2194 – The Democratic View

While campaigning in all colonies, Philippine Barbier realized that with the increase of liberty limitations and the expansion of the labour camps, a strong Democratic Sentiment was again surfacing within the poorest part of the population. A mixed Pacifist and Industrialist government was entirely possible and the formation of a Democratic Coalition after more than 50 years seemed highly probable. All the Chancellor could have done was to ensure her victory against the main Democratic candidate, Daphne Meijer. Again, the long term strategy of the Democratic Party revealed to be extremely savvy and Daphne, after a few decades of mentoring, was finally a palpable contestant for the lead. At only 38 years old, she would have been on the political stage for a long time with ascending popularity while Philippine was already at the peak and starting to decline. On the Federalist front, the poor management of the inexperienced Tokimasa, too interested in defending the Scientists views, would have costed a high price in terms of preferences. Eventually, after this election, a new leader would have been required to gain more support.

A series of policies were discussed by every candidate. The Barbier advocated for the institution of a national conscription program that would have been used to replenish the Army in the provision of the big update and restructure she was planning. Daphne Meijer, with the goal of ensuring the support of the Industrialist Party, proposed a series of consumer benefits to stimulate production and consumptions. The Tokimasa insisted for the formation of Civilian Academies to separate the Scientific and Humanistic culture from the current Militaristic Education System.

For the first time since its formation, the Senate would have reached its maximum representation level. The constitution, in fact, limited to 2,000 seats the Senate composition regardless of the amount of population. While some people felt less represented by this development, the government had to ensure that all operation could have been run smoothly, and having a capped amount of Senators would have probably been the best way to achieve that. Right before election night, the Government signed its latest motion, ratifying the decrease of the Defcon alert to Level 3, and the Training Level required by the new conscripts to be enlisted to level 4.

On the 1st of January 2194, votes were cast all around the Republic to decide who would have been in charge for the following 4 years. If the Barbier re-election would have not been in dispute, it remained to be seen if the Republican would have been able to assist her in pursuing their political agenda. As soon as first results started to come in, it became immediately clear that not the Meijer nor the Tokimasa would have been able to challenge the Barbier victory which, with the 41.60% if the preferences were confirmed as Chancellor on the same night. However, the Senate election went as feared by the Republicans with a surge in the Pacifists votes that resulted in the party being the second right after the Industrialists. The previous leaders of the Scientists managed to keep the third position but with almost half of the previous election seats.




Chancellor Election 2190



The Senate was then composed by 2,000 seats. 176 went to the Federalists, 509 to the Pacifists, 570 to the Mercantile and Industrialists, 342 to the Scientists, 189 to the Nationalists and 214 to the Militarists. As Chancellor’s prerogative and custom, Philippine started to look for a majority right away in the classic extraordinary session held after election night on the same day. The only “friendly” coalition, would have been the Nationalists. Their agenda would have worked well with the new political address of the Chancellor. The Barbier started in fact a new internal agenda which included the use of xenophobic policies towards the aliens to promote fear through the population along with the use of extreme measures of imprisonment to stop any form of rebellion or malcontent. All these were highly regarded by the Social Nationalist Movement. After the first round of interview, she managed to receive 1420 preferences, more than 2/3 of the Senate.

Satisfied with the result she proposed the new coalition as leader of the government. Before the vote, all opposition leader was asked to speak. With surprise, the first to speak was Shiomi Tokimasa and not Daphne Meijer. Here is the original speech:

“Dear Colleagues, Citizens and Senators of the Republic. Today we are witnessing yet another attempt to eliminate our democratic approach to live and think. In the previous hours, our delegation did support the Chancellor Elected Barbier in respect of our constitution and popular vote. However, we cannot be silenced or pretend to be silenced by a government based on fear and oppression. It came to our attention that the Nationalist agenda and the Chancellor agenda do not represent our ideals and we also believe being toxic for our Republic. It is with regret then that we are hereby withdrawing our support to the coalition in favor of a Democratic turn and leadership.”

For the second time in a row, the Chancellor was betrayed on the finish line. The final count was 1547 seats for the Democrats which would have granted them the control of the Senate and the right to govern.




Possible Coalitions 2190



Even though, the Chancellor obtained for the Democrat to pass the motion on the Conscription. After all, the Barbier did campaign hard on the matter and the clear election win was something not possible to be swept under the rug by the new Majority. However, the list of concessions terminated there. From pretty much day one, the government dismantled the labour camps construction limiting them to the existing production and installations. A good chunk was already built anyway, and many of the Barbier opposers were already been “allocated” to the new structures and that’s why the temporary veto was accepted without too many complaints. The problem was that the government also refurbished all the current research projects to favour something more of democratic importance. Long term projects, such as the revamp of the shipyard operations, which would have increased the saving both in money and time by 20% was halted along with the research on a new Troop Transport Bay module.

However, the need of stronger Army, in light of the latest events, was recognized by the whole Senate and research to keep improving our troops were allowed and approved. The Brother of the Chancellor would have then been allowed to continue his efforts in the ground combat sector. Furthermore, the government liked the idea of the Barbier to extend the Republic domain in the Gliese 433 branch and gate builders were ordered to establish a network through the whole known extent up to LHS 2595, which with its 23.3 LY distance from Sol was also the farther system known to Humans.



MAP HD

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IMPORTANT
As my work on the Government File is completed (I have fixed another couple of bugs and balanced a few parameters) I am interrupting this AAR because it exhausted it's purpose. I will be working on the new I will release on 1.13 and probably play a couple of solo games just to relax. I may write an AAR of the new game so if in a couple of weeks 1.13 will still be not out I will have enough material to release regular updates.
Thanks for reading!

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2190 – The Aftermath

After the defeat in Altair, it was time for the Barbier to face the government. In an extraordinary session the Senate of the Republic repeatedly asked why, regardless of the assurance of the military, operation showdown was such a disaster. The following is the original speech of the president while addressing the senate on the matter:

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“Colleagues, Senators, and citizens of the Republic. Today it’s a sad day but a sad day won’t crush our Republic. The Aliens may have won a battle but the war is far from over.

Many of you are trying to find the classic scapegoat for the failure of the mission but I will not do that. I won’t throw to the wolves the already scarred souls of our Navy which have already seen more than a thousand of their brothers and sisters killed just a few days ago. What this Senate it’s calling a disaster we call information gathering. What this Senate it’s calling a failure we call growth. We will learn from our mistakes and we will prevail against the alien menace and when we will many in this house will have to hide their faces for the shame.

I love the Navy, I love the Republic, and I love the freedom you all enjoying but with great freedom also comes a higher sense of responsibility not only in our actions but also words. It is with regret then that I announce that as from today 25th of June 2190 to talk using negative attributes towards our Navy or our Republic will be considered a crime. All those who will be found guilty will have to be condemned and detained in our new centres for a time to be determined by the gravity of the accusations. Special areas in the camps will be arranged for these criminals.

I wish I could spend more time in this house with you today but I have unfortunately a war to win and today it’s not the time for futile talks.”

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Many senators followed the speech with crushing applauses but Philippine still left the house under escort while avoiding multiple objects which were thrown at her persona from many other Senators. The same Senators wanted also to stop the newly announced resolution but a majority was already formed to support the motion. Obviously, the Chancellor had already a plan in case of defeat and she was only pursuing it. Once addressed the senate, the president met with the war council. The points highlighted were essentially 2. First, our Pd were less effective than the expected and the Area Defense which could have been set wasn’t actually executed. Maybe we could have intercepted more missiles maybe not, we will never know. The second point was that the enemy wouldn’t be able to shoot at us before 100 million kilometres.

Based on this information it was proposed to either increase our range of attack or to increase our PD capabilities. As both would have required a massive investment into military production and research, the President asked for another plan to be elaborated. The most interesting was one that involved only a small refurbish of our Navy. Basically, all ships would have required to install shields. Some would have lost some weapon capability or maybe a layer of Armour but this would have increased our chances to get through the Alien defences.

Eventually, deployment time could have been extended to ensure the fleet would have had enough time to deal with the enemy. To increase the PD capability instead, we could have used the existing ships in Sirius and on Earth. We would have used all our offensive and defensive capabilities but we would have also increased our efficiency. The president saw the refit of the navy as a good quick compromise that could have benefited the republic both on the long and short period so she ordered new plans for all existing warship to be designed and submitted for approval within the week.

While at first everybody seemed to agree, as soon as the resolution hit the floor, a massive amount of rejections were raised and the fleet restructure had to be put to bed for good. The Chancellor understood her majority was more volatile than expected and it was time to face her political adversary again: Shiomi Tokimasa. The Professor explained plainly that the Military had their chance and they failed, regardless of the propaganda. In her view the Chancellor had 2 options: focus her view and efforts on the internal politics and problems or find a new majority able to support her crusade against the aliens. After all, they seemed not interested in our territories and whatever they were guarding was something that we currently did not need considering we were doing fine without it.

Finally, from a scientific point of view, we had all the information and knowledge to let the alien be and move on. In the clear attempt of keeping the scientific interests in check, the Chancellor then pointed out that if it was so, then no efforts were needed to carry on Black Swan efforts in the Gliese 257 system. And exactly like in a chess game, Shiomi moved in to eliminate the source of the check by mentioning that the operations in Gliese could have been scrapped if there were no scientific advancement to be made same as the Navy if there was no war to fight.

The Chancellor backed off the topic then and promised to think over the proposal made by the federalist of focusing the government efforts into internal issues for the time being.

By ending the war, the only possible path to re-election was to end the mineral crisis as well. If Shiomi wanted her to spend for the people, she needed to ensure that the money would have gone in the right direction. The Chancellor had to accelerate the efforts in the Centauri Systems and possibly expand in Andromedae. Neutronium was the most wanted mineral so that should have been given priority. Now that she knew what she wanted she had to figure what could possibly be needed by the Scientists. The black swan was one goal for sure, but that was an approved plan and it wasn’t of much political value. Her head would have been another wanted thing, but the price tag for that was much higher. What would have been valuable yet expendable if everything went south?

They met again before the week ended and after have explained her plan the Chancellor asked what would the Federalist and Scientific union wanted in exchange. The answer was surprising. They asked for the whole survey fleet to be recalled and refurbished. Every ship had to be classified as a scientific vessel with proper equipment. Finally, the ships would have been able to search for minerals as for gravitational anomalies. We were talking of almost 50 ships, a module not researched yet, and thousands of minerals and credits. If almost everything could be done, minerals could not be spared.

Obviously, Shiomi was reading the same polls that Philippine was reading and to ensure that the Chancellor would have not been able to reach her goals was priority number one of the government. They were going for the kill.




Polls with a Mineral Crisis




Polls without a Mineral Crisis

...damn. Heavy stuff there, Mr. Frog.

I demand you stop tugging on my heartstrings chopping onions in this thread and distract us with more glorious space battles and gratuitous killing of aliens!

This bit:

Just a few months ago, in April, I have been diagnosed with a rare infection. It is not life-threatening at the moment but the doctor says to don’t keep my hopes high in the long term. Scientific researches are all focused on military development and funds on similar cases as mine are very limited.

is striking. Even with all our modern TN tech advances, somehow the technology and research doesn't seem to go where it is needed most when it is needed that much. I'd hope humanity could do better in the future, but somehow I have doubts...

Thanks, this is what I like about Aurora, you can use it to write so many stories.

I always write some short stories while playing even by myself, it helps me to relax. I could keep playing and update but sometimes you need time to think, truly stop, and enjoy the moment.

I have a few stories that I am planning to post between an update and another. It will help me keep the updates frequent and the reader to understand what is going on a lesser scale of things. The next one will be the story of a (famous?) young Commander.

Just so you know the stories are coherent with the Aurora world. So, for instance, there was really a civilian colony ship leaving from Mars to Earth and arriving after 3 months at the same time the first constitutional reform was approved.

Everyday life stories - 1 - Anonymous

I remember being probably only 5 or 6 years old when our president at that time, Danilov, announced his plan to conquer the stars. I was still in school and new programs were formed to learn about space. The funniest one was when they replaced the gym activities with the Zero Gravity exercises. Many of us were more interested in peeing in the chamber rather than learn how to move in it, once I also got suspended to take the challenge one step further and directly sh*t in the thing. My mother was so pissed that she threatened to send me at the scrap yard.

Yes, in 2100, the scrap was the worst you could do. After the 3rd world war and the nukes, despite the effort of cleaning the planet, there were still many places were all the radioactive metals and items were kept. Later we started to send them in space, but before that, somebody had to sort that poison and recover as many materials as possible. We were just run out of TN minerals, and hope to find others was extremely low.

My childhood wasn’t different than the one of many others. My dad was a scrappy and my mother already wrapped her mind around the idea that he would have lived probably 40 to 50 years in total, the latest 2 most likely in agony by the radiation poisoning. Today when it rains I still think or dream about him. Every night, when he came back home he had these long showers because my mum wanted to ensure he wasn't poisoning us going around all dirty and dusty. He had life insurance, like all the other scrappies, provided by the company he was working for that would have granted us some credits at his departure but many of them would have still go bankrupted at payday even if my father life was worth less than the number of minerals he would have salvaged in a month. Because of that, my mother was also working in one of the new Naval Yards. She thought that would have been the only future possible. Looking at things today, she was probably right. It always puzzled me as to how my dad managed to land such an amazing woman. I wish I would have been that lucky.

All I remember of those years were the continuous promises of the President, the discoveries of many TN minerals in other Sol System bodies and the endless projects made to bring Humans on other celestial bodies in no time. It wasn’t healthy. By words, the world was moving at the speed of light but effectively we could see no real improvement to our lives for decades. When you are a kid, you don’t fully understand that your mind has been brainwashed with bs and by the time you are 19 and able to be your own man it’s too late. You realize it would have been better to study more and look for a real job instead of dreaming for the stars, after all, they weren’t as they pictured them or at least not yet.

So here I was, 19 years old on the 26th of March 2112. Danilov was gone and Ertegün was now president. Many thought he was useless and just living off Danilov plans, I couldn’t care less. In the night, under the proper conditions, I could see the lights of our new warships and shipyards. Cargo Shuttles looked like many small fireflies, transporting people up in space and back down on Earth. It was magical, yet useless. Don’t get me wrong, I did get laid quite a few times because of the spectacle but, besides that, it did not benefit me at all. At least not immediately. The news was that Mars now had enough Oxygen to breathe on the surface if it wasn’t for the ridiculously low temperatures and no water. However, my mum had just run away with my father's insurance money and I was most of the times without a credit. The Government was running a Mars colonization program and the pay wasn’t bad. I heard that conditions on Mars weren’t superb and that the government infrastructure was worse than the scrappy accommodation villages. However, I did grow up in one of them and I’ve found it hard to believe so I enlisted and embarked for Mars shortly after. Oh boy, I was wrong!

The place was a shi*hole but the governor was something. Melisa Zorlu was stunningly beautiful, smart, and cunning. When a few decades later she became president I wasn’t surprised. Still, Mars was sh*t. The job was easy: build more infrastructure for more people to come. Then more people arrived and more infrastructures were built. After the first intake of colonist the government changed the policy to favour families, so what started as a sausage party with pretty much no women worth of that name, soon became a hunting ground where each married woman had a husband and another 4 or 5 men courting her from day to night trying to get laid.

I am sure the Martian Police was very busy and probably some officer did also intervene quite a few time to suppress brawls started because two men were trying to fu*k the same woman that was also the officer's wife at the end. That kind of busy.

I left Mars only 8 years later. Like many others, I was almost forced back to Earth by the promises of the new Federalist President Abba. I was an Earthling (a person born on Earth) and National sentiment started to spread fast on the off-world colonies. Suddenly the parents of the kids born on Mars or Luna assumed that they and their kids deserved more and priority should have been given to their needs rather than keep importing strangers. Surely it was just the beginning, but you could see where this was going and so I thought that it was time to go back home. I was 27, still unmarried, but at least I wasn’t broke like when I left. When I arrived on Earth it was chaos. People were on the streets marching against some sort of constitutional change proposed by the new Government and it had something to do with the Justice System but I was only thinking of having a bit of fun after 3 months in cryosleep to be bothered by that political nonsense. Obviously, a year later I left Mars, they managed to warm the planet and have access to water. To go back wasn’t an option so I decided to apply for a job in one of the many Business Centers that were built while I was away to counter the increasing unemployment.

With my low skills, I could land only a low-grade job but that is where I met my wife. As I said, I wasn’t lucky as my dad was, but she was a decent woman, had a good position, but more importantly she knew how to keep a man. After she died, I was told that others knew her skills and that she kept busy while I was away or she was at work, but if I have to be honest I always knew and as long as everything was quiet and fine at home I never mentioned it nor cared.

The years from 2125 to 2134 were probably the best years. Zorlu was president and even if all the people that were on Mars in the firs years knew that she had a very particular taste when it came to sex, she was still a great leader, probably the best we ever had. I still remember the sky in the night during that period. The dark side of the moon was no more. You could see all the little colonies on the dark surface as tangible proof of our achievements as a species. So much happened back then, from the PLUTS crisis to the first human ship in another start system. Everybody important was so focused on space while we common folks were still struggling to make a living like after the war.

It was during an unusually cold summer night that while having dinner with the kids, my wife and I openly discussed the possibility of leaving Earth, in my case again. The opportunity came along shortly after that, with the financial centre where we were both employed that was selected to be moved on Luna in a big government fund economic program aimed at increasing the quality of life on the colonies. The government would have provided tickets for the whole family and some relocation funds equal to 6 months pay. We left Earth on the 2nd of May 2130 and we would have never come back.

An illegitimate election, a resignation after 11 years of presidency, and a president assassination later we found ourselves facing the most unexpected threat: we weren’t alone in the universe and aliens were found in one of the new systems explored. Obviously, for us what happened on the 9th of January 2142 was way more important than ET and the events of December 41, however, to know aliens were actually a thing started to corrupt many people minds with dark thoughts. Human supremacy, genocide, and more were constant talks in the streets. The economy was so bad that more the government decided to pour money into military spending, the more people kept talking. These were also the years that led to my retirement. The kids left already to study either on the new Luna academy or back to Earth. My wife worked for a few years more and joined me around 2160/61. Life and retirement were very different from what we pictured but to see the domes of Luna removed and a brand new blue sky was something we thought never possible when we were children and we would have died knowing that another future was possible.

Anonymous

That's, uhhhh, not a very good result. Unless you're the aliens of course.

What lessons will Earth learn from this lesson? Will they even learn a lesson, or will political infighting obscure any sense of reason?

To my eyes it looks as if Earth suffered from not enough ships, period. Knowing that there would be 30+ contacts, a much greater numerical superiority was necessary to create 2:1 or even 3:1 odds, in tonnage at least and in numbers ideally also. Additionally it seems clear that not enough point defense is present in the Earth ships, an expensive lesson to learn but a worthwhile one.

I am getting the feeling that most will be decided by the war. If it goes well then the Barbier would have 2 possible fates: The Palpatine or the Caligula one.

The new automated mechanics are now limiting my "powers" so I have to cope with the events and the RNG.

On the other hand, if war turns out to be a disaster then we are going to witness an "enything can happen Thursday".

I am really giving little to no chance of winning though...unless my PD starts to shoot down missiles at a ratio of 3:4 and my shields manage to absorbe anything between 20 to 30 detonations per interval. As a player I will still consider a win to come back with half of the fleet with the tail between her legs.

2190 – Dangerous Turns

Thanks to the attack on NN 3820, Philippine Barbier could count on enormous support from the majority of the population. Not only her fears over the alien menace were revealed to be true but another vessel lost after the UNEN Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld on the 2nd of December 2141 was something the population wasn’t expecting.




Pollings Elections 2190



The Barbier and the Militarists campaigned hard on the matter and one of the documentaries over the lives of any of the 122 souls lost in the attack were screened every single day and shown at many rallies. War was the only solution and if we had forgotten we were at war.

The Federalists had 2 cards to play. The first card was the opportunity of choosing a new candidate due to the early departure of the previous leader and Chancellor Elected and the second was to actually blow the wind of the winning side but on a different tune. The party approached one of the greatest minds of our time, Professor Shiomi Tokimasa, asking her not to focus on an unlikely win, but to lead the coalition to a new era and a possible majority in the Senate for the second time. They wanted her to talk about how science was helping us during these difficult times and how much she had contributed to the everyday life of all citizens. She would have also supported the Barbier’s view on all the political matters proposing the same solutions but with a different angle.




Shiomi Tokimasa Profile



The Democrats kept grooming the young Meijer waiting with patience for this wind of war to set before starting seriously to try getting back the democratic views and way of life to the electors.

All pollings were showing that the Nationalist Party would have hardly got any seat in this round of elections and these were the votes all party were after. The Nationalist sentiment was squashed over the years by rebellions, aliens, and general Militaristic view of the Republic. Based on some research it appeared that many of these people would have either not voted or most likely voted for the Trade or Scientific party. On election night, while receiving first official ballots results, both Democrat and Federalist candidate conceded victory to Philippine Barbier which was elected for the first time true Chancellor of the Republic.




Chancellor Election 2190



Unfortunately, the same did not happen for the Militarist Party which regardless of the good performance saw itself ending up only as 3rd party behind the Scientists and the Industrialists. The victory of the Scientists was a first since 2100, date of which we officially started our race to the stars. The number of votes that Shiomi Tokimasa could bring on the table was unprecedented for any candidate.




Elected Seats 2190



As soon as the results were confirmed, Chancellor Barbier asked the Scientists to support and form a Science Military led coalition capable of dealing with the Aliens and bring peace back to the Republic. The problem was that the Scientific Community wanted to convey first with Professor Tokimasa which opinion was not only respected but also highly regarded. Knowing that she ran for the Federalists, Chancellor Elected asked and obtained that first choice should have been the Chancellor’s prerogative. If after that a different majority, higher in number, could be formed than she would have accepted the Senate Decision.

The 2190 Senate landscape was very interesting. Even if no Nationalists were officially been elected, the National sentiment was still present in many of the Senators. The Industrialists as well, remembering the old times when they were in charge would have most likely made an attempt to seize power. Ultimately, the Federalists were the one more dangerous due to their connection with the Scientists Leader Professor Shiomi Tokimasa. At the end of the first round of consultations, Chancellor Barbier could count on 1,327 votes. An extremely large number.

Shiomi, which was running her own consultations was running around similar numbers. 1,317 with all the Scientists, Industrialists, Pacifists and Federalists. The only way she had to win was to pinch some of the Militarists, but which one? She asked for a recess, approved by the Senate, of one day. Out of the 440 Seats, the Militarists did have some from the Sirius Sections. As widely known, the Navy conduct during the fight on Sirius, was more a sort of experiment on the life of the brothers in arms which were defending the Separatists Colony at that time. Even if at war everything is allowed, it was true that Earth did not have respected the truce.

Such cowardly manoeuvre was never fully digested by many representatives of the Militarist Party. Once talked to a delegation, the Tokimasa managed to get 25 Senators on board for a total of 1,342 seats. With the new majority deal signed off, on the 2nd of January 2190 the Senate ratified a new Federalist led Government headed by Chancellor Barbier.




Possible Coalitions 2190



Full of rage and obfuscated by her paranoia, Philippine decided to ask for council to the Administrator Long. Touched by such trust received from the Chancellor, he confessed that his plan was to use his “Labour Camps” as a mean to eliminate all his political adversaries and possible sources of trouble and malcontent through the population. She then asked if he wanted to try to export his views on other Colonies and what would have been his price. Long asked for the Sol Sector Governorship as a guarantee that his plan could be carried safely and undiscovered.

As a new round of nominations would have been needed, Chancellor Barbier asked for a few weeks to arrange something. After all, there was also a war to fight and to win first.