(N)GC4 - Game Story Thread

[taterbill]

Turn execution failed in the game... bummer.

[Roanon]

Can happen sometimes, when the server is low on memory I guess. If this happens, anyone can try to undo his turn and upload it again, thereby kicking off turn computation again - it usually works on 2nd try.
I just did this, and the game processed without further problems.

[Ruatha]

Good, thanks R

[Randallw]

I'm back from my vacation. For the moment Tesco seems to be in charge of the republic. He told me his system crashed while he was in control so really no one was in charge while I was gone. I have sent him a message asking to get my games back.

[Ruatha]

I'll reinstate you as player as soon as I can get in to the PBW site, RandallW.

[taterbill]

Hi all,

Would somebody do me the favor of looking at the NGC4 game and seeing if my turn was received via email. I can't get onto the pbw.cc site, and had to email my turn. I've never used email submission before and just want to make sure I didn't screw anything up.

Thanks!

TaterBill

[Roanon]

Apr 18, 2004 10:46:12 PM CEST
E-mailed game turn (taterbill)

Seems to be ok. Strange that you cannot connect to seiv.pbw.cc,though.

[Hippocrates]

Presidential Offices
Earth, Sol System
Capitol of the Federated Worlds

"Admiral, so very nice to see you today."
"Mr. President, sir. I have here the briefs you asked us to prepare concerning the most recent First Contact event." Fleet Admiral Barov briskly strode across the length of the Presidential Office and deposited a thick folder on the President's desk. The admiral was always amused when his Commander in Chief asked him for hardcopies of reports, rather than reading them off a fiche reader as most folks did these days. "Hurts my head, looking at that screen," the President had once stated, ending all further dabate on the matter.
"Well Admiral, what've you got for us, eh? I hear these guys may be another one of our lost colonies?"
"Well, sir, we're still looking into things, but its starting to look that way. Certainly seems to be few other possibilities for where they came from."
"Hmmm, I see. Well, lets take a look here, shall we? Have a seat there Admiral - this is going to take me a few minutes." As Admiral Barov seated himself at one of the plush armchairs facing his desk, President Hippocrates reached for the folder.
As stated in the report, a Federation survey and scout vessel - FWS Nomad - had been engaged in a First Contact situation three days ago. This in itself was not what had caused the red flag which drew the President's personal attention so urgently - the Federation had encountered nearly a dozen new species within the Last three years alone. Rather, what was so surprising was that the ship encountered seemed to be carrying fellow human beings.
"Hmmm, you're sure these genetic tests are accurate?"
"Huh? Oh; yes, sir. The Namod's chief Med officer is quite experienced. A courier ship is rushing the origional sample back here for further verification, but we have no reason to doubt its accuracy. Also, there's no chance of the sample having been tampered with. When their diplomat came on board, Dr. Montagna drew the DNA sample himself. Their diplomat was caught a bit off gaurd by our request, but he submitted to it without any protest."
"Another set of Lost Colonists, then?"
"As I mentioned earlier, sir, that seems to be the most likely explanation."
The President's only response was a snort, "Humph." Nearly 250 years ago, the nations of Earth had managed to begin their first ventures into intersteller space. With barely the minumum amount of technology needed to make the voyages viable, explorers ventured forth and established a handful of fledgling colonies in neighboring systems. Shortly thereafter, a survey vessel had encountered the first alien species recorded in Human history - the Klackon Empire. Hopeful attempts were made to communicate; all were ignored. Attempts were made repeatedly to establish contact of some kind, but no attempt bore fruit.
Six months later, for reasons that shall forever remain uncertain, a Klackon vessel entered one of Humanity's newly settled colony systems and destroyed all signs of life on the surface of the settled planets. No threats were uttered, no communications were received, no ultimatums given. Simply death served up efficently and silently.
For the next thirty years, a great war ensued as the Klackons slowed rolled back HUmanity and destroyed colony after colony. During the darkest days of the war, as a Klackon fleet approached the Sol system and prepared to lay siege to the very cradle of Human civilization, a great exodus was begun. Fleets of colony vessels were dispatched in an attempt to save at least some portion of the Human species. Once the Klackon seige of Sol commenced, all contact was lost with these colony ships, and they were presumed lost to enemy action.
Although Earth eventually emerged victorious at the end of the war, her global economy was shattered. Maintenance of orbital facilities became impossible, and slowly any ability to travel insteller distances was lost. Those few, rare colonies outside Sol which had managed to survive the war lost contact with the Mother World and were left to fend for themselves. As years passed with no contact, even these had been saddly written off as lost.
Now, over two centuries later, the people of Earth had finally clawed their way back to the stars, only to discover that some of Earth's Lost Children had survived the intervening years. Prior to this latest encounter, contact had been established with three other former colonies. In all three cases, they had not only survived, but managed to establish their own societies along with colonies of their own. One of them - fearing Earth had been destroyed - had established a martial society based around their Navy and a near legendary figure they called the "Broad Shouldered One." The second had witnessed the self destruction of Earth's infrastructure and had vowed never to allow themselves to become that weak - expansion and the safe guarding of their borders was their gaol. The third, meanwhile, had reverted to a an ancient form of government ("A Monrachy! Of all things," thought the President), and had even bioengineered themselves to breath previously hostile atmospheres in order to survive the bombardment of their world during the war. Earth's very air was now poison to those humans.
And now.....now this fourth set.
"Any leads on them at all, Admiral? Anything?" asked the President, as he came near the end of reading the report he had been handed.
"Not yet, sir. Their diplomat insinuated that his people believed Earth destroyed during the Great War, and that their society was created by the survivors of a Naval Station which had been befallen by strange circumstances. He refused to elaborate further, but we hope to gain more information from them in the coming months."
"A Naval station? Could they have been from one of the Black Ops stations? The ones which were carrying out all kinds of secret research?"
"Once again, sir, we're not sure. Could be though; there were a bunch of those which were established during the war. If that was the case, DNA samples were kept from everyone who was drafted into the military at the time. We should be able to match their diplomat (thanks to the sample he provided) with someone from those old records. IF his story is true."
"Very well, Admiral. Pursue whichever avenues you feel necessay. Keep me posted." Just because the Children of Earth were human, not all were friendly. Some felt Earth had had her chance and missed the boat - it should be they who should now inherit the stars. Only time would tell what stance this new batch would take..........

[AMF]

The ?Captain?s Quarters,? as the great hall was traditionally known was silent, except for the sound of the Captain?s heavy breathing. The reports from the Fleet over the past few years had been singularly interesting. Of course, there were the initial reports of strange worlds, and colony status reports, and new scans, but none had been more enthralling than when contact had been made with two ?alien? Groups almost simultaneously, about two years ago or so. Both were, to all appearances and tests, very close to human. Admittedly, the lung structure of the Manticore people was troubling. Even given the vast expanse of history that separated the Captain and his people from Ancient Earth, it was hard to account for an entire race of people that now breathed methane. Evolution alone could not explain it. The mystery remained unsolved. The other aliens, however, were practically identical to pure strain human standards. And there were other similarities - the society and people of the so-called republic bore striking similarities to those of the Aether. Doubtless, when they fled Old Earth to evade the Klackon menace, they too had adopted strict measures of control and decision-making in their society in order to survive in the harshness of space for all these millennia.

But, nothing could prepare the Captain for the reports he was now reading. By all accounts it appeared that the long quest, the hope that had fueled the exiles on for these thousands of years, had perhaps come to an end. These new aliens, contacted at the edge of Aether space, claimed to be from none other than Earth itself.

The Captain rose, and turned to the Commander?s around the table.

?Don?t let this report get out. Classify it Ultra/SCI. Only we in this room, the crew who encountered the ?terrans? and the head of the inner security office can know about it. We need to gather further information. If this got out to the general public before we can verify it?s authenticity, it would cause a general panic. And, more importantly, there are some obvious inconsistencies that need to be addressed.

First among these is: how can we explain that our histories and records tell us that Earth was conquered by the Klackons? How could they have survived? Did they fight back after such a defeat? That would truly be good news?but it seems hard to swallow. There are two possibilities: either they did survive the Klackons ? in which case, it is difficult to explain how this happened. Or two, they did not survive the Klackons, and are not actually from Earth. In which case, who are they? Do they believe they are from Earth falsely, or are they attempting to trick us into revealing our technologies??

One of the Commanders, at the far end of the table, raised his hand. ?Permission to speak, Captain??
?Granted.?
The Commander was from the N8 Directorate ? in charge of the scientific and technological aspects of running the Fleet.
?Sir, I feel that I must remind everyone that if we examine our own history and our early technological exploits, there may yet be a third possibility. When the Base escaped Old Earth by slipping into, and become adrift in, the time-space continuum, it is possible that when we emerged after what seemed hundreds of years, we might have emerged into?an alternate universe. Perhaps a universe wherein Old Earth survived the Klackons??
The Captain spoke: ?While we welcome debate here Commander, this line of reasoning about alternate universes has long been discredited - our scientist showed long ago that is simply not possible.?
?Yes, sir, but remember our technological advances into understanding the time-space continuum were long ago stabilized at an early level in order to divert resources to survival in the depths of space?it is conceivable that with further research, they could bear fruit along these lines??

The room was silent?until the Captain spoke again. ?Fine, check into it, put a few scientists on the problem, see if what you suppose is possible, but don?t tell them why you?re asking?do it discreetly. ?

[Randallw]

Councillor Dokeo’s friend, Paramethios, was visiting. Taking some time off from his duties managing one of the systems other worlds, for even the most dedicated is less effective when tired, he had come for dinner. They had both enjoyed a meal which to other peoples might appear somewhat lacking, but which in the Republic was adequate to keep them sustained, the most important thing. Having finished they retired to the balcony while servants cleared up.
Seating themselves they sat for a while listening to the night. In time Dokeo queried his friend.
“Would you say we live in interesting times?” he asked.
“How so?” replied Paramethios.
“We have spread to the stars, established our presence and prospered” explained Dokeo.
“What you say is true”.
“Yet I feel we must be prepared for the future”.
“of course”.
“We have met many other races, have we not?”.
“yes”.
“But are some of them really other races?”.
‘Please elaborate”.
“Our friends the Aether lords, what are they?”.
“Human” Paramethios replied after some thought.
“And the Manticore”
“Again Human”
“What of the Federated worlds”
“Human of course”
“It would appear that a great many races, all human, are to be found in this part of space. There is even another human race, recently found, who we have yet to interact with”
“go on”
“On the other hand we have met races that are not human”
“such as?”
“The Narn, the Spelunkers, the Vexan, even the machines, and lets not forget the Primeval”
“of course”
“It seems that the humans we find are friendly, while the aliens we find are not, with one exception”
“certainly”
“I forsee the community of Humans needing to steel itself before the advance of the Alien”
“If you say so”
“I hope I am wrong” concluded Dokeo.
The two colleagues considered things for awhile.
“What do you know of our history” questioned Dokeo
“Everything”
“But what of before our history”
“Please explain”
“Before the institution of our great society under The Philosopher”
“Nothing is known”
“Where did we come from then”
“It is widely assumed we evolved on this planet”
“What of the other human races?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did they also evolve on this planet?”
“apparently not”
“Did you know two of the other human races claim to both come from a planet with the same name?”
“No, I didn’t know that”
“I feel more research is necessary to discover the link”
“If you think so”
Again the two friends paused.
“Where you aware the Federated worlds consider us martial” said Dokeo.
“No, I wasn’t aware of that”
“Why do you think that is?”
“I couldn’t say”
“Certainly the Military have their part in our society. But it is an equal part. Were one part of our society to place its role over the others I am afraid of what would happen to us”
“A dread prospect indeed”
The two of them listened to the night. They could hear industry around them, yet at the same time nature was not drowned out. The world, like all things in the Republic, was balanced.