish the expert system soon and then finish off by storing a copy and getting whatever tech we can come up with to cancel the apocalypse. Only one problem. how do we stop the apocalypse if we can't make a Sonic containment vacuum tube?

>>3672186
>Only one problem. how do we stop the apocalypse if we can't make a Sonic containment vacuum tube?
We could attempt to intervene in the prophecy before the lord can come down. If shit isn't in position, he can't do anything since he is eternally tied to prophecy.

Failing that, I guess our best bet is just advancing our nuclear tech and hoping we can nuke the bastard out of existence.

>>3672151
I think the plan was making the Americans our stronghold. makes sense, and would be easier. I'm only partial to Africa since we are intent on throwing out the current guy, so we may as well install our puppet.

>>3672186
I had hoped our space ambitions would do that, and I was honestly surprised Carpatescu not only made a space agency but also gave it to someone else...

The only way we can usurp or undermine this is if we convert our carrier to start satellite launches or buy a cargo ship to do that...

>>3672151
> eliminate Satan's bastard before he pulls his tricks.

Killing him advances the timeline. He's not our only enemy, hell he's destined to lose.

Rebelling against him and starting a war is also an advance of the timeline.

We have to stay on his side, and he has to survive. Otherwise we're just playing key roles towards Armageddon.

Yes it's unfair. God is like that.

>>3672192
There is also the problem of delivering the payload which i partly half the problem with nukes.

Take a look at and best korea, they got nukes but next to no effective or advanced enough delivery method

>>3672198
All we have to do is pick the Astronauts, and the systems


We should really look into copying Carpatescu's ability.

>>3672204
Are we spying on our boss? I hope we are, otherwise we have to start... But I want to do a mole hunt for any spies before doing that.

>>3672198
>I think the plan was making the Americans our stronghold. makes sense, and would be easier.
Agreed. It's probably easiest seeing as we've allied with the south and we are headquartered in the north. If we can get both leaders to work with us then we can almost certainly do amazing things. Worst comes to worst however we might need to replace North america's leader too.

>I'm only partial to Africa since we are intent on throwing out the current guy, so we may as well install our puppet.
Oh I agree. My main reason for saying we need those additional regions is so we can more easily eliminate Carpatescu. Rather than having to fight through Africa, if we can secure it, we just need to fight through the middle east for example.

>I had hoped our space ambitions would do that, and I was honestly surprised Carpatescu not only made a space agency but also gave it to someone else...
I think he did it to shut us up ironically. Which is a shame, had we not pushed him on it perhaps he would have granted us a greater level of control over space at least for telecoms stuff.

>The only way we can usurp or undermine this is if we convert our carrier to start satellite launches or buy a cargo ship to do that...
That or if we build / restore a launch facility. Still entirely feasible to just rely on our current ship to do it since even it's orbital configuration still supports a little carrying capacity. All it costs us is the ability to move vehicles and fly planes which can be sustained instead by bases in region.

>>3672204
>Killing him advances the timeline. He's not our only enemy, hell he's destined to lose.
Fine, fine let's assume his death outside of how it is meant to isn't a solution. What about stopping the 2nd and 3rd Trumpet judgements? I know it's leaving it a bit late into our schedule but they are meteors, if we assemble sufficient space assets we can almost certainly stop them from colliding with the earth.

Alternatively, we've got to get our bio-research program in south america up and running NOW. That way we might just manage to develop a counter to the super plague that is coming up next and throw the prophecy off track.

>>3672206
True. We can at least rely on the pre-event ICBM's that we use for satellite launches being good enough for this work rather than having to produce our own.

Alright this focus on space is like the old quest but remember the last one getting to space took half the quest and making the ship took the other half. We need to prevent Armageddon on Earth not leave before it happens.

Now the prophecies we know CAN be prevented, but that's harder than doing anything else. We're short on time. We need to find something exceedingly vital to the conclusion of the apocalypse and prevent it from ever happening. The tripocalypse canon says it's preventing Jesus from speaking, buy look how well that worked for us in the first quest.

Another point that we've been looking at is keeping the Antichrist from dying but this isn't 100% garenteed to work. Prophecy also says that satan can just possess his sons body and we know that killing figures vital to the end times will in fact see them reincarnate so killing him after Satan possesses him is also a crapshoot. We need to for all the blasphemy in the sentence prevent a significant amount of the prophecy to keep Christ from returning. That's a tall fucking order. We also don't get a garentee that the if we "fulfill" the prophecy with enough subversion we win, so we should be asking what can we screw and where?

I propose we target the economic sanctions first. Let's try to prevent the plagues and if it works we can potentially minimize the rest of the plagues and slowly snuff out Armageddon.

>>3672262
I've gave 3 different prophecy points we can intervene at. 2 are directly after each-other which should enhance the disruption.

Part of the problem is we can't stop earthquakes or rivers and oceans turning to blood. Sure, we can prepare for both and prevent it being an issue (we did the same last quest, the Nile turned to blood if I remember rightly and we still managed to save the region).

>>3672266
Agreed, to do so I advise the South american bio-research must go forward however. That way even if we do fail to prevent the actual sanctions, we can still potentially provide a cure.

>>3672241
>we might need to replace North america's leader too.
We helped lock up alot of nationalists, if they got sprung.. .well.... they would be grateful to us, and not so grateful to the guy (they think) that locked them up. Just pretend we are one of them or something. Throw in some dog whistles.

>I think he did it to shut us up ironically.
We did troll him a bit on that, partly our fault, we should have taken that as our green light and ran with it and if he asked, we say what we where hypnotized to believe.

>That or if we build / restore a launch facility.
I'd advocate for a ship based launch since it can be done on the down low and incognito.

Not many people have ship based attack abilities anymore so it should be fairly safe compared to doing it on land.

>if we assemble sufficient space assets we can almost certainly stop them from colliding with the earth.
With what? A nuclear Casablanca howitzer? Pew pew Lasers?
>Inb4 spider tanks

>Alternatively, we've got to get our bio-research program
We will either lack the funding or the time to research. Even if we sacrificed the factory for making nomklators we still end up running into budget and manpower issues particularly capable capable characters to lead it.....

Which puts us back at needed to recruit.

I think nomklators need to come first though.

>>3672262
There is also the problem of even if we do "win" how do we deal with potentially living under the yolk of antichris and/or satan?

>>3672266
Can we let the plagues ravage Africa so its less mouths to feed? That or maybe Asia? I doubt we can prevent it all so I think it would be best to form "cordons" and allow the plague to burn out in some areas. Ideally separated by continents. So we may be able to actually save most of the new world, while sacrificing the old world.

>>3672274
If the target is to protect the sea and freshwater sources we should assume the meteors won't come from the stars but be formed within earths atmosphere. Stationing just the right kind of launchable machine to move the meteors out of the way closer to the impact sites after using a initial prevention system should enable us to direct the meteors away from the water sources.

The problem is designing the system. We would have to basically make rockets that attached themselves to asteroids on impact and continue thrusting to move them out of the way. Otherwise George lucas will want his tractor beams for the next starwars sequel.

>>3672274
I was thinking of controlling which subponte's die. Namely two African ones, and one "other".

First would be Rebohoth, second would be his replacement, third I'm thinking dimmsdale or the Australian one.

I'm hoping the two "kings" being killed in African would be like a game exploit where we "win" on technicality.

>>3672282
1. Simple, humanity without guns is wrong.
2. Sacrificing one area may work in part. But we should also look at the possibility it makes the prophecy harder to stop.

>>3672283
We could try to hardball the new space agency to work with our plans or goals or we can just bypass them. We saw how happy or desperate they were to do something useful. We are practically their only customer.

>>3672287
Well a huge chuck of humanity is suppose to die in a lot of these events. if we can make it out with at the end with least 1 billion or a few hundred million then that would close enough to a win for me.

Hmmn. Can we ask anyone knowledgable about endtimes theology if a living Christian witness is needed for Christ to win at the very end, cause alternative to wining through breaking the story we CAN potentially win by removing the most important playing faction and then fighting the incompetent remenants.

>>3672282
>We helped lock up alot of nationalists, if they got sprung.. .well.... they would be grateful to us, and not so grateful to the guy (they think) that locked them up. Just pretend we are one of them or something. Throw in some dog whistles.
True. That would certainly work but we'd first need to find his new replacement and make sure he's on our side.

>We did troll him a bit on that, partly our fault, we should have taken that as our green light and ran with it and if he asked, we say what we where hypnotized to believe.
Yeah.

>I'd advocate for a ship based launch since it can be done on the down low and incognito.
True.

>With what? A nuclear Casablanca howitzer? Pew pew Lasers?
Well off the top of my head, a fold-out solar sail would be able to slowly drag it off course (which is all we need to do, it just needs to not hit earth, pretty simple but I get what you mean) but if we could somehow get a Casaba howitzer (not casablanca) it would certainly do the job but is a bit single use.

>We will either lack the funding or the time to research. Even if we sacrificed the factory for making nomklators we still end up running into budget and manpower issues particularly capable capable characters to lead it.....
True but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. I agree factories come first but the moment we've got 3 or 6 done we should shift all focus to other factors.

>There is also the problem of even if we do "win" how do we deal with potentially living under the yolk of antichrist and/or satan?
He isn't so bad a leader whenever he isn't trying to bring about the end times. So long as he isn't exposed, he should be okay to remain in power...hopefully. Worst comes to worst, we induce a coma and rule in his stead with the support of as many Subpotentates as possible.

>>3672282
>Can we let the plagues ravage Africa so its less mouths to feed? That or maybe Asia? I doubt we can prevent it all so I think it would be best to form "cordons" and allow the plague to burn out in some areas. Ideally separated by continents. So we may be able to actually save most of the new world, while sacrificing the old world.
I'd rather not but we might need to abandon a region or two.

>>3672283
>If the target is to protect the sea and freshwater sources we should assume the meteors won't come from the stars but be formed within earths atmosphere.
I doubt that god thinks humanity wouldn't notice the giant rock that appeared from nowhere. He might try it aye but it just seems kinda unreasonable.

>Stationing just the right kind of launchable machine to move the meteors out of the way closer to the impact sites after using a initial prevention system should enable us to direct the meteors away from the water sources.
Unless it is targeted for the middle of the Atlantic or something, in which case we're screwed.

>>3672262
The other quest was on a scale of centuries as well, not a decade in a period of limited tech.

There's no space escape here.

>>3672285
>I'm hoping the two "kings" being killed in African would be like a game exploit where we "win" on technicality.
That would be quite brilliant but I doubt god will go down like a bitch that easily.

>>3672288
That might work, fact is as of this moment in time there is little interest in space from private industry (since we do all telecommunications and shit) which means all they can reasonably do is space stuff for pure scientific or fuck-yeah reasons. Stuff that is almost certainly not going to get them the big bucks especially in the new world where terrorism is in the headlines and shit.

Plus, we can almost certainly infiltrate their staff and slowly takeover the organisation if worst comes to worst.

>>3672303
Yep. Plus we don't have a nice convenient god-provided dome of ice to use for fuel and respite so costs are far higher.

>>3672301
Re Carpatescu - we subverted an Angel, he can't be more narcissistic than that.

So long as he gets to keep his position, he's shown a noted disinterest in actually managing things.

>>3672320
>Re Carpatescu - we subverted an Angel, he can't be more narcissistic than that.
The angel suffered amnesia of it's time in godly service to my recollection. Carpatescu is not exactly in a position for us to try that.

>So long as he gets to keep his position, he's shown a noted disinterest in actually managing things.
I still say giving him a disease that won't kill him but would induce comas, drowsiness, narcolepsy and so on. Make him unfit to rule or at least unable to spare us any time to complain or inspect our actions.

If we can put him in a coma and keep him in a ultra-secure hospital then he can't do shit but still lives: preventing the apocalypse at least regarding him.

>>3672331
> Carpatescu is not exactly in a position for us to try that.

*Yet*. God helps those who help themselves.

>>3672331
If only we could stick his soul into a machine or something.

Hey, isn't Aki working on something sorta like that?

>>3672335
>*Yet*
Yeah I know, to be fair if we could somehow give him that shit Steven Hawking had that would be great too. Honestly anything that prevents him speaking or appearing in public.

It just occurred to me, if we did actually manage to do that we would make him lose his voice and thus his main magic-power. Only issue is that the degeneration of the CNS is usually pretty deadly and kills very fast. We'd be playing with fire if we tried it.

>God helps those who help themselves.
Not in this universe he doesn't.

>>3672341
Or we could just traumatize him so loses his voice. Smoke inhalation or some such could fuck that up.

Depends if it even IS speech.

Or we could learn to mimic it, and use it on him. We gotta get a wide spectrum nomenklator that picks up sounds outside the normal range of hearing to fet accurate data.

>>3672348
>Or we could just traumatize him so loses his voice. Smoke inhalation or some such could fuck that up.
True but my main point is that neutering him personally but allowing him to remain in power is probably a good idea assuming we can do it without suspicion. Failing that, he gets to live on a small island for the rest of his unnaturally extended existence.

>Depends if it even IS speech.
We know it requires him to speak / be heard since that is all we've ever seen him use it through / by. It is possible we are wrong but we've got to just go with what makes sense and hope.

>Or we could learn to mimic it, and use it on him. We gotta get a wide spectrum nomenklator that picks up sounds outside the normal range of hearing to fet accurate data.
That would be nice. It would also make dealing with a certain African situation far easier: imagine just convincing the bastard to take a gun and shoot himself in the head after writing a suicide note implicating every one of his corrupt bastards and talking about what he and they did.

>>3672301
>I doubt that god thinks humanity wouldn't notice the giant rock that appeared from nowhere. He might try it aye but it just seems kinda unreasonable.

Could be produced from say radioactive or toxic materials that fall from satellites.

>Plus, we can almost certainly infiltrate their staff and slowly takeover the organisation if worst comes to worst.
Give em free ear buddies, so they only end up hiring all our covert teams hehe.

>>3672331
We would probably need to design and build a state of the art facility with so many redundancies its not even funny, just to hold him.

>>3672348
I doubt that could work. The nomeklator idea is good though.

>>3672355
Its more or less sound, we tested it and it works, we were just to chickeshit to deviate too much from what he told us to do.

>>3672355
Or have him go all bi-polar narcissist paranoid skizo, and kill all his guys then himself.

>>3672366
>Could be produced from say radioactive or toxic materials that fall from satellites.
True.

>Give em free ear buddies, so they only end up hiring all our covert teams hehe.
Kek, all your base are belong to us.

>We would probably need to design and build a state of the art facility with so many redundancies its not even funny, just to hold him.
God ain't allowed to pull his dirty tricks yet. He's held down by the same stuff the will potentially free him. Which means that until the Angels rise from the Euphrates, we should be fairly free of interference.

>Its more or less sound, we tested it and it works, we were just to chickeshit to deviate too much from what he told us to do.
Yeah I know I'm just arguing the point.

>>3672367
Yeah but we want to make it clear why all this happened. Maybe we come out at the same time and reveal we'd been investigating the man ourselves and that we were a few months off of revealing him to be this big of a bastard. Make our recommendation for a particular puppet leader and call it a day.

>>3672355
Inhibiting his hypnotic ability would weaken him and make him reach out to stabilize his power base.

Which we are a significant part of already, and could be more of. Especially with our allegiance with Santiago who is vocally supportive of him, and if we can puppet or ally another Potentate.

All of our concerns about Carpatescu ruling comes second to surviving Armageddon though. He's still mortal, after all. He'll die eventually.

>>3672375
>Inhibiting his hypnotic ability would weaken him and make him reach out to stabilize his power base.
True but it would also limit him to a purely human level. Ignoring his near-superhuman endurance which I think is probably because he doesn't experience pain / exhaustion like we do.

>Which we are a significant part of already, and could be more of. Especially with our allegiance with Santiago who is vocally supportive of him, and if we can puppet or ally another Potentate.
Yep.

>All of our concerns about Carpatescu ruling comes second to surviving Armageddon though. He's still mortal, after all. He'll die eventually.
Agreed. However there are somethings we can do to him that prevent or slow down Armageddon potentially.

So I just did some quick math regarding the factories, we can more than double our effective budget in 5 months, starting with 13 cash. If we want to do it in 4 months, we need a minimum of 30 cash.

Also assuming the market holds for whatever we have these factories producing.

>>3672400
Ech, it's honestly easier I think to keep those options as "emergency backup" compared to keeping him healthy and continuing his role than dealing with the fallout of no unifying figure and the splintering of governance resulting from that.

Shit would be fucked and we would have to fix that as well as escape armageddon.

We don't have the resources for that, and if we did keeping Carpatescu as a figurehead would be easy at that point without the risk of the loss of instability

>>3672445
Yeah true but worst comes to worst, it's a way of avoiding the anti-christ stage of the plan: can't resurrect what can't die!

>>3672448
That's why I wanted to look further into Aki/AI melding to make a robo-soul emergency plan to download Carpatescu if he was mortally wounded to cock-block any resurrection.

>>3672451
I doubt that is in the cards, such technology is probably not within our reach.

>>3672452
Ech, Aki seems shockingly close to it.

But we would probably have to focus research in theology and AI and give up on space. But good luck with that vote.

>>3672456
>Ech, Aki seems shockingly close to it.
I somewhat doubt it but we can certainly check.

>But we would probably have to focus research in theology and AI and give up on space. But good luck with that vote.
Clearly all we need to do is grow our number of work teams and work on everything at once.

>>3672451
I doubt tha twould work, since its more likely that his body is a vessle for satan so it not having a soul just makes it easier or more convenient to posses.

After Carpsu dying in the first place is likely his soul leaving the body and the body being possessed and revived by satan.

>>3672282

>There is also the problem of even if we do "win" how do we deal with potentially living under the yolk of antichris and/or satan?

we RIP AND TEAR his ass when he's no longer useful. if we can beat turbo jesus we can beat satan.

So i've been too busy playing Sundered to play this quest, could i get a recap?

>>3672151
No we can get a work team for a 3 complexity action.
A factory is a 4 complexity action. Geist said the factories make 1 bn worth of stuff a turn. So do the work teams. We are getting an immobile thing that can only produce for 4. While we have a flexible thing that can do the same as the factory for 3. There is literally no reason to get factories as long as we can get work teams for 3.
Even if you argue we can produce thinga like sattalites we normally couldn't the extra money the work teams could make outstrip that.

>>3672614

Good morning!

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/ Here's the best recap ever :)

Seriously though, recap is as follows:


In two years, CATS has pushed the Internet about ten years forward. Blogging is a thing, social media is still pretty niche, people are starting to use their cell phones (most of which are still the Nokia 3310 sort, but with data) to order pizza online, everything looked good.

On the side, CATS acquired a small aircraft carrier, a few wheeled tank destroyers, and some AN-2 biplanes, set up a private military company, and got involved into a low-intensity conflict in Africa.

And then a bunch of nationalist holdouts from the US, UK and Egypt stormed airports and universities in an attempt to get people to reject Carpatescu's new world order.

Stupidly, the newly minted Peacekeeper organization retaliated by... dropping a lot of nukes on the rebels. The nukes did not initiate, since plutonium bombs no longer work for reasons as yet unknown, but acted as dirty bombs, releasing a lot of toxic plutonium dust (which is still mildly radioactive, as well as poisonous chemically).

Carpatescu has picked up all the subpotentates in some sort of stealth airliner and is in New Babylon debriefing them; you have to go there yourself.

Rather than playing hero, you stayed back at HQ to coordinate the relief effort, which worked overall pretty well.

Your people have developed a partial counter to Carpatescu's hypnotic abilities - you still ended up obeying his orders, but you were aware that there was an attempt to override your will.
>>3672626
>>3672472
>>3672458
>>3672456

Reading this discussion warms the cockles of my heart. I'm glad people are having fun!

>>3672626
>No we can get a work team for a 3 complexity action.
Yes. There is however a definite limit in how many we can recruit from the global population.

>A factory is a 4 complexity action. Geist said the factories make 1 bn worth of stuff a turn. So do the work teams. We are getting an immobile thing that can only produce for 4. While we have a flexible thing that can do the same as the factory for 3. There is literally no reason to get factories as long as we can get work teams for 3.
You mean besides being able to effectively expand our budget beyond the limitations of our work teams?

>Even if you argue we can produce things like satellites we normally couldn't the extra money the work teams could make outstrip that.
Except there is a limit to how many work teams we can have anon.

Not to mention you are talking about constantly occupying teams to equal a factory. If we are talking short term, sure that works, but long term it doesn't.

Consider that 4 work teams construct a factory and then 4 turns later (while they've been doing whatever) it breaks even and everything after that is "profit". That is to say that by setting up a factory you are effectively making a per work team per month profit increase of 0.25 in the background as opposed to what you suggest which is a flat increase in our funding of 1 per work team per month. If we were to build a factory right now, by the end of the game it would have made more than twice our initial investment in profit.


>>3672636
OP please answer a question for me, I assume that much like in the previous game that there is a fairly hard limit in terms of how many people exist to be hired that are suitable to form work or covert teams?

Also, I assume factories can produce network equipment and other such 2 or 3 cost things, it just requires more factories / time to do so?

>>3672648

There is a soft limit, past which your agency will be audited. You are in fact approaching it.

You will be warned when you hit it. If the audit goes well, the only consequence will be a small reduction in budget because the money will be used to pay the additional base salaries. If it does not, the consequences range from a slap on the wrist to execution for treason.

Should the conditions in the world deteriorate sufficiently, that will no longer be a factor since the GC bureaucracy will have more important things to worry about, but at that point you will become responsible for feeding your workers.

>>3672648
I have no idea how you are getting the 0.25 profit math. We cancput them on nomenclatures which makes 1 so its a profit of 1 should we choose to make it. And yes there is a limit im sure im just saying we should recruit work teams till we reach that limit as they are more valuable then factories in every aspect untill the price to make them is the same.

>>3672653
See we can reach that limit then make the factories

>>3672648

Don't assume that today's prices are tomorrow's prices. Also, keep in mind that (again, unless the condition of the world severely deteriorates) you can only -sell- certain things.

>>3672657

Also don't assume that the conditions that will allow you to easily build factory infrastructure will stick around. Should the world's condition deteriorate, you may have to make do with what you have, or even commandeer/invade what other people have, because large scale infrastructure investment may become difficult.

Part of why you were able to advance the internet 10 years in roughly 2 is that, thanks to the Eden fertilizer, very few people in the world go hungry.

>>3672653
>There is a soft limit, past which your agency will be audited. You are in fact approaching it.
Knew it. I presume it's around 15-18 teams?

>You will be warned when you hit it. If the audit goes well, the only consequence will be a small reduction in budget because the money will be used to pay the additional base salaries. If it does not, the consequences range from a slap on the wrist to execution for treason.
Would there be only one audit or would it be something of an ongoing basis?

>>3672655
>I have no idea how you are getting the 0.25 profit math.
Factory produces 1 unit of profit per month. Takes 4 teams to set up. 1 divided by 4 is 0.25. Math.

>We can put them on nomenclatures which makes 1 so its a profit of 1 should we choose to make it.
>And yes there is a limit im sure im just saying we should recruit work teams till we reach that limit as they are more valuable then factories in every aspect untill the price to make them is the same.
>>>3672657
Except the price for work teams doesn't particularly change, it's the difficulty in finding suitable members of the public who fit into our teams. So long as you understand now however that there is a fundamental utility and need for factories I see little need to push this issue further for now.

>>3672665
Ok in that case a work team is a potential profit of 0.33 as its 3 to 1. In which case the work team is still a better investment

>>3672665
Once we hit that limit im perfectly happy to start making factories though

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I offer a modest proposal.

>>3672663
>Don't assume that today's prices are tomorrow's prices.
I understand the fact that a loss of world trade, population or massive disasters will reduce supply, increase demand and raise prices, aye.

>Also, keep in mind that (again, unless the condition of the world severely deteriorates) you can only -sell- certain things.
I get that but to be fair, even if we end up just using the factories to produce network parts, power generation, supplies and so on that still reduces our budget expenditure.

>Also don't assume that the conditions that will allow you to easily build factory infrastructure will stick around. Should the world's condition deteriorate, you may have to make do with what you have, or even commandeer/invade what other people have, because large scale infrastructure investment may become difficult.
That is the other issue too, if we leave these sorts of plans until after the situation deteriorates they take more time and resources. Plus we get more benefit the sooner we do them.

>>3672669
>>3672671
Fair counter point with the potential profit of a work team. I honestly kinda agree with you that factories seem kinda neutered in this version of the game compared to the last one. The sole factory we built in that was always useful for the space projects since it was objectively better than teams given the known demand.

Speaking of known demand, assuming we want a network node in every region by the end-game, we need around another 13 network parts and the same again in power generation. Total cost: 39 units of cash at current prices.

>>3672673
Truly a visionary leader is what we are.

>>3672673
Brilliant.

>>3672677
Honestly im just arguing that factories should be more valuable as they are stait up statistically worse then the work teams as of right now. We just dont have a real reason to get them.

Luckily that 39 really isnt too expensive for us rn.

>>3672673
Excellent plan. Set all work teams on coverting.

>>3672682
>Honestly im just arguing that factories should be more valuable as they are stait up statistically worse then the work teams as of right now.
Yeah, it is kinda odd how a factory that takes 4 work teams to pull together produces the same amount per turn as 1 of those teams if dedicated to the same production.

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>>3672673
Hold on i have another idea.

>>3672673

That would make for an interesting quest too but I don't know if I am qualified to run it.

>>3672665

Certainly less than 20.

The audit would require you to shed excess personnel, likely from your apparently oversized security forces.

>>3672673
>>3672682
>>3672690

(OOC note: i have lived in the subculture that was Left Behind's target audience, when I was a teenager, which is probably why I am somewhat familiar with it. I don't mind people believing in God. I do however very much mind things like state legislators saying stuff like "That museum docent won a debate with a young earth creationist, clearly his department has too much money if they have time to do such things, let's cut their funding", which has happened, and not even that long ago).

Should you wish to do that, the accepted procedure for it is visiting a pastor and reciting a prayer of contrition with them.

On that note, Tsion Ben-Judah has disappeared: supposedly, he's murdered his wife, children and chauffeur/manservant after evening prayers "to ensure that they would go to Heaven" and has been missing since. Authorities suspect a murder-suicide.

>>3672677
>>3672684

As most economists will tell you, vertical integration (owning all or part of your supply chain) is less price-efficient than horizontal integration (being able to play the global market and helping liquidity within it), but is less brittle and more failure-resistant. It's cheaper to buy widgets from China, but if you end up on the other side of China in a war (hot, cold, trade, flame), it's sure nice to have a widget factory in Wisconsin, no?

(Like everything it's a tradeoff).

>>3672692
Well we aren't in this to make money but to sieze control of the destiny of Man, so I say we make some goddamn factories now while they're cheap/available.

As opposed to waiting too long and getting owned. I don't much care about the money so much as I care about stable production of things we won't be able to buy.

I mean, shit, if we can get into producing aerospace parts that's fucking rockets and shit right there.

>>3672692
>"That museum docent won a debate with a young earth creationist, clearly his department has too much money if they have time to do such things, let's cut their funding"
Wow.
>On that note, Tsion Ben-Judah has disappeared: supposedly, he's murdered his wife, children and chauffeur/manservant after evening prayers "to ensure that they would go to Heaven" and has been missing since. Authorities suspect a murder-suicide.
Fucking Wow.

>>3672696
>>3672692

Yeah fair we dont have a mandate rn so we dont need to do shit. Lets take the extra work force amd get more work teams and build some factories

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You've waited a while - specifically, you waited until the last Network Node you were required to install became operational - but it's now time to go see Carpatescu in New Babylon.

The city is still using Baghdad airport, and after the attacks has been subject to a no-fly zone restriction to avoid incidents similar to New York and Washington's, so after your flight there is a brief ride on the ground. The highway between the two cities was hastily built, but is new, so it's comfortable. By the look of it, they are building a monorail line to link the two cities; you can see construction going on its pylons next to the roadbed.

You are provided with limo service, of course, but find that even the temporary buses are a marvel of luxury, each carrying less than two dozen people and providing the equivalent of first class seats on an airliner.

Oddly enough, Carpatescu does not direct you to his regular office in a generally anonymous low tower, but to the top floor of the Burj Carpathia, where he keeps office space that he uses when he wants to impress the rubes.

You brought a parachute, right?

# No.

# No, but you tell the limo driver to make a quick stop at a sporting goods store to get one of those parasails that people use to kite-surf towed behind boats.

>>3672710
How visible is the parasail? If its not too visiable grab it

>>3672710


Did we ever buy that Helicopter?

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>>3672725

Not yet.

>>3672724

It's not a full size parachute, so it can fit a briefcase if you stuff it in, but should you be thrown out of the window, you wouldn't have time to put it on and deploy it. If you wear it under your jacket, you'd look like a hunchback, although it might pass a casual glance and, of course, would pass a metal detector inspection since there's very little metal in it.

>>3672732
Lets put it in the briefcase. Carpastu seems like the type to monologue before throwing someone out a window. We will have time to casually put it on while they are talking.

Would be a funny scene

>>3672736

You quickly complete the purchase - parasailing is a popular pastime in New Babylon's artificial lake, and it's not unheard of that the very wealthy would want to buy their own gear rather than rent it. You spend the rest of the limo ride stuffing the thing in the briefcase; you discard your laptop's power brick, load your powerpoint presentation on the laptop, hybernate it, and keep it out of the briefcase as if you were making ready to give a presentation at a moment's notice.

The express elevator gets you all the way up to the Burj Carpathia spire, giving you a little bit of vertigo when it accelerates and decelerates. The enormous tower is as busy as its designers intended it to be, as far as you can tell - this elevator is special, normally reserved for tour groups unless Carpataescu is using the office, in which case access is severely restricted. You show your ID to the heavily armed guard downstairs and are waved in.

Outside the office itself, in an incredibly gaudy antechamber that is otherwise devoid of people (and, you notice, of the otherwise omnipresent TV screens) are two men in airline-captain uniforms, looking somewhat chastised and talking to each other in a whisper. In the smaller antechamber past that, the secretary - not Harriet Durham, you note - checks you in. There is an extremely large man outside, with body armor but no visible weapons.

You are asked to wait there for a few minutes as the previous meeting isn't over. You're wearing Nomenklators in both your ears, and they can be used for sound amplification. The operator tells you that she thinks that Carpatescu is currently meeting with Peter Mathews, Pontifex of the Ecumenical Council.

# Listen in - it's a rare chance to listen to a high level conversation you would otherwise miss, despite your monitoring.

# Just wait - you may need the Nomenklator's tiny batteries to last as long as possible, to protect you from hypnosis should Carpatescu give you a very detailed direct order.

>>3672745
>just wait. I dont want to be told to jump out a wondow and die

>>3672745

listen, these are people we can't easily track.

>>3672764

why would he do that? we asked for a postpone and he agreed to it, and we got shit done. he's not a melodramatic villain

>>3672781
I dunni the ides was suggeted amd now im parinoid. But your right would be better to
>>3672745
>listen

>>3672745
> # Listen in - it's a rare chance to listen to a high level conversation you would otherwise miss, despite your monitoring.

Quite frankly, I don't see him being willing to kill us since we don't actually want to depose him and especially not kill him. We also know that his role is necessary to keep order on earth.

We're probably one of his best bets to beat the odds and survive the prophecy.

Finally we already have the Nomenklator out, and we have evidence of his hypnotic ability so any sudden suspicious death on our part would confirm his abilities, so the Nomenklators would be impossible to remove and everyone would be using them to prevent his control as opposed to just us.

And we can also upload his conversation with the Pontifex if he uses his power on him.

Quite frankly, our voice could reach the people first.

Just send the order to not take any orders from us until they can review the Nomenklator recording, and to release said info if we suddenly die.

If we do die, well, at least we'll have died giving Humanity a voice to rage against the dying of the light. Maybe someone else will be able to step up and carry on our works.

We aren't irreplacable.

>>3672792
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKKJ_DhMO58

>>3672792
>>3672786
>>3672781


"...People who want to get along and live together will find me most generous and conciliatory. Those who want to cause trouble will be efficiently - painlessly, if it's convenient - gone. It is as simple as that.”

“So, what are you saying, Nicolae? You're going to wage war on the fundamentalists?”

“In a sense I am. No, we will not do it with tanks and bombs. But I believe the time has come to strictly enforce rules for the new Global Community. As this would seem to benefit you as much as it would benefit me, I would like you to cooperate in forming and heading an organization of elite enforcers, if you will, of pure thought.”

“How are you defining 'pure thought'?”

“I foresee a cadre of young, healthy, strong men and women so devoted to the cause of the Global Community that they would be willing to train and build themselves to the point where they will be eager to make sure everyone is in line with our objectives.”

You hear someone rise and begin pacing. You assume it's Mathews, warming to the idea. “These would not be uniformed people, I assume.”

“No. They would blend in with everyone else, but they would be chosen for their insight and trained in psychology. They would keep us informed of subversive elements who oppose our views. Surely you agree that we are long past the time where we can tolerate the extreme negative by-product of free speech run amok.”

“Not only do I agree,” Mathews said quickly, “but I stand ready to assist in any way possible. Can One World Faith help seek out candidates? train them? house them? clothe them?”

“I thought you were running short of funds,” Carpatescu said, chuckling.

“This will only result in more income for us. When we eliminate the opposition, everyone benefits.”

“Well, Pontifex Mathews, you've talked me into it. We would call them the GCMM. The Global Community Morale Monitors.”

Interestingly, you haven't heard Carpatescu use any coerction. The two shake hands, and you see Mathews leave through the antechamber you are in. He gives you a look of pity.

The Nomenklator's operator lowers the amplification and tells you that she's ready to cut in with the noise canceling.

>>3672802

The Global Potentate's office is huge: there's a perfect replica of his black desk with the embedded touch keyboard and screen in it, but everything else is wider, gaudier, more gilded. There are various awards and honorificences on the wall, including a Nobel Peace Prize and a Congressional Medal of Honor, with a little plaque indicating that Carpatescu is of course not eligible for one, but that was bequeathed to him by a veteran when he passed of old age.

Unlike the "real" office, the one here has the desk and master arranged on a step, so that once both of you sit down Carpatescu towers over you and you feel like a little kid with the desk's smooth flat surface oddly close to your chin.

You haven't been given permission to sit down.

"So, Foreman. I summoned you here weeks ago. I understand that the situation was perilous, but now we'll have to begin our conversation with you telling me what warranted making me wait."

# I have completed your mandate.

# It was objectively the safest option, you shouldn't have your whole cabinet in one place in a crisis.

# I was more useful helping with the reconstruction, and I we can communicate remotely at any time.

# (Write in)

>>3672804

(Correction: You clearly have been given permission to sit down, my bad)

>>3672804
Told all of you waiting was a bad idea. Now hes pissed.


>I was actively aiding with the reconstruction at the time and i did not want to jepordise any of our citizens lives die to me stoping the work. As well due to the several terrorist attacks i was very concerned about the cabinet being in one location. It was very dangerous.
>You were correct though I should never go against you on public. It weakens your authority which is not somthing we can afford. I failed in that being distracted by the emergancy and I apologize for that mistake. It wont be made again. However as we are behind closed doors I would reccomend against immediate summons in the future unless absolutly nessesary.

>>3672818

Carpatescu lets you ramble on a little bit, clearly satisfied that you've been properly intimidated. However, he raises an eyebrow - he's as good at it as Leonard Nimoy, you swear - at the last bit.

"Your recommendation is... noted. At any rate, you're here to learn about a few course changes that I am intending to implement for the Global Community, and suggest to me how best to implement them within your sphere of competence."

"You make an excellent point when you mention my authority - it has come to my attention that some of my trusted lieutenants, the global ambassadors - or subpotentates as they are sometimes referred to - have not been quite as deserving of my trust as I had envsioned. At the very least, they should have been more proactive in nipping insurgency in the bud."

He switches to a monotone, and stares deep in your eyes.

“I want to tell you something, and I want you to listen very carefully and understand fully. This same control that we now have over all media, we also need over industry and commerce. It is not necessary for us to buy or own all of it. That would be too obvious and too easily opposed. Ownership is not the issue. Control is. Within the next few months the subpotentates shall all announce unanimous decisions allowing us to control business, education, health care, and even the way the individual kingdoms choose their leaders. The fact is, democracy and voting will be suspended. They are inefficient and not in the best interests of the people. Because of what we will provide people, they will quickly understand that this is correct. I will publicly reluctantly accede to their wishes, and we will all win."

“We must act swiftly, while the people are most vulnerable and open. They will look to the Global Community for help and aid, and we will give it to them. However, they will give it to us first. We had an enormous storehouse of income before the rebuilding of Babylon. We will need much more to effect our plan of raising the level of Third World countries so that the entire globe is on equal footing."

“You all have been doing a wonderful job of setting the stage for this. We are close to a cashless society, which can only help the Global Community administration. The subpotentates are about to announce, simultaneously, the initiation of a ten-cent tax on all electronic money transfers. When we get to the totally cashless system, you can imagine that every transaction will be electronic. I estimate that this will generate more than one and a half trillion nicks annually."

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>>3672884

“I am also initiating a one-dollar-per-barrel tax on oil at the well, plus a ten-cents-per-gallon tax at the pump on gasoline. My economic advisers tell me this could net us more than half a trillion nicks every year. You knew the time would come for a tax to the Global Community on each area's Gross National Product. That time has come. While the insurrectionists from Egypt, Great Britain, and North America have been devastated militarily, they must also be disciplined with a 50 percent tax on their GNP. The rest will pay 30 percent."

“We are building a new global community. Pain is part of the process. The devastation and death of this war will blossom into a Utopia unlike any the world has ever seen. And you will be in the forefront of it."

“As you know, the second largest pool of oil, second only to the one in Saudi Arabia, was discovered above the Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. During the state of this leadership vacuum in North America, the Global Community will appropriate the vast oil fields in Alaska, including that huge pool. Years ago it was capped off to satisfy environmentalists; however, I have ordered teams of laborers into the region to install a series of sixteen-inch pipelines that would route that oil through Canada and to waterways where it could be barged to international trade centers. We already own the rights to oil in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and the rest of the Middle East. That gives us control of two-thirds of the world's oil supply.

“The subpotentates will begin to be referred to as sovereign heads of their own kingdoms. Of course, each will continue to report directly to me. I will approve their budgets, receive their taxes, and give them bloc grants. Some will criticize this as making it appear that all nations and regions are dependent upon the Global Community for their income and thus assuring our control over the destiny of the people. You know better. You know that your loyalty will be rewarded, that the world will be a better place in which to live, and that our destiny is a Utopian society based on peace and brotherhood. One vision, one purpose!"

"Your job is, and remains, to promote the technology of peace. In the last few years, I have commissioned a number of cyber experts, from financial software analysts to even videogame programmers, to create a unified viable system architecture to help me coordinate the global economy. Behold, the Burroughs MCP!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_MCP

Carpatescu has gone back to his normal manner of speaking, but has done so gradually; your Nomenklator operator caught the cue when he began his briefing, and noise-cancelled him out, with the result that you head most of the briefing in a synthesized voice reminiscent of Stephen Hawking. You aren't sure at which point he switched from intending to impose his will on you, to just explaining his plan.

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Rolled 39 (1d100)

The screens embedded in Carpatescu's desks come on. They show various stock market graphs, trends in shipping and air travel, power plant outputs.. After a few moments you notice that some of the images are actually in a loop.

"Master Control Program, analyze." Carpatescu types quickly as he speaks. "We will gradually but steadily raise the price of oil, which will further finance our plans to inject social services into underprivileged countries and make the world playing field equal for everyone. From oil alone, we should be able to profit at a rate of about one trillion nicks per year."

A booming voice comes from a bank of speakers hidden in the desk or the step that it's mounted on. "There's a 68.71 percent chance you're right."

Carpatescu smiles. "Cute."

The booming voice answers. "End of line."

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>>3672888


"And now, Foreman, I want you to give me your expert opinion on this."

# It's brilliant and futuristic, Potentate. We stand ready to wire it to the world.

# Uh, it's... nice? We have and use a better system back at HQ, and we're about to install one in Chile, too.

# Uh, it's kind of crap, honestly. Those percentages are meaningless, half the screens are just gif images looping, and the hardware specs are ancient. But if it's just for show it's a good idea, it will persuade people on video that you've covered all the bases.

# Do you want something better?

>>3672890
Do we know if part of the mind control was to get us to like this system?

>>3672895

The Nomenklator operator didn't want to take chances and left the jamming on for most of the speech, so, no. You'll have to guess by what you heard.

Carpatescu gives you a few seconds to look at the monitors; he taps a bit of desk, and some of them flip their image around so that they are easier for you to read.

Your operator tells you that you've got about forty percent power left in the earbuds, so she'll have to make a choice; scratch your left ear for privileging jamming, and your right ear for privileging amplification, because both may not be available.

the thing about Dr Robertsons report on variability of nuclear decay scares me a bit now.

https://www.sciencealert.com/new-hubble-data-breaks-our-understanding-of-the-universe

>>3672890
>>3672903
>>3672888
>>3672887
>>3672884

> tron

oooo shit

>>3672903
>>3672890

Hmmm honestly i would like to wait for a second opinion as i dont feel comfortable making these decisions on my own but i vote for


> Uh, it's kind of crap, honestly. Those percentages are meaningless, half the screens are just gif images looping, and the hardware specs are ancient. But if it's just for show it's a good idea, it will persuade people on video that you've covered all the bases.
> do you want somthing better
>We have and use a better system back at HQ, and we're about to install one in Chile, too

>prefer jamming over amplification

>>3672945
>prefer jamming over amplification

yes, we already got a nice bit of data, but it's useless if we get brain washed.

>>3672890

I vote for

># It's brilliant and futuristic, Potentate. We stand ready to wire it to the world.

safer option.

>>3672948
>>3672890
How about
> It's brilliant and futuristic, Potentate. We stand ready to wire it to the world. ..But do you want somthing better?

That way we are more subversive about it.

>>3672802
>“So, what are you saying, Nicolae? You're going to wage war on the fundamentalists?”
Okay this entire section is worrying. We're going to have to start narrowing our hiring parameters around these "Global Community Morale Monitors" or reveal their existence to the world and hope he can be scared into backtracking...we might also want to look into killing the Pontifex since he seems onboard with these sorts of plans.

>“We must act swiftly, while the people are most vulnerable and open. They will look to the Global Community for help and aid, and we will give it to them. However, they will give it to us first.
Honestly revealing pretty much any of his plan odd to get the world in revolt against him. Assuming he can't prevent us or suppress it.

>While the insurrectionists from Egypt, Great Britain, and North America have been devastated militarily, they must also be disciplined with a 50 percent tax on their GNP. The rest will pay 30 percent."
Sweet ommnisiah. That is an insane amount of money and insanely punitive. The treaty of Versailles wasn't that harsh and it broke the back of the Germans.

>>3672890
# Uh, it's kind of crap, honestly. Those percentages are meaningless, half the screens are just gif images looping, and the hardware specs are ancient. But if it's just for show it's a good idea, it will persuade people on video that you've covered all the bases.
# Do you want something better?

Maybe mention that we would have brought this system to his attention already but budget constraints had prevented us feeling it was entirely ready for use...ideally we can convince him to give us more funding / grant us some additional work team-space before our audit to dedicate to this sort of thing.