Manus Celer Dei

Awwww, I feel so happy on the inside. Wait, that could be the vodka. Most of the people suggested so far I have a great deal of respect for in terms of subspace piloting skills. If I had to choose a best lanc pilot that isn't me (I'm biased), I'd go for Jimmah.

Economic Left/Right: 2.00 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.56 I recall last time I saw this posted on a forum (I forget if it was this one or one of the far too numerous other boards i frequent), that this test is badly flawed. There were several instances where my answer couldn't fit my beliefs due to the lack of an appropriate option.

ooc I've almost finished sections one -starships- and two -weapons and shields- of the resource guide, I'm now starting sections three and four -cultures and histories- and -technologies of the day- The next RPG will require participants to sign up in advance and I'll be advertising on and around the forums when I'm nearly ready. It will be set in the same "universe" as this current game, but existing stories will be discontinued. /ooc Three hours later, after recieving the cryptic messgae from the Marathon, Manus' long range !@#$%^&*ets report sighting a large Exis strike force heading towards Terran League space, Manus immediately passes the information along to Kanatis Fleet command, who mobilise the second, third and seventh battlegroups. The Kanatis Alliance immediately seals the border.

That was me.

Yes. After Radeck leaves the bar, Manus places one of his agents on a 'trace' to find out who Radeck is currently working for. As this happens he recieves a neural transmission from Kanatis Fleet Intelligence: Greetings, this is a relayed message from Durandal. I'm the AI currently active on our newest ship, the KAS Marathon. I'm just sending this message to say hi and that I hope I never have to deal with you meatbags at all. Keeping that in mind, I'm on my way to a rendezous with the Kanatis Fury on the outskirts of the Tau Ceti system, where they have a small cargo freighter waiting under their stealth field. Please watch for any suspicious activity at known points of departure, we have an intelligence source that informs us that the kingdom of Exis is about to engage in a wide scale military operation of unknown target. We have not been able so far to determine any warship buildup in any of their main staging areas so keep a look out. Manus then turns to his wife, who recieved the same message, she nods and leaves the table. Manus gets up and leaves, heading to their apartment three levels down. As he walks down towards the elevators at the end of the hall, he sends a general area transmission to all the IMG !@#$%^&*ets on the station Okay I've had a tipoff that something big may be about to happen soon, we have a cruiser detachment coming to pick up the cargo we collected last month and I don't want it jeopardised. Everyone is now set to alert level 4. As the IMG intelligence operatives move into place, the small combat team that IMG keeps on the station immediately head to the IMG armoury on the station reactor level.

Once the crew of the Marathon finished loading the vessel, it was joined immediately joined by her sister ship, the KAS Teh Uber. These ships then headed out on a jump course for Tau Ceti. -Technical note- Alliance starships, with warships in particular, use a number of radically different technologies which separates them from standard ZTT driven ships. Since the development of the ZTT (Zero Time Transit) drives, starships have been powered by ever more increasingly efficient m!@#$%^&* reaction furnaces. These in turn run all a ships systems, from life support to the Plasma Induction !@#$%^&*emblies (system drives). Alliance vessels, however, use far more efficient Neutrino Fusion Reactors, which for their size, are roughly 4 times as powerful. These more adavanced reactors, only available currently to the Alliance, have their drawbacks, and there is an effective upper limit to their size, as they become increasingly more complex as they become larger. To mitigate this, the larger Alliance warships often utilise multiple reactors to power all of their systems. This has the added bonus of providing a level of redundancy if one or more reactors become damaged in a firefight. Somme Class Cruisers, of which the KAS Marathon and Teh Uber belong, carry 6 seperate reactors to provide a level of power almost twice that of comparable Ithkul or Terran warships. This does not go unnoticed by their respective Intelligence agencies and both governments are concerned with what all that extra power may be needed for. Statistics for Somme Class Cruisers Top Sublight Acceleration: 0.014C/hour (C being the speed of light) M!@#$%^&*: 17800 metric tonnes Shielding: 97050 Cargo Capacity: 400 metric tonnes Crew: 134 Subsystem AI Controllers: 1 (2 for command ships) Weapons: - 1x *classified* (spinal mount) - 12x Heavy Neutrino Fusion Bolt Turrets (dual) - 4x Storm Turrets (single) - 6x Barrage Missile Turrets - 6x Light Neutrino Fusion Bolt Turrets (quad) - 2x Heavy EMP Torpedo Launchers (spinal mount) - up to 6 Sedan Class Interceptors (Alliance variant Javelins) Additional systems: - Stealth Field (extends stealth to all ships within a small radius) - Reinforced Antiwarp - X-Enhanced Radar - High Level ECM scrambler - High Drain Gravitic Distortion Field

Drinking age is 18 over here I'll pour some vodka on the pavement in honour of those of you who have to wait longer. :wtfwtf: Back on topic, If I could (but I can't because I'm an evil foreigner) I'd vote for Kerry, because anyone who can say "Is our children learning?" is probably not qualified to run a country in an intelligent manner.

Jenneke moves from behind the bar and moves towards her husband in a sedate manner, her wings flapping slightly giving the impression of her gliding across the floor. As she approaches and places one wing across Manus' shoulder he looks up at her and smiles from the table. "Is everything to your satisfaction Radeck?" she intones in a buisnesslike voice, "certainly madam, I am most pleased with the services the Independant Mercenaries Guild have provided, and I shall relay my satisfaction to my superiors when I return to Centauri. I expect we shall retain your services in the future." Jenneke frowns, "perhaps we can come to an agreement". Jenneke sends to Manus Look into this, there aren't that many organisations that could afford our services for any kind of long term operation. If these people feel the need to send anonymous agents to protect their iden!@#$%^&*y from us, perhaps they are not quite so honest in their reasons for hiring us. Perhaps someone is trying to set up a competing guild At the shipyards adjoining the spaceport orbiting Kanatis Beta, a small team of engineers finish the last drydock tests of the Alliances newest warship, the KAS Marathon. It is reported spaceworthy and crew (all Soldiers) begin boarding and loading provisions. OOC: I will put any Neural Interface Transmissions in italics from now on. *edit also, when I refer to Soldiers (capitalised), this indicates genetically enhanced exowomb-grown personell rather than purestrain humans acting in that capacity. (purestrain human soldiers will still have extensive cybernetic enhancement - my character is one of these) Also I will be, from time to time, posting additional notes/histories such as in my earlier post. If you want any more info (such as if your PC heads into Exis space and wants a background) I'll be happy to post any such as I have. I'm at the moment (in between classes and study time) working on a resource file with histories and technical data, which will adapt to the story as it pans out in this thread. I may use this as a background for the next bar thread, which will (hopefully) have a higher population base than this one so far.

Manus, after finishing with the back marketeer, sends an encrypted message to his wife via neural implant, who relays the message to the Avienne emb!@#$%^&*y on Tau Ceti VI. Shortly afterwards, a freighter leaves the main starport facility orbiting the world with an armed Cetan military escort. As the ship reaches hyperspace distance, the Cetan ships return to port and the freighter disappears, no hyperspace wake was detected. -Additional historical/technical notes- The Neural Implant is a small device embedded into the host brain. Implants, designed initially by a Terran firm just prior to the development of interstellar travel, have been primarily used as a communications tool historically, and despite their expense, are incredibly popular among the technical strata of most societies (with the noted exception of the kingdom of Exis). Alliance implants are the currently most advanced versions available, all Alliance Citizens and Soldiers are fitted with these upon reaching maturity, and they are able to be purchased by non-alliance purchasers with only a few of the functions removed. These particular implants have expanded in their uses since their development, and now a standard implant will have many of the following functions: Enables IR (Infra Red) and UV (Ultra Violet) Vision ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) Detector and Scrambler Communications Net Interfaces Air Pressure Motion Scanner (ranges vary between 5 and 50 metres) Autonomous Response Control (eg. Disable host pain responses) Internal and/or External Medical Scan Weapons Interface EMP Shield (only low yield EMP currently available -Alliance Soldiers only-) Targeting Laser (external mounting) Other functions exist, but many are classified by the developers and only available to national security forces

I voted for tic tacs. Every empire falls eventually.

Richard relaxes back into his couch at the far end of the bar and continues his conversation with the black marketeer while his wife, behind the bar, updates the bars accounts via her neural implant

The bar on the 17th Parallel Station is a dimly lit but well run establishment modelled on the Irish pubs of old Earth, authentic wood was imported for its interior construction at great expense from Tau Ceti VI. Run by a former Alliance soldier-citizen Richard Arbury and his Avienne wife Jenneke (the Avienne are the descendants of human colonists who altered their genetic structure to grow wings for their low gravity world of Pi Caneri III), the bar is considered the hub of the station and it is here that the fortunes of this isolated mining and refuelling facility are dictated. The station maintains a very liberal view of the Tau Ceti laws under which it is meant to operate and therefore remains a strongpoint for the black market, which dominates the station economy, but is just small enough to not warrant any action by Cetan police or military forces. Edit* I are good no at england

Thread posting Rules: 1. No post containing the actions of any other member 2. No destroying the bar 3. No character superpowers (I'll decide what is and is not a superpower) 4. If the previous post has broken any of the rules, ignore its entire contents. Back history: Since the development of the ZTT drive in 2675, mankind has spread through a small portion of the galaxy, colonising almost 400 star systems. As is usual in human history, conflicts between nations over resources and ideologies escalates into war and then dies down, waiting for the next conflict. The Station Reaches, located in the Tau Ceti system are a leftover from one such conflict. Designed as forward detection posts to locate incoming warfleets and warn the defending forces of their arrival (ZTT drives cannot function near a gravity well), they were scrapped when the Cetan economy could no longer support them and it became apparent that they were never going to be used. Today, the reaches fill a variety of functions, the ones nearer the two inhabited worlds mostly have been converted into microgee manufacturing centres, producing high-tech consumables at a much higher standard than the few remaining robotic factories on the surface. Those further from the planetary markets, such as the curiously named "17th Parallel" station, serve primarily as refuelling and resupply bases for the extensive asteroid mining operations in the system, with several of the larger stations also acting as ore refineries. There are still several stations which were abandonded that are inactive to this day, many of these have already been stripped of any materials of any worth but prospectors can still find a few items which may have some small value if sold on. The current political climate among the human worlds is one of rising tension, the three largest nations; The Terran League, The Ithkul Imperium and The kingdom of Exis vie constantly for supremacy doing everything short of declaring open war in order to gain an advantage over the other two. Industrial espionage and sponsored piracy are the norm in the frontier systems and it is a hard trader indeed that manages to survive in these regions without serious firepower. Nations of Humanity: The Terran League - Centred on Earth, the League is the oldest Nation in existance and is also the wealthiest. The secure core world trade routes provide massive benefits to a largely decadent and arrogant culture. The massive manufacturing capacity and research facilities of the Sol system alone are greater than that of any 8 other systems, and it is primarily here where the Leagues advantage lies. The League has several nominally independant systems under its direct control and its political influence among the outer rim colonies is staggering. Earth, being of course the Human homeworld, demands, and largly recieves, a great deal of respect from much of the human population. The Ithkul Imperium - The most overtly agressive of the great nations, Ithkul power is largely based on its massive space navy, and the fear this generates in the independant worlds bordering its space. The Imperium is, despite rumours to the contrary, a very humane dictatorship, with a perplexingly high standard of living for a nation that devotes such little effort in its economic activity. Several recent advances in asteroid mining techniques and space-surface tranist technology have gained the Ithkul a distinct advantage in colonising new systems. The Kingdom of Exis - Religiously devout Exis is basically a massive police state. While its cons!@#$%^&*ution guarantees its citizens varied and plentiful freedoms, citizens exercising those freedoms have an alarming tendency to disappear or suffer fatal accidents. Exis is the largest of the great nations, directly controlling more than 50 star systems, but it is also the most insular. Almost no trade goes through any Exis controlled space, only a few exotic luxuries and high-tech devices which support the lifestyle of the Aristocracy. That being said, the prices the aristocrats are willing to pay for such goods is enormous and the profits very handsome, if you're willing to ignore the means by which they were obtained. The Kanatis Alliance - A small group of 6 systems located at the frontier between Ithkul and League space, the Kanatis Alliance has had to be extremely resourceful in order to prevent being absorbed by either of the two great nations. With the highest general level of technology and education in human space, the Alliance is ruled not by a central government, but by all its citizens, who determine policy via neural implants, with appointed subsections of the population electing to specialise in the administration of certain enterprises. such as transportation or defence. Apart from the citizenry of the Alliance, the other strata of the Alliance population are the Soldiers. Soldiers of the Alliance are not considered human by the rest of the galaxy (and rightly so, their genetic structure is more than 20% artificial), grown in exowombs and maturing in only 5 years, the Alliance soldier is genetically and cybernetically enhanced for combat. It is these soldiers that provide both its main source of defence (although citizens acting in the capacity of soldiers are not uncommon) and its main source of income (mostly through mercenary work for one of the great nations). Soldiers consider themselves completely expendable next to that of non-soldier citizens and are willing to go to great lengths to ensure their safety. The Independant Worlds - These worlds are many and varied, more on these as they come up.

These may be my drunken ravings as myself and my flatmates stopped drinking not 15 minutes ago, but from what I garner from this topic are the following: Some people think the USA is a great country Some people think the USA is a country that is far from great For my part, I believe that the US hasn't fecked it all up quite as badly as some people think. What I am concerned about is the !@#$%^&*umption, common to the majority of posters on all the political forums I frequent/lurk, is that there is a single moral standard from which to judge all nations. That all nations, regardless of status, means, system of government must be judged from a single perspective (i.e. such and such action is always wrong, regardless of cir-*BAD WORD*-stance, or vice versa).

Learn to edit your posts or I will have you killed.

Being the skeptic I am, I have a sneaking suspicion that this won't change the situation in Iraq an awful lot. I also suspect that Coalition forces will find some reason to stay in Iraq despite paragraph 12.

Yes, besides halfway you'll need lines at the 22.

Communism in theory: A truly equal society born through enlightened leadership with all members working together for the betterment of the nation. in Practice: A society doomed to failure through a lack of controls on the actions of the leadership (power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely). The problem stems from the idea of 'enlightened' leadership. If controls are placed on their actions then the system basically admits that its leadership are not enlightened and therefore do not fit the communist theory.

Quiet DRK. You're starting to annoy me. You don't want me to come back and force that "lanc god" idea of yours down your throat now do you? Z's settings imo were a passable improvement on much of the old settings. Sure he got some bits a little, well, wrong, but all up he made a number of changes for the better.

LOL, quite literally rofl. Welcome to the boards, may you drink well and engage in pleasant conversation. *note to all concerned* I've found that political forums (especially on forum systems that are dedicated to games) are the place where you are least likely to change anyones opinion on anything.

It isn't that it was directly his FAULT, but in the position he is in it is his RESPONSIBILITY to see that things like this do not happen. Since he did not, at the very least he was negligent and should be let go. As for war crimes, the day a member of an American administration past or present is presented at a war crimes tribunal is the day I eat my hat. Americans are immune to international law, this is because America says so.

Just as the United States is conveniently ignoring the same treaties? The missile shield your administration is developing is a direct contravention treaties you had with the former Soviet Union.

I'll ban WarCC for 20 mins if you get rid of that awful sig.

Personally, I don't think bricks should be buyable at all.

I haven't seen the map because I can't play SS for another few weeks, but in respect to maps for the public arena I'd just like to state for the record that I'd like to see the opal map up again, and for more than the couple of weeks it was up last time. ?go opal, you know you want to.