TW+2126+EoT+9

Stats
MIL: 3 ECO: 3 ESP: 13 TEC: 8 MOR: 7 REP: 3

Traits
Early Telepathy HeartSeed Genetic Manipulation Telepathy I

Captured Space Elevator (Incomplete)
 * Assets**

Andean Union 1 MIL, 1 TEC, 2 ECO, 2 ESP
 * Co-opted Stats**

Brazil 1 TEC

Actions Military 3 1. Military continues training. With the Andean Union and Brazil if they want otherwise alone.

Economy: 3 1. Will go into making improvements to my trade relations and banking structure to help facilitate a transition to a unified currency with the Andean Union. We suggest the Peso as the name of the new currency as that is fairly standard. Otheriwse perhaps the Ando. (Andes with an O).


 * I'm hoping that with the space elevator right there I can ship up enough fuel at a low enough cost not to have to spend eco to get enough of it to my station to move into a higher orbit out of the range of a collisional cascade. If I do have to spend Eco then I will do so as I would like to protect my asset as much as possible.

Espionage 13 1. 5 towards the international effort to stop Blue Heaven.

2. 5 Will go into my espionage defenses, especially protecting my own station from a possible Blue Heaven attack.

3. 3 will go into training more espionage agents.

Technology 8 1. Everything split between the two new projects nano vectors and advanced somatic replacements. Project Earth said it would be putting in about 5.

Morale 7 1. If possible I would like to directly motivate my scientists to work harder and get more done. If that's not possible then divert into campaigns to recruit more espionage agents.

I also forgot to ask but what exactly did my pro psionics movement accomplish last turn. If anything.

Reputation 1. Everything into making plans and working out details with the Andean Union to merge. Starting with a unified currency as that seems like a relatively straightforward step compared to some of the other things that need to be done.

Response
MIL: 3 ECO: 5 ESP: 13 TEC: 8 MOR: 8 REP: 4

To Storm Heaven: Operation Free Skies [spoiler]Total Stats: 26 MIL; 43 ESP; 4 MOR Hypereux: 3 MIL, 13 ESP, 4 MOR Gaul: 3 MIL, 2 ESP Grim: 4 ESP Lunar: 5 MIL Technorapture: 2 MIL, 6 ESP Southern Federation: 5 ESP Varunas: 3 MIL, 2 ESP Andean Union: 4 ESP UHI: 3 MIL, 2 ESP Stichelhaar: 7 MIL, 5 ESP

For three days, the international coalition’s ships had hung in space. An improvised command structure with a Hypereux commander sitting uneasily at its peak, it continued to intercept the paltry attempts by the Blue Heaven forces to launch cargo canisters leavened with the occasional (rare) missile through, burning fuel on the part of both sides and forcing the blockade to stay at an advanced alert status, wearing it down and forcing ships to be cycled in and out more frequently than would otherwise have been necessary. In this air of suspicion and unease, the Grim rocket approached, intercepted by three ships. While two stood off with a firing solution, the third docked as per the instructions given. Identifying the secret compartments (as intended), they immediately ordered the ship to stand off and prepare for a thorough screening (as definitely not intended). This threatened to derail the plan as the stealth systems thermal containment systems were only useful for time-scales on the span of minutes, which were rapidly running out. Quick thinking by the Grim commander would create an out – if they didn’t trust the ship provided, then just use their own. They began to transfer the ransom payment over by EVA, in the process giving the Hypereux agents a chance to infiltrate the Blue Heaven ships. Once within, they deactivated their stealth systems just long enough to purge the thermal systems, then reactivated them. Though the Blue Heaven forces picked up their signatures weakly, unable to find anything, they disregarded them as sensor ghosts. With the ransom confirmed, they broadcast their final demand: all of the hostages would be released to Earth, not just those for whom the ransom had been paid. However, they would take Blue Heaven ships on pre-programmed courses, and any attempt to intercept or board them would set off explosives designed to kill everyone inside.

The delay would, however, have an unforeseen effect in that the timing was thrown off by almost 30 minutes, occupied by the arguments with the Grim ship and the first cargo transfer. The orbital parameters of the T.E.L.E.P.A.T.H. infiltration team could not be altered due to the very precise orbit required, and was therefore forced to maintain the original plan. [Roll summary:] Hypereux: 1d100=1 (+15 ESP cap reached; +20 Metamaterials) OOC: Err...

Unfortunately, at the worst possible point of their approach, they were identified by an errant Blue Heaven patrol, in what could only be identified as the purest misfortune. The commander on the T.E.L.E.P.A.T.H. station, Piotr Stepanowski, immediately recognized what they were doing, and redirected several of the station’s abandoned modules, already in decaying orbits, into its path. The pilots did not recognize what was happening until too late, and when the modules exploded into a massive stream of debris right in their path, they smashed right into it with far too much delta-v to bleed off in time. Crippled and gutted, this wing broke off, unable to continue, with Blue Heaven ships in hot pursuit. Desperate to permit their escape, the Sigint people set off Jericho early, activating every media and telecomm satellite within range of either station to output the special jamming signal. This had the effect of shattering Blue Heaven’s unit cohesion as each ship was suddenly left to its own devices, as well as overriding the deadman’s signals on both stations with that embedded in the jamming signal. As the blockading forces moved in, they backed off, the blockading forces in hot pursuit. Unfortunately, it also immediately clued in Blue Heaven to the fact that their deadman’s switch had been deactivated, and cut communication between the now split initial team now being delivered to both stations, on whom everything now rested. [Roll summary:] Hypereux: 1d100=27 (+16 ESP; +20 AI; +8 Media Mogul Mode)

On Windsor Station, two of the three ships now carrying the ransom goods docked on schedule, and the crews immediately went about distributing the ransom. Unseen and unnoticed, the Hypereux agents went among them, accessing the core system and inserting the “virus” into Windsor’s central system. In this, they just barely beat out the Blue Heaven forces, which had decided to use Windsor’s communication system to put out their own jamming signal, blocking the deadman’s signal indirectly.

With total control over Windsor Station’s internal systems, they quickly realized that only a small fraction of Blue Heaven’s forces were aboard the station proper, and most of those in the outer docking ring; furthermore, all hostages had already been moved off-station to the ships, leaving them free to act without risk of civilian casualties. Without restrictions or compunctions, they wrought uncontrolled havoc, using the emergency systems to seal blast doors, cut off Blue Heaven’s forces from each other and from Windsor’s core, and open all rooms containing only Blue Heaven forces to space. Fortunately, or perhaps otherwise, the Blue Heaven forces had brought a surfeit of explosives for their purpose, as well as all being equipped with EVA gear for the original assault. Though some died before getting their helmets up, most survived and began to set up breaching charges one after another to manually jettison the ships containing the hostages and ransom. As the station began to shed atmosphere as well as ships, chaos reigned as the blockading forces were caught in a dilemma: many of the ships contained hostages, but even without the knowledge carried by the infiltrating team (which couldn’t communicate through Jericho’s jamming), it was expected that several of the ships carried escaping Blue Heaven terrorists. Finally, with the last ship jettisoned, one of the Blue Heaven patrol ships made the dilemma irrelevant by firing several missiles into Windsor at point-blank range. With blast doors sealed and emergency measures in effect, the damage was still profound (particularly to the station command and control areas, where all of the infiltrators died), but ultimately contained: Windsor Station broke up into several large fragments rather than a massively-expanding cloud of fine debris. The most significant damage was threatened to the evacuating ships, which had no such defenses, and if left uncontained, even the large fragments would break up into smaller, faster pieces more difficult to intercept. With this in mind as well as the earlier warning, the blockading commander moved to protect them and all stations in Earth orbit, letting the ships flee. [Roll summary:] Hypereux: 1d100(45/65/90)=54 (+20 Metamaterials; +0 Early Jericho; +15 “virus”)

On T.E.L.E.P.A.T.H., only one-third of the team was in place. Fortunately, however, the circumstances of the Blue Heaven take-over left them completely separated; unfortunately, there was no central computer to commandeer as on Windsor. Also unlike Windsor, where they tried to detonate the bombs centrally, the Blue Heaven commander ordered his forces to go through and switch every bomb to manual timer mode. The stealth team wrought carnage, and though the Blue Heaven forces realized that their thermal suppression systems were inadequate to the heat put out by their weapons, they succeeded in laying down enough fire and distracting the terrorists in order to buy time. Though it came at terrible cost to the infiltrators (only 2 survivors from the original assault team of 9), they succeeded in this, and the timely arrival of the rapid-response force led to Blue Heaven’s hopes being left still-borne. All of the T.E.L.E.P.A.T.H. hostages on the still-docked Blue Heaven ships were rescued and the existence of (fortunately, not yet armed) bombs with sufficient yield to not only turn the passengers into fine mist but also threaten the unfortunate docked ship confirmed, validating the blockading commander’s decision to let the escapees from Windsor Station go. None of the Blue Heaven terrorists allowed themselves to be taken alive, frequently using false surrenders to lure the attackers into traps: their commander Stepanowski in particular set off the few explosives they had not yet planted aboard their command ship, killing almost two dozen soldiers along with himself and all of the Blue Heaven terrorists aboard. The assault forces quickly learned not to take prisoners, and though the final death toll of the pitched close-quarter fighting in vacuum was steep, it was far lighter than it could have otherwise been. [Roll summary:] Hypereux: 1d100(45/65/90)=85 (+15 Metamaterials; +0 Early Jericho) OOC: And I’m not even bothering to roll 26 Mil against 2. Blue Heaven’s forces die. With extreme prejudice.

The evacuating ships from Windsor had departed on a variety of trajectories, with almost two-thirds destined for Africa, Asia, or the Indian and Pacific Oceans below. Though most of the shuttles recovered by either local forces or, once the debris issue was contained in orbit, landing forces from the international coalition, contained the shaken but essentially unharmed survivors of T.E.L.E.P.A.T.H. and Windsor Station, a wide range of ships, essentially at random, were found to be empty. Satellite footage of the areas was sparse due to the damage wrought by the assault (which appears to have been intended by Blue Heaven), but it seems probable that the terrorists have escaped. [Roll summary:] Blue Heaven: ? ESP (116) Grim: 4 ESP (25)

Final results: Blue Heaven loses 4 MIL Blue Heaven gains 11 t.ECO Hypereux League loses 1 ESP. T.E.L.E.P.A.T.H. forces, hostages successfully evacuated or rescued (+1 MOR, +1 REP to all participating nations) Windsor Station destroyed – debris cloud contained. T.E.L.E.P.A.T.H. station lightly damaged but reparable.[/spoiler]

You continue to train with the Andean Union. Brazil, pleading domestic engagements, reduces their contingent further, but the Andean Union military is significantly improved by the experience; it is probable that future investment may permit a general increase in the effectiveness of both nations’ militaries.

Your investment, combined with twice its equivalent from the Andean Union, leads to the economies of both nations growing by bounds and leaps. [Southern Federation gains 1 ECO. Andean Union gains 1 ECO; co-opted by Southern Federation]

Your defensive intelligence assets report no unusual activity. Debris concentrations are up significantly, but standard protective measures seem to be compensating, and a shift in orbit is deemed unnecessary when the economic dislocation is considered.

You continue to drill new agents and generally improve your operational policies for your intelligence assets.

Unfortunately, the samples Project Earth received from Technorapture are inadequate to reproduce the entire technology whole cloth (OOC: Never sent them the whole tech in an EoT). Your research, modestly encouraged by daily inspirational speeches, is combined with the technological prowess and money of Project Earth, and together yields dividends. Small machines on the scale of nanometres, nanites are capable of a wide range of theoretical activity. Though still limited in activity to only remain active near a dedicated power source which beams power wirelessly through microwaves, the way of the future is clear. The devices appear to be broadly similar to those Technorapture uses, but are still far from the level of direct genetic manipulation in a human body. The excess time is thus spent working on getting still closer to that ideal. [Project Earth, Southern Federation gain 1 ECO, Early Nanotechnology]

OOC: The pro-psionics movement led to an increase in acceptance of psionic and psionics, translating to a mild improvement in MOR.[/QUOTE]

So I just have a question about stat co-opting. Is there a way to co-opt stats without alarming them and without investing in new ones. If I am simply co-opting the new stats they develop then no matter how much I work on it they will always have their original untouched stats to resist a merger with.

Also do my scientists have any estimates as to how far in the future genetic manipulation through nanotechnology lies?[/QUOTE] Yes; I included a little bit, but the vast majority is in improvement, and the stat bennies from the space elevator and other projects had made their ECO already ripe for expansion. They won't resist very strongly, so you can't actually lose once you go for unification; any losses after unification will represent things like economic dislocation and various shifts politically in the wake of uniting, as the two nations' economies work through the process.

A decent ways, maybe 4-5 turns. Nanotech II is about the baseline I was planning for sticking grey goop into people and not having it turn out wonky, and you're still at early nanotech (Nanotech 0).[/QUOTE]

If I continue to work with the Andean Union to boost both our defensive espionage would that then work against my own efforts if I were to try and infiltrate them at the same time. Or would it help as I would know what their own agents were doing?

Maybe I should ask the Andean Union to help with my research then.[/QUOTE] It won't actively oppose you, and will help you. Basically, how I run annexation is that all co-opted stats roll against non-co-opted stats. MIL and ESP are more effective than ECO and TEC, but obviously, a coup by the military or secret police is a lot darker politically and difficult to justify internationally. Depending on your margin of victory, you'll get all co-opted stats, and a decent chance at the rest. Extra stats you pump in from your nation at the time of annexation help you win against the opponent, but won't help you gain additional stats.

Definitely can't hurt.[/QUOTE][/spoiler]

Well I don't want to start the annexation just yet. They have a bunch of econ I haven't touched yet, plus any tech they might have. What I was thinking was a kind of combined infiltration/marketing campaign.

Where I used my espionage to precision target exactly what the Andean Union people want and fear in a marketing campaign run by my morale and rep. Hopefully co-opting their morale and making future infiltration even easier.

Also is there any way I can get the points I have co-opted to tell me what the rest of their point totals are, even if only in the stats that I have co-opted bits of.[/QUOTE] That could work, yes. They wouldn't be offended as long as it's all above-board, since they've already accepted the prep work for unification.

Not precisely, yet, but you can confirm that you're sitting at around a third of their stat total (which puts their total at around half of yours). Their strongest points are in ECO, with the rest of their stats being fairly mediocre.[/QUOTE]