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http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/Tripocalypse.KingdomCome.html OOC: If you need half an idea of what's going on, this quest is based on the Left Behind book series, particularly the last book. Except you're the bad guy of course.

>>1014507

From Cordylon's international blog, Q&A section:

Q: So... are you dating Jeb or Vall?
A: Maybe ;-)

Q: Are you a guy or a girl?
A: Effectively, I "am" the Canopy Station, when I am wired into it. I can control all the valves, actuators, and relays in it, change visual to any of the cameras, and even smell various areas such as the electrolysis systems and the greenhouse. If you mean my anatomy... that's a bit intimate, no?

Q: How does zero gravity feel?
A: The canopy does not move with respect to the Earth surface, so I am experiencing about 90% of the gravity that you are. However, I've been in zero-G before, during training and during descent, and it's pretty unsettling the first few times! Glad I didn't have anything to eat before!

Q: What do you eat?
A: I primarily "eat" a solution of glucose, fiber and protein that is delivered through my pod. This saves a lot of maintenance and resources, allowing the greenhouse plants to grow and expand before there's going to be a need to harvest them. I like it when there are other crew here because they give me treats though! :-)

Q: Do you get lonely?
A: Well... yes. I talk to my friends on the surface regularly using the datalink, but it can be a bit lonely here. Sometimes I count stars. Don't worry, they are all accounted for! One interesting thing is that we ended up bringing some insects topside - the earthworms were intended to go in the hydroponic garden, but the mosquitos and spiders sort of happened. I've been trying to train them, but not a lot of luck so far, so we've adapted a wubber to make sure they get off me if I want them to.

Q: What is your job right now? What do you do all day?
A: I am charting stars - interestingly, it seems that our predicted star charts are off by about 850 years - and fine-tuning the greenhouse parameters. I also do a bit of design work that I share with the ground crew. My first job was seeing if there were still satellites working after all this time, but sadly, there aren't... I've spotted a few that are still in orbit, though! I also have a little rover to go out with sometimes.

Q: What happens if your nose itches? Why do you wear glasses?
A: My workstation has a little arm for that. One time I sneezed hard enough that my pod got partially disconnected, they actually looked into sending someone up there! Maybe I should do that on purpose... I wear glasses because I'm nearsighted and because it's an extra layer of protection against glare from the canopy.

Q: Why haven't we launched any more rockets?
A: You'd have to ask my boss! The current plan is to make sure that we can produce fuel from the canopy ice, which will make it a lot cheaper to send rockets to other planets. Then the Solar System is ours to explore!

>>1014920
So are we dead?

>>1015489

No, why? It's just a bit of fluff I wrote. I thought that the other thread had hit max replies.

>>1015498
Oh I was looking to see what our options were or something so I kinda was waiting for a prompt thing or an update, dont get me wrong that was rather neat to read.

>>1015515

The old thread is still going and it's at >>1011212 sorry for the confusion.

>>1015539

Okay, resuming here!


* Current event 1: Having decided to revive the glory of Rome to see if it's possible to awaken its pantheon for use against Yahweh, you directed your soldiers to take over a TOL weapons factory nearby the city's ruins, as a first step. The fight was brief and went well, but TOL does not yet know that it has happened - except they're sending an airplane to look at the base over since you jammed their comms. Your soldiers and drones were prepared to withstand a siege as well as breaking it, but The Other Light's army is about five times the size of yours. Got to handle the situation.

# Announce that all this base are now belong to you.

# Have your guys pretend to retreat and ambush the relief when it lands.

# See how many TOL soldiers switch sides and pretend that everything is fine...

# Something else.

* Current event 2: Your martial artists are currently fighting an Angel near Cairo. The Angel has tried to escape once you've destroyed its rescue target's balls by having an agent spontaneously combust on them, giving you possibly useful insight into combat theology (It makes sense in context, really). Now you have a bunch of guys waiting for the Angel and the wrestler to fall back down after the latter has managed to pin the former's wings.

# Shoot the ceiling around the existing hole, so that they may fall through it, and have Kat try to catch your luchadore.

# Have Kat jump on/through the roof, for the same purpose.

# Only shoot a bigger hole in the roof, and otherwise let them drop, trusting that your guy will land on the Angel.

# Let the chips fall where they may and focus on observing.

Have kat jump on top of the roof to deal a devastating blow to the angel instead. To push the angel through the roof. Them have a team with hopfully sharp Weapons similar to spear be prepared to catch the angels fall with said weapons. Oder the wrestler to separate at about 3 seconds before roof contact and have a separate MEC catch him

>>1022607
# see how many tol soldiers switch but don't leave it up to chance. Use our advanced processing to do some quick lie detecting a psychological profiling and only allow those to be the tol soldiers that we use to impersonate the base. We can hopfully use some of our own troops to impersonate the base as well. Roll a bluff check :p

>>1022608


So far, this fight has gone reasonably well, with a lot fewer casualties than Colopatiron and Ithuriel (Azrael cost you about a third of your forces, but then again, it WAS the Archangel of Death).

Kat replies that it's known that MECs or robots can't really hurt Angels, but then understands that you're not trying to damage it, you're trying to impart kinetic energy on it. She gets on top of a pneumatic ram drone for a boost, ends up on top of the nearest A frame on the warehouse, and gets ready to punch the Angel...

# upwards.

# sideways across the roof.

# downwards into the hole.

Your wrestler screams something about the HONOR OF THE MASK, but trusts your judgement and lets go of the Angel's wings, then tries to position himself for a rolling landing.

Below in the warehouse, your support troops turn off the radiation sources and quickly break off pieces of metal from the warehouse structure, or from damaged drones, to set up a spiked floor where either the Angel or the wrestler might land on.

# Confirm.

# Clear the floor.

>>1022614

Captain Weaver was in charge of the Rome operation, and fortunately for you, she has leadership skills that escape the grasp of an AI; the Other Light workers perceive her job offer as genuine.

Those who refuse are locked in your landing craft -- the only person in the TOL base cells is a missionary who, oddly enough, is thoroughly amused at what is going on, and keeps deriding both your men and TOL's -- the few dead are cleaned away, and your men restart the weapon production lines. The overall effect is generally realistic, save for the fact that all the guards are your soldiers, there are more drones around than in a typical TOL base, and no live bazookas are currently being made; the damage to the base is going to be passed off as an accident.

# Looks good, let's just fool the inspection team.

# Use this to ambush the TOL inspection team and either capture or kill them.

# Deal with the missionary.

>>1022616
Downwards into the hole and see if cat can be some extra weight on top and confirm. And prepare to resume firing once he lands.

>>1022619
Let's fool the inspection team and ask the missionary why he's here Nicely.

Rolled 3 (1d100)

>>1022622

The missionary tells a simple story - he was captured by TOL while looking for unbelievers to minister to, kept in captivity under what he calls horrible conditions (although the cell is reasonably spacious, there's a toilet and a sink, and they fed him twice a day), and was "beginning to make inroads" before his unavoidable rescue, when your people showed up.

Under Capt. Weaver's leadership, your men set things up to make it look like a batch of bazooka rounds spontaneously detonated, explaining why there are some dead and some damage to the base.

The missionary, still in an amused tone, notes that if the TOL commissars ask him, he will have to tell them the truth.

# Kill him.

# Release him.

# Gag him.

>>1022659
Even if we let you free afterwords? If so gag him.

>>1022664
Easy to explain to tol as stopping his preaching.

>>1022622

Kat attempts to shove the Angel downward, but her Heavy MEC frame had been configured for wubbers and neutron emitters, not closed combat for this operation - she manages a body shove, but that's about it. The wrestler lands on the warehouse's roof, on his shoulder, and rolls down on the ground onto the sand; one of the standby ambulances quickly sedates him and carries him away. While it looks like he will survive without MEC activation, it's probably the end of Los Tiburon's career.

The Angel falls on the spikes and is duly impaled by them... it loses some blood, which looks thin as if it was mixed with water, and then gets back up, with some difficulty. Just in time for Kat's armored bulk to land on him, with a horrible noise and a lot of dust coming out.

When Kat gets up -- she sustained a bit of damage to her frame, but her pod is not hurt -- the Angel is nowhere in sight, either having been destroyed by Yahweh as Azrael was, or having teleported out after his target was gone and there was no chance of dodging. Kat quickly orders a Desolator to collect the blood samples, and they are vacuumed up.

The butcher's bill for this Angel containment operation is relatively small - between Los Tiburon and his ringside crew, the incinerated infiltrator MEC, and a few other casualties who cannot or will not return to active duty (one guy quit because what was done to Zaki, of which you have plenty of pictures and video, was "too brutal even against the Glorified") you have lost only one cabal.

>>1022667

Your soldiers gag the missionary, and he methodically starts to chew through the gag. This works about as well as you'd expect given that the gag was made with steel mesh; in a few minutes, the idiot is bleeding from his mouth and whimpering, probably begging for a sedative.

The TOL relief team lands in what looks like a rebuild of an Antonov-2 biplane, featuring a bottom facing turret. Your official story is that there were weapons malfunctions at the factory and that damaged most communications and caused some casualties; Capt. Weaver plans to blame the missionary's prayers for the incidents. The base commander is dead; the deputy commander says that she has defected...

# and you trust her on Captain Weaver's reckoning. Your potential new recruits appreciate the trust, or so they say.

# and you don't trust her, so her MEC has been rigged to stop her heart on your say-so if she tattles, terrorizing your recent job prospects.

>>1022659

(The LBQ tradition of really poor rolls has returned, it looks like.... beware!)

>>1022678
We will trust captain weavers word although if we are betrayed it is on weavers hands to fix the situation.


Also was there no slowdown of audio or potential to eliminate yahwehs words before they reach the angel? Was expecting a similar opportunity as last time. Or was it all shit rolls that did us in?

>>1022693

A cursory video analysis shows that the Angel may have disappeared, rather than having been eliminated.

Your sysadmin take some guesses as to why.

* The intended killing blow was delivered by a mechanical system, namely spikes and Kat's frame, not by an unaltered human; previous Angel fights show that this flat out doesn't work.

* The Angel had little reason to remain there: it seems that Zaki was no longer entitled to Angelic protection, which would confirm the "nut shot" theory. Even if this is not the case, Zaki was taken to a hospital where he is currently scheduled for

# stabilization surgery.

# reconstructive surgery (phalloplasty).

# reconstructive surgery (vaginoplasty), tracheal shaving, and additive mastoplasty.

* The arena, while being a lot more improvised than previous instances, had performed to specifications until Los Tiburon's pinning mode was aborted.

Even as a failure, your sysadmins have collected quite a bit of data to share with the science teams, including unadulterated samples of Angelic blood.

>>1022693

Capt. Weaver has the base guards be ready to BLAM the commissars, and hides a number of drones in closets or amongst the factory equipment in case things go south.

The TOL delegation consists of a commissar and his retinue, plus a half dozen radio and IT technicians to help re-establish communications.

# Give them an enthusiastic tour.

# Show them as little as possible.

# Spring an ambush as soon as they are inside.

>>1022714

Zak is extremely excited about this Angel's blood; at the very least it can be compared with Ithuriel's.

Some of your operatives who are transgendered are perplexed about forcing a sex changed on someone; others think that given how the Glorified have bullied LGBT folks for 950 years, it's just desserts.

Your tactical analysis indicates that eradicating the commissar and his retinue has effectively no chance of failure, if it comes to that, but you can't do that more than once or twice without causing suspicion.

Here gib moment to catch up.

>>1022678
>trust her judgement.

>>1022714
>reconstructive surgery (phalloplasty)

No fucking forced gender bend shit, and keep guards on alert encase this permits the angel too return. Fucking sucks we didn't get it.

>Give'm an okay tour to show them what happened and nothing else happened. If they find out though, gunn'em down.

We cannot risk any more villains

>>1022729
OK like it's just spiteful to do the forced sex change. Might just leave him how it is. Mabey cover it up super hard and just do a ton of experiments on him. I think I like the last one just make him disappear for now see what we can get out of him.

>>1022825
As he said give them a tour

>>1022825
Sorry I ballsed it up a bit while you were gone

>>1022848
Alright of people did. We missed our chance at another angel, and lost a Cabal but otherwise it wasn't that bad. IT CAN BE FIXED

>>1022851
So what's our plan. And how do you think we could use the deglorified? Perhaps brained washed and used as a spy

>>1022882
The question is, is he gonna stay glorified because apprently the nut-crush worked. I say watch and learn, see if he returns to being normal or if he sticks as one. We might be able to try again.

For now we focus on the return of the Old gods and building up our space/cabal/army levels

Do we have hover drones?

>>1022888
So your saying add a new dick see what happenes but be prepared to crush it again. Just keep a hydrolic press above his croch.

Yeah it seems like the best way to get cabals is base and mech production unless dedicating 5 cabals a turn to recruitment is a good investment.

>>1022895
Also what are the exact details of the design of the spaceship?

>>1022902
I don't actually know if 5 Cabal's a turn it a good recruitment. Have to ask QM what the increase rate is per-recruitment rate.

>>1022916
You mean the Ark ship or the ones going to the space station?

>>1022925
The ark ship, although I'd like to know about the other too now.

>>1022932
The Ark ship if I remember QM's post was like the one from Alpha century. It's a giant tube pretty much.

>>1022945
Should be our last resort though kinda want to save earth

(Hey guys, we lost power due to a stormso I'm on batteries/generator, connectivity is likely to be sporadic, apologies for not answering sooner)

>>1022945
>>1022925

The two designs for an arkship involve going either to Mars, or to Alpha Centauri. In the second case, cold-sleep systems will be required; in the first case, it will be sufficient to slow down crew and livestock metabolism, which is easier.

You haven't settled on a design yet because, either way, you'll need to build up the canopy station first so that it can be used to launch spacecraft (using the water canopy itself as fuel is very advantageous from a delta-V perspective).

>>1022895

Quadcopter technology was not developed in this timeline. You do have small hovercraft that can be given a CPU instead of standard controls, but your flying drones are of the airplane-like variety. Your Sky Eyes are small solar powered drone boats that "float" on the undersurface of the sky canopy by using impellers.

>>1022851

Some plans have worked, some have failed, in the last 60 years. So it goes!

>>1022831
>>1022825

Your decision is appreciated by your transgender agents, although Zak says that it misses a good opportunity for SCIENCE. Kat quickly swats him down.

Either way, Zaki is scheduled for reconstructive surgery, which will take a couple of weeks, and can be interrogated in the meantime.

>>1022971

Saving Earth would be the most effective way of preserving humanity. However, your space program workers have calculated that last-ditch it will take 56 people and 105 tons of livestock and seeds to populate another planet without risking degenerative inbreeding.

>>1022945
>Goggle search gets me interstellar ark wiki.
>"One propulsion method for a crewed spacecraft could be a fusion microexplosion nuclear pulse propulsion system."
Seems i don't have to suggest to use a nuclear propulsion engine for our ark ship.
As for my other idea, i was thinking of adding a ore smelter, factory and drone carrier section to the ship, that way we can mine asteroids for metal and use the resources to build more stuff in space like extra ships and stuff.

>>1022995
That would be advisable. Honestly I feel we have two choices;

1) Focus on off-world assets and abandon saving earth beyond minimal efforts. Spend the next few years sending as many people, plants and animals to space as possible.

2) Focus on earth, merely prepare the minimal requirements for the mars program.

>>1022991
"Quadcopter technology was not developed in this timeline."
Actually i was thinking of the cold war experimental technology "Williams X-jet wasp"

>>1022995

Your research has obtained a simple but effective Fission Fragment Engine, which can be used for interplanetary distance -- using it to travel 4 light years is a long shot, but it's the best shot you have.

You have used the prototype to send a probe to the Martian moon Deimos, and obtain pictures, video, and a small rock sample.

The FFRE works very well in space, but it does not have enough impulse to take off or land from a planet (hence why Deimos was used for the test, it's tiny and has very little gravity), for which ordinary LH2/LOX or LOX/kerosene rockets are needed. Fortunately, Yahweh has put a LOT of water at the edge of space, and your station is already electrolysing it.

>>1022991
>>1023003
>>1023002

I'm voting we send people too Alpha Centarui and start drawing up the designs for that. But we need to push for the space station to be up first

>>1023004
What does a maxed out Space station get us access too? Also Might I inquire as to why we can't live in space above the world?

>>1023008
I am against Alpha Centauri, we don't know of the viability of non-solar assets and it will take resources away from other projects. If all else fails we can retrofit the mars program or even use the martian colony to build a new one.

However we can continue to discuss this as we get the space station up and running.

>>1023016
And I'm against the mar's plan because we're still within the sphere of 'influence' by god being born in space dones't change anything.

We should focus on earth and have space as a backup plan

>>1022991
Enjoying new England weather?

>>1023021
Well, we will still be within god's reach no matter how far we run by that logic.

>>1023004
Looking at the wiki's for both engines it looks like the Fission Fragment Engine has the better Specific impulse, although if it can't launch from ground can't we use a nuclear propulsion to do so?
>>1023008
>>1023016
>>1023021
I was thinking of using the ark ship to start up an interstellar fleet rather than a colonization mission.

>>1023029
uh.. What? we don't have the resources for that, QM stated we could only do mars or the Colony mission.

>>1023022
>>1023021
>>1023016
>>1023008
>>1023008

According to Revelation 22, Yahweh is going to destroy the heaven and the earth, and make new ones. This can be interpreted in three ways:

* If "Heaven" means "the whole of the universe", then escaping to anywhere in space will not work.

* If "Heaven" means "the firmament", that is, the sky canopy, then moving to a different planet should be sufficient.

* If "Heaven" means "the universe as it was understood by Bible prophets", that means that you have to leave the Solar System.

>>1023002

You have approximately 40 turns available; focusing on one or two plans may be advisable.

>>1023003

The main issue with that sort of thing is fuel capacity and range. Your robotics technology has developed unevenly, and has some quirks - since you have had access to modular cyborgs BEFORE having access to things like GPS and computer vision, your drone vehicles generally started off as normal vehicles, modified to accept a MECpod, modified to accept a "dummy plug" that sits instead of the MECpod and provides AI for the vehicle.

As it often happens, there was never much time to streamline the design and there was never much pressure to break compatiblility...

At least you're doing better than the NJ government, whose tech is stuck circa 1995, and TOL, whose military hardware is stuck circa 1940.

A maxed-out space station allows for launching Arkship parts and canopy-breaching ballistic missiles (someone dug out the old "Rods from God" USAF blueprints, crossed out the From, and added a To).

Potentially, it might be possible to use the canopy station as a barracks to quickly deliver drop pods all over the planet, since they could travel above the canopy and then breach it.

>>1023029

The FFRE can only operate in freefall, or with very small gravity wells - it would not let you land on the Moon, for example. While Ziggy briefly considered a nuclear propulsion rocket in the 940s, he and Jeb determined that it's more efficient to use what little nuclear fuel you have for FFREs, and use chemical rockets for takeoffs and landings.

>>1023032

You could probably launch orbital fighters, but against who? Neither of your opposing factions have an air force, nevermind a space force. The NJ government has a few supersonic airliners, but they are no longer being built. TOL has some transport airplanes.

On the other hand, kinetic bombardment has potential.

>>1023032
We do have the resources if we do >>1022995 and mine all the asteroids in our solar system.

>>1023036
>You have approximately 40 turns available.
Well shit.
I suggest building the ark ship and some mining drones as soon as possible then do what we can on earth.

>>1023050
I don't think we have time for.mining drones to be helpful

>>1023041

It is important to note that, last year, the Temple Tribunal has sentenced that:

* Outer space exists. (To the disappointment of some of your agents, who really wanted an easy way to weaponize cognitive dissonance by collapsing the sky canopy)

* Believers should remember that outer space exists "for signs and wonders", and thus, since no more signs or wonders are necessary, they have a duty to ignore outer space entirely. (This has caused some political aftershocks and backlash, such as astronomy classes being canceled in schools the world over and a resurgence of flat-earth videos on OmegaTube, which at the time you decided to not censor since the rebuttal videos have assisted in marking the internet as your turf).

>>1023056

Valentina has prepared a briefing on the current state of ISRU, and can give it to your sysadmins if you so desire, at the end of the year.

>>1023056
Mining drones would give us more metals to build stuff like a army of drones to drown people with.

>>1023069
Just spam done bases and resources? But then we end up as Satan's army. The best way to defeat greater Jerusalem I would think is breaking the prophesy

>>1023056
>>1023050
We push for the Ark Program, We get going.

>>1023069
We gotta get that shit UP their, we don't have a high enough space station too launch that.

>>1023073
Yeah but winning through ark isn't nearly as cool or complete as kicking in turbo Jesus's shit and crushing his balls.

>>1023077
We can still DO that, but we need to make sure we fucking win in the first place. We can come back in 10k or 1k to fist Turbo Jesus.

Would anyone object to giving TOL some blueprints for better weapons and shit to improve their chances, seeing as we can't stop them from charging into their deaths. We might as well try and improve their odds of not dying without at least slowing the enemy down.

Hell even if they only take one more enemy than they otherwise would that is a great improvement, since that is one less for us to deal with.

>>1023082
After he already won and killed 5 billion people?

>>1023036
>The main issue with that sort of thing is fuel capacity and range.
Can we do enough research to improve the fuel capacity and range or even discover another method of hover?
Also are there extra uranium deposits in space?
>>1023071
Wait, what number is Satan's army supposed to have? Is going over that number breaking the prophecy?

>>1023087
Yeah but only if we can get them to attack early and often. Because if they attack at year 1000 one word from Jesus and there all dead.

If we can get them on an offensive consistently starting now that would be great.

>>1023088
>We should risk a possible win because muh 5billion died.

>>1023090
Like 1.4 billion and going over dosnt change much I would think. Perhaps if we got rid of it completely would make a larger difference.

>>1023093
>Yeah but only if we can get them to attack early and often.
Constantly chant "Start the war, break the prophesy" on their communication lines, and if they still haven't started attacking by 990 switch to booing them until the end.

>>1023087

A few years back, you shared some of your older Wubber and MEC technology. They turned the MEC into a zombifier, and haven't done much with wubbers.

Given that you have just stormed a TOL base, negotiations should be interesting...

>>1023097

Supposedly, TOL is supposed to be one billion strong at the end of the Millennium.

>>1023090

Helicopters are a pretty mature tech; you can definitely put work into it.

Uranium deposits in space definitely exist - it's one of the main reason why capturing an asteroid might have some benefit.

>>1023077

You have two cabals scheduled to comb the sacred texts and figure out what happens AFTER the end of the world for next year.

To wrap up this year, Weaver gives a cursory tour to the TOL commissar, and pretends to look suitably chastised when they berate her for the accident, at which she promises that she will improve production. She arranges for the jammer to be turned off mid-tour, so that it looks like systems are back online early.

The commissar and his retinue are about to leave, but bad luck strikes and the crimson-hatted TOL officer figures that since he's here, he might as well take the missionary into custody.

# Someone's about to have an accident...

# Let him have him.

# Allow the missionary to escape.

(Sorry, rolled a 3/100 on this one earlier)

Geist is back!! (Rereading the archive.)

>>1023106

That's a simple thing to accomplish. The main TOL base is in Antarctica; your previous infiltration missions indicate that they are stockpiling their weapons and soldiers there, and they will then begin moving them into the Rub-Al-Khali grassland (formerly desert) in 997.

TOL leadership believes that prophecy must be followed because at the last moment Satan will escape (which is prophecied), pull a rabbit out of a hat to disable all supernatural defenses (which is not), and allow TOL's superior numbers to win.

>>1023108
> Someone's about to have an accident... Make it seem like the Missionary broke out, then kill them both and/or knock them out all out so when they awake. we can lie to both.

>>1023108
>capturing an asteroid might have some benefit.
>We have an entire asteroid belt we can mine.

>>1023117
>Need to get to Space station level 6 first

>>1023112

Welcome back! So are horrible d100 rolls, I'm afraid :)

>>1023114

Weaver does the whole obsequious-underling song and dance for the TOL commissar, noting that it wasn't too different under her believer superiors when she was captaining a passenger ferry, and while they accept wine and biscuits -- this is central Italy after all -- the missionary's cell door opens. Alarms blare indicating a possible Angelic presence which, of course, you do not detect at all. Surprised, the missionary confides in supernatural protection, and legs for it... only to be gunned down in a corridor, in plain view of a security camera with the commissar watching. Good shot, whoever did it!

# A live soldier.

# A MEC.

# One of the base's primitive sentry guns, which you'll have to upgrade as soon as possible.

# A drone, out of sight of the camera obviously.


>>1023120

Getting the base's rocket or maglev stage-zero sled built allows for launching things much more cheaply, but you can do a Soyuz/Gemini style launch earlier, if it is absolutely necessary - at a price.

>>1023126
>A live soldier.

they love that shit.

Also, I'd rather it be done cheaply sense we have our resources stretched.

>>1023113
"If satan is such a rebel why doesn't he break god's prophecy of him?"
"Why does TOL need to wait until 1000 to attack God's worshipers?"
"TOL missed such an opportunity in 666, what fagots"
Every new years day "TOL is full of pussies" for the entire 24 hours followed by a single "Don't disappoint this year"

>>1023138
The best way to prove TOL wrong would be to either defeat god before the apocolypse and them take a bonus round liberating hell, or to free Satan early.

Until then they are a pain in the ass.

>>1023148
Broadcasting constantly at them will still be great psychological warfare.

>>1023151
They really don't seem to care, plus they kinda get that already

>>1023126
How far off are we from having dummy pod AI controlling a heavy MEC frame? I have an idea I'd like to execute In preparation for endgame and they are necessary.

>>1023138

You can definitely dedicate a cabal to setting up a transmitter in Antarctica. What it might do is... a good question.

>>1023138
>>1023148
>>1023152
>>1023151

Your newly reinstate theology scholars promise that they will have an answer within the next year.

>>1023132

The missionary goes down with a single shot right through the medulla.

When the commissar asks to commend the soldier for marksmanship (it's one of your guys, obviously) he reminds her that she is to remain inside the base, lest a bolt of lightning smite her. This is, in fact, the case.

Looks like TOL is still in the dark about you stealing one of their bases; if you keep production up, they may even remain so.

>>1023154

The Avatar project has been completed, and dummy pods can be produced. They aren't any good when operating a Heavy MEC frame, at best they can walk around and maybe shoot at stationary targets, but they work extremely well on vehicles that have been modified for MECpod use - effectively, your entire drone army can be controlled by a few of your techs in a bunker, Command & Conquer style.

How about we capture Satan the moment he shows up so he's missing from the prophecy.

>>1023158
Well its a good thing lighting cannot break our walls! but We shall keep up production for them to keep up the illusion.

>>1023160
God gets to still come out and nuke it. We have to prevent year zero from happening to avoid the lava shower.

Perhaps Satan does have some power. It's one of the reasons breaching hell is such a desired idea. Having a literal legion of the damned on your side is something not to be laughed at.

>>1023158
I'll have to get creative then.

>>1023171
This.

>>1023171

TOL bases are usually underground - a lightning strike would just earth itself.

Your strategic installations since the Ten Plagues have featured Tesla coils to work as active lightning rods and three-point grounding on the roofs.

Overall, over this year you have lost a cabal from attrition - mostly the Angel fight - and another from the simple fact that someone's going to have to man the Rome base and keep an eye on the conscripts until they can be considered loyal.

>>1023181

Marching a number of MEC frames from point A to point B can be done with dummy plugs, and so can things like "dig a hole in even terrain" or "operate a mortar that always has to fire in the same spot" or even "shoot anyone going through that door until we can install a sentry gun". Any task more complex than that requires a MECpod.

For vehicles, dummy plugs can be used to go to a waypoint (but not obey traffic laws, for example: machine vision isn't as good as it is now IRL), fire at a target, and so on; this is simply because a tank has much fewer points of articulation than a humanoid robot. Omega is still the only true AI on the planet.

>>1023171
>>1023195

The year has come to an end. Stand by for situation report...

>>1023181
Doesn't Jesus need to kill Satan personally?

>>1023199
Nope. Just open his mouth and suddenly fire rains from the sky, which is why our objective is to shut his mouth before then.

>>1023196
Can we make a more cheaper MEC version for AI control then?
>machine vision isn't as good as it is now IRL
Man there are a lot of thing we can and should improve. Should we assign a cabal to research general upgrades?

>>1023213
no, We need to fucking focus currently.

>>1023219
I'm not saying now, i mean when we have time and luxury.

>>1023199

TurboJesus is not prophecied to kill Satan, rather, Satan ends up back into the lake of fire (where he has supposedly been the whole time, only being allowed out for a little bit for the purpose of being thrown back in).

>>1023213

TOL have perverted your Mark X MEC into a version that allows turning the wearer into a "fast zombie", additionally infecting him or her with rabies. Since fine control is not needed, the "Mark XI" neurodes are considerably cheaper. You have captured some samples, and you can reverse engineer it, but as it is, it's a crude copy of your own systems.

>>1023224
we'll have time and luxury after we smite the lord. until then what we have should suffice for AI, now we have to build for the Silencing Wubber, and evacuate some of the good little heretics off this planet.

Wait how much money do we have? We could fund inventors in Egypt for those general upgrades.
>>1023225
Alright, reverse engineer the zombie tech and modify it to make AI only MEC's.
Sounds like a good project for later.

>>1023248
ok, i'm going to have to disagree with you if your saying we should make the rabid zombie MEC for multiple reasons! but if your suggesting we turn it into an AI plug for a dead body without bringing the damned soul back screaming then i'll support.

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961's Feast of Tabernacles happens with little incident.

In a few days, Zaki Ababneh recovers sufficiently to be interrogated; unsurprisingly, he is barely responsive, he wasn't really trying to broadcast anything from his mantenna array but being deprived on it had a psychological effect... almost terminally so in this case; he eats and drinks enough to not need intubation, but barely interacts with the world otherwise.

Near the end of they ear, a phalloplasty is performed by the best Underground Monorail surgical team that you can find that is willing to operate on a Glorified; the operation is a success, and the patient's morale returns with a vengeance, so much so that he has to be restrained until the stitches heal.

Afterwards... what's interesting is that Zaki is acting like a little kid - curious, naive, somewhat annoying, the works. His personnel file indicates that he was Raptured as a child, skipped his formative years, and was returned to Earth as a Glorified.

>>1023248

Money is abstracted at this scale; your territories are fairly prosperous, and you can spread some resources around.

>>1023257
>>1023248

Figuring out how much of the brain can be kept alive without forcing a soul to stick with it will be tricky; some of your sysadmins mention something about "servitors". The first obvious step is to put your newly reformed theology task force to work on this; your Tree Of Life allies will cultivate some neurons for you.

Valentina has prepared a report on space launches, if you care to hear it.

>>1023257
The second one but without the dead body, just the MEC.

>>1023257
We should get thay toxin that TOL made we have some people with the zombie XI in them might as well see what it is.

>>1023263
Let us hear of it!

>>1023263
"you have my microphone's, Valentina."

>>1023263
Wait, we need brain cells to put a dummy AI in a MEC?

>>1023279
Also this, lets hear the space progress.

>>1023281
MEC's are people who have received an implant that keeps them alive.

Heavy MEC's are people who have suffered such trauma they have to be kept alive with only their torso in a cylinder, and can plug into the H-MEC frame.

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>>1023275
>>1023279

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q_8TO4Ag0E

Valentina quickly explains the basics of orbital flight to your sysadmins, stressing that the whole point is going fast horizontally, not going up - going up is simply necessary to get out of the atmosphere in order to be able to go fast without burning up. A V2 rocket could go to space for a few minutes, and so could the projectile of the Paris gun in 1918; the R7 rocket that launched Sputnik into orbit had to be 20 times the mass.

"However, this was in the good old days, before Yahweh denied us the night sky. Joke is on Him, though - what we have been doing is sending our rockets straight up, splashing them on the liquid underside of the sky canopy at the edge of their trajectory and then using water propellers to go upwards, and breaking the icy topside. Cordylon has the ability to open up an "ice fishing hole" from the station itself now, so that the capsules don't need an icebreaking nose and can carry more payload instead."

"The interesting part is that, save for the stray water molecule or proton pair, there is no atmosphere outside the canopy - building a relatively short monorail segment and putting a rocket or maglev sled upon it, on the flat ice, and using a reactor or solar panel array to elecrolyze the water into rocket fuel gives us an infinitely reusable first stage and removes the requirement to haul fuel in orbit. The canopy is also tough enough to let us carry construction materials in a compact manner "upstairs" and do the final assembly there. In short, without requiring enormous vectors, we can cheaply launch interplanetary vessels the like of which Sergey Korolev himself could but dream of!"

"The catch is, of course, that just as the current situation of Earth makes launching cheap, it makes re-entry extremely difficult. Historically, capsules have used aerobraking to slow down from orbital velocity, and parachutes or lifting surfaces (Valentina tsks a little; she's a Soyuz/Apollo fan, and thought the Space Shuttle, while pretty, was a horrible idea) to perform a soft landing. The same lack of atmosphere that allows us cheap access to orbit makes it expensive to return for it, since the spaceship has to actively brake using fuel."

"In short, what goes up better doggone well stay up."

>>1023312

Exactly. However, a couple of years ago the decision was made to offer, when possible, genital reconstruction surgery to heavies. This required updating the MECpod spec with an additional access panel. Unfortunately, most of your early heavies are ineligible, barring a tremendous stem cell breakthrough that is unlikely to happen. Damien seems okay with it. Kat has written much poetry and fiction on the argument and her blog is well-attended. Cordylon used about half of her luggage mass allotment for a mechanical oscillator, but has protected your files on the device, so you cannot access it unless Cordy has a medical emergency.

>>1023312
So we don't need brain tissue to pilot heavy MEC's, now i don't understand why geist mentioned the zombie MEC's when i asked him if we could make cheaper MEC's For AI control.

>>1023350
it's a bit of a trap option, we get cheaper units that can be used as an army, but that's all they can be used for. and the backlash we'd get PR wise as well as from what few allies we have (failing to mention our own forces) is too great to aim for. or at least that's my opinion on the matter.

>>1023364
But i was asking about making Heavy MEC's cheap so we can have an AI piloted army.

OOC POST

>>1023350

My job is to present option. That is an option, so I presented it.

>>1023364


It is in fact not a very good option. It's a bit late in the game, but the way that research has worked in this quest is, there are 3 possible payoffs and you basically get to choose 2 of them, plus a "capstone".

For example, MEC tech had the Infiltrator, Heavy, and Horde path. Players went with the Infiltrator path first, and Heavy second, so, fairly predictably, TOL stole some of your research and went Horde.

Nuclear path had radiation sources, and motors, with the capstone for it and space research being the FFRE (meaning that you only have to worry about fuel for takeoff/landing, and don't have to care too much about orbital mechanics and transfer times).

One thing that has eluded your researchers, and not from lack of trying, is allowing MECs to feel physical pleasure the normal way since their pain receptors have to be completely destroyed lest they experience the pain of Hell - which unfortunately damages the opposite sensation as well.

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>>1023387

The Heavy MEC procedure is very invasive, and generally performed on someone whose body is mostly gone, or on an infiltrator MEC who has damaged their joints and original skeleton past viability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXOhIJg4B7k

The head, the least damaged lung, and some of the intestine is preserved (attempts are made to keep the whole head because cybernetic eyes are very vastly inferior to natural eyes, and because it allows the MEC to maintain a sense of self).

Since wiring up the spinal cord directly is difficult, standard procedure is to keep as many nerves as possible, but disconnect the muscles from them, save for a small segment which will be strung across a strain gage to measure intention of movement. The entire assembly is then suspended in saline solution and insanguinated as necessary; usually Heavy MECs have artificial hearts and carry a battery in their pods.

The pod itself is built very strongly, and the vertebrae are fused and fastened to it.

It's not a particularly pleasant fate, although it beats eternal fire.... however, you do get the occasional person such as Damien who is happy about it.

>>1023417
why does Robocop make me want to go on a binge listening to fear factory?

ok Geist, show us that beautiful options list, and how many cabals does it cost to open up a stone quarry in Egypt!?

(If there are questions aboiut the game world, ask away, otherwise y'all tell me if we can continue!)

>>1023333
Checked and what else with these updates?

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>>1023440

You have 22 cabals total; of these, 3 are maintaining your systems, and 1 is manning the containment facility in Australia.

You have preallocated 2 cabals to study contemporary theology; assign a head researcher?

16 are available.

You are tracking enemy teams. Rules for allocating cabals and assets: http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.QuestRules.html

You do not have a station part ready and will have to build one if you want to launch it.

Variable complexity / contested actions:

# Launch an attack on a TOL base or a govt installation.

# Work on global data network infrastructure, incidentally making sure that you control more of it.

# Any interesting idea you might want to try.

# Deal with special situations (see above post)

Complexity 0

# Use your automated base in Greenland to produce drones, space rocket parts, or cybernetics for MECs.

C 1

# Foster pagan worship in a territory.

# Improve morale across your organization. Morale is high.

# Harass or sabotage a Hero, or tie up an enemy team.

# Jam radio transmissions in a territory. This forces people to switch from NJ-controlled broadcast media to internet media.

# Send a survey team anywhere (covert or overt) to look for trouble.

C 2

# Induct MEC citizens into your cabals, and upgrade them accordingly at one of your bases. This adds one dot to the MEC cabal counter per base.

# Produce drones at any base. Current army size is marked on the bottom of the map. Adds one dot to the +1 army size.

# Use any of your bases to improve (relative to rest of the world) prosperity in that territory. You must control the territory.

# Use a base in a territory you don't control to start bringing that territory under your control. Progress will be made in 1/5 increments.

# Seed irradiated super-grain in a Christian territory. This decreases the need for agricultural work, and makes life even more boring there.

# Seed irradiated super-weed in a Christian territory. This increases the need for agricultural work, and makes life more miserable there.

C 3

# Attempt to eliminate a Hero or enemy team (by force or by cleverness).

# Use the launchpad for a canopy-breaching launch. Station structure: 1/8.

# Use the launchpad for a retrieval mission from the Deimos probe.

# Set up a radio transmitter in a territory. This is harder than setting up a jammer, but you can use it to troll government radio instead of just jamming it. Or Antarctica.

# Using your internet dominance, attack TOL or NJ networks for disruption or to mine data.

# Night City is ready to break off its territory, you may do so overtly or covertly, or keep things as they are.

C 4

# Continue nuclear or sonic research. (Nuclear research will focus on botany and engines ). (Sonic research focuses on medium size weapons).

Complexity 5

# Begin building a base in the Middle East in the Rub-Al-Khali.

# Recruit a new cabal into your forces. (The more cabals you have, the more expensive it is to recruit)

Fuck, brb.

>>1023550
Is that pink part of America partially under our control?

>>1023550
># Use your automated base in Greenland to produce drones, space rocket parts, or cybernetics for MECs.
Drones

>Continue nuclear or sonic research. (Nuclear research will focus on botany and engines ). (Sonic research focuses on medium size weapons).
Focus on sonic research, dedicate four Cabals, Assign Zak. and pray to Hephaestus that the capstone is something that can contain TurboJesus, like the silencing system.
># Use the launchpad for a canopy-breaching launch. Station structure: 1/8.
five Cabals to this three for the Launch and two to build the parts.
># Night City is ready to break off its territory, you may do so overtly or covertly, or keep things as they are.
three cabals, do so covertly.
>2 Cabals to do a special mission.
Prep a new Quarry In Egypt and start digging a tunnel under New Jerusalem in secret with drones and heavy MECs.

I have no idea for the last two, maybe find a good head for the Occult Research Division, or assist in the Night City Breakoff.

>>1023593

Pacifica is under your unofficial control; the nominal government in Orange County still reports to New Jerusalem, but nonbelievers there have created an unofficial economy that has quickly eclipsed the official one. Afterwards, they lobbied very hard for limited government, so much so that most legal disputes are handled by arbitration, most regulation is handled by guilds or unions, and so on. These contracts are mediated by a supercomputer called Colossus, which is in fact one of your datacenters. Essentially, Pacifica has similar strict moral laws to most of the believing world, but they have become unenforceable, and too many believers live there (and like it there) for any kind of drastic action from the Temple.

I forgot to menion above: Due to overproduction of foodstuffs in the North American Heartland and underproduction in Western Europe, the two regional governments are working to set up a trade/relief sea route going from the Gulf of Mexico to the Iberian peninsula. The route has not been set up yet but is expected to be running by the end of the year... unless something happens. There are ships to procure, crews to train, and the NJ government has to approve re-industrializing at least two ports, in contrast with its current pastoralization policy ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan ).

>>1023617
So can we do it for them? Like have all them coming through ports WE own? Also how is the control of Rome coming?

>>1023617
well, time to become the jews again.

>the Government of Misrayim's seating despot, Omega offers to assist in the transportation efforts between North America and Western Europe.

>>1023610
supporting this.

>>1023631

The trade route will cross the Atlantic, while you control the North American West Coast, so... it'd be a bit of a weird way to do things, especially since there is no Panama Canal anymore. Maybe you can plant super-grain and super-weed in different territories? If you are looking at piracy however, Misrayim's west coast is a pretty good starting point.

>>1023634

The person in charge of Cairo's government makes a formal offer to NJ and to the relevant regional governments. Heartland and New Jerusalem answer that the Mediterraneans would rather starve than take your help. The Mediterraneans answer that they are grateful for the offer, will take it under consideration, but do not need help at this time.

Control of Rome may start at any time! Using a base to bring a territory under your control is a complexity-2 action.

>>1023610

Confirm this? You do have two cabals unassigned.

Jeb, Capt. Weaver, Kat, and Damien are also unassigned.

>>1023647
Maybe put the two cabals to bring west America to our control.

>>1023653
we'll need a minute on the last assignments.

>>1023647
>>1023610

Sounds good! You have two cabals unassigned. They can go spying, install that insulting transmitter you mentioned, etc.

(You'll be happy to know that you have done enough trial-and-error to be able to do systematised NC research - that's what the theology guys will be doing from now on)

>>1023610
>>1023653

>First part
No, Focus on Nuclear.
>Okay with this part.
>Do it Covertly
>2 Cabals to increase the control of Rome/italy.

>>1023664
that gets my rocks off.
>General's Kat and Damien are assigned to the night city
>"definitely not low energy" Jeb is on the space launch.
>Zak on sonics
>Weaver is helping with the Quarry. Ensuring Covert activity stays Covert.

>>1023664
Put the 2 extra Cabal on Securing Rome.

>>1023691
sounds good.

>>1023697
>>1023691

(gimme a sec, got to switch power banks)

>>1023691
Yea sure.

>>1023610
>>1023766
>>1023697

Back! Can I have a full allocation? I want to make sure that I get it right. Sorry about that!

>>1023795
sure. a minute please

>>1023795
>two cabals to taking Rome
>2 Cabals to Egypt to make a quarry and secretly dig a tunnel that leads under New Jerusalem. Weaver ensures it stays covert.
>Launchpad to build Canopy Station. 5 cabals with two building the space parts and the three coordinating the launch. Jeb runs the show.
>Night City Covert Break Away. three Cabals doing so covertly. Kat and Damien on standby here to ensure all runs smoothly.
>Sonic Research. four cabals with Zak running the project.
>Greenland produces Drones.
>check in on the Occult Research Club Later. lets get that meme magic

>>1023843
>>1023668

Are you directing your research efforts towards sonic or nuclear work?

While y'all decide, let's see...

Without a particular direction, the two cabals you assigned to study theology pretty much disappear in pre-Rapture books, interviews to the oldest people they can find, and what-have-you. You lose a few to conversion, even, as reading the Bible seems to cause...

# and have them killed off, of course; that's treason, plus they might give away valuable intel.

# and respect their conscience; their names are added to the wall of infamy, and they are warned to stay away from your lands, but they get to live and, presumably, have their implants removed, if the bumbling Christian doctors can manage to do it.

The end result is that the two groups end up merging into one to give their final presentation (Lose a cabal to conversion). Worth it, though, because what a presentation it is! You are presented with a complete picture of...

# the Bad End, as experienced by a Natural believer, in the form of a virtual-reality presentation, with the best indications what will happen when and where.

# why nobody who wasn't already a believer has looked too deeply into this stuff until now.

# Jenny's origin.

# what pagan worship has resulted in, in various areas and fields of endeavor.

>>1023908
>nuclear.

>and have them killed off, of course; that's treason, plus they might give away valuable intel but keep it dark.
>what pagan worship has resulted in, in various areas and fields of endeavor.

>>1023908
># and have them killed off, of course; that's treason, plus they might give away valuable intel but keep it dark.
I hate these decisions, so be it.

the end result I'll leave to the others.

>>1023908
and my vote was for sonics.

>>1023908
I'll trow myself to the nuclear team.

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Rolled 17, 91, 36 = 144 (3d100)

>>1023951

Thanks for the tiebreak! Any input on the first theology result?

>>1023843

Rome, as well as the territory around it, is having problems due to your irradiated super-thorns. A few shipments of Egyptian grain greatly improve the fortunes of the local palate, especially since you give the job to a historical revivalist group who add the nice touch of dressing the whole thing up like the grain shipments that went the same way during Late Empire times, including guards dressed up as legionaries. You sell the foodstuffs at below cost to the outlying regions and outright give grain to the few people who still live in Rome, as a tribute to the Eternal City. The people there, mostly believers, note that hey, the last Pope was Raptured after all so maybe the Roman Church wasn't so bad. They are chastised for it, but it's an unheard-of bit of dissent amongst believer, which is nice.

>>1023951
>>1023919

Work at the Sahel cyclotron continues; unfortunately, stealing the last Angel's scepter didn't work out, but the team manages to figure out a thing or two about "pocket" nuclear reactors - solar panels provide most of your power, but for certain applications, it can be pretty useful. For starters, it should now be possible to build nuclear tanks, earthmovers, or locomotives - it'll be an endeavor, but it's possible, and it's possible safely. The possibility of a nuclear tunnel boring machine synergises well with...

>>1023843

... Capt. Weaver's efforts; she quickly determines that it would be much more efficient to get to New Jerusalem from the Rub-Al-Khali, due to not having to deal with the Red Sea, but figures that if Moses can part it, she can tunnel it. Work begins in earnest, just a bit away from the frontier so as to not cause too much suspicion, and the only complaints come from believer who think that this is some cockamamie attempt at causing the Nile to flow again. Weaver is all too happy to let them think so. While not much is actually dug during the year, the team learns a lot of useful lessons about how to tackle such a project, ensuring better progress later on. Incidentally, since you're digging under the aquifer, it SHOULD be possible to get the Nile estuary wet again, albeit with salt water. The pumps have to unload somewhere, after all.

# Might as well.

# No point.

>>1024088
>might as well
let's see if we can't get even more food stuff going on. Make it seem natural though.

>>1024088
># Might as well.
and in the future, if questions are raised. make it clear were digging up stone to build homes and structures with.

>>1024088
# Might as well.
Can we later make a facility that filters the salt out of the water making it fresh water?

>>1024088


>>1023843

With the icehole, electrolyzer, and greenhouse in place, the next step is installing the habitat; the launch vehicle carries little in the way of parts, mostly just enough to build a giant igloo, but that's only because most of the payload is crew!

Cordylon is overjoyed at being around people after such a long absence, and photos of the heavy MEC "sitting" between Jeb and Val reignite all the various 'shipping theories. Thanks to some good old fashioned manual labor, the Hab is erected quickly. The crew will be used to start smoothing down the ice to install the Solar Rail, has been picked by Jeb and Val, and consists of...

# One of your cabals, who will stay up there, and some of the Cosmists.

# Mostly just Cosmists. This doesn't tie up a cabal, and these guys are all fanatics so they will work very hard on building an arkship, but will care less about other possible projects you might issue them.

Oddly enough, Jeb gets bored after a two-week rotation on the canopy station - he likes flying stuff, and even just being in space gets old if he's not going anywhere else. He announced that he's bored to death, gets his environmenal suit and backpack, and plunges in the ice hole without a return capsule. An alarm is raised, and your sysadmins are about to publish Jeb's obituary, when he shows up at the Timbuktu launch facility, envirosuit mildly singed, and asks if the cafeteria is still open.

The Canopy Station activity is all recorded, and is a huge hit on the network. Christians are expressly forbidden from paying attention to it. This gives you an indication that, as prophecied, there are quite a lot of "undecideds" in the world by now.

>>1024106
>>1024116

The water IS fresh, albeit dirty; it'd get salted out again after being in the estuary, since there's little outflow. You have the option of piping it through one of your existing filtration plants and capture it for use in Cairo, or letting it refill the Nile at least in part, which is less efficient from a water conservation standpoint but a much bolder PR statement.

>>1023843

The preparations for the breakaway of Night City are accomplished with very little fanfare; as the great underground farms and water vaults take shape and begin to produce, the city imports less and less from the surrounding believing communities, some of which end up taking a bit of an economic hit due to that and due to the superthorns that are starting to invade the surface.

And then one day, as if by the Divine hand, Night City is no more - at least as far as most can tell. The roads close, and are eaten up by thorns and vines with almost supernatural speed. The air traffic ceases, save for a small flotilla of mysterious airships, quiet like ghosts and the color of the sky. The Desolators even work out an artificial cloud cover to mask entrances.

# Spread the rumor in believing territories that Night City got Gomorrah'd.

# Quietly scrub maps, charts, and so on without explanation.

>>1024148
>Mostly just Cosmists. This doesn't tie up a cabal, and these guys are all fanatics so they will work very hard on building an arkship, but will care less about other possible projects you might issue them.

>Let most flow through the Nile but keep the rest for use in Cairo, sense it helps out ALOT.

>Quietly scrub maps, charts, and so on without explanation.

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>>1023843

Finally, your Greenland base continues its work with unending pace. You have a sizeable fleet of purpose-designed land drones that can take any mortal army in the open field or even in urban combat.

Of note, the Rome base has, if anything, improved its production quality, if not numbers; the commissar that had visited last year sends a complimentary note.

# That is also potentially dangerous, just don't attract attention for now.

# If they must have bazookas they might as well have good ones, upgrade the production systems.

# This is stuff that could be used against you; add a remote shutdown.

>>1024168
>That is also potentially dangerous, just don't attract attention for now.

>>1024148
># One of your cabals, who will stay up there, and some of the Cosmists
we'll do some recruitment later.
>piping it through one of your existing filtration plants and capture it for use in Cairo
this and
># Quietly scrub maps, charts, and so on without explanation.

>>1024168
># That is also potentially dangerous, just don't attract attention for now.

>>1024148
# One of your cabals, who will stay up there, and some of the Cosmists.

Nile PR.

# Quietly scrub maps, charts, and so on without explanation.
>>1024168
# That is also potentially dangerous, just don't attract attention for now.

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>>1024167

Captain Weaver looks mildly exasperated. "Omega, that's basically twice the work for the same amount of water - where do you want it, in the pipes or in the river? We can't do both without additional pumps, and then it'll mess up the water table."

>>1024189
>>1024177

The base commander gives everyone, including former TOLers who were at that base, a couple of weeks off; this should bring the production targets more in line with the fairly sloppy TOL standards. While Italy, like everywhere else, has lost much of its beauty when its mountains were flattered, this generates some unofficial surveys of the Roman ruins. Some of the Classical stuff, such as the Coliseum and the Pantheon, are still about as intact as they were before the Rapture.

>>1024167
>>1024177

And so, as far as most of the world is concerned, Night City, that hive of scum and villainy, quietly disappears. Missionaries looking for it come home covered in splinters and disappointed. Tourism suffers, of course, but traffic between your territories continues.

The year ends with Urist's dedication ceremony; the child is mature enough to have skipped a few grades, and is now studying to take his maturity exam in three years -- this is rare, but not exceptional. Urist looks, for lack of a better word, squat and manly enough that people naturally tend to talk as to an adult when interacting.

>>1024221
>>1024181

After some discussion, the agreement is made that this is a joint base, and will be operated as such - well, you did pay for about 80% of it, so that's only fair. Even without more materiel, the workgroup on Cordylon Station starts preparing the ice for installing the Solar Rail.

( Extra water from The Dig: Nile or Cairo?)

( First result from the theology project: Pick one of those please! Note that you will get to pick again if you continue the effort, but you will NOT get access to all of them, so choose wisely)

>>1024243
>what pagan worship has resulted in, in various areas and fields of endeavor.

>Neil

>>1024233
>Put it into the pipes, we can't afford to piss of NJ any more than we already have right now.

>>1024250
>>1024252

Neil before Zod!

>>1024250

Confirm? Will use this if there are no objections

>>1024265
Confirmed.

>>1024265
yeah, confirm.

>>1024265
Yea sure, take my vote for Nile.

>>1024269
>>1024268
>>1024267

A few hammer blows and valve turns later, a large amount of brackish water starts to churn out from the "quarry" (which turned out to be an interesting shape, enough so that low-budget movies are using it as a set piece) to a specially dug canal to the Nile estuary.... and nothing happens for the better part of the day; it looks like the water is just disappearing. Checking for leaks reveals nothing. Eventually, someone figures it out -- the estuary was so dry that the silty sand was just "drinking it all up".

In a week, the estuary is back to its marshy self, and Cairo's historic port reopens.

Tsion thunders damnation, to the surprise of absolutely nobody. Apart from that, the response from the believing world is muted; the Temple doesn't say a word and the only reaction you get is some media making fun of what they think is a pathetic effort to get the river to flow again. As it is, the people of Misrayim appreciate the effort, since it also allows for relaxing water conservation rules a little.

The people in your Australian containment facility are, well, being contained and there isn't much of significance to report, other than the fact that Zaki Ababneh seems to have mentally regressed to a 10-11 years old.
The theology report consists primarily of observations made about the power of prayer and ritual; finally, it was possible to make a complete survey and eliminate most possible causes of error.

Public prayer and festivals are very effective as a morale boost and an aid to overall well-being, with "friendly" deities working best for it - the exception is Hecate worship, due to the fact that many believe that the Goddess has walked the earth recently, and while Hecate as a deity is not friendly at all, her latest "incarnation" was. In fact, the report finds that pagan worship, being generally infused with gaiety and passion compared to the somber Christian rites, is slightly BETTER than Christian worship from a morale and even mental health standpoint.

Satanism on the other hand is practiced almost exclusively by TOL soldiers; most everyone else, including most of your people have come to see Satan as quite the loser, having been utterly ineffective when he was given free reign during the Tribulation. Of note, a decent percentage of nonbelievers cite Hebrew scriptures, particularly the book of Job, to note that Satan is in fact on Yahweh's payroll and his job was specifically to induce temptation, whether in angels/demons, or humans. Of course, no believer will consider this interpretation.

The report concludes indicating that random-number testing was used to test any ACTUAL power of prayer, and on a downward note, praying to any pagan deity does after all have a measurable effect... but it's approximately 1/500th that of praying to Yahweh or Jesus. Oddly, it seems to make no difference about which deity it is, as long as it's genuinely worshiped by the test subject.

>>1024389

Finally, it's important to note that Tsion Ben-Judah is in Eastern Europe. He does not seem to be looking for Night City.

>>1024389
this is actually a boon for finding people willing to fight the opposition, we just have to get more creative at finding the smart ones.

>>1024389
So we need 500 people praying to Odin to make up for 1 person praying to Yahweh or jesus?

>>1024415
pretty much from the sound of it. although it gives me an idea.

how many people does a Cabal constitute?

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>>1024405

Most jokes about the Nile's length, shrinkage, and so on come from the people of Cairo themselves, as you do.

Tsion does say that it will be impossible for man or beast to restore the Nile until Osaze repents, and on this, the Temple agrees.

Work on Cordylon Station proceeds a little faster once an independent group manages to send them a small "care package" containing ice skates, using a homemade sounding rocket and launching with Val's permission.

Ely LeVey has formally asked a pronouncement from the Temple as to where the Station is a modern Tower of Babel.

>>1024415

Roughly, yes. Interestingly, the two exceptions are Hecate and Satan, both of which show an aberration value of zero flat.

>>1024425
Well that kinda fucks...everywhere.

>>1024424

It depends on what they are doing; your organization is very much an adhocracy. A cabal could be one talented scientist and her support personnel, or a 120-man construction brigade.

(OOC answer: I've been trying to keep it a bit abstract because otherwise I'd have to resume writing this as a strategy videogame, which was the original intention)

>>1024439
I want to test the effects of prayer in a controlled setting with controlled effect. so roughly five hundred people praying to "the machine god" for a month, then ceasing all worship.

if we get lucky, who knows? we could even contact some legit gods.

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>>1024453

That's definitely a job that your Theological Training Institute can tackle! How closely do you associate the Machine God with yourself?

>>1024474
literally our self. Hence the requirement all worship end after one months period. I do remember that some of the agents we have believed us a god and some probably still do. use them I'd say.

>>1024474
>ourself.

>>1024484
>>1024487
I'll throw in my vote as well.
Make sure to build a makeshift altar from a table with candels and a mechanicus skullgear on it.

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>>1024501
>>1024487
>>1024484

How public are you making this experiment?

>>1024534
I was thinking of keeping it in house, or at least quiet enough that New Jerusalem never learns about it. what say you guys?

>>1024534
Keep it SOLELY within the Machines/MEC guys for now. Don't let normies know until we have position or negative testing. but drop hints online about the 'machine' god.

>>1024573
sounds good to me, keep it in network with minor tidbits without confirmation.

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You have 20 cabals total; of these, 3 are maintaining your systems, and 1 is manning the containment facility in Australia.

16 are available.

You are not trackig enemy teams. Rules for allocating cabals and assets: http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.QuestRules.html

You do not have a station part ready and will have to build one if you want to launch it.

Variable complexity / contested actions:

# Launch an attack on a TOL base or a govt installation.

# Work on global data network infrastructure, incidentally making sure that you control more of it.

Complexity 0

# Use your automated base in Greenland to produce drones, space rocket parts, or cybernetics for MECs.

C 1

# Harass or sabotage a Hero, or tie up an enemy team.

# Jam radio transmissions in a territory. This forces people to switch from NJ-controlled broadcast media to internet media.

# Send a survey team anywhere (covert or overt) to look for trouble.

# Track enemy teams.

# Perform operational security on the worship project.

C 2

# Induct MEC citizens into your cabals, and upgrade them accordingly at one of your bases. This adds one dot to the MEC cabal counter per base.

# Produce drones at any base. Current army size is marked on the bottom of the map. Adds one dot to the +1 army size.

# Use any of your bases to improve (relative to rest of the world) prosperity in that territory. You must control the territory.

# Use a base in a territory you don't control to start bringing that territory under your control. Progress will be made in 1/5 increments.

# Seed irradiated super-grain in a Christian territory. This decreases the need for agricultural work, and makes life even more boring there.

# Seed irradiated super-weed in a Christian territory. This increases the need for agricultural work, and makes life more miserable there.

C 3

# Attempt to eliminate a Hero or enemy team (by force or by cleverness).

# Use the launchpad for a canopy-breaching launch. Station structure: 4/8.

# Use the station to send out an interplanetary probe.

# Set up a radio transmitter in a territory. This is harder than setting up a jammer, but you can use it to troll government radio instead of just jamming it. Or Antarctica.

# Using your internet dominance, attack TOL or NJ networks for disruption or to mine data.

C 4

# Continue theology or sonic research. (Sonic research focuses on medium size weapons) (NC research has special rules)

# Continue digging towards New Jerusalem.

Complexity 5

# Complete your nuclear program. Kat has been grinning wide enough that people have suspected a neural glitch.

# Begin building a base in the Middle East in the Rub-Al-Khali.

# Recruit a new cabal into your forces. (The more cabals you have, the more expensive it is to recruit)

>>1024642
>Complete your nuclear program. Kat has been grinning wide enough that people have suspected a neural glitch., 5 Cabal + Kat

>Continue theology, Cabal 4

>Perform operational security on the worship project., Cabal 1

>Use a base in a territory you don't control to start bringing that territory under your control. Progress will be made in 1/5 increments, Cabal 2, Europa

>Use the launchpad for a canopy-breaching launch. Station structure: 4/8, 3 Cabal, Jeb

>Use your automated base in Greenland to produce drones, space rocket parts, or cybernetics for MECs, Space station parts.

^ We only need 3? more I think.

>Jam radio transmissions in a territory. This forces people to switch from NJ-controlled broadcast media to internet media, Cabal 1, Europa.

>>1024690
This.

>>1024642
># Use your automated base in Greenland to produce drones, space rocket parts, or cybernetics for MECs.
MECs.
># Perform operational security on the worship project.
1 Cabal.
>#Induct MEC citizens into your cabals, and upgrade them accordingly at one of your bases. This adds one dot to the MEC cabal counter per base.
2 cabals all but one base.
># Complete your nuclear program. Kat has been grinning wide enough that people have suspected a neural glitch.
Give Kat all 5 Cabals. add Zak and Jeb to this ones roster.
>Take over Rome more. instill nationalism.
2 cabals. Weaver is in command.
>Use the launchpad for a canopy-breaching launch. Station structure: 4/8.
and here we are going to give the last 5 cabals. in addition were putting Damien on defensive measures around the Launchpad.

>>1024690
this plan sounds better for the turn, i'll drop mine and throw support. what should we have Zak Damien and Weaver doing?

>>1024720
>>1024690
>>1024642

Weaver should be doing the Jamming, and Zak doing the operational secruiy?

Looks like TOL is encroaching on our internet dominance, better fix that next turn.

>>1024699
>>1024690
>>1024695

(We have power again, praise the Omnissiah!)

(Looks like there is consensus on nuclear research, and space launch, so mind if I do those first and assume that SOMEthing will produce a space station part?)

>>1024738
Sureeee

>>1024738
He changed his mind >>1024720

>>1024738
you'll get your space part.

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tfw, you have a tab open on /pol/ and the FBI just releases 300 pages of Hillary Clinton investigation documents.

>>1024813
Now this i have to see.

>>1024820
javascript:quote('106249789');

should do it.

>>1024820
>>>/pol/106249789

second attempt.

>>1024825
>>1024832
Don't worry mate i already found the thread.

>>1024834
can't stop laughing. this is too good, the return of left beyond and now this! best Sunday ever!

>>1024844
>Last Sunday QD returned from hiatus.
>It was a great day.
>A day later he went to the hospital for heart surgery.
It ain't a good Sunday for me but Hillary being exposed is cheering me up.

>>1024879
aww, heres hoping QD gets better. also here's hoping the incriminating shits on some of those 300 pages.

>>1024886
>Implying there wasn't any incriminating things on the other emails that were leaked.
I might not have paid attention to what was being found but i caught enough to know she should already be in jail.

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>>1024903
Here here! Say it with me, MADAM!

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>>1024690

(thanks, sorry!)

Being dragged around by an excitable girl can be embarassing. In Kat's case it's less embarassing, but only because she picked up one of your sysadmins bodily, told him to grab a bottle of water, and informed him that they were going to walk to the cyclotron.

"But - we're in Assuan!"

"Yeah, you won't miss your Kosmicheskaya Militsiya reboot, don't worry! I'm going to run the whole way!"

"Uh... Kat, your MEC will run out of batteries. You're not wearing a generator backpack."

A severe sprint on a Heavy MEC's secondary mobility system later, a rather perplexed information technician is dropped off at the cyclotron's office building. "Did someone finally get the lithium-ferro-phosphate batteries running?"

"Nope! We dropped that years ago. Doesn't play well with vacuum. Also, kind of blowy-uppy." You know the thing you're sitting on?"

"Looks like an extra battery pack, but..."

"Nope again!"

The sysadmin jumps off Kat and stares at the frame. "Kat, are you telling me this sucker's nuclear?"

"No, no, no, no, no, this sucker's electrical, but I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need."

"Need for what? The frame is only rated for- Wait, you have a nuclear reactor the size of a piece of luggage?"

"Exactly. Fully self contained. The form factor is that of our S2B battery packs, this can run everything we have that's electric. Drone tanks, heavy wubbers, sand skimmers, you name it. Get some good electric motors going, we can even put these on helicopters!"

Some jackass plays Ride of the Valkyries on the PA.

"Best part? Completely safe and self-extinguishing."

Kat grabs a clunky prototype weapon from an ammo cart, connects it to the cables on her arm, and fires a shot at the office building's concrete load-bearing wall. The hole in it is neat enough that it could have been cut through with a thermal lance and then sanded down. "Rail gun. Not the most practical thing due to power consumption, ordinarily, but that's no longer a problem. Take anything ferromagnetic, put it between the rails, watch it fly."

Your technician is speechless, largely because his eardrums burst from the sonic boom. Fortunately, that can be fixed quickly and cheaply by now, at least in your territories.

>>1024917
>>1024813

> American politics

>>1024690

You set up a Theological Training institute to continue studying supernatural matters; finding 500 people in your territories to pray to you is not particularly hard, as it turns out that a few people were already doing it, the hard part is making them do so in an organized fashion while keeping it on the down low. Your security cabal "borrows" your theologians and has them come up with some simple liturgies and rituals that can be followed online, and soon enough the Cult Mechanicus has 500 adepts.

The Greenland base does its job to specifications, and Jeb delivers a rover and the first shipment of rails to Cordylon Station.

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>>1024690

While the original TOL base is left alone to maintain the impression that TOL still has control of it, your people pose as supporters and take up residence near the Roman ruins; pretty soon archeologists are performing careful restoration, putting fallen pylons back up, and even manage to recover part of the Trajan Column. The carvings are mostly gone after a thousand years of neglect, but six projectors are expertly set up to make the worn markings show up in lights and shadows.

Your propaganda team takes residency in nearby Cesano, long since deserted, and builds a large antenna. To allay suspicion, they make it cross-shaped. There they begin to broadcast a varied palimpsest, but with just a bit more emphasis than usual on...

# insults to TOL.

# programs extolling the virtues of the Roman Empire.

# Science lessons.

# Nonsense numbers that will hopefully give a lot of work to do to NJ and TOL cryptographers.

>>1025302
>programs extolling the virtues of the Roman Empire at night
>Science lessons during the day.

>>1025311
Can we do this?

>>1025311
This

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>>1025311
>>1025315

"Night" and "day" are of course merely a convention: the sky is uniformly blue under the canopy.

In the sense that the clocks still go from 1 to 12 and people by convention tend to sleep at "night", yes, you can do this.

The only people who get to see the stars are Cordylon and the people on the Station... although Cordylon's star maps have made sure that Night City's cavern vaults are accurate in their depiction of the Milky Way and major stars; the strings of LEDs have been replaced with laser projectors that rotate the zodiac as it should.

On that note, the "rover" topside works remarkably well; it's actually a sort of giant snowmobile with a vapor-cushion rear section and a corkscrew-track front section, and can go quite fast if it activates its boosters. It's even set up to launch small rockets even before the rail is completed, a feature that you test by

# sending a probe to the Moon.

# sending a probe to Mars.

# sending a chunk of tungsten on a parabolic trajectory so that it impacts the ice canopy elsewhere, breaching it and hitting a target on Earth, although it won't be accurate.

>>1025334
># sending a probe to the Moon.
Find the flag.

>>1025334
>sending a chunk of tungsten on a parabolic trajectory so that it impacts the ice canopy elsewhere, breaching it and hitting a target on Earth, although it won't be accurate.

>>1025344
yup, we intend to colonize.

>>1025351
Not the moon.

I've missed the writing of this quest. all the subtle/blatant references, the gags, the hilarious Anime plots. and the characters often seem to have well enough defined personality's I find myself giving them voices.
>>1025344
>>1025377
right, my bad, make that mars.

>>1025379
Not Mars either, I voted for the Ark. Mar's is too close possibly.

>>1025381
well, we aren't going to get to mars, the moon, or get an ark into space if we turn the canopy into a blatant weapons platform. none of our enemys will allow a single Launchpad to exist if we do.

>>1025388
Yes we are? You realize only the BOTTOM part would be a weapons platform right? Plus they would't understand.

>>1025401
sorry, but dropping a piece of tungsten is much more obvious when you have people building a space station on the firmament. I'd rather send a probe to the moon than risk seeing progress halted until we go full militant.

>>1025344

Valentina primly lets everyone know that the Moon flags have been bleached by solar radiation, if they are still intact, and returning a white flag wouldn't do much for anyone.

Jeb reminds her that Apollo 11's flag fell over when the LM took off, so one side may still have paint on it. Then sticks his tongue out at her. They've argued about the space race so often that a couple of the Cosmists are quoting what they'll say next and getting it mostly right.

>>1025415
>>1025401

You can also pick a target further out, but Venus is still literally hotter than Hell and the other planets will take multiple years to get to, since there's no point in wasting a FFRE on a ballistic test.

>>1025435
Can we SHOOT the moon?

>>1025445
dam'nit Cletus.
>>1025435
mars or the moon, whichever KOtnL9Ni settles on.

The moon. Get the flag, repaint it to our colors and then send a man to mars and plant the flag.

>>1024690

The Theological Training Institute assists your security cabal in testing the Cult Mechanicus liturgies (that are made up to be easy to remember, anyway: what seems to matter is the belief) and find that they have some difficulty getting people to STOP the worship once the month is up.

# Take them on a tour of one of your data centers so that they can see that there's nothing supernatural about you - may make worship of you harder in the future.

# Cause them some misfortune, associated with your worship, so that they become disillusioned - may decrease morale, less for the worship guinea pigs and more for the cabal that has to make their life hard Just Because.

́Rand͟o҉ḿ-n̵umbe̴r ͘t̸ęstin͢g͢ an͢d so ̶on̴ i͢nd͠icatéś ́tha̴t yo͞ur̷ ab͘èr͝ra͟t̷i͟ơn͝ fac͏tor is con҉s͏i̧de͏rab̵ly̛ less ͟tḩan t͡h҉e ̢1͠/̨50̧0 of͟ ͠p͏a̕gan ̧wor͘s͡h͞ip, b̷ut so͝mew̸h̴a̡t ͝m҉ơre tha͠n ͘ze̶ro,̸ ́a̛s͘ ͟ḿuc͟h ̸as o͡ne̶ mont̵h́-lo͟ng̀ s̴t̛u͡d̛ỳ ca͡ń ͏te͘ll.҉ ͡

By ̢th͏e̴ ̶lo͜ok ̕of͘ ̨i̷t͏ ͏it seems ͟t͘h́at ͟o͘psec͜ ̀wa̛s ̵go͢o̴d a͠nd ͜n̶o̶ lea͏k c̷ąme̵ ̴th̶roug͝h to ̢thȩ ̷C̨hr̡i̛s̡t͞ia͜ns,̕ al̢thou̸g̢h ͠you͏ do n҉ot͜ic͘e͟ ͡a shi̴ft iǹ ̛a̵rmy͟ ̷l̷i͏s̡ts̸ ̶p̶lay͡ed̨ by ҉w̢ar̶g̀àmèrs͞ i͟n ̛yo̶ur̷ ͠tȩrr̀i͟to͟ries͏.̧

>>1025445

Yes, you can launch an impactor probe rather than a lander if you like.

>>1025458

Sending a scouting party to Mars will make colonization easier; obviously, if you go to Alpha Centauri, it'll be all or nothing.

>>1025462
>Let them keep worshipping you.
>Extend the testing too 2 months and even let more join in.

WE'RE ASCENDING.

>>1025471
Findings demand an extension until more detailed information returns. and get a cryptologist to have a look at our logs. this isn't normal, and I can't make heads or tails of it.

>>1025458
this it is.

>>1025462
I can't decide if i want the worship to continue or not.

̷Yo̶u̵r ͡t͡h́e͟o̵l̨ogian̴s͢ a͜l̨so ̸c͟on͢fi̶r͏m͜ t͜h̴ąt̴ ͘Za̵ḱi̴ has͟ b҉a͏s̀ićal̕l̕y͢ ̢rever͏t҉ed ͡m̨e͏ntal̵l҉y̢ t͟o wh̷ere he̢ w҉as̶ ̨p̕r͘e-̕Ra͜p͘t̷ur͞e͢, inc̕luḑing,̶ ̨by a͘nd́ ͜l͞arge,͝ hi͠s m̵emo̸ri̸e̶s. Ithu̕r̕ięl̷ o̵n the o̴t͝he҉r ͢h̢an̢d, ̛ba͠s̛ic̡al͟l̴y ̶had̷ to̶ ͞relearn t͘o̕ ̛b́e a͝ ͝p̡e̶rs̵o͜n̛ ̀as ́if͞ h͠ę ha̢d͘ b͡ee̕n ͠b҉orn ͜a͢ ́few y̶ear̵s̕ a͢g̸o. ҉T͞h̢ís̡ ͘ti͡ḿé,̸ ͏you̵r t̶heol̡ògy ͢res͏ea͞rch h͟a̛s̀ r͏ésult͝ed ͜in͞ f͠e̸w̕èr͠ ͜pe͢op̵l̵e ̡co̸nv̸érti͜ng̛ o͏u̴t̵,͞ a̕l͠t́h̀ǫu̵gh ͟you d̛o̵ lo͏s̢e a ̡han̸df̸u͠l.̴

# Kill them.

# Let them go.

# Put them in containment.

͢Th̢e̡ t́h̷eǫl̸o͞gy ̕rep̧or̡t͞ for ̡th̸e end̶ o҉f͘ ̵t̀he ̕y̵e͝àr c҉ons͠įst͘s of.͜.̴.̨

# the Bad End, as experienced by a Natural believer, in the form of a virtual-reality presentation, with the best indications what will happen when and where.

# why nobody who wasn't already a believer has looked too deeply into this stuff until now.

# Jenny's origin.

>>1025482
>Put them in containment. and if they show any odd signs, kill'em.

Jenny's origin.

>>1025482
># Put them in containment.
study this phenomenon.
># why nobody who wasn't already a believer has looked too deeply into this stuff until now.


and we end the experiment at the end of the year. period. we can restart it later once we have more details.

>>1025497
Supporting.

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>>1025480
>>1025458

You send a small probe to the Moon. Within a few days, it crashes due to the uneven lunar gravitational shield, but takes a few pictures that confirm that the flag is in fact still there, and lying on the ground. A betting pool gets going about whether the footprints are still there or not.

To nobody's surprise, the photos and video that you release cause an INCREASE of video comments and blog posts indicating that the lunar landings were a hoax.

>>1025496


>>1025497
>>1025503

The report is somewhat worrying: before you prompted it, every single time somebody takes the time to investigate Biblical prophecy, they either convert or become fanatically antitheist, usually coming to a grisly end shortly after due to a lack of planning in acting on said antitheism.

Zak, ever the cool-headed one, comments "If I didn't know that curse do not work that way, I would say that some Biblical texts are cursed. I suppose it's more of a memetic infection, either it destroys you, or you become a carrier of it."


>>1025497
>>1025496

You have a few recent converts in containment in the Australian facility, where they are kept under loose observation by your theologians, psychologists, and morale experts. These people are themselves theologians, and have studied; they don't try to fight their way out or even to invoke an Angel, as they know that it would only result in death, but instead try to convert the base personnel. That, obviously, does not work at all.

This year's Feast of Tabernacle passes without incident; the trade route between Middle America and the European regions is established, and once more big ships sail the ocean. The seas are calm, so little training is needed; the crews are mostly from the overfed regions.

Captain Weaver indicates that she might sign up with that route as her "retirement" approaches, but until she does, she's not against a bit of piracy, as long as there are no casualties - it'd be fun.

>>1025581
were going to have to develop a means to work around biblical workings. the lack of planning is worrying, but even more so is the conversion. at least now we know tyrant tried to prevent his tricks from going public.

>>1025581

(Any end-of-year activities?)

>>1025607
...Like? And kill the infected I guess.

>>1025607
>end-of-year activities
tempting, I'm torn between having that cryptologist look at our "corrupted" logs and having a report of one of our unmentioned contained submitted.

>>1025613
. . . as much as we like killing the fanatics. can we try do Deconvert.

>>1025607
None.

>>1025607
lets try to deconvert them I guess.

>>1025624
>>1025629

The base containment folks, the theologians, the psychologists, and Zak - when he can be spared - try deconverting the "infected" with a mixture of methods, but mostly by...

# theological arguments (discrepancies between the Bible and what's been going on in the last 1000 years, etc)

# moral arguments (your people have committed a number of war crimes, and even so, they are innocent lilies compared to Yahweh)

# scientific arguments (young earth creationism? really? we DO have telescopes again, you know!)

# other methods of "persuasion" such as forcible deprogramming, chemicals, and sensory overload.

>>1025646
>theological arguments (discrepancies between the Bible and what's been going on in the last 1000 years, etc)

>>1025646
># theological arguments (discrepancies between the Bible and what's been going on in the last 1000 years, etc)

># scientific arguments (young earth creationism? really? we DO have telescopes again, you know!)

>>1025646
># scientific arguments (young earth creationism? really? we DO have telescopes again, you know!)

>>1025648
>>1025653
>>1025668

The "infected" always have a rebuttal ready, and while they get increasingly flimsy as they are analyzed and answered, there seems to be no way to get anything across to them.

A cursory archival analysis shows that starting from the Rapture, there have been NO cases of genuine deconversion on record.

(OOC: Yeah, it's BS, but that's how the Left Behind books work so...)

Frustrated, Zak sticks one of the "infected" in a MRI and finds that some areas of the otherwise well-functioning brain shut down in a reaction similar to deer-in-the-highlights primal fear when it's time to analyze a rebuttal.

His conclusion is that these people are just that scared of Hell. Even allowing the "infected" to talk to MECs, some of which remember a few seconds of Hellfire and are still around to discuss it, does not seem to help.

# Too bad. I guess if they want to go to Heaven, they can do so now. Mercy kill.

# Keep them in containment.

# Kill them, and then bring them back. It's a fairly routine job by now.

# Maybe if they saw the cosmos with their own eyes, instead of on a screen?

# Give them incorrect information about your plans as part of the deconversion attempts, let them escape, then trust that they'll narc on you and disseminate bad data to your enemies.

>>1025697
># Keep them in containment.
magical fuckery, trust me guys, finish the Sonics project and I have a plan.

>>1025714
Alright, supporting.
I'm going to sleep so can you guys put some cabals into fixing our internet dominance?

>>1025697
>Give them incorrect information about your plans as part of the deconversion attempts, let them escape, then trust that they'll narc on you and disseminate bad data to your enemies.
>with kill switches.

>>1025722
sure, we need to do some recruiting anyway, may as well work on that while we fix it. ill be joining you in the dream realm soon anyways.

>>1025714
>>1025722
>>1025724

Kinda passing out here, too...

The small group of "infected" are kept in containment, in relative comfort. They seem to be very nonaggressive, but your sentry guns never sleep.

Thanks for playing!

>>1025722
Sure, I'll lead us to the promise land once we've got all 8 parts up.

>>1025755
God damn it.

>>1025755
Night Geist, great having you back around.
>>1025756
nothing will stop the train there. GN.

>>1025756

Sorry, it's late and I gotta do work tomorrow :(

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=left%20beyond If you like, upvote! If you don't like, downvote!

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>>1025756

Note that Capt. Weaver is going to retire at the end of next year.

You have 21 cabals total; of these, 3 are maintaining your systems, and 1 is manning the containment facility in Australia. 17 are available.

You are not trackig enemy teams. Rules for allocating cabals and assets: http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.QuestRules.html

You do not have a station part ready and will have to build one if you want to launch it.

Variable complexity / contested actions:

# Launch an attack on a TOL base or a govt installation.

# Work on global data network infrastructure, incidentally making sure that you control more of it.

Complexity 0

# Use your automated base in Greenland to produce drones, space rocket parts, or cybernetics for MECs.

C 1

# Harass or sabotage a Hero, or tie up an enemy team.

# Jam radio transmissions in a territory. This forces people to switch from NJ-controlled broadcast media to internet media.

# Send a survey team anywhere (covert or overt) to look for trouble.

# Track enemy teams.

C 2

# Induct MEC citizens into your cabals, and upgrade them accordingly at one of your bases. This adds one dot to the MEC cabal counter per base.

# Produce drones at any base. Current army size is marked on the bottom of the map. Adds one dot to the +1 army size.

# Use any of your bases to improve (relative to rest of the world) prosperity in that territory. You must control the territory. Includes Eastern Europe for Night City.

# Use a base in a territory you don't control to start bringing that territory under your control. Progress will be made in 1/5 increments.

# Seed irradiated super-grain in a Christian territory. This decreases the need for agricultural work, and makes life even more boring there.

# Seed irradiated super-weed in a Christian territory. This increases the need for agricultural work, and makes life more miserable there.

C 3

# Attempt to eliminate a Hero or enemy team (by force or by cleverness).

# Use the launchpad for a canopy-breaching launch. Station structure: 4/8.

# Use the station to send out an interplanetary probe.

# Set up a radio transmitter in a territory. This is harder than setting up a jammer, but you can use it to troll government radio instead of just jamming it. Or Antarctica.

# Using your internet dominance, attack TOL or NJ networks for disruption or to mine data.

C 4

# Continue theology or sonic research. (Sonic research focuses on medium size weapons) (NC research has special rules)

# Continue digging towards New Jerusalem.

Complexity 5

# Begin building a base in the Middle East in the Rub-Al-Khali.

# Recruit a new cabal into your forces. (The more cabals you have, the more expensive it is to recruit)

# SPECIAL: Upgrade your army to nuclear power.

>>1025830

Upgrading to nuclear power makes your army considerably stronger (they needn't stop for batteries, and can use electromagnetic weapons) but you currently only have 1 source of nuclear fuel, in Australia.


Note that Capt. Weaver is going to retire at the end of next year.


Note that you are still trying to make it look like the Rome base belongs to TOL.

Note that Urist will be taking his maturity exam next year.

>>1025834
How much is it gonna cost too get 2 new cabals?

>>1025834
Also a way to stop them from retiring? Or get replacements?

>>1025841

5 cabals can recruit one more by ordinary methods.

2 cabals can use a base's industrial output to get 1/3 of a cabal from the MEC population. You already have 1 "tick" for this so you'd need 2 more "ticks", so either 4 cabals, or 2 cabals + the automated base.

>>1025830
>Upgrade your army to nuclear power, 5 Cabal, Kat
>Recruit a new cabal into your forces, 5 Cabal
> Use the launchpad for a canopy-breaching launch. Cabal 3 Jeb
>Induct MEC citizens into your cabals, and upgrade them accordingly at one of your bases, 2 Cabal
>Use your automated base in Greenland to produce drones, space rocket parts, or cybernetics for MECs, Too make a MEC for the cabal
>Use a base in a territory you don't control to start bringing that territory under your control. Progress will be made in 1/5 increments, 2 Cabal Europa.

>>1025848

Capt. Weaver is in good health, but you don't know her age; you can try to get a fellow Villain to persuade her to stay longer. It'd largely depend on who you pick. (You yourself are an AI; system logs are not very persuasive).

>>1025900

You don't have a space station part ready to launch, though! You can do a launch anyway, but it'll be another small probe, or a crew change.

>>1025920
Can only the Automated base in Greenland produce rocket parts or can another base?

Also, Can we uh have her train a replacement or find us one before she goes?

>>1025936

Any base can.

Using the Rome base for production risks detection.

Using the Greenland base waives the manning requirement.

>>1025950
There you go, next turn gotta build quite a few more bases though. Can we build one on the outer part of the Canopy?

>Work on global data network infrastructure, incidentally making sure that you control more of it. Have Jeb help us with it to use gibberish every now and again to confuse our enemies with SPACEEE stuff.
>Upgrade your army to nuclear power, 5 Cabal, Kat
>Recruit a new cabal into your forces, 5 Cabal
> Using your internet dominance, attack TOL or NJ networks for disruption or to mine data, 3 Cabal. Data-mine.
>Induct MEC citizens into your cabals, and upgrade them accordingly at one of your bases, 2 Cabal
>Use your automated base in Greenland to produce drones, space rocket parts, or cybernetics for MECs, Too make a MEC for the cabal
>Use a base in a territory you don't control to start bringing that territory under your control. Progress will be made in 1/5 increments, 2 Cabal Europa.

>>1025963

You are building a canopy station: it will have production capabilities when it's finished. Obviously given where it is, it takes more time and manpower than other bases.

>>1025963

Getcha! I'm not awake enough to do a writeup though :)

>>1025988
>Tfw get up tommorrow and there will be 8 write ups and 2 anon's overriding this. Just like the past 2 days. Feebsbad.

How long does an Automated base to actually fully? And could our nuclear power plants...could they run on H-3? Which the moon has shit tons of?

>>1025994
Active/be built fully*

>>1025994

The Moon does have reasonably easy to get to nuclear fuel, yes.

On the other hand, Mars is easiest to colonize.

On the other other hand, Alpha Centauri is the safest haven.

>>1025963

No, your turn is locked in, that's why I replied to it, just it's fairly late in my part of th eworld and I gotta do work tomorrow. There may be other turns when you get up but your plan for they ear 964 is locked in.