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/qst/ - Quests


The discovery of a creature of this size, free flying through space, puts into perspective your people's infantile beginnings into exploring the cosmos. How could such a thing even meet its own metabolic needs, not to mention its apparent immunity to the cold void? Could it be powered by fusion- the dream of your own race- this creature naturally evolved to harness it in some star-powered rudiment stomach? Even if such a thing was the case; there is no guarantee this leviathan would even be there anymore; after all, you are watching a transmission from a star system nine light years away. The vast distances of space and the limit of lightspeed still hold your people back.

Your name is Talacent Intari and you are the Supreme Ruler of the Jaxtian people. As the Supreme Ruler- your job is to guide your race into the great future of space travel, advance your species, and defend it from threats abroad and within. You come from a long line of Supreme Ones- passing on the torch to keep the Hegemony always marching forward.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/5007154/

The fourth and final probe sent by an old predeceasing Supreme Ruler finally arrived at its destination and has beamed you information about the last star system in your local cluster. The Red-Giant star Andoen has two planets and is surrounded by a nebula cloud.
>>
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Andoen 1 is a life supporting planet! It seems unusual that a planet that supports life could have formed around a red giant, but this planet is covered in plant life. While the probe is almost one hundred years old at this point and is clearly outdated and running on whatever scraps of radioactive material its fuel cells have left, it still seems “very sure” that the planet has no living animals on it, only plants. More significant then this is the fact the probe finds multiple ruins hinting at intelligent alien life inhabiting this planet; these aliens having a similar or slightly higher level of technology to your own!

The second planet of Andoen 2 is a cold and dry desert world filled with endless sand dunes. Little of note stands out to this probe's systems.

The distances of space remind you of your people's battle with mortality- and the next step taken against it. Every since capturing and incorporating the technology of the Haazar trading vessel that arrived in your system, the newfound Telomere lengthening has just increased your race's average life expectancy to 100 years of age. Even better, the fact it is not a genetic technology means you can give it to people who are alive and beginning to age themselves- much like yourself, and your right hand in the form of Eoba.
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While Supreme Rulers of the past grappled with the issue, the sudden extension of the average citizen's life means that you need to create more useful habitation space, before your home planet of Jaxt gets too overcrowded!

An entire generation of deathless individuals; a crazy thought, but now very real. The Telomere lengthening procedure essentially allows individuals to stay in their “adult” age range for much longer, the mid to late 30s age of mature but not youthful, as their bodies restore their own damaged cells much more effectively then you once could as an elder. As this technology can be given out to almost any Jaxtian in short order, you will have a massive population boom from the lack of deaths- not to mention the increased windows to pregnancy and childcare.

Two ideas that are currently within your technological and budgetary limits are given to you from Alavis- your AI assistant. The first is to build space stations. Building large scale space stations around your planetary colonies will act as not only extra population space, but also as a benefit to space industries like transport and space-construction. Moreso, these space stations have a military use and will be the first line of defense before a planet is bombarded by enemy ships in the event of a interstellar war.

The second concept is to build undersea colonies. Deep ocean habitats have been proposed for a long time- but your technology to build them just hasn't been there until now. Deep ocean habitats will keep the majority of your population on Jaxt, while allowing them to do ocean aqua-farming, gather geothermal energy, and act as a first step in designing habitats for ocean or under-ice sea planets.

Which will it be, Supreme Ruler?
>Space Stations
>Undersea Dwellings
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>>5053826
>Space Stations
The cylinder is big encouragement towards defense systems.
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>>5053826
Also, glad to have you back QM. Monkey brain activated...
>>
>Space Stations

We have experience from Cirrus before, and making headway on space docks is good too. Building big ships is hard in atmo.
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>>5053826
>>Space Stations
Space contains more resources than oceans ever will
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>>5053826
>>Space Stations
>>
>>5053826
>>Space Stations
>>
>>5053826
>Undersea Dwellings
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>>5053826
>Space Stations

Kino is back on the menu boys
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>>5053823
Just gonna post my fusion core idea here.
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>>5053826
>Space Stations
Ayyyy it's here!
Anyways we should go with space stations for now as we have prior experience with them as well as allowing for a better defense of our colonies from space, it'll also eventually allow us to build big as ships in space easier instead of building on planet and launching them into orbit.
Later on we should get undersea dwellings on that one colony with the Migrators so we can start actually integrating them into our empire and finding out ways for them to contribute instead of just saying they are part of it and not doing anything with them at all.
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>>5053826
>Space Stations

I'd argued for them previously and think they're a smart idea yet again - especially since they'll enhance our military and industrial capacity. Under-sea construction is good too but the simple fact is we're going to probably use orbital colonies sent via fusion-hyperspace or slow-boat STL travel to new systems as our initial colony (rather than landing on the surface of some body I mean) and if that is the case getting experience with them now is smart.

Also good to see QM saw my theorising on the effect of almost doubling our lifespan on our economy / population growth / etc.
>>
>>5053826
>Space Stations
>>
>>5053826
>Undersea Dwellings

We already have a semicolonized planet with a rich undersea habitat under our belt, and it allows us to keep our population closer to home and more easily monitored for now.
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You have decided to begin building space stations in orbit around your planets. Not only will this act as a buffer for your population to grow and live without overcrowding, but also provides some useful industries and a platform for further construction for deep space.

More immediate then this is the Baalathi metal that either makes up or covers the exterior of their giant blue cylinder ship. This bright blue metal is analyzed after a few flakes and shards are broken off using acids and hi-intensity lasers. The material is a Ferrous derivative of copper; a strange mix of many elements in a structure that would be very difficult to manufacture, even with your level of technology. The metal is named Azurium.

Azurium is a very strong alloy of many metals, including coppers, titaniums, and iron+carbon in a mixture equivalent to high grade steel. The metal could have many uses in armor plating and military, to industry, to high-energy physics and science. However because of its complexity; Azurium cannot be manufactured with available technology and you must find a natural source of it. While the elements that make up the universe are everywhere; creating artificial molecules out of particle accelerators are still beyond your capacity. This makes Azurium a rare resource, alongside Tritium, which will limit your building and expansion options unless more sources of them are found.

The concept to use the metal to help fix a core issue with your fusion reactor's in heat dispersal jumps to mind instantly. But there is a problem; Azurium is so heat resistant that working the metal is impossible. Even in high grade blast forges and with laser presses, trying to shape or melt the metal is essentially impossible. Its melting point is astronomically high. However, the Baalthi must have had a method to shape the metal themselves; there's no way it naturally formed into a giant cylinder ready for space colonization.

Your science team look to you for some advice, perhaps they missed something. If heat doesn't work; What method should be used to try and shape the Azurium instead?
>Chemical
>Electric
>Plasmatronic (Tractor Beams + Shields)
>Radioactive
>Kinetic (Hydraulic Press)
>Sonic
>Other (Write In)
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>>5054370
>Chemical + Garvitational
The gas giant it originated on probably had some unique chemical properties to enable such things. Recreating its possible origins may help shape it?
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>>5054370
>>Plasmatronic (Tractor Beams + Shields)
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>>5054370
Supporting >>5054398
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>>5054398
Support this, I wanna say it's formed as a concentrated gas deep within a gas giant and solidified somehow?
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>>5054398
+1
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>>5054370
>Radioactive
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>>5054398
i like this idea
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>>5054370
>>5054398
Makes sense. The Balaathi likely formed the alloy using their unique gas construction techniques. I reckon we can weaken the metal with chemicals then shape it with plasmatronics.

Supporting.
>>
>>5054398
+1 Makes sense.
>>
Over the next five years, you allocate the budget and get to work sharing the life extension gift of the Telomere-lengthening technology. At the same time, you also give your science team a little nudge in the right direction; suggesting using chemicals and plasmatronic gravity induction to shape the Azurium.

Unfortunately, it seems as though your suggestions didn't help much. The science team tries a whole plethora of different chemicals and gravity tricks, even using radiation in an attempt to soften the metal up, but nothing works. Finally a breakthrough comes when a scientist discovers that the Azurium is receptive to being shaped by very strong magnetic fields. You are just now remembering those strange magnetic waves detected inside the alien cylinder back when they repaired it from your strike ships- now you feel quite stupid for not remembering it sooner and saving your industrial teams a lot of time.

In better news; the wide-scale Telomere lengthening done upon your entire adult population has had an even stronger impact then you first assumed. While a few individuals were too old or sick, or their bodies just couldn't regenerate their damaged DNA to make use of the procedure, the vast majority were inoculated.

While of course the first reaction is one of increased population and higher standards of living in old age, since someone nearing 100 years of age is essentially just a 40 year old forever, the second reaction would be the incredible sense of gratitude and approval of the rolling out of this technology.

It's actually a little embarrassing. People are calling you the greatest Supreme Ruler of all time. These approval ratings are almost as high as when the Hegemony was first founded and banned nuclear weapons- after four billion people got killed by them? The approval is now that high.
>>
...The truth is, all these people are actually very lucky. Very lucky the Telomere lengthening procedure also restores youth. Very lucky that the procedure is so cheap and not reliant on any rare resources.

Because if it didn't... this technology would not have been spread to the masses so easily. The Hegemony is not supposed to waste excess resources, and having half the population being elderly pensioners would bankrupt your country. You would need to enact life and death budgets; judging an individual's lifespan against the value they bring to the Hegemony... And while you don't want that to happen, any advancement in that field could bring need for it. You get the distinct feeling people wouldn't be praising you, but instead calling you the grim reaper.

However, the great extension of life span does come with a few problems. In short; the Hegemony's approach to late-life medical costs and retirement is a strong central social security system with allowances for citizens to pay their own way by sacrificing other privileges or luxuries. For instance, many citizens choose to stay in a smaller dwelling or forgo some of their allotted vacations in exchange to have their retirement a few years earlier. This program is robust enough to allow for all basic living expenses and medical costs, but the individual is still expected to save some of their own money for luxuries and unnecessary costs. This life extension has just made their own personal accounts laughably inadequate- even the ones who tried to do the right things were never prepared for something like this!

Because of this technology- the average Jaxtian that is in retirement or about to retire have just been greatly disrupted. Now individuals who were supposed to die at 70 will live to be 100- meaning the state will have to pay for forty years of retirement instead of just 10. Many have also forgotten their career skills or have physically degraded away from their job. There is also a degree of unfairness to those who are still young as well; many retirees entering the workface again will slow rates of advancement and meaningful promotion. With a huge increase in lifespan- how are we going to approach this problem? No matter what you decide, it's likely to make some people upset or cause other problems down the line.

>Everyone is forced back to work
>Current retirees are given light labor
>Current retirees keep their status for life
>All retirees, including ones in the future, keep the extended retirement program (WARNING- Will murder your Budget)
>Other (Write In)
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>>5055493
>Current retirees keep their status for life
>Give a small allowance to those that were going to retire in the next 10 years
That's a one generation problem and I think that our budget is not too tight for now.
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>>5055493
>Current retirees are given light labor
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>>5055501
Support this, only a single generation will need it so we can afford to be nice
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>>5055501
+1>>5055522
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>>5055501
This - if they want to complain point out they are complaining that they are going to live too long, which is a stupid complaint.
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>>5055493

>For individuals who retired early and are still before the current retirement age, they rejoin the workforce until they reach the current retirement age when they can retire again. They're still getting an early retirement compared to those who follow them, hopefully they'll see this.
>Current retirees over the current retirement age get to keep their status if they wish; but offer encouragements for them to re-join the workforce of their own choice and volition. I mean, many of them already know that their personal accounts won't be enough anymore so would welcome the chance to boost them now that they're feelign spry again.
>For Jaxtians who would have retired within the next five/ten years, they get five/ten years added to their minimum working span. We can't just spring a complete change in how retirement's going to work for them without giving a justafiable adjustment period. Again, though, allow them to stay working for longer then this if they wish to boost their personal accounts.
>For Jaxtians still over ten years away from retirement, the new rules will take effect

Additionally, we probably want to find some more job-possiblities for those Jaxtians looking for work to suppliment a retired state that's going to last for longer. What are the requirements and standards we have for military service? If a Telomere-lengthened Jaxtian is capable of meeting them, getting some additional pilots/crew and raising sone 'space regiments' ready to storm the inside of the Sphere next time it opens and conquer whatever lurks within for Jaxt would be a good way to do this without drawing too heavily from the upcoming generations.
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>>5055574
>sphere

Cylinder, even. Derp.
>>
>>5055501
Supporting.

>>5055527
And supporting this. If they complain, remind them that we gave them 30 extra years of life and nigh-eternal youth. Some extra labour is a small price to pay, and is NECESSARY to ensure not just our prosperity, but our continued advancement and ability to defend against hostile aliens. Do not become complacent, Monkes of Jaxt!
>>
Isn't our economy still growing? Surely the space habitat construction project and the ensuing knock on effects will give plenty of new jerbs to go around?
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>>5055881
That's not the problem here, anon. The problem is that people who were about to retire or were already retired are now going to live until they're 100. Which means you have people who will need to be on retirement funds a lot longer - some of which they don't have. The government would have to pay way, way more than it was expecting.
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>>5055886
This. The demographic pyramid is one of the major determining factors in a nation (or planet's!) economic output and standard of living. We're skewing it hugely if we don't get old folks working.
>>
You have decided to allow the retirees to keep their pensions for their now elongated lifespans; while phasing in the new program for those younger and younger. While your population is always growing, an unproductive large portion of your population isn't doing your budget any favors and will slow down some of your programs until that old generation is finally gone.

On the social web and in daily life; the change goes by with a great appreciation. The current old folks are allowed some light labor while keeping their unemployed status, but for the most part the retirees get to live a life of luxury and ease for however long they will live naturally now. The old generation is essentially a new class of nobility- and this causes a great degree of jealously among younger and working folks. Many already believe that the next retirement age will be 90 for them; where as these spoiled retirees around today get around 30 to 40 years. Needless to say, this has caused some friction and jealously between the generations. The youth generation already have a name for them; "lengthies". Hopefully since it's a one generation problem; in the long term it won't amount to much.

Speaking of generations; you are dealing with something wholly unique now. Your close friend and alien ambassador- Bluey. Bluey is the Haazar child implanted in a Jaxtian soldier, being born from that, and fully immersed in Jaxtian society. Watching him grow and measuring his differences from Jaxtian children has been a huge help to understanding their race.

As far as you can tell, no amount of Jaxtian DNA implanted in a Haazar creates a child. Not random DNA, not sperm, not an egg, not even a fertilized zygote can successful replicate in a Haazar's body- and they willingly give themselves up for this kind of research in exchange for payment, so you have no lack of test subjects. It seems only a Haazar breeding spike is capable of this kind of implementation.

Bluey is a young Haazar, but has been raised as a Jaxtian. He was born as an adult; he had no desire for parents or protection, he never needed milk, and he has a mature mindset focused on trade. While he needs a translator since he can't make the noises, he was born capable of speaking Jaxtian. Much of your research on him has been in relation to how he views community and how well he can be integrated into the Hegemony, as opposed to Haazari culture, which is more focused on the individual. However, Bluey is entering the stage of his life where he will develop into one of the Haazar types- essentially genders, for the hermaphrodite race.

The current leader of the Haazar's ship still marooned in your system is, of course, loyal to the Hegemony. As he explains it- because Bluey will go through puberty totally isolated from any other Haazar, it is almost certain that he will develop into the warrior type.
>>
...Of course, there's nothing wrong with him becoming a warrior type! Warrior types are just another reproductive strain of the Haazar, and are also said to be the most intelligent and competitive of all of them. While the Haazar don't like to attribute genes or sex to intelligent, there is a very strong correlation there...

Maybe you've just gotten a bit emotionally attached. After all, the only Haazar you had personally killed was a warrior. Who threatened you with his knife-dick.

The truth is, simply allowing Bluey to return and live amongst the Haazar for his adolescence will let him change into the type that fits him best; but at the same time, it will mean you won't have the same amount of control and won't learn as much as you can out of him; your science teams struggle to find a good way to evaluate if his citizenship is any better then a Haazari child- but letting him return to his people will greatly reduced the valuable research you can get out of him.

While you know there is no possible risk of him attacking you or anyone important to your cabinet even if he becomes a warrior, since you've been well acquainted all this time, you just know it will reduce his ability to intermingle among Jaxtian society. You managed to get him to wear shorts at least- but you don't know if you can control a warrior's libido so easily. It probably will be too risky.

There is, of course, a third option- though one that carries risk. You could pool what you know about Haazar medicine and try to control his puberty directly through injections and medicines- but doing so could have disastrous consequences. After all, the backwards Haazar have done barely any eugenic and development research against their own people, so the attempt at manipulating his development directly will be treading new ground- with all the risks that involves.

One way or another, you want what is best for him. He's kind of like your son- but you also view him as a very special member of the Hegemony. Not a resource to be expended so frivolously. What's the best course of action for little Bluey?

>Keep Bluey with you (Bluey becomes a warrior)
>Allow Bluey to go live amongst the Haazar
>Control Bluey's puberty directly (Chance of something going very wrong)
>>
If we were to keep him as one of us, he'd need some special equipment, and perhaps, treatment, to be able to participate socially. Hazaar themselves are completely incompatible with our society due to how their biology - they have no basis for family.

I'd say we should let him live amongst his people, but keep an eye on him.
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>>5056348
Bluey will unfortunately not ever be able to be a true Jaxtian ever again. But I dont necessarily think it would be bad to live amongst the Hazaar for him if he has a mission, I say we let him get to his warrior phase and then live with the Hazaar, he is loyal to the hegemony and with his increased intellectual aptitude he would be able to more easily introduce hegemony ideals amongst the asteroid colony about how a community under the hegemony is stronger together. Obviously this wont happen right away but use enough propaganda and Bluey showing off the nicer points of Jaxtian citizen life maybe they can see being a part of the hegemony has its benefits
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>>5056348
So the hazaar have superior gene-engineering but they don't know how to control their own puberty... ok.

>Allow Bluey to live amongst the Hazaar.
>>
>>5056348
>Allow Bluey to live amongst the Hazaar.
Bye son. Stay in touch, alright?
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>>5056348
>Allow Bluey to go live amongst the Haazar
We don't want him to become a Warrior if there's a chance we can avoid it happening, and he's too valuable to put through the risky controlled procedure on the first try. However...

>Invite another prebubescent Haazar to come be studied on our science colony, and go through a directly controlled puberty.

Surely there's one we'll be able to convince. And if we can get one and run the experiment before Bluey goes though his own puberty, it might even give Bluey more options.
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>>5056348
>Allow Bluey to go live amongst the Haazar

Also supporting >>5056396
>>
>>5056348
>Warrior types are... ....said to be the most intelligent

Is there any actual evidence to back this up? The Haazar warrior caste appear to be dominant socialy, so there's reason to suppose that with their control of Haazar populations they might exagerate their own abilities and importance to give a justification FOR thier positions and importance. Because the Warriors we actually met in the boarding action went into rape-mode rather then trying to do anything sensible or logical; and the Warrior-Leader was dumb enough to threaten to rape the supreme Leader of our people in front of armed soldiers. Is there any evidence we have to suggest that they're not actually a caste of drooling retards who happen to be at the top of their society through sheer dominance and agressiveness?
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>>5056348
>Allow Bluey to go live amongst the Haazar
Honestly just give him the choice of if he wants to go or not.
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>>5056359
They clearly have some taboos around interfering in sex and reproduction, anon.

>>5056348
Give Bluey the choice, BUT make it clear that any Warrior morphs among Jaxtian society will need to wear a chastity belt.
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>>5056348
>Allow Bluey to go live amongst the Haazar
>>
>>5056359
>>5056802
>Give Bluey the choice.
Oh right, Bluey might have an opinion on this.
Switching to this.
>>
You have decided to let Bluey live amongst the Haazar for his crucial years in puberty and development. You're sad to see him go, but it's best this way. He'll be able to become exactly what he was meant to, not constrained by Jaxtian society... or yourself. At the same time, you feel like you've lost a close friend.

It will be a few years before the changes are made apparent and you can see what your decision has caused. And speaking of years- you have had a few yourself.

At the current time, you are about seventy years old. You are one of the oldest active Supreme Rulers- you'd be living past your life expectancy now if technology hadn't improved it. You have had a lot of time to think on the subject, and now you have to consider what may be best for the Hegemony.

Your AIs predict that the alien capsule will have fully restocked and rebuilt its drone army in about 30 years, roughly when you are about to hit your new expected end of life. While it isn't certain the alien capsule will open again at that exact moment, it is a risk. If the alien capsule opens and the Supreme Ruler dies just before or after from natural causes, this will upset the structure of power during a critical moment. Furthermore, even if you live to deal with that crisis, you'll be old and you aren't exactly remembered for being a great war leader. Your hesitation almost caused your own death when the capsule first appeared.

It may be time to find an heir to the Supreme Rulership earlier then you're forced to- and that will give him many decades to get ready. You could also choose someone better suited for what the future may hold; a future of FTL travel and meeting alien races. Your era of diplomacy held at arms length may be ending when the power to strike back against alien aggressors comes directly with the power of the Hyperdrive.

Most Supreme Rulers rule until they become physically and mentally unable to do so; it is only now with this long lifespan that you have more of a choice. Should you try to find an heir early, in preparation for the future?

>Find an Heir
>Continue to rule as Talacent
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>>5057566
>Find an Heir

Time to get a more aggressive leader, we will be alive for a long time and able to give advise if needed.
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>>5057566
>Find an Heir
Definitely look for candidates now, but who says we need to hand over power immediately? Maybe rule for another 10 years? How long does it take a new supreme ruler to "settle in"?
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>>5057566
>Find an Heir
Why wouldn't we look for an heir? We can just hold onto the position until we're ready to give it up while the heir gets ready for becoming the supreme one.
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>>5057566
>Find an Heir

We should definitely be prepared for the sucession, even if we don't formally hand over power yet for another decade or two - a successor learning the ropes beneath us might allow for a more gracefull transition of power then some Supreme rulers before us.
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>>5057566
>Find an Heir

Get them trained up, then let's maybe spend some time among the Hazaar (albeit never, EVER alone with a Warrior-type without a chastity belt). We're an amazing diplomat and negotiator, first and foremost. We can chill with our adopted son, watch and see what he becomes, and help steer his people towards better integration with our empire in our twilight years. A good retirement, a good legacy.
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>>5057566
>>Find an Heir
>>
>>5057566
>Find an Heir
>>
>>5057566
>Find an Heir
>>
>>5057566
>Find an Heir

But also take care for any heir to NOT be xenocidal.
Speaking of xenos, is it possible to genetically engineer some migrators to fit more into our society?
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>>5057566
>>Find an Heir
>>
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>>5057923
>Speaking of xenos, is it possible to genetically engineer some migrators to fit more into our society?
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>>5057923
Who cares about the Migrators? They just sleep all day. As long as we don't screw up Caplit's eco system they'll remain a none issue.

I think any attempt to more actively engage with them will just cause more problems down the line. Let sleeping whales lie.
>>
>>5058208
>>5058226
To colonise other oceans. Also, we wont disturb the whole population, just a small percentage.
>>
>>5058253
>To colonize other oceans
Again, they just sleep. That's how their entire sapiency works. We'd need to basically create an entirely new species to make them into "productive" fish people.

Just let them sleep bro.
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>>5058257
Thats why I said to genetically engineer them. We are pretty good at that.
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>>5058260
There's genetical engineering and there's what you want to do. We cannot do the latter, and it would not bribg much benefit anyway

Why would we want more aliens who might cause conflicts?
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>>5058260
Just make sea monkeys of some of our people, then! Their base evolutionary psychology and sense of time are already much closer to us. Making a species which is fundamentally different in perception, metabolism, and (probably) value system more like us will likely have FAR more complications than engineering some of our people to breathe water.
>>
Friendly reminder that anything that reduces the homogenity of our society will cause instability. The indigos caused a minor shit storm and they were just a different colour (and better in every way).

We should not seek to diversify the population of the hegemony unless the benefits outweigh the ensuing instability.
>>
>>5057566
>>Find an Heir
>>
Since it's obvious as to what the vote is, I'm just taking my time working on the update. Thank you for your patience.
>>
Deciding to find an Heir, you call upon the current highest gene-rated individuals in the Hegemony. As per tradition, the potential heirs to the Supreme Rulership are always children; with their whole lives ahead of them, as to maximize the value of their training and time. This is also the reason many Supreme Rulers plan to have children when they are getting older, so their children are of the proper age. However, with the newfound growth of maximum lifespan, more and more heirs may be out there that miss the convenient timeframe to potentially be selected.

The first is Agori, an Alpha-Phenotype young lad. Like most alphas, his brain is well suited to warfare, but he personally is not especially aggressive. In fact, he finds meeting you face to face a little intimidating.

Kimnan is a highly intelligent, motivated youth. He's a bit arrogant, but exceeds at all tasks given to him. Flawless academics and high marks in all physical and social tasks given to him as well- he's a shoe in for the candidacy. Strangely seems highly interested in a career as a pilot, which is a bit below his station, but his earlier simulator scores are among the best in history, as with everything else he does.

Ingar scores low marks on sociability and empathy- though he is extremely intelligent. Ingar is especially skilled in computer and AI systems, even at his young age, and is highly likely to revolutionize computing. However his psyche profile matches those of prodigal Supreme Rulers of the past; meaning that if he is chosen as the Supreme Ruler, there is a high chance he could become imperial, selfish, and tyrannical for some or all of his reign.

Finally, there is Qenen. Qenen is a bit of an odd ball, as he is both not a child and is also an indigo. Qenen apparently was one of the last Indigo Children to be produced using only the supreme-level gene codes, and he was spawned at the apex of that program. As such, he has no direct genetic line of parents, as many different DNA samples were used to create him. Despite what a break from tradition it would be to select him; he is genetically very gifted. He is about 50 years old and halfway through his natural lifespan.

Which candidate should you select? Whichever one you pick, they will receive extra training and guidance from you until ready to fully take over; with a few years in the meantime while you remain in power during the transition. This is the way of things in the Hegemony.
>Agori
>Kimnan
>Ingar
>Qenen
>>
>>5059564
>Qenen
It's okay if our Supreme rulers have a shorter reign. Let's see what kind of wacky regime this oddball rules over.

Agori would be a decent candidate too, hopefully those Alpha genes balance out that shyness. Kimman and Ingar would better serve the Hegemony as a pilot and scientist respectively. Their character flaws would be a bit too dangerous in a Supreme Ruler.
>>
>>5059564
>Agori

Even with an elongated lifespan, the plasticity of youthful minds (assuming Jaxtian monke are like Earthling humans) will still mean a kid would benefit most from the training. A somewhat, reserved Alpha with genes and performance to qualify for the selection will be a good wartime leader, without any obvious lean towards recklessness or tyranny.
>>
>>5059564
>Qenen

Agori would be next-best IMO. Kimnan wants to be a pilot? Well, he can - but a Supreme Ruler ain't allowed to be a flyboy taking combat drugs and entering frontline combat. Better he follows his desire, we get a great pilot and we still have a competent Supreme Ruler.

Similarly, Ingar is a sociopath...well as much as our eugenics allows such a trait to survive, meaning he'd be willing to do fairly murky shit. Meanwhile if we don't take him, he can just be a scientist on computers and AI systems.


TLDR - Kimnan and Ingar will do good shit if not Supreme Ruler. Agori and Qenen meanwhile are interesting / suitable but not outstanding in a particular area that'd invite us to think "they should be left to do that".

Also on a seperate point, get a sample of Kimnan's DNA - Indigo Project MK2 where we just use his genes to mass-produce high grade fighter pilots?
>>
>>5059608
I also support the idea of prepping for a second Indigo Project in the future
>>
>>5059564
>Qenen
He still has 50 years left, will be ready earlier than the others and with his gene score is probably only second to Kimnan in raw ability.
>>
>>5059564
>Kimnan

Choosing an heir now was done so that there's very little chance of the supreme leader dropping dead around or in the midst of a second Cylinder crisis. Choosing Quenen would undermine this very point, he'll be around 80 when the Cylinder opens again and it's not impossible it'll open later on; so we'd be steering right into the crisis we've been trying to avoid.

Agori is better suited to understudying Eoba Garastra and eventually taking over from him, a great mind for the military but one who'll look to the Supreme Leadership for direction is perfect there.

And Ingar's better of directed into the field of Computing then given power, even his psych-scores admit this.

And even discounting the flaws in the other candidates, Kimnan is simply the best guy for the job based on skills and personality.
>>
>>5059564
>natural lifespan
>He is about 50 years old and halfway through his natural lifespan
With or without the telomeres treatment? I would assume the former but he's also an optimised indigo so we never know
>>
>>5059564
>Agori
Think about it for a while, Qenen is going to be a geezer when the cyllinder opens again. He doesn't have the fire of youth within him.

Even if he's still by the time the cylinders arrive, what next? The Balaathi are still a threat. We can't risk to have an incapable run in the middle of a war
>>
>>5059564
>Agori
His personality will take after us, but he'll be better in war.
>>
>>5059630
The problem with Kimnan is that he's arrogant and wants a pilot. Those are the worst combinations you could have - an extreme danger job with an arrogance that makes him underestimate dangers.

The last thing we need is our supreme leader suddenly deciding he's too cool to watch a battle from afar, hopping into a fighter and getting blown up.
>>
>>5059564
>Agori
>>
>>5059564
>Ingar
I want to commit war crimes and genocide
>>
>>5059662

Hmm. I'm not really certain if a little bit of arrogance is too much of a problem if the individual concerned is both highly capable and motivated, as well as empathic - it's not like he's hauling around Ingar's evident flaws. Kimnan is genuinely a great Monkey and a great guy, and with us to guide him into the role he could be a great supreme leader.

...However, since I am the only one to have voted for him, if no other votes come in for Kimnan I will change my vote to
>Agori

And would also suggest that we give Kimnan the full suit of supreme-grade training so he can either be an extraordinarily capable back-up candidate if the war we're expecting to happen comes too close to Agori, or else hopefully (if we can crack the Hyperdrive in time for him), a Jaxtian Captain Kirk visiting strange new worlds and making those life or death decisions for a bold crew exploring new horizons that cannot wait for orders relayed from Jaxt.
>>
>>5059820
Seems sensible!
>>
>>5059564
>Agori
I personally lean toward Kinman but Agori is more IC for our Supreme Leader.
>>
>>5059820
>I'm not really certain if a little bit of arrogance is too much of a problem if the individual concerned is both highly capable and motivated,
That's even worse. An completely uncapable, but arrogant man, will obviously fuck up, but he won't be capable of getting to the point where he fucks up too badly.

Because he's capable, this means he's going to be able to be arrogant and succeed at most things, only increasing his arrogancy. And soon enough, he'll get too big for his britches and die.

Plus the fact that he really wants to be a pilot. We already have one Chuuni General who almost killed himself solely because he felt like taking a risk.
>>
>>5059883
But uh, i do agree he should be put to good use. He's either going to turn into a Captain Kirk, or into a Wedge Antilles, depending on how the war goes.
>>
>>5059564
>Qenen
>>
>>5059564
>Agori
Kimnan will probably end up as Eoba did becoming the admiral of the fleet.
>>
>>5059564
>Agori or Qenen
>>
>>5059564
>Ingar
>>
Qenen may have an life expectation of 100, but he's already 50. Do you want an 80 year old to be running our defenses?

Agori is young and capable,as well as fit for a military role.
>>
>>5059564
>Agori
>>
Tentatively working on the next update.

However I'd like some feedback on who to nominate for the /qst/ Husbando Tournament in December. I'm thinking either Qet (canonically had consensual sex + killed assasins while naked) or Vul (being the waifu wars initiator)- but technically any of our Supreme Rulers could probably count.
>>
>>5060376
They're both cool, but they did die early. I'd say either Qet or someone like Vantix, the OG
>>
>>5060376
Qet
>>
>>5060376
Qet or Kinja (charismatic media mogul, richest monke on Jaxt, kinky filmmaker, married a hot young Indigo waifu as an old man)
>>
>>5060376

Qet would be a good call. I'd say Kinja is the second possibility, he had a lot of Swag.

Vul by contrast is confirmed as a cheat and adulterer. I wouldn't think him a good choice at all.

Also: With the next update Talacent has heir as supreme leader decided. If he'd be of a mind and everything seems to be going smoothly, perhaps it'd be a good time to look to finding a wife of his own - the Telomere lengthening might have given him another opportunity for a family.
>>
>>5060477
>be a good time to look to finding a wife of his own
I'm pretty sure he already started that before, no?
>>
>>5060376
>Kinja

I vote Kinja, he was fun.
>>
You've decided on your heir- Agori. The young Alpha-Male has the right mix of traits, you feel. With the amount of time you have left, you don't yet pass on the medallion, but soon you will. The young Supreme seems to cheer up immediately, his nervousness dissolving as he adopt him as your surrogate son in rulership.

Qenen speaks up- promising to take the other two Supreme Ruler candidates under his wing to assist in their growth. While it may be the best for Imgar; Kimnan seems a little upset. You guess he was even a little more immature then you thought from his initial psyche-profile...

In the meantime, this arrangement should be enough to carry your people through the next Cylinder crisis- if and when such a thing comes to pass.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d3)

>>
In the meantime; something of much larger importance has happened. In the time since your last commands to the high-energy science times, the magnetic forging of the Azurium has been complete. Using even the small amount you have access to- a generator is built.

While a few week-long test runs had been done some half a century ago, these tests focus on the long term. The incredible heat conduction of the Azurium has directly contributed to safely being able to contain a nuclear fusion reaction. The vast amounts of waste heat can now be directly pumped into massive water tanks; and using the rising steam to generator additional power as per a traditional steam turbine, the fusion reactor is now 80% efficient and can now be run nearly indefinitely.

The first nuclear fusion plant is opened for operation in the largest city on the planet Jaxt; and eliminates the need for a safety radius or fallout zone. The nearby fission plants are shut down and their resources scrapped. Within the next twenty years, all fission power stations on planets and colonies will be shut down and replaced with more efficient, clean burning fusion reactors.

You are swarmed with reporters almost instantly once this is made public. Almost immediately, a buzz as energy and computer cycle credits will be doubled for the average citizen. The reporters stick their microphones in your face.

"Supreme Ruler- with fusion generators being just an extra feather in your cap at this point- there is a serious consideration to name you the Greatest Supreme Ruler of All Time. Do you agree with this statement?"

"Oh well, I don't know about that..."

"None other since Akule have been as highly praised- and he was the first and greatest of all Supreme Ones. Should the name of Talacent be immortalized in the same was as his- the unspeakable Akule?"

You're getting a little overwhelmed here. What should be your response to this unending praise?

>Soak it up
>Deny them
>Remind them of the hard work of others before you
>>
>>5061207
>Remind them of the hard work of others before you
Triumphant pride precipitates a dizzy fall...
>>
>>5061207
>Remind them of the hard work of others before you

The fusion project was started by Kinja, and the life extension tech was taken from the Hazaar.
>>
>>5061207
>Remind them of the hard work of others before you
>>
>>5061207
>>Remind them of the hard work of others before you
>>
>>5061207
>Remind them of the hard work of others before you
>>
>>5061207
>Remind them of the hard work of others before you
We were merely in the right place at the right time. No more, no less.
>>
>>5061207
>Remind them of the hard work of others before you
>>
>>5061207
>>Remind them of the hard work of others before you
'We are only here because of others. Not only have we stood upon the shoulders of giants, not only past supreme rulers who have led their turn and done their duty; but every Jaxtian who has lived has played their part in bringing us to where we are today. Our Scientists, Our Armed Forces, Our designers Our teachers Our cooks and Our labourers; every Jaxtian of every status. It is the Jaxtian people, and the unity of purpose that our Hegemony gives us which as allowed us the triumph and the wonders we share today; which will allow us to continue the journey of our society to take what is great and see where it might still be better! To work as one and overcome as a people the challenges the universe might place before us!"
>>
>>5061207
>Soak it up
>>
>>5061288
+1 support

Fine speech old boy.
>>
>>5061288
+1
>>
>>5061288
+1 good shit
>>
I also propose Kinja for the Dicember contest.
Qenet did more, but Kinja is a playboy.
>>
Did Vul remind anyone else of Biggie Smalls? the all black suit and the gold chain and the womanizing?
>>
”We are only here because of others...”

In response to the unending praise and congratulations over the nuclear fusion project, you have to silence the paparazzi. You speak over them, with a speech about the importance of unity and how everyone's effort together is what created the Hegemony.

”And lest not forget the great works of the previous Supreme Ones- all of whom had a greater impact then myself. The unmatchable Vantix Garastra, who led our people into the modern space age, Qet Scholiander, who secured our homeworld for future generations, to Vul Takar, who taught us the dangers outside of our own space-”

“Supreme Ruler- what is the long term plan for the Haazar currently inhabiting Jaxtian space?”

”...and did more behind the scenes then most of you will ever know- Hold your questions, please. And how about Kinja Dulioan, who took on the mantle of Supreme Ruler even when he did not want to? In turn he passed the torch to me, and I have already selected my own heir who is-”

“Supreme Ruler! What is your opinion on the second opening of the alien cylinder?”

”The- what?”
>>
RED ALERT! BATTLESTATIONS!

The Baalathi cylinder is opening prematurely and ahead of predicted schedule. As the cylinder has posed an unknown threat for a long time- the plans for defense and retaliation have been in place for a long time. The habitation satellites, recently completed, activate their shields and power up weapons. The fleet is scrambling and preparing for a counterstrike.

While your AI network didn't accurately predict the cylinder opening's timeframe, it still poses an important fact. If the aliens are attacking now, they are likely unable or unwilling to turn tail and try to run back to their home system, perhaps because they are out of fuel. Attacking earlier then necessary may be a sign that they have expended all of their resources within the cylinder and this is going to be their single greatest push they can muster, as such, the alien attack here is likely to be final and not followed up by a second.

By the same manner of thinking- this could indicate that the aliens are more desperate then ever. It is highly likely that this is the last time they will try to retaliate- which also means the cylinder is a more important target then ever. Your strike teams have already planned for an intense assault on the cylinder itself, flying inside the opening at the end- now with shields and superior aeronautic technology to bypass the defenses sure to be there, and disable or kill anything within the cylinder to prevent a self destruct or mass-driver attack on the planet Jaxt- or any other target.
>>
“Ace Kimnan reporting for duty!”

Kimnan has just appeared before you... in an appropriately sized flight suit. You're not even sure how he got into the situation room.

“Supreme Ruler- allow me to lead the strike team on the alien cylinder! I volunteer- ehhrrk!”

Eoba, your general and second in command, has already taken up the youth by the ear.

“Ahheee! Lemme go!”

“Silence, idiot child!” Eoba yells. ”The Hegemony has VERY specific criteria of when child soldiers are used- when regular soldiers would be too smart to go on a suicide mission willingly- of which we do not have a problem with our morale- or when the children prove to be DISTRACTING targets for the enemy! Foolish child! I'd give you a gun and a knife if we were fighting rebels in the jungle-”

“Tala- Talacent! Please- let me prove myself!”

Kimnan wants to lead the assault on the alien cylinder. Of course, he's only a child. But as a Supreme Ruler candidate, Kimnan is far, far from an ordinary child. In fact, you know his stats. He's the among the best pilots in the academy on the simulators, possibly ever. Only the heroic Shintar Val while on performance enhancers comes close- And his small size would mean he'd be almost immune to the g-forces of a tight turn into the cylinder that your adult pilots could hardly handle. You can't believe you're considering this...

>Allow Kimnan to lead the attack
>Deny Kimnan & keep him grounded
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to lead the attack
This is probably the bad choice but the idea of a little squirt leading the charge is hilarious.
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to lead the attack
Either he dies a martyr or lives his life as a hero. This is an existential threat to us all... So let us all do what we can to prevent Jaxtian extinction.
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to lead the attack
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to lead the attack
I want to warn him that he can die. This isn't the simulations anymore, sonny. Not sure if that'll hinder his performance or not.
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to lead the charge
Lil kid Anakin style.

Even with lengthened lifespans, it'll be nice to have an admiral after Eoba that has some battle experience.
>>
Why are we letting a kid with 0 experience lead the battle for our survival again?
>>
>>5062177
It's funny.
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to lead the attack
>>
>arrogant child with genius pilot skills against a drone army
Do what want Vaders? Because that's how you get Vaders.
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to lead the attack
>>
>>5062073
Do we actually have a fighter ready for him?

Also, if we do - couldn't we just let him join the attack, rather then lead it?

All's said and done though, his scores are the best. If his gene-score has made this possible and his dedication has seen him strive to master this field of combat, as proven by his top ranking in the simulators, we must use this resource to help defend and preserve the Hegemony.

>Allow Kimnan to join the attack
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to lead the attack
>>5062238
Either we will get a Vader or an Ender and I dont know which is worse
>CAPTCHA:SH4DY
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to join the attack but not lead
He's inexperienced and young, you don't allow someone like that to lead an attack no matter how much natural talent and potential they have, but he can join it and gain experience for the future, although I'd prefer it if he stayed outside of the cylinder during the attack he can go in if the other anons allow it.
>>
>Hope nobody heard that stuff about the child soldiers.
>>
>>5062447
Why? We're the Hegemony. We aren't needlessly sentimental about the value of individual monke lives.
>>
>>5062268
+1 to this. Let him join the attack.
>>
Also - seeing as we now have stable fusion tech fairly soon spread across our entire society - we're in a position for FTL ships and that means expanding to additional systems! Probably should've went with that title of "Supreme-st Ruler" or whatever...
>>
>>5062073
>Allow Kimnan to lead the attack
>>
>>5062713
>Probably should've went with that title of "Supreme-st Ruler" or whatever..
Honestly though, while Talacent is good, it wouldn't be fair to call him the best just because he happened to be the ruler that was there when all the benefits of our previous projects came.

We would never have done anything we've got if it wasn't for the stuff the previous leaders started. The Plasmatronics project, the Navy (which allowed us to repell the aliens), our Industrial Colony which allowed production...
>>
"Eoba- let him go. Prepare the cylinder run team- put him in."

Eoba instantly lets the little tyke go and nods. That's why you like him- such professionalism. You take a step towards young Kimnan and grab a bit of fur on his neck, yanking it out.

"Yeow! What was that for?"

"Listen to me, Kimnan. Do you think that you're going to impress me with this? Do you think I'm going to choose you over Agori if you show me what a big hero you are? It's not going to work- I've already picked him, Kimnan. Agori will be the next Supreme Ruler. There is nothing you can do about it."

"...Alright- but you didn't have to yank my hair out to prove it."

"I didn't. Consider it like this- I know you're great- and that's the problem. You're too valuable to just be let out without insurance. So your DNA will act as insurance. If you get yourself killed up there- I'm going to make a clone of you. An indigo. And that indigo will have your arrogance removed- like any other genetic defect. Do you understand?"

"Yes- Yes your Supremacy."

With that, you let your child prodigy leave to the hangar bay to be locked into what could be his tomb.

"Technician! Adjustment!" He yells, his high pitched voice echoing over the high-tech military hangar. Like he owns the place- like he knows what he is doing.

"Adjustment! My feet cannot reach the pedals! Adjustment!"
>>
As your forces ready themselves to meet the enemy, your AI and scanners go to work dissecting the enemy fleet.

It's small- much smaller then the first time. There are only a handful of drones to act as an escort for three larger ships- two of which are aimed towards your fleet, the third seemingly ready to fly off on a different course. This ship type is different then any of the ones you've seen yet from the Baalathi. Absent is the squid-shield ship you encountered the first time the capsule opened- perhaps because they know of the threat of your Sapphire Avalanche- the secret weapon of your fleet, a one of a kind beam weapon that can make short work of the Baalathi's defenses.

On your side is your fleet- filled with many WSDVs and the Tul's Revenege. Every ship now is outfitted by an AI capable of blocking the data prion that the Baalathi once used to ruin some of your computer systems- you greatly outnumber the enemy this time.

Three specially designed fighters- the strike squad- stand at the ready. They are outfitted with inertial dampeners and better engines and propulsion- they are designed to enter the atmosphere inside the cylinder and to be able to both scout and strike at targets within. They are marked by a yellow stripe.

"Strike team- ready!" Says Kimnan, piloting one of the three ships. You felt much better at putting him in one of these ships- since they have their own high energy shield generators. Though as small fighters, they will likely only be able to deflect a few minor energy blasts.

In the meanwhile- the capability of these new Baalathi ships are not known to you. Your main concern is getting your strike team inside the cylinder- while also avoiding whatever last ditch effort the Baalathi are probably using here.

What's the best course of action here, Supreme One?

>Full scale assault with all ships against the enemy, while the strike team rushes past towards the cylinder
>Section the fleet evenly and engage the three enemy ships with even numbers to prevent possible collateral damage; strike team flies between them to make their run
>Use the fleet to distract the enemy fleet while the strike team makes their run
>Use the strike team as a scouting force to see the capabilities of the new enemy ship Warning: Chance the Cylinder will close before they can make it inside
>>
>>5062881
>Full scale assault with all ships against the enemy, while the strike team rushes past towards the cylinder
>>
>Use the fleet to distract the fleet.

Assault the ship that is moving on a different direction, that will force the enemy on the defensive.
>>
>>5062881
>Use the fleet to distract the fleet.
>>
Distracting the fleet is stupid, we outnumber them. We should engage their ships, use our big weapon to take out their main vessels and overwhelm them while our strike team goes into the cyllinder.
>>
>>5062881
>Full scale assault with all ships against the enemy, while the strike team rushes past towards the cylinder

>Emphasize good dispersion between fighter-sized ships, so they don't get enveloped by any big globs of plasma
>>
>>5062914
+1
>>
>>5062914
Supporting this one!

>>5062881
Let's goooo
>>
>>5062914
Sounds like a good idea to me, support
>>
>>5062881

Whichever we do, can we also use something to make sure the one about to fly off on a different course doesn't get to skedadle out of there? Deploying whatever tractor-drones we can muster on the fringes of the engagement might be able to stop something scuttling away or catching us in unfavourable positions.
>>
>>5062914
Supporting
>>
>>5062914
+1 I can't think of anything better so going with this.
>>
You decide to fully assault the enemy fleet- making sure to keep a distance between your fighters. Eoba understands instantly, and makes the order to spread out in formation.

The fleet engages. Once the forces meet, the drones begin to attack, mostly ineffectively. The larger enemy ships, whose capabilities are a total unknown, don't fire at all. However, they do have a new trick- a sudden neutrino heavy filed of energy is created nearby these larger ships, sweeping through your ships. While your AI cores can handle and deflect most hacking attempts by these aliens, as well as being immune to the once dreaded data-prion, this attack physically disables computer systems with massive numbers of energized neutrinos. The few ships that are struck by this field are disabled- and a few are destroyed by the firing drones. However, your superior military fight back.

The full scale assault gives plenty of time and room for your special strike team to move into position.
>>
You also order a containment area around the battlefield, to prevent any slippery enemy ships from trying to run away. Given how nonaggressive the larger ships are, they may have a secondary plan then engaging in a dogfight. The containment area is held by a collection of your MK2 Service drones- unarmed by useful construction drones equipped with star dynamo drives, enough to keep up with any ship, and tractor beams.

You are now Kimnan Oles. You are equivalent to a twelve year old.

While flying a real bird is a significant departure from your simulator experience, it's all essentially the same. Your controls and general strategy is well practiced and drilled, and your AI copilot can make up most of what you lack. While a computer could drive a vessel better then you, or any Jaxtian for that matter, there's a little special something that makes a craft driven by a living person special. Even a kid.

"Strike team- fall in on me. High g entrance angle on my mark- adult pilots will take a softer angle to lessen g's- fall in as fire support. Entering now."

The two pilots obey as you fly over the lip of the cylinder- a tight angle at high speeds testing your craft's inertial dampeners, and your own body's blood flying into your head. But you can take it- you're lightweight. You fly over the lip and through the crack of the lid of the cylinder, and enter into the alien's generation ship's inner atmosphere.
>>
The inside of the alien cylinder is breathtaking. This thing has loomed over your home planet since you were born- a symbol of a cold war. The cylinder is extremely rudimentary as far as you can tell- a thick shell of Azurium filled with gas, probably scooped from a gas giant as your scientists predict, meaning a low chance of being flammable or corrosive to your ship. The walls of the cylinder are fitted with large installations, and as it goes deeper, the gas gets thicker and obscures your view of the depths of the cylinder. Not quite the alien habitat that some may have expected.

This thick shell of the alien craft will eliminate most ability to communicate with the outside world- and you went in first. Your allied craft will be in with you in seconds, but you are stopped on your approach by two threats.

The first is a pair of magnetic ships- the two craft that once repaired the damage to the cylinder caused by the Hegemony's ships in a battle that took place before you were born. These magnetic craft could be totally useless- or potentially lethal, depending on what level of magnetic field they could generate. In a best case scenario, they would only be strong enough to move your ship around as per a weak tractor beam. If the magnets are stronger, they could wipe your ships' flight and control data, which would take time to reboot- especially without a direct connection to an Alavis core. Of course, if the magnetic craft are very powerful, they might just be able to flatten your ship like a pancake, and kill you inside.

The second threat is a large turret, like a pimple on the inside of the cylinder's rim. It's just one, a large turret slowly turning itself to aim at you. It's likely its some kind of defensive structure to protect against space debris from entering and bouncing around the cylinder, and more of an afterthought for an attack run. If its armed with the normal weapons of the Baalathi, it probably couldn't destroy your ship with one shot, as your shields would scatter the energy, but you'd rather not take the chance either.

This is your first test of your intuition and flying skills. It's time to fight. Your little fists curl around your flightsticks.

>Fire at the Magnetic Craft
>Fire at the Turret
>Divert all power to forward shields and wait for backup
>Take evasive action inside the Cylinder
>>
>>5063299
>Fire at the Turret, and try and strafe so that only one of the two magnet ships can target you at a time
>>
>>5063308
Support this
>>
>>5063299
>Fire at the Magnetic Craft
>>
>>5063308
This, be cautious but also aggressive.
>>
>>5063308
+1
>>
>>5063308
Supporting!

>>5063299
Let's try to keep our little hotshot alive.
>>
>>5063308
+1
>>
>>5063308
+1 The turret is built to shoot shit, the two other ships are built to repair and maintain things so they're likely not as dangerous.
captha W0A8H
>>
>>5063308
Supporting this.

The Magnetic ships look like they have an Azurium coating, I'm not sure we'd be able to damage them with our weapons easily anyway.

We saw they had enough highly concentrated Magnetic power to repair the Azurium strut fairly quickly so I wouldn't want us getting close or focused by both, either.

Could we bring forward two tractor drones and just... tow the magnet craft away individually with tractor beams? Seizing them would grant us their Azurum and perhaps allow us to reverse-engineer their magnetic construction/repair methods.
>>
>>5063299
>Fire at the Turret, and try and strafe so that only one of the two magnet ships can target you at a time
>>
File: RFM_TheRealFirstContact.png (178 KB, 1024x600)
178 KB
178 KB PNG
QM is taking too long to update! Well if he won't update, I will!

Ook Ook! What's up my fellow True Mumkes!!?? It's you're favourite alpha: Jalax Rones! Coming to you live on Radio Free Mumke; the pirate news channel that drops truths bombs on your brain when the supreme ones aren't looking.

It's been a wild century right? What with all the alien contact and all. (Assuming the whole existence of the Hazaar and Ba'latthi aren't just elaborate hoaxes to unite the population against a common enemy.) I'll tell you what isn't a hoax though:

Did you know that the first alien contact wasn't with the Hazaar? Nah monke, the first alien to contact the Jaxian race was creature that called itself: F.S. Hammer. He contacted Supreme Ruler Vanix Garastra during the beginning of his reign and gave him the star dynamo technology in exchange for favours yet unknown.

If you thought the that failed argon trade deal was bad, who knows what'll happen when the green canids come rolling up to our door to collect.

Stay curious fellow mumkes! Rones out!
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I will work on the update soon. Thanksgiving is slowing things down considerably.
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Happy Thanksgiving to you, hope you have a wonderful time!
>>
You decide to fire at the turret first- you are up to date on the Baalathi as far as the Hegemony's battle information is concerned, and you know its material is likely the same as the drones- compacted air.

You fire a Neutrino blast at the turret and, a moment later, fire both lasers from your ship. This causes all the energy to strike the target at once to maximize power output from your reactor in an effective attack. This is a technique not known or used by many pilots, especially in the heat of the moment, but something you have considered and practiced in simulators. The turret is easily destroyed in a second, blowing apart into pieces that gently fall to the walls of the cylinder from its minor gravity well. You are being pursued, so you can't stop and celebrate.

At the same moment you dart away from the two magnetic ships so they cannot both get within range of you at once, your two slower adult comrades come into the cylinder using the wider angle of flight entry. They're ready to grant you fire support!
>>
Turning your ship around while maintaining its momentum; you take a chance to fire at one of the magnetic ships with your lasers as a way to keep it at bay- but the attack is ineffective.

Damn- it seems the Azurium coated magnet ships are as tough and durable as the Cylinder itself- your lasers can't do anything. You speed away- though your ship AI reports that a powerful magnetic field was trying to catch you up close and personal- a very strong magnetic field. Though at least the closer of the two magnet ships stop chasing you- and begin to turn towards your allies.

You start to feel panic and helplessness as the two magnet ships hone in towards your fellow pilots- communications are bad in this cylinder, though you could get a message to them, you aren't sure if their AI cores could process it in time with this terrible interference. If they don't know that these magnet ships are nigh-indestructible, they may waste time and energy fighting them, or worse, get boxed in.

What are you going to do?

>Fire at the magnet ships
>Fire at your allies to make them scatter
>Fire at random constructions around the cylinder to see if you can destroy a control mechanism
>Flee the cylinder to report back to command and request tractor-beam ships to handle these magnetic craft
>Other (Write In)
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>>5064921
>Flee deeper into the thick gas, firing above your allies and hope they get the message to dive to prevent pursuit
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>>5064943
+1 Let's hope this goes well.
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>>5064921
>Flee deeper into the thick gas, firing above your allies and hope they get the message to dive to prevent pursuit
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>>5064943
+1. Let's hope for the best.
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>>5064921
>Fire at random constructions around the cylinder to see if you can destroy a control mechanism

These magnets are close in size to the Drones but are both fuller with the magnet system and more heavily armoured - so there might not even be enough room even for a AI subsystem on board, let alone a pilot. And yet with their role of fabrication and repair they'd be needed to undertake construction patterns ands manoeuvres far more complex then any automated drone. Let's see if we can find or identify some sort of signal transmitter and take it out - as a bonus, we might get what's causing our own communications to be so bad.
>>
Good thing the turret wasn't made of azurium too.
>Fire above the pilots and fly deeper into the Cylinder.
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>>5064943
>Flee deeper into the thick gas, firing above your allies and hope they get the message to dive to prevent pursuit

Seems like a solid strat. here's hoping!

>>5064921
Do it up!
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>>5064921
>Flee deeper into the thick gas, firing above your allies and hope they get the message to dive to prevent pursuit
>>
You fire not at the magnet ships- but at your own allied ships in pursuit. You intentionally shoot wide, but close enough to be considered aiming "at" them.

Your intentional warning shot may lack any kind of meaningful information; but it came out at the speed of light. Those in those ships are not random people, they are trained Hegemony pilots. They'd know that a warning shot like that couldn't mean your ship was hacked or that you went insane or were a dumb child and shot at them by mistake- as it was too off of a miss to be a mistake of an intentional friendly fire.

The only possible way to interpret that shot was the inability to communicate; and you would never fire at them in a dogfight to distract them, unless it was of vital importance. Logically speaking, then, they should pick up your meaning to disperse and avoid the magnetic ships. That's the only way these trained soldiers should be able to interpret that, right?

You might still be prepubescent, but you're as smart as any adult. You're a prodigy. You're the best. So you aren't going to die here- and that's a fact.

As you descend deeper into the cylinder, your ship sensors detect objects approaching. The objects are small- about the size of an adult's head or so. They are freely floating in the gas at a certain depth and density. At first you are scared to approach, since they have a vague resemblance to the naval mines once used in your species's naval conflicts, but when a testing shot pops one without any explosive reaction, and the sensors on the ship can't detect any AI or energy emissions, you begin to drive through the objects slowly and carefully...
>>
As you pierce deeper, you finally come to what you think is the other end of the cylinder. While the maximum speed of this craft is far more then enough to travel down the length of the cylinder in a mere moment, you'd never go that fast in an atmosphere. Still, despite its large size, it doesn't take too long to travel in with a star dynamo capable vehicle.

At the far end of the Cylinder is something that catches your attention; what looks like a giant loop or collection of loops, lined up, glowing faintly. They may be spinning- though its hard to tell at this distance. Could this be the cylinder's power source or reactor core? It doesn't look like fusion or fission power sources you are familiar with.

Along the sides of the cylinder and pointing inwards are several large towers near the end. Strangely, none of these structures seem fit for habitation, nor do you see any "civilian" craft for use of crossing the vertical space- nor are any craft coming out to deal with you, and intruder. Perhaps the aliens were more desperate then you thought, though this is giving you the impression this cylinder may be fully automated. Why fill it with so much gas then? Building material?

Anyway- your strike squad is still back there, probably dogfighting or evading the enemy magnetic ships. You need to do something before they corner you against this closed end of the cylinder- your weapons won't defeat them so it is only a matter of time. You still can't contact command, so you have no idea what is happening in the battle outside, nor do you know how you're going to request a tractor-beam capable ship to get in here and safely deal with these magnetic threats... But you should focus on your own escape first.

>Fire at the towers
>Fire at the large spinning rings
>Turn around and provide support so you can cut your way back out of the cylinder
>Other (Write In)
>>
Strange...could this be what is making the vessels? It could be a constructor...either that, or the towers themselves are. They make ships through the use of pressurized gas, if I remember correctly.
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>>5065311
>Fire at the large spinning rings

Logic here is that they may be generating gravity that the magnet ships are designed to operate in, so maybe we can ground them or otherwise mess them up.
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>>5065311
>>Fire at the towers
Particularly if any of them seem to be broadcasting signals of any sort
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>>5065311
>Fire at the towers
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>>5065311
>Fire at the spinning rings
>>
>Fire at the towers.
If the spinning rings are a reactor, the resulting explosion might kill us.
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>>5065311
>Fire at the towers
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>>5065311
>Fire at the towers
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>>5065311
>Fire at the towers
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>>5065311
...wait...

Oh... fudge.

Could the rings be a Jump Gate? Op said that any jump-gate society would need to send out sub-light ships to build these gates, and this Cylinder has been purposely filled with tools for building stuff.

I'd still say that we should shoot the towers first - they're closer, so we can start knocking them out along the way to the rings. But we should still take care of those rings just in case...

Changing my vote to

> Fire at the towers along an approach vector that will also allow us to fire at the rings once the towers are down.
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>>5064443
I don't read this quest but know that I appreciate this, anon.
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>>5065574

Oh hey fan mail!

Thanks anon. That means a lot to me. Here on Radio Free Mumke we put a lot of effort into- oh shit, they've found me! I gotta cheese it!

Stay free MUMKEEEEES!!!!
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>>5065912
There is no escape, Jalax. You WILL trust and love your supreme ruler. You WILL enjoy your role as a jaxtian steel worker. You WILL fuck the indigos. And you will be happy.
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>>5065912
Good luck Jalax, remember the safehouse is ready
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>>5065912
This little side thing is great, stay safe Jalax!
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You have chosen your target- the transmitter towers! Of course! With any luck, you'll be able to stop the magnetic ships- and maybe even help turn the tide of the battle outside of the cylinder by destroying whatever helps control the drones!

Firing your lasers at maximum power, these large towers seem like too hard a point to crack- until your allies arrive. With the other two pilots quickly joining your assault on the towers- it seems they did understand your message well, dodged the magnetic ships, and came to your aide. Now they fire with you, probably realizing exactly what your plan was this whole time.

Within a few minutes, the transmission towers are destroyed. While the towers are large and thick, enough damage via laser is enough to break into the computational cores within- the hundreds of thousands of tiny spheroid chambers inside each tower acting like a massive server bloc for the gas-powered Baalathi computers. You ended up destroying all of the towers- and in the meantime, the magnetic ships screeched to a halt in mid air, their Star Dynamo propulsion disabled.

With the towers destroyed- the rest of the Baalathi systems have also gone offline. Though your ability to transmit data is still slightly impeded by the Azurium itself. Its odd- you didn't detect any signals directly from the towers themselves, so how can the Baalathi beam messages inside the cylinder with all the apparent disruption from the material of the cylinder itself?
>>
That's no matter to you- you'll let the scientists figure that out. To you, Kimnan Oles, you have just completed your mission and struck at the heart of the Baalathi! This cylinder that has loomed over you your whole life is now been defeated and is the property of the great Hegemony! You send out a message showing what you have learned within the great Cylinder directly back to high command. For now, your job is done. Hopefully, when you get back home, you'll get a hero's welcome too...

You are now Talacent Intari, the Supreme Ruler of the Jaxtian people. And the second battle of the cylinder is now over.

You have received word from inside the cylinder that the special strike team succeeded in their task; disabling the cylinder and stoping it from closing again, as well as preventing any other surprises, and capturing the enemy's base in the process. While the strike team succeeded in their mission- the truth was the battle was almost already won by the time they had destroyed the ability of the cylinder to command its attack forces.

Simply put- your fleet is no longer the half trained, half built precautionary force it was when the cylinder first arrived. You knew you would win; you had so many more ships, and countermeasures to the enemy attacks. However, some of your pilots and ships were still destroyed by the newfound ability of the enemy to create high density Neutrino Fields from their larger ships.

Within the cylinder, Kimnan had discovered free floating objects that looked like naval mines. It is only now, with newfound information, that you know what these are. They are the Baalathi themselves. This type of life, adapted to living in the soup of a gas giant, is so foreign and alien the concept of age, class, or even its intelligence is in question. There is no convergent evolution with your own species to speak of- it is a gas creature at its core.
>>
In the aftermath of the battle, you are told that one of the three large ships, the ones capable of disabling your own ships but lacking in firepower themselves, was caught trying to escape on the fringe of the battle. Just a short scanner sweep later, and this ship is identified. It is a colony ship.

The inside of the other two large ships were hollow, essentially decoys, though they could still fight with their disabling field. Now, this third ship, is instead filled with several tons of atmospheric gas from within the cylinder, and inside of that gas is suspended with thousands of Baalathi. The tiny alien life forms make not attempts to communicate; perhaps these ships were not outfitted with any method of that, and they were reliant on the cylinder itself to do that kind of thing.

The Baalathi aboard this colony ship were headed directly to Max- your own solar system's gas giant. Presumably, they would have simply dumped themselves into the atmosphere of Max, sunk underneath the surface level to their appropriate depth, and simply begin living there. This must have been a last ditch effort to save some of their population since you managed to thwart their initial assault.

But now- you find yourself in the exact same situation you did over a decade ago. These Baalathi are helpless and at your mercy. You have conquered the cylinder and it is now in your possession; but the “colonists” aboard this ship represent a wild card. It is time to deal with them.

>Destroy them
>Disable their ship and keep them imprisoned in it for now
>Allow them to reach Max (under heavy security and surveillance)
>Other (Write In)
>>
>Disable their ship and keep them imprisoned in it for now
>Study the Balaathi, try to find a way to communicate with the group mind

Better some more compliant prisoners. Perhaps we can affect their group mind to believe that serving us is a better survival strategy?

These things are a completely alien form of life but maybe with study some chance at triggering the group mind of Jaxtian Balaathi into developing a symbiotic outlook in their interactions with other species.

They only became warlike because the Hazaar did something. Maybe it's possible to do something Pavlovian with feeding them to reinforce good behavior?

Gotta find a way to communicate.
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>>5066179
>Disable their ship and keep them imprisoned in it for now
Also:
>Ask the Hazaar if they know how to communicate with them. They struck a trade deal with the Balaathi that caused this mess in the first place.
>>
>>5066179

The Haazar could communicate with the Baalathi to make their initial gas trade, couldn't they? Perhaps ask/check their systems to see how they did it and see if we can repeat this process. Even ask them to lend us a hand, perhaps they might see that increasing our capabilities to liberate their home system would be to their own long-term benefit.

At the current time, I would say:
>Disable their ship and keep them imprisoned in it for now
But let us not be fooled; this is not an intent of permanent incarceration; simply a temporary stay of execution. The Baalathi are guilty for many Jaxtian deaths and attempting sabotage, conquest and life-scouring of our solar system without attempt at to communicate or even formal declaration of war. We will question them, interrogate them; dissect them and analyse them. We will learn what we can from them, we will learn better ways to stop and to kill them in the future. And eventually, once we have no further use or need for these specimens, we will
>Destroy them
as executions for their crimes of attempted Xenocide.
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>>5066198
agreed. Remember kids, FUCK XENOS.
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>>5066198
+1
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>>5066179
>Disable their ship and keep them imprisoned in it for now
>>5066198
Baalathi only became aggressive because the Hazaar fucked with their chemical hivemind, I really doubt that they can be held responsible or are even really sentient.
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>>5066269
If they're not even really sentient, then we should have even fewer qualms getting rid of these creatures when the time comes; and if they are all a hive mind then they are all together the entity that has tried to wipe our presence from our home system.

We are Talacent Intari, and we will not commit Xenocide. But we would not hold any issue with bringing a mass-murdering criminal to justice if they were Jaxtian; and the Baalathi hive mind (or element of it that invaded our solar system) is guilty of this crime.


>>5066179
BananasQM, are there any evident differences between the Baalathi on the colony ship and the ones inside the cylinder, perhaps something that might hint at less developed state?
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>>5066179
>Disable their ship and keep them imprisoned in it for now
>>
>>5066179
>>5066191 +1
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>>5066191
Smart thinking.

>>5066179
Support!
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>>5066191
Do this.

Remember they Baalathi that attacked us were basically roofied . I don't thinks it fair to see them all as dangerous. Capture the ship, have the Bazaar tell us how to talk to them and also figure out how much Argon we need to pump to them to make them sane
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>>5066537
Agreed. Wiping the Balaathi is a bad idea. If we can get useful interactions with a new sentient species that we can advance our science by learning from just by adding a readily available gas into the cylinder we owe our research tree the effort to at least try it. Plus we shouldn't go ahead and xenocide them because their hostility is basically the Hazaar's fault, as they are basically only aggro because they are strung out thanks a bunch of greedy rapey space sociopaths one step removed from Ferengi and Jews.
>>
>>5066179
>>5066191
+1 good thinking mate, although I think they need a certain set of conditions to be able to actually think and such, remember that when the haazar did the gas trade with them they changed their behaviours due to some of their gas giants gas being gone.
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>>5066191
Agreed. If we won't xenocide the Hazaar there's no way we're xenociding the Balaathi.
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>>5066179
>Disable their ship and keep them imprisoned in it for now

Even ignoring the possibility of good diplomatic relations with their species, even ignoring the moral implications of killing them, we should keep them alive so we can find out more about them - their technology and their plans if nothing else.
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>>5066191
+1
>>
Update is in production. It's a larger one.
>>
It won't be done today. Sorry.
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>>5067263
>>5067104
No worries. See you Monday!
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>>5067263
It's all good mate!
>>
You decide to keep the Baalathi trapped on their ship for now- and see if you can find a way to communicate with them. You were chosen as the Supreme Ruler for being a natural diplomat after all.

Sending a message to the Haazari leadership; they tell you that their records show that the Baalathi and Haazar communicated with Faster-Than-Light technology on their home planet. The plans or designs for such a system are not on the Haazar's ship- even if you wanted to extract it from them- as this ship is not a colony ship, but instead a trading vessel.

Your ships disable and keep hold of the Baalathi's colony ship. With its Neutrino Field disabled, flight controls removed, and even sensors cut off, its highly unlikely that this small ship has any kind of transmitter or weapon capable of breaking free; and as such, they are your prisoner. Ships are connected to it, controlling and studying gas flows- at a certain point, you may be able to control the Baalathi.

Your science team also studies the artifacts taken and found in the Baalathi cylinder. The great spinning rings are the most interesting find; they are not actually physical objects, but are essentially a magnetic/kinetic phenomena that are stuck in place in the cylinder- the visible light they produce is from random gas molecules entering its spin and then being flung out. It becomes obvious from a short time that these are essentially a massive power battery. Your scientists say you could generate power just by shoving an electric system between these; as these rings act as a solenoid. It seems that these rings were meant to act as the power source for this ship, but based on the slowdown calculated from their spin, they would only last for another ten to twenty years, explaining why they opened the cylinder and attacked earlier then expected.

In addition; the magnetic ships. They are indeed unmaned drones- and based on your estimates the magnetic fields they produce would be strong enough to squash one of your WSDVs flat if they got close enough. The magnetic producing components within are useful to study, and will allow you to improve your own magnetic and Azurium refining technology.
>>
The Baalthi who remained in the cylinder are taken into a high pressure gas containment unit on Caplit. While your scientists think its extremely unlikely the Baalathi could escape or fly around in the atmosphere of a normal planet, since they evolved on gas giants, using Caplit as a research base it ideal because its atmosphere is so thin and even if the Baalthi escaped- it would be unlikely for them to go underwater and ruin the moon's biosphere.

During these studies- you learn a lot about the Baalathi, but also discover more question. Their form of life is foreign to you, and you aren't exactly sure what they're made of. The elemental composition is all there, but it isn't carbon based, and despite its similarity in appearance, they are not made of Azurium. Instead, the Baalathi are filter-feeding, flying sponge-like organisms that survive in the atmospheres of gas giants by a yet unknown method of generating energy. As you expected, each individual Baalathi has its own set of pumps and sphincters, meaning each is an individual; but they respond very strongly to the concentration of gasses in their local environment. This seems to explain their change in behavior based on what kind of elements surround them.

Your scientists quickly discover two gasses of importance. Argon does indeed make them more docile and peaceful, and more willing to communicate, if the Haazar know what they're talking about. Hydrogen gas, on the other hand, seems to create a sensation of panic and “hunger”, which makes sense, considering it makes up the majority of a gas giant's composition. Lack of other gasses would indicate a resource poor environment. Given the high concentration of Argon on Max, introducing the Baalathi to that environment would make them incredibly cooperative, the point of being servile. So now you know how to enslave them, and how to torture them. Great.

The aftermath of the battle gives a massive boost of morale to all Jaxtians- you have finally defeated the alien cylinder and have secured your solar system from the first major attempted attack by an alien power- the sense of the Hegemony's power and eternal victory is greater then ever. You reward your young pilot, Kimnan, with a golden band on his right arm- as an act of strength. The youngest to ever receive such an award. Unfortunately, there is a small amount of public outcry against you keeping the Baalathi alive- many are demanding the punishment of Xenocide for killing so many Jaxtians. These crowds can be soothed, but it can't be understated what damage the Baalathi have done to your people- and how your people want vengeance.
>>
You can't please everybody- and the public especially are hard to please sometimes. As long as they don't disagree or speak out against the Hegemony, their xenophobic opinions are allowed- for now. Of course, you care a lot less about pleasing them then a certain somebody who you owe something to.

This is a bit overdue- sorry kid. You had a war to fight. But now, this belongs to you.
>>
Over the next 10 years, the Baalathi cylinder crisis fades from relevance. Now, the cylinder floats in space, emptied and made safe, to act as an orbiting storehouse of your newest most precious material- the Azurium coating. The cylinder is quite large and, given your lack of industrial levels of use for the Azurium, your computers predict it will last you for quite a long time. Now, the Azurium is used for fusion power cores and heat sinks.

During the decade, Bluey has grown into a man. Err, grown into a Haazar. You're pleased to see him again after this time- your influence on him was kept at a minimum to ensure he lives as a Haazar- and yet despite that he seems so very pleased to see you again too. Bluey went through puberty and is now a Keeper type Haazar. Sometimes called Teachers or Learners, these Haazar are known to be the second or third most intelligent, but are known to be excellent mediators. They remember the laws and agreements of other Haazar in a community, and are also keepers of local history and knowledge. Most often they help raise and educate children- in exchange for work or breeding rights when they grow of-age. This Haazar gender fits him well you think, as he brings the Jaxtian culture of community, discipline, and wearing pants to the culturally distinct Haazar still living among the Haazari exclusion zone.

Bluey has agreed to fulfill your wishes and act as an intermediary between the Haazar and Jaxtians. He will continue to spread your culture to them as best he can, to teach them the value of the Hegemony and of the wisdom and sanctity of the role of Supreme Ruler. You couldn't be more proud of him- you have biological, normal, Jaxtian children. But for some reason, Bluey feels like your closest son.

Also during the decade is the great Fusion Replacement project, where all nuclear fission power stations on Jaxt and the colonies were replaced with Fusion power. You thought this project would take closer to twenty years to finish, but with each new station the sudden increase in usable power actually made it exponential. It really is hard to overstate how significant fusion power is in your species development- the Tritium fuel is so efficient that you think a single gas giant could power an entire solar system's energy needs for the far conceivable future. The massive growth of the energy sector has also exploded the Hegemony's budgeting surplus; massive gains in every industry and part of life.

Unfortunately, this massive fusion revolution has not helped your lack of ability to vent heat in space. The few test fusion reactors you've sent up overheat very quickly- and would need to shed 3% of their mass every hour or so to avoid overheating. This would make it impossible for a ship to use a fusion reactor powered warp drive even for a few hours- much less several days or months of travel.
>>
With your successor to the office of the Supreme Ruler still in training, the responsibility of your position is still on your shoulders. But in truth, you will be happy when it is no longer.

It's no fault of anyone of course- not that you aren't thankful to have been the Supreme Ruler of the Jaxtian People during one of the most interesting and prosperous times in your nation's history. It's just that you've been alive for eighty whole years, and you've ruled the Hegemony for almost all of that. With the extending lifespans of Supreme Rulers- you could rule for longer, but you didn't get to retire for longer. Wasn't that the whole point of extending people's lifespans? Quality of life?

Oh well. The unending stress but also prize has just gotten to you after all these years. It's high time to pass the torch. If it wasn't for Eoba Garastra, your best friend and closest ally, you don't know if you could have managed...

But you still have time. It's the golden years of your reign, and the Hegemony itself is smack dab in the middle of a great golden age. With no great cylinder looming over your head, the Haazar pacified and ever-more falling under the Hegemony's cultural sway, and the promise of FTL so salivatingly close; It's time to relax a little bit. Make things a little easier for the next in line. What shall you do?

>Cut some spending and a nice budget surplus aside for Agori
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"
>Advance your FTL program
>Other (Write In)
>>
>>5068020
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"
I can't think of a more fitting legacy for Talacent.
>>
>>5068020
>Advance your FTL program
>>
>>5068020
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"

Sooner we can get peaceful relations the sooner we can declare a return to peace. FTL would be nice - but we're not exactly finished with colonising our home system yet anyway so it can wait without causing too many issues.
>>
>>5068020
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"
Might as well research the diplomacy tech while we're the diplomacy specialist.

Plus, we could probably subjugate the Baalathi very quickly with argon. And once do that, we could obtain their technologies namely azurium production, the super solenoid battery, and hypertronic communicator. These could open doors in our own research.
>>
>>5068020 #
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"
>>
>>5068020
>Advance your FTL program
>>
>>5068020
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"
>>
>>5068020
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"

The Ring batteries are the answer to our current heat problem, they allow us to store pretty much all the energy a fusion reactor puts off.
>>
>>5068020
>Develop some new heat-reducing/venting technology.
Having this system would be a boon to both our Sapphire Avalanche weapon systems and to our FTL program, so count this as
>Advance your FTL program

Also: with this massive budgetary surplus bought on by our new fusion energy system, let us:
LOWER THE AGE OF RETIREMENT from 90 to 80.
We're standing down at about 80 years old, after all. There's good reason to make this the universal Jaxtian standard. If everyone has about twice as much lifespan as they used to have, let us also give them twice as much retirement time to reward them for working twice as long.
>>
>>5068020
>>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"
>>
>>5068020
>Advance your FTL program
No, this is the best possible gift
>>
>>5068086
>>5068020
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"

I think it’s a fitting legacy for a diplomat and steward who was forced to do battle by the turn of fate. Why sustain hostilities, when we could all benefit?

Also, I concur with the other poster’s ideas about lowering the retirement age. We can afford it now.
>>
>>5068020
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"
>>
Decode the Ballathi language.

I think we are getting close to a true multi species empire
>>
>>5068020
>Advance your FTL program
FTL is so very important, we can begin colonization of other solar systems and get even more materials to work with, we can decode the Baalathi's language later.
>>
>>5068020
>Encourage Xenocultural study and decode the Baalathi's complex chemical "language"

FTL might be nice, but we should decode mysteries closer to home first.
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>>5068634
>unironically wanting to turn into a xenophile state
Why?
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>>5068890
Not xenophile, per se. Non-monkes don't get equality.
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>>5068948
Do you wanna end up like Rome? Because that's how you end up like Rome.
>>
You have decided to encourage the Xenocultural studies division- and put forth a good effort to decode the Baalathi language in time for the next Supreme Ruler- or at least until you can get something useful out of them!

The Baalathi in the disabled ship and the ones in isolation research are soon studied closely; studying every interaction with each other, with the use of tools, and by pumping gasses into their environments.

Unfortunately, even over several years, very little useful data is revealed. Your scientists have discovered at least two forms of "communication" among the Baalathi. The Baalathi seem capable of very short range communication by manipulations of air pressure, but it is difficult to tell if this is an intentional form of "speech" or if the Baalathi use this similar to sight or sound in the same way you do. The second method of communication, in the form of concentration of gases, is found to be a mostly reactive response, as opposed to a planned or intentional action.

In other words- the Baalathi react to gases as though it is a stimuli in their environment; as it is a stimuli in their environment. Different evolutionary responses are expressed by different gasses. Since the Baalathi seem to need a number of gases to survive and reproduce, the "emotions" caused by an abundance or lack of a gas could be little more then a hunger drive. Even after five years, you're no closer to actually speaking to them. Some scientists even question if the Baalathi themselves are sentient beings at all, or if they are simply a biological version of a sublight expansion drone- spreading themselves throughout the galaxy using the technology and at the whim of some greater alien creator race.

At the same time, you make the simple decision to double your people's retirement- the newfound energy of the fusion reactors makes this simple and easy. And at the same time, you go ahead and increase the number of vacation days and maternity leave, essentially doubling all of them. Considering you have your workers for twice as long as you used to, they can afford to work a little slower. These changes seem to almost instantly patch up the grievances of the youth generation against the elderly, retiree generation as things are now more fair.

Understandably- these are very popular. The civilians even made a statue of you. They're still calling you the greatest Supreme Ruler of all time- though this may just be a fad. You also feel a bit of the shame and negligence from your low-brow form of appeasement to the population. Increasing pay, time off, and luxuries are all good ways of gaining approval, but poor ways of granting the people true satisfaction and fulfillment. The corrupt oligarchies of the past backslid that way, eventually each candidate was elected not on their values or qualities of a leader, but what they promised to give to whoever would vote for them. This is a sobering reminder...
>>
You are now Agori Falathane, the next in line to become the Supreme Ruler, and you wake up once again in the morning to ask why are you so damn large?

Size is a silly thing. Irrational, even. Height has always been a factor strongly correlated with intelligence, leadership, strength, and attractiveness, especially in men. But as educated by the Hegemony, you know there is no direct casual link. There is nothing about being tall that makes you smart, but every single Supreme Ruler has been significantly taller then the average Jaxtian- the gene program weighs height and size as important as longevity or resistance to depression and schizophrenia. Why?!

It's absurd that, even in the modern times, you are the way you are. What value does your massive body have? You woke up hungry yet again- consuming yet more resources. Not only are you an Alpha phenotype, bigger then almost any non-Alpha Jaxtian, but you are in the top percentiles of the eugenic spectrum. Are Jaxtians really so shallow? You'd believe the lesser citizens and average workers to be so easily fooled- but why did Talacent pick you? Why did he think YOU'D be a fitting leader- was he so subconsciously controlled by his instincts during the Cylinder crisis the he thought the largest child brought before him would be the best to defend him and his people from alien attack?

It's absurd. Truly absurd. Nobody should be scared of you. Your physical strength brings no value to a war fought in spaceships. Even on a planet- logically anyone should be more scared of someone small, tucked away in cover with a gun. By the simple rules of technology and warfare, you're the least scariest Jaxtian of all.

But enough of that philosophizing. You're in line to become the next Supreme Ruler- and there's nothing you can do about that. You must play your part, same as any laborer- the Hegemony crushes all into its gears to make you into something useful. Today, you are meeting Eoba Garastra for some important "test" he is giving you.
>>
At one of many secret, Hegemony-controlled facilities, you have continued your late adulthood training.

While young children in line for the Supreme Rulership are selected based on gene score, aptitudes and talents are still tested. Not only to tell the current Supreme One how to divide and select amongst you, but to provide further training. In some ways, your upbringing was more free then any other child's; free to pursue topics of interest at your own pace and to your own liking, nearly unlimited resources in the form of tutors, education, travel, medicine... But then again, you had one of the most stiffling upbringings imaginable. The only thing the Hegemony can't stand less then a dissenter is a resource not fully utilized; and so no matter what you chose to practice or study- you had to be good at it.

You never felt like you were much good at anything. Objectively speaking, you are a genius. You mastered every subject, but it never clicked right, it never seemed easy, the way computers always seemed easy for Ingar, or flying for Kimnan.

As a late adult, you've found a bit more freedom. More of your training now has involved people skilled; meeting the heads of many important departments, learning how to manipulate people. Learning how to make people improve themselves; but never without giving you your cut. That's the core of what leadership is, isn't it?

There's Eoba now.

"Agori! So good to see you. My my, you've grown! What have you been eating?!"

"...You saw me last week, and you said the same thing. I don't think my height has changed since then."

"Oh stop- still never mastered small talk, huh? And you let me make fun of you again! Shameful. The Supreme One doesn't take insults from anybody- even old friends."

"You were... insulting me?"

"Hehe, Agori, you're adorable. Don't ever change- even after what happens today. I don't want you to change."

>Ask him what he means by "after today"
>Seek advice on how to overcome your awkwardness
>Question Eoba about what is behind this door
>>
>>5069036
>Ask him what he means by "after today"

Aww crap, we got a blackpilled philosophical hulk.
"Ëveryone asks who is the supreme leader, not how is the supreme leader."

I'm starting to think we would have been better off with Kinman...

>MFW Anons want to conquer the galaxy but keep picking the "nice" supreme leader.
>>
>>5069036
>Seek advice on how to overcome your awkwardness
He's a big guy
>>
>>5069031
Oh no, we picked a successor with anxiety and depression because he was jowly.

>>5069036
>What do you mean "after today"?
>>
>>5069036
>Ask him what he means by "after today"
>>5069042
>implying /fitlit/ Agori was the worst option
>>
>>5069036
>Ask him what he means by "after today"
>Seek advice on how to overcome your awkwardness
>>
>>5069036
>Seek advice on how to overcome your awkwardness
>>
>>5069036
>Ask him what he means by "after today"

I love this huge dude already, it's funny how our kneejerk reaction to elect for an Alpha to lead us in war has ended up.
>>
>>5069036
>Seek advice on how to overcome your awkwardness
>>
>>5069036
>Seek advice on how to overcome your awkwardness

>>5069042
The guy sitting in the highest chair on Jaxt can't be out there exploring the galaxy. Kinman would have been great as supreme leader, but he'll be even better and of more use breaking the light speed flight barrier and commanding the first manned Jaxtian mission to another solar system.

I hope.
>>
>>5069036
>>Ask him what he means by "after today"
>>Seek advice on how to overcome your awkwardness
>>
>>5068971
Rome didn't fall due to it's cosmopolitan nature. It fell because it got caught in a military industrial doom loop and has a political structure that insensitived individual power acquisition over long term stability.
>>
>>5069339
The Barbarians who helped open the gates sure didn't help.
>>
>>5069036
>Ask what is behind the door.

After Today is probably our ascension so no need wasting a vote on that.

We don't need more character advance so no need to ask about the awkwardness. Also I am not sure how useful this advice would be.

The last option develops the plot the most imo
>>
>>5069042
Agori has low self-esteem but I think that he could still make a good supreme leader, his brain is good at war but he's not a barbarian and he's still very smart even if he isn'r super talented at something like the two other candidates.
Also Ingar is way worse personality-wise and even Kimnan is flawed.
>>
>>5069036
>Question Eoba about what is behind this door
>>
>>5069461
>Also Ingar is way worse personality-wise and even Kimnan is flawed.
Thing is Kimnan and Ingars flaws were clearly stated, while Agori's was only hinted at.

It was effectively a choice between a cold bastard, an arrogant bastard, and a mystery box. Now that I've seen what's in the box, I'm not so sure I would have made the same choice.

It'll be interesting if nothing else.
>>
>>5069587
I'd say being a sociopath and an arrogant daredevil are worse conditions for a leader than being awkward and not sure of himself.
>>
>>5069343
A lot of those barbarians were mercs trained and paid by Roman leadedship, no? The proto-Germans, certainly.
>>
>>5069686
They were paid mercenaries, yes. Eventually paid with land. But generally speaking, those Barbarians managed to get power in later rome as they sought to desperately plug the holes in their falling empire, which led to an even faster downfall.

The point is, multiracial societies? Not a good idea.
>>
>>5069686
>>5069690
Guys, relax. We are not Space Rome. Our industry and defence are handled by Jaxtians. So far we've been seeking to exploit alien vassals for resources and technology. They are an added bonus to our empire, not a foundational pillar. As long as we keep it that way, we should be fine.
>>
>>5069343
That not even close to what happened. Rome didn't even fall to a single Barbarian invasion. As it's government and military power weakened, it was more vunerabke to outside threats. By the time they legally passed to buck to Byzantium many of the "Barbarians' had set up governments more stable than Rome itself. The whole meme savage Orc style hordes wiping out a civilized empire was literal propaganda.
>>
>>5069587
We also could have chosen the genetically engineered super geniuses
>>
>>5069770
Oh right. Completely forgot about Qenen. Given that the cylinder opened early he'd probably be the best choice now, oh well...
>>
>>5069690
Kind of seems like there were a lot of other factors at play, and boiling it down to pic related is a silly, cherry-picked oversimplification meant to facilitate a specific political narrative.

Anyway, we're already multiracial, because we have blondes and indigos and alphas, plus spider-monkey admixture whatever that means...

But yeah, I agree that Jaxtian society shouldn't be run by floating, farting braincells or hypercapitalist penis-fencing space-aardvarks. That's like letting crows and dolphins help run a city, not Syrians and Germans. They're fundamentally different on a much greater scale.

>>5069859
>>5069770
A kid is still a better choice. He gets raised for it, with his developmental years with peak mental plasticity devoted to preparation for the role of Supreme Monke.
>>
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>>5069919
Forgot the pic
>>
Update in production.
>>
"Eoba- what do you mean by 'After Today'?"

"Today? Today is the way you become a man. And no- there's not a hundred naked ladies behind the door."

You look away. You actually feel your cheeks turning red from that comment- how embarrassing. But Eoba doesn't seem to notice.

"Doubtlessly, you are familiar with the cycle of strength. This political theory is, in my view, truth."

"The concept behind "strength" in the theory of strength is ill defined. It is a self fulfilling prophecy- it confirms whatever biases that the reader or author has to theorize about the fall of ancient civilizations. What defines a "strong man"? Moral strength? Physical? Mental? Any and all of these could apply. It's nonsensical prattle."

"Ahh- that's the student I wanted to see, and such strong opinions too. Well let me tell YOU something, Agori- the theory of strength is TRUE. As we advance in technology, we are becoming weaker. Dumber. The Hegemony allows this process to take longer, but our people will inevitable trend towards weakness, decay, and then collapse. The strong men create the good times- that's already happened. The good times create weak men- which is now. Then the weak men create bad times, and then the bad times create strong men. This eternal cycle of civilizations is above the Hegemony's scientific rationalism. I watched dozens of men die at my command during the battle of the cylinder-"

"Does that not act as the "hard times" to create a "strong man"? You endured the last war and-"

"No! Don't you get it! That's the problem- our greatest battle killed dozens of pilots- once thousands upon thousands died on the fields of battle, gurgling on their own blood. Before that, many more died with sword and bow- the STRENGTH of arm won the day, not technology! We are weaker- *I* am weaker then my ancestors. The Hegemony is too powerful, too many resources, we haven't ever faced a real defeat. We're "advancing" towards a society of technologically enslaved cowards- and the moment we can't science up a solution, we will be defeated! If a society can't endure defeat, then it is already defeated!"

You don't agree with him; but you can't really argue against his point. At least in a sense, he's right. Jaxtians know more luxury, resources, and success today then ever before. Even with your powerful propaganda and self-actualization programs that make the most of every Jaxtian citizen- the drive of advancement may mean a growing void of inner strength and reliance. In some ways, he is voicing your own doubts about things- doubts about yourself.

"So you want us to return to some kind of primitive ancestor then- at least in spirit? The pining for a "natural" and "true" Jaxtian culture?"

"No- I don't want that. I want you to kill him."
>>
"What!?"

"That's what is through this door, Agori. You'll be killing him- technically me. My clone. An indigo that has never known the comfort of technology, never known the advanced techniques of Jaxtian education and propaganda. He has lived in this enclosure for his entire life- his mind has never known words and he cannot be spoken to. Everything he has needed- he had to make for himself. Only a knife he was given- the tool that he has mastered with his own hand, not a single dueling manual. He has the capacity for it- he shares my DNA that makes me uniquely suited to being a killer. He is young and strong- I had some cultured the moment the Supreme Ruler started looking for a successor- and that happened to be you. Let's see who is superior- the Jaxtian creation, or the creation of evolution?"

You are hurried through the door by Eoba, who hands you a knife. You find yourself in the enclosure, straddling a log that you can barely fit upon. Eoba whistles, bringing forth his minion. He escapes through the door- and it locks behind him. You know Eoba isn't going to open it back up for you unless you kill his creation.

It's uncanny. He really does look like Eoba, just younger. And bluer.

The way his body cranes and holds that knife is... natural. He menaces towards you with the blade of the knife, grunting. It's a clear warning- get out of my territory. But you can't leave.

"I'm supposed to kill you. Do you understand?"

He narrows his eyes at you. He sucks air through his teeth, advancing a step while his tail swings out and perfectly balances him. You can tell he didn't even think about it- it was as natural to him as breathing is for you. Eoba wasn't kidding. This is a natural primate.

>Duel the monke with your knife
>Beat him your own way
>>
Eoba is a good general (?, I don't remember what's his title is) but I'm glad we didn't choose him as Supreme Ruler, he's kind of insane.
>>5070164
>Beat him your own way
He's a natural with a knife like the original and a knife fight would negate a lot of our size advantage.
>>
>fight monke with a knife.
This is a test of strenght between equals, so it should be fought on equal terms.
>>
>>5070184
>should be fought on equal terms
>a literal liquid feral Eoba
This is not an equal fight knife wise, Agori is not solid snake in this equation sir, we need to do this right, assumedly he has some fighting training as most supremes do to some extent, he needs to play into his strengths, yeah knife negates a lot of that but not our thought process
>Beat him your own way
>>
>>5070164
>>Beat him your own way

Duelling is Eoba's advantage, and so to this Clone's advantage. We need to fight him in a way that we are stronger in.
>>
>>5070164
>Beat him your own way
>>
>>5070164
>Duel the monke with your knife
>>
>>5070200
I dont know if my IP reset but im ^

Im pretty sure Agori was raised on Jaxt so upwards mobility will be his advantage
Pure speculation but Agoris jowls make and size make me think he has some sort of alien Orangutan genetics and as much as he would hate to admit it his size and strength will help him immensely
>>
>>5070164
> Beat him your own way
Pankration, and nonlethal injury.
>>
>>5070164
>Beat him your own way
>>
>>5070276
Boooooooooooo
>>
>>5070158
>>5070164
Ah shit it's a Metal Gear episode.

Beat him your own way. Let's Naruto this shit.
>>
>>5070276
>>5070164
>Beat him your own way
Time to Pankrash Circle Fight!
>>
>>5070240
I think that the alpha phenotype is just a natural sexual polymorphism thing like orangutans IRL, the first thread said that they were pretty common once but made a minority instead of being purged like most non-standard jaxtian subtypes because they can be useful for less peaceful times.
>>
>>5070164
>>Beat him your own way

>>5070448
Based Intra beetle chad.
>>
>>5070500
Excellent point, then I definitely hold my point, mightve changed IP still me tho so dont count this as a vote
>>
>>5070164
>Beat him your own way
>>
>>5070164
>>5070213
Fling shit at him, then smash puny clone.
>>
>>5070164
>I had some cultured
>>>some
>there's more than one
Holy shit, based Eoba.

>Beat him your own way
We're going to throttle that branch
>>
>>5070164
>Duel the monke with your knife
>>
>>5070164
>Beat him your own way
Establish dominance using our size, try to intimidate him.
>>
Watching him close, you can tell that this Eoba clone is going to be too much of a pain to fight with a knife. He menaces you with it. Despite the fact you both have identical knives, the one in his hand seems more dangerous, where as yours is more like a toy in your oversized grip. That's why you don't intend to fight him with a knife.

Reeling your arm back, you can see the sudden confusion and concern on the primates face. You fling your knife, your only weapon, right at him. He leaps back in surprise. Of course, throwing your weapon would seem desperate or odd to a fully thinking being, but you have a plan. You take the distance opened up to fling yourself underneath the large suspended log.
>>
You use your size to brace yourself up against the tree the log is suspended from, planting you feet against it as your upper body cradles the huge log. Pushing up with all your strength, you force the log from the ropes that hold it up, causing the primate to panic and force him to jump from the log. He's much too fast to fall down with that giant piece of lumber- he's quick too, he scrabbles over the log and jumps right at you.
>>
Rolled 69 (1d100)

...That's the reason why you did that. Not to knock him off the log, but to get his hands off his knife.

You knew he was quick. He will need both hands to grab onto this tree, or you, after this leap. He managed to fit the blade into his teeth a moment before jumping- such agility is hard wired into many Jaxtians, but Supreme Rulers are the best suited to show it off.

Here he comes now. Time to grab him.

---Rules---
>Roll 1d100 to see how well you do. Highest roll will be used. Something bad will happen if you can't beat my roll. You can roll the dice by typing "dice+1d100" in the options field without quotation marks.
>>
Rolled 35 (1d100)

>>5071508
>>
Rolled 1 (1d100)

>>5071508
Kek 69
>>
Rolled 82 (1d100)

>>5071508
MOTIVATED
>>
Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>5071508
>>
Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>5071517
>>5071523
Well, we did it, if it's bo3 or bo4

>>5071515
But YIKES was that dicey for a moment
>>
I really don't know what I was thinking with a dice roll, lol
>>
>>5071552
Just take bo3 like most quests do.
>>
>>5072040
Sensible. Also, ignore >>5071530, since I accidentally left my dice on.
>>
>>
You drag the stunned monkey up to a higher branch using your strong tail. You lay him out. He's still conscious but shook up, possibly afraid of you.

You aren't sure why this seemed so easy. Is your physical advantage so great that even a genetically perfect duelist couldn't defeat you? Or was he foolish and naive from your sneak attack because he has no experience with trickery?

You look again. Could he be malnourished? And Eoba is very old- could his old age DNA cause an inferior clone? Most of your genetic technology could eliminate that problem, plus you seriously doubt there aren't computer and physical copies of Eoba's youthful DNA for growing replacement organs and tissues...

This poor animal. Jaxtians are very social creatures, and he's lived his entire life alone. What a miserable bastard. The fact he's already lost his best years of neuroplasticity may also mean he'll never be able to learn language, you doubt you could even take him out of here even if Eoba let you.

...And worst of all, you don't really see a reason why you should. This is a clone, an extra copy of someone. Even a regular Jaxtian is expendable enough, eliminating one isn't a waste of resources as you can just create another. Why work with a damaged one when you can just make a new one from scratch? You feel bad that that's the place your mind goes, but you can't much see a better alternative. As far as you are concerned, this ego-project of a fake Eoba to "test" you was all on him- all on Eoba. The morality of what he did to this poor indigo doesn't even factor in. And once you kill him, nobody will even know about it except for Eoba and yourself. It will be as though this indigo never existed, its entire life experience meaningless against the void.

He's starting to wake up. Better not give him a chance to try and escape or bite you.

>Kill him quick
>Kill him painlessly
>>
>>5072217
>>Kill him quick
A bit cruel but I suspect he may still be dangerous so close if he wake up.
>>
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>>5072217
>Kill him quickly
Breaking his neck/spine would be quickest probably, might I suggest the overhead bane spine breaker
>>
>>5072217
Holy fucking hell, we HAVE to kill him?

Painlessly then
>>
>>5072217
>Kill him quick
>>
>>5072217
>>Kill him quick
>>
>>5072217
>Kill him painlessly
Throw away his knife in case he tries something
>>
>>5072217
>Kill him quick
>>
>>5072217
>Kill him quick
>Remember this
>>
You decide to kill him quickly. Perhaps not the kindest way to end him, but you have no other tools available.

*SNAP SNAP SNAP*!

You take his head and twist it like a doll's, popping it out of the socket and twisting hard, shredding his spinal nerve against the shard's of his own fractured vertebrae. You sever it high enough to stop his brain from feeding his heart and lungs the signals to continue. He will be brain dead within two to four minutes.

He wasn't as strong as you thought. Despite the fact he's supposed to be some genetically superior duelist, his muscles weren't any stronger then the wrestlers and sparring partners you've had before. You've always been strong enough to do this; to kill people just by touching them with your bare hands, and you've always held back because of it. Eoba's clone wasn't any different- except this time you didn't hold back.

Coming down from the high perch, you find the doorway to the enclosure unlocked and opened. Eoba welcomes you back.

"Agori, excellent job on- hey, where are you going?"

"I passed your test right? So I'm leaving until you give me another one."

"There are no more tests, Agori. That was my last one. Talacent, of course, chooses when you take up the mantle of the Supreme Ruler, but I asked him to let me pass you when I felt you were ready, and he obliged. Now, you are officially the Supreme Ruler."

"Ahh, well, thanks I guess."

"That's it?! Don't you want to celebrate?"

Not really, Eoba. You don't feel like celebrating at all. You don't have any qualms about killing- you were raised into the seat of power, you just didn't really enjoy it. So no, you're not in a good mood. Just tell him to fuck off.

"...No thanks." Is all you can muster.

"Bah! None of that talk- let's go have a party! I got food, women, I have it all planned!"

"Leave me alone, Eoba. I don't want your fucking party."

"...I just thought you'd be more excited!"

>Kill Eoba
>Leave Eoba
>>
>>5072320
>Forcibly retire Eoba
>Under supervision

He is a war-hero, but this debacle shows that he can't be trusted any longer.

If he complains... Well, he said it himself: the Supreme One should tolerate no insult, nor insubordination. If he draws his blade, we kill him.
>>
>>5072320
>>5072325
+1
>>
>>5072320
>Leave Eoba

He's been a teacher, a mentor, a war hero. But he completely misunderstood where our lack of confidence came from. It was not that we could not kill; even though we had not yet we always knew that we could. It was a worry that killing might be all we knew how to do and all we were selected for. We want to be Talacent, not him.

And once we've assumed the mantle of supreme leadership, we will select another capable Jaxtian to take over from Eoba. Talacent's retiring and Eoba is the same age as him, after all. Once done, we will have all of Eoba's 'secret projects' identified and categorised. We know Eoba has hidden things from Talacent, we will not let these secrets be kept from us or the Hegemony any longer.
>>
>>5072320
>Leave Eoba
>>
>>5072320
>Leave Eoba
We should 100% not fucking kill him, he is a war hero and has helped the hegemony many times during his time as admiral, I also don't think we should retire him either, he is very experienced and he's old as hell so he will retire by himself soon anyways, and if we try to force a retirement on him he might try and start a coup (although I doubt this possibility as he is very honorable as proven when he almost fucking died by not putting on any damn protective equipment during the first cylinder opening), he's a war hero that led during both of the cylinders openings so he very likely has a lot of loyal and experienced men that would join him.
>>
>>5072320
>Leave Eoba

I think we should try and verbalise where our self doubt and philosophy comes from. Eoba is… a little strange, but he’s clearly somewhat important to us. If we can figure out how to verbalise our problems, maybe we can get closer to confronting them.
>>
Leave him. There's no war to be fought anytime soon. His complaint is dumb, too. If it wasnt for our strategy and that old submarine in the first invasion, how many Jaxtians would have died?

New age, new challenges. When FTL is discovered, there'll be an endless frontier.
>>
>>5072320
>>5072327 +1
>>
>>5072320
>Kill Eoba
>>
>>5072320
>Leave Eoba
>>
"Mhmm. Maybe I'll come by the party later. Goodnight, Eoba." You lie, and then leave.

Perhaps it was just your Alpha pheromones acting up. Strange how you had little urge to kill the wild feral Jaxtian who threatened to stab you with a knife, but you imagined peeling Eoba's skin off his face while he was still alive... You hope this isn't a behavior you're going to repeat. You've always been this way, once you hit puberty your violent and sexual urges just came out, and hard. You produce over twice the testosterone as a normal Jaxtian male of the same age. This is just something you have to live with.

After leaving Eoba, Talacent is informed of you "passing" Eoba's test. One quiet night, you meet with Talacent and he sits you down in an unassuming room. It's a soundproof, locked room with no recording devices, no servants, no nothing. And there, he makes you the Supreme Ruler.

Talacent tells you about many things. He mostly engages you with philosphy, many of the truths or high level concepts you have learned already in your studies. The concept of "profit", not in a mercantile sense, but in a sense of advancement, and how its ever growing grip demeans and ends the self-acclimatization potential of the average man. He tells you of the reality of the bleak and hopeless world we live in, and the anti-natalist truth that we have the power to end suffering. He tells you of the Basilisk, and how to defeat the machine-god preemptively but never allowing its construction. He tells you of the temptations of the ego and it's own- the truth of the Supreme Ruler's own power and advancement being greater then some phony "bonds" of morality or kinship with ones own species.

Then, he explains to you how the Hegemony seeks to defeat these things. That is its true battle- and how the Hegemony's ultimate goal is to defeat the heat-death of the universe. So until that moment, it must be and remain the all powerful state that it is. Supreme Rulers in the past may have considered to split the Hegemony apart, to allow voting or not to keep the absolute monopoly on force and wealth as it is, but to do so would compromise the great mission, and so it cannot be allowed.

And then, Talacent tells you the greatest secret of the Supreme Ruler. He tells you exactly what parts of the brain generate the consciousness, as determined through over two centuries of experimentation, and of the machine that can extract those parts of the brain and preserve it for perpetual harnessing, or torture.

As you listen and speak with him, you feel so much closer to him then you ever did with Eoba. That is the difference between them; Eoba paints the world with his own moral weight as though he is an enlightened one, where as Talacent speaks as a teacher.

You come away from the conversation with secret knowledge and a weight that makes you feel, for the first time, like this is something you're supposed to be doing. You finally feel like you are the Supreme Ruler...
>>
Your name is Agori Falathane and you are officially the Supreme Ruler of the Hegemony. You have chosen maroon-brown as the color of your imperial robes- which represent readiness and preparation. You were chosen during a war, but ascended without one, so you must be ready in the event your purpose is later needed.

You are currently within the experimental bio-dome facility on Jaxt, meant to test your genetically engineered plants designed to thrive in lower-light enviorments. The dome is made with tinted glass. The oxygen levels and biodiversity here is very promising. With FTL technology so close to being available- the technology to colonize and terraform planets become more urgent by the minute, but you still have time to work out the kinks as your teams work in the background.

As the newfound Supreme Ruler- the daily humdrum of ruling is still being handled mostly by the AI network and Talacent's old aides and administration, which can practically work autonomously until something shakes up the status quo. Until then, you have a little time to, perhaps, enjoy the status and position you have been chosen for.

What will be your first act as the Supreme Ruler?
>Learn some more dark secrets about the Hegemony
>Audit Eoba's personal projects to see if he's been doing anything sketchy
>Enlist a high-quality aid to help run your early administration smoothly
>Give your friends some fitting high-value positions and appointments to office
>Have a little fun for yourself
>>
>>5072587
>Enlist a high-quality aid to help run your early administration smoothly

Preferably someone who can help us not be so fucking blackpilled.
>>
>>5072587
>Explore more of space
>maybe even send manned missions somewhere to colonize a hospitable world
If the Hegemony is to survive heat death, it must spread far and wide.
>>
>>5072587
>Learn some more dark secrets about the Hegemony
Get more blackpilled.
>>
>>5072587
>Enlist a high-quality aid to help run your early administration smoothly
Hey, whatever happened to that one planet we sent microbes to? We should start terraforming it more.
>>
>>5072587
>>Enlist a high-quality aid to help run your early administration smoothly
We can dig further in the Hegemony's secrets after this.
>>
>>5072587
>Enlist a high-quality aid to help run your early administration smoothly

Kinda want to check on Eoba but the aid will probably be most useful long-term.
>>
>>5072587
>>Enlist a high-quality aid to help run your early administration smoothly

It's time to pick up a curvy blonde aide-waifu.
>>
>>5072587
>>Give your friends some fitting high-value positions and appointments to office
>>
>>5072587
>Enlist a high-quality aide
>Audit Eoba
Auditing Eoba can be her first task.
>>
>>5072320
The sure broke several laws, psychological tortured a clone and you just for his own sick sense of ego and embezzled hedge money reasources. He cannot be trusted.

>Imprison him

If that's not allowed

>Kill him
>>
>>5072587
>Audit Eoboa

We have a loose Canon in a place of high power in the military who was doing off the books experiments. That is dangerous as fuck. The last time something like this happened the entire hedgmony was taken over by a hostile cyborg.
>>
>>5072587
>>Learn some more dark secrets about the Hegemony
>>
>>5072587
>Enlist a high-quality aid to help run your early administration smoothly

Hot secretary time
>>
>>5072754
>Support and inform Talacent a out it as well
>>
>>5072754
>>5072769
This is dumb, hes just an old man who thinks he knows best
>>5072763
This is even dumber and you should feel retarded
>>
>>5072922
An old CRAZY man, in a position of power, who raised a Jaxtian--his own genetic double--in isolation to make him the perfect knife-murderer, then sent a Supreme Ruler candidate to his possible death against him.
>>
>>5072587
>Audit Eoba's personal projects to see if he's been doing anything sketchy
>>
>Learn some Hegemony secrets.
>>
>>5072935
He didnt raise him at all, he grew up independent in a government wildlife preserve with only a knife and mastered it himself as he was genetically prone to being a skilled combatant, he is a true Jaxtian, and with him being an indigo as well
>>
>>5072587
>Enlist a high-quality aid to help run your early administration smoothly
>>
>>5072970
>a true Jaxtian

True Jaxtians form social bonds and learn language. Eoba denied his clone son this, isolating him in a weird experiment and thus creating a disposable homeless knife-fighter who we couldn't even integrate into the Hegemony if we wanted to.
>>
>>5072922
He locked the future head of state in a death battle with an illegal clone of himself.

Of which he made several. Dude needs to be dealt with.
>>
>>5072587
>>Have a little fun for yourself.
Touch grass, Agori.
>>
>>5072587
>Audit Eoba's personal projects to see if he's been doing anything sketchy
>>
You decide for your first act as the Supreme Ruler is to get an aide. Somebody who can help you through the early times; a high quality individual, certainly on the higher end of the genetic spectrum.

Your mind instantly thinks of secretaries. What kind of secretary do you want? You hope she's hot, yeah. Maybe an Indigo, or a Blonde for something exotic. With BIG BOOBS! Oh yeah, that's the kind of aide you want sauntering around this office...

But wait, maybe you shouldn't. What if you get too distracted, or the temptation is too great? You aren't married yet or anything, but you'd feel bad if you're creating bastards accidentally, especially way before your ready. I mean the Supreme Ruler gets a little leeway with that kind of thing but having a pregnant lady as your aide just sounds terrible- and you don't think you could help yourself with these Alpha genes.

And what if she's a spy, or an assassin?! Distracting you with her body before finishing you off- your imagination shrivels up. Oh no! Now you're stuck!
>>
At that exact moment, an indigo blue blur walks past your office door. "Hey Qenen!"

"Yes, your eminence?"

"Do you want to be my aide? I need somebody for the first few years I'm in office. Afterwards you can retire early if you want."

"Oh sure, your grace! I'll do anything you wish- and I'll work as long as you want. It would be an honor. I'll get started right away. Hail Hegemon!" he salutes, before wandering out of there.

There- that settles that.

In the first few years of rulership, you learn a lot of things and also learn to not think about things as much. It becomes more natural. Many projects, secret or otherwise, can be safely left in the hands of skilled underlings, managed by AI, they can keep track of the details and micromanagement while you focus on the bigger picture. One such project sticks out at you.

The space between stars, or interstellar medium, is not empty space. To the contrary, there is a huge amount of unknown matter and energy freely flying and moving in the void. However, your detectors have found one such object in a very far orbit around your home system's star.

This planet, also named as Planet V or Planet 5, is an exoplanet yet unknown. It creates a unique opportunity- until this point in time, your solar system has been almost fully colonized- with every planet and moon used for some purpose, and some living Jaxtians on or orbiting each, though the vast majority of your population lives on your habitable home world of Jaxt. However, with your technology and with the newfound abundance of fusion power, it has now become possible to actually drag this exoplanet into closer orbit. Imagine a 5th planet, contributing to the growth and possible installation, living space, and valuable resources within its crust or atmosphere that could contribute to the Hegemony. The project would be expensive and take a few decades while you work on other things, and carries a small amount of risk with not knowing what could be brought in with that planet, but it could also be a useful boon to your home system's value.

>Approve the project
>Reject the project and focus on other ones
>>
>>5073334
>Approve the project
>And name it Agoria
>>
>>5073334
>Approve the project

The alternative would be to keep it out there and use it as a black site / secret defensive base or something - but better economic growth now means we shouldn't need such things.
>>
>>5073334
>Approve the project
>>
Feels a bit...expensive and dangerous, doesn't it? Do we really want to mess with our system's gravity?
>>
>>5073334
>Approve a survey of the fifth planet, and work out the possibilities before moving forward with moving the planet
Don't do it willy nilly, what if it's inhabited and we accidentally introduce some kind of space lice into our system? This guy also have the right concerns >>5073358 about gravity.
>>
>>5073334
>>Approve the project
>>
>>5073334
>>Approve the project

Also:

>Get married so we have an outlet for the Horny.
>>
>>5073359
Supporting caution.

>>5073378
Supporting marriage.

>>5073334
>>
>>5073334
>>5073359 +1
>>
>>5073334
>Reject the project and focus on other ones
Normally would accept a thing like this but holy fuck this will mess with our solar systems gravity a lot, especially if it's a big fucking planet, keep it out there as a sort or black site like >>5073337 suggested, I don't want us to accidentally send one of our planets into the fucking sun. If we do do this though please ask our scientists first if it's possible to do without completely fucking our solar system.
>>
>>5073334
>Approve the project
Name it Talacenti
>>
>>5073669
Supporting the project and name
>>
>>5073333
Oh my god we are playing
> literally me

The hedgmony is doomed
>>
Support the project and name it for Talcent.
>>
>>5073334
Before we move it, can we just check there's a spare orbit to slide it into - I assume we're still keeping it the far side of Max?
>>
You decide to tentatively approve the project; though with the caveat of it not disrupting your natural solar system too much. You scientists have juggled with this problem with a long time, but warn you there is no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to gravity...

It takes a few days for your surveyor teams to fly out to the rogue exoplanet, and it is noted as being the furthest anyone has been from your home planet and star... well, except for maybe the corpse of Vantix Garastra. The exoplanet is very smooth and almost unmarred by meteor impacts, because it's so far away from anything it has been spared collisions. It has essentially no atmosphere. It's material composition is not fully understood, but it seems to contain a decent amount of rare earth minerals, pockets of nitrogen gas trapped in porous rock, lots of basic metals, and a few more rare mineral compositions- you don't think the planet has any kind of ionosphere or volcanic activity, and it gets so little starlight the chance of it harboring any kind of life is essentially impossible.

The dark planet is smaller then Schoon and Jaxt by a small amount, but its still enough to disrupt gravity. As far as your science teams can estimate, there are two stable orbits Planet V could be placed in.

If placed in an Outer orbit, the planet will be farther then Max, which is a gas giant furthest from the sun. Planet V will receive almost no usable sunlight, so the chance of terraforming it into a living world is slim. The only cosmic body this may disrupt is Caplit, resulting in a longer Aphelion or maximum distance away from your star by a few degrees as Planet V's gravity pulls it further out. This will result in a small amount of reduced sunlight to Caplit. While the effect will be minor, since Max still has much more influence on Caplit, given how sensitive the under-ice ecosystem on Caplit is, it could be disastrous if you don't account for it- perhaps with nutrient supplements dissolved into the water?

The second orbit is in an Inner orbit- between Max and Schoon. The inner orbit will have little to no effect on Max and Caplit, and will make the planet closer and more useful. However, the Inner orbit will pull Schoon back just a little ways away from your star- given that literally all of your industry is located on that planet at this point in time, this means slightly longer trips for every single consumer good and transport shuttle. While each individual transport tube will only travel a few seconds more, added together with the hundreds of shipments per minute it will create an astronomical difference in the GDP of your inner solar system, making nuclear fuel less efficient, and so on- it could be quite expensive to just let this hunk of rock float there.

Which orbit is more suitable for your purposes, Supreme One?

>Inner Orbit
>Outer Orbit
>>
>>5074079
>>Inner Orbit

>Hollow the planet out so that the gravitic effects are lessened, and use it as a military-industrial base
>>
>>5074079
>Outer Orbit
>>
>>5074090
>Support though mine a far amount of it before you bring it to inner in hopes of lessening its disruptive effects
>>
>>5074079
>>Inner Orbit
Terraform it and turn into a mining and industrial world
>>
Outer orbit
>>
>>5074079
>>Inner Orbit
>>
>>5074079
>Leave it where it is after all.
>>
>>5074197
This. Supporting.

If not permitted, or if it doesn't win:

>>5074090
This one.

>>5074079
>>
>>5074079
>Inner Orbit
>>
>>5074079
>>5074197
+1 to this and if not allowed then
>>5074090
>>
>>5074197
This. We don't want to cause any sort of commotion to the gravity effects of our valuable home system. Just
>Leave the thing where it is right now
And set up some explorative mining survey operations to see if any of the rare minerals are rare enough to justify mining operations this far out.
>>
I think we should leave it where it is. This whole idea is dumb. We're not advanced enough to do this.

Stop being greedy, you idiots. Don't fuck up our solar system.
>>
The vote is currently tied between leave the exoplanet where it is, and Inner Orbit.

To give this one some time to simmer; leaving it where it is will allow it to continue to be used as a blacksite/long range testing ground, but not suitable to terraforming projects or large scale mining. Placing Planet V in an Inner orbit will not have adverse effects besides the ones already warned of, though whatever knock-on effects that may have is yet to be seen.
>>
>>5074079
>Outer Orbit
We can always bring it closer when we get a better testing range
>>
It's a temporary loss for future gains, imagine having TWO industrial planets.
>>
>>5074079
>Inner Orbit
>>
>Inner Orbit
>>
>>5074079
>Inner Orbit
>>
>>5074566
A temporary loss? Are you kidding? It would fuck up our system immediately. Do you really want to make it longer? Do you not realize what effects that could have?
>>
>>5074655
>A temporary loss? Are you kidding? It would fuck up our system immediately. Do you really want to make it longer? Do you not realize what effects that could have?
Inner orbit downside is that our industrial planet get a little further so our GDP take a hit, a close new planet would more than compensate for that.
>>
>>5074658
It's not just a "GPD hit", it's a complete change of our distances. It'll fuck up our entire logistics and make everything harder for our main planet.

And what happens if it continues getting pulled?
>>
Changing my vote to outer orbit. The gdp hit seems expensive and we can always pull it in later
>>
>>5074666
Short term pain for long term gain. Two whole industrial planets is worth it.
>>
Could we perhaps make Schoon and Planet V get into binary orbit with eachother? Or make one the moon of the other?
>>
>>5074686
Depends on how their mass compares to each other
>>
>>5074527
>>5074079
>Inner Orbit
This guy has the right idea >>5074658 in that we'll have two industrial planets close by. Sure we'll lose some logistics and production for a bit, but we can take the hit. Especially if we can start planting the infrastructure etc before or during the move, so when the 5th planet is in place our people can immediately exploit it.
>>
>>5074527
Is that with the current drive technology? Our civilisation is anticipating breaking through into a FTL drive system sometime soon, how will that development affect the access to this exo-planet in the current location?
>>
>Inner orbit.

Also, I love that bonus image.
Adding that levity to the story is always entertaining.
>>
>>5074788
This. I believe it should stay in the outer system because it is safer for our existing infrastructure if FTL cannot be developed soon, whereas if it CAN then it might as well stay further out anyway.
>>
>>5074079
>Inner Orbit
Seems like a swell idea
>>
You have decided to place Planet V in an Inner Orbit- though with the sole condition the planetary displacement team doesn't fuck it up.

Of course, realizing and giving the project the go ahead has sparked a lot of high quality action. Suddenly, the new Supreme Ruler is performing another massive infrastructure and building or space project- it reminds people of the endless optimism of the Vul and Qet days. Your science team decide that, instead of a solo orbit, it may actually be best to place Planet V, now named Talacenti, into a stable moon or binary orbit with Schoon. Since Schoon is the base of your industry, a lot of metals and mass have already been exported from it in the form of satellites, ships, and construction projects on Jaxt and other planets- this new moon may actually help it keep a stable orbit.

In the meantime, something else is happening. You are alerted to the alarm amount of crops dying off or being made inedible for an unknown cause. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be a new microscopic species of lice or mite that eats some of your most stable and commonly used fruit crops in their sprouting stages. These animals attach to the legs of pollinators and blow around on the wind, and are resistant to most of your commonly used pesticides.

While Jaxtians are not nature worshipers, most pesticides and fertilizers are preferred to be sourced from natural products, biologically engineered to be as safe and sturdy as possible. This new parasite avoids these common countermeasures, which could indicate that it has evolved to do so in the past few decades- a unique natural mutation.

...Though there is also a very small chance, your scientists say, that this mite is actually a genetically engineered organism, used by a dissenter or anarchist group to try and cause chaos and confusion. If this parasite spread too far, you could see the beginnings of food riots and the need for culls and concentration camps to keep the peace. In other words, a PR disaster and total disruption to your high science administration.

You can't believe this... you'd think a fusion powered society with self aware AI and not one but THREE subservient alien races wouldn't have to worry about food availability. You're not post scarcity yet but... still, all Jaxtians have to eat, and while the colonies are self sufficient in the event of siege or being cut off from the home planet, the vast majority of all food and population comes from right here on Jaxt. As such, this could cause serious problems.

>Arrest and search every single person and dwelling near affected farmlands for traitors (Unpopular)
>Develop new pesticides against the new pest
>Offload crop production to the colonies and space stations to minimize the issue (expensive)
>Find resistant/immune crops and use them for a few years to starve out the pest
>Other (Write In)
>>
>>5075271
>Find resistant/immune crops and use them for a few years to starve out the pest
Making more pesticides feels like it might lead to an arms race of mutation. And tracking down every person near the farmlands would be tedious at best.
>>
>>5075271
>Use a Ba'alathi science-fiction lie to justify searching the affected dwellings and "quarantining" the individuals, pretending that some strange aftereffect of the war has just now cropped up
>>
>>5075271
>Find resistant/immune crops and use them for a few years to starve out the pest

And "On a note totally unrelated to crops"
>Use a Ba'alathi science-fiction lie to justify searching the affected dwellings and "quarantining" the individuals, pretending that some strange aftereffect of the war has just now cropped up
>>
>>5075274
Yeah issue is even if we deal with these mites nothing stops the group from just breeding more that are resistant to whatever we do. I know it will be unpopular but to use Civilization terms we just came off a golden age, we can afford to take a popularity hit

Fuck drag out Talacent for a PR endorsement


>>5075274
>+1 add my PR plan to this cover up idea.
>>
>>5075271
>>Find resistant/immune crops and use them for a few years to starve out the pest
>>
>>5075271
>>5075278 +1
>>
>>5075271
>>Find resistant/immune crops and use them for a few years to starve out the pest
We have the technology to preserve foods, including seeds, until the lifespan of a mite would be naturally past.

Also,
AUDT EOBA'S Projects, perhaps cloning himself wasn't the limit of his sketchy genetic engineering stuff that would create 'the hard times that create strong men'.
>>
>>5075271
>Offload crop production to the colonies and space stations to minimize the issue (expensive)

also +1 this >>5075271
>>
>>5075725
I meant +1 this >>5075501
>>
>>5075501
>AUDIT EOBA'S PROJECTS

Would love to add that to >>5075278 if we still can.

>>5075271
>>
>>5075271
>Find resistant/immune crops and use them for a few years to starve out the pest
And
>>5075501
Support this
>>
>>5075271
>>Find resistant/immune crops and use them for a few years to starve out the pest
>>
>>5075753
oh I do not support auditing someone as based as Eoba
>>
>>5075271
>Develop new pesticides against the new pest
>Find resistant/immune crops and use them for a few years to starve out the pest
>Use a Ba'alathi science-fiction lie to justify searching the affected dwellings and "quarantining" the individuals, pretending that some strange aftereffect of the war has just now cropped up
>>
First and foremost, you need to end this pest before it becomes a problem. You order the elimination of all of the affected food crop on Jaxt- many seeds in suspended animation, records of their DNA sequences, and the plantations on other planets and space stations means the valuable foodstuff-plants won't go extinct.

In exchange, you order a replacement crop on all farms and plantations- a thick-skinned tuber that thrives in similar soil conditions whilst being totally immune to the mites. It's less popular among the Jaxtians, who prefer sweeter fruits and vegetables as opposed to high density carbohydrate foods, but it will have to do for now.

...You also feel that you may need a little help. You want to portray yourself as a symbol of strength to the Jaxtian people, but you also want to good way to explain away the actions of the Hegemony without setting off the anarchist groups with a direct accusation- if such a group even exists. For that purpose- you ask Talacent to help you.

Talacent, being a very popular Supreme Ruler and excellent public speaker, decides to speak on your behalf in a recorded gathering. All of Jaxt and the colonies are listening.

"...Many of you have questions regarding the recent changes to food rationing, especially in these recent years when energy has become almost limitless in its consumption. The reason for this is because of war. Many of you may believe that war is fought in space or on battlefields, but the truth that is learned by our military leaders is that war is mostly an economical battle...."

You like what Talacent was doing here- setting up the viewer to feel smart. Most Jaxtians are taught basic history, and through that, the history of economies and industry compared to war- Talacent is pretending this is some kind of secret knowledge, where as even a child Jaxtian knows that money grants a huge advantage in a war. That's what he is good at.

"...And as far as many of you know, the last war we faced was against the vile Baalathi when their cylinder opened a second time."

Talacent gives a second for the audience to boo and hiss.

"...But in truth, the war isn't really over, because the main targets of the war weren't our proud pilots and their spaceships- it was our heartlands. Our people. We believe that the Baalathi may have employed a yet unknown biological agent as an attack against Jaxt. This matter is being taken into the utmost of importance."

Instantly, a change towards fear and concern goes through the crowd- and no doubt for the viewers at home. You hope Talacent knows what he is doing.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>
”...And we believe that this agent was used primarily to cripple Jaxt's economy. After all, an enemy that can't work or build can't fight back the Baalthi's army of killer drones. Our research indicates that this biological agent attacks the eyes- so any Jaxtian who experiences blindness- and the Baalathi would want to be able to reverse this process to subjugate our people. As such, temporary blindness is a symptom that must be reported in immediately...”

Alright- you see what he is doing here. He is setting up a condition for people to obey unquestioningly, while at the same time creating a very specific set of circumstances that won't be mistaken from a common cold or flu.

”In the meantime, all jump poles to and from the possibly exposed areas are being retracted into the ground as a mandatory quarantine is put into effect. Vehicles are now leashed into a home range, and your AI cores and companions will let you know where and when you may leave your homes for shopping or work. Your home may be searched for signs of contamination, and you may be subjected to medical tests. Remember, as a subject of the Hegemony, you are required to offer your bodily fluids for testing and identification purposes. Heartier crops to prevent food shortages have been selected for the next few years' crop harvests. You will obey the orders of Enforcers and health officials. We will win this war- we must all do our part.”

Damn, that was dire. You were expecting a more positive message from Talacent, but as he put it, making this a serious issue caused more compliance and ease of access. By placing the blame on the aliens, we can create a more pro-Hegemonic atmosphere around the necessary searches and seizures.

Minutes after this speech, you check your personal computing device. Small widgets pop up with all the rapid changes made by your artificial intelligences along the web- new cooking recipes involving the new foodstuffs begin to creep to top popularity, controlled opposition in the form of a Haazar-focused conspiracy to mislead people away from your true intentions. The AI network has already reworked the shipping and work orders to prevent cross contamination of people in different “quarantine groups”, which is really just to prevent people from spreading the mites into a different climate farming district. It's your first time seeing the power of the AI network in full force like this, and it is something to behold.

Next update tomorrow
>>
It seems that your science team's original projection that the parasites naturally evolved to avoid your pesticides was... entirely incorrect.

When samples of the mites were taken and examined closely with ones from other regions, the ability to resist the pesticides was far greater then a natural evolution could produce in just a few centuries, even. Even more telling are the DNA sequences seemingly placed into the code of the dangerous pests as though by injection- though capable of spreading to their offspring, the evidence is more then telling.

During your Enforcer raids and "quarantine", you end up finding several individuals who are suspicious. Their homes are within a day's swing from the worst affected farmlands, and they seem to have scientific equipment beyond a casual interest available to citizens. While several try to protest their innocence, the amateurish way they tried to destroy the evidence, and stockpiles of food for long term survival within their dwellings proves it without a doubt. There is a Bio-Terrorist cell at work here, and these mites were intentionally designed to cause a food shortage. For what specific purpose or design, you do not yet know.

Immediately, sensing foul play, you take a quick computer audit of Eoba's actions and departments under his control during the many decades he worked as the right hand of Talacent. Unfortunately, many of the departments have been shut down, swept up by other defense networks, or since disbanded and the digital records have been lost or made difficult to recover. You chose to have the first few years of your reign made easier with a high quality aide over checking Eoba's actions early- he's partially retired now.

Based on the current evidence, it seemed that Eoba did not directly order or organize this terrorist cell, but one or more of this programs may have indirectly caused the availability of the genetic splicing technology needed to create this bio weapon.

In the meantime; you got a mess to clean up.

>Interrogate the ring leader of this terrorist group
>Organize science team to focus all efforts on countering the genetically modified mites
>Execute Eoba for his incompetence
>Other (Write In)
>>
>>5077280
>Interrogate the ring leader of this terrorist group
>>
>>5077280
>Interrogate the ring leader of this terrorist group
Let's deal with the shooter instead of the dude who left a gun laying around first.
>>
>>5077280
>Interrogate the ring leader of this terrorist group
Eoba was born to be a warrior, not a bureaucrat.
>>
>>5077280
>>Interrogate the ring leader of this terrorist group
>>
>>5077280
>Interrogation
>>
>>5077280
>Interrogate the ring leader of this terrorist group
>Organize science team to focus all efforts on countering the genetically modified mites
We can have the scientists start work on the mites while we interrogate and look out in case others from the terrorists cell are still out there
>>
I told you about that BigBoss monke guy.

Interrogate the ringleader
>>
>>5077280
>>Interrogate the ring leader of this terrorist group
>>
>>5077280
>Interrogate the ring leader of this terrorist group
>Organize science team to focus all efforts on countering the genetically modified mites
>>
>>5077319
+1 Seems good to me.
>>
You decide to interrogate the leader of this terrorist cell yourself, instead of using your military to do it. As the Supreme Ruler, you are trained in such arts... and as an individual, it may be a good outlet for your natural aggression. Within his cell, you have him placed underneath a vent blowing cold air on the back of his neck- a classic interrogation technique. No guards will be needed for this.

”You will answer my questions honestly, sincerely, and immediately. If you attempt to deceive me, or if you hesitate in answering a question, I will pull your joints out of their sockets. I can accomplish this with my bare hands.”

“Yes, your Omnipotence. I will obey.”

”Hmmph, you're being polite- for a terrorist. Attempting to stay my hand?”

“I am afraid of what you do to me, your majesty.”

”That's good. Begin with your ideological goals and the formation of your group. Speak.”

“I belong to a group called NFI- or the New Friends Initiative. We are ideologically opposed to the Hegemony's goal of interspecies absorption and consolidation.”

”Hmm?

“We know the Hegemony's goals- a eugenic society with the highest caste at the top, genetically superior to all others. The Supreme Ruler caste wants to continue to rule as a separate, superior species to the average Jaxtian- and taking on alien DNA to become all powerful. We view your actions as wrong and evil, and wanted to stop it by causing an uprising against you.”

”I see. And I assume you believe that the Haazar and Baalathi prisoners-of-war are a part of this fictitious conspiracy?”

“You already did it with the migrators years ago, so yes. It's not fictional, we know what your plans are- even worse how you push your race-mixing agenda with Indigos and mandatory “anti-aging” programs to keep the people from ever evolving into something that can challenge your evil imperialism-”

”Silence. Don't proselytize your nonsense to me and waste my time. Do it again and I'll pull your testicles off.”

“...”
>>
“...Our group used these ARGs, often involving the elderly retirees, to send encoded messages.” He continued to explain. “For example, a “player” would be given a message of a Snake being in the park, and being worth 37 experience points. However, this was a code- a “Snake” meant a protien injector, and the 37 experience points really meant that the injector had to be able to inject at least 37 base pairs into a chromosome. Using codes like this, we were able to operate without digital connections and without causing too much suspicion.”

The leader of this group had already given you the location of all their hideouts, the names of all of his members, and their date and plans of action for their second and third release of the lice. He has even gone over the basic DNA sequences of the modified pests to explain how they were modified- though he admits they did not give the lice any specific weaknesses or killswitch in this exact situation that he was captured.

“We were our own clandestine cell- only I was allowed communication with our leadership, in the event our lower ranking members were captured and questioned on their own. I have never met our leaders, and was only able to communicate with them through a physical medium in the form of anonymous letters. I only knew of two individuals by code name, which could both be the same person, or each could be multiple people. These two are The Phantom and The Supplier, who organized our actions along a timescale and supplied us with our equipment respectively.”

”I see. What were your orders from these individuals?”

“Specifically? I was told to create a biological agent to create a food shortage in preparation for another, larger attack. I don't know when or what this attack will take place, but once we were given the go-ahead, we arranged for three waves at regular intervals to release the lice. Because of this, I suspect that within the next two years is when the next organized attack would be- by the time food stockpiles and hunger has caused civil unrest or collapse.”

”You seem to have practiced this speech. How can I know you aren't telling me what I want to here, or intentionally leading us around on false pretenses so your organizers can escape?”

“That is true- and something I considered. I have practiced this speech, your excellency, because I fully intended to tell you everything the moment I was captured- which I am doing now, as I am caught.”

”...Yes, yes you are.”
>>
After a lengthy process of examination and interrogation, everything seems to check out. Given your own instincts as a Supreme Ruler, and due to the fact you were trained to interrogate as you are doing now, you believe that this man has been of the utmost truthfulness to you- and you also believe you have found out all useful information he could give you.

”Is there a reason you have given me all the information I would need or ask for willingly? You did so without setting forth a bargain first-”

“No, your eminence. I knew that your most skilled torturers could extract anything out of me I tried to hide, and try to ask for some lessened sentence would be pointless when you could go back on your word with me being powerless to stop it. It wouldn't even hurt your reputation, as I am sure I have already been disappeared to all public records and knowledge- it would only result in making you angry. I know you are much smarter then me, your majesty, and I suspect you have technology or drugs that can probably get me to talk, so I knew I couldn't mislead you.”

”The funny thing is, I actually believe you right now. You seem smart enough to know the situation you are in- and total surrender is what I would prefer from you.”

“Your grace?”

”Hmm?”

“... I have already given you everything I know. I have no bargaining chips, and I recognize that I am in no position to ask for anything. I know that, in your view, I am nothing but a dissident to be silenced.”

”Mhhh.”

“But could you... not torture me? Not make me suffer? I know what kind of horrible things the Hegemony does and has done to people like me- people who have done even less. Sometimes, for years and years until they finally died of old age. I wanted to avoid that fate. I am very afraid of what you and your people are capable of. Please let me die quickly and painlessly, with at least some small dignity remaining. I made things as easy as possible, was honest, and didn't hide anything in the hope this would be rewarded. I am your enemy- but now I ask for your mercy. I know nobody is coming to rescue me. Our cause was always a longshot at best- but given how quickly you could uproot our secret society I doubt we ever had any chance at all. This is not to stroke your ego, it's an admission of my own weakness. I'm not enough of a man to live out my entire life in some room getting used as practice for your new torture techniques. Please don't do that to me. Please.”

>Honor his request and give him a quick death
>Give him a more fitting punishment
>>
>>5078050
>Honor his request and give him a quick death
Agori isn't afraid of violence but like what happened with Eoba's clone proved, he isn't needlessly cruel either.
>>
>>5078050
>Honor his request and give him a quick death
>>
>>5078050
>Honor his request and give him a quick death
>>
>>5078050
Can we digitize his mind and use it as a forced consultant on such matters of terrorism in the future? If so, that would be cool. Otherwise:

>Snap his neck
>>
>>5078050
>Honor his request and give him a quick death
The New Friends Initiative is a baller name for a terrorist organization.
>>
>>5078042
>“We know the Hegemony's goals- a eugenic society with the highest caste at the top, genetically superior to all others. The Supreme Ruler caste wants to continue to rule as a separate, superior species to the average Jaxtian- and taking on alien DNA to become all powerful. We view your actions as wrong and evil, and wanted to stop it by causing an uprising against you.”
>"You already did it with the migrators years ago, so yes. It's not fictional, we know what your plans are- even worse how you push your race-mixing agenda with Indigos and mandatory “anti-aging” programs to keep the people from ever evolving into something that can challenge your evil imperialism-”
Doesn't that reminds you of the debate we had about Indigos?
>>
>>5078050
>Give him a more fitting punishment
>>
>>5078050
>Honor his request and give him a quick death
>>
>>5078050
>Give him a more fitting punishment
A traitor and a terrorist's death must be made long and public as an example
>>
>>5078050
>Give him a more fitting punishmemt
This seems like a trap, "Heres all the info now kill me", why not just let his leadership deal with him and we keep an eye on him see if we can intercept one of these messages or an assassin, I fear he has Dr.Yueh tooth of sorts
>>
>>5078050
>Give him a more fitting punishment
>>
>>5078050
>Give him a more fitting punishment
This guy created the mites? We might be able to use him to find a way to stop them. And as a way to possibly break his society. If we can think of something fitting that is of greater benefit to the hegemony and the Jaxtian people, we will do that.

But we are not needlessly cruel - whatever cruelties we have, they are pointed to specific purpose and for achieving the ends of a greater Jaxtian good. If there is nothing at all useful we can do with this fellow, then.
>Honour his request and give him a quick death

Either way, though, take a moment to explain to this poor sap how utterly wrong he is about his mistaken beliefs before we carry out what we intend. Also, Eyeball-cams have been a thing since Qet - and there they doubled as explosives. There's no reason to suppose this idiot couldn't have one or some similar biological or technological trick secreted away inside him unless we've already thoroughly scanned him.
>>
>fitting punishment:Reprogram them into an asset.

They have shown skill intelligence and ability to corral others. They also still have connections to their cell. Turning them will be far more effective than killing them. That is a waste
>>
>>5078050
>Honor his request and give him a quick death
>>
This all feels very convenient.
>Ah yes, we are an xenophobic group that believes the supreme leaders want to become an special universal class that uses xeno genes. Here's all my information, please kill me right now.
I don't think this guy knows more, but this is definitely not just it. It feels way too obvious. Why would a group that wants to take down the government do so by causing a food shortage? And in such an obvious way too.
>>
>>5078050
>Give him a more fitting punishment
Following the demands of a traitor and rebel is the worst and most degrading thing a Supreme Ruler can do
>>
>>5078050
>>Give him a more fitting punishment
Not torture or sadism, just keep him alive and put him to the state's purpose for the next several decades. It's only right he pay off his debt to society, and who knows, given a perspective change he might realize he was wrong to oppose the state and that he's Team Big Blue after all.
>>
>Turn him into an asset on your search for the rebel leaders.
>>
In the end... you haven't decided much at all. You're pretty even minded; on the one hand, a quick death would be a convenient way to get rid of him, and you've never had that sadistic streak that seemed to flow through many other Supreme Rulers, and would reward his polite and open interrogation process. But at the same time, you also feel that he would... get off too easy. Not to mention, using him as a way to infiltrate or use his knowledge to help break the rest of the terrorists acting against the Hegemony would be useful.

"...I have decided to keep you alive for the moment, until your "NFI" is routed and defeated. Then, I think I will grant you your merciful death for your cooperation."

"...You want me to betray my fellows again, then? Act as your mole?"

"Oh no, you're far too compromised for that." You say- you know far too well the organization wouldn't take him back at this point anyway. Any group capable of dodging the Hegemony for this long would be too smart to take back a clearly captured member of their own. "You'll be taken on a more consultant role. This is to pay back your debt to society."

He doesn't say anything. Something about his demeanor makes you think he is fuming. You'd expect... gratitude?

"... Do you feel I am being "unfair" to you, terrorist?"

"Of course. You are the enemy. That is why I did what I did- I don't regret it. I am simply doing this because I know you have the ability to force me- making it pointless to resist."

"Yes, I am your "enemy", which is why you decided to manufacture a food crisis- to what, have civil discord? Seems foolish- even an attempt on my life would be more direct and less cowardly. Who do you think would suffer first from a food shortage anyway? Not the Supreme Rulers, certainly."

"..."

You know, something about this- and his attitude, really rubbed you the wrong way. After he was caught, that is when he sought to appease you. And to think of the innocent people he was directly involved in trying to harm- he already did, at least in an economic sense. Many heritage farmers and permaculture-residents already lost an entire season's worth of crops- crippling to a capitalist venture, though thankfully they won't suffer so badly within the Hegemony.

"You know- you were trying to appeal to my sense of mercy earlier, begging me not to torture you. You were happy and fine causing pain to others- upsetting this society where people are, objectively, happier then before. Not as free, no, but better off. Even if your insane theories were correct, would a rulership of immortal benevolent Gods be superior to capitalist filth? And yet you appeal to my sense avoiding "pointless" cruelty to simply get a free escape- something your victims would have never been given. I mean, you stockpiled food for this, so you clearly thought you didn't want to be among those starving masses..."
>>
You are already standing over him. Your hand grasps his manacles, pulling them closer to you. Something about him, and his logical and polite request, rubs you the wrong way. You don't know why exactly.

"Owww- you're hurting me! Please stop!"

You're twisting his arms, something is going to pop- probably his metacarpals. The way he squirms isn't disgusting you, in fact, it's making you feel better.

You have to come with quick grips against some sort of instinctual desire to hurt this man. It's getting worse by the second. You feel more angry. Your brain keeps screaming at you that this is an ENEMY of your TRIBE and FAMILY and must be MUTILATED.

KILL HIM

This is your Alpha hormones again. You know what this feels like. Funny, you didn't feel this way at all when fighting an Eoba wild-man clone who tried to kill you- in that moment, you just felt sad while intensely concentrating. Here though, this pathetic, bound up weakling is causing you much more stress.

"You know- if you had come to me before you were caught, gave up your organization and everything, ready to accept a punishment, with a proper apology with your face on the ground in a bow- that would have made me like you a lot more. Would have been more respectful- more polite. The right way, the Jaxtian way. It could have even saved your life, let you turn a new leaf..."

"Oowwww! Stop! Please, please stop!"

"Shut the FUCK up. Don't twist away from ME you piece of GARBAGE. You WORTHLESS COWARD!"

Before you know what's happening one of your hands reaches to his head. You grab the most convenient piece of flesh, his ear, and begin pulling. You feel the skin start to rip. It's like velcro- the way his flesh is peeling off his skull.

"NoowowwwowowoWOWOWOWO! MERCY PLEASE! AIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
>>
"ENFORCER!"

The guard is, understandably, shaken.

"Get me a brain vise. NOW. We're going hunting for dissidents."

Your choice of Supreme Ruler cannot grant unearned mercy to those who try to hurt you and your people.

Jaxt is your planet, and your people are your responsibility. You will NOT let anyone hurt them. Traitors WILL be destroyed.

>Hunt down The Phantom, but the Supplier will go into hiding
>Hunt down The Supplier, but the Phantom will go into hiding
>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
>Other (Write In)
>>
>>5079446
Metal.
>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
Agori wouldn't want one to escape his wrath.
>>
>>5079446
>>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding

>Pull Eoba out of retirement and use his tactical genius to orchestrate the trap- he probably knows their methods best
>>
>>5079469
Support. Let no rebel escape. Kill them all personally.
>>
>>5079446
>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
>>
>>5079444


>>5079446
>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
>>
>>5079446
>Set a trap for both

>Do NOT bring Eoba into this

>>5079469
Eoba was a crazy death-before-dishonour kind of guy, obsessed with big swords and bigger ships. If he isn't involved in this conspiracy, his mismanagement may have led to it. Don't even let him HEAR of this, I say.
>>
>>5079446
>Hunt down The Phantom, but the Supplier will go into hiding
>>
>>5079446
>>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
>>
>>5079446
This >>5079469
>>
>>5079446
Honestly loving Agori, a little wary at first but he is really coming into his role as a real iron fist, wont be popular with Jaxtians as a supreme by the end of his reign probably but he is definitely working his way into my favorites of the supremes so far
>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
>>5079469
We dont need Eoba for this, Agori already gets some of his urges around him and I doubt with his current mood he'd want to deal with his over the top ideas
I will say having a few squadrons of Eoba clones specifically trained as peacekeepers from birth may not be a bad idea, especially if the NFI starts getting more brazen with their attacks, maybe we can get Ingar as an advisor and get some combat inhibitor tech
>>
>>5079446
>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
Eoba is a admiral, not a investigator or a spy master of sorts, he isn't experienced in this sort of thing so let's not bring him in.
>>
>>5079446
So we have a psychopath in the throne. That's just wonderful.
>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
>>
>>5079786
>a psychopath
Nah, he isn't a madman or madmonkey, just a naturally strong and aggressive throwback with some restraint, and with a strong sense of justice...

Which is probably exactly what we could have expected when the voter selected a quiet Alpha-type as our successor.
>>
>>5079831
He peeled a man's face off. With his own hands. Even Vul Takar, who was all about LAW AND ORDER wasn't as violent as him.

Obviously, by choosing an alpha type we expected more aggressiveness, but this isn't an alpha type thing. Bost was an alpha type, and he never did any of this kind of thing as far as we know.

Agori just seems to have a natural penchant for this kind of thing. He acts all sad and self-deprecating, but the next moment he's about to strangle someone to death with his own hands. It's the second time, and he's been extremely recently into his reign.

Are we sure we got rid of ALL the mental problems with the supreme rulers?
>>
>>5079844
You might be judging the MC a little harshly here. The last time he got into something like this it was a kill orbe killed situation and this time he's dealing somebody who committed bioterrorism against the people that our guy is sworn and empowered to protect.
>>
>>5079844
Because the man tried starting a food crisis and tried begging for mercy only because he got caught. He didn't deserve mercy nor a quick death.

>>5079446
>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
>>
>>5079853
>>5079878
It's a thing to punish a terrorist, it's another to gruesomely maul a man becauase you were angry. And I'm talking about how he was very close to just straight up murdering Eoba for his little trick

We're civilized monkeys, not wild animals who chimp out and mutilate people out of feelings. Bost didnt do that, did he?

Agori is not an bad MC by any means, he's just not a good person.
>>
>>5079844
Both circumstances hes acted like this were in situations of great stress, hes going to pick fight in fight or flight situations as thats what he is built for, hes a thinker and acknowledges his flaws, the situation with Eoba even showed he had the capacity to hold back, he doesnt just kill to kill or hurt to hurt, he couldve killed the traitor too but he stopped then aswell, itd be too easy to give in, hed just be a wild animal like the clone he killed, Agori is more than his Alpha phenotype
>>
>>5079890
Considering how little time we spent directly with Bost, there's no way to know that he never did. And besides, Agori is far more Alpha then Bost ever was. Bost was just an Alpha, Agori is Jaxtian Gigachad.

>>5079844
I think his natural penchant for this sort of thing is WHY he gets all sad and self-depreciating most of the time; wanting to be seen for the good he can do and not wanting to hurt any of the thousands if innocents who depend on us. This time, the Monkey we're up against is not only a self-confessed enemy of our people and our system, but a spineless dishonourable coward who made the ordinary Jaxtians the first target of his plans to boot. So this is the first time Agori's actually gotten to feel good about giving into the darker urges and rages he's strenuously kept under control all his life.
>>
>>5080261
Excellently put anon
>>
>>5079446
>Set a trap for a chance to catch both at once without driving one into hiding
>>
>>5079907
Acknowledging your flaws doesn't really work if you don't do anything about it. He didn't hold back as much as he just killed eoba's clone quickly. It didn't exactly prove much of a threat.
>he couldve killed the traitor too but he stopped then aswell,
He peeled his face off. With his hands. The damage to his nerves alone would have killed him. Dude's super fuckin dead, you can't survive that kind of stuff unless you turn him into some kind of brain in a jar.
>>5080261
He's more self deprecating about other things than this. How he was chosen, if he had the skills to rule...and now he's flipped a switch and went full blood thirst mode. He is literally still carrying that man's face. You look at him and tell me that's a mentally stable man.
>>
>>5080365
>Dude's super fucking dead
Maybe, maybe not. We have Supreme Leader super-science on our side.

>Look at him and tell me that's a mentally stable man
What makes for a stable man and a stable monke may be different. Super-distinct, wide-phlanged biological alphas aren't really a thing in our species IRL... But his behaviour wouldn't be unusual for a leader among otehr primates.

We should probably get him married, or find him a hobby, though. Agori needs to destress.
>>
>>5080365
>He peeled his face off. With his hands. The damage to his nerves alone would have killed him. Dude's super fuckin dead, you can't survive that kind of stuff unless you turn him into some kind of brain in a jar.
Chimps have ripped off the hands, face, eyes, nose and genitals of the same people that survived IRL.
Look up at Charla and Travis the chimp on Google for ex.
>>
Rolled 3 (1d3)

Using your newfound "asset" in the form of the leader of the terrorist cell- you work towards tracking down the two remaining leaders of this terrorist plot.

As far as you could gather from the anarchist, the food shortage was the first in a multi-stage attack planned from this terrorist cell. Create food shortages and chaos, which would then lead to another attack. The Hegemony is well prepared and reaching enough to sustain all of the Jaxtians without any trouble at all, even in a year with no food production. But his prediction of two years is scarily accurate- 20 billion people is a lot of mouths to feed.

"Triangulate the dead-drop points."

The terrorists communicate through nondigital methods, often encoded. Using physical media likes this means it is much easier to hide from the Hegemony, but it does require physical contact. Two individuals never meet face to face, but will leave messages to each other. These messages will be left in a public place, so the two agents or proxies sent will never be seen together.

While your surveillance network isn't quite good enough to track every single public place on Jaxt at once, you know that you can catch out these rebels by finding a dead drop. All you have to do is identify two agents- one from each of the circles of the Phantom and the Supplier- since you know for damn certain they won't come pick it up themselves.

As far as the rebel cell leader understands; the failure of the food shortage plan would mean that the rebel leaders will have two options- go forward with the plan early, or wait until new conditions arise. This depends on if the rebel leaders assume that the food shortage cell was caught, or if they merely failed. After all, Talacent's speech provided a believable enough cover story, and a sudden shift in crop type used on this planet would mean a failure of the plan either way. What this means is the two rebel leaders will HAVE to communicate in some way to reorganize their plans. Keeping track of suspicious package and the individuals who interact with them on every public place in every city of Jaxt is just too big of a job to handle, even for Alavis's AI network. So instead, you need to find the most likely places using your informant, and perhaps a little bit of luck.

"Your eminence, this one is promising."
"Good job, Qenen. Al, put it on the main screen. Now we need just a bit of patience..."
>>
...But after a full day, nobody comes to inspect the package. Not even a curious bystander. Eventually, you realize you've been duped when three duplicate envelopes were left at various locals.

Only one of the people who dropped the envelopes knew they were involved in something sketchy- and he was a new convert promised a mansion and two blonde wives if he helped out the shadow group. You're pretty sure they ghosted him after he was done, because he doesn't know anything. Most were retirees getting paid in crypto to leave a "magic scroll" in a location for the game the NFI seem to be using.

Shit. You've got to get your cryptologists on this. Through your asset was lucky enough to have gotten a glance at a certain combination of keys in the recess of his memory- something he only glanced at. Most of the data is not even useful, too blurred even when you try to focus on it with the brain vise. But you're sure you can crack this...

Every day you fail to solve this, one billion Jaxtians will die. The day mark is 6 AM each day in real time. Good luck.
>>
Die from what, food shortages?
>>
>>5080420
They probably have other plans.
>>
>>5080429
Hmm. Someone should go decrypt that then. You need to find words which have those symbols we know, and possibly try to fill in the blanks by seeing repeating patterns and the like.
>>
??a? ?????

? ???w?

??????? ??X ?A??Y

? W??? ??am? ?

??w??? ?? ??? ??? ??????

??A?Y ??????

So, basically, most of what we got is gibberish. However, there are still a few things we can try gleaming from it through the simple fact that it's english

>The sickle looking symbol appears the most often at eight. Very common letter, even a vowel or something used repeatable in a word. Like how Success has three uses of the letter S.
>The circle with two smaller cycles is only used twice and always by itself at the start of a sentence. This only makes sense if it's A or I. Unless this is encrypted in yet ANOTHER cipher.
>the X symbol is only used once but I'm not sure if it's for Jax since we already have a confirmed A and a potential A/I.
>Out of all of the letters used, M is the one used the least often.

I'm too tired to think of anything else but that's what I could gleam. First guess for the first word might be Dear if only because it's a letter but having four easily accessed letters like that is weird. And I'm not sure how well it fits with the rest.
>>
>>5080445
I think that it really could be "dear", looks like normal english except each letter was changed for a symbol once.
>>
>>5080445
I'm guessing the Hegemony symbol is just a reference to the Hegemony, not a letter; and the Mediator symbol is (aliens)?

Pla? ?aile?

Hegemony ???ws

release pox early

(Hegemony) will blame (aliens)

pow?er ?s ?o? o? (alien) o?????

reA?Y ?liers
>>
>>5080550
Maybe the last line is "Ready Fliers" if they plan on a counter-information campaign?
>>
>>5080550
Plan failed, Hegemony knows
Release pox early
Hegemony will blame aliens
Powder is not of alien origin
Ready fliers
>>
>>5080550
>(Hegemony) will blame (aliens)
If this is true, it confirms my theory that this whole "Anti-Alien group" thing was just an attempt to mislead us.
>>
>>5080413
Is there any specific timezone that's being used, or have we caught it before the first one?
>>5080560

>>5080561
Weren't we the ones who came up with the 'alien conspiracy' thing to begin with? The conspirators probably just realised it for a convenient lie they could catch us on if we tried to use it again.
>>
>>5080560
You feel as though you've essentially cracked the code- not perfect, but you get the gist. The final word is probably wrong...

Still, you understand well enough what is happening. Clearly, a bioweapon that spreads a disease of some kind is planned to be deployed, perhaps involving some kind of powder- which could be the cure, or the vessel to transmit the infection.

Your "asset" has lose most of his usefulness at this point- not quite helping you parse the total meaning of the final word. But you have another thing to consider.

The mastermind. Who is behind the plan? You'd assume the Phantom is the head, and the Supplier works to get the necessary resources, but you can't be sure. Regardless, there is something you have to consider here...

Someone high up in the Hegemony could be responsible. Somebody who has access to both the resources and materials to make such a plan possible, as well as cover up the actions of the other members of the terrorist network. Somebody who could be under your nose this whole time- Ingar.

Ingar was one of the successors that could have been chosen by Talacent for the position of Supreme Ruler- in the end he chose you. You remember the pride you felt at being chosen, though you felt awkward and self conscious at being paraded around. Kimnan was jealous, you remember that, he's always been a bit of a dickhead. But in a good way. Ingar though.... you don't remember anything about him. In fact, you haven't spoken to him since.

The Hegemony prefers to keep its highest people socially connected to one another- it may seem like a bad idea to make your once rivals and jealous types with high ambitions into positions of power, but traditionally this is how you avoided traitorous behavior and problems in the past.

Looking up his file, you see that he elected to be placed at a high and lucrative position in a web control position- a subsection of propaganda and data security, the job essentially just monitors trends and internet activity to find anti-social behaviors and report them to higher officials. It's a decently paying position, but much, MUCH below his station. He could be writing code for the Alavis master-core at his level of intelligence and training, but instead he settled for something an average Jaxtian man with a bit of experience and knowledge could accomplish. This instantly strikes you as suspicious- could it be the reason he took that position was to be able to scrub the activities of his secret rebellion off of the internet?

There is no evidence at all of him actually doing anything wrong, nor does he seem to have any anti-social behaviors or beliefs. I mean, you haven't spoken to the guy in over ten years. Direct action could end the terrorist threat instantly, but you'd had to hurt an innocent man.

>Arrest Ingar
>Go have a talk with Ingar
>Ignore Ingar for now and focus on finding the terrorist cell leaders
>Ask Ingar for help
>Other (write In)
>>
>>5080630
>Go have a talk with Ingar
>>
The last word might be "gliders." Some type of drone or flying vehicle to release the pox.

Let's talk with Ingar.... with a heavy escort for us
>>
>>5080594
>Weren't we the ones who came up with the 'alien conspiracy' thing to begin with?
That guy whose face we peeled said that his group was fighting against alien influence in addition to the supreme leaders. That's clearly a lie.
>>
>>5080630
>Go have a talk with Ingar
>If he seems even remotely suspicious, bring him in
>Eoba, too. Time for loyalty tests and a party purge.
>>
>>5080560
Plan failed, Hegemony knows
Release pox early
Hegemony will blame aliens
Powder is not of alien origin
Ready Gliders

Ahh. gliders, not fliers, perhaps?

>>5080630
>>Go have a talk with Ingar
>>
>>5080630
>Arrest Ingar
>>
>>5079752
Do you want to go full Sheev? That's how you go full Sheev.
>>
>>5079890
>Little trick

He locked you in a room with a personal clone he abused into being a wild killing machine.

I still shocks me Eoba wasn't arrested.
>>
>>5080560
>>5080550
>>5080445
Holy shit you are geniuses.
>>
>>5080630
>>5080687
This plus one.
>>
>>5080630
Oh. Speaking of Alavis - what happened to the interface program? Have we seen it since Agori took over?
>>
>>5080630
>Go have a talk with Ingar
>>
>>5080923
Alavis is the core of your day to day routines as the Supreme Ruler. But sometimes... she freaks you out a little bit. You don't really like her interface, makes her look like some weird horned creature. At least she's good at her job, being a computer at all. One of the reasons you're so disappointed in Ingar's career choice, and suspicious, is because he could be in here upgrading the Alavis core. In the meantime, let's pay him a visit.

Of course, you don't arrive with a giant military escort or anything like that. You know that Ingar is smart enough that, if he is part of the terrorist group, he's smart enough to know that your "random" visit to his workplace wouldn't be a coincidence, and you know what he's done. In such a case, he would also know you have security ready to arrest him as soon as he confesses, or doesn't, and wouldn't put up much of a fight. But in the event that he isn't a part of the terrorists at all, then dropping the hammer on him would just upset and confuse him- and accusing an innocent man of being a traitor is a very bad thing for the leadership of the Hegemony.

"Agori?! I mean- your grace!"

He was really surprised to see you, like he was in his own little world there.

"Hey Ingar- just thought I'd drop in. It's been a long time since we talked, so let's talk..."

After a few minutes of conversation, you don't detect any hostility or desire to flee, just a sense of general unease and distraction that is filling Ingar- which could be for any number of reasons. You're pretty sure Ingar isn't part of the NFI.

"...Ingar, I'll make the reason for my visit brief and clear. Why did you choose this position? You're a genius- a Supreme Ruler candidate is supposed to be one of the great leaders of the world. I was chosen to rule, but you are my equal in every way- and with your smarts you could revolutionize the computing world. This is much beneath you, my friend."

Ingar looks ashamed for a second, but answers in a voice that is surprisingly truthful.

"It was for... a woman."

You have to resist the urge to bust out laughing. You almost think he's joking with you, but he seems like he just admitted a dark secret.

"You know there are women everywhere, right Ingar? I mean, among the highest bachelors of the Hegemony- you're right there with Kimnan and I- Eoba and Talacent are already married and too old and Qenen is getting up there..."

"No! It's not like that at all!"

Of course- the idea of obsessing over one woman is alien to you, though that might be because you're an Alpha. In the history of Supreme Rulers, most have chosen one wife, except for Alpha Supreme Rulers, who always choose at least two. The polygamy instinct is stronger in you then most male Jaxtians, who already have stronger polygamy instincts then females.

"...I chose this job because she walks past this building every day. Here she comes now."
>>
You see her walk down the path- and the facts that Ingar have told you thus far really do make you confused.

She's not even very attractive- too cow headed. She is an exotic blonde, so maybe Ingar has a fetish for that; But Ingar is willing to take this low position that she doesn't even work at just to see her pass by. What's wrong with him? You can't understand it.

"Ingar- even if you'd want to mix your genes with a woman of such a lower status, I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. I guarantee you that her and a hundred more women- BLONDE women, would be lined up around this building if you announced you were interested."

"No Agori, that's not right. That would not happen- because she's already with another man. She's pledged and married to another person; and she has a child too. They're happy together."

"I mean... Don't you think it's time to move on?"

"I can't "move on", Agori. I love her. I love her so totally that I know there is nobody else. When I see her the stars stand aside. She completes my world. If she died, I would kill myself, because this vast universe wouldn't be worth living in anymore."

"..."
>>
You watch the woman walk away for a moment longer before you realize Ingar is no longer with you- no, he's moved.

You turn, and see him bowing before you- the position of surrender towards one's superior. This is the gesture that one gives to the Supreme Ruler when one has failed, or been disgraced. It is an ignoble position for someone like Ingar, so high status and a personal friend of yours.

"Agori- my Supreme Ruler. You are omnipotent. And you are my only chance."

"Ingar-"

"Please listen- you're the only one who has the authority to do this. Even if I was king of the AI network, I couldn't do anything- what, doctor some photos of him cheating on her? That's child play. The truth is I know it's wrong but you are the only one I can turn to now. Agori- please, I beg you, force her to break up with him. Demand she marry me instead. You can just say it's part of the eugenic program. I will gladly do anything you wish for the rest of my life. I'll raise another man's child for her sake- I don't care. I don't care if she hates me. I just want to be with her. You're the only one who can do this. Please Agori, please help me."

You don't like this at all- Ingar is putting a lot on you here, and to break up a happy family for his seflish crush would be inexcusable. But... at the same time, there is a bit of logic behind it.

The Hegemony tramples on everyone- men, women, and children. Women more then most. In your society, women are commonly made to work secondary, lesser positions as a matter of habit, and while most women are fine with that, some feel constrained by the Hegemony's masculine ideals and male centric philosphies. At the same time, the feelings or life of one person, and one woman, are not worth the lives of billions. In the past, Supreme Rulers have seen beautiful young women on the streets and just demanded them, right on the spot. Did the world end? No- no great catastrophe happened. No divine punishment.

In truth, Ingar being happy would objectively give more to the Hegemony then the couple that he wants to break apart. If Ingar rewrote the Alavis core, or even just upgraded the internet code to be 1% more efficient, he would be offsetting the life of one family a few thousand, or million times over.

In the end, it comes down to principle, and your gut. What does you gut say now?

>Agree and force the woman to marry Ingar
>Deny Ingar's request and keep the family together
>>
>>5081502
>>Agree and force the woman to marry Ingar
"Ingar you worthless idiot. This is the only request I'll grant to you, serve poorly and it will be taken away."
>>
>>5081502
>Deny Ingar's request and keep the family together
Leaving him with a wife and son who hate him won't make him more productive for us. First he wants her, eventually he'll want her to love him. We need to get him out of this job and get him set up with a therapist or someone who can help him move on. Or get Alavis to find a genetically and physically similar single woman who he has a chance with. There are billions of Jaxians there has to be someone who both fits his physical desires and can actually be a good wife.
>>
>>5081502
>>5081560 +1
>>
>>5081502

>Agree and force the woman to marry Ingar

Having better AI is worth more then a single fucking marriage, don't be simps
>>
>>5081502
>>5081560
+1

Ingar, what the fuck, man.
>>
>>5081502
Jesus fuck what is wrong with this generation of supreme candidates?

>Deny
>>
>>5081502
>>5081560
Supporting this. You know how hard it is yourself to find a worthy woman to stand beside you, but c'mon. Time to move on, when you let go of the past, you can see the future before you. And Ingar, it's time for you to let go. Not saying this as the Supreme Monkey, but saying this as a friend.
>>
>>5081560
+1
>Also, order a clone of this woman that will be reared to love Ingar

If it is purely for the visual appeal of this woman, then surely a genetic clone would suffice? Ingar will get the woman he loves, and even a version of her that perhaps could love him back.
>>
>>5081598
We shouldn't be encouraging his obsession. Hedgmony reasources are for the benefit of the whole people. Using them to make a personal fuck doll for a higher up is the kind of corruption the NFI deludes themselves into thinking exists.
>>
>>5081602
Ingar isn't actually a higher up, though. He has the genescores to be one, but he's wasting his life in this mediocre position with minimal accomplishment purely because of his crush. And whilst I would not condone breaking up a happy family purely to get Ingar a woman who wouldn't love him back (which in the end probably wouldn't give Ingar the happiness needed to make him effective), cloning this woman to raise an unattached genetic 'twin' who might love Ingar back, and might also give him the effectiveness needed to improve and revolutionise our computing.

And at the end of the day we wouldn't be raising a 'fuckdoll', just a Jaxtian female. Sure, we can try to raise her to find certain things appealing, but the main point is to get a version without pre-existing personal attachments - in the end it'll still be up for Ingar to seal the deal.
>>
>>5081598
That woman isn't even attractive, so I don't think her appareance is what seduced him.
It's just a weird obsession.
>>
>>5081560
+1, but be sure to explain to him this.

Sure, we could set him up with his obsession, but what if he doesn't like her personally in the end? After all, he literally hasn't talked to her. She's basically a symbol of femininity for him, more than all things.

If we set him up and he didn't like her, what then? It would crush his spirit to the greatest depths.
>>
>>5081578
It isn't about an marriage. We probably break more loves on a monthly basis due to our despotic totalitarian big brother-tier government than.

The problem is that this isn't going to bring him happiness.
>>
>>5081502
>Deny Ingar's request and keep the family together

I get the feeling Ingar has never actually spoken to this woman - and actually only knows about her personal situation by using his position to observe her remotely (he is in charge of part of our surveillance state after all). Chances are even if we did as he asked, he'd end up hating her or something.
>>
>>5081502
>Agree and force the woman to marry Ingar
Or a clone. I don't care. Just get this loser working again.
>>
>>5081592
To be fair, Kinman is probably just like Eoba.
>>
>>5081502
>Agree and force the woman to marry ingmar
Im fine with this or the clone if we get better shit in the long run, but tell him this is the stupidest and lowest shit to do and hes gonna regret it more than anything, we however wont if he helps society
>>
>>5081502
>Deny Ingar

As others have pointed out, this won't bring him happiness anyway... And we must remain principled.
>>
>Talk to him in a way of earnest well-meaning.
Tell him it is great to love another, but this posessive desire won't bring him real happiness.
Tell him there are ways to get him to move on, to love someone who can well and truly love him back, through terapy and conditioning. Tell him that while you can force that woman to marry him, you can't force her to love him.
>>
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>>5081502
>Deny Ingar's request and keep the family together
A wife won't necessarily make him happy and more productive for reasons the others already explained, but that's beyond the point. Even if it DID work, screwing over a woman's life just so a loser can make everyone's Internet browsing time slightly faster is a spineless and entitled decision if you ask me. Think about it: you're making one person sacrifice everything so the rest perceive benefits that may not mean that much to them on an individual level. It's as cucked as letting a woman get raped by hundreds of bandits because 'they're having a good time' and thus a higher 'net gain of happiness' than if you rescued her.

Technological progress based on sacrifices, especially without looking for alternatives (is this simp the ONLY guy who can be in charge of this project?) is also setting a terrible historical standard for the future, unless you hide the truth from the public, which only shows how shady your government is. It would be cool if all the stuff the Hegemony pulls off became public knowledge. I bet most Jaxtians would disagree, and if they're fine with it so long as they get something out of it then their whole society can get fucked.
>>
>>5081560
This, we have to get him taken care of.
>>
Update is being worked on, will be up tomorrow or earlier. "Deny" is the voting result.
>>
"Will you do this for me, Agori?"

"No."

"...But, what am I-"

"You're not going to do anything, little man. You're obsessed with this girl that you know nothing about- she could be a horrible person. Would you really want to be stuck with her after I force her to marry you?"

"No! No, that can't be true..."

You intentionally insulted his obsession there- to gauge his reaction. He didn't respond with aggression though, he sounded more like he was doubting it himself. That's good.

"You need to get away from her- and out of here. This position is beneath you. We'll be moving you to EJCC, a much more dense urban area with some excellent computer infrastructure, or so I'm told..."

"You mean I can't even watch her anymore...? Please don't do this Agori. I don't want this to be over..."

"Don't worry Ingar, I have a plan. Alavis, take a message."[/blue[ Holding your data device to your face, you begin to speak.

"Hello ladies of Jaxt- this is your SUPREME RULER speaking. I just so happen to have a friend here. You see, he's a really nice guy, talented, and just got appointed to one of the top tech jobs in Eastern Central City-"

"Oh no- Agori. Don't."

"But here's the thing, this playboy with some of the best genes in the Hegemony is still single- he's way too shy to ask any girls out."

"No nononono-" Ingar is trying to grab the device out of your hands. You just lean away from him.

"...Because the thing he- he only likes BLONDE women! That's right, he has a fetish for it or something. He just gets too intimidated by how beautiful, exotic, and sexy blondes are! Are there any young, single blonde ladies who wanna set something up with him? Reply to this message if you're interested."

Ingar looks like he wants the earth to swallow him. He covers his face.

"Hey Ingar- looks like you have... two, three hundred replies already? Heh, you're gonna be a busy guy going on these dates. You're welcome, buddy."

"...Yeah... Thanks a lot."
>>
In the following weeks, you use your knowledge of the NFI and the movements of clandestine groups to isolate and stop the terrorist plot.

Because of how quickly you decoded the cypher and moved against the radicals, you totally stopped their plot, with zero casualties.

You also learned a lot about what they were doing. Apparently- their plan involved a genetically modified version of a deadly primate disease; something obliterated before the Hegemony was even formed, meaning that nobody has any resistance to it in these modern times. The disease was carried in a thick powder- safe to handle until it powderizes and can be inhaled.

Apparently, the "glider" mentioned by the note were actual tourist gliders- if modified with an antigravity engine from any old hovercraft and some shielding, it can easily be used as a low-orbit spacecraft. If the powder was released in the stratosphere- it could be sprinkled over massive amounts of land- both urban and rural would be infected by this deadly disease.

This plot is the largest ever attempted coup or direct action taken again the Hegemony. No other terrorist plot came close to it in terms of pure manpower and potential scale of destruction. In the end- you managed to capture the Supplier and corner the final terrorist leader- the Phantom, in the last safehouse.
>>
Your Enforcers stand outside the house with breathing masks. You and your aide, Qenen, arrive on the scene in an armored transport.

"It should only be a few minutes now, your Supremacy. The paralysis gas will make arresting them easy, and allows them to be taken away for interrogation or a proper punishment over nerve gas agents we normally use on standoff situations like this."

"Mhmm."

"We had the gas delivered by drone- no warning was given. We aren't anticipating any bioweapon or chemical traps, as we stopped the shipments early..."
>>
"...Are you sure we should be standing outside?"

"I want to have a chat with this Phantom guy, personally. Besides, they're all paralyzed now- and anticipating a breach from our soldiers...."

"Agor-!!!"

*BANG*

Oh shit! A gunshot rang out from a window above- one of them must have been able to get a breathing mask on before the gas got to him. Qenen jumped in the way of the bullet... that was meant for you. Shit, he fell to the ground clutching his sides and chest- his blood is kind of bright. That looks like arterial blood.

"ohhhfffuck- this hurts."
"Qenen?!"
"How is it?"
"Bad. This will kill you."

"N-No it won't. Focus on rallying the troops against the enemy- if you don't storm that building, the Phantom will destroy the records of involvement- probably the recipe for the bioweapons too- *cough* fuck..."

Shit, Qenen is refusing to accept your help right now. Jaxtian medical technology has advanced in leaps and bounds in recent years- but a bullet through a major organ is still going to be hard to survive- and there is no medical team here yet.

"Go-! Help the Enforcers. If they go in there without any warning they'll get gunned down..."

Now he's acting delirious. Or maybe just trying to get you to leave him to die in peace. But you don't want that to happen. What should you do?

>Save Qenen
>Rally the soldiers and storm the building (Chance that Qenen dies)
>>
>>5082723
>Rally the soldiers and storm the building (Chance that Qenen dies)
Stopping something like this from happening again is worth far more than one man. Let's not get sentimental.
>>
Can we get someone to handle him? We aren't exactly doctors, are we? Even if we have to pull back an enforcer, it's better than them going in without the guy we specifically chose for military stuff.
>>
>>5082723
>Rally the soldiers and storm the building (Chance that Qenen dies)
Qenen was always a devoted guy that didn't mind sacrificing his retirement to help us, he wouldn't want us to value his life more than the Hegemony.
>>
>>5082723
>>Rally the soldiers and storm the building (Chance that Qenen dies)
>>
>>5082723
>Rally the soldiers and storm the building
Salute him for his service and for a recovery, then off to the races.
>>
>>5082723
>Rally the soldiers and storm the building
We're getting you a statue and all the gold arm-rings, dead or alive.
>>
>>5082723
>Rally the soldiers and storm the building
Alas... Poor Qenen

On another note:
>>5082710
Agori, what the fuck?
>>
>>5082723
>>Rally the soldiers and storm the building (Chance that Qenen dies)

I want Agori to be safe. But we NEED to make this mission a success and stop this threat to our world and our people.
>>
>>5082866
...Qenen to be safe, even. But Agori has a job to do.
>>
>Rally the men, tell one to look after Qenen.
>>
>>5082853
>Agori, what the fuck?
To be fair, it did get the job done.
>>
>>5082723
>>Rally the soldiers and storm the building (Chance that Qenen dies)
If he dies name a ship or moon after him
>>
>>5082907
We'll see. He seemed pretty unhappy with the sudden onslaught of public attention. I can only help one of the blonde babes suits him.
>>
>>5082853
I kinda like the It's Sunny in Philadelphia era of this game. More characters who are horrible people please!
>>
>>5083526
Maybe Eoba was right about good times producing weak men... Just not quite in the way he thought. Maybe good/boring times have possibly producing neurotic, weird Jaxtians who have a lot of psychological issues towards violence or obsessive behaviour, Eoba himself included.
>>
>>5082723
>>5082783 +1
>>
>>5083536
Honestly, i feel like you're right. Look at Agori, and then compare him to someone like Vantix Garastra.
>>
"You! Enforcer, give my your mask and your gun."

The Enforcer shakily agrees, and then you direct him to help Qenen. He's not a professional medic, but anything will help.

Invading the house with the squad, you go from room to room, breaching and clearing each chamber. You are trained in the basics of such things, but the squad's highly advanced and mobile way of moving and clearing is still something inspiring. Only the best for Jaxtian Enforcers- the police, crisis authorities, and counter-terrorists all in one.

"We are nearing the shooter on the second floor. Please allow me to go first, my lord."

The one speaking is the pointman of this squad- a typical diminutive blonde. There's a certain serendipity to being in this situation; like a sum up of your unnecessary life. The leader of this squad is half your height and probably a third of your weight, and he does his job WELL. The tiny blonde is just as dangerous as you, with none of the slow, loud, clunky movements that your huge body produces. Both of you will die to a bullet; so why not be half as big? You find this all very amusing. Millions of years of Jaxtian evolution, over a thousand years of armed conflict- all made irrelevant by a metal tube that shoots metal balls really fast. Doesn't matter how big and tough you are- a bullet will still kill you.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

...But not Qenen, right? A bullet won't kill him. He's tough. He's not even that old. You just left him out there- but you know he'll pull through.
>>
You are interrupted in your reverie by somebody grabbing your pint-sized pointman. Hmm? He's getting overpowered by an unarmed adult Jaxtian- hey wait, you can help with this.

"RAWWRRGGHGH!"

Your smash your fist against the crown of his head so hard his neck snaps forward. He's dead- or at least paralyzed. Your gas mask slipped off from how oversized your jowls are- but you don't really need it anyway. The amount of gas in this building couldn't make someone of your stature even sleepy at this point.

You have finally manged to corner the last man; The Phantom. The leader of the whole operation. He has surrendered by the time you enter the room- hands up, gun set aside, with him taking a few steps away. He was too smart to get into a fight- he knew how it would go for him. Though not smart enough to kill himself before you captured him.

Getting one look at him- you aren't surprised at all. There's nothing weird about him. That makes perfect sense. Why wouldn't the leader of a terrorist cell be normal? Totally unassuming? No birthmarks, no weird scars, no Indigo or Alpha or blonde uniqueness, not tattoos or even a weird fur pattern. He's not tall or short, nothing is special about him at all. He blends in- that's exactly what is meant by him being a Phantom. And now he's yours.

The Hegemony has triumphed over the newest threat against its homefront- the NFI. As the ruler of the Hegemony, the exact fate of all involved is totally up to you; and with your brave storming of this building, you have almost all of their literature, bioweapon data, and old equipment for reclamation and destruction. It's time to decide what to do with it.

>Keep a sample of the disease as a potential bioweapon to use against Jaxtians in the future
>Make the case public and make the punishment of the Phantom public as an example
>Burn the safehouses and evidence to the ground, and portray the Hegemony in its most Utopian light- free from terrorism.
>Other (Write In)
>>
>>5083711
>Keep a sample of the disease as a potential bioweapon to use against Jaxtians in the future
If a nobody could get its hands on it then it's better to keep the disease under control and make a cure for it before the need arises.
>>Burn the safehouses and evidence to the ground, and portray the Hegemony in its most Utopian light- free from terrorism.
There is no need for others to know about the bioweapon. If we keep it then it's better to censor the whole deal then have folks ask where the sample are.
>>
>>5083711
>Make the case public
There is value in keeping secrets, but sometimes some secrets that were left to fester ends up becoming a problem. Honesty is the deal here for now.
>>
>>5083711
>Make the case public and make the punishment of the Phantom public as an example
>>
>>5083711
>Keep a sample of the disease as a potential bioweapon to use against Jaxtians in the future
>Burn the safehouses and evidence to the ground, and portray the Hegemony in its most Utopian light- free from terrorism.
Most Jaxtians think that stuff like terrorism is over and that's why the Hegemony is superior to all other forms of government.
Making the case public may be good for our own personal image but would hurt the image of the Hegemony in the long-term and worse prove that IS IT possible for ordinary citizens to threaten it.
>>
>>5083711
>Keep a sample of the disease as a potential bioweapon to use against Jaxtians in the future
>>Burn the safehouses and evidence to the ground, and portray the Hegemony in its most Utopian light- free from terrorism.
>>
>>5083757
>Burn the safehouses and evidence to the ground, and portray the Hegemony in its most Utopian light- free from terrorism.
What that other anon said.
>>
>>5083711
>Make the case public and make the punishment of the Phantom public as an example
Dissent must be punished
>>
>>5083711
>Review all evidence thoroughly first

The last thing we want to do is publish something that accidently makes us look stupid or publicises any anti-hegemony goal that might be seen in favourable light. We also want to make sure that Talacent's anti-alien speech doesn't make him or us look too misled.

That said, if we can communicate the threat that the NFI posed to the average Jaxtian - they would have killed thousands of innocents if their plan had succeeded - and make ourselves look suitably heroic and vigilant for thwarting them, then:
>Make the case public and make the punishment of the Phantom public as an example
>>
>>5083802
>Burn the safehouses and evidence to the ground, and portray the Hegemony in its most Utopian light- free from terrorism.
Changing my vote to this from
>>5083802

Just realised what our leader is likely to do to this guy if he gets 'public justice' - we do not want to accidently create a martyr out of this terrorist criminal.
>>
>>5083711
>Review the evidence carefully
>THEN burn the safehouse down, and declare absolute victory over terrorism
>>
>>5083802
>Support
>>
>>5083802
support
>>
Votes have opted to review the case carefully over keeping samples for your own use. Votes are tied between keeping the incident a secret or making the Phantom public + an example. If the tie is not broken within 10 hours it will be determined randomly.
>>
>>5083711
>Burn the safehouses and evidence to the ground, and portray the Hegemony in its most Utopian light- free from terrorism.
>>
>>5084556
Do it in secret. We already covered this up, revealing it this late will make us look bad
>>
>>5084556
Destroy the evidence and keep it secret
>>
You arrest the Phantom- and order for this be kept covered up. Enforcers are well trained for this kind of thing; as any one of them could interact with something that needs to remain a secret forever.

As you leave the building with your new high-class prisoner- you have only one thing to see. Qenen.

He's dead.

Qenen died from the gunshot, which caused too much damage and bloodloss too fast. He wasn't young, but he wasn't young either. The soldier you put in charge bows to you deeply and accepts full responsibility for your aide's death, but you absolve him. He did nothing wrong- you chose, at Qenen's own request, to secure the mission instead of saving his life. He was selfless to the end, an ideal Jaxtian. Still... it makes you sad. Goodbye friend.

You are not Qenen's son, and as such you have no say in how he will be buried and remembered. But you do give his son a gift- the right and privilege to mark Qenen's grave or resting place with the Hegemonic Seal. Only the Supreme Rulers, and those blessed by them, may be laid to rest at such a symbol. It is the greatest owner you can bestow upon the dead.

The resources, technologies, and genetic code used by the NFI are complied, saved, and then quickly destroyed along with the bioweapons and equipment used to make them. You have decided to keep this a secret, so the prisoners will be sectioned off and not introduced publicly. The Phantom's death will be quick and efficient- as with all the others in his group. Too fast for the likes of him.

Because you did not publicize the executions and actions of the terrorists- the general vibe of the Hegemony remains undisturbed. Your reign is begun as a continuation of Talacent's in a way; which isn't bad in any way- Talacent represents the Golden Age. Culture, art, and advancement continues at its pace, but the people are not as obedient as they may have been. With that mess cleaned up- maybe you can go back to normalcy!
>>
In the next five years, your actions and society have lead to several important and prominent breakthroughs.

The first is a new, much more stable Fusion Core process for space craft and orbital stations without reliable heat sinks. Requiring the use of the magna-ring technology stolen from the Baalathi cylinder- heat can be stored and ejected from a ship through the use of radiation and venting super high energy Helium made into plasma; a useful way to rid the ship of its reactor core's waste product.

The second is, by forcing Ingar to get his shit together, involved with computing. You forced him to leave his position back at the data position, and come work for your central, high-class servers; especially the ones involved with the Alavis core. Ingar's has since upgraded Alavis with a new interface and AI protocals. While the jump in this generation of computing technology is not as significant as the one that was invented to protect against the data prion- it is still an improvement of prediction and algorithm creation. Automatically, Alavis's new core has begun rewriting and remaking its own core programming blocks while losing none of the "spirit" of what it is supposed to be- increased efficiency at all fronts. Which was also of a great help to your spaceship engineering teams...
>>
The first HDCFV (Hyperdrive Capable Fusion Vehicle) is now in orbit over Jaxt, being piloted by Alavis's new AI core, and powered by your stable fusion spin reactor. Unnecessary parts, like a crew quarters and bridge, were removed for the purposes of this prototype.

While older models of Hyperdrive that only accelerated a few subatomic particles were limited in speed and accuracy, this new ship's Hyperdrive is capable of traveling at the impossible speed of twelve times the speed of light. While there is no known upper limit of speed while using Hyperspace, the hope is that this still impressive velocity is only the beginning.

You are within in your control room. It's a pretty big day. It's been almost 100 years since Kinja Dulioan declared Faster-Then-Light travel your long term goal of the Hegemony. Of course, each Supreme Ruler is Supreme, but the actions of the previous Supremes must be honored, else we will never learn for history, nor can we build for the future. Hundreds of billions of Danbo marks have built up to this.

"Finally, your grace, the day will come to bring the Jaxtian people into the galaxy proper. To the Stars!"

Before you is the big red button. The moment it is pressed, Alavis will fire the engines and make the ship take a full trip around your star, and then stop again- all piloted by your ship's state of the art computer core.

>Ask for confirmation that it isn't going to blow anything up first
>Make a stirring speech to the future and eternal Reich of the Hegemony
>Insist that there be a worthy man aboard that ship to be the first FTL Jaxtian (Specify who)
>PUSH THE BUTTON!!!
>>
>>5085064
>Ask for confirmation that it isn't going to blow anything up first
>PUSH THE BUTTON!!!...but don't try breaking it with our monke strength.
>>
>>5085064
>PUSH THE BUTTON!!!
A speech would be good but Agori doesn't seems to be a great talker desu.
>>
>>5085064
>Ask for confirmation that it isn't going to blow anything up first
>Make a stirring speech to the future and eternal Reich of the Hegemony
>PUSH THE BUTTON!!!
>>
>>5085064
>Make a stirring speech to the future and eternal Reich of the Hegemony
>PUSH THE BUTTON!!!
>>
Fuck it

All of the above
And put Talacent on it if he is still alive
>>
>>5085064
>Make a stirring speech to the future and eternal Reich of the Hegemony
>PUSH THE BUTTON!!!
THE HEGEMONY WILL LAST A THOUSAND YEARS, REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
>>
>>5085044
How else
will we
be free

So just general anti-Hegenomists in the end; nothing about supreme leader's genes at all.

>>5085064
>Make a concise speech to the future.
We're not as verbally gifted as Talacent, he could speak for hours; but I imagine we could have gotten our team to put together something suitable (and short).

>PUSH THE BUTTON!!!
(I assume we're not actually going to run the first FTL test in the inner system, right? Head out beyond Max at our current speeds and THEN run the FTL orbital test)

If we needed a pilot for this ship, I'd have put Kimnan in the pilot's seat to be the first FTL Jaxtian. But we'll keep him with us as spectators - there's no point sticking a Jaxtian on an unmanned test-flight. It kind of misses the point.
>>
>>5085064
>twelve times the speed of light
Our nearest habitable system is now effectively 4 months away. Fuck yeah! More seriously, we just gained a huge step up over all known alien species, strategically and tactically both in terms of mobility and growth-potential.
>>
>>5085064
>Make a stirring speech to the future and eternal Reich of the Hegemony

>"Ladies and gentlemonkeys. We have, in such a short span of time, overcome so much. Our crowning achievement of the Star Dynamo only a few hundred years ago has been surpassed by the foremost scientific minds of our time. The foul Baa'lathi and their terrible attack has been foiled. With this new tool, and all the strength and character of our ancestors before us, we will overcome yet more, and expand the reach of our great nation to the stars beyond! For Jaxt, and for the Hegemony!"

>PUSH THE BUTTON!!!
>>
>>5085179
>nothing about supreme leader's genes at all.
Called it.
>>
>>5085064
>Ask for confirmation that it isn't going to blow anything up first
>Make a stirring speech to the future and eternal Reich of the Hegemony
>Insist that there be a worthy man aboard that ship to be the first FTL Jaxtian (Specify who)
Kimnan would make a good first FTL Jaxian.
>PUSH THE BUTTON!!!
>>
>>5085064
All the above. Get Talacent or Kinman in the ship.
>>
"This isn't going to blow everything up... right?"

"Well... it is unlikely. We aren't exactly sure what will happen when this much solid matter is entered into hyperspace. There are a few distinct possibilities- the first is that this violation of the relativistic physics means more then one ship will reappear when it arrives at its destination- as it is going faster then light, it goes backwards in time."

"Uh huh."

"The second is that, when this massive amount of energy is released, it may create a nigh-infinite amount of mass, creating a localized black hole that would destroy our entire solar system- though I mean the chances of that are very unlikely... Only two or three percent."

"Mhmm hmm." You say, your finger still hovering over the button, without a hint of moving it away.

"A-and there is a chance of a breakdown of the ship's matter into its most base subatomic forms- down to quarks at the very least- releasing a massive amount of energy..."

Oh hell, fuck this. You PUSH THE BUTTON!

The Al aboard the ship powers on and powers up the generator. The idling ship was storing the energy for a hyperspace jump- and begins to release its excess heat in a thick cloud of waste gas- before finally disappearing into hyperspace with a flash!

The trip around your star for your planet is one Jaxtian year. Given this ship's speed, it should be able to complete it in about four minutes. But you are realistic, you know the ship AI won't be perfect in aligning the trajectories the first time. The highly intelligent AI onboard will have to do the work of figuring out how to pilot in Hyperspace off the cuff...

It doesn't appear after four minutes. Then not five, or ten. It takes over half an hour- 36 minutes and 32 seconds exactly. The ship reappears, several units away from its target destination. It's also heavily damaged. The Al aboard the ship and the Al on your planet exchange information, merging to become one mind again, at the speed of light to figure out what happened.

"It seems the jump to Hyperspace is very difficult for piloting. The computer's circuits are halfway fried- not from excess energy or short circuit but from being overclocked so hard to accomplish its goal. It seems that, while the ship is capable of flying itself once entering hyperspace, the jump to and from normal space is very difficult for a computer- making a pilot necessary for the "takeoff" and "landing" so to speak."

And before you know it, Kimnan is in the room. You're actually not sure how he got in here.
>>
You are Kimnan Oles, again.

When you were young, you helped defend the Hegemony from the second assault from the Baalathi cylinder. You were awarded a golden band. That was your mark on history- a prodigy ace pilot. Your entire life you've lived in the shadow of that moment.

When at youth camp with other developing boys, you had to be first in everything. You had to stand out, go above and beyond. You had to be the best- while not necessarily at everything, you had to be the best at flying at the very least. You're well trained and bred enough to purge fallacious ideas from your own mind- but Eoba's obsession with tradition and the strength of your ancestors has corrupted even you. After all, he was your direct superior for most of your life- being the high general and all.

You've always been proud- or more accurately, arrogant of yourself. But you sometimes wonder if you really deserve to wear this band. If something is done by somebody young, or stupid, or outmatched- they are considered heroic. The same as our ancestors who hunted beasts with spears- they were heroic. While our later ancestors who hunted with guns were considered bourgeois, wastrels, decadent. Did you get an award because you were the best, or because you were the best a kid could be?

Now- you've been assigned to run fly the HDCFV for its second jump in hyperspace. The few weeks it took to update the ship to hold a crew and life support gave you time to reflect. There may not be going back from this- mentally or physically. As you grip the controls, you know its almost time again to put it all on the line.

The first Hyperspace jump seemed to go correctly- but the Alavis core aboard was scrambled in the process. The time dilation and physical strain seemed tolerable to a living being; but its computer systems seemed to have a hard time recording or describing what had happened to it for those thirty six minutes it spent in a higher plane of existence.

"Ignition, check. Fusion core, check. Controls and AI core, check. Systems nominal. Preparing for Hyperacceleration..."
>>
You can feel the jump to Hyperspeed like a punch to the gut, the same ignition g-force of a heritage fighter on a simulation- despite this ship's inertial dampeners.

For a few seconds, you think space has just gone dark. Targeting computers go dark and blind for a second, Alavis struggles to keep up with your coordinates, speed tracker, and other factors. Worse yet, you look out the blast-window to see nothing but darkness; like you were ejected into the most soulless void of black space...

But now you begin to see again. Your frame of reference is gone as your solar system gives way to void- you lose track of landmarks. The computer isn't helping much either. Something is really wrong here. It's like reality is breaking down. You can only stare in disbelief as you look around the cabin and see things bleeding into other things, like the relative abstraction of distance becomes meaningless.

And then it hits you- you're still traveling at twelve times the speed of light. You're probably out by Max by now, if not out of your home solar system already. You're going really fucking fast. You need to wrangle the ship back into order somehow, and bring it down to real-space and prove this thing you are doing is possible, or die trying. For the Hegemony!

>Align the ship towards the nearest reference point
>Try to get Alavis's core back online
>Use your muscle memory and steer the ship back to Jaxt
>Cut all power to the engines and see if you can drop down to realspace again. (Chance of something very bad happening)
>>
>>5085724
>Align the ship towards the nearest reference point

Definitely NOT back to Jaxt before dropping out of hyperspace. Maybe Planet V?
>>
>>5085724
>Align the ship towards the nearest reference point
>>
>>5085724
>Align the ship towards the nearest reference point
>>
>>5085724
>Align the ship towards the nearest reference point
>>
>>5085724
>>Try to get Alavis's core back online
>>
>>5085724
>Try to get Alavis's core back online
>>
>>5085724
>Try to get Alavis's core back online
We were just told that the pilot is essential for the 'takeoff' and the 'landing' but that the ship can fly itself when in Hyperspace.
>>
>>5085724
>Align the ship towards the nearest reference point
The AI core will hardly do anything,
>>
>>5085724
>Align the ship towards the nearest reference point

>>5085981
We're trying to stop, not fly
>>
We seriously need to invest in therapy for these people

Nearest reference point please
>>
You need to get your bearings back. As long as this Alavis core isn't going to work; you need to rely on your own sense of direction.

But what is a point of reference? You're traveling so fast everything is bleeding away- but you know that logically you should still be able to see landmarks. Stars, galaxies- everything seems to have gone away though. Except for the largest objects...

As you stare at them, you realize that your vision seems to be "tracking" along with each. You see each thing connected to every other thing, with thinner and thinner strands. It takes you a while to realize it, but you think you're getting it. You can see the connections of gravity in Hyperspace. Everything is pulling on everything else. It's like a 3 dimensional object being crushed into a 2 dimensional void; you can see the strands of gravity from normalspace as an extant object in Hyperspace. Of course, that's just your gut guess. After all, you weren't enrolled to be a Hegemonic Philosopher. You are a pilot, and that's what you are going to do.

You know that the nearest large gravity object to you is going to be your star; so you focus on the nearest heavy space, following the endless lines, and shut out all distractions. You force the ship to fly back towards the heavy space, and then engage the landing protocols. Slowing reducing your speed and energy levels to drop gently down from your current high-energy quantum state...
>>
You focus up and land your ship- back in realspace. The nearest high-gravity object as actually Max it seemed, the gas giant being many times smaller then your star, but many times bigger then any space station or cloud of interstellar gas- objects like planets, moons, and other ships seem too small to appear on your current Hyperspace scanners, which probably explains why the unmanned ship found it impossible to land next to Jaxt correctly after its flight.

You release a cloud of super-heated Helium and sit back, feeling strangely elated from your experience. You did it, the first Jaxtian to fly faster then light...

You are now Agori Falathane, and it worked! It finally worked! After a century of effort, the Hegemony has conquered the second greatest known obstacle to your civilization.

With the effort complete, your AI begins chartering ideas and plans on how to move forward with this. The data directly streamed from Kimnan's account of what is happening is being considered for safety, mental health, and colonization guidelines. Of course, much of the strange shock and confusion he seemed to experience was because he was flying the ship, anyone who would be in suspension for the trip would be unconscious- even with only a few months of travel time, your ships aren't quite big and advanced enough to warrant giant hydroponic farms- much better to just put the settlers in stasis until they arrive. But this means everything; interstellar colonization and conquest is finally in your grasp.
>>
"Hail, Supreme Ruler!"

You are suddenly messaged by Bluey- your liaison to the captive Haazar population. You don't know him that well; he was more of a close friend of Talacent, or more practically his son. In a way, you're like brothers- you are Talacent's son in spirit, and Bluey was raised much like his son. Still, your relationship is professional; with you his lord and master.

"This is high command speaking. You have sent this message on an emergency channel. What is happening?"

"Well, it's hard to explain but- as the Haazar ambassador, I am supposed to report on any strange or important happenings among the Haazar population. Something strange and important is happening."

"I see. What is it?"

"Well, erm, your grace- the Haazar ship is... talking? For this entire time, we assumed the Haazar ship was incapable of FTL communications, or that it was destroyed or disabled by the previous captain before meeting with our species-"

Huh. He called himself a Jaxtian there- it's nice to see he still considers himself one of us. I mean, he is actually 10% Jaxtian, but still.

"-But it seems the ship itself is capable of processing FTL signals? I'm not sure. It's all so sudden. I don't know if this ship is capable of responding- patching signals through to high command. Please stand by..."

The Alavis core in your command center begins to process the signals; relating them and using cipher-breaking technology to try and translate them as best as possible. There's no way this is coincidence. This only happened after you sent the first manned flight into Hyperspace; so it seems whoever is sending these messages now knows there is a new FTL civilization on the block...
>>
------------
Hey everybody, thanks for playing in the quest so far! I decided to take a short break here, and maybe get some feedback on the direction it is going, and to see what works and what doesn't.

>Do the dialogue heavy story bits / introspection on a single Supreme Ruler's life slow the game down too much?

>Do you feel like the votes are fairly being counted and options combined or mixed when appropriate for the group consensus?

>Do you feel like the FTL unlock came too slowly and was underwhelming? Or was interesting enough to finally see?

>Favorite Supreme Ruler so far?
>>
>>5086895
>Do the dialogue heavy story bits / introspection on a single Supreme Ruler's life slow the game down too much?
I like it like is it, characters have a lot of flavor for a civ quest or even in general
>Do you feel like the votes are fairly being counted and options combined or mixed when appropriate for the group consensus?
Yeah
>Do you feel like the FTL unlock came too slowly and was underwhelming? Or was interesting enough to finally see?
I think that it's fine.
>Favorite Supreme Ruler so far?
Probably Vul for dealing with other Helper thing and generally being cool.
>>
>>5086895
>Do the dialogue heavy story bits / introspection on a single Supreme Ruler's life slow the game down too much?

Nah, absolutely not. It's good to get characterization for each ruler, and the pacing is great.

>Do you feel like the votes are fairly being counted and options combined or mixed when appropriate for the group consensus?

Yeah, feels fair.

>Do you feel like the FTL unlock came too slowly and was underwhelming? Or was interesting enough to finally see?

No- you did a good job of making pre-FTL very interesting. I'm excited to see where it goes.

>Favorite Supreme Ruler so far?

Talacent and Vul are tied in my mind. Vul is a total BAMF for dealing with Helper, and Talacent really rose above himself to be an awesome Mandela-esque leader.
>>
>>5086895
>Do the dialogue heavy story bits / introspection on a single Supreme Ruler's life slow the game down too much?
Nah, it's good to be able to see the inner thoughts of a ruler.
>>Do you feel like the votes are fairly being counted and options combined or mixed when appropriate for the group consensus?
Seems like it.
>>Do you feel like the FTL unlock came too slowly and was underwhelming? Or was interesting enough to finally see?
Honestly, i haven't quite understood this whole gravity line thing, but it's been pretty good. We've been working on this for what? Three supreme leaders?
>Favorite Supreme Ruler so far?
Vantix Garastra will always be the best for me, he was the real OG.
>>
>Do the dialogue heavy story bits / introspection on a single Supreme Ruler's life slow the game down too much?

Nah -- it's key to the distinct flavour and pacing of this quest. It makes each era feel distinct! It also makes our successor choices doubly relevant. Honestly, with Supreme Rulers living twice as long, I wouldn't mind MORE personal projects and opportunities to steer domestic policy and staffing decisions!

>Do you feel like the votes are fairly being counted and options combined or mixed when appropriate for the group consensus?

For sure.

>Do you feel like the FTL unlock came too slowly and was underwhelming? Or was interesting enough to finally see?

Nah, we've had plenty of adventure in our local system without it. It feels well-earned!

>Favorite Supreme Ruler so far?

Kinja and Agori, with Vul qn honourable mention.
>>
>>5086895
>Do the dialogue heavy story bits / introspection on a single Supreme Ruler's life slow the game down too much?
Not in the least, I look forward to them and they add such a lot of flavour and feeling.

>Do you feel like the votes are fairly being counted and options combined or mixed when appropriate for the group consensus?
Yes

>Do you feel like the FTL unlock came too slowly and was underwhelming? Or was interesting enough to finally see?
It was a long road, getting from there to here. It's been a long time, but our time is finally near.

... more seriously, we've still had lots of interesting things to do in the local system. And some things that FTL would have made very different - if a NFI-like organisation ever arises again, commandeering a FTL-vessel then taking who they can and bolting for the furthest reaches of the galaxy in search of freedom would probably be more viable then sticking around to pick a fight.

>Favorite Supreme Ruler so far?
Kinja. The guy didn't want the job - why else would he have given no heed and kept watching that television? - but when circumstances beyond his control forced him into the position he took to it and did what was needed, winning our first extraplanetary conflict with the Baalathi Cirrus-Drones and laying the groundworks for our FTL program.
Talacent after him has also been great, and I can understand why he's considered so highly. And I've liked Agori so far, though I'm not certain we're anywhere near long enough into his reign to definitively judge him.

>>5085051
I find it amusing that Ingar has made Alavis a blonde. Did the guy have any joy from his dating spree?
>>
>>5086895
>Do the dialogue heavy story bits / introspection on a single Supreme Ruler's life slow the game down too much?

No. I like how we get invested in the characters

>Do you feel like the votes are fairly being counted and options combined or mixed when appropriate for the group consensus?
Yup. Lucky you gets a bunch of votes to work with.

>Do you feel like the FTL unlock came too slowly and was underwhelming? Or was interesting enough to finally see?
Maybe a bit slow but you gave us plenty of other stuff to do

>Favorite Supreme Ruler so far?
Talacent
>>
>>5087366
Its character details like that that make the quest so good. Seriously we need to invest in therapy.


Since everyone seems to be fine with the questions OP brought up, does anyone have anything about the quest they DON'T like so far?
>>
For me I will say the Hegemony seems a bit powerful. I know it's not a game in the traditional sense where there is a difficult level, buy every challenge we have faced we have beaten within a few posts and with relatively little consequences. It makes the story feel a bit less engaging to have the MC win so consistently and easily. I hope in the FTL era we can be put in some more tough situations . Right now it seems like no matter what we vote we come out alright in the end.
>>
>>5087583
Mine is similar to yours: at times, the Hegemony seems too infallible. Their ideology or system of organization is rarely shown to have meaningful shortcomings, with a couple minor exceptions (Plasmotronics Savant and the NFI), which were easily handled without really changing anything about society.
>>
>>5087584
>>5087594

I'd say that's more of a player issue - we've simply opted in most cases not to take the choice that'd have failed our Monkies. If we'd decided to retreat to Jaxt to prepare for invasion during the Balaathi crisis, for instance (which there were a number of votes initially in favour for), we'd be looking at a VERY different quest situation right now and might possibly be locked out of our solar system due to having to rebuild an entire industrial base on Jaxt from scratch whilst the Balaathi take their leisure time to settle Max and convert everything on Schoon and Caplit into additional drones..
>>
>>5087607
That's more a matter of economics, tactics, and logistics. I meant more that there are rarely credible social, moral, or philosophical challenges. Whenever we take a controlling or aggressive posture, we are demonstrated to be justified. Whenever we take a merciful or hands-off approach, it turns out that (successful or not) it affirms the fundamental greatness and effectiveness of the Jaxtian Hegemony as an institution.
>>
>>5087625
You have a point

Pretty much everyone who's disagreed with the hegemoyn so far has been an idiot, evil or selfish
>>
Hey everybody, thanks for the feedback, especially the unprompted criticism! We'll get back to the quest here, though I'll take these ideas into consideration for the future! I've wanted to show another sign of the Hegemony for a while now actually, so maybe soon...
>>
It seems as though something about your recent FTL experiments- especially the one that launched Kimnan as the first Jaxtian to travel faster then the speed of light, acted as some kind of "beacon" or signpost of what you are doing.

Bluey apologizes to you profusely for being unable to keep up- the Haazar ship itself seems to be capable of gathering FTL signals. As far as your scientists seem to understand, these signals travel at an infinite speed. Essentially, it's instant across the vast reaches of the cosmos. However, similar to the "reference point" Kimnan spoke about, these communication devices are somewhat bounded or travel along the "lines" of gravity in hyperspace. This means that in the intergalactic vastness of voids between star clusters, these signals probably can't cross- meaning at the very least you aren't getting messages from across the universe.

But across the galaxy is bad enough. You have been bombarded with a large number of messages in the past few days- all coming in this FTL manner, but thankfully they seem to be automated or warning signals over direct lines of communication.

"This is the Galactic Society of Aristocrats- we hereby bar your access to our sectors without an escort of high esteem and gentleman or gentlewomanly manner. Thank you for your understanding..."
"THE ESAAL WELCOME YOU TO THE INTERGALACTIC COMMUNITY. NO FUNNY BUSINESS."
"...Are you an initiate to the mysteries? Do you know what lines you cross? Our people cautiously advise you to keep your faster-then-light activities to a minimum until our leaders can discuss this at greater length. Please respond as soon as you are technologically and morally capable as a people to do so..."

More interestingly perhaps is the sudden realization of your science team- this is how the Baalathi had been sending the data prion to Max and your system all those years ago- what seemed to be a reality-breaking instant transmission of data was in fact this hyperspace information being sent as a weapon. This also teaches you something else; the Baalathi's main language for speaking to other races is probably done using this Hyperspace FTL communication; now finally opening up a possible avenue to speak with them yourself back on their expansionist homeworld...
>>
...In the few months and years after the first Jaxtian FTL leap, certain projects have moved forward. The first and foremost being your interstellar colonization and exploration ships, which are being worked away using the principles of the FTL drive. The possible mental and physical effects of the journey are also being studied more closely, with Kimnan being the primary subject.

"...I am between one and two hundred million spacial units away from this pencil..."

He seems mostly fine. You don't think it will have any adverse long term effects, you hope.

In the meantime, a new distraction on the homefront promises to take your attention away from your space programs yet again. This time, it is effecting only the very elderly- those Teleomere-lengthened individuals who are reaching their late ninties and early hundreds. The two score years of agelessness and deathlessness are finally coming to an end.

The disease seems to always be lethal, and with no known cure, but is not communicable. The involves the breakdowns of the proteins in the body, leading to cells being unable to reform themselves and regenerate damage; after a few weeks, the patients literally start to melt and fall apart, and then die. For a moment, you are worried this is a second NFI attack that you somehow missed, but it seems to occur naturally and randomly. It's almost almost impossible to test for, since its onset is so fast.

>Study the disease more carefully
>Offer old-age euthanasia for those effected and focus on science
>Experiment with alien stem cells and Haazar biotech to see if you can fix the issue somehow
>>
>>5088162
>Experiment with alien stem cells and Haazar biotech to see if you can fix the issue somehow
We kept the Haazar for a reason.
>>
>>5088162
>Experiment with alien stem cells and Haazar biotech to see if you can fix the issue somehow

Ask Bluey to get the Hazaar expertise on this. Their tech, their tech support.
>>
>>5088162
>Offer old-age euthanasia and live on

We have already lengthened life so much... And chasing immortality is individualist arrogance. Death comes for us all.
>>
>Study the disease

Let's see what is going on before we go all Ben 10 here.
>>
>>5088162
>Study the disease more carefully
>>
>>5088297
Haazar tech is mostly not injecting foreign DNA, just apply their techniques like telomere lenghtening on jaxtian dna or artificial organs and body parts that are basically fleshy cyborg implants.
>>
>>5088162
>Study the disease more carefully
>>
>>5088162
>>Experiment with alien stem cells and Haazar biotech to see if you can fix the issue somehow
>>
>>5088162
>Study the disease more carefully

It might unfortunately be a natural condition of Jaxtian Biology, something that strikes some Jaxtians in ages that Jaxtians previously wouldn't have reached at all. Didn't that one former leader in the suspension tank break down in a similar fashion once unplugged?

If we can find what causes it, it might be time to adjust the genetic selection criteria a little - and we can tone down some of the weighting given to size beyond a certain point whilst we're there.
>>
>>5088162
>Study the disease more carefully
Are you fucking kidding me? You want to implant alien cells on us without barely even knowing what this whole thing is? What if it's the telomere lenghtening that causes this, you fools?
>>
>>5088277
I'm more concerned about why the people are LITERALLY MELTING.
>>
>>5088162
>Study the disease more carefully
PEOPLE ARE LITERALLY MELTING
>>
>>5088162
>Offer old-age euthanasia for those effected and focus on science
>>
Next update is in production.
>>
...If the first few deaths weren't bad enough, they aren't slowing down at all. They are quickly climbing in number.

The disease, which you named as Geriatric Protein Collapse Syndrome or GPCS for short is still a big unknown in the scientific field. As far as your early findings can say; the disease is a body-wide endemic condition of extreme age in Jaxtians. At a certain point, the tiny stresses put on the body and cellular damage accumulate to the point where they cause a sudden and catastrophic unraveling of the patient's DNA. With the inability to synthesize new proteins, the body's tissues and rapidly shut down and fall apart, causing a liquefaction process.

While you assign as many medical teams and researchers as you can to the problem, you also contact the Haazar and consider using some of the XS-cells to help rebuild and heal the damaged parts of the patients.

Bluey explains to you a bit more about the process- in the sense you could use XS-cells to restore the damage, but the issue here is how malignant it is. Once one cell begins to fall apart, its chemical stress signals begin to cause other cells to fall apart and so on. Apparently, living creatures from other planets can suffer from this too- the Haazar might have once faced a similar problem, but overcame it through their use of advanced molting; essentially a supercharged version of their natural cycle of molting and chrysalis formation. They call this process "regeneration" and is something the Haazar do every hundred years or so, in addition to their normal life-extension technologies that let them live a very long time compared to other species of a similar size and weight. For Jaxtians, who share none of these from evolution, the process might be possible but only with copious use of the XS cells...

As the disease becomes more prevalent, it seems that this disease may become the more common cause of death for Jaxtians above a certain age. While your people have always died relatively young, it was usually due to cancers, organ failures, stroke, and other conditions caused by old age damage to the body. However, with Teleomere lengthening, your bodies stay young enough to repair themselves correctly. Your AI originally forecasted a longevity of one hundred from accidents or old age brain degeneration- since Jaxtian neurons don't regenerate anyway.

The realization sets in when you are told that an estimated 80 to 90% of Jaxtians will die from this disease instead of other causes once they get old enough- only accidents, rare diseases, alien attack, and the occasional undiagnosed malignant cancer will kill them otherwise. It maybe wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't going to kill you and everyone you know. Talacent and Eoba aren't even far off- fully retired, the news of this will surely make them dread their old age.

The worst part of GPCS is that it isn't a pleasant way to go either. It's sudden and painful. And everyone will get it.
>>
...Which comes to the potential solution.

As your research indicates, GPCS is caused by a gradual, long-life buildup of damage in all cells of the body. Even someone with a perfect diet and excellent genetics will still accumulate tiny stressors- from carcinogens, background radiation, dead viruses, tissue damage... Eventually, a cell will set off the chain reaction. But even if that cell is replaced, another cell that is equally old will being the cascade. And the oldest cell in any Jaxtian's body is going to be their neurons. Their brain.
>>
Of course, full brain replacement, even if the technology in cybernetic or xenografting was possible, directly contradicts the Hegemony's core beliefs. As an enlightened materialist people, the closest thing to "religion" the Hegemony teaches is that the brain is the center of consciousness and "self". Scientists have even confirmed it- though only to very special and high level people know exactly how it works, like you. However, the concept of the brain being the center of each person's being is taught to every single Jaxtian- the understanding that there is no life after death or "spirit" or "soul"; spiritualism of any kind is illegal. As such, GPCS will kill every single Jaxtian at some point, no matter how old they get, because their neurons will eventually start the chain reaction, like it or not.

Over the next few months- suicides double, and then triple. While only among the elderly, the very real fear and sense of one's mortality begins to creep through the elderly retiree culture; once one of the most upbeat and positive towards the Hegemony- those who were once praising the Hegemony during Talacent's glory days are now making suicide pacts with their spouses to not leave the other alone. Black market activity for handguns and other suicide methods double as well, and your AIs can easily identify the "innocuous and innocent" search patterns that identify a person trying to play around the detection software but still search for a method of killing themselves.

Of course, suicide is illegal in the Hegemony. Always has been. The farmer does not let their sheep wander from their fields.

At the same time; this problem is causing a lot of newfound anti-social activity to sprout up as well. For the first time since the AI-Revolution, Luddite-ideology is spreading through the population. Many are claiming that this new disease is karmic justice or "nature correcting itself", though many more even among the upstanding citizens believe this is a worse way to go then how it used to be. Telomere lengthening was, of course, compulsory the moment it was tested and approved for use among Jaxtians- many are feeling betrayed.

Unfortunately, you're stuck with no obvious solution. Unless you decide to experiment with full brain replacement- which as far as you know would erase any concept of personhood at all. The thought gives you a feeling of existential dread- we are our nervous systems, to take that away is no different then murder. And that's not even to mention the potential problems with allowing Haazar technology, however subjugated they may be now, to directly interface with a Jaxtian brain...

>Approve of full-brain replacement (Specify Haazar-XS cell, cybernetic, or both)
>Condone old-age euthanasia and improve detection methods of GPCS so everyone has time to die gracefully
>Deny both and stay the course; this must become the new normal until a more proper method is found some day (Unpopular)
>>
>>5088743
>Approve of full-brain replacement (Specify Haazar-XS cell, cybernetic, or both)
>cybernetic
Yay cyborgs! teach Jaxtians that it's neuronal pattern that makes the self rather than the brain itself.
>>
>>5088743
>Condone old-age euthanasia and improve detection methods
>>
>>5088743
>Condone old-age euthanasia and improve detection methods of GPCS so everyone has time to die gracefully
Teach that this is the price we must pay for longer lives and longer youth. It may make the end more sudden but the time lived is no less valuable. If we can get detection to a few years in advance we can make sure everyone still has a good retirement.
>>
>>5088743
>>Condone old-age euthanasia and improve detection methods of GPCS so everyone has time to die gracefully

Once GPCS is detected in a Jaxtian he or she is going to die anyway, so condoning old-age euthanasia in these circumstances is essential - because if we forbid it, people are going to do it anyway and start a trend of defying the hegemony in addition. Instead of a messy and painful or disobedient death, we will allow them Honour, and the Void.

I'd also suggest authorising a limited number of volunteers to take the Haazar-XS cell option, but this is certainly not a technology we'd want to roll out without further experimentation and observation.
>>
>>5088743
>Approve of full-brain replacement (Specify Haazar-XS cell, cybernetic, or both)
Well let's try both.
>>
>>5088743
>Condone old-age euthanasia and improve detection methods of GPCS so everyone has time to die gracefully
Fucking hell, you want to replace our goddamn brains? Why would you so desperately want us to become all tomorrows-tier mystery meat freaks?

Just use euthanasia until we're able to find a cure for the worst parts of this disease.
>>
>>5088752
We already refused cybernetics before. And for a good reason
>>
>>5088848
Because of the whole Helper thing, he's dead now.
>>
>>5088743
>Condone old-age euthanasia
Come on you sons of bitches, who wants to live forever?!
>>
>>5088854
And also because we didn't want to turn into mechanicus-tier abominations. Now you people want to turn our entire race into borgs.
>>
>>5088743
>Condone old-age euthanasia and improve detection methods of GPCS so everyone has time to die gracefully
>>
>>5088743
>Approve of full-brain replacement (Specify Haazar-XS cell, cybernetic, or both)
Cybernetic. Also start a propaganda campaign to change peoples minds about personhood. Try to make the change of beliefs as soft as possible.
>>
>>5088864
IIRC the vote that decided that was just about replacements for lost bodyparts.
>>
>full brain

Like you said the Shepard does not let the sheep stray. If there is no afterlife than copying the brain is just as valid a way of extending life as any other
>>
>>5088973
And think of the amount of control we would have! Any ruler worth his money would love that.
>>
>>5088743
>Condone old-age euthanasia and improve detection methods of GPCS so everyone has time to die gracefully
>>
>>5088743
>Condone old-age euthanasia and improve detection methods of GPCS so everyone has time to die gracefully
>>
>Let us research for ways to achieve jaxtian neuron regeneration in the next generations!
>>
>>5088945
Yeah, and now you want to replace our brains? I understand we're playing as monkey china, but that doesn't mean we have to turn into servitor abominations.
>>
>>5088743
>>Deny both and stay the course; this must become the new normal until a more proper method is found some day (Unpopular)
>>
>>5089130
90% of the population are useless anyway, so why not?
>>
>>5089316
I feel a deep burning resentment towards your post, woe plague be upon ye and your kin
>>
>>5089501
I have the opposite belief. Every life is precious and it is our duty to prolong that as much as possible. If there is a chance to have our people live on, we owe it to them to invest in it.

Imagine how you feel to have your loved one die a preventable death due to some sentiment.

Can honor cuddle you on cold knights? Can tradition wipe the tears from your face? Can ideals bake you a pie?

If we presented the choice to the people between brain replacement and euthanasia, which do you think they would pick?
>>
>>5089614
>If we presented the choice to the people between brain replacement and euthanasia, which do you think they would pick?

In fairness, if we wanted to have a democracy rather than a dictatorship of scholar-kings, we wouldn't be a Hegemony with a Supreme Ruler.

...Which I'm open to changing eventually, but this doesn't seem like the decision to do it for.
>>
>>5089615
I am making the point if the goal of the philosopher king is to serve the people's best interest, than making them immortal is better than killing them
>>
With the terror of the GPCS looming over every single senior- and even younger people like yourself eventually, an immediate answer is needed. Even if you decide to research a full brain regeneration technology- or a cybernetic replacement- you must answer for the skyrocketing rates of suicide and anti-medical-technology opinion that is rising in the population.

You broadcast your decision to allow for painless, old-age euthanasia for those suffering from the effects of the otherwise incurable protein collapse. Normally those affected by deadly diseases are not allowed euthanasia anyway- as the medical data gathered from their conditions and experimental procedures are too valuable to throw away for their own comfort- but that is a tradition that needs to change to keep the people in line- and to soothe your own sense of ethical discomfort.

Alavis drafts up a “suicide pod” schematic at your request, which is quickly disseminated to factories and focus groups to make more appealing and approachable as possible. As this device will be directly responsible for ending the lives of citizens, there is a degree of solemnity and importance to it. The Hegemony's symbol will be visible from the outside, but will be invisible from within. The lid is made partially transparent material, allowing for a final goodbye from family members or perhaps even a video of the individual's favorite things or lifelong memories... lots of possibilities here for maximum comfort and dignity in death.

The mechanic of the pod is, of course, partially a secret. Four high powered neutrino beams will lobotomize the consciousness-sectors of the brain of the occupant, right after drowsiness causing gas fills the canister. Death will be totally painless, environmentally friendly, and respectful to the dead and grieving. You introspect over the concept. Afterall; the Hegemony was at least partially founded as an end to governments killing people. Despite how brutally efficient and authoritative it is, the Hegemony kills less people after adjusting for population difference, then most imperialist “democracies” and the authoritarian regimes of the past. After the euthanasia program is implemented though; a good 90% of your people will be killed by it- directly killed by their government.

The Hegemony basically controls ever aspect of people's births- who can breed with who, and how often, when to have kids, what they'll learn and grow into. It also controls their lives, freedoms, resources, work... And now it will control their deaths too. From beginning to end, the Hegemony will control it all. In a way, its a perverse loss of freedom that you can't quite put into words. Perhaps not wanted, but inevitable...
>>
In order to improve this system, however, new technology will be needed. High quality medical scanners will need to be upgraded- the ability to detect and accurately predict the death of each person at the end of their lifespan will be crucial. Even if the government allows for age-old euthanasia, it is absolutely imperative that it be accurate and fast. Anybody who is struck with GPCS cannot be allowed to drop out of the system and suffer greatly- it would undermine the very concept of the Hegemony's mercy, control, and benevolence towards its people. The more warning, the better.

Perhaps with good enough technology- you can get a good five to ten years of warning. Because of how fast and catastrophic GPCS is once the first proteins begin to unravel; with everyone who gets it will be dead within 90 days without exception, this makes determining an exact time of death easy as long as your machines can accurately predict when it starts. It will become a new tradition; upon reaching ninety years of age, Jaxtian citizens will be told exactly how much longer they will live. Plenty of time to finish their affairs, enjoy their twilight days, say goodbye...

But there's an important factor here. Money, namely, retirement.

The truth is that Talacent's decision to extend the retirees' benefits to an entire lifespan did indeed negatively impact the Hegemony's GDP. It wasn't just the money though, it was the potential growth. Every year of income lost on a citizen is a year's worth of income that could be invested somewhere else- the difference between compound and regular interest. It is only now, as these old retirees are beginning to die off and you are seeing massive gains to your nation's resources and wealth.
The same will be said for elderly citizens in the future. In short, there would be no drawback to lying to citizens and having them willingly commit suicide early- their retirement ended early, assets reclaimed, their dwelling vacated and ready to house someone new... Yes, it would be very beneficial to everyone.
>>
Scan a citizen; instead of three years they have left, tell them two; it will cut a year off their retirement, let them go peacefully- it makes no effective difference to the individual. Find the idealized amount of time left to give people so they can die with as little emotional trauma to their loved ones and their community and set the algorithms to give them exactly that much time left; any excess is pure profit. It doesn't have to apply to everyone equally; citizens who are valuable in their communities, still producing art, those with many children they teach and educate; these ones could be given a more accurate, generous prediction. Those with poor citizenship records, prone to accident or wasting resources- these ones will be given a more conservative timeline until they are destined to die.

It can also be banded and made or more or less severe based on the Hegemony's current state- reduce their time by a few months if the Hegemony is recovering from a costly battle or science project, given them a bit more during periods of cultural growth. In the most extreme examples, you could even use this to route out older dissidents with fake results; fake cancers or 'early onset' GPCS that would essentially allow the least useful and most disruptive members of your civilization end the problem on their own. Of course, this would only be used in the most extreme situations, and never without oversight, but it's another tool in your arsenal of control.

The best part is nobody has to get caught up in the conspiracy- only Supreme Rulers will need to know. There will be no extended security risks. No medical staff, no nurses, no machine technicians. Alavis is directly in charge of the AI network and any actions requiring such advanced and accurate predictions will need to be managed by her abilities anyway.

Obviously, telling people their government is encouraging them to die early would be very unpopular, but the ethical ramifications are totally neutral at worst- everyone will die eventually anyway, so what difference does it make as long as enough time is given for maximizing their happiness? There is no good downside you can see to this proposal.

This one is on your, Supreme Ruler. Will we lie to the people to benefit the Hegemony?
>Yes
>No
>>
>>5089746
>Yes
Easy decision
>>
>>5089746
>Yes
>>
>>5089746
>Yes
>>
>>5089746
>No

As Kinja once said, 'Two point two betrayals'. I would rather we not use one of them here on a minimal matter when, with the whole panoply of extrasolar colonisation and intergalactic diplomacy about to open up to us, we may soon have much better use of them. Let us not waste a lie on a minimal matter when there may soon be very grand and worthy lies we will need to state for the Hegemonic good.
>>
>>5089746
>No
>>5089821
Totally agree.
>>
>>5089746
>No
Ethical or not, there's always ultimately a chance the information might leak. Even if it's only the supreme rulers who know it, there's still a chance. Information leaks on Alavis, normal information leaks (supreme rulers are people, not hermits, so even if they're ultra-smart, they're still not going to be 100% safe all the time)

If the people find out that the government is literally cutting their life short for profit, the unrest will be much worse than whatever we have here. No one likes being told grandma died early because Mr.Supreme decided she wasn't profitable enough.
>>
>>5089746
>Yes
>>
>>5089746
>No
>>
>>5089696
Depends on if he serves the interest of individual people or some grand concept of The People.

That said...

>>5089746
>No
>>
>>5089746
>Yes
>>
We can incentivise retirees into being more responsible with their expenditures in their final years, making them more concious about the GDP and the well-being of future generations.

>No
>>
>>5089746
>Yes
>>
>>5089746
This is a tough decision, but...

>>5089821
I have to agree.

>No
>>
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>>5060376
>Husbando
>>5060391
>>5060405
>>5060444
>>5060477
>>5060995

Our lad is in!
>>5090050
I felt obligated to vote for the character from my own quest that someone nominated, but Kinja deserves some votes, too!
>>
>>5089746
>>Yes
Retirees are superfluous and unproductive. This is a hard but necessary decision. What’s one or two extra years of retirement worth to someone anyways?
>>
>>5090531
It's about how bad it'll look if they discover it, anon. No government is completely leak-proof. Do we really want that risk for a miserable year less of retirement pay?
>>
>>5090567
This. It isn't about being good or bad to our people as a whole, but rather the PR disaster that will come out if it's discovered that we're tricking families out of precious final memories (or the opportunity for some) to save some resources.
>>
>>5090579
This.

It'll come out someday, somehow. Perhaps on one of the colonies we're going to build which won't be guided by the Supreme leader's direct hand, perhaps through some discrepancy observed between when we said a person would die and when they actually do. Perhaps one of these super-advanced aliens we're just finding out about is going to uncover this with medical technologies we don't even know about yet.

And what's more, if we start lying about an evidence set, this condition is never going to be cured or resolved because any scientists we get to work on the problem will either have bogus data-sets that cause false results OR uncover the evidence themselves and perhaps slip the information out. We would be hampering any future chance to deal with this issue in the future and allow a second extension of the Jaxtian lifespan.

And if it ever comes out, this isn't something with an 'oh dear, productivity will be lessened this quarter' impact. We'll probably loose colony worlds to separatists, the entire Hegemony might end even up collapsing - pilots have grandmothers, soldiers have grandfathers. We would be setting ourselves up for the potential of a major cataclysm for what are in the end very minimal gains.

And worst of all, as >>5089732 states;
'the Hegemony was at least partially founded as an end to governments killing people.' Whilst giving an accurate reading and allowing euthanasia is at least a kindness for all that it is, this will be a betrayal of a core Hegemonic principle for no other reason the profit, a backsliding into the corrupt oligarchies of old.
>>
>>5090601
>b-b-but muh resoorces and productivetee
You've got it right on spot.
>>
Looks like the votes are exactly tied. We'll have to give this one a little longer.
>>
>>5089746
>No
>>
No
>>
>>5089746
>No
Just dosen't feel right along with not matching with the principles of our hegemony to abuse our people when so far we have worked hard to make them prosper thrive
>>
Update is finally in production. Thank you for your patience.
>>
>>5091844
May need to archive the thread soon, almost on page 10.
>>
You decide not to use the new euthanasia laws to remove excess population from the elderly. From a purely ethical standpoint- you're against it. Not only does it demean their existence to pure numbers, but as far as the Hegemony's view on life is concerned- existence is valuable to a law-abiding citizen. After all, existence and survival of life itself is the ultimate goal of your Hegemony. And from a purely selfish perspective; is it not true that these men and women worked their entire lives in exchange for a few years for themselves? Of course, even if you were to put the good of the Hegemony as a whole above all that nonsense... it's just not secure enough. People could find out eventually; and you'd get stuck. You deny the plan.

In the meantime, your medical teams still have to get up to snuff upgrading your medical scanner technologies, with Alavis's supercharged algorithm solving abilities backing it up. This medical scanner soon becomes available, and soon enough, Jaxtian citizens can now have a few years warning before their deaths; allowing them to finish their affairs and make an appointment to be euthanized.

But this medical scanner technology has a knock on effect- you also develop Advanced Scanners that can now deduce the exact chemical compounds and energy levels of different substances. Before your scanners and sensory devices used magnetic waves, echolocation, spectroscopy, lasers, and so forth with an AI approximating the results. It was fast and effective, but inaccurate. Now with these new super scanners, you can do the same with a greater degree of accuracy and with less CPU cycles. Finally, these scanners and your experiments in Hyperspace dynamics, as well as reverse engineering on the Haazar ship, will allow you to finally send and receive FTL communications.

You first use this to immediately send a message to the Haazar homeworld- an immediate cease and demand for surrender for the crimes taken against Hegemony space. They respond at first with an easily thwarted data prion message, and when that doesn't work, they say “they must expand or die”. You realize that the Haazar homeworld, at least at this moment in time, has not changed much technologically and has very likely sent colonization cylinders to systems with gas giants near your own. These cylinders may very well impede your colonization efforts- right as soon as you get FTL travel really underway...
>>
You overhear a conversation between Kimnan and Ingar.

“You still have not provided an explanation as to how you are capable of flying a craft in Hyperspace while my AIs are incapable.”
”What is there to say? For some things, a biological mind must be better.”
“That's nonsense, a machine can be programmed to do anything a brain can do. Even if a brain may have evolved in a specific manner, there is no fundamental difference between neurons made of cells and neurons made of electrical circuitry. Both are disrupted by the high-energy fluctuations encountered in Hyperspace.”
”Perhaps my brainwaves are on a higher state of energy then a machine.”
“Bullshit- BULLSHIT! Kimnan, you are LYING! That's magical thinking- spiritualists put a living mind over a machine one from superstition- not facts!”
”Perhaps you are simply overly attached to your surrogate, artifical mate.”
“Shut up! That has nothing to do with anything. Your brain is not superior to a machine intelligence, flyboy!”
”Simp.”
“Grrarr! Fuck off.”

Despite their debate, their teams both steadily advance the FTL programs and machine intelligence. Kimnan has ironed out a lot of kinks in your early FTL prototype, and has even helped develop a new shielding technology that seems to inhibit a lot of distortion caused by FTL. Your large scale science teams also report on the Planet V or Talacenti project; it's nowhere near ready. That's about what you expected, even with your strongest antigravity engines and fusion cores- the exoplanet/moon will take a lot longer then your pitiful reign to move into position as Schoon's moon.

Soon later, Talacent dies. It wasn't unexpected. You are his son in spirit- and as such you decide where he is buried. You have his corpse sent to the Haazar. Bluey was closer to him anyway, and you feel as though a shrine to a Supreme Leader aboard their shuttle will make them better citizens. Bluey, overwhelemed with emotions, cries when he sees the shrine. As far as you understand, this could be the first time a Haazar ever cried at the death of another being...

And finally- as your newfound plans for massive FTL ships are being finished on Schoon's factories- it is snowing outside. It's still too cold on that dead planet for liquid rain, but the intense industry has warmed it to the point it is starting to have a water evaporate into the atmosphere...
>>
Finally. It has been a long thirty years. During that time, your reign has progressed steadily through the ages, advancing your industry and technology. And with the death of the entire retiree population- including Eoba, who lasted until he was a hundred and fifteen like the tough old bastard he is- your homeworld is honestly starting to get a little cramped. You need some elbow room.

Finally, the time for exploration. The real space age has already begun. Instead of sending colony ships centuries ago- your people decided to stick together until you had the technology to stay together as a culture. You now have the suspension gene in almost every Jaxtian to prevent aging and resource-waste during long space flights, FTL communications and ships, and the military might to back it up.

While a full scale colonization and terraforming projects are not yet on the table; you can finally send out exploration craft. Armed with your new advanced scanners and high-tech AI, you can provide some real and detailed information on the systems nearest to your own. Pulling up the archival records, it is time to decide where to send your first exploration ship...

Xin https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2021/5007154/#p5032156
Nan & Vetuck https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2021/5007154/#p5035464
Andoen >>5053824

So, which system should be explore first, your grace?
>Xin
>Nan
>Vetuck
>Andoen
>>
>>5091913
>Vetuck
>>
>>5091913
>Vetuck
>>
>>5091910
>”Perhaps you are simply overly attached to your surrogate, artifical mate.”
Sexbot or AI waifu?
>>
>>5091913
>Vetuck
>>
>>5091913
>Vetuck
Let's be good neighbours... But also nosy neighbours. We don't want the Vetuckers developing into the next Hazaar or Baalathi.
>>
>>5091913
>Vetuck
> and get some scans on that gas giant to find out if the haazar had send any colonization ships
>>
>>5091913
>Andoen
>>
>>5091907
You mean the Baalathi homeworld, right?

>>5091913
>Andoen
This system looks like the best chance of finding a new world we can just move onto as opposed to having to terraform first or uplift/remove the natives. And it has no gas giant, so little chance of finding Baalathi there.
>>
>>5091913
>Andoen
>>
>>5091913
>Andoen
>>
Andoen. Empty planet for colonizing that also has alien ruins to mine.
>>
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Vote is currently tied between Andoen and Vetuck.
>>
>>5091913
>Andoen
>>
You have made your decision- Andoen will be the first system you explore!

You prepare the ship, with Kimnan rightly at the helm. The red giant, surrounded with a nebula cloud, with two planets has a few things to be excited about- the first being that giant space whale you saw, though many years of light lag were behind that. The system is about 9 light years away, meaning 9 months in extended cryosleep- the suspension gene being required for this journey, you thank Kinja for his effort in encouraging their intermingling with the mainline Jaxtian population...

After nine months of FTL travel, the AI awakens and defrosts Kimnan and the rest of the crew. Because of how FTL communications work, the ship must ping your homeplanet first, but you can constantly keep in contact with the right coordinates; trying to find the ship with your transmissions when it has such a small gravity profile would be foolish. As such, if the ship ever loses contact or is destroyed, you may lose all communication with it...

Arriving in the Andoen system, you receive word that it is empty. Or rather, no giant space whale- it's gone. But the two planets remain. Anoden 2 is a dusty wasteland, though your scanners indicate high degrees of metallurgic ore underneath the surface of the dunes, and some interesting electrical phenomena generated by sand storms.

The much more interesting planet then is Andoen-1, the living world with ruins of an alien civilization. Your original probe had limited sensory ability, and indicated the planet has a rich ecosystem of plant life, but no animals of any kind. As you approach, the HDCFV detects that the planet has a standard carbon-based lifeform atomsphere, with a higher concentration of oxygen then Jaxt, but still, totally breathable and safe.

"I volunteer to be the first one to step foot on that planet." Kimnan offers; of course, knowing full well what an honor it would be to be the first Jaxtian to step foot down on a living alien world...
>>
As part of the (quite old) Hegemonic procedures to check out a new and unidentified territory- checks for radiation and unusual energies come first.

The scout WSDV sent closer to the planet to investigate the ruins first, before a landing party is formed, suddenly runs into trouble when an automated defensive turret pops up. It aims its cannon and fires.

"W-what!? We scanned for energy signatures-"

The ship is destroyed- a powerful weapon obliterates the scout vessel in a fiery blast. It wasn't exactly a laser, and it cut straight through the WSDV's meager shields.

"Shit! What was that?! How were we supposed to know this planet has defenses still active?"

>Order the HDCFV away from the planet immediately (go check out Andoen-2 instead)
>Order Kimnan to power on shields and destroy the defense system to create a safe zone
>Tell Kimnan to get into a WSDV and use his superior piloting skills to figure out the weapon's weaknesses (chance of Kimnan's death)
>>
>>5092518
>>Order the HDCFV away from the planet immediately (go check out Andoen-2 instead)
Let's NOT start a fight right now. It's not worth it.
>>
>>5092518
>Tell Kimnan to get into a WSDV and use his superior piloting skills to figure out the weapon's weaknesses (chance of Kimnan's death)
>>
>Order Kimnan to power on shields and destroy the defense system to create a safe zone

I would normally touch based with the homeworld but since we can't we must take charge here
>>
>>5092518
>Order the HDCFV away from the planet immediately (Go check out Andoen-2 instead)
Time to exercise the better part of valor.
>>
>>5092518
How many WSDV did we bring with us?

Could we:

>Scout another area of Andoen-1, far from the ruin-sites?

Knowing that the ruins have automated defences still working is very interesting; but are they all around this world, or just concentrated at certain points (such as ruin sites)? Is there another part of this planet far from the ruin-sites that it would be safe to make landings at? A world is a big thing, and with the civilisation that made them ruined, even if they had previously been installed in many places across this planet I wouldn't expect them to be either everywhere or all still working.

Also, >Open communications
with the ruins. If defences are working, perhaps there might also be an automated system we can talk to?
>>
>>5092518
>Order Kimnan to power on shields and destroy the defense system to create a safe zone
>>
>>5092518
>>Order Kimnan to power on shields and destroy the defense system to create a safe zone
>>
>>5092542
support
>>
>>5092518
>Order the HDCFV away from the planet immediately (go check out Andoen-2 instead)
It might be wise to first check out the other place before we try to blow the defense up.

We don't know the power of that thing. What if they're more advanced than we thought?
>>
>>5092518
>Order the HDCFV away from the planet immediately (go check out Andoen-2 instead)
>>
>>5092518

>Order Kimnan to power on shields and destroy the defense system to create a safe zone
>>
>>5092518
>Order the HDCFV away from the planet immediately (go check out Andoen-2 instead)
>>
The HDCFV is a powerful vessel, a small freighter or light cruiser in size- the largest spaceship your people have ever built, space stations nonwithstanding.

Among its systems include basic laser weapons, Plasmatronic inductor for tractor beam and antigravity function, its fusion core, and attached warp drive. It has a crew of 12 members including Kimnan. Most of the crew are in deep stasis- one is a medical doctor, another is a xenobiologist and translator in the event of finding alien life underneath the surface of the planet...

You explain to Agori that you are more then fairly certain that your ship can withstand the energy weapons aboard this planet. As this is an exploration ship with several WSDV acting as shuttles and support, its weapon systems took less priority then its defenses.

"No, absolutely not."
"Your... majesty?"
"You already hinted that a 'highly skilled pilot' could outmaneuver the turret defense system on the ground. I know what you're thinking- NO. You will complete a full planetary scan, then route to Andoen 2 and search there. When this is completed, you and your crew will orbit the planet and enter suspension for the next two to three years until our next cruiser can come assist you."
"Mhmm. Of course, your eminence."
>>
From a deep planetary scan- it turns out that Andoen 1 is almost totally covered in this defensive systems. The planet's surface is dotted in these defensive turrets, which fire at anything that move that are close enough to the surface.

This could also be an explanation for the apparent extinction of animals aboard this planet. Only plants move slow enough to not be killed.

Even more surprisingly, this defense network has no recognizable power source. Neither do the ruins- signals and laser communications, even FTL messages, don't seem to ping a response. It's as though there is no power cores or energy generation at all, and the planetary defenses just spontaneously become "powered" when needed. At the very least, you'd expect the slow radiation leak of a RAMM battery like on your older ship models, before you started equipped fighters with rechargeable batteries to be used with fusion cores, but these turrets are an enigma.

The HDCFV turns tail and travels across the inner solar system to Andoen 2, the desert planet. Totally devoid of any water or life signs, the planet seems mostly uninteresting, except for an occasional electrical or sand storm. However, metallurgic scans prove promising when you get closer, and as it turns out Andoen 2 contains Azurium! The highly prized, durable material is hidden under the sand dunes; possibly formed by the magnetic/electrical storms found on this planet? Or are they the final remnants of the fusion core of this nearby red giant, right before it expanded to its massive, dim size when it ran out of Hydrogen at the end of its cycle? Of course, this ship is no mining vessel, and as such the crew can't do much but simply mark the most rich resource nodes before heading into orbit to fulfill their orders...
>>
You are now Kimnan Oles. Again, one last time.

Your Supreme Ruler has decided to postpone your mission of discovery, and possibly finding rare and powerful alien artifacts, out of his overly cautious demands. You pace the hallway outside your quarters while the ship is in low power mode. Naturally you are the last one to the stasis pod.

Two or three more years? Plus at least a few months or weeks in the field, plus your nine month trip back... doesn't the Supreme Ruler know you have a son?

It really isn't about that- your family has always been secondary to your career and lofty position in the Hegemony, that much has always been the case. But something about the way you're being used like a pawn makes you angry. You march towards the Alavis core.

"Hello commander Kimnan, how can I help you?"
"Oh don't worry- just checking one little... ahh, there we go."
"Commander Kimnan, you have just disconnected my FTL translation module. This was an intentional action."
"Yeah, can't have the Supreme One pulling rank on you before I can accomplish my mission."
"Your mission is to serve the Supreme Ruler-"
"I am the highest ranking individual on this ship now, correct? You will do as I say."
"Of course, you are in command of this vessel, but I will report your intentional act of insubordination the moment communications are reestablished."
"So be it."

With that, you return to the bridge and sit at the controls, knowing that the Alavis core on this ship will follow your orders- the ship's priority to return and your inexpendability, at least compared to the rest of the crew, are both things you know will keep Alavis from trying to betray you and cut off all the oxygen in the bridge- or whatever else a machine might do to mutineers.

But as of this moment, you put your hands on the controls, fully determined in your quest to be the first to walk onto that planet and enter the alien ruin for... well, you aren't really sure why. You ARE you doing this? You're throwing everything away for what, exactly? You try to collect your thoughts. Why are you doing this?

>To experience the thrill of danger and the unknown
>To be a heroic figure again- not just as some kid
>Because you're worried another alien species might come investigate these ruins first (lie)
>To prove Agori isn't better then you
>>
>>5093511
>To be a heroic figure again- not just as some kid
>>
>>5093511
>To prove Agori isn't better then you.
>>
>>5093511
>To be a heroic figure again- not just as some kid
>>
>>5093495
Kinja's room? Is that a media centre?

>>5093511
>To be a heroic figure again- not just as some kid
>>
>>5093511
>To be a heroic figure again- not just as some kid
>>
>>5093511
>To experience the thrill of danger and the unknown
>>
>>5093511
>To be a heroic figure again- not just as some kid
Man, Kinman is a baller.
>>
>>5093511
>To be a heroic figure again- not just as some kid
>>
>>5093511
>To be a heroic figure again- not just as some kid
>>
I really wonder why all the Supreme Ruler candidates of this generation are so weird, I blame Eoba.
>>
>>5093762
+1

Go full Vader
>>
You've always wanted to be a hero- and you have been in the past. You're addicted to the feeling. But being a hero once as a kid isn't the same as being a hero of the Hegemony as an adult- to risk it all and to win.

"Alavis- pilot the HDCFV towards the city. I have a hunch those cannons are designed to stop invasions; a big scary ship outta get them to fire. Reroute all power to shields and if the ship begins to take serious damage; hold it in place, absolutely still. Don't pull up, just hold in place with all power to shields and defensive systems. Understand?"
"Acknowledged."

Hmm, she almost seems snippy with you. Did Ingar put some personality in her? Heh, you wouldn't be surprised if he did it against you to begin with, even before you disobeyed orders. You two have never really gotten along...

Jumping into a WSDV, you hang close to the main ship while it tanks the turret fire. The powerful laser blasts are unlike any energy weapon you've seen before; they seem to travel like lasers, but only in short, very high energy bursts. Unlike beam weapons, which your civilization has used for over a century for space combat now, these ones have more punching power over short bursts- better able to destroy shields and armor...

Thankfully, the HDCFV is able to hold against the turrets, its overcharged fusion core able to overcome the barrage. You wait until your moment to fly into the city ruins, touchdown, and become the first Jaxtian to step on a living alien world- well, one you can actually breathe on!

You step out of the craft and smell the alien air. It's very fresh; the high oxygen content makes you feel like you're out in nature on Jaxt. Though you'd never complain about air quality on your nature-reserve of a home world, this place is something else. You begin to explore the alien ruins, sticking close to the landing zone to avoid accidentally triggering any other alien turrets- in the event they are within this city...
>>
Oh what the hell is this garbage.

It looks like you've come to a sealed metal door, built into this ruined structure. Unlike before, the chamber beyond seems to not have been bombed to shit, or annihilated by whatever catastrophe destroyed this planet's civilization.

However, the door is locked. Above it, you can see symbols. Is this lock meant to be some kind of challenge for future explorers, like yourself, or is it perhaps a wildlife-proof lock? You could see that- a simple intelligence check to make sure anyone who enters must be a sentient species. Then again, it could be something totally unexpected, like some kind of alien language vector, and any pattern you may see is just an illusion...

Still, you might as well give it a go. What button are you going to press?
>>
>>5094053
>5
Easy monkey
Hopefully my mans didnt just unleash some eldritch abomination
>>
>>5094053
>5
>>
>>5094053
1 6 1
3 2 2
5 6 ?
>>
Check the buttons for wear and tear. Depending on how long this has been in use the right answer should be slightly more indented than the others
>>
>inb4 kinman is deemed non-sentient
>>
>>5094198
Seconding this.

We can't just assume that we've interpreted the characters correctly when the pattern doesn't seem to make complete sense as a sequence.

161 x2 IS 322, but 161 x3 is 483, which the third row doesn't appear to be showing; and 322 x2 would be 644 - which again, the existing characters don't fit if we've interpreted correctly.
>>
>>5094053
That sequence of numbers feel weird. I might just be taking it too far, but it seesm weird that it's in that exact order - the symbols don't match, though of course, they might not need to.

For example, 6 is two blank squares, and 2 is 1 blank square. 7 is arrow up and arrow down, which is what you get whem you add 1 and 5. 8 is 1 and 3
>>
What if the numbers are a distraction and the pattern of the symbols is the key.
>>
Are the numbers even literal numbers or is that just an out of universe label or our sake?

If we can't do the identAtion trick do symbol #5
>>
Hmm, an interesting puzzle. It only takes you a moment to begin to see a pattern in the drawings- these are not 2d drawings, but in truth a 3d image.

The rules are laid out clearly; the first column shows that each image rotates 90 degrees and rotates with each step. The second column is at first confusing, but you realize it is actually meant to be two squares or "cubes", no matter which way it rotates, the first cube covers the second, which is why it appears to return to the first image, but in reality it is a flipped image.

This can only mean one thing; the final column is really a 3d image of the "arrow" disappearing behind the cube on the second picture, thus appearing on the bottom of the cube in the missing image!

Not the hardest puzzle in the world; you're pretty sure these were the type of tests given to young children a few hundred years ago to test aptitudes, until much more advanced eye tracking tests and AI-Analysis of playtime and creative works in early childhood were found to be much more reliable.

You push in the fifth button of eight and, unsurprisingly, the door opens.
>>
Entering the dark chamber, hidden in the ruins, you find no living things- only bones. Damn, these were big bastards, their skulls are almost as large as your ribcage. You had originally thought that this planet's abundance of oxygen might be from the death of oxygen consuming creatures, but now you're not so sure. Maybe it was always like this to have such a large species walking around.

You get a pretty strong feeling that this is no intentional burial chamber, nor is it a mass grave of some homicidal regime. This is a fallout shelter of some kind. Could the aliens have fled in here to avoid the energy turret defense system outside? Or were they run here to avoid some kind of alien invasion, with the turrets being the planetary defense? Perhaps there is no relation; maybe the turrets were used as a quarantine to keep infected individuals from escaping after the release of a bioweapon. As a high ranking Hegemony member, you get more information then most, and you know Agori had to deal with a bioterrorist group years ago- these huddled bones are a reminder of that.

In the back of the chamber you find relics. Beyond the technology of some kind of computer or control system, you find something carved onto the wall. It takes you a second, but you know what this is.

It's a star map.

You can only know this from having flown in Hyperspace so many times; the lines connecting the heavy gravity zones, infinitely shrinking in size as they get further away. It is almost the exact same. It is a 3d image portrayed in a 2d space, you'll have to have an AI configure this into something useful. Moreso, you wonder why the lines are drawn so organically. When you flew in the HDCFV all the lines were straight, angles of light snapping towards gravity wells..

With that, you take a few choice relics, pictures, and scans of various bits you find in the vault, and return to your ship.
>>
>>5094603
>Explain why you commandeer'd the ship and managed to successfully extract alien artifacts
>>
The ship is thankfully not badly damaged, though those energy weapons were quite good at dealing with your shields- checking the recordings, you can see that whenever your shield weakened, the blasts could penetrate through and deal damage to the hull. It was only when the ship stood still that the turrets stopped firing after a few minutes; their targeting computers must have assumed that whatever the intruder was is dead, or vaporized, if it is even that sophisticated. You'd be much more worried if a fusion reactor had been powering those guns.

But with that done, your treasures in tow, you decide to take these back to Jaxt prime. With your FTL communications still down, you feel it is better to present the spoils of your ill-gotten excursion directly to the science teams and Supreme Ruler. Waiting for a few more years for a second ship to come would just delay the findings. You want to stride back to Jaxt with treasure in tow.

You take the ship to Hyperspace and then go into stasis for the remainder of the journey. As you're the primary pilot, and highest ranking member on this ship, you know Alavis will wake you up when its time to "land" the HDCFV back in Hegemony space.

You awake, control the ship and arrive near Jaxt. Instantly, your controls are locked out.
"You are hearby under arrest by Hegemonic control. I will not disable controls. I will not grant you access to the armory or airlock, so you cannot kill yourself. I will not-"
"Alright, Alavis, enough. I get it."
"...The Supreme Ruler has overriden my controls. It appears he is coming to meet you personally. Present yourself in the hallway before the airlock."

You await in the hallway, as instructed. Agori is going to meet you right here?! You're excited. Though you get a funny feeling that something bad is about to happen. What should you do when you see him?

>Throw yourself at his feet in submission
>Give him a nice firm handshake
>Explain why you commandeer'd the ship and managed to successfully extract alien artifacts
>>
>>5094603
>>Throw yourself at his feet in submission

Kimnan, you exceptionally gifted IDIOT.

Treasures are all very nice, but YOU WERE OUT THERE TO SURVEY SO WE COULD TAKE THE WORLD. Who knows what removing these finds from the proper archaeological context will do to damage our understanding? Bioweapons were a distinct theory YOU made, and you just strolled onto Jaxt without even Biohazard decontamination?

Let us hope that your insights on the turrets and various scans and artefacts will make this worthwhile enough to spare you from unilaterally continuing then aborting this mission just to try to show how impressive you are.

Grovel. Grovel and humble yourself in apology and submission because if you're lucky you might just realise what a stupid monkey you've been.
>>
>>5094606
>Throw yourself at his feet in submission
>>
>Throw yourself at his feet in submission

I know from personal experience. Make yourself small when you sin.
>>
>>5094606
>Throw yourself at his feet in submission
>>
>>5094606
>Throw yourself at his feet in submission
Being arrogant now would definitively trigger his alpha rage.
>>
>>5094606
>Throw yourself at his feet in submission
I love the absolute arrogant bastard that Kinman is.
>>
>>5094606
>Throw yourself at his feet in submission
Kimnan is an idiot but at least we got something useful from this.
>>
>>5094606
>Submit before he chimps out
>>
>>5094606
>Throw yourself at his feet in submission
Reminder that Agori is logically the least scary type of Jaxtian.
>>
>>5094606
>>Throw yourself at his feet in submission
>>
>>5094606
>Throw yourself at his feet in submission
Our shit's about to get fucked
>>
As you can hear your Supreme Ruler approach, you begin to feel uneasy.

You just felt like what you were doing was so... unfair. You never felt so disposable before. Nobody wants to peak in childhood- was it really so wrong for you show off your stuff? You can lead- you proved that by heading the crew. But you begin to feel as though you made a big mistake at some point.

Nervous, you bow down before your Supreme Ruler when he approaches you. For you, it's been but a few weeks, but for him? You've hijacked a vessel that had flown for nine months, and then lost communication for another nine.

"Kimnan. You have displeased me- and have earned yourself a demotion. Your flying days are over. Give me your hand."
"Your... grace?"
"You know our laws, Kimnan. Give me your hand."
You shakily reach up to him, and he takes your hand in his. With an iron grip around your wrist, you feel him twist- an agonizing firey pain rises from your elbow as you feel the joint popping from its socket.

"Oowwwwhh!! Stop! Arrrhggg!'

You are now Agori Falathane and have finished disciplining Kimnan.

"Have the stump cauterized so his arm can't be regrown with XS cells. Put him on a blacklist for cybernetic replacement until his new career requires him of it."

With that out of the way, you have the crew awoken from stasis and debrief them. Until a new, more reliable pilot commander is found, your forays to other star systems will be delayed...
>>
However, Kimnan's discoveries and recovered artifacts on Andoen 1 are still catalogued, researched, and found to be useful.

The first are the alien skeletons. This large bodied race of aliens seems to be extinct so long that any form of usable DNA is long gone- however the constantly upgraded Alavis network has gotten so good she may be able to reverse engineer their genetic code; following the patterns of the long dead bone cells and comparing them to your own carbon-based animals on Jaxt, plus the Haazar DNA banks to act as a nice control group...

The project eventually yields results when you grow the biggest ever Alpha-phenotype Jaxtian- an Indigo Alpha. While the square-cube law will eventually catch up with you, the alien creatures are proof of what you can get away with. He's the first person you've ever seen bigger and stronger then you. He's also not actually a person, just a meat shell grown with only a brain stem in his skull, remotely piloted by an AI. Research of this nature might help you close the gap and better fix the health related problems Alpha-types like yourself face.

"Haha, you big bastard! I love him!"

Secondly, the star map gives you a better understanding of your local star cluster- these are all the nearest stars less then twenty light years away- useful for your growing empire. Though you still aren't exactly sure what the map could mean, no specific location is marked, but if Kimnan's generous cooperation in this manner is in any way helpful, it is clear this alien race had at least some capacity to understand Hyperspace.

Next was the technology of the aliens, the same stuff that powers their turrets. While these alien parts seem to work on lower levels of power then your own, they are somehow remote. Volt meters plugged into one piece can sense and generate power in another piece, even with no physical connection to speak of. This concept of a remote or intangible network, perhaps via quantum entanglement or some other medium, is very attractive to your computing and energy sciences.

Finally; Kimnan's spoils also included a decent amount of the alien building material, the stuff that made the ruins stand so long in such condition. Even cursory testing shows it is incredible strong and durable, especially in regards to tensile strength. There is also evidence that these aliens used Azurium in their construction; which would make sense and also at least hint they were once space capable, as the other planet in their star systems had Azuirum deposits- perhaps they got it from Andoen-2? Regardless, the newfound implications of this material have returned your attention to an older project...
>>
The arcology.

First arcologies were proposed and planned by none other then Kinja himself, but his lack of resources and technology to support such a project, as well as the desperate need to bolster his population first, prevented it from moving past the first plans. But now you are reviewing these plans again, and with your newfound building materials and techniques- it is more then possible.

Jaxt is getting crowded; and beyond your own homeworld other planets will need to be colonized. Until now, small and special colony units were built on planets, using spaceships as the primary means of transporting goods. If an Arcology network was built, the need for open space cities and nature-consuming colonies could be greatly reduced. You could build an arcology on any planet, regardless of if it was habitable or not, making efficient use of space and fusion energy. Transport tubes using antigravity trains could ship goods around, with minimal impact on any local environments or biospheres. And your population density could grow higher with little loss to personal freedoms and quality of life. With your ever-increasing AI ability, a city of such size and population complexity could be managed with little oversight. Shared spaces and resources efficiently recycled and reused- Yes, the arcology may be the next step in habitation for the Jaxtian people.

However, there is also the issue of funding and the cultural changes that will result. Building the first Arcologies on Jaxt would be a good start, but will take away time from exploring the universe. Your space stations were first built by Talacent as a way to build more habitats for Jaxtians, but its impact ended up being minimal. You hope the arcology ends up differently...

Will you go forward with this arcology project? Or will you instead focus on something else?

>Being the Arcology project
>Focus on something else (Write In)
>>
>>5095489
>Being the Arcology project
I think that something may be wrong with Agori.
>>
>>5095489

>Focus on something else - The colonisation of Andoen 1

Given that Kimnan slipped past the defences into a control centre and we know our ships can resist the weapons, I propose we use our focus to take this new world. If we wish to experiment with Arcologies, let us experiment here before bringing a proven concept back to Jaxt.
>>
>>5095489
>Focus on the colonization of the Xin system and the completion of the centuries-old terraforming project we started there.

We should seek to focus on expanding our borders before other spacefaring empires start to snag them. Xin is the closest to us in light years and will give us a second habitable world to utilize.
>>
>>5095513
+1
>>
Oh, also, we should probably check in on Vetuck II again. Last time we checked they were in the iron age, who knows how much they advanched.
>>
>>5095479
Jesus Fuck
>>
>>5095574
+1
>>
>>5095489
>Focus on something else
An improved mental health program for our people. This generation and the last are becoming... Erratic.

Failing that, check in on Ventuck and colonize the Andoen system, as >>5095501
and >>5095574 suggest.
>>
>>5095513
+1
>>
>>5095513
Supporting
We also have a genocidal leader at last. Awesome.
>>
>>5095745
Genocide-CAPABLE. So far, he just tortures and mutilates dissidents.
>>
>>5095780
I think Agori would definitely do it in the case of Baalathi - not only have they tried to kill our civilisation before, but our communication attempt proved that there is no possibility of peaceful coexistence with these creatures. Where Talacant would have let the species survive in some form, I don't think Agori would have any issues cleansing the Baalathi from the cosmos.

At the same time, I'm not sure he'd do it if there was no quantifiable threat a species possessed to the Hegemony.

On another note, perhaps we should carry out Talacent's threat; grow that single genetic clone of Kimnan without the arrogance? Slip the zygote into an 'assisted reproduction' scheme mother somewhere; bosh.
>>
>>5095489
>Focus on something else (Write In)
I kinda want to check on the primitive race we found before, but I'm up for colonizing other places if people don't want to go for that, also we should probably be careful if we do check up on that race since we received messages from a bunch of other races when we first got FTL to work and they might not like us messing with primitives.
>>
>>5095835
Our communication showed that you can pacify then with the right gasses. Peaceful coexistence is definitely possible hell we can outright domesticate them.
>>
>>5095835
Kimnan's arrogance wans a result of being raised as a supreme leader candidate and then having a child star success he felt pressure to live up to. It was as much (probably more so) nurture than nature
>>
>>5095479
>the best jaxtian pilot to ever live
>saves the species from an alien invasion
>pioneers hyperspace for future generations
>brings back artifacts of a fortified alien planet
>is mutilated, stripped of his honor, and probably blacklisted in history because he got results sooner than boss monke wanted
What the FUCK Agori. Talacent would've wept, and he fucking knows it too.

>>5095489
>Begin the Arcology project
No reason not to build on Talacent's work. Fuck, I'm still reeling.
>>
>>5096210

I do sort of wish we got to vote on Agori's reaction. This wasn't "no unearned mercy," because Kimnan did much to earn special consideration. Likewise, it isn't a product of our decisions, as we consistently vote to mitigate Alpha violence. Quick deaths, sparing Eoba, TRYING to be merciful to the terrorist.

But... Hey, we chose that hyper-dominant genetic throwback, I guess. Let's just not select another Alpha as our successor.
>>
>>5096320
Well, we chose an Alpha phenotype - though I think most people were expecting a more intelligent and considerate Bost, not Alpha Alpha+.

Kimnan definitely deserved punishment, though. There were multiple stages he could have prevented this.

1) Presented Agori with a more comprehensive version of the plan then 'I pilot in and win the day because I am amazing'. If Kinman had actually presented his full plan for approval - and there were no immediate time constraints for him not to - he might have got official go-ahead.

2) Even once the deed was done, he could have then immediately reconnected the computer systems and opened up communications to tell what he'd done and ask for instruction. Agori would likely still have been furious, and Kinmnan would likely have been sidelined for a bit; but this would have kept the ship in the system to make further use of then and there if needed, and would have allowed the Hegemony to decide what happened next rather then personal ambition. Even if Agori had ordered the ship back immediately, nine months foreknowledge would have given him time to cool down and consider something appropriate.

And let's not forget the crew of the ship. 'Hey, whilst you followed orders and went into Cryosleep your captain mutinied and tried to steal all the glory from the mission for himself' is not going to go down well among everyone else who was out there.
>>
>>5096210
>What the FUCK Agori
That's what happens when you have an completely unaccountable, supremely powerful entity that's able to do literally anything it wants at any time, and give said power to an unstable, bipolar gorilla ogre.
>>
>>5096604
>punishment
Grounding and demoting him probably would have sufficed. We're lucky he didn't die from shock when Agori literally tore his arm off.
>>
>Anons vote for the "nice" supreme ruler.
>Vote for Xenocide
>Chose Alpha Monke as next Supreme
>Want to be less brutal

Maybe next time if we chose the opposite of what we think we want we'll get a Supreme ruler that will actually do what we vote for?
>>
>>5096755
Well, when we voted for Agori, we didn't expect him to act like an actual gorilla, we expected another Bost
>>
>>5096755
We also voted for the Supreme Rulers in question under different circumstances than they actually ruled under.
>>
>>5096800
Perhaps this is the flaw is picking heirs so far out.

Perhaps a better system is to train up all potential supremes as I'd they would be supremes and then picking the best one for the job closer to when the old one retires.
>>
>>5096858
Honestly, you have a point, Agori was picked when it seemed like we were on the verge of a long space war. But there turned out to be pretty much nothing.
>>
>>5096858
Valid. Especially with longer lifespans and all, perhaps we need not make our final selection so early. Hell, last time we had an adult candidate among the options. Still... There's something to be said for a lifetime of specialized training and preparation, including during times of maximum mental plasticity.
>>
>>5096858
The problem with training them all as supremes is that the ones who don't will be kinda fucked. Usually they're chosen early so they get to go into another type of education and work.
>>
>>5097009
I dunno, since we're just about to move into an interstellar colonisation era it might be a good idea to have some 'planetary/system governor' candidates. I mean, look what Maktana did on Caplit.
>>
With a decent amount of cultural and technological gains already taken from Andoen, you feel further efforts in that system would be expensive and costly, at least in terms of colonization. The entire planet of Andoen-I is essentially landmined, even with your technology and AI, it would take decades to clear that place out.

For these reasons, among others, you decide to instead focus your efforts on the Xin system. Beyond just being close, it has an uninhabited, nearly life supporting planetary sphere already set up. And on top of that, your ancestors had the foresight to begin the process early. The first of the ships arrive on Xin with small crews to monitor the planet, while later more HDCFVs arrive filled to the brim with construction materials and crew to man them.

It turns out; the planet Xin-I has undergone massive, significant change! The pink bacteria, sent here over a century ago, had done its thing. The entire planet's oceans are pink, and the skies have turned pink. With no naturally evolving predators or diseases, the pink bacteria have had ample real estate. The entire ocean of the planet has been turned from water to a primordial soup of enyzems, amino acids, and oxygen which have entered the atmosphere. The planet is still not habitable, but with liquid oceans, a near Jaxt temperature gradient, and a massive biosphere to begin with, colonization efforts are sure to work. It will, of course, still take hundreds, if not thousands of years to create a full biosphere, but that is the nature of terraforming.

This also marks your first permanent colony on another world. Using some of the basic techniques of the Arcology project, the colony here will be highly sustainable; though the crew will be made to “sleep” in shifts in suspension pods to prevent too much drain on resources. As of right now, your far off colonies will still require shipments of a few things; Carbon and Nitrogen to recover the loss from biological processes, Tritium fuel for the fusion generator, computer chips and metals from the manufacturing plant on Schoon... with a four month trip between here and the home system, it's certainly possible to maintain this colony as a permanent asset.
>>
You also decide to send exploration ships to Vetuck system- specifically Vetuck-II, because of its developing primitive culture. You don't have the manpower or means yet to initiate first contact with these people, so you decide to install an AI controlled listening post over their system. However, a small discrepancy in readings seems to indicate something; there is a minor amount of radiation in the upper atmospheres of Vetuck-II, and unless these iron age primitives managed to test nuclear weapons in the past ~100 years since you checked in on them, that must mean an advanced alien species must have visited Vetuck-II. However, no matter how hard you look, scan, or send out your probes- you cannot find any installations or presence of any advanced technology in this system. They must have came and left, with the radiation being little more then exhaust from whatever propulsion system they use.

You still don't like it. They're fucking around in your territory.

Down on the planet's surface, an alien species which has yet to be classified, is being studied and their language decoded. This species doesn't appear to have advanced much, in fact, they may have actually regressed. The largest grain-based agricultural empire that was in power last time you checked in on them seemed to have collapsed.

More interestingly; you have more insight now into the lives of these people from such an advantageous position and you can see now how significant and important religion is in their lives. Their religion is equal to or more important then their secular government. This is similar to early Jaxtian societies, where religions acted as “social glue” that helped tribes and groups stick together and become more organized.

However- what is not the same as early Jaxtian societies is the fact that these aliens worship... one God. Just one. Very strange. No Jaxtian culture in prehistory or recorded history ever had a “monotheistic” belief system. Gods in Jaxtian culture represented their people, and if a people was defeated it was thought that God was weak, but none ever claimed that there was only one. More time will be needed to fully decode and understand their language, and a cruiser sent to introduce yourself to them personally...
>>
Alavis messages you one morning when you wake up- informing you of an archived “time capsule” tubefilm that has finally reached expiration. As such, the old piece of media can finally be viewed again- a method for Supreme Rulers to communicate with those who come longer after them. You order Ingar to bring you the physical media and get you a way to play it. It's so old that it hasn't been digitized. You wonder what it is.

“This is Vantix Garastra- and who are you? The reason for this recording is to commemorate the two hundred and fifty year anniversary of the Hegemony Space Empire, or the average lifespan of an empire. Of course, the Hegemony has been around much longer then that at your point in time, but in terms of a power structure, it has now reached its expected lifespan. Let's talk about this.”

“Empires rise and fall based on economic opportunity and social pressure. States gain power because they can- and must. Any increase in ones power leads only to a further increase in power, or for the economic theory- the “profit” of any actions leads to further profit. However, in the vast diversity of space and of possible life, certain patterns will emerge. Power is evolutionary, and is therefore convergent. The same patterns will continue to emerge. Any powerful empire in the space age will therefore be unified under one core ideology or goal, else fall apart due to infighting. Any powerful empire will be eugenic and supremacist, else the necessary intelligence to develop and maintain that level of technology will be lost. Any powerful empire would develop within a similar timeframe, as they are all independent of each other; about as long as it took for the Hegemony to develop on Jaxt should be about as long as it would take for it to develop on another world who passed by the “great filter”. What this indicates is that, in the future of your developing Empire, the rival empires you will meet in space will be as your own.”

“Think of each empire like a pendulum, swinging laterally. Once they get going, they will inevitably bump into each other, stealing each other's energy as they go, but each still swings along the same path. If a pendulum swung at an angle, it could knock another aside, but only be destabilizing itself in the process, to be smashed by another that is following the correct course. But the problem is this; these empires can only gain energy from each other, none can ascend beyond this- and yet the Hegemony's goals are far loftier. If they all have the same advantages of a supremacist, unified, intelligent society- then how can we succeed them?”
>>
“The truth then is about the core of each society- the family, though even smaller then this, is the individual. From a eugenic sense, the Hegemony works towards the perfection of our people over time. When I was born, one in thirty Jaxtians had a significant allergy, one in one hundred and twenty were prone to mental illness, and the average IQ was one hundred and five point six. At this point in my reign, these numbers had been improved to one in thirty eight, one in one hundred and thirty five, and the average IQ has increased by naught point six points. But once again, a similar level of success from a highly organized, unified empire would be expected of any species. The eugenic progress is therefore not an improvement of the species, but maintenance, adjustment for inflation. It is only keeping up with our competitors, not succeeding them.”

“With our leaders selected by right of gene supremacy, the constant increase of our population means that, with the bottom of the society being most improved, a crunch of possible supreme candidates will occur. Increased genetic perfection and a larger and larger population will not mean more Supreme candidates, but less, as the ones who are obviously superior to the average Jaxtians will shrink. This does not meant that the Supreme program will not work, far from it- such a thing is necessary, but it won't be sustainable using the metrics we have now- every year the number of Supreme individuals will shrink, requiring algorithims more and more to give “allowances” for those who are prone to neuroticism- always correlated highly with intelligence- to keep the supremacy of the individual over the common Jaxtian.”

“But there is something that the Eugenic program cannot select for. No matter how much work goes into eliminating anti-social behaviors, they still crop up. No matter how much improvement goes into the prefrontal development of a species, their choices- or what our scholars would disdainfully call “free will” continues to be a problem. Our geneticists are very arrogant; but they are forgetting the truth that it is both nature AND nurture that makes a citizen. I am but a single piece in this tapestry of culture, even my direct intervention cannot stop the culture behind it- sacrilegious to imply that I am not omnipotent as the Supreme Ruler I know, but such empty platitudes mean nothing to an old man like me.”

“The truth is; it is trivially easy to breed a person for strength or intelligence, but there is no genetic code for prudence. No gland in our brain excretes mercy or understanding. In that sense, the true secret to succeed over a rival society is not in what our leaders are, but who they are that make the difference.”

“So I repeat; my name is Vantix Garastra, the Supreme Ruler of the Jaxtian people. But who are you?”
>>
==========
Hey everybody, thanks for playing this part of the Space Monke Quest! I'm calling this one here since we're getting near pg 10, holidays are here anyway, and I might need to get busy doing stuff soon in real life. Instead of making another part immediately after this one, I'd like to cool off a bit and have a small hiatus, maybe work on something else for a bit, we'll see.

Now for these Q&A feedback sections I tend to ask YOU a question, so I can get more specific feedback on things. This time though, I want you to ask ME questions this time, and I'll do my best to answer. Thanks again for playing!
>>
Archival link- https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2021/5053823/
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>>5097219
What is wrong with Agori? Is that just being an Alpha or something abnormal?
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>>5097219
How is Kinman faring at his new job?
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>>5097219
What type of animal does Vantix have as a pet here in
>>5097214
And are there any other notable lifeforms on Jaxt that were kept around? Pets, beasts of burden?

Also, what has been the biggest surprise to you so far in terms of choices made, direction taken?
>>
>>5097401
There's nothing wrong with him. He's the way a man of the Hegemony should be, and a powerful Supreme Ruler.

He's more aggressive and violent then previous Supreme Rulers, that's for sure. In comparison to our world; the Hegemony at least is much more brutal of a regime and more violent then most Earth regimes. For example, dissidents and terrorists are tortured to death as punishment, people are much more worshipful of their ruler, etc. This is partially because these are ape-aliens and not humans, but also partially as part of the Hegemony's "must remain supreme at all costs" ideology. I've attempted to seed the threads for these elements since the first one.

>>5097409
He's alright. While it's not against the Hegemonic ideals to humiliate problem individuals with a very low position far beneath their station; he's too experienced and valuable to simply waste by making into a laborer or cook. However, you don't need both hands to make flight routes, so it's unlikely he'll get the cybernetic replacement anytime soon...

>>5097434
That's a Nut-Thief. They're the Jaxtian's pets, a squirrel-like animal that became domesticated by close proximity and helpfulness to early Jaxtians. Similar to dogs, they've developed alongside the Jaxtians and have become the number one most popular and common domesticated pet. They mostly eat seeds and nuts that Jaxtians find distasteful or hard to crack, but have evolved to eat almost anything Jaxtians can. The closest temperament to Earth animals would be something like a dog mixed with a ferret.

Unlike humans, Jaxtians exterminated (intentionally or otherwise) many of the species on their home planet, leading to less biodiversity. Only useful animals were kept around- some examples include farm waste-disposale type animals that can also push a plow, called Eaters, and Gallopelles, which are basically horsegiraffes that eat leaves and can be ridden around. Jaxtians can but only rarely eat meat from these animals; too much red meat makes them sick.

>>5097434
>biggest surprise
Two, the first was how close it was when people were going to take total control of the Hegemony's breeding program in the previous thread. I remember it being tied almost until the end. That's not to say I didn't want that, I was very interested to see where the quest would go if every Jaxtian became Indigo past that point, I just wasn't expecting players to get so close to a huge upset of the quest's main artstyle/characters.

The second was also in the second thread; where people voted to Exterminate the Haazar. Though I wanted them to clearly be at least partially responsible for the Baalathi cylinder attacks, I didn't think the players would be quite so punishing, since most of the time the players are more "moralfags". With that said, I didn't want to railroad by not allowing it, I have no problems with a nice wholesome genocide, it just didn't fit Talacent.
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>>5097492
People are generally less sympathetic to aliens when they are shown to be generally unpleasant. The Hazaar seems to basically be some kind of ancapistan meme species with a bunch of pretentious nudists that severely fucked over our people while lying about it.
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>>5097492
That's good to know. Who was The Supplier and how were they supplying the New Friends Initiative (NFI)?

What is the blonde Ingar thought he loved doing in life, and did he keep pining after her or did Agori's dating scheme pan out?

How did the general public react to the news about Kinman and his loss of honor under the Hegemony?

Are there any differences between Human and Jaxtian psychology that haven't been mentioned or focused on yet?

Lastly... do the Jaxtians have an equivalent to Christmas and the New Years?

Thank you for answering our questions.
>>
>>5097219
How far along is the integration of the Hazaar?
How are our Baalathi prisoners doing?
Does the Hegemony have a Christmas analouge?
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>>5097492
Did Agori ever get a hot secretary?
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>>5097219
What advice do you have for other qms of civilization style games?
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>>5097584
>Lastly... do the Jaxtians have an equivalent to Christmas and the New Years?
The Jaxtians only have three holidays. All religious and secular (consumerist) holidays were forbidden when the Hegemony took over. The primary holiday is the Day of Obedience, taken on the first of each Jaxt year, where everyone will sing the anthem and pledge themselves to the Supreme Ruler. On years where a new Supreme Ruler is chosen, this day also acts a a coronation and is extra important. Hegemonic space laws have changed quite a bit; AIs have to figure out exactly what time the sun rises over an inhabited planet or moon in each timezone, or what time the local star will rise over the horizon in a satellite station, for the pledge to be taken at that time. Those in suspension are also awoken, to take the pledge as well.

>>5097587
>How far along is the integration of the Hazaar?
The Haazar integration is very slow going. Similar to the Migrators, the Haazar live a long time and as such cultural change is very slow; most of the Haazar on the ship were alive back when it was taken over. Bluey is the missing link and seems to be the only Haazar with culturally ingrained ideas like family or loyalty.

>How are our Baalathi prisoners doing?
The ones aboard the "colony" ship died a long time ago, they seemed to have 'starved'. The ones in containment and being studied on Caplit are kept under high pressures with new gasses pumped in, harvested from Max, which seems to "feed" them enough to survive and reproduce. I wanted to go more into the Baalathi in this thread but couldn't find a good spot to put it in without it being boring.

>>5097617
Of course. Multiple.

>>5097942
Civ style games have a few issues that many people have addressed in the past. Without trying to brag, many people say I have successfully avoided the issue of civs feeling impersonal or vague/gamey by tying my civ-quest to the Supreme Rulers and other important characters. Other things about Civs is the insistence on rules and lacking certain focus on things; I personally try to keep things more freeform and I control the "camera" to things that are important. Most of the time the leadership is reacting to things, which may not be your bag in terms if running a quest or game- more opportunities for players to do things on their own accord would be welcome, something I've also considered adding into my own game as well.
>>
>>5098302
In relation to the Hazaar, how many Hazaar 'children' are there now upon the ship?

Has Bluey had any?

And is Bluey going to look after any (theirs or anyone else's) to try and install more of a family ethos into the next Hazaar generation? Abandoning them to let them live/die on what they do no doubt feeds into the Haazer individualist philosophy, so giving them a 'childhood' and a greater degree of protection might better sell them upon ours.
>>
>>5098302
>>5098306
Hey folks, thoughts on asking for volunteers to incubate more Blue Hazaar? Maybe we can make sure the next generation is all (or majority) loyal?
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>>5098703
That is a horrible idea. You know how blue hazaar are made, right?
>>
>>5098306
>>5098703
Bluey has not had any children with the other Haazar. He's a weird outsider, and in a high, busy position of importance. However, he developed as a Keeper-type Haazar, the kind most likely to look after children, settle disputes, and manage a community. They are the least greedy Haazar and are as such among the least reproductive successful individually in the first place.

As for more blue Haazar- several Jaxtians have already volunteered (mostly weirdos) for implantation, but the two races are kept separated to avoid such cross contamination. As Agori's clone and eugenic research expands, we might see an option for it in the future.

>>5097584
The Supplier was an ex-military contractor that worked among Eoba's various projects. As Talacent was always too hands off when it came to managing his right hand, Eoba spent a lot of money and made a lot of projects. As Talacent stepped down and Eoba retired, these projects lost their funding and were slowly swept up by other, more efficient military programs. Many of the genetic technologies and equipment were stolen or 3d printed as copies by the NFI to be used in their own anti-government terrorism network.

How did everyone feel about the cypher puzzle, or the later "IQ test pattern" puzzle? I like putting puzzles as a form of "difficulty" in these quests, but everyone solved them pretty easily.
>>
>>5098722
Use useful idiots: loyal Jaxtians who have no useful intel. The children will be loyal by default, the parents will be high as kites and serve our empire, and the Hegemony will lose nothing of value.
>>
>>5098823
The puzzles weren't my cup of tea, especially the geometric one... But I also didn't really try to solve them. I play quests for the narrative, not the challenge.
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>>5098823
Look, man, I rather have puzzles that people solve too easily than puzzles that grind a quest to a halt. They're a nice change of pace but I like them sparingly.
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>>5098823
I enjoyed the language cipher puzzle, managed to decode it about halfway (though didn't notice the error in the final word's letter count and so perpetuated it)
>>5080550
I wasn't so keen on the door-key cipher, though that may be because I utterly misinterpreted it as a maths problem and wondered why none of the numbers we'd been given seemed to make sense.


>>5098703
I'd be more interested in giving them one of the Baalathi specimens we've been studying, just to see what they'd do with it - let us not forget that the Baalathi took the Haazar 'home' system. It'd be an interesting experiment just to see what their society would do with a captive of their own.


Also; not a question but wild theory time - The Haazar 'Homeworld' has no other species with their method of reproduction, right? I'm guessing that the Haazar are not actually natives, and might possibly be a splinter faction of another starfaring power. At my wild assumption, given the ones we've heard messages from, I'm thinking the Esaal might be likely candidates - they share that 'aa' in their species name with both the Haazar and the Baalathi (which I'm guessing is the Haazar name for the species rather then their own)
>>
>>5098823
I liked the puzzles - they're a way to provide a challenge that isn't just blind luck. Though i did not at all understand the second - i thought it was a numerical sequence that we had to decipher.

The first one was cool, though
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>>5098823
If I was patient or smart enough to figure out the puzzles then I'd probably enjoy them, I'm mostly here for the narrative but I do enjoy watching people figure them out.
>>
>>5098823
I like ways to test the audience skills out of universe but I didn't like the puzzles since I am really bad at them.

Though if you are free I would love to collab with you for The Ridller if they ever show up in Batquest.
>>
Hey guys, thanks for the feedback- for the puzzles especially. It's something I've wanted to include way more of, but without making it too central to the quest. One good quest per thread seems like a good middle ground.

>>5100118
Hah, I'll take that as a compliment. I'm on the discord if you wanted to talk.

----SHORT SYNOPSIS----
The Supreme Ruler Talacent Intari greatly improved the lives of the Jaxtian people using developed and captured technology- extending average lifespans to 100 years, discovering Azurium, and fully developing Tritium-based fusion power.

During his reign, the Baalathi cylinder opened prematurely, and Kimnan Oles, a child prodigy pilot, was sent in to disable the cylinder. After successfully capturing the Baalathi, the Hegemony experience years of peace and quiet expansion.

Talacent's successor, Agori Falathane was a large and dominant Alpha-type Jaxtian, and defended his people from a bio-terrorism organization known as the NFI. Ultimately, the organization shot and killed Agori's loyal aide, a genetically superior indigo named Qenen.

During this time, Agori forced another candidate for the Supreme Ruler, Ingar to end his obsession for a unremarkable blonde female civilian and upgrade the Alavis program and computing technology in general.

With the advent of better technology and fusion power; the first FTL ships were tested, but found to be unreliable without a living pilot. The first exploratory flight was a success; with the ship returning from the Andoen system with several valuable technological discoveries. However, for his rashness, Kimnan had one arm removed and was stripped of his previous accomplishments.

Finally; an ancient archived video from the first Supreme Ruler of the space age- Vantix Garastra surfaced to remind the current Supreme Ruler of what it really means to lead a civilization into the future...
>>
>>5100281
So, so far we have had:

>Founding Leader
>Lowborn Environmentalist Leader
>Stoic Corruption-Smashing Traditionalist
>Reluctant Propaganda-Savvy Celebrity
>Master Diplomat with Crazy Warrior Bro
>Hulking Counter-terrorist with Emotional Regulation Issues

I'm enjoying the saga of these monke leaders! It's been a hell of a ride so far.
>>
>>5100281
Can I get a discord link.
>>
>>5097215
So... who else might we get these 'time capsules' from? We've already found Qet's last message but he was already aged at that point; it's not impossible he might have prepared something beforehand, even though it's unlikely he would been confident on it getting passed on through the machine that killed him. However Vul died far too soon so I'm assuming there's zero chance he left anything.

Kinja was a master of communicative media so I'm going to bet it as a near certainty that he's left some last work behind, and Talacent's reign was so long that I'd find it improbable he wouldn't have made anything for the future.



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