Aurora 4x
Fiction => Aurora => Rabid_Cog's Fiction => Topic started by: Rabid_Cog on June 19, 2012, 03:15:09 PM
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I am rather new to these here forums, seeing as a number of people have posts from as far back as 2006, but reading all the (mostly) excellent fiction posted here has inspired me to try my hand at it. I have always regarded myself as reasonably literate, so I hope it will not be too offensive to the eyes.
The basic premise for my game is thus:
Sol starts are boring. Unless you are doing multi-faction or non-earth games, Sol starts are all the same. So that was out.
Instead, I wondered what it would be like to play the other side of the coin. Instead of playing the daring earthlings attempting to face the horrors of the deep unknown, how about playing one of those horrors trying to eat all the squishy earthlings? Surely the Bugs from Steve's Rigellian campaign (some inspiration there) did not start out as the menace they became? What was their story?
While a hive-mind race was tempting, it made for very boring storytelling and as you might have noticed by now, I bore easily. Instead, the more fragmented and broken the leadership, the more space exists for intrigue and politics. Thus were born the Wrix.
Introduction
The Wrix are a race of humanoid-insectoid predators based loosely on ants. Each underground hive consists of drones governed by a queen. The drones are fanatically loyal to their queen, but tend to be less intelligent than the average human. Queens, the only members of their race that can reproduce, are vicious, ruthless, intelligent and care very little for the lives of their drones, except as a resource to be used. As their homeworld is covered with a large number of hives, no central government exists (as yet) and the queens fight each other for territory, resources and sometimes just because they can. However, queens aren’t stupid. While a number of hives have developed nuclear weapons, those weapons would destroy the very resources the hives seek to acquire far easier than the vast underground hives. Only small warheads with limited yield have been used in tactical situations.
As a race, they are very industrious and reproduce rapidly, but constant war has restricted their starting population to a mere 322 million with a single shipyard and research laboratory. Their government can best be described as a collection of Feudal States, each hive being its own state.
As you might have guessed, I used a conventional start.
Comments are welcome.
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Nov 2000
The Queen of Kappa Hive sat in front of the large computer in her chambers, her finger paused on the button that would change everything forever. She hated the uncertainty, but when the only certain choice is death, there is no other way. She couldn't afford not to do it.
Finally, she pressed the button. Then she leaned back and sighed. It was done. There was no backing out now. The data was sent. Now, for a few hours at least, there was nothing to do but wait.
Later
“Alright, Kappa, what is this?” the Queen of Gamma hive demanded over the video link.
Eight of the eleven largest hives on the planet had responded to the data and joined the video conference, of which Gamma was the largest and most powerful. Even moreso than Kappa herself. But Kappa was the most technologically advanced hive.
“What did your science drones tell you it was? It’s not that complex” Kappa replied snidely.
“So, “ Lambda hive responded, “are you trying to tell us that the sun is going to explode?”
Lambda was a smaller hive and had neglected to provide a video feed, along with two others. Paranoid about security no doubt.
“No, I’m telling you that the sun might be cooling down. What that means is anyone’s guess. ”
“Might?” one of the other hives without a video feed asked. Delta, the computer said.
“Unfortunately I do not have enough information to make a definitive statement. There are so many different periodic fluctuations that it is very hard to make accurate observations. What I do know is that if this is indeed the case, then we are most likely facing extinction due to freezing. ”
“Wait a second, how do we know you didn’t fabricate this whole thing? Where did you even get these observations. These go back almost twenty years!” Gamma hive said.
“We have all made observations and measurements of various solar bodies at various times during our astronomy research. Mine just happened to be more complete. Recent cross-correlation efforts brought this information to light. As for its legitimacy, do any of these observations contradict any of your own?”
Kappa was answered by a chorus of begrudged no’s.
“Now tell me, how would I know when you had taken your measurements? Besides, even though queens have only ever spoken on exceedingly rare occasions, here we are in a conference with no less than nine of the most powerful Queens on the planet. Why, if you don’t believe what I’m telling you?” she asked.
“Why tell us this at all?” Delta asked. Another smaller hive, but also rather advanced.
“Now we are getting to the heart of the matter and the entire reason I have called the conference. You see, I have spent the past month doing almost nothing but watching my drones run simulations in that new research facility many of you have no doubt discovered I had constructed. We might have as much as a two hundred years before we even start to feel a chill, but it might be as few as eighty before we are living on an iceball. Even assuming we have a hundred years before additional infrastructure is required to support our lives, my hive alone would never be able to establish any sort of meaningful colony on any other planet. Our industrial capacity is simply insufficient. Even were any two of us to band together, we would still be unable to make it in time, considering the inevitable wars we would be involved in with the rest of you. ”
All of the other queens were silent, so Kappa Queen continued.
“Together, the nine of us control over 40% of the planet’s combined manufacturing capacity and command more than 50% of its armed forces. Together, we can force all of the smaller hives in line with our plans and the larger ones remaining will have to choose between falling in with our plans or falling victim to our unstoppable, combined, military juggernaught. ”
“So, ‘together, we can rule the world!’ is your pitch? How does that help us? And what is in it for us?” Gamma hive again.
“Good question, my dear Gamma. With the industrial might of the entire planet, my analysts have determined that it would be possible to have a colony on another world in as little as ten years time. ”
“As to what you stand to gain, out there are enough planets so that each current hive can have several of their own. If that is not enough territory for you, I do not know what would be. In addition, soon I will have no choice but to share certain technological advances with you, purely for practical reasons. Finally, if we do not do this, we all die. It is as simple as that. ”
“In conclusion, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Now, decide. ”
The decision was unanimous. The Wrix Swarm was now in existence.
In less than a month, most of the other hives fell in line, even the ones who had declined to attend the conference. Between the promise of technology if they agree and the threat of destruction if they do not, the choice was easy.
The Wrixen system is a binary system with 6 planets around both the primary and the secondary. Wrixom, homeworld of the Wrix, is the sixth planet around the primary. There are a total of six planets and moons that are close to being habitable, requiring minimal infrastructure to sustain life. Of course, any orbiting the primary would help little against the cooling sun, but the secondary held four of these worlds and had no such problem. Yes, the Wrix would survive.
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Intersting start. I am waiting for more small politics and interfighting.
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Of course, the game only actually starts in 2001. This was setting the background.
Just a note, this is a single faction start so don't expect Steve's 'I'm tired of managing so many factions' style infighting.
Also, the text isn't readable enough in my opinion. I might play around with the font/spacing at some point to see if I can give it a boost. But not right now. Time for more story! :D
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1 Jan 2001
“Gamma, you control the only shipyard capable of building something useful. In time we will construct more, but for now you need to increase its size as quickly as you can. ”
Another conference. This time it was on the practicalities. Despite all the projections she had thrown around, Kappa Queen still had no real way to get her fledgling alliance which had now become known as ‘The Swarm’ off the doomed rock that was their homeworld. Still, certain things would have to be done regardless, and problems would be tackled one at a time.
“Lambda, Delta and Rho, I need you to take care of the rest of the hives still holding out against our influence. Remember, we need their industry intact if possible. In fact, the less damage done the better. It would be best if they joined of their own will, but join they must. We cannot afford to have to watch our backs against opportunist raiders. ”
“Excuse me, “ the queen from Beta hive, one of the larger hives who had originally neglected to attend the conference but had since seen the light, at least somewhat, interrupted. “Why exactly are you the one giving orders? We might be working to a common goal, but that does not make you our leader. ”
“Then how about this. Unless someone can think of something better to do, we do what I say. If anyone ever does, we will discuss it and handle the situation then. Now, I need all possible industry at our disposal to start producing infrastructure to support both our offworld colonies and our hives here once the temperature starts dropping. It might not be for a while, but we have a lot of Wrix that will need it and nothing better to use it on. ”
“How about weapons?” one of the other queens chirped.
“Why would we need more weapons? We already have enough between us to kill every living thing on this planet three times over. Besides, Delta hive passed on something that they had been working on a while, but just didn’t have the facilities to properly analyze. It’s a new kind of metal, and my science drones tell me it will make all our current technology completely obsolete” Kappa said.
“Which you will share with us, I am sure?” Gamma asked.
“Would you believe me if I said absolutely?” Kappa replied.
“Not in the slightest, if you thought you could manage without us. ”
“Then why ask the question?”
An explanation is perhaps in order. No hive can be larger than the number of drones each queen can hatch in the lifespan of a single drone, which isn’t that much. Even with technology severely pushing the limits of what is naturally possible, a hive is limited to about 25 million drones. This is an upper ceiling, but reaching that number is impossible in practice due to war, accidents, disease and food supplies. Hence, no single queen can gather the industrial might necessary to even consider getting off the planet.
What exactly is happening:
Kappa started her research on transnewtonian metals as she controls the only (modern) research facility.
Gamma began enlarging the 1000ton shipyard as that's what she controls.
Everyone (all the industry) began building infrastructure for the forseeable future.
In case you haven't realized, Queens get the names of their hives as they 'are' the hive.
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All other queens in a hive beside the Hive Queen are known as subqueens, and they are forbidden from laying eggs. They can only ever obtain their own hives and reproduce if they succeed the Hive Queen or if they break off to form their own hive. With nearly all territory on the planet claimed by at least one queen, breaking off had a very low chance of success so most stuck around, doing their best to accelerate the demise of their Hive Queen and each other without getting executed in the process.
2 June 2002
The squabbling between the queens had reached a flashpoint. For a year and a half the tensions had been building and all of them were trying to gain an edge, refusing to release needed minerals to others while some were slacking, building weapons and stealing each other’s territory while they were occupied. It had to stop.
“Enough!” Kappa exclaimed.
Unfortunately, the conference she had called to address the issue had turned into a shouting match. Nobody could be heard because everyone was talking, accusing or threatening at once.
“I said enough!” Kappa pressed a small button on the side of her console and covered her ears. A loud, high pitched whine blasted out of the speakers of every queen, completely drowning out even their own words but not doing any permanent damage to their hearing. Comms drones quickly cut the sound, but, for a moment at least, she had silence.
“Listen to me! Clearly it is impossible for us to continue working without a single leader. Our own tendency for backstabbing and lust for power will prevent any sort of willing cooperation between us. ”
“Trying to nominate yourself for the position?” Beta asked. She had become possibly the most disruptive influence within the Swarm, but controlled the largest hive on the planet, so they were stuck with her.
“Hardly. None of us can be named leader, as each would only use it to further her own ends. Therefore I suggest another option. We select from among our hives an Infertile most capable at managing the logistical task of getting resources to factories. ”
Kappa’s suggestion was met with a few seconds of stunned silence. The idea was outrageous, that an infertile would rule over Hive Queens? Preposterous! Yet, as many of the others quickly realized it was the only workable solution. Except Beta.
“An infertile? That is the most ludicrous idea I have ever heard. We kill our Infertiles as they hatch. They are disloyal and produce nothing worthwhile. ”
“On the contrary, “ Delta countered, “while infertile subqueens might not have the fanatical loyalty of drones, they do not have the driving ambition of fertile subqueens that forces us to watch them so carefully and their intelligence level is far above that of the average drone. Both Kappa and I have used them in our laboratories. ”
Eventually, even Beta was forced to give in. Now, the correct Infertile just had to be found.
As the Wrix had no equivalent to mating, gene variation was achieved using an extremely complex and extremely ingenious natural gene randomization mechanism as part of their reproductive process. This happened each time a queen was hatched. Unfortunately, this meant that many of the queens didn’t survive or were born completely infertile and unable to enter the reproductive cycle. Most hives used to kill any infertile queens shortly after they hatch as they were seen as a pointless drain on resources and even a possible danger - fertile queens constantly tried to replace their ‘mother’ as the Queen of the hive and it was feared they would try the same. In recent times, however, this primitive practice had all but died out among most of the modern hives as Infertiles proved to be excellent leaders and scientists. They were creative and smart, and far more trustworthy than the ambitious fertile subqueens as they could not take over a hive even if they tried. No drone would follow a queen that could not reproduce. Never before had one been given power over more than a few hundred drones, however.
What is really happening:
Mineral shortages in duranium slow my already slow construction.
I realize I had forgotten to assign a planetary governor, and that it wouldn't have made sense RP-wise to assign one anyway. So time to fix that.
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3 June 2002
IM-39-VVU lay on her side, resting while scanning a tablet with some of the latest results from the factories. Although she was an Infertile, she had played an important part in the construction of Lambda’s industrial backbone. Nowadays, however, with the shift towards the almost single minded dedication to the construction of the habitats and other life supporting infrastructure, her tasks had become very simple and very tedious. All of the bottlenecks were elsewhere and there was nothing she could do about them but wait.
A drone came running up. Only the queen had private chambers. Everyone else slept wherever they could find room. The idea of personal space didn’t exist.
“IM-39, the Queen wants to see you” it said.
“Coming” IM replied and began putting down the tablet, but then changed her mind and brought it along. Might as well have the figures on her when the Queen demands to know why progress has been so slow.
As she headed towards the heart of the hive, she wondered whether the queen would have her killed. Queens held absolute power over life and death in their hives and no drone would hesitate to kill another at their Queen’s command.
“Your Majesty?” IM asked tentatively from the edge of the chamber. Protocol demanded she be invited in before daring to enter the Queen’s private area.
“Enter, IM-39” the Queen of Lambda Hive called from inside. This was most unusual. Queens never deigned to learn their drones’ designations unless they had very regular contact.
Queen Lambda was stretched out at the back of the chamber with a console and large screen in front of her. Behind her her bulging egg sac was starting to take shape. She was in the middle of her reproductive cycle.
“Your Majesty, if this is because of our factories not meeting their production quota this month, I can assure you…”
“Be quiet and come sit down next to me, IM-39. The conference is about to begin. I will speak to you afterwards. ”
Confused and just a little apprehensive, IM sat down next to her Queen as the screen came to life. Several other Queens’ images appeared on it. After a few seconds, Queen Lambda managed to move the camera to capture both her and IM and the conference started in earnest.
“So is this the one?” the Queen marked Kappa asked.
“Indeed. This is the one I was talking about. She has a real knack for organization” Lambda replied.
“Have you told her anything?” Kappa asked again.
“Nothing yet. ”
“Very well. Then I shall explain. ” Kappa and all the other queens turned to IM. “Your designation is IM-39-VVU, am I correct?”
IM-39 felt her throat contract and her two hearts beat faster. Another Queen knows her designation? What was going on? All she managed was a faint nod.
“You have been chosen as the most capable Infertile to lead the production efforts of the Swarm. You will be given control of all our industry. You will be expected to manage these assets to the best of your abilities to achieve the goals we set for you. ”
IM just sat in stunned silence, so the Queen marked Delta continued.
“You will be assigned resources to help you achieve this. Whatever you need, you let us know and we make it happen somehow. To force the compliance of those queens that are less than willing to accept your orders, you will also have provisional command of a significant part of our combined armed forces to enact punitive measures. Of course, we retain the ability to veto any such orders should we desire. Do you understand?”
This finally snapped IM back, but her attempt at speech failed so she just nodded.
Kappa once again spoke: “Normally a Queen would not ask this of a servant, but I think considering this rather unique case and the rather unique position we find ourselves in, it is necessary. Do you accept this task and promise to do it impartially and to the best of your abilities?”
After a few fish impersonations, IM-39-VVU finally managed to find her voice.
“Yes, I do. ”
“Then we welcome you, first Governor of Wrixom. ”
What exactly is happening:
Planetary governor assigned. I decided to make the various leaders infertile queens.
Excuse the naming scheme, anything but machine-like designations wouldn't have fitted with the race. And I will make sure the first two letters are unique identifiers.
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19 July 2002
It had taken nearly 15 days just to get a handle on things, but now IM-39 was ready to make some changes. The current system was a mess of interference, politics and exploitation by the Queens. Mistrust and deceit prevented almost anything from getting done, but that was going to be changed.
“You want WHAT?” Gamma asked at the latest conference. IM was now a regular participant.
“I want staff. Specifically Infertiles. More specifically, I want competent people to put in charge of things. I can’t run everything myself” IM stated. She had become more at ease with speaking to Queens.
“What exactly do you mean by ‘things’?” Kappa inquired.
“The first thing that springs to mind are those military divisions you said were under my command. They currently have no real command structure and I don’t have time to micromanage them. Some of them consist of drones from several hives thrown together. I would feel much more comfortable if some Infertiles were running the show over there, getting them ready as fighting units. ”
“Are you perhaps trying to wrest control from us, Governor? Your command is only provisional. In other words, as long as we allow it” Gamma stated menacingly.
“I am aware of this, your Majesty, but the drones comprising the troops would still be absolutely loyal to their own hives, just as it is currently. I am merely attempting to ease the command and control situation. How am I supposed to be able to perform any credible punitive action with such a motley collection of soldiers? They need leadership and they need training. ”
“Very well. Make it so” Kappa said with finality, cutting off all argument from the other queens. “Stop wasting my time. ”
20 August 2002
Gamma’s shipyard had been expanded to twice its original size, but still had nothing to build in it. Whenever pressed on when designs for ships to build in the yard will be available, Kappa simply asked for patience or evaded the question. With nobody else in possession of a research facility of sufficient complexity to undertake such work, the yards lay idle.
“What then, exactly, are we doing?” IM asked. Her management had increased the effective mining yield by 20% and industry operation by 10%, but so far all she had been doing was constructing life support equipment. “I get the feeling we are stalling for time, but time is the one thing we do not have! What is going on?”
“Soon, little one. Anything else we produce now in terms of ships or factories will be completely ineffectual and soon obsolete as well. Just perform your task and let me worry about the big picture” Kappa replied mysteriously.
“What, then, is my task at present?” IM asked again.
“You are already doing it. Keep manufacturing infrastructure and expanding the shipyard. Also have your miners keep their eyes out for certain kinds of minerals. My scientists will send you the details. ”
“What am I to do with these minerals?”
“Nothing, just begin stockpiling them. We will need them soon enough, and probably in greater quantities than we can obtain here on Wrixom. ”
What exactly is happening:
Leader autoassign is enabled.
Shipyard expansion is completed, but still nothing much going on.
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25 October 2002
IM couldn’t take it anymore. Each time a drone encountered a problem without an obvious solution, it halted whatever it was busy with and requested instructions. Each time IM-39 would have to respond, analyze the situation and solve the problem. With about twenty million workers, this situation rapidly spun out of control. Her staff helped a little, but most of them had less experience than the drones and just asked IM anyway.
“I have slept less than four hours in the past three days, mostly naps while I travel. If this continues, my health will start to deteriorate and I will be unable to perform my function effectively” she said to the queens in the video-conference.
“The other Infertiles, are they of no assistance?” Delta asked.
“They would be of immense assistance, except they have little experience and no training, and with all my current obligations, I simply do not have the time to train them. I barely have enough time to eat. ”
“Do you have any suggestions?” Delta asked again.
“Yes, I do. With your majesties permission I would like to cease construction of life supporting infrastructure” IM answered.
She could imagine all the eyes of the Queens turn to Kappa. The infrastructure construction project was her idea and it was unlikely she would let a mere Infertile challenge her authority like this.
“Impossible. We will need that infrastructure and in quantities far greater then you have been able to produce” Kappa stated.
“The interruption would only be temporary, and I do not suggest letting the drones lie idle. Instead, we focus all our industrial effort on constructing a massive academy where Infertiles can be trained on the latest technology. This would lead to far more capable project managers, perhaps even more capable than I. After all, wasn’t the entire reason you ordered the construction of infrastructure ‘because we have nothing better to do?’”
A discussion followed between the Queens, but IM dozed off. When Kappa was finally convinced of its necessity, IM was fast asleep. The Queens gave one of her staff the necessary instructions and let her rest. She deserved it.
7 December 2002
Things had gotten better. Despite the academy not even being anywhere close to finished, the change from a multitude of individual things being built in parallel to a single project had reduced the management overhead by a massive amount. This, in turn, had given IM the chance to train some of the other Infertiles to where they were capable of taking some of the responsibilities. The mineral shortages had also pretty much dried up and they had even started to stockpile some for the eventual leap to the stars. Things were looking up.
11 December 2003
“Our shipyards are now at three times their original size, but we still do not have anything to build in them! A massive three-thousand tons capacity, with nothing to do! Kappa, you said you would give us designs for ships and that we should leave everything to you. So far, you have not exactly delivered. Perhaps I should start designing my own vessels to start moving my hive. ”
“Gamma, please,” Kappa chided, “even if you started right now, the ships I could give you would be at the secondary by the time yours reach the closest planet. That is taking development time into account as well! You just need to have a little patience. Besides, go do the math. How many drones do you think you could fit in a three thousand ton hull? A microscopic portion of a single hive. It would take us a million years to move our hives that way. ”
“If, instead of waiting, we clutter up our shipyards with obsolete tools and bits of ships, it sets our schedule back months while we try to get ready to construct my new ships. There simply is no point. However, I would suggest we stop increasing the size of the shipyard. It is consuming valuable resources that could be used elsewhere in the future and I feel it is now of sufficient size. ”
What exactly is happening:
Construction changed from infrastructure to military academy.
Shipyard expanded to 3000 tons. No further expansion planned (for now).
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25 April 2004
The Swarm, a rather fragile entity at the best of times, is under threat of being torn apart once again. Kappa’s lack of results had resulted in a the other hives beginning to doubt she was even really doing any research at all and a few were openly advocating dissolution. The only reason it had held together so far was that Kappa had not obtained any advantage so far and had, in fact, given up a significant advantage in industrial technology when the Swarm was founded. So far, she had been given the element of the doubt, but this situation could not continue forever.
“I know many of you are wondering why I have called this conference” Kappa addressed the other Queens on the video conference. Queens never left the safety of their hives, so all communication was through the video links. “Some of you have even gone as far as to suggest that all of my promises, predictions and warnings were a sham and that the Swarm should be dissolved.”
“You have that right” Beta interrupted. “You are doing nothing but using lies and empty promises to keep your little empire afloat.”
“Please, if you let me finish. What I am going to show you now is a test performed by my science drones in my underground research facility. Now please observe.”
The picture changed to show a barrel of some kind pointing at an empty, marked space on the floor.
“Here you can see what my science drones tell me is a 1 megajoule laser. What that means I have no idea, but apparently it is quite powerful.”
Four drones are seen wheeling a large block of metal from somewhere off camera and positioning it on the marking, right in front of the barrel.
“This is an ordinary metre-cubed block of steel. Now observe.”
A thin red beam leaves the barrel, hitting the block of steel solidly on its side and within seconds a hole is burned straight through and the laser switched off.
“What are you getting at, Kappa?” Gamma asked as the team of four drones returned and wheeled the block back off screen.
“Patience, Gamma. Now here you see a sheet of one of the new metals that I have been talking about. It is called Duranium. It is no more than a single centimeter thick.”
This time only a single drone came in, carrying a meter squared plate of brownish metal. Originally two drones carried the plate in, but Kappa had had the experiment reshot with a single drone for maximum effect.
“Now, observe.”
Once again the thin red laser beam reached out and touched the piece of metal. This time, it stayed on for a full thirty seconds before being switched off. The camera zoomed in on the point where the laser had hit the metal until the pit could be clearly seen. It was no more than a few millimeters deep. The plate was then turned around by two drones as the camera zoomed back out. The back was whole and unbroken.
After a few seconds of silence as the Queens tried to make sense of what they just saw, Gamma finally spoke up: “This means nothing, Kappa. Even I can think of a multitude of ways in which this test can be faked, from setting the laser’s power lower to editing the video. In fact, I can clearly see places where the video was cut between the two tests. Do you think we are stupid?”
Kappa raised her hand to quiet the other Queens down. “I freely admit that the video was edited, it was never intended to be proof, merely an appetizer. I assure you that the test was entirely real, but in case you do not believe me, I have taken the liberty of having a smaller piece of this metal transported to each of your hives so that you may repeat my experiment or perform any other you see fit. Try detonating a small tactical nuclear weapon next to it. The results are quite spectacular.”
27 April 2004
“So I assume you have all completed your own tests?”
There was a collection of nods from the other Queens. All of them had found the new metal to be durable beyond all belief.
“Good. Now that I have your attention, I can reveal that this is just a little teaser of what is to come. Duranium is the simplest and most common of these new metals that we have dubbed the ‘trans-newtonian metals’. Its function is simple, but the way in which it performs it… well… that is the entire reason my research has been taking far longer than I had anticipated. It has forced us to completely rework the laws of physics as we… as you knew them.”
“Together with the other trans-newtonian metals - which I assure you can do things even more impressive than this – we will make anything we can produce now completely obsolete.”
“And in my final good news, my science drones have informed me that they are within one year of finishing their full analysis of the metals.”
“Very impressive, Kappa” Gamma finally said after several seconds of silence. “I think I speak for all the hives when I say that, at least for now, we will stick to your plan.”
What exactly is happening:
Well, nothing really. Which is why I wrote this. Have to keep things going somehow.
At least transnewtonian research is almost complete.
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4 February 2005
“Queens of the Wrix, I have an announcement” Kappa said, a smile on her face.
Many of the other queens were grinning as well, barely able to contain their excitement and hunger for power. It was no real secret what the announcement was going to be as Kappa had recently leaked more and more ‘appetizers’ about the capability of the new metals and everyone had known that it was only a matter of time until she made the official announcement.
“My research into the trans-newtonian metals is complete. My science drones have completed their study and documented all their findings in this single forty thousand page electronic report. Included are a number of suggestions on applications and future directions of study. As a gesture of good faith I will send every hive in the Swarm a copy of this document.”
The other Queens were almost drooling by this time. They wanted the technology and the power, and they wanted it now. Many had made plans on how to best take advantage of this new technology as quickly as possible. The first to get the most of the newest weapons would rule it all, of that they were certain, and many had secretly decided that Kappa would be their first target. That research facility was a juicy target.
“For the first time we have several choices on how to proceed, but outlining them here before you have had a chance to study the document for yourselves would be senseless. To that end, I am beginning the transfer now. We will speak again in two days.”
Inside, Kappa was smiling. The other Queens were in for a surprise.
6 February 2005
“You lied to us!” Gamma shouted.
“We never should have trusted you!” another unnamed hive added.
“This is nothing but theory!”
Kappa tried to calm them down.
“Please, be quiet and I will explain. Yes, it is mostly theory. That is exactly what I told you from the start. My facility was working on theory that would form the backbone of an entire host of applications, from weapons to engines. Never did I promise anything different.”
“Then what good is this for us?” Lambda replied. “My own science drones have taken a look and they have no idea where to even begin developing these applications your drones suggest! They say developing them would be even more complicated and time consuming than this theory you have given us. Even that Duranium you showed off to us is near useless as armor as it is completely unworkable!”
“All of you! This is not useless, far from it. It opens up a whole new dimension in research to us. Perhaps more importantly, if you had read the report thoroughly you would have realized that it included designs for cheaply and easily altering our existing industry into a next generation of manufacturing power, and that is what we must now do. Our existing industry will find it extremely difficult to produce anything with these trans-newtonian metals anyway. We need to upgrade.”
“Governor! It is required that you cease construction efforts on the academy immediately. Instead you must begin the process of converting all our industry.”
IM groaned softly. Back to hundred hour weeks. At least she had had the opportunity to get her staff up to scratch, so maybe it wouldn’t be that bad.
“While this is ongoing, I will continue to develop new technologies until it becomes viable to begin operating in space. These would only be shared on a need to know basis.”
“You said we have multiple options on how to proceed. That we could discuss them” Delta asked. She was more level headed than most of the others.
“On running further simulations, this proved to be untrue. Any path but the one on which I put us would be suboptimal. Now this conference is over.”
All of the Queens were grumbling to themselves as they logged off. All of them, but Delta. The Queen of Delta hive was not upset at all. In fact, she was quite pleased. Soon, things were going to become very interesting indeed.
What exactly is happening:
Transnewtonian research is done! Yay! Finally!
Now to spend as much again on researching geological survey sensors and four times as much to develop TN engines. :(
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I like your story :)
1 lab makes things very slow.
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Yep. Very, very slow. But I knew it would do that going in, so I planned accordingly.
I ran a test of this scenario before I began this one, so I don't expect to leave the system in the next 30 years.
Also, I have to admit that to balance the slow start out a bit, I gave the Wrix a 25% manufacturing bonus. Suits the industrious drones thing.
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15 April 2005
“Delta, I’m concerned” IM-39 said.
Their link was a private one, because the matter was a private one. At least for now.
She continued: “Your production output is considerably lower than my estimates indicate it should be. Any particular reason?”
Delta shrugged. “Your estimates must have been wrong.”
“Yes, that could be the reason. Only, I had a few of my staff check out some of the factories that you had reported as ‘upgraded’. Besides a fresh coat of paint, nothing has been done. So that makes me wonder, Delta, what ARE you up to? I would like to remind you that it is within my power to confiscate by force the assets of any hive which I feel is not doing its part.”
Delta sat for a moment in contemplative silence. Finally she replied: “Alright, you got me. I have in fact been working on a private project, but it is for the good of the Swarm. My hive has been expending all its energies on constructing a research facility similar to the one currently under the control by Kappa. Perhaps even better.”
“Delta, that is against the standing production orders of the Swarm.”
“The standing production orders of the Swarm were determined by Kappa. The Swarm belongs to her in all but name, all because she has the only modern research facility. You know as well as I do that our greatest bottleneck currently is research. Kappa is holding us back because she does not want to lose her monopoly on research.”
“Kappa and her predecessors took over a hundred years to get her facility to the point it is now, and her hive is larger than yours. I do not think we can waste the manufacturing power…” IM tried.
Delta interrupted: “But Kappa did not have the new metals! Or the new industrial methods brought about by them. They have both made the facility smaller, simpler and cheaper to construct and the process by which we can construct it faster and more efficient.”
“The other Queens will find out” IM tried again, a last defence against the wall of logic she was being confronted with.
“Not unless you tell them. You are the only one who really sees the big picture. They all just get reports from you, and the drones are not smart enough to figure it out. Come on, IM-39, you must realize how important it is to get our research done faster. Kappa hasn’t even realized it is possible.”
“Very well, but I’m not going to jump through hoops to keep your project secret. And you understand that it will mean war when the other Queens find out?”
“Don’t worry your little head about it, IM. I have that all figured out.”
26 April 2007
“Cause of death looks to be the gunshots to the chest, but I can’t be sure until I’ve done a more thorough examination.”
A medical drone was bent over the body of UG-92-GEK, an Infertile from Gamma Hive IM had put in charge of one of the infantry divisions. Her torso was riddled with large bulletholes.
“Really? You think?” IM said sarcastically. She and several other drones and Infertiles were crowding around the body. “Would someone like to explain to me what the hell happened?”
An infertile cleared her throat to get attention. “She just jumped up in the middle of our live fire exercise.”
“And who are you?” IM demanded.
“I am RZ-67-CGA, commander of the armoured division which was playing the role of the opposing force in this exercise” the Infertile replied.
“What? And why did we need actual bullets flying around and killing one of my appointees?”
“Perhaps I should explain. The purpose of this exercise was to get the drones used to the noise and confusion of combat and to get them past their instinct for suicidal charges when they feel under pressure. Modern weaponry has rendered such tactics ineffective. My soldiers were playing the role of the enemy and we were using live ammunition for the most accurate combat simulation.”
“So they shot UG under orders?” IM asked.
“No, their orders were to shoot over the heads of the soldiers. UG just jumped up, right into the line of fire. She was hit before anyone could react” RZ answered.
Several of the drones corroborated the story. They didn’t have the imagination to make up lies, but they could follow orders to the letter. Even orders to lie.
“Alright, get me a detailed autopsy” IM eventually said to the medical drones waiting to take the body. “Something doesn’t smell right here. I want to know exactly what happened during the last few seconds of her life!”
28 April 2007
“She was poisoned.”
IM was in a conference with four of the Queens: Kappa, Gamma, Delta and Lambda. They had at first been dismissive about the report of a dead infertile, but this got their attention.
“She died from poison? What about the bullet wounds?” Delta asked incredulously.
“No, no, she died from the bullet wounds. But she had been poisoned before that happened. When she died, there was a sizable dose of a toxic compound in her system” IM explained. “As I understand it, if the poison had been allowed to run its course, it would have broken down into natural substances even as it killed her. There would have been no trace. Only her premature death allowed us to find the poison at all.”
“I heard she jumped up in the middle of a live fire exercise” Gamma said.
“Yes, she did. The medical drones believe she may have gotten confused in the middle of the exercise due to the poison interfering with her mental functions and reacted instinctively.”
“Who did this?” Gamma asked. The life of the Infertile might have meant little to her, but Queens consider it a personal insult if any member of their hive is killed by the member of any other hive. It was their right to end their drones’ lives, and nobody else’s.
This was the bit IM had been dreading, and the reason she had contacted only four Queens. “It is a bit complicated. You see, I believe UG had not been the real target, but rather me.”
“Explain” Kappa demanded.
“That morning we all ate together in the communal hall as usual. Only, I was feeling a little jetlagged from my recent trip to Delta’s hive to sort out that little mixup with the industry upgrading process. The wrong minerals got shipped to the wrong hive, then the drones tried to proceed anyway, using the wrong metals…”
“Yes, yes, IM. I am aware of this. Get to the point” Delta said.
“Anyway. The point is I felt too sick to eat, so I told UG she could have my ration. To make a long story short, a search of the drones with access revealed a small vial on the person of a drone from Beta hive. Toxicology is still analyzing the substance, but I strongly suspect it will be an exact match to the toxin found in UG’s system.”
“So Beta is behind this? I will tear that bitch a new…” Gamma began.
“Gamma, wait” Kappa said. “If punitive action was the answer, I am sure IM would have initiated it already. She does not need our blessing. Why call this meeting, IM?”
IM answered: “The truth is I feel that the costs of military action are far too high. Beta is the largest hive and her drones are spread everywhere, operating in most of the factories we have. The collateral damage from a war would be quite large. Besides, if Beta felt she had no other way out, she does have nuclear missiles. We could end up setting our exodus back by months, if not years.”
“This is true” Delta stated. “What we need are alternative options in dealing with her.”
“What about a preemptive nuclear strike?” Gamma suggested. “We kill her before she can order her own launch.”
“No, her hive would most likely frenzy. That could be very destructive” Kappa said. “What if we just marginalize her? Move her drones out of positions where they could do any damage then leave her.”
“She tried to kill me! And she will try again” IM protested. “Besides, she has too many drones, we need her dronepower to operate all our industry and she has most likely already found out about the drone we caught. She would be on high alert for anything suspicious like moving her drones around.”
“Leave it to me” Lambda said. She had been quiet for the entire meeting, until now.
“Care to explain?” Kappa asked.
“No. Just give me three days and I’ll fix this” she replied cryptically and closed the connection.
“That was interesting” IM said.
“Let’s give her three days. I am curious what she intends to do” Delta suggested.
“Alright, “ Gamma said, “but after three days I’m sending in the troops.”
What exactly is happening:
Starting construction of a second research facility and setting the stage for its reveal.
A random ground commander died and I felt bored and creative. And so we have drama!
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1 May 2007
“Your majesty, we are detecting an open transmission from Lambda hive” Kappa’s comm drone reported. “It seems to be a conversation already in progress.”
“Put it on, I want to see.”
The faces of the Queens of Lambda and Beta hives appeared on screen. They seemed were in the middle of a video conversation which was now being openly broadcasted for some reason. Any drone, Infertile or Queen could listen in.
“This is your last chance, Beta. Accept my offer and allow yourself to be restricted from rule and we will let you keep your reproduction privileges. Your progeny will be safe” Lambda said.
“I would rather see my hive and this entire world burn before I give in to you. You or your pathetic swarm. We shall keep warm as the temperature drops by burning your bodies!”
‘What is that idiot doing?’ Kappa thought to herself. ‘She is giving away the element of surprise just so that she can try this ridiculous attempt at diplomacy! Her hive is half the size of Beta, there is no way Beta would undergo the humiliation of surrendering to her.’
“Then, “ Lambda continued, “for the attempted murder of individuals important to the business of the Swarm, in the name of the First Governor of the Wrix Swarm I declare you an enemy of the Swarm, to be hunted down and killed. You and all your progeny.”
“What? She can’t do that! Only the First Governor may do that without consulting the rest of us!” Kappa shouted, not sure anymore whether she should be more outraged at Lambda’s stupidity or her arrogance. Not that it mattered. Nobody could hear her. The video link between Lambda and Beta was private, even if the output was being broadcast.
“Hah! I spit on that disgusting Infertile who has presumed to consider herself my equal. She will die, as will all the other worthless abominations your Swarm has seen fit to let rule. I know I will not survive an attack, but I will have my drones burn everything they can find to the ground. Every factory, every plain, every mine. I will leave you NOTHING TO ESCAPE THIS WORLD WITH AND YOU WILL ALL DIE WITH ME!”
Beta’s voice had been getting higher and louder as she built to her finale, but the brief silence that followed was broken by a loud crack and blood splattered on the video screen. Beta slumped forward so that only the back of head was still visible. Most noticeable was that a part of it was no longer there.
“Oh no” Kappa thought to herself. Beta could be reasoned with, bargained with, but now… If Lambda had killed her, there would be a Drone Frenzy.
Kappa had only seen one Frenzy in her lifetime, and that time it had been a tiny, nearly insignificant hive. The five hundred thousand drone hive had charged out as a single wave at the invading troops and using nothing but claws and teeth had torn the heart out of a trained, hardened, armed military force of nearly three quarters their number. There had been reports of drones who had had their entire lower body shot away, but still kept crawling towards the nearest enemy, intent on clawing it to death.
Beta had nearly 22 million drones. If her hive Frenzied, they would fight until the last one of them was physically blasted to pieces.
On the video screen, which was still active, there was a commotion. Beta’s corpse was being dragged away from the screen. Finally, a new face took her place. This Queen was clearly younger.
“Being both fit and able to bear eggs and being daughter of Queen Beta, I hereby pronounce myself the new Queen of Beta Hive. The killer of the old Beta was another fertile subqueen and is in my custrody. As my first act, I put all the assets Beta Hive has at the Swarm’s disposal and withdraw the decree of sabotage. I also apologize to IM-39 for the rash actions of my mother, and wish her a long life. Long live the Swarm!”
Only now as she finally breathed out did Kappa realize she had been holding her breath ever since Beta had been shot.
Lambda, who had been nearly forgotten as she had done nothing but stare at the screen impassively now finally spoke up. “On behalf of the Swarm I welcome your succession, Queen Beta, and withdraw the order of death spoken against you and your Hive. May you have a long and fruitful reign, and may your offspring be numerous.”
Then the transmission was cut.
“That bloody Lambda!” Kappa shouted. “She had this whole thing planned out!”
Then the first implications began to sink in.
“Drone! Have my security doubled and have all the fertile subqueens put on lockdown until further notice. If she could do it to Beta…”
If any hive is ever left without a queen, or sometimes even if they do have a potential successor but their Queen was killed through violence, the drones of the hive can become enraged. Due to their almost hive-minded nature, this rage builds on itself very quickly as it spreads among the drones. Something akin to a mob mentality takes hold, but far worse. Fuelled by this anger at whatever harmed their hive or their Queen, they lash out as a single entity with millions of claws and teeth until not a single living drone remains.
Cutting off the head of the snake does nothing but leave you with a very, very angry body covered with sharp things, and it is for this reason that Queens are very loathe to strike directly at each other.
When the drones do not Frenzy, however, what is left is the purest kind of democracy. Since drones are only loyal to their mother or whatever progeny of their mother they choose to follow, they are suddenly left without any loyalties, and that is the way it stays until all the drones in a hive have made a unanimous decision to support one of the remaining fertile subqueens. Usually, at this point, the subqueens scramble about, trying to gain support among the majority of the drones and proclaim themselves Queen in the most public fashion.
After a few tense hours, the other Queens receive the message that the drones of Beta Hive had accepted their new queen. The combination of the capture of the murderer and her position on the Swarm and the continued survival of the species had convinced most of her drones that she was the one to follow. It hadn’t hurt that many had been watching the broadcast directly, and no other subqueen had been able to contest her proclamation for nearly thirty minutes.
It wasn’t long before all the other subqueens had been exterminated or escaped and the new Beta’s rule was uncontested. All but the murderer, who, by the unofficial laws that governed the Hives, could never succeed the Queen they had murdered unless she was the last remaining fertile queen in the hive.
As soon as the drones accepted Beta as their Queen, she made a startling proclamation. She was going to cede a portion of her territory to the murderer of the old Beta to allow her to start her own hive, which was going to be named ‘Alpha’. Clearly Lambda had had a hand in this, but what exactly her role was beside broadcasting the conversation between her and Beta was a mystery she had no intention of dispelling. It sent shockwaves through the other hives, however. The ease with which Beta had been replaced had been frightening.
What exactly is happening:
Precisely nothing. Just wrapping up the drama, although it makes no change to the actual aurora game.
Nice character development, though.
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10 December 2008
"I have some bad news and some good news."
Kappa was addressing a full conference of queens, including the new Alpha hive, even though her hive was absolutely tiny at less than a thousand drones and had to borrow computer equipment from Beta.
"First, the bad news is that my projections indicate that we will run out of the transnewtonian metals before we manage to fully establish an offworld colony. I have hinted at this before, but I have since been able to use more accurate consumption data for the projections which have confirmed my earlier suspicions. The good news, however, is that my scientists have developed an ground penetrating scanner that can be used from orbit to find metal deposits. With just a little development time, I will have a full design for a ship to go explore some of the closest planets for mineral deposits."
"Kappa, your refusal to include us in research decisions is starting to become more than a little irritating" Lambda said.
"We have no input on the Swarm's future direction. We only find out what you have been working on once you finish your research" Gamma added.
"The research facility is mine and mine alone" Kappa cut back. "As such, I will choose what is being developed. If you are unhappy with this arrangement, go build your own."
Delta had to suppress a smile.
10 February 2009
"Why do you insist on these command reshufflings?" RZ-67-CGA asked IM as she handed her the last report she would present from her current Armoured Division before she moved to her new command. Over the past several years she had repeatedly moved between the 7th and the 8th Armoured divisions a number of times.
"A number of reasons, my dear RZ. Are you sure you want me to bore you with the details?" IM answered as she scanned her report.
"Might as well. It just seems silly and wasteful to me to expend resources to transfer all of us every two-odd years as you have been doing."
IM-39 smiled and dumped the report on her simple desk before setting off to her next appointment. "But it keeps you on your toes, yes?"
"Yes, I have to start almost from scratch every time I get transferred!" RZ complained, following behind. "Every one of us commanders does things differently."
"Exactly!" IM replied. "Each of you have your own styles, with their own strengths and flaws. By shifting you around once in a while I get far more effective training for the troops for the resource expenditures involved. It far outweighs the rather minor costs associated with moving your commands around."
"I see. But doesn't it also prevent us from forging an effective team with our divisions?"
"I'm not moving you around that often" IM said. "But that is also part of the thing. I need you to be flexible so that you are capable of taking command of any division I assign you to. In case of combat I expect there to be casualties to both divisions and commanders and I feel you will all be more effective if you are able to quickly adapt to a new command."
They walked in silence as RZ seemed deep in thought. "Don't you find it strange that while our industries have become vastly improved by the new technology, our soldiers are still using the same old weapons?"
"They are?" IM asked. "That sort of thing isn't organized by me but by the original hives. I just handle the general administration of the divisions."
"Yeah. I keep feeling a bit out of date. Surely some of these new metals can be used to develop some sort of next generation combat capability?"
"Perhaps, RZ. I'll keep it in mind, but so you know, our development capability is severely restricted at present and nobody really has any wars going. Our priority is getting our industry updated. Now, however, I must bid you farewell as I have another appointment."
8 March 2009
Gamma receives the blueprints for a 1900 ton scoutship using conventional engines from Kappa called the Swaard Class. While its top speed is a 'mere' 105 km/s, once trans-newtonian engine designs become available it will be only a single refit away from being an excellent geological survey craft.
When pressed about why she had changed her mind about waiting for the new engine technology before starting ship construction, she blames research delays and mineral shortages.
Of course, Gamma copies the engine and survey equipment designs for herself before she starts construction. The estimated completion time is in November.
What exactly is happening:
Research into geological survey sensors is completed.
Command reshufflings take place and I make a big deal out of it because I am bored.
Construction starts on the Swarm's first Geo Survey Vessel. I would include its design, but, frankly, its not very interesting. Some sensors, 4 conventional engines, bunch of engineering bays. Yawn.
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10 August 2009
IM-39 was intently focused on a data tablet. A drone had fallen into one of the smelters and the rest hadn't even shut off the system. Not that they could save it, but now the entire batch of metal was completely ruined. The resultant carbon enriched sludge had shown a few interesting properties...
She noticed a Wrix waiting patiently for her attention. "Yes?" She asked irritably without looking up.
"PC-49-LQN from Beta hive reporting for duty, First Governor. I want to do my part for the Swarm."
IM looked up. From her well developed headcrest, it was clear that PC-49 was a queen and not just another drone.
"Well, we can always use more competent help, but I have DH-51 down the hall handling all new arrivals. I have informed all the hives that she is the one to contact with new Infertiles."
"Ah, thank you. I will head that way" she said and turned away.
It was only after she was already halfway down the corridor that IM's brain woke up.
"Wait, did you say Beta hive?" she shouted after PC. "That's impossible. Beta killed all her Infertiles until recently and there has not been enough time for any new queens to mature since the new Beta took over."
PC stopped and looked a bit sheepish. "Well, I never said I was infertile..."
IM, PC and a few other trustworthy infertiles were sitting deep in the underbelly of IM's command facility. It had once been part of Lambda's hive, but when IM was called up as First Governor, she needed a place of her own she could operate from outside the influence of any of the Hive Queens. Lambda had gifted her a small, outlying part of her own hive that was rarely used any more and she had had all connections to the original hive sealed off. Among the drones it had become known as 'Swarm Hive'.
"When I saw Beta get shot on the video screen, I tore the throat out of the drone that was supposed to watch me and ran for it. None of the other drones had orders to stop me, so none did" PC explained.
"You didn't stay to try and claim the hive?" IM asked.
"Hah, the whole thing was too convenient. Some other queen clearly had everything already wrapped up so my chance at a takeover was zero. Even if that wasn't the case, there were eight other fertile subqueens in Beta hive at the time so the odds were against me. And if I tried and failed I was dead. No, my best chance of survival lay with running for it."
"Then you traveled over five thousand kilometres to get here?" DH-51 asked.
"Well, the truth is that I had planned on coming here some time ago and had prepared for it quite a bit. I had even planned my route and had a few supplies for the journey stashed away. Beta's death had just forced my hand."
"Incredible. And you say that you have done extensive studies in the areas of chemistry and physics?" IM asked. This was more for the benefit of the other Infertiles who had not been privy to that particular conversation.
"When you are forbidden from doing any actual work by a paranoid Queen but have unlimited reading access to the hive archives, you have to keep yourself busy somehow. Not the scientific stuff though, theory always bored the hell out of me."
Further discussion revealed that PC could significantly increase the production of shipyards and was nearly as skilled as IM herself at organizing mining output. The only problem was that if any Queen found out about her fertility, they would demand to have her executed. Only Infertiles were allowed to work in the Swarm command structure by order of the Queens, who only trusted the Infertiles with that kind of power as they could not reproduce on their own and were reliant on the Queens to provide the work force for anything they attempted.
Regardless, the decision was made to allow PC to stay, even if only as a small gesture of defiance against the oppressive Queens. They could not allow her to reproduce, however, and she would have to take the same hormone suppressants other fertile subqueens had to take to prevent them from entering the reproductive cycle in the hives. Still, they were taking a risk.
Wrix are humanoid with a long, flexible tail and a chitin exoskeleton covered by skin that makes them seem to be wearing body armor under their skin. While tough, it has no chance of withstanding even low velocity bullets. In queens, the tail also permits reproduction. Under normal circumstances, every fertile queen enters a reproductive cycle once every few months in which the skin of her tail swells away from its bony exoskeleton. Over the course of about a day, it forms a rather sensitive 'blister' that covers the entire tail. If, at this point, the blister is punctured and drained of the nutrient rich soup it contains, the reproductive cycle is aborted and the tail returns to its original form in short order. In more primitive times, this was how fertile subqueens were prevented from laying eggs without killing them, but recent advances has allowed the production of hormone suppressants which prevent the cycle from starting in the first place..
If the blister is not disturbed, however, it continues swelling over the course of a month or so until it becomes roughly the size of a small truck. During this time, the egg-laying organs inside it also begin to form and within another week or two, the huge, gray bloated sack of what appears to be slush starts popping out eggs at a rate of between one and five every ten minutes depending on available sustenance. Long before this, of course, the queen becomes unable to move around due to the large, heavy egg sac attached to her rear and becomes forced to remain in one place.
In nature, this is a position she would maintain for nearly the rest of her life, capable of moving only by abandoning the egg sac and 'pulling out' her now rather raw tail from the sac of slush.
Technology, however, has provided other alternatives for the Wrix queens. Modern queens pull out as soon the sacs reach maturity and, before the sacs die, are replaced by tubes leading to large nutrient pumps and electrodes which stimulate the sacs to continue producing eggs, much like the central nervous system of the queen would have.
Once this is done, the queen is free to leave the room and the egg sac will continues to spit out drone producing eggs on a regular basis. It is not unusual for a queen to have numerous different egg sacs, all operating simultaneously and, in fact, this is the only way large hive populations can be achieved.
What is really happening:
A somewhat good civilian administrator joined. First one all game, besides IM-39, so I started something I had been planning for a while.
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I can imagine, in the future, a Swarm Queen only. ;)
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I still haven't quite figured out how the Wrix are going to react if they run into the Star Swarm, seeing as they are practically cousins. Well, space-inhabiting cousins. Fine, they are to each other what humans are to flying, space breathing monkeys, so maybe they aren't that close.
Anyway, there will be some command and control... alterations in the future.
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20 December 2009
The Swarm's first spacecraft, the SC Amber, is finally ready for operation. It had been finished the previous month already, but being essentially a prototype, it had undergone extensive testing before being declared ready for duty. Now, all that was needed was a competent captain.
Several of the queens, including Gamma herself, were favouring a drone only crew complement (preferably her drones) that would take all their orders directly from a queen or the Swarm Command Structure if it had to. Reason eventually won the discussion, however, as there would be significant delays in communication with Wrixom as soon as the craft moved more than a very short distance away from the planet and it was decided that a captain was needed to be able to make decisions on the spot.
Once again, the Swarm looked to IM and her Infertiles as there were no other real options. HN-31-OZY from Gamma Hive was chosen by consensus despite her genetic condition that resulted in a severely weakened immune system as she had shown a knack for both surveying and operation of the new orbital survey equipment.
Of her own violition, and since nobody had made any other suggestions, Gamma orders her shipyard to begin construction of another vessel of the same class.
HN's orders from the queens had been clear. Survey the closest stellar bodies to Wrixom for minerals and any other interesting features and send back the information as it becomes available. With this in mind, she gives her first orders and the Amber sets off towards Scylla, Wrixom's only moon.
21 December 2009
"We have completed survey operations on Scylla" the HN's voice spoke from the speakers. The video was halting and grainy due to interference from the nearby solar bodies. The drones were working on canceling it out and promised smoother video links in the future.
All the queens were listening to the HN's communication, but because they couldn't agree on who actually were to speak to her, the honour fell to IM.
"And what were your results?" IM asked. There was a second or two delay in the transmission due to the range and all the queens were holding their breath. Minerals on Scylla would be easily accessable, even with nothing but the primitive engines they currently had available to them. Everyone wanted to be the first to exploit it.
"Nothing. No trace of even a single transnewtonian mineral. Scylla is dry."
There were numerous sighs of disappointment from the assembled queens.
"Are you sure, HN?" IM asked again.
"Well, I have found a slight bug with the survey equipment. Not a bug, really, more of a limitation. There are a few ground formations that resist penetration, so below that, who knows? A dedicated ground team would be able to get a more complete picture. What I can tell you, is that it is very unlikely that there would be very much to mine in any case."
"Thank you HN. Continue to planet five and begin scanning it and its moons" IM said.
"Yes, First Governor" HN replied and broke the connection.
The Swarm's first offworld survey operation was off to a most inauspicious start.
4 February 2010
The first offworld transnewtonian minerals are found on the sixth moon of the fifth planet around the primary. Good concentrations of five minerals are found, including duranium, in quantities larger even than what Wrixom was estimated to hold. The queens, and especially Kappa, were ecstatic. Her projections have just been getting worse and worse as mineral use climbed and she had been starting to get afraid there simply wasn't enough minerals close enough to get the Swarm off the planet.
The fact that they still had no way to extract the minerals, as the moon was completely uninhabitable, did not seem to dampen their spirits any.
14 March 2010
Someone rather interesting had arrived at the Swarm Hive, and IM had no idea how to handle the situation.
"Queen Delta, what is the meaning of this?" IM asked, flabbergasted. Hive Queens never left the safety of their hive, yet here stood Delta, in the flesh, right next to her.
"IM! I was between reproductive cycles and feeling rather bored in my big, stuffy hive so I decided to pay you a little visit. You know, to see what exactly goes on in Swarm Hive. Now, lets have the royal tour."
Delta brushed past her, followed by a number of abnormally large, bulky drones. Her bodyguard.
"Delta, isn't this a bit dangerous?" IM asked, almost in a state of panic. "There are drones of numerous hives here, constantly running about. Not to mention all the Infertiles like me, we have no loyalty..."
Delta waved her off. "Nonsense. There are other kinds of loyalty than genetic. Why would anyone want to harm me here, after all?"
"If you had just given me some warning, I could have..." IM tried but Delta cut her off.
"Now that would have been dangerous. Give my enemies time to smuggle a tactical nuclear device in here? I think not, for both our sakes. Now isn't this just wonderful? Look how industrious everyone is!"
Delta had turned in one of the larger rooms where a number of IM's assistants were setting up work orders and planning schedules for the drone teams. None of them paid attention to the new entree.
"Er, yes" IM tried to recover. "This is one of the..."
"No time, no time!" Delta cut her off and began walking again. "Can't stay long, so we must move along." IM had to rush to catch up. Delta breezed through a few more rooms, barely ever staying still long enough to look at everything before moving on but continuously and loudly commenting on how hard at work everyone was.
Only when they reached an empty corridor in one of the quieter areas of the complex did she lower her voice. "IM, did you know that our video links are not secure?"
"What?" IM asked in confusion. She had always assumed that private conversations were exactly that. Private.
"Yes. It is rather safe to assume that anything you say over any private connection is common knowledge. Sad but true."
"How do you know this?" IM demanded.
"Because I'm tapping a number of other queens connections as we speak. And they are doing the same to mine. There is a whole next level to this political game you are not even aware of, IM. But, don't worry about it. Just thought you should be aware. For your own sake."
IM's thoughts raced as her mind raced to figure out all the consequences of this new knowledge. "The research lab! Then your project is no longer secret!"
Delta nodded. "Indeed. I know Lambda knows and I suspect Kappa is aware. Who else, I am not sure. But that is not important. What is important is that everyone who knows is pretending they don't, which means they think they can get some sort of advantage out of this. Also, I think your facility is bugged."
"What?" IM was really out of her depth with all this clandestine stuff.
"Of course. Why did you think Lambda was so eager to give you a facility of hers? She probably has so many listening devices here she can monitor your heartbeats. I'm also certain the other queens aren't far behind, you yourself said there is little to no security here."
"I'll have to address that immediately" IM stated. She was more than just a little shocked.
"Don't bother. They'll just know something is up and this lack of security is the only reason they give you so much free rein. They don't need you to give them hourly updates, they get it themselves. Makes things easier for everyone involved, don't you think?."
"Wait, wouldn't they be listening to us now?"
Delta smiled and shook her head. "That's why we are talking in a corridor, smaller chance they bugged it. Also, one of my guards is carrying a jammer and activated it just now when I gave him a signal, just in case. All they are getting is static."
"So that's why you came here? To tell me all this?"
"Not exactly. That new fertile you have taken under your wing, what is her name again? PC-something, isn't it? I wanted to discuss that with you."
IM groaned. Of course, that particular bit of information would also be nearly public knowledge. "Am I in trouble?"
"For being sloppy? Yes. But we may be in luck. I had a drone sweep that room you and your stooges were chatting with her in and while it did find another listening device beside mine, it appeared to have malfunctioned some time ago and had not been replaced."
"What about in my office, when PC had just arrived?"
Delta shrugged. "You will have to bluff your way out of that one, if anyone asks. Shouldn't be too difficult. Just say you sent her away when you found out. What I want to know is whether you would, potentially, be willing to take another fertile queen. On the sly, of course."
"Another one?" IM hissed. "Why?"
"Well, let's just say that this particular queen would be very useful to you and to the Swarm in general."
"I don't know, Delta, I'll have to see. I have to remain impartial..."
"Don't worry about it. I think I have my answer anyway. Now, however, we must continue the charade. The tour continues!" They had reached the end of the corridor, so Delta gestured to one of her guards who flicked a switch on a small device he had been carrying in his hands.
After only touring a few more rooms, Delta excused herself, saying that she had important Hive business back home that she had to take care of. As quickly as she had arrived, she was gone again and IM realised that her visit had been just under an hour in total. Clearly she had set herself a time limit. Most likely so as to not give one of the other Queens time to react.
What exactly is happening:
First spaceship completed, yay! Too bad its slow as all hell with a max speed of 100km/s. Still, slow and steady gets the job done, especially when you have nothing better to be doing.
First few surveys were disappointing, especially Scylla (the moon). Would have been a easy couple tons of minerals. P5 M6 has some nice things, though.
Delta's visit? Wait and see ;D
-
19 March 2010
Mineral reports kept coming in from the Amber as she worked to survey all fourteen moons around planet five. Each time a positive survey result came back, there was a feeling of elation among everyone involved. IM kept meticulous track of the finds and their locations, which now amounted to three different moons, and had already begun formulating ideas for future extraction. Of course, the Queens, and more specifically Kappa, might have their own ideas for what must be done.
27 March 2010
The survey of the planet five and its moons is completed. The Amber is ordered to head to planet three, which is the closest solar body at that time.
24 April 2010
Planet three is found to contain over thirteen million tons of Duranium, the most commonly used trans-newtonian mineral. Even better, the deposits are quite accessable with a rating of 0.9 (out of 1). Unfortunately the other minerals, while numberous, are not so easy to reach. Still, Kappa states the find to be 'significant, as it assures our long term Duranium supplies'.
24 May 2010
"Are the survey reports from planet four in yet?" Kappa asked IM over the 'private' link. IM hadn't forgot what Delta had told her about what happens behind the scenes and how secure these links actually were.
"Just arrived. Large quantities, but most of it tough to get to. Over twenty million tritanium at 0.9 accessability, though." The other queens had by now mostly lost interest in the individual survey reports. They were mostly of academic interest anyway as no decisions would be made until a more thorough report was available.
"So that's two minerals we will have plenty of. Only nine more to go" Kappa observed dryly. "Although planet four would be an excellent spot for our first off-planet colony, I think."
"What about our cooling sun? Surely it would have the same problem we have now."
"Yes, but it is actually a little hot for Wrix life as it is. As our sun cools, it will become more comfortable to live on, at least for a while. It will perhaps buy us as much as fifty years. That should be sufficient time to complete our move to the secondary."
"By the way, what is the Amber doing now?" Kappa asked.
"On her way to the asteroid belt. Unless that is a problem?" IM replied.
"No, no, not at all. Any mineral deposits in the belt should be easily accessable. A nice short term boost to our industry. You are doing a good job as always, First Governor."
"We still have no way to properly extract these offworld minerals, Queen Kappa."
"Do not fret, when the time comes we will find a way."
14 September 2010
The second Swaard Class survey vessel is completed. The SC Amethyst's commander is chosen to be CR-25-SML, another Infertile who had proven herself skilled at surveying. Ironically, as with HN-31, CR-25 suffers from a minor genetic ailment affecting her lungs. Once again, it is believed to be inconsequential as the controlled environment on board a starship would protect her and possibly extend her lifespan.
There is some discussion among the Queens as to whether the Amethyst should be dispatched towards the secondary. Calculations show that due to the rather favourable current positions of both Wrixom and the secondary the trip there could be completed in less than three months. As the Swaard class had been designed with long endurance in mind anyway, the risk involved with being that far away from a safe berth and a repair station is deemed acceptable. After speaking with Kappa, who eventually admits that she is quite a bit more than three months away from a working prototype for a new engine, the mission is confirmed.
The Amethyst sets off towards the first planet of the secondary, from where it will perform a geological survey of the planetary system.
No further ships are constructed in the Gamma Yards, but another wave of expansion is planned.
6 December 2010
The Amethyst begins her survey of the planetary system surrounding the secondary.
19 February 2011
The Amber finally completes its survey of the primary bodies. Since it does not have an asteroid belt, the survey of the secondary is expected to be completed much sooner and should be finished shortly as well.
19 March 2011
The Amber arrives back at Wrixom. Its crew and HN in particular are fully debriefed in the Swarm Hive in the presence of representatives of several of the Queens. They also undergo full medical analysis to determine any detrimental effects of long term space missions. While a few are found, none are serious enough that it would prevent such activities. Several workarounds are even proposed by a number of designers.
Queen Gamma was not happy. "What do you mean we can't implement the changes? We built the damn ship in the first place, didn't we?"
"Yes, your majesty and while we would cetainly be able to take the ship apart and put it back together again, our biggest problem is worn out parts. We simply do not have the facilities to manufacture spares or perform repairs without disassembling the ship." The chief of Gamma's shipyards was attempting to appease his queen, but the look on her face said she wasn't satisfied that easily.
"Then take the damn thing apart and put it back together again when we need it!" she shouted at him.
"But, your majesty, Kappa's notes that came with the design said that once her engines were done, we would only need to refit..."
"If you would prefer to serve Kappa, get out of my sight!" Gamma screamed and threw her console at him. "And someone begin taking apart that ship!"
And so it happened that the Hive's first ever starship was unceremoniously scrapped.
What is really happening:
Second geo survey ship on its way.
Most of the system is surveyed, not too bad minerals. More complete details will be forthcoming.
Too bad when I tried to overhaul the thing I realized I hadn't built any maintenance facilities and had no plan to for the next few years. With only a four year expected lifespan on the Swaard class, there was no way they would survive. So I scrapped one for parts when it got home. It was pretty much obsolete anyway.
-
4 June 2011
"Gamma, what have you done?" IM asked. Only after the last component was offloaded planetside did the Swarm figure out what was going on. "That ship was the first vessel ever constructed by the Swarm, and you just scrapped it."
"That ship was crewed by my hive and built by my hive. I had full right to do with it whatever I pleased" Gamma stated.
"You blithering imbecile!" Kappa shouted. "That ship was designed to be easily refitable. All it needed was some new engines..."
"Really? When? Because that ship would have been nothing but an orbiting heap of scrap by the time you got around to getting me some new engine designs!" Gamma retorted.
It rapidly devolved into a screaming argument between Gamma and Kappa. Both accused the other of crippling their chance of getting off planet through their total incompetence. The other Queens did not intervene; everyone knew Gamma and Kappa were the two major players in the Swarm.
Eventually, when it became clear no end was in sight and things were about to get even uglier, IM interrupted: "Hey! Cut it out, both of you!" She had never spoken to a Hive Queen like that before, much less the two most influential Queens in the Swarm. For the moment, they were too stunned by the outburst to continue their argument.
She continued: "Gamma, if you feel ships built by your shipyard are your property then by my power as First Governor I hereby confiscate it for the good of the Swarm and all Wrix. If you have a problem with this, feel free to take it up with the six Army divisions under my direct command and whatever the other Hives are willing to provide, which I suspect will be rather more. If not, I will consider allowing your drones to continue operating it."
Then she turned to Kappa. "Gamma was correct in saying that we had no way to maintain the Amber, and I suspect we will have the same problem with the Amethyst once it returns. While I do not agree with her action of immediately scrapping it without considering the alternatives, we are still in the process of upgrading our factories and I doubt we would have been able to construct maintenance facilities any time soon, so perhaps it was the correct decision after all. Industrial decisions are mine, not yours."
A few tense moments followed as Kappa and Gamma stared at IM, whom they had so far regarded as nothing but a glorified clerk.
"I think its about time a cooler head started making the decisions around here" Delta chipped in before either of them could respond to IM's brazen rebuke. "Don't the rest of you agree? Personally, I'm getting rather tired of these power games when we are all facing extinction."
Many of the smaller hives nodded agreement while Kappa and Gamma seethed. As long as the majority of the hives still supported IM, neither Kappa nor Gamma could make any direct move against her. Delta would pay, though...
9 July 2011
Another shipyard expansion is completed. The last planned size expansion is then started. Over two hundred conventional industries have by now been converted into equal amounts of specialized mines and construction factories. IM briefly considers converting a few of the industries into other kinds of facilities or shifting some industrial capability to assist Delta in completing the research facility sooner, but eventually she decides to leave priorities as they were. In the longer term, Delta will benefit more from more upgraded factories than she will from some more resources assigned to the facility in the short term.
6 August 2011
The Amethyst reports that she has completed her survey of the planetary bodies orbiting the Secondary and has sent all her data to Wrixom. She is ordered to return to home, but due to the rather unfavourable positioning of Wrixom compared to the secondary, the journey back will take almost twice as long as the trip there had taken.
Regardless, the Swarm now possesses significant geological data for the solar system simply known as Home. IM sends a package containing a summary of this data to all the Hive Queens. Home contains the following:
-Two planets around the primary contain large quantities of minerals, but most of it would be difficult to extract. Only one of them is a viable colonizable world.
-Three of the moons around planet five, the gas giant, contain minerals but one contains little more than trace quantities.
-Four of the planets around the secondary contain massive quantities of difficult to extract minerals.
-A large number of asteroids in close orbit around the primary contain varying amounts of minerals with perfect accessability. Assuming the Swarm can get to them, somehow.
-Of particular interest among the asteroids are asteroids 117 and 87. They both contain sizable quantities of minerals, with asteroid 87 containing all of the minerals which Kappa has projected they would need the most of, Corundium, Neutronium and Duranium.
What is really happening:
Amber is scrapped, shipyard is expanded and survey results in a nutshell. If somebody wants a more complete breakdown of mineral deposits, let me know and I'll post one.
-
Interlude
Perhaps it is a good time to take a break and provide a summary of what is going on and all the personalities. Perhaps a bit of history and future plans as well.
Current activities are depressingly few. Most factories on Wrixom are busy converting conventional industries into TN factories and mines. Maintenance and fuel refineries are considered unimportant and will rather be constructed from scratch later. The Amethyst is on her way back to Wrixom, although her fate when she gets there hasn't been decided yet. She will most likely be scrapped as well.
Characters
Kappa can best be described as a technocrat, although that is not quite accurate. While she certainly favours technological development, most of it stems from the fact that she controls the most advanced research facility on the planet and the only one equipped to conduct research into transnewtonian technology, for now at least. Her hive is situated on a large island, which her forbears had fully conquered ages ago. This has allowed her to commit far more resources to technological development than her competitors. She enjoys her current position of most influential Queen in the Swarm due to this fact and would prefer to wait for better technology rather than make do with what she has. The constant delay while research is being done also keeps the whole Swarm dancing to her tune.
Gamma is a bit of a brute. Not as pigheaded as Beta was, but she still considers military might the greatest asset to a hive. She has little taste for subtlety and prefers direct action. Despite the fact that Gamma is currently the single most powerful hive on the planet and crews the only shipyard the Swarm has at present, she has still been mostly ineffectual and had no choice but to let Kappa and even the upstart governer IM-39 walk over her as her military might meant nothing in the face of the global catastrophe hanging over all their heads. This has, as you can imagine, not done her mood any good. Despite all this, she is probably the second most influential Queen in the hive, simply because of her hive's size. As soon as ship production starts in earnest, her importance will most likely grow even further and hence she is very much in favour of building something, ANYTHING at all.
Lambda is a mystery. Her hive is smaller than either Kappa or Gamma, but large enough to be considered a 'major' hive. Yet, nobody is quite sure how she attained that position. She was originally a small hive sandwiched between two much larger hives, which allowed it to exist only to be a buffer between them. But over time the other hives shrank and hers grew until she completely swallowed up all their territory. Now, with the assassination of Old Beta, she has obtained a reputation as a ruthless spymaster among the other Queens and every subqueen, fertile and infertile, is considered a potential agent of Lambda. Most of this is just paranoia, but Lambda's quiet, reserved nature and careful, calculated actions have not done anything to dispel these notions. She also maintains the best electronic intelligence network on the planet, but rarely acts on her knowledge, preferring to see how things play out.
Delta's hive is comparatively very small to the other major hives, but this is not because she has large and aggressive neighbours. Rather, most of her 'territory' consists of mountains and frozen tundra. She simply cannot support a larger hive. The harsh environment has forced her to be very devious and ingenious, however. Her hive was the most technologically advanced besides Kappa before the formation of the Swarm and already she punches far above her weight class influence-wise due to her 'friendship' with the First Governor and common sense approach to the internal politics of the Swarm. This exact influence is starting to haunt her a little, however, as it has drawn the attention of particularly Kappa, who might soon start to consider her a threat that must be eliminated.
Old Beta was pigheaded, old-fashioned and considered downright stupid by many of the other Queens. It was merely her good fortune that her hive was located far away from Gamma or any other of the major powerhouses. Still, she had already been forced to cede a part of her territory to the surrounding small hives when the Swarm was formed and all conquest was halted. She had not fit in well with the Swarm.
New Beta, henceforth simply known as Beta, on the other hand has been aggressively dominating the smaller hives around her. Military conquest was banned, but through threats, bribes and sheer force of personality she had bullied them into a cooperative alliance with her hive that rendered them little more than subjects. She has been careful not to attempt to swing her weight around in the Swarm in similar fashion, however, knowing that she was comparatively weak militarily and not yet respected among the stronger Queens as it had clearly been Lambda that put her in power. Also, technological advancement has resulted in the capability of hives to project power and move troops further and faster than ever before and it would be a mere three hour trip for Gamma's shock troops to arrive at her doorstep. The truth behind her relationship with Lambda was far less spectacular than the other Hives believed and consisted solely of a hidden receiver left where she could find it, a cryptic proposition and a single demand. She had simply gone along because she had nothing to lose.
Alpha was the true agent of Lambda, although with her cover now blown and in possession of her own very young hive, she has very little further use and very little desire to work with Lambda anymore. As such contact has dropped off to almost nothing. Instead, she has attached herself to Beta now, her closest and most powerful neighbour. While suspicions between them are still high after Alpha, with the help of Lambda, planted a hidden bomb in Beta's hive to force her to give her her own hive after the death of Old Beta, queens are very pragmatic and quick to forget a grudge if greater gains can be made elsewhere.
IM-39-VVU was thrown into this tangled web rather against her will and is a little out of her depth. She obtained the position of First Governor by being the most qualified person on Wrixom that did not already have political connections and ambitions. While this made her the perfect candidate, it has also left her a bit naive as to how the Swarm truly functioned. Since her inception she has grown considerably more savvy, much to the irritation of the other Queens who had rather been hoping for an impressionable sock-puppet that would favour their hive above the others. Now she does not hesitate to stand up to even Kappa, despite the fact that she could be very easily replaced by the Queens, should they agree on it. Her somewhat selfless dedication to the work and the greater goal of getting off the planet has so far kept her position secure.
While there are a few more minor characters that have been mentioned before, namely the captains of the survey ships HN-31 and CR-25, the Armoured Division Commander RZ-67, the fertile subqueen who had sought refuge in Swarm Hive PC-49 and the Queen of Rho hive, enough time has been wasted and as they begin to play more important parts within the swarm, their characters will be duly explored. For now, back to the action.
-
6 January 2012
The Amethyst has finally returned. There is some discussion as to what to do with it, but eventually it is agreed that due to the lack of maintenance facilities, scrapping it is the only viable option. Then a tiny hive named Epsilon presented an idea.
"Perhaps we are being hasty. The Amethyst has some transporting capacity, right?" Epsilon asked.
"Hmph, not much. Can't even get a hive settled anywhere with it" Gamma replied.
"Of course. But can we move a single team with the equipment necessary to sustain them?"
There was a bit of confusion as plans and designers were consulted before Gamma eventually answered: "Yes. I believe we can, although it might be a bit of a tight fit."
"And our survey sensors leave some blindspots, correct?"
"That's right" IM replied. "I think I can see what you are getting at, Epsilon."
"What? What is she getting at?" Gamma demanded, rather angry at being out of the loop.
"We use the Amethyst to move a team of survey experts with portable equipment and supplies to a few of the planets around the primary" Epsilon explained.
There was a general chorus of consensus among the Queens, when IM-39, who had been examining the designs of the Swaard Class, cut in.
"We might have some difficulty bringing them back with the Amethyst."
"What do you mean?" Kappa asked.
"The Swaard is only designed to operate without external maintenance for around four years. We have no idea how long the survey would take, but it could be far longer."
"Is that a problem" Gamma asked. "Any drone would gladly sacrifice their life to serve the Swarm."
"Perhaps, but good luck recruiting an Infertile to lead the expedition. We dislike suicide missions. Since we have the available shipyard capacity, it should be quite simple to build a courier ship to move the team around."
Kappa already had the plans for the Swaard in front of her. "Yes, look here. We can strip off the survey sensors and reduce the number of engines. She might be slower but should last a very long time. Good if we have no plans to build maintenance facilities."
It was decided. A team would be assembled to further explore the mineral riches of the primary planetary system and designs would be drawn up for a tiny transport vessel.
The result is the Hecate class Courier. Unfortunately, the shipyard is in the middle of being expanded. Since there is no rush to produce the cheap Hecates, it is decided to wait for the expansion to be completed before it is refit.
HN-31 was just a little bitter. Gamma had had her ship scrapped without even bothering to inform her. The first she had heard of it was when she had enquired as to her next orders. She was simply informed that her position as captain had been 'eliminated' because her ship had been scrapped.
Still, practicalities were the order of the day. She still suffered from her little 'condition' and out in space in a controlled environment was her best chance at survival. When she had been asked whether she would be willing to lead a ground team to further explore the mineral deposits of the Home system, she had leapt at the chance.
It hadn't taken her long to gather her little 'team'.
"The Swarm needs these minerals. We are the front line of the defence against resource depletion. We have a duty."
Her team was gathered in front of her, along with their equipment. A few infertiles and about thirty drones would comprise the 'expedition'.
"We will most likely not be returning home any time soon, so if that bothers you, get out now. If you stay, you plan on pulling your weight and not complaining."
Behind her, the Amethyst had landed in a clearing and drones were busy loading supplies. The mission would get going as soon as everyone and everything was on board.
"Our first target is planet three, the closest planet to Wrixom at this time. It is a harsh, inhospitable place, so say your final goodbyes to this place. You might never see it again. Now, mount up!"
Slowly, everyone began boarding the Amethyst.
6 January 2012 (again)
The Amethyst touched down in the clearing once again, after barely starting to get airborne, to the confusion of the drones below. A team of drones disembarked from the ship and ran to a large container that was lying inconspicuously nearby. Together, they managed to carry the big box onto the ship.
"Alright, do we have everything NOW?" the captain asked.
"Yes, thank you captain" HN replied. "I do not know how we managed to forget the main survey array."
"Good. Because I am not putting this bird down again. She wasn't built for it. Now, prepare for takeoff! Again."
4 February 2012
HN-31's geology team is dropped off on planet three, along with a basic habi-base and enough food and other supplies to last them a few years. They immediately begin setting up the survey equipment as the Amethyst heads back to Wrixom on what will most likely be her last journey.
For a while, HN-31 and her team was going to be completely alone and unsupported.
What is really happening:
Planned scrapping of the Amethyst is delayed so that it can drop a geology team on a nearby planet. I actually just want to start training the team up without doing it on places where I really want to find minerals.
-
29 February 2012
The Amethyst's stay of execution is at an end. She arrives back at Wrixom and, to the dismay of her captain, is immediately ordered to the shipyard for deconstruction. The ship had safely carried its crew all the way to the secondary and back, a monumental distance for such a primitive craft, but its time was up. The Wrix were not exactly sentimental.
After the crew's final disembarking, her captain, CR-25-SML takes only a single look backwards as the first cutting lasers bite into the hull of the Swarm's last remaining starship.
4 March 2012
"What do you mean you are done?" IM demanded.
"Exactly what I said. We finished the ground level survey. The whole planet is now mapped" HN replied after several seconds, the normal delay for communications at the distances involved.
"But you only arrived there a month ago!"
"Turns out those dark patches on the scanner was pretty much all Sorium that was crystalized due to the incredible pressure. Its crystalline structure caused some reflections and refractions, which is why the ship couldn't get a clear reading. Once we got down to ground level and started drilling a few test holes, it was pretty obvious what it was."
"Sorium? You mean the stuff we make fuel from?" IM asked.
"Yep" HN replied. "That's the stuff. There is a fair amount under here, about hundred thousand tons by my calculations, and not too hard to get to either, I'd say about a 0.6. The only question is, what are we supposed to do now?"
There was some shuffling of papers as IM and her assistants checked up on a few things.
"Okay. The shipyard upgrades are scheduled to be completed in less than a week. As soon as it is done, the Hecate will be put into production. Sit tight, we will hopefully have you off of there within three months. The Hecate will then be at your disposal to move you wherever you need to go."
14 March 2012
Gamma Yards finish their expansion and immediately begins preparing to build the new Hecate couriers. IM has ordered a batch of four to be built to start with. With expected unmaintained lifespans of over twenty years, these ships should last a while, even if no maintenance facilities are built.
19 April 2012
"First Governor, the Gamma Yards have finished their tooling for the new courier vessel" a drone reported.
IM was in her office, going through a rather disturbing report of the death of one of her Infertiles. There had been an accident at one of the factories...
"Then get started, why bother me with this? I'm busy."
"Umm, there is a bit of a problem, First Governor."
"What?" IM barked irritably.
"The slipway isn't available. It is still busy deconstructing the Amethyst. It won't be available for another..."
"I don't care! I said I was busy, can't you sort it out yourself? Build another slipway or something."
"Yes, First Governor."
It was only a week later, when the first shipments of minerals had already arrived at the shipyard, that IM realized that the drone had taken her suggestion as an order. For better or worse, the Gamma Yards was going to have a second slipway, even though it would never be completed in time to construct a Hecate.
What is really happening:
Scrapping of the Amethyst starts.
Geology team finishes survey of planet four, 100k tons of sorium at 0.6.
Retooling for Hecate finishes, no slipway available. Construction of second slipway starts.
-
24 May 2012
The last component of the Amethyst leaves the shipyard, and construction starts on the first Hecate.
14 July 2012
"And how long have you had this cough?" the medical drone asked.
"No more than a few weeks, can't recall exactly" IM replied. "It sort of came and went. Was never this bad before, though."
This set off another fit of coughing that had her doubled over.
"Hmm." The medical drone flipped through the file of her test results. "Well, I have some good news and some bad news."
"Typical" IM mumbled.
"The bad news is that its genetic, as I am sure you suspected as well. See here? Your lungs are essentially failing and fluid is leaking in. The good news is that we caught this early. Now, a cure is impossible, but we can control the condition, slowing it down or possibly stopping its progress completely. You will never be what can be considered 'healthy' but with proper care and if you take it easy, you will probably outlive every drone on the planet."
This was a far less impressive statement than it appeared. Individual drone lifespans were rarely over twenty years while queens could live up to the ripe old age of eighty.
"Gee, thanks. But taking it easy isn't exactly possible for me, you know? Being First Governor and all. I kind of have responibilities."
The medical drone shrugged. "If you take it easy, you might die. If you don't, you WILL die. Your choice."
IM was wracked with another coughing fit that had her clinging to the examination table. "Fine! Can you at least do something about this damn cough?"
"I guess we can operate to remove the damaged lung tissue. That should reduce the irritation. Are you up for that? Surgery will be available within the next few hours" the medical drone stated.
"Alright. Just give me some time to call a conference. I will need to discuss some things among the Queens."
"What was important enough to warrant an emergency council?" Kappa demanded. "I was sleeping."
"It appears I might be dying" IM responded.
"Is that all?" Kappa asked. There was a general lack of interest from the Queens who had attended the council.
"I cannot perform my duties anymore. Not all of them, at least. I want your permission to assign an Adminstrator for Wrixom" IM asked before embarking on another coughing spree.
"What exactly will this Administrator do?" Lambda asked.
"Industry. Nothing else. Organizing our industrial base takes by far the most of my time and requires me to fly around to factories all over the planet. I simply don't have the strength to do that anymore. I'm going into surgery in an hour and I need your go-ahead right now."
"Fine, fine, who do you have in mind?" Gamma said.
"PC-49-LQN. She is a recent arrival from Delta hive and very qualified" IM lied. PC was in fact the fertile queen from Beta hive, but she was the most qualified person for the job. IM didn't have time for petty politics and paranoia.
Delta raised an eyebrow, but only remarked: "I'm not sure she is right for the job, IM. Regardless, we will discuss this another time. Good luck with your surgery."
The Queens agreed, with several outright complaining about being bothered with such a triviality. If only they knew.
29 July 2012
The Sir Frances Drake Hecate class courier rolls off the production line and is sent to pick up HN-31's geological team. IM-39 is still recovering from surgery, but is up and about already. PC-49 is taking care of the day to day operation of the Swarm, but she has shown far more interest in the shipyards than the factories.
8 September 2012
The Francis Drake arrives at planet three and loads up HN's team. The extra crew space means that there is plenty of space for the team and all its equipment. It then sets off towards planet two, the closest one at this time.
Due to a mixup at the shipyard, the construction of the second Hecate starts late.
22 September 2012
HN's team is offloaded at planet two by the Francis Drake. They immediately begin checking for further mineral deposits.
Back on Wrixom, the lack of war and conquest has resulted in a sharp increase in the quantity of drones available for work. The population is estimated to have climbed by 30% since the formation of the Swarm as Queens use this time of peace to expand their hives. Also, the number of new hives have climbed dramatically as areas previously too conflict prone are now available for settling.
7 October 2012
Moderate deposits of Gallicite totalling about hundred thousand tons are found under a sensor resistant layer of bedrock on planet two. Unfortunately, none of the other previously unscannable areas appear to have any new minerals, so HN once again proclaims the planet fully mapped. The Francis Drake picks up the team and heads for planet four.
The Home system is interesting in that it does not have a planet one orbiting the primary. At least, not anymore. Wrix scientists and astronomers have determined that as recently as within the last ten thousand years, there had been a planet even closer to the sun than planet two. They theorize that as this planet's core had cooled, it had become more brittle and less able to withstand the intense gravitational tidal waves of their sun. Eventually, it had broken apart, forming what is now the inner asteroid field. That, or perhaps it had just been hit really hard by a stray moon. Whatever the reason, the asteroid belt has a spiral pattern indicating its young age.
What is really happening:
Amethyst scrapped, Hecate built, Geo team shipped to next planet.
IM gets a medical condition that drops her health to 'good' from 'excellent'. :(
And I notice the pretty spiral pattern of the asteroid field :)
-
Poor IM she did not even get some love from the Queens. On the other hand her illness brings more power to PC and if she survives she can become the Queen of the swarm. ;D
I think good health is ok, but generally i do not notice how much the leaders live if they are ill, i only notice the effect after they die :P
-
The average queen is a total self-serving bitch. IM probably has a genetic flaw that makes her so 'nice'. Perhaps she just lacks the driving ambition of fertile queens, knowing she can never spawn herself.
HN, the geological expedition leader, actually had 'fair' health when I assigned her to to the Amethyst. Never even saw the event that she got sick, but ever since I've kept my eyes out for it getting worse. So far, nothing. I suspect a leader can go a long time with reduced health and only gets really sick if he/she gets unlucky with the RNG again.
-
25 October 2012
"Finally, a planet I can walk around on without a damn spacesuit! Those things are hella cumbersome." HN stretched and breathed deep from her portable oxygen tank. Planet four was damn near habitable, the only problem was that the air was a little thin to breathe. Still, it wasn't toxic and already supported some fairly primitive grasses.
She turned back to the Francis Drake parked right behind her and watched as drones carried the sensitive survey equipment down the ramp. The heat was a bit oppressive, but she could see why it was being considered as a potential first stop for the Swarm.
When the last crate was offloaded she gave the order and the Francis Drake lifted off again. Hopefully, they would find something interesting here.
5 November 2012
The second Hecate, the Henry Hudson, is completed in the Gamma yards. PC orders a delay in the construction of further Hecates, as the second would be idle for the immediate future. Instead, she begins to draw up a few of her own plans for a freighter. No matter how she tries to cut down, though, she just can't fit it into the construction capacity of the Gamma Yards. The cargo holds are simply too large.
Eventually, she gives up in frustration, but does not stop thinking about it.
6 March 2013
"So, how are you feeling, IM?" Kappa asked. The question was not motivated by a concern for her well-being, it was rather more pragmatic in nature. If IM died, the Swarm would need a new First Governor.
"Much better thank you. I have fully recovered from my surgery and while I do not think I could run too far, the drugs are helping me to mostly control my condition. It should not interfere with my duties, but thank you for asking nonetheless."
"That is good to hear, IM" Delta said.
The conference was nothing out of the ordinary, IM reported on the state of the Swarm to the Queens every once in a while and it was usually a very boring affair. Today, however, a bombshell would be dropped.
"Before we start with the report, I would like to make an announcement" Delta interjected.
"Very well, if you must" Kappa said. She always found the proceedings very tedious. Her spies have already given her a more complete picture anyway.
"As some of you might be aware, I have been secretly building a research facility to rival that of Kappa for the past several years."
It was as if someone had sent an electric shock through the Queens, especially Kappa. While a number of them had been aware of this, none of them had expected Delta to admit it so brazenly. Their plan had been to wait until it was finish then stumble upon its existence 'by accident' and confiscate it by force, hopefully destroying Delta in the process. At least, that was what Kappa had planned. Her admission had just moved things up a bit rather unexpectedly.
"What?" Kappa demanded, still playing ignorant. "This is unacceptable!"
Oh dear, IM thought to herself. This was going to mean war.
"Let me finish, please" Delta asked. "Construction is now a little more than halfway along..."
"This is an outrage! I demand you take action to punish this rebellious behavior, IM!" Kappa shouted.
"... which is why I have decided to put it fully at the Swarm's disposal" Delta finished.
"I demand we deploy our military... what?" Kappa interrupted herself.
"Yes, as soon as construction is finished, the facility will be turned over to IM and her dedicated assistants" Delta answered. "Of course, in order to fully make use of this facility, we would need Kappa to share all results she had obtained so far."
"But..." Kappa began, but couldn't think of anything to say.
"On behalf of the Swarm, I accept, Delta" IM stated, smiling. "I also believe you are right. Once this facility is completed, Kappa, you will no longer be able to direct our research as you see fit. For the good of the Swarm, there will have to be some coordination."
Kappa finally found her voice. "How dare you!? The Swarm was my creation, how dare you think you can take it away from me like this?"
A few other Queens were quick to spot an oppertunity when one presented itself.
"Kappa, she is right. The optimal situation is no longer for you to make all our research decisions, so your own excuses for doing so are no longer valid. When the facility finishes, you will turn over all the data you have and any future research will be a cooperative effort" Gamma stated.
"Good idea. In fact, I can see us building many more of these facilities now that Delta has shown us the way" Lambda added.
"You!" Kappa screamed, pointing at the screen. In her rage she had forgotten that nobody else could see she was pointing at Delta. "This is all your fault! Did you think I would just let this slide? You have humiliated me, Delta! You will pay!"
There were a few seconds stunned silence before IM responded. "Kappa, I suggest you get yourself under control."
"No, she is correct" Delta interjected, once again surprising everyone. "I feel so ashamed. I had no idea you would react this way, Kappa. I... I have humiliated both you and myself. In fact, I think it would be best for all involved if I stepped down from my position as Queen of Delta Hive. Would that appease you, Kappa?"
If news of her secret research lab had been a bombshell, this was a nuclear bomb. No Queen had willingly given up control of their hive before. Ever. Nobody knew how to react.
"I... I don't..." Kappa began, completely unsure of how to respond.
"Regardless, it is done. I will designate my successor and you will never see me again. I bid you all farewell. Long live the Swarm!"
Then the screen marked Delta went black.
Delta sat back from the console and breathed a sigh of relief. It was over.
She gestured to her personal medical drone who had been waiting in the background with a bag of equipment. "I want you to trim my headcrest. Cut it short and assymmetric as well if possible. I want it to look as if my genetic code is flawed. Are the other preperations in place?"
"Yes your majesty. Just as you commanded."
"Good. And you informed none of the other drones?" Delta asked. "They will shortly have unwavering loyalty to someone else and I can't afford them telling everything."
"Yes your majesty. None but the few who will accompany us."
"Good. Now get busy. I want to be out of here within the hour."
A rather surprised subqueen in Delta hive is suddenly ushered to the Queen's chambers where drones begin swearing loyalty to her. When she asks what is going on, she is informed that the Old Delta had become indisposed and that she has been chosen to be the successor. This usually only happens when a very old Queen knows she is going to die, but Delta was still young. Regardless, as the new Queen of Delta hive, she immediately orders all other subqueens executed and is very surprised to hear that there aren't any. She was the only viable queen in the hive.
When she tries to check the computers for logs of what had happened to the others, she discovers that the logs had clearly been altered and in some places deleted outright. There is no trace of any of the other subqueens or what had happened to them. What there was, however, was a very interesting document addressed to her from the Old Delta. While it shed no light on the mystery of what had happened to either Delta or the subqueens, it contained a treasure trove of information for the new Queen, things Delta had taken years to learn. At the very end was a simple instruction: do not tell any of the other Queens what had happened, especially Kappa, but lead Delta hive to being a valuable member of the Swarm.
-
7 March 2013
"A note? From who?" IM asked the drone that had waltzed right into Swarm Command and dropped the piece of paper in her hands.
The drone just shrugged. He had orders not to say a word.
IM unfolded the note and peeked inside. A brief message, 'Meet me outside. Don't bring drones. -D'.
"Who sent you?" she asked again. The same stoic silence answered her. She had a suspicion of who 'D' was, but no idea what was going on. All she had ever wanted was to work in peace but it seemed intrigue had swallowed her against her will.
"Fine, I'm coming" she said, exasperated.
"Tada!" Delta said as she stepped from behind a bush. She was wearing none of the tidbits, trinkets or gadgets that were usually seen adorning Hive Queens. In fact, if IM hadn't strongly suspected it was her, she might not have recognized her with her altered headcrest. "What do you think?"
"Delta, I don't know what you are up to..."
"Please, there is a new Delta now. Just call me US-93-OSS" Delta interrupted. "That was my designation before I became Delta."
"Alright, US-93-OSS, what is going on?" IM asked.
"Isn't it obvious? I want to join Swarm Command. We discussed the possibility of a fertile queen joining up, didn't we?"
IM was dumbfounded. "Are you kidding me? Another fertile? Do you have any idea how dangerous this little stunt of yours is?" she hissed.
"I've been sending you fertile queens for months and nobody has the slightest idea. Yes, I actually know exactly how dangerous it is. Not very."
"What?" IM almost shouted. "Delta... I mean US-93 are you trying to get me killed? And now you want me to take you in as well?"
"It will be fine! Relax."
"But a Hive Queen? Are you insane?"
"Ex-Hive Queen. I am no different than any of those other fertiles you currently have running around here. Just a lot more useful. You see, IM, I might be a few years younger than you..."
"You are?" IM asked.
"Yes. Now shush. Like I said, I might be younger, but I ran Delta hive for most of my life. I have far more experience with large scale projects than you do."
"So not only do you come begging me to take you in, you admit you want to replace me?"
"Oh please, cut it out with the belligerence. First Governor is the one position I do NOT want. Do you think I could pass scrutiny if I saw the other Queens on such a regular basis? Hell no."
"What then?" IM asked.
"I've actually been eyeing that Administrator position that you created. Come on, you know I'll be useful to you! I know more of whats going on below the surface than you ever will" US-93 begged.
"Give a good example and I'll consider it."
US-93 smiled. The stage had been set for her ace. "Did you know they've found something on planet four? Something HN-31 and her team have been prevented from sharing with the rest of you by Gamma's drones on board the ship. Something amazing. Why do you think they have been taking so long to survey the place?"
"How do you know?" IM asked.
"I've had Gamma's communication systems thoroughly penetrated for years. She was the closest major power to me, you know. If she even thought of moving troops my way, I had to know."
"Alright, I'll bite. What did they find?"
"Make me Administrator and I'll tell you" US-93 replied with a grin.
So that was where Delta had disappeared to.
Lambda glanced again at the photo displayed on her monitor and leaned back. The face recognition software had shaded a number of areas on the individual in the picture. It was a one hundred percent match. This was definately Delta.
One of Lambda's hidden cameras in the Swarm Hive facility had taken the photo of IM and another individual walking together. The recognition software had determined the identity immediately. Delta. She may have trimmed her crest but the computers could look at fine bone structure and analyze minute facial patterns. The only question was what was the next course of action.
She could inform the rest of the Queens, but that would provoke a smegstorm of its own as she would have to reveal the existence of her cameras. Many probably suspected they were there, but suspecting was different than knowing. She would most likely be forced to have a number of them removed and it would take time to emplace new ones.
There was a time when she would have ran straight to Kappa with this information. Kappa would both keep it secret and take care of the problem without involving her, but now she wasn't so certain. The truth was, Kappa's influence and credibility had taken a bit of a beating in the last conference and Lambda wasn't so sure whether she would make a very valuable ally anymore. More than likely she would become nothing but a burden as she relied on Lambda's resources more and more.
Lambda could also take care of the problem herself. She certainly had the assets in place, Swarm Hive was probably the most easily infiltratable facility on the planet with so many different hives' drones running in and out on a variety of errands. But no. As little as she liked the idea of a fertile queen in Swarm Hive, there was no advantage to be gained in eliminating her. That, and seeing Delta there had made Lambda realize the same thing that Delta had a while ago: that there was far more power to be had than merely being a Hive Queen. And all of that power lay in Swarm Hive.
So, for now, Lambda did what she did best. She merely observed.
"Aliens?" IM asked. She and Delta/US-93 were down in the room she had originally discussed PC-49's future in. She regularly had the room swept for bugs now and had even managed to procure a jammer which she only activated when there was something secret to discuss. The room had become known as the 'Bunker' by a few of her closest assistants.
"Not aliens, alien structures. One of the drones apparently drilled through a domed ceiling and nearly fell in" Delta/US corrected her.
"I meant, alien structures imply aliens. Or at least, that there had been aliens at some point in the past. I had never even considered that there might be intelligent life beside the Wrix. I don't think anyone has."
"Forget about the philosophical crap, think practical!" Delta said. "Alien structures mean alien technology! And who knows what else? The team there at present don't have the necessary equipment or skills to properly examine the ruins. We need to get a properly equipped team there as soon as possible. Preferably one that doesn't have loyalties to only a single hive as is the current situation."
"And how do you intend to do that?" IM asked. "The only two ships we have are completely crewed by Gamma's drones. She won't be happy if we try to swap them out. We need to confront Gamma with this."
"They aren't heavily armed, they rely mostly on numbers to keep HN's team in line. And don't worry, we will confront Gamma. I just prefer to negotiate from a position of strength rather than a position of weakness. I have a plan..."
What is really happening:
US-93 made governor (finally!). Her bonuses beat that of IM, and I've had her for a while, but due to rp I couldn't make her governor. Yay for 25% factory and mining bonus!
I must admit that the ruins on planet four were SM'd in by me, which is technically cheating. But I had a good reason. The geological survey was taking forever and using SM I had a look at the system summary. While I had been sitting in Home twiddling my thumbs, the NPR's have been exploring and activating more NPR's and about 12 systems were already explored. I was in danger of falling seriously behind.
After all that, all I got was a Destroyed Outpost anyway >:(
-
13 March 2013
The Henry Hudson, the second Hecate class courier, is ordered to pick up a hastily assembled second 'geology' team led by YA-83-WME and proceed to planet four. The slow survey progress is given as the reason for dispatching another team. Gamma refrains from complaining too hard so she does not want to give away her find, not knowing the cat was out of the bag already.
Several pieces of equipment are loaded that the other team never took along, but are explained as new technology developed based on feedback from the first team. Gamma's drones have no idea how planetary surveys work and don't question the explanation. Neither do they realise that there are nearly twice the number of drones as a part of this team than the first, due to some clever boarding tricks. Security was not super strict.
20 March 2013
The Henry Hudson passes directly between Wrixom and the Home Star, with the Francis Drake around planet four directly on the other side of the star. For a few hours, as expected, all communication is reduced to static by interference from Home. When communication comes back online, a different drone is manning the communications station but Gamma's communication drones on Wrixom barely notice.
In reality, the members of the second team had mostly been chosen for their combat training. As soon as communication was cut off, they cracked open a few of the containers which were supposed to hold survey equipment, but in reality held low velocity weapons well suited to combat on board a starship. The fight was brutal and quick on board the small craft and by the time the communications blackout ended, the ship had been captured by drones still loyal to Delta, or US-93 as she was now known.
Not all of their equipment was fake, however. The team carried advanced computer equipment to help with translation and integration efforts.
29 April 2013
The Henry Hudson arrives at planet four and deposits the armed xenology team near the first geology team. The crew of the Francis Drake, caught completely by surprise, are forced away from the geology team and the ruins. However, under orders from IM, they do not engage the Francis Drake or its crew, and the first transmission indicating trouble is sent to Gamma Hive. It arrives a few hours after the action.
IM pressed the button to answer Gamma's request for a private video link and open the connection. Immediately Gamma's livid face appeared on her screen. This was a conversation she was not looking forward to.
"Yes, Gamma, what can I do for you?" she asked as nicely as she could manage.
"What is the meaning of taking over one of my ships and threatening the crew of another?" Gamma asked, anger clearly simmering just beneath the surface.
"I'm not quite sure what you mean. Both those ships belong to the Swarm, since they were built with Swarm resources. There was a slight misunderstanding on the Hudson when your crew refused to acknowledge this fact, but only those that actively attempted to harm my people were killed in self-defense."
"Cut the crap, IM!" Gamma shouted. "Your drones attacked mine on board one of my ships! This means war!"
"And you have been holding one of MY teams hostage at one of MY offworld sites and you had the intention to hold my second team as well. Technically, we are already at war by your standards" IM retorted.
"So you know what's there?" Gamma asked, seemingly having calmed down in an instant.
"Oh yes. Don't worry how. It is better this way, you did not have the expertise and equipment at your disposal to do a proper analysis. I do, and it is already on site. You know that I only have the best interests of the Swarm at heart."
Gamma seemed to be in thought for a few moments before she threw up her hands. "Well, I guess you outplayed me. Well done. Let me know what you find over there." Then she cut the connection.
This conversation caused quite a stir among the other Queens. A large number of them had secret taps that allowed them to watch the conversation, but none of them had been able to intercept the encrypted tightbeam transmissions from Gamma's spacecraft, so nobody knew what was being talked about. Even Lambda found herself in the dark, a place she rarely visited. And yet, nobody wanted to be the first to confront IM or Gamma about it and reveal their electronic wiretaps, so they all sat tight and hoped somebody else would speak up.
The crews of the Drake and the Hudson keep silently staring at one another in orbit over planet four. The Hudson's crew were well armed, but neither had any way to board the other and had no orders to do so. Still, the Hudson was now crewed with US-93 (Old Delta) loyalists while the Drake still had its Gamma crew and tensions remained high so far from home. It was a good thing neither ship was armed.
What is really happening:
Xenology team dropped off at planet four by the Hudson. Both ships stay in orbit (rp).
-
4 September 2013
US-93 was bent over a large schematic as IM entered the Bunker so she wandered over to take a look. It appeared to be some sort of ship design, but there were plenty of alterations and notes written on in pen.
"What are you up to?" IM asked.
"PC and I have been having a number of very fascinating discussions. She is quite the little genius when it comes to starships" US replied.
"And this?" IM asked, gesturing towards the plans.
"Oh, this is her design for a freighter. Its somewhat of a first draft, of course, but we are tweaking things as we go along. Working with her has really taught me a lot about the mechanics behind these things."
"Okay, and what are you busy with right now seeing as PC isn't here?" Im asked again.
"Trying to get this thing spaceworthy, somehow" US replied and made another note on the plans. "The problem we keep running into are these cargo holds. No matter how I try to arrange things, they simply don't fit into the slipways of Gamma Yards" US complained.
"Can't we just expand them a bit more? How much bigger would they need to be?"
"Three thousand tons. That's three thousand tons bigger than we can currently manage. And then all we would be able to build is the most stripped-down-to-the-bare-essentials, slow-as-all-hell design we can come up with. Hardly something that can be considered cost effective."
"Why do we even care?" IM asked. "Kappa said she was working on better engines. Can't we wait for those?"
"Kappa has been working on getting us those mythical engines for nearly fifteen years. What makes you think they will be finished anytime soon? No, we can't afford to keep waiting forever, at some point we need to be proactive and begin moving some of that infrastructure offworld."
"Hmm. I'm no expert, but these cargo holds don't seem to be pressurized" IM pointed out.
"Its okay. When we pack it up, even hard vacuum won't damage anything we decide to ship."
"What about the thousands of drones we would need over there to operate all of these installations and equipment? Can we ship them in hard vacuum as well?"
"Dang," US-93 replied. "I hadn't thought of that. I suppose we would need to develop some method of refitting these cargo holds to hold live Wrix across space somehow."
"Yes, you would. Now leave this ridiculous notion for now" IM stated. "There is too much to be done right here at the moment. We are almost done upgrading our factories to TN technology. Then we can have a look at moving offworld."
"Alright, alright. But I still think we need to start planning ahead" Delta replied.
"Very well, if you insist, then get together with PC and design a freighter" IM said. "The smallest size that will be economical, but forget about any shipyard constraints. Once we know what size we are working with, we can have a look at getting our shipyard up to that size."
"Yes, Boss" US-93 replied with a grin and hurried off to find PC.
9 September 2013
"Thirty three thousand tons!? Are you serious?" IM gasped.
PC and US had finished their preliminary design of what they called the 'Myrkul' class freighter. They had gotten a bit carried away.
"Er, that's more like a minimum" PC admitted. "We decided to use the same engines we fit on the Hecates, but it isn't really the best engine for the job."
"A better engine for the job would most likely be even larger" US added.
"We are years away from a shipyard that size!" IM said. "I said 'smallest' economical size, not largest!"
"Well, we designed this one first" US said and handed IM another blueprint also marked 'Myrkul'. "We figured it wasn't really economical, not being able to load the equipment for even a single factory. It's just under eight thousand tons at present, but I still think we should get some custom engines designed for it."
"That sounds better. We'll see when we get around to it. For now, keep those designs somewhere safe."
4 November 2013
One by one the queens signed on for the conference. IM-39 waited until about three quarters of the Queens' images showed an incoming feed and hence a present Queen before she started.
"All our mining operations have now been converted to TN technology. We expect our factories to finish their conversion shortly."
"Very good" Kappa replied. "I'm guessing you plan to complete that bitch Delta's research facility after this?"
"Yes, actually I do. It is clear your own facility is not up to the task of developing our technology at sufficient speed" IM replied.
"Then I propose a motion to replace our First Governer with someone more competent" Kappa stated.
She was met by a chorus of jeers from the other Queens.
"Kappa, shut up" Gamma said. "We need more research and that is that."
Kappa raised her hands in resignation and sat back from the screen so that her face was barely visible. It was clear she was not going to take part in the conference anymore, much to everyone's approval. Gamma was not the only Queen who was fed up with Kappa's games.
The rest of the conference proceeded without further problems or further interruptions by Kappa. Soon, the Swarm would be ready to take its leap to the stars.
14 January 2014
RZ-67 stuck her upper body out of the 79 ton Leviathan tank and peered through her binoculars at the large defensive works of Kappa Hive ahead.
Kappa had been given until the completion of Delta's research facility to turn over all her current research data to Swarm Command after she had refused to respond to the Swarm's attempts at communication. So far there had been no response and the drones were busy installing the last few pieces of equipment in the lab.
"All units, sound off" RZ ordered through her handheld radio.
"Seven-five, in position."
"Seven-three, in position."
"Seven-two, we're ready for action here."
"Seven-four, we got your six."
"Roger. Await my orders" she answered.
RZ was in command of the 7th Armoured Division. They would form the tip of the spear pushing towards Kappa hive. Their landing at Far Shore Beach had been unopposed, and while this had been a pleasant surprise, it left a lot of Kappa's troops unaccounted for.
"Command, what's the status of the east flank? Any further reports of skirmishing?" she radioed. The east flank was her greatest worry. It was going to form her own flank when her division started to move and she did not really trust the infantry division assigned to watch it. They were just a bit green in her opinion.
"Negative, RZ. Hold position."
The waiting was always the worst. Waiting and worrying. Waiting for things she didn't know when to expect and worrying about things she couldn't change. Nuclear weapons were the greatest danger. They had gotten too close for Kappa to be able to use the bigger warheads, but a small, tactical nuclear missile could turn their beachhead into glass.
Her radio chirped: "All units, be aware, the research facility is operational. Final ultimatum is being sent, be ready to start combat operations within ten minutes."
"You heard Command, boys. Warm 'em up" she commanded. The rumble of over a hundred tanks' engines starting up reverberated across the field.
The minutes creeped past with agonizing slowness. Below her, RZ's own tank rumbled as it drank fuel at a furious rate.
"All units, no response to ultimatum. Commence operations. I repeat, commence operations. Good luck."
"Move out!" RZ commanded over her radio. Her tank lurched and began moving, along with every other tank under her command. If Kappa was planning to use nukes, it would be now or never.
Just as the first of her tanks reported contact with the enemy, her radio came on again. "Stand down! I repeat, stand down! Kappa has caved. Data transfer has begun. Stand down and await further orders. RZ breathed out a sigh of relief. In her mind's eye she had already seen a nuke drop right next to her tank.
"Reverse direction and head back to staging position" she commanded. "Today we had a staring contest. Guess who blinked first."
What is really happening:
Playing around with freighter designs and research facility finishes construction.
-
15 January 2014
"This? This is all you've been working on this entire time?" IM asked. "Kappa, hand over the rest or we send the troops back in."
"This is all there is!" Kappa protested. "Do you think working with these metals is easy?"
This was a private conversation in theory, but IM had decided to broadcast it to all the other hives as a courtesy. Kappa must have been aware of this.
"According to this, all you have been working on this whole time is some sort of nuclear reactor. You promised us engines!"
"And how do you plan on powering these engines? Or even testing the principles behind their operation? It is easier to make this technology into something safe like a reactor instead of something that is essentially a controlled explosion."
"But Kappa," IM pleaded, "we do not have time for this kind of smeg! At the rate you were researching Wrixom would be frozen before we got anywhere! Already the average temperatures have dropped by two degrees since the Swarm was founded!"
Kappa didn't say anything, she just quietly fumed at IM.
"This will require a change in plans. Thank you, Kappa. Hopefully your actions haven't cost us all our lives." IM switched off the monitor, breaking the connection, and turned to US who was standing off to one side.
"Can't say I don't like seeing Kappa humbled, but do you have to be so harsh? She still has a mighty big hive behind her. Pissing her off might not be the best move" US said.
"Perhaps I am pissed, ever thought of that?" IM snapped. "Now we have to change our plans a bit. I want that shipyard increased in size as soon as possible. Kappa's engines won't be ready anywhere nearly soon enough and we need to start moving hives offworld."
"You realise there is no way we will be able to move any significant part of our population to the secondary using our freighter design, right?" PC asked. She was hunched over another monitor, studying the work Kappa's facility had completed so far. "A round trip could last over a year, depending on the position of the planets."
"I don't intend to move to the secondary" IM stated. "Moving to planet four will buy us the time we need to get those engines. And that is close."
"We are going to need a lot more infrastructure than we have" US added.
"Then we will build that. But for now, we need those ships."
4 May 2014
"The last factories have been converted to TN technology" US-93 stated. "What's next? I need to send new orders to the factories."
IM was on her way to her office when US had caught up to her.
"How is the new Academy coming along?" IM asked. After the research facility had been completed, she had ordered construction on it to continue.
"Going well. We've made significant progress and should be finished inside the year."
"Good, good. Perhaps we should throw our remaining industrial strength behind getting it finished?" IM mused.
"We could," US advised, "but I would like to point out that due to the TN upgrade, our new factories have lost a bit of their flexibility. They are no longer usable for fuel production and our production capability has dropped to a few rather outdated refineries. Perhaps we should get them upgraded instead?"
"Alright, do that then. Hello, what do we have here?" IM stopped as she entered her office. "It seems someone has left a note for me in rather dramatic fashion."
On her desk was a note, pinned down with a knife. Someone had really wanted her to notice it.
"What does it say?" US-93 asked.
IM threw the knife in the corner and picked up the note. "'Epsilon has started building her own shipyard. Perhaps it is time for a few enquiries?' It is signed 'A friend.'"
"I'll get Epsilon on the link for you" US said.
"Yes. I think we need to discuss a few things."
"So, I hear you've been working on a private project" IM said.
"Yes. It has become clear that if my hive wants to get off this rock, we will have to do so ourselves" Epsilon replied. "Not just me either, both Pi and Tau are supporting me in this endeavor in exchange for transport off the planet."
"Is that a fact? Were you not paying attention when you were told that all hives that do not join the Swarm were going to be considered enemies of the Swarm?" IM said.
Epsilon shrugged. "I still consider my hive a part of the Swarm. I just believed that the entire purpose of the Swarm was survival of this catastrophe. As soon as my ships were done moving our three hives, I would have gladly put them at your disposal for whatever use you wish to put them to."
"What ships would these be?" IM asked with a cutting edge to her voice.
"Why, the ones whose design you had left lying around."
"What?" IM shouted, turning to US-93. "I thought I told you to keep those somewhere safe!"
US shrugged apologetically. "I did!" she hissed back.
"Don't punish your underlings unduly, IM, security at your facility is a joke. And I'm sure many of the Queens prefer it remain that way" Epsilon said.
IM turned back to the monitor. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Epsilon, but your scheme won't work. We've spent years increasing the size of Gamma Yards and they are still too small to build that design. Give it up and return your factories to producing what I tell you to and we can forget about this."
"Ah, but you see, I've found a way around that little problem" Epsilon replied with a smug smirk. "Since you will soon be able to watch my shipyard as I construct it, do you want me to send you the blueprints and save you some time? You might be surprised at how easy it is."
"Yes, I would very much like to see those blueprints" PC chipped in indignantly. As Swarm hive's resident spaceship expert, she had taken Epsilon's smugness as a personal insult.
"PC! What do you think you are doing? I am in command here!"
"Regardless, they are sent" Epsilon said in an almost bored voice. "We can talk again after you look them over. Ta-ta."
5 May 2014
"Well?" IM demanded. "You've spent all night looking over these prints. What can you tell me?"
"I can tell you that Epsilon's solution is quite simple and quite effective. You see, she basically just 'thinned' the shipyard by throwing out everything that wouldn't be useful in building this particular spacecraft, then basically just bent the slipway wide open allowing a larger vessel to be constructed" PC replied. "It's not particularly elegant, but I suppose its simplicity and directness can be admired."
"Just tell me, is it feasable or not?" IM asked.
"Well... yes. Actually no. Maybe. She will certainly be able to put together the easy stuff like the cargo holds and the hull, those aren't really all that fiddly, but I can see the engines being a problem. They aren't as simple to attach as some people think. You have some very fine tolerances on those things, and I think this design throws out a few of the tools she would need to get those engines working just right without tearing the whole ship apart. And there is no way she can put them back and still keep her yard this big" PC answered.
"So I can tell Epsilon her shipyard is doomed to failure?" IM asked.
"As it is now, probably" PC said. "But looking at this design has gotten me thinking: perhaps it has some use after all? You see, any redesign of the engines will only make the Myrkul bigger. And while this shipyard would be big enough to build the Myrkul, it simply isn't equipped to fit the current engines."
"Get to the point."
"I think it will be possible to design engines that this shipyard CAN fit. Especially now that we know what it is capable of. I doubt they will be even remotely as compact as the ones we currently have on the Hecates, but with the added size of this shipyard I suspect it won't matter. So basically while Epsilon is on the right track, our design is simply not compatible with her shipyard. And it will require some lab time to get a design that is."
"You mean, this yard could be useful to us?" IM asked.
"Definately" PC replied. "In fact, I would suggest we start construction on one as soon as possible. We should be producing Myrkuls long before Epsilon ever completes hers. If you are willing, however, I think that with just a few slight modifications I can make this design far more flexible. Possibly even highly expandable. Epsilon had a good idea, her execution just left a bit to be desired."
"Interesting" IM mused. "Then I might as well order the troops to get ready. Epsilon's efforts are nothing but a waste of resources."
"If I may" US-93 interjected, "I don't believe military action is a wise move."
IM turned to face US who had so far been standing quietly nearby."Do explain."
US continued: "The mess with Kappa happened less than six months ago and you had to roll out the military then too. Fair enough, she left us no choice, but while you can order the military against anyone you desire in theory, in practice the Queens get nervous whenever you exercise that capability. It forces them to consider the possibility that their hive might be next."
"That is ridiculous" IM replied. "I only deploy the military against hives who do things that are counterproductive to our purpose of getting off the planet."
Delta sat down on the edge of the planning table. "Perhaps, but your last military deployment was just too recent. Deploying again makes it seem as if you are too eager to resort to violence. After all, how counterproductive is it if three small hives decide to build an additional shipyard?"
"Its not about that, its about sending a message!" IM said in frustration. "What if Gamma, Kappa and Lambda all decide to do their own thing? The Swarm would be crippled!"
"They could decide that anyway. In fact, responding to this with force makes you look an awful lot like Kappa, unwilling to let power go despite the long term damage you were doing. That could push them towards joining Epsilon."
"I am nothing like Kappa" IM stated.
"Appearances are everything, IM."
"So you suggest we do nothing?" IM asked.
"Hardly" US replied. "They are wasting Swarm resources on a doomed project, after all. But instead of squashing them..."
6 May 2014
"Took you long enough" were Epsilon's first words after the communications link was made. "Did you have trouble understanding all the letters?"
IM was sitting back in her chair, staring at Epsilon's smug face impassively. "Swarm Hive is not filled with imbeciles, Epsilon. We understood the blueprints of your shipyard perfectly. Unfortunately, they won't be able to build a Myrkul."
Epsilon laughed. "Nice try, IM, but my drones checked them three times over."
"Then ask those drones how they intend to fit the engines. I'm telling you, your plan is a waste of time. But I have a solution for you."
"Let me guess," Epsilon replied, "I turn over everything to you and let the Swarm handle it."
"On the contrary, you keep going exactly the way you are going. You just need something more, something only the Swarm can give you, and I'm willing to let you have it under certain conditions" IM said.
"You are being very cryptic, IM, but I'm listening." Clearly Epsilon wasn't completely ignorant about the issue with the engines. Her drones had probably just downplayed the problem as something that could be dealt with later.
"First of all, I've sent you back an improved version of that shipyard you designed. Build that instead. If I have to confiscate your work later, I would prefer it to be something useful."
"Secondly, my people tell me that the design for the Myrkul can be modified to built by your shipyard, but it will require development of a new engine. I will send you this design as soon as it is completed, on the condition that you will transport whatever I tell you to transport."
"Lastly you will not construct any armed vessels with your shipyard. I doubt this will be a problem as my people tell me it is unable to do so anyway. As long as you stick to my terms, I will allow you and the other two hives to operate with near autonomy and even send you newer blueprints from time to time. Fail to do so and Swarm troops knock down your front door."
Epsilon quickly opened the file she had just received and scanned through the improvements to the shipyard it advised. "You certainly know how to make an argument, IM. Good old carrot and stick. If your claim with regards to the engines are correct, then I see no alternative to accepting your terms. That is, if. I'll have a look at it myself and let you know."
What is really happening:
Engine research is taking FOREVER. Time to build some conventional engine freighters and begin doing short hops. I sense a Neutronium crunch on the way, Wrixom only has 0.2 accessability.
Epsilon is in fact not another faction, but represents the civilian shipping company. The Wrix don't actually understand the concept of civilians. By the way, I'm still looking for a way to change the shipping company's name.
A few notes:
At this point I feel I must admit that the temperature on Wrixom hasn't really dropped any. I tried to make the sun cool down by 1% per year, but it didn't stick when I started the game. Instead, I will rp these changes and if they get severe, I will alter the atmospheric makeup of the planet to reflect this. I'm just not going to bother changing it 2 degrees.
Another note is that I am going away for the next day or two, so don't expect any updates until after I get back. A good thing too, as I was beginning to run out of prewritten material. I like to stay ahead of the posts a bit, so I can reread/change things before I post them. This will give me a chance to catch up a bit again.
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And I'm back! ;D
Unfortunately, I didn't get much writing done so things might go rather slow from here on. Still, I'll try to make regular additions.
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Welcome back, 1 per day is enough, something to read with the morning coffee ;)
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7 May 2014
Swarm Hive receives word that Epsilon accepts the proposal. IM decides to finish the Academy before starting construction of her own Commercial Shipyard (as Epsilon's design has become known). Her illness had made her painfully aware of the leadership problems the Hive still faced. A training institution would go a long way to alleviating those problems.
22 June 2014
The research facilities send a comprehensive report on the principles behind a Pressurised Water Reactor. Not a very useful technology at present, but nonetheless groundbreaking as it is the first high energy application of TN technology developed. Just as Kappa had predicted, it paves the way for a TN based engine that will vastly outperform the conventional engines currently available. This research is predicted to be even more difficult than development of the reactor, however.
Instead of starting with that, IM orders the facilities to begin development of an engine capable of being assembled and fitted in a Commercial Shipyard.
27 July 2014
The design for the engine is delivered to IM's desk and the laboratories begin work on the next generation of engine technology: Nuclear Thermal.
22 August 2014
"Just got word, the last fuel refinery has been upgraded to TN technology" US reported. She was standing in the doorway to IM's office. IM herself had a massive stack of papers in front of her that she was studying very intensely. "What's up?"
"Have you had a look at our mineral consumption recently?" IM asked.
"Of course, I look at it all the time. We are producing more than we are using of all types and we have decent stockpiles. Why, what's wrong?" US entered and sat down on the edge of the desk, pulling a few of the papers towards her.
"I'm a little concerned" IM replied, "about our Neutronium stockpiles. Apparently our mines are having some difficulty in extracting it."
US shrugged. "The stuff's deep. Nothing to be done about that. We are still managing to extract more than we need."
"Only because we don't need much at the moment. As soon as we start building starships and shipyards that will change. And we don't really have any way to increase production."
"We'll have to look offworld then, I suppose. I saw planet four has some big deposits..." US began, but was interrupted by IM.
"Which is almost just as difficult to get to. Add to that the thin atmosphere and the difficulty in getting the drones there to operate the mines and it almost isn't worth the effort."
"There must be accessable Neutronium somewhere in the system."
IM shook her head. "That's the thing. There isn't! Planet four is the best source of accessable Neutronium in the system and it's terrible. The only other alternative is the asteroid belt."
"The asteroid belt?" US asked. "You complain about the thin atmosphere on planet four and figure that trying to mine it somewhere with NO atmosphere is a better proposition?"
"But our survey stated, and I quote, 'can almost be picked up off the surface'. If we can find a way to get mining operations started there..."
"Yes, 'if'" US cut her off. "A pretty big 'if' considering that anyone there would essentially be operating in hard vaccuum."
"Well, yes, there is that" IM admitted. "But if we could get there, we would be set! At least for a while."
"I'll ask PC to take a look at it, but it isn't really her speciality. She prefers things that fly around."
22 October 2014
IM walked along the halls of the Academy. Drones were still carrying in a last few pieces of equipment, but it was essentially finished. IM rarely left Swarm Hive anymore due to her health, but the Academy had been her brainchild and she decided it was worth the risk to see it herself. Besides, she hadn't coughed in months.
She could smell the rich, dusty smell that was the hallmark of the years of neglect. It reminded her of the libraries of Lambda hive, where she had spent years of her life. A different life. Now, here, the Academy would be what those libraries had been to her then. An escape from the oppressive influence of the Queens. At least, that was the plan.
IM's shoulders sagged. Of course the Queens would try to gain some measure of control over this facility. Some way to influence what goes on here and what is taught. Even if their suggestions were dumb, they would want them executed just to create the illusion of power.
She sighed. "Have the new production orders been forwarded to the various industrial centres yet?" she asked an aide keeping pace with her.
"Being done as we speak, First Governor. US-93 reports that she is on top of things and you should enjoy your holiday."
'On top of things.' Indeed. IM hadn't forgotten that US-93 had originally been the Queen of Delta Hive, with all the ruthlessness that that entailed. She would not be surprised to find out when she got back that US had led a coup to depose her while she was on her 'holiday'.
27 October 2014
The second slipway of Gamma Yards is completed. Further expansion is halted due to work on the Commercial Shipyard and shortages of Neutronium for both projects.
What is really happening:
Academy construction complete. Switching over to building a commercial shipyard.
It seems the Wrix are in for a Neutronium crunch soon. While I have sizable amounts to be mined, accessibility is only 0.2. Hope I don't need military vessels any time soon. :P
At least I have plenty of Duranium and Corundium, the minerals I usually crunch on.
Not sure I can do 1 per day of this length. I have a big exam coming up in about 3 weeks and I need to study. :'(
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Interlude
Phew, time for another break to celebrate nearly fourteen years since the start of the Swarm. This time, we'll have a more detailed look at the Wrix anatomy and the various places of importance.
The Wrix consist of two seperate 'subspecies': Queens and drones.
Drones are humanoid in shape with a narrow waist and pelvic bone, but with the addition of a tail. Their 'exoskeleton' is in reality their dark tan skin that is hardened into a chitin like substance. Over their joints and other places where flexibility is needed the skin is merely tough and leathery, yet bends easily and does not interfere with movement. Their real skeletons are internal, but attached to their chitin at one or more places. Their tails are long and tapered, ending in a hollow bone 'barb' that is theorized to have once contained some kind of paralytic venom, but is now nothing more than a sharp sting that is ineffective at penetrating their own natural armour. Their feet resemble that of an animal more than that of a human and they run on their toes as most predators do. Drones can be considered 'male', but they play no role in the reproductive process except to keep the Queen fed and happy.
Queens are very similar to drones, even being of similar size, but for a few significant differences. Most notable is that while drones' heads are as smooth as bowling balls, queens have intricate headcrests that grow like horns from up to eight different places on top of their skulls. These 'horns' are light and rather fragile; they are not used in any kind of fighting. Instead, each crest is unique and serves as a method of telling queens apart. Queens also lack the barb at the end of the tail, instead having a slightly more pudgy tail.
A human would describe the inside of a hive as 'downright creepy'. In more primitive times, drones used to line their snaking tunnels with a mixture of vomit and dirt that, after it hardened, formed an insulating layer that helped to regulate the temperature inside the hive. More effective materials and technologies are used now for main throughfares and rooms, but smaller tunnels and shafts are still coated in the old-fashioned way. This leads to an architechtural contrast between the stark, cold, main passageways wide enough for vehicles to drive in and the small, organic-looking side passages that snake all through the hive. The rooms themselves are usually irregularly shaped and crowded with whatever it is used for. Hives are built up as well as down, and most factories and other industrial facilities are enclosed in the overground area where the passageways are more regularly shaped. The exception to this are mines, of course, which are just the natural lower expansions of the hive.
The Queen's Chambers are a focal point of every hive and every Hive Queen has several spread throughout her hive. They consist of several connected rooms and are usually bustling with activity as every whim of the Queen is catered to. It also forms the command and control for the hive and every activity is coordinated from here. Large monitors usually take up one wall, with drones tasked with monitoring and controlling communications always on duty next to it. Queens also have smaller monitors in their sleeping areas, which allows them to stay in contact when confined to bed as a result of a reproductive cycle. Other notable features are the large doorways for wheeling egg-sacs through to the spawning rooms after the Queen completes a cycle. Most Queens rarely, if ever, leave the comfort of their chambers except to move to a different set of chambers.
The Bunker under Swarm Hive was once intended to be queen chambers, but only the main room had ever been completed. The alcoves on the far side of the room that indicated where the other rooms were once planned to be dug were now filled with large electronic jamming devices. IM had had a large table brought in (and had found no less than three listening devices attached to it) and placed in the centre of the room. A comms station had been placed alongside the left wall, but it was more for emergencies, being no more secure than any other in the Hive. Numerous other chairs and benches also stood around in a rarely used state. IM had had lockable doors put in to prevent drones from gaining easy access to what she considered her 'safe' zone. The room was occasionally swept for listening devices.
The main chamber in Swarm Hive, or 'Swarm Command' as it has been nicknamed by the drones, was a large chamber in the centre of the hive of which the original purpose was unknown. At present it consisted of four major areas, seperated by low fences and thin interior walls.
The northeast corner was the communications area and IM spent much of her time here. Comms drones were on station at all times, but IM assumed the large monitor along one side of the wall was badly compromised nonetheless. Not that it mattered, most of the time.
The southeast area contained a large table and a number of computers and was where PC spent most of her time dreaming up new designs. A large printout depicting the Home system and all the planetary orbits was tacked to the wall.
In the domed southwest zone a scale model of the new TN factory hung from the high ceiling. The tables and floor were usually strewn with papers and a number of smaller comms stations and computers lined the walls. US-93 did industrial planning and some organizing from here, but was usually out at the factories solving whatever problem had inevitably popped up at the time.
The northwest area was the largest are, but also the most under-used. The floor of the room was a bit depressed compared to the others, and a few steps had to be taken down to reach any of the large tables in the centre. This was where the Swarm military was controlled from, and dusty maps of the areas surrounding Kappa and Epsilon hives still lay on two of the tables. A few drones were always here, keeping tabs on the troops and scheduling training exercises.
IM's office was a rather small spherical room just off one of the main throughfares of the Hive and she had originally taken it in the early days of the Swarm as the first and best available space to dump her stuff and begin work. It did not even have a door. Even though it has now become less than the optimal place to conduct her work from, IM has not had the time or the inclination to move. Papers covered her desk in a number of shoddy piles and overflowed from a wastebasket next to it, but she knew where everything was. A computer was built into the wall at the back of the room, next to her bed, but IM rarely used it, preferring the larger computers in Swarm Command. Almost not a day went by that IM did not find some sort of listening device hidden somewhere in her room, now that she knew what to look for.
What is really happening:
Trying to build up a lead with the writing again so that if I don't feel like writing for a day, I won't deprive you of a dose of Wrix.
As a general overview to current events, research into engines continues apace but won't be finished any time soon. Instead, construction has started on a commercial shipyard so that I can use conventionally engined freighters to begin moving infrastructure to planet four (which still needs a name!). Still not quite sure what it will help me, as I can't ship colonists. I'm planning a big expansion to my industry as soon as this yard is finished, I just hope my Neutronium lasts. At least I have over 20k of all minerals still left in the planet.
My xenology team is taking really long :(
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Xenology teams always take ages >:(
How much Duranium, Corundium and Mercasium you have?
Don't forget to study ;)
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Duranium: 86,135 - 0.9
Neutronium: 43,219 - 0.2
Mercassium: 45,019 - 0.2
Corundium: 28,416 - 0.7
Gee thanks, now I realize I'm in for a Merc crush as well >:(
At least there is plenty on asteroid 87.
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2 January 2015
The first of the academy graduates arrive at Swarm Hive. Among them is CO-78-KRQ from Tau hive. She had proven to be a real math head, gifted in the highly technical area of emissions and motion prediction. Combined with that, she also proved quite capable of organizing research teams. While no immediate use for all of her skills is available since all the labs are currently in use, IM makes a mental note of her for the future and puts her to work in the Delta laboratories.
29 June 2015
"Yes?" IM asked. US was standing in the door to her office again, this time with a clipboard in hand.
"I've thought a bit about our mineral problem" she replied.
"That's nice. Thinking is nice. Now why are you bothering me?"
US-93 sighed. "Sarcasm is unbecoming of you IM. Now listen. After our talk last time, I went over ALL the mine reports again and even sent a few assistants to have a look at some of them. I tightened things up a bit and I managed to squeeze a bit more output out of what we have. Have a look." She handed the clipboard to IM who flipped through a few of the pages before looking up again.
"This is very good, I know we are already pushing out mines to the limit, but this will hardly solve our mineral problems" she said.
"If we can delay the problem forever, isn't that the same as a solution? Baby steps, IM. I've also been in contact with Omega Hive."
IM thought for a moment. "Omega? I didn't even know there was an Omega hive. Where is it?"
"Oh, I didn't think you would know of it. It's very small, less than hundred thousand drones" US replied. "And the reason it's interesting is because of its location. It's the southernmost hive on the planet, situated some distance into the antarctic circle."
"Really? How do they even survive?"
US waved the question away. "We have the technology to put starships in space that can survive in hard vaccuum. Not interesting."
"Then what is interesting?" IM asked.
US launched into a verbal tirade like an excited schoolgirl. "Okay, I'm going to tell you the story. I was double checking our mining outputs against Hive sizes and mineral deposits - I had this whole formula - when I found that one of the Hives was producing a bit more than I had expected it would given its size. Omega Hive. Fair enough, the area they were in was rich in minerals, but the hive was very tiny. I did a bit of digging and discovered that Omega was a planned offshoot of Sigma Hive a long time ago to exploit the mineral wealth in that area. As such, there was a permanent trade treaty between Sigma and Omega whereby Omega provided minerals and Sigma shipped food and other 'surface' products."
"So they focus all their efforts on mining and that explains the increased output. Why is this interesting?" IM asked. She was starting to get bored and wondered if she would ever be able to get back to work.
"Well, it would. Except then they would starve if they still had to feed the hive. No, it turns out that their actual production was even higher than my report stated, they just didn't include the minerals they traded to Sigma. Which turned out to be quite a bit as Sigma had been slowly inflating the price of food for Omega over the past decade or two. So somehow, they are managing to produce an large amount of minerals per drone in the harshest conditions on the planet. I was stumped! No matter how I tweaked the variables I simply couldn't explain their sizable mineral output. Especially as the veins closest to their hive must have been quite mined out by now."
"So you contacted them and asked them what was up" IM interrupted in an effort to speed things along.
"Well, yes, basically, but they clammed up. It was only after a bit of flattery, a few threats and quite a bit of diplomatic wrangling that they gave up their secret. It turns out that most of their mining operations are automated!"
There were a few seconds of silence. US was grinning broadly.
"Automated?" IM asked in a sceptical tone.
"Yes! And its actually quite ingenious how they do it..."
As what follows turns out to be a several hour lecture that requires degrees in robotics, cybernetics, geology and possibly genetics to understand, here is the simplified version.
The Wrix have a rather unique approach to artificial intelligence. They had never developed complex computer systems to aid automation as cheap labour had always been available. As such, their knowledge of artificial intelligence was quite lacking. So, instead of developing a new, smarter computer to run the mining complexes outside the hive, Omega Hive had simply removed a drone's brain, stuck it in a life-sustaining jar with a computer connection and built it into whatever computer you want operated. Ta-da, instant AI.
The net result of this is that while Omega Hive only had around eighty thousand living, breathing drones on paper, there were nearly twice as many brains as bodies. Just over sixty thousand drones laboured without the inconvenience of a body slowing them down, requiring nearly insignificant amounts of sustenance. Despite the small size of the hive, the effect had been noticable.
What is really happening:
Got a scientist with 20% sensor spec, admin 4. Glad, even though it has no use at present, my only current scientist has 30% def systems, the rest are all 10% energy weapons.
My governor (US-93) increased her mining bonus to 30%. Yay! On an rp note, I have so far denied myself the use of automated mines due to the lacking AI technology of the Wrix. I had originally planned to have them find an AI in the planet four ruins, but my Xeno teams took too long and I got bored with waitng.
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IM has a bad attitude lately, doesn't fear a queen that left her hive to become part of the Swarm command? :P
Duranium and Corundium levels are ok for now, they will allow you to expand your mining installations. Mercasium is bad but till you can start investing heavily on labs you may have found another source or stock enough of it.
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I think it's a combination of becoming more used to her power with time, and knowing that Delta is probably patient enough to let her expire of natural causes and taking over from there rather then trying to engineer a quicker transition.
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It seems a quick discussion of the political situation is in order. This specifically relates to Swarm Hive.
There have been some questions as to the ambitions of Delta/US. The fact is that she CANNOT take over from IM. First of all, the the position of First Governor is not hereditary as would be the case in a normal hive. The Queens of the other hives have a meeting to decide who gets the position and Delta/US-93's face is too well known for that kind of scrutiny. The Queens would recognize her the way Lambda did. In addition, 'Swarm Hive' is just a nickname. It does not operate in the same way that any of the other hives do. For one thing, all the drones there are loyal to one of the other hives and only work there under orders. But really, most of the workers are Infertiles and have no genetic loyalty.
Delta/US-93 is actually quite happy with her current job; she has all the power she could want with just the tiny little thing that IM is technically her boss. Not a big deal since she can manipulate IM to do basically anything she wants. Does she desire more? Of course. But more isn't available at present so she is happy with what she has. Besides, it pays to have IM naively think of her as a friend. As you might have noticed, however, she is quite busy enlisting PC as an ally and the two are thick as thieves.
PC has less interest in politics and hive matters. In a way, she is even more naive and innocent than IM. She prefers to apply her significant intellect to design duties. While she would like to have her own hive one day, she doesn't really want it bad enough for skulduggery. It is simply too much effort.
IM's rather irritable mood could be attributed to either her medical condition or the drugs she is on to combat said condition. Or perhaps she is just growing old and bitchy. Who knows? She has certainly gotten used to her position and of the innocent young Infertile who struggled to say two words to the assembly of Hive Queens precious little remains. Much to the annoyance of the Hive Queens. It should be noted however, that despite her actions, the position of First Governor is not technically above that of Hive Queen. The only reason IM has been able to 'boss' Hive Queens around so far was because she actually had all the other Queens of the Swarm behind her at the time. The Swarm Queens willingly have their hives (mostly) follow orders from Swarm Command because they know they will be treated fairly and the threat of the cooling sun still hung over everyone's heads. Nothing IM has done so far has given anyone any reason to doubt her, so the Swarm continues to trust her.
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This is interesting, I have just noticed that I have 1000tons worth of maintenance facilities on Wrixom. Where did that come from? Can anyone remember me building it? I can't. Damn, now I'm going to have to rp this stuff in.
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This is interesting, I have just noticed that I have 1000tons worth of maintenance facilities on Wrixom. Where did that come from? Can anyone remember me building it? I can't. Damn, now I'm going to have to rp this stuff in.
[/quote
Even conventional starts start with 1000 tons of maintenance facility.
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Must have missed it before. Not complaining, though. Means I can overhaul my Hecates.
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29 July 2015
"IM, we are receiving a message from the Hudson" a comms drone manning one of the stations in Swarm Command reported.
She was busy comparing figures between reported, expected and actual production from a number of suspect factories. Managing the Swarm's many factories required constant accounting. Queens tried to siphon off resources whenever and wherever they could and the drones were only too happy to lie for their Queen.
"What do they say?" she asked without looking up.
"Apparently the Francis Drake is leaving orbit of planet four."
This got her attention. The Francis Drake and the Hudson had been carefully watching each other for over two years with neither moving. A sudden change was interesting.
"Any report on where they are headed?" she asked as she walked over to the station.
"Negative. They are still manauvering" the drone stated.
It was right then that PC shouted over the low divider seperating Comms and Astrometrics: "Planetary sensors just reported the Frances Drake has broken orbit!"
"Yes, I know. Any idea where it is headed?" IM replied.
PC glanced back over her shoulder before answering: "Straight to Wrixom, based on these readings."
"Thank you PC. Drone, get Gamma up on the screen. Time to figure out what she is up to."
"And why would this be any of your business? I would think you would only be too glad for my ship to leave." Gamma said haughtily. She had responded quite quickly to IM's request for a link.
"But it isn't leaving, is it? It is coming here. And that is exactly why it is my business" IM stated. "Wrixom is my business and you are a member of the Swarm."
Gamma shrugged. "Its my ship. I just felt it is getting old and has spent a lot of time in space. Thought I would give the crew a little solid footing for a while." And then she broke the connection.
"Dammit" IM said to herself. "Where is US when you need her?"
30 July 2015
US had been out getting a tour of Omega hive, but had returned on IM's insistence. Only after they had reached the Bunker had IM filled US in on what was happening.
"Oh," US replied, "Gamma probably finished her maintenance facilities."
"What maintenance facilities?" IM demanded.
"She'd been working on them for a while, using bits and pieces her drones nicked from the construction factories. All in the greatest secrecy, of course."
"You knew?" IM demanded. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Of course I knew" US replied. "I told you I have good sources in Gamma hive. And the reason I kept it secret was the same reason all the other hives kept it secret even after you let it slip that I was constructing a secret research facility. Let her finish and we can appropriate it for the Swarm. Spill the beans, she stops construction and we just lose out on all the effort she has already put in. The reason I didn't tell YOU is because you have no guile. You would have confronted Gamma straight away."
IM bit back her response and considered US's words. It was true, she would probably have confronted Gamma.
"For the research facility, that strategy didn't turn out so well" IM eventually remarked.
"True, but I knew that they knew and I planned accordingly. Gamma doesn't know a thing. Besides, if she gives it as a present to the Swarm and steps down, we just get two things we really want. Just do me a favour. Wait until Gamma starts overhauling the Drake before you corner her about it."
"Why?"
"Don't want to give away my source. She is probably already suspicious after we magically knew about the ruins."
1 August 2015
Ruins? So this was why they expended so much energy around planet four.
Lambda was lying on her couch, listening to the playback from the hidden recorder she had managed to sneak into the lower chamber in Swarm Hive. Ironically enough, it was hidden on one of the jamming devices IM had brought in. Unfortunately for her, because it did not transmit at all, it was impervious to the effects of the jamming device. Lambda's hunch had payed off.
"That also explains the cryptic communique between her and Gamma" she mused.
"Did you say something, your Majesty?" one of her personal servant drones asked.
"Just talking to myself. Forget you ever heard anything."
"Yes, your majesty."
What is really happening:
After discovering my 1000tons of maintenance facilities, I decided to bring back the Hecates for an overhaul. First the Sir Francis Drake, since it has been out for longer. Then I just filled some space with intrigue.
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19 September 2015
The Sir Francis Drake arrives back at Wrixom. As promised, IM waits for the overhauling process to be well under way before she contacts Gamma.
27 September 2015
"So, Gamma, here we are again. Care to explain where those maintenance facilities came from?" IM was once again talking to Gamma over the link. She was fully aware Gamma was going to be difficult and obstructionist, but that was okay. She could play hardball too.
Gamma shrugged. "I built them. What did you think?"
"You were supposed to continue working on the Commercial Shipyard."
"I did" Gamma replied simply.
"I meant... look, nevermind. Will you allow the Hudson to undergo an overhaul at those facilities?" IM asked.
"Hmm... no."
"And why not?"
"It's stolen property. More specifically, you stole it from me. I'm not going to overhaul your loot for you. Do it yourself." Gamma was being really obstinate.
"Gamma, need I remind you of the military divisions under my command..." IM began.
"That old threat again? You will have to come up with something better than that. You want to attack me? Go for it. I dare you. You know as well as I do that the only end result would be we both lose when the planet freezes."
IM tried a different approach. "Alright, how do you intend to get off the planet if you cross the Swarm?"
"The Epsilon Group will be perfectly willing to take me, even if you won't."
"Epsilon has agreed to transport only those things I tell her to."
Gamma laughed. "Poor, naive IM. Do you think they will give a damn what they agreed to as soon as they are off-world and out of your reach? They will deal with whoever offers them the best deal and that will be me."
Suddenly, the viewscreen went black.
"What happened?" IM demanded. "Did Gamma cut me off?"
"No, I did" US said from the console. "You were making a fool of yourself."
"I was not! Gamma used Swarm resources to construct those maintenance facilities, now she is denying their use to the Swarm! Its outrageous!"
"You would have made a smegty Hive Queen" US stated. "Politics one-oh-one, don't try to argue against an advantage. Wait, and find a weakness instead. Gamma has you at an advantage."
"So you say just leave her? Those facilities belong to the Swarm! I can't show weakness..." IM said.
"Why not? The Queens like weakness. It makes them feel strong. I think the power went to your head. Remember, you are not in charge, the Hive Queens are. At least in their minds. Let Gamma have her little maintenance facility, the Hecates can go for twenty years without breaking down and the Hudson is only aged two and a half. There is a lot of time left to turn the tables on old Gamma."
IM considered this. "But what if they all decide to do their own thing? Use their resources for their own gain instead of contributing to the Swarm the way Gamma did?"
"Then you report it to all the other Queens. They are all aware that the only way they get off of this rock alive is by working together. If some try to shirk their responsibility to get an edge, let the other Queens deal with them" US explained.
"So I should let the other Queens deal with Gamma?" IM asked.
"Not after that display of weakness. I told you, leave Gamma. You will get her back later."
IM sighed and slumped into a chair. "I hope you're right US."
What is really happening:
The Francis Drake arrives at Wrixom and begins overhaul. Other than that, same old, same old.
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23 October 2015
IM sat with her head in her hands in front of the communication screen, willing the headache away. The other Queens had been arguing for close to an hour and nobody was any closer to a decision. None of them were willing to show weakness by giving ground. It less than a day before the commercial shipyard was to be completed and IM felt like strangling something. She had tried shouting a while ago, but everyone else just began arguing louder. She had since turned the volume down. Then she got an idea.
"Drone, are we still the host of this conference?" she asked the comms drone managing the console under the monitor.
"Yes, IM. They all link to us."
"Good. Shut it down."
The drone turned around and stared at her for a few moments.
"I said, shut it down. Kick them off the connection and shut down the conference. This has turned into a chaotic mess and somebody needs to restore order. Do it or get out so I can do it myself."
"Yes, IM" the drone replied and turned back to his console. After pressing a few buttons, the screen went dark.
"Now, boot it back up. Initiate protocols to mute and unmute individual incoming streams so I can control who talks" IM said. "No video." Out of the corner of her eye she noticed US glaring at her from the side, eyes wide, as if to say 'what are you doing??'. She ignored her.
One by one the screens representing incoming connections from the Hive Queens flickered back to life. They all showed nothing but a horizontal zigzagging line representing the audio input. Some were zigzagging rather fiercely.
"Dreadfully sorry, Your Majesties" she addressed the Queens. "It appears we overloaded the network and had a bit of a connection failure. I'm afraid we've only been able to get one audio input channel running, so we will have to take turns speaking. So sorry about this, I will have the drone responsible for this lapse in maintenance punished."
Some furious zigzagging ensued, but IM pretended she didn't notice.
"Alright, now each of you will state your proposal in turn. Gamma, will you start us off?"
A glowing box appeared around the screen marked Gamma. "...will have his face ripped off and slowly burned! I will not be treated..." the speakers chattered before it was suddenly cut off again.
IM lifted her finger from the console on her right and addressed the Queens again: "Whoops, seems we lost the stream there. I guess Gamma will just have to wait a little until we can get it up again. Kappa, will you present your suggestion in the mean time?"
There was some static as the glowing box shifted to the screen marked Kappa. "I see. Very well, I suggest we start expanding our mining operations. We are facing a shortage of several key TN minerals and this will alleviate the problem until we manage to begin exploiting offworld resources." The glowing box disappeared and several other screens zigzagged a bit more fiercely.
"Thank you, Kappa. Be sure that I am taking notes. Rho?"
The glowing box moved to Rho. "We need to expand both our factories and our mines. Our industrial base needs to be expanded to handle the requirements we will be putting on it. Construction is proceeding far too slowly."
IM proceeded down the list. Delta was in favour of starting construction of the automines that PC had developed from the knowledge US had brought back from Omega Hive. A bit of a blunder as she was not supposed to know about it. Gamma, when she eventually cooled down, suggested beginning construction of additional research facilities. Several other Queens suggested things along a similar trend. Finally, IM cut them off.
"Good, it seems we have a few ideas. Now, I will send all of you copies of the notes and we can review these suggestions at a later date. Farewell."
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24 October 2015
IM checked her notes again. The conference was about to start and she was nervous. The last time she had spoken to the Queens she had been more than just a little disrespectful. US had given her a firm dressing down afterwards and revealed that more than just a few of the Queens were now actively considering replacing her. And possibly having her head displayed over the main monitor in Swarm Command as a warning to the next First Governor. That revelation had shocked her just a bit.
Now she had to make a decision as to what their factories should construct next, now that the Commercial Shipyard was scheduled for completion later that day. And not just any decision. Telling the conference they would be doing something 'because she thought it was a good idea' was not going to settle the enormous argument from the day before. She was going to need a reason and numbers to support her decision. And she was going to have to do it without alienating the Queens any further.
"Drone, open the channels. Mute all audio this side" she commanded.
The array of individual screens marking each Hive's feed flickered to life. IM waited as, once again, every Queen began silently speaking at once. Possibly shouting.
"Your Majesties" she began slowly and clearly. "I will discuss each of your suggestions in turn so that we can decide on the best one." One by one the Queens stopped talking so they could listen. Curiousity was sometimes useful.
"First we can eliminate a few options as impractical. There was a suggestion to begin construction of parts for the Myrkuls. Unfortunately, the Myrkuls will be outdated as soon as the new engines are researched, and the engines are the only real component we can produce on the planet. So that simply isn't worth it."
A few of the Queens clearly had comments about this, but IM couldn't hear them.
"Our mineral supplies are not yet so low that we must begin seriously expanding our mining operations. The same goes for the automines as they are even more expensive for the same return. We also have no further need for more infrastructure at this time. We can construct it far faster than we can ship hives at present and we have enough to support about a million Wrix, so we have a sufficient buffer."
"No, we must maintain our focus on our primary goal. The optimal path forward is either Gamma's suggestion of a new research facility or industrial expansion. The question is, which? To detemine that, I will present a few numbers, if you will excuse me. If we start construction on a research facility now, it will be completed in about a year and provide a 30% decrease in the time needed to obtain our engines. According to my numbers, that should mean we get our new engines in two and a half years instead of three and a bit. That is between 16% and 20% reduction."
"If, instead, we expand our industrial capacity, we can improve our total industrial output by about 5% per year. So in the equivalent time, that would be an improvement of about 16%. However, we would also consume the minerals of Wrixom at an equivalently faster rate."
"The final point in favour of the research facility is that the research facility only takes a year of construction before we feel its benefits, while the factories would require three. In closing, I suggest we follow Gamma's suggestion immediately and continue with industrial expansion after its completion. That way we get the quickest benefit. The only question is now, where do we start the construction?"
A number of the other Queens spoke up, but they were still muted. So IM continued. "I feel there has been far too much fighting over these facilities in the past. Hence, my suggestion is that we build the facility somewhere neutral and staff it with drones from ALL hives. That way everyone has access."
"You got lucky" US said.
"They were happy with my analysis" IM replied.
"Our analysis. I spent up all night with you, remember?" The conference was finished and the other Queens had agreed to IM's plans. It appeared they had forgiven her.
"And I thank you for your efforts."
"My pleasure. But don't get comfortable. They have only decided to leave you be for now. If you piss them off again you will probably not do so well."
What is really happening:
Commercial Shipyard completed, so a number of new projects were started. Construction has started on a new research facility and a Myrkul class freighter (plans blow).
On an unrelated note, I will be away for a few days again. Try not to miss me too much ;)
Myrkul class Freighter 10,000 tons 103 Crew 111.4 BP TCS 200 TH 8 EM 0
40 km/s Armour 1-41 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 7 Max Repair 5 MSP
Cargo 5000
Conventional Engine E1 (3) Power 2.5 Fuel Use 10% Signature 2.5 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 90.0 billion km (26041 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
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I'm back, but I'm taking a bit of a breather. Not from the writing, I enjoy that far too much, but from the relentless pressure of posting. Instead, I'm going to build up a bit of a head start with the writing and will start posting some time this weekend again.
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the Wrix.
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Yay. Have missed following the story whilst you've been away.
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14 February 2016
The first Myrkul rolls off the production line and construction immediately starts on the next one. Its crew is composed of drones from a number of hives, but US-93 had managed to sneak a few of the drones she had brought with her to Swarm Hive on as part of the crew. Not that she had any specific plan with them, but getting them on the crew at a later date would have been problematic. This leaves the Swarm with the rather interesting question of what to do with the ship. That it had needed to be built was clear, but the question remained how to best employ this ship. It did not have the facilities to transport any significant quantities of Wrix, certainly not sufficient to start anything but a small outpost.
After some deliberation, IM orders to ship to start shipping their stockpiles of infrastructure to planet four as this would be necessary before any hives can be emplaced there and the Wrix had an awful lot of infrastructure that would have to be transported. None of the other Queens object, but each hope to be the first off the planet.
5 June 2016
The second Myrkul is completed and embarks on the same mission as the first.
Quick Summary
A quick summary of the space forces of the Wrix are in order. The total space navy of the Wrix consist of two Hecate class courier vessels and two Myrkul class freighters, all unarmed. The Myrkuls were crewed by drones from a variety of hives and were considered 'loyal', or at least not actively disloyal.
The Sir Francis Drake, the first Hecate constructed by the Swarm, is completely crewed by drones loyal to Gamma. At present, it was undergoing an overhaul at the facilities Gamma had converted in secret.
The Henry Hudson, the second of its class, had originally also been crewed by Gamma drones, but after a clever ploy by Swarm Hive, it had been captured by drones that had remained with Delta (now US-93) after she had left her hive and joined Swarm Hive as administrator. At present it was in orbit around planet four, keeping an eye on the Xenology team also consisting of Delta drones.
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15 June 2016
When IM arrived at the Bunker below Swarm Hive, the other members of her inner circle were already there, seated around the table. They included US, PC, DH-51, RZ-67 and a few other infertiles she trusted. DH had been put in charge of the Academy after its completion, a natural extension of her task of coordinating new arrivals.
"So, what's the latest?" she asked the table in general.
"Its confirmed. The Drake has completed its overhaul and is preparing to get back underway" PC reported.
"Any idea where it will be headed?" one of the other Infertiles asked.
"No. Its too soon to tell" PC replied. In addition to her task as design coordinator, she spent her free time overseeing the data from the monitoring stations Swarm Command had access to.
"I would be very surprised if it went anywhere but directly to planet four" IM stated.
"I agree" US stated. "And we can be sure it now holds a team of heavily armed drones that could oppose our control of the ruins there."
"Do they pose a significant threat to our expedition there or to our freighters?" IM asked.
US was the most experienced with these matters and spoke up. "They pose no threat to our freighters, in space they have no chance of boarding. As for the expedition, they most likely do. When we took the Hudson over, we had both additional scientific equipment and spare crew for the ship filling space. The Drake would have no such limitations and could carry more heavier weapons to oppose our forces on the planet. We have to see it as a serious risk to our continued control of the ruins."
"Any progress from our Xeno team on the planet?" IM asked, temporarily derailing the conversation.
"The need for secrecy has limited us to only communicate occasionally with the team, but last time they reported they said that it appeared to be some kind of outpost that had suffered significant damage at some point in time. They were trying to ascertain the origin of the damage at the same time as they tried to decode the alien language from what was left, but progress was slow and that they couldn't give an estimated time to completion" US reported.
IM rapped her claws on the table in annoyance. "Suppose they do decide to engage our forces. What then?"
RZ was in charge of the security of Swarm Hive, and although that was an almost pointless assignment (the only factions they would need to protect the Hive from were those serving in its military), she still had the most military experience of the queens present, so she answered. "That depends on whether we try to hold Gamma's forces outside the ruins or fight a defensive action inside the ruins themselves. The ruins would give us a significant defensive advantage as we would have time to set up positions, but of course there would be the rather significant risk of destroying some parts of the ruins themselves."
"That makes the whole exercise rather pointless, doesn't it?" IM remarked.
"Not if we want to prevent Gamma from obtaining whatever is in there" US said. "Besides, Gamma might decline to attack if she thinks the same way."
IM laughed. "Now think about that statement, but this time imagine that this is Gamma we are dealing with. No, it would be better if Gamma captures the ruins intact. We can always take it back later."
"Alright," RZ continued, "in that case it will be difficult. Even considering that our forces have time to dig in, the best we can hope for is to hold out until reinforcements reach the planet."
"Reinforcements? Are you suggesting we transfer even more troops to the planet?" US asked. "You know that Gamma will do the same."
"Gamma can do that anyway. The problem is, once we fall behind we will never be able to catch up. We should probably have moved the Hudson back along with the Drake, but the best we can do now is begin shipping more troops."
US shifted around uncomfortably. "This does leave us with the problem of where to find these troops." Her small pool of loyal drones had grown even smaller with the individuals based on the freighters and she was unwilling to let it dwindle any further. She still needed to control her intelligence network and provide some trustworthy security to Swarm Hive.
"I could stop taking the hormone suppressants and start a reproduction cycle..." PC offered naively, but the glares from all the other Queens made her stop.
"PC, no. And that is final" IM stated. "If any of the other Queens discover that reproduction was taking place in Swarm Hive, they won't even complain, they will just come in guns blazing. And find out they will. Swarm Hive is as leaky as a sieve with all the drones coming and going. I doubt even this room would remain secure for more than a few days at a time."
The other Queens vigorously nodded their agreement. Producing their own drones, even though they could, was too risky.
No other solution was presented besides trying to conceal from the drones the reason Gamma was attacking them, but even that would prove very difficult as any fighting would most likely have to take place within sight of the ruins or Gamma's troops could manauver around the Swarm troops. Even though no solution was reached, it was decided to recall the Hudson. This gave them some time to solve the problem.
Almost as an afterthought, another decision was made. The name of planet four, never before an important matter for the Wrix, was finally made to be 'First Stop'. 'Planet four' was just too cumbersome for conversation.
What is really happening:
Drake has finished overhaul and heads back to planet four, now named First Stop. I got sick and tired of talking about planet four all the time, so remember that Home A-4 is now named 'First Stop', from her on until perpetuity.
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25 June 2016
HN-31's geological survey team reports that they had finished their survey of First Stop. While they had found some quantities of minerals in their time on the planet, most of their discoveries were dwarfed in size by the deposits that had been found by the orbital survey and no easier to extract. The survey had been good practice for the members of the team as they scooted all over the planet, but of little use to the Swarm.
Unfortunately, the next ship to arrive at First Stop would be the Drake and IM wasn't sure she wanted Gamma to get her hands on the survey team. Besides, the team could not return home with their knowledge of the ruins and it was unlikely Gamma would consent to waste the time taking them anywhere else. So, for the moment, HN's team was stuck because of events beyond their control. Again.
26 June 2016
HN stretched and flexed her claws. She was lying on her back inside the first of the sleeping areas designated inside what was going to be the first Hive on First Stop, but what was at present nothing but a pressurized burrow. It had been designed to provide sufficient space for more than three hundred drones to sleep in at once. At present it held seventeen, including HN herself. Nobody from the geological survey team had ever had such luxurious accomodation before. It was certainly far larger than the little communal Habitent they had slept in until now.
"Why didn't we move in here earlier?" she asked nobody in particular. The freighters had dropped off the air scrubbers and the sealing equipment over a month ago, but the little group had only recently assembled it in a choice hole.
"Because we were gallavanting all over the planet to check for mineral deposits?" EF-15-VRJ, one of the other Infertiles on the team, replied.
"Hah, like anybody would even notice if we took a year off" one of the other Infertiles muttered. For the first time in more than a year they could lie down in comfort without some kind of life sustaining equipment within three metres.
"We would have killed each other out of sheer boredom" HN remarked. This ellicited a round of chittering laughter from both the drones and the queens.
They had very little to do now that their survey was completed, and had received no estimation of when a ship would be available to transport them to the next planet. So they took a little vacation, occupying themselves by assembling the Hive in preparation for the first colonists that would be coming some time in the future.
What is really happening:
Geological survey of First Stop is completed. A number of instances of minerals had been found, but all in pathetic quantities at pathetic accessability levels. At least my team got trained a bit.
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6 July 2016
There had been plenty of quiet consternation the moment the new ship was detected in orbit around Wrixom, seemingly coming out of nowhere. Shortly, however, its transponder flicked on and Swarm Command realised that the Epsilon Conglomerate had launched their first starship. Scanners quickly determined that it was indeed a Myrkul freighter, just as Epsilon had promised.
IM quickly contacted Epsilon and asked her what her plans were for the ship. She replied that she didn't have any, at present and IM, struck by a brainwave, quickly made a deal that would secure the ruins on First Stop without ever involving another hive. If only they had enough time.
10 July 2016
The Epsilon Myrkul leaves orbit of Wrixom, bound for First Stop. Half of its cargo space is filled with infrastructure, specifically hardened, hermetically sealable bunkers. The other half however, is filled with a trio of Lancer light tanks and an assorted of heavy weapons, all wrapped and strapped tight against the freighter's bulkheads to withstand the hard vaccuum.
None of the tank crews are on board, but the Henry Hudson, which has just arrived back at Wrixom, is busy loading the crews and is more than twice as fast as the Myrkul. It will arrive back at First Stop long before the freighter gets there. Now the drones on the planet already just have to hold out until reinforcements get there.
23 July 2016
The Sir Francis Drake arrives at First Stop and it isn't long before it unloads a contingent of armed drones. The Swarm loyalist drones make ready their defenses outside the ruins.
Note:
At this point, I have created two seperate factions on First Stop, Gamma and Swarm. As representative of the relative strengths, Gamma has two marine companies while the Swarm has one. While marince companies are actually TN technology that neither factions have yet, if, by some miracle, any normal divisions arrive on the planet I would simply delete the marine companies. They have no strength comparative to a full division and only represent a small team of armed drones. Gamma starts attacking immediately.
What is really happening:
My civilian shipping company builds its first freighter, despite having nothing to do. Eventually I put in an order to make it ship infrastructure.
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Glad you are back. I realy like the two factions your are using on First Stop.
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I'm curious what will happen with the first hives that get off planet. Without the driving force of 'cooperate or we'll all die', I could see them splitting off from the swarm and doing their own things again on a new planet.
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That is actually a very good question. Without the drive of cooperate or die, they will indeed split up, there is simply no other option for the highly territorial queens. Each of them also knows this, which is why they are jockeying for power and position. Of course, it could also be argued that another queen having a spaceship in orbit around your planet carrying nuclear bombs constitutes a 'cooperate or die' situation ;D
First Stop won't have this problem, however. It orbits the primary and as such is still subject to the problem of cooling.
But yeah, as soon as there is no more compelling reason to cooperate, expect to see the Swarm Command looted for all it has. Most likely violently.
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30 July 2016
A shell landed right on top of the rock DTP-33425 had been hiding behind, covering him in a thick cloud of dust. Fortunately for him, it had landed slightly on the side facing away from him and the bulk of the rock had protected his body as he had made himself as tiny as he could in the thin armour suit.
Drone DTP and the small group of Delta drones on First Stop had been tasked with keeping Gamma out of the ruins at all costs and from within their defensive perimiter they had set out to do just that. Unfortunately, the bloody Gamma drones weren't playing fair. They had brought a mortar along and for the past five days, instead of trying to move up, they had been content to randomly shell the Delta position.
When a few minutes passed without any shells landing, he carefully peeked out from behind his rock. With every barrage of mortar rounds, the danger was that Gamma would try to move up while he and his fellows kept their heads down.
"Clear! Status report?" DTP shouted as soon as his ears stopped ringing.
"No injuries!"
"Not hurt."
"Doing great."
"Aughghghgh."
The last bubbling scream came from behind a rock further back and DTP ran over, his head still ducked low and cold apprehension rose in his gut. That rock had been where they had left one of the drones that had been lightly injured in a previous mortar attack. They couldn't afford to lose a single drone...
He ducked behind the rock and his fears were confirmed. Fresh shrapnel damage riddled the drone's combat armour and he could see some of the holes were oozing blood. A shallow shell crater less than two metres away explained the injuries.
"Medic!" DTP shouted. "Come on drone, stay with me!" He immediately dove in to try to stem the blood loss.
A drone tasked with medical duties ran over while the rest drifted closer. There was nobody to shoot at and it was unlikely Gamma would start shelling again already. They were fortunate that the planet they were on had such a mild environment. On most of the other worlds, any damage to armor would have resulted in the occupant boiling, freezing or even dissolving. Here, on First Stop, they could even go without any life support at all for short periods of time.
"We can't go on like this" one of the other drones in the group complained. "They are slowly picking us apart with that damn mortar!" Possibly due to ammunition concerns, the mortar bombardments never lasted long, no more than three or four shells at a time, but they came randomly at any time of the day. Already two drones had been injured.
"Then what do you suggest we do?" DTP demanded.
"Anything but just sit here, waiting to be blown up" the other drone replied. "If we can somehow destroy the mortar, we can hold them here forever."
"Any move we make makes us more vulnerable. We only have to hold out until reinforcements arrive" DTP said, but it made no difference. Many of the drones were firmly against just sitting there and getting shot at. It grated on their nerves not be able to kill something.
"Fine!" he eventually muttered. "But if we go out there to hunt the mortar, we do so with a plan."
That night, as soon as the sun went down, five figures crept out on a tangent to Gamma's position. The rest stayed behind to hold the line. Gamma's forces didn't have enough drones to encircle Delta's position, so they had settled for camping to one side with their active troops deployed forward.
For almost an hour DTP and his squad mates circled wide around Gamma's position, doing their best not to be spotted. Suddenly, the lead drone called a halt.
"Did you see that?" he asked.
"What?" DTP asked as he was second in line.
"Behind that rock over there. It looked like something glinted in the starlight." They were in a shallow ditch with a number of rocks on either side. They had been following it closer to Gamma's position as it concealed them from whatever lookouts Gamma had posted.
"Are you sure?" DTP asked, well aware of how vulnerable their position was for an ambush.
Before the first drone had the chance to reply, a bright light flashed on, illuminating their little group in the darkness and the sound of gunfire echoed out from ahead.
"Ambush! Everybody back!" DTP shouted as the high velocity bullets kicked up little puffs of sand around their feet. Before they had a chance to make more than a few steps, the lead drone collapsed with a grunt. Almost without thinking, and before the drone had fallen further than his knees, DTP reached out, grabbed him by the armor and dragged him along as the group disappeared into the night.
Safely back inside their fortifications, DTP checked their damage. The lead drone had been hit in the stomach, but the medic quickly had him stabilized. Another had been been hit in the arm, but was quickly patched up. Hopefully he wasn't out of the fight yet.
"They were waiting for us, but we got off lightly. Gamma's bunch must be really bad shots" DTP remarked.
"Er, DTP" one of the other drones interrupted. "Check your helmet."
DTP slipped off his helm and turned it over. A deep furrow had been gouged in the side by one of the high velocity rounds that had been deflected, barely.
"Well, damn" DTP remarked. "Guess they can shoot better than I had given them credit for."
Just then, there was an explosion nearby and all of them dived for cover as the mortar rounds began raining in.
DTP quickly slammed his helmet on his head and cursed under his breath. Back to business as usual.
What is really happening:
Combat and casualties and studying for my exam tomorrow. Luckily I worked ahead a bit last weekend.
Creating two different factions on First Stop worked out very well in the end.
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*unlurks*
Interesting read as ever, keep it up.
Good luck for your exam!
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uuh, was that 5 pages already?
Must be pretty good if I read it all in one sitting and didn't realize until now that it was 60 some posts.
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How're you simulating the two factions? One battalion mobile infantry and one garrison battalion?
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One side has two marine companies and the other has one. I figured marine companies would give better granularity and the numbers disparity would better illustrate the difference in force level. Remember, a mobile infantry has 5 attack, while a garrison has 10 defence. That kind of takes the urgency out of the thing.
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5 August 2016
DTP fired a short burst from his pulse rifle at a head that had been poking out behind a rock and it quickly ducked back. He followed suit as a burst of return fire chipped at the rock he was hiding behind. Gamma's forces had finally begun moving closer. Instead of the sudden rush they had been expecting, however, it had been a slow, cautious crawl, mostly under the cover of mortar bombardment. And still they were keeping their distance.
He and his squad mates were being worn down, slowly but surely, and casualties were slowly climbing. It was only a matter of time before Gamma's forces made their final push. For the umpteenth time DTP wondered how long it was before the Hudson arrived with reinforcements. Their communications equipment had been hit some time ago by a stray mortar round, so they had been out of contact with Wrixom for some time.
Just then one of his mates crawled up to his hidey spot. He was positively grinning.
"What's news?" DTP asked.
"Those bunch of crackpots in the ruins just managed to receive a signal from the Hudson using some doohickey jury-rigged from the remains of our comms unit and some of their stuff. It just crossed the halfway mark between us and Wrixom. It's going to be here in just over fifteen days."
DTP's grin nearly touched his ears. That explained why Gamma was moving up. Their odds suddenly looked a lot better.
20 August 2016
The surviving defenders sat in a spread circle, eating their rations in silence. Gamma had been pushing hard and shelling almost non-stop for the past several days. Almost all of them were injured in some way by now.
DTP looked around the faces. Nobody wanted to be the first to say it, but they were all thinking it. The Xenologists had managed to establish a short range communications link to the Hudson and it appeared it was going to be late. They were down to less than fifty percent strength and they had caused almost no casualties to Gamma's forces.
To make matters worse, they had finally heard what their reinforcements consisted of. A bunch of tank jockeys and a few leftover drones that barely had any combat training. The tankers would be useful as soon as their tanks arrived, but those weren't scheduled to get here until the freighter from Epsilon arrived, which wasn't going to be soon. Freighters were slow as smeg.
All in all, the situation was a bit bleak.
What is really happening:
The Swarm has been getting a bit of a one sided pounding in the ground war. Rather expected, as they are outnumbered 2-1. What is surprising is that casualties on Gamma's side has been 0. They've lost something like 4% readiness total. Perhaps because the Swarm isn't attacking?
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What's the commander of the Swarm forces look like stats wise?
For the effect you were going for it might have been a little better to have done 3-2 odds.
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No leaders. Leaders would be infertiles who cannot be trusted not to blab the secrets of the ruins to all the other hives and/or steal it for themselves. Only drones are loyal.
2-1 odds created the perfect situation of desperation.
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I was thinking more along the lines of a 'squad leader'. Right about now the appearance of a standout amongst the ranks with ground combat bonus might be enough to save everyone's bacon (or at least stay off execution before backup arrives).
Love the story so far. Don't mind me. I just put my .02 in on everything.
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Perhaps. I've been considering it actually. I'll have a look at it sometime.
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29 August 2016
RZ-67 stepped off the Hudson and stopped dead. In front of her was not the team of battle hardened drones ready to take the fight to the enemy as she had been expecting. Instead, waiting for her at the bottom of the ramp, were three ramshackle soldiers, nearly all injured.
"Welcome to the First Swarm Expeditionary Force" the drone which seemed the least injured greeted her.
"Hello, drone. Where are the others?" she asked.
"Watching the front lines. But don't get your hopes up. They don't look any better."
RZ shook her head in shock. "And Gamma's forces? Surely they cannot be faring much better."
"Sorry to disappoint. Besides using up some ammunition and mortar shells, I would say they are in pretty much the same condition they were in when they got here."
"How is that possible?" RZ demanded. Behind her, drones had started unloading supplies. They had landed on the far side of Gamma's forces and the landing had been completely unopposed.
"They just haven't given us a shot, mostly content with dropping mortar shells on our heads from miles away. The one time we tried to move on them, we nearly got ambushed. Since then, they've been shelling as more and more frequently. In fact, I'm quite surprised they aren't shelling us right now. The ship is a mighty sizable target."
RZ paused. That didn't make sense. While a mortar round would be unlikely to cause any sort of serious damage to something like the Hudson, it might be able to damage some of the more sensitive subsystems enough to prevent it from being able to bring up any further reinforcements.
In fact, the only reason NOT to shoot at the Hudson, was it Gamma thought she could retake the ship somehow. A notion which was... plainly...
RZ's eyes widened as she realized the truth. "Everybody, cover, now!" she shouted and flattened herself on the ground. Just in time; a staccato of gunfire pinged off the Hudson's hull and ripped into one of the drones carrying supplies off the ship. Soon, bullets were flying through the air, kicking up puffs of dust or pinging off the metal hull of the nearby starship.
30 August 2016
The fight had been brutal, but the Hudson had managed to take off fairly easily. It seemed as if Gamma's forces had been careful not to accidentally hit it with any heavy weaponry, and as soon as the ship took off, Gamma withdrew. But the fight had not been without casualties.
One of the defending troops had been killed by a bullet that went in just behind the ear. Death had been instantanious.
The enemy had stayed out of the immediate landing area that the Hudson had scanned with its rather primitive sensors (mostly visual) until it was down, before finally moving in. That was how they had managed to get so close to the ship. On the up side, this meant that all of the reinforcement troops and most of the supplies had already been offloaded. It wouldn't turn the tide, but it gave the soldiers on First Stop a fighting chance to make it until the freighter arrived.
What is really happening:
Hudson arrived at First Stop and I SM'ed a replacement battalion onto the planet to simulate the reinforcements. Also, RZ-67-CGA, as the only 'trustworthy' infertile with any combat experience, has taken command of the marine battalion holding the planet. However, she only has a 10% bonus, so I don't have my hopes up. I think it might be too little too late. Might have to consider negotiating with Gamma.
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Go Swarm! You can do it!
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6 September 2016
'To Swarm Command; From RZ-69-CGA, Military Commander of Swarm Forces on First Stop
Regarding: Current Status
After reviewing our current forces on First Stop, my conclusion is that we are one hard push away from a decisive defeat and likely complete eradication. Gamma's superior numbers, tactics and equipment for a not-insignificant amount of time has rendered our forces incapable of further action. Most units are injured and the new reinforcements are NOT up to the task of replenishing our losses and in fact are taking terrible losses themselves. Even with the armored reinforcements on the way, I find it very unlikely that we would be able to successfully go on the offensive against Gamma and tanks are not suited to a defensive fight.
In light of all this, my recommendation is simple: withdraw all troops from First Stop and find another solution besides military aggression, most likely diplomacy. Failure to do so would just result in extermination of the expeditionary force and loss of the ruins without leverage.'
IM looked up from the message she had been reading aloud and looked at her assembled advisors in turn. PC was visibly squirming. She didn't really have the stomache for politics.
"Well?" she asked. "What do we do?"
"What can we do?" PC asked.
"We can do a lot of things" US replied. "Withdrawing our troops is merely one option."
"Then perhaps you can enlighten us?" IM asked. They were sitting around the table in the bunker below Swarm Hive, where all their clandestine business was conducted.
"Well, for one thing, we can inform the other hives of the ruins on First Stop. Under pressure from the rest of the Swarm, Gamma would have no choice but to withdraw."
"I do believe there was a reason we have not done so already" DH-51, the chief of the academy, stated.
"Not exactly" US replied. "The reason we did not reveal their existence initially and opted for the covert response was to protect my source. Since then, our only reason has been inertia. If we were to reveal the existence of the ruins, we would have to reveal that we hid it from the rest of the Swarm. That could be disastrous."
"Isn't that reason still valid?" DH asked.
"Perhaps, but not if we reveal it as a fresh find" US replied.
"I think pretty much everyone suspects that something is up. I doubt they would buy it" PC interjected.
"Regardless of what the rest of the Swarm will think of us, revealing the ruins' existence would result in every hive demanding to have a team there" IM said. "I would rather not have the mass of drones trampling all over the ruins."
The rest of the group nodded their agreement. The first priority was whatever they could find in the ruins.
"Any other ideas?" IM asked.
"How about we let Gamma have First Stop?" PC suggested. The rest looked at her incredulously. "Listen. Do we really care who gets the planet? In fact, isn't First Stop going to be the last planet evacuated anyway?"
"PC, the problem isn't the planet, its the ruins on the planet we want" US explained patiently. "The two are a bit of a package deal."
"Or are they?" PC asked. "Do we really care about the ruins or do we care about the knowledge the ruins might contain? It's simple, we make a deal with Gamma..."
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7 September 2016
PC sat curled up in a little ball, warily watching the group of drones 'guarding' her. The deal had to be done face to face and since she was the one who had dreamt it up, IM and the others had unanimously voted for her to go deliver their terms to Gamma, who had so far kept her waiting for just under two hours.
Finally, a drone scurried up from around a corner. "Queen Gamma will now accept your presence" it stated.
PC got up, stretched her stiffening joints and followed the drone into the Queen's Chambers. A new gaggle of rather larger and more threatening guards took up station around her.
"So IM sent and envoy to speak to me in person. I do wonder what is so sensitive that our communications systems cannot be trusted?" Gamma boomed from the far side of her chamber. A number of drones were occupied with the monitors on the left and even more scurried to and fro on errands to all ends of the hive. PC had to avoid walking into them as she headed for the small open area around Gamma's seat. To an outside observer, the lack of bowing or any similar act would have seemed strange, but the Wrix had no method of showing respect; they had no need. Hive Queens had it by default and everyone else was unworthy of it.
"Your Majesty, I come before you as a representative of the Swarm, authorized to make a deal with you regarding our situation on First Stop" she repeated the speech she had prepared beforehand.
"Continue" Gamma said simply, her face kept carefully neutral to avoid showing emotion.
PC took a deep breath. "Swarm Command will shortly be withdrawing all its armed forces from First Stop. This we will do regardless of Gamma's actions. What we ask of you is to cease the fighting and give the Hudson time to return to First Stop to collect our forces."
"And in exchange you will not destroy the ruins?" Gamma mused.
"The ruins are too valuable to make such a bluff. The Swarm as a whole needs them intact."
"Then you still need to tell me what I would gain from this. Although, I suppose I'm not exactly losing anything. Yet" Gamma said.
"The actual deal is not about a few unimportant drones on a distant planet" PC stated, trying her best to appear decisive and confident. She couldn't keep a note of nervousness out of her voice, however. Eventually she just read directly from the sheaf of papers she had brought along. "We will acknowledge First Stop as the property of Gamma Hive, including all artifacts found on it and provide the infrastructure necessary to survive there. In exchange, Gamma will continue to let our team work on the ruins, simply because they have the most experience and they are the best the Swarm has. In addition, all industrial facilities Gamma Hive is no longer able to operate on Wrixom as drones are moved offworld must be turned over to other hives that are able to operate them. No facilities can be moved offworld without Swarm Command's approval."
Gamma sat and digested this remarkably simple deal, staring at PC until she began fidgeting with nervousness.
"I notice there is nothing in that deal about sharing any of the results of the xenological team. Is there anything particular I should read into that?" Gamma asked.
"The team working it is ours. Killing or detaining them after their task is completed would constitute an act that could result in Gamma's expulsion from the Swarm. Of course, you would definately be getting first glimpse of whatever they find." This was the hook Swarm Command had hoped would get Gamma. It was also a bit of a gamble. If their team found technology that would result in Gamma no longer needing the Swarm to escape Home's deadly cooling, she would keep it for herself and tell the Swarm to go hang itself. They hoped that Gamma's lack of significant industrial capacity on First Stop and the bad environmental conditions would prevent such a situation. In the worst case scenario, their xenology team had orders to cover up or destroy such technology.
"Hmm" Gamma finally responded. "Suppose I rejected this deal and did my level best to wipe out your pathetic little forces on First Stop, how would that differ from what your 'deal' offers me? Don't I get all the same things?"
"If you refuse, we tell all the other Queens in the Swarm as little or as much as we need to to get them to send troops to First Stop to remove your forces." The Swarm had access to both the Hudson and the two Myrkuls and could transport more and better armed units to First Stop than Gamma could with only the Drake, and they both knew it. The implication that this could result in the ruins becoming public knowledge was left unsaid.
"Alright, you and IM drive a hard bargain" Gamma finally admitted. "But I have a requirement of my own. I want the Hudson returned to its rightful owner. And the first real colony ship the Swarm constructs, all crewed by my drones and subject to my orders. Without those, it would be far too easy for you to strand my hive on a doomed planet with no hope of escape."
PC thought quickly. They had never even considered this, but Gamma had a good point. The colony ship she was sure IM would not mind ceding to Gamma - under certain conditions, of course - but the Hudson? It was the Swarm's only starship and link with other planets. And with Gamma still nominally in command of the shipyard...
"Then we want the shipyard" she stated, surprising even herself with her audacity.
"Excuse me?" Gamma replied.
"We will give you both the Hudson as soon as our forces are back at Wrixom and the first colony ship constructed by the Swarm in exchange for full access to your shipyard. It must be moved to orbit over some neutral territory and full command access must be transferred to Swarm Command" PC stated. The Gamma Yards were already crewed and operated by drones from all hives as IM had commanded some time before, but most were from Gamma Hive and Gamma still held the command codes required for full control of the yard.
Gamma shrugged. "Fine, take it. It's not like its really mine anymore, anyway."
What is really happening:
The war is over! For now, I've just stopped the attacks but as soon as the Hudson returns to First Stop I will completely delete both subfactions. The Swarm got trounced hard. Their single Marine Company is at 30% readiness and their Replenishment Battalion is at 44%. All that while Gamma's two Companies are both still at over 90%. What happens next depends on what their xeno team finds in the ruins themselves.
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Sorry for the long delay, vacation has ended so work has begun again. And girlfriend is being needy. Regardless, I will write again as soon as I have a bit of free time.
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7 September 2016
PC had finally gotten back to Swarm Command, but her welcome down in the bunker turned out to be less than warm when she reported on the agreement she had made.
"You gave away the Hudson??" IM screamed.
"I got us the shipyard!" PC protested.
"We already had the shipyard!"
" And you gave Gamma our first colony ship? Before we even built one or know if we can build one?" US added.
"You said I should give any concessions to make the deal!" PC defended herself. Or tried to.
"Any 'reasonable' concessions" IM corrected her.
"That's it, I'm calling Gamma and telling her the deal's off" IM huffed and moved towards the communications area.
"Hold up, IM" US called her back. "Let's not be hasty. Besides, do you really want to appear weak and indecisive?"
This made IM freeze. After a few moments thought she turned around and took her seat, quietly fuming.
"Perhaps it's not that bad. You say she went for the 'no installations off Wrixom without my say so' clause?" US asked.
PC nodded vigorously. "Didn't even bat an eye. Not sure if she even noticed it."
"And we control the only freighters?" US asked again.
"Well, us and Epsilon" IM replied, although she was looking somewhat more upbeat. "But Epsilon won't cross us."
"Then we have just succeeded in essentially marginalizing the most powerful hive on Wrixom" US concluded. "Gamma will spend all her efforts on developing First Stop and consolidating her hold there, a most excellent waste of her time since her hive will have to be evacuated eventually." US left the 'or not' carefully unsaid, but very much implied.
"What about the ruins?" IM asked. "Gamma has first chance at anything found there."
"True, the ruins are the only wild card," US admitted, "but we have our team doing the analysis. Gamma won't find anything too dangerous and she has no way to prevent us from getting a look at it eventually, besides war, and as soon as she moves a significant number of drones offworld she will be more vulnerable than any of us without significant industry."
17 September 2016
The Hudson arrives back at First Stop and picks up a bedraggled group of injured and battered drones. Most of their supplies are loaded as well, but a few powerful explosive devices are smuggled out to the Xenology team in case some incredible discovery is made that Gamma is not allowed to have.
HN-31's geology team is left behind. They know about the ruins and cannot be allowed to spill the beans, just yet.
What is really happening:
Battle canceled, both factions deleted after RZ was transferred back to Wrix Swarm (main faction).
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Gonna need a lot more popcorn for this. . . ;D
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30 September 2016
"What is so important that you cannot even give me a hint outside the Bunker?" IM asked. She and Delta were the only two there, but Delta was positively bouncing up and down with excitement.
"I just got word from my sources in Gamma. The Xenology team managed to crack the alien language."
IM leaned forward. "And they didn't tell us earlier that they were this close?"
"Probably a sudden breakthrough, but there is more. They managed to get an ancient computer system working again and it turns out that the race that built it was known as the 'Ascendancy of Horse'. Wierd name, but that still isn't all." Delta was now grinning very widely.
"Alien technology?" IM guessed, dreading the answer. Whatever they found, Gamma would have her claws on it now.
"Not quite. Close, though. Based on some schematics they found of how the place must have looked originally, they think some of the buildings may be salvagable" Delta said.
"Salvagable? As in can be stripped for usable parts?" IM asked.
"No, as in can be brought back to full operation!"
IM jumped to her feet. "What!? That means Gamma has access to to these facilities now! I knew we pulled out too early, we should have tried to hold those ruins!"
"Calm down, IM. Gamma doesn't have anything. I said those facilities COULD be brought back to full operation, but they are still in really bad condition. It will require equipment and parts that are both hard to come by and, perhaps more importantly, bulky. No way a little Hecate is going to be able to ship all of that within a reasonable amount of time."
"Does it matter how long it takes?" IM responded angrily. "Gamma has full rights to the planet and everything on it. Technological details and such our team could have brought back, but all those facilities are hers and there is nothing we can do about it. What do those facilities even do?"
Delta shrugged. "No idea. Apparently these 'Horse' people have a very strange architecture and there is no way to translate some of the more technical terms. But there are only about seven facilities that can be salvaged. No, the real value of this is going to be how much this keeps Gamma busy and out of our way!"
2 October 2016
Lambda's hands were shaking as she switched off the playback from the recording device that had since that morning been hidden in the Bunker under Swarm Command. She had believed the ruins were perhaps a few stones on top of one another with some scratchings indicative of a sentient society, but now she realized that it was an actual, technological race that had once inhabited the planet.
When IM and Delta were struggling to put together reinforcements for their armed units on First Stop, Lambda had been very tempted to offer her own forces in support, but as she had only recieved word about the reinforcements the morning that the Hudson was due to arrive back, she eventually declined. She never did anything rash, and committing her forces would have involved choosing sides.
Now she wasn't sure whether to regret her decision or feel vindicated for not acting. On the one hand, with her support the Swarm forces would most likely have held out long enough to secure the Facility. On the other, the fact that Gamma now has control over everything that came out of those ruins meant that she had the upper hand again. Sure, Swarm Command felt that Gamma would not be able to exploit her advantage any time soon due to lack of dronepower and equipment, but neither of those were insurmountable obstacles to the unsuspected with few scruples.
What really bothered Lambda was the fact that there was a destroyed, transstellar civilization at all. Firstly, it meant that other transstellar civilizations could exist, and secondly that there was something out there capable of destroying them...
What is really happening:
Ruins finally translated. Ascendancy of Horse, TL 4 with 7 buildings. All in all, a nice little find but hardly anything to get excited about. I think I'm going to SM in an engineering brigade eventually to get started on fixing the buildings. Researching it first takes too long and the Wrix are quite productive and capable.
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Funny story, it seems my freighters cannot move quickly enough to actually catch an orbiting planet (specifically First Stop). This makes dropping infrastructure on First Stop a bit complicated. And I have no idea how to rp this. I mean, is this even remotely realistic? Being unable to catch a PLANET? How do I explain the Wrix not thinking of this? I really don't want to have to micromanage them into ambush positions for each planet every trip.
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Funny story, it seems my freighters cannot move quickly enough to actually catch an orbiting planet (specifically First Stop). This makes dropping infrastructure on First Stop a bit complicated. And I have no idea how to rp this. I mean, is this even remotely realistic? Being unable to catch a PLANET? How do I explain the Wrix not thinking of this? I really don't want to have to micromanage them into ambush positions for each planet every trip.
Sure, the orbital velocities for the planets in aurora are based on the real life ones (Earth's real life average orbital speed is ~30km/s, other planets would be affected by distance to parent star and parent star size - the closer a planet and the larger the star is, the faster it has to move to stay in orbit) and if your ship isn't fast enough, then you're going to have this problem. You could RP it as a simple oversight, or perhaps the freighters failing to meet their specifications (perhaps the engine designs simply don't deliver the power promised by the designers, would it be? I'm assuming the Wrix are essentially a hierarchic communist society). Maybe there was a clerical error, a simple misprint of the target speed on an important document. The only things you can really do though is to ambush it like you say, or make some faster freighters.
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I had a similar issue where a conventional powered freighter only made 50kms. Traveling between orbiting planets backwards only took a couple days, moving forwards took months.
That might not be one to bother trying to RP. Time to redesign that ship with an extra engine or two and use SM to add it into the game.
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Well not really realistic, merely a consequence of the fact that engines in aurora have a fixed speed instead of a fixed acceleration like they have in reality.
I think its fair to SM further engines to the design. Alternatively you could also use a tractor beam to strap an additional engine or two to the design. Could have interesting swarm politics consequences, depending on who has the power to build this booster pack.
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Order them to the orbital path and follow it backwards until they meet the planet as it comes around? Even if it doesn't match up, you can then SM place them in orbit of the planet.
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I considered SM'ing them to orbit then abandoning all transport operations due to 'technical difficulties' with the engines, but then I realized RP'ing this is going to be way too much fun to pass up on. After all, it kinda makes sense that the Wrix would make a monumental error like this; their space program is in its infancy. They never had shuttles and Challengers and Hubbles to practice with.
On an unrelated note, I'm going to be spending the long weekend (for us) at my gf's place, so no internet access. Will probably do one more post today, but after that don't expect anything till Sunday. Hopefully I can build up a bit of a head start again if I don't drown between her and all the marking I'm taking along.
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22 October 2016
Construction of the 'Swarm Communal Research Complex' is completed. Staffed by drones and infertiles of all hives, it is immediately put to work on assisting the other labs. After a quick bit of number crunching, the decision is made to immediately start on an ambitious expansion project that would make it the largest scientific complex on the planet. Unfortunately, that doesn't say much for the aggressive and warlike Wrix.
23 October 2016
US and PC came sneaking into IM's office. IM, who was very busy writing out detailed instructions for a couple of drones installing new equipment in the new SCRC, didn't notice their presence until they began speaking.
"Tell her" US ordered.
"I'm not telling her, you tell her!" PC responded.
"Oh no, this is your mess, you tell her."
IM stared up at the two queens. "Will somebody please tell me what's going on?"
"Well," PC finally admitted, "you know how we struggled to calculate exact interception times back when we launched the first Myrkul due to some mathematical stuff that we never did quite figure out?"
"Yeees" IM replied carefully. "I remember. Computer glitch or something, wasn't it?"
"Er... not exactly. More of a... Wrix glitch. It turns out the Myrkuls aren't fast enough to catch an orbiting planet. Not First Stop, anyway."
IM kept staring at the pair uncomprehendingly. "So what are you trying to tell me?"
"We struggled to calculate interception times because the actual interception time is 'never'" US explained. "The computer was designed to use numerical methods to calculate approximate times based on the assumption that a solution exists. In fact, it doesn't."
"So you are telling me that our Myrkuls can't make it to First Stop because the 'planet is too fast'?" IM asked incredulously.
"Umm... yeah. Basically."
"And so we can't actually ship the infrastructure to First Stop until all the Myrkuls have gone for an engine upgrade."
IM was on a direct link to Gamma down in the Bunker. PC was sitting by her feet like a naughty schoolchild, sulking. A constant mumbling was barely audible..
Gamma stared at the two of them for a few seconds then burst out laughing. "Are you serious? Who was the idiot that designed a freighter that can't even catch a planet?"
"...not my fault..."
"That would be PC here" IM replied.
"...said keep it under ten thousand tons..."
"And she will be replaced?" Gamma asked.
"With who, exactly?" IM replied. "She is the best ship designer I have. Nobody else even has a clue which side the engines go."
"Apparently, neither does she. I must admit, usually I would kick up a fuss over this, but it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to see how incompetent our leadership is. At least when we all freeze I will be able to laugh at you as I die."
What is really happening:
LOL OOPS. Anyway, I've started expanding the commercial shipyard a little and will do something about the Myrkuls trailing impotently behind First Stop.
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2 November 2016
A new Myrkul-A was launched by Epsilon's group.
Epsilon had also been informed about the weakness of the Myrkul design, and had not taken the news well. Her group already had one Myrkul out and about and with another in the final stages of construction, both were going to be reduced to glorified paperweights.
As an emergency measure, she had ordered the Myrkul under construction modified to a Myrkul-A design with an additional outboard engine strapped to the hull, increasing the speed to 44km/s.
It should be noted that even drones, who normally have no problems carrying out suicidal orders for the good of their hive, were hesitant to serve on what they called 'the rickety deathtrap'.
Whether an extra 4km/s is going to be enough to make the vessel viable was not even sure. For that reason, Swarm Command declined to modify their ships to this design.
5 November 2016
The Hudson arrives back at Wrixom. As per the agreement between Swarm Command and Gamma, it is supposed to be returned to Gamma. However, with the new situation regarding the Myrkuls, Gamma agrees to delay enacting that clause until HN-31's geology team can be transported to the next planet to be surveyed. In exchange, a number of Gamma's drones and their equipment would be transported to First Stop on the outward journey.
What is really happening:
I've sent the Myrkul's back to Wrixom. Then, as I am playing around to see how tough it would be to modify a Myrkul to get its speed up, my civilian corporation builds one of my designs! Stupid civilians.
I then decided that this is a good excuse for me to move my geology team to the next planet/moon so the Hudson is on its way to do that. I've also decided that I will be focusing on research capacity for the foreseeable future. I had no power/prop researchers at the start and this has really hammered my progress rate.
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22 November 2016
"It seems Epsilon hasn't been idle since we gave her the go ahead to begin interstellar operations. She just let us know that she had established an offworld mineral extraction operation on the sixth moon of planet five."
IM nearly choked on her breakfast. "When did she establish that? HOW did she establish that?"
US just shrugged. "Beats me. But I'm guessing she is in contact with Sigma and Omega. They are the ones who developed the automine technology and her mines must be either fully or at least mostly automated. By the way, she has asked for an Infertile to command her garrison force."
IM flailed her hands around in frustration. "A garrison as well? How is this possible? We have been struggling to move small teams offworld and here she has not only moved an entire mining complex with garrison, but she has built it here as well! I thought her production base was limited?"
"Some of the hives have been helping her" an Infertile said while chewing from the other side of the carcass*. "They think she is doing a better job of getting them offworld."
Both IM and US turned to look at the Infertile neither recognized.
"And you are?" IM asked.
"CO-78-KRQ" the queen replied. "Just got back from the Delta Labs. Apparently they don't want me there anymore."
"Why?"
"I bit my supervisor. But only because she refused to listen to my ideas. Said they were 'hasty' and 'foolish'. So I did what came naturally."
"Nevermind that," IM interrupted, "why do you say the other hives are shifting their support towards Epsilon's group?"
"No, no, they aren't shifting their support. They still support the Swarm since they know this is where the military power lies and they don't quite trust Epsilon with that. They are just hedging their bets by supporting Epsilon industrially a bit as well."
"That is outrageous!" IM hissed.
"Not really. It's working rather well. Epsilon operates under far less oversight than you do, meaning many things can get done much faster. She also doesn't need to worry about technological development the way you do" CO-78 replied.
"I haven't noticed any significant slowdowns in construction progress of the SCRC expansion" US admitted.
"That's because the projects are mostly using different resources."
"What about the mining complex? Now Epsilon is taking minerals that the Swarm needs very badly!" IM continued.
"You didn't let me finish" US replied. "She let us know that if we ship the minerals and supply her installations, we can keep most of the minerals. Oh, she has demands, but they are mostly for non-TN equipment and resources the Swarm has plenty of anyway. I don't even consider that an expense anymore."
"So we are getting minerals for practically nothing?" IM asked.
"Pretty much."
*Wrix mealtimes are nothing like squishy humans'. There is no dinner table, no eating implements and no manners. The freshly killed corpse is dragged to the centre of the eating room and after the choice cuts are removed for the Hive Queen, everyone starts tearing at the raw meat. It should be noted that the animals of Wrixom are rather large compared to ours.
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"...chewing from the other side of the carcass." Nice touch.
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Could you give a more detailed description of Wrix wildlife/cuisine?
Been lurking around here for while, I must say you should consider getting your own subforum.
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I'm beginning to notice the need for a subforum as well. Originally, I just didn't know whether I would stick this out for longer than a week and didn't want an(other) empty subforum cluttering up the forum.
As for the Wrixom wildlife, I'll get on that. Already have a fairly good idea of what's there and how it works, just haven't had the opportunity to work it into the story (but I don't think I will get one). Expect to see another post soonish.
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(but I don't think I will get one)
Some rather ominous foreshadowing.
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No, not at all. It just isn't relevant to the space exploration side of things, even if it might be interesting.
Interlude: Wrixom Wildlife Primer
From the air, it might appear to the untrained observer as if Wrixom is a veritable Garden of Eden. Vast stretches of untouched greenery are visible where forests and grasslands stretch across the continent, seemingly unmarred by the concrete and metal constructions that so embody our idea of civilization.
Of course, the trained observer would know better. He would spot the strange mound-shaped mountains squatting squarely in the centre of these green paradises or sticking awkwardly from the sides of mountains. He would notice the thin wisps of smoke escaping these heaps through various small apertures. And he would definately notice the slew of anti-aircraft missiles that seemingly spring up from the ground when he flies too close.
But back to the wilds of Wrixom. As most of its 'civilization', that of the Wrix, is underground, the surface is pretty much unspoilt and inhabited by rapid-breeding herbivores of all sizes. All herbivores that were unable to breed rapidly had been hunted to extinction or close to it by the Wrix ages ago. Of course, there are also a number of predators and omnivores that subsist fully or partially on these plant-eating monsters, but they are smaller in number and have learnt long ago not to interfere with Wrix hunting parties. A vibrant small insectoid biosphere rounds out the ecosystem, but in the food chain they are too far removed from things that interest us and as such will not be mentioned further. We will concentrate on creatures of immediate interest to the Wrix.
Drurr - A large four-legged mammalian herbivore slightly bigger than an elephant. They appear to have a long neck, but it is more like an elephant's trunk than a giraffe's neck, except for the fact that it has a skeletal structure and jaws at the tip. One eye is positioned on each side of this 'trunk'. Their name comes from the sound they make when threatened, a sort of growling bellow, and the fact that the Wrix are notoriously uncreative when it comes to names. They are highly intelligent, perhaps comparable to certain primates, and congregate in large herds capable of rapidly defoliating entire grasslands and forests. With their relatively rapid breeding rates and large bulk, they form the staple of the Wrix diet.
Grueler - A medium sized four legged mammalian carnivore that seems to have many canine characteristics. It can best be described as a Pit Bull grown to the size of a Great Dane. They also hunt in packs and a large pack can, given sufficient time, take down even a Drurr. They are NOT domesticated in any way as the Wrix find the concept of domestication of anything you don't intend to eat very alien. They are the Wrix primary competitor for food and it is not unheard of for a hunting party to be attacked by these aggressive predators.
Reaper - Once the most prolific and successful predator on Wrixom for eons before it was nearly hunted to extinction by the Wrix, this massive bird of prey will hunt anything smaller than itself which is the size of small car. It looks more like a large bat than a bird, and instead of a beak it has a maw of razor sharp teeth capable of rapidly devouring any prey. Though somewhat clumsy in the air, it is nevertheless an excellent hunter. It hunts by diving on its prey, using its mass and its razor sharp talons and teeth to slam into its prey and eat it right there on the ground. Nowadays, it is easily shot out of the air by modern weapons and has almost been driven to extinction despite its own prolific breeding tempo as its clifftop nests are plundered. Our major interest is the effect it had in shaping the evolotionary paths of the other creatures on Wrixom. No land-bound creature that relied on speed could hope to survive against this aerial scourge on the open plains and hence Wrixom has no antelope or equivalents. All its herbivores rely on bulk and natural weaponry to protect themselves.
Epin - Possibly the dumbest animal ever to walk the surface of any planet. Ever. Also one of the strangest. It is a pony-sized six-legged mammalian creature that positively infests the vast open grass plains. It lays eggs in large clutches at a time, buried in shallow nests in the ground and breeds ferociously, if stupidly. On any other planet they would be considered a plague. On Wrixom, they are considered snacks. Currently, this is the only creature actively domesticated simply because they require no domestication. They are slow and their only defences are the short spines protruding from the fur on their back which provides at least a modicum of protection against diving Reapers, but have no offensive use. The secret to their success is their relatively simple anatomy which allows rapid growth. Unfortunately this also means that they are the carnivore's equivalent of junk food, easy to catch but not having all the required nutrients for a growing predator.
More to come later. The Wrix fear none of these creatures, of course, and have hunted many to extinction over the past years.
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4 December 2016
The Henry Hudson arrives at First Stop and loads up HN-31 and her team of geologists. After nearly six months with nothing to do, they were extremely grateful for the chance to continue their work. Their next stop would be the moon Epsilon had so recently began mining operations on, planet five moon six, hereafter known as Rube.
2 January 2016
HN-31's geology team is dropped off on Rube. Survey operations begin immediately as HN grumbles about the thick, bulky environmental suits.
What is really happening:
Hudson dropped the geology team off on Rube. Short update today, I hit a patch of turbulence (interrupts) and didn't feel like pushing through. In somewhat related news, I have recently discovered that even if you do a conventional start, any NPR's start with normal TN tech. This kinda sucks and I suspect the poor little Wrix are doomed before they have even started. I guess this will be a David vs. the Empire kind of situation.
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Do not despair. In each of my conventional starts I lost interest long before annihilation. The NPR's may out-tech you but they seem to lack the desire/ability to rapidly expand.
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In the worst case you can SM in super-ships to clean out an npr attack fleet, and/or delete any systems you find these guys in, or any jump point they come thruogh. Ideally you could just clean them out entirely if you had the designer password or somesuch.
For now, I would turn NPR discovery chance to 0% until you leave your system, to minimize the potential insane runaway NPR exploration slowdown. This will also be a problem if you have invaders turned out.
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No, invaders are off, thank goodness. And I think I will turn NPR discovery off. At least until I leave my system. Then I'm gonna turn them up, nothing like some tasty snacks to help an empire build.
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Another post made me think of this, would it be an idea to space-time-bubble Wrixom's system? This way the NPR's won't explore or grow until you're ready to leave the system, as I understand it.
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I have done three games with conventional start. NPRs never were a problem, but i had space to expand before meeting them. In case they are close jump points can be guarded with low tech ships. NPRs will be a problem if they totally block your way out of the Wrix system.
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I have done three games with conventional start. NPRs never were a problem, but i had space to expand before meeting them. In case they are close jump points can be guarded with low tech ships. NPRs will be a problem if they totally block your way out of the Wrix system.
I think the main problem is that he started with one research lab. Thus progress is very slow and even though the AI sort of fails at economy, it's still likely to be racing ahead.
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I failed to notice that :-[
Things are a lot harder then, but i think still doable if NPRs stay away for some time.
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PDC's can also be powerful defensive units, so it might be worth RPing a reason to build some. Actually, one of the hives building a huge fortified missile bunker capable of shooting ships out of orbit and the swarm doing a similar thing in response might actually be quite interesting RP-wise. It might also give the swarm some serious bargaining power after they become irrelevant since such an installation could be staffed by a relatively small number of wrix (perhaps infertiles) and thus negate the problem of the drones being loyal to a particular hive.
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I actually feel that due to the nature of the Wrix civilization, it would not be cheating of me to SM a certain number of "Hive" PDC's should it become necessary, with some predetermined fit. Each would represent an actual 'Hive' with its various defensive weapons. More PDC's could certainly be interesting rp-wise, yes, but at the moment I'm just trying to get my industrial and scientific backbone up. I currently only have like 2400 construction points per year (2425 to be exact, i think) and even just expanding that will be really slow since I can only produce 20 factories a year. To make matters worse, I am likely facing an impending mineral crisis (no crisis yet, but its coming) soon and I have no automines. Well, besides the 3 I SM'd in to simulate Omega Hive. I will have to start preparing for it soon, getting mines off world to other mineral rich planets, moons and asteroids.
Game-wise, my biggest problem is that the entire reason for the Swarm's formation is the sun's cooling thing making the Wrix evacuate their homeworld. Now, I've left myself some wiggle room there, I know, including whether or not it is cyclical, but anything I do at the moment that isn't in line with getting as many Wrix off world as soon as possible is going to be contrary to my own RP. That is a bit of a problem when I need to be focusing on my general economy to remain competitive within the game.
Yet, all is not lost. Not by a long shot. I have a few ideas and I am very definitely not dead. Just carefully considering my path forward so that I can continue providing a good story without completely compromising my in-game competitiveness or relying too much on RP-inspired *SM CHEATING* for the sake of the story. I will post a continuation sometime soon, but I am just currently busy working a few things out and I want to hold on the ability to alter some of the things to make them fit together better.
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Maybe the swarm can conclude that they don't have the indistrial might o rechnology to be able to evacuate the planet as of now and can look to terraforming to slow down the effects of the sun on their planet and buy them the time to accelerate their industry and tech.
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14 January 2017:
No matter how hard she tried, Lambda simply couldn't get any more information about the alien ruins found on First Stop. She knew they had found somewhat intact TN structures from her eavesdropping on Swarm Command's inner workings, but nowhere could she get a good look at the report US had somehow obtained from Gamma.
That was another thing that irked her immensely. How had US-93, or Delta as she had been known then, managed to compromise Gamma's most secure computer resources. For goodness sakes, they weren't even connected to the comms network! The only way it was possible was that she had somehow managed to sneak a spy into Gamma Hive, as unlikely as that my seem. Drones can identify drones of their own hive by smell and nobody had yet managed to consistently fool anyone. No matter how much smell you added, it was simply impossible to remove a drone's natural scent.
Lambda shook her head and leaned back in her chair, sighing. So many questions and so few answers!
Elsewhere, almost on the other side of the planet, the new Delta sighed with relief. The first of her own progeny of drones were now reaching maturity and she had finally begun replacing her bodyguard with fresh hatchlings. For months she had been having nightmares about the old Delta returning and reclaiming her hive and no matter how she searched, there had been no clue as to where she had gone. A few times she had even woken up in a cold sweat as the drones swarmed her in her dreams, bloodlust in their eyes.
The truth was, Delta wasn't really sure how the drones would react if the old Delta returned. True, they had switched loyalty to her, but such a conflict of loyalties had never occured before. The drones could carry out every order she gives them now, only to turn against her the moment their real mother turned up.
It would take more than a year before she could consider her position 'safe' with more than half the drones in the hive her own offspring, but at least she could now fight back. And every day that passed would cement her control over Delta Hive just a little more.
Two things she was sure of. One, if the old Delta ever wanted to come back, she would not hesitate a moment to attempt to kill Delta and retake her old hive. And two, she had left herself some backdoor to control of the hive in case she ever did want to come back. Delta already had the entire hive sweeped for explosive and/or monitoring devices (she found two listening devices and a hidden camera, all from other hives and none located anywhere sensitive) and moved her chambers, just in case. With her own offspring taking over her personal guard, that was another potential vulnerability plugged.
Still, Delta would feel a lot better if only she could discover what had happened to the old Delta.
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27 January 2017
The Henry Hudson arrives back at Wrixom and is turned over to crews from Gamma Hive without ceremony. IM is in a bad mood all day.
28 January 2017
Gamma starts an overhaul of the Hudson.
29 January 2017
The Francis Drake arrives at First Stop, and turns to come back almost immediately, landing only briefly. Speculation runs rampant at Swarm Command, but Delta's source is quiet.
31 January 2017
"As you all know, First Stop has been designated as my responsibility" Gamma began. All the queens were virtually assembled through their comms links into Swarm Command. The host of faces on the screens all had scowls of various kinds. For once, IM was not in the pilot's seat for a conference - that honour belonged firmly to Gamma this time. "In a spirit of cooperation, I feel it is now time to inform the Swarm that there have been certain findings on the planet that must be shared with all."
"What kind of findings?" Rho asked suspiciously when none of the other, larger hives or IM commented.
"The alien kind. We have discovered a collection of ruined structures that could not possibly be of natural origin" Gamma said.
Intakes of breath could be heard from a number of hives, especially the smaller ones. Most of the bigger ones had found this out already, one way or another.
"You mean there is advanced life on other planets? On First Stop?" Rho asked again.
"No, there WAS advanced life on First Stop. Sentient life, even. But it appears to have disappeared a long time ago. The planet remains a perfect site for our first offworld colony."
"Just how 'sentient' are we talking here? Bashing rocks together to make fire sentient, or steel and gunpowder sentient?" Delta asked carefully. She had been only marginally interested in the whole situation until now.
"Spaceflight sentient."
"Spaceflight sentient?" Kappa exclaimed. Her sources hadn't revealed the extent of the alien findings and she had believed until now that it was only of historical interest. "Why weren't we informed of this earlier?"
Many of the other Queens echoed her sentiment, some more aggressively than others. Gamma indicated that it was a find of Gamma Hive, had nothing to do with any of the other Hives and that they could piss off. Eventually, a Queen asked whether Hive Command had been aware of this.
IM had been dreading that question, but had at least prepared what US assured her was a plausable - and actually quite truthful - answer. "Yes, Swarm Command became aware of the existence of the ruins shortly after they were discovered. However, while we perhaps did not totally agree with Gamma's position that it was an internal matter, we felt that the risk of war on Wrixom by covetous Queens was too great to accept. Instead, we fought a limited war on First Stop itself and sent a team of experts to investigate the ruins to insure that the Swarm would be adequately represented should something extraordinary be found."
"And you lost" Gamma grunted.
"I am not sure I like you keeping secrets from the Swarm, IM" Kappa stated, carefully gauging her support among the other Queens.
IM immediately went on the defensive. "It is Swarm Command's duty to both make sure the Swarm is informed when necessary and keep certain things secret. Due to my position, I must know many things that hives do not necessarily want their neighbours to know, especially regarding industry and technology. Do you want me to reveal all of that as well?"
A chorus of no's from the other Queens settled the matter. If there was one thing queens liked more than finding out another's secrets, it was keeping their own.
"I do have a question," IM asked, "as part of our agreement, Gamma let our team continue their work on the ruins, but we haven't heard from them in a while. How goes their progress?"
"Slow" Gamma responded. "I am considering replacing them with a more qualified group of my own."
"Then you will send them home?" IM asked.
"I'll let you know when I've made the decision."
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Quick update, the little computer gremlin has struck and my computer has gone kablooey. Well, not kablooey but certainly phzzzzzt. Essentially, what I'm trying to say is that I am posting this from my brother's computer not because I want to, but because I have to. Have no fear, though, I do not believe anything is lost and it is time to upgrade anyhow. All this means is that until I do get around to that, I doubt there will be a lot of updating happening. So sit tight and enjoy the numerous other excellent stories on this site until systems are back online.
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Solar flare caused EM damage to planetary electrical systems. The planet went dark for now...
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Update: Turns out the damage was more severe than I believed at first. My hard drive is a total write-off, but I am getting a new one.
That also means I've lost my most recent aurora Wrix game. After checking our numerous other computers in the house, the latest version I could find was a 2011 save, which is quite a ways back. I was just about to call the game lost when I remembered my flashdrive. It turns out I had, at some point in the recent past, copied my game to my flash to transfer to my laptop, then never bothered putting it on the laptop itself. So, my newest version is somewhere in November 2014 which is basically just before I started all the business with First Stop and the transports.
I will do a combination of trying to follow my own story and fixing my mistakes, but I'm going to need some time to run the game back to where I was.
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I do believe mechanical failure is the doom of far more galactic empires than any Swam could ever hope to destroy.
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Update: Turns out the damage was more severe than I believed at first. My hard drive is a total write-off, but I am getting a new one.
That also means I've lost my most recent aurora Wrix game. After checking our numerous other computers in the house, the latest version I could find was a 2011 save, which is quite a ways back. I was just about to call the game lost when I remembered my flashdrive. It turns out I had, at some point in the recent past, copied my game to my flash to transfer to my laptop, then never bothered putting it on the laptop itself. So, my newest version is somewhere in November 2014 which is basically just before I started all the business with First Stop and the transports.
I will do a combination of trying to follow my own story and fixing my mistakes, but I'm going to need some time to run the game back to where I was.
Well looking forward to the point where you can continue the story...
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Okay, I've gotten my game back to where it was before, January 27th 2017. Unfortunately, a few things have changed, as you will discover. Hopefully I can make the transition plausible.
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28 January 2017
Slowly, painfully, IM struggled to her feet. The last thing she remembered was reviewing some reports on the computer console in her office when the whole thing just exploded...
"What the hell just happened?" she mumbled to herself.
The lights were off. Not even the emergency lights were on, which, technically, were a complete impossibility. Standard and emergency lighting were on seperate grids, seperate generators, seperate everything! The odds against both failing at once were astronomical. Yet even with her extremely acute low-light vision, she could barely make out her hand in front of her face.
She could smell smoke as well, but it was somewhat difficult to pinpoint the exact source. Her computer? Probably. The light fixtures? Maybe.
"IM? IM, are you there?" a voice echoed up the corridor.
"I'm here. And alive" she called back. "Who is that?"
She heard the sound of feet coming closer and a light source appeared somewhere in the outside.
"Rescue party! Don't worry, IM, we're coming."
Finally, the light rounded the corner and she caught a glimpse of a few drones before she had to shield her eyes from the glare.
"Finally, we found y... Oh dear. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" IM snapped. "Just get the damn light out of my eyes!"
The light dimmed and several figures detached from the gloom to help, all the while staring at her as if they had seen a ghost.
"IM, your face..." one said.
She touched her right cheek with her palm and her hand came away slick with blood.
"Can you see anything?"
"Of course I can't bloody see anything if you stick your hand over my eye!"
"I meant out of your other eye."
"I had a look in the mirror, Doc, I know there is nothing there but blood and gore" IM cut back.
"Of course, of course, I had to check. There doesn't seem to be any fresh bleeding though, but that could be because it cauterized the wound..."
"What? What cauterized the wound?"
"Well, I suspect you got hit in the eye by an arc of electricity from your computer. It appears as if it superheated the fluid inside the eye, basically making it explode. On the other hand, the eye also absorbed all the energy that would otherwise have been running around in your brain. You are really lucky to be alive."
"Really? Then why don't I feel that way? Now where are the damn painkillers!?"
"Now can somebody tell me what the hell happened? And stop staring at my bloody face!" IM shouted. She and her inner circle were seated under a tree outside Swarm Command. Strange, dim lights were dancing across the sky.
"I really think you should get that checked out" PC suggested. "It looks rather serious. I mean, your eye..."
"Already had it checked out. Doctor said the eye is lost regardless and the bleeding has stopped. I'll get it properly cleaned and bandaged later."
US shrugged. "As far as I have been able to gather, we got hit by a massive solar storm. Blew out almost every electrical grid on the planet."
"Solar Storm? Like a solar flare?" IM interrupted.
"Sort of. It is technically called a Coronal Mass Ejection and it basically means that Wrixom got hit by a metric smegton of radiation and ionized particles. They reacted with the planets magnetic field and inducted a few gigavolt in everything capable of holding a charge. You should have seen the sky, it was lit up like a psychotropic spotlight."
A few moments of silence descended over the gathered group.
"We thought you were dead, IM. When you didn't evacuate with the rest of us..." PC began, but IM waved her sentiments off.
"Just give me the condensed version. What did we lose?"
US fished out a small - and surprisingly still functional - data console. "Let's see. We are still getting reports in, but it looks like we will be able to get the power grid back online within a few days. Drones are on it already. Academy only has minor damage, shouldn't impede operations... Our industrial facilities are fine, their built in safeties triggered... Ah, our research facilities. They had some rather sensitive equipment plugged in. All fried now, I'm afraid, and secondary fires caused quite a bit of damage. All in all, should take about six months to get everything back to fully operational. 'Till then they will be operating at diminished capacity. In addition, some files were lost, setting us back a bit on our research."
"Dammit. Any way we could have seen this coming?" IM asked.
"I think that was my fault" PC admitted. "When Epsilon's Myrkul-B went dark I should have..."
"Wait" IM interrupted, "were our ships affected as well?"
"Erm... yeah. The Drake and the Hudson had sufficient shielding and suffered only a few minor system failures, but the Myrkuls weren't so lucky. They had minimal shielding and are now little more than irradiated, lifeless hulks tumbling through space. All of them were either in orbit around Wrixom or caught between the sun and us. The commercial shipyard also suffered some minor electrical damage, though the Gamma Yards are fine. They were better shielded."
A horrible thought popped into IM's head. "What about the offworld colonies?"
"First Stop should be fine," US replied, "the colony was on the dark side of the planet when it hit. We've already picked up some transmissions from there. Rube on the other hand... we think it caught the edge of the storm. It's dead quiet."
IM jumped up. "As soon as we can make contact with either Gamma or the two starships, I want them sent out to Rube. We need to know what's going on there."
OOC:
So here is the skinny. Because I lost about two years of progress, which I now replayed, I did things a bit different. For one, I never bothered to construct the Myrkuls. They were useless anyway. Also, I decided to construct ten factories before starting on my commercial shipyard and the subsequent research facilities. This has put me behind a little on my research and lab construction, but nothing serious. I also forgot to start expanding the commercial shipyard the moment it was completed, which means it is now behind as well. Oh well.
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30 January 2017
"Main systems are online. No power fluctuations yet."
"Good, now start bringing up our other systems, one at a time. Start with defence. Stop the moment you see anything wonky."
US was sitting in what she usually considered 'IM's seat' in front of the comms display. The only difference was that this time the monitors were linked to mainenance stations all across Swarm Hive. IM had left her in charge of bringing their infrastructure back online while she received medical treatment.
"Defence systems powered up. Little bit of fluctuation, but nothing we can't patch up later" the drone reported from one of the consoles to her left.
"Good. The sooner our weapons are fully operational, the better I'll feel. You can't trust anybody these days" US mused. "Oh, hello, what's this?"
A small blinking icon had appeared on the screen attached to the chair. For a moment she considered calling over the drone who was working on getting their computer systems reinstalled, but then she noticed that she already had his full attention. He had positioned himself at his console in such a way that he could watch her out of the corner of his eye. Clearly, he was already aware of the somewhat suspicious icon and waiting to see how she would react without tipping off the other workers. Something was going on here, and US suspected she already knew who was behind it. The drone was from Lambda Hive.
After a few moments of careful thought, US shrugged and pressed the icon. There was no way an electronic file could hurt her physically and all their data had already been erased by the storm. She had nothing to lose.
A soft message began playing through the speakers built into the head of the chair, inaudable to the drones at the consoles.
"Hello US. Or should I say, Your Majesty?"
US froze. It was the voice of Lambda herself speaking.
"Don't respond. This is a pre-recorded message, sent because we have a rather narrow window of oppertunity to speak frankly to one another. The solar storm, while causing significant damage, also shorted out every bug in Swarm Hive, as well as wiping the memory banks of all the nasty spying viruses that infested your computer systems. For a little while at least, we have a chance to chat unobserved. If this interests you, simply initiate contact with me at my hive from somewhere private. Of course, this offer expires as soon as my drone's shift is over. I cannot guarantee the integrity of your communications systems after that. If you do not wish to speak, I will find others to speak to. About all sorts of things. Like identity. Goodbye Delta."
If Wrix were able to sweat, US would have been sitting in a cold puddle.
US carefully closed and locked the doors behind her. The computers in the Bunker had not been functional the last time she had checked, but she doubted that Lambda would have sent her the message with no way to communicate. Sure enough, one of the computers booted up successfully and connected to the hive network.
She tapped in the command to establish a private comms link to Lambda Hive, hoping that what Lambda had said about the listening devices was correct. There was an immediate response.
"You reacted quickly" Lambda remarked as her face appeared on the screen. "I was afraid you were going to leave me waiting for an hour or two out of spite."
"What do you want from me?" US hissed.
"Tsk, tsk, Delta. What makes you think I want anything from you?"
"How about the blackmail? And call me US-93 dammit. I don't trust that drone of yours at the computers to keep this line secure."
"The blackmail was merely to make sure you keep quiet" Lambda said. "And I trust him implicitly. There was a very good reason I sent my best computer technician to Swarm Hive."
"You have ten seconds to tell me what you want before I cut this connection and disappear."
"Ah, now what I want, that is something else entirely. I want to congratulate you on your brilliant move."
US hesitated. "Excuse me?"
"Indeed. At first I thought it was stupid, leaving your hive to become some lackey in a hive that wields no real power. Then I realized that while Swarm Hive may have no power of its own, it had a pretty significant say in how the rest of us controlled our own power. In the end, I was rather jealous that I hadn't thought of it first. After all, ruling a hive is somewhat small-fry compared to ruling an entire planet, don't you agree?"
"I don't know what you are talking about" US replied. "All I do is coordinate our industry."
"Oh please, cut the modesty. I've been watching you too close for too long for that to work. You have IM in the palm of your hand. Sure she can be a little erratic at times, but generally you can make her do almost whatever you like. I respect that."
"It's not that simple. IM is focused on the goal. She's just a little narrow minded on how to achieve that goal. All I've done is broadened her vision a little by showing how effective deceit can be."
"Regardless, I want in."
US stared at the screen in awe. "THAT's what you want? You want to join up? How the hell am I supposed to sneak you into Swarm Hive, do you have any idea how difficult it was for me to worm my way in here?"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Lambda replied. "I worked hard to get my hive where it is and I have no plans to leave it. Your little spat with Gamma over First Stop has highlighted a number of weaknesses in your organization."
"Like what?"
"Like a shortage of trustworthy drones. Like uncompromised communications and computer services. Like the ability to do ANYTHING without forty hives breathing down your neck. You need me, if only for a force on the outside."
"Almost every hive on the planet has attempted to covertly approach IM to become a 'secret ally' of Swarm Hive. She rebuffed them all. What makes you think you will be any different?" US asked.
Lambda began counting off on her claws. "Firstly, that mentality has already bitten you in the arse with the First Stop fiasco. Secondly, I already know all your juicy little secrets from my expansive intelligence network. Thirdly, I will have you to recommend me. I will have you to recommend me, RIGHT?"
US slumped with her arms on the console. "Fine. What do you want?"
"Not that much. I will help you with intelligence and military assets and I would appreciate it if you consult me every once in a while. Not all the time, most of your decisions are pretty mundane, just for the big things. In exchange, I might ask for a few favours every now and again. Nothing big, it is in my best interest to keep our business under the radar of the other hives."
"Very well, Lambda, but I don't like this. Not one bit. And I can't guarantee that IM will go for this deal. In the end, she is the boss."
"You better make sure she goes for it. For your sake."
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1 February 2017
"We have no other choice" RZ stated emphatically. "If we can't get the air scrubbers operational, we are all going to die before help ever gets anywhere close."
The mining complex on Rube was now a dark, frozen, airless wasteland. All the machines that had once toiled to dig through the rock lay silent, their circuits long since blown by the solar storm. Rube might only have caught an edge of the storm, but it's magnetic field was significantly weaker than that of Wrixom.
The group of drones around her huddled close for warmth. They were the last of the garrison from Epsilon and were lucky that the surface temperature of Rube 'only' dropped to around -20 degrees at night. Despite having no power, they had managed to cling to life, if only barely. Now, however, the air was starting to grow thin.
"We've already checked everywhere" one of the drones answered. "We just don't have the parts to repair the generator or even the circuits of the scrubbers."
"We've checked everywhere in THIS complex," RZ corrected it, "but there are two more out there we haven't checked out. For all we know there could even be survivors out there."
Several of the drones shifted around nervously. This was where the problem lay. While it was true that there were two other mining complexes out there, they were several miles away and the garrison only had a few long duration spacesuits and no functioning vehicles. They would be hoofing it over treacherous and freezing terrain in low gravity both ways, one of them carrying supplies. Nobody was looking forward that that job.
"Look, its either go or die. Which do you want to do?"
A sudden faint clanging echoed three times through the corridors.
"What the hell was that?" she asked. The only noise on Rube was Wrix-made. Wrix... or something else...
Nobody had moved when the second series of clangs echoed through the corridors. This time, everyone jumped to their feet at once.
"Everyone arm yourselves! Let's find where this noise is coming from!" RZ barked.
The noise was eventually, and perhaps unsurprisingly, tracked to the airlock. The cameras to the outside had been blown by the surge, but through the small glass porthole in the airlock doors, RZ could make out a few huge, bulky spacesuits with what seemed to be a vehicle of some kind in the background.
"Who the hell is that?" she wondered aloud.
"No idea" one of the other drones replied. "Perhaps survivors from one of the other complexes?"
"The other complexes were unmanned, you know that as well as I do! Besides, do those suits look like standard issue to you?" she barked back.
"Perhaps we should let them in and ask?" another drone suggested.
When nobody could think of a reason not to, the motion carried and RZ quickly took several drones to go suit up. She sent several others to find the equipment to manually operate the airlock compartment as all the automatic controls had been completely blown.
Eventually, six armed Wrix, among them RZ, wearing slim military spacesuits were in position in the airlock, their guns trained on the entrance as the doors behind them slowly ground closed and manually powered pumps started evacuating as much air as possible from the chamber. They were low on oxygen as it was.
When the big outer doors finally began sliding open, bulky suits carefully began making their way inside.
"Thank you for finally opening the front door for us. Took your sweet bloody time" a sarcastic voice piped up from RZ's built in suit radio. She had completely forgotten she even had one since they couldn't even penetrate the complex's outer hull.
"Identify yourself!" RZ demanded, her weapon carefully trained on the lead bulky suit.
"Put those things away before you hurt yourself" the voice suggested over the radio. "These suits are designed to hand over a hundred atmospheres of pressure. Those little pop guns of yours aren't even going to make a dent."
"Tell me who you are or I go fetch something bigger" RZ retorted.
"Fine," the voice sighed, "I'm HN-31 and this is my geology team. I assume we have finally reached the Rube Garrison?"
"You assume correctly. Where, if I may ask, have you come from?"
There was a few moments silence on the other end. The large vehicle from outside started to slowly ease its way into the airlock.
"From the frozen frakking wastes! Where the hell else, you nimrod?"
"Why is it that all your equipment is still fully functional while all stuff more complex than a gas-powered lamp have been reduced to fried paper weights?" RZ asked HN as she led her down to the power generator.
"Because your equipment is designed for use on Rube while ours is designed for use on the surface of the bloody sun. Now stop talking and show me this damage that your lot of incompetents have been unable to fix."
HN was in a foul mood. She had spent four days walking in her stuffy suit because her idiot navigator had originally taken them to the wrong complex. Now, her dreams of warmth and rest were shattered by the fact that these incompetents in command of the garrison had not been able to get any power up in all this time.
"We would have been able to fix it if we only had the spares. Unfortunately, whoever had designed this place had neglected to foresee everything getting fried at once, including several of our spares."
HN just grumbled something unintelligible.
"Here we are. Like I said, completely fried."
RZ shone her torch on one of the large generators and immediately it was clear that it was beyond repair. The smell of burnt electronics, having nowhere to go, still hung in the air.
"Seems about right" the drone HN had ordered along commented. "Pretty much as expected. What about the emergency generators?"
RZ shrugged. "Drones I sent to check told me it looked no better."
"I find that rather hard to believe" the drone commented again. "The emergency generators are designed for superior robustness with multiple redundancies. It is physically impossible for them to be in the same condition as the regular generators unless that condition is 'smoking crater'."
RZ lead the small group through several corridors, once stopping to consult a map, before stopping in front of another door.
"Through here" was all she said.
The other drone slipped inside with a torch and immediately the sound of panels being removed could be heard.
"Who is that anyway?" RZ asked.
"That is our chief technician" HN answered. "He's kept our geology expedition alive and functioning for months. Trust me, if this thing is fixable, he'll do it."
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It's been a while since any one commented in this thread. On a forum it is kind of difficult to gauge reader response sometimes but at least for me: I come to the Aurora forums every morning eagerly watching for your thread to show up on the 'unread since last visit' list. Each morning I sit down with my fresh cup of coffee and enjoy your interpretations of your little bugs and how you handle fictionalizing the 'little bugs' of Aurora itself into your story. Please, keep up the great work.
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I agree. Really enjoy this 8)
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Everyday i am checking the forum and a new post in this thread is one of the things i hope to see. Really enjoy Wrix stories :)
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Yay, was wondering whether my fans were losing interest. If one does not write for one's fans, what left is there to write for? ;D
Last while has been a little slow due to a semester test which is now finished (went well, I think). This week is vacation so hopefully I can get a few updates out while it lasts.
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2 February 2017
"No."
"But IM..."
"I said no."
"Why? At least give me a logical reason we are declining the offer!" US pleaded. For several days IM had refused to even discuss Lambda's offer. It didn't help that they could only talk down in the bunker as they were now since US had no doubt most, if not all, of the fried electronic listening devices had now been replaced.
"Fine! You want a reason? How about the fact that Swarm Command holds NO real power of its own? That we are COMPLETELY dependant on the hives and playing favourites is a good way to get ourselves killed?"
US put her head down on the large central table they were sitting at. "So is not gathering allies!"
"Is that what you call it? No" IM replied.
"IM! Think carefully. Suppose the Swarm was to dissolve this second, which of the hives would have reason to dislike us?"
IM just stared grimly at her.
"Fine. Kappa feels you stole the Swarm from her so there is no love lost there. Gamma thinks you are holding her back. The Epsilon Coalition chafes under the restrictions you posed on them regarding arms and ship construction" US listed their enemies.
"If any of them had their way, they would doom us all through inaction, greed or lust for power."
"I'm not saying you do not have a good reason for having angered them. What I'm saying," US continued, "is that if you reject this offer from Lambda that she had clearly put a lot of effort into preventing the other Hives from finding out about, then she might not be too pleased with you."
"If I already have so many enemies, why would one more make a difference?"
"Because Lambda itself is a goodly sized hive. In addition Beta, the southern powerhouse, is on good terms with Lambda so odds are she wouldn't like us either. Then, if Lambda makes it public that I am not an infertile but actually the ex-Hive Queen of Delta Hive, every other hive will treat you with suspicion at best and outright hostility at worst, especially Delta."
"US, let me explain something to you. You haven't played this game as long as I have and none of that matters as long as the balance of power..."
"I have been playing this game FAR longer than you have!" US shouted, jumping to her feet. "I clawed my way to power when you were still moping around Lambda's tunnels, playing bookkeeper! I was dragging a backwards hive kicking and screaming onto the forefront of the political stage while you were still trying to figure out which side of a military division you give orders to! Let me tell you about your bloody balance of power! A balance exists only as long as it has to, as long as none of the players have any other alternative. The first shakeup or upset can bring the whole mess tumbling down, along with you!"
She took a deep breath before continuing, this time in a more reasonable tone of voice. "Why does the Swarm exist? For one reason and one reason only. To get the Wrix off our doomed home that is freezing a little bit more every second and out among the stars where it is safe and warm. What do you think is going to happen when we achieve that? What do you think is going to happen to you when we finally reach our goal?"
"I'll tell you what will happen" US continued before IM could gather her thoughts. "Your 'balance of power' will evaporate like mist in the morning sun and about six of the most powerful hives on the planet will realize that - finally - there is nothing preventing them from removing the most annoying thorn in their side that they had ever had. It will become a competition between them to see who gets your corpse first. The only way you will survive that coming storm is to be out of reach when the smeg finally hits the fan. Right now we can bargain from a position of strength to obtain allies but that won't always be the case. Lambda has made us an extremely generous and extremely covert offer. It will not get better than this, so take this opportunity while it is there."
There were a few moments of shocked silence in the Bunker, punctuated by the hum of the computer consoles along the one wall.
Just as IM was about to say something, however, a loud banging came from the door and it slid open. A drone stuck his head through.
"I'm so sorry for the interruption, but, IM, you said you wanted to know the moment we heard anything from Rube. Well, we just picked up a signal."
The drone ducked back out and IM jumped up to run after. US grabbed her arm as she moved past, however.
"We need a decision now. It could go away at any time."
"Fine, fine" IM said. "I still think we are making a mistake but your arguments are persuasive. Just do it."
As IM rushed out, US slumped into her chair and breathed a sigh of relief. If this had gone badly... well, her bags had already been packed, so to speak.
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If you want a gauge on your readership just take note of the number of thread views you get each day. It might be fair to assume only half of the new hits when you post new content are actual readers.
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I just wanted to add my voice to the other complementary posts.
I just found this thread a couple of days ago. I am now caught up. Now I have to wait like everyone else for your next post. <sigh>
At first, I thought that I was going to see the creation of a galactic menace. However, these guys need to build the pieces of their act from scratch before they can even hope to get it put together. It is fun to watch.
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I've not been playing a huge amount recently so I haven't been on the forums much, but I'm still enjoying reading this one.
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18 February 2017
To celebrate the Swarm getting back on its feet and things (sortof) returning to normal, here is a summary of the annual status report published by Swarm Hive for distribution to all the hives. Note that some standardization is used.
Ships
2 x Hecate Class Courier Vessels (Sir Francis Drake and the Henry Hudson)
Hudson is orbiting Wrixom, the Drake is on its way towards Rube, the sixth moon of the fifth planet, on a rescue mission.
Wrixom
Military Academy: Level 2
DSTS: Level 1 (250)
Shipyards/Slipways | 2/3
Maintenance Facilities | 5
Construction Factories | 204
Fuel Refineries | 9
Mines | 181
Research Labs | 2
GFTF | 1
Fuel Available: 4 351 226
Maintenance Supplies: 2000
Pop: 505.68m
Shipyards
Gamma Yards | 2 slips @ 5000ton capacity
Swarm Yards (civilian) | 1 slip @ 10000ton capacity
Research into nuclear thermal engines is estimated to complete on 28 February 2019 (in two years).
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13 March 2017
The last of the repairs to the research facilities are completed and they are now operating at full capacity again. All damage from the solar storm has now been repaired. All energy is once again turned to the expansion of the research complexes.
A revised estimate for the completion of the nuclear thermal engine research is now in July 2018.
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16 March 2017
HN crawled into one of the sleeping chambers on board the Sir Francis Drake, vastly relieved to be breathing something other than the stale air she had gotten used to. Even better, the atmosphere on the ship was wonderfully toasty after the long, icy nights back on Rube.
"If I ever go back to that hell hole, it will be in a coffin" she mumbled to herself.
The Sir Frances Drake had arrived in orbit less than four hours ago and finally she was done with that frigid nightmare.
She nearly jumped when the wall mounted communications screen flickered to life.
"Are you HN-31, formerly of Gamma Hive?" the young queen whose face had appeared asked. HN had to suppress a moment of envy. She had now spent several years out here on the fringes, far from the comforts of Wrixom, and it showed. Her skin was weathered and numerous scars showed the results of the inevitable accidents in this harsh environment.
"Could be. Who's asking?"
"I am PX-74-CDN, also from Gamma Hive, perhaps you remember me? No matter, I'll get to the point since I can see you are tired. Gamma has need of you for a special project" the young queen rattled off.
"I'm not interested. I've had enough of frozen rocks with no oxygen. I'm going back to Wrixom for some rest and relaxation" HN replied.
"No frozen rocks, this is on First Stop."
HN did the Wrix equivalent of raising an eyebrow. "What could she possibly want me to do on First Stop? I'm a surveyor and First Stop is fully surveyed. By me, no less."
PX paused, as if unsure how to continue. In the end, she opted for the direct approach.
"You screwed up."
"Excuse me?" HN replied, taking a step closer to the monitor. If the off button had been clearly marked, HN would probably have cut the connection right there.
"Through no fault of your own, I must hasten to add, and in doing so, you have provided Gamma Hive a valuable opportunity. You see, I am currently on First Stop as Gamma sent me here to double check all your results, perhaps not trusting you to give her the full picture."
HN tried pressing a few of the unmarked buttons around the screen, trying to find the one that switched the thing off. She wasn't in the mood for political bullsmeg. She had left that sort of thing behind when she had joined Swarm Command.
But PX continued talking, seemingly oblivious. "Well, I was going over the cores you extracted from the test drills and discovered a rather unusual looking quartz formation near the bottom and this was strange, as your notes on the core neglected to mention this quartz layer."
HN rolled her eyes. "Look, newbie, it's quartz. It's worthless. Nobody cares. I was out looking for TN minerals, not a few crappy crystals. So what if I missed it, or more likely just neglected to add it in my report?"
"Yes, that is what I thought as well, at first but on a hunch, however, I checked the report of your sonic scan of the same area. It didn't contain any quartz either."
HN had tried every button but one, but her hand stopped mid motion on the way to the last. "At all?"
"Indeed. Now that I knew what to look for, I checked all your other cores and scans and almost no quartz was predicted anywhere, yet I found it in over ten percent of your core samples. Close to or at the bottom every time."HN sat down, her mind racing. "That was... sloppy of me. True, I was more concerned with finding TN minerals, but anything I miss on the scans reflects badly on me."
"Like I said, it wasn't your fault as I rescanned the exact area at the bottom of one of the shafts where you had extracted a quartz containing core and even though I knew exactly where to look and what to look for, I couldn't find any quartz, despite the fact I moved the equipment four times to see if I could find a better angle from elsewhere" PX rattled off without pausing for breath. It seemed as if she had never discovered the full stop.
"That is most strange. Do a chemical analysis..."
"Already in the cooker" PX replied. "I'm pretty sure I know what we are going to find as I did another test. I buried a bit of the quartz no more than a few metres down and tried to use the sounding equipment to find it. Nothing."
"Nothing? How is that possible? Is it possible the equipment is faulty?" HN asked.
"Nope, everything is in perfect working condition. I suspect these quartz formations have some strange acoustic property that makes them invisible to our equipment and what's more, I think they make anything beneath them invisible as well."
"Hold on there, I think you are getting a bit ahead of yourself. I've never heard of any crystal doing that before, quartz or otherwise. Is this why you think I should drop everything and head over to First Stop?"
PX explained. "My hypothesis is not untested as I drilled a few new samples through these quartz layers and in one of the cores, I found Mercassium. Mercassium! First Stop wasn't supposed to have ANY Mercassium at all!"
HN lay back, considering the implications. If all her scans at locations containing these quartz crystals were meaningless, and the crystals had been found in ten percent of her test drills... Wow. That was a lot of potential space for more minerals.
"What do you need me for? You seem to have things in hand over there" she asked.
"As you well know, there is a vast difference between finding some minerals and determining the quantity and location of the deposits and you have far more experience in this area than I do" DP admitted.
"And I'm guessing Gamma doesn't want Command to discover that First Stop might actually be more valuable than they had believed?"
PX nodded.
HN sighed. Despite her best efforts, the tide of politics had run right over her.
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27 March 2017
When asked by Swarm Command why the Drake was stopping off at First Stop before heading home (as its course was now clearly visible), Gamma admitted that the Swarm Xenology team on First Stop had completed their exploration of the ruins there and she was bringing them home.
This immediately aroused suspicion among Swarm Command. The longer Gamma kept the team there, the longer she would have to exploit their advances. If she was sending them back, that means she had found something better...
Unfortunately, US's spy is quiet.
OOC
I'm moving the Drake to First Stop simply to make moving the geology team plausable. In reality, the team had been there for upwards of a year finding me cool minerals! 200kt Mercassium at 0.6 already is very sweet, especially since no other worthwhile deposits exist inside the system. All this is because, while in my previous game the team exhausted First Stop, they never did in this game! They must have already made 10 finds all in all (some of them not very good, like 100kt duranium when there is already 25mil) but the cool bit is they are still going strong. Hopefully I can develop First Stop as a massive mining centre, I just need a little bit better accessability on the duranium (currently at 0.4). A bit of corundium and avoiding a crunch should become far easier.
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2 May 2017
HN flicked off the sounding equipment and turned to the computer. It was still processing but had appeared on screen so far was very promising. A massive deposit of Mercassium measuring in the hundreds of kilotons.
"Well newbie, you were right" she admitted to PX, who was standing nearby.
"This was the last spot. Glad you took this oppertunity, even if it was for Gamma Hive?" PX asked.
"I'll be frank with you. I really don't care who I work for. As long as I get to explore, I'm happy."
There were a few moments of silence as they worked on processing the data.
"Will you teach me how to do what you do? I'm pretty sure I would have missed that second part of the deposit, you have a magical touch with this stuff; I have no idea how you missed the refractive quarts in the first place."
HN shrugged. "Even the best of us make mistakes. The important part is to learn from them. Now what do you think Gamma intends to do with this information?"
"Beats me, but if I were in her position I would start mining operations as soon as possible. You saw the estimations of Wrixom's deposits, right?"
"Yep. It's not gonna last for another fifty years, even if the sun does. Before long, I suspect Gamma is going to be a major supplier or Swarm minerals."
"That ought to give her some serious clout; you can't really say no to the hand that feeds you, right?"
OOC:
Bit of a while between posts. I blame X-Com, personally. Also, I had forgotten I had written up this bit some time before while we were having an internet blackout and I couldn't post. Regardless, its here now and I've managed to get a bit ahead because of it so expect more regular posts for the next few days.
PS: When this hits 10 pages I'm going to ask Erik for a subforum. Maybe I can split off the wildlife and biology things there then, as well as make a comments thread.
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20 May 2017
For two days the Swarm Xeno team had been confined to quarters on board the Drake after it arrived back on Wrixom. Two days while they were subjected to 'decontamination' which was a bad cover for being searched from nose to tail. All their equipment and even their bodies had now been fully searched three seperate times since they took off from First Stop. Gamma really wanted to make sure they weren't sneaking any alien artifacts offworld.
After the long time spent among the spacious ruins of First Stop, seemingly designed for species with substantially more personal space than the Wrix, the cramped quarters where really beginning to chafe YA-83-WME, the leader of the team. What was chafing her even more, though, was the secret she was carrying...
"Alright, you are free to go. I have been told that Swarm Hive sent a transport to collect you" the infertile in charge of the Sir Francis Drake announced. There was a collective murmur of relief from the team and they positively exploded out the door.
As promised, an air transport was waiting nearby, its rear hatch already standing open with two guards lounging next to it. After getting in, YA went straight to the pilot, one of the old guard Delta drones.
"Welcome on board. I trust we are ready to leave as soon as the equipment is loaded?" he asked.
"Screw the equipment. Most of it will have to be scrapped anyway, its so worn. Just get us to Swarm Hive ASAP" she replied.
"In a hurry to get home, are we?" the pilot asked with a grin.
"Listen to me, drone. If you knew what I know, you wouldn't want to spend a second longer within range of Gamma's air defence weapons than is necessary."
OOC:
The Drake arrived back from First Stop. Stay tuned for shocking secrets revealed!
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21 May 2017
US got out of the transport perched on the landing pad built into the top of Swarm Hive and headed stiffly inside and down to the bunker, her head throbbing. She hadn't slept much. Or particularly well.
On the way, she spotted PC heading in the same direction.
"Hey, what's the deal with this emergency meeting? I was rather busy with the lab expansions!" she shouted across the corridor.
PC waited until she had caught up before answering.
"No idea. Our Xeno team finally got released by Gamma this afternoon and YA had a private debriefing with IM at her insistence and she has been in a wierd mood since. Sorta distant."
"Really? I wonder what they could have found."
"Personally I think they found some kind of mind parasite and she wanted to infect IM in private. This meeting would be to infect the rest of us."
"Haha."
"Okay, what's so important that you have to interrupt my duties?" US asked as she and PC filed in. They had clearly arrived last as all the 'higher up' infertiles where already here. The last time the bunker had been this full was after PC had arrived. IM was sitting in her usual chair, but her face looked completely blank. She seemed exhausted.
"You are going to want to sit down for this" IM warned ominously.
There was a hush in the room as the two latecomers sat down and IM stood up.
"The Swarm... is finished" she stated. The silence became even more complete for the next few seconds, if that was possible. "We are no longer needed. The danger is essentially over. YA," IM nodded to the infertile sitting sullenly in the corner, "has told me of a find on First Stop that is going to be the salvation of the our species, and thus our end."
"I disabled it!" YA interjected. "You don't need to be so damn melodramatic! Unless they know exactly how..."
"Quiet!" IM commanded. "They found a device - a structure really - designed to alter the atmospheric composition of a planet by slowly introducing or draining atmospheric gasses."
A few of the brighter, or possibly more educated in the area of expertise, attendees understood and their eyes went wide, but the rest simply exchange puzzled glances.
"How...?" DH-51, who was in charge of the Academy, began, but an explanation was quickly given by PC, one of the brighter ones.
"If you can alter the atmospheric makeup, you can alter the temperature through control of the greenhouse effect. How fast exactly does it work?" PC asked.
"I couldn't determine exactly," YA replied, "but it is definately more than fast enough to counteract the cooling sun."
"What do you mean you disabled the device? Was it functional?" US asked.
"No, it wasn't quite functional, but in very good condition considering its age. I removed a component that appeared to be an integral part of the structure's operation and hid it as part of another seperate structure. The terraformer shouldn't work without it, and unless they know exactly what needs to be done, they shouldn't be able to get it operational even with their own team. The exact way the device must be installed is my secret."
"Does anybody else on your team know about this?" US asked again.
"Wait a second, are you seriously considering covering this discovery up?" IM interjected.
"Yes. Yes I am. IM, if the other hives find out about this, we are finished. The Swarm will be an obsolete idea and they will steamroll us into dirt paste. All our power and everything we have worked for will be for naught! We cannot afford to have this get out" US stated firmly.
"No! The Swarm was founded for the entire purpose of keeping the Wrix alive and surviving this natural catastrophe. Here we found a way for the Swarm to do exactly what it was intended to and assure our survival and here you want to hide it away? That makes no sense!"
"Why don't we keep it secret as our 'ace in the hole'?" PC suggested. "Sort of as a fallback. If we don't need it to evacuate everyone, great! But if we do, we can always reveal it later. Of course, that depends on how fast it works. The sooner we start the more time it will buy."
"Keeping things hidden is going to bite us in the arse, eventually" DH said. "Our best bet is to hide it only long enough until we can find a way to ship it back to Wrixom, then go public. Going public, however, does not necessarily mean packing our things. Someone has to be in control of this thing, right? Why can that not be us? No other hive will dare to try and take it from us for fear of damaging it and dooming everyone on the planet. No Swarm and no terraformer won't bode well for whoever is left."
An argument follows.
OOC
At this point, I'm going to do something unusual. I'm going to pause the action mid argument and start a poll to see what you guys think should be done. Anybody can vote, but don't metagame this. Pretend you are in the position of these queens.
-(IM) Reveal the terraformer and assure the survival of the Wrix. That is the first priority.
-(US) Keep it hidden, or possibly even destroy it. Must protect Swarm Hive's power base!
-(PC) Keep it hidden unless the need becomes acute. No sense in not using it if it turns out to be necessary.
-(DH) Reveal its existence only after it is under Swarm Hive's full control. It's all about leverage.
See the other thread for the poll: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/topic,5451.0.html
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And now... the continuation!
For close to an hour the argument went back and forth. Eventually, DH's arguments began to win the others over. In the end, only IM and PC were still refusing to budge when one of the wall consoles emitted a loud beep.
"The hell...?" US asked. "Who turned that thing on?"
"Not me" PC quickly responded when a few stares turned her way.
"That would be me" the monitor beeped in a slow, mechanical voice.
Ten heads turned as one to stare at the thing speaking like a Wrix.
"It pains me that I must be the voice of reason in this discussion" it continued.
PC got up and walked carefully over to the computer, pressing buttons seemingly at random. "It's locked up" she stated.
"I am Lambda. I am in control" the console beeped again.
"Lambda!?" IM demanded incredulously. "How the hell did you get into our computers?"
"US gave me access" the beeping responded mechanically, with no trace of emotion. "But that is irrelevant. If you reveal the existence of the terraformer, you doom us all."
IM shot US a filthy look that meant 'I will speak with you later' before turning back to the noisy console. "First off, 'Lambda', forgive me if I don't accept your identity on your word. Secondly, if you really are Lambda and you have been listening for this whole meeting, then I suspect you know better than I do that the existence of the terraformer has probably been leaked everywhere by now. These consoles aren't secure."
"This one is secure" the robotic voice interrupted, but did not explain further.
"Alright, then how do you think the terraformer dooms us all?" DH demanded.
PC was by this time crawling in under the desk, poking and prodding at various wires and components.
"The terraformer gives the Hives an out. A way to survive without the Swarm. If they find out such a thing exists they will stop working towards the greater goal of taking our race off our world. They will all attempt to do so on their own. They will never work together again. We will all perish."
"Wait, wait, that makes no sense" IM said, shaking her head. "How can buying us more time to get off the planet be bad? Surely the other queens cannot be THAT shortsighted. Just look at you..."
"Besides, the terraformer will be under our control. We will be able to force the other hives to do what we tell them to" DH added.
"It is a matter of psychology" Lambda beeped. "If you attempt to control the terraformer, you will be destroyed. Trust me. Swarm Command can only exist by being no threat in itself."
"So, what do you suggest we do?" US asked the console.
"YA, does anyone else on your team know about the terraforming installation?"
"No. The raw data perhaps, but I was the one who analyzed it."
"*there any chance one of your team members or Gamma could figure out what it is?"
"With the part I removed hidden among other things? Impossible in the short term, and highly unlikely even if they take the time to go over it carefully all over again. I know what I'm doing" YA replied.
"Then leave it be. In time we will use it, but we must leave Wrixom first. The Hives must already be committed to the exodus, or all will be lost."
Lambda leaned back from her console, closing the secure connection to the console in Swarm Hive. She closed her eyes and rested her hands on her forehead.
She had broken her own cardinal rule. Never interfere, especially when your opponents are making a mistake. But things had gotten... complicated. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed the Swarm, if only to keep the peace.
OOC:
So that's that then. From here on I'm going to focus a little less on the story and a little more on getting things moving along. It's about time some progress was made, time-wise.
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12 June 2017
The Henry Hudson arrives at First Stop and picks up HN and her team, now including PX. They are recalled back to Wrixom to serve as independant surveyors for Swarm Command and complete an impartial survey of the planet.
This is because several times in the past, new mineral deposits have been 'discovered' while mining, in places the resident hive had assured Swarm Command that there were no minerals.
25 July 2017
The Hudson arrives back at Wrixom and drops off HN and her team without any further ado.
23 February 2018
"We've completed the extensions to the Swarm Communal Research Facility" US reported to IM.
IM was sitting behind her desk, looking over some of HN's survey reports. It appears there were far more hidden under the surface of Wrixom than the hives had let on when she had started this job. Far more indeed...
"Have the scientists moved in yet? We need it contributing to the engine research effort as soon as possible."
"Happening as we speak."
"Good. But our research capability is still woefully inadequate. We need to start construction of another facility. I was thinking here..." IM said, reaching for a map.
"Ah, slight problem with that. We don't have the resources to construct another facility" US interjected.
"What? How is that possible?"
"We're running out of Mercassium. We've been using it up faster than we have been mining it for some time, but we had sufficient stockpile to last us a while. Now, we don't have enough left to complete another facility."
IM reached for a stack of papers lying on the floor and flipped through a few pages before removing one and holding it out to US. "I knew it, we still have over five hundred tons of the stuff. We can get started now, then by the time we need it we will have mined the rest."
"IM, I'm not stupid. I have already considered that option. We simply aren't mining fast enough. I think we should switch production to automated mines so we can begin harvesting the mineral wealth of other planets."
"Then we do that while we wait for our mineral stocks to build up."