Chapter 1 – Peace on earth
There were no winners in ‘the war’. At some point it just didn’t make any more sense to continue the fighting. Everything was in shambles. Cities destroyed, fields unworkable, billions of people dead. Slowly, the people in power came to their senses and agreed to a seize-fire.
It is not completely correct that there were no winners. Some made insane profits while everything else crumbled to ashes. Corporations adapted to the situation. Workshops below surface meant shelter for the people and continuous production of war material. Banks gave out loans to the warring parties. Some lucky banks even had enough backup of their data so it did not get blown up. No reason to pay back a loan if there are no records, right?
At least the aftermath of the war taught the leaders something. In hard times you have to stick together or you go down the drain. During wartime, no one could effectively harvest and use these ‘Trans-Newtonian’ materials that everyone was fighting over. The loose earth-wide administration agreed to combine their efforts to utilize the whole new shiny stuff to make our world a liveable place again. And this is where the corporations shimmied their way in. They had everything needed to exploit these riches. But to avoid further bloodshed, the Earth Administration (EA) declared just one corp. would be harvesting the minerals for the greater good of everyone. With only a small step from outright war between corporations they used everything they had in store to be the chosen one. Bribery, manipulation, sabotage, murder. You name it, they did it.
In the end, the Mining Bartsch Conglomerate was selected. They offered the most promising plan backed with substantial data with the biggest benefits for humanity. At least this is what was said in the public announcement.
MBC pledged to:
- Harvest the TN-Materials and provide them to EA
- provide shelter and jobs for 50 million people now
- begin the decontamination of the surface now
- increase the shelter capacity to 100 million within 20 years
- begin the decontamination of the atmosphere within 20 years
- begin surveying the solar system within 25 years
- survey the inner solar system up to Jupiter within 35 years
- increase the shelter capacity to 300 million within 40 years
- clean earth within 50 years
- establish 1 permanently populated colony within 50 years
- remove all polluting production facilities from earth within 100 years
Earth-wide protests, often incited by rivalling corporations, added even more unnecessary challenge for the newly appointed saviour of humanity. As if the innumerable wrecks on former battlefields, radiation and atmospheric dust was not enough. With the plan shaped the board of directors elected a new leadership to get the ball rolling.
CEO and Academy Leader Mehmet Schick was responsible to oversee the big picture and to get more staff on board.
Administrator Lorenz Winkler was to lead the industry side of the operation.
General Christel Richter was put in charge of guarding the corp. ’s assets against vandalism and looting.
General Karl-Ludwig Brennecke was tasked with fleshing out the exploration beyond our atmosphere.
OOC rules:
seed 2512
conventional start with the TN-Tech researched
no starting stock of TN-Materials
no civilian shipping lines
0. 17 atm CO² added to earth, nitrogen reduced to 0. 65 atm and oxygen reduced to 0. 16 atm
cleaning earth includes removing the CO² and filling up nitrogen and oxygen
every year 20% of mineral stock has to be paid to EA as taxes and part of the contract
Guardian Unit
Transport Size: 1,970 tons
Build Cost: 66. 4 BP
1x Guardian HQ
5x Guardian Tank
3x Guardian AA
110x Guardian Trooper
3x Guardian AV
10x Guardian Light Tank
4x Guardian Logi
5x Guardian Scout
11x Guardian Weapon Team
Chapter 2 – Tiny little steps, but in which direction?
CEO Schick knew that he was nothing more than a straw man. The set directives will take far longer than the 5 years of his reign to finish. His only chance to shine was if he could speed up the process. More than two million jobs open and the permanent threat of sabotage would not make this easy.
Every single site had to deal with protests. Some of those even became violent. This meant costly delays which Schick could not afford. Just more security details would not cut it. Harsher security protocols were out of question as well. He knew he had to bring in some heavy cavalry to root out these evil troublemakers. Six of these units had to do the trick. Independent undercover experts trained for surgical strikes, with one unit for each major site.
Cavalry
Transport Size: 692 tons
Build Cost: 22. 7 BP
1x Guardian HQ
15x Guardian Scout
50x Guardian Trooper
5x Guardian Weapon Team
Opting for TN-improved material turned out to be a bad idea. The mines could not extract enough Vendarite. It became imperative to increase the output fast. There are not enough employees to man every job anyway, so he paused the project for new factories. Instead he ordered Winkler to retool some of the existing installations for mineral extraction.
While Nina Kluck made some good progress in expanding the scientific capabilities, Schick replaced her with Lars Fagel, who recently graduated from the academy with highest recommendations. Hurt in her pride, Kluck switched into another field of research and swore revenge.
The Bodycount went up to 70,000. That were 70,000 less jobs filled. Even more people quit their jobs in fear. More than the recruitment agents could replace. Schick urged Winkler to hurry up with the retooling. He needed those military units and he needed them now. No, he needed them three months ago.
The year ended with only 3 Cavalry units active. While they had some success in eliminating the threat, the general opinion of MBC was still extreme low. This had to be addressed as well.
August of the second year finally saw the culprits brought down. Now Schick could concentrate on getting things back to speed. First, he addressed his employees with a big motivational speech. Then he ordered the production of promotional videos.
>> This is a hard time, let me tell you. But we will prevail. And do you know why? Because WE are MBC. Yes, WE. Me, you, you and you, and everyone else as well. We stick together and we will do it. <<
CEO and Academy Leader Mehmet Schick, August year 2
>> This was downtown just 2 years ago. Now look what became of this messy place. MBC cares. MBC rebuilds. MBC protects. But MBC also needs you. Come join us. <<
promo Video, August year 2
And it worked. In year 3 more jobs have been filled than before the troubles. In year 4 the research department estimated a finishing date sooner than the original date. The industry sector was almost there. A combined effort of increased Sorium extraction and slightly decreased refinery capabilities resultet in a small Sorium stockpile, slowly getting bigger.
But yet another problem was arising. Or rather, settling down. All the dust that was blown into the atmosphere slowly sank down. Apparently the dust kept some of the sun rays out. Now more get through the atmosphere and heat the planet up. This development has to be monitored closely.
April of year 5 began a streak of great news for Schick. First the scientific networks was connected, increasing the efficiency of the scientists dramatically. Later in April, the job vacancies dropped below 2 million. In October the industrial retooling for mining finished. With all this, the corp. had a solid basis for future operations. Albeit the production was a bit lacking. Ordering the upgrade of existing factories instead of building new ones was a no-brainer.
Looking back to the past 5 years he felt confident the board would be willing to elect him again. He saw the given tasks completed and successfully dealt with a lot of trouble. Wealth and Stockpiles are increasing, so is the number of employees. Decontamination efforts so far went great.
General Brennecke still has not given any insight on his plans for exploration. Administrator Winkler struggles with low production numbers.
And indeed, with 5 votes of the 11 board members he was elected again.
Chapter 3 – more little steps, but now forward
One cannot increase both production and research at the same time, especially not when there is still manpower missing. But there is the option of upgrading the existing labs. And this is what Scientist Fagel will do. The next concern is the still rising temperature on earth. The average went above 40°C in year 6. Atmospheric cleansing has to commence sooner rather than later. For now Schick ordered the construction of CO² scrubbing units for the 7 corp. sites.
The 4th of July was once a big day for one of the former nations. Now it is a day for worldwide festivities. In central Europe the first atmosphere scrubber got completed. And with honorary guests the big red button was pushed. Nothing exploded, no one got hurt, the machinery just started working.
With this enormous PR-event under his belt he decided to delay the production of further scrubbers in favour of more housing. Prognoses show the housing might get cramped a bit more than a year in the future.
With his second term coming to an end, Schick considered his options. With temperatures close to 57°C people where desperate for the relief MBC could offer. His popularity was rising due to the successful launch of the atmospheric cleansing process. He could go for taking more and more people in. This should fortify success in the long run. Big projects will finish early in the next term. He even had an idea on how to incorporate General Brennecke in his plans. Letting Brennecke finish his assignment while earning the fame sounded great.
‘Yes, I am still on the rise’ he thought. ‘If I quit now, I will leave on a high note. But there is so much more to achieve. ’
Year 11 started with bad news for Schick. The election was not as decisive as expected. His plan to develop better TN-tools and mechanics for production was met with fierce opposition. Administrator Winkler declared that better tools would do no good. Most factories were pre-war, some even built from scraps during the war. The workshops simply could not handle any more output. They would have to be upgraded first.
Schick’s alternate plan to improve the financial sector was also shot down. To gain some time he redirected one research complex to improving the scrubbers and increased the target for new housing.
A week later, General Brennecke approached him with a proposal for research. Through all the smiles and pleasantries, Schick could see what it really was.
The Labs that are now occupied by Scientist Fagel would become free later this year. Brennecke needed better engines if he were to explore the system. And there is a Scientist perfectly suited to get quick results: Nina Kluck.
Brennecke’s demands were quite simple. Let Kluck research better systems and he would stop blocking Schick's plans.
With no other option, Schick agreed. He scolded himself for waiting too long to try and get Brennecke on his side. And for ignoring Kluck. A [gekränkt] scientist should never ever be left unsupervised.
In August 11 Scientist Fagel finished upgrading the labs. Then he gave the keys to Nina Kluck who quickly settled in. Despite her hatred of Schick, she worked hard and lead the scientists efficiently.
With precious labs out of reach for a few years, Schick needed a new plan. Several bottlenecks had to be taken into account.
By august 14 approximately 62. 5 million people can be sheltered. The workforce will grow to around 58. 5 million people. With 1 million new employees every year there will be 4 years before housing is at capacity.
830,000 jobs are vacant right now. Within a single year these will all be filled and there will be unemployed workers. This means we need more jobs. Scrubbers can provide jobs, but they take almost a year to complete with only a small number of jobs.
To build more housing we need more Duranium. The current Duranium extraction cannot cover the needs for production. New mines would be a very good choice.
It takes a bit more than 2 years until the biggest part of the old workshops will be retooled for full-out production. Pausing this now to concentrate on new mines and housing means the retooling could start again in august 14. This retooling is important, as are even more housing projects. Do both with shared endeavour.
Also there must be ways to improve the housing conditions. As soon as Kluck is finished with the engines get someone to look into it.
>> Notes for a meeting with the board of directors, march 12 <<
Extensive decontamination work made huge spots of land available. One of the bigger sites in northern America was chosen for a new MBC-Center. With infrastructure already in place, the new mines would be built there, hopefully joined by further installations. Meanwhile the Training for a new Guardian unit started, followed by another Cavalry just in case.
In October 13 Lars Fagel took over the labs again as Nina Kluck was finished. If anyone could find ways to improve the shelter then it was him.
Only then Schick realised how merciless his timer was. Only 7 years left until the shelters had to house 100 million people. If he wasn’t careful, this goal would be unreachable. And he thought it was better to build in some safety, not sure if that was even possible. Yet again the factories targets were changed. Back to retooling and housing to reevaluate in the second quarter of 14. Decreasing levels of Corundium would have made continued Mine building impossible very soon anyway. Duranium is low as well. Alternating Retooling, Housing and Mines will be the way to go.
Three months before the end of his term things looked grim. Duranium and Corundium levels were too low to keep production running for more than a month. Curse this General, his meddling ruined everything. And the new election was coming up. Step down and it would have been his fault the goal could not be met. Same result if someone else would have been elected. Blaming Brennecke would not end well. Forward it was then, to get elected again. To somehow find a way out of this mess. Schick started meeting the board members on a weekly basis to keep them all in good mood.
